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 14 August 2026.

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

6 months to
14 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 290 373 231
Rank change year-on-year +83 -142 +90
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead Developer 608 308 882
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.65% 0.70% 1.22%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.69% 0.78% 1.28%
Number of salaries quoted 503 219 778
10th Percentile £65,000 £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 £93,063
90th Percentile - £124,000 £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 88,622 39,653 68,873
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.09% 90.63% 94.92%
Number of salaries quoted 62,192 23,887 46,875
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,750 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,754 £75,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £97,500 £95,000 £92,500
UK median annual salary £56,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +1.82% - -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 14 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 14 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 +30 220 £95,000 +5.56% 94
North of England +37 153 £75,000 +7.14% 30
North West +51 95 £72,500 +1.75% 15
Midlands +27 87 £70,000 +1.45% 14
South East +18 87 £90,000 +20.00% 13
West Midlands +7 55 £65,000 -7.14% 4
East Midlands -4 32 £70,000 +5.66% 10
Yorkshire -30 30 £75,000 +9.09% 10
North East -37 28 £90,000 +12.50% 5
South West -59 28 £70,000 +21.74% 5
East of England -2 25 £62,550 -16.60% 3
Lead Developer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 14 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.

1 182 (29.93%) Full-Stack Development
2 154 (25.33%) C#
3 147 (24.18%) .NET
4 139 (22.86%) Azure
5 138 (22.70%) Mentoring
6 136 (22.37%) JavaScript
7 131 (21.55%) AWS
8 125 (20.56%) Technical Leadership
8 125 (20.56%) TypeScript
9 104 (17.11%) Software Engineering
10 94 (15.46%) CI/CD
11 90 (14.80%) Node.js
12 89 (14.64%) Agile
13 85 (13.98%) React
14 82 (13.49%) AI
15 77 (12.66%) DevOps
16 75 (12.34%) SaaS
17 74 (12.17%) Python
18 69 (11.35%) Microservices
19 67 (11.02%) Continuous Improvement
19 67 (11.02%) Microsoft
20 66 (10.86%) SQL
21 57 (9.38%) RESTful
22 48 (7.89%) Dynamics 365
22 48 (7.89%) SQL Server
23 47 (7.73%) Event-Driven
23 47 (7.73%) Java
23 47 (7.73%) Problem-Solving
24 44 (7.24%) Event-Driven Architecture
25 42 (6.91%) Power Platform

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 19 (3.13%) Anypoint
1 19 (3.13%) Mule
2 10 (1.64%) SharePoint
3 6 (0.99%) Appian
4 5 (0.82%) Confluence
5 4 (0.66%) WordPress
6 1 (0.16%) CMS
Business Applications
1 11 (1.81%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.16%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 139 (22.86%) Azure
2 131 (21.55%) AWS
3 75 (12.34%) SaaS
4 48 (7.89%) Dynamics 365
5 42 (6.91%) Power Platform
6 32 (5.26%) Azure DevOps
7 21 (3.45%) Azure Logic Apps
8 20 (3.29%) GCP
9 18 (2.96%) Microsoft Copilot
10 17 (2.80%) Azure Service Bus
10 17 (2.80%) Serverless
10 17 (2.80%) Snowflake
11 16 (2.63%) Power Automate
12 15 (2.47%) Azure Key Vault
13 14 (2.30%) Azure Cosmos DB
14 13 (2.14%) Azure Monitor
14 13 (2.14%) GitHub
15 12 (1.97%) PowerApps
16 10 (1.64%) Amazon ECS
16 10 (1.64%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 14 (2.30%) SSL
2 5 (0.82%) Broadband
3 1 (0.16%) Asterisk PBX
3 1 (0.16%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 48 (7.89%) SQL Server
2 40 (6.58%) PostgreSQL
3 22 (3.62%) Redis
4 16 (2.63%) MySQL
5 13 (2.14%) Power BI
6 11 (1.81%) Elasticsearch
7 10 (1.64%) DynamoDB
8 9 (1.48%) Amazon RDS
8 9 (1.48%) MongoDB
9 5 (0.82%) Metadata
9 5 (0.82%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 3 (0.49%) KDB
10 3 (0.49%) MariaDB
10 3 (0.49%) NoSQL
10 3 (0.49%) Spatial Data
11 2 (0.33%) Geospatial Data
11 2 (0.33%) InterSystems Cache
12 1 (0.16%) Azure SQL Database
12 1 (0.16%) Db2
12 1 (0.16%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 32 (5.26%) Git
2 7 (1.15%) JIRA
3 4 (0.66%) Bitbucket
4 3 (0.49%) Cypress.io
4 3 (0.49%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.49%) JUnit
4 3 (0.49%) Maven
4 3 (0.49%) Mockito
4 3 (0.49%) NUnit
5 2 (0.33%) Claude Code
5 2 (0.33%) GitLab
5 2 (0.33%) MSI
5 2 (0.33%) TeamCity
5 2 (0.33%) Terragrunt
5 2 (0.33%) Vite
5 2 (0.33%) webpack
6 1 (0.16%) DBeaver
6 1 (0.16%) git-flow
6 1 (0.16%) Visual Studio Code
6 1 (0.16%) XCUITest
General
1 103 (16.94%) Finance
2 67 (11.02%) Social Skills
3 24 (3.95%) Front Office
4 23 (3.78%) Law
5 19 (3.13%) Banking
6 17 (2.80%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 16 (2.63%) Analytical Skills
8 14 (2.30%) Games
9 7 (1.15%) Legal
9 7 (1.15%) Legal Technology
10 6 (0.99%) Public Sector
10 6 (0.99%) Retail
11 4 (0.66%) Investment Banking
12 3 (0.49%) Marketing
13 2 (0.33%) Manufacturing
14 1 (0.16%) Local Government
14 1 (0.16%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 147 (24.18%) .NET
2 90 (14.80%) Node.js
3 85 (13.98%) React
4 57 (9.38%) RESTful
5 39 (6.41%) GraphQL
6 37 (6.09%) Vue
7 36 (5.92%) .NET Core
7 36 (5.92%) ASP.NET
8 28 (4.61%) React Native
8 28 (4.61%) REST
9 26 (4.28%) CSS
10 24 (3.95%) HTML
11 23 (3.78%) Kafka
12 22 (3.62%) Spring
13 21 (3.45%) Next.js
13 21 (3.45%) Redux
14 16 (2.63%) AngularJS
15 15 (2.47%) Laravel
16 14 (2.30%) JWT
16 14 (2.30%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 38 (6.25%) Cloud Native
2 19 (3.13%) Product Ownership
3 18 (2.96%) Distributed Systems
3 18 (2.96%) Fixed Income
3 18 (2.96%) Legacy Systems
4 15 (2.47%) Enterprise Software
5 14 (2.30%) Low-Code
5 14 (2.30%) Mobile App
6 11 (1.81%) Equities
7 9 (1.48%) Derivative
8 8 (1.32%) PropTech
9 7 (1.15%) Algorithms
9 7 (1.15%) Legacy Applications
10 6 (0.99%) Virtual Team
11 5 (0.82%) Onboarding
12 4 (0.66%) Video\Live Streaming
13 3 (0.49%) Greenfield Project
13 3 (0.49%) Operational Technology
13 3 (0.49%) Photography
14 2 (0.33%) Distributed Architecture
Operating Systems
1 34 (5.59%) Android
1 34 (5.59%) Apple iOS
2 4 (0.66%) Linux
3 3 (0.49%) Windows
4 1 (0.16%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 182 (29.93%) Full-Stack Development
2 138 (22.70%) Mentoring
3 125 (20.56%) Technical Leadership
4 104 (17.11%) Software Engineering
5 94 (15.46%) CI/CD
6 89 (14.64%) Agile
7 82 (13.49%) AI
8 77 (12.66%) DevOps
9 69 (11.35%) Microservices
10 67 (11.02%) Continuous Improvement
11 47 (7.73%) Event-Driven
11 47 (7.73%) Problem-Solving
12 44 (7.24%) Event-Driven Architecture
13 41 (6.74%) Roadmaps
14 35 (5.76%) Design Patterns
15 34 (5.59%) Test Automation
16 33 (5.43%) Mobile Development
17 31 (5.10%) Coaching
17 31 (5.10%) Stakeholder Management
18 29 (4.77%) Clean Code
Programming Languages
1 154 (25.33%) C#
2 136 (22.37%) JavaScript
3 125 (20.56%) TypeScript
4 74 (12.17%) Python
5 66 (10.86%) SQL
6 47 (7.73%) Java
7 18 (2.96%) Go
8 16 (2.63%) PHP
9 14 (2.30%) DataWeave
10 11 (1.81%) C++
11 10 (1.64%) Kotlin
12 9 (1.48%) Bicep
12 9 (1.48%) Swift
13 8 (1.32%) Ruby
14 6 (0.99%) RPG
15 5 (0.82%) PowerShell
16 4 (0.66%) Bash
17 3 (0.49%) C
17 3 (0.49%) PL/SQL
17 3 (0.49%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 32 (5.26%) Degree
2 27 (4.44%) SC Cleared
2 27 (4.44%) Security Cleared
3 21 (3.45%) Computer Science Degree
4 7 (1.15%) DBS Check
5 5 (0.82%) ITIL Certification
6 2 (0.33%) Azure Certification
7 1 (0.16%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (5.10%) QA
2 9 (1.48%) Accessibility
3 6 (0.99%) Data Quality
4 2 (0.33%) NCSC
4 2 (0.33%) WCAG
5 1 (0.16%) GDPR
5 1 (0.16%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 41 (6.74%) Docker
2 3 (0.49%) Firmware
3 1 (0.16%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 22 (3.62%) Kubernetes
2 16 (2.63%) Terraform
3 14 (2.30%) CloudHub
4 2 (0.33%) Ansible
Vendors
1 67 (11.02%) Microsoft
2 19 (3.13%) MuleSoft
3 17 (2.80%) Salesforce
4 15 (2.47%) ServiceNow
5 14 (2.30%) SAP
6 7 (1.15%) HubSpot
7 6 (0.99%) IBM
7 6 (0.99%) Oracle
8 3 (0.49%) Bloomberg
8 3 (0.49%) DevExpress
9 2 (0.33%) Apple
9 2 (0.33%) Google
9 2 (0.33%) OpenAI
9 2 (0.33%) Refinitiv
9 2 (0.33%) TikTok
10 1 (0.16%) Adobe
10 1 (0.16%) Citrix
10 1 (0.16%) Reuters