Lead Software Developer Contracts

Lead Software Developer
UK

The median Lead Software Developer daily rate in the UK is £683, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 507 555 711
Rank change year-on-year +48 +156 +95
Contract jobs requiring a Lead Software Developer 13 27 7
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.044% 0.062% 0.012%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.048% 0.067% 0.012%
Number of daily rates quoted 9 25 7
10th Percentile £373 £553 £207
25th Percentile £504 £763 £386
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £683 £825 £575
Median % change year-on-year -17.27% +43.48% -11.54%
75th Percentile £699 £888 £638
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median daily rate £213 £613 £398
% change year-on-year -65.25% +54.09% -23.19%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 27,084 40,415 56,464
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.52% 92.78% 94.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,692 26,309 39,470
10th Percentile £300 £275 £313
25th Percentile £406 £410 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -1.90% -2.78% +2.86%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £492 £500
% change year-on-year -3.46% -1.60% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,035 2,664 1,570
10th Percentile £14.07 £12.86 £14.29
25th Percentile £18.50 £16.30 £19.50
Median hourly rate £29.00 £36.42 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -20.37% -19.07% +91.49%
75th Percentile £62.50 £60.75 £65.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.00 £39.55 £42.50
% change year-on-year -29.20% -6.94% +117.95%

Lead Software Developer
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured Lead Software Developer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Lead Software Developer in the UK

Lead Software Developer
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Lead Software Developer.

Daily rate trend for Lead Software Developer in the UK

Lead Software Developer
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Lead Software Developer over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Lead Software Developer in the UK

Lead Software Developer
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Lead Software Developer.

Hourly rate trend for Lead Software Developer in the UK

Lead Software Developer
Top 5 Contract Locations

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 UK over the 6 months to 1 May 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
England +44 12 £683 -17.27% 16
London +25 10 £683 -17.27% 5
Work from Home +20 3 £213 -74.20% 9
UK excluding London +62 1 £213 -65.25% 13
Wales - 1 £213 -

Lead Software Developer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 1 May 2025, Lead Software Developer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Lead Software Developer in the job title.

1 9 (69.23%) CI/CD
2 8 (61.54%) Full-Stack Development
2 8 (61.54%) Mentoring
2 8 (61.54%) SC Cleared
2 8 (61.54%) Security Cleared
3 7 (53.85%) Unit Testing
4 6 (46.15%) Integration Testing
4 6 (46.15%) DV Cleared
4 6 (46.15%) Software Engineering
4 6 (46.15%) Change Management
4 6 (46.15%) Python
4 6 (46.15%) SAS
4 6 (46.15%) Oracle
4 6 (46.15%) Linux
4 6 (46.15%) DevOps
4 6 (46.15%) AWS
4 6 (46.15%) Release Management
4 6 (46.15%) Oracle Database
5 5 (38.46%) .NET
6 4 (30.77%) Azure
7 3 (23.08%) Public Sector
7 3 (23.08%) Web Development
7 3 (23.08%) Agile
7 3 (23.08%) OO
8 2 (15.38%) C#
8 2 (15.38%) HTML
8 2 (15.38%) JavaScript
8 2 (15.38%) Microsoft Office
8 2 (15.38%) ASP.NET
8 2 (15.38%) CSS

Lead Software Developer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 6 (46.15%) SAS
Applications
1 2 (15.38%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 6 (46.15%) AWS
2 4 (30.77%) Azure
3 2 (15.38%) Azure Functions
3 2 (15.38%) Power Automate
3 2 (15.38%) Power Platform
3 2 (15.38%) PowerApps
3 2 (15.38%) Serverless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (46.15%) Oracle Database
2 2 (15.38%) NoSQL
2 2 (15.38%) Power BI
3 1 (7.69%) Relational Database
General
1 3 (23.08%) Public Sector
2 2 (15.38%) Military
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (38.46%) .NET
2 2 (15.38%) .NET Core
2 2 (15.38%) ASP.NET
2 2 (15.38%) ASP.NET Core
2 2 (15.38%) CSS
2 2 (15.38%) HTML
2 2 (15.38%) Node.js
2 2 (15.38%) Vue
2 2 (15.38%) Web Services
3 1 (7.69%) FHIR
Miscellaneous
1 1 (7.69%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 6 (46.15%) Linux
2 1 (7.69%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 9 (69.23%) CI/CD
2 8 (61.54%) Full-Stack Development
2 8 (61.54%) Mentoring
3 7 (53.85%) Unit Testing
4 6 (46.15%) Change Management
4 6 (46.15%) DevOps
4 6 (46.15%) Integration Testing
4 6 (46.15%) Release Management
4 6 (46.15%) Software Engineering
5 3 (23.08%) Agile
5 3 (23.08%) OO
5 3 (23.08%) Web Development
6 2 (15.38%) API Development
6 2 (15.38%) Business Intelligence
6 2 (15.38%) Coaching
6 2 (15.38%) Responsive Web Design
6 2 (15.38%) Software Architecture
6 2 (15.38%) Software Delivery
6 2 (15.38%) Stakeholder Management
6 2 (15.38%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 6 (46.15%) Python
2 2 (15.38%) C#
2 2 (15.38%) JavaScript
2 2 (15.38%) Kotlin
2 2 (15.38%) PowerShell
2 2 (15.38%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 8 (61.54%) SC Cleared
1 8 (61.54%) Security Cleared
2 6 (46.15%) DV Cleared
3 1 (7.69%) Degree
System Software
1 2 (15.38%) Docker
Systems Management
1 2 (15.38%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 6 (46.15%) Oracle
2 2 (15.38%) Microsoft