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 17 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 319 247 465
Rank change year-on-year -72 +218 -198
Permanent jobs citing Thought Leadership 633 607 363
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.55% 1.23% 0.47%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.75% 1.39% 0.57%
Number of salaries quoted 282 154 187
10th Percentile £50,000 £44,125 £47,500
25th Percentile £63,750 £57,813 £64,375
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £90,000 £80,000 £80,000
Median % change year-on-year +12.50% - -
75th Percentile £111,250 £105,000 £97,500
90th Percentile £122,500 £120,000 £115,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £80,000 £65,000 £80,000
% change year-on-year +23.08% -18.75% +0.46%

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 83,912 43,812 63,193
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.03% 88.75% 81.16%
Number of salaries quoted 58,112 24,707 35,897
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £32,000
25th Percentile £42,000 £36,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -4.17%
75th Percentile £80,000 £75,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £96,250 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year +15.79% -9.52% -2.78%

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 17 September 2026.

Salary histogram for Thought Leadership in the UK

Thought Leadership
Top 17 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 17 September 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 -78 571 £90,000 +16.13% 1,873
London -56 369 £100,000 +11.11% 1,387
UK excluding London -108 200 £80,000 +23.08% 585
Work from Home +12 149 £80,000 +23.08% 736
North of England -20 61 £95,000 +13.10% 185
Midlands -21 42 £80,000 +20.75% 56
North West -9 33 £95,000 +13.10% 128
South East -127 31 £77,500 +77.14% 118
West Midlands -27 26 £80,000 +30.61% 38
East of England - 23 £60,100 - 36
South West -64 21 £86,250 +7.81% 84
Yorkshire -33 17 £72,670 -14.51% 37
Wales -57 17 £55,000 +15.79% 16
East Midlands -26 16 £60,000 - 18
North East - 11 £100,000 - 20
Scotland -9 6 £110,000 +37.50% 60
Northern Ireland -75 1 - - 32

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 12 (1.90%) Palantir Foundry
2 10 (1.58%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (0.95%) Confluence
4 5 (0.79%) CMS
5 4 (0.63%) Apache Spark
6 3 (0.47%) ArcGIS
6 3 (0.47%) SAS
7 2 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.32%) Umbraco
7 2 (0.32%) WordPress
8 1 (0.16%) Apache
8 1 (0.16%) Drupal
8 1 (0.16%) IIS
8 1 (0.16%) nginx
8 1 (0.16%) SharePoint
Applications
1 6 (0.95%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (0.47%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (0.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 3 (0.47%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 24 (3.79%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.95%) Distributed Ledger
2 6 (0.95%) Oracle ERP
3 4 (0.63%) SAP MDG
3 4 (0.63%) SAP MDG-F
4 3 (0.47%) Dynamics CRM
4 3 (0.47%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 3 (0.47%) SAP ERP
4 3 (0.47%) SAP MDG-BP
4 3 (0.47%) Summit
5 2 (0.32%) SAP CO
5 2 (0.32%) SAP FI
5 2 (0.32%) SAP FI/CO
6 1 (0.16%) Magento
6 1 (0.16%) SAP IBP
6 1 (0.16%) SAP MDG-M
6 1 (0.16%) SAP MDG-S
Cloud Services
1 176 (27.80%) AWS
2 108 (17.06%) Azure
3 62 (9.79%) SaaS
4 57 (9.00%) GCP
5 34 (5.37%) AWS CloudFormation
5 34 (5.37%) Cloud Computing
6 23 (3.63%) Serverless
7 18 (2.84%) GitHub
8 17 (2.69%) Snowflake
9 16 (2.53%) Amazon Bedrock
9 16 (2.53%) Power Platform
10 13 (2.05%) Azure AI
11 10 (1.58%) Amazon ECS
12 9 (1.42%) Amazon EKS
12 9 (1.42%) Amazon S3
12 9 (1.42%) AWS Lambda
12 9 (1.42%) Azure DevOps
12 9 (1.42%) PaaS
13 8 (1.26%) GitHub Actions
14 7 (1.11%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 13 (2.05%) Firewall
2 10 (1.58%) Internet
3 8 (1.26%) WAN
4 7 (1.11%) SD-WAN
4 7 (1.11%) Wireless
5 6 (0.95%) Broadband
5 6 (0.95%) Cisco ISE
5 6 (0.95%) Cisco Wireless
5 6 (0.95%) LAN
5 6 (0.95%) WebEx
5 6 (0.95%) WLAN
6 3 (0.47%) Network Security
7 2 (0.32%) AMQP
7 2 (0.32%) BGP
7 2 (0.32%) Intrusion Detection
7 2 (0.32%) MQTT
7 2 (0.32%) OSPF
7 2 (0.32%) SSL
7 2 (0.32%) VPN
8 1 (0.16%) Ethernet VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 30 (4.74%) NoSQL
2 20 (3.16%) Data Mining
3 19 (3.00%) Tableau
4 18 (2.84%) Data Warehouse
5 17 (2.69%) Amazon QuickSight
6 15 (2.37%) Data Lake
7 14 (2.21%) Power BI
8 12 (1.90%) Metadata
9 7 (1.11%) Big Data
10 5 (0.79%) Geospatial Data
10 5 (0.79%) SAP HANA
11 4 (0.63%) Amazon Redshift
11 4 (0.63%) BusinessObjects
11 4 (0.63%) Hadoop
11 4 (0.63%) Relational Database
11 4 (0.63%) Semantic Layer
12 3 (0.47%) MongoDB
12 3 (0.47%) PostgreSQL
12 3 (0.47%) SQL Server
12 3 (0.47%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 27 (4.27%) GitLab
2 24 (3.79%) Cucumber
3 10 (1.58%) Jenkins
4 8 (1.26%) Git
5 6 (0.95%) JIRA
5 6 (0.95%) Maven
6 5 (0.79%) MLflow
7 4 (0.63%) Claude Code
8 3 (0.47%) Vite
9 2 (0.32%) Ant
9 2 (0.32%) Apache Ivy
9 2 (0.32%) Balsamiq
9 2 (0.32%) IBM UrbanCode
9 2 (0.32%) rollup.js
10 1 (0.16%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 1 (0.16%) Bitbucket
10 1 (0.16%) ERwin
10 1 (0.16%) JMeter
10 1 (0.16%) mountebank
10 1 (0.16%) Vagrant
General
1 256 (40.44%) Finance
2 209 (33.02%) Social Skills
3 148 (23.38%) Marketing
4 109 (17.22%) Public Sector
5 83 (13.11%) Analytical Skills
6 67 (10.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 61 (9.64%) Retail
8 55 (8.69%) Influencing Skills
9 48 (7.58%) Banking
9 48 (7.58%) Presentation Skills
10 42 (6.64%) Legal
11 31 (4.90%) Law
12 23 (3.63%) Brand Awareness
13 21 (3.32%) Back Office
14 18 (2.84%) Financial Institution
15 16 (2.53%) Manufacturing
15 16 (2.53%) Public Speaking
15 16 (2.53%) Telecoms
16 15 (2.37%) Aerospace
16 15 (2.37%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 132 (20.85%) Senior
2 122 (19.27%) Architect
3 72 (11.37%) Lead
4 64 (10.11%) Consultant
5 46 (7.27%) Senior Manager
6 35 (5.53%) Solutions Architect
7 33 (5.21%) Product Manager
8 30 (4.74%) Sales Executive
8 30 (4.74%) Senior Architect
9 25 (3.95%) Lead Architect
10 24 (3.79%) Java Engineer
11 23 (3.63%) Principal Engineer
11 23 (3.63%) Principal Java Engineer
11 23 (3.63%) Senior Product Manager
12 22 (3.48%) Security Architect
13 20 (3.16%) Business Development Executive
13 20 (3.16%) Digital Product Manager
13 20 (3.16%) Senior Consultant
13 20 (3.16%) Senior Digital Product Manager
14 19 (3.00%) Account Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (5.06%) Kafka
2 25 (3.95%) Spring
2 25 (3.95%) Spring Boot
3 23 (3.63%) Terraform
4 14 (2.21%) LangChain
4 14 (2.21%) LangGraph
5 10 (1.58%) FastAPI
6 7 (1.11%) CrewAI
7 6 (0.95%) Oracle Fusion
7 6 (0.95%) XML
8 5 (0.79%) Model Context Protocol
8 5 (0.79%) React
9 4 (0.63%) Middleware
9 4 (0.63%) pgvector
9 4 (0.63%) PyTorch
9 4 (0.63%) RabbitMQ
9 4 (0.63%) TensorFlow
9 4 (0.63%) VML
10 3 (0.47%) CSS
10 3 (0.47%) OpenMP
Miscellaneous
1 88 (13.90%) Cloud Native
2 65 (10.27%) Onboarding
3 46 (7.27%) Enterprise Software
4 36 (5.69%) Blog
5 34 (5.37%) AI Agents
6 33 (5.21%) Distributed Systems
7 26 (4.11%) Product Ownership
8 25 (3.95%) Public Cloud
9 24 (3.79%) e-Learning
9 24 (3.79%) Social Media
10 17 (2.69%) Web Conferencing
11 14 (2.21%) Management Information System
11 14 (2.21%) Self-Motivation
12 13 (2.05%) Enterprise Cloud
13 12 (1.90%) NHS
14 10 (1.58%) Legacy Applications
15 9 (1.42%) Greenfield Project
15 9 (1.42%) Hackathon
16 8 (1.26%) Cyber Threat
16 8 (1.26%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 8 (1.26%) Windows
2 7 (1.11%) Linux
3 3 (0.47%) Windows Server
4 2 (0.32%) Solaris
4 2 (0.32%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 224 (35.39%) AI
2 186 (29.38%) Mentoring
3 183 (28.91%) Business Development
4 178 (28.12%) Roadmaps
5 147 (23.22%) Analytics
6 146 (23.06%) Stakeholder Management
7 136 (21.48%) Decision-Making
8 114 (18.01%) Agile
9 84 (13.27%) CI/CD
10 83 (13.11%) Continuous Improvement
11 82 (12.95%) Coaching
12 78 (12.32%) Machine Learning
13 76 (12.01%) Problem-Solving
14 74 (11.69%) DevOps
14 74 (11.69%) Risk Management
15 72 (11.37%) B2B
16 70 (11.06%) Infrastructure as Code
17 63 (9.95%) Technical Leadership
18 57 (9.00%) Strategic Thinking
19 56 (8.85%) Collaborative Culture
Programming Languages
1 75 (11.85%) Python
2 62 (9.79%) SQL
3 40 (6.32%) Java
4 11 (1.74%) R
5 7 (1.11%) PowerShell
6 5 (0.79%) Bash
7 3 (0.47%) Go
7 3 (0.47%) TypeScript
8 2 (0.32%) ABAP
8 2 (0.32%) Apex Code
8 2 (0.32%) Bicep
8 2 (0.32%) C#
8 2 (0.32%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 2 (0.32%) JavaScript
8 2 (0.32%) Scala
8 2 (0.32%) SOQL
8 2 (0.32%) SOSL
9 1 (0.16%) PHP
9 1 (0.16%) Ruby
9 1 (0.16%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 141 (22.27%) Degree
2 105 (16.59%) Security Cleared
3 73 (11.53%) SC Cleared
4 45 (7.11%) AWS Certification
5 27 (4.27%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
6 24 (3.79%) Master's Degree
7 19 (3.00%) CISSP
8 16 (2.53%) Computer Science Degree
9 15 (2.37%) CISM
10 14 (2.21%) BPSS Clearance
11 13 (2.05%) Azure Certification
12 12 (1.90%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
12 12 (1.90%) Postgraduate
13 11 (1.74%) DV Cleared
14 9 (1.42%) Cisco Certification
15 8 (1.26%) MBA
16 7 (1.11%) (ISC)2 CCSP
17 6 (0.95%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
17 6 (0.95%) CRISC
17 6 (0.95%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (4.42%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 22 (3.48%) GDPR
2 22 (3.48%) GRC
2 22 (3.48%) NIST
3 20 (3.16%) Data Quality
4 18 (2.84%) Accessibility
5 13 (2.05%) QA
5 13 (2.05%) SLA
6 12 (1.90%) PCI DSS
7 8 (1.26%) JSP 440
8 7 (1.11%) Basel III
9 6 (0.95%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 5 (0.79%) Cyber Essentials
11 4 (0.63%) PMO
12 3 (0.47%) IFRS
12 3 (0.47%) NCSC
12 3 (0.47%) SOC 2
13 2 (0.32%) Actionable Recommendations
13 2 (0.32%) Government Security Classifications
13 2 (0.32%) Solvency II
System Software
1 23 (3.63%) Docker
2 7 (1.11%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.47%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 34 (5.37%) Kubernetes
2 11 (1.74%) Ansible
3 6 (0.95%) Puppet
4 4 (0.63%) Argo
4 4 (0.63%) Progress Chef
5 3 (0.47%) Istio
5 3 (0.47%) Jamf Pro
5 3 (0.47%) Microsoft Intune
6 2 (0.32%) Salt
7 1 (0.16%) Amdocs OSS
7 1 (0.16%) AppManager
7 1 (0.16%) Consul
7 1 (0.16%) EMC NetWorker
7 1 (0.16%) FortiGate
7 1 (0.16%) Packer
7 1 (0.16%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 61 (9.64%) Microsoft
2 40 (6.32%) Dell
2 40 (6.32%) SAP
3 28 (4.42%) Salesforce
4 27 (4.27%) Databricks
4 27 (4.27%) Google
5 19 (3.00%) Oracle
6 17 (2.69%) Informatica
6 17 (2.69%) ServiceNow
7 15 (2.37%) Foundry
8 13 (2.05%) Teradata
9 12 (1.90%) Denodo
9 12 (1.90%) Palantir
9 12 (1.90%) Workday
10 11 (1.74%) HubSpot
10 11 (1.74%) OpenAI
11 10 (1.58%) Cisco
12 7 (1.11%) Fortinet
13 6 (0.95%) Aruba
13 6 (0.95%) Cognizant