Problem-Solving Job Trends

Problem Solving
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs requiring Problem-Solving skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 9 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 4 6
Rank change year-on-year -7 +2 +7
Permanent jobs citing Problem-Solving 7,089 8,284 14,365
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 7.82% 19.04% 14.89%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 10.53% 20.40% 17.47%
Number of salaries quoted 4,854 5,024 9,458
10th Percentile £27,000 £27,500 £26,250
25th Percentile £31,250 £35,250 £33,306
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,500 £52,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.52% +5.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £69,894 £72,500 £67,500
90th Percentile £87,500 £87,500 £85,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £42,500 £46,500 £45,000
% change year-on-year -8.60% +3.33% -10.00%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

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.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 67,307 40,602 82,234
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 74.25% 93.30% 85.26%
Number of salaries quoted 42,652 22,587 59,697
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,450 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year - +9.09% -10.10%
75th Percentile £78,750 £80,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £102,446 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year - +5.00% -9.09%

Problem-Solving
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Problem-Solving job vacancy trend in the UK

Problem-Solving
Salary Trend

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

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

Problem-Solving
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Problem-Solving over the 6 months to 9 May 2026.

Salary histogram for Problem-Solving in the UK

Problem-Solving
Top 18 Job Locations

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 over the 6 months to 9 May 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
England -8 6,261 £47,500 -9.52% 3,088
UK excluding London -7 4,708 £42,500 -8.60% 2,418
Work from Home -3 2,108 £55,000 - 1,192
London -5 1,907 £70,000 +7.69% 983
North of England -18 1,259 £42,500 -5.56% 611
South East -9 1,134 £46,750 -6.50% 767
Midlands -22 876 £40,000 -11.11% 402
North West -15 654 £45,000 -5.26% 348
South West -8 532 £43,500 +2.35% 268
West Midlands -24 523 £42,500 -11.46% 247
Yorkshire -12 481 £41,500 +3.75% 195
East of England -8 465 £40,678 -14.36% 254
East Midlands -10 350 £35,000 -12.50% 156
Scotland -4 292 £36,000 -28.00% 102
North East -20 124 £48,500 +7.78% 73
Wales -13 109 £43,750 -12.50% 57
Northern Ireland -8 67 £40,000 -27.27% 24
Isle of Man 0 1 £35,000 -7.89% 1

Problem-Solving
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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
1 353 (4.98%) Microsoft Exchange
2 344 (4.85%) SharePoint
3 77 (1.09%) Confluence
4 72 (1.02%) Apache Airflow
5 64 (0.90%) CMS
6 62 (0.87%) Apache
7 34 (0.48%) Apache Spark
8 28 (0.39%) IIS
8 28 (0.39%) WordPress
9 16 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2013
9 16 (0.23%) SAS
10 14 (0.20%) Palantir Foundry
11 13 (0.18%) Exchange Server 2007
11 13 (0.18%) Exchange Server 2010
12 11 (0.16%) Drupal
12 11 (0.16%) nginx
13 9 (0.13%) Totara
14 7 (0.099%) ArcGIS
15 5 (0.071%) Moodle
15 5 (0.071%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 440 (6.21%) Microsoft Office
2 369 (5.21%) Microsoft Excel
3 68 (0.96%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 54 (0.76%) MS Visio
5 51 (0.72%) Spreadsheet
6 29 (0.41%) Microsoft Project
7 14 (0.20%) Chatbot
8 9 (0.13%) Adobe Illustrator
8 9 (0.13%) Fusion 360
8 9 (0.13%) Maya
9 8 (0.11%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 7 (0.099%) AutoCAD
11 6 (0.085%) Photoshop
12 5 (0.071%) Simulink
12 5 (0.071%) SOLIDWORKS
13 3 (0.042%) Adobe XD
13 3 (0.042%) Trello
14 2 (0.028%) Autodesk Inventor
14 2 (0.028%) Notion
14 2 (0.028%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 70 (0.99%) SAP S/4HANA
2 61 (0.86%) Dynamics CRM
3 32 (0.45%) NetSuite
4 25 (0.35%) Salesforce CRM
5 23 (0.32%) Dynamics NAV
6 21 (0.30%) Shopify
7 17 (0.24%) SAP CO
8 16 (0.23%) Magento
9 14 (0.20%) SAP ERP
10 13 (0.18%) iTrent
11 12 (0.17%) Dynamics AX
12 11 (0.16%) Endur
12 11 (0.16%) Maximo
13 10 (0.14%) Elite 3E
13 10 (0.14%) Oracle EBS
14 9 (0.13%) SAP FI
14 9 (0.13%) Workday HCM
15 7 (0.099%) Q-Pulse
15 7 (0.099%) SAP Business One
15 7 (0.099%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 1,475 (20.81%) Azure
2 1,038 (14.64%) Microsoft 365
3 889 (12.54%) AWS
4 516 (7.28%) Power Platform
5 368 (5.19%) SaaS
6 342 (4.82%) GCP
7 310 (4.37%) Entra ID
8 199 (2.81%) Serverless
9 196 (2.76%) Azure DevOps
10 187 (2.64%) GitHub
11 139 (1.96%) Dynamics 365
12 129 (1.82%) Power Automate
13 105 (1.48%) GitHub Actions
14 104 (1.47%) Amazon S3
15 98 (1.38%) AWS Lambda
16 94 (1.33%) PowerApps
17 92 (1.30%) PaaS
18 90 (1.27%) Google Workspace
19 82 (1.16%) AWS CloudFormation
20 81 (1.14%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 403 (5.68%) Firewall
2 388 (5.47%) DNS
3 316 (4.46%) DHCP
4 264 (3.72%) VPN
5 233 (3.29%) WAN
6 203 (2.86%) LAN
7 194 (2.74%) Wi-Fi
8 189 (2.67%) Broadband
8 189 (2.67%) TCP/IP
9 124 (1.75%) Wireless
10 118 (1.66%) VLAN
11 94 (1.33%) VoIP
12 75 (1.06%) Network Security
13 66 (0.93%) SD-WAN
14 63 (0.89%) SAN
15 50 (0.71%) Internet
16 37 (0.52%) HTTP
17 33 (0.47%) OSPF
18 32 (0.45%) BGP
19 31 (0.44%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 428 (6.04%) Power BI
2 306 (4.32%) SQL Server
3 130 (1.83%) Data Warehouse
4 118 (1.66%) NoSQL
5 111 (1.57%) Tableau
6 102 (1.44%) PostgreSQL
7 89 (1.26%) Relational Database
8 88 (1.24%) MySQL
9 73 (1.03%) Amazon RDS
10 69 (0.97%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 68 (0.96%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 56 (0.79%) Data Lake
12 56 (0.79%) Power Query
13 52 (0.73%) MongoDB
14 51 (0.72%) Amazon Redshift
15 45 (0.63%) BigQuery
16 44 (0.62%) Metadata
17 43 (0.61%) Big Data
18 41 (0.58%) DynamoDB
19 35 (0.49%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 335 (4.73%) Git
2 232 (3.27%) JIRA
3 117 (1.65%) GitLab
4 115 (1.62%) Jenkins
5 34 (0.48%) Selenium
6 24 (0.34%) Rational DOORS
6 24 (0.34%) Visual Studio
7 23 (0.32%) Bitbucket
7 23 (0.32%) SonarQube
8 22 (0.31%) Cucumber
9 21 (0.30%) Cypress.io
9 21 (0.30%) Maven
10 20 (0.28%) Chocolatey
10 20 (0.28%) TeamCity
11 17 (0.24%) CircleCI
12 16 (0.23%) Burp Suite
12 16 (0.23%) Metasploit
13 15 (0.21%) LabVIEW
14 13 (0.18%) JUnit
14 13 (0.18%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 3,352 (47.28%) Social Skills
2 2,071 (29.21%) Analytical Skills
3 1,559 (21.99%) Finance
4 453 (6.39%) Organisational Skills
5 433 (6.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 359 (5.06%) Marketing
7 356 (5.02%) Manufacturing
8 352 (4.97%) Banking
9 331 (4.67%) Law
10 323 (4.56%) Public Sector
11 303 (4.27%) Legal
12 283 (3.99%) Retail
13 182 (2.57%) Telecoms
14 169 (2.38%) Presentation Skills
15 143 (2.02%) Electronics
16 116 (1.64%) Documentation Skills
17 113 (1.59%) Influencing Skills
18 103 (1.45%) Advertising
19 100 (1.41%) Games
20 71 (1.00%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 968 (13.65%) Analyst
2 899 (12.68%) Senior
3 713 (10.06%) IT Support
4 634 (8.94%) Developer
5 622 (8.77%) Support Engineer
6 461 (6.50%) Lead
7 417 (5.88%) IT Engineer
8 317 (4.47%) IT Support Engineer
9 308 (4.34%) Consultant
10 267 (3.77%) Support Analyst
11 250 (3.53%) Architect
12 235 (3.31%) Support Technician
13 211 (2.98%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 206 (2.91%) Business Analyst
15 198 (2.79%) Software Engineer
16 187 (2.64%) Systems Engineer
17 174 (2.45%) 2nd Line Support
17 174 (2.45%) IT Technician
18 170 (2.40%) Administrator
18 170 (2.40%) Technical Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 275 (3.88%) .NET
2 262 (3.70%) React
3 217 (3.06%) HTML
4 184 (2.60%) CSS
5 182 (2.57%) REST
6 148 (2.09%) Node.js
7 130 (1.83%) RESTful
8 104 (1.47%) SOAP
9 92 (1.30%) Middleware
10 72 (1.02%) JSON
11 70 (0.99%) Spring
12 67 (0.95%) XML
13 65 (0.92%) Kafka
13 65 (0.92%) OAuth
14 62 (0.87%) AngularJS
15 60 (0.85%) Vue
16 54 (0.76%) Spring Boot
17 51 (0.72%) EDI
18 50 (0.71%) gRPC
19 47 (0.66%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 430 (6.07%) Onboarding
2 417 (5.88%) Driving Licence
3 365 (5.15%) Self-Motivation
4 261 (3.68%) Management Information System
5 226 (3.19%) Cloud Native
6 194 (2.74%) Product Ownership
7 184 (2.60%) Data Centre
8 165 (2.33%) Distributed Systems
9 159 (2.24%) Analytical Mindset
10 107 (1.51%) Legacy Systems
11 105 (1.48%) Enterprise Software
12 103 (1.45%) Social Media
13 91 (1.28%) Mobile App
14 88 (1.24%) Data Structures
15 77 (1.09%) Low-Code
16 72 (1.02%) Virtual Team
17 66 (0.93%) Algorithms
18 64 (0.90%) Security Posture
19 57 (0.80%) Video\Live Streaming
20 56 (0.79%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 1,067 (15.05%) Windows
2 420 (5.92%) Linux
3 411 (5.80%) Windows Server
4 183 (2.58%) Windows 10
5 111 (1.57%) Android
6 107 (1.51%) Windows Server 2016
7 92 (1.30%) Apple iOS
8 82 (1.16%) Mac OS
9 60 (0.85%) Windows Server 2019
10 58 (0.82%) Unix
11 46 (0.65%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 38 (0.54%) Windows Server 2012
13 33 (0.47%) CentOS
14 29 (0.41%) Ubuntu
15 23 (0.32%) VMS
16 17 (0.24%) Mac OS X
16 17 (0.24%) Windows 7
17 12 (0.17%) Windows Server 2008
18 11 (0.16%) Debian
19 7 (0.099%) Windows 8
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,353 (19.09%) Continuous Improvement
2 1,143 (16.12%) Agile
3 968 (13.65%) Customer Service
4 797 (11.24%) CI/CD
5 760 (10.72%) AI
6 752 (10.61%) Mentoring
7 720 (10.16%) Decision-Making
8 718 (10.13%) DevOps
9 677 (9.55%) Analytics
10 612 (8.63%) ITIL
11 557 (7.86%) Project Management
12 545 (7.69%) Coaching
13 543 (7.66%) Stakeholder Management
14 542 (7.65%) Computer Science
15 537 (7.58%) Business Intelligence
16 523 (7.38%) Software Engineering
17 498 (7.02%) Roadmaps
18 475 (6.70%) Cybersecurity
19 447 (6.31%) Collaborative Working
20 387 (5.46%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 1,048 (14.78%) Python
2 972 (13.71%) SQL
3 471 (6.64%) JavaScript
4 358 (5.05%) Java
5 322 (4.54%) PowerShell
6 307 (4.33%) C#
7 217 (3.06%) TypeScript
8 165 (2.33%) Bash
9 120 (1.69%) C++
10 88 (1.24%) Go
11 86 (1.21%) PHP
12 63 (0.89%) Scala
13 62 (0.87%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 58 (0.82%) C
15 44 (0.62%) T-SQL
16 42 (0.59%) R
17 41 (0.58%) Apex Code
17 41 (0.58%) Kotlin
18 39 (0.55%) Rust
19 35 (0.49%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 1,242 (17.52%) Degree
2 512 (7.22%) Security Cleared
3 306 (4.32%) SC Cleared
4 288 (4.06%) Computer Science Degree
5 261 (3.68%) DBS Check
6 202 (2.85%) Microsoft Certification
7 125 (1.76%) DV Cleared
8 124 (1.75%) Master's Degree
9 121 (1.71%) CISSP
10 119 (1.68%) Cisco Certification
11 99 (1.40%) BPSS Clearance
12 96 (1.35%) A+ Certification
13 81 (1.14%) PMI Certification
14 80 (1.13%) CCNA
15 79 (1.11%) ACCA
16 75 (1.06%) Azure Certification
17 71 (1.00%) CIMA
18 65 (0.92%) Network+ Certification
18 65 (0.92%) PMP
19 64 (0.90%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 396 (5.59%) QA
2 337 (4.75%) Data Quality
3 267 (3.77%) GDPR
4 195 (2.75%) SLA
5 168 (2.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 148 (2.09%) NIST
7 147 (2.07%) Cyber Essentials
8 130 (1.83%) Accessibility
9 113 (1.59%) PCI DSS
10 52 (0.73%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 40 (0.56%) ISO 9001
12 32 (0.45%) SOC 2
13 31 (0.44%) GRC
14 30 (0.42%) COBIT
15 27 (0.38%) Actionable Recommendations
15 27 (0.38%) PMO
16 14 (0.20%) GMP
17 12 (0.17%) IFRS
17 12 (0.17%) NCSC
17 12 (0.17%) TickIT
System Software
1 725 (10.23%) Active Directory
2 335 (4.73%) Docker
3 206 (2.91%) VMware Infrastructure
4 192 (2.71%) Hyper-V
5 46 (0.65%) Virtual Desktop
6 40 (0.56%) Terminal Server
7 39 (0.55%) Firmware
8 23 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
8 23 (0.32%) vSphere
9 19 (0.27%) KVM
10 16 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
11 12 (0.17%) VMware NSX
12 10 (0.14%) IAG
13 7 (0.099%) VMware Workstation
14 6 (0.085%) XenApp
15 4 (0.056%) Embedded Firmware
15 4 (0.056%) Slurm Workload Manager
16 3 (0.042%) Microsoft Virtual Server
16 3 (0.042%) Terminal Services
16 3 (0.042%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 337 (4.75%) Terraform
2 269 (3.79%) Kubernetes
3 262 (3.70%) Microsoft Intune
4 159 (2.24%) Ansible
5 110 (1.55%) Grafana
6 91 (1.28%) SCCM
7 62 (0.87%) Prometheus
8 40 (0.56%) Single Sign-On
9 34 (0.48%) Nagios
10 23 (0.32%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 18 (0.25%) Kibana
12 16 (0.23%) Argo
13 15 (0.21%) Jamf Pro
14 14 (0.20%) Autotask
15 13 (0.18%) Puppet
15 13 (0.18%) WSUS
16 12 (0.17%) Nessus
16 12 (0.17%) vCenter Server
17 11 (0.16%) Docker Swarm
18 10 (0.14%) BMC PATROL
Vendors
1 1,807 (25.49%) Microsoft
2 288 (4.06%) VMware
3 196 (2.76%) Oracle
4 194 (2.74%) Google
5 177 (2.50%) SAP
6 158 (2.23%) ServiceNow
7 155 (2.19%) Salesforce
8 151 (2.13%) Cisco
9 114 (1.61%) Databricks
10 112 (1.58%) SolarWinds
11 96 (1.35%) Veeam
12 92 (1.30%) Splunk
13 89 (1.26%) Apple
14 79 (1.11%) Adobe
15 76 (1.07%) Dell
16 70 (0.99%) Red Hat
17 49 (0.69%) Dynatrace
17 49 (0.69%) Meraki
18 47 (0.66%) Fortinet
19 45 (0.63%) Typelevel