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 16 July 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 294 375 228
Rank change year-on-year +81 -147 +105
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead Developer 591 306 1,085
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.67% 0.71% 1.23%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.72% 0.78% 1.30%
Number of salaries quoted 489 217 990
10th Percentile £62,500 £53,750 £47,500
25th Percentile £70,000 £63,750 £56,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £85,000 £74,000 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year +14.86% +5.71% -9.68%
75th Percentile £100,000 £90,000 £93,750
90th Percentile £107,500 £125,500 £142,500
UK median annual salary £85,000 £75,000 £70,000
% change year-on-year +13.33% +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 82,591 39,177 83,567
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.29% 90.42% 94.62%
Number of salaries quoted 58,075 23,624 60,974
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £28,750
25th Percentile £40,000 £38,233 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £55,000 £53,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% +3.77% -11.67%
75th Percentile £75,250 £75,000 £71,250
90th Percentile £97,500 £97,500 £90,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year - +4.76% -12.50%

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 16 July 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 16 July 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 +26 219 £95,000 +5.56% 21
North of England +47 138 £72,500 +3.57% 17
North West +56 97 £72,500 - 10
South East +35 89 £90,000 +22.03% 7
Midlands +26 74 £68,000 +0.74% 12
West Midlands -3 45 £65,000 -5.45% 8
South West -44 37 £65,000 +15.56%
East Midlands -16 29 £70,000 +5.66% 4
East of England +6 26 £60,100 -19.87% 1
Yorkshire -28 23 £70,000 +3.70% 5
North East -39 18 £90,000 +12.50% 2
Lead Developer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 16 July 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.

1 183 (30.96%) Full-Stack Development
2 134 (22.67%) AWS
2 134 (22.67%) JavaScript
3 133 (22.50%) .NET
4 131 (22.17%) Mentoring
5 130 (22.00%) C#
6 129 (21.83%) TypeScript
7 125 (21.15%) Azure
8 121 (20.47%) Software Engineering
9 116 (19.63%) Technical Leadership
10 105 (17.77%) Agile
11 101 (17.09%) React
12 97 (16.41%) Node.js
13 89 (15.06%) Python
14 86 (14.55%) CI/CD
15 78 (13.20%) AI
16 75 (12.69%) DevOps
17 73 (12.35%) SaaS
18 64 (10.83%) Continuous Improvement
18 64 (10.83%) Microservices
19 62 (10.49%) Java
20 60 (10.15%) Microsoft
21 58 (9.81%) SQL
22 50 (8.46%) RESTful
23 48 (8.12%) GraphQL
24 46 (7.78%) PostgreSQL
25 41 (6.94%) Problem-Solving
26 40 (6.77%) SQL Server
27 39 (6.60%) Portfolio Management
27 39 (6.60%) Redux

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 15 (2.54%) Anypoint
1 15 (2.54%) Mule
2 8 (1.35%) SharePoint
3 7 (1.18%) Appian
4 6 (1.02%) Confluence
5 3 (0.51%) WordPress
6 1 (0.17%) CMS
Business Applications
1 9 (1.52%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.17%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 134 (22.67%) AWS
2 125 (21.15%) Azure
3 73 (12.35%) SaaS
4 32 (5.41%) Dynamics 365
5 30 (5.08%) Power Platform
6 27 (4.57%) GCP
7 26 (4.40%) Azure DevOps
8 18 (3.05%) Serverless
9 16 (2.71%) Azure Logic Apps
10 14 (2.37%) Microsoft Copilot
11 13 (2.20%) GitHub
11 13 (2.20%) Snowflake
12 11 (1.86%) Azure Service Bus
13 10 (1.69%) Amazon ECS
13 10 (1.69%) AWS Lambda
13 10 (1.69%) PowerApps
14 9 (1.52%) Azure Key Vault
14 9 (1.52%) Power Automate
15 8 (1.35%) Azure Cosmos DB
16 7 (1.18%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 10 (1.69%) SSL
2 5 (0.85%) Broadband
3 1 (0.17%) Asterisk PBX
3 1 (0.17%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 46 (7.78%) PostgreSQL
2 40 (6.77%) SQL Server
3 18 (3.05%) Redis
4 13 (2.20%) MySQL
5 10 (1.69%) DynamoDB
5 10 (1.69%) MongoDB
6 9 (1.52%) Amazon RDS
7 8 (1.35%) Power BI
8 6 (1.02%) Elasticsearch
9 5 (0.85%) Metadata
9 5 (0.85%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 3 (0.51%) Db2
10 3 (0.51%) MariaDB
10 3 (0.51%) Spatial Data
11 2 (0.34%) Geospatial Data
11 2 (0.34%) InterSystems Cache
11 2 (0.34%) NoSQL
12 1 (0.17%) Azure SQL Database
12 1 (0.17%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 27 (4.57%) Git
2 8 (1.35%) JIRA
3 5 (0.85%) Bitbucket
4 4 (0.68%) Cypress.io
4 4 (0.68%) Maven
5 3 (0.51%) Jenkins
5 3 (0.51%) JUnit
5 3 (0.51%) Mockito
5 3 (0.51%) NUnit
5 3 (0.51%) Vite
5 3 (0.51%) webpack
6 2 (0.34%) GitLab
6 2 (0.34%) MSI
6 2 (0.34%) TeamCity
6 2 (0.34%) Terragrunt
7 1 (0.17%) Ant
7 1 (0.17%) Eclipse
7 1 (0.17%) fastlane
7 1 (0.17%) git-flow
7 1 (0.17%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 114 (19.29%) Finance
2 56 (9.48%) Social Skills
3 39 (6.60%) Front Office
4 16 (2.71%) Law
5 15 (2.54%) Banking
6 14 (2.37%) Games
7 13 (2.20%) Analytical Skills
8 8 (1.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 7 (1.18%) Public Sector
10 6 (1.02%) Retail
11 5 (0.85%) Legal
11 5 (0.85%) Legal Technology
12 4 (0.68%) Tech for Good
13 2 (0.34%) Health Technology
13 2 (0.34%) Marketing
14 1 (0.17%) Investment Banking
14 1 (0.17%) Local Government
14 1 (0.17%) Manufacturing
14 1 (0.17%) Organisational Skills
14 1 (0.17%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 133 (22.50%) .NET
2 101 (17.09%) React
3 97 (16.41%) Node.js
4 50 (8.46%) RESTful
5 48 (8.12%) GraphQL
6 39 (6.60%) Redux
7 35 (5.92%) Vue
8 30 (5.08%) .NET Core
8 30 (5.08%) Kafka
9 29 (4.91%) ASP.NET
10 28 (4.74%) React Native
11 26 (4.40%) Spring
12 24 (4.06%) REST
13 22 (3.72%) CSS
14 20 (3.38%) HTML
15 19 (3.21%) AngularJS
16 16 (2.71%) Next.js
17 15 (2.54%) Laravel
18 13 (2.20%) .NET Framework
18 13 (2.20%) PyTorch
Miscellaneous
1 37 (6.26%) Cloud Native
2 36 (6.09%) Fixed Income
3 23 (3.89%) Product Ownership
4 17 (2.88%) Derivative
4 17 (2.88%) Distributed Systems
4 17 (2.88%) Enterprise Software
5 16 (2.71%) Equities
5 16 (2.71%) Mobile App
6 15 (2.54%) Legacy Systems
7 12 (2.03%) Low-Code
8 11 (1.86%) PropTech
9 9 (1.52%) Legacy Applications
10 5 (0.85%) Onboarding
10 5 (0.85%) Virtual Team
11 4 (0.68%) Algorithms
11 4 (0.68%) Credit Risk
11 4 (0.68%) Video\Live Streaming
12 3 (0.51%) AS400
12 3 (0.51%) Operational Technology
12 3 (0.51%) Photography
Operating Systems
1 34 (5.75%) Apple iOS
2 32 (5.41%) Android
3 4 (0.68%) Linux
3 4 (0.68%) Windows
4 1 (0.17%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 183 (30.96%) Full-Stack Development
2 131 (22.17%) Mentoring
3 121 (20.47%) Software Engineering
4 116 (19.63%) Technical Leadership
5 105 (17.77%) Agile
6 86 (14.55%) CI/CD
7 78 (13.20%) AI
8 75 (12.69%) DevOps
9 64 (10.83%) Continuous Improvement
9 64 (10.83%) Microservices
10 41 (6.94%) Problem-Solving
11 39 (6.60%) Portfolio Management
12 38 (6.43%) Event-Driven
12 38 (6.43%) Investment Management
13 36 (6.09%) Event-Driven Architecture
14 35 (5.92%) Fintech
14 35 (5.92%) Roadmaps
15 32 (5.41%) Coaching
15 32 (5.41%) Design Patterns
16 31 (5.25%) Mobile Development
Programming Languages
1 134 (22.67%) JavaScript
2 130 (22.00%) C#
3 129 (21.83%) TypeScript
4 89 (15.06%) Python
5 62 (10.49%) Java
6 58 (9.81%) SQL
7 28 (4.74%) Go
8 14 (2.37%) PHP
9 12 (2.03%) C++
10 11 (1.86%) Swift
11 10 (1.69%) DataWeave
11 10 (1.69%) Kotlin
12 9 (1.52%) Bicep
13 8 (1.35%) RPG
14 6 (1.02%) Ruby
15 5 (0.85%) PowerShell
16 4 (0.68%) Bash
16 4 (0.68%) C
17 3 (0.51%) PL/SQL
17 3 (0.51%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 27 (4.57%) Degree
2 23 (3.89%) SC Cleared
2 23 (3.89%) Security Cleared
3 14 (2.37%) Computer Science Degree
4 9 (1.52%) DBS Check
5 5 (0.85%) ITIL Certification
6 1 (0.17%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (3.89%) QA
2 12 (2.03%) Accessibility
3 6 (1.02%) Data Quality
4 2 (0.34%) NCSC
4 2 (0.34%) WCAG
5 1 (0.17%) GDPR
5 1 (0.17%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 35 (5.92%) Docker
2 3 (0.51%) Firmware
3 1 (0.17%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 24 (4.06%) Kubernetes
2 16 (2.71%) Terraform
3 10 (1.69%) CloudHub
4 2 (0.34%) Ansible
5 1 (0.17%) Grafana
5 1 (0.17%) Kibana
5 1 (0.17%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 60 (10.15%) Microsoft
2 17 (2.88%) Salesforce
3 15 (2.54%) MuleSoft
4 11 (1.86%) ServiceNow
5 10 (1.69%) SAP
6 7 (1.18%) HubSpot
7 6 (1.02%) IBM
7 6 (1.02%) Oracle
8 4 (0.68%) Apple
9 3 (0.51%) Bloomberg
9 3 (0.51%) DevExpress
9 3 (0.51%) OpenAI
10 2 (0.34%) Google
10 2 (0.34%) Refinitiv
10 2 (0.34%) TikTok
11 1 (0.17%) Citrix
11 1 (0.17%) Reuters
11 1 (0.17%) Revolut