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

6 months to
2 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 319 266 449
Rank change year-on-year -53 +183 -198
Permanent jobs citing Thought Leadership 628 578 428
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.61% 1.16% 0.51%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.82% 1.30% 0.63%
Number of salaries quoted 256 154 259
10th Percentile £46,000 £45,000 £41,250
25th Percentile £60,000 £58,125 £54,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £80,000 £82,500 £78,000
Median % change year-on-year -3.03% +5.77% -2.50%
75th Percentile £107,500 £104,688 £100,000
90th Percentile £117,500 £118,375 £131,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £74,000 £67,500 £80,000
% change year-on-year +9.63% -15.63% +11.79%

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 76,271 44,428 67,881
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.70% 89.49% 81.01%
Number of salaries quoted 52,568 25,332 44,788
10th Percentile £30,750 £28,500 £31,199
25th Percentile £41,250 £37,500 £41,000
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 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,500 £95,000
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 2 August 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 2 August 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 -52 569 £82,500 +3.13% 641
London -16 373 £95,000 +8.57% 490
UK excluding London -81 193 £74,000 +9.63% 222
Work from Home -1 144 £70,000 -17.65% 309
North of England -20 61 £95,000 +0.38% 54
East of England - 40 £60,100 - 12
North West +4 37 £95,000 +0.38% 39
Midlands -14 37 £80,000 +56.10% 24
South East -111 26 £40,000 -18.37% 49
West Midlands -38 20 £80,000 +56.10% 16
East Midlands -13 17 £50,000 - 8
Yorkshire -30 16 £76,840 +2.45% 12
Wales - 13 £55,000 - 3
South West -60 12 £59,750 -25.31% 20
North East -48 8 £100,000 +71.67% 3
Scotland -5 4 £110,000 +15.79% 49

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 (2.55%) Palantir Foundry
2 10 (1.59%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (0.96%) Apache Spark
4 4 (0.64%) CMS
5 3 (0.48%) Confluence
5 3 (0.48%) SAS
6 2 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.32%) ArcGIS
6 2 (0.32%) SharePoint
6 2 (0.32%) Umbraco
7 1 (0.16%) Apache
7 1 (0.16%) Drupal
7 1 (0.16%) IIS
7 1 (0.16%) nginx
7 1 (0.16%) WordPress
Applications
1 8 (1.27%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 3 (0.48%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (0.48%) Microsoft Office
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 (3.98%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (0.96%) Distributed Ledger
3 5 (0.80%) SAP MDG
4 4 (0.64%) Dynamics CRM
4 4 (0.64%) SAP MDG-F
5 3 (0.48%) SAP MDG-BP
5 3 (0.48%) Summit
6 2 (0.32%) Elite 3E
6 2 (0.32%) SAP CO
6 2 (0.32%) SAP FI
6 2 (0.32%) 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
1 170 (27.07%) AWS
2 94 (14.97%) Azure
3 65 (10.35%) SaaS
4 55 (8.76%) GCP
5 37 (5.89%) Cloud Computing
6 28 (4.46%) AWS CloudFormation
6 28 (4.46%) Snowflake
7 23 (3.66%) Serverless
8 15 (2.39%) Power Platform
9 14 (2.23%) Amazon Bedrock
9 14 (2.23%) GitHub
10 10 (1.59%) Azure AI
10 10 (1.59%) PaaS
11 8 (1.27%) Amazon EKS
12 7 (1.11%) Amazon ECS
12 7 (1.11%) Amazon S3
12 7 (1.11%) Azure DevOps
12 7 (1.11%) GitHub Actions
12 7 (1.11%) Microsoft 365
12 7 (1.11%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 18 (2.87%) Firewall
2 10 (1.59%) Internet
3 6 (0.96%) Intrusion Detection
3 6 (0.96%) Network Security
3 6 (0.96%) Wireless
4 5 (0.80%) Broadband
4 5 (0.80%) Cisco ISE
4 5 (0.80%) Cisco Wireless
4 5 (0.80%) LAN
4 5 (0.80%) SD-WAN
4 5 (0.80%) WAN
4 5 (0.80%) WebEx
4 5 (0.80%) WLAN
5 2 (0.32%) AMQP
5 2 (0.32%) Cisco IPT
5 2 (0.32%) MQTT
5 2 (0.32%) SSL
6 1 (0.16%) GoToMeeting
6 1 (0.16%) SMS
6 1 (0.16%) ZigBee
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (4.94%) Data Warehouse
2 29 (4.62%) Data Lake
3 23 (3.66%) NoSQL
4 14 (2.23%) Data Mining
4 14 (2.23%) Power BI
5 12 (1.91%) Tableau
6 11 (1.75%) Amazon QuickSight
7 7 (1.11%) Big Data
8 6 (0.96%) Metadata
8 6 (0.96%) SAP HANA
9 4 (0.64%) BusinessObjects
9 4 (0.64%) Delta Lake
9 4 (0.64%) Hadoop
10 3 (0.48%) Amazon RDS
10 3 (0.48%) Amazon Redshift
10 3 (0.48%) Geospatial Data
10 3 (0.48%) Semantic Layer
10 3 (0.48%) SQL Server Analysis Services
11 2 (0.32%) SAP BW
11 2 (0.32%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 20 (3.18%) GitLab
2 19 (3.03%) Cucumber
3 8 (1.27%) MLflow
4 5 (0.80%) Git
4 5 (0.80%) Jenkins
4 5 (0.80%) Maven
5 4 (0.64%) Claude Code
6 3 (0.48%) JIRA
7 2 (0.32%) 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
1 226 (35.99%) Finance
2 175 (27.87%) Social Skills
3 125 (19.90%) Marketing
4 115 (18.31%) Public Sector
5 90 (14.33%) Analytical Skills
6 64 (10.19%) Retail
7 60 (9.55%) Presentation Skills
8 49 (7.80%) Banking
9 47 (7.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 41 (6.53%) Influencing Skills
11 37 (5.89%) Legal
12 21 (3.34%) Brand Awareness
13 20 (3.18%) Law
14 19 (3.03%) Financial Institution
15 17 (2.71%) Telecoms
16 15 (2.39%) Organisational Skills
16 15 (2.39%) Public Speaking
17 14 (2.23%) Aerospace
17 14 (2.23%) Manufacturing
18 13 (2.07%) Back Office
Job Titles
1 137 (21.82%) Senior
2 105 (16.72%) Architect
3 76 (12.10%) Consultant
4 75 (11.94%) Lead
5 46 (7.32%) Senior Manager
6 40 (6.37%) Sales Executive
7 38 (6.05%) Account Executive
8 31 (4.94%) Solutions Architect
9 28 (4.46%) Senior Architect
10 25 (3.98%) Product Manager
11 24 (3.82%) Data Management Specialist
11 24 (3.82%) Product Specialist
12 23 (3.66%) Senior Consultant
13 22 (3.50%) Business Development Executive
13 22 (3.50%) Lead Architect
13 22 (3.50%) Senior Product Manager
14 21 (3.34%) Account Manager
15 20 (3.18%) Java Engineer
15 20 (3.18%) Security Architect
15 20 (3.18%) Senior Sales Executive
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (4.78%) Kafka
2 22 (3.50%) Spring
2 22 (3.50%) Spring Boot
3 10 (1.59%) LangGraph
4 9 (1.43%) LangChain
5 6 (0.96%) FastAPI
5 6 (0.96%) XML
6 5 (0.80%) CrewAI
6 5 (0.80%) Model Context Protocol
7 4 (0.64%) CSS
7 4 (0.64%) HTML
7 4 (0.64%) PySpark
7 4 (0.64%) PyTorch
7 4 (0.64%) RabbitMQ
7 4 (0.64%) React
7 4 (0.64%) REST
7 4 (0.64%) SOAP
7 4 (0.64%) TensorFlow
7 4 (0.64%) VML
8 3 (0.48%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 67 (10.67%) Cloud Native
2 58 (9.24%) Onboarding
3 45 (7.17%) Enterprise Software
4 37 (5.89%) Blog
5 27 (4.30%) AI Agents
6 25 (3.98%) e-Learning
7 23 (3.66%) Distributed Systems
8 21 (3.34%) Product Ownership
9 20 (3.18%) Public Cloud
10 19 (3.03%) Social Media
11 16 (2.55%) Self-Motivation
12 15 (2.39%) Management Information System
12 15 (2.39%) Web Conferencing
13 14 (2.23%) NHS
14 12 (1.91%) Legacy Applications
15 11 (1.75%) Greenfield Project
16 10 (1.59%) Data Fabric
16 10 (1.59%) Enterprise Cloud
16 10 (1.59%) Life Science
17 9 (1.43%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 7 (1.11%) Linux
2 6 (0.96%) Windows
3 2 (0.32%) Unix
3 2 (0.32%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.16%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 225 (35.83%) AI
2 178 (28.34%) Mentoring
3 169 (26.91%) Business Development
4 160 (25.48%) Decision-Making
5 159 (25.32%) Roadmaps
6 154 (24.52%) Analytics
7 101 (16.08%) Agile
8 90 (14.33%) Stakeholder Management
9 80 (12.74%) Continuous Improvement
10 79 (12.58%) Problem-Solving
11 75 (11.94%) B2B
11 75 (11.94%) DevOps
12 73 (11.62%) Machine Learning
13 72 (11.46%) CI/CD
14 69 (10.99%) Strategic Thinking
15 65 (10.35%) Coaching
15 65 (10.35%) Cybersecurity
16 62 (9.87%) Risk Management
17 61 (9.71%) Infrastructure as Code
18 54 (8.60%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 62 (9.87%) Python
2 47 (7.48%) SQL
3 41 (6.53%) Java
4 10 (1.59%) R
5 5 (0.80%) Bash
5 5 (0.80%) Go
5 5 (0.80%) PowerShell
6 3 (0.48%) C#
6 3 (0.48%) JavaScript
7 2 (0.32%) ABAP
7 2 (0.32%) Bicep
7 2 (0.32%) Kotlin
8 1 (0.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 1 (0.16%) PHP
8 1 (0.16%) Scala
8 1 (0.16%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 151 (24.04%) Degree
2 89 (14.17%) Security Cleared
3 57 (9.08%) SC Cleared
4 37 (5.89%) AWS Certification
5 22 (3.50%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
5 22 (3.50%) CISSP
6 21 (3.34%) Master's Degree
7 20 (3.18%) CISM
8 18 (2.87%) Computer Science Degree
9 15 (2.39%) Azure Certification
9 15 (2.39%) DV Cleared
10 13 (2.07%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
11 12 (1.91%) BPSS Clearance
11 12 (1.91%) CRISC
12 11 (1.75%) DBS Check
13 10 (1.59%) Cisco Certification
14 9 (1.43%) MBA
15 8 (1.27%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 8 (1.27%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
16 6 (0.96%) GSEC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (4.94%) GRC
2 29 (4.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 24 (3.82%) NIST
4 21 (3.34%) GDPR
5 15 (2.39%) Accessibility
5 15 (2.39%) Data Quality
6 13 (2.07%) JSP 440
7 11 (1.75%) PCI DSS
7 11 (1.75%) SLA
8 10 (1.59%) EU AI Act
8 10 (1.59%) QA
9 9 (1.43%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 7 (1.11%) Basel III
11 6 (0.96%) Government Security Classifications
12 5 (0.80%) Cyber Essentials
13 4 (0.64%) PMO
14 3 (0.48%) IFRS
14 3 (0.48%) NCSC
14 3 (0.48%) WCAG
15 2 (0.32%) GAAP
System Software
1 21 (3.34%) Docker
2 6 (0.96%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.48%) Slurm Workload Manager
4 1 (0.16%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 26 (4.14%) Kubernetes
2 19 (3.03%) Terraform
3 12 (1.91%) Ansible
4 6 (0.96%) Puppet
5 4 (0.64%) Argo
5 4 (0.64%) Progress Chef
6 2 (0.32%) 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 78 (12.42%) Dell
2 58 (9.24%) Microsoft
3 37 (5.89%) SAP
4 35 (5.57%) Databricks
5 26 (4.14%) Informatica
5 26 (4.14%) Salesforce
6 25 (3.98%) Teradata
7 24 (3.82%) Denodo
7 24 (3.82%) Google
8 20 (3.18%) ServiceNow
9 17 (2.71%) Foundry
10 16 (2.55%) Palantir
11 12 (1.91%) HubSpot
12 8 (1.27%) Cisco
13 7 (1.11%) Oracle
14 6 (0.96%) Cognizant
14 6 (0.96%) OpenAI
14 6 (0.96%) Workday
15 5 (0.80%) Ariba
15 5 (0.80%) Fortinet