Lead Developer Job Trends

Lead Developer
UK

The median Lead Developer salary in the UK is £80,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 24 October 2026.

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

6 months to
24 Oct 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 342 395 242
Rank change year-on-year +53 -153 +63
Permanent Lead Developer jobs 637 299 755
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.53% 0.60% 1.10%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.57% 0.67% 1.15%
Number of salaries quoted 508 211 615
10th Percentile £65,000 £55,000 -
25th Percentile £70,000 £65,625 £47,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £80,000 £75,000 £67,500
Median % change year-on-year +6.67% +11.11% -15.63%
75th Percentile £100,000 £90,000 £87,500
90th Percentile - £122,500 £142,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £75,000 £70,000 £62,500
% change year-on-year +7.14% +12.00% -10.71%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job adverts matching a recognised job title. The table also shows what proportion of all permanent IT job adverts they make up.

6 months to
24 Oct 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Permanent job adverts in the UK matching a recognised job title 111,477 44,406 65,669
% of permanent job adverts matching a recognised job title 92.18% 89.83% 95.30%
Number of salaries quoted 75,138 26,267 37,427
10th Percentile £30,500 £28,177 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,250 £35,000 £41,591
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £59,300 £52,500 £56,500
Median % change year-on-year +12.95% -7.08% -5.83%
75th Percentile £76,250 £73,750 £75,000
90th Percentile £98,750 £93,750 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £45,390 £50,000
% change year-on-year +21.17% -9.22% -4.76%

Lead Developer Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent Lead Developer job postings 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 Lead Developer jobs over the 6 months to 24 October 2026.

Salary histogram for Lead Developer in the UK

Lead Developer Top 17 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in Lead Developer jobs within the UK over the 6 months to 24 October 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		 Job Ads
Past 6 Months		 Median Salary
Past 6 Months		 Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year		 Live
Jobs
England +51 591 £85,000 +13.33% 175
UK excluding London +62 411 £75,000 +7.14% 95
Work from Home +32 224 £95,000 +18.75% 84
London +3 199 £95,000 -7.32% 80
North of England -5 128 £75,000 +7.14% 33
Midlands +5 107 £70,000 -3.45% 17
South East +1 104 £92,500 +25.42% 15
West Midlands -13 64 £70,000 -3.45% 12
North West -11 58 £72,500 +3.57% 8
Yorkshire -15 46 £75,000 +7.14% 18
East Midlands -5 43 £70,000 -6.67% 5
East of England -27 26 £85,000 +29.77% 10
North East -55 24 £100,000 +45.99% 8
South West -74 21 £70,000 +55.56% 7
Wales -63 15 £62,000 -17.33% 5
Scotland +6 9 £70,000 +19.15% 6
Northern Ireland - 1 £80,000 - 2

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

For the 6 months to 24 October 2026, Lead Developer job ads cited 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 Lead Developer job ads.

RankSkillShareJob Ads
1Technical Leadership25.4%162
2Full-Stack Development21.8%139
3Azure21.7%138
3C#21.7%138
5AWS19.9%127
6.NET19.8%126
7JavaScript19.5%124
8Mentoring18.8%120
9TypeScript17.9%114
10CI/CD15.2%97
11AI14.9%95
12Node.js13.8%88
13Software Engineering13.2%84
14SaaS13.0%83
15Python11.9%76
16SQL11.8%75
17DevOps10.4%66
17Microsoft10.4%66
19Agile9.9%63
20Continuous Improvement9.6%61
20Microservices9.6%61
22SQL Server8.6%55
23Dynamics 3658.5%54
24Roadmaps8.3%53
25React7.8%50
26Docker7.2%46
26Java7.2%46
28Power Platform6.8%43
28Problem-Solving6.8%43
30Event-Driven6.6%42

Lead Developer Skill Set Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category

The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.

Job Titles

RankJob TitleShareJob Ads
1Lead Software Developer32.5%207
2Software Developer32.3%206
3Lead Full-Stack Developer16.2%103
4Lead .NET Developer8.5%54
5Lead Dynamics 365 Developer7.4%47
5Lead Python Developer7.4%47
7Lead C# Developer6.9%44
8Lead Java Developer4.4%28
9Artificial Intelligence Developer3.8%24
9C# .NET Developer3.8%24
11Senior Developer3.6%23
12Integration Developer3.5%22
12React Developer3.5%22
14Automation Developer3.1%20
14Power Platform Developer3.1%20
16.NET Developer - Fintech2.8%18
17Developer/Software Engineer2.7%17
17Lead Software Engineer2.7%17
17MuleSoft Developer2.7%17
20Artificial Intelligence Engineer2.4%15
205 Lead Developer jobs Nationwide