Principal Engineer Jobs

Principal Engineer
UK

The median Principal Engineer salary in the UK is £65,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 30 April 2025.

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

6 months to
30 Apr 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 44 284 493
Rank change year-on-year +240 +209 -84
Permanent jobs requiring a Principal Engineer 2,854 996 612
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 5.47% 1.01% 0.59%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.08% 1.07% 0.64%
Number of salaries quoted 528 384 442
10th Percentile £48,267 £58,250 £55,500
25th Percentile £58,000 £65,000 £66,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £80,000 £83,500
Median % change year-on-year -18.75% -4.19% -1.76%
75th Percentile £70,600 £95,313 £115,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £115,000 £150,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £65,000 £70,000 £72,500
% change year-on-year -7.14% -3.45% -

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
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 46,971 93,051 95,196
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.06% 94.62% 91.53%
Number of salaries quoted 27,308 66,827 59,871
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £42,500 £38,500 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £52,750 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.00% -12.08% -
75th Percentile £75,000 £71,250 £81,250
90th Percentile £97,500 £90,000 £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,344 £50,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +4.69% -4.76% +5.00%

Principal Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for Principal Engineer in the UK

Principal Engineer
Salary Trend

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing Principal Engineer.

Salary trend for Principal Engineer in the UK

Principal Engineer
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Principal Engineer over the 6 months to 30 April 2025.

Salary histogram for Principal Engineer in the UK

Principal Engineer
Top 17 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Principal Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 30 April 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
UK excluding London +240 2,750 £65,000 -7.14% 263
England +237 2,634 £65,000 -18.75% 361
Midlands +192 1,357 £67,500 -10.00% 27
West Midlands +179 880 £61,625 -11.96% 20
East Midlands +135 477 £71,250 -16.18% 6
North of England +184 472 £51,564 -20.67% 91
North West +162 411 £47,250 -27.31% 69
South East +214 400 £70,600 -5.87% 59
South West +132 271 £58,000 -17.14% 32
Work from Home +192 219 £70,600 -16.94% 196
Scotland +125 134 £52,000 -22.96% 13
London +5 74 £102,500 +6.49% 109
Yorkshire +72 58 £65,000 - 20
Wales +74 56 £70,600 +17.67% 1
East of England +33 54 £67,000 -13.55% 40
Northern Ireland +40 6 - - 5
North East +35 3 - - 2

Principal Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 30 April 2025, Principal 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 featuring Principal Engineer in the job title.

1 2,046 (71.69%) Systems Engineering
2 1,967 (68.92%) BPSS Clearance
3 1,790 (62.72%) Degree
4 728 (25.51%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
5 718 (25.16%) Validation
6 524 (18.36%) Verification and Validation
7 405 (14.19%) Software Engineering
8 397 (13.91%) Mathematics
9 386 (13.52%) Chartered Engineer
10 371 (13.00%) Collaborative Working
11 352 (12.33%) Physics
12 348 (12.19%) Electronics
13 325 (11.39%) Automotive
14 324 (11.35%) Rational DOORS
15 316 (11.07%) ISO/IEC 15288
16 307 (10.76%) SysML
17 288 (10.09%) Agile
18 265 (9.29%) Telecoms
19 242 (8.48%) Project Planning
20 224 (7.85%) Decision-Making
21 219 (7.67%) Law
22 203 (7.11%) IBM
23 194 (6.80%) Software Assurance
24 193 (6.76%) Coaching
25 192 (6.73%) Logistics
26 191 (6.69%) IEC 61508
27 190 (6.66%) Requirements Management
27 190 (6.66%) Chemistry
28 183 (6.41%) Social Skills
29 174 (6.10%) Algorithms

Principal Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities 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 21 (0.74%) Confluence
2 2 (0.070%) CMS
Applications
1 67 (2.35%) Simulink
2 41 (1.44%) Mathcad
2 41 (1.44%) Mathematica
3 33 (1.16%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.035%) Revit
Business Applications
1 24 (0.84%) Ripple
1 24 (0.84%) Ripple XRP
2 2 (0.070%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 80 (2.80%) AWS
2 34 (1.19%) Azure
3 20 (0.70%) GitHub
4 12 (0.42%) Azure DevOps
4 12 (0.42%) SaaS
5 10 (0.35%) AWS CloudFormation
6 8 (0.28%) Amazon Kinesis
7 7 (0.25%) Azure AKS
7 7 (0.25%) GCP
7 7 (0.25%) Serverless
8 6 (0.21%) GitHub Actions
8 6 (0.21%) PaaS
9 5 (0.18%) Figma
9 5 (0.18%) SonarCloud
10 4 (0.14%) Amazon EKS
10 4 (0.14%) Entra ID
10 4 (0.14%) IaaS
11 3 (0.11%) Amazon EC2
11 3 (0.11%) AWS Lambda
11 3 (0.11%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 23 (0.81%) Wireshark
2 6 (0.21%) DNS
2 6 (0.21%) Firewall
2 6 (0.21%) IPv6
2 6 (0.21%) Reverse Proxy
3 4 (0.14%) Multicast
3 4 (0.14%) TETRA
4 2 (0.070%) VPN
5 1 (0.035%) Ethernet
5 1 (0.035%) Modbus
5 1 (0.035%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (1.16%) Tableau
2 24 (0.84%) Relational Database
3 18 (0.63%) MySQL
4 16 (0.56%) PostgreSQL
5 9 (0.32%) SQL Server
6 7 (0.25%) NoSQL
7 5 (0.18%) Redis
8 4 (0.14%) MongoDB
9 3 (0.11%) Elasticsearch
10 2 (0.070%) Azure SQL Database
10 2 (0.070%) Big Data
10 2 (0.070%) Data Warehouse
11 1 (0.035%) Amazon Aurora
11 1 (0.035%) Data Lake
11 1 (0.035%) DynamoDB
11 1 (0.035%) Hazelcast
Development Applications
1 324 (11.35%) Rational DOORS
2 101 (3.54%) JIRA
3 28 (0.98%) Git
4 19 (0.67%) Jenkins
5 14 (0.49%) Bitbucket
6 11 (0.39%) Artifactory
7 9 (0.32%) GitLab
8 8 (0.28%) Cucumber
8 8 (0.28%) git-flow
8 8 (0.28%) Gradle
9 3 (0.11%) Gatling
9 3 (0.11%) JUnit
9 3 (0.11%) Mockito
9 3 (0.11%) Subversion
10 2 (0.070%) Apache Archiva
10 2 (0.070%) Sonatype Nexus
10 2 (0.070%) Vagrant
11 1 (0.035%) Carbide.c++
11 1 (0.035%) CMake
11 1 (0.035%) Cypress.io
General
1 348 (12.19%) Electronics
2 325 (11.39%) Automotive
3 265 (9.29%) Telecoms
4 219 (7.67%) Law
5 183 (6.41%) Social Skills
6 81 (2.84%) Aerospace
7 70 (2.45%) Finance
8 44 (1.54%) Military
9 39 (1.37%) Influencing Skills
10 26 (0.91%) Financial Institution
11 24 (0.84%) Digital Economy
12 22 (0.77%) Banking
13 21 (0.74%) Analytical Skills
14 9 (0.32%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 9 (0.32%) Local Government
15 8 (0.28%) Manufacturing
16 7 (0.25%) Public Sector
17 6 (0.21%) Games
17 6 (0.21%) Retail
18 5 (0.18%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 27 (0.95%) .NET
2 23 (0.81%) React
3 22 (0.77%) Node.js
4 18 (0.63%) Spring Boot
5 15 (0.53%) Kafka
6 8 (0.28%) AngularJS
6 8 (0.28%) Drools
6 8 (0.28%) HTML
6 8 (0.28%) RabbitMQ
7 7 (0.25%) Flutter
7 7 (0.25%) Spring
8 6 (0.21%) RESTful
9 5 (0.18%) Android Jetpack
9 5 (0.18%) Dagger
9 5 (0.18%) HTML5
9 5 (0.18%) Lambda Expressions
9 5 (0.18%) OpenAPI
9 5 (0.18%) Sass
9 5 (0.18%) Swagger
10 4 (0.14%) WebRTC
Miscellaneous
1 174 (6.10%) Algorithms
2 34 (1.19%) Distributed Systems
3 24 (0.84%) Blockchain
4 13 (0.46%) NHS
5 11 (0.39%) Data Centre
6 9 (0.32%) Management Information System
6 9 (0.32%) Product Ownership
7 8 (0.28%) Cloud Native
7 8 (0.28%) Greenfield Project
8 6 (0.21%) Derivative
8 6 (0.21%) Mobile App
9 5 (0.18%) Renewable Energy
10 4 (0.14%) Data Protection Act
10 4 (0.14%) Embedded Systems
10 4 (0.14%) Enterprise Cloud
10 4 (0.14%) SCADA
10 4 (0.14%) Video\Live Streaming
10 4 (0.14%) Wiki
11 3 (0.11%) Enterprise Software
11 3 (0.11%) Life Science
Operating Systems
1 50 (1.75%) Linux
2 42 (1.47%) Windows
3 8 (0.28%) Android
4 6 (0.21%) Apple iOS
5 4 (0.14%) Windows Server
6 3 (0.11%) Mac OS
6 3 (0.11%) VMS
7 1 (0.035%) Debian
7 1 (0.035%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 2,046 (71.69%) Systems Engineering
2 728 (25.51%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
3 718 (25.16%) Validation
4 524 (18.36%) Verification and Validation
5 405 (14.19%) Software Engineering
6 397 (13.91%) Mathematics
7 371 (13.00%) Collaborative Working
8 352 (12.33%) Physics
9 307 (10.76%) SysML
10 288 (10.09%) Agile
11 242 (8.48%) Project Planning
12 224 (7.85%) Decision-Making
13 194 (6.80%) Software Assurance
14 193 (6.76%) Coaching
15 192 (6.73%) Logistics
16 190 (6.66%) Chemistry
16 190 (6.66%) Requirements Management
17 172 (6.03%) Systems Thinking
18 167 (5.85%) Cybersecurity
19 165 (5.78%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 71 (2.49%) MATLAB
2 58 (2.03%) Python
3 44 (1.54%) C++
4 38 (1.33%) Java
5 35 (1.23%) C#
6 26 (0.91%) C
7 23 (0.81%) SQL
8 22 (0.77%) TypeScript
9 15 (0.53%) Rust
10 14 (0.49%) Go
11 13 (0.46%) JavaScript
11 13 (0.46%) Perl
12 10 (0.35%) Kotlin
13 8 (0.28%) Ruby
14 7 (0.25%) PowerShell
15 6 (0.21%) Bash
15 6 (0.21%) R
16 4 (0.14%) Ada
16 4 (0.14%) Ada 95
16 4 (0.14%) Objective-C
Qualifications
1 1,967 (68.92%) BPSS Clearance
2 1,790 (62.72%) Degree
3 386 (13.52%) Chartered Engineer
4 149 (5.22%) ISTQB
5 148 (5.19%) CISM
5 148 (5.19%) CISSP
6 147 (5.15%) CESG Certified Professional
7 65 (2.28%) Master's Degree
8 49 (1.72%) HNC
9 16 (0.56%) Security Cleared
10 9 (0.32%) AWS Certification
11 8 (0.28%) OCP
11 8 (0.28%) Oracle Certification
11 8 (0.28%) PhD
11 8 (0.28%) SC Cleared
12 6 (0.21%) Computer Science Degree
13 1 (0.035%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
13 1 (0.035%) CompTIA Security+
13 1 (0.035%) Numerate Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 316 (11.07%) ISO/IEC 15288
2 191 (6.69%) IEC 61508
3 168 (5.89%) Def Stans
4 156 (5.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 153 (5.36%) NIST
6 147 (5.15%) JSP 440
6 147 (5.15%) RMADS
7 37 (1.30%) Data Quality
8 28 (0.98%) ISO 9001
9 10 (0.35%) QA
10 9 (0.32%) Accessibility
11 2 (0.070%) Cyber Essentials
11 2 (0.070%) GDPR
11 2 (0.070%) ISO 26262
12 1 (0.035%) AUTOSAR
12 1 (0.035%) MISRA
12 1 (0.035%) MISRA C
12 1 (0.035%) SOC 2
System Software
1 31 (1.09%) Docker
2 4 (0.14%) Active Directory
2 4 (0.14%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (0.11%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.035%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 50 (1.75%) Kubernetes
2 36 (1.26%) Terraform
3 26 (0.91%) Ansible
4 23 (0.81%) Functional Safety
5 6 (0.21%) Prometheus
6 3 (0.11%) Grafana
7 2 (0.070%) Argo
7 2 (0.070%) Kustomize
8 1 (0.035%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 203 (7.11%) IBM
2 78 (2.73%) Siemens
3 47 (1.65%) Microsoft
4 27 (0.95%) Micro Focus
5 19 (0.67%) Atlassian
6 9 (0.32%) SAP
7 4 (0.14%) Cisco
7 4 (0.14%) Citrix
7 4 (0.14%) Veracode
7 4 (0.14%) VMware
8 3 (0.11%) Rockwell
8 3 (0.11%) TOWER Software
9 2 (0.070%) EMC
10 1 (0.035%) Apple
10 1 (0.035%) Red Hat