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 18 March 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 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 1,996 751 1,905
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 37.75% 25.45% 33.84%
As % of the Qualifications category 80.16% 65.36% 75.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,353 536 1,072
10th Percentile £322 £325 £334
25th Percentile £438 £456 £465
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -4.35% +4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £700 £737
England median daily rate £525 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -4.55% - -2.28%
Number of hourly rates quoted 205 53 116
10th Percentile £16.65 £24.24 £22.55
25th Percentile £20.82 £31.25 £51.25
Median hourly rate £55.00 £61.50 £60.07
Median % change year-on-year -10.56% +2.37% +0.12%
75th Percentile £85.36 £65.62 £70.50
90th Percentile £90.09 £80.08 £85.65
England median hourly rate £29.00 £60.00 £54.03
% change year-on-year -51.67% +11.05% -9.95%

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 2,490 1,149 2,532
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 47.10% 38.94% 44.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,646 747 1,426
10th Percentile £303 £269 £263
25th Percentile £415 £419 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £518 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -5.91% - +3.77%
75th Percentile £612 £630 £638
90th Percentile £725 £700 £713
England median daily rate £520 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -0.95% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 257 80 180
10th Percentile £15.62 £19.82 £17.80
25th Percentile £19.54 £27.78 £23.88
Median hourly rate £42.25 £56.75 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -25.55% -1.05% +14.70%
75th Percentile £84.00 £68.13 £65.00
90th Percentile £88.84 £78.52 £82.29
England median hourly rate £28.50 £50.00 £38.85
% change year-on-year -43.00% +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 18 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 18 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 18 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 1,034 £495 -10.00% 150
Hampshire 0 791 £575 - 168
Berkshire +2 690 £450 -23.40% 82
Buckinghamshire +1 267 £558 +14.36% 48
Oxfordshire +9 77 £433 -26.38% 23
Surrey +12 76 £525 -19.23% 34
West Sussex +5 48 £537 -14.25% 14
Kent +2 26 £443 +26.43% 18
Sussex 0 7 £475 +9.83% 4
East Sussex +4 3 £588 +6.82% 3
Middlesex - 1 - -
Isle of Wight - 1 £81 - 6
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 50 (2.51%) SharePoint
2 40 (2.00%) Microsoft Exchange
3 18 (0.90%) Confluence
4 5 (0.25%) Apache
4 5 (0.25%) ArcGIS
4 5 (0.25%) IIS
4 5 (0.25%) Oracle Workflow
5 3 (0.15%) MS Project Server
5 3 (0.15%) Smallworld
6 2 (0.10%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.10%) GeoServer
6 2 (0.10%) NetWeaver
6 2 (0.10%) SAP EP
7 1 (0.050%) Anypoint
7 1 (0.050%) Apache Pulsar
7 1 (0.050%) BizTalk Server
7 1 (0.050%) JBoss
7 1 (0.050%) Palantir Foundry
7 1 (0.050%) SAS
7 1 (0.050%) WebLogic
Applications
1 64 (3.21%) Microsoft Excel
2 61 (3.06%) Microsoft Office
3 37 (1.85%) Microsoft Project
4 30 (1.50%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 12 (0.60%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.10%) CPLEX
6 2 (0.10%) Lectora
6 2 (0.10%) Oracle Smart View
6 2 (0.10%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.050%) Autodesk Inventor
7 1 (0.050%) CATIA
7 1 (0.050%) MicroStation
7 1 (0.050%) PTC Creo
7 1 (0.050%) Siemens NX
7 1 (0.050%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 31 (1.55%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 25 (1.25%) SAP S/4HANA
3 7 (0.35%) Oracle Assets
3 7 (0.35%) Oracle ERP
3 7 (0.35%) Oracle Payables
3 7 (0.35%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
3 7 (0.35%) SAP PSCD
4 6 (0.30%) SAP BRIM
4 6 (0.30%) SAP HR
4 6 (0.30%) SAP Hybris
4 6 (0.30%) SAP Payroll
5 5 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
5 5 (0.25%) Teamcenter
6 4 (0.20%) Remedy ITSM
7 3 (0.15%) Payment Gateway
7 3 (0.15%) Primavera
7 3 (0.15%) SAP HCM
8 2 (0.10%) Oracle General Ledger
8 2 (0.10%) Oracle Receivables
8 2 (0.10%) SAP CRM
Cloud Services
1 276 (13.83%) Azure
2 191 (9.57%) AWS
3 87 (4.36%) GCP
4 79 (3.96%) Entra ID
5 71 (3.56%) Microsoft 365
6 49 (2.45%) Azure DevOps
7 44 (2.20%) OpenShift
7 44 (2.20%) Power Platform
8 36 (1.80%) GitHub
9 28 (1.40%) IaaS
9 28 (1.40%) PaaS
10 21 (1.05%) GitHub Actions
11 20 (1.00%) OneDrive
12 15 (0.75%) Cloud Computing
12 15 (0.75%) SaaS
13 14 (0.70%) Serverless
14 12 (0.60%) AWS CloudFormation
14 12 (0.60%) Power Automate
14 12 (0.60%) PowerApps
15 11 (0.55%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 154 (7.72%) Firewall
2 93 (4.66%) DNS
2 93 (4.66%) WAN
3 89 (4.46%) LAN
4 76 (3.81%) BGP
5 71 (3.56%) OSPF
6 64 (3.21%) Network Security
7 61 (3.06%) DHCP
8 49 (2.45%) VPN
9 39 (1.95%) TCP/IP
10 36 (1.80%) Junos
11 33 (1.65%) Cisco ISE
12 30 (1.50%) Wireless
13 29 (1.45%) IPsec
14 26 (1.30%) Ethernet VPN
15 25 (1.25%) VXLAN
16 23 (1.15%) BIG-IP
16 23 (1.15%) MPLS
17 22 (1.10%) Structured Cabling
18 21 (1.05%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 41 (2.05%) SQL Server
2 39 (1.95%) Power BI
3 27 (1.35%) PostgreSQL
4 12 (0.60%) Oracle Database
5 11 (0.55%) Metadata
5 11 (0.55%) Relational Database
6 10 (0.50%) Azure SQL Database
6 10 (0.50%) Redis
7 8 (0.40%) MongoDB
7 8 (0.40%) Oracle Reports
8 7 (0.35%) NoSQL
8 7 (0.35%) Oracle Database 12c
8 7 (0.35%) SAP HANA
9 6 (0.30%) MySQL
10 5 (0.25%) Data Warehouse
10 5 (0.25%) Metadata Repository
10 5 (0.25%) SAP Data Services
11 4 (0.20%) GIS
12 3 (0.15%) Oracle BI Publisher
12 3 (0.15%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 59 (2.96%) JIRA
2 44 (2.20%) Git
3 41 (2.05%) Rational DOORS
4 39 (1.95%) Jenkins
5 37 (1.85%) GitLab
6 22 (1.10%) Burp Suite
6 22 (1.10%) Metasploit
7 10 (0.50%) Visual Studio
8 8 (0.40%) Artifactory
8 8 (0.40%) Maven
8 8 (0.40%) SonarQube
9 7 (0.35%) Android Studio
9 7 (0.35%) Subversion
10 6 (0.30%) JUnit
10 6 (0.30%) Robot Framework
11 5 (0.25%) Bitbucket
11 5 (0.25%) Gradle
11 5 (0.25%) Sonatype Nexus
12 4 (0.20%) Cypress.io
12 4 (0.20%) Eclipse
General
1 507 (25.40%) Social Skills
2 327 (16.38%) Public Sector
3 197 (9.87%) Analytical Skills
4 117 (5.86%) Finance
5 90 (4.51%) Aerospace
6 76 (3.81%) Documentation Skills
7 44 (2.20%) Military
8 34 (1.70%) Influencing Skills
9 32 (1.60%) Legal
10 31 (1.55%) Manufacturing
10 31 (1.55%) Telecoms
11 20 (1.00%) Presentation Skills
12 19 (0.95%) Law
13 15 (0.75%) Marketing
14 14 (0.70%) Organisational Skills
15 12 (0.60%) Billing
16 8 (0.40%) Advertising
16 8 (0.40%) Electronics
17 7 (0.35%) Aviation
18 6 (0.30%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 318 (15.93%) Architect
2 181 (9.07%) Senior
3 147 (7.36%) Lead
4 143 (7.16%) Analyst
5 123 (6.16%) Network Engineer
6 118 (5.91%) Consultant
7 112 (5.61%) Developer
8 63 (3.16%) Project Manager
9 60 (3.01%) Technical Architect
10 55 (2.76%) Delivery Manager
11 54 (2.71%) Tester
12 50 (2.51%) Enterprise Architect
13 49 (2.45%) Product Manager
13 49 (2.45%) Support Engineer
14 48 (2.40%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 46 (2.30%) Security Architect
16 45 (2.25%) DevOps Engineer
17 39 (1.95%) Product Delivery Manager
18 36 (1.80%) IT Engineer
19 34 (1.70%) Infrastructure Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (1.70%) LDAP
2 33 (1.65%) REST
3 29 (1.45%) React
4 28 (1.40%) .NET
5 22 (1.10%) 802.1X
5 22 (1.10%) JSON
6 20 (1.00%) RESTful
7 19 (0.95%) Elastic Stack
8 18 (0.90%) Kafka
9 17 (0.85%) AngularJS
9 17 (0.85%) Oracle Fusion
9 17 (0.85%) XML
10 16 (0.80%) SailPoint
10 16 (0.80%) SOAP
11 12 (0.60%) OAuth
11 12 (0.60%) Web Services
12 11 (0.55%) CSS
12 11 (0.55%) Loki
12 11 (0.55%) Oracle GoldenGate
12 11 (0.55%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 96 (4.81%) Data Centre
2 86 (4.31%) PKI
3 72 (3.61%) Product Ownership
4 51 (2.56%) Onboarding
5 42 (2.10%) Management Information System
6 32 (1.60%) Data Structures
7 31 (1.55%) Self-Motivation
8 28 (1.40%) Cloud Native
9 26 (1.30%) Security Operations Centre
10 25 (1.25%) Replication
11 24 (1.20%) Clustering
12 22 (1.10%) Analytical Mindset
13 21 (1.05%) Security Posture
14 20 (1.00%) Driving Licence
15 17 (0.85%) Cyber Threat
15 17 (0.85%) Distributed Systems
16 14 (0.70%) Legacy Systems
17 13 (0.65%) Private Cloud
17 13 (0.65%) Public Cloud
17 13 (0.65%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 278 (13.93%) Windows
2 192 (9.62%) Linux
3 74 (3.71%) Windows Server
4 37 (1.85%) Windows 10
5 33 (1.65%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 17 (0.85%) Android
7 15 (0.75%) Unix
8 13 (0.65%) Ubuntu
9 9 (0.45%) Windows 7
10 7 (0.35%) Kali Linux
10 7 (0.35%) Windows Server 2016
11 6 (0.30%) Mac OS
12 5 (0.25%) Windows Server 2019
13 4 (0.20%) Apple iOS
13 4 (0.20%) CentOS
14 3 (0.15%) Debian
14 3 (0.15%) Embedded Linux
15 2 (0.10%) SUSE
15 2 (0.10%) VMS
15 2 (0.10%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 368 (18.44%) Agile
2 229 (11.47%) Problem-Solving
3 205 (10.27%) ITIL
4 193 (9.67%) DevOps
5 190 (9.52%) CI/CD
5 190 (9.52%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 175 (8.77%) Continuous Improvement
7 174 (8.72%) Migration
8 173 (8.67%) Stakeholder Management
9 153 (7.67%) Cybersecurity
9 153 (7.67%) Roadmaps
10 129 (6.46%) Service Management
11 114 (5.71%) ITSM
12 110 (5.51%) Project Management
13 92 (4.61%) SIEM
14 88 (4.41%) Change Management
15 82 (4.11%) Decision-Making
16 81 (4.06%) DevSecOps
17 79 (3.96%) Infrastructure Engineering
18 78 (3.91%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 195 (9.77%) Python
2 159 (7.97%) PowerShell
3 59 (2.96%) Java
4 58 (2.91%) Bash
4 58 (2.91%) SQL
5 40 (2.00%) C#
6 39 (1.95%) JavaScript
7 25 (1.25%) C++
8 21 (1.05%) Kusto Query Language
9 17 (0.85%) TypeScript
10 13 (0.65%) Shell Script
11 12 (0.60%) C
11 12 (0.60%) Go
12 9 (0.45%) ABAP
12 9 (0.45%) Korn
13 8 (0.40%) Embedded C++
13 8 (0.40%) PL/SQL
14 7 (0.35%) Bicep
15 5 (0.25%) T-SQL
16 3 (0.15%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 1,255 (62.88%) SC Cleared
2 628 (31.46%) DV Cleared
3 158 (7.92%) Degree
4 65 (3.26%) Cisco Certification
5 50 (2.51%) CISSP
6 49 (2.45%) CCNP
7 44 (2.20%) BPSS Clearance
8 28 (1.40%) CISM
9 27 (1.35%) PMP
10 23 (1.15%) PMI Certification
11 22 (1.10%) CEH
12 21 (1.05%) CCNA
13 19 (0.95%) Azure Certification
14 18 (0.90%) GIAC
15 16 (0.80%) AWS Certification
15 16 (0.80%) JNCIS
16 15 (0.75%) CHECK Team Member
16 15 (0.75%) Computer Science Degree
17 13 (0.65%) CREST Certified
17 13 (0.65%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 85 (4.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 84 (4.21%) NIST
3 57 (2.86%) GDPR
4 55 (2.76%) PMO
5 51 (2.56%) NCSC
6 47 (2.35%) QA
7 23 (1.15%) Data Quality
7 23 (1.15%) SLA
8 17 (0.85%) PCI DSS
9 15 (0.75%) Accessibility
9 15 (0.75%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 15 (0.75%) JSP 440
10 13 (0.65%) GRC
11 12 (0.60%) NIST 800
12 10 (0.50%) COBIT
13 6 (0.30%) Government Security Classifications
14 5 (0.25%) Cyber Essentials
14 5 (0.25%) Def Stans
14 5 (0.25%) P3O
15 4 (0.20%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 177 (8.87%) Active Directory
2 92 (4.61%) VMware Infrastructure
3 50 (2.51%) Docker
4 34 (1.70%) vSphere
5 32 (1.60%) VMware NSX
6 17 (0.85%) VMware ESXi
7 11 (0.55%) Hyper-V
8 10 (0.50%) Firmware
8 10 (0.50%) vCloud
8 10 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
9 9 (0.45%) Oracle RAC
10 8 (0.40%) Virtual Machines
11 3 (0.15%) NFS
12 1 (0.050%) KVM
12 1 (0.050%) RHEV
12 1 (0.050%) Sendmail
12 1 (0.050%) Terminal Services
12 1 (0.050%) UAG
12 1 (0.050%) Xen
Systems Management
1 102 (5.11%) Kubernetes
2 68 (3.41%) Terraform
3 67 (3.36%) Ansible
4 46 (2.30%) Grafana
4 46 (2.30%) vCenter Server
5 45 (2.25%) Prometheus
6 33 (1.65%) Argo
7 28 (1.40%) SCCM
8 24 (1.20%) Nmap
9 22 (1.10%) FortiGate
10 18 (0.90%) Microsoft Intune
11 17 (0.85%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 15 (0.75%) Single Sign-On
12 15 (0.75%) WMI
13 13 (0.65%) Kibana
14 11 (0.55%) Kustomize
15 10 (0.50%) Oracle RMAN
16 9 (0.45%) Nagios
16 9 (0.45%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
16 9 (0.45%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 222 (11.12%) Microsoft
2 182 (9.12%) VMware
3 180 (9.02%) Cisco
4 83 (4.16%) Juniper
4 83 (4.16%) ServiceNow
5 78 (3.91%) SAP
6 65 (3.26%) Red Hat
7 61 (3.06%) Splunk
8 60 (3.01%) Aruba
9 46 (2.30%) SolarWinds
10 44 (2.20%) Oracle
11 43 (2.15%) F5
12 39 (1.95%) Palo Alto
13 37 (1.85%) Google
14 34 (1.70%) IBM
15 33 (1.65%) CyberArk
16 32 (1.60%) Sparx
17 29 (1.45%) BeyondTrust
18 25 (1.25%) CheckPoint
19 17 (0.85%) Extreme Networks