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

6 months to
3 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 8,462 8,335 10,630
As % of all permanent jobs in England 8.70% 19.13% 14.98%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.86% 21.58% 18.45%
Number of salaries quoted 5,865 4,708 5,048
10th Percentile £27,750 £26,250 £27,000
25th Percentile £33,000 £31,250 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,500 £45,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% -10.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £66,000 £67,500 £70,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £86,250 £85,000
UK median annual salary £47,500 £45,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.56% -10.00% -9.09%

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 71,365 38,632 57,618
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.35% 88.65% 81.19%
Number of salaries quoted 50,813 22,409 35,446
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £42,250 £37,500 £41,250
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 £76,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,500 £95,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £56,341
% change year-on-year +9.09% -2.38% -6.10%

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 3 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 3 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 -6 2,272 £65,000 - 4,995
North of England -8 1,713 £45,000 +7.14% 1,445
South East -4 1,623 £42,500 - 1,443
Midlands -7 1,237 £42,500 +11.11% 1,031
North West -6 889 £46,000 +2.22% 806
South West -4 845 £45,000 +25.00% 884
East of England -4 694 £42,500 +21.43% 709
West Midlands -9 692 £42,500 -0.98% 653
Yorkshire -8 556 £42,500 +21.43% 446
East Midlands -9 543 £41,000 +17.14% 380
North East -4 268 £48,250 +25.32% 217
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
1 487 (5.76%) SharePoint
2 396 (4.68%) Microsoft Exchange
3 103 (1.22%) Confluence
4 60 (0.71%) IIS
5 48 (0.57%) Apache
6 45 (0.53%) CMS
7 39 (0.46%) Apache Spark
8 37 (0.44%) Apache Airflow
9 35 (0.41%) WordPress
10 21 (0.25%) SAS
11 13 (0.15%) Palantir Foundry
12 11 (0.13%) WebLogic
12 11 (0.13%) WebSphere
13 10 (0.12%) nginx
14 9 (0.11%) Jupyter
14 9 (0.11%) Oracle SOA Suite
15 8 (0.095%) Oracle Workflow
16 7 (0.083%) Exchange Server 2013
16 7 (0.083%) OpenEdge
16 7 (0.083%) Tomcat
Applications
1 543 (6.42%) Microsoft Office
2 490 (5.79%) Microsoft Excel
3 92 (1.09%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 48 (0.57%) Spreadsheet
5 46 (0.54%) MS Visio
6 43 (0.51%) Microsoft Project
7 34 (0.40%) AutoCAD
8 23 (0.27%) Simulink
9 19 (0.22%) Revit
10 16 (0.19%) Chatbot
11 10 (0.12%) SOLIDWORKS
12 8 (0.095%) Adobe Creative Suite
12 8 (0.095%) Trello
13 7 (0.083%) Adobe Illustrator
13 7 (0.083%) Autodesk Flame
13 7 (0.083%) Baselight
13 7 (0.083%) Fusion 360
14 6 (0.071%) EPLAN
14 6 (0.071%) Navisworks
15 5 (0.059%) Lightworks
Business Applications
1 86 (1.02%) Dynamics CRM
2 84 (0.99%) SAP S/4HANA
3 72 (0.85%) NetSuite
4 32 (0.38%) Shopify
5 29 (0.34%) Oracle EBS
6 17 (0.20%) Magento
7 15 (0.18%) IBM Planning Analytics
8 14 (0.17%) SAP Business One
9 13 (0.15%) Dynamics AX
9 13 (0.15%) Elite 3E
9 13 (0.15%) Oracle Payables
9 13 (0.15%) Salesforce CRM
10 12 (0.14%) SAP ERP
11 11 (0.13%) Dynamics NAV
11 11 (0.13%) Oracle ERP
12 10 (0.12%) JDE EnterpriseOne
12 10 (0.12%) Oracle Applications
12 10 (0.12%) Sage X3
13 9 (0.11%) iTrent
13 9 (0.11%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 1,738 (20.54%) Azure
2 1,329 (15.71%) Microsoft 365
3 1,038 (12.27%) AWS
4 713 (8.43%) Power Platform
5 413 (4.88%) Entra ID
6 372 (4.40%) SaaS
7 346 (4.09%) GCP
8 217 (2.56%) Azure DevOps
9 210 (2.48%) GitHub
10 189 (2.23%) Serverless
11 186 (2.20%) Dynamics 365
12 185 (2.19%) Power Automate
13 158 (1.87%) PowerApps
14 124 (1.47%) Microsoft Copilot
15 123 (1.45%) OneDrive
16 102 (1.21%) Amazon S3
17 97 (1.15%) GitHub Actions
18 88 (1.04%) AWS Lambda
19 84 (0.99%) AWS CloudFormation
20 81 (0.96%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 515 (6.09%) Firewall
2 478 (5.65%) DNS
3 407 (4.81%) DHCP
4 333 (3.94%) VPN
5 292 (3.45%) TCP/IP
6 213 (2.52%) Wi-Fi
7 198 (2.34%) WAN
8 195 (2.30%) LAN
9 186 (2.20%) Wireless
10 176 (2.08%) VLAN
11 153 (1.81%) Network Security
12 111 (1.31%) VoIP
13 105 (1.24%) Broadband
14 53 (0.63%) Internet
15 40 (0.47%) SAN
16 39 (0.46%) HTTP
17 35 (0.41%) BGP
17 35 (0.41%) OSPF
17 35 (0.41%) SD-WAN
18 34 (0.40%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 558 (6.59%) Power BI
2 419 (4.95%) SQL Server
3 143 (1.69%) Data Warehouse
4 141 (1.67%) Relational Database
5 140 (1.65%) MySQL
6 137 (1.62%) Amazon RDS
7 125 (1.48%) Tableau
8 115 (1.36%) PostgreSQL
9 103 (1.22%) NoSQL
10 93 (1.10%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 83 (0.98%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 65 (0.77%) Big Data
13 63 (0.74%) MongoDB
14 60 (0.71%) Azure SQL Database
15 59 (0.70%) Data Lake
16 55 (0.65%) Power Query
17 50 (0.59%) Metadata
18 43 (0.51%) DynamoDB
19 41 (0.48%) Electronic Patient Records
20 37 (0.44%) Looker
Development Applications
1 374 (4.42%) Git
2 297 (3.51%) JIRA
3 137 (1.62%) Jenkins
4 105 (1.24%) GitLab
5 40 (0.47%) Selenium
6 38 (0.45%) Claude Code
6 38 (0.45%) Eclipse
7 34 (0.40%) JUnit
8 33 (0.39%) Subversion
9 29 (0.34%) Cucumber
10 25 (0.30%) Postman
11 23 (0.27%) Rational DOORS
12 22 (0.26%) Cypress.io
12 22 (0.26%) Oracle Forms
13 21 (0.25%) Bitbucket
14 18 (0.21%) SonarQube
15 16 (0.19%) Chocolatey
15 16 (0.19%) Visual Studio
16 15 (0.18%) MLflow
17 14 (0.17%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 4,163 (49.20%) Social Skills
2 2,565 (30.31%) Analytical Skills
3 1,677 (19.82%) Finance
4 669 (7.91%) Manufacturing
5 555 (6.56%) Organisational Skills
6 509 (6.02%) Law
7 507 (5.99%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 418 (4.94%) Retail
9 358 (4.23%) Marketing
10 336 (3.97%) Public Sector
11 324 (3.83%) Legal
12 293 (3.46%) Banking
13 239 (2.82%) Electronics
14 225 (2.66%) Aerospace
15 186 (2.20%) Telecoms
16 182 (2.15%) Influencing Skills
17 160 (1.89%) Presentation Skills
18 104 (1.23%) Documentation Skills
19 97 (1.15%) Automotive
20 92 (1.09%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 1,102 (13.02%) Analyst
2 930 (10.99%) Senior
3 808 (9.55%) Developer
4 721 (8.52%) IT Support
5 577 (6.82%) Support Engineer
6 517 (6.11%) Lead
7 425 (5.02%) Consultant
8 398 (4.70%) IT Engineer
9 361 (4.27%) Support Analyst
10 318 (3.76%) Software Engineer
11 307 (3.63%) IT Support Engineer
12 280 (3.31%) Architect
13 264 (3.12%) Technical Support
14 256 (3.03%) Systems Engineer
15 249 (2.94%) Support Technician
16 221 (2.61%) IT Technician
17 217 (2.56%) Technical Engineer
18 193 (2.28%) Technical Support Engineer
19 192 (2.27%) Data Engineer
20 181 (2.14%) Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 383 (4.53%) .NET
2 371 (4.38%) Terraform
3 306 (3.62%) React
4 275 (3.25%) REST
5 260 (3.07%) HTML
6 201 (2.38%) CSS
7 179 (2.12%) RESTful
8 145 (1.71%) Node.js
9 117 (1.38%) SOAP
9 117 (1.38%) Spring
10 102 (1.21%) JSON
11 101 (1.19%) AngularJS
12 99 (1.17%) Web Services
13 95 (1.12%) ASP.NET
14 92 (1.09%) Vue
15 90 (1.06%) Kafka
16 88 (1.04%) Middleware
17 86 (1.02%) XML
18 76 (0.90%) Spring Boot
19 72 (0.85%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 569 (6.72%) Onboarding
2 563 (6.65%) Driving Licence
3 440 (5.20%) Self-Motivation
4 354 (4.18%) Management Information System
5 313 (3.70%) Cloud Native
6 247 (2.92%) Product Ownership
7 184 (2.17%) Data Centre
8 177 (2.09%) Legacy Systems
9 160 (1.89%) Enterprise Software
10 149 (1.76%) Distributed Systems
11 116 (1.37%) Data Structures
12 113 (1.34%) Analytical Mindset
12 113 (1.34%) Security Posture
13 107 (1.26%) Cyber Threat
14 104 (1.23%) NHS
15 102 (1.21%) AI Agents
16 99 (1.17%) Robotics
17 91 (1.08%) Algorithms
18 86 (1.02%) Virtual Team
19 84 (0.99%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 1,296 (15.32%) Windows
2 561 (6.63%) Linux
3 550 (6.50%) Windows Server
4 160 (1.89%) Windows 10
5 111 (1.31%) Windows Server 2016
6 105 (1.24%) Mac OS
7 97 (1.15%) Apple iOS
8 93 (1.10%) Android
9 55 (0.65%) Unix
10 48 (0.57%) Windows Server 2019
11 31 (0.37%) Ubuntu
11 31 (0.37%) VMS
12 28 (0.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 13 (0.15%) CentOS
14 12 (0.14%) Windows Server 2012
15 11 (0.13%) Debian
16 10 (0.12%) Embedded Linux
17 9 (0.11%) FreeRTOS
17 9 (0.11%) Mac OS X
17 9 (0.11%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 2,110 (24.94%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,386 (16.38%) Agile
3 1,312 (15.50%) Customer Service
4 1,101 (13.01%) AI
5 1,020 (12.05%) Decision-Making
6 957 (11.31%) Stakeholder Management
7 923 (10.91%) Mentoring
8 913 (10.79%) CI/CD
9 792 (9.36%) Analytics
10 789 (9.32%) Software Engineering
11 763 (9.02%) DevOps
12 706 (8.34%) Cybersecurity
13 667 (7.88%) Roadmaps
14 662 (7.82%) Project Delivery
15 661 (7.81%) ITIL
16 634 (7.49%) Business Intelligence
17 621 (7.34%) Project Management
18 608 (7.19%) Computer Science
19 576 (6.81%) Stakeholder Engagement
20 561 (6.63%) Collaborative Working
Programming Languages
1 1,322 (15.62%) SQL
2 1,186 (14.02%) Python
3 573 (6.77%) JavaScript
4 489 (5.78%) C#
5 427 (5.05%) Java
6 380 (4.49%) PowerShell
7 257 (3.04%) TypeScript
8 227 (2.68%) C++
9 171 (2.02%) Bash
10 95 (1.12%) C
11 87 (1.03%) PHP
12 75 (0.89%) Go
13 74 (0.87%) T-SQL
14 71 (0.84%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 49 (0.58%) Rust
16 48 (0.57%) Shell Script
17 47 (0.56%) Perl
18 44 (0.52%) PL/SQL
19 43 (0.51%) Ruby
20 42 (0.50%) R
Qualifications
1 1,485 (17.55%) Degree
2 793 (9.37%) Security Cleared
3 530 (6.26%) SC Cleared
4 323 (3.82%) Computer Science Degree
5 242 (2.86%) DBS Check
6 204 (2.41%) Microsoft Certification
7 194 (2.29%) DV Cleared
8 175 (2.07%) Azure Certification
9 150 (1.77%) CISSP
10 146 (1.73%) Cisco Certification
11 143 (1.69%) BPSS Clearance
12 135 (1.60%) Master's Degree
13 130 (1.54%) HNC
14 119 (1.41%) HND
15 106 (1.25%) PMI Certification
16 85 (1.00%) CISM
17 83 (0.98%) PMP
18 80 (0.95%) CCNA
19 76 (0.90%) CCNP
20 74 (0.87%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 498 (5.89%) QA
2 424 (5.01%) Data Quality
3 358 (4.23%) GDPR
4 238 (2.81%) Accessibility
5 225 (2.66%) SLA
6 203 (2.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 201 (2.38%) Cyber Essentials
8 162 (1.91%) NIST
9 142 (1.68%) PCI DSS
10 62 (0.73%) PMO
11 55 (0.65%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 40 (0.47%) GRC
13 36 (0.43%) ISO 9001
14 26 (0.31%) NCSC
15 24 (0.28%) SOC 2
16 23 (0.27%) Actionable Recommendations
17 22 (0.26%) Sarbanes-Oxley
18 21 (0.25%) COBIT
19 20 (0.24%) DO-254
20 18 (0.21%) WCAG
System Software
1 866 (10.23%) Active Directory
2 365 (4.31%) Docker
3 286 (3.38%) Hyper-V
4 259 (3.06%) VMware Infrastructure
5 70 (0.83%) Terminal Server
6 61 (0.72%) Firmware
7 52 (0.61%) Virtual Desktop
8 47 (0.56%) Virtual Machines
9 35 (0.41%) vSphere
10 21 (0.25%) Embedded Firmware
11 19 (0.22%) VMware ESXi
12 12 (0.14%) KVM
13 9 (0.11%) Virtual Servers
14 6 (0.071%) GPFS
14 6 (0.071%) IAG
14 6 (0.071%) StorNext
15 5 (0.059%) ClearTrust
15 5 (0.059%) Squid
15 5 (0.059%) VMware NSX
15 5 (0.059%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 332 (3.92%) Kubernetes
2 287 (3.39%) Microsoft Intune
3 153 (1.81%) Ansible
4 94 (1.11%) Grafana
5 75 (0.89%) SCCM
6 67 (0.79%) Single Sign-On
7 50 (0.59%) Prometheus
8 27 (0.32%) FortiGate
8 27 (0.32%) Jamf Pro
9 19 (0.22%) Nagios
9 19 (0.22%) Puppet
10 16 (0.19%) Argo
11 14 (0.17%) BMC PATROL
12 13 (0.15%) Functional Safety
12 13 (0.15%) Kibana
13 11 (0.13%) logstash
13 11 (0.13%) Nmap
13 11 (0.13%) Proxmox
13 11 (0.13%) vCenter Server
14 10 (0.12%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 2,483 (29.34%) Microsoft
2 381 (4.50%) VMware
3 270 (3.19%) SAP
4 247 (2.92%) Google
5 246 (2.91%) Oracle
6 173 (2.04%) ServiceNow
7 170 (2.01%) Cisco
8 163 (1.93%) Salesforce
9 134 (1.58%) Veeam
10 132 (1.56%) Databricks
11 123 (1.45%) Splunk
12 107 (1.26%) SolarWinds
13 85 (1.00%) Sage
14 78 (0.92%) Tanium
15 75 (0.89%) Apple
16 71 (0.84%) Nimble Storage
17 70 (0.83%) Brocade
18 68 (0.80%) Fortinet
19 59 (0.70%) HubSpot
20 57 (0.67%) Dell