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 19 September 2026.

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

6 months to
19 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 252 265 210
Rank change year-on-year +13 -55 +16
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead Developer 214 123 295
As % of all permanent jobs in London 0.84% 1.03% 1.53%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.91% 1.13% 1.60%
Number of salaries quoted 171 74 254
10th Percentile £70,000 £69,000 £50,000
25th Percentile £80,875 £76,250 £72,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £90,000 £100,000 £100,000
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% - +8.11%
75th Percentile £100,000 £142,500 £142,500
90th Percentile £105,000 - £165,000
England median annual salary £83,500 £75,000 £70,000
% change year-on-year +11.33% +7.14% -11.11%

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 23,446 10,900 18,393
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.56% 91.21% 95.37%
Number of salaries quoted 16,105 7,112 11,567
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 £97,313 £95,000
90th Percentile - £120,000 £120,000
England median annual salary £59,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +7.27% - -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 19 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 19 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 +39 50 £85,000 -29.17% 7
South London +6 6 £70,000 -22.22% 1
Lead Developer
England

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

For the 6 months to 19 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 (24.30%) Technical Leadership
2 44 (20.56%) Full-Stack Development
3 42 (19.63%) AWS
3 42 (19.63%) Azure
4 41 (19.16%) Python
5 35 (16.36%) AI
6 33 (15.42%) CI/CD
6 33 (15.42%) RESTful
7 32 (14.95%) C#
7 32 (14.95%) Dynamics 365
8 30 (14.02%) Power Platform
9 28 (13.08%) Mentoring
9 28 (13.08%) Microsoft
9 28 (13.08%) React
10 26 (12.15%) SQL
11 24 (11.21%) DevOps
12 23 (10.75%) JavaScript
12 23 (10.75%) Test Automation
13 22 (10.28%) Agile
13 22 (10.28%) Android
13 22 (10.28%) Apple iOS
13 22 (10.28%) Event-Driven
13 22 (10.28%) Mobile Development
13 22 (10.28%) React Native
14 20 (9.35%) GraphQL
14 20 (9.35%) PostgreSQL
14 20 (9.35%) Problem-Solving
14 20 (9.35%) Software Engineering
15 19 (8.88%) Event-Driven Architecture
15 19 (8.88%) 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 (8.41%) Anypoint
1 18 (8.41%) Mule
2 4 (1.87%) SharePoint
Business Applications
1 8 (3.74%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 42 (19.63%) AWS
1 42 (19.63%) Azure
2 32 (14.95%) Dynamics 365
3 30 (14.02%) Power Platform
4 15 (7.01%) Azure Logic Apps
5 12 (5.61%) Microsoft Copilot
6 8 (3.74%) GCP
6 8 (3.74%) Power Automate
6 8 (3.74%) PowerApps
7 7 (3.27%) Azure Data Factory
8 5 (2.34%) Azure Service Bus
8 5 (2.34%) Serverless
9 4 (1.87%) Amazon Bedrock
9 4 (1.87%) Azure DevOps
9 4 (1.87%) SaaS
10 3 (1.40%) Anthropic Claude
10 3 (1.40%) Azure AKS
10 3 (1.40%) Copilot Studio
10 3 (1.40%) iPaaS
10 3 (1.40%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 13 (6.07%) SSL
2 3 (1.40%) Broadband
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (9.35%) PostgreSQL
2 13 (6.07%) MySQL
3 10 (4.67%) Power BI
4 4 (1.87%) SQL Server
4 4 (1.87%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 3 (1.40%) KDB
5 3 (1.40%) MariaDB
5 3 (1.40%) MongoDB
6 2 (0.93%) InterSystems Cache
6 2 (0.93%) Redis
7 1 (0.47%) Db2
7 1 (0.47%) DynamoDB
7 1 (0.47%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 6 (2.80%) Git
2 2 (0.93%) Claude Code
2 2 (0.93%) GitLab
2 2 (0.93%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.47%) Ant
General
1 51 (23.83%) Finance
2 36 (16.82%) Social Skills
3 20 (9.35%) Banking
4 16 (7.48%) Law
5 10 (4.67%) Front Office
6 7 (3.27%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 6 (2.80%) Analytical Skills
7 6 (2.80%) Games
8 5 (2.34%) Marketing
8 5 (2.34%) Public Sector
9 4 (1.87%) Investment Banking
10 3 (1.40%) Legal
10 3 (1.40%) Legal Technology
10 3 (1.40%) Retail
11 1 (0.47%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (15.42%) RESTful
2 28 (13.08%) React
3 22 (10.28%) React Native
4 20 (9.35%) GraphQL
5 18 (8.41%) .NET
6 13 (6.07%) JWT
6 13 (6.07%) Laravel
6 13 (6.07%) MUnit
6 13 (6.07%) OAuth
6 13 (6.07%) OAuth2
6 13 (6.07%) RAML
7 12 (5.61%) CSS
8 11 (5.14%) HTML
8 11 (5.14%) Vue
9 10 (4.67%) CodeIgniter
9 10 (4.67%) SOAP
9 10 (4.67%) Symfony
10 8 (3.74%) Next.js
10 8 (3.74%) REST
11 6 (2.80%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 18 (8.41%) Cloud Native
2 14 (6.54%) Legacy Systems
3 13 (6.07%) Low-Code
4 7 (3.27%) Greenfield Project
5 6 (2.80%) Product Ownership
5 6 (2.80%) Virtual Team
6 4 (1.87%) AI Agents
6 4 (1.87%) Enterprise Software
6 4 (1.87%) Hedge funds
7 3 (1.40%) Algorithms
7 3 (1.40%) Equities
7 3 (1.40%) Operational Technology
7 3 (1.40%) PropTech
8 2 (0.93%) Distributed Architecture
8 2 (0.93%) Distributed Systems
8 2 (0.93%) Mobile App
8 2 (0.93%) Video\Live Streaming
9 1 (0.47%) Cyber Threat
9 1 (0.47%) Cyberattack
9 1 (0.47%) Derivative
Operating Systems
1 22 (10.28%) Android
1 22 (10.28%) Apple iOS
2 1 (0.47%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 52 (24.30%) Technical Leadership
2 44 (20.56%) Full-Stack Development
3 35 (16.36%) AI
4 33 (15.42%) CI/CD
5 28 (13.08%) Mentoring
6 24 (11.21%) DevOps
7 23 (10.75%) Test Automation
8 22 (10.28%) Agile
8 22 (10.28%) Event-Driven
8 22 (10.28%) Mobile Development
9 20 (9.35%) Problem-Solving
9 20 (9.35%) Software Engineering
10 19 (8.88%) Event-Driven Architecture
11 14 (6.54%) Roadmaps
12 13 (6.07%) Batch Processing
12 13 (6.07%) Fintech
12 13 (6.07%) Root Cause Analysis
13 12 (5.61%) Stakeholder Management
14 11 (5.14%) Intelligent Automation
14 11 (5.14%) Microservices
Programming Languages
1 41 (19.16%) Python
2 32 (14.95%) C#
3 26 (12.15%) SQL
4 23 (10.75%) JavaScript
5 13 (6.07%) DataWeave
6 10 (4.67%) Java
6 10 (4.67%) PHP
7 6 (2.80%) Go
7 6 (2.80%) RPG
7 6 (2.80%) TypeScript
8 4 (1.87%) C++
8 4 (1.87%) R
8 4 (1.87%) Ruby
9 3 (1.40%) T-SQL
10 2 (0.93%) Kotlin
10 2 (0.93%) Swift
11 1 (0.47%) Bicep
11 1 (0.47%) C
11 1 (0.47%) SOQL
11 1 (0.47%) SOSL
Qualifications
1 19 (8.88%) Security Cleared
2 18 (8.41%) SC Cleared
3 8 (3.74%) Degree
4 5 (2.34%) ITIL Certification
5 4 (1.87%) Azure Certification
5 4 (1.87%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (3.74%) QA
2 5 (2.34%) Data Quality
3 1 (0.47%) Accessibility
System Software
1 11 (5.14%) Docker
Systems Management
1 13 (6.07%) CloudHub
2 7 (3.27%) Kubernetes
3 2 (0.93%) Ansible
Vendors
1 28 (13.08%) Microsoft
2 18 (8.41%) MuleSoft
3 14 (6.54%) Salesforce
3 14 (6.54%) ServiceNow
4 13 (6.07%) SAP
5 6 (2.80%) Google
5 6 (2.80%) IBM
6 3 (1.40%) Bloomberg
7 2 (0.93%) Refinitiv
7 2 (0.93%) TikTok
8 1 (0.47%) Citrix
8 1 (0.47%) OpenAI
8 1 (0.47%) Oracle
8 1 (0.47%) Reuters