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

6 months to
11 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 8 3 4
Rank change year-on-year -5 +1 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,218 1,452 2,912
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 8.39% 18.69% 16.08%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.74% 20.72% 19.65%
Number of salaries quoted 911 691 1,797
10th Percentile £26,500 £28,000 £25,750
25th Percentile £31,250 £31,250 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £42,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% -5.56% -14.29%
75th Percentile £60,000 £62,500 £61,250
90th Percentile £75,000 £82,500 £72,500
England median annual salary £47,500 £50,000 £49,919
% change year-on-year -5.00% +0.16% -9.24%

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 10,375 7,009 14,820
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 71.46% 90.21% 81.82%
Number of salaries quoted 7,313 3,367 10,313
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,000 £27,750
25th Percentile £40,000 £35,000 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £52,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% +5.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £81,250 £78,750
England median annual salary £60,000 £58,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +3.45% +5.45% -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 11 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 11 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 -10 444 £45,000 -10.00% 201
Hampshire -4 282 £40,000 -1.36% 130
Berkshire -6 214 £45,000 -10.00% 94
Surrey -1 206 £42,500 +6.25% 96
Buckinghamshire -10 137 £47,500 +25.00% 65
Kent 0 130 £30,000 -5.51% 49
Oxfordshire -2 93 £34,500 -35.21% 42
East Sussex -4 91 £52,500 +5.00% 19
West Sussex -7 55 £52,500 +12.90% 27
Isle of Wight -11 3 £41,500 -24.55%
Middlesex +5 2 £35,000 -41.67% 11
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 33 (2.71%) SharePoint
2 29 (2.38%) Microsoft Exchange
3 16 (1.31%) CMS
4 15 (1.23%) Confluence
5 8 (0.66%) IIS
6 7 (0.57%) OpenEdge
7 5 (0.41%) WordPress
8 4 (0.33%) SAS
9 3 (0.25%) Anypoint
9 3 (0.25%) Apache
9 3 (0.25%) govService
9 3 (0.25%) OpenStack
10 2 (0.16%) Gentran
11 1 (0.082%) Apache Airflow
11 1 (0.082%) nginx
11 1 (0.082%) Tomcat
Applications
1 91 (7.47%) Microsoft Excel
2 69 (5.67%) Microsoft Office
3 13 (1.07%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.74%) Spreadsheet
5 8 (0.66%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.41%) Photoshop
7 4 (0.33%) Adobe Illustrator
8 3 (0.25%) Microsoft Project
9 2 (0.16%) Chatbot
10 1 (0.082%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 1 (0.082%) AutoCAD
10 1 (0.082%) Lightworks
Business Applications
1 10 (0.82%) Dynamics CRM
2 9 (0.74%) NetSuite
3 7 (0.57%) SAP CO
4 4 (0.33%) Dynamics NAV
4 4 (0.33%) Magento
4 4 (0.33%) Salesforce CRM
5 2 (0.16%) Infor SunSystems
5 2 (0.16%) Shopify
6 1 (0.082%) Elite 3E
6 1 (0.082%) HFM
6 1 (0.082%) Raiser’s Edge
6 1 (0.082%) SAP GRC
6 1 (0.082%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 281 (23.07%) Azure
2 128 (10.51%) Microsoft 365
3 116 (9.52%) AWS
4 69 (5.67%) Power Platform
5 52 (4.27%) SaaS
6 48 (3.94%) Azure DevOps
7 38 (3.12%) GCP
8 29 (2.38%) IaaS
8 29 (2.38%) PaaS
9 28 (2.30%) Entra ID
10 23 (1.89%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 21 (1.72%) Serverless
12 18 (1.48%) Dynamics 365
13 17 (1.40%) Datadog
13 17 (1.40%) GitHub
13 17 (1.40%) Google Workspace
14 15 (1.23%) OpenShift
15 14 (1.15%) Mimecast
16 12 (0.99%) Azure Data Factory
16 12 (0.99%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 90 (7.39%) Firewall
2 60 (4.93%) DNS
3 36 (2.96%) DHCP
3 36 (2.96%) TCP/IP
4 34 (2.79%) VPN
5 33 (2.71%) WAN
6 32 (2.63%) LAN
7 30 (2.46%) Wireless
8 21 (1.72%) Wi-Fi
9 20 (1.64%) Broadband
10 19 (1.56%) VoIP
11 18 (1.48%) Network Security
12 16 (1.31%) VLAN
13 10 (0.82%) HTTP
14 9 (0.74%) SSL
15 7 (0.57%) Internet
15 7 (0.57%) Remote Desktop
16 6 (0.49%) WLAN
17 5 (0.41%) SAN
18 4 (0.33%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 83 (6.81%) SQL Server
2 55 (4.52%) Power BI
3 23 (1.89%) Data Warehouse
4 22 (1.81%) PostgreSQL
5 18 (1.48%) NoSQL
6 17 (1.40%) OLTP
6 17 (1.40%) Relational Database
7 14 (1.15%) MySQL
8 12 (0.99%) Tableau
9 11 (0.90%) Power Query
9 11 (0.90%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 9 (0.74%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 7 (0.57%) Data Lake
11 7 (0.57%) Looker
12 6 (0.49%) Amazon RDS
12 6 (0.49%) GIS
13 4 (0.33%) Azure SQL Database
13 4 (0.33%) Big Data
13 4 (0.33%) Hadoop
13 4 (0.33%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 58 (4.76%) Git
2 44 (3.61%) JIRA
3 31 (2.55%) GitLab
4 24 (1.97%) Rational DOORS
5 7 (0.57%) Selenium
6 3 (0.25%) Android Studio
6 3 (0.25%) Cypress.io
6 3 (0.25%) Postman
6 3 (0.25%) Visual Studio
7 2 (0.16%) Appium
7 2 (0.16%) Jenkins
7 2 (0.16%) JMeter
7 2 (0.16%) JUnit
7 2 (0.16%) Mocha
7 2 (0.16%) REST Assured
7 2 (0.16%) Terragrunt
8 1 (0.082%) Artifactory
8 1 (0.082%) Cucumber
8 1 (0.082%) PHPUnit
8 1 (0.082%) WebDriver
General
1 595 (48.85%) Social Skills
2 350 (28.74%) Analytical Skills
3 185 (15.19%) Finance
4 80 (6.57%) Organisational Skills
5 59 (4.84%) Marketing
6 56 (4.60%) Manufacturing
7 52 (4.27%) Telecoms
8 51 (4.19%) Retail
9 49 (4.02%) Electronics
10 41 (3.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 34 (2.79%) Aerospace
12 32 (2.63%) Law
13 27 (2.22%) Public Sector
14 24 (1.97%) Local Government
15 23 (1.89%) Documentation Skills
15 23 (1.89%) Legal
16 22 (1.81%) Influencing Skills
17 16 (1.31%) Military
18 12 (0.99%) Pharmaceutical
18 12 (0.99%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 166 (13.63%) Analyst
2 133 (10.92%) IT Support
3 129 (10.59%) Senior
4 127 (10.43%) Developer
5 112 (9.20%) Support Engineer
6 78 (6.40%) IT Engineer
7 65 (5.34%) Support Analyst
8 64 (5.25%) Systems Engineer
9 52 (4.27%) IT Support Engineer
10 51 (4.19%) Software Engineer
10 51 (4.19%) Support Technician
11 46 (3.78%) 2nd Line Support
11 46 (3.78%) Technical Support
12 45 (3.69%) Lead
13 43 (3.53%) Architect
14 37 (3.04%) IT Technician
15 36 (2.96%) Infrastructure Engineer
16 34 (2.79%) Technical Engineer
16 34 (2.79%) Technical Support Engineer
17 33 (2.71%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 77 (6.32%) .NET
2 57 (4.68%) HTML
3 49 (4.02%) SOAP
4 40 (3.28%) REST
5 36 (2.96%) CSS
6 34 (2.79%) XML
7 33 (2.71%) JSON
8 30 (2.46%) React
9 21 (1.72%) ASP.NET
10 20 (1.64%) Middleware
11 18 (1.48%) OAuth
12 17 (1.40%) HTML5
13 16 (1.31%) Laravel
13 16 (1.31%) RESTful
14 15 (1.23%) CSS3
14 15 (1.23%) RabbitMQ
15 14 (1.15%) Vue
16 13 (1.07%) Ajax
16 13 (1.07%) jQuery
16 13 (1.07%) Sass
Miscellaneous
1 74 (6.08%) Driving Licence
2 64 (5.25%) Management Information System
3 63 (5.17%) Self-Motivation
4 56 (4.60%) Onboarding
5 41 (3.37%) Cloud Native
6 34 (2.79%) Product Ownership
7 31 (2.55%) Distributed Systems
8 25 (2.05%) Analytical Mindset
9 18 (1.48%) Low-Code
10 17 (1.40%) Social Media
11 15 (1.23%) NHS
11 15 (1.23%) Robotics
12 13 (1.07%) Legacy Systems
13 12 (0.99%) Enterprise Software
14 11 (0.90%) Client/Server
14 11 (0.90%) EPoS
14 11 (0.90%) Video Editing
15 9 (0.74%) Algorithms
15 9 (0.74%) Hybrid Cloud
15 9 (0.74%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 184 (15.11%) Windows
2 98 (8.05%) Linux
3 66 (5.42%) Windows Server
4 20 (1.64%) Android
5 19 (1.56%) CentOS
5 19 (1.56%) Mac OS
6 17 (1.40%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 17 (1.40%) Windows Server 2019
7 13 (1.07%) Ubuntu
8 9 (0.74%) Windows Server 2016
9 7 (0.57%) Apple iOS
9 7 (0.57%) VMS
10 6 (0.49%) Windows Server 2012
11 4 (0.33%) Debian
12 2 (0.16%) Unix
13 1 (0.082%) Embedded Linux
13 1 (0.082%) FreeBSD
13 1 (0.082%) Gentoo
13 1 (0.082%) OpenBSD
13 1 (0.082%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 234 (19.21%) Continuous Improvement
2 211 (17.32%) Customer Service
3 176 (14.45%) Agile
4 140 (11.49%) CI/CD
5 138 (11.33%) DevOps
6 131 (10.76%) Decision-Making
7 123 (10.10%) Software Engineering
8 112 (9.20%) AI
8 112 (9.20%) Project Management
9 108 (8.87%) Computer Science
10 102 (8.37%) Analytics
11 97 (7.96%) Mentoring
12 95 (7.80%) Cybersecurity
12 95 (7.80%) Project Delivery
13 86 (7.06%) Collaborative Working
14 85 (6.98%) Business Intelligence
15 80 (6.57%) CRM
15 80 (6.57%) ITIL
15 80 (6.57%) Stakeholder Management
16 75 (6.16%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 201 (16.50%) Python
2 193 (15.85%) SQL
3 99 (8.13%) C#
4 82 (6.73%) JavaScript
5 70 (5.75%) PowerShell
6 55 (4.52%) Java
7 40 (3.28%) C++
8 34 (2.79%) TypeScript
9 30 (2.46%) PHP
10 28 (2.30%) Bash
11 27 (2.22%) C
12 20 (1.64%) PL/SQL
13 12 (0.99%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 11 (0.90%) Ruby
14 11 (0.90%) Rust
15 10 (0.82%) Perl
16 8 (0.66%) Bicep
17 7 (0.57%) Apex Code
17 7 (0.57%) T-SQL
18 6 (0.49%) Scala
Qualifications
1 250 (20.53%) Degree
2 82 (6.73%) Security Cleared
3 67 (5.50%) DBS Check
4 52 (4.27%) SC Cleared
5 50 (4.11%) Computer Science Degree
6 37 (3.04%) Microsoft Certification
7 36 (2.96%) BPSS Clearance
8 32 (2.63%) ACCA
9 31 (2.55%) CIMA
10 29 (2.38%) HNC
11 26 (2.13%) Chartered Engineer
12 20 (1.64%) A+ Certification
13 18 (1.48%) PMI Certification
14 17 (1.40%) Master's Degree
14 17 (1.40%) Microsoft Certified Professional
15 15 (1.23%) PMP
16 13 (1.07%) Azure Certification
16 13 (1.07%) DV Cleared
17 12 (0.99%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
18 11 (0.90%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 101 (8.29%) QA
2 56 (4.60%) Data Quality
3 46 (3.78%) GDPR
4 37 (3.04%) SLA
5 25 (2.05%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 24 (1.97%) Accessibility
7 18 (1.48%) PCI DSS
8 12 (0.99%) NIST
8 12 (0.99%) PMO
9 9 (0.74%) Cyber Essentials
9 9 (0.74%) Good Clinical Practice
10 8 (0.66%) SOC 2
11 5 (0.41%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 5 (0.41%) ISO 9001
12 4 (0.33%) Actionable Recommendations
12 4 (0.33%) Def Stans
12 4 (0.33%) ISO 26262
12 4 (0.33%) ITGC
13 2 (0.16%) GRC
13 2 (0.16%) IFRS
System Software
1 104 (8.54%) Active Directory
2 58 (4.76%) Docker
3 46 (3.78%) VMware Infrastructure
4 38 (3.12%) Hyper-V
5 10 (0.82%) KVM
6 7 (0.57%) VMware ESXi
7 5 (0.41%) XenApp
8 4 (0.33%) ClearTrust
8 4 (0.33%) Firmware
8 4 (0.33%) Virtual Desktop
9 3 (0.25%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 3 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
10 2 (0.16%) VMware NSX
10 2 (0.16%) vSphere
11 1 (0.082%) Embedded Firmware
11 1 (0.082%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 1 (0.082%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.082%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 67 (5.50%) Kubernetes
2 66 (5.42%) Terraform
3 33 (2.71%) Microsoft Intune
4 31 (2.55%) Ansible
5 17 (1.40%) SCCM
6 16 (1.31%) Grafana
7 13 (1.07%) Prometheus
8 12 (0.99%) Nagios
9 7 (0.57%) vCenter Server
9 7 (0.57%) ZABBIX
10 6 (0.49%) Podman
11 5 (0.41%) Docker Swarm
12 4 (0.33%) Failover Clustering
12 4 (0.33%) Functional Safety
12 4 (0.33%) Graylog
12 4 (0.33%) Jamf Pro
13 3 (0.25%) Puppet
14 2 (0.16%) Nessus
15 1 (0.082%) Netcool
15 1 (0.082%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 326 (26.77%) Microsoft
2 52 (4.27%) VMware
3 44 (3.61%) Oracle
4 38 (3.12%) Google
5 32 (2.63%) Databricks
6 25 (2.05%) Salesforce
7 24 (1.97%) Veeam
8 23 (1.89%) Cisco
9 18 (1.48%) Instagram
10 17 (1.40%) SAP
11 15 (1.23%) Adobe
11 15 (1.23%) Red Hat
11 15 (1.23%) Splunk
12 14 (1.15%) Fortinet
12 14 (1.15%) SonicWALL
13 12 (0.99%) SolarWinds
14 11 (0.90%) Dynatrace
14 11 (0.90%) Hootsuite
14 11 (0.90%) Wrike
15 10 (0.82%) Sage