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

6 months to
29 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 9 3 4
Rank change year-on-year -6 +1 +4
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 1,200 1,172 2,646
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 9.34% 17.44% 17.47%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.47% 19.40% 20.54%
Number of salaries quoted 917 668 1,667
10th Percentile £26,500 £28,250 £25,750
25th Percentile £31,250 £35,000 £31,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £50,967 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -11.71% +13.26% -14.29%
75th Percentile £61,250 £70,000 £62,500
90th Percentile £79,100 £83,750 £72,500
England median annual salary £47,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -14.55% +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 9,622 6,042 12,880
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 74.89% 89.88% 85.05%
Number of salaries quoted 6,177 3,264 9,443
10th Percentile £28,750 £30,500 £27,500
25th Percentile £36,250 £41,250 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £65,250 £71,250 £65,000
90th Percentile £82,500 £85,000 £77,750
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +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 29 March 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 29 March 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 -5 443 £47,038 -15.63% 227
Hampshire -2 250 £38,500 -23.00% 129
Berkshire -2 221 £45,000 -30.77% 110
Surrey -13 194 £40,000 -23.81% 74
Buckinghamshire -9 148 £50,000 -13.04% 68
Kent -12 129 £30,000 -11.76% 41
East Sussex 0 94 £70,750 +41.50% 26
Oxfordshire -9 74 £34,000 -20.00% 51
West Sussex 0 60 £57,500 +35.29% 25
Middlesex -2 14 £47,500 -24.00% 10
Isle of Wight +3 12 £43,500 -20.91%
Sussex -17 1 £30,000 +5.26% 13
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 40 (3.33%) SharePoint
2 36 (3.00%) Microsoft Exchange
3 18 (1.50%) CMS
4 15 (1.25%) IIS
5 11 (0.92%) WordPress
6 8 (0.67%) Confluence
7 4 (0.33%) Anypoint
8 3 (0.25%) Apache Airflow
8 3 (0.25%) govService
8 3 (0.25%) OpenStack
8 3 (0.25%) SAS
9 2 (0.17%) Apache
10 1 (0.083%) Apache Spark
10 1 (0.083%) ArcGIS
10 1 (0.083%) nginx
Applications
1 95 (7.92%) Microsoft Office
2 80 (6.67%) Microsoft Excel
3 16 (1.33%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 11 (0.92%) Photoshop
5 10 (0.83%) Adobe Illustrator
6 9 (0.75%) MS Visio
7 8 (0.67%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 6 (0.50%) Spreadsheet
9 3 (0.25%) Adobe XD
9 3 (0.25%) InDesign
10 2 (0.17%) Adobe After Effects
10 2 (0.17%) Adobe Captivate
10 2 (0.17%) Adobe Premiere
10 2 (0.17%) AutoCAD
10 2 (0.17%) Elementor
11 1 (0.083%) Acrobat
11 1 (0.083%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 10 (0.83%) Dynamics CRM
2 9 (0.75%) SAP CO
3 7 (0.58%) NetSuite
4 4 (0.33%) Dynamics NAV
4 4 (0.33%) SAP Hybris
5 3 (0.25%) Magento
5 3 (0.25%) Sage X3
5 3 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
5 3 (0.25%) SAP S/4HANA
6 2 (0.17%) Dynamics AX
6 2 (0.17%) IBM Planning Analytics
6 2 (0.17%) Q-Pulse
6 2 (0.17%) Sage 200
7 1 (0.083%) Elite 3E
7 1 (0.083%) Infor SunSystems
7 1 (0.083%) PeopleSoft HRMS
7 1 (0.083%) Raiser’s Edge
7 1 (0.083%) SAP GRC
7 1 (0.083%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 237 (19.75%) Azure
2 148 (12.33%) Microsoft 365
3 88 (7.33%) AWS
3 88 (7.33%) Power Platform
4 66 (5.50%) Azure DevOps
5 61 (5.08%) SaaS
6 37 (3.08%) GCP
7 31 (2.58%) Entra ID
8 29 (2.42%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 26 (2.17%) PaaS
10 25 (2.08%) IaaS
11 20 (1.67%) Dynamics 365
11 20 (1.67%) Mimecast
12 19 (1.58%) Google Workspace
13 18 (1.50%) GitHub
14 17 (1.42%) Azure Data Factory
14 17 (1.42%) Azure Logic Apps
15 14 (1.17%) Figma
15 14 (1.17%) OpenShift
16 13 (1.08%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 78 (6.50%) DNS
2 66 (5.50%) Firewall
3 45 (3.75%) DHCP
4 38 (3.17%) TCP/IP
5 34 (2.83%) VPN
6 25 (2.08%) Wireless
7 19 (1.58%) Broadband
8 18 (1.50%) WAN
9 17 (1.42%) VLAN
10 15 (1.25%) LAN
11 12 (1.00%) VoIP
12 11 (0.92%) HTTP
12 11 (0.92%) Intranet
13 10 (0.83%) SAN
14 8 (0.67%) Remote Desktop
15 7 (0.58%) Wi-Fi
16 6 (0.50%) PuTTY
16 6 (0.50%) SSH
17 3 (0.25%) Unified Communications
18 2 (0.17%) LTE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 68 (5.67%) Power BI
2 45 (3.75%) SQL Server
3 34 (2.83%) Relational Database
4 25 (2.08%) Data Warehouse
5 18 (1.50%) Power Query
6 15 (1.25%) OLTP
7 14 (1.17%) NoSQL
8 12 (1.00%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 11 (0.92%) Tableau
10 10 (0.83%) MySQL
11 8 (0.67%) Data Lake
11 8 (0.67%) PostgreSQL
11 8 (0.67%) PowerPivot
12 6 (0.50%) Hadoop
13 5 (0.42%) Azure SQL Database
13 5 (0.42%) Big Data
13 5 (0.42%) Data Mining
14 4 (0.33%) Metadata
15 3 (0.25%) Elasticsearch
15 3 (0.25%) Looker
Development Applications
1 54 (4.50%) Git
2 39 (3.25%) JIRA
3 24 (2.00%) GitLab
3 24 (2.00%) Selenium
4 15 (1.25%) Robot Framework
5 14 (1.17%) Rational DOORS
6 13 (1.08%) Snyk
7 7 (0.58%) Jenkins
7 7 (0.58%) Visual Studio
8 4 (0.33%) Cypress.io
8 4 (0.33%) Postman
9 3 (0.25%) Appium
9 3 (0.25%) REST Assured
9 3 (0.25%) WebDriver
10 2 (0.17%) JMeter
10 2 (0.17%) LabVIEW
10 2 (0.17%) TestRail
11 1 (0.083%) Android Studio
11 1 (0.083%) Katalon Studio
11 1 (0.083%) NUnit
General
1 599 (49.92%) Social Skills
2 346 (28.83%) Analytical Skills
3 189 (15.75%) Finance
4 75 (6.25%) Organisational Skills
5 72 (6.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 72 (6.00%) Marketing
6 69 (5.75%) Retail
7 62 (5.17%) Manufacturing
8 50 (4.17%) Telecoms
9 46 (3.83%) Electronics
10 37 (3.08%) Public Sector
11 35 (2.92%) Legal
12 33 (2.75%) Law
13 24 (2.00%) Documentation Skills
14 15 (1.25%) Presentation Skills
15 13 (1.08%) Influencing Skills
16 11 (0.92%) Pharmaceutical
17 10 (0.83%) Aerospace
18 9 (0.75%) Banking
19 8 (0.67%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 178 (14.83%) IT Support
2 170 (14.17%) Support Engineer
3 168 (14.00%) Analyst
4 130 (10.83%) Senior
5 111 (9.25%) Developer
6 82 (6.83%) IT Engineer
6 82 (6.83%) Support Analyst
7 67 (5.58%) IT Support Engineer
8 66 (5.50%) Technical Support
9 54 (4.50%) 2nd Line Support
10 51 (4.25%) Lead
11 47 (3.92%) Technical Engineer
11 47 (3.92%) Technical Support Engineer
12 41 (3.42%) IT Analyst
13 40 (3.33%) IT Support Analyst
14 39 (3.25%) Architect
14 39 (3.25%) Software Engineer
15 37 (3.08%) IT Technician
16 35 (2.92%) Support Technician
17 34 (2.83%) Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 56 (4.67%) .NET
2 49 (4.08%) HTML
3 33 (2.75%) SOAP
4 28 (2.33%) REST
5 26 (2.17%) React
6 25 (2.08%) CSS
7 22 (1.83%) XML
8 17 (1.42%) JSON
9 15 (1.25%) .NET Framework
9 15 (1.25%) ASP.NET
9 15 (1.25%) Middleware
10 14 (1.17%) Laravel
11 13 (1.08%) Lightning Web Components
12 12 (1.00%) ARM Templates
12 12 (1.00%) Visualforce
13 11 (0.92%) OAuth
13 11 (0.92%) OLE
14 9 (0.75%) Entity Framework
14 9 (0.75%) RabbitMQ
14 9 (0.75%) SAP CO-PA
Miscellaneous
1 88 (7.33%) Onboarding
2 83 (6.92%) Driving Licence
3 66 (5.50%) Self-Motivation
4 39 (3.25%) Management Information System
5 34 (2.83%) Product Ownership
6 24 (2.00%) Distributed Systems
7 22 (1.83%) Analytical Mindset
7 22 (1.83%) Cloud Native
7 22 (1.83%) Social Media
8 20 (1.67%) Low-Code
9 13 (1.08%) Enterprise Software
9 13 (1.08%) Legacy Systems
10 11 (0.92%) Video Editing
11 10 (0.83%) Client/Server
11 10 (0.83%) Life Science
11 10 (0.83%) Video Conferencing
12 9 (0.75%) IoT
12 9 (0.75%) NHS
12 9 (0.75%) Security Operations Centre
13 7 (0.58%) Data Centre
Operating Systems
1 217 (18.08%) Windows
2 93 (7.75%) Linux
3 65 (5.42%) Windows Server
4 25 (2.08%) Mac OS
5 19 (1.58%) Windows 10
6 17 (1.42%) Android
7 16 (1.33%) CentOS
8 15 (1.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 10 (0.83%) Windows Server 2012
10 8 (0.67%) Ubuntu
10 8 (0.67%) VMS
11 7 (0.58%) Apple iOS
11 7 (0.58%) Windows Server 2019
12 6 (0.50%) Windows Server 2016
13 4 (0.33%) Unix
14 2 (0.17%) Debian
15 1 (0.083%) Embedded Linux
15 1 (0.083%) FreeBSD
15 1 (0.083%) OpenBSD
15 1 (0.083%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 239 (19.92%) Continuous Improvement
2 210 (17.50%) Customer Service
3 164 (13.67%) Agile
4 139 (11.58%) DevOps
5 115 (9.58%) Analytics
5 115 (9.58%) CI/CD
6 103 (8.58%) Business Intelligence
6 103 (8.58%) Decision-Making
7 95 (7.92%) Project Management
8 91 (7.58%) Computer Science
9 89 (7.42%) Mentoring
10 83 (6.92%) AI
11 73 (6.08%) Cybersecurity
11 73 (6.08%) Software Engineering
12 72 (6.00%) Stakeholder Management
13 69 (5.75%) CRM
13 69 (5.75%) ITIL
14 68 (5.67%) Collaborative Culture
15 66 (5.50%) Data Modelling
15 66 (5.50%) Process Improvement
Programming Languages
1 192 (16.00%) Python
2 186 (15.50%) SQL
3 76 (6.33%) PowerShell
4 71 (5.92%) C#
4 71 (5.92%) JavaScript
5 45 (3.75%) Java
6 28 (2.33%) PHP
7 27 (2.25%) Data Analysis Expressions
8 23 (1.92%) C++
9 22 (1.83%) Bash
9 22 (1.83%) C
10 18 (1.50%) PL/SQL
11 16 (1.33%) TypeScript
12 13 (1.08%) Apex Code
13 12 (1.00%) Bicep
14 11 (0.92%) Perl
15 9 (0.75%) Kusto Query Language
15 9 (0.75%) Rust
15 9 (0.75%) T-SQL
16 8 (0.67%) R
Qualifications
1 249 (20.75%) Degree
2 80 (6.67%) Security Cleared
3 50 (4.17%) Computer Science Degree
4 48 (4.00%) ACCA
5 39 (3.25%) CIMA
5 39 (3.25%) SC Cleared
6 36 (3.00%) DBS Check
7 30 (2.50%) BPSS Clearance
7 30 (2.50%) Microsoft Certification
8 24 (2.00%) DV Cleared
9 21 (1.75%) HNC
9 21 (1.75%) Microsoft Certified Professional
10 18 (1.50%) A+ Certification
11 15 (1.25%) Chartered Engineer
12 12 (1.00%) Master's Degree
13 9 (0.75%) HND
14 8 (0.67%) City & Guilds
14 8 (0.67%) PMI Certification
14 8 (0.67%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
15 7 (0.58%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 69 (5.75%) QA
2 57 (4.75%) Data Quality
3 48 (4.00%) GDPR
4 24 (2.00%) SLA
5 23 (1.92%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 17 (1.42%) Accessibility
7 12 (1.00%) PCI DSS
8 11 (0.92%) NIST
9 5 (0.42%) Actionable Recommendations
9 5 (0.42%) Cyber Essentials
9 5 (0.42%) SOC 2
10 4 (0.33%) ISO 9001
10 4 (0.33%) ITGC
11 2 (0.17%) GRC
11 2 (0.17%) ISO 26262
12 1 (0.083%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 1 (0.083%) GAAP
12 1 (0.083%) IFRS
12 1 (0.083%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 1 (0.083%) PMO
System Software
1 145 (12.08%) Active Directory
2 42 (3.50%) Docker
3 36 (3.00%) VMware Infrastructure
4 35 (2.92%) Hyper-V
5 10 (0.83%) KVM
6 6 (0.50%) VMware ESXi
7 5 (0.42%) Firmware
7 5 (0.42%) XenApp
8 3 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.17%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 2 (0.17%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.083%) Oracle RAC
10 1 (0.083%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.083%) VMware NSX
10 1 (0.083%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 58 (4.83%) Terraform
2 41 (3.42%) Kubernetes
3 35 (2.92%) Ansible
4 34 (2.83%) Microsoft Intune
5 17 (1.42%) SCCM
6 16 (1.33%) Grafana
7 15 (1.25%) Prometheus
8 11 (0.92%) vCenter Server
8 11 (0.92%) ZABBIX
9 10 (0.83%) Nagios
10 3 (0.25%) Nessus
10 3 (0.25%) Puppet
11 2 (0.17%) Functional Safety
11 2 (0.17%) Netcool
11 2 (0.17%) Netcool/OMNIbus
12 1 (0.083%) CASB
12 1 (0.083%) Control-M
12 1 (0.083%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
12 1 (0.083%) Oracle RMAN
12 1 (0.083%) Proxmox
Vendors
1 321 (26.75%) Microsoft
2 45 (3.75%) VMware
3 42 (3.50%) Databricks
4 38 (3.17%) Google
5 35 (2.92%) Veeam
6 33 (2.75%) Adobe
6 33 (2.75%) SAP
7 30 (2.50%) Salesforce
8 29 (2.42%) Oracle
9 27 (2.25%) Sage
10 21 (1.75%) HubSpot
11 20 (1.67%) NEC
12 17 (1.42%) ServiceNow
13 15 (1.25%) Red Hat
14 13 (1.08%) Black Duck
14 13 (1.08%) Coverity
14 13 (1.08%) Dynatrace
15 12 (1.00%) MuleSoft
15 12 (1.00%) SolarWinds
16 11 (0.92%) Splunk