Thought Leadership Job Trends

Thought Leadership
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs requiring Thought Leadership skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 2 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 359 260 477
Rank change year-on-year -99 +217 -220
Permanent jobs citing Thought Leadership 602 555 330
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.51% 1.12% 0.44%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.70% 1.26% 0.54%
Number of salaries quoted 276 145 170
10th Percentile £50,000 £43,000 £47,500
25th Percentile £63,750 £58,750 £65,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £87,500 £80,000 £80,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.38% - -
75th Percentile £111,250 £105,000 £97,500
90th Percentile £118,563 £121,500 £111,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £85,000 £65,000 £80,000
% change year-on-year +30.77% -18.75% +0.46%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Thought Leadership 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 86,437 44,202 61,341
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.18% 89.12% 81.82%
Number of salaries quoted 59,483 24,460 33,440
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £41,500 £36,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £58,465
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -5.93% -2.56%
75th Percentile £78,750 £75,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £96,250 £96,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year +15.79% -9.52% -2.78%

Thought Leadership
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Thought Leadership job vacancy trend in the UK

Thought Leadership
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Thought Leadership.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Thought Leadership

Thought Leadership
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Thought Leadership over the 6 months to 2 October 2026.

Salary histogram for Thought Leadership in the UK

Thought Leadership
Top 17 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Thought Leadership within the UK over the 6 months to 2 October 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 -95 527 £88,750 +14.52% 1,823
London -66 332 £95,000 - 1,333
UK excluding London -87 195 £85,000 +30.77% 637
Work from Home +7 147 £78,500 +20.77% 758
North of England -25 65 £90,000 +16.13% 193
Midlands -26 42 £85,000 +25.93% 66
North West -12 37 £95,000 +22.58% 129
South East -97 33 £90,000 +105.71% 117
West Midlands -31 26 £90,000 +46.94% 47
South West -58 22 £100,000 +39.04% 84
Yorkshire -24 17 £79,250 -6.76% 41
Wales -59 17 £55,000 +15.79% 14
East Midlands -25 16 £60,000 -40.00% 19
East of England -30 12 £60,100 +4.52% 34
North East - 11 £100,000 - 23
Scotland +1 7 £110,000 +47.65% 97
Northern Ireland -87 1 - - 34

Thought Leadership
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 9 (1.50%) Microsoft Exchange
2 8 (1.33%) Palantir Foundry
3 6 (1.00%) CMS
4 5 (0.83%) Confluence
5 4 (0.66%) Apache Spark
6 3 (0.50%) ArcGIS
6 3 (0.50%) SAS
7 2 (0.33%) Umbraco
7 2 (0.33%) WordPress
8 1 (0.17%) SharePoint
Applications
1 6 (1.00%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (0.66%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (0.50%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.33%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 23 (3.82%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (1.00%) Distributed Ledger
2 6 (1.00%) Oracle ERP
3 5 (0.83%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 3 (0.50%) Dynamics CRM
4 3 (0.50%) SAP ERP
4 3 (0.50%) SAP MDG
4 3 (0.50%) SAP MDG-BP
4 3 (0.50%) SAP MDG-F
4 3 (0.50%) Summit
5 2 (0.33%) SAP CO
5 2 (0.33%) SAP FI
5 2 (0.33%) SAP FI/CO
6 1 (0.17%) SAP GRC
6 1 (0.17%) SAP IBP
Cloud Services
1 167 (27.74%) AWS
2 103 (17.11%) Azure
3 66 (10.96%) SaaS
4 50 (8.31%) GCP
5 34 (5.65%) AWS CloudFormation
6 33 (5.48%) Cloud Computing
7 22 (3.65%) Serverless
8 17 (2.82%) GitHub
9 16 (2.66%) Amazon Bedrock
9 16 (2.66%) Power Platform
10 13 (2.16%) Azure AI
11 10 (1.66%) Amazon ECS
12 9 (1.50%) AWS Lambda
12 9 (1.50%) PaaS
13 8 (1.33%) Amazon EKS
13 8 (1.33%) Amazon S3
13 8 (1.33%) Azure DevOps
13 8 (1.33%) Microsoft 365
14 7 (1.16%) GitHub Actions
14 7 (1.16%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 10 (1.66%) Firewall
1 10 (1.66%) Internet
2 9 (1.50%) WAN
3 8 (1.33%) SD-WAN
3 8 (1.33%) Wireless
4 7 (1.16%) Broadband
4 7 (1.16%) Cisco ISE
4 7 (1.16%) Cisco Wireless
4 7 (1.16%) LAN
4 7 (1.16%) WebEx
4 7 (1.16%) WLAN
5 2 (0.33%) AMQP
5 2 (0.33%) BGP
5 2 (0.33%) MQTT
5 2 (0.33%) OSPF
5 2 (0.33%) SSL
5 2 (0.33%) VPN
6 1 (0.17%) GoToMeeting
6 1 (0.17%) Multicast
6 1 (0.17%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (5.32%) NoSQL
2 20 (3.32%) Data Mining
3 19 (3.16%) Tableau
4 17 (2.82%) Amazon QuickSight
5 14 (2.33%) Metadata
5 14 (2.33%) Power BI
6 7 (1.16%) Big Data
7 6 (1.00%) Data Warehouse
7 6 (1.00%) Relational Database
8 5 (0.83%) Geospatial Data
8 5 (0.83%) SAP HANA
9 4 (0.66%) Amazon Redshift
9 4 (0.66%) BusinessObjects
9 4 (0.66%) Hadoop
9 4 (0.66%) Metadata Repository
9 4 (0.66%) RDBMS
9 4 (0.66%) Star Schema
10 3 (0.50%) MongoDB
10 3 (0.50%) PostgreSQL
10 3 (0.50%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 29 (4.82%) GitLab
2 26 (4.32%) Cucumber
3 10 (1.66%) Jenkins
4 8 (1.33%) Git
5 6 (1.00%) Maven
6 5 (0.83%) JIRA
6 5 (0.83%) MLflow
7 4 (0.66%) Claude Code
8 3 (0.50%) Vite
9 2 (0.33%) Ant
9 2 (0.33%) Apache Ivy
9 2 (0.33%) Balsamiq
9 2 (0.33%) IBM UrbanCode
9 2 (0.33%) rollup.js
10 1 (0.17%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 1 (0.17%) Bitbucket
10 1 (0.17%) ERwin
10 1 (0.17%) mountebank
General
1 265 (44.02%) Finance
2 212 (35.22%) Social Skills
3 164 (27.24%) Marketing
4 113 (18.77%) Public Sector
5 85 (14.12%) Analytical Skills
6 72 (11.96%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 58 (9.63%) Influencing Skills
8 48 (7.97%) Banking
9 47 (7.81%) Retail
10 44 (7.31%) Legal
11 36 (5.98%) Presentation Skills
12 32 (5.32%) Law
13 24 (3.99%) Brand Awareness
14 21 (3.49%) Back Office
15 20 (3.32%) Manufacturing
16 17 (2.82%) Financial Institution
17 16 (2.66%) Public Speaking
17 16 (2.66%) Telecoms
18 13 (2.16%) Military
18 13 (2.16%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 125 (20.76%) Architect
2 108 (17.94%) Senior
3 74 (12.29%) Lead
4 53 (8.80%) Consultant
5 44 (7.31%) Senior Manager
6 37 (6.15%) Product Manager
7 32 (5.32%) Solutions Architect
8 29 (4.82%) Marketing Manager
8 29 (4.82%) Senior Architect
9 26 (4.32%) Java Engineer
9 26 (4.32%) Lead Architect
10 25 (4.15%) Principal Engineer
10 25 (4.15%) Principal Java Engineer
11 23 (3.82%) Senior Product Manager
12 22 (3.65%) Security Architect
13 20 (3.32%) Digital Product Manager
13 20 (3.32%) Senior Digital Product Manager
14 18 (2.99%) Lead Security Architect
15 17 (2.82%) Data Architect
15 17 (2.82%) Enterprise Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (5.32%) Kafka
2 27 (4.49%) Spring
2 27 (4.49%) Spring Boot
3 21 (3.49%) Terraform
4 14 (2.33%) LangChain
4 14 (2.33%) LangGraph
5 10 (1.66%) FastAPI
6 7 (1.16%) CrewAI
7 6 (1.00%) Oracle Fusion
8 5 (0.83%) Model Context Protocol
9 4 (0.66%) Middleware
9 4 (0.66%) pgvector
9 4 (0.66%) PyTorch
9 4 (0.66%) React
9 4 (0.66%) TensorFlow
10 3 (0.50%) CSS
10 3 (0.50%) LlamaIndex
10 3 (0.50%) OpenACC
10 3 (0.50%) OpenMP
10 3 (0.50%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 93 (15.45%) Cloud Native
2 65 (10.80%) Onboarding
3 46 (7.64%) Enterprise Software
4 37 (6.15%) Distributed Systems
5 34 (5.65%) AI Agents
6 32 (5.32%) Blog
7 29 (4.82%) Social Media
8 27 (4.49%) Public Cloud
9 25 (4.15%) e-Learning
9 25 (4.15%) Product Ownership
9 25 (4.15%) Web Conferencing
10 16 (2.66%) Management Information System
10 16 (2.66%) Self-Motivation
11 12 (1.99%) Enterprise Cloud
11 12 (1.99%) NHS
12 10 (1.66%) Greenfield Project
13 9 (1.50%) Hackathon
13 9 (1.50%) Legacy Applications
14 8 (1.33%) Cyber Threat
14 8 (1.33%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 7 (1.16%) Windows
2 6 (1.00%) Linux
3 2 (0.33%) Solaris
3 2 (0.33%) Unix
3 2 (0.33%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 219 (36.38%) AI
2 184 (30.56%) Mentoring
3 171 (28.41%) Business Development
4 169 (28.07%) Roadmaps
5 161 (26.74%) Stakeholder Management
6 136 (22.59%) Analytics
7 118 (19.60%) Agile
8 107 (17.77%) Decision-Making
9 95 (15.78%) Coaching
10 87 (14.45%) Continuous Improvement
11 83 (13.79%) CI/CD
12 80 (13.29%) B2B
13 77 (12.79%) Machine Learning
14 73 (12.13%) Infrastructure as Code
14 73 (12.13%) Problem-Solving
15 72 (11.96%) Risk Management
16 69 (11.46%) DevOps
17 64 (10.63%) Technical Leadership
18 57 (9.47%) Collaborative Culture
19 54 (8.97%) Microservices
Programming Languages
1 69 (11.46%) Python
2 65 (10.80%) SQL
3 37 (6.15%) Java
4 11 (1.83%) R
5 7 (1.16%) PowerShell
6 5 (0.83%) Bash
7 3 (0.50%) TypeScript
8 2 (0.33%) ABAP
8 2 (0.33%) Apex Code
8 2 (0.33%) Bicep
8 2 (0.33%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 2 (0.33%) Go
8 2 (0.33%) JavaScript
8 2 (0.33%) Scala
8 2 (0.33%) SOQL
8 2 (0.33%) SOSL
9 1 (0.17%) C#
9 1 (0.17%) Ruby
9 1 (0.17%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 106 (17.61%) Security Cleared
2 104 (17.28%) Degree
3 75 (12.46%) SC Cleared
4 47 (7.81%) AWS Certification
5 28 (4.65%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
6 25 (4.15%) Master's Degree
7 16 (2.66%) CISSP
7 16 (2.66%) Computer Science Degree
8 13 (2.16%) BPSS Clearance
9 12 (1.99%) Postgraduate
10 11 (1.83%) Azure Certification
10 11 (1.83%) CISM
11 10 (1.66%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
12 8 (1.33%) Cisco Certification
12 8 (1.33%) DV Cleared
12 8 (1.33%) MBA
13 6 (1.00%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 6 (1.00%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
13 6 (1.00%) TOGAF Certification
14 5 (0.83%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (3.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 20 (3.32%) Data Quality
2 20 (3.32%) NIST
3 19 (3.16%) GDPR
4 17 (2.82%) Accessibility
5 16 (2.66%) GRC
6 12 (1.99%) PCI DSS
6 12 (1.99%) QA
7 11 (1.83%) SLA
8 7 (1.16%) Basel III
9 6 (1.00%) Cyber Essentials
10 5 (0.83%) JSP 440
11 4 (0.66%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 4 (0.66%) PMO
12 3 (0.50%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 3 (0.50%) SOC 2
13 2 (0.33%) Actionable Recommendations
13 2 (0.33%) IFRS
13 2 (0.33%) RMADS
13 2 (0.33%) WCAG
System Software
1 21 (3.49%) Docker
2 6 (1.00%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.50%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 34 (5.65%) Kubernetes
2 8 (1.33%) Ansible
3 4 (0.66%) Microsoft Intune
4 3 (0.50%) Istio
4 3 (0.50%) Jamf Pro
4 3 (0.50%) Progress Chef
4 3 (0.50%) Puppet
5 2 (0.33%) Argo
6 1 (0.17%) Amdocs OSS
6 1 (0.17%) AppManager
6 1 (0.17%) EMC NetWorker
6 1 (0.17%) FortiGate
6 1 (0.17%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 64 (10.63%) Microsoft
2 41 (6.81%) SAP
3 30 (4.98%) Salesforce
4 23 (3.82%) Google
5 20 (3.32%) Oracle
6 15 (2.49%) Databricks
6 15 (2.49%) HubSpot
6 15 (2.49%) Workday
7 13 (2.16%) ServiceNow
8 11 (1.83%) Cisco
8 11 (1.83%) Foundry
8 11 (1.83%) OpenAI
9 8 (1.33%) Fortinet
9 8 (1.33%) Palantir
10 7 (1.16%) Aruba
10 7 (1.16%) Juniper
11 6 (1.00%) Cognizant
12 5 (0.83%) Marketo
13 4 (0.66%) Informatica
14 3 (0.50%) Apple