Problem-Solving Job Trends in Scotland

Problem Solving
UK > Scotland

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in Scotland requiring Problem-Solving skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 15 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 6 18
Rank change year-on-year -3 +12 +1
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 349 397 434
As % of all permanent jobs in Scotland 12.59% 15.49% 13.83%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 15.79% 16.67% 14.73%
Number of salaries quoted 190 162 258
10th Percentile £25,684 £29,525 £28,125
25th Percentile £28,250 £35,000 £35,969
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £33,500 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -33.00% - -16.00%
75th Percentile £54,313 £70,000 £67,070
90th Percentile £72,750 £95,000 £84,056
UK median annual salary £45,203 £55,000 £52,510
% change year-on-year -17.81% +4.74% -8.68%

All Process & Methodology Skills
Scotland

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 Scotland.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 2,210 2,381 2,946
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in Scotland 79.75% 92.90% 93.88%
Number of salaries quoted 1,079 1,002 1,801
10th Percentile £26,250 £32,275 £25,000
25th Percentile £30,529 £41,250 £33,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,000 £55,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -23.64% +4.76% -8.70%
75th Percentile £65,000 £70,000 £68,750
90th Percentile £82,500 £88,750 £84,056
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%

Problem-Solving
Job Vacancy Trend in Scotland

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Problem-Solving relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in Scotland.

Problem-Solving job vacancy trend in Scotland

Problem-Solving
Salary Trend in Scotland

Salary distribution trend for jobs in Scotland citing Problem-Solving.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in Scotland citing Problem-Solving

Problem-Solving
Salary Histogram in Scotland

Salary distribution for jobs citing Problem-Solving in Scotland over the 6 months to 15 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Problem-Solving in Scotland

Problem-Solving
Job Locations in Scotland

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Problem-Solving within the Scotland region over the 6 months to 15 January 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
Edinburgh -9 146 £31,000 -52.31% 45
Glasgow +1 86 £42,000 +0.60% 28
Aberdeen -1 18 £40,000 -20.00% 28
West Lothian +11 16 £52,500 -59.62% 6
North Lanarkshire -4 10 £28,750 - 2
Midlothian -5 10 £25,684 +16.86% 21
Dundee - 10 £33,500 -
Perth and Kinross -4 7 £33,500 +8.06% 1
Renfrewshire - 7 £42,500 - 3
Lanarkshire -4 6 £27,500 -15.38% 21
Highlands -2 5 - - 2
Stirling -6 5 £54,500 +14.74% 2
South Lanarkshire -4 4 - - 3
West Dunbartonshire - 3 £16,000 -
East Lothian -4 2 £25,684 -20.97%
Fife -4 2 £36,000 -15.29% 5
Ayrshire - 2 - -
North Ayrshire - 2 - -
East Ayrshire - 2 - -
Moray +3 1 - - 1
Inverclyde 0 1 - -
Argyll and Bute - 1 £28,500 -
Problem-Solving
UK

Problem-Solving
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Scotland 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 7 (2.01%) SharePoint
2 5 (1.43%) Confluence
2 5 (1.43%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (1.15%) Apache Airflow
4 3 (0.86%) Exchange Server 2013
5 2 (0.57%) WebSphere
5 2 (0.57%) WebSphere Application Server
6 1 (0.29%) Exchange Server 2007
6 1 (0.29%) Exchange Server 2010
6 1 (0.29%) FileNet
Applications
1 13 (3.72%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (3.44%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (1.15%) MS Visio
3 4 (1.15%) Oracle Smart View
4 2 (0.57%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.57%) Weka
5 1 (0.29%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.29%) Mathcad
5 1 (0.29%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 9 (2.58%) Oracle Payables
1 9 (2.58%) Oracle Receivables
2 8 (2.29%) Oracle Assets
2 8 (2.29%) Oracle ERP
2 8 (2.29%) Oracle Financials
2 8 (2.29%) Oracle General Ledger
3 4 (1.15%) Hyperion Planning
3 4 (1.15%) Markit EDM
4 1 (0.29%) Elite 3E
Cloud Services
1 87 (24.93%) Azure
2 37 (10.60%) Microsoft 365
3 26 (7.45%) Azure DevOps
4 24 (6.88%) GitHub
5 22 (6.30%) dbt
6 20 (5.73%) AWS
7 19 (5.44%) Snowflake
8 16 (4.58%) SaaS
9 14 (4.01%) Datadog
9 14 (4.01%) GitHub Actions
10 13 (3.72%) Azure Data Factory
11 11 (3.15%) Azure Key Vault
11 11 (3.15%) Entra ID
11 11 (3.15%) Power Platform
12 8 (2.29%) Power Automate
13 7 (2.01%) GitHub Copilot
14 5 (1.43%) Amazon S3
14 5 (1.43%) AWS Lambda
14 5 (1.43%) GCP
14 5 (1.43%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 23 (6.59%) LAN
2 21 (6.02%) Broadband
3 20 (5.73%) Wi-Fi
4 17 (4.87%) VoIP
5 11 (3.15%) DHCP
5 11 (3.15%) DNS
6 9 (2.58%) Firewall
7 6 (1.72%) VPN
7 6 (1.72%) WAN
8 5 (1.43%) Ethernet
8 5 (1.43%) RS-232
8 5 (1.43%) SAN
8 5 (1.43%) TCP/IP
9 4 (1.15%) ATM
9 4 (1.15%) Network Security
10 2 (0.57%) Remote Desktop
10 2 (0.57%) Softphone
10 2 (0.57%) Wireless
11 1 (0.29%) VLAN
11 1 (0.29%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (3.15%) Power BI
1 11 (3.15%) SQL Server
2 8 (2.29%) Data Warehouse
3 7 (2.01%) Amazon RDS
3 7 (2.01%) PostgreSQL
4 6 (1.72%) Oracle BI Publisher
5 4 (1.15%) Amazon Redshift
5 4 (1.15%) Essbase
5 4 (1.15%) Metadata
5 4 (1.15%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 3 (0.86%) Elasticsearch
6 3 (0.86%) Redis
7 2 (0.57%) Azure SQL Database
7 2 (0.57%) Oracle BI EE
7 2 (0.57%) Oracle Database
7 2 (0.57%) Oracle Reports
7 2 (0.57%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 1 (0.29%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 8 (2.29%) Git
1 8 (2.29%) JIRA
1 8 (2.29%) Oracle Forms
2 2 (0.57%) Visual Studio
General
1 190 (54.44%) Social Skills
2 119 (34.10%) Finance
3 87 (24.93%) Analytical Skills
4 39 (11.17%) Banking
5 31 (8.88%) Retail
6 21 (6.02%) Organisational Skills
7 19 (5.44%) Public Sector
8 17 (4.87%) Legal
9 16 (4.58%) Games
9 16 (4.58%) Law
9 16 (4.58%) Telecoms
10 9 (2.58%) Manufacturing
10 9 (2.58%) Marketing
11 8 (2.29%) Electronics
11 8 (2.29%) General Ledger
12 7 (2.01%) Documentation Skills
13 6 (1.72%) Financial Institution
13 6 (1.72%) Fire and Rescue
13 6 (1.72%) Presentation Skills
14 5 (1.43%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 89 (25.50%) Analyst
2 49 (14.04%) IT Support
3 46 (13.18%) Senior
4 33 (9.46%) Quality Analyst
5 32 (9.17%) QA Analyst
6 21 (6.02%) Business Analyst
7 17 (4.87%) IT Assistant
7 17 (4.87%) IT Support Assistant
7 17 (4.87%) Support Assistant
7 17 (4.87%) Trainee
7 17 (4.87%) Trainee Analyst
7 17 (4.87%) Trainee Business Analyst
8 14 (4.01%) Developer
8 14 (4.01%) Development Engineer
9 13 (3.72%) Architect
9 13 (3.72%) Support Analyst
10 12 (3.44%) Applications Support
10 12 (3.44%) Support Engineer
11 11 (3.15%) Applications Engineer
11 11 (3.15%) Azure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (7.45%) .NET
2 14 (4.01%) ADO
3 11 (3.15%) GraphQL
3 11 (3.15%) OAuth
3 11 (3.15%) OpenAPI
3 11 (3.15%) Swagger
4 6 (1.72%) SOAP
5 4 (1.15%) REST
6 3 (0.86%) Django
6 3 (0.86%) Hibernate
6 3 (0.86%) HTML
6 3 (0.86%) React
6 3 (0.86%) RESTful
6 3 (0.86%) Spring
7 2 (0.57%) .NET Framework
7 2 (0.57%) CSS
8 1 (0.29%) AngularJS
8 1 (0.29%) Next.js
8 1 (0.29%) Node.js
8 1 (0.29%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 40 (11.46%) Self-Motivation
2 26 (7.45%) Onboarding
3 20 (5.73%) Management Information System
4 19 (5.44%) Product Ownership
5 16 (4.58%) Analytical Mindset
5 16 (4.58%) Driving Licence
6 8 (2.29%) Renewable Energy
7 7 (2.01%) Low-Code
8 6 (1.72%) Cloud Native
8 6 (1.72%) Data Centre
9 5 (1.43%) FPGA
9 5 (1.43%) Smartphone
9 5 (1.43%) Team-Oriented Environment
9 5 (1.43%) VHDL
10 3 (0.86%) Cyber Threat
10 3 (0.86%) Linux Command Line
10 3 (0.86%) Web Conferencing
11 2 (0.57%) Data Structures
11 2 (0.57%) Embedded Systems
11 2 (0.57%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 42 (12.03%) Windows
2 15 (4.30%) Linux
3 13 (3.72%) Windows Server
4 7 (2.01%) Android
4 7 (2.01%) Unix
5 6 (1.72%) Apple iOS
6 3 (0.86%) Windows Server 2008
6 3 (0.86%) Windows Server 2012
7 2 (0.57%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.29%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.29%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.29%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 115 (32.95%) Continuous Improvement
2 99 (28.37%) Coaching
3 69 (19.77%) Asset Management
4 57 (16.33%) DevOps
5 56 (16.05%) CI/CD
6 51 (14.61%) Customer Service
7 50 (14.33%) Agile
8 40 (11.46%) Mentoring
9 37 (10.60%) ITIL
10 34 (9.74%) Emotional Intelligence
11 32 (9.17%) Change Management
11 32 (9.17%) Project Management
12 26 (7.45%) Stakeholder Management
13 25 (7.16%) AI
14 24 (6.88%) Root Cause Analysis
14 24 (6.88%) Software Engineering
15 23 (6.59%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 22 (6.30%) Business Intelligence
17 21 (6.02%) Business Analysis
17 21 (6.02%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 50 (14.33%) SQL
2 33 (9.46%) Python
3 28 (8.02%) PowerShell
4 19 (5.44%) JavaScript
5 13 (3.72%) C#
6 9 (2.58%) C++
7 5 (1.43%) Java
8 4 (1.15%) Groovy
8 4 (1.15%) Shell Script
9 2 (0.57%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 2 (0.57%) MATLAB
9 2 (0.57%) T-SQL
10 1 (0.29%) Bash
10 1 (0.29%) Perl
10 1 (0.29%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 63 (18.05%) Degree
2 12 (3.44%) Microsoft Certification
3 10 (2.87%) Cisco Certification
4 9 (2.58%) Computer Science Degree
5 8 (2.29%) BPSS Clearance
6 7 (2.01%) CCNA
6 7 (2.01%) Security Cleared
7 6 (1.72%) SC Cleared
8 5 (1.43%) A+ Certification
8 5 (1.43%) ITIL Certification
8 5 (1.43%) MCSE
8 5 (1.43%) Network+ Certification
9 4 (1.15%) AWS Certification
10 3 (0.86%) CCIE
10 3 (0.86%) CISM
10 3 (0.86%) CISSP
10 3 (0.86%) HND
10 3 (0.86%) Master's Degree
11 2 (0.57%) Azure Certification
11 2 (0.57%) CCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 58 (16.62%) QA
2 8 (2.29%) Data Quality
2 8 (2.29%) SLA
3 6 (1.72%) Accessibility
3 6 (1.72%) GDPR
4 3 (0.86%) PCI DSS
5 2 (0.57%) GxP
5 2 (0.57%) ISO 14001
5 2 (0.57%) ISO 9001
5 2 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 19770
5 2 (0.57%) WCAG
6 1 (0.29%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.29%) ISO/IEC 15288
6 1 (0.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 22 (6.30%) Active Directory
2 21 (6.02%) Docker
3 11 (3.15%) Firmware
4 10 (2.87%) Virtual Desktop
5 5 (1.43%) Embedded Firmware
5 5 (1.43%) Hyper-V
5 5 (1.43%) VMware Infrastructure
6 2 (0.57%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.57%) vSphere
7 1 (0.29%) KVM
7 1 (0.29%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 35 (10.03%) Terraform
2 18 (5.16%) Kubernetes
3 14 (4.01%) Grafana
3 14 (4.01%) Microsoft Intune
3 14 (4.01%) Prometheus
4 6 (1.72%) Ansible
5 4 (1.15%) Control-M
6 3 (0.86%) AWS Copilot
6 3 (0.86%) SCCM
7 1 (0.29%) Computer Incident Response Team
7 1 (0.29%) Proxmox
7 1 (0.29%) Puppet
7 1 (0.29%) QRadar
Vendors
1 65 (18.62%) Microsoft
2 21 (6.02%) Cisco
3 19 (5.44%) Oracle
4 16 (4.58%) BT
5 9 (2.58%) Dell
6 8 (2.29%) Apple
7 7 (2.01%) ServiceNow
8 5 (1.43%) Citrix
8 5 (1.43%) EMC
8 5 (1.43%) Freshdesk
8 5 (1.43%) Infor
8 5 (1.43%) Meraki
8 5 (1.43%) VMware
9 4 (1.15%) Ab Initio
9 4 (1.15%) Hyperion
9 4 (1.15%) IBM
9 4 (1.15%) Informatica
10 3 (0.86%) Google
10 3 (0.86%) HP
10 3 (0.86%) SAP