Lead Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Leader
UK > UK excluding London

The median Leader salary in the UK excluding London is £69,973 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 11 May 2026.

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

6 months to
11 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 19 32 18
Rank change year-on-year +13 -14 +16
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead 4,016 1,862 5,836
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 6.14% 6.46% 8.49%
As % of the Job Titles category 6.57% 7.25% 8.96%
Number of salaries quoted 2,839 1,243 3,966
10th Percentile £38,300 £39,200 £39,000
25th Percentile £55,000 £52,500 £50,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £69,973 £67,500 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.66% +3.85% -
75th Percentile £83,750 £83,750 £80,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £98,474 £87,500
UK median annual salary £75,000 £75,000 £70,000
% change year-on-year - +7.14% -3.45%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in the UK excluding London. 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 UK excluding London with a recognized job title 61,165 25,677 65,104
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.49% 89.10% 94.72%
Number of salaries quoted 40,252 14,677 47,474
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,750 £26,750
25th Percentile £36,250 £36,250 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -5.66%
75th Percentile £68,750 £67,500 £63,750
90th Percentile £85,000 £82,500 £77,480
UK median annual salary £55,000 £58,000 £52,550
% change year-on-year -5.17% +10.37% -12.42%

Lead
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London.

Lead job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Lead
Salary Trend in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution trend for Lead job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Salary distribution trend for Lead job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Lead
Salary Histogram in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution for jobs citing Lead in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 11 May 2026.

Salary histogram for Lead in the UK excluding London

Lead
Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Lead within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 11 May 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
North of England +28 1,225 £70,079 -2.66% 253
South East +8 925 £70,000 - 288
Midlands +1 650 £65,000 +8.33% 155
North West +24 648 £70,000 -4.31% 140
Yorkshire +15 448 £75,000 +7.14% 89
West Midlands -2 429 £62,500 +4.17% 84
South West +16 426 £65,000 -13.33% 114
East of England +57 422 £65,000 +5.69% 76
East Midlands +23 220 £70,000 +16.67% 69
Scotland +13 165 £60,000 -20.00% 48
North East +16 129 £83,142 +73.21% 25
Northern Ireland +27 114 £90,000 - 11
Wales +6 96 £67,586 -0.06% 23
Isle of Man +4 2 - - 1
Channel Islands - 1 £90,000 -
Lead
UK

Lead Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 11 May 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 UK excluding London region featuring Lead in the job title.

1 519 (12.92%) Agile
2 445 (11.08%) Software Engineering
3 427 (10.63%) Mentoring
4 413 (10.28%) Azure
5 380 (9.46%) Continuous Improvement
6 348 (8.67%) Technical Leadership
7 343 (8.54%) AI
8 326 (8.12%) CI/CD
9 318 (7.92%) DevOps
10 305 (7.59%) Roadmaps
11 288 (7.17%) AWS
12 257 (6.40%) Problem-Solving
13 241 (6.00%) Microsoft
14 238 (5.93%) Analytics
15 231 (5.75%) Python
16 205 (5.10%) Degree
17 200 (4.98%) Coaching
18 199 (4.96%) SQL
19 198 (4.93%) Full-Stack Development
20 194 (4.83%) Decision-Making
20 194 (4.83%) Stakeholder Management
21 190 (4.73%) SaaS
22 178 (4.43%) Security Cleared
23 176 (4.38%) .NET
24 174 (4.33%) Test Automation
25 168 (4.18%) Java
26 166 (4.13%) C#
27 150 (3.74%) Cybersecurity
28 148 (3.69%) QA
29 145 (3.61%) JavaScript

Lead Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 49 (1.22%) Confluence
2 43 (1.07%) SharePoint
3 23 (0.57%) CMS
4 14 (0.35%) Microsoft Exchange
5 12 (0.30%) Apache Airflow
6 10 (0.25%) SAS
7 7 (0.17%) Apache Spark
8 6 (0.15%) OpenStack
9 5 (0.12%) Apache
9 5 (0.12%) Appian
10 3 (0.075%) govService
10 3 (0.075%) Sitecore CMS
11 2 (0.050%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 2 (0.050%) ArcGIS
11 2 (0.050%) JBoss
11 2 (0.050%) nginx
11 2 (0.050%) WordPress
12 1 (0.025%) ArchestrA
12 1 (0.025%) Drupal
12 1 (0.025%) IIS
Applications
1 47 (1.17%) AutoCAD
2 32 (0.80%) Revit
3 31 (0.77%) Microsoft Office
4 25 (0.62%) Microsoft Excel
5 14 (0.35%) UserZoom
6 12 (0.30%) Simulink
6 12 (0.30%) Spreadsheet
7 4 (0.100%) Microsoft PowerPoint
8 3 (0.075%) Fusion 360
9 1 (0.025%) Adobe XD
9 1 (0.025%) CATIA
9 1 (0.025%) Microsoft Project
9 1 (0.025%) Notion
9 1 (0.025%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 12 (0.30%) Dynamics CRM
2 10 (0.25%) SAP S/4HANA
3 5 (0.12%) Oracle EBS
3 5 (0.12%) Visualfiles
4 4 (0.100%) SAP HCM
5 3 (0.075%) SAP Payroll
6 2 (0.050%) NetSuite
6 2 (0.050%) Oracle ERP
6 2 (0.050%) Sage X3
7 1 (0.025%) Global One
7 1 (0.025%) HFM
7 1 (0.025%) Maximo
7 1 (0.025%) Oracle Payables
7 1 (0.025%) SAP BPC
7 1 (0.025%) SAP ERP
7 1 (0.025%) SAP FI
7 1 (0.025%) SAP FI/CO
7 1 (0.025%) SAP GRC
7 1 (0.025%) SAP PP
7 1 (0.025%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 413 (10.28%) Azure
2 288 (7.17%) AWS
3 190 (4.73%) SaaS
4 104 (2.59%) Microsoft 365
5 82 (2.04%) Azure DevOps
6 81 (2.02%) Serverless
7 74 (1.84%) Entra ID
8 71 (1.77%) Adobe Analytics
9 70 (1.74%) Power Platform
10 64 (1.59%) GCP
11 49 (1.22%) Figma
12 43 (1.07%) AWS Lambda
13 39 (0.97%) PaaS
14 38 (0.95%) GitHub
15 31 (0.77%) dbt
16 30 (0.75%) Amazon S3
17 28 (0.70%) Microsoft Purview
18 27 (0.67%) Dynamics 365
19 25 (0.62%) Azure Data Factory
20 22 (0.55%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 118 (2.94%) Broadband
2 55 (1.37%) Firewall
3 46 (1.15%) TETRA
4 33 (0.82%) DNS
5 19 (0.47%) DHCP
6 16 (0.40%) Internet
7 15 (0.37%) TCP/IP
8 14 (0.35%) Network Security
9 13 (0.32%) VPN
9 13 (0.32%) Wireless
10 11 (0.27%) VoIP
11 5 (0.12%) LAN
11 5 (0.12%) NAS
11 5 (0.12%) Unified Communications
12 4 (0.100%) LTE
12 4 (0.100%) WAN
12 4 (0.100%) Wi-Fi
13 3 (0.075%) BGP
13 3 (0.075%) POP3
13 3 (0.075%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 55 (1.37%) SQL Server
2 51 (1.27%) Power BI
3 37 (0.92%) Metadata
4 34 (0.85%) Data Warehouse
5 29 (0.72%) NoSQL
6 22 (0.55%) PostgreSQL
7 21 (0.52%) MongoDB
8 20 (0.50%) DynamoDB
9 18 (0.45%) Spark SQL
10 14 (0.35%) Data Lake
11 12 (0.30%) Amazon Redshift
12 10 (0.25%) Big Data
12 10 (0.25%) Redis
13 9 (0.22%) Amazon RDS
13 9 (0.22%) Electronic Patient Records
14 8 (0.20%) MySQL
15 7 (0.17%) BigQuery
15 7 (0.17%) Looker
16 6 (0.15%) Amazon Athena
16 6 (0.15%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 91 (2.27%) JIRA
2 48 (1.20%) Git
2 48 (1.20%) GitLab
3 41 (1.02%) Selenium
4 31 (0.77%) Cypress.io
5 29 (0.72%) Jenkins
6 17 (0.42%) Maven
6 17 (0.42%) Postman
7 15 (0.37%) SonarQube
8 14 (0.35%) Rational DOORS
9 13 (0.32%) Cucumber
10 8 (0.20%) JUnit
11 7 (0.17%) Claude Code
11 7 (0.17%) JMeter
12 6 (0.15%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 6 (0.15%) Mockito
12 6 (0.15%) SoapUI
13 5 (0.12%) Bitbucket
13 5 (0.12%) Team Foundation Server
13 5 (0.12%) WebDriver
General
1 422 (10.51%) Social Skills
2 382 (9.51%) Finance
3 178 (4.43%) Analytical Skills
4 151 (3.76%) Public Sector
5 131 (3.26%) Manufacturing
6 120 (2.99%) Games
7 85 (2.12%) Marketing
8 67 (1.67%) Aerospace
9 66 (1.64%) Electronics
10 62 (1.54%) Retail
11 61 (1.52%) Telecoms
12 54 (1.34%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 46 (1.15%) Influencing Skills
14 37 (0.92%) Legal
14 37 (0.92%) Organisational Skills
15 31 (0.77%) Aviation
16 30 (0.75%) Law
16 30 (0.75%) Local Government
17 25 (0.62%) Banking
18 24 (0.60%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 176 (4.38%) .NET
2 94 (2.34%) React
3 83 (2.07%) Node.js
4 57 (1.42%) AngularJS
5 37 (0.92%) .NET Core
5 37 (0.92%) Spring
6 36 (0.90%) Playwright
7 31 (0.77%) REST
8 30 (0.75%) .NET Framework
9 28 (0.70%) ASP.NET
10 26 (0.65%) Spring Boot
11 25 (0.62%) HTML
12 24 (0.60%) RESTful
12 24 (0.60%) Vue
13 22 (0.55%) Web Services
14 21 (0.52%) Gherkin
14 21 (0.52%) PyTorch
14 21 (0.52%) TensorFlow
15 20 (0.50%) PySpark
16 17 (0.42%) Jest
Miscellaneous
1 101 (2.51%) Cloud Native
2 87 (2.17%) Product Ownership
3 83 (2.07%) Social Media
4 62 (1.54%) Onboarding
5 49 (1.22%) Management Information System
6 47 (1.17%) Mobile App
7 40 (1.00%) Data Centre
8 36 (0.90%) Data Protection Act
9 28 (0.70%) Driving Licence
9 28 (0.70%) Life Science
10 27 (0.67%) Enterprise Software
10 27 (0.67%) FPGA
11 26 (0.65%) Distributed Systems
12 24 (0.60%) Embedded Systems
13 23 (0.57%) FMCG
13 23 (0.57%) Greenfield Project
14 21 (0.52%) NHS
14 21 (0.52%) Robotics
15 19 (0.47%) Legacy Systems
16 18 (0.45%) Marketing Technology
Operating Systems
1 93 (2.32%) Windows
2 46 (1.15%) Linux
3 44 (1.10%) Windows Server
4 43 (1.07%) Apple iOS
5 28 (0.70%) Android
6 13 (0.32%) Windows 10
7 9 (0.22%) VMS
8 7 (0.17%) Mac OS
9 4 (0.100%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 3 (0.075%) CentOS
10 3 (0.075%) Debian
10 3 (0.075%) Ubuntu
10 3 (0.075%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.050%) Unix
12 1 (0.025%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 519 (12.92%) Agile
2 445 (11.08%) Software Engineering
3 427 (10.63%) Mentoring
4 380 (9.46%) Continuous Improvement
5 348 (8.67%) Technical Leadership
6 343 (8.54%) AI
7 326 (8.12%) CI/CD
8 318 (7.92%) DevOps
9 305 (7.59%) Roadmaps
10 257 (6.40%) Problem-Solving
11 238 (5.93%) Analytics
12 200 (4.98%) Coaching
13 198 (4.93%) Full-Stack Development
14 194 (4.83%) Decision-Making
14 194 (4.83%) Stakeholder Management
15 174 (4.33%) Test Automation
16 150 (3.74%) Cybersecurity
17 143 (3.56%) Project Delivery
18 125 (3.11%) Infrastructure as Code
19 115 (2.86%) Customer Experience
Programming Languages
1 231 (5.75%) Python
2 199 (4.96%) SQL
3 168 (4.18%) Java
4 166 (4.13%) C#
5 145 (3.61%) JavaScript
6 139 (3.46%) TypeScript
7 41 (1.02%) C++
8 30 (0.75%) Bash
9 23 (0.57%) PowerShell
10 19 (0.47%) C
11 18 (0.45%) Go
12 16 (0.40%) Groovy
12 16 (0.40%) PHP
13 13 (0.32%) MATLAB
13 13 (0.32%) Ruby
14 10 (0.25%) Scala
15 9 (0.22%) LINC
16 8 (0.20%) Clojure
16 8 (0.20%) Rust
16 8 (0.20%) Swift
Qualifications
1 205 (5.10%) Degree
2 178 (4.43%) Security Cleared
3 83 (2.07%) DBS Check
4 73 (1.82%) SC Cleared
5 66 (1.64%) DV Cleared
6 59 (1.47%) BPSS Clearance
7 51 (1.27%) Master's Degree
8 32 (0.80%) Computer Science Degree
9 25 (0.62%) CISSP
9 25 (0.62%) Microsoft Certification
10 19 (0.47%) ISTQB
11 17 (0.42%) Cisco Certification
12 15 (0.37%) CISM
12 15 (0.37%) CRISC
13 11 (0.27%) MCSE
13 11 (0.27%) PhD
14 10 (0.25%) AWS Certification
14 10 (0.25%) HND
15 9 (0.22%) HNC
15 9 (0.22%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 148 (3.69%) QA
2 142 (3.54%) Accessibility
3 74 (1.84%) GDPR
4 65 (1.62%) Data Quality
4 65 (1.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 54 (1.34%) NIST
6 32 (0.80%) Cyber Essentials
7 29 (0.72%) SLA
8 25 (0.62%) GRC
9 15 (0.37%) WCAG
10 14 (0.35%) GxP
10 14 (0.35%) PMO
11 12 (0.30%) NCSC
12 11 (0.27%) Actionable Recommendations
13 8 (0.20%) PERC
14 6 (0.15%) ISO 31000
14 6 (0.15%) ISO/IEC 27005
14 6 (0.15%) PCI DSS
15 4 (0.100%) ISO 26262
15 4 (0.100%) JSP 440
System Software
1 83 (2.07%) Docker
2 70 (1.74%) Active Directory
3 9 (0.22%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (0.20%) Firmware
5 7 (0.17%) Hyper-V
5 7 (0.17%) Virtual Desktop
6 5 (0.12%) VMware NSX
7 3 (0.075%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 3 (0.075%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (0.075%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.050%) Embedded Firmware
8 2 (0.050%) UAG
8 2 (0.050%) vSphere
9 1 (0.025%) IAG
Systems Management
1 95 (2.37%) Terraform
2 79 (1.97%) Kubernetes
3 30 (0.75%) Ansible
4 18 (0.45%) Grafana
5 16 (0.40%) MOM
6 15 (0.37%) HP Fortify
7 14 (0.35%) Microsoft Intune
8 10 (0.25%) Functional Safety
9 9 (0.22%) Prometheus
10 8 (0.20%) SCCM
11 6 (0.15%) Jamf Pro
11 6 (0.15%) Puppet
12 4 (0.100%) vRealize
12 4 (0.100%) ZABBIX
13 3 (0.075%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 3 (0.075%) Argo
13 3 (0.075%) Kubeflow
13 3 (0.075%) SCOM
13 3 (0.075%) Single Sign-On
13 3 (0.075%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 241 (6.00%) Microsoft
2 85 (2.12%) Oracle
3 83 (2.07%) Adobe
4 47 (1.17%) Databricks
5 40 (1.00%) SAP
6 35 (0.87%) Salesforce
7 28 (0.70%) VMware
8 25 (0.62%) HP
9 24 (0.60%) Google
10 22 (0.55%) Siemens
11 17 (0.42%) Informatica
11 17 (0.42%) ServiceNow
12 16 (0.40%) Cisco
13 12 (0.30%) Citrix
14 8 (0.20%) HubSpot
14 8 (0.20%) IFS
15 7 (0.17%) Fortinet
15 7 (0.17%) Veeam
16 6 (0.15%) Apple
16 6 (0.15%) Pega