Strategic Thinking Contract Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Strategic Thinking
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the Thames Valley requiring Strategic Thinking skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 116 86 117
Rank change year-on-year -30 +31 +20
Contract jobs citing Strategic Thinking 19 23 28
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 0.83% 1.38% 1.02%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.97% 1.50% 1.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 8 10 4
10th Percentile £448 £574 £171
25th Percentile £476 £575 £358
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £548 £608 £480
Median % change year-on-year -9.88% +26.56% +1.05%
75th Percentile £673 £723 £507
90th Percentile £780 £763 £533
South East median daily rate £640 £600 £590
% change year-on-year +6.67% +1.74% -10.51%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 2 1
10th Percentile - £28.20 -
25th Percentile - £31.50 £60.82
Median hourly rate - £37.50 £61.65
Median % change year-on-year - -39.17% -
75th Percentile - £43.00 £62.47
90th Percentile - £46.00 -
South East median hourly rate - £28.00 £61.65
% change year-on-year - -54.58% -

All Process & Methodology Skills
Thames Valley

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 Thames Valley.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 1,962 1,537 2,466
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 85.23% 92.26% 89.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,298 897 1,491
10th Percentile £270 £262 £213
25th Percentile £395 £400 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
75th Percentile £588 £615 £600
90th Percentile £650 £663 £688
South East median daily rate £500 £500 £509
% change year-on-year - -1.77% +1.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 123 42 150
10th Percentile £15.65 £24.79 £16.24
25th Percentile £18.87 £42.60 £20.17
Median hourly rate £26.44 £60.25 £45.21
Median % change year-on-year -56.11% +33.26% +55.90%
75th Percentile £68.50 £64.73 £62.54
90th Percentile £97.50 £79.72 £79.78
South East median hourly rate £25.04 £42.88 £47.50
% change year-on-year -41.61% -9.73% +5.56%

Strategic Thinking
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

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

Strategic Thinking job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

Strategic Thinking
Daily Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

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

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

Strategic Thinking
Daily Rate Histogram in the Thames Valley

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Strategic Thinking in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 14 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Strategic Thinking in the Thames Valley

Strategic Thinking
Hourly Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Strategic Thinking.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Strategic Thinking

Strategic 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 Strategic Thinking within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 14 February 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 -19 16 £543 -5.65% 12
Buckinghamshire -7 2 £640 -15.34% 4
Oxfordshire - 1 £500 - 7
Strategic Thinking
South East

Strategic 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 6 (31.58%) OpenStack
2 1 (5.26%) Appian
2 1 (5.26%) Confluence
Applications
1 1 (5.26%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (5.26%) Dynamics AX
1 1 (5.26%) Dynamics CRM
1 1 (5.26%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 7 (36.84%) Azure
2 6 (31.58%) AWS
3 2 (10.53%) Entra ID
4 1 (5.26%) Dynamics 365
4 1 (5.26%) Tricentis Tosca
Communications & Networking
1 6 (31.58%) BGP
1 6 (31.58%) LAN
1 6 (31.58%) MPLS
1 6 (31.58%) WAN
Development Applications
1 1 (5.26%) Cucumber
1 1 (5.26%) GitLab
1 1 (5.26%) JIRA
1 1 (5.26%) Robot Framework
1 1 (5.26%) Selenium
1 1 (5.26%) SonarQube
General
1 9 (47.37%) Social Skills
2 5 (26.32%) Analytical Skills
3 3 (15.79%) Influencing Skills
3 3 (15.79%) Telecoms
4 2 (10.53%) Public Sector
5 1 (5.26%) Finance
5 1 (5.26%) Law
5 1 (5.26%) Legal
5 1 (5.26%) Manufacturing
5 1 (5.26%) Marketing
5 1 (5.26%) Presentation Skills
5 1 (5.26%) Publishing
5 1 (5.26%) Retail
Job Titles
1 8 (42.11%) Architect
2 5 (26.32%) IP Architect
2 5 (26.32%) IP Specialist
3 4 (21.05%) Project Manager
4 2 (10.53%) Analyst
4 2 (10.53%) Business Analyst
4 2 (10.53%) Solutions Architect
5 1 (5.26%) CRM Manager
5 1 (5.26%) CRM Project Manager
5 1 (5.26%) Dynamics 365 Architect
5 1 (5.26%) Dynamics 365 Solution Architect
5 1 (5.26%) Enterprise Architect
5 1 (5.26%) Head of Development
5 1 (5.26%) Lead
5 1 (5.26%) Network Architect
5 1 (5.26%) Operations Manager
5 1 (5.26%) Salesforce Project Manager
5 1 (5.26%) Security Specialist
5 1 (5.26%) Senior
5 1 (5.26%) Senior Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (36.84%) NETCONF
1 7 (36.84%) YANG
2 6 (31.58%) REST
3 2 (10.53%) SailPoint
4 1 (5.26%) Jinja
4 1 (5.26%) JSON
4 1 (5.26%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 6 (31.58%) Cloud Native
1 6 (31.58%) Hybrid Cloud
2 2 (10.53%) Data Protection Act
3 1 (5.26%) Educational Technology
Processes & Methodologies
1 13 (68.42%) Roadmaps
2 8 (42.11%) Enterprise Architecture
3 7 (36.84%) Microservices
3 7 (36.84%) TOGAF
4 6 (31.58%) DevOps
4 6 (31.58%) Network Architecture
4 6 (31.58%) Network Design
4 6 (31.58%) Network Segmentation
4 6 (31.58%) Network Virtualisation
5 5 (26.32%) Agile
5 5 (26.32%) Problem-Solving
5 5 (26.32%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 4 (21.05%) Decision-Making
6 4 (21.05%) Stakeholder Management
7 3 (15.79%) Change Management
7 3 (15.79%) ITIL
7 3 (15.79%) Project Management
8 2 (10.53%) B2B
8 2 (10.53%) CRM
8 2 (10.53%) PRINCE2
Programming Languages
1 7 (36.84%) Python
2 1 (5.26%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 6 (31.58%) CCIE
1 6 (31.58%) Cisco Certification
1 6 (31.58%) JNCIE
2 3 (15.79%) Security Cleared
3 2 (10.53%) DV Cleared
4 1 (5.26%) CIPD
4 1 (5.26%) Degree
4 1 (5.26%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (5.26%) COBIT
System Software
1 1 (5.26%) Docker
Systems Management
1 7 (36.84%) Ansible
2 2 (10.53%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 3 (15.79%) Microsoft
2 2 (10.53%) CyberArk
2 2 (10.53%) Salesforce
3 1 (5.26%) Cisco
3 1 (5.26%) HubSpot
3 1 (5.26%) Red Hat
3 1 (5.26%) Remedy
3 1 (5.26%) Veracode