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

6 months to
17 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 3 4
Rank change year-on-year -7 +1 +4
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,186 1,234 2,717
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 8.48% 18.10% 16.85%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.58% 20.14% 19.88%
Number of salaries quoted 903 674 1,735
10th Percentile £26,500 £28,250 £25,750
25th Percentile £31,313 £33,125 £31,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £50,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +11.11% -14.29%
75th Percentile £62,500 £70,000 £61,949
90th Percentile £80,000 £83,750 £72,500
England median annual salary £47,500 £54,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -12.04% +8.00% -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 10,244 6,128 13,667
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 73.23% 89.87% 84.77%
Number of salaries quoted 6,561 3,302 9,849
10th Percentile £29,750 £29,000 £27,500
25th Percentile £37,500 £38,750 £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 £68,750 £70,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £83,750 £78,478
England median annual salary £57,500 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -4.17% +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 17 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 17 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 -6 448 £47,500 -13.64% 205
Hampshire -5 250 £40,000 -20.00% 124
Berkshire -1 224 £45,000 -30.77% 94
Surrey -13 190 £40,000 -23.96% 75
Buckinghamshire -9 144 £52,500 +3.01% 64
Kent -16 119 £30,000 -9.09% 45
East Sussex -1 99 £70,750 +52.97% 23
Oxfordshire -9 80 £34,000 -20.09% 48
West Sussex -2 58 £57,500 +23.66% 38
Isle of Wight +5 11 £43,500 -20.91% 1
Middlesex 0 7 £47,500 -22.45% 11
Sussex -16 1 £30,000 +5.26% 8
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 (2.61%) SharePoint
2 29 (2.45%) Microsoft Exchange
3 17 (1.43%) CMS
4 10 (0.84%) IIS
5 7 (0.59%) Confluence
5 7 (0.59%) WordPress
6 4 (0.34%) Anypoint
6 4 (0.34%) OpenStack
7 3 (0.25%) Apache Airflow
7 3 (0.25%) govService
7 3 (0.25%) SAS
8 2 (0.17%) Apache
8 2 (0.17%) Gentran
9 1 (0.084%) Apache Spark
9 1 (0.084%) ArcGIS
9 1 (0.084%) nginx
Applications
1 88 (7.42%) Microsoft Excel
2 85 (7.17%) Microsoft Office
3 13 (1.10%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.76%) MS Visio
4 9 (0.76%) Photoshop
5 8 (0.67%) Adobe Illustrator
6 6 (0.51%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 6 (0.51%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.17%) Adobe After Effects
7 2 (0.17%) Adobe Captivate
7 2 (0.17%) Adobe Premiere
7 2 (0.17%) Elementor
7 2 (0.17%) Microsoft Project
8 1 (0.084%) Acrobat
8 1 (0.084%) Adobe XD
8 1 (0.084%) AutoCAD
8 1 (0.084%) InDesign
Business Applications
1 10 (0.84%) Dynamics CRM
1 10 (0.84%) NetSuite
2 9 (0.76%) SAP CO
3 4 (0.34%) Dynamics NAV
3 4 (0.34%) Magento
4 3 (0.25%) Sage X3
4 3 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
5 2 (0.17%) Dynamics AX
5 2 (0.17%) IBM Planning Analytics
5 2 (0.17%) Infor SunSystems
5 2 (0.17%) Q-Pulse
5 2 (0.17%) Sage 200
5 2 (0.17%) SAP S/4HANA
6 1 (0.084%) Elite 3E
6 1 (0.084%) HFM
6 1 (0.084%) PeopleSoft HRMS
6 1 (0.084%) Raiser’s Edge
6 1 (0.084%) SAP GRC
6 1 (0.084%) SAP Hybris
6 1 (0.084%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 232 (19.56%) Azure
2 126 (10.62%) Microsoft 365
3 93 (7.84%) Power Platform
4 84 (7.08%) AWS
5 56 (4.72%) SaaS
6 54 (4.55%) Azure DevOps
7 31 (2.61%) GCP
7 31 (2.61%) PaaS
8 30 (2.53%) IaaS
9 29 (2.45%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 24 (2.02%) Entra ID
11 20 (1.69%) Dynamics 365
12 19 (1.60%) Google Workspace
12 19 (1.60%) Mimecast
13 17 (1.43%) Azure Data Factory
13 17 (1.43%) Azure Logic Apps
13 17 (1.43%) GitHub
14 15 (1.26%) OpenShift
15 13 (1.10%) Datadog
16 12 (1.01%) Asana
Communications & Networking
1 61 (5.14%) Firewall
2 60 (5.06%) DNS
3 34 (2.87%) DHCP
4 31 (2.61%) TCP/IP
5 28 (2.36%) VPN
6 25 (2.11%) Wireless
7 20 (1.69%) Broadband
8 19 (1.60%) WAN
9 17 (1.43%) LAN
10 14 (1.18%) VoIP
11 12 (1.01%) Intranet
12 11 (0.93%) HTTP
13 9 (0.76%) VLAN
14 8 (0.67%) SAN
15 7 (0.59%) Remote Desktop
16 6 (0.51%) PuTTY
16 6 (0.51%) SSH
17 5 (0.42%) Wi-Fi
18 3 (0.25%) LTE
18 3 (0.25%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 73 (6.16%) Power BI
2 53 (4.47%) SQL Server
3 34 (2.87%) Relational Database
4 26 (2.19%) Data Warehouse
5 17 (1.43%) Power Query
6 14 (1.18%) OLTP
7 13 (1.10%) NoSQL
7 13 (1.10%) Tableau
8 12 (1.01%) PostgreSQL
9 10 (0.84%) MySQL
10 8 (0.67%) Data Lake
11 7 (0.59%) Looker
11 7 (0.59%) PowerPivot
11 7 (0.59%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 6 (0.51%) Hadoop
13 5 (0.42%) Azure SQL Database
13 5 (0.42%) Big Data
13 5 (0.42%) Data Mining
13 5 (0.42%) Metadata
13 5 (0.42%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 52 (4.38%) Git
2 40 (3.37%) JIRA
3 26 (2.19%) GitLab
4 15 (1.26%) Rational DOORS
5 14 (1.18%) Selenium
6 8 (0.67%) Robot Framework
7 7 (0.59%) Jenkins
8 6 (0.51%) Snyk
8 6 (0.51%) Visual Studio
9 3 (0.25%) Android Studio
9 3 (0.25%) Cypress.io
9 3 (0.25%) Postman
10 2 (0.17%) Appium
10 2 (0.17%) JMeter
10 2 (0.17%) LabVIEW
10 2 (0.17%) REST Assured
10 2 (0.17%) TestRail
11 1 (0.084%) Browser DevTools
11 1 (0.084%) SonarQube
11 1 (0.084%) Zephyr
General
1 571 (48.15%) Social Skills
2 346 (29.17%) Analytical Skills
3 196 (16.53%) Finance
4 76 (6.41%) Organisational Skills
5 69 (5.82%) Marketing
6 65 (5.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 60 (5.06%) Manufacturing
8 59 (4.97%) Retail
9 48 (4.05%) Telecoms
10 45 (3.79%) Electronics
11 35 (2.95%) Public Sector
12 33 (2.78%) Law
13 30 (2.53%) Legal
14 24 (2.02%) Documentation Skills
15 15 (1.26%) Aerospace
15 15 (1.26%) Presentation Skills
16 12 (1.01%) Automotive
17 11 (0.93%) Pharmaceutical
18 10 (0.84%) Influencing Skills
19 7 (0.59%) Banking
Job Titles
1 167 (14.08%) Analyst
2 155 (13.07%) IT Support
3 150 (12.65%) Support Engineer
4 137 (11.55%) Senior
5 112 (9.44%) Developer
6 73 (6.16%) IT Engineer
6 73 (6.16%) Support Analyst
7 62 (5.23%) Technical Support
8 57 (4.81%) IT Support Engineer
9 53 (4.47%) Lead
10 51 (4.30%) 2nd Line Support
11 46 (3.88%) Technical Engineer
11 46 (3.88%) Technical Support Engineer
12 42 (3.54%) Architect
13 39 (3.29%) IT Technician
13 39 (3.29%) Systems Engineer
14 37 (3.12%) Support Technician
15 36 (3.04%) Software Engineer
16 32 (2.70%) IT Analyst
17 31 (2.61%) IT Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 58 (4.89%) .NET
2 49 (4.13%) HTML
3 37 (3.12%) SOAP
4 34 (2.87%) REST
5 25 (2.11%) React
6 24 (2.02%) CSS
6 24 (2.02%) XML
7 22 (1.85%) JSON
8 19 (1.60%) Middleware
9 14 (1.18%) Laravel
10 13 (1.10%) ARM Templates
10 13 (1.10%) Lightning Web Components
11 12 (1.01%) OAuth
11 12 (1.01%) Visualforce
12 11 (0.93%) ASP.NET
12 11 (0.93%) RabbitMQ
13 10 (0.84%) OLE
14 9 (0.76%) .NET Framework
14 9 (0.76%) SAP CO-PA
15 8 (0.67%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 80 (6.75%) Onboarding
2 69 (5.82%) Driving Licence
3 66 (5.56%) Self-Motivation
4 40 (3.37%) Management Information System
5 36 (3.04%) Product Ownership
6 26 (2.19%) Analytical Mindset
6 26 (2.19%) Distributed Systems
7 25 (2.11%) Cloud Native
8 20 (1.69%) Low-Code
9 19 (1.60%) Social Media
10 14 (1.18%) Legacy Systems
11 13 (1.10%) Enterprise Software
12 11 (0.93%) Video Editing
13 10 (0.84%) Life Science
14 9 (0.76%) Algorithms
14 9 (0.76%) Client/Server
14 9 (0.76%) IoT
14 9 (0.76%) NHS
14 9 (0.76%) Video Conferencing
15 8 (0.67%) FMCG
Operating Systems
1 178 (15.01%) Windows
2 89 (7.50%) Linux
3 56 (4.72%) Windows Server
4 22 (1.85%) Mac OS
5 19 (1.60%) Android
6 18 (1.52%) CentOS
7 16 (1.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 12 (1.01%) Windows 10
9 9 (0.76%) Ubuntu
9 9 (0.76%) VMS
10 7 (0.59%) Apple iOS
10 7 (0.59%) Windows Server 2012
11 6 (0.51%) Windows Server 2016
12 5 (0.42%) Windows Server 2019
13 4 (0.34%) Unix
14 3 (0.25%) Debian
15 1 (0.084%) Embedded Linux
15 1 (0.084%) FreeBSD
15 1 (0.084%) OpenBSD
15 1 (0.084%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 247 (20.83%) Continuous Improvement
2 205 (17.28%) Customer Service
3 159 (13.41%) Agile
4 136 (11.47%) DevOps
5 119 (10.03%) Analytics
6 117 (9.87%) CI/CD
7 109 (9.19%) Decision-Making
8 107 (9.02%) Business Intelligence
9 97 (8.18%) Project Management
10 95 (8.01%) Computer Science
11 81 (6.83%) AI
11 81 (6.83%) Mentoring
12 80 (6.75%) CRM
13 77 (6.49%) Data Modelling
13 77 (6.49%) Software Engineering
14 73 (6.16%) Stakeholder Management
15 68 (5.73%) Project Delivery
16 67 (5.65%) ITIL
17 66 (5.56%) Cybersecurity
18 64 (5.40%) Data Governance
Programming Languages
1 201 (16.95%) Python
2 189 (15.94%) SQL
3 73 (6.16%) C#
4 71 (5.99%) JavaScript
4 71 (5.99%) PowerShell
5 50 (4.22%) Java
6 28 (2.36%) PHP
7 26 (2.19%) C++
7 26 (2.19%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 24 (2.02%) C
9 22 (1.85%) Bash
10 17 (1.43%) PL/SQL
11 16 (1.35%) TypeScript
12 13 (1.10%) Apex Code
12 13 (1.10%) Bicep
13 12 (1.01%) Perl
14 9 (0.76%) Kusto Query Language
14 9 (0.76%) Rust
15 7 (0.59%) R
15 7 (0.59%) Scala
Qualifications
1 239 (20.15%) Degree
2 74 (6.24%) Security Cleared
3 49 (4.13%) ACCA
4 46 (3.88%) Computer Science Degree
5 43 (3.63%) DBS Check
6 42 (3.54%) CIMA
7 37 (3.12%) SC Cleared
8 32 (2.70%) Microsoft Certification
9 29 (2.45%) BPSS Clearance
10 24 (2.02%) HNC
11 21 (1.77%) DV Cleared
12 20 (1.69%) A+ Certification
13 18 (1.52%) Microsoft Certified Professional
14 17 (1.43%) Chartered Engineer
15 14 (1.18%) Master's Degree
16 12 (1.01%) PMI Certification
17 10 (0.84%) HND
17 10 (0.84%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
18 9 (0.76%) PMP
19 8 (0.67%) City & Guilds
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 71 (5.99%) QA
2 70 (5.90%) Data Quality
3 47 (3.96%) GDPR
4 28 (2.36%) SLA
5 23 (1.94%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 15 (1.26%) Accessibility
6 15 (1.26%) PCI DSS
7 13 (1.10%) NIST
8 6 (0.51%) ISO 9001
8 6 (0.51%) SOC 2
9 5 (0.42%) 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 (0.084%) Cyber Essentials
12 1 (0.084%) PMO
System Software
1 118 (9.95%) Active Directory
2 46 (3.88%) Docker
3 33 (2.78%) VMware Infrastructure
4 28 (2.36%) Hyper-V
5 10 (0.84%) KVM
6 5 (0.42%) Firmware
6 5 (0.42%) XenApp
7 4 (0.34%) VMware ESXi
8 3 (0.25%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 3 (0.25%) Virtual Desktop
9 2 (0.17%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.17%) vSphere
10 1 (0.084%) Oracle RAC
10 1 (0.084%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 55 (4.64%) Terraform
2 46 (3.88%) Kubernetes
3 32 (2.70%) Ansible
4 25 (2.11%) Microsoft Intune
5 17 (1.43%) Grafana
6 14 (1.18%) SCCM
7 12 (1.01%) Prometheus
8 8 (0.67%) Nagios
8 8 (0.67%) ZABBIX
9 7 (0.59%) vCenter Server
10 4 (0.34%) Functional Safety
10 4 (0.34%) Nessus
10 4 (0.34%) Puppet
11 1 (0.084%) Control-M
11 1 (0.084%) FortiGate
11 1 (0.084%) Kibana
11 1 (0.084%) Netcool
11 1 (0.084%) Netcool/OMNIbus
11 1 (0.084%) Oracle RMAN
11 1 (0.084%) Packer
Vendors
1 309 (26.05%) Microsoft
2 42 (3.54%) Databricks
3 37 (3.12%) VMware
4 34 (2.87%) Google
4 34 (2.87%) Oracle
5 32 (2.70%) Salesforce
6 29 (2.45%) Adobe
6 29 (2.45%) SAP
7 28 (2.36%) Veeam
8 17 (1.43%) Sage
9 16 (1.35%) HubSpot
9 16 (1.35%) NEC
9 16 (1.35%) Red Hat
10 15 (1.26%) ServiceNow
11 13 (1.10%) Dynatrace
12 12 (1.01%) MuleSoft
12 12 (1.01%) Splunk
13 11 (0.93%) Hootsuite
13 11 (0.93%) Instagram
13 11 (0.93%) Wrike