Lead Job Trends in Edinburgh

Leader
Scotland > Edinburgh

The median Leader salary in Edinburgh is £67,550 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 14 January 2026.

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

6 months to
14 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 64 33 35
Rank change year-on-year -31 +2 -6
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead 41 80 83
As % of all permanent jobs in Edinburgh 3.85% 7.23% 7.91%
As % of the Job Titles category 4.21% 7.67% 8.23%
Number of salaries quoted 33 31 67
10th Percentile £51,875 £58,250 £60,200
25th Percentile £61,325 £65,000 £65,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £67,550 £75,000 £92,778
Median % change year-on-year -9.93% -19.16% +9.15%
75th Percentile £100,000 £125,000 £96,539
90th Percentile - £140,677 £137,913
Scotland median annual salary £60,000 £72,500 £75,000
% change year-on-year -17.24% -3.33% -5.82%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
Edinburgh

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in Edinburgh. 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 Edinburgh with a recognized job title 973 1,043 1,009
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.36% 94.22% 96.19%
Number of salaries quoted 464 409 814
10th Percentile £26,000 £35,821 £30,000
25th Percentile £29,500 £45,000 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £57,000 £62,500
Median % change year-on-year -21.05% -8.80% +4.17%
75th Percentile £70,000 £75,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £93,778 £94,250
Scotland median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% +10.00% -11.50%

Lead
Job Vacancy Trend in Edinburgh

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

Lead job vacancy trend in Edinburgh

Lead
Salary Trend in Edinburgh

Salary distribution trend for Lead job vacancies in Edinburgh.

Salary distribution trend for Lead job vacancies in Edinburgh

Lead
Salary Histogram in Edinburgh

Salary distribution for jobs citing Lead in Edinburgh over the 6 months to 14 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Lead in Edinburgh

Lead Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Edinburgh

For the 6 months to 14 January 2026, Lead 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 Edinburgh region featuring Lead in the job title.

1 11 (26.83%) Java
2 9 (21.95%) Analytics
2 9 (21.95%) Azure
3 8 (19.51%) AWS
3 8 (19.51%) Data Engineering
3 8 (19.51%) E-Commerce
4 6 (14.63%) Python
4 6 (14.63%) Software Engineering
5 5 (12.20%) Continuous Improvement
5 5 (12.20%) Cybersecurity
5 5 (12.20%) Mentoring
5 5 (12.20%) Microsoft
5 5 (12.20%) Roadmaps
5 5 (12.20%) Stakeholder Management
5 5 (12.20%) Technical Leadership
6 4 (9.76%) CI/CD
6 4 (9.76%) Data Pipeline
6 4 (9.76%) Data Strategy
6 4 (9.76%) Resource Management
6 4 (9.76%) Scorecard
6 4 (9.76%) Supplier Management
6 4 (9.76%) WFM
7 3 (7.32%) Agile
7 3 (7.32%) Ansible
7 3 (7.32%) Customer Service
7 3 (7.32%) Data Architecture
7 3 (7.32%) Data Modelling
7 3 (7.32%) Data Protection
7 3 (7.32%) dbt
7 3 (7.32%) Decision-Making

Lead Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Edinburgh 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 2 (4.88%) Apache Airflow
1 2 (4.88%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 2 (4.88%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 9 (21.95%) Azure
2 8 (19.51%) AWS
3 3 (7.32%) dbt
3 3 (7.32%) GCP
4 2 (4.88%) Azure Data Factory
4 2 (4.88%) Azure Stack
4 2 (4.88%) Entra ID
4 2 (4.88%) Microsoft 365
4 2 (4.88%) PaaS
4 2 (4.88%) Power Platform
4 2 (4.88%) SaaS
5 1 (2.44%) Amazon CloudWatch
5 1 (2.44%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 1 (2.44%) BGP
1 1 (2.44%) Firewall
1 1 (2.44%) LAN
1 1 (2.44%) MPLS
1 1 (2.44%) WAN
1 1 (2.44%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (4.88%) Power BI
2 1 (2.44%) Data Warehouse
2 1 (2.44%) Metadata
2 1 (2.44%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 1 (2.44%) Cucumber
1 1 (2.44%) JMeter
1 1 (2.44%) Locust
General
1 15 (36.59%) Finance
2 9 (21.95%) Social Skills
3 8 (19.51%) Games
4 4 (9.76%) Retail
5 3 (7.32%) Banking
5 3 (7.32%) Legal
6 2 (4.88%) Documentation Skills
7 1 (2.44%) Analytical Skills
7 1 (2.44%) Billing
7 1 (2.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 1 (2.44%) Influencing Skills
7 1 (2.44%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (4.88%) Kafka
1 2 (4.88%) RESTful
2 1 (2.44%) Gherkin
Miscellaneous
1 2 (4.88%) Management Information System
1 2 (4.88%) Onboarding
1 2 (4.88%) Product Ownership
1 2 (4.88%) Robotics
1 2 (4.88%) Video Conferencing
2 1 (2.44%) Cloud Native
2 1 (2.44%) Data Protection Act
2 1 (2.44%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 2 (4.88%) Linux
1 2 (4.88%) Ubuntu
1 2 (4.88%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 9 (21.95%) Analytics
2 8 (19.51%) Data Engineering
2 8 (19.51%) E-Commerce
3 6 (14.63%) Software Engineering
4 5 (12.20%) Continuous Improvement
4 5 (12.20%) Cybersecurity
4 5 (12.20%) Mentoring
4 5 (12.20%) Roadmaps
4 5 (12.20%) Stakeholder Management
4 5 (12.20%) Technical Leadership
5 4 (9.76%) CI/CD
5 4 (9.76%) Data Pipeline
5 4 (9.76%) Data Strategy
5 4 (9.76%) Resource Management
5 4 (9.76%) Scorecard
5 4 (9.76%) Supplier Management
5 4 (9.76%) WFM
6 3 (7.32%) Agile
6 3 (7.32%) Data Modelling
6 3 (7.32%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 11 (26.83%) Java
2 6 (14.63%) Python
3 3 (7.32%) PowerShell
4 2 (4.88%) Scala
4 2 (4.88%) SQL
Qualifications
1 3 (7.32%) SC Cleared
1 3 (7.32%) Security Cleared
2 2 (4.88%) BPSS Clearance
2 2 (4.88%) CCNA
2 2 (4.88%) Cisco Certification
2 2 (4.88%) CISM
2 2 (4.88%) CISSP
2 2 (4.88%) Degree
2 2 (4.88%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (4.88%) Accessibility
1 2 (4.88%) Data Quality
1 2 (4.88%) GDPR
2 1 (2.44%) QA
2 1 (2.44%) WCAG
System Software
1 1 (2.44%) Docker
Systems Management
1 3 (7.32%) Ansible
2 2 (4.88%) Grafana
2 2 (4.88%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (4.88%) Terraform
3 1 (2.44%) Kubernetes
3 1 (2.44%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 5 (12.20%) Microsoft
2 2 (4.88%) Cisco
2 2 (4.88%) Databricks
3 1 (2.44%) Computacenter
3 1 (2.44%) F5
3 1 (2.44%) Fortinet
3 1 (2.44%) ServiceNow
3 1 (2.44%) SolarWinds
3 1 (2.44%) Splunk