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

6 months to
3 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 300 261 415
Rank change year-on-year -39 +154 -161
Permanent jobs citing Thought Leadership 596 571 608
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.62% 1.21% 0.58%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.84% 1.33% 0.70%
Number of salaries quoted 244 158 390
10th Percentile £45,000 £45,000 £35,000
25th Percentile £62,188 £57,500 £51,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £80,000 £82,500 £73,000
Median % change year-on-year -3.03% +13.01% -11.52%
75th Percentile £100,000 £102,813 £97,500
90th Percentile £116,750 £120,000 £130,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £67,500 £77,500
% change year-on-year +3.70% -12.90% +10.71%

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 71,140 43,093 86,602
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.59% 91.19% 82.11%
Number of salaries quoted 49,140 23,729 61,208
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,822 £29,750
25th Percentile £41,250 £38,750 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -9.09%
75th Percentile £78,750 £77,500 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £53,688 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +7.38% - -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 July 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 July 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 -34 543 £80,000 - 453
London -13 338 £85,000 -2.86% 324
UK excluding London -68 194 £70,000 +3.70% 160
Work from Home +1 131 £70,000 -16.42% 223
North of England -15 71 £95,000 +5.77% 38
North West +2 46 £95,000 +0.38% 26
East of England - 46 £60,100 - 7
Midlands -8 35 £80,000 +77.78% 22
South East -112 26 £37,500 -37.50% 54
West Midlands -23 19 £80,000 +77.78% 12
Yorkshire -27 18 £76,840 +2.45% 9
East Midlands +1 16 £50,000 - 10
South West -59 10 £59,750 -27.58% 13
North East -44 7 £100,000 +71.67% 3
Scotland +2 3 £110,000 +15.79% 26
Wales - 3 £55,000 - 1

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 (2.35%) Palantir Foundry
2 9 (1.51%) Microsoft Exchange
3 7 (1.17%) Apache Spark
4 5 (0.84%) CMS
5 4 (0.67%) Apache Airflow
5 4 (0.67%) Confluence
6 2 (0.34%) SharePoint
6 2 (0.34%) Umbraco
6 2 (0.34%) WordPress
7 1 (0.17%) Apache
7 1 (0.17%) Drupal
7 1 (0.17%) IIS
7 1 (0.17%) nginx
7 1 (0.17%) SAS
Applications
1 10 (1.68%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 4 (0.67%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (0.67%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (0.34%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.17%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 1 (0.17%) Adobe XD
4 1 (0.17%) InVision
4 1 (0.17%) Siemens NX
4 1 (0.17%) Sketch
4 1 (0.17%) Trello
Business Applications
1 23 (3.86%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (1.01%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.84%) SAP MDG
4 4 (0.67%) SAP MDG-F
5 3 (0.50%) Elite 3E
5 3 (0.50%) SAP MDG-BP
6 2 (0.34%) Distributed Ledger
6 2 (0.34%) SAP CO
6 2 (0.34%) SAP FI
6 2 (0.34%) SAP FI/CO
7 1 (0.17%) Magento
7 1 (0.17%) NetSuite
7 1 (0.17%) SAP IBP
7 1 (0.17%) SAP MDG-M
7 1 (0.17%) SAP MDG-S
7 1 (0.17%) Summit
7 1 (0.17%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 130 (21.81%) AWS
2 84 (14.09%) Azure
3 62 (10.40%) SaaS
4 48 (8.05%) GCP
5 29 (4.87%) Snowflake
6 24 (4.03%) AWS CloudFormation
7 21 (3.52%) Serverless
8 20 (3.36%) Cloud Computing
9 14 (2.35%) Power Platform
10 11 (1.85%) Amazon Bedrock
10 11 (1.85%) PaaS
11 10 (1.68%) GitHub
12 9 (1.51%) Azure AI
13 8 (1.34%) Amazon EKS
13 8 (1.34%) SuccessFactors
14 7 (1.17%) GitHub Actions
15 6 (1.01%) Amazon ECS
15 6 (1.01%) Amazon S3
15 6 (1.01%) Azure DevOps
15 6 (1.01%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 18 (3.02%) Firewall
2 7 (1.17%) Intrusion Detection
2 7 (1.17%) Network Security
2 7 (1.17%) Wireless
3 6 (1.01%) Cisco ISE
3 6 (1.01%) SD-WAN
3 6 (1.01%) WAN
3 6 (1.01%) WebEx
4 5 (0.84%) Broadband
4 5 (0.84%) Internet
5 4 (0.67%) Cisco Wireless
5 4 (0.67%) LAN
5 4 (0.67%) WLAN
6 3 (0.50%) Wi-Fi
7 2 (0.34%) Cisco IPT
7 2 (0.34%) SSL
7 2 (0.34%) Tactical Data Link
8 1 (0.17%) LoRaWAN
8 1 (0.17%) SMS
8 1 (0.17%) ZigBee
Database & Business Intelligence
1 30 (5.03%) Data Warehouse
2 28 (4.70%) Data Lake
3 21 (3.52%) NoSQL
4 12 (2.01%) Power BI
5 7 (1.17%) Big Data
6 5 (0.84%) Metadata
7 4 (0.67%) Amazon RDS
7 4 (0.67%) Data Mining
7 4 (0.67%) Delta Lake
7 4 (0.67%) Hadoop
7 4 (0.67%) SAP HANA
8 3 (0.50%) Semantic Layer
9 2 (0.34%) Amazon Redshift
9 2 (0.34%) BusinessObjects
9 2 (0.34%) Geospatial Data
9 2 (0.34%) SAP BW
9 2 (0.34%) SQL Server
9 2 (0.34%) Tableau
10 1 (0.17%) InterSystems Cache
10 1 (0.17%) Redis
Development Applications
1 18 (3.02%) Cucumber
1 18 (3.02%) GitLab
2 6 (1.01%) MLflow
3 4 (0.67%) JIRA
4 3 (0.50%) Git
4 3 (0.50%) Jenkins
5 2 (0.34%) Claude Code
5 2 (0.34%) Maven
5 2 (0.34%) rollup.js
6 1 (0.17%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 1 (0.17%) Axure RP
6 1 (0.17%) Cypress.io
6 1 (0.17%) Gatling
6 1 (0.17%) JMeter
6 1 (0.17%) mountebank
6 1 (0.17%) Selenium
6 1 (0.17%) Vagrant
General
1 200 (33.56%) Finance
2 164 (27.52%) Social Skills
3 104 (17.45%) Marketing
4 100 (16.78%) Analytical Skills
5 90 (15.10%) Public Sector
6 62 (10.40%) Presentation Skills
7 59 (9.90%) Retail
8 45 (7.55%) Banking
9 40 (6.71%) Legal
10 35 (5.87%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 30 (5.03%) Influencing Skills
12 19 (3.19%) Financial Institution
13 18 (3.02%) Brand Awareness
14 15 (2.52%) Telecoms
15 13 (2.18%) Manufacturing
16 12 (2.01%) Organisational Skills
17 11 (1.85%) Law
18 10 (1.68%) Aerospace
19 7 (1.17%) Automotive
19 7 (1.17%) Public Speaking
Job Titles
1 151 (25.34%) Senior
2 97 (16.28%) Architect
3 82 (13.76%) Consultant
4 74 (12.42%) Lead
5 59 (9.90%) Sales Executive
6 58 (9.73%) Account Executive
7 44 (7.38%) Senior Manager
8 40 (6.71%) Business Development Executive
9 39 (6.54%) Senior Sales Executive
10 34 (5.70%) Senior Account Executive
11 33 (5.54%) Business Sales Executive
11 33 (5.54%) Sales Account Executive
12 26 (4.36%) Senior Architect
13 25 (4.19%) Senior Consultant
13 25 (4.19%) Solutions Architect
14 24 (4.03%) Data Management Specialist
14 24 (4.03%) Java Engineer
14 24 (4.03%) Product Specialist
15 22 (3.69%) Lead Architect
15 22 (3.69%) Product Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 27 (4.53%) Kafka
2 22 (3.69%) Spring
2 22 (3.69%) Spring Boot
3 7 (1.17%) LangChain
3 7 (1.17%) LangGraph
4 6 (1.01%) REST
4 6 (1.01%) SOAP
4 6 (1.01%) XML
5 5 (0.84%) PyTorch
5 5 (0.84%) TensorFlow
6 4 (0.67%) FastAPI
6 4 (0.67%) PySpark
6 4 (0.67%) VML
7 3 (0.50%) Flutter
7 3 (0.50%) OAuth
7 3 (0.50%) OAuth2
7 3 (0.50%) React
8 2 (0.34%) CrewAI
8 2 (0.34%) RESTful
8 2 (0.34%) XGBoost
Miscellaneous
1 58 (9.73%) Cloud Native
2 45 (7.55%) Enterprise Software
3 30 (5.03%) Onboarding
4 26 (4.36%) Blog
5 24 (4.03%) e-Learning
6 20 (3.36%) Distributed Systems
7 19 (3.19%) Public Cloud
8 18 (3.02%) Management Information System
9 17 (2.85%) AI Agents
9 17 (2.85%) Product Ownership
10 16 (2.68%) Self-Motivation
11 14 (2.35%) Life Science
12 13 (2.18%) Web Conferencing
13 12 (2.01%) Legacy Applications
14 11 (1.85%) Data Fabric
14 11 (1.85%) Greenfield Project
15 10 (1.68%) Enterprise Cloud
15 10 (1.68%) Security Posture
15 10 (1.68%) Social Media
16 9 (1.51%) Podcast
Operating Systems
1 5 (0.84%) Windows
2 4 (0.67%) Linux
3 1 (0.17%) VMS
3 1 (0.17%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 189 (31.71%) AI
2 178 (29.87%) Business Development
3 164 (27.52%) Decision-Making
4 159 (26.68%) Mentoring
5 135 (22.65%) Analytics
5 135 (22.65%) Roadmaps
6 101 (16.95%) Agile
7 79 (13.26%) Stakeholder Management
8 74 (12.42%) Problem-Solving
9 70 (11.74%) Business Strategy
9 70 (11.74%) DevOps
10 66 (11.07%) B2B
11 64 (10.74%) Continuous Improvement
12 63 (10.57%) Cybersecurity
12 63 (10.57%) Strategic Thinking
13 61 (10.23%) Workshop Facilitation
14 60 (10.07%) CI/CD
15 57 (9.56%) Coaching
16 54 (9.06%) Machine Learning
17 52 (8.72%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 46 (7.72%) Java
2 43 (7.21%) Python
3 31 (5.20%) SQL
4 9 (1.51%) R
5 4 (0.67%) PowerShell
6 3 (0.50%) C#
6 3 (0.50%) Go
6 3 (0.50%) Kotlin
7 2 (0.34%) ABAP
7 2 (0.34%) Bicep
8 1 (0.17%) Bash
8 1 (0.17%) JavaScript
8 1 (0.17%) PHP
8 1 (0.17%) Scala
Qualifications
1 154 (25.84%) Degree
2 76 (12.75%) Security Cleared
3 42 (7.05%) SC Cleared
4 31 (5.20%) AWS Certification
5 24 (4.03%) CISSP
6 23 (3.86%) CISM
7 21 (3.52%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 21 (3.52%) Master's Degree
8 15 (2.52%) Azure Certification
9 14 (2.35%) DV Cleared
10 13 (2.18%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
11 12 (2.01%) CRISC
12 11 (1.85%) DBS Check
13 10 (1.68%) Computer Science Degree
14 9 (1.51%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 9 (1.51%) Cisco Certification
14 9 (1.51%) MBA
15 7 (1.17%) GSEC
16 6 (1.01%) CISA
16 6 (1.01%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (6.04%) GRC
2 29 (4.87%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 22 (3.69%) NIST
4 18 (3.02%) GDPR
5 16 (2.68%) Accessibility
6 14 (2.35%) Data Quality
6 14 (2.35%) JSP 440
7 11 (1.85%) PCI DSS
8 9 (1.51%) EU AI Act
8 9 (1.51%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 9 (1.51%) QA
9 8 (1.34%) Basel III
9 8 (1.34%) SLA
10 7 (1.17%) Government Security Classifications
11 5 (0.84%) Cyber Essentials
12 4 (0.67%) GxP
13 3 (0.50%) IFRS
14 2 (0.34%) California Consumer Privacy Act
14 2 (0.34%) NIST 800
14 2 (0.34%) PMO
System Software
1 17 (2.85%) Docker
2 6 (1.01%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.17%) Slurm Workload Manager
3 1 (0.17%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 21 (3.52%) Kubernetes
2 16 (2.68%) Terraform
3 11 (1.85%) Ansible
4 5 (0.84%) Puppet
5 4 (0.67%) Argo
6 3 (0.50%) Progress Chef
7 2 (0.34%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
7 2 (0.34%) RSA Archer
7 2 (0.34%) Salt
8 1 (0.17%) Amdocs OSS
8 1 (0.17%) Consul
8 1 (0.17%) EMC NetWorker
8 1 (0.17%) Grafana
8 1 (0.17%) Packer
Vendors
1 96 (16.11%) Dell
2 57 (9.56%) Microsoft
3 38 (6.38%) SAP
4 33 (5.54%) Databricks
5 25 (4.19%) Informatica
6 24 (4.03%) Denodo
6 24 (4.03%) Teradata
7 22 (3.69%) Salesforce
7 22 (3.69%) ServiceNow
8 19 (3.19%) Google
9 15 (2.52%) Foundry
10 14 (2.35%) Palantir
11 13 (2.18%) HubSpot
12 6 (1.01%) Aruba
12 6 (1.01%) Cisco
12 6 (1.01%) Cognizant
12 6 (1.01%) Fortinet
12 6 (1.01%) Juniper
12 6 (1.01%) OpenAI
12 6 (1.01%) Oracle