Senior Systems Engineer Job Trends

Senior System Engineer
UK

The median Senior System Engineer salary in the UK is £58,780 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 18 September 2025.

The table below provides salary benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 485 419 392
Rank change year-on-year -66 -27 +544
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Systems Engineer 196 440 452
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.40% 0.56% 0.75%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.44% 0.59% 0.80%
Number of salaries quoted 108 264 73
10th Percentile £46,250 £45,000 £43,155
25th Percentile £52,500 £49,935 £52,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £58,780 £60,000 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year -2.03% -7.69% +8.33%
75th Percentile £62,000 £67,500 £75,000
90th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £79,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £58,780 £60,000 £63,250
% change year-on-year -2.03% -5.14% +15.00%

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 44,338 74,395 56,728
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 89.65% 95.25% 94.13%
Number of salaries quoted 26,053 44,780 43,966
10th Percentile £28,250 £30,000 £32,500
25th Percentile £36,250 £40,000 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year - -8.33% -
75th Percentile £75,000 £73,750 £80,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £92,500 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £47,500 £50,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -5.00% -4.76% -

Senior Systems Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured Senior Systems Engineer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Senior Systems Engineer 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 18 September 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 18 September 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 -57 190 £57,560 -4.07% 157
UK excluding London -52 173 £58,780 -2.03% 150
South East +2 59 £60,000 - 29
North of England -6 52 £54,793 +0.14% 35
North West -5 48 £54,793 +9.47% 27
South West -18 29 £53,800 -10.33% 27
Work from Home +33 26 £48,777 -18.70% 93
Midlands +29 22 £55,000 -8.33% 31
London +61 15 £75,000 +12.36% 23
West Midlands +49 15 £55,000 -8.33% 18
East of England -13 9 £87,500 +31.58% 19
East Midlands +8 7 £41,000 -31.67% 12
Yorkshire +16 4 £48,030 -12.67% 8
Wales +16 1 £62,000 +77.14% 2
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 2

Senior Systems Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 18 September 2025, Senior Systems Engineer job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads featuring Senior Systems Engineer in the job title.

1 97 (49.49%) Systems Engineering
2 60 (30.61%) BPSS Clearance
3 54 (27.55%) Degree
4 30 (15.31%) Social Skills
5 28 (14.29%) HNC
5 28 (14.29%) HND
5 28 (14.29%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
6 24 (12.24%) Aerospace
7 23 (11.73%) Requirements Management
8 22 (11.22%) Coaching
9 21 (10.71%) Agile
10 19 (9.69%) Electronics
11 18 (9.18%) Avionics
12 16 (8.16%) Rational DOORS
12 16 (8.16%) Customer Requirements
12 16 (8.16%) SCADA
13 15 (7.65%) Signal Processing
14 14 (7.14%) ISO/IEC 15288
14 14 (7.14%) Mentoring
14 14 (7.14%) VMware
14 14 (7.14%) Automotive
14 14 (7.14%) Manufacturing
14 14 (7.14%) IBM
14 14 (7.14%) Influencing Skills
15 13 (6.63%) Technical Leadership
15 13 (6.63%) Siemens
15 13 (6.63%) Algorithms
16 12 (6.12%) Cybersecurity
16 12 (6.12%) Security Cleared
16 12 (6.12%) Mathematics

Senior Systems Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 3 (1.53%) Microsoft Exchange
1 3 (1.53%) SAS
2 1 (0.51%) CMS
2 1 (0.51%) Confluence
Applications
1 10 (5.10%) Simulink
2 3 (1.53%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.51%) CATIA
3 1 (0.51%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 5 (2.55%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
1 5 (2.55%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 7 (3.57%) Azure
2 6 (3.06%) Entra ID
2 6 (3.06%) Microsoft 365
3 5 (2.55%) AWS
4 4 (2.04%) Power Platform
5 3 (1.53%) SaaS
6 1 (0.51%) GCP
6 1 (0.51%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 9 (4.59%) Ethernet
2 8 (4.08%) WAN
3 7 (3.57%) Modbus
3 7 (3.57%) MQTT
4 4 (2.04%) 5G
4 4 (2.04%) 802.11
4 4 (2.04%) Internet
4 4 (2.04%) LAN
4 4 (2.04%) RS-422
4 4 (2.04%) SAN
4 4 (2.04%) SD-WAN
4 4 (2.04%) VoIP
4 4 (2.04%) Wi-Fi
4 4 (2.04%) Wireless
4 4 (2.04%) WLAN
5 3 (1.53%) Network Security
6 1 (0.51%) DNS
6 1 (0.51%) SSH
6 1 (0.51%) TCP/IP
6 1 (0.51%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (2.04%) Power BI
2 1 (0.51%) Amazon RDS
2 1 (0.51%) Oracle Exadata
2 1 (0.51%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 16 (8.16%) Rational DOORS
2 5 (2.55%) Git
3 4 (2.04%) rollup.js
3 4 (2.04%) Vite
4 2 (1.02%) JIRA
5 1 (0.51%) CircleCI
5 1 (0.51%) MagicDraw
General
1 30 (15.31%) Social Skills
2 24 (12.24%) Aerospace
3 19 (9.69%) Electronics
4 18 (9.18%) Avionics
5 14 (7.14%) Automotive
5 14 (7.14%) Influencing Skills
5 14 (7.14%) Manufacturing
6 10 (5.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 9 (4.59%) Finance
8 7 (3.57%) Games
8 7 (3.57%) Pharmaceutical
9 6 (3.06%) Aeronautics
9 6 (3.06%) Law
10 5 (2.55%) Military
11 4 (2.04%) Aviation
11 4 (2.04%) Banking
12 3 (1.53%) Local Government
12 3 (1.53%) Organisational Skills
12 3 (1.53%) Public Sector
12 3 (1.53%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (2.04%) 802.1X
1 4 (2.04%) CSS
1 4 (2.04%) HTML
1 4 (2.04%) Next.js
1 4 (2.04%) React
1 4 (2.04%) RxJS
2 2 (1.02%) Node-RED
3 1 (0.51%) DPDK
3 1 (0.51%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 16 (8.16%) SCADA
2 13 (6.63%) Algorithms
3 11 (5.61%) Data Centre
3 11 (5.61%) Industry 4.0
3 11 (5.61%) IoT
4 7 (3.57%) Biopharmaceutical
4 7 (3.57%) Operational Technology
4 7 (3.57%) Renewable Energy
5 4 (2.04%) BYOD
5 4 (2.04%) Driving Licence
5 4 (2.04%) Manufacturing Execution System
6 3 (1.53%) CCTV
6 3 (1.53%) Embedded Systems
7 2 (1.02%) FPGA
7 2 (1.02%) Management Information System
8 1 (0.51%) Clustering
8 1 (0.51%) Device Driver
8 1 (0.51%) Media Streaming
8 1 (0.51%) PKI
8 1 (0.51%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 7 (3.57%) Windows
2 6 (3.06%) Windows Server
3 5 (2.55%) Linux
4 4 (2.04%) VMS
5 3 (1.53%) Windows Server 2019
6 1 (0.51%) Debian
6 1 (0.51%) Solaris
6 1 (0.51%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 97 (49.49%) Systems Engineering
2 28 (14.29%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
3 23 (11.73%) Requirements Management
4 22 (11.22%) Coaching
5 21 (10.71%) Agile
6 16 (8.16%) Customer Requirements
7 15 (7.65%) Signal Processing
8 14 (7.14%) Mentoring
9 13 (6.63%) Technical Leadership
10 12 (6.12%) Cybersecurity
10 12 (6.12%) Mathematics
11 11 (5.61%) Collaborative Working
11 11 (5.61%) Cryptography
11 11 (5.61%) Network Design
11 11 (5.61%) Physics
11 11 (5.61%) Software Engineering
11 11 (5.61%) System Testing
12 10 (5.10%) Artificial Intelligence
12 10 (5.10%) Project Delivery
13 9 (4.59%) Prototyping
Programming Languages
1 10 (5.10%) MATLAB
2 7 (3.57%) PowerShell
3 6 (3.06%) Python
4 5 (2.55%) SQL
5 4 (2.04%) JavaScript
5 4 (2.04%) R
5 4 (2.04%) TypeScript
6 2 (1.02%) Bash
6 2 (1.02%) C
6 2 (1.02%) C++
7 1 (0.51%) Bourne shell
7 1 (0.51%) C-shell
7 1 (0.51%) Perl
7 1 (0.51%) Rust
7 1 (0.51%) Shell Script
7 1 (0.51%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 60 (30.61%) BPSS Clearance
2 54 (27.55%) Degree
3 28 (14.29%) HNC
3 28 (14.29%) HND
4 12 (6.12%) Security Cleared
5 9 (4.59%) SC Cleared
6 7 (3.57%) Chartered Engineer
6 7 (3.57%) DV Cleared
7 4 (2.04%) DBS Check
7 4 (2.04%) Microsoft Certification
8 1 (0.51%) AWS Certification
8 1 (0.51%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
8 1 (0.51%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (7.14%) ISO/IEC 15288
2 7 (3.57%) Accessibility
3 5 (2.55%) QA
4 4 (2.04%) WCAG
5 3 (1.53%) ARP4754
5 3 (1.53%) DO-254
5 3 (1.53%) IEC 61508
6 1 (0.51%) ISO/IEC 12207
6 1 (0.51%) RMADS
6 1 (0.51%) SLA
System Software
1 11 (5.61%) VMware Infrastructure
2 6 (3.06%) Active Directory
3 5 (2.55%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (0.51%) Docker
4 1 (0.51%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.51%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 7 (3.57%) Functional Safety
2 5 (2.55%) Microsoft Intune
3 3 (1.53%) SmoothWall
4 2 (1.02%) Ansible
4 2 (1.02%) Jamf Pro
4 2 (1.02%) Kubernetes
4 2 (1.02%) Terraform
5 1 (0.51%) Oracle ZFS
5 1 (0.51%) Puppet
5 1 (0.51%) VxRail
Vendors
1 14 (7.14%) IBM
1 14 (7.14%) VMware
2 13 (6.63%) Siemens
3 9 (4.59%) Microsoft
4 7 (3.57%) AVEVA
4 7 (3.57%) Cisco
4 7 (3.57%) Rockwell
5 5 (2.55%) EMC
5 5 (2.55%) Sparx
6 4 (2.04%) Allen-Bradley
6 4 (2.04%) ANSYS
6 4 (2.04%) Aruba
6 4 (2.04%) Juniper
6 4 (2.04%) Ruckus Wireless
7 3 (1.53%) Palo Alto
8 2 (1.02%) Red Hat
8 2 (1.02%) Veeam
9 1 (0.51%) Atlassian
9 1 (0.51%) MathWorks
9 1 (0.51%) Qualys