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 19 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 44 11 14
Rank change year-on-year -33 +3 -1
Permanent jobs citing Software Engineering 228 751 424
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 4.53% 11.00% 11.05%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.36% 13.38% 11.73%
Number of salaries quoted 175 316 280
10th Percentile £46,750 £40,000 £41,250
25th Percentile £55,000 £48,750 £48,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £57,500 £64,000
Median % change year-on-year +21.74% -10.16% +6.67%
75th Percentile £86,875 £68,750 £76,563
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 4,256 5,612 3,616
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 84.56% 82.17% 94.26%
Number of salaries quoted 2,441 2,765 2,733
10th Percentile £27,000 £32,500 £31,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £41,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% -5.45% +4.76%
75th Percentile £65,000 £65,000 £70,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £78,750 £83,750
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -1.64%

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 19 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 19 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 -15 178 £70,000 +16.67% 229
Cheshire -25 31 £60,000 +14.29% 31
Merseyside -27 10 £62,500 -3.85% 8
Lancashire -43 8 £55,000 +8.91% 78
Cumbria +5 1 £60,000 +4.35% 1
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 5 (2.19%) Confluence
2 3 (1.32%) Apache
2 3 (1.32%) Apache Solr
2 3 (1.32%) Apache Spark
3 2 (0.88%) Apache Airflow
3 2 (0.88%) IIS
3 2 (0.88%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.44%) CMS
4 1 (0.44%) OpenStack
Applications
1 4 (1.75%) Microsoft Excel
1 4 (1.75%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.88%) Adobe XD
2 2 (0.88%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 2 (0.88%) Microsoft Project
2 2 (0.88%) MS Visio
2 2 (0.88%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 1 (0.44%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 76 (33.33%) AWS
2 66 (28.95%) Azure
3 23 (10.09%) SaaS
4 18 (7.89%) GCP
5 14 (6.14%) Serverless
6 10 (4.39%) AWS Lambda
6 10 (4.39%) GitHub
7 9 (3.95%) Power Platform
8 7 (3.07%) Azure DevOps
9 6 (2.63%) IaaS
9 6 (2.63%) Microsoft 365
9 6 (2.63%) PaaS
10 4 (1.75%) AWS CloudFormation
11 3 (1.32%) Amazon ECS
11 3 (1.32%) Amazon S3
11 3 (1.32%) Azure AKS
12 2 (0.88%) Dagster
12 2 (0.88%) GitHub Actions
12 2 (0.88%) Prefect
12 2 (0.88%) Workato
Communications & Networking
1 3 (1.32%) Internet
2 2 (0.88%) AMQP
2 2 (0.88%) HTTP
3 1 (0.44%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (10.53%) NoSQL
2 18 (7.89%) MongoDB
3 11 (4.82%) MySQL
3 11 (4.82%) PostgreSQL
4 7 (3.07%) SQL Server
5 6 (2.63%) Relational Database
6 5 (2.19%) Data Warehouse
6 5 (2.19%) Power BI
7 4 (1.75%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
7 4 (1.75%) DynamoDB
7 4 (1.75%) Elasticsearch
8 3 (1.32%) Big Data
8 3 (1.32%) Neo4j
9 2 (0.88%) Amazon RDS
9 2 (0.88%) Amazon Redshift
9 2 (0.88%) Cloudera CDH
9 2 (0.88%) Data Hub
9 2 (0.88%) Hadoop
9 2 (0.88%) SQL CLR
10 1 (0.44%) TigerGraph
Development Applications
1 11 (4.82%) Git
2 9 (3.95%) Cypress.io
3 6 (2.63%) JIRA
4 5 (2.19%) GitLab
5 4 (1.75%) Jenkins
6 3 (1.32%) Cucumber
6 3 (1.32%) Selenium
7 2 (0.88%) Visual Studio
7 2 (0.88%) webpack
8 1 (0.44%) Gatling
8 1 (0.44%) Jasmine
8 1 (0.44%) JMeter
8 1 (0.44%) Karma Test Runner
8 1 (0.44%) LoadRunner
8 1 (0.44%) NUnit
8 1 (0.44%) Protractor
General
1 46 (20.18%) Finance
2 37 (16.23%) Social Skills
3 10 (4.39%) Marketing
4 9 (3.95%) Public Sector
5 8 (3.51%) Retail
6 7 (3.07%) Banking
6 7 (3.07%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 6 (2.63%) Analytical Skills
7 6 (2.63%) Legal
7 6 (2.63%) Manufacturing
7 6 (2.63%) Telecoms
8 5 (2.19%) Billing
9 4 (1.75%) Electronics
9 4 (1.75%) Games
9 4 (1.75%) Influencing Skills
10 3 (1.32%) Financial Institution
11 2 (0.88%) Aerospace
11 2 (0.88%) Automotive
11 2 (0.88%) Back Office
11 2 (0.88%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 109 (47.81%) Software Engineer
2 68 (29.82%) Senior
3 36 (15.79%) Senior Software Engineer
4 32 (14.04%) Developer
5 29 (12.72%) Lead
6 12 (5.26%) DV Cleared Software Engineer
6 12 (5.26%) Lead Software Engineer
7 11 (4.82%) Architect
7 11 (4.82%) Java Engineer
7 11 (4.82%) Python Engineer
8 9 (3.95%) AWS Engineer
8 9 (3.95%) Control Systems Engineer
8 9 (3.95%) Data Engineer
8 9 (3.95%) Java Software Engineer
8 9 (3.95%) Python Software Engineer
8 9 (3.95%) Senior Developer
8 9 (3.95%) Senior Systems Engineer
8 9 (3.95%) Systems Engineer
9 8 (3.51%) Senior Data Engineer
9 8 (3.51%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (21.93%) .NET
1 50 (21.93%) React
2 20 (8.77%) AngularJS
2 20 (8.77%) Spring
2 20 (8.77%) Spring Boot
3 19 (8.33%) RESTful
4 16 (7.02%) Node.js
5 14 (6.14%) .NET Core
5 14 (6.14%) CSS
6 13 (5.70%) .NET Framework
6 13 (5.70%) HTML
6 13 (5.70%) Kafka
7 9 (3.95%) Jest
7 9 (3.95%) Vue
8 8 (3.51%) Next.js
8 8 (3.51%) REST
9 7 (3.07%) Entity Framework
9 7 (3.07%) FastAPI
10 6 (2.63%) RabbitMQ
11 5 (2.19%) Django
Miscellaneous
1 34 (14.91%) Cloud Native
2 19 (8.33%) Distributed Systems
3 17 (7.46%) Greenfield Project
4 15 (6.58%) Product Ownership
5 9 (3.95%) SCADA
6 6 (2.63%) AI Agents
7 5 (2.19%) Wiki
8 4 (1.75%) Distributed Computing
8 4 (1.75%) Enterprise Software
8 4 (1.75%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
9 3 (1.32%) BBC
9 3 (1.32%) Legacy Systems
9 3 (1.32%) Mobile App
9 3 (1.32%) Private Cloud
9 3 (1.32%) SWIFT Messaging Network
10 2 (0.88%) Animation
10 2 (0.88%) Client/Server
10 2 (0.88%) Data Protection Act
10 2 (0.88%) Online Banking
10 2 (0.88%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 6 (2.63%) Linux
1 6 (2.63%) Windows
2 4 (1.75%) Windows Server
3 2 (0.88%) CentOS
3 2 (0.88%) Debian
3 2 (0.88%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 2 (0.88%) Ubuntu
4 1 (0.44%) Android
4 1 (0.44%) Apple iOS
4 1 (0.44%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 81 (35.53%) CI/CD
2 76 (33.33%) Agile
3 57 (25.00%) DevOps
4 53 (23.25%) Microservices
5 40 (17.54%) Mentoring
5 40 (17.54%) TDD
6 38 (16.67%) Containerisation
7 32 (14.04%) Problem-Solving
8 29 (12.72%) Continuous Improvement
8 29 (12.72%) Full-Stack Development
9 25 (10.96%) AI
10 22 (9.65%) Coaching
11 21 (9.21%) Clean Code
12 18 (7.89%) Fintech
12 18 (7.89%) Stakeholder Management
12 18 (7.89%) Technical Leadership
13 17 (7.46%) Computer Science
13 17 (7.46%) Event-Driven
14 16 (7.02%) Test Automation
15 15 (6.58%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 55 (24.12%) C#
2 52 (22.81%) Java
3 43 (18.86%) SQL
4 41 (17.98%) TypeScript
5 34 (14.91%) Python
6 30 (13.16%) JavaScript
7 6 (2.63%) C++
8 5 (2.19%) PHP
9 4 (1.75%) C
9 4 (1.75%) Go
9 4 (1.75%) Ruby
10 3 (1.32%) Kotlin
10 3 (1.32%) Rust
11 2 (0.88%) Bash
11 2 (0.88%) Embedded C++
11 2 (0.88%) Scala
12 1 (0.44%) Embedded C
12 1 (0.44%) Objective-C
12 1 (0.44%) PowerShell
12 1 (0.44%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 27 (11.84%) Security Cleared
2 18 (7.89%) DV Cleared
3 17 (7.46%) Degree
4 13 (5.70%) Computer Science Degree
5 10 (4.39%) SC Cleared
6 2 (0.88%) DBS Check
6 2 (0.88%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
6 2 (0.88%) Postgraduate
7 1 (0.44%) AWS Certification
7 1 (0.44%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (3.51%) QA
2 3 (1.32%) Accessibility
2 3 (1.32%) ISO 20022
2 3 (1.32%) SEPA
2 3 (1.32%) TARGET2
3 1 (0.44%) Actionable Recommendations
3 1 (0.44%) Data Quality
3 1 (0.44%) GDPR
3 1 (0.44%) MISRA
3 1 (0.44%) MISRA C
System Software
1 44 (19.30%) Docker
2 2 (0.88%) Active Directory
2 2 (0.88%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (0.44%) KVM
3 1 (0.44%) QEMU
Systems Management
1 37 (16.23%) Kubernetes
2 19 (8.33%) Terraform
3 7 (3.07%) Ansible
4 4 (1.75%) Grafana
5 3 (1.32%) Puppet
6 2 (0.88%) Progress Chef
7 1 (0.44%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
7 1 (0.44%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 26 (11.40%) Microsoft
2 6 (2.63%) BiZZdesign
2 6 (2.63%) Cisco
2 6 (2.63%) Salesforce
3 4 (1.75%) Google
3 4 (1.75%) Oracle
3 4 (1.75%) SAP
4 3 (1.32%) Databricks
4 3 (1.32%) SaltStack
5 2 (0.88%) Avaya
5 2 (0.88%) Concur
5 2 (0.88%) Red Hat
5 2 (0.88%) Sage
5 2 (0.88%) VMware
6 1 (0.44%) Atlassian
6 1 (0.44%) Dynatrace
6 1 (0.44%) HubSpot
6 1 (0.44%) TOWER Software