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 28 November 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 4 4 11
Rank change year-on-year 0 +7 +1
Contract jobs citing SC Cleared 293 284 196
As % of all contract jobs in Berkshire 20.94% 17.63% 11.08%
As % of the Qualifications category 51.31% 45.59% 24.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 233 185 121
10th Percentile £223 £313 £350
25th Percentile £322 £400 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £478 £583 £575
Median % change year-on-year -18.10% +1.39% +4.55%
75th Percentile £537 £660 £625
90th Percentile £588 £726 £663
South East median daily rate £500 £540 £550
% change year-on-year -7.41% -1.82% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 15 17
10th Percentile £19.39 £48.18 £24.80
25th Percentile £26.39 £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 £97.25 £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 571 623 786
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Berkshire 40.81% 38.67% 44.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 388 334 453
10th Percentile £255 £270 £205
25th Percentile £375 £408 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £575 £520
Median % change year-on-year -14.43% +10.58% -3.70%
75th Percentile £550 £656 £623
90th Percentile £629 £716 £685
South East median daily rate £500 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.78% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 38 47 57
10th Percentile £19.42 £41.25 £45.21
25th Percentile £21.29 £55.87 £55.94
Median hourly rate £62.25 £61.76 £63.29
Median % change year-on-year +0.79% -2.42% +181.29%
75th Percentile £94.69 £86.08 £72.33
90th Percentile £95.75 £100.00 £75.84
South East median hourly rate £25.15 £58.17 £60.00
% change year-on-year -56.77% -3.05% +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 28 November 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 28 November 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 28 November 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 +3 126 £500 -17.36% 39
Wokingham -1 126 £425 +21.43% 7
Bracknell -3 18 £550 +11.39% 1
Slough -3 1 - - 2
Thatcham - 1 - - 1
Maidenhead - 1 - - 3
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 (1.71%) Microsoft Exchange
2 4 (1.37%) SharePoint
3 3 (1.02%) Confluence
4 1 (0.34%) CMS
4 1 (0.34%) Drupal
4 1 (0.34%) Skype for Business
4 1 (0.34%) WordPress
Applications
1 8 (2.73%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (2.39%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (1.02%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (1.02%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.68%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 5 (1.71%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.68%) SAP EWM
2 2 (0.68%) SAP HCM
2 2 (0.68%) SAP PS
2 2 (0.68%) SAP WM
3 1 (0.34%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
3 1 (0.34%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 81 (27.65%) Azure
2 79 (26.96%) AWS
3 44 (15.02%) GCP
4 15 (5.12%) OneDrive
5 13 (4.44%) OpenShift
6 10 (3.41%) Entra ID
6 10 (3.41%) Microsoft 365
7 9 (3.07%) SaaS
8 5 (1.71%) IaaS
8 5 (1.71%) Power Automate
8 5 (1.71%) Power Platform
9 4 (1.37%) Azure Storage
10 2 (0.68%) AWS CloudFormation
10 2 (0.68%) PowerApps
10 2 (0.68%) Slack
11 1 (0.34%) Azure Data Factory
11 1 (0.34%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 1 (0.34%) SAP Commerce Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 23 (7.85%) DNS
2 16 (5.46%) DHCP
3 15 (5.12%) Network Security
4 13 (4.44%) Firewall
5 11 (3.75%) SAN
5 11 (3.75%) TCP/IP
6 10 (3.41%) Wi-Fi
7 9 (3.07%) 4G
7 9 (3.07%) VLAN
8 8 (2.73%) Unified Communications
9 6 (2.05%) Wireshark
10 5 (1.71%) WebEx
10 5 (1.71%) Wireless
11 4 (1.37%) Internet
11 4 (1.37%) Intrusion Detection
11 4 (1.37%) NAS
12 3 (1.02%) DWDM
12 3 (1.02%) FTP
12 3 (1.02%) SNMP
12 3 (1.02%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (2.39%) NoSQL
2 3 (1.02%) Power BI
3 2 (0.68%) SAP HANA
3 2 (0.68%) SQL Server
4 1 (0.34%) MongoDB
4 1 (0.34%) MySQL
4 1 (0.34%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 11 (3.75%) JIRA
2 9 (3.07%) Burp Suite
2 9 (3.07%) Metasploit
3 7 (2.39%) Jenkins
4 2 (0.68%) Visual Studio
5 1 (0.34%) Android Studio
5 1 (0.34%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.34%) GitLab
5 1 (0.34%) NeoLoad
5 1 (0.34%) Rational DOORS
5 1 (0.34%) Subversion
General
1 128 (43.69%) Social Skills
2 61 (20.82%) Public Sector
3 58 (19.80%) Analytical Skills
4 17 (5.80%) Documentation Skills
5 10 (3.41%) Telecoms
6 6 (2.05%) Finance
7 4 (1.37%) Aerospace
7 4 (1.37%) Influencing Skills
8 3 (1.02%) Legal
8 3 (1.02%) Manufacturing
9 2 (0.68%) Electronics
9 2 (0.68%) Marketing
9 2 (0.68%) Military
9 2 (0.68%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.34%) Banking
Job Titles
1 42 (14.33%) Consultant
2 32 (10.92%) Network Consultant
3 21 (7.17%) Architect
3 21 (7.17%) Lead
3 21 (7.17%) Network Engineer
3 21 (7.17%) Support Engineer
4 20 (6.83%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 18 (6.14%) Analyst
6 15 (5.12%) Infrastructure Support
6 15 (5.12%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
7 14 (4.78%) Administrator
7 14 (4.78%) Senior
8 12 (4.10%) Cisco Engineer
8 12 (4.10%) Cisco Network Engineer
8 12 (4.10%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
9 11 (3.75%) Juniper Engineer
10 10 (3.41%) Penetration Tester
10 10 (3.41%) Tester
11 9 (3.07%) SIEM Engineer
11 9 (3.07%) Site Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (4.10%) LDAP
2 8 (2.73%) Loki
3 4 (1.37%) RFC 2544
4 2 (0.68%) .NET
4 2 (0.68%) RESTful
5 1 (0.34%) .NET Core
5 1 (0.34%) 802.1X
5 1 (0.34%) CSS
5 1 (0.34%) HTML
5 1 (0.34%) OAuth
5 1 (0.34%) OAuth2
5 1 (0.34%) OpenID
5 1 (0.34%) SAML
5 1 (0.34%) Spring
5 1 (0.34%) Spring Boot
5 1 (0.34%) Vue
5 1 (0.34%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 14 (4.78%) Onboarding
2 13 (4.44%) Cloud Native
3 11 (3.75%) Analytical Mindset
4 10 (3.41%) Data Centre
5 8 (2.73%) Cyber Security Posture
5 8 (2.73%) Management Information System
5 8 (2.73%) Virtual Team
6 7 (2.39%) Enterprise Storage
7 6 (2.05%) Distributed Systems
7 6 (2.05%) Driving Licence
7 6 (2.05%) PMI
8 5 (1.71%) Fibre Optics
8 5 (1.71%) Handset
9 4 (1.37%) CSOC
9 4 (1.37%) PKI
9 4 (1.37%) Security Operations Centre
10 3 (1.02%) Enterprise Software
10 3 (1.02%) Legacy Systems
10 3 (1.02%) SCADA
10 3 (1.02%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 49 (16.72%) Windows
2 44 (15.02%) Linux
3 15 (5.12%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 13 (4.44%) Windows 10
5 7 (2.39%) Windows Server
6 6 (2.05%) Kali Linux
7 4 (1.37%) Windows Server 2012
7 4 (1.37%) Windows Server 2016
7 4 (1.37%) Windows Server 2019
8 2 (0.68%) SUSE
8 2 (0.68%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
9 1 (0.34%) Android
9 1 (0.34%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.34%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 65 (22.18%) Problem-Solving
2 59 (20.14%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 47 (16.04%) ITIL
4 46 (15.70%) Roadmaps
4 46 (15.70%) Service Management
5 44 (15.02%) CI/CD
5 44 (15.02%) Migration
6 40 (13.65%) Collaborative Working
7 39 (13.31%) Cybersecurity
8 35 (11.95%) Continuous Improvement
9 30 (10.24%) Disaster Recovery
9 30 (10.24%) ITSM
10 29 (9.90%) Change Management
11 27 (9.22%) SIEM
12 26 (8.87%) DevOps
13 25 (8.53%) Agile
14 24 (8.19%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 22 (7.51%) DevSecOps
16 21 (7.17%) Performance Metrics
17 18 (6.14%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 59 (20.14%) Python
2 36 (12.29%) PowerShell
3 23 (7.85%) Bash
4 9 (3.07%) Java
5 6 (2.05%) Go
5 6 (2.05%) SQL
6 5 (1.71%) Kusto Query Language
6 5 (1.71%) Shell Script
7 4 (1.37%) C#
8 2 (0.68%) Ada
8 2 (0.68%) Assembly Language
8 2 (0.68%) C
8 2 (0.68%) MATLAB
9 1 (0.34%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 293 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 26 (8.87%) CISSP
3 20 (6.83%) Degree
4 19 (6.48%) Azure Certification
5 18 (6.14%) AWS Certification
6 17 (5.80%) CISM
7 16 (5.46%) CEH
8 11 (3.75%) Microsoft Certification
9 10 (3.41%) CCNP
9 10 (3.41%) Cisco Certification
9 10 (3.41%) Network+ Certification
10 9 (3.07%) GIAC
10 9 (3.07%) PMP
10 9 (3.07%) Server+ Certification
11 8 (2.73%) CCNA
11 8 (2.73%) PMI Certification
12 7 (2.39%) BPSS Clearance
13 6 (2.05%) GPEN
13 6 (2.05%) OSCP
14 5 (1.71%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (8.53%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 19 (6.48%) GDPR
3 17 (5.80%) NIST
4 9 (3.07%) QA
5 7 (2.39%) PMO
6 3 (1.02%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.34%) Def Stans
7 1 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
7 1 (0.34%) NCSC
7 1 (0.34%) SLA
System Software
1 38 (12.97%) Active Directory
2 26 (8.87%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (4.44%) vSphere
4 11 (3.75%) Hyper-V
5 9 (3.07%) Docker
6 5 (1.71%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.34%) NFS
7 1 (0.34%) Terminal Services
7 1 (0.34%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 26 (8.87%) Kubernetes
2 13 (4.44%) Argo
2 13 (4.44%) SCCM
3 10 (3.41%) Ansible
4 9 (3.07%) Nmap
4 9 (3.07%) Terraform
5 8 (2.73%) Grafana
5 8 (2.73%) Kustomize
5 8 (2.73%) Prometheus
6 7 (2.39%) NetBackup
7 6 (2.05%) Kibana
8 5 (1.71%) QRadar
8 5 (1.71%) vCenter Server
9 4 (1.37%) Cisco CUCM
9 4 (1.37%) Microsoft Intune
10 3 (1.02%) Single Sign-On
11 2 (0.68%) Red Hat Satellite
12 1 (0.34%) Cisco UCCE
12 1 (0.34%) Jamf Pro
12 1 (0.34%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 62 (21.16%) Cisco
2 46 (15.70%) Microsoft
3 34 (11.60%) VMware
4 32 (10.92%) Aruba
5 24 (8.19%) ServiceNow
6 22 (7.51%) Google
7 19 (6.48%) Red Hat
8 17 (5.80%) Juniper
9 13 (4.44%) CyberArk
10 12 (4.10%) BeyondTrust
11 11 (3.75%) SAP
12 10 (3.41%) NetApp
12 10 (3.41%) Splunk
13 9 (3.07%) Pure Storage
14 8 (2.73%) HP
14 8 (2.73%) Workday
15 7 (2.39%) 3PAR
15 7 (2.39%) Veritas
16 6 (2.05%) FireEye
16 6 (2.05%) Nimble Storage