Lead Developer Job Trends

Lead Developer
UK

The median Lead Developer salary in the UK is £85,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 24 July 2026.

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

6 months to
24 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 299 392 222
Rank change year-on-year +93 -170 +133
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead Developer 628 336 1,139
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.62% 0.68% 1.25%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.66% 0.76% 1.32%
Number of salaries quoted 527 238 1,030
10th Percentile £63,246 £53,750 £47,000
25th Percentile £70,000 £63,750 £56,563
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £85,000 £75,000 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year +13.33% +7.14% -9.68%
75th Percentile £100,000 £89,688 £90,000
90th Percentile £107,500 £120,000 £142,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £72,500 £70,000 £65,000
% change year-on-year +3.57% +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 94,832 44,261 86,457
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.34% 90.17% 94.75%
Number of salaries quoted 64,920 26,252 60,421
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £54,389
Median % change year-on-year - +1.12% -9.35%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £71,219
90th Percentile £96,250 £96,250 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -5.21%

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 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 24 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 +78 587 £85,000 +13.33% 93
UK excluding London +69 378 £72,500 +3.57% 55
Work from Home +78 251 £95,000 +35.71% 44
London +38 221 £95,000 +5.56% 43
North of England +37 140 £72,500 +3.57% 24
North West +50 95 £72,000 -0.69% 10
South East +26 86 £90,000 +22.03% 7
Midlands +12 74 £65,000 -3.70% 12
West Midlands -6 45 £65,000 -7.14% 7
South West -52 32 £65,000 +15.56% 5
East Midlands -7 29 £70,000 +5.66% 5
East of England +5 26 £60,100 -19.87% 3
Yorkshire -27 25 £70,000 +1.82% 8
North East -30 20 £90,000 +12.50% 6
Northern Ireland -54 13 £80,000 -
Scotland +14 7 £70,000 +20.69% 3

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

For the 6 months to 24 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.

1 192 (30.57%) Full-Stack Development
2 144 (22.93%) AWS
3 141 (22.45%) Mentoring
3 141 (22.45%) TypeScript
4 140 (22.29%) .NET
4 140 (22.29%) Azure
5 139 (22.13%) C#
6 137 (21.82%) JavaScript
7 125 (19.90%) Software Engineering
8 119 (18.95%) Technical Leadership
9 112 (17.83%) Agile
10 109 (17.36%) React
11 100 (15.92%) CI/CD
11 100 (15.92%) Node.js
12 92 (14.65%) Python
13 82 (13.06%) DevOps
14 80 (12.74%) AI
15 74 (11.78%) SaaS
16 71 (11.31%) Microservices
17 65 (10.35%) Continuous Improvement
18 64 (10.19%) Java
19 63 (10.03%) SQL
20 61 (9.71%) Microsoft
21 51 (8.12%) RESTful
22 50 (7.96%) PostgreSQL
23 48 (7.64%) GraphQL
24 46 (7.32%) SQL Server
25 45 (7.17%) Problem-Solving
26 44 (7.01%) Event-Driven
27 40 (6.37%) Docker

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 17 (2.71%) Anypoint
1 17 (2.71%) Mule
2 9 (1.43%) SharePoint
3 7 (1.11%) Appian
4 6 (0.96%) Confluence
5 3 (0.48%) WordPress
6 1 (0.16%) CMS
Business Applications
1 9 (1.43%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.16%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 144 (22.93%) AWS
2 140 (22.29%) Azure
3 74 (11.78%) SaaS
4 33 (5.25%) Dynamics 365
5 31 (4.94%) Azure DevOps
5 31 (4.94%) Power Platform
6 27 (4.30%) GCP
7 20 (3.18%) GitHub
7 20 (3.18%) Serverless
8 16 (2.55%) Azure Logic Apps
9 15 (2.39%) Microsoft Copilot
10 14 (2.23%) Snowflake
11 13 (2.07%) Azure Service Bus
12 12 (1.91%) AWS Lambda
13 11 (1.75%) Azure Key Vault
13 11 (1.75%) PowerApps
14 10 (1.59%) Amazon ECS
14 10 (1.59%) Azure Cosmos DB
14 10 (1.59%) Power Automate
15 9 (1.43%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 12 (1.91%) SSL
2 6 (0.96%) Broadband
3 1 (0.16%) Asterisk PBX
3 1 (0.16%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 50 (7.96%) PostgreSQL
2 46 (7.32%) SQL Server
3 20 (3.18%) Redis
4 14 (2.23%) MySQL
5 12 (1.91%) Amazon RDS
6 10 (1.59%) DynamoDB
6 10 (1.59%) MongoDB
7 9 (1.43%) Power BI
8 8 (1.27%) Elasticsearch
9 6 (0.96%) NoSQL
10 5 (0.80%) Metadata
10 5 (0.80%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 3 (0.48%) MariaDB
11 3 (0.48%) Spatial Data
12 2 (0.32%) Db2
12 2 (0.32%) Geospatial Data
12 2 (0.32%) InterSystems Cache
13 1 (0.16%) Azure SQL Database
13 1 (0.16%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 31 (4.94%) Git
2 11 (1.75%) JIRA
3 6 (0.96%) Cypress.io
4 5 (0.80%) Bitbucket
5 4 (0.64%) Maven
6 3 (0.48%) Jenkins
6 3 (0.48%) JUnit
6 3 (0.48%) Mockito
6 3 (0.48%) NUnit
6 3 (0.48%) Vite
6 3 (0.48%) webpack
7 2 (0.32%) CircleCI
7 2 (0.32%) GitLab
7 2 (0.32%) MSI
7 2 (0.32%) Storybook
7 2 (0.32%) TeamCity
7 2 (0.32%) Terragrunt
8 1 (0.16%) Ant
8 1 (0.16%) Eclipse
8 1 (0.16%) fastlane
General
1 122 (19.43%) Finance
2 58 (9.24%) Social Skills
3 39 (6.21%) Front Office
4 18 (2.87%) Law
5 15 (2.39%) Banking
5 15 (2.39%) Games
6 11 (1.75%) Analytical Skills
7 9 (1.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 6 (0.96%) Public Sector
8 6 (0.96%) Retail
9 5 (0.80%) Legal
9 5 (0.80%) Legal Technology
10 2 (0.32%) Marketing
11 1 (0.16%) Investment Banking
11 1 (0.16%) Local Government
11 1 (0.16%) Manufacturing
11 1 (0.16%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.16%) Tech for Good
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 140 (22.29%) .NET
2 109 (17.36%) React
3 100 (15.92%) Node.js
4 51 (8.12%) RESTful
5 48 (7.64%) GraphQL
6 39 (6.21%) Redux
7 36 (5.73%) Vue
8 31 (4.94%) .NET Core
8 31 (4.94%) ASP.NET
9 30 (4.78%) Kafka
10 28 (4.46%) React Native
11 26 (4.14%) CSS
11 26 (4.14%) REST
12 24 (3.82%) Spring
13 22 (3.50%) HTML
14 19 (3.03%) AngularJS
15 18 (2.87%) Next.js
16 16 (2.55%) .NET Framework
17 13 (2.07%) Laravel
17 13 (2.07%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 39 (6.21%) Cloud Native
2 36 (5.73%) Fixed Income
3 24 (3.82%) Product Ownership
4 18 (2.87%) Mobile App
5 17 (2.71%) Derivative
5 17 (2.71%) Distributed Systems
5 17 (2.71%) Enterprise Software
6 16 (2.55%) Equities
6 16 (2.55%) Legacy Systems
7 13 (2.07%) Low-Code
8 10 (1.59%) PropTech
9 9 (1.43%) Legacy Applications
10 7 (1.11%) Onboarding
11 5 (0.80%) Virtual Team
12 4 (0.64%) Algorithms
12 4 (0.64%) Greenfield Project
12 4 (0.64%) Video\Live Streaming
13 3 (0.48%) Blog
13 3 (0.48%) Operational Technology
13 3 (0.48%) Photography
Operating Systems
1 34 (5.41%) Apple iOS
2 32 (5.10%) Android
3 4 (0.64%) Linux
3 4 (0.64%) Windows
4 1 (0.16%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 192 (30.57%) Full-Stack Development
2 141 (22.45%) Mentoring
3 125 (19.90%) Software Engineering
4 119 (18.95%) Technical Leadership
5 112 (17.83%) Agile
6 100 (15.92%) CI/CD
7 82 (13.06%) DevOps
8 80 (12.74%) AI
9 71 (11.31%) Microservices
10 65 (10.35%) Continuous Improvement
11 45 (7.17%) Problem-Solving
12 44 (7.01%) Event-Driven
13 40 (6.37%) Event-Driven Architecture
14 39 (6.21%) Portfolio Management
14 39 (6.21%) Roadmaps
15 38 (6.05%) Investment Management
16 36 (5.73%) Test Automation
17 35 (5.57%) Coaching
17 35 (5.57%) Fintech
18 33 (5.25%) Design Patterns
Programming Languages
1 141 (22.45%) TypeScript
2 139 (22.13%) C#
3 137 (21.82%) JavaScript
4 92 (14.65%) Python
5 64 (10.19%) Java
6 63 (10.03%) SQL
7 29 (4.62%) Go
8 13 (2.07%) PHP
9 12 (1.91%) C++
9 12 (1.91%) DataWeave
10 11 (1.75%) Swift
11 10 (1.59%) Kotlin
12 9 (1.43%) Bicep
13 7 (1.11%) RPG
14 6 (0.96%) Ruby
15 5 (0.80%) PowerShell
16 4 (0.64%) Bash
16 4 (0.64%) C
16 4 (0.64%) Dart
17 3 (0.48%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 28 (4.46%) Degree
1 28 (4.46%) SC Cleared
1 28 (4.46%) Security Cleared
2 15 (2.39%) Computer Science Degree
3 9 (1.43%) DBS Check
4 6 (0.96%) ITIL Certification
5 1 (0.16%) Azure Certification
5 1 (0.16%) BPSS Clearance
5 1 (0.16%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (4.46%) QA
2 14 (2.23%) Accessibility
3 6 (0.96%) Data Quality
4 2 (0.32%) NCSC
4 2 (0.32%) WCAG
5 1 (0.16%) GDPR
5 1 (0.16%) HL7
5 1 (0.16%) SNOMED CT
5 1 (0.16%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 40 (6.37%) Docker
2 3 (0.48%) Firmware
3 1 (0.16%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 26 (4.14%) Kubernetes
2 16 (2.55%) Terraform
3 12 (1.91%) CloudHub
4 2 (0.32%) Ansible
5 1 (0.16%) Grafana
5 1 (0.16%) Kibana
5 1 (0.16%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 61 (9.71%) Microsoft
2 17 (2.71%) MuleSoft
3 16 (2.55%) Salesforce
4 14 (2.23%) ServiceNow
5 12 (1.91%) SAP
6 7 (1.11%) HubSpot
7 6 (0.96%) IBM
7 6 (0.96%) Oracle
8 4 (0.64%) Apple
9 3 (0.48%) Bloomberg
9 3 (0.48%) DevExpress
9 3 (0.48%) OpenAI
10 2 (0.32%) Google
10 2 (0.32%) Refinitiv
10 2 (0.32%) TikTok
11 1 (0.16%) Citrix
11 1 (0.16%) Reuters
11 1 (0.16%) Revolut