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

6 months to
24 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 2,155 795 1,880
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 37.52% 26.53% 33.73%
As % of the Qualifications category 82.00% 64.95% 75.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,481 554 1,100
10th Percentile £355 £363 £384
25th Percentile £454 £463 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £535 £550 £580
Median % change year-on-year -2.73% -5.17% +5.65%
75th Percentile £633 £630 £675
90th Percentile £725 £700 £738
England median daily rate £525 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -2.33% -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 217 51 121
10th Percentile £18.32 £24.18 £22.50
25th Percentile £25.72 £26.13 £52.90
Median hourly rate £70.00 £60.50 £61.65
Median % change year-on-year +15.70% -1.86% -1.41%
75th Percentile £85.00 £72.50 £79.78
90th Percentile £90.09 £80.10 £87.46
England median hourly rate £55.00 £56.75 £55.00
% change year-on-year -3.08% +3.18% -8.33%

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 2,628 1,224 2,498
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 45.75% 40.84% 44.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,765 776 1,412
10th Percentile £309 £301 £300
25th Percentile £425 £438 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £537 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.28% -2.32% +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 267 84 215
10th Percentile £16.35 £20.01 £17.54
25th Percentile £22.79 £26.62 £26.05
Median hourly rate £55.00 £57.13 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -3.72% -0.39% +3.33%
75th Percentile £84.00 £70.31 £66.87
90th Percentile £88.00 £78.01 £85.17
England median hourly rate £47.50 £47.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year - +18.75% -23.81%

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 24 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 24 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 24 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 1,120 £500 -10.71% 100
Hampshire 0 839 £600 +9.09% 157
Berkshire +1 679 £450 -23.24% 53
Buckinghamshire +1 353 £554 +1.79% 32
Oxfordshire +11 88 £450 -28.00% 17
Surrey +4 86 £525 -6.67% 47
West Sussex +6 57 £509 -5.31% 11
Kent +5 27 £443 +26.43% 10
Sussex +1 7 £475 +9.83% 4
East Sussex +3 4 £459 -16.55% 2
Home Counties - 2 £525 -
Middlesex - 1 - - 1
Isle of Wight - 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 (1.95%) SharePoint
2 37 (1.72%) Microsoft Exchange
3 18 (0.84%) Confluence
4 11 (0.51%) Oracle Application Server
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 4 (0.19%) Apache
7 3 (0.14%) MS Project Server
8 2 (0.093%) Apache Airflow
8 2 (0.093%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.093%) CMS
8 2 (0.093%) Palantir Foundry
8 2 (0.093%) Umbraco
9 1 (0.046%) Apache Pulsar
9 1 (0.046%) BizTalk Server
9 1 (0.046%) SAS
9 1 (0.046%) Smallworld
Applications
1 63 (2.92%) Microsoft Excel
2 60 (2.78%) Microsoft Office
3 35 (1.62%) Microsoft Project
4 29 (1.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 11 (0.51%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.093%) CPLEX
7 2 (0.093%) Lectora
7 2 (0.093%) Oracle Smart View
8 1 (0.046%) Autodesk Inventor
8 1 (0.046%) CATIA
8 1 (0.046%) InVision
8 1 (0.046%) MicroStation
8 1 (0.046%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.046%) Sketch
8 1 (0.046%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 35 (1.62%) SAP S/4HANA
2 29 (1.35%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 12 (0.56%) SAP PSCD
4 7 (0.32%) iTrent
4 7 (0.32%) Oracle ERP
4 7 (0.32%) Remedy ITSM
5 6 (0.28%) Oracle Assets
5 6 (0.28%) Oracle Payables
5 6 (0.28%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
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 1 (0.046%) Salesforce CRM
9 1 (0.046%) SAP FI-CA
9 1 (0.046%) SAP IBP
Cloud Services
1 323 (14.99%) Azure
2 200 (9.28%) AWS
3 83 (3.85%) GCP
4 80 (3.71%) Entra ID
5 65 (3.02%) Azure DevOps
6 58 (2.69%) Microsoft 365
6 58 (2.69%) Power Platform
7 34 (1.58%) PaaS
8 33 (1.53%) OpenShift
9 29 (1.35%) IaaS
10 28 (1.30%) GitHub
11 20 (0.93%) GitHub Actions
12 18 (0.84%) SaaS
12 18 (0.84%) SuccessFactors
13 14 (0.65%) Serverless
14 12 (0.56%) Cloud Computing
15 11 (0.51%) AWS CloudFormation
15 11 (0.51%) Azure Monitor
15 11 (0.51%) OCI
16 10 (0.46%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 166 (7.70%) Firewall
2 111 (5.15%) WAN
3 106 (4.92%) LAN
4 99 (4.59%) DNS
5 86 (3.99%) BGP
6 81 (3.76%) OSPF
7 74 (3.43%) DHCP
8 70 (3.25%) Network Security
9 50 (2.32%) VPN
10 40 (1.86%) TCP/IP
11 34 (1.58%) Wireless
12 33 (1.53%) Junos
13 31 (1.44%) Ethernet VPN
13 31 (1.44%) VXLAN
14 29 (1.35%) Cisco ISE
14 29 (1.35%) IPsec
15 28 (1.30%) BIG-IP
16 26 (1.21%) SD-WAN
16 26 (1.21%) VLAN
17 23 (1.07%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 55 (2.55%) SQL Server
2 50 (2.32%) Power BI
3 29 (1.35%) PostgreSQL
4 25 (1.16%) Data Warehouse
5 20 (0.93%) Oracle Reports
6 13 (0.60%) Oracle Database
7 12 (0.56%) Oracle ODI
7 12 (0.56%) Redis
7 12 (0.56%) Relational Database
8 10 (0.46%) Azure SQL Database
8 10 (0.46%) Metadata
9 8 (0.37%) MySQL
10 7 (0.32%) NoSQL
10 7 (0.32%) Oracle Database 12c
11 6 (0.28%) Tableau
12 5 (0.23%) Metadata Repository
13 4 (0.19%) Big Data
13 4 (0.19%) MongoDB
13 4 (0.19%) SAP Data Services
13 4 (0.19%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 52 (2.41%) JIRA
2 45 (2.09%) Git
3 40 (1.86%) GitLab
4 37 (1.72%) Rational DOORS
5 29 (1.35%) Jenkins
6 16 (0.74%) Burp Suite
6 16 (0.74%) Metasploit
7 12 (0.56%) SonarQube
8 10 (0.46%) Postman
8 10 (0.46%) Visual Studio
9 8 (0.37%) JUnit
10 7 (0.32%) Android Studio
10 7 (0.32%) 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
1 494 (22.92%) Social Skills
2 303 (14.06%) Public Sector
3 200 (9.28%) Analytical Skills
4 129 (5.99%) Finance
5 97 (4.50%) Aerospace
6 79 (3.67%) Documentation Skills
7 50 (2.32%) Military
8 36 (1.67%) Telecoms
9 35 (1.62%) Legal
10 34 (1.58%) Influencing Skills
11 31 (1.44%) Manufacturing
12 22 (1.02%) Law
13 21 (0.97%) Presentation Skills
14 19 (0.88%) Organisational Skills
15 15 (0.70%) Marketing
16 13 (0.60%) Billing
17 12 (0.56%) Advertising
18 11 (0.51%) Electronics
19 8 (0.37%) Aviation
20 6 (0.28%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 338 (15.68%) Architect
2 218 (10.12%) Senior
3 173 (8.03%) Lead
4 153 (7.10%) Analyst
4 153 (7.10%) Developer
5 124 (5.75%) Network Engineer
6 110 (5.10%) Consultant
7 82 (3.81%) Project Manager
8 76 (3.53%) Technical Architect
9 59 (2.74%) Delivery Manager
10 58 (2.69%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 57 (2.65%) Security Architect
12 56 (2.60%) DevOps Engineer
13 55 (2.55%) Enterprise Architect
14 51 (2.37%) Tester
15 49 (2.27%) Product Manager
16 43 (2.00%) SOC Analyst
17 40 (1.86%) Software Engineer
18 39 (1.81%) Product Delivery Manager
19 38 (1.76%) Azure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (2.00%) REST
2 40 (1.86%) .NET
3 33 (1.53%) LDAP
4 32 (1.48%) React
5 30 (1.39%) RESTful
6 27 (1.25%) 802.1X
7 24 (1.11%) JSON
8 23 (1.07%) AngularJS
9 21 (0.97%) SailPoint
10 19 (0.88%) XML
11 18 (0.84%) Oracle Fusion
12 17 (0.79%) SOAP
13 15 (0.70%) Kafka
13 15 (0.70%) OAuth
14 14 (0.65%) Web Services
15 12 (0.56%) CSS
15 12 (0.56%) Elastic Stack
15 12 (0.56%) OAuth2
16 11 (0.51%) Keycloak
16 11 (0.51%) Quarkus
Miscellaneous
1 104 (4.83%) Data Centre
2 85 (3.94%) PKI
3 77 (3.57%) Product Ownership
4 68 (3.16%) Onboarding
5 40 (1.86%) Management Information System
6 36 (1.67%) Self-Motivation
7 34 (1.58%) Data Structures
8 32 (1.48%) Replication
9 30 (1.39%) Clustering
10 27 (1.25%) Security Operations Centre
11 26 (1.21%) Distributed Systems
12 25 (1.16%) Cloud Native
13 24 (1.11%) Public Cloud
14 23 (1.07%) Analytical Mindset
15 22 (1.02%) Greenfield Project
16 20 (0.93%) Security Posture
17 19 (0.88%) Cyber Threat
18 16 (0.74%) PMI
18 16 (0.74%) Private Cloud
18 16 (0.74%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 268 (12.44%) Windows
2 193 (8.96%) Linux
3 77 (3.57%) Windows Server
4 30 (1.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 27 (1.25%) Unix
6 17 (0.79%) Android
7 16 (0.74%) Windows 10
8 12 (0.56%) Ubuntu
9 7 (0.32%) Mac OS
9 7 (0.32%) Windows Server 2016
10 6 (0.28%) Embedded Linux
10 6 (0.28%) Windows Server 2019
11 5 (0.23%) Debian
11 5 (0.23%) Windows 7
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 (0.046%) OpenVMS
14 1 (0.046%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 404 (18.75%) Agile
2 233 (10.81%) Problem-Solving
3 218 (10.12%) ITIL
4 208 (9.65%) DevOps
5 200 (9.28%) CI/CD
6 189 (8.77%) Stakeholder Management
7 182 (8.45%) Continuous Improvement
8 179 (8.31%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 175 (8.12%) Cybersecurity
10 170 (7.89%) Migration
11 135 (6.26%) Roadmaps
12 125 (5.80%) ITSM
12 125 (5.80%) Service Management
13 109 (5.06%) Project Management
14 99 (4.59%) SIEM
15 92 (4.27%) Computer Science
15 92 (4.27%) Software Engineering
16 87 (4.04%) Change Management
16 87 (4.04%) DevSecOps
17 86 (3.99%) Infrastructure Engineering
Programming Languages
1 194 (9.00%) Python
2 165 (7.66%) PowerShell
3 80 (3.71%) SQL
4 70 (3.25%) Java
5 50 (2.32%) JavaScript
6 48 (2.23%) C#
7 45 (2.09%) Bash
8 28 (1.30%) C++
9 22 (1.02%) Go
10 21 (0.97%) Kusto Query Language
11 17 (0.79%) TypeScript
12 15 (0.70%) C
13 13 (0.60%) Shell Script
14 10 (0.46%) ABAP
14 10 (0.46%) Bicep
15 9 (0.42%) Korn
16 7 (0.32%) PL/SQL
16 7 (0.32%) T-SQL
17 4 (0.19%) Embedded C++
18 3 (0.14%) Embedded C
Qualifications
1 1,362 (63.20%) SC Cleared
2 724 (33.60%) DV Cleared
3 169 (7.84%) Degree
4 75 (3.48%) Cisco Certification
5 55 (2.55%) CCNP
6 50 (2.32%) BPSS Clearance
7 45 (2.09%) CISSP
8 33 (1.53%) PMP
9 30 (1.39%) PMI Certification
10 22 (1.02%) CCNA
10 22 (1.02%) CISM
11 18 (0.84%) GIAC
12 17 (0.79%) Azure Certification
12 17 (0.79%) Computer Science Degree
12 17 (0.79%) JNCIS
13 15 (0.70%) AWS Certification
13 15 (0.70%) CHECK Team Member
14 14 (0.65%) CEH
15 13 (0.60%) ISTQB
15 13 (0.60%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 99 (4.59%) NIST
2 96 (4.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 60 (2.78%) PMO
4 59 (2.74%) NCSC
5 58 (2.69%) QA
6 53 (2.46%) GDPR
7 27 (1.25%) Data Quality
8 22 (1.02%) SLA
9 17 (0.79%) Accessibility
9 17 (0.79%) PCI DSS
10 16 (0.74%) JSP 440
11 15 (0.70%) GRC
11 15 (0.70%) NIST 800
12 12 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 20000
13 10 (0.46%) 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
1 171 (7.94%) Active Directory
2 101 (4.69%) VMware Infrastructure
3 42 (1.95%) Docker
4 40 (1.86%) VMware NSX
5 27 (1.25%) VMware ESXi
6 26 (1.21%) vSphere
7 14 (0.65%) Firmware
8 12 (0.56%) Hyper-V
8 12 (0.56%) vCloud
9 11 (0.51%) Virtual Desktop
10 10 (0.46%) Oracle RAC
11 7 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
12 3 (0.14%) NFS
12 3 (0.14%) UAG
13 2 (0.093%) Embedded Firmware
14 1 (0.046%) KVM
14 1 (0.046%) RHEV
14 1 (0.046%) Terminal Services
14 1 (0.046%) Virtual Servers
14 1 (0.046%) Xen
Systems Management
1 94 (4.36%) Kubernetes
2 69 (3.20%) Terraform
3 58 (2.69%) Ansible
4 45 (2.09%) vCenter Server
5 33 (1.53%) Grafana
6 32 (1.48%) Prometheus
7 30 (1.39%) FortiGate
8 25 (1.16%) Argo
9 19 (0.88%) Microsoft Intune
10 18 (0.84%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 18 (0.84%) Nmap
10 18 (0.84%) SCCM
11 13 (0.60%) Kibana
12 12 (0.56%) Oracle RMAN
12 12 (0.56%) Single Sign-On
13 11 (0.51%) SCOM
13 11 (0.51%) WMI
14 10 (0.46%) Forefront Identity Manager
14 10 (0.46%) NetIQ Identity Manager
15 9 (0.42%) Nagios
Vendors
1 224 (10.39%) Microsoft
2 196 (9.10%) VMware
3 162 (7.52%) Cisco
4 114 (5.29%) SAP
5 83 (3.85%) ServiceNow
6 82 (3.81%) Juniper
7 79 (3.67%) Oracle
8 65 (3.02%) Splunk
9 62 (2.88%) Red Hat
10 50 (2.32%) F5
11 45 (2.09%) SolarWinds
12 43 (2.00%) Aruba
13 37 (1.72%) Palo Alto
14 34 (1.58%) BeyondTrust
15 33 (1.53%) CyberArk
16 32 (1.48%) Google
17 30 (1.39%) IBM
17 30 (1.39%) Sparx
18 26 (1.21%) CheckPoint
19 21 (0.97%) Extreme Networks