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 27 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 3 5
Rank change year-on-year -4 +2 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,427 1,591 2,212
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 8.83% 18.32% 14.97%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.30% 20.74% 18.45%
Number of salaries quoted 1,072 808 1,360
10th Percentile £27,000 £27,000 £26,725
25th Percentile £31,250 £32,125 £33,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £42,500 £45,096
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% -5.76% -12.18%
75th Percentile £58,750 £62,500 £62,500
90th Percentile £73,750 £81,250 £75,000
England median annual salary £47,500 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year - -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 11,598 7,672 11,986
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 71.73% 88.36% 81.11%
Number of salaries quoted 8,262 4,093 8,069
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,750 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £34,000 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £81,250 £80,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £57,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +5.26% +3.64% -11.29%

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 27 July 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 27 July 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 -7 528 £45,000 +5.88% 227
Hampshire -2 355 £45,000 +5.88% 145
Surrey -1 243 £42,500 +1.80% 87
Berkshire -3 240 £45,000 - 106
Buckinghamshire -8 168 £43,750 +16.67% 70
Kent -5 133 £35,000 +11.11% 54
Oxfordshire -1 120 £41,982 -16.04% 55
East Sussex -4 85 £50,000 - 30
West Sussex -6 73 £50,000 +5.26% 24
Middlesex +8 6 £50,000 +33.33% 14
Isle of Wight -13 1 £42,500 -22.73% 2
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 44 (3.08%) SharePoint
2 40 (2.80%) Microsoft Exchange
3 19 (1.33%) Confluence
4 18 (1.26%) CMS
5 7 (0.49%) Apache
5 7 (0.49%) OpenEdge
6 6 (0.42%) IIS
7 5 (0.35%) nginx
7 5 (0.35%) WordPress
8 3 (0.21%) Anypoint
8 3 (0.21%) OpenStack
8 3 (0.21%) SAS
9 2 (0.14%) Gentran
9 2 (0.14%) Tomcat
10 1 (0.070%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 102 (7.15%) Microsoft Excel
2 83 (5.82%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (0.77%) Spreadsheet
4 8 (0.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (0.56%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.35%) Lightworks
5 5 (0.35%) Photoshop
6 4 (0.28%) Adobe Illustrator
6 4 (0.28%) Microsoft Project
7 3 (0.21%) Simulink
8 2 (0.14%) AutoCAD
8 2 (0.14%) Chatbot
9 1 (0.070%) Revit
Business Applications
1 14 (0.98%) NetSuite
2 7 (0.49%) Dynamics CRM
3 6 (0.42%) Magento
3 6 (0.42%) Raiser’s Edge
4 4 (0.28%) Shopify
5 3 (0.21%) Infor SunSystems
5 3 (0.21%) Salesforce CRM
6 2 (0.14%) Academy Housing
6 2 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
6 2 (0.14%) Sage X3
7 1 (0.070%) Elite 3E
7 1 (0.070%) HFM
7 1 (0.070%) Oracle Applications
7 1 (0.070%) SAP CO
7 1 (0.070%) SAP GRC
7 1 (0.070%) Siebel CRM
7 1 (0.070%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 336 (23.55%) Azure
2 160 (11.21%) Microsoft 365
3 152 (10.65%) AWS
4 82 (5.75%) Power Platform
5 64 (4.48%) SaaS
6 48 (3.36%) GCP
7 46 (3.22%) Entra ID
8 45 (3.15%) Azure DevOps
9 29 (2.03%) GitHub
9 29 (2.03%) Serverless
10 23 (1.61%) IaaS
10 23 (1.61%) PaaS
11 19 (1.33%) Datadog
12 18 (1.26%) Azure Synapse Analytics
12 18 (1.26%) Dynamics 365
13 16 (1.12%) GitHub Actions
14 15 (1.05%) Google Workspace
14 15 (1.05%) OpenShift
15 14 (0.98%) Amazon ECS
15 14 (0.98%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 124 (8.69%) Firewall
2 63 (4.41%) DNS
3 53 (3.71%) TCP/IP
4 52 (3.64%) VPN
5 49 (3.43%) WAN
6 48 (3.36%) LAN
7 39 (2.73%) DHCP
7 39 (2.73%) Wireless
8 37 (2.59%) Wi-Fi
9 28 (1.96%) VoIP
10 27 (1.89%) VLAN
11 23 (1.61%) Network Security
12 15 (1.05%) Broadband
13 13 (0.91%) Internet
13 13 (0.91%) SSL
14 10 (0.70%) HTTP
15 9 (0.63%) MQTT
16 7 (0.49%) LTE
16 7 (0.49%) Remote Desktop
17 6 (0.42%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 104 (7.29%) SQL Server
2 70 (4.91%) Power BI
3 29 (2.03%) Relational Database
4 26 (1.82%) PostgreSQL
5 21 (1.47%) MySQL
6 20 (1.40%) NoSQL
7 17 (1.19%) Data Warehouse
8 16 (1.12%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 13 (0.91%) Tableau
10 12 (0.84%) OLTP
10 12 (0.84%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 10 (0.70%) Amazon RDS
11 10 (0.70%) Data Lake
12 7 (0.49%) DynamoDB
12 7 (0.49%) GIS
12 7 (0.49%) Looker
12 7 (0.49%) MongoDB
13 6 (0.42%) Power Query
14 5 (0.35%) Azure SQL Database
15 4 (0.28%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 70 (4.91%) Git
2 54 (3.78%) JIRA
3 29 (2.03%) GitLab
4 20 (1.40%) Rational DOORS
5 6 (0.42%) Selenium
6 5 (0.35%) Claude Code
6 5 (0.35%) Jenkins
7 4 (0.28%) Eclipse
7 4 (0.28%) Eclipse RCP
7 4 (0.28%) Postman
8 3 (0.21%) Android Studio
8 3 (0.21%) Oracle Forms
8 3 (0.21%) PetaLinux
8 3 (0.21%) PHPUnit
8 3 (0.21%) Team Foundation Server
8 3 (0.21%) Terragrunt
8 3 (0.21%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.14%) Appium
9 2 (0.14%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.14%) REST Assured
General
1 691 (48.42%) Social Skills
2 400 (28.03%) Analytical Skills
3 219 (15.35%) Finance
4 107 (7.50%) Organisational Skills
5 91 (6.38%) Manufacturing
6 68 (4.77%) Electronics
7 62 (4.34%) Retail
8 57 (3.99%) Telecoms
9 49 (3.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 48 (3.36%) Aerospace
11 42 (2.94%) Marketing
12 39 (2.73%) Legal
13 37 (2.59%) Law
14 35 (2.45%) Influencing Skills
15 33 (2.31%) Documentation Skills
16 29 (2.03%) Public Sector
17 23 (1.61%) Local Government
18 18 (1.26%) Military
19 17 (1.19%) Banking
20 14 (0.98%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 200 (14.02%) Analyst
2 151 (10.58%) Senior
3 145 (10.16%) IT Support
4 135 (9.46%) Developer
5 124 (8.69%) Support Engineer
6 90 (6.31%) IT Engineer
7 87 (6.10%) Support Analyst
8 68 (4.77%) Software Engineer
8 68 (4.77%) Systems Engineer
9 64 (4.48%) Lead
9 64 (4.48%) Technical Support
10 59 (4.13%) Support Technician
11 57 (3.99%) IT Support Engineer
12 56 (3.92%) 2nd Line Support
13 49 (3.43%) Technical Engineer
13 49 (3.43%) Technical Support Engineer
14 42 (2.94%) IT Technician
15 40 (2.80%) Architect
16 38 (2.66%) Senior Developer
17 35 (2.45%) IT Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 94 (6.59%) .NET
2 66 (4.63%) HTML
3 50 (3.50%) REST
4 47 (3.29%) SOAP
5 45 (3.15%) CSS
6 41 (2.87%) React
7 35 (2.45%) ASP.NET
8 34 (2.38%) JSON
9 30 (2.10%) XML
10 27 (1.89%) OAuth
11 26 (1.82%) ASP.NET Core
12 25 (1.75%) RESTful
13 22 (1.54%) Vue
14 21 (1.47%) AngularJS
15 17 (1.19%) RabbitMQ
16 16 (1.12%) ARM Templates
16 16 (1.12%) HTML5
16 16 (1.12%) Middleware
17 15 (1.05%) jQuery
17 15 (1.05%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 98 (6.87%) Driving Licence
2 74 (5.19%) Self-Motivation
3 73 (5.12%) Onboarding
4 65 (4.56%) Management Information System
5 55 (3.85%) Cloud Native
6 40 (2.80%) Product Ownership
7 31 (2.17%) Distributed Systems
8 28 (1.96%) Analytical Mindset
9 20 (1.40%) Robotics
10 19 (1.33%) Social Media
11 18 (1.26%) Data Centre
11 18 (1.26%) NHS
12 17 (1.19%) Legacy Systems
13 16 (1.12%) Enterprise Software
14 15 (1.05%) EPoS
14 15 (1.05%) Security Posture
15 13 (0.91%) Analogue Electronics
15 13 (0.91%) CCTV
15 13 (0.91%) Clustering
16 12 (0.84%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 232 (16.26%) Windows
2 115 (8.06%) Linux
3 84 (5.89%) Windows Server
4 21 (1.47%) Mac OS
5 19 (1.33%) Android
6 16 (1.12%) CentOS
6 16 (1.12%) Windows Server 2019
7 14 (0.98%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 12 (0.84%) Ubuntu
9 10 (0.70%) Windows 10
10 9 (0.63%) Apple iOS
10 9 (0.63%) Windows Server 2016
11 8 (0.56%) Debian
12 3 (0.21%) FreeRTOS
12 3 (0.21%) Gentoo
12 3 (0.21%) Unix
12 3 (0.21%) VMS
12 3 (0.21%) Windows 7
13 2 (0.14%) Windows Server 2012
14 1 (0.070%) FreeBSD
Processes & Methodologies
1 288 (20.18%) Continuous Improvement
2 248 (17.38%) Customer Service
3 193 (13.52%) Agile
4 167 (11.70%) CI/CD
5 161 (11.28%) Decision-Making
6 153 (10.72%) DevOps
7 151 (10.58%) AI
8 145 (10.16%) Software Engineering
9 139 (9.74%) Project Management
10 136 (9.53%) Project Delivery
11 131 (9.18%) ITIL
12 125 (8.76%) Stakeholder Management
13 123 (8.62%) Cybersecurity
14 120 (8.41%) Collaborative Working
14 120 (8.41%) Mentoring
15 108 (7.57%) Computer Science
16 105 (7.36%) Analytics
17 98 (6.87%) Logistics
17 98 (6.87%) Validation
18 97 (6.80%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 214 (15.00%) SQL
2 213 (14.93%) Python
3 113 (7.92%) C#
4 94 (6.59%) PowerShell
5 93 (6.52%) JavaScript
6 60 (4.20%) C++
7 55 (3.85%) Java
8 49 (3.43%) TypeScript
9 36 (2.52%) Bash
10 32 (2.24%) C
11 21 (1.47%) PHP
12 14 (0.98%) PL/SQL
13 13 (0.91%) Ruby
13 13 (0.91%) T-SQL
14 12 (0.84%) Rust
15 10 (0.70%) Perl
16 8 (0.56%) Bicep
16 8 (0.56%) VB.NET
17 7 (0.49%) MATLAB
18 6 (0.42%) Embedded C
Qualifications
1 267 (18.71%) Degree
2 116 (8.13%) Security Cleared
3 93 (6.52%) DBS Check
4 83 (5.82%) SC Cleared
5 59 (4.13%) Computer Science Degree
6 48 (3.36%) Microsoft Certification
7 38 (2.66%) BPSS Clearance
8 33 (2.31%) HNC
9 29 (2.03%) Azure Certification
10 27 (1.89%) ACCA
11 26 (1.82%) CIMA
12 25 (1.75%) Chartered Engineer
12 25 (1.75%) PMI Certification
12 25 (1.75%) PMP
13 20 (1.40%) DV Cleared
14 19 (1.33%) HND
14 19 (1.33%) Master's Degree
14 19 (1.33%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
15 16 (1.12%) A+ Certification
15 16 (1.12%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 115 (8.06%) QA
2 54 (3.78%) Data Quality
3 46 (3.22%) GDPR
4 41 (2.87%) SLA
5 28 (1.96%) Accessibility
5 28 (1.96%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 21 (1.47%) PCI DSS
7 18 (1.26%) Good Clinical Practice
8 17 (1.19%) NIST
9 14 (0.98%) Cyber Essentials
10 13 (0.91%) PMO
11 11 (0.77%) SOC 2
12 8 (0.56%) 21 CFR Part 11
12 8 (0.56%) GLP
12 8 (0.56%) GMP
12 8 (0.56%) GxP
13 7 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 6 (0.42%) DO-254
15 5 (0.35%) ISO 9001
16 4 (0.28%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 118 (8.27%) Active Directory
2 75 (5.26%) Docker
3 62 (4.34%) VMware Infrastructure
4 51 (3.57%) Hyper-V
5 8 (0.56%) Firmware
5 8 (0.56%) VMware ESXi
5 8 (0.56%) vSphere
6 7 (0.49%) KVM
7 5 (0.35%) ClearTrust
7 5 (0.35%) Squid
7 5 (0.35%) XenApp
8 4 (0.28%) Virtual Desktop
8 4 (0.28%) Virtual Machines
9 3 (0.21%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 2 (0.14%) VMware NSX
11 1 (0.070%) Embedded Firmware
11 1 (0.070%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 1 (0.070%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.070%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 81 (5.68%) Terraform
2 80 (5.61%) Kubernetes
3 48 (3.36%) Microsoft Intune
4 37 (2.59%) Ansible
5 22 (1.54%) SCCM
6 16 (1.12%) Grafana
7 13 (0.91%) Prometheus
8 11 (0.77%) Nagios
9 8 (0.56%) Podman
10 7 (0.49%) Failover Clustering
10 7 (0.49%) ZABBIX
11 6 (0.42%) Jamf Pro
12 5 (0.35%) Docker Swarm
12 5 (0.35%) Graylog
12 5 (0.35%) Puppet
12 5 (0.35%) Single Sign-On
13 4 (0.28%) Functional Safety
13 4 (0.28%) vCenter Server
14 2 (0.14%) Nessus
14 2 (0.14%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
Vendors
1 401 (28.10%) Microsoft
2 69 (4.84%) VMware
3 49 (3.43%) Google
4 43 (3.01%) Oracle
5 33 (2.31%) Cisco
6 30 (2.10%) Salesforce
7 29 (2.03%) Fortinet
8 26 (1.82%) SonicWALL
8 26 (1.82%) Veeam
9 22 (1.54%) Databricks
10 20 (1.40%) ServiceNow
11 19 (1.33%) Sage
12 16 (1.12%) Aruba
12 16 (1.12%) SAP
13 15 (1.05%) Instagram
13 15 (1.05%) Red Hat
13 15 (1.05%) Splunk
14 13 (0.91%) Dynatrace
14 13 (0.91%) Palo Alto
15 9 (0.63%) Braze