Strategic Thinking Contracts in the South East

Strategic Thinking
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the South East 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 18 August 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Aug 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 114 167 180
Rank change year-on-year +53 +13 +34
Contract jobs citing Strategic Thinking 48 17 32
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South East 1.35% 0.35% 0.58%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.51% 0.43% 0.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 21 12 20
10th Percentile £363 £362 £421
25th Percentile £475 £450 £448
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £610 £652 £619
Median % change year-on-year -6.44% +5.33% +23.80%
75th Percentile £650 £884 £700
90th Percentile £773 £1,025 £720
England median daily rate £540 £588 £600
% change year-on-year -8.09% -2.08% -5.33%

All Process and Methodology Skills
South East

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 South East.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 3,187 3,992 4,949
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 89.90% 82.56% 89.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,983 2,442 3,352
10th Percentile £250 £255 £250
25th Percentile £400 £404 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £518
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +1.35% +3.60%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £623
90th Percentile £665 £700 £700
England median daily rate £513 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -2.38% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 301 315 236
10th Percentile £13.50 £15.00 £15.38
25th Percentile £15.13 £26.25 £21.18
Median hourly rate £21.90 £57.35 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -61.81% +14.70% +94.17%
75th Percentile £51.00 £70.09 £63.75
90th Percentile £70.16 £76.86 £75.00
England median hourly rate £25.15 £42.75 £40.55
% change year-on-year -41.17% +5.44% +50.28%

Strategic Thinking
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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

Job vacancy trend for Strategic Thinking in the South East

Strategic Thinking
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the South East

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Strategic Thinking in the South East.

Daily rate trend for Strategic Thinking in the South East

Strategic Thinking
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Strategic Thinking in the South East over the 6 months to 18 August 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Strategic Thinking in the South East

Strategic Thinking
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Strategic Thinking in the South East.

Hourly rate trend for Strategic Thinking in the South East

Strategic Thinking
Contract Job Locations in the South East

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 South East region over the 6 months to 18 August 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
Thames Valley +33 32 £645 -14.24% 46
Berkshire +26 17 £645 -32.11% 22
Oxfordshire +4 13 - - 14
Hampshire +18 6 £583 +63.62% 13
West Sussex - 4 £555 - 3
Surrey +9 3 £500 -33.33% 19
Sussex - 2 - - 4
Buckinghamshire - 2 - - 11
Strategic Thinking
England

Strategic Thinking
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South East 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 3 (6.25%) CMS
1 3 (6.25%) OpenStack
1 3 (6.25%) SharePoint
2 2 (4.17%) NetWeaver
2 2 (4.17%) SAP EP
3 1 (2.08%) Appian
3 1 (2.08%) Drupal
3 1 (2.08%) WordPress
Applications
1 1 (2.08%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 12 (25.00%) SAP Oil and Gas
2 8 (16.67%) SAP S/4HANA
3 2 (4.17%) Maximo
3 2 (4.17%) SAP CRM
Cloud Services
1 10 (20.83%) Azure
2 9 (18.75%) AWS
3 4 (8.33%) GCP
4 3 (6.25%) Entra ID
4 3 (6.25%) Power Platform
5 2 (4.17%) SuccessFactors
6 1 (2.08%) Akamai
6 1 (2.08%) AWS CloudFormation
6 1 (2.08%) Azure Data Factory
6 1 (2.08%) Azure Logic Apps
6 1 (2.08%) Azure Sentinel
6 1 (2.08%) Azure Synapse Analytics
6 1 (2.08%) Cloud Computing
6 1 (2.08%) Nutanix
6 1 (2.08%) Power Automate
6 1 (2.08%) Serverless
6 1 (2.08%) Tricentis Tosca
Communications & Networking
1 4 (8.33%) Firewall
1 4 (8.33%) Network Security
1 4 (8.33%) WAN
2 3 (6.25%) BGP
2 3 (6.25%) LAN
2 3 (6.25%) MPLS
3 1 (2.08%) Cisco ISE
3 1 (2.08%) Intranet
3 1 (2.08%) SAN
3 1 (2.08%) SD-WAN
3 1 (2.08%) TCP/IP
3 1 (2.08%) VPN
3 1 (2.08%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (6.25%) Power BI
2 2 (4.17%) Qlik Sense
3 1 (2.08%) Azure SQL Database
3 1 (2.08%) Data Lake
3 1 (2.08%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (2.08%) Microsoft Analysis Services
3 1 (2.08%) SAP HANA
3 1 (2.08%) Semantic Layer
3 1 (2.08%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 1 (2.08%) Cucumber
1 1 (2.08%) GitLab
1 1 (2.08%) Robot Framework
1 1 (2.08%) Selenium
1 1 (2.08%) SonarQube
General
1 25 (52.08%) Social Skills
2 18 (37.50%) Finance
3 15 (31.25%) Manufacturing
4 13 (27.08%) Organisational Skills
5 9 (18.75%) Analytical Skills
6 6 (12.50%) Influencing Skills
7 3 (6.25%) Local Government
7 3 (6.25%) Retail
8 2 (4.17%) Public Sector
8 2 (4.17%) Social Housing
8 2 (4.17%) Swedish Language
9 1 (2.08%) Banking
9 1 (2.08%) Front Office
9 1 (2.08%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 12 (25.00%) Architect
2 7 (14.58%) Lead
2 7 (14.58%) SAP Manager
3 6 (12.50%) Project Manager
3 6 (12.50%) Project Manager - SAP S/4HANA
4 4 (8.33%) Change Manager
4 4 (8.33%) SAP Project Manager
4 4 (8.33%) Security Architect
5 3 (6.25%) Enterprise Architect
5 3 (6.25%) IP Architect
5 3 (6.25%) IP Specialist
5 3 (6.25%) SAP Change Manager
6 2 (4.17%) Cutover Manager
6 2 (4.17%) Head of Digital
6 2 (4.17%) Head of E-Commerce
6 2 (4.17%) Planning Manager
6 2 (4.17%) Programme Director
6 2 (4.17%) SAP Architect
6 2 (4.17%) SAP Technical Architect
6 2 (4.17%) SharePoint Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (8.33%) NETCONF
1 4 (8.33%) YANG
2 3 (6.25%) REST
3 2 (4.17%) SAP Fiori
3 2 (4.17%) SAP PI
3 2 (4.17%) SAPUI5
4 1 (2.08%) 802.1X
4 1 (2.08%) Jinja
4 1 (2.08%) JSON
4 1 (2.08%) Middleware
4 1 (2.08%) RESTful
4 1 (2.08%) Spring
4 1 (2.08%) Spring Boot
4 1 (2.08%) Vue
4 1 (2.08%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 13 (27.08%) Life Science
1 13 (27.08%) Renewable Energy
2 11 (22.92%) Self-Motivation
3 7 (14.58%) Cloud Native
4 6 (12.50%) Hybrid Cloud
5 4 (8.33%) Security Posture
6 3 (6.25%) Cloud Security Posture
6 3 (6.25%) Enterprise Software
6 3 (6.25%) Public Cloud
7 1 (2.08%) Data Centre
7 1 (2.08%) Distributed Systems
7 1 (2.08%) Mobile App
7 1 (2.08%) Product Ownership
7 1 (2.08%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 2 (4.17%) Windows
2 1 (2.08%) Unix
2 1 (2.08%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 24 (50.00%) Problem-Solving
2 21 (43.75%) Agile
3 16 (33.33%) Stakeholder Management
4 15 (31.25%) Migration
4 15 (31.25%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 14 (29.17%) Roadmaps
6 13 (27.08%) Critical Thinking
6 13 (27.08%) Time Management
7 9 (18.75%) ERP
8 8 (16.67%) Asset Management
8 8 (16.67%) Change Management
8 8 (16.67%) Enterprise Architecture
8 8 (16.67%) PRINCE2
8 8 (16.67%) TOGAF
9 7 (14.58%) CI/CD
9 7 (14.58%) Collaborative Working
9 7 (14.58%) Microservices
9 7 (14.58%) Product Requirements
10 6 (12.50%) Decision-Making
10 6 (12.50%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 5 (10.42%) Python
2 4 (8.33%) SQL
3 3 (6.25%) Java
4 2 (4.17%) ABAP
4 2 (4.17%) JavaScript
5 1 (2.08%) C#
5 1 (2.08%) Kusto Query Language
5 1 (2.08%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 10 (20.83%) Security Cleared
2 7 (14.58%) Cisco Certification
3 6 (12.50%) SC Cleared
4 5 (10.42%) CISSP
5 4 (8.33%) (ISC)2 CCSP
5 4 (8.33%) AWS Certification
5 4 (8.33%) CCSP
6 3 (6.25%) Azure Certification
6 3 (6.25%) BPSS Clearance
6 3 (6.25%) CCIE
6 3 (6.25%) DV Cleared
6 3 (6.25%) JNCIE
7 1 (2.08%) BC Cleared
7 1 (2.08%) CISA
7 1 (2.08%) Computer Science Degree
7 1 (2.08%) CTC Cleared
7 1 (2.08%) Degree
7 1 (2.08%) GCFA
7 1 (2.08%) GCIH
7 1 (2.08%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (12.50%) GDPR
1 6 (12.50%) NIST
1 6 (12.50%) PMBOK
2 5 (10.42%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 4 (8.33%) PCI DSS
3 4 (8.33%) PSD2
4 2 (4.17%) Accessibility
4 2 (4.17%) PMO
5 1 (2.08%) COBIT
5 1 (2.08%) Data Quality
5 1 (2.08%) ISO 22301
5 1 (2.08%) ISO 31000
5 1 (2.08%) NIST 800
System Software
1 5 (10.42%) Docker
2 1 (2.08%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 4 (8.33%) Ansible
1 4 (8.33%) Kubernetes
2 2 (4.17%) Terraform
Vendors
1 14 (29.17%) SAP
2 6 (12.50%) Microsoft
3 2 (4.17%) Alteryx
3 2 (4.17%) Ariba
3 2 (4.17%) Cisco
4 1 (2.08%) Adobe
4 1 (2.08%) Dell KACE
4 1 (2.08%) Meraki
4 1 (2.08%) Palo Alto
4 1 (2.08%) Red Hat
4 1 (2.08%) SolarWinds
4 1 (2.08%) Ubiquiti
4 1 (2.08%) Veracode