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

6 months to
5 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 2,344 879 1,915
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 36.84% 26.80% 33.64%
As % of the Qualifications category 81.70% 66.84% 75.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,654 611 1,171
10th Percentile £385 £300 £400
25th Percentile £463 £450 £482
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £598
Median % change year-on-year - -8.03% +13.90%
75th Percentile £625 £606 £672
90th Percentile £725 £675 £738
England median daily rate £525 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -2.33% -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 235 63 139
10th Percentile £19.33 - £22.50
25th Percentile £43.81 £18.87 £52.90
Median hourly rate £76.80 £27.76 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +176.66% -54.94% -1.52%
75th Percentile £85.50 £64.52 £84.42
90th Percentile £101.60 £85.80 £90.40
England median hourly rate £63.14 £25.15 £57.50
% change year-on-year +151.03% -56.26% -4.17%

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 2,869 1,315 2,542
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 45.09% 40.09% 44.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,948 840 1,480
10th Percentile £325 £262 £350
25th Percentile £450 £407 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +2.38% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £600 £650
90th Percentile £725 £661 £725
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 299 96 224
10th Percentile £17.82 £18.87 £17.80
25th Percentile £29.07 £24.66 £26.61
Median hourly rate £61.16 £46.90 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +30.41% -18.22% -4.42%
75th Percentile £84.50 £70.00 £69.86
90th Percentile £88.00 £80.50 £87.46
England median hourly rate £53.90 £28.18 £42.50
% change year-on-year +91.27% -33.69% -22.73%

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 July 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 July 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 July 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 1,271 £531 -2.33% 158
Hampshire 0 857 £575 +4.55% 295
Berkshire +1 728 £525 -5.62% 100
Buckinghamshire +2 423 £550 +11.68% 35
Oxfordshire +9 120 £480 +168.16% 28
Surrey +4 116 £525 - 52
West Sussex +8 69 £483 -4.31% 12
Kent -5 10 £445 +18.67% 14
East Sussex +6 7 £459 - 1
Sussex - 6 £475 - 3
Home Counties +1 2 £525 -18.48%
Isle of Wight - 1 - - 2
Middlesex - 1 - - 2
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 (1.83%) SharePoint
2 27 (1.15%) Confluence
3 24 (1.02%) Microsoft Exchange
4 15 (0.64%) Oracle Application Server
5 8 (0.34%) Apache Airflow
6 7 (0.30%) Documentum
6 7 (0.30%) SAS
7 6 (0.26%) Oracle Workflow
8 5 (0.21%) IIS
9 4 (0.17%) ArcGIS
9 4 (0.17%) NetWeaver
9 4 (0.17%) SAP EP
10 3 (0.13%) Apache
10 3 (0.13%) CMS
10 3 (0.13%) Palantir Foundry
11 2 (0.085%) Apache Spark
11 2 (0.085%) MS Project Server
11 2 (0.085%) nginx
11 2 (0.085%) Tomcat
11 2 (0.085%) Umbraco
Applications
1 50 (2.13%) Microsoft Excel
2 44 (1.88%) Microsoft Project
3 35 (1.49%) Microsoft Office
4 15 (0.64%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 11 (0.47%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.13%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.085%) CPLEX
7 2 (0.085%) Lectora
7 2 (0.085%) Oracle Smart View
7 2 (0.085%) Windchill
8 1 (0.043%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.043%) Autodesk Inventor
8 1 (0.043%) CATIA
8 1 (0.043%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.043%) Houdini
8 1 (0.043%) InVision
8 1 (0.043%) MicroStation
8 1 (0.043%) NUKE
8 1 (0.043%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.043%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 47 (2.01%) SAP S/4HANA
2 23 (0.98%) Oracle ERP
3 19 (0.81%) SAP PSCD
4 15 (0.64%) Remedy ITSM
5 14 (0.60%) Teamcenter
6 12 (0.51%) Siebel CRM
7 9 (0.38%) Primavera
7 9 (0.38%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
8 8 (0.34%) iTrent
8 8 (0.34%) SAP BRIM
8 8 (0.34%) SAP Hybris
9 4 (0.17%) SAP CRM
9 4 (0.17%) SAP MM
10 3 (0.13%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
10 3 (0.13%) SAP EWM
11 2 (0.085%) Oracle Assets
11 2 (0.085%) Oracle Payables
11 2 (0.085%) Remedy AR System
11 2 (0.085%) Salesforce CRM
11 2 (0.085%) SAP FI-CA
Cloud Services
1 344 (14.68%) Azure
2 197 (8.40%) AWS
3 86 (3.67%) Entra ID
4 77 (3.28%) GCP
5 72 (3.07%) Azure DevOps
6 67 (2.86%) Power Platform
7 44 (1.88%) Microsoft 365
8 37 (1.58%) OpenShift
9 33 (1.41%) IaaS
9 33 (1.41%) PaaS
10 28 (1.19%) SaaS
11 25 (1.07%) OCI
12 19 (0.81%) SuccessFactors
13 14 (0.60%) GitHub
14 11 (0.47%) AWS CloudFormation
14 11 (0.47%) Route 53
15 10 (0.43%) GitHub Actions
15 10 (0.43%) SAP Commerce Cloud
15 10 (0.43%) Serverless
16 8 (0.34%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 130 (5.55%) Firewall
2 124 (5.29%) DNS
3 105 (4.48%) LAN
3 105 (4.48%) WAN
4 77 (3.28%) BGP
5 75 (3.20%) Network Security
6 74 (3.16%) DHCP
7 65 (2.77%) OSPF
8 49 (2.09%) VPN
9 37 (1.58%) TCP/IP
10 34 (1.45%) BIG-IP
11 32 (1.37%) IPsec
11 32 (1.37%) VXLAN
12 31 (1.32%) MPLS
12 31 (1.32%) SD-WAN
13 30 (1.28%) Ethernet VPN
14 26 (1.11%) Junos
15 25 (1.07%) Wireless
16 24 (1.02%) Cisco ISE
16 24 (1.02%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 64 (2.73%) SQL Server
2 56 (2.39%) Power BI
3 36 (1.54%) Data Warehouse
4 31 (1.32%) Oracle Database
5 30 (1.28%) PostgreSQL
6 26 (1.11%) Oracle Reports
7 16 (0.68%) Oracle ODI
8 11 (0.47%) Metadata
8 11 (0.47%) MySQL
8 11 (0.47%) Relational Database
9 10 (0.43%) Oracle Database 12c
10 9 (0.38%) Geospatial Data
11 8 (0.34%) Siebel EIM
12 7 (0.30%) Redis
12 7 (0.30%) Tableau
13 6 (0.26%) NoSQL
13 6 (0.26%) Oracle Database 11g
14 5 (0.21%) Amazon RDS
14 5 (0.21%) Elasticsearch
14 5 (0.21%) Pentaho
Development Applications
1 68 (2.90%) JIRA
2 52 (2.22%) Git
3 47 (2.01%) GitLab
4 38 (1.62%) Rational DOORS
5 28 (1.19%) Jenkins
6 23 (0.98%) SonarQube
7 10 (0.43%) Visual Studio
8 9 (0.38%) Postman
9 8 (0.34%) Sonatype Nexus
10 7 (0.30%) JUnit
11 6 (0.26%) MLflow
12 5 (0.21%) Artifactory
12 5 (0.21%) Maven
13 4 (0.17%) Eclipse
13 4 (0.17%) Robot Framework
13 4 (0.17%) Subversion
14 3 (0.13%) Selenium
14 3 (0.13%) Zephyr
15 2 (0.085%) Bitbucket
15 2 (0.085%) Metasploit
General
1 491 (20.95%) Social Skills
2 279 (11.90%) Public Sector
3 214 (9.13%) Analytical Skills
4 156 (6.66%) Aerospace
5 147 (6.27%) Finance
6 77 (3.28%) Documentation Skills
7 43 (1.83%) Military
8 40 (1.71%) Influencing Skills
9 35 (1.49%) Legal
10 33 (1.41%) Telecoms
11 26 (1.11%) Organisational Skills
12 24 (1.02%) Law
13 17 (0.73%) Billing
13 17 (0.73%) Presentation Skills
14 14 (0.60%) Manufacturing
15 13 (0.55%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 12 (0.51%) Advertising
17 11 (0.47%) Aviation
18 9 (0.38%) Police
19 6 (0.26%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 306 (13.05%) Architect
2 254 (10.84%) Senior
3 208 (8.87%) Lead
4 207 (8.83%) Developer
5 187 (7.98%) Analyst
6 113 (4.82%) Consultant
7 95 (4.05%) Network Engineer
8 91 (3.88%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 81 (3.46%) Project Manager
10 80 (3.41%) Technical Architect
11 71 (3.03%) Security Architect
12 62 (2.65%) Delivery Manager
13 54 (2.30%) Product Manager
14 53 (2.26%) SOC Analyst
15 49 (2.09%) Cloud Engineer
16 48 (2.05%) Network Architect
16 48 (2.05%) Senior Manager
17 45 (1.92%) Support Engineer
18 44 (1.88%) Software Engineer
19 43 (1.83%) Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 70 (2.99%) REST
2 41 (1.75%) LDAP
3 40 (1.71%) .NET
4 34 (1.45%) RESTful
5 32 (1.37%) OAuth
6 31 (1.32%) React
7 30 (1.28%) 802.1X
7 30 (1.28%) SOAP
8 28 (1.19%) JSON
9 26 (1.11%) AngularJS
10 24 (1.02%) SailPoint
10 24 (1.02%) SAML
11 23 (0.98%) OpenID
12 21 (0.90%) CSS
13 20 (0.85%) HTML
14 17 (0.73%) OAuth2
14 17 (0.73%) Web Services
15 15 (0.64%) Kafka
15 15 (0.64%) Quarkus
15 15 (0.64%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 108 (4.61%) Data Centre
2 100 (4.27%) Product Ownership
3 86 (3.67%) PKI
4 67 (2.86%) Onboarding
5 42 (1.79%) Management Information System
6 37 (1.58%) Data Structures
7 32 (1.37%) Clustering
7 32 (1.37%) Operational Technology
8 30 (1.28%) Distributed Systems
9 29 (1.24%) Public Cloud
9 29 (1.24%) Replication
10 26 (1.11%) Self-Motivation
11 24 (1.02%) Greenfield Project
11 24 (1.02%) Hybrid Cloud
11 24 (1.02%) Security Operations Centre
12 22 (0.94%) Cloud Native
13 20 (0.85%) Cyber Threat
14 19 (0.81%) CMDB
15 18 (0.77%) Virtual Team
16 17 (0.73%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 267 (11.39%) Windows
2 208 (8.87%) Linux
3 96 (4.10%) Windows Server
4 55 (2.35%) Unix
5 33 (1.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 15 (0.64%) Windows Server 2019
7 9 (0.38%) Ubuntu
8 8 (0.34%) Embedded Linux
8 8 (0.34%) Windows 10
9 7 (0.30%) Android
10 6 (0.26%) Windows Server 2016
11 5 (0.21%) Apple iOS
11 5 (0.21%) CentOS
11 5 (0.21%) Debian
11 5 (0.21%) Mac OS
12 2 (0.085%) Oracle Linux
12 2 (0.085%) Windows 7
12 2 (0.085%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.043%) Solaris
13 1 (0.043%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 452 (19.28%) Agile
2 266 (11.35%) Continuous Improvement
3 264 (11.26%) Problem-Solving
4 261 (11.13%) Stakeholder Management
5 246 (10.49%) ITIL
6 236 (10.07%) Cybersecurity
7 206 (8.79%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 199 (8.49%) CI/CD
9 191 (8.15%) DevOps
10 169 (7.21%) ITSM
11 142 (6.06%) Roadmaps
12 138 (5.89%) Migration
13 129 (5.50%) Service Management
14 120 (5.12%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 116 (4.95%) Decision-Making
16 111 (4.74%) Scrum
17 109 (4.65%) SIEM
17 109 (4.65%) Software Engineering
18 108 (4.61%) Computer Science
18 108 (4.61%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 211 (9.00%) Python
2 159 (6.78%) PowerShell
3 130 (5.55%) SQL
4 90 (3.84%) Java
5 65 (2.77%) JavaScript
6 51 (2.18%) Bash
7 40 (1.71%) C#
8 29 (1.24%) C++
9 22 (0.94%) Go
10 20 (0.85%) PL/SQL
11 18 (0.77%) C
11 18 (0.77%) Shell Script
11 18 (0.77%) TypeScript
12 12 (0.51%) Kusto Query Language
13 9 (0.38%) ABAP
13 9 (0.38%) Bicep
13 9 (0.38%) Korn
14 6 (0.26%) Rust
14 6 (0.26%) T-SQL
15 4 (0.17%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 1,488 (63.48%) SC Cleared
2 813 (34.68%) DV Cleared
3 178 (7.59%) Degree
4 63 (2.69%) Cisco Certification
5 62 (2.65%) BPSS Clearance
6 44 (1.88%) CISSP
7 39 (1.66%) PMI Certification
8 35 (1.49%) Azure Certification
9 34 (1.45%) CCNP
9 34 (1.45%) PMP
10 24 (1.02%) ISTQB
11 23 (0.98%) CISM
12 22 (0.94%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 18 (0.77%) Computer Science Degree
13 18 (0.77%) Microsoft Certification
14 15 (0.64%) AWS Certification
15 14 (0.60%) RHCE
16 13 (0.55%) CCNA
17 12 (0.51%) VCAP
18 11 (0.47%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 126 (5.38%) NIST
2 114 (4.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 67 (2.86%) NCSC
4 63 (2.69%) PMO
5 56 (2.39%) QA
6 44 (1.88%) GDPR
7 30 (1.28%) Data Quality
8 25 (1.07%) SLA
9 19 (0.81%) Accessibility
9 19 (0.81%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 18 (0.77%) GRC
10 18 (0.77%) JSP 440
10 18 (0.77%) NIST 800
11 14 (0.60%) Cyber Essentials
12 8 (0.34%) ISO 31000
13 7 (0.30%) ISO 9001
13 7 (0.30%) RMADS
14 6 (0.26%) Government Security Classifications
15 4 (0.17%) Def Stans
16 3 (0.13%) ISO 26262
System Software
1 180 (7.68%) Active Directory
2 138 (5.89%) VMware Infrastructure
3 70 (2.99%) VMware NSX
4 50 (2.13%) Docker
5 47 (2.01%) VMware ESXi
6 27 (1.15%) vSphere
7 23 (0.98%) vCloud
8 16 (0.68%) Hyper-V
8 16 (0.68%) Virtual Machines
9 14 (0.60%) Oracle RAC
10 13 (0.55%) Firmware
11 10 (0.43%) Virtual Desktop
12 4 (0.17%) Embedded Firmware
13 3 (0.13%) UAG
14 2 (0.085%) Dovecot
14 2 (0.085%) KVM
14 2 (0.085%) Postfix
15 1 (0.043%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 93 (3.97%) Kubernetes
2 66 (2.82%) Terraform
3 60 (2.56%) vCenter Server
4 54 (2.30%) Ansible
5 37 (1.58%) SCOM
6 33 (1.41%) FortiGate
7 26 (1.11%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 22 (0.94%) Argo
8 22 (0.94%) Grafana
9 20 (0.85%) Prometheus
10 17 (0.73%) Oracle RMAN
11 15 (0.64%) Microsoft Intune
12 13 (0.55%) SCCM
13 12 (0.51%) Avamar
14 11 (0.47%) Red Hat Satellite
14 11 (0.47%) Single Sign-On
15 9 (0.38%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
16 7 (0.30%) WMI
17 6 (0.26%) Data Guard
17 6 (0.26%) NetIQ Identity Manager
Vendors
1 268 (11.43%) Microsoft
2 227 (9.68%) VMware
3 146 (6.23%) Oracle
4 136 (5.80%) ServiceNow
5 130 (5.55%) SAP
6 122 (5.20%) Cisco
7 77 (3.28%) Juniper
8 57 (2.43%) Red Hat
9 52 (2.22%) F5
9 52 (2.22%) SolarWinds
10 37 (1.58%) Splunk
11 33 (1.41%) BeyondTrust
11 33 (1.41%) Citrix
12 32 (1.37%) CyberArk
13 31 (1.32%) Google
14 30 (1.28%) IBM
14 30 (1.28%) Palo Alto
15 25 (1.07%) Extreme Networks
16 22 (0.94%) Fortinet
17 20 (0.85%) Siebel