Lead Developer Job Trends

Lead Developer
UK

The median Lead Developer salary in the UK is £82,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 2 June 2026.

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

6 months to
2 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 286 399 243
Rank change year-on-year +113 -156 +101
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead Developer 618 285 1,179
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.66% 0.65% 1.15%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.71% 0.73% 1.22%
Number of salaries quoted 512 205 1,065
10th Percentile £60,000 £51,889 £48,750
25th Percentile £70,000 £61,250 £57,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £82,500 £72,500 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year +13.79% +3.57% -12.23%
75th Percentile £100,000 £83,750 £90,000
90th Percentile £108,750 £101,500 £112,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,750 £70,000 £65,000
% change year-on-year +1.07% +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 87,037 39,088 96,954
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.48% 89.36% 94.80%
Number of salaries quoted 58,034 21,982 70,659
10th Percentile £30,000 £29,500 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £40,000 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £57,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -12.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £70,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £50,967 £50,000
% change year-on-year -1.90% +1.93% -6.54%

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 2 June 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 IT jobs citing Lead Developer within the UK over the 6 months to 2 June 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 +121 568 £82,500 +13.79% 88
UK excluding London +89 362 £70,750 +1.07% 75
Work from Home +134 261 £90,000 +28.57% 42
London +65 223 £95,000 +11.76% 22
North of England +44 129 £70,000 -3.45% 19
North West +52 96 £70,750 -2.41% 12
South East +30 82 £90,000 +24.14% 19
Midlands +16 66 £70,000 +3.70% 20
South West -42 43 £65,000 +8.33% 7
East Midlands -4 36 £70,000 +5.66% 9
West Midlands -11 30 £67,500 - 11
Yorkshire -29 23 £72,500 +3.57% 3
East of England +5 20 £60,100 -19.87% 7
Northern Ireland -27 13 £80,000 -
North East -31 10 £67,500 -15.63% 4
Scotland +11 7 £70,000 +38.61% 4
Wales -44 2 £75,000 -

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

For the 6 months to 2 June 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.

1 195 (31.55%) Full-Stack Development
2 133 (21.52%) AWS
3 132 (21.36%) Mentoring
4 123 (19.90%) TypeScript
5 121 (19.58%) Software Engineering
6 118 (19.09%) JavaScript
6 118 (19.09%) React
7 116 (18.77%) .NET
7 116 (18.77%) Agile
8 113 (18.28%) Azure
9 110 (17.80%) C#
10 102 (16.50%) Python
11 100 (16.18%) Technical Leadership
12 90 (14.56%) Node.js
13 86 (13.92%) CI/CD
14 82 (13.27%) SaaS
15 79 (12.78%) DevOps
16 70 (11.33%) AI
16 70 (11.33%) Java
17 65 (10.52%) SQL
18 56 (9.06%) Continuous Improvement
18 56 (9.06%) Microservices
19 52 (8.41%) RESTful
20 51 (8.25%) Problem-Solving
21 46 (7.44%) Microsoft
22 43 (6.96%) GraphQL
23 40 (6.47%) Apple iOS
23 40 (6.47%) PostgreSQL
24 39 (6.31%) Portfolio Management
24 39 (6.31%) Redux

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 9 (1.46%) Anypoint
1 9 (1.46%) Mule
2 6 (0.97%) SharePoint
3 5 (0.81%) Appian
3 5 (0.81%) Confluence
4 1 (0.16%) CMS
Business Applications
1 8 (1.29%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.16%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 133 (21.52%) AWS
2 113 (18.28%) Azure
3 82 (13.27%) SaaS
4 33 (5.34%) Serverless
5 28 (4.53%) Power Platform
6 26 (4.21%) Dynamics 365
7 24 (3.88%) AWS Lambda
7 24 (3.88%) GCP
8 20 (3.24%) Azure DevOps
9 18 (2.91%) Azure Logic Apps
10 16 (2.59%) GitHub
11 15 (2.43%) Amazon S3
12 14 (2.27%) Amazon SQS
13 11 (1.78%) Amazon EventBridge
14 10 (1.62%) Entra ID
15 9 (1.46%) AWS CloudFormation
16 8 (1.29%) Azure App Service
16 8 (1.29%) GitHub Actions
16 8 (1.29%) PaaS
16 8 (1.29%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 4 (0.65%) Broadband
1 4 (0.65%) SSL
2 1 (0.16%) Asterisk PBX
2 1 (0.16%) Network Security
2 1 (0.16%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 40 (6.47%) PostgreSQL
2 38 (6.15%) SQL Server
3 10 (1.62%) Amazon RDS
3 10 (1.62%) MongoDB
4 9 (1.46%) DynamoDB
4 9 (1.46%) NoSQL
5 7 (1.13%) MySQL
5 7 (1.13%) Power BI
5 7 (1.13%) Redis
6 6 (0.97%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 5 (0.81%) DB2
8 4 (0.65%) Amazon Redshift
9 3 (0.49%) MariaDB
9 3 (0.49%) Metadata
9 3 (0.49%) Spatial Data
10 2 (0.32%) InterSystems Cache
11 1 (0.16%) Azure SQL Database
11 1 (0.16%) Elasticsearch
11 1 (0.16%) Relational Database
11 1 (0.16%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 23 (3.72%) Git
2 9 (1.46%) JIRA
3 7 (1.13%) Cypress.io
4 6 (0.97%) Bitbucket
5 5 (0.81%) Maven
6 4 (0.65%) Jenkins
6 4 (0.65%) JUnit
6 4 (0.65%) webpack
7 3 (0.49%) ESLint
7 3 (0.49%) GitLab
7 3 (0.49%) Mockito
7 3 (0.49%) NUnit
7 3 (0.49%) Vite
8 2 (0.32%) Storybook
8 2 (0.32%) XCUITest
9 1 (0.16%) Cucumber
9 1 (0.16%) Postman
9 1 (0.16%) Selenium
9 1 (0.16%) Subversion
9 1 (0.16%) TeamCity
General
1 104 (16.83%) Finance
2 57 (9.22%) Social Skills
3 41 (6.63%) Front Office
4 17 (2.75%) Analytical Skills
5 16 (2.59%) Tech for Good
6 13 (2.10%) Banking
7 12 (1.94%) Games
8 11 (1.78%) Public Sector
9 10 (1.62%) Health Technology
9 10 (1.62%) Law
10 6 (0.97%) Retail
11 5 (0.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 5 (0.81%) Local Government
12 4 (0.65%) Pharmaceutical
13 3 (0.49%) Organisational Skills
14 2 (0.32%) General Ledger
14 2 (0.32%) Influencing Skills
14 2 (0.32%) Marketing
14 2 (0.32%) Presentation Skills
14 2 (0.32%) Publishing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 118 (19.09%) React
2 116 (18.77%) .NET
3 90 (14.56%) Node.js
4 52 (8.41%) RESTful
5 43 (6.96%) GraphQL
6 39 (6.31%) Redux
7 32 (5.18%) React Native
7 32 (5.18%) Spring
8 30 (4.85%) Kafka
9 29 (4.69%) .NET Core
10 27 (4.37%) ASP.NET
10 27 (4.37%) Vue
11 26 (4.21%) CSS
12 25 (4.05%) AngularJS
13 23 (3.72%) HTML
14 19 (3.07%) .NET Framework
15 18 (2.91%) Spring Boot
16 16 (2.59%) REST
17 15 (2.43%) Laravel
18 12 (1.94%) Next.js
Miscellaneous
1 36 (5.83%) Fixed Income
2 34 (5.50%) Cloud Native
3 27 (4.37%) Mobile App
4 25 (4.05%) Product Ownership
5 17 (2.75%) Derivative
6 16 (2.59%) Distributed Systems
6 16 (2.59%) Equities
7 14 (2.27%) Enterprise Software
8 13 (2.10%) PropTech
9 9 (1.46%) Legacy Applications
10 8 (1.29%) Legacy Systems
10 8 (1.29%) Low-Code
11 6 (0.97%) Greenfield Project
12 4 (0.65%) AS400
12 4 (0.65%) Credit Risk
13 3 (0.49%) iSeries
13 3 (0.49%) Operational Technology
13 3 (0.49%) Photography
13 3 (0.49%) Video\Live Streaming
14 2 (0.32%) AI Agents
Operating Systems
1 40 (6.47%) Apple iOS
2 34 (5.50%) Android
3 5 (0.81%) Linux
4 2 (0.32%) Windows
5 1 (0.16%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 195 (31.55%) Full-Stack Development
2 132 (21.36%) Mentoring
3 121 (19.58%) Software Engineering
4 116 (18.77%) Agile
5 100 (16.18%) Technical Leadership
6 86 (13.92%) CI/CD
7 79 (12.78%) DevOps
8 70 (11.33%) AI
9 56 (9.06%) Continuous Improvement
9 56 (9.06%) Microservices
10 51 (8.25%) Problem-Solving
11 39 (6.31%) Portfolio Management
12 38 (6.15%) Investment Management
13 36 (5.83%) Coaching
14 32 (5.18%) Roadmaps
15 31 (5.02%) Infrastructure as Code
16 30 (4.85%) Event-Driven
16 30 (4.85%) Fintech
17 29 (4.69%) Scrum
18 27 (4.37%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 123 (19.90%) TypeScript
2 118 (19.09%) JavaScript
3 110 (17.80%) C#
4 102 (16.50%) Python
5 70 (11.33%) Java
6 65 (10.52%) SQL
7 26 (4.21%) Go
8 13 (2.10%) C++
8 13 (2.10%) PHP
9 12 (1.94%) Swift
10 10 (1.62%) Kotlin
11 8 (1.29%) RPG
12 6 (0.97%) Bicep
13 5 (0.81%) Bash
13 5 (0.81%) C
14 4 (0.65%) Dart
14 4 (0.65%) DataWeave
15 3 (0.49%) COBOL
15 3 (0.49%) PL/SQL
15 3 (0.49%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 23 (3.72%) Degree
2 15 (2.43%) Security Cleared
3 14 (2.27%) SC Cleared
4 11 (1.78%) Computer Science Degree
5 9 (1.46%) DBS Check
6 5 (0.81%) ITIL Certification
7 2 (0.32%) Master's Degree
8 1 (0.16%) Microsoft Certification
8 1 (0.16%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (4.21%) QA
2 11 (1.78%) Accessibility
3 8 (1.29%) Data Quality
4 2 (0.32%) GAAP
4 2 (0.32%) IFRS
4 2 (0.32%) Sarbanes-Oxley
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 26 (4.21%) Docker
2 3 (0.49%) Active Directory
2 3 (0.49%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 23 (3.72%) Kubernetes
2 17 (2.75%) Terraform
3 8 (1.29%) Ansible
4 4 (0.65%) CloudHub
5 1 (0.16%) Grafana
5 1 (0.16%) HP Fortify
5 1 (0.16%) Kibana
5 1 (0.16%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 46 (7.44%) Microsoft
2 11 (1.78%) Salesforce
3 9 (1.46%) MuleSoft
4 7 (1.13%) HubSpot
4 7 (1.13%) OpenAI
5 6 (0.97%) Oracle
6 5 (0.81%) Apple
6 5 (0.81%) IBM
6 5 (0.81%) ServiceNow
7 4 (0.65%) SAP
8 3 (0.49%) Bloomberg
8 3 (0.49%) DevExpress
9 2 (0.32%) Foundry
9 2 (0.32%) Google
9 2 (0.32%) Refinitiv
9 2 (0.32%) TikTok
9 2 (0.32%) Workday
10 1 (0.16%) Citrix
10 1 (0.16%) Reuters
10 1 (0.16%) Revolut