Leader
UK

The median Leader salary in the UK is £72,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 14 May 2025.

The table below provides salary benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 26 17 30
Rank change year-on-year -9 +13 +7
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead 4,134 8,516 7,530
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 7.50% 8.60% 7.44%
As % of the Job Titles category 8.28% 9.09% 8.13%
Number of salaries quoted 2,376 5,945 5,252
10th Percentile £47,500 £41,250 £46,367
25th Percentile £56,176 £53,346 £57,438
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £72,500 £70,000 £72,500
Median % change year-on-year +3.57% -3.45% -
75th Percentile £95,000 £86,250 £95,000
90th Percentile £117,500 £105,000 £115,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £65,000 £65,000 £65,000
% change year-on-year - - +8.33%

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 49,912 93,707 92,673
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.61% 94.63% 91.55%
Number of salaries quoted 27,050 67,086 58,518
10th Percentile £29,750 £28,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £41,250 £38,500 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £56,500 £52,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.62% -12.50% -
75th Percentile £75,000 £71,250 £80,750
90th Percentile £96,250 £90,000 £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £51,645 £50,000 £53,000
% change year-on-year +3.29% -5.66% +5.64%

Lead
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured Lead in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Lead in the UK

Lead
Salary Trend

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing Lead.

Salary trend for Lead in the UK

Lead
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Lead over the 6 months to 14 May 2025.

Salary histogram for Lead in the UK

Lead
Top 18 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Lead within the UK over the 6 months to 14 May 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 -4 3,764 £72,500 +3.57% 3,376
UK excluding London -10 2,561 £65,000 - 2,292
Work from Home -10 1,493 £75,000 - 1,808
London -6 1,205 £90,000 +2.86% 1,630
North of England -18 863 £60,000 -14.29% 601
South East +4 729 £67,500 +8.00% 775
North West -13 663 £57,836 -17.38% 364
Midlands -22 360 £60,000 - 276
West Midlands -17 242 £60,000 -7.69% 169
South West -11 211 £72,500 +18.85% 264
East of England -27 174 £61,500 +2.50% 231
Yorkshire -22 170 £69,018 -1.40% 183
Scotland -28 169 £70,000 +10.24% 128
East Midlands -29 118 £60,000 +20.00% 92
Wales -5 54 £67,629 +4.04% 53
North East -33 30 £48,000 -31.67% 59
Northern Ireland -1 2 - - 35
Isle of Man +12 1 £50,000 -7.41% 2

Lead Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 14 May 2025, Lead job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads featuring Lead in the job title.

1 1,213 (29.34%) Social Skills
2 1,188 (28.74%) Mentoring
3 1,104 (26.71%) Agile
4 977 (23.63%) Roadmaps
5 952 (23.03%) Degree
6 901 (21.79%) Problem-Solving
7 802 (19.40%) AWS
8 771 (18.65%) Finance
9 741 (17.92%) Azure
10 685 (16.57%) Python
11 672 (16.26%) DevOps
12 600 (14.51%) Product Management
13 589 (14.25%) Microsoft
14 566 (13.69%) Java
15 565 (13.67%) BPSS Clearance
16 540 (13.06%) JavaScript
17 536 (12.97%) Coaching
18 527 (12.75%) Computer Science
19 518 (12.53%) Analytics
20 512 (12.39%) Software Engineering
21 488 (11.80%) High Availability
22 476 (11.51%) Kubernetes
23 467 (11.30%) Law
24 459 (11.10%) Continuous Improvement
25 454 (10.98%) Broadband
26 450 (10.89%) Analytical Skills
27 440 (10.64%) SQL
28 420 (10.16%) Docker
29 407 (9.85%) Terraform
30 403 (9.75%) Containerisation

Lead Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 89 (2.15%) Confluence
2 82 (1.98%) SharePoint
3 37 (0.90%) CMS
4 32 (0.77%) Microsoft Exchange
5 26 (0.63%) Apache Spark
6 16 (0.39%) Apache Airflow
7 13 (0.31%) Apache
7 13 (0.31%) Umbraco
8 12 (0.29%) Drupal
8 12 (0.29%) Kinematics
8 12 (0.29%) OpenEdge
8 12 (0.29%) WordPress
9 11 (0.27%) SAS
10 6 (0.15%) IIS
10 6 (0.15%) Oracle Workflow
11 5 (0.12%) IBM Domino
11 5 (0.12%) nginx
11 5 (0.12%) Tomcat
12 4 (0.097%) ArcGIS
12 4 (0.097%) Mule
Applications
1 128 (3.10%) Microsoft Office
2 55 (1.33%) Simulink
3 54 (1.31%) Microsoft Excel
4 25 (0.60%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 11 (0.27%) Chatbot
6 8 (0.19%) MS Visio
7 7 (0.17%) Maya
7 7 (0.17%) Microsoft Project
8 6 (0.15%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 6 (0.15%) Windchill
9 5 (0.12%) Sketch
10 4 (0.097%) Oracle Smart View
11 3 (0.073%) Adobe XD
11 3 (0.073%) Spreadsheet
12 2 (0.048%) Adobe Illustrator
12 2 (0.048%) CATIA
12 2 (0.048%) Moqups
13 1 (0.024%) InVision
13 1 (0.024%) OrCAD
13 1 (0.024%) Trello
Business Applications
1 40 (0.97%) Dynamics CRM
1 40 (0.97%) Infor LN
1 40 (0.97%) SAP BPC
2 15 (0.36%) Magento
2 15 (0.36%) Shopify
3 14 (0.34%) Oracle EBS
3 14 (0.34%) SAP S/4HANA
4 9 (0.22%) Oracle Applications
5 8 (0.19%) Oracle ERP
6 6 (0.15%) Oracle Financials
6 6 (0.15%) Teamcenter
7 5 (0.12%) Oracle EBS R12
8 4 (0.097%) NetSuite
8 4 (0.097%) Oracle Payables
9 3 (0.073%) Adobe Campaign
9 3 (0.073%) Oracle General Ledger
9 3 (0.073%) Oracle Payroll
9 3 (0.073%) Oracle Receivables
9 3 (0.073%) SAP PP
9 3 (0.073%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 802 (19.40%) AWS
2 741 (17.92%) Azure
3 226 (5.47%) GCP
4 222 (5.37%) Power Platform
5 217 (5.25%) Pulumi
6 163 (3.94%) SaaS
7 136 (3.29%) Microsoft 365
8 117 (2.83%) Serverless
9 86 (2.08%) Azure DevOps
10 77 (1.86%) Snowflake
11 67 (1.62%) GitHub
12 64 (1.55%) Dynamics 365
12 64 (1.55%) Power Automate
13 57 (1.38%) AWS Lambda
14 54 (1.31%) PowerApps
15 45 (1.09%) PaaS
16 42 (1.02%) Microsoft Purview
17 40 (0.97%) Azure Data Factory
18 39 (0.94%) Azure Synapse Analytics
19 38 (0.92%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 454 (10.98%) Broadband
2 110 (2.66%) Firewall
3 69 (1.67%) Network Security
3 69 (1.67%) VPN
3 69 (1.67%) WAN
4 64 (1.55%) TCP/IP
5 48 (1.16%) Wi-Fi
6 47 (1.14%) LAN
7 32 (0.77%) Internet
8 31 (0.75%) DNS
9 29 (0.70%) SD-WAN
10 21 (0.51%) 5G
10 21 (0.51%) HTTP
11 20 (0.48%) DHCP
11 20 (0.48%) Intrusion Detection
11 20 (0.48%) VLAN
12 17 (0.41%) Bluetooth
12 17 (0.41%) OSPF
13 16 (0.39%) BGP
14 15 (0.36%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 300 (7.26%) NoSQL
2 257 (6.22%) Relational Database
3 230 (5.56%) RDBMS
4 174 (4.21%) Power BI
5 149 (3.60%) Tableau
6 127 (3.07%) Data Lake
7 117 (2.83%) SQL Server
8 95 (2.30%) Data Warehouse
9 78 (1.89%) PostgreSQL
10 72 (1.74%) Metadata
11 70 (1.69%) Big Data
12 57 (1.38%) MongoDB
13 50 (1.21%) MySQL
14 43 (1.04%) BigQuery
15 28 (0.68%) Data Mining
16 24 (0.58%) SQL Server Reporting Services
17 21 (0.51%) SQL Server Integration Services
18 19 (0.46%) Amazon Redshift
18 19 (0.46%) Elasticsearch
19 17 (0.41%) Hadoop
Development Applications
1 216 (5.22%) Jaeger
2 179 (4.33%) JIRA
3 102 (2.47%) Git
4 87 (2.10%) Jenkins
5 62 (1.50%) Selenium
6 49 (1.19%) Oracle Forms
7 44 (1.06%) Rational DOORS
8 31 (0.75%) GitLab
9 24 (0.58%) Cypress.io
9 24 (0.58%) Postman
10 23 (0.56%) Maven
11 21 (0.51%) webpack
12 19 (0.46%) SonarQube
12 19 (0.46%) TeamCity
13 17 (0.41%) Bitbucket
14 15 (0.36%) SoapUI
15 14 (0.34%) JUnit
16 13 (0.31%) JMeter
17 11 (0.27%) Cucumber
17 11 (0.27%) PowerBuilder
General
1 1,213 (29.34%) Social Skills
2 771 (18.65%) Finance
3 467 (11.30%) Law
4 450 (10.89%) Analytical Skills
5 384 (9.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 223 (5.39%) Manufacturing
7 221 (5.35%) Banking
8 177 (4.28%) Aerospace
9 151 (3.65%) Marketing
10 141 (3.41%) Retail
11 122 (2.95%) Influencing Skills
12 119 (2.88%) Electronics
13 105 (2.54%) Legal
14 99 (2.39%) Public Sector
15 88 (2.13%) Aeronautics
16 85 (2.06%) Multimedia
17 59 (1.43%) Games
18 56 (1.35%) Front Office
19 51 (1.23%) Organisational Skills
20 49 (1.19%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 258 (6.24%) React
2 222 (5.37%) Elastic Stack
3 216 (5.22%) OpenTelemetry
4 190 (4.60%) .NET
5 109 (2.64%) CSS
6 106 (2.56%) Node.js
7 99 (2.39%) RESTful
8 97 (2.35%) Kafka
9 94 (2.27%) HTML
10 88 (2.13%) REST
11 84 (2.03%) AngularJS
12 58 (1.40%) GraphQL
13 49 (1.19%) SOAP
14 46 (1.11%) .NET Core
15 42 (1.02%) Web Services
16 40 (0.97%) Middleware
16 40 (0.97%) Spring
16 40 (0.97%) Spring Boot
17 38 (0.92%) Vue
18 36 (0.87%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 194 (4.69%) Product Ownership
2 172 (4.16%) Management Information System
3 117 (2.83%) Cloud Native
4 83 (2.01%) Algorithms
5 67 (1.62%) Mobile App
6 64 (1.55%) Distributed Systems
7 62 (1.50%) IoT
8 58 (1.40%) Self-Motivation
9 56 (1.35%) Legacy Systems
10 45 (1.09%) Enterprise Software
10 45 (1.09%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 44 (1.06%) Data Centre
12 43 (1.04%) Social Media
13 42 (1.02%) Derivative
13 42 (1.02%) Hedge funds
14 41 (0.99%) Fixed Income
14 41 (0.99%) SCADA
15 40 (0.97%) Data Structures
15 40 (0.97%) NHS
16 37 (0.90%) Equities
Operating Systems
1 374 (9.05%) Linux
2 250 (6.05%) Unix
3 209 (5.06%) Windows
4 63 (1.52%) Windows Server
5 46 (1.11%) Android
6 40 (0.97%) Apple iOS
7 25 (0.60%) Windows Vista
8 12 (0.29%) Windows 10
9 11 (0.27%) VMS
10 8 (0.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 4 (0.097%) Debian
11 4 (0.097%) Robot Operating System
11 4 (0.097%) Windows Server 2016
12 3 (0.073%) CentOS
12 3 (0.073%) Embedded Linux
12 3 (0.073%) Windows Server 2019
13 1 (0.024%) Mac OS
13 1 (0.024%) SUSE
13 1 (0.024%) Ubuntu
13 1 (0.024%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,188 (28.74%) Mentoring
2 1,104 (26.71%) Agile
3 977 (23.63%) Roadmaps
4 901 (21.79%) Problem-Solving
5 672 (16.26%) DevOps
6 600 (14.51%) Product Management
7 536 (12.97%) Coaching
8 527 (12.75%) Computer Science
9 518 (12.53%) Analytics
10 512 (12.39%) Software Engineering
11 488 (11.80%) High Availability
12 459 (11.10%) Continuous Improvement
13 403 (9.75%) Containerisation
14 390 (9.43%) CI/CD
15 366 (8.85%) Project Management
16 348 (8.42%) Infrastructure as Code
17 345 (8.35%) Stakeholder Management
18 343 (8.30%) Systems Engineering
19 332 (8.03%) Technical Leadership
20 319 (7.72%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 685 (16.57%) Python
2 566 (13.69%) Java
3 540 (13.06%) JavaScript
4 440 (10.64%) SQL
5 296 (7.16%) C#
6 291 (7.04%) Bash
7 269 (6.51%) Go
8 178 (4.31%) TypeScript
9 112 (2.71%) PowerShell
10 110 (2.66%) C++
11 100 (2.42%) C
12 66 (1.60%) MATLAB
13 47 (1.14%) PHP
14 45 (1.09%) Rust
15 39 (0.94%) Ruby
16 38 (0.92%) Scala
17 27 (0.65%) Kotlin
18 25 (0.60%) R
19 21 (0.51%) Ada
19 21 (0.51%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 952 (23.03%) Degree
2 565 (13.67%) BPSS Clearance
3 365 (8.83%) Computer Science Degree
4 250 (6.05%) AWS Certification
5 184 (4.45%) Security Cleared
6 104 (2.52%) HND
7 102 (2.47%) SC Cleared
8 83 (2.01%) Master's Degree
9 56 (1.35%) DBS Check
10 51 (1.23%) HNC
11 48 (1.16%) ACCA
11 48 (1.16%) CIMA
12 40 (0.97%) DV Cleared
13 31 (0.75%) Cisco Certification
14 30 (0.73%) CISSP
15 27 (0.65%) Microsoft Certification
16 26 (0.63%) PhD
16 26 (0.63%) Six Sigma Green Belt
17 25 (0.60%) Chartered Engineer
17 25 (0.60%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 166 (4.02%) QA
2 137 (3.31%) Data Quality
3 109 (2.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 95 (2.30%) ISO 9001
5 93 (2.25%) GDPR
6 89 (2.15%) Accessibility
7 80 (1.94%) AQAP
8 68 (1.64%) NIST
9 55 (1.33%) SLA
10 50 (1.21%) IFRS
11 41 (0.99%) GAAP
12 37 (0.90%) MiFID
13 29 (0.70%) PCI DSS
14 27 (0.65%) NCSC
15 25 (0.60%) Cyber Essentials
16 23 (0.56%) PMO
17 19 (0.46%) Sarbanes-Oxley
18 17 (0.41%) COBIT
19 13 (0.31%) Actionable Recommendations
20 11 (0.27%) California Consumer Privacy Act
System Software
1 420 (10.16%) Docker
2 75 (1.81%) Active Directory
3 46 (1.11%) VMware Infrastructure
4 31 (0.75%) Firmware
5 29 (0.70%) Hyper-V
6 22 (0.53%) Virtual Machines
7 17 (0.41%) vSphere
8 7 (0.17%) Embedded Firmware
9 5 (0.12%) HDFS
10 4 (0.097%) Virtual Desktop
10 4 (0.097%) VMware ESXi
11 3 (0.073%) BitLocker
11 3 (0.073%) VMware NSX
12 2 (0.048%) pfSense
13 1 (0.024%) Postfix
Systems Management
1 476 (11.51%) Kubernetes
2 407 (9.85%) Terraform
3 296 (7.16%) Ansible
4 241 (5.83%) Prometheus
5 220 (5.32%) Argo
6 215 (5.20%) Kustomize
7 32 (0.77%) Puppet
8 29 (0.70%) Grafana
9 24 (0.58%) Microsoft Intune
10 23 (0.56%) Progress Chef
11 18 (0.44%) Single Sign-On
12 17 (0.41%) SCCM
13 14 (0.34%) QRadar
14 6 (0.15%) ArcSight ESM
15 4 (0.097%) Functional Safety
15 4 (0.097%) Kubeflow
15 4 (0.097%) RSA Archer
16 3 (0.073%) Control-M
16 3 (0.073%) EMC VPLEX
16 3 (0.073%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 589 (14.25%) Microsoft
2 342 (8.27%) Google
3 226 (5.47%) SAP
4 160 (3.87%) Oracle
5 106 (2.56%) Databricks
6 101 (2.44%) ServiceNow
7 97 (2.35%) Salesforce
8 83 (2.01%) Siemens
9 73 (1.77%) VMware
10 61 (1.48%) Informatica
11 60 (1.45%) Cisco
12 50 (1.21%) MathWorks
13 45 (1.09%) Cognos
14 43 (1.04%) IBM
15 40 (0.97%) Adobe
15 40 (0.97%) Infor
16 27 (0.65%) Splunk
16 27 (0.65%) Workday
17 23 (0.56%) OpenAI
18 22 (0.53%) MuleSoft