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

6 months to
7 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 2,326 953 1,506
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 35.23% 27.29% 32.01%
As % of the Qualifications category 79.96% 69.51% 73.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,646 677 1,004
10th Percentile £405 £300 £363
25th Percentile £483 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £564 £538 £580
Median % change year-on-year +4.98% -7.33% +10.48%
75th Percentile £638 £600 £663
90th Percentile £738 £655 £735
England median daily rate £549 £538 £550
% change year-on-year +2.14% -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 229 87 108
10th Percentile £23.50 - £26.25
25th Percentile £52.50 £18.87 £52.80
Median hourly rate £70.00 £25.15 £61.75
Median % change year-on-year +178.33% -59.27% +1.54%
75th Percentile £85.36 £49.38 £77.74
90th Percentile £102.70 £77.45 £92.11
England median hourly rate £65.00 £25.15 £61.60
% change year-on-year +158.45% -59.17% +2.67%

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 2,909 1,371 2,057
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 44.06% 39.26% 43.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,970 887 1,293
10th Percentile £350 £242 £350
25th Percentile £463 £414 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £638 £600 £640
90th Percentile £730 £655 £722
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 305 118 167
10th Percentile £18.25 - £21.85
25th Percentile £36.00 £18.87 £44.50
Median hourly rate £61.16 £25.15 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +143.18% -56.15% -4.42%
75th Percentile £83.00 £69.36 £71.50
90th Percentile £96.00 £81.00 £87.46
England median hourly rate £52.50 £25.15 £53.00
% change year-on-year +108.75% -52.55% -3.64%

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 7 September 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 7 September 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 7 September 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 1,195 £560 +6.67% 210
Hampshire 0 930 £575 +4.55% 232
Berkshire +1 673 £575 +4.55% 140
Buckinghamshire +1 417 £550 +10.83% 45
Surrey +7 108 £580 +10.48% 75
Oxfordshire +5 105 £480 +146.15% 33
West Sussex +9 69 £470 -9.05% 24
Kent +1 11 £411 +9.59% 9
East Sussex +9 9 £459 - 2
Home Counties 0 3 £525 -39.79%
Middlesex -24 2 - -
Isle of Wight - 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 55 (2.36%) SharePoint
2 33 (1.42%) Confluence
3 22 (0.95%) Oracle Application Server
4 10 (0.43%) Microsoft Exchange
5 9 (0.39%) Apache Airflow
6 7 (0.30%) Documentum
6 7 (0.30%) SAS
7 6 (0.26%) Apache
8 5 (0.21%) Apache Spark
9 4 (0.17%) Oracle Workflow
10 3 (0.13%) ArcGIS
10 3 (0.13%) CMS
10 3 (0.13%) IIS
10 3 (0.13%) NetWeaver
10 3 (0.13%) Palantir Foundry
10 3 (0.13%) SAP EP
11 2 (0.086%) Apache Superset
11 2 (0.086%) Tomcat
11 2 (0.086%) Umbraco
11 2 (0.086%) WebLogic
Applications
1 67 (2.88%) Microsoft Excel
2 56 (2.41%) Microsoft Project
3 44 (1.89%) Microsoft Office
4 33 (1.42%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.26%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.086%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 2 (0.086%) CPLEX
6 2 (0.086%) Houdini
6 2 (0.086%) NUKE
6 2 (0.086%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.086%) Windchill
7 1 (0.043%) Autodesk Inventor
7 1 (0.043%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.043%) InVision
7 1 (0.043%) MicroStation
7 1 (0.043%) Simulink
7 1 (0.043%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 53 (2.28%) SAP S/4HANA
2 28 (1.20%) Oracle ERP
3 21 (0.90%) Remedy ITSM
4 18 (0.77%) SAP PSCD
4 18 (0.77%) Teamcenter
5 12 (0.52%) Siebel CRM
6 10 (0.43%) Primavera
7 8 (0.34%) iTrent
8 7 (0.30%) Remedy AR System
9 6 (0.26%) SAP BRIM
9 6 (0.26%) SAP EWM
9 6 (0.26%) SAP Hybris
9 6 (0.26%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
10 4 (0.17%) SAP MM
10 4 (0.17%) Workday HCM
11 3 (0.13%) Dynamics CRM
11 3 (0.13%) Oracle Financials
11 3 (0.13%) SAP CRM
11 3 (0.13%) SAP FI
11 3 (0.13%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 376 (16.17%) Azure
2 202 (8.68%) AWS
3 82 (3.53%) Azure DevOps
4 78 (3.35%) Entra ID
5 73 (3.14%) Power Platform
6 65 (2.79%) GCP
7 45 (1.93%) Microsoft 365
7 45 (1.93%) OpenShift
8 34 (1.46%) OCI
9 32 (1.38%) SaaS
10 29 (1.25%) IaaS
11 22 (0.95%) Azure Monitor
11 22 (0.95%) PaaS
12 21 (0.90%) GitHub
12 21 (0.90%) SuccessFactors
13 19 (0.82%) GitHub Actions
14 16 (0.69%) Azure Sentinel
15 12 (0.52%) AWS CloudFormation
15 12 (0.52%) Serverless
16 11 (0.47%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 123 (5.29%) DNS
2 112 (4.82%) Firewall
3 80 (3.44%) WAN
4 70 (3.01%) LAN
5 68 (2.92%) Network Security
6 61 (2.62%) VPN
7 57 (2.45%) DHCP
8 49 (2.11%) BGP
9 41 (1.76%) TCP/IP
10 37 (1.59%) IPsec
11 30 (1.29%) OSPF
12 28 (1.20%) MPLS
13 23 (0.99%) SD-WAN
13 23 (0.99%) VSAN
14 22 (0.95%) SSL
14 22 (0.95%) Wireless
15 20 (0.86%) BIG-IP
15 20 (0.86%) VLAN
16 18 (0.77%) Cisco Firepower
17 17 (0.73%) Cisco ASA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 61 (2.62%) Power BI
2 54 (2.32%) Data Warehouse
3 52 (2.24%) SQL Server
4 32 (1.38%) Oracle Reports
5 26 (1.12%) Oracle ODI
6 25 (1.07%) Oracle Database
7 24 (1.03%) Metadata
7 24 (1.03%) Relational Database
8 22 (0.95%) PostgreSQL
9 9 (0.39%) Geospatial Data
10 8 (0.34%) MySQL
10 8 (0.34%) Pentaho
10 8 (0.34%) Siebel EIM
10 8 (0.34%) Tableau
11 7 (0.30%) NoSQL
12 5 (0.21%) Azure SQL Database
12 5 (0.21%) Data Lake
12 5 (0.21%) Elasticsearch
12 5 (0.21%) Oracle Database 11g
12 5 (0.21%) Oracle Database 12c
Development Applications
1 83 (3.57%) JIRA
2 57 (2.45%) Git
3 56 (2.41%) GitLab
4 34 (1.46%) Jenkins
5 24 (1.03%) SonarQube
6 15 (0.64%) Selenium
7 13 (0.56%) Rational DOORS
8 8 (0.34%) MSI
9 7 (0.30%) Postman
10 6 (0.26%) MLflow
10 6 (0.26%) Sonatype Nexus
11 5 (0.21%) JUnit
12 4 (0.17%) Artifactory
13 3 (0.13%) Zephyr
14 2 (0.086%) JMeter
14 2 (0.086%) Oracle Forms
14 2 (0.086%) Team Foundation Server
15 1 (0.043%) NUnit
15 1 (0.043%) Toad
15 1 (0.043%) Visual Studio
General
1 531 (22.83%) Social Skills
2 239 (10.28%) Public Sector
3 235 (10.10%) Analytical Skills
4 165 (7.09%) Aerospace
5 141 (6.06%) Finance
6 82 (3.53%) Documentation Skills
7 56 (2.41%) Organisational Skills
8 52 (2.24%) Influencing Skills
9 45 (1.93%) Military
10 37 (1.59%) Telecoms
11 26 (1.12%) Legal
12 25 (1.07%) Manufacturing
13 18 (0.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 17 (0.73%) Law
15 15 (0.64%) Billing
16 13 (0.56%) Aviation
17 12 (0.52%) Presentation Skills
18 7 (0.30%) Advertising
18 7 (0.30%) Police
19 6 (0.26%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 317 (13.63%) Architect
2 221 (9.50%) Lead
3 214 (9.20%) Senior
4 183 (7.87%) Developer
5 176 (7.57%) Analyst
6 163 (7.01%) Consultant
7 131 (5.63%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 79 (3.40%) Cloud Engineer
9 74 (3.18%) Security Architect
10 69 (2.97%) Project Manager
11 65 (2.79%) Technical Architect
12 64 (2.75%) SAP Consultant
13 60 (2.58%) Network Engineer
13 60 (2.58%) Support Engineer
14 55 (2.36%) Delivery Manager
15 49 (2.11%) Solutions Architect
16 48 (2.06%) SOC Analyst
17 42 (1.81%) Product Manager
18 41 (1.76%) Network Architect
19 40 (1.72%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 100 (4.30%) Terraform
2 67 (2.88%) REST
3 31 (1.33%) .NET
3 31 (1.33%) OAuth
4 28 (1.20%) SAML
5 27 (1.16%) RESTful
6 26 (1.12%) OpenID
7 25 (1.07%) LDAP
7 25 (1.07%) SOAP
8 23 (0.99%) AngularJS
9 22 (0.95%) ARM Templates
9 22 (0.95%) React
10 20 (0.86%) 802.1X
11 19 (0.82%) HTML
11 19 (0.82%) SailPoint
11 19 (0.82%) Web Services
12 17 (0.73%) Kafka
12 17 (0.73%) OAuth2
12 17 (0.73%) Quarkus
13 16 (0.69%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 104 (4.47%) Onboarding
2 78 (3.35%) Product Ownership
3 75 (3.22%) Data Centre
4 74 (3.18%) PKI
5 51 (2.19%) Hybrid Cloud
6 49 (2.11%) Management Information System
7 43 (1.85%) Operational Technology
8 36 (1.55%) Cloud Native
9 27 (1.16%) Public Cloud
10 25 (1.07%) Greenfield Project
11 23 (0.99%) Enterprise Software
12 20 (0.86%) Data Structures
12 20 (0.86%) Virtual Team
13 19 (0.82%) Cyber Threat
14 18 (0.77%) CMDB
14 18 (0.77%) Distributed Systems
14 18 (0.77%) PMI
15 17 (0.73%) Private Cloud
16 15 (0.64%) Security Operations Centre
16 15 (0.64%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 282 (12.12%) Windows
2 199 (8.56%) Linux
3 132 (5.67%) Windows Server
4 44 (1.89%) Unix
5 27 (1.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 24 (1.03%) Windows Server 2019
7 17 (0.73%) Windows 10
8 14 (0.60%) Ubuntu
9 11 (0.47%) CentOS
10 9 (0.39%) Embedded Linux
11 8 (0.34%) Mac OS
12 5 (0.21%) Debian
12 5 (0.21%) Oracle Linux
13 4 (0.17%) Windows Server 2016
14 3 (0.13%) Rocky
14 3 (0.13%) Solaris
15 2 (0.086%) AIX
15 2 (0.086%) Apple iOS
15 2 (0.086%) HPUX
15 2 (0.086%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 468 (20.12%) Agile
2 328 (14.10%) Continuous Improvement
3 307 (13.20%) Stakeholder Management
4 267 (11.48%) Problem-Solving
5 262 (11.26%) ITIL
6 251 (10.79%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 250 (10.75%) Cybersecurity
8 222 (9.54%) CI/CD
9 205 (8.81%) ITSM
10 204 (8.77%) DevOps
11 184 (7.91%) Service Management
12 165 (7.09%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 158 (6.79%) Technical Leadership
14 153 (6.58%) Change Management
15 147 (6.32%) Roadmaps
16 129 (5.55%) Service Delivery
17 126 (5.42%) Project Delivery
18 125 (5.37%) Validation
19 121 (5.20%) Migration
20 120 (5.16%) DevSecOps
Programming Languages
1 206 (8.86%) Python
2 181 (7.78%) PowerShell
3 146 (6.28%) SQL
4 74 (3.18%) Java
5 72 (3.10%) Bash
6 52 (2.24%) JavaScript
7 31 (1.33%) Bicep
8 26 (1.12%) PL/SQL
9 22 (0.95%) C#
10 19 (0.82%) C++
11 14 (0.60%) Shell Script
12 12 (0.52%) C
12 12 (0.52%) TypeScript
13 11 (0.47%) Go
14 9 (0.39%) ABAP
15 8 (0.34%) Kusto Query Language
16 5 (0.21%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 4 (0.17%) Groovy
17 4 (0.17%) Rust
18 3 (0.13%) Embedded C++
Qualifications
1 1,426 (61.31%) SC Cleared
2 886 (38.09%) DV Cleared
3 185 (7.95%) Degree
4 54 (2.32%) CISSP
5 49 (2.11%) Azure Certification
5 49 (2.11%) BPSS Clearance
5 49 (2.11%) PMI Certification
6 43 (1.85%) Cisco Certification
7 41 (1.76%) PMP
8 35 (1.50%) ISTQB
9 30 (1.29%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 28 (1.20%) Microsoft Certification
11 25 (1.07%) Computer Science Degree
12 23 (0.99%) CISM
13 19 (0.82%) AWS Certification
14 18 (0.77%) TOGAF Certification
15 17 (0.73%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
15 17 (0.73%) VCAP
16 16 (0.69%) CCNP
16 16 (0.69%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 107 (4.60%) NIST
2 103 (4.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 87 (3.74%) PMO
4 62 (2.67%) NCSC
5 58 (2.49%) QA
6 41 (1.76%) GDPR
7 35 (1.50%) Data Quality
8 31 (1.33%) SLA
9 27 (1.16%) JSP 440
10 23 (0.99%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 16 (0.69%) NIST 800
12 15 (0.64%) GRC
13 14 (0.60%) Cyber Essentials
14 11 (0.47%) Accessibility
14 11 (0.47%) Def Stans
15 10 (0.43%) ISO 9001
16 9 (0.39%) ISO 31000
17 6 (0.26%) RMADS
18 3 (0.13%) GMP
18 3 (0.13%) WCAG
System Software
1 194 (8.34%) Active Directory
2 159 (6.84%) VMware Infrastructure
3 79 (3.40%) VMware NSX
4 70 (3.01%) VMware ESXi
5 61 (2.62%) Docker
6 30 (1.29%) vSphere
7 27 (1.16%) vCloud
8 22 (0.95%) Hyper-V
9 17 (0.73%) Virtual Machines
10 16 (0.69%) Virtual Desktop
11 13 (0.56%) Firmware
12 9 (0.39%) Oracle RAC
13 7 (0.30%) Embedded Firmware
14 4 (0.17%) KVM
14 4 (0.17%) Virtual Servers
15 2 (0.086%) Dovecot
15 2 (0.086%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 2 (0.086%) Postfix
15 2 (0.086%) UAG
Systems Management
1 115 (4.94%) Kubernetes
2 82 (3.53%) vCenter Server
3 72 (3.10%) Ansible
4 60 (2.58%) SCOM
5 24 (1.03%) SCCM
6 19 (0.82%) Argo
6 19 (0.82%) Grafana
6 19 (0.82%) Microsoft Intune
7 17 (0.73%) FortiGate
8 16 (0.69%) Avamar
9 15 (0.64%) Prometheus
10 14 (0.60%) WMI
11 13 (0.56%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 11 (0.47%) Oracle RMAN
13 9 (0.39%) Single Sign-On
14 8 (0.34%) Cisco CUCM
14 8 (0.34%) Data Guard
15 7 (0.30%) Podman
15 7 (0.30%) Red Hat Satellite
16 5 (0.21%) Istio
Vendors
1 361 (15.52%) Microsoft
2 240 (10.32%) VMware
3 178 (7.65%) Oracle
4 159 (6.84%) SAP
5 146 (6.28%) ServiceNow
6 84 (3.61%) Cisco
7 49 (2.11%) Red Hat
8 48 (2.06%) Juniper
9 38 (1.63%) SolarWinds
10 36 (1.55%) Google
11 35 (1.50%) F5
12 31 (1.33%) Citrix
13 30 (1.29%) Palo Alto
14 26 (1.12%) CyberArk
15 25 (1.07%) Remedy
16 23 (0.99%) BeyondTrust
17 22 (0.95%) Broadcom
18 20 (0.86%) Siebel
19 18 (0.77%) Dell
20 17 (0.73%) BMC