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 26 August 2026.

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

6 months to
26 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 288 370 236
Rank change year-on-year +82 -134 +85
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead Developer 622 303 868
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.65% 0.69% 1.19%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.69% 0.77% 1.25%
Number of salaries quoted 509 214 749
10th Percentile £65,000 £54,475 £47,000
25th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £55,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £85,000 £75,000 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year +13.33% +7.14% -9.68%
75th Percentile £100,000 £90,000 £93,250
90th Percentile - £130,000 £142,500
UK median annual salary £84,000 £75,000 £70,000
% change year-on-year +12.00% +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 90,592 39,605 69,389
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.98% 90.51% 95.05%
Number of salaries quoted 63,845 23,969 46,045
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,320 £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 £76,250 £75,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £97,500 £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 26 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 26 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 +22 218 £93,750 +1.35% 19
North of England +31 157 £75,000 +7.14% 5
Midlands +26 95 £70,000 - 10
North West +46 94 £75,000 +7.14% 2
South East +19 89 £90,000 +24.14% 5
West Midlands +6 58 £65,000 -8.77% 4
East Midlands +7 37 £70,000 +5.66% 6
Yorkshire -28 35 £75,000 +9.09% 2
South West -65 29 £70,000 +27.27% 4
North East -39 28 £90,000 +12.50% 1
East of England -5 26 £65,000 - 1
Lead Developer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 26 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.

1 181 (29.10%) Full-Stack Development
2 155 (24.92%) C#
3 145 (23.31%) .NET
4 138 (22.19%) Azure
5 134 (21.54%) JavaScript
6 133 (21.38%) Mentoring
7 131 (21.06%) Technical Leadership
8 124 (19.94%) TypeScript
9 123 (19.77%) AWS
10 93 (14.95%) CI/CD
11 91 (14.63%) Node.js
11 91 (14.63%) Software Engineering
12 84 (13.50%) SaaS
13 83 (13.34%) AI
14 81 (13.02%) Agile
15 76 (12.22%) DevOps
15 76 (12.22%) React
16 70 (11.25%) Microservices
17 69 (11.09%) Microsoft
17 69 (11.09%) Python
18 68 (10.93%) SQL
19 67 (10.77%) Continuous Improvement
20 56 (9.00%) RESTful
21 51 (8.20%) Dynamics 365
22 48 (7.72%) Event-Driven
23 47 (7.56%) SQL Server
24 45 (7.23%) Power Platform
25 44 (7.07%) Event-Driven Architecture
25 44 (7.07%) Problem-Solving
26 43 (6.91%) 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 (3.05%) Anypoint
1 19 (3.05%) Mule
2 11 (1.77%) SharePoint
3 5 (0.80%) Appian
3 5 (0.80%) Confluence
4 4 (0.64%) WordPress
5 1 (0.16%) CMS
Business Applications
1 13 (2.09%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.16%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 138 (22.19%) Azure
2 123 (19.77%) AWS
3 84 (13.50%) SaaS
4 51 (8.20%) Dynamics 365
5 45 (7.23%) Power Platform
6 33 (5.31%) Azure DevOps
7 21 (3.38%) Azure Logic Apps
8 19 (3.05%) Microsoft Copilot
9 18 (2.89%) Azure Service Bus
10 17 (2.73%) Power Automate
10 17 (2.73%) Serverless
10 17 (2.73%) Snowflake
11 16 (2.57%) Azure Key Vault
11 16 (2.57%) GCP
12 15 (2.41%) Azure Cosmos DB
13 14 (2.25%) Azure Monitor
14 13 (2.09%) GitHub
14 13 (2.09%) PowerApps
15 10 (1.61%) Amazon ECS
15 10 (1.61%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 14 (2.25%) SSL
2 5 (0.80%) Broadband
3 1 (0.16%) Asterisk PBX
3 1 (0.16%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 47 (7.56%) SQL Server
2 36 (5.79%) PostgreSQL
3 22 (3.54%) Redis
4 16 (2.57%) MySQL
5 14 (2.25%) Power BI
6 12 (1.93%) Elasticsearch
7 10 (1.61%) DynamoDB
8 9 (1.45%) Amazon RDS
8 9 (1.45%) 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%) Geospatial Data
11 2 (0.32%) InterSystems Cache
12 1 (0.16%) Azure SQL Database
12 1 (0.16%) Db2
12 1 (0.16%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 32 (5.14%) Git
2 7 (1.13%) JIRA
3 4 (0.64%) Bitbucket
4 3 (0.48%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.48%) JUnit
4 3 (0.48%) Maven
4 3 (0.48%) Mockito
4 3 (0.48%) NUnit
5 2 (0.32%) Claude Code
5 2 (0.32%) GitLab
5 2 (0.32%) MSI
5 2 (0.32%) TeamCity
5 2 (0.32%) 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%) XCUITest
General
1 95 (15.27%) Finance
2 67 (10.77%) Social Skills
3 23 (3.70%) Law
4 18 (2.89%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 17 (2.73%) Banking
6 16 (2.57%) Analytical Skills
7 15 (2.41%) Front Office
8 14 (2.25%) Games
9 8 (1.29%) Retail
10 7 (1.13%) Legal
10 7 (1.13%) Legal Technology
11 6 (0.96%) Public Sector
12 4 (0.64%) Investment Banking
12 4 (0.64%) Marketing
13 2 (0.32%) Manufacturing
14 1 (0.16%) Local Government
14 1 (0.16%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 145 (23.31%) .NET
2 91 (14.63%) Node.js
3 76 (12.22%) React
4 56 (9.00%) RESTful
5 37 (5.95%) ASP.NET
6 35 (5.63%) .NET Core
7 34 (5.47%) Vue
8 33 (5.31%) GraphQL
9 30 (4.82%) REST
10 27 (4.34%) React Native
11 24 (3.86%) CSS
12 22 (3.54%) HTML
12 22 (3.54%) Next.js
12 22 (3.54%) Spring
13 18 (2.89%) Kafka
14 16 (2.57%) Terraform
15 14 (2.25%) JWT
15 14 (2.25%) MUnit
15 14 (2.25%) OAuth2
15 14 (2.25%) RAML
Miscellaneous
1 38 (6.11%) Cloud Native
2 19 (3.05%) Product Ownership
3 18 (2.89%) Distributed Systems
3 18 (2.89%) Legacy Systems
4 15 (2.41%) Low-Code
5 14 (2.25%) Enterprise Software
5 14 (2.25%) Mobile App
6 9 (1.45%) Fixed Income
7 7 (1.13%) Algorithms
7 7 (1.13%) Equities
7 7 (1.13%) PropTech
8 6 (0.96%) Legacy Applications
8 6 (0.96%) Virtual Team
9 5 (0.80%) Derivative
9 5 (0.80%) Greenfield Project
9 5 (0.80%) Onboarding
10 4 (0.64%) Video\Live Streaming
11 3 (0.48%) Operational Technology
11 3 (0.48%) Photography
12 2 (0.32%) Distributed Architecture
Operating Systems
1 31 (4.98%) Android
1 31 (4.98%) Apple iOS
2 4 (0.64%) Linux
3 3 (0.48%) Windows
4 1 (0.16%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 181 (29.10%) Full-Stack Development
2 133 (21.38%) Mentoring
3 131 (21.06%) Technical Leadership
4 93 (14.95%) CI/CD
5 91 (14.63%) Software Engineering
6 83 (13.34%) AI
7 81 (13.02%) Agile
8 76 (12.22%) DevOps
9 70 (11.25%) Microservices
10 67 (10.77%) Continuous Improvement
11 48 (7.72%) Event-Driven
12 44 (7.07%) Event-Driven Architecture
12 44 (7.07%) Problem-Solving
13 43 (6.91%) Roadmaps
14 36 (5.79%) Test Automation
15 34 (5.47%) Design Patterns
15 34 (5.47%) Stakeholder Management
16 32 (5.14%) Mobile Development
17 28 (4.50%) Coaching
17 28 (4.50%) DevSecOps
Programming Languages
1 155 (24.92%) C#
2 134 (21.54%) JavaScript
3 124 (19.94%) TypeScript
4 69 (11.09%) Python
5 68 (10.93%) SQL
6 43 (6.91%) Java
7 16 (2.57%) PHP
8 14 (2.25%) DataWeave
9 13 (2.09%) Go
10 11 (1.77%) C++
11 9 (1.45%) Bicep
12 8 (1.29%) Kotlin
12 8 (1.29%) Ruby
13 7 (1.13%) Swift
14 6 (0.96%) RPG
15 5 (0.80%) PowerShell
16 4 (0.64%) Bash
17 3 (0.48%) C
17 3 (0.48%) PL/SQL
17 3 (0.48%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 31 (4.98%) Degree
2 27 (4.34%) SC Cleared
2 27 (4.34%) Security Cleared
3 21 (3.38%) Computer Science Degree
4 6 (0.96%) DBS Check
5 5 (0.80%) ITIL Certification
6 3 (0.48%) Azure Certification
7 1 (0.16%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (5.14%) QA
2 8 (1.29%) Accessibility
3 6 (0.96%) Data Quality
4 2 (0.32%) NCSC
4 2 (0.32%) WCAG
5 1 (0.16%) GDPR
5 1 (0.16%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 43 (6.91%) Docker
2 3 (0.48%) Firmware
3 1 (0.16%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 23 (3.70%) Kubernetes
2 14 (2.25%) CloudHub
3 2 (0.32%) Ansible
Vendors
1 69 (11.09%) Microsoft
2 19 (3.05%) MuleSoft
3 16 (2.57%) Salesforce
4 15 (2.41%) ServiceNow
5 14 (2.25%) SAP
6 7 (1.13%) HubSpot
7 6 (0.96%) IBM
7 6 (0.96%) Oracle
8 3 (0.48%) Bloomberg
8 3 (0.48%) DevExpress
9 2 (0.32%) Adobe
9 2 (0.32%) Apple
9 2 (0.32%) Google
9 2 (0.32%) OpenAI
9 2 (0.32%) Refinitiv
9 2 (0.32%) TikTok
10 1 (0.16%) Citrix
10 1 (0.16%) Reuters