Strategic Thinking Contracts in the South West

Strategic Thinking
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the South 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 3 August 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Aug 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 89 98 139
Rank change year-on-year +9 +41 +26
Contract jobs citing Strategic Thinking 27 44 14
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South West 1.42% 1.56% 0.42%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.58% 1.87% 0.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 18 15 10
10th Percentile £440 £428 £548
25th Percentile £502 £593 £566
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £638 £675 £664
Median % change year-on-year -5.56% +1.66% +15.48%
75th Percentile £760 £743 £719
90th Percentile £783 £883 £729
England median daily rate £537 £600 £600
% change year-on-year -10.50% - -4.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 21 0
Median hourly rate - £70.00 -
England median hourly rate £61.08 £70.00 £85.00
% change year-on-year -12.74% -17.65% +60.38%

All Process and Methodology Skills
South 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 South West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 1,710 2,355 2,946
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 89.72% 83.66% 87.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,002 1,506 2,083
10th Percentile £220 £263 £313
25th Percentile £363 £424 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% +3.07%
75th Percentile £613 £630 £650
90th Percentile £688 £700 £725
England median daily rate £513 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -2.38% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 203 291 249
10th Percentile £15.17 £15.50 £19.20
25th Percentile £18.51 £40.00 £47.75
Median hourly rate £25.15 £65.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -61.31% - +30.00%
75th Percentile £65.00 £72.50 £75.99
90th Percentile £70.00 £77.50 £83.47
England median hourly rate £25.15 £42.50 £42.50
% change year-on-year -40.82% - +62.40%

Strategic Thinking
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

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

Job vacancy trend for Strategic Thinking in the South West

Strategic Thinking
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the South West

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

Daily rate trend for Strategic Thinking in the South West

Strategic Thinking
Daily Rate Histogram in the South West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Strategic Thinking in the South West over the 6 months to 3 August 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Strategic Thinking in the South West

Strategic Thinking
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the South West

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

Hourly rate trend for Strategic Thinking in the South West

Strategic Thinking
Contract Job Locations in the South 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 South West region over the 6 months to 3 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
Bristol -4 13 £531 +41.67% 25
Wiltshire +14 7 £775 +10.71% 4
Somerset - 4 £750 - 2
Devon +6 1 - - 1
Strategic Thinking
England

Strategic Thinking
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South 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 1 (3.70%) SharePoint
Applications
1 1 (3.70%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (3.70%) Microsoft Project
1 1 (3.70%) Trello
Business Applications
1 2 (7.41%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 3 (11.11%) AWS
2 2 (7.41%) Power Platform
3 1 (3.70%) Azure
3 1 (3.70%) GCP
3 1 (3.70%) Microsoft 365
3 1 (3.70%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 1 (3.70%) BGP
1 1 (3.70%) Firewall
1 1 (3.70%) MPLS
1 1 (3.70%) OSPF
1 1 (3.70%) SD-WAN
1 1 (3.70%) VLAN
1 1 (3.70%) VPN
1 1 (3.70%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (3.70%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 1 (3.70%) GitLab
1 1 (3.70%) JIRA
General
1 8 (29.63%) Social Skills
2 7 (25.93%) Analytical Skills
3 6 (22.22%) Public Sector
4 5 (18.52%) Finance
5 4 (14.81%) Influencing Skills
6 3 (11.11%) Legal
7 1 (3.70%) Banking
7 1 (3.70%) Marketing
7 1 (3.70%) Military
7 1 (3.70%) Presentation Skills
7 1 (3.70%) Retail
Job Titles
1 5 (18.52%) Architect
2 4 (14.81%) Enterprise Architect
2 4 (14.81%) Lead
2 4 (14.81%) Senior
3 3 (11.11%) Transition Manager
4 2 (7.41%) Consultant
4 2 (7.41%) Delivery Manager
4 2 (7.41%) Head of Information
4 2 (7.41%) Head of Information Security
4 2 (7.41%) Head of Security
4 2 (7.41%) Senior Manager
5 1 (3.70%) AWS DevOps
5 1 (3.70%) Governance Manager
5 1 (3.70%) Head of Engineering
5 1 (3.70%) Head of Information Services
5 1 (3.70%) Head of Software Engineering
5 1 (3.70%) Microsoft 365 Project Manager
5 1 (3.70%) Product Owner
5 1 (3.70%) Senior Delivery Manager
5 1 (3.70%) Software Engineering Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (3.70%) Next.js
1 1 (3.70%) React
Miscellaneous
1 2 (7.41%) Cloud Native
1 2 (7.41%) Cyber Threat
1 2 (7.41%) Security Operations Centre
2 1 (3.70%) Product Ownership
2 1 (3.70%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 1 (3.70%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 10 (37.04%) Problem-Solving
2 9 (33.33%) Risk Management
3 8 (29.63%) Continuous Improvement
4 7 (25.93%) Decision-Making
4 7 (25.93%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 6 (22.22%) Stakeholder Management
6 5 (18.52%) Enterprise Architecture
7 4 (14.81%) Agile
7 4 (14.81%) Architecture Governance
7 4 (14.81%) Cybersecurity
7 4 (14.81%) Identity Access Management
7 4 (14.81%) Information Architecture
7 4 (14.81%) Roadmaps
7 4 (14.81%) Security Architecture
7 4 (14.81%) Service Management
7 4 (14.81%) Threat Modelling
7 4 (14.81%) Translating Business Requirements
8 3 (11.11%) Programme Management
8 3 (11.11%) Project Management
8 3 (11.11%) Self-Awareness
Programming Languages
1 1 (3.70%) Java
1 1 (3.70%) Python
1 1 (3.70%) SQL
1 1 (3.70%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 13 (48.15%) Security Cleared
2 11 (40.74%) SC Cleared
3 6 (22.22%) DV Cleared
4 2 (7.41%) CISA
4 2 (7.41%) CISM
4 2 (7.41%) CISSP
5 1 (3.70%) AWS Certification
5 1 (3.70%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
5 1 (3.70%) Azure Certification
5 1 (3.70%) CCIE
5 1 (3.70%) CCNP
5 1 (3.70%) Cisco Certification
5 1 (3.70%) ITIL Certification
5 1 (3.70%) JNCIE
5 1 (3.70%) JNCIP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (22.22%) NIST
2 3 (11.11%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (7.41%) COBIT
3 2 (7.41%) GDPR
4 1 (3.70%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (3.70%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 1 (3.70%) JSP 440
4 1 (3.70%) QA
Systems Management
1 1 (3.70%) Terraform
Vendors
1 2 (7.41%) Microsoft
1 2 (7.41%) Oracle
2 1 (3.70%) CheckPoint
2 1 (3.70%) Cisco
2 1 (3.70%) Fortinet
2 1 (3.70%) Google
2 1 (3.70%) Juniper
2 1 (3.70%) Palo Alto
2 1 (3.70%) Remedy