Senior Software Engineer salary: Manchester vs Leeds
The two largest northern UK tech hubs — Manchester wins on engineering depth, Leeds on financial services density.
Senior Software Engineer median · Manchester
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UK · live Adzuna
Senior Software Engineer median · Leeds
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UK · live Adzuna
Manchester market
Manchester is the UK's largest tech hub outside London, with a growing ecosystem of scale-ups, fintech companies and digital agencies. Salaries sit 10-20% below London for the same role, but lower cost of living often gives comparable take-home purchasing power.
Leeds market
Leeds anchors the Yorkshire tech market and houses major banking, insurance and channel-4 / media operations. Salaries sit broadly with Manchester; the contract market for finance-adjacent tech work is particularly strong.
Senior Software Engineer salary in Manchester (full report)
Percentiles, contract day rate, side-income context.
Senior Software Engineer salary in Leeds (full report)
Percentiles, contract day rate, side-income context.
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