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

6 months to
2 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 4 4 11
Rank change year-on-year 0 +7 +2
Contract jobs citing SC Cleared 298 280 189
As % of all contract jobs in Berkshire 21.24% 17.82% 10.72%
As % of the Qualifications category 52.01% 46.43% 24.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 236 183 118
10th Percentile £238 £315 £354
25th Percentile £324 £425 £452
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £583 £588
Median % change year-on-year -17.45% -0.77% +6.82%
75th Percentile £538 £660 £634
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 23 15 17
10th Percentile £19.39 £48.18 £24.80
25th Percentile £27.63 £56.59 £49.95
Median hourly rate £72.00 £61.79 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +16.52% +2.98% +9.09%
75th Percentile £95.00 £80.74 £63.29
90th Percentile £97.00 £86.93 £72.74
South East median hourly rate £25.15 £58.05 £60.00
% change year-on-year -56.67% -3.26% -

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 573 603 766
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Berkshire 40.84% 38.38% 43.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 388 333 442
10th Percentile £255 £261 £205
25th Percentile £375 £408 £368
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £567 £500
Median % change year-on-year -14.02% +13.40% -7.41%
75th Percentile £550 £656 £622
90th Percentile £638 £716 £675
South East median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% +2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 38 37 55
10th Percentile £19.42 £41.15 £45.21
25th Percentile £21.29 £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 £66.00 £70.50
90th Percentile £95.75 £86.08 £75.93
South East median hourly rate £25.15 £54.87 £60.00
% change year-on-year -54.17% -8.55% +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 2 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 2 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 2 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 +2 129 £500 -17.36% 44
Wokingham -1 129 £425 +21.43% 7
Bracknell -4 18 £550 +11.39%
Maidenhead -1 1 - - 5
Slough -4 1 - - 15
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 (1.68%) Microsoft Exchange
2 4 (1.34%) SharePoint
3 3 (1.01%) 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 10 (3.36%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (3.02%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (1.68%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (1.01%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.67%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 5 (1.68%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.67%) SAP EWM
2 2 (0.67%) SAP HCM
2 2 (0.67%) SAP PS
2 2 (0.67%) SAP WM
3 1 (0.34%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
3 1 (0.34%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 84 (28.19%) Azure
2 82 (27.52%) AWS
3 45 (15.10%) GCP
4 15 (5.03%) OneDrive
5 13 (4.36%) OpenShift
6 12 (4.03%) Entra ID
7 10 (3.36%) Microsoft 365
8 9 (3.02%) SaaS
9 5 (1.68%) IaaS
9 5 (1.68%) Power Automate
9 5 (1.68%) Power Platform
10 4 (1.34%) Azure Storage
11 3 (1.01%) AWS CloudFormation
12 2 (0.67%) PowerApps
12 2 (0.67%) Slack
13 1 (0.34%) Amazon GuardDuty
13 1 (0.34%) AWS Control Tower
13 1 (0.34%) AWS KMS
13 1 (0.34%) Azure Data Factory
13 1 (0.34%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 23 (7.72%) DNS
2 16 (5.37%) DHCP
3 15 (5.03%) Network Security
4 14 (4.70%) Firewall
5 11 (3.69%) SAN
5 11 (3.69%) TCP/IP
6 10 (3.36%) Wi-Fi
7 9 (3.02%) 4G
7 9 (3.02%) VLAN
8 8 (2.68%) Unified Communications
9 7 (2.35%) Wireless
10 6 (2.01%) Wireshark
11 5 (1.68%) WebEx
12 4 (1.34%) Internet
12 4 (1.34%) Intrusion Detection
12 4 (1.34%) NAS
13 3 (1.01%) DWDM
13 3 (1.01%) FTP
13 3 (1.01%) SNMP
13 3 (1.01%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (2.35%) NoSQL
2 3 (1.01%) Power BI
3 2 (0.67%) SAP HANA
3 2 (0.67%) SQL Server
4 1 (0.34%) MongoDB
4 1 (0.34%) MySQL
4 1 (0.34%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 11 (3.69%) Burp Suite
1 11 (3.69%) JIRA
1 11 (3.69%) Metasploit
2 7 (2.35%) Jenkins
3 2 (0.67%) Visual Studio
4 1 (0.34%) Android Studio
4 1 (0.34%) Bitbucket
4 1 (0.34%) GitLab
4 1 (0.34%) NeoLoad
4 1 (0.34%) Rational DOORS
4 1 (0.34%) Subversion
General
1 131 (43.96%) Social Skills
2 63 (21.14%) Public Sector
3 58 (19.46%) Analytical Skills
4 17 (5.70%) Documentation Skills
5 9 (3.02%) Telecoms
6 7 (2.35%) Finance
7 4 (1.34%) Aerospace
7 4 (1.34%) Influencing Skills
8 3 (1.01%) Legal
8 3 (1.01%) Manufacturing
9 2 (0.67%) Electronics
9 2 (0.67%) Marketing
9 2 (0.67%) Military
9 2 (0.67%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.34%) Banking
Job Titles
1 42 (14.09%) Consultant
2 32 (10.74%) Network Consultant
3 23 (7.72%) Architect
3 23 (7.72%) Lead
4 21 (7.05%) Support Engineer
5 20 (6.71%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 20 (6.71%) Network Engineer
6 18 (6.04%) Analyst
7 15 (5.03%) Infrastructure Support
7 15 (5.03%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
8 14 (4.70%) Administrator
9 13 (4.36%) Senior
10 12 (4.03%) Cisco Engineer
10 12 (4.03%) Cisco Network Engineer
10 12 (4.03%) Penetration Tester
10 12 (4.03%) Tester
11 11 (3.69%) Juniper Engineer
11 11 (3.69%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
12 9 (3.02%) SIEM Engineer
12 9 (3.02%) Site Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (4.03%) LDAP
2 8 (2.68%) Loki
3 3 (1.01%) RFC 2544
4 2 (0.67%) .NET
4 2 (0.67%) OAuth
4 2 (0.67%) OAuth2
4 2 (0.67%) OpenID
4 2 (0.67%) RESTful
4 2 (0.67%) SAML
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%) Spring
5 1 (0.34%) Spring Boot
5 1 (0.34%) Vue
5 1 (0.34%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 14 (4.70%) Onboarding
2 13 (4.36%) Cloud Native
3 11 (3.69%) Analytical Mindset
4 9 (3.02%) Data Centre
5 8 (2.68%) Cyber Security Posture
5 8 (2.68%) Management Information System
5 8 (2.68%) Virtual Team
6 7 (2.35%) Enterprise Storage
7 6 (2.01%) Distributed Systems
7 6 (2.01%) Driving Licence
7 6 (2.01%) PMI
8 5 (1.68%) Handset
8 5 (1.68%) PKI
9 4 (1.34%) CSOC
9 4 (1.34%) Fibre Optics
9 4 (1.34%) Security Operations Centre
9 4 (1.34%) Security Posture
10 3 (1.01%) Enterprise Software
10 3 (1.01%) Legacy Systems
10 3 (1.01%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 51 (17.11%) Windows
2 44 (14.77%) Linux
3 15 (5.03%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 13 (4.36%) Windows 10
5 7 (2.35%) Windows Server
6 6 (2.01%) Kali Linux
7 4 (1.34%) Windows Server 2012
7 4 (1.34%) Windows Server 2016
7 4 (1.34%) Windows Server 2019
8 2 (0.67%) Android
8 2 (0.67%) SUSE
8 2 (0.67%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
9 1 (0.34%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.34%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 65 (21.81%) Problem-Solving
2 60 (20.13%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 49 (16.44%) ITIL
4 47 (15.77%) Roadmaps
5 46 (15.44%) Service Management
6 45 (15.10%) CI/CD
6 45 (15.10%) Migration
7 40 (13.42%) Collaborative Working
7 40 (13.42%) Cybersecurity
8 36 (12.08%) Continuous Improvement
9 31 (10.40%) ITSM
10 30 (10.07%) Change Management
10 30 (10.07%) Disaster Recovery
11 27 (9.06%) SIEM
12 26 (8.72%) DevOps
13 25 (8.39%) Agile
14 24 (8.05%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 23 (7.72%) DevSecOps
16 22 (7.38%) Performance Metrics
17 19 (6.38%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 59 (19.80%) Python
2 36 (12.08%) PowerShell
3 23 (7.72%) Bash
4 9 (3.02%) Java
5 6 (2.01%) Go
5 6 (2.01%) SQL
6 5 (1.68%) Kusto Query Language
6 5 (1.68%) Shell Script
7 4 (1.34%) C#
8 2 (0.67%) Ada
8 2 (0.67%) Assembly Language
8 2 (0.67%) C
8 2 (0.67%) MATLAB
9 1 (0.34%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 298 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 26 (8.72%) CISSP
3 21 (7.05%) Degree
4 19 (6.38%) AWS Certification
4 19 (6.38%) Azure Certification
5 16 (5.37%) CEH
5 16 (5.37%) CISM
6 11 (3.69%) Microsoft Certification
7 10 (3.36%) CCNP
7 10 (3.36%) Cisco Certification
7 10 (3.36%) Network+ Certification
8 9 (3.02%) GIAC
8 9 (3.02%) PMP
8 9 (3.02%) Server+ Certification
9 8 (2.68%) CCNA
9 8 (2.68%) PMI Certification
10 7 (2.35%) BPSS Clearance
11 6 (2.01%) GPEN
11 6 (2.01%) OSCP
12 5 (1.68%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (8.72%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 21 (7.05%) GDPR
3 17 (5.70%) NIST
4 10 (3.36%) QA
5 8 (2.68%) PMO
6 5 (1.68%) PCI DSS
7 2 (0.67%) NCSC
8 1 (0.34%) Cyber Essentials
8 1 (0.34%) Def Stans
8 1 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 1 (0.34%) SLA
System Software
1 39 (13.09%) Active Directory
2 26 (8.72%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (4.36%) vSphere
4 11 (3.69%) Hyper-V
5 9 (3.02%) Docker
6 5 (1.68%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.34%) NFS
7 1 (0.34%) Terminal Services
7 1 (0.34%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.34%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 26 (8.72%) Kubernetes
2 13 (4.36%) Argo
2 13 (4.36%) SCCM
3 11 (3.69%) Nmap
4 10 (3.36%) Ansible
4 10 (3.36%) Terraform
5 8 (2.68%) Grafana
5 8 (2.68%) Kustomize
5 8 (2.68%) Prometheus
6 7 (2.35%) NetBackup
7 6 (2.01%) Kibana
8 5 (1.68%) QRadar
8 5 (1.68%) vCenter Server
9 4 (1.34%) Cisco CUCM
9 4 (1.34%) Microsoft Intune
10 3 (1.01%) Single Sign-On
11 2 (0.67%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 2 (0.67%) Red Hat Satellite
12 1 (0.34%) Amdocs OSS
12 1 (0.34%) Cisco UCCE
Vendors
1 61 (20.47%) Cisco
2 46 (15.44%) Microsoft
3 34 (11.41%) VMware
4 32 (10.74%) Aruba
5 24 (8.05%) ServiceNow
6 23 (7.72%) Google
7 19 (6.38%) Red Hat
8 17 (5.70%) Juniper
9 14 (4.70%) CyberArk
10 13 (4.36%) BeyondTrust
11 12 (4.03%) SAP
12 10 (3.36%) NetApp
12 10 (3.36%) Splunk
13 9 (3.02%) Pure Storage
14 8 (2.68%) HP
14 8 (2.68%) Workday
15 7 (2.35%) 3PAR
15 7 (2.35%) Veritas
16 6 (2.01%) FireEye
16 6 (2.01%) Nimble Storage