Lead Developer Contract Job Trends

Lead Developer
UK

The median Lead Developer daily rate in the UK is £545, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 4 November 2026.

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

6 months to
4 Nov 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 444 399 347
Rank change year-on-year -45 -52 +94
Contract Lead Developer jobs 264 168 213
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.48% 0.49% 0.59%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.52% 0.53% 0.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 175 119 155
10th Percentile £422 £463 £455
25th Percentile £478 £513 £525
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £545 £563 £625
Median % change year-on-year -3.11% -10.00% +4.17%
75th Percentile £613 £703 £756
90th Percentile £738 £775 £888
UK excluding London median daily rate £530 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -3.64% - -4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - - £51.25
Median hourly rate £35.00 - £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 adverts matching a recognised job title. The table also shows what proportion of all contract IT job adverts they make up.

6 months to
4 Nov 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Contract job adverts in the UK matching a recognised job title 50,460 31,417 33,739
% of contract job adverts matching a recognised job title 91.64% 90.97% 92.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,656 19,914 20,338
10th Percentile £325 £278 £300
25th Percentile £425 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £638 £620 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4,303 1,775 1,276
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.02 £15.08
25th Percentile £18.50 £17.60 £20.19
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £37.39
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -32.74% -16.91%
75th Percentile £68.00 £51.14 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.55 £69.65 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £36.08
% change year-on-year +59.05% -30.30% -18.92%

Lead Developer Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract Lead Developer job postings 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 Lead Developer jobs over the 6 months to 4 November 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 Lead Developer jobs within the UK over the 6 months to 4 November 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		 Job Ads
Past 6 Months		 Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months		 Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year		 Live
Jobs
England -83 166 £550 -6.78% 65
UK excluding London -74 92 £530 -3.64% 42
London -75 87 £550 -14.40% 30
Work from Home -82 70 £530 -11.67% 31
North of England -59 29 £675 +13.35% 20
Midlands -23 24 £488 +2.63% 6
Scotland -12 21 £416 -6.88%
North West -37 16 £700 +33.33% 7
West Midlands -36 15 £481 +1.32% 4
South West -29 10 £525 -4.55% 1
East Midlands -8 9 £550 - 2
Yorkshire -43 7 £588 -8.95% 7
North East -28 6 £650 +5.26% 7
East of England -25 4 £503 -8.64% 2
South East -63 4 £400 -27.27% 12
Wales - 2 £750 - 1

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

For the 6 months to 4 November 2026, Lead Developer contract job ads cited 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 Lead Developer job ads.

RankSkillShareJob Ads
1CI/CD37.9%100
2Security Cleared35.2%93
3Agile34.8%92
4AWS33.3%88
5Java29.9%79
6SC Cleared29.5%78
7DevOps25.8%68
8Azure23.1%61
8Microservices23.1%61
8Technical Leadership23.1%61
11Mentoring22.3%59
12Docker21.2%56
13SQL20.5%54
14Git20.1%53
15Spring Boot17.8%47
16REST17.0%45
16Spring17.0%45
18.NET15.9%42
19C#15.5%41
19Kubernetes15.5%41
21JavaScript15.2%40
21Software Engineering15.2%40
23Containerisation14.8%39
23Problem-Solving14.8%39
25Node.js13.6%36
25Test Automation13.6%36
27BPSS Clearance12.5%33
28Microsoft12.1%32
29Continuous Improvement11.7%31
30Code Quality11.4%30

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

The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.

Job Titles

RankJob TitleShareJob Ads
1Lead Java Developer23.9%63
2Lead Software Developer21.2%56
3Lead .NET Developer8.7%23
4Senior Developer5.3%14
5Lead Full-Stack Developer4.5%12
6Lead C# Developer4.2%11
7Lead Python Developer3.8%10
7Power Platform Developer3.8%10
7SQL Developer3.8%10
7Technical Developer3.8%10
7Technical Leader3.8%10
12C# .NET Developer3.4%9
12Front-End Developer (Client-Side Developer)3.4%9
12Salesforce Developer3.4%9
12Scala Developer3.4%9
16Azure Developer3.0%8
16Senior Java Developer3.0%8
18Backend Developer2.3%6
18Full-Stack .NET Developer2.3%6
18Lead Dynamics 365 Developer2.3%6
74 Lead Developer jobs Nationwide