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 5 December 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 4 4 12
Rank change year-on-year 0 +8 +1
Contract jobs citing SC Cleared 308 279 185
As % of all contract jobs in Berkshire 21.46% 17.44% 10.60%
As % of the Qualifications category 52.38% 45.89% 24.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 243 182 116
10th Percentile £240 £314 £353
25th Percentile £325 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £583 £588
Median % change year-on-year -17.45% -0.77% +6.82%
75th Percentile £538 £660 £628
90th Percentile £588 £726 £663
South East median daily rate £500 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -9.09% - +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 15 17
10th Percentile £19.38 £48.18 £24.80
25th Percentile £24.56 £56.59 £49.95
Median hourly rate £68.50 £61.79 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +10.86% +2.98% +9.09%
75th Percentile £95.00 £80.74 £63.29
90th Percentile £96.75 £86.93 £72.74
South East median hourly rate £25.15 £58.17 £60.00
% change year-on-year -56.77% -3.05% -

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 588 608 761
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Berkshire 40.98% 38.00% 43.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 401 336 440
10th Percentile £255 £258 £205
25th Percentile £375 £406 £365
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £485 £558 £500
Median % change year-on-year -13.08% +11.60% -8.54%
75th Percentile £550 £656 £620
90th Percentile £638 £715 £675
South East median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% +2.19%
Number of hourly rates quoted 38 37 55
10th Percentile £19.38 £41.15 £45.21
25th Percentile £20.79 £48.18 £55.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £61.50 £63.00
Median % change year-on-year +5.70% -2.39% +173.91%
75th Percentile £95.00 £64.73 £70.50
90th Percentile £95.75 £79.67 £75.93
South East median hourly rate £25.15 £56.75 £60.00
% change year-on-year -55.68% -5.43% +33.33%

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 5 December 2025.

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 5 December 2025.

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 5 December 2025. 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 +3 134 £500 -17.36% 40
Wokingham -1 131 £425 +21.43% 10
Bracknell -3 18 £550 +11.39%
Maidenhead -1 1 - - 4
Slough -3 1 - - 2
Thatcham - 1 - - 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 5 (1.62%) Microsoft Exchange
2 4 (1.30%) SharePoint
3 3 (0.97%) Confluence
4 1 (0.32%) CMS
4 1 (0.32%) Drupal
4 1 (0.32%) Skype for Business
4 1 (0.32%) WordPress
Applications
1 11 (3.57%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (3.25%) Microsoft Excel
3 6 (1.95%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.97%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.65%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 5 (1.62%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.65%) SAP EWM
2 2 (0.65%) SAP HCM
2 2 (0.65%) SAP PS
2 2 (0.65%) SAP WM
3 1 (0.32%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
3 1 (0.32%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 86 (27.92%) Azure
2 84 (27.27%) AWS
3 45 (14.61%) GCP
4 15 (4.87%) OneDrive
5 13 (4.22%) Entra ID
5 13 (4.22%) OpenShift
6 10 (3.25%) Microsoft 365
7 9 (2.92%) SaaS
8 5 (1.62%) IaaS
8 5 (1.62%) Power Automate
8 5 (1.62%) Power Platform
9 4 (1.30%) AWS CloudFormation
9 4 (1.30%) Azure Storage
10 2 (0.65%) Amazon GuardDuty
10 2 (0.65%) AWS CloudTrail
10 2 (0.65%) AWS Control Tower
10 2 (0.65%) AWS KMS
10 2 (0.65%) PowerApps
10 2 (0.65%) Slack
10 2 (0.65%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 23 (7.47%) DNS
2 16 (5.19%) DHCP
3 15 (4.87%) Network Security
4 14 (4.55%) Firewall
5 11 (3.57%) SAN
5 11 (3.57%) TCP/IP
6 10 (3.25%) Wi-Fi
7 9 (2.92%) 4G
7 9 (2.92%) VLAN
8 8 (2.60%) Unified Communications
8 8 (2.60%) Wireless
9 6 (1.95%) Wireshark
10 5 (1.62%) WebEx
11 4 (1.30%) Internet
11 4 (1.30%) Intrusion Detection
11 4 (1.30%) NAS
12 3 (0.97%) DWDM
12 3 (0.97%) FTP
12 3 (0.97%) SNMP
12 3 (0.97%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (2.27%) NoSQL
2 3 (0.97%) Power BI
3 2 (0.65%) SAP HANA
3 2 (0.65%) SQL Server
4 1 (0.32%) MongoDB
4 1 (0.32%) MySQL
4 1 (0.32%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 13 (4.22%) JIRA
2 12 (3.90%) Burp Suite
2 12 (3.90%) Metasploit
3 7 (2.27%) Jenkins
4 2 (0.65%) Visual Studio
5 1 (0.32%) Android Studio
5 1 (0.32%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.32%) Git
5 1 (0.32%) GitLab
5 1 (0.32%) NeoLoad
5 1 (0.32%) Rational DOORS
5 1 (0.32%) Subversion
General
1 132 (42.86%) Social Skills
2 64 (20.78%) Public Sector
3 58 (18.83%) Analytical Skills
4 17 (5.52%) Documentation Skills
5 9 (2.92%) Telecoms
6 8 (2.60%) Finance
7 4 (1.30%) Aerospace
7 4 (1.30%) Influencing Skills
8 3 (0.97%) Legal
8 3 (0.97%) Manufacturing
9 2 (0.65%) Electronics
9 2 (0.65%) Marketing
9 2 (0.65%) Military
9 2 (0.65%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.32%) Banking
Job Titles
1 42 (13.64%) Consultant
2 32 (10.39%) Network Consultant
3 24 (7.79%) Architect
4 23 (7.47%) Lead
5 21 (6.82%) Support Engineer
6 20 (6.49%) Analyst
6 20 (6.49%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 19 (6.17%) Network Engineer
8 15 (4.87%) Infrastructure Support
8 15 (4.87%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
9 14 (4.55%) Administrator
9 14 (4.55%) Senior
10 13 (4.22%) Penetration Tester
10 13 (4.22%) Tester
11 12 (3.90%) Cisco Engineer
11 12 (3.90%) Cisco Network Engineer
12 11 (3.57%) Juniper Engineer
12 11 (3.57%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
13 9 (2.92%) SIEM Engineer
13 9 (2.92%) Site Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (3.90%) LDAP
2 8 (2.60%) Loki
3 2 (0.65%) .NET
3 2 (0.65%) OAuth
3 2 (0.65%) OAuth2
3 2 (0.65%) OpenID
3 2 (0.65%) RESTful
3 2 (0.65%) RFC 2544
3 2 (0.65%) SAML
4 1 (0.32%) .NET Core
4 1 (0.32%) 802.1X
4 1 (0.32%) CSS
4 1 (0.32%) HTML
4 1 (0.32%) Spring
4 1 (0.32%) Spring Boot
4 1 (0.32%) Vue
4 1 (0.32%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 16 (5.19%) Onboarding
2 13 (4.22%) Cloud Native
3 11 (3.57%) Analytical Mindset
4 8 (2.60%) Cyber Security Posture
4 8 (2.60%) Data Centre
4 8 (2.60%) Management Information System
4 8 (2.60%) Virtual Team
5 7 (2.27%) Enterprise Storage
6 6 (1.95%) Distributed Systems
6 6 (1.95%) Driving Licence
6 6 (1.95%) PMI
7 5 (1.62%) Handset
7 5 (1.62%) PKI
7 5 (1.62%) Security Posture
8 4 (1.30%) CSOC
8 4 (1.30%) Security Operations Centre
9 3 (0.97%) Enterprise Software
9 3 (0.97%) Fibre Optics
9 3 (0.97%) Legacy Systems
9 3 (0.97%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 54 (17.53%) Windows
2 46 (14.94%) Linux
3 15 (4.87%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 13 (4.22%) Windows 10
5 7 (2.27%) Windows Server
6 6 (1.95%) Kali Linux
7 4 (1.30%) Windows Server 2012
7 4 (1.30%) Windows Server 2016
7 4 (1.30%) Windows Server 2019
8 3 (0.97%) Android
9 2 (0.65%) SUSE
9 2 (0.65%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
10 1 (0.32%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.32%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 66 (21.43%) Problem-Solving
2 60 (19.48%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 51 (16.56%) ITIL
4 48 (15.58%) Roadmaps
5 47 (15.26%) Migration
6 46 (14.94%) CI/CD
7 45 (14.61%) Service Management
8 41 (13.31%) Cybersecurity
9 40 (12.99%) Collaborative Working
10 36 (11.69%) Continuous Improvement
11 31 (10.06%) Change Management
11 31 (10.06%) ITSM
12 29 (9.42%) DevOps
12 29 (9.42%) Disaster Recovery
13 28 (9.09%) SIEM
14 27 (8.77%) Agile
15 25 (8.12%) Infrastructure Engineering
16 23 (7.47%) DevSecOps
17 22 (7.14%) Performance Metrics
18 20 (6.49%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 61 (19.81%) Python
2 37 (12.01%) PowerShell
3 23 (7.47%) Bash
4 9 (2.92%) Java
5 6 (1.95%) Go
5 6 (1.95%) Kusto Query Language
5 6 (1.95%) SQL
6 5 (1.62%) Shell Script
7 4 (1.30%) C#
8 2 (0.65%) Ada
8 2 (0.65%) Assembly Language
8 2 (0.65%) C
8 2 (0.65%) MATLAB
9 1 (0.32%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 308 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 26 (8.44%) CISSP
3 22 (7.14%) Degree
4 20 (6.49%) AWS Certification
5 19 (6.17%) Azure Certification
6 16 (5.19%) CEH
6 16 (5.19%) CISM
7 11 (3.57%) Microsoft Certification
8 10 (3.25%) CCNP
8 10 (3.25%) Cisco Certification
8 10 (3.25%) Network+ Certification
9 9 (2.92%) GIAC
9 9 (2.92%) PMP
9 9 (2.92%) Server+ Certification
10 8 (2.60%) CCNA
10 8 (2.60%) PMI Certification
11 7 (2.27%) BPSS Clearance
12 6 (1.95%) CHECK Team Member
12 6 (1.95%) GPEN
12 6 (1.95%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (8.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 22 (7.14%) GDPR
3 17 (5.52%) NIST
4 11 (3.57%) QA
5 9 (2.92%) PMO
6 6 (1.95%) PCI DSS
7 3 (0.97%) NCSC
8 2 (0.65%) Cyber Essentials
9 1 (0.32%) Def Stans
9 1 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
9 1 (0.32%) SLA
System Software
1 39 (12.66%) Active Directory
2 26 (8.44%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (4.22%) vSphere
4 11 (3.57%) Hyper-V
5 9 (2.92%) Docker
6 5 (1.62%) VMware NSX
7 2 (0.65%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.32%) NFS
8 1 (0.32%) Terminal Services
8 1 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 27 (8.77%) Kubernetes
2 13 (4.22%) Argo
2 13 (4.22%) SCCM
3 12 (3.90%) Nmap
4 11 (3.57%) Terraform
5 10 (3.25%) Ansible
6 9 (2.92%) Grafana
6 9 (2.92%) Prometheus
7 8 (2.60%) Kustomize
8 7 (2.27%) NetBackup
9 6 (1.95%) Kibana
10 5 (1.62%) QRadar
10 5 (1.62%) vCenter Server
11 4 (1.30%) Cisco CUCM
11 4 (1.30%) Microsoft Intune
12 3 (0.97%) Single Sign-On
13 2 (0.65%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 2 (0.65%) Red Hat Satellite
14 1 (0.32%) Cisco UCCE
14 1 (0.32%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 60 (19.48%) Cisco
2 46 (14.94%) Microsoft
3 34 (11.04%) VMware
4 32 (10.39%) Aruba
5 24 (7.79%) ServiceNow
6 23 (7.47%) Google
7 19 (6.17%) Red Hat
8 17 (5.52%) Juniper
9 14 (4.55%) CyberArk
10 13 (4.22%) BeyondTrust
11 12 (3.90%) SAP
12 10 (3.25%) NetApp
12 10 (3.25%) Splunk
13 9 (2.92%) Pure Storage
14 8 (2.60%) HP
14 8 (2.60%) Workday
15 7 (2.27%) 3PAR
15 7 (2.27%) Veritas
16 6 (1.95%) Citrix
16 6 (1.95%) Nimble Storage