A thriving tech hub with a strong AI presence, Manchester is home to a diverse range of companies and research institutions.
Manchester is a vibrant city with a growing reputation in the tech industry, particularly in artificial intelligence. The city hosts a mix of scaleups, research-heavy startups, and larger consultancies, all of which are actively hiring AI professionals. From machine learning engineers to NLP specialists, the roles in Manchester are diverse and cutting-edge, often involving both applied AI and fundamental research. The city's tech ecosystem is supported by strong academic institutions and a collaborative community, making it an ideal location for those looking to advance their AI career.
Based on advertised midpoints across the 6 UK listings priced in pounds in the last 12 months. Base salary only.
83zero Manchester £60,000 – £80,000 pa
Builds GenAI proof-of-concepts and production systems for clients, using RAG, intelligent agents and LLM frameworks such as LangChain and CrewAI. The full stack role spans Python/FastAPI or TypeScript backends, React frontends, plus AWS or Azure deployment with Docker, Kubernetes and Terraform. Working alongside senior client stakeholders to turn business problems into scalable, secure technical solutions.
ARM Manchester
Lead the design and delivery of AI, machine learning, agentic AI and RAG-based solutions for a financial consultancy's client engagements. Build production-grade models with Python and PyTorch, design MLOps frameworks, CI/CD pipelines and cloud-native model serving, while mentoring engineers and shaping technical strategy.
Searchability Manchester £90,000 – £100,000 pa
Designs, builds and optimises production-grade AI solutions focused on RAG, LLMs and agentic workflows. Works with AI Platform Engineers to develop RAG pipelines, improve retrieval, implement fine-tuning and establish evaluation frameworks, while contributing to technical decisions, code reviews and mentoring.
The University of Manchester Manchester £48,337 – £59,390 pa
Develops and applies machine-learning and AI methods to protein engineering and enzyme design, analysing large biological, chemical and experimental datasets and building predictive models and computational tools. Works within an interdisciplinary group spanning the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology and Department of Chemistry, providing ML and data-science expertise, training and support to postdocs and students, and contributing to publications and funding bids.
The Portfolio Group Manchester £80,000 – £100,000 pa
Hands-on engineering role building and improving RAG pipelines, including retrieval strategies, chunking, reranking and grounding, plus GenAI applications and agentic workflows with LangChain or LangGraph. Involves model adaptation, fine-tuning, instruction tuning and designing evaluation frameworks for retrieval quality, hallucinations and answer accuracy, taking solutions from development into production with engineering and platform teams.
The Portfolio Group Manchester
Set the AI vision and roadmap while staying hands-on, architecting and deploying machine learning and generative AI solutions into production. Work spans RAG, LLMs, vector search and knowledge graphs, plus building a cross-functional team and establishing AI governance. Based fully on-site in Manchester, reporting into senior leadership.
Reed Specialist Recruitment Cheadle £50,000 – £55,000 pa
Owns the day-to-day performance of seven global charity websites, covering technical and on-page SEO, content strategy and CMS management in Umbraco. The role also focuses on emerging AI search optimisation across AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, using GA4, Search Console and SEMrush to drive organic growth, donations and engagement.
Ncounter Manchester £80,000 – £90,000 pa
Hands-on research engineering role investigating the internal behaviour and security of large language models, turning academic ideas into practical experiments in Python. Work spans model internals, data movement, training risk and safe deployment, alongside production-quality ML engineering, testing and code reviews. Requires active SC clearance and around three days per week on secure sites.
The most-listed roles in this cluster right now. Tap through to a role profile when one exists, or to the live search results.
Manchester's tech ecosystem is rapidly expanding, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence. Companies in the city are actively seeking talented AI professionals to drive innovation and solve complex problems.
The city's strong academic institutions, such as the University of Manchester, contribute to a steady stream of skilled graduates and researchers. This, combined with a supportive community and numerous networking opportunities, makes Manchester an attractive location for AI careers.
Manchester has a strong presence of machine learning engineers, NLP specialists, and computer vision experts. Research roles are also prevalent.
Many AI roles in Manchester offer hybrid or remote options, but some companies prefer on-site work, especially for collaborative projects.
The key industries include tech scaleups, research institutions, and larger consultancies. Healthcare, finance, and retail are also significant sectors.
Salaries for AI roles in Manchester are competitive and can vary based on experience and company size. For more detailed salary information, refer to the salary section on this page.
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