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 16 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 4 8
Rank change year-on-year -4 +4 +3
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 8,211 8,395 10,581
As % of all permanent jobs in England 8.68% 19.15% 14.66%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.77% 21.43% 18.05%
Number of salaries quoted 5,744 4,804 5,505
10th Percentile £27,750 £26,250 £26,750
25th Percentile £33,219 £31,250 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,500 £46,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.26% -8.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £66,250 £67,500 £70,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £87,500 £85,000
UK median annual salary £47,500 £46,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +3.26% -8.00% -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 69,735 39,168 58,616
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.70% 89.33% 81.21%
Number of salaries quoted 49,222 22,629 38,358
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,259 £37,500 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% - -12.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £76,250 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,500 £95,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.71%

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 16 August 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 16 August 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 2,251 £65,000 - 2,451
North of England -9 1,658 £45,000 +5.88% 940
South East -3 1,570 £43,500 +2.35% 1,144
Midlands -8 1,195 £42,500 +10.39% 671
North West -4 871 £45,250 +0.56% 484
South West -4 803 £45,000 +25.00% 512
West Midlands -9 664 £42,500 -4.00% 411
East of England -3 656 £42,500 +21.43% 409
Yorkshire -8 547 £42,500 +21.43% 331
East Midlands -9 528 £41,000 +17.14% 261
North East -7 240 £48,500 +25.00% 139
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
1 450 (5.48%) SharePoint
2 399 (4.86%) Microsoft Exchange
3 98 (1.19%) Confluence
4 58 (0.71%) CMS
5 55 (0.67%) IIS
6 50 (0.61%) Apache
7 38 (0.46%) Apache Airflow
7 38 (0.46%) Apache Spark
8 37 (0.45%) WordPress
9 21 (0.26%) SAS
10 13 (0.16%) Palantir Foundry
11 11 (0.13%) nginx
11 11 (0.13%) WebLogic
11 11 (0.13%) WebSphere
12 9 (0.11%) Exchange Server 2013
12 9 (0.11%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 8 (0.097%) Jupyter
14 7 (0.085%) Drupal
14 7 (0.085%) OpenEdge
14 7 (0.085%) Tomcat
Applications
1 522 (6.36%) Microsoft Office
2 468 (5.70%) Microsoft Excel
3 82 (1.00%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 48 (0.58%) MS Visio
4 48 (0.58%) Spreadsheet
5 43 (0.52%) Microsoft Project
6 32 (0.39%) AutoCAD
7 16 (0.19%) Chatbot
7 16 (0.19%) Simulink
8 15 (0.18%) Revit
9 11 (0.13%) SOLIDWORKS
10 9 (0.11%) Trello
11 8 (0.097%) Adobe Creative Suite
12 7 (0.085%) Adobe Illustrator
13 6 (0.073%) Fusion 360
13 6 (0.073%) Navisworks
14 5 (0.061%) Autodesk Flame
14 5 (0.061%) Baselight
14 5 (0.061%) Lightworks
15 4 (0.049%) Photoshop
Business Applications
1 83 (1.01%) SAP S/4HANA
2 81 (0.99%) Dynamics CRM
3 54 (0.66%) NetSuite
4 27 (0.33%) Shopify
5 21 (0.26%) Oracle EBS
6 18 (0.22%) Magento
7 16 (0.19%) SAP ERP
8 15 (0.18%) IBM Planning Analytics
8 15 (0.18%) SAP Business One
9 14 (0.17%) Elite 3E
10 13 (0.16%) Salesforce CRM
11 11 (0.13%) Dynamics AX
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%) Primavera
13 9 (0.11%) Sage 50
13 9 (0.11%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 1,710 (20.83%) Azure
2 1,274 (15.52%) Microsoft 365
3 1,018 (12.40%) AWS
4 682 (8.31%) Power Platform
5 388 (4.73%) Entra ID
6 361 (4.40%) SaaS
7 356 (4.34%) GCP
8 201 (2.45%) GitHub
9 198 (2.41%) Azure DevOps
10 192 (2.34%) Serverless
11 176 (2.14%) Dynamics 365
12 172 (2.09%) Power Automate
13 147 (1.79%) PowerApps
14 114 (1.39%) Microsoft Copilot
15 110 (1.34%) OneDrive
16 101 (1.23%) Amazon S3
17 93 (1.13%) GitHub Actions
18 90 (1.10%) AWS Lambda
19 82 (1.00%) AWS CloudFormation
20 78 (0.95%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 501 (6.10%) Firewall
2 458 (5.58%) DNS
3 386 (4.70%) DHCP
4 311 (3.79%) VPN
5 281 (3.42%) TCP/IP
6 210 (2.56%) WAN
7 206 (2.51%) Wi-Fi
8 203 (2.47%) LAN
9 167 (2.03%) Wireless
10 158 (1.92%) VLAN
11 146 (1.78%) Network Security
12 133 (1.62%) Broadband
13 107 (1.30%) VoIP
14 45 (0.55%) HTTP
14 45 (0.55%) Internet
15 44 (0.54%) SAN
16 41 (0.50%) SD-WAN
17 39 (0.47%) OSPF
18 38 (0.46%) BGP
19 34 (0.41%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 531 (6.47%) Power BI
2 417 (5.08%) SQL Server
3 146 (1.78%) Data Warehouse
4 144 (1.75%) MySQL
5 135 (1.64%) Amazon RDS
6 134 (1.63%) Relational Database
7 124 (1.51%) PostgreSQL
8 121 (1.47%) Tableau
9 110 (1.34%) NoSQL
10 97 (1.18%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 88 (1.07%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 64 (0.78%) MongoDB
13 62 (0.76%) Big Data
14 57 (0.69%) Data Lake
15 56 (0.68%) Azure SQL Database
16 51 (0.62%) Power Query
17 45 (0.55%) Metadata
18 44 (0.54%) DynamoDB
19 41 (0.50%) Electronic Patient Records
20 32 (0.39%) Looker
Development Applications
1 376 (4.58%) Git
2 288 (3.51%) JIRA
3 129 (1.57%) Jenkins
4 111 (1.35%) GitLab
5 35 (0.43%) Selenium
6 33 (0.40%) Eclipse
7 31 (0.38%) Subversion
8 30 (0.37%) Claude Code
8 30 (0.37%) JUnit
9 28 (0.34%) Cucumber
10 26 (0.32%) Rational DOORS
11 25 (0.30%) Postman
12 22 (0.27%) Cypress.io
13 20 (0.24%) Bitbucket
13 20 (0.24%) Visual Studio
14 18 (0.22%) Oracle Forms
14 18 (0.22%) SonarQube
15 16 (0.19%) Chocolatey
16 14 (0.17%) MLflow
16 14 (0.17%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 3,975 (48.41%) Social Skills
2 2,489 (30.31%) Analytical Skills
3 1,616 (19.68%) Finance
4 619 (7.54%) Manufacturing
5 517 (6.30%) Organisational Skills
6 495 (6.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 478 (5.82%) Law
8 398 (4.85%) Retail
9 355 (4.32%) Marketing
10 325 (3.96%) Public Sector
11 309 (3.76%) Legal
12 303 (3.69%) Banking
13 213 (2.59%) Electronics
14 200 (2.44%) Aerospace
15 192 (2.34%) Telecoms
16 168 (2.05%) Influencing Skills
17 150 (1.83%) Presentation Skills
18 114 (1.39%) Documentation Skills
19 93 (1.13%) Advertising
20 90 (1.10%) Games
Job Titles
1 1,053 (12.82%) Analyst
2 928 (11.30%) Senior
3 816 (9.94%) Developer
4 705 (8.59%) IT Support
5 571 (6.95%) Support Engineer
6 507 (6.17%) Lead
7 405 (4.93%) Consultant
8 398 (4.85%) IT Engineer
9 328 (3.99%) Support Analyst
10 309 (3.76%) Software Engineer
11 302 (3.68%) IT Support Engineer
12 279 (3.40%) Architect
13 257 (3.13%) Systems Engineer
14 252 (3.07%) Support Technician
14 252 (3.07%) Technical Support
15 221 (2.69%) IT Technician
16 207 (2.52%) Technical Engineer
17 196 (2.39%) Data Engineer
18 184 (2.24%) Technical Support Engineer
19 177 (2.16%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 372 (4.53%) .NET
2 315 (3.84%) React
3 262 (3.19%) HTML
4 260 (3.17%) REST
5 205 (2.50%) CSS
6 176 (2.14%) RESTful
7 153 (1.86%) Node.js
8 114 (1.39%) SOAP
9 106 (1.29%) Spring
10 105 (1.28%) AngularJS
11 100 (1.22%) JSON
12 97 (1.18%) Vue
13 91 (1.11%) Kafka
14 90 (1.10%) ASP.NET
14 90 (1.10%) Middleware
15 81 (0.99%) Web Services
16 79 (0.96%) OAuth
17 75 (0.91%) XML
18 70 (0.85%) Spring Boot
19 57 (0.69%) .NET Core
Miscellaneous
1 528 (6.43%) Driving Licence
2 522 (6.36%) Onboarding
3 423 (5.15%) Self-Motivation
4 342 (4.17%) Management Information System
5 306 (3.73%) Cloud Native
6 234 (2.85%) Product Ownership
7 177 (2.16%) Data Centre
8 174 (2.12%) Legacy Systems
9 162 (1.97%) Distributed Systems
10 141 (1.72%) Enterprise Software
11 124 (1.51%) Analytical Mindset
12 116 (1.41%) Data Structures
13 112 (1.36%) Security Posture
14 102 (1.24%) NHS
15 101 (1.23%) Algorithms
16 94 (1.14%) AI Agents
17 91 (1.11%) Social Media
18 85 (1.04%) IoT
19 84 (1.02%) Cyber Threat
19 84 (1.02%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 1,247 (15.19%) Windows
2 567 (6.91%) Linux
3 537 (6.54%) Windows Server
4 159 (1.94%) Windows 10
5 113 (1.38%) Windows Server 2016
6 105 (1.28%) Android
6 105 (1.28%) Mac OS
7 92 (1.12%) Apple iOS
8 54 (0.66%) Unix
9 46 (0.56%) Windows Server 2019
10 37 (0.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 35 (0.43%) Ubuntu
12 29 (0.35%) VMS
13 23 (0.28%) CentOS
14 13 (0.16%) Windows Server 2012
15 12 (0.15%) Debian
16 9 (0.11%) Embedded Linux
16 9 (0.11%) FreeRTOS
16 9 (0.11%) Mac OS X
17 8 (0.097%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 2,009 (24.47%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,349 (16.43%) Agile
3 1,218 (14.83%) Customer Service
4 1,056 (12.86%) AI
5 993 (12.09%) Decision-Making
6 909 (11.07%) CI/CD
7 890 (10.84%) Mentoring
8 879 (10.71%) Stakeholder Management
9 779 (9.49%) Analytics
10 764 (9.30%) Software Engineering
11 756 (9.21%) DevOps
12 672 (8.18%) Cybersecurity
13 666 (8.11%) ITIL
14 661 (8.05%) Roadmaps
15 607 (7.39%) Business Intelligence
16 601 (7.32%) Computer Science
17 598 (7.28%) Project Delivery
18 595 (7.25%) Project Management
19 539 (6.56%) Collaborative Working
20 534 (6.50%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 1,297 (15.80%) SQL
2 1,193 (14.53%) Python
3 574 (6.99%) JavaScript
4 476 (5.80%) C#
5 424 (5.16%) Java
6 354 (4.31%) PowerShell
7 255 (3.11%) TypeScript
8 222 (2.70%) C++
9 179 (2.18%) Bash
10 94 (1.14%) PHP
11 90 (1.10%) C
12 83 (1.01%) Go
13 70 (0.85%) T-SQL
14 66 (0.80%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 51 (0.62%) Shell Script
16 46 (0.56%) Perl
17 45 (0.55%) Rust
18 44 (0.54%) R
19 43 (0.52%) Scala
20 39 (0.47%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 1,411 (17.18%) Degree
2 752 (9.16%) Security Cleared
3 508 (6.19%) SC Cleared
4 316 (3.85%) Computer Science Degree
5 227 (2.76%) DBS Check
6 201 (2.45%) Microsoft Certification
7 181 (2.20%) DV Cleared
8 157 (1.91%) Azure Certification
9 151 (1.84%) Cisco Certification
10 145 (1.77%) CISSP
11 140 (1.71%) BPSS Clearance
12 124 (1.51%) Master's Degree
13 112 (1.36%) HNC
14 105 (1.28%) PMI Certification
15 88 (1.07%) HND
16 84 (1.02%) CCNA
16 84 (1.02%) PMP
17 80 (0.97%) CISM
18 77 (0.94%) CCNP
19 69 (0.84%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 476 (5.80%) QA
2 410 (4.99%) Data Quality
3 334 (4.07%) GDPR
4 234 (2.85%) Accessibility
4 234 (2.85%) SLA
5 207 (2.52%) Cyber Essentials
6 190 (2.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 159 (1.94%) NIST
8 146 (1.78%) PCI DSS
9 64 (0.78%) PMO
10 57 (0.69%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 40 (0.49%) GRC
12 34 (0.41%) ISO 9001
13 26 (0.32%) GMP
13 26 (0.32%) SOC 2
14 23 (0.28%) Actionable Recommendations
14 23 (0.28%) COBIT
15 20 (0.24%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 20 (0.24%) WCAG
16 19 (0.23%) NCSC
System Software
1 832 (10.13%) Active Directory
2 374 (4.55%) Docker
3 275 (3.35%) Hyper-V
4 253 (3.08%) VMware Infrastructure
5 70 (0.85%) Terminal Server
6 56 (0.68%) Firmware
7 50 (0.61%) Virtual Desktop
8 38 (0.46%) Virtual Machines
9 35 (0.43%) vSphere
10 18 (0.22%) VMware ESXi
11 17 (0.21%) Embedded Firmware
12 15 (0.18%) KVM
13 7 (0.085%) IAG
13 7 (0.085%) XenApp
14 6 (0.073%) VMware NSX
15 5 (0.061%) ClearTrust
15 5 (0.061%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 5 (0.061%) Squid
16 4 (0.049%) GPFS
16 4 (0.049%) StorNext
Systems Management
1 371 (4.52%) Terraform
2 331 (4.03%) Kubernetes
3 279 (3.40%) Microsoft Intune
4 159 (1.94%) Ansible
5 97 (1.18%) Grafana
6 77 (0.94%) SCCM
7 57 (0.69%) Prometheus
8 54 (0.66%) Single Sign-On
9 28 (0.34%) Nagios
10 25 (0.30%) FortiGate
10 25 (0.30%) Jamf Pro
11 21 (0.26%) Puppet
12 15 (0.18%) Argo
13 13 (0.16%) Kibana
13 13 (0.16%) Proxmox
14 12 (0.15%) Autotask
14 12 (0.15%) Functional Safety
15 11 (0.13%) logstash
15 11 (0.13%) Nmap
16 10 (0.12%) Podman
Vendors
1 2,351 (28.63%) Microsoft
2 367 (4.47%) VMware
3 235 (2.86%) SAP
4 234 (2.85%) Google
4 234 (2.85%) Oracle
5 177 (2.16%) Cisco
6 166 (2.02%) ServiceNow
7 158 (1.92%) Salesforce
8 132 (1.61%) Veeam
9 131 (1.60%) Databricks
10 124 (1.51%) Splunk
11 116 (1.41%) SolarWinds
12 78 (0.95%) Tanium
13 76 (0.93%) Apple
14 72 (0.88%) Sage
15 71 (0.86%) Nimble Storage
16 70 (0.85%) Brocade
17 64 (0.78%) Fortinet
18 60 (0.73%) Dell
19 58 (0.71%) Palo Alto