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

6 months to
4 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 25 10
Rank change year-on-year +11 -15 +15
Permanent jobs citing Software Engineering 822 604 959
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 7.07% 11.68% 11.39%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 9.87% 12.86% 14.68%
Number of salaries quoted 692 266 562
10th Percentile £48,750 £42,500 £41,014
25th Percentile £55,000 £52,500 £49,625
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £67,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.70% +12.50% -4.00%
75th Percentile £85,000 £87,500 £70,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £108,750 £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 8,325 4,696 6,533
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 71.59% 90.83% 77.59%
Number of salaries quoted 6,362 2,293 4,451
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £35,000 £39,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £52,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -3.85% -5.45%
75th Percentile £75,000 £67,500 £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 4 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 4 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 +4 634 £70,000 -1.75% 239
Cheshire -3 81 £65,000 +8.33% 36
Lancashire -3 50 £60,000 +25.83% 26
Merseyside +3 45 £70,000 +7.69% 21
Cumbria -7 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 (0.73%) SharePoint Server
2 5 (0.61%) Apache
2 5 (0.61%) Apache Spark
2 5 (0.61%) FactoryTalk
3 4 (0.49%) Adobe Experience Manager
3 4 (0.49%) Apache Solr
4 3 (0.36%) Apache Airflow
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
Applications
1 4 (0.49%) Trello
2 2 (0.24%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.24%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (0.24%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 157 (19.10%) AWS
2 90 (10.95%) Azure
3 68 (8.27%) SaaS
4 40 (4.87%) Serverless
5 28 (3.41%) GCP
6 24 (2.92%) Azure DevOps
7 21 (2.55%) Anthropic Claude
8 19 (2.31%) GitHub
9 15 (1.82%) AWS Lambda
9 15 (1.82%) Power Platform
10 11 (1.34%) Dynamics 365
10 11 (1.34%) Firebase
11 10 (1.22%) Datadog
12 9 (1.09%) Microsoft Copilot
13 6 (0.73%) AWS CloudFormation
13 6 (0.73%) GitHub Actions
13 6 (0.73%) npm
13 6 (0.73%) Route 53
14 5 (0.61%) Amazon EC2
14 5 (0.61%) Amazon S3
Communications & Networking
1 5 (0.61%) TCP/IP
2 2 (0.24%) AMQP
2 2 (0.24%) Bluetooth
2 2 (0.24%) Firewall
2 2 (0.24%) RTP
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 26 (3.16%) NoSQL
2 22 (2.68%) PostgreSQL
3 21 (2.55%) MongoDB
4 18 (2.19%) SQL Server
5 12 (1.46%) MySQL
6 7 (0.85%) Relational Database
7 5 (0.61%) FileMaker
7 5 (0.61%) Pinecone
8 4 (0.49%) Azure SQL Database
8 4 (0.49%) Redis
9 3 (0.36%) Amazon RDS
9 3 (0.36%) DocumentDB
9 3 (0.36%) DynamoDB
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 20 (2.43%) Claude Code
1 20 (2.43%) Git
2 11 (1.34%) GitLab
2 11 (1.34%) Jenkins
3 10 (1.22%) JIRA
4 8 (0.97%) JUnit
4 8 (0.97%) Maven
5 7 (0.85%) Spock
6 4 (0.49%) Bitbucket
6 4 (0.49%) NUnit
6 4 (0.49%) Storybook
7 3 (0.36%) IntelliJ
8 2 (0.24%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 2 (0.24%) Cypress.io
8 2 (0.24%) Vite
9 1 (0.12%) Gemini Tracker
9 1 (0.12%) Mocha
9 1 (0.12%) Postman
9 1 (0.12%) Visual Studio
9 1 (0.12%) WinDbg
General
1 81 (9.85%) Finance
2 70 (8.52%) Social Skills
3 33 (4.01%) Retail
4 28 (3.41%) Public Sector
5 22 (2.68%) Electronics
6 17 (2.07%) Legal
7 15 (1.82%) Manufacturing
8 12 (1.46%) Analytical Skills
9 10 (1.22%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 9 (1.09%) Aviation
11 8 (0.97%) Law
12 7 (0.85%) Aerospace
13 6 (0.73%) Billing
14 5 (0.61%) Health Technology
14 5 (0.61%) Marketing
15 4 (0.49%) Banking
15 4 (0.49%) Games
15 4 (0.49%) Publishing
16 3 (0.36%) Automotive
16 3 (0.36%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 538 (65.45%) Software Engineer
2 218 (26.52%) Senior
3 157 (19.10%) Senior Software Engineer
4 110 (13.38%) Lead
5 94 (11.44%) Developer
6 70 (8.52%) Lead Software Engineer
7 49 (5.96%) Principal Engineer
8 44 (5.35%) Full-Stack Engineer
9 42 (5.11%) Software Manager
10 40 (4.87%) Principal Software Engineer
11 39 (4.74%) Java Engineer
12 35 (4.26%) Engineering Manager
13 34 (4.14%) Java Software Engineer
14 32 (3.89%) Senior Developer
15 30 (3.65%) PLC Software Engineer
15 30 (3.65%) Python Engineer
15 30 (3.65%) Software Developer
16 29 (3.53%) Lead Developer
17 27 (3.28%) Python Software Engineer
18 26 (3.16%) Embedded Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 98 (11.92%) .NET
2 67 (8.15%) React
3 45 (5.47%) Node.js
4 34 (4.14%) AngularJS
4 34 (4.14%) Next.js
5 32 (3.89%) Spring
6 27 (3.28%) RESTful
7 23 (2.80%) Spring Boot
8 21 (2.55%) REST
8 21 (2.55%) Vue
9 20 (2.43%) React Native
10 14 (1.70%) Ruby on Rails
11 12 (1.46%) FastAPI
12 11 (1.34%) .NET Framework
12 11 (1.34%) CSS
13 9 (1.09%) .NET Core
13 9 (1.09%) LangChain
14 7 (0.85%) ASP.NET
14 7 (0.85%) ASP.NET Core
15 6 (0.73%) HTML
Miscellaneous
1 100 (12.17%) Cloud Native
2 44 (5.35%) Distributed Systems
3 39 (4.74%) Product Ownership
4 22 (2.68%) AI Agents
5 18 (2.19%) Mobile App
6 15 (1.82%) Legacy Systems
7 13 (1.58%) Greenfield Project
8 9 (1.09%) Industry 4.0
9 7 (0.85%) Private Cloud
10 6 (0.73%) Embedded Systems
11 5 (0.61%) IoT
11 5 (0.61%) Life Science
11 5 (0.61%) Onboarding
11 5 (0.61%) Robotics
11 5 (0.61%) Virtual Team
12 3 (0.36%) Distributed Architecture
12 3 (0.36%) Legacy Applications
12 3 (0.36%) Management Information System
12 3 (0.36%) Self-Motivation
13 2 (0.24%) PMI
Operating Systems
1 22 (2.68%) Linux
2 6 (0.73%) Android
2 6 (0.73%) Windows
3 3 (0.36%) Apple iOS
4 2 (0.24%) CentOS
4 2 (0.24%) Debian
4 2 (0.24%) Embedded Linux
4 2 (0.24%) FreeRTOS
4 2 (0.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 2 (0.24%) Ubuntu
4 2 (0.24%) VMS
5 1 (0.12%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 135 (16.42%) DevOps
2 133 (16.18%) Agile
2 133 (16.18%) Full-Stack Development
3 129 (15.69%) CI/CD
4 120 (14.60%) AI
5 98 (11.92%) Mentoring
6 79 (9.61%) Microservices
7 78 (9.49%) Problem-Solving
8 65 (7.91%) Continuous Improvement
9 59 (7.18%) Test Automation
10 56 (6.81%) TDD
11 48 (5.84%) Observability
12 46 (5.60%) Scrum
13 44 (5.35%) Technical Leadership
14 42 (5.11%) Collaborative Culture
15 40 (4.87%) Event-Driven
16 39 (4.74%) Roadmaps
17 38 (4.62%) Coaching
17 38 (4.62%) Infrastructure as Code
18 36 (4.38%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 124 (15.09%) Python
2 109 (13.26%) Java
3 95 (11.56%) TypeScript
4 89 (10.83%) C#
5 86 (10.46%) SQL
6 79 (9.61%) JavaScript
7 33 (4.01%) Go
8 29 (3.53%) C++
9 18 (2.19%) C
10 15 (1.82%) PHP
11 14 (1.70%) Ruby
12 8 (0.97%) Bash
13 6 (0.73%) PowerShell
14 5 (0.61%) COBOL
15 4 (0.49%) Bicep
15 4 (0.49%) Kotlin
15 4 (0.49%) Scala
16 2 (0.24%) Groovy
16 2 (0.24%) Shell Script
17 1 (0.12%) Apex Code
Qualifications
1 57 (6.93%) Security Cleared
2 41 (4.99%) DV Cleared
2 41 (4.99%) SC Cleared
3 25 (3.04%) Degree
4 14 (1.70%) Computer Science Degree
5 6 (0.73%) PMI Certification
6 5 (0.61%) DBS Check
7 4 (0.49%) BPSS Clearance
7 4 (0.49%) PMP
8 3 (0.36%) Master's Degree
9 2 (0.24%) Microsoft Certification
10 1 (0.12%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (3.53%) QA
2 9 (1.09%) Accessibility
3 4 (0.49%) WCAG
4 3 (0.36%) Data Quality
4 3 (0.36%) GDPR
4 3 (0.36%) IEC 61131
4 3 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (0.24%) IEC 61508
System Software
1 48 (5.84%) Docker
2 7 (0.85%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 44 (5.35%) Kubernetes
2 38 (4.62%) Terraform
3 8 (0.97%) Ansible
4 6 (0.73%) Grafana
4 6 (0.73%) Prometheus
5 2 (0.24%) Argo
5 2 (0.24%) Puppet
6 1 (0.12%) Functional Safety
6 1 (0.12%) Microsoft Intune
6 1 (0.12%) Packer
6 1 (0.12%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 22 (2.68%) Microsoft
2 15 (1.82%) Splunk
3 11 (1.34%) Google
3 11 (1.34%) Rockwell
4 9 (1.09%) Siemens
5 7 (0.85%) AppDynamics
5 7 (0.85%) Databricks
6 6 (0.73%) OpenAI
7 4 (0.49%) Adobe
7 4 (0.49%) 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%) Salesforce