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

6 months to
26 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 1,786 783 1,835
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 36.53% 24.80% 33.69%
As % of the Qualifications category 78.40% 65.85% 75.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,244 534 1,000
10th Percentile £311 £325 £280
25th Percentile £432 £425 £460
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £567
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -3.00% +3.09%
75th Percentile £618 £630 £650
90th Percentile £725 £688 £719
England median daily rate £525 £545 £550
% change year-on-year -3.58% -1.00% -3.51%
Number of hourly rates quoted 168 54 132
10th Percentile £16.35 £21.34 £30.44
25th Percentile £19.54 £32.19 £51.75
Median hourly rate £31.88 £61.50 £60.07
Median % change year-on-year -48.17% +2.37% +0.12%
75th Percentile £82.25 £65.39 £73.00
90th Percentile £95.00 £80.07 £84.45
England median hourly rate £25.15 £60.00 £56.49
% change year-on-year -58.08% +6.21% -5.85%

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 2,278 1,189 2,441
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 46.59% 37.66% 44.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,525 755 1,381
10th Percentile £300 £263 £232
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% -2.78% +1.89%
75th Percentile £605 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £675 £700
England median daily rate £520 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -0.95% -2.78% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 222 68 175
10th Percentile £15.62 £19.59 £18.59
25th Percentile £19.34 £30.21 £40.63
Median hourly rate £27.50 £57.87 £58.30
Median % change year-on-year -52.48% -0.73% +22.74%
75th Percentile £80.00 £64.95 £70.00
90th Percentile £90.09 £80.03 £83.29
England median hourly rate £25.15 £50.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year -49.70% +17.65% -8.60%

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 26 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 26 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 26 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 +1 886 £485 -7.62% 187
Hampshire 0 733 £575 - 183
Berkshire +2 609 £450 -18.18% 95
Buckinghamshire 0 219 £552 +18.66% 70
Surrey +18 77 £525 -19.23% 22
Oxfordshire +9 58 £400 -31.91% 30
West Sussex +6 44 £537 -13.73% 7
Kent +6 26 £443 +60.91% 21
Sussex -1 7 £475 +9.83% 5
East Sussex +4 3 £588 +6.82% 1
Middlesex - 1 - -
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 50 (2.80%) SharePoint
2 39 (2.18%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (0.84%) Confluence
4 5 (0.28%) Apache
5 4 (0.22%) ArcGIS
5 4 (0.22%) IIS
5 4 (0.22%) Oracle Workflow
6 3 (0.17%) MS Project Server
7 2 (0.11%) GeoServer
7 2 (0.11%) NetWeaver
7 2 (0.11%) SAP EP
7 2 (0.11%) Smallworld
8 1 (0.056%) Anypoint
8 1 (0.056%) Apache Pulsar
8 1 (0.056%) BizTalk Server
8 1 (0.056%) Documentum
8 1 (0.056%) JBoss
8 1 (0.056%) Palantir Foundry
8 1 (0.056%) SAS
8 1 (0.056%) WebLogic
Applications
1 63 (3.53%) Microsoft Excel
2 58 (3.25%) Microsoft Office
3 34 (1.90%) Microsoft Project
4 30 (1.68%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 10 (0.56%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.11%) Lectora
6 2 (0.11%) Oracle Smart View
7 1 (0.056%) CATIA
7 1 (0.056%) PTC Creo
7 1 (0.056%) Siemens NX
7 1 (0.056%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 29 (1.62%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 28 (1.57%) SAP S/4HANA
3 6 (0.34%) Oracle Assets
3 6 (0.34%) Oracle ERP
3 6 (0.34%) Oracle Payables
3 6 (0.34%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
3 6 (0.34%) SAP HR
3 6 (0.34%) SAP Payroll
4 5 (0.28%) Salesforce CRM
4 5 (0.28%) SAP HCM
4 5 (0.28%) SAP PSCD
5 4 (0.22%) SAP BRIM
5 4 (0.22%) SAP Hybris
6 3 (0.17%) Payment Gateway
6 3 (0.17%) Remedy ITSM
6 3 (0.17%) Teamcenter
7 2 (0.11%) Oracle General Ledger
7 2 (0.11%) Oracle Receivables
7 2 (0.11%) SAP CRM
7 2 (0.11%) SAP PS
Cloud Services
1 263 (14.73%) Azure
2 191 (10.69%) AWS
3 82 (4.59%) GCP
4 70 (3.92%) Microsoft 365
5 67 (3.75%) Entra ID
6 43 (2.41%) OpenShift
7 40 (2.24%) Azure DevOps
8 38 (2.13%) Power Platform
9 35 (1.96%) GitHub
10 23 (1.29%) IaaS
10 23 (1.29%) PaaS
11 21 (1.18%) OneDrive
12 20 (1.12%) GitHub Actions
13 15 (0.84%) Cloud Computing
14 12 (0.67%) SaaS
15 11 (0.62%) AWS CloudFormation
15 11 (0.62%) Serverless
16 10 (0.56%) Datadog
16 10 (0.56%) Power Automate
16 10 (0.56%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 139 (7.78%) Firewall
2 89 (4.98%) DNS
3 71 (3.98%) WAN
4 68 (3.81%) LAN
5 62 (3.47%) BGP
6 59 (3.30%) DHCP
7 57 (3.19%) Network Security
7 57 (3.19%) OSPF
8 42 (2.35%) VPN
9 40 (2.24%) TCP/IP
10 33 (1.85%) Junos
11 30 (1.68%) Cisco ISE
12 28 (1.57%) VLAN
12 28 (1.57%) Wireless
13 26 (1.46%) IPsec
14 21 (1.18%) Cisco IOS
14 21 (1.18%) Structured Cabling
15 20 (1.12%) Ethernet VPN
15 20 (1.12%) MPLS
16 19 (1.06%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (2.02%) SQL Server
2 35 (1.96%) Power BI
3 23 (1.29%) PostgreSQL
4 11 (0.62%) Metadata
5 10 (0.56%) Oracle Database
6 9 (0.50%) Azure SQL Database
6 9 (0.50%) Redis
7 8 (0.45%) Oracle Reports
7 8 (0.45%) Relational Database
8 7 (0.39%) NoSQL
8 7 (0.39%) SAP HANA
9 6 (0.34%) MongoDB
9 6 (0.34%) MySQL
10 5 (0.28%) Data Warehouse
10 5 (0.28%) Metadata Repository
11 4 (0.22%) Oracle Database 12c
11 4 (0.22%) SAP Data Services
12 3 (0.17%) Amazon RDS
12 3 (0.17%) Oracle BI Publisher
12 3 (0.17%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 49 (2.74%) JIRA
2 39 (2.18%) Git
3 38 (2.13%) Jenkins
4 33 (1.85%) GitLab
5 22 (1.23%) Burp Suite
5 22 (1.23%) Metasploit
6 12 (0.67%) Rational DOORS
7 8 (0.45%) Artifactory
7 8 (0.45%) SonarQube
8 7 (0.39%) Android Studio
8 7 (0.39%) Maven
9 6 (0.34%) Subversion
10 5 (0.28%) Gradle
10 5 (0.28%) JUnit
10 5 (0.28%) Robot Framework
10 5 (0.28%) Sonatype Nexus
11 4 (0.22%) Bitbucket
11 4 (0.22%) Cypress.io
11 4 (0.22%) Storybook
11 4 (0.22%) Visual Studio
General
1 469 (26.26%) Social Skills
2 298 (16.69%) Public Sector
3 184 (10.30%) Analytical Skills
4 103 (5.77%) Finance
5 73 (4.09%) Documentation Skills
6 57 (3.19%) Aerospace
7 41 (2.30%) Military
8 34 (1.90%) Manufacturing
9 31 (1.74%) Influencing Skills
9 31 (1.74%) Legal
10 30 (1.68%) Telecoms
11 16 (0.90%) Law
11 16 (0.90%) Presentation Skills
12 15 (0.84%) Marketing
13 13 (0.73%) Organisational Skills
14 9 (0.50%) Billing
15 8 (0.45%) Electronics
16 7 (0.39%) Aviation
17 6 (0.34%) Advertising
17 6 (0.34%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 292 (16.35%) Architect
2 159 (8.90%) Senior
3 128 (7.17%) Analyst
4 127 (7.11%) Lead
5 111 (6.22%) Network Engineer
6 107 (5.99%) Consultant
7 97 (5.43%) Developer
8 56 (3.14%) Support Engineer
9 54 (3.02%) Project Manager
10 52 (2.91%) Technical Architect
11 51 (2.86%) Tester
12 47 (2.63%) Enterprise Architect
13 46 (2.58%) DevOps Engineer
13 46 (2.58%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 38 (2.13%) Cloud Engineer
14 38 (2.13%) Security Architect
15 37 (2.07%) Infrastructure Architect
16 36 (2.02%) IT Engineer
17 34 (1.90%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
18 33 (1.85%) Network Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (1.74%) LDAP
2 30 (1.68%) REST
3 25 (1.40%) React
4 21 (1.18%) .NET
5 20 (1.12%) JSON
6 19 (1.06%) Elastic Stack
7 16 (0.90%) AngularJS
7 16 (0.90%) Kafka
7 16 (0.90%) Oracle Fusion
8 15 (0.84%) 802.1X
8 15 (0.84%) RESTful
8 15 (0.84%) XML
9 14 (0.78%) SOAP
10 12 (0.67%) Web Services
11 11 (0.62%) Loki
11 11 (0.62%) YAML
12 9 (0.50%) Keycloak
12 9 (0.50%) OAuth
12 9 (0.50%) SAP Fiori
12 9 (0.50%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 80 (4.48%) Data Centre
2 79 (4.42%) PKI
3 51 (2.86%) Onboarding
4 39 (2.18%) Management Information System
4 39 (2.18%) Product Ownership
5 31 (1.74%) Self-Motivation
6 26 (1.46%) Cloud Native
7 25 (1.40%) Analytical Mindset
7 25 (1.40%) Security Operations Centre
8 22 (1.23%) Replication
9 20 (1.12%) Security Posture
10 18 (1.01%) Clustering
11 17 (0.95%) Driving Licence
12 16 (0.90%) Cyber Threat
12 16 (0.90%) PMI
13 15 (0.84%) Distributed Systems
14 12 (0.67%) Cyber Security Posture
14 12 (0.67%) Legacy Systems
14 12 (0.67%) Operational Technology
14 12 (0.67%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 266 (14.89%) Windows
2 190 (10.64%) Linux
3 70 (3.92%) Windows Server
4 38 (2.13%) Windows 10
5 29 (1.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 18 (1.01%) Android
7 12 (0.67%) Unix
8 10 (0.56%) Windows 7
9 9 (0.50%) Ubuntu
10 7 (0.39%) Kali Linux
11 5 (0.28%) Apple iOS
12 4 (0.22%) Windows Server 2016
12 4 (0.22%) Windows Server 2019
13 3 (0.17%) CentOS
13 3 (0.17%) Debian
14 2 (0.11%) Mac OS
14 2 (0.11%) SUSE
14 2 (0.11%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
14 2 (0.11%) VMS
14 2 (0.11%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 304 (17.02%) Agile
2 215 (12.04%) Problem-Solving
3 182 (10.19%) CI/CD
4 181 (10.13%) DevOps
5 178 (9.97%) ITIL
6 163 (9.13%) Migration
7 149 (8.34%) Stakeholder Management
8 147 (8.23%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 143 (8.01%) Cybersecurity
10 139 (7.78%) Roadmaps
11 131 (7.33%) Continuous Improvement
12 125 (7.00%) Service Management
13 102 (5.71%) ITSM
14 99 (5.54%) Project Management
15 91 (5.10%) SIEM
16 81 (4.54%) Change Management
17 77 (4.31%) Infrastructure Engineering
18 74 (4.14%) Decision-Making
19 73 (4.09%) Collaborative Working
20 72 (4.03%) DevSecOps
Programming Languages
1 190 (10.64%) Python
2 155 (8.68%) PowerShell
3 61 (3.42%) Bash
4 56 (3.14%) Java
5 54 (3.02%) SQL
6 37 (2.07%) JavaScript
7 34 (1.90%) C#
8 22 (1.23%) Kusto Query Language
9 19 (1.06%) C++
10 13 (0.73%) TypeScript
11 11 (0.62%) Go
11 11 (0.62%) Shell Script
12 9 (0.50%) ABAP
13 8 (0.45%) C
13 8 (0.45%) PL/SQL
14 7 (0.39%) Bicep
15 6 (0.34%) Embedded C++
15 6 (0.34%) Korn
16 4 (0.22%) T-SQL
17 3 (0.17%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 1,140 (63.83%) SC Cleared
2 551 (30.85%) DV Cleared
3 110 (6.16%) Degree
4 62 (3.47%) Cisco Certification
5 53 (2.97%) CCNP
6 49 (2.74%) CISSP
7 35 (1.96%) BPSS Clearance
8 26 (1.46%) CISM
9 23 (1.29%) Azure Certification
9 23 (1.29%) CEH
10 22 (1.23%) CCNA
10 22 (1.23%) PMI Certification
10 22 (1.23%) PMP
11 21 (1.18%) Microsoft Certification
12 20 (1.12%) GIAC
13 18 (1.01%) AWS Certification
14 15 (0.84%) CHECK Team Member
14 15 (0.84%) Network+ Certification
15 14 (0.78%) JNCIS
16 13 (0.73%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 76 (4.26%) NIST
2 74 (4.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 55 (3.08%) GDPR
4 51 (2.86%) PMO
4 51 (2.86%) QA
5 45 (2.52%) NCSC
6 20 (1.12%) SLA
7 18 (1.01%) Data Quality
8 17 (0.95%) PCI DSS
9 15 (0.84%) JSP 440
10 13 (0.73%) GRC
11 10 (0.56%) COBIT
12 9 (0.50%) Accessibility
12 9 (0.50%) NIST 800
13 6 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 20000
13 6 (0.34%) RMADS
14 5 (0.28%) Cyber Essentials
14 5 (0.28%) Def Stans
14 5 (0.28%) P3O
15 4 (0.22%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 169 (9.46%) Active Directory
2 82 (4.59%) VMware Infrastructure
3 47 (2.63%) Docker
4 33 (1.85%) vSphere
5 31 (1.74%) VMware NSX
6 20 (1.12%) VMware ESXi
7 17 (0.95%) Hyper-V
8 11 (0.62%) Virtual Desktop
9 8 (0.45%) vCloud
9 8 (0.45%) Virtual Machines
10 7 (0.39%) Firmware
11 6 (0.34%) Oracle RAC
12 5 (0.28%) NFS
13 1 (0.056%) NDS
13 1 (0.056%) NetIQ eDirectory
13 1 (0.056%) RHEV
13 1 (0.056%) Sendmail
13 1 (0.056%) Terminal Services
13 1 (0.056%) UAG
13 1 (0.056%) Xen
Systems Management
1 100 (5.60%) Kubernetes
2 67 (3.75%) Terraform
3 65 (3.64%) Ansible
4 48 (2.69%) vCenter Server
5 44 (2.46%) Grafana
6 43 (2.41%) Prometheus
7 32 (1.79%) Argo
8 26 (1.46%) Nmap
9 25 (1.40%) SCCM
10 18 (1.01%) Microsoft Intune
11 16 (0.90%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 16 (0.90%) WMI
12 15 (0.84%) FortiGate
13 14 (0.78%) Kibana
14 11 (0.62%) Kustomize
14 11 (0.62%) Single Sign-On
15 9 (0.50%) Nagios
16 8 (0.45%) Nessus
16 8 (0.45%) Red Hat Satellite
17 7 (0.39%) Puppet
Vendors
1 227 (12.71%) Microsoft
2 172 (9.63%) Cisco
3 169 (9.46%) VMware
4 79 (4.42%) SAP
5 75 (4.20%) ServiceNow
6 74 (4.14%) Juniper
7 61 (3.42%) Red Hat
8 59 (3.30%) Aruba
9 56 (3.14%) Splunk
10 47 (2.63%) SolarWinds
11 39 (2.18%) Oracle
12 38 (2.13%) Palo Alto
13 32 (1.79%) Google
14 31 (1.74%) CyberArk
14 31 (1.74%) F5
15 30 (1.68%) Sparx
16 28 (1.57%) CheckPoint
17 26 (1.46%) BeyondTrust
18 16 (0.90%) Tanium
19 15 (0.84%) Citrix