Lead Developer Job Trends in London

Lead Developer
England > London

The median Lead Developer salary in London is £90,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 16 September 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 246 274 218
Rank change year-on-year +28 -56 +8
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead Developer 213 123 293
As % of all permanent jobs in London 0.86% 1.03% 1.53%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.92% 1.13% 1.60%
Number of salaries quoted 171 74 252
10th Percentile £66,750 £69,000 £50,000
25th Percentile £80,000 £76,250 £72,375
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £90,000 £100,000 £100,000
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% - +8.11%
75th Percentile £100,000 £139,375 £142,500
90th Percentile - £142,500 £165,000
England median annual salary £83,500 £75,000 £70,000
% change year-on-year +11.33% +7.14% -12.50%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in London. 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 London with a recognized job title 23,070 10,877 18,304
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.70% 91.16% 95.45%
Number of salaries quoted 15,887 7,089 11,557
10th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £40,000
25th Percentile £55,000 £52,500 £52,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £72,500 £72,500
Median % change year-on-year +3.45% - -0.68%
75th Percentile £100,000 £96,250 £95,000
90th Percentile - £120,000 £120,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.33%

Lead Developer
Job Vacancy Trend in London

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 London.

Lead Developer job vacancy trend in London

Lead Developer
Salary Trend in London

Salary distribution trend for Lead Developer job vacancies in London.

Salary distribution trend for Lead Developer job vacancies in London

Lead Developer
Salary Histogram in London

Salary distribution for jobs citing Lead Developer in London over the 6 months to 16 September 2026.

Salary histogram for Lead Developer in London

Lead Developer
Job Locations in London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Lead Developer within the London region over the 6 months to 16 September 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
Central London +31 52 £85,000 -29.17% 8
South London +6 6 £70,000 -22.22% 2
Lead Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 16 September 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 London region featuring Lead Developer in the job title.

1 52 (24.41%) Technical Leadership
2 45 (21.13%) Full-Stack Development
3 40 (18.78%) AWS
3 40 (18.78%) Azure
4 39 (18.31%) Python
5 34 (15.96%) AI
6 33 (15.49%) C#
6 33 (15.49%) CI/CD
6 33 (15.49%) RESTful
7 31 (14.55%) Dynamics 365
8 30 (14.08%) Power Platform
9 29 (13.62%) React
10 28 (13.15%) Mentoring
10 28 (13.15%) Microsoft
11 26 (12.21%) SQL
12 24 (11.27%) DevOps
13 23 (10.80%) JavaScript
13 23 (10.80%) Test Automation
14 22 (10.33%) Agile
14 22 (10.33%) Android
14 22 (10.33%) Apple iOS
14 22 (10.33%) Event-Driven
14 22 (10.33%) Mobile Development
14 22 (10.33%) React Native
15 20 (9.39%) GraphQL
15 20 (9.39%) PostgreSQL
15 20 (9.39%) Problem-Solving
16 19 (8.92%) .NET
16 19 (8.92%) Event-Driven Architecture
16 19 (8.92%) Security Cleared

Lead Developer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in London 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 (8.45%) Anypoint
1 18 (8.45%) Mule
2 4 (1.88%) SharePoint
Business Applications
1 8 (3.76%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 40 (18.78%) AWS
1 40 (18.78%) Azure
2 31 (14.55%) Dynamics 365
3 30 (14.08%) Power Platform
4 15 (7.04%) Azure Logic Apps
5 12 (5.63%) Microsoft Copilot
6 8 (3.76%) Power Automate
6 8 (3.76%) PowerApps
7 7 (3.29%) Azure Data Factory
8 6 (2.82%) GCP
9 5 (2.35%) Azure Service Bus
9 5 (2.35%) SaaS
9 5 (2.35%) Serverless
10 4 (1.88%) Azure DevOps
11 3 (1.41%) Anthropic Claude
11 3 (1.41%) Azure AKS
11 3 (1.41%) Copilot Studio
11 3 (1.41%) iPaaS
11 3 (1.41%) Microsoft 365
12 2 (0.94%) GitHub Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 13 (6.10%) SSL
2 3 (1.41%) Broadband
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (9.39%) PostgreSQL
2 13 (6.10%) MySQL
3 10 (4.69%) Power BI
4 4 (1.88%) SQL Server
4 4 (1.88%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 3 (1.41%) KDB
5 3 (1.41%) MariaDB
5 3 (1.41%) MongoDB
6 2 (0.94%) InterSystems Cache
6 2 (0.94%) Redis
7 1 (0.47%) Db2
7 1 (0.47%) DynamoDB
7 1 (0.47%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 6 (2.82%) Git
2 2 (0.94%) Claude Code
2 2 (0.94%) GitLab
2 2 (0.94%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.47%) Ant
General
1 48 (22.54%) Finance
2 34 (15.96%) Social Skills
3 18 (8.45%) Banking
4 16 (7.51%) Law
5 8 (3.76%) Front Office
6 7 (3.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 6 (2.82%) Analytical Skills
7 6 (2.82%) Games
8 5 (2.35%) Public Sector
9 4 (1.88%) Investment Banking
10 3 (1.41%) Legal
10 3 (1.41%) Legal Technology
10 3 (1.41%) Marketing
10 3 (1.41%) Retail
11 1 (0.47%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (15.49%) RESTful
2 29 (13.62%) React
3 22 (10.33%) React Native
4 20 (9.39%) GraphQL
5 19 (8.92%) .NET
6 13 (6.10%) JWT
6 13 (6.10%) Laravel
6 13 (6.10%) MUnit
6 13 (6.10%) OAuth
6 13 (6.10%) OAuth2
6 13 (6.10%) RAML
7 12 (5.63%) CSS
8 11 (5.16%) HTML
8 11 (5.16%) Vue
9 10 (4.69%) CodeIgniter
9 10 (4.69%) SOAP
9 10 (4.69%) Symfony
10 8 (3.76%) Next.js
10 8 (3.76%) REST
11 6 (2.82%) FastAPI
Miscellaneous
1 19 (8.92%) Cloud Native
2 14 (6.57%) Legacy Systems
3 13 (6.10%) Low-Code
4 6 (2.82%) Greenfield Project
4 6 (2.82%) Product Ownership
4 6 (2.82%) Virtual Team
5 4 (1.88%) Enterprise Software
6 3 (1.41%) Algorithms
6 3 (1.41%) Equities
6 3 (1.41%) Operational Technology
6 3 (1.41%) PropTech
7 2 (0.94%) AI Agents
7 2 (0.94%) Distributed Architecture
7 2 (0.94%) Distributed Systems
7 2 (0.94%) Hedge funds
7 2 (0.94%) Mobile App
7 2 (0.94%) Video\Live Streaming
8 1 (0.47%) Cyber Threat
8 1 (0.47%) Cyberattack
8 1 (0.47%) Derivative
Operating Systems
1 22 (10.33%) Android
1 22 (10.33%) Apple iOS
2 1 (0.47%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 52 (24.41%) Technical Leadership
2 45 (21.13%) Full-Stack Development
3 34 (15.96%) AI
4 33 (15.49%) CI/CD
5 28 (13.15%) Mentoring
6 24 (11.27%) DevOps
7 23 (10.80%) Test Automation
8 22 (10.33%) Agile
8 22 (10.33%) Event-Driven
8 22 (10.33%) Mobile Development
9 20 (9.39%) Problem-Solving
10 19 (8.92%) Event-Driven Architecture
10 19 (8.92%) Software Engineering
11 13 (6.10%) Batch Processing
11 13 (6.10%) Fintech
11 13 (6.10%) Roadmaps
11 13 (6.10%) Root Cause Analysis
12 12 (5.63%) Stakeholder Management
13 11 (5.16%) Intelligent Automation
13 11 (5.16%) Microservices
Programming Languages
1 39 (18.31%) Python
2 33 (15.49%) C#
3 26 (12.21%) SQL
4 23 (10.80%) JavaScript
5 13 (6.10%) DataWeave
6 10 (4.69%) Java
6 10 (4.69%) PHP
7 7 (3.29%) TypeScript
8 6 (2.82%) Go
8 6 (2.82%) RPG
9 4 (1.88%) C++
9 4 (1.88%) Ruby
10 3 (1.41%) T-SQL
11 2 (0.94%) Kotlin
11 2 (0.94%) R
11 2 (0.94%) Swift
12 1 (0.47%) Bicep
12 1 (0.47%) C
12 1 (0.47%) SOQL
12 1 (0.47%) SOSL
Qualifications
1 19 (8.92%) Security Cleared
2 18 (8.45%) SC Cleared
3 8 (3.76%) Degree
4 5 (2.35%) ITIL Certification
5 4 (1.88%) Azure Certification
5 4 (1.88%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (3.76%) QA
2 5 (2.35%) Data Quality
3 1 (0.47%) Accessibility
System Software
1 11 (5.16%) Docker
Systems Management
1 13 (6.10%) CloudHub
2 7 (3.29%) Kubernetes
3 2 (0.94%) Ansible
Vendors
1 28 (13.15%) Microsoft
2 18 (8.45%) MuleSoft
3 14 (6.57%) Salesforce
3 14 (6.57%) ServiceNow
4 13 (6.10%) SAP
5 6 (2.82%) IBM
6 4 (1.88%) Google
7 3 (1.41%) Bloomberg
8 2 (0.94%) Refinitiv
8 2 (0.94%) TikTok
9 1 (0.47%) Citrix
9 1 (0.47%) OpenAI
9 1 (0.47%) Oracle
9 1 (0.47%) Reuters