Design Thinking Contract Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Design Thinking
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the Thames Valley requiring Design Thinking skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 30 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 146 94 134
Rank change year-on-year -52 +40 -2
Contract jobs citing Design Thinking 2 7 4
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 0.066% 0.48% 0.15%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.082% 0.51% 0.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 2 6 4
10th Percentile £355 £563 -
25th Percentile £355 £578 £355
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £359 £650 £370
Median % change year-on-year -44.85% +75.68% -29.52%
75th Percentile £362 £788 £432
90th Percentile £363 £825 £516
South East median daily rate £359 £613 £370
% change year-on-year -41.39% +65.54% -29.52%

All Process & Methodology Skills
Thames Valley

Design 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 Thames Valley.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 2,451 1,361 2,280
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 81.19% 92.90% 86.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,600 850 1,253
10th Percentile £303 £300 £220
25th Percentile £403 £407 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +1.95% - -
75th Percentile £600 £600 £600
90th Percentile £688 £675 £675
South East median daily rate £515 £500 £511
% change year-on-year +3.00% -2.15% +2.10%
Number of hourly rates quoted 205 66 167
10th Percentile £16.35 £14.20 £14.17
25th Percentile £29.07 £14.51 £19.25
Median hourly rate £81.50 £25.23 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +223.09% -43.94% -17.52%
75th Percentile £88.00 £62.44 £63.85
90th Percentile £105.10 £78.75 £85.65
South East median hourly rate £52.50 £27.88 £47.50
% change year-on-year +88.31% -41.31% -8.83%

Design Thinking
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Design Thinking relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley.

Design Thinking job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

Design Thinking
Daily Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Design Thinking.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Design Thinking

Design Thinking
Contract Job Locations in the Thames Valley

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Design Thinking within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 30 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Berkshire -35 2 £359 -44.85% 2
Design Thinking
South East

Design Thinking
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley 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 2 (100.00%) Confluence
Cloud Services
1 2 (100.00%) Azure
1 2 (100.00%) Azure DevOps
1 2 (100.00%) Lucidchart
Development Applications
1 2 (100.00%) Balsamiq
1 2 (100.00%) JIRA
General
1 1 (50.00%) Analytical Skills
1 1 (50.00%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 2 (100.00%) Analyst
1 2 (100.00%) Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (100.00%) ADO
Miscellaneous
1 2 (100.00%) Product Ownership
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (100.00%) Acceptance Criteria
1 2 (100.00%) Agile
1 2 (100.00%) BDD
1 2 (100.00%) CI/CD
1 2 (100.00%) Collaborative Working
1 2 (100.00%) Community of Practice
1 2 (100.00%) Customer-Centricity
1 2 (100.00%) Data Modelling
1 2 (100.00%) Decision-Making
1 2 (100.00%) DevOps
1 2 (100.00%) DevSecOps
1 2 (100.00%) Epics
1 2 (100.00%) Root Cause Analysis
1 2 (100.00%) Scenario Testing
1 2 (100.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
1 2 (100.00%) User Research
1 2 (100.00%) User Stories
1 2 (100.00%) Wireframes
2 1 (50.00%) Business Strategy
2 1 (50.00%) Customer-Centric Approach
Qualifications
1 2 (100.00%) Degree
1 2 (100.00%) SC Cleared
1 2 (100.00%) Security Cleared