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

6 months to
11 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 30 17 13
Rank change year-on-year -13 -4 +5
Permanent jobs citing Software Engineering 404 360 776
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 5.01% 9.09% 9.81%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.56% 9.59% 11.54%
Number of salaries quoted 321 271 634
10th Percentile £50,000 £41,250 £40,000
25th Percentile £55,000 £48,869 £48,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £67,500 £65,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.85% +8.33% -
75th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,528 £86,250
England median annual salary £71,000 £72,500 £65,000
% change year-on-year -2.07% +11.54% -7.14%

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 6,157 3,753 6,727
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 76.38% 94.77% 85.00%
Number of salaries quoted 3,344 2,121 5,447
10th Percentile £28,250 £31,250 £28,000
25th Percentile £36,250 £40,620 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £54,793 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.75% +9.59% -9.09%
75th Percentile £68,666 £68,750 £66,250
90th Percentile £85,000 £83,750 £80,000
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +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 March 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 March 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 -10 311 £70,000 +7.69% 89
Cheshire -10 51 £60,000 +20.00% 30
Merseyside -3 22 £65,000 -3.70% 6
Lancashire -17 20 £60,000 +17.90% 23
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 (1.49%) Apache Spark
2 4 (0.99%) Apache
2 4 (0.99%) Apache Solr
3 3 (0.74%) Confluence
3 3 (0.74%) GeoServer
4 2 (0.50%) Apache Airflow
4 2 (0.50%) nginx
5 1 (0.25%) OpenStack
Applications
1 2 (0.50%) Adobe XD
1 2 (0.50%) EngageOne
1 2 (0.50%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 10 (2.48%) Magento
Cloud Services
1 95 (23.51%) AWS
2 89 (22.03%) Azure
3 30 (7.43%) SaaS
4 22 (5.45%) Serverless
5 19 (4.70%) GCP
6 12 (2.97%) Azure AKS
7 9 (2.23%) AWS Lambda
8 8 (1.98%) Figma
9 6 (1.49%) IaaS
9 6 (1.49%) PaaS
10 5 (1.24%) Amazon EKS
10 5 (1.24%) AWS CloudFormation
10 5 (1.24%) GitHub
10 5 (1.24%) Power Platform
11 4 (0.99%) Anthropic Claude
11 4 (0.99%) Azure DevOps
11 4 (0.99%) Cloud Computing
11 4 (0.99%) Microsoft Copilot
11 4 (0.99%) OpenShift
11 4 (0.99%) Twilio
Communications & Networking
1 4 (0.99%) AMQP
2 2 (0.50%) HTTP
2 2 (0.50%) RTP
3 1 (0.25%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (7.67%) NoSQL
2 14 (3.47%) MongoDB
3 10 (2.48%) PostgreSQL
4 8 (1.98%) Elasticsearch
4 8 (1.98%) MySQL
5 7 (1.73%) Neo4j
6 6 (1.49%) Big Data
6 6 (1.49%) Hadoop
7 5 (1.24%) Power BI
7 5 (1.24%) Relational Database
7 5 (1.24%) SQL Server
8 4 (0.99%) Cloudera CDH
9 3 (0.74%) DocumentDB
9 3 (0.74%) Geospatial Data
9 3 (0.74%) GIS
9 3 (0.74%) QGIS
10 2 (0.50%) Data Warehouse
10 2 (0.50%) DynamoDB
10 2 (0.50%) PostHog
10 2 (0.50%) Redis
Development Applications
1 9 (2.23%) Git
2 6 (1.49%) Cypress.io
2 6 (1.49%) Jenkins
3 5 (1.24%) Claude Code
4 4 (0.99%) GitLab
4 4 (0.99%) JIRA
5 2 (0.50%) NUnit
5 2 (0.50%) Vagrant
6 1 (0.25%) IntelliJ
6 1 (0.25%) JUnit
6 1 (0.25%) Postman
6 1 (0.25%) Protractor
6 1 (0.25%) Selenium
General
1 54 (13.37%) Finance
2 46 (11.39%) Social Skills
3 25 (6.19%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 17 (4.21%) Public Sector
5 16 (3.96%) Analytical Skills
6 15 (3.71%) Manufacturing
7 10 (2.48%) Retail
8 6 (1.49%) Banking
8 6 (1.49%) Electronics
9 5 (1.24%) Aerospace
9 5 (1.24%) Marketing
10 4 (0.99%) Billing
10 4 (0.99%) Italian Language
11 3 (0.74%) Automotive
11 3 (0.74%) French Language
11 3 (0.74%) Games
11 3 (0.74%) Health Technology
11 3 (0.74%) Influencing Skills
11 3 (0.74%) Portuguese Language
11 3 (0.74%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 234 (57.92%) Software Engineer
2 80 (19.80%) Lead
3 77 (19.06%) Senior
4 59 (14.60%) Developer
5 46 (11.39%) Senior Software Engineer
6 36 (8.91%) Lead Software Engineer
7 24 (5.94%) Software Developer
8 21 (5.20%) Java Engineer
9 18 (4.46%) Java Software Engineer
9 18 (4.46%) Lead Developer
9 18 (4.46%) Senior Developer
10 14 (3.47%) Project Manager
11 12 (2.97%) .NET Software Engineer
11 12 (2.97%) Principal Engineer
11 12 (2.97%) Python Engineer
12 11 (2.72%) Business Analyst
12 11 (2.72%) Embedded Engineer
12 11 (2.72%) Embedded Software Engineer
12 11 (2.72%) PLC Software Engineer
12 11 (2.72%) Principal Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 76 (18.81%) .NET
2 49 (12.13%) React
3 29 (7.18%) Node.js
4 27 (6.68%) RESTful
5 20 (4.95%) AngularJS
6 19 (4.70%) .NET Framework
7 16 (3.96%) REST
7 16 (3.96%) Spring
7 16 (3.96%) Spring Boot
8 12 (2.97%) CSS
9 11 (2.72%) .NET Core
10 10 (2.48%) Flask
10 10 (2.48%) HTML
11 9 (2.23%) Vue
12 8 (1.98%) Next.js
13 7 (1.73%) Django
14 6 (1.49%) FastAPI
14 6 (1.49%) RabbitMQ
15 5 (1.24%) Celery
15 5 (1.24%) Jest
Miscellaneous
1 48 (11.88%) Cloud Native
2 15 (3.71%) Distributed Systems
3 12 (2.97%) Greenfield Project
4 11 (2.72%) Product Ownership
5 9 (2.23%) Industry 4.0
6 8 (1.98%) Enterprise Software
6 8 (1.98%) IoT
7 5 (1.24%) Distributed Computing
7 5 (1.24%) Onboarding
8 4 (0.99%) Algorithms
8 4 (0.99%) Management Information System
8 4 (0.99%) SCADA
9 3 (0.74%) Data Centre
9 3 (0.74%) Legacy Systems
10 2 (0.50%) Analytical Mindset
10 2 (0.50%) Animation
10 2 (0.50%) Client/Server
10 2 (0.50%) Embedded Systems
10 2 (0.50%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 2 (0.50%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 7 (1.73%) Apple iOS
1 7 (1.73%) Linux
2 5 (1.24%) Android
3 4 (0.99%) CentOS
3 4 (0.99%) Debian
3 4 (0.99%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 4 (0.99%) Ubuntu
4 2 (0.50%) Windows
5 1 (0.25%) Unix
5 1 (0.25%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 105 (25.99%) Agile
2 83 (20.54%) CI/CD
3 61 (15.10%) Mentoring
4 58 (14.36%) Microservices
5 56 (13.86%) DevOps
6 52 (12.87%) Full-Stack Development
7 46 (11.39%) Coaching
8 45 (11.14%) Scrum
9 41 (10.15%) TDD
10 35 (8.66%) AI
11 34 (8.42%) Problem-Solving
12 33 (8.17%) Technical Leadership
13 32 (7.92%) Containerisation
14 29 (7.18%) Analytics
14 29 (7.18%) Clean Code
15 27 (6.68%) Continuous Improvement
15 27 (6.68%) Open Source
16 19 (4.70%) Design Patterns
16 19 (4.70%) Fintech
16 19 (4.70%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 76 (18.81%) Java
2 58 (14.36%) C#
3 53 (13.12%) Python
4 52 (12.87%) SQL
5 41 (10.15%) JavaScript
6 40 (9.90%) TypeScript
7 16 (3.96%) PHP
8 6 (1.49%) C
8 6 (1.49%) Go
8 6 (1.49%) Kotlin
9 4 (0.99%) Scala
10 3 (0.74%) C++
11 2 (0.50%) Ruby
12 1 (0.25%) Bash
12 1 (0.25%) Bicep
12 1 (0.25%) Rust
Qualifications
1 25 (6.19%) Security Cleared
2 19 (4.70%) DV Cleared
3 12 (2.97%) Degree
4 8 (1.98%) Computer Science Degree
4 8 (1.98%) SC Cleared
5 3 (0.74%) DBS Check
6 1 (0.25%) AWS Certification
6 1 (0.25%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (3.71%) QA
2 7 (1.73%) Accessibility
3 2 (0.50%) ISO 20022
3 2 (0.50%) SEPA
3 2 (0.50%) TARGET2
4 1 (0.25%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.25%) WCAG
System Software
1 33 (8.17%) Docker
2 2 (0.50%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.25%) Firmware
3 1 (0.25%) KVM
3 1 (0.25%) QEMU
3 1 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 40 (9.90%) Kubernetes
2 20 (4.95%) Terraform
3 6 (1.49%) Ansible
4 4 (0.99%) Puppet
5 3 (0.74%) Grafana
6 2 (0.50%) Packer
6 2 (0.50%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 31 (7.67%) Microsoft
2 29 (7.18%) Salesforce
3 25 (6.19%) Cisco
4 10 (2.48%) Adobe
5 6 (1.49%) BiZZdesign
5 6 (1.49%) Google
6 5 (1.24%) SaltStack
7 4 (0.99%) Red Hat
8 1 (0.25%) Atlassian
8 1 (0.25%) Databricks
8 1 (0.25%) DevExpress
8 1 (0.25%) Dynatrace
8 1 (0.25%) HubSpot
8 1 (0.25%) Oracle
8 1 (0.25%) SAP
8 1 (0.25%) Xamarin