Cost Optimisation Job Trends in England

Cost Optimization
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in England requiring Cost Optimisation skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 1 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 365 536 581
Rank change year-on-year +171 +45 +233
Permanent jobs citing Cost Optimisation 249 140 85
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.48% 0.28% 0.19%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.58% 0.31% 0.21%
Number of salaries quoted 165 97 67
10th Percentile £46,750 £49,750 £48,250
25th Percentile £60,000 £56,250 £60,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,079 £74,000 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year -5.30% +5.71% -12.50%
75th Percentile £88,750 £95,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £117,500 £118,750 £95,000
UK median annual salary £70,406 £74,000 £70,000
% change year-on-year -4.86% +5.71% -12.50%

All Process & Methodology Skills
England

Cost Optimisation falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in England.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 42,728 44,744 41,388
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 82.15% 90.24% 91.27%
Number of salaries quoted 25,461 22,347 32,089
10th Percentile £28,500 £35,000 £32,500
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%
75th Percentile £76,000 £81,250 £80,000
90th Percentile £96,250 £100,000 £100,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%

Cost Optimisation
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Cost Optimisation relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in England.

Cost Optimisation job vacancy trend in England

Cost Optimisation
Salary Trend in England

Salary distribution trend for jobs in England citing Cost Optimisation.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in England citing Cost Optimisation

Cost Optimisation
Salary Histogram in England

Salary distribution for jobs citing Cost Optimisation in England over the 6 months to 1 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Cost Optimisation in England

Cost Optimisation
Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Cost Optimisation within the England region over the 6 months to 1 January 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
London +65 110 £80,000 -5.88% 107
Midlands +67 53 £66,500 +10.83% 9
West Midlands +53 39 £60,000 +6.67% 6
North of England +52 38 £70,000 +33.33% 33
South East +43 35 £62,500 +8.70% 30
North West +38 22 £63,750 -7.27% 22
East Midlands +4 14 £68,000 +13.33% 3
Yorkshire +5 10 £69,000 +48.39% 10
South West -7 10 £48,750 -45.83% 1
North East - 6 £105,000 - 1
East of England +25 5 £68,750 -19.12% 10
Cost Optimisation
UK

Cost Optimisation
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 14 (5.62%) SharePoint
2 10 (4.02%) Confluence
3 9 (3.61%) Apache Airflow
4 5 (2.01%) Microsoft Exchange
5 1 (0.40%) Apache
5 1 (0.40%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.40%) Apache Superset
5 1 (0.40%) nginx
Applications
1 29 (11.65%) Microsoft Excel
2 18 (7.23%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (1.61%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (1.61%) Spreadsheet
4 3 (1.20%) Microsoft Project
4 3 (1.20%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 4 (1.61%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.80%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.40%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (0.40%) NEC Housing
Cloud Services
1 135 (54.22%) Azure
2 86 (34.54%) AWS
3 39 (15.66%) GCP
3 39 (15.66%) Power Platform
4 30 (12.05%) SaaS
5 29 (11.65%) Entra ID
6 22 (8.84%) Microsoft 365
7 19 (7.63%) GitHub
7 19 (7.63%) Serverless
8 18 (7.23%) PaaS
9 17 (6.83%) dbt
10 16 (6.43%) Azure Monitor
11 13 (5.22%) Azure DevOps
11 13 (5.22%) Datadog
12 12 (4.82%) GitHub Actions
12 12 (4.82%) Microsoft Purview
12 12 (4.82%) OneDrive
13 11 (4.42%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 11 (4.42%) IaaS
13 11 (4.42%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 11 (4.42%) Firewall
1 11 (4.42%) VPN
2 7 (2.81%) Broadband
2 7 (2.81%) Fibre Channel
2 7 (2.81%) Network Security
2 7 (2.81%) WAN
3 5 (2.01%) Unified Communications
3 5 (2.01%) Wi-Fi
4 3 (1.20%) DNS
4 3 (1.20%) LAN
5 2 (0.80%) BGP
6 1 (0.40%) NAS
6 1 (0.40%) SAN
6 1 (0.40%) SD-WAN
6 1 (0.40%) SNMP
6 1 (0.40%) Wireless
6 1 (0.40%) Wireshark
6 1 (0.40%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (12.45%) Power BI
2 21 (8.43%) BigQuery
3 9 (3.61%) NoSQL
4 8 (3.21%) Data Warehouse
4 8 (3.21%) Oracle Database
4 8 (3.21%) Oracle Exadata
5 7 (2.81%) RDBMS
5 7 (2.81%) Relational Database
6 6 (2.41%) SQL Server
7 5 (2.01%) Azure SQL Database
7 5 (2.01%) Metadata
7 5 (2.01%) Snowflake Schema
7 5 (2.01%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 5 (2.01%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 5 (2.01%) Tableau
8 4 (1.61%) Big Data
8 4 (1.61%) Data Lake
8 4 (1.61%) SQL Server Analysis Services
9 3 (1.20%) Amazon Athena
9 3 (1.20%) Amazon Redshift
Development Applications
1 13 (5.22%) Git
2 12 (4.82%) Jenkins
3 10 (4.02%) JIRA
4 7 (2.81%) Jaeger
5 4 (1.61%) Cucumber
5 4 (1.61%) JMeter
5 4 (1.61%) Locust
6 2 (0.80%) MLflow
7 1 (0.40%) CircleCI
7 1 (0.40%) GitLab
7 1 (0.40%) TeamCity
General
1 79 (31.73%) Social Skills
2 71 (28.51%) Finance
3 39 (15.66%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 34 (13.65%) Analytical Skills
5 24 (9.64%) Law
5 24 (9.64%) Marketing
6 20 (8.03%) Billing
7 8 (3.21%) Financial Institution
8 7 (2.81%) Influencing Skills
8 7 (2.81%) Legal
8 7 (2.81%) Manufacturing
8 7 (2.81%) Public Sector
9 5 (2.01%) Electronics
10 4 (1.61%) Banking
10 4 (1.61%) Retail
11 3 (1.20%) Aerospace
11 3 (1.20%) Telecoms
12 2 (0.80%) Investment Banking
12 2 (0.80%) Organisational Skills
12 2 (0.80%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 48 (19.28%) Architect
2 28 (11.24%) Analyst
3 25 (10.04%) Lead
4 24 (9.64%) Cloud Architect
5 20 (8.03%) GCP Architect
5 20 (8.03%) Platform Architect
6 18 (7.23%) Platform Engineer
7 15 (6.02%) Operations Engineer
8 14 (5.62%) Senior
9 13 (5.22%) Cloud Engineer
10 11 (4.42%) Data Engineer
10 11 (4.42%) IT Manager
11 10 (4.02%) Support Engineer
12 8 (3.21%) Data Manager
12 8 (3.21%) Database Architect
12 8 (3.21%) Engineering Manager
12 8 (3.21%) Junior
12 8 (3.21%) Oracle Architect
13 7 (2.81%) Enterprise Architect
13 7 (2.81%) Storage Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (4.42%) YAML
2 8 (3.21%) Elastic Stack
2 8 (3.21%) OpenTelemetry
3 4 (1.61%) ADO
3 4 (1.61%) Gherkin
3 4 (1.61%) Middleware
3 4 (1.61%) OAuth
3 4 (1.61%) SAML
4 3 (1.20%) ARM Templates
4 3 (1.20%) LangGraph
5 2 (0.80%) AWS CDK
5 2 (0.80%) LangChain
5 2 (0.80%) Microsoft Graph
6 1 (0.40%) Kafka
6 1 (0.40%) Next.js
6 1 (0.40%) Node.js
6 1 (0.40%) PySpark
6 1 (0.40%) Snowpark
Miscellaneous
1 42 (16.87%) Cloud Native
2 23 (9.24%) Public Cloud
3 21 (8.43%) Onboarding
4 12 (4.82%) Data Centre
4 12 (4.82%) Enterprise Software
4 12 (4.82%) Management Information System
5 10 (4.02%) Hybrid Cloud
6 7 (2.81%) Enterprise Storage
7 6 (2.41%) Virtual Team
8 4 (1.61%) Augmented Reality
8 4 (1.61%) CMDB
8 4 (1.61%) Greenfield Project
8 4 (1.61%) Private Cloud
8 4 (1.61%) Security Posture
9 3 (1.20%) iPad
9 3 (1.20%) iPhone
9 3 (1.20%) Mobile App
10 2 (0.80%) Analytical Mindset
11 1 (0.40%) Data Fabric
11 1 (0.40%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 18 (7.23%) Linux
2 7 (2.81%) Unix
2 7 (2.81%) zOS
3 5 (2.01%) Windows
3 5 (2.01%) Windows Server
4 4 (1.61%) VMS
5 3 (1.20%) Apple iOS
5 3 (1.20%) SUSE
6 2 (0.80%) Android
6 2 (0.80%) Mac OS
6 2 (0.80%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 69 (27.71%) FinOps
2 64 (25.70%) Continuous Improvement
3 57 (22.89%) DevOps
3 57 (22.89%) Roadmaps
4 55 (22.09%) CI/CD
5 54 (21.69%) Analytics
6 53 (21.29%) Infrastructure as Code
7 49 (19.68%) Cost Management
8 48 (19.28%) AI
9 46 (18.47%) Mentoring
9 46 (18.47%) Observability
10 45 (18.07%) Agile
11 40 (16.06%) Budgeting
12 37 (14.86%) Cybersecurity
13 33 (13.25%) Budgeting and Forecasting
14 32 (12.85%) Business Intelligence
15 31 (12.45%) Incident Response
16 30 (12.05%) Cloud Security
17 29 (11.65%) Strategic Roadmap
18 28 (11.24%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 72 (28.92%) Python
2 33 (13.25%) SQL
3 32 (12.85%) Java
4 27 (10.84%) Go
5 14 (5.62%) Bash
6 10 (4.02%) Bicep
7 7 (2.81%) JavaScript
7 7 (2.81%) JCL
7 7 (2.81%) PowerShell
7 7 (2.81%) REXX
8 6 (2.41%) C#
9 4 (1.61%) Kusto Query Language
9 4 (1.61%) VBA
10 2 (0.80%) T-SQL
11 1 (0.40%) Scala
11 1 (0.40%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 35 (14.06%) AWS Certification
2 25 (10.04%) Degree
3 13 (5.22%) Computer Science Degree
4 12 (4.82%) Azure Certification
5 9 (3.61%) Master's Degree
6 8 (3.21%) OCP
6 8 (3.21%) Oracle Certification
6 8 (3.21%) SC Cleared
6 8 (3.21%) Security Cleared
7 5 (2.01%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 4 (1.61%) ACCA
8 4 (1.61%) CIMA
8 4 (1.61%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 4 (1.61%) Microsoft Certification
8 4 (1.61%) PMI Certification
8 4 (1.61%) PMP
8 4 (1.61%) RHCE
9 3 (1.20%) MBA
9 3 (1.20%) MCP
9 3 (1.20%) SnowPro
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (7.63%) GDPR
2 10 (4.02%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 8 (3.21%) Data Quality
3 8 (3.21%) SLA
4 6 (2.41%) QA
5 5 (2.01%) Accessibility
6 4 (1.61%) Cyber Essentials
6 4 (1.61%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 4 (1.61%) NIST
6 4 (1.61%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 4 (1.61%) SOC 2
6 4 (1.61%) WCAG
7 2 (0.80%) GRC
7 2 (0.80%) HIPAA
7 2 (0.80%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.40%) FINRA
8 1 (0.40%) NEBOSH
8 1 (0.40%) PMO
System Software
1 28 (11.24%) Docker
2 19 (7.63%) Active Directory
3 9 (3.61%) Virtual Machines
4 8 (3.21%) Oracle RAC
5 7 (2.81%) Time Sharing Option
6 1 (0.40%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.40%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 65 (26.10%) Terraform
2 49 (19.68%) Kubernetes
3 25 (10.04%) Ansible
4 16 (6.43%) Prometheus
5 15 (6.02%) Microsoft Intune
6 12 (4.82%) Argo
6 12 (4.82%) Grafana
7 11 (4.42%) Single Sign-On
8 8 (3.21%) Data Guard
8 8 (3.21%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
8 8 (3.21%) Oracle RMAN
9 7 (2.81%) Kustomize
10 3 (1.20%) Jamf Pro
10 3 (1.20%) Rancher
11 1 (0.40%) HAProxy
11 1 (0.40%) Istio
11 1 (0.40%) linkerd
11 1 (0.40%) Nagios
Vendors
1 64 (25.70%) Microsoft
2 33 (13.25%) Google
3 20 (8.03%) Apple
4 19 (7.63%) Oracle
5 17 (6.83%) Adobe
6 16 (6.43%) Databricks
6 16 (6.43%) SAP
7 9 (3.61%) Splunk
8 8 (3.21%) Delphix
8 8 (3.21%) IBM
8 8 (3.21%) New Relic
8 8 (3.21%) Palo Alto
9 7 (2.81%) Broadcom
9 7 (2.81%) Dell
9 7 (2.81%) ServiceNow
10 5 (2.01%) Ariba
10 5 (2.01%) Okta
11 4 (1.61%) CrowdStrike
11 4 (1.61%) Dataiku
11 4 (1.61%) Zscaler