Problem-Solving Job Trends in England

Problem Solving
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in England requiring Problem-Solving skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 20 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 4 7
Rank change year-on-year -5 +3 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 6,577 8,043 10,066
As % of all permanent jobs in England 10.88% 18.27% 15.15%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 13.72% 19.73% 17.19%
Number of salaries quoted 4,547 3,927 7,311
10th Percentile £26,750 £30,500 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,000 £40,000 £33,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -18.18% +10.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £65,640 £76,000 £70,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £90,000 £87,500
UK median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% +10.00% -13.04%

All Process & Methodology Skills
England

Problem-Solving 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 in England.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 47,927 40,773 58,562
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 79.25% 92.62% 88.16%
Number of salaries quoted 29,474 20,253 46,343
10th Percentile £29,000 £34,706 £29,750
25th Percentile £38,750 £46,250 £40,146
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £62,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -12.00% +13.64% -12.00%
75th Percentile £77,500 £82,500 £75,000
90th Percentile £97,500 £102,500 £95,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -12.00%

Problem-Solving
Job Vacancy Trend in England

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

Problem-Solving job vacancy trend in England

Problem-Solving
Salary Trend in England

Salary distribution trend for jobs in England citing Problem-Solving.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in England citing Problem-Solving

Problem-Solving
Salary Histogram in England

Salary distribution for jobs citing Problem-Solving in England over the 6 months to 20 February 2026.

Salary histogram for Problem-Solving in England

Problem-Solving
Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Problem-Solving within the England region over the 6 months to 20 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
London -2 1,933 £67,500 +3.85% 1,467
North of England -16 1,363 £42,500 -10.53% 926
South East -3 1,281 £42,500 -19.05% 1,356
Midlands -15 874 £37,500 -27.63% 655
North West -15 736 £46,000 -8.00% 514
South West -4 588 £40,000 -26.82% 522
West Midlands -20 508 £42,500 -22.73% 353
Yorkshire -6 488 £37,500 -13.79% 309
East of England -5 430 £37,500 -26.42% 575
East Midlands 0 364 £35,000 - 295
North East -5 139 £45,000 -1.10% 115
Problem-Solving
UK

Problem-Solving
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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
1 339 (5.15%) Microsoft Exchange
2 286 (4.35%) SharePoint
3 78 (1.19%) Confluence
4 58 (0.88%) Apache
5 49 (0.75%) IIS
6 47 (0.71%) Apache Airflow
7 43 (0.65%) Apache Spark
8 42 (0.64%) CMS
9 30 (0.46%) WordPress
10 16 (0.24%) Palantir Foundry
11 12 (0.18%) nginx
12 9 (0.14%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 9 (0.14%) SAS
13 7 (0.11%) Anypoint
14 6 (0.091%) Drupal
15 5 (0.076%) Exchange Server 2007
15 5 (0.076%) Exchange Server 2010
15 5 (0.076%) Exchange Server 2013
16 4 (0.061%) Headless CMS
16 4 (0.061%) Totara
Applications
1 440 (6.69%) Microsoft Office
2 378 (5.75%) Microsoft Excel
3 83 (1.26%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 39 (0.59%) Spreadsheet
5 31 (0.47%) MS Visio
6 28 (0.43%) Maya
7 26 (0.40%) Microsoft Project
8 16 (0.24%) AutoCAD
9 13 (0.20%) Photoshop
10 10 (0.15%) Adobe Creative Suite
11 9 (0.14%) SOLIDWORKS
12 8 (0.12%) Adobe Illustrator
12 8 (0.12%) Chatbot
13 5 (0.076%) Adobe Premiere
13 5 (0.076%) Adobe XD
13 5 (0.076%) Trello
14 4 (0.061%) CATIA
14 4 (0.061%) Fusion 360
15 3 (0.046%) Elementor
15 3 (0.046%) Revit
Business Applications
1 89 (1.35%) SAP S/4HANA
2 73 (1.11%) Dynamics CRM
3 34 (0.52%) NetSuite
4 19 (0.29%) Salesforce CRM
5 18 (0.27%) SAP CO
6 17 (0.26%) Endur
7 16 (0.24%) Shopify
8 14 (0.21%) Dynamics NAV
9 11 (0.17%) Oracle Payables
10 10 (0.15%) iTrent
10 10 (0.15%) SAP Business One
10 10 (0.15%) Workday HCM
11 9 (0.14%) Oracle Receivables
11 9 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
11 9 (0.14%) SAP FI
11 9 (0.14%) SAP FI/CO
12 8 (0.12%) Oracle Assets
12 8 (0.12%) Oracle EBS
13 7 (0.11%) Maximo
13 7 (0.11%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 1,418 (21.56%) Azure
2 1,011 (15.37%) Microsoft 365
3 767 (11.66%) AWS
4 486 (7.39%) Power Platform
5 388 (5.90%) SaaS
6 283 (4.30%) Entra ID
7 250 (3.80%) GCP
8 179 (2.72%) Azure DevOps
9 160 (2.43%) GitHub
10 155 (2.36%) Serverless
11 135 (2.05%) Power Automate
12 110 (1.67%) Dynamics 365
13 91 (1.38%) Google Workspace
14 84 (1.28%) Amazon S3
14 84 (1.28%) PowerApps
15 78 (1.19%) AWS CloudFormation
16 77 (1.17%) AWS Lambda
17 67 (1.02%) PaaS
18 64 (0.97%) Azure Data Factory
19 63 (0.96%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 441 (6.71%) DNS
2 382 (5.81%) DHCP
3 362 (5.50%) Firewall
4 236 (3.59%) VPN
5 206 (3.13%) TCP/IP
6 204 (3.10%) Wi-Fi
7 196 (2.98%) WAN
8 166 (2.52%) LAN
9 129 (1.96%) Broadband
10 128 (1.95%) VLAN
11 95 (1.44%) VoIP
11 95 (1.44%) Wireless
12 60 (0.91%) SD-WAN
13 53 (0.81%) Remote Desktop
14 51 (0.78%) Internet
15 48 (0.73%) Network Security
16 44 (0.67%) SAN
17 30 (0.46%) BGP
17 30 (0.46%) Structured Cabling
18 29 (0.44%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 395 (6.01%) Power BI
2 282 (4.29%) SQL Server
3 147 (2.24%) Data Warehouse
4 136 (2.07%) Relational Database
5 134 (2.04%) Tableau
6 126 (1.92%) Amazon RDS
7 120 (1.82%) NoSQL
8 112 (1.70%) PostgreSQL
9 91 (1.38%) MySQL
10 71 (1.08%) Data Lake
11 68 (1.03%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 57 (0.87%) MongoDB
13 56 (0.85%) Amazon Redshift
14 52 (0.79%) Metadata
15 48 (0.73%) SQL Server Integration Services
16 44 (0.67%) DynamoDB
17 41 (0.62%) Azure SQL Database
18 40 (0.61%) Big Data
18 40 (0.61%) Power Query
19 28 (0.43%) Redis
Development Applications
1 273 (4.15%) Git
2 232 (3.53%) JIRA
3 100 (1.52%) Jenkins
4 86 (1.31%) GitLab
5 55 (0.84%) Selenium
6 25 (0.38%) Visual Studio
7 21 (0.32%) Cypress.io
8 20 (0.30%) Maven
9 19 (0.29%) Burp Suite
9 19 (0.29%) Metasploit
9 19 (0.29%) TeamCity
10 18 (0.27%) Bitbucket
10 18 (0.27%) LabVIEW
10 18 (0.27%) Robot Framework
11 16 (0.24%) JUnit
11 16 (0.24%) Octopus Deploy
12 15 (0.23%) Cucumber
12 15 (0.23%) SonarQube
13 14 (0.21%) Snyk
14 12 (0.18%) CircleCI
General
1 3,394 (51.60%) Social Skills
2 1,992 (30.29%) Analytical Skills
3 1,526 (23.20%) Finance
4 421 (6.40%) Organisational Skills
5 363 (5.52%) Marketing
6 348 (5.29%) Law
7 326 (4.96%) Retail
8 306 (4.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 305 (4.64%) Manufacturing
10 291 (4.42%) Legal
11 287 (4.36%) Public Sector
12 274 (4.17%) Banking
13 184 (2.80%) Telecoms
14 183 (2.78%) Presentation Skills
15 150 (2.28%) Electronics
16 109 (1.66%) Games
17 99 (1.51%) Documentation Skills
18 89 (1.35%) Automotive
19 87 (1.32%) Financial Institution
20 84 (1.28%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 997 (15.16%) Analyst
2 818 (12.44%) Senior
3 771 (11.72%) IT Support
4 657 (9.99%) Support Engineer
5 588 (8.94%) Developer
6 404 (6.14%) Lead
7 354 (5.38%) IT Engineer
8 338 (5.14%) Support Analyst
9 300 (4.56%) IT Support Engineer
10 254 (3.86%) Technical Support
11 245 (3.73%) Consultant
12 240 (3.65%) Business Analyst
13 221 (3.36%) Architect
14 201 (3.06%) Support Technician
15 193 (2.93%) 2nd Line Support
16 179 (2.72%) Technical Engineer
17 171 (2.60%) Technical Support Engineer
18 170 (2.58%) Infrastructure Engineer
18 170 (2.58%) IT Analyst
19 164 (2.49%) Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 272 (4.14%) .NET
2 262 (3.98%) React
3 237 (3.60%) HTML
4 187 (2.84%) CSS
5 147 (2.24%) Node.js
6 140 (2.13%) REST
7 113 (1.72%) RESTful
8 89 (1.35%) AngularJS
9 70 (1.06%) Middleware
10 69 (1.05%) Spring
11 68 (1.03%) Vue
12 65 (0.99%) Kafka
12 65 (0.99%) SOAP
13 62 (0.94%) JSON
14 57 (0.87%) XML
15 54 (0.82%) .NET Framework
16 53 (0.81%) Django
17 48 (0.73%) Flask
18 45 (0.68%) FastAPI
19 44 (0.67%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 548 (8.33%) Driving Licence
2 499 (7.59%) Onboarding
3 417 (6.34%) Self-Motivation
4 213 (3.24%) Management Information System
5 186 (2.83%) Analytical Mindset
6 175 (2.66%) Cloud Native
7 172 (2.62%) Legacy Systems
8 146 (2.22%) Product Ownership
9 143 (2.17%) Data Centre
10 114 (1.73%) Enterprise Software
11 99 (1.51%) Distributed Systems
12 89 (1.35%) Mobile App
13 73 (1.11%) Low-Code
14 71 (1.08%) Data Structures
15 66 (1.00%) Social Media
16 64 (0.97%) Algorithms
17 60 (0.91%) Virtual Team
18 57 (0.87%) EPoS
19 53 (0.81%) FMCG
19 53 (0.81%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 1,140 (17.33%) Windows
2 461 (7.01%) Windows Server
3 433 (6.58%) Linux
4 161 (2.45%) Windows 10
5 143 (2.17%) Windows Server 2016
6 98 (1.49%) Android
6 98 (1.49%) Mac OS
7 79 (1.20%) Apple iOS
8 60 (0.91%) Unix
9 55 (0.84%) Windows Server 2019
10 32 (0.49%) Windows Server 2012
11 31 (0.47%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 24 (0.36%) Windows 7
13 17 (0.26%) CentOS
13 17 (0.26%) VMS
14 12 (0.18%) Ubuntu
15 9 (0.14%) Mac OS X
15 9 (0.14%) Windows 8
16 7 (0.11%) Debian
17 4 (0.061%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,140 (17.33%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,049 (15.95%) Agile
3 994 (15.11%) Customer Service
4 690 (10.49%) Analytics
5 679 (10.32%) Mentoring
6 642 (9.76%) AI
7 635 (9.65%) Decision-Making
8 602 (9.15%) Project Management
9 600 (9.12%) DevOps
10 589 (8.96%) CI/CD
11 567 (8.62%) Business Intelligence
12 545 (8.29%) ITIL
13 524 (7.97%) Computer Science
14 494 (7.51%) Stakeholder Management
15 474 (7.21%) Cybersecurity
16 425 (6.46%) Change Management
17 414 (6.29%) Software Engineering
18 403 (6.13%) ERP
19 395 (6.01%) CRM
20 376 (5.72%) Process Improvement
Programming Languages
1 947 (14.40%) Python
2 940 (14.29%) SQL
3 421 (6.40%) JavaScript
4 325 (4.94%) PowerShell
5 317 (4.82%) Java
6 310 (4.71%) C#
7 170 (2.58%) TypeScript
8 141 (2.14%) Bash
9 99 (1.51%) PHP
10 76 (1.16%) C++
11 63 (0.96%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 58 (0.88%) Go
13 49 (0.75%) C
14 47 (0.71%) Scala
15 46 (0.70%) T-SQL
16 37 (0.56%) R
17 29 (0.44%) Apex Code
18 27 (0.41%) Bicep
19 26 (0.40%) Kotlin
20 24 (0.36%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 1,443 (21.94%) Degree
2 545 (8.29%) Security Cleared
3 353 (5.37%) SC Cleared
4 242 (3.68%) Computer Science Degree
5 186 (2.83%) Microsoft Certification
6 164 (2.49%) DBS Check
7 158 (2.40%) Master's Degree
8 115 (1.75%) DV Cleared
9 105 (1.60%) CISSP
10 97 (1.47%) BPSS Clearance
11 83 (1.26%) ACCA
12 81 (1.23%) A+ Certification
13 79 (1.20%) Cisco Certification
14 69 (1.05%) CIMA
15 66 (1.00%) Network+ Certification
16 61 (0.93%) PMI Certification
17 57 (0.87%) CISM
18 55 (0.84%) AWS Certification
19 54 (0.82%) CCNA
20 51 (0.78%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 328 (4.99%) QA
2 273 (4.15%) Data Quality
3 230 (3.50%) GDPR
4 192 (2.92%) Cyber Essentials
5 172 (2.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 146 (2.22%) PCI DSS
7 138 (2.10%) Accessibility
8 132 (2.01%) SLA
9 93 (1.41%) NIST
10 50 (0.76%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 34 (0.52%) ISO 9001
12 27 (0.41%) Actionable Recommendations
13 24 (0.36%) SOC 2
14 19 (0.29%) PMO
15 18 (0.27%) COBIT
15 18 (0.27%) GRC
16 12 (0.18%) WCAG
17 9 (0.14%) ISO 13485
17 9 (0.14%) ISO/IEC 20000
18 8 (0.12%) ISAE 3402
System Software
1 788 (11.98%) Active Directory
2 280 (4.26%) Docker
3 266 (4.04%) Hyper-V
4 157 (2.39%) VMware Infrastructure
5 98 (1.49%) Terminal Server
6 28 (0.43%) Firmware
7 26 (0.40%) Virtual Desktop
8 24 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
9 18 (0.27%) vSphere
10 15 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
11 12 (0.18%) KVM
12 8 (0.12%) VMware Workstation
13 7 (0.11%) Virtual Servers
14 6 (0.091%) IAG
15 4 (0.061%) Microsoft Virtual Server
16 3 (0.046%) vCloud
16 3 (0.046%) VMware NSX
16 3 (0.046%) XenApp
17 2 (0.030%) HDFS
17 2 (0.030%) RHEV
Systems Management
1 280 (4.26%) Terraform
2 277 (4.21%) Microsoft Intune
3 220 (3.34%) Kubernetes
4 142 (2.16%) Ansible
5 79 (1.20%) Grafana
6 71 (1.08%) SCCM
7 51 (0.78%) Prometheus
8 42 (0.64%) BMC PATROL
9 29 (0.44%) Single Sign-On
10 23 (0.35%) Nagios
11 21 (0.32%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 16 (0.24%) Jamf Pro
13 15 (0.23%) Argo
14 14 (0.21%) Cisco CUCM
14 14 (0.21%) vCenter Server
15 12 (0.18%) Kibana
16 11 (0.17%) Autotask
16 11 (0.17%) FortiGate
16 11 (0.17%) Nessus
17 10 (0.15%) Nmap
Vendors
1 1,729 (26.29%) Microsoft
2 308 (4.68%) VMware
3 304 (4.62%) SAP
4 244 (3.71%) Oracle
5 164 (2.49%) Salesforce
6 162 (2.46%) Veeam
7 160 (2.43%) Google
8 151 (2.30%) Cisco
9 149 (2.27%) Splunk
10 147 (2.24%) SolarWinds
11 125 (1.90%) ServiceNow
12 105 (1.60%) Databricks
13 99 (1.51%) Adobe
13 99 (1.51%) Tanium
14 98 (1.49%) Brocade
14 98 (1.49%) Nimble Storage
15 77 (1.17%) Apple
16 57 (0.87%) Sage
17 56 (0.85%) Dell
18 52 (0.79%) HubSpot