Systems Programmer Jobs

System Programmer
UK

The median System Programmer salary in the UK is £74,870 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 2 May 2025.

The table below provides salary benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 687 862 963
Rank change year-on-year +175 +101 +242
Permanent jobs requiring a Systems Programmer 4 40 20
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.008% 0.041% 0.019%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.009% 0.043% 0.021%
Number of salaries quoted 3 28 17
10th Percentile £53,580 £36,250 -
25th Percentile £60,825 £40,000 £51,833
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £74,870 £48,500 £64,029
Median % change year-on-year +54.37% -24.25% +3.69%
75th Percentile £76,840 £50,250 £71,652
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median annual salary £74,870 £48,500 £64,029
% change year-on-year +54.37% -24.25% +3.69%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
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 46,967 93,227 95,240
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.30% 94.63% 91.55%
Number of salaries quoted 27,330 66,890 59,886
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £42,000 £38,500 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £52,900 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +8.70% -11.83% -
75th Percentile £75,000 £71,250 £81,250
90th Percentile £97,500 £90,000 £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,000 £50,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% +5.00%

Systems Programmer
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured Systems Programmer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Systems Programmer in the UK

Systems Programmer
Salary Trend

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing Systems Programmer.

Salary trend for Systems Programmer in the UK

Systems Programmer
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Systems Programmer over the 6 months to 2 May 2025.

Salary histogram for Systems Programmer in the UK

Systems Programmer
Top 6 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Systems Programmer within the UK over the 6 months to 2 May 2025. 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
UK excluding London +182 4 £74,870 +54.37% 12
Work from Home +171 4 £74,870 +99.65% 17
Scotland - 3 £74,870 -
England +138 1 £52,500 +8.25% 15
North of England +84 1 £52,500 - 5
Yorkshire +72 1 £52,500 - 3

Systems Programmer Skill Set
Top 12 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 2 May 2025, Systems Programmer job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads featuring Systems Programmer in the job title.

1 4 (100.00%) Mainframe
2 3 (75.00%) Performance Tuning
2 3 (75.00%) DB2
2 3 (75.00%) Finance
2 3 (75.00%) Banking
2 3 (75.00%) Incident Management
3 1 (25.00%) ISPF
3 1 (25.00%) IBM
3 1 (25.00%) zOS
3 1 (25.00%) JCL
3 1 (25.00%) Time Sharing Option
3 1 (25.00%) Risk Management

Systems Programmer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (75.00%) DB2
General
1 3 (75.00%) Banking
1 3 (75.00%) Finance
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (25.00%) ISPF
Miscellaneous
1 4 (100.00%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 1 (25.00%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 3 (75.00%) Incident Management
1 3 (75.00%) Performance Tuning
2 1 (25.00%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 1 (25.00%) JCL
System Software
1 1 (25.00%) Time Sharing Option
Vendors
1 1 (25.00%) IBM