Lead Developer Job Trends

Lead Developer
UK

The median Lead Developer salary in the UK is £85,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 15 July 2026.

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

6 months to
15 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 295 378 233
Rank change year-on-year +83 -145 +120
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead Developer 633 336 1,261
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.64% 0.68% 1.25%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.68% 0.76% 1.32%
Number of salaries quoted 527 238 1,149
10th Percentile £62,500 £53,375 £47,500
25th Percentile £70,000 £63,750 £56,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £85,000 £75,000 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year +13.33% +7.14% -9.68%
75th Percentile £100,000 £87,500 £90,000
90th Percentile £107,500 £120,000 £133,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £72,500 £70,000 £65,000
% change year-on-year +3.57% +7.69% -3.70%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies. 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 with a recognized job title 93,080 44,133 95,805
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.21% 89.80% 94.72%
Number of salaries quoted 63,762 26,055 68,461
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,750 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year - +4.76% -12.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £70,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -5.12%

Lead Developer
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Lead Developer job vacancy trend in the UK

Lead Developer
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for Lead Developer job vacancies in the UK.

Salary distribution trend for Lead Developer job vacancies in the UK

Lead Developer
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Lead Developer over the 6 months to 15 July 2026.

Salary histogram for Lead Developer in the UK

Lead Developer
Top 16 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Lead Developer within the UK over the 6 months to 15 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
England +89 589 £85,000 +17.24% 119
UK excluding London +79 381 £72,500 +3.57% 119
Work from Home +84 257 £95,000 +35.71% 114
London +24 220 £95,000 +5.56% 25
North of England +42 135 £72,500 +3.57% 34
North West +51 95 £72,500 - 19
South East +23 88 £90,000 +22.03% 26
Midlands +15 74 £68,000 +0.74% 18
West Midlands -1 45 £65,000 -5.45% 8
South West -51 38 £65,000 +15.56% 8
East Midlands -5 29 £70,000 +5.66% 10
East of England -2 26 £60,100 -19.87% 13
Yorkshire -27 23 £70,000 +3.70% 11
North East -43 17 £95,000 +18.75% 4
Northern Ireland -45 13 £80,000 - 2
Scotland +16 7 £70,000 +20.69% 15

Lead Developer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 15 July 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 featuring Lead Developer in the job title.

1 194 (30.65%) Full-Stack Development
2 142 (22.43%) AWS
3 140 (22.12%) Mentoring
3 140 (22.12%) TypeScript
4 136 (21.48%) .NET
4 136 (21.48%) JavaScript
5 131 (20.70%) Azure
5 131 (20.70%) C#
6 127 (20.06%) Software Engineering
7 119 (18.80%) Technical Leadership
8 113 (17.85%) Agile
9 110 (17.38%) React
10 98 (15.48%) CI/CD
10 98 (15.48%) Node.js
11 93 (14.69%) Python
12 84 (13.27%) DevOps
13 79 (12.48%) SaaS
14 77 (12.16%) AI
15 68 (10.74%) Java
15 68 (10.74%) Microservices
16 64 (10.11%) Continuous Improvement
16 64 (10.11%) SQL
17 60 (9.48%) Microsoft
18 53 (8.37%) RESTful
19 50 (7.90%) PostgreSQL
20 49 (7.74%) GraphQL
21 46 (7.27%) Problem-Solving
22 44 (6.95%) SQL Server
23 40 (6.32%) Roadmaps
24 39 (6.16%) Event-Driven

Lead Developer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 15 (2.37%) Anypoint
1 15 (2.37%) Mule
2 8 (1.26%) SharePoint
3 7 (1.11%) Appian
4 6 (0.95%) Confluence
5 3 (0.47%) WordPress
6 1 (0.16%) CMS
Business Applications
1 9 (1.42%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.16%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 142 (22.43%) AWS
2 131 (20.70%) Azure
3 79 (12.48%) SaaS
4 32 (5.06%) Dynamics 365
5 30 (4.74%) Azure DevOps
5 30 (4.74%) Power Platform
6 27 (4.27%) GCP
7 21 (3.32%) GitHub
7 21 (3.32%) Serverless
8 16 (2.53%) Azure Logic Apps
9 14 (2.21%) Microsoft Copilot
10 12 (1.90%) AWS Lambda
10 12 (1.90%) Snowflake
11 11 (1.74%) Azure Service Bus
12 10 (1.58%) Amazon ECS
12 10 (1.58%) GitHub Actions
12 10 (1.58%) PowerApps
13 9 (1.42%) Azure Key Vault
13 9 (1.42%) Entra ID
13 9 (1.42%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 10 (1.58%) SSL
2 6 (0.95%) Broadband
3 1 (0.16%) Asterisk PBX
3 1 (0.16%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 50 (7.90%) PostgreSQL
2 44 (6.95%) SQL Server
3 18 (2.84%) Redis
4 13 (2.05%) MySQL
5 12 (1.90%) Amazon RDS
6 10 (1.58%) DynamoDB
6 10 (1.58%) MongoDB
7 8 (1.26%) Power BI
8 7 (1.11%) NoSQL
9 6 (0.95%) Elasticsearch
10 5 (0.79%) Metadata
10 5 (0.79%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 4 (0.63%) Db2
12 3 (0.47%) MariaDB
12 3 (0.47%) Spatial Data
13 2 (0.32%) Geospatial Data
13 2 (0.32%) InterSystems Cache
14 1 (0.16%) Azure SQL Database
14 1 (0.16%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 30 (4.74%) Git
2 11 (1.74%) JIRA
3 6 (0.95%) Cypress.io
4 5 (0.79%) Bitbucket
5 4 (0.63%) Maven
6 3 (0.47%) Jenkins
6 3 (0.47%) JUnit
6 3 (0.47%) Mockito
6 3 (0.47%) NUnit
6 3 (0.47%) Vite
6 3 (0.47%) webpack
7 2 (0.32%) CircleCI
7 2 (0.32%) GitLab
7 2 (0.32%) MSI
7 2 (0.32%) Storybook
7 2 (0.32%) TeamCity
7 2 (0.32%) Terragrunt
8 1 (0.16%) Ant
8 1 (0.16%) Eclipse
8 1 (0.16%) fastlane
General
1 121 (19.12%) Finance
2 60 (9.48%) Social Skills
3 39 (6.16%) Front Office
4 16 (2.53%) Law
5 15 (2.37%) Banking
5 15 (2.37%) Games
6 13 (2.05%) Analytical Skills
7 8 (1.26%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 7 (1.11%) Public Sector
9 6 (0.95%) Retail
9 6 (0.95%) Tech for Good
10 5 (0.79%) Legal
10 5 (0.79%) Legal Technology
11 4 (0.63%) Health Technology
12 2 (0.32%) Marketing
13 1 (0.16%) Investment Banking
13 1 (0.16%) Local Government
13 1 (0.16%) Manufacturing
13 1 (0.16%) Organisational Skills
13 1 (0.16%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 136 (21.48%) .NET
2 110 (17.38%) React
3 98 (15.48%) Node.js
4 53 (8.37%) RESTful
5 49 (7.74%) GraphQL
6 39 (6.16%) Redux
7 35 (5.53%) Vue
8 33 (5.21%) React Native
9 30 (4.74%) Kafka
10 29 (4.58%) .NET Core
11 28 (4.42%) ASP.NET
11 28 (4.42%) Spring
12 26 (4.11%) CSS
13 25 (3.95%) REST
14 22 (3.48%) HTML
15 20 (3.16%) AngularJS
16 18 (2.84%) Next.js
17 17 (2.69%) .NET Framework
18 15 (2.37%) Laravel
19 13 (2.05%) PyTorch
Miscellaneous
1 39 (6.16%) Cloud Native
2 36 (5.69%) Fixed Income
3 24 (3.79%) Product Ownership
4 20 (3.16%) Mobile App
5 17 (2.69%) Derivative
5 17 (2.69%) Distributed Systems
5 17 (2.69%) Enterprise Software
6 16 (2.53%) Equities
7 15 (2.37%) Legacy Systems
8 12 (1.90%) Low-Code
9 11 (1.74%) PropTech
10 9 (1.42%) Legacy Applications
11 7 (1.11%) Onboarding
12 5 (0.79%) Virtual Team
13 4 (0.63%) Algorithms
13 4 (0.63%) AS400
13 4 (0.63%) Credit Risk
13 4 (0.63%) Greenfield Project
13 4 (0.63%) Video\Live Streaming
14 3 (0.47%) Photography
Operating Systems
1 37 (5.85%) Apple iOS
2 35 (5.53%) Android
3 4 (0.63%) Linux
3 4 (0.63%) Windows
4 1 (0.16%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 194 (30.65%) Full-Stack Development
2 140 (22.12%) Mentoring
3 127 (20.06%) Software Engineering
4 119 (18.80%) Technical Leadership
5 113 (17.85%) Agile
6 98 (15.48%) CI/CD
7 84 (13.27%) DevOps
8 77 (12.16%) AI
9 68 (10.74%) Microservices
10 64 (10.11%) Continuous Improvement
11 46 (7.27%) Problem-Solving
12 40 (6.32%) Roadmaps
13 39 (6.16%) Event-Driven
13 39 (6.16%) Portfolio Management
14 38 (6.00%) Investment Management
15 36 (5.69%) Event-Driven Architecture
16 35 (5.53%) Coaching
16 35 (5.53%) Fintech
17 34 (5.37%) Test Automation
18 33 (5.21%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 140 (22.12%) TypeScript
2 136 (21.48%) JavaScript
3 131 (20.70%) C#
4 93 (14.69%) Python
5 68 (10.74%) Java
6 64 (10.11%) SQL
7 29 (4.58%) Go
8 14 (2.21%) PHP
9 12 (1.90%) C++
10 11 (1.74%) Swift
11 10 (1.58%) DataWeave
11 10 (1.58%) Kotlin
12 9 (1.42%) Bicep
12 9 (1.42%) RPG
13 6 (0.95%) Ruby
14 5 (0.79%) PowerShell
15 4 (0.63%) Bash
15 4 (0.63%) C
15 4 (0.63%) Dart
16 3 (0.47%) COBOL
Qualifications
1 27 (4.27%) Degree
2 26 (4.11%) SC Cleared
2 26 (4.11%) Security Cleared
3 14 (2.21%) Computer Science Degree
4 9 (1.42%) DBS Check
5 6 (0.95%) ITIL Certification
6 1 (0.16%) BPSS Clearance
6 1 (0.16%) Master's Degree
6 1 (0.16%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (4.58%) QA
2 14 (2.21%) Accessibility
3 6 (0.95%) Data Quality
4 2 (0.32%) NCSC
4 2 (0.32%) WCAG
5 1 (0.16%) GDPR
5 1 (0.16%) HL7
5 1 (0.16%) SNOMED CT
5 1 (0.16%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 38 (6.00%) Docker
2 3 (0.47%) Firmware
3 2 (0.32%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 26 (4.11%) Kubernetes
2 18 (2.84%) Terraform
3 10 (1.58%) CloudHub
4 4 (0.63%) Ansible
5 1 (0.16%) Grafana
5 1 (0.16%) Kibana
5 1 (0.16%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 60 (9.48%) Microsoft
2 17 (2.69%) Salesforce
3 15 (2.37%) MuleSoft
4 12 (1.90%) ServiceNow
5 10 (1.58%) SAP
6 7 (1.11%) HubSpot
7 6 (0.95%) IBM
7 6 (0.95%) Oracle
8 4 (0.63%) Apple
9 3 (0.47%) Bloomberg
9 3 (0.47%) DevExpress
9 3 (0.47%) OpenAI
10 2 (0.32%) Google
10 2 (0.32%) Refinitiv
10 2 (0.32%) TikTok
11 1 (0.16%) Citrix
11 1 (0.16%) Reuters
11 1 (0.16%) Revolut