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 21 December 2025.

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

6 months to
21 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 435 490 520
Rank change year-on-year +55 +30 +271
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Systems Engineer 214 246 171
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.36% 0.44% 0.35%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.40% 0.47% 0.37%
Number of salaries quoted 110 121 91
10th Percentile £48,000 £46,250 £48,750
25th Percentile £55,000 £48,869 £51,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £57,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.35% -4.17% -
75th Percentile £77,813 £70,000 £70,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £83,000 £75,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £54,897 £60,000
% change year-on-year +9.30% -8.51% +9.09%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
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 53,377 52,658 46,149
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.36% 93.53% 95.25%
Number of salaries quoted 32,887 28,141 35,810
10th Percentile £28,500 £33,000 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £43,911 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £92,750 £97,500 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £49,000 £52,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year -6.67% - -

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 21 December 2025.

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 21 December 2025. 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 +80 203 £60,000 +9.09% 61
UK excluding London +46 187 £60,000 +9.30% 56
South East +39 63 £60,000 +11.63% 19
South West +16 52 £60,000 +4.35% 19
Midlands +32 30 £55,000 -8.33% 4
North of England -11 27 £60,000 +19.87% 4
North West +16 24 £60,000 +19.87% 1
London +54 22 £82,500 +8.55% 11
West Midlands +47 20 £55,000 +10.00% 2
Work from Home +14 11 £75,000 +8.30% 20
East Midlands -9 10 £65,000 +8.33% 2
East of England +26 9 £85,000 +27.82% 8
Wales +2 3 £51,935 +48.38%
Yorkshire -12 3 - - 3
Northern Ireland - 3 - - 1

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

For the 6 months to 21 December 2025, 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 82 (38.32%) Systems Engineering
2 59 (27.57%) BPSS Clearance
3 36 (16.82%) Degree
4 34 (15.89%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
5 25 (11.68%) Requirements Management
6 21 (9.81%) Agile
7 17 (7.94%) Coaching
8 16 (7.48%) ISO/IEC 15288
9 14 (6.54%) Project Planning
9 14 (6.54%) Software Engineering
9 14 (6.54%) SysML
9 14 (6.54%) Validation
10 13 (6.07%) HNC
10 13 (6.07%) HND
10 13 (6.07%) Rational DOORS
10 13 (6.07%) Siemens
11 12 (5.61%) Collaborative Working
11 12 (5.61%) Customer Requirements
11 12 (5.61%) Verification and Validation
12 11 (5.14%) Cybersecurity
12 11 (5.14%) Signal Processing
12 11 (5.14%) Simulink
13 10 (4.67%) Cryptography
14 9 (4.21%) Mathematics
14 9 (4.21%) Physics
15 8 (3.74%) AI
15 8 (3.74%) Continuous Improvement
15 8 (3.74%) Linux
15 8 (3.74%) Machine Learning
16 7 (3.27%) Acceptance Criteria

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 1 (0.47%) CMS
1 1 (0.47%) Confluence
Applications
1 11 (5.14%) Simulink
2 2 (0.93%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.47%) CATIA
Business Applications
1 1 (0.47%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 4 (1.87%) Power Platform
2 3 (1.40%) AWS
2 3 (1.40%) Azure
3 2 (0.93%) Microsoft 365
4 1 (0.47%) Amazon S3
4 1 (0.47%) Cohesity
4 1 (0.47%) Entra ID
4 1 (0.47%) GitHub
4 1 (0.47%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 3 (1.40%) 5G
1 3 (1.40%) 802.11
1 3 (1.40%) Internet
1 3 (1.40%) LAN
1 3 (1.40%) Network Security
1 3 (1.40%) VoIP
1 3 (1.40%) WAN
1 3 (1.40%) Wi-Fi
1 3 (1.40%) Wireless
1 3 (1.40%) WLAN
2 2 (0.93%) Ethernet
2 2 (0.93%) RS-422
3 1 (0.47%) DNS
3 1 (0.47%) Multicast
3 1 (0.47%) SAN
3 1 (0.47%) SSH
3 1 (0.47%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (1.87%) Power BI
2 1 (0.47%) Oracle Exadata
Development Applications
1 13 (6.07%) Rational DOORS
2 2 (0.93%) JIRA
3 1 (0.47%) Apache Continuum
3 1 (0.47%) CircleCI
3 1 (0.47%) Git
3 1 (0.47%) MagicDraw
General
1 18 (8.41%) Aerospace
2 16 (7.48%) Social Skills
3 15 (7.01%) Electronics
4 13 (6.07%) Avionics
5 12 (5.61%) Military
6 10 (4.67%) Games
6 10 (4.67%) Influencing Skills
7 9 (4.21%) Manufacturing
8 5 (2.34%) Documentation Skills
9 4 (1.87%) Automotive
10 3 (1.40%) Finance
11 2 (0.93%) Aviation
12 1 (0.47%) Marketing
12 1 (0.47%) Presentation Skills
12 1 (0.47%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (1.40%) 802.1X
2 1 (0.47%) DPDK
2 1 (0.47%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 12 (5.61%) SCADA
2 8 (3.74%) Data Centre
2 8 (3.74%) Management Information System
3 5 (2.34%) Algorithms
4 4 (1.87%) CCTV
4 4 (1.87%) Industry 4.0
4 4 (1.87%) Manufacturing Execution System
4 4 (1.87%) Virtual Team
5 3 (1.40%) BYOD
5 3 (1.40%) Embedded Systems
5 3 (1.40%) IoT
6 2 (0.93%) Cyber Threat
6 2 (0.93%) Verilog
6 2 (0.93%) VHDL
7 1 (0.47%) Cloud Native
7 1 (0.47%) Distributed Systems
7 1 (0.47%) Onboarding
7 1 (0.47%) Product Ownership
7 1 (0.47%) Sports Betting
7 1 (0.47%) VxBlock/Vblock
Operating Systems
1 8 (3.74%) Linux
2 5 (2.34%) Ubuntu
3 2 (0.93%) VMS
3 2 (0.93%) Windows
4 1 (0.47%) Solaris
4 1 (0.47%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 82 (38.32%) Systems Engineering
2 34 (15.89%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
3 25 (11.68%) Requirements Management
4 21 (9.81%) Agile
5 17 (7.94%) Coaching
6 14 (6.54%) Project Planning
6 14 (6.54%) Software Engineering
6 14 (6.54%) SysML
6 14 (6.54%) Validation
7 12 (5.61%) Collaborative Working
7 12 (5.61%) Customer Requirements
7 12 (5.61%) Verification and Validation
8 11 (5.14%) Cybersecurity
8 11 (5.14%) Signal Processing
9 10 (4.67%) Cryptography
10 9 (4.21%) Mathematics
10 9 (4.21%) Physics
11 8 (3.74%) AI
11 8 (3.74%) Continuous Improvement
11 8 (3.74%) Machine Learning
Programming Languages
1 7 (3.27%) MATLAB
2 5 (2.34%) Python
3 4 (1.87%) Java
3 4 (1.87%) SQL
4 1 (0.47%) Bash
4 1 (0.47%) Bourne shell
4 1 (0.47%) C
4 1 (0.47%) C#
4 1 (0.47%) C++
4 1 (0.47%) C-shell
4 1 (0.47%) Perl
4 1 (0.47%) PowerShell
4 1 (0.47%) Rust
4 1 (0.47%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 59 (27.57%) BPSS Clearance
2 36 (16.82%) Degree
3 13 (6.07%) HNC
3 13 (6.07%) HND
4 6 (2.80%) SC Cleared
4 6 (2.80%) Security Cleared
5 5 (2.34%) Chartered Engineer
6 4 (1.87%) DV Cleared
7 1 (0.47%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (7.48%) ISO/IEC 15288
2 2 (0.93%) IEC 61508
3 1 (0.47%) ISO/IEC 12207
3 1 (0.47%) RMADS
3 1 (0.47%) SLA
System Software
1 3 (1.40%) VMware Infrastructure
2 1 (0.47%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.47%) Docker
2 1 (0.47%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 5 (2.34%) Kubernetes
2 2 (0.93%) Ansible
3 1 (0.47%) Oracle ZFS
3 1 (0.47%) Terraform
3 1 (0.47%) VxRail
Vendors
1 13 (6.07%) Siemens
2 6 (2.80%) Allen-Bradley
2 6 (2.80%) IBM
3 5 (2.34%) NVIDIA
3 5 (2.34%) VMware
4 3 (1.40%) Ruckus Wireless
5 2 (0.93%) EMC
6 1 (0.47%) Atlassian
6 1 (0.47%) HP
6 1 (0.47%) Microsoft
6 1 (0.47%) Qualys
6 1 (0.47%) Red Hat
6 1 (0.47%) Solarflare
6 1 (0.47%) Sparx
6 1 (0.47%) Splunk
6 1 (0.47%) VocaLink