2026 London Tech Salary Report

Senior engineering compensation in London has moved more in the past 18 months than at any point since 2022. The post-correction reset of 2023 is firmly behind us; what we’re seeing now is a market shaped by AI, by the slow normalisation of remote-first hiring, and by the divergence between scale-ups that raised at 2021 valuations and those that didn’t.

This report covers the senior end of the engineering market — staff, principal, engineering management, and director-and-above roles — across permanent placements made by Hexford Talent in London between January 2024 and March 2026.

Headline findings

The Staff Engineer band has moved most. The median base for a Staff Engineer in a Series B-C London company is now £155,000, up from £138,000 in mid-2024. The top quartile sits at £180,000 base, with equity packages varying enormously depending on the stage and discipline of the company.

Principal Engineer roles are more bimodal than they were. We’re seeing two distinct populations: scale-up Principals at £165-190k base with meaningful equity, and enterprise Principals (banks, insurers) at £140-165k base with lower or no equity. The gap between these two populations has widened.

Engineering management compensation has lagged individual contributor pay for the first time in our data. A Senior Engineering Manager today often earns less than the Staff Engineers reporting to them — particularly in the AI-adjacent companies where IC scarcity has driven IC compensation up faster than management.

What’s actually moving the market

Three things, in our view.

First, AI talent compression. Anyone with credible production ML experience is commanding 20-30% premiums over equivalent backend roles. This is bleeding upward into the senior bands and is starting to distort how companies structure their senior IC ladders.

Second, the return of in-person preference. The most recent year’s data shows a clear premium (around 8-12%) for candidates willing to commit to three or more days in office in London-based roles. Remote-first compensation has flattened.

Third, the equity discount. We’re seeing candidates put substantially less weight on equity at Series B and below than they did 18 months ago. This is rational given the public market environment, and it means cash compensation has had to absorb more of the package.

What this means for hiring

If you’re hiring senior engineers in London, the implication is straightforward: the cash component of your packages needs to be benchmarked against current market data, not the data you had 12 months ago. Companies still operating on 2024 budgets are finding themselves outside the competitive range and don’t always realise it until they’ve lost two or three candidates.

The good news is that the volume of senior talent in the market has improved. Several large employers have made redundancies in the past 6 months and we’re seeing strong candidates we didn’t see a year ago. Hiring well at this level is more possible now than it has been since 2022 — if your compensation is right.

Methodology

This report draws on offers extended and placements completed by Hexford Talent between January 2024 and March 2026 — 1,427 data points in total. We’ve excluded contract roles, roles outside the M25, and roles where the candidate had a pre-existing relationship with the hiring company. Compensation figures are quoted as base salary; equity and bonus are noted separately in the full report.

To request the full report including breakdowns by company stage, sub-discipline, and seniority band, contact Anya Petrova at Hexford Talent.