Lead Developer Job Trends

Lead Developer
UK

The median Lead Developer salary in the UK is £76,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 6 November 2025.

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

6 months to
6 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 355 240 303
Rank change year-on-year -115 +63 +28
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead Developer 321 735 544
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.64% 1.09% 1.03%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.71% 1.14% 1.08%
Number of salaries quoted 231 596 472
10th Percentile £57,500 £47,000 £57,850
25th Percentile £67,500 £49,396 £64,125
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £76,000 £67,500 £80,000
Median % change year-on-year +12.59% -15.63% +3.23%
75th Percentile £90,000 £86,563 £97,500
90th Percentile £122,500 £142,500 £120,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £62,500 £70,000
% change year-on-year +12.00% -10.71% -

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
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 45,153 64,335 50,468
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.08% 95.04% 95.49%
Number of salaries quoted 28,095 36,400 39,152
10th Percentile £28,250 £31,250 £31,500
25th Percentile £35,000 £42,200 £42,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £57,410 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.55% -4.32% -
75th Percentile £73,750 £75,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £92,500 £95,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £46,000 £50,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -8.00% -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 6 November 2025.

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 November 2025. 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 -99 291 £76,000 +8.57% 192
UK excluding London -97 175 £70,000 +12.00% 125
Work from Home -100 131 £80,000 +23.08% 132
London -56 123 £100,000 +2.56% 103
North of England -45 70 £70,000 +8.53% 43
Midlands +12 37 £74,000 +55.79% 6
North West -14 34 £70,000 +7.69% 30
West Midlands +30 33 £72,500 +54.26% 6
South East -13 32 £76,250 +12.96% 54
Yorkshire +4 30 £70,000 +48.94% 8
South West -10 16 £66,250 +40.96% 4
Scotland -8 8 £58,750 -9.62% 4
East of England +1 6 £65,000 -7.14% 8
North East -4 6 £68,500 +2.62% 5
Wales -14 6 £75,000 +7.14% 1
East Midlands +8 4 £75,000 +25.00%

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

For the 6 months to 6 November 2025, 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.

1 128 (39.88%) Agile
2 120 (37.38%) Azure
3 116 (36.14%) AWS
4 96 (29.91%) Mentoring
5 89 (27.73%) CI/CD
6 80 (24.92%) Python
7 77 (23.99%) Problem-Solving
8 75 (23.36%) C#
8 75 (23.36%) React
9 71 (22.12%) .NET
9 71 (22.12%) Microservices
9 71 (22.12%) Software Engineering
10 70 (21.81%) Technical Leadership
11 65 (20.25%) Full-Stack Development
12 64 (19.94%) Java
12 64 (19.94%) JavaScript
13 58 (18.07%) SQL
14 56 (17.45%) TypeScript
15 55 (17.13%) DevOps
16 52 (16.20%) Continuous Improvement
17 46 (14.33%) Test Automation
18 45 (14.02%) QA
18 45 (14.02%) SQL Server
19 44 (13.71%) AI
19 44 (13.71%) Docker
19 44 (13.71%) RESTful
20 43 (13.40%) Containerisation
21 40 (12.46%) Node.js
22 39 (12.15%) NoSQL
22 39 (12.15%) Scrum

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 7 (2.18%) Confluence
2 4 (1.25%) Apache
3 3 (0.93%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.31%) Anypoint
4 1 (0.31%) Appian
4 1 (0.31%) CMS
4 1 (0.31%) Umbraco
4 1 (0.31%) WordPress
Applications
1 2 (0.62%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.31%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 14 (4.36%) Dynamics CRM
2 4 (1.25%) Magento
2 4 (1.25%) Shopify
3 1 (0.31%) Endur
3 1 (0.31%) NEC Housing
3 1 (0.31%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 120 (37.38%) Azure
2 116 (36.14%) AWS
3 38 (11.84%) SaaS
4 37 (11.53%) Serverless
5 35 (10.90%) Power Platform
6 32 (9.97%) GitHub
7 25 (7.79%) Azure DevOps
8 22 (6.85%) GCP
9 19 (5.92%) Amazon S3
9 19 (5.92%) Amazon SQS
10 18 (5.61%) PowerApps
11 17 (5.30%) Dynamics 365
12 12 (3.74%) AWS Lambda
12 12 (3.74%) Azure App Service
13 11 (3.43%) Amazon EC2
13 11 (3.43%) GitHub Actions
14 10 (3.12%) Power Automate
15 9 (2.80%) Entra ID
15 9 (2.80%) PaaS
16 8 (2.49%) Azure Cosmos DB
Communications & Networking
1 2 (0.62%) Network Security
2 1 (0.31%) Broadband
2 1 (0.31%) MQTT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 45 (14.02%) SQL Server
2 39 (12.15%) NoSQL
3 38 (11.84%) PostgreSQL
4 33 (10.28%) MongoDB
5 20 (6.23%) Power BI
6 12 (3.74%) DynamoDB
7 11 (3.43%) Amazon RDS
7 11 (3.43%) Data Warehouse
8 10 (3.12%) Relational Database
9 9 (2.80%) MySQL
10 8 (2.49%) Amazon Aurora
10 8 (2.49%) Tick Data
11 7 (2.18%) Azure SQL Database
12 6 (1.87%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 5 (1.56%) Big Data
13 5 (1.56%) Data Lake
14 4 (1.25%) Amazon Athena
14 4 (1.25%) Apache Iceberg
14 4 (1.25%) RDBMS
14 4 (1.25%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 37 (11.53%) Git
2 12 (3.74%) Jenkins
3 8 (2.49%) JIRA
3 8 (2.49%) SonarQube
4 7 (2.18%) Bitbucket Server
4 7 (2.18%) DbUnit
4 7 (2.18%) jMock
4 7 (2.18%) JUnit
4 7 (2.18%) Maven
4 7 (2.18%) Mockito
4 7 (2.18%) Visual Studio
5 4 (1.25%) Vite
6 3 (0.93%) Spinnaker
6 3 (0.93%) Subversion
6 3 (0.93%) Xcode
7 1 (0.31%) Android Studio
7 1 (0.31%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.31%) GitLab
7 1 (0.31%) MSTest
7 1 (0.31%) NUnit
General
1 74 (23.05%) Social Skills
2 64 (19.94%) Finance
3 36 (11.21%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 27 (8.41%) Marketing
5 24 (7.48%) Law
6 22 (6.85%) Public Sector
7 21 (6.54%) Front Office
8 18 (5.61%) Analytical Skills
9 16 (4.98%) Retail
10 14 (4.36%) Organisational Skills
11 13 (4.05%) Banking
12 10 (3.12%) Tech for Good
13 8 (2.49%) Electronics
13 8 (2.49%) Games
13 8 (2.49%) Health Technology
14 7 (2.18%) Influencing Skills
14 7 (2.18%) Publishing
15 6 (1.87%) Legal
16 5 (1.56%) Back Office
17 4 (1.25%) Manufacturing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 75 (23.36%) React
2 71 (22.12%) .NET
3 44 (13.71%) RESTful
4 40 (12.46%) Node.js
5 27 (8.41%) Kafka
6 25 (7.79%) AngularJS
7 22 (6.85%) .NET Framework
8 21 (6.54%) GraphQL
9 20 (6.23%) HTML
10 19 (5.92%) Spring Boot
11 18 (5.61%) CSS
11 18 (5.61%) Flask
11 18 (5.61%) Spring
12 17 (5.30%) REST
12 17 (5.30%) Vue
13 16 (4.98%) .NET Core
13 16 (4.98%) Redux
14 14 (4.36%) Blazor
14 14 (4.36%) FastAPI
15 12 (3.74%) Bootstrap
Miscellaneous
1 29 (9.03%) Cloud Native
2 19 (5.92%) Legacy Systems
3 17 (5.30%) Fixed Income
4 15 (4.67%) Product Ownership
5 13 (4.05%) Distributed Systems
6 9 (2.80%) Clustering
6 9 (2.80%) Marketing Technology
7 8 (2.49%) Derivative
8 7 (2.18%) Data Structures
8 7 (2.18%) Distributed Architecture
8 7 (2.18%) Enterprise Software
9 6 (1.87%) Market Risk
10 5 (1.56%) Mobile App
11 4 (1.25%) AI Agents
11 4 (1.25%) Algorithms
11 4 (1.25%) Distributed Applications
11 4 (1.25%) e-Learning
11 4 (1.25%) Equities
11 4 (1.25%) Hedge funds
11 4 (1.25%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 15 (4.67%) Linux
2 12 (3.74%) Apple iOS
3 7 (2.18%) Android
4 5 (1.56%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 128 (39.88%) Agile
2 96 (29.91%) Mentoring
3 89 (27.73%) CI/CD
4 77 (23.99%) Problem-Solving
5 71 (22.12%) Microservices
5 71 (22.12%) Software Engineering
6 70 (21.81%) Technical Leadership
7 65 (20.25%) Full-Stack Development
8 55 (17.13%) DevOps
9 52 (16.20%) Continuous Improvement
10 46 (14.33%) Test Automation
11 44 (13.71%) AI
12 43 (13.40%) Containerisation
13 39 (12.15%) Scrum
14 36 (11.21%) Roadmaps
15 35 (10.90%) Code Quality
15 35 (10.90%) SDLC
16 34 (10.59%) TDD
17 32 (9.97%) Design Patterns
18 29 (9.03%) Front End Development
Programming Languages
1 80 (24.92%) Python
2 75 (23.36%) C#
3 64 (19.94%) Java
3 64 (19.94%) JavaScript
4 58 (18.07%) SQL
5 56 (17.45%) TypeScript
6 22 (6.85%) Go
7 14 (4.36%) PHP
8 12 (3.74%) C++
9 11 (3.43%) Scala
10 9 (2.80%) Kotlin
11 6 (1.87%) C
11 6 (1.87%) Swift
12 3 (0.93%) Delphi
13 2 (0.62%) Apex Code
13 2 (0.62%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 2 (0.62%) PL/SQL
13 2 (0.62%) PowerShell
13 2 (0.62%) Ruby
13 2 (0.62%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 30 (9.35%) Degree
2 22 (6.85%) Security Cleared
3 21 (6.54%) Computer Science Degree
4 19 (5.92%) SC Cleared
5 10 (3.12%) Master's Degree
6 4 (1.25%) AWS Certification
6 4 (1.25%) AWS Certified Developer
6 4 (1.25%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 2 (0.62%) DV Cleared
7 2 (0.62%) PhD
8 1 (0.31%) Azure Certification
8 1 (0.31%) DBS Check
8 1 (0.31%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 45 (14.02%) QA
2 9 (2.80%) Accessibility
3 1 (0.31%) Data Quality
3 1 (0.31%) GDPR
3 1 (0.31%) HL7
System Software
1 44 (13.71%) Docker
2 9 (2.80%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.62%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 26 (8.10%) Kubernetes
2 22 (6.85%) Terraform
3 3 (0.93%) Argo
Vendors
1 38 (11.84%) Microsoft
2 7 (2.18%) Atlassian
2 7 (2.18%) Databricks
3 5 (1.56%) Google
4 4 (1.25%) Oracle
4 4 (1.25%) SAP
4 4 (1.25%) Splunk
5 3 (0.93%) Salesforce
6 2 (0.62%) IFS
6 2 (0.62%) Informatica
7 1 (0.31%) Adobe
7 1 (0.31%) Bloomberg
7 1 (0.31%) Blue Prism
7 1 (0.31%) MuleSoft
7 1 (0.31%) NEC
7 1 (0.31%) Northgate
7 1 (0.31%) OpenAI
7 1 (0.31%) OpenLink
7 1 (0.31%) ServiceNow
7 1 (0.31%) WooCommerce