Lead Developer Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Lead Developer
South East > Thames Valley

The median Lead Developer salary in the Thames Valley is £70,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 10 February 2026.

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

6 months to
10 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 150 155 180
Rank change year-on-year +5 +25 +2
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead Developer 15 18 44
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 0.34% 0.55% 0.82%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.38% 0.65% 0.86%
Number of salaries quoted 15 8 39
10th Percentile - £61,500 £60,000
25th Percentile - £67,500 £68,125
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £70,500 £90,000
Median % change year-on-year -0.71% -21.67% +12.50%
75th Percentile £80,000 £74,500 £112,500
90th Percentile £97,500 £77,950 -
South East median annual salary £80,000 £71,000 £75,000
% change year-on-year +12.68% -5.33% -3.23%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
Thames Valley

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in the Thames Valley. 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 Thames Valley with a recognized job title 3,997 2,782 5,127
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.80% 84.33% 95.39%
Number of salaries quoted 2,412 1,323 3,825
10th Percentile £30,000 £32,750 £29,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £42,500 £36,875
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £60,000 £51,000
Median % change year-on-year -16.67% +17.65% -7.27%
75th Percentile £66,250 £76,009 £65,000
90th Percentile £81,250 £91,000 £80,000
South East median annual salary £50,000 £57,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -12.28% +14.00% -9.09%

Lead Developer
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

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 the Thames Valley.

Lead Developer job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

Lead Developer
Salary Trend in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution trend for Lead Developer job vacancies in the Thames Valley.

Salary distribution trend for Lead Developer job vacancies in the Thames Valley

Lead Developer
Salary Histogram in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution for jobs citing Lead Developer in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 10 February 2026.

Salary histogram for Lead Developer in the Thames Valley

Lead Developer
Job Locations in the Thames Valley

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Lead Developer within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 10 February 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
Buckinghamshire +11 7 £70,000 - 1
Berkshire -8 5 £80,000 +12.68% 1
Oxfordshire +12 3 £100,000 - 2
Lead Developer
South East

Lead Developer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley

For the 6 months to 10 February 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 Thames Valley region featuring Lead Developer in the job title.

1 7 (46.67%) .NET
2 3 (20.00%) Apple iOS
2 3 (20.00%) AWS
2 3 (20.00%) iOS Development
2 3 (20.00%) Technical Leadership
3 2 (13.33%) Agile
3 2 (13.33%) Client Onboarding
3 2 (13.33%) Python
3 2 (13.33%) REST
3 2 (13.33%) Software Engineering
3 2 (13.33%) SQL
4 1 (6.67%) Amazon S3
4 1 (6.67%) Amazon SQS
4 1 (6.67%) AngularJS
4 1 (6.67%) AWS Lambda
4 1 (6.67%) BDD
4 1 (6.67%) C#
4 1 (6.67%) CI/CD
4 1 (6.67%) Coaching
4 1 (6.67%) Decision-Making
4 1 (6.67%) DevOps
4 1 (6.67%) Docker
4 1 (6.67%) Full-Stack Development
4 1 (6.67%) GitHub
4 1 (6.67%) Java
4 1 (6.67%) JavaScript
4 1 (6.67%) Kafka
4 1 (6.67%) Machine Learning
4 1 (6.67%) Mentoring
4 1 (6.67%) Microservices

Lead Developer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley 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:

Cloud Services
1 3 (20.00%) AWS
2 1 (6.67%) Amazon S3
2 1 (6.67%) Amazon SQS
2 1 (6.67%) AWS Lambda
2 1 (6.67%) GitHub
2 1 (6.67%) Serverless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (6.67%) MongoDB
1 1 (6.67%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 1 (6.67%) Postman
1 1 (6.67%) SpecFlow
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (46.67%) .NET
2 2 (13.33%) REST
3 1 (6.67%) AngularJS
3 1 (6.67%) Kafka
3 1 (6.67%) React
3 1 (6.67%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 3 (20.00%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 3 (20.00%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 3 (20.00%) iOS Development
1 3 (20.00%) Technical Leadership
2 2 (13.33%) Agile
2 2 (13.33%) Client Onboarding
2 2 (13.33%) Software Engineering
3 1 (6.67%) BDD
3 1 (6.67%) CI/CD
3 1 (6.67%) Coaching
3 1 (6.67%) Decision-Making
3 1 (6.67%) DevOps
3 1 (6.67%) Full-Stack Development
3 1 (6.67%) Machine Learning
3 1 (6.67%) Mentoring
3 1 (6.67%) Microservices
3 1 (6.67%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 2 (13.33%) Python
1 2 (13.33%) SQL
2 1 (6.67%) C#
2 1 (6.67%) Java
2 1 (6.67%) JavaScript
System Software
1 1 (6.67%) Docker