Cost Reduction Job Trends

Cost Reduction
UK

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

6 months to
14 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 542 481 445
Rank change year-on-year -61 -36 +197
Permanent jobs citing Cost Reduction 111 224 291
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.19% 0.42% 0.52%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.23% 0.46% 0.58%
Number of salaries quoted 57 92 139
10th Percentile £43,317 £31,250 £32,500
25th Percentile £51,250 £42,375 £43,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £60,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +16.67% +4.35% +4.55%
75th Percentile £98,750 £75,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £104,050 £97,500 £91,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £52,683 £54,650
% change year-on-year +32.87% -3.60% +9.30%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Cost Reduction 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 48,596 48,532 50,084
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 81.00% 90.69% 89.94%
Number of salaries quoted 28,664 23,590 38,164
10th Percentile £28,500 £35,000 £31,250
25th Percentile £37,500 £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 £77,750
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £52,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +5.77% -5.45%

Cost Reduction
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Cost Reduction job vacancy trend in the UK

Cost Reduction
Salary Trend

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

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Cost Reduction

Cost Reduction
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Cost Reduction over the 6 months to 14 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Cost Reduction in the UK

Cost Reduction
Top 16 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Cost Reduction within the UK over the 6 months to 14 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 -37 102 £72,750 +21.25% 53
UK excluding London -25 57 £70,000 +32.87% 44
London +28 54 £72,500 +16.00% 15
Work from Home +33 27 £50,000 -18.37% 30
East of England +17 15 £97,500 +160.00% 7
South West +18 13 £80,000 +20.75% 5
North of England -14 8 £57,500 +16.16% 12
South East +7 6 £65,000 +30.00% 8
Midlands -6 6 £48,489 -35.35% 7
Yorkshire -11 5 £52,500 +51.62% 4
Wales +11 4 £50,000 -9.09%
West Midlands +5 3 £56,250 -25.00% 6
North West -3 3 £62,500 +20.00% 6
East Midlands -19 3 £47,434 -15.30% 1
Isle of Man - 3 - - 2
Scotland +2 2 £52,750 -0.22% 1

Cost Reduction
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 7 (6.31%) Microsoft Exchange
2 4 (3.60%) SharePoint
Applications
1 7 (6.31%) Maya
2 1 (0.90%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.90%) MS Visio
2 1 (0.90%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 9 (8.11%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (6.31%) SAP IBP
Cloud Services
1 27 (24.32%) Azure
2 23 (20.72%) AWS
3 8 (7.21%) GCP
4 7 (6.31%) iPaaS
5 6 (5.41%) Microsoft 365
6 5 (4.50%) SaaS
7 4 (3.60%) OneDrive
8 2 (1.80%) Boomi
8 2 (1.80%) OCI
9 1 (0.90%) Lucidchart
9 1 (0.90%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 7 (6.31%) Firewall
2 6 (5.41%) TCP/IP
3 3 (2.70%) LAN
3 3 (2.70%) MPLS
3 3 (2.70%) Network Security
3 3 (2.70%) VLAN
3 3 (2.70%) VPN
3 3 (2.70%) WAN
4 2 (1.80%) BGP
4 2 (1.80%) Cisco ASA
4 2 (1.80%) NGFW
4 2 (1.80%) OSPF
4 2 (1.80%) SD-WAN
4 2 (1.80%) Unified Communications
5 1 (0.90%) DHCP
5 1 (0.90%) DNS
5 1 (0.90%) Ethernet VPN
5 1 (0.90%) IPv4
5 1 (0.90%) IPv6
5 1 (0.90%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (6.31%) Data Warehouse
1 7 (6.31%) SAP BW
2 4 (3.60%) Amazon RDS
3 2 (1.80%) Tableau
4 1 (0.90%) Crystal Reports
4 1 (0.90%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 2 (1.80%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 45 (40.54%) Finance
2 39 (35.14%) Social Skills
3 23 (20.72%) Analytical Skills
4 12 (10.81%) Law
4 12 (10.81%) Manufacturing
5 11 (9.91%) Automotive
5 11 (9.91%) Publishing
6 10 (9.01%) Public Sector
7 9 (8.11%) Telecoms
8 8 (7.21%) Banking
8 8 (7.21%) Marketing
9 7 (6.31%) Games
10 4 (3.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 4 (3.60%) Local Government
11 3 (2.70%) Back Office
12 2 (1.80%) Electronics
12 2 (1.80%) Influencing Skills
12 2 (1.80%) Italian Language
12 2 (1.80%) Legal
12 2 (1.80%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 39 (35.14%) Architect
2 26 (23.42%) Lead
3 17 (15.32%) Lead Architect
4 16 (14.41%) SAP Architect
5 12 (10.81%) Senior
6 11 (9.91%) Enterprise Architect
6 11 (9.91%) Lead Solutions Architect
6 11 (9.91%) Solutions Architect
7 9 (8.11%) ERP Architect
7 9 (8.11%) SAP Enterprise Architect
8 7 (6.31%) AWS Architect
8 7 (6.31%) Development Manager
8 7 (6.31%) IT Architect
8 7 (6.31%) SAP Functional Architect
8 7 (6.31%) Senior Architect
9 6 (5.41%) Consultant
10 5 (4.50%) Lead Security Architect
10 5 (4.50%) Security Architect
10 5 (4.50%) Software Development Manager
10 5 (4.50%) Software Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (6.31%) Middleware
2 3 (2.70%) .NET
3 2 (1.80%) REST
3 2 (1.80%) SOAP
3 2 (1.80%) Web Services
4 1 (0.90%) LangChain
4 1 (0.90%) LangGraph
Miscellaneous
1 10 (9.01%) Enterprise Software
2 9 (8.11%) Management Information System
2 9 (8.11%) Onboarding
3 7 (6.31%) PMI
3 7 (6.31%) Reinsurance
4 2 (1.80%) Analytical Mindset
4 2 (1.80%) Driving Licence
4 2 (1.80%) e-Learning
4 2 (1.80%) Shadow IT
4 2 (1.80%) Social Media
5 1 (0.90%) AI Agents
5 1 (0.90%) Autonomous Agent
5 1 (0.90%) Data Centre
5 1 (0.90%) Operational Technology
5 1 (0.90%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 9 (8.11%) Windows
2 7 (6.31%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 36 (32.43%) Agile
2 31 (27.93%) Roadmaps
3 22 (19.82%) Project Delivery
4 21 (18.92%) ERP
5 19 (17.12%) Project Management
6 18 (16.22%) Business Strategy
7 15 (13.51%) Cybersecurity
7 15 (13.51%) Enterprise Architecture
7 15 (13.51%) Service Delivery
8 14 (12.61%) Stakeholder Management
8 14 (12.61%) Technology Roadmap
9 12 (10.81%) Analytics
9 12 (10.81%) Asset Management
10 11 (9.91%) AI
10 11 (9.91%) Architectural Design
10 11 (9.91%) Continuous Improvement
10 11 (9.91%) Data Governance
10 11 (9.91%) Mentoring
10 11 (9.91%) Problem-Solving
10 11 (9.91%) TOGAF
Programming Languages
1 3 (2.70%) Python
1 3 (2.70%) SQL
2 2 (1.80%) Bash
2 2 (1.80%) C#
2 2 (1.80%) C++
2 2 (1.80%) Java
2 2 (1.80%) PowerShell
2 2 (1.80%) Scala
Qualifications
1 20 (18.02%) Degree
2 11 (9.91%) AWS Certification
2 11 (9.91%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
2 11 (9.91%) TOGAF Certification
3 7 (6.31%) PMI Certification
4 4 (3.60%) Master's Degree
5 3 (2.70%) CCNP
5 3 (2.70%) Cisco Certification
5 3 (2.70%) DBS Check
6 2 (1.80%) Computer Science Degree
6 2 (1.80%) ICAEW
7 1 (0.90%) CBAP
7 1 (0.90%) CCNA
7 1 (0.90%) Six Sigma Black Belt
7 1 (0.90%) Six Sigma Green Belt
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (3.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (2.70%) QA
2 3 (2.70%) SLA
3 2 (1.80%) GAAP
3 2 (1.80%) GDPR
3 2 (1.80%) IFRS
3 2 (1.80%) ISO 9001
3 2 (1.80%) ISO/IEC 20000
3 2 (1.80%) PCI DSS
4 1 (0.90%) Actionable Recommendations
4 1 (0.90%) NEBOSH
System Software
1 9 (8.11%) Active Directory
2 4 (3.60%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 4 (3.60%) Microsoft Intune
2 3 (2.70%) Terraform
3 2 (1.80%) Ansible
4 1 (0.90%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 25 (22.52%) SAP
2 18 (16.22%) Microsoft
3 11 (9.91%) Workday
4 7 (6.31%) Ariba
5 5 (4.50%) Salesforce
6 4 (3.60%) ServiceNow
6 4 (3.60%) VMware
7 3 (2.70%) Cisco
7 3 (2.70%) Google
7 3 (2.70%) IBM
7 3 (2.70%) Oracle
8 2 (1.80%) Alteryx
8 2 (1.80%) Fortinet
8 2 (1.80%) MobileIron
8 2 (1.80%) MuleSoft
8 2 (1.80%) Openreach
8 2 (1.80%) Palo Alto
8 2 (1.80%) Talend
8 2 (1.80%) Zscaler
9 1 (0.90%) IFS