Lead Developer Contract Job Trends

Lead Developer
UK

The median Lead Developer daily rate in the UK is £572, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 17 July 2026.

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

6 months to
17 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 415 358 391
Rank change year-on-year -57 +33 +81
Contract jobs requiring a Lead Developer 255 189 192
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.48% 0.58% 0.45%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.52% 0.63% 0.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 198 139 145
10th Percentile £458 £415 £403
25th Percentile £518 £500 £525
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £572 £550 £650
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -15.38% +11.83%
75th Percentile £750 £722 £888
90th Percentile £838 £756 -
UK excluding London median daily rate £572 £525 £550
% change year-on-year +8.95% -4.55% -4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - - £51.25
Median hourly rate - - £52.50
75th Percentile - - £53.75
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £52.50

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. 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 the UK with a recognized job title 48,733 29,823 39,253
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.54% 91.69% 93.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,478 18,993 25,331
10th Percentile £325 £287 £288
25th Percentile £420 £400 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +5.26% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,268 1,412 2,586
10th Percentile £15.92 £13.75 £13.25
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.30 £17.50
Median hourly rate £44.50 £25.31 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +75.82% -36.73% -5.88%
75th Percentile £67.84 £55.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £80.02 £73.75 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.33
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.63% +5.15%

Lead Developer
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Lead Developer job vacancy trend in the UK

Lead Developer
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Lead Developer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Lead Developer job vacancies in the UK

Lead Developer
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Lead Developer over the 6 months to 17 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Lead Developer in the UK

Lead Developer
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Lead Developer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Lead Developer job vacancies in the UK

Lead Developer
Top 16 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Lead Developer within the UK over the 6 months to 17 July 2026. 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
England -88 192 £575 -2.54% 83
London -72 101 £725 +7.41% 18
UK excluding London -72 90 £572 +8.95% 76
Work from Home -73 81 £725 +20.83% 68
North of England -51 44 £575 +9.52% 32
North West -30 26 £572 -4.67% 18
Midlands -56 16 £550 +8.47% 16
North East -27 11 £650 +2.36% 3
South West -42 10 £525 -19.85% 5
Scotland -13 9 £377 +21.42% 5
East Midlands -9 8 £476 - 8
Yorkshire -48 7 £561 +6.90% 11
West Midlands -64 7 £575 +13.40% 8
South East -63 6 £613 +11.36% 10
East of England -17 5 £530 +0.95% 6
Wales - 1 £750 - 2

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

For the 6 months to 17 July 2026, Lead 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 featuring Lead Developer in the job title.

1 114 (44.71%) AWS
2 113 (44.31%) Agile
3 88 (34.51%) Java
4 80 (31.37%) Security Cleared
5 78 (30.59%) Azure
6 77 (30.20%) CI/CD
7 75 (29.41%) Node.js
8 67 (26.27%) JavaScript
8 67 (26.27%) SC Cleared
9 66 (25.88%) DevOps
10 64 (25.10%) Software Engineering
11 62 (24.31%) Mentoring
12 59 (23.14%) React
13 57 (22.35%) TypeScript
14 54 (21.18%) Microservices
15 53 (20.78%) Docker
16 49 (19.22%) Full-Stack Development
16 49 (19.22%) Technical Leadership
17 45 (17.65%) Python
18 43 (16.86%) Kubernetes
19 42 (16.47%) Redux
20 40 (15.69%) Spring
20 40 (15.69%) Spring Boot
20 40 (15.69%) SQL
21 39 (15.29%) Containerisation
22 38 (14.90%) REST
23 36 (14.12%) Investment Management
23 36 (14.12%) Portfolio Management
23 36 (14.12%) PostgreSQL
24 35 (13.73%) Kafka

Lead Developer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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:

Application Platforms
1 7 (2.75%) Confluence
2 6 (2.35%) IIS
2 6 (2.35%) SharePoint
3 4 (1.57%) SAS
4 3 (1.18%) CMS
4 3 (1.18%) Oracle Workflow
5 2 (0.78%) ThingWorx
5 2 (0.78%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.39%) Appian
6 1 (0.39%) JBoss
6 1 (0.39%) nginx
6 1 (0.39%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 1 (0.39%) WebLogic
6 1 (0.39%) WordPress
Applications
1 4 (1.57%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.78%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 3 (1.18%) Dynamics CRM
1 3 (1.18%) Remedy AR System
1 3 (1.18%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.39%) IntelliMatch
2 1 (0.39%) Magento
2 1 (0.39%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.39%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 114 (44.71%) AWS
2 78 (30.59%) Azure
3 31 (12.16%) GCP
4 17 (6.67%) GitHub
5 16 (6.27%) Azure DevOps
5 16 (6.27%) Serverless
6 11 (4.31%) GitHub Actions
7 8 (3.14%) AWS Lambda
7 8 (3.14%) Power Platform
8 7 (2.75%) Amazon S3
9 6 (2.35%) Dynamics 365
9 6 (2.35%) Salesforce Service Cloud
10 5 (1.96%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 5 (1.96%) Amazon Cognito
10 5 (1.96%) Amazon SQS
10 5 (1.96%) Azure AKS
10 5 (1.96%) Power Automate
10 5 (1.96%) PowerApps
11 4 (1.57%) Amazon EC2
11 4 (1.57%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 4 (1.57%) HTTP
2 2 (0.78%) CTI
2 2 (0.78%) MQTT
3 1 (0.39%) DNS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (14.12%) PostgreSQL
2 13 (5.10%) SQL Server
3 9 (3.53%) MongoDB
4 8 (3.14%) Relational Database
5 7 (2.75%) Oracle Database
5 7 (2.75%) Oracle Reports
6 6 (2.35%) Redis
7 5 (1.96%) MS Access
7 5 (1.96%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 4 (1.57%) DynamoDB
8 4 (1.57%) Geospatial Data
8 4 (1.57%) Metadata
9 3 (1.18%) DocumentDB
9 3 (1.18%) Power BI
10 2 (0.78%) Amazon RDS
10 2 (0.78%) Data Hub
10 2 (0.78%) GIS
10 2 (0.78%) NoSQL
10 2 (0.78%) SAS Data Integration Studio
11 1 (0.39%) Couchbase
Development Applications
1 30 (11.76%) Git
2 24 (9.41%) Jenkins
3 15 (5.88%) JIRA
4 14 (5.49%) Maven
5 12 (4.71%) GitLab
6 10 (3.92%) JUnit
7 6 (2.35%) Oracle Forms
8 5 (1.96%) Gradle
8 5 (1.96%) Mockito
8 5 (1.96%) Team Foundation Server
9 4 (1.57%) GoCD
9 4 (1.57%) Visual Studio
10 3 (1.18%) PVCS
10 3 (1.18%) SonarQube
10 3 (1.18%) Storybook
10 3 (1.18%) Subversion
11 2 (0.78%) JProfiler
11 2 (0.78%) MSI
11 2 (0.78%) SpecFlow
12 1 (0.39%) IntelliJ
General
1 66 (25.88%) Finance
2 60 (23.53%) Public Sector
3 37 (14.51%) Front Office
4 28 (10.98%) Social Skills
5 12 (4.71%) Banking
6 11 (4.31%) Analytical Skills
7 5 (1.96%) Documentation Skills
7 5 (1.96%) Investment Banking
7 5 (1.96%) Military
8 4 (1.57%) Telecoms
9 3 (1.18%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (0.78%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (0.78%) Local Government
10 2 (0.78%) Marketing
10 2 (0.78%) Retail
11 1 (0.39%) Games
11 1 (0.39%) Law
11 1 (0.39%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 75 (29.41%) Node.js
2 59 (23.14%) React
3 42 (16.47%) Redux
4 40 (15.69%) Spring
4 40 (15.69%) Spring Boot
5 38 (14.90%) REST
6 35 (13.73%) Kafka
7 34 (13.33%) .NET
8 25 (9.80%) GraphQL
9 17 (6.67%) AngularJS
10 16 (6.27%) RESTful
11 14 (5.49%) HTML
12 10 (3.92%) SOAP
13 8 (3.14%) Jest
13 8 (3.14%) Nunjucks
13 8 (3.14%) Vue
13 8 (3.14%) XML
14 7 (2.75%) HTML5
14 7 (2.75%) JPA
14 7 (2.75%) OpenAPI
Miscellaneous
1 38 (14.90%) Fixed Income
2 22 (8.63%) Cloud Native
3 19 (7.45%) Derivative
4 16 (6.27%) Equities
5 12 (4.71%) Legacy Systems
5 12 (4.71%) Product Ownership
6 10 (3.92%) Distributed Systems
6 10 (3.92%) Enterprise Software
7 5 (1.96%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 5 (1.96%) Replication
8 4 (1.57%) Greenfield Project
8 4 (1.57%) Legacy Applications
8 4 (1.57%) Onboarding
8 4 (1.57%) Virtual Team
9 3 (1.18%) CMDB
9 3 (1.18%) Credit Risk
9 3 (1.18%) LIMS
9 3 (1.18%) Management Information System
9 3 (1.18%) Mobile App
9 3 (1.18%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 12 (4.71%) Windows
2 8 (3.14%) Android
3 7 (2.75%) Apple iOS
4 3 (1.18%) Windows Server
5 2 (0.78%) Linux
6 1 (0.39%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.39%) Solaris
6 1 (0.39%) VMS
6 1 (0.39%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 113 (44.31%) Agile
2 77 (30.20%) CI/CD
3 66 (25.88%) DevOps
4 64 (25.10%) Software Engineering
5 62 (24.31%) Mentoring
6 54 (21.18%) Microservices
7 49 (19.22%) Full-Stack Development
7 49 (19.22%) Technical Leadership
8 39 (15.29%) Containerisation
9 36 (14.12%) Investment Management
9 36 (14.12%) Portfolio Management
10 26 (10.20%) Code Quality
11 25 (9.80%) Infrastructure as Code
12 24 (9.41%) Problem-Solving
13 23 (9.02%) Event-Driven
14 20 (7.84%) Order Management
15 19 (7.45%) Continuous Improvement
15 19 (7.45%) Test Automation
16 18 (7.06%) Scrum
16 18 (7.06%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 88 (34.51%) Java
2 67 (26.27%) JavaScript
3 57 (22.35%) TypeScript
4 45 (17.65%) Python
5 40 (15.69%) SQL
6 29 (11.37%) C#
7 20 (7.84%) Go
8 11 (4.31%) T-SQL
9 9 (3.53%) PL/SQL
10 7 (2.75%) Bicep
10 7 (2.75%) Kotlin
11 6 (2.35%) Apex Code
11 6 (2.35%) Swift
12 5 (1.96%) VB.NET
12 5 (1.96%) VBA
13 4 (1.57%) Ruby
13 4 (1.57%) XPath
14 3 (1.18%) Scala
14 3 (1.18%) VBScript
15 2 (0.78%) ABAP
Qualifications
1 80 (31.37%) Security Cleared
2 67 (26.27%) SC Cleared
3 27 (10.59%) BPSS Clearance
4 2 (0.78%) AWS Certification
4 2 (0.78%) AWS Certified Developer
4 2 (0.78%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
4 2 (0.78%) DV Cleared
4 2 (0.78%) Microsoft Certification
5 1 (0.39%) Azure Certification
5 1 (0.39%) Computer Science Degree
5 1 (0.39%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (7.06%) QA
2 17 (6.67%) Accessibility
3 4 (1.57%) WCAG
4 3 (1.18%) 21 CFR Part 11
4 3 (1.18%) GMP
4 3 (1.18%) GxP
4 3 (1.18%) ISO/IEC 17025
4 3 (1.18%) NCSC
5 2 (0.78%) GDPR
System Software
1 53 (20.78%) Docker
2 1 (0.39%) Apache ZooKeeper
2 1 (0.39%) Oracle RAC
2 1 (0.39%) VMware ESXi
2 1 (0.39%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 43 (16.86%) Kubernetes
2 26 (10.20%) Terraform
3 4 (1.57%) Ansible
3 4 (1.57%) Grafana
4 2 (0.78%) Kibana
5 1 (0.39%) Oracle RMAN
5 1 (0.39%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.39%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 30 (11.76%) Microsoft
2 20 (7.84%) Oracle
3 9 (3.53%) Salesforce
4 7 (2.75%) Informatica
5 5 (1.96%) IBM
6 4 (1.57%) Blue Prism
7 3 (1.18%) BMC
7 3 (1.18%) Remedy
7 3 (1.18%) ServiceNow
8 2 (0.78%) Adobe
8 2 (0.78%) DataFlux
8 2 (0.78%) Guidewire
8 2 (0.78%) Kepware
8 2 (0.78%) MuleSoft
8 2 (0.78%) OpenAI
8 2 (0.78%) SAP
9 1 (0.39%) Anaplan
9 1 (0.39%) Genesys
9 1 (0.39%) HubSpot
9 1 (0.39%) Liquidlogic