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

6 months to
20 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 6 3 6
Rank change year-on-year -3 +3 +5
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,405 1,584 2,441
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 8.83% 18.33% 15.19%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.32% 20.72% 18.63%
Number of salaries quoted 1,064 791 1,560
10th Percentile £27,000 £27,000 £26,000
25th Percentile £31,250 £31,250 £32,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £42,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% -5.56% -12.62%
75th Percentile £58,750 £62,500 £62,500
90th Percentile £73,750 £82,500 £73,864
England median annual salary £47,500 £48,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -1.04% -4.00% -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 11,402 7,643 13,103
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 71.67% 88.45% 81.54%
Number of salaries quoted 8,140 4,032 9,020
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,750 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £35,000 £37,500
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 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -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 20 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 20 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 -7 523 £43,000 -1.77% 187
Hampshire -2 341 £40,000 -8.57% 110
Surrey 0 241 £42,500 +3.98% 74
Berkshire -3 239 £45,000 -5.26% 73
Buckinghamshire -8 167 £42,500 +13.33% 71
Kent -7 131 £33,500 +6.35% 45
Oxfordshire 0 117 £41,982 -16.04% 46
East Sussex -4 85 £50,000 - 25
West Sussex -6 73 £50,000 +6.38% 22
Middlesex +7 6 £50,000 +2.56% 11
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 45 (3.20%) SharePoint
2 40 (2.85%) Microsoft Exchange
3 18 (1.28%) CMS
3 18 (1.28%) Confluence
4 7 (0.50%) OpenEdge
5 5 (0.36%) Apache
5 5 (0.36%) IIS
5 5 (0.36%) WordPress
6 3 (0.21%) Anypoint
6 3 (0.21%) nginx
6 3 (0.21%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.21%) SAS
7 2 (0.14%) Gentran
7 2 (0.14%) Tomcat
8 1 (0.071%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 102 (7.26%) Microsoft Excel
2 85 (6.05%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (0.78%) Spreadsheet
4 9 (0.64%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.50%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.36%) Lightworks
6 5 (0.36%) Photoshop
7 4 (0.28%) Adobe Illustrator
7 4 (0.28%) Microsoft Project
8 3 (0.21%) Simulink
9 2 (0.14%) Chatbot
10 1 (0.071%) AutoCAD
Business Applications
1 14 (1.00%) NetSuite
2 7 (0.50%) Dynamics CRM
3 6 (0.43%) Magento
3 6 (0.43%) Raiser’s Edge
4 4 (0.28%) Shopify
5 3 (0.21%) Infor SunSystems
5 3 (0.21%) Salesforce CRM
6 2 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
6 2 (0.14%) Sage X3
6 2 (0.14%) SAP CO
7 1 (0.071%) Academy Housing
7 1 (0.071%) Dynamics NAV
7 1 (0.071%) Elite 3E
7 1 (0.071%) HFM
7 1 (0.071%) SAP GRC
7 1 (0.071%) SAP S/4HANA
7 1 (0.071%) Siebel CRM
Cloud Services
1 323 (22.99%) Azure
2 161 (11.46%) Microsoft 365
3 144 (10.25%) AWS
4 84 (5.98%) Power Platform
5 62 (4.41%) SaaS
6 48 (3.42%) GCP
7 44 (3.13%) Azure DevOps
7 44 (3.13%) Entra ID
8 29 (2.06%) Serverless
9 26 (1.85%) GitHub
10 25 (1.78%) IaaS
10 25 (1.78%) PaaS
11 19 (1.35%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 19 (1.35%) Datadog
12 18 (1.28%) Dynamics 365
13 15 (1.07%) GitHub Actions
13 15 (1.07%) OpenShift
14 14 (1.00%) Amazon ECS
14 14 (1.00%) AWS CloudFormation
15 13 (0.93%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 124 (8.83%) Firewall
2 63 (4.48%) DNS
3 54 (3.84%) TCP/IP
4 52 (3.70%) VPN
5 50 (3.56%) WAN
6 49 (3.49%) LAN
7 41 (2.92%) Wireless
8 39 (2.78%) DHCP
9 35 (2.49%) Wi-Fi
10 27 (1.92%) VoIP
11 26 (1.85%) VLAN
12 21 (1.49%) Network Security
13 15 (1.07%) Broadband
14 13 (0.93%) Internet
15 11 (0.78%) SSL
16 10 (0.71%) HTTP
17 9 (0.64%) MQTT
18 7 (0.50%) LTE
18 7 (0.50%) Remote Desktop
19 6 (0.43%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 101 (7.19%) SQL Server
2 71 (5.05%) Power BI
3 25 (1.78%) Relational Database
4 24 (1.71%) PostgreSQL
5 19 (1.35%) NoSQL
6 18 (1.28%) Data Warehouse
7 17 (1.21%) MySQL
8 15 (1.07%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 13 (0.93%) Tableau
10 12 (0.85%) OLTP
10 12 (0.85%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 10 (0.71%) Amazon RDS
11 10 (0.71%) Data Lake
12 7 (0.50%) DynamoDB
12 7 (0.50%) Looker
12 7 (0.50%) MongoDB
12 7 (0.50%) Power Query
13 6 (0.43%) GIS
14 5 (0.36%) Azure SQL Database
15 4 (0.28%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 66 (4.70%) Git
2 54 (3.84%) JIRA
3 30 (2.14%) GitLab
4 20 (1.42%) Rational DOORS
5 6 (0.43%) Selenium
6 4 (0.28%) Claude Code
6 4 (0.28%) Eclipse
6 4 (0.28%) Eclipse RCP
6 4 (0.28%) Jenkins
7 3 (0.21%) Android Studio
7 3 (0.21%) PetaLinux
7 3 (0.21%) PHPUnit
7 3 (0.21%) Postman
7 3 (0.21%) Visual Studio
8 2 (0.14%) JMeter
8 2 (0.14%) JUnit
8 2 (0.14%) Oracle Forms
8 2 (0.14%) SpecFlow
8 2 (0.14%) Subversion
8 2 (0.14%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 685 (48.75%) Social Skills
2 386 (27.47%) Analytical Skills
3 212 (15.09%) Finance
4 107 (7.62%) Organisational Skills
5 85 (6.05%) Manufacturing
6 63 (4.48%) Electronics
7 58 (4.13%) Retail
7 58 (4.13%) Telecoms
8 48 (3.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 48 (3.42%) Marketing
9 38 (2.70%) Aerospace
10 36 (2.56%) Law
10 36 (2.56%) Legal
11 33 (2.35%) Influencing Skills
12 30 (2.14%) Documentation Skills
13 26 (1.85%) Public Sector
14 23 (1.64%) Local Government
15 18 (1.28%) Military
16 16 (1.14%) Banking
17 14 (1.00%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 200 (14.23%) Analyst
2 147 (10.46%) IT Support
3 143 (10.18%) Senior
4 134 (9.54%) Developer
5 125 (8.90%) Support Engineer
6 90 (6.41%) IT Engineer
7 87 (6.19%) Support Analyst
8 68 (4.84%) Systems Engineer
9 64 (4.56%) Software Engineer
10 63 (4.48%) Technical Support
11 61 (4.34%) Lead
12 59 (4.20%) Support Technician
13 56 (3.99%) IT Support Engineer
14 54 (3.84%) 2nd Line Support
15 49 (3.49%) Technical Engineer
15 49 (3.49%) Technical Support Engineer
16 42 (2.99%) IT Technician
17 36 (2.56%) IT Analyst
17 36 (2.56%) Senior Developer
18 35 (2.49%) 1st Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 91 (6.48%) .NET
2 60 (4.27%) HTML
3 48 (3.42%) REST
4 46 (3.27%) SOAP
5 39 (2.78%) CSS
6 34 (2.42%) JSON
6 34 (2.42%) React
7 31 (2.21%) ASP.NET
8 30 (2.14%) XML
9 24 (1.71%) OAuth
10 23 (1.64%) ASP.NET Core
10 23 (1.64%) RESTful
11 19 (1.35%) Vue
12 17 (1.21%) AngularJS
12 17 (1.21%) ARM Templates
12 17 (1.21%) Middleware
12 17 (1.21%) RabbitMQ
13 15 (1.07%) HTML5
13 15 (1.07%) jQuery
13 15 (1.07%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 91 (6.48%) Driving Licence
2 73 (5.20%) Self-Motivation
3 72 (5.12%) Onboarding
4 65 (4.63%) Management Information System
5 51 (3.63%) Cloud Native
6 40 (2.85%) Product Ownership
7 31 (2.21%) Distributed Systems
8 27 (1.92%) Analytical Mindset
9 19 (1.35%) Robotics
10 17 (1.21%) NHS
10 17 (1.21%) Social Media
11 15 (1.07%) Data Centre
11 15 (1.07%) EPoS
11 15 (1.07%) Legacy Systems
11 15 (1.07%) Security Posture
12 14 (1.00%) Enterprise Software
13 13 (0.93%) Clustering
14 12 (0.85%) CCTV
14 12 (0.85%) Renewable Energy
14 12 (0.85%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 229 (16.30%) Windows
2 113 (8.04%) Linux
3 82 (5.84%) Windows Server
4 20 (1.42%) Mac OS
5 17 (1.21%) Android
5 17 (1.21%) CentOS
6 15 (1.07%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 15 (1.07%) Windows Server 2019
7 12 (0.85%) Ubuntu
8 10 (0.71%) Windows Server 2016
9 8 (0.57%) Debian
9 8 (0.57%) Windows 10
10 7 (0.50%) Apple iOS
11 3 (0.21%) FreeRTOS
11 3 (0.21%) Gentoo
11 3 (0.21%) Unix
11 3 (0.21%) VMS
11 3 (0.21%) Windows 7
12 2 (0.14%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.071%) Embedded Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 274 (19.50%) Continuous Improvement
2 246 (17.51%) Customer Service
3 186 (13.24%) Agile
4 163 (11.60%) CI/CD
5 154 (10.96%) Decision-Making
6 150 (10.68%) AI
6 150 (10.68%) DevOps
7 140 (9.96%) Software Engineering
8 139 (9.89%) Project Management
9 131 (9.32%) Project Delivery
10 126 (8.97%) ITIL
11 123 (8.75%) Cybersecurity
12 117 (8.33%) Collaborative Working
13 116 (8.26%) Stakeholder Management
14 115 (8.19%) Mentoring
15 111 (7.90%) Computer Science
16 108 (7.69%) Analytics
17 101 (7.19%) Business Intelligence
18 98 (6.98%) Logistics
19 89 (6.33%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 215 (15.30%) Python
2 212 (15.09%) SQL
3 111 (7.90%) C#
4 97 (6.90%) PowerShell
5 88 (6.26%) JavaScript
6 56 (3.99%) C++
6 56 (3.99%) Java
7 44 (3.13%) TypeScript
8 35 (2.49%) Bash
9 31 (2.21%) C
10 22 (1.57%) PHP
11 14 (1.00%) PL/SQL
12 13 (0.93%) Ruby
13 12 (0.85%) Rust
13 12 (0.85%) T-SQL
14 11 (0.78%) Perl
15 10 (0.71%) Bicep
16 7 (0.50%) Apex Code
16 7 (0.50%) MATLAB
16 7 (0.50%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 264 (18.79%) Degree
2 103 (7.33%) Security Cleared
3 89 (6.33%) DBS Check
4 73 (5.20%) SC Cleared
5 59 (4.20%) Computer Science Degree
6 44 (3.13%) Microsoft Certification
7 33 (2.35%) BPSS Clearance
8 32 (2.28%) HNC
9 28 (1.99%) ACCA
10 27 (1.92%) CIMA
11 25 (1.78%) Chartered Engineer
12 24 (1.71%) Azure Certification
12 24 (1.71%) PMI Certification
13 23 (1.64%) PMP
14 18 (1.28%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
15 17 (1.21%) A+ Certification
15 17 (1.21%) Master's Degree
16 14 (1.00%) CCNA
16 14 (1.00%) Cisco Certification
16 14 (1.00%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 110 (7.83%) QA
2 54 (3.84%) Data Quality
3 47 (3.35%) GDPR
4 39 (2.78%) SLA
5 30 (2.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 26 (1.85%) Accessibility
7 23 (1.64%) PCI DSS
8 18 (1.28%) NIST
9 17 (1.21%) Good Clinical Practice
10 12 (0.85%) Cyber Essentials
10 12 (0.85%) PMO
11 10 (0.71%) SOC 2
12 7 (0.50%) 21 CFR Part 11
12 7 (0.50%) GLP
12 7 (0.50%) GMP
12 7 (0.50%) GxP
13 5 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 5 (0.36%) ISO 9001
14 4 (0.28%) ISO 26262
14 4 (0.28%) ITGC
System Software
1 120 (8.54%) Active Directory
2 73 (5.20%) Docker
3 56 (3.99%) VMware Infrastructure
4 49 (3.49%) Hyper-V
5 8 (0.57%) vSphere
6 7 (0.50%) Firmware
7 6 (0.43%) KVM
7 6 (0.43%) VMware ESXi
8 5 (0.36%) ClearTrust
8 5 (0.36%) XenApp
9 4 (0.28%) Virtual Desktop
9 4 (0.28%) Virtual Machines
10 3 (0.21%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 3 (0.21%) Squid
11 2 (0.14%) VMware NSX
12 1 (0.071%) Embedded Firmware
12 1 (0.071%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 1 (0.071%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.071%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 80 (5.69%) Terraform
2 78 (5.55%) Kubernetes
3 45 (3.20%) Microsoft Intune
4 36 (2.56%) Ansible
5 21 (1.49%) SCCM
6 16 (1.14%) Grafana
7 13 (0.93%) Prometheus
8 11 (0.78%) Nagios
9 8 (0.57%) Podman
10 7 (0.50%) Failover Clustering
10 7 (0.50%) ZABBIX
11 5 (0.36%) Docker Swarm
11 5 (0.36%) Graylog
11 5 (0.36%) Puppet
12 4 (0.28%) Functional Safety
12 4 (0.28%) Jamf Pro
12 4 (0.28%) vCenter Server
13 2 (0.14%) Nessus
13 2 (0.14%) Single Sign-On
13 2 (0.14%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
Vendors
1 402 (28.61%) Microsoft
2 63 (4.48%) VMware
3 48 (3.42%) Google
4 41 (2.92%) Oracle
5 32 (2.28%) Cisco
6 31 (2.21%) Salesforce
7 28 (1.99%) Fortinet
8 24 (1.71%) Veeam
9 23 (1.64%) SonicWALL
10 22 (1.57%) Databricks
11 19 (1.35%) ServiceNow
12 18 (1.28%) Instagram
12 18 (1.28%) Sage
13 17 (1.21%) SAP
14 16 (1.14%) Aruba
14 16 (1.14%) Splunk
15 15 (1.07%) Palo Alto
15 15 (1.07%) Red Hat
16 13 (0.93%) Dynatrace
17 11 (0.78%) Wrike