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 18 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 6 3 4
Rank change year-on-year -3 +1 +4
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,278 1,427 2,257
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 11.23% 17.46% 18.19%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 14.34% 19.50% 21.15%
Number of salaries quoted 912 643 1,351
10th Percentile £26,500 £28,500 £25,750
25th Percentile £31,000 £35,000 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £52,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -19.05% +16.67% -14.29%
75th Percentile £60,000 £71,250 £62,500
90th Percentile £73,750 £85,000 £73,750
England median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% +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 8,913 7,319 10,672
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 78.34% 89.54% 86.00%
Number of salaries quoted 5,501 3,319 7,880
10th Percentile £28,000 £32,000 £27,965
25th Percentile £35,000 £43,750 £37,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £57,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -13.04% +15.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £65,000 £75,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £81,250 £85,000 £78,750
England median annual salary £55,000 £62,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year -12.00% +13.64% -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 18 February 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 18 February 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 -2 518 £45,000 -21.74% 215
Berkshire +4 306 £45,000 -33.33% 109
Hampshire 0 273 £37,500 -25.00% 146
Surrey -9 193 £38,500 -33.04% 96
Buckinghamshire -8 135 £50,000 -13.04% 61
Kent -10 122 £29,500 -13.24% 60
East Sussex +1 82 £56,500 +13.00% 22
Oxfordshire -5 77 £34,000 -20.00% 48
West Sussex -3 54 £60,000 +26.32% 31
Middlesex -11 17 £47,500 -17.39% 16
Isle of Wight +5 13 £43,500 +8.48% 3
Sussex -7 3 £35,000 -54.84% 3
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 39 (3.05%) SharePoint
2 33 (2.58%) Microsoft Exchange
3 21 (1.64%) IIS
4 13 (1.02%) CMS
5 9 (0.70%) WordPress
6 8 (0.63%) Confluence
7 4 (0.31%) Apache Airflow
8 3 (0.23%) govService
8 3 (0.23%) SAS
9 2 (0.16%) Anypoint
9 2 (0.16%) ArcGIS
10 1 (0.078%) Apache
10 1 (0.078%) Apache Spark
10 1 (0.078%) HCL Domino
10 1 (0.078%) HCL Notes
10 1 (0.078%) nginx
10 1 (0.078%) OpenStack
10 1 (0.078%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 112 (8.76%) Microsoft Office
2 89 (6.96%) Microsoft Excel
3 19 (1.49%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 12 (0.94%) Spreadsheet
5 11 (0.86%) Photoshop
6 10 (0.78%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 9 (0.70%) Adobe Illustrator
8 8 (0.63%) MS Visio
9 6 (0.47%) Adobe Premiere
10 4 (0.31%) Adobe After Effects
11 3 (0.23%) Adobe XD
11 3 (0.23%) InDesign
12 2 (0.16%) Adobe Captivate
12 2 (0.16%) Elementor
13 1 (0.078%) Acrobat
13 1 (0.078%) AutoCAD
13 1 (0.078%) OrCAD
13 1 (0.078%) Revit
Business Applications
1 52 (4.07%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (0.86%) NetSuite
3 10 (0.78%) SAP CO
4 7 (0.55%) Dynamics CRM
5 5 (0.39%) JDE EnterpriseOne
5 5 (0.39%) SAP Hybris
6 4 (0.31%) Dynamics NAV
6 4 (0.31%) Oracle Assets
6 4 (0.31%) Oracle Payables
6 4 (0.31%) Oracle Receivables
7 3 (0.23%) Sage X3
8 2 (0.16%) Dynamics AX
8 2 (0.16%) IBM Planning Analytics
8 2 (0.16%) Q-Pulse
8 2 (0.16%) Sage 200
8 2 (0.16%) Salesforce CRM
9 1 (0.078%) Raiser’s Edge
9 1 (0.078%) SAP FI
9 1 (0.078%) SAP FI/CO
9 1 (0.078%) SAP IBP
Cloud Services
1 238 (18.62%) Azure
2 164 (12.83%) Microsoft 365
3 103 (8.06%) Power Platform
4 83 (6.49%) AWS
5 63 (4.93%) Azure DevOps
5 63 (4.93%) SaaS
6 39 (3.05%) GCP
7 37 (2.90%) Entra ID
8 19 (1.49%) PaaS
9 18 (1.41%) Azure Logic Apps
9 18 (1.41%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 18 (1.41%) Google Workspace
9 18 (1.41%) IaaS
9 18 (1.41%) Mimecast
10 16 (1.25%) Collibra
10 16 (1.25%) Dynamics 365
10 16 (1.25%) Figma
11 15 (1.17%) GitHub
12 12 (0.94%) Power Automate
13 10 (0.78%) Stripe
Communications & Networking
1 84 (6.57%) DNS
2 67 (5.24%) Firewall
3 55 (4.30%) DHCP
4 46 (3.60%) TCP/IP
5 45 (3.52%) VPN
6 27 (2.11%) Wireless
7 24 (1.88%) VLAN
8 18 (1.41%) WAN
9 15 (1.17%) LAN
10 13 (1.02%) SAN
11 12 (0.94%) Broadband
12 10 (0.78%) Intranet
13 8 (0.63%) Wi-Fi
14 7 (0.55%) HTTP
14 7 (0.55%) Remote Desktop
14 7 (0.55%) VoIP
15 6 (0.47%) PuTTY
15 6 (0.47%) SSH
16 4 (0.31%) MPLS
17 3 (0.23%) BGP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 81 (6.34%) Power BI
2 43 (3.36%) Relational Database
3 38 (2.97%) SQL Server
4 20 (1.56%) Data Lake
5 18 (1.41%) Data Warehouse
5 18 (1.41%) SAP BW
6 17 (1.33%) NoSQL
6 17 (1.33%) Power Query
7 16 (1.25%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 13 (1.02%) OLTP
9 9 (0.70%) PostgreSQL
10 8 (0.63%) Tableau
11 7 (0.55%) PowerPivot
12 6 (0.47%) Big Data
12 6 (0.47%) Hadoop
12 6 (0.47%) MySQL
13 5 (0.39%) Data Mining
14 4 (0.31%) Azure SQL Database
14 4 (0.31%) Metadata
15 3 (0.23%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 46 (3.60%) Git
2 40 (3.13%) JIRA
3 24 (1.88%) Selenium
4 15 (1.17%) Robot Framework
5 14 (1.10%) GitLab
6 13 (1.02%) Snyk
7 10 (0.78%) Rational DOORS
8 8 (0.63%) Jenkins
8 8 (0.63%) Visual Studio
9 4 (0.31%) Cypress.io
9 4 (0.31%) WebDriver
10 3 (0.23%) Postman
11 2 (0.16%) Appium
11 2 (0.16%) LabVIEW
11 2 (0.16%) REST Assured
11 2 (0.16%) TestRail
12 1 (0.078%) Android Studio
12 1 (0.078%) JMeter
12 1 (0.078%) JUnit
12 1 (0.078%) NUnit
General
1 717 (56.10%) Social Skills
2 347 (27.15%) Analytical Skills
3 272 (21.28%) Finance
4 107 (8.37%) Manufacturing
5 92 (7.20%) Marketing
6 82 (6.42%) Retail
7 73 (5.71%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 68 (5.32%) Organisational Skills
9 45 (3.52%) Electronics
10 41 (3.21%) Telecoms
11 34 (2.66%) Legal
12 33 (2.58%) Public Sector
13 31 (2.43%) Law
14 27 (2.11%) Documentation Skills
15 14 (1.10%) Presentation Skills
16 13 (1.02%) Influencing Skills
17 11 (0.86%) Automotive
17 11 (0.86%) Banking
17 11 (0.86%) Pharmaceutical
18 7 (0.55%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 232 (18.15%) Analyst
2 202 (15.81%) Senior
3 195 (15.26%) IT Support
4 161 (12.60%) Support Engineer
5 111 (8.69%) Developer
6 103 (8.06%) Support Analyst
7 88 (6.89%) Lead
8 82 (6.42%) Technical Support
9 71 (5.56%) IT Engineer
10 66 (5.16%) IT Analyst
11 63 (4.93%) IT Support Analyst
12 61 (4.77%) IT Support Engineer
13 56 (4.38%) 2nd Line Support
14 45 (3.52%) Project Engineer
15 43 (3.36%) Senior Analyst
15 43 (3.36%) Senior Manager
16 42 (3.29%) Technical Engineer
16 42 (3.29%) Technical Support Engineer
17 35 (2.74%) Applications Support
18 33 (2.58%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 58 (4.54%) .NET
2 48 (3.76%) HTML
3 36 (2.82%) SOAP
4 34 (2.66%) REST
5 30 (2.35%) React
6 27 (2.11%) CSS
7 21 (1.64%) XML
8 19 (1.49%) .NET Framework
9 18 (1.41%) ASP.NET
10 15 (1.17%) Middleware
11 14 (1.10%) JSON
12 13 (1.02%) Entity Framework
12 13 (1.02%) Laravel
12 13 (1.02%) WinForms
13 11 (0.86%) ARM Templates
13 11 (0.86%) Lightning Web Components
14 10 (0.78%) OLE
14 10 (0.78%) Visualforce
15 9 (0.70%) Node.js
15 9 (0.70%) SAP CO-PA
Miscellaneous
1 109 (8.53%) Onboarding
2 74 (5.79%) Driving Licence
3 62 (4.85%) Self-Motivation
4 45 (3.52%) Analytical Mindset
5 43 (3.36%) Management Information System
6 38 (2.97%) Data Centre
7 29 (2.27%) Product Ownership
8 21 (1.64%) Low-Code
9 19 (1.49%) Cloud Native
10 15 (1.17%) Distributed Systems
10 15 (1.17%) Social Media
11 11 (0.86%) Enterprise Software
12 10 (0.78%) Legacy Systems
12 10 (0.78%) Security Operations Centre
12 10 (0.78%) Video Conferencing
13 9 (0.70%) FMCG
13 9 (0.70%) Life Science
13 9 (0.70%) Video Editing
14 8 (0.63%) Algorithms
14 8 (0.63%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 233 (18.23%) Windows
2 73 (5.71%) Linux
3 70 (5.48%) Windows Server
4 27 (2.11%) Windows 10
5 23 (1.80%) Mac OS
6 16 (1.25%) Android
7 12 (0.94%) Windows Server 2012
8 10 (0.78%) Windows Server 2019
9 9 (0.70%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 8 (0.63%) CentOS
11 7 (0.55%) Apple iOS
12 6 (0.47%) VMS
13 5 (0.39%) Windows 7
14 4 (0.31%) Unix
14 4 (0.31%) Windows Server 2016
15 3 (0.23%) Ubuntu
16 1 (0.078%) FreeBSD
16 1 (0.078%) OpenBSD
16 1 (0.078%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 258 (20.19%) Continuous Improvement
2 201 (15.73%) Customer Service
3 165 (12.91%) Agile
4 143 (11.19%) Analytics
5 119 (9.31%) DevOps
6 112 (8.76%) Business Intelligence
7 110 (8.61%) Project Management
8 109 (8.53%) ERP
9 103 (8.06%) Stakeholder Management
10 91 (7.12%) Decision-Making
11 89 (6.96%) CI/CD
11 89 (6.96%) Computer Science
12 88 (6.89%) Data Modelling
13 86 (6.73%) Cybersecurity
14 82 (6.42%) Mentoring
14 82 (6.42%) Technical Leadership
15 74 (5.79%) Logistics
16 72 (5.63%) AI
17 67 (5.24%) CRM
17 67 (5.24%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 208 (16.28%) SQL
2 161 (12.60%) Python
3 80 (6.26%) C#
4 78 (6.10%) PowerShell
5 69 (5.40%) JavaScript
6 42 (3.29%) Java
7 27 (2.11%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 26 (2.03%) PHP
9 17 (1.33%) C++
10 16 (1.25%) PL/SQL
11 15 (1.17%) TypeScript
12 12 (0.94%) Bash
12 12 (0.94%) Bicep
12 12 (0.94%) C
12 12 (0.94%) T-SQL
13 11 (0.86%) Apex Code
14 9 (0.70%) Kusto Query Language
15 8 (0.63%) R
16 7 (0.55%) Perl
16 7 (0.55%) VBA
Qualifications
1 289 (22.61%) Degree
2 94 (7.36%) Security Cleared
3 50 (3.91%) Computer Science Degree
4 44 (3.44%) SC Cleared
5 38 (2.97%) ACCA
6 31 (2.43%) Microsoft Certification
7 30 (2.35%) CIMA
8 27 (2.11%) DBS Check
9 26 (2.03%) DV Cleared
10 24 (1.88%) BPSS Clearance
11 20 (1.56%) Microsoft Certified Professional
12 19 (1.49%) A+ Certification
13 17 (1.33%) HNC
14 16 (1.25%) Master's Degree
15 11 (0.86%) Chartered Engineer
16 8 (0.63%) HND
16 8 (0.63%) MCSE
17 7 (0.55%) CCNA
17 7 (0.55%) Cisco Certification
17 7 (0.55%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 73 (5.71%) QA
2 65 (5.09%) Data Quality
3 52 (4.07%) GDPR
4 28 (2.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 21 (1.64%) Accessibility
6 19 (1.49%) SLA
7 11 (0.86%) PCI DSS
8 9 (0.70%) NIST
9 7 (0.55%) ISO 9001
10 6 (0.47%) Cyber Essentials
11 5 (0.39%) Actionable Recommendations
11 5 (0.39%) ISO 13485
12 3 (0.23%) ITGC
13 2 (0.16%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 2 (0.16%) SOC 2
13 2 (0.16%) WCAG
14 1 (0.078%) GAAP
14 1 (0.078%) IFRS
14 1 (0.078%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
14 1 (0.078%) PMO
System Software
1 159 (12.44%) Active Directory
2 39 (3.05%) Hyper-V
3 35 (2.74%) VMware Infrastructure
4 32 (2.50%) Docker
5 9 (0.70%) VMware ESXi
6 8 (0.63%) KVM
7 4 (0.31%) Firmware
8 3 (0.23%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.16%) RHEV
9 2 (0.16%) Virtual Desktop
9 2 (0.16%) Xen
10 1 (0.078%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.078%) VMware NSX
10 1 (0.078%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 51 (3.99%) Terraform
2 43 (3.36%) Microsoft Intune
3 27 (2.11%) Ansible
3 27 (2.11%) Kubernetes
4 16 (1.25%) SCCM
5 13 (1.02%) vCenter Server
6 9 (0.70%) Grafana
6 9 (0.70%) Nagios
6 9 (0.70%) Prometheus
6 9 (0.70%) ZABBIX
7 3 (0.23%) FortiGate
7 3 (0.23%) Proxmox
8 2 (0.16%) Nessus
8 2 (0.16%) Netcool
8 2 (0.16%) Netcool/OMNIbus
9 1 (0.078%) CASB
9 1 (0.078%) Control-M
9 1 (0.078%) Docker Swarm
9 1 (0.078%) Kibana
9 1 (0.078%) Puppet
Vendors
1 330 (25.82%) Microsoft
2 113 (8.84%) SAP
3 50 (3.91%) VMware
4 40 (3.13%) Google
5 38 (2.97%) Veeam
6 34 (2.66%) Adobe
6 34 (2.66%) Oracle
7 33 (2.58%) Databricks
8 32 (2.50%) NEC
8 32 (2.50%) Salesforce
9 30 (2.35%) Sage
10 24 (1.88%) HubSpot
11 17 (1.33%) ServiceNow
12 15 (1.17%) Cisco
12 15 (1.17%) SolarWinds
13 14 (1.10%) Xamarin
14 13 (1.02%) Black Duck
14 13 (1.02%) Coverity
15 11 (0.86%) Zoho
16 10 (0.78%) 3PAR