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 19 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 1,472 810 1,648
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 33.59% 24.58% 32.35%
As % of the Qualifications category 75.84% 65.59% 73.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,049 561 922
10th Percentile £306 £308 £213
25th Percentile £431 £420 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -5.45% - -
75th Percentile £618 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £700 £700
England median daily rate £525 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -4.55% - -3.51%
Number of hourly rates quoted 136 57 108
10th Percentile £18.87 £22.56 £32.00
25th Percentile £19.54 £35.00 £52.72
Median hourly rate £25.15 £61.50 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -59.10% +2.49% +9.09%
75th Percentile £56.25 £67.00 £70.50
90th Percentile £92.55 £79.06 £78.00
England median hourly rate £25.15 £60.00 £59.50
% change year-on-year -58.08% +0.84% -0.83%

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 1,941 1,235 2,244
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 44.29% 37.48% 44.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,304 793 1,327
10th Percentile £275 £255 £213
25th Percentile £413 £408 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £537
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.14% -0.65%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £688 £700
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 188 69 137
10th Percentile £15.62 £19.84 £26.19
25th Percentile £19.38 £31.25 £48.40
Median hourly rate £25.15 £56.75 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -55.68% -5.43% +33.33%
75th Percentile £55.00 £64.73 £70.00
90th Percentile £90.09 £77.42 £78.00
England median hourly rate £25.15 £47.37 £50.00
% change year-on-year -46.91% -5.26% +11.11%

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 19 January 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 19 January 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 19 January 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
Hampshire 0 677 £550 -4.35% 153
Thames Valley +1 654 £485 -7.71% 103
Berkshire 0 457 £450 -20.00% 54
Buckinghamshire +1 156 £550 +20.22% 32
Surrey +21 65 £550 -15.38% 43
Oxfordshire +7 41 £325 -44.68% 18
West Sussex +14 37 £522 -28.03% 15
Kent +11 19 £438 +143.06% 19
Middlesex - 6 - -
East Sussex +4 2 £588 +6.82% 15
Sussex -4 2 £500 +15.61% 5
Home Counties - 1 £1,100 -
Isle of Wight - 1 £81 - 11
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 43 (2.92%) SharePoint
2 35 (2.38%) Microsoft Exchange
3 14 (0.95%) Confluence
4 6 (0.41%) Exchange Server 2010
4 6 (0.41%) Exchange Server 2013
4 6 (0.41%) Skype for Business
5 5 (0.34%) Exchange Server 2003
5 5 (0.34%) Exchange Server 2007
5 5 (0.34%) Office Communications Server
5 5 (0.34%) SharePoint Server
6 4 (0.27%) Apache
6 4 (0.27%) Oracle Workflow
7 3 (0.20%) ArcGIS
7 3 (0.20%) Documentum
7 3 (0.20%) IIS
8 2 (0.14%) GeoServer
8 2 (0.14%) MS Project Server
8 2 (0.14%) Smallworld
9 1 (0.068%) Anypoint
9 1 (0.068%) Red Hat Fuse
Applications
1 57 (3.87%) Microsoft Office
2 48 (3.26%) Microsoft Excel
3 29 (1.97%) Microsoft Project
4 25 (1.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.48%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.068%) PTC Creo
Business Applications
1 32 (2.17%) SAP S/4HANA
2 28 (1.90%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 9 (0.61%) SAP HR
3 9 (0.61%) SAP Payroll
4 8 (0.54%) SAP EWM
4 8 (0.54%) SAP WM
5 6 (0.41%) Oracle Assets
5 6 (0.41%) Oracle Payables
6 5 (0.34%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 5 (0.34%) Salesforce CRM
6 5 (0.34%) SAP HCM
7 4 (0.27%) Oracle ERP
7 4 (0.27%) Primavera
8 3 (0.20%) Payment Gateway
8 3 (0.20%) SAP ERP
8 3 (0.20%) SAP PSCD
9 2 (0.14%) Oracle Cash Management
9 2 (0.14%) Oracle Receivables
9 2 (0.14%) SAP BRIM
9 2 (0.14%) SAP Hybris
Cloud Services
1 212 (14.40%) Azure
2 173 (11.75%) AWS
3 77 (5.23%) GCP
4 65 (4.42%) Microsoft 365
5 45 (3.06%) Entra ID
6 33 (2.24%) GitHub
6 33 (2.24%) OpenShift
7 30 (2.04%) Azure DevOps
8 22 (1.49%) Power Platform
9 20 (1.36%) IaaS
10 18 (1.22%) GitHub Actions
11 17 (1.15%) OneDrive
11 17 (1.15%) PaaS
12 16 (1.09%) SaaS
13 14 (0.95%) Cloud Computing
14 11 (0.75%) Serverless
15 10 (0.68%) Datadog
16 8 (0.54%) AWS CloudFormation
16 8 (0.54%) Power Automate
16 8 (0.54%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 110 (7.47%) Firewall
2 60 (4.08%) DNS
3 42 (2.85%) WAN
4 41 (2.79%) LAN
5 38 (2.58%) BGP
5 38 (2.58%) Network Security
5 38 (2.58%) VPN
6 35 (2.38%) DHCP
6 35 (2.38%) TCP/IP
7 32 (2.17%) OSPF
8 28 (1.90%) VLAN
9 26 (1.77%) Cisco IOS
10 25 (1.70%) Junos
11 23 (1.56%) Cisco ISE
12 22 (1.49%) Cisco Firepower
13 20 (1.36%) Wireless
14 18 (1.22%) IPsec
14 18 (1.22%) SAN
15 15 (1.02%) MPLS
15 15 (1.02%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (1.29%) Power BI
2 18 (1.22%) SQL Server
3 15 (1.02%) PostgreSQL
4 9 (0.61%) Metadata
5 8 (0.54%) NoSQL
5 8 (0.54%) Redis
6 7 (0.48%) Azure SQL Database
6 7 (0.48%) SAP HANA
7 6 (0.41%) MongoDB
8 5 (0.34%) Oracle Reports
8 5 (0.34%) Relational Database
9 4 (0.27%) Metadata Repository
9 4 (0.27%) Oracle Database
10 3 (0.20%) MySQL
10 3 (0.20%) SAP Data Services
11 2 (0.14%) Data Lake
11 2 (0.14%) Data Warehouse
11 2 (0.14%) Geospatial Data
11 2 (0.14%) GIS
11 2 (0.14%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 45 (3.06%) JIRA
2 36 (2.45%) Jenkins
3 34 (2.31%) GitLab
4 28 (1.90%) Git
5 21 (1.43%) Burp Suite
5 21 (1.43%) Metasploit
6 8 (0.54%) Artifactory
7 7 (0.48%) Android Studio
8 5 (0.34%) Bitbucket
8 5 (0.34%) Gradle
8 5 (0.34%) SonarQube
9 4 (0.27%) JUnit
9 4 (0.27%) Maven
9 4 (0.27%) Rational DOORS
9 4 (0.27%) Robot Framework
9 4 (0.27%) Selenium
9 4 (0.27%) Sonatype Nexus
9 4 (0.27%) Subversion
10 3 (0.20%) MSI
10 3 (0.20%) Postman
General
1 420 (28.53%) Social Skills
2 257 (17.46%) Public Sector
3 156 (10.60%) Analytical Skills
4 74 (5.03%) Finance
5 55 (3.74%) Documentation Skills
6 38 (2.58%) Manufacturing
7 35 (2.38%) Military
8 28 (1.90%) Telecoms
9 22 (1.49%) Influencing Skills
10 20 (1.36%) Legal
11 19 (1.29%) Presentation Skills
12 18 (1.22%) Aerospace
13 17 (1.15%) Law
14 11 (0.75%) Marketing
14 11 (0.75%) Organisational Skills
15 10 (0.68%) Electronics
16 7 (0.48%) Pharmaceutical
17 6 (0.41%) Aviation
18 5 (0.34%) Billing
18 5 (0.34%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 263 (17.87%) Architect
2 105 (7.13%) Senior
3 100 (6.79%) Analyst
3 100 (6.79%) Consultant
4 99 (6.73%) Network Engineer
5 89 (6.05%) Lead
6 63 (4.28%) Support Engineer
7 59 (4.01%) Developer
8 47 (3.19%) Project Manager
8 47 (3.19%) Tester
9 46 (3.13%) DevOps Engineer
10 44 (2.99%) Cloud Engineer
11 43 (2.92%) Enterprise Architect
12 42 (2.85%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 39 (2.65%) Infrastructure Architect
14 37 (2.51%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
14 37 (2.51%) IT Engineer
15 34 (2.31%) 3rd Line Engineer
15 34 (2.31%) Technical Architect
16 33 (2.24%) Network Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (1.29%) LDAP
1 19 (1.29%) REST
2 16 (1.09%) React
3 15 (1.02%) Elastic Stack
4 14 (0.95%) .NET
4 14 (0.95%) Kafka
5 12 (0.82%) Oracle Fusion
5 12 (0.82%) RESTful
6 11 (0.75%) AngularJS
7 9 (0.61%) Keycloak
8 8 (0.54%) JSON
8 8 (0.54%) Loki
8 8 (0.54%) SAP Fiori
8 8 (0.54%) Web Services
9 7 (0.48%) Middleware
9 7 (0.48%) SOAP
9 7 (0.48%) Spring Boot
9 7 (0.48%) Vue
9 7 (0.48%) XML
9 7 (0.48%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 61 (4.14%) PKI
2 49 (3.33%) Data Centre
3 33 (2.24%) Onboarding
4 29 (1.97%) Management Information System
5 25 (1.70%) Cloud Native
6 24 (1.63%) Product Ownership
7 23 (1.56%) Security Operations Centre
8 22 (1.49%) Self-Motivation
9 21 (1.43%) Analytical Mindset
10 16 (1.09%) Driving Licence
10 16 (1.09%) Private Cloud
11 15 (1.02%) PMI
11 15 (1.02%) Security Posture
12 14 (0.95%) Legacy Systems
13 12 (0.82%) Cyber Security Posture
13 12 (0.82%) Distributed Systems
13 12 (0.82%) Replication
14 11 (0.75%) Fat Client
14 11 (0.75%) Thin Client
15 10 (0.68%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 250 (16.98%) Windows
2 155 (10.53%) Linux
3 60 (4.08%) Windows Server
4 48 (3.26%) Windows 10
5 21 (1.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 13 (0.88%) Android
7 11 (0.75%) Windows 7
8 7 (0.48%) Kali Linux
9 6 (0.41%) Ubuntu
9 6 (0.41%) Unix
10 5 (0.34%) Windows Server 2003
10 5 (0.34%) Windows Server 2019
11 4 (0.27%) Windows Server 2016
12 3 (0.20%) Debian
12 3 (0.20%) Windows Server 2012
13 2 (0.14%) Apple iOS
13 2 (0.14%) Mac OS
13 2 (0.14%) SUSE
13 2 (0.14%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
14 1 (0.068%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 242 (16.44%) Agile
2 180 (12.23%) Problem-Solving
3 158 (10.73%) CI/CD
3 158 (10.73%) DevOps
4 143 (9.71%) ITIL
5 135 (9.17%) Migration
6 126 (8.56%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 112 (7.61%) Service Management
8 107 (7.27%) Cybersecurity
9 106 (7.20%) Stakeholder Management
10 97 (6.59%) Roadmaps
11 92 (6.25%) Continuous Improvement
12 82 (5.57%) Project Management
13 75 (5.10%) ITSM
14 71 (4.82%) Workflow
15 70 (4.76%) SIEM
16 69 (4.69%) Change Management
17 66 (4.48%) Project Delivery
18 64 (4.35%) Collaborative Working
19 62 (4.21%) Infrastructure Engineering
Programming Languages
1 162 (11.01%) Python
2 124 (8.42%) PowerShell
3 53 (3.60%) Bash
4 52 (3.53%) Java
5 48 (3.26%) SQL
6 31 (2.11%) JavaScript
7 27 (1.83%) C#
8 18 (1.22%) C++
9 13 (0.88%) Go
10 11 (0.75%) ABAP
10 11 (0.75%) Kusto Query Language
11 7 (0.48%) PL/SQL
11 7 (0.48%) TypeScript
12 6 (0.41%) Bicep
12 6 (0.41%) C
12 6 (0.41%) Embedded C++
13 5 (0.34%) Shell Script
14 3 (0.20%) MATLAB
15 2 (0.14%) Assembly Language
15 2 (0.14%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 938 (63.72%) SC Cleared
2 488 (33.15%) DV Cleared
3 80 (5.43%) Degree
4 45 (3.06%) Cisco Certification
5 44 (2.99%) CISSP
6 43 (2.92%) CCNP
7 24 (1.63%) CISM
8 23 (1.56%) CEH
9 20 (1.36%) Azure Certification
9 20 (1.36%) BPSS Clearance
9 20 (1.36%) GIAC
9 20 (1.36%) Microsoft Certification
10 19 (1.29%) CCNA
11 17 (1.15%) AWS Certification
11 17 (1.15%) PMI Certification
12 16 (1.09%) PMP
13 14 (0.95%) CHECK Team Member
14 13 (0.88%) Network+ Certification
15 12 (0.82%) CREST Certified
15 12 (0.82%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 55 (3.74%) GDPR
2 54 (3.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 46 (3.13%) NIST
4 44 (2.99%) QA
5 42 (2.85%) PMO
6 30 (2.04%) NCSC
7 21 (1.43%) ISO/IEC 20000
7 21 (1.43%) SLA
8 16 (1.09%) PCI DSS
9 12 (0.82%) Data Quality
10 11 (0.75%) GRC
11 10 (0.68%) COBIT
11 10 (0.68%) JSP 440
12 5 (0.34%) Accessibility
12 5 (0.34%) P3O
12 5 (0.34%) RMADS
13 4 (0.27%) Def Stans
14 3 (0.20%) Actionable Recommendations
14 3 (0.20%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 2 (0.14%) NIST 800
System Software
1 144 (9.78%) Active Directory
2 76 (5.16%) VMware Infrastructure
3 44 (2.99%) Docker
4 36 (2.45%) vSphere
5 35 (2.38%) VMware NSX
6 19 (1.29%) VMware ESXi
7 12 (0.82%) Hyper-V
8 9 (0.61%) Virtual Desktop
9 7 (0.48%) NFS
9 7 (0.48%) Virtual Machines
10 6 (0.41%) Firmware
10 6 (0.41%) vCloud
11 5 (0.34%) Brightmail
11 5 (0.34%) ISA Server
12 2 (0.14%) UAG
13 1 (0.068%) KVM
13 1 (0.068%) NetIQ eDirectory
13 1 (0.068%) RHEV
13 1 (0.068%) Sendmail
13 1 (0.068%) Xen
Systems Management
1 94 (6.39%) Kubernetes
2 62 (4.21%) Terraform
3 60 (4.08%) Ansible
4 49 (3.33%) vCenter Server
5 37 (2.51%) Grafana
5 37 (2.51%) Prometheus
6 25 (1.70%) Argo
6 25 (1.70%) SCCM
7 24 (1.63%) Nmap
8 17 (1.15%) WMI
9 14 (0.95%) Microsoft Intune
10 10 (0.68%) Kibana
10 10 (0.68%) Single Sign-On
11 9 (0.61%) SCOM
12 8 (0.54%) Kustomize
12 8 (0.54%) vRealize
13 7 (0.48%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 7 (0.48%) Proxmox
13 7 (0.48%) Puppet
13 7 (0.48%) Sysdig
Vendors
1 198 (13.45%) Microsoft
2 153 (10.39%) VMware
3 149 (10.12%) Cisco
4 85 (5.77%) SAP
5 61 (4.14%) Juniper
6 52 (3.53%) ServiceNow
7 51 (3.46%) Aruba
7 51 (3.46%) Splunk
8 48 (3.26%) Red Hat
9 35 (2.38%) SolarWinds
10 31 (2.11%) Google
11 30 (2.04%) Palo Alto
12 29 (1.97%) Sparx
13 25 (1.70%) CyberArk
13 25 (1.70%) Oracle
14 22 (1.49%) CheckPoint
15 17 (1.15%) BeyondTrust
16 14 (0.95%) Fortinet
17 13 (0.88%) Citrix
17 13 (0.88%) F5