Design Thinking Job Trends in the North West

Design Thinking
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the North West requiring Design Thinking skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 3 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 163 210 184
Rank change year-on-year +47 -26 +100
Permanent jobs citing Design Thinking 14 2 3
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 0.23% 0.039% 0.075%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.27% 0.043% 0.084%
Number of salaries quoted 5 1 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £40,870 £46,250 -
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,500 £90,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -41.67% +39.98%
75th Percentile £66,250 £58,750 -
90th Percentile £67,750 - -
England median annual salary £55,000 £70,000 £75,000
% change year-on-year -21.43% -6.67% -

All Process & Methodology Skills
North West

Design 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 North West.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 5,110 4,671 3,576
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 82.50% 90.38% 89.83%
Number of salaries quoted 2,464 2,286 2,752
10th Percentile £28,000 £32,500 £31,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £40,988
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,000 £54,000
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% -3.70% -1.82%
75th Percentile £65,000 £66,354 £70,000
90th Percentile £81,250 £80,000 £82,548
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%

Design Thinking
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Design Thinking relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the North West.

Design Thinking job vacancy trend in the North West

Design Thinking
Salary Trend in the North West

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Design Thinking.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Design Thinking

Design Thinking
Salary Histogram in the North West

Salary distribution for jobs citing Design Thinking in the North West over the 6 months to 3 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Design Thinking in the North West

Design Thinking
Job Locations in the North West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Design Thinking within the North West region over the 6 months to 3 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
Manchester +23 9 £62,500 +19.05% 7
Cheshire - 2 - -
Lancashire - 2 £42,384 - 2
Design Thinking
England

Design Thinking
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West 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 (21.43%) Confluence
Cloud Services
1 6 (42.86%) Adobe Analytics
1 6 (42.86%) Figma
2 3 (21.43%) AWS
3 2 (14.29%) Azure
Development Applications
1 3 (21.43%) JIRA
2 2 (14.29%) Git
General
1 8 (57.14%) Influencing Skills
2 7 (50.00%) Banking
3 6 (42.86%) Analytical Skills
4 3 (21.43%) Social Skills
5 2 (14.29%) Law
5 2 (14.29%) Public Sector
6 1 (7.14%) Finance
6 1 (7.14%) Legal
6 1 (7.14%) Marketing
6 1 (7.14%) Retail
Job Titles
1 6 (42.86%) Strategy Manager
2 4 (28.57%) Senior
3 3 (21.43%) Lead
3 3 (21.43%) Senior Manager
3 3 (21.43%) Senior Strategy Manager
4 2 (14.29%) Consultant
4 2 (14.29%) Designer
4 2 (14.29%) Developer
4 2 (14.29%) Service Designer
4 2 (14.29%) UI Developer
4 2 (14.29%) UI/UX Developer
4 2 (14.29%) UX Developer
5 1 (7.14%) Architect
5 1 (7.14%) Lead Architect
5 1 (7.14%) Lead Solutions Architect
5 1 (7.14%) Product Manager
5 1 (7.14%) Senior Architect
5 1 (7.14%) Senior Solutions Architect
5 1 (7.14%) Solutions Architect
Miscellaneous
1 4 (28.57%) Product Ownership
Processes & Methodologies
1 11 (78.57%) User Experience
2 10 (71.43%) UX Design
3 9 (64.29%) Agile
4 8 (57.14%) Continuous Improvement
4 8 (57.14%) Problem-Solving
4 8 (57.14%) Stakeholder Management
5 7 (50.00%) Customer Experience
5 7 (50.00%) Customer Journey Map
5 7 (50.00%) Customer-Centricity
5 7 (50.00%) Journey Map
5 7 (50.00%) Strategic Thinking
6 6 (42.86%) Analytics
6 6 (42.86%) Business Strategy
6 6 (42.86%) Creative Problem-Solving
6 6 (42.86%) Digital Banking
6 6 (42.86%) Matrix Organization
6 6 (42.86%) Prototyping
6 6 (42.86%) Storytelling
6 6 (42.86%) Visualisation
6 6 (42.86%) Wireframes
Programming Languages
1 2 (14.29%) C#
Qualifications
1 4 (28.57%) SC Cleared
1 4 (28.57%) Security Cleared
2 1 (7.14%) AWS Certification
2 1 (7.14%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (57.14%) Accessibility
Vendors
1 6 (42.86%) Adobe
1 6 (42.86%) Qualtrics
2 2 (14.29%) SAP