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 1 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 40 11 14
Rank change year-on-year -29 +3 -1
Permanent jobs citing Software Engineering 218 715 434
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 4.43% 10.93% 11.77%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.26% 12.89% 12.47%
Number of salaries quoted 168 301 303
10th Percentile £50,000 £40,000 £41,250
25th Percentile £57,500 £48,750 £50,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £57,560 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year +21.61% -11.45% +8.33%
75th Percentile £86,563 £68,750 £77,715
90th Percentile £100,750 £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 4,142 5,548 3,479
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 84.22% 84.78% 94.33%
Number of salaries quoted 2,377 2,777 2,657
10th Percentile £27,500 £32,000 £31,150
25th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £41,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £51,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -2.91% -6.36% +3.54%
75th Percentile £65,000 £65,000 £70,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £78,750 £84,056
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%

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 1 December 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 1 December 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 -15 168 £72,500 +20.83% 68
Cheshire -21 30 £62,500 +17.37% 14
Merseyside -18 11 £62,500 -3.85% 4
Lancashire -46 8 £60,326 +19.46% 44
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 (1.38%) Apache
1 3 (1.38%) Apache Solr
1 3 (1.38%) Apache Spark
2 2 (0.92%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (0.46%) Confluence
3 1 (0.46%) IIS
3 1 (0.46%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.46%) nginx
3 1 (0.46%) OpenStack
Applications
1 3 (1.38%) Microsoft Excel
1 3 (1.38%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.92%) Adobe XD
2 2 (0.92%) Sketch
3 1 (0.46%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.46%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.46%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (0.46%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 70 (32.11%) AWS
2 67 (30.73%) Azure
3 24 (11.01%) SaaS
4 17 (7.80%) GCP
5 11 (5.05%) Serverless
6 9 (4.13%) Power Platform
7 7 (3.21%) AWS Lambda
7 7 (3.21%) IaaS
7 7 (3.21%) PaaS
8 6 (2.75%) Azure DevOps
8 6 (2.75%) GitHub
9 5 (2.29%) Microsoft 365
10 4 (1.83%) AWS CloudFormation
10 4 (1.83%) Azure AKS
10 4 (1.83%) Figma
11 3 (1.38%) Amazon ECS
11 3 (1.38%) Amazon S3
11 3 (1.38%) Power Automate
12 2 (0.92%) AWS Step Functions
12 2 (0.92%) Azure Cosmos DB
Communications & Networking
1 2 (0.92%) AMQP
1 2 (0.92%) HTTP
1 2 (0.92%) Internet
2 1 (0.46%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (9.17%) NoSQL
2 12 (5.50%) MongoDB
3 11 (5.05%) MySQL
4 8 (3.67%) SQL Server
5 6 (2.75%) PostgreSQL
5 6 (2.75%) Power BI
6 5 (2.29%) Data Warehouse
6 5 (2.29%) Elasticsearch
7 4 (1.83%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
7 4 (1.83%) Relational Database
8 3 (1.38%) Big Data
8 3 (1.38%) DynamoDB
8 3 (1.38%) Neo4j
9 2 (0.92%) Amazon RDS
9 2 (0.92%) Amazon Redshift
9 2 (0.92%) Cloudera CDH
9 2 (0.92%) Hadoop
10 1 (0.46%) Apache Cassandra
10 1 (0.46%) Data Mining
10 1 (0.46%) SQL CLR
Development Applications
1 12 (5.50%) Git
2 7 (3.21%) Cypress.io
3 4 (1.83%) GitLab
3 4 (1.83%) Jenkins
4 2 (0.92%) JIRA
5 1 (0.46%) Gatling
5 1 (0.46%) Jasmine
5 1 (0.46%) JMeter
5 1 (0.46%) Karma Test Runner
5 1 (0.46%) LoadRunner
5 1 (0.46%) NUnit
5 1 (0.46%) Protractor
5 1 (0.46%) webpack
General
1 39 (17.89%) Finance
2 36 (16.51%) Social Skills
3 11 (5.05%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 8 (3.67%) Marketing
4 8 (3.67%) Retail
5 7 (3.21%) Banking
6 6 (2.75%) Analytical Skills
7 5 (2.29%) Billing
7 5 (2.29%) Public Sector
8 4 (1.83%) Influencing Skills
8 4 (1.83%) Legal
9 3 (1.38%) Aerospace
9 3 (1.38%) Financial Institution
9 3 (1.38%) Games
9 3 (1.38%) Telecoms
10 2 (0.92%) Automotive
10 2 (0.92%) Electronics
10 2 (0.92%) Manufacturing
10 2 (0.92%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.46%) Back Office
Job Titles
1 100 (45.87%) Software Engineer
2 62 (28.44%) Senior
3 34 (15.60%) Lead
4 32 (14.68%) Senior Software Engineer
5 25 (11.47%) Developer
6 13 (5.96%) Lead Software Engineer
7 12 (5.50%) Architect
8 9 (4.13%) Control Systems Engineer
8 9 (4.13%) Data Engineer
8 9 (4.13%) DV Cleared Software Engineer
8 9 (4.13%) Senior Systems Engineer
8 9 (4.13%) Solutions Architect
8 9 (4.13%) Systems Engineer
9 8 (3.67%) Python Engineer
9 8 (3.67%) Senior Data Engineer
10 7 (3.21%) AWS Engineer
10 7 (3.21%) Engineering Manager
10 7 (3.21%) Senior Developer
11 6 (2.75%) Principal Engineer
11 6 (2.75%) Software Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 52 (23.85%) .NET
2 50 (22.94%) React
3 21 (9.63%) AngularJS
4 19 (8.72%) RESTful
5 14 (6.42%) .NET Framework
5 14 (6.42%) Node.js
5 14 (6.42%) Spring
5 14 (6.42%) Spring Boot
6 13 (5.96%) .NET Core
7 12 (5.50%) CSS
8 11 (5.05%) HTML
9 9 (4.13%) Kafka
9 9 (4.13%) Vue
10 8 (3.67%) Jest
10 8 (3.67%) Next.js
11 7 (3.21%) Entity Framework
11 7 (3.21%) REST
12 6 (2.75%) Django
12 6 (2.75%) RabbitMQ
13 5 (2.29%) FastAPI
Miscellaneous
1 34 (15.60%) Cloud Native
2 19 (8.72%) Distributed Systems
3 15 (6.88%) Product Ownership
4 14 (6.42%) Greenfield Project
5 9 (4.13%) SCADA
6 5 (2.29%) Distributed Computing
6 5 (2.29%) Enterprise Software
7 4 (1.83%) AI Agents
7 4 (1.83%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 3 (1.38%) BBC
8 3 (1.38%) Legacy Systems
8 3 (1.38%) SWIFT Messaging Network
9 2 (0.92%) Animation
9 2 (0.92%) Data Protection Act
9 2 (0.92%) Embedded Systems
9 2 (0.92%) IoT
9 2 (0.92%) Marketing Technology
9 2 (0.92%) Mobile App
9 2 (0.92%) Online Banking
9 2 (0.92%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 7 (3.21%) Linux
2 4 (1.83%) Windows
3 3 (1.38%) Windows Server
4 2 (0.92%) CentOS
4 2 (0.92%) Debian
4 2 (0.92%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 2 (0.92%) Ubuntu
5 1 (0.46%) Android
5 1 (0.46%) Apple iOS
5 1 (0.46%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 78 (35.78%) CI/CD
2 71 (32.57%) Agile
3 53 (24.31%) Microservices
4 50 (22.94%) DevOps
5 45 (20.64%) Mentoring
6 36 (16.51%) TDD
7 33 (15.14%) Containerisation
8 30 (13.76%) Continuous Improvement
9 29 (13.30%) Problem-Solving
10 27 (12.39%) Coaching
11 25 (11.47%) Full-Stack Development
12 24 (11.01%) AI
13 19 (8.72%) Clean Code
14 17 (7.80%) Stakeholder Management
14 17 (7.80%) User Experience
15 16 (7.34%) Scrum
15 16 (7.34%) Technical Leadership
16 15 (6.88%) Event-Driven
16 15 (6.88%) Fintech
17 14 (6.42%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 53 (24.31%) C#
2 43 (19.72%) Java
3 39 (17.89%) SQL
4 38 (17.43%) TypeScript
5 30 (13.76%) Python
6 26 (11.93%) JavaScript
7 5 (2.29%) C
7 5 (2.29%) PHP
8 3 (1.38%) C++
8 3 (1.38%) Kotlin
8 3 (1.38%) Ruby
8 3 (1.38%) Rust
9 2 (0.92%) Bash
9 2 (0.92%) Embedded C++
9 2 (0.92%) Go
9 2 (0.92%) Scala
10 1 (0.46%) Embedded C
10 1 (0.46%) Objective-C
10 1 (0.46%) PowerShell
10 1 (0.46%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 24 (11.01%) Security Cleared
2 16 (7.34%) DV Cleared
3 9 (4.13%) Degree
3 9 (4.13%) SC Cleared
4 7 (3.21%) Computer Science Degree
5 2 (0.92%) Postgraduate
6 1 (0.46%) AWS Certification
6 1 (0.46%) BPSS Clearance
6 1 (0.46%) DBS Check
6 1 (0.46%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 1 (0.46%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (4.13%) QA
2 4 (1.83%) Accessibility
3 3 (1.38%) ISO 20022
3 3 (1.38%) SEPA
3 3 (1.38%) TARGET2
4 1 (0.46%) Actionable Recommendations
4 1 (0.46%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.46%) MISRA
4 1 (0.46%) MISRA C
System Software
1 41 (18.81%) Docker
2 2 (0.92%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.46%) KVM
3 1 (0.46%) QEMU
3 1 (0.46%) Virtual Machines
3 1 (0.46%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 36 (16.51%) Kubernetes
2 18 (8.26%) Terraform
3 7 (3.21%) Ansible
4 5 (2.29%) Grafana
5 3 (1.38%) Puppet
6 2 (0.92%) Progress Chef
7 1 (0.46%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
7 1 (0.46%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 27 (12.39%) Microsoft
2 10 (4.59%) Cisco
2 10 (4.59%) Salesforce
3 7 (3.21%) BiZZdesign
4 4 (1.83%) Google
5 3 (1.38%) Databricks
5 3 (1.38%) SaltStack
6 2 (0.92%) Concur
6 2 (0.92%) Oracle
6 2 (0.92%) Red Hat
6 2 (0.92%) Sage
6 2 (0.92%) SAP
7 1 (0.46%) Atlassian
7 1 (0.46%) Avaya
7 1 (0.46%) Dynatrace
7 1 (0.46%) HubSpot
7 1 (0.46%) TOWER Software
7 1 (0.46%) VMware