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 2 May 2026.

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

6 months to
2 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 302 446 487
Rank change year-on-year +144 +41 +234
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Systems Engineer 516 193 431
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.57% 0.46% 0.45%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.62% 0.51% 0.48%
Number of salaries quoted 280 144 307
10th Percentile £45,000 £47,683 £45,000
25th Percentile £50,000 £48,869 £50,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £54,897 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.30% -0.19% -8.33%
75th Percentile £68,750 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,250 £83,000 £70,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £54,793 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.50% -0.38% -

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 83,677 37,745 90,639
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.92% 89.30% 94.56%
Number of salaries quoted 53,852 23,399 66,743
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,500 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £41,500 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £59,648 £53,000
Median % change year-on-year -7.79% +12.54% -11.67%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,000 £71,250
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +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 2 May 2026.

Salary histogram for Senior Systems Engineer in the UK

Senior Systems Engineer
Top 15 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 2 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 +125 481 £60,000 +9.50% 83
UK excluding London +88 439 £60,000 +9.50% 62
South East +68 142 £61,250 +4.70% 34
South West +20 110 £60,000 +14.07% 5
London +31 68 £82,500 +8.55% 26
Midlands +23 67 £60,000 +14.29% 9
North of England -71 59 £55,000 +9.88% 5
West Midlands +13 42 £50,000 - 7
North West -44 41 £55,000 +9.88% 3
Work from Home +2 36 £50,000 -27.27% 25
East of England +10 34 £60,000 -29.41% 9
East Midlands -21 25 £65,000 +18.18% 2
Scotland -8 24 £49,000 -34.98% 4
Yorkshire -50 18 £50,861 +2.28%
Wales -25 3 £55,869 -9.89%

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

For the 6 months to 2 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.

1 176 (34.11%) Systems Engineering
2 115 (22.29%) BPSS Clearance
3 70 (13.57%) Degree
4 56 (10.85%) Requirements Management
5 45 (8.72%) AI
5 45 (8.72%) Azure
6 44 (8.53%) Validation
7 41 (7.95%) Agile
7 41 (7.95%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
8 38 (7.36%) Machine Learning
9 37 (7.17%) Rational DOORS
10 35 (6.78%) Cybersecurity
11 34 (6.59%) Python
11 34 (6.59%) SysML
12 33 (6.40%) Verification and Validation
13 32 (6.20%) AWS
13 32 (6.20%) Siemens
13 32 (6.20%) Technical Leadership
14 31 (6.01%) SQL
15 30 (5.81%) ISO/IEC 15288
15 30 (5.81%) Mentoring
16 29 (5.62%) Analytics
16 29 (5.62%) Software Engineering
17 28 (5.43%) GCP
17 28 (5.43%) Systems Thinking
18 27 (5.23%) Coaching
18 27 (5.23%) Use Case
19 26 (5.04%) Generative AI
19 26 (5.04%) Retrieval-Augmented Generation
19 26 (5.04%) Semantic Search

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 (4.65%) Apache Airflow
1 24 (4.65%) Apache Spark
2 5 (0.97%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.39%) FactoryTalk
3 2 (0.39%) WinCC
4 1 (0.19%) SharePoint
Applications
1 21 (4.07%) Simulink
2 9 (1.74%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (1.55%) CATIA
4 3 (0.58%) Chatbot
Cloud Services
1 45 (8.72%) Azure
2 32 (6.20%) AWS
3 28 (5.43%) GCP
4 25 (4.84%) Power Platform
5 24 (4.65%) dbt
6 23 (4.46%) Azure Synapse Analytics
6 23 (4.46%) Snowflake
7 9 (1.74%) Entra ID
8 8 (1.55%) Google Workspace
9 7 (1.36%) Microsoft 365
10 3 (0.58%) AWS Lambda
10 3 (0.58%) Serverless
11 2 (0.39%) Azure Machine Learning
11 2 (0.39%) Copilot Studio
11 2 (0.39%) Microsoft Copilot
11 2 (0.39%) SaaS
11 2 (0.39%) Vertex AI
12 1 (0.19%) IaaS
12 1 (0.19%) Mimecast
12 1 (0.19%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 17 (3.29%) Broadband
2 10 (1.94%) Intrusion Detection
3 5 (0.97%) Tactical Data Link
4 2 (0.39%) Firewall
4 2 (0.39%) Modbus
4 2 (0.39%) Multicast
4 2 (0.39%) Profibus
5 1 (0.19%) DHCP
5 1 (0.19%) DNS
5 1 (0.19%) RS-422
5 1 (0.19%) Software-Defined Radio
5 1 (0.19%) TCP/IP
5 1 (0.19%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (4.84%) Power BI
2 24 (4.65%) BigQuery
3 23 (4.46%) Amazon Redshift
3 23 (4.46%) Data Lake
3 23 (4.46%) Data Warehouse
3 23 (4.46%) Elasticsearch
3 23 (4.46%) Looker
3 23 (4.46%) Snowflake Schema
3 23 (4.46%) Tableau
4 2 (0.39%) SQL Server
4 2 (0.39%) SQL Server Analysis Services
4 2 (0.39%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 2 (0.39%) 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 37 (7.17%) Rational DOORS
2 23 (4.46%) MLflow
3 10 (1.94%) JIRA
4 5 (0.97%) Apache Continuum
5 3 (0.58%) Jenkins
6 2 (0.39%) TeamCity
7 1 (0.19%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 52 (10.08%) Aerospace
2 30 (5.81%) Analytical Skills
3 29 (5.62%) Finance
4 27 (5.23%) Electronics
5 24 (4.65%) Social Skills
6 23 (4.46%) Military
7 17 (3.29%) Manufacturing
8 13 (2.52%) Avionics
9 12 (2.33%) Documentation Skills
10 10 (1.94%) Organisational Skills
11 9 (1.74%) Games
11 9 (1.74%) Legal
12 6 (1.16%) Retail
13 4 (0.78%) Aviation
13 4 (0.78%) Digital Health
13 4 (0.78%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 4 (0.78%) Telecoms
14 3 (0.58%) Influencing Skills
15 2 (0.39%) Aeronautics
15 2 (0.39%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (4.84%) Kafka
1 25 (4.84%) LangChain
2 23 (4.46%) LlamaIndex
2 23 (4.46%) pgvector
2 23 (4.46%) PyTorch
2 23 (4.46%) scikit-learn
2 23 (4.46%) TensorFlow
3 9 (1.74%) REST
4 8 (1.55%) GraphQL
4 8 (1.55%) LDAP
4 8 (1.55%) OAuth
4 8 (1.55%) OpenID
4 8 (1.55%) SAML
4 8 (1.55%) SOAP
5 2 (0.39%) Akka
5 2 (0.39%) LangGraph
6 1 (0.19%) Middleware
6 1 (0.19%) Model Context Protocol
6 1 (0.19%) React
6 1 (0.19%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 26 (5.04%) Management Information System
2 25 (4.84%) Public Cloud
3 24 (4.65%) Cloud Native
4 23 (4.46%) Clustering
5 22 (4.26%) Driving Licence
6 17 (3.29%) CCTV
7 16 (3.10%) SCADA
8 8 (1.55%) Cyber Threat
8 8 (1.55%) Cyberattack
8 8 (1.55%) Self-Motivation
9 7 (1.36%) Distributed Systems
10 5 (0.97%) Renewable Energy
10 5 (0.97%) Virtual Team
11 3 (0.58%) Data Centre
11 3 (0.58%) Embedded Systems
12 2 (0.39%) Algorithms
12 2 (0.39%) Over-the-Top Content
12 2 (0.39%) Robotics
12 2 (0.39%) VHDL
12 2 (0.39%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 20 (3.88%) Linux
2 10 (1.94%) Ubuntu
3 6 (1.16%) Windows
4 3 (0.58%) VMS
5 1 (0.19%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 176 (34.11%) Systems Engineering
2 56 (10.85%) Requirements Management
3 45 (8.72%) AI
4 44 (8.53%) Validation
5 41 (7.95%) Agile
5 41 (7.95%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
6 38 (7.36%) Machine Learning
7 35 (6.78%) Cybersecurity
8 34 (6.59%) SysML
9 33 (6.40%) Verification and Validation
10 32 (6.20%) Technical Leadership
11 30 (5.81%) Mentoring
12 29 (5.62%) Analytics
12 29 (5.62%) Software Engineering
13 28 (5.43%) Systems Thinking
14 27 (5.23%) Coaching
14 27 (5.23%) Use Case
15 26 (5.04%) Generative AI
15 26 (5.04%) Retrieval-Augmented Generation
15 26 (5.04%) Semantic Search
Programming Languages
1 34 (6.59%) Python
2 31 (6.01%) SQL
3 24 (4.65%) MATLAB
4 10 (1.94%) PowerShell
5 9 (1.74%) Bash
6 8 (1.55%) Java
6 8 (1.55%) T-SQL
7 3 (0.58%) C++
7 3 (0.58%) Scala
8 2 (0.39%) C
8 2 (0.39%) C#
8 2 (0.39%) Rust
9 1 (0.19%) R
Qualifications
1 115 (22.29%) BPSS Clearance
2 70 (13.57%) Degree
3 18 (3.49%) HNC
4 14 (2.71%) Chartered Engineer
5 13 (2.52%) HND
6 7 (1.36%) Security Cleared
7 6 (1.16%) Master's Degree
7 6 (1.16%) SC Cleared
8 3 (0.58%) Computer Science Degree
8 3 (0.58%) PhD
9 1 (0.19%) APMP
9 1 (0.19%) Azure Certification
9 1 (0.19%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (5.81%) ISO/IEC 15288
2 23 (4.46%) California Consumer Privacy Act
2 23 (4.46%) GDPR
3 8 (1.55%) NCSC
3 8 (1.55%) NIST
4 7 (1.36%) ISO/IEC 12207
5 6 (1.16%) IEC 61508
6 5 (0.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 3 (0.58%) PMO
8 2 (0.39%) IEC 61131
8 2 (0.39%) 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 10 (1.94%) Active Directory
2 3 (0.58%) Docker
3 2 (0.39%) Hyper-V
3 2 (0.39%) KVM
3 2 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
3 2 (0.39%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.19%) Firmware
4 1 (0.19%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 12 (2.33%) Kubernetes
2 2 (0.39%) Ansible
2 2 (0.39%) BMC PATROL
3 1 (0.19%) Grafana
3 1 (0.19%) Graylog
3 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Intune
3 1 (0.19%) Prometheus
3 1 (0.19%) Terraform
Vendors
1 32 (6.20%) Siemens
2 23 (4.46%) Cloudera
2 23 (4.46%) Databricks
2 23 (4.46%) Dell
3 14 (2.71%) IBM
4 13 (2.52%) Microsoft
5 11 (2.13%) Cisco
6 10 (1.94%) Allen-Bradley
6 10 (1.94%) NVIDIA
7 7 (1.36%) Rockwell
8 4 (0.78%) AVEVA
8 4 (0.78%) VMware
8 4 (0.78%) Wonderware
9 2 (0.39%) Foundry
9 2 (0.39%) Google
9 2 (0.39%) iManage
9 2 (0.39%) Intapp
10 1 (0.19%) CrowdStrike
10 1 (0.19%) Mellanox
10 1 (0.19%) Solarflare