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 25 March 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 2,065 752 1,907
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 38.20% 25.66% 33.91%
As % of the Qualifications category 81.14% 65.05% 75.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,411 542 1,084
10th Percentile £331 £339 £350
25th Percentile £445 £456 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -4.35% +4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £655
90th Percentile £725 £700 £738
England median daily rate £525 £545 £550
% change year-on-year -3.67% -0.91% -2.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 211 53 115
10th Percentile £17.09 £24.24 £22.54
25th Percentile £22.06 £31.25 £51.63
Median hourly rate £59.50 £61.50 £61.63
Median % change year-on-year -3.24% -0.22% +2.72%
75th Percentile £85.36 £65.62 £73.67
90th Percentile £90.09 £80.08 £85.65
England median hourly rate £42.32 £60.00 £54.25
% change year-on-year -29.46% +10.60% -9.58%

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 2,545 1,156 2,528
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 47.08% 39.44% 44.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,690 754 1,423
10th Percentile £306 £290 £263
25th Percentile £419 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% - +4.76%
75th Percentile £618 £630 £638
90th Percentile £725 £688 £719
England median daily rate £520 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -0.95% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 264 84 188
10th Percentile £15.62 £20.01 £17.80
25th Percentile £20.13 £28.00 £24.19
Median hourly rate £47.50 £56.75 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -16.30% -1.05% +10.29%
75th Percentile £84.00 £70.00 £66.81
90th Percentile £88.00 £78.01 £84.41
England median hourly rate £35.00 £50.00 £38.75
% change year-on-year -30.00% +29.03% -22.50%

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 25 March 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 25 March 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 25 March 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 1,068 £500 -9.09% 170
Hampshire 0 818 £575 +0.88% 149
Berkshire +2 692 £450 -22.41% 96
Buckinghamshire +1 294 £560 +13.36% 57
Oxfordshire +13 82 £445 -24.26% 20
Surrey +10 82 £525 -15.15% 44
West Sussex +5 47 £544 -13.21% 13
Kent +2 26 £443 +4.12% 17
Sussex +1 7 £475 +9.83% 4
East Sussex 0 3 £588 +6.82% 3
Middlesex - 1 - -
Isle of Wight - 1 £81 -
Home Counties - 1 £500 -
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 46 (2.23%) SharePoint
2 37 (1.79%) Microsoft Exchange
3 17 (0.82%) Confluence
4 5 (0.24%) Apache
4 5 (0.24%) ArcGIS
4 5 (0.24%) IIS
4 5 (0.24%) NetWeaver
4 5 (0.24%) Oracle Workflow
4 5 (0.24%) SAP EP
5 4 (0.19%) Oracle Application Server
6 3 (0.15%) MS Project Server
6 3 (0.15%) Smallworld
7 2 (0.097%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.097%) GeoServer
8 1 (0.048%) Anypoint
8 1 (0.048%) Apache Pulsar
8 1 (0.048%) BizTalk Server
8 1 (0.048%) Exchange Server 2010
8 1 (0.048%) Palantir Foundry
8 1 (0.048%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 64 (3.10%) Microsoft Excel
2 61 (2.95%) Microsoft Office
3 41 (1.99%) Microsoft Project
4 30 (1.45%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 12 (0.58%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.097%) CPLEX
6 2 (0.097%) Lectora
6 2 (0.097%) Oracle Smart View
6 2 (0.097%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.048%) Autodesk Inventor
7 1 (0.048%) CATIA
7 1 (0.048%) MicroStation
7 1 (0.048%) PTC Creo
7 1 (0.048%) Siemens NX
7 1 (0.048%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 32 (1.55%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 30 (1.45%) SAP S/4HANA
3 8 (0.39%) SAP PSCD
4 7 (0.34%) Oracle Assets
4 7 (0.34%) Oracle ERP
4 7 (0.34%) Oracle Payables
4 7 (0.34%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 6 (0.29%) Salesforce CRM
5 6 (0.29%) SAP BRIM
5 6 (0.29%) SAP Hybris
6 5 (0.24%) Remedy ITSM
6 5 (0.24%) SAP CRM
6 5 (0.24%) Teamcenter
7 3 (0.15%) Payment Gateway
7 3 (0.15%) Primavera
7 3 (0.15%) SAP HCM
8 2 (0.097%) Oracle General Ledger
8 2 (0.097%) Oracle Receivables
8 2 (0.097%) SAP HR
8 2 (0.097%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 282 (13.66%) Azure
2 193 (9.35%) AWS
3 84 (4.07%) GCP
4 73 (3.54%) Entra ID
5 67 (3.24%) Microsoft 365
6 52 (2.52%) Azure DevOps
7 47 (2.28%) OpenShift
8 41 (1.99%) Power Platform
9 36 (1.74%) GitHub
10 30 (1.45%) IaaS
10 30 (1.45%) PaaS
11 21 (1.02%) GitHub Actions
12 15 (0.73%) Cloud Computing
13 14 (0.68%) OneDrive
13 14 (0.68%) SaaS
13 14 (0.68%) Serverless
14 12 (0.58%) AWS CloudFormation
15 11 (0.53%) OCI
15 11 (0.53%) SuccessFactors
16 10 (0.48%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 158 (7.65%) Firewall
2 99 (4.79%) WAN
3 96 (4.65%) DNS
3 96 (4.65%) LAN
4 79 (3.83%) BGP
5 74 (3.58%) OSPF
6 66 (3.20%) Network Security
7 64 (3.10%) DHCP
8 50 (2.42%) VPN
9 40 (1.94%) TCP/IP
10 37 (1.79%) Junos
11 33 (1.60%) Cisco ISE
12 32 (1.55%) Wireless
13 28 (1.36%) IPsec
14 27 (1.31%) Ethernet VPN
15 26 (1.26%) VXLAN
16 24 (1.16%) BIG-IP
17 23 (1.11%) MPLS
18 22 (1.07%) SD-WAN
18 22 (1.07%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 43 (2.08%) SQL Server
2 36 (1.74%) Power BI
3 27 (1.31%) PostgreSQL
4 14 (0.68%) Relational Database
5 12 (0.58%) Oracle Database
5 12 (0.58%) Oracle Reports
6 11 (0.53%) Metadata
7 10 (0.48%) Azure SQL Database
7 10 (0.48%) Redis
8 9 (0.44%) Data Warehouse
9 8 (0.39%) MongoDB
10 7 (0.34%) Oracle Database 12c
10 7 (0.34%) SAP HANA
11 6 (0.29%) MySQL
11 6 (0.29%) NoSQL
11 6 (0.29%) Oracle ODI
12 5 (0.24%) Metadata Repository
12 5 (0.24%) SAP Data Services
13 4 (0.19%) GIS
14 3 (0.15%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 57 (2.76%) JIRA
2 42 (2.03%) Git
3 41 (1.99%) Rational DOORS
4 37 (1.79%) GitLab
4 37 (1.79%) Jenkins
5 20 (0.97%) Burp Suite
5 20 (0.97%) Metasploit
6 10 (0.48%) SonarQube
6 10 (0.48%) Visual Studio
7 8 (0.39%) Artifactory
7 8 (0.39%) Maven
8 7 (0.34%) Android Studio
8 7 (0.34%) Subversion
9 6 (0.29%) JUnit
9 6 (0.29%) Postman
9 6 (0.29%) Robot Framework
10 5 (0.24%) Bitbucket
10 5 (0.24%) Gradle
10 5 (0.24%) Sonatype Nexus
11 4 (0.19%) Cypress.io
General
1 526 (25.47%) Social Skills
2 325 (15.74%) Public Sector
3 200 (9.69%) Analytical Skills
4 126 (6.10%) Finance
5 93 (4.50%) Aerospace
6 76 (3.68%) Documentation Skills
7 44 (2.13%) Military
8 36 (1.74%) Influencing Skills
8 36 (1.74%) Legal
9 32 (1.55%) Manufacturing
10 31 (1.50%) Telecoms
11 20 (0.97%) Law
11 20 (0.97%) Presentation Skills
12 17 (0.82%) Organisational Skills
13 15 (0.73%) Marketing
14 12 (0.58%) Billing
15 10 (0.48%) Electronics
16 9 (0.44%) Advertising
17 7 (0.34%) Aviation
18 6 (0.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 336 (16.27%) Architect
2 197 (9.54%) Senior
3 158 (7.65%) Lead
4 144 (6.97%) Analyst
5 128 (6.20%) Network Engineer
6 125 (6.05%) Consultant
7 120 (5.81%) Developer
8 72 (3.49%) Project Manager
9 66 (3.20%) Technical Architect
10 55 (2.66%) Delivery Manager
11 54 (2.62%) Tester
12 51 (2.47%) Enterprise Architect
13 50 (2.42%) Security Architect
14 49 (2.37%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 49 (2.37%) Product Manager
15 45 (2.18%) Support Engineer
16 43 (2.08%) DevOps Engineer
17 39 (1.89%) Product Delivery Manager
18 36 (1.74%) SOC Analyst
18 36 (1.74%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 36 (1.74%) REST
2 34 (1.65%) LDAP
3 31 (1.50%) .NET
3 31 (1.50%) React
4 22 (1.07%) 802.1X
4 22 (1.07%) JSON
4 22 (1.07%) RESTful
5 19 (0.92%) Elastic Stack
6 18 (0.87%) AngularJS
6 18 (0.87%) Kafka
7 17 (0.82%) Oracle Fusion
7 17 (0.82%) XML
8 16 (0.77%) SailPoint
8 16 (0.77%) SOAP
9 12 (0.58%) OAuth
10 11 (0.53%) CSS
10 11 (0.53%) Loki
10 11 (0.53%) Oracle GoldenGate
10 11 (0.53%) Web Services
10 11 (0.53%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 96 (4.65%) Data Centre
2 91 (4.41%) PKI
3 74 (3.58%) Product Ownership
4 51 (2.47%) Onboarding
5 41 (1.99%) Management Information System
6 35 (1.69%) Self-Motivation
7 34 (1.65%) Replication
8 32 (1.55%) Data Structures
9 27 (1.31%) Cloud Native
9 27 (1.31%) Security Operations Centre
10 26 (1.26%) Clustering
11 24 (1.16%) Analytical Mindset
12 21 (1.02%) Security Posture
13 20 (0.97%) Driving Licence
14 19 (0.92%) Distributed Systems
15 18 (0.87%) Cyber Threat
15 18 (0.87%) Public Cloud
16 16 (0.77%) Virtual Team
17 14 (0.68%) Legacy Systems
18 13 (0.63%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 282 (13.66%) Windows
2 199 (9.64%) Linux
3 76 (3.68%) Windows Server
4 34 (1.65%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 33 (1.60%) Windows 10
6 16 (0.77%) Android
6 16 (0.77%) Unix
7 13 (0.63%) Ubuntu
8 9 (0.44%) Windows 7
9 7 (0.34%) Windows Server 2016
10 6 (0.29%) Mac OS
11 5 (0.24%) Embedded Linux
11 5 (0.24%) Kali Linux
11 5 (0.24%) Windows Server 2019
12 4 (0.19%) CentOS
12 4 (0.19%) Debian
13 3 (0.15%) Apple iOS
14 2 (0.097%) SUSE
14 2 (0.097%) VMS
14 2 (0.097%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 387 (18.74%) Agile
2 232 (11.23%) Problem-Solving
3 212 (10.27%) ITIL
4 197 (9.54%) DevOps
5 193 (9.35%) CI/CD
6 192 (9.30%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 180 (8.72%) Stakeholder Management
8 179 (8.67%) Migration
9 176 (8.52%) Continuous Improvement
10 160 (7.75%) Cybersecurity
11 153 (7.41%) Roadmaps
12 130 (6.30%) Service Management
13 117 (5.67%) Project Management
14 114 (5.52%) ITSM
15 91 (4.41%) SIEM
16 90 (4.36%) Change Management
17 87 (4.21%) DevSecOps
18 83 (4.02%) Decision-Making
19 82 (3.97%) Collaborative Working
20 80 (3.87%) Infrastructure Engineering
Programming Languages
1 191 (9.25%) Python
2 156 (7.55%) PowerShell
3 67 (3.24%) Java
4 62 (3.00%) SQL
5 55 (2.66%) Bash
6 42 (2.03%) JavaScript
7 41 (1.99%) C#
8 29 (1.40%) C++
9 21 (1.02%) Kusto Query Language
10 17 (0.82%) TypeScript
11 14 (0.68%) C
11 14 (0.68%) Shell Script
12 12 (0.58%) Go
13 11 (0.53%) ABAP
14 9 (0.44%) Korn
14 9 (0.44%) PL/SQL
15 7 (0.34%) Bicep
15 7 (0.34%) Embedded C++
16 5 (0.24%) T-SQL
17 3 (0.15%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 1,294 (62.66%) SC Cleared
2 672 (32.54%) DV Cleared
3 162 (7.85%) Degree
4 68 (3.29%) Cisco Certification
5 51 (2.47%) CCNP
6 48 (2.32%) CISSP
7 45 (2.18%) BPSS Clearance
8 26 (1.26%) CISM
8 26 (1.26%) PMP
9 23 (1.11%) PMI Certification
10 21 (1.02%) CCNA
11 19 (0.92%) CEH
12 18 (0.87%) Azure Certification
12 18 (0.87%) GIAC
13 17 (0.82%) JNCIS
14 15 (0.73%) AWS Certification
14 15 (0.73%) CHECK Team Member
14 15 (0.73%) Computer Science Degree
15 13 (0.63%) CREST Certified
15 13 (0.63%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 87 (4.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 86 (4.16%) NIST
3 58 (2.81%) GDPR
4 55 (2.66%) PMO
5 52 (2.52%) NCSC
6 47 (2.28%) QA
7 23 (1.11%) Data Quality
7 23 (1.11%) SLA
8 17 (0.82%) PCI DSS
9 16 (0.77%) Accessibility
9 16 (0.77%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 16 (0.77%) JSP 440
10 13 (0.63%) GRC
11 12 (0.58%) NIST 800
12 10 (0.48%) COBIT
13 6 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials
13 6 (0.29%) Def Stans
13 6 (0.29%) Government Security Classifications
14 5 (0.24%) P3O
15 4 (0.19%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 175 (8.47%) Active Directory
2 96 (4.65%) VMware Infrastructure
3 46 (2.23%) Docker
4 41 (1.99%) VMware NSX
5 35 (1.69%) vSphere
6 21 (1.02%) VMware ESXi
7 11 (0.53%) Firmware
7 11 (0.53%) Hyper-V
7 11 (0.53%) vCloud
8 10 (0.48%) Virtual Desktop
9 9 (0.44%) Oracle RAC
10 6 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
11 3 (0.15%) NFS
12 1 (0.048%) Embedded Firmware
12 1 (0.048%) KVM
12 1 (0.048%) RHEV
12 1 (0.048%) Sendmail
12 1 (0.048%) Terminal Services
12 1 (0.048%) UAG
12 1 (0.048%) Xen
Systems Management
1 105 (5.08%) Kubernetes
2 67 (3.24%) Terraform
3 66 (3.20%) Ansible
4 50 (2.42%) vCenter Server
5 46 (2.23%) Grafana
6 45 (2.18%) Prometheus
7 35 (1.69%) Argo
8 24 (1.16%) FortiGate
8 24 (1.16%) SCCM
9 22 (1.07%) Nmap
10 17 (0.82%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 17 (0.82%) Microsoft Intune
11 15 (0.73%) WMI
12 13 (0.63%) Kibana
12 13 (0.63%) Single Sign-On
13 11 (0.53%) Kustomize
14 10 (0.48%) Oracle RMAN
15 9 (0.44%) Nagios
15 9 (0.44%) NetIQ Identity Manager
15 9 (0.44%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
Vendors
1 221 (10.70%) Microsoft
2 193 (9.35%) VMware
3 182 (8.81%) Cisco
4 93 (4.50%) SAP
5 87 (4.21%) Juniper
6 79 (3.83%) ServiceNow
7 70 (3.39%) Red Hat
8 63 (3.05%) Splunk
9 60 (2.91%) Aruba
10 51 (2.47%) Oracle
11 48 (2.32%) SolarWinds
12 44 (2.13%) F5
13 40 (1.94%) Palo Alto
14 35 (1.69%) Google
15 34 (1.65%) IBM
16 33 (1.60%) Sparx
17 32 (1.55%) CyberArk
18 29 (1.40%) BeyondTrust
19 26 (1.26%) CheckPoint
20 18 (0.87%) Citrix