Problem-Solving Contract Job Trends in Berkshire

Problem Solving
South East > Berkshire

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in Berkshire requiring Problem-Solving skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 21 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 5 5 5
Rank change year-on-year 0 0 +9
Contract jobs citing Problem-Solving 291 230 296
As % of all contract jobs in Berkshire 17.09% 17.75% 14.90%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 19.61% 19.07% 16.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 185 118 177
10th Percentile £226 £244 £205
25th Percentile £388 £400 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £471 £525 £390
Median % change year-on-year -10.29% +34.62% -25.36%
75th Percentile £535 £638 £575
90th Percentile £650 £661 £638
South East median daily rate £483 £500 £425
% change year-on-year -3.50% +17.65% -19.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 4 11
10th Percentile £14.50 £32.60 £30.00
25th Percentile £16.19 £42.50 £39.41
Median hourly rate £20.79 £52.75 £51.06
Median % change year-on-year -60.59% +3.32% -37.26%
75th Percentile £61.97 £65.83 £60.50
90th Percentile £96.50 £78.56 £61.60
South East median hourly rate £20.71 £25.00 £21.25
% change year-on-year -17.16% +17.65% -45.83%

All Process & Methodology Skills
Berkshire

Problem-Solving falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in Berkshire.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 1,484 1,206 1,813
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Berkshire 87.14% 93.06% 91.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 989 668 1,011
10th Percentile £283 £300 £213
25th Percentile £400 £409 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £511 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.20% +2.25% -0.65%
75th Percentile £588 £625 £606
90th Percentile £650 £663 £680
South East median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -0.05% +0.05% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 85 35 93
10th Percentile £18.92 £27.35 £20.49
25th Percentile £30.63 £47.06 £42.50
Median hourly rate £81.00 £61.50 £61.00
Median % change year-on-year +31.72% +0.81% -5.68%
75th Percentile £93.75 £65.17 £68.75
90th Percentile £106.60 £83.65 £85.65
South East median hourly rate £25.15 £42.88 £47.50
% change year-on-year -41.35% -9.73% +5.56%

Problem-Solving
Job Vacancy Trend in Berkshire

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Problem-Solving relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Berkshire.

Problem-Solving job vacancy trend in Berkshire

Problem-Solving
Daily Rate Trend in Berkshire

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Berkshire citing Problem-Solving.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Berkshire citing Problem-Solving

Problem-Solving
Daily Rate Histogram in Berkshire

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Problem-Solving in Berkshire over the 6 months to 21 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Problem-Solving in Berkshire

Problem-Solving
Hourly Rate Trend in Berkshire

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Berkshire citing Problem-Solving.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Berkshire citing Problem-Solving

Problem-Solving
Hourly Rate Histogram in Berkshire

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Problem-Solving in Berkshire over the 6 months to 21 February 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Problem-Solving in Berkshire

Problem-Solving
Contract Job Locations in Berkshire

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Problem-Solving within the Berkshire region over the 6 months to 21 February 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Wokingham 0 119 £429 -24.34% 15
Reading -9 98 £520 -5.45% 45
Bracknell -2 17 £625 +4.17% 6
Windsor +7 16 £494 -1.25% 5
Slough 0 14 £475 +98.80% 14
Thatcham -9 3 £535 -10.83% 1
Hungerford - 3 - -
Maidenhead - 2 - - 4
Problem-Solving
South East

Problem-Solving
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Berkshire 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 17 (5.84%) SharePoint
2 14 (4.81%) Confluence
3 7 (2.41%) CMS
4 4 (1.37%) Microsoft Exchange
5 3 (1.03%) Anypoint
6 2 (0.69%) Apache
6 2 (0.69%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.34%) ArcGIS
7 1 (0.34%) Jupyter
7 1 (0.34%) Smallworld
Applications
1 13 (4.47%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (3.44%) Microsoft Project
3 7 (2.41%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (2.41%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (2.06%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.34%) CPLEX
Business Applications
1 4 (1.37%) SAP MDG
1 4 (1.37%) Workday HCM
2 3 (1.03%) Remedy ITSM
3 2 (0.69%) SAP S/4HANA
3 2 (0.69%) SAP SD
4 1 (0.34%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.34%) Maximo
4 1 (0.34%) Oracle BRM
4 1 (0.34%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 99 (34.02%) Azure
2 86 (29.55%) AWS
3 53 (18.21%) GCP
4 16 (5.50%) Azure DevOps
4 16 (5.50%) Power Platform
5 15 (5.15%) Entra ID
6 11 (3.78%) Microsoft 365
7 10 (3.44%) SaaS
7 10 (3.44%) Serverless
8 7 (2.41%) GitHub
9 5 (1.72%) GitHub Actions
10 4 (1.37%) Azure Monitor
11 3 (1.03%) Amazon Cognito
11 3 (1.03%) AWS CloudFormation
11 3 (1.03%) AWS Lambda
11 3 (1.03%) Azure API Management
11 3 (1.03%) Azure Functions
11 3 (1.03%) Boomi
11 3 (1.03%) Power Automate
12 2 (0.69%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 29 (9.97%) DNS
2 25 (8.59%) DHCP
3 21 (7.22%) Network Security
4 19 (6.53%) Firewall
5 16 (5.50%) TCP/IP
6 15 (5.15%) WAN
7 12 (4.12%) BGP
8 11 (3.78%) VLAN
9 10 (3.44%) LAN
9 10 (3.44%) OSPF
10 9 (3.09%) BIG-IP
10 9 (3.09%) Ethernet VPN
10 9 (3.09%) Junos
10 9 (3.09%) VXLAN
11 7 (2.41%) Cisco ISE
12 6 (2.06%) MPLS
13 5 (1.72%) FTP
14 4 (1.37%) Internet
14 4 (1.37%) Intranet
14 4 (1.37%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (3.78%) Power BI
1 11 (3.78%) Relational Database
2 8 (2.75%) MongoDB
3 7 (2.41%) NoSQL
3 7 (2.41%) SQL Server
4 5 (1.72%) Oracle Database
4 5 (1.72%) PostgreSQL
4 5 (1.72%) RDBMS
5 4 (1.37%) MySQL
5 4 (1.37%) Oracle BI Publisher
5 4 (1.37%) Oracle Reports
5 4 (1.37%) Tableau
6 3 (1.03%) Amazon RDS
6 3 (1.03%) Azure SQL Database
6 3 (1.03%) Data Warehouse
7 2 (0.69%) Big Data
7 2 (0.69%) Elasticsearch
7 2 (0.69%) GIS
7 2 (0.69%) Hadoop
7 2 (0.69%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 24 (8.25%) JIRA
2 10 (3.44%) Git
2 10 (3.44%) Jenkins
3 5 (1.72%) HP UFT
4 2 (0.69%) Bitbucket
4 2 (0.69%) Burp Suite
5 1 (0.34%) Appium
5 1 (0.34%) Cypress.io
5 1 (0.34%) GitLab
5 1 (0.34%) Selenium
General
1 156 (53.61%) Social Skills
2 126 (43.30%) Analytical Skills
3 29 (9.97%) Documentation Skills
3 29 (9.97%) Public Sector
4 15 (5.15%) Influencing Skills
5 14 (4.81%) Organisational Skills
5 14 (4.81%) Telecoms
6 10 (3.44%) Finance
7 6 (2.06%) Manufacturing
8 5 (1.72%) Billing
9 4 (1.37%) Marketing
9 4 (1.37%) Retail
10 3 (1.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 3 (1.03%) Legal
10 3 (1.03%) Military
11 2 (0.69%) Automotive
11 2 (0.69%) Electronics
11 2 (0.69%) Law
12 1 (0.34%) Advertising
12 1 (0.34%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 22 (7.56%) Architect
1 22 (7.56%) Senior
2 20 (6.87%) Analyst
2 20 (6.87%) Lead
3 19 (6.53%) Consultant
3 19 (6.53%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 19 (6.53%) Support Engineer
4 17 (5.84%) Infrastructure Support
4 17 (5.84%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
5 16 (5.50%) Project Manager
6 13 (4.47%) Developer
7 12 (4.12%) SIEM Engineer
8 7 (2.41%) Delivery Manager
8 7 (2.41%) Network Engineer
8 7 (2.41%) Service Manager
8 7 (2.41%) Support Analyst
8 7 (2.41%) Technical Leader
9 6 (2.06%) Project Planner
9 6 (2.06%) Senior Network Engineer
9 6 (2.06%) Technology Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (8.59%) REST
2 24 (8.25%) LDAP
3 19 (6.53%) SOAP
4 9 (3.09%) 802.1X
4 9 (3.09%) OAuth
5 7 (2.41%) Node.js
6 6 (2.06%) GraphQL
6 6 (2.06%) SAML
6 6 (2.06%) Web Services
7 5 (1.72%) .NET
7 5 (1.72%) .NET Core
7 5 (1.72%) JSON
7 5 (1.72%) OpenID
7 5 (1.72%) Pandas
7 5 (1.72%) React
8 4 (1.37%) .NET Framework
8 4 (1.37%) NumPy
8 4 (1.37%) Oracle GoldenGate
8 4 (1.37%) RESTful
8 4 (1.37%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 21 (7.22%) Analytical Mindset
2 14 (4.81%) PKI
3 12 (4.12%) Data Centre
4 11 (3.78%) Cyber Security Posture
5 10 (3.44%) Cloud Native
5 10 (3.44%) Clustering
6 9 (3.09%) Algorithms
6 9 (3.09%) Management Information System
6 9 (3.09%) Mobile App
6 9 (3.09%) Onboarding
7 8 (2.75%) CMDB
7 8 (2.75%) Data Protection Act
8 7 (2.41%) Self-Motivation
9 6 (2.06%) Distributed Systems
9 6 (2.06%) Enterprise Software
9 6 (2.06%) Product Ownership
9 6 (2.06%) Security Posture
10 4 (1.37%) Replication
11 3 (1.03%) Linux Command Line
11 3 (1.03%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 42 (14.43%) Windows
2 37 (12.71%) Linux
3 16 (5.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 4 (1.37%) Unix
5 3 (1.03%) Windows 10
5 3 (1.03%) Windows Server
6 2 (0.69%) Kali Linux
6 2 (0.69%) VMS
7 1 (0.34%) Android
7 1 (0.34%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.34%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 74 (25.43%) ITIL
2 63 (21.65%) CI/CD
3 60 (20.62%) DevOps
4 51 (17.53%) Cybersecurity
5 48 (16.49%) Agile
6 45 (15.46%) Continuous Improvement
7 42 (14.43%) Stakeholder Management
8 41 (14.09%) DevSecOps
9 39 (13.40%) Service Management
10 37 (12.71%) ITSM
10 37 (12.71%) SIEM
11 32 (11.00%) Project Management
12 31 (10.65%) Change Management
13 29 (9.97%) Test Automation
14 26 (8.93%) Decision-Making
15 25 (8.59%) Disaster Recovery
15 25 (8.59%) Root Cause Analysis
16 23 (7.90%) High Availability
16 23 (7.90%) Infrastructure Engineering
16 23 (7.90%) PRINCE2
Programming Languages
1 75 (25.77%) Python
2 46 (15.81%) PowerShell
3 25 (8.59%) JavaScript
4 20 (6.87%) SQL
5 19 (6.53%) Java
6 12 (4.12%) Kusto Query Language
7 8 (2.75%) C#
8 7 (2.41%) Bash
8 7 (2.41%) TypeScript
9 5 (1.72%) Go
9 5 (1.72%) VBScript
10 3 (1.03%) DataWeave
10 3 (1.03%) Korn
10 3 (1.03%) PHP
10 3 (1.03%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.69%) Groovy
11 2 (0.69%) R
11 2 (0.69%) T-SQL
12 1 (0.34%) Jython
12 1 (0.34%) Objective-C
Qualifications
1 114 (39.18%) Security Cleared
2 87 (29.90%) SC Cleared
3 39 (13.40%) CISSP
4 22 (7.56%) CISM
4 22 (7.56%) Degree
5 14 (4.81%) GIAC
5 14 (4.81%) Microsoft Certification
6 13 (4.47%) Azure Certification
7 12 (4.12%) CEH
7 12 (4.12%) Cisco Certification
7 12 (4.12%) PMP
8 11 (3.78%) Network+ Certification
8 11 (3.78%) PMI Certification
8 11 (3.78%) Server+ Certification
9 10 (3.44%) Computer Science Degree
10 9 (3.09%) AWS Certification
11 8 (2.75%) DV Cleared
11 8 (2.75%) ISTQB
12 6 (2.06%) JNCIA
12 6 (2.06%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (11.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 32 (11.00%) NIST
2 28 (9.62%) QA
3 27 (9.28%) GDPR
4 9 (3.09%) PMO
5 7 (2.41%) GRC
6 5 (1.72%) Data Quality
7 4 (1.37%) SLA
8 3 (1.03%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.34%) HIPAA
9 1 (0.34%) ISO 22301
9 1 (0.34%) NIST 800
System Software
1 39 (13.40%) Active Directory
2 19 (6.53%) VMware Infrastructure
3 14 (4.81%) Hyper-V
4 5 (1.72%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (1.37%) Docker
6 3 (1.03%) Oracle RAC
7 2 (0.69%) NFS
8 1 (0.34%) Firmware
8 1 (0.34%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.34%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 22 (7.56%) Ansible
2 15 (5.15%) Red Hat Satellite
3 13 (4.47%) Kubernetes
4 12 (4.12%) Kibana
5 11 (3.78%) FortiGate
6 8 (2.75%) Terraform
7 5 (1.72%) Nessus
8 4 (1.37%) Microsoft Intune
8 4 (1.37%) SCCM
8 4 (1.37%) Single Sign-On
9 3 (1.03%) CloudHub
9 3 (1.03%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
9 3 (1.03%) Oracle RMAN
10 2 (0.69%) BMC PATROL
10 2 (0.69%) Nmap
10 2 (0.69%) OpenVAS
11 1 (0.34%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 1 (0.34%) Amdocs OSS
11 1 (0.34%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
11 1 (0.34%) QRadar
Vendors
1 50 (17.18%) Microsoft
2 34 (11.68%) VMware
3 25 (8.59%) CyberArk
4 23 (7.90%) BeyondTrust
4 23 (7.90%) ServiceNow
5 20 (6.87%) Google
6 18 (6.19%) Oracle
7 16 (5.50%) Red Hat
8 15 (5.15%) Cisco
9 13 (4.47%) F5
9 13 (4.47%) Juniper
10 12 (4.12%) Splunk
10 12 (4.12%) Workday
11 11 (3.78%) FireEye
11 11 (3.78%) Tanium
12 9 (3.09%) SAP
12 9 (3.09%) SolarWinds
13 8 (2.75%) Extreme Networks
14 6 (2.06%) Remedy
14 6 (2.06%) Salesforce