February 2026 – North West UK – IT, Tech and AI Salary & Contractor Rates
This region, anchored by Manchester, Liverpool, and your local hub in Crewe, remains the most strategic location for cost-effective technical excellence. As a “Guru” insight: the North West is currently seeing the highest growth in AI-ready firms outside of London, making it a prime territory for finding “Top 5%” talent who prioritize quality of life over a London commute.
- The AI Rise: Manchester has been named the UK’s most “AI-ready” city outside London. This is sustaining high demand for AI/ML Engineers and Data Architects, keeping their North West salaries nearly level with the national average despite the lower cost of living.
- Support Efficiency: A 1st Line Support professional at £27k in the North West has significantly more disposable income than their London counterpart on £34k. This makes the region a prime location for Operations and Shared Service Centres.
- Contractor Agility: Day rates in the North West are roughly 10-15% lower than London. For a firm in the South East looking to scale a project, hiring a “Remote-First” contractor from the North West at £600-£700 is the ultimate cost-saving “Guru” move.
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CategoryJob TitleYearly Low (NW)Yearly Median (NW )Yearly High (NW)Contractor Day Rate (NW)LeadershipChief Transformation Officer (CTRO)£128,750£157,225£185,000£1,150Chief Technology Officer (CTO)£120,000£152,475£180,000£1,100Chief Information Officer (CIO)£108,000£142,740£175,000£1,050Chief Info Security Officer (CISO)£96,250£128,490£155,000£1,000IT Director£81,750£91,200£110,000£750Head of Data / AI£90,000£114,000£140,000£950Head of IT£72,000£77,425£85,000£700Operations3rd Line Support (SysAdmin)£42,000£49,400£58,000£3502nd Line Support£32,000£36,100£42,000£2501st Line Support£24,000£27,075£32,000£185IT Support Manager£48,000£55,575£68,000£475ArchitectureEnterprise Architect£82,000£90,490£108,000£900Solution Architect£78,000£85,500£100,000£800Cloud Architect (AWS/Azure)£85,000£97,375£125,000£850Security Architect£92,000£104,500£135,000£950Data Architect£78,250£85,260£98,000£850EngineeringAI / Machine Learning Engineer£75,000£90,250£115,000£850DevOps / SRE Engineer£65,000£80,750£105,000£700Cyber Security Engineer£55,000£71,250£95,000£675Software Developer (Senior)£65,000£80,750£105,000£600Data Engineer£60,000£74,100£92,000£650Network Engineer£45,000£55,100£70,000£475Data & PMData Scientist (Senior)£70,000£83,600£110,000£775Data Analyst£38,000£45,600£58,000£425IT Project Manager£55,000£68,400£88,000£625Business Analyst (Technical)£48,000£57,000£72,000£525
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.