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

6 months to
14 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 3 5
Rank change year-on-year -4 +2 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,718 1,772 1,975
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 9.39% 19.59% 15.32%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 13.16% 22.27% 18.99%
Number of salaries quoted 1,228 874 963
10th Percentile £27,000 £27,000 £27,752
25th Percentile £31,000 £31,250 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £42,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year - -15.00% -1.96%
75th Percentile £57,500 £60,000 £66,091
90th Percentile £69,125 £77,500 £82,500
England median annual salary £47,000 £45,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +4.44% -14.29% -4.55%

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 13,058 7,956 10,399
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 71.40% 87.96% 80.65%
Number of salaries quoted 9,361 4,212 5,979
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,000 £31,250
25th Percentile £40,000 £33,750 £41,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £68,750
90th Percentile £90,000 £82,500 £82,500
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -7.93%

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 September 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 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
Thames Valley -6 649 £43,000 +1.18% 612
Hampshire -2 434 £40,000 -5.88% 357
Berkshire -5 291 £42,750 +0.59% 299
Surrey -1 259 £40,000 - 198
Buckinghamshire -6 191 £42,500 +13.33% 165
Kent -4 183 £35,000 +11.11% 97
Oxfordshire +3 167 £44,500 +2.30% 153
East Sussex -3 94 £50,000 +5.26% 84
West Sussex -7 75 £47,500 -5.94% 106
Middlesex +5 12 £35,000 -6.67% 32
Sussex -12 5 £65,000 +52.94% 16
Isle of Wight -13 2 £42,500 +3.66% 21
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 79 (4.60%) SharePoint
2 58 (3.38%) Microsoft Exchange
3 18 (1.05%) Confluence
4 16 (0.93%) IIS
5 11 (0.64%) CMS
6 7 (0.41%) OpenEdge
7 6 (0.35%) Apache
8 5 (0.29%) nginx
8 5 (0.29%) WordPress
9 3 (0.17%) OpenStack
9 3 (0.17%) SAS
10 2 (0.12%) Anypoint
10 2 (0.12%) Gentran
10 2 (0.12%) Oracle Workflow
10 2 (0.12%) Tomcat
Applications
1 121 (7.04%) Microsoft Office
2 113 (6.58%) Microsoft Excel
3 18 (1.05%) AutoCAD
4 16 (0.93%) Microsoft Project
5 14 (0.81%) Spreadsheet
6 10 (0.58%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 9 (0.52%) Revit
8 8 (0.47%) MS Visio
9 5 (0.29%) Lightworks
10 4 (0.23%) Simulink
11 3 (0.17%) EPLAN
11 3 (0.17%) Mathematica
11 3 (0.17%) SOLIDWORKS
12 2 (0.12%) Chatbot
12 2 (0.12%) Photoshop
13 1 (0.058%) Mathcad
13 1 (0.058%) OrCAD
13 1 (0.058%) PTC Creo
13 1 (0.058%) Siemens NX
13 1 (0.058%) Solid Edge
Business Applications
1 25 (1.46%) NetSuite
2 18 (1.05%) Shopify
3 16 (0.93%) Dynamics CRM
4 6 (0.35%) Primavera
4 6 (0.35%) Raiser’s Edge
5 5 (0.29%) Magento
6 3 (0.17%) Infor SunSystems
6 3 (0.17%) Payment Gateway
6 3 (0.17%) Sage X3
7 2 (0.12%) Academy Housing
7 2 (0.12%) Eloqua
7 2 (0.12%) Oracle Applications
7 2 (0.12%) Salesforce CRM
7 2 (0.12%) Siebel CRM
7 2 (0.12%) Workday HCM
8 1 (0.058%) Adobe Campaign
8 1 (0.058%) HFM
Cloud Services
1 378 (22.00%) Azure
2 230 (13.39%) Microsoft 365
3 175 (10.19%) AWS
4 97 (5.65%) Power Platform
5 81 (4.71%) Entra ID
6 70 (4.07%) SaaS
7 50 (2.91%) GCP
8 41 (2.39%) Azure DevOps
9 34 (1.98%) GitHub
10 31 (1.80%) Serverless
11 30 (1.75%) Google Workspace
12 18 (1.05%) Anthropic Claude
12 18 (1.05%) Dynamics 365
12 18 (1.05%) IaaS
12 18 (1.05%) PaaS
13 16 (0.93%) OneDrive
14 15 (0.87%) Google Tag Manager
15 14 (0.81%) Amazon ECS
15 14 (0.81%) Azure Synapse Analytics
16 13 (0.76%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 150 (8.73%) Firewall
2 82 (4.77%) DNS
3 68 (3.96%) VPN
4 62 (3.61%) TCP/IP
5 59 (3.43%) DHCP
6 55 (3.20%) VLAN
7 52 (3.03%) WAN
8 51 (2.97%) Wi-Fi
9 50 (2.91%) LAN
10 49 (2.85%) Wireless
11 36 (2.10%) Network Security
11 36 (2.10%) VoIP
12 18 (1.05%) SSL
13 14 (0.81%) Internet
14 10 (0.58%) MQTT
15 9 (0.52%) 5G
15 9 (0.52%) Broadband
15 9 (0.52%) LTE
16 8 (0.47%) HTTP
17 7 (0.41%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 124 (7.22%) SQL Server
2 81 (4.71%) Power BI
3 35 (2.04%) Relational Database
4 30 (1.75%) MySQL
5 29 (1.69%) PostgreSQL
6 24 (1.40%) NoSQL
7 17 (0.99%) Data Warehouse
8 14 (0.81%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 12 (0.70%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 11 (0.64%) Amazon RDS
11 10 (0.58%) Tableau
12 9 (0.52%) MongoDB
13 7 (0.41%) Azure SQL Database
13 7 (0.41%) DynamoDB
13 7 (0.41%) GIS
13 7 (0.41%) OLTP
14 6 (0.35%) Data Lake
14 6 (0.35%) Metadata
15 5 (0.29%) Electronic Patient Records
15 5 (0.29%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 65 (3.78%) Git
2 62 (3.61%) JIRA
3 17 (0.99%) GitLab
3 17 (0.99%) Rational DOORS
4 14 (0.81%) Claude Code
5 11 (0.64%) Oracle Forms
5 11 (0.64%) Team Foundation Server
6 5 (0.29%) Eclipse
6 5 (0.29%) Eclipse RCP
6 5 (0.29%) Jenkins
6 5 (0.29%) Selenium
6 5 (0.29%) Visual Studio
7 4 (0.23%) Postman
7 4 (0.23%) Terragrunt
8 3 (0.17%) PetaLinux
8 3 (0.17%) PHPUnit
8 3 (0.17%) SpecFlow
9 2 (0.12%) Android Studio
9 2 (0.12%) Cucumber
9 2 (0.12%) Mocha
General
1 874 (50.87%) Social Skills
2 471 (27.42%) Analytical Skills
3 266 (15.48%) Finance
4 155 (9.02%) Manufacturing
5 148 (8.61%) Organisational Skills
6 121 (7.04%) Aerospace
7 102 (5.94%) Electronics
8 93 (5.41%) Retail
9 65 (3.78%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 51 (2.97%) Marketing
11 50 (2.91%) Influencing Skills
12 48 (2.79%) Legal
13 47 (2.74%) Telecoms
14 42 (2.44%) Military
15 39 (2.27%) Law
15 39 (2.27%) Public Sector
16 26 (1.51%) Aviation
17 24 (1.40%) Documentation Skills
18 23 (1.34%) Advertising
19 19 (1.11%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 243 (14.14%) Analyst
2 177 (10.30%) Senior
3 164 (9.55%) IT Support
4 155 (9.02%) Developer
5 126 (7.33%) Support Analyst
6 125 (7.28%) Support Engineer
7 93 (5.41%) IT Engineer
8 77 (4.48%) Lead
9 76 (4.42%) Systems Engineer
9 76 (4.42%) Technical Support
10 73 (4.25%) Support Technician
11 72 (4.19%) Software Engineer
12 63 (3.67%) IT Support Engineer
13 56 (3.26%) Technical Engineer
14 55 (3.20%) 2nd Line Support
15 54 (3.14%) Technical Support Engineer
16 52 (3.03%) IT Technician
17 51 (2.97%) Architect
18 50 (2.91%) IT Analyst
19 48 (2.79%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 117 (6.81%) .NET
2 79 (4.60%) Terraform
3 73 (4.25%) HTML
4 63 (3.67%) REST
5 54 (3.14%) CSS
6 53 (3.08%) ASP.NET
7 52 (3.03%) React
8 50 (2.91%) SOAP
9 35 (2.04%) ASP.NET Core
10 30 (1.75%) AngularJS
10 30 (1.75%) OAuth
11 29 (1.69%) RESTful
12 28 (1.63%) Vue
13 27 (1.57%) ModSecurity
14 26 (1.51%) JSON
14 26 (1.51%) XML
15 22 (1.28%) ASP.NET Web API
15 22 (1.28%) jQuery
16 21 (1.22%) LESS
17 19 (1.11%) ASP.NET Web Forms
Miscellaneous
1 128 (7.45%) Driving Licence
2 121 (7.04%) Onboarding
3 93 (5.41%) Management Information System
4 87 (5.06%) Self-Motivation
5 63 (3.67%) Cloud Native
6 49 (2.85%) Product Ownership
7 41 (2.39%) Data Centre
8 32 (1.86%) Robotics
9 30 (1.75%) Social Media
10 29 (1.69%) Enterprise Software
11 27 (1.57%) Legacy Systems
12 25 (1.46%) CCTV
12 25 (1.46%) Distributed Systems
13 24 (1.40%) Analytical Mindset
14 23 (1.34%) Analogue Electronics
15 19 (1.11%) EPoS
16 18 (1.05%) Mobile App
17 16 (0.93%) Cyber Threat
17 16 (0.93%) Security Operations Centre
18 15 (0.87%) Cyber Defence
Operating Systems
1 283 (16.47%) Windows
2 108 (6.29%) Linux
3 100 (5.82%) Windows Server
4 26 (1.51%) Android
5 21 (1.22%) Mac OS
6 19 (1.11%) Windows Server 2019
7 18 (1.05%) Windows 10
8 17 (0.99%) Apple iOS
9 12 (0.70%) Ubuntu
10 10 (0.58%) CentOS
10 10 (0.58%) Windows Server 2016
11 9 (0.52%) Debian
11 9 (0.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 6 (0.35%) Rocky
13 5 (0.29%) Windows Server 2012
14 3 (0.17%) FreeRTOS
14 3 (0.17%) Gentoo
14 3 (0.17%) VMS
14 3 (0.17%) Windows 7
15 2 (0.12%) Embedded Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 377 (21.94%) Continuous Improvement
2 319 (18.57%) Customer Service
3 234 (13.62%) Agile
4 208 (12.11%) Decision-Making
5 184 (10.71%) Stakeholder Management
6 180 (10.48%) Project Management
7 179 (10.42%) AI
8 172 (10.01%) Project Delivery
9 169 (9.84%) Software Engineering
10 157 (9.14%) ITIL
11 156 (9.08%) CI/CD
12 154 (8.96%) Collaborative Working
13 142 (8.27%) Cybersecurity
13 142 (8.27%) DevOps
14 141 (8.21%) Mentoring
15 136 (7.92%) Validation
16 128 (7.45%) CRM
17 124 (7.22%) Computer Science
18 116 (6.75%) Analytics
19 114 (6.64%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 224 (13.04%) SQL
2 198 (11.53%) Python
3 134 (7.80%) C#
4 110 (6.40%) JavaScript
5 95 (5.53%) PowerShell
6 65 (3.78%) C++
7 63 (3.67%) TypeScript
8 60 (3.49%) Java
9 27 (1.57%) C
10 26 (1.51%) Bash
11 22 (1.28%) Ruby
12 20 (1.16%) T-SQL
13 18 (1.05%) PHP
14 16 (0.93%) VB.NET
15 13 (0.76%) MATLAB
16 10 (0.58%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 10 (0.58%) Rust
17 9 (0.52%) PL/SQL
18 8 (0.47%) Perl
19 7 (0.41%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 352 (20.49%) Degree
2 190 (11.06%) Security Cleared
3 133 (7.74%) SC Cleared
4 113 (6.58%) DBS Check
5 64 (3.73%) Computer Science Degree
6 59 (3.43%) DV Cleared
6 59 (3.43%) Microsoft Certification
7 58 (3.38%) HNC
8 57 (3.32%) BPSS Clearance
9 54 (3.14%) Azure Certification
10 53 (3.08%) HND
11 32 (1.86%) CISSP
12 31 (1.80%) Master's Degree
13 30 (1.75%) Chartered Engineer
13 30 (1.75%) PMI Certification
14 28 (1.63%) A+ Certification
15 27 (1.57%) CISM
16 24 (1.40%) PMP
17 23 (1.34%) AWS Certification
18 22 (1.28%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 145 (8.44%) QA
2 69 (4.02%) GDPR
3 55 (3.20%) Data Quality
4 44 (2.56%) SLA
5 43 (2.50%) Accessibility
6 39 (2.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 23 (1.34%) NIST
8 19 (1.11%) Cyber Essentials
9 18 (1.05%) Good Clinical Practice
10 17 (0.99%) PCI DSS
11 16 (0.93%) PMO
12 15 (0.87%) DO-254
13 12 (0.70%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 9 (0.52%) GMP
15 8 (0.47%) 21 CFR Part 11
15 8 (0.47%) GLP
15 8 (0.47%) GxP
15 8 (0.47%) SOC 2
16 5 (0.29%) ISO 9001
16 5 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 154 (8.96%) Active Directory
2 83 (4.83%) VMware Infrastructure
3 62 (3.61%) Docker
3 62 (3.61%) Hyper-V
4 12 (0.70%) Firmware
5 9 (0.52%) VMware ESXi
5 9 (0.52%) vSphere
6 7 (0.41%) Virtual Desktop
7 6 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
8 5 (0.29%) ClearTrust
8 5 (0.29%) Squid
9 4 (0.23%) Embedded Firmware
9 4 (0.23%) KVM
10 3 (0.17%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 3 (0.17%) Virtual Servers
11 1 (0.058%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 1 (0.058%) VMware NSX
11 1 (0.058%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 71 (4.13%) Kubernetes
2 58 (3.38%) Microsoft Intune
3 33 (1.92%) Ansible
4 22 (1.28%) SCCM
5 17 (0.99%) Single Sign-On
6 15 (0.87%) Jamf Pro
7 10 (0.58%) Grafana
8 8 (0.47%) Podman
9 7 (0.41%) Failover Clustering
9 7 (0.41%) Prometheus
9 7 (0.41%) Puppet
10 6 (0.35%) Graylog
10 6 (0.35%) Nagios
11 4 (0.23%) Docker Swarm
11 4 (0.23%) Functional Safety
11 4 (0.23%) vCenter Server
12 3 (0.17%) BMC PATROL
12 3 (0.17%) ZABBIX
13 2 (0.12%) Nessus
13 2 (0.12%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
Vendors
1 529 (30.79%) Microsoft
2 99 (5.76%) VMware
3 79 (4.60%) Google
4 52 (3.03%) Oracle
5 41 (2.39%) SAP
6 39 (2.27%) Fortinet
6 39 (2.27%) SonicWALL
7 37 (2.15%) Cisco
7 37 (2.15%) Veeam
8 35 (2.04%) ServiceNow
9 31 (1.80%) Salesforce
10 23 (1.34%) Sage
11 20 (1.16%) Apple
12 19 (1.11%) Palo Alto
13 16 (0.93%) Aruba
14 15 (0.87%) Mentor Graphics
15 14 (0.81%) CA Agile Central
15 14 (0.81%) Databricks
16 13 (0.76%) Thales
17 12 (0.70%) Okta