Lead Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Leader
South East > Thames Valley

The median Leader salary in the Thames Valley is £75,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 1 January 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 40 48
Rank change year-on-year +30 +8 -10
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead 448 203 163
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 11.23% 5.84% 4.82%
As % of the Job Titles category 12.19% 6.66% 5.09%
Number of salaries quoted 152 85 101
10th Percentile £45,000 £51,250 £47,500
25th Percentile £60,000 £55,000 £53,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £70,000 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% - +7.69%
75th Percentile £85,000 £93,250 £93,750
90th Percentile £99,750 £95,000 £112,500
South East median annual salary £70,000 £67,500 £65,799
% change year-on-year +3.70% +2.59% -2.52%

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 3,674 3,047 3,200
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.10% 87.71% 94.65%
Number of salaries quoted 2,106 1,557 2,397
10th Percentile £30,000 £35,000 £30,800
25th Percentile £35,000 £43,911 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £49,000 £60,000 £53,760
Median % change year-on-year -18.33% +11.61% -2.25%
75th Percentile £65,000 £75,000 £67,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £90,000 £83,750
South East median annual salary £50,000 £56,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -10.71% +6.67% -4.55%

Lead
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

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 Thames Valley.

Lead job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

Lead
Salary Trend in the Thames Valley

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

Salary distribution trend for Lead job vacancies in the Thames Valley

Lead
Salary Histogram in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution for jobs citing Lead in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 1 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Lead in the Thames Valley

Lead
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 within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 1 January 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
Berkshire +44 315 £75,000 -6.25% 43
Buckinghamshire +19 104 £72,500 -9.38% 24
Oxfordshire +12 29 £85,000 +54.55% 14
Lead
South East

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

For the 6 months to 1 January 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 Thames Valley region featuring Lead in the job title.

1 169 (37.72%) Degree
2 133 (29.69%) SAP
3 117 (26.12%) Analytics
4 107 (23.88%) ERP
5 98 (21.88%) Problem-Solving
6 76 (16.96%) Continuous Improvement
7 75 (16.74%) Roadmaps
8 72 (16.07%) SAP S/4HANA
9 70 (15.63%) Source to Pay
10 65 (14.51%) Microsoft Excel
11 63 (14.06%) Data Quality
12 62 (13.84%) Business Strategy
13 61 (13.62%) Change Management
13 61 (13.62%) Project Management
14 59 (13.17%) AI
14 59 (13.17%) Data Modelling
15 57 (12.72%) JIRA
16 56 (12.50%) Data Cleansing
16 56 (12.50%) GxP
17 55 (12.28%) Agile
17 55 (12.28%) Azure
18 54 (12.05%) Data Governance
19 53 (11.83%) Use Case
20 51 (11.38%) Business Intelligence
20 51 (11.38%) Enterprise Architecture
21 50 (11.16%) Power Platform
22 49 (10.94%) Data-Driven Decision Making
23 48 (10.71%) Power BI
24 47 (10.49%) Stakeholder Engagement
25 46 (10.27%) Stakeholder Management

Lead 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:

Application Platforms
1 10 (2.23%) SugarCRM
2 4 (0.89%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.45%) FactoryTalk
3 2 (0.45%) IIS
3 2 (0.45%) WinCC
4 1 (0.22%) ArchestrA
Applications
1 65 (14.51%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 72 (16.07%) SAP S/4HANA
2 27 (6.03%) SAP MDG
3 9 (2.01%) NetSuite
4 8 (1.79%) Oracle Payables
5 6 (1.34%) SAP CO
5 6 (1.34%) SAP FI
5 6 (1.34%) SAP FI/CO
6 1 (0.22%) SAP ERP
6 1 (0.22%) SAP Payroll
6 1 (0.22%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 55 (12.28%) Azure
2 50 (11.16%) Power Platform
3 39 (8.71%) Azure DevOps
4 19 (4.24%) AWS
5 15 (3.35%) SaaS
6 8 (1.79%) Entra ID
7 6 (1.34%) Azure Key Vault
7 6 (1.34%) GitHub
7 6 (1.34%) GitHub Actions
8 4 (0.89%) Microsoft Purview
9 3 (0.67%) Microsoft 365
10 2 (0.45%) Power Automate
11 1 (0.22%) AWS Lambda
11 1 (0.22%) Azure AI
11 1 (0.22%) Azure Logic Apps
11 1 (0.22%) GCP
11 1 (0.22%) PowerApps
11 1 (0.22%) Salesforce Service Cloud
11 1 (0.22%) Serverless
11 1 (0.22%) Veeva
Communications & Networking
1 7 (1.56%) Firewall
2 2 (0.45%) DHCP
2 2 (0.45%) DNS
2 2 (0.45%) Modbus
2 2 (0.45%) TCP/IP
2 2 (0.45%) VPN
3 1 (0.22%) Profibus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 48 (10.71%) Power BI
2 39 (8.71%) Data Lake
3 32 (7.14%) SAP BW
4 13 (2.90%) Metadata
5 6 (1.34%) SQL Server
6 5 (1.12%) Relational Database
7 3 (0.67%) MongoDB
7 3 (0.67%) MySQL
8 2 (0.45%) Data Hub
9 1 (0.22%) Data Warehouse
9 1 (0.22%) Oracle Reports
9 1 (0.22%) Power Query
9 1 (0.22%) SAP Data Services
9 1 (0.22%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 57 (12.72%) JIRA
2 33 (7.37%) Git
2 33 (7.37%) Jenkins
3 29 (6.47%) eCATT
4 26 (5.80%) NeoLoad
5 1 (0.22%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.22%) Postman
5 1 (0.22%) Selenium
5 1 (0.22%) SoapUI
5 1 (0.22%) Team Foundation Server
5 1 (0.22%) WebDriver
General
1 197 (43.97%) Social Skills
2 148 (33.04%) Finance
3 71 (15.85%) Analytical Skills
4 48 (10.71%) Manufacturing
5 39 (8.71%) Marketing
6 30 (6.70%) Pharmaceutical
7 27 (6.03%) Organisational Skills
8 20 (4.46%) Law
8 20 (4.46%) Presentation Skills
9 14 (3.13%) Influencing Skills
10 10 (2.23%) Retail
11 8 (1.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 6 (1.34%) Games
13 3 (0.67%) General Ledger
14 2 (0.45%) Public Sector
15 1 (0.22%) Publishing
15 1 (0.22%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (2.23%) FHIR
2 8 (1.79%) .NET
3 7 (1.56%) Oracle Fusion
4 6 (1.34%) ARM Templates
5 4 (0.89%) Node.js
5 4 (0.89%) REST
6 3 (0.67%) Sequelize
6 3 (0.67%) TypeORM
7 2 (0.45%) Kafka
7 2 (0.45%) LangChain
7 2 (0.45%) React
7 2 (0.45%) SOAP
8 1 (0.22%) Flash
8 1 (0.22%) HTML
8 1 (0.22%) LangGraph
8 1 (0.22%) Lightning Web Components
8 1 (0.22%) Middleware
8 1 (0.22%) PyTorch
8 1 (0.22%) Semantic Kernel
8 1 (0.22%) Visualforce
Miscellaneous
1 61 (13.62%) Life Science
2 39 (8.71%) Management Information System
3 31 (6.92%) Data Centre
4 28 (6.25%) Analytical Mindset
5 24 (5.36%) Operational Technology
6 18 (4.02%) Onboarding
7 10 (2.23%) Algorithms
7 10 (2.23%) Omics
8 8 (1.79%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
9 7 (1.56%) Self-Motivation
10 6 (1.34%) Linux Command Line
11 5 (1.12%) EPoS
11 5 (1.12%) Product Ownership
12 4 (0.89%) Pharmacovigilance
13 3 (0.67%) Mobile App
13 3 (0.67%) Sports Betting
14 2 (0.45%) Cloud Native
14 2 (0.45%) Legacy Systems
14 2 (0.45%) Renewable Energy
14 2 (0.45%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 7 (1.56%) Windows
1 7 (1.56%) Windows Server
2 6 (1.34%) VMS
3 3 (0.67%) Apple iOS
4 2 (0.45%) Linux
5 1 (0.22%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 117 (26.12%) Analytics
2 107 (23.88%) ERP
3 98 (21.88%) Problem-Solving
4 76 (16.96%) Continuous Improvement
5 75 (16.74%) Roadmaps
6 70 (15.63%) Source to Pay
7 62 (13.84%) Business Strategy
8 61 (13.62%) Change Management
8 61 (13.62%) Project Management
9 59 (13.17%) AI
9 59 (13.17%) Data Modelling
10 56 (12.50%) Data Cleansing
11 55 (12.28%) Agile
12 54 (12.05%) Data Governance
13 53 (11.83%) Use Case
14 51 (11.38%) Business Intelligence
14 51 (11.38%) Enterprise Architecture
15 49 (10.94%) Data-Driven Decision Making
16 47 (10.49%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 46 (10.27%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 10 (2.23%) SQL
2 9 (2.01%) Python
3 8 (1.79%) PowerShell
4 6 (1.34%) Bash
5 5 (1.12%) JavaScript
6 4 (0.89%) Java
7 3 (0.67%) TypeScript
8 2 (0.45%) C#
8 2 (0.45%) C++
8 2 (0.45%) Embedded C++
9 1 (0.22%) ABAP
9 1 (0.22%) Apex Code
9 1 (0.22%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 1 (0.22%) Ladder Logic
Qualifications
1 169 (37.72%) Degree
2 36 (8.04%) PhD
3 34 (7.59%) Security Cleared
4 31 (6.92%) Master's Degree
5 10 (2.23%) HNC
6 6 (1.34%) DV Cleared
7 5 (1.12%) SC Cleared
8 3 (0.67%) CISM
8 3 (0.67%) CISSP
8 3 (0.67%) PMI Certification
8 3 (0.67%) PMP
9 2 (0.45%) Azure Certification
9 2 (0.45%) Postgraduate
9 2 (0.45%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
10 1 (0.22%) ACCA
10 1 (0.22%) CISA
10 1 (0.22%) Computer Science Degree
10 1 (0.22%) ISTQB
10 1 (0.22%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
10 1 (0.22%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 63 (14.06%) Data Quality
2 56 (12.50%) GxP
3 34 (7.59%) QA
4 26 (5.80%) Def Stans
5 15 (3.35%) Accessibility
6 10 (2.23%) CDISC
6 10 (2.23%) HL7
7 6 (1.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 6 (1.34%) NIST
8 5 (1.12%) Cyber Essentials
9 4 (0.89%) ISO 14001
9 4 (0.89%) NEBOSH
10 2 (0.45%) IEC 61508
10 2 (0.45%) PMO
11 1 (0.22%) GDPR
11 1 (0.22%) GRC
11 1 (0.22%) IEC 61131
System Software
1 22 (4.91%) VMware Infrastructure
2 11 (2.46%) Docker
3 8 (1.79%) Active Directory
4 4 (0.89%) Hyper-V
5 3 (0.67%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 29 (6.47%) HP ALM
2 13 (2.90%) Terraform
3 6 (1.34%) Kubernetes
4 3 (0.67%) vRealize
5 2 (0.45%) Failover Clustering
6 1 (0.22%) Ansible
6 1 (0.22%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 133 (29.69%) SAP
2 29 (6.47%) HP
3 27 (6.03%) Ariba
4 25 (5.58%) VMware
5 21 (4.69%) Oracle
6 17 (3.79%) Microsoft
7 4 (0.89%) Databricks
8 3 (0.67%) Siemens
9 2 (0.45%) Cisco
9 2 (0.45%) Cognos
9 2 (0.45%) Rockwell
9 2 (0.45%) Workday
10 1 (0.22%) Google
10 1 (0.22%) Remedy
10 1 (0.22%) Salesforce
10 1 (0.22%) Talend