Problem-Solving Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Problem Solving
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the Thames Valley requiring Problem-Solving skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 12 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 3 4
Rank change year-on-year -7 +1 +8
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 519 769 1,078
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 8.45% 21.27% 16.39%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 11.77% 23.40% 19.99%
Number of salaries quoted 385 300 672
10th Percentile £28,000 £26,838 £25,500
25th Percentile £33,750 £30,000 £31,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £43,000 £45,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.44% - -10.00%
75th Percentile £58,250 £62,500 £57,500
90th Percentile £71,250 £83,750 £71,150
South East median annual salary £45,000 £42,500 £45,000
% change year-on-year +5.88% -5.56% -12.37%

All Process & Methodology Skills
Thames Valley

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 Thames Valley.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 4,408 3,286 5,394
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 71.74% 90.90% 82.00%
Number of salaries quoted 3,047 1,405 3,671
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,500 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,250 £38,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £51,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +6.80% +3.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £68,750 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £83,750 £80,000
South East median annual salary £55,000 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +10.00% - -9.09%

Problem-Solving
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Problem-Solving relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley.

Problem-Solving job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

Problem-Solving
Salary Trend in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Problem-Solving.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Problem-Solving

Problem-Solving
Salary Histogram in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution for jobs citing Problem-Solving in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 12 July 2026.

Salary histogram for Problem-Solving in the Thames Valley

Problem-Solving
Job Locations in the Thames Valley

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Problem-Solving within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 12 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
Berkshire -3 242 £45,000 -10.00% 103
Buckinghamshire -8 160 £45,000 +20.00% 81
Oxfordshire -2 117 £37,500 -29.58% 70
Problem-Solving
South East

Problem-Solving
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley 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 28 (5.39%) SharePoint
2 19 (3.66%) Microsoft Exchange
3 7 (1.35%) OpenEdge
4 4 (0.77%) Apache
5 3 (0.58%) Confluence
6 2 (0.39%) CMS
6 2 (0.39%) Gentran
6 2 (0.39%) IIS
6 2 (0.39%) nginx
7 1 (0.19%) SAS
7 1 (0.19%) Tomcat
7 1 (0.19%) WordPress
Applications
1 38 (7.32%) Microsoft Office
2 30 (5.78%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (0.96%) Lightworks
4 3 (0.58%) Simulink
5 2 (0.39%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.19%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 10 (1.93%) NetSuite
2 6 (1.16%) Raiser’s Edge
3 4 (0.77%) Dynamics CRM
4 3 (0.58%) SAP CO
5 1 (0.19%) Magento
5 1 (0.19%) Sage X3
5 1 (0.19%) SAP S/4HANA
5 1 (0.19%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 147 (28.32%) Azure
2 72 (13.87%) AWS
3 66 (12.72%) Microsoft 365
4 35 (6.74%) Power Platform
5 33 (6.36%) GCP
6 25 (4.82%) Entra ID
7 15 (2.89%) SaaS
8 12 (2.31%) Azure Data Factory
9 11 (2.12%) Asana
9 11 (2.12%) Azure DevOps
9 11 (2.12%) Sprout Social
10 7 (1.35%) Azure Logic Apps
10 7 (1.35%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 7 (1.35%) Google Workspace
11 6 (1.16%) Azure Sentinel
11 6 (1.16%) GitHub
12 5 (0.96%) Amazon EKS
12 5 (0.96%) Cloudflare
12 5 (0.96%) OneDrive
12 5 (0.96%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 51 (9.83%) Firewall
2 40 (7.71%) DNS
3 30 (5.78%) VPN
4 23 (4.43%) Wi-Fi
5 21 (4.05%) DHCP
6 19 (3.66%) VLAN
7 17 (3.28%) Wireless
8 16 (3.08%) WAN
9 15 (2.89%) LAN
9 15 (2.89%) TCP/IP
10 11 (2.12%) Network Security
11 10 (1.93%) SSL
12 5 (0.96%) Internet
12 5 (0.96%) MQTT
12 5 (0.96%) VoIP
13 4 (0.77%) Ethernet
13 4 (0.77%) HTTP
14 3 (0.58%) Broadband
14 3 (0.58%) Remote Desktop
14 3 (0.58%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (4.82%) Power BI
2 14 (2.70%) SQL Server
3 13 (2.50%) OLTP
4 12 (2.31%) Relational Database
5 8 (1.54%) Data Lake
5 8 (1.54%) MySQL
6 7 (1.35%) PostgreSQL
6 7 (1.35%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 4 (0.77%) Data Warehouse
7 4 (0.77%) Tableau
8 3 (0.58%) NoSQL
8 3 (0.58%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 2 (0.39%) GIS
9 2 (0.39%) Metadata
9 2 (0.39%) MongoDB
9 2 (0.39%) Oracle Reports
9 2 (0.39%) Redis
10 1 (0.19%) Azure SQL Database
10 1 (0.19%) PowerPivot
10 1 (0.19%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 19 (3.66%) Git
2 17 (3.28%) JIRA
3 13 (2.50%) GitLab
4 3 (0.58%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.58%) PetaLinux
4 3 (0.58%) Rational DOORS
5 2 (0.39%) Eclipse
5 2 (0.39%) Eclipse RCP
5 2 (0.39%) JUnit
5 2 (0.39%) Mocha
5 2 (0.39%) Selenium
5 2 (0.39%) Subversion
6 1 (0.19%) Artifactory
6 1 (0.19%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.19%) Claude Code
6 1 (0.19%) Cucumber
6 1 (0.19%) Oracle Forms
6 1 (0.19%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.19%) Team Foundation Server
6 1 (0.19%) Zephyr
General
1 258 (49.71%) Social Skills
2 165 (31.79%) Analytical Skills
3 79 (15.22%) Finance
4 57 (10.98%) Manufacturing
5 50 (9.63%) Organisational Skills
6 30 (5.78%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 26 (5.01%) Legal
8 21 (4.05%) Electronics
9 19 (3.66%) Marketing
9 19 (3.66%) Telecoms
10 16 (3.08%) Law
11 15 (2.89%) Documentation Skills
12 13 (2.50%) Influencing Skills
12 13 (2.50%) Retail
13 11 (2.12%) Local Government
14 9 (1.73%) Public Sector
15 7 (1.35%) Aerospace
16 5 (0.96%) Advertising
17 4 (0.77%) Banking
18 3 (0.58%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 90 (17.34%) Analyst
2 58 (11.18%) IT Support
3 57 (10.98%) Senior
4 55 (10.60%) Developer
5 40 (7.71%) Software Engineer
6 37 (7.13%) Support Analyst
7 34 (6.55%) Support Engineer
8 30 (5.78%) Lead
9 26 (5.01%) IT Engineer
10 23 (4.43%) Applications Support
11 21 (4.05%) Senior Developer
12 18 (3.47%) Applications Support Analyst
12 18 (3.47%) Technical Support
13 17 (3.28%) 1st Line Support
13 17 (3.28%) Architect
13 17 (3.28%) IT Analyst
13 17 (3.28%) IT Support Analyst
14 16 (3.08%) Administrator
14 16 (3.08%) Technical Engineer
14 16 (3.08%) Technical Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (5.39%) SOAP
2 25 (4.82%) HTML
3 24 (4.62%) .NET
3 24 (4.62%) XML
4 21 (4.05%) JSON
5 18 (3.47%) REST
6 17 (3.28%) Middleware
7 9 (1.73%) RESTful
8 8 (1.54%) CSS
9 7 (1.35%) React
10 6 (1.16%) Blazor
10 6 (1.16%) EDI
10 6 (1.16%) MFC
10 6 (1.16%) OAuth
10 6 (1.16%) RabbitMQ
10 6 (1.16%) YAML
11 5 (0.96%) JWT
11 5 (0.96%) Kafka
11 5 (0.96%) Node.js
11 5 (0.96%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 38 (7.32%) Self-Motivation
2 34 (6.55%) Onboarding
3 26 (5.01%) Driving Licence
4 21 (4.05%) Management Information System
5 20 (3.85%) Distributed Systems
6 18 (3.47%) Cloud Native
7 17 (3.28%) Product Ownership
8 13 (2.50%) NHS
9 11 (2.12%) Social Media
9 11 (2.12%) Video Editing
10 9 (1.73%) Analytical Mindset
10 9 (1.73%) Cyber Defence
10 9 (1.73%) Legacy Systems
10 9 (1.73%) Low-Code
11 8 (1.54%) Client/Server
12 7 (1.35%) Augmented Reality
12 7 (1.35%) Life Science
12 7 (1.35%) Renewable Energy
12 7 (1.35%) Security Operations Centre
12 7 (1.35%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 89 (17.15%) Windows
2 54 (10.40%) Linux
3 21 (4.05%) Windows Server
4 10 (1.93%) Mac OS
5 6 (1.16%) Windows 10
6 4 (0.77%) Windows Server 2019
7 3 (0.58%) Debian
7 3 (0.58%) FreeRTOS
7 3 (0.58%) Gentoo
7 3 (0.58%) Windows 7
8 2 (0.39%) Unix
9 1 (0.19%) FreeBSD
9 1 (0.19%) OpenBSD
9 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 123 (23.70%) Continuous Improvement
2 88 (16.96%) Customer Service
3 71 (13.68%) Agile
4 69 (13.29%) Computer Science
5 64 (12.33%) CI/CD
5 64 (12.33%) Cybersecurity
6 62 (11.95%) Software Engineering
7 60 (11.56%) Decision-Making
8 58 (11.18%) DevOps
9 57 (10.98%) Collaborative Working
10 55 (10.60%) Analytics
11 53 (10.21%) AI
12 44 (8.48%) Business Intelligence
13 43 (8.29%) CRM
14 42 (8.09%) ERP
15 41 (7.90%) Mentoring
16 37 (7.13%) ITIL
17 32 (6.17%) Data Modelling
17 32 (6.17%) Project Management
17 32 (6.17%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 94 (18.11%) SQL
2 88 (16.96%) Python
3 45 (8.67%) C#
4 39 (7.51%) PowerShell
5 37 (7.13%) C++
6 28 (5.39%) Java
7 27 (5.20%) JavaScript
8 19 (3.66%) C
9 17 (3.28%) TypeScript
10 14 (2.70%) PL/SQL
11 11 (2.12%) Rust
12 9 (1.73%) Bash
13 8 (1.54%) T-SQL
14 6 (1.16%) VB.NET
15 5 (0.96%) Pascal
16 4 (0.77%) ABAP
16 4 (0.77%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 4 (0.77%) Ruby
17 3 (0.58%) Apex Code
17 3 (0.58%) PHP
Qualifications
1 142 (27.36%) Degree
2 41 (7.90%) Computer Science Degree
3 32 (6.17%) Security Cleared
4 24 (4.62%) SC Cleared
5 19 (3.66%) ACCA
5 19 (3.66%) DBS Check
6 18 (3.47%) CIMA
7 16 (3.08%) Microsoft Certification
8 11 (2.12%) CompTIA Security+
9 9 (1.73%) A+ Certification
9 9 (1.73%) Master's Degree
10 8 (1.54%) Azure Certification
10 8 (1.54%) CCNA
10 8 (1.54%) Cisco Certification
11 7 (1.35%) City & Guilds
12 6 (1.16%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 6 (1.16%) Network+ Certification
13 5 (0.96%) CCNP
13 5 (0.96%) DV Cleared
14 4 (0.77%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 54 (10.40%) QA
2 20 (3.85%) Accessibility
3 16 (3.08%) Good Clinical Practice
4 15 (2.89%) Data Quality
4 15 (2.89%) GDPR
4 15 (2.89%) SLA
5 8 (1.54%) Cyber Essentials
6 6 (1.16%) 21 CFR Part 11
6 6 (1.16%) GLP
6 6 (1.16%) GMP
6 6 (1.16%) GxP
6 6 (1.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 6 (1.16%) SOC 2
7 5 (0.96%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 3 (0.58%) ECSS
8 3 (0.58%) NIST
8 3 (0.58%) PCI DSS
9 2 (0.39%) COBIT
9 2 (0.39%) COSO
9 2 (0.39%) IFRS
System Software
1 52 (10.02%) Active Directory
2 37 (7.13%) VMware Infrastructure
3 34 (6.55%) Hyper-V
4 24 (4.62%) Docker
5 9 (1.73%) KVM
6 6 (1.16%) vSphere
7 5 (0.96%) ClearTrust
8 4 (0.77%) Virtual Desktop
9 2 (0.39%) Squid
9 2 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.39%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 1 (0.19%) Oracle RAC
10 1 (0.19%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.19%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 28 (5.39%) Kubernetes
2 19 (3.66%) Terraform
3 14 (2.70%) Microsoft Intune
4 8 (1.54%) Ansible
5 5 (0.96%) Graylog
6 4 (0.77%) Jamf Pro
7 3 (0.58%) Grafana
7 3 (0.58%) Podman
7 3 (0.58%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.19%) Autotask
8 1 (0.19%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.19%) Kibana
8 1 (0.19%) Netcool
8 1 (0.19%) Netcool/OMNIbus
8 1 (0.19%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
8 1 (0.19%) Oracle RMAN
8 1 (0.19%) Packer
8 1 (0.19%) Proxmox
8 1 (0.19%) SCCM
8 1 (0.19%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 163 (31.41%) Microsoft
2 41 (7.90%) VMware
3 23 (4.43%) Oracle
4 21 (4.05%) Google
5 16 (3.08%) Cisco
6 14 (2.70%) SAP
7 11 (2.12%) Adobe
7 11 (2.12%) Hootsuite
7 11 (2.12%) Instagram
7 11 (2.12%) Wrike
8 10 (1.93%) Aruba
8 10 (1.93%) Salesforce
9 9 (1.73%) Fortinet
9 9 (1.73%) ServiceNow
10 7 (1.35%) Veeam
11 6 (1.16%) Databricks
11 6 (1.16%) Sage
12 5 (0.96%) ConnectWise
12 5 (0.96%) Datto
12 5 (0.96%) Palo Alto