Leader
UK

The median Leader salary in the UK is £76,000 per year according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months to 30 November 2023.

The first table below provides salary benchmarking and summary statistics including a comparison to same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
30 Nov 2023
Same period 2022 Same period 2021
Rank 26 28 32
Rank change year-on-year +2 +4 -2
Permanent jobs requiring a Lead 4,124 10,511 10,125
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 7.66% 8.32% 7.82%
As % of the Job Titles category 8.02% 8.72% 8.22%
Number of salaries quoted 3,127 6,748 6,705
10th Percentile £47,788 £46,250 £43,750
25th Percentile £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £76,000 £75,000 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year +1.33% +7.14% +3.70%
75th Percentile £96,250 £93,750 £90,000
90th Percentile £115,000 £115,000 £110,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £65,000 £65,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year - +8.33% -

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
UK

The following table is for comparison with the above and includes 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 51,419 120,484 123,121
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 95.48% 95.34% 95.10%
Number of salaries quoted 37,696 75,234 84,392
10th Percentile £31,250 £32,750 £32,000
25th Percentile £42,500 £45,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £60,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year - +4.35% +4.55%
75th Percentile £80,000 £81,250 £77,500
90th Percentile £97,500 £97,750 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year - +5.00% +5.26%

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 30 November 2023.

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 30 November 2023. 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 +2 3,684 £77,500 +3.33% 2,024
UK excluding London -9 2,090 £65,000 - 1,304
Work from Home +1 1,903 £75,000 -3.23% 998
London +10 1,760 £90,000 +2.86% 874
North of England +1 615 £65,000 -7.14% 311
South East -5 416 £65,000 -3.70% 335
Midlands -10 351 £63,000 +5.00% 243
South West -6 332 £70,000 +16.67% 169
North West -2 311 £65,000 -3.70% 178
Yorkshire -3 275 £67,500 -3.57% 93
West Midlands -9 247 £60,500 +10.00% 185
Scotland -8 174 £70,000 -6.67% 70
East of England +2 115 £70,000 +16.67% 169
East Midlands -12 101 £65,000 - 57
Wales -16 66 £57,291 -4.52% 32
Northern Ireland +15 33 £58,645 -0.18% 14
North East +9 32 £51,000 -27.14% 43
Channel Islands - 1 - -

Lead Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 30 November 2023, 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 1,187 (28.78%) Agile
2 1,112 (26.96%) Social Skills
3 1,106 (26.82%) Azure
4 1,066 (25.85%) Finance
5 832 (20.17%) Mentoring
6 769 (18.65%) DevOps
7 731 (17.73%) AWS
8 603 (14.62%) SQL
9 589 (14.28%) Software Engineering
10 580 (14.06%) Microsoft
11 555 (13.46%) CI/CD
12 551 (13.36%) Python
13 533 (12.92%) C#
14 519 (12.58%) Degree
15 518 (12.56%) JavaScript
16 489 (11.86%) Continuous Improvement
17 481 (11.66%) Java
18 471 (11.42%) .NET
19 450 (10.91%) Problem-Solving
20 448 (10.86%) Roadmaps
21 370 (8.97%) Technical Leadership
22 361 (8.75%) Coaching
23 359 (8.71%) Stakeholder Management
24 345 (8.37%) Kubernetes
25 342 (8.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
26 335 (8.12%) Analytics
27 324 (7.86%) Microservices
28 322 (7.81%) Test Automation
29 311 (7.54%) Line Management
30 304 (7.37%) Security Cleared

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
1 101 (2.45%) SharePoint
2 93 (2.26%) Confluence
3 63 (1.53%) Apache Spark
4 21 (0.51%) Apache
5 19 (0.46%) IIS
6 17 (0.41%) CMS
7 16 (0.39%) Apache Airflow
8 15 (0.36%) MS Exchange
9 11 (0.27%) Jupyter
10 8 (0.19%) NServiceBus
11 6 (0.15%) nginx
11 6 (0.15%) WordPress
12 5 (0.12%) IBM HTTP Server
13 4 (0.097%) Camunda
13 4 (0.097%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 3 (0.073%) Adobe Experience Manager
14 3 (0.073%) Headless CMS
14 3 (0.073%) JBoss
14 3 (0.073%) Tomcat
15 2 (0.048%) MQSeries
Applications
1 79 (1.92%) Microsoft Office
2 50 (1.21%) Microsoft Excel
3 37 (0.90%) Simulink
4 25 (0.61%) Stateflow
5 22 (0.53%) MS Visio
6 17 (0.41%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 14 (0.34%) Microsoft Project
8 10 (0.24%) Chatbot
9 8 (0.19%) Sketch
10 7 (0.17%) Adobe Illustrator
10 7 (0.17%) Photoshop
10 7 (0.17%) SPSS
11 6 (0.15%) Adobe After Effects
11 6 (0.15%) OrCAD
12 4 (0.097%) Adobe Premiere
12 4 (0.097%) Adobe XD
12 4 (0.097%) Trello
13 3 (0.073%) 3ds Max
13 3 (0.073%) InVision
13 3 (0.073%) Maya
Business Applications
1 75 (1.82%) SAP S/4HANA
2 28 (0.68%) Dynamics CRM
3 15 (0.36%) SAP ERP
4 14 (0.34%) SAP CO
5 13 (0.32%) SAP FI
5 13 (0.32%) SAP FI/CO
6 11 (0.27%) Workday HCM
7 9 (0.22%) Dynamics NAV
7 9 (0.22%) SAP MM
7 9 (0.22%) Unit4 Business World
8 8 (0.19%) SAP Business One
9 6 (0.15%) Adaptiv
9 6 (0.15%) Oracle Applications
9 6 (0.15%) SAP MDG
9 6 (0.15%) SAP Retail
9 6 (0.15%) SAP SD
10 5 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
10 5 (0.12%) SAP SCM
11 4 (0.097%) Remedy ITSM
11 4 (0.097%) SAP PM
Cloud Services
1 1,106 (26.82%) Azure
2 731 (17.73%) AWS
3 270 (6.55%) Azure DevOps
4 268 (6.50%) GCP
5 228 (5.53%) Power Platform
6 195 (4.73%) Microsoft 365
7 194 (4.70%) SaaS
8 114 (2.76%) Serverless
9 89 (2.16%) PaaS
10 80 (1.94%) GitHub
11 78 (1.89%) PowerApps
12 71 (1.72%) Dynamics 365
13 61 (1.48%) IaaS
14 60 (1.45%) Entra ID
15 53 (1.29%) OpenShift
15 53 (1.29%) Power Automate
16 49 (1.19%) Azure Data Factory
17 48 (1.16%) Cloud Computing
18 43 (1.04%) Azure Service Bus
19 40 (0.97%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 139 (3.37%) Firewall
2 64 (1.55%) DNS
3 61 (1.48%) Network Security
4 56 (1.36%) WAN
5 49 (1.19%) DHCP
6 46 (1.12%) LAN
7 44 (1.07%) VPN
8 34 (0.82%) SD-WAN
9 30 (0.73%) Wi-Fi
10 29 (0.70%) TCP/IP
10 29 (0.70%) Wireless
11 28 (0.68%) HTTP
11 28 (0.68%) MPLS
12 26 (0.63%) Internet
12 26 (0.63%) IPv4
12 26 (0.63%) VLAN
13 22 (0.53%) BGP
14 20 (0.48%) OSPF
14 20 (0.48%) VoIP
15 18 (0.44%) Intrusion Detection
Database & Business Intelligence
1 264 (6.40%) SQL Server
2 163 (3.95%) Power BI
3 120 (2.91%) NoSQL
4 92 (2.23%) Big Data
5 72 (1.75%) Data Warehouse
5 72 (1.75%) MongoDB
6 71 (1.72%) Relational Database
7 69 (1.67%) Tableau
8 66 (1.60%) Data Lake
9 63 (1.53%) MySQL
10 61 (1.48%) BigQuery
11 48 (1.16%) PostgreSQL
12 47 (1.14%) Azure SQL Database
13 44 (1.07%) Hadoop
14 40 (0.97%) SQL Server Integration Services
15 39 (0.95%) Elasticsearch
16 31 (0.75%) SQL Server Reporting Services
17 25 (0.61%) Metadata
18 22 (0.53%) Amazon Redshift
18 22 (0.53%) Looker
Development Applications
1 174 (4.22%) JIRA
2 164 (3.98%) Git
3 153 (3.71%) Jenkins
4 96 (2.33%) Selenium
5 74 (1.79%) Cucumber
6 48 (1.16%) Cypress.io
7 40 (0.97%) GitLab
8 37 (0.90%) Postman
9 34 (0.82%) JUnit
10 28 (0.68%) Gradle
10 28 (0.68%) Maven
11 27 (0.65%) JMeter
12 23 (0.56%) Visual Studio Team System
13 22 (0.53%) Atlassian Bamboo
14 19 (0.46%) Visual Studio
14 19 (0.46%) WebDriver
15 18 (0.44%) Bitbucket
16 17 (0.41%) Team Foundation Server
17 15 (0.36%) SoapUI
18 14 (0.34%) Artifactory
General
1 1,112 (26.96%) Social Skills
2 1,066 (25.85%) Finance
3 342 (8.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 298 (7.23%) Analytical Skills
4 298 (7.23%) Banking
5 232 (5.63%) Retail
6 151 (3.66%) Marketing
7 131 (3.18%) Public Sector
8 123 (2.98%) Law
9 118 (2.86%) Influencing Skills
10 116 (2.81%) Legal
11 109 (2.64%) Manufacturing
12 77 (1.87%) Automotive
13 69 (1.67%) Organisational Skills
14 67 (1.62%) Telecoms
15 58 (1.41%) Games
16 55 (1.33%) Financial Institution
17 53 (1.29%) Aerospace
18 50 (1.21%) Presentation Skills
19 46 (1.12%) Electronics
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 471 (11.42%) .NET
2 299 (7.25%) React
3 226 (5.48%) HTML
4 192 (4.66%) REST
5 178 (4.32%) CSS
6 155 (3.76%) AngularJS
7 124 (3.01%) Node.js
8 114 (2.76%) Spring
9 103 (2.50%) Kafka
10 101 (2.45%) RESTful
11 98 (2.38%) .NET Core
12 96 (2.33%) ASP.NET
13 88 (2.13%) Spring Boot
14 73 (1.77%) JSON
14 73 (1.77%) Web Services
15 67 (1.62%) .NET Framework
16 53 (1.29%) Vue
17 50 (1.21%) XML
18 43 (1.04%) YAML
19 39 (0.95%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 230 (5.58%) Product Ownership
2 134 (3.25%) Greenfield Project
3 130 (3.15%) Management Information System
4 109 (2.64%) Public Cloud
5 105 (2.55%) Algorithms
6 87 (2.11%) Cloud Native
7 75 (1.82%) Self-Motivation
8 65 (1.58%) Mobile App
8 65 (1.58%) Renewable Energy
9 56 (1.36%) Data Centre
10 52 (1.26%) Distributed Systems
11 46 (1.12%) Data Structures
12 45 (1.09%) Onboarding
13 44 (1.07%) Virtual Team
14 42 (1.02%) Cyberattack
15 40 (0.97%) Fixed Income
15 40 (0.97%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
16 36 (0.87%) Hedge funds
17 34 (0.82%) Linux Command Line
18 30 (0.73%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 256 (6.21%) Windows
2 244 (5.92%) Linux
3 101 (2.45%) Windows Server
4 53 (1.29%) Unix
5 41 (0.99%) Android
5 41 (0.99%) Apple iOS
6 28 (0.68%) Windows 10
7 16 (0.39%) Windows Server 2016
8 15 (0.36%) Embedded Linux
9 12 (0.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 12 (0.29%) Windows Server 2019
10 10 (0.24%) Windows Server 2012
11 7 (0.17%) Ubuntu
12 5 (0.12%) FreeRTOS
12 5 (0.12%) Windows Vista
13 4 (0.097%) Mac OS
13 4 (0.097%) Windows 8
13 4 (0.097%) Windows Server 2008
14 3 (0.073%) CentOS
14 3 (0.073%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,187 (28.78%) Agile
2 832 (20.17%) Mentoring
3 769 (18.65%) DevOps
4 589 (14.28%) Software Engineering
5 555 (13.46%) CI/CD
6 489 (11.86%) Continuous Improvement
7 450 (10.91%) Problem-Solving
8 448 (10.86%) Roadmaps
9 370 (8.97%) Technical Leadership
10 361 (8.75%) Coaching
11 359 (8.71%) Stakeholder Management
12 335 (8.12%) Analytics
13 324 (7.86%) Microservices
14 322 (7.81%) Test Automation
15 311 (7.54%) Line Management
16 290 (7.03%) Scrum
17 276 (6.69%) ITIL
18 270 (6.55%) Project Management
19 264 (6.40%) Project Delivery
20 245 (5.94%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 603 (14.62%) SQL
2 551 (13.36%) Python
3 533 (12.92%) C#
4 518 (12.56%) JavaScript
5 481 (11.66%) Java
6 205 (4.97%) PowerShell
7 175 (4.24%) TypeScript
8 139 (3.37%) C++
9 110 (2.67%) Bash
10 77 (1.87%) PHP
11 73 (1.77%) Go
12 62 (1.50%) MATLAB
13 50 (1.21%) T-SQL
14 43 (1.04%) C
15 39 (0.95%) Ruby
15 39 (0.95%) Scala
16 31 (0.75%) R
17 28 (0.68%) Rust
18 22 (0.53%) Kotlin
19 14 (0.34%) Perl
Qualifications
1 519 (12.58%) Degree
2 304 (7.37%) Security Cleared
3 161 (3.90%) SC Cleared
4 137 (3.32%) Computer Science Degree
5 79 (1.92%) Master's Degree
6 69 (1.67%) DV Cleared
7 65 (1.58%) CISSP
8 40 (0.97%) Azure Certification
9 38 (0.92%) BPSS Clearance
10 37 (0.90%) ITIL Certification
11 36 (0.87%) Cisco Certification
12 33 (0.80%) Microsoft Certification
13 26 (0.63%) AWS Certification
14 25 (0.61%) CISM
14 25 (0.61%) ISTQB
15 24 (0.58%) CCNP
16 23 (0.56%) CISMP
17 22 (0.53%) CCNA
18 21 (0.51%) PMI Certification
19 19 (0.46%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 255 (6.18%) QA
2 92 (2.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 83 (2.01%) Data Quality
4 66 (1.60%) SLA
5 61 (1.48%) PMO
6 57 (1.38%) NIST
7 37 (0.90%) Accessibility
8 33 (0.80%) GDPR
9 26 (0.63%) Cyber Essentials
10 18 (0.44%) NCSC
11 15 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 14 (0.34%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 14 (0.34%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 12 (0.29%) GRC
13 12 (0.29%) PCI DSS
14 11 (0.27%) IFRS
15 10 (0.24%) COBIT
16 9 (0.22%) WCAG
17 8 (0.19%) SOC 2
18 6 (0.15%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 293 (7.10%) Docker
2 163 (3.95%) Active Directory
3 56 (1.36%) VMware Infrastructure
4 21 (0.51%) Firmware
5 18 (0.44%) Hyper-V
6 12 (0.29%) vSphere
7 8 (0.19%) Virtual Desktop
8 7 (0.17%) Embedded Firmware
8 7 (0.17%) Virtual Machines
9 6 (0.15%) VMware ESXi
10 5 (0.12%) Apache ZooKeeper
11 3 (0.073%) IAG
11 3 (0.073%) XenApp
12 2 (0.048%) HDFS
12 2 (0.048%) NFS
13 1 (0.024%) Slurm Workload Manager
13 1 (0.024%) Terminal Server
13 1 (0.024%) Terminal Services
13 1 (0.024%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 345 (8.37%) Kubernetes
2 247 (5.99%) Terraform
3 115 (2.79%) Ansible
4 67 (1.62%) SCCM
5 50 (1.21%) Puppet
6 33 (0.80%) Microsoft Intune
7 24 (0.58%) Istio
8 15 (0.36%) FortiGate
9 12 (0.29%) Progress Chef
10 10 (0.24%) Grafana
10 10 (0.24%) Prometheus
11 9 (0.22%) Nessus
12 8 (0.19%) HP Quality Center
12 8 (0.19%) Single Sign-On
13 7 (0.17%) Control-M
13 7 (0.17%) Functional Safety
14 6 (0.15%) AirWatch
14 6 (0.15%) HP ALM
14 6 (0.15%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
14 6 (0.15%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 580 (14.06%) Microsoft
2 189 (4.58%) SAP
3 156 (3.78%) Google
4 117 (2.84%) Oracle
5 88 (2.13%) Cisco
5 88 (2.13%) Salesforce
6 86 (2.09%) Databricks
7 80 (1.94%) VMware
8 69 (1.67%) ServiceNow
9 34 (0.82%) Adobe
10 29 (0.70%) Meraki
11 28 (0.68%) CheckPoint
12 25 (0.61%) IBM
13 22 (0.53%) CyberArk
13 22 (0.53%) Splunk
13 22 (0.53%) Sun
14 21 (0.51%) Red Hat
15 20 (0.48%) Carbon Black
15 20 (0.48%) SolarWinds
16 19 (0.46%) Workday