DV Cleared Contract Job Trends in the South East

Developed Vetting (DV) Clearance
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the South East with a requirement for DV Cleared qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 14 December 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 11 9 8
Rank change year-on-year -2 -1 +19
Contract jobs citing DV Cleared 451 467 593
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 10.44% 12.31% 11.65%
As % of the Qualifications category 24.31% 31.86% 26.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 347 330 399
10th Percentile £463 £392 £205
25th Percentile £500 £488 £380
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £588 £588 £550
Median % change year-on-year - +6.82% -
75th Percentile £650 £675 £636
90th Percentile £738 £738 £688
England median daily rate £600 £600 £600
% change year-on-year - - +0.84%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 21 56
10th Percentile £50.74 £55.87 £48.40
25th Percentile £58.69 £56.65 £56.05
Median hourly rate £70.00 £61.71 £63.60
Median % change year-on-year +13.44% -2.98% -2.16%
75th Percentile £71.00 £65.62 £72.33
90th Percentile £96.39 £86.08 £78.00
England median hourly rate £31.33 £63.29 £65.13
% change year-on-year -50.51% -2.82% -6.96%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
South East

DV 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 the South East.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 1,855 1,466 2,203
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 42.94% 38.64% 43.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,235 979 1,300
10th Percentile £264 £267 £213
25th Percentile £413 £412 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £540 £538
Median % change year-on-year -7.41% +0.47% +1.42%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £638
90th Percentile £692 £701 £688
England median daily rate £525 £530 £550
% change year-on-year -0.99% -3.59% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 188 81 146
10th Percentile £18.50 £20.12 £26.00
25th Percentile £18.87 £27.00 £48.40
Median hourly rate £25.15 £56.75 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -55.68% -5.43% +33.33%
75th Percentile £61.13 £64.73 £70.05
90th Percentile £90.09 £75.00 £78.00
England median hourly rate £25.15 £50.00 £52.50
% change year-on-year -49.70% -4.76% +16.67%

DV Cleared
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing DV Cleared relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East.

DV Cleared job vacancy trend in the South East

DV Cleared
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing DV Cleared.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing DV Cleared

DV Cleared
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing DV Cleared in the South East over the 6 months to 14 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for DV Cleared in the South East

DV Cleared
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing DV Cleared.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing DV Cleared

DV Cleared
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing DV Cleared in the South East over the 6 months to 14 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for DV Cleared in the South East

DV Cleared
Contract Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing DV Cleared within the South East region over the 6 months to 14 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
Hampshire -1 330 £600 +2.13% 62
Thames Valley -27 109 £550 -5.66% 40
Buckinghamshire +2 56 £520 +12.43% 17
Berkshire -46 52 £563 -10.00% 23
Middlesex - 5 - -
Surrey - 3 - - 15
Oxfordshire -13 1 - -
West Sussex - 1 £570 -
DV Cleared
England

DV Cleared
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 21 (4.66%) SharePoint
2 18 (3.99%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (2.00%) Exchange Server 2003
3 9 (2.00%) Exchange Server 2007
3 9 (2.00%) Exchange Server 2010
3 9 (2.00%) Exchange Server 2013
3 9 (2.00%) Office Communications Server
3 9 (2.00%) SharePoint Server
3 9 (2.00%) Skype for Business
4 5 (1.11%) Apache
5 3 (0.67%) Documentum
6 1 (0.22%) CMS
Applications
1 19 (4.21%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (2.66%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (1.55%) Microsoft Project
4 6 (1.33%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 14 (3.10%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (1.55%) SAP EWM
2 7 (1.55%) SAP WM
3 4 (0.89%) Primavera
3 4 (0.89%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 1 (0.22%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 23 (5.10%) Azure
2 16 (3.55%) AWS
3 10 (2.22%) Entra ID
4 9 (2.00%) Microsoft 365
5 7 (1.55%) Azure DevOps
5 7 (1.55%) GitHub
6 5 (1.11%) IaaS
6 5 (1.11%) PaaS
7 3 (0.67%) GCP
7 3 (0.67%) GitHub Actions
7 3 (0.67%) Serverless
8 2 (0.44%) AWS CloudFormation
8 2 (0.44%) Google Workspace
8 2 (0.44%) Microsoft Purview
8 2 (0.44%) OneDrive
8 2 (0.44%) OpenShift
8 2 (0.44%) Power Platform
8 2 (0.44%) PowerApps
9 1 (0.22%) Amazon ELB
9 1 (0.22%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 29 (6.43%) Firewall
2 26 (5.76%) Cisco IOS
2 26 (5.76%) Junos
3 22 (4.88%) Cisco Firepower
3 22 (4.88%) Cisco ISE
4 19 (4.21%) VPN
5 18 (3.99%) DNS
5 18 (3.99%) LAN
6 16 (3.55%) SAN
7 10 (2.22%) DHCP
7 10 (2.22%) iSCSI
8 9 (2.00%) DDNS
8 9 (2.00%) Fibre Channel
9 7 (1.55%) BGP
9 7 (1.55%) MPLS
10 6 (1.33%) WAN
11 4 (0.89%) CATAPAN
11 4 (0.89%) IPsec
11 4 (0.89%) NX-OS
11 4 (0.89%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (0.89%) SAP HANA
2 3 (0.67%) SAP Data Services
3 2 (0.44%) Power BI
3 2 (0.44%) SQL Server
4 1 (0.22%) Azure SQL Database
4 1 (0.22%) Oracle Database
4 1 (0.22%) PostgreSQL
4 1 (0.22%) Relational Database
4 1 (0.22%) SQL Server Analysis Services
4 1 (0.22%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 1 (0.22%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 13 (2.88%) GitLab
2 11 (2.44%) Git
3 10 (2.22%) Jenkins
3 10 (2.22%) JIRA
4 3 (0.67%) Robot Framework
4 3 (0.67%) Sonatype Nexus
5 2 (0.44%) Cypress.io
5 2 (0.44%) MSI
5 2 (0.44%) SoapUI
6 1 (0.22%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 1 (0.22%) Selenium
6 1 (0.22%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 100 (22.17%) Social Skills
2 55 (12.20%) Public Sector
3 28 (6.21%) Finance
4 26 (5.76%) Analytical Skills
5 13 (2.88%) Military
5 13 (2.88%) Presentation Skills
6 10 (2.22%) Law
7 9 (2.00%) Manufacturing
8 6 (1.33%) Documentation Skills
9 5 (1.11%) Legal
10 4 (0.89%) Telecoms
11 3 (0.67%) Influencing Skills
12 1 (0.22%) Aerospace
12 1 (0.22%) Environmental Health
12 1 (0.22%) Marketing
12 1 (0.22%) Organisational Skills
12 1 (0.22%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 126 (27.94%) Architect
2 43 (9.53%) Network Engineer
3 40 (8.87%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
4 35 (7.76%) 3rd Line Engineer
5 33 (7.32%) Consultant
6 32 (7.10%) Infrastructure Architect
7 31 (6.87%) Support Engineer
8 27 (5.99%) Cloud Engineer
8 27 (5.99%) Lead
9 24 (5.32%) 3rd Line Network Engineer
9 24 (5.32%) Cloud Network Engineer
10 23 (5.10%) Solutions Architect
11 21 (4.66%) 3rd Line Support
11 21 (4.66%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
11 21 (4.66%) Project Manager
12 20 (4.43%) Senior
13 18 (3.99%) VMware Architect
14 17 (3.77%) Analyst
15 16 (3.55%) Java Architect
16 15 (3.33%) Network Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (1.11%) RESTful
2 4 (0.89%) BAPI
2 4 (0.89%) REST
2 4 (0.89%) SAP Smart Forms
2 4 (0.89%) Swagger
2 4 (0.89%) Web Services
3 3 (0.67%) SailPoint
4 2 (0.44%) Apache NiFi
4 2 (0.44%) SOAP
4 2 (0.44%) XML
5 1 (0.22%) .NET
5 1 (0.22%) Elastic Stack
5 1 (0.22%) FastAPI
5 1 (0.22%) Flask
5 1 (0.22%) gRPC
5 1 (0.22%) JSON
5 1 (0.22%) Kafka
5 1 (0.22%) Keycloak
5 1 (0.22%) OAuth2
5 1 (0.22%) OpenAPI
Miscellaneous
1 47 (10.42%) PKI
2 12 (2.66%) Replication
3 10 (2.22%) Fat Client
3 10 (2.22%) Thin Client
4 6 (1.33%) Greenfield Project
4 6 (1.33%) PMI
4 6 (1.33%) Security Operations Centre
5 5 (1.11%) Enterprise Software
5 5 (1.11%) Freedom of Information Act
5 5 (1.11%) Onboarding
5 5 (1.11%) Product Ownership
5 5 (1.11%) Self-Motivation
6 4 (0.89%) Analytical Mindset
6 4 (0.89%) Freedom of Information
6 4 (0.89%) Legacy Systems
7 3 (0.67%) CSOC
7 3 (0.67%) Data Protection Act
8 2 (0.44%) Algorithms
8 2 (0.44%) Client/Server
8 2 (0.44%) Smartcard
Operating Systems
1 107 (23.73%) Windows
2 53 (11.75%) Linux
3 36 (7.98%) Windows Server
4 13 (2.88%) Windows 10
5 11 (2.44%) Windows Server 2019
6 10 (2.22%) Windows 7
7 9 (2.00%) Windows Server 2003
8 7 (1.55%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 5 (1.11%) Unix
10 3 (0.67%) Debian
10 3 (0.67%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.22%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 122 (27.05%) Agile
2 44 (9.76%) ITIL
3 37 (8.20%) Problem-Solving
4 34 (7.54%) DevOps
5 33 (7.32%) Project Management
6 32 (7.10%) CI/CD
6 32 (7.10%) Service Management
6 32 (7.10%) Stakeholder Management
7 30 (6.65%) ITSM
8 27 (5.99%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 23 (5.10%) Migration
9 23 (5.10%) Risk Management
10 21 (4.66%) Scrum
11 20 (4.43%) Cybersecurity
12 17 (3.77%) Collaborative Working
12 17 (3.77%) Continuous Improvement
12 17 (3.77%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 17 (3.77%) Project Delivery
13 16 (3.55%) Architectural Design
13 16 (3.55%) Prototyping
Programming Languages
1 42 (9.31%) PowerShell
2 35 (7.76%) Python
3 21 (4.66%) Java
3 21 (4.66%) SQL
4 7 (1.55%) Bash
4 7 (1.55%) JavaScript
5 4 (0.89%) ABAP
6 3 (0.67%) Go
7 2 (0.44%) Shell Script
7 2 (0.44%) VB
8 1 (0.22%) Bicep
8 1 (0.22%) C
8 1 (0.22%) C++
8 1 (0.22%) Kusto Query Language
8 1 (0.22%) PHP
8 1 (0.22%) Rust
Qualifications
1 451 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 63 (13.97%) SC Cleared
3 11 (2.44%) Microsoft Certification
4 10 (2.22%) Degree
5 9 (2.00%) MCSE
6 7 (1.55%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 6 (1.33%) CISSP
7 6 (1.33%) PMI Certification
8 5 (1.11%) CCNP
8 5 (1.11%) Cisco Certification
8 5 (1.11%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 4 (0.89%) CCNA
9 4 (0.89%) CISM
9 4 (0.89%) JNCIS
9 4 (0.89%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
9 4 (0.89%) VCP5
9 4 (0.89%) VCP6
10 3 (0.67%) ISTQB
10 3 (0.67%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 3 (0.67%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (5.76%) NIST
2 14 (3.10%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 13 (2.88%) PMO
4 12 (2.66%) GDPR
5 10 (2.22%) SLA
6 9 (2.00%) NIST 800
7 7 (1.55%) GRC
8 5 (1.11%) NCSC
8 5 (1.11%) RMADS
9 4 (0.89%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 4 (0.89%) JSP 440
9 4 (0.89%) P3O
10 3 (0.67%) QA
11 2 (0.44%) COBIT
11 2 (0.44%) Data Quality
11 2 (0.44%) GMP
12 1 (0.22%) Actionable Recommendations
12 1 (0.22%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 1 (0.22%) ISO/IEC 42001
12 1 (0.22%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 52 (11.53%) Active Directory
2 27 (5.99%) VMware Infrastructure
3 24 (5.32%) VMware NSX
4 17 (3.77%) VMware ESXi
5 16 (3.55%) vSphere
6 10 (2.22%) NFS
7 9 (2.00%) Brightmail
7 9 (2.00%) ISA Server
8 8 (1.77%) Docker
9 4 (0.89%) Firmware
10 2 (0.44%) vCloud
10 2 (0.44%) Virtual Desktop
11 1 (0.22%) UAG
11 1 (0.22%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 28 (6.21%) vCenter Server
2 20 (4.43%) Ansible
3 14 (3.10%) Terraform
4 13 (2.88%) WMI
5 10 (2.22%) Microsoft Clustering
6 8 (1.77%) Kubernetes
6 8 (1.77%) SCCM
7 6 (1.33%) Proxmox
7 6 (1.33%) SCOM
8 5 (1.11%) Podman
8 5 (1.11%) vRealize
9 3 (0.67%) Forefront Identity Manager
9 3 (0.67%) Grafana
9 3 (0.67%) Microsoft Intune
9 3 (0.67%) NetIQ Identity Manager
9 3 (0.67%) Prometheus
9 3 (0.67%) Puppet
9 3 (0.67%) Rundeck
9 3 (0.67%) Salt
10 2 (0.44%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 70 (15.52%) Microsoft
2 69 (15.30%) VMware
3 49 (10.86%) Cisco
4 47 (10.42%) Juniper
5 23 (5.10%) SAP
6 22 (4.88%) SolarWinds
7 14 (3.10%) Splunk
8 12 (2.66%) NetApp
9 10 (2.22%) Red Hat
9 10 (2.22%) Veeam
10 5 (1.11%) Broadcom
10 5 (1.11%) Nokia
10 5 (1.11%) Sparx
11 4 (0.89%) Citrix
11 4 (0.89%) NetIQ
11 4 (0.89%) Palo Alto
11 4 (0.89%) ServiceNow
11 4 (0.89%) Thales
12 3 (0.67%) BiZZdesign
12 3 (0.67%) Zscaler