Lead Software Engineer Job Trends in Scotland

Lead Software Engineer
UK > Scotland

The median Lead Software Engineer salary in Scotland is £80,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 26 November 2025.

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

6 months to
26 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 95 131 125
Rank change year-on-year +36 -6 +58
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead Software Engineer 49 25 24
As % of all permanent jobs in Scotland 1.80% 0.76% 1.02%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.08% 0.80% 1.06%
Number of salaries quoted 10 20 23
10th Percentile £10,000 £64,800 -
25th Percentile £26,875 £65,000 £53,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £80,000 £66,000 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year +21.21% +1.54% -36.12%
75th Percentile £95,625 £75,000 £137,913
90th Percentile £100,750 £81,847 -
UK median annual salary £90,000 £90,000 £85,000
% change year-on-year - +5.88% +13.33%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
Scotland

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in Scotland. 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 Scotland with a recognized job title 2,354 3,106 2,262
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 86.64% 94.96% 96.58%
Number of salaries quoted 1,173 1,535 1,784
10th Percentile £26,250 £31,250 £25,000
25th Percentile £31,500 £40,000 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £53,000 £50,250
Median % change year-on-year -15.09% +5.47% -8.64%
75th Percentile £67,500 £70,000 £68,750
90th Percentile £85,000 £82,500 £82,548
UK median annual salary £55,000 £57,500 £60,000
% change year-on-year -4.35% -4.17% -

Lead Software Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in Scotland

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

Lead Software Engineer job vacancy trend in Scotland

Lead Software Engineer
Salary Trend in Scotland

Salary distribution trend for Lead Software Engineer job vacancies in Scotland.

Salary distribution trend for Lead Software Engineer job vacancies in Scotland

Lead Software Engineer
Salary Histogram in Scotland

Salary distribution for jobs citing Lead Software Engineer in Scotland over the 6 months to 26 November 2025.

Salary histogram for Lead Software Engineer in Scotland

Lead Software Engineer
Job Locations in Scotland

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Lead Software Engineer within the Scotland region over the 6 months to 26 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
Glasgow +35 43 £80,000 +13.48% 3
Edinburgh -5 6 £55,000 -15.38% 3
Lead Software Engineer
UK

Lead Software Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Scotland

For the 6 months to 26 November 2025, Lead Software Engineer 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 Scotland region featuring Lead Software Engineer in the job title.

1 49 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 33 (67.35%) Agile
2 33 (67.35%) Operational Stability
3 30 (61.22%) Java
4 27 (55.10%) SDLC
5 26 (53.06%) CI/CD
6 22 (44.90%) AI
7 21 (42.86%) Community of Practice
8 20 (40.82%) Architectural Design
8 20 (40.82%) Information Architecture
9 18 (36.73%) Kafka
9 18 (36.73%) Machine Learning
10 17 (34.69%) AWS
11 16 (32.65%) Python
12 15 (30.61%) Spring
13 14 (28.57%) RESTful
14 12 (24.49%) Problem-Solving
14 12 (24.49%) SQL
15 11 (22.45%) Kubernetes
16 10 (20.41%) Azure
16 10 (20.41%) Full-Stack Development
16 10 (20.41%) React
17 9 (18.37%) Big Data
17 9 (18.37%) Computer Science
17 9 (18.37%) Decision-Making
17 9 (18.37%) Mathematics
18 7 (14.29%) C#
18 7 (14.29%) Containerisation
18 7 (14.29%) Continuous Improvement
18 7 (14.29%) DevOps

Lead Software Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Scotland 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 6 (12.24%) Apache
1 6 (12.24%) Apache Spark
Cloud Services
1 17 (34.69%) AWS
2 10 (20.41%) Azure
3 7 (14.29%) GitHub
4 6 (12.24%) GCP
5 4 (8.16%) Azure AI
5 4 (8.16%) Azure DevOps
5 4 (8.16%) ChatGPT
5 4 (8.16%) GitHub Actions
5 4 (8.16%) Microsoft Copilot
6 3 (6.12%) Amazon EKS
6 3 (6.12%) Amazon S3
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (18.37%) Big Data
2 6 (12.24%) Amazon Athena
2 6 (12.24%) KDB
2 6 (12.24%) Kdb+
2 6 (12.24%) NoSQL
2 6 (12.24%) PostgreSQL
3 3 (6.12%) Amazon Redshift
3 3 (6.12%) Apache Hudi
3 3 (6.12%) Apache Iceberg
3 3 (6.12%) Elasticsearch
3 3 (6.12%) InterSystems Cache
3 3 (6.12%) Parquet
3 3 (6.12%) Relational Database
4 2 (4.08%) Data Mart
Development Applications
1 3 (6.12%) Jenkins
1 3 (6.12%) JUnit
General
1 45 (91.84%) Finance
2 39 (79.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
2 39 (79.59%) Law
3 27 (55.10%) Banking
4 12 (24.49%) Marketing
5 6 (12.24%) Games
6 5 (10.20%) Private Banking
7 4 (8.16%) Organisational Skills
8 3 (6.12%) Front Office
8 3 (6.12%) Investment Banking
8 3 (6.12%) Social Skills
9 1 (2.04%) Influencing Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (36.73%) Kafka
2 15 (30.61%) Spring
3 14 (28.57%) RESTful
4 10 (20.41%) React
5 6 (12.24%) Spring Boot
5 6 (12.24%) Web Services
6 4 (8.16%) .NET
6 4 (8.16%) .NET Core
6 4 (8.16%) AngularJS
6 4 (8.16%) Blazor
6 4 (8.16%) PySpark
7 3 (6.12%) FIX Protocol
7 3 (6.12%) J2EE
7 3 (6.12%) OAuth
7 3 (6.12%) OAuth2
7 3 (6.12%) OpenID
7 3 (6.12%) REST
7 3 (6.12%) SAML
8 1 (2.04%) NumPy
8 1 (2.04%) Pandas
Miscellaneous
1 26 (53.06%) Cloud Native
2 7 (14.29%) Algorithms
2 7 (14.29%) Distributed Systems
3 3 (6.12%) Credit Risk
3 3 (6.12%) Derivative
3 3 (6.12%) Distributed Applications
3 3 (6.12%) Enterprise Software
3 3 (6.12%) Fixed Income
3 3 (6.12%) Onboarding
Processes & Methodologies
1 49 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 33 (67.35%) Agile
2 33 (67.35%) Operational Stability
3 27 (55.10%) SDLC
4 26 (53.06%) CI/CD
5 22 (44.90%) AI
6 21 (42.86%) Community of Practice
7 20 (40.82%) Architectural Design
7 20 (40.82%) Information Architecture
8 18 (36.73%) Machine Learning
9 12 (24.49%) Problem-Solving
10 10 (20.41%) Full-Stack Development
11 9 (18.37%) Computer Science
11 9 (18.37%) Decision-Making
11 9 (18.37%) Mathematics
12 7 (14.29%) Containerisation
12 7 (14.29%) Continuous Improvement
12 7 (14.29%) DevOps
12 7 (14.29%) Microservices
12 7 (14.29%) Visualisation
Programming Languages
1 30 (61.22%) Java
2 16 (32.65%) Python
3 12 (24.49%) SQL
4 7 (14.29%) C#
5 6 (12.24%) JavaScript
6 3 (6.12%) Go
6 3 (6.12%) TypeScript
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (6.12%) Data Quality
System Software
1 7 (14.29%) Docker
Systems Management
1 11 (22.45%) Kubernetes
2 6 (12.24%) Terraform
3 3 (6.12%) Grafana
3 3 (6.12%) Netcool
3 3 (6.12%) Netcool/OMNIbus
3 3 (6.12%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 6 (12.24%) Oracle
2 3 (6.12%) Databricks
2 3 (6.12%) Dynatrace
2 3 (6.12%) Facebook
2 3 (6.12%) Google
2 3 (6.12%) IBM
2 3 (6.12%) ServiceNow
2 3 (6.12%) Splunk
3 2 (4.08%) Murex