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 17 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 6 3 5
Rank change year-on-year -3 +2 +1
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,379 1,689 1,252
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 13.36% 17.51% 17.45%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 16.33% 20.12% 18.81%
Number of salaries quoted 930 782 702
10th Percentile £26,500 £28,250 £28,000
25th Percentile £30,688 £37,813 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £41,000 £50,967 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -19.56% +1.93% -4.76%
75th Percentile £60,000 £71,250 £66,069
90th Percentile £73,875 £85,000 £80,000
England median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% - -

All Process and 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 8,446 8,396 6,657
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 81.84% 87.04% 92.77%
Number of salaries quoted 5,051 4,259 4,653
10th Percentile £27,500 £32,750 £30,500
25th Percentile £34,000 £43,750 £39,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £57,500 £54,500
Median % change year-on-year -13.04% +5.50% -0.91%
75th Percentile £65,000 £73,750 £67,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £85,000 £82,500
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%

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 17 December 2025.

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 17 December 2025. 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 -1 567 £42,500 -25.44% 333
Berkshire +4 374 £42,500 -34.62% 161
Hampshire +2 330 £40,000 -20.00% 237
Surrey -12 180 £40,000 -27.27% 84
Kent -9 131 £31,500 -18.18% 107
Buckinghamshire -10 120 £48,000 -16.52% 102
West Sussex -1 76 £60,000 +26.32% 27
Oxfordshire -1 73 £42,500 -10.53% 72
East Sussex +2 52 £45,000 -10.00% 24
Middlesex -13 21 £41,250 +23.13% 21
Isle of Wight -1 15 £42,500 - 3
Sussex -3 3 £35,000 - 48
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 50 (3.63%) SharePoint
2 43 (3.12%) Microsoft Exchange
3 23 (1.67%) IIS
4 15 (1.09%) CMS
5 13 (0.94%) Confluence
6 11 (0.80%) WordPress
7 4 (0.29%) Apache Airflow
7 4 (0.29%) SAS
8 3 (0.22%) HCL Domino
8 3 (0.22%) HCL Notes
8 3 (0.22%) OpenStack
9 2 (0.15%) Anypoint
9 2 (0.15%) ArcGIS
9 2 (0.15%) Skype for Business
10 1 (0.073%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 159 (11.53%) Microsoft Excel
2 145 (10.51%) Microsoft Office
3 16 (1.16%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 15 (1.09%) Spreadsheet
5 11 (0.80%) Photoshop
6 10 (0.73%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 9 (0.65%) Adobe Illustrator
7 9 (0.65%) Adobe Premiere
8 6 (0.44%) MS Visio
9 5 (0.36%) Adobe After Effects
10 3 (0.22%) Adobe XD
10 3 (0.22%) InDesign
10 3 (0.22%) Microsoft Project
10 3 (0.22%) Notion
11 2 (0.15%) Adobe Captivate
11 2 (0.15%) AutoCAD
11 2 (0.15%) Elementor
12 1 (0.073%) Acrobat
12 1 (0.073%) Mathcad
12 1 (0.073%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 75 (5.44%) SAP S/4HANA
2 21 (1.52%) NetSuite
3 11 (0.80%) Dynamics CRM
4 10 (0.73%) SAP CO
5 8 (0.58%) JDE EnterpriseOne
6 7 (0.51%) SAP FI
6 7 (0.51%) SAP FI/CO
7 6 (0.44%) Oracle Assets
7 6 (0.44%) Oracle Payables
7 6 (0.44%) Oracle Receivables
8 5 (0.36%) SAP Hybris
9 3 (0.22%) Sage X3
9 3 (0.22%) Salesforce CRM
9 3 (0.22%) Shopify
10 2 (0.15%) Dynamics AX
10 2 (0.15%) IBM Planning Analytics
10 2 (0.15%) Q-Pulse
10 2 (0.15%) Sage 200
11 1 (0.073%) SAP IBP
11 1 (0.073%) SAP MM
Cloud Services
1 295 (21.39%) Azure
2 178 (12.91%) Microsoft 365
3 139 (10.08%) Power Platform
4 95 (6.89%) AWS
5 84 (6.09%) SaaS
6 53 (3.84%) Azure DevOps
7 51 (3.70%) Entra ID
8 46 (3.34%) GCP
9 15 (1.09%) Collibra
10 13 (0.94%) GitHub
11 12 (0.87%) PaaS
11 12 (0.87%) Power Automate
12 11 (0.80%) Azure Data Factory
12 11 (0.80%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 11 (0.80%) Dynamics 365
12 11 (0.80%) Google Workspace
12 11 (0.80%) IaaS
13 10 (0.73%) Azure Logic Apps
13 10 (0.73%) Figma
14 9 (0.65%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 87 (6.31%) DNS
2 76 (5.51%) Firewall
3 66 (4.79%) DHCP
4 58 (4.21%) TCP/IP
5 55 (3.99%) VPN
6 44 (3.19%) VLAN
7 25 (1.81%) Wi-Fi
8 20 (1.45%) Wireless
9 18 (1.31%) WAN
10 17 (1.23%) LAN
11 15 (1.09%) SAN
12 12 (0.87%) VoIP
13 9 (0.65%) Intranet
14 8 (0.58%) Wireshark
15 6 (0.44%) LTE
15 6 (0.44%) Network Security
15 6 (0.44%) PuTTY
15 6 (0.44%) Remote Desktop
15 6 (0.44%) SSH
16 5 (0.36%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 125 (9.06%) Power BI
2 67 (4.86%) Data Lake
3 63 (4.57%) SAP BW
4 60 (4.35%) Relational Database
5 44 (3.19%) SQL Server
6 17 (1.23%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 15 (1.09%) NoSQL
8 14 (1.02%) Oracle Reports
9 12 (0.87%) Data Warehouse
10 11 (0.80%) Tableau
11 10 (0.73%) MySQL
11 10 (0.73%) PostgreSQL
12 9 (0.65%) Power Query
13 8 (0.58%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 7 (0.51%) PowerPivot
15 6 (0.44%) OLTP
16 5 (0.36%) Azure SQL Database
16 5 (0.36%) Big Data
16 5 (0.36%) Data Mining
17 4 (0.29%) Hadoop
Development Applications
1 64 (4.64%) Git
2 48 (3.48%) JIRA
3 22 (1.60%) Selenium
4 15 (1.09%) Robot Framework
5 13 (0.94%) Snyk
6 10 (0.73%) Jenkins
7 8 (0.58%) Visual Studio
8 6 (0.44%) GitLab
9 5 (0.36%) WebDriver
10 4 (0.29%) Cypress.io
10 4 (0.29%) Rational DOORS
11 2 (0.15%) MSBuild
11 2 (0.15%) Octopus Deploy
11 2 (0.15%) Team Foundation Server
11 2 (0.15%) TestRail
12 1 (0.073%) Browser DevTools
12 1 (0.073%) Katalon Studio
12 1 (0.073%) MLflow
12 1 (0.073%) Postman
12 1 (0.073%) REST Assured
General
1 831 (60.26%) Social Skills
2 343 (24.87%) Analytical Skills
3 299 (21.68%) Finance
4 136 (9.86%) Manufacturing
5 125 (9.06%) Marketing
6 91 (6.60%) Retail
7 71 (5.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 57 (4.13%) Organisational Skills
9 41 (2.97%) Electronics
10 40 (2.90%) Law
10 40 (2.90%) Telecoms
11 32 (2.32%) Legal
12 30 (2.18%) Public Sector
13 23 (1.67%) Influencing Skills
14 22 (1.60%) Documentation Skills
15 13 (0.94%) Advertising
15 13 (0.94%) Automotive
16 12 (0.87%) Pharmaceutical
17 11 (0.80%) Presentation Skills
18 10 (0.73%) Aviation
Job Titles
1 304 (22.04%) Analyst
2 247 (17.91%) Senior
3 197 (14.29%) IT Support
4 147 (10.66%) Lead
5 141 (10.22%) Support Engineer
6 117 (8.48%) Support Analyst
7 97 (7.03%) Technical Support
8 92 (6.67%) Developer
9 73 (5.29%) IT Analyst
10 69 (5.00%) IT Support Analyst
11 66 (4.79%) Senior Analyst
12 57 (4.13%) SAP Analyst
13 52 (3.77%) 2nd Line Support
14 49 (3.55%) Senior Manager
15 48 (3.48%) Applications Support
16 47 (3.41%) IT Engineer
17 45 (3.26%) Report Analyst
18 42 (3.05%) Project Engineer
18 42 (3.05%) Technical Engineer
19 41 (2.97%) IT Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 52 (3.77%) HTML
2 48 (3.48%) .NET
3 42 (3.05%) REST
4 40 (2.90%) CSS
4 40 (2.90%) React
5 33 (2.39%) SOAP
6 26 (1.89%) Node.js
7 24 (1.74%) RESTful
8 22 (1.60%) XML
9 19 (1.38%) .NET Framework
10 18 (1.31%) JSON
11 17 (1.23%) ASP.NET
12 13 (0.94%) Entity Framework
12 13 (0.94%) WinForms
13 11 (0.80%) EDI
14 10 (0.73%) DCOM
14 10 (0.73%) Web Services
15 8 (0.58%) AngularJS
15 8 (0.58%) Middleware
16 7 (0.51%) Bootstrap
Miscellaneous
1 135 (9.79%) Onboarding
2 77 (5.58%) Driving Licence
3 60 (4.35%) Self-Motivation
4 48 (3.48%) Analytical Mindset
5 44 (3.19%) Data Centre
6 39 (2.83%) Management Information System
7 27 (1.96%) Product Ownership
8 16 (1.16%) Social Media
9 13 (0.94%) Cloud Native
10 12 (0.87%) Algorithms
11 10 (0.73%) Distributed Systems
11 10 (0.73%) Security Operations Centre
12 9 (0.65%) Security Posture
12 9 (0.65%) Team-Oriented Environment
13 8 (0.58%) Low-Code
13 8 (0.58%) Robotics
13 8 (0.58%) Video Conferencing
14 7 (0.51%) Enterprise Software
14 7 (0.51%) FMCG
14 7 (0.51%) Life Science
Operating Systems
1 272 (19.72%) Windows
2 81 (5.87%) Windows Server
3 55 (3.99%) Linux
4 51 (3.70%) Windows 10
5 14 (1.02%) Mac OS
6 12 (0.87%) Android
6 12 (0.87%) Windows Server 2012
7 11 (0.80%) Windows 7
8 10 (0.73%) Windows Server 2019
9 7 (0.51%) Apple iOS
10 6 (0.44%) VMS
11 4 (0.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 3 (0.22%) CentOS
12 3 (0.22%) Unix
12 3 (0.22%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 251 (18.20%) Continuous Improvement
2 197 (14.29%) Customer Service
3 188 (13.63%) Analytics
4 178 (12.91%) Agile
5 148 (10.73%) ERP
6 145 (10.51%) Business Intelligence
7 133 (9.64%) Data Modelling
8 111 (8.05%) DevOps
9 107 (7.76%) Data Analysis
10 100 (7.25%) Project Management
10 100 (7.25%) SAP Implementation
10 100 (7.25%) Technical Leadership
11 98 (7.11%) Cybersecurity
12 95 (6.89%) Mentoring
12 95 (6.89%) Stakeholder Management
13 93 (6.74%) Decision-Making
14 92 (6.67%) Quality Management
15 91 (6.60%) Logistics
16 85 (6.16%) CI/CD
17 77 (5.58%) Incident Management
Programming Languages
1 238 (17.26%) SQL
2 114 (8.27%) Python
3 75 (5.44%) PowerShell
4 70 (5.08%) C#
5 62 (4.50%) JavaScript
6 26 (1.89%) Java
7 19 (1.38%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 19 (1.38%) T-SQL
8 17 (1.23%) PHP
8 17 (1.23%) VBA
9 14 (1.02%) Kusto Query Language
10 11 (0.80%) TypeScript
11 9 (0.65%) Bash
11 9 (0.65%) R
12 8 (0.58%) Bicep
13 7 (0.51%) C++
14 6 (0.44%) Apex Code
14 6 (0.44%) DCL
14 6 (0.44%) PL/SQL
14 6 (0.44%) Tcl
Qualifications
1 351 (25.45%) Degree
2 106 (7.69%) Security Cleared
3 47 (3.41%) SC Cleared
4 42 (3.05%) Computer Science Degree
5 33 (2.39%) DV Cleared
6 32 (2.32%) ACCA
6 32 (2.32%) Microsoft Certification
7 24 (1.74%) CIMA
8 19 (1.38%) BPSS Clearance
8 19 (1.38%) DBS Check
9 17 (1.23%) Cisco Certification
10 16 (1.16%) A+ Certification
11 14 (1.02%) Master's Degree
12 12 (0.87%) HNC
12 12 (0.87%) ISTQB
12 12 (0.87%) MCP
13 11 (0.80%) CCNA
13 11 (0.80%) CEH
14 10 (0.73%) CISM
14 10 (0.73%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 129 (9.35%) Data Quality
2 82 (5.95%) QA
3 53 (3.84%) GDPR
4 32 (2.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 26 (1.89%) SLA
6 23 (1.67%) Accessibility
7 17 (1.23%) Cyber Essentials
8 11 (0.80%) NIST
9 10 (0.73%) ISO 9001
10 7 (0.51%) Software Quality Assurance
11 5 (0.36%) ISO 13485
12 4 (0.29%) PCI DSS
13 3 (0.22%) Actionable Recommendations
13 3 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 3 (0.22%) HIPAA
13 3 (0.22%) ISO 31000
14 2 (0.15%) WCAG
15 1 (0.073%) GAAP
15 1 (0.073%) ISO 14001
15 1 (0.073%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 154 (11.17%) Active Directory
2 44 (3.19%) Hyper-V
3 40 (2.90%) Docker
4 30 (2.18%) VMware Infrastructure
5 10 (0.73%) VMware ESXi
6 9 (0.65%) Firmware
7 6 (0.44%) Virtual Machines
8 3 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
9 2 (0.15%) KVM
9 2 (0.15%) RHEV
9 2 (0.15%) Xen
10 1 (0.073%) Terminal Services
10 1 (0.073%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.073%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 70 (5.08%) Microsoft Intune
2 45 (3.26%) Terraform
3 34 (2.47%) Kubernetes
4 27 (1.96%) Ansible
5 16 (1.16%) SCCM
6 14 (1.02%) vCenter Server
7 10 (0.73%) ZABBIX
8 7 (0.51%) Grafana
8 7 (0.51%) Prometheus
9 6 (0.44%) Nagios
10 5 (0.36%) Single Sign-On
11 4 (0.29%) FortiGate
12 3 (0.22%) QRadar
13 2 (0.15%) Nessus
13 2 (0.15%) Proxmox
14 1 (0.073%) Control-M
14 1 (0.073%) Kibana
14 1 (0.073%) Netcool
14 1 (0.073%) Netcool/OMNIbus
14 1 (0.073%) Puppet
Vendors
1 369 (26.76%) Microsoft
2 210 (15.23%) SAP
3 47 (3.41%) VMware
4 40 (2.90%) Oracle
5 39 (2.83%) Cisco
5 39 (2.83%) Google
6 37 (2.68%) NEC
7 31 (2.25%) Sage
8 27 (1.96%) Adobe
9 26 (1.89%) Veeam
10 24 (1.74%) Databricks
11 22 (1.60%) Salesforce
12 21 (1.52%) Meraki
13 19 (1.38%) HubSpot
14 17 (1.23%) ServiceNow
15 16 (1.16%) Workday
16 13 (0.94%) Black Duck
16 13 (0.94%) Coverity
16 13 (0.94%) SolarWinds
16 13 (0.94%) Xamarin