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 13 October 2026.

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

6 months to
13 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 310 502 421
Rank change year-on-year +192 -81 -57
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Systems Engineer 691 169 382
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.58% 0.34% 0.54%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.63% 0.38% 0.56%
Number of salaries quoted 403 85 220
10th Percentile £47,500 £47,683 £45,000
25th Percentile £55,000 £54,000 £49,539
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.00%
75th Percentile £66,300 £62,000 £70,000
90th Percentile £84,000 £80,000 £75,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year - - -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 109,503 44,040 68,088
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.55% 89.76% 95.37%
Number of salaries quoted 74,366 25,685 38,800
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,000 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,000 £35,000 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £58,750 £53,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.81% -2.73% -8.33%
75th Percentile £76,250 £73,750 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £46,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +19.57% -8.00% -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 13 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 13 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 +158 632 £60,000 - 269
UK excluding London +148 615 £60,000 - 143
South East +141 300 £55,000 -8.33% 58
South West +22 128 £65,000 +13.04% 28
Work from Home -6 67 £60,000 +26.32% 97
North of England -36 67 £60,000 +9.50% 19
East of England +16 59 £64,000 -24.71% 15
London -19 49 £100,000 +25.00% 115
Scotland - 31 £55,000 - 10
North West -40 30 £62,500 +14.07% 17
Midlands -48 28 £60,000 +9.09% 8
Yorkshire -15 21 £50,000 +29.87%
North East - 16 £70,000 - 2
East Midlands -25 15 £60,000 +8.11%
West Midlands -43 13 £60,000 +9.09% 8
Wales -73 1 £66,300 +6.94% 4
Northern Ireland -75 1 - - 3

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

For the 6 months to 13 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.

1 143 (20.69%) Systems Engineering
2 79 (11.43%) Degree
3 69 (9.99%) BPSS Clearance
4 62 (8.97%) Technical Leadership
5 45 (6.51%) Software Engineering
6 38 (5.50%) Requirements Management
7 37 (5.35%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
7 37 (5.35%) Rational DOORS
8 36 (5.21%) Agile
9 35 (5.07%) Python
10 34 (4.92%) Physics
11 33 (4.78%) Problem-Solving
11 33 (4.78%) Systems Thinking
12 32 (4.63%) Continuous Improvement
12 32 (4.63%) Customer Requirements
12 32 (4.63%) MATLAB
13 30 (4.34%) SysML
14 29 (4.20%) Azure
14 29 (4.20%) Mathematics
14 29 (4.20%) Siemens
15 28 (4.05%) Validation
16 27 (3.91%) Chartered Engineer
17 26 (3.76%) AI
17 26 (3.76%) Microsoft
18 24 (3.47%) Simulink
19 23 (3.33%) Change Management
19 23 (3.33%) Coaching
20 21 (3.04%) Data Pipeline
21 20 (2.89%) DevOps
21 20 (2.89%) 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 13 (1.88%) Microsoft Exchange
2 10 (1.45%) SharePoint
3 3 (0.43%) FactoryTalk
3 3 (0.43%) WinCC
4 2 (0.29%) Confluence
Applications
1 24 (3.47%) Simulink
2 20 (2.89%) Lightworks
3 12 (1.74%) CATIA
4 8 (1.16%) Chatbot
5 6 (0.87%) Windchill
6 5 (0.72%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.14%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 29 (4.20%) Azure
2 17 (2.46%) AWS
3 14 (2.03%) GCP
4 11 (1.59%) Microsoft 365
5 8 (1.16%) OneDrive
6 5 (0.72%) Azure DevOps
7 4 (0.58%) Entra ID
8 3 (0.43%) SaaS
9 2 (0.29%) AWS CloudFormation
9 2 (0.29%) Azure Cosmos DB
9 2 (0.29%) Azure Key Vault
9 2 (0.29%) Azure Service Bus
9 2 (0.29%) Cloudflare
9 2 (0.29%) Datadog
9 2 (0.29%) GitHub
9 2 (0.29%) GitHub Actions
9 2 (0.29%) IaaS
9 2 (0.29%) Power Automate
9 2 (0.29%) Power Platform
9 2 (0.29%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 17 (2.46%) Wireless
2 12 (1.74%) DNS
3 10 (1.45%) Intrusion Detection
4 7 (1.01%) DHCP
4 7 (1.01%) TCP/IP
5 5 (0.72%) Firewall
5 5 (0.72%) LAN
5 5 (0.72%) WAN
6 3 (0.43%) HTTP
6 3 (0.43%) Modbus
6 3 (0.43%) MQTT
6 3 (0.43%) Profibus
6 3 (0.43%) SSL
7 2 (0.29%) 3GPP
7 2 (0.29%) 5G
7 2 (0.29%) Cisco Nexus
7 2 (0.29%) Ethernet
7 2 (0.29%) Internet
7 2 (0.29%) Network Security
7 2 (0.29%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (1.74%) NoSQL
2 10 (1.45%) SQL Server
3 3 (0.43%) PostgreSQL
4 2 (0.29%) GIS
4 2 (0.29%) Hadoop
4 2 (0.29%) Redis
5 1 (0.14%) Apache Arrow
5 1 (0.14%) Apache Iceberg
5 1 (0.14%) KDB
5 1 (0.14%) Metadata
5 1 (0.14%) Parquet
Development Applications
1 37 (5.35%) Rational DOORS
2 11 (1.59%) JIRA
3 9 (1.30%) LabVIEW
4 4 (0.58%) Apache Continuum
5 2 (0.29%) NUnit
5 2 (0.29%) Rational Rhapsody
6 1 (0.14%) Git
6 1 (0.14%) Subversion
General
1 144 (20.84%) Aerospace
2 73 (10.56%) Finance
3 40 (5.79%) Electronics
3 40 (5.79%) Social Skills
4 33 (4.78%) Military
5 28 (4.05%) Aviation
6 23 (3.33%) Analytical Skills
7 17 (2.46%) Manufacturing
8 14 (2.03%) Documentation Skills
9 10 (1.45%) Avionics
9 10 (1.45%) Organisational Skills
9 10 (1.45%) Retail
9 10 (1.45%) Telecoms
10 9 (1.30%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 5 (0.72%) Local Government
12 4 (0.58%) Public Sector
13 3 (0.43%) Law
14 2 (0.29%) Automotive
14 2 (0.29%) Games
14 2 (0.29%) Legal
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (1.74%) Node.js
2 10 (1.45%) Next.js
3 5 (0.72%) .NET
3 5 (0.72%) REST
3 5 (0.72%) Terraform
4 3 (0.43%) JSON
4 3 (0.43%) Protocol Buffers
4 3 (0.43%) React
4 3 (0.43%) 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%) MassTransit
5 2 (0.29%) MediatR
5 2 (0.29%) RESTful
6 1 (0.14%) FFmpeg
6 1 (0.14%) PyTorch
6 1 (0.14%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 17 (2.46%) Cloud Native
1 17 (2.46%) Driving Licence
2 16 (2.32%) CCTV
2 16 (2.32%) Data Centre
3 13 (1.88%) Fibre Optics
4 12 (1.74%) Distributed Systems
5 10 (1.45%) Management Information System
5 10 (1.45%) SCADA
6 9 (1.30%) Embedded Systems
6 9 (1.30%) IoT
6 9 (1.30%) Robotics
7 8 (1.16%) Algorithms
8 6 (0.87%) Augmented Reality
8 6 (0.87%) PKI
8 6 (0.87%) Virtual Reality
9 5 (0.72%) Cyber Security Posture
9 5 (0.72%) Legacy Systems
9 5 (0.72%) Renewable Energy
10 3 (0.43%) 3D Graphics
10 3 (0.43%) Analogue Electronics
Operating Systems
1 17 (2.46%) Windows
2 16 (2.32%) Linux
3 12 (1.74%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.14%) Unix
4 1 (0.14%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 143 (20.69%) Systems Engineering
2 62 (8.97%) Technical Leadership
3 45 (6.51%) Software Engineering
4 38 (5.50%) Requirements Management
5 37 (5.35%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
6 36 (5.21%) Agile
7 34 (4.92%) Physics
8 33 (4.78%) Problem-Solving
8 33 (4.78%) Systems Thinking
9 32 (4.63%) Continuous Improvement
9 32 (4.63%) Customer Requirements
10 30 (4.34%) SysML
11 29 (4.20%) Mathematics
12 28 (4.05%) Validation
13 26 (3.76%) AI
14 23 (3.33%) Change Management
14 23 (3.33%) Coaching
15 21 (3.04%) Data Pipeline
16 20 (2.89%) DevOps
17 19 (2.75%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 35 (5.07%) Python
2 32 (4.63%) MATLAB
3 18 (2.60%) PowerShell
3 18 (2.60%) SQL
4 6 (0.87%) C++
5 5 (0.72%) C#
6 3 (0.43%) Bash
6 3 (0.43%) Java
6 3 (0.43%) T-SQL
6 3 (0.43%) VB.NET
7 2 (0.29%) C
Qualifications
1 79 (11.43%) Degree
2 69 (9.99%) BPSS Clearance
3 27 (3.91%) Chartered Engineer
4 16 (2.32%) Security Cleared
5 11 (1.59%) Master's Degree
6 9 (1.30%) SC Cleared
7 8 (1.16%) DBS Check
7 8 (1.16%) PhD
8 6 (0.87%) HNC
8 6 (0.87%) HND
9 3 (0.43%) Computer Science Degree
9 3 (0.43%) DV Cleared
10 2 (0.29%) Microsoft Certification
10 2 (0.29%) PMI Certification
10 2 (0.29%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (2.89%) ISO/IEC 15288
2 8 (1.16%) ISO/IEC 12207
3 5 (0.72%) Accessibility
4 3 (0.43%) IEC 61131
5 2 (0.29%) HAZOP
6 1 (0.14%) Data Quality
6 1 (0.14%) ECSS
6 1 (0.14%) IEC 61508
6 1 (0.14%) MIL-STD-1553
System Software
1 20 (2.89%) Docker
2 15 (2.17%) Active Directory
3 6 (0.87%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (0.87%) vSphere
4 5 (0.72%) Hyper-V
5 4 (0.58%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (0.43%) Firmware
7 1 (0.14%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 18 (2.60%) Kubernetes
2 5 (0.72%) SCCM
3 4 (0.58%) Microsoft Intune
4 3 (0.43%) BMC PATROL
4 3 (0.43%) Functional Safety
4 3 (0.43%) Grafana
5 2 (0.29%) Ansible
5 2 (0.29%) Failover Clustering
5 2 (0.29%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
5 2 (0.29%) SCOM
6 1 (0.14%) Graylog
6 1 (0.14%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.14%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 29 (4.20%) Siemens
2 26 (3.76%) Microsoft
3 15 (2.17%) IBM
4 14 (2.03%) Cisco
5 12 (1.74%) OpenAI
6 10 (1.45%) Google
7 8 (1.16%) Rockwell
8 7 (1.01%) Aruba
9 6 (0.87%) VMware
10 5 (0.72%) Allen-Bradley
10 5 (0.72%) AVEVA
10 5 (0.72%) ServiceNow
10 5 (0.72%) Wonderware
11 2 (0.29%) Databricks
11 2 (0.29%) Dynatrace
11 2 (0.29%) EMC
11 2 (0.29%) Palo Alto
11 2 (0.29%) Qualys
12 1 (0.14%) Citrix
12 1 (0.14%) Dell