Lead Developer Job Trends

Lead Developer
UK

The median Lead Developer salary in the UK is £83,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 6 July 2026.

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

6 months to
6 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 289 391 222
Rank change year-on-year +102 -169 +121
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead Developer 650 329 1,292
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.67% 0.69% 1.24%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.71% 0.76% 1.31%
Number of salaries quoted 544 233 1,176
10th Percentile £62,500 £53,750 £48,750
25th Percentile £70,000 £63,750 £57,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £83,500 £72,500 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year +15.17% +3.57% -9.68%
75th Percentile £100,000 £87,500 £91,250
90th Percentile £107,500 £120,000 £125,000
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 91,659 43,150 98,619
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.16% 89.93% 94.75%
Number of salaries quoted 62,930 25,242 71,006
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £38,000 £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 £75,360 £70,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,130 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +4.26% - -5.66%

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 6 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 6 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 +99 602 £83,500 +15.17% 76
UK excluding London +84 391 £72,500 +3.57% 49
Work from Home +98 266 £90,000 +28.57% 42
London +44 223 £95,000 +5.56% 32
North of England +43 141 £72,500 +3.57% 14
North West +49 102 £72,000 -0.69% 8
South East +26 89 £90,000 +22.03% 14
Midlands +21 76 £70,000 +3.70% 10
West Midlands +2 43 £65,000 -7.14% 6
South West -48 39 £65,000 +13.04% 6
East Midlands -1 33 £70,000 +3.70% 4
East of England +8 26 £60,100 -19.87% 5
Yorkshire -17 23 £70,000 +3.70% 3
North East -32 16 £100,000 +25.00% 3
Northern Ireland -36 13 £80,000 - 1
Scotland +14 7 £70,000 +20.69%

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

For the 6 months to 6 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.

1 205 (31.54%) Full-Stack Development
2 147 (22.62%) AWS
3 141 (21.69%) .NET
4 140 (21.54%) Mentoring
5 138 (21.23%) JavaScript
6 137 (21.08%) TypeScript
7 135 (20.77%) C#
7 135 (20.77%) Software Engineering
8 134 (20.62%) Azure
9 122 (18.77%) Technical Leadership
10 116 (17.85%) Agile
10 116 (17.85%) React
11 102 (15.69%) Python
12 99 (15.23%) Node.js
13 97 (14.92%) CI/CD
14 86 (13.23%) SaaS
15 84 (12.92%) DevOps
16 81 (12.46%) AI
17 70 (10.77%) SQL
18 69 (10.62%) Java
18 69 (10.62%) Microservices
19 66 (10.15%) Continuous Improvement
20 59 (9.08%) Microsoft
21 52 (8.00%) RESTful
22 50 (7.69%) PostgreSQL
23 49 (7.54%) Problem-Solving
24 48 (7.38%) GraphQL
25 47 (7.23%) SQL Server
26 42 (6.46%) Roadmaps
27 39 (6.00%) 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 13 (2.00%) Anypoint
1 13 (2.00%) Mule
2 8 (1.23%) SharePoint
3 7 (1.08%) Appian
4 6 (0.92%) Confluence
5 3 (0.46%) WordPress
6 1 (0.15%) CMS
Business Applications
1 9 (1.38%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.15%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 147 (22.62%) AWS
2 134 (20.62%) Azure
3 86 (13.23%) SaaS
4 32 (4.92%) Dynamics 365
4 32 (4.92%) Power Platform
5 28 (4.31%) Azure DevOps
6 27 (4.15%) GCP
7 23 (3.54%) Serverless
8 22 (3.38%) GitHub
9 17 (2.62%) Azure Logic Apps
10 15 (2.31%) AWS Lambda
11 14 (2.15%) Microsoft Copilot
12 12 (1.85%) Snowflake
13 10 (1.54%) Amazon ECS
13 10 (1.54%) GitHub Actions
13 10 (1.54%) PowerApps
14 9 (1.38%) Azure Service Bus
14 9 (1.38%) Entra ID
14 9 (1.38%) Power Automate
15 8 (1.23%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 8 (1.23%) SSL
2 6 (0.92%) Broadband
3 1 (0.15%) Asterisk PBX
3 1 (0.15%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 50 (7.69%) PostgreSQL
2 47 (7.23%) SQL Server
3 18 (2.77%) Redis
4 12 (1.85%) Amazon RDS
4 12 (1.85%) MySQL
5 11 (1.69%) MongoDB
6 10 (1.54%) DynamoDB
6 10 (1.54%) Power BI
7 7 (1.08%) NoSQL
7 7 (1.08%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 5 (0.77%) Elasticsearch
8 5 (0.77%) Metadata
9 4 (0.62%) Db2
10 3 (0.46%) MariaDB
10 3 (0.46%) Spatial Data
11 2 (0.31%) Amazon Redshift
11 2 (0.31%) Geospatial Data
11 2 (0.31%) InterSystems Cache
12 1 (0.15%) Azure SQL Database
12 1 (0.15%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 28 (4.31%) Git
2 11 (1.69%) JIRA
3 6 (0.92%) 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
1 121 (18.62%) Finance
2 58 (8.92%) Social Skills
3 41 (6.31%) Front Office
4 15 (2.31%) Analytical Skills
4 15 (2.31%) Banking
4 15 (2.31%) Games
5 14 (2.15%) Law
6 9 (1.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 9 (1.38%) Public Sector
6 9 (1.38%) Tech for Good
7 6 (0.92%) Retail
8 5 (0.77%) Health Technology
8 5 (0.77%) Legal
8 5 (0.77%) Legal Technology
9 3 (0.46%) Local Government
10 2 (0.31%) Marketing
10 2 (0.31%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (0.15%) Investment Banking
11 1 (0.15%) Manufacturing
11 1 (0.15%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 141 (21.69%) .NET
2 116 (17.85%) React
3 99 (15.23%) Node.js
4 52 (8.00%) RESTful
5 48 (7.38%) GraphQL
6 39 (6.00%) Redux
7 37 (5.69%) Vue
8 34 (5.23%) .NET Core
9 33 (5.08%) React Native
10 30 (4.62%) ASP.NET
10 30 (4.62%) Kafka
11 29 (4.46%) Spring
12 27 (4.15%) CSS
13 24 (3.69%) HTML
13 24 (3.69%) REST
14 23 (3.54%) AngularJS
15 18 (2.77%) .NET Framework
15 18 (2.77%) Next.js
16 15 (2.31%) Laravel
17 14 (2.15%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 38 (5.85%) Cloud Native
2 36 (5.54%) Fixed Income
3 24 (3.69%) Product Ownership
4 21 (3.23%) Mobile App
5 18 (2.77%) Distributed Systems
6 17 (2.62%) Derivative
7 16 (2.46%) Enterprise Software
7 16 (2.46%) Equities
8 13 (2.00%) Legacy Systems
8 13 (2.00%) PropTech
9 9 (1.38%) Legacy Applications
9 9 (1.38%) Low-Code
10 7 (1.08%) Onboarding
11 5 (0.77%) Virtual Team
12 4 (0.62%) Algorithms
12 4 (0.62%) AS400
12 4 (0.62%) Credit Risk
12 4 (0.62%) Greenfield Project
12 4 (0.62%) Video\Live Streaming
13 3 (0.46%) iSeries
Operating Systems
1 37 (5.69%) Apple iOS
2 35 (5.38%) Android
3 4 (0.62%) Linux
3 4 (0.62%) Windows
4 1 (0.15%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 205 (31.54%) Full-Stack Development
2 140 (21.54%) Mentoring
3 135 (20.77%) Software Engineering
4 122 (18.77%) Technical Leadership
5 116 (17.85%) Agile
6 97 (14.92%) CI/CD
7 84 (12.92%) DevOps
8 81 (12.46%) AI
9 69 (10.62%) Microservices
10 66 (10.15%) Continuous Improvement
11 49 (7.54%) Problem-Solving
12 42 (6.46%) Roadmaps
13 39 (6.00%) Portfolio Management
14 38 (5.85%) Investment Management
15 36 (5.54%) Coaching
15 36 (5.54%) Fintech
16 35 (5.38%) Event-Driven
17 33 (5.08%) Design Patterns
17 33 (5.08%) Infrastructure as Code
18 32 (4.92%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 138 (21.23%) JavaScript
2 137 (21.08%) TypeScript
3 135 (20.77%) C#
4 102 (15.69%) Python
5 70 (10.77%) SQL
6 69 (10.62%) Java
7 29 (4.46%) Go
8 16 (2.46%) PHP
9 12 (1.85%) C++
10 11 (1.69%) Swift
11 10 (1.54%) Kotlin
12 9 (1.38%) RPG
13 8 (1.23%) Bicep
13 8 (1.23%) DataWeave
14 6 (0.92%) Ruby
15 5 (0.77%) PowerShell
16 4 (0.62%) Bash
16 4 (0.62%) C
16 4 (0.62%) Dart
17 3 (0.46%) COBOL
Qualifications
1 29 (4.46%) Degree
2 23 (3.54%) SC Cleared
2 23 (3.54%) Security Cleared
3 16 (2.46%) Computer Science Degree
4 9 (1.38%) DBS Check
5 6 (0.92%) ITIL Certification
6 1 (0.15%) Master's Degree
6 1 (0.15%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (4.15%) QA
2 14 (2.15%) Accessibility
3 8 (1.23%) Data Quality
4 2 (0.31%) NCSC
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 38 (5.85%) Docker
2 3 (0.46%) Firmware
3 2 (0.31%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 26 (4.00%) Kubernetes
2 18 (2.77%) Terraform
3 8 (1.23%) CloudHub
4 5 (0.77%) Ansible
5 1 (0.15%) Grafana
5 1 (0.15%) Kibana
5 1 (0.15%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 59 (9.08%) Microsoft
2 15 (2.31%) Salesforce
3 13 (2.00%) MuleSoft
4 10 (1.54%) ServiceNow
5 8 (1.23%) SAP
6 7 (1.08%) HubSpot
7 6 (0.92%) IBM
7 6 (0.92%) OpenAI
7 6 (0.92%) Oracle
8 4 (0.62%) Apple
9 3 (0.46%) Bloomberg
9 3 (0.46%) DevExpress
10 2 (0.31%) Google
10 2 (0.31%) Refinitiv
10 2 (0.31%) TikTok
11 1 (0.15%) Citrix
11 1 (0.15%) Reuters
11 1 (0.15%) Revolut