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

6 months to
5 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 323 257 444
Rank change year-on-year -66 +187 -185
Permanent jobs citing Thought Leadership 627 580 425
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.60% 1.17% 0.51%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.82% 1.31% 0.63%
Number of salaries quoted 253 152 255
10th Percentile £47,100 £45,000 £41,250
25th Percentile £60,000 £57,500 £54,625
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £80,000 £82,500 £78,000
Median % change year-on-year -3.03% +5.77% -2.50%
75th Percentile £107,500 £105,000 £100,000
90th Percentile £119,200 £118,625 £134,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £75,500 £67,500 £80,000
% change year-on-year +11.85% -15.63% +10.34%

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 76,763 44,374 67,952
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.58% 89.45% 81.06%
Number of salaries quoted 52,880 25,244 44,456
10th Percentile £30,750 £28,500 £31,246
25th Percentile £41,250 £37,500 £41,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.71%
75th Percentile £78,750 £75,246 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,500 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £49,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +12.24% -2.00% -9.09%

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 August 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 5 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 -54 570 £83,750 +4.69% 782
London -24 373 £95,000 +7.04% 562
UK excluding London -89 195 £75,500 +11.85% 250
Work from Home -2 142 £70,000 -17.65% 359
North of England -18 59 £95,000 +0.38% 96
East of England - 40 £60,100 - 15
Midlands -17 38 £80,000 +56.10% 35
North West +11 37 £95,000 +0.38% 81
South East -112 28 £55,000 +12.24% 50
West Midlands -31 21 £80,000 +56.10% 25
East Midlands -7 17 £50,000 - 10
Yorkshire -29 14 £72,170 -3.77% 12
South West -53 13 £59,750 -25.31% 24
Wales - 13 £55,000 - 6
North East -48 8 £100,000 +71.67% 3
Scotland -1 4 £110,000 +15.79% 14

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 (2.55%) Palantir Foundry
2 10 (1.59%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (0.96%) Apache Spark
4 3 (0.48%) CMS
4 3 (0.48%) Confluence
4 3 (0.48%) SAS
5 2 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.32%) ArcGIS
5 2 (0.32%) SharePoint
5 2 (0.32%) Umbraco
6 1 (0.16%) Apache
6 1 (0.16%) Drupal
6 1 (0.16%) IIS
6 1 (0.16%) nginx
6 1 (0.16%) WordPress
Applications
1 8 (1.28%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 3 (0.48%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (0.48%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.16%) Adobe XD
3 1 (0.16%) InVision
3 1 (0.16%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.16%) Sketch
3 1 (0.16%) Trello
Business Applications
1 25 (3.99%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.96%) Distributed Ledger
3 4 (0.64%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (0.64%) SAP MDG
3 4 (0.64%) SAP MDG-F
4 3 (0.48%) SAP MDG-BP
4 3 (0.48%) Summit
5 2 (0.32%) Elite 3E
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%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.16%) SAP ERP
6 1 (0.16%) SAP IBP
6 1 (0.16%) SAP MDG-M
6 1 (0.16%) SAP MDG-S
Cloud Services
1 171 (27.27%) AWS
2 96 (15.31%) Azure
3 62 (9.89%) SaaS
4 53 (8.45%) GCP
5 37 (5.90%) Cloud Computing
6 29 (4.63%) AWS CloudFormation
6 29 (4.63%) Snowflake
7 24 (3.83%) Serverless
8 17 (2.71%) Power Platform
9 15 (2.39%) Amazon Bedrock
10 14 (2.23%) GitHub
11 12 (1.91%) Azure AI
12 10 (1.59%) PaaS
13 9 (1.44%) Amazon EKS
14 8 (1.28%) Amazon ECS
14 8 (1.28%) Amazon S3
14 8 (1.28%) Azure DevOps
14 8 (1.28%) Microsoft 365
15 7 (1.12%) AWS Lambda
15 7 (1.12%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 18 (2.87%) Firewall
2 10 (1.59%) Internet
3 6 (0.96%) Intrusion Detection
3 6 (0.96%) Network Security
3 6 (0.96%) Wireless
4 5 (0.80%) Broadband
4 5 (0.80%) Cisco ISE
4 5 (0.80%) Cisco Wireless
4 5 (0.80%) LAN
4 5 (0.80%) SD-WAN
4 5 (0.80%) WAN
4 5 (0.80%) WebEx
4 5 (0.80%) WLAN
5 2 (0.32%) AMQP
5 2 (0.32%) Cisco IPT
5 2 (0.32%) MQTT
5 2 (0.32%) SSL
6 1 (0.16%) LoRaWAN
6 1 (0.16%) SMS
6 1 (0.16%) ZigBee
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (5.10%) Data Warehouse
2 29 (4.63%) Data Lake
3 24 (3.83%) NoSQL
4 16 (2.55%) Power BI
5 14 (2.23%) Data Mining
6 13 (2.07%) Tableau
7 11 (1.75%) Amazon QuickSight
8 7 (1.12%) Big Data
9 6 (0.96%) Metadata
9 6 (0.96%) SAP HANA
10 4 (0.64%) BusinessObjects
10 4 (0.64%) Delta Lake
10 4 (0.64%) Geospatial Data
10 4 (0.64%) Hadoop
11 3 (0.48%) Amazon RDS
11 3 (0.48%) Amazon Redshift
11 3 (0.48%) Semantic Layer
11 3 (0.48%) SQL Server Analysis Services
12 2 (0.32%) Power Query
12 2 (0.32%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 21 (3.35%) GitLab
2 20 (3.19%) Cucumber
3 8 (1.28%) MLflow
4 6 (0.96%) Git
4 6 (0.96%) Jenkins
4 6 (0.96%) Maven
5 4 (0.64%) Claude Code
6 3 (0.48%) JIRA
7 2 (0.32%) Ant
7 2 (0.32%) Apache Ivy
7 2 (0.32%) IBM UrbanCode
7 2 (0.32%) rollup.js
8 1 (0.16%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 1 (0.16%) Axure RP
8 1 (0.16%) Balsamiq
8 1 (0.16%) Gatling
8 1 (0.16%) JMeter
8 1 (0.16%) mountebank
8 1 (0.16%) Vagrant
8 1 (0.16%) Vite
General
1 230 (36.68%) Finance
2 179 (28.55%) Social Skills
3 124 (19.78%) Marketing
4 116 (18.50%) Public Sector
5 87 (13.88%) Analytical Skills
6 64 (10.21%) Retail
7 61 (9.73%) Presentation Skills
8 51 (8.13%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 50 (7.97%) Banking
10 42 (6.70%) Influencing Skills
11 38 (6.06%) Legal
12 21 (3.35%) Brand Awareness
12 21 (3.35%) Law
13 19 (3.03%) Financial Institution
14 18 (2.87%) Telecoms
15 16 (2.55%) Public Speaking
16 15 (2.39%) Organisational Skills
17 14 (2.23%) Aerospace
17 14 (2.23%) Manufacturing
18 13 (2.07%) Military
Job Titles
1 138 (22.01%) Senior
2 106 (16.91%) Architect
3 75 (11.96%) Consultant
4 73 (11.64%) Lead
5 46 (7.34%) Senior Manager
6 40 (6.38%) Sales Executive
7 37 (5.90%) Account Executive
8 31 (4.94%) Solutions Architect
9 28 (4.47%) Senior Architect
10 26 (4.15%) Product Manager
11 24 (3.83%) Data Management Specialist
11 24 (3.83%) Product Specialist
11 24 (3.83%) Senior Consultant
12 23 (3.67%) Lead Architect
13 22 (3.51%) Business Development Executive
13 22 (3.51%) Senior Product Manager
14 21 (3.35%) Account Manager
14 21 (3.35%) Java Engineer
15 20 (3.19%) Security Architect
15 20 (3.19%) Senior Sales Executive
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (4.94%) Kafka
2 23 (3.67%) Spring
2 23 (3.67%) Spring Boot
3 11 (1.75%) LangGraph
4 10 (1.59%) LangChain
5 7 (1.12%) FastAPI
6 6 (0.96%) XML
7 5 (0.80%) CrewAI
7 5 (0.80%) Model Context Protocol
7 5 (0.80%) PyTorch
7 5 (0.80%) TensorFlow
8 4 (0.64%) PySpark
8 4 (0.64%) RabbitMQ
8 4 (0.64%) REST
8 4 (0.64%) SOAP
8 4 (0.64%) VML
9 3 (0.48%) CSS
9 3 (0.48%) HTML
9 3 (0.48%) Middleware
9 3 (0.48%) OpenACC
Miscellaneous
1 69 (11.00%) Cloud Native
2 58 (9.25%) Onboarding
3 46 (7.34%) Enterprise Software
4 38 (6.06%) Blog
5 27 (4.31%) AI Agents
6 26 (4.15%) e-Learning
7 24 (3.83%) Distributed Systems
8 21 (3.35%) Product Ownership
8 21 (3.35%) Public Cloud
9 18 (2.87%) Social Media
10 17 (2.71%) Web Conferencing
11 16 (2.55%) Self-Motivation
12 14 (2.23%) Management Information System
12 14 (2.23%) NHS
13 12 (1.91%) Legacy Applications
14 11 (1.75%) Greenfield Project
15 10 (1.59%) Data Fabric
15 10 (1.59%) Enterprise Cloud
15 10 (1.59%) Life Science
16 9 (1.44%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 8 (1.28%) Linux
2 7 (1.12%) Windows
3 3 (0.48%) Windows Server
4 2 (0.32%) Solaris
4 2 (0.32%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 224 (35.73%) AI
2 179 (28.55%) Mentoring
3 168 (26.79%) Business Development
4 160 (25.52%) Decision-Making
4 160 (25.52%) Roadmaps
5 154 (24.56%) Analytics
6 102 (16.27%) Agile
7 91 (14.51%) Stakeholder Management
8 82 (13.08%) Continuous Improvement
9 80 (12.76%) Problem-Solving
10 75 (11.96%) DevOps
11 74 (11.80%) Machine Learning
12 73 (11.64%) B2B
12 73 (11.64%) CI/CD
13 68 (10.85%) Strategic Thinking
14 67 (10.69%) Cybersecurity
15 66 (10.53%) Coaching
16 63 (10.05%) Risk Management
17 62 (9.89%) Infrastructure as Code
18 53 (8.45%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 64 (10.21%) Python
2 48 (7.66%) SQL
3 41 (6.54%) Java
4 10 (1.59%) R
5 6 (0.96%) PowerShell
6 5 (0.80%) Bash
7 4 (0.64%) Go
8 3 (0.48%) JavaScript
9 2 (0.32%) ABAP
9 2 (0.32%) Bicep
9 2 (0.32%) C#
9 2 (0.32%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 2 (0.32%) Kotlin
10 1 (0.16%) PHP
10 1 (0.16%) Scala
10 1 (0.16%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 154 (24.56%) Degree
2 91 (14.51%) Security Cleared
3 59 (9.41%) SC Cleared
4 39 (6.22%) AWS Certification
5 23 (3.67%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
5 23 (3.67%) Master's Degree
6 22 (3.51%) CISSP
7 20 (3.19%) CISM
8 18 (2.87%) Computer Science Degree
9 16 (2.55%) Azure Certification
10 15 (2.39%) DV Cleared
11 13 (2.07%) BPSS Clearance
11 13 (2.07%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
12 12 (1.91%) CRISC
13 11 (1.75%) DBS Check
14 10 (1.59%) Cisco Certification
14 10 (1.59%) MBA
15 8 (1.28%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 8 (1.28%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
16 6 (0.96%) GSEC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (4.78%) GRC
2 29 (4.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 24 (3.83%) NIST
4 21 (3.35%) GDPR
5 17 (2.71%) Accessibility
6 15 (2.39%) Data Quality
7 13 (2.07%) JSP 440
8 12 (1.91%) SLA
9 11 (1.75%) PCI DSS
10 10 (1.59%) EU AI Act
10 10 (1.59%) QA
11 9 (1.44%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 7 (1.12%) Basel III
13 6 (0.96%) Government Security Classifications
14 5 (0.80%) Cyber Essentials
15 4 (0.64%) PMO
16 3 (0.48%) IFRS
16 3 (0.48%) NCSC
16 3 (0.48%) WCAG
17 2 (0.32%) GAAP
System Software
1 23 (3.67%) Docker
2 6 (0.96%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.48%) Slurm Workload Manager
4 1 (0.16%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 28 (4.47%) Kubernetes
2 20 (3.19%) Terraform
3 13 (2.07%) Ansible
4 7 (1.12%) Puppet
5 5 (0.80%) Progress Chef
6 4 (0.64%) Argo
7 2 (0.32%) Salt
8 1 (0.16%) Amdocs OSS
8 1 (0.16%) Consul
8 1 (0.16%) EMC NetWorker
8 1 (0.16%) Grafana
8 1 (0.16%) Packer
8 1 (0.16%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 77 (12.28%) Dell
2 59 (9.41%) Microsoft
3 37 (5.90%) SAP
4 36 (5.74%) Databricks
5 26 (4.15%) Informatica
6 25 (3.99%) Teradata
7 24 (3.83%) Denodo
7 24 (3.83%) Salesforce
8 23 (3.67%) Google
9 21 (3.35%) ServiceNow
10 18 (2.87%) Foundry
11 16 (2.55%) Palantir
12 12 (1.91%) HubSpot
13 8 (1.28%) Cisco
14 7 (1.12%) OpenAI
14 7 (1.12%) Oracle
15 6 (0.96%) Cognizant
15 6 (0.96%) Workday
16 5 (0.80%) Ariba
16 5 (0.80%) Juniper