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

6 months to
24 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 2,387 983 1,552
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 35.79% 27.68% 32.51%
As % of the Qualifications category 80.92% 69.13% 73.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,679 698 1,033
10th Percentile £405 £289 £380
25th Percentile £480 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £563 £538 £590
Median % change year-on-year +4.65% -8.90% +12.38%
75th Percentile £638 £600 £665
90th Percentile £738 £675 £738
England median daily rate £540 £538 £550
% change year-on-year +0.47% -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 246 91 105
10th Percentile £22.38 - £22.53
25th Percentile £55.00 £18.87 £52.50
Median hourly rate £73.60 £25.15 £61.71
Median % change year-on-year +192.64% -59.24% +0.12%
75th Percentile £87.76 £56.25 £80.00
90th Percentile £102.10 £83.00 £92.37
England median hourly rate £65.00 £25.15 £60.00
% change year-on-year +158.45% -58.08% -

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 2,950 1,422 2,119
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 44.23% 40.05% 44.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,995 916 1,325
10th Percentile £350 £241 £350
25th Percentile £463 £415 £428
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £638 £600 £650
90th Percentile £730 £675 £725
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 320 125 176
10th Percentile £18.25 £18.87 £17.80
25th Percentile £38.25 £19.79 £33.31
Median hourly rate £65.50 £28.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +133.93% -51.18% -4.42%
75th Percentile £85.00 £68.50 £70.39
90th Percentile £95.00 £81.00 £87.46
England median hourly rate £53.00 £25.15 £48.56
% change year-on-year +110.74% -48.21% -11.71%

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 August 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 August 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 August 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 1,254 £560 +6.67% 132
Hampshire 0 928 £575 +4.55% 171
Berkshire +1 699 £571 +3.82% 86
Buckinghamshire +1 434 £555 +12.98% 34
Oxfordshire +7 121 £480 +160.16% 14
Surrey +4 109 £580 +10.48% 41
West Sussex +13 72 £470 -9.05% 9
Kent -5 9 £411 +9.59% 7
East Sussex +8 7 £459 -
Home Counties +1 3 £525 -39.79%
Middlesex -18 2 - -
Isle of Wight - 1 - - 2
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 52 (2.18%) SharePoint
2 32 (1.34%) Confluence
3 22 (0.92%) Oracle Application Server
4 11 (0.46%) Apache Airflow
5 10 (0.42%) Microsoft Exchange
6 7 (0.29%) Documentum
6 7 (0.29%) SAS
7 5 (0.21%) Apache
7 5 (0.21%) Apache Spark
7 5 (0.21%) Oracle Workflow
8 4 (0.17%) IIS
9 3 (0.13%) ArcGIS
9 3 (0.13%) CMS
9 3 (0.13%) NetWeaver
9 3 (0.13%) Palantir Foundry
9 3 (0.13%) SAP EP
10 2 (0.084%) nginx
10 2 (0.084%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.084%) Umbraco
10 2 (0.084%) WebLogic
Applications
1 62 (2.60%) Microsoft Excel
2 54 (2.26%) Microsoft Project
3 42 (1.76%) Microsoft Office
4 28 (1.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.29%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.17%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.084%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 2 (0.084%) CPLEX
7 2 (0.084%) Houdini
7 2 (0.084%) NUKE
7 2 (0.084%) Oracle Smart View
7 2 (0.084%) Windchill
8 1 (0.042%) Autodesk Inventor
8 1 (0.042%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.042%) InVision
8 1 (0.042%) MicroStation
8 1 (0.042%) Simulink
8 1 (0.042%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 53 (2.22%) SAP S/4HANA
2 30 (1.26%) Oracle ERP
3 21 (0.88%) Remedy ITSM
4 18 (0.75%) SAP PSCD
4 18 (0.75%) Teamcenter
5 12 (0.50%) Siebel CRM
6 11 (0.46%) Primavera
7 8 (0.34%) iTrent
8 7 (0.29%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
9 6 (0.25%) Remedy AR System
9 6 (0.25%) SAP BRIM
9 6 (0.25%) SAP EWM
9 6 (0.25%) SAP Hybris
10 4 (0.17%) SAP MM
10 4 (0.17%) Workday HCM
11 3 (0.13%) Oracle Financials
11 3 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
11 3 (0.13%) SAP CRM
11 3 (0.13%) SAP FI
11 3 (0.13%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 378 (15.84%) Azure
2 193 (8.09%) AWS
3 86 (3.60%) Azure DevOps
4 85 (3.56%) Entra ID
5 71 (2.97%) GCP
6 70 (2.93%) Power Platform
7 44 (1.84%) Microsoft 365
8 43 (1.80%) OpenShift
9 36 (1.51%) OCI
10 34 (1.42%) SaaS
11 33 (1.38%) IaaS
12 27 (1.13%) PaaS
13 22 (0.92%) Azure Monitor
14 20 (0.84%) SuccessFactors
15 19 (0.80%) GitHub
16 17 (0.71%) GitHub Actions
17 15 (0.63%) Azure Sentinel
18 12 (0.50%) AWS CloudFormation
18 12 (0.50%) Serverless
19 11 (0.46%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 122 (5.11%) DNS
2 115 (4.82%) Firewall
3 86 (3.60%) WAN
4 80 (3.35%) LAN
5 69 (2.89%) Network Security
6 60 (2.51%) DHCP
7 58 (2.43%) VPN
8 53 (2.22%) BGP
9 42 (1.76%) TCP/IP
10 34 (1.42%) OSPF
11 33 (1.38%) IPsec
12 31 (1.30%) MPLS
13 26 (1.09%) SD-WAN
14 25 (1.05%) VSAN
15 21 (0.88%) BIG-IP
16 19 (0.80%) VLAN
16 19 (0.80%) Wireless
17 18 (0.75%) VXLAN
18 17 (0.71%) SSL
19 16 (0.67%) Cisco ASA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 57 (2.39%) SQL Server
2 56 (2.35%) Power BI
3 54 (2.26%) Data Warehouse
4 34 (1.42%) Oracle Reports
5 28 (1.17%) Oracle Database
6 26 (1.09%) Oracle ODI
7 25 (1.05%) PostgreSQL
8 15 (0.63%) Metadata
9 13 (0.54%) Relational Database
10 9 (0.38%) Geospatial Data
11 8 (0.34%) MySQL
11 8 (0.34%) Pentaho
11 8 (0.34%) Siebel EIM
12 7 (0.29%) NoSQL
12 7 (0.29%) Oracle BI Publisher
12 7 (0.29%) Oracle Database 12c
13 6 (0.25%) Azure SQL Database
13 6 (0.25%) Tableau
14 5 (0.21%) Elasticsearch
14 5 (0.21%) Redis
Development Applications
1 82 (3.44%) JIRA
2 56 (2.35%) GitLab
3 49 (2.05%) Git
4 32 (1.34%) Jenkins
5 31 (1.30%) Rational DOORS
6 25 (1.05%) SonarQube
7 8 (0.34%) Postman
8 7 (0.29%) MSI
8 7 (0.29%) Visual Studio
9 6 (0.25%) MLflow
9 6 (0.25%) Sonatype Nexus
10 5 (0.21%) JUnit
11 4 (0.17%) Artifactory
11 4 (0.17%) Selenium
12 3 (0.13%) Zephyr
13 2 (0.084%) JMeter
13 2 (0.084%) Oracle Forms
13 2 (0.084%) Robot Framework
13 2 (0.084%) Team Foundation Server
14 1 (0.042%) Maven
General
1 519 (21.74%) Social Skills
2 251 (10.52%) Public Sector
3 239 (10.01%) Analytical Skills
4 172 (7.21%) Aerospace
5 148 (6.20%) Finance
6 81 (3.39%) Documentation Skills
7 55 (2.30%) Influencing Skills
8 50 (2.09%) Organisational Skills
9 37 (1.55%) Military
10 36 (1.51%) Telecoms
11 30 (1.26%) Legal
12 20 (0.84%) Manufacturing
13 19 (0.80%) Law
14 17 (0.71%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 15 (0.63%) Billing
16 14 (0.59%) Presentation Skills
17 13 (0.54%) Aviation
18 8 (0.34%) Advertising
18 8 (0.34%) Police
19 6 (0.25%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 321 (13.45%) Architect
2 224 (9.38%) Senior
3 223 (9.34%) Lead
4 199 (8.34%) Developer
5 186 (7.79%) Analyst
6 168 (7.04%) Consultant
7 132 (5.53%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 76 (3.18%) Security Architect
9 73 (3.06%) Project Manager
10 71 (2.97%) Technical Architect
11 69 (2.89%) Cloud Engineer
12 67 (2.81%) Network Engineer
13 66 (2.76%) Delivery Manager
14 62 (2.60%) SAP Consultant
15 56 (2.35%) Product Manager
15 56 (2.35%) Support Engineer
16 51 (2.14%) SOC Analyst
17 47 (1.97%) Solutions Architect
18 41 (1.72%) Network Architect
18 41 (1.72%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 94 (3.94%) Terraform
2 69 (2.89%) REST
3 37 (1.55%) .NET
4 35 (1.47%) OAuth
5 30 (1.26%) SAML
6 29 (1.21%) RESTful
7 28 (1.17%) AngularJS
7 28 (1.17%) OpenID
7 28 (1.17%) SOAP
8 27 (1.13%) LDAP
9 26 (1.09%) SailPoint
10 24 (1.01%) React
11 23 (0.96%) Web Services
12 21 (0.88%) 802.1X
13 20 (0.84%) ARM Templates
13 20 (0.84%) JSON
13 20 (0.84%) OAuth2
14 19 (0.80%) HTML
15 18 (0.75%) CSS
15 18 (0.75%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 98 (4.11%) Onboarding
2 96 (4.02%) Product Ownership
3 78 (3.27%) Data Centre
3 78 (3.27%) PKI
4 48 (2.01%) Hybrid Cloud
5 46 (1.93%) Management Information System
6 37 (1.55%) Operational Technology
7 33 (1.38%) Cloud Native
7 33 (1.38%) Data Structures
8 27 (1.13%) Public Cloud
9 24 (1.01%) Greenfield Project
10 22 (0.92%) Enterprise Software
11 20 (0.84%) Clustering
11 20 (0.84%) Cyber Threat
12 19 (0.80%) Distributed Systems
13 18 (0.75%) PMI
13 18 (0.75%) Private Cloud
14 17 (0.71%) CMDB
14 17 (0.71%) Security Operations Centre
14 17 (0.71%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 286 (11.98%) Windows
2 205 (8.59%) Linux
3 131 (5.49%) Windows Server
4 45 (1.89%) Unix
5 29 (1.21%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 22 (0.92%) Windows Server 2019
7 16 (0.67%) Ubuntu
8 14 (0.59%) Windows 10
9 11 (0.46%) Mac OS
10 10 (0.42%) CentOS
10 10 (0.42%) Embedded Linux
11 5 (0.21%) Debian
11 5 (0.21%) Oracle Linux
11 5 (0.21%) Windows Server 2016
12 3 (0.13%) Solaris
13 2 (0.084%) AIX
13 2 (0.084%) Android
13 2 (0.084%) Apple iOS
13 2 (0.084%) HPUX
13 2 (0.084%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 479 (20.07%) Agile
2 318 (13.32%) Continuous Improvement
3 301 (12.61%) Stakeholder Management
4 270 (11.31%) Problem-Solving
5 262 (10.98%) ITIL
6 252 (10.56%) Cybersecurity
7 251 (10.52%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 208 (8.71%) CI/CD
9 206 (8.63%) DevOps
10 205 (8.59%) ITSM
11 171 (7.16%) Service Management
12 166 (6.95%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 150 (6.28%) Technical Leadership
14 143 (5.99%) Roadmaps
15 139 (5.82%) Change Management
16 126 (5.28%) Project Delivery
16 126 (5.28%) Service Delivery
17 124 (5.19%) Migration
18 121 (5.07%) DevSecOps
19 118 (4.94%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 194 (8.13%) Python
2 174 (7.29%) PowerShell
3 141 (5.91%) SQL
4 78 (3.27%) Java
5 66 (2.76%) Bash
6 57 (2.39%) JavaScript
7 28 (1.17%) Bicep
7 28 (1.17%) C#
8 26 (1.09%) PL/SQL
9 25 (1.05%) C++
10 17 (0.71%) C
11 14 (0.59%) Shell Script
12 13 (0.54%) TypeScript
13 12 (0.50%) Go
14 9 (0.38%) ABAP
14 9 (0.38%) Kusto Query Language
15 5 (0.21%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 4 (0.17%) Embedded C++
16 4 (0.17%) Groovy
16 4 (0.17%) Korn
Qualifications
1 1,463 (61.29%) SC Cleared
2 902 (37.79%) DV Cleared
3 199 (8.34%) Degree
4 55 (2.30%) CISSP
5 53 (2.22%) BPSS Clearance
6 50 (2.09%) PMI Certification
7 49 (2.05%) Azure Certification
8 45 (1.89%) Cisco Certification
9 43 (1.80%) PMP
10 31 (1.30%) ISTQB
11 29 (1.21%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 25 (1.05%) CISM
12 25 (1.05%) Microsoft Certification
13 23 (0.96%) Computer Science Degree
14 18 (0.75%) AWS Certification
14 18 (0.75%) TOGAF Certification
15 17 (0.71%) VCAP
16 16 (0.67%) CCNP
17 15 (0.63%) (ISC)2 CCSP
17 15 (0.63%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 111 (4.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 111 (4.65%) NIST
2 82 (3.44%) PMO
3 63 (2.64%) NCSC
4 58 (2.43%) QA
5 40 (1.68%) GDPR
6 35 (1.47%) Data Quality
7 31 (1.30%) SLA
8 28 (1.17%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 25 (1.05%) JSP 440
10 18 (0.75%) NIST 800
11 15 (0.63%) Accessibility
11 15 (0.63%) GRC
12 14 (0.59%) Cyber Essentials
13 10 (0.42%) ISO 9001
14 9 (0.38%) Def Stans
14 9 (0.38%) ISO 31000
15 7 (0.29%) RMADS
16 6 (0.25%) Government Security Classifications
17 3 (0.13%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 192 (8.04%) Active Directory
2 160 (6.70%) VMware Infrastructure
3 80 (3.35%) VMware NSX
4 64 (2.68%) VMware ESXi
5 61 (2.56%) Docker
6 29 (1.21%) vSphere
7 26 (1.09%) vCloud
8 20 (0.84%) Hyper-V
9 16 (0.67%) Virtual Desktop
9 16 (0.67%) Virtual Machines
10 14 (0.59%) Firmware
11 12 (0.50%) Oracle RAC
12 7 (0.29%) Embedded Firmware
13 4 (0.17%) KVM
13 4 (0.17%) Virtual Servers
14 2 (0.084%) Dovecot
14 2 (0.084%) Microsoft Virtual Server
14 2 (0.084%) Postfix
14 2 (0.084%) UAG
Systems Management
1 113 (4.73%) Kubernetes
2 79 (3.31%) vCenter Server
3 65 (2.72%) Ansible
4 55 (2.30%) SCOM
5 21 (0.88%) Argo
5 21 (0.88%) SCCM
6 19 (0.80%) FortiGate
7 18 (0.75%) Microsoft Intune
8 17 (0.71%) Grafana
9 16 (0.67%) Avamar
10 14 (0.59%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 14 (0.59%) Oracle RMAN
10 14 (0.59%) Prometheus
11 13 (0.54%) WMI
12 11 (0.46%) Single Sign-On
13 8 (0.34%) Data Guard
13 8 (0.34%) Red Hat Satellite
14 7 (0.29%) Cisco CUCM
15 6 (0.25%) WSUS
16 5 (0.21%) Podman
Vendors
1 349 (14.62%) Microsoft
2 243 (10.18%) VMware
3 182 (7.62%) Oracle
4 157 (6.58%) SAP
5 154 (6.45%) ServiceNow
6 84 (3.52%) Cisco
7 53 (2.22%) Juniper
7 53 (2.22%) Red Hat
8 40 (1.68%) Google
9 39 (1.63%) SolarWinds
10 35 (1.47%) F5
11 31 (1.30%) Citrix
12 27 (1.13%) CyberArk
12 27 (1.13%) IBM
13 26 (1.09%) BeyondTrust
13 26 (1.09%) Palo Alto
14 25 (1.05%) Remedy
15 20 (0.84%) Siebel
15 20 (0.84%) Splunk
16 19 (0.80%) Broadcom