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 29 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 345 258 459
Rank change year-on-year -87 +201 -202
Permanent jobs citing Thought Leadership 608 554 331
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.52% 1.13% 0.44%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.71% 1.27% 0.54%
Number of salaries quoted 281 143 170
10th Percentile £50,000 £42,750 £47,500
25th Percentile £63,750 £58,750 £65,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £89,000 £80,000 £80,000
Median % change year-on-year +11.25% - -
75th Percentile £111,250 £105,625 £97,500
90th Percentile £119,625 £122,000 £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 86,023 43,711 61,337
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.11% 89.05% 81.75%
Number of salaries quoted 59,242 24,267 33,446
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £41,880 £36,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £58,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -5.17% -3.33%
75th Percentile £79,688 £75,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £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 29 September 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 29 September 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 -95 538 £90,000 +16.13% 1,327
London -66 337 £97,500 +2.63% 954
UK excluding London -87 198 £85,000 +30.77% 446
Work from Home +1 146 £80,000 +23.08% 552
North of England -30 67 £90,000 +16.13% 128
Midlands -28 42 £85,000 +28.30% 55
North West -4 37 £95,000 +22.58% 79
South East -98 34 £90,000 +105.71% 102
West Midlands -33 26 £90,000 +46.94% 35
South West -69 21 £100,000 +56.64% 64
Yorkshire -23 19 £83,420 -1.86% 32
Wales -55 17 £55,000 +15.79% 11
East Midlands -27 16 £60,000 - 20
East of England -19 13 £60,100 +33.56% 20
North East - 11 £100,000 - 17
Scotland +4 7 £110,000 +47.65% 47
Northern Ireland -86 1 - - 21

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 10 (1.64%) Microsoft Exchange
2 9 (1.48%) Palantir Foundry
3 6 (0.99%) CMS
4 5 (0.82%) Confluence
5 4 (0.66%) Apache Spark
6 3 (0.49%) ArcGIS
6 3 (0.49%) SAS
7 2 (0.33%) Umbraco
7 2 (0.33%) WordPress
8 1 (0.16%) SharePoint
Applications
1 6 (0.99%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (0.66%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (0.49%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.33%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 23 (3.78%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.99%) Distributed Ledger
2 6 (0.99%) Oracle ERP
3 4 (0.66%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 3 (0.49%) Dynamics CRM
4 3 (0.49%) SAP ERP
4 3 (0.49%) SAP MDG
4 3 (0.49%) SAP MDG-BP
4 3 (0.49%) SAP MDG-F
4 3 (0.49%) Summit
5 2 (0.33%) SAP CO
5 2 (0.33%) SAP FI
5 2 (0.33%) SAP FI/CO
6 1 (0.16%) SAP GRC
6 1 (0.16%) SAP IBP
Cloud Services
1 169 (27.80%) AWS
2 105 (17.27%) Azure
3 65 (10.69%) SaaS
4 53 (8.72%) GCP
5 33 (5.43%) AWS CloudFormation
5 33 (5.43%) Cloud Computing
6 22 (3.62%) Serverless
7 17 (2.80%) GitHub
8 16 (2.63%) Amazon Bedrock
8 16 (2.63%) Power Platform
9 13 (2.14%) Azure AI
10 10 (1.64%) Amazon ECS
11 9 (1.48%) AWS Lambda
11 9 (1.48%) PaaS
12 8 (1.32%) Amazon EKS
12 8 (1.32%) Amazon S3
12 8 (1.32%) Azure DevOps
13 7 (1.15%) GitHub Actions
13 7 (1.15%) LangSmith
14 6 (0.99%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 10 (1.64%) Firewall
1 10 (1.64%) Internet
2 9 (1.48%) WAN
3 8 (1.32%) SD-WAN
3 8 (1.32%) Wireless
4 7 (1.15%) Broadband
4 7 (1.15%) Cisco ISE
4 7 (1.15%) Cisco Wireless
4 7 (1.15%) LAN
4 7 (1.15%) WebEx
4 7 (1.15%) 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 (0.16%) DNS
6 1 (0.16%) Intranet
6 1 (0.16%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (5.10%) NoSQL
2 20 (3.29%) Data Mining
3 19 (3.13%) Tableau
4 17 (2.80%) Amazon QuickSight
5 14 (2.30%) Metadata
5 14 (2.30%) Power BI
6 7 (1.15%) Big Data
7 6 (0.99%) Data Warehouse
7 6 (0.99%) Relational Database
8 5 (0.82%) Geospatial Data
8 5 (0.82%) 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 (0.49%) MongoDB
10 3 (0.49%) PostgreSQL
10 3 (0.49%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 28 (4.61%) GitLab
2 25 (4.11%) Cucumber
3 10 (1.64%) Jenkins
4 8 (1.32%) Git
5 6 (0.99%) Maven
6 5 (0.82%) JIRA
6 5 (0.82%) MLflow
7 4 (0.66%) Claude Code
8 3 (0.49%) 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 (0.16%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 1 (0.16%) Bitbucket
10 1 (0.16%) ERwin
10 1 (0.16%) mountebank
General
1 265 (43.59%) Finance
2 214 (35.20%) Social Skills
3 166 (27.30%) Marketing
4 113 (18.59%) Public Sector
5 88 (14.47%) Analytical Skills
6 70 (11.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 58 (9.54%) Influencing Skills
8 50 (8.22%) Retail
9 49 (8.06%) Banking
10 45 (7.40%) Legal
11 39 (6.41%) Presentation Skills
12 33 (5.43%) Law
13 26 (4.28%) Brand Awareness
14 21 (3.45%) Back Office
15 19 (3.13%) Manufacturing
16 17 (2.80%) Financial Institution
17 16 (2.63%) Public Speaking
17 16 (2.63%) Telecoms
18 15 (2.47%) Aerospace
19 14 (2.30%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 127 (20.89%) Architect
2 113 (18.59%) Senior
3 75 (12.34%) Lead
4 56 (9.21%) Consultant
5 45 (7.40%) Senior Manager
6 36 (5.92%) Product Manager
7 33 (5.43%) Solutions Architect
8 30 (4.93%) Senior Architect
9 28 (4.61%) Marketing Manager
10 27 (4.44%) Lead Architect
11 25 (4.11%) Java Engineer
12 24 (3.95%) Principal Engineer
12 24 (3.95%) Principal Java Engineer
13 23 (3.78%) Senior Product Manager
14 22 (3.62%) Security Architect
15 20 (3.29%) Digital Product Manager
15 20 (3.29%) Senior Digital Product Manager
16 18 (2.96%) Lead Security Architect
16 18 (2.96%) Senior Consultant
17 17 (2.80%) Account Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (5.10%) Kafka
2 26 (4.28%) Spring
2 26 (4.28%) Spring Boot
3 21 (3.45%) Terraform
4 14 (2.30%) LangChain
4 14 (2.30%) LangGraph
5 10 (1.64%) FastAPI
6 7 (1.15%) CrewAI
7 6 (0.99%) Oracle Fusion
8 5 (0.82%) Model Context Protocol
8 5 (0.82%) React
9 4 (0.66%) Middleware
9 4 (0.66%) pgvector
9 4 (0.66%) PyTorch
9 4 (0.66%) TensorFlow
9 4 (0.66%) XML
10 3 (0.49%) AWS CDK
10 3 (0.49%) CSS
10 3 (0.49%) LlamaIndex
10 3 (0.49%) VML
Miscellaneous
1 93 (15.30%) Cloud Native
2 66 (10.86%) Onboarding
3 47 (7.73%) Enterprise Software
4 36 (5.92%) Distributed Systems
5 34 (5.59%) AI Agents
6 33 (5.43%) Blog
7 28 (4.61%) Social Media
8 26 (4.28%) Product Ownership
8 26 (4.28%) Public Cloud
9 24 (3.95%) e-Learning
10 22 (3.62%) Web Conferencing
11 16 (2.63%) Management Information System
12 14 (2.30%) Self-Motivation
13 13 (2.14%) Enterprise Cloud
14 12 (1.97%) NHS
15 9 (1.48%) Greenfield Project
15 9 (1.48%) Hackathon
15 9 (1.48%) Legacy Applications
16 8 (1.32%) Cyber Threat
16 8 (1.32%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 7 (1.15%) Windows
2 6 (0.99%) Linux
3 2 (0.33%) Solaris
3 2 (0.33%) Unix
3 2 (0.33%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 219 (36.02%) AI
2 186 (30.59%) Mentoring
3 173 (28.45%) Roadmaps
4 171 (28.13%) Business Development
5 159 (26.15%) Stakeholder Management
6 137 (22.53%) Analytics
7 118 (19.41%) Agile
8 108 (17.76%) Decision-Making
9 90 (14.80%) Coaching
10 88 (14.47%) Continuous Improvement
11 83 (13.65%) CI/CD
12 80 (13.16%) B2B
13 78 (12.83%) Machine Learning
14 75 (12.34%) Problem-Solving
15 73 (12.01%) Risk Management
16 72 (11.84%) Infrastructure as Code
17 70 (11.51%) DevOps
18 63 (10.36%) Technical Leadership
19 57 (9.38%) Collaborative Culture
20 56 (9.21%) Strategic Thinking
Programming Languages
1 71 (11.68%) Python
2 64 (10.53%) SQL
3 38 (6.25%) Java
4 11 (1.81%) R
5 7 (1.15%) PowerShell
6 5 (0.82%) Bash
7 3 (0.49%) Go
7 3 (0.49%) TypeScript
8 2 (0.33%) ABAP
8 2 (0.33%) Apex Code
8 2 (0.33%) Bicep
8 2 (0.33%) C#
8 2 (0.33%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 2 (0.33%) JavaScript
8 2 (0.33%) Scala
8 2 (0.33%) SOQL
8 2 (0.33%) SOSL
9 1 (0.16%) Ruby
9 1 (0.16%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 105 (17.27%) Security Cleared
2 104 (17.11%) Degree
3 74 (12.17%) SC Cleared
4 46 (7.57%) AWS Certification
5 27 (4.44%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
6 25 (4.11%) Master's Degree
7 17 (2.80%) CISSP
8 16 (2.63%) Computer Science Degree
9 13 (2.14%) BPSS Clearance
10 12 (1.97%) CISM
10 12 (1.97%) Postgraduate
11 11 (1.81%) Azure Certification
11 11 (1.81%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
12 8 (1.32%) Cisco Certification
12 8 (1.32%) DV Cleared
12 8 (1.32%) MBA
13 6 (0.99%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 6 (0.99%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
13 6 (0.99%) TOGAF Certification
14 5 (0.82%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (4.11%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 21 (3.45%) NIST
3 20 (3.29%) Data Quality
4 19 (3.13%) GDPR
5 18 (2.96%) GRC
6 17 (2.80%) Accessibility
7 13 (2.14%) QA
8 12 (1.97%) PCI DSS
8 12 (1.97%) SLA
9 7 (1.15%) Basel III
9 7 (1.15%) Cyber Essentials
10 5 (0.82%) JSP 440
11 4 (0.66%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 4 (0.66%) PMO
12 3 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 3 (0.49%) SOC 2
13 2 (0.33%) IFRS
13 2 (0.33%) ISO/IEC 42001
13 2 (0.33%) NCSC
13 2 (0.33%) NIST 800
System Software
1 21 (3.45%) Docker
2 6 (0.99%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.49%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 34 (5.59%) Kubernetes
2 8 (1.32%) Ansible
3 3 (0.49%) Istio
3 3 (0.49%) Jamf Pro
3 3 (0.49%) Microsoft Intune
3 3 (0.49%) Progress Chef
3 3 (0.49%) Puppet
4 2 (0.33%) Argo
5 1 (0.16%) Amdocs OSS
5 1 (0.16%) AppManager
5 1 (0.16%) EMC NetWorker
5 1 (0.16%) FortiGate
5 1 (0.16%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 61 (10.03%) Microsoft
2 41 (6.74%) SAP
3 30 (4.93%) Salesforce
4 23 (3.78%) Google
5 20 (3.29%) Oracle
6 16 (2.63%) Databricks
7 15 (2.47%) HubSpot
7 15 (2.47%) ServiceNow
8 14 (2.30%) Workday
9 12 (1.97%) Foundry
10 11 (1.81%) Cisco
10 11 (1.81%) OpenAI
11 9 (1.48%) Palantir
12 8 (1.32%) Fortinet
13 7 (1.15%) Aruba
13 7 (1.15%) Juniper
14 6 (0.99%) Cognizant
15 5 (0.82%) Marketo
16 4 (0.66%) Informatica
17 3 (0.49%) Apple