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 7 October 2026.

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

6 months to
7 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 307 481 420
Rank change year-on-year +174 -61 -39
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Systems Engineer 681 183 395
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.58% 0.37% 0.54%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.62% 0.41% 0.57%
Number of salaries quoted 401 96 228
10th Percentile £47,500 £46,250 £45,000
25th Percentile £55,000 £51,875 £48,869
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -4.00%
75th Percentile £66,300 £62,000 £70,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £75,000 £75,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -4.00%

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 109,636 44,590 69,789
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.77% 89.77% 95.35%
Number of salaries quoted 74,743 25,694 40,249
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £31,000
25th Percentile £40,750 £35,750 £41,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £58,750 £54,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.80% -0.91% -8.33%
75th Percentile £77,424 £73,750 £75,000
90th Percentile £98,750 £95,000 £93,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £46,750 £50,000
% change year-on-year +17.65% -6.50% -4.76%

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 7 October 2026.

Salary histogram for Senior Systems Engineer in the UK

Senior Systems Engineer
Top 17 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 7 October 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 +165 621 £60,000 +9.09% 587
UK excluding London +147 604 £60,000 +9.09% 395
South East +131 294 £55,000 -8.33% 117
South West +17 122 £65,000 +18.18% 45
North of England -36 71 £55,000 +0.38% 57
Work from Home -8 66 £60,000 +26.32% 196
East of England +13 55 £62,000 -27.06% 69
London -42 49 £100,000 +25.00% 191
North West -35 33 £60,000 +9.50% 35
Scotland - 31 £55,000 - 53
Midlands -33 29 £60,000 +9.09% 41
Yorkshire -11 23 £50,000 +29.87% 15
East Midlands -21 17 £60,000 +8.11% 7
North East - 15 £62,500 - 7
West Midlands -51 12 £55,000 - 34
Wales -66 1 £66,300 +6.94% 13
Northern Ireland -81 1 - - 4

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

For the 6 months to 7 October 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.

1 142 (20.85%) Systems Engineering
2 83 (12.19%) Degree
3 72 (10.57%) BPSS Clearance
4 62 (9.10%) Technical Leadership
5 48 (7.05%) Software Engineering
6 40 (5.87%) Requirements Management
7 36 (5.29%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
7 36 (5.29%) Rational DOORS
8 35 (5.14%) Agile
9 34 (4.99%) Physics
9 34 (4.99%) Python
10 33 (4.85%) Problem-Solving
11 32 (4.70%) Customer Requirements
11 32 (4.70%) MATLAB
12 31 (4.55%) Continuous Improvement
12 31 (4.55%) Siemens
12 31 (4.55%) Systems Thinking
13 30 (4.41%) SysML
14 29 (4.26%) Mathematics
15 28 (4.11%) Azure
15 28 (4.11%) Validation
16 27 (3.96%) Chartered Engineer
17 26 (3.82%) AI
18 25 (3.67%) Microsoft
19 23 (3.38%) Change Management
19 23 (3.38%) Coaching
20 22 (3.23%) Simulink
21 21 (3.08%) Data Pipeline
22 20 (2.94%) DevOps
22 20 (2.94%) Docker

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 14 (2.06%) Microsoft Exchange
2 8 (1.17%) SharePoint
3 3 (0.44%) FactoryTalk
3 3 (0.44%) WinCC
4 1 (0.15%) Confluence
Applications
1 22 (3.23%) Simulink
2 18 (2.64%) Lightworks
3 12 (1.76%) CATIA
4 8 (1.17%) Chatbot
5 6 (0.88%) Windchill
6 5 (0.73%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.15%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 28 (4.11%) Azure
2 17 (2.50%) AWS
3 14 (2.06%) GCP
4 10 (1.47%) Microsoft 365
5 7 (1.03%) OneDrive
6 5 (0.73%) Azure DevOps
7 3 (0.44%) Entra ID
7 3 (0.44%) SaaS
8 2 (0.29%) AWS CloudFormation
8 2 (0.29%) Azure Cosmos DB
8 2 (0.29%) Azure Key Vault
8 2 (0.29%) Azure Service Bus
8 2 (0.29%) Cloudflare
8 2 (0.29%) Datadog
8 2 (0.29%) GitHub
8 2 (0.29%) GitHub Actions
8 2 (0.29%) IaaS
8 2 (0.29%) Power Automate
8 2 (0.29%) Power Platform
8 2 (0.29%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 16 (2.35%) Wireless
2 12 (1.76%) DNS
3 10 (1.47%) Intrusion Detection
4 7 (1.03%) DHCP
5 5 (0.73%) Firewall
5 5 (0.73%) TCP/IP
6 4 (0.59%) LAN
6 4 (0.59%) WAN
7 3 (0.44%) Modbus
7 3 (0.44%) Profibus
7 3 (0.44%) SSL
8 2 (0.29%) 3GPP
8 2 (0.29%) 5G
8 2 (0.29%) Cisco Nexus
8 2 (0.29%) HTTP
8 2 (0.29%) Internet
8 2 (0.29%) MQTT
8 2 (0.29%) Network Security
8 2 (0.29%) Wi-Fi
9 1 (0.15%) RS-232
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (1.76%) NoSQL
2 10 (1.47%) SQL Server
3 3 (0.44%) PostgreSQL
4 2 (0.29%) Hadoop
4 2 (0.29%) Redis
5 1 (0.15%) Apache Arrow
5 1 (0.15%) Apache Iceberg
5 1 (0.15%) GIS
5 1 (0.15%) KDB
5 1 (0.15%) Metadata
5 1 (0.15%) Parquet
Development Applications
1 36 (5.29%) Rational DOORS
2 10 (1.47%) JIRA
3 9 (1.32%) LabVIEW
4 4 (0.59%) Apache Continuum
5 2 (0.29%) NUnit
6 1 (0.15%) Git
6 1 (0.15%) Rational Rhapsody
6 1 (0.15%) Subversion
General
1 139 (20.41%) Aerospace
2 76 (11.16%) Finance
3 37 (5.43%) Social Skills
4 36 (5.29%) Electronics
5 33 (4.85%) Military
6 24 (3.52%) Aviation
7 21 (3.08%) Analytical Skills
8 16 (2.35%) Manufacturing
9 13 (1.91%) Documentation Skills
10 11 (1.62%) Avionics
10 11 (1.62%) Retail
11 9 (1.32%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 9 (1.32%) Organisational Skills
11 9 (1.32%) Telecoms
12 5 (0.73%) Local Government
13 4 (0.59%) Public Sector
14 3 (0.44%) Law
15 2 (0.29%) Automotive
15 2 (0.29%) Games
15 2 (0.29%) Legal
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (1.76%) Node.js
2 10 (1.47%) Next.js
3 5 (0.73%) .NET
3 5 (0.73%) REST
3 5 (0.73%) Terraform
4 3 (0.44%) React
4 3 (0.44%) WinForms
5 2 (0.29%) .NET Core
5 2 (0.29%) .NET Framework
5 2 (0.29%) Ajax
5 2 (0.29%) Entity Framework
5 2 (0.29%) gRPC
5 2 (0.29%) JSON
5 2 (0.29%) MassTransit
5 2 (0.29%) MediatR
5 2 (0.29%) Protocol Buffers
5 2 (0.29%) RESTful
6 1 (0.15%) PyTorch
6 1 (0.15%) Ray
6 1 (0.15%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 19 (2.79%) Driving Licence
2 17 (2.50%) Cloud Native
3 16 (2.35%) CCTV
4 15 (2.20%) Data Centre
5 12 (1.76%) Fibre Optics
5 12 (1.76%) SCADA
6 11 (1.62%) Distributed Systems
7 10 (1.47%) Management Information System
7 10 (1.47%) Robotics
8 8 (1.17%) Embedded Systems
8 8 (1.17%) IoT
9 6 (0.88%) Algorithms
9 6 (0.88%) Augmented Reality
9 6 (0.88%) PKI
9 6 (0.88%) Virtual Reality
10 5 (0.73%) Cyber Security Posture
10 5 (0.73%) Legacy Systems
10 5 (0.73%) Renewable Energy
11 3 (0.44%) 3D Graphics
11 3 (0.44%) Analogue Electronics
Operating Systems
1 15 (2.20%) Windows
2 14 (2.06%) Linux
3 11 (1.62%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.15%) Unix
4 1 (0.15%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 142 (20.85%) Systems Engineering
2 62 (9.10%) Technical Leadership
3 48 (7.05%) Software Engineering
4 40 (5.87%) Requirements Management
5 36 (5.29%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
6 35 (5.14%) Agile
7 34 (4.99%) Physics
8 33 (4.85%) Problem-Solving
9 32 (4.70%) Customer Requirements
10 31 (4.55%) Continuous Improvement
10 31 (4.55%) Systems Thinking
11 30 (4.41%) SysML
12 29 (4.26%) Mathematics
13 28 (4.11%) Validation
14 26 (3.82%) AI
15 23 (3.38%) Change Management
15 23 (3.38%) Coaching
16 21 (3.08%) Data Pipeline
17 20 (2.94%) DevOps
17 20 (2.94%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 34 (4.99%) Python
2 32 (4.70%) MATLAB
3 18 (2.64%) SQL
4 17 (2.50%) PowerShell
5 6 (0.88%) C++
6 5 (0.73%) C#
7 3 (0.44%) Bash
7 3 (0.44%) Java
7 3 (0.44%) T-SQL
7 3 (0.44%) VB.NET
8 2 (0.29%) C
Qualifications
1 83 (12.19%) Degree
2 72 (10.57%) BPSS Clearance
3 27 (3.96%) Chartered Engineer
4 15 (2.20%) Security Cleared
5 12 (1.76%) Master's Degree
6 10 (1.47%) SC Cleared
7 8 (1.17%) DBS Check
7 8 (1.17%) PhD
8 6 (0.88%) HNC
8 6 (0.88%) HND
9 3 (0.44%) Computer Science Degree
9 3 (0.44%) DV Cleared
10 2 (0.29%) Microsoft Certification
11 1 (0.15%) PMI Certification
11 1 (0.15%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (2.94%) ISO/IEC 15288
2 8 (1.17%) ISO/IEC 12207
3 4 (0.59%) Accessibility
4 3 (0.44%) IEC 61131
5 2 (0.29%) HAZOP
6 1 (0.15%) Data Quality
6 1 (0.15%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 20 (2.94%) Docker
2 14 (2.06%) Active Directory
3 6 (0.88%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (0.88%) vSphere
4 5 (0.73%) Hyper-V
5 4 (0.59%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.29%) Firmware
7 1 (0.15%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 18 (2.64%) Kubernetes
2 5 (0.73%) SCCM
3 4 (0.59%) Microsoft Intune
4 3 (0.44%) BMC PATROL
4 3 (0.44%) Grafana
5 2 (0.29%) Ansible
5 2 (0.29%) Failover Clustering
5 2 (0.29%) Functional Safety
5 2 (0.29%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
5 2 (0.29%) SCOM
6 1 (0.15%) Graylog
6 1 (0.15%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 31 (4.55%) Siemens
2 25 (3.67%) Microsoft
3 14 (2.06%) Cisco
3 14 (2.06%) IBM
4 12 (1.76%) OpenAI
5 10 (1.47%) Google
5 10 (1.47%) Rockwell
6 7 (1.03%) Allen-Bradley
6 7 (1.03%) Aruba
6 7 (1.03%) AVEVA
6 7 (1.03%) Wonderware
7 6 (0.88%) VMware
8 5 (0.73%) ServiceNow
9 2 (0.29%) Databricks
9 2 (0.29%) Dynatrace
9 2 (0.29%) EMC
9 2 (0.29%) Palo Alto
9 2 (0.29%) Qualys
10 1 (0.15%) Citrix
10 1 (0.15%) Commvault