Lead Developer Job Trends in England

Lead Developer
UK > England

The median Lead Developer salary in England is £76,250 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 22 February 2026.

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

6 months to
22 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 305 356 262
Rank change year-on-year +51 -94 +27
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead Developer 378 335 743
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.62% 0.77% 1.11%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.68% 0.84% 1.17%
Number of salaries quoted 312 248 675
10th Percentile £55,075 £47,000 £53,750
25th Percentile £67,500 £51,250 £61,375
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £76,250 £69,250 £80,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.11% -13.44% -
75th Percentile £90,000 £83,750 £100,000
90th Percentile £112,500 £100,000 £120,000
UK median annual salary £77,500 £69,250 £75,000
% change year-on-year +11.91% -7.67% -6.25%

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 55,622 39,757 63,316
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.41% 91.26% 94.65%
Number of salaries quoted 35,942 21,300 50,536
10th Percentile £29,250 £33,000 £28,750
25th Percentile £38,000 £45,000 £39,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -10.57%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £95,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -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 22 February 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 22 February 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 +55 140 £95,000 +23.78% 29
North of England -14 74 £71,000 +18.33% 23
South East +17 59 £87,500 +16.67% 17
North West -3 54 £70,000 +16.67% 19
South West -8 43 £65,000 +18.18% 7
Midlands +11 41 £75,000 +59.57% 12
West Midlands +13 25 £75,000 +59.57% 9
Yorkshire -22 18 £77,500 +35.37% 4
East of England +19 16 £65,000 -18.75% 2
East Midlands -10 16 £75,000 +9.09% 3
North East -16 2 £68,500 +14.41%
Lead Developer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 22 February 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.

1 105 (27.78%) AWS
2 97 (25.66%) Full-Stack Development
3 93 (24.60%) Agile
4 92 (24.34%) Python
5 87 (23.02%) Mentoring
6 86 (22.75%) Azure
7 76 (20.11%) Technical Leadership
8 73 (19.31%) React
9 68 (17.99%) .NET
10 64 (16.93%) Software Engineering
11 59 (15.61%) C#
11 59 (15.61%) CI/CD
12 57 (15.08%) JavaScript
13 56 (14.81%) AI
14 46 (12.17%) SQL
15 45 (11.90%) Java
15 45 (11.90%) SaaS
15 45 (11.90%) TypeScript
16 44 (11.64%) Continuous Improvement
17 41 (10.85%) Node.js
18 40 (10.58%) Serverless
19 38 (10.05%) DevOps
20 37 (9.79%) Coaching
21 36 (9.52%) Microservices
22 35 (9.26%) Problem-Solving
23 33 (8.73%) QA
24 32 (8.47%) SQL Server
25 29 (7.67%) Amazon S3
26 28 (7.41%) AWS Lambda
27 27 (7.14%) Code Quality

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 2 (0.53%) Appian
1 2 (0.53%) Confluence
1 2 (0.53%) WordPress
2 1 (0.26%) SharePoint
Business Applications
1 8 (2.12%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.53%) NEC Housing
3 1 (0.26%) Magento
3 1 (0.26%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 105 (27.78%) AWS
2 86 (22.75%) Azure
3 45 (11.90%) SaaS
4 40 (10.58%) Serverless
5 29 (7.67%) Amazon S3
6 28 (7.41%) AWS Lambda
7 22 (5.82%) Power Platform
8 18 (4.76%) Amazon SQS
8 18 (4.76%) GCP
8 18 (4.76%) GitHub
9 10 (2.65%) Dynamics 365
10 9 (2.38%) PowerApps
11 8 (2.12%) Azure DevOps
12 7 (1.85%) Azure Data Factory
13 6 (1.59%) Azure Logic Apps
13 6 (1.59%) Microsoft 365
13 6 (1.59%) Power Automate
14 5 (1.32%) GitHub Copilot
15 4 (1.06%) Azure Service Bus
15 4 (1.06%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 2 (0.53%) Network Security
2 1 (0.26%) MQTT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (8.47%) SQL Server
2 19 (5.03%) PostgreSQL
3 14 (3.70%) NoSQL
4 13 (3.44%) MongoDB
5 10 (2.65%) Power BI
6 6 (1.59%) Relational Database
7 5 (1.32%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 4 (1.06%) Amazon Redshift
8 4 (1.06%) DB2
8 4 (1.06%) MySQL
9 3 (0.79%) Data Lake
9 3 (0.79%) DynamoDB
9 3 (0.79%) SQL Server Analysis Services
10 2 (0.53%) RDBMS
11 1 (0.26%) Azure SQL Database
11 1 (0.26%) ClickHouse
11 1 (0.26%) Data Warehouse
11 1 (0.26%) Elasticsearch
11 1 (0.26%) Redis
Development Applications
1 11 (2.91%) Git
2 5 (1.32%) Cypress.io
2 5 (1.32%) Jenkins
3 4 (1.06%) Maven
4 3 (0.79%) ESLint
4 3 (0.79%) GitLab
4 3 (0.79%) SonarQube
4 3 (0.79%) webpack
5 2 (0.53%) Bitbucket
5 2 (0.53%) Cucumber
5 2 (0.53%) JIRA
5 2 (0.53%) Selenium
5 2 (0.53%) Subversion
5 2 (0.53%) Visual Studio
5 2 (0.53%) Vite
6 1 (0.26%) JUnit
6 1 (0.26%) SpecFlow
6 1 (0.26%) TeamCity
6 1 (0.26%) Xcode
6 1 (0.26%) XCUITest
General
1 56 (14.81%) Social Skills
2 36 (9.52%) Finance
3 28 (7.41%) Tech for Good
4 25 (6.61%) Front Office
5 19 (5.03%) Health Technology
6 16 (4.23%) Analytical Skills
7 15 (3.97%) Organisational Skills
7 15 (3.97%) Publishing
8 14 (3.70%) Influencing Skills
9 12 (3.17%) Public Sector
10 10 (2.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 5 (1.32%) Banking
12 4 (1.06%) Games
12 4 (1.06%) Local Government
12 4 (1.06%) Marketing
12 4 (1.06%) Pharmaceutical
12 4 (1.06%) Retail
13 3 (0.79%) Electronics
14 2 (0.53%) Military
14 2 (0.53%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 73 (19.31%) React
2 68 (17.99%) .NET
3 41 (10.85%) Node.js
4 25 (6.61%) RESTful
5 24 (6.35%) .NET Core
6 22 (5.82%) HTML
7 21 (5.56%) Flask
7 21 (5.56%) Vue
8 19 (5.03%) AngularJS
8 19 (5.03%) CSS
8 19 (5.03%) Redux
9 17 (4.50%) FastAPI
10 16 (4.23%) GraphQL
10 16 (4.23%) Kafka
10 16 (4.23%) REST
11 15 (3.97%) Laravel
12 14 (3.70%) .NET Framework
12 14 (3.70%) ASP.NET
12 14 (3.70%) Spring Boot
13 13 (3.44%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 20 (5.29%) Product Ownership
2 19 (5.03%) Distributed Systems
2 19 (5.03%) Fixed Income
3 18 (4.76%) Cloud Native
4 11 (2.91%) Derivative
4 11 (2.91%) Mobile App
5 9 (2.38%) Greenfield Project
6 8 (2.12%) Equities
7 7 (1.85%) Credit Risk
7 7 (1.85%) Data Structures
8 6 (1.59%) AI Agents
8 6 (1.59%) Enterprise Software
9 5 (1.32%) Algorithms
9 5 (1.32%) Legacy Systems
9 5 (1.32%) PropTech
10 4 (1.06%) Low-Code
10 4 (1.06%) PKI
11 3 (0.79%) AS400
11 3 (0.79%) Clustering
11 3 (0.79%) iSeries
Operating Systems
1 18 (4.76%) Apple iOS
2 11 (2.91%) Android
3 3 (0.79%) Linux
4 1 (0.26%) Unix
4 1 (0.26%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 97 (25.66%) Full-Stack Development
2 93 (24.60%) Agile
3 87 (23.02%) Mentoring
4 76 (20.11%) Technical Leadership
5 64 (16.93%) Software Engineering
6 59 (15.61%) CI/CD
7 56 (14.81%) AI
8 44 (11.64%) Continuous Improvement
9 38 (10.05%) DevOps
10 37 (9.79%) Coaching
11 36 (9.52%) Microservices
12 35 (9.26%) Problem-Solving
13 27 (7.14%) Code Quality
14 25 (6.61%) TDD
15 24 (6.35%) Design Patterns
15 24 (6.35%) Scrum
16 22 (5.82%) Containerisation
17 21 (5.56%) Line Management
18 20 (5.29%) Roadmaps
19 19 (5.03%) User Stories
Programming Languages
1 92 (24.34%) Python
2 59 (15.61%) C#
3 57 (15.08%) JavaScript
4 46 (12.17%) SQL
5 45 (11.90%) Java
5 45 (11.90%) TypeScript
6 16 (4.23%) PHP
7 13 (3.44%) Go
8 6 (1.59%) C++
9 4 (1.06%) Kotlin
9 4 (1.06%) RPG
9 4 (1.06%) Swift
10 3 (0.79%) Apex Code
10 3 (0.79%) C
10 3 (0.79%) COBOL
10 3 (0.79%) Scala
11 2 (0.53%) Bash
11 2 (0.53%) Groovy
12 1 (0.26%) R
12 1 (0.26%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 16 (4.23%) Degree
2 6 (1.59%) Computer Science Degree
3 3 (0.79%) DBS Check
3 3 (0.79%) Security Cleared
4 2 (0.53%) PhD
5 1 (0.26%) AWS Certification
5 1 (0.26%) AWS Certified Developer
5 1 (0.26%) ITIL Certification
5 1 (0.26%) Master's Degree
5 1 (0.26%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (8.73%) QA
2 9 (2.38%) Accessibility
3 2 (0.53%) Data Quality
3 2 (0.53%) GAAP
3 2 (0.53%) IFRS
3 2 (0.53%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 26 (6.88%) Docker
Systems Management
1 16 (4.23%) Kubernetes
2 10 (2.65%) Terraform
3 3 (0.79%) HP Fortify
4 2 (0.53%) Ansible
5 1 (0.26%) Grafana
5 1 (0.26%) Kibana
5 1 (0.26%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 25 (6.61%) Microsoft
2 8 (2.12%) OpenAI
3 7 (1.85%) Salesforce
4 3 (0.79%) Apple
5 2 (0.53%) Databricks
5 2 (0.53%) Foundry
5 2 (0.53%) Google
5 2 (0.53%) NEC
5 2 (0.53%) Northgate
5 2 (0.53%) SAP
5 2 (0.53%) Workday
6 1 (0.26%) Adobe
6 1 (0.26%) IBM
6 1 (0.26%) Informatica
6 1 (0.26%) Revolut