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

6 months to
18 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 2,144 807 1,898
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 37.71% 26.93% 33.79%
As % of the Qualifications category 81.99% 65.56% 75.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,469 572 1,100
10th Percentile £351 £357 £388
25th Percentile £450 £463 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £533 £550 £580
Median % change year-on-year -3.18% -5.17% +5.45%
75th Percentile £630 £630 £675
90th Percentile £725 £700 £738
England median daily rate £525 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -2.33% -2.27% -1.79%
Number of hourly rates quoted 219 50 117
10th Percentile £18.32 £23.77 £21.50
25th Percentile £25.15 £28.14 £51.52
Median hourly rate £70.00 £60.25 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +16.18% -2.19% +0.02%
75th Percentile £85.13 £72.44 £77.50
90th Percentile £90.09 £80.34 £87.46
England median hourly rate £55.00 £57.50 £52.50
% change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -12.50%

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 2,615 1,231 2,528
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 45.99% 41.07% 45.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,751 794 1,421
10th Percentile £306 £301 £300
25th Percentile £425 £437 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £537 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.23% -2.36% +4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £645
90th Percentile £725 £688 £725
England median daily rate £520 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -0.95% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 270 83 212
10th Percentile £16.32 £20.00 £16.38
25th Percentile £21.69 £27.55 £25.08
Median hourly rate £54.50 £56.75 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -3.96% -1.05% +4.74%
75th Percentile £84.00 £70.00 £65.44
90th Percentile £88.00 £78.13 £84.44
England median hourly rate £47.00 £50.00 £39.96
% change year-on-year -6.00% +25.13% -20.08%

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 18 April 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 18 April 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 18 April 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 1,115 £500 -9.09% 113
Hampshire 0 836 £600 +9.09% 183
Berkshire +1 689 £450 -22.08% 62
Buckinghamshire +1 343 £560 +8.74% 34
Surrey +4 87 £525 -9.17% 56
Oxfordshire +12 83 £450 -23.40% 18
West Sussex +6 53 £514 -10.37% 11
Kent +5 27 £443 +26.43% 10
Sussex +1 7 £475 +9.83% 3
East Sussex +5 4 £459 -16.55% 1
Isle of Wight - 2 £81 -
Home Counties - 2 £525 -
Middlesex - 1 - - 1
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 42 (1.96%) SharePoint
2 37 (1.73%) Microsoft Exchange
3 18 (0.84%) Confluence
4 9 (0.42%) Oracle Application Server
5 5 (0.23%) Apache
5 5 (0.23%) ArcGIS
5 5 (0.23%) IIS
5 5 (0.23%) NetWeaver
5 5 (0.23%) Oracle Workflow
5 5 (0.23%) SAP EP
6 3 (0.14%) MS Project Server
7 2 (0.093%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.093%) Palantir Foundry
7 2 (0.093%) SAS
8 1 (0.047%) Anypoint
8 1 (0.047%) Apache Pulsar
8 1 (0.047%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.047%) BizTalk Server
8 1 (0.047%) CMS
8 1 (0.047%) Smallworld
Applications
1 63 (2.94%) Microsoft Excel
2 59 (2.75%) Microsoft Office
3 35 (1.63%) Microsoft Project
4 28 (1.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 11 (0.51%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.093%) CPLEX
6 2 (0.093%) Lectora
6 2 (0.093%) Oracle Smart View
6 2 (0.093%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.047%) Autodesk Inventor
7 1 (0.047%) CATIA
7 1 (0.047%) InVision
7 1 (0.047%) MicroStation
7 1 (0.047%) Siemens NX
7 1 (0.047%) Sketch
7 1 (0.047%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 31 (1.45%) SAP S/4HANA
2 29 (1.35%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 11 (0.51%) SAP PSCD
4 7 (0.33%) iTrent
4 7 (0.33%) Oracle ERP
5 6 (0.28%) Oracle Assets
5 6 (0.28%) Oracle Payables
5 6 (0.28%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 6 (0.28%) Remedy ITSM
5 6 (0.28%) SAP BRIM
5 6 (0.28%) SAP Hybris
6 5 (0.23%) SAP CRM
7 4 (0.19%) Primavera
7 4 (0.19%) SAP EWM
7 4 (0.19%) Teamcenter
8 3 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
8 3 (0.14%) SAP HCM
9 2 (0.093%) Salesforce CRM
10 1 (0.047%) SAP FI-CA
10 1 (0.047%) SAP IBP
Cloud Services
1 310 (14.46%) Azure
2 200 (9.33%) AWS
3 83 (3.87%) GCP
4 75 (3.50%) Entra ID
5 63 (2.94%) Azure DevOps
6 61 (2.85%) Microsoft 365
7 54 (2.52%) Power Platform
8 39 (1.82%) OpenShift
9 34 (1.59%) PaaS
10 30 (1.40%) IaaS
11 28 (1.31%) GitHub
12 20 (0.93%) GitHub Actions
13 18 (0.84%) SuccessFactors
14 16 (0.75%) SaaS
15 14 (0.65%) Serverless
16 12 (0.56%) Cloud Computing
17 11 (0.51%) AWS CloudFormation
17 11 (0.51%) OCI
18 10 (0.47%) Datadog
18 10 (0.47%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 165 (7.70%) Firewall
2 108 (5.04%) WAN
3 104 (4.85%) LAN
4 98 (4.57%) DNS
5 83 (3.87%) BGP
6 78 (3.64%) OSPF
7 71 (3.31%) DHCP
8 69 (3.22%) Network Security
9 50 (2.33%) VPN
10 40 (1.87%) TCP/IP
11 34 (1.59%) Wireless
12 33 (1.54%) Junos
13 30 (1.40%) Ethernet VPN
13 30 (1.40%) VXLAN
14 29 (1.35%) Cisco ISE
15 28 (1.31%) IPsec
16 27 (1.26%) BIG-IP
17 26 (1.21%) VLAN
18 25 (1.17%) SD-WAN
19 23 (1.07%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 53 (2.47%) SQL Server
2 46 (2.15%) Power BI
3 29 (1.35%) PostgreSQL
4 20 (0.93%) Data Warehouse
5 19 (0.89%) Oracle Reports
6 12 (0.56%) Relational Database
7 11 (0.51%) Oracle Database
7 11 (0.51%) Redis
8 10 (0.47%) Azure SQL Database
8 10 (0.47%) Metadata
8 10 (0.47%) Oracle ODI
9 8 (0.37%) MySQL
10 6 (0.28%) NoSQL
10 6 (0.28%) Oracle Database 12c
10 6 (0.28%) SAP HANA
10 6 (0.28%) Tableau
11 5 (0.23%) Metadata Repository
12 4 (0.19%) MongoDB
12 4 (0.19%) SAP Data Services
13 3 (0.14%) Oracle BI Publisher
Development Applications
1 51 (2.38%) JIRA
2 44 (2.05%) Git
3 40 (1.87%) GitLab
4 37 (1.73%) Rational DOORS
5 31 (1.45%) Jenkins
6 16 (0.75%) Burp Suite
6 16 (0.75%) Metasploit
7 12 (0.56%) SonarQube
8 10 (0.47%) Postman
8 10 (0.47%) Visual Studio
9 8 (0.37%) JUnit
10 7 (0.33%) Android Studio
10 7 (0.33%) Subversion
11 6 (0.28%) Robot Framework
12 5 (0.23%) Artifactory
12 5 (0.23%) Bitbucket
12 5 (0.23%) Gradle
12 5 (0.23%) Maven
12 5 (0.23%) Sonatype Nexus
13 4 (0.19%) Eclipse
General
1 505 (23.55%) Social Skills
2 306 (14.27%) Public Sector
3 201 (9.38%) Analytical Skills
4 128 (5.97%) Finance
5 95 (4.43%) Aerospace
6 77 (3.59%) Documentation Skills
7 48 (2.24%) Military
8 36 (1.68%) Legal
8 36 (1.68%) Telecoms
9 35 (1.63%) Influencing Skills
10 31 (1.45%) Manufacturing
11 23 (1.07%) Law
12 21 (0.98%) Presentation Skills
13 19 (0.89%) Organisational Skills
14 15 (0.70%) Marketing
15 13 (0.61%) Billing
16 12 (0.56%) Advertising
17 11 (0.51%) Electronics
18 7 (0.33%) Aviation
19 6 (0.28%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 343 (16.00%) Architect
2 210 (9.79%) Senior
3 168 (7.84%) Lead
4 150 (7.00%) Analyst
5 146 (6.81%) Developer
6 124 (5.78%) Network Engineer
7 115 (5.36%) Consultant
8 83 (3.87%) Project Manager
9 75 (3.50%) Technical Architect
10 59 (2.75%) Delivery Manager
11 57 (2.66%) Security Architect
12 56 (2.61%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 55 (2.57%) Enterprise Architect
14 52 (2.43%) DevOps Engineer
14 52 (2.43%) Tester
15 49 (2.29%) Product Manager
16 42 (1.96%) SOC Analyst
17 39 (1.82%) Product Delivery Manager
17 39 (1.82%) Software Engineer
18 36 (1.68%) Senior Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (1.91%) REST
2 40 (1.87%) .NET
3 34 (1.59%) React
4 30 (1.40%) LDAP
5 29 (1.35%) RESTful
6 26 (1.21%) 802.1X
7 24 (1.12%) JSON
8 23 (1.07%) AngularJS
9 19 (0.89%) XML
10 17 (0.79%) SailPoint
10 17 (0.79%) SOAP
11 16 (0.75%) Oracle Fusion
12 15 (0.70%) Kafka
13 12 (0.56%) Elastic Stack
13 12 (0.56%) OAuth
13 12 (0.56%) Web Services
14 11 (0.51%) CSS
14 11 (0.51%) Keycloak
14 11 (0.51%) Quarkus
14 11 (0.51%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 103 (4.80%) Data Centre
2 86 (4.01%) PKI
3 77 (3.59%) Product Ownership
4 64 (2.99%) Onboarding
5 41 (1.91%) Management Information System
6 36 (1.68%) Self-Motivation
7 34 (1.59%) Data Structures
8 33 (1.54%) Replication
9 28 (1.31%) Cloud Native
9 28 (1.31%) Clustering
10 27 (1.26%) Security Operations Centre
11 26 (1.21%) Distributed Systems
12 24 (1.12%) Public Cloud
13 23 (1.07%) Analytical Mindset
14 20 (0.93%) Driving Licence
15 19 (0.89%) Cyber Threat
15 19 (0.89%) Security Posture
15 19 (0.89%) Virtual Team
16 18 (0.84%) Greenfield Project
16 18 (0.84%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 268 (12.50%) Windows
2 193 (9.00%) Linux
3 76 (3.54%) Windows Server
4 33 (1.54%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 24 (1.12%) Unix
6 18 (0.84%) Windows 10
7 17 (0.79%) Android
8 12 (0.56%) Ubuntu
9 7 (0.33%) Mac OS
9 7 (0.33%) Windows Server 2016
10 6 (0.28%) Embedded Linux
10 6 (0.28%) Windows 7
10 6 (0.28%) Windows Server 2019
11 5 (0.23%) Debian
12 4 (0.19%) Apple iOS
12 4 (0.19%) CentOS
13 2 (0.093%) VMS
13 2 (0.093%) Windows Server 2012
14 1 (0.047%) OpenVMS
14 1 (0.047%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 405 (18.89%) Agile
2 233 (10.87%) Problem-Solving
3 216 (10.07%) ITIL
4 202 (9.42%) CI/CD
4 202 (9.42%) DevOps
5 186 (8.68%) Stakeholder Management
6 185 (8.63%) Continuous Improvement
7 184 (8.58%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 176 (8.21%) Migration
9 170 (7.93%) Cybersecurity
10 141 (6.58%) Roadmaps
11 125 (5.83%) Service Management
12 119 (5.55%) ITSM
13 111 (5.18%) Project Management
14 96 (4.48%) SIEM
15 91 (4.24%) Software Engineering
16 88 (4.10%) Change Management
16 88 (4.10%) Computer Science
17 87 (4.06%) DevSecOps
18 85 (3.96%) Infrastructure Engineering
Programming Languages
1 191 (8.91%) Python
2 159 (7.42%) PowerShell
3 76 (3.54%) SQL
4 71 (3.31%) Java
5 50 (2.33%) JavaScript
6 49 (2.29%) C#
7 47 (2.19%) Bash
8 27 (1.26%) C++
9 22 (1.03%) Go
10 21 (0.98%) Kusto Query Language
11 18 (0.84%) TypeScript
12 15 (0.70%) C
13 13 (0.61%) Shell Script
14 11 (0.51%) ABAP
15 10 (0.47%) Bicep
16 9 (0.42%) Korn
17 7 (0.33%) PL/SQL
17 7 (0.33%) T-SQL
18 3 (0.14%) Embedded C
18 3 (0.14%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 1,350 (62.97%) SC Cleared
2 720 (33.58%) DV Cleared
3 170 (7.93%) Degree
4 74 (3.45%) Cisco Certification
5 55 (2.57%) CCNP
6 52 (2.43%) BPSS Clearance
7 45 (2.10%) CISSP
8 33 (1.54%) PMP
9 30 (1.40%) PMI Certification
10 22 (1.03%) CCNA
10 22 (1.03%) CISM
11 18 (0.84%) GIAC
12 17 (0.79%) Azure Certification
12 17 (0.79%) JNCIS
13 16 (0.75%) Computer Science Degree
14 15 (0.70%) AWS Certification
14 15 (0.70%) CHECK Team Member
15 14 (0.65%) CEH
16 13 (0.61%) CREST Certified
16 13 (0.61%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 94 (4.38%) NIST
2 91 (4.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 59 (2.75%) NCSC
4 58 (2.71%) QA
5 57 (2.66%) PMO
6 52 (2.43%) GDPR
7 25 (1.17%) Data Quality
8 22 (1.03%) SLA
9 17 (0.79%) PCI DSS
10 16 (0.75%) Accessibility
10 16 (0.75%) JSP 440
11 15 (0.70%) GRC
11 15 (0.70%) NIST 800
12 13 (0.61%) ISO/IEC 20000
13 10 (0.47%) COBIT
14 6 (0.28%) Cyber Essentials
14 6 (0.28%) Government Security Classifications
15 4 (0.19%) Actionable Recommendations
15 4 (0.19%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 4 (0.19%) RMADS
System Software
1 168 (7.84%) Active Directory
2 102 (4.76%) VMware Infrastructure
3 42 (1.96%) Docker
4 41 (1.91%) VMware NSX
5 30 (1.40%) vSphere
6 26 (1.21%) VMware ESXi
7 14 (0.65%) Firmware
8 12 (0.56%) Hyper-V
8 12 (0.56%) vCloud
9 11 (0.51%) Virtual Desktop
10 9 (0.42%) Oracle RAC
11 6 (0.28%) Virtual Machines
12 3 (0.14%) NFS
12 3 (0.14%) UAG
13 2 (0.093%) Embedded Firmware
14 1 (0.047%) KVM
14 1 (0.047%) RHEV
14 1 (0.047%) Terminal Services
14 1 (0.047%) Virtual Servers
14 1 (0.047%) Xen
Systems Management
1 98 (4.57%) Kubernetes
2 69 (3.22%) Terraform
3 59 (2.75%) Ansible
4 47 (2.19%) vCenter Server
5 36 (1.68%) Grafana
6 35 (1.63%) Prometheus
7 29 (1.35%) Argo
8 28 (1.31%) FortiGate
9 20 (0.93%) SCCM
10 19 (0.89%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 19 (0.89%) Microsoft Intune
11 18 (0.84%) Nmap
12 13 (0.61%) Kibana
13 12 (0.56%) Single Sign-On
13 12 (0.56%) WMI
14 10 (0.47%) Forefront Identity Manager
14 10 (0.47%) NetIQ Identity Manager
14 10 (0.47%) Oracle RMAN
15 9 (0.42%) Nagios
15 9 (0.42%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
Vendors
1 224 (10.45%) Microsoft
2 199 (9.28%) VMware
3 169 (7.88%) Cisco
4 105 (4.90%) SAP
5 83 (3.87%) ServiceNow
6 82 (3.82%) Juniper
7 71 (3.31%) Oracle
8 68 (3.17%) Red Hat
9 64 (2.99%) Splunk
10 49 (2.29%) Aruba
10 49 (2.29%) F5
11 45 (2.10%) SolarWinds
12 37 (1.73%) Palo Alto
13 33 (1.54%) BeyondTrust
13 33 (1.54%) Google
14 32 (1.49%) CyberArk
15 30 (1.40%) IBM
15 30 (1.40%) Sparx
16 26 (1.21%) CheckPoint
17 20 (0.93%) Extreme Networks