Principal Systems Engineer Jobs in the UK excluding London

Principal Systems Engineer
UK > UK excluding London

The median Principal Systems Engineer salary in the UK excluding London is £70,600 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 9 June 2025.

The table below provides salary benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Jun 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 66 496 717
Rank change year-on-year +430 +221 +85
Permanent jobs requiring a Principal Systems Engineer 1,493 283 12
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 3.73% 0.36% 0.022%
As % of the Job Titles category 4.15% 0.38% 0.024%
Number of salaries quoted 298 142 12
10th Percentile £55,000 £55,000 -
25th Percentile - £60,000 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,600 £70,000 £67,500
Median % change year-on-year +0.86% +3.70% -
75th Percentile - £80,000 £75,000
90th Percentile - £84,500 -
UK median annual salary £70,600 £70,000 £61,000
% change year-on-year +0.86% +14.75% -9.63%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
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 35,966 74,777 49,495
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 89.86% 95.01% 88.83%
Number of salaries quoted 18,509 52,252 29,313
10th Percentile £26,250 £26,750 £29,750
25th Percentile £36,250 £35,000 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,055 £50,000 £53,500
Median % change year-on-year +0.11% -6.54% +5.94%
75th Percentile £65,000 £63,750 £68,750
90th Percentile £77,500 £76,250 £81,250
UK median annual salary £55,000 £52,500 £60,000
% change year-on-year +4.76% -12.50% -

Principal Systems Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings that featured Principal Systems Engineer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for Principal Systems Engineer in the UK excluding London

Principal Systems Engineer
Salary Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing Principal Systems Engineer in the UK excluding London.

Salary trend for Principal Systems Engineer in the UK excluding London

Principal Systems Engineer
Salary Histogram in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution for jobs citing Principal Systems Engineer in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 9 June 2025.

Salary histogram for Principal Systems Engineer in the UK excluding London

Principal Systems Engineer
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 Principal Systems Engineer within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 9 June 2025. 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
Midlands +271 911 £62,500 -21.88% 14
West Midlands +232 600 £55,000 -31.25% 10
East Midlands +160 311 £70,000 +16.67% 4
South East +244 278 £70,600 -11.75% 17
North of England +187 157 £51,564 -14.06% 14
North West +116 142 £51,564 -19.36% 12
South West +88 72 £61,500 -12.14% 16
Wales +78 43 £70,600 +17.67% 1
Scotland +120 21 - - 3
Yorkshire - 12 - - 1
East of England -5 11 - - 8
North East +51 3 £60,000 +9.09% 1
Principal Systems Engineer
UK

Principal Systems Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 9 June 2025, Principal Systems Engineer job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads across the UK excluding London region featuring Principal Systems Engineer in the job title.

1 1,397 (93.57%) Systems Engineering
2 1,176 (78.77%) BPSS Clearance
3 747 (50.03%) Degree
4 538 (36.03%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
5 453 (30.34%) Validation
6 377 (25.25%) ISO/IEC 15288
7 360 (24.11%) Rational DOORS
8 296 (19.83%) IBM
9 286 (19.16%) Verification and Validation
10 262 (17.55%) Technical Leadership
11 261 (17.48%) Algorithms
11 261 (17.48%) Electronics
11 261 (17.48%) Signal Processing
11 261 (17.48%) Test Planning
12 259 (17.35%) Automotive
12 259 (17.35%) Collaborative Working
13 251 (16.81%) SysML
14 243 (16.28%) Project Planning
15 197 (13.19%) Telecoms
16 150 (10.05%) Chartered Engineer
17 143 (9.58%) Mathematics
17 143 (9.58%) Physics
17 143 (9.58%) Chemistry
17 143 (9.58%) Law
17 143 (9.58%) Logistics
18 116 (7.77%) Systems Thinking
19 107 (7.17%) Acceptance Criteria
19 107 (7.17%) Requirements Management
20 97 (6.50%) Architectural Design
21 95 (6.36%) Agile

Principal Systems Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 7 (0.47%) Confluence
Applications
1 63 (4.22%) Simulink
Communications & Networking
1 14 (0.94%) Wireshark
2 1 (0.067%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (0.47%) MySQL
1 7 (0.47%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 360 (24.11%) Rational DOORS
2 42 (2.81%) JIRA
3 7 (0.47%) Bitbucket
3 7 (0.47%) Git
General
1 261 (17.48%) Electronics
2 259 (17.35%) Automotive
3 197 (13.19%) Telecoms
4 143 (9.58%) Law
5 68 (4.55%) Aerospace
6 39 (2.61%) Influencing Skills
7 3 (0.20%) Analytical Skills
8 1 (0.067%) Social Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (0.47%) .NET
2 3 (0.20%) Flash
Miscellaneous
1 261 (17.48%) Algorithms
2 3 (0.20%) Data Centre
2 3 (0.20%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 22 (1.47%) Linux
2 21 (1.41%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,397 (93.57%) Systems Engineering
2 538 (36.03%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
3 453 (30.34%) Validation
4 286 (19.16%) Verification and Validation
5 262 (17.55%) Technical Leadership
6 261 (17.48%) Signal Processing
6 261 (17.48%) Test Planning
7 259 (17.35%) Collaborative Working
8 251 (16.81%) SysML
9 243 (16.28%) Project Planning
10 143 (9.58%) Chemistry
10 143 (9.58%) Logistics
10 143 (9.58%) Mathematics
10 143 (9.58%) Physics
11 116 (7.77%) Systems Thinking
12 107 (7.17%) Acceptance Criteria
12 107 (7.17%) Requirements Management
13 97 (6.50%) Architectural Design
14 95 (6.36%) Agile
15 63 (4.22%) Software Testing
Programming Languages
1 64 (4.29%) MATLAB
2 7 (0.47%) C#
3 1 (0.067%) Perl
3 1 (0.067%) R
Qualifications
1 1,176 (78.77%) BPSS Clearance
2 747 (50.03%) Degree
3 150 (10.05%) Chartered Engineer
4 90 (6.03%) ISTQB
5 6 (0.40%) Master's Degree
6 1 (0.067%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 377 (25.25%) ISO/IEC 15288
2 28 (1.88%) ISO 9001
3 1 (0.067%) ISO 26262
Systems Management
1 7 (0.47%) Ansible
Vendors
1 296 (19.83%) IBM
2 7 (0.47%) Atlassian
3 1 (0.067%) EMC