Principal Systems Engineer Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Principal Systems Engineer
UK > UK excluding London

The median Principal Systems Engineer salary in the UK excluding London is £65,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 11 January 2026.

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

6 months to
11 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 336 406 517
Rank change year-on-year +70 +111 +238
Permanent jobs requiring a Principal Systems Engineer 176 157 43
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.42% 0.43% 0.12%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.46% 0.47% 0.13%
Number of salaries quoted 78 41 11
10th Percentile £55,000 £50,000 £57,500
25th Percentile £60,000 £58,000 £61,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £67,500 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year -3.70% -3.57% +12.75%
75th Percentile £75,900 £70,600 £80,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £80,000 -
UK median annual salary £65,000 £67,500 £64,000
% change year-on-year -3.70% +5.47% +3.08%

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 37,951 33,588 32,956
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.41% 92.94% 95.36%
Number of salaries quoted 23,133 16,400 24,992
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £27,500
25th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £36,743
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 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £82,500 £78,750
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -4.17%

Principal Systems Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Principal Systems Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Principal Systems Engineer
Salary Trend in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution trend for Principal Systems Engineer job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Salary distribution trend for Principal Systems Engineer job vacancies 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 11 January 2026.

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 11 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
North of England +52 46 £60,000 +15.87% 3
South West +25 44 £75,900 +26.69% 17
North West +53 42 £55,000 +6.21% 2
South East +22 34 £70,450 -0.21% 18
Midlands -12 22 £70,000 - 3
East of England +26 20 £55,000 - 2
West Midlands +20 13 £70,000 +27.27% 1
East Midlands -26 9 £75,900 +8.43% 2
Scotland +7 8 £75,900 - 1
Yorkshire - 4 £75,900 -
Wales -2 2 £75,900 +7.51%
Principal Systems Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 11 January 2026, Principal Systems Engineer 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 Principal Systems Engineer in the job title.

1 125 (71.02%) Systems Engineering
2 100 (56.82%) BPSS Clearance
3 57 (32.39%) Rational DOORS
4 50 (28.41%) Requirements Management
4 50 (28.41%) Technical Leadership
5 49 (27.84%) Degree
6 45 (25.57%) ISO/IEC 15288
7 42 (23.86%) IBM
8 32 (18.18%) Signal Processing
8 32 (18.18%) Test Planning
9 19 (10.80%) Validation
10 15 (8.52%) Verification and Validation
11 13 (7.39%) Agile
11 13 (7.39%) Mentoring
12 12 (6.82%) Software Engineering
13 9 (5.11%) Change Management
13 9 (5.11%) Chartered Engineer
13 9 (5.11%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
14 8 (4.55%) Enterprise Architecture
14 8 (4.55%) Security Cleared
14 8 (4.55%) Stakeholder Management
15 7 (3.98%) Architectural Design
15 7 (3.98%) OLE
15 7 (3.98%) Problem-Solving
16 6 (3.41%) Acceptance Criteria
16 6 (3.41%) JIRA
17 4 (2.27%) CATIA
17 4 (2.27%) Coaching
17 4 (2.27%) ISO/IEC 12207
17 4 (2.27%) Mathematics

Principal Systems Engineer 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 2 (1.14%) Confluence
Applications
1 4 (2.27%) CATIA
Communications & Networking
1 4 (2.27%) SNA
Development Applications
1 57 (32.39%) Rational DOORS
2 6 (3.41%) JIRA
General
1 32 (18.18%) Electronics
2 8 (4.55%) Social Skills
3 4 (2.27%) Military
4 2 (1.14%) Aerospace
4 2 (1.14%) Publishing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (3.98%) OLE
Miscellaneous
1 32 (18.18%) Algorithms
2 28 (15.91%) Management Information System
3 4 (2.27%) Virtual Team
4 3 (1.70%) Acoustics
4 3 (1.70%) Augmented Reality
5 2 (1.14%) Cyber Threat
Processes & Methodologies
1 125 (71.02%) Systems Engineering
2 50 (28.41%) Requirements Management
2 50 (28.41%) Technical Leadership
3 32 (18.18%) Signal Processing
3 32 (18.18%) Test Planning
4 19 (10.80%) Validation
5 15 (8.52%) Verification and Validation
6 13 (7.39%) Agile
6 13 (7.39%) Mentoring
7 12 (6.82%) Software Engineering
8 9 (5.11%) Change Management
8 9 (5.11%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
9 8 (4.55%) Enterprise Architecture
9 8 (4.55%) Stakeholder Management
10 7 (3.98%) Architectural Design
10 7 (3.98%) Problem-Solving
11 6 (3.41%) Acceptance Criteria
12 4 (2.27%) Coaching
12 4 (2.27%) Network Architecture
12 4 (2.27%) Waterfall
Qualifications
1 100 (56.82%) BPSS Clearance
2 49 (27.84%) Degree
3 9 (5.11%) Chartered Engineer
4 8 (4.55%) Security Cleared
5 2 (1.14%) Master's Degree
6 1 (0.57%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 45 (25.57%) ISO/IEC 15288
2 4 (2.27%) ISO/IEC 12207
Vendors
1 42 (23.86%) IBM