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 9 May 2026.

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

6 months to
9 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 85 34 103
Rank change year-on-year -51 +69 +86
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Developer 181 407 214
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 1.75% 9.25% 2.29%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.92% 10.58% 2.41%
Number of salaries quoted 175 24 180
10th Percentile £28,250 £37,500 £36,250
25th Percentile £49,375 £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 £61,500 £53,500
% change year-on-year -6.50% +14.95% -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 9,445 3,846 8,866
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.39% 87.37% 94.72%
Number of salaries quoted 6,277 2,190 7,084
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% -8.90%
75th Percentile £70,000 £71,250 £65,000
90th Percentile £87,500 £85,000 £78,750
England median annual salary £55,000 £59,500 £54,000
% change year-on-year -7.56% +10.19% -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 9 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 9 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 +21 71 £65,000 +10.17% 11
Merseyside -31 10 £35,250 -25.00% 4
Lancashire -58 10 £70,000 +75.00% 13
Software Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 9 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 (40.33%) Azure
2 66 (36.46%) C#
3 54 (29.83%) .NET
4 46 (25.41%) SQL Server
5 43 (23.76%) Microsoft
6 41 (22.65%) ASP.NET
7 38 (20.99%) .NET Core
8 35 (19.34%) SQL
9 32 (17.68%) Software Engineering
10 31 (17.13%) Agile
11 29 (16.02%) Mentoring
12 25 (13.81%) Full-Stack Development
13 23 (12.71%) .NET Framework
14 22 (12.15%) AWS
15 19 (10.50%) RAD
16 18 (9.94%) CI/CD
17 17 (9.39%) CSS
17 17 (9.39%) Fintech
17 17 (9.39%) Git
17 17 (9.39%) Java
17 17 (9.39%) Python
18 16 (8.84%) JavaScript
19 15 (8.29%) Clean Code
19 15 (8.29%) HTML
20 14 (7.73%) DevOps
21 13 (7.18%) Degree
22 11 (6.08%) AWS Certification
22 11 (6.08%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
22 11 (6.08%) Azure Certification
22 11 (6.08%) 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 (1.10%) IIS
2 1 (0.55%) Apache
2 1 (0.55%) nginx
Cloud Services
1 73 (40.33%) Azure
2 22 (12.15%) AWS
3 11 (6.08%) GitHub
4 7 (3.87%) SaaS
5 6 (3.31%) Azure DevOps
6 5 (2.76%) Serverless
7 3 (1.66%) Azure Key Vault
7 3 (1.66%) Entra ID
7 3 (1.66%) Figma
8 2 (1.10%) Azure Monitor
8 2 (1.10%) GCP
9 1 (0.55%) Cloud Run
9 1 (0.55%) Firebase
9 1 (0.55%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 11 (6.08%) Internet
2 1 (0.55%) HTTPS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 46 (25.41%) SQL Server
2 3 (1.66%) MySQL
3 2 (1.10%) PostgreSQL
3 2 (1.10%) Relational Database
4 1 (0.55%) Azure SQL Database
4 1 (0.55%) Data Lake
4 1 (0.55%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 17 (9.39%) Git
2 3 (1.66%) NUnit
3 2 (1.10%) Bitbucket
4 1 (0.55%) GitLab
4 1 (0.55%) gulp
4 1 (0.55%) webpack
General
1 11 (6.08%) Finance
1 11 (6.08%) Multimedia
2 7 (3.87%) Banking
3 3 (1.66%) Social Skills
4 2 (1.10%) Electronics
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 54 (29.83%) .NET
2 41 (22.65%) ASP.NET
3 38 (20.99%) .NET Core
4 23 (12.71%) .NET Framework
5 17 (9.39%) CSS
6 15 (8.29%) HTML
7 6 (3.31%) React
8 5 (2.76%) RESTful
8 5 (2.76%) Spring
8 5 (2.76%) Spring Boot
9 4 (2.21%) AngularJS
9 4 (2.21%) Entity Framework
10 3 (1.66%) ASP.NET Core
10 3 (1.66%) OpenAPI
10 3 (1.66%) Swagger
10 3 (1.66%) Vitest
11 2 (1.10%) Node.js
11 2 (1.10%) REST
11 2 (1.10%) RxJS
11 2 (1.10%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 9 (4.97%) Cloud Native
2 4 (2.21%) Mobile App
3 3 (1.66%) Greenfield Project
3 3 (1.66%) IoT
4 2 (1.10%) Enterprise Software
5 1 (0.55%) Legacy Systems
5 1 (0.55%) Lidar
5 1 (0.55%) Product Ownership
5 1 (0.55%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 1 (0.55%) Android
1 1 (0.55%) Apple iOS
1 1 (0.55%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 32 (17.68%) Software Engineering
2 31 (17.13%) Agile
3 29 (16.02%) Mentoring
4 25 (13.81%) Full-Stack Development
5 19 (10.50%) RAD
6 18 (9.94%) CI/CD
7 17 (9.39%) Fintech
8 15 (8.29%) Clean Code
9 14 (7.73%) DevOps
10 11 (6.08%) Cybersecurity
11 9 (4.97%) TDD
12 8 (4.42%) API Development
12 8 (4.42%) Computer Science
12 8 (4.42%) Infrastructure as Code
13 7 (3.87%) Continuous Improvement
13 7 (3.87%) Scrum
14 6 (3.31%) Open Source
14 6 (3.31%) Test Automation
15 5 (2.76%) Line Management
15 5 (2.76%) MVC
Programming Languages
1 66 (36.46%) C#
2 35 (19.34%) SQL
3 17 (9.39%) Java
3 17 (9.39%) Python
4 16 (8.84%) JavaScript
5 11 (6.08%) TypeScript
6 10 (5.52%) PHP
7 3 (1.66%) Bicep
7 3 (1.66%) C++
8 1 (0.55%) Ruby
8 1 (0.55%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 13 (7.18%) Degree
2 11 (6.08%) AWS Certification
2 11 (6.08%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
2 11 (6.08%) Azure Certification
2 11 (6.08%) Microsoft Certification
3 8 (4.42%) Computer Science Degree
4 1 (0.55%) DV Cleared
4 1 (0.55%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (1.10%) QA
2 1 (0.55%) Accessibility
System Software
1 8 (4.42%) Docker
Systems Management
1 6 (3.31%) Terraform
2 5 (2.76%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 43 (23.76%) Microsoft
2 3 (1.66%) DevExpress
3 2 (1.10%) Google
4 1 (0.55%) Adobe
4 1 (0.55%) Splunk
4 1 (0.55%) Zoho