September 2026 – North West – IT, Tech and AI Salary & Contractor Rates
The Reality Behind the Data
The Value Case Is Getting Harder to Ignore
North West median pay is meaningfully below London and the South East across the board, but the growth rates tell a different story: AI/ML Engineer is up 13.2% here, Prompt Engineer up 17.0% — both close to the national leaders. For businesses weighing where to base a technical team, that combination of lower absolute cost and comparable AI-skills momentum is a genuine argument for looking north.
Steepest Decline in Process Roles of Any Region
Scrum Master/Agile Coach fell 3.0% here — the sharpest drop of any region in this guide — and IT Project Manager is down 1.4%. Employers who’ve kept these roles priced at last year’s levels may find they’re now paying above the going rate for skills the market is actively de-valuing. Meanwhile CISO pay has reached £120,000 median (+7.0%), confirming security leadership pay is climbing everywhere, not just in higher-cost regions.
| Category | Job Title | Yearly Low | Yearly Median (Base) | Yearly High | Annual % Change | Contractor Day Rate (High) | Day Rate Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI, Automation & Data | |||||||
| Head of AI & Automation | £88,000 | £102,000 | £120,000 | +11.0% | £740 | +8.0% | |
| AI / Machine Learning Engineer | £66,000 | £78,000 | £94,000 | +13.2% | £570 | +8.6% | |
| AI Solutions Architect | £75,000 | £88,000 | £105,000 | +10.8% | £645 | +7.0% | |
| MLOps Engineer | £62,000 | £73,000 | £87,000 | +12.0% | £495 | +7.8% | |
| Automation / RPA Architect | £64,000 | £73,000 | £88,000 | +5.8% | £525 | +3.6% | |
| RPA Developer | £44,000 | £51,000 | £60,000 | +3.2% | £355 | +2.0% | |
| Data Science Lead | £71,000 | £84,000 | £99,000 | +7.8% | £590 | +4.8% | |
| Data Scientist | £51,000 | £60,000 | £71,000 | +6.5% | £425 | +4.2% | |
| Data Engineer | £47,000 | £55,500 | £65,500 | +8.4% | £405 | +5.4% | |
| Data Architect | £68,000 | £80,000 | £94,000 | +5.2% | £540 | +3.3% | |
| Business Intelligence (BI) Analyst | £37,500 | £44,000 | £52,000 | +1.8% | £300 | +1.2% | |
| BI Developer | £43,000 | £51,000 | £60,000 | +3.0% | £355 | +1.8% | |
| Power Platform / Low-Code Dev | £47,000 | £55,500 | £65,500 | +8.1% | £405 | +5.1% | |
| Prompt Engineer / AI App Dev | £55,000 | £65,000 | £77,000 | +17.0% | £470 | +11.0% | |
| IT Ops & Leadership | |||||||
| IT Director / CIO | £92,000 | £110,000 | £130,000 | +2.2% | £605 | +1.4% | |
| Head of IT / IT Manager | £59,000 | £69,000 | £82,000 | +1.2% | £470 | +0.8% | |
| IT Business Partner | £51,000 | £60,000 | £71,000 | +2.8% | £425 | +1.6% | |
| Service Delivery Manager | £51,000 | £60,000 | £71,000 | +0.6% | £405 | +0.4% | |
| IT Operations Manager | £53,000 | £63,000 | £74,000 | +1.0% | £425 | +0.6% | |
| IT Project Manager | £47,000 | £55,500 | £65,500 | -1.4% | £405 | -0.8% | |
| Program Manager | £68,000 | £80,000 | £94,000 | +2.0% | £520 | +1.2% | |
| Scrum Master / Agile Coach | £51,000 | £60,000 | £71,000 | -3.0% | £425 | -2.0% | |
| Business Analyst | £43,000 | £51,000 | £60,000 | +1.4% | £355 | +0.9% | |
| 1st Line Support Technician | £20,500 | £24,000 | £28,000 | +0.4% | £145 | +0.0% | |
| 2nd Line Support Engineer | £27,500 | £32,500 | £38,500 | +1.0% | £205 | +0.7% | |
| 3rd Line / Senior Tech Support | £35,000 | £41,500 | £49,000 | +1.8% | £285 | +1.2% | |
| Helpdesk Manager / Service Desk Lead | £39,000 | £46,000 | £54,000 | +0.8% | £300 | +0.3% | |
| Infrastructure & Networking | |||||||
| Infrastructure Manager | £55,000 | £65,000 | £77,000 | +1.2% | £425 | +0.8% | |
| Senior Systems Engineer | £43,000 | £51,000 | £60,000 | +1.6% | £330 | +0.9% | |
| Systems Administrator | £32,500 | £38,500 | £45,500 | -0.8% | £250 | -0.5% | |
| Network Architect | £68,000 | £80,000 | £94,000 | +3.8% | £520 | +2.4% | |
| Network Engineer | £37,500 | £44,000 | £52,000 | +1.4% | £285 | +0.8% | |
| Network Security Engineer | £45,500 | £53,500 | £63,000 | +5.4% | £355 | +3.5% | |
| Unified Communications Specialist | £37,500 | £44,000 | £52,000 | +0.3% | £285 | +0.1% | |
| Storage & Virtualisation Engineer | £41,000 | £48,000 | £56,500 | -1.2% | £300 | -0.8% | |
| Data Centre Engineer | £32,500 | £38,500 | £45,500 | +2.0% | £250 | +1.4% | |
| Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) | £56,000 | £66,000 | £78,000 | +8.6% | £450 | +5.8% | |
| Cloud & DevOps | |||||||
| Cloud Architect (AWS/Azure/GCP) | £75,000 | £87,500 | £103,000 | +7.4% | £590 | +4.8% | |
| Principal Cloud Engineer | £68,000 | £80,000 | £94,000 | +6.7% | £540 | +4.4% | |
| Cloud Systems Engineer | £45,500 | £53,500 | £63,000 | +4.5% | £355 | +2.9% | |
| DevOps Engineer | £58,000 | £68,000 | £80,000 | +6.1% | £470 | +3.8% | |
| DevOps Lead / Architect | £71,000 | £83,500 | £98,000 | +7.1% | £570 | +4.6% | |
| DevSecOps Engineer | £62,000 | £73,000 | £86,000 | +10.2% | £520 | +6.6% | |
| Infrastructure as Code Specialist | £55,000 | £65,000 | £77,000 | +5.2% | £450 | +3.5% | |
| Cloud Migration Specialist | £56,000 | £66,000 | £78,000 | +3.9% | £450 | +2.5% | |
| FinOps Specialist | £53,000 | £63,000 | £74,000 | +7.1% | £425 | +4.4% | |
| Cybersecurity & Risk | |||||||
| Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) | £102,000 | £120,000 | £141,000 | +7.0% | £805 | +4.6% | |
| Information Security Manager | £68,000 | £78,000 | £92,000 | +5.8% | £520 | +3.8% | |
| Cyber Security Engineer | £51,000 | £60,000 | £71,000 | +7.6% | £425 | +5.0% | |
| Cyber Security Analyst | £37,500 | £44,000 | £52,000 | +4.8% | £285 | +3.1% | |
| Penetration Tester / Ethical Hacker | £48,500 | £57,000 | £67,000 | +6.0% | £400 | +3.8% | |
| SOC Analyst | £32,500 | £38,500 | £45,500 | +3.7% | £250 | +2.3% | |
| Security Architect | £71,000 | £83,500 | £98,000 | +8.8% | £570 | +5.6% | |
| Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) Lead | £58,000 | £69,000 | £81,500 | +5.2% | £450 | +3.3% | |
| Identity & Access Management (IAM) Specialist | £47,000 | £55,500 | £65,500 | +6.3% | £355 | +4.1% | |
| Cloud Security Specialist | £61,000 | £72,000 | £85,000 | +8.2% | £485 | +5.3% | |
| Software & ERP | |||||||
| Software Engineering Manager | £71,000 | £83,500 | £98,000 | +4.1% | £570 | +2.7% | |
| Lead Software Developer | £61,000 | £72,000 | £85,000 | +4.5% | £485 | +3.0% | |
| Senior Full Stack Developer | £53,000 | £63,000 | £74,000 | +3.5% | £425 | +2.2% | |
| Software Engineer (Python/Java/.NET) | £48,500 | £57,000 | £67,000 | +3.8% | £400 | +2.5% | |
| ERP / CRM Manager | £58,000 | £69,000 | £81,500 | +1.8% | £470 | +1.2% | |
| Solution Architect | £68,000 | £81,000 | £95,000 | +4.8% | £530 | +3.0% | |
September’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.