Lead Developer Job Trends in England

Lead Developer
UK > England

The median Lead Developer salary in England is £82,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 1 October 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 302 381 256
Rank change year-on-year +79 -125 +54
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead Developer 614 276 713
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.59% 0.64% 1.07%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.64% 0.71% 1.12%
Number of salaries quoted 498 196 578
10th Percentile £65,000 £55,000 £47,000
25th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £48,378
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £82,500 £75,000 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% +7.14% -12.50%
75th Percentile £97,500 £95,625 £95,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £142,500 £142,500
UK median annual salary £80,000 £75,000 £70,000
% change year-on-year +6.67% +7.14% -12.50%

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 96,512 39,065 63,578
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.96% 90.52% 95.21%
Number of salaries quoted 67,878 23,017 36,945
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,750
25th Percentile £41,000 £36,250 £41,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% - -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 1 October 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 October 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 +24 208 £90,000 -14.29% 77
North of England -4 142 £75,000 +7.14% 47
Midlands +23 105 £70,000 -3.45% 23
South East +4 93 £90,000 +22.03% 22
North West +10 75 £75,000 +7.14% 13
West Midlands -15 59 £70,000 -3.45% 16
East Midlands +5 46 £70,000 +3.70% 7
Yorkshire -14 46 £75,000 +7.14% 28
East of England 0 32 £76,021 +16.06% 5
South West -70 24 £70,000 +40.00% 6
North East -52 21 £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 1 October 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.

1 157 (25.57%) Full-Stack Development
2 146 (23.78%) Technical Leadership
3 145 (23.62%) C#
4 132 (21.50%) Azure
5 129 (21.01%) .NET
6 125 (20.36%) JavaScript
7 124 (20.20%) Mentoring
8 120 (19.54%) AWS
9 113 (18.40%) TypeScript
10 95 (15.47%) CI/CD
11 85 (13.84%) Node.js
12 83 (13.52%) AI
13 81 (13.19%) SaaS
14 75 (12.21%) SQL
15 74 (12.05%) DevOps
15 74 (12.05%) Software Engineering
16 73 (11.89%) Microsoft
17 70 (11.40%) Agile
18 67 (10.91%) Python
19 64 (10.42%) Continuous Improvement
19 64 (10.42%) Microservices
20 61 (9.93%) Dynamics 365
21 59 (9.61%) React
22 54 (8.79%) SQL Server
23 50 (8.14%) Power Platform
24 48 (7.82%) RESTful
24 48 (7.82%) Roadmaps
25 47 (7.65%) Event-Driven
26 44 (7.17%) Docker
27 43 (7.00%) Event-Driven Architecture

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 (3.09%) Anypoint
1 19 (3.09%) Mule
2 13 (2.12%) SharePoint
3 5 (0.81%) Confluence
4 4 (0.65%) WordPress
5 2 (0.33%) Appian
Business Applications
1 15 (2.44%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.16%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 132 (21.50%) Azure
2 120 (19.54%) AWS
3 81 (13.19%) SaaS
4 61 (9.93%) Dynamics 365
5 50 (8.14%) Power Platform
6 33 (5.37%) Azure DevOps
7 21 (3.42%) Power Automate
8 20 (3.26%) Microsoft Copilot
9 19 (3.09%) Azure Service Bus
10 18 (2.93%) Serverless
11 17 (2.77%) GCP
11 17 (2.77%) Snowflake
12 16 (2.61%) Azure Logic Apps
12 16 (2.61%) GitHub
13 15 (2.44%) Azure Key Vault
14 14 (2.28%) Azure Monitor
15 13 (2.12%) PowerApps
16 12 (1.95%) Azure Cosmos DB
17 11 (1.79%) Amazon ECS
18 10 (1.63%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 14 (2.28%) SSL
2 4 (0.65%) Broadband
3 1 (0.16%) Asterisk PBX
3 1 (0.16%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 54 (8.79%) SQL Server
2 32 (5.21%) PostgreSQL
3 24 (3.91%) Redis
4 15 (2.44%) Power BI
5 13 (2.12%) MySQL
6 12 (1.95%) Elasticsearch
7 10 (1.63%) MongoDB
8 9 (1.47%) DynamoDB
9 8 (1.30%) Amazon RDS
10 5 (0.81%) Metadata
10 5 (0.81%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 3 (0.49%) Data Warehouse
11 3 (0.49%) KDB
11 3 (0.49%) NoSQL
11 3 (0.49%) Spatial Data
12 2 (0.33%) Db2
12 2 (0.33%) Geospatial Data
12 2 (0.33%) InterSystems Cache
13 1 (0.16%) Azure SQL Database
13 1 (0.16%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 35 (5.70%) Git
2 8 (1.30%) JIRA
3 5 (0.81%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.49%) Bitbucket
4 3 (0.49%) JUnit
4 3 (0.49%) Maven
4 3 (0.49%) Mockito
5 2 (0.33%) Claude Code
5 2 (0.33%) GitLab
5 2 (0.33%) MSI
5 2 (0.33%) NUnit
5 2 (0.33%) TeamCity
5 2 (0.33%) Terragrunt
6 1 (0.16%) Ant
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
General
1 86 (14.01%) Finance
2 72 (11.73%) Social Skills
3 26 (4.23%) Banking
4 23 (3.75%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 19 (3.09%) Law
6 15 (2.44%) Analytical Skills
7 12 (1.95%) Front Office
8 10 (1.63%) Marketing
8 10 (1.63%) Public Sector
9 9 (1.47%) Games
10 8 (1.30%) Retail
11 7 (1.14%) Legal
11 7 (1.14%) Legal Technology
12 4 (0.65%) Investment Banking
13 2 (0.33%) Manufacturing
14 1 (0.16%) Local Government
14 1 (0.16%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 129 (21.01%) .NET
2 85 (13.84%) Node.js
3 59 (9.61%) React
4 48 (7.82%) RESTful
5 34 (5.54%) ASP.NET
6 33 (5.37%) .NET Core
6 33 (5.37%) REST
7 29 (4.72%) Vue
8 22 (3.58%) GraphQL
8 22 (3.58%) Next.js
9 21 (3.42%) Spring
10 20 (3.26%) CSS
11 19 (3.09%) React Native
12 18 (2.93%) HTML
13 15 (2.44%) Terraform
14 14 (2.28%) JWT
14 14 (2.28%) MUnit
14 14 (2.28%) OAuth
14 14 (2.28%) OAuth2
14 14 (2.28%) RAML
Miscellaneous
1 35 (5.70%) Cloud Native
2 18 (2.93%) Product Ownership
3 17 (2.77%) Distributed Systems
4 15 (2.44%) Legacy Systems
5 14 (2.28%) Low-Code
6 11 (1.79%) Enterprise Software
7 10 (1.63%) Mobile App
8 9 (1.47%) Virtual Team
9 7 (1.14%) Greenfield Project
10 6 (0.98%) AI Agents
10 6 (0.98%) Algorithms
10 6 (0.98%) Hedge funds
11 5 (0.81%) Legacy Applications
11 5 (0.81%) Onboarding
12 4 (0.65%) Management Information System
12 4 (0.65%) Taxonomies
13 3 (0.49%) Blog
13 3 (0.49%) Equities
13 3 (0.49%) Operational Technology
13 3 (0.49%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 23 (3.75%) Android
2 21 (3.42%) Apple iOS
3 4 (0.65%) Linux
4 3 (0.49%) Windows
5 1 (0.16%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 157 (25.57%) Full-Stack Development
2 146 (23.78%) Technical Leadership
3 124 (20.20%) Mentoring
4 95 (15.47%) CI/CD
5 83 (13.52%) AI
6 74 (12.05%) DevOps
6 74 (12.05%) Software Engineering
7 70 (11.40%) Agile
8 64 (10.42%) Continuous Improvement
8 64 (10.42%) Microservices
9 48 (7.82%) Roadmaps
10 47 (7.65%) Event-Driven
11 43 (7.00%) Event-Driven Architecture
11 43 (7.00%) Problem-Solving
12 39 (6.35%) Stakeholder Management
13 36 (5.86%) Test Automation
14 32 (5.21%) Design Patterns
15 30 (4.89%) DevSecOps
16 28 (4.56%) Clean Code
16 28 (4.56%) Fintech
Programming Languages
1 145 (23.62%) C#
2 125 (20.36%) JavaScript
3 113 (18.40%) TypeScript
4 75 (12.21%) SQL
5 67 (10.91%) Python
6 38 (6.19%) Java
7 15 (2.44%) PHP
8 14 (2.28%) DataWeave
9 8 (1.30%) C++
9 8 (1.30%) Ruby
10 6 (0.98%) Go
10 6 (0.98%) R
10 6 (0.98%) RPG
11 5 (0.81%) Bicep
11 5 (0.81%) Kotlin
11 5 (0.81%) PowerShell
12 4 (0.65%) Bash
13 3 (0.49%) C
13 3 (0.49%) PL/SQL
13 3 (0.49%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 30 (4.89%) Security Cleared
2 29 (4.72%) Degree
2 29 (4.72%) SC Cleared
3 21 (3.42%) Computer Science Degree
4 8 (1.30%) Microsoft Certification
5 5 (0.81%) DBS Check
5 5 (0.81%) ITIL Certification
6 4 (0.65%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (5.05%) QA
2 11 (1.79%) Accessibility
3 6 (0.98%) Data Quality
3 6 (0.98%) WCAG
4 5 (0.81%) GDPR
5 2 (0.33%) NCSC
6 1 (0.16%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 44 (7.17%) Docker
Systems Management
1 24 (3.91%) Kubernetes
2 14 (2.28%) CloudHub
3 2 (0.33%) Ansible
Vendors
1 73 (11.89%) Microsoft
2 19 (3.09%) MuleSoft
3 16 (2.61%) Salesforce
4 15 (2.44%) ServiceNow
5 14 (2.28%) SAP
6 8 (1.30%) Google
7 6 (0.98%) Databricks
7 6 (0.98%) HubSpot
7 6 (0.98%) IBM
7 6 (0.98%) Oracle
8 3 (0.49%) Adobe
8 3 (0.49%) Bloomberg
9 2 (0.33%) DevExpress
9 2 (0.33%) OpenAI
9 2 (0.33%) Refinitiv
9 2 (0.33%) TikTok
10 1 (0.16%) Citrix
10 1 (0.16%) Reuters