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Create CVIf you search “engineering manager UK salary”, the biggest mistake is assuming there is one clean market rate. There is not.
In the UK, “Engineering Manager” is one of the most distorted salary titles in the market. In one company it means a people manager leading a software platform team of 8 to 12 engineers with hiring ownership, roadmap influence, and budget input. In another, it means a maintenance or manufacturing manager running shift performance, compliance, and plant reliability. That is why public salary sources show such different numbers. Reed currently shows an average UK Engineering Manager salary of about £59,779, while Indeed shows about £65,201, and IT Jobs Watch shows a median of £90,000 for Engineering Manager in UK tech job ads. Those are not contradictions. They are different slices of the market.
For candidates, the practical answer is this: in the UK, a realistic Engineering Manager salary usually sits in one of three bands. Broad engineering and manufacturing roles often land around £55,000 to £80,000. Stronger cross functional or larger scope roles often push into £80,000 to £100,000. Tech focused Engineering Manager roles, especially in product companies, fintech, scale ups, and stronger London markets, commonly cluster around £90,000 base and can move materially higher when bonus or equity is included. In London, generic averages remain noisy, with Reed showing about £69,730 and Indeed showing about £90,278, while London software engineering manager compensation on Levels.fyi is far higher on a total compensation basis, with a median around £155,935.
That means the right question is not “What is the Engineering Manager salary in the UK?” The right question is “Which Engineering Manager market am I actually in?”
If you want a fast benchmark before reading the deeper analysis, use this framework:
UK broad market Engineering Manager, traditional engineering, operations, manufacturing, maintenance: £55,000 to £80,000
Most salary pages fail because they flatten several different job families into one label.
From a recruiter’s perspective, there are at least five different UK markets hiding inside the same title:
Software Engineering Manager
Manufacturing Engineering Manager
Maintenance Engineering Manager
Quality Engineering Manager
Infrastructure, network, or platform Engineering Manager
These roles are not paid the same way because employers are not buying the same thing.
A software Engineering Manager is usually priced on leadership scope, product complexity, delivery maturity, architecture judgment, hiring strength, and the ability to scale teams without becoming a bottleneck.
A manufacturing or maintenance Engineering Manager is usually priced on plant criticality, downtime exposure, health and safety accountability, lean performance, CAPEX involvement, and operational risk.
A real Engineering Manager usually owns people, performance, hiring, prioritisation, and team health.
If the role includes:
Performance reviews
Hiring and firing input
Compensation calibration input
Stakeholder management across product, delivery, and leadership
Strategic planning
…the salary should move up.
Managing 4 experienced engineers is not priced the same as managing:
Typical range: £55,000 to £80,000, with stronger roles exceeding this depending on plant complexity and responsibility.
Typical base range: £85,000 to £120,000
Median benchmark: ~£90,000 in UK tech job data
Total compensation:
Median ~£155,000+
Top quartile £200,000+
Premium employers significantly higher
Senior Engineering Manager: £80,000 to £120,000+
UK stronger mid to upper market Engineering Manager, larger plant, regulated environment, multi site scope, bigger teams: £80,000 to £100,000+
UK software Engineering Manager, base salary: often £85,000 to £120,000, with £90,000 currently a strong median reference point in tech job ads
London software Engineering Manager, total compensation: often materially above base salary, with premium employers paying well above £150,000 total compensation
Senior Engineering Manager and Head of Software Engineering: often £100,000+ in UK tech
Contract Engineering Manager in UK tech: around £625 per day nationally and £650 per day in London
10 to 15 engineers
Multiple tech leads
Cross functional pods
Offshore or distributed teams
The bigger the team, the more the company is buying leadership bandwidth.
Sector changes compensation dramatically.
Software and product companies pay for scalability and impact
Manufacturing pays for reliability and operational risk
Infrastructure roles sit in between depending on criticality
Location still matters:
London carries premium potential
Manchester and Bristol show strong tech demand
Remote roles depend on company benchmarking strategy
Compensation follows scope:
Multi team ownership
Hiring plans
Budget responsibility
Strategic input
Business impact
Head of Engineering: £100,000+ and significantly higher in tech
Managed managers or senior leads
Strong hiring track record
Proven retention improvements
Commercial understanding
Cross functional leadership
Measurable impact
IC heavy CV with manager title
Vague leadership claims
No measurable outcomes
Responsibility lists without results
Frame your value based on comparable roles, not generic averages.
Include:
Base
Bonus
Equity
Pension
Allowances
Use metrics:
Team growth
Attrition reduction
Delivery improvements
Hiring success
Leadership capability
Business impact
Hiring and scaling ability
Cross functional influence
Headline
Summary
Core strengths
Experience with metrics
Tech stack secondary
Companies increase salary when they believe you reduce risk:
Leadership maturity
Operational credibility
Business judgment
Senior Engineer to Manager
Engineering Manager
Senior Engineering Manager
Head of Engineering
Candidate Name: James Walker
Target Role: Engineering Manager
Location: London, United Kingdom
Professional Summary
Engineering Manager with 11 years experience leading teams of up to 14 engineers, improving delivery, retention, and hiring outcomes in high growth SaaS environments.
Core Competencies
Engineering leadership
Team scaling
Hiring
Stakeholder management
Delivery planning
Professional Experience
Engineering Manager, Fintech Company, London
2022 to Present
Led team of 14 engineers
Improved delivery predictability from 61 percent to 89 percent
Reduced attrition from 18 percent to 7 percent
Hired 8 engineers in 14 months
Senior Software Engineer, Team Lead
2018 to 2022
Managed team of 6 engineers
Improved release cycles
Mentored engineers into senior roles
Education
BSc Computer Science
Managed engineering team and delivered projects.
Led team of 11 engineers, improved delivery predictability from 64 percent to 88 percent, reduced incidents by 29 percent.
Broad market: £55,000 to £80,000
Mid to high scope: £80,000 to £100,000+
Software roles: ~£90,000 median base
London total comp: £150,000+ potential
Salary depends on scope, sector, and impact, not title alone.
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