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 5 October 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 2,246 954 1,320
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 34.51% 26.87% 30.18%
As % of the Qualifications category 79.67% 67.90% 72.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,568 676 869
10th Percentile £400 £228 £357
25th Percentile £481 £413 £455
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £565 £525 £560
Median % change year-on-year +7.62% -6.25% +2.75%
75th Percentile £650 £600 £650
90th Percentile £738 £650 £725
England median daily rate £550 £538 £550
% change year-on-year +2.33% -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 233 95 93
10th Percentile £29.07 - £26.04
25th Percentile £55.00 £18.87 £48.18
Median hourly rate £71.00 £25.15 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +182.31% -59.17% +2.67%
75th Percentile £88.00 £37.20 £75.24
90th Percentile £102.42 £72.75 £92.37
England median hourly rate £65.00 £25.15 £61.60
% change year-on-year +158.45% -59.17% +2.67%

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 2,819 1,405 1,822
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 43.32% 39.57% 41.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,858 919 1,157
10th Percentile £331 £204 £313
25th Percentile £463 £400 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -9.09% +2.80%
75th Percentile £638 £588 £638
90th Percentile £733 £650 £700
England median daily rate £533 £525 £525
% change year-on-year +1.52% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 323 127 120
10th Percentile £18.25 - £21.20
25th Percentile £33.72 £18.87 £37.40
Median hourly rate £61.16 £25.15 £60.23
Median % change year-on-year +143.18% -58.24% +0.38%
75th Percentile £85.00 £49.38 £73.75
90th Percentile £101.57 £81.00 £90.20
England median hourly rate £50.00 £25.15 £52.50
% change year-on-year +98.81% -52.10% -0.94%

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 5 October 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 5 October 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 5 October 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 1,136 £565 +13.00% 401
Hampshire 0 893 £575 +5.75% 392
Berkshire +1 665 £575 +9.52% 265
Buckinghamshire +1 375 £560 +14.29% 90
Surrey +6 122 £581 +10.67% 88
Oxfordshire +2 96 £500 +163.16% 57
West Sussex +3 68 £469 -8.93% 41
Kent +8 17 £510 +36.00% 21
East Sussex +10 8 £459 - 15
Home Counties 0 2 £550 -36.93%
Middlesex -22 2 - - 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 64 (2.85%) SharePoint
2 32 (1.42%) Confluence
3 18 (0.80%) Oracle Application Server
4 12 (0.53%) Microsoft Exchange
5 9 (0.40%) Apache Airflow
6 7 (0.31%) Documentum
7 6 (0.27%) Apache
7 6 (0.27%) SAS
8 5 (0.22%) Apache Spark
9 4 (0.18%) NetWeaver
9 4 (0.18%) Oracle Workflow
10 3 (0.13%) CMS
10 3 (0.13%) IIS
10 3 (0.13%) Palantir Foundry
10 3 (0.13%) Tomcat
11 2 (0.089%) Apache Superset
11 2 (0.089%) ArcGIS
11 2 (0.089%) nginx
11 2 (0.089%) SAP EP
11 2 (0.089%) Umbraco
Applications
1 70 (3.12%) Microsoft Excel
2 47 (2.09%) Microsoft Project
3 40 (1.78%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 37 (1.65%) Microsoft Office
5 7 (0.31%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.089%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 2 (0.089%) Houdini
6 2 (0.089%) NUKE
6 2 (0.089%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.045%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.045%) InVision
7 1 (0.045%) Simulink
7 1 (0.045%) Sketch
7 1 (0.045%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 48 (2.14%) SAP S/4HANA
2 28 (1.25%) Oracle ERP
3 22 (0.98%) SAP PSCD
4 20 (0.89%) Teamcenter
5 19 (0.85%) Remedy ITSM
6 12 (0.53%) SAP BRIM
6 12 (0.53%) Siebel CRM
7 10 (0.45%) SAP Hybris
8 8 (0.36%) Primavera
8 8 (0.36%) Remedy AR System
9 7 (0.31%) SAP FI
9 7 (0.31%) SAP FI-CA
10 4 (0.18%) Dynamics CRM
10 4 (0.18%) iTrent
10 4 (0.18%) SAP MM
10 4 (0.18%) SAP PP
10 4 (0.18%) Workday HCM
11 3 (0.13%) Oracle Financials
11 3 (0.13%) SAP EWM
11 3 (0.13%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 370 (16.47%) Azure
2 195 (8.68%) AWS
3 85 (3.78%) Azure DevOps
4 81 (3.61%) Entra ID
5 67 (2.98%) GCP
6 62 (2.76%) Power Platform
7 52 (2.32%) Microsoft 365
8 48 (2.14%) OpenShift
9 36 (1.60%) OCI
10 29 (1.29%) SaaS
11 23 (1.02%) Azure Monitor
11 23 (1.02%) IaaS
12 19 (0.85%) Azure Sentinel
12 19 (0.85%) GitHub
13 17 (0.76%) GitHub Actions
14 15 (0.67%) PaaS
15 14 (0.62%) Serverless
16 13 (0.58%) AWS CloudFormation
16 13 (0.58%) Azure Logic Apps
16 13 (0.58%) SAP Commerce Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 115 (5.12%) DNS
2 86 (3.83%) Firewall
3 61 (2.72%) Network Security
4 57 (2.54%) VPN
4 57 (2.54%) WAN
5 49 (2.18%) DHCP
6 48 (2.14%) LAN
7 35 (1.56%) BGP
8 34 (1.51%) IPsec
9 32 (1.42%) TCP/IP
10 26 (1.16%) MPLS
11 21 (0.93%) SSL
12 16 (0.71%) OSPF
12 16 (0.71%) VSAN
13 15 (0.67%) Cisco Firepower
13 15 (0.67%) VLAN
13 15 (0.67%) Wireless
14 14 (0.62%) SD-WAN
15 13 (0.58%) BIG-IP
15 13 (0.58%) Software-Defined Networking
Database & Business Intelligence
1 50 (2.23%) Data Warehouse
1 50 (2.23%) Power BI
2 46 (2.05%) SQL Server
3 28 (1.25%) Metadata
4 27 (1.20%) Oracle Reports
5 24 (1.07%) Oracle Database
6 21 (0.93%) Oracle ODI
6 21 (0.93%) Relational Database
7 20 (0.89%) PostgreSQL
8 9 (0.40%) MySQL
9 8 (0.36%) Geospatial Data
9 8 (0.36%) Pentaho
9 8 (0.36%) Siebel EIM
10 7 (0.31%) Azure SQL Database
10 7 (0.31%) Tableau
11 6 (0.27%) MS Access
11 6 (0.27%) NoSQL
12 5 (0.22%) Elasticsearch
12 5 (0.22%) Oracle BI Publisher
12 5 (0.22%) Oracle Database 11g
Development Applications
1 78 (3.47%) JIRA
2 62 (2.76%) Git
3 53 (2.36%) GitLab
4 36 (1.60%) Jenkins
5 23 (1.02%) SonarQube
6 15 (0.67%) Selenium
7 11 (0.49%) MSI
8 6 (0.27%) MLflow
8 6 (0.27%) Sonatype Nexus
9 5 (0.22%) Artifactory
10 4 (0.18%) JMeter
10 4 (0.18%) Rational DOORS
11 3 (0.13%) HP UFT
11 3 (0.13%) LoadRunner
11 3 (0.13%) Zephyr
12 2 (0.089%) Gatling
12 2 (0.089%) JUnit
12 2 (0.089%) LabVIEW
12 2 (0.089%) Postman
12 2 (0.089%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 533 (23.73%) Social Skills
2 230 (10.24%) Analytical Skills
3 226 (10.06%) Public Sector
4 190 (8.46%) Aerospace
5 144 (6.41%) Finance
6 85 (3.78%) Documentation Skills
7 64 (2.85%) Organisational Skills
8 59 (2.63%) Influencing Skills
9 47 (2.09%) Military
10 41 (1.83%) Manufacturing
11 36 (1.60%) Telecoms
12 23 (1.02%) Legal
13 22 (0.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 20 (0.89%) Billing
15 17 (0.76%) Aviation
16 12 (0.53%) Law
17 10 (0.45%) Electronics
17 10 (0.45%) Presentation Skills
18 7 (0.31%) Automotive
19 6 (0.27%) Police
Job Titles
1 313 (13.94%) Architect
2 209 (9.31%) Senior
3 207 (9.22%) Lead
4 176 (7.84%) Analyst
5 169 (7.52%) Consultant
6 164 (7.30%) Developer
7 122 (5.43%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 77 (3.43%) Cloud Engineer
9 67 (2.98%) SAP Consultant
10 65 (2.89%) Support Engineer
11 63 (2.80%) Security Architect
12 56 (2.49%) Solutions Architect
12 56 (2.49%) Technical Architect
13 53 (2.36%) Delivery Manager
14 50 (2.23%) Project Manager
15 46 (2.05%) SOC Analyst
16 44 (1.96%) Administrator
17 41 (1.83%) Network Engineer
18 39 (1.74%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
19 38 (1.69%) Service Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 103 (4.59%) Terraform
2 61 (2.72%) REST
3 32 (1.42%) OAuth
4 28 (1.25%) SAML
5 27 (1.20%) OpenID
6 26 (1.16%) SOAP
7 25 (1.11%) .NET
8 24 (1.07%) LDAP
9 23 (1.02%) ARM Templates
10 22 (0.98%) AngularJS
11 19 (0.85%) HTML
11 19 (0.85%) Web Services
12 18 (0.80%) RESTful
13 17 (0.76%) JSON
13 17 (0.76%) OAuth2
14 16 (0.71%) 802.1X
14 16 (0.71%) Kafka
14 16 (0.71%) Quarkus
14 16 (0.71%) React
15 15 (0.67%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 109 (4.85%) Onboarding
2 77 (3.43%) Product Ownership
3 71 (3.16%) Data Centre
4 65 (2.89%) PKI
5 55 (2.45%) Management Information System
6 53 (2.36%) Operational Technology
7 48 (2.14%) Hybrid Cloud
8 33 (1.47%) Cloud Native
9 23 (1.02%) Enterprise Software
10 22 (0.98%) Cyber Threat
11 21 (0.93%) Greenfield Project
12 18 (0.80%) PMI
13 17 (0.76%) CMDB
13 17 (0.76%) Distributed Systems
13 17 (0.76%) Public Cloud
14 15 (0.67%) Private Cloud
15 14 (0.62%) Data Protection Act
15 14 (0.62%) SCADA
15 14 (0.62%) Security Operations Centre
15 14 (0.62%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 276 (12.29%) Windows
2 194 (8.64%) Linux
3 123 (5.48%) Windows Server
4 40 (1.78%) Unix
5 28 (1.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 25 (1.11%) Windows 10
7 24 (1.07%) Windows Server 2019
8 18 (0.80%) Ubuntu
9 16 (0.71%) CentOS
10 7 (0.31%) Mac OS
11 6 (0.27%) Oracle Linux
12 5 (0.22%) Embedded Linux
13 4 (0.18%) Debian
13 4 (0.18%) Rocky
14 3 (0.13%) Solaris
15 2 (0.089%) AIX
15 2 (0.089%) Android
15 2 (0.089%) Apple iOS
15 2 (0.089%) Windows Server 2012
15 2 (0.089%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 440 (19.59%) Agile
2 346 (15.41%) Continuous Improvement
3 336 (14.96%) Stakeholder Management
4 270 (12.02%) Problem-Solving
5 252 (11.22%) ITIL
6 250 (11.13%) Cybersecurity
7 245 (10.91%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 226 (10.06%) CI/CD
9 209 (9.31%) ITSM
10 206 (9.17%) DevOps
11 196 (8.73%) Service Management
12 169 (7.52%) Roadmaps
13 162 (7.21%) Technical Leadership
14 161 (7.17%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 157 (6.99%) Change Management
16 139 (6.19%) Project Delivery
17 129 (5.74%) Validation
18 128 (5.70%) Service Delivery
19 123 (5.48%) Decision-Making
19 123 (5.48%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 217 (9.66%) Python
2 189 (8.41%) PowerShell
3 139 (6.19%) SQL
4 77 (3.43%) Bash
5 65 (2.89%) Java
6 44 (1.96%) JavaScript
7 28 (1.25%) Bicep
8 25 (1.11%) PL/SQL
9 12 (0.53%) C#
9 12 (0.53%) Shell Script
10 10 (0.45%) ABAP
10 10 (0.45%) C++
10 10 (0.45%) Go
10 10 (0.45%) Kusto Query Language
11 8 (0.36%) TypeScript
12 7 (0.31%) C
13 5 (0.22%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 5 (0.22%) Groovy
14 4 (0.18%) Rust
15 3 (0.13%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 1,406 (62.60%) SC Cleared
2 836 (37.22%) DV Cleared
3 181 (8.06%) Degree
4 58 (2.58%) CISSP
5 56 (2.49%) BPSS Clearance
6 54 (2.40%) Azure Certification
7 46 (2.05%) PMI Certification
8 39 (1.74%) ISTQB
9 36 (1.60%) PMP
10 35 (1.56%) Cisco Certification
11 28 (1.25%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 27 (1.20%) Microsoft Certification
13 25 (1.11%) CISM
13 25 (1.11%) Computer Science Degree
14 20 (0.89%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
15 19 (0.85%) AWS Certification
16 17 (0.76%) TOGAF Certification
16 17 (0.76%) VCAP
17 16 (0.71%) (ISC)2 CCSP
17 16 (0.71%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 101 (4.50%) NIST
2 97 (4.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 85 (3.78%) PMO
4 62 (2.76%) QA
5 56 (2.49%) NCSC
6 41 (1.83%) GDPR
7 32 (1.42%) Data Quality
8 28 (1.25%) SLA
9 26 (1.16%) JSP 440
10 25 (1.11%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 17 (0.76%) GRC
12 15 (0.67%) Cyber Essentials
13 13 (0.58%) NIST 800
14 12 (0.53%) ISO 9001
15 11 (0.49%) Def Stans
16 9 (0.40%) Accessibility
16 9 (0.40%) ISO 31000
17 8 (0.36%) RMADS
18 3 (0.13%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
18 3 (0.13%) WCAG
System Software
1 192 (8.55%) Active Directory
2 147 (6.54%) VMware Infrastructure
3 67 (2.98%) VMware NSX
4 65 (2.89%) Docker
4 65 (2.89%) VMware ESXi
5 24 (1.07%) Hyper-V
5 24 (1.07%) vCloud
6 22 (0.98%) vSphere
7 17 (0.76%) Virtual Machines
8 15 (0.67%) Virtual Desktop
9 11 (0.49%) Firmware
10 8 (0.36%) Oracle RAC
10 8 (0.36%) Virtual Servers
11 6 (0.27%) Embedded Firmware
11 6 (0.27%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 4 (0.18%) KVM
13 3 (0.13%) BitLocker
14 2 (0.089%) Dovecot
14 2 (0.089%) Postfix
14 2 (0.089%) UAG
Systems Management
1 127 (5.65%) Kubernetes
2 76 (3.38%) vCenter Server
3 75 (3.34%) Ansible
4 60 (2.67%) SCOM
5 24 (1.07%) Microsoft Intune
6 22 (0.98%) SCCM
7 21 (0.93%) Argo
8 20 (0.89%) Grafana
9 17 (0.76%) Avamar
9 17 (0.76%) WMI
10 16 (0.71%) Prometheus
11 12 (0.53%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 11 (0.49%) FortiGate
13 10 (0.45%) Oracle RMAN
14 8 (0.36%) Cisco CUCM
14 8 (0.36%) Data Guard
15 7 (0.31%) Podman
15 7 (0.31%) QRadar
15 7 (0.31%) Red Hat Satellite
15 7 (0.31%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 385 (17.14%) Microsoft
2 210 (9.35%) VMware
3 170 (7.57%) Oracle
4 147 (6.54%) SAP
5 133 (5.92%) ServiceNow
6 60 (2.67%) Cisco
7 48 (2.14%) Red Hat
8 39 (1.74%) Google
9 35 (1.56%) SolarWinds
10 33 (1.47%) Juniper
11 27 (1.20%) Citrix
12 26 (1.16%) Palo Alto
13 25 (1.11%) CyberArk
13 25 (1.11%) F5
14 23 (1.02%) Remedy
15 22 (0.98%) BeyondTrust
15 22 (0.98%) Broadcom
16 20 (0.89%) Siebel
17 19 (0.85%) Dell
18 15 (0.67%) BMC