Strategic Thinking Job Trends in the South West

Strategic Thinking
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the South West requiring Strategic Thinking skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 159 112 120
Rank change year-on-year -47 +8 +65
Permanent jobs citing Strategic Thinking 85 56 119
As % of all permanent jobs in the South West 0.85% 1.60% 1.58%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.21% 1.96% 2.09%
Number of salaries quoted 34 46 44
10th Percentile £41,125 £60,498 -
25th Percentile £50,313 £70,000 £54,439
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £63,813 £75,000 £63,137
Median % change year-on-year -14.92% +18.79% -9.81%
75th Percentile £80,000 £80,000 £72,813
90th Percentile £88,750 £95,000 £92,625
England median annual salary £70,876 £72,546 £67,500
% change year-on-year -2.30% +7.47% -3.57%

All Process & Methodology Skills
South West

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 South West.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 7,047 2,859 5,706
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South West 70.70% 81.90% 75.72%
Number of salaries quoted 4,792 1,811 3,494
10th Percentile £30,500 £27,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £31,750 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £47,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +15.79% -13.64% -
75th Percentile £75,000 £65,000 £68,750
90th Percentile £90,000 £80,000 £81,250
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -7.93%

Strategic Thinking
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

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

Strategic Thinking job vacancy trend in the South West

Strategic Thinking
Salary Trend in the South West

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Strategic Thinking.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Strategic Thinking

Strategic Thinking
Salary Histogram in the South West

Salary distribution for jobs citing Strategic Thinking in the South West over the 6 months to 14 September 2026.

Salary histogram for Strategic Thinking in the South West

Strategic Thinking
Job Locations in the South West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Strategic Thinking within the South West region over the 6 months to 14 September 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
Somerset -1 39 £87,500 +20.61% 2
Wiltshire -6 18 £50,000 -19.67% 9
Bristol -47 10 £75,000 -11.76% 38
Devon -23 9 £63,813 -29.10% 6
Gloucestershire -43 7 £40,000 - 33
Dorset -28 1 - - 2
Strategic Thinking
England

Strategic Thinking
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South 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:

Applications
1 1 (1.18%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (1.18%) Microsoft Office
1 1 (1.18%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 4 (4.71%) SaaS
2 3 (3.53%) AWS
2 3 (3.53%) GitHub
3 2 (2.35%) Azure
3 2 (2.35%) Google Ads
3 2 (2.35%) Power Platform
4 1 (1.18%) Canva
4 1 (1.18%) GCP
4 1 (1.18%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 2 (2.35%) DNS
1 2 (2.35%) Firewall
2 1 (1.18%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (3.53%) MariaDB
1 3 (3.53%) MySQL
1 3 (3.53%) PostgreSQL
2 2 (2.35%) Data Warehouse
2 2 (2.35%) Power BI
3 1 (1.18%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 1 (1.18%) JIRA
General
1 38 (44.71%) Finance
2 37 (43.53%) Social Skills
3 32 (37.65%) Analytical Skills
4 25 (29.41%) Influencing Skills
4 25 (29.41%) Law
4 25 (29.41%) Manufacturing
4 25 (29.41%) Retail
5 24 (28.24%) Automotive
6 5 (5.88%) Marketing
7 1 (1.18%) Banking
7 1 (1.18%) Electronics
7 1 (1.18%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 1 (1.18%) Multimedia
Job Titles
1 24 (28.24%) Commercial Manager
2 23 (27.06%) Service Manager
3 21 (24.71%) Delivery Manager
3 21 (24.71%) Service Delivery Manager
4 7 (8.24%) Architect
5 6 (7.06%) Senior
6 4 (4.71%) Head of Operations
6 4 (4.71%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 4 (4.71%) Solutions Architect
7 3 (3.53%) Head of Delivery
7 3 (3.53%) Head of Service Delivery
7 3 (3.53%) IT Manager
7 3 (3.53%) Senior Software Engineer
7 3 (3.53%) Software Engineer
8 2 (2.35%) Data Engineer
8 2 (2.35%) Infrastructure Technical Architect
8 2 (2.35%) Senior Data Engineer
8 2 (2.35%) SEO Manager
8 2 (2.35%) Technical Architect
8 2 (2.35%) Technical Infrastructure Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (3.53%) AngularJS
1 3 (3.53%) CSS
1 3 (3.53%) CSS3
1 3 (3.53%) HTML
1 3 (3.53%) HTML5
1 3 (3.53%) jQuery
1 3 (3.53%) React
1 3 (3.53%) RESTful
1 3 (3.53%) Vue
2 2 (2.35%) OAuth
2 2 (2.35%) OAuth2
2 2 (2.35%) OpenID
2 2 (2.35%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 21 (24.71%) Virtual Team
2 4 (4.71%) Self-Motivation
3 3 (3.53%) Onboarding
4 2 (2.35%) Algorithms
4 2 (2.35%) Greenfield Project
4 2 (2.35%) Product Ownership
5 1 (1.18%) Cloud Native
5 1 (1.18%) Driving Licence
5 1 (1.18%) Embedded Systems
5 1 (1.18%) Lidar
5 1 (1.18%) Social Media
5 1 (1.18%) Video Editing
Operating Systems
1 3 (3.53%) Linux
1 3 (3.53%) Windows
2 2 (2.35%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 33 (38.82%) Stakeholder Management
2 29 (34.12%) Commercial Awareness
3 27 (31.76%) Continuous Improvement
4 26 (30.59%) Service Delivery
5 25 (29.41%) Data Protection
6 23 (27.06%) Actionable Insight
6 23 (27.06%) Project Management
7 21 (24.71%) Customer Experience
7 21 (24.71%) Six Sigma
7 21 (24.71%) WFM
8 18 (21.18%) Agile
9 12 (14.12%) Decision-Making
10 9 (10.59%) Collaborative Working
10 9 (10.59%) ERP
10 9 (10.59%) ITIL
11 8 (9.41%) AI
11 8 (9.41%) Problem-Solving
12 7 (8.24%) Line Management
12 7 (8.24%) Roadmaps
13 6 (7.06%) Collaborative Culture
Programming Languages
1 3 (3.53%) JavaScript
1 3 (3.53%) PHP
2 2 (2.35%) PowerShell
2 2 (2.35%) SQL
Qualifications
1 28 (32.94%) Degree
2 4 (4.71%) ACCA
2 4 (4.71%) CIMA
2 4 (4.71%) DBS Check
2 4 (4.71%) Security Cleared
3 3 (3.53%) Computer Science Degree
3 3 (3.53%) ITIL Certification
4 2 (2.35%) DV Cleared
4 2 (2.35%) Microsoft Certification
4 2 (2.35%) TOGAF Certification
5 1 (1.18%) BPSS Clearance
5 1 (1.18%) CIPD
5 1 (1.18%) CISM
5 1 (1.18%) CISSP
5 1 (1.18%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (3.53%) Accessibility
1 3 (3.53%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 2 (2.35%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 3 (3.53%) Plesk
2 2 (2.35%) Active Directory Federation Services
2 2 (2.35%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 24 (28.24%) NEC
2 5 (5.88%) Google
3 3 (3.53%) Microsoft
4 1 (1.18%) HubSpot
4 1 (1.18%) IFS