Security Cleared Contract Job Trends in the South East

Security Clearance
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the South East with a requirement for Security Cleared qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 26 March 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 2,068 759 1,909
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 38.27% 25.83% 33.96%
As % of the Qualifications category 81.45% 65.26% 75.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,409 550 1,091
10th Percentile £339 £337 £351
25th Percentile £450 £456 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -4.35% +4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £660
90th Percentile £725 £700 £738
England median daily rate £525 £545 £550
% change year-on-year -3.67% -0.91% -2.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 212 53 117
10th Percentile £17.17 £24.24 £22.56
25th Percentile £22.79 £31.25 £51.75
Median hourly rate £60.00 £61.50 £61.63
Median % change year-on-year -2.43% -0.22% +2.72%
75th Percentile £85.36 £65.62 £75.00
90th Percentile £90.09 £79.67 £85.65
England median hourly rate £47.50 £60.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year -20.83% +9.09% -8.33%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
South East

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 the South East.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 2,539 1,163 2,523
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 46.98% 39.58% 44.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,684 761 1,424
10th Percentile £306 £295 £263
25th Percentile £425 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% - +4.76%
75th Percentile £623 £630 £638
90th Percentile £725 £688 £719
England median daily rate £520 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -0.95% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 264 85 191
10th Percentile £15.62 £20.03 £17.80
25th Percentile £20.50 £28.00 £24.63
Median hourly rate £48.61 £56.75 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -14.34% -1.05% +10.29%
75th Percentile £84.00 £70.00 £66.87
90th Percentile £88.00 £76.51 £84.40
England median hourly rate £35.00 £50.00 £38.85
% change year-on-year -30.00% +28.70% -22.30%

Security Cleared
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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

Security Cleared job vacancy trend in the South East

Security Cleared
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

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

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

Security Cleared
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Security Cleared in the South East over the 6 months to 26 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Security Cleared in the South East

Security Cleared
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

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

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

Security Cleared
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Security Cleared in the South East over the 6 months to 26 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Security Cleared in the South East

Security 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 Security Cleared within the South East region over the 6 months to 26 March 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
Thames Valley +1 1,065 £500 -9.09% 170
Hampshire 0 820 £588 +3.07% 149
Berkshire +2 689 £450 -22.41% 96
Buckinghamshire +1 294 £560 +13.36% 57
Surrey +9 87 £525 -15.15% 44
Oxfordshire +13 82 £445 -24.26% 20
West Sussex +6 46 £550 -12.18% 13
Kent +2 26 £443 +4.12% 17
Sussex +1 7 £475 +9.83% 4
East Sussex 0 3 £588 +6.82% 3
Middlesex - 1 - -
Home Counties - 1 £500 -
Isle of Wight - 1 £81 -
Security Cleared
England

Security 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 46 (2.22%) SharePoint
2 36 (1.74%) Microsoft Exchange
3 17 (0.82%) Confluence
4 5 (0.24%) Apache
4 5 (0.24%) ArcGIS
4 5 (0.24%) IIS
4 5 (0.24%) NetWeaver
4 5 (0.24%) Oracle Workflow
4 5 (0.24%) SAP EP
5 4 (0.19%) Oracle Application Server
6 3 (0.15%) MS Project Server
6 3 (0.15%) Smallworld
7 2 (0.097%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.097%) GeoServer
8 1 (0.048%) Anypoint
8 1 (0.048%) Apache Pulsar
8 1 (0.048%) BizTalk Server
8 1 (0.048%) Exchange Server 2010
8 1 (0.048%) Palantir Foundry
8 1 (0.048%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 64 (3.09%) Microsoft Excel
2 61 (2.95%) Microsoft Office
3 40 (1.93%) Microsoft Project
4 30 (1.45%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 12 (0.58%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.097%) CPLEX
6 2 (0.097%) Lectora
6 2 (0.097%) Oracle Smart View
6 2 (0.097%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.048%) Autodesk Inventor
7 1 (0.048%) CATIA
7 1 (0.048%) MicroStation
7 1 (0.048%) PTC Creo
7 1 (0.048%) Siemens NX
7 1 (0.048%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 32 (1.55%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 31 (1.50%) SAP S/4HANA
3 8 (0.39%) SAP PSCD
4 7 (0.34%) Oracle Assets
4 7 (0.34%) Oracle ERP
4 7 (0.34%) Oracle Payables
4 7 (0.34%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 6 (0.29%) Salesforce CRM
5 6 (0.29%) SAP BRIM
5 6 (0.29%) SAP Hybris
6 5 (0.24%) Remedy ITSM
6 5 (0.24%) SAP CRM
6 5 (0.24%) Teamcenter
7 3 (0.15%) Payment Gateway
7 3 (0.15%) Primavera
7 3 (0.15%) SAP HCM
8 2 (0.097%) Oracle Cash Management
8 2 (0.097%) Oracle General Ledger
8 2 (0.097%) Oracle Receivables
8 2 (0.097%) SAP EWM
Cloud Services
1 280 (13.54%) Azure
2 191 (9.24%) AWS
3 83 (4.01%) GCP
4 72 (3.48%) Entra ID
5 66 (3.19%) Microsoft 365
6 52 (2.51%) Azure DevOps
7 48 (2.32%) OpenShift
8 41 (1.98%) Power Platform
9 36 (1.74%) GitHub
10 30 (1.45%) IaaS
10 30 (1.45%) PaaS
11 21 (1.02%) GitHub Actions
12 15 (0.73%) Cloud Computing
13 14 (0.68%) SaaS
13 14 (0.68%) Serverless
14 12 (0.58%) AWS CloudFormation
14 12 (0.58%) OneDrive
15 11 (0.53%) OCI
15 11 (0.53%) SuccessFactors
16 10 (0.48%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 159 (7.69%) Firewall
2 100 (4.84%) WAN
3 96 (4.64%) DNS
3 96 (4.64%) LAN
4 80 (3.87%) BGP
5 75 (3.63%) OSPF
6 66 (3.19%) Network Security
7 64 (3.09%) DHCP
8 50 (2.42%) VPN
9 40 (1.93%) TCP/IP
10 37 (1.79%) Junos
11 33 (1.60%) Cisco ISE
11 33 (1.60%) Wireless
12 28 (1.35%) IPsec
13 27 (1.31%) Ethernet VPN
14 26 (1.26%) VXLAN
15 24 (1.16%) BIG-IP
16 23 (1.11%) MPLS
16 23 (1.11%) SD-WAN
16 23 (1.11%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 43 (2.08%) SQL Server
2 36 (1.74%) Power BI
3 27 (1.31%) PostgreSQL
4 14 (0.68%) Relational Database
5 12 (0.58%) Oracle Database
5 12 (0.58%) Oracle Reports
6 11 (0.53%) Metadata
7 10 (0.48%) Azure SQL Database
7 10 (0.48%) Redis
8 9 (0.44%) Data Warehouse
9 8 (0.39%) MongoDB
10 7 (0.34%) Oracle Database 12c
10 7 (0.34%) SAP HANA
11 6 (0.29%) MySQL
11 6 (0.29%) Oracle ODI
12 5 (0.24%) Metadata Repository
12 5 (0.24%) NoSQL
12 5 (0.24%) SAP Data Services
13 4 (0.19%) GIS
14 3 (0.15%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 56 (2.71%) JIRA
2 42 (2.03%) Git
3 41 (1.98%) Rational DOORS
4 37 (1.79%) GitLab
4 37 (1.79%) Jenkins
5 19 (0.92%) Burp Suite
5 19 (0.92%) Metasploit
6 11 (0.53%) SonarQube
7 10 (0.48%) Visual Studio
8 9 (0.44%) Postman
9 8 (0.39%) Artifactory
9 8 (0.39%) Maven
10 7 (0.34%) Android Studio
10 7 (0.34%) Subversion
11 6 (0.29%) JUnit
11 6 (0.29%) Robot Framework
12 5 (0.24%) Bitbucket
12 5 (0.24%) Gradle
12 5 (0.24%) Sonatype Nexus
13 4 (0.19%) Cypress.io
General
1 520 (25.15%) Social Skills
2 322 (15.57%) Public Sector
3 198 (9.57%) Analytical Skills
4 126 (6.09%) Finance
5 93 (4.50%) Aerospace
6 76 (3.68%) Documentation Skills
7 44 (2.13%) Military
8 36 (1.74%) Legal
9 35 (1.69%) Influencing Skills
10 32 (1.55%) Manufacturing
10 32 (1.55%) Telecoms
11 20 (0.97%) Law
11 20 (0.97%) Presentation Skills
12 17 (0.82%) Organisational Skills
13 15 (0.73%) Marketing
14 12 (0.58%) Billing
15 11 (0.53%) Advertising
16 10 (0.48%) Electronics
17 7 (0.34%) Aviation
18 6 (0.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 340 (16.44%) Architect
2 197 (9.53%) Senior
3 157 (7.59%) Lead
4 144 (6.96%) Analyst
5 129 (6.24%) Network Engineer
6 124 (6.00%) Consultant
7 121 (5.85%) Developer
8 72 (3.48%) Project Manager
9 66 (3.19%) Technical Architect
10 55 (2.66%) Delivery Manager
11 54 (2.61%) Tester
12 51 (2.47%) Enterprise Architect
13 50 (2.42%) Security Architect
14 49 (2.37%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 49 (2.37%) Product Manager
15 44 (2.13%) Support Engineer
16 42 (2.03%) DevOps Engineer
17 39 (1.89%) Product Delivery Manager
18 37 (1.79%) Software Engineer
19 36 (1.74%) SOC Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (1.89%) REST
2 34 (1.64%) LDAP
3 31 (1.50%) .NET
3 31 (1.50%) React
4 25 (1.21%) RESTful
5 22 (1.06%) 802.1X
5 22 (1.06%) JSON
6 19 (0.92%) AngularJS
6 19 (0.92%) Elastic Stack
7 18 (0.87%) Kafka
8 17 (0.82%) Oracle Fusion
8 17 (0.82%) XML
9 16 (0.77%) SailPoint
9 16 (0.77%) SOAP
10 12 (0.58%) OAuth
11 11 (0.53%) CSS
11 11 (0.53%) Loki
11 11 (0.53%) Oracle GoldenGate
11 11 (0.53%) Web Services
11 11 (0.53%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 96 (4.64%) Data Centre
2 91 (4.40%) PKI
3 77 (3.72%) Product Ownership
4 52 (2.51%) Onboarding
5 41 (1.98%) Management Information System
6 36 (1.74%) Self-Motivation
7 34 (1.64%) Replication
8 32 (1.55%) Data Structures
9 27 (1.31%) Cloud Native
9 27 (1.31%) Security Operations Centre
10 26 (1.26%) Clustering
11 24 (1.16%) Analytical Mindset
12 21 (1.02%) Security Posture
13 19 (0.92%) Distributed Systems
13 19 (0.92%) Driving Licence
14 18 (0.87%) Cyber Threat
14 18 (0.87%) Public Cloud
15 16 (0.77%) Virtual Team
16 14 (0.68%) Legacy Systems
17 13 (0.63%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 279 (13.49%) Windows
2 198 (9.57%) Linux
3 75 (3.63%) Windows Server
4 34 (1.64%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 31 (1.50%) Windows 10
6 16 (0.77%) Android
6 16 (0.77%) Unix
7 13 (0.63%) Ubuntu
8 9 (0.44%) Windows 7
9 7 (0.34%) Windows Server 2016
10 6 (0.29%) Embedded Linux
10 6 (0.29%) Mac OS
11 5 (0.24%) Windows Server 2019
12 4 (0.19%) CentOS
12 4 (0.19%) Debian
12 4 (0.19%) Kali Linux
13 3 (0.15%) Apple iOS
14 2 (0.097%) SUSE
14 2 (0.097%) VMS
14 2 (0.097%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 392 (18.96%) Agile
2 231 (11.17%) Problem-Solving
3 210 (10.15%) ITIL
4 196 (9.48%) DevOps
5 192 (9.28%) CI/CD
5 192 (9.28%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 179 (8.66%) Stakeholder Management
7 178 (8.61%) Migration
8 176 (8.51%) Continuous Improvement
9 160 (7.74%) Cybersecurity
10 153 (7.40%) Roadmaps
11 130 (6.29%) Service Management
12 115 (5.56%) Project Management
13 113 (5.46%) ITSM
14 91 (4.40%) SIEM
15 89 (4.30%) Change Management
16 88 (4.26%) DevSecOps
17 83 (4.01%) Decision-Making
18 82 (3.97%) Collaborative Working
19 81 (3.92%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 190 (9.19%) Python
2 154 (7.45%) PowerShell
3 68 (3.29%) Java
4 61 (2.95%) SQL
5 54 (2.61%) Bash
6 42 (2.03%) JavaScript
7 41 (1.98%) C#
8 30 (1.45%) C++
9 21 (1.02%) Kusto Query Language
10 17 (0.82%) TypeScript
11 15 (0.73%) C
12 14 (0.68%) Shell Script
13 12 (0.58%) Go
14 11 (0.53%) ABAP
15 9 (0.44%) Korn
15 9 (0.44%) PL/SQL
16 7 (0.34%) Bicep
16 7 (0.34%) Embedded C++
17 5 (0.24%) T-SQL
18 3 (0.15%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 1,291 (62.43%) SC Cleared
2 678 (32.79%) DV Cleared
3 162 (7.83%) Degree
4 68 (3.29%) Cisco Certification
5 51 (2.47%) CCNP
6 48 (2.32%) CISSP
7 45 (2.18%) BPSS Clearance
8 26 (1.26%) CISM
8 26 (1.26%) PMP
9 23 (1.11%) PMI Certification
10 21 (1.02%) CCNA
11 18 (0.87%) CEH
11 18 (0.87%) GIAC
12 17 (0.82%) Azure Certification
12 17 (0.82%) JNCIS
13 15 (0.73%) CHECK Team Member
13 15 (0.73%) Computer Science Degree
14 14 (0.68%) AWS Certification
15 13 (0.63%) CREST Certified
15 13 (0.63%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 86 (4.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 86 (4.16%) NIST
2 58 (2.80%) GDPR
3 56 (2.71%) PMO
4 52 (2.51%) NCSC
5 46 (2.22%) QA
6 23 (1.11%) Data Quality
6 23 (1.11%) SLA
7 17 (0.82%) PCI DSS
8 16 (0.77%) Accessibility
8 16 (0.77%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 16 (0.77%) JSP 440
9 13 (0.63%) GRC
10 12 (0.58%) NIST 800
11 10 (0.48%) COBIT
12 6 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials
12 6 (0.29%) Def Stans
12 6 (0.29%) Government Security Classifications
13 5 (0.24%) P3O
14 4 (0.19%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 172 (8.32%) Active Directory
2 97 (4.69%) VMware Infrastructure
3 46 (2.22%) Docker
4 42 (2.03%) VMware NSX
5 36 (1.74%) vSphere
6 22 (1.06%) VMware ESXi
7 12 (0.58%) Firmware
8 11 (0.53%) Hyper-V
8 11 (0.53%) vCloud
9 10 (0.48%) Virtual Desktop
10 9 (0.44%) Oracle RAC
11 6 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
12 3 (0.15%) NFS
13 2 (0.097%) Embedded Firmware
14 1 (0.048%) KVM
14 1 (0.048%) RHEV
14 1 (0.048%) Sendmail
14 1 (0.048%) Terminal Services
14 1 (0.048%) UAG
14 1 (0.048%) Xen
Systems Management
1 105 (5.08%) Kubernetes
2 67 (3.24%) Ansible
2 67 (3.24%) Terraform
3 51 (2.47%) vCenter Server
4 46 (2.22%) Grafana
5 45 (2.18%) Prometheus
6 36 (1.74%) Argo
7 24 (1.16%) FortiGate
8 22 (1.06%) SCCM
9 21 (1.02%) Nmap
10 17 (0.82%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 17 (0.82%) Microsoft Intune
11 15 (0.73%) WMI
12 13 (0.63%) Kibana
12 13 (0.63%) Single Sign-On
13 11 (0.53%) Kustomize
14 10 (0.48%) Oracle RMAN
15 9 (0.44%) Nagios
15 9 (0.44%) NetIQ Identity Manager
15 9 (0.44%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
Vendors
1 218 (10.54%) Microsoft
2 195 (9.43%) VMware
3 182 (8.80%) Cisco
4 93 (4.50%) SAP
5 87 (4.21%) Juniper
6 78 (3.77%) ServiceNow
7 70 (3.38%) Red Hat
8 63 (3.05%) Splunk
9 60 (2.90%) Aruba
10 51 (2.47%) Oracle
11 48 (2.32%) SolarWinds
12 44 (2.13%) F5
13 40 (1.93%) Palo Alto
14 34 (1.64%) Google
14 34 (1.64%) IBM
15 33 (1.60%) Sparx
16 32 (1.55%) CyberArk
17 29 (1.40%) BeyondTrust
18 26 (1.26%) CheckPoint
19 18 (0.87%) Citrix