Lead Software Engineer Job Trends in the South East

Lead Software Engineer
England > South East

The median Lead Software Engineer salary in the South East is £82,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 11 July 2026.

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

6 months to
11 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 237 260 323
Rank change year-on-year +23 +63 +13
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead Software Engineer 81 28 65
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 0.52% 0.33% 0.38%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.54% 0.37% 0.41%
Number of salaries quoted 70 23 47
10th Percentile £65,000 £80,000 £45,000
25th Percentile £77,500 £83,750 £56,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £82,500 £90,000 £75,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +20.00% +15.38%
75th Percentile £85,000 £95,000 £91,250
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,500 £95,000
England median annual salary £85,000 £95,000 £90,000
% change year-on-year -10.53% +5.56% +9.42%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
South East

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in the South East. 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 the South East with a recognized job title 14,961 7,571 16,031
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 95.55% 88.61% 94.12%
Number of salaries quoted 10,569 4,221 11,505
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,750 £28,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,000 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £81,250 £78,750
England median annual salary £57,500 £55,000 £53,000
% change year-on-year +4.55% +3.77% -11.67%

Lead Software Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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 the South East.

Lead Software Engineer job vacancy trend in the South East

Lead Software Engineer
Salary Trend in the South East

Salary distribution trend for Lead Software Engineer job vacancies in the South East.

Salary distribution trend for Lead Software Engineer job vacancies in the South East

Lead Software Engineer
Salary Histogram in the South East

Salary distribution for jobs citing Lead Software Engineer in the South East over the 6 months to 11 July 2026.

Salary histogram for Lead Software Engineer in the South East

Lead Software Engineer
Job Locations in the South East

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 South East region over the 6 months to 11 July 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
Thames Valley +38 30 £82,500 -13.16% 3
Hampshire -18 29 £80,000 - 6
Buckinghamshire - 22 £85,000 -
East Sussex -1 13 £65,000 -27.78%
Oxfordshire -1 8 £80,000 -15.79% 3
Surrey -24 7 £100,000 +11.11% 1
Sussex - 2 £85,000 - 1
Lead Software Engineer
England

Lead Software Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East

For the 6 months to 11 July 2026, 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 South East region featuring Lead Software Engineer in the job title.

1 81 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 22 (27.16%) C++
3 19 (23.46%) SaaS
4 18 (22.22%) .NET
4 18 (22.22%) CI/CD
4 18 (22.22%) Containerisation
5 17 (20.99%) C#
6 14 (17.28%) AngularJS
6 14 (17.28%) Linux
6 14 (17.28%) Mentoring
7 12 (14.81%) AWS
8 11 (13.58%) Agile
8 11 (13.58%) C
8 11 (13.58%) Decision-Making
8 11 (13.58%) Docker
9 10 (12.35%) AI
9 10 (12.35%) Code Quality
9 10 (12.35%) Event-Driven
9 10 (12.35%) Security Cleared
9 10 (12.35%) Test Automation
10 9 (11.11%) Python
10 9 (11.11%) SC Cleared
11 8 (9.88%) JavaScript
12 7 (8.64%) Azure
12 7 (8.64%) Degree
12 7 (8.64%) Microservices
12 7 (8.64%) React
12 7 (8.64%) SQL
12 7 (8.64%) Technical Leadership
12 7 (8.64%) Windows

Lead Software Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 5 (6.17%) Apache
2 1 (1.23%) ArchestrA
Cloud Services
1 19 (23.46%) SaaS
2 12 (14.81%) AWS
3 7 (8.64%) Azure
4 4 (4.94%) AWS Lambda
4 4 (4.94%) Serverless
5 2 (2.47%) Amazon S3
5 2 (2.47%) Azure DevOps
5 2 (2.47%) GCP
6 1 (1.23%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 6 (7.41%) TCP/IP
2 5 (6.17%) Wireshark
3 1 (1.23%) Internet
3 1 (1.23%) Software-Defined Networking
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (4.94%) SQL Server
2 3 (3.70%) Elasticsearch
2 3 (3.70%) MongoDB
2 3 (3.70%) PostgreSQL
2 3 (3.70%) Redis
Development Applications
1 5 (6.17%) Yeoman
2 2 (2.47%) JUnit
2 2 (2.47%) Postman
2 2 (2.47%) SpecFlow
3 1 (1.23%) Visual Studio
General
1 8 (9.88%) Social Skills
2 6 (7.41%) Aviation
3 5 (6.17%) Manufacturing
4 4 (4.94%) Organisational Skills
4 4 (4.94%) Public Sector
5 1 (1.23%) Analytical Skills
5 1 (1.23%) Finance
5 1 (1.23%) Games
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (22.22%) .NET
2 14 (17.28%) AngularJS
3 7 (8.64%) React
4 5 (6.17%) CSS
4 5 (6.17%) Django
4 5 (6.17%) HTML
4 5 (6.17%) JSON
4 5 (6.17%) Node.js
4 5 (6.17%) WebSockets
4 5 (6.17%) XML
5 4 (4.94%) Qt
6 3 (3.70%) .NET Core
6 3 (3.70%) .NET Framework
7 2 (2.47%) ASP.NET Web API
7 2 (2.47%) REST
7 2 (2.47%) WPF
8 1 (1.23%) ActiveMQ
8 1 (1.23%) MACH
8 1 (1.23%) RabbitMQ
8 1 (1.23%) ZeroMQ
Miscellaneous
1 9 (11.11%) Algorithms
2 8 (9.88%) Cloud Native
3 4 (4.94%) Enterprise Software
4 3 (3.70%) Distributed Systems
4 3 (3.70%) IoT
5 2 (2.47%) Public Cloud
6 1 (1.23%) Client/Server
6 1 (1.23%) Data Structures
6 1 (1.23%) Distributed Architecture
6 1 (1.23%) Driving Licence
6 1 (1.23%) Operational Technology
6 1 (1.23%) Private Cloud
6 1 (1.23%) Product Ownership
6 1 (1.23%) Robotics
6 1 (1.23%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 14 (17.28%) Linux
2 7 (8.64%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 81 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 18 (22.22%) CI/CD
2 18 (22.22%) Containerisation
3 14 (17.28%) Mentoring
4 11 (13.58%) Agile
4 11 (13.58%) Decision-Making
5 10 (12.35%) AI
5 10 (12.35%) Code Quality
5 10 (12.35%) Event-Driven
5 10 (12.35%) Test Automation
6 7 (8.64%) Microservices
6 7 (8.64%) Technical Leadership
7 6 (7.41%) Cybersecurity
7 6 (7.41%) Infrastructure as Code
8 5 (6.17%) Event-Driven Architecture
8 5 (6.17%) Project Delivery
8 5 (6.17%) Software Architecture
8 5 (6.17%) TDD
9 4 (4.94%) Data Modelling
9 4 (4.94%) OOP
Programming Languages
1 22 (27.16%) C++
2 17 (20.99%) C#
3 11 (13.58%) C
4 9 (11.11%) Python
5 8 (9.88%) JavaScript
6 7 (8.64%) SQL
7 6 (7.41%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 10 (12.35%) Security Cleared
2 9 (11.11%) SC Cleared
3 7 (8.64%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (1.23%) QA
System Software
1 11 (13.58%) Docker
2 1 (1.23%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 6 (7.41%) Kubernetes
2 3 (3.70%) Ansible
2 3 (3.70%) Terraform
Vendors
1 1 (1.23%) Microsoft