Lead Developer Job Trends in England

Lead Developer
UK > England

The median Lead Developer salary in England is £76,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 17 November 2025.

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

6 months to
17 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 343 260 288
Rank change year-on-year -83 +28 +46
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead Developer 303 631 511
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.67% 1.05% 1.08%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.74% 1.11% 1.13%
Number of salaries quoted 223 499 439
10th Percentile £57,750 - £59,950
25th Percentile £67,500 £47,000 £65,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £76,500 £70,000 £80,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.29% -12.50% -
75th Percentile £90,000 £94,125 £100,000
90th Percentile £122,500 £142,500 £120,000
UK median annual salary £76,250 £67,500 £80,000
% change year-on-year +12.96% -15.63% +3.23%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
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 41,163 56,913 45,042
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.52% 94.37% 95.34%
Number of salaries quoted 26,332 31,901 34,886
10th Percentile £28,250 £32,000 £32,000
25th Percentile £35,621 £42,500 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £53,455 £57,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -7.04% -4.17% -
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £95,000 £100,000
UK median annual salary £52,500 £57,500 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.70% -4.17% -

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 17 November 2025.

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 17 November 2025. 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 -22 129 £97,500 +2.36% 63
North of England -19 71 £70,000 +7.69% 40
Midlands +29 38 £74,000 +55.79% 16
West Midlands +31 35 £72,500 +54.26% 13
North West +2 35 £70,000 +7.69% 23
South East -10 33 £85,000 +25.93% 19
Yorkshire +1 30 £70,000 +48.94% 12
South West -17 18 £68,750 +46.28% 10
East of England -2 7 £65,000 -7.14% 9
North East +1 6 £68,500 +5.38% 5
East Midlands +3 3 £75,000 +25.00% 3
Lead Developer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 17 November 2025, 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.

1 113 (37.29%) Agile
2 112 (36.96%) AWS
3 109 (35.97%) Azure
4 85 (28.05%) Python
5 84 (27.72%) Mentoring
6 74 (24.42%) CI/CD
7 70 (23.10%) C#
8 68 (22.44%) React
9 65 (21.45%) Software Engineering
10 62 (20.46%) .NET
11 61 (20.13%) JavaScript
11 61 (20.13%) Technical Leadership
12 60 (19.80%) Problem-Solving
13 58 (19.14%) Java
14 56 (18.48%) Microservices
15 54 (17.82%) Full-Stack Development
16 48 (15.84%) SQL
17 47 (15.51%) AI
18 45 (14.85%) TypeScript
19 44 (14.52%) DevOps
20 43 (14.19%) Docker
21 42 (13.86%) Containerisation
21 42 (13.86%) Continuous Improvement
22 39 (12.87%) Node.js
23 38 (12.54%) QA
24 36 (11.88%) Power Platform
25 34 (11.22%) Test Automation
26 33 (10.89%) SQL Server
27 32 (10.56%) MongoDB
27 32 (10.56%) Roadmaps

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 5 (1.65%) Confluence
2 4 (1.32%) Apache
3 3 (0.99%) SharePoint
4 2 (0.66%) WordPress
5 1 (0.33%) Anypoint
5 1 (0.33%) Appian
5 1 (0.33%) CMS
5 1 (0.33%) Umbraco
Applications
1 1 (0.33%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (0.33%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 15 (4.95%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.99%) Magento
2 3 (0.99%) Shopify
3 2 (0.66%) NEC Housing
4 1 (0.33%) Endur
4 1 (0.33%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 112 (36.96%) AWS
2 109 (35.97%) Azure
3 36 (11.88%) Power Platform
4 29 (9.57%) SaaS
4 29 (9.57%) Serverless
5 22 (7.26%) GCP
6 21 (6.93%) GitHub
7 19 (6.27%) Amazon S3
7 19 (6.27%) Amazon SQS
7 19 (6.27%) Dynamics 365
7 19 (6.27%) PowerApps
8 14 (4.62%) AWS Lambda
8 14 (4.62%) Azure DevOps
9 11 (3.63%) Power Automate
10 9 (2.97%) Amazon EC2
11 8 (2.64%) Azure Cosmos DB
11 8 (2.64%) Azure Data Factory
12 7 (2.31%) Azure Logic Apps
13 6 (1.98%) Azure Functions
14 5 (1.65%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 1 (0.33%) Broadband
1 1 (0.33%) MQTT
1 1 (0.33%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (10.89%) SQL Server
2 32 (10.56%) MongoDB
3 31 (10.23%) PostgreSQL
4 29 (9.57%) NoSQL
5 20 (6.60%) Power BI
6 10 (3.30%) Data Warehouse
6 10 (3.30%) DynamoDB
7 9 (2.97%) Amazon RDS
7 9 (2.97%) MySQL
8 8 (2.64%) Tick Data
9 7 (2.31%) Azure SQL Database
9 7 (2.31%) Relational Database
10 6 (1.98%) Amazon Aurora
10 6 (1.98%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 5 (1.65%) Data Lake
12 4 (1.32%) Amazon Athena
12 4 (1.32%) Apache Iceberg
12 4 (1.32%) Big Data
12 4 (1.32%) RDBMS
13 3 (0.99%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 24 (7.92%) Git
2 6 (1.98%) Jenkins
2 6 (1.98%) SonarQube
3 5 (1.65%) Bitbucket Server
3 5 (1.65%) DbUnit
3 5 (1.65%) JIRA
3 5 (1.65%) jMock
3 5 (1.65%) JUnit
3 5 (1.65%) Maven
3 5 (1.65%) Mockito
4 4 (1.32%) Visual Studio
4 4 (1.32%) Vite
5 3 (0.99%) Spinnaker
5 3 (0.99%) Xcode
6 1 (0.33%) Android Studio
6 1 (0.33%) MSTest
6 1 (0.33%) NUnit
6 1 (0.33%) Storybook
6 1 (0.33%) Subversion
General
1 63 (20.79%) Social Skills
2 56 (18.48%) Finance
3 32 (10.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 27 (8.91%) Marketing
5 21 (6.93%) Front Office
6 20 (6.60%) Law
7 18 (5.94%) Analytical Skills
8 17 (5.61%) Public Sector
9 14 (4.62%) Retail
10 13 (4.29%) Tech for Good
11 12 (3.96%) Organisational Skills
12 10 (3.30%) Health Technology
13 9 (2.97%) Banking
13 9 (2.97%) Influencing Skills
13 9 (2.97%) Publishing
14 8 (2.64%) Electronics
15 6 (1.98%) Legal
16 5 (1.65%) Back Office
16 5 (1.65%) Games
17 4 (1.32%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 68 (22.44%) React
2 62 (20.46%) .NET
3 39 (12.87%) Node.js
4 30 (9.90%) RESTful
5 24 (7.92%) AngularJS
6 23 (7.59%) Kafka
7 20 (6.60%) Flask
7 20 (6.60%) GraphQL
8 19 (6.27%) REST
9 18 (5.94%) CSS
9 18 (5.94%) HTML
10 17 (5.61%) .NET Core
10 17 (5.61%) Vue
11 16 (5.28%) FastAPI
11 16 (5.28%) Redux
12 13 (4.29%) Blazor
13 12 (3.96%) .NET Framework
13 12 (3.96%) Spring Boot
14 11 (3.63%) SOAP
14 11 (3.63%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 25 (8.25%) Cloud Native
2 17 (5.61%) Fixed Income
2 17 (5.61%) Legacy Systems
3 15 (4.95%) Distributed Systems
3 15 (4.95%) Product Ownership
4 9 (2.97%) Marketing Technology
5 8 (2.64%) Clustering
5 8 (2.64%) Derivative
6 7 (2.31%) Data Structures
6 7 (2.31%) Enterprise Software
7 6 (1.98%) Market Risk
8 5 (1.65%) Distributed Architecture
9 4 (1.32%) AI Agents
9 4 (1.32%) Algorithms
9 4 (1.32%) e-Learning
9 4 (1.32%) Equities
9 4 (1.32%) Greenfield Project
9 4 (1.32%) Hedge funds
9 4 (1.32%) PKI
10 3 (0.99%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 12 (3.96%) Linux
2 10 (3.30%) Apple iOS
3 8 (2.64%) Android
4 5 (1.65%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 113 (37.29%) Agile
2 84 (27.72%) Mentoring
3 74 (24.42%) CI/CD
4 65 (21.45%) Software Engineering
5 61 (20.13%) Technical Leadership
6 60 (19.80%) Problem-Solving
7 56 (18.48%) Microservices
8 54 (17.82%) Full-Stack Development
9 47 (15.51%) AI
10 44 (14.52%) DevOps
11 42 (13.86%) Containerisation
11 42 (13.86%) Continuous Improvement
12 34 (11.22%) Test Automation
13 32 (10.56%) Roadmaps
13 32 (10.56%) TDD
14 31 (10.23%) Scrum
15 29 (9.57%) SDLC
16 28 (9.24%) Code Quality
17 26 (8.58%) Clean Code
18 24 (7.92%) Coaching
Programming Languages
1 85 (28.05%) Python
2 70 (23.10%) C#
3 61 (20.13%) JavaScript
4 58 (19.14%) Java
5 48 (15.84%) SQL
6 45 (14.85%) TypeScript
7 22 (7.26%) Go
8 13 (4.29%) PHP
9 11 (3.63%) Scala
10 9 (2.97%) C++
10 9 (2.97%) Kotlin
11 6 (1.98%) Swift
12 5 (1.65%) C
13 2 (0.66%) Apex Code
13 2 (0.66%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 2 (0.66%) Delphi
13 2 (0.66%) PL/SQL
13 2 (0.66%) PowerShell
13 2 (0.66%) Ruby
13 2 (0.66%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 19 (6.27%) Security Cleared
2 17 (5.61%) Degree
2 17 (5.61%) SC Cleared
3 10 (3.30%) Computer Science Degree
4 4 (1.32%) AWS Certification
4 4 (1.32%) AWS Certified Developer
4 4 (1.32%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
5 1 (0.33%) DBS Check
5 1 (0.33%) DV Cleared
5 1 (0.33%) ITIL Certification
5 1 (0.33%) Master's Degree
5 1 (0.33%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (12.54%) QA
2 8 (2.64%) Accessibility
3 1 (0.33%) Data Quality
3 1 (0.33%) GDPR
3 1 (0.33%) HL7
System Software
1 43 (14.19%) Docker
Systems Management
1 22 (7.26%) Kubernetes
2 18 (5.94%) Terraform
3 3 (0.99%) Argo
Vendors
1 30 (9.90%) Microsoft
2 7 (2.31%) Databricks
3 5 (1.65%) Atlassian
3 5 (1.65%) Google
4 4 (1.32%) SAP
4 4 (1.32%) Splunk
5 3 (0.99%) Salesforce
6 2 (0.66%) IFS
6 2 (0.66%) NEC
6 2 (0.66%) Northgate
7 1 (0.33%) Adobe
7 1 (0.33%) Bloomberg
7 1 (0.33%) Blue Prism
7 1 (0.33%) eFront
7 1 (0.33%) Informatica
7 1 (0.33%) MuleSoft
7 1 (0.33%) OpenAI
7 1 (0.33%) OpenLink
7 1 (0.33%) Oracle
7 1 (0.33%) ServiceNow