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

6 months to
5 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 1,581 788 1,768
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 34.09% 24.73% 32.46%
As % of the Qualifications category 76.78% 65.89% 74.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,125 532 969
10th Percentile £306 £306 £265
25th Percentile £431 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £517 £550 £560
Median % change year-on-year -6.00% -1.79% +1.82%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £688 £720
England median daily rate £525 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -4.55% - -2.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 140 59 133
10th Percentile £16.35 £19.83 £30.48
25th Percentile £19.43 £35.00 £51.75
Median hourly rate £25.15 £61.50 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -59.10% +2.49% -
75th Percentile £60.06 £65.62 £72.33
90th Percentile £95.00 £78.71 £84.44
England median hourly rate £25.15 £60.00 £58.30
% change year-on-year -58.08% +2.92% -2.83%

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 2,059 1,196 2,383
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 44.39% 37.54% 43.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,387 753 1,378
10th Percentile £283 £260 £213
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £535
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -1.87% -0.47%
75th Percentile £600 £630 £638
90th Percentile £722 £688 £700
England median daily rate £520 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -0.95% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 196 69 169
10th Percentile £15.25 £19.18 £19.25
25th Percentile £19.07 £31.25 £42.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £57.25 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -56.07% -4.58% +33.33%
75th Percentile £60.00 £64.73 £70.50
90th Percentile £90.09 £77.42 £83.17
England median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £46.18
% change year-on-year -45.54% - +2.62%

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 February 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 February 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 February 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 +1 729 £481 -8.33% 139
Hampshire 0 689 £550 -4.35% 212
Berkshire 0 506 £450 -18.18% 80
Buckinghamshire +1 182 £550 +18.28% 44
Surrey +25 77 £525 -19.23% 36
Oxfordshire +8 41 £325 -48.00% 17
West Sussex +8 40 £537 -20.74% 14
Kent +7 25 £439 +92.86% 10
Middlesex - 5 - - 1
Sussex -3 4 £475 +9.83% 7
East Sussex +1 3 £588 +6.82% 7
Isle of Wight - 1 £81 -
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 42 (2.66%) SharePoint
2 40 (2.53%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (0.95%) Confluence
4 5 (0.32%) Apache
5 4 (0.25%) ArcGIS
5 4 (0.25%) IIS
5 4 (0.25%) Oracle Workflow
6 3 (0.19%) Documentum
6 3 (0.19%) Exchange Server 2010
6 3 (0.19%) Exchange Server 2013
6 3 (0.19%) MS Project Server
6 3 (0.19%) Skype for Business
7 2 (0.13%) Exchange Server 2003
7 2 (0.13%) Exchange Server 2007
7 2 (0.13%) GeoServer
7 2 (0.13%) NetWeaver
7 2 (0.13%) Office Communications Server
7 2 (0.13%) SAP EP
7 2 (0.13%) SharePoint Server
7 2 (0.13%) Smallworld
Applications
1 58 (3.67%) Microsoft Office
2 55 (3.48%) Microsoft Excel
3 33 (2.09%) Microsoft Project
4 27 (1.71%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 10 (0.63%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.063%) CATIA
6 1 (0.063%) PTC Creo
6 1 (0.063%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 31 (1.96%) SAP S/4HANA
2 28 (1.77%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 8 (0.51%) SAP WM
4 7 (0.44%) SAP EWM
5 6 (0.38%) Oracle Assets
5 6 (0.38%) Oracle Payables
5 6 (0.38%) SAP HR
5 6 (0.38%) SAP Payroll
6 5 (0.32%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 5 (0.32%) Salesforce CRM
6 5 (0.32%) SAP HCM
7 4 (0.25%) Oracle ERP
7 4 (0.25%) Primavera
7 4 (0.25%) SAP PSCD
8 3 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
8 3 (0.19%) SAP BRIM
8 3 (0.19%) SAP Hybris
9 2 (0.13%) SAP CRM
9 2 (0.13%) SAP PS
9 2 (0.13%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 237 (14.99%) Azure
2 180 (11.39%) AWS
3 78 (4.93%) GCP
4 67 (4.24%) Microsoft 365
5 58 (3.67%) Entra ID
6 36 (2.28%) OpenShift
7 35 (2.21%) Azure DevOps
8 34 (2.15%) GitHub
9 28 (1.77%) Power Platform
10 20 (1.27%) IaaS
11 19 (1.20%) GitHub Actions
12 18 (1.14%) PaaS
13 17 (1.08%) OneDrive
14 16 (1.01%) SaaS
15 15 (0.95%) Cloud Computing
16 11 (0.70%) Serverless
17 10 (0.63%) AWS CloudFormation
17 10 (0.63%) Datadog
18 8 (0.51%) Power Automate
18 8 (0.51%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 112 (7.08%) Firewall
2 72 (4.55%) DNS
3 49 (3.10%) WAN
4 47 (2.97%) LAN
5 44 (2.78%) DHCP
5 44 (2.78%) Network Security
6 42 (2.66%) BGP
7 38 (2.40%) TCP/IP
8 37 (2.34%) OSPF
8 37 (2.34%) VPN
9 27 (1.71%) VLAN
10 26 (1.64%) Cisco IOS
11 25 (1.58%) Junos
12 24 (1.52%) Cisco ISE
13 23 (1.45%) Cisco Firepower
14 22 (1.39%) IPsec
15 20 (1.27%) Wireless
16 19 (1.20%) Structured Cabling
17 17 (1.08%) MPLS
18 14 (0.89%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (1.58%) Power BI
2 20 (1.27%) SQL Server
3 18 (1.14%) PostgreSQL
4 10 (0.63%) Metadata
5 8 (0.51%) NoSQL
5 8 (0.51%) Redis
6 7 (0.44%) Azure SQL Database
6 7 (0.44%) Relational Database
6 7 (0.44%) SAP HANA
7 6 (0.38%) MongoDB
8 5 (0.32%) Metadata Repository
8 5 (0.32%) Oracle Reports
9 4 (0.25%) MySQL
9 4 (0.25%) Oracle Database
10 3 (0.19%) GIS
10 3 (0.19%) SAP Data Services
11 2 (0.13%) Data Lake
11 2 (0.13%) Data Warehouse
11 2 (0.13%) Geospatial Data
11 2 (0.13%) QGIS
Development Applications
1 48 (3.04%) JIRA
2 35 (2.21%) Jenkins
3 33 (2.09%) GitLab
4 29 (1.83%) Git
5 21 (1.33%) Burp Suite
5 21 (1.33%) Metasploit
6 8 (0.51%) Artifactory
7 7 (0.44%) Android Studio
8 5 (0.32%) Bitbucket
8 5 (0.32%) Gradle
8 5 (0.32%) JUnit
8 5 (0.32%) SonarQube
9 4 (0.25%) Cypress.io
9 4 (0.25%) Maven
9 4 (0.25%) Rational DOORS
9 4 (0.25%) Robot Framework
9 4 (0.25%) Selenium
9 4 (0.25%) Sonatype Nexus
9 4 (0.25%) Subversion
9 4 (0.25%) Visual Studio
General
1 433 (27.39%) Social Skills
2 276 (17.46%) Public Sector
3 174 (11.01%) Analytical Skills
4 82 (5.19%) Finance
5 64 (4.05%) Documentation Skills
6 40 (2.53%) Manufacturing
7 38 (2.40%) Military
8 29 (1.83%) Telecoms
9 27 (1.71%) Aerospace
9 27 (1.71%) Influencing Skills
9 27 (1.71%) Legal
10 18 (1.14%) Law
10 18 (1.14%) Presentation Skills
11 15 (0.95%) Marketing
12 14 (0.89%) Organisational Skills
13 10 (0.63%) Electronics
14 8 (0.51%) Aviation
15 7 (0.44%) Billing
16 6 (0.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 6 (0.38%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 257 (16.26%) Architect
2 126 (7.97%) Senior
3 116 (7.34%) Analyst
4 110 (6.96%) Lead
5 101 (6.39%) Network Engineer
6 96 (6.07%) Consultant
7 71 (4.49%) Developer
8 61 (3.86%) Support Engineer
9 52 (3.29%) Project Manager
10 49 (3.10%) DevOps Engineer
11 48 (3.04%) Tester
12 45 (2.85%) Enterprise Architect
13 44 (2.78%) Cloud Engineer
14 43 (2.72%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 41 (2.59%) Technical Architect
16 37 (2.34%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
16 37 (2.34%) Infrastructure Architect
17 35 (2.21%) IT Engineer
18 34 (2.15%) 3rd Line Engineer
19 33 (2.09%) Network Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (2.09%) LDAP
2 24 (1.52%) REST
3 20 (1.27%) React
4 17 (1.08%) .NET
4 17 (1.08%) Elastic Stack
5 15 (0.95%) Kafka
6 14 (0.89%) RESTful
7 12 (0.76%) AngularJS
7 12 (0.76%) JSON
7 12 (0.76%) Oracle Fusion
8 11 (0.70%) Loki
9 10 (0.63%) SOAP
9 10 (0.63%) XML
10 9 (0.57%) Keycloak
10 9 (0.57%) SAP Fiori
11 8 (0.51%) Spring Boot
11 8 (0.51%) Web Services
11 8 (0.51%) YAML
12 7 (0.44%) Node.js
12 7 (0.44%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 62 (3.92%) PKI
2 56 (3.54%) Data Centre
3 38 (2.40%) Onboarding
4 33 (2.09%) Management Information System
5 30 (1.90%) Product Ownership
6 29 (1.83%) Self-Motivation
7 26 (1.64%) Cloud Native
8 24 (1.52%) Security Operations Centre
9 21 (1.33%) Analytical Mindset
9 21 (1.33%) Replication
10 18 (1.14%) Security Posture
11 16 (1.01%) Driving Licence
12 15 (0.95%) Cyber Security Posture
12 15 (0.95%) PMI
12 15 (0.95%) Private Cloud
13 14 (0.89%) Legacy Systems
14 11 (0.70%) Cyber Threat
14 11 (0.70%) Distributed Systems
14 11 (0.70%) Fat Client
14 11 (0.70%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 258 (16.32%) Windows
2 169 (10.69%) Linux
3 61 (3.86%) Windows Server
4 43 (2.72%) Windows 10
5 22 (1.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 16 (1.01%) Android
7 11 (0.70%) Windows 7
8 7 (0.44%) Kali Linux
9 6 (0.38%) Ubuntu
10 4 (0.25%) Apple iOS
10 4 (0.25%) Unix
10 4 (0.25%) Windows Server 2016
11 3 (0.19%) Debian
11 3 (0.19%) Windows Server 2012
11 3 (0.19%) Windows Server 2019
12 2 (0.13%) Mac OS
12 2 (0.13%) SUSE
12 2 (0.13%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
12 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2003
13 1 (0.063%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 262 (16.57%) Agile
2 196 (12.40%) Problem-Solving
3 169 (10.69%) DevOps
4 161 (10.18%) CI/CD
5 139 (8.79%) ITIL
5 139 (8.79%) Migration
6 134 (8.48%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 130 (8.22%) Stakeholder Management
8 124 (7.84%) Cybersecurity
9 109 (6.89%) Continuous Improvement
10 107 (6.77%) Roadmaps
11 105 (6.64%) Service Management
12 92 (5.82%) Project Management
13 84 (5.31%) ITSM
14 80 (5.06%) SIEM
15 75 (4.74%) Change Management
16 66 (4.17%) Collaborative Working
16 66 (4.17%) Infrastructure Engineering
17 62 (3.92%) Infrastructure as Code
17 62 (3.92%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 173 (10.94%) Python
2 144 (9.11%) PowerShell
3 59 (3.73%) Bash
4 52 (3.29%) Java
5 50 (3.16%) SQL
6 32 (2.02%) JavaScript
7 29 (1.83%) C#
8 18 (1.14%) C++
9 17 (1.08%) Kusto Query Language
10 11 (0.70%) TypeScript
11 9 (0.57%) ABAP
11 9 (0.57%) Go
12 8 (0.51%) C
12 8 (0.51%) PL/SQL
13 7 (0.44%) Bicep
14 6 (0.38%) Embedded C++
15 5 (0.32%) Shell Script
16 3 (0.19%) Ada
16 3 (0.19%) MATLAB
16 3 (0.19%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 1,013 (64.07%) SC Cleared
2 504 (31.88%) DV Cleared
3 89 (5.63%) Degree
4 49 (3.10%) Cisco Certification
5 48 (3.04%) CCNP
5 48 (3.04%) CISSP
6 28 (1.77%) BPSS Clearance
7 26 (1.64%) CEH
8 25 (1.58%) CISM
9 23 (1.45%) GIAC
10 22 (1.39%) Azure Certification
11 21 (1.33%) Microsoft Certification
12 20 (1.27%) CCNA
13 18 (1.14%) AWS Certification
14 17 (1.08%) PMI Certification
14 17 (1.08%) PMP
15 14 (0.89%) CHECK Team Member
16 13 (0.82%) Network+ Certification
17 12 (0.76%) CREST Certified
17 12 (0.76%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 58 (3.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 56 (3.54%) GDPR
3 51 (3.23%) NIST
4 47 (2.97%) QA
5 46 (2.91%) PMO
6 36 (2.28%) NCSC
7 19 (1.20%) SLA
8 16 (1.01%) PCI DSS
9 15 (0.95%) Data Quality
10 13 (0.82%) GRC
11 10 (0.63%) Accessibility
11 10 (0.63%) COBIT
11 10 (0.63%) JSP 440
12 5 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 20000
12 5 (0.32%) NIST 800
12 5 (0.32%) P3O
12 5 (0.32%) RMADS
13 4 (0.25%) Actionable Recommendations
13 4 (0.25%) Def Stans
14 3 (0.19%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 158 (9.99%) Active Directory
2 81 (5.12%) VMware Infrastructure
3 44 (2.78%) Docker
4 35 (2.21%) VMware NSX
4 35 (2.21%) vSphere
5 19 (1.20%) VMware ESXi
6 13 (0.82%) Hyper-V
7 9 (0.57%) Virtual Desktop
8 7 (0.44%) Firmware
8 7 (0.44%) Virtual Machines
9 6 (0.38%) vCloud
10 5 (0.32%) NFS
11 3 (0.19%) UAG
12 2 (0.13%) Brightmail
12 2 (0.13%) ISA Server
13 1 (0.063%) KVM
13 1 (0.063%) NDS
13 1 (0.063%) RHEV
13 1 (0.063%) Sendmail
13 1 (0.063%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 92 (5.82%) Kubernetes
2 66 (4.17%) Terraform
3 59 (3.73%) Ansible
4 51 (3.23%) vCenter Server
5 42 (2.66%) Grafana
6 41 (2.59%) Prometheus
7 28 (1.77%) Argo
8 25 (1.58%) Nmap
8 25 (1.58%) SCCM
9 18 (1.14%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 17 (1.08%) WMI
11 15 (0.95%) Microsoft Intune
12 13 (0.82%) Kibana
13 12 (0.76%) Single Sign-On
14 11 (0.70%) Kustomize
15 8 (0.51%) SCOM
16 7 (0.44%) Istio
16 7 (0.44%) Nagios
16 7 (0.44%) Proxmox
16 7 (0.44%) Puppet
Vendors
1 218 (13.79%) Microsoft
2 160 (10.12%) VMware
3 152 (9.61%) Cisco
4 83 (5.25%) SAP
5 59 (3.73%) ServiceNow
6 57 (3.61%) Juniper
7 55 (3.48%) Aruba
8 52 (3.29%) Splunk
9 49 (3.10%) Red Hat
10 36 (2.28%) SolarWinds
11 32 (2.02%) Palo Alto
12 31 (1.96%) Google
13 29 (1.83%) Sparx
14 27 (1.71%) CyberArk
15 26 (1.64%) Oracle
16 25 (1.58%) CheckPoint
17 19 (1.20%) BeyondTrust
18 16 (1.01%) Tanium
19 14 (0.89%) Citrix
20 13 (0.82%) FireEye