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 20 October 2026.

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

6 months to
20 Oct 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 344 394 247
Rank change year-on-year +50 -147 +69
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead Developer 636 293 758
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.53% 0.60% 1.10%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.57% 0.67% 1.15%
Number of salaries quoted 507 205 618
10th Percentile £65,000 £55,000 £47,000
25th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £49,396
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £80,000 £75,000 £69,250
Median % change year-on-year +6.67% +8.30% -13.44%
75th Percentile £98,000 £91,250 £87,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £140,500 £142,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £75,000 £70,000 £62,500
% change year-on-year +7.14% +12.00% -10.71%

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.

6 months to
20 Oct 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Permanent vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 110,883 43,839 65,925
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.32% 89.78% 95.36%
Number of salaries quoted 74,898 25,844 37,668
10th Percentile £30,450 £28,000 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,250 £35,000 £41,254
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £59,000 £52,500 £56,000
Median % change year-on-year +12.38% -6.25% -6.67%
75th Percentile £76,250 £73,750 £75,000
90th Percentile £98,750 £93,750 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £45,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +22.22% -10.00% -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 20 October 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 20 October 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 +57 589 £84,250 +12.33% 161
UK excluding London +54 411 £75,000 +7.14% 92
Work from Home +46 224 £95,000 +18.75% 83
London -7 197 £95,000 -9.52% 74
North of England -10 127 £75,000 +7.14% 28
Midlands +18 106 £70,000 -3.45% 17
South East +22 102 £90,000 +22.03% 15
West Midlands -24 63 £70,000 -3.45% 12
North West -19 58 £72,500 +3.57% 7
Yorkshire -14 46 £75,000 +9.09% 18
East Midlands -4 43 £70,000 -6.67% 5
East of England -17 28 £85,000 +29.77% 10
North East -57 23 £100,000 +45.99% 4
South West -73 22 £70,000 +55.56% 7
Wales -63 15 £62,000 -17.33% 7
Scotland +12 9 £70,000 +19.15% 6
Northern Ireland - 2 £80,000 - 2

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

For the 6 months to 20 October 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.

RankSkillShareJob Ads
1Technical Leadership25.6%163
2Full-Stack Development21.9%139
3Azure21.4%136
3C#21.4%136
5AWS19.8%126
6.NET19.3%123
7JavaScript19.2%122
8Mentoring19.0%121
9TypeScript17.5%111
10CI/CD15.4%98
11AI14.8%94
12Node.js13.5%86
13SaaS12.9%82
13Software Engineering12.9%82
15SQL11.8%75
16Python11.6%74
17DevOps10.8%69
18Microsoft10.4%66
19Agile10.2%65
20Continuous Improvement9.9%63
21Microservices9.7%62
22Dynamics 3658.8%56
23Roadmaps8.6%55
23SQL Server8.6%55
25React7.7%49
26Docker7.1%45
26Java7.1%45
28Event-Driven6.9%44
28Problem-Solving6.9%44
30Power Platform6.8%43

Lead Developer Skill Set Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category

The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.

Job Titles

RankJob TitleShareJob Ads
1Lead Software Developer32.4%206
2Software Developer32.1%204
3Lead Full-Stack Developer15.9%101
4Lead .NET Developer8.2%52
5Lead Dynamics 365 Developer7.7%49
6Lead Python Developer7.1%45
7Lead C# Developer6.8%43
8Lead Java Developer4.2%27
9Senior Developer3.6%23
10Artificial Intelligence Developer3.5%22
10C# .NET Developer3.5%22
10React Developer3.5%22
13Integration Developer3.1%20
14Automation Developer3.0%19
14Power Platform Developer3.0%19
16MuleSoft Developer2.7%17
16Team Leader2.7%17
18.NET Developer - Fintech2.5%16
19Developer/Software Engineer2.4%15
19Lead Software Engineer2.4%15
193 Lead Developer jobs Nationwide