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

6 months to
10 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 286 280 370
Rank change year-on-year -6 +90 -111
Permanent jobs citing Thought Leadership 578 486 704
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.64% 1.11% 0.73%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.86% 1.19% 0.86%
Number of salaries quoted 216 150 459
10th Percentile £44,750 £45,000 £36,000
25th Percentile £61,250 £62,500 £55,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £80,000 £85,000 £80,000
Median % change year-on-year -5.88% +6.25% -5.88%
75th Percentile £97,500 £100,000 £100,064
90th Percentile £113,750 £130,000 £130,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £82,500 £80,000
% change year-on-year -15.15% +3.13% +14.29%

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 67,438 40,826 82,224
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 74.22% 93.31% 85.22%
Number of salaries quoted 42,850 22,742 59,687
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,250 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year - +9.09% -10.10%
75th Percentile £78,750 £80,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £102,491 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year - +5.00% -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 10 May 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 10 May 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 -3 512 £80,000 -5.88% 364
London +43 333 £82,500 -5.71% 242
UK excluding London -79 180 £70,000 -15.15% 148
Work from Home +15 119 £67,500 -20.59% 157
North of England -56 58 £80,000 -15.47% 40
East of England +34 45 £60,100 - 6
North West -8 38 £80,000 -15.47% 23
South East -76 37 £38,750 -40.38% 51
Yorkshire -55 17 £83,420 -1.86% 12
Midlands -22 14 £72,500 +26.09% 17
Scotland -18 13 £80,000 -17.95% 14
South West -47 10 £56,000 -32.12% 13
West Midlands -39 8 £80,000 +39.13% 8
East Midlands - 6 £50,000 - 9
North East -42 3 £42,500 -27.04% 5
Wales - 3 £55,000 - 1

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 13 (2.25%) Palantir Foundry
2 9 (1.56%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (1.38%) Apache Airflow
4 6 (1.04%) IIS
5 4 (0.69%) Apache Spark
5 4 (0.69%) CMS
5 4 (0.69%) Confluence
6 2 (0.35%) WordPress
7 1 (0.17%) Apache
7 1 (0.17%) Drupal
7 1 (0.17%) nginx
7 1 (0.17%) SharePoint
Applications
1 11 (1.90%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 5 (0.87%) Adobe XD
2 5 (0.87%) InVision
2 5 (0.87%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (0.87%) Sketch
3 4 (0.69%) Maya
4 2 (0.35%) Microsoft Office
4 2 (0.35%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.17%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 1 (0.17%) Siemens NX
5 1 (0.17%) Trello
Business Applications
1 18 (3.11%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (1.04%) Dynamics CRM
2 6 (1.04%) SAP MDG
3 4 (0.69%) SAP MDG-F
4 3 (0.52%) Elite 3E
4 3 (0.52%) SAP MDG-BP
5 2 (0.35%) Distributed Ledger
5 2 (0.35%) SAP SCM
5 2 (0.35%) Teamcenter
6 1 (0.17%) Endur
6 1 (0.17%) Magento
6 1 (0.17%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.17%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.17%) Oracle ERP
6 1 (0.17%) SAP CO
6 1 (0.17%) SAP FI
6 1 (0.17%) SAP FI/CO
6 1 (0.17%) SAP MDG-M
6 1 (0.17%) SAP MDG-S
6 1 (0.17%) SAP PLM
Cloud Services
1 105 (18.17%) AWS
2 70 (12.11%) Azure
3 54 (9.34%) SaaS
4 46 (7.96%) GCP
5 40 (6.92%) Snowflake
6 15 (2.60%) AWS CloudFormation
6 15 (2.60%) Serverless
7 9 (1.56%) Cloud Computing
8 8 (1.38%) GitHub
8 8 (1.38%) PaaS
9 7 (1.21%) Power Platform
9 7 (1.21%) SuccessFactors
10 6 (1.04%) dbt
10 6 (1.04%) OCI
11 5 (0.87%) Azure AI
11 5 (0.87%) Azure Machine Learning
11 5 (0.87%) Dynamics 365
11 5 (0.87%) Figma
11 5 (0.87%) Matillion
11 5 (0.87%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 15 (2.60%) Firewall
2 7 (1.21%) Intrusion Detection
2 7 (1.21%) Network Security
2 7 (1.21%) SD-WAN
2 7 (1.21%) WAN
2 7 (1.21%) Wireless
3 6 (1.04%) Cisco ISE
3 6 (1.04%) WebEx
4 5 (0.87%) Broadband
4 5 (0.87%) LAN
5 4 (0.69%) Cisco Wireless
5 4 (0.69%) WLAN
6 3 (0.52%) Wi-Fi
7 2 (0.35%) Cisco IPT
7 2 (0.35%) SSL
7 2 (0.35%) Tactical Data Link
8 1 (0.17%) Bluetooth
8 1 (0.17%) LoRaWAN
8 1 (0.17%) ZigBee
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (5.54%) Data Warehouse
2 28 (4.84%) Data Lake
3 16 (2.77%) NoSQL
4 11 (1.90%) Big Data
5 7 (1.21%) Tableau
6 6 (1.04%) Hadoop
7 5 (0.87%) Data Mining
7 5 (0.87%) Metadata
7 5 (0.87%) Power BI
8 3 (0.52%) Amazon RDS
8 3 (0.52%) Delta Lake
8 3 (0.52%) SAP HANA
9 2 (0.35%) SAP Data Services
9 2 (0.35%) Semantic Layer
9 2 (0.35%) SQL Server
10 1 (0.17%) Geospatial Data
10 1 (0.17%) InterSystems Cache
10 1 (0.17%) MongoDB
10 1 (0.17%) PostgreSQL
10 1 (0.17%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 11 (1.90%) Cucumber
1 11 (1.90%) GitLab
2 6 (1.04%) MLflow
3 5 (0.87%) Axure RP
4 4 (0.69%) Git
4 4 (0.69%) JIRA
5 3 (0.52%) Jenkins
6 2 (0.35%) rollup.js
7 1 (0.17%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 1 (0.17%) Claude Code
7 1 (0.17%) Cypress.io
7 1 (0.17%) Gatling
7 1 (0.17%) JMeter
7 1 (0.17%) Maven
7 1 (0.17%) Selenium
7 1 (0.17%) Vagrant
General
1 201 (34.78%) Finance
2 141 (24.39%) Social Skills
3 103 (17.82%) Marketing
4 102 (17.65%) Analytical Skills
5 78 (13.49%) Public Sector
6 62 (10.73%) Presentation Skills
7 57 (9.86%) Retail
8 38 (6.57%) Legal
9 36 (6.23%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 33 (5.71%) Banking
11 28 (4.84%) Law
12 27 (4.67%) Influencing Skills
13 22 (3.81%) Financial Institution
14 19 (3.29%) Brand Awareness
14 19 (3.29%) Pharmaceutical
15 18 (3.11%) Aerospace
16 17 (2.94%) Games
17 12 (2.08%) Manufacturing
18 10 (1.73%) Organisational Skills
18 10 (1.73%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 140 (24.22%) Senior
2 86 (14.88%) Consultant
3 84 (14.53%) Architect
4 63 (10.90%) Lead
5 61 (10.55%) Account Executive
6 57 (9.86%) Sales Executive
7 39 (6.75%) Business Development Executive
7 39 (6.75%) Senior Sales Executive
8 37 (6.40%) Senior Manager
9 34 (5.88%) Senior Account Executive
10 33 (5.71%) Business Sales Executive
10 33 (5.71%) Sales Account Executive
11 29 (5.02%) Business Architect
12 26 (4.50%) Senior Consultant
13 25 (4.33%) Senior Architect
14 24 (4.15%) Data Management Specialist
14 24 (4.15%) Product Specialist
15 23 (3.98%) Business Consultant
15 23 (3.98%) Solutions Architect
16 20 (3.46%) Business Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (2.94%) Kafka
1 17 (2.94%) Spring
1 17 (2.94%) Spring Boot
2 7 (1.21%) CSS
2 7 (1.21%) HTML
3 6 (1.04%) REST
3 6 (1.04%) SOAP
3 6 (1.04%) XML
4 5 (0.87%) OAuth
4 5 (0.87%) OAuth2
4 5 (0.87%) Play Framework
4 5 (0.87%) React
5 4 (0.69%) Flutter
5 4 (0.69%) LangChain
5 4 (0.69%) PyTorch
5 4 (0.69%) TensorFlow
5 4 (0.69%) VML
6 3 (0.52%) PySpark
7 2 (0.35%) LangGraph
7 2 (0.35%) XGBoost
Miscellaneous
1 47 (8.13%) Cloud Native
2 42 (7.27%) Enterprise Software
3 26 (4.50%) Blog
3 26 (4.50%) Life Science
4 18 (3.11%) Management Information System
4 18 (3.11%) Self-Motivation
5 17 (2.94%) Distributed Systems
5 17 (2.94%) e-Learning
5 17 (2.94%) Product Ownership
6 16 (2.77%) AI Agents
7 13 (2.25%) Onboarding
7 13 (2.25%) Web Conferencing
8 12 (2.08%) Legacy Applications
9 11 (1.90%) Podcast
10 10 (1.73%) Algorithms
10 10 (1.73%) Public Cloud
10 10 (1.73%) Social Media
11 9 (1.56%) Data Fabric
11 9 (1.56%) Enterprise Cloud
11 9 (1.56%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 3 (0.52%) Windows
2 2 (0.35%) Linux
3 1 (0.17%) VMS
3 1 (0.17%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 186 (32.18%) AI
2 180 (31.14%) Business Development
3 174 (30.10%) Decision-Making
4 138 (23.88%) Mentoring
5 124 (21.45%) Analytics
6 114 (19.72%) Roadmaps
7 110 (19.03%) Agile
8 83 (14.36%) Business Strategy
9 79 (13.67%) Problem-Solving
10 77 (13.32%) Workshop Facilitation
11 74 (12.80%) Stakeholder Management
12 65 (11.25%) Cybersecurity
13 64 (11.07%) Continuous Improvement
14 61 (10.55%) DevOps
14 61 (10.55%) Strategic Thinking
15 60 (10.38%) B2B
16 55 (9.52%) Machine Learning
16 55 (9.52%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 54 (9.34%) Use Case
18 52 (9.00%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 46 (7.96%) Python
2 45 (7.79%) Java
3 26 (4.50%) SQL
4 13 (2.25%) R
5 6 (1.04%) JavaScript
6 5 (0.87%) C#
6 5 (0.87%) Kotlin
6 5 (0.87%) Scala
7 4 (0.69%) Go
8 2 (0.35%) ABAP
8 2 (0.35%) PowerShell
9 1 (0.17%) PHP
9 1 (0.17%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 159 (27.51%) Degree
2 74 (12.80%) Security Cleared
3 42 (7.27%) SC Cleared
4 33 (5.71%) Master's Degree
5 22 (3.81%) CISSP
6 20 (3.46%) CISM
7 17 (2.94%) AWS Certification
8 16 (2.77%) PhD
9 14 (2.42%) Azure Certification
10 13 (2.25%) DBS Check
11 12 (2.08%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 12 (2.08%) DV Cleared
12 10 (1.73%) Computer Science Degree
12 10 (1.73%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
13 9 (1.56%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 9 (1.56%) Cisco Certification
13 9 (1.56%) CRISC
13 9 (1.56%) MBA
14 7 (1.21%) GSEC
15 6 (1.04%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (5.19%) GRC
2 25 (4.33%) Accessibility
3 21 (3.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 21 (3.63%) NIST
4 14 (2.42%) Data Quality
5 11 (1.90%) JSP 440
5 11 (1.90%) QA
6 10 (1.73%) GxP
7 9 (1.56%) EU AI Act
7 9 (1.56%) GDPR
8 7 (1.21%) Basel III
8 7 (1.21%) Government Security Classifications
8 7 (1.21%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 7 (1.21%) SLA
9 6 (1.04%) Actionable Recommendations
10 5 (0.87%) WCAG
11 4 (0.69%) PCI DSS
12 3 (0.52%) IFRS
12 3 (0.52%) NCSC
13 2 (0.35%) GAAP
System Software
1 10 (1.73%) Docker
2 4 (0.69%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.17%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 13 (2.25%) Kubernetes
2 12 (2.08%) Terraform
3 8 (1.38%) Ansible
4 5 (0.87%) Puppet
5 3 (0.52%) Progress Chef
6 2 (0.35%) Argo
6 2 (0.35%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
6 2 (0.35%) RSA Archer
6 2 (0.35%) Salt
7 1 (0.17%) Amdocs OSS
7 1 (0.17%) Consul
7 1 (0.17%) Grafana
7 1 (0.17%) Microsoft Intune
7 1 (0.17%) Packer
Vendors
1 96 (16.61%) Dell
2 39 (6.75%) SAP
3 38 (6.57%) Databricks
4 32 (5.54%) Microsoft
5 25 (4.33%) Informatica
6 24 (4.15%) Denodo
6 24 (4.15%) Teradata
7 23 (3.98%) ServiceNow
8 21 (3.63%) Salesforce
9 18 (3.11%) Oracle
10 16 (2.77%) Google
11 14 (2.42%) Foundry
12 13 (2.25%) Palantir
13 12 (2.08%) HubSpot
14 10 (1.73%) Cognizant
15 7 (1.21%) Workday
16 6 (1.04%) Adobe
16 6 (1.04%) Aruba
16 6 (1.04%) Fortinet
16 6 (1.04%) Juniper