SC Cleared Contract Job Trends in Berkshire

Security Check (SC) Clearance
South East > Berkshire

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in Berkshire with a requirement for SC Cleared qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 23 February 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 3 12 13
Rank change year-on-year +9 +1 -5
Contract jobs citing SC Cleared 451 150 215
As % of all contract jobs in Berkshire 26.72% 11.69% 10.76%
As % of the Qualifications category 59.81% 33.94% 23.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 338 85 141
10th Percentile £255 £304 £350
25th Percentile £322 £356 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £525 £605
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% -13.22% +4.31%
75th Percentile £525 £625 £650
90th Percentile £607 £663 £688
South East median daily rate £500 £540 £550
% change year-on-year -7.41% -1.82% +1.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 41 10 19
10th Percentile £19.44 £24.04 £29.33
25th Percentile £73.40 £60.78 £52.55
Median hourly rate £82.50 £74.50 £61.65
Median % change year-on-year +10.74% +20.85% +8.37%
75th Percentile £95.00 £84.56 £65.55
90th Percentile £97.50 £87.02 £73.28
South East median hourly rate £25.24 £62.50 £60.00
% change year-on-year -59.62% +4.17% -0.97%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
Berkshire

SC Cleared falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications in Berkshire.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 754 442 912
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Berkshire 44.67% 34.45% 45.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 526 226 469
10th Percentile £253 £250 £205
25th Percentile £340 £400 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £525 £513
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% +2.44% -6.82%
75th Percentile £538 £649 £615
90th Percentile £625 £685 £675
South East median daily rate £500 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.78% +1.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 64 28 76
10th Percentile £20.79 £41.25 £42.00
25th Percentile £51.78 £55.87 £52.72
Median hourly rate £81.75 £61.63 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +32.65% +0.04% -4.99%
75th Percentile £95.00 £68.09 £70.81
90th Percentile £99.25 £86.08 £85.65
South East median hourly rate £26.44 £57.87 £58.65
% change year-on-year -54.31% -1.33% +30.33%

SC Cleared
Job Vacancy Trend in Berkshire

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing SC Cleared relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Berkshire.

SC Cleared job vacancy trend in Berkshire

SC Cleared
Daily Rate Trend in Berkshire

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Berkshire citing SC Cleared.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Berkshire citing SC Cleared

SC Cleared
Daily Rate Histogram in Berkshire

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SC Cleared in Berkshire over the 6 months to 23 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for SC Cleared in Berkshire

SC Cleared
Hourly Rate Trend in Berkshire

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Berkshire citing SC Cleared.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Berkshire citing SC Cleared

SC Cleared
Hourly Rate Histogram in Berkshire

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing SC Cleared in Berkshire over the 6 months to 23 February 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for SC Cleared in Berkshire

SC Cleared
Contract Job Locations in Berkshire

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing SC Cleared within the Berkshire region over the 6 months to 23 February 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Reading +15 222 £500 -16.67% 30
Wokingham 0 188 £380 +6.67% 16
Bracknell +8 22 £550 - 5
Slough 0 1 - - 1
Maidenhead -2 1 - -
Thatcham - 1 - -
SC Cleared
South East

SC Cleared
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Berkshire 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 8 (1.77%) Microsoft Exchange
2 7 (1.55%) Confluence
2 7 (1.55%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.22%) Apache
3 1 (0.22%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 20 (4.43%) Microsoft Excel
1 20 (4.43%) Microsoft Office
2 16 (3.55%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (0.67%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.22%) CATIA
4 1 (0.22%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.22%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 7 (1.55%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.44%) SAP HCM
2 2 (0.44%) SAP PS
2 2 (0.44%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 129 (28.60%) Azure
2 103 (22.84%) AWS
3 50 (11.09%) GCP
4 27 (5.99%) Entra ID
5 17 (3.77%) OneDrive
6 15 (3.33%) OpenShift
7 13 (2.88%) Microsoft 365
8 11 (2.44%) Power Platform
9 10 (2.22%) Datadog
10 9 (2.00%) Azure DevOps
11 8 (1.77%) IaaS
12 7 (1.55%) Power Automate
13 6 (1.33%) Azure Sentinel
14 4 (0.89%) AWS CloudFormation
14 4 (0.89%) PowerApps
14 4 (0.89%) SaaS
15 3 (0.67%) Azure ExpressRoute
15 3 (0.67%) Azure Monitor
15 3 (0.67%) PaaS
15 3 (0.67%) Viva Engage
Communications & Networking
1 32 (7.10%) DNS
1 32 (7.10%) Firewall
2 28 (6.21%) Network Security
3 25 (5.54%) DHCP
4 21 (4.66%) Wireless
5 16 (3.55%) TCP/IP
6 13 (2.88%) VLAN
7 12 (2.66%) LAN
8 10 (2.22%) Unified Communications
8 10 (2.22%) Wi-Fi
9 9 (2.00%) 4G
9 9 (2.00%) WAN
9 9 (2.00%) WLAN
10 8 (1.77%) FTP
10 8 (1.77%) Wireshark
11 7 (1.55%) BGP
11 7 (1.55%) Intrusion Detection
11 7 (1.55%) OSPF
11 7 (1.55%) VPN
12 6 (1.33%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (2.00%) Power BI
2 7 (1.55%) SQL Server
3 5 (1.11%) NoSQL
3 5 (1.11%) Oracle Database
4 3 (0.67%) Data Warehouse
4 3 (0.67%) Oracle Database 12c
4 3 (0.67%) Tableau
5 2 (0.44%) SAP HANA
6 1 (0.22%) Amazon RDS
6 1 (0.22%) MongoDB
6 1 (0.22%) MySQL
6 1 (0.22%) Oracle Database 11g
6 1 (0.22%) Oracle Reports
6 1 (0.22%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 21 (4.66%) Burp Suite
1 21 (4.66%) Metasploit
2 13 (2.88%) JIRA
3 12 (2.66%) Jenkins
4 6 (1.33%) Rational DOORS
5 5 (1.11%) Subversion
6 3 (0.67%) Android Studio
6 3 (0.67%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.44%) Balsamiq
7 2 (0.44%) Eclipse
7 2 (0.44%) HP UFT
7 2 (0.44%) Maven
7 2 (0.44%) Visual Studio
8 1 (0.22%) Git
8 1 (0.22%) GitLab
8 1 (0.22%) NeoLoad
General
1 173 (38.36%) Social Skills
2 78 (17.29%) Analytical Skills
3 65 (14.41%) Public Sector
4 25 (5.54%) Documentation Skills
5 22 (4.88%) Aerospace
6 13 (2.88%) Finance
7 11 (2.44%) Telecoms
8 6 (1.33%) Influencing Skills
9 5 (1.11%) Advertising
10 4 (0.89%) Legal
11 3 (0.67%) Manufacturing
11 3 (0.67%) Marketing
11 3 (0.67%) Military
12 2 (0.44%) Local Government
13 1 (0.22%) Avionics
13 1 (0.22%) Banking
13 1 (0.22%) Billing
13 1 (0.22%) Law
13 1 (0.22%) Police
13 1 (0.22%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 51 (11.31%) Consultant
2 35 (7.76%) Analyst
3 33 (7.32%) Lead
4 32 (7.10%) Network Consultant
5 31 (6.87%) Network Engineer
6 30 (6.65%) Architect
7 27 (5.99%) Senior
8 22 (4.88%) Penetration Tester
8 22 (4.88%) SIEM Engineer
8 22 (4.88%) Support Engineer
9 20 (4.43%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 20 (4.43%) Tester
10 17 (3.77%) Cisco Engineer
10 17 (3.77%) Cisco Network Engineer
11 15 (3.33%) Infrastructure Support
11 15 (3.33%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
11 15 (3.33%) Project Manager
12 14 (3.10%) Developer
13 13 (2.88%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
14 12 (2.66%) Platform Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (3.55%) LDAP
2 9 (2.00%) Loki
3 5 (1.11%) Middleware
3 5 (1.11%) Oracle GoldenGate
4 3 (0.67%) ARM Templates
4 3 (0.67%) Elastic Stack
5 2 (0.44%) ADO
5 2 (0.44%) OAuth
5 2 (0.44%) OAuth2
5 2 (0.44%) OpenID
5 2 (0.44%) SAML
5 2 (0.44%) XML
6 1 (0.22%) 802.1X
6 1 (0.22%) LAMP
6 1 (0.22%) MERN Stack
6 1 (0.22%) RFC 2544
6 1 (0.22%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 23 (5.10%) Onboarding
2 22 (4.88%) Data Centre
3 17 (3.77%) Cloud Native
4 15 (3.33%) Security Posture
5 14 (3.10%) Analytical Mindset
6 12 (2.66%) Cyber Security Posture
7 11 (2.44%) Management Information System
8 9 (2.00%) Virtual Team
9 7 (1.55%) Driving Licence
9 7 (1.55%) Enterprise Software
9 7 (1.55%) PMI
9 7 (1.55%) Self-Motivation
10 6 (1.33%) PKI
10 6 (1.33%) Product Ownership
11 5 (1.11%) Distributed Systems
11 5 (1.11%) Handset
12 4 (0.89%) Data Protection Act
12 4 (0.89%) Greenfield Project
13 3 (0.67%) Enterprise Storage
13 3 (0.67%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 67 (14.86%) Windows
2 60 (13.30%) Linux
3 18 (3.99%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 13 (2.88%) Windows 10
4 13 (2.88%) Windows Server
5 7 (1.55%) Android
5 7 (1.55%) Kali Linux
6 6 (1.33%) Unix
7 2 (0.44%) SUSE
7 2 (0.44%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
8 1 (0.22%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.22%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 87 (19.29%) Problem-Solving
2 80 (17.74%) ITIL
3 69 (15.30%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 66 (14.63%) Cybersecurity
5 64 (14.19%) CI/CD
6 61 (13.53%) Roadmaps
7 55 (12.20%) Service Management
8 54 (11.97%) Continuous Improvement
9 53 (11.75%) Migration
10 47 (10.42%) Collaborative Working
10 47 (10.42%) DevOps
11 43 (9.53%) Change Management
11 43 (9.53%) SIEM
12 42 (9.31%) ITSM
13 41 (9.09%) Stakeholder Management
14 40 (8.87%) Agile
15 38 (8.43%) DevSecOps
16 28 (6.21%) Infrastructure Engineering
17 26 (5.76%) Performance Metrics
18 23 (5.10%) Penetration Testing
Programming Languages
1 84 (18.63%) Python
2 61 (13.53%) PowerShell
3 29 (6.43%) Bash
4 19 (4.21%) Kusto Query Language
5 10 (2.22%) SQL
6 8 (1.77%) Java
7 6 (1.33%) Shell Script
8 5 (1.11%) Bicep
8 5 (1.11%) Korn
9 4 (0.89%) Go
10 2 (0.44%) Ada
10 2 (0.44%) Assembly Language
10 2 (0.44%) C
10 2 (0.44%) C#
10 2 (0.44%) MATLAB
10 2 (0.44%) VBScript
11 1 (0.22%) JavaScript
11 1 (0.22%) Perl
11 1 (0.22%) PHP
Qualifications
1 451 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 38 (8.43%) Degree
3 36 (7.98%) CISSP
4 21 (4.66%) CEH
5 20 (4.43%) Azure Certification
6 19 (4.21%) CISM
7 16 (3.55%) AWS Certification
8 15 (3.33%) PMP
9 14 (3.10%) CHECK Team Member
9 14 (3.10%) Network+ Certification
10 13 (2.88%) GIAC
10 13 (2.88%) PMI Certification
11 12 (2.66%) CREST Certified
11 12 (2.66%) Cyber Scheme
12 11 (2.44%) DV Cleared
12 11 (2.44%) Microsoft Certification
13 10 (2.22%) CCNP
13 10 (2.22%) Cisco Certification
13 10 (2.22%) Postgraduate
14 9 (2.00%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 42 (9.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 32 (7.10%) NIST
3 31 (6.87%) GDPR
4 18 (3.99%) QA
5 15 (3.33%) PMO
6 14 (3.10%) PCI DSS
7 13 (2.88%) NCSC
8 4 (0.89%) NIST 800
9 3 (0.67%) Accessibility
10 2 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials
10 2 (0.44%) DO-254
10 2 (0.44%) IEC 61508
10 2 (0.44%) ISO 26262
10 2 (0.44%) JSP 440
10 2 (0.44%) SLA
11 1 (0.22%) Actionable Recommendations
11 1 (0.22%) Data Quality
11 1 (0.22%) Def Stans
11 1 (0.22%) ISO 22301
System Software
1 56 (12.42%) Active Directory
2 34 (7.54%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (2.88%) vSphere
4 12 (2.66%) Docker
5 11 (2.44%) Hyper-V
6 5 (1.11%) Oracle RAC
6 5 (1.11%) VMware NSX
7 2 (0.44%) Firmware
7 2 (0.44%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.22%) NFS
8 1 (0.22%) Terminal Services
8 1 (0.22%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 33 (7.32%) Kubernetes
2 21 (4.66%) Nmap
3 16 (3.55%) Ansible
3 16 (3.55%) Terraform
4 14 (3.10%) Argo
4 14 (3.10%) Grafana
4 14 (3.10%) Prometheus
4 14 (3.10%) SCCM
5 13 (2.88%) Kibana
6 11 (2.44%) Microsoft Intune
7 9 (2.00%) Kustomize
8 8 (1.77%) Red Hat Satellite
9 6 (1.33%) Oracle RMAN
10 5 (1.11%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
10 5 (1.11%) vCenter Server
11 4 (0.89%) Cisco CUCM
11 4 (0.89%) Nagios
12 3 (0.67%) NetBackup
12 3 (0.67%) Single Sign-On
12 3 (0.67%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 73 (16.19%) Cisco
2 57 (12.64%) Microsoft
3 47 (10.42%) VMware
4 35 (7.76%) ServiceNow
5 33 (7.32%) Aruba
6 26 (5.76%) Google
7 22 (4.88%) Red Hat
8 21 (4.66%) Juniper
9 20 (4.43%) CyberArk
10 17 (3.77%) BeyondTrust
11 16 (3.55%) Tanium
12 13 (2.88%) FireEye
12 13 (2.88%) Splunk
13 12 (2.66%) SAP
14 10 (2.22%) AppDynamics
14 10 (2.22%) Citrix
14 10 (2.22%) Dynatrace
15 6 (1.33%) Oracle
15 6 (1.33%) Workday
16 5 (1.11%) BMC