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 31 August 2026.

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

6 months to
31 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 287 371 237
Rank change year-on-year +84 -134 +74
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead Developer 613 304 841
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.63% 0.69% 1.18%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.67% 0.77% 1.24%
Number of salaries quoted 500 215 715
10th Percentile £65,000 £55,000 £47,000
25th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £55,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £83,500 £75,000 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year +11.33% +7.14% -9.68%
75th Percentile £97,500 £90,000 £93,750
90th Percentile £100,000 £130,000 £142,500
UK median annual salary £82,500 £75,000 £70,000
% change year-on-year +10.00% +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 91,316 39,687 67,806
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.93% 90.46% 95.11%
Number of salaries quoted 64,438 24,066 43,918
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £77,000 £75,000 £73,575
90th Percentile £98,750 £95,000 £92,500
UK median annual salary £57,500 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.55% - -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 31 August 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 31 August 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 +18 205 £90,000 -5.26% 47
North of England +14 157 £75,000 +7.14% 12
Midlands +30 99 £70,000 - 11
North West +45 92 £76,021 +8.60% 6
South East +22 90 £90,000 +24.14% 9
West Midlands +10 60 £65,000 -8.77% 4
East Midlands +4 39 £70,000 +5.66% 7
Yorkshire -28 37 £75,000 +7.14% 5
North East -37 28 £90,000 +12.50% 1
South West -63 28 £70,000 +33.33% 5
East of England +6 26 £65,000 - 2
Lead Developer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 31 August 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.

1 173 (28.22%) Full-Stack Development
2 157 (25.61%) C#
3 144 (23.49%) .NET
4 134 (21.86%) Azure
5 131 (21.37%) Technical Leadership
6 128 (20.88%) Mentoring
7 124 (20.23%) JavaScript
8 114 (18.60%) AWS
8 114 (18.60%) TypeScript
9 93 (15.17%) CI/CD
10 85 (13.87%) SaaS
11 82 (13.38%) AI
12 81 (13.21%) Node.js
12 81 (13.21%) Software Engineering
13 76 (12.40%) DevOps
14 72 (11.75%) Agile
15 70 (11.42%) Microservices
15 70 (11.42%) Microsoft
16 69 (11.26%) SQL
17 67 (10.93%) Continuous Improvement
18 66 (10.77%) React
19 59 (9.62%) Python
20 55 (8.97%) RESTful
21 52 (8.48%) Dynamics 365
22 48 (7.83%) Event-Driven
22 48 (7.83%) SQL Server
23 46 (7.50%) Power Platform
24 44 (7.18%) Event-Driven Architecture
24 44 (7.18%) Problem-Solving
24 44 (7.18%) Roadmaps

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 (3.10%) Anypoint
1 19 (3.10%) Mule
2 12 (1.96%) SharePoint
3 5 (0.82%) Confluence
4 4 (0.65%) Appian
4 4 (0.65%) WordPress
5 1 (0.16%) CMS
Business Applications
1 14 (2.28%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.16%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 134 (21.86%) Azure
2 114 (18.60%) AWS
3 85 (13.87%) SaaS
4 52 (8.48%) Dynamics 365
5 46 (7.50%) Power Platform
6 33 (5.38%) Azure DevOps
7 20 (3.26%) Azure Logic Apps
8 19 (3.10%) Microsoft Copilot
9 18 (2.94%) Azure Service Bus
9 18 (2.94%) Power Automate
9 18 (2.94%) Serverless
10 17 (2.77%) Snowflake
11 16 (2.61%) Azure Key Vault
12 14 (2.28%) Azure Cosmos DB
12 14 (2.28%) Azure Monitor
13 13 (2.12%) GitHub
13 13 (2.12%) PowerApps
14 11 (1.79%) GCP
15 10 (1.63%) Amazon ECS
15 10 (1.63%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 14 (2.28%) SSL
2 5 (0.82%) Broadband
3 1 (0.16%) Asterisk PBX
3 1 (0.16%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 48 (7.83%) SQL Server
2 32 (5.22%) PostgreSQL
3 22 (3.59%) Redis
4 16 (2.61%) MySQL
5 14 (2.28%) Power BI
6 12 (1.96%) Elasticsearch
7 10 (1.63%) DynamoDB
8 9 (1.47%) Amazon RDS
8 9 (1.47%) MongoDB
9 5 (0.82%) Metadata
9 5 (0.82%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 3 (0.49%) KDB
10 3 (0.49%) MariaDB
10 3 (0.49%) NoSQL
10 3 (0.49%) Spatial Data
11 2 (0.33%) Geospatial Data
11 2 (0.33%) InterSystems Cache
12 1 (0.16%) Azure SQL Database
12 1 (0.16%) Db2
12 1 (0.16%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 32 (5.22%) Git
2 7 (1.14%) JIRA
3 4 (0.65%) Bitbucket
4 3 (0.49%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.49%) JUnit
4 3 (0.49%) Maven
4 3 (0.49%) Mockito
4 3 (0.49%) NUnit
5 2 (0.33%) Claude Code
5 2 (0.33%) GitLab
5 2 (0.33%) MSI
5 2 (0.33%) TeamCity
5 2 (0.33%) 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 84 (13.70%) Finance
2 67 (10.93%) Social Skills
3 22 (3.59%) Law
4 19 (3.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 17 (2.77%) Banking
6 16 (2.61%) Analytical Skills
7 14 (2.28%) Games
8 8 (1.31%) Retail
9 7 (1.14%) Legal
9 7 (1.14%) Legal Technology
9 7 (1.14%) Public Sector
10 6 (0.98%) Front Office
11 4 (0.65%) Investment Banking
11 4 (0.65%) Marketing
12 2 (0.33%) Manufacturing
13 1 (0.16%) Local Government
13 1 (0.16%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 144 (23.49%) .NET
2 81 (13.21%) Node.js
3 66 (10.77%) React
4 55 (8.97%) RESTful
5 37 (6.04%) ASP.NET
6 35 (5.71%) .NET Core
7 33 (5.38%) Vue
8 30 (4.89%) REST
9 27 (4.40%) GraphQL
10 26 (4.24%) React Native
11 23 (3.75%) CSS
12 22 (3.59%) Next.js
13 21 (3.43%) HTML
13 21 (3.43%) Spring
14 16 (2.61%) Terraform
15 14 (2.28%) JWT
15 14 (2.28%) Laravel
15 14 (2.28%) MUnit
15 14 (2.28%) OAuth2
15 14 (2.28%) RAML
Miscellaneous
1 39 (6.36%) Cloud Native
2 19 (3.10%) Product Ownership
3 18 (2.94%) Distributed Systems
3 18 (2.94%) Legacy Systems
4 15 (2.45%) Low-Code
5 14 (2.28%) Enterprise Software
5 14 (2.28%) Mobile App
6 7 (1.14%) Algorithms
6 7 (1.14%) Virtual Team
7 6 (0.98%) Legacy Applications
7 6 (0.98%) PropTech
8 5 (0.82%) Greenfield Project
8 5 (0.82%) Onboarding
9 4 (0.65%) Video\Live Streaming
10 3 (0.49%) Equities
10 3 (0.49%) Operational Technology
10 3 (0.49%) Photography
11 2 (0.33%) Acoustics
11 2 (0.33%) Distributed Architecture
11 2 (0.33%) Embedded Systems
Operating Systems
1 30 (4.89%) Android
1 30 (4.89%) Apple iOS
2 4 (0.65%) Linux
3 3 (0.49%) Windows
4 1 (0.16%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 173 (28.22%) Full-Stack Development
2 131 (21.37%) Technical Leadership
3 128 (20.88%) Mentoring
4 93 (15.17%) CI/CD
5 82 (13.38%) AI
6 81 (13.21%) Software Engineering
7 76 (12.40%) DevOps
8 72 (11.75%) Agile
9 70 (11.42%) Microservices
10 67 (10.93%) Continuous Improvement
11 48 (7.83%) Event-Driven
12 44 (7.18%) Event-Driven Architecture
12 44 (7.18%) Problem-Solving
12 44 (7.18%) Roadmaps
13 36 (5.87%) Test Automation
14 35 (5.71%) Stakeholder Management
15 34 (5.55%) Design Patterns
16 31 (5.06%) Mobile Development
17 28 (4.57%) Coaching
17 28 (4.57%) DevSecOps
Programming Languages
1 157 (25.61%) C#
2 124 (20.23%) JavaScript
3 114 (18.60%) TypeScript
4 69 (11.26%) SQL
5 59 (9.62%) Python
6 37 (6.04%) Java
7 16 (2.61%) PHP
8 14 (2.28%) DataWeave
9 11 (1.79%) C++
10 8 (1.31%) Bicep
10 8 (1.31%) Go
10 8 (1.31%) Kotlin
10 8 (1.31%) Ruby
11 7 (1.14%) Swift
12 6 (0.98%) RPG
13 5 (0.82%) PowerShell
14 4 (0.65%) Bash
15 3 (0.49%) C
15 3 (0.49%) PL/SQL
15 3 (0.49%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 31 (5.06%) Degree
2 27 (4.40%) SC Cleared
2 27 (4.40%) Security Cleared
3 21 (3.43%) Computer Science Degree
4 6 (0.98%) DBS Check
5 5 (0.82%) ITIL Certification
6 3 (0.49%) Azure Certification
7 2 (0.33%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (5.22%) QA
2 9 (1.47%) Accessibility
3 6 (0.98%) Data Quality
4 3 (0.49%) WCAG
5 2 (0.33%) GDPR
5 2 (0.33%) NCSC
6 1 (0.16%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 43 (7.01%) Docker
2 3 (0.49%) Firmware
3 1 (0.16%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 23 (3.75%) Kubernetes
2 14 (2.28%) CloudHub
3 2 (0.33%) Ansible
Vendors
1 70 (11.42%) Microsoft
2 19 (3.10%) MuleSoft
3 16 (2.61%) Salesforce
4 15 (2.45%) ServiceNow
5 14 (2.28%) SAP
6 7 (1.14%) HubSpot
7 6 (0.98%) IBM
7 6 (0.98%) Oracle
8 3 (0.49%) Adobe
8 3 (0.49%) Bloomberg
8 3 (0.49%) DevExpress
9 2 (0.33%) Apple
9 2 (0.33%) Google
9 2 (0.33%) OpenAI
9 2 (0.33%) Refinitiv
9 2 (0.33%) TikTok
10 1 (0.16%) Citrix
10 1 (0.16%) Databricks
10 1 (0.16%) Reuters