Senior Design Engineer Job Trends

Senior Design Engineer
UK

The median Senior Design Engineer salary in the UK is £55,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 6 January 2026.

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

6 months to
6 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 610 644 653
Rank change year-on-year +34 +9 +283
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Design Engineer 37 60 52
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.062% 0.11% 0.098%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.069% 0.12% 0.10%
Number of salaries quoted 26 31 38
10th Percentile £51,250 £48,869 £49,925
25th Percentile £53,500 £60,000 £52,125
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £70,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -21.43% +16.67% -7.69%
75th Percentile £69,375 £80,000 £78,750
90th Percentile £73,500 £85,250 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £70,000 £56,750
% change year-on-year -21.43% +23.35% -5.42%

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 53,793 50,378 50,490
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.57% 92.94% 95.24%
Number of salaries quoted 33,153 26,319 38,828
10th Percentile £28,500 £33,200 £31,125
25th Percentile £36,250 £44,956 £42,430
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £58,500
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +2.56% -2.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £77,500
90th Percentile £93,750 £97,500 £96,539
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -4.76%

Senior Design Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Senior Design Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

Senior Design Engineer
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for Senior Design Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Salary distribution trend for Senior Design Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Senior Design Engineer
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Senior Design Engineer over the 6 months to 6 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Senior Design Engineer in the UK

Senior Design Engineer
Top 12 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Senior Design Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 6 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
UK excluding London +22 37 £55,000 -21.43% 18
England +61 36 £55,000 -26.67% 15
South East +33 11 £55,000 -20.00% 5
North of England +23 11 £60,500 +20.87% 1
South West -3 10 £55,000 -26.67% 1
Yorkshire -7 8 - -
Work from Home +34 5 £69,000 -1.43% 14
North West +23 3 £60,500 +20.87% 1
East of England - 3 £65,000 - 8
Midlands +15 1 £70,000 +7.69%
Wales -4 1 £45,000 -35.71%
East Midlands - 1 £70,000 -

Senior Design Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 6 January 2026, Senior Design 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 Senior Design Engineer in the job title.

1 9 (24.32%) CCNA
1 9 (24.32%) CCNP
1 9 (24.32%) Cisco
1 9 (24.32%) Cisco Certification
1 9 (24.32%) JNCIS
1 9 (24.32%) Juniper
1 9 (24.32%) LAN
1 9 (24.32%) Network Design
1 9 (24.32%) Requirements Gathering
1 9 (24.32%) Software Engineering
1 9 (24.32%) VPN
2 8 (21.62%) SC Cleared
2 8 (21.62%) Security Cleared
3 7 (18.92%) DV Cleared
4 5 (13.51%) Decision-Making
4 5 (13.51%) F5
4 5 (13.51%) Firewall
4 5 (13.51%) Intrusion Detection
4 5 (13.51%) Network Security
4 5 (13.51%) WAN
5 4 (10.81%) BGP
5 4 (10.81%) Cisco IOS
5 4 (10.81%) Degree
5 4 (10.81%) IPsec
5 4 (10.81%) Junos
5 4 (10.81%) MPLS
5 4 (10.81%) Project Management
5 4 (10.81%) Schematic Capture
6 3 (8.11%) C
6 3 (8.11%) Problem-Solving

Senior Design 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:

Applications
1 2 (5.41%) MS Visio
2 1 (2.70%) AutoCAD
2 1 (2.70%) EPLAN
Cloud Services
1 1 (2.70%) Google Workspace
1 1 (2.70%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 9 (24.32%) LAN
1 9 (24.32%) VPN
2 5 (13.51%) Firewall
2 5 (13.51%) Intrusion Detection
2 5 (13.51%) Network Security
2 5 (13.51%) WAN
3 4 (10.81%) BGP
3 4 (10.81%) Cisco IOS
3 4 (10.81%) IPsec
3 4 (10.81%) Junos
3 4 (10.81%) MPLS
4 2 (5.41%) IPv4
4 2 (5.41%) IPv6
4 2 (5.41%) TCP/IP
4 2 (5.41%) VLAN
4 2 (5.41%) Wireless
General
1 7 (18.92%) Electronics
2 3 (8.11%) Manufacturing
2 3 (8.11%) Pharmaceutical
2 3 (8.11%) Social Skills
3 1 (2.70%) Finance
Miscellaneous
1 4 (10.81%) Analogue Electronics
2 3 (8.11%) Data Centre
3 2 (5.41%) FPGA
3 2 (5.41%) Verilog
3 2 (5.41%) VHDL
4 1 (2.70%) Algorithms
4 1 (2.70%) ARM Cortex
4 1 (2.70%) Digital Signage
4 1 (2.70%) Embedded Systems
4 1 (2.70%) Hybrid Cloud
4 1 (2.70%) IoT
4 1 (2.70%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 1 (2.70%) FreeRTOS
1 1 (2.70%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 9 (24.32%) Network Design
1 9 (24.32%) Requirements Gathering
1 9 (24.32%) Software Engineering
2 5 (13.51%) Decision-Making
3 4 (10.81%) Project Management
3 4 (10.81%) Schematic Capture
4 3 (8.11%) Problem-Solving
5 2 (5.41%) Capacity Management
5 2 (5.41%) Digital Signal Processing
5 2 (5.41%) FPGA Design
5 2 (5.41%) IC Design
5 2 (5.41%) Mentoring
5 2 (5.41%) Network Management
5 2 (5.41%) Performance Testing
5 2 (5.41%) Signal Processing
5 2 (5.41%) Task Automation
5 2 (5.41%) Validation
6 1 (2.70%) Low Latency
6 1 (2.70%) Machine Learning
6 1 (2.70%) Mobile Device Management
Programming Languages
1 3 (8.11%) C
2 2 (5.41%) C++
2 2 (5.41%) Embedded C
3 1 (2.70%) Embedded C++
3 1 (2.70%) Python
3 1 (2.70%) SystemVerilog
Qualifications
1 9 (24.32%) CCNA
1 9 (24.32%) CCNP
1 9 (24.32%) Cisco Certification
1 9 (24.32%) JNCIS
2 8 (21.62%) SC Cleared
2 8 (21.62%) Security Cleared
3 7 (18.92%) DV Cleared
4 4 (10.81%) Degree
5 2 (5.41%) JNCIA
5 2 (5.41%) Master's Degree
System Software
1 2 (5.41%) Firmware
1 2 (5.41%) KVM
1 2 (5.41%) RHEV
1 2 (5.41%) VMware Infrastructure
1 2 (5.41%) Xen
2 1 (2.70%) Embedded Firmware
Systems Management
1 2 (5.41%) Nagios
1 2 (5.41%) Proxmox
Vendors
1 9 (24.32%) Cisco
1 9 (24.32%) Juniper
2 5 (13.51%) F5
3 2 (5.41%) EMC
3 2 (5.41%) SolarWinds
3 2 (5.41%) VMware
4 1 (2.70%) Cadence
4 1 (2.70%) Google
4 1 (2.70%) Synopsys