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

6 months to
31 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 6 3 5
Rank change year-on-year -3 +2 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,482 1,586 2,162
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 9.00% 18.27% 14.88%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.54% 20.70% 18.38%
Number of salaries quoted 1,107 804 1,319
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 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% -10.53% -7.50%
75th Percentile £58,750 £62,500 £62,500
90th Percentile £72,500 £80,875 £76,250
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 11,816 7,661 11,764
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 71.75% 88.27% 80.95%
Number of salaries quoted 8,429 4,086 7,871
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,750 £29,175
25th Percentile £40,000 £34,000 £38,742
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £50,047
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -0.09% -9.01%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,125
90th Percentile £85,000 £81,250 £80,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,920 £55,000
% change year-on-year +7.30% +1.67% -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 31 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 31 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 -7 550 £45,000 +5.88% 252
Hampshire -1 372 £45,000 - 167
Surrey +1 254 £42,043 +5.11% 93
Berkshire -3 247 £45,000 - 116
Buckinghamshire -7 177 £42,500 +13.33% 80
Kent -9 134 £35,000 +11.11% 58
Oxfordshire -1 126 £43,750 -12.50% 59
East Sussex -4 88 £50,000 - 35
West Sussex -6 74 £50,000 +5.26% 30
Middlesex +6 6 £50,000 +33.33% 13
Isle of Wight -10 1 £42,500 -22.73% 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 47 (3.17%) SharePoint
2 41 (2.77%) Microsoft Exchange
3 19 (1.28%) Confluence
4 18 (1.21%) CMS
5 7 (0.47%) Apache
5 7 (0.47%) IIS
5 7 (0.47%) OpenEdge
6 5 (0.34%) nginx
6 5 (0.34%) WordPress
7 3 (0.20%) Anypoint
7 3 (0.20%) OpenStack
7 3 (0.20%) SAS
8 2 (0.13%) Gentran
8 2 (0.13%) Tomcat
9 1 (0.067%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 106 (7.15%) Microsoft Excel
2 84 (5.67%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (0.74%) Spreadsheet
4 9 (0.61%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.61%) MS Visio
5 8 (0.54%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.34%) AutoCAD
6 5 (0.34%) Lightworks
6 5 (0.34%) Photoshop
7 4 (0.27%) Adobe Illustrator
8 3 (0.20%) Simulink
9 2 (0.13%) Chatbot
9 2 (0.13%) EPLAN
9 2 (0.13%) Revit
10 1 (0.067%) Mathcad
10 1 (0.067%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 14 (0.94%) NetSuite
2 8 (0.54%) Dynamics CRM
3 7 (0.47%) Magento
4 6 (0.40%) Raiser’s Edge
5 5 (0.34%) Shopify
6 3 (0.20%) Infor SunSystems
6 3 (0.20%) Payment Gateway
6 3 (0.20%) Sage X3
6 3 (0.20%) Salesforce CRM
7 2 (0.13%) Academy Housing
8 1 (0.067%) Elite 3E
8 1 (0.067%) HFM
8 1 (0.067%) Oracle Applications
8 1 (0.067%) Primavera
8 1 (0.067%) SAP CO
8 1 (0.067%) SAP GRC
8 1 (0.067%) Siebel CRM
8 1 (0.067%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 350 (23.62%) Azure
2 164 (11.07%) Microsoft 365
3 163 (11.00%) AWS
4 84 (5.67%) Power Platform
5 63 (4.25%) SaaS
6 50 (3.37%) Entra ID
7 49 (3.31%) GCP
8 44 (2.97%) Azure DevOps
9 31 (2.09%) GitHub
9 31 (2.09%) Serverless
10 23 (1.55%) IaaS
10 23 (1.55%) PaaS
11 20 (1.35%) Dynamics 365
12 19 (1.28%) Datadog
13 18 (1.21%) Azure Synapse Analytics
14 17 (1.15%) GitHub Actions
14 17 (1.15%) Google Workspace
15 15 (1.01%) Amazon ECS
15 15 (1.01%) Azure Data Factory
15 15 (1.01%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 128 (8.64%) Firewall
2 64 (4.32%) DNS
3 55 (3.71%) TCP/IP
4 54 (3.64%) VPN
5 50 (3.37%) WAN
6 48 (3.24%) LAN
7 40 (2.70%) DHCP
8 39 (2.63%) Wireless
9 38 (2.56%) Wi-Fi
10 29 (1.96%) VoIP
11 28 (1.89%) VLAN
12 25 (1.69%) Network Security
13 14 (0.94%) SSL
14 13 (0.88%) Broadband
14 13 (0.88%) Internet
15 10 (0.67%) HTTP
16 9 (0.61%) LTE
16 9 (0.61%) MQTT
17 6 (0.40%) Remote Desktop
17 6 (0.40%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 108 (7.29%) SQL Server
2 71 (4.79%) Power BI
3 31 (2.09%) Relational Database
4 26 (1.75%) PostgreSQL
5 23 (1.55%) MySQL
5 23 (1.55%) NoSQL
6 18 (1.21%) Data Warehouse
7 16 (1.08%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 13 (0.88%) Tableau
9 12 (0.81%) OLTP
9 12 (0.81%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 11 (0.74%) Amazon RDS
11 10 (0.67%) Data Lake
12 8 (0.54%) DynamoDB
12 8 (0.54%) MongoDB
13 7 (0.47%) GIS
13 7 (0.47%) Looker
14 6 (0.40%) Power Query
15 5 (0.34%) Azure SQL Database
16 4 (0.27%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 71 (4.79%) Git
2 58 (3.91%) JIRA
3 31 (2.09%) GitLab
4 20 (1.35%) Rational DOORS
5 7 (0.47%) Claude Code
5 7 (0.47%) Selenium
6 5 (0.34%) Eclipse
6 5 (0.34%) Eclipse RCP
6 5 (0.34%) Jenkins
7 4 (0.27%) Oracle Forms
7 4 (0.27%) PHPUnit
7 4 (0.27%) Postman
7 4 (0.27%) Team Foundation Server
7 4 (0.27%) Terragrunt
8 3 (0.20%) Android Studio
8 3 (0.20%) PetaLinux
8 3 (0.20%) SpecFlow
8 3 (0.20%) Visual Studio
9 2 (0.13%) JMeter
9 2 (0.13%) JUnit
General
1 719 (48.52%) Social Skills
2 423 (28.54%) Analytical Skills
3 221 (14.91%) Finance
4 109 (7.35%) Organisational Skills
5 104 (7.02%) Manufacturing
6 79 (5.33%) Electronics
7 63 (4.25%) Retail
8 61 (4.12%) Aerospace
9 57 (3.85%) Telecoms
10 49 (3.31%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 42 (2.83%) Marketing
12 38 (2.56%) Law
13 37 (2.50%) Legal
14 36 (2.43%) Influencing Skills
15 32 (2.16%) Documentation Skills
16 31 (2.09%) Public Sector
17 24 (1.62%) Military
18 23 (1.55%) Local Government
19 18 (1.21%) Banking
20 16 (1.08%) Aviation
Job Titles
1 207 (13.97%) Analyst
2 154 (10.39%) Senior
3 146 (9.85%) IT Support
4 140 (9.45%) Developer
5 122 (8.23%) Support Engineer
6 91 (6.14%) Support Analyst
7 90 (6.07%) IT Engineer
8 69 (4.66%) Software Engineer
9 68 (4.59%) Lead
9 68 (4.59%) Systems Engineer
10 66 (4.45%) Technical Support
11 61 (4.12%) Support Technician
12 56 (3.78%) IT Support Engineer
13 54 (3.64%) 2nd Line Support
14 50 (3.37%) Technical Engineer
14 50 (3.37%) Technical Support Engineer
15 44 (2.97%) Architect
16 43 (2.90%) IT Technician
17 38 (2.56%) Applications Support
17 38 (2.56%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 97 (6.55%) .NET
2 66 (4.45%) HTML
3 53 (3.58%) REST
4 48 (3.24%) SOAP
5 46 (3.10%) CSS
6 45 (3.04%) React
7 39 (2.63%) ASP.NET
8 32 (2.16%) JSON
9 31 (2.09%) OAuth
10 29 (1.96%) ASP.NET Core
10 29 (1.96%) XML
11 27 (1.82%) RESTful
12 25 (1.69%) Vue
13 23 (1.55%) AngularJS
14 17 (1.15%) RabbitMQ
15 16 (1.08%) ARM Templates
15 16 (1.08%) Middleware
15 16 (1.08%) SAML
16 15 (1.01%) HTML5
16 15 (1.01%) JWT
Miscellaneous
1 103 (6.95%) Driving Licence
2 76 (5.13%) Onboarding
2 76 (5.13%) Self-Motivation
3 70 (4.72%) Management Information System
4 60 (4.05%) Cloud Native
5 41 (2.77%) Product Ownership
6 30 (2.02%) Distributed Systems
7 28 (1.89%) Analytical Mindset
8 24 (1.62%) Social Media
9 23 (1.55%) Data Centre
10 22 (1.48%) Robotics
11 21 (1.42%) Legacy Systems
12 20 (1.35%) Enterprise Software
13 18 (1.21%) NHS
14 17 (1.15%) EPoS
15 15 (1.01%) Security Posture
16 14 (0.94%) Analogue Electronics
16 14 (0.94%) Renewable Energy
17 13 (0.88%) Clustering
17 13 (0.88%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 237 (15.99%) Windows
2 116 (7.83%) Linux
3 85 (5.74%) Windows Server
4 22 (1.48%) Mac OS
5 20 (1.35%) Android
6 16 (1.08%) CentOS
6 16 (1.08%) Windows Server 2019
7 14 (0.94%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 12 (0.81%) Ubuntu
9 10 (0.67%) Apple iOS
9 10 (0.67%) Windows 10
10 9 (0.61%) Debian
10 9 (0.61%) Windows Server 2016
11 3 (0.20%) FreeRTOS
11 3 (0.20%) Gentoo
11 3 (0.20%) Unix
11 3 (0.20%) VMS
11 3 (0.20%) Windows 7
12 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.067%) Embedded Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 310 (20.92%) Continuous Improvement
2 251 (16.94%) Customer Service
3 203 (13.70%) Agile
4 176 (11.88%) Decision-Making
5 173 (11.67%) CI/CD
6 163 (11.00%) AI
7 158 (10.66%) DevOps
8 150 (10.12%) Software Engineering
9 148 (9.99%) Project Management
10 142 (9.58%) Project Delivery
11 136 (9.18%) ITIL
12 130 (8.77%) Stakeholder Management
13 126 (8.50%) Cybersecurity
13 126 (8.50%) Mentoring
14 119 (8.03%) Collaborative Working
15 117 (7.89%) Computer Science
16 111 (7.49%) Analytics
17 110 (7.42%) Validation
18 101 (6.82%) Business Intelligence
19 99 (6.68%) Logistics
Programming Languages
1 219 (14.78%) SQL
2 217 (14.64%) Python
3 115 (7.76%) C#
4 93 (6.28%) JavaScript
4 93 (6.28%) PowerShell
5 63 (4.25%) C++
6 56 (3.78%) Java
7 53 (3.58%) TypeScript
8 37 (2.50%) Bash
9 34 (2.29%) C
10 23 (1.55%) PHP
11 13 (0.88%) PL/SQL
11 13 (0.88%) Ruby
11 13 (0.88%) T-SQL
12 12 (0.81%) Rust
13 11 (0.74%) Perl
14 9 (0.61%) VB.NET
15 8 (0.54%) Bicep
16 7 (0.47%) Embedded C
16 7 (0.47%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 288 (19.43%) Degree
2 131 (8.84%) Security Cleared
3 95 (6.41%) DBS Check
4 94 (6.34%) SC Cleared
5 65 (4.39%) Computer Science Degree
6 49 (3.31%) Microsoft Certification
7 43 (2.90%) BPSS Clearance
8 39 (2.63%) HNC
9 33 (2.23%) Azure Certification
10 29 (1.96%) DV Cleared
11 27 (1.82%) ACCA
11 27 (1.82%) PMI Certification
12 26 (1.75%) Chartered Engineer
12 26 (1.75%) CIMA
13 25 (1.69%) PMP
14 23 (1.55%) HND
15 20 (1.35%) Master's Degree
16 19 (1.28%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
17 17 (1.15%) CISSP
17 17 (1.15%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 124 (8.37%) QA
2 53 (3.58%) Data Quality
3 49 (3.31%) GDPR
4 41 (2.77%) SLA
5 29 (1.96%) Accessibility
6 27 (1.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 21 (1.42%) PCI DSS
8 18 (1.21%) Good Clinical Practice
9 16 (1.08%) NIST
10 15 (1.01%) Cyber Essentials
11 13 (0.88%) PMO
12 11 (0.74%) SOC 2
13 9 (0.61%) GMP
14 8 (0.54%) 21 CFR Part 11
14 8 (0.54%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 8 (0.54%) GLP
14 8 (0.54%) GxP
15 6 (0.40%) DO-254
15 6 (0.40%) ISO 9001
16 4 (0.27%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 120 (8.10%) Active Directory
2 76 (5.13%) Docker
3 65 (4.39%) VMware Infrastructure
4 52 (3.51%) Hyper-V
5 8 (0.54%) Firmware
5 8 (0.54%) KVM
5 8 (0.54%) VMware ESXi
5 8 (0.54%) vSphere
6 5 (0.34%) ClearTrust
6 5 (0.34%) Squid
6 5 (0.34%) XenApp
7 4 (0.27%) Virtual Desktop
7 4 (0.27%) Virtual Machines
8 3 (0.20%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 2 (0.13%) VMware NSX
10 1 (0.067%) Embedded Firmware
10 1 (0.067%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 1 (0.067%) Oracle RAC
10 1 (0.067%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 87 (5.87%) Terraform
2 83 (5.60%) Kubernetes
3 49 (3.31%) Microsoft Intune
4 37 (2.50%) Ansible
5 23 (1.55%) SCCM
6 16 (1.08%) Grafana
7 13 (0.88%) Prometheus
8 11 (0.74%) Nagios
9 8 (0.54%) Podman
9 8 (0.54%) Single Sign-On
10 7 (0.47%) Failover Clustering
10 7 (0.47%) Jamf Pro
10 7 (0.47%) ZABBIX
11 6 (0.40%) Puppet
12 5 (0.34%) Docker Swarm
12 5 (0.34%) Graylog
13 4 (0.27%) Functional Safety
13 4 (0.27%) vCenter Server
14 2 (0.13%) Nessus
14 2 (0.13%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
Vendors
1 415 (28.00%) Microsoft
2 72 (4.86%) VMware
3 53 (3.58%) Google
4 46 (3.10%) Oracle
5 35 (2.36%) Cisco
6 30 (2.02%) Fortinet
7 29 (1.96%) Salesforce
8 28 (1.89%) SonicWALL
9 26 (1.75%) Veeam
10 23 (1.55%) SAP
10 23 (1.55%) ServiceNow
11 21 (1.42%) Databricks
12 20 (1.35%) Sage
13 16 (1.08%) Aruba
14 15 (1.01%) Red Hat
14 15 (1.01%) Splunk
15 14 (0.94%) Instagram
16 13 (0.88%) Dynatrace
16 13 (0.88%) Palo Alto
17 9 (0.61%) Braze