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

6 months to
30 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 4 31 53
Rank change year-on-year +27 +22 +52
Permanent jobs citing AI 667 200 210
As % of all permanent jobs in Manchester 11.22% 9.18% 4.00%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 15.54% 9.58% 4.74%
Number of salaries quoted 273 78 76
10th Percentile £42,000 £25,000 £31,500
25th Percentile £55,000 £33,750 £35,092
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £72,500 £70,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year +3.57% +47.37% -26.92%
75th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £72,813
90th Percentile £105,000 £110,000 £101,250
North West median annual salary £70,000 £65,000 £47,500
% change year-on-year +7.69% +36.84% -26.92%

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 4,291 2,088 4,430
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in Manchester 72.18% 95.82% 84.33%
Number of salaries quoted 3,173 1,178 3,484
10th Percentile £32,875 £30,000 £30,000
25th Percentile £45,000 £40,000 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £57,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +4.35% +9.52% -8.70%
75th Percentile £75,000 £76,250 £68,750
90th Percentile £95,000 £92,875 £81,250
North West median annual salary £55,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +4.76% +5.00% -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 30 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 30 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 +7 23 £32,500 - 2
Bolton +34 15 £30,000 - 1
Salford -4 13 £75,000 - 10
Bury - 11 £92,482 -
Cheadle - 10 £63,750 - 2
Wigan +4 9 - - 1
Ashton-under-Lyne - 9 £51,000 - 2
Dukinfield - 8 - - 1
Heywood - 8 - -
Stalybridge - 8 - -
Rochdale -2 7 - - 1
Sale - 7 - -
Altrincham - 7 - - 2
Littleborough - 7 - -
Oldham - 7 - -
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 10 (1.50%) SharePoint
2 7 (1.05%) Jupyter
3 5 (0.75%) CMS
3 5 (0.75%) WordPress
4 3 (0.45%) Apache Spark
4 3 (0.45%) Microsoft Exchange
5 2 (0.30%) IIS
6 1 (0.15%) nginx
Applications
1 31 (4.65%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (1.65%) Chatbot
3 9 (1.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (0.75%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 12 (1.80%) Cloudability
2 1 (0.15%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.15%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 255 (38.23%) Cloud Computing
2 130 (19.49%) Azure
3 102 (15.29%) AWS
4 55 (8.25%) Power Platform
5 44 (6.60%) GCP
6 37 (5.55%) SaaS
7 30 (4.50%) Azure AI
8 26 (3.90%) Serverless
9 19 (2.85%) Microsoft 365
10 17 (2.55%) GitHub
11 14 (2.10%) Microsoft Copilot
12 13 (1.95%) Azure DevOps
12 13 (1.95%) Microsoft Purview
13 11 (1.65%) Anthropic Claude
14 9 (1.35%) GitHub Actions
15 8 (1.20%) Azure Monitor
15 8 (1.20%) Entra ID
15 8 (1.20%) OneDrive
16 7 (1.05%) Amazon ECS
16 7 (1.05%) ChatGPT
Communications & Networking
1 245 (36.73%) Internet
2 8 (1.20%) Unified Communications
2 8 (1.20%) VoIP
3 6 (0.90%) Telepresence
3 6 (0.90%) WebEx
4 5 (0.75%) Firewall
4 5 (0.75%) VLAN
5 4 (0.60%) DNS
6 3 (0.45%) BGP
6 3 (0.45%) OSPF
6 3 (0.45%) SAN
6 3 (0.45%) TCP/IP
7 2 (0.30%) DKIM
7 2 (0.30%) DMARC
7 2 (0.30%) HTTP
7 2 (0.30%) IPFIX
7 2 (0.30%) PBX
7 2 (0.30%) SNMP
7 2 (0.30%) Wi-Fi
8 1 (0.15%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 37 (5.55%) Power BI
2 25 (3.75%) Tableau
3 13 (1.95%) MongoDB
4 11 (1.65%) PostgreSQL
4 11 (1.65%) SQL Server
5 8 (1.20%) NoSQL
6 7 (1.05%) Relational Database
7 4 (0.60%) Big Data
7 4 (0.60%) Data Lake
7 4 (0.60%) Data Warehouse
8 3 (0.45%) Hadoop
8 3 (0.45%) MySQL
8 3 (0.45%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 3 (0.45%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 2 (0.30%) Azure SQL Database
9 2 (0.30%) DynamoDB
9 2 (0.30%) Looker
9 2 (0.30%) RDBMS
10 1 (0.15%) InfluxDB
10 1 (0.15%) Redis
Development Applications
1 17 (2.55%) Git
2 12 (1.80%) Snyk
3 9 (1.35%) GitLab
3 9 (1.35%) Jenkins
4 8 (1.20%) Claude Code
5 6 (0.90%) JUnit
5 6 (0.90%) Visual Studio Code
6 4 (0.60%) JIRA
6 4 (0.60%) Spock
7 2 (0.30%) Maven
7 2 (0.30%) Postman
7 2 (0.30%) Selenium
7 2 (0.30%) Terragrunt
7 2 (0.30%) Vite
7 2 (0.30%) XCUITest
8 1 (0.15%) Gemini Tracker
General
1 339 (50.82%) Social Skills
2 326 (48.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 281 (42.13%) Banking
4 86 (12.89%) Finance
5 51 (7.65%) Analytical Skills
6 18 (2.70%) Retail
7 17 (2.55%) Public Sector
8 15 (2.25%) Law
9 12 (1.80%) Organisational Skills
10 10 (1.50%) Marketing
10 10 (1.50%) Telecoms
11 9 (1.35%) Manufacturing
12 6 (0.90%) Legal
13 4 (0.60%) Local Government
13 4 (0.60%) Presentation Skills
14 3 (0.45%) French Language
14 3 (0.45%) Games
14 3 (0.45%) Italian Language
14 3 (0.45%) Portuguese Language
14 3 (0.45%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 186 (27.89%) Lecturer
2 107 (16.04%) Senior
3 54 (8.10%) Analyst
4 39 (5.85%) Software Engineer
5 37 (5.55%) Architect
6 31 (4.65%) Python Engineer
7 24 (3.60%) Developer
8 23 (3.45%) Data Analyst
9 22 (3.30%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
9 22 (3.30%) Lead
10 19 (2.85%) Senior Analyst
11 18 (2.70%) Junior
11 18 (2.70%) Junior Analyst
11 18 (2.70%) Junior Data Analyst
12 17 (2.55%) Cloud Architect
12 17 (2.55%) Cloud Security Architect
12 17 (2.55%) Security Architect
12 17 (2.55%) Service Manager
13 16 (2.40%) Senior Software Engineer
14 14 (2.10%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (2.85%) React
2 17 (2.55%) HTML
3 16 (2.40%) CSS
3 16 (2.40%) Spring
3 16 (2.40%) Vue
4 14 (2.10%) FastAPI
4 14 (2.10%) Node.js
5 13 (1.95%) .NET
6 12 (1.80%) JWT
6 12 (1.80%) OAuth
6 12 (1.80%) Spring Boot
7 11 (1.65%) LangChain
8 10 (1.50%) OpenID
8 10 (1.50%) SAML
9 9 (1.35%) AngularJS
9 9 (1.35%) Django
9 9 (1.35%) REST
9 9 (1.35%) RESTful
10 8 (1.20%) OAuth2
11 7 (1.05%) scikit-learn
Miscellaneous
1 245 (36.73%) IoT
2 45 (6.75%) Cloud Native
3 32 (4.80%) Onboarding
4 24 (3.60%) Distributed Systems
4 24 (3.60%) Product Ownership
5 22 (3.30%) AI Agents
5 22 (3.30%) Data Centre
6 11 (1.65%) Public Cloud
7 10 (1.50%) Algorithms
8 8 (1.20%) Enterprise Software
9 6 (0.90%) Analytical Mindset
9 6 (0.90%) Greenfield Project
9 6 (0.90%) Management Information System
9 6 (0.90%) Private Cloud
9 6 (0.90%) Self-Motivation
10 5 (0.75%) Life Science
11 4 (0.60%) Credit Risk
11 4 (0.60%) Low-Code
11 4 (0.60%) Marketing Technology
11 4 (0.60%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 10 (1.50%) Windows
2 5 (0.75%) Apple iOS
2 5 (0.75%) Windows Server
3 4 (0.60%) Android
3 4 (0.60%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 310 (46.48%) Machine Learning
2 306 (45.88%) Cybersecurity
3 269 (40.33%) User Experience
4 249 (37.33%) Web Development
5 85 (12.74%) CI/CD
6 81 (12.14%) DevOps
7 64 (9.60%) Agile
8 61 (9.15%) Software Engineering
9 59 (8.85%) Analytics
10 55 (8.25%) Problem-Solving
11 40 (6.00%) Continuous Improvement
12 39 (5.85%) Decision-Making
13 37 (5.55%) Roadmaps
14 36 (5.40%) Business Intelligence
14 36 (5.40%) Event-Driven
15 35 (5.25%) LLM
16 33 (4.95%) Cost Optimisation
16 33 (4.95%) Observability
17 32 (4.80%) Infrastructure as Code
17 32 (4.80%) Visualisation
Programming Languages
1 135 (20.24%) Python
2 61 (9.15%) SQL
3 37 (5.55%) Java
4 23 (3.45%) TypeScript
5 21 (3.15%) JavaScript
6 10 (1.50%) PowerShell
7 8 (1.20%) Bash
7 8 (1.20%) C#
8 5 (0.75%) Bicep
9 4 (0.60%) Go
9 4 (0.60%) Groovy
10 3 (0.45%) C
10 3 (0.45%) C++
10 3 (0.45%) Scala
10 3 (0.45%) T-SQL
11 2 (0.30%) Kotlin
11 2 (0.30%) PHP
11 2 (0.30%) Swift
12 1 (0.15%) MATLAB
12 1 (0.15%) R
Qualifications
1 279 (41.83%) Degree
2 248 (37.18%) Master's Degree
3 246 (36.88%) PhD
4 245 (36.73%) Postgraduate
5 27 (4.05%) AWS Certification
5 27 (4.05%) Azure Certification
6 16 (2.40%) Security Cleared
7 12 (1.80%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 10 (1.50%) Computer Science Degree
9 9 (1.35%) SC Cleared
10 6 (0.90%) ACCA
10 6 (0.90%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
10 6 (0.90%) CIMA
11 5 (0.75%) DBS Check
12 4 (0.60%) DV Cleared
13 2 (0.30%) HNC
13 2 (0.30%) Microsoft Certification
14 1 (0.15%) MBA
14 1 (0.15%) Microsoft Certified Professional
14 1 (0.15%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (2.55%) GRC
2 13 (1.95%) QA
3 12 (1.80%) Data Quality
3 12 (1.80%) GDPR
4 8 (1.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 6 (0.90%) California Consumer Privacy Act
5 6 (0.90%) SLA
6 5 (0.75%) Accessibility
6 5 (0.75%) NIST
7 4 (0.60%) PCI DSS
7 4 (0.60%) SOC 2
8 2 (0.30%) GAAP
8 2 (0.30%) IFRS
8 2 (0.30%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 2 (0.30%) WCAG
9 1 (0.15%) Solvency II
System Software
1 26 (3.90%) Docker
2 15 (2.25%) Virtual Machines
3 8 (1.20%) Active Directory
4 5 (0.75%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.30%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 28 (4.20%) Kubernetes
2 27 (4.05%) Terraform
3 8 (1.20%) Grafana
4 7 (1.05%) Microsoft Intune
4 7 (1.05%) Prometheus
5 6 (0.90%) Cisco CUCM
6 5 (0.75%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (0.45%) Nagios
8 2 (0.30%) cPanel
8 2 (0.30%) Microsoft Clustering
8 2 (0.30%) Plesk
9 1 (0.15%) Istio
9 1 (0.15%) linkerd
9 1 (0.15%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.15%) Puppet
9 1 (0.15%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 89 (13.34%) Microsoft
2 21 (3.15%) Adobe
2 21 (3.15%) Apple
3 20 (3.00%) ServiceNow
4 16 (2.40%) CrowdStrike
5 12 (1.80%) Palo Alto
5 12 (1.80%) Tenable
6 11 (1.65%) Google
7 10 (1.50%) Oracle
7 10 (1.50%) Splunk
8 8 (1.20%) OpenAI
9 7 (1.05%) Databricks
10 6 (0.90%) Cisco
11 5 (0.75%) New Relic
11 5 (0.75%) VMware
12 4 (0.60%) AppDynamics
12 4 (0.60%) OneLogin
12 4 (0.60%) Salesforce
13 2 (0.30%) Acronis
13 2 (0.30%) WatchGuard