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

6 months to
20 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 3 4
Rank change year-on-year -8 +1 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,131 1,450 2,802
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 7.80% 18.42% 17.01%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.87% 20.33% 20.27%
Number of salaries quoted 846 688 1,757
10th Percentile £26,601 £28,175 £25,750
25th Percentile £31,250 £31,250 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £46,000 £46,500 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -1.08% +3.33% -14.29%
75th Percentile £62,500 £63,813 £61,500
90th Percentile £79,375 £83,750 £72,500
England median annual salary £47,500 £50,967 £50,000
% change year-on-year -6.80% +1.93% -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 10,409 7,132 13,823
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 71.81% 90.59% 83.91%
Number of salaries quoted 7,080 3,388 9,795
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,675 £27,500
25th Percentile £39,969 £36,250 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £53,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +2.80% +7.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £82,500 £77,500
England median annual salary £60,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year - +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 20 May 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 May 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 -11 418 £47,500 -6.80% 244
Hampshire -4 259 £46,000 +8.24% 147
Berkshire -9 203 £47,500 -13.64% 115
Surrey -2 183 £40,000 -5.88% 81
Buckinghamshire -11 132 £48,250 -5.33% 66
Kent -5 122 £29,000 -6.45% 65
East Sussex -5 92 £59,000 +18.00% 14
Oxfordshire -5 83 £34,000 -38.18% 67
West Sussex -7 48 £56,465 +21.43% 23
Isle of Wight -7 3 £41,500 -24.55%
Middlesex +3 2 £35,000 -44.00% 24
Sussex -16 1 £30,000 -29.41% 5
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 32 (2.83%) SharePoint
2 28 (2.48%) Microsoft Exchange
3 16 (1.41%) CMS
4 10 (0.88%) IIS
5 9 (0.80%) Confluence
6 5 (0.44%) OpenEdge
6 5 (0.44%) WordPress
7 4 (0.35%) OpenStack
8 3 (0.27%) Anypoint
8 3 (0.27%) Apache
8 3 (0.27%) govService
9 2 (0.18%) Apache Airflow
9 2 (0.18%) Gentran
9 2 (0.18%) SAS
10 1 (0.088%) ArcGIS
10 1 (0.088%) nginx
10 1 (0.088%) Tomcat
Applications
1 87 (7.69%) Microsoft Excel
2 67 (5.92%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (0.97%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (0.71%) MS Visio
4 8 (0.71%) Spreadsheet
5 6 (0.53%) Photoshop
6 5 (0.44%) Adobe Illustrator
7 3 (0.27%) Microsoft Project
8 2 (0.18%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 1 (0.088%) Acrobat
9 1 (0.088%) AutoCAD
Business Applications
1 11 (0.97%) NetSuite
2 10 (0.88%) Dynamics CRM
3 9 (0.80%) SAP CO
4 4 (0.35%) Dynamics NAV
4 4 (0.35%) Magento
4 4 (0.35%) Salesforce CRM
5 2 (0.18%) Dynamics AX
5 2 (0.18%) IBM Planning Analytics
5 2 (0.18%) Infor SunSystems
5 2 (0.18%) Q-Pulse
5 2 (0.18%) Sage 200
5 2 (0.18%) Shopify
6 1 (0.088%) Elite 3E
6 1 (0.088%) HFM
6 1 (0.088%) PeopleSoft HRMS
6 1 (0.088%) Raiser’s Edge
6 1 (0.088%) SAP GRC
6 1 (0.088%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 254 (22.46%) Azure
2 119 (10.52%) Microsoft 365
3 102 (9.02%) AWS
4 81 (7.16%) Power Platform
5 51 (4.51%) Azure DevOps
5 51 (4.51%) SaaS
6 35 (3.09%) GCP
7 30 (2.65%) IaaS
7 30 (2.65%) PaaS
8 25 (2.21%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 21 (1.86%) Entra ID
10 20 (1.77%) Google Workspace
11 18 (1.59%) Dynamics 365
12 17 (1.50%) Serverless
13 16 (1.41%) Azure Logic Apps
13 16 (1.41%) Mimecast
14 15 (1.33%) Azure Data Factory
14 15 (1.33%) Datadog
14 15 (1.33%) OpenShift
15 14 (1.24%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 64 (5.66%) Firewall
2 59 (5.22%) DNS
3 33 (2.92%) DHCP
4 30 (2.65%) TCP/IP
5 23 (2.03%) VPN
6 20 (1.77%) Broadband
6 20 (1.77%) Wireless
7 16 (1.41%) WAN
8 14 (1.24%) LAN
9 12 (1.06%) VoIP
10 10 (0.88%) HTTP
11 8 (0.71%) SAN
12 7 (0.62%) Intranet
12 7 (0.62%) Remote Desktop
12 7 (0.62%) VLAN
12 7 (0.62%) Wi-Fi
13 6 (0.53%) Network Security
13 6 (0.53%) PuTTY
13 6 (0.53%) SSH
13 6 (0.53%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 69 (6.10%) SQL Server
2 62 (5.48%) Power BI
3 22 (1.95%) Data Warehouse
4 21 (1.86%) PostgreSQL
4 21 (1.86%) Relational Database
5 18 (1.59%) OLTP
6 12 (1.06%) MySQL
6 12 (1.06%) NoSQL
6 12 (1.06%) Tableau
7 11 (0.97%) Power Query
8 10 (0.88%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 7 (0.62%) Data Lake
9 7 (0.62%) Looker
9 7 (0.62%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 5 (0.44%) Big Data
10 5 (0.44%) Data Mining
10 5 (0.44%) Hadoop
11 4 (0.35%) GIS
12 3 (0.27%) Snowflake Schema
12 3 (0.27%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 57 (5.04%) Git
2 38 (3.36%) JIRA
3 29 (2.56%) GitLab
4 23 (2.03%) Rational DOORS
5 7 (0.62%) Selenium
6 4 (0.35%) Jenkins
6 4 (0.35%) Visual Studio
7 3 (0.27%) Android Studio
7 3 (0.27%) Cypress.io
7 3 (0.27%) Postman
8 2 (0.18%) Appium
8 2 (0.18%) JMeter
8 2 (0.18%) LabVIEW
8 2 (0.18%) REST Assured
8 2 (0.18%) Robot Framework
8 2 (0.18%) Snyk
8 2 (0.18%) Terragrunt
9 1 (0.088%) JUnit
9 1 (0.088%) SonarQube
9 1 (0.088%) Zephyr
General
1 531 (46.95%) Social Skills
2 329 (29.09%) Analytical Skills
3 184 (16.27%) Finance
4 69 (6.10%) Organisational Skills
5 61 (5.39%) Marketing
6 57 (5.04%) Manufacturing
7 46 (4.07%) Telecoms
8 45 (3.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 44 (3.89%) Retail
10 42 (3.71%) Electronics
11 28 (2.48%) Public Sector
12 26 (2.30%) Aerospace
13 25 (2.21%) Law
13 25 (2.21%) Legal
14 21 (1.86%) Documentation Skills
15 15 (1.33%) Pharmaceutical
16 14 (1.24%) Presentation Skills
17 12 (1.06%) Automotive
18 11 (0.97%) Local Government
19 10 (0.88%) Military
Job Titles
1 159 (14.06%) Analyst
2 132 (11.67%) IT Support
3 123 (10.88%) Senior
4 120 (10.61%) Developer
5 115 (10.17%) Support Engineer
6 69 (6.10%) IT Engineer
6 69 (6.10%) Support Analyst
7 58 (5.13%) Systems Engineer
8 51 (4.51%) Technical Support
9 46 (4.07%) IT Support Engineer
9 46 (4.07%) Lead
10 42 (3.71%) 2nd Line Support
10 42 (3.71%) Software Engineer
11 41 (3.63%) Architect
12 40 (3.54%) Support Technician
13 38 (3.36%) IT Technician
13 38 (3.36%) Technical Engineer
13 38 (3.36%) Technical Support Engineer
14 35 (3.09%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 30 (2.65%) 1st Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 63 (5.57%) .NET
2 56 (4.95%) HTML
3 46 (4.07%) SOAP
4 36 (3.18%) REST
5 33 (2.92%) XML
6 32 (2.83%) CSS
7 30 (2.65%) JSON
8 23 (2.03%) Middleware
8 23 (2.03%) React
9 16 (1.41%) Laravel
9 16 (1.41%) OAuth
10 15 (1.33%) CSS3
10 15 (1.33%) HTML5
10 15 (1.33%) RabbitMQ
11 14 (1.24%) jQuery
12 13 (1.15%) Ajax
12 13 (1.15%) Sass
13 12 (1.06%) ARM Templates
13 12 (1.06%) LESS
14 11 (0.97%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 63 (5.57%) Driving Licence
2 59 (5.22%) Onboarding
2 59 (5.22%) Self-Motivation
3 45 (3.98%) Management Information System
4 39 (3.45%) Product Ownership
5 36 (3.18%) Cloud Native
6 33 (2.92%) Distributed Systems
7 27 (2.39%) Analytical Mindset
8 20 (1.77%) Low-Code
9 17 (1.50%) Social Media
10 14 (1.24%) Legacy Systems
10 14 (1.24%) NHS
11 11 (0.97%) Enterprise Software
11 11 (0.97%) Video Editing
12 10 (0.88%) Algorithms
12 10 (0.88%) Client/Server
12 10 (0.88%) Hybrid Cloud
13 9 (0.80%) Cyber Defence
13 9 (0.80%) Robotics
13 9 (0.80%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 165 (14.59%) Windows
2 97 (8.58%) Linux
3 56 (4.95%) Windows Server
4 21 (1.86%) Android
5 18 (1.59%) CentOS
5 18 (1.59%) Mac OS
6 16 (1.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 11 (0.97%) Ubuntu
8 10 (0.88%) Windows Server 2019
9 9 (0.80%) VMS
10 8 (0.71%) Windows Server 2016
11 7 (0.62%) Apple iOS
11 7 (0.62%) Windows Server 2012
12 3 (0.27%) Debian
12 3 (0.27%) Unix
13 2 (0.18%) Windows 10
14 1 (0.088%) Embedded Linux
14 1 (0.088%) FreeBSD
14 1 (0.088%) OpenBSD
14 1 (0.088%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 231 (20.42%) Continuous Improvement
2 192 (16.98%) Customer Service
3 163 (14.41%) Agile
4 139 (12.29%) DevOps
5 132 (11.67%) CI/CD
6 112 (9.90%) Analytics
7 111 (9.81%) Decision-Making
8 105 (9.28%) Computer Science
9 103 (9.11%) Software Engineering
10 96 (8.49%) Business Intelligence
11 92 (8.13%) AI
12 87 (7.69%) Project Management
13 81 (7.16%) Mentoring
14 80 (7.07%) CRM
15 79 (6.98%) Data Modelling
16 75 (6.63%) Project Delivery
17 73 (6.45%) Cybersecurity
18 70 (6.19%) ERP
18 70 (6.19%) ITIL
19 67 (5.92%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 198 (17.51%) Python
2 180 (15.92%) SQL
3 84 (7.43%) C#
4 81 (7.16%) JavaScript
5 62 (5.48%) PowerShell
6 51 (4.51%) Java
7 31 (2.74%) C++
7 31 (2.74%) PHP
8 25 (2.21%) Bash
8 25 (2.21%) C
9 21 (1.86%) PL/SQL
9 21 (1.86%) TypeScript
10 15 (1.33%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 12 (1.06%) Perl
12 11 (0.97%) Rust
13 9 (0.80%) Bicep
14 8 (0.71%) Apex Code
14 8 (0.71%) Ruby
15 7 (0.62%) R
15 7 (0.62%) Scala
Qualifications
1 231 (20.42%) Degree
2 78 (6.90%) Security Cleared
3 52 (4.60%) Computer Science Degree
3 52 (4.60%) DBS Check
4 47 (4.16%) SC Cleared
5 41 (3.63%) Microsoft Certification
6 37 (3.27%) ACCA
6 37 (3.27%) BPSS Clearance
7 34 (3.01%) CIMA
8 27 (2.39%) A+ Certification
9 26 (2.30%) HNC
10 25 (2.21%) Chartered Engineer
11 18 (1.59%) Microsoft Certified Professional
12 17 (1.50%) DV Cleared
13 14 (1.24%) Master's Degree
14 13 (1.15%) PMI Certification
15 12 (1.06%) Azure Certification
16 10 (0.88%) HND
16 10 (0.88%) PMP
17 8 (0.71%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 78 (6.90%) QA
2 61 (5.39%) Data Quality
3 45 (3.98%) GDPR
4 36 (3.18%) SLA
5 20 (1.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 16 (1.41%) Accessibility
7 15 (1.33%) PCI DSS
8 10 (0.88%) NIST
9 8 (0.71%) SOC 2
10 6 (0.53%) ISO 9001
11 5 (0.44%) Actionable Recommendations
12 4 (0.35%) ISO 26262
12 4 (0.35%) ITGC
13 3 (0.27%) Def Stans
13 3 (0.27%) Good Clinical Practice
14 2 (0.18%) Cyber Essentials
14 2 (0.18%) GRC
14 2 (0.18%) IFRS
15 1 (0.088%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 1 (0.088%) PMO
System Software
1 97 (8.58%) Active Directory
2 51 (4.51%) Docker
3 37 (3.27%) VMware Infrastructure
4 25 (2.21%) Hyper-V
5 10 (0.88%) KVM
6 6 (0.53%) VMware ESXi
7 5 (0.44%) XenApp
8 4 (0.35%) Firmware
8 4 (0.35%) Virtual Desktop
8 4 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
9 3 (0.27%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 2 (0.18%) vSphere
11 1 (0.088%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.088%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 60 (5.31%) Kubernetes
2 59 (5.22%) Terraform
3 32 (2.83%) Ansible
4 23 (2.03%) Microsoft Intune
5 15 (1.33%) Grafana
5 15 (1.33%) SCCM
6 12 (1.06%) Prometheus
7 10 (0.88%) Nagios
8 7 (0.62%) ZABBIX
9 6 (0.53%) vCenter Server
10 4 (0.35%) Functional Safety
10 4 (0.35%) Graylog
10 4 (0.35%) Puppet
11 3 (0.27%) Docker Swarm
11 3 (0.27%) Podman
12 2 (0.18%) Failover Clustering
12 2 (0.18%) Nessus
13 1 (0.088%) Netcool
13 1 (0.088%) Netcool/OMNIbus
13 1 (0.088%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 309 (27.32%) Microsoft
2 44 (3.89%) Oracle
3 41 (3.63%) VMware
4 37 (3.27%) Google
5 36 (3.18%) Databricks
6 27 (2.39%) Salesforce
7 24 (2.12%) Veeam
8 20 (1.77%) Adobe
8 20 (1.77%) SAP
9 16 (1.41%) Instagram
9 16 (1.41%) Red Hat
10 13 (1.15%) Splunk
11 12 (1.06%) Dynatrace
11 12 (1.06%) Sage
12 11 (0.97%) Hootsuite
12 11 (0.97%) Wrike
13 10 (0.88%) Cisco
13 10 (0.88%) HubSpot
13 10 (0.88%) SolarWinds
14 9 (0.80%) ServiceNow