October 2026 – North West – IT, Tech and AI Salary & Contractor Rates
The Reality Behind the Data: North West Engineering Focuses on Deployment
Regional tech spending across Manchester, Liverpool, and the wider North West is concentrating on production execution. Prompt Engineer / AI App Dev (+16.4%) and AI/ML Engineer (£87,400 median) lead regional growth, with MLOps (+11.5%) and DevSecOps (+10.2%) underscoring the drive to operationalise AI models within live systems.
Regional Shift in Talent Spend
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Governance Realignment: Traditional coordination functions continue to cool—Scrum Master / Agile Coach (-3.4%) and IT Project Manager (-1.8%).
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Cyber Leadership Demands: Regional CISO medians hold firm at £133,000, with Security Architects (£93,100, +8.8%) commanding top budget priority to protect regional digital infrastructure
| Category | Job Title | Yearly Low | Yearly Median (Base) | Yearly High | Annual % Change | Contractor Day Rate (Median) | Day Rate Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI, Automation & Data | |||||||
| Head of AI & Automation | £91,200 | £106,400 | £125,400 | +14.8% | £810 | +11.2% | |
| AI / Machine Learning Engineer | £69,800 | £82,200 | £98,800 | +14.2% | £630 | +10.5% | |
| AI Solutions Architect | £78,900 | £92,600 | £110,700 | +12.5% | £710 | +9.2% | |
| MLOps Engineer | £65,600 | £77,400 | £91,700 | +12.8% | £550 | +8.9% | |
| Automation / RPA Architect | £66,500 | £76,500 | £91,200 | +5.2% | £575 | +4.5% | |
| RPA Developer | £45,600 | £53,200 | £62,700 | +3.8% | £385 | +3.2% | |
| Data Science Lead | £74,600 | £87,900 | £103,100 | +8.4% | £645 | +6.6% | |
| Data Scientist | £53,700 | £63,200 | £74,600 | +6.1% | £465 | +5.1% | |
| Data Engineer | £49,900 | £58,400 | £68,900 | +7.5% | £445 | +5.8% | |
| Data Architect | £70,300 | £82,700 | £96,900 | +5.9% | £590 | +4.4% | |
| Business Intelligence (BI) Analyst | £38,900 | £46,100 | £54,600 | +2.5% | £330 | +2.1% | |
| BI Developer | £45,100 | £53,200 | £62,700 | +3.1% | £385 | +2.7% | |
| Power Platform / Low-Code Dev | £49,900 | £58,400 | £68,900 | +8.0% | £445 | +6.5% | |
| Prompt Engineer / AI App Dev | £58,400 | £68,900 | £81,200 | +18.1% | £520 | +12.0% | |
| IT Ops & Leadership | |||||||
| IT Director / CIO | £95,000 | £114,000 | £134,900 | +1.8% | £660 | +2.3% | |
| Head of IT / IT Manager | £61,800 | £72,200 | £85,500 | +1.2% | £510 | +1.8% | |
| IT Business Partner | £53,200 | £62,700 | £74,100 | +0.8% | £460 | +1.1% | |
| Service Delivery Manager | £53,200 | £62,700 | £74,100 | +0.8% | £440 | +1.5% | |
| IT Operations Manager | £55,100 | £65,600 | £76,900 | +0.5% | £460 | +1.0% | |
| IT Project Manager | £48,900 | £57,500 | £67,900 | -1.50% | £435 | -0.80% | |
| Program Manager | £70,300 | £82,700 | £96,900 | -0.80% | £565 | -0.40% | |
| Scrum Master / Agile Coach | £52,200 | £61,800 | £73,200 | -3.10% | £455 | -2.20% | |
| Business Analyst | £45,100 | £53,200 | £62,700 | +3.1% | £385 | +2.8% | |
| 1st Line Support Technician | £21,400 | £25,200 | £29,500 | +3.8% | £160 | +3.2% | |
| 2nd Line Support Engineer | £28,500 | £33,700 | £39,900 | +4.0% | £225 | +3.5% | |
| 3rd Line / Senior Tech Support | £36,600 | £43,200 | £51,300 | +4.0% | £310 | +6.1% | |
| Helpdesk Manager / Service Desk Lead | £40,900 | £48,000 | £56,500 | +2.8% | £330 | +2.5% | |
| Infrastructure & Networking | |||||||
| Infrastructure Manager | £57,000 | £67,500 | £79,800 | +2.1% | £460 | +1.8% | |
| Senior Systems Engineer | £45,100 | £53,200 | £62,700 | +3.5% | £360 | +3.0% | |
| Systems Administrator | £33,700 | £39,900 | £47,000 | +3.2% | £270 | +2.8% | |
| Network Architect | £70,300 | £82,700 | £96,900 | +4.1% | £565 | +3.5% | |
| Network Engineer | £38,900 | £46,100 | £54,600 | +2.9% | £310 | +2.5% | |
| Network Security Engineer | £48,000 | £56,500 | £66,500 | +8.2% | £390 | +6.4% | |
| Unified Communications Specialist | £38,900 | £46,100 | £54,600 | +1.8% | £310 | +1.5% | |
| Storage & Virtualisation Engineer | £42,300 | £49,600 | £58,400 | +2.0% | £325 | +1.8% | |
| Data Centre Engineer | £34,200 | £40,400 | £47,500 | +2.2% | £275 | +2.0% | |
| Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) | £59,400 | £69,800 | £82,700 | +9.4% | £495 | +7.1% | |
| Cloud & DevOps | |||||||
| Cloud Architect (AWS/Azure/GCP) | £78,400 | £91,700 | £108,300 | +8.8% | £645 | +5.7% | |
| Principal Cloud Engineer | £70,800 | £83,100 | £97,400 | +7.9% | £595 | +6.2% | |
| Cloud Systems Engineer | £47,500 | £56,100 | £66,000 | +5.5% | £385 | +4.8% | |
| DevOps Engineer | £61,300 | £71,700 | £85,000 | +6.8% | £515 | +5.2% | |
| DevOps Lead / Architect | £74,600 | £87,400 | £103,100 | +7.5% | £625 | +5.8% | |
| DevSecOps Engineer | £65,100 | £77,400 | £90,700 | +11.1% | £570 | +7.4% | |
| Infrastructure as Code Specialist | £57,000 | £67,500 | £79,800 | +6.2% | £490 | +5.1% | |
| Cloud Migration Specialist | £58,900 | £69,400 | £81,700 | +5.8% | £490 | +4.8% | |
| FinOps Specialist | £55,600 | £66,000 | £77,400 | +9.1% | £465 | +7.0% | |
| Cybersecurity & Risk | |||||||
| Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) | £107,400 | £125,900 | £148,200 | +1.5% | £885 | +2.3% | |
| Information Security Manager | £70,800 | £82,200 | £96,900 | +5.8% | £570 | +4.9% | |
| Cyber Security Engineer | £53,700 | £63,200 | £74,600 | +7.2% | £465 | +5.8% | |
| Cyber Security Analyst | £38,900 | £46,100 | £54,600 | +5.1% | £310 | +4.2% | |
| Penetration Tester / Ethical Hacker | £51,300 | £60,100 | £70,800 | +6.0% | £440 | +4.8% | |
| SOC Analyst | £34,200 | £40,400 | £47,500 | +4.8% | £275 | +4.0% | |
| Security Architect | £74,600 | £87,400 | £103,100 | +9.6% | £625 | +7.2% | |
| Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) Lead | £60,800 | £72,200 | £85,000 | +4.2% | £490 | +3.8% | |
| Identity & Access Management (IAM) Specialist | £49,400 | £58,000 | £68,400 | +5.0% | £385 | +4.1% | |
| Cloud Security Specialist | £64,100 | £75,500 | £88,800 | +10.2% | £535 | +7.8% | |
| Software & ERP | |||||||
| Software Engineering Manager | £74,100 | £86,900 | £102,600 | +3.5% | £620 | +2.8% | |
| Lead Software Developer | £63,700 | £75,100 | £88,400 | +4.2% | £530 | +3.5% | |
| Senior Full Stack Developer | £55,100 | £65,600 | £76,900 | +4.8% | £460 | +3.8% | |
| Software Engineer (Python/Java/.NET) | £50,800 | £59,700 | £70,300 | +4.5% | £435 | +3.6% | |
| ERP / CRM Manager | £60,800 | £72,200 | £85,000 | +2.0% | £510 | +1.8% | |
| Solution Architect | £71,300 | £84,600 | £99,800 | +5.5% | £580 | +4.2% | |
October’s numbers make one thing clear: pay for people who build or defend, and be more selective on pure coordination roles.
If you’re hiring or reviewing pay in light of these figures, get in touch — call us on 0207 788 6600 or email james@langleyjames.com.