Innovative Thinking Contracts

Innovative Thinking
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring Innovative Thinking skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Innovative Thinking over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 482 523 629
Rank change year-on-year +41 +106 +5
Contract jobs citing Innovative Thinking 38 59 89
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.13% 0.14% 0.15%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.14% 0.16% 0.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 21 38 52
10th Percentile £200 £244 £328
25th Percentile £300 £389 £459
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £688 £650 £628
90th Percentile £725 £738 £710
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £439 £525
% change year-on-year +13.96% -16.43% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 4 3
10th Percentile - - £18.45
25th Percentile - £18.25 £25.13
Median hourly rate £29.23 £19.50 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +49.90% -48.00% +158.62%
75th Percentile - £20.75 £39.38
90th Percentile - - £39.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £29.23 - £37.50
% change year-on-year - - +158.62%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

Innovative 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.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 26,594 37,597 53,655
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 90.84% 86.31% 89.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,149 24,227 37,238
10th Percentile £308 £300 £325
25th Percentile £413 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £630 £638 £650
90th Percentile £743 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £483 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -3.50% - +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,071 2,443 1,746
10th Percentile £14.41 £12.75 £11.00
25th Percentile £18.21 £16.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £29.00 £35.65 £37.30
Median % change year-on-year -18.65% -4.42% +49.20%
75th Percentile £60.38 £59.98 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £37.34 £36.00
% change year-on-year -26.35% +3.72% +80.00%

Innovative Thinking
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Innovative Thinking as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Innovative Thinking in the UK

Innovative Thinking
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Innovative Thinking.

Daily rate trend for Innovative Thinking in the UK

Innovative Thinking
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Innovative Thinking over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Innovative Thinking in the UK

Innovative Thinking
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Innovative Thinking.

Hourly rate trend for Innovative Thinking in the UK

Innovative Thinking
Top 9 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Innovative Thinking within the UK over the 6 months to 1 May 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
England +35 30 £500 - 284
London +27 22 £350 -36.36% 153
UK excluding London +56 14 £500 +13.96% 162
Work from Home +32 8 £275 -45.00% 132
Scotland +15 7 £298 +48.75% 17
South East +45 3 - - 48
South West +47 2 £506 - 25
North West +17 2 £700 -3.45% 25
North of England +17 2 £700 +40.00% 32

Innovative Thinking
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities 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 (2.63%) Confluence
1 1 (2.63%) IBM Domino
1 1 (2.63%) SharePoint
Applications
1 6 (15.79%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (7.89%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (7.89%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 3 (7.89%) iTrent
Cloud Services
1 4 (10.53%) Azure
1 4 (10.53%) Power Platform
2 3 (7.89%) AWS
2 3 (7.89%) ChatGPT
2 3 (7.89%) Dynamics 365
2 3 (7.89%) GCP
2 3 (7.89%) PowerApps
3 2 (5.26%) Azure DevOps
3 2 (5.26%) Microsoft Purview
3 2 (5.26%) Snowflake
4 1 (2.63%) Asana
4 1 (2.63%) ClickUp
4 1 (2.63%) Google Docs
4 1 (2.63%) IaaS
4 1 (2.63%) Microsoft 365
4 1 (2.63%) PaaS
4 1 (2.63%) SaaS
4 1 (2.63%) Smartsheet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (7.89%) Data Warehouse
2 2 (5.26%) NoSQL
3 1 (2.63%) MySQL
3 1 (2.63%) Power BI
3 1 (2.63%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 3 (7.89%) LabVIEW
2 2 (5.26%) Git
2 2 (5.26%) JIRA
3 1 (2.63%) Eclipse
3 1 (2.63%) Jenkins
General
1 22 (57.89%) Social Skills
2 15 (39.47%) Finance
3 14 (36.84%) Analytical Skills
4 7 (18.42%) Public Sector
5 6 (15.79%) Marketing
6 5 (13.16%) Legal
7 4 (10.53%) Banking
7 4 (10.53%) Influencing Skills
8 3 (7.89%) Electronics
8 3 (7.89%) Local Government
8 3 (7.89%) Manufacturing
9 2 (5.26%) Advertising
9 2 (5.26%) Financial Institution
9 2 (5.26%) Law
9 2 (5.26%) Organisational Skills
9 2 (5.26%) Retail
9 2 (5.26%) Telecoms
10 1 (2.63%) Brand Awareness
10 1 (2.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 1 (2.63%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 5 (13.16%) Analyst
1 5 (13.16%) Architect
2 4 (10.53%) Solutions Architect
3 3 (7.89%) Administrator
3 3 (7.89%) Development Engineer
3 3 (7.89%) E-Commerce Architect
3 3 (7.89%) E-Commerce Solution Architect
3 3 (7.89%) Project Manager
3 3 (7.89%) Test Development Engineer
3 3 (7.89%) Test Engineer
4 2 (5.26%) Data Manager
4 2 (5.26%) Data Protection Officer
4 2 (5.26%) Development Officer
4 2 (5.26%) Engineering Manager
4 2 (5.26%) Lead
4 2 (5.26%) PMO Analyst
4 2 (5.26%) Systems Administrator
4 2 (5.26%) Test Analyst
5 1 (2.63%) Consultant
5 1 (2.63%) Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (5.26%) HTML
2 1 (2.63%) ATL
2 1 (2.63%) CSS
2 1 (2.63%) CSS3
2 1 (2.63%) HTML5
2 1 (2.63%) Laravel
2 1 (2.63%) Middleware
2 1 (2.63%) React
2 1 (2.63%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 5 (13.16%) Management Information System
2 3 (7.89%) Analogue Electronics
2 3 (7.89%) Blog
3 2 (5.26%) Analytical Mindset
3 2 (5.26%) Data Protection Act
3 2 (5.26%) Social Media
3 2 (5.26%) Team-Oriented Environment
4 1 (2.63%) Animation
4 1 (2.63%) Biopharmaceutical
4 1 (2.63%) e-Learning
4 1 (2.63%) Enterprise Software
4 1 (2.63%) Freedom of Information
4 1 (2.63%) Learning Management System
4 1 (2.63%) Mobile App
4 1 (2.63%) NHS
4 1 (2.63%) Onboarding
4 1 (2.63%) Online Banking
4 1 (2.63%) Self-Motivation
4 1 (2.63%) Virtual Team
Processes & Methodologies
1 19 (50.00%) Problem-Solving
2 9 (23.68%) Strategic Thinking
3 7 (18.42%) Agile
4 6 (15.79%) Continuous Improvement
5 5 (13.16%) Actionable Insight
5 5 (13.16%) Computer Science
5 5 (13.16%) Project Management
5 5 (13.16%) Stakeholder Management
5 5 (13.16%) Storytelling
6 4 (10.53%) Business Strategy
6 4 (10.53%) Creative Thinking
6 4 (10.53%) E-Commerce
6 4 (10.53%) Roadmaps
6 4 (10.53%) Time Management
7 3 (7.89%) Data Protection
7 3 (7.89%) Data Science
7 3 (7.89%) Mathematics
7 3 (7.89%) Project Planning
7 3 (7.89%) Schematic Capture
7 3 (7.89%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 4 (10.53%) SQL
2 3 (7.89%) C#
2 3 (7.89%) Java
2 3 (7.89%) Python
3 2 (5.26%) JavaScript
3 2 (5.26%) Scala
4 1 (2.63%) PHP
Qualifications
1 16 (42.11%) Degree
2 6 (15.79%) SC Cleared
2 6 (15.79%) Security Cleared
3 3 (7.89%) Computer Science Degree
4 2 (5.26%) DBS Check
4 2 (5.26%) HNC
4 2 (5.26%) ISEB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (10.53%) QA
2 2 (5.26%) Actionable Recommendations
2 2 (5.26%) PMO
3 1 (2.63%) Accessibility
3 1 (2.63%) GxP
Systems Management
1 1 (2.63%) Terraform
Vendors
1 8 (21.05%) Microsoft
2 3 (7.89%) Google
2 3 (7.89%) Mentor Graphics
3 2 (5.26%) Facebook
3 2 (5.26%) Instagram
3 2 (5.26%) Salesforce
4 1 (2.63%) Cegedim Rx
4 1 (2.63%) Marketo
4 1 (2.63%) Oracle
4 1 (2.63%) SAP