August 2026 – North West UK – IT, Tech and AI Salary & Contractor Rates
The Reality Behind the Data
August across Manchester, Liverpool, and the wider North West is defined by the tension between permanent hiring caution and focused contractor demand. While regional boards remain tight on broad permanent headcount, the pressure to deliver mid-year digital transformation milestones means mid-market firms are actively competing for specialist contractors. Specialists who can step in on day one to clear technical debt and stabilise legacy infrastructure continue to command top regional day rates—keeping regional benchmarks solid (-5% base multiplier, with top AI roles still reaching up to +17.7% YoY).
The Agility Pull: Top Talent Flees Big Enterprise for Local SMEs
Premier engineering talent across the North West is actively abandoning large corporate firms. This exodus isn’t driven by regulatory friction or salary caps, but by enterprise sluggishness. Frustrated by multi-stage committee proposals, top builders want to see their models and pipelines deployed live into production. By leveraging fast deployment cycles and high organisational agility, local North West SMEs are successfully winning top-tier AI, MLOps, and data specialists previously out of reach.
Operational Stability Meets Foundation Engineering
While speculative automation headlines dominate, live North West hiring reflects a grounded focus on foundational architecture and risk mitigation. Following supply chain cyber concerns, boards are prioritising cloud optimisation, DevSecOps, and data pipeline security before layering on complex automation. With regional hybrid dynamics shifting, businesses are directing budgets into localised, high-impact specialists who can guarantee operational stability alongside long-term execution velocity.
Job Title |
Yearly Low |
Yearly Median |
Yearly High |
Annual Salary Change
|
Contractor Day Rate
|
Day Rate Change
|
|
AI, Automation & Data |
|||||||
Head of AI & Automation |
£88,825 |
£104,500 |
£123,310 |
+11.7% |
£760 |
+7.7% |
|
AI / Machine Learning Engineer |
£68,638 |
£80,750 |
£95,285 |
+13.4% |
£570 |
+9.0% |
|
AI Solutions Architect |
£76,712 |
£90,250 |
£106,495 |
+11.0% |
£640 |
+7.3% |
|
MLOps Engineer |
£62,985 |
£74,100 |
£87,438 |
+12.2% |
£500 |
+8.3% |
|
Automation / RPA Architect |
£64,600 |
£76,000 |
£89,680 |
+5.7% |
£520 |
+3.7% |
|
RPA Developer |
£44,412 |
£52,250 |
£61,655 |
+3.0% |
£360 |
+2.0% |
|
Data Science Lead |
£72,675 |
£85,500 |
£100,890 |
+7.6% |
£590 |
+5.0% |
|
Data Scientist |
£52,488 |
£61,750 |
£72,865 |
+6.4% |
£430 |
+4.3% |
|
Data Engineer |
£48,450 |
£57,000 |
£67,260 |
+8.3% |
£400 |
+5.5% |
|
Data Architect |
£68,638 |
£80,750 |
£95,285 |
+5.0% |
£550 |
+3.3% |
|
Business Intelligence (BI) Analyst |
£38,760 |
£45,600 |
£53,808 |
+1.3% |
£310 |
+1.0% |
|
BI Developer |
£44,412 |
£52,250 |
£61,655 |
+2.7% |
£360 |
+1.7% |
|
Power Platform / Low-Code Dev |
£48,450 |
£57,000 |
£67,260 |
+8.1% |
£400 |
+5.3% |
|
Prompt Engineer / AI App Dev |
£56,525 |
£66,500 |
£78,470 |
+17.7% |
£480 |
+11.5% |
|
IT Ops & Leadership |
|||||||
IT Director / CIO |
£96,900 |
£114,000 |
£134,520 |
+2.0% |
£620 |
+1.3% |
|
Head of IT / IT Manager |
£60,562 |
£71,250 |
£84,075 |
+0.7% |
£480 |
+0.5% |
|
IT Business Partner |
£52,488 |
£61,750 |
£72,865 |
+2.4% |
£430 |
+1.5% |
|
Service Delivery Manager |
£52,488 |
£61,750 |
£72,865 |
0.0% |
£400 |
0.0% |
|
IT Operations Manager |
£54,910 |
£64,600 |
£76,228 |
+0.4% |
£430 |
+0.3% |
|
IT Project Manager |
£48,450 |
£57,000 |
£67,260 |
-2.3% |
£400 |
-1.3% |
|
Program Manager |
£68,638 |
£80,750 |
£95,285 |
+1.6% |
£520 |
+1.0% |
|
Scrum Master / Agile Coach |
£52,488 |
£61,750 |
£72,865 |
-4.0% |
£430 |
-2.5% |
|
Business Analyst |
£44,412 |
£52,250 |
£61,655 |
+1.0% |
£360 |
+0.7% |
|
1st Line Support Technician |
£20,995 |
£24,700 |
£29,146 |
-0.3% |
£150 |
-0.5% |
|
2nd Line Support Engineer |
£28,262 |
£33,250 |
£39,235 |
+0.6% |
£210 |
+0.5% |
|
3rd Line / Senior Tech Support |
£36,338 |
£42,750 |
£50,445 |
+1.4% |
£280 |
+1.0% |
|
Helpdesk Manager / Service Desk Lead |
£40,375 |
£47,500 |
£56,050 |
+0.2% |
£310 |
0.0% |
|
Infrastructure & Networking |
|||||||
Infrastructure Manager |
£56,525 |
£66,500 |
£78,470 |
+0.7% |
£430 |
+0.5% |
|
Senior Systems Engineer |
£44,412 |
£52,250 |
£61,655 |
+1.2% |
£330 |
+0.7% |
|
Systems Administrator |
£33,915 |
£39,900 |
£47,082 |
-1.6% |
£260 |
-1.0% |
|
Network Architect |
£68,638 |
£80,750 |
£95,285 |
+3.4% |
£520 |
+2.3% |
|
Network Engineer |
£38,760 |
£45,600 |
£53,808 |
+1.0% |
£280 |
+0.5% |
|
Network Security Engineer |
£46,835 |
£55,100 |
£65,018 |
+5.4% |
£360 |
+3.5% |
|
Unified Communications Specialist |
£38,760 |
£45,600 |
£53,808 |
-0.3% |
£280 |
-0.3% |
|
Storage & Virtualisation Engineer |
£41,990 |
£49,400 |
£58,292 |
-2.0% |
£310 |
-1.3% |
|
Data Centre Engineer |
£33,915 |
£39,900 |
£47,082 |
+1.7% |
£260 |
+1.3% |
|
Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) |
£58,140 |
£68,400 |
£80,712 |
+8.7% |
£450 |
+6.0% |
|
Cloud & DevOps |
|||||||
Cloud Architect (AWS/Azure/GCP) |
£76,712 |
£90,250 |
£106,495 |
+7.4% |
£590 |
+5.0% |
|
Principal Cloud Engineer |
£68,638 |
£80,750 |
£95,285 |
+6.7% |
£550 |
+4.5% |
|
Cloud Systems Engineer |
£46,835 |
£55,100 |
£65,018 |
+4.3% |
£360 |
+2.9% |
|
DevOps Engineer |
£60,562 |
£71,250 |
£84,075 |
+6.0% |
£480 |
+4.0% |
|
DevOps Lead / Architect |
£72,675 |
£85,500 |
£100,890 |
+7.1% |
£570 |
+4.7% |
|
DevSecOps Engineer |
£64,600 |
£76,000 |
£89,680 |
+10.4% |
£520 |
+7.0% |
|
Infrastructure as Code Specialist |
£56,525 |
£66,500 |
£78,470 |
+5.2% |
£450 |
+3.5% |
|
Cloud Migration Specialist |
£58,140 |
£68,400 |
£80,712 |
+3.7% |
£450 |
+2.5% |
|
FinOps Specialist |
£54,910 |
£64,600 |
£76,228 |
+7.0% |
£430 |
+4.5% |
|
Cybersecurity & Risk |
|||||||
Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) |
£104,975 |
£123,500 |
£145,730 |
+7.0% |
£810 |
+4.7% |
|
Information Security Manager |
£68,638 |
£80,750 |
£95,285 |
+5.7% |
£520 |
+3.8% |
|
Cyber Security Engineer |
£52,488 |
£61,750 |
£72,865 |
+7.7% |
£430 |
+5.3% |
|
Cyber Security Analyst |
£38,760 |
£45,600 |
£53,808 |
+4.6% |
£280 |
+3.1% |
|
Penetration Tester / Ethical Hacker |
£50,065 |
£58,900 |
£69,502 |
+6.0% |
£400 |
+4.0% |
|
SOC Analyst |
£33,915 |
£39,900 |
£47,082 |
+3.4% |
£260 |
+2.3% |
|
Security Architect |
£72,675 |
£85,500 |
£100,890 |
+9.0% |
£570 |
+5.9% |
|
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) Lead |
£60,562 |
£71,250 |
£84,075 |
+5.1% |
£450 |
+3.4% |
|
Identity & Access Management (IAM) Specialist |
£48,450 |
£57,000 |
£67,260 |
+6.3% |
£360 |
+4.3% |
|
Cloud Security Specialist |
£62,985 |
£74,100 |
£87,438 |
+8.4% |
£500 |
+5.5% |
|
Software & ERP |
|||||||
Software Engineering Manager |
£72,675 |
£85,500 |
£100,890 |
+4.0% |
£570 |
+2.7% |
|
Lead Software Developer |
£62,985 |
£74,100 |
£87,438 |
+4.4% |
£500 |
+3.0% |
|
Senior Full Stack Developer |
£54,910 |
£64,600 |
£76,228 |
+3.3% |
£430 |
+2.2% |
|
Software Engineer (Python/Java/.NET) |
£50,065 |
£58,900 |
£69,502 |
+3.7% |
£400 |
+2.5% |
|
ERP / CRM Manager |
£60,562 |
£71,250 |
£84,075 |
+1.4% |
£480 |
+1.0% |
|
Solution Architect |
£71,060 |
£83,600 |
£98,648 |
+4.7% |
£550 |
+3.1% |
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.