Senior Systems Engineer Job Trends

Senior System Engineer
UK

The median Senior System Engineer salary in the UK is £60,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 26 May 2026.

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

6 months to
26 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 321 463 458
Rank change year-on-year +142 -5 +143
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Systems Engineer 535 194 477
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.58% 0.46% 0.48%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.62% 0.51% 0.51%
Number of salaries quoted 297 141 343
10th Percentile £45,000 £47,683 £43,591
25th Percentile £50,000 £48,869 £50,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £54,793 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.50% -8.68% -2.04%
75th Percentile £65,000 £62,000 £65,250
90th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £75,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £54,793 £56,748
% change year-on-year +9.50% -3.44% +3.18%

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 86,685 38,020 93,740
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.40% 89.33% 94.71%
Number of salaries quoted 57,629 21,313 68,696
10th Percentile £30,000 £29,750 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £40,620 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £57,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -12.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £70,250
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £51,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -2.91% +3.00% -6.43%

Senior Systems Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Senior Systems Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

Senior Systems Engineer
Salary Trend

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

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

Senior Systems Engineer
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Senior Systems Engineer over the 6 months to 26 May 2026.

Salary histogram for Senior Systems Engineer in the UK

Senior 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 Senior Systems Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 26 May 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 +139 497 £60,000 +9.50% 105
UK excluding London +120 463 £60,000 +9.50% 78
South East +102 163 £60,000 - 29
South West 0 101 £60,000 +14.07% 9
Midlands +17 68 £60,000 +9.09% 6
North of England -48 64 £55,000 +9.88% 19
London +22 61 £82,500 +8.55% 29
West Midlands -6 44 £50,000 - 4
Work from Home +11 40 £50,000 -12.89% 30
North West -36 40 £55,000 +9.88% 16
East of England +9 39 £60,000 -29.41% 15
Scotland +20 25 £49,000 -34.98% 3
East Midlands -13 24 £62,500 +13.64% 2
Yorkshire -37 18 £50,861 -11.64%
North East - 6 - - 3
Wales -31 3 £66,300 +6.94% 1

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

For the 6 months to 26 May 2026, Senior 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 Senior Systems Engineer in the job title.

1 173 (32.34%) Systems Engineering
2 113 (21.12%) BPSS Clearance
3 72 (13.46%) Degree
4 58 (10.84%) Requirements Management
5 45 (8.41%) Azure
6 43 (8.04%) AI
6 43 (8.04%) Technical Leadership
7 41 (7.66%) Rational DOORS
8 39 (7.29%) Agile
8 39 (7.29%) Validation
9 36 (6.73%) Cybersecurity
9 36 (6.73%) Machine Learning
9 36 (6.73%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
10 34 (6.36%) Python
10 34 (6.36%) Siemens
10 34 (6.36%) Systems Thinking
11 33 (6.17%) SysML
12 32 (5.98%) ISO/IEC 15288
12 32 (5.98%) Mentoring
13 31 (5.79%) AWS
13 31 (5.79%) Software Engineering
13 31 (5.79%) SQL
14 30 (5.61%) Verification and Validation
15 29 (5.42%) Analytics
16 28 (5.23%) GCP
17 27 (5.05%) Mathematics
17 27 (5.05%) Problem-Solving
17 27 (5.05%) Use Case
18 26 (4.86%) Generative AI
18 26 (4.86%) Retrieval-Augmented Generation

Senior 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 24 (4.49%) Apache Airflow
1 24 (4.49%) Apache Spark
2 11 (2.06%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (0.75%) SharePoint
4 3 (0.56%) FactoryTalk
4 3 (0.56%) WinCC
Applications
1 19 (3.55%) Simulink
2 12 (2.24%) CATIA
3 10 (1.87%) Microsoft Office
4 3 (0.56%) Chatbot
4 3 (0.56%) Lightworks
Cloud Services
1 45 (8.41%) Azure
2 31 (5.79%) AWS
3 28 (5.23%) GCP
4 25 (4.67%) Power Platform
5 24 (4.49%) dbt
6 23 (4.30%) Azure Synapse Analytics
6 23 (4.30%) Snowflake
7 10 (1.87%) Microsoft 365
8 9 (1.68%) Entra ID
9 8 (1.50%) Google Workspace
10 3 (0.56%) AWS Lambda
10 3 (0.56%) OneDrive
10 3 (0.56%) Serverless
11 2 (0.37%) Azure Machine Learning
11 2 (0.37%) Copilot Studio
11 2 (0.37%) Microsoft Copilot
11 2 (0.37%) SaaS
11 2 (0.37%) Vertex AI
12 1 (0.19%) Dagster
12 1 (0.19%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 17 (3.18%) Broadband
2 10 (1.87%) Intrusion Detection
3 5 (0.93%) Tactical Data Link
4 4 (0.75%) DHCP
4 4 (0.75%) DNS
5 3 (0.56%) Modbus
5 3 (0.56%) Profibus
6 2 (0.37%) Firewall
7 1 (0.19%) Multicast
7 1 (0.19%) RS-422
7 1 (0.19%) Software-Defined Radio
7 1 (0.19%) TCP/IP
7 1 (0.19%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (4.67%) Power BI
2 24 (4.49%) BigQuery
3 23 (4.30%) Amazon Redshift
3 23 (4.30%) Data Lake
3 23 (4.30%) Data Warehouse
3 23 (4.30%) Elasticsearch
3 23 (4.30%) Looker
3 23 (4.30%) Snowflake Schema
3 23 (4.30%) Tableau
4 2 (0.37%) SQL Server
4 2 (0.37%) SQL Server Analysis Services
4 2 (0.37%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 2 (0.37%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 1 (0.19%) Azure SQL Database
5 1 (0.19%) KDB
5 1 (0.19%) Metadata
5 1 (0.19%) MongoDB
5 1 (0.19%) NoSQL
5 1 (0.19%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 41 (7.66%) Rational DOORS
2 23 (4.30%) MLflow
3 11 (2.06%) JIRA
4 6 (1.12%) Apache Continuum
5 3 (0.56%) Jenkins
6 2 (0.37%) TeamCity
7 1 (0.19%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 71 (13.27%) Aerospace
2 39 (7.29%) Finance
3 30 (5.61%) Analytical Skills
4 27 (5.05%) Electronics
5 23 (4.30%) Military
6 20 (3.74%) Social Skills
7 17 (3.18%) Manufacturing
8 11 (2.06%) Avionics
9 10 (1.87%) Documentation Skills
9 10 (1.87%) Organisational Skills
10 9 (1.68%) Games
10 9 (1.68%) Legal
11 6 (1.12%) Retail
12 4 (0.75%) Aviation
12 4 (0.75%) Digital Health
12 4 (0.75%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 3 (0.56%) Local Government
13 3 (0.56%) Telecoms
14 2 (0.37%) Aeronautics
14 2 (0.37%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (4.67%) Kafka
1 25 (4.67%) LangChain
2 23 (4.30%) LlamaIndex
2 23 (4.30%) pgvector
2 23 (4.30%) PyTorch
2 23 (4.30%) scikit-learn
2 23 (4.30%) TensorFlow
3 9 (1.68%) REST
4 8 (1.50%) GraphQL
4 8 (1.50%) LDAP
4 8 (1.50%) OAuth
4 8 (1.50%) OpenID
4 8 (1.50%) SAML
4 8 (1.50%) SOAP
5 2 (0.37%) Akka
5 2 (0.37%) LangGraph
6 1 (0.19%) .NET
6 1 (0.19%) Middleware
6 1 (0.19%) Model Context Protocol
6 1 (0.19%) React
Miscellaneous
1 26 (4.86%) Public Cloud
2 25 (4.67%) Driving Licence
2 25 (4.67%) Management Information System
3 24 (4.49%) Cloud Native
4 23 (4.30%) Clustering
5 17 (3.18%) CCTV
5 17 (3.18%) SCADA
6 8 (1.50%) Cyber Threat
6 8 (1.50%) Cyberattack
6 8 (1.50%) Self-Motivation
7 7 (1.31%) Distributed Systems
8 6 (1.12%) Renewable Energy
9 5 (0.93%) Embedded Systems
9 5 (0.93%) Virtual Team
10 4 (0.75%) Algorithms
11 3 (0.56%) Cyber Security Posture
11 3 (0.56%) IoT
11 3 (0.56%) Legacy Systems
12 2 (0.37%) Over-the-Top Content
12 2 (0.37%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 18 (3.36%) Linux
2 8 (1.50%) Ubuntu
2 8 (1.50%) Windows
3 4 (0.75%) Windows Server
4 3 (0.56%) VMS
5 1 (0.19%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 173 (32.34%) Systems Engineering
2 58 (10.84%) Requirements Management
3 43 (8.04%) AI
3 43 (8.04%) Technical Leadership
4 39 (7.29%) Agile
4 39 (7.29%) Validation
5 36 (6.73%) Cybersecurity
5 36 (6.73%) Machine Learning
5 36 (6.73%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
6 34 (6.36%) Systems Thinking
7 33 (6.17%) SysML
8 32 (5.98%) Mentoring
9 31 (5.79%) Software Engineering
10 30 (5.61%) Verification and Validation
11 29 (5.42%) Analytics
12 27 (5.05%) Mathematics
12 27 (5.05%) Problem-Solving
12 27 (5.05%) Use Case
13 26 (4.86%) Generative AI
13 26 (4.86%) Semantic Search
Programming Languages
1 34 (6.36%) Python
2 31 (5.79%) SQL
3 24 (4.49%) MATLAB
4 13 (2.43%) PowerShell
5 9 (1.68%) Bash
6 8 (1.50%) T-SQL
7 4 (0.75%) Java
8 3 (0.56%) C++
8 3 (0.56%) Scala
9 2 (0.37%) C
9 2 (0.37%) C#
9 2 (0.37%) Rust
10 1 (0.19%) R
Qualifications
1 113 (21.12%) BPSS Clearance
2 72 (13.46%) Degree
3 17 (3.18%) Chartered Engineer
4 15 (2.80%) HNC
5 11 (2.06%) HND
6 8 (1.50%) Security Cleared
7 7 (1.31%) SC Cleared
8 6 (1.12%) Master's Degree
9 3 (0.56%) Computer Science Degree
9 3 (0.56%) DBS Check
9 3 (0.56%) PhD
10 1 (0.19%) APMP
10 1 (0.19%) Azure Certification
10 1 (0.19%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (5.98%) ISO/IEC 15288
2 23 (4.30%) California Consumer Privacy Act
2 23 (4.30%) GDPR
3 10 (1.87%) ISO/IEC 12207
4 8 (1.50%) NCSC
4 8 (1.50%) NIST
5 5 (0.93%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 4 (0.75%) IEC 61508
7 3 (0.56%) IEC 61131
7 3 (0.56%) PMO
8 2 (0.37%) ISO/IEC 17025
9 1 (0.19%) ARP4754
9 1 (0.19%) ARP4761
9 1 (0.19%) DO-160
9 1 (0.19%) DO-254
System Software
1 13 (2.43%) Active Directory
2 5 (0.93%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (0.75%) vSphere
4 3 (0.56%) Docker
5 2 (0.37%) Hyper-V
5 2 (0.37%) KVM
5 2 (0.37%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.19%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 10 (1.87%) Kubernetes
2 3 (0.56%) SCCM
3 2 (0.37%) Ansible
3 2 (0.37%) BMC PATROL
4 1 (0.19%) Grafana
4 1 (0.19%) Graylog
4 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (0.19%) Prometheus
4 1 (0.19%) Terraform
Vendors
1 34 (6.36%) Siemens
2 23 (4.30%) Cloudera
2 23 (4.30%) Databricks
2 23 (4.30%) Dell
3 18 (3.36%) IBM
4 16 (2.99%) Microsoft
5 11 (2.06%) Allen-Bradley
5 11 (2.06%) Cisco
5 11 (2.06%) Rockwell
6 8 (1.50%) NVIDIA
7 7 (1.31%) AVEVA
7 7 (1.31%) Wonderware
8 6 (1.12%) VMware
9 3 (0.56%) Aruba
10 2 (0.37%) Foundry
10 2 (0.37%) Google
10 2 (0.37%) iManage
10 2 (0.37%) Intapp
11 1 (0.19%) Arista
11 1 (0.19%) Mellanox