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

6 months to
26 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 353 263 475
Rank change year-on-year -90 +212 -220
Permanent jobs citing Thought Leadership 605 564 335
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.52% 1.14% 0.44%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.70% 1.28% 0.54%
Number of salaries quoted 282 148 176
10th Percentile £50,000 £42,125 £48,125
25th Percentile £63,750 £58,750 £65,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £87,500 £80,000 £80,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.38% - -
75th Percentile £110,938 £105,000 £97,500
90th Percentile £119,413 £121,500 £111,875
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 85,853 43,932 62,432
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.10% 88.75% 81.70%
Number of salaries quoted 59,280 24,639 34,370
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £41,585 £36,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £57,965
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -5.11% -3.39%
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 26 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 26 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 -95 537 £89,000 +14.84% 1,764
London -60 340 £95,000 - 1,283
UK excluding London -119 196 £80,000 +23.08% 605
Work from Home -5 147 £80,000 +23.08% 727
North of England -19 67 £90,000 +11.46% 178
Midlands -25 43 £80,000 +20.75% 73
North West -8 37 £95,000 +17.65% 119
South East -88 32 £90,000 +105.71% 118
West Midlands -27 27 £90,000 +46.94% 49
South West -67 20 £100,000 +25.00% 86
Yorkshire -33 19 £83,420 -1.86% 40
Wales -48 17 £55,000 +15.79% 14
East Midlands -15 16 £60,000 - 24
East of England -17 13 £60,100 +33.56% 33
North East - 11 £100,000 - 19
Scotland +1 7 £110,000 +47.65% 71
Northern Ireland -86 1 - - 34

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 (1.65%) Microsoft Exchange
1 10 (1.65%) Palantir Foundry
2 6 (0.99%) CMS
3 5 (0.83%) Confluence
4 4 (0.66%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.50%) ArcGIS
5 3 (0.50%) SAS
6 2 (0.33%) Umbraco
6 2 (0.33%) WordPress
7 1 (0.17%) SharePoint
Applications
1 6 (0.99%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (0.66%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (0.50%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.33%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 24 (3.97%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.99%) Distributed Ledger
2 6 (0.99%) Oracle ERP
3 4 (0.66%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 3 (0.50%) Dynamics CRM
4 3 (0.50%) SAP ERP
4 3 (0.50%) SAP MDG
4 3 (0.50%) SAP MDG-BP
4 3 (0.50%) SAP MDG-F
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%) SAP GRC
6 1 (0.17%) SAP IBP
Cloud Services
1 171 (28.26%) AWS
2 105 (17.36%) Azure
3 66 (10.91%) SaaS
4 54 (8.93%) GCP
5 34 (5.62%) Cloud Computing
6 33 (5.45%) AWS CloudFormation
7 23 (3.80%) Serverless
8 17 (2.81%) GitHub
9 16 (2.64%) Amazon Bedrock
9 16 (2.64%) Power Platform
10 13 (2.15%) Azure AI
11 10 (1.65%) Amazon ECS
12 9 (1.49%) AWS Lambda
12 9 (1.49%) PaaS
13 8 (1.32%) Amazon EKS
13 8 (1.32%) Amazon S3
13 8 (1.32%) Azure DevOps
14 7 (1.16%) GitHub Actions
14 7 (1.16%) LangSmith
15 6 (0.99%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 10 (1.65%) Firewall
1 10 (1.65%) Internet
2 9 (1.49%) WAN
3 8 (1.32%) SD-WAN
3 8 (1.32%) Wireless
4 7 (1.16%) Broadband
4 7 (1.16%) Cisco ISE
4 7 (1.16%) Cisco Wireless
4 7 (1.16%) LAN
4 7 (1.16%) WebEx
4 7 (1.16%) WLAN
5 2 (0.33%) AMQP
5 2 (0.33%) BGP
5 2 (0.33%) MQTT
5 2 (0.33%) OSPF
5 2 (0.33%) SSL
5 2 (0.33%) VPN
6 1 (0.17%) GoToMeeting
6 1 (0.17%) Multicast
6 1 (0.17%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (5.12%) NoSQL
2 20 (3.31%) Data Mining
3 19 (3.14%) Tableau
4 17 (2.81%) Amazon QuickSight
5 14 (2.31%) Power BI
6 13 (2.15%) Metadata
7 7 (1.16%) Big Data
8 6 (0.99%) Data Warehouse
8 6 (0.99%) Relational Database
9 5 (0.83%) Geospatial Data
9 5 (0.83%) SAP HANA
10 4 (0.66%) Amazon Redshift
10 4 (0.66%) BusinessObjects
10 4 (0.66%) Hadoop
10 4 (0.66%) Metadata Repository
10 4 (0.66%) RDBMS
10 4 (0.66%) Semantic Layer
10 4 (0.66%) Star Schema
11 3 (0.50%) Data Lake
11 3 (0.50%) Pinecone
Development Applications
1 28 (4.63%) GitLab
2 25 (4.13%) Cucumber
3 10 (1.65%) Jenkins
4 8 (1.32%) Git
5 6 (0.99%) Maven
6 5 (0.83%) JIRA
6 5 (0.83%) MLflow
7 4 (0.66%) Claude Code
8 3 (0.50%) Vite
9 2 (0.33%) Ant
9 2 (0.33%) Apache Ivy
9 2 (0.33%) Balsamiq
9 2 (0.33%) IBM UrbanCode
9 2 (0.33%) rollup.js
10 1 (0.17%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 1 (0.17%) Bitbucket
10 1 (0.17%) ERwin
10 1 (0.17%) mountebank
General
1 261 (43.14%) Finance
2 214 (35.37%) Social Skills
3 162 (26.78%) Marketing
4 112 (18.51%) Public Sector
5 89 (14.71%) Analytical Skills
6 71 (11.74%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 57 (9.42%) Influencing Skills
8 49 (8.10%) Retail
9 48 (7.93%) Banking
10 44 (7.27%) Legal
11 37 (6.12%) Presentation Skills
12 33 (5.45%) Law
13 26 (4.30%) Brand Awareness
14 21 (3.47%) Back Office
15 18 (2.98%) Manufacturing
16 17 (2.81%) Financial Institution
17 16 (2.64%) Public Speaking
17 16 (2.64%) Telecoms
18 14 (2.31%) Aerospace
18 14 (2.31%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 126 (20.83%) Architect
2 114 (18.84%) Senior
3 72 (11.90%) Lead
4 56 (9.26%) Consultant
5 45 (7.44%) Senior Manager
6 36 (5.95%) Product Manager
7 34 (5.62%) Solutions Architect
8 31 (5.12%) Senior Architect
9 27 (4.46%) Marketing Manager
10 26 (4.30%) Lead Architect
11 25 (4.13%) Java Engineer
12 24 (3.97%) Principal Engineer
12 24 (3.97%) Principal Java Engineer
13 23 (3.80%) Senior Product Manager
14 22 (3.64%) Security Architect
15 20 (3.31%) Digital Product Manager
15 20 (3.31%) Senior Digital Product Manager
16 19 (3.14%) Senior Consultant
17 18 (2.98%) Account Manager
17 18 (2.98%) Lead Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (5.12%) Kafka
2 26 (4.30%) Spring
2 26 (4.30%) Spring Boot
3 21 (3.47%) Terraform
4 14 (2.31%) LangChain
4 14 (2.31%) LangGraph
5 10 (1.65%) FastAPI
6 7 (1.16%) CrewAI
7 6 (0.99%) Oracle Fusion
8 5 (0.83%) Model Context Protocol
8 5 (0.83%) React
8 5 (0.83%) XML
9 4 (0.66%) Middleware
9 4 (0.66%) pgvector
9 4 (0.66%) PyTorch
9 4 (0.66%) TensorFlow
10 3 (0.50%) AWS CDK
10 3 (0.50%) LlamaIndex
10 3 (0.50%) Next.js
10 3 (0.50%) OpenACC
Miscellaneous
1 93 (15.37%) Cloud Native
2 66 (10.91%) Onboarding
3 47 (7.77%) Enterprise Software
4 36 (5.95%) Distributed Systems
5 35 (5.79%) AI Agents
6 33 (5.45%) Blog
7 28 (4.63%) Social Media
8 26 (4.30%) Product Ownership
8 26 (4.30%) Public Cloud
9 24 (3.97%) e-Learning
10 22 (3.64%) Web Conferencing
11 15 (2.48%) Management Information System
12 14 (2.31%) Self-Motivation
13 13 (2.15%) Enterprise Cloud
14 12 (1.98%) NHS
15 10 (1.65%) Legacy Applications
16 9 (1.49%) Greenfield Project
16 9 (1.49%) Hackathon
17 8 (1.32%) Cyber Threat
17 8 (1.32%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 7 (1.16%) Windows
2 6 (0.99%) Linux
3 2 (0.33%) Solaris
3 2 (0.33%) Unix
3 2 (0.33%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 216 (35.70%) AI
2 185 (30.58%) Mentoring
3 172 (28.43%) Roadmaps
4 169 (27.93%) Business Development
5 157 (25.95%) Stakeholder Management
6 137 (22.64%) Analytics
7 116 (19.17%) Agile
8 106 (17.52%) Decision-Making
9 88 (14.55%) Coaching
10 86 (14.21%) Continuous Improvement
11 84 (13.88%) CI/CD
12 80 (13.22%) B2B
13 79 (13.06%) Machine Learning
14 75 (12.40%) Problem-Solving
15 73 (12.07%) Risk Management
16 71 (11.74%) DevOps
16 71 (11.74%) Infrastructure as Code
17 63 (10.41%) Technical Leadership
18 57 (9.42%) Collaborative Culture
18 57 (9.42%) Strategic Thinking
Programming Languages
1 73 (12.07%) Python
2 64 (10.58%) SQL
3 39 (6.45%) Java
4 11 (1.82%) R
5 7 (1.16%) PowerShell
6 5 (0.83%) Bash
7 3 (0.50%) Go
7 3 (0.50%) TypeScript
8 2 (0.33%) ABAP
8 2 (0.33%) Apex Code
8 2 (0.33%) Bicep
8 2 (0.33%) C#
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%) Ruby
9 1 (0.17%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 103 (17.02%) Security Cleared
2 102 (16.86%) Degree
3 74 (12.23%) SC Cleared
4 46 (7.60%) AWS Certification
5 27 (4.46%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
6 23 (3.80%) Master's Degree
7 17 (2.81%) CISSP
8 16 (2.64%) Computer Science Degree
9 14 (2.31%) BPSS Clearance
10 12 (1.98%) CISM
10 12 (1.98%) Postgraduate
11 11 (1.82%) Azure Certification
11 11 (1.82%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
12 8 (1.32%) Cisco Certification
12 8 (1.32%) DV Cleared
12 8 (1.32%) MBA
13 6 (0.99%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 6 (0.99%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
13 6 (0.99%) TOGAF Certification
14 5 (0.83%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (4.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 20 (3.31%) Data Quality
2 20 (3.31%) NIST
3 19 (3.14%) GDPR
3 19 (3.14%) GRC
4 18 (2.98%) Accessibility
5 13 (2.15%) QA
6 12 (1.98%) PCI DSS
6 12 (1.98%) SLA
7 7 (1.16%) Basel III
8 6 (0.99%) Cyber Essentials
9 5 (0.83%) JSP 440
10 4 (0.66%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 4 (0.66%) PMO
11 3 (0.50%) SOC 2
12 2 (0.33%) Actionable Recommendations
12 2 (0.33%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 2 (0.33%) IFRS
12 2 (0.33%) ISO/IEC 42001
12 2 (0.33%) NCSC
System Software
1 21 (3.47%) Docker
2 6 (0.99%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.50%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 34 (5.62%) Kubernetes
2 8 (1.32%) Ansible
3 3 (0.50%) Istio
3 3 (0.50%) Jamf Pro
3 3 (0.50%) Microsoft Intune
3 3 (0.50%) Progress Chef
3 3 (0.50%) Puppet
4 2 (0.33%) Argo
5 1 (0.17%) Amdocs OSS
5 1 (0.17%) AppManager
5 1 (0.17%) EMC NetWorker
5 1 (0.17%) FortiGate
5 1 (0.17%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 61 (10.08%) Microsoft
2 42 (6.94%) SAP
3 30 (4.96%) Salesforce
4 23 (3.80%) Google
5 20 (3.31%) Oracle
6 16 (2.64%) Databricks
7 15 (2.48%) ServiceNow
8 14 (2.31%) HubSpot
8 14 (2.31%) Workday
9 13 (2.15%) Foundry
10 11 (1.82%) Cisco
10 11 (1.82%) OpenAI
11 10 (1.65%) Palantir
12 8 (1.32%) Fortinet
13 7 (1.16%) Aruba
13 7 (1.16%) Juniper
14 6 (0.99%) Cognizant
15 5 (0.83%) Marketo
16 4 (0.66%) Informatica
17 3 (0.50%) Apple