June 2026 – North West UK – IT, Tech and AI Salary & Contractor Rates

The Reality Behind the Data

The big talking point as we hit the middle of Q2 is the massive tension between permanent hiring hesitation and contractor bidding wars across the North West tech sector.

Firms across Manchester, Liverpool, and the wider region are caught in a tricky position right now. On one hand, regional boards are incredibly hesitant to sign off on high-salary, permanent generalist roles while economic caution lingers. On the other hand, those same firms are aggressively outbidding each other for specialist contractors because mid-year transformation deadlines are looming, and the work simply has to get done. If you need a specialist in the North West to hit a milestone right now, you have to be prepared to pay a premium to secure them on a day rate.

Operational Stability Beats LLM & AI Hype

While the tech headlines and industry discussions remain heavily obsessed with AI execution, the real money in the commercial North West market is quietly moving back into core infrastructure. Organisations are realising that ambitious automation plans and Large Language Model (LLM) integrations are completely useless if their legacy systems are hanging by a thread.

Because of this, operational stability has thoroughly defeated the initial AI hype this month. The 3rd Line Engineers and Platform Specialists who keep legacy environments stable enough to deploy these new models are the ones quietly driving the most consistent day-rate growth across the North West.

• Category	Job Title	Yearly Low	Yearly Median	Yearly High (NW)	Annual Salary Change	Contractor Day Rate	Day Rate Change
  LEADERSHIP
  	CTO	£99,750	£133,000	£171,000	1.50%	£998	2.30%
  	CIO	£90,250	£123,500	£156,750	1.50%	£950	2.30%
  	IT DIRECTOR	£71,250	£90,250	£114,000	1.50%	£713	2.30%
  	HEAD OF DATA / AI	£85,500	£118,750	£147,250	1.50%	£808	2.20%
  	HEAD OF IT	£61,750	£76,000	£95,000	1.50%	£618	2.30%
  	IT MANAGER (Aligned)	£39,900	£52,250	£71,250	2.40%	£475	1.80%
  	ICT MANAGER (Aligned)	£36,100	£46,075	£61,750	3.20%	£413	2.10%
  	CISO	£90,250	£123,500	£152,000	1.80%	£1,045	2.50%
  	IT OPS DIRECTOR	£76,000	£95,000	£123,500	1.40%	£760	2.20%
  OPERATIONS
  	3RD LINE (SYSADMIN)	£36,100	£42,750	£52,250	3.90%	£356	5.20%
  	2ND LINE SUPPORT	£26,600	£32,300	£39,900	3.90%	£238	5.10%
  	1ST LINE SUPPORT	£20,900	£24,700	£30,400	3.80%	£176	5.00%
  	IT SUPPORT MANAGER	£39,900	£49,400	£61,750	3.90%	£451	5.20%
  	INFRASTRUCTURE ENG	£42,750	£52,250	£66,500	4.10%	£475	5.40%
  	NETWORK ENGINEER	£38,000	£47,500	£61,750	3.70%	£428	5.10%
  	SERVICE DESK LEAD	£33,250	£39,900	£47,500	3.80%	£333	5.00%
  	M365 / AZURE ADMIN	£38,000	£47,500	£61,750	4.20%	£428	5.50%
  	MAC ENGINEER	£36,100	£45,600	£55,100	3.50%	£356	4.80%
  	NOC ENGINEER	£30,400	£38,000	£47,500	3.20%	£309	4.50%
  ARCHITECTURE
  	ENTERPRISE ARCHITECT	£71,250	£90,250	£114,000	3.80%	£808	5.70%
  	SOLUTION ARCHITECT	£66,500	£80,750	£99,750	3.80%	£713	5.70%
  	CLOUD ARCHITECT	£71,250	£95,000	£118,750	3.80%	£760	5.70%
  	SECURITY ARCHITECT	£76,000	£99,750	£123,500	3.80%	£855	5.70%
  	DATA ARCHITECT	£74,338	£85,263	£97,138	3.90%	£736	5.80%
  	SOFTWARE ARCHITECT	£71,250	£90,250	£109,250	4.00%	£760	5.90%
  ENGINEERING
  	AI / ML ENGINEER	£66,500	£90,250	£114,000	3.00%	£760	4.40%
  	DEVOPS / SRE	£61,750	£80,750	£99,750	3.10%	£665	4.50%
  	CYBER SECURITY ENG	£52,250	£66,500	£85,500	2.90%	£594	4.60%
  	SOFTWARE DEV (SNR)	£57,000	£76,000	£99,750	3.10%	£594	4.50%
  	FULL STACK DEV	£47,500	£61,750	£80,750	3.20%	£523	4.70%
  	PLATFORM ENGINEER	£58,850	£74,100	£90,250	3.30%	£641	4.80%
  	QA AUTOMATION ENG	£39,900	£49,400	£64,600	3.40%	£404	4.90%
  DATA & PM
  	DATA ENGINEER	£52,250	£71,250	£90,250	3.00%	£594	4.60%
  	DATA SCIENTIST (SNR)	£61,750	£80,750	£104,500	3.20%	£689	4.90%
  	DATA ANALYST	£33,250	£39,900	£49,400	3.10%	£356	4.90%
  	IT PROJECT MANAGER	£52,250	£66,500	£80,750	3.20%	£546	4.80%
  	BUSINESS ANALYST	£42,750	£55,100	£66,500	3.20%	£451	4.70%
  	TECHNICAL PM	£61,750	£76,000	£95,000	3.50%	£665	5.10%
  	PRODUCT MANAGER	£57,000	£74,100	£92,150	3.40%	£618	4.90%

If your company is thinking of hiring, do it now. As demand rises, so too with the rates of pay and the difficulty levels of attracting and securing the right talent.

If, however, your company is slowing down – beware! If your IT staff start to feel insecure, talent competitors and recruiters will find it very easy to persuade your staff to interview elsewhere. Despite the stress and negativity that may exist, take the time to focus on reassuring your team and, where appropriate, reward their loyalty. It’s a false economy to avoid salary increases for your best people. Doing so risks leave yourself vulnerable to losing key staff and the larger costs in both time and money of replacing them.

Should you be considering recruitment or simply would like some advice on anything recruitment related, please do not hesitate to give us a call and see how we can really help you to Recruit Someone Worth Recruiting.

More UK Salary Guides

More London Salary Guides