Thought Leadership Job Trends

Thought Leadership
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs requiring Thought Leadership skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 11 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 288 275 352
Rank change year-on-year -13 +77 -89
Permanent jobs citing Thought Leadership 548 440 746
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.66% 1.07% 0.81%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.86% 1.15% 0.94%
Number of salaries quoted 201 142 489
10th Percentile £40,000 £47,650 £42,250
25th Percentile £61,250 £67,813 £60,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £80,000 £87,500 £80,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.57% +9.38% -6.98%
75th Percentile £97,500 £110,000 £100,064
90th Percentile £117,500 £130,000 £130,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £87,500 £80,000
% change year-on-year -20.00% +9.38% +3.23%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Thought Leadership falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 63,474 38,128 79,557
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 75.94% 92.95% 86.09%
Number of salaries quoted 39,284 22,513 58,929
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.17% +9.09% -10.57%
75th Percentile £77,500 £80,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £97,500 £102,500 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £53,688 £50,000
% change year-on-year -6.87% +7.38% -8.26%

Thought Leadership
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Thought Leadership relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

Thought Leadership job vacancy trend in the UK

Thought Leadership
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Thought Leadership.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Thought Leadership

Thought Leadership
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Thought Leadership over the 6 months to 11 April 2026.

Salary histogram for Thought Leadership in the UK

Thought Leadership
Top 16 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Thought Leadership within the UK over the 6 months to 11 April 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 -23 481 £80,000 -8.05% 403
London +47 312 £86,500 -3.89% 243
UK excluding London -86 170 £70,000 -20.00% 286
Work from Home -10 106 £65,000 -27.37% 124
North of England -74 48 £80,000 -15.47% 54
East of England +6 45 £65,050 -33.11% 9
South East -81 42 £47,500 -29.63% 157
North West -43 36 £80,000 -15.47% 26
Scotland -26 12 £80,000 -20.00% 11
Midlands -49 11 £72,500 -3.33% 30
Yorkshire -52 10 £90,000 +20.00% 21
South West -43 9 £56,000 -37.78% 22
West Midlands -22 8 £75,000 - 25
East Midlands - 3 £50,000 - 5
Wales - 3 £55,000 - 3
North East -28 2 - - 8

Thought Leadership
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 10 (1.82%) Palantir Foundry
2 8 (1.46%) Apache Airflow
3 6 (1.09%) IIS
4 5 (0.91%) CMS
4 5 (0.91%) Microsoft Exchange
5 4 (0.73%) Apache Spark
5 4 (0.73%) WordPress
6 3 (0.55%) Confluence
7 1 (0.18%) Apache
7 1 (0.18%) Drupal
7 1 (0.18%) nginx
7 1 (0.18%) SharePoint
Applications
1 13 (2.37%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 7 (1.28%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (0.91%) Adobe XD
3 5 (0.91%) InVision
3 5 (0.91%) Sketch
4 4 (0.73%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 4 (0.73%) Maya
4 4 (0.73%) Microsoft Office
5 2 (0.36%) Adobe Illustrator
5 2 (0.36%) Elementor
5 2 (0.36%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.36%) Photoshop
6 1 (0.18%) Siemens NX
6 1 (0.18%) Trello
Business Applications
1 17 (3.10%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (0.91%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (0.73%) SAP MDG
4 3 (0.55%) Elite 3E
5 2 (0.36%) SAP MDG-F
5 2 (0.36%) SAP SCM
5 2 (0.36%) Teamcenter
6 1 (0.18%) Endur
6 1 (0.18%) Magento
6 1 (0.18%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle ERP
6 1 (0.18%) SAP CO
6 1 (0.18%) SAP FI
6 1 (0.18%) SAP FI/CO
6 1 (0.18%) SAP MDG-BP
6 1 (0.18%) SAP MDG-M
6 1 (0.18%) SAP MDG-S
6 1 (0.18%) SAP PLM
6 1 (0.18%) SAP WM
Cloud Services
1 87 (15.88%) AWS
2 60 (10.95%) Azure
3 46 (8.39%) SaaS
4 42 (7.66%) GCP
4 42 (7.66%) Snowflake
5 10 (1.82%) AWS CloudFormation
6 9 (1.64%) Cloud Computing
6 9 (1.64%) Serverless
7 8 (1.46%) GitHub
7 8 (1.46%) Power Platform
8 7 (1.28%) Dynamics 365
8 7 (1.28%) SuccessFactors
9 6 (1.09%) Azure AI
9 6 (1.09%) dbt
9 6 (1.09%) OCI
10 5 (0.91%) Azure Machine Learning
10 5 (0.91%) Figma
10 5 (0.91%) Matillion
10 5 (0.91%) Microsoft 365
11 4 (0.73%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 13 (2.37%) Firewall
2 7 (1.28%) Intrusion Detection
2 7 (1.28%) Network Security
3 4 (0.73%) SD-WAN
3 4 (0.73%) WAN
3 4 (0.73%) Wireless
4 3 (0.55%) Cisco ISE
4 3 (0.55%) WebEx
4 3 (0.55%) Wi-Fi
5 2 (0.36%) Broadband
5 2 (0.36%) Cisco IPT
5 2 (0.36%) LAN
5 2 (0.36%) SSL
5 2 (0.36%) Tactical Data Link
6 1 (0.18%) Bluetooth
6 1 (0.18%) Cisco Wireless
6 1 (0.18%) LoRaWAN
6 1 (0.18%) WLAN
6 1 (0.18%) ZigBee
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (6.20%) Data Warehouse
2 29 (5.29%) Data Lake
3 13 (2.37%) NoSQL
4 8 (1.46%) Big Data
4 8 (1.46%) Tableau
5 6 (1.09%) Hadoop
5 6 (1.09%) Metadata
5 6 (1.09%) Power BI
6 5 (0.91%) Data Mining
7 4 (0.73%) SAP HANA
8 3 (0.55%) Amazon RDS
8 3 (0.55%) BigQuery
8 3 (0.55%) Delta Lake
9 2 (0.36%) Looker
9 2 (0.36%) SAP Data Services
9 2 (0.36%) Semantic Layer
9 2 (0.36%) SQL Server
10 1 (0.18%) MongoDB
10 1 (0.18%) SAP BW
10 1 (0.18%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 7 (1.28%) GitLab
2 6 (1.09%) Cucumber
2 6 (1.09%) MLflow
3 5 (0.91%) Axure RP
4 4 (0.73%) Git
4 4 (0.73%) JIRA
5 3 (0.55%) Jenkins
6 1 (0.18%) Cypress.io
6 1 (0.18%) ER Studio
6 1 (0.18%) ERwin
6 1 (0.18%) Gatling
6 1 (0.18%) JMeter
6 1 (0.18%) PowerDesigner
6 1 (0.18%) rollup.js
6 1 (0.18%) Selenium
6 1 (0.18%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.18%) Vagrant
General
1 185 (33.76%) Finance
2 130 (23.72%) Social Skills
3 92 (16.79%) Marketing
4 89 (16.24%) Analytical Skills
5 68 (12.41%) Presentation Skills
6 67 (12.23%) Public Sector
7 52 (9.49%) Retail
8 35 (6.39%) Legal
9 30 (5.47%) Influencing Skills
10 29 (5.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 28 (5.11%) Banking
12 26 (4.74%) Pharmaceutical
13 25 (4.56%) Law
14 19 (3.47%) Financial Institution
15 17 (3.10%) Aerospace
15 17 (3.10%) Games
16 15 (2.74%) Brand Awareness
17 11 (2.01%) Manufacturing
18 10 (1.82%) Organisational Skills
19 9 (1.64%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 132 (24.09%) Senior
2 81 (14.78%) Architect
3 79 (14.42%) Consultant
4 66 (12.04%) Lead
5 61 (11.13%) Account Executive
6 60 (10.95%) Sales Executive
7 42 (7.66%) Senior Sales Executive
8 38 (6.93%) Business Development Executive
9 34 (6.20%) Senior Account Executive
10 33 (6.02%) Business Sales Executive
10 33 (6.02%) Sales Account Executive
11 28 (5.11%) Business Architect
11 28 (5.11%) Senior Manager
12 25 (4.56%) Product Specialist
12 25 (4.56%) Senior Architect
13 24 (4.38%) Data Management Specialist
13 24 (4.38%) Senior Consultant
14 22 (4.01%) Business Consultant
15 19 (3.47%) Business Manager
15 19 (3.47%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (2.37%) Kafka
2 12 (2.19%) Spring
2 12 (2.19%) Spring Boot
3 7 (1.28%) CSS
3 7 (1.28%) HTML
4 6 (1.09%) REST
4 6 (1.09%) SOAP
5 5 (0.91%) OAuth
5 5 (0.91%) OAuth2
5 5 (0.91%) Play Framework
5 5 (0.91%) PyTorch
5 5 (0.91%) React
5 5 (0.91%) TensorFlow
6 4 (0.73%) Flutter
6 4 (0.73%) LangChain
6 4 (0.73%) XML
7 3 (0.55%) Oracle Fusion
7 3 (0.55%) PySpark
7 3 (0.55%) VML
8 2 (0.36%) scikit-learn
Miscellaneous
1 33 (6.02%) Life Science
2 31 (5.66%) Cloud Native
3 29 (5.29%) Blog
4 28 (5.11%) Enterprise Software
5 22 (4.01%) Self-Motivation
6 15 (2.74%) AI Agents
7 14 (2.55%) Management Information System
7 14 (2.55%) Product Ownership
7 14 (2.55%) Social Media
8 13 (2.37%) Distributed Systems
8 13 (2.37%) e-Learning
8 13 (2.37%) Onboarding
8 13 (2.37%) Web Conferencing
9 11 (2.01%) Podcast
10 10 (1.82%) Algorithms
11 9 (1.64%) Data Fabric
12 8 (1.46%) Legacy Applications
12 8 (1.46%) Security Posture
12 8 (1.46%) Virtual Team
13 7 (1.28%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 3 (0.55%) Windows
2 2 (0.36%) Linux
3 1 (0.18%) Android
3 1 (0.18%) Apple iOS
3 1 (0.18%) VMS
3 1 (0.18%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 184 (33.58%) AI
2 165 (30.11%) Decision-Making
3 160 (29.20%) Business Development
4 126 (22.99%) Analytics
5 110 (20.07%) Roadmaps
6 108 (19.71%) Mentoring
7 103 (18.80%) Agile
8 75 (13.69%) Business Strategy
9 74 (13.50%) Workshop Facilitation
10 73 (13.32%) Problem-Solving
11 65 (11.86%) Stakeholder Management
12 64 (11.68%) Cybersecurity
13 63 (11.50%) Strategic Thinking
14 62 (11.31%) Use Case
15 60 (10.95%) B2B
16 56 (10.22%) Data Science
16 56 (10.22%) Generative AI
17 54 (9.85%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 53 (9.67%) Machine Learning
19 52 (9.49%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 38 (6.93%) Python
2 36 (6.57%) Java
3 22 (4.01%) SQL
4 7 (1.28%) R
5 6 (1.09%) JavaScript
6 5 (0.91%) C#
6 5 (0.91%) Kotlin
6 5 (0.91%) Scala
7 4 (0.73%) Go
8 3 (0.55%) PowerShell
9 1 (0.18%) ABAP
9 1 (0.18%) Bash
9 1 (0.18%) PHP
9 1 (0.18%) Ruby
9 1 (0.18%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 158 (28.83%) Degree
2 65 (11.86%) Security Cleared
3 42 (7.66%) SC Cleared
4 41 (7.48%) Master's Degree
5 23 (4.20%) PhD
6 20 (3.65%) CISSP
7 18 (3.28%) CISM
8 15 (2.74%) Azure Certification
9 13 (2.37%) AWS Certification
10 11 (2.01%) DBS Check
11 10 (1.82%) Computer Science Degree
11 10 (1.82%) DV Cleared
12 9 (1.64%) CRISC
12 9 (1.64%) MBA
13 8 (1.46%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 7 (1.28%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 7 (1.28%) Cisco Certification
14 7 (1.28%) GSEC
14 7 (1.28%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
15 6 (1.09%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (4.56%) Accessibility
2 24 (4.38%) GRC
3 19 (3.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 19 (3.47%) NIST
4 17 (3.10%) GxP
5 12 (2.19%) Data Quality
5 12 (2.19%) QA
6 9 (1.64%) EU AI Act
6 9 (1.64%) JSP 440
7 7 (1.28%) GDPR
7 7 (1.28%) Government Security Classifications
7 7 (1.28%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 6 (1.09%) Actionable Recommendations
9 5 (0.91%) SLA
9 5 (0.91%) WCAG
10 3 (0.55%) IFRS
10 3 (0.55%) NCSC
10 3 (0.55%) PCI DSS
11 2 (0.36%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 2 (0.36%) NIST 800
System Software
1 9 (1.64%) Docker
2 4 (0.73%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.18%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 15 (2.74%) Terraform
2 13 (2.37%) Kubernetes
3 9 (1.64%) Ansible
4 5 (0.91%) Puppet
5 3 (0.55%) Progress Chef
6 2 (0.36%) Argo
6 2 (0.36%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
6 2 (0.36%) RSA Archer
6 2 (0.36%) Salt
7 1 (0.18%) Consul
7 1 (0.18%) Grafana
7 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Intune
7 1 (0.18%) Packer
Vendors
1 96 (17.52%) Dell
2 38 (6.93%) Databricks
2 38 (6.93%) SAP
3 34 (6.20%) Microsoft
4 26 (4.74%) Informatica
5 25 (4.56%) Google
6 24 (4.38%) Denodo
6 24 (4.38%) Teradata
7 20 (3.65%) Oracle
8 19 (3.47%) ServiceNow
9 17 (3.10%) Salesforce
10 13 (2.37%) HubSpot
11 12 (2.19%) Cognizant
12 11 (2.01%) Foundry
13 10 (1.82%) Palantir
14 9 (1.64%) Adobe
15 7 (1.28%) Workday
16 6 (1.09%) IBM
16 6 (1.09%) OpenAI
17 5 (0.91%) BT