Lead Developer Job Trends in England

Lead Developer
UK > England

The median Lead Developer salary in England is £85,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 1 August 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 292 387 225
Rank change year-on-year +95 -162 +86
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead Developer 603 305 928
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.66% 0.70% 1.24%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.70% 0.77% 1.31%
Number of salaries quoted 502 218 835
10th Percentile £62,624 £53,750 £47,000
25th Percentile £70,000 £63,750 £55,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £85,000 £75,000 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year +13.33% +7.14% -9.68%
75th Percentile £100,000 £90,000 £93,750
90th Percentile £107,500 £124,750 £142,500
UK median annual salary £85,000 £75,000 £70,000
% change year-on-year +13.33% +7.14% -9.68%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
England

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in England. 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 England with a recognized job title 86,335 39,475 70,908
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.30% 90.65% 94.72%
Number of salaries quoted 60,644 23,957 49,503
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £76,075 £75,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £97,500 £97,500 £92,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year - - -8.33%

Lead Developer
Job Vacancy Trend in England

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

Lead Developer job vacancy trend in England

Lead Developer
Salary Trend in England

Salary distribution trend for Lead Developer job vacancies in England.

Salary distribution trend for Lead Developer job vacancies in England

Lead Developer
Salary Histogram in England

Salary distribution for jobs citing Lead Developer in England over the 6 months to 1 August 2026.

Salary histogram for Lead Developer in England

Lead Developer
Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Lead Developer within the England region over the 6 months to 1 August 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
London +39 230 £95,000 +5.56% 38
North of England +33 141 £75,000 +7.14% 29
North West +52 94 £72,500 - 16
South East +13 87 £90,000 +20.00% 5
Midlands +16 79 £68,000 -0.37% 13
West Midlands -2 49 £65,000 -6.47% 6
South West -64 31 £67,500 +20.00% 3
East Midlands -8 30 £70,000 +5.66% 7
East of England +2 27 £60,100 -19.87% 1
Yorkshire -26 26 £70,000 - 8
North East -34 21 £90,000 +12.50% 5
Lead Developer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 1 August 2026, Lead Developer 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 England region featuring Lead Developer in the job title.

1 187 (31.01%) Full-Stack Development
2 143 (23.71%) JavaScript
3 141 (23.38%) AWS
3 141 (23.38%) C#
3 141 (23.38%) Mentoring
4 140 (23.22%) .NET
5 138 (22.89%) Azure
6 137 (22.72%) TypeScript
7 120 (19.90%) Software Engineering
7 120 (19.90%) Technical Leadership
8 108 (17.91%) Agile
9 102 (16.92%) React
10 101 (16.75%) Node.js
11 91 (15.09%) CI/CD
12 90 (14.93%) Python
13 81 (13.43%) AI
14 77 (12.77%) DevOps
15 73 (12.11%) SaaS
16 67 (11.11%) Microservices
17 66 (10.95%) Continuous Improvement
18 62 (10.28%) Microsoft
19 61 (10.12%) SQL
20 59 (9.78%) Java
21 54 (8.96%) RESTful
22 49 (8.13%) GraphQL
23 48 (7.96%) PostgreSQL
24 45 (7.46%) Event-Driven
24 45 (7.46%) Problem-Solving
25 42 (6.97%) Event-Driven Architecture
25 42 (6.97%) SQL Server

Lead Developer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 18 (2.99%) Anypoint
1 18 (2.99%) Mule
2 9 (1.49%) SharePoint
3 7 (1.16%) Appian
4 6 (1.00%) Confluence
5 4 (0.66%) WordPress
6 1 (0.17%) CMS
Business Applications
1 9 (1.49%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.17%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 141 (23.38%) AWS
2 138 (22.89%) Azure
3 73 (12.11%) SaaS
4 41 (6.80%) Dynamics 365
5 36 (5.97%) Power Platform
6 29 (4.81%) Azure DevOps
6 29 (4.81%) GCP
7 19 (3.15%) Azure Logic Apps
8 18 (2.99%) Serverless
9 16 (2.65%) Microsoft Copilot
10 14 (2.32%) Azure Service Bus
10 14 (2.32%) Snowflake
11 13 (2.16%) GitHub
11 13 (2.16%) Power Automate
12 12 (1.99%) Azure Key Vault
13 11 (1.82%) Azure Cosmos DB
13 11 (1.82%) PowerApps
14 10 (1.66%) Amazon ECS
14 10 (1.66%) AWS Lambda
14 10 (1.66%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 13 (2.16%) SSL
2 5 (0.83%) Broadband
3 1 (0.17%) Asterisk PBX
3 1 (0.17%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 48 (7.96%) PostgreSQL
2 42 (6.97%) SQL Server
3 19 (3.15%) Redis
4 15 (2.49%) MySQL
5 11 (1.82%) Power BI
6 10 (1.66%) DynamoDB
6 10 (1.66%) MongoDB
7 9 (1.49%) Amazon RDS
7 9 (1.49%) Elasticsearch
8 5 (0.83%) Metadata
8 5 (0.83%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 3 (0.50%) MariaDB
9 3 (0.50%) NoSQL
9 3 (0.50%) Spatial Data
10 2 (0.33%) Geospatial Data
10 2 (0.33%) InterSystems Cache
11 1 (0.17%) Azure SQL Database
11 1 (0.17%) Db2
11 1 (0.17%) KDB
11 1 (0.17%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 30 (4.98%) Git
2 8 (1.33%) JIRA
3 5 (0.83%) Bitbucket
4 4 (0.66%) Cypress.io
4 4 (0.66%) Maven
5 3 (0.50%) Jenkins
5 3 (0.50%) JUnit
5 3 (0.50%) Mockito
5 3 (0.50%) NUnit
5 3 (0.50%) Vite
5 3 (0.50%) webpack
6 2 (0.33%) Claude Code
6 2 (0.33%) GitLab
6 2 (0.33%) MSI
6 2 (0.33%) TeamCity
6 2 (0.33%) Terragrunt
7 1 (0.17%) Ant
7 1 (0.17%) Eclipse
7 1 (0.17%) fastlane
7 1 (0.17%) git-flow
General
1 119 (19.73%) Finance
2 62 (10.28%) Social Skills
3 40 (6.63%) Front Office
4 20 (3.32%) Law
5 17 (2.82%) Banking
6 15 (2.49%) Analytical Skills
7 14 (2.32%) Games
8 12 (1.99%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 6 (1.00%) Legal
9 6 (1.00%) Legal Technology
9 6 (1.00%) Public Sector
9 6 (1.00%) Retail
10 2 (0.33%) Investment Banking
10 2 (0.33%) Manufacturing
10 2 (0.33%) Marketing
11 1 (0.17%) Local Government
11 1 (0.17%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.17%) Tech for Good
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 140 (23.22%) .NET
2 102 (16.92%) React
3 101 (16.75%) Node.js
4 54 (8.96%) RESTful
5 49 (8.13%) GraphQL
6 39 (6.47%) Redux
7 36 (5.97%) Vue
8 33 (5.47%) ASP.NET
9 32 (5.31%) .NET Core
10 31 (5.14%) Kafka
11 27 (4.48%) React Native
12 26 (4.31%) REST
13 24 (3.98%) CSS
13 24 (3.98%) Spring
14 22 (3.65%) HTML
15 20 (3.32%) AngularJS
16 19 (3.15%) Next.js
17 14 (2.32%) Laravel
18 13 (2.16%) .NET Framework
18 13 (2.16%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 40 (6.63%) Cloud Native
2 36 (5.97%) Fixed Income
3 22 (3.65%) Product Ownership
4 17 (2.82%) Derivative
4 17 (2.82%) Distributed Systems
4 17 (2.82%) Enterprise Software
4 17 (2.82%) Equities
4 17 (2.82%) Legacy Systems
5 16 (2.65%) Mobile App
6 14 (2.32%) Low-Code
7 9 (1.49%) Legacy Applications
7 9 (1.49%) PropTech
8 6 (1.00%) Virtual Team
9 5 (0.83%) Algorithms
9 5 (0.83%) Onboarding
10 4 (0.66%) Video\Live Streaming
11 3 (0.50%) Operational Technology
11 3 (0.50%) Photography
12 2 (0.33%) Credit Risk
12 2 (0.33%) Distributed Architecture
Operating Systems
1 35 (5.80%) Apple iOS
2 33 (5.47%) Android
3 4 (0.66%) Linux
4 3 (0.50%) Windows
5 1 (0.17%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 187 (31.01%) Full-Stack Development
2 141 (23.38%) Mentoring
3 120 (19.90%) Software Engineering
3 120 (19.90%) Technical Leadership
4 108 (17.91%) Agile
5 91 (15.09%) CI/CD
6 81 (13.43%) AI
7 77 (12.77%) DevOps
8 67 (11.11%) Microservices
9 66 (10.95%) Continuous Improvement
10 45 (7.46%) Event-Driven
10 45 (7.46%) Problem-Solving
11 42 (6.97%) Event-Driven Architecture
12 39 (6.47%) Portfolio Management
13 38 (6.30%) Investment Management
14 37 (6.14%) Roadmaps
15 35 (5.80%) Fintech
16 33 (5.47%) Coaching
16 33 (5.47%) Design Patterns
17 32 (5.31%) Mobile Development
Programming Languages
1 143 (23.71%) JavaScript
2 141 (23.38%) C#
3 137 (22.72%) TypeScript
4 90 (14.93%) Python
5 61 (10.12%) SQL
6 59 (9.78%) Java
7 28 (4.64%) Go
8 15 (2.49%) PHP
9 13 (2.16%) DataWeave
10 11 (1.82%) C++
10 11 (1.82%) Swift
11 10 (1.66%) Kotlin
12 9 (1.49%) Bicep
13 7 (1.16%) Ruby
14 6 (1.00%) RPG
15 5 (0.83%) PowerShell
16 4 (0.66%) Bash
17 3 (0.50%) C
17 3 (0.50%) PL/SQL
17 3 (0.50%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 29 (4.81%) Degree
2 26 (4.31%) SC Cleared
2 26 (4.31%) Security Cleared
3 16 (2.65%) Computer Science Degree
4 9 (1.49%) DBS Check
5 5 (0.83%) ITIL Certification
6 1 (0.17%) Azure Certification
6 1 (0.17%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (4.31%) QA
2 12 (1.99%) Accessibility
3 6 (1.00%) Data Quality
4 2 (0.33%) NCSC
4 2 (0.33%) WCAG
5 1 (0.17%) GDPR
5 1 (0.17%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 38 (6.30%) Docker
2 3 (0.50%) Firmware
3 1 (0.17%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 23 (3.81%) Kubernetes
2 16 (2.65%) Terraform
3 13 (2.16%) CloudHub
4 2 (0.33%) Ansible
5 1 (0.17%) Grafana
5 1 (0.17%) Kibana
5 1 (0.17%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 62 (10.28%) Microsoft
2 18 (2.99%) MuleSoft
3 17 (2.82%) Salesforce
4 14 (2.32%) ServiceNow
5 13 (2.16%) SAP
6 7 (1.16%) HubSpot
7 6 (1.00%) IBM
7 6 (1.00%) Oracle
8 4 (0.66%) Apple
9 3 (0.50%) Bloomberg
9 3 (0.50%) DevExpress
9 3 (0.50%) OpenAI
10 2 (0.33%) Google
10 2 (0.33%) Refinitiv
10 2 (0.33%) TikTok
11 1 (0.17%) Citrix
11 1 (0.17%) Reuters
11 1 (0.17%) Revolut