Security Cleared Contract Job Trends in London

Security Clearance
England > London

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in London with a requirement for Security Cleared qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 30 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 5 10 9
Rank change year-on-year +5 -1 +4
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 3,667 1,796 2,090
As % of all contract jobs in London 18.04% 13.43% 13.05%
As % of the Qualifications category 63.63% 50.81% 52.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,849 1,279 1,411
10th Percentile £400 £400 £365
25th Percentile £463 £454 £456
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £538 £538
Median % change year-on-year +2.33% - -2.27%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £638
90th Percentile £713 £700 £725
England median daily rate £550 £538 £550
% change year-on-year +2.33% -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 42 44 18
10th Percentile £19.50 £25.04 £20.84
25th Percentile £28.25 - £24.18
Median hourly rate £55.00 £25.15 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +118.69% -44.11% -25.00%
75th Percentile £73.00 - £69.56
90th Percentile £78.75 £34.67 £112.00
England median hourly rate £65.00 £25.15 £61.71
% change year-on-year +158.45% -59.24% +2.84%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
London

Security 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 London.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 5,763 3,535 3,974
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 28.34% 26.44% 24.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,176 2,380 2,551
10th Percentile £363 £351 £350
25th Percentile £456 £441 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £538 £538
Median % change year-on-year +2.33% - -2.27%
75th Percentile £645 £653 £650
90th Percentile £729 £738 £775
England median daily rate £530 £525 £525
% change year-on-year +0.95% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 106 81 60
10th Percentile £19.50 £18.87 £18.13
25th Percentile £24.88 - £25.36
Median hourly rate £54.00 £25.15 £36.65
Median % change year-on-year +114.71% -31.38% -20.76%
75th Percentile £78.75 £34.48 £57.50
90th Percentile £155.00 £63.25 £71.63
England median hourly rate £51.25 £25.15 £53.00
% change year-on-year +103.78% -52.55% -1.09%

Security Cleared
Job Vacancy Trend in London

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

Security Cleared job vacancy trend in London

Security Cleared
Daily Rate Trend in London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing Security Cleared.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing Security Cleared

Security Cleared
Daily Rate Histogram in London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Security Cleared in London over the 6 months to 30 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Security Cleared in London

Security Cleared
Hourly Rate Trend in London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing Security Cleared.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing Security Cleared

Security Cleared
Hourly Rate Histogram in London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Security Cleared in London over the 6 months to 30 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Security Cleared in London

Security Cleared
Contract Job Locations in London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Security Cleared within the London region over the 6 months to 30 September 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
Central London +10 403 £550 +4.76% 191
South London 0 107 £543 +1.88% 8
West London -34 24 £650 +62.30% 57
East London +5 7 £750 +3.45% 22
North London +4 6 £538 +5.39%
Security Cleared
England

Security Cleared
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in London 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
1 150 (4.09%) Confluence
2 93 (2.54%) SharePoint
3 48 (1.31%) SAS
4 33 (0.90%) Microsoft Exchange
5 31 (0.85%) Apache Spark
6 30 (0.82%) Apache
7 28 (0.76%) Apache Airflow
8 26 (0.71%) nginx
9 12 (0.33%) CMS
10 11 (0.30%) Tomcat
10 11 (0.30%) WebLogic
11 10 (0.27%) JBoss
12 8 (0.22%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 6 (0.16%) Palantir Foundry
14 5 (0.14%) Camunda
15 4 (0.11%) SharePoint 2013
16 3 (0.082%) Anypoint
16 3 (0.082%) Exchange Server 2013
16 3 (0.082%) Skype for Business
16 3 (0.082%) Traefik
Applications
1 46 (1.25%) Microsoft Excel
2 25 (0.68%) Microsoft Office
3 19 (0.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 18 (0.49%) AutoCAD
4 18 (0.49%) Revit
4 18 (0.49%) SOLIDWORKS
5 15 (0.41%) Microsoft Project
6 8 (0.22%) MS Visio
7 7 (0.19%) Chatbot
8 5 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
9 4 (0.11%) Adobe XD
9 4 (0.11%) Windchill
10 3 (0.082%) Adobe Creative Suite
10 3 (0.082%) Sketch
11 2 (0.055%) Gliffy
12 1 (0.027%) InDesign
12 1 (0.027%) PrintSoft PReS
12 1 (0.027%) Simulink
12 1 (0.027%) Trello
Business Applications
1 27 (0.74%) SAP S/4HANA
2 24 (0.65%) Oracle EBS
3 19 (0.52%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 16 (0.44%) Dynamics CRM
4 16 (0.44%) Oracle ERP
5 12 (0.33%) NetSuite
6 11 (0.30%) Remedy ITSM
7 7 (0.19%) Salesforce CRM
7 7 (0.19%) SAP GRC
8 6 (0.16%) Findur
8 6 (0.16%) Maximo
9 5 (0.14%) Exchequer
9 5 (0.14%) SAP FI
9 5 (0.14%) SAP QM
10 4 (0.11%) Changepoint
10 4 (0.11%) SAP CO
10 4 (0.11%) SAP ERP
10 4 (0.11%) SAP FI/CO
10 4 (0.11%) SAP PM
10 4 (0.11%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 809 (22.06%) Azure
2 780 (21.27%) AWS
3 252 (6.87%) GitHub
4 204 (5.56%) Azure DevOps
4 204 (5.56%) Power Platform
5 194 (5.29%) GCP
6 174 (4.75%) GitHub Actions
7 126 (3.44%) Serverless
8 125 (3.41%) Amazon S3
9 98 (2.67%) AWS Lambda
10 96 (2.62%) Microsoft 365
11 94 (2.56%) Amazon EKS
12 93 (2.54%) Entra ID
13 84 (2.29%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 77 (2.10%) Amazon EC2
15 70 (1.91%) PowerApps
16 64 (1.75%) Power Automate
17 62 (1.69%) Dynamics 365
17 62 (1.69%) Virtual Private Cloud
18 61 (1.66%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 89 (2.43%) Firewall
2 74 (2.02%) DNS
3 58 (1.58%) Network Security
4 40 (1.09%) VPN
5 30 (0.82%) WAN
6 19 (0.52%) DHCP
7 18 (0.49%) LAN
8 16 (0.44%) TCP/IP
9 13 (0.35%) Internet
10 12 (0.33%) BGP
10 12 (0.33%) HTTP
11 11 (0.30%) MPLS
11 11 (0.30%) Wi-Fi
12 10 (0.27%) SSL
12 10 (0.27%) WebEx
13 9 (0.25%) 4G
14 8 (0.22%) DKIM
14 8 (0.22%) DMARC
14 8 (0.22%) Kerberos
14 8 (0.22%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 136 (3.71%) Power BI
2 117 (3.19%) PostgreSQL
3 66 (1.80%) Data Warehouse
4 65 (1.77%) SQL Server
5 59 (1.61%) Amazon RDS
6 56 (1.53%) Metadata
7 52 (1.42%) Data Lake
8 45 (1.23%) MongoDB
9 44 (1.20%) NoSQL
10 40 (1.09%) Relational Database
11 37 (1.01%) Elasticsearch
12 35 (0.95%) Amazon Athena
12 35 (0.95%) MySQL
12 35 (0.95%) Oracle Database
13 34 (0.93%) Amazon Aurora
14 23 (0.63%) Redis
15 22 (0.60%) Big Data
16 20 (0.55%) Delta Lake
16 20 (0.55%) Tableau
17 19 (0.52%) Amazon Redshift
Development Applications
1 232 (6.33%) Git
2 231 (6.30%) Jenkins
3 210 (5.73%) JIRA
4 148 (4.04%) GitLab
5 55 (1.50%) Selenium
6 37 (1.01%) JMeter
7 32 (0.87%) Postman
8 31 (0.85%) Gradle
8 31 (0.85%) JUnit
9 28 (0.76%) Maven
10 26 (0.71%) SonarQube
11 25 (0.68%) Cucumber
11 25 (0.68%) Visual Studio
12 22 (0.60%) Cypress.io
12 22 (0.60%) Mockito
13 15 (0.41%) Artifactory
13 15 (0.41%) LoadRunner
13 15 (0.41%) REST Assured
14 13 (0.35%) eggPlant
15 12 (0.33%) SoapUI
General
1 954 (26.02%) Public Sector
2 807 (22.01%) Social Skills
3 326 (8.89%) Finance
4 267 (7.28%) Analytical Skills
5 122 (3.33%) Military
6 103 (2.81%) Banking
7 88 (2.40%) Influencing Skills
8 61 (1.66%) Documentation Skills
9 58 (1.58%) Law
9 58 (1.58%) Telecoms
10 54 (1.47%) Police
11 43 (1.17%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 40 (1.09%) Manufacturing
13 39 (1.06%) Organisational Skills
14 36 (0.98%) Legal
15 29 (0.79%) Marketing
16 27 (0.74%) Local Government
17 26 (0.71%) Retail
18 25 (0.68%) Aerospace
19 21 (0.57%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 696 (18.98%) Architect
2 408 (11.13%) Developer
3 355 (9.68%) Lead
4 343 (9.35%) Senior
5 260 (7.09%) DevOps Engineer
6 189 (5.15%) Data Engineer
7 175 (4.77%) Analyst
8 155 (4.23%) Consultant
9 120 (3.27%) Solutions Architect
10 119 (3.25%) Data Architect
11 113 (3.08%) Security Architect
12 108 (2.95%) Designer
13 100 (2.73%) AWS Engineer
14 97 (2.65%) Azure Engineer
15 94 (2.56%) Software Engineer
16 90 (2.45%) Java Developer
17 86 (2.35%) Technical Architect
18 82 (2.24%) User Researcher
19 81 (2.21%) Cloud Engineer
20 72 (1.96%) Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 440 (12.00%) Terraform
2 190 (5.18%) REST
3 116 (3.16%) Kafka
3 116 (3.16%) Spring
4 100 (2.73%) Spring Boot
5 93 (2.54%) React
6 87 (2.37%) RESTful
7 83 (2.26%) .NET
8 75 (2.05%) SOAP
9 65 (1.77%) JSON
10 59 (1.61%) XML
11 56 (1.53%) Middleware
11 56 (1.53%) PySpark
12 55 (1.50%) HTML
13 54 (1.47%) Node.js
14 47 (1.28%) Django
15 43 (1.17%) OAuth
16 41 (1.12%) Web Services
17 39 (1.06%) AngularJS
18 35 (0.95%) Keycloak
Miscellaneous
1 230 (6.27%) Cloud Native
2 135 (3.68%) Onboarding
3 118 (3.22%) Product Ownership
4 63 (1.72%) Data Centre
5 62 (1.69%) Management Information System
6 56 (1.53%) Distributed Systems
6 56 (1.53%) Enterprise Software
6 56 (1.53%) Legacy Systems
7 49 (1.34%) AI Agents
8 43 (1.17%) Replication
9 42 (1.15%) Cyber Threat
10 41 (1.12%) CMDB
10 41 (1.12%) Self-Motivation
11 40 (1.09%) Data Structures
12 31 (0.85%) PKI
12 31 (0.85%) Security Posture
13 30 (0.82%) Clustering
14 29 (0.79%) Security Operations Centre
15 28 (0.76%) Hybrid Cloud
16 27 (0.74%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 206 (5.62%) Linux
2 171 (4.66%) Windows
3 63 (1.72%) Windows Server
4 41 (1.12%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 35 (0.95%) Unix
6 31 (0.85%) Android
7 22 (0.60%) Mac OS
8 15 (0.41%) Apple iOS
9 13 (0.35%) VMS
10 12 (0.33%) Windows 10
11 11 (0.30%) Solaris
12 9 (0.25%) Ubuntu
12 9 (0.25%) Windows Server 2008
12 9 (0.25%) Windows Server 2019
13 7 (0.19%) Amazon Linux
13 7 (0.19%) Windows Server 2012
13 7 (0.19%) Windows Server 2016
14 5 (0.14%) AIX
15 3 (0.082%) OpenVMS
15 3 (0.082%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 876 (23.89%) Agile
2 768 (20.94%) DevOps
3 718 (19.58%) CI/CD
4 595 (16.23%) Stakeholder Management
5 451 (12.30%) Infrastructure as Code
6 406 (11.07%) Continuous Improvement
7 396 (10.80%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 389 (10.61%) AI
9 359 (9.79%) Problem-Solving
10 306 (8.34%) Migration
11 292 (7.96%) Containerisation
12 258 (7.04%) Test Automation
13 256 (6.98%) Decision-Making
14 246 (6.71%) Roadmaps
15 232 (6.33%) Cybersecurity
16 230 (6.27%) Software Engineering
17 224 (6.11%) Analytics
18 223 (6.08%) Data Modelling
19 220 (6.00%) Observability
20 208 (5.67%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 527 (14.37%) Python
2 372 (10.14%) SQL
3 310 (8.45%) Java
4 178 (4.85%) JavaScript
5 132 (3.60%) PowerShell
6 120 (3.27%) Bash
7 101 (2.75%) TypeScript
8 99 (2.70%) C#
9 44 (1.20%) Bicep
10 37 (1.01%) Groovy
11 36 (0.98%) PL/SQL
12 28 (0.76%) Scala
13 26 (0.71%) Kotlin
14 23 (0.63%) Go
15 20 (0.55%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 17 (0.46%) Shell Script
17 16 (0.44%) Apex Code
18 14 (0.38%) R
19 12 (0.33%) C++
20 11 (0.30%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 3,007 (82.00%) SC Cleared
2 483 (13.17%) DV Cleared
3 143 (3.90%) BPSS Clearance
4 105 (2.86%) Degree
5 87 (2.37%) AWS Certification
6 70 (1.91%) CISSP
7 68 (1.85%) Azure Certification
8 55 (1.50%) CISM
9 37 (1.01%) Microsoft Certification
10 35 (0.95%) PMP
11 31 (0.85%) PMI Certification
12 26 (0.71%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 26 (0.71%) Cisco Certification
13 19 (0.52%) Computer Science Degree
13 19 (0.52%) ISTQB
14 18 (0.49%) CRISC
14 18 (0.49%) CTC Cleared
15 15 (0.41%) GIAC
16 13 (0.35%) (ISC)2 CCSP
16 13 (0.35%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 195 (5.32%) QA
2 131 (3.57%) Data Quality
3 105 (2.86%) NCSC
4 87 (2.37%) Accessibility
5 82 (2.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 82 (2.24%) NIST
6 67 (1.83%) GRC
7 64 (1.75%) PMO
8 54 (1.47%) GDPR
9 26 (0.71%) SLA
10 24 (0.65%) WCAG
11 19 (0.52%) Cyber Essentials
12 17 (0.46%) Government Security Classifications
12 17 (0.46%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 13 (0.35%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 12 (0.33%) ISO 20022
15 11 (0.30%) Actionable Recommendations
16 10 (0.27%) NIST 800
16 10 (0.27%) P3O
17 9 (0.25%) COBIT
System Software
1 335 (9.14%) Docker
2 105 (2.86%) Active Directory
3 70 (1.91%) VMware Infrastructure
4 22 (0.60%) VMware ESXi
5 20 (0.55%) Virtual Machines
6 19 (0.52%) Hyper-V
7 18 (0.49%) vSphere
8 8 (0.22%) Squid
9 7 (0.19%) VMware NSX
10 6 (0.16%) Postfix
10 6 (0.16%) Virtual Desktop
11 5 (0.14%) Oracle RAC
11 5 (0.14%) Virtual Servers
12 4 (0.11%) BitLocker
12 4 (0.11%) Microsoft App-V
12 4 (0.11%) NFS
12 4 (0.11%) Varnish
13 3 (0.082%) Firmware
13 3 (0.082%) Sendmail
13 3 (0.082%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 410 (11.18%) Kubernetes
2 129 (3.52%) Grafana
3 124 (3.38%) Ansible
4 97 (2.65%) Prometheus
5 31 (0.85%) Kibana
6 30 (0.82%) Puppet
7 23 (0.63%) SCCM
8 22 (0.60%) Argo
9 21 (0.57%) Control-M
10 20 (0.55%) Istio
10 20 (0.55%) Microsoft Intune
11 19 (0.52%) Single Sign-On
11 19 (0.52%) vCenter Server
12 11 (0.30%) Jamf Pro
12 11 (0.30%) Microsoft Clustering
12 11 (0.30%) SCOM
13 10 (0.27%) Progress Chef
14 9 (0.25%) Packer
15 7 (0.19%) HP Fortify
15 7 (0.19%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 436 (11.89%) Microsoft
2 245 (6.68%) Oracle
3 155 (4.23%) ServiceNow
4 123 (3.35%) Google
5 100 (2.73%) VMware
6 93 (2.54%) Databricks
7 89 (2.43%) Splunk
8 82 (2.24%) Salesforce
9 69 (1.88%) SAP
10 45 (1.23%) IBM
11 42 (1.15%) Cisco
12 38 (1.04%) Dynatrace
13 29 (0.79%) Red Hat
14 28 (0.76%) Informatica
15 25 (0.68%) OpenAI
16 21 (0.57%) Palo Alto
16 21 (0.57%) Pega
17 20 (0.55%) MuleSoft
18 19 (0.52%) Fortinet
18 19 (0.52%) Foundry