AI Job Trends in Manchester

AI
North West > Manchester

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in Manchester requiring AI skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 3 23 51
Rank change year-on-year +20 +28 +76
Permanent jobs citing AI 755 185 209
As % of all permanent jobs in Manchester 14.36% 8.82% 4.25%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 19.73% 9.25% 4.92%
Number of salaries quoted 213 81 76
10th Percentile £28,500 £25,313 £31,500
25th Percentile £50,000 £46,250 £35,092
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £67,249 £75,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -10.34% +57.89% -20.83%
75th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £90,625
90th Percentile - £107,500 £100,657
North West median annual salary £65,500 £73,750 £47,500
% change year-on-year -11.19% +55.26% -20.83%

All Process & Methodology Skills
Manchester

AI 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 Manchester.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 3,826 2,001 4,249
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in Manchester 72.79% 95.38% 86.34%
Number of salaries quoted 2,622 1,273 3,404
10th Percentile £31,250 £31,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £41,938 £41,250 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £57,500 £54,850
Median % change year-on-year +4.35% +4.83% -4.61%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £69,829
90th Percentile £95,000 £91,250 £82,500
North West median annual salary £55,000 £53,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +3.77% +6.00% -9.09%

AI
Job Vacancy Trend in Manchester

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing AI relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in Manchester.

AI job vacancy trend in Manchester

AI
Salary Trend in Manchester

Salary distribution trend for jobs in Manchester citing AI.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in Manchester citing AI

AI
Salary Histogram in Manchester

Salary distribution for jobs citing AI in Manchester over the 6 months to 1 May 2026.

Salary histogram for AI in Manchester

AI
Job Locations in Manchester

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing AI within the Manchester region over the 6 months to 1 May 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
Stockport +5 36 £32,500 - 6
Bolton +31 18 £30,000 - 6
Salford -4 18 £70,000 - 5
Bury - 16 £92,482 - 5
Wigan +5 14 - - 2
Cheadle - 14 - -
Stalybridge - 13 - -
Altrincham - 13 £25,000 - 1
Ashton-under-Lyne - 13 - - 6
Dukinfield - 13 - -
Oldham +6 12 - - 5
Rochdale 0 12 - -
Heywood - 12 - - 1
Littleborough - 12 - -
Sale - 11 - -
AI
North West

AI
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Manchester 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 9 (1.19%) SharePoint
2 7 (0.93%) Jupyter
3 6 (0.79%) CMS
4 5 (0.66%) WordPress
5 3 (0.40%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 34 (4.50%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (1.59%) Chatbot
3 9 (1.19%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (0.66%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 8 (1.06%) Cloudability
2 2 (0.26%) NetSuite
3 1 (0.13%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.13%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 412 (54.57%) Cloud Computing
2 96 (12.72%) Azure
3 70 (9.27%) AWS
4 47 (6.23%) Power Platform
5 33 (4.37%) Azure AI
6 29 (3.84%) SaaS
7 22 (2.91%) GCP
8 19 (2.52%) Serverless
9 14 (1.85%) Microsoft 365
10 11 (1.46%) GitHub
11 10 (1.32%) Microsoft Purview
12 9 (1.19%) Azure Monitor
12 9 (1.19%) Entra ID
13 8 (1.06%) Microsoft Copilot
13 8 (1.06%) OneDrive
14 7 (0.93%) Anthropic Claude
15 6 (0.79%) ChatGPT
16 5 (0.66%) Azure DevOps
16 5 (0.66%) GitHub Actions
16 5 (0.66%) Google Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 402 (53.25%) Internet
2 8 (1.06%) Telepresence
2 8 (1.06%) Unified Communications
2 8 (1.06%) VoIP
2 8 (1.06%) WebEx
3 3 (0.40%) HTTP
4 1 (0.13%) BGP
4 1 (0.13%) Firewall
4 1 (0.13%) LTE
4 1 (0.13%) Network Security
4 1 (0.13%) OSPF
4 1 (0.13%) SAN
4 1 (0.13%) TCAP
4 1 (0.13%) TCP/IP
4 1 (0.13%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (3.84%) Power BI
2 22 (2.91%) Tableau
3 10 (1.32%) MongoDB
4 8 (1.06%) PostgreSQL
5 6 (0.79%) NoSQL
6 4 (0.53%) Data Lake
6 4 (0.53%) Data Warehouse
7 3 (0.40%) Hadoop
7 3 (0.40%) SQL Server
8 2 (0.26%) Big Data
8 2 (0.26%) DynamoDB
8 2 (0.26%) Metadata
8 2 (0.26%) MySQL
8 2 (0.26%) Relational Database
8 2 (0.26%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 2 (0.26%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 1 (0.13%) Data Mining
9 1 (0.13%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
Development Applications
1 12 (1.59%) Git
2 8 (1.06%) Snyk
3 6 (0.79%) Claude Code
3 6 (0.79%) Visual Studio Code
4 5 (0.66%) Jenkins
5 4 (0.53%) JIRA
6 3 (0.40%) JUnit
7 2 (0.26%) GitLab
7 2 (0.26%) Vite
7 2 (0.26%) XCUITest
8 1 (0.13%) Selenium
General
1 494 (65.43%) Social Skills
2 485 (64.24%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 436 (57.75%) Banking
4 73 (9.67%) Finance
5 49 (6.49%) Analytical Skills
6 19 (2.52%) Public Sector
7 17 (2.25%) Retail
8 14 (1.85%) Marketing
9 11 (1.46%) Organisational Skills
10 10 (1.32%) Manufacturing
11 8 (1.06%) Telecoms
12 6 (0.79%) Law
12 6 (0.79%) Legal
13 5 (0.66%) Presentation Skills
14 4 (0.53%) Local Government
15 3 (0.40%) French Language
15 3 (0.40%) Italian Language
15 3 (0.40%) Portuguese Language
15 3 (0.40%) Spanish Language
16 2 (0.26%) Billing
Job Titles
1 314 (41.59%) Lecturer
2 75 (9.93%) Senior
3 49 (6.49%) Analyst
4 29 (3.84%) Software Engineer
5 26 (3.44%) Python Engineer
6 23 (3.05%) Data Analyst
7 21 (2.78%) Junior
7 21 (2.78%) Junior Analyst
7 21 (2.78%) Junior Data Analyst
8 18 (2.38%) Developer
9 17 (2.25%) Architect
10 16 (2.12%) Lead
11 15 (1.99%) Service Manager
12 14 (1.85%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
12 14 (1.85%) Senior Analyst
13 12 (1.59%) Consultant
13 12 (1.59%) Senior Software Engineer
14 11 (1.46%) Technologist
15 10 (1.32%) Senior Developer
16 9 (1.19%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (1.99%) HTML
1 15 (1.99%) React
2 14 (1.85%) CSS
3 12 (1.59%) Node.js
4 10 (1.32%) .NET
4 10 (1.32%) FastAPI
5 8 (1.06%) AngularJS
5 8 (1.06%) Spring
5 8 (1.06%) Spring Boot
6 7 (0.93%) Django
6 7 (0.93%) Pandas
6 7 (0.93%) REST
6 7 (0.93%) RESTful
6 7 (0.93%) Vue
7 6 (0.79%) Hugging Face
7 6 (0.79%) Matplotlib
7 6 (0.79%) NumPy
7 6 (0.79%) scikit-learn
7 6 (0.79%) Streamlit
8 5 (0.66%) EDI
Miscellaneous
1 402 (53.25%) IoT
2 34 (4.50%) Cloud Native
3 27 (3.58%) Onboarding
4 18 (2.38%) Data Centre
5 16 (2.12%) Blog
5 16 (2.12%) Product Ownership
6 13 (1.72%) AI Agents
7 11 (1.46%) Distributed Systems
8 10 (1.32%) Algorithms
8 10 (1.32%) Enterprise Software
9 9 (1.19%) Public Cloud
10 6 (0.79%) Analytical Mindset
10 6 (0.79%) Self-Motivation
11 5 (0.66%) Low-Code
12 4 (0.53%) Cyber Threat
12 4 (0.53%) Marketing Technology
12 4 (0.53%) Social Media
12 4 (0.53%) Taxonomies
13 2 (0.26%) Management Information System
13 2 (0.26%) Semantic Web
Operating Systems
1 5 (0.66%) Apple iOS
2 4 (0.53%) Android
3 3 (0.40%) Windows
4 1 (0.13%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 451 (59.74%) Cybersecurity
2 442 (58.54%) Machine Learning
3 427 (56.56%) User Experience
4 403 (53.38%) Web Development
5 60 (7.95%) DevOps
6 55 (7.28%) CI/CD
7 52 (6.89%) Agile
8 47 (6.23%) Problem-Solving
9 45 (5.96%) Software Engineering
10 44 (5.83%) Analytics
11 36 (4.77%) Continuous Improvement
12 33 (4.37%) Roadmaps
13 32 (4.24%) Cost Optimisation
14 31 (4.11%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 29 (3.84%) Business Intelligence
15 29 (3.84%) Technology Transformation
16 28 (3.71%) Decision-Making
17 27 (3.58%) B2B
17 27 (3.58%) Observability
17 27 (3.58%) Visualisation
Programming Languages
1 100 (13.25%) Python
2 41 (5.43%) SQL
3 24 (3.18%) Java
4 14 (1.85%) TypeScript
5 13 (1.72%) JavaScript
6 6 (0.79%) PowerShell
7 5 (0.66%) Bash
8 4 (0.53%) C#
9 3 (0.40%) Bicep
10 2 (0.26%) Scala
10 2 (0.26%) Swift
10 2 (0.26%) T-SQL
11 1 (0.13%) C
11 1 (0.13%) C++
11 1 (0.13%) Kotlin
11 1 (0.13%) MATLAB
11 1 (0.13%) PHP
11 1 (0.13%) R
Qualifications
1 449 (59.47%) Degree
2 407 (53.91%) Master's Degree
3 406 (53.77%) PhD
4 402 (53.25%) Postgraduate
5 28 (3.71%) Azure Certification
6 23 (3.05%) AWS Certification
7 11 (1.46%) Security Cleared
8 8 (1.06%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 8 (1.06%) Computer Science Degree
9 7 (0.93%) SC Cleared
10 6 (0.79%) ACCA
10 6 (0.79%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
10 6 (0.79%) CIMA
11 5 (0.66%) DBS Check
11 5 (0.66%) PMP
12 2 (0.26%) DV Cleared
13 1 (0.13%) HNC
13 1 (0.13%) MBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (1.72%) GRC
2 10 (1.32%) QA
3 7 (0.93%) Data Quality
4 5 (0.66%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 4 (0.53%) GDPR
5 4 (0.53%) PCI DSS
5 4 (0.53%) SOC 2
6 3 (0.40%) Accessibility
7 2 (0.26%) GAAP
7 2 (0.26%) IFRS
8 1 (0.13%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 1 (0.13%) NIST
8 1 (0.13%) SLA
8 1 (0.13%) Solvency II
8 1 (0.13%) WCAG
System Software
1 16 (2.12%) Docker
2 9 (1.19%) Active Directory
2 9 (1.19%) Virtual Machines
3 1 (0.13%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 14 (1.85%) Kubernetes
1 14 (1.85%) Terraform
2 8 (1.06%) Cisco CUCM
2 8 (1.06%) Microsoft Intune
2 8 (1.06%) Single Sign-On
3 4 (0.53%) Grafana
4 3 (0.40%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.13%) Nagios
Vendors
1 79 (10.46%) Microsoft
2 17 (2.25%) Adobe
2 17 (2.25%) Apple
3 13 (1.72%) ServiceNow
4 12 (1.59%) CrowdStrike
5 8 (1.06%) Cisco
5 8 (1.06%) New Relic
5 8 (1.06%) Oracle
5 8 (1.06%) Palo Alto
5 8 (1.06%) Splunk
5 8 (1.06%) Tenable
6 7 (0.93%) Google
7 5 (0.66%) Databricks
7 5 (0.66%) OpenAI
8 4 (0.53%) OneLogin
9 3 (0.40%) PayPal
9 3 (0.40%) Salesforce
10 1 (0.13%) Alteryx
10 1 (0.13%) SAP
10 1 (0.13%) VMware