Principal Systems Engineer Jobs

Principal Systems Engineer
UK

The median Principal Systems Engineer salary in the UK is £70,600 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 28 May 2025.

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

6 months to
28 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 98 628 944
Rank change year-on-year +530 +316 +218
Permanent jobs requiring a Principal Systems Engineer 1,636 294 20
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 2.99% 0.29% 0.020%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.31% 0.30% 0.022%
Number of salaries quoted 289 144 15
10th Percentile £53,719 £55,000 -
25th Percentile £70,000 £60,000 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,600 £70,000 £61,000
Median % change year-on-year +0.86% +14.75% -9.63%
75th Percentile - £80,000 £75,000
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,600 £70,000 £56,250
% change year-on-year +0.86% +24.44% -16.67%

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 49,435 96,820 89,564
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.41% 94.78% 91.46%
Number of salaries quoted 25,727 69,155 56,824
10th Percentile £28,822 £28,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £41,000 £38,500 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £52,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -12.50% -
75th Percentile £73,750 £70,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £96,250 £90,000 £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £51,399 £50,000 £53,500
% change year-on-year +2.80% -6.54% +6.63%

Principal Systems Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for Principal Systems Engineer in the UK

Principal Systems Engineer
Salary Trend

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

Salary trend for Principal Systems Engineer in the UK

Principal Systems Engineer
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Principal Systems Engineer over the 6 months to 28 May 2025.

Salary histogram for Principal Systems Engineer in the UK

Principal Systems Engineer
Top 16 Job Locations

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 over the 6 months to 28 May 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 +465 1,625 £70,600 +0.86% 116
England +489 1,557 £70,600 +0.86% 138
Midlands +262 989 £62,500 -21.88% 18
West Midlands +231 650 £55,000 -31.25% 12
East Midlands +152 339 £70,000 +16.67% 6
South East +253 275 £70,600 -11.75% 49
Work from Home +270 222 £70,600 +17.67% 55
North of England +204 193 £51,564 -14.06% 17
North West +128 175 £51,564 -14.06% 15
South West +112 84 £58,000 -17.14% 16
Wales +80 40 £70,600 +17.67% 2
Scotland +150 29 - - 1
Yorkshire - 16 - - 1
East of England +5 15 - - 16
North East - 2 £60,000 - 1
London +92 1 £61,000 -12.86% 24

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

For the 6 months to 28 May 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 featuring Principal Systems Engineer in the job title.

1 1,539 (94.07%) Systems Engineering
2 1,241 (75.86%) BPSS Clearance
3 906 (55.38%) Degree
4 615 (37.59%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
5 549 (33.56%) Validation
6 355 (21.70%) Verification and Validation
7 352 (21.52%) ISO/IEC 15288
8 333 (20.35%) Rational DOORS
9 299 (18.28%) Collaborative Working
10 291 (17.79%) Automotive
11 270 (16.50%) SysML
12 252 (15.40%) IBM
13 243 (14.85%) Project Planning
14 229 (14.00%) Telecoms
15 218 (13.33%) Technical Leadership
16 217 (13.26%) Algorithms
16 217 (13.26%) Test Planning
16 217 (13.26%) Electronics
16 217 (13.26%) Signal Processing
17 207 (12.65%) Mathematics
17 207 (12.65%) Physics
18 174 (10.64%) Chartered Engineer
19 164 (10.02%) Chemistry
19 164 (10.02%) Logistics
19 164 (10.02%) Law
20 140 (8.56%) Acceptance Criteria
21 135 (8.25%) Systems Thinking
22 130 (7.95%) Requirements Management
23 129 (7.89%) Architectural Design
24 99 (6.05%) ISTQB

Principal Systems 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 8 (0.49%) Confluence
Applications
1 63 (3.85%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 16 (0.98%) AWS
Communications & Networking
1 23 (1.41%) Wireshark
2 1 (0.061%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (0.49%) MySQL
1 8 (0.49%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 333 (20.35%) Rational DOORS
2 43 (2.63%) JIRA
3 8 (0.49%) Bitbucket
3 8 (0.49%) Git
General
1 291 (17.79%) Automotive
2 229 (14.00%) Telecoms
3 217 (13.26%) Electronics
4 164 (10.02%) Law
5 66 (4.03%) Aerospace
6 39 (2.38%) Influencing Skills
7 16 (0.98%) Military
8 2 (0.12%) Analytical Skills
8 2 (0.12%) Social Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (0.49%) .NET
2 5 (0.31%) Flash
Miscellaneous
1 217 (13.26%) Algorithms
2 3 (0.18%) NHS
2 3 (0.18%) Renewable Energy
3 2 (0.12%) Data Centre
3 2 (0.12%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 32 (1.96%) Linux
2 31 (1.89%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,539 (94.07%) Systems Engineering
2 615 (37.59%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
3 549 (33.56%) Validation
4 355 (21.70%) Verification and Validation
5 299 (18.28%) Collaborative Working
6 270 (16.50%) SysML
7 243 (14.85%) Project Planning
8 218 (13.33%) Technical Leadership
9 217 (13.26%) Signal Processing
9 217 (13.26%) Test Planning
10 207 (12.65%) Mathematics
10 207 (12.65%) Physics
11 164 (10.02%) Chemistry
11 164 (10.02%) Logistics
12 140 (8.56%) Acceptance Criteria
13 135 (8.25%) Systems Thinking
14 130 (7.95%) Requirements Management
15 129 (7.89%) Architectural Design
16 97 (5.93%) Agile
17 66 (4.03%) Coaching
Programming Languages
1 64 (3.91%) MATLAB
2 8 (0.49%) C#
3 1 (0.061%) Perl
3 1 (0.061%) R
Qualifications
1 1,241 (75.86%) BPSS Clearance
2 906 (55.38%) Degree
3 174 (10.64%) Chartered Engineer
4 99 (6.05%) ISTQB
5 5 (0.31%) Master's Degree
6 2 (0.12%) Security Cleared
7 1 (0.061%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 352 (21.52%) ISO/IEC 15288
2 28 (1.71%) ISO 9001
3 1 (0.061%) ISO 26262
Systems Management
1 8 (0.49%) Ansible
Vendors
1 252 (15.40%) IBM
2 8 (0.49%) Atlassian
3 1 (0.061%) EMC