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

6 months to
19 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 4 4
Rank change year-on-year -5 0 +4
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,184 1,194 2,568
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 9.59% 16.96% 17.79%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.68% 18.84% 20.85%
Number of salaries quoted 906 667 1,600
10th Percentile £26,500 £28,150 £25,750
25th Percentile £31,250 £35,000 £31,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £50,967 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -11.71% +13.26% -14.29%
75th Percentile £60,000 £70,000 £62,500
90th Percentile £77,500 £83,750 £72,550
England median annual salary £45,249 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -17.73% +10.00% -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 9,340 6,338 12,319
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 75.62% 90.03% 85.36%
Number of salaries quoted 5,911 3,261 9,125
10th Percentile £28,250 £31,250 £27,500
25th Percentile £35,000 £41,250 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £65,000 £72,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £85,000 £78,750
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -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 19 March 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 19 March 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 -3 435 £45,000 -20.37% 222
Hampshire -1 250 £38,500 -23.00% 138
Berkshire -1 220 £45,000 -30.77% 121
Surrey -11 197 £40,000 -23.96% 81
Buckinghamshire -5 145 £50,000 -13.04% 55
Kent -9 124 £30,000 -11.76% 44
East Sussex -1 88 £80,000 +60.00% 27
Oxfordshire -6 70 £34,000 -20.00% 49
West Sussex 0 57 £57,500 +21.05% 23
Middlesex -6 17 £47,500 -24.00% 10
Isle of Wight +5 12 £43,500 -20.91% 3
Sussex -17 1 £30,000 +5.26% 10
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 40 (3.38%) SharePoint
2 37 (3.13%) Microsoft Exchange
3 18 (1.52%) CMS
4 17 (1.44%) IIS
5 12 (1.01%) WordPress
6 9 (0.76%) Confluence
7 3 (0.25%) Anypoint
7 3 (0.25%) Apache Airflow
7 3 (0.25%) govService
7 3 (0.25%) SAS
8 2 (0.17%) Apache
8 2 (0.17%) OpenStack
9 1 (0.084%) Apache Spark
9 1 (0.084%) ArcGIS
9 1 (0.084%) nginx
Applications
1 102 (8.61%) Microsoft Office
2 75 (6.33%) Microsoft Excel
3 17 (1.44%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 12 (1.01%) Photoshop
5 10 (0.84%) Adobe Illustrator
6 8 (0.68%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 8 (0.68%) MS Visio
7 7 (0.59%) Spreadsheet
8 3 (0.25%) Adobe XD
8 3 (0.25%) InDesign
9 2 (0.17%) Adobe After Effects
9 2 (0.17%) Adobe Captivate
9 2 (0.17%) Adobe Premiere
9 2 (0.17%) Elementor
10 1 (0.084%) Acrobat
10 1 (0.084%) AutoCAD
10 1 (0.084%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 9 (0.76%) SAP CO
2 8 (0.68%) Dynamics CRM
2 8 (0.68%) NetSuite
3 5 (0.42%) SAP Hybris
4 4 (0.34%) Dynamics NAV
5 3 (0.25%) Sage X3
5 3 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
5 3 (0.25%) SAP S/4HANA
6 2 (0.17%) Dynamics AX
6 2 (0.17%) IBM Planning Analytics
6 2 (0.17%) Magento
6 2 (0.17%) Q-Pulse
6 2 (0.17%) Sage 200
7 1 (0.084%) Elite 3E
7 1 (0.084%) PeopleSoft HRMS
7 1 (0.084%) Raiser’s Edge
7 1 (0.084%) SAP GRC
7 1 (0.084%) SAP HR
7 1 (0.084%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 229 (19.34%) Azure
2 151 (12.75%) Microsoft 365
3 85 (7.18%) AWS
4 83 (7.01%) Power Platform
5 66 (5.57%) Azure DevOps
6 59 (4.98%) SaaS
7 37 (3.13%) GCP
8 34 (2.87%) Entra ID
9 26 (2.20%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 24 (2.03%) PaaS
11 23 (1.94%) IaaS
12 20 (1.69%) Mimecast
13 19 (1.60%) GitHub
13 19 (1.60%) Google Workspace
14 17 (1.44%) Azure Logic Apps
15 16 (1.35%) Dynamics 365
15 16 (1.35%) Figma
16 13 (1.10%) OpenShift
17 12 (1.01%) Azure Data Factory
17 12 (1.01%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 81 (6.84%) DNS
2 66 (5.57%) Firewall
3 48 (4.05%) DHCP
4 39 (3.29%) TCP/IP
5 36 (3.04%) VPN
6 24 (2.03%) Wireless
7 19 (1.60%) VLAN
8 16 (1.35%) Broadband
8 16 (1.35%) WAN
9 13 (1.10%) LAN
10 11 (0.93%) HTTP
10 11 (0.93%) Intranet
11 10 (0.84%) SAN
12 9 (0.76%) VoIP
13 8 (0.68%) Remote Desktop
14 7 (0.59%) Wi-Fi
15 6 (0.51%) PuTTY
15 6 (0.51%) SSH
16 3 (0.25%) Unified Communications
17 2 (0.17%) LTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 63 (5.32%) Power BI
2 40 (3.38%) SQL Server
3 32 (2.70%) Relational Database
4 22 (1.86%) Data Warehouse
5 18 (1.52%) Power Query
6 15 (1.27%) OLTP
7 14 (1.18%) NoSQL
7 14 (1.18%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 10 (0.84%) MySQL
8 10 (0.84%) Tableau
9 8 (0.68%) PostgreSQL
10 7 (0.59%) PowerPivot
11 6 (0.51%) Hadoop
12 5 (0.42%) Big Data
12 5 (0.42%) Data Lake
12 5 (0.42%) Data Mining
13 4 (0.34%) Azure SQL Database
14 3 (0.25%) Elasticsearch
14 3 (0.25%) Metadata
14 3 (0.25%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 54 (4.56%) Git
2 39 (3.29%) JIRA
3 24 (2.03%) GitLab
3 24 (2.03%) Selenium
4 15 (1.27%) Robot Framework
5 13 (1.10%) Snyk
6 11 (0.93%) Rational DOORS
7 8 (0.68%) Visual Studio
8 7 (0.59%) Jenkins
9 4 (0.34%) Cypress.io
9 4 (0.34%) Postman
10 3 (0.25%) Appium
10 3 (0.25%) REST Assured
10 3 (0.25%) WebDriver
11 2 (0.17%) JMeter
11 2 (0.17%) LabVIEW
11 2 (0.17%) TestRail
12 1 (0.084%) Browser DevTools
12 1 (0.084%) JUnit
12 1 (0.084%) Katalon Studio
General
1 607 (51.27%) Social Skills
2 334 (28.21%) Analytical Skills
3 186 (15.71%) Finance
4 75 (6.33%) Organisational Skills
5 72 (6.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 72 (6.08%) Marketing
5 72 (6.08%) Retail
6 59 (4.98%) Manufacturing
7 51 (4.31%) Telecoms
8 40 (3.38%) Electronics
9 35 (2.96%) Public Sector
10 34 (2.87%) Legal
11 30 (2.53%) Law
12 25 (2.11%) Documentation Skills
13 16 (1.35%) Presentation Skills
14 14 (1.18%) Influencing Skills
15 11 (0.93%) Banking
15 11 (0.93%) Pharmaceutical
16 8 (0.68%) Local Government
17 7 (0.59%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 183 (15.46%) IT Support
2 173 (14.61%) Support Engineer
3 171 (14.44%) Analyst
4 122 (10.30%) Senior
5 110 (9.29%) Developer
6 86 (7.26%) Support Analyst
7 80 (6.76%) IT Engineer
8 69 (5.83%) Technical Support
9 66 (5.57%) IT Support Engineer
10 59 (4.98%) 2nd Line Support
11 51 (4.31%) Lead
12 48 (4.05%) IT Analyst
12 48 (4.05%) Technical Engineer
12 48 (4.05%) Technical Support Engineer
13 47 (3.97%) IT Support Analyst
14 37 (3.13%) Architect
14 37 (3.13%) Software Engineer
15 33 (2.79%) IT Technician
15 33 (2.79%) Project Engineer
16 32 (2.70%) Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 58 (4.90%) .NET
2 50 (4.22%) HTML
3 32 (2.70%) SOAP
4 28 (2.36%) React
5 27 (2.28%) REST
6 26 (2.20%) CSS
7 22 (1.86%) XML
8 17 (1.44%) .NET Framework
8 17 (1.44%) JSON
9 16 (1.35%) ASP.NET
10 15 (1.27%) Middleware
11 14 (1.18%) Laravel
12 13 (1.10%) Lightning Web Components
13 12 (1.01%) ARM Templates
13 12 (1.01%) Visualforce
14 11 (0.93%) Entity Framework
14 11 (0.93%) OLE
15 10 (0.84%) OAuth
15 10 (0.84%) WinForms
16 9 (0.76%) SAP CO-PA
Miscellaneous
1 93 (7.85%) Onboarding
2 86 (7.26%) Driving Licence
3 65 (5.49%) Self-Motivation
4 41 (3.46%) Management Information System
5 32 (2.70%) Product Ownership
6 22 (1.86%) Analytical Mindset
6 22 (1.86%) Distributed Systems
6 22 (1.86%) Social Media
7 21 (1.77%) Cloud Native
8 20 (1.69%) Low-Code
9 12 (1.01%) Enterprise Software
9 12 (1.01%) Legacy Systems
9 12 (1.01%) Video Editing
10 10 (0.84%) Client/Server
10 10 (0.84%) Security Operations Centre
10 10 (0.84%) Video Conferencing
11 9 (0.76%) IoT
11 9 (0.76%) Life Science
11 9 (0.76%) NHS
12 7 (0.59%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 223 (18.83%) Windows
2 88 (7.43%) Linux
3 67 (5.66%) Windows Server
4 25 (2.11%) Mac OS
5 23 (1.94%) Windows 10
6 17 (1.44%) Android
7 14 (1.18%) CentOS
7 14 (1.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 10 (0.84%) Windows Server 2012
9 7 (0.59%) Apple iOS
9 7 (0.59%) VMS
9 7 (0.59%) Windows Server 2019
10 6 (0.51%) Ubuntu
11 5 (0.42%) Windows Server 2016
12 4 (0.34%) Unix
13 1 (0.084%) Debian
13 1 (0.084%) FreeBSD
13 1 (0.084%) OpenBSD
13 1 (0.084%) Windows 7
13 1 (0.084%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 240 (20.27%) Continuous Improvement
2 206 (17.40%) Customer Service
3 163 (13.77%) Agile
4 131 (11.06%) DevOps
5 110 (9.29%) Analytics
6 107 (9.04%) CI/CD
7 97 (8.19%) Business Intelligence
8 96 (8.11%) Decision-Making
9 93 (7.85%) Project Management
10 90 (7.60%) Computer Science
11 87 (7.35%) Mentoring
12 78 (6.59%) AI
13 75 (6.33%) Stakeholder Management
14 74 (6.25%) Cybersecurity
15 70 (5.91%) CRM
16 69 (5.83%) Software Engineering
17 67 (5.66%) Collaborative Culture
18 64 (5.41%) ITIL
18 64 (5.41%) Process Improvement
19 63 (5.32%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 184 (15.54%) SQL
2 182 (15.37%) Python
3 74 (6.25%) PowerShell
4 72 (6.08%) C#
4 72 (6.08%) JavaScript
5 45 (3.80%) Java
6 28 (2.36%) PHP
7 26 (2.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 21 (1.77%) Bash
8 21 (1.77%) C++
9 20 (1.69%) C
10 18 (1.52%) PL/SQL
11 17 (1.44%) TypeScript
12 13 (1.10%) Apex Code
13 12 (1.01%) Bicep
14 11 (0.93%) Perl
15 10 (0.84%) T-SQL
16 9 (0.76%) Kusto Query Language
16 9 (0.76%) Rust
17 8 (0.68%) R
Qualifications
1 242 (20.44%) Degree
2 75 (6.33%) Security Cleared
3 49 (4.14%) Computer Science Degree
4 46 (3.89%) ACCA
5 38 (3.21%) CIMA
6 36 (3.04%) SC Cleared
7 33 (2.79%) DBS Check
8 30 (2.53%) Microsoft Certification
9 27 (2.28%) BPSS Clearance
10 22 (1.86%) DV Cleared
10 22 (1.86%) HNC
11 21 (1.77%) Microsoft Certified Professional
12 17 (1.44%) A+ Certification
13 12 (1.01%) Chartered Engineer
14 10 (0.84%) Master's Degree
15 9 (0.76%) HND
16 8 (0.68%) City & Guilds
16 8 (0.68%) ITIL Certification
16 8 (0.68%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
17 7 (0.59%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 69 (5.83%) QA
2 52 (4.39%) Data Quality
3 48 (4.05%) GDPR
4 24 (2.03%) SLA
5 22 (1.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 19 (1.60%) Accessibility
7 12 (1.01%) PCI DSS
8 10 (0.84%) NIST
9 5 (0.42%) Actionable Recommendations
9 5 (0.42%) Cyber Essentials
10 4 (0.34%) ISO 9001
10 4 (0.34%) ITGC
11 3 (0.25%) SOC 2
12 2 (0.17%) GRC
13 1 (0.084%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 1 (0.084%) GAAP
13 1 (0.084%) IFRS
13 1 (0.084%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 1 (0.084%) PMO
13 1 (0.084%) WCAG
System Software
1 149 (12.58%) Active Directory
2 39 (3.29%) Docker
3 37 (3.13%) Hyper-V
4 34 (2.87%) VMware Infrastructure
5 10 (0.84%) KVM
6 6 (0.51%) VMware ESXi
7 5 (0.42%) Firmware
7 5 (0.42%) XenApp
8 3 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.17%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.084%) Oracle RAC
10 1 (0.084%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 1 (0.084%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.084%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 55 (4.65%) Terraform
2 38 (3.21%) Kubernetes
3 37 (3.13%) Microsoft Intune
4 32 (2.70%) Ansible
5 16 (1.35%) SCCM
6 14 (1.18%) Grafana
6 14 (1.18%) Prometheus
7 11 (0.93%) ZABBIX
8 10 (0.84%) Nagios
8 10 (0.84%) vCenter Server
9 2 (0.17%) Nessus
9 2 (0.17%) Netcool
9 2 (0.17%) Netcool/OMNIbus
9 2 (0.17%) Puppet
10 1 (0.084%) Control-M
10 1 (0.084%) Docker Swarm
10 1 (0.084%) FortiGate
10 1 (0.084%) Kibana
10 1 (0.084%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
10 1 (0.084%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 319 (26.94%) Microsoft
2 44 (3.72%) VMware
3 39 (3.29%) Databricks
4 38 (3.21%) Google
5 36 (3.04%) SAP
5 36 (3.04%) Veeam
6 35 (2.96%) Adobe
7 31 (2.62%) Salesforce
8 30 (2.53%) Sage
9 29 (2.45%) Oracle
10 22 (1.86%) HubSpot
11 20 (1.69%) NEC
12 17 (1.44%) ServiceNow
13 14 (1.18%) Red Hat
14 13 (1.10%) Black Duck
14 13 (1.10%) Coverity
14 13 (1.10%) Dynatrace
15 12 (1.01%) Cisco
15 12 (1.01%) SolarWinds
15 12 (1.01%) Xamarin