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

6 months to
22 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 6 3 5
Rank change year-on-year -3 +2 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,416 1,580 2,359
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 8.86% 18.37% 15.10%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.36% 20.78% 18.57%
Number of salaries quoted 1,071 789 1,485
10th Percentile £27,000 £27,000 £26,000
25th Percentile £31,250 £32,250 £33,000
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 £62,500
90th Percentile £73,750 £82,500 £75,000
England median annual salary £47,500 £47,683 £50,000
% change year-on-year -0.38% -4.63% -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 11,454 7,605 12,704
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 71.69% 88.43% 81.30%
Number of salaries quoted 8,180 4,021 8,668
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,750 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £35,000 £38,000
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 22 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 22 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 -7 527 £43,250 -1.19% 221
Hampshire -2 346 £41,000 -8.89% 125
Surrey 0 244 £42,500 +1.80% 85
Berkshire -3 241 £45,000 -5.26% 94
Buckinghamshire -8 169 £42,500 +13.33% 79
Kent -7 130 £35,000 +11.11% 40
Oxfordshire -2 117 £41,982 -17.28% 51
East Sussex -4 87 £50,000 - 32
West Sussex -6 72 £50,000 +5.26% 25
Middlesex +6 6 £50,000 +33.33% 14
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 (3.11%) SharePoint
2 39 (2.75%) Microsoft Exchange
3 19 (1.34%) Confluence
4 18 (1.27%) CMS
5 7 (0.49%) OpenEdge
6 6 (0.42%) Apache
7 5 (0.35%) IIS
7 5 (0.35%) WordPress
8 4 (0.28%) nginx
9 3 (0.21%) Anypoint
9 3 (0.21%) OpenStack
9 3 (0.21%) SAS
10 2 (0.14%) Gentran
10 2 (0.14%) Tomcat
11 1 (0.071%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 102 (7.20%) Microsoft Excel
2 83 (5.86%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (0.78%) Spreadsheet
4 9 (0.64%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 8 (0.56%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.35%) Lightworks
6 5 (0.35%) Photoshop
7 4 (0.28%) Adobe Illustrator
7 4 (0.28%) Microsoft Project
8 3 (0.21%) Simulink
9 2 (0.14%) AutoCAD
9 2 (0.14%) Chatbot
10 1 (0.071%) Revit
Business Applications
1 14 (0.99%) NetSuite
2 6 (0.42%) Dynamics CRM
2 6 (0.42%) Magento
2 6 (0.42%) Raiser’s Edge
3 4 (0.28%) Shopify
4 3 (0.21%) Infor SunSystems
4 3 (0.21%) Salesforce CRM
5 2 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
5 2 (0.14%) Sage X3
5 2 (0.14%) SAP CO
6 1 (0.071%) Academy Housing
6 1 (0.071%) Dynamics NAV
6 1 (0.071%) Elite 3E
6 1 (0.071%) HFM
6 1 (0.071%) SAP GRC
6 1 (0.071%) SAP S/4HANA
6 1 (0.071%) Siebel CRM
Cloud Services
1 328 (23.16%) Azure
2 160 (11.30%) Microsoft 365
3 147 (10.38%) AWS
4 84 (5.93%) Power Platform
5 62 (4.38%) SaaS
6 49 (3.46%) GCP
7 45 (3.18%) Entra ID
8 44 (3.11%) Azure DevOps
9 29 (2.05%) Serverless
10 27 (1.91%) GitHub
11 24 (1.69%) IaaS
11 24 (1.69%) PaaS
12 19 (1.34%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 19 (1.34%) Datadog
13 18 (1.27%) Dynamics 365
14 16 (1.13%) GitHub Actions
15 15 (1.06%) OpenShift
16 14 (0.99%) Amazon ECS
16 14 (0.99%) Google Workspace
17 13 (0.92%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 123 (8.69%) Firewall
2 62 (4.38%) DNS
3 54 (3.81%) TCP/IP
4 51 (3.60%) VPN
5 49 (3.46%) LAN
5 49 (3.46%) WAN
6 39 (2.75%) Wireless
7 38 (2.68%) DHCP
8 36 (2.54%) Wi-Fi
9 28 (1.98%) VoIP
10 26 (1.84%) VLAN
11 21 (1.48%) Network Security
12 15 (1.06%) Broadband
13 13 (0.92%) Internet
14 12 (0.85%) SSL
15 9 (0.64%) HTTP
15 9 (0.64%) MQTT
16 7 (0.49%) LTE
16 7 (0.49%) Remote Desktop
17 6 (0.42%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 102 (7.20%) SQL Server
2 71 (5.01%) Power BI
3 25 (1.77%) PostgreSQL
3 25 (1.77%) Relational Database
4 20 (1.41%) NoSQL
5 18 (1.27%) Data Warehouse
5 18 (1.27%) MySQL
6 16 (1.13%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 13 (0.92%) Tableau
8 12 (0.85%) OLTP
8 12 (0.85%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 10 (0.71%) Amazon RDS
9 10 (0.71%) Data Lake
10 7 (0.49%) DynamoDB
10 7 (0.49%) Looker
10 7 (0.49%) MongoDB
10 7 (0.49%) Power Query
11 6 (0.42%) GIS
12 5 (0.35%) Azure SQL Database
13 4 (0.28%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 66 (4.66%) Git
2 54 (3.81%) JIRA
3 30 (2.12%) GitLab
4 20 (1.41%) Rational DOORS
5 6 (0.42%) Selenium
6 5 (0.35%) Jenkins
7 4 (0.28%) Claude Code
7 4 (0.28%) Eclipse
7 4 (0.28%) Eclipse RCP
8 3 (0.21%) Android Studio
8 3 (0.21%) PetaLinux
8 3 (0.21%) PHPUnit
8 3 (0.21%) Postman
8 3 (0.21%) Terragrunt
8 3 (0.21%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.14%) Appium
9 2 (0.14%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.14%) Mocha
9 2 (0.14%) SpecFlow
9 2 (0.14%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 692 (48.87%) Social Skills
2 394 (27.82%) Analytical Skills
3 216 (15.25%) Finance
4 109 (7.70%) Organisational Skills
5 87 (6.14%) Manufacturing
6 66 (4.66%) Electronics
7 60 (4.24%) Telecoms
8 58 (4.10%) Retail
9 49 (3.46%) Marketing
10 47 (3.32%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 43 (3.04%) Aerospace
12 35 (2.47%) Law
12 35 (2.47%) Legal
13 33 (2.33%) Influencing Skills
14 31 (2.19%) Documentation Skills
15 25 (1.77%) Public Sector
16 23 (1.62%) Local Government
17 18 (1.27%) Military
18 16 (1.13%) Banking
19 14 (0.99%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 200 (14.12%) Analyst
2 149 (10.52%) Senior
3 146 (10.31%) IT Support
4 133 (9.39%) Developer
5 124 (8.76%) Support Engineer
6 90 (6.36%) IT Engineer
7 85 (6.00%) Support Analyst
8 69 (4.87%) Systems Engineer
9 66 (4.66%) Software Engineer
10 63 (4.45%) Technical Support
11 62 (4.38%) Lead
12 59 (4.17%) Support Technician
13 56 (3.95%) IT Support Engineer
14 55 (3.88%) 2nd Line Support
15 49 (3.46%) Technical Engineer
15 49 (3.46%) Technical Support Engineer
16 42 (2.97%) IT Technician
17 37 (2.61%) Architect
18 36 (2.54%) Senior Developer
19 35 (2.47%) IT Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 90 (6.36%) .NET
2 61 (4.31%) HTML
3 49 (3.46%) REST
4 47 (3.32%) SOAP
5 40 (2.82%) CSS
6 36 (2.54%) React
7 34 (2.40%) JSON
8 32 (2.26%) ASP.NET
9 30 (2.12%) XML
10 26 (1.84%) OAuth
11 24 (1.69%) ASP.NET Core
11 24 (1.69%) RESTful
12 20 (1.41%) Vue
13 19 (1.34%) AngularJS
14 17 (1.20%) RabbitMQ
15 16 (1.13%) ARM Templates
15 16 (1.13%) Middleware
16 15 (1.06%) Kafka
17 14 (0.99%) HTML5
17 14 (0.99%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 94 (6.64%) Driving Licence
2 74 (5.23%) Self-Motivation
3 72 (5.08%) Onboarding
4 65 (4.59%) Management Information System
5 54 (3.81%) Cloud Native
6 41 (2.90%) Product Ownership
7 31 (2.19%) Distributed Systems
8 27 (1.91%) Analytical Mindset
9 19 (1.34%) Robotics
10 18 (1.27%) Social Media
11 17 (1.20%) Data Centre
12 16 (1.13%) Legacy Systems
12 16 (1.13%) NHS
13 15 (1.06%) Enterprise Software
13 15 (1.06%) EPoS
13 15 (1.06%) Security Posture
14 13 (0.92%) Clustering
14 13 (0.92%) Virtual Team
15 12 (0.85%) Analogue Electronics
15 12 (0.85%) CCTV
Operating Systems
1 229 (16.17%) Windows
2 112 (7.91%) Linux
3 82 (5.79%) Windows Server
4 21 (1.48%) Mac OS
5 18 (1.27%) Android
6 16 (1.13%) CentOS
6 16 (1.13%) Windows Server 2019
7 14 (0.99%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 12 (0.85%) Ubuntu
9 9 (0.64%) Windows 10
9 9 (0.64%) Windows Server 2016
10 8 (0.56%) Apple iOS
10 8 (0.56%) Debian
11 3 (0.21%) FreeRTOS
11 3 (0.21%) Gentoo
11 3 (0.21%) Unix
11 3 (0.21%) VMS
11 3 (0.21%) Windows 7
12 2 (0.14%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.071%) FreeBSD
Processes & Methodologies
1 277 (19.56%) Continuous Improvement
2 246 (17.37%) Customer Service
3 187 (13.21%) Agile
4 165 (11.65%) CI/CD
5 154 (10.88%) Decision-Making
6 153 (10.81%) AI
7 150 (10.59%) DevOps
8 142 (10.03%) Software Engineering
9 140 (9.89%) Project Management
10 134 (9.46%) Project Delivery
11 128 (9.04%) ITIL
12 126 (8.90%) Cybersecurity
13 122 (8.62%) Stakeholder Management
14 120 (8.47%) Collaborative Working
15 116 (8.19%) Mentoring
16 111 (7.84%) Computer Science
17 108 (7.63%) Analytics
18 100 (7.06%) Business Intelligence
19 99 (6.99%) Logistics
20 90 (6.36%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 213 (15.04%) Python
1 213 (15.04%) SQL
2 111 (7.84%) C#
3 93 (6.57%) PowerShell
4 89 (6.29%) JavaScript
5 58 (4.10%) C++
6 57 (4.03%) Java
7 46 (3.25%) TypeScript
8 35 (2.47%) Bash
9 32 (2.26%) C
10 21 (1.48%) PHP
11 14 (0.99%) PL/SQL
12 13 (0.92%) Ruby
13 12 (0.85%) Rust
13 12 (0.85%) T-SQL
14 10 (0.71%) Perl
15 8 (0.56%) Bicep
16 7 (0.49%) MATLAB
16 7 (0.49%) VB.NET
17 6 (0.42%) ABAP
Qualifications
1 267 (18.86%) Degree
2 104 (7.34%) Security Cleared
3 91 (6.43%) DBS Check
4 74 (5.23%) SC Cleared
5 59 (4.17%) Computer Science Degree
6 47 (3.32%) Microsoft Certification
7 36 (2.54%) BPSS Clearance
8 34 (2.40%) HNC
9 27 (1.91%) ACCA
10 26 (1.84%) Azure Certification
10 26 (1.84%) CIMA
11 25 (1.77%) Chartered Engineer
12 24 (1.69%) PMI Certification
13 23 (1.62%) PMP
14 18 (1.27%) HND
14 18 (1.27%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
15 17 (1.20%) A+ Certification
15 17 (1.20%) Master's Degree
16 15 (1.06%) CompTIA Security+
16 15 (1.06%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 111 (7.84%) QA
2 55 (3.88%) Data Quality
3 45 (3.18%) GDPR
4 39 (2.75%) SLA
5 31 (2.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 26 (1.84%) Accessibility
7 22 (1.55%) PCI DSS
8 17 (1.20%) Good Clinical Practice
8 17 (1.20%) NIST
9 13 (0.92%) Cyber Essentials
10 12 (0.85%) PMO
11 11 (0.78%) SOC 2
12 7 (0.49%) 21 CFR Part 11
12 7 (0.49%) GLP
12 7 (0.49%) GMP
12 7 (0.49%) GxP
13 6 (0.42%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 5 (0.35%) DO-254
14 5 (0.35%) ISO 9001
15 4 (0.28%) ITGC
System Software
1 117 (8.26%) Active Directory
2 73 (5.16%) Docker
3 58 (4.10%) VMware Infrastructure
4 48 (3.39%) Hyper-V
5 8 (0.56%) vSphere
6 7 (0.49%) Firmware
6 7 (0.49%) VMware ESXi
7 6 (0.42%) KVM
8 5 (0.35%) ClearTrust
8 5 (0.35%) XenApp
9 4 (0.28%) Squid
9 4 (0.28%) Virtual Desktop
9 4 (0.28%) Virtual Machines
10 3 (0.21%) Slurm Workload Manager
11 2 (0.14%) VMware NSX
12 1 (0.071%) Embedded Firmware
12 1 (0.071%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 1 (0.071%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.071%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 80 (5.65%) Terraform
2 77 (5.44%) Kubernetes
3 46 (3.25%) Microsoft Intune
4 36 (2.54%) Ansible
5 22 (1.55%) SCCM
6 16 (1.13%) Grafana
7 13 (0.92%) Prometheus
8 11 (0.78%) Nagios
9 8 (0.56%) Podman
10 7 (0.49%) Failover Clustering
10 7 (0.49%) ZABBIX
11 5 (0.35%) Docker Swarm
11 5 (0.35%) Graylog
11 5 (0.35%) Jamf Pro
11 5 (0.35%) Puppet
12 4 (0.28%) Functional Safety
12 4 (0.28%) Single Sign-On
12 4 (0.28%) vCenter Server
13 2 (0.14%) Nessus
13 2 (0.14%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
Vendors
1 403 (28.46%) Microsoft
2 65 (4.59%) VMware
3 49 (3.46%) Google
4 41 (2.90%) Oracle
5 33 (2.33%) Cisco
6 29 (2.05%) Fortinet
6 29 (2.05%) Salesforce
7 25 (1.77%) SonicWALL
8 23 (1.62%) Veeam
9 22 (1.55%) Databricks
10 19 (1.34%) ServiceNow
11 18 (1.27%) Instagram
11 18 (1.27%) Sage
11 18 (1.27%) SAP
12 16 (1.13%) Aruba
12 16 (1.13%) Splunk
13 15 (1.06%) Red Hat
14 14 (0.99%) Palo Alto
15 13 (0.92%) Dynatrace
16 11 (0.78%) Hootsuite