Software Development Manager Contract Job Trends in the North West

Software Development Manager
England > North West

The median Software Development Manager daily rate in the North West is £725, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 August 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 176 - 123
Rank change year-on-year - - +29
Contract jobs requiring a Software Development Manager 2 0 4
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 0.053% - 0.17%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.058% - 0.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 2 0 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £700 - £505
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £725 - £510
Median % change year-on-year - - -11.30%
75th Percentile £775 - £515
90th Percentile £790 - -
England median daily rate £680 £550 £450
% change year-on-year +23.64% +22.22% -25.00%

All Contract IT Job Roles
North West

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the North West. 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 contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the North West with a recognized job title 3,428 2,007 2,271
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.17% 92.15% 94.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,926 1,282 1,397
10th Percentile £295 £252 £259
25th Percentile £400 £363 £389
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £499 £450 £490
Median % change year-on-year +10.94% -8.16% -2.00%
75th Percentile £595 £553 £586
90th Percentile £675 £665 £675
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 397 159 217
10th Percentile £17.25 £13.00 £11.63
25th Percentile £25.38 £17.30 £16.58
Median hourly rate £50.00 £27.00 £34.21
Median % change year-on-year +85.19% -21.08% +16.76%
75th Percentile £73.25 £50.00 £55.25
90th Percentile £83.75 £73.75 £71.87
England median hourly rate £45.00 £26.28 £43.90
% change year-on-year +71.23% -40.14% +2.09%

Software Development Manager
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Software Development Manager' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West.

Software Development Manager job vacancy trend in the North West

Software Development Manager
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Software Development Manager job vacancies in the North West.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Software Development Manager job vacancies in the North West

Software Development Manager
Contract Job Locations in the North West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Software Development Manager within the North West region over the 6 months to 1 August 2026. 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Manchester - 2 £725 - 13
Software Development Manager
England

Software Development Manager Skill Set
Top 14 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West

For the 6 months to 1 August 2026, Software Development Manager contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the North West region featuring Software Development Manager in the job title.

1 2 (100.00%) Migration
2 1 (50.00%) Agile
2 1 (50.00%) AWS
2 1 (50.00%) Case Management
2 1 (50.00%) CI/CD
2 1 (50.00%) DevOps
2 1 (50.00%) Jakarta EE
2 1 (50.00%) Java
2 1 (50.00%) SDLC
2 1 (50.00%) Software Engineering
2 1 (50.00%) Spring
2 1 (50.00%) Spring Boot
2 1 (50.00%) Stakeholder Management
2 1 (50.00%) Supplier Management

Software Development Manager Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Cloud Services
1 1 (50.00%) AWS
General
1 1 (50.00%) Banking
1 1 (50.00%) Finance
1 1 (50.00%) Law
1 1 (50.00%) Legal
1 1 (50.00%) Retail
1 1 (50.00%) Social Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (50.00%) Jakarta EE
1 1 (50.00%) Spring
1 1 (50.00%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 1 (50.00%) Credit Risk
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (100.00%) Migration
2 1 (50.00%) Agile
2 1 (50.00%) Case Management
2 1 (50.00%) CI/CD
2 1 (50.00%) DevOps
2 1 (50.00%) SDLC
2 1 (50.00%) Software Engineering
2 1 (50.00%) Stakeholder Management
2 1 (50.00%) Supplier Management
Programming Languages
1 1 (50.00%) Java