According to The Engineer‘s 2018 Salary Survey, the average salary among aerospace engineers is £47,752, up slightly from £46,362 in 2017. Junior engineers in the sector earn an average of £32,920, up from £29,581 in 2017.
The aerospace industry is worth £35bn to the UK economy, with £30bn coming from exports. The successful UK sector has also achieved 39 per cent growth since 2012, according to industry body ADS.
What’s more, the UK space sector is booming, growing 71 per cent since 2012, and now has a turnover of nearly £15bn per year.
Average aerospace engineer salary by seniority*
| Junior engineer | £32,920 |
| Senior engineer/manager | £50,015 |
| Director or above | £67,512 |
*All data from The Engineer Salary Survey 2018.
Engineers from the aerospace sector make up 9.6 per cent of respondents to our survey, the joint-second-largest group behind automotive engineers.
The average salary among aerospace engineers is £47,752, up slightly from £46,362 in 2017. Junior engineers in the sector earn an average of £32,920, up from £29,581 in 2017.
Among directors, salaries in the sector have remained relatively static compared to those of last year, with an average of £67,511 in 2018, compared with £67,538 in 2017. Senior engineers and managers, however, have seen their average earnings increase from £48,658 in 2017 to £50,014 in 2018.
Average aerospace engineer salary by region*
| Scotland/Wales or NI | £45,286 |
| Midlands or East Anglia | £45,955 |
| North of England | £46,750 |
| London or SE England | £46,774 |
| South West England | £48,634 |
| Outside UK | £61,461 |
*All data from The Engineer Salary Survey 2018.
Geographically speaking, aerospace engineers are relatively evenly spread across the country, with 26.9 per cent based in the Midlands and East Anglia, followed by 23.5 per cent in both the South West and London and the South East, and 13.6 per cent in the North of England.
Aerospace engineers based outside of the UK earn the highest salaries among the different regions, with an average of £61,461, compared with £45,285 in Scotland.
Almost three-quarters of aerospace engineers would consider moving to a different sector, a slight drop on last year, with the automotive and defence industries being their top destinations.
Around half of aerospace engineers are happy in their job, 32.9 per cent are satisfied with their pay, and 83.5 per cent expect to remain in the industry for the next five years, up from 78.5 per cent in 2017.
However, aerospace engineers are slightly more concerned than those in other sectors about the impact of Brexit on their own job security, with 44.3 per cent describing themselves as quite or very concerned, compared with 37.1 per cent for the profession overall. This may reflect the importance of the export market to the aerospace sector.
It's worth noting that this survey was conducted before the recent news (June 2018) that Airbus - which directly employs 14,000 people in the UK - is preparing for a withdrawal from the UK in the even of a no-deal Brexit.
The Engineer’s 2018 Salary Survey was conducted in partnership with technical recruitment consultancy CBSbutler.
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