Cost Optimisation Job Trends

Cost Optimization
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs 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 394 552 621
Rank change year-on-year +158 +69 +225
Permanent jobs citing Cost Optimisation 275 160 92
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.46% 0.29% 0.18%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.57% 0.32% 0.20%
Number of salaries quoted 184 108 73
10th Percentile £47,617 £47,500 £49,000
25th Percentile £60,000 £56,250 £60,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,406 £74,000 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.86% +5.71% -12.50%
75th Percentile £88,750 £93,750 £80,000
90th Percentile £116,750 £118,750 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £65,000 £57,500 £75,000
% change year-on-year +13.04% -23.33% +15.38%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

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.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 48,455 49,716 46,950
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 81.91% 90.02% 91.47%
Number of salaries quoted 28,359 24,660 35,854
10th Percentile £28,500 £35,000 £31,552
25th Percentile £36,500 £45,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £49,000 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -10.91% +4.76% -4.50%

Cost Optimisation
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Cost Optimisation job vacancy trend in the UK

Cost Optimisation
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Cost Optimisation.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Cost Optimisation

Cost Optimisation
Salary Histogram

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

Salary histogram for Cost Optimisation in the UK

Cost Optimisation
Top 17 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Cost Optimisation within the UK 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
England +171 249 £70,079 -5.30% 124
UK excluding London +124 144 £65,000 +13.04% 76
London +65 110 £80,000 -5.88% 61
Work from Home +94 81 £80,000 -5.88% 62
Midlands +67 53 £66,500 +10.83% 7
West Midlands +53 39 £60,000 +6.67% 5
North of England +52 38 £70,000 +33.33% 19
South East +43 35 £62,500 +8.70% 35
North West +38 22 £63,750 -7.27% 8
East Midlands +4 14 £68,000 +13.33% 2
Yorkshire +5 10 £69,000 +48.39% 10
South West -7 10 £48,750 -45.83% 2
North East - 6 £105,000 - 1
East of England +25 5 £68,750 -19.12% 8
Scotland -2 4 £66,289 -17.14% 5
Wales - 2 £63,039 -
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 2

Cost Optimisation
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 (5.09%) SharePoint
2 10 (3.64%) Confluence
3 9 (3.27%) Apache Airflow
4 5 (1.82%) Microsoft Exchange
5 1 (0.36%) Apache
5 1 (0.36%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.36%) Apache Superset
5 1 (0.36%) nginx
Applications
1 29 (10.55%) Microsoft Excel
2 18 (6.55%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (1.45%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (1.45%) Spreadsheet
4 3 (1.09%) Microsoft Project
4 3 (1.09%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 4 (1.45%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.73%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.36%) Dynamics NAV
3 1 (0.36%) NEC Housing
Cloud Services
1 145 (52.73%) Azure
2 103 (37.45%) AWS
3 48 (17.45%) GCP
4 39 (14.18%) Power Platform
5 33 (12.00%) SaaS
6 30 (10.91%) Entra ID
7 26 (9.45%) Serverless
8 25 (9.09%) dbt
8 25 (9.09%) GitHub
9 22 (8.00%) Microsoft 365
10 21 (7.64%) PaaS
11 18 (6.55%) GitHub Actions
12 16 (5.82%) AWS CloudFormation
12 16 (5.82%) Azure Monitor
12 16 (5.82%) Datadog
12 16 (5.82%) Snowflake
13 15 (5.45%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 13 (4.73%) AWS Lambda
14 13 (4.73%) Azure DevOps
15 12 (4.36%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 14 (5.09%) Firewall
2 11 (4.00%) VPN
3 9 (3.27%) Network Security
4 7 (2.55%) Broadband
4 7 (2.55%) Fibre Channel
4 7 (2.55%) WAN
5 5 (1.82%) Unified Communications
5 5 (1.82%) Wi-Fi
6 3 (1.09%) DNS
6 3 (1.09%) LAN
7 2 (0.73%) BGP
8 1 (0.36%) NAS
8 1 (0.36%) SAN
8 1 (0.36%) SD-WAN
8 1 (0.36%) SNMP
8 1 (0.36%) Wireless
8 1 (0.36%) Wireshark
8 1 (0.36%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (11.27%) Power BI
2 21 (7.64%) BigQuery
3 12 (4.36%) Data Warehouse
4 9 (3.27%) NoSQL
5 8 (2.91%) Oracle Database
5 8 (2.91%) Oracle Exadata
6 7 (2.55%) RDBMS
6 7 (2.55%) Relational Database
7 6 (2.18%) Amazon RDS
7 6 (2.18%) Snowflake Schema
7 6 (2.18%) SQL Server
8 5 (1.82%) Azure SQL Database
8 5 (1.82%) Big Data
8 5 (1.82%) Metadata
8 5 (1.82%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 5 (1.82%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 5 (1.82%) Tableau
9 4 (1.45%) Data Lake
9 4 (1.45%) SQL Server Analysis Services
10 3 (1.09%) Amazon Athena
Development Applications
1 18 (6.55%) Git
2 17 (6.18%) Jenkins
3 10 (3.64%) JIRA
4 7 (2.55%) Cucumber
4 7 (2.55%) Jaeger
4 7 (2.55%) JMeter
4 7 (2.55%) Locust
5 6 (2.18%) GitLab
6 2 (0.73%) MLflow
7 1 (0.36%) CircleCI
7 1 (0.36%) TeamCity
General
1 87 (31.64%) Social Skills
2 75 (27.27%) Finance
3 39 (14.18%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 34 (12.36%) Analytical Skills
5 25 (9.09%) Law
6 24 (8.73%) Marketing
7 20 (7.27%) Billing
8 10 (3.64%) Public Sector
9 8 (2.91%) Financial Institution
10 7 (2.55%) Influencing Skills
10 7 (2.55%) Legal
10 7 (2.55%) Manufacturing
11 5 (1.82%) Electronics
12 4 (1.45%) Banking
12 4 (1.45%) Retail
13 3 (1.09%) Aerospace
13 3 (1.09%) Telecoms
14 2 (0.73%) Investment Banking
14 2 (0.73%) Organisational Skills
14 2 (0.73%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 54 (19.64%) Architect
2 29 (10.55%) Analyst
2 29 (10.55%) Lead
3 26 (9.45%) Cloud Architect
4 21 (7.64%) Senior
5 20 (7.27%) GCP Architect
5 20 (7.27%) Platform Architect
6 18 (6.55%) Platform Engineer
7 15 (5.45%) Cloud Engineer
7 15 (5.45%) Operations Engineer
8 13 (4.73%) Data Engineer
9 11 (4.00%) DevOps Engineer
9 11 (4.00%) IT Manager
10 10 (3.64%) Support Engineer
11 8 (2.91%) Data Manager
11 8 (2.91%) Database Architect
11 8 (2.91%) Engineering Manager
11 8 (2.91%) Junior
11 8 (2.91%) Oracle Architect
12 7 (2.55%) Test Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (4.73%) Elastic Stack
2 11 (4.00%) YAML
3 8 (2.91%) OpenTelemetry
4 7 (2.55%) Gherkin
5 4 (1.45%) ADO
5 4 (1.45%) ARM Templates
5 4 (1.45%) Middleware
5 4 (1.45%) OAuth
5 4 (1.45%) SAML
6 3 (1.09%) LangGraph
7 2 (0.73%) AWS CDK
7 2 (0.73%) LangChain
7 2 (0.73%) Microsoft Graph
8 1 (0.36%) Kafka
8 1 (0.36%) Next.js
8 1 (0.36%) Node.js
8 1 (0.36%) PySpark
8 1 (0.36%) Snowpark
Miscellaneous
1 42 (15.27%) Cloud Native
2 23 (8.36%) Public Cloud
3 21 (7.64%) Onboarding
4 14 (5.09%) Data Centre
4 14 (5.09%) Management Information System
5 12 (4.36%) Enterprise Software
5 12 (4.36%) Hybrid Cloud
6 7 (2.55%) Enterprise Storage
6 7 (2.55%) Virtual Team
7 5 (1.82%) CMDB
7 5 (1.82%) Security Posture
8 4 (1.45%) Augmented Reality
8 4 (1.45%) Greenfield Project
8 4 (1.45%) Private Cloud
9 3 (1.09%) iPad
9 3 (1.09%) iPhone
9 3 (1.09%) Mobile App
10 2 (0.73%) Analytical Mindset
10 2 (0.73%) Distributed Systems
11 1 (0.36%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 25 (9.09%) Linux
2 7 (2.55%) Unix
2 7 (2.55%) Windows
2 7 (2.55%) zOS
3 5 (1.82%) VMS
3 5 (1.82%) Windows Server
4 3 (1.09%) Apple iOS
4 3 (1.09%) SUSE
5 2 (0.73%) Android
5 2 (0.73%) Mac OS
5 2 (0.73%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 74 (26.91%) FinOps
2 71 (25.82%) DevOps
3 70 (25.45%) Infrastructure as Code
4 69 (25.09%) Continuous Improvement
5 66 (24.00%) CI/CD
6 63 (22.91%) Roadmaps
7 57 (20.73%) Analytics
8 50 (18.18%) AI
8 50 (18.18%) Cost Management
8 50 (18.18%) Observability
9 48 (17.45%) Agile
9 48 (17.45%) Mentoring
10 42 (15.27%) Cybersecurity
11 40 (14.55%) Budgeting
12 34 (12.36%) Containerisation
13 33 (12.00%) Budgeting and Forecasting
13 33 (12.00%) Cloud Security
14 32 (11.64%) Business Intelligence
14 32 (11.64%) Incident Response
15 31 (11.27%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 88 (32.00%) Python
2 39 (14.18%) SQL
3 35 (12.73%) Java
4 27 (9.82%) Go
5 20 (7.27%) Bash
6 11 (4.00%) Bicep
7 7 (2.55%) JavaScript
7 7 (2.55%) JCL
7 7 (2.55%) PowerShell
7 7 (2.55%) REXX
8 6 (2.18%) C#
9 4 (1.45%) Kusto Query Language
9 4 (1.45%) VBA
10 2 (0.73%) T-SQL
11 1 (0.36%) Scala
11 1 (0.36%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 39 (14.18%) AWS Certification
2 25 (9.09%) Degree
3 18 (6.55%) Security Cleared
4 17 (6.18%) SC Cleared
5 13 (4.73%) Computer Science Degree
6 12 (4.36%) Azure Certification
7 9 (3.27%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 9 (3.27%) Master's Degree
8 8 (2.91%) OCP
8 8 (2.91%) Oracle Certification
9 5 (1.82%) Microsoft Certification
9 5 (1.82%) SnowPro
10 4 (1.45%) ACCA
10 4 (1.45%) CIMA
10 4 (1.45%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 4 (1.45%) PMI Certification
10 4 (1.45%) PMP
10 4 (1.45%) RHCE
11 3 (1.09%) MBA
11 3 (1.09%) MCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (7.27%) GDPR
2 11 (4.00%) Accessibility
2 11 (4.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 9 (3.27%) QA
4 8 (2.91%) Data Quality
4 8 (2.91%) SLA
5 7 (2.55%) WCAG
6 5 (1.82%) NIST
7 4 (1.45%) Cyber Essentials
7 4 (1.45%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 4 (1.45%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 4 (1.45%) SOC 2
8 2 (0.73%) GRC
8 2 (0.73%) HIPAA
8 2 (0.73%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.36%) FINRA
9 1 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
9 1 (0.36%) NEBOSH
9 1 (0.36%) PMO
System Software
1 41 (14.91%) Docker
2 20 (7.27%) Active Directory
3 9 (3.27%) Virtual Machines
4 8 (2.91%) Oracle RAC
5 7 (2.55%) Time Sharing Option
6 1 (0.36%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.36%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 82 (29.82%) Terraform
2 63 (22.91%) Kubernetes
3 27 (9.82%) Ansible
4 21 (7.64%) Prometheus
5 20 (7.27%) Grafana
6 15 (5.45%) Microsoft Intune
7 13 (4.73%) Argo
8 11 (4.00%) Single Sign-On
9 8 (2.91%) Data Guard
9 8 (2.91%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
9 8 (2.91%) Oracle RMAN
10 7 (2.55%) Kustomize
11 3 (1.09%) Jamf Pro
11 3 (1.09%) Rancher
12 1 (0.36%) HAProxy
12 1 (0.36%) Istio
12 1 (0.36%) linkerd
12 1 (0.36%) Nagios
Vendors
1 69 (25.09%) Microsoft
2 34 (12.36%) Google
3 20 (7.27%) Apple
3 20 (7.27%) Databricks
4 19 (6.91%) Oracle
5 17 (6.18%) Adobe
6 16 (5.82%) SAP
7 9 (3.27%) Splunk
8 8 (2.91%) Delphix
8 8 (2.91%) IBM
8 8 (2.91%) New Relic
8 8 (2.91%) Palo Alto
8 8 (2.91%) ServiceNow
9 7 (2.55%) Broadcom
9 7 (2.55%) Dell
10 5 (1.82%) Ariba
10 5 (1.82%) Okta
10 5 (1.82%) Talend
11 4 (1.45%) CrowdStrike
11 4 (1.45%) Dataiku