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 23 July 2026.

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

6 months to
23 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 340 461 466
Rank change year-on-year +121 +5 -13
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Systems Engineer 560 236 429
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.56% 0.48% 0.46%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.59% 0.53% 0.49%
Number of salaries quoted 306 154 301
10th Percentile £47,500 £47,683 £43,239
25th Percentile £50,000 £48,869 £50,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -7.69%
75th Percentile £66,300 £62,000 £65,250
90th Percentile £80,000 £76,858 £75,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -6.25%

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 94,649 44,285 87,735
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.33% 90.20% 94.76%
Number of salaries quoted 64,854 26,220 61,542
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,500 £29,750
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £54,000
Median % change year-on-year - +1.85% -10.00%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £71,082
90th Percentile £96,250 £96,250 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -5.66%

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 23 July 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 23 July 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 +105 524 £60,000 +9.09% 118
UK excluding London +93 482 £60,000 +9.09% 81
South East +96 201 £60,000 - 32
South West -4 98 £65,000 +23.57% 23
Work from Home +12 63 £56,000 +6.82% 43
North of England -38 63 £51,772 +3.43% 9
London +4 60 £82,500 +3.13% 40
Midlands 0 52 £60,000 +9.09% 9
East of England +31 48 £60,000 -29.41% 3
North West -31 37 £55,000 +9.88% 6
West Midlands -14 31 £50,000 -9.09% 4
East Midlands -13 21 £60,000 +46.34% 5
Scotland +34 17 £49,000 -34.98% 3
Yorkshire -20 14 £50,861 +5.89% 2
North East - 12 £47,500 - 1
Wales -49 3 £66,300 +6.94% 1

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

For the 6 months to 23 July 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.

1 150 (26.79%) Systems Engineering
2 87 (15.54%) BPSS Clearance
3 84 (15.00%) Degree
4 57 (10.18%) Technical Leadership
5 53 (9.46%) Python
6 46 (8.21%) Azure
6 46 (8.21%) Requirements Management
7 44 (7.86%) AI
8 43 (7.68%) Software Engineering
9 39 (6.96%) Rational DOORS
9 39 (6.96%) Validation
10 38 (6.79%) Problem-Solving
11 36 (6.43%) AWS
11 36 (6.43%) Data Pipeline
12 35 (6.25%) Machine Learning
12 35 (6.25%) SQL
13 34 (6.07%) Agile
14 32 (5.71%) GCP
15 31 (5.54%) Siemens
16 29 (5.18%) MATLAB
16 29 (5.18%) Storytelling
17 28 (5.00%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
18 27 (4.82%) Analytics
18 27 (4.82%) Physics
19 26 (4.64%) Data Engineering
19 26 (4.64%) Data Management
19 26 (4.64%) Generative AI
19 26 (4.64%) Retrieval-Augmented Generation
19 26 (4.64%) Semantic Search
19 26 (4.64%) SysML

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 (4.29%) Apache Airflow
1 24 (4.29%) Apache Spark
2 13 (2.32%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (1.07%) SharePoint
4 3 (0.54%) FactoryTalk
4 3 (0.54%) WinCC
Applications
1 16 (2.86%) Simulink
2 12 (2.14%) CATIA
2 12 (2.14%) Lightworks
2 12 (2.14%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (0.54%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 1 (0.18%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 46 (8.21%) Azure
2 36 (6.43%) AWS
3 32 (5.71%) GCP
4 25 (4.46%) Power Platform
5 24 (4.29%) dbt
6 23 (4.11%) Azure Synapse Analytics
6 23 (4.11%) Snowflake
7 11 (1.96%) Microsoft 365
8 5 (0.89%) OneDrive
9 4 (0.71%) Entra ID
10 3 (0.54%) AWS Lambda
10 3 (0.54%) Azure DevOps
10 3 (0.54%) Google Workspace
10 3 (0.54%) SaaS
10 3 (0.54%) Serverless
11 2 (0.36%) Azure Machine Learning
11 2 (0.36%) Copilot Studio
11 2 (0.36%) IaaS
11 2 (0.36%) Microsoft Copilot
11 2 (0.36%) Vertex AI
Communications & Networking
1 10 (1.79%) Broadband
1 10 (1.79%) DNS
1 10 (1.79%) Intrusion Detection
2 7 (1.25%) DHCP
3 5 (0.89%) Firewall
3 5 (0.89%) Wireless
4 4 (0.71%) Tactical Data Link
4 4 (0.71%) TCP/IP
5 3 (0.54%) LAN
5 3 (0.54%) Modbus
5 3 (0.54%) Profibus
5 3 (0.54%) WAN
6 2 (0.36%) Cisco Nexus
6 2 (0.36%) HTTP
6 2 (0.36%) Internet
6 2 (0.36%) MQTT
6 2 (0.36%) Wi-Fi
7 1 (0.18%) BGP
7 1 (0.18%) MPLS
7 1 (0.18%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (4.46%) Power BI
2 24 (4.29%) BigQuery
3 23 (4.11%) Amazon Redshift
3 23 (4.11%) Data Lake
3 23 (4.11%) Data Warehouse
3 23 (4.11%) Elasticsearch
3 23 (4.11%) Looker
3 23 (4.11%) Snowflake Schema
3 23 (4.11%) Tableau
4 9 (1.61%) SQL Server
5 3 (0.54%) NoSQL
5 3 (0.54%) PostgreSQL
6 2 (0.36%) Hadoop
6 2 (0.36%) Metadata
6 2 (0.36%) SQL Server Analysis Services
6 2 (0.36%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 2 (0.36%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 1 (0.18%) Apache Arrow
7 1 (0.18%) Apache Iceberg
7 1 (0.18%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 39 (6.96%) Rational DOORS
2 23 (4.11%) MLflow
3 11 (1.96%) JIRA
4 8 (1.43%) LabVIEW
5 4 (0.71%) Apache Continuum
6 1 (0.18%) Jenkins
6 1 (0.18%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 103 (18.39%) Aerospace
2 55 (9.82%) Finance
3 44 (7.86%) Analytical Skills
4 36 (6.43%) Electronics
5 35 (6.25%) Social Skills
6 20 (3.57%) Manufacturing
7 17 (3.04%) Military
8 13 (2.32%) Documentation Skills
8 13 (2.32%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 13 (2.32%) Organisational Skills
9 11 (1.96%) Aviation
10 10 (1.79%) Avionics
11 9 (1.61%) Legal
12 5 (0.89%) Law
12 5 (0.89%) Local Government
12 5 (0.89%) Retail
13 4 (0.71%) Digital Health
13 4 (0.71%) Telecoms
14 3 (0.54%) Games
15 2 (0.36%) Aeronautics
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (4.46%) Kafka
1 25 (4.46%) LangChain
2 24 (4.29%) PyTorch
3 23 (4.11%) LlamaIndex
3 23 (4.11%) pgvector
3 23 (4.11%) scikit-learn
3 23 (4.11%) TensorFlow
4 5 (0.89%) REST
5 4 (0.71%) .NET
6 3 (0.54%) GraphQL
6 3 (0.54%) LDAP
6 3 (0.54%) OAuth
6 3 (0.54%) OpenID
6 3 (0.54%) SAML
6 3 (0.54%) SOAP
6 3 (0.54%) WinForms
7 2 (0.36%) gRPC
7 2 (0.36%) Next.js
7 2 (0.36%) Node.js
7 2 (0.36%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 30 (5.36%) Cloud Native
2 26 (4.64%) Public Cloud
3 25 (4.46%) Driving Licence
4 24 (4.29%) Clustering
5 17 (3.04%) CCTV
5 17 (3.04%) SCADA
6 14 (2.50%) Management Information System
7 9 (1.61%) Distributed Systems
8 8 (1.43%) Fibre Optics
8 8 (1.43%) Self-Motivation
9 7 (1.25%) Robotics
10 6 (1.07%) Renewable Energy
11 5 (0.89%) Algorithms
11 5 (0.89%) Cyber Security Posture
11 5 (0.89%) IoT
11 5 (0.89%) Legacy Systems
11 5 (0.89%) PKI
12 4 (0.71%) Data Centre
12 4 (0.71%) Embedded Systems
13 3 (0.54%) Augmented Reality
Operating Systems
1 19 (3.39%) Linux
2 14 (2.50%) Windows
3 11 (1.96%) Windows Server
4 5 (0.89%) Ubuntu
5 3 (0.54%) VMS
6 1 (0.18%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 150 (26.79%) Systems Engineering
2 57 (10.18%) Technical Leadership
3 46 (8.21%) Requirements Management
4 44 (7.86%) AI
5 43 (7.68%) Software Engineering
6 39 (6.96%) Validation
7 38 (6.79%) Problem-Solving
8 36 (6.43%) Data Pipeline
9 35 (6.25%) Machine Learning
10 34 (6.07%) Agile
11 29 (5.18%) Storytelling
12 28 (5.00%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
13 27 (4.82%) Analytics
13 27 (4.82%) Physics
14 26 (4.64%) Data Engineering
14 26 (4.64%) Data Management
14 26 (4.64%) Generative AI
14 26 (4.64%) Retrieval-Augmented Generation
14 26 (4.64%) Semantic Search
14 26 (4.64%) SysML
Programming Languages
1 53 (9.46%) Python
2 35 (6.25%) SQL
3 29 (5.18%) MATLAB
4 11 (1.96%) PowerShell
5 8 (1.43%) C++
6 7 (1.25%) Java
7 6 (1.07%) T-SQL
8 4 (0.71%) Bash
8 4 (0.71%) C#
9 3 (0.54%) C
9 3 (0.54%) VB.NET
10 2 (0.36%) Rust
11 1 (0.18%) R
11 1 (0.18%) Scala
Qualifications
1 87 (15.54%) BPSS Clearance
2 84 (15.00%) Degree
3 23 (4.11%) Chartered Engineer
4 16 (2.86%) Master's Degree
5 12 (2.14%) HNC
6 11 (1.96%) PhD
7 9 (1.61%) Security Cleared
8 8 (1.43%) SC Cleared
9 7 (1.25%) DBS Check
9 7 (1.25%) HND
10 3 (0.54%) Computer Science Degree
11 2 (0.36%) DV Cleared
12 1 (0.18%) APMP
12 1 (0.18%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (4.11%) California Consumer Privacy Act
1 23 (4.11%) GDPR
2 21 (3.75%) ISO/IEC 15288
3 8 (1.43%) ISO/IEC 12207
4 4 (0.71%) IEC 61508
5 3 (0.54%) Accessibility
5 3 (0.54%) IEC 61131
5 3 (0.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (0.54%) NCSC
5 3 (0.54%) NIST
5 3 (0.54%) PMO
6 2 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 17025
7 1 (0.18%) ARP4754
7 1 (0.18%) ARP4761
7 1 (0.18%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.18%) DO-160
7 1 (0.18%) DO-254
System Software
1 14 (2.50%) Active Directory
2 8 (1.43%) Docker
3 7 (1.25%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (1.07%) Hyper-V
4 6 (1.07%) vSphere
5 3 (0.54%) Firmware
5 3 (0.54%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.36%) KVM
Systems Management
1 9 (1.61%) Kubernetes
2 5 (0.89%) SCCM
3 3 (0.54%) Terraform
4 2 (0.36%) Ansible
4 2 (0.36%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (0.18%) Failover Clustering
5 1 (0.18%) Grafana
5 1 (0.18%) Graylog
5 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
5 1 (0.18%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.18%) SCOM
Vendors
1 31 (5.54%) Siemens
2 23 (4.11%) Cloudera
2 23 (4.11%) Databricks
2 23 (4.11%) Dell
3 22 (3.93%) Microsoft
4 19 (3.39%) IBM
5 13 (2.32%) Cisco
6 11 (1.96%) Allen-Bradley
6 11 (1.96%) Rockwell
7 7 (1.25%) Aruba
7 7 (1.25%) AVEVA
7 7 (1.25%) VMware
7 7 (1.25%) Wonderware
8 5 (0.89%) NVIDIA
9 2 (0.36%) Foundry
9 2 (0.36%) Google
9 2 (0.36%) iManage
9 2 (0.36%) Intapp
9 2 (0.36%) Palo Alto
9 2 (0.36%) Qualys