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

6 months to
21 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 1,728 776 1,817
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 35.88% 24.56% 32.95%
As % of the Qualifications category 77.94% 65.43% 74.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,209 525 985
10th Percentile £309 £325 £277
25th Percentile £431 £425 £455
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £522 £550 £563
Median % change year-on-year -5.09% -2.22% +2.27%
75th Percentile £613 £636 £650
90th Percentile £725 £688 £719
England median daily rate £525 £548 £550
% change year-on-year -4.20% -0.36% -2.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 165 55 131
10th Percentile £16.35 £21.74 £27.50
25th Percentile £19.54 £31.25 £51.50
Median hourly rate £27.88 £61.50 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -54.66% +2.49% -
75th Percentile £80.20 £65.17 £72.33
90th Percentile £95.00 £80.06 £84.45
England median hourly rate £25.15 £60.00 £58.00
% change year-on-year -58.08% +3.46% -3.34%

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 2,217 1,186 2,435
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 46.03% 37.53% 44.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,486 750 1,379
10th Percentile £297 £263 £215
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -
75th Percentile £600 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £676 £700
England median daily rate £520 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -0.95% -2.78% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 218 68 172
10th Percentile £15.51 £19.59 £18.32
25th Percentile £19.34 £30.21 £38.75
Median hourly rate £26.97 £56.75 £59.50
Median % change year-on-year -52.47% -4.63% +32.22%
75th Percentile £72.00 £64.73 £70.00
90th Percentile £90.09 £80.03 £83.38
England median hourly rate £25.15 £48.40 £45.00
% change year-on-year -48.04% +7.56% -2.17%

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 21 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 21 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 21 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 +1 851 £481 -8.33% 196
Hampshire 0 711 £550 -4.35% 192
Berkshire +2 592 £450 -18.18% 103
Buckinghamshire +1 204 £560 +22.40% 73
Surrey +15 77 £525 -19.23% 24
Oxfordshire +9 55 £390 -33.62% 29
West Sussex +7 43 £537 -14.25% 7
Kent +5 26 £443 +60.91% 20
Sussex -1 7 £475 +9.83% 5
East Sussex +4 3 £588 +6.82% 2
Middlesex - 3 - -
Isle of Wight - 1 £81 - 4
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 (2.66%) SharePoint
2 39 (2.26%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (0.87%) Confluence
4 5 (0.29%) Apache
5 4 (0.23%) ArcGIS
5 4 (0.23%) IIS
5 4 (0.23%) Oracle Workflow
6 3 (0.17%) MS Project Server
7 2 (0.12%) GeoServer
7 2 (0.12%) NetWeaver
7 2 (0.12%) SAP EP
7 2 (0.12%) Smallworld
8 1 (0.058%) Anypoint
8 1 (0.058%) Apache Pulsar
8 1 (0.058%) BizTalk Server
8 1 (0.058%) Documentum
8 1 (0.058%) JBoss
8 1 (0.058%) Palantir Foundry
8 1 (0.058%) SAS
8 1 (0.058%) WebLogic
Applications
1 62 (3.59%) Microsoft Excel
2 58 (3.36%) Microsoft Office
3 34 (1.97%) Microsoft Project
4 30 (1.74%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 10 (0.58%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.12%) Lectora
7 1 (0.058%) CATIA
7 1 (0.058%) PTC Creo
7 1 (0.058%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 29 (1.68%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 28 (1.62%) SAP S/4HANA
3 6 (0.35%) Oracle Assets
3 6 (0.35%) Oracle Payables
3 6 (0.35%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
3 6 (0.35%) SAP HR
3 6 (0.35%) SAP Payroll
4 5 (0.29%) Oracle ERP
4 5 (0.29%) Salesforce CRM
4 5 (0.29%) SAP HCM
4 5 (0.29%) SAP PSCD
5 4 (0.23%) SAP BRIM
5 4 (0.23%) SAP Hybris
6 3 (0.17%) Payment Gateway
6 3 (0.17%) Teamcenter
7 2 (0.12%) Oracle Cash Management
7 2 (0.12%) Oracle General Ledger
7 2 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
7 2 (0.12%) SAP CRM
7 2 (0.12%) SAP PS
Cloud Services
1 262 (15.16%) Azure
2 190 (11.00%) AWS
3 81 (4.69%) GCP
4 70 (4.05%) Microsoft 365
5 65 (3.76%) Entra ID
6 41 (2.37%) OpenShift
7 40 (2.31%) Azure DevOps
8 36 (2.08%) Power Platform
9 35 (2.03%) GitHub
10 21 (1.22%) OneDrive
11 20 (1.16%) GitHub Actions
11 20 (1.16%) IaaS
11 20 (1.16%) PaaS
12 15 (0.87%) Cloud Computing
13 13 (0.75%) SaaS
14 11 (0.64%) AWS CloudFormation
14 11 (0.64%) Serverless
15 10 (0.58%) Datadog
15 10 (0.58%) Power Automate
15 10 (0.58%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 136 (7.87%) Firewall
2 86 (4.98%) DNS
3 68 (3.94%) WAN
4 64 (3.70%) LAN
5 60 (3.47%) BGP
6 56 (3.24%) DHCP
7 55 (3.18%) OSPF
8 51 (2.95%) Network Security
9 40 (2.31%) VPN
10 39 (2.26%) TCP/IP
11 33 (1.91%) Junos
12 31 (1.79%) Cisco ISE
13 27 (1.56%) VLAN
14 26 (1.50%) IPsec
14 26 (1.50%) Wireless
15 22 (1.27%) Cisco IOS
16 21 (1.22%) Structured Cabling
17 19 (1.10%) Ethernet VPN
17 19 (1.10%) MPLS
18 18 (1.04%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (1.91%) Power BI
1 33 (1.91%) SQL Server
2 22 (1.27%) PostgreSQL
3 11 (0.64%) Metadata
4 9 (0.52%) Azure SQL Database
4 9 (0.52%) Oracle Database
4 9 (0.52%) Redis
5 8 (0.46%) Relational Database
6 7 (0.41%) NoSQL
6 7 (0.41%) SAP HANA
7 6 (0.35%) MongoDB
7 6 (0.35%) MySQL
7 6 (0.35%) Oracle Reports
8 5 (0.29%) Data Warehouse
8 5 (0.29%) Metadata Repository
9 4 (0.23%) Oracle Database 12c
9 4 (0.23%) SAP Data Services
10 3 (0.17%) Amazon RDS
10 3 (0.17%) GIS
10 3 (0.17%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 48 (2.78%) JIRA
2 37 (2.14%) Git
2 37 (2.14%) Jenkins
3 33 (1.91%) GitLab
4 22 (1.27%) Burp Suite
4 22 (1.27%) Metasploit
5 11 (0.64%) Rational DOORS
6 8 (0.46%) Artifactory
7 7 (0.41%) Android Studio
7 7 (0.41%) SonarQube
8 6 (0.35%) Maven
9 5 (0.29%) Gradle
9 5 (0.29%) JUnit
9 5 (0.29%) Sonatype Nexus
9 5 (0.29%) Subversion
9 5 (0.29%) Visual Studio
10 4 (0.23%) Bitbucket
10 4 (0.23%) Cypress.io
10 4 (0.23%) Robot Framework
10 4 (0.23%) Storybook
General
1 459 (26.56%) Social Skills
2 295 (17.07%) Public Sector
3 180 (10.42%) Analytical Skills
4 97 (5.61%) Finance
5 72 (4.17%) Documentation Skills
6 52 (3.01%) Aerospace
7 43 (2.49%) Military
8 34 (1.97%) Manufacturing
9 31 (1.79%) Legal
9 31 (1.79%) Telecoms
10 30 (1.74%) Influencing Skills
11 16 (0.93%) Law
11 16 (0.93%) Marketing
12 14 (0.81%) Organisational Skills
12 14 (0.81%) Presentation Skills
13 9 (0.52%) Billing
13 9 (0.52%) Electronics
14 8 (0.46%) Aviation
15 6 (0.35%) Advertising
15 6 (0.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 279 (16.15%) Architect
2 149 (8.62%) Senior
3 124 (7.18%) Analyst
4 122 (7.06%) Lead
5 110 (6.37%) Network Engineer
6 99 (5.73%) Consultant
7 91 (5.27%) Developer
8 57 (3.30%) Support Engineer
9 54 (3.13%) Project Manager
10 51 (2.95%) Tester
11 47 (2.72%) DevOps Engineer
11 47 (2.72%) Enterprise Architect
11 47 (2.72%) Technical Architect
12 44 (2.55%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 39 (2.26%) Cloud Engineer
14 38 (2.20%) Infrastructure Architect
15 36 (2.08%) IT Engineer
15 36 (2.08%) Security Architect
16 35 (2.03%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
17 33 (1.91%) Network Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (1.79%) LDAP
2 26 (1.50%) REST
3 25 (1.45%) React
4 19 (1.10%) .NET
5 18 (1.04%) JSON
6 17 (0.98%) Elastic Stack
7 16 (0.93%) Kafka
8 14 (0.81%) 802.1X
9 13 (0.75%) AngularJS
9 13 (0.75%) Oracle Fusion
9 13 (0.75%) RESTful
10 12 (0.69%) SOAP
10 12 (0.69%) XML
11 11 (0.64%) Loki
12 10 (0.58%) YAML
13 9 (0.52%) Keycloak
13 9 (0.52%) SAP Fiori
13 9 (0.52%) Spring Boot
13 9 (0.52%) Web Services
14 8 (0.46%) CSS
Miscellaneous
1 77 (4.46%) Data Centre
2 74 (4.28%) PKI
3 50 (2.89%) Onboarding
4 38 (2.20%) Management Information System
4 38 (2.20%) Product Ownership
5 31 (1.79%) Self-Motivation
6 26 (1.50%) Cloud Native
7 23 (1.33%) Analytical Mindset
8 21 (1.22%) Security Operations Centre
9 20 (1.16%) Replication
9 20 (1.16%) Security Posture
10 17 (0.98%) Driving Licence
11 16 (0.93%) Clustering
11 16 (0.93%) PMI
12 14 (0.81%) Cyber Threat
13 13 (0.75%) Distributed Systems
14 12 (0.69%) Cyber Security Posture
14 12 (0.69%) Legacy Systems
14 12 (0.69%) Private Cloud
15 11 (0.64%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 265 (15.34%) Windows
2 185 (10.71%) Linux
3 67 (3.88%) Windows Server
4 39 (2.26%) Windows 10
5 26 (1.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 18 (1.04%) Android
7 14 (0.81%) Unix
8 10 (0.58%) Windows 7
9 7 (0.41%) Kali Linux
9 7 (0.41%) Ubuntu
10 5 (0.29%) Apple iOS
11 4 (0.23%) Windows Server 2016
12 3 (0.17%) Debian
12 3 (0.17%) Windows Server 2019
13 2 (0.12%) CentOS
13 2 (0.12%) Mac OS
13 2 (0.12%) SUSE
13 2 (0.12%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
13 2 (0.12%) VMS
13 2 (0.12%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 290 (16.78%) Agile
2 211 (12.21%) Problem-Solving
3 180 (10.42%) DevOps
4 176 (10.19%) CI/CD
5 172 (9.95%) ITIL
6 154 (8.91%) Migration
7 145 (8.39%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 141 (8.16%) Stakeholder Management
9 139 (8.04%) Cybersecurity
10 134 (7.75%) Roadmaps
11 132 (7.64%) Continuous Improvement
12 120 (6.94%) Service Management
13 99 (5.73%) ITSM
13 99 (5.73%) Project Management
14 88 (5.09%) SIEM
15 81 (4.69%) Change Management
16 73 (4.22%) Infrastructure Engineering
17 72 (4.17%) Collaborative Working
18 71 (4.11%) Decision-Making
19 70 (4.05%) DevSecOps
Programming Languages
1 183 (10.59%) Python
2 150 (8.68%) PowerShell
3 59 (3.41%) Bash
4 55 (3.18%) Java
5 52 (3.01%) SQL
6 32 (1.85%) JavaScript
7 31 (1.79%) C#
8 20 (1.16%) Kusto Query Language
9 18 (1.04%) C++
10 13 (0.75%) TypeScript
11 10 (0.58%) Shell Script
12 9 (0.52%) ABAP
12 9 (0.52%) C
12 9 (0.52%) Go
13 8 (0.46%) PL/SQL
14 7 (0.41%) Bicep
15 6 (0.35%) Embedded C++
16 5 (0.29%) Korn
17 4 (0.23%) Ada
17 4 (0.23%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 1,109 (64.18%) SC Cleared
2 530 (30.67%) DV Cleared
3 107 (6.19%) Degree
4 61 (3.53%) Cisco Certification
5 52 (3.01%) CCNP
6 47 (2.72%) CISSP
7 34 (1.97%) BPSS Clearance
8 25 (1.45%) CISM
9 23 (1.33%) Azure Certification
9 23 (1.33%) CCNA
9 23 (1.33%) CEH
10 22 (1.27%) Microsoft Certification
10 22 (1.27%) PMI Certification
10 22 (1.27%) PMP
11 20 (1.16%) GIAC
12 18 (1.04%) AWS Certification
13 15 (0.87%) CHECK Team Member
14 14 (0.81%) Network+ Certification
15 13 (0.75%) CREST Certified
15 13 (0.75%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 73 (4.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 72 (4.17%) NIST
3 55 (3.18%) GDPR
4 50 (2.89%) PMO
4 50 (2.89%) QA
5 45 (2.60%) NCSC
6 20 (1.16%) SLA
7 18 (1.04%) Data Quality
8 17 (0.98%) PCI DSS
9 14 (0.81%) JSP 440
10 13 (0.75%) GRC
11 10 (0.58%) Accessibility
11 10 (0.58%) COBIT
12 7 (0.41%) NIST 800
13 5 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials
13 5 (0.29%) Def Stans
13 5 (0.29%) ISO/IEC 20000
13 5 (0.29%) P3O
13 5 (0.29%) RMADS
14 4 (0.23%) Actionable Recommendations
System Software
1 164 (9.49%) Active Directory
2 81 (4.69%) VMware Infrastructure
3 47 (2.72%) Docker
4 33 (1.91%) vSphere
5 30 (1.74%) VMware NSX
6 20 (1.16%) VMware ESXi
7 17 (0.98%) Hyper-V
8 11 (0.64%) Virtual Desktop
9 8 (0.46%) Virtual Machines
10 7 (0.41%) Firmware
10 7 (0.41%) vCloud
11 5 (0.29%) NFS
11 5 (0.29%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.058%) KVM
12 1 (0.058%) NDS
12 1 (0.058%) NetIQ eDirectory
12 1 (0.058%) RHEV
12 1 (0.058%) Sendmail
12 1 (0.058%) UAG
12 1 (0.058%) Xen
Systems Management
1 97 (5.61%) Kubernetes
2 66 (3.82%) Terraform
3 63 (3.65%) Ansible
4 48 (2.78%) vCenter Server
5 44 (2.55%) Grafana
6 43 (2.49%) Prometheus
7 31 (1.79%) Argo
8 26 (1.50%) Nmap
9 25 (1.45%) SCCM
10 18 (1.04%) Microsoft Intune
11 16 (0.93%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 16 (0.93%) WMI
12 14 (0.81%) FortiGate
12 14 (0.81%) Kibana
13 11 (0.64%) Kustomize
13 11 (0.64%) Single Sign-On
14 8 (0.46%) Nagios
14 8 (0.46%) Nessus
14 8 (0.46%) Red Hat Satellite
15 7 (0.41%) Puppet
Vendors
1 225 (13.02%) Microsoft
2 170 (9.84%) Cisco
3 163 (9.43%) VMware
4 80 (4.63%) SAP
5 72 (4.17%) Juniper
6 68 (3.94%) ServiceNow
7 59 (3.41%) Aruba
8 58 (3.36%) Red Hat
9 56 (3.24%) Splunk
10 47 (2.72%) SolarWinds
11 38 (2.20%) Palo Alto
12 35 (2.03%) Oracle
13 32 (1.85%) Google
14 31 (1.79%) CyberArk
15 30 (1.74%) Sparx
16 29 (1.68%) CheckPoint
17 27 (1.56%) F5
18 25 (1.45%) BeyondTrust
19 16 (0.93%) Tanium
20 15 (0.87%) Fortinet