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 27 April 2026.

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

6 months to
27 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 288 385 253
Rank change year-on-year +97 -132 +70
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead Developer 573 280 1,086
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.64% 0.66% 1.14%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.69% 0.75% 1.20%
Number of salaries quoted 491 219 989
10th Percentile £60,000 £50,000 £52,500
25th Percentile £70,000 £58,125 £59,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £80,000 £70,000 £72,500
Median % change year-on-year +14.29% -3.45% -9.38%
75th Percentile £100,000 £83,750 £91,250
90th Percentile £110,000 £100,000 £112,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £75,000 £67,500 £65,500
% change year-on-year +11.11% +3.05% -2.96%

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 82,923 37,495 90,335
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.85% 89.00% 94.56%
Number of salaries quoted 53,189 23,459 66,610
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,625 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,000 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £53,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +13.21% -11.67%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £71,250
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -4.76%

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 27 April 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 27 April 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 +89 520 £80,000 +14.29% 67
UK excluding London +70 333 £75,000 +11.11% 56
Work from Home +109 249 £80,000 +14.29% 50
London +53 203 £95,000 +18.75% 25
North of England +1 114 £75,000 +15.38% 20
North West +11 87 £72,500 +11.54% 13
South East +16 69 £90,000 +30.91% 21
South West -16 54 £65,000 +8.33%
Midlands -20 52 £70,000 +7.69% 6
West Midlands -6 30 £70,000 +12.00% 4
East of England -19 23 £60,100 -19.87% 4
East Midlands -38 22 £70,000 +5.66% 2
Yorkshire -45 17 £75,000 +7.14% 2
Northern Ireland -26 14 £87,500 -
North East -34 10 £67,500 +42.11% 5
Scotland -17 5 £70,000 +37.25% 6
Wales -36 2 £75,000 - 1

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

For the 6 months to 27 April 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.

1 185 (32.29%) Full-Stack Development
2 131 (22.86%) AWS
3 126 (21.99%) Agile
4 117 (20.42%) Mentoring
5 116 (20.24%) React
6 113 (19.72%) Software Engineering
7 108 (18.85%) Azure
8 107 (18.67%) Python
9 104 (18.15%) TypeScript
10 103 (17.98%) .NET
11 96 (16.75%) C#
11 96 (16.75%) JavaScript
12 93 (16.23%) Technical Leadership
13 83 (14.49%) SaaS
14 79 (13.79%) Node.js
15 76 (13.26%) CI/CD
16 67 (11.69%) DevOps
17 62 (10.82%) SQL
18 61 (10.65%) Java
19 60 (10.47%) AI
20 57 (9.95%) Continuous Improvement
21 52 (9.08%) RESTful
22 51 (8.90%) Microservices
23 49 (8.55%) Serverless
24 46 (8.03%) Coaching
25 45 (7.85%) Problem-Solving
26 40 (6.98%) Microsoft
27 39 (6.81%) Portfolio Management
28 38 (6.63%) Redux
28 38 (6.63%) SQL Server

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 5 (0.87%) Appian
1 5 (0.87%) SharePoint
2 3 (0.52%) Anypoint
2 3 (0.52%) Mule
3 2 (0.35%) Confluence
3 2 (0.35%) WordPress
4 1 (0.17%) CMS
Business Applications
1 7 (1.22%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.35%) NEC Housing
3 1 (0.17%) Magento
3 1 (0.17%) NetSuite
3 1 (0.17%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 131 (22.86%) AWS
2 108 (18.85%) Azure
3 83 (14.49%) SaaS
4 49 (8.55%) Serverless
5 35 (6.11%) AWS Lambda
6 27 (4.71%) Amazon S3
7 24 (4.19%) GCP
8 22 (3.84%) Amazon SQS
9 21 (3.66%) GitHub
10 20 (3.49%) Azure DevOps
11 19 (3.32%) Power Platform
12 17 (2.97%) Dynamics 365
13 16 (2.79%) Azure Logic Apps
14 14 (2.44%) Entra ID
15 12 (2.09%) Azure App Service
15 12 (2.09%) PaaS
16 11 (1.92%) GitHub Actions
17 9 (1.57%) Amazon EventBridge
17 9 (1.57%) AWS CloudFormation
18 8 (1.40%) Amazon ECS
Communications & Networking
1 2 (0.35%) Broadband
2 1 (0.17%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 38 (6.63%) SQL Server
2 29 (5.06%) PostgreSQL
3 16 (2.79%) NoSQL
4 9 (1.57%) MySQL
5 8 (1.40%) Amazon RDS
5 8 (1.40%) DynamoDB
6 5 (0.87%) DB2
6 5 (0.87%) MongoDB
6 5 (0.87%) Power BI
7 4 (0.70%) Amazon Redshift
7 4 (0.70%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 3 (0.52%) MariaDB
9 2 (0.35%) Metadata
9 2 (0.35%) Relational Database
10 1 (0.17%) Azure SQL Database
10 1 (0.17%) Elasticsearch
10 1 (0.17%) Redis
Development Applications
1 22 (3.84%) Git
2 8 (1.40%) Cypress.io
3 6 (1.05%) JIRA
4 5 (0.87%) Bitbucket
4 5 (0.87%) Jenkins
5 4 (0.70%) GitLab
5 4 (0.70%) Maven
5 4 (0.70%) webpack
6 3 (0.52%) ESLint
6 3 (0.52%) NUnit
6 3 (0.52%) SonarQube
6 3 (0.52%) Vite
7 2 (0.35%) Cucumber
7 2 (0.35%) Selenium
7 2 (0.35%) Storybook
7 2 (0.35%) XCUITest
8 1 (0.17%) Postman
8 1 (0.17%) SpecFlow
8 1 (0.17%) Subversion
8 1 (0.17%) TeamCity
General
1 72 (12.57%) Finance
2 56 (9.77%) Social Skills
3 40 (6.98%) Front Office
4 29 (5.06%) Tech for Good
5 21 (3.66%) Health Technology
6 17 (2.97%) Analytical Skills
7 13 (2.27%) Organisational Skills
7 13 (2.27%) Publishing
8 12 (2.09%) Influencing Skills
9 9 (1.57%) Banking
9 9 (1.57%) Games
9 9 (1.57%) Public Sector
10 7 (1.22%) Law
11 6 (1.05%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 5 (0.87%) Local Government
12 5 (0.87%) Retail
13 4 (0.70%) Pharmaceutical
14 2 (0.35%) General Ledger
14 2 (0.35%) Presentation Skills
15 1 (0.17%) Aerospace
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 116 (20.24%) React
2 103 (17.98%) .NET
3 79 (13.79%) Node.js
4 52 (9.08%) RESTful
5 38 (6.63%) Redux
6 35 (6.11%) GraphQL
7 31 (5.41%) .NET Core
8 30 (5.24%) AngularJS
8 30 (5.24%) React Native
8 30 (5.24%) Vue
9 29 (5.06%) Kafka
10 26 (4.54%) .NET Framework
11 24 (4.19%) CSS
12 23 (4.01%) HTML
12 23 (4.01%) Spring
13 22 (3.84%) ASP.NET
14 21 (3.66%) Laravel
15 17 (2.97%) Spring Boot
16 12 (2.09%) Entity Framework
17 11 (1.92%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 36 (6.28%) Fixed Income
2 29 (5.06%) Cloud Native
3 26 (4.54%) Product Ownership
4 23 (4.01%) Mobile App
5 17 (2.97%) Derivative
6 16 (2.79%) Distributed Systems
6 16 (2.79%) Equities
7 14 (2.44%) Enterprise Software
8 13 (2.27%) PropTech
9 11 (1.92%) Greenfield Project
10 8 (1.40%) Legacy Applications
11 6 (1.05%) Credit Risk
12 5 (0.87%) Legacy Systems
12 5 (0.87%) Low-Code
13 4 (0.70%) AS400
14 3 (0.52%) Algorithms
14 3 (0.52%) iSeries
14 3 (0.52%) Operational Technology
14 3 (0.52%) Photography
15 2 (0.35%) AI Agents
Operating Systems
1 37 (6.46%) Apple iOS
2 29 (5.06%) Android
3 2 (0.35%) Windows
4 1 (0.17%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 185 (32.29%) Full-Stack Development
2 126 (21.99%) Agile
3 117 (20.42%) Mentoring
4 113 (19.72%) Software Engineering
5 93 (16.23%) Technical Leadership
6 76 (13.26%) CI/CD
7 67 (11.69%) DevOps
8 60 (10.47%) AI
9 57 (9.95%) Continuous Improvement
10 51 (8.90%) Microservices
11 46 (8.03%) Coaching
12 45 (7.85%) Problem-Solving
13 39 (6.81%) Portfolio Management
14 36 (6.28%) Investment Management
15 34 (5.93%) Scrum
16 31 (5.41%) Code Quality
17 30 (5.24%) Design Patterns
18 27 (4.71%) Fintech
19 26 (4.54%) Line Management
20 25 (4.36%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 107 (18.67%) Python
2 104 (18.15%) TypeScript
3 96 (16.75%) C#
3 96 (16.75%) JavaScript
4 62 (10.82%) SQL
5 61 (10.65%) Java
6 24 (4.19%) Go
7 16 (2.79%) PHP
8 11 (1.92%) Swift
9 9 (1.57%) C++
10 7 (1.22%) Kotlin
11 6 (1.05%) Bicep
11 6 (1.05%) RPG
12 4 (0.70%) C
13 3 (0.52%) COBOL
13 3 (0.52%) T-SQL
14 2 (0.35%) Bash
14 2 (0.35%) Dart
14 2 (0.35%) Groovy
14 2 (0.35%) R
Qualifications
1 24 (4.19%) Degree
2 10 (1.75%) Computer Science Degree
3 8 (1.40%) DBS Check
4 6 (1.05%) Master's Degree
5 3 (0.52%) ITIL Certification
5 3 (0.52%) Security Cleared
6 2 (0.35%) SC Cleared
7 1 (0.17%) AWS Certification
7 1 (0.17%) AWS Certified Developer
7 1 (0.17%) Microsoft Certification
7 1 (0.17%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (6.46%) QA
2 8 (1.40%) Accessibility
3 6 (1.05%) Data Quality
4 2 (0.35%) GAAP
4 2 (0.35%) IFRS
4 2 (0.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 1 (0.17%) GDPR
5 1 (0.17%) HL7
5 1 (0.17%) SNOMED CT
System Software
1 24 (4.19%) Docker
2 7 (1.22%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.52%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 15 (2.62%) Kubernetes
1 15 (2.62%) Terraform
2 7 (1.22%) Ansible
3 3 (0.52%) HP Fortify
4 1 (0.17%) Grafana
4 1 (0.17%) Kibana
4 1 (0.17%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 40 (6.98%) Microsoft
2 8 (1.40%) OpenAI
3 6 (1.05%) Salesforce
4 5 (0.87%) Apple
4 5 (0.87%) HubSpot
5 3 (0.52%) DevExpress
5 3 (0.52%) IBM
5 3 (0.52%) MuleSoft
6 2 (0.35%) Foundry
6 2 (0.35%) NEC
6 2 (0.35%) Northgate
6 2 (0.35%) Workday
7 1 (0.17%) Adobe
7 1 (0.17%) Citrix
7 1 (0.17%) Databricks
7 1 (0.17%) Revolut
7 1 (0.17%) ServiceNow