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

• The Northern Powerhouse of Data: Manchester and Liverpool have become the UK’s “Data Engineering Hub.” We’re seeing a massive influx of investment into Data Lakehouse projects, keeping North West Data Engineer salaries more resilient than general IT roles.

• The Value Play: For our clients, the North West offers a 27% cost saving compared to London for equivalent technical skill sets.

• The “Local” Factor: While remote work is still king, North West firms are successfully using “Community & Culture” to retain talent, avoiding the salary arms race seen in the South

• Market Pulse: The North West is the “Secret Sauce” for Q2. High technical skill, but without the eye-watering London overheads. It’s the perfect spot for those permanent staff placements where longevity matters.

• 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%
  	ICT Manager	£57,000	£71,250	£85,500	1.40%	£570	2.10%
  	CISO	£90,250	£118,750	£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	£49,400	£61,750	4.20%	£428	5.50%
  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%
  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%
  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%

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.

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