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

6 months to
15 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 4 6
Rank change year-on-year -3 +2 +5
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 8,857 8,159 10,312
As % of all permanent jobs in England 8.82% 18.99% 15.09%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.06% 21.40% 18.55%
Number of salaries quoted 6,082 4,544 4,558
10th Percentile £27,750 £26,250 £27,425
25th Percentile £32,750 £31,250 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,043 £45,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +4.54% -14.29% -4.55%
75th Percentile £65,000 £65,000 £71,250
90th Percentile £85,000 £85,875 £85,000
UK median annual salary £47,000 £46,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +2.17% -12.38% -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 73,454 38,135 55,596
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 73.14% 88.76% 81.34%
Number of salaries quoted 52,251 21,803 32,273
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,571 £32,000
25th Percentile £42,500 £37,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -7.26%
75th Percentile £80,000 £76,250 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,500 £95,040
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 15 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 15 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 2,280 £65,000 - 6,464
North of England -8 1,820 £45,000 +7.14% 1,756
South East -4 1,725 £42,500 - 1,780
Midlands -7 1,309 £42,500 +10.39% 1,248
North West -5 944 £45,000 -5.26% 983
South West -4 909 £45,000 +25.00% 933
East of England -4 735 £42,750 +22.14% 875
West Midlands -8 724 £42,500 -5.07% 778
East Midlands -8 583 £41,500 +18.57% 469
Yorkshire -8 574 £42,500 +26.87% 553
North East 0 302 £48,250 +37.86% 243
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
1 519 (5.86%) SharePoint
2 401 (4.53%) Microsoft Exchange
3 110 (1.24%) Confluence
4 60 (0.68%) IIS
5 49 (0.55%) Apache
6 43 (0.49%) CMS
7 42 (0.47%) Apache Spark
8 36 (0.41%) Apache Airflow
9 35 (0.40%) WordPress
10 18 (0.20%) Oracle Workflow
11 17 (0.19%) SAS
12 11 (0.12%) WebLogic
12 11 (0.12%) WebSphere
13 10 (0.11%) nginx
14 9 (0.10%) Jupyter
14 9 (0.10%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 9 (0.10%) Palantir Foundry
15 7 (0.079%) Exchange Server 2013
15 7 (0.079%) OpenEdge
15 7 (0.079%) Tomcat
Applications
1 606 (6.84%) Microsoft Office
2 536 (6.05%) Microsoft Excel
3 109 (1.23%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 55 (0.62%) Spreadsheet
5 51 (0.58%) MS Visio
6 46 (0.52%) Microsoft Project
7 44 (0.50%) AutoCAD
8 28 (0.32%) Simulink
9 25 (0.28%) Revit
10 16 (0.18%) Chatbot
11 15 (0.17%) SOLIDWORKS
12 10 (0.11%) Autodesk Flame
12 10 (0.11%) Baselight
13 9 (0.10%) EPLAN
13 9 (0.10%) Navisworks
14 8 (0.090%) Adobe Creative Suite
14 8 (0.090%) Fusion 360
14 8 (0.090%) Trello
15 6 (0.068%) Adobe Illustrator
16 5 (0.056%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 92 (1.04%) Dynamics CRM
2 85 (0.96%) SAP S/4HANA
3 80 (0.90%) NetSuite
4 38 (0.43%) Oracle EBS
5 33 (0.37%) Shopify
6 22 (0.25%) Oracle Payables
7 18 (0.20%) Dynamics AX
8 16 (0.18%) Oracle Cash Management
9 15 (0.17%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
10 14 (0.16%) Magento
10 14 (0.16%) SAP Business One
11 13 (0.15%) Dynamics NAV
11 13 (0.15%) Elite 3E
11 13 (0.15%) IBM Planning Analytics
11 13 (0.15%) Salesforce CRM
12 11 (0.12%) Oracle ERP
12 11 (0.12%) SAP ERP
12 11 (0.12%) Workday HCM
13 10 (0.11%) JDE EnterpriseOne
13 10 (0.11%) Sage X3
Cloud Services
1 1,743 (19.68%) Azure
2 1,392 (15.72%) Microsoft 365
3 1,042 (11.76%) AWS
4 759 (8.57%) Power Platform
5 430 (4.85%) Entra ID
6 378 (4.27%) SaaS
7 345 (3.90%) GCP
8 224 (2.53%) Azure DevOps
9 214 (2.42%) GitHub
10 198 (2.24%) Power Automate
11 194 (2.19%) Dynamics 365
12 190 (2.15%) Serverless
13 166 (1.87%) PowerApps
14 136 (1.54%) Microsoft Copilot
14 136 (1.54%) OneDrive
15 106 (1.20%) Amazon S3
16 99 (1.12%) GitHub Actions
17 90 (1.02%) AWS Lambda
18 87 (0.98%) AWS CloudFormation
19 86 (0.97%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 516 (5.83%) Firewall
2 486 (5.49%) DNS
3 411 (4.64%) DHCP
4 347 (3.92%) VPN
5 294 (3.32%) TCP/IP
6 228 (2.57%) Wi-Fi
7 200 (2.26%) WAN
8 197 (2.22%) LAN
9 192 (2.17%) Wireless
10 182 (2.05%) VLAN
11 158 (1.78%) Network Security
12 109 (1.23%) VoIP
13 72 (0.81%) Broadband
14 54 (0.61%) Internet
15 41 (0.46%) SAN
16 40 (0.45%) HTTP
17 36 (0.41%) SD-WAN
18 34 (0.38%) BGP
19 33 (0.37%) OSPF
19 33 (0.37%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 597 (6.74%) Power BI
2 424 (4.79%) SQL Server
3 152 (1.72%) Relational Database
4 149 (1.68%) Data Warehouse
5 141 (1.59%) MySQL
6 130 (1.47%) Tableau
7 129 (1.46%) Amazon RDS
8 116 (1.31%) PostgreSQL
9 104 (1.17%) NoSQL
10 93 (1.05%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 81 (0.91%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 66 (0.75%) Big Data
13 65 (0.73%) Data Lake
14 63 (0.71%) Azure SQL Database
14 63 (0.71%) MongoDB
15 57 (0.64%) Power Query
16 54 (0.61%) Metadata
17 44 (0.50%) DynamoDB
18 40 (0.45%) Electronic Patient Records
19 36 (0.41%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 379 (4.28%) Git
2 305 (3.44%) JIRA
3 141 (1.59%) Jenkins
4 104 (1.17%) GitLab
5 41 (0.46%) Eclipse
6 40 (0.45%) Selenium
7 39 (0.44%) Claude Code
8 35 (0.40%) JUnit
9 33 (0.37%) Subversion
10 31 (0.35%) Cucumber
11 23 (0.26%) Cypress.io
11 23 (0.26%) Postman
11 23 (0.26%) Rational DOORS
12 22 (0.25%) Oracle Forms
13 21 (0.24%) Bitbucket
14 20 (0.23%) SonarQube
15 17 (0.19%) TeamCity
16 15 (0.17%) Chocolatey
17 14 (0.16%) LabVIEW
17 14 (0.16%) Maven
General
1 4,406 (49.75%) Social Skills
2 2,644 (29.85%) Analytical Skills
3 1,746 (19.71%) Finance
4 777 (8.77%) Manufacturing
5 637 (7.19%) Organisational Skills
6 530 (5.98%) Law
7 525 (5.93%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 466 (5.26%) Retail
9 372 (4.20%) Marketing
10 351 (3.96%) Public Sector
11 342 (3.86%) Legal
12 289 (3.26%) Banking
13 275 (3.10%) Electronics
14 258 (2.91%) Aerospace
15 208 (2.35%) Telecoms
16 191 (2.16%) Influencing Skills
17 164 (1.85%) Presentation Skills
18 128 (1.45%) Automotive
19 116 (1.31%) Documentation Skills
20 106 (1.20%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 1,150 (12.98%) Analyst
2 963 (10.87%) Senior
3 797 (9.00%) Developer
4 749 (8.46%) IT Support
5 598 (6.75%) Support Engineer
6 522 (5.89%) Lead
7 415 (4.69%) Consultant
8 408 (4.61%) IT Engineer
9 394 (4.45%) Support Analyst
10 317 (3.58%) Software Engineer
11 312 (3.52%) IT Support Engineer
12 291 (3.29%) Architect
13 274 (3.09%) Technical Support
14 263 (2.97%) Support Technician
15 249 (2.81%) Systems Engineer
16 235 (2.65%) IT Technician
17 228 (2.57%) Technical Engineer
18 205 (2.31%) Administrator
19 204 (2.30%) Technical Support Engineer
20 199 (2.25%) Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 386 (4.36%) .NET
2 375 (4.23%) Terraform
3 303 (3.42%) React
4 282 (3.18%) REST
5 268 (3.03%) HTML
6 202 (2.28%) CSS
7 182 (2.05%) RESTful
8 142 (1.60%) Node.js
9 119 (1.34%) Spring
10 118 (1.33%) SOAP
11 109 (1.23%) Web Services
12 106 (1.20%) AngularJS
13 105 (1.19%) JSON
14 97 (1.10%) ASP.NET
15 95 (1.07%) XML
16 93 (1.05%) Vue
17 91 (1.03%) Kafka
18 87 (0.98%) Middleware
19 77 (0.87%) Spring Boot
20 69 (0.78%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 623 (7.03%) Driving Licence
2 616 (6.95%) Onboarding
3 468 (5.28%) Self-Motivation
4 383 (4.32%) Management Information System
5 323 (3.65%) Cloud Native
6 258 (2.91%) Product Ownership
7 192 (2.17%) Data Centre
8 170 (1.92%) Enterprise Software
9 167 (1.89%) Legacy Systems
10 137 (1.55%) Distributed Systems
11 122 (1.38%) Robotics
12 116 (1.31%) Cyber Threat
12 116 (1.31%) Security Posture
13 115 (1.30%) Analytical Mindset
14 113 (1.28%) AI Agents
15 109 (1.23%) Data Structures
16 106 (1.20%) NHS
17 94 (1.06%) Algorithms
17 94 (1.06%) IoT
18 84 (0.95%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 1,342 (15.15%) Windows
2 559 (6.31%) Linux
3 553 (6.24%) Windows Server
4 164 (1.85%) Windows 10
5 116 (1.31%) Mac OS
6 104 (1.17%) Apple iOS
7 102 (1.15%) Windows Server 2016
8 96 (1.08%) Android
9 55 (0.62%) Unix
10 49 (0.55%) Windows Server 2019
11 33 (0.37%) VMS
12 30 (0.34%) Ubuntu
13 29 (0.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
14 14 (0.16%) Embedded Linux
15 13 (0.15%) CentOS
16 11 (0.12%) Debian
16 11 (0.12%) Windows Server 2012
17 9 (0.10%) FreeRTOS
17 9 (0.10%) Rocky
18 8 (0.090%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 2,264 (25.56%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,409 (15.91%) Customer Service
3 1,401 (15.82%) Agile
4 1,143 (12.91%) AI
5 1,031 (11.64%) Decision-Making
6 1,030 (11.63%) Stakeholder Management
7 939 (10.60%) Mentoring
8 909 (10.26%) CI/CD
9 805 (9.09%) Analytics
10 790 (8.92%) Software Engineering
11 769 (8.68%) DevOps
12 723 (8.16%) Cybersecurity
13 721 (8.14%) Project Delivery
14 672 (7.59%) ITIL
15 671 (7.58%) Business Intelligence
16 666 (7.52%) Roadmaps
17 639 (7.21%) Project Management
18 629 (7.10%) Computer Science
19 619 (6.99%) Stakeholder Engagement
20 601 (6.79%) Collaborative Working
Programming Languages
1 1,362 (15.38%) SQL
2 1,175 (13.27%) Python
3 575 (6.49%) JavaScript
4 491 (5.54%) C#
5 438 (4.95%) Java
6 384 (4.34%) PowerShell
7 260 (2.94%) TypeScript
8 244 (2.75%) C++
9 171 (1.93%) Bash
10 102 (1.15%) C
11 83 (0.94%) PHP
12 76 (0.86%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 76 (0.86%) T-SQL
13 71 (0.80%) Go
14 52 (0.59%) PL/SQL
15 48 (0.54%) R
16 47 (0.53%) Rust
16 47 (0.53%) Shell Script
17 46 (0.52%) Perl
17 46 (0.52%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 1,580 (17.84%) Degree
2 833 (9.40%) Security Cleared
3 560 (6.32%) SC Cleared
4 322 (3.64%) Computer Science Degree
5 254 (2.87%) DBS Check
6 213 (2.40%) Microsoft Certification
7 196 (2.21%) DV Cleared
8 182 (2.05%) Azure Certification
9 179 (2.02%) HNC
10 164 (1.85%) HND
11 153 (1.73%) Master's Degree
12 148 (1.67%) BPSS Clearance
13 147 (1.66%) Cisco Certification
14 145 (1.64%) CISSP
15 102 (1.15%) PMI Certification
16 84 (0.95%) CISM
17 83 (0.94%) Chartered Engineer
18 81 (0.91%) AWS Certification
19 80 (0.90%) CCNA
20 79 (0.89%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 507 (5.72%) QA
2 448 (5.06%) Data Quality
3 366 (4.13%) GDPR
4 266 (3.00%) Accessibility
5 229 (2.59%) SLA
6 209 (2.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 191 (2.16%) Cyber Essentials
8 156 (1.76%) NIST
9 131 (1.48%) PCI DSS
10 64 (0.72%) PMO
11 51 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 41 (0.46%) GRC
13 40 (0.45%) ISO 9001
14 28 (0.32%) NCSC
15 24 (0.27%) Actionable Recommendations
15 24 (0.27%) Sarbanes-Oxley
16 23 (0.26%) SOC 2
17 20 (0.23%) COBIT
18 18 (0.20%) Good Clinical Practice
18 18 (0.20%) WCAG
System Software
1 889 (10.04%) Active Directory
2 360 (4.06%) Docker
3 281 (3.17%) Hyper-V
4 259 (2.92%) VMware Infrastructure
5 63 (0.71%) Firmware
5 63 (0.71%) Terminal Server
6 52 (0.59%) Virtual Desktop
7 45 (0.51%) Virtual Machines
8 36 (0.41%) vSphere
9 25 (0.28%) Embedded Firmware
10 20 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
11 10 (0.11%) KVM
11 10 (0.11%) Virtual Servers
12 9 (0.10%) GPFS
12 9 (0.10%) StorNext
13 6 (0.068%) IAG
13 6 (0.068%) VMware NSX
14 5 (0.056%) ClearTrust
14 5 (0.056%) Slurm Workload Manager
14 5 (0.056%) Squid
Systems Management
1 339 (3.83%) Kubernetes
2 298 (3.36%) Microsoft Intune
3 152 (1.72%) Ansible
4 92 (1.04%) Grafana
5 71 (0.80%) SCCM
6 70 (0.79%) Single Sign-On
7 51 (0.58%) Prometheus
8 28 (0.32%) Jamf Pro
9 24 (0.27%) FortiGate
10 23 (0.26%) BMC PATROL
11 21 (0.24%) Argo
12 19 (0.21%) Puppet
13 17 (0.19%) Nagios
14 15 (0.17%) Kibana
15 14 (0.16%) Functional Safety
16 12 (0.14%) logstash
16 12 (0.14%) Progress Chef
17 11 (0.12%) Nmap
17 11 (0.12%) Proxmox
18 10 (0.11%) Podman
Vendors
1 2,614 (29.51%) Microsoft
2 383 (4.32%) VMware
3 294 (3.32%) SAP
4 256 (2.89%) Google
4 256 (2.89%) Oracle
5 185 (2.09%) ServiceNow
6 171 (1.93%) Cisco
6 171 (1.93%) Salesforce
7 135 (1.52%) Databricks
8 127 (1.43%) Veeam
9 119 (1.34%) Splunk
10 110 (1.24%) Sage
11 97 (1.10%) SolarWinds
12 85 (0.96%) Apple
13 73 (0.82%) Workday
14 71 (0.80%) Fortinet
14 71 (0.80%) Tanium
15 66 (0.75%) HubSpot
16 64 (0.72%) Nimble Storage
17 63 (0.71%) Brocade