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

6 months to
10 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 6 3 5
Rank change year-on-year -3 +2 +7
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,391 1,559 2,650
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 8.92% 18.34% 15.44%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.39% 20.67% 18.88%
Number of salaries quoted 1,051 776 1,726
10th Percentile £26,875 £27,000 £25,750
25th Percentile £31,125 £31,250 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £42,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% -5.56% -12.37%
75th Percentile £58,750 £62,500 £61,875
90th Percentile £73,750 £82,500 £72,500
England median annual salary £47,500 £49,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -3.06% -2.00% -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 11,225 7,541 14,034
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 71.99% 88.71% 81.75%
Number of salaries quoted 7,979 3,942 9,799
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,000 £28,000
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 £80,000
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 10 July 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 10 July 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 -7 513 £43,000 -4.44% 246
Hampshire -2 338 £40,000 -5.88% 131
Berkshire -4 241 £45,000 -10.00% 101
Surrey 0 231 £42,500 +6.25% 78
Buckinghamshire -7 156 £45,250 +20.67% 83
Kent -4 135 £30,000 -4.76% 54
Oxfordshire -1 116 £37,500 -31.82% 67
East Sussex -4 90 £50,000 - 26
West Sussex -6 72 £50,000 +7.53% 31
Middlesex +5 6 £50,000 -16.67% 10
Isle of Wight -10 1 £42,500 -22.73% 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 44 (3.16%) SharePoint
2 38 (2.73%) Microsoft Exchange
3 19 (1.37%) CMS
4 18 (1.29%) Confluence
5 7 (0.50%) OpenEdge
6 5 (0.36%) WordPress
7 4 (0.29%) Apache
8 3 (0.22%) Anypoint
8 3 (0.22%) IIS
8 3 (0.22%) OpenStack
8 3 (0.22%) SAS
9 2 (0.14%) Gentran
9 2 (0.14%) nginx
9 2 (0.14%) Tomcat
10 1 (0.072%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 98 (7.05%) Microsoft Excel
2 86 (6.18%) Microsoft Office
3 10 (0.72%) Spreadsheet
4 9 (0.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 8 (0.58%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.36%) Lightworks
6 5 (0.36%) Photoshop
7 4 (0.29%) Adobe Illustrator
7 4 (0.29%) Microsoft Project
8 3 (0.22%) Simulink
9 2 (0.14%) Chatbot
10 1 (0.072%) AutoCAD
Business Applications
1 13 (0.93%) NetSuite
2 8 (0.58%) Dynamics CRM
3 6 (0.43%) Raiser’s Edge
4 5 (0.36%) Magento
5 3 (0.22%) Infor SunSystems
5 3 (0.22%) Salesforce CRM
5 3 (0.22%) SAP CO
5 3 (0.22%) Shopify
6 2 (0.14%) Dynamics NAV
6 2 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
7 1 (0.072%) Elite 3E
7 1 (0.072%) HFM
7 1 (0.072%) Sage X3
7 1 (0.072%) SAP GRC
7 1 (0.072%) SAP S/4HANA
7 1 (0.072%) Siebel CRM
Cloud Services
1 329 (23.65%) Azure
2 162 (11.65%) Microsoft 365
3 141 (10.14%) AWS
4 83 (5.97%) Power Platform
5 61 (4.39%) SaaS
6 50 (3.59%) GCP
7 46 (3.31%) Azure DevOps
8 42 (3.02%) Entra ID
9 27 (1.94%) IaaS
9 27 (1.94%) Serverless
10 26 (1.87%) PaaS
11 23 (1.65%) GitHub
12 20 (1.44%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 19 (1.37%) Datadog
14 17 (1.22%) Dynamics 365
15 15 (1.08%) OpenShift
16 13 (0.93%) Azure Data Factory
16 13 (0.93%) GitHub Actions
16 13 (0.93%) Google Workspace
16 13 (0.93%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 119 (8.55%) Firewall
2 65 (4.67%) DNS
3 52 (3.74%) VPN
4 51 (3.67%) WAN
5 50 (3.59%) LAN
6 47 (3.38%) TCP/IP
7 42 (3.02%) Wireless
8 39 (2.80%) DHCP
9 36 (2.59%) Wi-Fi
10 26 (1.87%) VLAN
11 24 (1.73%) VoIP
12 21 (1.51%) Network Security
13 17 (1.22%) Broadband
14 13 (0.93%) Internet
15 11 (0.79%) HTTP
15 11 (0.79%) SSL
16 9 (0.65%) MQTT
17 7 (0.50%) Remote Desktop
18 6 (0.43%) WLAN
19 4 (0.29%) Hyperconnected
Database & Business Intelligence
1 96 (6.90%) SQL Server
2 71 (5.10%) Power BI
3 24 (1.73%) PostgreSQL
4 22 (1.58%) Relational Database
5 19 (1.37%) Data Warehouse
6 16 (1.15%) NoSQL
7 14 (1.01%) MySQL
8 13 (0.93%) OLTP
8 13 (0.93%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 12 (0.86%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 12 (0.86%) Tableau
10 9 (0.65%) Data Lake
10 9 (0.65%) Power Query
11 8 (0.58%) Amazon RDS
12 7 (0.50%) Looker
13 6 (0.43%) GIS
13 6 (0.43%) MongoDB
14 5 (0.36%) Azure SQL Database
14 5 (0.36%) DynamoDB
15 4 (0.29%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 65 (4.67%) Git
2 52 (3.74%) JIRA
3 31 (2.23%) GitLab
4 21 (1.51%) Rational DOORS
5 6 (0.43%) Selenium
6 4 (0.29%) Jenkins
7 3 (0.22%) Android Studio
7 3 (0.22%) PetaLinux
7 3 (0.22%) PHPUnit
7 3 (0.22%) Postman
7 3 (0.22%) Visual Studio
8 2 (0.14%) Appium
8 2 (0.14%) Claude Code
8 2 (0.14%) Eclipse
8 2 (0.14%) JMeter
8 2 (0.14%) JUnit
8 2 (0.14%) Mocha
8 2 (0.14%) REST Assured
8 2 (0.14%) Subversion
8 2 (0.14%) Terragrunt
General
1 668 (48.02%) Social Skills
2 376 (27.03%) Analytical Skills
3 205 (14.74%) Finance
4 101 (7.26%) Organisational Skills
5 83 (5.97%) Manufacturing
6 61 (4.39%) Electronics
7 58 (4.17%) Retail
8 56 (4.03%) Telecoms
9 50 (3.59%) Marketing
10 47 (3.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 39 (2.80%) Aerospace
12 36 (2.59%) Law
13 35 (2.52%) Legal
14 32 (2.30%) Influencing Skills
15 29 (2.08%) Documentation Skills
16 26 (1.87%) Public Sector
17 23 (1.65%) Local Government
18 18 (1.29%) Military
19 16 (1.15%) Banking
20 15 (1.08%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 198 (14.23%) Analyst
2 151 (10.86%) IT Support
3 143 (10.28%) Senior
4 130 (9.35%) Developer
5 126 (9.06%) Support Engineer
6 93 (6.69%) IT Engineer
7 84 (6.04%) Support Analyst
8 71 (5.10%) Systems Engineer
9 68 (4.89%) Software Engineer
10 61 (4.39%) Lead
11 59 (4.24%) Technical Support
12 58 (4.17%) IT Support Engineer
12 58 (4.17%) Support Technician
13 52 (3.74%) 2nd Line Support
14 46 (3.31%) Technical Engineer
14 46 (3.31%) Technical Support Engineer
15 44 (3.16%) IT Technician
16 37 (2.66%) 1st Line Support
16 37 (2.66%) Architect
17 35 (2.52%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 84 (6.04%) .NET
2 58 (4.17%) HTML
3 47 (3.38%) SOAP
4 46 (3.31%) REST
5 37 (2.66%) CSS
6 36 (2.59%) JSON
7 33 (2.37%) React
7 33 (2.37%) XML
8 25 (1.80%) ASP.NET
9 21 (1.51%) OAuth
10 20 (1.44%) RESTful
11 19 (1.37%) ASP.NET Core
11 19 (1.37%) Middleware
12 17 (1.22%) Vue
13 16 (1.15%) ARM Templates
13 16 (1.15%) HTML5
13 16 (1.15%) RabbitMQ
14 14 (1.01%) AngularJS
14 14 (1.01%) Kafka
14 14 (1.01%) Sass
Miscellaneous
1 89 (6.40%) Driving Licence
2 71 (5.10%) Self-Motivation
3 68 (4.89%) Onboarding
4 63 (4.53%) Management Information System
5 51 (3.67%) Cloud Native
6 38 (2.73%) Product Ownership
7 32 (2.30%) Distributed Systems
8 26 (1.87%) Analytical Mindset
9 19 (1.37%) Robotics
10 17 (1.22%) NHS
10 17 (1.22%) Social Media
11 15 (1.08%) EPoS
11 15 (1.08%) Security Posture
12 14 (1.01%) Enterprise Software
12 14 (1.01%) Legacy Systems
13 13 (0.93%) Data Centre
14 12 (0.86%) CCTV
14 12 (0.86%) Clustering
15 11 (0.79%) Client/Server
15 11 (0.79%) Video Editing
Operating Systems
1 226 (16.25%) Windows
2 116 (8.34%) Linux
3 77 (5.54%) Windows Server
4 22 (1.58%) Mac OS
5 18 (1.29%) Android
5 18 (1.29%) CentOS
6 16 (1.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 15 (1.08%) Windows Server 2019
8 13 (0.93%) Ubuntu
9 10 (0.72%) Windows Server 2016
10 8 (0.58%) Debian
11 6 (0.43%) Apple iOS
11 6 (0.43%) Windows 10
12 3 (0.22%) FreeRTOS
12 3 (0.22%) Gentoo
12 3 (0.22%) Unix
12 3 (0.22%) VMS
12 3 (0.22%) Windows 7
13 1 (0.072%) FreeBSD
13 1 (0.072%) OpenBSD
Processes & Methodologies
1 268 (19.27%) Continuous Improvement
2 249 (17.90%) Customer Service
3 184 (13.23%) Agile
4 159 (11.43%) CI/CD
5 149 (10.71%) DevOps
6 147 (10.57%) Decision-Making
7 144 (10.35%) Software Engineering
8 139 (9.99%) AI
9 132 (9.49%) Project Management
10 124 (8.91%) Cybersecurity
11 123 (8.84%) Project Delivery
12 116 (8.34%) Collaborative Working
12 116 (8.34%) ITIL
12 116 (8.34%) Mentoring
13 111 (7.98%) Stakeholder Management
14 110 (7.91%) Computer Science
15 107 (7.69%) Analytics
16 99 (7.12%) Business Intelligence
17 97 (6.97%) Logistics
18 86 (6.18%) CRM
Programming Languages
1 224 (16.10%) Python
2 214 (15.38%) SQL
3 111 (7.98%) C#
4 98 (7.05%) PowerShell
5 89 (6.40%) JavaScript
6 57 (4.10%) C++
7 56 (4.03%) Java
8 43 (3.09%) TypeScript
9 34 (2.44%) Bash
10 33 (2.37%) C
11 25 (1.80%) PHP
12 15 (1.08%) PL/SQL
12 15 (1.08%) Rust
13 13 (0.93%) Ruby
14 12 (0.86%) T-SQL
15 10 (0.72%) Bicep
15 10 (0.72%) Perl
16 8 (0.58%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 7 (0.50%) Apex Code
17 7 (0.50%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 258 (18.55%) Degree
2 100 (7.19%) Security Cleared
3 85 (6.11%) DBS Check
4 68 (4.89%) SC Cleared
5 56 (4.03%) Computer Science Degree
6 43 (3.09%) Microsoft Certification
7 37 (2.66%) BPSS Clearance
8 32 (2.30%) HNC
9 29 (2.08%) ACCA
10 28 (2.01%) CIMA
11 26 (1.87%) Chartered Engineer
12 23 (1.65%) Azure Certification
13 22 (1.58%) PMI Certification
14 21 (1.51%) PMP
15 18 (1.29%) A+ Certification
16 17 (1.22%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
17 16 (1.15%) Master's Degree
18 14 (1.01%) CCNA
18 14 (1.01%) CompTIA Security+
18 14 (1.01%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 112 (8.05%) QA
2 55 (3.95%) Data Quality
3 48 (3.45%) GDPR
4 40 (2.88%) SLA
5 30 (2.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 24 (1.73%) Accessibility
7 23 (1.65%) PCI DSS
8 17 (1.22%) NIST
9 16 (1.15%) Good Clinical Practice
10 13 (0.93%) PMO
11 12 (0.86%) Cyber Essentials
12 9 (0.65%) SOC 2
13 6 (0.43%) 21 CFR Part 11
13 6 (0.43%) GLP
13 6 (0.43%) GMP
13 6 (0.43%) GxP
14 5 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 5 (0.36%) ISO 9001
15 4 (0.29%) ISO 26262
15 4 (0.29%) ITGC
System Software
1 124 (8.91%) Active Directory
2 73 (5.25%) Docker
3 55 (3.95%) VMware Infrastructure
4 51 (3.67%) Hyper-V
5 9 (0.65%) KVM
6 8 (0.58%) vSphere
7 7 (0.50%) Firmware
8 5 (0.36%) ClearTrust
8 5 (0.36%) VMware ESXi
8 5 (0.36%) XenApp
9 4 (0.29%) Virtual Desktop
9 4 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
10 3 (0.22%) Slurm Workload Manager
11 2 (0.14%) Squid
11 2 (0.14%) VMware NSX
12 1 (0.072%) Embedded Firmware
12 1 (0.072%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 1 (0.072%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.072%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 79 (5.68%) Kubernetes
2 78 (5.61%) Terraform
3 41 (2.95%) Microsoft Intune
4 37 (2.66%) Ansible
5 19 (1.37%) SCCM
6 16 (1.15%) Grafana
7 13 (0.93%) Prometheus
8 12 (0.86%) Nagios
9 8 (0.58%) Podman
10 7 (0.50%) Failover Clustering
10 7 (0.50%) ZABBIX
11 5 (0.36%) Docker Swarm
11 5 (0.36%) Graylog
11 5 (0.36%) Puppet
12 4 (0.29%) Functional Safety
12 4 (0.29%) Jamf Pro
12 4 (0.29%) vCenter Server
13 2 (0.14%) Nessus
13 2 (0.14%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
14 1 (0.072%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 399 (28.68%) Microsoft
2 62 (4.46%) VMware
3 47 (3.38%) Google
4 40 (2.88%) Oracle
5 30 (2.16%) Cisco
6 27 (1.94%) Salesforce
7 26 (1.87%) Fortinet
8 24 (1.73%) Veeam
9 23 (1.65%) Databricks
10 21 (1.51%) SonicWALL
11 18 (1.29%) Instagram
11 18 (1.29%) ServiceNow
12 17 (1.22%) Splunk
13 16 (1.15%) Aruba
13 16 (1.15%) Sage
13 16 (1.15%) SAP
14 15 (1.08%) Palo Alto
14 15 (1.08%) Red Hat
15 13 (0.93%) Dynatrace
16 12 (0.86%) Adobe