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 11 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 23 10
Rank change year-on-year +10 -13 +16
Permanent jobs citing Software Engineering 845 589 964
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 7.14% 11.41% 11.48%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 9.94% 12.61% 14.76%
Number of salaries quoted 709 252 563
10th Percentile £50,000 £42,875 £41,500
25th Percentile £55,000 £52,500 £50,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £67,269 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.06% +12.11% -4.00%
75th Percentile £85,000 £85,625 £70,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £109,750 £84,964
England median annual salary £75,000 £75,000 £65,000
% change year-on-year - +15.38% -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 8,503 4,672 6,531
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 71.82% 90.49% 77.79%
Number of salaries quoted 6,503 2,272 4,403
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,024 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £35,000 £39,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £75,000 £66,250 £65,603
90th Percentile £90,000 £80,000 £80,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% - -12.00%

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 11 August 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 11 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 +5 655 £71,991 +2.84% 240
Cheshire -4 80 £65,000 +8.33% 33
Merseyside +14 49 £70,000 +7.69% 23
Lancashire -2 49 £60,000 +25.83% 34
Cumbria -5 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 (0.71%) Apache
1 6 (0.71%) SharePoint Server
2 5 (0.59%) Apache Spark
2 5 (0.59%) FactoryTalk
3 4 (0.47%) Adobe Experience Manager
3 4 (0.47%) Apache Airflow
3 4 (0.47%) Apache Solr
4 3 (0.36%) GeoServer
5 2 (0.24%) Confluence
5 2 (0.24%) nginx
5 2 (0.24%) WinCC
6 1 (0.12%) CMS
6 1 (0.12%) Headless CMS
6 1 (0.12%) SharePoint
6 1 (0.12%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.12%) WebSphere
Applications
1 4 (0.47%) Trello
2 2 (0.24%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.24%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (0.24%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 168 (19.88%) AWS
2 96 (11.36%) Azure
3 75 (8.88%) SaaS
4 45 (5.33%) Serverless
5 33 (3.91%) GCP
6 26 (3.08%) Azure DevOps
7 21 (2.49%) Anthropic Claude
7 21 (2.49%) GitHub
8 20 (2.37%) AWS Lambda
9 16 (1.89%) Power Platform
10 14 (1.66%) Datadog
11 12 (1.42%) Dynamics 365
12 11 (1.30%) Firebase
13 10 (1.18%) Microsoft Copilot
13 10 (1.18%) Route 53
14 8 (0.95%) AWS CloudFormation
15 6 (0.71%) Azure AI
15 6 (0.71%) dbt
15 6 (0.71%) GitHub Copilot
15 6 (0.71%) npm
Communications & Networking
1 6 (0.71%) TCP/IP
2 2 (0.24%) AMQP
2 2 (0.24%) Bluetooth
2 2 (0.24%) Firewall
2 2 (0.24%) Wi-Fi
2 2 (0.24%) Wireless
2 2 (0.24%) ZigBee
3 1 (0.12%) LTE
3 1 (0.12%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (3.31%) NoSQL
2 23 (2.72%) PostgreSQL
3 21 (2.49%) MongoDB
4 18 (2.13%) SQL Server
5 12 (1.42%) MySQL
6 7 (0.83%) Relational Database
7 5 (0.59%) FileMaker
7 5 (0.59%) Pinecone
8 4 (0.47%) Azure SQL Database
8 4 (0.47%) DynamoDB
8 4 (0.47%) Redis
9 3 (0.36%) Amazon RDS
9 3 (0.36%) DocumentDB
9 3 (0.36%) Elasticsearch
9 3 (0.36%) Geospatial Data
9 3 (0.36%) GIS
9 3 (0.36%) MariaDB
9 3 (0.36%) Neo4j
9 3 (0.36%) QGIS
10 2 (0.24%) Hadoop
Development Applications
1 22 (2.60%) Git
2 20 (2.37%) Claude Code
3 12 (1.42%) Jenkins
4 11 (1.30%) GitLab
5 10 (1.18%) JIRA
6 9 (1.07%) JUnit
7 8 (0.95%) Maven
8 7 (0.83%) Spock
9 4 (0.47%) Bitbucket
9 4 (0.47%) NUnit
9 4 (0.47%) Storybook
10 3 (0.36%) Cypress.io
10 3 (0.36%) IntelliJ
11 2 (0.24%) Atlassian Bamboo
11 2 (0.24%) Vite
12 1 (0.12%) Gemini Tracker
12 1 (0.12%) Postman
12 1 (0.12%) Selenium
12 1 (0.12%) Vagrant
12 1 (0.12%) Visual Studio
General
1 81 (9.59%) Finance
2 72 (8.52%) Social Skills
3 38 (4.50%) Retail
4 30 (3.55%) Public Sector
5 22 (2.60%) Electronics
6 18 (2.13%) Legal
7 15 (1.78%) Manufacturing
8 13 (1.54%) Aviation
9 11 (1.30%) Analytical Skills
10 10 (1.18%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 10 (1.18%) Law
11 7 (0.83%) Aerospace
12 6 (0.71%) Billing
13 5 (0.59%) Marketing
14 4 (0.47%) Banking
14 4 (0.47%) Games
14 4 (0.47%) Health Technology
14 4 (0.47%) Publishing
15 3 (0.36%) Automotive
15 3 (0.36%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 546 (64.62%) Software Engineer
2 227 (26.86%) Senior
3 161 (19.05%) Senior Software Engineer
4 111 (13.14%) Lead
5 95 (11.24%) Developer
6 72 (8.52%) Lead Software Engineer
7 50 (5.92%) Principal Engineer
8 44 (5.21%) Software Manager
9 43 (5.09%) Full-Stack Engineer
10 41 (4.85%) Principal Software Engineer
11 40 (4.73%) Java Engineer
12 37 (4.38%) Engineering Manager
13 35 (4.14%) Java Software Engineer
14 34 (4.02%) Python Engineer
15 33 (3.91%) Senior Developer
16 30 (3.55%) PLC Software Engineer
17 29 (3.43%) Lead Developer
18 28 (3.31%) Embedded Engineer
18 28 (3.31%) Python Software Engineer
18 28 (3.31%) Software Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 97 (11.48%) .NET
2 68 (8.05%) React
3 45 (5.33%) Node.js
4 34 (4.02%) AngularJS
4 34 (4.02%) Spring
5 33 (3.91%) Next.js
6 29 (3.43%) RESTful
7 24 (2.84%) Spring Boot
8 21 (2.49%) React Native
8 21 (2.49%) REST
8 21 (2.49%) Vue
9 14 (1.66%) Ruby on Rails
10 12 (1.42%) CSS
10 12 (1.42%) FastAPI
11 11 (1.30%) .NET Framework
12 9 (1.07%) .NET Core
12 9 (1.07%) LangChain
13 7 (0.83%) ASP.NET
13 7 (0.83%) ASP.NET Core
13 7 (0.83%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 106 (12.54%) Cloud Native
2 45 (5.33%) Distributed Systems
3 40 (4.73%) Product Ownership
4 23 (2.72%) AI Agents
5 19 (2.25%) Mobile App
6 14 (1.66%) Legacy Systems
7 13 (1.54%) Greenfield Project
8 7 (0.83%) Industry 4.0
8 7 (0.83%) Life Science
8 7 (0.83%) Onboarding
8 7 (0.83%) Private Cloud
9 5 (0.59%) Embedded Systems
9 5 (0.59%) IoT
9 5 (0.59%) Robotics
9 5 (0.59%) Virtual Team
10 3 (0.36%) Distributed Architecture
10 3 (0.36%) Legacy Applications
10 3 (0.36%) Management Information System
10 3 (0.36%) Self-Motivation
11 2 (0.24%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 27 (3.20%) Linux
2 7 (0.83%) Windows
3 6 (0.71%) Android
4 4 (0.47%) Embedded Linux
5 3 (0.36%) Apple iOS
6 2 (0.24%) CentOS
6 2 (0.24%) Debian
6 2 (0.24%) FreeRTOS
6 2 (0.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.24%) Ubuntu
6 2 (0.24%) Unix
6 2 (0.24%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 141 (16.69%) DevOps
2 139 (16.45%) Agile
3 136 (16.09%) CI/CD
4 134 (15.86%) Full-Stack Development
5 125 (14.79%) AI
6 105 (12.43%) Mentoring
7 82 (9.70%) Microservices
8 77 (9.11%) Problem-Solving
9 69 (8.17%) Continuous Improvement
10 60 (7.10%) Test Automation
11 57 (6.75%) TDD
12 53 (6.27%) Observability
13 51 (6.04%) Technical Leadership
14 47 (5.56%) Collaborative Culture
15 46 (5.44%) Scrum
16 42 (4.97%) Roadmaps
17 40 (4.73%) Infrastructure as Code
17 40 (4.73%) Stakeholder Management
18 39 (4.62%) Coaching
19 38 (4.50%) Event-Driven
Programming Languages
1 129 (15.27%) Python
2 110 (13.02%) Java
3 95 (11.24%) TypeScript
4 91 (10.77%) C#
5 89 (10.53%) SQL
6 80 (9.47%) JavaScript
7 31 (3.67%) Go
8 30 (3.55%) C++
9 19 (2.25%) C
10 15 (1.78%) PHP
10 15 (1.78%) Ruby
11 8 (0.95%) Bash
12 6 (0.71%) PowerShell
13 5 (0.59%) COBOL
13 5 (0.59%) Kotlin
14 4 (0.47%) Bicep
14 4 (0.47%) Scala
15 2 (0.24%) Groovy
15 2 (0.24%) Shell Script
16 1 (0.12%) Objective-C
Qualifications
1 61 (7.22%) Security Cleared
2 43 (5.09%) DV Cleared
2 43 (5.09%) SC Cleared
3 28 (3.31%) Degree
4 14 (1.66%) Computer Science Degree
5 6 (0.71%) PMI Certification
6 5 (0.59%) DBS Check
7 4 (0.47%) BPSS Clearance
7 4 (0.47%) Master's Degree
7 4 (0.47%) PMP
8 2 (0.24%) Microsoft Certification
9 1 (0.12%) AWS Certification
9 1 (0.12%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 1 (0.12%) Azure Certification
9 1 (0.12%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (3.55%) QA
2 10 (1.18%) Accessibility
3 5 (0.59%) WCAG
4 4 (0.47%) Data Quality
5 3 (0.36%) GDPR
5 3 (0.36%) IEC 61131
5 3 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 2 (0.24%) IEC 61508
System Software
1 52 (6.15%) Docker
2 7 (0.83%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 48 (5.68%) Kubernetes
2 42 (4.97%) Terraform
3 8 (0.95%) Ansible
4 6 (0.71%) Grafana
4 6 (0.71%) Prometheus
5 2 (0.24%) Argo
5 2 (0.24%) Microsoft Intune
5 2 (0.24%) Puppet
6 1 (0.12%) Functional Safety
6 1 (0.12%) Packer
6 1 (0.12%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 25 (2.96%) Microsoft
2 15 (1.78%) Google
2 15 (1.78%) Splunk
3 11 (1.30%) Rockwell
4 9 (1.07%) Siemens
5 8 (0.95%) Databricks
6 7 (0.83%) AppDynamics
6 7 (0.83%) OpenAI
7 4 (0.47%) Adobe
7 4 (0.47%) Xamarin
8 3 (0.36%) DevExpress
9 2 (0.24%) New Relic
9 2 (0.24%) Red Hat
9 2 (0.24%) SaltStack
10 1 (0.12%) Alteryx
10 1 (0.12%) Brio
10 1 (0.12%) IBM
10 1 (0.12%) Salesforce