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

6 months to
4 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 4 7
Rank change year-on-year -5 +3 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 6,569 8,364 9,766
As % of all permanent jobs in England 11.55% 18.18% 15.02%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 14.42% 19.80% 16.99%
Number of salaries quoted 4,499 3,848 7,149
10th Percentile £26,500 £30,925 £26,250
25th Percentile £30,780 £40,000 £33,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -18.18% +10.00% -10.71%
75th Percentile £65,473 £75,063 £70,250
90th Percentile £85,000 £90,000 £87,500
UK median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% +10.00% -13.04%

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 45,554 42,250 57,479
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 80.09% 91.84% 88.38%
Number of salaries quoted 27,623 20,609 45,599
10th Percentile £29,000 £35,000 £29,750
25th Percentile £38,750 £46,250 £41,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £62,000 £55,500
Median % change year-on-year -11.29% +11.71% -11.20%
75th Percentile £77,424 £81,250 £75,772
90th Percentile £97,500 £102,500 £95,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -12.00%

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 February 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 February 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 -1 1,961 £67,500 +3.85% 920
South East -3 1,332 £41,500 -20.95% 871
North of England -17 1,295 £42,500 -10.53% 604
Midlands -15 870 £37,500 -27.71% 450
North West -14 713 £47,500 -5.00% 342
South West -3 582 £40,000 -27.27% 355
West Midlands -18 508 £42,500 -22.73% 291
Yorkshire -5 448 £34,000 -21.84% 202
East of England -5 425 £35,500 -30.35% 274
East Midlands +1 360 £33,000 -5.71% 159
North East -4 134 £40,662 -18.68% 68
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
1 324 (4.93%) Microsoft Exchange
2 286 (4.35%) SharePoint
3 76 (1.16%) Confluence
4 55 (0.84%) Apache
5 49 (0.75%) IIS
6 44 (0.67%) Apache Spark
7 42 (0.64%) Apache Airflow
8 38 (0.58%) CMS
9 27 (0.41%) WordPress
10 19 (0.29%) Palantir Foundry
11 12 (0.18%) nginx
12 10 (0.15%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 10 (0.15%) SAS
13 7 (0.11%) Anypoint
13 7 (0.11%) Apache Solr
14 6 (0.091%) Exchange Server 2013
15 5 (0.076%) Drupal
15 5 (0.076%) Umbraco
16 4 (0.061%) Exchange Server 2010
16 4 (0.061%) HCL Notes
Applications
1 445 (6.77%) Microsoft Office
2 440 (6.70%) Microsoft Excel
3 89 (1.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 38 (0.58%) Spreadsheet
5 34 (0.52%) Maya
6 29 (0.44%) MS Visio
7 26 (0.40%) Microsoft Project
8 19 (0.29%) AutoCAD
9 14 (0.21%) Photoshop
10 12 (0.18%) Adobe Creative Suite
11 9 (0.14%) Adobe Illustrator
11 9 (0.14%) Adobe Premiere
11 9 (0.14%) SOLIDWORKS
12 7 (0.11%) Chatbot
13 5 (0.076%) Adobe After Effects
13 5 (0.076%) Adobe XD
13 5 (0.076%) Trello
14 4 (0.061%) CATIA
14 4 (0.061%) Fusion 360
14 4 (0.061%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 103 (1.57%) SAP S/4HANA
2 80 (1.22%) Dynamics CRM
3 32 (0.49%) NetSuite
4 20 (0.30%) SAP CO
5 17 (0.26%) Salesforce CRM
6 16 (0.24%) Endur
7 14 (0.21%) Oracle Payables
8 13 (0.20%) Dynamics NAV
8 13 (0.20%) Shopify
9 12 (0.18%) iTrent
9 12 (0.18%) Oracle Receivables
10 11 (0.17%) Oracle Assets
10 11 (0.17%) SAP FI
10 11 (0.17%) SAP FI/CO
11 10 (0.15%) Payment Gateway
11 10 (0.15%) SAP Business One
11 10 (0.15%) Workday HCM
12 8 (0.12%) JDE EnterpriseOne
12 8 (0.12%) Oracle EBS
12 8 (0.12%) Sage 200
Cloud Services
1 1,478 (22.50%) Azure
2 976 (14.86%) Microsoft 365
3 743 (11.31%) AWS
4 533 (8.11%) Power Platform
5 399 (6.07%) SaaS
6 270 (4.11%) Entra ID
7 232 (3.53%) GCP
8 180 (2.74%) Azure DevOps
9 156 (2.37%) GitHub
10 150 (2.28%) Serverless
11 122 (1.86%) Power Automate
12 99 (1.51%) Dynamics 365
13 77 (1.17%) Amazon S3
14 76 (1.16%) PowerApps
15 75 (1.14%) Google Workspace
16 73 (1.11%) AWS CloudFormation
16 73 (1.11%) AWS Lambda
17 67 (1.02%) PaaS
18 64 (0.97%) Figma
19 61 (0.93%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 433 (6.59%) DNS
2 372 (5.66%) DHCP
3 359 (5.47%) Firewall
4 222 (3.38%) VPN
5 202 (3.08%) TCP/IP
6 195 (2.97%) Wi-Fi
7 179 (2.72%) WAN
8 148 (2.25%) LAN
9 126 (1.92%) VLAN
10 108 (1.64%) Broadband
11 93 (1.42%) VoIP
12 92 (1.40%) Wireless
13 53 (0.81%) SD-WAN
14 52 (0.79%) Network Security
14 52 (0.79%) Remote Desktop
15 47 (0.72%) Internet
16 46 (0.70%) SAN
17 29 (0.44%) Unified Communications
18 28 (0.43%) BGP
19 27 (0.41%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 447 (6.80%) Power BI
2 303 (4.61%) SQL Server
3 155 (2.36%) Relational Database
4 139 (2.12%) Data Warehouse
5 132 (2.01%) Tableau
6 122 (1.86%) NoSQL
7 120 (1.83%) Amazon RDS
8 118 (1.80%) PostgreSQL
9 114 (1.74%) Data Lake
10 107 (1.63%) MySQL
11 66 (1.00%) SAP BW
11 66 (1.00%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 56 (0.85%) MongoDB
13 54 (0.82%) Metadata
14 50 (0.76%) Amazon Redshift
15 49 (0.75%) SQL Server Integration Services
16 45 (0.69%) Big Data
17 44 (0.67%) DynamoDB
18 41 (0.62%) Azure SQL Database
19 31 (0.47%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 266 (4.05%) Git
2 232 (3.53%) JIRA
3 98 (1.49%) Jenkins
4 79 (1.20%) GitLab
5 57 (0.87%) Selenium
6 24 (0.37%) Visual Studio
7 20 (0.30%) Bitbucket
7 20 (0.30%) Cypress.io
7 20 (0.30%) Maven
8 19 (0.29%) Burp Suite
8 19 (0.29%) LabVIEW
8 19 (0.29%) Metasploit
8 19 (0.29%) TeamCity
9 18 (0.27%) Robot Framework
10 17 (0.26%) Octopus Deploy
11 16 (0.24%) JUnit
12 14 (0.21%) Cucumber
12 14 (0.21%) Snyk
12 14 (0.21%) SonarQube
12 14 (0.21%) WebDriver
General
1 3,451 (52.53%) Social Skills
2 1,989 (30.28%) Analytical Skills
3 1,553 (23.64%) Finance
4 384 (5.85%) Organisational Skills
5 376 (5.72%) Marketing
6 349 (5.31%) Law
7 333 (5.07%) Retail
8 328 (4.99%) Manufacturing
9 296 (4.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 293 (4.46%) Legal
11 282 (4.29%) Public Sector
12 263 (4.00%) Banking
13 182 (2.77%) Presentation Skills
14 179 (2.72%) Telecoms
15 152 (2.31%) Electronics
16 116 (1.77%) Games
17 96 (1.46%) Influencing Skills
18 87 (1.32%) Documentation Skills
18 87 (1.32%) Financial Institution
19 85 (1.29%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 1,042 (15.86%) Analyst
2 821 (12.50%) Senior
3 736 (11.20%) IT Support
4 650 (9.89%) Support Engineer
5 588 (8.95%) Developer
6 439 (6.68%) Lead
7 342 (5.21%) Support Analyst
8 334 (5.08%) IT Engineer
9 279 (4.25%) IT Support Engineer
10 275 (4.19%) Technical Support
11 253 (3.85%) Business Analyst
12 223 (3.39%) Consultant
13 217 (3.30%) Architect
14 190 (2.89%) Technical Engineer
15 188 (2.86%) Support Technician
16 184 (2.80%) 2nd Line Support
17 179 (2.72%) Technical Support Engineer
18 167 (2.54%) IT Analyst
19 161 (2.45%) Software Engineer
20 156 (2.37%) Applications Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 283 (4.31%) .NET
2 255 (3.88%) React
3 239 (3.64%) HTML
4 190 (2.89%) CSS
5 146 (2.22%) Node.js
5 146 (2.22%) REST
6 112 (1.70%) RESTful
7 93 (1.42%) AngularJS
8 71 (1.08%) Vue
9 70 (1.07%) Spring
10 66 (1.00%) JSON
11 65 (0.99%) XML
12 64 (0.97%) Middleware
13 63 (0.96%) SOAP
14 61 (0.93%) Kafka
15 58 (0.88%) .NET Framework
16 51 (0.78%) Django
17 49 (0.75%) ASP.NET
18 46 (0.70%) Flask
19 45 (0.69%) FastAPI
Miscellaneous
1 525 (7.99%) Driving Licence
2 509 (7.75%) Onboarding
3 411 (6.26%) Self-Motivation
4 212 (3.23%) Management Information System
5 197 (3.00%) Analytical Mindset
6 172 (2.62%) Cloud Native
7 161 (2.45%) Legacy Systems
8 157 (2.39%) Product Ownership
9 127 (1.93%) Data Centre
10 118 (1.80%) Enterprise Software
11 84 (1.28%) Distributed Systems
11 84 (1.28%) Mobile App
12 71 (1.08%) Data Structures
13 69 (1.05%) Algorithms
14 66 (1.00%) Low-Code
15 64 (0.97%) Virtual Team
16 55 (0.84%) FMCG
16 55 (0.84%) Social Media
17 52 (0.79%) Security Posture
18 51 (0.78%) EPoS
Operating Systems
1 1,117 (17.00%) Windows
2 452 (6.88%) Windows Server
3 417 (6.35%) Linux
4 157 (2.39%) Windows 10
5 133 (2.02%) Windows Server 2016
6 94 (1.43%) Mac OS
7 83 (1.26%) Android
8 69 (1.05%) Apple iOS
9 58 (0.88%) Unix
10 56 (0.85%) Windows Server 2019
11 33 (0.50%) Windows Server 2012
12 25 (0.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 24 (0.37%) Windows 7
14 23 (0.35%) VMS
15 14 (0.21%) CentOS
16 9 (0.14%) Ubuntu
17 7 (0.11%) Windows 8
18 6 (0.091%) Debian
18 6 (0.091%) Windows Server 2008
19 4 (0.061%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,117 (17.00%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,077 (16.40%) Agile
3 976 (14.86%) Customer Service
4 746 (11.36%) Analytics
5 675 (10.28%) Mentoring
6 654 (9.96%) AI
7 640 (9.74%) Decision-Making
8 618 (9.41%) Business Intelligence
9 606 (9.23%) Project Management
10 587 (8.94%) DevOps
11 566 (8.62%) CI/CD
12 540 (8.22%) ITIL
13 526 (8.01%) Computer Science
14 487 (7.41%) Stakeholder Management
15 481 (7.32%) Cybersecurity
16 434 (6.61%) Change Management
17 429 (6.53%) ERP
18 426 (6.49%) Software Engineering
19 387 (5.89%) CRM
20 376 (5.72%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 976 (14.86%) SQL
2 940 (14.31%) Python
3 412 (6.27%) JavaScript
4 332 (5.05%) C#
5 329 (5.01%) PowerShell
6 316 (4.81%) Java
7 163 (2.48%) TypeScript
8 141 (2.15%) Bash
9 105 (1.60%) PHP
10 80 (1.22%) C++
11 60 (0.91%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 50 (0.76%) Go
13 49 (0.75%) T-SQL
14 44 (0.67%) C
15 40 (0.61%) Scala
16 37 (0.56%) R
17 27 (0.41%) Bicep
18 24 (0.37%) Kotlin
18 24 (0.37%) PL/SQL
19 23 (0.35%) Perl
Qualifications
1 1,549 (23.58%) Degree
2 533 (8.11%) Security Cleared
3 338 (5.15%) SC Cleared
4 249 (3.79%) Computer Science Degree
5 179 (2.72%) Microsoft Certification
6 171 (2.60%) DBS Check
7 167 (2.54%) Master's Degree
8 125 (1.90%) DV Cleared
9 106 (1.61%) CISSP
10 95 (1.45%) BPSS Clearance
11 79 (1.20%) A+ Certification
11 79 (1.20%) Cisco Certification
12 77 (1.17%) ACCA
13 69 (1.05%) Network+ Certification
14 63 (0.96%) CIMA
15 60 (0.91%) CISM
16 59 (0.90%) PMI Certification
17 58 (0.88%) AWS Certification
18 54 (0.82%) HND
19 52 (0.79%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 343 (5.22%) QA
2 331 (5.04%) Data Quality
3 217 (3.30%) GDPR
4 183 (2.79%) Cyber Essentials
5 165 (2.51%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 142 (2.16%) Accessibility
7 130 (1.98%) PCI DSS
8 127 (1.93%) SLA
9 85 (1.29%) NIST
10 47 (0.72%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 31 (0.47%) ISO 9001
12 25 (0.38%) Actionable Recommendations
13 24 (0.37%) PMO
14 20 (0.30%) SOC 2
15 16 (0.24%) COBIT
15 16 (0.24%) GRC
16 12 (0.18%) WCAG
17 9 (0.14%) ISO 13485
17 9 (0.14%) ISO/IEC 20000
18 8 (0.12%) ISO/IEC 19770
System Software
1 784 (11.93%) Active Directory
2 269 (4.09%) Docker
3 252 (3.84%) Hyper-V
4 149 (2.27%) VMware Infrastructure
5 91 (1.39%) Terminal Server
6 29 (0.44%) Firmware
7 25 (0.38%) Virtual Machines
8 22 (0.33%) Virtual Desktop
9 19 (0.29%) vSphere
10 18 (0.27%) VMware ESXi
11 9 (0.14%) KVM
12 7 (0.11%) Virtual Servers
13 6 (0.091%) VMware Workstation
14 4 (0.061%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 3 (0.046%) vCloud
16 2 (0.030%) BitLocker
16 2 (0.030%) HDFS
16 2 (0.030%) Postfix
16 2 (0.030%) RHEV
16 2 (0.030%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 275 (4.19%) Terraform
2 271 (4.13%) Microsoft Intune
3 208 (3.17%) Kubernetes
4 140 (2.13%) Ansible
5 74 (1.13%) Grafana
6 63 (0.96%) SCCM
7 48 (0.73%) Prometheus
8 42 (0.64%) BMC PATROL
9 28 (0.43%) Single Sign-On
10 20 (0.30%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 19 (0.29%) Nagios
12 18 (0.27%) Jamf Pro
13 15 (0.23%) vCenter Server
14 14 (0.21%) Argo
14 14 (0.21%) Cisco CUCM
15 12 (0.18%) FortiGate
15 12 (0.18%) Kibana
16 11 (0.17%) Nessus
17 10 (0.15%) Nmap
18 9 (0.14%) Autotask
Vendors
1 1,701 (25.89%) Microsoft
2 392 (5.97%) SAP
3 290 (4.41%) VMware
4 262 (3.99%) Oracle
5 163 (2.48%) Salesforce
6 152 (2.31%) Veeam
7 149 (2.27%) Cisco
8 146 (2.22%) Google
9 138 (2.10%) Splunk
10 131 (1.99%) SolarWinds
11 123 (1.87%) ServiceNow
12 107 (1.63%) Databricks
13 105 (1.60%) Adobe
14 92 (1.40%) Tanium
15 91 (1.39%) Brocade
15 91 (1.39%) Nimble Storage
16 70 (1.07%) Apple
17 57 (0.87%) Sage
18 54 (0.82%) Dell
19 53 (0.81%) HubSpot