Lead Developer Job Trends in England

Lead Developer
UK > England

The median Lead Developer salary in England is £83,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 26 September 2026.

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

6 months to
26 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 302 375 254
Rank change year-on-year +73 -121 +40
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead Developer 622 285 731
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.60% 0.66% 1.07%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.65% 0.73% 1.13%
Number of salaries quoted 508 202 594
10th Percentile £65,000 £55,000 £47,000
25th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £50,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £83,500 £75,000 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year +11.33% +7.14% -12.50%
75th Percentile £97,500 £90,938 £95,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £141,250 £142,500
UK median annual salary £80,000 £75,000 £70,000
% change year-on-year +6.67% +7.14% -12.23%

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 96,260 39,089 64,754
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.05% 90.45% 95.20%
Number of salaries quoted 67,768 23,344 38,067
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,500
25th Percentile £41,000 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £59,852 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +8.82% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £77,500 £75,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £95,000
UK median annual salary £59,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +7.27% - -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 26 September 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 26 September 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 +18 214 £90,000 -10.00% 88
North of England +10 144 £75,000 +7.14% 38
Midlands +21 107 £70,000 -3.45% 19
South East +23 92 £90,000 +20.00% 18
North West +14 78 £75,000 +7.14% 10
West Midlands -4 61 £70,000 -3.45% 12
East Midlands +9 46 £70,000 +3.70% 7
Yorkshire -27 44 £75,000 +9.09% 22
East of England -2 32 £76,021 +38.22% 4
South West -70 23 £70,000 +40.00% 6
North East -47 22 £100,000 +45.99% 6
Lead Developer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 26 September 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.

1 164 (26.37%) Full-Stack Development
2 151 (24.28%) C#
3 145 (23.31%) Technical Leadership
4 136 (21.86%) Azure
5 133 (21.38%) .NET
6 126 (20.26%) JavaScript
7 124 (19.94%) Mentoring
8 121 (19.45%) AWS
9 112 (18.01%) TypeScript
10 96 (15.43%) CI/CD
11 85 (13.67%) AI
12 84 (13.50%) Node.js
13 82 (13.18%) SaaS
14 77 (12.38%) DevOps
15 75 (12.06%) Software Engineering
16 74 (11.90%) SQL
17 72 (11.58%) Agile
17 72 (11.58%) Microsoft
18 67 (10.77%) Python
19 66 (10.61%) Microservices
20 64 (10.29%) Continuous Improvement
21 61 (9.81%) Dynamics 365
21 61 (9.81%) React
22 53 (8.52%) SQL Server
23 50 (8.04%) Power Platform
23 50 (8.04%) RESTful
24 48 (7.72%) Roadmaps
25 47 (7.56%) Event-Driven
26 44 (7.07%) Docker
26 44 (7.07%) Problem-Solving

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 (3.05%) Anypoint
1 19 (3.05%) Mule
2 14 (2.25%) SharePoint
3 5 (0.80%) Confluence
4 4 (0.64%) WordPress
5 2 (0.32%) Appian
Business Applications
1 15 (2.41%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.16%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 136 (21.86%) Azure
2 121 (19.45%) AWS
3 82 (13.18%) SaaS
4 61 (9.81%) Dynamics 365
5 50 (8.04%) Power Platform
6 35 (5.63%) Azure DevOps
7 21 (3.38%) Power Automate
8 20 (3.22%) Microsoft Copilot
9 19 (3.05%) Azure Service Bus
9 19 (3.05%) Serverless
10 18 (2.89%) Azure Logic Apps
11 17 (2.73%) GCP
11 17 (2.73%) Snowflake
12 16 (2.57%) GitHub
13 15 (2.41%) Azure Key Vault
14 14 (2.25%) Azure Monitor
15 13 (2.09%) Azure Cosmos DB
15 13 (2.09%) PowerApps
16 11 (1.77%) Amazon ECS
17 10 (1.61%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 14 (2.25%) SSL
2 4 (0.64%) Broadband
3 1 (0.16%) Asterisk PBX
3 1 (0.16%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 53 (8.52%) SQL Server
2 33 (5.31%) PostgreSQL
3 24 (3.86%) Redis
4 15 (2.41%) MySQL
4 15 (2.41%) Power BI
5 12 (1.93%) Elasticsearch
6 10 (1.61%) MongoDB
7 9 (1.45%) DynamoDB
8 8 (1.29%) Amazon RDS
9 5 (0.80%) Metadata
9 5 (0.80%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 3 (0.48%) KDB
10 3 (0.48%) NoSQL
10 3 (0.48%) Spatial Data
11 2 (0.32%) Data Warehouse
11 2 (0.32%) Db2
11 2 (0.32%) Geospatial Data
11 2 (0.32%) InterSystems Cache
11 2 (0.32%) MariaDB
12 1 (0.16%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 35 (5.63%) Git
2 8 (1.29%) JIRA
3 5 (0.80%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.48%) Bitbucket
4 3 (0.48%) JUnit
4 3 (0.48%) Maven
4 3 (0.48%) Mockito
5 2 (0.32%) Claude Code
5 2 (0.32%) GitLab
5 2 (0.32%) MSI
5 2 (0.32%) NUnit
5 2 (0.32%) TeamCity
5 2 (0.32%) Terragrunt
6 1 (0.16%) Cypress.io
6 1 (0.16%) DBeaver
6 1 (0.16%) Eclipse
6 1 (0.16%) fastlane
6 1 (0.16%) git-flow
6 1 (0.16%) Visual Studio Code
6 1 (0.16%) XCUITest
General
1 87 (13.99%) Finance
2 73 (11.74%) Social Skills
3 25 (4.02%) Banking
4 23 (3.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 20 (3.22%) Law
6 16 (2.57%) Analytical Skills
7 12 (1.93%) Front Office
8 11 (1.77%) Games
9 10 (1.61%) Marketing
9 10 (1.61%) Public Sector
10 8 (1.29%) Retail
11 7 (1.13%) Legal
11 7 (1.13%) Legal Technology
12 4 (0.64%) Investment Banking
13 2 (0.32%) Manufacturing
14 1 (0.16%) Local Government
14 1 (0.16%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 133 (21.38%) .NET
2 84 (13.50%) Node.js
3 61 (9.81%) React
4 50 (8.04%) RESTful
5 34 (5.47%) .NET Core
5 34 (5.47%) ASP.NET
6 33 (5.31%) REST
7 31 (4.98%) Vue
8 23 (3.70%) GraphQL
9 22 (3.54%) CSS
9 22 (3.54%) Next.js
10 21 (3.38%) Spring
11 20 (3.22%) HTML
11 20 (3.22%) React Native
12 15 (2.41%) Terraform
13 14 (2.25%) JWT
13 14 (2.25%) MUnit
13 14 (2.25%) OAuth
13 14 (2.25%) OAuth2
13 14 (2.25%) RAML
Miscellaneous
1 37 (5.95%) Cloud Native
2 18 (2.89%) Product Ownership
3 17 (2.73%) Distributed Systems
4 16 (2.57%) Legacy Systems
5 14 (2.25%) Low-Code
6 12 (1.93%) Enterprise Software
7 11 (1.77%) Mobile App
8 10 (1.61%) Virtual Team
9 7 (1.13%) Greenfield Project
10 6 (0.96%) AI Agents
10 6 (0.96%) Algorithms
10 6 (0.96%) Hedge funds
11 5 (0.80%) Legacy Applications
11 5 (0.80%) Onboarding
12 4 (0.64%) Management Information System
12 4 (0.64%) Taxonomies
13 3 (0.48%) Blog
13 3 (0.48%) Equities
13 3 (0.48%) Operational Technology
13 3 (0.48%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 24 (3.86%) Android
2 23 (3.70%) Apple iOS
3 4 (0.64%) Linux
4 3 (0.48%) Windows
5 1 (0.16%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 164 (26.37%) Full-Stack Development
2 145 (23.31%) Technical Leadership
3 124 (19.94%) Mentoring
4 96 (15.43%) CI/CD
5 85 (13.67%) AI
6 77 (12.38%) DevOps
7 75 (12.06%) Software Engineering
8 72 (11.58%) Agile
9 66 (10.61%) Microservices
10 64 (10.29%) Continuous Improvement
11 48 (7.72%) Roadmaps
12 47 (7.56%) Event-Driven
13 44 (7.07%) Problem-Solving
14 43 (6.91%) Event-Driven Architecture
15 39 (6.27%) Stakeholder Management
16 36 (5.79%) Test Automation
17 32 (5.14%) Design Patterns
18 30 (4.82%) DevSecOps
19 28 (4.50%) Clean Code
20 27 (4.34%) Fintech
Programming Languages
1 151 (24.28%) C#
2 126 (20.26%) JavaScript
3 112 (18.01%) TypeScript
4 74 (11.90%) SQL
5 67 (10.77%) Python
6 38 (6.11%) Java
7 16 (2.57%) PHP
8 14 (2.25%) DataWeave
9 9 (1.45%) C++
10 8 (1.29%) Ruby
11 7 (1.13%) Go
12 6 (0.96%) Bicep
12 6 (0.96%) R
12 6 (0.96%) RPG
13 5 (0.80%) Kotlin
13 5 (0.80%) PowerShell
14 4 (0.64%) Bash
15 3 (0.48%) C
15 3 (0.48%) PL/SQL
15 3 (0.48%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 30 (4.82%) Degree
1 30 (4.82%) Security Cleared
2 29 (4.66%) SC Cleared
3 21 (3.38%) Computer Science Degree
4 7 (1.13%) Microsoft Certification
5 5 (0.80%) DBS Check
5 5 (0.80%) ITIL Certification
6 4 (0.64%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (4.98%) QA
2 11 (1.77%) Accessibility
3 6 (0.96%) Data Quality
3 6 (0.96%) WCAG
4 5 (0.80%) GDPR
5 2 (0.32%) NCSC
6 1 (0.16%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 44 (7.07%) Docker
2 1 (0.16%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 24 (3.86%) Kubernetes
2 14 (2.25%) CloudHub
3 2 (0.32%) Ansible
Vendors
1 72 (11.58%) Microsoft
2 19 (3.05%) MuleSoft
3 16 (2.57%) Salesforce
4 15 (2.41%) ServiceNow
5 14 (2.25%) SAP
6 8 (1.29%) Google
7 6 (0.96%) HubSpot
7 6 (0.96%) IBM
7 6 (0.96%) Oracle
8 5 (0.80%) Databricks
9 3 (0.48%) Adobe
9 3 (0.48%) Bloomberg
10 2 (0.32%) DevExpress
10 2 (0.32%) OpenAI
10 2 (0.32%) Refinitiv
10 2 (0.32%) TikTok
11 1 (0.16%) Apple
11 1 (0.16%) Citrix
11 1 (0.16%) Reuters