Software Engineer Job Trends in the North West

Software Engineer
England > North West

The median Software Engineer salary in the North West is £70,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 30 June 2026.

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

6 months to
30 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 28 35 23
Rank change year-on-year +7 -12 +90
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Engineer 519 435 687
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 4.68% 8.89% 6.36%
As % of the Job Titles category 4.96% 10.00% 6.67%
Number of salaries quoted 449 124 462
10th Percentile £50,000 £50,000 £38,084
25th Percentile £55,000 £62,500 £45,313
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £75,000 £59,250
Median % change year-on-year -6.67% +26.58% -1.25%
75th Percentile £80,000 £93,778 £70,000
90th Percentile £98,000 £117,000 £80,000
England median annual salary £70,000 £78,810 £60,000
% change year-on-year -11.18% +31.35% -14.29%

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 10,471 4,352 10,293
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.44% 88.94% 95.25%
Number of salaries quoted 7,906 2,216 7,853
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,000 £27,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,250 £37,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £51,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.84% +2.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £72,250 £68,750 £65,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £82,500 £78,750
England median annual salary £57,500 £57,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year - +9.52% -12.50%

Software Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

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

Software Engineer job vacancy trend in the North West

Software Engineer
Salary Trend in the North West

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

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

Software Engineer
Salary Histogram in the North West

Salary distribution for jobs citing Software Engineer in the North West over the 6 months to 30 June 2026.

Salary histogram for Software Engineer in the North West

Software Engineer
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 Engineer within the North West region over the 6 months to 30 June 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 +8 415 £75,000 -1.64% 54
Cheshire -19 46 £60,000 -19.46% 5
Lancashire 0 38 £60,000 -20.00% 10
Merseyside -24 13 £70,000 +7.69% 4
Cumbria - 7 £50,000 - 2
Software Engineer
England

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

For the 6 months to 30 June 2026, Software Engineer 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 Engineer in the job title.

1 517 (99.61%) Software Engineering
2 101 (19.46%) AWS
3 81 (15.61%) Java
4 78 (15.03%) Agile
5 72 (13.87%) Full-Stack Development
6 68 (13.10%) DevOps
7 63 (12.14%) Python
8 60 (11.56%) CI/CD
9 59 (11.37%) .NET
10 57 (10.98%) Microservices
11 55 (10.60%) AI
12 54 (10.40%) C#
12 54 (10.40%) TypeScript
13 51 (9.83%) Azure
14 48 (9.25%) Mentoring
14 48 (9.25%) SQL
15 46 (8.86%) JavaScript
16 45 (8.67%) React
16 45 (8.67%) SaaS
17 41 (7.90%) Security Cleared
18 38 (7.32%) TDD
19 37 (7.13%) Node.js
20 35 (6.74%) Problem-Solving
21 32 (6.17%) Kubernetes
21 32 (6.17%) Serverless
22 31 (5.97%) Docker
23 30 (5.78%) DV Cleared
23 30 (5.78%) SC Cleared
23 30 (5.78%) Terraform
24 29 (5.59%) Scrum

Software Engineer 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 6 (1.16%) SharePoint Server
2 5 (0.96%) FactoryTalk
3 4 (0.77%) Apache Solr
3 4 (0.77%) GeoServer
4 3 (0.58%) Apache
4 3 (0.58%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.19%) CMS
5 1 (0.19%) Headless CMS
Applications
1 2 (0.39%) EngageOne
Business Applications
1 5 (0.96%) Magento
Cloud Services
1 101 (19.46%) AWS
2 51 (9.83%) Azure
3 45 (8.67%) SaaS
4 32 (6.17%) Serverless
5 16 (3.08%) GCP
6 14 (2.70%) Anthropic Claude
7 9 (1.73%) Firebase
8 8 (1.54%) Azure AKS
9 6 (1.16%) AWS CloudFormation
9 6 (1.16%) Azure DevOps
10 4 (0.77%) AWS Lambda
10 4 (0.77%) GitHub
10 4 (0.77%) Twilio
11 3 (0.58%) Amazon EKS
11 3 (0.58%) Amazon OpenSearch
11 3 (0.58%) Azure Cosmos DB
11 3 (0.58%) OpenShift
11 3 (0.58%) Vercel
12 2 (0.39%) Apigee
12 2 (0.39%) Cloud Run
Communications & Networking
1 3 (0.58%) AMQP
2 2 (0.39%) RTP
3 1 (0.19%) Bluetooth
3 1 (0.19%) LTE
3 1 (0.19%) TCP/IP
3 1 (0.19%) Wi-Fi
3 1 (0.19%) Wireless
3 1 (0.19%) ZigBee
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (4.62%) NoSQL
2 19 (3.66%) MongoDB
3 13 (2.50%) PostgreSQL
4 5 (0.96%) FileMaker
5 4 (0.77%) Elasticsearch
5 4 (0.77%) Geospatial Data
5 4 (0.77%) GIS
5 4 (0.77%) MySQL
5 4 (0.77%) Neo4j
5 4 (0.77%) Pinecone
5 4 (0.77%) QGIS
5 4 (0.77%) SQL Server
6 3 (0.58%) Azure SQL Database
6 3 (0.58%) Big Data
6 3 (0.58%) Cloudera CDH
6 3 (0.58%) DocumentDB
6 3 (0.58%) Hadoop
6 3 (0.58%) Redis
6 3 (0.58%) Relational Database
7 1 (0.19%) Apache Cassandra
Development Applications
1 13 (2.50%) Claude Code
2 8 (1.54%) Jenkins
3 6 (1.16%) Git
4 3 (0.58%) GitLab
5 2 (0.39%) Maven
5 2 (0.39%) Vagrant
5 2 (0.39%) Vite
6 1 (0.19%) GDB
6 1 (0.19%) Gemini Tracker
6 1 (0.19%) IntelliJ
6 1 (0.19%) JIRA
6 1 (0.19%) JUnit
6 1 (0.19%) Mocha
6 1 (0.19%) Visual Studio
6 1 (0.19%) WinDbg
General
1 25 (4.82%) Finance
2 21 (4.05%) Electronics
3 19 (3.66%) Public Sector
4 17 (3.28%) Social Skills
5 16 (3.08%) Retail
6 14 (2.70%) Manufacturing
7 6 (1.16%) Analytical Skills
8 5 (0.96%) Billing
9 4 (0.77%) Aerospace
10 3 (0.58%) Health Technology
10 3 (0.58%) Pharmaceutical
11 2 (0.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 2 (0.39%) Marketing
12 1 (0.19%) Automotive
12 1 (0.19%) Banking
12 1 (0.19%) Investment Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 59 (11.37%) .NET
2 45 (8.67%) React
3 37 (7.13%) Node.js
4 28 (5.39%) Next.js
5 25 (4.82%) Spring
6 23 (4.43%) Spring Boot
7 22 (4.24%) RESTful
8 16 (3.08%) REST
9 14 (2.70%) AngularJS
10 13 (2.50%) Vue
11 12 (2.31%) React Native
12 11 (2.12%) FastAPI
12 11 (2.12%) Ruby on Rails
13 9 (1.73%) .NET Core
14 8 (1.54%) .NET Framework
15 6 (1.16%) CSS
16 5 (0.96%) CSS3
17 4 (0.77%) Leaflet
17 4 (0.77%) PostGIS
17 4 (0.77%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 66 (12.72%) Cloud Native
2 17 (3.28%) Product Ownership
3 15 (2.89%) AI Agents
4 14 (2.70%) Legacy Systems
5 12 (2.31%) Greenfield Project
6 11 (2.12%) Mobile App
7 9 (1.73%) Distributed Systems
7 9 (1.73%) Industry 4.0
8 8 (1.54%) IoT
9 5 (0.96%) Embedded Systems
9 5 (0.96%) Robotics
10 4 (0.77%) Management Information System
11 3 (0.58%) Distributed Architecture
11 3 (0.58%) Legacy Applications
12 1 (0.19%) Algorithms
12 1 (0.19%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 10 (1.93%) Linux
2 5 (0.96%) Android
3 4 (0.77%) Windows
4 3 (0.58%) Apple iOS
4 3 (0.58%) CentOS
4 3 (0.58%) Debian
4 3 (0.58%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 3 (0.58%) Ubuntu
5 1 (0.19%) Embedded Linux
5 1 (0.19%) FreeRTOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 517 (99.61%) Software Engineering
2 78 (15.03%) Agile
3 72 (13.87%) Full-Stack Development
4 68 (13.10%) DevOps
5 60 (11.56%) CI/CD
6 57 (10.98%) Microservices
7 55 (10.60%) AI
8 48 (9.25%) Mentoring
9 38 (7.32%) TDD
10 35 (6.74%) Problem-Solving
11 29 (5.59%) Scrum
12 25 (4.82%) Containerisation
12 25 (4.82%) Open Source
12 25 (4.82%) Technical Leadership
13 20 (3.85%) Platform Engineering
13 20 (3.85%) Test Automation
14 19 (3.66%) Event-Driven
15 18 (3.47%) Decision-Making
15 18 (3.47%) Infrastructure as Code
15 18 (3.47%) Observability
Programming Languages
1 81 (15.61%) Java
2 63 (12.14%) Python
3 54 (10.40%) C#
3 54 (10.40%) TypeScript
4 48 (9.25%) SQL
5 46 (8.86%) JavaScript
6 17 (3.28%) C++
6 17 (3.28%) Go
7 11 (2.12%) C
7 11 (2.12%) PHP
7 11 (2.12%) Ruby
8 5 (0.96%) COBOL
9 1 (0.19%) Scala
Qualifications
1 41 (7.90%) Security Cleared
2 30 (5.78%) DV Cleared
2 30 (5.78%) SC Cleared
3 10 (1.93%) Degree
4 7 (1.35%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (1.73%) QA
2 3 (0.58%) Accessibility
System Software
1 31 (5.97%) Docker
2 7 (1.35%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 32 (6.17%) Kubernetes
2 30 (5.78%) Terraform
3 9 (1.73%) Ansible
4 3 (0.58%) Puppet
5 2 (0.39%) Packer
5 2 (0.39%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 11 (2.12%) Rockwell
2 6 (1.16%) Siemens
2 6 (1.16%) Splunk
3 5 (0.96%) Adobe
3 5 (0.96%) Google
3 5 (0.96%) Xamarin
4 3 (0.58%) OpenAI
4 3 (0.58%) Red Hat
4 3 (0.58%) SaltStack
5 1 (0.19%) Microsoft
5 1 (0.19%) Salesforce