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 19 September 2026.

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

6 months to
19 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 321 484 406
Rank change year-on-year +163 -78 -6
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Systems Engineer 640 196 440
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.55% 0.40% 0.56%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.59% 0.44% 0.59%
Number of salaries quoted 368 108 263
10th Percentile £48,375 £46,250 £45,000
25th Percentile £55,000 £52,500 £49,877
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £58,780 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +2.08% -2.03% -6.25%
75th Percentile £65,000 £62,000 £67,500
90th Percentile £81,500 £75,000 £75,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £58,780 £60,000
% change year-on-year +2.08% -2.03% -4.00%

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 108,200 44,314 74,420
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.19% 89.66% 95.24%
Number of salaries quoted 74,226 26,055 44,614
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,250 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £58,500 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +6.36% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £77,500 £75,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +15.79% -5.00% -4.76%

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 19 September 2026.

Salary histogram for Senior Systems Engineer in the UK

Senior Systems 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 Senior Systems Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 19 September 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 +149 586 £60,000 +4.24% 517
UK excluding London +112 559 £60,000 +2.08% 333
South East +109 264 £56,000 -6.67% 95
South West +6 116 £65,000 +20.82% 54
North of England -51 71 £55,000 +0.38% 49
Work from Home -6 63 £56,750 +16.35% 152
London -31 54 £100,000 +33.33% 187
East of England +15 50 £60,000 -31.43% 53
North West -31 35 £55,000 +0.38% 21
Midlands -39 30 £60,000 +9.09% 28
Scotland - 26 £55,000 - 50
Yorkshire -23 24 £50,000 +4.10% 20
East Midlands -25 18 £60,000 +46.34% 4
West Midlands -48 12 £50,000 -9.09% 24
North East - 12 £47,500 - 8
Northern Ireland -72 1 - - 3
Wales -73 1 £66,300 +6.94% 5

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

For the 6 months to 19 September 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.

1 147 (22.97%) Systems Engineering
2 83 (12.97%) Degree
3 76 (11.88%) BPSS Clearance
4 59 (9.22%) Technical Leadership
5 48 (7.50%) Software Engineering
6 46 (7.19%) Requirements Management
7 44 (6.88%) Python
8 38 (5.94%) AI
8 38 (5.94%) Azure
9 37 (5.78%) Problem-Solving
9 37 (5.78%) Rational DOORS
10 36 (5.63%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
11 34 (5.31%) Physics
12 33 (5.16%) Agile
13 31 (4.84%) Data Pipeline
13 31 (4.84%) MATLAB
13 31 (4.84%) Systems Thinking
14 30 (4.69%) Siemens
14 30 (4.69%) SQL
15 28 (4.38%) Mathematics
15 28 (4.38%) SysML
16 27 (4.22%) AWS
16 27 (4.22%) Chartered Engineer
16 27 (4.22%) Customer Requirements
16 27 (4.22%) Validation
17 24 (3.75%) GCP
18 23 (3.59%) Continuous Improvement
19 21 (3.28%) Change Management
19 21 (3.28%) Coaching
19 21 (3.28%) Docker

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 15 (2.34%) Microsoft Exchange
2 10 (1.56%) Apache Airflow
2 10 (1.56%) Apache Spark
3 8 (1.25%) SharePoint
4 3 (0.47%) FactoryTalk
4 3 (0.47%) WinCC
Applications
1 20 (3.13%) Simulink
2 15 (2.34%) Lightworks
3 12 (1.88%) CATIA
4 8 (1.25%) Chatbot
5 6 (0.94%) Microsoft Office
5 6 (0.94%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 1 (0.16%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 38 (5.94%) Azure
2 27 (4.22%) AWS
3 24 (3.75%) GCP
4 14 (2.19%) Power Platform
5 10 (1.56%) Azure Synapse Analytics
5 10 (1.56%) dbt
5 10 (1.56%) Snowflake
6 9 (1.41%) Microsoft 365
7 7 (1.09%) OneDrive
8 5 (0.78%) Azure DevOps
8 5 (0.78%) SaaS
9 3 (0.47%) Entra ID
10 2 (0.31%) Azure AKS
10 2 (0.31%) Azure Cosmos DB
10 2 (0.31%) Azure Key Vault
10 2 (0.31%) Azure Service Bus
10 2 (0.31%) Cloudflare
10 2 (0.31%) GitHub Actions
10 2 (0.31%) Power Automate
10 2 (0.31%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 12 (1.88%) DNS
2 10 (1.56%) Intrusion Detection
2 10 (1.56%) Wireless
3 7 (1.09%) DHCP
4 5 (0.78%) TCP/IP
5 4 (0.63%) Firewall
5 4 (0.63%) LAN
5 4 (0.63%) WAN
6 3 (0.47%) Modbus
6 3 (0.47%) Profibus
6 3 (0.47%) SSL
7 2 (0.31%) 3GPP
7 2 (0.31%) 5G
7 2 (0.31%) Cisco Nexus
7 2 (0.31%) HTTP
7 2 (0.31%) Internet
7 2 (0.31%) MQTT
7 2 (0.31%) Network Security
7 2 (0.31%) RS-422
7 2 (0.31%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (2.03%) NoSQL
2 12 (1.88%) Power BI
3 11 (1.72%) SQL Server
4 10 (1.56%) Amazon Redshift
4 10 (1.56%) BigQuery
4 10 (1.56%) Data Lake
4 10 (1.56%) Data Warehouse
4 10 (1.56%) Elasticsearch
4 10 (1.56%) Looker
4 10 (1.56%) Milvus
4 10 (1.56%) Snowflake Schema
4 10 (1.56%) Tableau
5 3 (0.47%) PostgreSQL
6 2 (0.31%) Hadoop
6 2 (0.31%) Redis
6 2 (0.31%) SQL Server Analysis Services
6 2 (0.31%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 2 (0.31%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 1 (0.16%) Azure SQL Database
7 1 (0.16%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 37 (5.78%) Rational DOORS
2 10 (1.56%) JIRA
2 10 (1.56%) MLflow
3 9 (1.41%) LabVIEW
4 4 (0.63%) Apache Continuum
5 2 (0.31%) NUnit
6 1 (0.16%) Git
6 1 (0.16%) Subversion
General
1 136 (21.25%) Aerospace
2 80 (12.50%) Finance
3 37 (5.78%) Social Skills
4 35 (5.47%) Analytical Skills
5 29 (4.53%) Electronics
6 28 (4.38%) Military
7 23 (3.59%) Aviation
8 15 (2.34%) Avionics
8 15 (2.34%) Manufacturing
9 13 (2.03%) Documentation Skills
10 12 (1.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 11 (1.72%) Retail
12 9 (1.41%) Organisational Skills
13 7 (1.09%) Legal
14 6 (0.94%) Telecoms
15 5 (0.78%) Local Government
16 4 (0.63%) Law
16 4 (0.63%) Public Sector
17 3 (0.47%) Digital Health
18 2 (0.31%) Aeronautics
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (1.88%) Node.js
2 11 (1.72%) PyTorch
3 10 (1.56%) Kafka
3 10 (1.56%) LangChain
3 10 (1.56%) LlamaIndex
3 10 (1.56%) Next.js
3 10 (1.56%) pgvector
3 10 (1.56%) scikit-learn
3 10 (1.56%) TensorFlow
4 6 (0.94%) .NET
5 5 (0.78%) REST
5 5 (0.78%) Terraform
6 3 (0.47%) React
6 3 (0.47%) WinForms
7 2 (0.31%) .NET Framework
7 2 (0.31%) Entity Framework
7 2 (0.31%) gRPC
7 2 (0.31%) JSON
7 2 (0.31%) Protocol Buffers
7 2 (0.31%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 26 (4.06%) Cloud Native
2 22 (3.44%) Driving Licence
3 19 (2.97%) CCTV
4 13 (2.03%) Data Centre
5 12 (1.88%) SCADA
6 11 (1.72%) Clustering
6 11 (1.72%) Distributed Systems
6 11 (1.72%) Management Information System
6 11 (1.72%) Public Cloud
7 10 (1.56%) Robotics
8 8 (1.25%) Fibre Optics
8 8 (1.25%) IoT
9 6 (0.94%) Augmented Reality
9 6 (0.94%) Virtual Reality
10 5 (0.78%) Algorithms
10 5 (0.78%) Cyber Security Posture
10 5 (0.78%) Legacy Systems
10 5 (0.78%) PKI
10 5 (0.78%) Renewable Energy
11 4 (0.63%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 15 (2.34%) Windows
2 11 (1.72%) Windows Server
3 9 (1.41%) Linux
4 3 (0.47%) VMS
5 1 (0.16%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 147 (22.97%) Systems Engineering
2 59 (9.22%) Technical Leadership
3 48 (7.50%) Software Engineering
4 46 (7.19%) Requirements Management
5 38 (5.94%) AI
6 37 (5.78%) Problem-Solving
7 36 (5.63%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
8 34 (5.31%) Physics
9 33 (5.16%) Agile
10 31 (4.84%) Data Pipeline
10 31 (4.84%) Systems Thinking
11 28 (4.38%) Mathematics
11 28 (4.38%) SysML
12 27 (4.22%) Customer Requirements
12 27 (4.22%) Validation
13 23 (3.59%) Continuous Improvement
14 21 (3.28%) Change Management
14 21 (3.28%) Coaching
15 20 (3.13%) Workflow
16 19 (2.97%) Configuration Management
Programming Languages
1 44 (6.88%) Python
2 31 (4.84%) MATLAB
3 30 (4.69%) SQL
4 17 (2.66%) PowerShell
5 6 (0.94%) C#
5 6 (0.94%) C++
6 3 (0.47%) Bash
6 3 (0.47%) Java
6 3 (0.47%) T-SQL
6 3 (0.47%) VB.NET
7 2 (0.31%) C
8 1 (0.16%) R
Qualifications
1 83 (12.97%) Degree
2 76 (11.88%) BPSS Clearance
3 27 (4.22%) Chartered Engineer
4 13 (2.03%) Master's Degree
4 13 (2.03%) Security Cleared
5 10 (1.56%) SC Cleared
6 8 (1.25%) PhD
7 7 (1.09%) DBS Check
8 6 (0.94%) HNC
8 6 (0.94%) HND
9 4 (0.63%) Computer Science Degree
10 2 (0.31%) DV Cleared
10 2 (0.31%) Microsoft Certification
11 1 (0.16%) Azure Certification
11 1 (0.16%) PMI Certification
11 1 (0.16%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (2.97%) ISO/IEC 15288
2 10 (1.56%) California Consumer Privacy Act
2 10 (1.56%) GDPR
3 8 (1.25%) ISO/IEC 12207
4 4 (0.63%) Accessibility
5 3 (0.47%) IEC 61131
6 1 (0.16%) ARP4754
6 1 (0.16%) ARP4761
6 1 (0.16%) Data Quality
6 1 (0.16%) DO-160
6 1 (0.16%) HAZOP
6 1 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 1 (0.16%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 21 (3.28%) Docker
2 13 (2.03%) Active Directory
3 6 (0.94%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (0.94%) vSphere
4 4 (0.63%) Hyper-V
5 3 (0.47%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.31%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 18 (2.81%) Kubernetes
2 5 (0.78%) SCCM
3 4 (0.63%) Microsoft Intune
4 3 (0.47%) BMC PATROL
4 3 (0.47%) Grafana
5 2 (0.31%) Ansible
6 1 (0.16%) Failover Clustering
6 1 (0.16%) Functional Safety
6 1 (0.16%) Graylog
6 1 (0.16%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
6 1 (0.16%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.16%) SCOM
Vendors
1 30 (4.69%) Siemens
2 20 (3.13%) Microsoft
3 14 (2.19%) Cisco
3 14 (2.19%) IBM
4 12 (1.88%) Databricks
4 12 (1.88%) OpenAI
5 11 (1.72%) Dell
6 10 (1.56%) Cloudera
6 10 (1.56%) Rockwell
7 8 (1.25%) Google
8 7 (1.09%) Allen-Bradley
8 7 (1.09%) Aruba
8 7 (1.09%) AVEVA
8 7 (1.09%) Wonderware
9 6 (0.94%) VMware
10 5 (0.78%) ServiceNow
11 2 (0.31%) Dynatrace
11 2 (0.31%) iManage
11 2 (0.31%) Intapp
11 2 (0.31%) Palo Alto