Lead Developer Job Trends in England

Lead Developer
UK > England

The median Lead Developer salary in England is £81,250 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 5 October 2026.

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

6 months to
5 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 315 392 258
Rank change year-on-year +77 -134 +49
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead Developer 599 273 714
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.58% 0.63% 1.08%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.62% 0.70% 1.13%
Number of salaries quoted 486 191 579
10th Percentile £65,000 £55,000 £47,000
25th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £47,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £81,250 £75,000 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year +8.33% +7.14% -12.50%
75th Percentile £97,500 £97,500 £95,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £142,500 £142,500
UK median annual salary £80,000 £75,000 £70,000
% change year-on-year +6.67% +7.14% -12.50%

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 96,503 39,188 63,204
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.87% 90.49% 95.24%
Number of salaries quoted 67,572 23,085 36,554
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £31,000
25th Percentile £41,000 £36,250 £41,250
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 £95,000
UK median annual salary £58,500 £54,824 £55,000
% change year-on-year +6.71% -0.32% -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 5 October 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 5 October 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 +5 201 £90,000 -14.29% 80
North of England +16 138 £75,000 +7.14% 61
Midlands +18 105 £70,000 -3.45% 31
South East +11 90 £90,000 +22.03% 37
North West +2 69 £72,500 +3.57% 19
West Midlands -6 59 £70,000 -3.45% 19
Yorkshire -20 47 £75,000 +9.09% 33
East Midlands 0 46 £70,000 - 12
East of England -6 32 £76,021 +16.06% 13
South West -66 24 £70,000 +40.00% 18
North East -47 22 £100,000 +45.99% 10
Lead Developer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 5 October 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.

1 151 (25.21%) Full-Stack Development
2 145 (24.21%) Technical Leadership
3 140 (23.37%) C#
4 127 (21.20%) Azure
5 126 (21.04%) .NET
6 121 (20.20%) AWS
6 121 (20.20%) Mentoring
7 120 (20.03%) JavaScript
8 106 (17.70%) TypeScript
9 91 (15.19%) CI/CD
10 84 (14.02%) AI
11 81 (13.52%) Node.js
12 77 (12.85%) SaaS
13 75 (12.52%) Software Engineering
14 71 (11.85%) SQL
15 69 (11.52%) DevOps
16 68 (11.35%) Python
17 66 (11.02%) Microsoft
18 65 (10.85%) Agile
19 63 (10.52%) Continuous Improvement
19 63 (10.52%) Microservices
20 58 (9.68%) React
21 56 (9.35%) Dynamics 365
22 53 (8.85%) SQL Server
23 47 (7.85%) Roadmaps
24 45 (7.51%) Event-Driven
25 44 (7.35%) Power Platform
25 44 (7.35%) RESTful
26 42 (7.01%) Docker
27 41 (6.84%) Event-Driven Architecture

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 (3.17%) Anypoint
1 19 (3.17%) Mule
2 12 (2.00%) SharePoint
3 5 (0.83%) Confluence
4 4 (0.67%) WordPress
5 2 (0.33%) Appian
Business Applications
1 14 (2.34%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.17%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 127 (21.20%) Azure
2 121 (20.20%) AWS
3 77 (12.85%) SaaS
4 56 (9.35%) Dynamics 365
5 44 (7.35%) Power Platform
6 31 (5.18%) Azure DevOps
7 19 (3.17%) GCP
7 19 (3.17%) Microsoft Copilot
7 19 (3.17%) Power Automate
8 18 (3.01%) Azure Service Bus
9 17 (2.84%) Snowflake
10 16 (2.67%) GitHub
10 16 (2.67%) Serverless
11 14 (2.34%) Azure Logic Apps
12 13 (2.17%) Azure Key Vault
12 13 (2.17%) Azure Monitor
13 12 (2.00%) Azure Cosmos DB
14 10 (1.67%) Amazon ECS
14 10 (1.67%) Microsoft 365
14 10 (1.67%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 14 (2.34%) SSL
2 4 (0.67%) Broadband
3 1 (0.17%) Asterisk PBX
3 1 (0.17%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 53 (8.85%) SQL Server
2 32 (5.34%) PostgreSQL
3 24 (4.01%) Redis
4 14 (2.34%) Power BI
5 13 (2.17%) MySQL
6 12 (2.00%) Elasticsearch
7 10 (1.67%) MongoDB
8 8 (1.34%) DynamoDB
9 7 (1.17%) Amazon RDS
10 4 (0.67%) Data Warehouse
10 4 (0.67%) Metadata
10 4 (0.67%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 3 (0.50%) KDB
11 3 (0.50%) NoSQL
11 3 (0.50%) Spatial Data
12 2 (0.33%) Db2
12 2 (0.33%) Geospatial Data
12 2 (0.33%) InterSystems Cache
13 1 (0.17%) MariaDB
13 1 (0.17%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 33 (5.51%) Git
2 8 (1.34%) JIRA
3 5 (0.83%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.50%) JUnit
4 3 (0.50%) Maven
4 3 (0.50%) Mockito
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 (0.17%) Ant
6 1 (0.17%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.17%) Cypress.io
6 1 (0.17%) DBeaver
6 1 (0.17%) Eclipse
6 1 (0.17%) fastlane
6 1 (0.17%) git-flow
6 1 (0.17%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 87 (14.52%) Finance
2 73 (12.19%) Social Skills
3 28 (4.67%) Banking
4 23 (3.84%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 19 (3.17%) Law
6 15 (2.50%) Analytical Skills
7 14 (2.34%) Front Office
8 12 (2.00%) Marketing
9 10 (1.67%) Public Sector
10 9 (1.50%) Games
11 7 (1.17%) Legal
11 7 (1.17%) Legal Technology
11 7 (1.17%) Retail
12 4 (0.67%) Investment Banking
13 2 (0.33%) Manufacturing
14 1 (0.17%) Local Government
14 1 (0.17%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 126 (21.04%) .NET
2 81 (13.52%) Node.js
3 58 (9.68%) React
4 44 (7.35%) RESTful
5 32 (5.34%) .NET Core
5 32 (5.34%) REST
6 31 (5.18%) ASP.NET
7 29 (4.84%) Vue
8 22 (3.67%) GraphQL
8 22 (3.67%) Next.js
9 21 (3.51%) Spring
10 20 (3.34%) CSS
11 18 (3.01%) HTML
11 18 (3.01%) React Native
12 14 (2.34%) JWT
12 14 (2.34%) MUnit
12 14 (2.34%) OAuth
12 14 (2.34%) OAuth2
12 14 (2.34%) RAML
13 13 (2.17%) PyTorch
Miscellaneous
1 33 (5.51%) Cloud Native
2 17 (2.84%) Product Ownership
3 16 (2.67%) Distributed Systems
4 15 (2.50%) Legacy Systems
5 13 (2.17%) Low-Code
6 10 (1.67%) Enterprise Software
7 9 (1.50%) Virtual Team
8 8 (1.34%) AI Agents
8 8 (1.34%) Hedge funds
8 8 (1.34%) Mobile App
9 7 (1.17%) Greenfield Project
10 6 (1.00%) Algorithms
11 5 (0.83%) Legacy Applications
11 5 (0.83%) Onboarding
12 4 (0.67%) Management Information System
12 4 (0.67%) Taxonomies
13 3 (0.50%) Blog
13 3 (0.50%) Equities
13 3 (0.50%) Video\Live Streaming
14 2 (0.33%) Embedded Systems
Operating Systems
1 21 (3.51%) Android
2 19 (3.17%) Apple iOS
3 4 (0.67%) Linux
4 2 (0.33%) Windows
5 1 (0.17%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 151 (25.21%) Full-Stack Development
2 145 (24.21%) Technical Leadership
3 121 (20.20%) Mentoring
4 91 (15.19%) CI/CD
5 84 (14.02%) AI
6 75 (12.52%) Software Engineering
7 69 (11.52%) DevOps
8 65 (10.85%) Agile
9 63 (10.52%) Continuous Improvement
9 63 (10.52%) Microservices
10 47 (7.85%) Roadmaps
11 45 (7.51%) Event-Driven
12 41 (6.84%) Event-Driven Architecture
12 41 (6.84%) Problem-Solving
13 38 (6.34%) Stakeholder Management
14 34 (5.68%) Test Automation
15 32 (5.34%) Design Patterns
16 29 (4.84%) DevSecOps
17 28 (4.67%) Clean Code
17 28 (4.67%) Fintech
Programming Languages
1 140 (23.37%) C#
2 120 (20.03%) JavaScript
3 106 (17.70%) TypeScript
4 71 (11.85%) SQL
5 68 (11.35%) Python
6 38 (6.34%) Java
7 15 (2.50%) PHP
8 14 (2.34%) DataWeave
9 8 (1.34%) R
9 8 (1.34%) Ruby
10 7 (1.17%) C++
11 6 (1.00%) Go
11 6 (1.00%) RPG
12 5 (0.83%) PowerShell
13 4 (0.67%) Bash
13 4 (0.67%) Kotlin
14 3 (0.50%) Bicep
14 3 (0.50%) PL/SQL
15 2 (0.33%) C
15 2 (0.33%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 30 (5.01%) Security Cleared
2 29 (4.84%) Degree
2 29 (4.84%) SC Cleared
3 21 (3.51%) Computer Science Degree
4 8 (1.34%) Microsoft Certification
5 5 (0.83%) DBS Check
6 4 (0.67%) Azure Certification
6 4 (0.67%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (4.84%) QA
2 10 (1.67%) Accessibility
3 6 (1.00%) WCAG
4 5 (0.83%) Data Quality
5 4 (0.67%) GDPR
6 2 (0.33%) NCSC
7 1 (0.17%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 42 (7.01%) Docker
Systems Management
1 22 (3.67%) Kubernetes
2 14 (2.34%) CloudHub
3 2 (0.33%) Ansible
Vendors
1 66 (11.02%) Microsoft
2 19 (3.17%) MuleSoft
3 16 (2.67%) Salesforce
4 15 (2.50%) ServiceNow
5 14 (2.34%) SAP
6 10 (1.67%) Google
7 6 (1.00%) Databricks
7 6 (1.00%) IBM
7 6 (1.00%) Oracle
8 5 (0.83%) HubSpot
9 3 (0.50%) Adobe
9 3 (0.50%) Bloomberg
10 2 (0.33%) OpenAI
10 2 (0.33%) Refinitiv
10 2 (0.33%) TikTok
11 1 (0.17%) Citrix
11 1 (0.17%) Reuters