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

6 months to
28 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 6 3 5
Rank change year-on-year -3 +2 +5
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,442 1,587 2,208
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 8.88% 18.32% 14.96%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.39% 20.74% 18.44%
Number of salaries quoted 1,083 805 1,356
10th Percentile £27,000 £27,000 £26,750
25th Percentile £31,250 £32,500 £34,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £42,500 £45,798
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% -7.20% -10.81%
75th Percentile £58,750 £62,500 £62,500
90th Percentile £73,500 £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 11,643 7,651 11,971
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 71.71% 88.30% 81.12%
Number of salaries quoted 8,298 4,077 8,063
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,743 £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 £56,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +6.19% +2.73% -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 28 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 28 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 -7 534 £44,250 +4.12% 230
Hampshire -2 357 £45,000 - 149
Surrey 0 245 £42,500 +1.80% 86
Berkshire -3 244 £45,000 - 109
Buckinghamshire -6 170 £42,500 +13.33% 69
Kent -7 134 £35,000 +11.11% 54
Oxfordshire +1 120 £41,982 -16.04% 56
East Sussex -4 88 £50,000 - 31
West Sussex -7 74 £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 46 (3.19%) SharePoint
2 40 (2.77%) Microsoft Exchange
3 19 (1.32%) Confluence
4 18 (1.25%) 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 (0.069%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 104 (7.21%) Microsoft Excel
2 83 (5.76%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (0.76%) Spreadsheet
4 9 (0.62%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 8 (0.55%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.35%) Lightworks
6 5 (0.35%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.35%) Photoshop
7 4 (0.28%) Adobe Illustrator
8 3 (0.21%) AutoCAD
8 3 (0.21%) Simulink
9 2 (0.14%) Chatbot
9 2 (0.14%) Revit
Business Applications
1 14 (0.97%) NetSuite
2 8 (0.55%) 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 (0.069%) Elite 3E
7 1 (0.069%) HFM
7 1 (0.069%) Oracle Applications
7 1 (0.069%) SAP CO
7 1 (0.069%) SAP GRC
7 1 (0.069%) Siebel CRM
7 1 (0.069%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 341 (23.65%) Azure
2 163 (11.30%) Microsoft 365
3 155 (10.75%) AWS
4 85 (5.89%) Power Platform
5 64 (4.44%) SaaS
6 48 (3.33%) GCP
7 47 (3.26%) Entra ID
8 46 (3.19%) Azure DevOps
9 30 (2.08%) GitHub
9 30 (2.08%) Serverless
10 23 (1.60%) IaaS
10 23 (1.60%) PaaS
11 20 (1.39%) Dynamics 365
12 19 (1.32%) Datadog
13 18 (1.25%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 17 (1.18%) GitHub Actions
15 16 (1.11%) Google Workspace
16 15 (1.04%) Amazon ECS
16 15 (1.04%) OpenShift
17 14 (0.97%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 126 (8.74%) Firewall
2 63 (4.37%) DNS
3 55 (3.81%) TCP/IP
4 52 (3.61%) VPN
5 49 (3.40%) WAN
6 48 (3.33%) LAN
7 39 (2.70%) DHCP
7 39 (2.70%) Wireless
8 37 (2.57%) Wi-Fi
9 29 (2.01%) VoIP
10 27 (1.87%) VLAN
11 23 (1.60%) Network Security
12 15 (1.04%) Broadband
13 13 (0.90%) Internet
13 13 (0.90%) SSL
14 10 (0.69%) HTTP
15 9 (0.62%) LTE
15 9 (0.62%) MQTT
16 7 (0.49%) Remote Desktop
17 6 (0.42%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 106 (7.35%) SQL Server
2 72 (4.99%) Power BI
3 29 (2.01%) Relational Database
4 26 (1.80%) PostgreSQL
5 22 (1.53%) NoSQL
6 21 (1.46%) MySQL
7 18 (1.25%) Data Warehouse
8 16 (1.11%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 13 (0.90%) Tableau
10 12 (0.83%) OLTP
10 12 (0.83%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 11 (0.76%) Amazon RDS
12 10 (0.69%) Data Lake
13 8 (0.55%) DynamoDB
14 7 (0.49%) GIS
14 7 (0.49%) Looker
14 7 (0.49%) MongoDB
14 7 (0.49%) Power Query
15 5 (0.35%) Azure SQL Database
16 4 (0.28%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 70 (4.85%) Git
2 55 (3.81%) JIRA
3 29 (2.01%) GitLab
4 20 (1.39%) 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
1 698 (48.40%) Social Skills
2 405 (28.09%) Analytical Skills
3 221 (15.33%) Finance
4 107 (7.42%) Organisational Skills
5 92 (6.38%) Manufacturing
6 69 (4.79%) Electronics
7 61 (4.23%) Retail
8 57 (3.95%) Telecoms
9 50 (3.47%) Aerospace
10 48 (3.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 41 (2.84%) Marketing
12 39 (2.70%) Legal
13 37 (2.57%) Law
14 35 (2.43%) Influencing Skills
15 33 (2.29%) Documentation Skills
16 29 (2.01%) Public Sector
17 23 (1.60%) Local Government
18 19 (1.32%) Military
19 17 (1.18%) Banking
20 14 (0.97%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 202 (14.01%) Analyst
2 150 (10.40%) Senior
3 145 (10.06%) IT Support
4 138 (9.57%) Developer
5 124 (8.60%) Support Engineer
6 91 (6.31%) IT Engineer
7 89 (6.17%) Support Analyst
8 68 (4.72%) Software Engineer
8 68 (4.72%) Systems Engineer
9 65 (4.51%) Lead
9 65 (4.51%) Technical Support
10 59 (4.09%) Support Technician
11 57 (3.95%) IT Support Engineer
12 56 (3.88%) 2nd Line Support
13 49 (3.40%) Technical Engineer
13 49 (3.40%) Technical Support Engineer
14 42 (2.91%) IT Technician
15 41 (2.84%) Architect
16 38 (2.64%) Senior Developer
17 35 (2.43%) Applications Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 96 (6.66%) .NET
2 65 (4.51%) HTML
3 51 (3.54%) REST
4 48 (3.33%) SOAP
5 45 (3.12%) CSS
6 42 (2.91%) React
7 37 (2.57%) ASP.NET
8 33 (2.29%) JSON
9 30 (2.08%) XML
10 29 (2.01%) OAuth
11 28 (1.94%) ASP.NET Core
12 26 (1.80%) RESTful
13 23 (1.60%) Vue
14 22 (1.53%) AngularJS
15 17 (1.18%) RabbitMQ
16 16 (1.11%) ARM Templates
16 16 (1.11%) HTML5
16 16 (1.11%) Middleware
17 15 (1.04%) JWT
17 15 (1.04%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 100 (6.93%) Driving Licence
2 74 (5.13%) Onboarding
3 73 (5.06%) Self-Motivation
4 67 (4.65%) Management Information System
5 57 (3.95%) Cloud Native
6 40 (2.77%) Product Ownership
7 31 (2.15%) Distributed Systems
8 28 (1.94%) Analytical Mindset
9 21 (1.46%) Data Centre
10 20 (1.39%) Robotics
11 19 (1.32%) Social Media
12 18 (1.25%) Legacy Systems
12 18 (1.25%) NHS
13 17 (1.18%) Enterprise Software
14 15 (1.04%) EPoS
14 15 (1.04%) Security Posture
15 13 (0.90%) Analogue Electronics
15 13 (0.90%) CCTV
15 13 (0.90%) Clustering
16 12 (0.83%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 234 (16.23%) Windows
2 116 (8.04%) Linux
3 86 (5.96%) Windows Server
4 21 (1.46%) Mac OS
5 19 (1.32%) Android
6 16 (1.11%) CentOS
6 16 (1.11%) Windows Server 2019
7 14 (0.97%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 12 (0.83%) Ubuntu
9 10 (0.69%) Windows 10
10 9 (0.62%) Apple iOS
10 9 (0.62%) Windows Server 2016
11 8 (0.55%) 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 (0.069%) FreeBSD
Processes & Methodologies
1 294 (20.39%) Continuous Improvement
2 250 (17.34%) Customer Service
3 196 (13.59%) Agile
4 169 (11.72%) CI/CD
5 164 (11.37%) Decision-Making
6 154 (10.68%) AI
6 154 (10.68%) DevOps
7 146 (10.12%) Software Engineering
8 140 (9.71%) Project Management
9 138 (9.57%) Project Delivery
10 132 (9.15%) ITIL
11 127 (8.81%) Stakeholder Management
12 124 (8.60%) Cybersecurity
13 120 (8.32%) Collaborative Working
13 120 (8.32%) Mentoring
14 110 (7.63%) Computer Science
15 107 (7.42%) Analytics
16 100 (6.93%) Business Intelligence
16 100 (6.93%) Validation
17 98 (6.80%) Logistics
Programming Languages
1 217 (15.05%) SQL
2 215 (14.91%) Python
3 115 (7.98%) C#
4 94 (6.52%) PowerShell
5 92 (6.38%) JavaScript
6 60 (4.16%) C++
7 55 (3.81%) Java
8 49 (3.40%) TypeScript
9 37 (2.57%) Bash
10 32 (2.22%) C
11 21 (1.46%) PHP
12 13 (0.90%) PL/SQL
12 13 (0.90%) Ruby
12 13 (0.90%) T-SQL
13 12 (0.83%) Rust
14 11 (0.76%) Perl
15 8 (0.55%) Bicep
15 8 (0.55%) VB.NET
16 7 (0.49%) MATLAB
17 6 (0.42%) Embedded C
Qualifications
1 272 (18.86%) Degree
2 119 (8.25%) Security Cleared
3 93 (6.45%) DBS Check
4 85 (5.89%) SC Cleared
5 61 (4.23%) Computer Science Degree
6 49 (3.40%) Microsoft Certification
7 39 (2.70%) BPSS Clearance
8 35 (2.43%) HNC
9 30 (2.08%) Azure Certification
10 27 (1.87%) ACCA
11 26 (1.80%) CIMA
12 25 (1.73%) Chartered Engineer
12 25 (1.73%) PMI Certification
12 25 (1.73%) PMP
13 22 (1.53%) DV Cleared
14 21 (1.46%) HND
15 19 (1.32%) Master's Degree
15 19 (1.32%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
16 16 (1.11%) A+ Certification
16 16 (1.11%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 118 (8.18%) QA
2 54 (3.74%) Data Quality
3 46 (3.19%) GDPR
4 41 (2.84%) SLA
5 28 (1.94%) Accessibility
5 28 (1.94%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 21 (1.46%) PCI DSS
7 18 (1.25%) Good Clinical Practice
8 17 (1.18%) NIST
9 14 (0.97%) Cyber Essentials
10 13 (0.90%) PMO
11 11 (0.76%) SOC 2
12 8 (0.55%) 21 CFR Part 11
12 8 (0.55%) GLP
12 8 (0.55%) GMP
12 8 (0.55%) 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
1 119 (8.25%) Active Directory
2 75 (5.20%) Docker
3 63 (4.37%) VMware Infrastructure
4 51 (3.54%) Hyper-V
5 8 (0.55%) Firmware
5 8 (0.55%) VMware ESXi
5 8 (0.55%) 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 (0.069%) Embedded Firmware
11 1 (0.069%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 1 (0.069%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.069%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 82 (5.69%) Terraform
2 80 (5.55%) Kubernetes
3 48 (3.33%) Microsoft Intune
4 37 (2.57%) Ansible
5 22 (1.53%) SCCM
6 16 (1.11%) Grafana
7 13 (0.90%) Prometheus
8 11 (0.76%) Nagios
9 8 (0.55%) Podman
10 7 (0.49%) Failover Clustering
10 7 (0.49%) ZABBIX
11 6 (0.42%) Jamf Pro
11 6 (0.42%) Single Sign-On
12 5 (0.35%) Docker Swarm
12 5 (0.35%) Graylog
12 5 (0.35%) Puppet
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
1 407 (28.22%) Microsoft
2 70 (4.85%) VMware
3 50 (3.47%) Google
4 43 (2.98%) Oracle
5 34 (2.36%) Cisco
6 30 (2.08%) Salesforce
7 29 (2.01%) Fortinet
8 26 (1.80%) SonicWALL
8 26 (1.80%) Veeam
9 22 (1.53%) Databricks
10 21 (1.46%) ServiceNow
11 19 (1.32%) Sage
12 17 (1.18%) SAP
13 16 (1.11%) Aruba
14 15 (1.04%) Red Hat
14 15 (1.04%) Splunk
15 14 (0.97%) Instagram
16 13 (0.90%) Dynatrace
16 13 (0.90%) Palo Alto
17 9 (0.62%) Braze