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

6 months to
2 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 6,536 8,456 9,792
As % of all permanent jobs in England 11.62% 18.16% 15.09%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 14.51% 19.80% 17.04%
Number of salaries quoted 4,465 3,848 7,173
10th Percentile £26,500 £31,000 £26,250
25th Percentile £30,750 £40,000 £34,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -18.18% +10.00% -9.91%
75th Percentile £65,000 £75,000 £71,250
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 45,044 42,714 57,481
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 80.08% 91.74% 88.59%
Number of salaries quoted 27,255 20,631 45,615
10th Percentile £29,000 £35,000 £30,000
25th Percentile £38,561 £46,250 £41,242
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £61,350 £56,000
Median % change year-on-year -10.35% +9.55% -10.40%
75th Percentile £76,250 £81,250 £75,772
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 2 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 2 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 1,950 £65,000 - 1,121
South East -3 1,336 £41,000 -21.90% 881
North of England -17 1,282 £42,500 -10.53% 626
Midlands -15 865 £37,500 -27.71% 494
North West -13 707 £47,500 -5.00% 354
South West -3 580 £40,000 -27.27% 351
West Midlands -17 503 £42,500 -22.73% 318
Yorkshire -5 444 £34,000 -21.84% 206
East of England -5 420 £35,000 -31.33% 277
East Midlands +1 361 £33,000 -5.71% 176
North East -4 131 £40,662 -18.68% 74
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
1 321 (4.91%) Microsoft Exchange
2 284 (4.35%) SharePoint
3 75 (1.15%) Confluence
4 54 (0.83%) Apache
5 49 (0.75%) IIS
6 41 (0.63%) Apache Spark
7 40 (0.61%) Apache Airflow
8 38 (0.58%) CMS
9 27 (0.41%) WordPress
10 19 (0.29%) Palantir Foundry
11 12 (0.18%) nginx
12 10 (0.15%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 10 (0.15%) SAS
13 7 (0.11%) Anypoint
13 7 (0.11%) Apache Solr
14 6 (0.092%) Exchange Server 2013
15 5 (0.076%) Drupal
15 5 (0.076%) Umbraco
16 4 (0.061%) Exchange Server 2010
16 4 (0.061%) HCL Notes
Applications
1 446 (6.82%) Microsoft Office
2 442 (6.76%) Microsoft Excel
3 91 (1.39%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 38 (0.58%) Spreadsheet
5 34 (0.52%) Maya
6 29 (0.44%) MS Visio
7 27 (0.41%) Microsoft Project
8 19 (0.29%) AutoCAD
9 14 (0.21%) Photoshop
10 12 (0.18%) Adobe Creative Suite
11 9 (0.14%) Adobe Illustrator
11 9 (0.14%) Adobe Premiere
11 9 (0.14%) SOLIDWORKS
12 6 (0.092%) Chatbot
13 5 (0.076%) Adobe After Effects
13 5 (0.076%) Adobe XD
13 5 (0.076%) Trello
14 4 (0.061%) CATIA
14 4 (0.061%) Fusion 360
14 4 (0.061%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 109 (1.67%) SAP S/4HANA
2 81 (1.24%) Dynamics CRM
3 32 (0.49%) NetSuite
4 25 (0.38%) SAP CO
5 17 (0.26%) Salesforce CRM
5 17 (0.26%) SAP FI
5 17 (0.26%) SAP FI/CO
6 15 (0.23%) Endur
7 14 (0.21%) Oracle Payables
8 13 (0.20%) Dynamics NAV
8 13 (0.20%) Shopify
9 12 (0.18%) iTrent
9 12 (0.18%) Oracle Receivables
10 11 (0.17%) Oracle Assets
11 10 (0.15%) Payment Gateway
11 10 (0.15%) SAP Business One
11 10 (0.15%) Workday HCM
12 8 (0.12%) JDE EnterpriseOne
12 8 (0.12%) Oracle EBS
12 8 (0.12%) Sage 200
Cloud Services
1 1,470 (22.49%) Azure
2 974 (14.90%) Microsoft 365
3 737 (11.28%) AWS
4 527 (8.06%) Power Platform
5 400 (6.12%) SaaS
6 267 (4.09%) Entra ID
7 229 (3.50%) GCP
8 178 (2.72%) Azure DevOps
9 155 (2.37%) GitHub
10 148 (2.26%) Serverless
11 121 (1.85%) Power Automate
12 98 (1.50%) Dynamics 365
13 77 (1.18%) PowerApps
14 76 (1.16%) Amazon S3
15 74 (1.13%) Google Workspace
16 72 (1.10%) AWS CloudFormation
16 72 (1.10%) AWS Lambda
17 67 (1.03%) PaaS
18 63 (0.96%) Figma
19 60 (0.92%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 434 (6.64%) DNS
2 372 (5.69%) DHCP
3 356 (5.45%) Firewall
4 220 (3.37%) VPN
5 202 (3.09%) TCP/IP
6 193 (2.95%) Wi-Fi
7 178 (2.72%) WAN
8 147 (2.25%) LAN
9 125 (1.91%) VLAN
10 107 (1.64%) Broadband
11 94 (1.44%) VoIP
12 88 (1.35%) Wireless
13 53 (0.81%) Remote Desktop
13 53 (0.81%) SD-WAN
14 52 (0.80%) Network Security
15 47 (0.72%) Internet
16 46 (0.70%) SAN
17 29 (0.44%) Unified Communications
18 27 (0.41%) BGP
19 26 (0.40%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 439 (6.72%) Power BI
2 303 (4.64%) SQL Server
3 153 (2.34%) Relational Database
4 137 (2.10%) Data Warehouse
5 133 (2.03%) Tableau
6 121 (1.85%) NoSQL
7 120 (1.84%) Amazon RDS
8 118 (1.81%) PostgreSQL
9 114 (1.74%) Data Lake
10 109 (1.67%) MySQL
11 66 (1.01%) SAP BW
11 66 (1.01%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 56 (0.86%) MongoDB
13 54 (0.83%) Metadata
14 49 (0.75%) Amazon Redshift
15 48 (0.73%) SQL Server Integration Services
16 44 (0.67%) Big Data
16 44 (0.67%) DynamoDB
17 41 (0.63%) Azure SQL Database
18 31 (0.47%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 265 (4.05%) Git
2 232 (3.55%) JIRA
3 96 (1.47%) Jenkins
4 78 (1.19%) GitLab
5 57 (0.87%) Selenium
6 24 (0.37%) Visual Studio
7 20 (0.31%) Bitbucket
7 20 (0.31%) Cypress.io
7 20 (0.31%) Maven
8 19 (0.29%) LabVIEW
8 19 (0.29%) TeamCity
9 18 (0.28%) Robot Framework
10 17 (0.26%) Burp Suite
10 17 (0.26%) Metasploit
10 17 (0.26%) Octopus Deploy
11 16 (0.24%) JUnit
12 14 (0.21%) Cucumber
12 14 (0.21%) Snyk
12 14 (0.21%) SonarQube
12 14 (0.21%) WebDriver
General
1 3,445 (52.71%) Social Skills
2 1,976 (30.23%) Analytical Skills
3 1,556 (23.81%) Finance
4 384 (5.88%) Marketing
5 375 (5.74%) Organisational Skills
6 354 (5.42%) Law
7 335 (5.13%) Retail
8 332 (5.08%) Manufacturing
9 296 (4.53%) Legal
10 294 (4.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 279 (4.27%) Public Sector
12 261 (3.99%) Banking
13 178 (2.72%) Presentation Skills
14 177 (2.71%) Telecoms
15 152 (2.33%) Electronics
16 116 (1.77%) Games
17 95 (1.45%) Influencing Skills
18 87 (1.33%) Financial Institution
19 86 (1.32%) Documentation Skills
20 85 (1.30%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 1,044 (15.97%) Analyst
2 818 (12.52%) Senior
3 732 (11.20%) IT Support
4 652 (9.98%) Support Engineer
5 584 (8.94%) Developer
6 441 (6.75%) Lead
7 344 (5.26%) Support Analyst
8 330 (5.05%) IT Engineer
9 278 (4.25%) Technical Support
10 277 (4.24%) IT Support Engineer
11 249 (3.81%) Business Analyst
12 220 (3.37%) Consultant
13 216 (3.30%) Architect
14 193 (2.95%) Technical Engineer
15 189 (2.89%) Support Technician
16 184 (2.82%) 2nd Line Support
17 182 (2.78%) Technical Support Engineer
18 166 (2.54%) IT Analyst
19 159 (2.43%) Software Engineer
20 156 (2.39%) Applications Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 281 (4.30%) .NET
2 253 (3.87%) React
3 235 (3.60%) HTML
4 189 (2.89%) CSS
5 146 (2.23%) REST
6 145 (2.22%) Node.js
7 109 (1.67%) RESTful
8 92 (1.41%) AngularJS
9 70 (1.07%) Spring
9 70 (1.07%) Vue
10 66 (1.01%) JSON
11 64 (0.98%) Middleware
11 64 (0.98%) XML
12 62 (0.95%) SOAP
13 58 (0.89%) Kafka
14 57 (0.87%) .NET Framework
15 51 (0.78%) ASP.NET
16 50 (0.76%) Django
17 45 (0.69%) Flask
18 44 (0.67%) FastAPI
Miscellaneous
1 523 (8.00%) Driving Licence
2 514 (7.86%) Onboarding
3 410 (6.27%) Self-Motivation
4 210 (3.21%) Management Information System
5 198 (3.03%) Analytical Mindset
6 169 (2.59%) Cloud Native
7 161 (2.46%) Legacy Systems
8 156 (2.39%) Product Ownership
9 127 (1.94%) Data Centre
10 115 (1.76%) Enterprise Software
11 82 (1.25%) Distributed Systems
12 79 (1.21%) Mobile App
13 71 (1.09%) Data Structures
14 69 (1.06%) Algorithms
15 66 (1.01%) Low-Code
16 64 (0.98%) Virtual Team
17 55 (0.84%) FMCG
18 54 (0.83%) Social Media
19 51 (0.78%) Security Posture
20 50 (0.76%) EPoS
Operating Systems
1 1,117 (17.09%) Windows
2 451 (6.90%) Windows Server
3 416 (6.36%) Linux
4 159 (2.43%) Windows 10
5 132 (2.02%) Windows Server 2016
6 95 (1.45%) Mac OS
7 82 (1.25%) Android
8 69 (1.06%) Apple iOS
9 58 (0.89%) Unix
10 55 (0.84%) Windows Server 2019
11 33 (0.50%) Windows Server 2012
12 25 (0.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 24 (0.37%) VMS
13 24 (0.37%) Windows 7
14 14 (0.21%) CentOS
15 9 (0.14%) Ubuntu
16 7 (0.11%) Windows 8
17 6 (0.092%) Debian
17 6 (0.092%) Windows Server 2008
18 4 (0.061%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,116 (17.07%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,071 (16.39%) Agile
3 975 (14.92%) Customer Service
4 741 (11.34%) Analytics
5 667 (10.21%) Mentoring
6 648 (9.91%) AI
7 637 (9.75%) Decision-Making
8 606 (9.27%) Business Intelligence
9 601 (9.20%) Project Management
10 578 (8.84%) DevOps
11 559 (8.55%) CI/CD
12 538 (8.23%) ITIL
13 524 (8.02%) Computer Science
14 481 (7.36%) Stakeholder Management
15 480 (7.34%) Cybersecurity
16 436 (6.67%) ERP
17 433 (6.62%) Change Management
18 420 (6.43%) Software Engineering
19 390 (5.97%) CRM
20 376 (5.75%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 965 (14.76%) SQL
2 927 (14.18%) Python
3 407 (6.23%) JavaScript
4 332 (5.08%) C#
5 326 (4.99%) PowerShell
6 317 (4.85%) Java
7 162 (2.48%) TypeScript
8 139 (2.13%) Bash
9 107 (1.64%) PHP
10 82 (1.25%) C++
11 57 (0.87%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 49 (0.75%) T-SQL
13 48 (0.73%) Go
14 43 (0.66%) C
15 40 (0.61%) Scala
16 34 (0.52%) R
17 27 (0.41%) Bicep
18 24 (0.37%) Kotlin
19 23 (0.35%) Apex Code
19 23 (0.35%) Perl
Qualifications
1 1,553 (23.76%) Degree
2 532 (8.14%) Security Cleared
3 336 (5.14%) SC Cleared
4 249 (3.81%) Computer Science Degree
5 178 (2.72%) Microsoft Certification
6 171 (2.62%) DBS Check
7 168 (2.57%) Master's Degree
8 124 (1.90%) DV Cleared
9 106 (1.62%) CISSP
10 93 (1.42%) BPSS Clearance
11 79 (1.21%) A+ Certification
11 79 (1.21%) Cisco Certification
12 77 (1.18%) ACCA
13 68 (1.04%) Network+ Certification
14 63 (0.96%) CIMA
15 60 (0.92%) CISM
16 59 (0.90%) PMI Certification
17 58 (0.89%) AWS Certification
18 54 (0.83%) HND
19 52 (0.80%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 342 (5.23%) QA
2 334 (5.11%) Data Quality
3 217 (3.32%) GDPR
4 182 (2.78%) Cyber Essentials
5 163 (2.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 143 (2.19%) Accessibility
7 129 (1.97%) PCI DSS
8 128 (1.96%) SLA
9 85 (1.30%) NIST
10 47 (0.72%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 30 (0.46%) ISO 9001
12 24 (0.37%) Actionable Recommendations
13 23 (0.35%) PMO
14 19 (0.29%) SOC 2
15 16 (0.24%) COBIT
16 15 (0.23%) GRC
17 12 (0.18%) WCAG
18 9 (0.14%) ISO 13485
18 9 (0.14%) ISO/IEC 20000
19 8 (0.12%) ISO/IEC 19770
System Software
1 786 (12.03%) Active Directory
2 266 (4.07%) Docker
3 252 (3.86%) Hyper-V
4 147 (2.25%) VMware Infrastructure
5 91 (1.39%) Terminal Server
6 29 (0.44%) Firmware
7 25 (0.38%) Virtual Machines
8 21 (0.32%) Virtual Desktop
9 18 (0.28%) VMware ESXi
10 17 (0.26%) vSphere
11 9 (0.14%) KVM
12 7 (0.11%) Virtual Servers
13 6 (0.092%) VMware Workstation
14 4 (0.061%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 3 (0.046%) vCloud
16 2 (0.031%) BitLocker
16 2 (0.031%) HDFS
16 2 (0.031%) Postfix
16 2 (0.031%) RHEV
16 2 (0.031%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 272 (4.16%) Terraform
2 270 (4.13%) Microsoft Intune
3 205 (3.14%) Kubernetes
4 139 (2.13%) Ansible
5 73 (1.12%) Grafana
6 63 (0.96%) SCCM
7 47 (0.72%) Prometheus
8 42 (0.64%) BMC PATROL
9 28 (0.43%) Single Sign-On
10 20 (0.31%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 19 (0.29%) Nagios
12 18 (0.28%) Jamf Pro
13 14 (0.21%) Argo
13 14 (0.21%) Cisco CUCM
13 14 (0.21%) vCenter Server
14 12 (0.18%) FortiGate
14 12 (0.18%) Kibana
15 10 (0.15%) Autotask
15 10 (0.15%) Nmap
16 9 (0.14%) Nessus
Vendors
1 1,695 (25.93%) Microsoft
2 403 (6.17%) SAP
3 287 (4.39%) VMware
4 261 (3.99%) Oracle
5 162 (2.48%) Salesforce
6 151 (2.31%) Veeam
7 146 (2.23%) Cisco
8 144 (2.20%) Google
9 138 (2.11%) Splunk
10 130 (1.99%) SolarWinds
11 123 (1.88%) ServiceNow
12 105 (1.61%) Adobe
12 105 (1.61%) Databricks
13 92 (1.41%) Tanium
14 91 (1.39%) Brocade
14 91 (1.39%) Nimble Storage
15 70 (1.07%) Apple
16 57 (0.87%) Sage
17 54 (0.83%) Dell
18 53 (0.81%) HubSpot