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 2 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 2,193 789 1,856
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 37.49% 26.19% 33.44%
As % of the Qualifications category 82.17% 64.83% 74.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,519 553 1,104
10th Percentile £356 £363 £388
25th Percentile £455 £464 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £550 £588
Median % change year-on-year -2.27% -6.38% +6.82%
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% -0.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 222 50 119
10th Percentile £18.32 £23.77 £22.52
25th Percentile £25.98 £25.64 £52.90
Median hourly rate £70.00 £60.25 £61.65
Median % change year-on-year +16.18% -2.26% -1.37%
75th Percentile £85.33 £73.13 £80.00
90th Percentile £90.09 £80.72 £87.46
England median hourly rate £55.00 £55.52 £57.30
% change year-on-year -0.94% -3.11% -4.50%

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 2,669 1,217 2,480
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 45.63% 40.39% 44.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,801 774 1,416
10th Percentile £306 £304 £319
25th Percentile £425 £438 £439
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £537 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.23% -2.36% +4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £650
90th Percentile £725 £688 £736
England median daily rate £520 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -0.95% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 271 83 213
10th Percentile £16.35 £20.00 £17.52
25th Percentile £22.79 £26.13 £26.73
Median hourly rate £55.00 £56.75 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -3.08% -1.05% +0.82%
75th Percentile £84.00 £70.63 £67.00
90th Percentile £90.09 £78.13 £85.41
England median hourly rate £47.50 £45.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +5.56% +12.50% -23.81%

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 2 May 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 2 May 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 2 May 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 1,142 £514 -8.21% 116
Hampshire 0 849 £588 +6.82% 198
Berkshire +1 678 £455 -21.55% 57
Buckinghamshire +1 366 £550 +1.15% 35
Oxfordshire +11 98 £450 -28.00% 27
Surrey +3 90 £525 -3.38% 43
West Sussex +4 58 £503 -6.33% 13
Kent +2 26 £443 +26.43% 10
East Sussex +6 7 £459 -16.55% 4
Sussex +1 7 £475 +9.83% 3
Home Counties - 2 £525 -
Isle of Wight - 1 - -
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 46 (2.10%) SharePoint
2 36 (1.64%) Microsoft Exchange
3 21 (0.96%) Confluence
4 12 (0.55%) Oracle Application Server
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 4 (0.18%) Apache
7 3 (0.14%) MS Project Server
8 2 (0.091%) Apache Airflow
8 2 (0.091%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.091%) CMS
8 2 (0.091%) Palantir Foundry
8 2 (0.091%) SAS
8 2 (0.091%) Umbraco
9 1 (0.046%) Exchange Server 2010
9 1 (0.046%) SharePoint 2010
9 1 (0.046%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 66 (3.01%) Microsoft Excel
2 59 (2.69%) Microsoft Office
3 37 (1.69%) Microsoft Project
4 31 (1.41%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 12 (0.55%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.091%) CPLEX
7 2 (0.091%) Lectora
7 2 (0.091%) Oracle Smart View
8 1 (0.046%) Autodesk Inventor
8 1 (0.046%) CATIA
8 1 (0.046%) InVision
8 1 (0.046%) MicroStation
8 1 (0.046%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.046%) Sketch
8 1 (0.046%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 34 (1.55%) SAP S/4HANA
2 29 (1.32%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 12 (0.55%) SAP PSCD
4 8 (0.36%) Remedy ITSM
5 7 (0.32%) iTrent
5 7 (0.32%) Oracle ERP
6 6 (0.27%) Oracle Assets
6 6 (0.27%) Oracle Payables
6 6 (0.27%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 6 (0.27%) SAP BRIM
6 6 (0.27%) SAP Hybris
7 5 (0.23%) SAP CRM
8 4 (0.18%) Primavera
8 4 (0.18%) Teamcenter
9 3 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
9 3 (0.14%) SAP EWM
9 3 (0.14%) SAP HCM
10 2 (0.091%) SAP MM
11 1 (0.046%) Oracle EBS
11 1 (0.046%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 334 (15.23%) Azure
2 205 (9.35%) AWS
3 85 (3.88%) GCP
4 84 (3.83%) Entra ID
5 67 (3.06%) Azure DevOps
6 62 (2.83%) Power Platform
7 61 (2.78%) Microsoft 365
8 38 (1.73%) PaaS
9 33 (1.50%) IaaS
10 32 (1.46%) OpenShift
11 26 (1.19%) GitHub
12 20 (0.91%) SaaS
13 19 (0.87%) GitHub Actions
14 18 (0.82%) SuccessFactors
15 14 (0.64%) Serverless
16 12 (0.55%) OCI
17 11 (0.50%) AWS CloudFormation
17 11 (0.50%) Azure Monitor
17 11 (0.50%) Cloud Computing
18 10 (0.46%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 166 (7.57%) Firewall
2 113 (5.15%) WAN
3 110 (5.02%) LAN
4 101 (4.61%) DNS
5 85 (3.88%) BGP
6 80 (3.65%) OSPF
7 75 (3.42%) DHCP
8 69 (3.15%) Network Security
9 50 (2.28%) VPN
10 40 (1.82%) TCP/IP
11 36 (1.64%) Wireless
12 32 (1.46%) Junos
13 31 (1.41%) Ethernet VPN
13 31 (1.41%) VXLAN
14 30 (1.37%) IPsec
15 28 (1.28%) BIG-IP
15 28 (1.28%) Cisco ISE
16 26 (1.19%) SD-WAN
16 26 (1.19%) VLAN
17 23 (1.05%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 59 (2.69%) SQL Server
2 52 (2.37%) Power BI
3 30 (1.37%) Data Warehouse
4 28 (1.28%) PostgreSQL
5 22 (1.00%) Oracle Reports
6 15 (0.68%) Oracle Database
7 13 (0.59%) Metadata
7 13 (0.59%) Oracle ODI
8 12 (0.55%) Redis
8 12 (0.55%) Relational Database
9 10 (0.46%) Azure SQL Database
10 7 (0.32%) MySQL
10 7 (0.32%) NoSQL
10 7 (0.32%) Oracle Database 12c
11 6 (0.27%) Tableau
12 5 (0.23%) Metadata Repository
13 4 (0.18%) Amazon RDS
13 4 (0.18%) Big Data
13 4 (0.18%) MongoDB
13 4 (0.18%) Oracle BI Publisher
Development Applications
1 58 (2.64%) JIRA
2 45 (2.05%) Git
3 40 (1.82%) GitLab
4 37 (1.69%) Rational DOORS
5 28 (1.28%) Jenkins
6 16 (0.73%) Burp Suite
6 16 (0.73%) Metasploit
7 12 (0.55%) SonarQube
8 10 (0.46%) Postman
8 10 (0.46%) Visual Studio
9 7 (0.32%) Android Studio
9 7 (0.32%) JUnit
9 7 (0.32%) Robot Framework
9 7 (0.32%) Subversion
10 6 (0.27%) Sonatype Nexus
11 5 (0.23%) Bitbucket
11 5 (0.23%) Gradle
11 5 (0.23%) Maven
12 4 (0.18%) Artifactory
12 4 (0.18%) Selenium
General
1 493 (22.48%) Social Skills
2 287 (13.09%) Public Sector
3 199 (9.07%) Analytical Skills
4 132 (6.02%) Finance
5 101 (4.61%) Aerospace
6 80 (3.65%) Documentation Skills
7 51 (2.33%) Military
8 35 (1.60%) Legal
9 34 (1.55%) Influencing Skills
9 34 (1.55%) Telecoms
10 28 (1.28%) Manufacturing
11 24 (1.09%) Law
12 19 (0.87%) Organisational Skills
12 19 (0.87%) Presentation Skills
13 13 (0.59%) Billing
13 13 (0.59%) Marketing
14 12 (0.55%) Advertising
15 9 (0.41%) Electronics
16 8 (0.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 8 (0.36%) Police
Job Titles
1 335 (15.28%) Architect
2 223 (10.17%) Senior
3 174 (7.93%) Lead
4 156 (7.11%) Developer
5 155 (7.07%) Analyst
6 128 (5.84%) Network Engineer
7 104 (4.74%) Consultant
8 90 (4.10%) Project Manager
9 75 (3.42%) Technical Architect
10 61 (2.78%) Delivery Manager
11 60 (2.74%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 58 (2.64%) Security Architect
13 55 (2.51%) DevOps Engineer
14 52 (2.37%) Enterprise Architect
14 52 (2.37%) Tester
15 49 (2.23%) Product Manager
16 43 (1.96%) SOC Analyst
17 41 (1.87%) Software Engineer
18 39 (1.78%) Product Delivery Manager
18 39 (1.78%) Senior Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (1.96%) REST
2 40 (1.82%) .NET
3 34 (1.55%) LDAP
4 31 (1.41%) React
5 29 (1.32%) RESTful
6 28 (1.28%) 802.1X
7 24 (1.09%) JSON
8 23 (1.05%) AngularJS
9 21 (0.96%) SailPoint
10 19 (0.87%) XML
11 18 (0.82%) Oracle Fusion
12 15 (0.68%) Kafka
12 15 (0.68%) OAuth
12 15 (0.68%) SOAP
13 12 (0.55%) CSS
13 12 (0.55%) OAuth2
13 12 (0.55%) Web Services
14 11 (0.50%) Elastic Stack
14 11 (0.50%) Keycloak
14 11 (0.50%) Quarkus
Miscellaneous
1 104 (4.74%) Data Centre
2 89 (4.06%) PKI
3 77 (3.51%) Product Ownership
4 66 (3.01%) Onboarding
5 36 (1.64%) Self-Motivation
6 34 (1.55%) Data Structures
6 34 (1.55%) Management Information System
7 30 (1.37%) Clustering
7 30 (1.37%) Replication
8 26 (1.19%) Cloud Native
8 26 (1.19%) Distributed Systems
9 24 (1.09%) Security Operations Centre
10 23 (1.05%) Analytical Mindset
11 22 (1.00%) Public Cloud
12 21 (0.96%) Cyber Threat
12 21 (0.96%) Security Posture
13 20 (0.91%) Operational Technology
14 19 (0.87%) Greenfield Project
15 17 (0.78%) Virtual Team
16 16 (0.73%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 273 (12.45%) Windows
2 200 (9.12%) Linux
3 80 (3.65%) Windows Server
4 33 (1.50%) Unix
5 29 (1.32%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 17 (0.78%) Android
7 13 (0.59%) Windows 10
8 12 (0.55%) Ubuntu
9 8 (0.36%) Embedded Linux
10 7 (0.32%) Mac OS
10 7 (0.32%) Windows Server 2016
10 7 (0.32%) Windows Server 2019
11 5 (0.23%) Debian
11 5 (0.23%) Windows 7
12 4 (0.18%) Apple iOS
12 4 (0.18%) CentOS
13 2 (0.091%) VMS
13 2 (0.091%) Windows Server 2012
14 1 (0.046%) Data ONTAP
14 1 (0.046%) OpenVMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 419 (19.11%) Agile
2 233 (10.62%) Problem-Solving
3 220 (10.03%) ITIL
4 213 (9.71%) DevOps
5 207 (9.44%) CI/CD
6 197 (8.98%) Stakeholder Management
7 192 (8.76%) Continuous Improvement
8 190 (8.66%) Cybersecurity
9 171 (7.80%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 158 (7.20%) Migration
11 130 (5.93%) ITSM
12 127 (5.79%) Service Management
13 126 (5.75%) Roadmaps
14 115 (5.24%) Project Management
15 103 (4.70%) SIEM
16 97 (4.42%) Software Engineering
17 90 (4.10%) Computer Science
18 89 (4.06%) Project Delivery
19 88 (4.01%) Change Management
19 88 (4.01%) DevSecOps
Programming Languages
1 195 (8.89%) Python
2 165 (7.52%) PowerShell
3 90 (4.10%) SQL
4 70 (3.19%) Java
5 49 (2.23%) JavaScript
6 48 (2.19%) C#
7 45 (2.05%) Bash
8 30 (1.37%) C++
9 22 (1.00%) Go
10 18 (0.82%) Kusto Query Language
11 17 (0.78%) C
12 16 (0.73%) TypeScript
13 13 (0.59%) Shell Script
14 10 (0.46%) Bicep
14 10 (0.46%) PL/SQL
15 9 (0.41%) Korn
16 8 (0.36%) ABAP
17 7 (0.32%) T-SQL
18 4 (0.18%) Embedded C++
19 3 (0.14%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 1,386 (63.20%) SC Cleared
2 742 (33.83%) DV Cleared
3 174 (7.93%) Degree
4 77 (3.51%) Cisco Certification
5 54 (2.46%) CCNP
6 51 (2.33%) BPSS Clearance
7 45 (2.05%) CISSP
8 33 (1.50%) PMP
9 30 (1.37%) PMI Certification
10 26 (1.19%) CISM
11 21 (0.96%) CCNA
12 18 (0.82%) Computer Science Degree
13 17 (0.78%) Azure Certification
13 17 (0.78%) GIAC
13 17 (0.78%) JNCIS
14 15 (0.68%) AWS Certification
14 15 (0.68%) CHECK Team Member
14 15 (0.68%) ISTQB
15 13 (0.59%) CREST Certified
15 13 (0.59%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 107 (4.88%) NIST
2 104 (4.74%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 65 (2.96%) NCSC
4 62 (2.83%) PMO
5 58 (2.64%) QA
6 53 (2.42%) GDPR
7 30 (1.37%) Data Quality
8 22 (1.00%) SLA
9 18 (0.82%) Accessibility
10 17 (0.78%) PCI DSS
11 15 (0.68%) JSP 440
11 15 (0.68%) NIST 800
12 14 (0.64%) GRC
13 13 (0.59%) Cyber Essentials
14 12 (0.55%) ISO/IEC 20000
15 7 (0.32%) COBIT
16 6 (0.27%) Government Security Classifications
17 5 (0.23%) ISO 31000
17 5 (0.23%) RMADS
18 4 (0.18%) Actionable Recommendations
System Software
1 177 (8.07%) Active Directory
2 106 (4.83%) VMware Infrastructure
3 42 (1.92%) Docker
3 42 (1.92%) VMware NSX
4 28 (1.28%) VMware ESXi
5 25 (1.14%) vSphere
6 17 (0.78%) Firmware
7 13 (0.59%) vCloud
8 12 (0.55%) Hyper-V
9 11 (0.50%) Oracle RAC
9 11 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
10 10 (0.46%) Virtual Machines
11 4 (0.18%) Embedded Firmware
12 3 (0.14%) NFS
12 3 (0.14%) UAG
13 1 (0.046%) KVM
13 1 (0.046%) Sendmail
13 1 (0.046%) Terminal Services
13 1 (0.046%) Virtual Servers
13 1 (0.046%) Xen
Systems Management
1 92 (4.20%) Kubernetes
2 69 (3.15%) Terraform
3 57 (2.60%) Ansible
4 46 (2.10%) vCenter Server
5 32 (1.46%) Grafana
6 30 (1.37%) FortiGate
6 30 (1.37%) Prometheus
7 24 (1.09%) Argo
8 19 (0.87%) Microsoft Intune
9 18 (0.82%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 18 (0.82%) Nmap
9 18 (0.82%) SCCM
10 13 (0.59%) Oracle RMAN
10 13 (0.59%) SCOM
11 12 (0.55%) Single Sign-On
11 12 (0.55%) WMI
12 10 (0.46%) Forefront Identity Manager
12 10 (0.46%) Kibana
12 10 (0.46%) NetIQ Identity Manager
13 9 (0.41%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
Vendors
1 235 (10.72%) Microsoft
2 203 (9.26%) VMware
3 152 (6.93%) Cisco
4 112 (5.11%) SAP
5 88 (4.01%) Oracle
6 86 (3.92%) ServiceNow
7 82 (3.74%) Juniper
8 64 (2.92%) Splunk
9 61 (2.78%) Red Hat
10 51 (2.33%) F5
11 45 (2.05%) SolarWinds
12 38 (1.73%) Palo Alto
13 36 (1.64%) BeyondTrust
14 35 (1.60%) CyberArk
15 32 (1.46%) Aruba
16 31 (1.41%) Google
17 30 (1.37%) IBM
17 30 (1.37%) Sparx
18 26 (1.19%) CheckPoint
19 23 (1.05%) Extreme Networks