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

6 months to
17 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 6 3 5
Rank change year-on-year -3 +2 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,566 1,709 2,013
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 9.10% 19.12% 14.65%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.73% 21.73% 18.13%
Number of salaries quoted 1,144 859 1,203
10th Percentile £27,000 £27,000 £27,500
25th Percentile £31,000 £32,375 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,750 £42,500 £48,000
Median % change year-on-year +0.59% -11.46% -6.80%
75th Percentile £58,750 £61,250 £63,750
90th Percentile £72,500 £78,750 £79,298
England median annual salary £47,500 £45,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.56% -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 12,297 7,866 11,104
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 71.48% 88.03% 80.79%
Number of salaries quoted 8,782 4,199 7,214
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,750 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £33,750 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £67,500
90th Percentile £86,250 £80,000 £81,250
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £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 17 August 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 August 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 -5 574 £43,000 +1.18% 254
Hampshire -3 410 £41,250 -5.71% 167
Berkshire -4 256 £43,250 +1.76% 114
Surrey 0 254 £42,500 +6.25% 87
Buckinghamshire -7 179 £42,500 +13.33% 82
Kent -6 147 £37,500 +19.05% 75
Oxfordshire +1 139 £41,982 -5.13% 60
East Sussex -4 97 £50,000 - 30
West Sussex -8 71 £50,000 -0.99% 40
Middlesex +5 8 £50,000 +33.33% 19
Isle of Wight -9 2 £42,500 -16.67% 3
Sussex -14 1 - - 9
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 54 (3.45%) SharePoint
2 43 (2.75%) Microsoft Exchange
3 18 (1.15%) CMS
3 18 (1.15%) Confluence
4 13 (0.83%) IIS
5 7 (0.45%) Apache
5 7 (0.45%) OpenEdge
5 7 (0.45%) WordPress
6 5 (0.32%) nginx
7 3 (0.19%) Anypoint
7 3 (0.19%) OpenStack
7 3 (0.19%) SAS
8 2 (0.13%) Gentran
8 2 (0.13%) Oracle Workflow
8 2 (0.13%) Tomcat
Applications
1 105 (6.70%) Microsoft Excel
2 93 (5.94%) Microsoft Office
3 14 (0.89%) Microsoft Project
4 12 (0.77%) Spreadsheet
5 9 (0.57%) AutoCAD
6 8 (0.51%) MS Visio
7 7 (0.45%) Microsoft PowerPoint
8 5 (0.32%) Lightworks
8 5 (0.32%) Revit
9 4 (0.26%) Photoshop
9 4 (0.26%) Simulink
10 3 (0.19%) Adobe Illustrator
10 3 (0.19%) EPLAN
11 2 (0.13%) Chatbot
12 1 (0.064%) Mathcad
12 1 (0.064%) OrCAD
12 1 (0.064%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 15 (0.96%) NetSuite
2 13 (0.83%) Shopify
3 11 (0.70%) Dynamics CRM
4 7 (0.45%) Magento
5 6 (0.38%) Primavera
5 6 (0.38%) Raiser’s Edge
6 3 (0.19%) Infor SunSystems
6 3 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
6 3 (0.19%) Sage X3
6 3 (0.19%) Salesforce CRM
7 2 (0.13%) Academy Housing
7 2 (0.13%) Oracle Applications
7 2 (0.13%) Siebel CRM
7 2 (0.13%) Workday HCM
8 1 (0.064%) Elite 3E
8 1 (0.064%) HFM
8 1 (0.064%) SAP GRC
Cloud Services
1 368 (23.50%) Azure
2 181 (11.56%) Microsoft 365
3 166 (10.60%) AWS
4 89 (5.68%) Power Platform
5 66 (4.21%) SaaS
6 61 (3.90%) Entra ID
7 50 (3.19%) GCP
8 44 (2.81%) Azure DevOps
9 36 (2.30%) GitHub
10 31 (1.98%) Serverless
11 21 (1.34%) Google Workspace
12 20 (1.28%) IaaS
12 20 (1.28%) PaaS
13 19 (1.21%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 18 (1.15%) Dynamics 365
15 17 (1.09%) Datadog
16 16 (1.02%) Azure Data Factory
16 16 (1.02%) GitHub Actions
16 16 (1.02%) Google Tag Manager
17 15 (0.96%) Anthropic Claude
Communications & Networking
1 132 (8.43%) Firewall
2 69 (4.41%) DNS
3 56 (3.58%) TCP/IP
4 55 (3.51%) VPN
5 48 (3.07%) DHCP
5 48 (3.07%) WAN
6 46 (2.94%) LAN
7 43 (2.75%) Wi-Fi
8 41 (2.62%) Wireless
9 35 (2.23%) VLAN
10 32 (2.04%) VoIP
11 29 (1.85%) Network Security
12 15 (0.96%) SSL
13 14 (0.89%) Internet
14 12 (0.77%) Broadband
15 11 (0.70%) HTTP
16 10 (0.64%) MQTT
17 9 (0.57%) LTE
18 6 (0.38%) WLAN
19 5 (0.32%) VSAT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 122 (7.79%) SQL Server
2 75 (4.79%) Power BI
3 37 (2.36%) Relational Database
4 31 (1.98%) MySQL
5 29 (1.85%) PostgreSQL
6 24 (1.53%) NoSQL
7 19 (1.21%) Data Warehouse
8 15 (0.96%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 12 (0.77%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 12 (0.77%) Tableau
10 11 (0.70%) Amazon RDS
11 10 (0.64%) Data Lake
11 10 (0.64%) OLTP
12 8 (0.51%) MongoDB
13 7 (0.45%) Azure SQL Database
13 7 (0.45%) DynamoDB
13 7 (0.45%) GIS
13 7 (0.45%) Looker
14 5 (0.32%) Electronic Patient Records
15 4 (0.26%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 74 (4.73%) Git
2 59 (3.77%) JIRA
3 27 (1.72%) GitLab
4 20 (1.28%) Rational DOORS
5 11 (0.70%) Claude Code
6 8 (0.51%) Oracle Forms
6 8 (0.51%) Team Foundation Server
7 6 (0.38%) Selenium
8 5 (0.32%) Eclipse
8 5 (0.32%) Eclipse RCP
8 5 (0.32%) Jenkins
8 5 (0.32%) Postman
8 5 (0.32%) Visual Studio
9 4 (0.26%) PHPUnit
9 4 (0.26%) Terragrunt
10 3 (0.19%) PetaLinux
10 3 (0.19%) SpecFlow
11 2 (0.13%) Mocha
11 2 (0.13%) Subversion
11 2 (0.13%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 772 (49.30%) Social Skills
2 453 (28.93%) Analytical Skills
3 225 (14.37%) Finance
4 126 (8.05%) Manufacturing
5 114 (7.28%) Organisational Skills
6 91 (5.81%) Aerospace
7 88 (5.62%) Electronics
8 72 (4.60%) Retail
9 60 (3.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 51 (3.26%) Telecoms
11 45 (2.87%) Marketing
12 41 (2.62%) Influencing Skills
13 39 (2.49%) Law
13 39 (2.49%) Legal
14 37 (2.36%) Military
14 37 (2.36%) Public Sector
15 28 (1.79%) Documentation Skills
16 22 (1.40%) Aviation
16 22 (1.40%) Local Government
17 16 (1.02%) Banking
Job Titles
1 212 (13.54%) Analyst
2 170 (10.86%) Senior
3 157 (10.03%) Developer
4 148 (9.45%) IT Support
5 116 (7.41%) Support Engineer
6 102 (6.51%) Support Analyst
7 86 (5.49%) IT Engineer
8 72 (4.60%) Systems Engineer
9 71 (4.53%) Lead
10 69 (4.41%) Software Engineer
11 67 (4.28%) Technical Support
12 66 (4.21%) Support Technician
13 54 (3.45%) IT Support Engineer
14 53 (3.38%) 2nd Line Support
15 51 (3.26%) Architect
16 47 (3.00%) IT Technician
16 47 (3.00%) Technical Engineer
16 47 (3.00%) Technical Support Engineer
17 44 (2.81%) Consultant
18 42 (2.68%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 112 (7.15%) .NET
2 77 (4.92%) HTML
3 61 (3.90%) REST
4 56 (3.58%) CSS
5 52 (3.32%) React
6 51 (3.26%) SOAP
7 49 (3.13%) ASP.NET
8 36 (2.30%) OAuth
9 34 (2.17%) ASP.NET Core
10 30 (1.92%) AngularJS
10 30 (1.92%) JSON
11 28 (1.79%) RESTful
11 28 (1.79%) Vue
12 27 (1.72%) XML
13 22 (1.40%) ModSecurity
14 21 (1.34%) SAML
15 19 (1.21%) ASP.NET Web API
15 19 (1.21%) jQuery
16 18 (1.15%) LESS
17 17 (1.09%) Entity Framework
Miscellaneous
1 115 (7.34%) Driving Licence
2 95 (6.07%) Onboarding
3 79 (5.04%) Management Information System
4 76 (4.85%) Self-Motivation
5 66 (4.21%) Cloud Native
6 42 (2.68%) Product Ownership
7 33 (2.11%) Data Centre
7 33 (2.11%) Social Media
8 29 (1.85%) Distributed Systems
9 28 (1.79%) Analytical Mindset
9 28 (1.79%) Enterprise Software
10 27 (1.72%) Robotics
11 26 (1.66%) Legacy Systems
12 18 (1.15%) Analogue Electronics
12 18 (1.15%) EPoS
13 17 (1.09%) CCTV
13 17 (1.09%) NHS
14 16 (1.02%) Mobile App
15 15 (0.96%) Renewable Energy
16 14 (0.89%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 247 (15.77%) Windows
2 113 (7.22%) Linux
3 89 (5.68%) Windows Server
4 22 (1.40%) Android
5 17 (1.09%) Windows Server 2019
6 16 (1.02%) Mac OS
7 14 (0.89%) CentOS
8 13 (0.83%) Apple iOS
8 13 (0.83%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 12 (0.77%) Ubuntu
9 12 (0.77%) Windows 10
10 9 (0.57%) Debian
10 9 (0.57%) Windows Server 2016
11 3 (0.19%) FreeRTOS
11 3 (0.19%) Gentoo
11 3 (0.19%) Rocky
11 3 (0.19%) Unix
11 3 (0.19%) VMS
11 3 (0.19%) Windows 7
11 3 (0.19%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 338 (21.58%) Continuous Improvement
2 272 (17.37%) Customer Service
3 214 (13.67%) Agile
4 197 (12.58%) Decision-Making
5 169 (10.79%) AI
5 169 (10.79%) CI/CD
6 164 (10.47%) Project Management
7 161 (10.28%) Software Engineering
8 155 (9.90%) Project Delivery
9 154 (9.83%) DevOps
10 147 (9.39%) Stakeholder Management
11 146 (9.32%) ITIL
12 136 (8.68%) Mentoring
13 134 (8.56%) Validation
14 129 (8.24%) Cybersecurity
15 122 (7.79%) Collaborative Working
15 122 (7.79%) Computer Science
16 121 (7.73%) Analytics
17 106 (6.77%) Logistics
18 104 (6.64%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 227 (14.50%) SQL
2 215 (13.73%) Python
3 127 (8.11%) C#
4 108 (6.90%) JavaScript
5 92 (5.87%) PowerShell
6 59 (3.77%) C++
7 58 (3.70%) TypeScript
8 57 (3.64%) Java
9 34 (2.17%) Bash
10 31 (1.98%) C
11 22 (1.40%) PHP
12 17 (1.09%) T-SQL
13 15 (0.96%) Ruby
14 13 (0.83%) VB.NET
15 12 (0.77%) PL/SQL
15 12 (0.77%) Rust
16 11 (0.70%) Perl
17 8 (0.51%) MATLAB
18 7 (0.45%) Bicep
19 6 (0.38%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 310 (19.80%) Degree
2 164 (10.47%) Security Cleared
3 118 (7.54%) SC Cleared
4 101 (6.45%) DBS Check
5 65 (4.15%) Computer Science Degree
6 55 (3.51%) BPSS Clearance
7 53 (3.38%) DV Cleared
8 51 (3.26%) Microsoft Certification
9 45 (2.87%) HNC
10 44 (2.81%) Azure Certification
11 34 (2.17%) HND
12 32 (2.04%) PMI Certification
13 28 (1.79%) CISSP
14 27 (1.72%) Chartered Engineer
15 26 (1.66%) PMP
16 25 (1.60%) Master's Degree
17 23 (1.47%) CISM
18 20 (1.28%) ACCA
18 20 (1.28%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
19 19 (1.21%) A+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 134 (8.56%) QA
2 56 (3.58%) Data Quality
2 56 (3.58%) GDPR
3 44 (2.81%) SLA
4 33 (2.11%) Accessibility
5 29 (1.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 18 (1.15%) Good Clinical Practice
6 18 (1.15%) NIST
6 18 (1.15%) PCI DSS
7 17 (1.09%) Cyber Essentials
8 14 (0.89%) PMO
9 10 (0.64%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 10 (0.64%) DO-254
10 9 (0.57%) GMP
10 9 (0.57%) SOC 2
11 8 (0.51%) 21 CFR Part 11
11 8 (0.51%) GLP
11 8 (0.51%) GxP
11 8 (0.51%) ISO 9001
12 4 (0.26%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 129 (8.24%) Active Directory
2 72 (4.60%) VMware Infrastructure
3 71 (4.53%) Docker
4 57 (3.64%) Hyper-V
5 11 (0.70%) Firmware
6 9 (0.57%) VMware ESXi
6 9 (0.57%) vSphere
7 7 (0.45%) KVM
8 5 (0.32%) ClearTrust
8 5 (0.32%) Squid
8 5 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
9 4 (0.26%) Virtual Desktop
9 4 (0.26%) XenApp
10 3 (0.19%) Embedded Firmware
10 3 (0.19%) Slurm Workload Manager
11 1 (0.064%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 1 (0.064%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.064%) Virtual Servers
11 1 (0.064%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 84 (5.36%) Terraform
2 80 (5.11%) Kubernetes
3 50 (3.19%) Microsoft Intune
4 37 (2.36%) Ansible
5 23 (1.47%) SCCM
6 15 (0.96%) Single Sign-On
7 14 (0.89%) Grafana
8 11 (0.70%) Prometheus
9 10 (0.64%) Jamf Pro
10 9 (0.57%) Nagios
11 8 (0.51%) Podman
12 7 (0.45%) Failover Clustering
12 7 (0.45%) Puppet
13 5 (0.32%) Graylog
13 5 (0.32%) ZABBIX
14 4 (0.26%) Docker Swarm
14 4 (0.26%) Functional Safety
14 4 (0.26%) vCenter Server
15 2 (0.13%) BMC PATROL
15 2 (0.13%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
Vendors
1 456 (29.12%) Microsoft
2 81 (5.17%) VMware
3 65 (4.15%) Google
4 54 (3.45%) Oracle
5 38 (2.43%) Cisco
6 35 (2.23%) SAP
7 34 (2.17%) Fortinet
8 33 (2.11%) SonicWALL
9 31 (1.98%) Veeam
10 30 (1.92%) ServiceNow
11 25 (1.60%) Salesforce
12 21 (1.34%) Sage
13 19 (1.21%) Databricks
14 16 (1.02%) Aruba
14 16 (1.02%) Palo Alto
15 13 (0.83%) Instagram
15 13 (0.83%) Splunk
16 12 (0.77%) ForgeRock
16 12 (0.77%) Okta
16 12 (0.77%) Red Hat