IT Manager Job Trends in the North West

IT Manager
England > North West

The median IT Manager salary in the North West is £55,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 1 January 2026.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 97 107 98
Rank change year-on-year +10 -9 +113
Permanent jobs requiring an IT Manager 85 98 94
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 1.38% 1.88% 2.42%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.61% 2.04% 2.54%
Number of salaries quoted 81 60 79
10th Percentile £39,750 £39,623 £36,250
25th Percentile £45,000 £42,188 £41,875
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £51,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +7.84% -2.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £62,500 £62,438 £61,384
90th Percentile £67,500 £70,000 £69,000
England median annual salary £55,000 £57,500 £57,500
% change year-on-year -4.35% - -2.46%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
North West

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent 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 permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in the North West with a recognized job title 5,292 4,814 3,704
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 85.87% 92.58% 95.32%
Number of salaries quoted 2,849 2,546 2,878
10th Percentile £28,000 £32,750 £30,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £51,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -2.91% -1.90% -0.47%
75th Percentile £65,000 £66,250 £68,750
90th Percentile £80,000 £80,000 £82,500
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -1.64%

IT Manager
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

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

IT Manager job vacancy trend in the North West

IT Manager
Salary Trend in the North West

Salary distribution trend for IT Manager job vacancies in the North West.

Salary distribution trend for IT Manager job vacancies in the North West

IT Manager
Salary Histogram in the North West

Salary distribution for jobs citing IT Manager in the North West over the 6 months to 1 January 2026.

Salary histogram for IT Manager in the North West

IT Manager
Job Locations in the North West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing IT Manager within the North West region over the 6 months to 1 January 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Manchester -3 30 £45,000 -11.76% 20
Cheshire -1 22 £57,500 +35.29% 13
Lancashire +14 20 £45,000 -23.08% 13
Cumbria +3 7 £50,000 -13.03%
Merseyside -3 5 £60,000 +33.33% 3
IT Manager
England

IT Manager Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West

For the 6 months to 1 January 2026, IT Manager 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 permanent job ads across the North West region featuring IT Manager in the job title.

1 20 (23.53%) Project Management
2 18 (21.18%) Microsoft 365
3 15 (17.65%) Service Delivery
4 14 (16.47%) Cybersecurity
4 14 (16.47%) Microsoft
4 14 (16.47%) Project Delivery
5 13 (15.29%) Azure
5 13 (15.29%) Continuous Improvement
6 12 (14.12%) Active Directory
6 12 (14.12%) Coaching
6 12 (14.12%) Degree
7 11 (12.94%) ITIL
7 11 (12.94%) SharePoint
7 11 (12.94%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 10 (11.76%) Problem-Solving
8 10 (11.76%) Windows
9 9 (10.59%) Firewall
9 9 (10.59%) Risk Management
10 8 (9.41%) Mentoring
10 8 (9.41%) Server Management
10 8 (9.41%) Stakeholder Management
10 8 (9.41%) VMware
10 8 (9.41%) Windows Server
11 7 (8.24%) Disaster Recovery
11 7 (8.24%) User Experience
11 7 (8.24%) VPN
11 7 (8.24%) WAN
12 6 (7.06%) Agile
12 6 (7.06%) Cisco
12 6 (7.06%) Entra ID

IT 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:

Application Platforms
1 11 (12.94%) SharePoint
2 3 (3.53%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (1.18%) LiveLink
Applications
1 3 (3.53%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 18 (21.18%) Microsoft 365
2 13 (15.29%) Azure
3 6 (7.06%) Entra ID
4 2 (2.35%) AWS
4 2 (2.35%) GCP
5 1 (1.18%) Azure Sentinel
5 1 (1.18%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 9 (10.59%) Firewall
2 7 (8.24%) VPN
2 7 (8.24%) WAN
3 6 (7.06%) LAN
3 6 (7.06%) VLAN
4 4 (4.71%) Network Security
5 3 (3.53%) BGP
5 3 (3.53%) DHCP
5 3 (3.53%) DNS
5 3 (3.53%) OSPF
5 3 (3.53%) SD-WAN
5 3 (3.53%) TCP/IP
6 1 (1.18%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.18%) Data Warehouse
General
1 27 (31.76%) Social Skills
2 12 (14.12%) Finance
3 8 (9.41%) Analytical Skills
4 6 (7.06%) Public Sector
5 3 (3.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 3 (3.53%) Pharmaceutical
5 3 (3.53%) Retail
6 2 (2.35%) Local Government
6 2 (2.35%) Police
7 1 (1.18%) Documentation Skills
7 1 (1.18%) Influencing Skills
7 1 (1.18%) Law
7 1 (1.18%) Legal
7 1 (1.18%) Manufacturing
7 1 (1.18%) Organisational Skills
7 1 (1.18%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (1.18%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 3 (3.53%) Data Centre
1 3 (3.53%) Management Information System
2 2 (2.35%) Life Science
2 2 (2.35%) Onboarding
2 2 (2.35%) Virtual Team
3 1 (1.18%) Driving Licence
3 1 (1.18%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 10 (11.76%) Windows
2 8 (9.41%) Windows Server
3 5 (5.88%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 20 (23.53%) Project Management
2 15 (17.65%) Service Delivery
3 14 (16.47%) Cybersecurity
3 14 (16.47%) Project Delivery
4 13 (15.29%) Continuous Improvement
5 12 (14.12%) Coaching
6 11 (12.94%) ITIL
6 11 (12.94%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 10 (11.76%) Problem-Solving
8 9 (10.59%) Risk Management
9 8 (9.41%) Mentoring
9 8 (9.41%) Server Management
9 8 (9.41%) Stakeholder Management
10 7 (8.24%) Disaster Recovery
10 7 (8.24%) User Experience
11 6 (7.06%) Agile
11 6 (7.06%) Service Management
12 5 (5.88%) Business Continuity
12 5 (5.88%) Change Management
12 5 (5.88%) PRINCE2
Programming Languages
1 4 (4.71%) SQL
2 1 (1.18%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 12 (14.12%) Degree
2 5 (5.88%) DBS Check
3 3 (3.53%) CCIE
3 3 (3.53%) Cisco Certification
3 3 (3.53%) CISSP
3 3 (3.53%) TOGAF Certification
4 2 (2.35%) CISA
4 2 (2.35%) CRISC
5 1 (1.18%) BPSS Clearance
5 1 (1.18%) CISM
5 1 (1.18%) GCFA
5 1 (1.18%) GCFE
5 1 (1.18%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (7.06%) GDPR
2 5 (5.88%) Cyber Essentials
2 5 (5.88%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (2.35%) COBIT
3 2 (2.35%) ITGC
3 2 (2.35%) NIST
3 2 (2.35%) QA
3 2 (2.35%) SLA
4 1 (1.18%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 1 (1.18%) IASME
4 1 (1.18%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 12 (14.12%) Active Directory
2 5 (5.88%) Firmware
3 3 (3.53%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (2.35%) Docker
5 1 (1.18%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (1.18%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 3 (3.53%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (2.35%) Ansible
2 2 (2.35%) Kubernetes
2 2 (2.35%) Progress Chef
2 2 (2.35%) Puppet
2 2 (2.35%) Terraform
3 1 (1.18%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 14 (16.47%) Microsoft
2 8 (9.41%) VMware
3 6 (7.06%) Cisco
4 3 (3.53%) Sage
5 2 (2.35%) Fortinet
6 1 (1.18%) CrowdStrike
6 1 (1.18%) Extreme Networks
6 1 (1.18%) F5
6 1 (1.18%) HP
6 1 (1.18%) Palo Alto