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

6 months to
12 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 2,275 962 1,269
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 34.86% 27.08% 29.45%
As % of the Qualifications category 79.91% 68.62% 71.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,566 679 835
10th Percentile £400 £234 £350
25th Percentile £485 £413 £453
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £572 £525 £558
Median % change year-on-year +8.95% -5.91% +1.45%
75th Percentile £650 £600 £650
90th Percentile £738 £650 £725
England median daily rate £550 £538 £550
% change year-on-year +2.33% -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 244 100 92
10th Percentile £29.07 - £26.25
25th Percentile £55.94 £18.87 £43.94
Median hourly rate £74.30 £25.15 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +195.43% -59.17% -0.05%
75th Percentile £91.31 £35.48 £74.96
90th Percentile £102.10 £72.18 £92.37
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 2,847 1,402 1,767
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 43.62% 39.46% 41.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,851 915 1,126
10th Percentile £330 £204 £311
25th Percentile £463 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £500 £536
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -6.76% -0.23%
75th Percentile £638 £588 £638
90th Percentile £735 £650 £700
England median daily rate £535 £525 £525
% change year-on-year +1.90% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 334 131 110
10th Percentile £18.25 - £22.39
25th Percentile £33.70 £18.87 £35.00
Median hourly rate £62.75 £25.15 £60.83
Median % change year-on-year +149.50% -58.66% +1.38%
75th Percentile £86.56 £49.38 £73.75
90th Percentile £100.59 £81.00 £92.04
England median hourly rate £48.92 £25.15 £52.50
% change year-on-year +94.51% -52.10% -2.17%

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 12 October 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 12 October 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 12 October 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 1,162 £570 +14.00% 350
Hampshire 0 905 £575 +6.98% 385
Berkshire +1 693 £575 +15.00% 220
Buckinghamshire +1 374 £560 +14.29% 79
Surrey +7 125 £581 +9.73% 80
Oxfordshire +1 95 £525 +176.32% 70
West Sussex +4 66 £465 -9.71% 47
Kent +8 16 £510 +36.00% 12
East Sussex - 8 £459 - 11
Middlesex -21 2 - -
Home Counties -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 67 (2.95%) SharePoint
2 32 (1.41%) Confluence
3 16 (0.70%) Oracle Application Server
4 12 (0.53%) Microsoft Exchange
5 9 (0.40%) Apache Airflow
6 7 (0.31%) Apache
6 7 (0.31%) Documentum
7 6 (0.26%) Apache Spark
7 6 (0.26%) SAS
8 4 (0.18%) NetWeaver
8 4 (0.18%) Oracle Workflow
9 3 (0.13%) CMS
9 3 (0.13%) IIS
9 3 (0.13%) Palantir Foundry
9 3 (0.13%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.088%) ArcGIS
10 2 (0.088%) nginx
10 2 (0.088%) SAP EP
10 2 (0.088%) Umbraco
10 2 (0.088%) WebLogic
Applications
1 72 (3.16%) Microsoft Excel
2 48 (2.11%) Microsoft Project
3 43 (1.89%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 37 (1.63%) Microsoft Office
5 7 (0.31%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.088%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 2 (0.088%) Houdini
6 2 (0.088%) NUKE
6 2 (0.088%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.044%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.044%) Simulink
7 1 (0.044%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 47 (2.07%) SAP S/4HANA
2 28 (1.23%) Oracle ERP
3 23 (1.01%) Teamcenter
4 21 (0.92%) SAP PSCD
5 19 (0.84%) Remedy ITSM
6 13 (0.57%) SAP BRIM
7 12 (0.53%) Siebel CRM
8 10 (0.44%) SAP Hybris
9 8 (0.35%) Primavera
9 8 (0.35%) Remedy AR System
9 8 (0.35%) SAP FI
9 8 (0.35%) SAP FI-CA
10 4 (0.18%) Dynamics CRM
10 4 (0.18%) SAP MM
10 4 (0.18%) SAP PP
10 4 (0.18%) Workday HCM
11 3 (0.13%) iTrent
11 3 (0.13%) Oracle Financials
11 3 (0.13%) SAP EWM
11 3 (0.13%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 381 (16.75%) Azure
2 194 (8.53%) AWS
3 88 (3.87%) Azure DevOps
4 86 (3.78%) Entra ID
5 67 (2.95%) GCP
6 58 (2.55%) Power Platform
7 52 (2.29%) Microsoft 365
8 51 (2.24%) OpenShift
9 35 (1.54%) OCI
10 29 (1.27%) SaaS
11 28 (1.23%) Azure Monitor
12 24 (1.05%) Azure Sentinel
13 23 (1.01%) IaaS
14 21 (0.92%) GitHub
15 19 (0.84%) GitHub Actions
16 16 (0.70%) Serverless
17 15 (0.66%) PaaS
18 14 (0.62%) SAP Commerce Cloud
19 13 (0.57%) AWS CloudFormation
19 13 (0.57%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 117 (5.14%) DNS
2 88 (3.87%) Firewall
3 64 (2.81%) Network Security
4 61 (2.68%) VPN
5 53 (2.33%) WAN
6 51 (2.24%) DHCP
7 44 (1.93%) LAN
8 36 (1.58%) TCP/IP
9 34 (1.49%) IPsec
10 33 (1.45%) BGP
11 26 (1.14%) MPLS
12 19 (0.84%) SSL
13 15 (0.66%) Cisco Firepower
13 15 (0.66%) VSAN
14 14 (0.62%) OSPF
14 14 (0.62%) VLAN
14 14 (0.62%) Wireless
15 13 (0.57%) Cisco ASA
16 12 (0.53%) BIG-IP
16 12 (0.53%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 47 (2.07%) Power BI
2 46 (2.02%) Data Warehouse
3 39 (1.71%) SQL Server
4 28 (1.23%) Metadata
5 24 (1.05%) Oracle Database
5 24 (1.05%) Oracle Reports
6 21 (0.92%) Relational Database
7 19 (0.84%) Oracle ODI
8 17 (0.75%) PostgreSQL
9 8 (0.35%) Data Lake
9 8 (0.35%) Geospatial Data
9 8 (0.35%) Pentaho
9 8 (0.35%) Siebel EIM
10 7 (0.31%) Azure SQL Database
10 7 (0.31%) MS Access
10 7 (0.31%) MySQL
11 6 (0.26%) Amazon RDS
11 6 (0.26%) NoSQL
11 6 (0.26%) Tableau
12 5 (0.22%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 80 (3.52%) JIRA
2 62 (2.73%) Git
3 55 (2.42%) GitLab
4 39 (1.71%) Jenkins
5 23 (1.01%) SonarQube
6 15 (0.66%) Selenium
7 11 (0.48%) MSI
8 6 (0.26%) MLflow
8 6 (0.26%) Sonatype Nexus
9 5 (0.22%) Artifactory
9 5 (0.22%) JMeter
10 4 (0.18%) LoadRunner
10 4 (0.18%) Rational DOORS
11 3 (0.13%) Gatling
11 3 (0.13%) HP UFT
11 3 (0.13%) Zephyr
12 2 (0.088%) JUnit
12 2 (0.088%) LabVIEW
12 2 (0.088%) Postman
12 2 (0.088%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 554 (24.35%) Social Skills
2 237 (10.42%) Analytical Skills
3 226 (9.93%) Public Sector
4 211 (9.27%) Aerospace
5 147 (6.46%) Finance
6 84 (3.69%) Documentation Skills
7 69 (3.03%) Organisational Skills
8 61 (2.68%) Influencing Skills
9 49 (2.15%) Manufacturing
9 49 (2.15%) Military
10 35 (1.54%) Telecoms
11 26 (1.14%) Legal
12 22 (0.97%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 20 (0.88%) Billing
14 19 (0.84%) Aviation
15 13 (0.57%) Electronics
16 11 (0.48%) Law
17 10 (0.44%) Presentation Skills
18 8 (0.35%) Automotive
19 6 (0.26%) Police
Job Titles
1 326 (14.33%) Architect
2 206 (9.05%) Lead
2 206 (9.05%) Senior
3 190 (8.35%) Analyst
4 172 (7.56%) Consultant
5 152 (6.68%) Developer
6 127 (5.58%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 76 (3.34%) Cloud Engineer
8 71 (3.12%) SAP Consultant
9 65 (2.86%) Support Engineer
10 61 (2.68%) Security Architect
11 59 (2.59%) Solutions Architect
12 56 (2.46%) Delivery Manager
13 54 (2.37%) Technical Architect
14 47 (2.07%) Project Manager
14 47 (2.07%) SOC Analyst
15 46 (2.02%) Administrator
16 42 (1.85%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
17 40 (1.76%) Service Architect
18 39 (1.71%) Product Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 111 (4.88%) Terraform
2 60 (2.64%) REST
3 35 (1.54%) OAuth
4 31 (1.36%) SAML
5 30 (1.32%) OpenID
6 28 (1.23%) ARM Templates
7 27 (1.19%) LDAP
8 25 (1.10%) SOAP
9 21 (0.92%) AngularJS
10 20 (0.88%) OAuth2
11 19 (0.84%) .NET
11 19 (0.84%) HTML
12 18 (0.79%) SailPoint
12 18 (0.79%) Web Services
13 16 (0.70%) JSON
13 16 (0.70%) Middleware
13 16 (0.70%) Quarkus
13 16 (0.70%) React
14 15 (0.66%) CSS
14 15 (0.66%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 108 (4.75%) Onboarding
2 85 (3.74%) Product Ownership
3 67 (2.95%) Data Centre
4 64 (2.81%) PKI
5 63 (2.77%) Management Information System
6 56 (2.46%) Operational Technology
7 50 (2.20%) Hybrid Cloud
8 37 (1.63%) Cloud Native
9 28 (1.23%) Enterprise Software
10 26 (1.14%) Cyber Threat
11 19 (0.84%) Greenfield Project
12 18 (0.79%) PMI
13 17 (0.75%) CMDB
13 17 (0.75%) Public Cloud
14 15 (0.66%) SCADA
15 14 (0.62%) Data Protection Act
15 14 (0.62%) Private Cloud
15 14 (0.62%) Security Operations Centre
16 13 (0.57%) Distributed Systems
16 13 (0.57%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 277 (12.18%) Windows
2 195 (8.57%) Linux
3 125 (5.49%) Windows Server
4 34 (1.49%) Unix
5 31 (1.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 26 (1.14%) Windows 10
7 24 (1.05%) Windows Server 2019
8 20 (0.88%) Ubuntu
9 17 (0.75%) CentOS
10 7 (0.31%) macOS
10 7 (0.31%) Oracle Linux
11 5 (0.22%) Embedded Linux
11 5 (0.22%) Rocky
12 3 (0.13%) Debian
12 3 (0.13%) Solaris
13 2 (0.088%) AIX
13 2 (0.088%) Apple iOS
13 2 (0.088%) HPUX
13 2 (0.088%) Windows Server 2012
13 2 (0.088%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 444 (19.52%) Agile
2 357 (15.69%) Continuous Improvement
3 351 (15.43%) Stakeholder Management
4 280 (12.31%) Problem-Solving
5 258 (11.34%) ITIL
6 255 (11.21%) Cybersecurity
7 249 (10.95%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 231 (10.15%) CI/CD
9 213 (9.36%) DevOps
10 206 (9.05%) Service Management
11 203 (8.92%) ITSM
12 177 (7.78%) Roadmaps
13 167 (7.34%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 165 (7.25%) Technical Leadership
15 157 (6.90%) Change Management
16 138 (6.07%) Project Delivery
17 135 (5.93%) Validation
18 132 (5.80%) Risk Management
19 130 (5.71%) Service Delivery
20 126 (5.54%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 207 (9.10%) Python
2 186 (8.18%) PowerShell
3 138 (6.07%) SQL
4 84 (3.69%) Bash
5 63 (2.77%) Java
6 43 (1.89%) JavaScript
7 34 (1.49%) Bicep
8 25 (1.10%) PL/SQL
9 12 (0.53%) Shell Script
10 11 (0.48%) Kusto Query Language
11 10 (0.44%) ABAP
11 10 (0.44%) C++
12 8 (0.35%) TypeScript
13 7 (0.31%) C
13 7 (0.31%) C#
14 5 (0.22%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 5 (0.22%) Groovy
15 4 (0.18%) Go
15 4 (0.18%) Rust
16 2 (0.088%) Scala
Qualifications
1 1,415 (62.20%) SC Cleared
2 853 (37.49%) DV Cleared
3 186 (8.18%) Degree
4 61 (2.68%) CISSP
5 58 (2.55%) Azure Certification
6 55 (2.42%) BPSS Clearance
7 44 (1.93%) PMI Certification
8 40 (1.76%) ISTQB
9 33 (1.45%) PMP
10 31 (1.36%) Cisco Certification
11 28 (1.23%) Computer Science Degree
12 27 (1.19%) Microsoft Certification
13 26 (1.14%) CISM
13 26 (1.14%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 21 (0.92%) AWS Certification
15 20 (0.88%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
16 19 (0.84%) TOGAF Certification
17 16 (0.70%) (ISC)2 CCSP
17 16 (0.70%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
17 16 (0.70%) VCAP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 95 (4.18%) NIST
2 93 (4.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 87 (3.82%) PMO
4 63 (2.77%) QA
5 57 (2.51%) NCSC
6 42 (1.85%) GDPR
7 32 (1.41%) Data Quality
8 29 (1.27%) SLA
9 27 (1.19%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 25 (1.10%) JSP 440
11 17 (0.75%) GRC
12 15 (0.66%) Cyber Essentials
13 13 (0.57%) NIST 800
14 12 (0.53%) ISO 9001
15 11 (0.48%) Def Stans
16 9 (0.40%) Accessibility
16 9 (0.40%) ISO 31000
17 8 (0.35%) RMADS
18 3 (0.13%) GMP
18 3 (0.13%) WCAG
System Software
1 193 (8.48%) Active Directory
2 148 (6.51%) VMware Infrastructure
3 68 (2.99%) Docker
4 63 (2.77%) VMware NSX
5 62 (2.73%) VMware ESXi
6 25 (1.10%) Hyper-V
7 24 (1.05%) vCloud
8 22 (0.97%) vSphere
9 16 (0.70%) Virtual Machines
10 14 (0.62%) Virtual Desktop
11 13 (0.57%) Firmware
12 8 (0.35%) Oracle RAC
13 7 (0.31%) Virtual Servers
14 6 (0.26%) Embedded Firmware
14 6 (0.26%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 4 (0.18%) KVM
16 3 (0.13%) BitLocker
17 2 (0.088%) Dovecot
17 2 (0.088%) Postfix
18 1 (0.044%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 140 (6.15%) Kubernetes
2 82 (3.60%) Ansible
3 74 (3.25%) vCenter Server
4 60 (2.64%) SCOM
5 28 (1.23%) Microsoft Intune
6 26 (1.14%) SCCM
7 20 (0.88%) Argo
8 19 (0.84%) Grafana
9 17 (0.75%) Avamar
9 17 (0.75%) WMI
10 15 (0.66%) Prometheus
11 11 (0.48%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 10 (0.44%) FortiGate
12 10 (0.44%) Oracle RMAN
13 8 (0.35%) Cisco CUCM
13 8 (0.35%) Data Guard
14 7 (0.31%) Podman
14 7 (0.31%) QRadar
14 7 (0.31%) Red Hat Satellite
14 7 (0.31%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 396 (17.41%) Microsoft
2 210 (9.23%) VMware
3 161 (7.08%) Oracle
4 149 (6.55%) SAP
5 129 (5.67%) ServiceNow
6 56 (2.46%) Cisco
7 50 (2.20%) Red Hat
8 41 (1.80%) Google
9 34 (1.49%) SolarWinds
10 32 (1.41%) Juniper
11 27 (1.19%) Citrix
12 25 (1.10%) Palo Alto
13 23 (1.01%) F5
13 23 (1.01%) Remedy
14 21 (0.92%) Broadcom
15 20 (0.88%) Siebel
16 19 (0.84%) CyberArk
17 18 (0.79%) Dell
18 16 (0.70%) BeyondTrust
19 15 (0.66%) BMC