January 2026 – North West UK – IT, Tech and AI Salary & Contractor Rates
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The “Northern Powerhouse” AI Hub: Manchester has solidified its position as the UK’s second largest tech hub. Demand for Data Engineers and AI Engineers in the North West is growing faster than in London as firms “north-shore” their technical operations to save on overheads.
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Salary Convergence: While historically lower, Manchester’s mid-level engineering salaries are now only ~12% behind London, as remote-first contracts have forced local firms to compete with national pay scales.
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Contractor Market: Day rates for infrastructure and support roles remain lower than London, but “Outside IR35” rates for Cyber and AI specialists in Manchester’s MediaCityUK and Innovation District are increasingly comparable to the South East.
CategoryJob TitleYearly Low (£)Yearly Median (£)Yearly High (£)Contractor Day Rate (Med £)LeadershipChief Transformation Officer (CTRO)£115,000£148,000£185,000£1,200Chief Technology Officer (CTO)£110,000£142,500£180,000£1,150Chief Information Officer (CIO)£102,000£135,000£175,000£1,100Chief Info Security Officer (CISO)£95,000£122,000£155,000£1,000IT Director£78,000£92,000£115,000£850Head of Data / AI£88,000£110,000£145,000£950Head of IT£65,000£78,000£98,000£700Head of Infrastructure£82,000£102,000£130,000£850Head of Architecture£95,000£125,000£155,000£1,050Operations3rd Line Support (SysAdmin)£45,000£55,000£72,000£4252nd Line Support£35,000£42,000£52,000£3251st Line Support£28,000£34,000£42,000£225IT Support Manager£55,000£68,000£88,000£525IT Field Engineer£32,000£40,000£50,000£325ArchitectureEnterprise Architect£85,000£105,000£135,000£900Solution Architect£78,000£95,000£120,000£825Cloud Architect (AWS/Azure)£85,000£108,000£135,000£875Security Architect£92,000£118,000£150,000£950Data Architect£82,000£102,000£130,000£875CRM Architect (SFDC/MS Dyn)£75,000£92,000£120,000£775EngineeringAI / Machine Learning Engineer£78,000£100,000£135,000£850MLOps Engineer£82,000£105,000£140,000£900DevOps / SRE Engineer£72,000£90,000£125,000£775Cyber Security Engineer£65,000£82,000£115,000£725Data Engineer£62,000£80,000£110,000£700Software Developer (Senior)£72,000£88,000£120,000£675Full-Stack Developer£65,000£82,000£110,000£650Network Engineer£55,000£68,000£90,000£550Systems Engineer£52,000£65,000£85,000£500Data & PMData Scientist (Senior)£72,000£90,000£125,000£800Data Analyst£45,000£55,000£72,000£450IT Project Manager£65,000£82,000£110,000£700Business Analyst (Technical)£58,000£72,000£92,000£575Scrum Master£62,000£78,000£100,000£650
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.