Head of Engineering Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Head of Engineering
UK > UK excluding London

The median Head of Engineering salary in the UK excluding London is £100,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 4 January 2026.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 438 534 492
Rank change year-on-year +96 -42 +217
Permanent jobs requiring a Head of Engineering 64 33 63
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.15% 0.090% 0.20%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.17% 0.097% 0.21%
Number of salaries quoted 48 27 38
10th Percentile £90,000 £73,097 £70,875
25th Percentile £95,000 £75,299 £80,313
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £100,000 £97,500 £111,207
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -12.33% -2.24%
75th Percentile £111,250 £115,000 £152,500
90th Percentile £127,500 £126,000 £164,500
UK median annual salary £100,000 £95,000 £118,707
% change year-on-year +5.26% -19.97% -3.10%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in the UK excluding London. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in the UK excluding London with a recognized job title 37,803 34,118 30,445
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.39% 92.97% 95.28%
Number of salaries quoted 22,898 16,838 23,053
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £28,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £65,000 £68,750 £65,750
90th Percentile £80,000 £82,500 £80,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £59,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +1.69% -1.67%

Head of Engineering
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'Head of Engineering' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Head of Engineering job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Head of Engineering
Salary Trend in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution trend for Head of Engineering job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Salary distribution trend for Head of Engineering job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Head of Engineering
Salary Histogram in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution for jobs citing Head of Engineering in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 4 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Head of Engineering in the UK excluding London

Head of Engineering
Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Head of Engineering within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 4 January 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
South East +33 24 £100,000 +31.97% 16
West Midlands +44 17 £100,000 +25.00% 1
Midlands +34 17 £100,000 +25.00% 3
North of England +32 16 £92,500 -13.95% 1
Yorkshire +4 10 £90,000 -25.00%
North West +29 3 £110,000 -
East of England +24 3 £92,500 -15.91% 2
North East +9 3 £105,000 +5.00% 1
South West +7 2 £85,000 -17.07%
Wales +8 1 £83,750 +4.69%
Scotland -1 1 - -
Head of Engineering
UK

Head of Engineering Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 4 January 2026, Head of Engineering job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads across the UK excluding London region featuring Head of Engineering in the job title.

1 23 (35.94%) Software Engineering
2 22 (34.38%) Azure
3 18 (28.13%) Migration
4 14 (21.88%) AI
5 12 (18.75%) Data Engineering
6 10 (15.63%) JavaScript
6 10 (15.63%) QA
7 9 (14.06%) ETL
7 9 (14.06%) Machine Learning
7 9 (14.06%) SaaS
7 9 (14.06%) SQL
7 9 (14.06%) SQL Server
8 8 (12.50%) Data Pipeline
8 8 (12.50%) E-Commerce
8 8 (12.50%) Full-Stack Development
8 8 (12.50%) Python
8 8 (12.50%) Roadmaps
9 7 (10.94%) Continuous Improvement
9 7 (10.94%) Data Strategy
9 7 (10.94%) Platform Engineering
9 7 (10.94%) Stakeholder Management
10 6 (9.38%) Cloud Operations
10 6 (9.38%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 5 (7.81%) AWS
11 5 (7.81%) ITIL
11 5 (7.81%) Microsoft
11 5 (7.81%) Microsoft 365
11 5 (7.81%) Risk Management
11 5 (7.81%) Strategic Roadmap
12 4 (6.25%) Agile

Head of Engineering Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 1 (1.56%) ArcGIS
Applications
1 2 (3.13%) Chatbot
2 1 (1.56%) Civil 3D
2 1 (1.56%) Navisworks
2 1 (1.56%) Revit
Business Applications
1 1 (1.56%) Maximo
Cloud Services
1 22 (34.38%) Azure
2 9 (14.06%) SaaS
3 5 (7.81%) AWS
3 5 (7.81%) Microsoft 365
4 4 (6.25%) Snowflake
5 2 (3.13%) Azure Synapse Analytics
6 1 (1.56%) Cloud Computing
6 1 (1.56%) IaaS
6 1 (1.56%) PaaS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (14.06%) SQL Server
2 1 (1.56%) Data Warehouse
2 1 (1.56%) GIS
Development Applications
1 2 (3.13%) JIRA
General
1 10 (15.63%) Banking
1 10 (15.63%) Finance
2 5 (7.81%) Public Sector
3 3 (4.69%) Law
4 2 (3.13%) Social Skills
5 1 (1.56%) Legal
5 1 (1.56%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (6.25%) EDI
2 2 (3.13%) Bootstrap
2 2 (3.13%) Kafka
2 2 (3.13%) Node.js
2 2 (3.13%) React
2 2 (3.13%) Redux
3 1 (1.56%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 7 (10.94%) Legacy Systems
2 6 (9.38%) Data Centre
3 5 (7.81%) Management Information System
4 3 (4.69%) Onboarding
5 2 (3.13%) Cloud Native
5 2 (3.13%) Robotics
6 1 (1.56%) AI Agents
6 1 (1.56%) Educational Technology
6 1 (1.56%) IoT
6 1 (1.56%) LIMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 23 (35.94%) Software Engineering
2 18 (28.13%) Migration
3 14 (21.88%) AI
4 12 (18.75%) Data Engineering
5 9 (14.06%) ETL
5 9 (14.06%) Machine Learning
6 8 (12.50%) Data Pipeline
6 8 (12.50%) E-Commerce
6 8 (12.50%) Full-Stack Development
6 8 (12.50%) Roadmaps
7 7 (10.94%) Continuous Improvement
7 7 (10.94%) Data Strategy
7 7 (10.94%) Platform Engineering
7 7 (10.94%) Stakeholder Management
8 6 (9.38%) Cloud Operations
8 6 (9.38%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 5 (7.81%) ITIL
9 5 (7.81%) Risk Management
9 5 (7.81%) Strategic Roadmap
10 4 (6.25%) Agile
Programming Languages
1 10 (15.63%) JavaScript
2 9 (14.06%) SQL
3 8 (12.50%) Python
4 2 (3.13%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 4 (6.25%) Degree
2 3 (4.69%) AWS Certification
2 3 (4.69%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
2 3 (4.69%) Azure Certification
2 3 (4.69%) Computer Science Degree
2 3 (4.69%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
2 3 (4.69%) Master's Degree
2 3 (4.69%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (15.63%) QA
2 3 (4.69%) Cyber Essentials
2 3 (4.69%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 1 (1.56%) Data Quality
3 1 (1.56%) GLP
3 1 (1.56%) ISO 19650
Vendors
1 5 (7.81%) Microsoft
2 3 (4.69%) Databricks