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

6 months to
25 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 283 271 357
Rank change year-on-year -12 +86 -100
Permanent jobs citing Thought Leadership 572 463 738
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.65% 1.10% 0.77%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.86% 1.18% 0.90%
Number of salaries quoted 207 146 485
10th Percentile £47,300 £45,000 £41,250
25th Percentile £62,125 £67,500 £57,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £80,000 £85,750 £80,000
Median % change year-on-year -6.71% +7.19% -5.88%
75th Percentile £97,500 £109,375 £100,064
90th Percentile £118,300 £130,625 £130,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £85,000 £80,000
% change year-on-year -17.65% +6.25% +2.56%

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 66,454 39,098 81,741
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 75.05% 92.85% 85.76%
Number of salaries quoted 41,096 22,768 59,613
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £39,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.17% +9.09% -10.90%
75th Percentile £77,500 £80,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £97,500 £102,500 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £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 25 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 25 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 -15 504 £80,000 -5.88% 141
London +50 330 £85,000 -5.56% 78
UK excluding London -80 176 £70,000 -17.65% 79
Work from Home -26 113 £67,500 -20.59% 84
North of England -53 54 £80,000 -15.47% 29
East of England +6 44 £60,100 -42.76% 3
South East -79 41 £47,500 -32.14% 23
North West -46 37 £80,000 -15.47% 14
Yorkshire -54 15 £90,000 +20.00% 11
Scotland -26 13 £80,000 -20.00% 4
Midlands -50 12 £75,000 - 14
South West -50 9 £56,000 -32.12% 6
West Midlands -36 8 £77,500 +3.33% 7
East Midlands - 4 £50,000 - 7
Wales - 3 £55,000 -
North East -44 2 - - 4

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 12 (2.10%) Palantir Foundry
2 8 (1.40%) Apache Airflow
2 8 (1.40%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (1.05%) IIS
4 5 (0.87%) CMS
5 4 (0.70%) Apache Spark
6 3 (0.52%) Confluence
7 2 (0.35%) WordPress
8 1 (0.17%) Apache
8 1 (0.17%) Drupal
8 1 (0.17%) nginx
8 1 (0.17%) SharePoint
Applications
1 11 (1.92%) 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 (3.15%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (1.05%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.87%) SAP MDG
4 3 (0.52%) Elite 3E
4 3 (0.52%) SAP MDG-F
5 2 (0.35%) Distributed Ledger
5 2 (0.35%) SAP MDG-BP
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 IBP
6 1 (0.17%) SAP MDG-M
6 1 (0.17%) SAP MDG-S
6 1 (0.17%) SAP PLM
Cloud Services
1 95 (16.61%) AWS
2 65 (11.36%) Azure
3 47 (8.22%) SaaS
4 45 (7.87%) GCP
5 41 (7.17%) Snowflake
6 12 (2.10%) AWS CloudFormation
7 10 (1.75%) 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 (1.05%) Azure AI
10 6 (1.05%) dbt
10 6 (1.05%) Dynamics 365
10 6 (1.05%) OCI
11 5 (0.87%) Azure Machine Learning
11 5 (0.87%) Figma
11 5 (0.87%) Matillion
11 5 (0.87%) Microsoft 365
11 5 (0.87%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 13 (2.27%) 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 (1.05%) Cisco ISE
3 6 (1.05%) 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 (5.77%) Data Warehouse
2 28 (4.90%) Data Lake
3 15 (2.62%) NoSQL
4 11 (1.92%) Big Data
5 7 (1.22%) Tableau
6 6 (1.05%) Hadoop
7 5 (0.87%) Data Mining
7 5 (0.87%) Metadata
7 5 (0.87%) Power BI
8 4 (0.70%) SAP HANA
9 3 (0.52%) Amazon RDS
9 3 (0.52%) Delta Lake
10 2 (0.35%) BigQuery
10 2 (0.35%) Looker
10 2 (0.35%) SAP Data Services
10 2 (0.35%) Semantic Layer
10 2 (0.35%) SQL Server
11 1 (0.17%) MongoDB
11 1 (0.17%) SAP BW
11 1 (0.17%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 9 (1.57%) GitLab
2 8 (1.40%) Cucumber
3 6 (1.05%) MLflow
4 5 (0.87%) Axure RP
5 4 (0.70%) Git
5 4 (0.70%) JIRA
6 3 (0.52%) Jenkins
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
1 197 (34.44%) Finance
2 135 (23.60%) Social Skills
3 98 (17.13%) Marketing
4 93 (16.26%) Analytical Skills
5 76 (13.29%) Public Sector
6 67 (11.71%) Presentation Skills
7 58 (10.14%) Retail
8 36 (6.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 34 (5.94%) Legal
10 32 (5.59%) Influencing Skills
11 29 (5.07%) Banking
12 24 (4.20%) Law
12 24 (4.20%) Pharmaceutical
13 20 (3.50%) Financial Institution
14 18 (3.15%) Aerospace
14 18 (3.15%) Brand Awareness
15 17 (2.97%) Games
16 11 (1.92%) Manufacturing
17 10 (1.75%) Telecoms
18 9 (1.57%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 136 (23.78%) Senior
2 85 (14.86%) Architect
3 84 (14.69%) Consultant
4 65 (11.36%) Lead
5 61 (10.66%) Account Executive
6 59 (10.31%) Sales Executive
7 41 (7.17%) Senior Sales Executive
8 38 (6.64%) Business Development Executive
9 34 (5.94%) Senior Account Executive
10 33 (5.77%) Business Sales Executive
10 33 (5.77%) Sales Account Executive
11 32 (5.59%) Senior Manager
12 29 (5.07%) Business Architect
13 26 (4.55%) Senior Consultant
14 25 (4.37%) Senior Architect
15 24 (4.20%) Data Management Specialist
15 24 (4.20%) Product Specialist
16 23 (4.02%) Business Consultant
17 19 (3.32%) Business Manager
17 19 (3.32%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (2.62%) Kafka
2 14 (2.45%) Spring
2 14 (2.45%) Spring Boot
3 7 (1.22%) CSS
3 7 (1.22%) HTML
4 6 (1.05%) REST
4 6 (1.05%) SOAP
4 6 (1.05%) 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%) Oracle Fusion
7 3 (0.52%) PySpark
8 2 (0.35%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 39 (6.82%) Cloud Native
2 38 (6.64%) Enterprise Software
3 31 (5.42%) Life Science
4 27 (4.72%) Blog
5 20 (3.50%) Self-Motivation
6 17 (2.97%) Product Ownership
7 16 (2.80%) AI Agents
7 16 (2.80%) Management Information System
8 15 (2.62%) Distributed Systems
8 15 (2.62%) e-Learning
9 13 (2.27%) Onboarding
10 12 (2.10%) Web Conferencing
11 11 (1.92%) Legacy Applications
11 11 (1.92%) Podcast
11 11 (1.92%) Social Media
12 10 (1.75%) Algorithms
13 9 (1.57%) Data Fabric
14 8 (1.40%) Enterprise Cloud
14 8 (1.40%) Public Cloud
14 8 (1.40%) Virtual Team
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
1 192 (33.57%) AI
2 171 (29.90%) Business Development
3 169 (29.55%) Decision-Making
4 129 (22.55%) Analytics
5 123 (21.50%) Mentoring
6 118 (20.63%) Roadmaps
7 110 (19.23%) Agile
8 81 (14.16%) Business Strategy
9 75 (13.11%) Problem-Solving
9 75 (13.11%) Workshop Facilitation
10 72 (12.59%) Stakeholder Management
11 64 (11.19%) Cybersecurity
12 63 (11.01%) Strategic Thinking
13 62 (10.84%) Continuous Improvement
14 60 (10.49%) Use Case
15 59 (10.31%) B2B
16 57 (9.97%) Machine Learning
17 56 (9.79%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 55 (9.62%) DevOps
19 54 (9.44%) Data Science
Programming Languages
1 42 (7.34%) Python
2 40 (6.99%) Java
3 24 (4.20%) SQL
4 10 (1.75%) R
5 6 (1.05%) JavaScript
6 5 (0.87%) C#
6 5 (0.87%) Kotlin
6 5 (0.87%) Scala
7 4 (0.70%) Go
8 3 (0.52%) PowerShell
9 1 (0.17%) ABAP
9 1 (0.17%) Bash
9 1 (0.17%) PHP
9 1 (0.17%) Ruby
9 1 (0.17%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 162 (28.32%) Degree
2 68 (11.89%) Security Cleared
3 43 (7.52%) SC Cleared
4 38 (6.64%) Master's Degree
5 21 (3.67%) CISSP
5 21 (3.67%) PhD
6 19 (3.32%) CISM
7 15 (2.62%) AWS Certification
8 14 (2.45%) Azure Certification
9 12 (2.10%) DBS Check
10 10 (1.75%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 10 (1.75%) DV Cleared
11 9 (1.57%) Computer Science Degree
11 9 (1.57%) CRISC
11 9 (1.57%) MBA
12 8 (1.40%) BPSS Clearance
12 8 (1.40%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
13 7 (1.22%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 7 (1.22%) CISA
13 7 (1.22%) GSEC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (4.72%) GRC
2 25 (4.37%) Accessibility
3 20 (3.50%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 20 (3.50%) NIST
4 15 (2.62%) GxP
5 12 (2.10%) Data Quality
6 11 (1.92%) 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 (1.05%) Actionable Recommendations
9 6 (1.05%) SLA
10 5 (0.87%) WCAG
11 4 (0.70%) Basel III
12 3 (0.52%) IFRS
12 3 (0.52%) NCSC
12 3 (0.52%) PCI DSS
13 2 (0.35%) GAAP
System Software
1 10 (1.75%) Docker
2 4 (0.70%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.17%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 14 (2.45%) Kubernetes
1 14 (2.45%) Terraform
2 9 (1.57%) 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 (16.78%) Dell
2 39 (6.82%) Databricks
2 39 (6.82%) SAP
3 35 (6.12%) Microsoft
4 25 (4.37%) Informatica
5 24 (4.20%) Denodo
5 24 (4.20%) Teradata
6 22 (3.85%) Google
7 21 (3.67%) Oracle
7 21 (3.67%) Salesforce
7 21 (3.67%) ServiceNow
8 13 (2.27%) Foundry
9 12 (2.10%) HubSpot
9 12 (2.10%) Palantir
10 11 (1.92%) Cognizant
11 7 (1.22%) Adobe
11 7 (1.22%) Workday
12 6 (1.05%) Aruba
12 6 (1.05%) Cisco
12 6 (1.05%) Fortinet