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

6 months to
13 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 2,195 785 1,823
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 37.59% 26.40% 33.25%
As % of the Qualifications category 82.46% 64.61% 74.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,523 557 1,105
10th Percentile £358 £335 £388
25th Percentile £456 £463 £473
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £550 £590
Median % change year-on-year -2.27% -6.78% +12.38%
75th Percentile £626 £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 47 119
10th Percentile £18.25 £22.75 £22.52
25th Percentile £30.38 £26.13 £52.90
Median hourly rate £70.00 £60.00 £61.65
Median % change year-on-year +16.67% -2.67% -1.45%
75th Percentile £85.36 £74.38 £80.00
90th Percentile £95.00 £82.56 £87.47
England median hourly rate £55.00 £50.00 £57.29
% change year-on-year +10.00% -12.72% -4.53%

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 2,662 1,215 2,439
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 45.59% 40.85% 44.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,800 775 1,412
10th Percentile £310 £297 £329
25th Percentile £431 £425 £445
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £617 £650
90th Percentile £725 £688 £738
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 262 79 209
10th Percentile £16.35 £19.68 £17.25
25th Percentile £25.15 £28.00 £25.36
Median hourly rate £55.00 £56.75 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -3.08% -1.05% -1.97%
75th Percentile £84.00 £72.50 £67.00
90th Percentile £89.88 £78.69 £85.65
England median hourly rate £48.72 £40.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +21.80% - -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 13 May 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 13 May 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 13 May 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 +2 1,147 £518 -8.41% 127
Hampshire 0 847 £575 +4.55% 201
Berkshire +1 675 £464 -20.39% 65
Buckinghamshire +1 377 £550 - 39
Oxfordshire +12 95 £445 -19.09% 27
Surrey +1 86 £525 -2.81% 43
West Sussex +5 62 £500 -6.89% 10
Kent +4 26 £443 +18.00% 16
East Sussex +4 7 £459 -16.55% 4
Sussex 0 6 £475 +9.83% 2
Home Counties - 2 £525 -
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 50 (2.28%) SharePoint
2 35 (1.59%) Microsoft Exchange
3 23 (1.05%) Confluence
4 13 (0.59%) 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 (0.18%) Apache
7 3 (0.14%) MS Project Server
8 2 (0.091%) Apache Airflow
8 2 (0.091%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.091%) CMS
8 2 (0.091%) SAS
8 2 (0.091%) Umbraco
9 1 (0.046%) Apache Pulsar
9 1 (0.046%) BizTalk Server
9 1 (0.046%) Palantir Foundry
9 1 (0.046%) Smallworld
Applications
1 66 (3.01%) Microsoft Excel
2 55 (2.51%) Microsoft Office
3 35 (1.59%) Microsoft Project
4 30 (1.37%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 12 (0.55%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.091%) CPLEX
7 2 (0.091%) Lectora
7 2 (0.091%) 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 37 (1.69%) SAP S/4HANA
2 22 (1.00%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 14 (0.64%) SAP PSCD
4 9 (0.41%) Remedy ITSM
5 8 (0.36%) iTrent
5 8 (0.36%) SAP BRIM
5 8 (0.36%) SAP Hybris
6 7 (0.32%) Oracle ERP
7 6 (0.27%) Oracle Assets
7 6 (0.27%) Oracle Payables
7 6 (0.27%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
8 5 (0.23%) SAP CRM
8 5 (0.23%) Teamcenter
9 4 (0.18%) Primavera
9 4 (0.18%) SAP MM
10 3 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
10 3 (0.14%) SAP EWM
10 3 (0.14%) SAP HCM
11 2 (0.091%) Salesforce CRM
12 1 (0.046%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 339 (15.44%) Azure
2 207 (9.43%) AWS
3 83 (3.78%) Entra ID
3 83 (3.78%) GCP
4 68 (3.10%) Azure DevOps
5 62 (2.82%) Power Platform
6 59 (2.69%) Microsoft 365
7 39 (1.78%) PaaS
8 34 (1.55%) IaaS
9 32 (1.46%) OpenShift
10 20 (0.91%) GitHub
11 19 (0.87%) SaaS
11 19 (0.87%) SuccessFactors
12 16 (0.73%) GitHub Actions
13 14 (0.64%) Serverless
14 12 (0.55%) OCI
15 11 (0.50%) AWS CloudFormation
15 11 (0.50%) Azure Monitor
16 10 (0.46%) Datadog
16 10 (0.46%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 162 (7.38%) Firewall
2 113 (5.15%) LAN
2 113 (5.15%) WAN
3 101 (4.60%) DNS
4 86 (3.92%) BGP
5 79 (3.60%) OSPF
6 73 (3.33%) DHCP
7 63 (2.87%) Network Security
8 47 (2.14%) VPN
9 41 (1.87%) TCP/IP
10 36 (1.64%) Wireless
11 32 (1.46%) IPsec
12 31 (1.41%) Ethernet VPN
12 31 (1.41%) VXLAN
13 29 (1.32%) Junos
14 28 (1.28%) BIG-IP
15 26 (1.18%) Cisco ISE
15 26 (1.18%) VLAN
16 24 (1.09%) SD-WAN
17 23 (1.05%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 60 (2.73%) SQL Server
2 53 (2.41%) Power BI
3 32 (1.46%) Data Warehouse
4 27 (1.23%) PostgreSQL
5 22 (1.00%) Oracle Reports
6 16 (0.73%) Oracle Database
7 14 (0.64%) Oracle ODI
8 13 (0.59%) Metadata
9 12 (0.55%) Relational Database
10 11 (0.50%) Redis
11 10 (0.46%) Azure SQL Database
12 7 (0.32%) NoSQL
12 7 (0.32%) Oracle Database 12c
13 6 (0.27%) Tableau
14 5 (0.23%) Metadata Repository
14 5 (0.23%) MySQL
15 4 (0.18%) Amazon RDS
15 4 (0.18%) Big Data
15 4 (0.18%) MongoDB
15 4 (0.18%) Oracle BI Publisher
Development Applications
1 60 (2.73%) JIRA
2 47 (2.14%) Git
3 37 (1.69%) GitLab
3 37 (1.69%) Rational DOORS
4 27 (1.23%) Jenkins
5 16 (0.73%) Burp Suite
5 16 (0.73%) Metasploit
6 12 (0.55%) SonarQube
7 10 (0.46%) Postman
7 10 (0.46%) Visual Studio
8 7 (0.32%) Robot Framework
8 7 (0.32%) Subversion
9 6 (0.27%) Sonatype Nexus
10 5 (0.23%) Bitbucket
10 5 (0.23%) JUnit
10 5 (0.23%) Maven
11 4 (0.18%) Eclipse
11 4 (0.18%) Selenium
12 3 (0.14%) HP UFT
12 3 (0.14%) MSI
General
1 475 (21.64%) Social Skills
2 273 (12.44%) Public Sector
3 188 (8.56%) Analytical Skills
4 137 (6.24%) Finance
5 105 (4.78%) Aerospace
6 77 (3.51%) Documentation Skills
7 51 (2.32%) Military
8 34 (1.55%) Legal
9 30 (1.37%) Telecoms
10 29 (1.32%) Influencing Skills
11 24 (1.09%) Law
12 23 (1.05%) Manufacturing
13 18 (0.82%) Organisational Skills
14 17 (0.77%) Presentation Skills
15 15 (0.68%) Billing
16 12 (0.55%) Advertising
17 9 (0.41%) Marketing
18 8 (0.36%) Aviation
18 8 (0.36%) Electronics
18 8 (0.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 317 (14.44%) Architect
2 226 (10.30%) Senior
3 175 (7.97%) Lead
4 165 (7.52%) Analyst
5 157 (7.15%) Developer
6 126 (5.74%) Network Engineer
7 105 (4.78%) Consultant
8 91 (4.15%) Project Manager
9 81 (3.69%) Technical Architect
10 63 (2.87%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 62 (2.82%) Delivery Manager
12 56 (2.55%) DevOps Engineer
13 54 (2.46%) Security Architect
14 53 (2.41%) Tester
15 49 (2.23%) Product Manager
15 49 (2.23%) SOC Analyst
16 47 (2.14%) Enterprise Architect
17 42 (1.91%) Software Engineer
18 40 (1.82%) Senior Manager
19 39 (1.78%) Cloud Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 48 (2.19%) REST
2 41 (1.87%) .NET
3 34 (1.55%) LDAP
4 33 (1.50%) React
5 28 (1.28%) 802.1X
6 27 (1.23%) JSON
6 27 (1.23%) RESTful
7 23 (1.05%) AngularJS
8 22 (1.00%) SailPoint
9 19 (0.87%) Oracle Fusion
9 19 (0.87%) XML
10 17 (0.77%) SOAP
11 16 (0.73%) OAuth
12 14 (0.64%) Kafka
12 14 (0.64%) Web Services
13 12 (0.55%) CSS
14 11 (0.50%) OAuth2
14 11 (0.50%) Quarkus
14 11 (0.50%) SAML
14 11 (0.50%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 103 (4.69%) Data Centre
2 88 (4.01%) PKI
3 77 (3.51%) Product Ownership
4 63 (2.87%) Onboarding
5 35 (1.59%) Data Structures
6 33 (1.50%) Management Information System
7 32 (1.46%) Self-Motivation
8 31 (1.41%) Clustering
9 29 (1.32%) Replication
10 26 (1.18%) Distributed Systems
11 25 (1.14%) Cloud Native
12 24 (1.09%) Security Operations Centre
13 23 (1.05%) Greenfield Project
13 23 (1.05%) Public Cloud
14 21 (0.96%) Cyber Threat
14 21 (0.96%) Operational Technology
14 21 (0.96%) Security Posture
15 19 (0.87%) Analytical Mindset
16 17 (0.77%) Virtual Team
17 16 (0.73%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 268 (12.21%) Windows
2 198 (9.02%) Linux
3 85 (3.87%) Windows Server
4 36 (1.64%) Unix
5 30 (1.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 13 (0.59%) Android
7 12 (0.55%) Ubuntu
8 10 (0.46%) Windows 10
9 8 (0.36%) Embedded Linux
10 7 (0.32%) Mac OS
10 7 (0.32%) Windows Server 2016
10 7 (0.32%) Windows Server 2019
11 6 (0.27%) Debian
12 4 (0.18%) Apple iOS
12 4 (0.18%) CentOS
12 4 (0.18%) Windows 7
13 2 (0.091%) VMS
14 1 (0.046%) Data ONTAP
14 1 (0.046%) OpenVMS
14 1 (0.046%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 424 (19.32%) Agile
2 229 (10.43%) Problem-Solving
3 216 (9.84%) DevOps
3 216 (9.84%) ITIL
4 210 (9.57%) CI/CD
5 199 (9.07%) Stakeholder Management
6 196 (8.93%) Cybersecurity
7 190 (8.66%) Continuous Improvement
8 166 (7.56%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 147 (6.70%) Migration
10 132 (6.01%) ITSM
11 127 (5.79%) Service Management
12 120 (5.47%) Roadmaps
13 117 (5.33%) Project Management
14 107 (4.87%) SIEM
15 101 (4.60%) Software Engineering
16 92 (4.19%) Infrastructure Engineering
17 91 (4.15%) Computer Science
18 89 (4.05%) Project Delivery
19 88 (4.01%) Change Control
Programming Languages
1 193 (8.79%) Python
2 164 (7.47%) PowerShell
3 95 (4.33%) SQL
4 68 (3.10%) Java
5 49 (2.23%) JavaScript
6 47 (2.14%) C#
7 45 (2.05%) Bash
8 28 (1.28%) C++
9 22 (1.00%) Go
10 17 (0.77%) C
10 17 (0.77%) Kusto Query Language
11 15 (0.68%) TypeScript
12 13 (0.59%) Shell Script
13 11 (0.50%) PL/SQL
14 10 (0.46%) Bicep
15 9 (0.41%) Korn
16 8 (0.36%) ABAP
17 7 (0.32%) T-SQL
18 4 (0.18%) Embedded C++
19 3 (0.14%) Embedded C
Qualifications
1 1,367 (62.28%) SC Cleared
2 762 (34.72%) DV Cleared
3 170 (7.74%) Degree
4 77 (3.51%) Cisco Certification
5 53 (2.41%) CCNP
6 52 (2.37%) BPSS Clearance
7 47 (2.14%) CISSP
8 33 (1.50%) PMP
9 31 (1.41%) PMI Certification
10 29 (1.32%) CISM
11 19 (0.87%) Azure Certification
11 19 (0.87%) CCNA
11 19 (0.87%) GIAC
12 18 (0.82%) AWS Certification
12 18 (0.82%) Computer Science Degree
13 16 (0.73%) ISTQB
13 16 (0.73%) JNCIS
14 15 (0.68%) CHECK Team Member
15 13 (0.59%) CREST Certified
15 13 (0.59%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 109 (4.97%) NIST
2 107 (4.87%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 63 (2.87%) PMO
4 60 (2.73%) NCSC
5 59 (2.69%) QA
6 51 (2.32%) GDPR
7 30 (1.37%) Data Quality
8 20 (0.91%) Accessibility
8 20 (0.91%) SLA
9 16 (0.73%) PCI DSS
10 15 (0.68%) Cyber Essentials
10 15 (0.68%) NIST 800
11 14 (0.64%) JSP 440
12 13 (0.59%) GRC
13 12 (0.55%) ISO/IEC 20000
14 7 (0.32%) ISO 31000
15 6 (0.27%) Government Security Classifications
16 5 (0.23%) COBIT
17 4 (0.18%) Actionable Recommendations
18 3 (0.14%) Def Stans
System Software
1 175 (7.97%) Active Directory
2 112 (5.10%) VMware Infrastructure
3 44 (2.00%) VMware NSX
4 43 (1.96%) Docker
5 31 (1.41%) VMware ESXi
6 25 (1.14%) vSphere
7 16 (0.73%) vCloud
8 15 (0.68%) Firmware
9 12 (0.55%) Hyper-V
10 11 (0.50%) Oracle RAC
10 11 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
10 11 (0.50%) Virtual Machines
11 4 (0.18%) Embedded Firmware
12 3 (0.14%) NFS
12 3 (0.14%) UAG
13 1 (0.046%) KVM
13 1 (0.046%) Sendmail
13 1 (0.046%) Terminal Services
13 1 (0.046%) Virtual Servers
13 1 (0.046%) Xen
Systems Management
1 90 (4.10%) Kubernetes
2 67 (3.05%) Terraform
3 56 (2.55%) Ansible
4 48 (2.19%) vCenter Server
5 30 (1.37%) FortiGate
6 28 (1.28%) Grafana
7 26 (1.18%) Prometheus
8 24 (1.09%) Argo
9 19 (0.87%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 18 (0.82%) Nmap
11 17 (0.77%) Microsoft Intune
11 17 (0.77%) SCOM
12 15 (0.68%) SCCM
13 13 (0.59%) Oracle RMAN
14 11 (0.50%) Single Sign-On
14 11 (0.50%) WMI
15 10 (0.46%) Forefront Identity Manager
15 10 (0.46%) NetIQ Identity Manager
16 9 (0.41%) Nagios
16 9 (0.41%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
Vendors
1 229 (10.43%) Microsoft
2 212 (9.66%) VMware
3 142 (6.47%) Cisco
4 120 (5.47%) SAP
5 95 (4.33%) Oracle
6 86 (3.92%) ServiceNow
7 77 (3.51%) Juniper
8 62 (2.82%) Splunk
9 61 (2.78%) Red Hat
10 51 (2.32%) F5
11 42 (1.91%) SolarWinds
12 37 (1.69%) Palo Alto
13 34 (1.55%) BeyondTrust
14 32 (1.46%) CyberArk
15 30 (1.37%) IBM
16 27 (1.23%) Aruba
16 27 (1.23%) Google
17 25 (1.14%) CheckPoint
18 24 (1.09%) Extreme Networks
19 22 (1.00%) Sparx