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

6 months to
11 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 1,643 760 1,782
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 34.85% 24.27% 32.66%
As % of the Qualifications category 77.17% 65.35% 74.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,162 517 977
10th Percentile £306 £311 £275
25th Percentile £431 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £550 £560
Median % change year-on-year -5.45% -1.79% +1.82%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £688 £719
England median daily rate £525 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -4.55% - -2.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 147 55 130
10th Percentile £16.35 £19.27 £27.45
25th Percentile £19.41 £33.13 £51.75
Median hourly rate £25.15 £61.50 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -59.10% +2.49% -
75th Percentile £60.00 £65.17 £71.90
90th Percentile £95.00 £79.40 £84.40
England median hourly rate £25.15 £60.00 £58.00
% change year-on-year -58.08% +3.45% -3.33%

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 2,129 1,163 2,403
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 45.16% 37.14% 44.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,432 733 1,383
10th Percentile £284 £263 £215
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £537
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.23% -0.09%
75th Percentile £600 £630 £638
90th Percentile £725 £688 £700
England median daily rate £520 £525 £545
% change year-on-year -0.95% -3.67% -0.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 201 65 169
10th Percentile £15.25 £19.21 £18.32
25th Percentile £19.10 £31.25 £40.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £56.75 £58.30
Median % change year-on-year -55.68% -2.67% +29.56%
75th Percentile £55.00 £64.73 £70.00
90th Percentile £90.09 £79.40 £82.36
England median hourly rate £25.15 £47.37 £45.88
% change year-on-year -46.91% +3.25% +1.96%

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 11 February 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 11 February 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 11 February 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 +1 764 £485 -7.71% 121
Hampshire 0 711 £550 -4.35% 173
Berkshire +1 524 £450 -18.18% 76
Buckinghamshire +1 191 £550 +20.22% 33
Surrey +20 78 £525 -19.23% 38
Oxfordshire +8 49 £325 -48.00% 13
West Sussex +9 42 £537 -20.74% 10
Kent +5 27 £441 +60.45% 19
Sussex -1 6 £475 +9.83% 7
Middlesex - 4 - - 1
East Sussex +1 3 £588 +6.82% 5
Isle of Wight - 1 £81 -
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 44 (2.68%) SharePoint
2 41 (2.50%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (0.91%) Confluence
4 5 (0.30%) Apache
5 4 (0.24%) ArcGIS
5 4 (0.24%) IIS
5 4 (0.24%) Oracle Workflow
6 3 (0.18%) Documentum
6 3 (0.18%) MS Project Server
7 2 (0.12%) Exchange Server 2010
7 2 (0.12%) Exchange Server 2013
7 2 (0.12%) GeoServer
7 2 (0.12%) NetWeaver
7 2 (0.12%) SAP EP
7 2 (0.12%) Skype for Business
7 2 (0.12%) Smallworld
8 1 (0.061%) Anypoint
8 1 (0.061%) Apache Pulsar
8 1 (0.061%) Exchange Server 2007
8 1 (0.061%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 59 (3.59%) Microsoft Excel
2 58 (3.53%) Microsoft Office
3 34 (2.07%) Microsoft Project
4 27 (1.64%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 10 (0.61%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.061%) CATIA
6 1 (0.061%) PTC Creo
6 1 (0.061%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 29 (1.77%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 27 (1.64%) SAP S/4HANA
3 6 (0.37%) Oracle Assets
3 6 (0.37%) Oracle Payables
3 6 (0.37%) SAP HR
3 6 (0.37%) SAP Payroll
4 5 (0.30%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
4 5 (0.30%) Salesforce CRM
4 5 (0.30%) SAP HCM
4 5 (0.30%) SAP PSCD
5 4 (0.24%) Oracle ERP
5 4 (0.24%) Primavera
5 4 (0.24%) SAP BRIM
5 4 (0.24%) SAP Hybris
5 4 (0.24%) SAP WM
6 3 (0.18%) Payment Gateway
6 3 (0.18%) SAP EWM
7 2 (0.12%) Oracle Cash Management
7 2 (0.12%) Oracle General Ledger
7 2 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 246 (14.97%) Azure
2 186 (11.32%) AWS
3 81 (4.93%) GCP
4 71 (4.32%) Microsoft 365
5 64 (3.90%) Entra ID
6 37 (2.25%) Azure DevOps
6 37 (2.25%) OpenShift
7 34 (2.07%) GitHub
8 29 (1.77%) Power Platform
9 22 (1.34%) IaaS
10 20 (1.22%) PaaS
11 19 (1.16%) GitHub Actions
12 17 (1.03%) OneDrive
13 15 (0.91%) Cloud Computing
14 13 (0.79%) SaaS
15 11 (0.67%) AWS CloudFormation
15 11 (0.67%) Serverless
16 10 (0.61%) Datadog
17 9 (0.55%) Power Automate
18 8 (0.49%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 119 (7.24%) Firewall
2 72 (4.38%) DNS
3 53 (3.23%) WAN
4 51 (3.10%) LAN
5 45 (2.74%) BGP
5 45 (2.74%) Network Security
6 43 (2.62%) DHCP
7 40 (2.43%) OSPF
8 38 (2.31%) TCP/IP
8 38 (2.31%) VPN
9 27 (1.64%) VLAN
10 24 (1.46%) Cisco IOS
10 24 (1.46%) IPsec
11 23 (1.40%) Cisco ISE
11 23 (1.40%) Junos
11 23 (1.40%) Wireless
12 21 (1.28%) Cisco Firepower
12 21 (1.28%) Structured Cabling
13 18 (1.10%) MPLS
14 13 (0.79%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (1.58%) Power BI
2 25 (1.52%) SQL Server
3 19 (1.16%) PostgreSQL
4 10 (0.61%) Metadata
5 9 (0.55%) NoSQL
5 9 (0.55%) Redis
6 8 (0.49%) Azure SQL Database
6 8 (0.49%) Relational Database
7 7 (0.43%) SAP HANA
8 6 (0.37%) MongoDB
9 5 (0.30%) Metadata Repository
9 5 (0.30%) Oracle Reports
10 4 (0.24%) MySQL
10 4 (0.24%) Oracle Database
11 3 (0.18%) GIS
11 3 (0.18%) SAP Data Services
12 2 (0.12%) Data Lake
12 2 (0.12%) Data Warehouse
12 2 (0.12%) Geospatial Data
12 2 (0.12%) QGIS
Development Applications
1 49 (2.98%) JIRA
2 36 (2.19%) Jenkins
3 34 (2.07%) GitLab
4 31 (1.89%) Git
5 21 (1.28%) Burp Suite
5 21 (1.28%) Metasploit
6 8 (0.49%) Artifactory
7 7 (0.43%) Android Studio
8 6 (0.37%) SonarQube
9 5 (0.30%) Bitbucket
9 5 (0.30%) Gradle
9 5 (0.30%) JUnit
9 5 (0.30%) Sonatype Nexus
10 4 (0.24%) Cypress.io
10 4 (0.24%) Maven
10 4 (0.24%) Rational DOORS
10 4 (0.24%) Robot Framework
10 4 (0.24%) Selenium
10 4 (0.24%) Subversion
10 4 (0.24%) Visual Studio
General
1 449 (27.33%) Social Skills
2 288 (17.53%) Public Sector
3 177 (10.77%) Analytical Skills
4 90 (5.48%) Finance
5 69 (4.20%) Documentation Skills
6 39 (2.37%) Military
7 36 (2.19%) Manufacturing
8 32 (1.95%) Aerospace
9 29 (1.77%) Influencing Skills
9 29 (1.77%) Legal
9 29 (1.77%) Telecoms
10 20 (1.22%) Law
11 15 (0.91%) Marketing
11 15 (0.91%) Presentation Skills
12 14 (0.85%) Organisational Skills
13 10 (0.61%) Electronics
14 8 (0.49%) Aviation
14 8 (0.49%) Billing
15 6 (0.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 6 (0.37%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 269 (16.37%) Architect
2 134 (8.16%) Senior
3 121 (7.36%) Analyst
4 117 (7.12%) Lead
5 103 (6.27%) Network Engineer
6 94 (5.72%) Consultant
7 77 (4.69%) Developer
8 58 (3.53%) Support Engineer
9 51 (3.10%) Project Manager
10 50 (3.04%) DevOps Engineer
10 50 (3.04%) Tester
11 47 (2.86%) Enterprise Architect
12 43 (2.62%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 43 (2.62%) Technical Architect
13 42 (2.56%) Cloud Engineer
14 38 (2.31%) Infrastructure Architect
15 36 (2.19%) IT Engineer
16 35 (2.13%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
17 34 (2.07%) Security Architect
18 33 (2.01%) Network Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (2.01%) LDAP
2 26 (1.58%) REST
3 22 (1.34%) React
4 17 (1.03%) .NET
4 17 (1.03%) Elastic Stack
5 16 (0.97%) Kafka
6 14 (0.85%) JSON
6 14 (0.85%) RESTful
7 13 (0.79%) AngularJS
8 12 (0.73%) Oracle Fusion
9 11 (0.67%) Loki
10 10 (0.61%) SOAP
10 10 (0.61%) XML
11 9 (0.55%) Keycloak
11 9 (0.55%) SAP Fiori
12 8 (0.49%) OAuth
12 8 (0.49%) Spring Boot
12 8 (0.49%) Swagger
12 8 (0.49%) Web Services
12 8 (0.49%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 63 (3.83%) PKI
2 61 (3.71%) Data Centre
3 45 (2.74%) Onboarding
4 37 (2.25%) Management Information System
5 33 (2.01%) Self-Motivation
6 31 (1.89%) Product Ownership
7 26 (1.58%) Cloud Native
8 22 (1.34%) Analytical Mindset
9 21 (1.28%) Security Operations Centre
10 20 (1.22%) Replication
11 19 (1.16%) Security Posture
12 18 (1.10%) Private Cloud
13 17 (1.03%) Driving Licence
14 15 (0.91%) Legacy Systems
14 15 (0.91%) PMI
15 12 (0.73%) Cyber Security Posture
15 12 (0.73%) Cyber Threat
16 11 (0.67%) Distributed Systems
16 11 (0.67%) Fat Client
16 11 (0.67%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 265 (16.13%) Windows
2 182 (11.08%) Linux
3 67 (4.08%) Windows Server
4 43 (2.62%) Windows 10
5 25 (1.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 17 (1.03%) Android
7 11 (0.67%) Windows 7
8 9 (0.55%) Unix
9 7 (0.43%) Kali Linux
10 6 (0.37%) Ubuntu
11 4 (0.24%) Apple iOS
11 4 (0.24%) Windows Server 2016
12 3 (0.18%) Debian
12 3 (0.18%) Windows Server 2012
12 3 (0.18%) Windows Server 2019
13 2 (0.12%) Mac OS
13 2 (0.12%) SUSE
13 2 (0.12%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
13 2 (0.12%) VMS
14 1 (0.061%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 277 (16.86%) Agile
2 204 (12.42%) Problem-Solving
3 174 (10.59%) DevOps
4 164 (9.98%) CI/CD
5 147 (8.95%) ITIL
6 142 (8.64%) Migration
7 140 (8.52%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 139 (8.46%) Stakeholder Management
9 132 (8.03%) Cybersecurity
10 117 (7.12%) Continuous Improvement
11 112 (6.82%) Roadmaps
12 107 (6.51%) Service Management
13 95 (5.78%) Project Management
14 88 (5.36%) ITSM
15 82 (4.99%) SIEM
16 77 (4.69%) Change Management
17 69 (4.20%) Infrastructure Engineering
18 68 (4.14%) Collaborative Working
19 65 (3.96%) DevSecOps
20 64 (3.90%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 178 (10.83%) Python
2 146 (8.89%) PowerShell
3 59 (3.59%) Bash
4 55 (3.35%) Java
5 51 (3.10%) SQL
6 33 (2.01%) JavaScript
7 30 (1.83%) C#
8 18 (1.10%) C++
9 17 (1.03%) Kusto Query Language
10 13 (0.79%) TypeScript
11 10 (0.61%) Go
12 9 (0.55%) ABAP
12 9 (0.55%) C
13 8 (0.49%) PL/SQL
14 7 (0.43%) Bicep
15 6 (0.37%) Embedded C++
16 5 (0.30%) Shell Script
17 4 (0.24%) Ada
18 3 (0.18%) MATLAB
18 3 (0.18%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 1,055 (64.21%) SC Cleared
2 516 (31.41%) DV Cleared
3 98 (5.96%) Degree
4 53 (3.23%) Cisco Certification
5 52 (3.16%) CCNP
6 46 (2.80%) CISSP
7 32 (1.95%) BPSS Clearance
8 25 (1.52%) CISM
9 23 (1.40%) Azure Certification
9 23 (1.40%) CCNA
9 23 (1.40%) CEH
10 22 (1.34%) Microsoft Certification
11 20 (1.22%) GIAC
12 19 (1.16%) AWS Certification
13 18 (1.10%) PMI Certification
13 18 (1.10%) PMP
14 14 (0.85%) CHECK Team Member
15 13 (0.79%) Network+ Certification
16 12 (0.73%) CREST Certified
16 12 (0.73%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 68 (4.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 63 (3.83%) NIST
3 57 (3.47%) GDPR
4 48 (2.92%) QA
5 47 (2.86%) PMO
6 40 (2.43%) NCSC
7 21 (1.28%) SLA
8 16 (0.97%) PCI DSS
9 15 (0.91%) Data Quality
10 13 (0.79%) GRC
10 13 (0.79%) JSP 440
11 10 (0.61%) Accessibility
11 10 (0.61%) COBIT
12 6 (0.37%) NIST 800
13 5 (0.30%) ISO/IEC 20000
13 5 (0.30%) P3O
13 5 (0.30%) RMADS
14 4 (0.24%) Actionable Recommendations
14 4 (0.24%) Def Stans
15 3 (0.18%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 165 (10.04%) Active Directory
2 86 (5.23%) VMware Infrastructure
3 47 (2.86%) Docker
4 35 (2.13%) vSphere
5 34 (2.07%) VMware NSX
6 19 (1.16%) VMware ESXi
7 15 (0.91%) Hyper-V
8 9 (0.55%) Virtual Desktop
9 8 (0.49%) Firmware
10 7 (0.43%) vCloud
10 7 (0.43%) Virtual Machines
11 5 (0.30%) NFS
12 3 (0.18%) UAG
13 1 (0.061%) Brightmail
13 1 (0.061%) ISA Server
13 1 (0.061%) KVM
13 1 (0.061%) NDS
13 1 (0.061%) RHEV
13 1 (0.061%) Sendmail
13 1 (0.061%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 96 (5.84%) Kubernetes
2 69 (4.20%) Terraform
3 64 (3.90%) Ansible
4 50 (3.04%) vCenter Server
5 44 (2.68%) Grafana
6 43 (2.62%) Prometheus
7 30 (1.83%) Argo
8 25 (1.52%) Nmap
8 25 (1.52%) SCCM
9 18 (1.10%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 17 (1.03%) WMI
11 15 (0.91%) Microsoft Intune
12 13 (0.79%) Kibana
13 12 (0.73%) Single Sign-On
14 11 (0.67%) Kustomize
15 8 (0.49%) Red Hat Satellite
15 8 (0.49%) SCOM
16 7 (0.43%) linkerd
16 7 (0.43%) Puppet
16 7 (0.43%) Sysdig
Vendors
1 223 (13.57%) Microsoft
2 170 (10.35%) VMware
3 157 (9.56%) Cisco
4 81 (4.93%) SAP
5 62 (3.77%) ServiceNow
6 59 (3.59%) Aruba
6 59 (3.59%) Juniper
7 53 (3.23%) Red Hat
8 45 (2.74%) Splunk
9 36 (2.19%) Palo Alto
9 36 (2.19%) SolarWinds
10 32 (1.95%) Google
11 31 (1.89%) CyberArk
12 30 (1.83%) Sparx
13 29 (1.77%) Oracle
14 28 (1.70%) CheckPoint
15 25 (1.52%) BeyondTrust
16 16 (0.97%) Tanium
17 14 (0.85%) Citrix
17 14 (0.85%) Fortinet