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 17 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 282 287 374
Rank change year-on-year +5 +87 -121
Permanent jobs citing Thought Leadership 580 474 688
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.63% 1.08% 0.71%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.86% 1.15% 0.84%
Number of salaries quoted 220 144 445
10th Percentile £44,750 £45,000 £35,400
25th Percentile £61,250 £62,500 £54,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £80,000 £85,000 £79,632
Median % change year-on-year -5.88% +6.74% -6.32%
75th Percentile £97,500 £100,000 £100,064
90th Percentile £112,750 £120,000 £130,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £82,500 £80,000
% change year-on-year -15.15% +3.13% +14.29%

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 67,575 41,082 82,390
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.71% 93.28% 84.93%
Number of salaries quoted 43,564 22,321 59,668
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,500 £41,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £59,684 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +0.53% +8.52% -9.84%
75th Percentile £78,750 £78,750 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,001 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year - +5.00% -9.09%

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 17 May 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 17 May 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 -1 516 £80,000 -5.43% 341
London +25 332 £80,000 -7.25% 215
UK excluding London -53 184 £70,000 -15.15% 155
Work from Home +27 119 £65,000 -23.53% 136
North of England -34 61 £80,000 -11.67% 45
East of England - 45 £60,100 - 7
North West +2 40 £80,000 -15.47% 27
South East -67 37 £38,750 -40.38% 50
Yorkshire -42 17 £83,420 -12.19% 13
Midlands -35 16 £72,500 +41.46% 19
Scotland -8 12 £80,000 -15.79% 15
South West -40 10 £56,000 -32.12% 11
West Midlands -40 9 £80,000 +56.10% 8
East Midlands - 7 £50,000 - 11
North East -37 4 £71,250 +22.32% 5
Wales - 3 £55,000 - 2

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 14 (2.41%) Palantir Foundry
2 9 (1.55%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (1.38%) Apache Airflow
4 6 (1.03%) IIS
5 5 (0.86%) CMS
6 4 (0.69%) Apache Spark
6 4 (0.69%) Confluence
7 2 (0.34%) WordPress
8 1 (0.17%) Apache
8 1 (0.17%) Drupal
8 1 (0.17%) nginx
8 1 (0.17%) SharePoint
8 1 (0.17%) Umbraco
Applications
1 11 (1.90%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 5 (0.86%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.69%) Adobe XD
3 4 (0.69%) InVision
3 4 (0.69%) Maya
3 4 (0.69%) Sketch
4 2 (0.34%) Microsoft Office
4 2 (0.34%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.17%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 1 (0.17%) Siemens NX
5 1 (0.17%) Trello
Business Applications
1 17 (2.93%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (1.03%) Dynamics CRM
2 6 (1.03%) SAP MDG
3 4 (0.69%) SAP MDG-F
4 3 (0.52%) Elite 3E
4 3 (0.52%) SAP MDG-BP
5 2 (0.34%) Distributed Ledger
5 2 (0.34%) Teamcenter
6 1 (0.17%) Endur
6 1 (0.17%) Magento
6 1 (0.17%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.17%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.17%) Oracle ERP
6 1 (0.17%) SAP CO
6 1 (0.17%) SAP FI
6 1 (0.17%) SAP FI/CO
6 1 (0.17%) SAP MDG-M
6 1 (0.17%) SAP MDG-S
6 1 (0.17%) SAP PLM
6 1 (0.17%) SAP SCM
Cloud Services
1 108 (18.62%) AWS
2 71 (12.24%) Azure
3 54 (9.31%) SaaS
4 47 (8.10%) GCP
5 40 (6.90%) Snowflake
6 17 (2.93%) AWS CloudFormation
7 15 (2.59%) Serverless
8 9 (1.55%) Cloud Computing
8 9 (1.55%) PaaS
9 8 (1.38%) Power Platform
10 7 (1.21%) GitHub
10 7 (1.21%) SuccessFactors
11 6 (1.03%) dbt
11 6 (1.03%) OCI
12 5 (0.86%) Azure AI
12 5 (0.86%) Azure Machine Learning
12 5 (0.86%) Matillion
12 5 (0.86%) Microsoft Purview
13 4 (0.69%) Amazon EKS
13 4 (0.69%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 15 (2.59%) Firewall
2 7 (1.21%) Intrusion Detection
2 7 (1.21%) Network Security
2 7 (1.21%) SD-WAN
2 7 (1.21%) WAN
2 7 (1.21%) Wireless
3 6 (1.03%) Cisco ISE
3 6 (1.03%) WebEx
4 5 (0.86%) Broadband
4 5 (0.86%) LAN
5 4 (0.69%) Cisco Wireless
5 4 (0.69%) WLAN
6 3 (0.52%) Wi-Fi
7 2 (0.34%) Cisco IPT
7 2 (0.34%) SSL
7 2 (0.34%) Tactical Data Link
8 1 (0.17%) Bluetooth
8 1 (0.17%) LoRaWAN
8 1 (0.17%) ZigBee
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (5.52%) Data Warehouse
2 28 (4.83%) Data Lake
3 16 (2.76%) NoSQL
4 11 (1.90%) Big Data
5 7 (1.21%) Tableau
6 6 (1.03%) Hadoop
6 6 (1.03%) Power BI
7 5 (0.86%) Data Mining
7 5 (0.86%) Metadata
8 4 (0.69%) Amazon RDS
9 3 (0.52%) Delta Lake
10 2 (0.34%) Amazon Redshift
10 2 (0.34%) Geospatial Data
10 2 (0.34%) SAP Data Services
10 2 (0.34%) SAP HANA
10 2 (0.34%) Semantic Layer
10 2 (0.34%) SQL Server
11 1 (0.17%) InterSystems Cache
11 1 (0.17%) Redis
11 1 (0.17%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 12 (2.07%) Cucumber
2 11 (1.90%) GitLab
3 6 (1.03%) MLflow
4 4 (0.69%) Axure RP
4 4 (0.69%) JIRA
5 3 (0.52%) Git
6 2 (0.34%) Jenkins
6 2 (0.34%) rollup.js
7 1 (0.17%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 1 (0.17%) Claude Code
7 1 (0.17%) Cypress.io
7 1 (0.17%) Gatling
7 1 (0.17%) JMeter
7 1 (0.17%) Maven
7 1 (0.17%) Selenium
7 1 (0.17%) Vagrant
General
1 204 (35.17%) Finance
2 143 (24.66%) Social Skills
3 102 (17.59%) Analytical Skills
3 102 (17.59%) Marketing
4 77 (13.28%) Public Sector
5 63 (10.86%) Presentation Skills
6 57 (9.83%) Retail
7 38 (6.55%) Legal
8 37 (6.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 35 (6.03%) Banking
10 28 (4.83%) Law
11 27 (4.66%) Influencing Skills
12 23 (3.97%) Financial Institution
13 18 (3.10%) Brand Awareness
13 18 (3.10%) Pharmaceutical
14 17 (2.93%) Aerospace
14 17 (2.93%) Games
15 11 (1.90%) Manufacturing
16 10 (1.72%) Organisational Skills
16 10 (1.72%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 142 (24.48%) Senior
2 87 (15.00%) Architect
3 83 (14.31%) Consultant
4 65 (11.21%) Lead
5 61 (10.52%) Account Executive
6 57 (9.83%) Sales Executive
7 39 (6.72%) Business Development Executive
7 39 (6.72%) Senior Manager
7 39 (6.72%) Senior Sales Executive
8 34 (5.86%) Senior Account Executive
9 33 (5.69%) Business Sales Executive
9 33 (5.69%) Sales Account Executive
10 29 (5.00%) Business Architect
11 25 (4.31%) Senior Architect
11 25 (4.31%) Senior Consultant
12 24 (4.14%) Data Management Specialist
12 24 (4.14%) Product Specialist
13 23 (3.97%) Business Consultant
14 22 (3.79%) Solutions Architect
15 20 (3.45%) Business Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (3.10%) Kafka
2 17 (2.93%) Spring
2 17 (2.93%) Spring Boot
3 6 (1.03%) REST
3 6 (1.03%) SOAP
3 6 (1.03%) XML
4 5 (0.86%) CSS
4 5 (0.86%) HTML
4 5 (0.86%) OAuth
4 5 (0.86%) OAuth2
4 5 (0.86%) Play Framework
5 4 (0.69%) Flutter
5 4 (0.69%) PyTorch
5 4 (0.69%) React
5 4 (0.69%) TensorFlow
5 4 (0.69%) VML
6 3 (0.52%) LangChain
6 3 (0.52%) PySpark
7 2 (0.34%) RabbitMQ
7 2 (0.34%) XGBoost
Miscellaneous
1 48 (8.28%) Cloud Native
2 43 (7.41%) Enterprise Software
3 26 (4.48%) Blog
3 26 (4.48%) Life Science
4 18 (3.10%) Distributed Systems
4 18 (3.10%) e-Learning
4 18 (3.10%) Management Information System
4 18 (3.10%) Self-Motivation
5 17 (2.93%) AI Agents
5 17 (2.93%) Product Ownership
6 13 (2.24%) Onboarding
6 13 (2.24%) Web Conferencing
7 12 (2.07%) Legacy Applications
7 12 (2.07%) Podcast
8 11 (1.90%) Public Cloud
9 10 (1.72%) Algorithms
9 10 (1.72%) Social Media
10 9 (1.55%) Data Fabric
10 9 (1.55%) Enterprise Cloud
10 9 (1.55%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 3 (0.52%) Windows
2 2 (0.34%) Linux
3 1 (0.17%) VMS
3 1 (0.17%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 186 (32.07%) AI
2 183 (31.55%) Business Development
3 174 (30.00%) Decision-Making
4 143 (24.66%) Mentoring
5 125 (21.55%) Analytics
6 119 (20.52%) Roadmaps
7 106 (18.28%) Agile
8 84 (14.48%) Business Strategy
9 80 (13.79%) Problem-Solving
10 75 (12.93%) Workshop Facilitation
11 74 (12.76%) Stakeholder Management
12 65 (11.21%) Continuous Improvement
13 64 (11.03%) Cybersecurity
14 61 (10.52%) DevOps
15 60 (10.34%) Strategic Thinking
16 59 (10.17%) B2B
17 56 (9.66%) Machine Learning
18 54 (9.31%) Risk Management
18 54 (9.31%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 54 (9.31%) Use Case
Programming Languages
1 48 (8.28%) Python
2 46 (7.93%) Java
3 26 (4.48%) SQL
4 14 (2.41%) R
5 5 (0.86%) Kotlin
5 5 (0.86%) Scala
6 4 (0.69%) C#
6 4 (0.69%) Go
6 4 (0.69%) JavaScript
7 2 (0.34%) ABAP
7 2 (0.34%) PowerShell
8 1 (0.17%) PHP
Qualifications
1 158 (27.24%) Degree
2 72 (12.41%) Security Cleared
3 39 (6.72%) SC Cleared
4 33 (5.69%) Master's Degree
5 22 (3.79%) CISSP
6 20 (3.45%) CISM
7 19 (3.28%) AWS Certification
8 16 (2.76%) PhD
9 14 (2.41%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 14 (2.41%) Azure Certification
10 12 (2.07%) DBS Check
10 12 (2.07%) DV Cleared
11 10 (1.72%) Computer Science Degree
11 10 (1.72%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
12 9 (1.55%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 9 (1.55%) Cisco Certification
12 9 (1.55%) CRISC
12 9 (1.55%) MBA
13 7 (1.21%) GSEC
14 6 (1.03%) CISA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (5.34%) GRC
2 22 (3.79%) Accessibility
3 21 (3.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 21 (3.62%) NIST
4 14 (2.41%) Data Quality
5 11 (1.90%) JSP 440
5 11 (1.90%) QA
6 10 (1.72%) GxP
7 9 (1.55%) EU AI Act
7 9 (1.55%) GDPR
8 8 (1.38%) Basel III
9 7 (1.21%) Government Security Classifications
9 7 (1.21%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 7 (1.21%) SLA
10 6 (1.03%) Actionable Recommendations
11 4 (0.69%) PCI DSS
11 4 (0.69%) WCAG
12 3 (0.52%) IFRS
12 3 (0.52%) NCSC
13 2 (0.34%) GAAP
System Software
1 9 (1.55%) Docker
2 4 (0.69%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.17%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 13 (2.24%) Kubernetes
2 12 (2.07%) Terraform
3 8 (1.38%) Ansible
4 5 (0.86%) Puppet
5 3 (0.52%) Progress Chef
6 2 (0.34%) Argo
6 2 (0.34%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
6 2 (0.34%) RSA Archer
6 2 (0.34%) Salt
7 1 (0.17%) Amdocs OSS
7 1 (0.17%) Consul
7 1 (0.17%) Grafana
7 1 (0.17%) Microsoft Intune
7 1 (0.17%) Packer
Vendors
1 96 (16.55%) Dell
2 38 (6.55%) Databricks
2 38 (6.55%) SAP
3 34 (5.86%) Microsoft
4 25 (4.31%) Informatica
5 24 (4.14%) Denodo
5 24 (4.14%) Teradata
6 22 (3.79%) ServiceNow
7 21 (3.62%) Salesforce
8 18 (3.10%) Oracle
9 17 (2.93%) Google
10 15 (2.59%) Foundry
11 14 (2.41%) Palantir
12 12 (2.07%) HubSpot
13 8 (1.38%) Cognizant
14 7 (1.21%) Workday
15 6 (1.03%) Aruba
15 6 (1.03%) Fortinet
15 6 (1.03%) Juniper
15 6 (1.03%) OpenAI