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

6 months to
1 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 289 279 365
Rank change year-on-year -10 +86 -108
Permanent jobs citing Thought Leadership 575 470 734
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.64% 1.11% 0.77%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.86% 1.20% 0.89%
Number of salaries quoted 208 148 487
10th Percentile £47,350 £45,000 £41,250
25th Percentile £61,625 £66,875 £57,125
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £80,000 £85,000 £80,000
Median % change year-on-year -5.88% +6.25% -5.88%
75th Percentile £97,500 £108,125 £100,064
90th Percentile £115,000 £130,375 £130,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £84,000 £80,000
% change year-on-year -16.67% +5.00% +6.67%

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 67,199 39,303 82,062
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 74.71% 92.91% 85.63%
Number of salaries quoted 41,762 22,588 59,681
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,750 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,946 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -3.42% +9.09% -10.57%
75th Percentile £78,500 £80,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £102,500 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +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 1 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 1 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 -11 507 £80,000 -5.88% 326
London +28 328 £82,500 -7.04% 204
UK excluding London -75 180 £70,000 -16.67% 133
Work from Home -13 114 £63,750 -25.00% 128
North of England -69 55 £80,000 -15.47% 41
East of England +17 45 £60,100 -42.76% 7
South East -66 41 £47,500 -29.63% 39
North West -37 37 £80,000 -15.47% 23
Yorkshire -55 16 £83,420 +11.23% 13
Midlands -43 14 £75,000 +13.21% 17
Scotland -33 13 £80,000 -20.00% 8
South West -48 9 £56,000 -32.12% 13
West Midlands -40 8 £77,500 +16.98% 6
East Midlands - 6 £50,000 - 11
Wales - 3 £55,000 - 1
North East -37 2 - - 5

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 13 (2.26%) Palantir Foundry
2 9 (1.57%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (1.39%) Apache Airflow
4 6 (1.04%) IIS
5 5 (0.87%) CMS
6 4 (0.70%) Apache Spark
7 3 (0.52%) Confluence
8 2 (0.35%) WordPress
9 1 (0.17%) Apache
9 1 (0.17%) Drupal
9 1 (0.17%) nginx
9 1 (0.17%) SharePoint
Applications
1 11 (1.91%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 5 (0.87%) Adobe XD
2 5 (0.87%) InVision
2 5 (0.87%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (0.87%) Sketch
3 4 (0.70%) Maya
4 3 (0.52%) Microsoft Office
5 2 (0.35%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 2 (0.35%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.17%) Siemens NX
6 1 (0.17%) Trello
Business Applications
1 18 (3.13%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (1.04%) Dynamics CRM
2 6 (1.04%) SAP MDG
3 4 (0.70%) SAP MDG-F
4 3 (0.52%) Elite 3E
4 3 (0.52%) SAP MDG-BP
5 2 (0.35%) Distributed Ledger
5 2 (0.35%) SAP SCM
5 2 (0.35%) 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 MDG-M
6 1 (0.17%) SAP MDG-S
6 1 (0.17%) SAP PLM
Cloud Services
1 99 (17.22%) AWS
2 66 (11.48%) Azure
3 48 (8.35%) SaaS
4 46 (8.00%) GCP
5 41 (7.13%) Snowflake
6 13 (2.26%) AWS CloudFormation
7 10 (1.74%) Serverless
8 9 (1.57%) Cloud Computing
9 7 (1.22%) GitHub
9 7 (1.22%) Power Platform
9 7 (1.22%) SuccessFactors
10 6 (1.04%) dbt
10 6 (1.04%) Dynamics 365
10 6 (1.04%) OCI
11 5 (0.87%) Azure AI
11 5 (0.87%) Azure Machine Learning
11 5 (0.87%) Figma
11 5 (0.87%) Matillion
11 5 (0.87%) Microsoft Purview
12 4 (0.70%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 13 (2.26%) Firewall
2 7 (1.22%) Intrusion Detection
2 7 (1.22%) Network Security
2 7 (1.22%) SD-WAN
2 7 (1.22%) WAN
2 7 (1.22%) Wireless
3 6 (1.04%) Cisco ISE
3 6 (1.04%) WebEx
4 5 (0.87%) Broadband
4 5 (0.87%) LAN
5 4 (0.70%) Cisco Wireless
5 4 (0.70%) WLAN
6 3 (0.52%) Wi-Fi
7 2 (0.35%) Cisco IPT
7 2 (0.35%) SSL
7 2 (0.35%) Tactical Data Link
8 1 (0.17%) Bluetooth
8 1 (0.17%) LoRaWAN
8 1 (0.17%) ZigBee
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (5.74%) Data Warehouse
2 28 (4.87%) Data Lake
3 16 (2.78%) NoSQL
4 11 (1.91%) Big Data
5 7 (1.22%) Tableau
6 6 (1.04%) Hadoop
7 5 (0.87%) Data Mining
7 5 (0.87%) Metadata
7 5 (0.87%) Power BI
8 3 (0.52%) Amazon RDS
8 3 (0.52%) Delta Lake
8 3 (0.52%) SAP HANA
9 2 (0.35%) SAP Data Services
9 2 (0.35%) Semantic Layer
9 2 (0.35%) SQL Server
10 1 (0.17%) Geospatial Data
10 1 (0.17%) MongoDB
10 1 (0.17%) PostgreSQL
10 1 (0.17%) SAP BW
10 1 (0.17%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 10 (1.74%) GitLab
2 9 (1.57%) Cucumber
3 6 (1.04%) MLflow
4 5 (0.87%) Axure RP
5 4 (0.70%) Git
6 3 (0.52%) Jenkins
6 3 (0.52%) JIRA
7 2 (0.35%) rollup.js
8 1 (0.17%) Cypress.io
8 1 (0.17%) Gatling
8 1 (0.17%) JMeter
8 1 (0.17%) Selenium
8 1 (0.17%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.17%) Vagrant
General
1 200 (34.78%) Finance
2 135 (23.48%) Social Skills
3 102 (17.74%) Marketing
4 93 (16.17%) Analytical Skills
5 77 (13.39%) Public Sector
6 65 (11.30%) Presentation Skills
7 58 (10.09%) Retail
8 36 (6.26%) Legal
9 35 (6.09%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 32 (5.57%) Banking
11 30 (5.22%) Influencing Skills
12 25 (4.35%) Law
13 24 (4.17%) Pharmaceutical
14 20 (3.48%) Financial Institution
15 19 (3.30%) Brand Awareness
16 18 (3.13%) Aerospace
17 17 (2.96%) Games
18 10 (1.74%) Manufacturing
18 10 (1.74%) Organisational Skills
18 10 (1.74%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 138 (24.00%) Senior
2 85 (14.78%) Architect
2 85 (14.78%) Consultant
3 65 (11.30%) Lead
4 61 (10.61%) Account Executive
5 58 (10.09%) Sales Executive
6 40 (6.96%) Senior Sales Executive
7 38 (6.61%) Business Development Executive
8 35 (6.09%) Senior Manager
9 34 (5.91%) Senior Account Executive
10 33 (5.74%) Business Sales Executive
10 33 (5.74%) Sales Account Executive
11 29 (5.04%) Business Architect
12 26 (4.52%) Senior Consultant
13 25 (4.35%) Senior Architect
14 24 (4.17%) Data Management Specialist
14 24 (4.17%) Product Specialist
15 23 (4.00%) Business Consultant
16 20 (3.48%) Solutions Architect
17 19 (3.30%) Business Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (2.78%) Kafka
2 15 (2.61%) Spring
2 15 (2.61%) Spring Boot
3 7 (1.22%) CSS
3 7 (1.22%) HTML
4 6 (1.04%) REST
4 6 (1.04%) SOAP
4 6 (1.04%) XML
5 5 (0.87%) OAuth
5 5 (0.87%) OAuth2
5 5 (0.87%) Play Framework
5 5 (0.87%) React
6 4 (0.70%) Flutter
6 4 (0.70%) LangChain
6 4 (0.70%) PyTorch
6 4 (0.70%) TensorFlow
6 4 (0.70%) VML
7 3 (0.52%) PySpark
8 2 (0.35%) LangGraph
8 2 (0.35%) XGBoost
Miscellaneous
1 42 (7.30%) Cloud Native
2 41 (7.13%) Enterprise Software
3 31 (5.39%) Life Science
4 27 (4.70%) Blog
5 19 (3.30%) Self-Motivation
6 18 (3.13%) Product Ownership
7 16 (2.78%) AI Agents
7 16 (2.78%) Distributed Systems
7 16 (2.78%) e-Learning
7 16 (2.78%) Management Information System
8 12 (2.09%) Legacy Applications
8 12 (2.09%) Onboarding
8 12 (2.09%) Web Conferencing
9 11 (1.91%) Podcast
9 11 (1.91%) Social Media
10 10 (1.74%) Algorithms
11 9 (1.57%) Data Fabric
11 9 (1.57%) Enterprise Cloud
11 9 (1.57%) Public Cloud
12 8 (1.39%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 3 (0.52%) Windows
2 2 (0.35%) Linux
3 1 (0.17%) Android
3 1 (0.17%) Apple iOS
3 1 (0.17%) VMS
3 1 (0.17%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 190 (33.04%) AI
2 173 (30.09%) Business Development
3 168 (29.22%) Decision-Making
4 129 (22.43%) Mentoring
5 128 (22.26%) Analytics
6 119 (20.70%) Roadmaps
7 111 (19.30%) Agile
8 82 (14.26%) Business Strategy
9 75 (13.04%) Problem-Solving
9 75 (13.04%) Workshop Facilitation
10 72 (12.52%) Stakeholder Management
11 65 (11.30%) Continuous Improvement
12 63 (10.96%) Cybersecurity
12 63 (10.96%) Strategic Thinking
13 60 (10.43%) B2B
14 59 (10.26%) Use Case
15 57 (9.91%) DevOps
15 57 (9.91%) Machine Learning
16 55 (9.57%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 54 (9.39%) Data Science
Programming Languages
1 42 (7.30%) Java
1 42 (7.30%) Python
2 25 (4.35%) SQL
3 10 (1.74%) R
4 6 (1.04%) JavaScript
5 5 (0.87%) C#
5 5 (0.87%) Kotlin
5 5 (0.87%) Scala
6 4 (0.70%) Go
7 2 (0.35%) PowerShell
8 1 (0.17%) ABAP
8 1 (0.17%) PHP
8 1 (0.17%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 164 (28.52%) Degree
2 68 (11.83%) Security Cleared
3 42 (7.30%) SC Cleared
4 38 (6.61%) Master's Degree
5 21 (3.65%) PhD
6 20 (3.48%) CISSP
7 18 (3.13%) CISM
8 16 (2.78%) AWS Certification
9 14 (2.43%) Azure Certification
10 13 (2.26%) DBS Check
11 11 (1.91%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 10 (1.74%) DV Cleared
13 9 (1.57%) Computer Science Degree
13 9 (1.57%) CRISC
13 9 (1.57%) MBA
14 8 (1.39%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
15 7 (1.22%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 7 (1.22%) BPSS Clearance
15 7 (1.22%) Cisco Certification
15 7 (1.22%) GSEC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (4.87%) GRC
2 25 (4.35%) Accessibility
3 19 (3.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 19 (3.30%) NIST
4 15 (2.61%) GxP
5 13 (2.26%) Data Quality
6 11 (1.91%) QA
7 9 (1.57%) EU AI Act
7 9 (1.57%) JSP 440
8 7 (1.22%) GDPR
8 7 (1.22%) Government Security Classifications
8 7 (1.22%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 6 (1.04%) Actionable Recommendations
9 6 (1.04%) SLA
10 5 (0.87%) WCAG
11 4 (0.70%) Basel III
12 3 (0.52%) IFRS
12 3 (0.52%) NCSC
13 2 (0.35%) Cyber Essentials
13 2 (0.35%) NIST 800
System Software
1 10 (1.74%) Docker
2 4 (0.70%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.17%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 13 (2.26%) Kubernetes
1 13 (2.26%) Terraform
2 8 (1.39%) Ansible
3 5 (0.87%) Puppet
4 3 (0.52%) Progress Chef
5 2 (0.35%) Argo
5 2 (0.35%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
5 2 (0.35%) RSA Archer
5 2 (0.35%) Salt
6 1 (0.17%) Amdocs OSS
6 1 (0.17%) Consul
6 1 (0.17%) Grafana
6 1 (0.17%) Microsoft Intune
6 1 (0.17%) Packer
Vendors
1 96 (16.70%) Dell
2 39 (6.78%) Databricks
2 39 (6.78%) SAP
3 34 (5.91%) Microsoft
4 25 (4.35%) Informatica
5 24 (4.17%) Denodo
5 24 (4.17%) Teradata
6 21 (3.65%) Google
6 21 (3.65%) Salesforce
6 21 (3.65%) ServiceNow
7 20 (3.48%) Oracle
8 14 (2.43%) Foundry
9 13 (2.26%) Palantir
10 12 (2.09%) HubSpot
11 11 (1.91%) Cognizant
12 7 (1.22%) Adobe
12 7 (1.22%) Workday
13 6 (1.04%) Aruba
13 6 (1.04%) Cisco
13 6 (1.04%) Fortinet