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

6 months to
18 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 9,161 8,219 10,526
As % of all permanent jobs in England 9.01% 19.02% 15.23%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.28% 21.42% 18.64%
Number of salaries quoted 6,221 4,627 4,542
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 £71,250
90th Percentile £83,750 £86,250 £85,000
UK median annual salary £47,000 £45,602 £52,500
% change year-on-year +3.07% -13.14% -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 74,604 38,365 56,474
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.40% 88.79% 81.71%
Number of salaries quoted 52,829 22,080 32,110
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £32,000
25th Percentile £42,233 £37,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -8.00%
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 18 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 18 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 2,335 £65,000 - 4,975
North of England -9 1,909 £45,000 +5.88% 1,479
South East -4 1,781 £42,500 - 1,741
Midlands -7 1,362 £42,500 +11.11% 1,137
North West -5 986 £45,000 -7.64% 806
South West -4 940 £45,000 +25.00% 761
West Midlands -8 755 £42,500 -4.59% 686
East of England -2 754 £43,500 +29.85% 719
East Midlands -8 605 £41,250 +17.86% 450
Yorkshire -7 598 £42,500 +28.79% 470
North East +1 328 £48,500 +38.57% 219
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
1 539 (5.88%) SharePoint
2 404 (4.41%) Microsoft Exchange
3 113 (1.23%) Confluence
4 62 (0.68%) IIS
5 49 (0.53%) Apache
6 45 (0.49%) CMS
7 43 (0.47%) Apache Spark
8 36 (0.39%) Apache Airflow
8 36 (0.39%) WordPress
9 18 (0.20%) Oracle Workflow
10 16 (0.17%) SAS
11 12 (0.13%) nginx
11 12 (0.13%) WebLogic
12 11 (0.12%) WebSphere
13 10 (0.11%) Jupyter
13 10 (0.11%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 9 (0.098%) Palantir Foundry
15 7 (0.076%) OpenEdge
15 7 (0.076%) Tomcat
16 6 (0.065%) CICS
Applications
1 638 (6.96%) Microsoft Office
2 573 (6.25%) Microsoft Excel
3 115 (1.26%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 62 (0.68%) Spreadsheet
5 54 (0.59%) MS Visio
6 50 (0.55%) AutoCAD
7 48 (0.52%) Microsoft Project
8 29 (0.32%) Simulink
9 27 (0.29%) Revit
10 16 (0.17%) Chatbot
10 16 (0.17%) SOLIDWORKS
11 11 (0.12%) Autodesk Flame
11 11 (0.12%) Baselight
11 11 (0.12%) EPLAN
12 10 (0.11%) Navisworks
13 8 (0.087%) Adobe Creative Suite
13 8 (0.087%) Fusion 360
13 8 (0.087%) Trello
14 6 (0.065%) Lightworks
14 6 (0.065%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 94 (1.03%) Dynamics CRM
2 89 (0.97%) SAP S/4HANA
3 82 (0.90%) NetSuite
4 39 (0.43%) Oracle EBS
5 33 (0.36%) Shopify
6 23 (0.25%) Oracle Payables
7 19 (0.21%) Dynamics AX
8 16 (0.17%) Oracle Cash Management
9 15 (0.16%) Magento
9 15 (0.16%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
10 14 (0.15%) Dynamics NAV
10 14 (0.15%) SAP Business One
11 13 (0.14%) Elite 3E
11 13 (0.14%) IBM Planning Analytics
11 13 (0.14%) Salesforce CRM
11 13 (0.14%) Workday HCM
12 12 (0.13%) Payment Gateway
13 11 (0.12%) Oracle Applications
13 11 (0.12%) Oracle ERP
13 11 (0.12%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 1,771 (19.33%) Azure
2 1,422 (15.52%) Microsoft 365
3 1,054 (11.51%) AWS
4 785 (8.57%) Power Platform
5 441 (4.81%) Entra ID
6 397 (4.33%) SaaS
7 348 (3.80%) GCP
8 231 (2.52%) Azure DevOps
9 219 (2.39%) GitHub
10 203 (2.22%) Power Automate
11 199 (2.17%) Dynamics 365
12 192 (2.10%) Serverless
13 169 (1.84%) PowerApps
14 142 (1.55%) OneDrive
15 141 (1.54%) Microsoft Copilot
16 112 (1.22%) Amazon S3
17 100 (1.09%) GitHub Actions
18 90 (0.98%) AWS Lambda
19 88 (0.96%) Google Workspace
20 87 (0.95%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 522 (5.70%) Firewall
2 496 (5.41%) DNS
3 415 (4.53%) DHCP
4 352 (3.84%) VPN
5 294 (3.21%) TCP/IP
6 235 (2.57%) Wi-Fi
7 201 (2.19%) WAN
8 198 (2.16%) LAN
9 195 (2.13%) Wireless
10 181 (1.98%) VLAN
11 160 (1.75%) Network Security
12 109 (1.19%) VoIP
13 70 (0.76%) Broadband
14 59 (0.64%) Internet
15 43 (0.47%) SAN
16 39 (0.43%) HTTP
17 37 (0.40%) SD-WAN
18 35 (0.38%) BGP
18 35 (0.38%) SSL
19 33 (0.36%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 617 (6.74%) Power BI
2 432 (4.72%) SQL Server
3 156 (1.70%) Relational Database
4 149 (1.63%) Data Warehouse
5 143 (1.56%) MySQL
6 132 (1.44%) Tableau
7 131 (1.43%) Amazon RDS
8 120 (1.31%) PostgreSQL
9 103 (1.12%) NoSQL
10 93 (1.02%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 82 (0.90%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 68 (0.74%) Azure SQL Database
12 68 (0.74%) Data Lake
13 67 (0.73%) Big Data
14 65 (0.71%) MongoDB
15 60 (0.65%) Power Query
16 57 (0.62%) Metadata
17 43 (0.47%) DynamoDB
18 40 (0.44%) Electronic Patient Records
19 37 (0.40%) Looker
Development Applications
1 389 (4.25%) Git
2 319 (3.48%) JIRA
3 145 (1.58%) Jenkins
4 109 (1.19%) GitLab
5 42 (0.46%) Claude Code
6 41 (0.45%) Eclipse
6 41 (0.45%) Selenium
7 35 (0.38%) JUnit
8 34 (0.37%) Subversion
9 32 (0.35%) Cucumber
10 25 (0.27%) Oracle Forms
10 25 (0.27%) Postman
11 24 (0.26%) Cypress.io
11 24 (0.26%) Rational DOORS
12 22 (0.24%) Bitbucket
13 20 (0.22%) SonarQube
14 18 (0.20%) TeamCity
15 15 (0.16%) Chocolatey
15 15 (0.16%) Maven
16 14 (0.15%) MLflow
General
1 4,594 (50.15%) Social Skills
2 2,723 (29.72%) Analytical Skills
3 1,812 (19.78%) Finance
4 821 (8.96%) Manufacturing
5 695 (7.59%) Organisational Skills
6 549 (5.99%) Law
7 546 (5.96%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 494 (5.39%) Retail
9 392 (4.28%) Marketing
10 377 (4.12%) Public Sector
11 356 (3.89%) Legal
12 296 (3.23%) Banking
13 285 (3.11%) Electronics
14 276 (3.01%) Aerospace
15 228 (2.49%) Telecoms
16 199 (2.17%) Influencing Skills
17 175 (1.91%) Presentation Skills
18 135 (1.47%) Automotive
19 118 (1.29%) Documentation Skills
20 108 (1.18%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 1,180 (12.88%) Analyst
2 988 (10.78%) Senior
3 816 (8.91%) Developer
4 759 (8.29%) IT Support
5 602 (6.57%) Support Engineer
6 532 (5.81%) Lead
7 432 (4.72%) Consultant
8 414 (4.52%) IT Engineer
9 401 (4.38%) Support Analyst
10 324 (3.54%) Software Engineer
11 316 (3.45%) IT Support Engineer
12 288 (3.14%) Architect
13 275 (3.00%) Technical Support
14 267 (2.91%) Support Technician
15 250 (2.73%) Systems Engineer
16 242 (2.64%) IT Technician
17 228 (2.49%) Technical Engineer
18 220 (2.40%) Administrator
19 204 (2.23%) Technical Support Engineer
20 203 (2.22%) Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 393 (4.29%) .NET
2 382 (4.17%) Terraform
3 311 (3.39%) React
4 294 (3.21%) REST
5 274 (2.99%) HTML
6 207 (2.26%) CSS
7 185 (2.02%) RESTful
8 146 (1.59%) Node.js
9 122 (1.33%) Spring
10 120 (1.31%) SOAP
11 112 (1.22%) Web Services
12 108 (1.18%) AngularJS
13 106 (1.16%) JSON
14 98 (1.07%) XML
15 97 (1.06%) ASP.NET
16 94 (1.03%) Vue
17 92 (1.00%) Middleware
18 91 (0.99%) Kafka
19 80 (0.87%) Spring Boot
20 69 (0.75%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 650 (7.10%) Driving Licence
2 642 (7.01%) Onboarding
3 477 (5.21%) Self-Motivation
4 402 (4.39%) Management Information System
5 330 (3.60%) Cloud Native
6 261 (2.85%) Product Ownership
7 192 (2.10%) Data Centre
8 174 (1.90%) Enterprise Software
9 164 (1.79%) Legacy Systems
10 137 (1.50%) Distributed Systems
11 126 (1.38%) Robotics
12 117 (1.28%) Analytical Mindset
12 117 (1.28%) Cyber Threat
13 116 (1.27%) AI Agents
13 116 (1.27%) Security Posture
14 114 (1.24%) Data Structures
15 109 (1.19%) NHS
16 101 (1.10%) IoT
17 96 (1.05%) Algorithms
18 85 (0.93%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 1,371 (14.97%) Windows
2 565 (6.17%) Linux
3 560 (6.11%) Windows Server
4 164 (1.79%) Windows 10
5 121 (1.32%) Mac OS
6 110 (1.20%) Apple iOS
7 99 (1.08%) Windows Server 2016
8 98 (1.07%) Android
9 56 (0.61%) Unix
10 48 (0.52%) Windows Server 2019
11 32 (0.35%) Ubuntu
11 32 (0.35%) VMS
12 29 (0.32%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 14 (0.15%) Embedded Linux
14 11 (0.12%) CentOS
15 10 (0.11%) Debian
15 10 (0.11%) FreeRTOS
15 10 (0.11%) Windows Server 2012
16 9 (0.098%) Rocky
17 8 (0.087%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 2,341 (25.55%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,476 (16.11%) Customer Service
3 1,444 (15.76%) Agile
4 1,175 (12.83%) AI
5 1,099 (12.00%) Stakeholder Management
6 1,066 (11.64%) Decision-Making
7 970 (10.59%) Mentoring
8 932 (10.17%) CI/CD
9 825 (9.01%) Analytics
10 804 (8.78%) Software Engineering
11 788 (8.60%) DevOps
12 757 (8.26%) Project Delivery
13 736 (8.03%) Cybersecurity
14 692 (7.55%) Business Intelligence
15 674 (7.36%) ITIL
15 674 (7.36%) Project Management
16 672 (7.34%) Roadmaps
17 643 (7.02%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 639 (6.98%) Computer Science
19 627 (6.84%) Collaborative Working
Programming Languages
1 1,387 (15.14%) SQL
2 1,198 (13.08%) Python
3 590 (6.44%) JavaScript
4 500 (5.46%) C#
5 445 (4.86%) Java
6 389 (4.25%) PowerShell
7 266 (2.90%) TypeScript
8 248 (2.71%) C++
9 174 (1.90%) Bash
10 101 (1.10%) C
11 83 (0.91%) PHP
12 80 (0.87%) T-SQL
13 79 (0.86%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 71 (0.78%) Go
15 57 (0.62%) PL/SQL
16 49 (0.53%) R
16 49 (0.53%) Rust
17 47 (0.51%) Shell Script
18 45 (0.49%) Perl
18 45 (0.49%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 1,613 (17.61%) Degree
2 857 (9.35%) Security Cleared
3 578 (6.31%) SC Cleared
4 329 (3.59%) Computer Science Degree
5 267 (2.91%) DBS Check
6 219 (2.39%) Microsoft Certification
7 198 (2.16%) DV Cleared
8 197 (2.15%) HNC
9 187 (2.04%) Azure Certification
10 175 (1.91%) HND
11 155 (1.69%) BPSS Clearance
12 149 (1.63%) Master's Degree
13 146 (1.59%) CISSP
14 145 (1.58%) Cisco Certification
15 105 (1.15%) PMI Certification
16 84 (0.92%) AWS Certification
16 84 (0.92%) Chartered Engineer
16 84 (0.92%) CISM
17 81 (0.88%) PMP
18 80 (0.87%) ACCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 518 (5.65%) QA
2 458 (5.00%) Data Quality
3 370 (4.04%) GDPR
4 265 (2.89%) Accessibility
5 238 (2.60%) SLA
6 213 (2.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 190 (2.07%) Cyber Essentials
8 154 (1.68%) NIST
9 132 (1.44%) PCI DSS
10 67 (0.73%) PMO
11 50 (0.55%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 45 (0.49%) GRC
13 43 (0.47%) ISO 9001
14 29 (0.32%) NCSC
15 24 (0.26%) Actionable Recommendations
15 24 (0.26%) Sarbanes-Oxley
16 21 (0.23%) DO-254
16 21 (0.23%) SOC 2
17 19 (0.21%) COBIT
17 19 (0.21%) Good Clinical Practice
System Software
1 906 (9.89%) Active Directory
2 370 (4.04%) Docker
3 280 (3.06%) Hyper-V
4 263 (2.87%) VMware Infrastructure
5 64 (0.70%) Firmware
6 63 (0.69%) Terminal Server
7 52 (0.57%) Virtual Desktop
8 48 (0.52%) Virtual Machines
9 37 (0.40%) vSphere
10 25 (0.27%) Embedded Firmware
11 21 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
12 11 (0.12%) Virtual Servers
13 10 (0.11%) GPFS
13 10 (0.11%) StorNext
14 9 (0.098%) KVM
15 7 (0.076%) IAG
16 6 (0.065%) VMware NSX
17 5 (0.055%) ClearTrust
17 5 (0.055%) Squid
18 4 (0.044%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 347 (3.79%) Kubernetes
2 301 (3.29%) Microsoft Intune
3 151 (1.65%) Ansible
4 89 (0.97%) Grafana
5 71 (0.78%) SCCM
5 71 (0.78%) Single Sign-On
6 50 (0.55%) Prometheus
7 27 (0.29%) Jamf Pro
8 26 (0.28%) BMC PATROL
9 24 (0.26%) FortiGate
10 21 (0.23%) Argo
11 17 (0.19%) Nagios
11 17 (0.19%) Puppet
12 16 (0.17%) Functional Safety
13 15 (0.16%) Kibana
14 12 (0.13%) logstash
14 12 (0.13%) Progress Chef
15 11 (0.12%) Nmap
15 11 (0.12%) Proxmox
16 10 (0.11%) Podman
Vendors
1 2,715 (29.64%) Microsoft
2 388 (4.24%) VMware
3 307 (3.35%) SAP
4 270 (2.95%) Google
5 267 (2.91%) Oracle
6 188 (2.05%) ServiceNow
7 174 (1.90%) Salesforce
8 170 (1.86%) Cisco
9 138 (1.51%) Databricks
10 129 (1.41%) Veeam
11 122 (1.33%) Splunk
12 118 (1.29%) Sage
13 98 (1.07%) SolarWinds
14 87 (0.95%) Apple
15 79 (0.86%) Workday
16 73 (0.80%) Fortinet
17 71 (0.78%) Tanium
18 67 (0.73%) HubSpot
19 64 (0.70%) Nimble Storage
20 63 (0.69%) Brocade