Problem-Solving Job Trends in the South East

Problem Solving
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the South East requiring Problem-Solving skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 5 4 5
Rank change year-on-year -1 +1 +2
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,960 1,657 1,846
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 10.28% 18.54% 15.44%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 14.19% 21.02% 18.95%
Number of salaries quoted 1,350 895 815
10th Percentile £27,000 £26,500 £28,000
25th Percentile £31,000 £30,500 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £41,585 £40,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.96% -20.00% -
75th Percentile £56,250 £60,000 £67,500
90th Percentile £67,500 £75,000 £83,750
England median annual salary £46,000 £45,000 £53,450
% change year-on-year +2.22% -15.81% -2.82%

All Process & Methodology Skills
South East

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 the South East.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 13,817 7,884 9,741
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 72.49% 88.22% 81.47%
Number of salaries quoted 9,808 4,274 5,139
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,000 £32,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £47,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +15.79% -13.64% -
75th Percentile £70,000 £66,250 £70,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £82,500 £85,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -1.32%

Problem-Solving
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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

Problem-Solving job vacancy trend in the South East

Problem-Solving
Salary Trend in the South East

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Problem-Solving.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Problem-Solving

Problem-Solving
Salary Histogram in the South East

Salary distribution for jobs citing Problem-Solving in the South East over the 6 months to 14 October 2026.

Salary histogram for Problem-Solving in the South East

Problem-Solving
Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Problem-Solving within the South East region over the 6 months to 14 October 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
Thames Valley -1 740 £42,500 +6.25% 407
Hampshire -1 496 £40,000 -2.44% 234
Berkshire -2 336 £42,250 +3.05% 224
Surrey +1 297 £38,750 -3.13% 139
Kent -1 219 £40,000 +14.29% 47
Buckinghamshire -4 211 £42,500 +13.33% 89
Oxfordshire +5 193 £44,000 +3.53% 101
East Sussex 0 92 £50,000 +20.48% 34
West Sussex -8 89 £45,000 -10.89% 61
Middlesex +5 14 £35,000 -6.67% 1
Sussex -12 7 £65,000 +52.94% 12
Isle of Wight -9 3 £42,500 +3.66% 1
M4 Corridor - 1 - -
Problem-Solving
England

Problem-Solving
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 97 (4.95%) SharePoint
2 69 (3.52%) Microsoft Exchange
3 17 (0.87%) IIS
4 15 (0.77%) Confluence
5 7 (0.36%) CMS
5 7 (0.36%) OpenEdge
6 6 (0.31%) Apache
7 5 (0.26%) nginx
7 5 (0.26%) WordPress
8 3 (0.15%) SAS
9 2 (0.10%) Oracle Workflow
9 2 (0.10%) Tomcat
10 1 (0.051%) Apache Spark
10 1 (0.051%) ArchestrA
10 1 (0.051%) FactoryTalk
Applications
1 152 (7.76%) Microsoft Office
2 120 (6.12%) Microsoft Excel
3 22 (1.12%) AutoCAD
4 16 (0.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 16 (0.82%) Microsoft Project
5 12 (0.61%) Spreadsheet
6 11 (0.56%) MS Visio
7 9 (0.46%) Revit
7 9 (0.46%) Simulink
8 7 (0.36%) Lightworks
9 6 (0.31%) SOLIDWORKS
10 5 (0.26%) EPLAN
10 5 (0.26%) Mathematica
11 3 (0.15%) Chatbot
12 2 (0.10%) CATIA
12 2 (0.10%) Mathcad
12 2 (0.10%) Photoshop
12 2 (0.10%) PTC Creo
12 2 (0.10%) Siemens NX
12 2 (0.10%) Solid Edge
Business Applications
1 24 (1.22%) NetSuite
2 19 (0.97%) Shopify
3 15 (0.77%) Dynamics CRM
4 7 (0.36%) Primavera
5 6 (0.31%) Raiser’s Edge
6 4 (0.20%) Magento
7 3 (0.15%) FastStats
7 3 (0.15%) FastStats PeopleStage
7 3 (0.15%) Payment Gateway
7 3 (0.15%) Sage X3
7 3 (0.15%) SAP MDG
7 3 (0.15%) SAP MDG-M
8 2 (0.10%) Academy Housing
8 2 (0.10%) Adobe Campaign
8 2 (0.10%) Eloqua
8 2 (0.10%) Oracle Applications
8 2 (0.10%) SAP SD
8 2 (0.10%) Siebel CRM
8 2 (0.10%) Workday HCM
9 1 (0.051%) Oracle CRM
Cloud Services
1 380 (19.39%) Azure
2 274 (13.98%) Microsoft 365
3 178 (9.08%) AWS
4 107 (5.46%) Power Platform
5 92 (4.69%) Entra ID
6 78 (3.98%) SaaS
7 52 (2.65%) GCP
8 44 (2.24%) Azure DevOps
9 37 (1.89%) Google Workspace
10 35 (1.79%) GitHub
11 30 (1.53%) Serverless
12 26 (1.33%) OneDrive
13 19 (0.97%) Anthropic Claude
14 15 (0.77%) Dynamics 365
15 14 (0.71%) Amazon ECS
15 14 (0.71%) AWS CloudFormation
15 14 (0.71%) Google Analytics
15 14 (0.71%) PaaS
16 13 (0.66%) GitHub Actions
16 13 (0.66%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 168 (8.57%) Firewall
2 96 (4.90%) DNS
3 79 (4.03%) VPN
4 73 (3.72%) DHCP
5 70 (3.57%) VLAN
6 63 (3.21%) TCP/IP
7 58 (2.96%) Wi-Fi
8 57 (2.91%) LAN
8 57 (2.91%) WAN
9 53 (2.70%) Wireless
10 39 (1.99%) Network Security
11 37 (1.89%) VoIP
12 18 (0.92%) SSL
13 14 (0.71%) 5G
13 14 (0.71%) Internet
14 12 (0.61%) MQTT
15 10 (0.51%) Ethernet
16 9 (0.46%) Broadband
16 9 (0.46%) WLAN
17 8 (0.41%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 125 (6.38%) SQL Server
2 87 (4.44%) Power BI
3 33 (1.68%) Relational Database
4 32 (1.63%) MySQL
5 29 (1.48%) PostgreSQL
6 26 (1.33%) NoSQL
7 15 (0.77%) Data Warehouse
8 13 (0.66%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 12 (0.61%) GIS
10 11 (0.56%) Amazon RDS
11 10 (0.51%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 9 (0.46%) MongoDB
13 8 (0.41%) Tableau
14 7 (0.36%) Azure SQL Database
14 7 (0.36%) DynamoDB
14 7 (0.36%) Metadata
15 6 (0.31%) OLTP
15 6 (0.31%) Power Query
16 5 (0.26%) Electronic Patient Records
16 5 (0.26%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 65 (3.32%) Git
2 57 (2.91%) JIRA
3 17 (0.87%) Claude Code
3 17 (0.87%) Rational DOORS
4 15 (0.77%) GitLab
5 13 (0.66%) Oracle Forms
5 13 (0.66%) Team Foundation Server
6 6 (0.31%) Selenium
7 5 (0.26%) Eclipse
7 5 (0.26%) Eclipse RCP
7 5 (0.26%) Jenkins
7 5 (0.26%) Visual Studio
8 4 (0.20%) LabVIEW
8 4 (0.20%) PetaLinux
8 4 (0.20%) Postman
8 4 (0.20%) Terragrunt
9 3 (0.15%) Mocha
9 3 (0.15%) PHPUnit
9 3 (0.15%) SpecFlow
9 3 (0.15%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 1,019 (51.99%) Social Skills
2 510 (26.02%) Analytical Skills
3 303 (15.46%) Finance
4 236 (12.04%) Manufacturing
5 213 (10.87%) Organisational Skills
6 158 (8.06%) Aerospace
7 140 (7.14%) Electronics
8 111 (5.66%) Retail
9 73 (3.72%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 64 (3.27%) Marketing
11 62 (3.16%) Influencing Skills
12 56 (2.86%) Legal
13 53 (2.70%) Public Sector
14 45 (2.30%) Military
15 44 (2.24%) Telecoms
16 37 (1.89%) Law
17 31 (1.58%) Aviation
18 27 (1.38%) Automotive
18 27 (1.38%) Presentation Skills
19 26 (1.33%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 258 (13.16%) Analyst
2 193 (9.85%) Senior
3 174 (8.88%) IT Support
4 166 (8.47%) Developer
5 145 (7.40%) Support Analyst
6 135 (6.89%) Support Engineer
7 96 (4.90%) Lead
8 94 (4.80%) IT Engineer
9 86 (4.39%) Technical Support
10 76 (3.88%) Support Technician
11 73 (3.72%) Systems Engineer
12 70 (3.57%) Software Engineer
13 67 (3.42%) IT Support Engineer
14 61 (3.11%) Technical Engineer
15 60 (3.06%) IT Analyst
16 59 (3.01%) Technical Support Engineer
17 55 (2.81%) 2nd Line Support
18 54 (2.76%) Consultant
19 53 (2.70%) IT Technician
20 51 (2.60%) 1st Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 122 (6.22%) .NET
2 75 (3.83%) Terraform
3 73 (3.72%) HTML
4 58 (2.96%) ASP.NET
5 55 (2.81%) CSS
5 55 (2.81%) REST
6 54 (2.76%) React
7 43 (2.19%) SOAP
8 38 (1.94%) ASP.NET Core
9 32 (1.63%) AngularJS
10 29 (1.48%) RESTful
10 29 (1.48%) Vue
11 27 (1.38%) ModSecurity
12 26 (1.33%) OAuth
12 26 (1.33%) XML
13 25 (1.28%) ASP.NET Web Forms
13 25 (1.28%) JSON
14 24 (1.22%) ASP.NET Web API
15 23 (1.17%) jQuery
16 21 (1.07%) LESS
Miscellaneous
1 173 (8.83%) Driving Licence
2 136 (6.94%) Onboarding
3 119 (6.07%) Management Information System
4 103 (5.26%) Self-Motivation
5 66 (3.37%) Cloud Native
6 54 (2.76%) Product Ownership
7 41 (2.09%) Data Centre
7 41 (2.09%) Robotics
8 33 (1.68%) Enterprise Software
9 32 (1.63%) Social Media
10 31 (1.58%) Analogue Electronics
11 27 (1.38%) CCTV
11 27 (1.38%) Legacy Systems
12 23 (1.17%) Analytical Mindset
13 21 (1.07%) Distributed Systems
14 19 (0.97%) Mobile App
14 19 (0.97%) Renewable Energy
15 18 (0.92%) IoT
16 16 (0.82%) Embedded Systems
16 16 (0.82%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 310 (15.82%) Windows
2 116 (5.92%) Windows Server
3 106 (5.41%) Linux
4 28 (1.43%) Android
5 26 (1.33%) Windows 10
6 22 (1.12%) macOS
7 19 (0.97%) Apple iOS
7 19 (0.97%) Windows Server 2019
8 13 (0.66%) Ubuntu
9 9 (0.46%) Rocky
9 9 (0.46%) Windows Server 2016
10 7 (0.36%) Windows Server 2012
11 6 (0.31%) Debian
12 5 (0.26%) CentOS
12 5 (0.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 4 (0.20%) FreeRTOS
13 4 (0.20%) Windows 7
14 3 (0.15%) Gentoo
14 3 (0.15%) Unix
15 2 (0.10%) Embedded Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 467 (23.83%) Continuous Improvement
2 394 (20.10%) Customer Service
3 231 (11.79%) Agile
3 231 (11.79%) Stakeholder Management
4 221 (11.28%) Decision-Making
5 204 (10.41%) Project Management
6 202 (10.31%) AI
7 197 (10.05%) Project Delivery
8 184 (9.39%) Collaborative Working
9 167 (8.52%) ITIL
10 159 (8.11%) Software Engineering
11 157 (8.01%) CI/CD
12 155 (7.91%) Mentoring
13 153 (7.81%) Cybersecurity
14 151 (7.70%) CRM
15 150 (7.65%) Validation
16 132 (6.73%) DevOps
17 124 (6.33%) Process Improvement
17 124 (6.33%) Technical Leadership
18 122 (6.22%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 232 (11.84%) SQL
2 197 (10.05%) Python
3 140 (7.14%) C#
4 113 (5.77%) JavaScript
5 95 (4.85%) PowerShell
6 73 (3.72%) C++
7 67 (3.42%) TypeScript
8 58 (2.96%) Java
9 29 (1.48%) C
10 25 (1.28%) Bash
10 25 (1.28%) Ruby
11 24 (1.22%) T-SQL
12 21 (1.07%) MATLAB
13 18 (0.92%) VB.NET
14 17 (0.87%) PHP
15 12 (0.61%) Rust
16 11 (0.56%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 10 (0.51%) ABAP
18 9 (0.46%) PL/SQL
19 8 (0.41%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 394 (20.10%) Degree
2 216 (11.02%) Security Cleared
3 148 (7.55%) SC Cleared
4 123 (6.28%) DBS Check
5 72 (3.67%) HNC
6 65 (3.32%) HND
6 65 (3.32%) Microsoft Certification
7 60 (3.06%) Azure Certification
7 60 (3.06%) Computer Science Degree
7 60 (3.06%) DV Cleared
8 59 (3.01%) BPSS Clearance
9 32 (1.63%) CISSP
10 29 (1.48%) Chartered Engineer
10 29 (1.48%) Master's Degree
11 26 (1.33%) A+ Certification
11 26 (1.33%) AWS Certification
11 26 (1.33%) PMI Certification
12 25 (1.28%) CISM
13 22 (1.12%) Network+ Certification
13 22 (1.12%) NVQ Level 3
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 145 (7.40%) QA
2 72 (3.67%) GDPR
3 49 (2.50%) Data Quality
4 48 (2.45%) Accessibility
5 47 (2.40%) SLA
6 40 (2.04%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 23 (1.17%) DO-254
7 23 (1.17%) NIST
8 21 (1.07%) PMO
9 20 (1.02%) Cyber Essentials
10 18 (0.92%) Good Clinical Practice
11 15 (0.77%) ISO 9001
12 14 (0.71%) PCI DSS
13 12 (0.61%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 9 (0.46%) 21 CFR Part 11
14 9 (0.46%) GMP
14 9 (0.46%) GxP
15 8 (0.41%) GLP
16 7 (0.36%) SOC 2
17 5 (0.26%) Def Stans
System Software
1 180 (9.18%) Active Directory
2 86 (4.39%) VMware Infrastructure
3 68 (3.47%) Hyper-V
4 59 (3.01%) Docker
5 22 (1.12%) Firmware
6 9 (0.46%) Virtual Desktop
6 9 (0.46%) Virtual Servers
6 9 (0.46%) VMware ESXi
7 7 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
7 7 (0.36%) vSphere
8 6 (0.31%) Embedded Firmware
9 5 (0.26%) ClearTrust
9 5 (0.26%) Squid
10 3 (0.15%) KVM
10 3 (0.15%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 1 (0.051%) LXC
11 1 (0.051%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 73 (3.72%) Microsoft Intune
2 66 (3.37%) Kubernetes
3 29 (1.48%) Ansible
4 21 (1.07%) SCCM
5 17 (0.87%) Jamf Pro
5 17 (0.87%) Single Sign-On
6 11 (0.56%) Grafana
7 10 (0.51%) Prometheus
8 8 (0.41%) Failover Clustering
8 8 (0.41%) Nagios
8 8 (0.41%) Podman
9 6 (0.31%) Functional Safety
9 6 (0.31%) Graylog
10 5 (0.26%) BMC PATROL
10 5 (0.26%) Puppet
10 5 (0.26%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 4 (0.20%) Docker Swarm
12 2 (0.10%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
12 2 (0.10%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
12 2 (0.10%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 606 (30.92%) Microsoft
2 105 (5.36%) VMware
3 87 (4.44%) Google
4 56 (2.86%) SAP
5 54 (2.76%) Oracle
6 46 (2.35%) Veeam
7 42 (2.14%) Fortinet
8 41 (2.09%) SonicWALL
9 40 (2.04%) Cisco
10 38 (1.94%) ServiceNow
11 31 (1.58%) Salesforce
12 22 (1.12%) Apple
12 22 (1.12%) Palo Alto
13 21 (1.07%) Thales
14 20 (1.02%) Sage
15 19 (0.97%) Mentor Graphics
16 17 (0.87%) EMC
16 17 (0.87%) WatchGuard
17 16 (0.82%) Aruba
18 15 (0.77%) Citrix