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 14 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 4 8
Rank change year-on-year -5 +4 +5
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 6,581 8,069 9,989
As % of all permanent jobs in England 11.13% 18.04% 15.05%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 13.98% 19.55% 17.07%
Number of salaries quoted 4,525 3,875 7,265
10th Percentile £26,750 £30,750 £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% -9.91%
75th Percentile £65,473 £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 47,072 41,271 58,508
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 79.59% 92.27% 88.17%
Number of salaries quoted 28,830 20,347 46,275
10th Percentile £29,000 £35,000 £29,750
25th Percentile £38,750 £46,250 £40,750
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 £75,250
90th Percentile £97,500 £102,500 £95,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,001 £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 14 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 14 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 -1 1,932 £67,500 +3.85% 749
North of England -17 1,342 £42,500 -11.46% 595
South East -3 1,310 £42,500 -19.05% 860
Midlands -16 863 £37,500 -28.42% 456
North West -15 729 £46,000 -8.00% 349
South West -4 584 £40,000 -24.53% 320
West Midlands -18 505 £42,500 -22.73% 284
Yorkshire -6 475 £35,000 -19.54% 189
East of England -3 441 £37,500 -26.42% 279
East Midlands 0 356 £35,000 - 172
North East -5 138 £43,250 -9.90% 68
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
1 333 (5.06%) Microsoft Exchange
2 284 (4.32%) SharePoint
3 78 (1.19%) Confluence
4 57 (0.87%) Apache
5 48 (0.73%) IIS
6 45 (0.68%) Apache Airflow
7 42 (0.64%) Apache Spark
7 42 (0.64%) CMS
8 29 (0.44%) WordPress
9 16 (0.24%) Palantir Foundry
10 12 (0.18%) nginx
11 9 (0.14%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 9 (0.14%) SAS
12 7 (0.11%) Anypoint
12 7 (0.11%) Apache Solr
13 5 (0.076%) Drupal
14 4 (0.061%) Exchange Server 2007
14 4 (0.061%) Exchange Server 2010
14 4 (0.061%) Exchange Server 2013
14 4 (0.061%) Umbraco
Applications
1 443 (6.73%) Microsoft Office
2 413 (6.28%) Microsoft Excel
3 85 (1.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 38 (0.58%) Spreadsheet
5 30 (0.46%) Maya
6 29 (0.44%) MS Visio
7 26 (0.40%) Microsoft Project
8 16 (0.24%) AutoCAD
9 14 (0.21%) Photoshop
10 11 (0.17%) Adobe Creative Suite
11 9 (0.14%) Adobe Illustrator
12 8 (0.12%) SOLIDWORKS
13 7 (0.11%) Adobe Premiere
13 7 (0.11%) Chatbot
14 5 (0.076%) Adobe XD
15 4 (0.061%) Adobe After Effects
15 4 (0.061%) CATIA
15 4 (0.061%) Fusion 360
15 4 (0.061%) Trello
16 3 (0.046%) Revit
Business Applications
1 94 (1.43%) SAP S/4HANA
2 76 (1.15%) Dynamics CRM
3 34 (0.52%) NetSuite
4 20 (0.30%) Salesforce CRM
5 18 (0.27%) Endur
5 18 (0.27%) SAP CO
6 14 (0.21%) Dynamics NAV
6 14 (0.21%) Shopify
7 12 (0.18%) Oracle Payables
8 11 (0.17%) iTrent
9 10 (0.15%) Oracle Receivables
9 10 (0.15%) Payment Gateway
9 10 (0.15%) SAP Business One
9 10 (0.15%) Workday HCM
10 9 (0.14%) Oracle Assets
10 9 (0.14%) SAP FI
10 9 (0.14%) SAP FI/CO
11 8 (0.12%) Oracle EBS
12 7 (0.11%) Exchequer
12 7 (0.11%) Maximo
Cloud Services
1 1,449 (22.02%) Azure
2 998 (15.16%) Microsoft 365
3 763 (11.59%) AWS
4 509 (7.73%) Power Platform
5 395 (6.00%) SaaS
6 281 (4.27%) Entra ID
7 242 (3.68%) GCP
8 180 (2.74%) Azure DevOps
9 158 (2.40%) GitHub
10 152 (2.31%) Serverless
11 129 (1.96%) Power Automate
12 105 (1.60%) Dynamics 365
13 84 (1.28%) Google Workspace
14 81 (1.23%) Amazon S3
15 79 (1.20%) PowerApps
16 75 (1.14%) AWS CloudFormation
16 75 (1.14%) AWS Lambda
17 66 (1.00%) PaaS
18 62 (0.94%) Figma
18 62 (0.94%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 438 (6.66%) DNS
2 381 (5.79%) DHCP
3 361 (5.49%) Firewall
4 228 (3.46%) VPN
5 209 (3.18%) TCP/IP
6 200 (3.04%) Wi-Fi
7 188 (2.86%) WAN
8 158 (2.40%) LAN
9 128 (1.94%) VLAN
10 124 (1.88%) Broadband
11 96 (1.46%) VoIP
12 95 (1.44%) Wireless
13 58 (0.88%) SD-WAN
14 52 (0.79%) Remote Desktop
15 50 (0.76%) Network Security
16 49 (0.74%) Internet
17 44 (0.67%) SAN
18 29 (0.44%) BGP
18 29 (0.44%) Structured Cabling
18 29 (0.44%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 421 (6.40%) Power BI
2 289 (4.39%) SQL Server
3 141 (2.14%) Data Warehouse
4 138 (2.10%) Relational Database
5 134 (2.04%) Tableau
6 126 (1.91%) Amazon RDS
7 117 (1.78%) NoSQL
8 110 (1.67%) PostgreSQL
9 99 (1.50%) MySQL
10 98 (1.49%) Data Lake
11 65 (0.99%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 56 (0.85%) MongoDB
13 54 (0.82%) Amazon Redshift
14 53 (0.81%) Metadata
15 48 (0.73%) SAP BW
16 46 (0.70%) SQL Server Integration Services
17 42 (0.64%) DynamoDB
18 41 (0.62%) Azure SQL Database
18 41 (0.62%) Big Data
19 36 (0.55%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 271 (4.12%) Git
2 233 (3.54%) JIRA
3 97 (1.47%) Jenkins
4 82 (1.25%) GitLab
5 57 (0.87%) Selenium
6 25 (0.38%) Visual Studio
7 21 (0.32%) Cypress.io
8 20 (0.30%) Bitbucket
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%) LabVIEW
10 18 (0.27%) Robot Framework
11 17 (0.26%) JUnit
12 16 (0.24%) Octopus Deploy
13 14 (0.21%) Cucumber
13 14 (0.21%) Snyk
13 14 (0.21%) SonarQube
14 12 (0.18%) WebDriver
General
1 3,425 (52.04%) Social Skills
2 1,985 (30.16%) Analytical Skills
3 1,549 (23.54%) Finance
4 401 (6.09%) Organisational Skills
5 369 (5.61%) Marketing
6 351 (5.33%) Law
7 332 (5.04%) Retail
8 309 (4.70%) Manufacturing
9 306 (4.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 291 (4.42%) Legal
11 285 (4.33%) Public Sector
12 275 (4.18%) Banking
13 186 (2.83%) Telecoms
14 182 (2.77%) Presentation Skills
15 152 (2.31%) Electronics
16 111 (1.69%) Games
17 96 (1.46%) Documentation Skills
18 88 (1.34%) Financial Institution
19 85 (1.29%) Automotive
19 85 (1.29%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 1,030 (15.65%) Analyst
2 820 (12.46%) Senior
3 759 (11.53%) IT Support
4 648 (9.85%) Support Engineer
5 597 (9.07%) Developer
6 421 (6.40%) Lead
7 342 (5.20%) IT Engineer
8 340 (5.17%) Support Analyst
9 290 (4.41%) IT Support Engineer
10 261 (3.97%) Technical Support
11 248 (3.77%) Business Analyst
12 237 (3.60%) Consultant
13 221 (3.36%) Architect
14 196 (2.98%) Support Technician
15 189 (2.87%) 2nd Line Support
16 179 (2.72%) Technical Engineer
17 172 (2.61%) Technical Support Engineer
18 171 (2.60%) IT Analyst
19 164 (2.49%) Infrastructure Engineer
20 158 (2.40%) Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 277 (4.21%) .NET
2 259 (3.94%) React
3 239 (3.63%) HTML
4 190 (2.89%) CSS
5 148 (2.25%) Node.js
6 142 (2.16%) REST
7 114 (1.73%) RESTful
8 91 (1.38%) AngularJS
9 70 (1.06%) Spring
10 68 (1.03%) Middleware
10 68 (1.03%) Vue
11 64 (0.97%) SOAP
12 63 (0.96%) JSON
13 61 (0.93%) Kafka
14 59 (0.90%) XML
15 57 (0.87%) .NET Framework
16 52 (0.79%) Django
17 47 (0.71%) ASP.NET
17 47 (0.71%) Flask
18 45 (0.68%) FastAPI
Miscellaneous
1 536 (8.14%) Driving Licence
2 504 (7.66%) Onboarding
3 416 (6.32%) Self-Motivation
4 213 (3.24%) Management Information System
5 191 (2.90%) Analytical Mindset
6 177 (2.69%) Cloud Native
7 172 (2.61%) Legacy Systems
8 147 (2.23%) Product Ownership
9 140 (2.13%) Data Centre
10 116 (1.76%) Enterprise Software
11 97 (1.47%) Distributed Systems
12 89 (1.35%) Mobile App
13 71 (1.08%) Data Structures
14 68 (1.03%) Low-Code
15 64 (0.97%) Algorithms
16 62 (0.94%) Social Media
17 60 (0.91%) Virtual Team
18 56 (0.85%) EPoS
19 54 (0.82%) FMCG
20 51 (0.77%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 1,136 (17.26%) Windows
2 464 (7.05%) Windows Server
3 428 (6.50%) Linux
4 160 (2.43%) Windows 10
5 142 (2.16%) Windows Server 2016
6 97 (1.47%) Android
7 96 (1.46%) Mac OS
8 80 (1.22%) Apple iOS
9 58 (0.88%) Unix
10 55 (0.84%) Windows Server 2019
11 31 (0.47%) Windows Server 2012
12 28 (0.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 23 (0.35%) Windows 7
14 17 (0.26%) VMS
15 14 (0.21%) CentOS
16 10 (0.15%) Ubuntu
17 9 (0.14%) Mac OS X
18 8 (0.12%) Windows 8
19 7 (0.11%) Debian
20 4 (0.061%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,127 (17.13%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,061 (16.12%) Agile
3 992 (15.07%) Customer Service
4 718 (10.91%) Analytics
5 674 (10.24%) Mentoring
6 645 (9.80%) AI
7 628 (9.54%) Decision-Making
8 599 (9.10%) Project Management
9 594 (9.03%) DevOps
10 591 (8.98%) Business Intelligence
11 583 (8.86%) CI/CD
12 543 (8.25%) ITIL
13 522 (7.93%) Computer Science
14 489 (7.43%) Stakeholder Management
15 479 (7.28%) Cybersecurity
16 432 (6.56%) Change Management
17 417 (6.34%) Software Engineering
18 416 (6.32%) ERP
19 393 (5.97%) CRM
20 374 (5.68%) Process Improvement
Programming Languages
1 941 (14.30%) SQL
2 935 (14.21%) Python
3 419 (6.37%) JavaScript
4 321 (4.88%) C#
4 321 (4.88%) PowerShell
5 319 (4.85%) Java
6 167 (2.54%) TypeScript
7 138 (2.10%) Bash
8 104 (1.58%) PHP
9 82 (1.25%) C++
10 62 (0.94%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 57 (0.87%) Go
12 48 (0.73%) C
12 48 (0.73%) Scala
13 47 (0.71%) T-SQL
14 36 (0.55%) R
15 27 (0.41%) Bicep
16 26 (0.40%) Apex Code
17 25 (0.38%) Kotlin
18 24 (0.36%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 1,492 (22.67%) Degree
2 542 (8.24%) Security Cleared
3 351 (5.33%) SC Cleared
4 248 (3.77%) Computer Science Degree
5 188 (2.86%) Microsoft Certification
6 169 (2.57%) DBS Check
7 160 (2.43%) Master's Degree
8 116 (1.76%) DV Cleared
9 105 (1.60%) CISSP
10 93 (1.41%) BPSS Clearance
11 81 (1.23%) ACCA
12 80 (1.22%) A+ Certification
13 78 (1.19%) Cisco Certification
14 68 (1.03%) Network+ Certification
15 67 (1.02%) CIMA
16 59 (0.90%) CISM
16 59 (0.90%) PMI Certification
17 54 (0.82%) AWS Certification
18 53 (0.81%) CCNA
19 51 (0.77%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 337 (5.12%) QA
2 299 (4.54%) Data Quality
3 230 (3.49%) GDPR
4 190 (2.89%) Cyber Essentials
5 172 (2.61%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 145 (2.20%) PCI DSS
7 139 (2.11%) Accessibility
8 129 (1.96%) SLA
9 93 (1.41%) NIST
10 46 (0.70%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 32 (0.49%) ISO 9001
12 26 (0.40%) Actionable Recommendations
13 23 (0.35%) SOC 2
14 19 (0.29%) PMO
15 18 (0.27%) COBIT
16 16 (0.24%) GRC
17 11 (0.17%) WCAG
18 9 (0.14%) ISO 13485
18 9 (0.14%) ISO/IEC 20000
19 8 (0.12%) ISO/IEC 19770
System Software
1 788 (11.97%) Active Directory
2 276 (4.19%) Docker
3 265 (4.03%) Hyper-V
4 151 (2.29%) VMware Infrastructure
5 98 (1.49%) Terminal Server
6 27 (0.41%) Firmware
7 25 (0.38%) Virtual Desktop
8 24 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
9 18 (0.27%) vSphere
10 15 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
11 10 (0.15%) KVM
12 7 (0.11%) Virtual Servers
12 7 (0.11%) VMware Workstation
13 4 (0.061%) Microsoft Virtual Server
14 3 (0.046%) IAG
14 3 (0.046%) vCloud
15 2 (0.030%) HDFS
15 2 (0.030%) Postfix
15 2 (0.030%) RHEV
15 2 (0.030%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 277 (4.21%) Microsoft Intune
2 274 (4.16%) Terraform
3 213 (3.24%) Kubernetes
4 142 (2.16%) Ansible
5 78 (1.19%) Grafana
6 66 (1.00%) SCCM
7 49 (0.74%) Prometheus
8 42 (0.64%) BMC PATROL
9 28 (0.43%) Single Sign-On
10 21 (0.32%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 21 (0.32%) Nagios
11 16 (0.24%) Jamf Pro
12 15 (0.23%) Argo
13 14 (0.21%) Cisco CUCM
13 14 (0.21%) vCenter Server
14 12 (0.18%) FortiGate
14 12 (0.18%) Kibana
15 11 (0.17%) Nessus
16 10 (0.15%) Nmap
16 10 (0.15%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 1,715 (26.06%) Microsoft
2 350 (5.32%) SAP
3 300 (4.56%) VMware
4 253 (3.84%) Oracle
5 165 (2.51%) Salesforce
6 158 (2.40%) Veeam
7 151 (2.29%) Google
8 148 (2.25%) Splunk
9 145 (2.20%) Cisco
9 145 (2.20%) SolarWinds
10 123 (1.87%) ServiceNow
11 103 (1.57%) Databricks
12 101 (1.53%) Adobe
13 99 (1.50%) Tanium
14 98 (1.49%) Brocade
14 98 (1.49%) Nimble Storage
15 76 (1.15%) Apple
16 57 (0.87%) Dell
16 57 (0.87%) Sage
17 52 (0.79%) HubSpot