Software Engineering Job Trends in the North West

Software Engineering
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the North West requiring Software Engineering skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 25 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 42 11 14
Rank change year-on-year -31 +3 -1
Permanent jobs citing Software Engineering 226 742 426
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 4.52% 10.88% 11.32%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.36% 13.02% 12.01%
Number of salaries quoted 175 316 292
10th Percentile £47,900 £41,875 £41,250
25th Percentile £55,625 £48,750 £48,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £57,500 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year +21.74% -11.54% +8.33%
75th Percentile £86,250 £68,750 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £75,000 £86,250
England median annual salary £75,000 £70,000 £70,000
% change year-on-year +7.14% - -

All Process and Methodology Skills
North West

Software Engineering falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in the North West.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 4,213 5,700 3,548
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 84.33% 83.60% 94.26%
Number of salaries quoted 2,433 2,858 2,686
10th Percentile £27,050 £32,500 £31,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% -5.45% +3.54%
75th Percentile £65,000 £65,000 £70,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £78,750 £84,000
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -2.44%

Software Engineering
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Software Engineering relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the North West.

Software Engineering job vacancy trend in the North West

Software Engineering
Salary Trend in the North West

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Software Engineering.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Software Engineering

Software Engineering
Salary Histogram in the North West

Salary distribution for jobs citing Software Engineering in the North West over the 6 months to 25 November 2025.

Salary histogram for Software Engineering in the North West

Software Engineering
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 Engineering within the North West region over the 6 months to 25 November 2025. 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 -12 177 £70,000 +16.67% 84
Cheshire -19 31 £60,000 +12.68% 13
Merseyside -18 10 £61,750 -5.00% 4
Lancashire -43 7 £65,000 +28.71% 67
Cumbria +2 1 £60,000 +9.09% 2
Software Engineering
England

Software Engineering
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 3 (1.33%) Apache
1 3 (1.33%) Apache Solr
1 3 (1.33%) Apache Spark
2 2 (0.88%) Apache Airflow
2 2 (0.88%) Confluence
3 1 (0.44%) CMS
3 1 (0.44%) IIS
3 1 (0.44%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.44%) OpenStack
Applications
1 3 (1.33%) Microsoft Excel
1 3 (1.33%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.88%) Adobe XD
2 2 (0.88%) Sketch
3 1 (0.44%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.44%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.44%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (0.44%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 75 (33.19%) AWS
2 66 (29.20%) Azure
3 23 (10.18%) SaaS
4 17 (7.52%) GCP
5 14 (6.19%) Serverless
6 10 (4.42%) AWS Lambda
7 9 (3.98%) Power Platform
8 7 (3.10%) Azure DevOps
9 6 (2.65%) GitHub
9 6 (2.65%) IaaS
9 6 (2.65%) PaaS
10 5 (2.21%) Microsoft 365
11 4 (1.77%) AWS CloudFormation
12 3 (1.33%) Amazon ECS
12 3 (1.33%) Amazon S3
12 3 (1.33%) Azure AKS
12 3 (1.33%) Figma
13 2 (0.88%) Amazon EKS
13 2 (0.88%) Dagster
13 2 (0.88%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 2 (0.88%) AMQP
1 2 (0.88%) HTTP
1 2 (0.88%) Internet
2 1 (0.44%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 21 (9.29%) NoSQL
2 14 (6.19%) MongoDB
3 12 (5.31%) MySQL
4 8 (3.54%) PostgreSQL
5 6 (2.65%) Relational Database
5 6 (2.65%) SQL Server
6 5 (2.21%) Data Warehouse
6 5 (2.21%) Elasticsearch
6 5 (2.21%) Power BI
7 4 (1.77%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
7 4 (1.77%) DynamoDB
7 4 (1.77%) Neo4j
8 3 (1.33%) Big Data
9 2 (0.88%) Amazon RDS
9 2 (0.88%) Amazon Redshift
9 2 (0.88%) Cloudera CDH
9 2 (0.88%) Hadoop
10 1 (0.44%) Apache Cassandra
10 1 (0.44%) Data Mining
10 1 (0.44%) SQL CLR
Development Applications
1 13 (5.75%) Git
2 9 (3.98%) Cypress.io
3 4 (1.77%) Jenkins
4 3 (1.33%) GitLab
4 3 (1.33%) JIRA
5 2 (0.88%) Visual Studio
5 2 (0.88%) webpack
6 1 (0.44%) Gatling
6 1 (0.44%) Jasmine
6 1 (0.44%) JMeter
6 1 (0.44%) Karma Test Runner
6 1 (0.44%) LoadRunner
6 1 (0.44%) NUnit
6 1 (0.44%) Protractor
General
1 42 (18.58%) Finance
2 37 (16.37%) Social Skills
3 10 (4.42%) Marketing
4 9 (3.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 9 (3.98%) Public Sector
5 8 (3.54%) Retail
6 7 (3.10%) Banking
7 6 (2.65%) Analytical Skills
7 6 (2.65%) Legal
7 6 (2.65%) Manufacturing
8 5 (2.21%) Billing
8 5 (2.21%) Telecoms
9 4 (1.77%) Electronics
9 4 (1.77%) Games
9 4 (1.77%) Influencing Skills
10 3 (1.33%) Financial Institution
11 2 (0.88%) Aerospace
11 2 (0.88%) Automotive
11 2 (0.88%) Organisational Skills
12 1 (0.44%) Tech for Good
Job Titles
1 106 (46.90%) Software Engineer
2 65 (28.76%) Senior
3 33 (14.60%) Developer
3 33 (14.60%) Senior Software Engineer
4 31 (13.72%) Lead
5 13 (5.75%) Lead Software Engineer
6 12 (5.31%) DV Cleared Software Engineer
6 12 (5.31%) Python Engineer
7 11 (4.87%) Architect
8 10 (4.42%) Python Software Engineer
9 9 (3.98%) Control Systems Engineer
9 9 (3.98%) Data Engineer
9 9 (3.98%) Senior Developer
9 9 (3.98%) Senior Systems Engineer
9 9 (3.98%) Systems Engineer
10 8 (3.54%) AWS Engineer
10 8 (3.54%) Java Engineer
10 8 (3.54%) Senior Data Engineer
10 8 (3.54%) Solutions Architect
11 7 (3.10%) Engineering Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 51 (22.57%) .NET
2 50 (22.12%) React
3 22 (9.73%) AngularJS
4 19 (8.41%) RESTful
5 16 (7.08%) Node.js
5 16 (7.08%) Spring
5 16 (7.08%) Spring Boot
6 15 (6.64%) CSS
7 14 (6.19%) HTML
8 13 (5.75%) .NET Core
8 13 (5.75%) .NET Framework
9 9 (3.98%) Jest
9 9 (3.98%) Kafka
9 9 (3.98%) REST
9 9 (3.98%) Vue
10 8 (3.54%) Next.js
11 7 (3.10%) FastAPI
12 6 (2.65%) Django
12 6 (2.65%) Entity Framework
13 5 (2.21%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 35 (15.49%) Cloud Native
2 19 (8.41%) Distributed Systems
3 15 (6.64%) Greenfield Project
3 15 (6.64%) Product Ownership
4 9 (3.98%) SCADA
5 5 (2.21%) AI Agents
5 5 (2.21%) Distributed Computing
6 4 (1.77%) Enterprise Software
6 4 (1.77%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 3 (1.33%) BBC
7 3 (1.33%) Legacy Systems
7 3 (1.33%) Mobile App
7 3 (1.33%) SWIFT Messaging Network
8 2 (0.88%) Algorithms
8 2 (0.88%) Animation
8 2 (0.88%) Data Protection Act
8 2 (0.88%) Embedded Systems
8 2 (0.88%) IoT
8 2 (0.88%) Marketing Technology
8 2 (0.88%) Online Banking
Operating Systems
1 6 (2.65%) Linux
2 5 (2.21%) Windows
3 3 (1.33%) Windows Server
4 2 (0.88%) CentOS
4 2 (0.88%) Debian
4 2 (0.88%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 2 (0.88%) Ubuntu
5 1 (0.44%) Android
5 1 (0.44%) Apple iOS
5 1 (0.44%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 77 (34.07%) CI/CD
2 75 (33.19%) Agile
3 52 (23.01%) DevOps
4 50 (22.12%) Microservices
5 42 (18.58%) Mentoring
6 36 (15.93%) TDD
7 35 (15.49%) Containerisation
8 30 (13.27%) Continuous Improvement
8 30 (13.27%) Problem-Solving
9 27 (11.95%) Full-Stack Development
10 25 (11.06%) Coaching
11 24 (10.62%) AI
12 18 (7.96%) Clean Code
13 17 (7.52%) Stakeholder Management
13 17 (7.52%) Technical Leadership
14 16 (7.08%) Computer Science
14 16 (7.08%) Scrum
15 15 (6.64%) Fintech
15 15 (6.64%) User Experience
16 14 (6.19%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 54 (23.89%) C#
2 47 (20.80%) Java
3 42 (18.58%) TypeScript
4 40 (17.70%) SQL
5 36 (15.93%) Python
6 32 (14.16%) JavaScript
7 5 (2.21%) C
7 5 (2.21%) C++
7 5 (2.21%) PHP
8 3 (1.33%) Kotlin
8 3 (1.33%) Ruby
8 3 (1.33%) Rust
9 2 (0.88%) Bash
9 2 (0.88%) Embedded C++
9 2 (0.88%) Go
9 2 (0.88%) Scala
10 1 (0.44%) Embedded C
10 1 (0.44%) Objective-C
10 1 (0.44%) PowerShell
10 1 (0.44%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 28 (12.39%) Security Cleared
2 19 (8.41%) DV Cleared
3 15 (6.64%) Degree
4 12 (5.31%) Computer Science Degree
5 10 (4.42%) SC Cleared
6 2 (0.88%) Postgraduate
7 1 (0.44%) AWS Certification
7 1 (0.44%) DBS Check
7 1 (0.44%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 1 (0.44%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (3.98%) QA
2 4 (1.77%) Accessibility
3 3 (1.33%) ISO 20022
3 3 (1.33%) SEPA
3 3 (1.33%) TARGET2
4 1 (0.44%) Actionable Recommendations
4 1 (0.44%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.44%) GDPR
4 1 (0.44%) MISRA
4 1 (0.44%) MISRA C
System Software
1 42 (18.58%) Docker
2 2 (0.88%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.44%) KVM
3 1 (0.44%) QEMU
3 1 (0.44%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 35 (15.49%) Kubernetes
2 18 (7.96%) Terraform
3 7 (3.10%) Ansible
4 4 (1.77%) Grafana
5 3 (1.33%) Puppet
6 2 (0.88%) Progress Chef
7 1 (0.44%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
7 1 (0.44%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 26 (11.50%) Microsoft
2 8 (3.54%) Cisco
2 8 (3.54%) Salesforce
3 6 (2.65%) BiZZdesign
4 4 (1.77%) Google
4 4 (1.77%) Oracle
4 4 (1.77%) SAP
5 3 (1.33%) Databricks
5 3 (1.33%) SaltStack
6 2 (0.88%) Concur
6 2 (0.88%) Red Hat
6 2 (0.88%) Sage
7 1 (0.44%) Atlassian
7 1 (0.44%) Avaya
7 1 (0.44%) Dynatrace
7 1 (0.44%) HubSpot
7 1 (0.44%) TOWER Software
7 1 (0.44%) VMware