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

6 months to
22 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 6 3 4
Rank change year-on-year -3 +1 +3
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,338 1,561 1,851
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 12.60% 17.41% 18.33%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 15.80% 19.67% 20.99%
Number of salaries quoted 898 712 1,032
10th Percentile £26,425 £29,775 £26,250
25th Percentile £30,250 £37,313 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £41,000 £52,500 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -21.90% +10.53% -13.64%
75th Percentile £60,000 £71,250 £63,750
90th Percentile £73,750 £83,750 £75,225
England median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -18.18% +4.76% -5.45%

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 8,466 7,934 8,819
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 79.70% 88.50% 87.34%
Number of salaries quoted 5,099 3,728 6,353
10th Percentile £27,750 £32,750 £29,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £45,000 £38,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £58,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -13.79% +10.48% -4.55%
75th Percentile £65,000 £75,000 £65,250
90th Percentile £80,000 £85,000 £80,000
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -8.00%

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 22 January 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 22 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
Thames Valley -2 571 £45,000 -25.00% 479
Berkshire +6 380 £45,000 -33.33% 281
Hampshire +3 294 £37,500 -25.00% 163
Surrey -11 178 £38,000 -33.91% 129
Kent -9 122 £30,000 -23.08% 116
Buckinghamshire -10 121 £52,500 -12.50% 106
East Sussex +1 70 £55,000 +10.00% 74
Oxfordshire -6 70 £34,500 -23.50% 94
West Sussex -2 57 £60,000 +26.32% 79
Middlesex -15 19 £47,500 +41.79% 23
Isle of Wight +10 18 £42,000 - 56
Sussex -5 3 £35,000 - 7
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 48 (3.59%) SharePoint
2 37 (2.77%) Microsoft Exchange
3 24 (1.79%) IIS
4 12 (0.90%) CMS
5 8 (0.60%) Confluence
5 8 (0.60%) WordPress
6 4 (0.30%) Apache Airflow
6 4 (0.30%) SAS
7 3 (0.22%) govService
7 3 (0.22%) HCL Domino
7 3 (0.22%) HCL Notes
8 2 (0.15%) Anypoint
8 2 (0.15%) ArcGIS
9 1 (0.075%) Apache
9 1 (0.075%) Apache Spark
9 1 (0.075%) nginx
9 1 (0.075%) OpenStack
9 1 (0.075%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 146 (10.91%) Microsoft Excel
2 132 (9.87%) Microsoft Office
3 19 (1.42%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 15 (1.12%) Spreadsheet
5 12 (0.90%) Photoshop
6 11 (0.82%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 9 (0.67%) Adobe Illustrator
7 9 (0.67%) Adobe Premiere
8 6 (0.45%) MS Visio
9 5 (0.37%) Adobe After Effects
10 3 (0.22%) Adobe XD
10 3 (0.22%) InDesign
10 3 (0.22%) Notion
11 2 (0.15%) Adobe Captivate
11 2 (0.15%) AutoCAD
11 2 (0.15%) Elementor
12 1 (0.075%) EPLAN
12 1 (0.075%) MicroStation
12 1 (0.075%) ProjectWise
12 1 (0.075%) Revit
Business Applications
1 75 (5.61%) SAP S/4HANA
2 14 (1.05%) Dynamics CRM
2 14 (1.05%) SAP CO
3 12 (0.90%) NetSuite
4 8 (0.60%) JDE EnterpriseOne
5 7 (0.52%) SAP FI
5 7 (0.52%) SAP FI/CO
6 6 (0.45%) Oracle Assets
6 6 (0.45%) Oracle Payables
6 6 (0.45%) Oracle Receivables
7 5 (0.37%) SAP Hybris
8 3 (0.22%) Dynamics NAV
8 3 (0.22%) Sage X3
8 3 (0.22%) Salesforce CRM
9 2 (0.15%) Dynamics AX
9 2 (0.15%) IBM Planning Analytics
9 2 (0.15%) Q-Pulse
9 2 (0.15%) Sage 200
10 1 (0.075%) Raiser’s Edge
10 1 (0.075%) SAP IBP
Cloud Services
1 279 (20.85%) Azure
2 168 (12.56%) Microsoft 365
3 135 (10.09%) Power Platform
4 79 (5.90%) SaaS
5 73 (5.46%) AWS
6 57 (4.26%) Azure DevOps
7 39 (2.91%) Entra ID
8 34 (2.54%) GCP
9 18 (1.35%) PaaS
10 17 (1.27%) IaaS
11 16 (1.20%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 16 (1.20%) Collibra
12 15 (1.12%) Azure Logic Apps
13 14 (1.05%) Figma
13 14 (1.05%) GitHub
14 13 (0.97%) Google Workspace
15 12 (0.90%) Mimecast
15 12 (0.90%) Power Automate
16 11 (0.82%) Stripe
17 10 (0.75%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 91 (6.80%) DNS
2 66 (4.93%) DHCP
3 64 (4.78%) Firewall
4 50 (3.74%) TCP/IP
5 45 (3.36%) VPN
6 31 (2.32%) VLAN
7 24 (1.79%) Wireless
8 16 (1.20%) SAN
9 15 (1.12%) Wi-Fi
10 14 (1.05%) WAN
11 11 (0.82%) LAN
12 9 (0.67%) Intranet
12 9 (0.67%) PuTTY
12 9 (0.67%) SSH
13 8 (0.60%) VoIP
14 7 (0.52%) Broadband
14 7 (0.52%) HTTP
15 6 (0.45%) Remote Desktop
16 4 (0.30%) MPLS
17 3 (0.22%) BGP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 118 (8.82%) Power BI
2 65 (4.86%) Data Lake
3 63 (4.71%) SAP BW
4 56 (4.19%) Relational Database
5 43 (3.21%) SQL Server
6 18 (1.35%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 16 (1.20%) NoSQL
8 15 (1.12%) Data Warehouse
9 12 (0.90%) Power Query
10 11 (0.82%) OLTP
11 8 (0.60%) PostgreSQL
11 8 (0.60%) Tableau
12 7 (0.52%) Big Data
12 7 (0.52%) MySQL
12 7 (0.52%) PowerPivot
13 6 (0.45%) Azure SQL Database
13 6 (0.45%) Hadoop
14 5 (0.37%) Data Mining
14 5 (0.37%) SQL Server Integration Services
15 4 (0.30%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 43 (3.21%) Git
2 39 (2.91%) JIRA
3 24 (1.79%) Selenium
4 15 (1.12%) Robot Framework
5 13 (0.97%) Snyk
6 8 (0.60%) GitLab
6 8 (0.60%) Rational DOORS
6 8 (0.60%) Visual Studio
7 7 (0.52%) Jenkins
8 5 (0.37%) WebDriver
9 4 (0.30%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.15%) LabVIEW
10 2 (0.15%) TestRail
11 1 (0.075%) Appium
11 1 (0.075%) Browser DevTools
11 1 (0.075%) Katalon Studio
11 1 (0.075%) MLflow
11 1 (0.075%) NUnit
11 1 (0.075%) Postman
11 1 (0.075%) REST Assured
General
1 789 (58.97%) Social Skills
2 330 (24.66%) Analytical Skills
3 293 (21.90%) Finance
4 138 (10.31%) Manufacturing
5 108 (8.07%) Marketing
6 82 (6.13%) Retail
7 71 (5.31%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 57 (4.26%) Organisational Skills
9 40 (2.99%) Electronics
10 35 (2.62%) Legal
11 32 (2.39%) Public Sector
12 31 (2.32%) Telecoms
13 26 (1.94%) Law
14 22 (1.64%) Documentation Skills
15 19 (1.42%) Influencing Skills
16 12 (0.90%) Advertising
16 12 (0.90%) Automotive
16 12 (0.90%) Pharmaceutical
16 12 (0.90%) Presentation Skills
17 9 (0.67%) Banking
Job Titles
1 289 (21.60%) Analyst
2 237 (17.71%) Senior
3 197 (14.72%) IT Support
4 150 (11.21%) Support Engineer
5 136 (10.16%) Lead
6 116 (8.67%) Support Analyst
7 95 (7.10%) Developer
8 93 (6.95%) Technical Support
9 77 (5.75%) IT Analyst
10 73 (5.46%) IT Support Analyst
11 68 (5.08%) Senior Analyst
12 57 (4.26%) SAP Analyst
13 53 (3.96%) IT Engineer
14 50 (3.74%) Report Analyst
15 49 (3.66%) 2nd Line Support
16 47 (3.51%) Senior Manager
17 46 (3.44%) IT Support Engineer
18 45 (3.36%) Project Engineer
19 42 (3.14%) Applications Support
19 42 (3.14%) Technical Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 52 (3.89%) .NET
2 44 (3.29%) HTML
3 40 (2.99%) REST
3 40 (2.99%) SOAP
4 28 (2.09%) React
5 26 (1.94%) CSS
6 23 (1.72%) XML
7 19 (1.42%) .NET Framework
8 18 (1.35%) ASP.NET
9 16 (1.20%) JSON
10 14 (1.05%) Middleware
11 13 (0.97%) Entity Framework
11 13 (0.97%) WinForms
12 11 (0.82%) EDI
12 11 (0.82%) Laravel
13 10 (0.75%) DCOM
14 8 (0.60%) ARM Templates
14 8 (0.60%) Lightning Web Components
14 8 (0.60%) Node.js
14 8 (0.60%) OLE
Miscellaneous
1 127 (9.49%) Onboarding
2 68 (5.08%) Driving Licence
3 61 (4.56%) Self-Motivation
4 44 (3.29%) Analytical Mindset
5 41 (3.06%) Management Information System
6 40 (2.99%) Data Centre
7 26 (1.94%) Product Ownership
8 16 (1.20%) Low-Code
9 14 (1.05%) Cloud Native
10 13 (0.97%) Distributed Systems
10 13 (0.97%) Social Media
11 10 (0.75%) Enterprise Software
11 10 (0.75%) Legacy Systems
11 10 (0.75%) Security Operations Centre
11 10 (0.75%) Video Conferencing
12 9 (0.67%) FMCG
13 8 (0.60%) Life Science
13 8 (0.60%) Team-Oriented Environment
14 7 (0.52%) Algorithms
14 7 (0.52%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 250 (18.68%) Windows
2 74 (5.53%) Windows Server
3 61 (4.56%) Linux
4 35 (2.62%) Windows 10
5 15 (1.12%) Android
5 15 (1.12%) Mac OS
5 15 (1.12%) Windows Server 2012
6 12 (0.90%) Windows Server 2019
7 9 (0.67%) VMS
7 9 (0.67%) Windows 7
8 7 (0.52%) Apple iOS
8 7 (0.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 6 (0.45%) CentOS
10 4 (0.30%) Windows Server 2016
11 3 (0.22%) Unix
12 1 (0.075%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.075%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 249 (18.61%) Continuous Improvement
2 203 (15.17%) Customer Service
3 179 (13.38%) Analytics
4 163 (12.18%) Agile
5 147 (10.99%) ERP
6 143 (10.69%) Data Modelling
7 142 (10.61%) Business Intelligence
8 102 (7.62%) DevOps
8 102 (7.62%) Technical Leadership
9 100 (7.47%) SAP Implementation
10 99 (7.40%) Stakeholder Management
11 98 (7.32%) Project Management
12 94 (7.03%) Data Analysis
12 94 (7.03%) Logistics
13 91 (6.80%) Quality Management
14 89 (6.65%) Computer Science
15 86 (6.43%) Cybersecurity
16 84 (6.28%) Mentoring
17 83 (6.20%) Decision-Making
18 76 (5.68%) Translating Business Requirements
Programming Languages
1 225 (16.82%) SQL
2 134 (10.01%) Python
3 77 (5.75%) C#
4 75 (5.61%) PowerShell
5 59 (4.41%) JavaScript
6 35 (2.62%) Java
7 25 (1.87%) PHP
8 22 (1.64%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 16 (1.20%) T-SQL
10 13 (0.97%) PL/SQL
11 12 (0.90%) C++
11 12 (0.90%) TypeScript
12 11 (0.82%) Bicep
13 9 (0.67%) DCL
13 9 (0.67%) Kusto Query Language
13 9 (0.67%) Tcl
14 8 (0.60%) Apex Code
14 8 (0.60%) C
14 8 (0.60%) VBA
15 7 (0.52%) Bash
Qualifications
1 365 (27.28%) Degree
2 103 (7.70%) Security Cleared
3 49 (3.66%) Computer Science Degree
4 47 (3.51%) SC Cleared
5 28 (2.09%) DV Cleared
6 27 (2.02%) ACCA
6 27 (2.02%) Microsoft Certification
7 24 (1.79%) DBS Check
8 22 (1.64%) BPSS Clearance
9 19 (1.42%) CIMA
10 18 (1.35%) A+ Certification
10 18 (1.35%) MCP
11 15 (1.12%) HNC
11 15 (1.12%) Master's Degree
12 10 (0.75%) Chartered Engineer
13 9 (0.67%) HND
14 8 (0.60%) ISTQB
14 8 (0.60%) ITIL Certification
14 8 (0.60%) MCSE
15 7 (0.52%) CEH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 131 (9.79%) Data Quality
2 71 (5.31%) QA
3 47 (3.51%) GDPR
4 25 (1.87%) SLA
5 22 (1.64%) Accessibility
5 22 (1.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 13 (0.97%) Cyber Essentials
7 9 (0.67%) ISO 9001
8 6 (0.45%) PCI DSS
9 5 (0.37%) Actionable Recommendations
9 5 (0.37%) ISO 13485
9 5 (0.37%) NIST
10 4 (0.30%) Software Quality Assurance
11 2 (0.15%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 2 (0.15%) WCAG
12 1 (0.075%) ARP4754
12 1 (0.075%) ARP4761
12 1 (0.075%) DO-178B
12 1 (0.075%) DO-254
12 1 (0.075%) GAAP
System Software
1 157 (11.73%) Active Directory
2 43 (3.21%) Hyper-V
3 33 (2.47%) VMware Infrastructure
4 24 (1.79%) Docker
5 12 (0.90%) VMware ESXi
6 6 (0.45%) KVM
7 3 (0.22%) Firmware
7 3 (0.22%) Virtual Machines
8 2 (0.15%) RHEV
8 2 (0.15%) Virtual Desktop
8 2 (0.15%) Xen
9 1 (0.075%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 58 (4.33%) Microsoft Intune
2 45 (3.36%) Terraform
3 25 (1.87%) Ansible
4 22 (1.64%) Kubernetes
5 18 (1.35%) SCCM
6 16 (1.20%) vCenter Server
7 8 (0.60%) ZABBIX
8 7 (0.52%) Grafana
8 7 (0.52%) Nagios
8 7 (0.52%) Prometheus
9 3 (0.22%) FortiGate
10 2 (0.15%) Nessus
10 2 (0.15%) Proxmox
10 2 (0.15%) Single Sign-On
11 1 (0.075%) CASB
11 1 (0.075%) Dell DRAC
11 1 (0.075%) Kibana
11 1 (0.075%) Netcool
11 1 (0.075%) Netcool/OMNIbus
11 1 (0.075%) Puppet
Vendors
1 351 (26.23%) Microsoft
2 202 (15.10%) SAP
3 51 (3.81%) VMware
4 36 (2.69%) Google
4 36 (2.69%) NEC
5 35 (2.62%) Veeam
6 34 (2.54%) Oracle
7 31 (2.32%) Adobe
8 30 (2.24%) Databricks
8 30 (2.24%) Sage
9 25 (1.87%) Salesforce
10 24 (1.79%) HubSpot
11 21 (1.57%) Cisco
12 18 (1.35%) ServiceNow
13 16 (1.20%) SolarWinds
14 13 (0.97%) 3PAR
14 13 (0.97%) Black Duck
14 13 (0.97%) Coverity
14 13 (0.97%) Meraki
14 13 (0.97%) Xamarin