Strategic Thinking Contracts in the North West

Strategic Thinking
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the North West requiring Strategic Thinking skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Strategic Thinking over the 6 months leading up to 20 July 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 79 111 142
Rank change year-on-year +32 +31 +32
Contract jobs citing Strategic Thinking 48 22 13
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the North West 2.22% 0.84% 0.43%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.52% 1.00% 0.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 32 10 8
10th Percentile £315 £565 £422
25th Percentile £375 £620 £511
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £539 £665 £588
Median % change year-on-year -19.02% +13.19% +4.44%
75th Percentile £622 £674 £650
90th Percentile £773 £788 -
England median daily rate £540 £588 £600
% change year-on-year -8.09% -2.08% -4.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 0 0
10th Percentile £70.29 - -
25th Percentile £70.48 - -
Median hourly rate £70.81 - -
75th Percentile £71.13 - -
90th Percentile £71.32 - -
England median hourly rate £52.00 £70.00 £85.00
% change year-on-year -25.71% -17.65% +60.38%

All Process and Methodology Skills
North West

Strategic Thinking falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in the North West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 1,902 2,199 2,717
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 87.89% 84.41% 89.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,242 1,353 1,875
10th Percentile £275 £300 £304
25th Percentile £375 £400 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £493 £500
Median % change year-on-year -8.72% -1.40% +1.01%
75th Percentile £570 £585 £588
90th Percentile £669 £675 £675
England median daily rate £513 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -2.38% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 122 232 157
10th Percentile £13.50 £10.95 £15.75
25th Percentile £18.92 £15.50 £17.75
Median hourly rate £28.75 £27.00 £29.30
Median % change year-on-year +6.48% -7.85% +19.40%
75th Percentile £59.75 £47.50 £43.75
90th Percentile £76.13 £68.87 £55.49
England median hourly rate £25.15 £39.50 £42.50
% change year-on-year -36.33% -7.06% +63.46%

Strategic Thinking
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Job postings citing Strategic Thinking as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the North West.

Job vacancy trend for Strategic Thinking in the North West

Strategic Thinking
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the North West

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Strategic Thinking in the North West.

Daily rate trend for Strategic Thinking in the North West

Strategic Thinking
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Strategic Thinking in the North West over the 6 months to 20 July 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Strategic Thinking in the North West

Strategic Thinking
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Strategic Thinking in the North West.

Hourly rate trend for Strategic Thinking in the North West

Strategic Thinking
Contract Job Locations in the North West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Strategic Thinking within the North West region over the 6 months to 20 July 2025. 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Manchester +30 29 £563 -21.74% 80
Cheshire - 16 £410 - 21
Lancashire -3 3 £700 -3.45% 48
Strategic Thinking
England

Strategic Thinking
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the North West by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 8 (16.67%) IBM Domino
2 1 (2.08%) CICS
2 1 (2.08%) Confluence
2 1 (2.08%) SharePoint
Applications
1 4 (8.33%) Chatbot
2 1 (2.08%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 6 (12.50%) Azure
2 5 (10.42%) AWS
3 4 (8.33%) Figma
4 3 (6.25%) Microsoft 365
5 2 (4.17%) SaaS
6 1 (2.08%) Dynamics 365
6 1 (2.08%) GCP
6 1 (2.08%) OneDrive
6 1 (2.08%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 2 (4.17%) Firewall
1 2 (4.17%) FlexRay
1 2 (4.17%) Network Security
2 1 (2.08%) LAN
2 1 (2.08%) VPN
2 1 (2.08%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (2.08%) DB2
Development Applications
1 5 (10.42%) JIRA
2 2 (4.17%) Rational DOORS
3 1 (2.08%) Cypress.io
3 1 (2.08%) Selenium
General
1 18 (37.50%) Social Skills
2 17 (35.42%) Analytical Skills
3 12 (25.00%) Finance
4 8 (16.67%) Banking
5 6 (12.50%) Legal
6 3 (6.25%) Financial Institution
6 3 (6.25%) Influencing Skills
6 3 (6.25%) Marketing
7 2 (4.17%) Automotive
7 2 (4.17%) German Language
7 2 (4.17%) Organisational Skills
7 2 (4.17%) Public Sector
7 2 (4.17%) Retail
8 1 (2.08%) Corporate Banking
8 1 (2.08%) Documentation Skills
8 1 (2.08%) Investment Banking
8 1 (2.08%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 11 (22.92%) Architect
2 8 (16.67%) Coordinator
2 8 (16.67%) CRM Coordinator
2 8 (16.67%) Technical Coordinator
3 5 (10.42%) Business Analyst
4 4 (8.33%) Analyst
4 4 (8.33%) Designer
5 3 (6.25%) Content Designer
5 3 (6.25%) Enterprise Architect
5 3 (6.25%) Lead
5 3 (6.25%) Solutions Architect
5 3 (6.25%) UX Designer
6 2 (4.17%) AWS Architect
6 2 (4.17%) Azure Architect
6 2 (4.17%) Developer
6 2 (4.17%) Full-Stack Developer
6 2 (4.17%) Functional Architect
6 2 (4.17%) Head of Digital
6 2 (4.17%) Product Manager
6 2 (4.17%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (4.17%) .NET
1 2 (4.17%) .NET Framework
2 1 (2.08%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 6 (12.50%) Onboarding
2 3 (6.25%) Mobile App
2 3 (6.25%) Social Media
3 2 (4.17%) Clustering
3 2 (4.17%) Data Centre
3 2 (4.17%) Enterprise Software
3 2 (4.17%) Management Information System
3 2 (4.17%) Product Ownership
4 1 (2.08%) Cloud Native
4 1 (2.08%) Mainframe
4 1 (2.08%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 4 (8.33%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 21 (43.75%) Problem-Solving
2 15 (31.25%) Decision-Making
3 14 (29.17%) Agile
3 14 (29.17%) Continuous Improvement
3 14 (29.17%) Stakeholder Management
4 11 (22.92%) Change Management
5 9 (18.75%) Data-Driven Decision Making
6 8 (16.67%) CRM
6 8 (16.67%) Customer Segmentation
6 8 (16.67%) Data Management
6 8 (16.67%) ITIL
6 8 (16.67%) Risk Management
6 8 (16.67%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 8 (16.67%) User Experience
7 7 (14.58%) Business Strategy
7 7 (14.58%) Roadmaps
8 5 (10.42%) DevOps
8 5 (10.42%) Service Management
8 5 (10.42%) UX Design
9 4 (8.33%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 1 (2.08%) Java
Qualifications
1 4 (8.33%) Degree
2 3 (6.25%) CISM
2 3 (6.25%) CISSP
2 3 (6.25%) ITIL Certification
2 3 (6.25%) PMI Certification
2 3 (6.25%) PMP
2 3 (6.25%) TOGAF Certification
3 2 (4.17%) Security Cleared
4 1 (2.08%) BPSS Clearance
4 1 (2.08%) CRISC
4 1 (2.08%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (10.42%) Accessibility
2 2 (4.17%) GDPR
2 2 (4.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 2 (4.17%) NIST
3 1 (2.08%) Basel III
3 1 (2.08%) California Consumer Privacy Act
3 1 (2.08%) GRC
3 1 (2.08%) HIPAA
3 1 (2.08%) PCI DSS
3 1 (2.08%) QA
3 1 (2.08%) Sarbanes-Oxley
3 1 (2.08%) SLA
Systems Management
1 2 (4.17%) Microsoft Clustering
2 1 (2.08%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 6 (12.50%) Microsoft
1 6 (12.50%) ServiceNow
2 1 (2.08%) BiZZdesign
2 1 (2.08%) Cisco
2 1 (2.08%) F5
2 1 (2.08%) Genesys