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

6 months to
19 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 2,433 936 1,866
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 37.04% 27.34% 33.90%
As % of the Qualifications category 81.37% 68.32% 74.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,713 652 1,173
10th Percentile £400 £300 £400
25th Percentile £469 £450 £480
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £543 £598
Median % change year-on-year +1.30% -9.21% +13.90%
75th Percentile £638 £600 £670
90th Percentile £725 £675 £738
England median daily rate £530 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -1.40% -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 248 72 134
10th Percentile £19.30 - £22.50
25th Percentile £44.60 £18.87 £51.76
Median hourly rate £76.90 £25.15 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +205.77% -59.17% -1.52%
75th Percentile £85.88 £63.00 £85.34
90th Percentile £102.10 £87.48 £91.40
England median hourly rate £63.50 £25.15 £57.47
% change year-on-year +152.49% -56.24% -4.22%

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 2,990 1,370 2,492
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 45.52% 40.01% 45.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,033 884 1,486
10th Percentile £325 £253 £351
25th Percentile £456 £412 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £545 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +3.81% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £600 £646
90th Percentile £725 £663 £725
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 311 106 222
10th Percentile £18.25 £18.87 £17.80
25th Percentile £31.25 £20.32 £26.80
Median hourly rate £62.50 £36.75 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +70.07% -35.92% -7.22%
75th Percentile £85.00 £70.00 £71.04
90th Percentile £88.00 £85.03 £87.46
England median hourly rate £53.95 £26.32 £43.00
% change year-on-year +104.98% -38.79% -23.61%

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 19 July 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 19 July 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 19 July 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 1,326 £550 +4.76% 114
Hampshire 0 895 £575 +4.55% 183
Berkshire +1 760 £550 - 66
Buckinghamshire +1 439 £550 +8.64% 38
Oxfordshire +7 127 £465 +145.38% 13
Surrey +1 111 £557 +6.10% 42
West Sussex +7 71 £481 -4.71% 13
Kent -3 11 £445 +18.67% 7
East Sussex +8 7 £459 -
Sussex - 5 £475 - 6
Home Counties 0 2 £525 -18.48%
Middlesex - 2 - -
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 47 (1.93%) SharePoint
2 27 (1.11%) Confluence
3 22 (0.90%) Microsoft Exchange
4 17 (0.70%) Oracle Application Server
5 9 (0.37%) Apache Airflow
6 7 (0.29%) Documentum
6 7 (0.29%) SAS
7 5 (0.21%) Apache
7 5 (0.21%) IIS
7 5 (0.21%) Oracle Workflow
8 4 (0.16%) ArcGIS
8 4 (0.16%) NetWeaver
8 4 (0.16%) SAP EP
9 3 (0.12%) Apache Spark
9 3 (0.12%) CMS
9 3 (0.12%) Palantir Foundry
10 2 (0.082%) nginx
10 2 (0.082%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.082%) Umbraco
11 1 (0.041%) Smallworld
Applications
1 57 (2.34%) Microsoft Excel
2 44 (1.81%) Microsoft Project
3 39 (1.60%) Microsoft Office
4 20 (0.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 9 (0.37%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.12%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.082%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 2 (0.082%) CPLEX
7 2 (0.082%) Houdini
7 2 (0.082%) Lectora
7 2 (0.082%) NUKE
7 2 (0.082%) Oracle Smart View
7 2 (0.082%) Windchill
8 1 (0.041%) Autodesk Inventor
8 1 (0.041%) CATIA
8 1 (0.041%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.041%) InVision
8 1 (0.041%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.041%) Simulink
8 1 (0.041%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 51 (2.10%) SAP S/4HANA
2 24 (0.99%) Oracle ERP
3 20 (0.82%) Teamcenter
4 19 (0.78%) SAP PSCD
5 17 (0.70%) Remedy ITSM
6 12 (0.49%) Siebel CRM
7 9 (0.37%) Primavera
8 8 (0.33%) iTrent
8 8 (0.33%) SAP BRIM
8 8 (0.33%) SAP Hybris
8 8 (0.33%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
9 6 (0.25%) SAP EWM
10 4 (0.16%) SAP CRM
10 4 (0.16%) SAP MM
11 3 (0.12%) SAP PP
12 2 (0.082%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
12 2 (0.082%) Remedy AR System
12 2 (0.082%) Salesforce CRM
12 2 (0.082%) SAP FI
12 2 (0.082%) SAP FI-CA
Cloud Services
1 363 (14.92%) Azure
2 200 (8.22%) AWS
3 94 (3.86%) Entra ID
4 79 (3.25%) Azure DevOps
5 72 (2.96%) GCP
6 71 (2.92%) Power Platform
7 45 (1.85%) Microsoft 365
8 36 (1.48%) OpenShift
9 31 (1.27%) IaaS
10 29 (1.19%) PaaS
11 28 (1.15%) SaaS
12 25 (1.03%) OCI
13 19 (0.78%) SuccessFactors
14 14 (0.58%) Azure Monitor
14 14 (0.58%) GitHub
15 12 (0.49%) AWS CloudFormation
15 12 (0.49%) GitHub Actions
16 11 (0.45%) Azure Sentinel
16 11 (0.45%) Route 53
17 10 (0.41%) SAP Commerce Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 139 (5.71%) Firewall
2 137 (5.63%) DNS
3 109 (4.48%) WAN
4 105 (4.32%) LAN
5 85 (3.49%) Network Security
6 80 (3.29%) DHCP
7 79 (3.25%) BGP
8 64 (2.63%) OSPF
9 59 (2.42%) VPN
10 40 (1.64%) TCP/IP
11 38 (1.56%) IPsec
12 34 (1.40%) BIG-IP
13 33 (1.36%) MPLS
13 33 (1.36%) VXLAN
14 31 (1.27%) Ethernet VPN
14 31 (1.27%) SD-WAN
15 26 (1.07%) Junos
15 26 (1.07%) VSAN
16 25 (1.03%) Wireless
17 24 (0.99%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 66 (2.71%) SQL Server
2 60 (2.47%) Power BI
3 40 (1.64%) Data Warehouse
4 32 (1.32%) Oracle Database
5 30 (1.23%) PostgreSQL
6 28 (1.15%) Oracle Reports
7 18 (0.74%) Oracle ODI
8 13 (0.53%) Metadata
9 11 (0.45%) MySQL
9 11 (0.45%) Relational Database
10 10 (0.41%) Oracle Database 12c
11 9 (0.37%) Geospatial Data
12 8 (0.33%) Pentaho
12 8 (0.33%) Siebel EIM
13 7 (0.29%) Tableau
14 6 (0.25%) NoSQL
14 6 (0.25%) Oracle Database 11g
14 6 (0.25%) Redis
15 5 (0.21%) Amazon RDS
15 5 (0.21%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 70 (2.88%) JIRA
2 54 (2.22%) Git
3 48 (1.97%) GitLab
4 38 (1.56%) Rational DOORS
5 27 (1.11%) Jenkins
6 23 (0.95%) SonarQube
7 10 (0.41%) Visual Studio
8 9 (0.37%) Postman
9 7 (0.29%) Sonatype Nexus
10 6 (0.25%) JUnit
10 6 (0.25%) MLflow
11 4 (0.16%) Artifactory
11 4 (0.16%) Eclipse
11 4 (0.16%) Maven
11 4 (0.16%) Subversion
12 3 (0.12%) MSI
12 3 (0.12%) Robot Framework
12 3 (0.12%) Selenium
12 3 (0.12%) Zephyr
13 2 (0.082%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 499 (20.51%) Social Skills
2 280 (11.51%) Public Sector
3 222 (9.12%) Analytical Skills
4 164 (6.74%) Aerospace
5 148 (6.08%) Finance
6 82 (3.37%) Documentation Skills
7 44 (1.81%) Influencing Skills
8 43 (1.77%) Military
9 37 (1.52%) Telecoms
10 36 (1.48%) Legal
11 32 (1.32%) Organisational Skills
12 22 (0.90%) Law
13 17 (0.70%) Billing
14 16 (0.66%) Manufacturing
14 16 (0.66%) Presentation Skills
15 14 (0.58%) Aviation
16 12 (0.49%) Advertising
17 11 (0.45%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 8 (0.33%) Police
19 6 (0.25%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 312 (12.82%) Architect
2 258 (10.60%) Senior
3 222 (9.12%) Lead
4 215 (8.84%) Developer
5 195 (8.01%) Analyst
6 135 (5.55%) Consultant
7 109 (4.48%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 95 (3.90%) Network Engineer
9 79 (3.25%) Security Architect
10 77 (3.16%) Project Manager
10 77 (3.16%) Technical Architect
11 61 (2.51%) Delivery Manager
12 54 (2.22%) Product Manager
13 52 (2.14%) SAP Consultant
14 51 (2.10%) Cloud Engineer
14 51 (2.10%) SOC Analyst
14 51 (2.10%) Support Engineer
15 49 (2.01%) Network Architect
16 47 (1.93%) Senior Manager
17 42 (1.73%) Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 73 (3.00%) REST
2 40 (1.64%) .NET
2 40 (1.64%) LDAP
3 36 (1.48%) RESTful
4 35 (1.44%) OAuth
5 32 (1.32%) 802.1X
6 31 (1.27%) React
7 29 (1.19%) SOAP
8 28 (1.15%) JSON
9 27 (1.11%) SAML
10 26 (1.07%) AngularJS
10 26 (1.07%) OpenID
10 26 (1.07%) SailPoint
11 21 (0.86%) CSS
12 20 (0.82%) HTML
12 20 (0.82%) OAuth2
12 20 (0.82%) Web Services
13 18 (0.74%) Kafka
14 15 (0.62%) XML
14 15 (0.62%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 105 (4.32%) Data Centre
2 95 (3.90%) Product Ownership
3 94 (3.86%) Onboarding
4 86 (3.53%) PKI
5 47 (1.93%) Management Information System
6 37 (1.52%) Data Structures
7 34 (1.40%) Clustering
8 33 (1.36%) Public Cloud
9 32 (1.32%) Hybrid Cloud
9 32 (1.32%) Operational Technology
10 30 (1.23%) Distributed Systems
11 29 (1.19%) Replication
12 26 (1.07%) Greenfield Project
12 26 (1.07%) Self-Motivation
13 25 (1.03%) Cloud Native
14 20 (0.82%) Security Operations Centre
15 19 (0.78%) Enterprise Software
16 18 (0.74%) PMI
16 18 (0.74%) Virtual Team
17 17 (0.70%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 283 (11.63%) Windows
2 214 (8.80%) Linux
3 111 (4.56%) Windows Server
4 55 (2.26%) Unix
5 32 (1.32%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 18 (0.74%) Windows Server 2019
7 10 (0.41%) Ubuntu
7 10 (0.41%) Windows 10
8 7 (0.29%) Android
8 7 (0.29%) Embedded Linux
8 7 (0.29%) Mac OS
9 6 (0.25%) CentOS
10 5 (0.21%) Apple iOS
10 5 (0.21%) Debian
10 5 (0.21%) Windows Server 2016
11 3 (0.12%) Oracle Linux
12 2 (0.082%) Solaris
12 2 (0.082%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.041%) Windows 7
13 1 (0.041%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 462 (18.99%) Agile
2 289 (11.88%) Continuous Improvement
3 282 (11.59%) Stakeholder Management
4 270 (11.10%) ITIL
5 269 (11.06%) Problem-Solving
6 247 (10.15%) Cybersecurity
7 226 (9.29%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 216 (8.88%) CI/CD
9 195 (8.01%) DevOps
10 190 (7.81%) ITSM
11 154 (6.33%) Service Management
12 149 (6.12%) Roadmaps
13 143 (5.88%) Migration
14 141 (5.80%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 123 (5.06%) Change Management
16 119 (4.89%) Service Delivery
17 117 (4.81%) Computer Science
17 117 (4.81%) Technical Leadership
18 115 (4.73%) Decision-Making
19 114 (4.69%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 212 (8.71%) Python
2 168 (6.91%) PowerShell
3 137 (5.63%) SQL
4 88 (3.62%) Java
5 67 (2.75%) JavaScript
6 58 (2.38%) Bash
7 38 (1.56%) C#
8 25 (1.03%) C++
9 21 (0.86%) Go
9 21 (0.86%) PL/SQL
10 19 (0.78%) TypeScript
11 18 (0.74%) C
11 18 (0.74%) Shell Script
12 17 (0.70%) Bicep
12 17 (0.70%) Kusto Query Language
13 9 (0.37%) ABAP
13 9 (0.37%) Korn
14 6 (0.25%) Rust
14 6 (0.25%) T-SQL
15 5 (0.21%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 1,525 (62.68%) SC Cleared
2 865 (35.55%) DV Cleared
3 189 (7.77%) Degree
4 64 (2.63%) BPSS Clearance
4 64 (2.63%) Cisco Certification
5 52 (2.14%) CISSP
6 46 (1.89%) PMI Certification
7 40 (1.64%) Azure Certification
7 40 (1.64%) PMP
8 33 (1.36%) CCNP
9 26 (1.07%) ISTQB
9 26 (1.07%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 24 (0.99%) Microsoft Certification
11 22 (0.90%) CISM
12 19 (0.78%) Computer Science Degree
13 17 (0.70%) AWS Certification
13 17 (0.70%) TOGAF Certification
14 16 (0.66%) VCAP
15 14 (0.58%) RHCE
16 12 (0.49%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 128 (5.26%) NIST
2 116 (4.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 69 (2.84%) PMO
4 65 (2.67%) NCSC
5 58 (2.38%) QA
6 44 (1.81%) GDPR
7 30 (1.23%) Data Quality
8 29 (1.19%) SLA
9 22 (0.90%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 21 (0.86%) NIST 800
11 20 (0.82%) JSP 440
12 19 (0.78%) Accessibility
13 17 (0.70%) GRC
14 14 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials
15 9 (0.37%) ISO 31000
15 9 (0.37%) ISO 9001
16 7 (0.29%) Def Stans
16 7 (0.29%) RMADS
17 6 (0.25%) Government Security Classifications
18 3 (0.12%) ISO 26262
System Software
1 196 (8.06%) Active Directory
2 154 (6.33%) VMware Infrastructure
3 77 (3.16%) VMware NSX
4 58 (2.38%) VMware ESXi
5 56 (2.30%) Docker
6 30 (1.23%) vSphere
7 21 (0.86%) vCloud
8 17 (0.70%) Virtual Machines
9 16 (0.66%) Hyper-V
10 14 (0.58%) Oracle RAC
11 12 (0.49%) Firmware
11 12 (0.49%) Virtual Desktop
12 4 (0.16%) Embedded Firmware
13 3 (0.12%) KVM
13 3 (0.12%) UAG
14 2 (0.082%) Dovecot
14 2 (0.082%) Postfix
14 2 (0.082%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 99 (4.07%) Kubernetes
2 76 (3.12%) Terraform
3 71 (2.92%) vCenter Server
4 57 (2.34%) Ansible
5 40 (1.64%) SCOM
6 33 (1.36%) FortiGate
7 25 (1.03%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 22 (0.90%) Argo
9 20 (0.82%) Grafana
10 18 (0.74%) Prometheus
11 17 (0.70%) Microsoft Intune
11 17 (0.70%) Oracle RMAN
11 17 (0.70%) SCCM
12 14 (0.58%) Avamar
13 12 (0.49%) Single Sign-On
14 11 (0.45%) Red Hat Satellite
15 9 (0.37%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
16 7 (0.29%) WMI
17 6 (0.25%) Data Guard
17 6 (0.25%) Kibana
Vendors
1 303 (12.45%) Microsoft
2 239 (9.82%) VMware
3 154 (6.33%) Oracle
4 149 (6.12%) ServiceNow
5 145 (5.96%) SAP
6 119 (4.89%) Cisco
7 77 (3.16%) Juniper
8 56 (2.30%) Red Hat
9 55 (2.26%) SolarWinds
10 53 (2.18%) F5
11 36 (1.48%) Palo Alto
12 33 (1.36%) BeyondTrust
13 32 (1.32%) Citrix
13 32 (1.32%) Splunk
14 30 (1.23%) CyberArk
14 30 (1.23%) Google
14 30 (1.23%) IBM
15 25 (1.03%) Extreme Networks
16 21 (0.86%) Fortinet
16 21 (0.86%) Remedy