Lead DevOps Job Trends
Lead Development Operations
UK
The median Lead Development Operations salary in the UK is £90,000 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 | 640 | 610 | 626 |
| Rank change year-on-year | -30 | +16 | -62 |
| Permanent jobs requiring a Lead DevOps | 177 | 51 | 124 |
| As % of all permanent jobs in the UK | 0.15% | 0.10% | 0.18% |
| As % of the Job Titles category | 0.16% | 0.12% | 0.19% |
| Number of salaries quoted | 144 | 35 | 76 |
| 10th Percentile | £68,750 | £64,100 | - |
| 25th Percentile | £79,400 | £77,500 | £66,500 |
| Median annual salary (50th Percentile) | £90,000 | £83,500 | £73,750 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +7.78% | +13.22% | -13.24% |
| 75th Percentile | £100,000 | £93,750 | £87,500 |
| 90th Percentile | - | £100,000 | £100,625 |
| UK excluding London median annual salary | £90,000 | £82,500 | £70,000 |
| % change year-on-year | +9.09% | +17.86% | -15.48% |
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 DevOps Job Vacancy Trend
Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'Lead DevOps' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.
Lead DevOps Salary Trend
Salary distribution trend for Lead DevOps job vacancies in the UK.
Lead DevOps Salary Histogram
Salary distribution for jobs citing Lead DevOps over the 6 months to 20 October 2026.
Lead DevOps Top 15 Job Locations
The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Lead DevOps 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 | -51 | 140 | £90,000 | +6.82% | 116 |
| UK excluding London | -32 | 122 | £90,000 | +9.09% | 69 |
| North of England | -33 | 52 | £90,000 | +21.62% | 34 |
| Work from Home | -24 | 48 | £90,000 | +12.50% | 43 |
| South West | -42 | 39 | £100,000 | +8.11% | 8 |
| North West | - | 37 | £90,000 | - | 18 |
| London | -73 | 28 | £100,000 | +11.11% | 52 |
| Yorkshire | -34 | 12 | £86,887 | +17.41% | 6 |
| South East | -47 | 10 | - | - | 6 |
| Midlands | -51 | 9 | £79,387 | -14.18% | 6 |
| Scotland | +18 | 8 | £100,000 | - | 2 |
| West Midlands | -59 | 5 | £90,000 | -2.70% | 3 |
| East Midlands | - | 4 | £75,000 | - | 3 |
| Wales | - | 4 | £74,429 | - | 5 |
| North East | -73 | 3 | £90,000 | - | 10 |
Lead DevOps Skill Set Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities
For the 6 months to 20 October 2026, Lead DevOps 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 DevOps in the job title.
| Rank | Skill | Share | Job Ads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | DevOps | 100.0% | 177 |
| 2 | CI/CD | 40.7% | 72 |
| 3 | Terraform | 34.5% | 61 |
| 4 | Infrastructure as Code | 32.8% | 58 |
| 5 | Security Cleared | 29.9% | 53 |
| 6 | Containerisation | 26.6% | 47 |
| 6 | Kubernetes | 26.6% | 47 |
| 8 | Python | 22.0% | 39 |
| 9 | AWS | 19.8% | 35 |
| 10 | Docker | 18.6% | 33 |
| 11 | Ansible | 18.1% | 32 |
| 12 | Azure | 17.5% | 31 |
| 13 | Technical Leadership | 16.9% | 30 |
| 14 | DV Cleared | 14.7% | 26 |
| 14 | Mentoring | 14.7% | 26 |
| 16 | Site Reliability Engineering | 13.6% | 24 |
| 16 | Stakeholder Management | 13.6% | 24 |
| 18 | Java | 12.4% | 22 |
| 19 | Continuous Improvement | 11.3% | 20 |
| 20 | GitHub | 10.7% | 19 |
| 20 | Spring | 10.7% | 19 |
| 20 | Spring Boot | 10.7% | 19 |
| 23 | Test Automation | 10.2% | 18 |
| 24 | SaaS | 9.6% | 17 |
| 24 | SC Cleared | 9.6% | 17 |
| 26 | Coaching | 9.0% | 16 |
| 26 | GitLab | 9.0% | 16 |
| 28 | Azure DevOps | 7.9% | 14 |
| 28 | Platform Engineering | 7.9% | 14 |
| 30 | Agile | 7.3% | 13 |
Lead DevOps 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
| Rank | Job Title | Share | Job Ads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lead DevOps Engineer | 78.5% | 139 |
| 2 | Principal DevOps Engineer | 9.6% | 17 |
| 3 | AWS DevOps Engineer | 6.2% | 11 |
| 4 | Technical Leader | 5.6% | 10 |
| 5 | Lead Infrastructure Engineer | 4.0% | 7 |
| 6 | AWS Infrastructure Engineer | 3.4% | 6 |
| 6 | AWS Infrastructure Lead | 3.4% | 6 |
| 6 | Azure DevOps Engineer | 3.4% | 6 |
| 6 | Senior AWS DevOps Engineer | 3.4% | 6 |
| 6 | Senior Infrastructure Engineer | 3.4% | 6 |
| 6 | Team Leader | 3.4% | 6 |
| 12 | DevOps Automation Engineer | 2.3% | 4 |
| 12 | DevOps Platform Engineer | 2.3% | 4 |
| 14 | DevOps Architect | 1.1% | 2 |
| 14 | Kubernetes Engineer | 1.1% | 2 |
| 14 | Lead Cloud Architect | 1.1% | 2 |
| 17 | Development Engineer | 0.6% | 1 |
| 17 | DevOps Manager | 0.6% | 1 |
| 17 | Engineering Manager | 0.6% | 1 |
| 17 | GCP DevOps Engineer | 0.6% | 1 |