Strategic Thinking Contracts

Strategic Thinking
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for Strategic Thinking skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that have cited Strategic Thinking over the 6 months to 1 May 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
1 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 310 380 396
Rank change year-on-year +70 +16 -5
Contract jobs citing Strategic Thinking 319 367 579
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.73% 0.62% 0.65%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.85% 0.69% 0.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 162 248 400
10th Percentile £425 £410 £425
25th Percentile £513 £488 £505
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £584 £600 £600
Median % change year-on-year -2.75% - +9.09%
75th Percentile £688 £700 £738
90th Percentile £824 £788 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £594 £550 £600
% change year-on-year +7.95% -8.33% +6.19%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 4 7
10th Percentile £34.80 - £26.28
25th Percentile £63.75 £21.25 £32.25
Median hourly rate £70.00 £22.50 £43.50
Median % change year-on-year +211.11% -48.28% +10.13%
75th Percentile £72.50 £39.69 £72.00
90th Percentile - £68.38 £83.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £70.00 £22.50 £53.50
% change year-on-year +211.11% -57.94% +22.29%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

Strategic Thinking is in the Processes and Methodologies category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 37,562 53,490 80,370
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.33% 89.88% 90.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,188 37,115 56,434
10th Percentile £300 £325 £340
25th Percentile £413 £438 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% +4.76% +7.69%
75th Percentile £638 £650 £638
90th Percentile £750 £750 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £475
% change year-on-year - +5.26% +8.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,451 1,742 1,926
10th Percentile £12.75 £11.00 £12.50
25th Percentile £16.00 £16.25 £15.27
Median hourly rate £35.50 £36.42 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year -2.53% +45.69% -
75th Percentile £59.95 £65.00 £49.25
90th Percentile £72.50 £75.00 £64.31
UK excluding London median hourly rate £36.50 £35.00 £20.00
% change year-on-year +4.29% +75.00% -8.00%

Strategic Thinking
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Strategic Thinking as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Strategic Thinking in the UK

Strategic Thinking
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Strategic Thinking.

Daily rate trend for Strategic Thinking in the UK

Strategic Thinking
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Strategic Thinking over the 6 months to 1 May 2024.

Daily rate histogram for Strategic Thinking in the UK

Strategic Thinking
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Strategic Thinking.

Hourly rate trend for Strategic Thinking in the UK

Strategic Thinking
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Strategic Thinking over the 6 months to 1 May 2024.

Hourly rate histogram for Strategic Thinking in the UK

Strategic Thinking
Top 17 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Strategic Thinking within the UK over the 6 months to 1 May 2024. 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England +77 271 £575 -4.17% 568
UK excluding London +72 141 £594 +7.95% 298
London +23 136 £550 -9.84% 285
Work from Home +106 120 £584 -0.43% 243
South West +73 68 £588 +4.44% 27
North of England +22 25 £636 +15.55% 88
South East -7 22 £550 -10.57% 82
North West +30 20 £600 -5.88% 45
Midlands +29 13 £600 +12.94% 47
West Midlands +30 12 £600 +14.29% 19
Scotland +35 10 £646 +23.05% 28
North East +23 2 £775 +10.71% 16
Yorkshire +14 2 - - 29
East Midlands +14 1 £475 -20.83% 28
East of England +2 1 - - 30
Northern Ireland - 1 £513 - 5
Wales - 1 £450 - 3

Strategic Thinking
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 5 (1.57%) SharePoint
2 4 (1.25%) Confluence
3 3 (0.94%) CMS
3 3 (0.94%) Microsoft Exchange
4 2 (0.63%) nginx
4 2 (0.63%) Traefik
5 1 (0.31%) Mule
Applications
1 11 (3.45%) Adobe Creative Suite
1 11 (3.45%) Microsoft Office
1 11 (3.45%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 8 (2.51%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (2.19%) Adobe After Effects
4 6 (1.88%) Adobe Premiere
4 6 (1.88%) CINEMA 4D
4 6 (1.88%) Sketch
5 5 (1.57%) InVision
6 2 (0.63%) Photoshop
6 2 (0.63%) UserZoom
7 1 (0.31%) Adobe Illustrator
7 1 (0.31%) Adobe XD
7 1 (0.31%) Camtasia
7 1 (0.31%) Final Cut Pro
7 1 (0.31%) Trello
Business Applications
1 8 (2.51%) Shopify
2 4 (1.25%) SAP S/4HANA
3 3 (0.94%) Fidessa
4 2 (0.63%) SAP CO
4 2 (0.63%) SAP FI
4 2 (0.63%) SAP FI/CO
4 2 (0.63%) SAP SD
4 2 (0.63%) WebTrends
5 1 (0.31%) Distributed Ledger
Cloud Services
1 31 (9.72%) Azure
2 14 (4.39%) AWS
3 12 (3.76%) Figma
3 12 (3.76%) Power Platform
4 10 (3.13%) Microsoft 365
5 8 (2.51%) BigCommerce
5 8 (2.51%) GCP
6 7 (2.19%) SaaS
7 6 (1.88%) AWS CloudFormation
8 5 (1.57%) PaaS
9 4 (1.25%) Cloud Computing
9 4 (1.25%) IaaS
9 4 (1.25%) Serverless
10 3 (0.94%) iPaaS
10 3 (0.94%) Tricentis Tosca
10 3 (0.94%) WhatsApp
11 2 (0.63%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 2 (0.63%) Google Tag Manager
11 2 (0.63%) SuccessFactors
11 2 (0.63%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 10 (3.13%) WAN
2 8 (2.51%) LAN
3 7 (2.19%) Unified Communications
4 6 (1.88%) Wi-Fi
5 5 (1.57%) Firewall
5 5 (1.57%) Kerberos
5 5 (1.57%) VSAN
6 4 (1.25%) Wireless
7 3 (0.94%) Network Security
7 3 (0.94%) Skype
8 2 (0.63%) DNS
8 2 (0.63%) TCP/IP
9 1 (0.31%) BGP
9 1 (0.31%) Internet
9 1 (0.31%) IPv4
9 1 (0.31%) IPv6
9 1 (0.31%) MPLS
9 1 (0.31%) OSPF
9 1 (0.31%) VoIP
9 1 (0.31%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (3.76%) Power BI
2 7 (2.19%) Data Warehouse
2 7 (2.19%) Tableau
3 6 (1.88%) Metadata
3 6 (1.88%) Metadata Repository
3 6 (1.88%) SQL Server
4 5 (1.57%) NoSQL
5 3 (0.94%) MongoDB
6 1 (0.31%) Data Lake
6 1 (0.31%) DTS
6 1 (0.31%) MySQL
6 1 (0.31%) SQL Server Analysis Services
6 1 (0.31%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 1 (0.31%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 1 (0.31%) Tableau Desktop
Development Applications
1 15 (4.70%) JIRA
2 4 (1.25%) Axure RP
3 3 (0.94%) LoadRunner
3 3 (0.94%) Mockito
3 3 (0.94%) NeoLoad
4 2 (0.63%) Git
4 2 (0.63%) GitLab
4 2 (0.63%) Jenkins
General
1 141 (44.20%) Social Skills
2 59 (18.50%) Finance
3 43 (13.48%) Analytical Skills
3 43 (13.48%) Public Sector
4 29 (9.09%) Marketing
5 26 (8.15%) Telecoms
6 18 (5.64%) Presentation Skills
7 17 (5.33%) Retail
8 11 (3.45%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 9 (2.82%) Legal
10 8 (2.51%) Influencing Skills
11 7 (2.19%) Law
12 6 (1.88%) Organisational Skills
13 4 (1.25%) Banking
13 4 (1.25%) Manufacturing
14 3 (0.94%) Financial Institution
14 3 (0.94%) Police
15 2 (0.63%) Advertising
15 2 (0.63%) Front Office
15 2 (0.63%) Public Speaking
Job Titles
1 106 (33.23%) Architect
2 80 (25.08%) Lead
3 51 (15.99%) Lead Architect
4 38 (11.91%) Designer
5 34 (10.66%) Senior
6 27 (8.46%) Network Architect
7 21 (6.58%) Analyst
7 21 (6.58%) Systems Architect
8 15 (4.70%) Consultant
9 14 (4.39%) Project Manager
10 13 (4.08%) Business Analyst
10 13 (4.08%) Product Owner
11 11 (3.45%) Technical Architect
12 10 (3.13%) Solutions Architect
13 9 (2.82%) Domain Architect
13 9 (2.82%) Programme Manager
13 9 (2.82%) Service Designer
14 8 (2.51%) Creative Designer
14 8 (2.51%) Data Architect
14 8 (2.51%) Senior Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (1.57%) OAuth
1 5 (1.57%) OpenID
1 5 (1.57%) SAML
2 3 (0.94%) .NET
2 3 (0.94%) ActiveMQ
2 3 (0.94%) HTML
2 3 (0.94%) J2EE
2 3 (0.94%) JAX-RS
2 3 (0.94%) JSON
2 3 (0.94%) Kafka
2 3 (0.94%) Web Services
3 2 (0.63%) cloud-init
3 2 (0.63%) Middleware
3 2 (0.63%) REST
3 2 (0.63%) Ruby on Rails
3 2 (0.63%) SOAP
3 2 (0.63%) Swagger
4 1 (0.31%) ARM Templates
4 1 (0.31%) Flutter
4 1 (0.31%) PyTorch
Miscellaneous
1 35 (10.97%) Self-Motivation
2 15 (4.70%) Product Ownership
3 14 (4.39%) Data Centre
4 10 (3.13%) Management Information System
5 9 (2.82%) VxBlock/Vblock
6 7 (2.19%) Analytical Mindset
7 6 (1.88%) Motion Graphics
8 5 (1.57%) Animation
8 5 (1.57%) CMDB
8 5 (1.57%) Enterprise Software
8 5 (1.57%) Team-Oriented Environment
9 4 (1.25%) Blockchain
9 4 (1.25%) Legacy Applications
9 4 (1.25%) Legacy Systems
9 4 (1.25%) Operational Technology
10 3 (0.94%) Blog
10 3 (0.94%) Client/Server
10 3 (0.94%) Cloud Native
10 3 (0.94%) NHS
10 3 (0.94%) N-Tier
Operating Systems
1 5 (1.57%) Linux
2 3 (0.94%) Mac OS X
2 3 (0.94%) Unix
3 2 (0.63%) CentOS
3 2 (0.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 2 (0.63%) Windows
4 1 (0.31%) Android
4 1 (0.31%) Apple iOS
4 1 (0.31%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 76 (23.82%) Agile
2 72 (22.57%) Stakeholder Management
3 69 (21.63%) Problem-Solving
4 53 (16.61%) Project Management
5 41 (12.85%) Roadmaps
6 40 (12.54%) Continuous Improvement
7 35 (10.97%) Business Analysis
8 33 (10.34%) Identity Access Management
9 31 (9.72%) Coaching
10 30 (9.40%) Decision-Making
11 28 (8.78%) Migration
12 27 (8.46%) Analytics
12 27 (8.46%) IT Strategy
12 27 (8.46%) Project Delivery
13 26 (8.15%) Network Management
13 26 (8.15%) Service Management
13 26 (8.15%) Technology Strategy
13 26 (8.15%) User Research
13 26 (8.15%) User Stories
14 24 (7.52%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 12 (3.76%) SQL
2 8 (2.51%) Python
3 5 (1.57%) Java
3 5 (1.57%) Ruby
4 3 (0.94%) Bash
5 2 (0.63%) Go
6 1 (0.31%) Apex Code
6 1 (0.31%) C
6 1 (0.31%) Dart
6 1 (0.31%) PowerShell
6 1 (0.31%) Scala
6 1 (0.31%) T-SQL
6 1 (0.31%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 105 (32.92%) Security Cleared
2 93 (29.15%) SC Cleared
3 58 (18.18%) Degree
4 15 (4.70%) DV Cleared
5 10 (3.13%) Computer Science Degree
6 8 (2.51%) Master's Degree
7 4 (1.25%) BPSS Clearance
8 3 (0.94%) CISSP
8 3 (0.94%) MBA
9 2 (0.63%) Cisco Certification
9 2 (0.63%) CSPO
9 2 (0.63%) PhD
10 1 (0.31%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 1 (0.31%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
10 1 (0.31%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 1 (0.31%) Azure Certification
10 1 (0.31%) CompTIA Security+
10 1 (0.31%) HND
10 1 (0.31%) Microsoft Certification
10 1 (0.31%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (7.52%) JSP 440
2 11 (3.45%) Accessibility
3 10 (3.13%) QA
4 5 (1.57%) SLA
5 3 (0.94%) Data Quality
5 3 (0.94%) GDPR
6 2 (0.63%) NCSC
6 2 (0.63%) PMO
7 1 (0.31%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.31%) Disclosure Scotland
7 1 (0.31%) NIST
System Software
1 10 (3.13%) VMware Infrastructure
2 6 (1.88%) Docker
2 6 (1.88%) Virtual Machines
3 5 (1.57%) vSphere
4 4 (1.25%) Active Directory
5 3 (0.94%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 9 (2.82%) VxRail
2 7 (2.19%) Kubernetes
3 6 (1.88%) Terraform
4 5 (1.57%) PingFederate
4 5 (1.57%) vCenter Server
5 4 (1.25%) Ansible
5 4 (1.25%) PowerCLI
6 2 (0.63%) Consul
6 2 (0.63%) Docker Swarm
6 2 (0.63%) Grafana
6 2 (0.63%) Graphite
6 2 (0.63%) HAProxy
6 2 (0.63%) Istio
6 2 (0.63%) linkerd
6 2 (0.63%) Packer
6 2 (0.63%) Podman
6 2 (0.63%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.63%) Puppet
6 2 (0.63%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 37 (11.60%) Microsoft
2 18 (5.64%) Adobe
3 14 (4.39%) SAP
3 14 (4.39%) VMware
4 13 (4.08%) Dell
4 13 (4.08%) Salesforce
5 8 (2.51%) Sitecore
6 6 (1.88%) Cisco
6 6 (1.88%) Remedy
6 6 (1.88%) ServiceNow
7 5 (1.57%) Oracle
7 5 (1.57%) Ping Identity
8 4 (1.25%) Greenplum
8 4 (1.25%) Netezza
8 4 (1.25%) Sybase
8 4 (1.25%) Teradata
9 3 (0.94%) CA Agile Central
9 3 (0.94%) Google
9 3 (0.94%) iManage
9 3 (0.94%) Intapp