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 19 September 2026.

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

6 months to
19 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 293 377 256
Rank change year-on-year +84 -121 +42
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead Developer 627 283 757
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.61% 0.65% 1.10%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.66% 0.72% 1.15%
Number of salaries quoted 513 202 623
10th Percentile £65,000 £55,000 £47,000
25th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £50,125
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £83,500 £75,000 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year +11.33% +7.14% -11.11%
75th Percentile £97,500 £95,000 £95,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £130,000 £142,500
UK median annual salary £80,000 £75,000 £70,000
% change year-on-year +6.67% +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 95,470 39,067 65,781
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.25% 90.41% 95.18%
Number of salaries quoted 67,267 23,458 39,748
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,300 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,500 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £59,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.27% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £77,500 £75,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £93,750
UK median annual salary £58,500 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +6.36% - -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 19 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 19 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 +13 214 £90,000 -10.00% 90
North of England +6 148 £75,000 +7.14% 36
Midlands +25 107 £70,000 -3.45% 24
South East +12 93 £90,000 +20.00% 12
North West +29 84 £75,000 +7.14% 10
West Midlands -9 63 £70,000 -3.45% 15
East Midlands +1 44 £70,000 +3.70% 9
Yorkshire -29 41 £75,000 +11.11% 20
East of England 0 31 £73,010 +32.75% 7
South West -67 25 £70,000 +40.00% 4
North East -50 23 £90,000 +12.50% 6
Lead Developer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 19 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.

1 172 (27.43%) Full-Stack Development
2 154 (24.56%) C#
3 143 (22.81%) Technical Leadership
4 137 (21.85%) Azure
5 136 (21.69%) .NET
6 129 (20.57%) JavaScript
7 127 (20.26%) Mentoring
8 119 (18.98%) AWS
9 116 (18.50%) TypeScript
10 96 (15.31%) CI/CD
11 86 (13.72%) Node.js
12 85 (13.56%) SaaS
13 83 (13.24%) AI
14 76 (12.12%) DevOps
15 74 (11.80%) Software Engineering
16 72 (11.48%) Agile
17 71 (11.32%) Microsoft
17 71 (11.32%) SQL
18 68 (10.85%) Microservices
19 65 (10.37%) Python
20 64 (10.21%) Continuous Improvement
21 62 (9.89%) React
22 60 (9.57%) Dynamics 365
23 51 (8.13%) RESTful
23 51 (8.13%) SQL Server
24 50 (7.97%) Power Platform
25 48 (7.66%) Event-Driven
25 48 (7.66%) Roadmaps
26 45 (7.18%) Problem-Solving
27 44 (7.02%) Docker

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 (3.03%) Anypoint
1 19 (3.03%) Mule
2 14 (2.23%) SharePoint
3 5 (0.80%) Confluence
4 4 (0.64%) WordPress
5 3 (0.48%) Appian
Business Applications
1 16 (2.55%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.16%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 137 (21.85%) Azure
2 119 (18.98%) AWS
3 85 (13.56%) SaaS
4 60 (9.57%) Dynamics 365
5 50 (7.97%) Power Platform
6 34 (5.42%) Azure DevOps
7 21 (3.35%) Power Automate
8 20 (3.19%) Azure Logic Apps
8 20 (3.19%) Microsoft Copilot
8 20 (3.19%) Serverless
9 19 (3.03%) Azure Service Bus
10 17 (2.71%) Snowflake
11 15 (2.39%) Azure Key Vault
11 15 (2.39%) GCP
11 15 (2.39%) GitHub
12 14 (2.23%) Azure Monitor
13 13 (2.07%) Azure Cosmos DB
13 13 (2.07%) PowerApps
14 11 (1.75%) Amazon ECS
15 10 (1.59%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 14 (2.23%) SSL
2 4 (0.64%) Broadband
3 1 (0.16%) Asterisk PBX
3 1 (0.16%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 51 (8.13%) SQL Server
2 33 (5.26%) PostgreSQL
3 23 (3.67%) Redis
4 16 (2.55%) MySQL
5 15 (2.39%) Power BI
6 12 (1.91%) Elasticsearch
7 10 (1.59%) DynamoDB
8 9 (1.44%) Amazon RDS
8 9 (1.44%) MongoDB
9 5 (0.80%) Metadata
9 5 (0.80%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 3 (0.48%) KDB
10 3 (0.48%) MariaDB
10 3 (0.48%) NoSQL
10 3 (0.48%) Spatial Data
11 2 (0.32%) Db2
11 2 (0.32%) Geospatial Data
11 2 (0.32%) InterSystems Cache
12 1 (0.16%) Azure SQL Database
12 1 (0.16%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 34 (5.42%) Git
2 7 (1.12%) JIRA
3 4 (0.64%) 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 86 (13.72%) Finance
2 72 (11.48%) Social Skills
3 23 (3.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 22 (3.51%) Banking
5 21 (3.35%) Law
6 16 (2.55%) Analytical Skills
7 12 (1.91%) Games
8 10 (1.59%) Front Office
8 10 (1.59%) Public Sector
9 8 (1.28%) Marketing
9 8 (1.28%) Retail
10 7 (1.12%) Legal
10 7 (1.12%) Legal Technology
11 4 (0.64%) Investment Banking
12 2 (0.32%) Manufacturing
13 1 (0.16%) Local Government
13 1 (0.16%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 136 (21.69%) .NET
2 86 (13.72%) Node.js
3 62 (9.89%) React
4 51 (8.13%) RESTful
5 34 (5.42%) ASP.NET
6 33 (5.26%) .NET Core
7 32 (5.10%) REST
7 32 (5.10%) Vue
8 24 (3.83%) GraphQL
9 22 (3.51%) CSS
9 22 (3.51%) Next.js
9 22 (3.51%) React Native
10 21 (3.35%) Spring
11 20 (3.19%) HTML
12 16 (2.55%) Terraform
13 14 (2.23%) JWT
13 14 (2.23%) MUnit
13 14 (2.23%) OAuth
13 14 (2.23%) OAuth2
13 14 (2.23%) RAML
Miscellaneous
1 37 (5.90%) Cloud Native
2 18 (2.87%) Distributed Systems
2 18 (2.87%) Product Ownership
3 17 (2.71%) Legacy Systems
4 14 (2.23%) Low-Code
5 12 (1.91%) Enterprise Software
5 12 (1.91%) Mobile App
6 10 (1.59%) Virtual Team
7 7 (1.12%) Greenfield Project
8 6 (0.96%) Algorithms
9 5 (0.80%) Legacy Applications
9 5 (0.80%) Onboarding
10 4 (0.64%) AI Agents
10 4 (0.64%) Hedge funds
10 4 (0.64%) Management Information System
10 4 (0.64%) Taxonomies
11 3 (0.48%) Equities
11 3 (0.48%) Operational Technology
11 3 (0.48%) PropTech
11 3 (0.48%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 27 (4.31%) Android
2 26 (4.15%) Apple iOS
3 4 (0.64%) Linux
4 3 (0.48%) Windows
5 1 (0.16%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 172 (27.43%) Full-Stack Development
2 143 (22.81%) Technical Leadership
3 127 (20.26%) Mentoring
4 96 (15.31%) CI/CD
5 83 (13.24%) AI
6 76 (12.12%) DevOps
7 74 (11.80%) Software Engineering
8 72 (11.48%) Agile
9 68 (10.85%) Microservices
10 64 (10.21%) Continuous Improvement
11 48 (7.66%) Event-Driven
11 48 (7.66%) Roadmaps
12 45 (7.18%) Problem-Solving
13 44 (7.02%) Event-Driven Architecture
14 39 (6.22%) Stakeholder Management
15 35 (5.58%) Test Automation
16 32 (5.10%) Design Patterns
17 29 (4.63%) DevSecOps
18 28 (4.47%) Mobile Development
19 27 (4.31%) Clean Code
Programming Languages
1 154 (24.56%) C#
2 129 (20.57%) JavaScript
3 116 (18.50%) TypeScript
4 71 (11.32%) SQL
5 65 (10.37%) Python
6 38 (6.06%) Java
7 16 (2.55%) PHP
8 14 (2.23%) DataWeave
9 10 (1.59%) C++
10 8 (1.28%) Ruby
11 7 (1.12%) Go
11 7 (1.12%) Kotlin
12 6 (0.96%) Bicep
12 6 (0.96%) RPG
13 5 (0.80%) PowerShell
13 5 (0.80%) Swift
14 4 (0.64%) Bash
14 4 (0.64%) R
15 3 (0.48%) C
15 3 (0.48%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 30 (4.78%) Degree
2 29 (4.63%) Security Cleared
3 28 (4.47%) SC Cleared
4 21 (3.35%) Computer Science Degree
5 5 (0.80%) DBS Check
5 5 (0.80%) ITIL Certification
5 5 (0.80%) Microsoft Certification
6 4 (0.64%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (4.94%) QA
2 11 (1.75%) 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 (7.02%) Docker
2 2 (0.32%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 24 (3.83%) Kubernetes
2 14 (2.23%) CloudHub
3 2 (0.32%) Ansible
Vendors
1 71 (11.32%) Microsoft
2 19 (3.03%) MuleSoft
3 16 (2.55%) Salesforce
4 15 (2.39%) ServiceNow
5 14 (2.23%) SAP
6 7 (1.12%) HubSpot
7 6 (0.96%) Google
7 6 (0.96%) IBM
7 6 (0.96%) Oracle
8 4 (0.64%) 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