Creative Thinking Job Trends in the South East

Creative Thinking
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the South East requiring Creative Thinking 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 198 194 151
Rank change year-on-year -4 -43 +191
Permanent jobs citing Creative Thinking 77 108 125
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 0.74% 1.17% 1.61%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.92% 1.33% 1.79%
Number of salaries quoted 23 14 24
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,225 £31,625
25th Percentile £40,750 £40,013 £33,063
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,000 £47,588 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -11.74% +5.75% -25.00%
75th Percentile £47,500 £57,000 £59,688
90th Percentile £93,750 £65,775 £62,500
England median annual salary £44,273 £60,750 £65,066
% change year-on-year -27.12% -6.63% +0.10%

All Process & Methodology Skills
South East

Creative 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 South East.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 8,378 8,110 6,969
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 80.85% 87.72% 89.80%
Number of salaries quoted 4,956 3,982 4,915
10th Percentile £27,750 £32,750 £30,000
25th Percentile £34,000 £44,253 £39,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £57,500 £53,500
Median % change year-on-year -13.04% +7.48% -2.73%
75th Percentile £65,000 £75,000 £67,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £85,000 £82,000
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%

Creative Thinking
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Creative Thinking relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Creative Thinking job vacancy trend in the South East

Creative Thinking
Salary Trend in the South East

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Creative Thinking.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Creative Thinking

Creative Thinking
Salary Histogram in the South East

Salary distribution for jobs citing Creative Thinking in the South East over the 6 months to 1 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Creative Thinking in the South East

Creative Thinking
Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Creative Thinking within the South East 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
Middlesex +18 37 - -
Surrey -3 19 £41,500 -36.15% 1
Thames Valley -17 12 £68,750 +64.97% 2
West Sussex +2 5 £30,000 -
Berkshire -21 5 £45,000 +7.98%
Hampshire +32 4 £42,000 +12.00% 1
Oxfordshire +17 4 £92,500 -
Buckinghamshire +6 3 £100,000 +65.29% 2
Creative Thinking
England

Creative Thinking
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 2 (2.60%) WordPress
Applications
1 13 (16.88%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (9.09%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (3.90%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 3 (3.90%) Photoshop
4 2 (2.60%) Adobe After Effects
4 2 (2.60%) Adobe Captivate
4 2 (2.60%) Adobe Illustrator
4 2 (2.60%) Adobe Premiere
4 2 (2.60%) Elementor
5 1 (1.30%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 3 (3.90%) PeopleSoft Financials
2 1 (1.30%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 26 (33.77%) Azure
2 19 (24.68%) Power Platform
3 13 (16.88%) Azure DevOps
4 11 (14.29%) PaaS
5 10 (12.99%) Microsoft 365
6 9 (11.69%) SaaS
7 6 (7.79%) Azure App Service
7 6 (7.79%) Azure Cosmos DB
7 6 (7.79%) Azure Functions
7 6 (7.79%) Azure Logic Apps
7 6 (7.79%) Entra ID
7 6 (7.79%) Serverless
8 4 (5.19%) Power Automate
9 3 (3.90%) Microsoft Purview
10 2 (2.60%) Adobe Creative Cloud
10 2 (2.60%) AWS
11 1 (1.30%) Canva
11 1 (1.30%) Figma
11 1 (1.30%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 1 (1.30%) DNS
1 1 (1.30%) Firewall
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (22.08%) Power BI
2 2 (2.60%) Data Warehouse
2 2 (2.60%) Star Schema
3 1 (1.30%) DynamoDB
3 1 (1.30%) NoSQL
3 1 (1.30%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (1.30%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 6 (7.79%) Git
2 1 (1.30%) GitLab
General
1 38 (49.35%) Finance
2 32 (41.56%) Analytical Skills
3 19 (24.68%) Social Skills
4 14 (18.18%) Marketing
5 8 (10.39%) Legal
6 7 (9.09%) Organisational Skills
7 2 (2.60%) Multimedia
7 2 (2.60%) Public Sector
8 1 (1.30%) Electronics
8 1 (1.30%) French Language
8 1 (1.30%) German Language
8 1 (1.30%) Influencing Skills
8 1 (1.30%) Spanish Language
8 1 (1.30%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 13 (16.88%) Analyst
2 12 (15.58%) Lead
3 11 (14.29%) Product Analyst
4 9 (11.69%) Developer
5 8 (10.39%) Governance Analyst
5 8 (10.39%) IT Analyst
5 8 (10.39%) IT Governance Analyst
5 8 (10.39%) Project Analyst
5 8 (10.39%) Project Governance Analyst
6 6 (7.79%) Category Manager
6 6 (7.79%) IT Manager
7 5 (6.49%) Marketing Executive
7 5 (6.49%) Security Engineer
8 4 (5.19%) Business Development Executive
8 4 (5.19%) Digital Director
8 4 (5.19%) Finance Manager
8 4 (5.19%) Finance Systems Analyst
8 4 (5.19%) Financial Analyst
8 4 (5.19%) Systems Analyst
8 4 (5.19%) Transformation Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (10.39%) HTML
2 7 (9.09%) React
3 6 (7.79%) .NET
3 6 (7.79%) .NET Framework
3 6 (7.79%) ARM Templates
3 6 (7.79%) CSS
4 5 (6.49%) YAML
5 2 (2.60%) Bootstrap
6 1 (1.30%) Next.js
6 1 (1.30%) Node.js
6 1 (1.30%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 6 (7.79%) Data Centre
2 5 (6.49%) Cyber Defence
2 5 (6.49%) Security Posture
3 4 (5.19%) Data Protection Act
3 4 (5.19%) Self-Motivation
4 3 (3.90%) Data Structures
4 3 (3.90%) Graphic Design
5 2 (2.60%) e-Learning
5 2 (2.60%) Learning Management System
5 2 (2.60%) Social Media
6 1 (1.30%) 3D Graphics
6 1 (1.30%) Cloud Native
6 1 (1.30%) Greenfield Project
6 1 (1.30%) Management Information System
6 1 (1.30%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 2 (2.60%) Windows
2 1 (1.30%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 55 (71.43%) Agile
2 52 (67.53%) Coaching
2 52 (67.53%) Mentoring
3 21 (27.27%) DevOps
4 18 (23.38%) Continuous Improvement
5 17 (22.08%) Business Intelligence
6 14 (18.18%) AI
6 14 (18.18%) Project Management
7 12 (15.58%) Roadmaps
8 11 (14.29%) Analytical Thinking
8 11 (14.29%) Data Management
8 11 (14.29%) Problem-Solving
9 10 (12.99%) Business Development
9 10 (12.99%) Computer Science
9 10 (12.99%) Product Strategy
9 10 (12.99%) User Experience
10 9 (11.69%) Analytics
10 9 (11.69%) Cybersecurity
10 9 (11.69%) OWASP
11 8 (10.39%) Waterfall
Programming Languages
1 8 (10.39%) Python
2 7 (9.09%) SQL
3 6 (7.79%) C#
3 6 (7.79%) JavaScript
4 5 (6.49%) PowerShell
5 1 (1.30%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 15 (19.48%) Degree
2 8 (10.39%) CISM
2 8 (10.39%) CISSP
3 6 (7.79%) Computer Science Degree
3 6 (7.79%) DBS Check
4 5 (6.49%) Master's Degree
5 4 (5.19%) CRISC
6 3 (3.90%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (16.88%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 12 (15.58%) PMO
3 10 (12.99%) QA
4 9 (11.69%) NIST
5 5 (6.49%) Data Quality
5 5 (6.49%) NCSC
6 4 (5.19%) Cyber Essentials
6 4 (5.19%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 4 (5.19%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
6 4 (5.19%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 3 (3.90%) Accessibility
System Software
1 6 (7.79%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 1 (1.30%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 29 (37.66%) Microsoft
2 6 (7.79%) Databricks
3 4 (5.19%) Alteryx
4 3 (3.90%) Adobe
4 3 (3.90%) Intapp
4 3 (3.90%) PeopleSoft
4 3 (3.90%) ServiceNow
4 3 (3.90%) Workday