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

6 months to
5 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 1,885 762 1,846
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 37.13% 24.77% 33.56%
As % of the Qualifications category 79.60% 65.52% 75.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,297 521 1,014
10th Percentile £311 £325 £295
25th Percentile £438 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -4.35% +4.55%
75th Percentile £621 £636 £650
90th Percentile £725 £688 £725
England median daily rate £525 £540 £550
% change year-on-year -2.78% -1.82% -2.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 183 56 126
10th Percentile £16.35 £22.15 £28.70
25th Percentile £20.50 £30.21 £51.86
Median hourly rate £47.50 £61.00 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -22.13% -0.98% +6.65%
75th Percentile £84.00 £65.62 £74.33
90th Percentile £90.09 £80.05 £85.65
England median hourly rate £25.15 £60.00 £56.40
% change year-on-year -58.08% +6.38% -6.00%

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 2,368 1,163 2,455
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 46.64% 37.81% 44.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,576 738 1,387
10th Percentile £300 £263 £250
25th Percentile £413 £415 £415
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £514 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.10% -4.55% +3.77%
75th Percentile £606 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £688 £700
England median daily rate £520 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -0.95% -2.78% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 235 75 174
10th Percentile £15.62 £20.03 £18.32
25th Percentile £19.38 £29.18 £31.25
Median hourly rate £29.61 £56.75 £58.30
Median % change year-on-year -47.82% -2.66% +22.74%
75th Percentile £82.63 £67.50 £69.69
90th Percentile £90.09 £79.34 £83.41
England median hourly rate £25.47 £50.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year -49.06% +25.00% -18.37%

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 March 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 March 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 March 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 +1 957 £492 -6.29% 164
Hampshire 0 757 £575 - 154
Berkshire +2 647 £450 -18.18% 89
Buckinghamshire +1 244 £559 +18.88% 56
Surrey +16 78 £525 -19.23% 31
Oxfordshire +8 66 £400 -31.91% 29
West Sussex +6 47 £514 -17.43% 12
Kent +7 26 £443 +60.91% 21
Sussex -1 7 £475 +9.83% 7
East Sussex +5 3 £588 +6.82% 2
Middlesex - 1 - -
Isle of Wight - 1 £81 - 6
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 51 (2.71%) SharePoint
2 39 (2.07%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (0.80%) Confluence
4 5 (0.27%) Apache
4 5 (0.27%) Oracle Workflow
5 4 (0.21%) ArcGIS
5 4 (0.21%) IIS
6 3 (0.16%) MS Project Server
7 2 (0.11%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.11%) GeoServer
7 2 (0.11%) NetWeaver
7 2 (0.11%) SAP EP
7 2 (0.11%) Smallworld
8 1 (0.053%) Anypoint
8 1 (0.053%) BizTalk Server
8 1 (0.053%) Documentum
8 1 (0.053%) Exchange Server 2010
8 1 (0.053%) JBoss
8 1 (0.053%) SAS
8 1 (0.053%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 63 (3.34%) Microsoft Excel
2 58 (3.08%) Microsoft Office
3 34 (1.80%) Microsoft Project
4 30 (1.59%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 10 (0.53%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.11%) Lectora
6 2 (0.11%) Oracle Smart View
7 1 (0.053%) CATIA
7 1 (0.053%) PTC Creo
7 1 (0.053%) Siemens NX
7 1 (0.053%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 30 (1.59%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 28 (1.49%) SAP S/4HANA
3 7 (0.37%) Oracle Assets
3 7 (0.37%) Oracle ERP
3 7 (0.37%) Oracle Payables
3 7 (0.37%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
4 6 (0.32%) SAP HR
4 6 (0.32%) SAP Payroll
5 5 (0.27%) Salesforce CRM
5 5 (0.27%) SAP HCM
5 5 (0.27%) SAP PSCD
6 4 (0.21%) SAP BRIM
6 4 (0.21%) SAP Hybris
7 3 (0.16%) Payment Gateway
7 3 (0.16%) Remedy ITSM
7 3 (0.16%) Teamcenter
8 2 (0.11%) Oracle General Ledger
8 2 (0.11%) Primavera
8 2 (0.11%) SAP CRM
8 2 (0.11%) SAP PS
Cloud Services
1 268 (14.22%) Azure
2 191 (10.13%) AWS
3 88 (4.67%) GCP
4 74 (3.93%) Entra ID
5 71 (3.77%) Microsoft 365
6 44 (2.33%) OpenShift
7 42 (2.23%) Azure DevOps
8 40 (2.12%) Power Platform
9 35 (1.86%) GitHub
10 26 (1.38%) IaaS
10 26 (1.38%) PaaS
11 21 (1.11%) OneDrive
12 20 (1.06%) GitHub Actions
13 15 (0.80%) Cloud Computing
13 15 (0.80%) SaaS
14 14 (0.74%) Serverless
15 12 (0.64%) Power Automate
15 12 (0.64%) PowerApps
16 11 (0.58%) AWS CloudFormation
16 11 (0.58%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 141 (7.48%) Firewall
2 90 (4.77%) DNS
3 76 (4.03%) WAN
4 73 (3.87%) LAN
5 64 (3.40%) BGP
6 59 (3.13%) OSPF
7 58 (3.08%) DHCP
8 55 (2.92%) Network Security
9 42 (2.23%) VPN
10 36 (1.91%) TCP/IP
11 35 (1.86%) Junos
12 31 (1.64%) Cisco ISE
13 28 (1.49%) Wireless
14 26 (1.38%) IPsec
15 23 (1.22%) Ethernet VPN
15 23 (1.22%) VLAN
16 22 (1.17%) Structured Cabling
16 22 (1.17%) VXLAN
17 20 (1.06%) Cisco IOS
18 19 (1.01%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 37 (1.96%) SQL Server
2 35 (1.86%) Power BI
3 24 (1.27%) PostgreSQL
4 11 (0.58%) Metadata
4 11 (0.58%) Oracle Database
5 10 (0.53%) Azure SQL Database
6 9 (0.48%) Redis
7 8 (0.42%) Oracle Reports
7 8 (0.42%) Relational Database
8 7 (0.37%) NoSQL
8 7 (0.37%) SAP HANA
9 6 (0.32%) MongoDB
9 6 (0.32%) MySQL
9 6 (0.32%) Oracle Database 12c
10 5 (0.27%) Data Warehouse
10 5 (0.27%) Metadata Repository
11 4 (0.21%) SAP Data Services
12 3 (0.16%) Amazon RDS
12 3 (0.16%) Oracle BI Publisher
12 3 (0.16%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 51 (2.71%) JIRA
2 42 (2.23%) Git
3 37 (1.96%) Jenkins
4 34 (1.80%) GitLab
5 25 (1.33%) Rational DOORS
6 22 (1.17%) Burp Suite
6 22 (1.17%) Metasploit
7 8 (0.42%) Artifactory
7 8 (0.42%) Maven
7 8 (0.42%) SonarQube
7 8 (0.42%) Visual Studio
8 7 (0.37%) Android Studio
8 7 (0.37%) Subversion
9 6 (0.32%) Robot Framework
10 5 (0.27%) Bitbucket
10 5 (0.27%) Gradle
10 5 (0.27%) JUnit
10 5 (0.27%) Sonatype Nexus
11 4 (0.21%) Eclipse
11 4 (0.21%) Storybook
General
1 487 (25.84%) Social Skills
2 307 (16.29%) Public Sector
3 188 (9.97%) Analytical Skills
4 109 (5.78%) Finance
5 74 (3.93%) Aerospace
6 72 (3.82%) Documentation Skills
7 42 (2.23%) Military
8 35 (1.86%) Manufacturing
9 34 (1.80%) Influencing Skills
10 33 (1.75%) Legal
11 29 (1.54%) Telecoms
12 18 (0.95%) Law
12 18 (0.95%) Presentation Skills
13 15 (0.80%) Marketing
14 13 (0.69%) Organisational Skills
15 9 (0.48%) Billing
16 8 (0.42%) Electronics
17 7 (0.37%) Advertising
17 7 (0.37%) Aviation
18 6 (0.32%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 305 (16.18%) Architect
2 170 (9.02%) Senior
3 135 (7.16%) Analyst
3 135 (7.16%) Lead
4 116 (6.15%) Network Engineer
5 115 (6.10%) Consultant
6 108 (5.73%) Developer
7 57 (3.02%) Project Manager
8 55 (2.92%) Technical Architect
9 53 (2.81%) Support Engineer
10 52 (2.76%) Tester
11 49 (2.60%) Enterprise Architect
12 45 (2.39%) DevOps Engineer
13 44 (2.33%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 41 (2.18%) Security Architect
15 37 (1.96%) Cloud Engineer
15 37 (1.96%) Infrastructure Architect
16 36 (1.91%) Delivery Manager
17 35 (1.86%) IT Engineer
18 33 (1.75%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (1.70%) LDAP
1 32 (1.70%) REST
2 27 (1.43%) React
3 25 (1.33%) .NET
4 21 (1.11%) JSON
5 19 (1.01%) Elastic Stack
6 18 (0.95%) 802.1X
6 18 (0.95%) AngularJS
7 17 (0.90%) Oracle Fusion
7 17 (0.90%) XML
8 16 (0.85%) Kafka
8 16 (0.85%) RESTful
8 16 (0.85%) SOAP
9 14 (0.74%) SailPoint
10 13 (0.69%) Web Services
11 12 (0.64%) OAuth
12 11 (0.58%) Loki
12 11 (0.58%) YAML
13 10 (0.53%) Oracle GoldenGate
14 9 (0.48%) SAP Fiori
Miscellaneous
1 88 (4.67%) Data Centre
2 83 (4.40%) PKI
3 54 (2.86%) Product Ownership
4 52 (2.76%) Onboarding
5 41 (2.18%) Management Information System
6 30 (1.59%) Self-Motivation
7 26 (1.38%) Cloud Native
7 26 (1.38%) Security Operations Centre
8 24 (1.27%) Replication
9 21 (1.11%) Analytical Mindset
9 21 (1.11%) Clustering
9 21 (1.11%) Security Posture
10 18 (0.95%) Data Structures
11 17 (0.90%) Driving Licence
12 16 (0.85%) Cyber Threat
12 16 (0.85%) PMI
13 15 (0.80%) Distributed Systems
14 13 (0.69%) Private Cloud
14 13 (0.69%) Public Cloud
15 12 (0.64%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 274 (14.54%) Windows
2 191 (10.13%) Linux
3 72 (3.82%) Windows Server
4 38 (2.02%) Windows 10
5 31 (1.64%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 18 (0.95%) Android
7 13 (0.69%) Unix
8 11 (0.58%) Ubuntu
9 10 (0.53%) Windows 7
10 7 (0.37%) Kali Linux
11 5 (0.27%) Apple iOS
11 5 (0.27%) Windows Server 2016
11 5 (0.27%) Windows Server 2019
12 4 (0.21%) CentOS
13 3 (0.16%) Debian
13 3 (0.16%) 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
1 335 (17.77%) Agile
2 218 (11.56%) Problem-Solving
3 188 (9.97%) DevOps
4 185 (9.81%) CI/CD
5 183 (9.71%) ITIL
6 166 (8.81%) Migration
7 164 (8.70%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 158 (8.38%) Stakeholder Management
9 150 (7.96%) Continuous Improvement
10 149 (7.90%) Cybersecurity
11 145 (7.69%) Roadmaps
12 126 (6.68%) Service Management
13 111 (5.89%) ITSM
14 102 (5.41%) Project Management
15 91 (4.83%) SIEM
16 82 (4.35%) Change Management
17 79 (4.19%) Decision-Making
18 76 (4.03%) Collaborative Working
19 75 (3.98%) DevSecOps
19 75 (3.98%) Infrastructure Engineering
Programming Languages
1 193 (10.24%) Python
2 157 (8.33%) PowerShell
3 60 (3.18%) Bash
4 59 (3.13%) Java
5 57 (3.02%) SQL
6 38 (2.02%) C#
6 38 (2.02%) JavaScript
7 23 (1.22%) C++
8 22 (1.17%) Kusto Query Language
9 14 (0.74%) TypeScript
10 12 (0.64%) Go
10 12 (0.64%) Shell Script
11 11 (0.58%) C
12 9 (0.48%) ABAP
13 8 (0.42%) Korn
13 8 (0.42%) PL/SQL
14 7 (0.37%) Bicep
15 6 (0.32%) Embedded C++
16 4 (0.21%) T-SQL
17 3 (0.16%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 1,189 (63.08%) SC Cleared
2 591 (31.35%) DV Cleared
3 134 (7.11%) Degree
4 64 (3.40%) Cisco Certification
5 52 (2.76%) CCNP
6 49 (2.60%) CISSP
7 38 (2.02%) BPSS Clearance
8 26 (1.38%) CISM
9 24 (1.27%) PMP
10 23 (1.22%) PMI Certification
11 22 (1.17%) CCNA
11 22 (1.17%) CEH
12 21 (1.11%) Azure Certification
13 19 (1.01%) GIAC
14 18 (0.95%) AWS Certification
15 17 (0.90%) Microsoft Certification
16 15 (0.80%) CHECK Team Member
16 15 (0.80%) JNCIS
17 14 (0.74%) Computer Science Degree
18 13 (0.69%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 79 (4.19%) NIST
2 78 (4.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 55 (2.92%) GDPR
4 51 (2.71%) PMO
4 51 (2.71%) QA
5 50 (2.65%) NCSC
6 21 (1.11%) SLA
7 19 (1.01%) Data Quality
8 17 (0.90%) PCI DSS
9 15 (0.80%) JSP 440
10 13 (0.69%) GRC
11 12 (0.64%) Accessibility
11 12 (0.64%) ISO/IEC 20000
12 11 (0.58%) NIST 800
13 10 (0.53%) COBIT
14 5 (0.27%) Cyber Essentials
14 5 (0.27%) Def Stans
14 5 (0.27%) Government Security Classifications
14 5 (0.27%) P3O
14 5 (0.27%) RMADS
System Software
1 172 (9.12%) Active Directory
2 81 (4.30%) VMware Infrastructure
3 48 (2.55%) Docker
4 34 (1.80%) vSphere
5 33 (1.75%) VMware NSX
6 20 (1.06%) VMware ESXi
7 13 (0.69%) Hyper-V
8 10 (0.53%) Virtual Desktop
9 9 (0.48%) vCloud
10 8 (0.42%) Oracle RAC
10 8 (0.42%) Virtual Machines
11 7 (0.37%) Firmware
12 5 (0.27%) NFS
13 1 (0.053%) KVM
13 1 (0.053%) NDS
13 1 (0.053%) NetIQ eDirectory
13 1 (0.053%) RHEV
13 1 (0.053%) Sendmail
13 1 (0.053%) Terminal Services
13 1 (0.053%) UAG
Systems Management
1 101 (5.36%) Kubernetes
2 68 (3.61%) Terraform
3 65 (3.45%) Ansible
4 48 (2.55%) vCenter Server
5 44 (2.33%) Grafana
6 43 (2.28%) Prometheus
7 32 (1.70%) Argo
8 25 (1.33%) Nmap
8 25 (1.33%) SCCM
9 18 (0.95%) FortiGate
9 18 (0.95%) Microsoft Intune
10 17 (0.90%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 16 (0.85%) WMI
12 13 (0.69%) Kibana
13 12 (0.64%) Single Sign-On
14 11 (0.58%) Kustomize
15 9 (0.48%) Nagios
15 9 (0.48%) Oracle RMAN
16 8 (0.42%) Nessus
16 8 (0.42%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
Vendors
1 226 (11.99%) Microsoft
2 173 (9.18%) Cisco
3 171 (9.07%) VMware
4 80 (4.24%) Juniper
5 79 (4.19%) SAP
5 79 (4.19%) ServiceNow
6 63 (3.34%) Red Hat
7 59 (3.13%) Aruba
7 59 (3.13%) Splunk
8 47 (2.49%) SolarWinds
9 42 (2.23%) Oracle
10 37 (1.96%) Palo Alto
11 36 (1.91%) Google
12 35 (1.86%) F5
13 31 (1.64%) CyberArk
13 31 (1.64%) Sparx
14 27 (1.43%) BeyondTrust
15 26 (1.38%) CheckPoint
16 20 (1.06%) IBM
17 15 (0.80%) Citrix