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

6 months to
26 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 3 4
Rank change year-on-year -7 +1 +4
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,187 1,168 2,624
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 9.34% 17.39% 17.54%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.41% 19.31% 20.60%
Number of salaries quoted 906 660 1,643
10th Percentile £26,500 £28,475 £25,750
25th Percentile £31,250 £35,000 £31,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £50,484 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -10.86% +12.19% -14.29%
75th Percentile £61,813 £70,000 £62,500
90th Percentile £78,500 £83,750 £72,500
England median annual salary £47,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -14.55% +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 9,562 6,049 12,736
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 75.25% 90.07% 85.11%
Number of salaries quoted 6,069 3,230 9,345
10th Percentile £28,500 £30,500 £27,500
25th Percentile £36,250 £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 £71,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £82,500 £85,000 £77,750
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 26 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 26 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 -5 442 £46,000 -16.36% 227
Hampshire -3 247 £38,500 -23.00% 129
Berkshire -3 219 £45,000 -30.23% 110
Surrey -11 194 £40,000 -23.81% 74
Buckinghamshire -8 148 £50,000 -13.04% 68
Kent -10 124 £30,000 -11.76% 41
East Sussex 0 91 £80,000 +60.00% 26
Oxfordshire -6 75 £34,000 -20.00% 51
West Sussex 0 59 £57,500 +35.29% 25
Middlesex -5 14 £47,500 -24.00% 10
Isle of Wight +3 12 £43,500 -20.91%
Sussex -16 1 £30,000 +5.26% 13
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 (3.37%) SharePoint
2 36 (3.03%) Microsoft Exchange
3 17 (1.43%) CMS
4 15 (1.26%) IIS
5 12 (1.01%) WordPress
6 7 (0.59%) Confluence
7 4 (0.34%) Anypoint
8 3 (0.25%) Apache Airflow
8 3 (0.25%) govService
8 3 (0.25%) OpenStack
8 3 (0.25%) SAS
9 2 (0.17%) Apache
10 1 (0.084%) Apache Spark
10 1 (0.084%) ArcGIS
10 1 (0.084%) nginx
Applications
1 97 (8.17%) Microsoft Office
2 79 (6.66%) Microsoft Excel
3 16 (1.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 11 (0.93%) Photoshop
5 10 (0.84%) Adobe Illustrator
6 8 (0.67%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 8 (0.67%) MS Visio
7 6 (0.51%) 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 (0.67%) Dynamics CRM
3 7 (0.59%) NetSuite
4 4 (0.34%) Dynamics NAV
4 4 (0.34%) SAP Hybris
5 3 (0.25%) Magento
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%) Q-Pulse
6 2 (0.17%) Sage 200
7 1 (0.084%) Elite 3E
7 1 (0.084%) Infor SunSystems
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
1 235 (19.80%) Azure
2 149 (12.55%) Microsoft 365
3 87 (7.33%) AWS
4 86 (7.25%) Power Platform
5 65 (5.48%) Azure DevOps
6 61 (5.14%) SaaS
7 36 (3.03%) GCP
8 32 (2.70%) Entra ID
9 29 (2.44%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 26 (2.19%) PaaS
11 25 (2.11%) IaaS
12 20 (1.68%) Mimecast
13 19 (1.60%) Dynamics 365
13 19 (1.60%) Google Workspace
14 18 (1.52%) GitHub
15 17 (1.43%) Azure Logic Apps
16 16 (1.35%) Azure Data Factory
17 14 (1.18%) Figma
18 13 (1.10%) Datadog
18 13 (1.10%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 80 (6.74%) DNS
2 66 (5.56%) Firewall
3 47 (3.96%) DHCP
4 37 (3.12%) TCP/IP
5 35 (2.95%) VPN
6 24 (2.02%) Wireless
7 18 (1.52%) VLAN
8 17 (1.43%) Broadband
9 16 (1.35%) WAN
10 13 (1.10%) LAN
11 11 (0.93%) HTTP
11 11 (0.93%) Intranet
12 10 (0.84%) SAN
12 10 (0.84%) VoIP
13 8 (0.67%) 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 66 (5.56%) Power BI
2 41 (3.45%) SQL Server
3 34 (2.86%) Relational Database
4 24 (2.02%) Data Warehouse
5 18 (1.52%) Power Query
6 15 (1.26%) OLTP
7 14 (1.18%) NoSQL
8 12 (1.01%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 11 (0.93%) Tableau
10 10 (0.84%) MySQL
11 8 (0.67%) Data Lake
11 8 (0.67%) PostgreSQL
11 8 (0.67%) PowerPivot
12 6 (0.51%) Hadoop
13 5 (0.42%) Big Data
13 5 (0.42%) Data Mining
14 4 (0.34%) Azure SQL Database
14 4 (0.34%) Metadata
15 3 (0.25%) Elasticsearch
15 3 (0.25%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 52 (4.38%) Git
2 38 (3.20%) JIRA
3 24 (2.02%) GitLab
3 24 (2.02%) Selenium
4 15 (1.26%) Robot Framework
5 13 (1.10%) Rational DOORS
5 13 (1.10%) Snyk
6 7 (0.59%) Jenkins
6 7 (0.59%) Visual Studio
7 4 (0.34%) Cypress.io
7 4 (0.34%) Postman
8 3 (0.25%) Appium
8 3 (0.25%) REST Assured
8 3 (0.25%) WebDriver
9 2 (0.17%) JMeter
9 2 (0.17%) LabVIEW
9 2 (0.17%) TestRail
10 1 (0.084%) Browser DevTools
10 1 (0.084%) JUnit
10 1 (0.084%) Katalon Studio
General
1 599 (50.46%) Social Skills
2 343 (28.90%) Analytical Skills
3 188 (15.84%) Finance
4 75 (6.32%) Organisational Skills
5 72 (6.07%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 71 (5.98%) Marketing
7 69 (5.81%) Retail
8 62 (5.22%) Manufacturing
9 48 (4.04%) Telecoms
10 41 (3.45%) Electronics
11 36 (3.03%) Public Sector
12 35 (2.95%) Legal
13 33 (2.78%) Law
14 24 (2.02%) Documentation Skills
15 15 (1.26%) Presentation Skills
16 13 (1.10%) Influencing Skills
17 11 (0.93%) Pharmaceutical
18 9 (0.76%) Aerospace
18 9 (0.76%) Banking
19 8 (0.67%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 180 (15.16%) IT Support
2 171 (14.41%) Support Engineer
3 168 (14.15%) Analyst
4 128 (10.78%) Senior
5 109 (9.18%) Developer
6 84 (7.08%) Support Analyst
7 82 (6.91%) IT Engineer
8 67 (5.64%) IT Support Engineer
9 66 (5.56%) Technical Support
10 56 (4.72%) 2nd Line Support
11 51 (4.30%) Lead
12 47 (3.96%) Technical Engineer
12 47 (3.96%) Technical Support Engineer
13 43 (3.62%) IT Analyst
14 42 (3.54%) IT Support Analyst
15 39 (3.29%) Architect
16 36 (3.03%) Software Engineer
17 35 (2.95%) IT Technician
18 34 (2.86%) Support Technician
19 32 (2.70%) Project Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 55 (4.63%) .NET
2 48 (4.04%) HTML
3 33 (2.78%) SOAP
4 28 (2.36%) REST
5 26 (2.19%) React
6 24 (2.02%) CSS
7 22 (1.85%) XML
8 17 (1.43%) JSON
9 15 (1.26%) .NET Framework
9 15 (1.26%) ASP.NET
9 15 (1.26%) Middleware
10 14 (1.18%) Laravel
11 13 (1.10%) Lightning Web Components
12 12 (1.01%) ARM Templates
12 12 (1.01%) Visualforce
13 11 (0.93%) OAuth
13 11 (0.93%) OLE
14 9 (0.76%) Entity Framework
14 9 (0.76%) RabbitMQ
14 9 (0.76%) SAP CO-PA
Miscellaneous
1 88 (7.41%) Onboarding
2 81 (6.82%) Driving Licence
3 65 (5.48%) Self-Motivation
4 38 (3.20%) Management Information System
5 34 (2.86%) Product Ownership
6 23 (1.94%) Distributed Systems
7 22 (1.85%) Analytical Mindset
7 22 (1.85%) Cloud Native
7 22 (1.85%) Social Media
8 20 (1.68%) Low-Code
9 13 (1.10%) Enterprise Software
9 13 (1.10%) Legacy Systems
10 11 (0.93%) Video Editing
11 10 (0.84%) Client/Server
11 10 (0.84%) Life Science
11 10 (0.84%) Security Operations Centre
11 10 (0.84%) Video Conferencing
12 9 (0.76%) IoT
12 9 (0.76%) NHS
13 7 (0.59%) Algorithms
Operating Systems
1 217 (18.28%) Windows
2 90 (7.58%) Linux
3 65 (5.48%) Windows Server
4 25 (2.11%) Mac OS
5 21 (1.77%) Windows 10
6 17 (1.43%) Android
7 15 (1.26%) CentOS
7 15 (1.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 10 (0.84%) Windows Server 2012
9 8 (0.67%) VMS
10 7 (0.59%) Apple iOS
10 7 (0.59%) Windows Server 2019
11 6 (0.51%) Ubuntu
12 5 (0.42%) Windows Server 2016
13 4 (0.34%) Unix
14 2 (0.17%) Debian
15 1 (0.084%) FreeBSD
15 1 (0.084%) OpenBSD
15 1 (0.084%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 241 (20.30%) Continuous Improvement
2 205 (17.27%) Customer Service
3 163 (13.73%) Agile
4 138 (11.63%) DevOps
5 114 (9.60%) Analytics
5 114 (9.60%) CI/CD
6 101 (8.51%) Decision-Making
7 100 (8.42%) Business Intelligence
8 93 (7.83%) Project Management
9 89 (7.50%) Computer Science
10 86 (7.25%) Mentoring
11 79 (6.66%) AI
12 73 (6.15%) Cybersecurity
12 73 (6.15%) Stakeholder Management
13 69 (5.81%) ITIL
13 69 (5.81%) Software Engineering
14 68 (5.73%) Collaborative Culture
15 67 (5.64%) CRM
16 66 (5.56%) Process Improvement
17 64 (5.39%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 188 (15.84%) Python
2 185 (15.59%) SQL
3 75 (6.32%) PowerShell
4 70 (5.90%) C#
4 70 (5.90%) JavaScript
5 45 (3.79%) Java
6 28 (2.36%) PHP
7 26 (2.19%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 22 (1.85%) Bash
8 22 (1.85%) C++
9 21 (1.77%) C
10 18 (1.52%) PL/SQL
11 16 (1.35%) TypeScript
12 13 (1.10%) Apex Code
13 12 (1.01%) Bicep
14 11 (0.93%) Perl
15 9 (0.76%) Kusto Query Language
15 9 (0.76%) Rust
16 8 (0.67%) R
16 8 (0.67%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 244 (20.56%) Degree
2 78 (6.57%) Security Cleared
3 48 (4.04%) ACCA
3 48 (4.04%) Computer Science Degree
4 39 (3.29%) CIMA
5 38 (3.20%) SC Cleared
6 34 (2.86%) DBS Check
7 31 (2.61%) BPSS Clearance
8 30 (2.53%) Microsoft Certification
9 23 (1.94%) DV Cleared
10 21 (1.77%) HNC
10 21 (1.77%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 18 (1.52%) A+ Certification
12 15 (1.26%) Chartered Engineer
13 11 (0.93%) Master's Degree
14 9 (0.76%) HND
15 8 (0.67%) City & Guilds
15 8 (0.67%) PMI Certification
15 8 (0.67%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
16 7 (0.59%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 70 (5.90%) QA
2 56 (4.72%) Data Quality
3 47 (3.96%) GDPR
4 24 (2.02%) SLA
5 23 (1.94%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 17 (1.43%) Accessibility
7 12 (1.01%) PCI DSS
8 11 (0.93%) NIST
9 5 (0.42%) Actionable Recommendations
9 5 (0.42%) Cyber Essentials
9 5 (0.42%) SOC 2
10 4 (0.34%) ISO 9001
10 4 (0.34%) ITGC
11 2 (0.17%) GRC
12 1 (0.084%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 1 (0.084%) GAAP
12 1 (0.084%) IFRS
12 1 (0.084%) ISO 26262
12 1 (0.084%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 1 (0.084%) PMO
System Software
1 148 (12.47%) Active Directory
2 41 (3.45%) Docker
3 36 (3.03%) Hyper-V
3 36 (3.03%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (0.84%) KVM
5 6 (0.51%) VMware ESXi
6 5 (0.42%) Firmware
6 5 (0.42%) XenApp
7 3 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
8 2 (0.17%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 2 (0.17%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.084%) Oracle RAC
9 1 (0.084%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.084%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 57 (4.80%) Terraform
2 40 (3.37%) Kubernetes
3 35 (2.95%) Microsoft Intune
4 34 (2.86%) Ansible
5 17 (1.43%) SCCM
6 16 (1.35%) Grafana
7 15 (1.26%) Prometheus
8 11 (0.93%) ZABBIX
9 10 (0.84%) Nagios
9 10 (0.84%) vCenter Server
10 3 (0.25%) Puppet
11 2 (0.17%) Nessus
11 2 (0.17%) Netcool
11 2 (0.17%) Netcool/OMNIbus
12 1 (0.084%) Control-M
12 1 (0.084%) Docker Swarm
12 1 (0.084%) FortiGate
12 1 (0.084%) Kibana
12 1 (0.084%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
12 1 (0.084%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 321 (27.04%) Microsoft
2 45 (3.79%) VMware
3 42 (3.54%) Databricks
4 37 (3.12%) Google
5 35 (2.95%) Veeam
6 34 (2.86%) SAP
7 33 (2.78%) Adobe
8 31 (2.61%) Salesforce
9 29 (2.44%) Oracle
10 27 (2.27%) Sage
11 22 (1.85%) HubSpot
12 20 (1.68%) NEC
13 17 (1.43%) ServiceNow
14 14 (1.18%) Red Hat
15 13 (1.10%) Black Duck
15 13 (1.10%) Coverity
15 13 (1.10%) Dynatrace
16 12 (1.01%) MuleSoft
16 12 (1.01%) SolarWinds
17 11 (0.93%) Splunk