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 2 July 2026.

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

6 months to
2 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 329 457 461
Rank change year-on-year +128 +4 +24
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Systems Engineer 543 232 503
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.56% 0.49% 0.48%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.60% 0.55% 0.50%
Number of salaries quoted 307 154 359
10th Percentile £46,250 £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 £65,000 £62,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £75,360 £75,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £54,793 £60,000
% change year-on-year +9.50% -8.68% -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 90,943 42,123 100,042
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.12% 89.80% 94.74%
Number of salaries quoted 62,442 24,434 72,102
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £38,500 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £56,745 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -3.08% +8.09% -12.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £76,250 £70,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £51,356 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +2.71% - -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 2 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 2 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 +116 509 £60,000 +9.50% 100
UK excluding London +97 468 £60,000 +9.50% 79
South East +88 180 £60,000 - 31
South West -4 95 £60,000 +14.07% 24
North of England -59 64 £51,772 +3.43% 2
London +14 62 £82,500 +3.13% 26
Midlands +10 59 £60,000 +9.09% 9
Work from Home +2 53 £56,000 +2.20% 36
East of England +19 47 £60,000 -29.41% 11
North West -35 37 £55,000 +9.88% 1
West Midlands -4 36 £50,000 -9.09% 3
East Midlands -4 23 £60,000 +25.00% 6
Scotland +30 20 £49,000 -34.98% 4
Yorkshire -27 15 £50,861 +5.89% 1
North East - 12 £47,500 -
Wales -42 3 £66,300 +6.94% 1

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

For the 6 months to 2 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.

1 154 (28.36%) Systems Engineering
2 93 (17.13%) BPSS Clearance
3 79 (14.55%) Degree
4 52 (9.58%) Technical Leadership
5 49 (9.02%) Requirements Management
6 47 (8.66%) Azure
7 44 (8.10%) Python
8 41 (7.55%) AI
9 39 (7.18%) Rational DOORS
9 39 (7.18%) Validation
10 36 (6.63%) Agile
11 35 (6.45%) Problem-Solving
12 34 (6.26%) Machine Learning
13 33 (6.08%) Software Engineering
13 33 (6.08%) SQL
14 32 (5.89%) AWS
14 32 (5.89%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
14 32 (5.89%) Siemens
14 32 (5.89%) Systems Thinking
15 30 (5.52%) GCP
16 29 (5.34%) Cybersecurity
16 29 (5.34%) SysML
17 28 (5.16%) Analytics
17 28 (5.16%) MATLAB
17 28 (5.16%) Storytelling
18 27 (4.97%) Data Pipeline
18 27 (4.97%) ISO/IEC 15288
19 26 (4.79%) Generative AI
19 26 (4.79%) Mentoring
19 26 (4.79%) Retrieval-Augmented Generation

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 (4.42%) Apache Airflow
1 24 (4.42%) Apache Spark
2 13 (2.39%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (1.10%) SharePoint
4 3 (0.55%) FactoryTalk
4 3 (0.55%) WinCC
Applications
1 17 (3.13%) Simulink
2 12 (2.21%) CATIA
2 12 (2.21%) Microsoft Office
3 9 (1.66%) Lightworks
4 3 (0.55%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 1 (0.18%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 47 (8.66%) Azure
2 32 (5.89%) AWS
3 30 (5.52%) GCP
4 25 (4.60%) Power Platform
5 24 (4.42%) dbt
6 23 (4.24%) Azure Synapse Analytics
6 23 (4.24%) Snowflake
7 12 (2.21%) Microsoft 365
8 7 (1.29%) Entra ID
9 6 (1.10%) Google Workspace
10 5 (0.92%) OneDrive
11 3 (0.55%) AWS Lambda
11 3 (0.55%) SaaS
11 3 (0.55%) Serverless
12 2 (0.37%) Azure DevOps
12 2 (0.37%) Azure Machine Learning
12 2 (0.37%) Copilot Studio
12 2 (0.37%) IaaS
12 2 (0.37%) Microsoft Copilot
12 2 (0.37%) Vertex AI
Communications & Networking
1 14 (2.58%) Broadband
2 10 (1.84%) DNS
2 10 (1.84%) Intrusion Detection
3 7 (1.29%) DHCP
4 5 (0.92%) Tactical Data Link
5 4 (0.74%) TCP/IP
6 3 (0.55%) Firewall
6 3 (0.55%) Modbus
6 3 (0.55%) Profibus
7 2 (0.37%) HTTP
7 2 (0.37%) MQTT
8 1 (0.18%) BGP
8 1 (0.18%) EIGRP
8 1 (0.18%) LAN
8 1 (0.18%) MPLS
8 1 (0.18%) OSPF
8 1 (0.18%) RS-422
8 1 (0.18%) Software-Defined Radio
8 1 (0.18%) SSL
8 1 (0.18%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (4.60%) Power BI
2 24 (4.42%) BigQuery
3 23 (4.24%) Amazon Redshift
3 23 (4.24%) Data Lake
3 23 (4.24%) Data Warehouse
3 23 (4.24%) Elasticsearch
3 23 (4.24%) Looker
3 23 (4.24%) Snowflake Schema
3 23 (4.24%) Tableau
4 8 (1.47%) SQL Server
5 2 (0.37%) Metadata
5 2 (0.37%) SQL Server Analysis Services
5 2 (0.37%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 2 (0.37%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 1 (0.18%) Apache Arrow
6 1 (0.18%) Apache Iceberg
6 1 (0.18%) KDB
6 1 (0.18%) MongoDB
6 1 (0.18%) Parquet
6 1 (0.18%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 39 (7.18%) Rational DOORS
2 23 (4.24%) MLflow
3 10 (1.84%) JIRA
4 6 (1.10%) LabVIEW
5 4 (0.74%) Apache Continuum
6 2 (0.37%) Jenkins
7 1 (0.18%) Rational Rhapsody
7 1 (0.18%) TeamCity
General
1 89 (16.39%) Aerospace
2 48 (8.84%) Finance
3 39 (7.18%) Analytical Skills
4 35 (6.45%) Social Skills
5 33 (6.08%) Electronics
6 19 (3.50%) Manufacturing
7 17 (3.13%) Military
8 14 (2.58%) Organisational Skills
9 13 (2.39%) Documentation Skills
10 11 (2.03%) Avionics
11 10 (1.84%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 9 (1.66%) Legal
13 6 (1.10%) Games
13 6 (1.10%) Retail
14 5 (0.92%) Law
14 5 (0.92%) Local Government
15 4 (0.74%) Aviation
15 4 (0.74%) Digital Health
16 3 (0.55%) Telecoms
17 2 (0.37%) Aeronautics
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (4.60%) Kafka
1 25 (4.60%) LangChain
2 24 (4.42%) PyTorch
3 23 (4.24%) LlamaIndex
3 23 (4.24%) pgvector
3 23 (4.24%) scikit-learn
3 23 (4.24%) TensorFlow
4 8 (1.47%) REST
5 6 (1.10%) GraphQL
5 6 (1.10%) LDAP
5 6 (1.10%) OAuth
5 6 (1.10%) OpenID
5 6 (1.10%) SAML
5 6 (1.10%) SOAP
6 3 (0.55%) .NET
7 2 (0.37%) gRPC
7 2 (0.37%) JSON
7 2 (0.37%) LangGraph
7 2 (0.37%) RESTful
7 2 (0.37%) WinForms
Miscellaneous
1 26 (4.79%) Public Cloud
2 25 (4.60%) Driving Licence
3 24 (4.42%) Clustering
4 23 (4.24%) Cloud Native
5 18 (3.31%) Management Information System
6 17 (3.13%) CCTV
6 17 (3.13%) SCADA
7 8 (1.47%) Distributed Systems
7 8 (1.47%) Self-Motivation
8 6 (1.10%) Cyber Threat
8 6 (1.10%) Cyberattack
8 6 (1.10%) Fibre Optics
8 6 (1.10%) Renewable Energy
9 5 (0.92%) Cyber Security Posture
9 5 (0.92%) IoT
9 5 (0.92%) Legacy Systems
9 5 (0.92%) PKI
10 4 (0.74%) Algorithms
10 4 (0.74%) Data Centre
10 4 (0.74%) Embedded Systems
Operating Systems
1 17 (3.13%) Linux
2 14 (2.58%) Windows
3 11 (2.03%) Windows Server
4 5 (0.92%) Ubuntu
5 3 (0.55%) VMS
6 1 (0.18%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 154 (28.36%) Systems Engineering
2 52 (9.58%) Technical Leadership
3 49 (9.02%) Requirements Management
4 41 (7.55%) AI
5 39 (7.18%) Validation
6 36 (6.63%) Agile
7 35 (6.45%) Problem-Solving
8 34 (6.26%) Machine Learning
9 33 (6.08%) Software Engineering
10 32 (5.89%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
10 32 (5.89%) Systems Thinking
11 29 (5.34%) Cybersecurity
11 29 (5.34%) SysML
12 28 (5.16%) Analytics
12 28 (5.16%) Storytelling
13 27 (4.97%) Data Pipeline
14 26 (4.79%) Generative AI
14 26 (4.79%) Mentoring
14 26 (4.79%) Retrieval-Augmented Generation
14 26 (4.79%) Semantic Search
Programming Languages
1 44 (8.10%) Python
2 33 (6.08%) SQL
3 28 (5.16%) MATLAB
4 14 (2.58%) PowerShell
5 8 (1.47%) T-SQL
6 7 (1.29%) Bash
7 5 (0.92%) C++
7 5 (0.92%) Java
8 3 (0.55%) C#
9 2 (0.37%) C
9 2 (0.37%) Rust
9 2 (0.37%) Scala
9 2 (0.37%) VB.NET
10 1 (0.18%) R
Qualifications
1 93 (17.13%) BPSS Clearance
2 79 (14.55%) Degree
3 22 (4.05%) Chartered Engineer
4 14 (2.58%) Master's Degree
5 12 (2.21%) HNC
6 9 (1.66%) PhD
7 8 (1.47%) HND
7 8 (1.47%) Security Cleared
8 7 (1.29%) DBS Check
8 7 (1.29%) SC Cleared
9 3 (0.55%) Computer Science Degree
10 1 (0.18%) APMP
10 1 (0.18%) Azure Certification
10 1 (0.18%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (4.97%) ISO/IEC 15288
2 23 (4.24%) California Consumer Privacy Act
2 23 (4.24%) GDPR
3 8 (1.47%) ISO/IEC 12207
4 6 (1.10%) NCSC
4 6 (1.10%) NIST
5 4 (0.74%) IEC 61508
5 4 (0.74%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 3 (0.55%) Accessibility
6 3 (0.55%) IEC 61131
6 3 (0.55%) PMO
7 2 (0.37%) ISO/IEC 17025
8 1 (0.18%) ARP4754
8 1 (0.18%) ARP4761
8 1 (0.18%) Data Quality
8 1 (0.18%) DO-160
8 1 (0.18%) DO-254
System Software
1 17 (3.13%) Active Directory
2 7 (1.29%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (1.10%) Hyper-V
3 6 (1.10%) vSphere
4 5 (0.92%) Docker
5 3 (0.55%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.37%) Firmware
6 2 (0.37%) KVM
Systems Management
1 8 (1.47%) Kubernetes
2 5 (0.92%) SCCM
3 3 (0.55%) Terraform
4 2 (0.37%) Ansible
4 2 (0.37%) BMC PATROL
4 2 (0.37%) 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 32 (5.89%) Siemens
2 23 (4.24%) Cloudera
2 23 (4.24%) Databricks
2 23 (4.24%) Dell
2 23 (4.24%) Microsoft
3 18 (3.31%) IBM
4 11 (2.03%) Allen-Bradley
4 11 (2.03%) Cisco
4 11 (2.03%) Rockwell
5 7 (1.29%) AVEVA
5 7 (1.29%) VMware
5 7 (1.29%) Wonderware
6 5 (0.92%) Aruba
6 5 (0.92%) NVIDIA
7 2 (0.37%) Foundry
7 2 (0.37%) Google
7 2 (0.37%) iManage
7 2 (0.37%) Intapp
8 1 (0.18%) Fortinet
8 1 (0.18%) SonicWALL