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 4 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 4 7
Rank change year-on-year -5 +3 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 6,412 7,077 11,917
As % of all permanent jobs in England 8.97% 19.35% 15.03%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.73% 20.77% 17.44%
Number of salaries quoted 4,456 4,443 8,332
10th Percentile £27,000 £28,800 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,250 £37,500 £33,474
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,500 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -13.64% +10.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £68,750 £75,000 £68,750
90th Percentile £86,500 £90,000 £86,250
UK median annual salary £46,538 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -15.39% +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 54,669 34,077 68,349
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 76.51% 93.17% 86.19%
Number of salaries quoted 34,477 20,466 52,607
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £43,750 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.17% +9.09% -12.00%
75th Percentile £78,000 £80,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £100,000 £103,750 £93,750
UK median annual salary £55,500 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -7.50% +9.09% -11.00%

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 4 April 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 4 April 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 -3 1,967 £67,500 +3.85% 986
North of England -19 1,287 £41,000 -10.87% 662
South East -7 1,186 £45,000 -11.71% 802
Midlands -19 884 £38,500 -18.95% 478
North West -18 657 £41,250 -14.95% 365
South West -7 547 £43,500 -8.42% 308
West Midlands -24 521 £42,500 -19.05% 278
Yorkshire -7 502 £35,500 -15.48% 222
East of England -9 440 £40,678 -18.65% 288
East Midlands -3 360 £35,000 -11.39% 199
North East -11 128 £45,497 +1.10% 92
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
1 338 (5.27%) Microsoft Exchange
2 282 (4.40%) SharePoint
3 77 (1.20%) Confluence
4 56 (0.87%) CMS
5 55 (0.86%) Apache
6 44 (0.69%) Apache Airflow
7 37 (0.58%) Apache Spark
8 33 (0.51%) IIS
9 27 (0.42%) WordPress
10 16 (0.25%) SAS
11 14 (0.22%) Palantir Foundry
12 12 (0.19%) Exchange Server 2013
12 12 (0.19%) nginx
13 10 (0.16%) Exchange Server 2007
13 10 (0.16%) Exchange Server 2010
14 9 (0.14%) Anypoint
14 9 (0.14%) Drupal
15 6 (0.094%) Oracle SOA Suite
16 4 (0.062%) OpenStack
16 4 (0.062%) Totara
Applications
1 455 (7.10%) Microsoft Office
2 351 (5.47%) Microsoft Excel
3 70 (1.09%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 37 (0.58%) Spreadsheet
5 35 (0.55%) MS Visio
6 29 (0.45%) Microsoft Project
7 13 (0.20%) AutoCAD
8 12 (0.19%) Photoshop
9 11 (0.17%) Adobe Illustrator
10 10 (0.16%) Chatbot
11 9 (0.14%) Maya
12 8 (0.12%) Adobe Creative Suite
13 7 (0.11%) Fusion 360
14 6 (0.094%) Adobe XD
15 5 (0.078%) SOLIDWORKS
16 4 (0.062%) Trello
17 3 (0.047%) Elementor
17 3 (0.047%) InDesign
17 3 (0.047%) Simulink
18 2 (0.031%) Acrobat
Business Applications
1 59 (0.92%) Dynamics CRM
2 43 (0.67%) SAP S/4HANA
3 30 (0.47%) NetSuite
4 21 (0.33%) Salesforce CRM
5 18 (0.28%) Shopify
6 17 (0.27%) Endur
6 17 (0.27%) SAP CO
7 15 (0.23%) Dynamics NAV
8 12 (0.19%) Maximo
9 10 (0.16%) iTrent
9 10 (0.16%) Magento
9 10 (0.16%) Workday HCM
10 8 (0.12%) SAP FI
10 8 (0.12%) SAP FI/CO
11 7 (0.11%) IBM Planning Analytics
11 7 (0.11%) Q-Pulse
11 7 (0.11%) Sage 200
11 7 (0.11%) SAP ERP
12 6 (0.094%) Elite 3E
12 6 (0.094%) Oracle Payables
Cloud Services
1 1,397 (21.79%) Azure
2 996 (15.53%) Microsoft 365
3 800 (12.48%) AWS
4 480 (7.49%) Power Platform
5 359 (5.60%) SaaS
6 300 (4.68%) GCP
7 272 (4.24%) Entra ID
8 172 (2.68%) GitHub
9 169 (2.64%) Serverless
10 168 (2.62%) Azure DevOps
11 130 (2.03%) Power Automate
12 111 (1.73%) Dynamics 365
13 90 (1.40%) Amazon S3
14 88 (1.37%) Google Workspace
15 83 (1.29%) GitHub Actions
16 82 (1.28%) Azure Data Factory
16 82 (1.28%) PowerApps
17 81 (1.26%) AWS CloudFormation
18 79 (1.23%) AWS Lambda
19 76 (1.19%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 409 (6.38%) DNS
2 378 (5.90%) Firewall
3 349 (5.44%) DHCP
4 250 (3.90%) VPN
5 216 (3.37%) WAN
6 207 (3.23%) TCP/IP
7 202 (3.15%) Wi-Fi
8 185 (2.89%) Broadband
9 181 (2.82%) LAN
10 122 (1.90%) VLAN
11 101 (1.58%) Wireless
12 85 (1.33%) VoIP
13 70 (1.09%) SD-WAN
14 54 (0.84%) Network Security
15 46 (0.72%) SAN
16 39 (0.61%) Internet
17 35 (0.55%) Remote Desktop
18 32 (0.50%) Structured Cabling
19 30 (0.47%) BGP
20 29 (0.45%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 404 (6.30%) Power BI
2 274 (4.27%) SQL Server
3 136 (2.12%) Tableau
4 131 (2.04%) Data Warehouse
5 119 (1.86%) NoSQL
6 108 (1.68%) Relational Database
7 103 (1.61%) PostgreSQL
8 94 (1.47%) Amazon RDS
9 87 (1.36%) MySQL
10 67 (1.04%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 55 (0.86%) Power Query
12 54 (0.84%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 53 (0.83%) MongoDB
14 48 (0.75%) DynamoDB
15 47 (0.73%) Amazon Redshift
15 47 (0.73%) Azure SQL Database
16 42 (0.66%) Metadata
17 40 (0.62%) Data Lake
18 39 (0.61%) Big Data
19 26 (0.41%) Redis
Development Applications
1 280 (4.37%) Git
2 226 (3.52%) JIRA
3 114 (1.78%) Jenkins
4 98 (1.53%) GitLab
5 50 (0.78%) Selenium
6 30 (0.47%) Visual Studio
7 23 (0.36%) Cypress.io
8 20 (0.31%) Rational DOORS
9 19 (0.30%) Burp Suite
9 19 (0.30%) Metasploit
10 18 (0.28%) Chocolatey
10 18 (0.28%) Cucumber
10 18 (0.28%) Maven
10 18 (0.28%) SonarQube
11 17 (0.27%) CircleCI
11 17 (0.27%) LabVIEW
12 16 (0.25%) Robot Framework
12 16 (0.25%) TeamCity
13 15 (0.23%) Bitbucket
14 13 (0.20%) JUnit
General
1 3,121 (48.67%) Social Skills
2 1,953 (30.46%) Analytical Skills
3 1,391 (21.69%) Finance
4 450 (7.02%) Organisational Skills
5 369 (5.75%) Marketing
6 365 (5.69%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 313 (4.88%) Law
8 309 (4.82%) Retail
9 303 (4.73%) Banking
9 303 (4.73%) Legal
10 291 (4.54%) Manufacturing
11 285 (4.44%) Public Sector
12 160 (2.50%) Presentation Skills
13 149 (2.32%) Telecoms
14 146 (2.28%) Electronics
15 101 (1.58%) Documentation Skills
16 87 (1.36%) Games
17 80 (1.25%) Influencing Skills
18 78 (1.22%) Financial Institution
19 73 (1.14%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 926 (14.44%) Analyst
2 758 (11.82%) Senior
3 749 (11.68%) IT Support
4 641 (10.00%) Support Engineer
5 585 (9.12%) Developer
6 396 (6.18%) Lead
7 391 (6.10%) IT Engineer
8 326 (5.08%) IT Support Engineer
9 297 (4.63%) Support Analyst
10 252 (3.93%) Consultant
11 216 (3.37%) Architect
12 214 (3.34%) Support Technician
13 203 (3.17%) Business Analyst
14 190 (2.96%) 2nd Line Support
15 189 (2.95%) Technical Support
16 183 (2.85%) Infrastructure Engineer
17 182 (2.84%) Software Engineer
18 174 (2.71%) Systems Engineer
19 165 (2.57%) IT Technician
20 149 (2.32%) IT Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 251 (3.91%) React
2 248 (3.87%) .NET
3 223 (3.48%) HTML
4 183 (2.85%) CSS
5 153 (2.39%) Node.js
6 128 (2.00%) REST
7 121 (1.89%) RESTful
8 71 (1.11%) Vue
9 70 (1.09%) Middleware
10 68 (1.06%) Django
11 67 (1.04%) Spring
12 65 (1.01%) AngularJS
12 65 (1.01%) JSON
13 64 (1.00%) SOAP
14 63 (0.98%) Kafka
15 62 (0.97%) XML
16 59 (0.92%) Flask
17 50 (0.78%) gRPC
18 49 (0.76%) FastAPI
19 47 (0.73%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 429 (6.69%) Onboarding
2 426 (6.64%) Driving Licence
3 370 (5.77%) Self-Motivation
4 204 (3.18%) Management Information System
5 173 (2.70%) Cloud Native
6 152 (2.37%) Analytical Mindset
7 148 (2.31%) Product Ownership
8 145 (2.26%) Distributed Systems
9 136 (2.12%) Data Centre
9 136 (2.12%) Legacy Systems
10 100 (1.56%) Enterprise Software
11 95 (1.48%) Social Media
12 94 (1.47%) Mobile App
13 86 (1.34%) Data Structures
14 73 (1.14%) Low-Code
15 61 (0.95%) Security Posture
16 58 (0.90%) Video\Live Streaming
17 57 (0.89%) Virtual Team
18 54 (0.84%) Algorithms
19 50 (0.78%) Over-the-Top Content
Operating Systems
1 1,112 (17.34%) Windows
2 424 (6.61%) Linux
3 422 (6.58%) Windows Server
4 171 (2.67%) Windows 10
5 124 (1.93%) Windows Server 2016
6 107 (1.67%) Android
7 89 (1.39%) Apple iOS
8 88 (1.37%) Mac OS
9 62 (0.97%) Unix
10 57 (0.89%) Windows Server 2019
11 40 (0.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 38 (0.59%) Windows Server 2012
13 30 (0.47%) CentOS
14 26 (0.41%) Ubuntu
15 22 (0.34%) Windows 7
16 19 (0.30%) VMS
17 14 (0.22%) Mac OS X
18 11 (0.17%) Windows 8
19 9 (0.14%) Debian
19 9 (0.14%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,155 (18.01%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,039 (16.20%) Agile
3 954 (14.88%) Customer Service
4 690 (10.76%) Mentoring
5 681 (10.62%) AI
6 665 (10.37%) Decision-Making
7 661 (10.31%) CI/CD
8 651 (10.15%) Analytics
9 611 (9.53%) DevOps
10 594 (9.26%) ITIL
11 545 (8.50%) Business Intelligence
12 533 (8.31%) Project Management
13 492 (7.67%) Computer Science
13 492 (7.67%) Stakeholder Management
14 442 (6.89%) Software Engineering
15 418 (6.52%) Cybersecurity
16 413 (6.44%) Roadmaps
17 400 (6.24%) Coaching
18 371 (5.79%) Process Improvement
19 347 (5.41%) CRM
Programming Languages
1 998 (15.56%) Python
2 902 (14.07%) SQL
3 430 (6.71%) JavaScript
4 323 (5.04%) Java
5 310 (4.83%) PowerShell
6 269 (4.20%) C#
7 182 (2.84%) TypeScript
8 158 (2.46%) Bash
9 90 (1.40%) Go
10 89 (1.39%) C++
11 85 (1.33%) PHP
12 78 (1.22%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 68 (1.06%) Scala
14 49 (0.76%) C
15 46 (0.72%) T-SQL
16 40 (0.62%) Kotlin
17 34 (0.53%) R
18 32 (0.50%) Apex Code
18 32 (0.50%) Rust
19 31 (0.48%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 1,269 (19.79%) Degree
2 468 (7.30%) Security Cleared
3 291 (4.54%) SC Cleared
4 246 (3.84%) Computer Science Degree
5 189 (2.95%) DBS Check
6 182 (2.84%) Microsoft Certification
7 129 (2.01%) Master's Degree
8 112 (1.75%) DV Cleared
9 108 (1.68%) CISSP
10 91 (1.42%) Cisco Certification
11 87 (1.36%) ACCA
12 86 (1.34%) A+ Certification
13 84 (1.31%) BPSS Clearance
14 75 (1.17%) CIMA
15 73 (1.14%) PMI Certification
16 67 (1.04%) CCNA
17 59 (0.92%) Network+ Certification
17 59 (0.92%) PMP
18 56 (0.87%) AWS Certification
19 52 (0.81%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 301 (4.69%) QA
2 287 (4.48%) Data Quality
3 247 (3.85%) GDPR
4 160 (2.50%) Cyber Essentials
5 159 (2.48%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 155 (2.42%) SLA
7 127 (1.98%) PCI DSS
8 121 (1.89%) NIST
9 115 (1.79%) Accessibility
10 52 (0.81%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 33 (0.51%) SOC 2
12 31 (0.48%) ISO 9001
13 30 (0.47%) Actionable Recommendations
14 26 (0.41%) PMO
15 20 (0.31%) COBIT
15 20 (0.31%) GRC
16 14 (0.22%) GMP
17 11 (0.17%) Sarbanes-Oxley
18 10 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 20000
18 10 (0.16%) PERC
System Software
1 746 (11.63%) Active Directory
2 305 (4.76%) Docker
3 220 (3.43%) Hyper-V
4 169 (2.64%) VMware Infrastructure
5 63 (0.98%) Terminal Server
6 35 (0.55%) Virtual Desktop
7 33 (0.51%) Firmware
8 31 (0.48%) Virtual Machines
9 15 (0.23%) vSphere
10 14 (0.22%) KVM
11 10 (0.16%) VMware Workstation
12 9 (0.14%) VMware ESXi
13 7 (0.11%) IAG
13 7 (0.11%) XenApp
14 6 (0.094%) Virtual Servers
15 4 (0.062%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 4 (0.062%) Slurm Workload Manager
16 2 (0.031%) BitLocker
16 2 (0.031%) VMware NSX
17 1 (0.016%) Lustre
Systems Management
1 298 (4.65%) Terraform
2 260 (4.05%) Microsoft Intune
3 224 (3.49%) Kubernetes
4 157 (2.45%) Ansible
5 95 (1.48%) Grafana
6 86 (1.34%) SCCM
7 57 (0.89%) Prometheus
8 29 (0.45%) Nagios
9 26 (0.41%) Single Sign-On
10 24 (0.37%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 22 (0.34%) BMC PATROL
12 18 (0.28%) Jamf Pro
13 15 (0.23%) Argo
13 15 (0.23%) vCenter Server
14 14 (0.22%) Cisco CUCM
14 14 (0.22%) FortiGate
14 14 (0.22%) Kibana
15 13 (0.20%) Autotask
15 13 (0.20%) Nessus
16 12 (0.19%) Puppet
Vendors
1 1,673 (26.09%) Microsoft
2 274 (4.27%) VMware
3 189 (2.95%) Oracle
4 162 (2.53%) Google
5 161 (2.51%) SAP
6 143 (2.23%) Cisco
7 141 (2.20%) ServiceNow
8 136 (2.12%) Salesforce
9 125 (1.95%) SolarWinds
10 121 (1.89%) Splunk
10 121 (1.89%) Veeam
11 119 (1.86%) Databricks
12 83 (1.29%) Adobe
13 82 (1.28%) Apple
14 70 (1.09%) Dell
15 64 (1.00%) Tanium
16 63 (0.98%) Brocade
16 63 (0.98%) Nimble Storage
17 55 (0.86%) Red Hat
18 50 (0.78%) Dynatrace