Lead Job Trends in Manchester

Leader
North West > Manchester

The median Leader salary in Manchester is £80,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 14 October 2026.

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

6 months to
14 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 17 45 18
Rank change year-on-year +28 -27 +5
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead 567 129 350
As % of all permanent jobs in Manchester 7.36% 5.51% 9.08%
As % of the Job Titles category 7.88% 6.08% 9.59%
Number of salaries quoted 464 105 172
10th Percentile £50,375 £43,850 £38,750
25th Percentile £65,000 £58,250 £55,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £80,000 £72,500 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.34% +3.57% -
75th Percentile £95,000 £85,000 £85,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £90,000
North West median annual salary £75,000 £70,000 £65,000
% change year-on-year +7.14% +7.69% -7.14%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
Manchester

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in Manchester. 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 Manchester with a recognized job title 7,199 2,121 3,649
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.51% 90.60% 94.63%
Number of salaries quoted 5,404 1,277 1,897
10th Percentile £33,150 £28,250 £33,000
25th Percentile £45,000 £35,000 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £52,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +14.29% -4.55% -8.33%
75th Percentile £78,750 £70,000 £69,500
90th Percentile £96,250 £85,000 £84,300
North West median annual salary £55,000 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +10.00% - -9.09%

Lead
Job Vacancy Trend in Manchester

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'Lead' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in Manchester.

Lead job vacancy trend in Manchester

Lead
Salary Trend in Manchester

Salary distribution trend for Lead job vacancies in Manchester.

Salary distribution trend for Lead job vacancies in Manchester

Lead
Salary Histogram in Manchester

Salary distribution for jobs citing Lead in Manchester over the 6 months to 14 October 2026.

Salary histogram for Lead in Manchester

Lead
Job Locations in Manchester

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Lead within the Manchester region over the 6 months to 14 October 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
Salford 0 20 £65,000 -11.32% 9
Altrincham +10 11 £90,000 +28.57% 7
Rochdale -2 2 £35,363 -25.55% 1
Sale - 2 £62,500 -
Stockport - 2 £70,000 - 12
Oldham - 2 £69,950 - 3
Wigan - 1 £75,000 - 3
Bolton - 1 £72,500 - 13
Lead
North West

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

For the 6 months to 14 October 2026, Lead 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 Manchester region featuring Lead in the job title.

1 114 (20.11%) Software Engineering
2 77 (13.58%) Mentoring
3 67 (11.82%) Continuous Improvement
4 66 (11.64%) Full-Stack Development
5 62 (10.93%) Java
6 55 (9.70%) AI
7 52 (9.17%) AWS
7 52 (9.17%) Roadmaps
7 52 (9.17%) Stakeholder Management
8 50 (8.82%) Microsoft
8 50 (8.82%) Technical Leadership
9 49 (8.64%) Agile
9 49 (8.64%) CI/CD
10 47 (8.29%) Decision-Making
11 46 (8.11%) Azure
12 44 (7.76%) Coaching
13 43 (7.58%) SaaS
14 37 (6.53%) DevOps
15 35 (6.17%) Security Cleared
16 31 (5.47%) SQL
17 27 (4.76%) Microservices
17 27 (4.76%) TypeScript
18 26 (4.59%) Risk Management
18 26 (4.59%) Stakeholder Engagement
19 25 (4.41%) Python
19 25 (4.41%) Spring
20 24 (4.23%) Cybersecurity
20 24 (4.23%) Platform Engineering
21 22 (3.88%) Kubernetes
21 22 (3.88%) Migration

Lead Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Manchester 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 11 (1.94%) SharePoint
2 5 (0.88%) Adobe Experience Manager
3 1 (0.18%) Apache Solr
3 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 3 (0.53%) AutoCAD
1 3 (0.53%) Microsoft Office
1 3 (0.53%) Revit
1 3 (0.53%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 4 (0.71%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (0.53%) SAP S/4HANA
3 2 (0.35%) NEC Housing
4 1 (0.18%) Academy Revenues and Benefits
Cloud Services
1 52 (9.17%) AWS
2 46 (8.11%) Azure
3 43 (7.58%) SaaS
4 20 (3.53%) Microsoft 365
5 19 (3.35%) Entra ID
6 13 (2.29%) Power Platform
7 12 (2.12%) Dynamics 365
8 11 (1.94%) GitHub
8 11 (1.94%) Serverless
9 9 (1.59%) GCP
10 6 (1.06%) Power Automate
10 6 (1.06%) PowerApps
11 5 (0.88%) Azure DevOps
12 4 (0.71%) Anthropic Claude
12 4 (0.71%) GitHub Actions
13 3 (0.53%) AWS Lambda
13 3 (0.53%) Azure AI
13 3 (0.53%) Azure Logic Apps
13 3 (0.53%) Microsoft Copilot
13 3 (0.53%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 3 (0.53%) BGP
1 3 (0.53%) Cisco ASA
1 3 (0.53%) Cisco Firepower
1 3 (0.53%) Ethernet VPN
1 3 (0.53%) Firewall
1 3 (0.53%) HSRP
1 3 (0.53%) Internet
1 3 (0.53%) LTE
1 3 (0.53%) MPLS
1 3 (0.53%) VRRP
1 3 (0.53%) VXLAN
2 2 (0.35%) VoIP
3 1 (0.18%) 5G
3 1 (0.18%) HTTP
3 1 (0.18%) LAN
3 1 (0.18%) SAN
3 1 (0.18%) VSAN
3 1 (0.18%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (1.23%) SQL Server
2 5 (0.88%) Power BI
3 3 (0.53%) MongoDB
3 3 (0.53%) Oracle Database
3 3 (0.53%) PostgreSQL
4 2 (0.35%) Amazon RDS
4 2 (0.35%) Azure SQL Database
4 2 (0.35%) BigQuery
4 2 (0.35%) Data Warehouse
4 2 (0.35%) NoSQL
4 2 (0.35%) Power Query
4 2 (0.35%) Redis
4 2 (0.35%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 1 (0.18%) Apache Iceberg
5 1 (0.18%) Big Data
5 1 (0.18%) Flink
5 1 (0.18%) Looker
5 1 (0.18%) Metadata
5 1 (0.18%) Relational Database
5 1 (0.18%) SSDT
Development Applications
1 5 (0.88%) Claude Code
2 4 (0.71%) Git
3 2 (0.35%) GitLab
3 2 (0.35%) JIRA
4 1 (0.18%) Cypress.io
4 1 (0.18%) fastlane
4 1 (0.18%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.18%) Mocha
4 1 (0.18%) NUnit
4 1 (0.18%) Octopus Deploy
General
1 56 (9.88%) Social Skills
2 47 (8.29%) Finance
3 36 (6.35%) Public Sector
4 27 (4.76%) Analytical Skills
5 24 (4.23%) Influencing Skills
5 24 (4.23%) Marketing
6 12 (2.12%) Manufacturing
7 11 (1.94%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 10 (1.76%) Legal
9 9 (1.59%) Organisational Skills
10 8 (1.41%) Law
10 8 (1.41%) Retail
11 5 (0.88%) Documentation Skills
11 5 (0.88%) Publishing
12 4 (0.71%) Digital Health
12 4 (0.71%) Local Government
13 3 (0.53%) iGaming
13 3 (0.53%) Police
14 2 (0.35%) Banking
15 1 (0.18%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (4.41%) Spring
2 20 (3.53%) .NET
3 19 (3.35%) Node.js
4 15 (2.65%) Terraform
5 14 (2.47%) React
5 14 (2.47%) Spring Boot
6 13 (2.29%) Vue
7 8 (1.41%) AngularJS
8 7 (1.23%) CSS
9 6 (1.06%) HTML
9 6 (1.06%) Kafka
9 6 (1.06%) REST
10 5 (0.88%) Next.js
10 5 (0.88%) React Native
11 3 (0.53%) RESTful
11 3 (0.53%) Ruby on Rails
12 2 (0.35%) .NET Core
12 2 (0.35%) Express.js
12 2 (0.35%) GraphQL
12 2 (0.35%) Jest
Miscellaneous
1 22 (3.88%) Cloud Native
2 18 (3.17%) Onboarding
3 14 (2.47%) Hybrid Cloud
4 13 (2.29%) Marketing Technology
5 12 (2.12%) Mobile App
6 9 (1.59%) AI Agents
6 9 (1.59%) Management Information System
6 9 (1.59%) Product Ownership
7 5 (0.88%) Cyber Threat
7 5 (0.88%) Distributed Systems
7 5 (0.88%) Enterprise Software
7 5 (0.88%) Media Streaming
7 5 (0.88%) Podcast
8 4 (0.71%) Culture of Ownership
8 4 (0.71%) Social Media
9 3 (0.53%) Cybercrime
9 3 (0.53%) Operational Technology
9 3 (0.53%) Self-Motivation
10 2 (0.35%) Data Structures
10 2 (0.35%) Learning Management System
Operating Systems
1 19 (3.35%) Windows
2 12 (2.12%) Linux
3 7 (1.23%) Windows Server
4 5 (0.88%) Android
5 3 (0.53%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.18%) macOS
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle Linux
6 1 (0.18%) SUSE
6 1 (0.18%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
6 1 (0.18%) Unix
6 1 (0.18%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 114 (20.11%) Software Engineering
2 77 (13.58%) Mentoring
3 67 (11.82%) Continuous Improvement
4 66 (11.64%) Full-Stack Development
5 55 (9.70%) AI
6 52 (9.17%) Roadmaps
6 52 (9.17%) Stakeholder Management
7 50 (8.82%) Technical Leadership
8 49 (8.64%) Agile
8 49 (8.64%) CI/CD
9 47 (8.29%) Decision-Making
10 44 (7.76%) Coaching
11 37 (6.53%) DevOps
12 27 (4.76%) Microservices
13 26 (4.59%) Risk Management
13 26 (4.59%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 24 (4.23%) Cybersecurity
14 24 (4.23%) Platform Engineering
15 22 (3.88%) Migration
15 22 (3.88%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 62 (10.93%) Java
2 31 (5.47%) SQL
3 27 (4.76%) TypeScript
4 25 (4.41%) Python
5 19 (3.35%) JavaScript
6 7 (1.23%) C#
7 4 (0.71%) Ruby
8 3 (0.53%) Kotlin
9 2 (0.35%) C++
9 2 (0.35%) PowerShell
10 1 (0.18%) Bash
10 1 (0.18%) Bicep
10 1 (0.18%) Dart
10 1 (0.18%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 1 (0.18%) Ladder Logic
10 1 (0.18%) PHP
10 1 (0.18%) Rust
10 1 (0.18%) Swift
10 1 (0.18%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 35 (6.17%) Security Cleared
2 15 (2.65%) BPSS Clearance
3 14 (2.47%) SC Cleared
4 13 (2.29%) DV Cleared
5 7 (1.23%) ITIL Certification
5 7 (1.23%) Microsoft Certification
6 5 (0.88%) Degree
7 4 (0.71%) APMG
7 4 (0.71%) CIPD
8 3 (0.53%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
9 2 (0.35%) Azure Certification
9 2 (0.35%) CISMP
10 1 (0.18%) ACCA
10 1 (0.18%) CIMA
10 1 (0.18%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.18%) HP ASE
10 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Certified Professional
10 1 (0.18%) PMI Certification
10 1 (0.18%) VCAP
10 1 (0.18%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (1.94%) QA
2 9 (1.59%) Data Quality
3 8 (1.41%) SLA
4 7 (1.23%) Accessibility
5 5 (0.88%) GDPR
5 5 (0.88%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 3 (0.53%) NIST
7 2 (0.35%) COBIT
8 1 (0.18%) Cyber Essentials
8 1 (0.18%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 1 (0.18%) IEC 61131
8 1 (0.18%) NCSC
8 1 (0.18%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 15 (2.65%) Docker
2 7 (1.23%) Active Directory
3 5 (0.88%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (0.18%) EMC RecoverPoint
4 1 (0.18%) Firmware
4 1 (0.18%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.18%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.18%) VMware NSX
4 1 (0.18%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 22 (3.88%) Kubernetes
2 10 (1.76%) Ansible
3 3 (0.53%) FortiGate
4 2 (0.35%) Single Sign-On
5 1 (0.18%) Argo
5 1 (0.18%) Functional Safety
5 1 (0.18%) Jamf Pro
5 1 (0.18%) VxRail
Vendors
1 50 (8.82%) Microsoft
2 16 (2.82%) YouTube
3 8 (1.41%) SAP
4 7 (1.23%) Adobe
4 7 (1.23%) Okta
5 5 (0.88%) Juniper
5 5 (0.88%) Oracle
5 5 (0.88%) Palo Alto
6 4 (0.71%) OpenAI
7 3 (0.53%) Arista
7 3 (0.53%) Cisco
7 3 (0.53%) Databricks
7 3 (0.53%) Intel
8 2 (0.35%) BeyondTrust
8 2 (0.35%) BT
8 2 (0.35%) Foundry
8 2 (0.35%) Google
8 2 (0.35%) NEC
8 2 (0.35%) Sitecore
9 1 (0.18%) Veeam