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 15 April 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 2,145 802 1,892
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 37.91% 26.87% 33.83%
As % of the Qualifications category 82.18% 65.63% 75.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,464 569 1,093
10th Percentile £351 £350 £388
25th Percentile £454 £463 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £532 £550 £580
Median % change year-on-year -3.31% -5.17% +5.87%
75th Percentile £630 £630 £675
90th Percentile £725 £700 £738
England median daily rate £525 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -2.33% -2.27% -1.79%
Number of hourly rates quoted 219 52 116
10th Percentile £18.32 £20.52 £21.25
25th Percentile £25.15 £30.21 £51.45
Median hourly rate £67.50 £60.25 £61.62
Median % change year-on-year +12.03% -2.23% +0.06%
75th Percentile £85.13 £70.13 £78.07
90th Percentile £90.09 £80.09 £87.46
England median hourly rate £54.00 £57.50 £52.00
% change year-on-year -6.09% +10.58% -13.33%

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 2,610 1,222 2,518
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 46.13% 40.94% 45.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,738 786 1,414
10th Percentile £310 £300 £296
25th Percentile £430 £450 £430
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £541 £550
Median % change year-on-year -3.00% -1.59% +4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £644
90th Percentile £725 £688 £721
England median daily rate £520 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -0.95% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 270 85 211
10th Percentile £15.98 £19.09 £16.25
25th Percentile £20.95 £28.00 £24.81
Median hourly rate £53.25 £56.75 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -6.17% -1.05% +4.37%
75th Percentile £84.00 £70.00 £65.87
90th Percentile £88.00 £77.89 £84.45
England median hourly rate £45.46 £50.00 £38.45
% change year-on-year -9.08% +30.03% -26.07%

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 15 April 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 15 April 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 15 April 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 1,122 £500 -9.09% 99
Hampshire 0 834 £600 +9.09% 159
Berkshire +1 697 £453 -21.56% 55
Buckinghamshire 0 342 £560 +9.27% 30
Surrey +8 85 £525 -9.64% 54
Oxfordshire +12 83 £450 -23.40% 15
West Sussex +5 51 £532 -7.24% 12
Kent +4 27 £443 +26.43% 9
Sussex +1 7 £475 +9.83% 6
East Sussex +2 4 £459 -16.55% 1
Isle of Wight - 2 £81 -
Home Counties - 2 £525 -
Middlesex - 1 - - 1
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 45 (2.10%) SharePoint
2 36 (1.68%) Microsoft Exchange
3 17 (0.79%) Confluence
4 7 (0.33%) Oracle Application Server
5 5 (0.23%) Apache
5 5 (0.23%) ArcGIS
5 5 (0.23%) IIS
5 5 (0.23%) NetWeaver
5 5 (0.23%) Oracle Workflow
5 5 (0.23%) SAP EP
6 3 (0.14%) MS Project Server
7 2 (0.093%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.093%) SAS
8 1 (0.047%) Anypoint
8 1 (0.047%) Apache Pulsar
8 1 (0.047%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.047%) BizTalk Server
8 1 (0.047%) Palantir Foundry
8 1 (0.047%) Skype for Business
8 1 (0.047%) Smallworld
Applications
1 68 (3.17%) Microsoft Excel
2 61 (2.84%) Microsoft Office
3 41 (1.91%) Microsoft Project
4 30 (1.40%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 11 (0.51%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.093%) CPLEX
6 2 (0.093%) Lectora
6 2 (0.093%) Oracle Smart View
6 2 (0.093%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.047%) Autodesk Inventor
7 1 (0.047%) CATIA
7 1 (0.047%) InVision
7 1 (0.047%) MicroStation
7 1 (0.047%) Siemens NX
7 1 (0.047%) Sketch
7 1 (0.047%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 32 (1.49%) SAP S/4HANA
2 29 (1.35%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 11 (0.51%) SAP PSCD
4 7 (0.33%) Oracle ERP
5 6 (0.28%) iTrent
5 6 (0.28%) Oracle Assets
5 6 (0.28%) Oracle Payables
5 6 (0.28%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 6 (0.28%) Remedy ITSM
5 6 (0.28%) Salesforce CRM
5 6 (0.28%) SAP BRIM
5 6 (0.28%) SAP Hybris
6 5 (0.23%) SAP CRM
7 4 (0.19%) Primavera
7 4 (0.19%) SAP EWM
7 4 (0.19%) Teamcenter
8 3 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
8 3 (0.14%) SAP HCM
9 1 (0.047%) SAP FI-CA
9 1 (0.047%) SAP IBP
Cloud Services
1 305 (14.22%) Azure
2 200 (9.32%) AWS
3 82 (3.82%) GCP
4 74 (3.45%) Entra ID
5 63 (2.94%) Microsoft 365
6 61 (2.84%) Azure DevOps
7 54 (2.52%) Power Platform
8 41 (1.91%) OpenShift
9 34 (1.59%) IaaS
9 34 (1.59%) PaaS
10 29 (1.35%) GitHub
11 20 (0.93%) GitHub Actions
12 17 (0.79%) SuccessFactors
13 16 (0.75%) SaaS
14 14 (0.65%) Serverless
15 13 (0.61%) Cloud Computing
16 11 (0.51%) AWS CloudFormation
16 11 (0.51%) OCI
17 10 (0.47%) Datadog
17 10 (0.47%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 164 (7.65%) Firewall
2 107 (4.99%) WAN
3 104 (4.85%) LAN
4 99 (4.62%) DNS
5 84 (3.92%) BGP
6 79 (3.68%) OSPF
7 68 (3.17%) DHCP
7 68 (3.17%) Network Security
8 51 (2.38%) VPN
9 40 (1.86%) TCP/IP
10 34 (1.59%) Junos
10 34 (1.59%) Wireless
11 30 (1.40%) Cisco ISE
11 30 (1.40%) Ethernet VPN
11 30 (1.40%) VXLAN
12 28 (1.31%) IPsec
13 27 (1.26%) BIG-IP
14 25 (1.17%) SD-WAN
14 25 (1.17%) VLAN
15 23 (1.07%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 55 (2.56%) SQL Server
2 48 (2.24%) Power BI
3 29 (1.35%) PostgreSQL
4 18 (0.84%) Oracle Reports
5 15 (0.70%) Data Warehouse
6 12 (0.56%) Relational Database
7 11 (0.51%) Oracle Database
7 11 (0.51%) Redis
8 10 (0.47%) Azure SQL Database
8 10 (0.47%) Metadata
9 8 (0.37%) MySQL
9 8 (0.37%) Oracle ODI
10 7 (0.33%) SAP HANA
11 6 (0.28%) NoSQL
11 6 (0.28%) Oracle Database 12c
11 6 (0.28%) Tableau
12 5 (0.23%) Metadata Repository
12 5 (0.23%) SAP Data Services
13 4 (0.19%) MongoDB
14 3 (0.14%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 51 (2.38%) JIRA
2 43 (2.00%) Git
3 41 (1.91%) GitLab
4 37 (1.72%) Rational DOORS
5 35 (1.63%) Jenkins
6 16 (0.75%) Burp Suite
6 16 (0.75%) Metasploit
7 11 (0.51%) SonarQube
8 10 (0.47%) Visual Studio
9 9 (0.42%) Postman
10 8 (0.37%) JUnit
11 7 (0.33%) Android Studio
11 7 (0.33%) Subversion
12 6 (0.28%) Artifactory
12 6 (0.28%) Robot Framework
13 5 (0.23%) Bitbucket
13 5 (0.23%) Gradle
13 5 (0.23%) Maven
13 5 (0.23%) Sonatype Nexus
14 4 (0.19%) Eclipse
General
1 511 (23.82%) Social Skills
2 308 (14.36%) Public Sector
3 206 (9.60%) Analytical Skills
4 131 (6.11%) Finance
5 95 (4.43%) Aerospace
6 75 (3.50%) Documentation Skills
7 47 (2.19%) Military
8 37 (1.72%) Legal
9 36 (1.68%) Influencing Skills
10 35 (1.63%) Telecoms
11 31 (1.45%) Manufacturing
12 24 (1.12%) Law
13 21 (0.98%) Presentation Skills
14 19 (0.89%) Organisational Skills
15 15 (0.70%) Marketing
16 13 (0.61%) Billing
17 12 (0.56%) Advertising
18 11 (0.51%) Electronics
19 7 (0.33%) Aviation
19 7 (0.33%) Police
Job Titles
1 346 (16.13%) Architect
2 210 (9.79%) Senior
3 168 (7.83%) Lead
4 156 (7.27%) Analyst
5 139 (6.48%) Developer
6 125 (5.83%) Network Engineer
7 118 (5.50%) Consultant
8 82 (3.82%) Project Manager
9 74 (3.45%) Technical Architect
10 59 (2.75%) Delivery Manager
11 57 (2.66%) Security Architect
12 55 (2.56%) Enterprise Architect
13 54 (2.52%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 54 (2.52%) Tester
14 50 (2.33%) DevOps Engineer
15 49 (2.28%) Product Manager
16 41 (1.91%) SOC Analyst
17 40 (1.86%) Software Engineer
18 39 (1.82%) Product Delivery Manager
19 36 (1.68%) Senior Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 40 (1.86%) .NET
1 40 (1.86%) REST
2 33 (1.54%) React
3 30 (1.40%) LDAP
4 29 (1.35%) RESTful
5 26 (1.21%) 802.1X
6 23 (1.07%) JSON
7 22 (1.03%) AngularJS
8 19 (0.89%) XML
9 17 (0.79%) SailPoint
9 17 (0.79%) SOAP
10 16 (0.75%) Oracle Fusion
11 15 (0.70%) Kafka
12 13 (0.61%) Elastic Stack
13 12 (0.56%) Web Services
14 11 (0.51%) Keycloak
14 11 (0.51%) OAuth
14 11 (0.51%) YAML
15 10 (0.47%) Oracle GoldenGate
15 10 (0.47%) Quarkus
Miscellaneous
1 101 (4.71%) Data Centre
2 87 (4.06%) PKI
3 77 (3.59%) Product Ownership
4 62 (2.89%) Onboarding
5 44 (2.05%) Management Information System
6 36 (1.68%) Self-Motivation
7 33 (1.54%) Data Structures
7 33 (1.54%) Replication
8 29 (1.35%) Clustering
9 27 (1.26%) Cloud Native
9 27 (1.26%) Security Operations Centre
10 25 (1.17%) Distributed Systems
11 24 (1.12%) Public Cloud
12 23 (1.07%) Analytical Mindset
13 20 (0.93%) Driving Licence
14 19 (0.89%) Cyber Threat
14 19 (0.89%) Greenfield Project
14 19 (0.89%) Security Posture
14 19 (0.89%) Virtual Team
15 17 (0.79%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 270 (12.59%) Windows
2 197 (9.18%) Linux
3 75 (3.50%) Windows Server
4 32 (1.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 23 (1.07%) Unix
6 20 (0.93%) Windows 10
7 17 (0.79%) Android
8 12 (0.56%) Ubuntu
9 7 (0.33%) Mac OS
9 7 (0.33%) Windows Server 2016
10 6 (0.28%) Embedded Linux
10 6 (0.28%) Windows 7
11 5 (0.23%) Debian
11 5 (0.23%) Windows Server 2019
12 4 (0.19%) Apple iOS
12 4 (0.19%) CentOS
13 2 (0.093%) SUSE
13 2 (0.093%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
13 2 (0.093%) VMS
13 2 (0.093%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 399 (18.60%) Agile
2 228 (10.63%) Problem-Solving
3 211 (9.84%) ITIL
4 204 (9.51%) CI/CD
4 204 (9.51%) DevOps
5 188 (8.76%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 187 (8.72%) Stakeholder Management
7 183 (8.53%) Continuous Improvement
8 179 (8.34%) Migration
9 166 (7.74%) Cybersecurity
10 142 (6.62%) Roadmaps
11 124 (5.78%) Service Management
12 117 (5.45%) ITSM
13 113 (5.27%) Project Management
14 94 (4.38%) SIEM
15 91 (4.24%) Software Engineering
16 90 (4.20%) Change Management
17 88 (4.10%) Computer Science
18 87 (4.06%) Decision-Making
19 86 (4.01%) DevSecOps
Programming Languages
1 191 (8.90%) Python
2 157 (7.32%) PowerShell
3 72 (3.36%) SQL
4 69 (3.22%) Java
5 50 (2.33%) Bash
5 50 (2.33%) C#
6 48 (2.24%) JavaScript
7 28 (1.31%) C++
8 21 (0.98%) Go
8 21 (0.98%) Kusto Query Language
9 18 (0.84%) TypeScript
10 15 (0.70%) C
11 13 (0.61%) Shell Script
12 11 (0.51%) ABAP
13 10 (0.47%) Bicep
14 9 (0.42%) Korn
15 7 (0.33%) PL/SQL
15 7 (0.33%) T-SQL
16 4 (0.19%) Embedded C++
17 3 (0.14%) Embedded C
Qualifications
1 1,345 (62.70%) SC Cleared
2 726 (33.85%) DV Cleared
3 170 (7.93%) Degree
4 74 (3.45%) Cisco Certification
5 55 (2.56%) CCNP
6 51 (2.38%) BPSS Clearance
7 45 (2.10%) CISSP
8 32 (1.49%) PMP
9 29 (1.35%) PMI Certification
10 22 (1.03%) CCNA
10 22 (1.03%) CISM
11 18 (0.84%) GIAC
12 17 (0.79%) Azure Certification
12 17 (0.79%) JNCIS
13 16 (0.75%) Computer Science Degree
14 15 (0.70%) AWS Certification
14 15 (0.70%) CHECK Team Member
15 14 (0.65%) CEH
16 13 (0.61%) CREST Certified
16 13 (0.61%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 92 (4.29%) NIST
2 90 (4.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 58 (2.70%) PMO
4 57 (2.66%) NCSC
5 55 (2.56%) QA
6 53 (2.47%) GDPR
7 26 (1.21%) Data Quality
8 21 (0.98%) SLA
9 17 (0.79%) PCI DSS
10 16 (0.75%) Accessibility
10 16 (0.75%) JSP 440
11 15 (0.70%) GRC
12 14 (0.65%) NIST 800
13 13 (0.61%) ISO/IEC 20000
14 10 (0.47%) COBIT
15 6 (0.28%) Cyber Essentials
15 6 (0.28%) Government Security Classifications
16 5 (0.23%) P3O
17 4 (0.19%) Actionable Recommendations
17 4 (0.19%) RMADS
System Software
1 166 (7.74%) Active Directory
2 100 (4.66%) VMware Infrastructure
3 46 (2.14%) Docker
4 44 (2.05%) VMware NSX
5 32 (1.49%) vSphere
6 24 (1.12%) VMware ESXi
7 14 (0.65%) Firmware
8 12 (0.56%) vCloud
9 11 (0.51%) Hyper-V
9 11 (0.51%) Virtual Desktop
10 9 (0.42%) Oracle RAC
11 6 (0.28%) Virtual Machines
12 3 (0.14%) NFS
13 2 (0.093%) Embedded Firmware
13 2 (0.093%) UAG
14 1 (0.047%) KVM
14 1 (0.047%) RHEV
14 1 (0.047%) Sendmail
14 1 (0.047%) Virtual Servers
14 1 (0.047%) Xen
Systems Management
1 99 (4.62%) Kubernetes
2 74 (3.45%) Terraform
3 64 (2.98%) Ansible
4 50 (2.33%) vCenter Server
5 37 (1.72%) Grafana
6 36 (1.68%) Prometheus
7 32 (1.49%) Argo
8 27 (1.26%) FortiGate
9 21 (0.98%) SCCM
10 18 (0.84%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 18 (0.84%) Microsoft Intune
10 18 (0.84%) Nmap
11 13 (0.61%) Kibana
12 12 (0.56%) Single Sign-On
12 12 (0.56%) WMI
13 10 (0.47%) Forefront Identity Manager
13 10 (0.47%) NetIQ Identity Manager
13 10 (0.47%) Oracle RMAN
14 9 (0.42%) Nagios
14 9 (0.42%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
Vendors
1 223 (10.40%) Microsoft
2 199 (9.28%) VMware
3 172 (8.02%) Cisco
4 106 (4.94%) SAP
5 87 (4.06%) ServiceNow
6 83 (3.87%) Juniper
7 69 (3.22%) Red Hat
8 68 (3.17%) Oracle
9 64 (2.98%) Splunk
10 52 (2.42%) Aruba
11 48 (2.24%) F5
12 46 (2.14%) SolarWinds
13 38 (1.77%) Palo Alto
14 33 (1.54%) Google
15 32 (1.49%) BeyondTrust
16 31 (1.45%) CyberArk
17 30 (1.40%) IBM
17 30 (1.40%) Sparx
18 26 (1.21%) CheckPoint
19 20 (0.93%) Extreme Networks