Lead Developer Job Trends in England

Lead Developer
UK > England

The median Lead Developer salary in England is £82,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 10 October 2026.

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

6 months to
10 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 316 382 262
Rank change year-on-year +66 -120 +44
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead Developer 588 271 688
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.57% 0.63% 1.06%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.61% 0.69% 1.11%
Number of salaries quoted 471 189 551
10th Percentile £65,000 £55,000 -
25th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £47,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £82,500 £75,000 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% +7.14% -12.50%
75th Percentile £97,500 £100,000 £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 96,276 39,048 61,997
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.70% 90.61% 95.25%
Number of salaries quoted 67,273 23,161 35,506
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,000 £35,750 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £59,000 £55,000 £55,281
Median % change year-on-year +7.27% -0.51% -7.87%
75th Percentile £77,500 £75,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £95,000
UK median annual salary £58,396 £53,688 £55,000
% change year-on-year +8.77% -2.39% -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 10 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 10 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 +19 196 £90,000 -14.29% 105
North of England +10 131 £75,000 +7.14% 46
Midlands +27 105 £70,000 -3.45% 25
South East +8 93 £90,000 +22.03% 29
North West +8 63 £75,000 +7.14% 16
West Midlands -16 60 £70,000 -3.45% 18
Yorkshire -7 47 £75,000 +11.11% 27
East Midlands +4 45 £70,000 - 7
East of England -9 31 £80,510 +22.92% 5
South West -66 24 £70,000 +40.00% 7
North East -57 21 £100,000 +45.99% 4
Lead Developer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 10 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.

1 143 (24.32%) Technical Leadership
2 142 (24.15%) Full-Stack Development
3 135 (22.96%) C#
4 127 (21.60%) Azure
5 122 (20.75%) .NET
6 118 (20.07%) AWS
7 117 (19.90%) JavaScript
7 117 (19.90%) Mentoring
8 104 (17.69%) TypeScript
9 90 (15.31%) CI/CD
10 87 (14.80%) AI
11 80 (13.61%) Node.js
12 76 (12.93%) SaaS
13 75 (12.76%) Software Engineering
14 71 (12.07%) SQL
15 70 (11.90%) Python
16 66 (11.22%) DevOps
17 65 (11.05%) Microsoft
18 62 (10.54%) Agile
18 62 (10.54%) Continuous Improvement
19 60 (10.20%) Microservices
20 55 (9.35%) React
21 54 (9.18%) Dynamics 365
22 53 (9.01%) SQL Server
23 48 (8.16%) Roadmaps
24 44 (7.48%) Event-Driven
25 43 (7.31%) Power Platform
26 42 (7.14%) Docker
26 42 (7.14%) RESTful
27 40 (6.80%) 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 18 (3.06%) Anypoint
1 18 (3.06%) Mule
2 12 (2.04%) SharePoint
3 5 (0.85%) Confluence
4 4 (0.68%) WordPress
5 2 (0.34%) Appian
Business Applications
1 14 (2.38%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.17%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 127 (21.60%) Azure
2 118 (20.07%) AWS
3 76 (12.93%) SaaS
4 54 (9.18%) Dynamics 365
5 43 (7.31%) Power Platform
6 31 (5.27%) Azure DevOps
7 21 (3.57%) GCP
8 20 (3.40%) Microsoft Copilot
9 19 (3.23%) Azure Service Bus
9 19 (3.23%) Power Automate
10 18 (3.06%) Snowflake
11 16 (2.72%) GitHub
11 16 (2.72%) Serverless
12 13 (2.21%) Azure Key Vault
12 13 (2.21%) Azure Logic Apps
12 13 (2.21%) Azure Monitor
13 12 (2.04%) Azure Cosmos DB
14 10 (1.70%) Amazon Bedrock
14 10 (1.70%) Microsoft 365
14 10 (1.70%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 14 (2.38%) SSL
2 4 (0.68%) Broadband
3 1 (0.17%) Asterisk PBX
3 1 (0.17%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 53 (9.01%) SQL Server
2 32 (5.44%) PostgreSQL
3 25 (4.25%) Redis
4 15 (2.55%) Power BI
5 12 (2.04%) Elasticsearch
6 11 (1.87%) MySQL
7 10 (1.70%) MongoDB
8 7 (1.19%) DynamoDB
9 6 (1.02%) Amazon RDS
10 4 (0.68%) Data Warehouse
10 4 (0.68%) Metadata
10 4 (0.68%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 3 (0.51%) KDB
11 3 (0.51%) NoSQL
11 3 (0.51%) Spatial Data
12 2 (0.34%) Db2
12 2 (0.34%) Geospatial Data
12 2 (0.34%) InterSystems Cache
13 1 (0.17%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 33 (5.61%) Git
2 8 (1.36%) JIRA
3 5 (0.85%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.51%) JUnit
4 3 (0.51%) Maven
4 3 (0.51%) Mockito
5 2 (0.34%) Claude Code
5 2 (0.34%) GitLab
5 2 (0.34%) MSI
5 2 (0.34%) TeamCity
5 2 (0.34%) 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 89 (15.14%) Finance
2 73 (12.41%) Social Skills
3 30 (5.10%) Banking
4 24 (4.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 18 (3.06%) Law
6 16 (2.72%) Front Office
7 14 (2.38%) Analytical Skills
7 14 (2.38%) Marketing
8 9 (1.53%) Games
8 9 (1.53%) Public Sector
9 8 (1.36%) Retail
10 7 (1.19%) Legal
10 7 (1.19%) Legal Technology
11 4 (0.68%) Investment Banking
12 2 (0.34%) Manufacturing
13 1 (0.17%) Local Government
13 1 (0.17%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 122 (20.75%) .NET
2 80 (13.61%) Node.js
3 55 (9.35%) React
4 42 (7.14%) RESTful
5 32 (5.44%) REST
6 29 (4.93%) .NET Core
6 29 (4.93%) ASP.NET
6 29 (4.93%) Vue
7 22 (3.74%) Next.js
8 21 (3.57%) GraphQL
9 20 (3.40%) Spring
10 19 (3.23%) CSS
11 17 (2.89%) HTML
11 17 (2.89%) React Native
12 14 (2.38%) JWT
12 14 (2.38%) MUnit
12 14 (2.38%) OAuth
12 14 (2.38%) OAuth2
12 14 (2.38%) RAML
13 13 (2.21%) Hugging Face
Miscellaneous
1 31 (5.27%) Cloud Native
2 15 (2.55%) Distributed Systems
2 15 (2.55%) Legacy Systems
2 15 (2.55%) Product Ownership
3 14 (2.38%) Low-Code
4 10 (1.70%) AI Agents
4 10 (1.70%) Hedge funds
5 8 (1.36%) Enterprise Software
5 8 (1.36%) Greenfield Project
5 8 (1.36%) Mobile App
5 8 (1.36%) Virtual Team
6 6 (1.02%) Algorithms
7 5 (0.85%) Onboarding
8 4 (0.68%) Legacy Applications
8 4 (0.68%) Management Information System
8 4 (0.68%) Taxonomies
9 3 (0.51%) Blog
9 3 (0.51%) Equities
9 3 (0.51%) Operational Technology
9 3 (0.51%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 20 (3.40%) Android
2 18 (3.06%) Apple iOS
3 4 (0.68%) Linux
4 2 (0.34%) Windows
5 1 (0.17%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 143 (24.32%) Technical Leadership
2 142 (24.15%) Full-Stack Development
3 117 (19.90%) Mentoring
4 90 (15.31%) CI/CD
5 87 (14.80%) AI
6 75 (12.76%) Software Engineering
7 66 (11.22%) DevOps
8 62 (10.54%) Agile
8 62 (10.54%) Continuous Improvement
9 60 (10.20%) Microservices
10 48 (8.16%) Roadmaps
11 44 (7.48%) Event-Driven
12 40 (6.80%) Event-Driven Architecture
12 40 (6.80%) Problem-Solving
13 38 (6.46%) Stakeholder Management
14 34 (5.78%) Test Automation
15 31 (5.27%) Design Patterns
16 30 (5.10%) DevSecOps
17 28 (4.76%) Clean Code
18 27 (4.59%) Fintech
Programming Languages
1 135 (22.96%) C#
2 117 (19.90%) JavaScript
3 104 (17.69%) TypeScript
4 71 (12.07%) SQL
5 70 (11.90%) Python
6 37 (6.29%) Java
7 14 (2.38%) DataWeave
7 14 (2.38%) PHP
8 10 (1.70%) R
9 8 (1.36%) Ruby
10 7 (1.19%) C++
11 6 (1.02%) RPG
12 5 (0.85%) Go
12 5 (0.85%) PowerShell
13 4 (0.68%) Bash
13 4 (0.68%) Kotlin
14 3 (0.51%) Bicep
14 3 (0.51%) PL/SQL
14 3 (0.51%) T-SQL
15 2 (0.34%) C
Qualifications
1 29 (4.93%) Security Cleared
2 28 (4.76%) Degree
2 28 (4.76%) SC Cleared
3 22 (3.74%) Computer Science Degree
4 8 (1.36%) Microsoft Certification
5 4 (0.68%) Azure Certification
5 4 (0.68%) DBS Check
5 4 (0.68%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (4.93%) QA
2 10 (1.70%) Accessibility
3 6 (1.02%) Data Quality
3 6 (1.02%) WCAG
4 4 (0.68%) GDPR
5 2 (0.34%) NCSC
6 1 (0.17%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 42 (7.14%) Docker
Systems Management
1 22 (3.74%) Kubernetes
2 14 (2.38%) CloudHub
3 2 (0.34%) Ansible
Vendors
1 65 (11.05%) Microsoft
2 18 (3.06%) MuleSoft
3 16 (2.72%) Salesforce
4 15 (2.55%) ServiceNow
5 14 (2.38%) SAP
6 12 (2.04%) Google
7 7 (1.19%) Databricks
8 6 (1.02%) IBM
8 6 (1.02%) Oracle
9 4 (0.68%) HubSpot
10 3 (0.51%) Adobe
10 3 (0.51%) Bloomberg
11 2 (0.34%) OpenAI
11 2 (0.34%) Refinitiv
11 2 (0.34%) TikTok
12 1 (0.17%) Citrix
12 1 (0.17%) Reuters