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

6 months to
27 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 313 259 429
Rank change year-on-year -54 +170 -178
Permanent jobs citing Thought Leadership 614 574 465
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.61% 1.16% 0.53%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.82% 1.29% 0.65%
Number of salaries quoted 249 157 288
10th Percentile £44,900 £45,000 £41,250
25th Percentile £60,000 £57,500 £51,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £80,000 £82,500 £73,000
Median % change year-on-year -3.03% +13.01% -8.75%
75th Percentile £105,000 £105,000 £97,500
90th Percentile £117,500 £119,250 £130,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £67,500 £70,000
% change year-on-year +3.70% -3.57% -

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 74,612 44,363 71,938
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.65% 89.74% 81.45%
Number of salaries quoted 51,478 25,172 48,522
10th Percentile £30,500 £28,750 £30,000
25th Percentile £41,250 £37,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £78,750 £76,250 £73,750
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,500 £93,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +10.00% - -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 27 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 27 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 -49 563 £80,000 -0.93% 391
London -16 363 £95,000 +8.57% 303
UK excluding London -79 188 £70,000 +3.70% 115
Work from Home -15 141 £70,000 -17.65% 145
North of England -11 64 £95,000 +0.38% 29
East of England - 43 £60,100 - 5
North West +3 39 £95,000 +0.38% 21
Midlands -15 37 £80,000 +56.10% 12
South East -108 24 £37,500 -23.47% 39
West Midlands -26 20 £80,000 +56.10% 6
East Midlands -11 17 £50,000 - 6
Yorkshire -28 17 £76,840 +2.45% 7
South West -55 11 £59,750 -25.31% 15
North East -45 8 £100,000 +71.67% 1
Wales - 5 £55,000 - 3
Scotland +1 4 £110,000 +15.79% 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 16 (2.61%) Palantir Foundry
2 10 (1.63%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (0.98%) Apache Spark
4 5 (0.81%) CMS
5 3 (0.49%) Confluence
5 3 (0.49%) SAS
6 2 (0.33%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.33%) SharePoint
6 2 (0.33%) Umbraco
6 2 (0.33%) WordPress
7 1 (0.16%) Apache
7 1 (0.16%) ArcGIS
7 1 (0.16%) Drupal
7 1 (0.16%) IIS
7 1 (0.16%) nginx
Applications
1 8 (1.30%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 3 (0.49%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (0.49%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.16%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 1 (0.16%) Adobe XD
3 1 (0.16%) InVision
3 1 (0.16%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.16%) Sketch
3 1 (0.16%) Trello
Business Applications
1 25 (4.07%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.98%) Distributed Ledger
3 5 (0.81%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.81%) SAP MDG
4 4 (0.65%) SAP MDG-F
5 3 (0.49%) SAP MDG-BP
5 3 (0.49%) Summit
6 2 (0.33%) Elite 3E
6 2 (0.33%) SAP CO
6 2 (0.33%) SAP FI
6 2 (0.33%) SAP FI/CO
7 1 (0.16%) Magento
7 1 (0.16%) NetSuite
7 1 (0.16%) SAP IBP
7 1 (0.16%) SAP MDG-M
7 1 (0.16%) SAP MDG-S
Cloud Services
1 160 (26.06%) AWS
2 92 (14.98%) Azure
3 66 (10.75%) SaaS
4 54 (8.79%) GCP
5 36 (5.86%) Cloud Computing
6 27 (4.40%) AWS CloudFormation
6 27 (4.40%) Snowflake
7 22 (3.58%) Serverless
8 15 (2.44%) Power Platform
9 14 (2.28%) GitHub
10 13 (2.12%) Amazon Bedrock
11 10 (1.63%) PaaS
12 9 (1.47%) Azure AI
13 7 (1.14%) Amazon EKS
13 7 (1.14%) Azure DevOps
13 7 (1.14%) GitHub Actions
13 7 (1.14%) Microsoft 365
14 6 (0.98%) Amazon Kinesis
14 6 (0.98%) Amazon S3
14 6 (0.98%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 18 (2.93%) Firewall
2 10 (1.63%) Internet
3 6 (0.98%) Intrusion Detection
3 6 (0.98%) Network Security
3 6 (0.98%) Wireless
4 5 (0.81%) Broadband
4 5 (0.81%) Cisco ISE
4 5 (0.81%) Cisco Wireless
4 5 (0.81%) LAN
4 5 (0.81%) SD-WAN
4 5 (0.81%) WAN
4 5 (0.81%) WebEx
4 5 (0.81%) WLAN
5 2 (0.33%) AMQP
5 2 (0.33%) Cisco IPT
5 2 (0.33%) MQTT
5 2 (0.33%) SSL
6 1 (0.16%) LoRaWAN
6 1 (0.16%) Wi-Fi
6 1 (0.16%) ZigBee
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (5.05%) Data Warehouse
2 29 (4.72%) Data Lake
3 23 (3.75%) NoSQL
4 14 (2.28%) Power BI
5 7 (1.14%) Big Data
6 6 (0.98%) Data Mining
6 6 (0.98%) SAP HANA
7 5 (0.81%) Metadata
8 4 (0.65%) BusinessObjects
8 4 (0.65%) Delta Lake
8 4 (0.65%) Hadoop
8 4 (0.65%) Tableau
9 3 (0.49%) Amazon QuickSight
9 3 (0.49%) Amazon RDS
9 3 (0.49%) Geospatial Data
9 3 (0.49%) Semantic Layer
9 3 (0.49%) SQL Server Analysis Services
10 2 (0.33%) Amazon Redshift
10 2 (0.33%) SAP BW
10 2 (0.33%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 20 (3.26%) GitLab
2 19 (3.09%) Cucumber
3 8 (1.30%) MLflow
4 5 (0.81%) Git
4 5 (0.81%) Jenkins
4 5 (0.81%) Maven
5 4 (0.65%) Claude Code
6 3 (0.49%) JIRA
7 2 (0.33%) rollup.js
8 1 (0.16%) Ant
8 1 (0.16%) Apache Ivy
8 1 (0.16%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 1 (0.16%) Axure RP
8 1 (0.16%) Balsamiq
8 1 (0.16%) Gatling
8 1 (0.16%) IBM UrbanCode
8 1 (0.16%) JMeter
8 1 (0.16%) mountebank
8 1 (0.16%) Vagrant
8 1 (0.16%) Vite
General
1 210 (34.20%) Finance
2 169 (27.52%) Social Skills
3 114 (18.57%) Public Sector
4 113 (18.40%) Marketing
5 91 (14.82%) Analytical Skills
6 64 (10.42%) Retail
7 60 (9.77%) Presentation Skills
8 46 (7.49%) Banking
9 45 (7.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 40 (6.51%) Influencing Skills
11 38 (6.19%) Legal
12 20 (3.26%) Brand Awareness
13 18 (2.93%) Financial Institution
13 18 (2.93%) Law
14 15 (2.44%) Public Speaking
14 15 (2.44%) Telecoms
15 14 (2.28%) Manufacturing
16 13 (2.12%) Aerospace
16 13 (2.12%) Military
16 13 (2.12%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 136 (22.15%) Senior
2 104 (16.94%) Architect
3 75 (12.21%) Consultant
3 75 (12.21%) Lead
4 45 (7.33%) Sales Executive
5 42 (6.84%) Account Executive
5 42 (6.84%) Senior Manager
6 30 (4.89%) Solutions Architect
7 28 (4.56%) Senior Architect
8 26 (4.23%) Business Development Executive
9 25 (4.07%) Senior Sales Executive
10 24 (3.91%) Data Management Specialist
10 24 (3.91%) Product Manager
10 24 (3.91%) Product Specialist
11 22 (3.58%) Lead Architect
11 22 (3.58%) Senior Consultant
12 21 (3.42%) Account Manager
12 21 (3.42%) Senior Product Manager
13 20 (3.26%) Java Engineer
13 20 (3.26%) Senior Account Executive
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (4.89%) Kafka
2 23 (3.75%) Spring
2 23 (3.75%) Spring Boot
3 9 (1.47%) LangGraph
4 8 (1.30%) LangChain
5 6 (0.98%) XML
6 5 (0.81%) CrewAI
6 5 (0.81%) FastAPI
6 5 (0.81%) Model Context Protocol
7 4 (0.65%) CSS
7 4 (0.65%) HTML
7 4 (0.65%) PySpark
7 4 (0.65%) PyTorch
7 4 (0.65%) RabbitMQ
7 4 (0.65%) React
7 4 (0.65%) REST
7 4 (0.65%) SOAP
7 4 (0.65%) TensorFlow
7 4 (0.65%) VML
8 3 (0.49%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 64 (10.42%) Cloud Native
2 51 (8.31%) Onboarding
3 45 (7.33%) Enterprise Software
4 37 (6.03%) Blog
5 25 (4.07%) AI Agents
5 25 (4.07%) e-Learning
6 23 (3.75%) Distributed Systems
7 20 (3.26%) Product Ownership
7 20 (3.26%) Public Cloud
8 17 (2.77%) Social Media
9 16 (2.61%) Self-Motivation
10 15 (2.44%) Management Information System
10 15 (2.44%) Web Conferencing
11 14 (2.28%) NHS
12 12 (1.95%) Legacy Applications
13 11 (1.79%) Greenfield Project
14 10 (1.63%) Enterprise Cloud
14 10 (1.63%) Life Science
15 9 (1.47%) Data Fabric
15 9 (1.47%) Podcast
Operating Systems
1 7 (1.14%) Linux
2 6 (0.98%) Windows
3 2 (0.33%) Unix
3 2 (0.33%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.16%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 216 (35.18%) AI
2 170 (27.69%) Mentoring
3 168 (27.36%) Business Development
4 156 (25.41%) Decision-Making
4 156 (25.41%) Roadmaps
5 146 (23.78%) Analytics
6 98 (15.96%) Agile
7 86 (14.01%) Stakeholder Management
8 78 (12.70%) Problem-Solving
9 76 (12.38%) Continuous Improvement
10 74 (12.05%) B2B
10 74 (12.05%) DevOps
11 70 (11.40%) CI/CD
12 69 (11.24%) Strategic Thinking
13 64 (10.42%) Coaching
13 64 (10.42%) Cybersecurity
13 64 (10.42%) Machine Learning
14 60 (9.77%) Infrastructure as Code
15 58 (9.45%) Risk Management
16 57 (9.28%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 51 (8.31%) Python
2 42 (6.84%) Java
3 37 (6.03%) SQL
4 9 (1.47%) R
5 5 (0.81%) Bash
5 5 (0.81%) Go
5 5 (0.81%) PowerShell
6 3 (0.49%) C#
6 3 (0.49%) JavaScript
6 3 (0.49%) Kotlin
7 2 (0.33%) ABAP
7 2 (0.33%) Bicep
8 1 (0.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 1 (0.16%) PHP
8 1 (0.16%) Scala
8 1 (0.16%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 153 (24.92%) Degree
2 87 (14.17%) Security Cleared
3 55 (8.96%) SC Cleared
4 35 (5.70%) AWS Certification
5 22 (3.58%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
5 22 (3.58%) CISSP
6 20 (3.26%) CISM
6 20 (3.26%) Master's Degree
7 18 (2.93%) Computer Science Degree
8 14 (2.28%) Azure Certification
8 14 (2.28%) DV Cleared
9 13 (2.12%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
10 12 (1.95%) CRISC
11 11 (1.79%) BPSS Clearance
11 11 (1.79%) DBS Check
12 10 (1.63%) Cisco Certification
13 9 (1.47%) MBA
14 8 (1.30%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 8 (1.30%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
15 6 (0.98%) GSEC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (5.05%) GRC
2 28 (4.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 22 (3.58%) NIST
4 19 (3.09%) GDPR
5 15 (2.44%) Accessibility
6 13 (2.12%) Data Quality
6 13 (2.12%) JSP 440
7 11 (1.79%) PCI DSS
7 11 (1.79%) QA
7 11 (1.79%) SLA
8 9 (1.47%) EU AI Act
8 9 (1.47%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 7 (1.14%) Basel III
10 6 (0.98%) Government Security Classifications
11 5 (0.81%) Cyber Essentials
12 4 (0.65%) PMO
13 3 (0.49%) IFRS
13 3 (0.49%) NCSC
13 3 (0.49%) WCAG
14 2 (0.33%) GAAP
System Software
1 20 (3.26%) Docker
2 6 (0.98%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.49%) Slurm Workload Manager
4 1 (0.16%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 25 (4.07%) Kubernetes
2 18 (2.93%) Terraform
3 12 (1.95%) Ansible
4 6 (0.98%) Puppet
5 4 (0.65%) Argo
5 4 (0.65%) Progress Chef
6 2 (0.33%) Salt
7 1 (0.16%) Amdocs OSS
7 1 (0.16%) Consul
7 1 (0.16%) EMC NetWorker
7 1 (0.16%) Grafana
7 1 (0.16%) Packer
7 1 (0.16%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 82 (13.36%) Dell
2 58 (9.45%) Microsoft
3 37 (6.03%) SAP
4 34 (5.54%) Databricks
5 27 (4.40%) Salesforce
6 25 (4.07%) Informatica
6 25 (4.07%) Teradata
7 24 (3.91%) Denodo
8 21 (3.42%) Google
9 20 (3.26%) ServiceNow
10 17 (2.77%) Foundry
11 16 (2.61%) Palantir
12 13 (2.12%) HubSpot
13 8 (1.30%) Cisco
14 7 (1.14%) Oracle
15 6 (0.98%) Cognizant
15 6 (0.98%) OpenAI
15 6 (0.98%) Workday
16 5 (0.81%) Ariba
16 5 (0.81%) Juniper