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 5 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 357 267 461
Rank change year-on-year -90 +194 -201
Permanent jobs citing Thought Leadership 590 556 325
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.50% 1.12% 0.44%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.68% 1.26% 0.53%
Number of salaries quoted 266 147 164
10th Percentile £50,000 £42,000 £47,875
25th Percentile £63,750 £58,750 £65,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £88,750 £80,000 £80,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.94% - -0.73%
75th Percentile £111,250 £106,875 £97,500
90th Percentile £117,500 £122,500 £111,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £90,000 £65,000 £80,000
% change year-on-year +38.46% -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 86,353 44,239 60,788
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.12% 89.09% 81.92%
Number of salaries quoted 59,227 24,477 32,914
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,250 £32,500
25th Percentile £41,250 £36,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £59,430
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -7.45% -0.95%
75th Percentile £78,750 £75,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £96,250
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 5 October 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 5 October 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 -95 517 £90,000 +14.29% 1,706
London -68 327 £95,000 -2.81% 1,253
UK excluding London -98 189 £90,000 +38.46% 542
Work from Home -4 143 £80,000 +23.08% 694
North of England -12 66 £90,000 +16.13% 172
Midlands -27 42 £90,000 +33.33% 62
North West -12 37 £95,000 +22.58% 104
South East -100 29 £105,000 +140.00% 117
West Midlands -24 26 £90,000 +46.94% 43
South West -62 21 £100,000 +39.04% 57
Yorkshire -33 18 £90,000 +5.88% 38
East Midlands -26 16 £60,000 -40.00% 19
Wales -50 16 - - 13
East of England -25 12 £60,100 +33.56% 25
North East - 11 £100,000 - 30
Scotland -7 7 £110,000 +47.65% 74
Northern Ireland -82 1 - - 23

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 (1.36%) Palantir Foundry
2 6 (1.02%) CMS
2 6 (1.02%) Microsoft Exchange
3 5 (0.85%) Confluence
4 4 (0.68%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.51%) ArcGIS
5 3 (0.51%) SAS
6 2 (0.34%) Umbraco
6 2 (0.34%) WordPress
7 1 (0.17%) SharePoint
Applications
1 5 (0.85%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (0.68%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (0.51%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.34%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 23 (3.90%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (1.02%) Distributed Ledger
2 6 (1.02%) Oracle ERP
3 5 (0.85%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 3 (0.51%) Dynamics CRM
4 3 (0.51%) SAP ERP
4 3 (0.51%) SAP MDG
4 3 (0.51%) SAP MDG-BP
4 3 (0.51%) SAP MDG-F
4 3 (0.51%) Summit
5 2 (0.34%) SAP CO
5 2 (0.34%) SAP FI
5 2 (0.34%) SAP FI/CO
6 1 (0.17%) SAP GRC
6 1 (0.17%) SAP IBP
Cloud Services
1 165 (27.97%) AWS
2 103 (17.46%) Azure
3 64 (10.85%) SaaS
4 49 (8.31%) GCP
5 34 (5.76%) AWS CloudFormation
6 33 (5.59%) Cloud Computing
7 22 (3.73%) Serverless
8 16 (2.71%) GitHub
9 15 (2.54%) Amazon Bedrock
9 15 (2.54%) Power Platform
10 13 (2.20%) Azure AI
11 10 (1.69%) Amazon ECS
12 9 (1.53%) AWS Lambda
12 9 (1.53%) PaaS
13 8 (1.36%) Amazon EKS
13 8 (1.36%) Amazon S3
13 8 (1.36%) Azure DevOps
13 8 (1.36%) Microsoft 365
14 7 (1.19%) LangSmith
14 7 (1.19%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 10 (1.69%) Internet
1 10 (1.69%) WAN
2 9 (1.53%) Firewall
2 9 (1.53%) SD-WAN
2 9 (1.53%) Wireless
3 8 (1.36%) Broadband
3 8 (1.36%) Cisco ISE
3 8 (1.36%) Cisco Wireless
3 8 (1.36%) LAN
3 8 (1.36%) WebEx
3 8 (1.36%) WLAN
4 2 (0.34%) AMQP
4 2 (0.34%) BGP
4 2 (0.34%) MQTT
4 2 (0.34%) OSPF
4 2 (0.34%) VPN
5 1 (0.17%) Ethernet VPN
5 1 (0.17%) GoToMeeting
5 1 (0.17%) Multicast
5 1 (0.17%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (5.42%) NoSQL
2 20 (3.39%) Data Mining
3 19 (3.22%) Tableau
4 17 (2.88%) Amazon QuickSight
5 15 (2.54%) Metadata
6 13 (2.20%) Power BI
7 7 (1.19%) Big Data
7 7 (1.19%) Relational Database
8 6 (1.02%) Data Warehouse
9 5 (0.85%) Metadata Repository
9 5 (0.85%) RDBMS
9 5 (0.85%) SAP HANA
9 5 (0.85%) Star Schema
10 4 (0.68%) Amazon Redshift
10 4 (0.68%) BusinessObjects
10 4 (0.68%) Geospatial Data
10 4 (0.68%) Hadoop
11 3 (0.51%) Data Lake
11 3 (0.51%) Pinecone
11 3 (0.51%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 29 (4.92%) GitLab
2 26 (4.41%) Cucumber
3 9 (1.53%) Jenkins
4 7 (1.19%) Git
5 6 (1.02%) Maven
6 5 (0.85%) JIRA
6 5 (0.85%) MLflow
7 4 (0.68%) Claude Code
8 3 (0.51%) Vite
9 2 (0.34%) Ant
9 2 (0.34%) Apache Ivy
9 2 (0.34%) Balsamiq
9 2 (0.34%) IBM UrbanCode
9 2 (0.34%) 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 (44.24%) Finance
2 207 (35.08%) Social Skills
3 156 (26.44%) Marketing
4 113 (19.15%) Public Sector
5 84 (14.24%) Analytical Skills
6 72 (12.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 57 (9.66%) Influencing Skills
8 48 (8.14%) Banking
9 45 (7.63%) Legal
10 43 (7.29%) Retail
11 35 (5.93%) Presentation Skills
12 32 (5.42%) Law
13 21 (3.56%) Back Office
14 19 (3.22%) Brand Awareness
14 19 (3.22%) Manufacturing
15 17 (2.88%) Financial Institution
16 16 (2.71%) Telecoms
17 15 (2.54%) Public Speaking
18 13 (2.20%) Aerospace
18 13 (2.20%) Military
Job Titles
1 123 (20.85%) Architect
2 107 (18.14%) Senior
3 74 (12.54%) Lead
4 51 (8.64%) Consultant
5 44 (7.46%) Senior Manager
6 36 (6.10%) Product Manager
7 32 (5.42%) Solutions Architect
8 29 (4.92%) Senior Architect
9 27 (4.58%) Marketing Manager
10 26 (4.41%) Java Engineer
10 26 (4.41%) Lead Architect
11 25 (4.24%) Principal Engineer
11 25 (4.24%) Principal Java Engineer
12 23 (3.90%) Senior Product Manager
13 22 (3.73%) Security Architect
14 20 (3.39%) Digital Product Manager
14 20 (3.39%) Senior Digital Product Manager
15 18 (3.05%) Data Architect
15 18 (3.05%) Lead Security Architect
16 17 (2.88%) Account Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (5.25%) Kafka
2 27 (4.58%) Spring
2 27 (4.58%) Spring Boot
3 20 (3.39%) Terraform
4 14 (2.37%) LangGraph
5 13 (2.20%) LangChain
6 10 (1.69%) FastAPI
7 7 (1.19%) CrewAI
8 6 (1.02%) Oracle Fusion
9 5 (0.85%) Model Context Protocol
10 4 (0.68%) Middleware
10 4 (0.68%) PyTorch
10 4 (0.68%) React
10 4 (0.68%) TensorFlow
11 3 (0.51%) CSS
11 3 (0.51%) Next.js
11 3 (0.51%) OpenACC
11 3 (0.51%) OpenMP
11 3 (0.51%) pgvector
11 3 (0.51%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 93 (15.76%) Cloud Native
2 65 (11.02%) Onboarding
3 43 (7.29%) Enterprise Software
4 36 (6.10%) Distributed Systems
5 33 (5.59%) AI Agents
6 30 (5.08%) Blog
7 27 (4.58%) Public Cloud
7 27 (4.58%) Social Media
8 25 (4.24%) e-Learning
8 25 (4.24%) Product Ownership
9 23 (3.90%) Web Conferencing
10 16 (2.71%) Management Information System
10 16 (2.71%) Self-Motivation
11 11 (1.86%) NHS
12 10 (1.69%) Greenfield Project
13 9 (1.53%) Enterprise Cloud
13 9 (1.53%) Hackathon
13 9 (1.53%) Legacy Applications
14 8 (1.36%) Cyber Threat
14 8 (1.36%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 7 (1.19%) Windows
2 6 (1.02%) Linux
3 2 (0.34%) Solaris
3 2 (0.34%) Unix
3 2 (0.34%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 217 (36.78%) AI
2 181 (30.68%) Mentoring
3 169 (28.64%) Business Development
4 167 (28.31%) Roadmaps
5 160 (27.12%) Stakeholder Management
6 136 (23.05%) Analytics
7 117 (19.83%) Agile
8 107 (18.14%) Decision-Making
9 94 (15.93%) Coaching
10 83 (14.07%) Continuous Improvement
11 81 (13.73%) CI/CD
12 77 (13.05%) Machine Learning
13 76 (12.88%) B2B
14 72 (12.20%) Problem-Solving
14 72 (12.20%) Risk Management
15 71 (12.03%) Infrastructure as Code
16 68 (11.53%) DevOps
17 63 (10.68%) Technical Leadership
18 57 (9.66%) Collaborative Culture
19 54 (9.15%) Microservices
Programming Languages
1 69 (11.69%) Python
2 65 (11.02%) SQL
3 37 (6.27%) Java
4 11 (1.86%) R
5 7 (1.19%) PowerShell
6 5 (0.85%) Bash
7 3 (0.51%) TypeScript
8 2 (0.34%) ABAP
8 2 (0.34%) Apex Code
8 2 (0.34%) Bicep
8 2 (0.34%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 2 (0.34%) Go
8 2 (0.34%) JavaScript
8 2 (0.34%) Scala
8 2 (0.34%) SOQL
8 2 (0.34%) SOSL
9 1 (0.17%) C#
9 1 (0.17%) Ruby
9 1 (0.17%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 106 (17.97%) Security Cleared
2 105 (17.80%) Degree
3 75 (12.71%) SC Cleared
4 47 (7.97%) AWS Certification
5 28 (4.75%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
6 25 (4.24%) Master's Degree
7 16 (2.71%) CISSP
7 16 (2.71%) Computer Science Degree
8 13 (2.20%) BPSS Clearance
9 12 (2.03%) Postgraduate
10 11 (1.86%) CISM
11 10 (1.69%) Azure Certification
11 10 (1.69%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
12 8 (1.36%) Cisco Certification
12 8 (1.36%) DV Cleared
12 8 (1.36%) MBA
13 6 (1.02%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 6 (1.02%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
13 6 (1.02%) TOGAF Certification
14 5 (0.85%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (4.07%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 21 (3.56%) Data Quality
3 19 (3.22%) GDPR
3 19 (3.22%) NIST
4 17 (2.88%) Accessibility
5 16 (2.71%) GRC
6 12 (2.03%) PCI DSS
6 12 (2.03%) QA
7 11 (1.86%) SLA
8 7 (1.19%) Basel III
9 6 (1.02%) Cyber Essentials
10 5 (0.85%) JSP 440
11 4 (0.68%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 4 (0.68%) PMO
12 3 (0.51%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 3 (0.51%) SOC 2
13 2 (0.34%) Actionable Recommendations
13 2 (0.34%) IFRS
13 2 (0.34%) NCSC
13 2 (0.34%) NIST 800
System Software
1 21 (3.56%) Docker
2 6 (1.02%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.51%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 32 (5.42%) Kubernetes
2 7 (1.19%) Ansible
3 4 (0.68%) Microsoft Intune
4 3 (0.51%) Istio
4 3 (0.51%) Jamf Pro
5 2 (0.34%) Argo
5 2 (0.34%) Progress Chef
5 2 (0.34%) Puppet
6 1 (0.17%) Amdocs OSS
6 1 (0.17%) AppManager
6 1 (0.17%) EMC NetWorker
6 1 (0.17%) FortiGate
6 1 (0.17%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 64 (10.85%) Microsoft
2 41 (6.95%) SAP
3 28 (4.75%) Salesforce
4 22 (3.73%) Google
5 20 (3.39%) Oracle
6 16 (2.71%) Databricks
7 15 (2.54%) Workday
8 13 (2.20%) HubSpot
8 13 (2.20%) ServiceNow
9 12 (2.03%) Cisco
10 11 (1.86%) Foundry
11 10 (1.69%) OpenAI
12 9 (1.53%) Fortinet
13 8 (1.36%) Aruba
13 8 (1.36%) Juniper
13 8 (1.36%) Palantir
14 6 (1.02%) Cognizant
15 5 (0.85%) Marketo
16 4 (0.68%) Informatica
17 3 (0.51%) Apple