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

6 months to
3 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 294 266 351
Rank change year-on-year -28 +85 -93
Permanent jobs citing Thought Leadership 576 473 731
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.64% 1.11% 0.76%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.85% 1.20% 0.89%
Number of salaries quoted 210 147 483
10th Percentile £47,450 £45,000 £41,250
25th Percentile £61,938 £66,250 £56,500
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 £106,875 £100,064
90th Percentile £115,000 £130,500 £130,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £82,500 £80,000
% change year-on-year -15.15% +3.13% +10.34%

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 67,443 39,485 82,053
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 74.64% 92.88% 85.58%
Number of salaries quoted 41,986 22,655 59,675
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,668 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £58,599 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -2.34% +9.09% -10.57%
75th Percentile £78,750 £80,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £102,500 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,001 £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 3 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 3 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 -3 508 £80,000 -5.88% 370
London +49 329 £82,500 -7.04% 239
UK excluding London -87 180 £70,000 -15.15% 149
Work from Home +1 115 £65,000 -23.53% 153
North of England -66 56 £80,000 -15.47% 47
East of England +21 45 £60,100 -42.76% 7
South East -68 41 £47,500 -26.92% 40
North West -28 37 £80,000 -15.47% 25
Yorkshire -54 17 £83,420 +11.23% 17
Midlands -40 14 £75,000 +30.43% 19
Scotland -26 13 £80,000 -20.00% 12
West Midlands -32 8 £77,500 +34.78% 5
South West -51 8 £56,000 -32.12% 17
East Midlands - 6 £50,000 - 14
Wales - 3 £55,000 - 1
North East -34 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 (1.56%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (1.39%) Apache Airflow
4 6 (1.04%) IIS
5 4 (0.69%) Apache Spark
5 4 (0.69%) CMS
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 (1.91%) 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 (0.69%) Maya
4 2 (0.35%) Microsoft Office
4 2 (0.35%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.17%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 1 (0.17%) Siemens NX
5 1 (0.17%) Trello
Business Applications
1 19 (3.30%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (1.04%) Dynamics CRM
2 6 (1.04%) SAP MDG
3 4 (0.69%) SAP MDG-F
4 3 (0.52%) Elite 3E
4 3 (0.52%) SAP MDG-BP
5 2 (0.35%) 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 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
Cloud Services
1 99 (17.19%) AWS
2 66 (11.46%) Azure
3 49 (8.51%) SaaS
4 45 (7.81%) GCP
5 41 (7.12%) Snowflake
6 13 (2.26%) AWS CloudFormation
7 11 (1.91%) Serverless
8 9 (1.56%) 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
11 5 (0.87%) PaaS
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 (0.69%) Cisco Wireless
5 4 (0.69%) 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 (5.73%) Data Warehouse
2 28 (4.86%) 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 (1.56%) Cucumber
3 6 (1.04%) MLflow
4 5 (0.87%) Axure RP
5 4 (0.69%) 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
1 203 (35.24%) Finance
2 136 (23.61%) Social Skills
3 102 (17.71%) Marketing
4 95 (16.49%) Analytical Skills
5 76 (13.19%) Public Sector
6 65 (11.28%) Presentation Skills
7 58 (10.07%) Retail
8 36 (6.25%) Legal
9 35 (6.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 32 (5.56%) Banking
11 30 (5.21%) Influencing Skills
12 26 (4.51%) Law
13 24 (4.17%) Pharmaceutical
14 21 (3.65%) Financial Institution
15 19 (3.30%) Brand Awareness
16 18 (3.13%) Aerospace
17 17 (2.95%) Games
18 11 (1.91%) Manufacturing
19 10 (1.74%) Organisational Skills
19 10 (1.74%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 138 (23.96%) Senior
2 86 (14.93%) Consultant
3 84 (14.58%) Architect
4 65 (11.28%) Lead
5 61 (10.59%) Account Executive
6 58 (10.07%) Sales Executive
7 40 (6.94%) Senior Sales Executive
8 38 (6.60%) Business Development Executive
9 35 (6.08%) Senior Manager
10 34 (5.90%) Senior Account Executive
11 33 (5.73%) Business Sales Executive
11 33 (5.73%) Sales Account Executive
12 29 (5.03%) Business Architect
13 26 (4.51%) Senior Consultant
14 25 (4.34%) Senior Architect
15 24 (4.17%) Data Management Specialist
15 24 (4.17%) Product Specialist
16 23 (3.99%) Business Consultant
17 21 (3.65%) Solutions Architect
18 19 (3.30%) Business Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (2.78%) Kafka
2 15 (2.60%) Spring
2 15 (2.60%) 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 (0.69%) Flutter
6 4 (0.69%) LangChain
6 4 (0.69%) PyTorch
6 4 (0.69%) TensorFlow
6 4 (0.69%) VML
7 3 (0.52%) PySpark
8 2 (0.35%) SAP Fiori
8 2 (0.35%) XGBoost
Miscellaneous
1 43 (7.47%) Cloud Native
2 41 (7.12%) Enterprise Software
3 31 (5.38%) Life Science
4 26 (4.51%) Blog
5 19 (3.30%) Self-Motivation
6 18 (3.13%) Product Ownership
7 17 (2.95%) Management Information System
8 16 (2.78%) AI Agents
8 16 (2.78%) Distributed Systems
8 16 (2.78%) e-Learning
9 12 (2.08%) Legacy Applications
9 12 (2.08%) Onboarding
9 12 (2.08%) Web Conferencing
10 11 (1.91%) Podcast
11 10 (1.74%) Algorithms
11 10 (1.74%) Social Media
12 9 (1.56%) Data Fabric
12 9 (1.56%) Enterprise Cloud
12 9 (1.56%) Greenfield Project
12 9 (1.56%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 3 (0.52%) Windows
2 2 (0.35%) Linux
3 1 (0.17%) VMS
3 1 (0.17%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 192 (33.33%) AI
2 176 (30.56%) Business Development
3 170 (29.51%) Decision-Making
4 132 (22.92%) Mentoring
5 128 (22.22%) Analytics
6 120 (20.83%) Roadmaps
7 111 (19.27%) Agile
8 83 (14.41%) Business Strategy
9 76 (13.19%) Problem-Solving
10 75 (13.02%) Workshop Facilitation
11 73 (12.67%) Stakeholder Management
12 65 (11.28%) Continuous Improvement
13 63 (10.94%) Cybersecurity
13 63 (10.94%) Strategic Thinking
14 59 (10.24%) B2B
14 59 (10.24%) Use Case
15 58 (10.07%) DevOps
15 58 (10.07%) Machine Learning
16 55 (9.55%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 54 (9.38%) Data Science
Programming Languages
1 43 (7.47%) Python
2 42 (7.29%) Java
3 25 (4.34%) SQL
4 11 (1.91%) R
5 6 (1.04%) JavaScript
6 5 (0.87%) C#
6 5 (0.87%) Kotlin
6 5 (0.87%) Scala
7 4 (0.69%) Go
8 2 (0.35%) ABAP
8 2 (0.35%) PowerShell
9 1 (0.17%) PHP
9 1 (0.17%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 163 (28.30%) Degree
2 68 (11.81%) Security Cleared
3 41 (7.12%) SC Cleared
4 38 (6.60%) Master's Degree
5 21 (3.65%) PhD
6 20 (3.47%) 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 (1.56%) Computer Science Degree
13 9 (1.56%) CRISC
13 9 (1.56%) MBA
14 8 (1.39%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
15 7 (1.22%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 7 (1.22%) Cisco Certification
15 7 (1.22%) GSEC
16 6 (1.04%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (4.86%) GRC
2 25 (4.34%) Accessibility
3 19 (3.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 19 (3.30%) NIST
4 15 (2.60%) GxP
5 13 (2.26%) Data Quality
6 11 (1.91%) QA
7 9 (1.56%) EU AI Act
7 9 (1.56%) 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%) Basel III
10 5 (0.87%) WCAG
11 3 (0.52%) IFRS
11 3 (0.52%) NCSC
12 2 (0.35%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 2 (0.35%) GAAP
System Software
1 10 (1.74%) Docker
2 4 (0.69%) 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 (16.67%) Dell
2 40 (6.94%) SAP
3 39 (6.77%) Databricks
4 33 (5.73%) Microsoft
5 25 (4.34%) Informatica
6 24 (4.17%) Denodo
6 24 (4.17%) Teradata
7 21 (3.65%) Salesforce
7 21 (3.65%) ServiceNow
8 20 (3.47%) Oracle
9 18 (3.13%) Google
10 14 (2.43%) Foundry
11 13 (2.26%) Palantir
12 11 (1.91%) Cognizant
12 11 (1.91%) HubSpot
13 7 (1.22%) Workday
14 6 (1.04%) Adobe
14 6 (1.04%) Aruba
14 6 (1.04%) Fortinet
14 6 (1.04%) Juniper