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

6 months to
12 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 6 3 5
Rank change year-on-year -3 +2 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,543 1,649 2,029
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 9.08% 18.74% 14.64%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.70% 21.27% 18.09%
Number of salaries quoted 1,128 839 1,218
10th Percentile £27,000 £27,000 £27,000
25th Percentile £31,250 £32,375 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £42,500 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% -10.53% -7.77%
75th Percentile £58,750 £61,250 £63,750
90th Percentile £72,500 £80,000 £77,500
England median annual salary £47,500 £46,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +2.15% -7.00% -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 12,152 7,753 11,215
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 71.52% 88.09% 80.92%
Number of salaries quoted 8,674 4,168 7,304
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,750 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £33,750 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £67,313
90th Percentile £85,000 £80,375 £81,250
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +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 12 August 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 12 August 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 -5 567 £43,000 +1.18% 460
Hampshire -2 400 £43,750 -2.78% 249
Surrey +1 254 £42,500 +6.25% 164
Berkshire -3 252 £45,000 +5.88% 204
Buckinghamshire -6 178 £42,500 +13.33% 146
Kent -7 144 £37,500 +19.05% 92
Oxfordshire +2 137 £41,982 -6.71% 114
East Sussex -4 95 £50,000 - 48
West Sussex -7 71 £50,000 -0.50% 71
Middlesex +5 7 £65,000 +73.33% 36
Isle of Wight -13 2 £42,500 -16.67% 21
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 51 (3.31%) SharePoint
2 44 (2.85%) Microsoft Exchange
3 20 (1.30%) CMS
4 18 (1.17%) Confluence
5 10 (0.65%) IIS
6 8 (0.52%) WordPress
7 7 (0.45%) Apache
7 7 (0.45%) OpenEdge
8 5 (0.32%) nginx
9 3 (0.19%) Anypoint
9 3 (0.19%) OpenStack
9 3 (0.19%) SAS
10 2 (0.13%) Gentran
10 2 (0.13%) Oracle Workflow
10 2 (0.13%) Tomcat
Applications
1 103 (6.68%) Microsoft Excel
2 86 (5.57%) Microsoft Office
3 14 (0.91%) Microsoft Project
4 12 (0.78%) Spreadsheet
5 9 (0.58%) AutoCAD
6 8 (0.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 8 (0.52%) MS Visio
7 5 (0.32%) Lightworks
7 5 (0.32%) Photoshop
7 5 (0.32%) Revit
8 4 (0.26%) Adobe Illustrator
8 4 (0.26%) Simulink
9 3 (0.19%) EPLAN
10 2 (0.13%) Chatbot
11 1 (0.065%) Mathcad
11 1 (0.065%) OrCAD
11 1 (0.065%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 13 (0.84%) NetSuite
2 11 (0.71%) Dynamics CRM
3 10 (0.65%) Shopify
4 7 (0.45%) Magento
5 6 (0.39%) Raiser’s Edge
6 5 (0.32%) Primavera
7 3 (0.19%) Infor SunSystems
7 3 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
7 3 (0.19%) Sage X3
7 3 (0.19%) Salesforce CRM
8 2 (0.13%) Academy Housing
8 2 (0.13%) Oracle Applications
8 2 (0.13%) Siebel CRM
8 2 (0.13%) Workday HCM
9 1 (0.065%) Elite 3E
9 1 (0.065%) HFM
9 1 (0.065%) SAP GRC
Cloud Services
1 365 (23.66%) Azure
2 171 (11.08%) Microsoft 365
3 169 (10.95%) AWS
4 84 (5.44%) Power Platform
5 64 (4.15%) SaaS
6 56 (3.63%) Entra ID
7 50 (3.24%) GCP
8 45 (2.92%) Azure DevOps
9 34 (2.20%) GitHub
10 32 (2.07%) Serverless
11 21 (1.36%) IaaS
11 21 (1.36%) PaaS
12 20 (1.30%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 18 (1.17%) Datadog
14 17 (1.10%) Dynamics 365
14 17 (1.10%) Google Workspace
15 16 (1.04%) GitHub Actions
16 15 (0.97%) Amazon ECS
16 15 (0.97%) Azure Data Factory
17 14 (0.91%) Anthropic Claude
Communications & Networking
1 130 (8.43%) Firewall
2 66 (4.28%) DNS
3 55 (3.56%) VPN
4 54 (3.50%) TCP/IP
5 48 (3.11%) WAN
6 46 (2.98%) LAN
7 44 (2.85%) DHCP
8 42 (2.72%) Wi-Fi
9 40 (2.59%) Wireless
10 32 (2.07%) VLAN
11 29 (1.88%) VoIP
12 27 (1.75%) Network Security
13 15 (0.97%) SSL
14 13 (0.84%) Internet
15 12 (0.78%) Broadband
16 11 (0.71%) HTTP
17 10 (0.65%) MQTT
18 9 (0.58%) LTE
19 6 (0.39%) WLAN
20 5 (0.32%) VSAT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 116 (7.52%) SQL Server
2 70 (4.54%) Power BI
3 35 (2.27%) Relational Database
4 29 (1.88%) MySQL
5 28 (1.81%) PostgreSQL
6 25 (1.62%) NoSQL
7 19 (1.23%) Data Warehouse
8 15 (0.97%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 13 (0.84%) Tableau
10 12 (0.78%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 11 (0.71%) Amazon RDS
12 10 (0.65%) Data Lake
12 10 (0.65%) OLTP
13 8 (0.52%) DynamoDB
13 8 (0.52%) MongoDB
14 7 (0.45%) GIS
14 7 (0.45%) Looker
15 6 (0.39%) Azure SQL Database
16 5 (0.32%) Electronic Patient Records
17 4 (0.26%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 76 (4.93%) Git
2 60 (3.89%) JIRA
3 30 (1.94%) GitLab
4 20 (1.30%) Rational DOORS
5 10 (0.65%) Claude Code
6 7 (0.45%) Oracle Forms
6 7 (0.45%) Selenium
6 7 (0.45%) Team Foundation Server
7 5 (0.32%) Eclipse
7 5 (0.32%) Eclipse RCP
7 5 (0.32%) Jenkins
7 5 (0.32%) Postman
8 4 (0.26%) PHPUnit
8 4 (0.26%) Terragrunt
8 4 (0.26%) Visual Studio
9 3 (0.19%) Android Studio
9 3 (0.19%) PetaLinux
9 3 (0.19%) SpecFlow
10 2 (0.13%) REST Assured
10 2 (0.13%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 750 (48.61%) Social Skills
2 444 (28.78%) Analytical Skills
3 224 (14.52%) Finance
4 123 (7.97%) Manufacturing
5 114 (7.39%) Organisational Skills
6 91 (5.90%) Electronics
7 86 (5.57%) Aerospace
8 67 (4.34%) Retail
9 59 (3.82%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 53 (3.43%) Telecoms
11 43 (2.79%) Marketing
12 40 (2.59%) Influencing Skills
13 39 (2.53%) Law
14 37 (2.40%) Legal
15 36 (2.33%) Public Sector
16 34 (2.20%) Military
17 30 (1.94%) Documentation Skills
18 22 (1.43%) Local Government
19 21 (1.36%) Aviation
20 17 (1.10%) Banking
Job Titles
1 208 (13.48%) Analyst
2 166 (10.76%) Senior
3 150 (9.72%) Developer
4 144 (9.33%) IT Support
5 115 (7.45%) Support Engineer
6 96 (6.22%) Support Analyst
7 84 (5.44%) IT Engineer
8 71 (4.60%) Lead
8 71 (4.60%) Systems Engineer
9 70 (4.54%) Software Engineer
10 67 (4.34%) Technical Support
11 64 (4.15%) Support Technician
12 51 (3.31%) 2nd Line Support
12 51 (3.31%) IT Support Engineer
13 49 (3.18%) Technical Engineer
13 49 (3.18%) Technical Support Engineer
14 48 (3.11%) Architect
15 46 (2.98%) IT Technician
16 41 (2.66%) Consultant
16 41 (2.66%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 106 (6.87%) .NET
2 72 (4.67%) HTML
3 59 (3.82%) REST
4 54 (3.50%) CSS
5 51 (3.31%) React
6 50 (3.24%) SOAP
7 46 (2.98%) ASP.NET
8 34 (2.20%) OAuth
9 33 (2.14%) ASP.NET Core
10 31 (2.01%) JSON
11 29 (1.88%) RESTful
12 28 (1.81%) AngularJS
12 28 (1.81%) Vue
13 26 (1.69%) XML
14 19 (1.23%) SAML
15 18 (1.17%) ASP.NET Web API
15 18 (1.17%) jQuery
15 18 (1.17%) ModSecurity
16 17 (1.10%) LESS
16 17 (1.10%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 112 (7.26%) Driving Licence
2 87 (5.64%) Onboarding
3 76 (4.93%) Management Information System
3 76 (4.93%) Self-Motivation
4 64 (4.15%) Cloud Native
5 43 (2.79%) Product Ownership
6 33 (2.14%) Data Centre
7 32 (2.07%) Social Media
8 30 (1.94%) Distributed Systems
9 28 (1.81%) Analytical Mindset
10 27 (1.75%) Robotics
11 26 (1.69%) Legacy Systems
12 24 (1.56%) Enterprise Software
13 19 (1.23%) NHS
14 18 (1.17%) Analogue Electronics
14 18 (1.17%) EPoS
15 15 (0.97%) CCTV
15 15 (0.97%) Renewable Energy
15 15 (0.97%) Security Posture
16 14 (0.91%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 240 (15.55%) Windows
2 116 (7.52%) Linux
3 85 (5.51%) Windows Server
4 21 (1.36%) Android
5 17 (1.10%) Mac OS
6 16 (1.04%) Windows Server 2019
7 15 (0.97%) CentOS
8 14 (0.91%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 12 (0.78%) Ubuntu
10 11 (0.71%) Apple iOS
11 10 (0.65%) Windows 10
12 9 (0.58%) Debian
12 9 (0.58%) Windows Server 2016
13 4 (0.26%) Unix
14 3 (0.19%) FreeRTOS
14 3 (0.19%) Gentoo
14 3 (0.19%) VMS
14 3 (0.19%) Windows 7
15 2 (0.13%) Rocky
15 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 330 (21.39%) Continuous Improvement
2 264 (17.11%) Customer Service
3 212 (13.74%) Agile
4 190 (12.31%) Decision-Making
5 173 (11.21%) CI/CD
6 169 (10.95%) AI
7 161 (10.43%) Project Management
8 160 (10.37%) Software Engineering
9 156 (10.11%) DevOps
10 149 (9.66%) Project Delivery
11 144 (9.33%) Stakeholder Management
12 141 (9.14%) ITIL
13 132 (8.55%) Mentoring
14 131 (8.49%) Cybersecurity
15 129 (8.36%) Validation
16 120 (7.78%) Computer Science
17 119 (7.71%) Collaborative Working
18 115 (7.45%) Analytics
19 105 (6.80%) Logistics
20 99 (6.42%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 219 (14.19%) SQL
2 218 (14.13%) Python
3 121 (7.84%) C#
4 103 (6.68%) JavaScript
5 91 (5.90%) PowerShell
6 62 (4.02%) C++
7 58 (3.76%) Java
8 57 (3.69%) TypeScript
9 37 (2.40%) Bash
10 33 (2.14%) C
11 23 (1.49%) PHP
12 15 (0.97%) T-SQL
13 14 (0.91%) Ruby
14 13 (0.84%) Rust
15 12 (0.78%) PL/SQL
15 12 (0.78%) VB.NET
16 11 (0.71%) Perl
17 8 (0.52%) MATLAB
18 7 (0.45%) Bicep
19 6 (0.39%) Embedded C
Qualifications
1 307 (19.90%) Degree
2 159 (10.30%) Security Cleared
3 116 (7.52%) SC Cleared
4 97 (6.29%) DBS Check
5 66 (4.28%) Computer Science Degree
6 56 (3.63%) BPSS Clearance
7 49 (3.18%) DV Cleared
7 49 (3.18%) Microsoft Certification
8 47 (3.05%) HNC
9 38 (2.46%) Azure Certification
10 34 (2.20%) HND
11 32 (2.07%) PMI Certification
12 27 (1.75%) Chartered Engineer
13 26 (1.69%) PMP
14 25 (1.62%) CISSP
15 24 (1.56%) Master's Degree
16 23 (1.49%) ACCA
17 22 (1.43%) CIMA
18 20 (1.30%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
19 19 (1.23%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 135 (8.75%) QA
2 54 (3.50%) Data Quality
3 53 (3.43%) GDPR
4 43 (2.79%) SLA
5 32 (2.07%) Accessibility
6 28 (1.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 19 (1.23%) PCI DSS
8 18 (1.17%) Good Clinical Practice
8 18 (1.17%) NIST
9 16 (1.04%) Cyber Essentials
10 14 (0.91%) PMO
11 10 (0.65%) DO-254
11 10 (0.65%) SOC 2
12 9 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 9 (0.58%) GMP
13 8 (0.52%) 21 CFR Part 11
13 8 (0.52%) GLP
13 8 (0.52%) GxP
13 8 (0.52%) ISO 9001
14 4 (0.26%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 121 (7.84%) Active Directory
2 74 (4.80%) Docker
3 71 (4.60%) VMware Infrastructure
4 57 (3.69%) Hyper-V
5 10 (0.65%) Firmware
6 9 (0.58%) KVM
6 9 (0.58%) VMware ESXi
6 9 (0.58%) vSphere
7 5 (0.32%) ClearTrust
7 5 (0.32%) Squid
7 5 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
7 5 (0.32%) XenApp
8 4 (0.26%) Virtual Desktop
9 3 (0.19%) Embedded Firmware
9 3 (0.19%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 2 (0.13%) VMware NSX
11 1 (0.065%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 1 (0.065%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.065%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 87 (5.64%) Terraform
2 83 (5.38%) Kubernetes
3 48 (3.11%) Microsoft Intune
4 39 (2.53%) Ansible
5 23 (1.49%) SCCM
6 15 (0.97%) Grafana
7 12 (0.78%) Prometheus
7 12 (0.78%) Single Sign-On
8 10 (0.65%) Nagios
9 8 (0.52%) Jamf Pro
9 8 (0.52%) Podman
10 7 (0.45%) Failover Clustering
10 7 (0.45%) Puppet
11 5 (0.32%) Graylog
11 5 (0.32%) ZABBIX
12 4 (0.26%) Docker Swarm
12 4 (0.26%) Functional Safety
12 4 (0.26%) vCenter Server
13 2 (0.13%) Nessus
13 2 (0.13%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
Vendors
1 441 (28.58%) Microsoft
2 79 (5.12%) VMware
3 58 (3.76%) Google
4 53 (3.43%) Oracle
5 37 (2.40%) Cisco
6 33 (2.14%) Fortinet
6 33 (2.14%) SAP
7 31 (2.01%) SonicWALL
8 28 (1.81%) ServiceNow
8 28 (1.81%) Veeam
9 26 (1.69%) Salesforce
10 20 (1.30%) Databricks
10 20 (1.30%) Sage
11 16 (1.04%) Aruba
11 16 (1.04%) Palo Alto
12 14 (0.91%) Red Hat
12 14 (0.91%) Splunk
13 13 (0.84%) Instagram
14 12 (0.78%) Dynatrace
15 11 (0.71%) EMC