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 12 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 489 533 615
Rank change year-on-year +44 +82 +14
Contract jobs citing Innovative Thinking 37 57 84
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.13% 0.13% 0.15%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.14% 0.15% 0.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 20 36 47
10th Percentile £199 £231 £340
25th Percentile £300 £379 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £375 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -25.00% -4.76% -6.67%
75th Percentile £603 £659 £588
90th Percentile £734 £738 £680
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £370 £525
% change year-on-year +35.14% -29.52% +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 26,600 37,094 51,920
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 90.93% 86.26% 89.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,092 23,889 35,981
10th Percentile £306 £300 £325
25th Percentile £410 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.19% -4.55% +3.77%
75th Percentile £630 £638 £650
90th Percentile £745 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £478 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -4.40% - +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,089 2,438 1,716
10th Percentile £14.20 £12.75 £11.00
25th Percentile £18.20 £16.00 £16.24
Median hourly rate £28.60 £36.50 £36.40
Median % change year-on-year -21.64% +0.29% +41.73%
75th Percentile £60.13 £60.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.78 £38.06 £35.00
% change year-on-year -32.28% +8.74% +75.00%

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 12 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 12 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 +48 29 £425 -15.00% 369
London +22 21 £350 -36.36% 224
UK excluding London +46 14 £500 +35.14% 188
Work from Home +42 8 £275 -45.00% 171
Scotland +14 7 £298 +48.75% 23
South East +43 3 - - 63
North of England +19 2 £700 -3.45% 31
North West +13 2 £700 -3.45% 23
South West - 2 £506 - 29

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 (2.70%) Confluence
1 1 (2.70%) IBM Domino
1 1 (2.70%) SharePoint
Applications
1 6 (16.22%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (8.11%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (8.11%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 3 (8.11%) iTrent
Cloud Services
1 4 (10.81%) Azure
2 3 (8.11%) AWS
2 3 (8.11%) ChatGPT
2 3 (8.11%) GCP
2 3 (8.11%) Power Platform
3 2 (5.41%) Azure DevOps
3 2 (5.41%) Dynamics 365
3 2 (5.41%) Microsoft Purview
3 2 (5.41%) PowerApps
3 2 (5.41%) Snowflake
4 1 (2.70%) Asana
4 1 (2.70%) ClickUp
4 1 (2.70%) Google Docs
4 1 (2.70%) IaaS
4 1 (2.70%) Microsoft 365
4 1 (2.70%) PaaS
4 1 (2.70%) SaaS
4 1 (2.70%) Smartsheet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (8.11%) Data Warehouse
2 2 (5.41%) NoSQL
3 1 (2.70%) MySQL
3 1 (2.70%) Power BI
3 1 (2.70%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 3 (8.11%) LabVIEW
2 2 (5.41%) Git
2 2 (5.41%) JIRA
3 1 (2.70%) Eclipse
3 1 (2.70%) Jenkins
General
1 21 (56.76%) Social Skills
2 14 (37.84%) Finance
3 13 (35.14%) Analytical Skills
4 6 (16.22%) Marketing
4 6 (16.22%) Public Sector
5 5 (13.51%) Legal
6 4 (10.81%) Banking
6 4 (10.81%) Influencing Skills
7 3 (8.11%) Electronics
7 3 (8.11%) Local Government
7 3 (8.11%) Manufacturing
8 2 (5.41%) Advertising
8 2 (5.41%) Financial Institution
8 2 (5.41%) Law
8 2 (5.41%) Organisational Skills
8 2 (5.41%) Retail
8 2 (5.41%) Telecoms
9 1 (2.70%) Brand Awareness
9 1 (2.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 1 (2.70%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 5 (13.51%) Analyst
2 4 (10.81%) Architect
3 3 (8.11%) Administrator
3 3 (8.11%) Development Engineer
3 3 (8.11%) Project Manager
3 3 (8.11%) Solutions Architect
3 3 (8.11%) Test Development Engineer
3 3 (8.11%) Test Engineer
4 2 (5.41%) Data Manager
4 2 (5.41%) Data Protection Officer
4 2 (5.41%) Development Officer
4 2 (5.41%) E-Commerce Architect
4 2 (5.41%) E-Commerce Solution Architect
4 2 (5.41%) Engineering Manager
4 2 (5.41%) Lead
4 2 (5.41%) PMO Analyst
4 2 (5.41%) Systems Administrator
4 2 (5.41%) Test Analyst
5 1 (2.70%) Payments Architect
5 1 (2.70%) Payments Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (5.41%) HTML
2 1 (2.70%) ATL
2 1 (2.70%) CSS
2 1 (2.70%) CSS3
2 1 (2.70%) HTML5
2 1 (2.70%) Laravel
2 1 (2.70%) Middleware
2 1 (2.70%) React
2 1 (2.70%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 4 (10.81%) Management Information System
2 3 (8.11%) Analogue Electronics
2 3 (8.11%) Blog
3 2 (5.41%) Analytical Mindset
3 2 (5.41%) Data Protection Act
3 2 (5.41%) Social Media
3 2 (5.41%) Team-Oriented Environment
4 1 (2.70%) Animation
4 1 (2.70%) Biopharmaceutical
4 1 (2.70%) e-Learning
4 1 (2.70%) Enterprise Software
4 1 (2.70%) Freedom of Information
4 1 (2.70%) Learning Management System
4 1 (2.70%) Mobile App
4 1 (2.70%) NHS
4 1 (2.70%) Onboarding
4 1 (2.70%) Online Banking
4 1 (2.70%) Self-Motivation
4 1 (2.70%) Virtual Team
Processes & Methodologies
1 18 (48.65%) Problem-Solving
2 9 (24.32%) Strategic Thinking
3 6 (16.22%) Agile
3 6 (16.22%) Continuous Improvement
4 5 (13.51%) Actionable Insight
4 5 (13.51%) Computer Science
4 5 (13.51%) Project Management
4 5 (13.51%) Stakeholder Management
4 5 (13.51%) Storytelling
5 4 (10.81%) Business Strategy
5 4 (10.81%) Creative Thinking
5 4 (10.81%) Roadmaps
5 4 (10.81%) Time Management
6 3 (8.11%) Data Protection
6 3 (8.11%) Data Science
6 3 (8.11%) DevOps
6 3 (8.11%) E-Commerce
6 3 (8.11%) Functional Testing
6 3 (8.11%) Project Planning
6 3 (8.11%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 4 (10.81%) SQL
2 3 (8.11%) C#
2 3 (8.11%) Java
2 3 (8.11%) Python
3 2 (5.41%) JavaScript
3 2 (5.41%) Scala
4 1 (2.70%) PHP
Qualifications
1 15 (40.54%) Degree
2 5 (13.51%) SC Cleared
2 5 (13.51%) Security Cleared
3 3 (8.11%) Computer Science Degree
4 2 (5.41%) DBS Check
4 2 (5.41%) HNC
4 2 (5.41%) ISEB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (10.81%) QA
2 2 (5.41%) Actionable Recommendations
2 2 (5.41%) PMO
3 1 (2.70%) Accessibility
3 1 (2.70%) GxP
Systems Management
1 1 (2.70%) Terraform
Vendors
1 7 (18.92%) Microsoft
2 3 (8.11%) Google
2 3 (8.11%) Mentor Graphics
3 2 (5.41%) Facebook
3 2 (5.41%) Instagram
3 2 (5.41%) Salesforce
4 1 (2.70%) Cegedim Rx
4 1 (2.70%) Marketo
4 1 (2.70%) Oracle
4 1 (2.70%) SAP