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 31 March 2026.

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

6 months to
31 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 94 154 108
Rank change year-on-year +60 -46 +80
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Developer 137 39 192
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 1.56% 1.08% 2.24%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.75% 1.20% 2.35%
Number of salaries quoted 131 34 162
10th Percentile £28,250 £38,550 £36,250
25th Percentile £45,000 £43,500 £39,063
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% - -
75th Percentile £65,000 £54,688 £61,250
90th Percentile £75,000 £60,950 £70,000
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £53,500
% change year-on-year -8.33% +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 7,835 3,249 8,157
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 89.21% 89.83% 95.01%
Number of salaries quoted 4,938 2,212 6,575
10th Percentile £29,000 £31,250 £27,500
25th Percentile £37,500 £40,620 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £54,793 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.75% +9.59% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £70,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £83,750 £80,000
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -8.71%

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 31 March 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 31 March 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 +39 60 £65,000 +22.64% 13
Cheshire +1 58 £55,000 +10.00% 17
Merseyside -3 15 £30,500 -35.11%
Lancashire -16 3 £55,000 +37.50% 4
Cumbria -16 1 - -
Software Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 31 March 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 68 (49.64%) Azure
2 51 (37.23%) .NET
3 49 (35.77%) C#
4 48 (35.04%) Microsoft
5 35 (25.55%) ASP.NET
6 33 (24.09%) SQL Server
7 30 (21.90%) .NET Core
7 30 (21.90%) SQL
8 29 (21.17%) Agile
9 28 (20.44%) Mentoring
10 27 (19.71%) JavaScript
10 27 (19.71%) Software Engineering
11 25 (18.25%) AWS
11 25 (18.25%) CSS
12 24 (17.52%) HTML
13 23 (16.79%) Git
13 23 (16.79%) Python
14 19 (13.87%) .NET Framework
14 19 (13.87%) AWS Certification
14 19 (13.87%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
14 19 (13.87%) Azure Certification
14 19 (13.87%) Cybersecurity
14 19 (13.87%) Full-Stack Development
14 19 (13.87%) GitHub
14 19 (13.87%) Internet
14 19 (13.87%) Microsoft Certification
15 17 (12.41%) RAD
16 15 (10.95%) CI/CD
17 14 (10.22%) Java
18 12 (8.76%) TypeScript

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 1 (0.73%) Apache
1 1 (0.73%) IIS
1 1 (0.73%) nginx
Cloud Services
1 68 (49.64%) Azure
2 25 (18.25%) AWS
3 19 (13.87%) GitHub
4 5 (3.65%) SaaS
5 2 (1.46%) Azure DevOps
5 2 (1.46%) Azure Key Vault
5 2 (1.46%) Entra ID
5 2 (1.46%) Figma
5 2 (1.46%) GCP
5 2 (1.46%) Serverless
6 1 (0.73%) Azure Monitor
6 1 (0.73%) Cloud Run
6 1 (0.73%) Firebase
6 1 (0.73%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 19 (13.87%) Internet
2 1 (0.73%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (24.09%) SQL Server
2 2 (1.46%) MySQL
2 2 (1.46%) PostgreSQL
2 2 (1.46%) Relational Database
3 1 (0.73%) Azure SQL Database
3 1 (0.73%) Data Lake
3 1 (0.73%) MongoDB
3 1 (0.73%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 23 (16.79%) Git
2 2 (1.46%) NUnit
3 1 (0.73%) Bitbucket
3 1 (0.73%) GitLab
3 1 (0.73%) Jenkins
General
1 19 (13.87%) Multimedia
2 11 (8.03%) Finance
3 6 (4.38%) Social Skills
4 3 (2.19%) Electronics
5 2 (1.46%) Marketing
6 1 (0.73%) Banking
6 1 (0.73%) Manufacturing
6 1 (0.73%) Public Sector
6 1 (0.73%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 51 (37.23%) .NET
2 35 (25.55%) ASP.NET
3 30 (21.90%) .NET Core
4 25 (18.25%) CSS
5 24 (17.52%) HTML
6 19 (13.87%) .NET Framework
7 7 (5.11%) React
7 7 (5.11%) RESTful
8 5 (3.65%) ASP.NET Core
9 4 (2.92%) Node.js
10 3 (2.19%) CSS3
10 3 (2.19%) HTML5
10 3 (2.19%) Spring
10 3 (2.19%) Spring Boot
11 2 (1.46%) AngularJS
11 2 (1.46%) Entity Framework
11 2 (1.46%) FastAPI
11 2 (1.46%) Kafka
11 2 (1.46%) REST
11 2 (1.46%) Vitest
Miscellaneous
1 3 (2.19%) Cloud Native
1 3 (2.19%) Greenfield Project
1 3 (2.19%) Mobile App
2 2 (1.46%) Product Ownership
3 1 (0.73%) Enterprise Software
3 1 (0.73%) Legacy Systems
3 1 (0.73%) Lidar
3 1 (0.73%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 2 (1.46%) Linux
2 1 (0.73%) Android
2 1 (0.73%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 29 (21.17%) Agile
2 28 (20.44%) Mentoring
3 27 (19.71%) Software Engineering
4 19 (13.87%) Cybersecurity
4 19 (13.87%) Full-Stack Development
5 17 (12.41%) RAD
6 15 (10.95%) CI/CD
7 11 (8.03%) Fintech
8 10 (7.30%) Clean Code
8 10 (7.30%) DevOps
8 10 (7.30%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 7 (5.11%) Collaborative Culture
10 6 (4.38%) Open Source
10 6 (4.38%) User Experience
11 5 (3.65%) AI
11 5 (3.65%) Infrastructure as Code
12 4 (2.92%) Line Management
12 4 (2.92%) MVC
12 4 (2.92%) Scrum
12 4 (2.92%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 49 (35.77%) C#
2 30 (21.90%) SQL
3 27 (19.71%) JavaScript
4 23 (16.79%) Python
5 14 (10.22%) Java
6 12 (8.76%) TypeScript
7 6 (4.38%) PHP
8 2 (1.46%) Bicep
8 2 (1.46%) Go
9 1 (0.73%) C++
9 1 (0.73%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.73%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 19 (13.87%) AWS Certification
1 19 (13.87%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
1 19 (13.87%) Azure Certification
1 19 (13.87%) Microsoft Certification
2 8 (5.84%) Degree
3 3 (2.19%) Computer Science Degree
4 1 (0.73%) BPSS Clearance
4 1 (0.73%) DV Cleared
4 1 (0.73%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (0.73%) QA
System Software
1 4 (2.92%) Docker
Systems Management
1 3 (2.19%) Terraform
2 2 (1.46%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 48 (35.04%) Microsoft
2 2 (1.46%) DevExpress
2 2 (1.46%) Google
2 2 (1.46%) HubSpot
3 1 (0.73%) Adobe
3 1 (0.73%) Atlassian
3 1 (0.73%) Oracle
3 1 (0.73%) SAP