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 14 January 2026.

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

6 months to
14 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 431 462 527
Rank change year-on-year +31 +65 +260
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Systems Engineer 228 248 197
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.38% 0.46% 0.35%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.42% 0.50% 0.37%
Number of salaries quoted 121 127 143
10th Percentile £45,000 £46,250 £47,500
25th Percentile £50,000 £48,869 £50,621
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £57,000 £56,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% +1.79% -2.61%
75th Percentile £65,000 £70,000 £66,875
90th Percentile £85,000 £83,000 £74,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% - -

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 54,426 49,714 53,040
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.72% 92.90% 95.25%
Number of salaries quoted 33,710 25,743 40,880
10th Percentile £28,500 £33,625 £30,000
25th Percentile £37,000 £45,000 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -4.17%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £77,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £96,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,609 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.96% +5.22% -5.25%

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 14 January 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 14 January 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 +67 211 £60,000 +9.09% 97
UK excluding London +57 202 £60,000 +9.09% 88
South East +34 64 £52,500 -4.55% 33
South West +23 57 £60,000 +6.67% 15
Midlands +39 27 £65,000 +13.04% 16
North of England -27 25 £60,000 +19.87% 6
London +46 21 £82,500 +8.55% 21
North West -8 21 £60,000 +19.87% 5
East of England - 17 £60,000 - 14
West Midlands +34 16 £42,215 -15.57% 7
Work from Home +26 11 £75,000 +7.14% 55
East Midlands -3 11 £65,000 +8.33% 9
Scotland -1 6 £50,500 -12.98% 4
Yorkshire -19 4 - - 1
Wales +9 3 £51,935 +48.38% 1
Northern Ireland - 3 - - 1

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

For the 6 months to 14 January 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 84 (36.84%) Systems Engineering
2 67 (29.39%) BPSS Clearance
3 38 (16.67%) Degree
4 31 (13.60%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
5 28 (12.28%) Requirements Management
6 20 (8.77%) Agile
7 19 (8.33%) Coaching
7 19 (8.33%) Cybersecurity
8 17 (7.46%) ISO/IEC 15288
9 16 (7.02%) HNC
9 16 (7.02%) HND
9 16 (7.02%) Project Planning
9 16 (7.02%) SysML
9 16 (7.02%) Validation
10 15 (6.58%) Customer Requirements
10 15 (6.58%) Software Engineering
11 14 (6.14%) Rational DOORS
11 14 (6.14%) Verification and Validation
12 13 (5.70%) Siemens
12 13 (5.70%) Systems Thinking
13 12 (5.26%) Acceptance Criteria
13 12 (5.26%) Collaborative Working
14 11 (4.82%) Mathematics
14 11 (4.82%) Physics
14 11 (4.82%) Simulink
15 10 (4.39%) Cryptography
16 9 (3.95%) Information Assurance
16 9 (3.95%) MATLAB
16 9 (3.95%) Mentoring
16 9 (3.95%) Platform Engineering

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:

Applications
1 11 (4.82%) Simulink
2 3 (1.32%) CATIA
3 2 (0.88%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 7 (3.07%) Azure
2 4 (1.75%) Entra ID
2 4 (1.75%) Google Workspace
3 3 (1.32%) AWS
4 2 (0.88%) Microsoft 365
4 2 (0.88%) Power Platform
5 1 (0.44%) Amazon S3
5 1 (0.44%) Cohesity
5 1 (0.44%) GitHub
5 1 (0.44%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 6 (2.63%) Broadband
2 3 (1.32%) 5G
2 3 (1.32%) 802.11
2 3 (1.32%) Internet
2 3 (1.32%) LAN
2 3 (1.32%) Network Security
2 3 (1.32%) VoIP
2 3 (1.32%) WAN
2 3 (1.32%) Wi-Fi
2 3 (1.32%) Wireless
2 3 (1.32%) WLAN
3 1 (0.44%) Multicast
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.88%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 14 (6.14%) Rational DOORS
2 3 (1.32%) Apache Continuum
2 3 (1.32%) JIRA
3 2 (0.88%) Jenkins
3 2 (0.88%) TeamCity
4 1 (0.44%) CircleCI
General
1 21 (9.21%) Social Skills
2 18 (7.89%) Aerospace
3 14 (6.14%) Avionics
4 13 (5.70%) Military
5 11 (4.82%) Electronics
5 11 (4.82%) Games
5 11 (4.82%) Influencing Skills
6 7 (3.07%) Manufacturing
7 5 (2.19%) Documentation Skills
8 4 (1.75%) Automotive
8 4 (1.75%) Organisational Skills
9 2 (0.88%) Aviation
9 2 (0.88%) Finance
10 1 (0.44%) Marketing
10 1 (0.44%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (1.75%) GraphQL
1 4 (1.75%) LDAP
1 4 (1.75%) OAuth
1 4 (1.75%) OpenID
1 4 (1.75%) REST
1 4 (1.75%) SAML
1 4 (1.75%) SOAP
2 3 (1.32%) 802.1X
3 2 (0.88%) Akka
4 1 (0.44%) DPDK
Miscellaneous
1 12 (5.26%) Management Information System
2 9 (3.95%) SCADA
3 6 (2.63%) Cyber Threat
4 4 (1.75%) CCTV
4 4 (1.75%) Cyberattack
4 4 (1.75%) Virtual Team
5 3 (1.32%) BYOD
5 3 (1.32%) Distributed Systems
5 3 (1.32%) IoT
6 2 (0.88%) Algorithms
6 2 (0.88%) Data Centre
6 2 (0.88%) Industry 4.0
6 2 (0.88%) Manufacturing Execution System
6 2 (0.88%) Over-the-Top Content
6 2 (0.88%) Verilog
6 2 (0.88%) VHDL
6 2 (0.88%) Video\Live Streaming
7 1 (0.44%) Cloud Native
7 1 (0.44%) Embedded Systems
7 1 (0.44%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 7 (3.07%) Linux
2 5 (2.19%) Ubuntu
3 2 (0.88%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 84 (36.84%) Systems Engineering
2 31 (13.60%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
3 28 (12.28%) Requirements Management
4 20 (8.77%) Agile
5 19 (8.33%) Coaching
5 19 (8.33%) Cybersecurity
6 16 (7.02%) Project Planning
6 16 (7.02%) SysML
6 16 (7.02%) Validation
7 15 (6.58%) Customer Requirements
7 15 (6.58%) Software Engineering
8 14 (6.14%) Verification and Validation
9 13 (5.70%) Systems Thinking
10 12 (5.26%) Acceptance Criteria
10 12 (5.26%) Collaborative Working
11 11 (4.82%) Mathematics
11 11 (4.82%) Physics
12 10 (4.39%) Cryptography
13 9 (3.95%) Information Assurance
13 9 (3.95%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 9 (3.95%) MATLAB
2 5 (2.19%) PowerShell
3 4 (1.75%) Bash
3 4 (1.75%) Java
3 4 (1.75%) SQL
3 4 (1.75%) T-SQL
4 2 (0.88%) Python
4 2 (0.88%) Scala
5 1 (0.44%) C
5 1 (0.44%) C#
5 1 (0.44%) C++
5 1 (0.44%) Rust
Qualifications
1 67 (29.39%) BPSS Clearance
2 38 (16.67%) Degree
3 16 (7.02%) HNC
3 16 (7.02%) HND
4 5 (2.19%) Chartered Engineer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (7.46%) ISO/IEC 15288
2 4 (1.75%) NCSC
2 4 (1.75%) NIST
3 3 (1.32%) ISO/IEC 12207
4 2 (0.88%) IEC 61508
4 2 (0.88%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 4 (1.75%) Active Directory
2 3 (1.32%) Docker
3 1 (0.44%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 7 (3.07%) Kubernetes
2 1 (0.44%) Ansible
Vendors
1 13 (5.70%) Siemens
2 5 (2.19%) IBM
2 5 (2.19%) NVIDIA
3 4 (1.75%) Allen-Bradley
4 3 (1.32%) Ruckus Wireless
4 3 (1.32%) VMware
5 2 (0.88%) Microsoft
6 1 (0.44%) Solarflare