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 26 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 4 8
Rank change year-on-year -5 +4 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 7,531 8,298 11,272
As % of all permanent jobs in England 8.40% 19.10% 14.52%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.37% 21.25% 17.74%
Number of salaries quoted 5,357 4,745 6,479
10th Percentile £27,728 £26,300 £26,250
25th Percentile £32,750 £32,110 £34,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,500 £47,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year - -5.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £67,500 £67,500 £68,750
90th Percentile £86,250 £88,750 £85,000
UK median annual salary £47,500 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year - -5.00% -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 66,240 39,044 63,540
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.89% 89.88% 81.85%
Number of salaries quoted 46,785 22,556 43,778
10th Percentile £31,175 £28,750 £30,000
25th Percentile £41,250 £38,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -11.29%
75th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £95,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.33%

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 26 July 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 26 July 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 -4 2,106 £67,500 +3.85% 1,354
North of England -10 1,524 £45,000 +5.88% 679
South East -3 1,432 £45,000 +5.88% 821
Midlands -8 1,090 £42,000 +5.00% 446
North West -7 795 £45,000 -2.17% 336
South West -6 727 £44,000 +17.33% 330
West Midlands -9 610 £42,500 -5.56% 259
East of England -6 569 £42,500 +21.43% 291
Yorkshire -10 524 £42,500 +21.43% 228
East Midlands -10 476 £37,500 +5.63% 187
North East -14 205 £51,000 +36.00% 125
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
1 421 (5.59%) SharePoint
2 414 (5.50%) Microsoft Exchange
3 86 (1.14%) Confluence
4 66 (0.88%) CMS
5 53 (0.70%) Apache
6 40 (0.53%) Apache Airflow
6 40 (0.53%) IIS
7 39 (0.52%) Apache Spark
8 33 (0.44%) WordPress
9 19 (0.25%) SAS
10 14 (0.19%) Palantir Foundry
11 11 (0.15%) nginx
11 11 (0.15%) WebLogic
11 11 (0.15%) WebSphere
12 10 (0.13%) Exchange Server 2013
13 9 (0.12%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 8 (0.11%) Exchange Server 2007
14 8 (0.11%) Exchange Server 2010
15 7 (0.093%) Jupyter
15 7 (0.093%) OpenEdge
Applications
1 478 (6.35%) Microsoft Office
2 447 (5.94%) Microsoft Excel
3 81 (1.08%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 45 (0.60%) MS Visio
5 43 (0.57%) Spreadsheet
6 30 (0.40%) Microsoft Project
7 17 (0.23%) Chatbot
8 15 (0.20%) AutoCAD
9 9 (0.12%) Simulink
9 9 (0.12%) SOLIDWORKS
9 9 (0.12%) Trello
10 8 (0.11%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 8 (0.11%) Adobe Illustrator
11 5 (0.066%) Fusion 360
11 5 (0.066%) Lightworks
11 5 (0.066%) Photoshop
12 3 (0.040%) Autodesk Inventor
12 3 (0.040%) Civil 3D
12 3 (0.040%) Maya
12 3 (0.040%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 84 (1.12%) SAP S/4HANA
2 69 (0.92%) Dynamics CRM
3 49 (0.65%) NetSuite
4 19 (0.25%) Oracle EBS
4 19 (0.25%) Shopify
5 17 (0.23%) Magento
6 14 (0.19%) IBM Planning Analytics
6 14 (0.19%) SAP ERP
7 13 (0.17%) SAP Business One
8 12 (0.16%) Elite 3E
8 12 (0.16%) Salesforce CRM
9 11 (0.15%) Dynamics AX
10 10 (0.13%) iTrent
10 10 (0.13%) JDE EnterpriseOne
11 9 (0.12%) Maximo
11 9 (0.12%) Oracle Applications
12 8 (0.11%) Sage 50
13 7 (0.093%) Raiser’s Edge
13 7 (0.093%) Sage X3
13 7 (0.093%) SAP CO
Cloud Services
1 1,602 (21.27%) Azure
2 1,224 (16.25%) Microsoft 365
3 962 (12.77%) AWS
4 620 (8.23%) Power Platform
5 357 (4.74%) SaaS
6 354 (4.70%) Entra ID
7 342 (4.54%) GCP
8 182 (2.42%) Serverless
9 172 (2.28%) GitHub
10 169 (2.24%) Azure DevOps
11 160 (2.12%) Dynamics 365
12 153 (2.03%) Power Automate
13 139 (1.85%) PowerApps
14 106 (1.41%) OneDrive
15 97 (1.29%) Amazon S3
16 95 (1.26%) Microsoft Copilot
17 86 (1.14%) GitHub Actions
18 84 (1.12%) AWS Lambda
19 76 (1.01%) AWS CloudFormation
20 74 (0.98%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 484 (6.43%) Firewall
2 439 (5.83%) DNS
3 375 (4.98%) DHCP
4 294 (3.90%) VPN
5 262 (3.48%) TCP/IP
6 230 (3.05%) WAN
7 219 (2.91%) LAN
8 203 (2.70%) Wi-Fi
9 170 (2.26%) Broadband
10 163 (2.16%) Wireless
11 148 (1.97%) VLAN
12 128 (1.70%) Network Security
13 102 (1.35%) VoIP
14 49 (0.65%) SD-WAN
15 45 (0.60%) HTTP
16 44 (0.58%) Internet
17 42 (0.56%) BGP
17 42 (0.56%) OSPF
18 39 (0.52%) SAN
19 33 (0.44%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 488 (6.48%) Power BI
2 360 (4.78%) SQL Server
3 146 (1.94%) Data Warehouse
4 141 (1.87%) Amazon RDS
5 120 (1.59%) MySQL
6 117 (1.55%) Tableau
7 112 (1.49%) Relational Database
8 108 (1.43%) PostgreSQL
9 105 (1.39%) NoSQL
10 97 (1.29%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 87 (1.16%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 59 (0.78%) MongoDB
13 58 (0.77%) Power Query
14 57 (0.76%) Big Data
15 51 (0.68%) Data Lake
16 48 (0.64%) Azure SQL Database
17 39 (0.52%) DynamoDB
18 38 (0.50%) Metadata
19 35 (0.46%) Amazon Redshift
20 28 (0.37%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 318 (4.22%) Git
2 253 (3.36%) JIRA
3 116 (1.54%) Jenkins
4 112 (1.49%) GitLab
5 34 (0.45%) Selenium
6 29 (0.39%) Cucumber
7 27 (0.36%) Rational DOORS
8 25 (0.33%) Eclipse
8 25 (0.33%) JUnit
8 25 (0.33%) Subversion
9 24 (0.32%) Cypress.io
10 23 (0.31%) Claude Code
11 22 (0.29%) Postman
12 21 (0.28%) Visual Studio
13 16 (0.21%) Chocolatey
13 16 (0.21%) SonarQube
14 14 (0.19%) Bitbucket
14 14 (0.19%) Oracle Forms
15 13 (0.17%) Maven
16 12 (0.16%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 3,618 (48.04%) Social Skills
2 2,222 (29.50%) Analytical Skills
3 1,470 (19.52%) Finance
4 489 (6.49%) Manufacturing
5 461 (6.12%) Organisational Skills
6 406 (5.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 405 (5.38%) Law
8 359 (4.77%) Retail
9 320 (4.25%) Marketing
10 298 (3.96%) Legal
11 290 (3.85%) Banking
12 289 (3.84%) Public Sector
13 182 (2.42%) Telecoms
14 155 (2.06%) Electronics
15 141 (1.87%) Presentation Skills
16 140 (1.86%) Influencing Skills
17 114 (1.51%) Aerospace
18 113 (1.50%) Documentation Skills
19 96 (1.27%) Advertising
20 92 (1.22%) Games
Job Titles
1 1,001 (13.29%) Analyst
2 893 (11.86%) Senior
3 755 (10.03%) Developer
4 710 (9.43%) IT Support
5 578 (7.67%) Support Engineer
6 454 (6.03%) Lead
7 408 (5.42%) IT Engineer
8 356 (4.73%) Consultant
9 313 (4.16%) IT Support Engineer
10 301 (4.00%) Support Analyst
11 280 (3.72%) Software Engineer
12 263 (3.49%) Systems Engineer
13 255 (3.39%) Support Technician
14 252 (3.35%) Architect
15 222 (2.95%) Technical Support
16 206 (2.74%) IT Technician
17 191 (2.54%) Data Engineer
18 187 (2.48%) Technical Engineer
19 170 (2.26%) Infrastructure Engineer
20 169 (2.24%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 322 (4.28%) .NET
2 291 (3.86%) React
3 238 (3.16%) HTML
4 233 (3.09%) REST
5 189 (2.51%) CSS
6 155 (2.06%) RESTful
7 151 (2.01%) Node.js
8 113 (1.50%) SOAP
9 97 (1.29%) Spring
10 95 (1.26%) JSON
11 93 (1.23%) Middleware
12 92 (1.22%) AngularJS
13 88 (1.17%) Vue
14 83 (1.10%) Kafka
15 74 (0.98%) XML
16 71 (0.94%) Web Services
17 68 (0.90%) ASP.NET
17 68 (0.90%) OAuth
18 61 (0.81%) Spring Boot
19 56 (0.74%) gRPC
Miscellaneous
1 455 (6.04%) Driving Licence
2 449 (5.96%) Onboarding
3 377 (5.01%) Self-Motivation
4 288 (3.82%) Management Information System
5 287 (3.81%) Cloud Native
6 208 (2.76%) Product Ownership
7 178 (2.36%) Distributed Systems
7 178 (2.36%) Legacy Systems
8 175 (2.32%) Data Centre
9 126 (1.67%) Analytical Mindset
10 111 (1.47%) Enterprise Software
10 111 (1.47%) Security Posture
11 99 (1.31%) Data Structures
12 90 (1.20%) Algorithms
13 81 (1.08%) Mobile App
14 79 (1.05%) Social Media
15 76 (1.01%) IoT
16 74 (0.98%) Virtual Team
17 72 (0.96%) NHS
18 71 (0.94%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 1,191 (15.81%) Windows
2 544 (7.22%) Linux
3 519 (6.89%) Windows Server
4 167 (2.22%) Windows 10
5 130 (1.73%) Windows Server 2016
6 111 (1.47%) Android
7 98 (1.30%) Mac OS
8 95 (1.26%) Apple iOS
9 49 (0.65%) Windows Server 2019
10 46 (0.61%) Unix
11 37 (0.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 32 (0.42%) Ubuntu
13 27 (0.36%) VMS
14 25 (0.33%) CentOS
15 15 (0.20%) Windows Server 2012
16 14 (0.19%) Mac OS X
16 14 (0.19%) Windows 7
17 13 (0.17%) Debian
18 9 (0.12%) FreeRTOS
19 8 (0.11%) Embedded Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,703 (22.61%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,211 (16.08%) Agile
3 1,115 (14.81%) Customer Service
4 915 (12.15%) AI
5 859 (11.41%) CI/CD
6 826 (10.97%) Decision-Making
7 816 (10.84%) Mentoring
8 732 (9.72%) Stakeholder Management
9 708 (9.40%) DevOps
10 703 (9.33%) Analytics
11 695 (9.23%) Software Engineering
12 648 (8.60%) ITIL
13 601 (7.98%) Cybersecurity
14 582 (7.73%) Roadmaps
15 564 (7.49%) Business Intelligence
16 535 (7.10%) Computer Science
17 520 (6.90%) Project Management
18 498 (6.61%) Project Delivery
19 489 (6.49%) Collaborative Working
20 475 (6.31%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 1,204 (15.99%) SQL
2 1,122 (14.90%) Python
3 521 (6.92%) JavaScript
4 418 (5.55%) C#
5 386 (5.13%) Java
6 336 (4.46%) PowerShell
7 232 (3.08%) TypeScript
8 205 (2.72%) C++
9 168 (2.23%) Bash
10 94 (1.25%) Go
11 93 (1.23%) PHP
12 74 (0.98%) C
13 67 (0.89%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 65 (0.86%) T-SQL
15 59 (0.78%) Scala
16 43 (0.57%) R
16 43 (0.57%) Rust
17 42 (0.56%) PL/SQL
18 37 (0.49%) Perl
18 37 (0.49%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 1,210 (16.07%) Degree
2 653 (8.67%) Security Cleared
3 457 (6.07%) SC Cleared
4 276 (3.66%) Computer Science Degree
5 208 (2.76%) DBS Check
6 199 (2.64%) Microsoft Certification
7 141 (1.87%) Cisco Certification
8 134 (1.78%) DV Cleared
9 128 (1.70%) Azure Certification
10 126 (1.67%) CISSP
11 107 (1.42%) Master's Degree
12 96 (1.27%) BPSS Clearance
13 84 (1.12%) PMI Certification
14 78 (1.04%) CCNA
15 77 (1.02%) PMP
16 76 (1.01%) CCNP
17 70 (0.93%) ACCA
18 65 (0.86%) CIMA
18 65 (0.86%) CISM
19 63 (0.84%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 413 (5.48%) QA
2 372 (4.94%) Data Quality
3 303 (4.02%) GDPR
4 223 (2.96%) Cyber Essentials
5 218 (2.89%) SLA
6 195 (2.59%) Accessibility
6 195 (2.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 169 (2.24%) PCI DSS
8 151 (2.01%) NIST
9 60 (0.80%) PMO
10 57 (0.76%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 36 (0.48%) GRC
11 36 (0.48%) ISO 9001
12 32 (0.42%) SOC 2
13 24 (0.32%) COBIT
14 23 (0.31%) GMP
15 19 (0.25%) Actionable Recommendations
15 19 (0.25%) Sarbanes-Oxley
16 18 (0.24%) Good Clinical Practice
17 17 (0.23%) WCAG
System Software
1 803 (10.66%) Active Directory
2 364 (4.83%) Docker
3 279 (3.70%) Hyper-V
4 240 (3.19%) VMware Infrastructure
5 84 (1.12%) Terminal Server
6 49 (0.65%) Virtual Desktop
7 42 (0.56%) Firmware
8 33 (0.44%) vSphere
9 32 (0.42%) Virtual Machines
10 16 (0.21%) VMware ESXi
11 14 (0.19%) Embedded Firmware
12 13 (0.17%) KVM
13 10 (0.13%) IAG
14 7 (0.093%) VMware NSX
14 7 (0.093%) XenApp
15 5 (0.066%) ClearTrust
15 5 (0.066%) Squid
15 5 (0.066%) VMware Workstation
16 4 (0.053%) Slurm Workload Manager
17 3 (0.040%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 338 (4.49%) Terraform
2 308 (4.09%) Kubernetes
3 285 (3.78%) Microsoft Intune
4 150 (1.99%) Ansible
5 105 (1.39%) Grafana
6 80 (1.06%) SCCM
7 65 (0.86%) Prometheus
8 34 (0.45%) Single Sign-On
9 30 (0.40%) Nagios
10 24 (0.32%) FortiGate
11 21 (0.28%) Jamf Pro
12 17 (0.23%) Puppet
13 16 (0.21%) Argo
14 15 (0.20%) Autotask
15 13 (0.17%) Kibana
16 12 (0.16%) Proxmox
17 11 (0.15%) Docker Swarm
17 11 (0.15%) logstash
17 11 (0.15%) vCenter Server
18 10 (0.13%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 2,174 (28.87%) Microsoft
2 362 (4.81%) VMware
3 198 (2.63%) Oracle
4 189 (2.51%) SAP
5 188 (2.50%) Google
6 167 (2.22%) Cisco
7 155 (2.06%) ServiceNow
8 153 (2.03%) Salesforce
9 143 (1.90%) Veeam
10 141 (1.87%) SolarWinds
11 135 (1.79%) Splunk
12 117 (1.55%) Databricks
13 92 (1.22%) Tanium
14 85 (1.13%) Nimble Storage
15 84 (1.12%) Brocade
16 80 (1.06%) Apple
17 63 (0.84%) Dell
18 62 (0.82%) Sage
19 53 (0.70%) Fortinet
20 52 (0.69%) Red Hat