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 9 February 2026.

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

6 months to
9 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 397 510 533
Rank change year-on-year +113 +23 +250
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Systems Engineer 291 187 276
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.44% 0.37% 0.37%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.49% 0.40% 0.39%
Number of salaries quoted 161 112 204
10th Percentile £45,000 £46,558 £45,749
25th Percentile £48,750 £48,869 £50,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% - -
75th Percentile £65,000 £70,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £82,500 £83,000 £72,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £54,793 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.50% -0.38% -

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 59,580 46,251 70,577
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.08% 91.84% 94.93%
Number of salaries quoted 37,171 23,847 55,273
10th Percentile £29,000 £33,500 £28,500
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £39,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -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 9 February 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 9 February 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 +125 271 £60,000 +9.09% 91
UK excluding London +113 258 £60,000 +9.50% 78
South East +51 84 £52,500 -4.55% 27
South West +31 71 £60,000 +14.07% 10
Midlands +42 37 £65,000 +23.81% 19
London +35 28 £82,500 +8.55% 14
North of England -27 28 £60,000 +19.87% 13
North West +3 24 £60,000 +19.87% 12
West Midlands +45 23 £42,215 -15.57% 14
East of England +42 23 £60,000 - 9
Work from Home +22 15 £75,000 -0.48% 27
East Midlands -6 14 £65,000 +18.18% 5
Scotland -17 9 £49,000 -15.57%
Yorkshire -34 4 - - 1
Wales +4 3 £51,935 -16.23%
Northern Ireland - 3 - -

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

For the 6 months to 9 February 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.

1 104 (35.74%) Systems Engineering
2 83 (28.52%) BPSS Clearance
3 44 (15.12%) Degree
4 37 (12.71%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
5 36 (12.37%) Requirements Management
6 28 (9.62%) Cybersecurity
7 27 (9.28%) Validation
8 26 (8.93%) Agile
9 25 (8.59%) Verification and Validation
10 24 (8.25%) SysML
11 22 (7.56%) ISO/IEC 15288
12 21 (7.22%) Project Planning
12 21 (7.22%) Systems Thinking
13 20 (6.87%) Coaching
14 19 (6.53%) Rational DOORS
15 16 (5.50%) HNC
15 16 (5.50%) Mathematics
15 16 (5.50%) Physics
15 16 (5.50%) Siemens
15 16 (5.50%) Simulink
16 15 (5.15%) Software Engineering
17 14 (4.81%) Customer Requirements
17 14 (4.81%) Information Assurance
17 14 (4.81%) MATLAB
17 14 (4.81%) Mentoring
18 13 (4.47%) Acceptance Criteria
18 13 (4.47%) HND
19 12 (4.12%) Platform Engineering
20 11 (3.78%) Azure
20 11 (3.78%) Stakeholder Management

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 16 (5.50%) Simulink
2 4 (1.37%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (1.03%) CATIA
Cloud Services
1 11 (3.78%) Azure
2 8 (2.75%) Entra ID
2 8 (2.75%) Google Workspace
3 3 (1.03%) AWS
4 2 (0.69%) Microsoft 365
5 1 (0.34%) Amazon S3
5 1 (0.34%) Cohesity
5 1 (0.34%) GitHub
5 1 (0.34%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 10 (3.44%) Broadband
2 3 (1.03%) 5G
2 3 (1.03%) 802.11
2 3 (1.03%) Internet
2 3 (1.03%) LAN
2 3 (1.03%) Network Security
2 3 (1.03%) VoIP
2 3 (1.03%) WAN
2 3 (1.03%) Wi-Fi
2 3 (1.03%) Wireless
2 3 (1.03%) WLAN
3 2 (0.69%) Tactical Data Link
4 1 (0.34%) Multicast
4 1 (0.34%) Software-Defined Radio
Development Applications
1 19 (6.53%) Rational DOORS
2 5 (1.72%) JIRA
3 3 (1.03%) Apache Continuum
4 2 (0.69%) Jenkins
4 2 (0.69%) TeamCity
5 1 (0.34%) CircleCI
General
1 22 (7.56%) Aerospace
2 20 (6.87%) Social Skills
3 18 (6.19%) Military
4 16 (5.50%) Electronics
5 12 (4.12%) Games
6 10 (3.44%) Avionics
7 8 (2.75%) Organisational Skills
8 7 (2.41%) Influencing Skills
9 5 (1.72%) Automotive
9 5 (1.72%) Documentation Skills
9 5 (1.72%) Manufacturing
10 2 (0.69%) Aviation
10 2 (0.69%) Finance
11 1 (0.34%) Advertising
11 1 (0.34%) Marketing
11 1 (0.34%) Retail
11 1 (0.34%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (2.75%) GraphQL
1 8 (2.75%) LDAP
1 8 (2.75%) OAuth
1 8 (2.75%) OpenID
1 8 (2.75%) REST
1 8 (2.75%) SAML
1 8 (2.75%) SOAP
2 3 (1.03%) 802.1X
3 2 (0.69%) Akka
4 1 (0.34%) DPDK
4 1 (0.34%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 18 (6.19%) Management Information System
2 10 (3.44%) Cyber Threat
3 8 (2.75%) Cyberattack
4 7 (2.41%) SCADA
5 4 (1.37%) CCTV
5 4 (1.37%) Virtual Team
6 3 (1.03%) BYOD
6 3 (1.03%) Distributed Systems
6 3 (1.03%) IoT
7 2 (0.69%) Data Centre
7 2 (0.69%) Over-the-Top Content
7 2 (0.69%) Verilog
7 2 (0.69%) VHDL
7 2 (0.69%) Video\Live Streaming
8 1 (0.34%) Cloud Native
8 1 (0.34%) FPGA
8 1 (0.34%) GNSS
8 1 (0.34%) Private Cloud
8 1 (0.34%) Sports Betting
8 1 (0.34%) VxBlock/Vblock
Operating Systems
1 9 (3.09%) Linux
2 7 (2.41%) Ubuntu
3 2 (0.69%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 104 (35.74%) Systems Engineering
2 37 (12.71%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
3 36 (12.37%) Requirements Management
4 28 (9.62%) Cybersecurity
5 27 (9.28%) Validation
6 26 (8.93%) Agile
7 25 (8.59%) Verification and Validation
8 24 (8.25%) SysML
9 21 (7.22%) Project Planning
9 21 (7.22%) Systems Thinking
10 20 (6.87%) Coaching
11 16 (5.50%) Mathematics
11 16 (5.50%) Physics
12 15 (5.15%) Software Engineering
13 14 (4.81%) Customer Requirements
13 14 (4.81%) Information Assurance
13 14 (4.81%) Mentoring
14 13 (4.47%) Acceptance Criteria
15 12 (4.12%) Platform Engineering
16 11 (3.78%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 14 (4.81%) MATLAB
2 9 (3.09%) PowerShell
3 8 (2.75%) Bash
3 8 (2.75%) T-SQL
4 4 (1.37%) Java
4 4 (1.37%) SQL
5 2 (0.69%) Scala
6 1 (0.34%) C
6 1 (0.34%) C#
6 1 (0.34%) C++
6 1 (0.34%) Rust
Qualifications
1 83 (28.52%) BPSS Clearance
2 44 (15.12%) Degree
3 16 (5.50%) HNC
4 13 (4.47%) HND
5 8 (2.75%) Chartered Engineer
6 1 (0.34%) Master's Degree
6 1 (0.34%) SC Cleared
6 1 (0.34%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (7.56%) ISO/IEC 15288
2 8 (2.75%) NCSC
2 8 (2.75%) NIST
3 4 (1.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (1.03%) ISO/IEC 12207
5 2 (0.69%) IEC 61508
System Software
1 8 (2.75%) Active Directory
2 3 (1.03%) Docker
3 1 (0.34%) Firmware
3 1 (0.34%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 9 (3.09%) Kubernetes
2 2 (0.69%) BMC PATROL
3 1 (0.34%) Ansible
Vendors
1 16 (5.50%) Siemens
2 7 (2.41%) NVIDIA
3 5 (1.72%) IBM
4 4 (1.37%) Microsoft
5 3 (1.03%) Ruckus Wireless
5 3 (1.03%) VMware
6 2 (0.69%) Allen-Bradley
7 1 (0.34%) Solarflare