Lead Software Engineer Job Trends in the City of London

Lead Software Engineer
Central London > City of London

The median Lead Software Engineer salary in the City of London is £100,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 1 January 2026.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 125 164 151
Rank change year-on-year +39 -13 +91
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead Software Engineer 6 3 16
As % of all permanent jobs in the City of London 0.29% 0.11% 0.57%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.30% 0.12% 0.59%
Number of salaries quoted 5 2 15
10th Percentile £79,500 £93,000 £90,500
25th Percentile £82,500 £97,500 £91,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £100,000 £110,000 £102,500
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +7.32% +7.89%
75th Percentile - £117,500 £120,000
90th Percentile - £119,000 £140,500
Central London median annual salary £100,000 £110,000 £102,500
% change year-on-year -9.09% +7.32% +7.89%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
City of London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in the City of London. 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 permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in the City of London with a recognized job title 1,978 2,500 2,707
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.01% 92.22% 95.89%
Number of salaries quoted 1,496 1,655 2,429
10th Percentile £40,000 £42,600 £40,000
25th Percentile £57,500 £55,000 £55,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £72,500 £75,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.45% -3.33% -
75th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £96,250
90th Percentile £112,500 £115,000 £115,000
Central London median annual salary £75,000 £72,500 £73,000
% change year-on-year +3.45% -0.68% -2.67%

Lead Software Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the City of London

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'Lead Software Engineer' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the City of London.

Lead Software Engineer job vacancy trend in the City of London

Lead Software Engineer
Salary Trend in the City of London

Salary distribution trend for Lead Software Engineer job vacancies in the City of London.

Salary distribution trend for Lead Software Engineer job vacancies in the City of London

Lead Software Engineer
Salary Histogram in the City of London

Salary distribution for jobs citing Lead Software Engineer in the City of London over the 6 months to 1 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Lead Software Engineer in the City of London

Lead Software Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the City of London

For the 6 months to 1 January 2026, Lead Software Engineer 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 permanent job ads across the City of London region featuring Lead Software Engineer in the job title.

1 6 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 3 (50.00%) TypeScript
3 2 (33.33%) React Native
4 1 (16.67%) .NET
4 1 (16.67%) Agile
4 1 (16.67%) AI
4 1 (16.67%) Analytics
4 1 (16.67%) AngularJS
4 1 (16.67%) API Development
4 1 (16.67%) AWS
4 1 (16.67%) B2B
4 1 (16.67%) B2C
4 1 (16.67%) C#
4 1 (16.67%) CI/CD
4 1 (16.67%) Code Quality
4 1 (16.67%) Computer Science
4 1 (16.67%) Containerisation
4 1 (16.67%) Continuous Improvement
4 1 (16.67%) Decision-Making
4 1 (16.67%) Degree
4 1 (16.67%) DevOps
4 1 (16.67%) FastAPI
4 1 (16.67%) Full-Stack Development
4 1 (16.67%) Generative AI
4 1 (16.67%) JavaScript
4 1 (16.67%) Kotlin
4 1 (16.67%) LLM
4 1 (16.67%) Mentoring
4 1 (16.67%) Multithreading
4 1 (16.67%) People Management

Lead Software Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the City of London 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:

Cloud Services
1 1 (16.67%) AWS
General
1 1 (16.67%) Finance
1 1 (16.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
1 1 (16.67%) Social Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (33.33%) React Native
2 1 (16.67%) .NET
2 1 (16.67%) AngularJS
2 1 (16.67%) FastAPI
2 1 (16.67%) React
Miscellaneous
1 1 (16.67%) Legacy Systems
1 1 (16.67%) Reinsurance
Processes & Methodologies
1 6 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 1 (16.67%) Agile
2 1 (16.67%) AI
2 1 (16.67%) Analytics
2 1 (16.67%) API Development
2 1 (16.67%) B2B
2 1 (16.67%) B2C
2 1 (16.67%) CI/CD
2 1 (16.67%) Code Quality
2 1 (16.67%) Computer Science
2 1 (16.67%) Containerisation
2 1 (16.67%) Continuous Improvement
2 1 (16.67%) Decision-Making
2 1 (16.67%) DevOps
2 1 (16.67%) Full-Stack Development
2 1 (16.67%) Mentoring
2 1 (16.67%) Multithreading
2 1 (16.67%) People Management
2 1 (16.67%) Strategic Thinking
2 1 (16.67%) Technical Debt
Programming Languages
1 3 (50.00%) TypeScript
2 1 (16.67%) C#
2 1 (16.67%) JavaScript
2 1 (16.67%) Kotlin
2 1 (16.67%) Python
Qualifications
1 1 (16.67%) Degree