Software Developer Job Trends in the North West

Software Developer
England > North West

The median Software Developer salary in the North West is £65,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 2 August 2026.

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

6 months to
2 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 96 38 112
Rank change year-on-year -58 +74 +71
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Developer 179 417 160
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 1.54% 8.05% 1.90%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.62% 8.92% 1.99%
Number of salaries quoted 164 32 131
10th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £37,500
25th Percentile £50,000 £42,375 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £53,750 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +20.93% +7.50% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £60,875 £61,250
90th Percentile £75,000 £88,500 £69,800
England median annual salary £60,000 £65,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -7.69% +18.18% -8.33%

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 11,074 4,675 8,030
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 95.24% 90.29% 95.53%
Number of salaries quoted 8,295 2,447 5,728
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,500 £29,925
25th Percentile £40,000 £35,000 £39,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £74,987 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £80,000 £80,000
England median annual salary £57,500 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.55% - -8.33%

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 2 August 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 2 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Manchester +8 75 £65,000 +8.33% 11
Cheshire +32 65 £60,000 +20.00% 1
Lancashire -39 28 £70,000 +75.00% 5
Merseyside -33 11 £40,000 -14.89% 2
Software Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 2 August 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 59 (32.96%) C#
2 43 (24.02%) Azure
3 42 (23.46%) .NET
4 39 (21.79%) Full-Stack Development
5 31 (17.32%) Software Engineering
6 29 (16.20%) Mentoring
6 29 (16.20%) SQL Server
7 22 (12.29%) CI/CD
7 22 (12.29%) Microsoft
8 21 (11.73%) Agile
8 21 (11.73%) ASP.NET
8 21 (11.73%) SQL
9 20 (11.17%) DevOps
10 19 (10.61%) .NET Core
10 19 (10.61%) Java
10 19 (10.61%) TypeScript
11 18 (10.06%) Clean Code
11 18 (10.06%) Python
12 16 (8.94%) API Development
12 16 (8.94%) AWS
13 12 (6.70%) Continuous Improvement
13 12 (6.70%) JavaScript
13 12 (6.70%) SaaS
13 12 (6.70%) TDD
14 11 (6.15%) CSS
14 11 (6.15%) Git
14 11 (6.15%) Serverless
15 10 (5.59%) .NET Framework
15 10 (5.59%) Azure DevOps
15 10 (5.59%) Degree

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 5 (2.79%) IIS
Business Applications
1 1 (0.56%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 43 (24.02%) Azure
2 16 (8.94%) AWS
3 12 (6.70%) SaaS
4 11 (6.15%) Serverless
5 10 (5.59%) Azure DevOps
6 5 (2.79%) Azure Monitor
7 4 (2.23%) Azure Functions
8 3 (1.68%) Azure Key Vault
8 3 (1.68%) Azure Service Bus
8 3 (1.68%) Entra ID
8 3 (1.68%) Figma
9 2 (1.12%) GitHub
10 1 (0.56%) Azure AKS
10 1 (0.56%) Azure Data Factory
10 1 (0.56%) Dynamics 365
10 1 (0.56%) Firebase
10 1 (0.56%) GCP
10 1 (0.56%) GitHub Copilot
10 1 (0.56%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 3 (1.68%) HTTP
1 3 (1.68%) HTTPS
2 1 (0.56%) Firewall
2 1 (0.56%) Internet
2 1 (0.56%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (16.20%) SQL Server
2 7 (3.91%) Relational Database
3 5 (2.79%) MySQL
4 4 (2.23%) PostgreSQL
5 2 (1.12%) Azure SQL Database
6 1 (0.56%) Data Lake
6 1 (0.56%) Power BI
6 1 (0.56%) Redis
6 1 (0.56%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 11 (6.15%) Git
2 3 (1.68%) GitLab
2 3 (1.68%) NUnit
3 2 (1.12%) Bitbucket
3 2 (1.12%) Eclipse
3 2 (1.12%) Jenkins
3 2 (1.12%) JUnit
3 2 (1.12%) Visual Studio Code
4 1 (0.56%) gulp
4 1 (0.56%) webpack
General
1 15 (8.38%) Banking
1 15 (8.38%) Finance
2 8 (4.47%) Social Skills
3 1 (0.56%) Aerospace
3 1 (0.56%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (0.56%) Automotive
3 1 (0.56%) Documentation Skills
3 1 (0.56%) Electronics
3 1 (0.56%) Marketing
3 1 (0.56%) Multimedia
3 1 (0.56%) Public Sector
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (23.46%) .NET
2 21 (11.73%) ASP.NET
3 19 (10.61%) .NET Core
4 11 (6.15%) CSS
5 10 (5.59%) .NET Framework
6 9 (5.03%) HTML
7 8 (4.47%) Spring
7 8 (4.47%) Spring Boot
7 8 (4.47%) Vue
8 6 (3.35%) ASP.NET Web API
8 6 (3.35%) Entity Framework
8 6 (3.35%) REST
9 5 (2.79%) ASP.NET MVC
9 5 (2.79%) OpenAPI
9 5 (2.79%) React
9 5 (2.79%) Swagger
10 4 (2.23%) CSS3
10 4 (2.23%) HTML5
10 4 (2.23%) JSON
10 4 (2.23%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 13 (7.26%) Cloud Native
2 6 (3.35%) Mobile App
3 5 (2.79%) IoT
4 4 (2.23%) Product Ownership
5 3 (1.68%) Online Gambling
5 3 (1.68%) Video\Live Streaming
6 2 (1.12%) Enterprise Software
7 1 (0.56%) Algorithms
7 1 (0.56%) Lidar
7 1 (0.56%) Management Information System
7 1 (0.56%) Marketing Technology
7 1 (0.56%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 5 (2.79%) Android
2 2 (1.12%) Apple iOS
3 1 (0.56%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 39 (21.79%) Full-Stack Development
2 31 (17.32%) Software Engineering
3 29 (16.20%) Mentoring
4 22 (12.29%) CI/CD
5 21 (11.73%) Agile
6 20 (11.17%) DevOps
7 18 (10.06%) Clean Code
8 16 (8.94%) API Development
9 12 (6.70%) Continuous Improvement
9 12 (6.70%) TDD
10 10 (5.59%) Fintech
10 10 (5.59%) Infrastructure as Code
10 10 (5.59%) Problem-Solving
10 10 (5.59%) Scrum
10 10 (5.59%) SDLC
11 9 (5.03%) MVC
11 9 (5.03%) Technical Leadership
11 9 (5.03%) Test Automation
12 8 (4.47%) Computer Science
13 7 (3.91%) Performance Optimisation
Programming Languages
1 59 (32.96%) C#
2 21 (11.73%) SQL
3 19 (10.61%) Java
3 19 (10.61%) TypeScript
4 18 (10.06%) Python
5 12 (6.70%) JavaScript
6 9 (5.03%) C++
7 8 (4.47%) PHP
8 3 (1.68%) Bicep
8 3 (1.68%) Go
8 3 (1.68%) Ruby
9 2 (1.12%) Scala
10 1 (0.56%) Apex Code
10 1 (0.56%) Kusto Query Language
10 1 (0.56%) T-SQL
10 1 (0.56%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 10 (5.59%) Degree
2 8 (4.47%) Computer Science Degree
3 3 (1.68%) Security Cleared
4 2 (1.12%) SC Cleared
5 1 (0.56%) AWS Certification
5 1 (0.56%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
5 1 (0.56%) Azure Certification
5 1 (0.56%) DV Cleared
5 1 (0.56%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (2.79%) QA
2 1 (0.56%) Accessibility
System Software
1 9 (5.03%) Docker
Systems Management
1 6 (3.35%) Kubernetes
1 6 (3.35%) Terraform
Vendors
1 22 (12.29%) Microsoft
2 5 (2.79%) Zoho
3 4 (2.23%) Splunk
4 3 (1.68%) DevExpress
5 1 (0.56%) Google
5 1 (0.56%) New Relic
5 1 (0.56%) Salesforce