Software Developer Job Trends in the North West

Software Developer
England > North West

The median Software Developer salary in the North West is £55,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 8 May 2026.

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

6 months to
8 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 82 35 103
Rank change year-on-year -47 +68 +81
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Developer 179 407 214
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 1.73% 9.37% 2.30%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.91% 10.77% 2.42%
Number of salaries quoted 173 24 180
10th Percentile £28,250 £37,500 £36,250
25th Percentile £48,750 £40,125 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £47,250 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +16.40% -5.50% -9.09%
75th Percentile £68,750 £54,750 £61,250
90th Percentile £75,000 £64,550 £70,000
England median annual salary £57,500 £60,000 £53,500
% change year-on-year -4.17% +12.15% -6.96%

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 9,381 3,779 8,832
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.80% 86.97% 94.75%
Number of salaries quoted 6,217 2,175 7,055
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,000 £27,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £40,000 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £54,793 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +0.38% +9.59% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £70,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £87,500 £84,340 £78,750
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £54,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +11.11% -11.18%

Software Developer
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

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

Software Developer job vacancy trend in the North West

Software Developer
Salary Trend in the North West

Salary distribution trend for Software Developer job vacancies in the North West.

Salary distribution trend for Software Developer job vacancies in the North West

Software Developer
Salary Histogram in the North West

Salary distribution for jobs citing Software Developer in the North West over the 6 months to 8 May 2026.

Salary histogram for Software Developer in the North West

Software Developer
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 Software Developer within the North West region over the 6 months to 8 May 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
Cheshire +19 90 £55,000 +15.79% 5
Manchester +19 69 £65,000 +10.17% 9
Merseyside -32 10 £35,250 -25.00% 4
Lancashire -59 10 £70,000 +75.00% 12
Software Developer
England

Software Developer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West

For the 6 months to 8 May 2026, Software Developer 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 Software Developer in the job title.

1 73 (40.78%) Azure
2 66 (36.87%) C#
3 54 (30.17%) .NET
4 46 (25.70%) SQL Server
5 43 (24.02%) Microsoft
6 41 (22.91%) ASP.NET
7 38 (21.23%) .NET Core
8 35 (19.55%) SQL
9 31 (17.32%) Software Engineering
10 30 (16.76%) Agile
11 27 (15.08%) Mentoring
12 24 (13.41%) Full-Stack Development
13 23 (12.85%) .NET Framework
14 20 (11.17%) AWS
15 19 (10.61%) RAD
16 17 (9.50%) CI/CD
16 17 (9.50%) CSS
16 17 (9.50%) Fintech
16 17 (9.50%) Git
17 16 (8.94%) Java
17 16 (8.94%) JavaScript
17 16 (8.94%) Python
18 15 (8.38%) HTML
19 14 (7.82%) Clean Code
20 13 (7.26%) Degree
20 13 (7.26%) DevOps
21 11 (6.15%) AWS Certification
21 11 (6.15%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
21 11 (6.15%) Azure Certification
21 11 (6.15%) Cybersecurity

Software Developer 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 2 (1.12%) IIS
2 1 (0.56%) Apache
2 1 (0.56%) nginx
Cloud Services
1 73 (40.78%) Azure
2 20 (11.17%) AWS
3 11 (6.15%) GitHub
4 7 (3.91%) SaaS
5 6 (3.35%) Azure DevOps
6 4 (2.23%) Serverless
7 3 (1.68%) Azure Key Vault
7 3 (1.68%) Entra ID
7 3 (1.68%) Figma
8 2 (1.12%) Azure Monitor
8 2 (1.12%) GCP
9 1 (0.56%) Cloud Run
9 1 (0.56%) Firebase
9 1 (0.56%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 11 (6.15%) Internet
2 1 (0.56%) HTTPS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 46 (25.70%) SQL Server
2 3 (1.68%) MySQL
3 2 (1.12%) PostgreSQL
3 2 (1.12%) Relational Database
4 1 (0.56%) Azure SQL Database
4 1 (0.56%) Data Lake
4 1 (0.56%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 17 (9.50%) Git
2 3 (1.68%) NUnit
3 2 (1.12%) Bitbucket
4 1 (0.56%) GitLab
4 1 (0.56%) gulp
4 1 (0.56%) webpack
General
1 11 (6.15%) Finance
1 11 (6.15%) Multimedia
2 7 (3.91%) Banking
3 3 (1.68%) Social Skills
4 2 (1.12%) Electronics
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 54 (30.17%) .NET
2 41 (22.91%) ASP.NET
3 38 (21.23%) .NET Core
4 23 (12.85%) .NET Framework
5 17 (9.50%) CSS
6 15 (8.38%) HTML
7 6 (3.35%) React
8 5 (2.79%) RESTful
9 4 (2.23%) AngularJS
9 4 (2.23%) Entity Framework
9 4 (2.23%) Spring
9 4 (2.23%) Spring Boot
10 3 (1.68%) ASP.NET Core
10 3 (1.68%) OpenAPI
10 3 (1.68%) Swagger
10 3 (1.68%) Vitest
11 2 (1.12%) ASP.NET Web API
11 2 (1.12%) Node.js
11 2 (1.12%) RxJS
11 2 (1.12%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 8 (4.47%) Cloud Native
2 3 (1.68%) Greenfield Project
2 3 (1.68%) IoT
2 3 (1.68%) Mobile App
3 2 (1.12%) Enterprise Software
4 1 (0.56%) Legacy Systems
4 1 (0.56%) Lidar
4 1 (0.56%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 1 (0.56%) Android
1 1 (0.56%) Apple iOS
1 1 (0.56%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 31 (17.32%) Software Engineering
2 30 (16.76%) Agile
3 27 (15.08%) Mentoring
4 24 (13.41%) Full-Stack Development
5 19 (10.61%) RAD
6 17 (9.50%) CI/CD
6 17 (9.50%) Fintech
7 14 (7.82%) Clean Code
8 13 (7.26%) DevOps
9 11 (6.15%) Cybersecurity
10 8 (4.47%) API Development
10 8 (4.47%) Computer Science
10 8 (4.47%) TDD
11 7 (3.91%) Infrastructure as Code
12 6 (3.35%) Continuous Improvement
12 6 (3.35%) Open Source
12 6 (3.35%) Scrum
13 5 (2.79%) Line Management
13 5 (2.79%) MVC
14 4 (2.23%) Secure Coding
Programming Languages
1 66 (36.87%) C#
2 35 (19.55%) SQL
3 16 (8.94%) Java
3 16 (8.94%) JavaScript
3 16 (8.94%) Python
4 11 (6.15%) TypeScript
5 10 (5.59%) PHP
6 3 (1.68%) Bicep
6 3 (1.68%) C++
7 1 (0.56%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 13 (7.26%) Degree
2 11 (6.15%) AWS Certification
2 11 (6.15%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
2 11 (6.15%) Azure Certification
2 11 (6.15%) Microsoft Certification
3 8 (4.47%) Computer Science Degree
4 1 (0.56%) DV Cleared
4 1 (0.56%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (1.12%) QA
2 1 (0.56%) Accessibility
System Software
1 7 (3.91%) Docker
Systems Management
1 5 (2.79%) Terraform
2 4 (2.23%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 43 (24.02%) Microsoft
2 3 (1.68%) DevExpress
3 2 (1.12%) Google
4 1 (0.56%) Adobe
4 1 (0.56%) Splunk
4 1 (0.56%) Zoho