Strategic Thinking Job Trends in the Midlands

Strategic Thinking
England > Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the Midlands requiring Strategic Thinking skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 30 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 134 154 186
Rank change year-on-year +20 +32 +71
Permanent jobs citing Strategic Thinking 83 87 37
As % of all permanent jobs in the Midlands 1.07% 1.30% 0.73%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.30% 1.45% 0.83%
Number of salaries quoted 45 43 27
10th Percentile £52,200 £42,500 £46,250
25th Percentile £56,750 £52,250 £53,994
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.70% +3.85% +13.04%
75th Percentile £84,375 £75,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £87,500 £83,810 £82,750
England median annual salary £75,000 £67,500 £70,000
% change year-on-year +11.11% -3.57% -3.45%

All Process & Methodology Skills
Midlands

Strategic Thinking 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 the Midlands.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 6,361 5,982 4,476
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Midlands 81.66% 89.64% 88.86%
Number of salaries quoted 3,507 2,641 3,683
10th Percentile £28,000 £31,250 £26,500
25th Percentile £35,000 £38,750 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £49,479 £52,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -5.76% +5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £65,000 £67,500 £63,750
90th Percentile £80,000 £80,000 £76,250
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%

Strategic Thinking
Job Vacancy Trend in the Midlands

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Strategic Thinking relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the Midlands.

Strategic Thinking job vacancy trend in the Midlands

Strategic Thinking
Salary Trend in the Midlands

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the Midlands citing Strategic Thinking.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the Midlands citing Strategic Thinking

Strategic Thinking
Salary Histogram in the Midlands

Salary distribution for jobs citing Strategic Thinking in the Midlands over the 6 months to 30 December 2025.

Salary histogram for Strategic Thinking in the Midlands

Strategic Thinking
Job Locations in the Midlands

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Strategic Thinking within the Midlands region over the 6 months to 30 December 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
West Midlands +37 60 £71,250 +5.56% 79
East Midlands -29 23 £60,000 -2.04% 68
Strategic Thinking
England

Strategic Thinking
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Midlands 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 3 (3.61%) CMS
1 3 (3.61%) WordPress
2 2 (2.41%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (3.61%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (2.41%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 11 (13.25%) SaaS
2 10 (12.05%) AWS
3 9 (10.84%) Power Platform
4 6 (7.23%) Azure
5 5 (6.02%) Dynamics 365
6 3 (3.61%) GCP
7 2 (2.41%) Azure AI
7 2 (2.41%) Microsoft 365
8 1 (1.20%) OCI
8 1 (1.20%) Oracle CX
8 1 (1.20%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 5 (6.02%) SD-WAN
1 5 (6.02%) WAN
2 3 (3.61%) Cisco Wireless
2 3 (3.61%) Wireless
3 2 (2.41%) LAN
3 2 (2.41%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (10.84%) Power BI
2 4 (4.82%) SQL Server
3 3 (3.61%) Data Warehouse
3 3 (3.61%) Metadata
4 2 (2.41%) Data Lake
5 1 (1.20%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 5 (6.02%) JIRA
2 2 (2.41%) Postman
2 2 (2.41%) Selenium
General
1 44 (53.01%) Social Skills
2 27 (32.53%) Finance
3 17 (20.48%) Analytical Skills
4 15 (18.07%) Retail
5 11 (13.25%) Marketing
6 10 (12.05%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 9 (10.84%) Manufacturing
7 9 (10.84%) Presentation Skills
7 9 (10.84%) Public Sector
8 8 (9.64%) Legal
9 7 (8.43%) Law
10 6 (7.23%) Banking
11 3 (3.61%) Publishing
11 3 (3.61%) Telecoms
12 2 (2.41%) Games
12 2 (2.41%) Influencing Skills
12 2 (2.41%) Organisational Skills
12 2 (2.41%) Pharmaceutical
13 1 (1.20%) Automotive
13 1 (1.20%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 20 (24.10%) Architect
2 12 (14.46%) Lead
3 7 (8.43%) Data Architect
3 7 (8.43%) Network Manager
3 7 (8.43%) Senior
4 6 (7.23%) Solutions Architect
5 5 (6.02%) Applications Support
5 5 (6.02%) Enterprise Architect
5 5 (6.02%) Head of Support
5 5 (6.02%) Project Manager
5 5 (6.02%) Service Manager
6 4 (4.82%) Enterprise Information Architect
6 4 (4.82%) Enterprise Security Architect
6 4 (4.82%) Head of Information Security
6 4 (4.82%) Head of Security
6 4 (4.82%) Information Security Architect
6 4 (4.82%) Network Operations Manager
6 4 (4.82%) Operations Manager
6 4 (4.82%) Security Architect
6 4 (4.82%) Senior Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (6.02%) .NET
1 5 (6.02%) EDI
2 2 (2.41%) AngularJS
2 2 (2.41%) Oracle Fusion
2 2 (2.41%) Playwright
2 2 (2.41%) React
Miscellaneous
1 7 (8.43%) Virtual Team
2 6 (7.23%) Enterprise Software
3 4 (4.82%) Data Centre
3 4 (4.82%) Reference Data
3 4 (4.82%) Security Posture
3 4 (4.82%) Social Media
4 3 (3.61%) Analytical Mindset
4 3 (3.61%) Management Information System
5 2 (2.41%) CMDB
5 2 (2.41%) Onboarding
5 2 (2.41%) Self-Motivation
6 1 (1.20%) AI Agents
6 1 (1.20%) Cloud Native
6 1 (1.20%) FMCG
6 1 (1.20%) PMI
6 1 (1.20%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 1 (1.20%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 34 (40.96%) Continuous Improvement
2 29 (34.94%) Stakeholder Management
3 22 (26.51%) Agile
4 17 (20.48%) Decision-Making
5 16 (19.28%) Roadmaps
6 14 (16.87%) Project Management
7 13 (15.66%) Collaborative Culture
7 13 (15.66%) ITIL
7 13 (15.66%) Problem-Solving
8 12 (14.46%) Logistics
9 11 (13.25%) Business Intelligence
9 11 (13.25%) Mentoring
10 10 (12.05%) Cybersecurity
10 10 (12.05%) Risk Management
11 9 (10.84%) AI
11 9 (10.84%) Project Delivery
11 9 (10.84%) Service Delivery
11 9 (10.84%) Translating Business Requirements
12 8 (9.64%) Analytics
12 8 (9.64%) Data Architecture
Programming Languages
1 5 (6.02%) C#
2 2 (2.41%) Java
2 2 (2.41%) JavaScript
2 2 (2.41%) Python
2 2 (2.41%) R
Qualifications
1 15 (18.07%) Degree
2 9 (10.84%) PMI Certification
3 8 (9.64%) PMP
4 5 (6.02%) AWS Certification
4 5 (6.02%) DBS Check
4 5 (6.02%) TOGAF Certification
5 4 (4.82%) CISM
5 4 (4.82%) CISSP
6 1 (1.20%) ACCA
6 1 (1.20%) CBAP
6 1 (1.20%) CIMA
6 1 (1.20%) ITIL Certification
6 1 (1.20%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (10.84%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 7 (8.43%) QA
2 7 (8.43%) SLA
3 4 (4.82%) COBIT
3 4 (4.82%) Cyber Essentials
3 4 (4.82%) GRC
3 4 (4.82%) NIST
4 2 (2.41%) ISO/IEC 19770
5 1 (1.20%) Data Quality
5 1 (1.20%) PMO
System Software
1 2 (2.41%) Active Directory
1 2 (2.41%) Virtual Machines
2 1 (1.20%) Docker
Systems Management
1 2 (2.41%) Autotask
2 1 (1.20%) Ansible
2 1 (1.20%) Kubernetes
2 1 (1.20%) Terraform
Vendors
1 11 (13.25%) Microsoft
2 4 (4.82%) Oracle
2 4 (4.82%) SAP
2 4 (4.82%) ServiceNow
3 3 (3.61%) Cisco
4 2 (2.41%) Ariba
4 2 (2.41%) Automation Anywhere
5 1 (1.20%) Anaplan
5 1 (1.20%) Genesys
5 1 (1.20%) Google
5 1 (1.20%) TikTok
5 1 (1.20%) Verint
5 1 (1.20%) YouTube