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

6 months to
24 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 1,497 810 1,692
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 33.40% 24.88% 31.97%
As % of the Qualifications category 76.14% 65.85% 73.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,066 550 939
10th Percentile £306 £306 £243
25th Percentile £431 £420 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -6.36% - -
75th Percentile £613 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £700 £713
England median daily rate £525 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -4.55% - -3.93%
Number of hourly rates quoted 132 59 117
10th Percentile £18.54 £19.83 £31.89
25th Percentile £19.54 £33.13 £52.19
Median hourly rate £25.15 £61.50 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -59.10% +2.49% +8.11%
75th Percentile £60.00 £65.62 £70.50
90th Percentile £94.51 £78.71 £80.73
England median hourly rate £25.15 £59.50 £58.30
% change year-on-year -57.73% +2.06% -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 1,966 1,230 2,303
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 43.86% 37.78% 43.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,318 781 1,353
10th Percentile £275 £250 £213
25th Percentile £413 £406 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -1.62%
75th Percentile £600 £634 £638
90th Percentile £725 £688 £700
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 186 69 147
10th Percentile £15.25 £19.18 £23.65
25th Percentile £19.35 £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 £58.75 £64.73 £70.00
90th Percentile £90.09 £77.42 £78.14
England median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £47.50
% change year-on-year -45.54% -2.78% +5.56%

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 24 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 24 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 24 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
Thames Valley +1 675 £481 -7.89% 139
Hampshire 0 673 £550 -4.35% 173
Berkshire 0 473 £450 -18.18% 69
Buckinghamshire +1 162 £550 +25.00% 45
Surrey +25 70 £530 -18.46% 42
Oxfordshire +5 40 £275 -53.19% 26
West Sussex +7 39 £519 -23.47% 23
Kent +9 20 £438 +143.06% 27
Middlesex - 6 - - 1
Sussex -3 3 £475 +9.83% 5
East Sussex +4 2 £588 +6.82% 19
Isle of Wight - 1 £81 - 14
Home Counties - 1 £1,100 -
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 44 (2.94%) SharePoint
2 36 (2.40%) Microsoft Exchange
3 14 (0.94%) Confluence
4 5 (0.33%) Exchange Server 2010
4 5 (0.33%) Exchange Server 2013
4 5 (0.33%) Skype for Business
5 4 (0.27%) Apache
5 4 (0.27%) ArcGIS
5 4 (0.27%) Exchange Server 2003
5 4 (0.27%) Exchange Server 2007
5 4 (0.27%) IIS
5 4 (0.27%) Office Communications Server
5 4 (0.27%) Oracle Workflow
5 4 (0.27%) SharePoint Server
6 3 (0.20%) Documentum
6 3 (0.20%) MS Project Server
7 2 (0.13%) GeoServer
7 2 (0.13%) Smallworld
8 1 (0.067%) Anypoint
8 1 (0.067%) BizTalk Server
Applications
1 57 (3.81%) Microsoft Office
2 50 (3.34%) Microsoft Excel
3 30 (2.00%) Microsoft Project
4 26 (1.74%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.47%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.067%) PTC Creo
Business Applications
1 32 (2.14%) SAP S/4HANA
2 28 (1.87%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 9 (0.60%) SAP HR
3 9 (0.60%) SAP Payroll
4 8 (0.53%) SAP EWM
4 8 (0.53%) SAP WM
5 6 (0.40%) Oracle Assets
5 6 (0.40%) Oracle Payables
6 5 (0.33%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 5 (0.33%) Salesforce CRM
7 4 (0.27%) Oracle ERP
7 4 (0.27%) Primavera
7 4 (0.27%) SAP HCM
7 4 (0.27%) SAP PSCD
8 3 (0.20%) Payment Gateway
8 3 (0.20%) SAP BRIM
8 3 (0.20%) SAP ERP
8 3 (0.20%) SAP Hybris
9 2 (0.13%) Oracle General Ledger
9 2 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 220 (14.70%) Azure
2 176 (11.76%) AWS
3 79 (5.28%) GCP
4 66 (4.41%) Microsoft 365
5 50 (3.34%) Entra ID
6 33 (2.20%) GitHub
7 32 (2.14%) OpenShift
8 31 (2.07%) Azure DevOps
9 24 (1.60%) Power Platform
10 20 (1.34%) IaaS
11 18 (1.20%) GitHub Actions
12 17 (1.14%) OneDrive
12 17 (1.14%) PaaS
13 16 (1.07%) SaaS
14 15 (1.00%) Cloud Computing
15 11 (0.73%) Serverless
16 10 (0.67%) Datadog
17 8 (0.53%) AWS CloudFormation
17 8 (0.53%) Power Automate
17 8 (0.53%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 108 (7.21%) Firewall
2 65 (4.34%) DNS
3 43 (2.87%) WAN
4 41 (2.74%) LAN
4 41 (2.74%) Network Security
5 39 (2.61%) DHCP
6 36 (2.40%) BGP
6 36 (2.40%) TCP/IP
7 35 (2.34%) VPN
8 30 (2.00%) OSPF
9 26 (1.74%) Cisco IOS
10 25 (1.67%) Junos
10 25 (1.67%) VLAN
11 23 (1.54%) Cisco Firepower
11 23 (1.54%) Cisco ISE
12 20 (1.34%) Wireless
13 19 (1.27%) IPsec
14 16 (1.07%) SAN
14 16 (1.07%) Structured Cabling
15 15 (1.00%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 21 (1.40%) Power BI
2 19 (1.27%) SQL Server
3 15 (1.00%) PostgreSQL
4 10 (0.67%) Metadata
5 8 (0.53%) NoSQL
5 8 (0.53%) Redis
6 7 (0.47%) Azure SQL Database
6 7 (0.47%) SAP HANA
7 6 (0.40%) MongoDB
7 6 (0.40%) Relational Database
8 5 (0.33%) Metadata Repository
8 5 (0.33%) Oracle Reports
9 4 (0.27%) Oracle Database
10 3 (0.20%) GIS
10 3 (0.20%) MySQL
10 3 (0.20%) SAP Data Services
11 2 (0.13%) Data Warehouse
11 2 (0.13%) Geospatial Data
11 2 (0.13%) QGIS
11 2 (0.13%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 45 (3.01%) JIRA
2 33 (2.20%) GitLab
2 33 (2.20%) Jenkins
3 27 (1.80%) Git
4 21 (1.40%) Burp Suite
4 21 (1.40%) Metasploit
5 8 (0.53%) Artifactory
6 7 (0.47%) Android Studio
7 5 (0.33%) Bitbucket
7 5 (0.33%) Gradle
8 4 (0.27%) JUnit
8 4 (0.27%) Maven
8 4 (0.27%) Postman
8 4 (0.27%) Rational DOORS
8 4 (0.27%) Robot Framework
8 4 (0.27%) SonarQube
8 4 (0.27%) Sonatype Nexus
8 4 (0.27%) Subversion
9 3 (0.20%) Storybook
9 3 (0.20%) Visual Studio
General
1 429 (28.66%) Social Skills
2 270 (18.04%) Public Sector
3 165 (11.02%) Analytical Skills
4 74 (4.94%) Finance
5 57 (3.81%) Documentation Skills
6 39 (2.61%) Manufacturing
7 36 (2.40%) Military
8 30 (2.00%) Telecoms
9 22 (1.47%) Influencing Skills
10 21 (1.40%) Legal
11 19 (1.27%) Aerospace
11 19 (1.27%) Presentation Skills
12 17 (1.14%) Law
13 12 (0.80%) Marketing
13 12 (0.80%) Organisational Skills
14 10 (0.67%) Electronics
15 7 (0.47%) Pharmaceutical
16 6 (0.40%) Aviation
16 6 (0.40%) Billing
16 6 (0.40%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 256 (17.10%) Architect
2 118 (7.88%) Senior
3 106 (7.08%) Analyst
4 100 (6.68%) Consultant
5 97 (6.48%) Network Engineer
6 92 (6.15%) Lead
7 62 (4.14%) Developer
7 62 (4.14%) Support Engineer
8 48 (3.21%) Project Manager
9 47 (3.14%) Tester
10 46 (3.07%) DevOps Engineer
11 44 (2.94%) Cloud Engineer
11 44 (2.94%) Enterprise Architect
12 42 (2.81%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 37 (2.47%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
13 37 (2.47%) Infrastructure Architect
14 35 (2.34%) Technical Architect
15 34 (2.27%) 3rd Line Engineer
15 34 (2.27%) IT Engineer
16 33 (2.20%) Network Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (1.67%) LDAP
2 21 (1.40%) REST
3 16 (1.07%) .NET
3 16 (1.07%) Elastic Stack
3 16 (1.07%) React
4 14 (0.94%) Kafka
5 13 (0.87%) RESTful
6 12 (0.80%) Oracle Fusion
7 11 (0.73%) AngularJS
8 9 (0.60%) JSON
8 9 (0.60%) Keycloak
8 9 (0.60%) Loki
9 8 (0.53%) SAP Fiori
9 8 (0.53%) SOAP
9 8 (0.53%) Web Services
9 8 (0.53%) XML
10 7 (0.47%) Spring Boot
10 7 (0.47%) Swagger
10 7 (0.47%) Vue
10 7 (0.47%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 61 (4.07%) PKI
2 50 (3.34%) Data Centre
3 33 (2.20%) Onboarding
4 31 (2.07%) Management Information System
5 28 (1.87%) Product Ownership
6 25 (1.67%) Cloud Native
7 24 (1.60%) Security Operations Centre
8 23 (1.54%) Self-Motivation
9 21 (1.40%) Analytical Mindset
10 17 (1.14%) Replication
11 16 (1.07%) Driving Licence
12 15 (1.00%) Cyber Security Posture
12 15 (1.00%) PMI
12 15 (1.00%) Private Cloud
12 15 (1.00%) Security Posture
13 14 (0.94%) Distributed Systems
14 13 (0.87%) Legacy Systems
15 11 (0.73%) Cyber Threat
15 11 (0.73%) Fat Client
15 11 (0.73%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 251 (16.77%) Windows
2 156 (10.42%) Linux
3 59 (3.94%) Windows Server
4 48 (3.21%) Windows 10
5 21 (1.40%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 13 (0.87%) Android
7 11 (0.73%) Windows 7
8 7 (0.47%) Kali Linux
9 6 (0.40%) Ubuntu
10 5 (0.33%) Unix
11 4 (0.27%) Windows Server 2003
11 4 (0.27%) Windows Server 2016
12 3 (0.20%) Apple iOS
12 3 (0.20%) Debian
12 3 (0.20%) Windows Server 2012
12 3 (0.20%) Windows Server 2019
13 2 (0.13%) Mac OS
13 2 (0.13%) SUSE
13 2 (0.13%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
14 1 (0.067%) Embedded Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 243 (16.23%) Agile
2 190 (12.69%) Problem-Solving
3 158 (10.55%) CI/CD
3 158 (10.55%) DevOps
4 140 (9.35%) ITIL
5 134 (8.95%) Migration
6 128 (8.55%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 115 (7.68%) Cybersecurity
8 110 (7.35%) Stakeholder Management
9 105 (7.01%) Service Management
10 100 (6.68%) Roadmaps
11 93 (6.21%) Continuous Improvement
12 84 (5.61%) Project Management
13 78 (5.21%) ITSM
14 76 (5.08%) SIEM
15 69 (4.61%) Change Management
16 66 (4.41%) Workflow
17 64 (4.28%) Collaborative Working
18 62 (4.14%) Infrastructure Engineering
19 60 (4.01%) DevSecOps
Programming Languages
1 167 (11.16%) Python
2 131 (8.75%) PowerShell
3 54 (3.61%) Bash
3 54 (3.61%) Java
4 47 (3.14%) SQL
5 32 (2.14%) JavaScript
6 28 (1.87%) C#
7 18 (1.20%) C++
8 15 (1.00%) Go
9 14 (0.94%) Kusto Query Language
10 10 (0.67%) ABAP
11 8 (0.53%) TypeScript
12 7 (0.47%) PL/SQL
13 6 (0.40%) Bicep
13 6 (0.40%) C
13 6 (0.40%) Embedded C++
14 5 (0.33%) Shell Script
15 3 (0.20%) MATLAB
16 2 (0.13%) Assembly Language
16 2 (0.13%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 951 (63.53%) SC Cleared
2 493 (32.93%) DV Cleared
3 84 (5.61%) Degree
4 47 (3.14%) CISSP
5 42 (2.81%) Cisco Certification
6 40 (2.67%) CCNP
7 26 (1.74%) CEH
8 24 (1.60%) CISM
9 23 (1.54%) GIAC
10 20 (1.34%) Azure Certification
11 19 (1.27%) BPSS Clearance
11 19 (1.27%) CCNA
12 18 (1.20%) Microsoft Certification
13 17 (1.14%) AWS Certification
13 17 (1.14%) PMI Certification
14 16 (1.07%) PMP
15 14 (0.94%) CHECK Team Member
16 13 (0.87%) Network+ Certification
17 12 (0.80%) CREST Certified
17 12 (0.80%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 55 (3.67%) GDPR
1 55 (3.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 44 (2.94%) NIST
2 44 (2.94%) PMO
3 43 (2.87%) QA
4 30 (2.00%) NCSC
5 20 (1.34%) SLA
6 16 (1.07%) PCI DSS
7 14 (0.94%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 13 (0.87%) Data Quality
9 12 (0.80%) GRC
10 11 (0.73%) COBIT
11 10 (0.67%) JSP 440
12 5 (0.33%) Accessibility
12 5 (0.33%) P3O
12 5 (0.33%) RMADS
13 4 (0.27%) Def Stans
14 3 (0.20%) Actionable Recommendations
14 3 (0.20%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 2 (0.13%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 149 (9.95%) Active Directory
2 75 (5.01%) VMware Infrastructure
3 44 (2.94%) Docker
4 35 (2.34%) VMware NSX
5 34 (2.27%) vSphere
6 17 (1.14%) VMware ESXi
7 12 (0.80%) Hyper-V
8 9 (0.60%) Virtual Desktop
9 7 (0.47%) Virtual Machines
10 6 (0.40%) Firmware
10 6 (0.40%) vCloud
11 5 (0.33%) NFS
12 4 (0.27%) Brightmail
12 4 (0.27%) ISA Server
13 2 (0.13%) UAG
14 1 (0.067%) KVM
14 1 (0.067%) NetIQ eDirectory
14 1 (0.067%) RHEV
14 1 (0.067%) Sendmail
14 1 (0.067%) Xen
Systems Management
1 95 (6.35%) Kubernetes
2 62 (4.14%) Terraform
3 57 (3.81%) Ansible
4 49 (3.27%) vCenter Server
5 38 (2.54%) Grafana
5 38 (2.54%) Prometheus
6 26 (1.74%) Argo
7 25 (1.67%) SCCM
8 24 (1.60%) Nmap
9 17 (1.14%) WMI
10 14 (0.94%) Microsoft Intune
11 13 (0.87%) Kibana
12 12 (0.80%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 12 (0.80%) Single Sign-On
13 9 (0.60%) Kustomize
14 8 (0.53%) SCOM
14 8 (0.53%) vRealize
15 7 (0.47%) Nagios
15 7 (0.47%) Puppet
15 7 (0.47%) Sysdig
Vendors
1 203 (13.56%) Microsoft
2 153 (10.22%) VMware
3 148 (9.89%) Cisco
4 85 (5.68%) SAP
5 59 (3.94%) Juniper
6 53 (3.54%) ServiceNow
7 52 (3.47%) Aruba
8 50 (3.34%) Splunk
9 47 (3.14%) Red Hat
10 35 (2.34%) SolarWinds
11 31 (2.07%) Google
12 29 (1.94%) Sparx
13 28 (1.87%) Palo Alto
14 26 (1.74%) Oracle
15 25 (1.67%) CyberArk
16 23 (1.54%) CheckPoint
17 17 (1.14%) BeyondTrust
18 15 (1.00%) Tanium
19 14 (0.94%) F5
20 13 (0.87%) FireEye