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 24 August 2026.

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

6 months to
24 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 289 368 232
Rank change year-on-year +79 -136 +77
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead Developer 621 300 869
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.65% 0.68% 1.19%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.69% 0.76% 1.25%
Number of salaries quoted 508 213 751
10th Percentile £65,000 £54,400 £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 £92,875
90th Percentile - £130,000 £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 90,192 39,670 69,296
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.98% 90.52% 95.04%
Number of salaries quoted 63,568 23,991 46,044
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 £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 24 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 24 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 +32 218 £91,250 -1.35% 14
North of England +44 157 £75,000 +7.14% 7
North West +41 96 £75,000 +7.14% 4
Midlands +22 95 £70,000 - 9
South East +20 89 £90,000 +24.14% 5
West Midlands +17 58 £65,000 -8.77% 4
East Midlands +4 37 £70,000 +5.66% 5
Yorkshire -18 33 £75,000 +9.09% 2
North East -32 28 £90,000 +12.50% 1
South West -62 28 £70,000 +27.27% 4
East of England -8 26 £65,000 - 1
Lead Developer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 24 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.

1 182 (29.31%) Full-Stack Development
2 156 (25.12%) C#
3 147 (23.67%) .NET
4 138 (22.22%) Azure
5 135 (21.74%) Mentoring
6 134 (21.58%) JavaScript
7 129 (20.77%) Technical Leadership
8 124 (19.97%) TypeScript
9 123 (19.81%) AWS
10 94 (15.14%) CI/CD
10 94 (15.14%) Software Engineering
11 90 (14.49%) Node.js
12 84 (13.53%) SaaS
13 83 (13.37%) AI
14 81 (13.04%) Agile
15 77 (12.40%) React
16 76 (12.24%) DevOps
17 70 (11.27%) Microservices
18 69 (11.11%) Python
19 68 (10.95%) Microsoft
20 67 (10.79%) Continuous Improvement
20 67 (10.79%) SQL
21 56 (9.02%) RESTful
22 49 (7.89%) Dynamics 365
23 48 (7.73%) SQL Server
24 47 (7.57%) Event-Driven
24 47 (7.57%) Problem-Solving
25 44 (7.09%) Event-Driven Architecture
25 44 (7.09%) Roadmaps
26 43 (6.92%) 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 (3.06%) Anypoint
1 19 (3.06%) Mule
2 10 (1.61%) SharePoint
3 5 (0.81%) Appian
3 5 (0.81%) Confluence
4 4 (0.64%) WordPress
5 1 (0.16%) CMS
Business Applications
1 12 (1.93%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.16%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 138 (22.22%) Azure
2 123 (19.81%) AWS
3 84 (13.53%) SaaS
4 49 (7.89%) Dynamics 365
5 43 (6.92%) Power Platform
6 33 (5.31%) Azure DevOps
7 21 (3.38%) Azure Logic Apps
8 18 (2.90%) Azure Service Bus
8 18 (2.90%) Microsoft Copilot
9 17 (2.74%) Serverless
9 17 (2.74%) Snowflake
10 16 (2.58%) Azure Key Vault
10 16 (2.58%) GCP
10 16 (2.58%) Power Automate
11 15 (2.42%) Azure Cosmos DB
12 14 (2.25%) Azure Monitor
13 13 (2.09%) GitHub
14 12 (1.93%) PowerApps
15 10 (1.61%) Amazon ECS
15 10 (1.61%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 14 (2.25%) SSL
2 5 (0.81%) Broadband
3 1 (0.16%) Asterisk PBX
3 1 (0.16%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 48 (7.73%) SQL Server
2 36 (5.80%) PostgreSQL
3 22 (3.54%) Redis
4 16 (2.58%) MySQL
5 13 (2.09%) 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 (0.81%) Metadata
9 5 (0.81%) 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 33 (5.31%) 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%) Cypress.io
5 2 (0.32%) GitLab
5 2 (0.32%) MSI
5 2 (0.32%) TeamCity
5 2 (0.32%) Terragrunt
6 1 (0.16%) DBeaver
6 1 (0.16%) git-flow
6 1 (0.16%) Visual Studio Code
6 1 (0.16%) Vite
6 1 (0.16%) webpack
6 1 (0.16%) XCUITest
General
1 95 (15.30%) Finance
2 67 (10.79%) Social Skills
3 23 (3.70%) Law
4 18 (2.90%) Banking
4 18 (2.90%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 16 (2.58%) Analytical Skills
6 15 (2.42%) Front Office
7 14 (2.25%) Games
8 8 (1.29%) Retail
9 7 (1.13%) Legal
9 7 (1.13%) Legal Technology
10 6 (0.97%) Public Sector
11 4 (0.64%) Investment Banking
11 4 (0.64%) Marketing
12 2 (0.32%) Manufacturing
13 1 (0.16%) Local Government
13 1 (0.16%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 147 (23.67%) .NET
2 90 (14.49%) Node.js
3 77 (12.40%) React
4 56 (9.02%) RESTful
5 37 (5.96%) ASP.NET
6 36 (5.80%) .NET Core
7 35 (5.64%) Vue
8 33 (5.31%) GraphQL
9 30 (4.83%) REST
10 27 (4.35%) React Native
11 25 (4.03%) CSS
12 23 (3.70%) HTML
13 22 (3.54%) Next.js
13 22 (3.54%) Spring
14 18 (2.90%) Kafka
15 16 (2.58%) Terraform
16 15 (2.42%) Laravel
17 14 (2.25%) AngularJS
17 14 (2.25%) JWT
17 14 (2.25%) MUnit
Miscellaneous
1 38 (6.12%) Cloud Native
2 18 (2.90%) Distributed Systems
2 18 (2.90%) Legacy Systems
2 18 (2.90%) Product Ownership
3 15 (2.42%) Low-Code
4 14 (2.25%) Enterprise Software
4 14 (2.25%) Mobile App
5 9 (1.45%) Fixed Income
6 8 (1.29%) PropTech
7 7 (1.13%) Algorithms
7 7 (1.13%) Equities
8 6 (0.97%) Legacy Applications
8 6 (0.97%) Virtual Team
9 5 (0.81%) Derivative
9 5 (0.81%) Greenfield Project
9 5 (0.81%) 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 33 (5.31%) Android
1 33 (5.31%) Apple iOS
2 4 (0.64%) Linux
3 3 (0.48%) Windows
4 1 (0.16%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 182 (29.31%) Full-Stack Development
2 135 (21.74%) Mentoring
3 129 (20.77%) Technical Leadership
4 94 (15.14%) CI/CD
4 94 (15.14%) Software Engineering
5 83 (13.37%) AI
6 81 (13.04%) Agile
7 76 (12.24%) DevOps
8 70 (11.27%) Microservices
9 67 (10.79%) Continuous Improvement
10 47 (7.57%) Event-Driven
10 47 (7.57%) Problem-Solving
11 44 (7.09%) Event-Driven Architecture
11 44 (7.09%) Roadmaps
12 35 (5.64%) Test Automation
13 34 (5.48%) Design Patterns
14 33 (5.31%) Stakeholder Management
15 32 (5.15%) Mobile Development
16 30 (4.83%) Coaching
17 28 (4.51%) DevSecOps
Programming Languages
1 156 (25.12%) C#
2 134 (21.58%) JavaScript
3 124 (19.97%) TypeScript
4 69 (11.11%) Python
5 67 (10.79%) SQL
6 43 (6.92%) Java
7 16 (2.58%) PHP
8 14 (2.25%) DataWeave
9 13 (2.09%) Go
10 12 (1.93%) C++
11 10 (1.61%) Kotlin
12 9 (1.45%) Bicep
12 9 (1.45%) Swift
13 8 (1.29%) Ruby
14 6 (0.97%) RPG
15 5 (0.81%) 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 (4.99%) Degree
2 27 (4.35%) SC Cleared
2 27 (4.35%) Security Cleared
3 21 (3.38%) Computer Science Degree
4 6 (0.97%) DBS Check
5 5 (0.81%) ITIL Certification
6 2 (0.32%) Azure Certification
7 1 (0.16%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (5.15%) QA
2 9 (1.45%) Accessibility
3 6 (0.97%) 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 (6.92%) 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 68 (10.95%) Microsoft
2 19 (3.06%) MuleSoft
3 16 (2.58%) Salesforce
4 15 (2.42%) ServiceNow
5 14 (2.25%) SAP
6 7 (1.13%) HubSpot
7 6 (0.97%) IBM
7 6 (0.97%) 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