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 June 2026.

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

6 months to
24 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 287 387 237
Rank change year-on-year +100 -150 +112
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead Developer 648 301 1,270
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.68% 0.67% 1.18%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.72% 0.74% 1.24%
Number of salaries quoted 531 208 1,154
10th Percentile £62,500 £52,500 £48,750
25th Percentile £70,000 £62,500 £56,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £80,000 £72,500 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.34% +3.57% -9.68%
75th Percentile £100,000 £85,000 £90,000
90th Percentile £107,500 £110,750 £112,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £72,000 £70,000 £65,000
% change year-on-year +2.86% +7.69% -7.14%

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 89,394 40,455 102,187
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.02% 89.45% 94.75%
Number of salaries quoted 61,374 23,051 73,787
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £38,750 £38,620
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 £98,474 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year - - -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 24 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 24 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 +112 598 £80,750 +11.38% 65
UK excluding London +113 391 £72,000 +2.86% 49
Work from Home +132 267 £90,000 +28.57% 37
London +52 220 £95,000 +11.76% 22
North of England +50 138 £72,000 -0.69% 16
North West +63 100 £72,000 -0.69% 12
South East +28 86 £90,000 +26.32% 11
Midlands +30 78 £70,000 +3.70% 13
South West -45 42 £65,000 +13.04% 5
West Midlands +13 41 £65,000 -7.14% 10
East Midlands 0 37 £70,000 +3.70% 3
East of England 0 26 £60,100 -19.87% 2
Yorkshire -33 23 £70,000 +3.70% 2
North East -28 15 £87,500 +9.38% 2
Northern Ireland -22 13 £80,000 - 1
Scotland +11 7 £70,000 +38.61% 1
Wales -55 1 £75,000 - 1

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

For the 6 months to 24 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.

1 202 (31.17%) Full-Stack Development
2 140 (21.60%) Mentoring
3 139 (21.45%) AWS
4 132 (20.37%) .NET
4 132 (20.37%) TypeScript
5 131 (20.22%) Software Engineering
6 129 (19.91%) JavaScript
7 125 (19.29%) Azure
7 125 (19.29%) C#
8 116 (17.90%) Agile
9 115 (17.75%) Technical Leadership
10 114 (17.59%) React
11 105 (16.20%) Python
12 96 (14.81%) Node.js
13 94 (14.51%) CI/CD
14 84 (12.96%) DevOps
15 83 (12.81%) SaaS
16 79 (12.19%) AI
17 73 (11.27%) Java
18 68 (10.49%) SQL
19 62 (9.57%) Continuous Improvement
20 61 (9.41%) Microservices
21 58 (8.95%) Microsoft
22 52 (8.02%) Problem-Solving
23 51 (7.87%) RESTful
24 47 (7.25%) PostgreSQL
25 46 (7.10%) GraphQL
26 42 (6.48%) SQL Server
27 41 (6.33%) Roadmaps
28 39 (6.02%) Portfolio Management

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 10 (1.54%) Anypoint
1 10 (1.54%) Mule
2 8 (1.23%) SharePoint
3 7 (1.08%) Appian
4 6 (0.93%) Confluence
5 2 (0.31%) WordPress
6 1 (0.15%) CMS
Business Applications
1 8 (1.23%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.15%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 139 (21.45%) AWS
2 125 (19.29%) Azure
3 83 (12.81%) SaaS
4 33 (5.09%) Power Platform
5 30 (4.63%) Dynamics 365
6 26 (4.01%) Azure DevOps
6 26 (4.01%) GCP
6 26 (4.01%) Serverless
7 22 (3.40%) GitHub
8 18 (2.78%) AWS Lambda
8 18 (2.78%) Azure Logic Apps
9 11 (1.70%) Microsoft Copilot
10 10 (1.54%) Amazon ECS
10 10 (1.54%) GitHub Actions
10 10 (1.54%) PowerApps
11 9 (1.39%) Amazon EventBridge
11 9 (1.39%) Amazon SQS
11 9 (1.39%) Entra ID
11 9 (1.39%) Microsoft 365
11 9 (1.39%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 6 (0.93%) Broadband
2 5 (0.77%) SSL
3 1 (0.15%) Asterisk PBX
3 1 (0.15%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 47 (7.25%) PostgreSQL
2 42 (6.48%) SQL Server
3 14 (2.16%) Redis
4 12 (1.85%) Amazon RDS
5 11 (1.70%) MongoDB
6 10 (1.54%) DynamoDB
7 9 (1.39%) Power BI
8 8 (1.23%) MySQL
9 7 (1.08%) NoSQL
10 6 (0.93%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 5 (0.77%) Metadata
12 4 (0.62%) Db2
13 3 (0.46%) Amazon Redshift
13 3 (0.46%) Elasticsearch
13 3 (0.46%) MariaDB
13 3 (0.46%) Spatial Data
14 2 (0.31%) Geospatial Data
14 2 (0.31%) InterSystems Cache
15 1 (0.15%) Azure SQL Database
15 1 (0.15%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 27 (4.17%) Git
2 11 (1.70%) JIRA
3 6 (0.93%) Cypress.io
4 5 (0.77%) Bitbucket
5 4 (0.62%) JUnit
5 4 (0.62%) Maven
6 3 (0.46%) Jenkins
6 3 (0.46%) Mockito
6 3 (0.46%) NUnit
6 3 (0.46%) Vite
6 3 (0.46%) webpack
7 2 (0.31%) CircleCI
7 2 (0.31%) GitLab
7 2 (0.31%) MSI
7 2 (0.31%) Storybook
7 2 (0.31%) TeamCity
8 1 (0.15%) Ant
8 1 (0.15%) Eclipse
8 1 (0.15%) fastlane
8 1 (0.15%) SpecFlow
General
1 116 (17.90%) Finance
2 60 (9.26%) Social Skills
3 41 (6.33%) Front Office
4 17 (2.62%) Banking
5 16 (2.47%) Analytical Skills
6 13 (2.01%) Games
6 13 (2.01%) Tech for Good
7 12 (1.85%) Public Sector
8 11 (1.70%) Law
9 8 (1.23%) Health Technology
10 7 (1.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 6 (0.93%) Local Government
11 6 (0.93%) Retail
12 4 (0.62%) Legal
12 4 (0.62%) Legal Technology
12 4 (0.62%) Pharmaceutical
13 2 (0.31%) General Ledger
13 2 (0.31%) Marketing
13 2 (0.31%) Presentation Skills
14 1 (0.15%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 132 (20.37%) .NET
2 114 (17.59%) React
3 96 (14.81%) Node.js
4 51 (7.87%) RESTful
5 46 (7.10%) GraphQL
6 39 (6.02%) Redux
7 34 (5.25%) .NET Core
7 34 (5.25%) React Native
8 32 (4.94%) Spring
9 30 (4.63%) Kafka
9 30 (4.63%) Vue
10 29 (4.48%) ASP.NET
11 25 (3.86%) CSS
12 23 (3.55%) AngularJS
13 22 (3.40%) HTML
13 22 (3.40%) REST
14 19 (2.93%) .NET Framework
15 17 (2.62%) Next.js
15 17 (2.62%) Spring Boot
16 14 (2.16%) Hugging Face
Miscellaneous
1 37 (5.71%) Cloud Native
2 36 (5.56%) Fixed Income
3 26 (4.01%) Product Ownership
4 24 (3.70%) Mobile App
5 18 (2.78%) Distributed Systems
6 17 (2.62%) Derivative
7 16 (2.47%) Equities
8 14 (2.16%) Enterprise Software
9 13 (2.01%) PropTech
10 11 (1.70%) Low-Code
11 10 (1.54%) Legacy Systems
12 9 (1.39%) Legacy Applications
13 7 (1.08%) Onboarding
14 4 (0.62%) Algorithms
14 4 (0.62%) AS400
14 4 (0.62%) Credit Risk
14 4 (0.62%) Greenfield Project
14 4 (0.62%) Video\Live Streaming
15 3 (0.46%) iSeries
15 3 (0.46%) Photography
Operating Systems
1 38 (5.86%) Apple iOS
2 36 (5.56%) Android
3 4 (0.62%) Linux
3 4 (0.62%) Windows
4 1 (0.15%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 202 (31.17%) Full-Stack Development
2 140 (21.60%) Mentoring
3 131 (20.22%) Software Engineering
4 116 (17.90%) Agile
5 115 (17.75%) Technical Leadership
6 94 (14.51%) CI/CD
7 84 (12.96%) DevOps
8 79 (12.19%) AI
9 62 (9.57%) Continuous Improvement
10 61 (9.41%) Microservices
11 52 (8.02%) Problem-Solving
12 41 (6.33%) Roadmaps
13 39 (6.02%) Portfolio Management
14 38 (5.86%) Investment Management
15 37 (5.71%) Coaching
16 36 (5.56%) Infrastructure as Code
17 33 (5.09%) Fintech
18 31 (4.78%) Event-Driven
19 30 (4.63%) Machine Learning
19 30 (4.63%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 132 (20.37%) TypeScript
2 129 (19.91%) JavaScript
3 125 (19.29%) C#
4 105 (16.20%) Python
5 73 (11.27%) Java
6 68 (10.49%) SQL
7 27 (4.17%) Go
8 12 (1.85%) C++
8 12 (1.85%) PHP
9 11 (1.70%) Swift
10 10 (1.54%) Kotlin
11 9 (1.39%) RPG
12 8 (1.23%) Bicep
13 5 (0.77%) DataWeave
13 5 (0.77%) PowerShell
13 5 (0.77%) Ruby
14 4 (0.62%) Bash
14 4 (0.62%) C
14 4 (0.62%) Dart
15 3 (0.46%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 24 (3.70%) Degree
2 20 (3.09%) SC Cleared
2 20 (3.09%) Security Cleared
3 13 (2.01%) Computer Science Degree
4 9 (1.39%) DBS Check
5 6 (0.93%) ITIL Certification
6 1 (0.15%) Master's Degree
6 1 (0.15%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (4.01%) QA
2 14 (2.16%) Accessibility
3 8 (1.23%) Data Quality
4 2 (0.31%) GAAP
4 2 (0.31%) IFRS
4 2 (0.31%) NCSC
4 2 (0.31%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 2 (0.31%) WCAG
5 1 (0.15%) GDPR
5 1 (0.15%) HL7
5 1 (0.15%) SNOMED CT
5 1 (0.15%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 34 (5.25%) Docker
2 3 (0.46%) Firmware
3 2 (0.31%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 26 (4.01%) Kubernetes
2 21 (3.24%) Terraform
3 8 (1.23%) Ansible
4 5 (0.77%) CloudHub
5 1 (0.15%) Grafana
5 1 (0.15%) Kibana
5 1 (0.15%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 58 (8.95%) Microsoft
2 12 (1.85%) Salesforce
3 10 (1.54%) MuleSoft
4 7 (1.08%) HubSpot
4 7 (1.08%) ServiceNow
5 6 (0.93%) IBM
5 6 (0.93%) OpenAI
5 6 (0.93%) Oracle
6 5 (0.77%) SAP
7 4 (0.62%) Apple
8 3 (0.46%) Bloomberg
8 3 (0.46%) DevExpress
9 2 (0.31%) Foundry
9 2 (0.31%) Google
9 2 (0.31%) Refinitiv
9 2 (0.31%) TikTok
9 2 (0.31%) Workday
10 1 (0.15%) Citrix
10 1 (0.15%) Reuters
10 1 (0.15%) Revolut