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 8 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 15 29 10
Rank change year-on-year +14 -19 +11
Permanent jobs citing Software Engineering 899 523 895
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 7.25% 10.23% 11.50%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.02% 11.43% 14.96%
Number of salaries quoted 742 191 466
10th Percentile £50,000 £47,500 £42,500
25th Percentile £60,000 £53,875 £48,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £70,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year - +16.67% -4.00%
75th Percentile £85,000 £87,500 £70,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £110,000 £80,000
England median annual salary £75,000 £77,500 £65,000
% change year-on-year -3.23% +19.23% -10.34%

All Process & 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 8,973 4,577 5,983
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 72.37% 89.50% 76.85%
Number of salaries quoted 6,810 2,194 3,587
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £35,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £50,803
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -1.58% -7.63%
75th Percentile £75,000 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £80,000 £80,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -7.26%

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 8 September 2026.

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 8 September 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 +8 706 £75,000 +3.45% 320
Cheshire -7 81 £65,000 +8.33% 41
Merseyside +20 61 £70,000 +7.69% 19
Lancashire -11 39 £60,000 +25.83% 30
Cumbria -2 12 £50,000 -16.67% 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 6 (0.67%) Apache
1 6 (0.67%) SharePoint Server
2 5 (0.56%) Apache Spark
2 5 (0.56%) FactoryTalk
3 4 (0.44%) Adobe Experience Manager
3 4 (0.44%) Apache Airflow
4 3 (0.33%) Apache Solr
5 2 (0.22%) nginx
5 2 (0.22%) SharePoint
5 2 (0.22%) Tomcat
5 2 (0.22%) WebSphere
5 2 (0.22%) WinCC
6 1 (0.11%) CMS
6 1 (0.11%) Confluence
6 1 (0.11%) GeoServer
6 1 (0.11%) Headless CMS
Applications
1 4 (0.44%) Trello
2 2 (0.22%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.22%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (0.22%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 168 (18.69%) AWS
2 89 (9.90%) Azure
3 81 (9.01%) SaaS
4 38 (4.23%) Serverless
5 35 (3.89%) GCP
6 27 (3.00%) Azure DevOps
7 21 (2.34%) GitHub
8 20 (2.22%) Power Platform
9 19 (2.11%) Anthropic Claude
9 19 (2.11%) AWS Lambda
10 15 (1.67%) Datadog
11 13 (1.45%) Firebase
12 12 (1.33%) Dynamics 365
13 11 (1.22%) Route 53
14 8 (0.89%) AWS CloudFormation
14 8 (0.89%) Microsoft Copilot
15 7 (0.78%) GitHub Copilot
16 6 (0.67%) Azure AI
16 6 (0.67%) dbt
16 6 (0.67%) npm
Communications & Networking
1 7 (0.78%) TCP/IP
2 3 (0.33%) Firewall
3 2 (0.22%) AMQP
3 2 (0.22%) Bluetooth
3 2 (0.22%) Wi-Fi
3 2 (0.22%) Wireless
3 2 (0.22%) ZigBee
4 1 (0.11%) LTE
4 1 (0.11%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (2.45%) NoSQL
2 20 (2.22%) PostgreSQL
3 17 (1.89%) SQL Server
4 16 (1.78%) MongoDB
5 10 (1.11%) MySQL
6 7 (0.78%) Relational Database
7 6 (0.67%) Power BI
8 5 (0.56%) Chroma
8 5 (0.56%) FileMaker
8 5 (0.56%) Pinecone
8 5 (0.56%) Redis
9 4 (0.44%) Azure SQL Database
9 4 (0.44%) DynamoDB
9 4 (0.44%) Metadata
9 4 (0.44%) Power Query
10 3 (0.33%) Amazon RDS
10 3 (0.33%) Elasticsearch
10 3 (0.33%) MariaDB
11 2 (0.22%) Cloudera CDH
11 2 (0.22%) DocumentDB
Development Applications
1 25 (2.78%) Git
2 18 (2.00%) Claude Code
3 15 (1.67%) GitLab
4 12 (1.33%) JUnit
5 11 (1.22%) Jenkins
5 11 (1.22%) Maven
6 9 (1.00%) JIRA
6 9 (1.00%) Spock
7 5 (0.56%) Cypress.io
7 5 (0.56%) IntelliJ
8 4 (0.44%) Bitbucket
8 4 (0.44%) NUnit
8 4 (0.44%) Storybook
9 2 (0.22%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 2 (0.22%) Mocha
9 2 (0.22%) Mockito
9 2 (0.22%) Selenium
9 2 (0.22%) Vite
10 1 (0.11%) GDB
10 1 (0.11%) WinDbg
General
1 77 (8.57%) Finance
2 75 (8.34%) Social Skills
3 34 (3.78%) Retail
4 30 (3.34%) Public Sector
5 23 (2.56%) Legal
6 22 (2.45%) Electronics
7 15 (1.67%) Analytical Skills
8 14 (1.56%) Aviation
8 14 (1.56%) Law
9 12 (1.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 8 (0.89%) Aerospace
10 8 (0.89%) Publishing
11 7 (0.78%) Games
12 6 (0.67%) Billing
13 5 (0.56%) Automotive
13 5 (0.56%) Marketing
14 4 (0.44%) Banking
14 4 (0.44%) Manufacturing
15 3 (0.33%) iGaming
15 3 (0.33%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 587 (65.29%) Software Engineer
2 260 (28.92%) Senior
3 190 (21.13%) Senior Software Engineer
4 119 (13.24%) Lead
5 85 (9.45%) Developer
6 84 (9.34%) Lead Software Engineer
7 57 (6.34%) Principal Engineer
8 48 (5.34%) Principal Software Engineer
9 46 (5.12%) Full-Stack Engineer
9 46 (5.12%) Software Manager
10 41 (4.56%) Java Engineer
11 39 (4.34%) Engineering Manager
12 38 (4.23%) Python Engineer
13 35 (3.89%) Embedded Engineer
14 33 (3.67%) Java Software Engineer
15 30 (3.34%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
16 29 (3.23%) Senior Java Engineer
17 28 (3.11%) Embedded Software Engineer
17 28 (3.11%) Python Software Engineer
18 27 (3.00%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 82 (9.12%) .NET
2 70 (7.79%) React
3 42 (4.67%) Node.js
4 40 (4.45%) Spring
5 38 (4.23%) Terraform
6 34 (3.78%) AngularJS
7 33 (3.67%) Next.js
8 26 (2.89%) Spring Boot
9 25 (2.78%) REST
10 23 (2.56%) RESTful
11 22 (2.45%) React Native
12 21 (2.34%) Vue
13 14 (1.56%) Ruby on Rails
14 11 (1.22%) CSS
14 11 (1.22%) FastAPI
15 10 (1.11%) Kafka
16 9 (1.00%) LangChain
16 9 (1.00%) Playwright
17 8 (0.89%) .NET Framework
18 7 (0.78%) ASP.NET
Miscellaneous
1 105 (11.68%) Cloud Native
2 50 (5.56%) Distributed Systems
3 40 (4.45%) Product Ownership
4 25 (2.78%) AI Agents
5 19 (2.11%) Mobile App
6 14 (1.56%) Legacy Systems
7 13 (1.45%) Greenfield Project
8 9 (1.00%) Private Cloud
9 7 (0.78%) Embedded Systems
9 7 (0.78%) Life Science
9 7 (0.78%) Onboarding
10 6 (0.67%) IoT
11 5 (0.56%) Management Information System
11 5 (0.56%) Virtual Team
12 4 (0.44%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 4 (0.44%) Low-Code
12 4 (0.44%) Media Streaming
12 4 (0.44%) Podcast
12 4 (0.44%) Robotics
12 4 (0.44%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 41 (4.56%) Linux
2 15 (1.67%) Windows
3 8 (0.89%) Embedded Linux
4 6 (0.67%) Android
5 4 (0.44%) VMS
6 3 (0.33%) Apple iOS
6 3 (0.33%) Unix
7 2 (0.22%) CentOS
7 2 (0.22%) Debian
7 2 (0.22%) FreeRTOS
7 2 (0.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (0.22%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 146 (16.24%) AI
2 141 (15.68%) Agile
3 135 (15.02%) CI/CD
3 135 (15.02%) DevOps
4 130 (14.46%) Full-Stack Development
5 108 (12.01%) Mentoring
6 85 (9.45%) Problem-Solving
7 79 (8.79%) Continuous Improvement
8 78 (8.68%) Microservices
9 63 (7.01%) Observability
9 63 (7.01%) Test Automation
10 61 (6.79%) Technical Leadership
11 48 (5.34%) TDD
12 44 (4.89%) Code Quality
12 44 (4.89%) Collaborative Culture
12 44 (4.89%) Stakeholder Management
13 43 (4.78%) Roadmaps
14 41 (4.56%) Event-Driven
14 41 (4.56%) Infrastructure as Code
14 41 (4.56%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 132 (14.68%) Python
2 111 (12.35%) Java
3 105 (11.68%) TypeScript
4 86 (9.57%) SQL
5 83 (9.23%) C#
6 77 (8.57%) JavaScript
7 32 (3.56%) Go
8 31 (3.45%) C++
9 19 (2.11%) C
10 15 (1.67%) Ruby
11 13 (1.45%) PHP
12 8 (0.89%) Bash
13 6 (0.67%) PowerShell
14 5 (0.56%) COBOL
15 4 (0.44%) Bicep
15 4 (0.44%) Groovy
15 4 (0.44%) Scala
16 2 (0.22%) Shell Script
17 1 (0.11%) Objective-C
17 1 (0.11%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 71 (7.90%) Security Cleared
2 54 (6.01%) SC Cleared
3 41 (4.56%) DV Cleared
4 27 (3.00%) Degree
5 13 (1.45%) Computer Science Degree
6 6 (0.67%) PMI Certification
7 5 (0.56%) DBS Check
8 4 (0.44%) BPSS Clearance
8 4 (0.44%) Master's Degree
8 4 (0.44%) PMP
9 2 (0.22%) Microsoft Certification
10 1 (0.11%) AWS Certification
10 1 (0.11%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 1 (0.11%) Azure Certification
10 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (3.67%) QA
2 15 (1.67%) Accessibility
3 6 (0.67%) WCAG
4 4 (0.44%) Data Quality
5 3 (0.33%) GDPR
5 3 (0.33%) IEC 61131
5 3 (0.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 2 (0.22%) IEC 61508
System Software
1 55 (6.12%) Docker
2 7 (0.78%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 49 (5.45%) Kubernetes
2 9 (1.00%) Ansible
3 6 (0.67%) Grafana
3 6 (0.67%) Prometheus
4 2 (0.22%) Argo
4 2 (0.22%) Microsoft Intune
4 2 (0.22%) Puppet
5 1 (0.11%) Functional Safety
5 1 (0.11%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 25 (2.78%) Microsoft
2 18 (2.00%) Splunk
3 15 (1.67%) Google
4 11 (1.22%) Rockwell
5 9 (1.00%) AppDynamics
5 9 (1.00%) Siemens
6 8 (0.89%) Databricks
7 7 (0.78%) OpenAI
8 5 (0.56%) New Relic
8 5 (0.56%) YouTube
9 4 (0.44%) Adobe
9 4 (0.44%) OneTrust
9 4 (0.44%) Xamarin
10 3 (0.33%) DevExpress
11 2 (0.22%) IBM
11 2 (0.22%) MEDITECH
11 2 (0.22%) Mistral
11 2 (0.22%) Red Hat
11 2 (0.22%) SaltStack
12 1 (0.11%) Salesforce