Problem-Solving Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Problem Solving
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring Problem-Solving skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 26 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 7 4 3
Rank change year-on-year -3 -1 +6
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 7,868 6,347 8,316
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 9.15% 18.38% 15.36%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 12.99% 21.19% 19.40%
Number of salaries quoted 5,411 3,519 3,292
10th Percentile £27,000 £25,684 £25,750
25th Percentile £31,250 £29,000 £33,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £43,000 £40,000 £48,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.50% -16.67% +1.05%
75th Percentile £58,750 £57,500 £63,750
90th Percentile £73,750 £69,041 £80,000
UK median annual salary £46,500 £45,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +3.33% -14.29% -4.55%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 60,592 29,959 42,870
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 70.43% 86.74% 79.17%
Number of salaries quoted 42,760 16,149 22,358
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,750 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £47,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +15.79% -9.52% -2.78%
75th Percentile £70,000 £65,000 £67,500
90th Percentile £88,750 £80,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £57,965
% change year-on-year +9.09% -5.11% -3.39%

Problem-Solving
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Problem-Solving job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Problem-Solving
Salary Trend in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Problem-Solving.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Problem-Solving

Problem-Solving
Salary Histogram in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution for jobs citing Problem-Solving in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 26 September 2026.

Salary histogram for Problem-Solving in the UK excluding London

Problem-Solving
Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Problem-Solving within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 26 September 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
North of England -8 1,983 £45,000 - 1,733
South East -3 1,838 £41,585 +0.20% 1,891
Midlands -7 1,424 £42,500 +11.84% 1,243
North West -3 1,026 £45,000 -7.64% 916
South West -2 979 £45,000 +25.00% 918
West Midlands -7 799 £42,500 -1.40% 755
East of England -1 797 £44,000 +32.88% 846
East Midlands -7 623 £42,000 +27.27% 486
Yorkshire -7 605 £42,500 +28.79% 589
North East +4 358 £50,000 +42.86% 244
Scotland +6 335 £36,681 -13.69% 602
Northern Ireland +5 297 £70,000 +18.64% 389
Wales -14 232 £42,500 -11.68% 198
Isle of Man +1 3 £35,000 - 9
Problem-Solving
UK

Problem-Solving
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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
1 466 (5.92%) SharePoint
2 361 (4.59%) Microsoft Exchange
3 66 (0.84%) Confluence
4 62 (0.79%) CMS
5 56 (0.71%) IIS
6 35 (0.44%) Apache
7 32 (0.41%) WordPress
8 29 (0.37%) Apache Airflow
9 28 (0.36%) Sitecore CMS
10 19 (0.24%) Apache Spark
11 14 (0.18%) Oracle Workflow
12 11 (0.14%) nginx
13 10 (0.13%) Jupyter
13 10 (0.13%) WebSphere
14 9 (0.11%) WebLogic
15 8 (0.10%) SAS
16 7 (0.089%) OpenEdge
17 6 (0.076%) CICS
18 4 (0.051%) Skype for Business
18 4 (0.051%) Tomcat
Applications
1 580 (7.37%) Microsoft Office
2 528 (6.71%) Microsoft Excel
3 83 (1.05%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 67 (0.85%) Spreadsheet
5 46 (0.58%) AutoCAD
6 45 (0.57%) MS Visio
7 41 (0.52%) Microsoft Project
8 34 (0.43%) Simulink
9 26 (0.33%) Revit
10 18 (0.23%) EPLAN
11 14 (0.18%) SOLIDWORKS
12 10 (0.13%) Navisworks
13 9 (0.11%) Adobe Creative Suite
14 8 (0.10%) Chatbot
14 8 (0.10%) Fusion 360
15 7 (0.089%) OrCAD
15 7 (0.089%) Siemens NX
16 6 (0.076%) Adobe Illustrator
16 6 (0.076%) Lightworks
17 5 (0.064%) Adobe XD
Business Applications
1 76 (0.97%) Dynamics CRM
2 64 (0.81%) NetSuite
3 52 (0.66%) SAP S/4HANA
4 34 (0.43%) Shopify
5 23 (0.29%) Oracle EBS
6 21 (0.27%) Dynamics NAV
7 20 (0.25%) Workday HCM
8 17 (0.22%) SAP Business One
9 16 (0.20%) Oracle Payables
10 14 (0.18%) Magento
11 13 (0.17%) Dynamics AX
11 13 (0.17%) IBM Planning Analytics
11 13 (0.17%) Salesforce CRM
11 13 (0.17%) SAP ERP
12 12 (0.15%) Oracle Cash Management
12 12 (0.15%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
13 11 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
14 10 (0.13%) JDE EnterpriseOne
14 10 (0.13%) Sage X3
15 9 (0.11%) Sage 50
Cloud Services
1 1,395 (17.73%) Azure
2 1,262 (16.04%) Microsoft 365
3 704 (8.95%) AWS
4 625 (7.94%) Power Platform
5 427 (5.43%) Entra ID
6 283 (3.60%) SaaS
7 235 (2.99%) GCP
8 177 (2.25%) Azure DevOps
9 156 (1.98%) PowerApps
10 153 (1.94%) Dynamics 365
11 150 (1.91%) GitHub
12 146 (1.86%) Power Automate
13 118 (1.50%) Serverless
14 114 (1.45%) OneDrive
15 94 (1.19%) Microsoft Copilot
16 72 (0.92%) Google Workspace
17 70 (0.89%) Amazon S3
18 66 (0.84%) AWS CloudFormation
19 65 (0.83%) GitHub Actions
20 59 (0.75%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 445 (5.66%) Firewall
2 437 (5.55%) DNS
3 366 (4.65%) DHCP
4 286 (3.63%) VPN
5 235 (2.99%) TCP/IP
6 206 (2.62%) Wi-Fi
7 200 (2.54%) WAN
8 193 (2.45%) LAN
9 174 (2.21%) Wireless
10 144 (1.83%) VLAN
11 126 (1.60%) Network Security
12 118 (1.50%) VoIP
13 66 (0.84%) Broadband
14 60 (0.76%) Internet
15 31 (0.39%) SSL
16 30 (0.38%) SAN
17 28 (0.36%) Remote Desktop
18 26 (0.33%) Ethernet
18 26 (0.33%) SD-WAN
19 25 (0.32%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 502 (6.38%) Power BI
2 336 (4.27%) SQL Server
3 139 (1.77%) MySQL
4 121 (1.54%) Relational Database
5 120 (1.53%) Amazon RDS
6 110 (1.40%) Data Warehouse
7 96 (1.22%) PostgreSQL
8 83 (1.05%) NoSQL
9 78 (0.99%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 71 (0.90%) Tableau
11 61 (0.78%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 56 (0.71%) MongoDB
13 52 (0.66%) Power Query
14 49 (0.62%) Data Lake
15 47 (0.60%) Azure SQL Database
15 47 (0.60%) Electronic Patient Records
16 46 (0.58%) Big Data
17 34 (0.43%) Oracle Reports
18 32 (0.41%) Metadata
19 28 (0.36%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 312 (3.97%) Git
2 249 (3.16%) JIRA
3 92 (1.17%) GitLab
4 87 (1.11%) Jenkins
5 40 (0.51%) Eclipse
6 36 (0.46%) Selenium
7 35 (0.44%) Subversion
8 33 (0.42%) Cucumber
9 29 (0.37%) Claude Code
10 26 (0.33%) JUnit
11 24 (0.31%) Oracle Forms
12 23 (0.29%) Bitbucket
12 23 (0.29%) Postman
13 22 (0.28%) Cypress.io
13 22 (0.28%) Rational DOORS
14 17 (0.22%) LabVIEW
15 14 (0.18%) Burp Suite
15 14 (0.18%) SonarQube
16 13 (0.17%) Team Foundation Server
17 12 (0.15%) Visual Studio
General
1 3,886 (49.39%) Social Skills
2 2,172 (27.61%) Analytical Skills
3 1,260 (16.01%) Finance
4 893 (11.35%) Manufacturing
5 621 (7.89%) Organisational Skills
6 428 (5.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 407 (5.17%) Retail
8 375 (4.77%) Public Sector
9 341 (4.33%) Law
10 329 (4.18%) Electronics
11 323 (4.11%) Legal
12 314 (3.99%) Aerospace
13 296 (3.76%) Marketing
14 203 (2.58%) Telecoms
15 154 (1.96%) Influencing Skills
16 142 (1.80%) Automotive
17 131 (1.66%) Banking
17 131 (1.66%) Documentation Skills
18 106 (1.35%) Military
18 106 (1.35%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 1,049 (13.33%) Analyst
2 818 (10.40%) Senior
3 750 (9.53%) IT Support
4 715 (9.09%) Developer
5 595 (7.56%) Support Engineer
6 411 (5.22%) Lead
7 398 (5.06%) IT Engineer
8 394 (5.01%) Support Analyst
9 354 (4.50%) Consultant
10 301 (3.83%) IT Support Engineer
11 285 (3.62%) Technical Support
12 270 (3.43%) Support Technician
13 245 (3.11%) Technical Engineer
14 240 (3.05%) Systems Engineer
15 237 (3.01%) IT Technician
16 234 (2.97%) Architect
17 231 (2.94%) Software Engineer
18 222 (2.82%) Technical Support Engineer
19 208 (2.64%) Senior Developer
20 194 (2.47%) Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 367 (4.66%) .NET
2 282 (3.58%) Terraform
3 226 (2.87%) React
4 209 (2.66%) REST
5 190 (2.41%) HTML
6 140 (1.78%) CSS
7 137 (1.74%) RESTful
8 98 (1.25%) SOAP
9 95 (1.21%) Node.js
10 91 (1.16%) Web Services
11 83 (1.05%) XML
12 82 (1.04%) ASP.NET
13 81 (1.03%) Middleware
14 80 (1.02%) Spring
15 78 (0.99%) Vue
16 77 (0.98%) JSON
17 76 (0.97%) AngularJS
18 72 (0.92%) Spring Boot
19 64 (0.81%) Kafka
20 52 (0.66%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 695 (8.83%) Driving Licence
2 546 (6.94%) Onboarding
3 417 (5.30%) Self-Motivation
4 368 (4.68%) Management Information System
5 212 (2.69%) Cloud Native
6 180 (2.29%) Product Ownership
7 154 (1.96%) Enterprise Software
8 146 (1.86%) Legacy Systems
9 132 (1.68%) Robotics
10 126 (1.60%) Data Centre
11 97 (1.23%) Analytical Mindset
12 93 (1.18%) NHS
13 89 (1.13%) Distributed Systems
14 81 (1.03%) IoT
15 80 (1.02%) Cyber Threat
15 80 (1.02%) Security Posture
16 79 (1.00%) CCTV
17 74 (0.94%) Social Media
18 73 (0.93%) Virtual Team
19 71 (0.90%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 1,204 (15.30%) Windows
2 532 (6.76%) Windows Server
3 456 (5.80%) Linux
4 131 (1.66%) Windows 10
5 100 (1.27%) Windows Server 2016
6 90 (1.14%) Apple iOS
7 86 (1.09%) Android
8 84 (1.07%) Mac OS
9 44 (0.56%) Unix
10 39 (0.50%) Windows Server 2019
11 27 (0.34%) Ubuntu
12 16 (0.20%) Embedded Linux
12 16 (0.20%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 16 (0.20%) VMS
13 13 (0.17%) Debian
14 10 (0.13%) FreeRTOS
15 8 (0.10%) CentOS
15 8 (0.10%) Windows Server 2012
16 6 (0.076%) Rocky
17 5 (0.064%) OpenVMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 2,144 (27.25%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,475 (18.75%) Customer Service
3 1,116 (14.18%) Agile
4 844 (10.73%) Decision-Making
5 816 (10.37%) Stakeholder Management
6 797 (10.13%) Mentoring
7 772 (9.81%) AI
8 732 (9.30%) CI/CD
9 672 (8.54%) Project Delivery
10 650 (8.26%) Collaborative Working
11 625 (7.94%) Analytics
12 606 (7.70%) Software Engineering
13 601 (7.64%) DevOps
14 600 (7.63%) ERP
15 593 (7.54%) Cybersecurity
16 575 (7.31%) ITIL
17 548 (6.96%) Project Management
18 543 (6.90%) Business Intelligence
19 491 (6.24%) Stakeholder Engagement
19 491 (6.24%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 1,110 (14.11%) SQL
2 777 (9.88%) Python
3 448 (5.69%) C#
4 441 (5.60%) JavaScript
5 323 (4.11%) Java
6 301 (3.83%) PowerShell
7 209 (2.66%) C++
8 204 (2.59%) TypeScript
9 124 (1.58%) Bash
10 83 (1.05%) C
11 65 (0.83%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 65 (0.83%) PHP
12 60 (0.76%) T-SQL
13 52 (0.66%) Ruby
14 47 (0.60%) MATLAB
15 46 (0.58%) PL/SQL
15 46 (0.58%) Shell Script
16 41 (0.52%) Perl
16 41 (0.52%) Rust
17 38 (0.48%) Go
Qualifications
1 1,266 (16.09%) Degree
2 735 (9.34%) Security Cleared
3 511 (6.49%) SC Cleared
4 242 (3.08%) HNC
5 227 (2.89%) DBS Check
6 209 (2.66%) Computer Science Degree
7 206 (2.62%) HND
8 188 (2.39%) Microsoft Certification
9 184 (2.34%) DV Cleared
10 162 (2.06%) BPSS Clearance
11 137 (1.74%) Azure Certification
12 98 (1.25%) Chartered Engineer
13 92 (1.17%) Cisco Certification
14 76 (0.97%) A+ Certification
14 76 (0.97%) PMI Certification
15 69 (0.88%) Master's Degree
16 64 (0.81%) CISSP
17 63 (0.80%) NVQ Level 3
18 59 (0.75%) ACCA
19 58 (0.74%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 492 (6.25%) QA
2 303 (3.85%) Data Quality
3 233 (2.96%) GDPR
4 207 (2.63%) Accessibility
5 180 (2.29%) SLA
6 169 (2.15%) Cyber Essentials
7 135 (1.72%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 105 (1.33%) PCI DSS
9 79 (1.00%) NIST
10 46 (0.58%) ISO 9001
11 41 (0.52%) PMO
12 34 (0.43%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 21 (0.27%) DO-254
14 20 (0.25%) GMP
15 19 (0.24%) Good Clinical Practice
15 19 (0.24%) NCSC
16 16 (0.20%) Actionable Recommendations
16 16 (0.20%) GRC
17 13 (0.17%) GxP
17 13 (0.17%) WCAG
System Software
1 855 (10.87%) Active Directory
2 291 (3.70%) Hyper-V
3 264 (3.36%) Docker
4 213 (2.71%) VMware Infrastructure
5 79 (1.00%) Firmware
6 72 (0.92%) Terminal Server
7 42 (0.53%) Virtual Desktop
8 34 (0.43%) Virtual Machines
9 30 (0.38%) Embedded Firmware
10 28 (0.36%) vSphere
11 15 (0.19%) VMware ESXi
12 10 (0.13%) Virtual Servers
13 5 (0.064%) ClearTrust
13 5 (0.064%) Squid
14 4 (0.051%) KVM
14 4 (0.051%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 3 (0.038%) Terminal Services
15 3 (0.038%) VMware Server
16 2 (0.025%) Samba
16 2 (0.025%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 264 (3.36%) Microsoft Intune
2 227 (2.89%) Kubernetes
3 110 (1.40%) Ansible
4 64 (0.81%) Grafana
5 52 (0.66%) SCCM
6 48 (0.61%) Prometheus
7 44 (0.56%) Single Sign-On
8 39 (0.50%) BMC PATROL
9 21 (0.27%) Jamf Pro
10 20 (0.25%) Functional Safety
11 19 (0.24%) FortiGate
12 15 (0.19%) Puppet
13 13 (0.17%) Kibana
13 13 (0.17%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
14 11 (0.14%) logstash
14 11 (0.14%) Nagios
14 11 (0.14%) Nmap
15 10 (0.13%) Proxmox
16 9 (0.11%) Argo
16 9 (0.11%) Podman
Vendors
1 2,377 (30.21%) Microsoft
2 342 (4.35%) VMware
3 227 (2.89%) SAP
4 220 (2.80%) Google
5 183 (2.33%) Workday
6 175 (2.22%) Oracle
7 139 (1.77%) Cisco
7 139 (1.77%) Veeam
8 127 (1.61%) ServiceNow
9 123 (1.56%) Splunk
10 107 (1.36%) Salesforce
11 104 (1.32%) Sage
12 91 (1.16%) SolarWinds
13 80 (1.02%) Tanium
14 76 (0.97%) Fortinet
15 75 (0.95%) Databricks
16 73 (0.93%) Brocade
16 73 (0.93%) Nimble Storage
17 67 (0.85%) Apple
18 63 (0.80%) Siemens