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 16 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 4 7
Rank change year-on-year -3 +3 +4
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 8,970 8,217 10,423
As % of all permanent jobs in England 8.91% 19.04% 15.17%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.16% 21.44% 18.59%
Number of salaries quoted 6,111 4,617 4,520
10th Percentile £27,750 £26,250 £27,500
25th Percentile £32,750 £31,250 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,000 £45,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +4.44% -14.29% -4.55%
75th Percentile £65,000 £65,000 £71,222
90th Percentile £85,000 £86,250 £85,000
UK median annual salary £47,000 £46,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +2.17% -12.38% -4.55%

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 73,754 38,333 56,057
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.28% 88.82% 81.58%
Number of salaries quoted 52,343 22,038 32,065
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £32,000
25th Percentile £42,500 £37,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -7.26%
75th Percentile £80,000 £76,250 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,500 £96,250
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -4.17%

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 16 September 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 16 September 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 -5 2,302 £65,000 - 6,711
North of England -9 1,859 £45,000 +5.88% 1,840
South East -4 1,736 £42,500 - 1,892
Midlands -7 1,323 £42,500 +11.84% 1,319
North West -5 964 £45,000 -6.64% 1,039
South West -4 927 £45,000 +25.00% 938
East of England -2 744 £42,500 +25.74% 899
West Midlands -8 732 £42,500 -5.56% 817
East Midlands -8 589 £41,500 +18.57% 500
Yorkshire -8 585 £42,500 +26.87% 575
North East 0 310 £48,000 +37.14% 251
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
1 522 (5.82%) SharePoint
2 398 (4.44%) Microsoft Exchange
3 113 (1.26%) Confluence
4 60 (0.67%) IIS
5 48 (0.54%) Apache
6 43 (0.48%) CMS
7 42 (0.47%) Apache Spark
8 36 (0.40%) Apache Airflow
8 36 (0.40%) WordPress
9 18 (0.20%) Oracle Workflow
10 16 (0.18%) SAS
11 12 (0.13%) WebLogic
12 11 (0.12%) WebSphere
13 10 (0.11%) nginx
13 10 (0.11%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 9 (0.10%) Jupyter
14 9 (0.10%) Palantir Foundry
15 7 (0.078%) Exchange Server 2013
15 7 (0.078%) OpenEdge
15 7 (0.078%) Tomcat
Applications
1 622 (6.93%) Microsoft Office
2 550 (6.13%) Microsoft Excel
3 109 (1.22%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 58 (0.65%) Spreadsheet
5 51 (0.57%) MS Visio
6 47 (0.52%) Microsoft Project
7 45 (0.50%) AutoCAD
8 28 (0.31%) Simulink
9 25 (0.28%) Revit
10 16 (0.18%) Chatbot
11 15 (0.17%) SOLIDWORKS
12 10 (0.11%) Autodesk Flame
12 10 (0.11%) Baselight
13 9 (0.10%) EPLAN
13 9 (0.10%) Navisworks
14 8 (0.089%) Adobe Creative Suite
14 8 (0.089%) Fusion 360
14 8 (0.089%) Trello
15 6 (0.067%) Adobe Illustrator
16 5 (0.056%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 93 (1.04%) Dynamics CRM
2 88 (0.98%) SAP S/4HANA
3 82 (0.91%) NetSuite
4 39 (0.43%) Oracle EBS
5 33 (0.37%) Shopify
6 23 (0.26%) Oracle Payables
7 18 (0.20%) Dynamics AX
8 16 (0.18%) Oracle Cash Management
9 15 (0.17%) Magento
9 15 (0.17%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
10 14 (0.16%) SAP Business One
11 13 (0.14%) Dynamics NAV
11 13 (0.14%) Elite 3E
11 13 (0.14%) IBM Planning Analytics
12 12 (0.13%) Payment Gateway
12 12 (0.13%) Salesforce CRM
12 12 (0.13%) Workday HCM
13 11 (0.12%) Oracle Applications
13 11 (0.12%) Oracle ERP
13 11 (0.12%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 1,743 (19.43%) Azure
2 1,397 (15.57%) Microsoft 365
3 1,042 (11.62%) AWS
4 770 (8.58%) Power Platform
5 432 (4.82%) Entra ID
6 390 (4.35%) SaaS
7 344 (3.84%) GCP
8 226 (2.52%) Azure DevOps
9 213 (2.37%) GitHub
10 200 (2.23%) Power Automate
11 195 (2.17%) Dynamics 365
12 191 (2.13%) Serverless
13 167 (1.86%) PowerApps
14 137 (1.53%) Microsoft Copilot
14 137 (1.53%) OneDrive
15 108 (1.20%) Amazon S3
16 98 (1.09%) GitHub Actions
17 90 (1.00%) AWS Lambda
18 87 (0.97%) AWS CloudFormation
19 86 (0.96%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 517 (5.76%) Firewall
2 490 (5.46%) DNS
3 412 (4.59%) DHCP
4 349 (3.89%) VPN
5 292 (3.26%) TCP/IP
6 230 (2.56%) Wi-Fi
7 197 (2.20%) WAN
8 194 (2.16%) LAN
9 192 (2.14%) Wireless
10 182 (2.03%) VLAN
11 158 (1.76%) Network Security
12 108 (1.20%) VoIP
13 71 (0.79%) Broadband
14 58 (0.65%) Internet
15 44 (0.49%) SAN
16 39 (0.43%) HTTP
17 36 (0.40%) SD-WAN
18 34 (0.38%) BGP
18 34 (0.38%) SSL
19 33 (0.37%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 606 (6.76%) Power BI
2 422 (4.70%) SQL Server
3 152 (1.69%) Relational Database
4 148 (1.65%) Data Warehouse
5 140 (1.56%) MySQL
6 130 (1.45%) Amazon RDS
6 130 (1.45%) Tableau
7 116 (1.29%) PostgreSQL
8 103 (1.15%) NoSQL
9 92 (1.03%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 81 (0.90%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 67 (0.75%) Big Data
12 65 (0.72%) Data Lake
13 64 (0.71%) Azure SQL Database
14 63 (0.70%) MongoDB
15 58 (0.65%) Power Query
16 55 (0.61%) Metadata
17 43 (0.48%) DynamoDB
18 40 (0.45%) Electronic Patient Records
19 36 (0.40%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 378 (4.21%) Git
2 314 (3.50%) JIRA
3 141 (1.57%) Jenkins
4 106 (1.18%) GitLab
5 41 (0.46%) Eclipse
6 40 (0.45%) Selenium
7 39 (0.43%) Claude Code
8 35 (0.39%) JUnit
9 34 (0.38%) Subversion
10 31 (0.35%) Cucumber
11 24 (0.27%) Postman
12 23 (0.26%) Cypress.io
12 23 (0.26%) Rational DOORS
13 22 (0.25%) Oracle Forms
14 21 (0.23%) Bitbucket
15 20 (0.22%) SonarQube
16 18 (0.20%) TeamCity
17 16 (0.18%) Chocolatey
18 14 (0.16%) MLflow
18 14 (0.16%) Visual Studio
General
1 4,481 (49.96%) Social Skills
2 2,662 (29.68%) Analytical Skills
3 1,778 (19.82%) Finance
4 799 (8.91%) Manufacturing
5 661 (7.37%) Organisational Skills
6 541 (6.03%) Law
7 533 (5.94%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 478 (5.33%) Retail
9 381 (4.25%) Marketing
10 360 (4.01%) Public Sector
11 349 (3.89%) Legal
12 299 (3.33%) Banking
13 278 (3.10%) Electronics
14 263 (2.93%) Aerospace
15 222 (2.47%) Telecoms
16 192 (2.14%) Influencing Skills
17 169 (1.88%) Presentation Skills
18 130 (1.45%) Automotive
19 116 (1.29%) Documentation Skills
20 108 (1.20%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 1,163 (12.97%) Analyst
2 966 (10.77%) Senior
3 797 (8.89%) Developer
4 750 (8.36%) IT Support
5 597 (6.66%) Support Engineer
6 523 (5.83%) Lead
7 420 (4.68%) Consultant
8 409 (4.56%) IT Engineer
9 396 (4.41%) Support Analyst
10 314 (3.50%) Software Engineer
11 312 (3.48%) IT Support Engineer
12 289 (3.22%) Architect
13 273 (3.04%) Technical Support
14 261 (2.91%) Support Technician
15 251 (2.80%) Systems Engineer
16 234 (2.61%) IT Technician
17 227 (2.53%) Technical Engineer
18 212 (2.36%) Administrator
19 203 (2.26%) Technical Support Engineer
20 201 (2.24%) Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 386 (4.30%) .NET
2 376 (4.19%) Terraform
3 302 (3.37%) React
4 285 (3.18%) REST
5 268 (2.99%) HTML
6 201 (2.24%) CSS
7 182 (2.03%) RESTful
8 140 (1.56%) Node.js
9 119 (1.33%) SOAP
9 119 (1.33%) Spring
10 110 (1.23%) Web Services
11 105 (1.17%) AngularJS
11 105 (1.17%) JSON
12 96 (1.07%) ASP.NET
12 96 (1.07%) XML
13 93 (1.04%) Vue
14 90 (1.00%) Kafka
15 88 (0.98%) Middleware
16 77 (0.86%) Spring Boot
17 68 (0.76%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 630 (7.02%) Onboarding
2 626 (6.98%) Driving Licence
3 467 (5.21%) Self-Motivation
4 392 (4.37%) Management Information System
5 325 (3.62%) Cloud Native
6 257 (2.87%) Product Ownership
7 193 (2.15%) Data Centre
8 170 (1.90%) Enterprise Software
9 164 (1.83%) Legacy Systems
10 134 (1.49%) Distributed Systems
11 123 (1.37%) Robotics
12 118 (1.32%) Cyber Threat
13 116 (1.29%) Security Posture
14 114 (1.27%) AI Agents
15 113 (1.26%) Data Structures
16 112 (1.25%) Analytical Mindset
17 107 (1.19%) NHS
18 96 (1.07%) IoT
19 95 (1.06%) Algorithms
20 83 (0.93%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 1,352 (15.07%) Windows
2 560 (6.24%) Linux
3 554 (6.18%) Windows Server
4 160 (1.78%) Windows 10
5 119 (1.33%) Mac OS
6 106 (1.18%) Apple iOS
7 100 (1.11%) Windows Server 2016
8 96 (1.07%) Android
9 57 (0.64%) Unix
10 48 (0.54%) Windows Server 2019
11 32 (0.36%) VMS
12 31 (0.35%) Ubuntu
13 28 (0.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
14 14 (0.16%) Embedded Linux
15 11 (0.12%) CentOS
15 11 (0.12%) Windows Server 2012
16 10 (0.11%) Debian
17 9 (0.10%) FreeRTOS
17 9 (0.10%) Rocky
18 8 (0.089%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 2,274 (25.35%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,435 (16.00%) Customer Service
3 1,413 (15.75%) Agile
4 1,153 (12.85%) AI
5 1,053 (11.74%) Stakeholder Management
6 1,042 (11.62%) Decision-Making
7 944 (10.52%) Mentoring
8 909 (10.13%) CI/CD
9 813 (9.06%) Analytics
10 788 (8.78%) Software Engineering
11 773 (8.62%) DevOps
12 740 (8.25%) Project Delivery
13 723 (8.06%) Cybersecurity
14 679 (7.57%) Business Intelligence
15 673 (7.50%) ITIL
16 661 (7.37%) Roadmaps
17 652 (7.27%) Project Management
18 631 (7.03%) Computer Science
19 628 (7.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
20 615 (6.86%) Collaborative Working
Programming Languages
1 1,369 (15.26%) SQL
2 1,179 (13.14%) Python
3 578 (6.44%) JavaScript
4 491 (5.47%) C#
5 439 (4.89%) Java
6 385 (4.29%) PowerShell
7 258 (2.88%) TypeScript
8 246 (2.74%) C++
9 173 (1.93%) Bash
10 100 (1.11%) C
11 80 (0.89%) PHP
12 78 (0.87%) T-SQL
13 77 (0.86%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 72 (0.80%) Go
15 54 (0.60%) PL/SQL
16 48 (0.54%) R
17 47 (0.52%) Shell Script
18 46 (0.51%) Rust
19 45 (0.50%) Perl
19 45 (0.50%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 1,590 (17.73%) Degree
2 845 (9.42%) Security Cleared
3 569 (6.34%) SC Cleared
4 323 (3.60%) Computer Science Degree
5 256 (2.85%) DBS Check
6 214 (2.39%) Microsoft Certification
7 195 (2.17%) DV Cleared
8 187 (2.08%) HNC
9 185 (2.06%) Azure Certification
10 169 (1.88%) HND
11 153 (1.71%) BPSS Clearance
12 151 (1.68%) Master's Degree
13 145 (1.62%) Cisco Certification
13 145 (1.62%) CISSP
14 104 (1.16%) PMI Certification
15 84 (0.94%) CISM
16 83 (0.93%) Chartered Engineer
17 81 (0.90%) AWS Certification
17 81 (0.90%) PMP
18 79 (0.88%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 507 (5.65%) QA
2 451 (5.03%) Data Quality
3 367 (4.09%) GDPR
4 264 (2.94%) Accessibility
5 233 (2.60%) SLA
6 211 (2.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 191 (2.13%) Cyber Essentials
8 155 (1.73%) NIST
9 131 (1.46%) PCI DSS
10 66 (0.74%) PMO
11 51 (0.57%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 42 (0.47%) GRC
12 42 (0.47%) ISO 9001
13 28 (0.31%) NCSC
14 25 (0.28%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 24 (0.27%) Actionable Recommendations
16 23 (0.26%) SOC 2
17 20 (0.22%) COBIT
18 19 (0.21%) Good Clinical Practice
19 18 (0.20%) GMP
System Software
1 892 (9.94%) Active Directory
2 360 (4.01%) Docker
3 278 (3.10%) Hyper-V
4 260 (2.90%) VMware Infrastructure
5 63 (0.70%) Firmware
5 63 (0.70%) Terminal Server
6 52 (0.58%) Virtual Desktop
7 48 (0.54%) Virtual Machines
8 37 (0.41%) vSphere
9 25 (0.28%) Embedded Firmware
10 21 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
11 11 (0.12%) Virtual Servers
12 9 (0.10%) GPFS
12 9 (0.10%) KVM
12 9 (0.10%) StorNext
13 7 (0.078%) IAG
14 6 (0.067%) VMware NSX
15 5 (0.056%) ClearTrust
15 5 (0.056%) Squid
16 4 (0.045%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 341 (3.80%) Kubernetes
2 300 (3.34%) Microsoft Intune
3 151 (1.68%) Ansible
4 89 (0.99%) Grafana
5 72 (0.80%) SCCM
6 70 (0.78%) Single Sign-On
7 50 (0.56%) Prometheus
8 27 (0.30%) Jamf Pro
9 25 (0.28%) BMC PATROL
10 23 (0.26%) FortiGate
11 21 (0.23%) Argo
12 18 (0.20%) Puppet
13 17 (0.19%) Nagios
14 15 (0.17%) Kibana
15 14 (0.16%) Functional Safety
16 12 (0.13%) logstash
16 12 (0.13%) Progress Chef
17 11 (0.12%) Nmap
17 11 (0.12%) Proxmox
18 10 (0.11%) Podman
Vendors
1 2,647 (29.51%) Microsoft
2 384 (4.28%) VMware
3 303 (3.38%) SAP
4 265 (2.95%) Google
5 260 (2.90%) Oracle
6 184 (2.05%) ServiceNow
7 172 (1.92%) Salesforce
8 169 (1.88%) Cisco
9 133 (1.48%) Databricks
10 127 (1.42%) Veeam
11 121 (1.35%) Splunk
12 115 (1.28%) Sage
13 98 (1.09%) SolarWinds
14 87 (0.97%) Apple
15 76 (0.85%) Workday
16 72 (0.80%) Fortinet
17 71 (0.79%) Tanium
18 66 (0.74%) HubSpot
19 64 (0.71%) Nimble Storage
20 63 (0.70%) Brocade