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 24 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 3 6
Rank change year-on-year -8 +3 +3
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,172 1,224 2,700
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 8.22% 17.73% 16.65%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.25% 19.77% 19.68%
Number of salaries quoted 889 682 1,751
10th Percentile £26,500 £28,000 £25,750
25th Percentile £31,375 £32,750 £32,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £46,000 £50,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.00% +11.11% -14.29%
75th Percentile £62,500 £70,000 £62,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £83,750 £72,500
England median annual salary £47,500 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.52% +5.00% -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 10,417 6,191 13,720
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 73.06% 89.67% 84.61%
Number of salaries quoted 6,660 3,370 9,868
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,500 £27,500
25th Percentile £38,000 £37,500 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% +10.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £70,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £83,750 £78,750
England median annual salary £58,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -3.33% +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 24 April 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 24 April 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 -5 448 £47,500 -11.63% 172
Hampshire -5 243 £40,000 -20.00% 128
Berkshire -1 226 £45,000 -30.77% 72
Surrey -13 189 £40,000 -24.12% 63
Buckinghamshire -12 140 £52,500 +3.01% 57
Kent -16 115 £29,000 -10.77% 54
East Sussex -1 102 £60,250 +20.50% 19
Oxfordshire -8 82 £34,000 -20.18% 47
West Sussex -1 57 £57,500 +23.66% 25
Isle of Wight 0 11 £43,500 -20.91%
Middlesex +3 3 £47,500 -22.45% 23
Sussex -14 1 £30,000 +5.26% 6
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 31 (2.65%) SharePoint
2 29 (2.47%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (1.28%) CMS
4 10 (0.85%) IIS
5 6 (0.51%) Confluence
5 6 (0.51%) WordPress
6 4 (0.34%) OpenStack
7 3 (0.26%) Anypoint
7 3 (0.26%) Apache Airflow
7 3 (0.26%) govService
8 2 (0.17%) Apache
8 2 (0.17%) Gentran
8 2 (0.17%) SAS
9 1 (0.085%) ArcGIS
9 1 (0.085%) nginx
Applications
1 87 (7.42%) Microsoft Excel
2 82 (7.00%) Microsoft Office
3 12 (1.02%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.77%) MS Visio
5 8 (0.68%) Photoshop
6 7 (0.60%) Adobe Illustrator
6 7 (0.60%) Spreadsheet
7 5 (0.43%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 3 (0.26%) Microsoft Project
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 (0.085%) Acrobat
10 1 (0.085%) AutoCAD
Business Applications
1 11 (0.94%) NetSuite
2 10 (0.85%) Dynamics CRM
3 9 (0.77%) SAP CO
4 4 (0.34%) Dynamics NAV
4 4 (0.34%) Magento
5 3 (0.26%) Sage X3
5 3 (0.26%) Salesforce CRM
6 2 (0.17%) Dynamics AX
6 2 (0.17%) IBM Planning Analytics
6 2 (0.17%) Infor SunSystems
6 2 (0.17%) Q-Pulse
6 2 (0.17%) Sage 200
6 2 (0.17%) SAP S/4HANA
7 1 (0.085%) Elite 3E
7 1 (0.085%) HFM
7 1 (0.085%) PeopleSoft HRMS
7 1 (0.085%) Raiser’s Edge
7 1 (0.085%) SAP GRC
Cloud Services
1 235 (20.05%) Azure
2 119 (10.15%) Microsoft 365
3 92 (7.85%) Power Platform
4 85 (7.25%) AWS
5 57 (4.86%) SaaS
6 51 (4.35%) Azure DevOps
7 32 (2.73%) GCP
8 30 (2.56%) IaaS
8 30 (2.56%) PaaS
9 29 (2.47%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 23 (1.96%) Entra ID
11 20 (1.71%) Dynamics 365
12 19 (1.62%) Google Workspace
12 19 (1.62%) Mimecast
13 17 (1.45%) Azure Data Factory
13 17 (1.45%) Azure Logic Apps
13 17 (1.45%) GitHub
14 15 (1.28%) OpenShift
15 14 (1.19%) Datadog
16 12 (1.02%) Asana
Communications & Networking
1 62 (5.29%) Firewall
2 59 (5.03%) DNS
3 32 (2.73%) DHCP
4 29 (2.47%) TCP/IP
5 25 (2.13%) VPN
6 22 (1.88%) Wireless
7 21 (1.79%) Broadband
8 18 (1.54%) WAN
9 16 (1.37%) LAN
10 14 (1.19%) VoIP
11 12 (1.02%) HTTP
11 12 (1.02%) Intranet
12 8 (0.68%) SAN
13 7 (0.60%) Remote Desktop
13 7 (0.60%) VLAN
14 6 (0.51%) PuTTY
14 6 (0.51%) SSH
15 5 (0.43%) Wi-Fi
16 3 (0.26%) LTE
16 3 (0.26%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (6.14%) Power BI
2 56 (4.78%) SQL Server
3 32 (2.73%) Relational Database
4 26 (2.22%) Data Warehouse
5 16 (1.37%) Power Query
6 15 (1.28%) OLTP
7 14 (1.19%) NoSQL
8 13 (1.11%) Tableau
9 12 (1.02%) PostgreSQL
10 10 (0.85%) MySQL
11 8 (0.68%) Data Lake
12 7 (0.60%) Looker
12 7 (0.60%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 6 (0.51%) PowerPivot
14 5 (0.43%) Azure SQL Database
14 5 (0.43%) Big Data
14 5 (0.43%) Data Mining
14 5 (0.43%) Hadoop
14 5 (0.43%) Metadata
14 5 (0.43%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 50 (4.27%) Git
2 37 (3.16%) JIRA
3 26 (2.22%) GitLab
4 16 (1.37%) Rational DOORS
5 11 (0.94%) Selenium
6 6 (0.51%) Jenkins
6 6 (0.51%) Visual Studio
7 5 (0.43%) Robot Framework
8 4 (0.34%) Snyk
9 3 (0.26%) Android Studio
9 3 (0.26%) Cypress.io
9 3 (0.26%) Postman
10 2 (0.17%) Appium
10 2 (0.17%) JMeter
10 2 (0.17%) LabVIEW
10 2 (0.17%) REST Assured
11 1 (0.085%) Browser DevTools
11 1 (0.085%) Cucumber
11 1 (0.085%) PHPUnit
11 1 (0.085%) WebDriver
General
1 551 (47.01%) Social Skills
2 341 (29.10%) Analytical Skills
3 192 (16.38%) Finance
4 73 (6.23%) Organisational Skills
5 67 (5.72%) Marketing
6 64 (5.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 60 (5.12%) Manufacturing
8 55 (4.69%) Retail
9 45 (3.84%) Telecoms
10 43 (3.67%) Electronics
11 35 (2.99%) Public Sector
12 28 (2.39%) Law
13 26 (2.22%) Legal
14 23 (1.96%) Documentation Skills
15 16 (1.37%) Aerospace
16 15 (1.28%) Presentation Skills
17 13 (1.11%) Automotive
18 12 (1.02%) Pharmaceutical
19 8 (0.68%) Influencing Skills
20 7 (0.60%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 167 (14.25%) Analyst
2 145 (12.37%) IT Support
3 142 (12.12%) Support Engineer
4 136 (11.60%) Senior
5 112 (9.56%) Developer
6 72 (6.14%) Support Analyst
7 70 (5.97%) IT Engineer
8 58 (4.95%) Technical Support
9 53 (4.52%) IT Support Engineer
10 49 (4.18%) Lead
11 47 (4.01%) 2nd Line Support
12 44 (3.75%) Architect
12 44 (3.75%) Technical Engineer
12 44 (3.75%) Technical Support Engineer
13 42 (3.58%) Systems Engineer
14 39 (3.33%) IT Technician
15 38 (3.24%) Support Technician
16 35 (2.99%) Software Engineer
17 31 (2.65%) Infrastructure Engineer
17 31 (2.65%) IT Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 57 (4.86%) .NET
2 48 (4.10%) HTML
3 41 (3.50%) SOAP
4 37 (3.16%) REST
5 27 (2.30%) XML
6 24 (2.05%) JSON
6 24 (2.05%) React
7 23 (1.96%) CSS
7 23 (1.96%) Middleware
8 14 (1.19%) Laravel
8 14 (1.19%) OAuth
9 13 (1.11%) RabbitMQ
10 12 (1.02%) ARM Templates
10 12 (1.02%) ASP.NET
10 12 (1.02%) Lightning Web Components
11 11 (0.94%) Visualforce
12 10 (0.85%) OLE
13 9 (0.77%) SAP CO-PA
14 8 (0.68%) RESTful
14 8 (0.68%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 79 (6.74%) Onboarding
2 64 (5.46%) Self-Motivation
3 62 (5.29%) Driving Licence
4 43 (3.67%) Management Information System
5 36 (3.07%) Product Ownership
6 29 (2.47%) Analytical Mindset
7 28 (2.39%) Distributed Systems
8 25 (2.13%) Cloud Native
9 19 (1.62%) Low-Code
10 18 (1.54%) Social Media
11 15 (1.28%) Legacy Systems
12 12 (1.02%) Enterprise Software
13 11 (0.94%) Video Editing
14 10 (0.85%) Algorithms
14 10 (0.85%) Life Science
15 9 (0.77%) Client/Server
15 9 (0.77%) Hybrid Cloud
15 9 (0.77%) NHS
15 9 (0.77%) Video Conferencing
16 8 (0.68%) FMCG
Operating Systems
1 169 (14.42%) Windows
2 90 (7.68%) Linux
3 55 (4.69%) Windows Server
4 21 (1.79%) Mac OS
5 20 (1.71%) Android
6 18 (1.54%) CentOS
7 16 (1.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 9 (0.77%) Ubuntu
8 9 (0.77%) VMS
8 9 (0.77%) Windows 10
9 7 (0.60%) Apple iOS
9 7 (0.60%) Windows Server 2012
10 6 (0.51%) Windows Server 2016
11 5 (0.43%) Windows Server 2019
12 3 (0.26%) Debian
12 3 (0.26%) Unix
13 1 (0.085%) Embedded Linux
13 1 (0.085%) FreeBSD
13 1 (0.085%) OpenBSD
13 1 (0.085%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 246 (20.99%) Continuous Improvement
2 208 (17.75%) Customer Service
3 157 (13.40%) Agile
4 137 (11.69%) DevOps
5 120 (10.24%) CI/CD
6 118 (10.07%) Analytics
7 109 (9.30%) Decision-Making
8 106 (9.04%) Business Intelligence
9 97 (8.28%) Project Management
10 95 (8.11%) Computer Science
11 84 (7.17%) CRM
12 79 (6.74%) Software Engineering
13 77 (6.57%) AI
13 77 (6.57%) Data Modelling
14 72 (6.14%) Mentoring
15 69 (5.89%) Project Delivery
16 68 (5.80%) Stakeholder Management
17 66 (5.63%) Cybersecurity
17 66 (5.63%) ITIL
18 65 (5.55%) Data Governance
Programming Languages
1 196 (16.72%) Python
2 189 (16.13%) SQL
3 71 (6.06%) C#
3 71 (6.06%) PowerShell
4 67 (5.72%) JavaScript
5 52 (4.44%) Java
6 28 (2.39%) PHP
7 25 (2.13%) C++
7 25 (2.13%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 24 (2.05%) C
9 22 (1.88%) Bash
10 18 (1.54%) PL/SQL
11 14 (1.19%) TypeScript
12 12 (1.02%) Apex Code
12 12 (1.02%) Perl
13 11 (0.94%) Bicep
14 10 (0.85%) Kusto Query Language
15 9 (0.77%) Rust
16 7 (0.60%) R
16 7 (0.60%) Scala
Qualifications
1 236 (20.14%) Degree
2 72 (6.14%) Security Cleared
3 47 (4.01%) ACCA
4 46 (3.92%) DBS Check
5 45 (3.84%) Computer Science Degree
6 41 (3.50%) CIMA
7 37 (3.16%) SC Cleared
8 34 (2.90%) Microsoft Certification
9 30 (2.56%) BPSS Clearance
10 23 (1.96%) HNC
11 22 (1.88%) A+ Certification
12 19 (1.62%) DV Cleared
13 18 (1.54%) Chartered Engineer
13 18 (1.54%) Microsoft Certified Professional
14 13 (1.11%) Master's Degree
15 12 (1.02%) PMI Certification
16 10 (0.85%) HND
16 10 (0.85%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
17 9 (0.77%) PMP
18 8 (0.68%) City & Guilds
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 70 (5.97%) Data Quality
1 70 (5.97%) QA
2 44 (3.75%) GDPR
3 31 (2.65%) SLA
4 24 (2.05%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 15 (1.28%) PCI DSS
6 14 (1.19%) Accessibility
7 12 (1.02%) NIST
8 6 (0.51%) ISO 9001
8 6 (0.51%) SOC 2
9 5 (0.43%) Actionable Recommendations
10 4 (0.34%) ISO 26262
10 4 (0.34%) ITGC
11 2 (0.17%) GRC
11 2 (0.17%) IFRS
12 1 (0.085%) Cyber Essentials
12 1 (0.085%) PMO
System Software
1 111 (9.47%) Active Directory
2 46 (3.92%) Docker
3 32 (2.73%) VMware Infrastructure
4 26 (2.22%) Hyper-V
5 10 (0.85%) KVM
6 5 (0.43%) Firmware
6 5 (0.43%) XenApp
7 4 (0.34%) Virtual Desktop
7 4 (0.34%) VMware ESXi
8 3 (0.26%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 2 (0.17%) vSphere
10 1 (0.085%) Oracle RAC
10 1 (0.085%) Virtual Machines
10 1 (0.085%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 54 (4.61%) Terraform
2 46 (3.92%) Kubernetes
3 29 (2.47%) Ansible
4 23 (1.96%) Microsoft Intune
5 15 (1.28%) Grafana
6 14 (1.19%) SCCM
7 11 (0.94%) Prometheus
8 8 (0.68%) Nagios
9 7 (0.60%) ZABBIX
10 6 (0.51%) vCenter Server
11 4 (0.34%) Functional Safety
11 4 (0.34%) Puppet
12 3 (0.26%) Nessus
13 2 (0.17%) Kibana
14 1 (0.085%) Docker Swarm
14 1 (0.085%) FortiGate
14 1 (0.085%) Graylog
14 1 (0.085%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
14 1 (0.085%) Oracle RMAN
14 1 (0.085%) Packer
Vendors
1 312 (26.62%) Microsoft
2 42 (3.58%) Databricks
3 36 (3.07%) VMware
4 35 (2.99%) Oracle
5 33 (2.82%) Google
6 31 (2.65%) Salesforce
7 28 (2.39%) Veeam
8 27 (2.30%) Adobe
8 27 (2.30%) SAP
9 16 (1.37%) HubSpot
9 16 (1.37%) NEC
9 16 (1.37%) Red Hat
9 16 (1.37%) Sage
10 13 (1.11%) Dynatrace
10 13 (1.11%) ServiceNow
10 13 (1.11%) Splunk
11 11 (0.94%) Hootsuite
11 11 (0.94%) Instagram
11 11 (0.94%) Wrike
12 10 (0.85%) MuleSoft