Lead Software Developer Contract Job Trends in England

Lead Software Developer
UK > England

The median Lead Software Developer daily rate in England is £748, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 13 December 2025.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 526 472 565
Rank change year-on-year -54 +93 +170
Contract jobs requiring a Lead Software Developer 18 35 6
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.058% 0.12% 0.016%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.064% 0.12% 0.017%
Number of daily rates quoted 16 35 4
10th Percentile £600 - £476
25th Percentile £688 £666 £495
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £748 £683 £513
Median % change year-on-year +9.52% +33.17% -23.51%
75th Percentile £850 £875 £530
90th Percentile - £888 £550
UK median daily rate £695 £683 £488
% change year-on-year +1.83% +40.00% -22.00%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
England

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in England. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in England with a recognized job title 28,233 28,165 35,983
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.17% 92.89% 93.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,092 17,437 24,751
10th Percentile £285 £300 £294
25th Percentile £405 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £507 £525 £534
Median % change year-on-year -3.38% -1.69% -2.91%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,705 974 1,399
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.34 £15.32
25th Percentile £17.87 £21.05 £19.50
Median hourly rate £25.15 £37.25 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -32.48% -17.22% +36.36%
75th Percentile £57.50 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.50 £74.42 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £34.75 £44.00
% change year-on-year -27.63% -21.02% +40.98%

Lead Software Developer
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Lead Software Developer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

Lead Software Developer job vacancy trend in England

Lead Software Developer
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Lead Software Developer job vacancies in England.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Lead Software Developer job vacancies in England

Lead Software Developer
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Lead Software Developer in England over the 6 months to 13 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Lead Software Developer in England

Lead Software Developer
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Lead Software Developer job vacancies in England.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Lead Software Developer job vacancies in England

Lead Software Developer
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Lead Software Developer within the England region over the 6 months to 13 December 2025. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
London -30 9 £800 +17.22% 8
Yorkshire - 7 £695 -
North of England - 7 £695 - 8
South East - 1 - - 5
South West - 1 - - 5
Lead Software Developer
UK

Lead Software Developer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England

For the 6 months to 13 December 2025, Lead Software Developer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the England region featuring Lead Software Developer in the job title.

1 15 (83.33%) TypeScript
2 14 (77.78%) Software Engineering
3 11 (61.11%) JavaScript
4 10 (55.56%) Agile
5 9 (50.00%) Java
5 9 (50.00%) Node.js
6 8 (44.44%) AWS
6 8 (44.44%) Go
6 8 (44.44%) GraphQL
6 8 (44.44%) Investment Management
6 8 (44.44%) Kafka
6 8 (44.44%) Order Management
6 8 (44.44%) Portfolio Management
6 8 (44.44%) Python
6 8 (44.44%) React
6 8 (44.44%) Redux
7 7 (38.89%) Degree
7 7 (38.89%) Mentoring
7 7 (38.89%) TDD
8 6 (33.33%) Clean Code
8 6 (33.33%) Computer Science
8 6 (33.33%) Computer Science Degree
8 6 (33.33%) Full-Stack Development
8 6 (33.33%) Performance Optimisation
8 6 (33.33%) Problem-Solving
8 6 (33.33%) SOLID
9 4 (22.22%) Design Patterns
10 3 (16.67%) Security Cleared
11 2 (11.11%) HTML
11 2 (11.11%) SC Cleared

Lead Software Developer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Business Applications
1 1 (5.56%) Oracle Applications
Cloud Services
1 8 (44.44%) AWS
2 1 (5.56%) Azure
2 1 (5.56%) Boomi
Communications & Networking
1 1 (5.56%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (5.56%) PostgreSQL
1 1 (5.56%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 1 (5.56%) Subversion
General
1 8 (44.44%) Finance
1 8 (44.44%) Front Office
2 7 (38.89%) Social Skills
3 1 (5.56%) Aerospace
3 1 (5.56%) Influencing Skills
3 1 (5.56%) Military
3 1 (5.56%) Public Sector
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (50.00%) Node.js
2 8 (44.44%) GraphQL
2 8 (44.44%) Kafka
2 8 (44.44%) React
2 8 (44.44%) Redux
3 2 (11.11%) HTML
4 1 (5.56%) Celery
4 1 (5.56%) CSS
4 1 (5.56%) Django
4 1 (5.56%) Jest
4 1 (5.56%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 8 (44.44%) Fixed Income
2 6 (33.33%) Algorithms
2 6 (33.33%) Data Structures
3 1 (5.56%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 1 (5.56%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 14 (77.78%) Software Engineering
2 10 (55.56%) Agile
3 8 (44.44%) Investment Management
3 8 (44.44%) Order Management
3 8 (44.44%) Portfolio Management
4 7 (38.89%) Mentoring
4 7 (38.89%) TDD
5 6 (33.33%) Clean Code
5 6 (33.33%) Computer Science
5 6 (33.33%) Full-Stack Development
5 6 (33.33%) Performance Optimisation
5 6 (33.33%) Problem-Solving
5 6 (33.33%) SOLID
6 4 (22.22%) Design Patterns
7 1 (5.56%) BDD
7 1 (5.56%) Microservices
7 1 (5.56%) The Twelve-Factor App
7 1 (5.56%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 15 (83.33%) TypeScript
2 11 (61.11%) JavaScript
3 9 (50.00%) Java
4 8 (44.44%) Go
4 8 (44.44%) Python
5 1 (5.56%) C
5 1 (5.56%) C++
5 1 (5.56%) PowerShell
5 1 (5.56%) SQL
Qualifications
1 7 (38.89%) Degree
2 6 (33.33%) Computer Science Degree
3 3 (16.67%) Security Cleared
4 2 (11.11%) SC Cleared
5 1 (5.56%) PhD
System Software
1 1 (5.56%) Docker
Vendors
1 1 (5.56%) Dell
1 1 (5.56%) MuleSoft
1 1 (5.56%) Oracle