Lead Systems Engineer Job Trends

Lead System Engineer
UK

The median Lead System Engineer salary in the UK is £57,280 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 14 January 2026.

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

6 months to
14 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 582 657 686
Rank change year-on-year +75 +29 +217
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead Systems Engineer 71 42 35
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.12% 0.078% 0.063%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.13% 0.084% 0.066%
Number of salaries quoted 38 12 12
10th Percentile £54,793 £53,399 -
25th Percentile £55,000 £54,445 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,280 £57,836 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year -0.96% -11.02% -59.38%
75th Percentile £60,000 £60,248 £76,875
90th Percentile £91,500 £63,750 £84,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £56,176 £65,000
% change year-on-year -2.09% -13.58% +35.42%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies. 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 with a recognized job title 54,426 49,714 53,040
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.72% 92.90% 95.25%
Number of salaries quoted 33,710 25,743 40,880
10th Percentile £28,500 £33,625 £30,000
25th Percentile £37,000 £45,000 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -4.17%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £77,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £96,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,609 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.96% +5.22% -5.25%

Lead Systems Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Lead Systems Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

Lead Systems Engineer
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for Lead Systems Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Salary distribution trend for Lead Systems Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Lead Systems Engineer
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Lead Systems Engineer over the 6 months to 14 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Lead Systems Engineer in the UK

Lead Systems Engineer
Top 13 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Lead Systems Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 14 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
England +92 71 £57,280 -0.96% 12
UK excluding London +83 64 £55,000 -2.09% 11
Midlands - 17 £85,000 - 3
South West - 16 £60,000 - 2
South East +45 12 £61,500 - 1
North of England -12 12 £54,793 -2.46% 2
North West -2 10 £54,793 -
East of England +31 9 £55,000 - 3
East Midlands - 9 - - 1
West Midlands - 8 £85,000 - 2
London +58 7 £95,000 +52.00% 2
Work from Home +66 6 £80,000 +28.00% 4
Yorkshire -10 2 £30,000 -47.88% 2

Lead Systems Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 14 January 2026, Lead 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 featuring Lead Systems Engineer in the job title.

1 31 (43.66%) Systems Engineering
2 30 (42.25%) Technical Leadership
3 16 (22.54%) BPSS Clearance
3 16 (22.54%) Degree
4 11 (15.49%) Agile
4 11 (15.49%) MATLAB
5 10 (14.08%) MODAF
5 10 (14.08%) SysML
5 10 (14.08%) UML
6 9 (12.68%) Problem-Solving
7 8 (11.27%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
8 6 (8.45%) Cybersecurity
9 5 (7.04%) Siemens
10 4 (5.63%) Mentoring
11 3 (4.23%) People Management
11 3 (4.23%) QA
12 2 (2.82%) Ansible
12 2 (2.82%) ArchestrA
12 2 (2.82%) Argo
12 2 (2.82%) Asset Management
12 2 (2.82%) AWS
12 2 (2.82%) AWS Certification
12 2 (2.82%) Bash
12 2 (2.82%) Broadband
12 2 (2.82%) Budget Control
12 2 (2.82%) Containerisation
12 2 (2.82%) Continuous Integration
12 2 (2.82%) Cost Control
12 2 (2.82%) Cost Optimisation
12 2 (2.82%) Customer Requirements

Lead Systems Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 (2.82%) ArchestrA
1 2 (2.82%) FactoryTalk
1 2 (2.82%) WinCC
Applications
1 1 (1.41%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 2 (2.82%) AWS
1 2 (2.82%) Pulumi
Communications & Networking
1 2 (2.82%) Broadband
1 2 (2.82%) Firewall
1 2 (2.82%) Modbus
1 2 (2.82%) Profibus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (2.82%) NoSQL
1 2 (2.82%) RDBMS
1 2 (2.82%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 2 (2.82%) Jaeger
2 1 (1.41%) Rational DOORS
General
1 7 (9.86%) Aerospace
2 6 (8.45%) Aeronautics
2 6 (8.45%) Automotive
3 5 (7.04%) Military
3 5 (7.04%) Social Skills
4 2 (2.82%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 2 (2.82%) Manufacturing
5 1 (1.41%) Aviation
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (2.82%) Elastic Stack
1 2 (2.82%) OpenTelemetry
Miscellaneous
1 9 (12.68%) Driving Licence
2 8 (11.27%) SCADA
3 4 (5.63%) Operational Technology
3 4 (5.63%) Renewable Energy
4 2 (2.82%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 2 (2.82%) Linux
1 2 (2.82%) Unix
1 2 (2.82%) Windows
1 2 (2.82%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 31 (43.66%) Systems Engineering
2 30 (42.25%) Technical Leadership
3 11 (15.49%) Agile
4 10 (14.08%) MODAF
4 10 (14.08%) SysML
4 10 (14.08%) UML
5 9 (12.68%) Problem-Solving
6 8 (11.27%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
7 6 (8.45%) Cybersecurity
8 4 (5.63%) Mentoring
9 3 (4.23%) People Management
10 2 (2.82%) Cost Optimisation
10 2 (2.82%) Customer Requirements
10 2 (2.82%) DevOps
10 2 (2.82%) GitOps
10 2 (2.82%) Infrastructure as Code
10 2 (2.82%) Line Management
10 2 (2.82%) Performance Optimisation
10 2 (2.82%) Task Automation
10 2 (2.82%) Work Breakdown Structure
Programming Languages
1 11 (15.49%) MATLAB
2 2 (2.82%) Bash
2 2 (2.82%) Go
2 2 (2.82%) Java
2 2 (2.82%) JavaScript
2 2 (2.82%) Ladder Logic
2 2 (2.82%) Python
Qualifications
1 16 (22.54%) BPSS Clearance
1 16 (22.54%) Degree
2 2 (2.82%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (4.23%) QA
2 2 (2.82%) IEC 61131
2 2 (2.82%) IEC 61508
3 1 (1.41%) DO-254
3 1 (1.41%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 2 (2.82%) Docker
1 2 (2.82%) Hyper-V
1 2 (2.82%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 2 (2.82%) Ansible
1 2 (2.82%) Argo
1 2 (2.82%) Kubernetes
1 2 (2.82%) Kustomize
1 2 (2.82%) Prometheus
1 2 (2.82%) Terraform
Vendors
1 5 (7.04%) Siemens
2 2 (2.82%) Google
2 2 (2.82%) Rockwell
2 2 (2.82%) VMware