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 27 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 335 245 446
Rank change year-on-year -90 +201 -182
Permanent jobs citing Thought Leadership 606 643 392
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.55% 1.28% 0.47%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.76% 1.45% 0.58%
Number of salaries quoted 257 167 228
10th Percentile £47,300 £44,000 £47,421
25th Percentile £62,500 £58,125 £62,438
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £85,000 £82,500 £80,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.03% +3.13% -
75th Percentile £110,000 £105,625 £100,875
90th Percentile £122,500 £129,000 £140,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £80,000 £67,500 £80,000
% change year-on-year +18.52% -15.63% +6.67%

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 79,954 44,458 67,369
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.09% 88.81% 80.67%
Number of salaries quoted 55,419 25,298 42,226
10th Percentile £31,055 £28,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,250 £36,250 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £78,750 £75,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £96,250 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £50,047
% change year-on-year +15.79% -5.09% -9.01%

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 27 August 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 27 August 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 -83 554 £90,000 +12.50% 202
London -54 363 £95,000 +7.04% 126
UK excluding London -116 196 £80,000 +18.52% 120
Work from Home -26 142 £72,500 -12.12% 98
North of England -29 61 £95,000 +0.38% 20
Midlands -13 38 £80,000 +23.08% 15
North West -8 35 £95,000 +0.38% 12
South East -111 30 £55,000 +25.71% 18
East of England - 26 £60,100 - 4
West Midlands -29 23 £80,000 +39.13% 7
Wales -46 19 £55,000 +15.79% 2
East Midlands -6 15 £70,000 - 8
Yorkshire -33 15 £72,170 -15.09% 7
South West -66 15 £59,750 -25.31% 45
North East -50 11 £100,000 +17.65% 1
Scotland -4 6 £110,000 +37.50% 10
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 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 16 (2.64%) Palantir Foundry
2 10 (1.65%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (0.99%) Apache Spark
4 5 (0.83%) Confluence
5 4 (0.66%) CMS
6 3 (0.50%) ArcGIS
6 3 (0.50%) SAS
7 2 (0.33%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.33%) Umbraco
8 1 (0.17%) Apache
8 1 (0.17%) Drupal
8 1 (0.17%) IIS
8 1 (0.17%) nginx
8 1 (0.17%) SharePoint
8 1 (0.17%) WordPress
Applications
1 6 (0.99%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 5 (0.83%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.50%) Microsoft Office
4 2 (0.33%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.17%) Trello
Business Applications
1 25 (4.13%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.99%) Distributed Ledger
3 4 (0.66%) SAP MDG
3 4 (0.66%) SAP MDG-F
4 3 (0.50%) Dynamics CRM
4 3 (0.50%) Oracle ERP
4 3 (0.50%) SAP ERP
4 3 (0.50%) SAP MDG-BP
4 3 (0.50%) Summit
5 2 (0.33%) SAP CO
5 2 (0.33%) SAP FI
5 2 (0.33%) SAP FI/CO
6 1 (0.17%) Magento
6 1 (0.17%) SAP IBP
6 1 (0.17%) SAP MDG-M
6 1 (0.17%) SAP MDG-S
Cloud Services
1 176 (29.04%) AWS
2 102 (16.83%) Azure
3 62 (10.23%) SaaS
4 57 (9.41%) GCP
5 35 (5.78%) Cloud Computing
6 31 (5.12%) AWS CloudFormation
7 26 (4.29%) Serverless
8 25 (4.13%) Snowflake
9 18 (2.97%) Power Platform
10 16 (2.64%) Amazon Bedrock
11 15 (2.48%) Azure AI
12 14 (2.31%) GitHub
13 9 (1.49%) Amazon EKS
13 9 (1.49%) Amazon S3
13 9 (1.49%) AWS Lambda
13 9 (1.49%) Azure DevOps
13 9 (1.49%) PaaS
14 8 (1.32%) Amazon ECS
14 8 (1.32%) Microsoft 365
15 7 (1.16%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 15 (2.48%) Firewall
2 10 (1.65%) Internet
3 9 (1.49%) WAN
3 9 (1.49%) Wireless
4 8 (1.32%) SD-WAN
5 7 (1.16%) Broadband
5 7 (1.16%) Cisco ISE
5 7 (1.16%) Cisco Wireless
5 7 (1.16%) LAN
5 7 (1.16%) WebEx
5 7 (1.16%) WLAN
6 4 (0.66%) Network Security
7 3 (0.50%) Intrusion Detection
7 3 (0.50%) SSL
8 2 (0.33%) AMQP
8 2 (0.33%) BGP
8 2 (0.33%) Cisco IPT
8 2 (0.33%) MQTT
8 2 (0.33%) OSPF
8 2 (0.33%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (4.79%) Data Warehouse
2 25 (4.13%) Data Lake
2 25 (4.13%) NoSQL
3 20 (3.30%) Data Mining
3 20 (3.30%) Tableau
4 17 (2.81%) Amazon QuickSight
5 16 (2.64%) Power BI
6 8 (1.32%) Metadata
7 7 (1.16%) Big Data
8 5 (0.83%) Geospatial Data
8 5 (0.83%) SAP HANA
9 4 (0.66%) BusinessObjects
9 4 (0.66%) Delta Lake
9 4 (0.66%) Hadoop
10 3 (0.50%) Amazon Redshift
10 3 (0.50%) Semantic Layer
10 3 (0.50%) SQL Server Analysis Services
11 2 (0.33%) Amazon RDS
11 2 (0.33%) Relational Database
11 2 (0.33%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 22 (3.63%) GitLab
2 21 (3.47%) Cucumber
3 7 (1.16%) Git
4 6 (0.99%) Jenkins
4 6 (0.99%) Maven
4 6 (0.99%) MLflow
5 5 (0.83%) JIRA
6 4 (0.66%) Claude Code
7 2 (0.33%) Ant
7 2 (0.33%) Apache Ivy
7 2 (0.33%) Balsamiq
7 2 (0.33%) IBM UrbanCode
7 2 (0.33%) rollup.js
8 1 (0.17%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 1 (0.17%) Bitbucket
8 1 (0.17%) Gatling
8 1 (0.17%) JMeter
8 1 (0.17%) mountebank
8 1 (0.17%) Vagrant
8 1 (0.17%) Vite
General
1 240 (39.60%) Finance
2 188 (31.02%) Social Skills
3 136 (22.44%) Marketing
4 101 (16.67%) Public Sector
5 74 (12.21%) Analytical Skills
6 62 (10.23%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 62 (10.23%) Retail
7 51 (8.42%) Banking
7 51 (8.42%) Presentation Skills
8 47 (7.76%) Influencing Skills
9 32 (5.28%) Legal
10 26 (4.29%) Law
11 22 (3.63%) Back Office
12 20 (3.30%) Brand Awareness
12 20 (3.30%) Financial Institution
13 17 (2.81%) Public Speaking
14 16 (2.64%) Telecoms
15 15 (2.48%) Aerospace
15 15 (2.48%) Organisational Skills
16 14 (2.31%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 131 (21.62%) Senior
2 113 (18.65%) Architect
3 68 (11.22%) Consultant
3 68 (11.22%) Lead
4 45 (7.43%) Senior Manager
5 35 (5.78%) Sales Executive
6 34 (5.61%) Solutions Architect
7 30 (4.95%) Product Manager
8 26 (4.29%) Senior Architect
9 24 (3.96%) Lead Architect
10 23 (3.80%) Senior Product Manager
11 22 (3.63%) Business Development Executive
11 22 (3.63%) Senior Consultant
12 21 (3.47%) Java Engineer
12 21 (3.47%) Security Architect
13 20 (3.30%) Account Manager
13 20 (3.30%) Principal Engineer
13 20 (3.30%) Principal Java Engineer
13 20 (3.30%) Product Specialist
13 20 (3.30%) Senior Digital Product Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (5.28%) Kafka
2 22 (3.63%) Spring
2 22 (3.63%) Spring Boot
3 20 (3.30%) Terraform
4 12 (1.98%) LangGraph
5 11 (1.82%) LangChain
6 8 (1.32%) FastAPI
7 6 (0.99%) XML
8 5 (0.83%) CrewAI
8 5 (0.83%) Model Context Protocol
9 4 (0.66%) Middleware
9 4 (0.66%) PySpark
9 4 (0.66%) PyTorch
9 4 (0.66%) RabbitMQ
9 4 (0.66%) React
9 4 (0.66%) TensorFlow
9 4 (0.66%) VML
10 3 (0.50%) CSS
10 3 (0.50%) OpenMP
10 3 (0.50%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 76 (12.54%) Cloud Native
2 62 (10.23%) Onboarding
3 44 (7.26%) Enterprise Software
4 40 (6.60%) Blog
5 26 (4.29%) AI Agents
6 25 (4.13%) Distributed Systems
6 25 (4.13%) Product Ownership
7 24 (3.96%) e-Learning
8 22 (3.63%) Public Cloud
9 20 (3.30%) Social Media
10 17 (2.81%) Web Conferencing
11 15 (2.48%) Self-Motivation
12 12 (1.98%) Management Information System
12 12 (1.98%) NHS
13 10 (1.65%) Enterprise Cloud
13 10 (1.65%) Greenfield Project
14 9 (1.49%) Hackathon
14 9 (1.49%) Legacy Applications
15 8 (1.32%) Low-Code
16 7 (1.16%) Market Risk
Operating Systems
1 8 (1.32%) Linux
2 6 (0.99%) Windows
3 3 (0.50%) Windows Server
4 2 (0.33%) Solaris
4 2 (0.33%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 222 (36.63%) AI
2 179 (29.54%) Mentoring
3 170 (28.05%) Business Development
4 167 (27.56%) Roadmaps
5 148 (24.42%) Analytics
6 144 (23.76%) Decision-Making
7 110 (18.15%) Stakeholder Management
8 109 (17.99%) Agile
9 80 (13.20%) Continuous Improvement
10 78 (12.87%) Machine Learning
11 75 (12.38%) CI/CD
12 73 (12.05%) DevOps
13 71 (11.72%) Problem-Solving
14 69 (11.39%) Coaching
15 68 (11.22%) B2B
15 68 (11.22%) Risk Management
16 63 (10.40%) Infrastructure as Code
17 60 (9.90%) Strategic Thinking
18 57 (9.41%) Business Intelligence
19 55 (9.08%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 76 (12.54%) Python
2 55 (9.08%) SQL
3 42 (6.93%) Java
4 11 (1.82%) R
5 5 (0.83%) Bash
5 5 (0.83%) PowerShell
6 4 (0.66%) Go
7 3 (0.50%) C#
8 2 (0.33%) ABAP
8 2 (0.33%) Apex Code
8 2 (0.33%) Bicep
8 2 (0.33%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 2 (0.33%) JavaScript
8 2 (0.33%) Scala
8 2 (0.33%) SOQL
8 2 (0.33%) SOSL
9 1 (0.17%) PHP
9 1 (0.17%) Ruby
9 1 (0.17%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.17%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 151 (24.92%) Degree
2 93 (15.35%) Security Cleared
3 63 (10.40%) SC Cleared
4 42 (6.93%) AWS Certification
5 25 (4.13%) Master's Degree
6 24 (3.96%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 18 (2.97%) Azure Certification
7 18 (2.97%) CISSP
7 18 (2.97%) Computer Science Degree
8 16 (2.64%) CISM
9 15 (2.48%) BPSS Clearance
10 12 (1.98%) DV Cleared
10 12 (1.98%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
11 10 (1.65%) MBA
12 9 (1.49%) Cisco Certification
12 9 (1.49%) CRISC
13 8 (1.32%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
14 7 (1.16%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 7 (1.16%) DBS Check
15 6 (0.99%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (4.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 26 (4.29%) GRC
3 23 (3.80%) GDPR
4 21 (3.47%) NIST
5 19 (3.14%) Accessibility
5 19 (3.14%) Data Quality
6 14 (2.31%) QA
7 11 (1.82%) SLA
8 10 (1.65%) PCI DSS
9 9 (1.49%) JSP 440
10 7 (1.16%) Basel III
10 7 (1.16%) EU AI Act
10 7 (1.16%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 5 (0.83%) Cyber Essentials
12 4 (0.66%) IFRS
12 4 (0.66%) PMO
13 3 (0.50%) Government Security Classifications
13 3 (0.50%) NCSC
13 3 (0.50%) SOC 2
14 2 (0.33%) Actionable Recommendations
System Software
1 23 (3.80%) Docker
2 5 (0.83%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.50%) Slurm Workload Manager
4 1 (0.17%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 28 (4.62%) Kubernetes
2 14 (2.31%) Ansible
3 7 (1.16%) Puppet
4 5 (0.83%) Progress Chef
5 4 (0.66%) Argo
6 2 (0.33%) Salt
7 1 (0.17%) Amdocs OSS
7 1 (0.17%) AppManager
7 1 (0.17%) Consul
7 1 (0.17%) EMC NetWorker
7 1 (0.17%) FortiGate
7 1 (0.17%) Packer
7 1 (0.17%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 61 (10.07%) Microsoft
2 51 (8.42%) Dell
3 35 (5.78%) Databricks
3 35 (5.78%) SAP
4 26 (4.29%) Google
5 24 (3.96%) Informatica
5 24 (3.96%) Salesforce
6 21 (3.47%) Teradata
7 20 (3.30%) Denodo
8 19 (3.14%) Foundry
9 17 (2.81%) ServiceNow
10 16 (2.64%) Palantir
11 11 (1.82%) Cisco
12 10 (1.65%) OpenAI
12 10 (1.65%) Oracle
13 8 (1.32%) Fortinet
14 7 (1.16%) Aruba
14 7 (1.16%) HubSpot
14 7 (1.16%) Juniper
15 6 (0.99%) Cognizant