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 11 June 2026.

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

6 months to
11 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 270 402 242
Rank change year-on-year +132 -160 +105
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead Developer 639 302 1,229
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.69% 0.68% 1.15%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.74% 0.76% 1.22%
Number of salaries quoted 524 208 1,110
10th Percentile £61,625 £52,500 £48,750
25th Percentile £70,000 £62,500 £57,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £82,500 £72,500 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year +13.79% +3.57% -11.95%
75th Percentile £100,000 £83,750 £90,000
90th Percentile £108,750 £100,000 £112,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £70,000 £65,000
% change year-on-year - +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 86,830 39,579 100,813
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.99% 89.52% 94.70%
Number of salaries quoted 59,401 22,377 72,921
10th Percentile £30,000 £29,000 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £39,878 £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 £98,750 £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 11 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 11 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 +116 590 £82,500 +13.79% 73
UK excluding London +114 382 £70,000 - 57
Work from Home +123 266 £90,000 +28.57% 39
London +56 225 £95,000 +15.15% 17
North of England +56 137 £70,000 -3.45% 18
North West +70 100 £70,000 -3.45% 14
South East +28 84 £90,000 +26.32% 11
Midlands +26 73 £70,000 +3.70% 15
South West -32 42 £65,000 +10.64% 5
East Midlands +6 39 £70,000 +5.66% 4
West Midlands -3 34 £65,000 -5.45% 11
Yorkshire -27 26 £70,000 - 3
East of England +1 24 £60,100 -19.87% 8
Northern Ireland -22 13 £80,000 -
North East -33 11 £71,250 -10.94% 1
Scotland +16 7 £70,000 +38.61% 1
Wales -49 2 £75,000 -

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

For the 6 months to 11 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.

1 200 (31.30%) Full-Stack Development
2 136 (21.28%) AWS
3 135 (21.13%) Mentoring
4 128 (20.03%) TypeScript
5 125 (19.56%) .NET
6 124 (19.41%) Software Engineering
7 123 (19.25%) JavaScript
8 119 (18.62%) Azure
9 118 (18.47%) C#
9 118 (18.47%) React
10 114 (17.84%) Agile
11 108 (16.90%) Technical Leadership
12 103 (16.12%) Python
13 95 (14.87%) Node.js
14 89 (13.93%) CI/CD
15 84 (13.15%) SaaS
16 81 (12.68%) DevOps
17 75 (11.74%) AI
18 71 (11.11%) Java
19 69 (10.80%) SQL
20 60 (9.39%) Continuous Improvement
21 58 (9.08%) Microservices
22 52 (8.14%) RESTful
23 51 (7.98%) Microsoft
24 50 (7.82%) Problem-Solving
25 45 (7.04%) GraphQL
26 43 (6.73%) PostgreSQL
27 41 (6.42%) SQL Server
28 40 (6.26%) Apple iOS
29 39 (6.10%) 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 9 (1.41%) Anypoint
1 9 (1.41%) Mule
2 7 (1.10%) SharePoint
3 5 (0.78%) Appian
3 5 (0.78%) Confluence
4 1 (0.16%) CMS
4 1 (0.16%) WordPress
Business Applications
1 8 (1.25%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.16%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 136 (21.28%) AWS
2 119 (18.62%) Azure
3 84 (13.15%) SaaS
4 31 (4.85%) Power Platform
5 30 (4.69%) Serverless
6 28 (4.38%) Dynamics 365
7 26 (4.07%) GCP
8 22 (3.44%) AWS Lambda
8 22 (3.44%) Azure DevOps
9 18 (2.82%) Azure Logic Apps
10 17 (2.66%) GitHub
11 13 (2.03%) Amazon S3
12 11 (1.72%) Amazon EventBridge
12 11 (1.72%) Amazon SQS
13 9 (1.41%) Amazon ECS
13 9 (1.41%) AWS CloudFormation
13 9 (1.41%) Entra ID
13 9 (1.41%) PowerApps
14 8 (1.25%) Microsoft 365
14 8 (1.25%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 5 (0.78%) Broadband
2 4 (0.63%) SSL
3 1 (0.16%) Asterisk PBX
3 1 (0.16%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 43 (6.73%) PostgreSQL
2 41 (6.42%) SQL Server
3 11 (1.72%) Amazon RDS
3 11 (1.72%) MongoDB
3 11 (1.72%) Redis
4 10 (1.56%) DynamoDB
5 8 (1.25%) MySQL
5 8 (1.25%) NoSQL
5 8 (1.25%) Power BI
6 6 (0.94%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 4 (0.63%) Amazon Redshift
7 4 (0.63%) Db2
7 4 (0.63%) Metadata
8 3 (0.47%) MariaDB
8 3 (0.47%) Spatial Data
9 2 (0.31%) InterSystems Cache
10 1 (0.16%) Azure SQL Database
10 1 (0.16%) Elasticsearch
10 1 (0.16%) Relational Database
10 1 (0.16%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 24 (3.76%) Git
2 9 (1.41%) JIRA
3 7 (1.10%) Cypress.io
4 5 (0.78%) Bitbucket
4 5 (0.78%) Maven
5 4 (0.63%) JUnit
6 3 (0.47%) ESLint
6 3 (0.47%) GitLab
6 3 (0.47%) Jenkins
6 3 (0.47%) Mockito
6 3 (0.47%) NUnit
6 3 (0.47%) Vite
6 3 (0.47%) webpack
7 2 (0.31%) Storybook
7 2 (0.31%) XCUITest
8 1 (0.16%) Claude Code
8 1 (0.16%) DBeaver
8 1 (0.16%) Postman
8 1 (0.16%) TeamCity
8 1 (0.16%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 110 (17.21%) Finance
2 57 (8.92%) Social Skills
3 41 (6.42%) Front Office
4 17 (2.66%) Analytical Skills
5 15 (2.35%) Banking
6 13 (2.03%) Games
6 13 (2.03%) Tech for Good
7 12 (1.88%) Public Sector
8 10 (1.56%) Law
9 8 (1.25%) Health Technology
10 6 (0.94%) Local Government
11 5 (0.78%) Retail
12 4 (0.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 4 (0.63%) Pharmaceutical
13 2 (0.31%) General Ledger
13 2 (0.31%) Legal
13 2 (0.31%) Legal Technology
13 2 (0.31%) Marketing
13 2 (0.31%) Presentation Skills
14 1 (0.16%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 125 (19.56%) .NET
2 118 (18.47%) React
3 95 (14.87%) Node.js
4 52 (8.14%) RESTful
5 45 (7.04%) GraphQL
6 39 (6.10%) Redux
7 33 (5.16%) React Native
7 33 (5.16%) Spring
8 32 (5.01%) .NET Core
9 30 (4.69%) Kafka
9 30 (4.69%) Vue
10 29 (4.54%) ASP.NET
11 26 (4.07%) AngularJS
11 26 (4.07%) CSS
12 22 (3.44%) HTML
13 20 (3.13%) .NET Framework
14 18 (2.82%) REST
14 18 (2.82%) Spring Boot
15 15 (2.35%) Next.js
16 13 (2.03%) Hugging Face
Miscellaneous
1 38 (5.95%) Cloud Native
2 36 (5.63%) Fixed Income
3 27 (4.23%) Mobile App
4 26 (4.07%) Product Ownership
5 19 (2.97%) Distributed Systems
6 17 (2.66%) Derivative
7 16 (2.50%) Equities
8 14 (2.19%) Enterprise Software
9 13 (2.03%) PropTech
10 10 (1.56%) Low-Code
11 9 (1.41%) Legacy Applications
11 9 (1.41%) Legacy Systems
12 4 (0.63%) Algorithms
12 4 (0.63%) AS400
12 4 (0.63%) Credit Risk
12 4 (0.63%) Greenfield Project
12 4 (0.63%) Video\Live Streaming
13 3 (0.47%) iSeries
13 3 (0.47%) Photography
13 3 (0.47%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 40 (6.26%) Apple iOS
2 35 (5.48%) Android
3 4 (0.63%) Linux
4 3 (0.47%) Windows
5 1 (0.16%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 200 (31.30%) Full-Stack Development
2 135 (21.13%) Mentoring
3 124 (19.41%) Software Engineering
4 114 (17.84%) Agile
5 108 (16.90%) Technical Leadership
6 89 (13.93%) CI/CD
7 81 (12.68%) DevOps
8 75 (11.74%) AI
9 60 (9.39%) Continuous Improvement
10 58 (9.08%) Microservices
11 50 (7.82%) Problem-Solving
12 39 (6.10%) Portfolio Management
13 38 (5.95%) Investment Management
14 36 (5.63%) Roadmaps
15 34 (5.32%) Coaching
15 34 (5.32%) Infrastructure as Code
16 31 (4.85%) Fintech
17 30 (4.69%) Event-Driven
18 29 (4.54%) Design Patterns
18 29 (4.54%) Machine Learning
Programming Languages
1 128 (20.03%) TypeScript
2 123 (19.25%) JavaScript
3 118 (18.47%) C#
4 103 (16.12%) Python
5 71 (11.11%) Java
6 69 (10.80%) SQL
7 27 (4.23%) Go
8 12 (1.88%) C++
8 12 (1.88%) PHP
8 12 (1.88%) Swift
9 10 (1.56%) Kotlin
10 9 (1.41%) RPG
11 7 (1.10%) Bicep
12 5 (0.78%) Bash
13 4 (0.63%) C
13 4 (0.63%) Dart
13 4 (0.63%) DataWeave
13 4 (0.63%) PowerShell
14 3 (0.47%) COBOL
14 3 (0.47%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 24 (3.76%) Degree
2 15 (2.35%) SC Cleared
2 15 (2.35%) Security Cleared
3 13 (2.03%) Computer Science Degree
4 9 (1.41%) DBS Check
5 5 (0.78%) ITIL Certification
6 1 (0.16%) Master's Degree
6 1 (0.16%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (3.76%) QA
2 12 (1.88%) Accessibility
3 8 (1.25%) Data Quality
4 2 (0.31%) GAAP
4 2 (0.31%) IFRS
4 2 (0.31%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 1 (0.16%) GDPR
5 1 (0.16%) HL7
5 1 (0.16%) NCSC
5 1 (0.16%) SNOMED CT
5 1 (0.16%) Software Quality Assurance
5 1 (0.16%) WCAG
System Software
1 28 (4.38%) Docker
2 3 (0.47%) Firmware
3 2 (0.31%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 23 (3.60%) Kubernetes
2 19 (2.97%) Terraform
3 8 (1.25%) Ansible
4 4 (0.63%) CloudHub
5 1 (0.16%) Grafana
5 1 (0.16%) HP Fortify
5 1 (0.16%) Kibana
5 1 (0.16%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 51 (7.98%) Microsoft
2 11 (1.72%) Salesforce
3 9 (1.41%) MuleSoft
4 7 (1.10%) HubSpot
4 7 (1.10%) OpenAI
5 6 (0.94%) IBM
5 6 (0.94%) Oracle
6 5 (0.78%) Apple
6 5 (0.78%) ServiceNow
7 4 (0.63%) SAP
8 3 (0.47%) Bloomberg
8 3 (0.47%) 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 (0.16%) Citrix
10 1 (0.16%) Reuters
10 1 (0.16%) Revolut