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

6 months to
16 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 5 4 5
Rank change year-on-year -1 +1 +2
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,986 1,659 1,837
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 10.31% 18.58% 15.60%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 14.21% 21.02% 19.18%
Number of salaries quoted 1,365 892 811
10th Percentile £27,000 £26,500 £28,000
25th Percentile £31,000 £30,500 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £41,500 £40,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.75% -20.00% -
75th Percentile £55,000 £60,000 £67,500
90th Percentile £67,500 £74,975 £83,750
England median annual salary £45,050 £45,000 £54,000
% change year-on-year +0.11% -16.67% -1.82%

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 13,974 7,894 9,579
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 72.54% 88.40% 81.32%
Number of salaries quoted 9,903 4,283 5,109
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,000 £32,500
25th Percentile £39,250 £32,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £47,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +15.79% -13.64% -
75th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £70,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £82,500 £85,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -1.32%

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 16 October 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 16 October 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 -1 743 £42,500 +6.25% 156
Hampshire 0 502 £40,000 - 99
Berkshire -2 336 £42,000 +2.44% 84
Surrey +1 301 £38,500 -3.75% 56
Kent 0 227 £40,000 +14.29% 26
Buckinghamshire -3 211 £42,500 +13.33% 34
Oxfordshire +5 196 £43,500 +2.35% 46
East Sussex 0 95 £50,000 +20.48% 11
West Sussex -8 90 £45,000 -10.89% 23
Middlesex +5 14 £35,000 -6.67% 2
Sussex -10 8 £65,000 +52.94% 13
Isle of Wight -10 3 £42,500 +3.66% 1
M4 Corridor - 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 98 (4.93%) SharePoint
2 70 (3.52%) Microsoft Exchange
3 17 (0.86%) IIS
4 16 (0.81%) Confluence
5 7 (0.35%) CMS
5 7 (0.35%) OpenEdge
6 6 (0.30%) Apache
7 5 (0.25%) nginx
7 5 (0.25%) WordPress
8 3 (0.15%) SAS
9 2 (0.10%) Apache Spark
9 2 (0.10%) Oracle Workflow
9 2 (0.10%) Tomcat
10 1 (0.050%) ArchestrA
10 1 (0.050%) FactoryTalk
10 1 (0.050%) Jupyter
Applications
1 156 (7.85%) Microsoft Office
2 125 (6.29%) Microsoft Excel
3 22 (1.11%) AutoCAD
4 17 (0.86%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 16 (0.81%) Microsoft Project
6 13 (0.65%) Spreadsheet
7 11 (0.55%) MS Visio
8 9 (0.45%) Revit
8 9 (0.45%) Simulink
9 7 (0.35%) Lightworks
10 6 (0.30%) SOLIDWORKS
11 5 (0.25%) EPLAN
11 5 (0.25%) Mathematica
12 3 (0.15%) Chatbot
13 2 (0.10%) CATIA
13 2 (0.10%) Mathcad
13 2 (0.10%) Photoshop
13 2 (0.10%) PTC Creo
13 2 (0.10%) Siemens NX
13 2 (0.10%) Solid Edge
Business Applications
1 23 (1.16%) NetSuite
2 19 (0.96%) Shopify
3 15 (0.76%) Dynamics CRM
4 7 (0.35%) Primavera
5 6 (0.30%) Raiser’s Edge
6 4 (0.20%) Magento
7 3 (0.15%) FastStats
7 3 (0.15%) FastStats PeopleStage
7 3 (0.15%) Payment Gateway
7 3 (0.15%) Sage X3
7 3 (0.15%) SAP MDG
7 3 (0.15%) SAP MDG-M
8 2 (0.10%) Academy Housing
8 2 (0.10%) Adobe Campaign
8 2 (0.10%) Eloqua
8 2 (0.10%) Oracle Applications
8 2 (0.10%) SAP SD
8 2 (0.10%) Siebel CRM
8 2 (0.10%) Workday HCM
9 1 (0.050%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 378 (19.03%) Azure
2 278 (14.00%) Microsoft 365
3 178 (8.96%) AWS
4 106 (5.34%) Power Platform
5 92 (4.63%) Entra ID
6 78 (3.93%) SaaS
7 52 (2.62%) GCP
8 44 (2.22%) Azure DevOps
9 37 (1.86%) Google Workspace
10 36 (1.81%) GitHub
11 28 (1.41%) Serverless
12 27 (1.36%) OneDrive
13 19 (0.96%) Anthropic Claude
14 15 (0.76%) Dynamics 365
15 14 (0.70%) Amazon ECS
15 14 (0.70%) AWS CloudFormation
15 14 (0.70%) Google Analytics
16 13 (0.65%) GitHub Actions
16 13 (0.65%) IaaS
16 13 (0.65%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 168 (8.46%) Firewall
2 95 (4.78%) DNS
3 80 (4.03%) VPN
4 73 (3.68%) DHCP
5 71 (3.58%) VLAN
6 63 (3.17%) TCP/IP
7 57 (2.87%) Wi-Fi
8 56 (2.82%) LAN
8 56 (2.82%) WAN
9 53 (2.67%) Wireless
10 39 (1.96%) Network Security
11 38 (1.91%) VoIP
12 18 (0.91%) SSL
13 14 (0.70%) 5G
13 14 (0.70%) Internet
14 12 (0.60%) MQTT
15 10 (0.50%) Ethernet
16 9 (0.45%) Broadband
16 9 (0.45%) WLAN
17 8 (0.40%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 121 (6.09%) SQL Server
2 86 (4.33%) Power BI
3 34 (1.71%) Relational Database
4 32 (1.61%) MySQL
5 28 (1.41%) PostgreSQL
6 26 (1.31%) NoSQL
7 15 (0.76%) Data Warehouse
8 12 (0.60%) GIS
8 12 (0.60%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 11 (0.55%) Amazon RDS
10 10 (0.50%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 9 (0.45%) MongoDB
12 8 (0.40%) Tableau
13 7 (0.35%) Azure SQL Database
13 7 (0.35%) DynamoDB
13 7 (0.35%) Metadata
14 6 (0.30%) Power Query
15 5 (0.25%) Electronic Patient Records
15 5 (0.25%) OLTP
15 5 (0.25%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 64 (3.22%) Git
2 59 (2.97%) JIRA
3 19 (0.96%) Rational DOORS
4 17 (0.86%) Claude Code
5 16 (0.81%) GitLab
6 13 (0.65%) Oracle Forms
6 13 (0.65%) Team Foundation Server
7 6 (0.30%) Selenium
8 5 (0.25%) Eclipse
8 5 (0.25%) Eclipse RCP
8 5 (0.25%) Jenkins
8 5 (0.25%) Visual Studio
8 5 (0.25%) Visual Studio Code
9 4 (0.20%) LabVIEW
9 4 (0.20%) PetaLinux
9 4 (0.20%) Postman
9 4 (0.20%) Terragrunt
10 3 (0.15%) Mocha
10 3 (0.15%) PHPUnit
10 3 (0.15%) SpecFlow
General
1 1,037 (52.22%) Social Skills
2 520 (26.18%) Analytical Skills
3 307 (15.46%) Finance
4 249 (12.54%) Manufacturing
5 223 (11.23%) Organisational Skills
6 159 (8.01%) Aerospace
7 146 (7.35%) Electronics
8 114 (5.74%) Retail
9 73 (3.68%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 68 (3.42%) Marketing
11 62 (3.12%) Influencing Skills
12 58 (2.92%) Legal
13 53 (2.67%) Public Sector
14 45 (2.27%) Telecoms
15 44 (2.22%) Military
16 37 (1.86%) Law
17 30 (1.51%) Aviation
18 28 (1.41%) Automotive
18 28 (1.41%) Presentation Skills
19 26 (1.31%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 262 (13.19%) Analyst
2 194 (9.77%) Senior
3 173 (8.71%) IT Support
4 164 (8.26%) Developer
5 148 (7.45%) Support Analyst
6 134 (6.75%) Support Engineer
7 100 (5.04%) Lead
8 93 (4.68%) IT Engineer
9 86 (4.33%) Technical Support
10 74 (3.73%) Systems Engineer
11 73 (3.68%) Support Technician
12 70 (3.52%) Software Engineer
13 67 (3.37%) IT Support Engineer
14 62 (3.12%) IT Analyst
15 60 (3.02%) Technical Engineer
16 58 (2.92%) Technical Support Engineer
17 56 (2.82%) 2nd Line Support
18 55 (2.77%) Consultant
19 52 (2.62%) 1st Line Support
19 52 (2.62%) Applications Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 120 (6.04%) .NET
2 75 (3.78%) Terraform
3 72 (3.63%) HTML
4 58 (2.92%) ASP.NET
5 55 (2.77%) CSS
5 55 (2.77%) REST
6 54 (2.72%) React
7 42 (2.11%) SOAP
8 38 (1.91%) ASP.NET Core
9 32 (1.61%) AngularJS
10 29 (1.46%) RESTful
10 29 (1.46%) Vue
11 27 (1.36%) ModSecurity
12 26 (1.31%) OAuth
12 26 (1.31%) XML
13 25 (1.26%) ASP.NET Web Forms
13 25 (1.26%) JSON
14 24 (1.21%) ASP.NET Web API
15 23 (1.16%) jQuery
16 21 (1.06%) LESS
Miscellaneous
1 176 (8.86%) Driving Licence
2 133 (6.70%) Onboarding
3 121 (6.09%) Management Information System
4 106 (5.34%) Self-Motivation
5 64 (3.22%) Cloud Native
6 54 (2.72%) Product Ownership
7 44 (2.22%) Robotics
8 41 (2.06%) Data Centre
9 34 (1.71%) Social Media
10 33 (1.66%) Enterprise Software
11 31 (1.56%) Analogue Electronics
12 28 (1.41%) CCTV
13 26 (1.31%) Legacy Systems
14 22 (1.11%) Analytical Mindset
15 21 (1.06%) Distributed Systems
16 19 (0.96%) Mobile App
16 19 (0.96%) Renewable Energy
17 18 (0.91%) IoT
18 17 (0.86%) Embedded Systems
19 16 (0.81%) Life Science
Operating Systems
1 314 (15.81%) Windows
2 118 (5.94%) Windows Server
3 107 (5.39%) Linux
4 27 (1.36%) Android
5 26 (1.31%) Windows 10
6 22 (1.11%) macOS
7 19 (0.96%) Apple iOS
7 19 (0.96%) Windows Server 2019
8 14 (0.70%) Ubuntu
9 9 (0.45%) Rocky
9 9 (0.45%) Windows Server 2016
10 7 (0.35%) Debian
10 7 (0.35%) Windows Server 2012
11 5 (0.25%) CentOS
11 5 (0.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 4 (0.20%) FreeRTOS
12 4 (0.20%) Windows 7
13 3 (0.15%) Gentoo
13 3 (0.15%) Unix
14 2 (0.10%) Embedded Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 474 (23.87%) Continuous Improvement
2 401 (20.19%) Customer Service
3 238 (11.98%) Stakeholder Management
4 232 (11.68%) Agile
5 224 (11.28%) Decision-Making
6 207 (10.42%) Project Management
7 205 (10.32%) AI
8 198 (9.97%) Project Delivery
9 186 (9.37%) Collaborative Working
10 169 (8.51%) ITIL
11 159 (8.01%) Mentoring
12 158 (7.96%) Software Engineering
13 155 (7.80%) CI/CD
13 155 (7.80%) CRM
14 154 (7.75%) Cybersecurity
15 150 (7.55%) Validation
16 131 (6.60%) DevOps
17 128 (6.45%) Technical Leadership
18 126 (6.34%) Process Improvement
19 125 (6.29%) ERP
Programming Languages
1 229 (11.53%) SQL
2 196 (9.87%) Python
3 138 (6.95%) C#
4 113 (5.69%) JavaScript
5 96 (4.83%) PowerShell
6 73 (3.68%) C++
7 67 (3.37%) TypeScript
8 57 (2.87%) Java
9 29 (1.46%) C
10 27 (1.36%) Bash
11 25 (1.26%) Ruby
12 24 (1.21%) T-SQL
13 21 (1.06%) MATLAB
14 18 (0.91%) VB.NET
15 17 (0.86%) PHP
16 13 (0.65%) Rust
17 11 (0.55%) Data Analysis Expressions
18 10 (0.50%) ABAP
19 8 (0.40%) Bicep
19 8 (0.40%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 399 (20.09%) Degree
2 214 (10.78%) Security Cleared
3 148 (7.45%) SC Cleared
4 126 (6.34%) DBS Check
5 71 (3.58%) HNC
6 65 (3.27%) HND
6 65 (3.27%) Microsoft Certification
7 61 (3.07%) DV Cleared
8 60 (3.02%) Computer Science Degree
9 59 (2.97%) Azure Certification
9 59 (2.97%) BPSS Clearance
10 32 (1.61%) CISSP
11 29 (1.46%) Chartered Engineer
11 29 (1.46%) Master's Degree
12 27 (1.36%) A+ Certification
13 26 (1.31%) AWS Certification
13 26 (1.31%) PMI Certification
14 25 (1.26%) CISM
15 23 (1.16%) NVQ Level 3
16 22 (1.11%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 148 (7.45%) QA
2 73 (3.68%) GDPR
3 50 (2.52%) Accessibility
4 48 (2.42%) Data Quality
5 47 (2.37%) SLA
6 41 (2.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 23 (1.16%) DO-254
7 23 (1.16%) NIST
8 21 (1.06%) PMO
9 20 (1.01%) Cyber Essentials
10 18 (0.91%) Good Clinical Practice
11 16 (0.81%) ISO 9001
12 14 (0.70%) PCI DSS
13 12 (0.60%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 9 (0.45%) 21 CFR Part 11
14 9 (0.45%) GMP
14 9 (0.45%) GxP
15 8 (0.40%) GLP
16 7 (0.35%) SOC 2
17 5 (0.25%) Def Stans
System Software
1 183 (9.21%) Active Directory
2 87 (4.38%) VMware Infrastructure
3 70 (3.52%) Hyper-V
4 60 (3.02%) Docker
5 23 (1.16%) Firmware
6 9 (0.45%) Virtual Desktop
6 9 (0.45%) Virtual Servers
6 9 (0.45%) VMware ESXi
7 8 (0.40%) Virtual Machines
8 7 (0.35%) vSphere
9 6 (0.30%) Embedded Firmware
10 5 (0.25%) ClearTrust
10 5 (0.25%) Squid
11 3 (0.15%) KVM
11 3 (0.15%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 1 (0.050%) LXC
12 1 (0.050%) VirtualBox
12 1 (0.050%) VMware NSX
12 1 (0.050%) zsh
Systems Management
1 75 (3.78%) Microsoft Intune
2 65 (3.27%) Kubernetes
3 29 (1.46%) Ansible
4 21 (1.06%) SCCM
5 17 (0.86%) Jamf Pro
5 17 (0.86%) Single Sign-On
6 11 (0.55%) Grafana
7 10 (0.50%) Prometheus
8 9 (0.45%) Failover Clustering
9 8 (0.40%) Nagios
9 8 (0.40%) Podman
10 6 (0.30%) Functional Safety
10 6 (0.30%) Graylog
11 5 (0.25%) BMC PATROL
11 5 (0.25%) Puppet
11 5 (0.25%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
12 4 (0.20%) Docker Swarm
13 3 (0.15%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
13 3 (0.15%) SCOM
14 2 (0.10%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
Vendors
1 613 (30.87%) Microsoft
2 106 (5.34%) VMware
3 88 (4.43%) Google
4 55 (2.77%) SAP
5 52 (2.62%) Oracle
6 46 (2.32%) Veeam
7 43 (2.17%) Fortinet
8 42 (2.11%) SonicWALL
9 40 (2.01%) Cisco
10 38 (1.91%) ServiceNow
11 31 (1.56%) Salesforce
12 23 (1.16%) Apple
12 23 (1.16%) Palo Alto
13 21 (1.06%) Thales
14 20 (1.01%) Sage
15 19 (0.96%) Mentor Graphics
16 18 (0.91%) WatchGuard
17 17 (0.86%) EMC
18 16 (0.81%) Aruba
19 15 (0.76%) CA Agile Central