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

6 months to
29 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 3 4
Rank change year-on-year -4 +1 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,338 1,513 2,849
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 8.79% 18.69% 15.84%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.24% 20.84% 19.40%
Number of salaries quoted 1,012 742 1,780
10th Percentile £26,500 £27,000 £25,750
25th Percentile £31,000 £31,250 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £42,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% -5.56% -13.46%
75th Percentile £58,750 £62,500 £61,250
90th Percentile £73,750 £83,750 £72,500
England median annual salary £47,500 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -9.09%

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 10,933 7,261 14,687
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 71.86% 89.71% 81.65%
Number of salaries quoted 7,771 3,638 10,202
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,750 £27,750
25th Percentile £40,000 £35,000 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £81,250 £78,750
England median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -12.00%

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 29 June 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 29 June 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 -8 492 £45,000 - 205
Hampshire -2 313 £40,000 -5.88% 143
Berkshire -4 237 £45,000 -10.00% 78
Surrey -1 225 £42,500 +6.25% 89
Buckinghamshire -9 143 £47,500 +26.67% 77
Kent -3 140 £30,000 -4.76% 53
Oxfordshire -3 112 £35,000 -36.36% 52
East Sussex -4 89 £50,000 - 23
West Sussex -5 66 £50,000 +7.53% 26
Middlesex +5 6 £50,000 -18.37% 9
Isle of Wight -13 2 £42,000 -23.64%
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 41 (3.06%) SharePoint
2 34 (2.54%) Microsoft Exchange
3 19 (1.42%) CMS
4 17 (1.27%) Confluence
5 7 (0.52%) OpenEdge
6 5 (0.37%) WordPress
7 3 (0.22%) Anypoint
7 3 (0.22%) IIS
7 3 (0.22%) OpenStack
7 3 (0.22%) SAS
8 2 (0.15%) Apache
8 2 (0.15%) Gentran
8 2 (0.15%) govService
8 2 (0.15%) Tomcat
Applications
1 95 (7.10%) Microsoft Excel
2 84 (6.28%) Microsoft Office
3 10 (0.75%) Spreadsheet
4 9 (0.67%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 8 (0.60%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.37%) Photoshop
7 4 (0.30%) Adobe Illustrator
7 4 (0.30%) Lightworks
8 3 (0.22%) Microsoft Project
8 3 (0.22%) Simulink
9 2 (0.15%) Chatbot
10 1 (0.075%) AutoCAD
Business Applications
1 13 (0.97%) NetSuite
2 8 (0.60%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.37%) SAP CO
4 4 (0.30%) Dynamics NAV
4 4 (0.30%) Magento
4 4 (0.30%) Raiser’s Edge
5 3 (0.22%) Infor SunSystems
5 3 (0.22%) Salesforce CRM
6 2 (0.15%) Shopify
7 1 (0.075%) Elite 3E
7 1 (0.075%) HFM
7 1 (0.075%) Payment Gateway
7 1 (0.075%) SAP GRC
7 1 (0.075%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 318 (23.77%) Azure
2 152 (11.36%) Microsoft 365
3 129 (9.64%) AWS
4 81 (6.05%) Power Platform
5 59 (4.41%) SaaS
6 49 (3.66%) Azure DevOps
7 45 (3.36%) GCP
8 35 (2.62%) Entra ID
9 27 (2.02%) IaaS
10 26 (1.94%) PaaS
11 23 (1.72%) Serverless
12 22 (1.64%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 19 (1.42%) GitHub
14 17 (1.27%) Datadog
15 16 (1.20%) Dynamics 365
16 15 (1.12%) OpenShift
17 14 (1.05%) Google Workspace
17 14 (1.05%) Mimecast
18 13 (0.97%) Azure Data Factory
19 11 (0.82%) Asana
Communications & Networking
1 108 (8.07%) Firewall
2 63 (4.71%) DNS
3 49 (3.66%) WAN
4 48 (3.59%) LAN
5 44 (3.29%) VPN
6 39 (2.91%) DHCP
6 39 (2.91%) Wireless
7 37 (2.77%) TCP/IP
8 34 (2.54%) Wi-Fi
9 22 (1.64%) VLAN
9 22 (1.64%) VoIP
10 21 (1.57%) Network Security
11 20 (1.49%) Broadband
12 13 (0.97%) Internet
13 11 (0.82%) HTTP
13 11 (0.82%) SSL
14 7 (0.52%) MQTT
14 7 (0.52%) Remote Desktop
15 6 (0.45%) WLAN
16 5 (0.37%) Hyperconnected
Database & Business Intelligence
1 91 (6.80%) SQL Server
2 68 (5.08%) Power BI
3 23 (1.72%) PostgreSQL
4 21 (1.57%) Data Warehouse
5 19 (1.42%) Relational Database
6 15 (1.12%) OLTP
7 14 (1.05%) NoSQL
8 13 (0.97%) MySQL
8 13 (0.97%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 11 (0.82%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 11 (0.82%) Tableau
10 10 (0.75%) Power Query
11 9 (0.67%) Data Lake
12 7 (0.52%) Looker
13 6 (0.45%) Amazon RDS
13 6 (0.45%) Azure SQL Database
13 6 (0.45%) GIS
14 5 (0.37%) Elasticsearch
15 4 (0.30%) MongoDB
16 3 (0.22%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 63 (4.71%) Git
2 46 (3.44%) JIRA
3 31 (2.32%) GitLab
4 23 (1.72%) Rational DOORS
5 6 (0.45%) Selenium
6 4 (0.30%) Jenkins
7 3 (0.22%) Android Studio
7 3 (0.22%) PetaLinux
7 3 (0.22%) Postman
7 3 (0.22%) Visual Studio
8 2 (0.15%) Appium
8 2 (0.15%) Eclipse
8 2 (0.15%) Eclipse RCP
8 2 (0.15%) JMeter
8 2 (0.15%) JUnit
8 2 (0.15%) Mocha
8 2 (0.15%) PHPUnit
8 2 (0.15%) REST Assured
8 2 (0.15%) Subversion
8 2 (0.15%) Terragrunt
General
1 644 (48.13%) Social Skills
2 364 (27.20%) Analytical Skills
3 199 (14.87%) Finance
4 93 (6.95%) Organisational Skills
5 75 (5.61%) Manufacturing
6 55 (4.11%) Retail
7 54 (4.04%) Electronics
7 54 (4.04%) Telecoms
8 51 (3.81%) Marketing
9 47 (3.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 38 (2.84%) Aerospace
11 36 (2.69%) Law
12 32 (2.39%) Legal
13 31 (2.32%) Influencing Skills
14 29 (2.17%) Documentation Skills
15 26 (1.94%) Public Sector
16 25 (1.87%) Local Government
17 18 (1.35%) Military
18 16 (1.20%) Banking
19 15 (1.12%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 184 (13.75%) Analyst
2 146 (10.91%) IT Support
3 135 (10.09%) Senior
4 132 (9.87%) Developer
5 124 (9.27%) Support Engineer
6 89 (6.65%) IT Engineer
7 73 (5.46%) Support Analyst
8 69 (5.16%) Systems Engineer
9 65 (4.86%) Software Engineer
10 57 (4.26%) IT Support Engineer
10 57 (4.26%) Lead
11 56 (4.19%) Technical Support
12 55 (4.11%) Support Technician
13 48 (3.59%) 2nd Line Support
14 43 (3.21%) IT Technician
14 43 (3.21%) Technical Engineer
14 43 (3.21%) Technical Support Engineer
15 39 (2.91%) Architect
16 36 (2.69%) 1st Line Support
17 35 (2.62%) Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 83 (6.20%) .NET
2 58 (4.33%) HTML
3 49 (3.66%) SOAP
4 42 (3.14%) REST
5 37 (2.77%) CSS
6 35 (2.62%) JSON
7 34 (2.54%) XML
8 32 (2.39%) React
9 25 (1.87%) ASP.NET
10 19 (1.42%) Middleware
11 18 (1.35%) ASP.NET Core
11 18 (1.35%) OAuth
11 18 (1.35%) RESTful
12 17 (1.27%) Vue
13 16 (1.20%) HTML5
14 15 (1.12%) RabbitMQ
15 14 (1.05%) ARM Templates
15 14 (1.05%) CSS3
16 13 (0.97%) AngularJS
16 13 (0.97%) Sass
Miscellaneous
1 86 (6.43%) Driving Licence
2 68 (5.08%) Self-Motivation
3 64 (4.78%) Onboarding
4 61 (4.56%) Management Information System
5 47 (3.51%) Cloud Native
6 36 (2.69%) Product Ownership
7 27 (2.02%) Distributed Systems
8 25 (1.87%) Analytical Mindset
9 18 (1.35%) Robotics
10 17 (1.27%) NHS
10 17 (1.27%) Social Media
11 16 (1.20%) Low-Code
12 15 (1.12%) EPoS
13 14 (1.05%) Security Posture
14 13 (0.97%) Legacy Systems
15 12 (0.90%) Client/Server
16 11 (0.82%) Clustering
16 11 (0.82%) Enterprise Software
16 11 (0.82%) Video Editing
16 11 (0.82%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 211 (15.77%) Windows
2 110 (8.22%) Linux
3 70 (5.23%) Windows Server
4 21 (1.57%) Mac OS
5 19 (1.42%) Android
5 19 (1.42%) CentOS
6 17 (1.27%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 17 (1.27%) Windows Server 2019
7 13 (0.97%) Ubuntu
8 11 (0.82%) Windows Server 2016
9 7 (0.52%) Debian
10 6 (0.45%) Apple iOS
11 5 (0.37%) VMS
12 4 (0.30%) Windows 10
12 4 (0.30%) Windows Server 2012
13 3 (0.22%) FreeRTOS
13 3 (0.22%) Gentoo
13 3 (0.22%) Windows 7
14 2 (0.15%) Unix
15 1 (0.075%) FreeBSD
Processes & Methodologies
1 258 (19.28%) Continuous Improvement
2 238 (17.79%) Customer Service
3 179 (13.38%) Agile
4 152 (11.36%) CI/CD
5 143 (10.69%) DevOps
6 141 (10.54%) Decision-Making
7 138 (10.31%) Software Engineering
8 124 (9.27%) Project Management
9 123 (9.19%) AI
10 119 (8.89%) Cybersecurity
11 114 (8.52%) Mentoring
12 109 (8.15%) Project Delivery
13 107 (8.00%) Computer Science
14 106 (7.92%) Collaborative Working
15 102 (7.62%) Analytics
16 100 (7.47%) ITIL
16 100 (7.47%) Stakeholder Management
17 96 (7.17%) Business Intelligence
18 88 (6.58%) Logistics
19 82 (6.13%) CRM
Programming Languages
1 215 (16.07%) Python
2 211 (15.77%) SQL
3 111 (8.30%) C#
4 89 (6.65%) JavaScript
4 89 (6.65%) PowerShell
5 55 (4.11%) C++
6 53 (3.96%) Java
7 40 (2.99%) TypeScript
8 32 (2.39%) Bash
8 32 (2.39%) C
9 26 (1.94%) PHP
10 17 (1.27%) PL/SQL
11 15 (1.12%) Rust
12 13 (0.97%) Ruby
13 11 (0.82%) T-SQL
14 10 (0.75%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 10 (0.75%) Perl
15 8 (0.60%) Bicep
16 7 (0.52%) Apex Code
16 7 (0.52%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 249 (18.61%) Degree
2 89 (6.65%) Security Cleared
3 81 (6.05%) DBS Check
4 58 (4.33%) SC Cleared
5 53 (3.96%) Computer Science Degree
6 41 (3.06%) Microsoft Certification
7 38 (2.84%) BPSS Clearance
8 31 (2.32%) ACCA
9 30 (2.24%) CIMA
9 30 (2.24%) HNC
10 28 (2.09%) Chartered Engineer
11 22 (1.64%) PMI Certification
12 20 (1.49%) A+ Certification
12 20 (1.49%) Azure Certification
12 20 (1.49%) PMP
13 17 (1.27%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 17 (1.27%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
14 14 (1.05%) CCNA
14 14 (1.05%) Cisco Certification
14 14 (1.05%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 108 (8.07%) QA
2 57 (4.26%) Data Quality
3 50 (3.74%) GDPR
4 37 (2.77%) SLA
5 27 (2.02%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 24 (1.79%) Accessibility
7 20 (1.49%) PCI DSS
8 14 (1.05%) Good Clinical Practice
8 14 (1.05%) NIST
9 13 (0.97%) PMO
10 11 (0.82%) Cyber Essentials
11 8 (0.60%) SOC 2
12 5 (0.37%) 21 CFR Part 11
12 5 (0.37%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 5 (0.37%) GLP
12 5 (0.37%) GMP
12 5 (0.37%) GxP
12 5 (0.37%) ISO 9001
13 4 (0.30%) Def Stans
13 4 (0.30%) ISO 26262
System Software
1 122 (9.12%) Active Directory
2 64 (4.78%) Docker
3 48 (3.59%) VMware Infrastructure
4 47 (3.51%) Hyper-V
5 10 (0.75%) KVM
6 6 (0.45%) vSphere
7 5 (0.37%) ClearTrust
7 5 (0.37%) VMware ESXi
7 5 (0.37%) XenApp
8 4 (0.30%) Firmware
8 4 (0.30%) Virtual Desktop
8 4 (0.30%) Virtual Machines
9 3 (0.22%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 2 (0.15%) VMware NSX
11 1 (0.075%) Embedded Firmware
11 1 (0.075%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 1 (0.075%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.075%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 69 (5.16%) Kubernetes
1 69 (5.16%) Terraform
2 37 (2.77%) Microsoft Intune
3 34 (2.54%) Ansible
4 18 (1.35%) SCCM
5 16 (1.20%) Grafana
6 13 (0.97%) Prometheus
7 12 (0.90%) Nagios
8 8 (0.60%) Podman
9 7 (0.52%) Failover Clustering
9 7 (0.52%) ZABBIX
10 6 (0.45%) vCenter Server
11 5 (0.37%) Docker Swarm
11 5 (0.37%) Graylog
12 4 (0.30%) Functional Safety
12 4 (0.30%) Jamf Pro
12 4 (0.30%) Puppet
13 2 (0.15%) Nessus
13 2 (0.15%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
14 1 (0.075%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 378 (28.25%) Microsoft
2 56 (4.19%) VMware
3 43 (3.21%) Google
4 41 (3.06%) Oracle
5 27 (2.02%) Cisco
5 27 (2.02%) Salesforce
6 25 (1.87%) Databricks
7 24 (1.79%) Veeam
8 21 (1.57%) Fortinet
9 18 (1.35%) Instagram
10 17 (1.27%) SAP
11 16 (1.20%) Aruba
11 16 (1.20%) SonicWALL
11 16 (1.20%) Splunk
12 15 (1.12%) Red Hat
13 14 (1.05%) Adobe
13 14 (1.05%) Sage
14 13 (0.97%) ServiceNow
15 12 (0.90%) Palo Alto
16 11 (0.82%) Dynatrace