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 24 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 283 320 333
Rank change year-on-year +37 +13 -89
Permanent jobs citing Thought Leadership 531 388 749
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.69% 0.94% 0.86%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.89% 1.00% 0.99%
Number of salaries quoted 183 122 497
10th Percentile £40,500 £47,750 £43,000
25th Percentile £61,250 £72,500 £62,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £80,000 £90,000 £80,000
Median % change year-on-year -11.11% +12.50% -11.11%
75th Percentile £98,750 £110,000 £100,064
90th Percentile £118,750 £131,125 £130,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £89,500 £80,000
% change year-on-year -21.79% +11.88% +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 59,482 38,652 75,963
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 77.48% 93.43% 86.89%
Number of salaries quoted 36,105 22,218 57,058
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £43,750 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -11.29%
75th Percentile £77,500 £80,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £97,500 £102,500 £93,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -8.41%

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 24 March 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 24 March 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 +29 462 £80,000 -10.61% 413
London +66 302 £86,500 -3.89% 241
UK excluding London -55 167 £70,000 -21.79% 290
Work from Home -10 95 £62,500 -30.17% 143
East of England +20 47 £60,100 -38.20% 17
North of England -53 44 £80,000 -15.47% 53
South East -56 38 £62,500 -10.71% 156
North West -27 36 £75,000 -20.75% 26
Scotland -26 15 £80,000 -20.00% 14
Midlands -30 11 £75,000 - 28
South West - 10 £47,000 - 21
West Midlands -10 7 £75,000 - 24
Yorkshire -47 6 £90,000 +20.00% 22
East Midlands - 4 £50,000 - 4
North East -23 2 - - 6
Wales - 2 £42,000 - 4

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 8 (1.51%) Apache Airflow
2 6 (1.13%) IIS
2 6 (1.13%) Palantir Foundry
3 5 (0.94%) CMS
3 5 (0.94%) WordPress
4 3 (0.56%) Apache Spark
4 3 (0.56%) Confluence
5 2 (0.38%) SharePoint
6 1 (0.19%) Apache
6 1 (0.19%) Drupal
6 1 (0.19%) nginx
6 1 (0.19%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 14 (2.64%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 7 (1.32%) Maya
2 7 (1.32%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (0.94%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 5 (0.94%) Adobe XD
3 5 (0.94%) InVision
3 5 (0.94%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (0.94%) Sketch
4 3 (0.56%) Adobe Illustrator
4 3 (0.56%) Elementor
4 3 (0.56%) Photoshop
5 2 (0.38%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.19%) Siemens NX
6 1 (0.19%) Trello
Business Applications
1 15 (2.82%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (1.32%) Dynamics CRM
3 6 (1.13%) Endur
4 4 (0.75%) SAP MDG
5 3 (0.56%) Elite 3E
6 2 (0.38%) SAP SCM
6 2 (0.38%) Teamcenter
7 1 (0.19%) Magento
7 1 (0.19%) NetSuite
7 1 (0.19%) Oracle Applications
7 1 (0.19%) Oracle ERP
7 1 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
7 1 (0.19%) SAP CO
7 1 (0.19%) SAP ERP
7 1 (0.19%) SAP FI
7 1 (0.19%) SAP FI/CO
7 1 (0.19%) SAP MDG-F
7 1 (0.19%) SAP MDG-M
7 1 (0.19%) SAP MDG-S
7 1 (0.19%) SAP PLM
Cloud Services
1 85 (16.01%) AWS
2 63 (11.86%) Azure
3 49 (9.23%) SaaS
4 46 (8.66%) Snowflake
5 38 (7.16%) GCP
6 11 (2.07%) GitHub
6 11 (2.07%) Power Platform
7 9 (1.69%) AWS CloudFormation
7 9 (1.69%) Dynamics 365
8 8 (1.51%) Azure DevOps
8 8 (1.51%) Cloud Computing
9 7 (1.32%) dbt
10 6 (1.13%) Matillion
10 6 (1.13%) OCI
10 6 (1.13%) Serverless
10 6 (1.13%) SuccessFactors
11 5 (0.94%) Azure Machine Learning
11 5 (0.94%) Figma
11 5 (0.94%) Google Ads
11 5 (0.94%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 12 (2.26%) Firewall
2 7 (1.32%) Intrusion Detection
2 7 (1.32%) Network Security
3 4 (0.75%) SD-WAN
3 4 (0.75%) WAN
3 4 (0.75%) Wireless
4 3 (0.56%) Cisco ISE
4 3 (0.56%) WebEx
4 3 (0.56%) Wi-Fi
5 2 (0.38%) Broadband
5 2 (0.38%) Cisco IPT
5 2 (0.38%) LAN
5 2 (0.38%) Tactical Data Link
6 1 (0.19%) Bluetooth
6 1 (0.19%) Cisco Wireless
6 1 (0.19%) LoRaWAN
6 1 (0.19%) SSL
6 1 (0.19%) WLAN
6 1 (0.19%) ZigBee
Database & Business Intelligence
1 42 (7.91%) Data Warehouse
2 31 (5.84%) Data Lake
3 14 (2.64%) NoSQL
4 11 (2.07%) Tableau
5 10 (1.88%) Power BI
6 9 (1.69%) Big Data
7 8 (1.51%) Metadata
8 6 (1.13%) BigQuery
8 6 (1.13%) Hadoop
9 5 (0.94%) Data Mining
10 4 (0.75%) DataStage
10 4 (0.75%) QlikView
10 4 (0.75%) SAP HANA
11 3 (0.56%) Amazon RDS
11 3 (0.56%) SQL Server
12 2 (0.38%) Delta Lake
12 2 (0.38%) Looker
12 2 (0.38%) MongoDB
12 2 (0.38%) SAP Data Services
13 1 (0.19%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 6 (1.13%) GitLab
1 6 (1.13%) MLflow
2 5 (0.94%) Axure RP
2 5 (0.94%) Cucumber
3 4 (0.75%) ER Studio
3 4 (0.75%) ERwin
3 4 (0.75%) JIRA
3 4 (0.75%) PowerDesigner
4 2 (0.38%) Git
4 2 (0.38%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.19%) Cypress.io
5 1 (0.19%) Gatling
5 1 (0.19%) JMeter
5 1 (0.19%) Selenium
5 1 (0.19%) SonarQube
5 1 (0.19%) Vagrant
General
1 184 (34.65%) Finance
2 122 (22.98%) Social Skills
3 91 (17.14%) Analytical Skills
4 89 (16.76%) Marketing
5 63 (11.86%) Presentation Skills
6 62 (11.68%) Public Sector
7 46 (8.66%) Retail
8 42 (7.91%) Law
9 39 (7.34%) Legal
10 32 (6.03%) Banking
11 28 (5.27%) Games
11 28 (5.27%) Influencing Skills
12 26 (4.90%) Pharmaceutical
13 23 (4.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 20 (3.77%) Financial Institution
15 13 (2.45%) Aerospace
16 11 (2.07%) Publishing
17 9 (1.69%) Telecoms
18 7 (1.32%) Manufacturing
18 7 (1.32%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 120 (22.60%) Senior
2 75 (14.12%) Architect
3 71 (13.37%) Consultant
4 70 (13.18%) Lead
5 63 (11.86%) Sales Executive
6 59 (11.11%) Account Executive
7 45 (8.47%) Senior Sales Executive
8 38 (7.16%) Business Development Executive
9 33 (6.21%) Business Sales Executive
9 33 (6.21%) Sales Account Executive
9 33 (6.21%) Senior Account Executive
10 26 (4.90%) Product Specialist
11 24 (4.52%) Business Architect
11 24 (4.52%) Data Management Specialist
11 24 (4.52%) Senior Manager
12 21 (3.95%) Senior Architect
13 20 (3.77%) Business Consultant
13 20 (3.77%) Senior Consultant
13 20 (3.77%) Solutions Architect
14 17 (3.20%) Business Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (2.07%) Spring
1 11 (2.07%) Spring Boot
2 9 (1.69%) Kafka
3 8 (1.51%) REST
4 7 (1.32%) CSS
4 7 (1.32%) HTML
5 6 (1.13%) React
5 6 (1.13%) SOAP
6 5 (0.94%) OAuth
6 5 (0.94%) OAuth2
6 5 (0.94%) Play Framework
6 5 (0.94%) PyTorch
6 5 (0.94%) TensorFlow
7 3 (0.56%) Flutter
7 3 (0.56%) Oracle Fusion
8 2 (0.38%) .NET
8 2 (0.38%) .NET Framework
8 2 (0.38%) AngularJS
8 2 (0.38%) PySpark
8 2 (0.38%) XGBoost
Miscellaneous
1 33 (6.21%) Life Science
2 31 (5.84%) Blog
2 31 (5.84%) Self-Motivation
3 27 (5.08%) Enterprise Software
4 26 (4.90%) Cloud Native
5 17 (3.20%) Algorithms
5 17 (3.20%) Management Information System
6 16 (3.01%) Social Media
7 14 (2.64%) Web Conferencing
8 13 (2.45%) Onboarding
9 12 (2.26%) e-Learning
10 11 (2.07%) AI Agents
10 11 (2.07%) Distributed Systems
11 10 (1.88%) Podcast
11 10 (1.88%) Product Ownership
12 9 (1.69%) Virtual Team
13 8 (1.51%) Data Fabric
13 8 (1.51%) NHS
13 8 (1.51%) Security Posture
14 7 (1.32%) Credit Risk
Operating Systems
1 3 (0.56%) Windows
2 2 (0.38%) Linux
3 1 (0.19%) Android
3 1 (0.19%) Apple iOS
3 1 (0.19%) VMS
3 1 (0.19%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 193 (36.35%) AI
2 165 (31.07%) Decision-Making
3 157 (29.57%) Business Development
4 143 (26.93%) Analytics
5 106 (19.96%) Roadmaps
6 103 (19.40%) Agile
7 101 (19.02%) Mentoring
8 86 (16.20%) Business Strategy
9 73 (13.75%) Problem-Solving
10 67 (12.62%) Cybersecurity
11 65 (12.24%) Workshop Facilitation
12 64 (12.05%) Use Case
13 63 (11.86%) B2B
13 63 (11.86%) Data Science
14 61 (11.49%) Strategic Thinking
15 60 (11.30%) Generative AI
16 59 (11.11%) Stakeholder Management
17 55 (10.36%) Computer Science
18 54 (10.17%) Machine Learning
19 53 (9.98%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 37 (6.97%) Python
2 30 (5.65%) Java
3 24 (4.52%) SQL
4 8 (1.51%) JavaScript
5 6 (1.13%) R
6 5 (0.94%) Kotlin
6 5 (0.94%) Scala
7 4 (0.75%) C#
8 3 (0.56%) Go
8 3 (0.56%) PowerShell
9 1 (0.19%) ABAP
9 1 (0.19%) Bash
9 1 (0.19%) PHP
9 1 (0.19%) Ruby
9 1 (0.19%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 176 (33.15%) Degree
2 59 (11.11%) Security Cleared
3 54 (10.17%) Master's Degree
4 38 (7.16%) SC Cleared
5 32 (6.03%) PhD
6 21 (3.95%) Computer Science Degree
7 19 (3.58%) CISSP
8 18 (3.39%) CISM
9 15 (2.82%) Azure Certification
10 14 (2.64%) DBS Check
11 12 (2.26%) AWS Certification
12 10 (1.88%) CRISC
12 10 (1.88%) DV Cleared
13 9 (1.69%) MBA
14 8 (1.51%) PMI Certification
14 8 (1.51%) PMP
15 7 (1.32%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 7 (1.32%) GSEC
16 6 (1.13%) (ISC)2 CCSP
16 6 (1.13%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (4.33%) Accessibility
2 19 (3.58%) GRC
2 19 (3.58%) GxP
2 19 (3.58%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 17 (3.20%) NIST
4 13 (2.45%) Data Quality
5 11 (2.07%) QA
6 9 (1.69%) EU AI Act
6 9 (1.69%) JSP 440
7 7 (1.32%) GDPR
7 7 (1.32%) Government Security Classifications
7 7 (1.32%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 6 (1.13%) Actionable Recommendations
8 6 (1.13%) EMIR
9 5 (0.94%) WCAG
10 3 (0.56%) NCSC
10 3 (0.56%) PCI DSS
10 3 (0.56%) SLA
11 2 (0.38%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 2 (0.38%) NIST 800
System Software
1 7 (1.32%) Docker
2 4 (0.75%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.19%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 17 (3.20%) Terraform
2 8 (1.51%) Kubernetes
3 6 (1.13%) Ansible
4 3 (0.56%) Puppet
5 2 (0.38%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
5 2 (0.38%) Progress Chef
5 2 (0.38%) RSA Archer
6 1 (0.19%) Argo
6 1 (0.19%) Consul
6 1 (0.19%) Grafana
6 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Intune
6 1 (0.19%) Packer
6 1 (0.19%) Salt
Vendors
1 96 (18.08%) Dell
2 39 (7.34%) Databricks
3 31 (5.84%) Microsoft
3 31 (5.84%) SAP
4 28 (5.27%) Google
4 28 (5.27%) Informatica
5 24 (4.52%) Denodo
5 24 (4.52%) Teradata
6 20 (3.77%) Oracle
7 14 (2.64%) HubSpot
8 12 (2.26%) ServiceNow
9 11 (2.07%) Salesforce
10 10 (1.88%) Adobe
11 9 (1.69%) IBM
12 6 (1.13%) Cognizant
12 6 (1.13%) Foundry
12 6 (1.13%) OpenLink
12 6 (1.13%) Palantir
12 6 (1.13%) Workday
13 5 (0.94%) BT