Principal Engineer
UK

The median Principal Engineer salary in the UK is £80,000 per year according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months to 18 May 2024.

The first table below provides salary benchmarking and summary statistics including a comparison to same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
18 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 287 507 412
Rank change year-on-year +220 -95 +106
Permanent jobs requiring a Principal Engineer 1,046 556 1,454
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 1.05% 0.56% 0.90%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.11% 0.61% 0.94%
Number of salaries quoted 430 402 443
10th Percentile £57,250 £58,875 £60,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £68,750 £65,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £80,000 £85,000 £85,000
Median % change year-on-year -5.88% - +21.43%
75th Percentile £93,750 £115,000 £99,375
90th Percentile £115,000 £150,000 £115,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £72,500 £72,500
% change year-on-year -3.45% - +7.41%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
UK

The following table is for comparison with the above and includes 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 94,593 90,744 154,424
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.69% 91.51% 96.08%
Number of salaries quoted 67,603 57,335 84,442
10th Percentile £28,500 £32,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £38,500 £45,000 £42,521
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -12.50% - +9.09%
75th Percentile £71,000 £80,000 £78,750
90th Percentile £90,000 £100,000 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £53,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -5.66% +6.00% +5.26%

Principal Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for Principal Engineer in the UK

Principal Engineer
Salary Trend

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing Principal Engineer.

Salary trend for Principal Engineer in the UK

Principal Engineer
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Principal Engineer over the 6 months to 18 May 2024.

Salary histogram for Principal Engineer in the UK

Principal 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 Principal Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 18 May 2024. 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 +205 895 £80,000 -5.88% 309
UK excluding London +221 796 £70,000 -3.45% 255
Work from Home +12 205 £78,750 -17.11% 121
London +56 189 £92,500 -13.95% 77
North of England +128 163 £65,000 -14.75% 53
South West +84 162 £70,000 -12.50% 37
South East +44 155 £75,000 +7.14% 77
Midlands +88 119 £75,000 -9.09% 16
Scotland +15 90 £70,000 -17.65% 12
East of England +79 88 £77,500 +6.90% 65
North West +57 85 £65,000 -11.86% 47
West Midlands +66 63 £75,000 -31.82% 7
Yorkshire +103 58 £65,000 -18.75% 5
East Midlands +36 56 £75,000 -9.09% 9
North East +6 20 - - 1
Wales +12 16 £60,000 +34.33% 2
Northern Ireland +23 3 £90,000 - 3

Principal Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 18 May 2024, Principal Engineer 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 Principal Engineer in the job title.

1 253 (24.19%) Problem-Solving
2 247 (23.61%) Agile
3 245 (23.42%) Google
4 243 (23.23%) Software Engineering
5 222 (21.22%) Data Science
6 217 (20.75%) Mentoring
7 216 (20.65%) GCP
8 193 (18.45%) Data Engineering
9 192 (18.36%) DevOps
10 185 (17.69%) Analytical Skills
11 178 (17.02%) Self-Motivation
11 178 (17.02%) Data Pipeline
12 175 (16.73%) Roadmaps
12 175 (16.73%) Platform Engineering
13 172 (16.44%) BigQuery
14 168 (16.06%) Looker
15 162 (15.49%) Change Management
16 161 (15.39%) GDPR
16 161 (15.39%) DataOps
17 160 (15.30%) Technical Leadership
18 153 (14.63%) Technology Roadmap
19 149 (14.24%) AWS
20 139 (13.29%) Degree
21 120 (11.47%) Systems Engineering
22 111 (10.61%) Social Skills
23 106 (10.13%) Security Cleared
24 98 (9.37%) Java
25 92 (8.80%) Python
26 60 (5.74%) Azure
26 60 (5.74%) Inclusion and Diversity

Principal Engineer 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:

Application Platforms
1 30 (2.87%) Apache Spark
2 10 (0.96%) Confluence
3 6 (0.57%) IIS
3 6 (0.57%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (0.57%) SharePoint
4 4 (0.38%) Apache
5 1 (0.096%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.096%) CMS
5 1 (0.096%) JBoss
5 1 (0.096%) nginx
Applications
1 8 (0.76%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.19%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.19%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (0.19%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 216 (20.65%) GCP
2 149 (14.24%) AWS
3 60 (5.74%) Azure
4 42 (4.02%) Dropbox
4 42 (4.02%) Google Drive
4 42 (4.02%) OneDrive
4 42 (4.02%) SaaS
5 28 (2.68%) Amazon S3
6 26 (2.49%) Amazon SQS
7 23 (2.20%) Google Docs
7 23 (2.20%) Lucidchart
7 23 (2.20%) Miro
7 23 (2.20%) Slack
8 19 (1.82%) Serverless
9 18 (1.72%) AWS Lambda
10 8 (0.76%) Amazon EKS
11 6 (0.57%) Datadog
12 5 (0.48%) Amazon SageMaker
12 5 (0.48%) Azure Machine Learning
13 4 (0.38%) AWS Fargate
Communications & Networking
1 15 (1.43%) Internet
1 15 (1.43%) LAN
1 15 (1.43%) WAN
2 13 (1.24%) Wireless
3 7 (0.67%) Firewall
4 6 (0.57%) TETRA
5 5 (0.48%) 4G
5 5 (0.48%) Bluetooth
5 5 (0.48%) Wi-Fi
6 4 (0.38%) Ethernet
6 4 (0.38%) MPLS
6 4 (0.38%) Network Security
6 4 (0.38%) TCP/IP
7 3 (0.29%) BGP
7 3 (0.29%) IGMP
7 3 (0.29%) IPv6
7 3 (0.29%) Multicast
7 3 (0.29%) OSPF
7 3 (0.29%) VLAN
7 3 (0.29%) VRRP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 172 (16.44%) BigQuery
2 168 (16.06%) Looker
3 29 (2.77%) Big Data
4 28 (2.68%) Hadoop
5 27 (2.58%) Elasticsearch
5 27 (2.58%) Redis
6 23 (2.20%) Scylla
7 10 (0.96%) Data Warehouse
8 9 (0.86%) Data Lake
9 6 (0.57%) PostgreSQL
10 5 (0.48%) MongoDB
11 4 (0.38%) Apache Hive
11 4 (0.38%) NoSQL
12 3 (0.29%) Neo4j
13 2 (0.19%) Apache Cassandra
13 2 (0.19%) MySQL
13 2 (0.19%) Relational Database
14 1 (0.096%) Amazon Redshift
14 1 (0.096%) Oracle Database
14 1 (0.096%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 16 (1.53%) Rational DOORS
2 10 (0.96%) JIRA
3 5 (0.48%) Cypress.io
3 5 (0.48%) Git
3 5 (0.48%) Visual Studio
4 4 (0.38%) Selenium
5 3 (0.29%) Android Studio
5 3 (0.29%) Jenkins
5 3 (0.29%) Postman
5 3 (0.29%) Rational Rhapsody
6 2 (0.19%) Subversion
7 1 (0.096%) Cucumber
7 1 (0.096%) MLflow
7 1 (0.096%) TeamCity
General
1 185 (17.69%) Analytical Skills
2 111 (10.61%) Social Skills
3 60 (5.74%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 56 (5.35%) Finance
5 46 (4.40%) Aerospace
6 39 (3.73%) Manufacturing
7 34 (3.25%) Marketing
8 33 (3.15%) Law
9 31 (2.96%) Electronics
10 29 (2.77%) Banking
11 27 (2.58%) Games
12 26 (2.49%) Telecoms
13 22 (2.10%) Financial Institution
14 21 (2.01%) Presentation Skills
15 20 (1.91%) Investment Banking
16 19 (1.82%) Legal
17 14 (1.34%) Automotive
18 12 (1.15%) Public Sector
19 10 (0.96%) Military
20 8 (0.76%) Health Technology
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (3.92%) Kafka
2 34 (3.25%) GraphQL
3 28 (2.68%) Spring Boot
4 27 (2.58%) Spring
5 25 (2.39%) .NET
6 21 (2.01%) React
7 19 (1.82%) Node.js
8 9 (0.86%) PyTorch
9 7 (0.67%) .NET Core
9 7 (0.67%) scikit-learn
9 7 (0.67%) TensorFlow
10 5 (0.48%) MXNet
11 4 (0.38%) CSS
11 4 (0.38%) RESTful
12 3 (0.29%) Playwright
12 3 (0.29%) WinForms
13 2 (0.19%) DPDK
13 2 (0.19%) eBPF
13 2 (0.19%) LangChain
13 2 (0.19%) Quarkus
Miscellaneous
1 178 (17.02%) Self-Motivation
2 42 (4.02%) iPad
3 41 (3.92%) Algorithms
4 40 (3.82%) Cloud Native
5 32 (3.06%) Data Structures
6 19 (1.82%) Data Centre
7 14 (1.34%) Management Information System
8 13 (1.24%) FPGA
9 10 (0.96%) IoT
10 9 (0.86%) Product Ownership
10 9 (0.86%) Virtual Team
11 7 (0.67%) Embedded Systems
12 6 (0.57%) Mobile App
13 5 (0.48%) Hackathon
14 4 (0.38%) Renewable Energy
15 3 (0.29%) Distributed Systems
15 3 (0.29%) Enterprise Software
15 3 (0.29%) Greenfield Project
15 3 (0.29%) Smart City
15 3 (0.29%) VHDL
Operating Systems
1 31 (2.96%) Linux
2 21 (2.01%) Windows
3 7 (0.67%) Android
3 7 (0.67%) Mac OS
4 5 (0.48%) Embedded Linux
4 5 (0.48%) Unix
5 4 (0.38%) Apple iOS
6 2 (0.19%) VxWorks
7 1 (0.096%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.096%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 253 (24.19%) Problem-Solving
2 247 (23.61%) Agile
3 243 (23.23%) Software Engineering
4 222 (21.22%) Data Science
5 217 (20.75%) Mentoring
6 193 (18.45%) Data Engineering
7 192 (18.36%) DevOps
8 178 (17.02%) Data Pipeline
9 175 (16.73%) Platform Engineering
9 175 (16.73%) Roadmaps
10 162 (15.49%) Change Management
11 161 (15.39%) DataOps
12 160 (15.30%) Technical Leadership
13 153 (14.63%) Technology Roadmap
14 120 (11.47%) Systems Engineering
15 60 (5.74%) Customer Service
16 56 (5.35%) Cybersecurity
17 55 (5.26%) Analytics
18 50 (4.78%) Computer Science
19 47 (4.49%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 98 (9.37%) Java
2 92 (8.80%) Python
3 36 (3.44%) Scala
4 32 (3.06%) Go
5 31 (2.96%) SQL
6 27 (2.58%) C#
7 26 (2.49%) C
8 25 (2.39%) Bash
8 25 (2.39%) Kotlin
9 24 (2.29%) TypeScript
10 19 (1.82%) C++
11 10 (0.96%) JavaScript
12 6 (0.57%) Embedded C
13 4 (0.38%) Assembly Language
13 4 (0.38%) Ruby
13 4 (0.38%) Swift
14 3 (0.29%) R
15 2 (0.19%) Perl
15 2 (0.19%) PHP
15 2 (0.19%) Rust
Qualifications
1 139 (13.29%) Degree
2 106 (10.13%) Security Cleared
3 52 (4.97%) Master's Degree
4 39 (3.73%) Chartered Engineer
5 33 (3.15%) DV Cleared
5 33 (3.15%) SC Cleared
6 15 (1.43%) Computer Science Degree
6 15 (1.43%) HNC
7 8 (0.76%) BPSS Clearance
8 3 (0.29%) MCT
8 3 (0.29%) Sun Certification
9 2 (0.19%) Azure Certification
9 2 (0.19%) CCIE
9 2 (0.19%) Cisco Certification
9 2 (0.19%) JNCIA
9 2 (0.19%) JNCIS
10 1 (0.096%) HND
10 1 (0.096%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 161 (15.39%) GDPR
2 10 (0.96%) QA
3 9 (0.86%) Data Quality
4 7 (0.67%) ISO/IEC 15288
5 4 (0.38%) IEC 62304
5 4 (0.38%) ISO 13485
6 2 (0.19%) Def Stans
6 2 (0.19%) IEC 61508
6 2 (0.19%) SLA
7 1 (0.096%) ISO 9001
7 1 (0.096%) TickIT
System Software
1 24 (2.29%) Firmware
2 12 (1.15%) Docker
3 9 (0.86%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (0.76%) Active Directory
4 8 (0.76%) Embedded Firmware
5 6 (0.57%) Forefront TMG
5 6 (0.57%) Hyper-V
5 6 (0.57%) VMware Workstation
6 4 (0.38%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.19%) VirtualBox
8 1 (0.096%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 49 (4.68%) Kubernetes
2 16 (1.53%) Terraform
3 6 (0.57%) SCOM
3 6 (0.57%) WSUS
4 2 (0.19%) Ansible
5 1 (0.096%) Puppet
Vendors
1 245 (23.42%) Google
2 41 (3.92%) EMC
3 30 (2.87%) Dell
4 24 (2.29%) Microsoft
5 15 (1.43%) Fortinet
5 15 (1.43%) Juniper
5 15 (1.43%) Sandvine
6 13 (1.24%) Oracle
7 9 (0.86%) VMware
8 8 (0.76%) Databricks
8 8 (0.76%) QinetiQ
9 5 (0.48%) Dataiku
10 3 (0.29%) Progress
11 2 (0.19%) CheckPoint
11 2 (0.19%) Confluent
11 2 (0.19%) Forcepoint
11 2 (0.19%) ForgeRock
11 2 (0.19%) SAP
11 2 (0.19%) Sitecore
12 1 (0.096%) SnapLogic