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 19 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 292 270 355
Rank change year-on-year -22 +85 -97
Permanent jobs citing Thought Leadership 556 461 736
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.64% 1.10% 0.78%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.85% 1.19% 0.90%
Number of salaries quoted 203 146 488
10th Percentile £45,600 £46,250 £41,250
25th Percentile £62,125 £67,813 £57,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £80,000 £87,500 £80,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.57% +9.38% -5.88%
75th Percentile £97,500 £110,000 £100,064
90th Percentile £114,500 £130,625 £130,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £86,500 £80,000
% change year-on-year -19.08% +8.13% +3.23%

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 65,473 38,805 81,335
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 75.33% 92.93% 85.93%
Number of salaries quoted 40,444 22,598 59,573
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.17% +9.09% -10.57%
75th Percentile £77,500 £80,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £97,500 £102,500 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,600 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.94% +5.20% -8.90%

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 19 April 2026.

Salary histogram for Thought Leadership in the UK

Thought Leadership
Top 16 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 19 April 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 -27 488 £80,000 -7.51% 301
London +46 317 £85,000 -5.56% 173
UK excluding London -78 172 £70,000 -19.08% 170
Work from Home -27 107 £65,000 -25.71% 105
North of England -68 52 £80,000 -15.47% 52
East of England +4 44 £60,100 -42.76% 7
South East -92 40 £47,500 -32.14% 66
North West -33 36 £80,000 -15.47% 22
Yorkshire -45 14 £90,000 +20.00% 22
Scotland -35 13 £80,000 -20.00% 5
Midlands -44 11 £75,000 - 24
South West -47 9 £56,000 -32.12% 12
West Midlands -33 8 £77,500 +3.33% 14
East Midlands - 3 £50,000 - 10
Wales - 3 £55,000 - 1
North East -33 2 - - 8

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 11 (1.98%) Palantir Foundry
2 8 (1.44%) Apache Airflow
3 6 (1.08%) IIS
3 6 (1.08%) Microsoft Exchange
4 5 (0.90%) CMS
5 4 (0.72%) Apache Spark
6 3 (0.54%) Confluence
6 3 (0.54%) WordPress
7 1 (0.18%) Apache
7 1 (0.18%) Drupal
7 1 (0.18%) nginx
7 1 (0.18%) SharePoint
Applications
1 13 (2.34%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 7 (1.26%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (0.90%) Adobe XD
3 5 (0.90%) InVision
3 5 (0.90%) Sketch
4 4 (0.72%) Maya
4 4 (0.72%) Microsoft Office
5 3 (0.54%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 2 (0.36%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.18%) Adobe Illustrator
7 1 (0.18%) Elementor
7 1 (0.18%) Photoshop
7 1 (0.18%) Siemens NX
7 1 (0.18%) Trello
Business Applications
1 20 (3.60%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (0.90%) Dynamics CRM
2 5 (0.90%) SAP MDG
3 3 (0.54%) Elite 3E
3 3 (0.54%) SAP MDG-F
4 2 (0.36%) SAP MDG-BP
4 2 (0.36%) SAP SCM
4 2 (0.36%) Teamcenter
5 1 (0.18%) Endur
5 1 (0.18%) Magento
5 1 (0.18%) NetSuite
5 1 (0.18%) Oracle Applications
5 1 (0.18%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.18%) SAP CO
5 1 (0.18%) SAP FI
5 1 (0.18%) SAP FI/CO
5 1 (0.18%) SAP MDG-M
5 1 (0.18%) SAP MDG-S
5 1 (0.18%) SAP PLM
5 1 (0.18%) SAP WM
Cloud Services
1 89 (16.01%) AWS
2 61 (10.97%) Azure
3 45 (8.09%) SaaS
4 42 (7.55%) GCP
5 41 (7.37%) Snowflake
6 11 (1.98%) AWS CloudFormation
7 9 (1.62%) Cloud Computing
7 9 (1.62%) Serverless
8 7 (1.26%) Dynamics 365
8 7 (1.26%) GitHub
8 7 (1.26%) Power Platform
8 7 (1.26%) SuccessFactors
9 6 (1.08%) Azure AI
9 6 (1.08%) dbt
9 6 (1.08%) OCI
10 5 (0.90%) Azure Machine Learning
10 5 (0.90%) Figma
10 5 (0.90%) Matillion
10 5 (0.90%) Microsoft 365
10 5 (0.90%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 13 (2.34%) Firewall
2 7 (1.26%) Intrusion Detection
2 7 (1.26%) Network Security
3 6 (1.08%) SD-WAN
3 6 (1.08%) WAN
3 6 (1.08%) Wireless
4 5 (0.90%) Cisco ISE
4 5 (0.90%) WebEx
5 4 (0.72%) Broadband
5 4 (0.72%) LAN
6 3 (0.54%) Cisco Wireless
6 3 (0.54%) Wi-Fi
6 3 (0.54%) WLAN
7 2 (0.36%) Cisco IPT
7 2 (0.36%) SSL
7 2 (0.36%) Tactical Data Link
8 1 (0.18%) Bluetooth
8 1 (0.18%) LoRaWAN
8 1 (0.18%) ZigBee
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (5.94%) Data Warehouse
2 28 (5.04%) Data Lake
3 14 (2.52%) NoSQL
4 9 (1.62%) Big Data
5 7 (1.26%) Tableau
6 6 (1.08%) Hadoop
6 6 (1.08%) Metadata
7 5 (0.90%) Data Mining
7 5 (0.90%) Power BI
8 4 (0.72%) SAP HANA
9 3 (0.54%) Amazon RDS
9 3 (0.54%) Delta Lake
10 2 (0.36%) BigQuery
10 2 (0.36%) Looker
10 2 (0.36%) SAP Data Services
10 2 (0.36%) Semantic Layer
10 2 (0.36%) SQL Server
11 1 (0.18%) MongoDB
11 1 (0.18%) SAP BW
11 1 (0.18%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 8 (1.44%) GitLab
2 7 (1.26%) Cucumber
3 6 (1.08%) MLflow
4 5 (0.90%) Axure RP
5 4 (0.72%) Git
5 4 (0.72%) JIRA
6 3 (0.54%) Jenkins
7 1 (0.18%) Cypress.io
7 1 (0.18%) Gatling
7 1 (0.18%) JMeter
7 1 (0.18%) rollup.js
7 1 (0.18%) Selenium
7 1 (0.18%) SonarQube
7 1 (0.18%) Vagrant
General
1 188 (33.81%) Finance
2 129 (23.20%) Social Skills
3 92 (16.55%) Analytical Skills
4 91 (16.37%) Marketing
5 70 (12.59%) Public Sector
6 68 (12.23%) Presentation Skills
7 54 (9.71%) Retail
8 34 (6.12%) Legal
9 32 (5.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 30 (5.40%) Influencing Skills
11 26 (4.68%) Banking
12 24 (4.32%) Pharmaceutical
13 23 (4.14%) Law
14 20 (3.60%) Financial Institution
15 17 (3.06%) Aerospace
15 17 (3.06%) Games
16 16 (2.88%) Brand Awareness
17 11 (1.98%) Manufacturing
18 10 (1.80%) Organisational Skills
19 9 (1.62%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 133 (23.92%) Senior
2 83 (14.93%) Architect
3 82 (14.75%) Consultant
4 65 (11.69%) Lead
5 61 (10.97%) Account Executive
6 59 (10.61%) Sales Executive
7 41 (7.37%) Senior Sales Executive
8 38 (6.83%) Business Development Executive
9 34 (6.12%) Senior Account Executive
10 33 (5.94%) Business Sales Executive
10 33 (5.94%) Sales Account Executive
11 29 (5.22%) Business Architect
11 29 (5.22%) Senior Manager
12 26 (4.68%) Senior Architect
13 25 (4.50%) Product Specialist
13 25 (4.50%) Senior Consultant
14 24 (4.32%) Data Management Specialist
15 23 (4.14%) Business Consultant
16 19 (3.42%) Business Manager
16 19 (3.42%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (2.52%) Kafka
2 13 (2.34%) Spring
2 13 (2.34%) Spring Boot
3 7 (1.26%) CSS
3 7 (1.26%) HTML
4 6 (1.08%) REST
4 6 (1.08%) SOAP
4 6 (1.08%) XML
5 5 (0.90%) OAuth
5 5 (0.90%) OAuth2
5 5 (0.90%) Play Framework
5 5 (0.90%) React
6 4 (0.72%) Flutter
6 4 (0.72%) LangChain
6 4 (0.72%) PyTorch
6 4 (0.72%) TensorFlow
6 4 (0.72%) VML
7 3 (0.54%) Oracle Fusion
7 3 (0.54%) PySpark
8 2 (0.36%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 34 (6.12%) Cloud Native
2 32 (5.76%) Enterprise Software
3 31 (5.58%) Life Science
4 27 (4.86%) Blog
5 20 (3.60%) Self-Motivation
6 15 (2.70%) AI Agents
6 15 (2.70%) Management Information System
6 15 (2.70%) Product Ownership
7 14 (2.52%) Distributed Systems
7 14 (2.52%) e-Learning
8 13 (2.34%) Onboarding
9 12 (2.16%) Social Media
9 12 (2.16%) Web Conferencing
10 11 (1.98%) Podcast
11 10 (1.80%) Algorithms
12 9 (1.62%) Data Fabric
12 9 (1.62%) Legacy Applications
13 8 (1.44%) Security Posture
13 8 (1.44%) Virtual Team
14 7 (1.26%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 3 (0.54%) Windows
2 2 (0.36%) Linux
3 1 (0.18%) Android
3 1 (0.18%) Apple iOS
3 1 (0.18%) VMS
3 1 (0.18%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 184 (33.09%) AI
2 166 (29.86%) Decision-Making
3 164 (29.50%) Business Development
4 126 (22.66%) Analytics
5 114 (20.50%) Mentoring
6 113 (20.32%) Roadmaps
7 104 (18.71%) Agile
8 77 (13.85%) Business Strategy
9 76 (13.67%) Workshop Facilitation
10 74 (13.31%) Problem-Solving
11 69 (12.41%) Stakeholder Management
12 63 (11.33%) Cybersecurity
12 63 (11.33%) Strategic Thinking
13 60 (10.79%) Use Case
14 56 (10.07%) B2B
15 55 (9.89%) Continuous Improvement
16 54 (9.71%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 53 (9.53%) Data Science
17 53 (9.53%) Machine Learning
18 52 (9.35%) Generative AI
Programming Languages
1 40 (7.19%) Python
2 38 (6.83%) Java
3 22 (3.96%) SQL
4 8 (1.44%) R
5 6 (1.08%) JavaScript
6 5 (0.90%) C#
6 5 (0.90%) Kotlin
6 5 (0.90%) Scala
7 4 (0.72%) Go
8 3 (0.54%) PowerShell
9 1 (0.18%) ABAP
9 1 (0.18%) Bash
9 1 (0.18%) PHP
9 1 (0.18%) Ruby
9 1 (0.18%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 158 (28.42%) Degree
2 68 (12.23%) Security Cleared
3 44 (7.91%) SC Cleared
4 38 (6.83%) Master's Degree
5 21 (3.78%) PhD
6 20 (3.60%) CISSP
7 18 (3.24%) CISM
8 14 (2.52%) AWS Certification
8 14 (2.52%) Azure Certification
9 10 (1.80%) DBS Check
9 10 (1.80%) DV Cleared
10 9 (1.62%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 9 (1.62%) Computer Science Degree
10 9 (1.62%) CRISC
10 9 (1.62%) MBA
11 8 (1.44%) BPSS Clearance
12 7 (1.26%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 7 (1.26%) Cisco Certification
12 7 (1.26%) GSEC
12 7 (1.26%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (4.50%) Accessibility
1 25 (4.50%) GRC
2 19 (3.42%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 19 (3.42%) NIST
3 15 (2.70%) GxP
4 12 (2.16%) Data Quality
4 12 (2.16%) QA
5 9 (1.62%) EU AI Act
5 9 (1.62%) JSP 440
6 7 (1.26%) GDPR
6 7 (1.26%) Government Security Classifications
6 7 (1.26%) HMG Security Policy Framework
7 6 (1.08%) Actionable Recommendations
7 6 (1.08%) SLA
8 5 (0.90%) WCAG
9 3 (0.54%) Basel III
9 3 (0.54%) IFRS
9 3 (0.54%) NCSC
9 3 (0.54%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.36%) GAAP
System Software
1 9 (1.62%) Docker
2 4 (0.72%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.18%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 14 (2.52%) Terraform
2 13 (2.34%) Kubernetes
3 9 (1.62%) Ansible
4 5 (0.90%) Puppet
5 3 (0.54%) Progress Chef
6 2 (0.36%) Argo
6 2 (0.36%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
6 2 (0.36%) RSA Archer
6 2 (0.36%) Salt
7 1 (0.18%) Consul
7 1 (0.18%) Grafana
7 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Intune
7 1 (0.18%) Packer
Vendors
1 96 (17.27%) Dell
2 41 (7.37%) SAP
3 38 (6.83%) Databricks
4 36 (6.47%) Microsoft
5 25 (4.50%) Informatica
6 24 (4.32%) Denodo
6 24 (4.32%) Teradata
7 23 (4.14%) Google
8 20 (3.60%) Oracle
9 19 (3.42%) Salesforce
9 19 (3.42%) ServiceNow
10 12 (2.16%) Cognizant
10 12 (2.16%) Foundry
10 12 (2.16%) HubSpot
11 11 (1.98%) Palantir
12 8 (1.44%) Adobe
13 7 (1.26%) Workday
14 6 (1.08%) OpenAI
15 5 (0.90%) Ariba
15 5 (0.90%) Juniper