Lead Job Trends in the South East

Leader
England > South East

The median Leader salary in the South East is £70,000 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 18 17 22
Rank change year-on-year -1 +5 +15
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead 1,017 728 1,245
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 6.50% 8.52% 7.31%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.80% 9.62% 7.77%
Number of salaries quoted 705 309 908
10th Percentile £36,250 £42,500 £36,250
25th Percentile £50,000 £59,000 £46,708
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £75,000 £62,334
Median % change year-on-year -6.67% +20.32% -4.10%
75th Percentile £85,000 £85,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £92,500
England median annual salary £76,670 £75,000 £70,000
% change year-on-year +2.23% +7.14% -3.45%

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
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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

Lead job vacancy trend in the South East

Lead
Salary Trend in the South East

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

Salary distribution trend for Lead job vacancies in the South East

Lead
Salary Histogram in the South East

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

Salary histogram for Lead in the South East

Lead
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 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 -3 439 £62,500 -16.67% 83
Hampshire +20 245 £78,750 +16.67% 71
Berkshire -11 197 £60,000 -22.58% 31
Surrey +17 156 £75,000 - 41
Buckinghamshire +38 139 £75,000 +20.00% 28
Oxfordshire +36 103 £52,500 -30.00% 25
Kent +9 70 £65,000 -3.70% 6
West Sussex +15 60 £75,000 +22.45% 7
East Sussex 0 35 £65,000 -18.75% 7
Sussex -6 6 £70,000 -6.67% 5
Middlesex +16 3 - - 6
Lead
England

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

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

1 135 (13.27%) Software Engineering
2 129 (12.68%) Continuous Improvement
3 117 (11.50%) AI
4 97 (9.54%) Azure
5 94 (9.24%) Technical Leadership
6 92 (9.05%) Agile
7 88 (8.65%) Mentoring
8 86 (8.46%) SaaS
9 82 (8.06%) Degree
10 81 (7.96%) Microsoft
11 79 (7.77%) CI/CD
12 78 (7.67%) DevOps
13 74 (7.28%) Roadmaps
14 68 (6.69%) Full-Stack Development
15 67 (6.59%) AWS
15 67 (6.59%) QA
16 65 (6.39%) JavaScript
17 64 (6.29%) .NET
17 64 (6.29%) Analytics
18 63 (6.19%) C#
19 61 (6.00%) Problem-Solving
20 57 (5.60%) TypeScript
21 55 (5.41%) SQL
22 52 (5.11%) Accessibility
22 52 (5.11%) Node.js
23 51 (5.01%) Security Cleared
24 50 (4.92%) Stakeholder Management
25 49 (4.82%) Python
26 47 (4.62%) Decision-Making
27 45 (4.42%) Cybersecurity

Lead 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 25 (2.46%) SharePoint
2 22 (2.16%) Confluence
3 7 (0.69%) CMS
3 7 (0.69%) OpenStack
4 5 (0.49%) Apache
5 3 (0.29%) Microsoft Exchange
6 2 (0.20%) ArcGIS
6 2 (0.20%) SAS
7 1 (0.098%) Apache Solr
7 1 (0.098%) ArchestrA
Applications
1 17 (1.67%) Microsoft Office
2 14 (1.38%) Simulink
3 7 (0.69%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (0.29%) UserZoom
5 1 (0.098%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 13 (1.28%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (0.69%) SAP HCM
2 7 (0.69%) SAP Payroll
3 4 (0.39%) SAP IBP
4 2 (0.20%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.098%) HFM
5 1 (0.098%) Maximo
5 1 (0.098%) Remedy ITSM
5 1 (0.098%) Sage X3
5 1 (0.098%) SAP CO
5 1 (0.098%) SAP FI
5 1 (0.098%) SAP FI/CO
5 1 (0.098%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 97 (9.54%) Azure
2 86 (8.46%) SaaS
3 67 (6.59%) AWS
4 30 (2.95%) Power Platform
5 28 (2.75%) Adobe Analytics
5 28 (2.75%) Microsoft 365
6 23 (2.26%) Azure DevOps
7 19 (1.87%) Figma
8 16 (1.57%) Snowflake
9 13 (1.28%) GitHub
10 9 (0.88%) Azure Cosmos DB
11 8 (0.79%) Azure Service Bus
11 8 (0.79%) Entra ID
11 8 (0.79%) Power Automate
11 8 (0.79%) PowerApps
11 8 (0.79%) Serverless
12 7 (0.69%) AWS Lambda
12 7 (0.69%) GCP
12 7 (0.69%) SuccessFactors
13 6 (0.59%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 32 (3.15%) Broadband
2 14 (1.38%) TCP/IP
3 13 (1.28%) Firewall
3 13 (1.28%) VPN
4 12 (1.18%) DHCP
4 12 (1.18%) DNS
4 12 (1.18%) VoIP
5 8 (0.79%) LAN
6 7 (0.69%) WAN
6 7 (0.69%) Wireless
7 6 (0.59%) VLAN
8 5 (0.49%) Wireshark
9 4 (0.39%) NAS
9 4 (0.39%) Wi-Fi
10 3 (0.29%) Internet
10 3 (0.29%) Network Security
11 1 (0.098%) Asterisk PBX
11 1 (0.098%) BGP
11 1 (0.098%) GPON
11 1 (0.098%) Modbus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (3.15%) SQL Server
2 19 (1.87%) PostgreSQL
3 16 (1.57%) Power BI
4 15 (1.47%) Redis
5 13 (1.28%) Metadata
6 11 (1.08%) MongoDB
7 8 (0.79%) Data Warehouse
7 8 (0.79%) Elasticsearch
8 6 (0.59%) Looker
9 5 (0.49%) NoSQL
9 5 (0.49%) Spatial Data
10 3 (0.29%) Data Lake
11 2 (0.20%) Azure SQL Database
11 2 (0.20%) Delta Lake
11 2 (0.20%) Geospatial Data
11 2 (0.20%) GIS
11 2 (0.20%) Relational Database
11 2 (0.20%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 1 (0.098%) IBM InfoSphere
12 1 (0.098%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 37 (3.64%) JIRA
2 15 (1.47%) Rational DOORS
3 13 (1.28%) Git
4 8 (0.79%) GitLab
4 8 (0.79%) Postman
5 5 (0.49%) JUnit
5 5 (0.49%) Yeoman
6 4 (0.39%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 4 (0.39%) Cucumber
6 4 (0.39%) Jenkins
6 4 (0.39%) Selenium
6 4 (0.39%) SpecFlow
7 3 (0.29%) Cypress.io
7 3 (0.29%) Mockito
8 2 (0.20%) MSTest
9 1 (0.098%) Bitbucket
9 1 (0.098%) Eclipse
9 1 (0.098%) NUnit
9 1 (0.098%) Visual Studio
9 1 (0.098%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 115 (11.31%) Social Skills
2 94 (9.24%) Finance
3 52 (5.11%) Aerospace
4 42 (4.13%) Analytical Skills
4 42 (4.13%) Games
5 38 (3.74%) Manufacturing
6 31 (3.05%) Influencing Skills
7 25 (2.46%) Electronics
8 19 (1.87%) Legal
8 19 (1.87%) Organisational Skills
9 18 (1.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 17 (1.67%) Retail
11 15 (1.47%) Marketing
12 14 (1.38%) Automotive
12 14 (1.38%) Aviation
13 12 (1.18%) Telecoms
14 11 (1.08%) Public Sector
15 10 (0.98%) Local Government
16 9 (0.88%) Pharmaceutical
17 8 (0.79%) Documentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 64 (6.29%) .NET
2 52 (5.11%) Node.js
3 28 (2.75%) React
4 18 (1.77%) AngularJS
5 12 (1.18%) ASP.NET
5 12 (1.18%) Vue
6 11 (1.08%) Spring
7 10 (0.98%) REST
8 9 (0.88%) .NET Core
8 9 (0.88%) .NET Framework
8 9 (0.88%) Playwright
9 8 (0.79%) Next.js
10 7 (0.69%) Gherkin
10 7 (0.69%) RESTful
11 6 (0.59%) CSS
11 6 (0.59%) HTML
11 6 (0.59%) Spring Boot
12 5 (0.49%) ASP.NET Core
12 5 (0.49%) ASP.NET Web API
12 5 (0.49%) Unreal Engine
Miscellaneous
1 32 (3.15%) Data Centre
2 30 (2.95%) Social Media
3 28 (2.75%) Cloud Native
4 21 (2.06%) Embedded Systems
5 19 (1.87%) Algorithms
6 18 (1.77%) Product Ownership
7 17 (1.67%) Acoustics
7 17 (1.67%) Management Information System
8 11 (1.08%) Enterprise Software
9 10 (0.98%) FMCG
9 10 (0.98%) Life Science
10 9 (0.88%) Home Automation
10 9 (0.88%) Onboarding
11 7 (0.69%) Driving Licence
12 6 (0.59%) Distributed Systems
12 6 (0.59%) Marketing Technology
13 5 (0.49%) AI Agents
13 5 (0.49%) PKI
14 4 (0.39%) ASIC
14 4 (0.39%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 38 (3.74%) Linux
2 34 (3.34%) Windows
3 19 (1.87%) Windows Server
4 9 (0.88%) VMS
5 6 (0.59%) Debian
6 5 (0.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.29%) CentOS
8 2 (0.20%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 135 (13.27%) Software Engineering
2 129 (12.68%) Continuous Improvement
3 117 (11.50%) AI
4 94 (9.24%) Technical Leadership
5 92 (9.05%) Agile
6 88 (8.65%) Mentoring
7 79 (7.77%) CI/CD
8 78 (7.67%) DevOps
9 74 (7.28%) Roadmaps
10 68 (6.69%) Full-Stack Development
11 64 (6.29%) Analytics
12 61 (6.00%) Problem-Solving
13 50 (4.92%) Stakeholder Management
14 47 (4.62%) Decision-Making
15 45 (4.42%) Cybersecurity
15 45 (4.42%) Project Delivery
16 44 (4.33%) Customer Experience
17 37 (3.64%) CRM
18 36 (3.54%) Coaching
19 34 (3.34%) User Research
Programming Languages
1 65 (6.39%) JavaScript
2 63 (6.19%) C#
3 57 (5.60%) TypeScript
4 55 (5.41%) SQL
5 49 (4.82%) Python
6 39 (3.83%) C++
7 24 (2.36%) C
8 14 (1.38%) Java
8 14 (1.38%) MATLAB
9 8 (0.79%) ABAP
10 7 (0.69%) PowerShell
11 5 (0.49%) Ruby
12 4 (0.39%) Apex Code
12 4 (0.39%) Assembly Language
13 3 (0.29%) Bash
14 1 (0.098%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 1 (0.098%) Groovy
14 1 (0.098%) Perl
14 1 (0.098%) Shell Script
14 1 (0.098%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 82 (8.06%) Degree
2 51 (5.01%) Security Cleared
3 26 (2.56%) SC Cleared
4 21 (2.06%) BPSS Clearance
5 20 (1.97%) DV Cleared
6 18 (1.77%) Computer Science Degree
7 15 (1.47%) DBS Check
7 15 (1.47%) Master's Degree
8 8 (0.79%) CISSP
8 8 (0.79%) CRISC
9 7 (0.69%) ISACA
10 4 (0.39%) Cisco Certification
10 4 (0.39%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 3 (0.29%) CCNP
11 3 (0.29%) Chartered Engineer
11 3 (0.29%) MCSE
11 3 (0.29%) Microsoft Certification
11 3 (0.29%) PMP
11 3 (0.29%) Postgraduate
12 2 (0.20%) CSQA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 67 (6.59%) QA
2 52 (5.11%) Accessibility
3 17 (1.67%) Data Quality
4 12 (1.18%) GxP
4 12 (1.18%) SLA
5 11 (1.08%) GDPR
6 10 (0.98%) 21 CFR Part 11
7 9 (0.88%) GRC
7 9 (0.88%) NIST
8 6 (0.59%) GLP
8 6 (0.59%) GMP
8 6 (0.59%) Good Clinical Practice
9 5 (0.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 5 (0.49%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 5 (0.49%) WCAG
10 4 (0.39%) ISO 26262
10 4 (0.39%) NCSC
11 3 (0.29%) ITGC
11 3 (0.29%) PERC
12 2 (0.20%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 37 (3.64%) Docker
2 29 (2.85%) Active Directory
3 23 (2.26%) Firmware
4 13 (1.28%) Embedded Firmware
5 10 (0.98%) Hyper-V
6 5 (0.49%) VMware ESXi
6 5 (0.49%) VMware Infrastructure
7 3 (0.29%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 3 (0.29%) VMware NSX
8 2 (0.20%) UAG
9 1 (0.098%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 24 (2.36%) Kubernetes
2 11 (1.08%) Ansible
2 11 (1.08%) Terraform
3 7 (0.69%) Puppet
4 6 (0.59%) ZABBIX
5 5 (0.49%) vCenter Server
6 4 (0.39%) Functional Safety
6 4 (0.39%) Grafana
6 4 (0.39%) Kibana
7 3 (0.29%) Microsoft Intune
8 2 (0.20%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 2 (0.20%) vRealize
9 1 (0.098%) Argo
9 1 (0.098%) Failover Clustering
9 1 (0.098%) Kustomize
9 1 (0.098%) MOM
9 1 (0.098%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 81 (7.96%) Microsoft
2 29 (2.85%) Adobe
3 27 (2.65%) SAP
4 23 (2.26%) Salesforce
5 22 (2.16%) VMware
6 15 (1.47%) Oracle
6 15 (1.47%) Siemens
7 10 (0.98%) Informatica
8 8 (0.79%) Databricks
8 8 (0.79%) Google
9 6 (0.59%) Braze
9 6 (0.59%) Cisco
10 5 (0.49%) ServiceNow
11 4 (0.39%) Citrix
11 4 (0.39%) QNAP
11 4 (0.39%) Synology
11 4 (0.39%) Veeam
12 3 (0.29%) Aruba
12 3 (0.29%) Sophos
12 3 (0.29%) Symantec