Lead Developer Job Trends in England

Lead Developer
UK > England

The median Lead Developer salary in England is £76,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 26 December 2025.

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

6 months to
26 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 326 326 269
Rank change year-on-year 0 -57 +26
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead Developer 318 428 516
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.60% 0.85% 1.14%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.67% 0.91% 1.20%
Number of salaries quoted 249 327 436
10th Percentile £56,000 £46,250 £57,750
25th Percentile £67,500 £47,000 £63,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £76,000 £67,500 £80,000
Median % change year-on-year +12.59% -15.63% -
75th Percentile £90,000 £85,000 £105,313
90th Percentile £112,500 £112,500 £123,750
UK median annual salary £76,500 £67,500 £80,000
% change year-on-year +13.33% -15.63% -

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 47,731 46,784 43,148
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.63% 93.25% 95.05%
Number of salaries quoted 30,024 25,043 33,803
10th Percentile £28,675 £33,125 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £45,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -0.41%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £80,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £97,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -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 26 December 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 26 December 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 +24 122 £96,250 +13.24% 33
North of England +3 73 £70,000 +27.56% 25
South East +19 43 £86,250 +18.15% 34
Midlands +11 39 £74,500 +56.84% 9
North West -1 37 £70,000 +27.27% 14
West Midlands +21 33 £74,000 +57.45% 3
Yorkshire -3 30 £76,250 +62.23% 6
South West -5 25 £67,500 +43.62% 17
East of England +13 9 £71,250 -25.00% 8
North East +11 6 £68,500 +5.38% 5
East Midlands -8 6 £75,000 +11.11% 6
Lead Developer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 26 December 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.

1 104 (32.70%) AWS
2 100 (31.45%) Azure
3 93 (29.25%) Agile
4 87 (27.36%) Python
5 84 (26.42%) Mentoring
6 67 (21.07%) CI/CD
7 66 (20.75%) Full-Stack Development
8 65 (20.44%) Technical Leadership
9 63 (19.81%) C#
10 60 (18.87%) React
11 58 (18.24%) .NET
12 48 (15.09%) AI
13 47 (14.78%) Continuous Improvement
14 46 (14.47%) Java
15 45 (14.15%) Software Engineering
16 43 (13.52%) Microservices
16 43 (13.52%) Problem-Solving
17 40 (12.58%) SQL
18 39 (12.26%) DevOps
18 39 (12.26%) JavaScript
19 38 (11.95%) Docker
20 37 (11.64%) SaaS
21 35 (11.01%) QA
21 35 (11.01%) Serverless
21 35 (11.01%) TypeScript
22 34 (10.69%) Containerisation
22 34 (10.69%) Roadmaps
23 32 (10.06%) Coaching
24 31 (9.75%) Code Quality
24 31 (9.75%) RESTful

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 2 (0.63%) SharePoint
1 2 (0.63%) WordPress
2 1 (0.31%) Confluence
Applications
1 1 (0.31%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 14 (4.40%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.63%) NEC Housing
3 1 (0.31%) Endur
3 1 (0.31%) Magento
3 1 (0.31%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.31%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 104 (32.70%) AWS
2 100 (31.45%) Azure
3 37 (11.64%) SaaS
4 35 (11.01%) Serverless
5 27 (8.49%) Power Platform
6 24 (7.55%) Amazon S3
6 24 (7.55%) AWS Lambda
7 21 (6.60%) GCP
8 19 (5.97%) Amazon SQS
8 19 (5.97%) GitHub
9 17 (5.35%) Dynamics 365
10 15 (4.72%) PowerApps
11 10 (3.14%) Azure DevOps
12 8 (2.52%) Azure Data Factory
13 7 (2.20%) Azure Cosmos DB
13 7 (2.20%) Power Automate
14 5 (1.57%) GitHub Copilot
14 5 (1.57%) Microsoft 365
15 4 (1.26%) Amazon ECS
15 4 (1.26%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 2 (0.63%) Network Security
2 1 (0.31%) Broadband
2 1 (0.31%) MQTT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (8.49%) SQL Server
2 23 (7.23%) MongoDB
3 22 (6.92%) PostgreSQL
4 21 (6.60%) NoSQL
5 12 (3.77%) MySQL
6 11 (3.46%) Power BI
7 8 (2.52%) Relational Database
8 6 (1.89%) Tick Data
9 4 (1.26%) Data Warehouse
9 4 (1.26%) DynamoDB
9 4 (1.26%) RDBMS
9 4 (1.26%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 3 (0.94%) Data Lake
10 3 (0.94%) SQL Server Analysis Services
11 2 (0.63%) Azure SQL Database
12 1 (0.31%) Amazon Aurora
12 1 (0.31%) Amazon Redshift
12 1 (0.31%) DB2
12 1 (0.31%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
12 1 (0.31%) Redis
Development Applications
1 14 (4.40%) Git
2 5 (1.57%) Jenkins
3 4 (1.26%) SonarQube
4 3 (0.94%) Cypress.io
4 3 (0.94%) GitLab
4 3 (0.94%) Maven
4 3 (0.94%) Xcode
5 2 (0.63%) Cucumber
5 2 (0.63%) ESLint
5 2 (0.63%) Selenium
5 2 (0.63%) Subversion
5 2 (0.63%) Visual Studio
6 1 (0.31%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.31%) JIRA
6 1 (0.31%) Storybook
6 1 (0.31%) TeamCity
6 1 (0.31%) webpack
6 1 (0.31%) XCUITest
General
1 58 (18.24%) Social Skills
2 31 (9.75%) Finance
3 23 (7.23%) Tech for Good
4 19 (5.97%) Health Technology
5 17 (5.35%) Marketing
6 16 (5.03%) Front Office
6 16 (5.03%) Organisational Skills
6 16 (5.03%) Publishing
7 15 (4.72%) Influencing Skills
8 14 (4.40%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 13 (4.09%) Analytical Skills
9 13 (4.09%) Retail
10 12 (3.77%) Public Sector
11 7 (2.20%) Electronics
12 5 (1.57%) Games
13 4 (1.26%) Back Office
13 4 (1.26%) Manufacturing
13 4 (1.26%) Telecoms
14 3 (0.94%) Banking
15 2 (0.63%) Aerospace
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 60 (18.87%) React
2 58 (18.24%) .NET
3 31 (9.75%) RESTful
4 26 (8.18%) Node.js
5 22 (6.92%) Flask
6 18 (5.66%) FastAPI
7 17 (5.35%) Kafka
7 17 (5.35%) REST
8 16 (5.03%) .NET Core
8 16 (5.03%) Vue
9 15 (4.72%) .NET Framework
9 15 (4.72%) HTML
10 14 (4.40%) AngularJS
11 13 (4.09%) CSS
11 13 (4.09%) Laravel
12 12 (3.77%) Django
12 12 (3.77%) Redux
13 11 (3.46%) ASP.NET
13 11 (3.46%) GraphQL
14 10 (3.14%) Blazor
Miscellaneous
1 20 (6.29%) Cloud Native
2 18 (5.66%) Distributed Systems
3 13 (4.09%) Product Ownership
4 12 (3.77%) Fixed Income
5 11 (3.46%) Mobile App
6 9 (2.83%) Greenfield Project
6 9 (2.83%) Legacy Systems
6 9 (2.83%) Marketing Technology
7 7 (2.20%) Data Structures
8 6 (1.89%) Enterprise Software
9 5 (1.57%) AI Agents
9 5 (1.57%) Algorithms
9 5 (1.57%) Clustering
10 4 (1.26%) Credit Risk
10 4 (1.26%) Derivative
10 4 (1.26%) Hedge funds
10 4 (1.26%) PKI
11 3 (0.94%) Low-Code
11 3 (0.94%) Self-Motivation
12 2 (0.63%) Sports Betting
Operating Systems
1 15 (4.72%) Apple iOS
2 8 (2.52%) Android
3 4 (1.26%) Linux
4 1 (0.31%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 93 (29.25%) Agile
2 84 (26.42%) Mentoring
3 67 (21.07%) CI/CD
4 66 (20.75%) Full-Stack Development
5 65 (20.44%) Technical Leadership
6 48 (15.09%) AI
7 47 (14.78%) Continuous Improvement
8 45 (14.15%) Software Engineering
9 43 (13.52%) Microservices
9 43 (13.52%) Problem-Solving
10 39 (12.26%) DevOps
11 34 (10.69%) Containerisation
11 34 (10.69%) Roadmaps
12 32 (10.06%) Coaching
13 31 (9.75%) Code Quality
14 28 (8.81%) Scrum
14 28 (8.81%) TDD
15 23 (7.23%) Clean Code
16 22 (6.92%) Continuous Integration
16 22 (6.92%) Design Patterns
Programming Languages
1 87 (27.36%) Python
2 63 (19.81%) C#
3 46 (14.47%) Java
4 40 (12.58%) SQL
5 39 (12.26%) JavaScript
6 35 (11.01%) TypeScript
7 17 (5.35%) Go
8 14 (4.40%) PHP
9 11 (3.46%) Scala
10 8 (2.52%) Kotlin
11 5 (1.57%) C++
11 5 (1.57%) Swift
12 2 (0.63%) Apex Code
12 2 (0.63%) Bash
12 2 (0.63%) C
12 2 (0.63%) Groovy
12 2 (0.63%) Ruby
13 1 (0.31%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 1 (0.31%) RPG
13 1 (0.31%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 10 (3.14%) Degree
2 6 (1.89%) Security Cleared
3 4 (1.26%) SC Cleared
4 3 (0.94%) Computer Science Degree
5 2 (0.63%) PhD
6 1 (0.31%) AWS Certification
6 1 (0.31%) AWS Certified Developer
6 1 (0.31%) ITIL Certification
6 1 (0.31%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (11.01%) QA
2 5 (1.57%) Accessibility
3 1 (0.31%) Data Quality
3 1 (0.31%) GAAP
3 1 (0.31%) HL7
3 1 (0.31%) IFRS
3 1 (0.31%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 38 (11.95%) Docker
Systems Management
1 17 (5.35%) Kubernetes
2 14 (4.40%) Terraform
3 3 (0.94%) HP Fortify
4 2 (0.63%) Ansible
Vendors
1 25 (7.86%) Microsoft
2 5 (1.57%) Databricks
2 5 (1.57%) OpenAI
3 4 (1.26%) Google
3 4 (1.26%) SAP
4 3 (0.94%) Salesforce
5 2 (0.63%) NEC
5 2 (0.63%) Northgate
6 1 (0.31%) Adobe
6 1 (0.31%) Apple
6 1 (0.31%) eFront
6 1 (0.31%) Foundry
6 1 (0.31%) IBM
6 1 (0.31%) Informatica
6 1 (0.31%) OpenLink
6 1 (0.31%) ServiceNow
6 1 (0.31%) Workday