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 28 September 2026.

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

6 months to
28 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 322 496 418
Rank change year-on-year +174 -78 -35
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Systems Engineer 650 186 415
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.55% 0.38% 0.55%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.60% 0.42% 0.57%
Number of salaries quoted 378 99 241
10th Percentile £48,375 £46,250 £45,000
25th Percentile £55,000 £52,500 £49,993
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year - - -6.98%
75th Percentile £65,000 £62,000 £70,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £76,000 £75,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £60,000
% change year-on-year +4.35% -4.17% -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 109,191 44,243 72,281
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.96% 89.71% 95.27%
Number of salaries quoted 74,643 25,711 42,130
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,500
25th Percentile £40,750 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £58,598 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +6.54% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £77,500 £73,750 £75,000
90th Percentile £98,750 £95,000 £93,750
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 28 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 28 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 +148 593 £60,000 +4.35% 548
UK excluding London +123 577 £60,000 +4.35% 357
South East +113 273 £56,000 -6.67% 113
South West +8 123 £65,000 +18.18% 49
North of England -40 70 £55,000 +0.38% 52
Work from Home +9 66 £58,750 +20.45% 175
East of England +15 51 £62,000 -29.14% 52
London -19 45 £100,000 +33.33% 177
North West -46 35 £55,000 +0.38% 30
Midlands -42 30 £60,000 +9.09% 36
Scotland - 28 £55,000 - 49
Yorkshire -7 23 £50,000 +29.87% 14
East Midlands -25 18 £60,000 +46.34% 3
West Midlands -41 12 £50,000 -9.09% 33
North East - 12 £47,500 - 8
Wales -60 1 £66,300 +6.94% 6
Northern Ireland -87 1 - - 4

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

For the 6 months to 28 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.

1 138 (21.23%) Systems Engineering
2 81 (12.46%) Degree
3 71 (10.92%) BPSS Clearance
4 60 (9.23%) Technical Leadership
5 48 (7.38%) Software Engineering
6 42 (6.46%) Requirements Management
7 36 (5.54%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
7 36 (5.54%) Rational DOORS
8 35 (5.38%) Problem-Solving
9 34 (5.23%) Agile
9 34 (5.23%) Physics
9 34 (5.23%) Python
10 32 (4.92%) MATLAB
11 31 (4.77%) Systems Thinking
12 30 (4.62%) Siemens
13 29 (4.46%) SysML
14 28 (4.31%) AI
14 28 (4.31%) Mathematics
14 28 (4.31%) Validation
15 27 (4.15%) Azure
15 27 (4.15%) Customer Requirements
16 26 (4.00%) Continuous Improvement
17 25 (3.85%) Chartered Engineer
18 22 (3.38%) Microsoft
19 21 (3.23%) Change Management
19 21 (3.23%) Coaching
19 21 (3.23%) Data Pipeline
19 21 (3.23%) Simulink
20 20 (3.08%) Docker
20 20 (3.08%) ISO/IEC 15288

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 (2.31%) Microsoft Exchange
2 9 (1.38%) SharePoint
3 3 (0.46%) FactoryTalk
3 3 (0.46%) WinCC
4 1 (0.15%) Confluence
Applications
1 21 (3.23%) Simulink
2 17 (2.62%) Lightworks
3 12 (1.85%) CATIA
4 8 (1.23%) Chatbot
5 6 (0.92%) Windchill
6 5 (0.77%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.15%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 27 (4.15%) Azure
2 17 (2.62%) AWS
3 14 (2.15%) GCP
4 9 (1.38%) Microsoft 365
5 7 (1.08%) OneDrive
6 5 (0.77%) Azure DevOps
7 4 (0.62%) SaaS
8 3 (0.46%) Entra ID
9 2 (0.31%) AWS CloudFormation
9 2 (0.31%) Azure AKS
9 2 (0.31%) Azure Cosmos DB
9 2 (0.31%) Azure Key Vault
9 2 (0.31%) Azure Service Bus
9 2 (0.31%) Cloudflare
9 2 (0.31%) Datadog
9 2 (0.31%) GitHub
9 2 (0.31%) GitHub Actions
9 2 (0.31%) Power Automate
9 2 (0.31%) Power Platform
9 2 (0.31%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 14 (2.15%) Wireless
2 12 (1.85%) DNS
3 10 (1.54%) Intrusion Detection
4 7 (1.08%) DHCP
5 5 (0.77%) TCP/IP
6 4 (0.62%) Firewall
6 4 (0.62%) LAN
6 4 (0.62%) WAN
7 3 (0.46%) Modbus
7 3 (0.46%) Profibus
7 3 (0.46%) SSL
8 2 (0.31%) 3GPP
8 2 (0.31%) 5G
8 2 (0.31%) Cisco Nexus
8 2 (0.31%) HTTP
8 2 (0.31%) Internet
8 2 (0.31%) MQTT
8 2 (0.31%) Network Security
8 2 (0.31%) RS-422
8 2 (0.31%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (1.85%) NoSQL
2 9 (1.38%) SQL Server
3 3 (0.46%) PostgreSQL
4 2 (0.31%) Hadoop
4 2 (0.31%) Redis
5 1 (0.15%) Apache Arrow
5 1 (0.15%) Apache Iceberg
5 1 (0.15%) GIS
5 1 (0.15%) KDB
5 1 (0.15%) Metadata
5 1 (0.15%) Parquet
Development Applications
1 36 (5.54%) Rational DOORS
2 11 (1.69%) JIRA
3 9 (1.38%) LabVIEW
4 4 (0.62%) Apache Continuum
5 2 (0.31%) NUnit
6 1 (0.15%) Git
6 1 (0.15%) Rational Rhapsody
6 1 (0.15%) Subversion
General
1 134 (20.62%) Aerospace
2 75 (11.54%) Finance
3 38 (5.85%) Social Skills
4 31 (4.77%) Electronics
5 30 (4.62%) Military
6 25 (3.85%) Aviation
7 23 (3.54%) Analytical Skills
8 15 (2.31%) Manufacturing
9 14 (2.15%) Avionics
10 13 (2.00%) Documentation Skills
11 12 (1.85%) Retail
12 11 (1.69%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 9 (1.38%) Organisational Skills
14 8 (1.23%) Telecoms
15 5 (0.77%) Legal
15 5 (0.77%) Local Government
16 4 (0.62%) Public Sector
17 3 (0.46%) Law
18 2 (0.31%) Automotive
18 2 (0.31%) Games
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (1.85%) Node.js
2 10 (1.54%) Next.js
3 5 (0.77%) .NET
3 5 (0.77%) REST
3 5 (0.77%) Terraform
4 3 (0.46%) React
4 3 (0.46%) WinForms
5 2 (0.31%) .NET Core
5 2 (0.31%) .NET Framework
5 2 (0.31%) Entity Framework
5 2 (0.31%) gRPC
5 2 (0.31%) JSON
5 2 (0.31%) MassTransit
5 2 (0.31%) MediatR
5 2 (0.31%) Protocol Buffers
5 2 (0.31%) RESTful
6 1 (0.15%) Ajax
6 1 (0.15%) PyTorch
6 1 (0.15%) Ray
6 1 (0.15%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 20 (3.08%) Driving Licence
2 17 (2.62%) CCTV
3 16 (2.46%) Cloud Native
4 14 (2.15%) Data Centre
5 12 (1.85%) SCADA
6 11 (1.69%) Distributed Systems
6 11 (1.69%) Fibre Optics
7 10 (1.54%) Management Information System
7 10 (1.54%) Robotics
8 8 (1.23%) IoT
9 6 (0.92%) Algorithms
9 6 (0.92%) Augmented Reality
9 6 (0.92%) Virtual Reality
10 5 (0.77%) Cyber Security Posture
10 5 (0.77%) Embedded Systems
10 5 (0.77%) Legacy Systems
10 5 (0.77%) PKI
10 5 (0.77%) Renewable Energy
11 4 (0.62%) Self-Motivation
12 3 (0.46%) Analogue Electronics
Operating Systems
1 14 (2.15%) Windows
2 11 (1.69%) Linux
3 10 (1.54%) Windows Server
4 3 (0.46%) VMS
5 1 (0.15%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 138 (21.23%) Systems Engineering
2 60 (9.23%) Technical Leadership
3 48 (7.38%) Software Engineering
4 42 (6.46%) Requirements Management
5 36 (5.54%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
6 35 (5.38%) Problem-Solving
7 34 (5.23%) Agile
7 34 (5.23%) Physics
8 31 (4.77%) Systems Thinking
9 29 (4.46%) SysML
10 28 (4.31%) AI
10 28 (4.31%) Mathematics
10 28 (4.31%) Validation
11 27 (4.15%) Customer Requirements
12 26 (4.00%) Continuous Improvement
13 21 (3.23%) Change Management
13 21 (3.23%) Coaching
13 21 (3.23%) Data Pipeline
14 20 (3.08%) Workflow
15 18 (2.77%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 34 (5.23%) Python
2 32 (4.92%) MATLAB
3 18 (2.77%) SQL
4 16 (2.46%) PowerShell
5 6 (0.92%) C++
6 5 (0.77%) C#
7 3 (0.46%) Bash
7 3 (0.46%) Java
7 3 (0.46%) T-SQL
7 3 (0.46%) VB.NET
8 2 (0.31%) C
9 1 (0.15%) R
Qualifications
1 81 (12.46%) Degree
2 71 (10.92%) BPSS Clearance
3 25 (3.85%) Chartered Engineer
4 16 (2.46%) Security Cleared
5 13 (2.00%) Master's Degree
6 11 (1.69%) SC Cleared
7 8 (1.23%) PhD
8 7 (1.08%) DBS Check
9 6 (0.92%) HNC
9 6 (0.92%) HND
10 3 (0.46%) Computer Science Degree
10 3 (0.46%) DV Cleared
11 2 (0.31%) Microsoft Certification
12 1 (0.15%) PMI Certification
12 1 (0.15%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (3.08%) ISO/IEC 15288
2 8 (1.23%) ISO/IEC 12207
3 4 (0.62%) Accessibility
4 3 (0.46%) IEC 61131
5 2 (0.31%) HAZOP
6 1 (0.15%) ARP4754
6 1 (0.15%) ARP4761
6 1 (0.15%) Data Quality
6 1 (0.15%) DO-160
6 1 (0.15%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 1 (0.15%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 20 (3.08%) Docker
2 13 (2.00%) Active Directory
3 6 (0.92%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (0.92%) vSphere
4 4 (0.62%) Hyper-V
5 2 (0.31%) Firmware
5 2 (0.31%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 18 (2.77%) Kubernetes
2 5 (0.77%) SCCM
3 4 (0.62%) Microsoft Intune
4 3 (0.46%) BMC PATROL
4 3 (0.46%) Grafana
5 2 (0.31%) Ansible
5 2 (0.31%) Functional Safety
6 1 (0.15%) Failover Clustering
6 1 (0.15%) Graylog
6 1 (0.15%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
6 1 (0.15%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.15%) SCOM
Vendors
1 30 (4.62%) Siemens
2 22 (3.38%) Microsoft
3 14 (2.15%) Cisco
3 14 (2.15%) IBM
4 12 (1.85%) OpenAI
5 10 (1.54%) Rockwell
6 9 (1.38%) Google
7 7 (1.08%) Allen-Bradley
7 7 (1.08%) Aruba
7 7 (1.08%) AVEVA
7 7 (1.08%) Wonderware
8 6 (0.92%) VMware
9 5 (0.77%) ServiceNow
10 2 (0.31%) Databricks
10 2 (0.31%) Dynatrace
10 2 (0.31%) EMC
10 2 (0.31%) Palo Alto
10 2 (0.31%) Qualys
11 1 (0.15%) Citrix
11 1 (0.15%) Commvault