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 30 July 2026.

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

6 months to
30 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 293 373 229
Rank change year-on-year +80 -144 +93
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead Developer 599 306 939
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.66% 0.70% 1.24%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.70% 0.78% 1.31%
Number of salaries quoted 498 219 845
10th Percentile £62,500 £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% -6.67%
75th Percentile £100,000 £90,000 £93,750
90th Percentile £107,500 £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 85,729 39,343 71,903
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.41% 90.58% 94.68%
Number of salaries quoted 60,153 23,812 50,509
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 £76,000 £75,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £97,500 £97,500 £92,000
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 30 July 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 30 July 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 +39 227 £95,000 +5.56% 37
North of England +38 142 £73,750 +5.36% 21
North West +51 95 £72,500 - 11
South East +15 87 £90,000 +20.00% 9
Midlands +14 78 £66,000 -5.04% 12
West Midlands +4 48 £65,000 -7.14% 7
East Midlands -1 30 £70,000 +5.66% 5
South West -59 30 £65,000 +15.56% 3
East of England -9 27 £60,100 -19.87% 2
Yorkshire -24 26 £70,000 - 5
North East -33 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 30 July 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.

1 185 (30.88%) Full-Stack Development
2 140 (23.37%) AWS
2 140 (23.37%) JavaScript
3 139 (23.21%) .NET
3 139 (23.21%) C#
3 139 (23.21%) Mentoring
4 137 (22.87%) Azure
5 134 (22.37%) TypeScript
6 121 (20.20%) Software Engineering
7 119 (19.87%) Technical Leadership
8 107 (17.86%) Agile
9 102 (17.03%) React
10 99 (16.53%) Node.js
11 90 (15.03%) CI/CD
12 89 (14.86%) Python
13 81 (13.52%) AI
14 77 (12.85%) DevOps
15 71 (11.85%) SaaS
16 67 (11.19%) Microservices
17 65 (10.85%) Continuous Improvement
18 62 (10.35%) Microsoft
19 60 (10.02%) SQL
20 59 (9.85%) Java
21 53 (8.85%) RESTful
22 49 (8.18%) GraphQL
23 48 (8.01%) PostgreSQL
24 45 (7.51%) Event-Driven
25 44 (7.35%) Problem-Solving
26 42 (7.01%) Event-Driven Architecture
26 42 (7.01%) 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 (3.01%) Anypoint
1 18 (3.01%) Mule
2 9 (1.50%) SharePoint
3 7 (1.17%) Appian
4 6 (1.00%) Confluence
5 3 (0.50%) WordPress
6 1 (0.17%) CMS
Business Applications
1 9 (1.50%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.17%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 140 (23.37%) AWS
2 137 (22.87%) Azure
3 71 (11.85%) SaaS
4 39 (6.51%) Dynamics 365
5 34 (5.68%) Power Platform
6 29 (4.84%) Azure DevOps
7 27 (4.51%) GCP
8 18 (3.01%) Azure Logic Apps
8 18 (3.01%) Serverless
9 16 (2.67%) Microsoft Copilot
10 14 (2.34%) Azure Service Bus
10 14 (2.34%) Snowflake
11 13 (2.17%) GitHub
12 12 (2.00%) Azure Key Vault
12 12 (2.00%) Power Automate
13 11 (1.84%) Azure Cosmos DB
13 11 (1.84%) PowerApps
14 10 (1.67%) Amazon ECS
14 10 (1.67%) AWS Lambda
14 10 (1.67%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 13 (2.17%) SSL
2 5 (0.83%) Broadband
3 1 (0.17%) Asterisk PBX
3 1 (0.17%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 48 (8.01%) PostgreSQL
2 42 (7.01%) SQL Server
3 19 (3.17%) Redis
4 15 (2.50%) MySQL
5 10 (1.67%) DynamoDB
5 10 (1.67%) MongoDB
5 10 (1.67%) Power BI
6 9 (1.50%) Amazon RDS
6 9 (1.50%) Elasticsearch
7 5 (0.83%) Metadata
7 5 (0.83%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 3 (0.50%) MariaDB
8 3 (0.50%) NoSQL
8 3 (0.50%) Spatial Data
9 2 (0.33%) Geospatial Data
9 2 (0.33%) InterSystems Cache
10 1 (0.17%) Azure SQL Database
10 1 (0.17%) Db2
10 1 (0.17%) KDB
10 1 (0.17%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 30 (5.01%) Git
2 8 (1.34%) JIRA
3 5 (0.83%) Bitbucket
4 4 (0.67%) Cypress.io
4 4 (0.67%) 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%) 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
7 1 (0.17%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 118 (19.70%) Finance
2 61 (10.18%) Social Skills
3 40 (6.68%) Front Office
4 20 (3.34%) Law
5 16 (2.67%) Banking
6 14 (2.34%) Analytical Skills
6 14 (2.34%) Games
7 12 (2.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 6 (1.00%) Legal
8 6 (1.00%) Legal Technology
8 6 (1.00%) Public Sector
8 6 (1.00%) Retail
9 2 (0.33%) Investment Banking
9 2 (0.33%) Manufacturing
9 2 (0.33%) Marketing
10 1 (0.17%) Local Government
10 1 (0.17%) Organisational Skills
10 1 (0.17%) Tech for Good
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 139 (23.21%) .NET
2 102 (17.03%) React
3 99 (16.53%) Node.js
4 53 (8.85%) RESTful
5 49 (8.18%) GraphQL
6 39 (6.51%) Redux
7 36 (6.01%) Vue
8 33 (5.51%) ASP.NET
9 32 (5.34%) .NET Core
10 31 (5.18%) Kafka
11 27 (4.51%) React Native
12 26 (4.34%) REST
13 24 (4.01%) CSS
13 24 (4.01%) Spring
14 22 (3.67%) HTML
15 19 (3.17%) AngularJS
16 18 (3.01%) Next.js
17 14 (2.34%) Laravel
18 13 (2.17%) .NET Framework
18 13 (2.17%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 39 (6.51%) Cloud Native
2 36 (6.01%) Fixed Income
3 22 (3.67%) Product Ownership
4 17 (2.84%) Derivative
4 17 (2.84%) Distributed Systems
4 17 (2.84%) Enterprise Software
4 17 (2.84%) Equities
4 17 (2.84%) Legacy Systems
5 16 (2.67%) Mobile App
6 14 (2.34%) Low-Code
7 9 (1.50%) Legacy Applications
7 9 (1.50%) PropTech
8 5 (0.83%) Algorithms
8 5 (0.83%) Onboarding
8 5 (0.83%) Virtual Team
9 4 (0.67%) Video\Live Streaming
10 3 (0.50%) Operational Technology
10 3 (0.50%) Photography
11 2 (0.33%) Credit Risk
11 2 (0.33%) Embedded Systems
Operating Systems
1 35 (5.84%) Apple iOS
2 33 (5.51%) Android
3 4 (0.67%) Linux
4 3 (0.50%) Windows
5 1 (0.17%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 185 (30.88%) Full-Stack Development
2 139 (23.21%) Mentoring
3 121 (20.20%) Software Engineering
4 119 (19.87%) Technical Leadership
5 107 (17.86%) Agile
6 90 (15.03%) CI/CD
7 81 (13.52%) AI
8 77 (12.85%) DevOps
9 67 (11.19%) Microservices
10 65 (10.85%) Continuous Improvement
11 45 (7.51%) Event-Driven
12 44 (7.35%) Problem-Solving
13 42 (7.01%) Event-Driven Architecture
14 39 (6.51%) Portfolio Management
15 38 (6.34%) Investment Management
16 36 (6.01%) Roadmaps
17 34 (5.68%) Fintech
18 33 (5.51%) Coaching
18 33 (5.51%) Design Patterns
19 32 (5.34%) Mobile Development
Programming Languages
1 140 (23.37%) JavaScript
2 139 (23.21%) C#
3 134 (22.37%) TypeScript
4 89 (14.86%) Python
5 60 (10.02%) SQL
6 59 (9.85%) Java
7 28 (4.67%) Go
8 14 (2.34%) PHP
9 13 (2.17%) DataWeave
10 11 (1.84%) C++
10 11 (1.84%) Swift
11 10 (1.67%) Kotlin
12 9 (1.50%) Bicep
13 7 (1.17%) Ruby
14 6 (1.00%) RPG
15 5 (0.83%) PowerShell
16 4 (0.67%) Bash
17 3 (0.50%) C
17 3 (0.50%) PL/SQL
17 3 (0.50%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 29 (4.84%) Degree
2 26 (4.34%) SC Cleared
2 26 (4.34%) Security Cleared
3 16 (2.67%) Computer Science Degree
4 9 (1.50%) DBS Check
5 5 (0.83%) ITIL Certification
6 1 (0.17%) Azure Certification
6 1 (0.17%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (4.17%) QA
2 12 (2.00%) 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 (6.34%) Docker
2 3 (0.50%) Firmware
3 1 (0.17%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 23 (3.84%) Kubernetes
2 16 (2.67%) Terraform
3 13 (2.17%) CloudHub
4 2 (0.33%) Ansible
5 1 (0.17%) Grafana
5 1 (0.17%) Kibana
5 1 (0.17%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 62 (10.35%) Microsoft
2 18 (3.01%) MuleSoft
3 17 (2.84%) Salesforce
4 14 (2.34%) ServiceNow
5 13 (2.17%) SAP
6 7 (1.17%) HubSpot
7 6 (1.00%) IBM
7 6 (1.00%) Oracle
8 4 (0.67%) 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