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

6 months to
6 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 2,108 785 1,897
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 37.83% 26.30% 33.81%
As % of the Qualifications category 81.93% 65.53% 75.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,431 564 1,093
10th Percentile £350 £350 £370
25th Percentile £454 £463 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £531 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year -3.44% -4.35% +4.55%
75th Percentile £626 £630 £663
90th Percentile £725 £700 £738
England median daily rate £525 £540 £550
% change year-on-year -2.78% -1.82% -2.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 216 51 121
10th Percentile £18.10 £20.12 £22.52
25th Percentile £24.81 £29.18 £52.90
Median hourly rate £65.00 £59.00 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +10.17% -5.60% +2.17%
75th Percentile £85.36 £67.06 £75.24
90th Percentile £90.09 £80.00 £87.00
England median hourly rate £52.50 £57.50 £52.00
% change year-on-year -8.70% +10.58% -13.33%

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 2,573 1,198 2,526
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 46.17% 40.13% 45.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,707 776 1,423
10th Percentile £306 £304 £279
25th Percentile £429 £437 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £544 £550
Median % change year-on-year -3.45% -1.14% +4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £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 266 83 209
10th Percentile £15.69 £18.80 £17.58
25th Percentile £20.79 £27.55 £26.73
Median hourly rate £52.25 £55.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -4.10% +9.24%
75th Percentile £84.00 £70.00 £67.00
90th Percentile £89.05 £76.85 £84.41
England median hourly rate £37.92 £50.00 £37.50
% change year-on-year -24.17% +33.33% -27.90%

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 6 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 6 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 6 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 1,095 £500 -9.09% 170
Hampshire 0 822 £600 +8.89% 149
Berkshire +1 696 £460 -20.00% 96
Buckinghamshire +1 318 £560 +11.89% 57
Surrey +8 89 £525 -9.17% 44
Oxfordshire +12 81 £450 -23.40% 20
West Sussex +4 50 £550 -4.10% 13
Kent +3 26 £443 +4.12% 17
Sussex +1 7 £475 +9.83% 4
East Sussex +3 4 £459 -16.55% 3
Isle of Wight - 2 £81 -
Middlesex - 1 - -
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 44 (2.09%) SharePoint
2 36 (1.71%) Microsoft Exchange
3 17 (0.81%) 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 (0.14%) MS Project Server
7 2 (0.095%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.095%) SAS
8 1 (0.047%) Anypoint
8 1 (0.047%) Apache Pulsar
8 1 (0.047%) BizTalk Server
8 1 (0.047%) JBoss
8 1 (0.047%) Palantir Foundry
8 1 (0.047%) Smallworld
8 1 (0.047%) WebLogic
Applications
1 68 (3.23%) Microsoft Excel
2 63 (2.99%) Microsoft Office
3 40 (1.90%) Microsoft Project
4 30 (1.42%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 11 (0.52%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.095%) CPLEX
6 2 (0.095%) Lectora
6 2 (0.095%) Oracle Smart View
6 2 (0.095%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.047%) Autodesk Inventor
7 1 (0.047%) CATIA
7 1 (0.047%) MicroStation
7 1 (0.047%) PTC Creo
7 1 (0.047%) Siemens NX
7 1 (0.047%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 36 (1.71%) SAP S/4HANA
2 29 (1.38%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 9 (0.43%) SAP PSCD
4 7 (0.33%) Oracle Assets
4 7 (0.33%) Oracle ERP
4 7 (0.33%) Oracle Payables
4 7 (0.33%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 6 (0.28%) Remedy ITSM
5 6 (0.28%) Salesforce CRM
5 6 (0.28%) SAP BRIM
5 6 (0.28%) SAP Hybris
6 5 (0.24%) SAP CRM
6 5 (0.24%) Teamcenter
7 4 (0.19%) iTrent
7 4 (0.19%) Primavera
7 4 (0.19%) SAP EWM
8 3 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
8 3 (0.14%) SAP HCM
9 2 (0.095%) Oracle General Ledger
9 2 (0.095%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 290 (13.76%) Azure
2 194 (9.20%) AWS
3 80 (3.80%) GCP
4 73 (3.46%) Entra ID
5 64 (3.04%) Microsoft 365
6 58 (2.75%) Azure DevOps
7 47 (2.23%) Power Platform
8 45 (2.13%) OpenShift
9 34 (1.61%) IaaS
9 34 (1.61%) PaaS
10 33 (1.57%) GitHub
11 19 (0.90%) GitHub Actions
12 16 (0.76%) SaaS
13 15 (0.71%) Cloud Computing
13 15 (0.71%) SuccessFactors
14 14 (0.66%) Serverless
15 11 (0.52%) AWS CloudFormation
15 11 (0.52%) OCI
15 11 (0.52%) OneDrive
16 10 (0.47%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 159 (7.54%) Firewall
2 102 (4.84%) WAN
3 99 (4.70%) LAN
4 97 (4.60%) DNS
5 81 (3.84%) BGP
6 76 (3.61%) OSPF
7 66 (3.13%) Network Security
8 64 (3.04%) DHCP
9 50 (2.37%) VPN
10 40 (1.90%) TCP/IP
11 34 (1.61%) Junos
12 33 (1.57%) Wireless
13 30 (1.42%) Cisco ISE
14 28 (1.33%) Ethernet VPN
14 28 (1.33%) IPsec
15 27 (1.28%) VXLAN
16 25 (1.19%) BIG-IP
17 24 (1.14%) VLAN
18 23 (1.09%) SD-WAN
19 22 (1.04%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 45 (2.13%) SQL Server
2 42 (1.99%) Power BI
3 26 (1.23%) PostgreSQL
4 14 (0.66%) Oracle Reports
5 13 (0.62%) Relational Database
6 12 (0.57%) Oracle Database
7 10 (0.47%) Azure SQL Database
7 10 (0.47%) Data Warehouse
7 10 (0.47%) Metadata
7 10 (0.47%) Redis
8 7 (0.33%) Oracle Database 12c
8 7 (0.33%) SAP HANA
9 6 (0.28%) MySQL
9 6 (0.28%) Oracle ODI
10 5 (0.24%) Metadata Repository
10 5 (0.24%) SAP Data Services
11 4 (0.19%) MongoDB
11 4 (0.19%) NoSQL
11 4 (0.19%) Tableau
12 3 (0.14%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 52 (2.47%) JIRA
2 41 (1.94%) Git
2 41 (1.94%) GitLab
3 38 (1.80%) Rational DOORS
4 37 (1.76%) Jenkins
5 18 (0.85%) Burp Suite
5 18 (0.85%) Metasploit
6 11 (0.52%) SonarQube
7 10 (0.47%) Visual Studio
8 9 (0.43%) Postman
9 8 (0.38%) Artifactory
9 8 (0.38%) JUnit
10 7 (0.33%) Android Studio
10 7 (0.33%) Subversion
11 6 (0.28%) Robot Framework
12 5 (0.24%) Bitbucket
12 5 (0.24%) Gradle
12 5 (0.24%) Maven
12 5 (0.24%) Sonatype Nexus
13 4 (0.19%) Cypress.io
General
1 520 (24.67%) Social Skills
2 316 (14.99%) Public Sector
3 204 (9.68%) Analytical Skills
4 130 (6.17%) Finance
5 94 (4.46%) Aerospace
6 75 (3.56%) Documentation Skills
7 47 (2.23%) Military
8 37 (1.76%) Legal
9 36 (1.71%) Influencing Skills
10 34 (1.61%) Manufacturing
10 34 (1.61%) Telecoms
11 23 (1.09%) Law
12 21 (1.00%) Presentation Skills
13 18 (0.85%) Organisational Skills
14 15 (0.71%) Marketing
15 12 (0.57%) Billing
16 11 (0.52%) Advertising
16 11 (0.52%) Electronics
17 7 (0.33%) Aviation
17 7 (0.33%) Police
Job Titles
1 346 (16.41%) Architect
2 202 (9.58%) Senior
3 165 (7.83%) Lead
4 149 (7.07%) Analyst
5 127 (6.02%) Developer
6 125 (5.93%) Network Engineer
7 119 (5.65%) Consultant
8 75 (3.56%) Project Manager
9 73 (3.46%) Technical Architect
10 58 (2.75%) Delivery Manager
11 57 (2.70%) Tester
12 56 (2.66%) Security Architect
13 55 (2.61%) Enterprise Architect
14 54 (2.56%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 49 (2.32%) Product Manager
16 45 (2.13%) DevOps Engineer
17 41 (1.94%) Software Engineer
18 39 (1.85%) Product Delivery Manager
19 38 (1.80%) SOC Analyst
20 37 (1.76%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (1.85%) REST
2 35 (1.66%) .NET
3 34 (1.61%) LDAP
4 33 (1.57%) React
5 25 (1.19%) RESTful
6 23 (1.09%) 802.1X
7 22 (1.04%) JSON
8 19 (0.90%) AngularJS
9 17 (0.81%) Oracle Fusion
9 17 (0.81%) SailPoint
9 17 (0.81%) XML
10 16 (0.76%) Elastic Stack
10 16 (0.76%) SOAP
11 15 (0.71%) Kafka
12 11 (0.52%) CSS
12 11 (0.52%) Loki
12 11 (0.52%) OAuth
12 11 (0.52%) Oracle GoldenGate
12 11 (0.52%) YAML
13 10 (0.47%) Keycloak
Miscellaneous
1 97 (4.60%) Data Centre
2 89 (4.22%) PKI
3 77 (3.65%) Product Ownership
4 55 (2.61%) Onboarding
5 41 (1.94%) Management Information System
6 36 (1.71%) Self-Motivation
7 33 (1.57%) Data Structures
7 33 (1.57%) Replication
8 30 (1.42%) Cloud Native
9 28 (1.33%) Clustering
10 27 (1.28%) Security Operations Centre
11 24 (1.14%) Analytical Mindset
12 23 (1.09%) Public Cloud
13 21 (1.00%) Virtual Team
14 19 (0.90%) Cyber Threat
14 19 (0.90%) Distributed Systems
14 19 (0.90%) Driving Licence
14 19 (0.90%) Security Posture
15 15 (0.71%) PMI
15 15 (0.71%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 270 (12.81%) Windows
2 199 (9.44%) Linux
3 73 (3.46%) Windows Server
4 36 (1.71%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 24 (1.14%) Windows 10
6 17 (0.81%) Unix
7 16 (0.76%) Android
8 13 (0.62%) Ubuntu
9 7 (0.33%) Windows 7
9 7 (0.33%) Windows Server 2016
10 6 (0.28%) Embedded Linux
10 6 (0.28%) Mac OS
11 5 (0.24%) Windows Server 2019
12 4 (0.19%) CentOS
12 4 (0.19%) Debian
13 3 (0.14%) Apple iOS
13 3 (0.14%) Kali Linux
14 2 (0.095%) SUSE
14 2 (0.095%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
14 2 (0.095%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 400 (18.98%) Agile
2 226 (10.72%) Problem-Solving
3 207 (9.82%) ITIL
4 204 (9.68%) CI/CD
5 200 (9.49%) DevOps
6 189 (8.97%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 184 (8.73%) Stakeholder Management
8 180 (8.54%) Migration
9 179 (8.49%) Continuous Improvement
10 164 (7.78%) Cybersecurity
11 148 (7.02%) Roadmaps
12 125 (5.93%) Service Management
13 114 (5.41%) Project Management
14 110 (5.22%) ITSM
15 91 (4.32%) DevSecOps
16 90 (4.27%) SIEM
16 90 (4.27%) Software Engineering
17 86 (4.08%) Change Management
17 86 (4.08%) Decision-Making
18 85 (4.03%) Infrastructure Engineering
Programming Languages
1 185 (8.78%) Python
2 154 (7.31%) PowerShell
3 68 (3.23%) Java
4 66 (3.13%) SQL
5 53 (2.51%) Bash
6 46 (2.18%) C#
7 45 (2.13%) JavaScript
8 30 (1.42%) C++
9 21 (1.00%) Kusto Query Language
10 19 (0.90%) TypeScript
11 16 (0.76%) C
12 14 (0.66%) Shell Script
13 13 (0.62%) Go
14 11 (0.52%) ABAP
15 10 (0.47%) Bicep
16 9 (0.43%) Korn
16 9 (0.43%) PL/SQL
17 5 (0.24%) Embedded C++
17 5 (0.24%) T-SQL
18 3 (0.14%) Embedded C
Qualifications
1 1,315 (62.38%) SC Cleared
2 711 (33.73%) DV Cleared
3 166 (7.87%) Degree
4 69 (3.27%) Cisco Certification
5 51 (2.42%) CCNP
6 50 (2.37%) CISSP
7 45 (2.13%) BPSS Clearance
8 27 (1.28%) PMP
9 26 (1.23%) CISM
10 25 (1.19%) PMI Certification
11 21 (1.00%) CCNA
12 18 (0.85%) GIAC
13 17 (0.81%) Azure Certification
13 17 (0.81%) CEH
13 17 (0.81%) JNCIS
14 16 (0.76%) Computer Science Degree
15 15 (0.71%) AWS Certification
15 15 (0.71%) CHECK Team Member
16 13 (0.62%) CREST Certified
16 13 (0.62%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 89 (4.22%) NIST
2 88 (4.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 57 (2.70%) GDPR
3 57 (2.70%) NCSC
3 57 (2.70%) PMO
4 51 (2.42%) QA
5 24 (1.14%) Data Quality
6 23 (1.09%) SLA
7 17 (0.81%) PCI DSS
8 16 (0.76%) Accessibility
8 16 (0.76%) JSP 440
9 14 (0.66%) GRC
9 14 (0.66%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 14 (0.66%) NIST 800
10 10 (0.47%) COBIT
11 6 (0.28%) Cyber Essentials
11 6 (0.28%) Government Security Classifications
12 5 (0.24%) P3O
13 4 (0.19%) Actionable Recommendations
13 4 (0.19%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 166 (7.87%) Active Directory
2 99 (4.70%) VMware Infrastructure
3 44 (2.09%) Docker
4 42 (1.99%) VMware NSX
5 37 (1.76%) vSphere
6 22 (1.04%) VMware ESXi
7 14 (0.66%) Firmware
8 12 (0.57%) vCloud
9 10 (0.47%) Hyper-V
9 10 (0.47%) Virtual Desktop
10 9 (0.43%) Oracle RAC
11 6 (0.28%) Virtual Machines
12 3 (0.14%) NFS
13 2 (0.095%) Embedded Firmware
14 1 (0.047%) KVM
14 1 (0.047%) RHEV
14 1 (0.047%) Sendmail
14 1 (0.047%) Terminal Services
14 1 (0.047%) UAG
14 1 (0.047%) Xen
Systems Management
1 101 (4.79%) Kubernetes
2 73 (3.46%) Terraform
3 64 (3.04%) Ansible
4 49 (2.32%) vCenter Server
5 42 (1.99%) Grafana
6 41 (1.94%) Prometheus
7 35 (1.66%) Argo
8 25 (1.19%) FortiGate
9 23 (1.09%) SCCM
10 20 (0.95%) Nmap
11 19 (0.90%) Microsoft Intune
12 17 (0.81%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 13 (0.62%) Kibana
13 13 (0.62%) Single Sign-On
13 13 (0.62%) WMI
14 11 (0.52%) Kustomize
15 10 (0.47%) Forefront Identity Manager
15 10 (0.47%) NetIQ Identity Manager
15 10 (0.47%) Oracle RMAN
15 10 (0.47%) SCOM
Vendors
1 219 (10.39%) Microsoft
2 198 (9.39%) VMware
3 174 (8.25%) Cisco
4 105 (4.98%) SAP
5 84 (3.98%) Juniper
6 83 (3.94%) ServiceNow
7 71 (3.37%) Red Hat
8 64 (3.04%) Splunk
9 57 (2.70%) Oracle
10 56 (2.66%) Aruba
11 45 (2.13%) F5
11 45 (2.13%) SolarWinds
12 38 (1.80%) Palo Alto
13 32 (1.52%) Google
14 31 (1.47%) IBM
15 30 (1.42%) Sparx
16 29 (1.38%) BeyondTrust
16 29 (1.38%) CyberArk
17 26 (1.23%) CheckPoint
18 19 (0.90%) Veeam