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

6 months to
7 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 25 11
Rank change year-on-year +12 -14 +13
Permanent jobs citing Software Engineering 786 612 1,170
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 7.01% 12.13% 11.02%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 9.88% 13.13% 13.94%
Number of salaries quoted 662 272 766
10th Percentile £50,000 £42,500 £40,000
25th Percentile £56,250 £52,500 £48,750
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 £110,000 £85,000
England median annual salary £72,500 £75,000 £64,244
% change year-on-year -3.33% +16.74% -11.39%

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 7,952 4,662 8,396
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 70.93% 92.37% 79.10%
Number of salaries quoted 6,112 2,240 6,246
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,975 £28,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £35,750 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,890 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +8.08% +1.78% -9.09%
75th Percentile £75,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £82,500 £80,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -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 7 July 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 7 July 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 +3 599 £70,000 -3.45% 141
Cheshire -2 91 £60,000 - 18
Lancashire +2 49 £60,000 +25.83% 19
Merseyside +4 40 £70,000 +7.69% 6
Cumbria -11 7 £50,000 -16.67% 5
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 (0.76%) Apache Spark
1 6 (0.76%) SharePoint Server
2 5 (0.64%) FactoryTalk
3 4 (0.51%) Apache Solr
3 4 (0.51%) GeoServer
4 3 (0.38%) Apache
5 2 (0.25%) Confluence
5 2 (0.25%) nginx
6 1 (0.13%) CMS
6 1 (0.13%) Headless CMS
Applications
1 2 (0.25%) EngageOne
1 2 (0.25%) Trello
Business Applications
1 2 (0.25%) Dynamics CRM
1 2 (0.25%) Magento
Cloud Services
1 147 (18.70%) AWS
2 87 (11.07%) Azure
3 60 (7.63%) SaaS
4 40 (5.09%) Serverless
5 22 (2.80%) Anthropic Claude
5 22 (2.80%) GCP
6 17 (2.16%) Azure DevOps
7 11 (1.40%) GitHub
8 10 (1.27%) AWS Lambda
8 10 (1.27%) Firebase
9 9 (1.15%) Power Platform
10 8 (1.02%) Azure AKS
11 6 (0.76%) AWS CloudFormation
11 6 (0.76%) Dynamics 365
11 6 (0.76%) Microsoft Copilot
12 5 (0.64%) Amazon EC2
12 5 (0.64%) Amazon S3
13 4 (0.51%) Amazon EKS
13 4 (0.51%) Datadog
13 4 (0.51%) Twilio
Communications & Networking
1 3 (0.38%) AMQP
2 2 (0.25%) Bluetooth
2 2 (0.25%) RTP
2 2 (0.25%) TCP/IP
2 2 (0.25%) Wi-Fi
2 2 (0.25%) Wireless
2 2 (0.25%) ZigBee
3 1 (0.13%) LTE
3 1 (0.13%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 30 (3.82%) NoSQL
2 22 (2.80%) MongoDB
3 19 (2.42%) PostgreSQL
4 11 (1.40%) MySQL
5 10 (1.27%) SQL Server
6 6 (0.76%) Relational Database
7 5 (0.64%) FileMaker
7 5 (0.64%) Pinecone
8 4 (0.51%) Azure SQL Database
8 4 (0.51%) Elasticsearch
8 4 (0.51%) Geospatial Data
8 4 (0.51%) GIS
8 4 (0.51%) Neo4j
8 4 (0.51%) QGIS
9 3 (0.38%) Amazon RDS
9 3 (0.38%) Big Data
9 3 (0.38%) Cloudera CDH
9 3 (0.38%) Hadoop
9 3 (0.38%) MariaDB
9 3 (0.38%) Redis
Development Applications
1 21 (2.67%) Claude Code
2 15 (1.91%) Git
3 11 (1.40%) Jenkins
4 7 (0.89%) GitLab
5 6 (0.76%) JIRA
6 5 (0.64%) JUnit
7 4 (0.51%) Bitbucket
7 4 (0.51%) Spock
8 3 (0.38%) Maven
8 3 (0.38%) NUnit
9 2 (0.25%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 2 (0.25%) IntelliJ
9 2 (0.25%) Vagrant
9 2 (0.25%) Vite
10 1 (0.13%) GDB
10 1 (0.13%) Gemini Tracker
10 1 (0.13%) Mocha
10 1 (0.13%) Visual Studio
10 1 (0.13%) WinDbg
General
1 85 (10.81%) Finance
2 51 (6.49%) Social Skills
3 24 (3.05%) Public Sector
3 24 (3.05%) Retail
4 22 (2.80%) Electronics
5 17 (2.16%) Legal
6 15 (1.91%) Manufacturing
7 13 (1.65%) Analytical Skills
8 9 (1.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 6 (0.76%) Aerospace
9 6 (0.76%) Billing
9 6 (0.76%) Law
10 5 (0.64%) Health Technology
10 5 (0.64%) Marketing
11 4 (0.51%) Games
11 4 (0.51%) Italian Language
12 3 (0.38%) Banking
12 3 (0.38%) French Language
12 3 (0.38%) Portuguese Language
12 3 (0.38%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 527 (67.05%) Software Engineer
2 200 (25.45%) Senior
3 146 (18.58%) Senior Software Engineer
4 113 (14.38%) Lead
5 101 (12.85%) Developer
6 67 (8.52%) Lead Software Engineer
7 45 (5.73%) Software Developer
8 44 (5.60%) Java Engineer
9 42 (5.34%) Full-Stack Engineer
9 42 (5.34%) Principal Engineer
10 38 (4.83%) Java Software Engineer
11 36 (4.58%) Software Manager
12 35 (4.45%) Principal Software Engineer
13 33 (4.20%) Senior Developer
14 32 (4.07%) Lead Developer
15 30 (3.82%) Engineering Manager
16 28 (3.56%) Full-Stack Software Engineer
16 28 (3.56%) PLC Software Engineer
17 27 (3.44%) Embedded Engineer
18 25 (3.18%) Embedded Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 106 (13.49%) .NET
2 69 (8.78%) React
3 45 (5.73%) Node.js
4 35 (4.45%) Next.js
5 32 (4.07%) Spring
6 30 (3.82%) RESTful
7 28 (3.56%) AngularJS
8 26 (3.31%) Spring Boot
9 23 (2.93%) REST
10 21 (2.67%) Vue
11 17 (2.16%) React Native
12 14 (1.78%) Ruby on Rails
13 13 (1.65%) FastAPI
14 12 (1.53%) .NET Framework
15 11 (1.40%) CSS
16 10 (1.27%) .NET Core
17 9 (1.15%) LangChain
18 6 (0.76%) HTML
19 5 (0.64%) ASP.NET
19 5 (0.64%) OpenAPI
Miscellaneous
1 93 (11.83%) Cloud Native
2 41 (5.22%) Distributed Systems
3 34 (4.33%) Product Ownership
4 21 (2.67%) AI Agents
5 18 (2.29%) Mobile App
6 14 (1.78%) Greenfield Project
6 14 (1.78%) Legacy Systems
7 9 (1.15%) Industry 4.0
7 9 (1.15%) IoT
8 7 (0.89%) Embedded Systems
9 6 (0.76%) Onboarding
10 5 (0.64%) Life Science
10 5 (0.64%) Robotics
10 5 (0.64%) Virtual Team
11 4 (0.51%) Algorithms
11 4 (0.51%) Management Information System
11 4 (0.51%) Private Cloud
12 3 (0.38%) Data Centre
12 3 (0.38%) Distributed Architecture
12 3 (0.38%) Legacy Applications
Operating Systems
1 16 (2.04%) Linux
2 9 (1.15%) Android
3 7 (0.89%) Apple iOS
4 4 (0.51%) Windows
5 3 (0.38%) CentOS
5 3 (0.38%) Debian
5 3 (0.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 3 (0.38%) Ubuntu
6 2 (0.25%) Embedded Linux
6 2 (0.25%) FreeRTOS
7 1 (0.13%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 139 (17.68%) Full-Stack Development
2 126 (16.03%) Agile
3 124 (15.78%) DevOps
4 118 (15.01%) CI/CD
5 103 (13.10%) AI
6 85 (10.81%) Mentoring
7 83 (10.56%) Microservices
8 72 (9.16%) Problem-Solving
9 57 (7.25%) TDD
10 52 (6.62%) Continuous Improvement
11 49 (6.23%) Scrum
12 46 (5.85%) Test Automation
13 41 (5.22%) Coaching
14 39 (4.96%) Technical Leadership
15 38 (4.83%) Event-Driven
16 36 (4.58%) Containerisation
17 35 (4.45%) Decision-Making
17 35 (4.45%) Observability
17 35 (4.45%) Open Source
18 33 (4.20%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 116 (14.76%) Java
2 110 (13.99%) Python
3 90 (11.45%) C#
3 90 (11.45%) SQL
4 82 (10.43%) TypeScript
5 74 (9.41%) JavaScript
6 25 (3.18%) C++
7 24 (3.05%) Go
8 14 (1.78%) C
8 14 (1.78%) Ruby
9 13 (1.65%) PHP
10 6 (0.76%) Bash
10 6 (0.76%) PowerShell
11 5 (0.64%) COBOL
12 4 (0.51%) Bicep
12 4 (0.51%) Kotlin
13 3 (0.38%) Scala
14 1 (0.13%) Apex Code
14 1 (0.13%) Groovy
14 1 (0.13%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 58 (7.38%) Security Cleared
2 42 (5.34%) DV Cleared
3 41 (5.22%) SC Cleared
4 21 (2.67%) Degree
5 14 (1.78%) Computer Science Degree
6 8 (1.02%) DBS Check
7 4 (0.51%) PMI Certification
8 2 (0.25%) BPSS Clearance
8 2 (0.25%) Microsoft Certification
8 2 (0.25%) PMP
9 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (2.67%) QA
2 6 (0.76%) Accessibility
3 3 (0.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (0.13%) GDPR
4 1 (0.13%) IEC 61131
4 1 (0.13%) WCAG
System Software
1 44 (5.60%) Docker
2 7 (0.89%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 44 (5.60%) Kubernetes
2 38 (4.83%) Terraform
3 9 (1.15%) Ansible
4 3 (0.38%) Grafana
4 3 (0.38%) Prometheus
4 3 (0.38%) Puppet
5 2 (0.25%) Argo
5 2 (0.25%) Packer
5 2 (0.25%) Progress Chef
6 1 (0.13%) Functional Safety
Vendors
1 19 (2.42%) Microsoft
2 11 (1.40%) Rockwell
3 10 (1.27%) Splunk
4 7 (0.89%) Salesforce
4 7 (0.89%) Siemens
5 6 (0.76%) Google
5 6 (0.76%) OpenAI
6 5 (0.64%) Cisco
6 5 (0.64%) Xamarin
7 4 (0.51%) AppDynamics
7 4 (0.51%) Databricks
8 3 (0.38%) DevExpress
8 3 (0.38%) Red Hat
8 3 (0.38%) SaltStack
9 2 (0.25%) Adobe