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

6 months to
22 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 1,490 819 1,659
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 33.45% 24.86% 32.24%
As % of the Qualifications category 75.98% 65.73% 73.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,061 564 919
10th Percentile £306 £309 £213
25th Percentile £431 £424 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -6.36% - -
75th Percentile £613 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £700 £709
England median daily rate £525 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -4.55% - -3.51%
Number of hourly rates quoted 134 59 114
10th Percentile £18.61 £23.37 £32.67
25th Percentile £19.54 £35.00 £52.90
Median hourly rate £25.15 £61.50 £60.07
Median % change year-on-year -59.10% +2.37% +8.72%
75th Percentile £60.00 £66.31 £71.55
90th Percentile £93.53 £78.71 £81.45
England median hourly rate £25.15 £60.00 £58.30
% change year-on-year -58.08% +2.92% -2.83%

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 1,961 1,246 2,257
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 44.03% 37.83% 43.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,317 797 1,323
10th Percentile £275 £253 £213
25th Percentile £413 £408 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £533
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -1.50% -0.84%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £688 £700
England median daily rate £523 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -0.48% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 187 71 144
10th Percentile £15.47 £19.97 £24.48
25th Percentile £19.36 £31.25 £48.40
Median hourly rate £25.15 £56.75 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -55.68% -5.43% +33.33%
75th Percentile £57.50 £64.73 £70.00
90th Percentile £90.09 £77.19 £78.25
England median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £48.40
% change year-on-year -45.54% -4.59% +7.56%

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 22 January 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 22 January 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 22 January 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
Hampshire 0 673 £550 -3.51% 159
Thames Valley +1 669 £481 -8.33% 124
Berkshire 0 470 £450 -20.00% 59
Buckinghamshire +1 160 £550 +22.22% 43
Surrey +24 68 £542 -16.62% 37
West Sussex +10 39 £519 -23.47% 15
Oxfordshire +6 39 £325 -44.68% 23
Kent +10 20 £438 +143.06% 20
Middlesex - 6 - - 1
Sussex -3 3 £475 +9.83% 5
East Sussex +4 2 £588 +6.82% 13
Isle of Wight - 1 £81 - 9
Home Counties - 1 £1,100 -
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 (2.95%) SharePoint
2 35 (2.35%) Microsoft Exchange
3 14 (0.94%) Confluence
4 6 (0.40%) Exchange Server 2010
4 6 (0.40%) Exchange Server 2013
4 6 (0.40%) Skype for Business
5 5 (0.34%) Exchange Server 2003
5 5 (0.34%) Exchange Server 2007
5 5 (0.34%) Office Communications Server
5 5 (0.34%) SharePoint Server
6 4 (0.27%) Apache
6 4 (0.27%) ArcGIS
6 4 (0.27%) IIS
6 4 (0.27%) Oracle Workflow
7 3 (0.20%) Documentum
7 3 (0.20%) MS Project Server
8 2 (0.13%) GeoServer
8 2 (0.13%) Smallworld
9 1 (0.067%) Anypoint
9 1 (0.067%) Red Hat Fuse
Applications
1 57 (3.83%) Microsoft Office
2 48 (3.22%) Microsoft Excel
3 30 (2.01%) Microsoft Project
4 26 (1.74%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.47%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.067%) PTC Creo
Business Applications
1 32 (2.15%) SAP S/4HANA
2 28 (1.88%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 9 (0.60%) SAP HR
3 9 (0.60%) SAP Payroll
4 8 (0.54%) SAP EWM
4 8 (0.54%) SAP WM
5 6 (0.40%) Oracle Assets
5 6 (0.40%) Oracle Payables
6 5 (0.34%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 5 (0.34%) Salesforce CRM
6 5 (0.34%) SAP HCM
7 4 (0.27%) Oracle ERP
7 4 (0.27%) Primavera
7 4 (0.27%) SAP PSCD
8 3 (0.20%) Payment Gateway
8 3 (0.20%) SAP BRIM
8 3 (0.20%) SAP ERP
8 3 (0.20%) SAP Hybris
9 2 (0.13%) Oracle General Ledger
9 2 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 216 (14.50%) Azure
2 175 (11.74%) AWS
3 79 (5.30%) GCP
4 65 (4.36%) Microsoft 365
5 46 (3.09%) Entra ID
6 33 (2.21%) GitHub
7 32 (2.15%) OpenShift
8 31 (2.08%) Azure DevOps
9 23 (1.54%) Power Platform
10 20 (1.34%) IaaS
11 18 (1.21%) GitHub Actions
12 17 (1.14%) OneDrive
12 17 (1.14%) PaaS
13 16 (1.07%) SaaS
14 15 (1.01%) Cloud Computing
15 11 (0.74%) Serverless
16 10 (0.67%) Datadog
17 8 (0.54%) AWS CloudFormation
17 8 (0.54%) Power Automate
17 8 (0.54%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 111 (7.45%) Firewall
2 61 (4.09%) DNS
3 43 (2.89%) WAN
4 41 (2.75%) LAN
4 41 (2.75%) Network Security
5 39 (2.62%) BGP
6 38 (2.55%) VPN
7 36 (2.42%) DHCP
8 35 (2.35%) TCP/IP
9 33 (2.21%) OSPF
10 28 (1.88%) VLAN
11 26 (1.74%) Cisco IOS
12 25 (1.68%) Junos
13 23 (1.54%) Cisco ISE
14 22 (1.48%) Cisco Firepower
15 20 (1.34%) Wireless
16 19 (1.28%) IPsec
17 18 (1.21%) SAN
18 16 (1.07%) Structured Cabling
19 15 (1.01%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (1.34%) Power BI
2 19 (1.28%) SQL Server
3 15 (1.01%) PostgreSQL
4 9 (0.60%) Metadata
5 8 (0.54%) NoSQL
5 8 (0.54%) Redis
6 7 (0.47%) Azure SQL Database
6 7 (0.47%) MongoDB
6 7 (0.47%) SAP HANA
7 6 (0.40%) Relational Database
8 5 (0.34%) Oracle Reports
9 4 (0.27%) Metadata Repository
9 4 (0.27%) Oracle Database
10 3 (0.20%) GIS
10 3 (0.20%) MySQL
10 3 (0.20%) SAP Data Services
11 2 (0.13%) Data Warehouse
11 2 (0.13%) Geospatial Data
11 2 (0.13%) QGIS
11 2 (0.13%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 45 (3.02%) JIRA
2 34 (2.28%) Jenkins
3 33 (2.21%) GitLab
4 27 (1.81%) Git
5 21 (1.41%) Burp Suite
5 21 (1.41%) Metasploit
6 8 (0.54%) Artifactory
7 7 (0.47%) Android Studio
8 5 (0.34%) Bitbucket
8 5 (0.34%) Gradle
8 5 (0.34%) SonarQube
9 4 (0.27%) JUnit
9 4 (0.27%) Maven
9 4 (0.27%) Postman
9 4 (0.27%) Rational DOORS
9 4 (0.27%) Robot Framework
9 4 (0.27%) Selenium
9 4 (0.27%) Sonatype Nexus
9 4 (0.27%) Subversion
10 3 (0.20%) Storybook
General
1 428 (28.72%) Social Skills
2 267 (17.92%) Public Sector
3 161 (10.81%) Analytical Skills
4 75 (5.03%) Finance
5 56 (3.76%) Documentation Skills
6 39 (2.62%) Manufacturing
7 36 (2.42%) Military
8 29 (1.95%) Telecoms
9 22 (1.48%) Influencing Skills
10 20 (1.34%) Legal
11 19 (1.28%) Aerospace
11 19 (1.28%) Presentation Skills
12 17 (1.14%) Law
13 12 (0.81%) Marketing
13 12 (0.81%) Organisational Skills
14 10 (0.67%) Electronics
15 7 (0.47%) Pharmaceutical
16 6 (0.40%) Aviation
16 6 (0.40%) Billing
17 5 (0.34%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 257 (17.25%) Architect
2 114 (7.65%) Senior
3 103 (6.91%) Analyst
4 102 (6.85%) Consultant
5 100 (6.71%) Network Engineer
6 91 (6.11%) Lead
7 63 (4.23%) Developer
7 63 (4.23%) Support Engineer
8 48 (3.22%) Project Manager
9 47 (3.15%) Tester
10 46 (3.09%) DevOps Engineer
11 44 (2.95%) Cloud Engineer
12 43 (2.89%) Enterprise Architect
13 42 (2.82%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 37 (2.48%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
14 37 (2.48%) Infrastructure Architect
15 34 (2.28%) 3rd Line Engineer
15 34 (2.28%) IT Engineer
15 34 (2.28%) Technical Architect
16 33 (2.21%) Network Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (1.34%) LDAP
1 20 (1.34%) REST
2 16 (1.07%) .NET
2 16 (1.07%) Elastic Stack
2 16 (1.07%) React
3 14 (0.94%) Kafka
4 13 (0.87%) RESTful
5 12 (0.81%) Oracle Fusion
6 11 (0.74%) AngularJS
7 9 (0.60%) JSON
7 9 (0.60%) Keycloak
8 8 (0.54%) Loki
8 8 (0.54%) SAP Fiori
8 8 (0.54%) SOAP
8 8 (0.54%) Web Services
8 8 (0.54%) XML
9 7 (0.47%) Spring Boot
9 7 (0.47%) Swagger
9 7 (0.47%) Vue
9 7 (0.47%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 61 (4.09%) PKI
2 50 (3.36%) Data Centre
3 34 (2.28%) Onboarding
4 30 (2.01%) Management Information System
5 25 (1.68%) Cloud Native
5 25 (1.68%) Product Ownership
6 23 (1.54%) Security Operations Centre
6 23 (1.54%) Self-Motivation
7 21 (1.41%) Analytical Mindset
8 16 (1.07%) Driving Licence
9 15 (1.01%) Cyber Security Posture
9 15 (1.01%) PMI
9 15 (1.01%) Private Cloud
9 15 (1.01%) Security Posture
10 14 (0.94%) Distributed Systems
10 14 (0.94%) Legacy Systems
10 14 (0.94%) Replication
11 11 (0.74%) Cyber Threat
11 11 (0.74%) Fat Client
11 11 (0.74%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 249 (16.71%) Windows
2 156 (10.47%) Linux
3 58 (3.89%) Windows Server
4 48 (3.22%) Windows 10
5 21 (1.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 13 (0.87%) Android
7 11 (0.74%) Windows 7
8 7 (0.47%) Kali Linux
9 6 (0.40%) Ubuntu
9 6 (0.40%) Unix
10 5 (0.34%) Windows Server 2003
11 4 (0.27%) Windows Server 2016
12 3 (0.20%) Apple iOS
12 3 (0.20%) Debian
12 3 (0.20%) Windows Server 2012
12 3 (0.20%) Windows Server 2019
13 2 (0.13%) Mac OS
13 2 (0.13%) SUSE
13 2 (0.13%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
14 1 (0.067%) Embedded Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 244 (16.38%) Agile
2 188 (12.62%) Problem-Solving
3 160 (10.74%) DevOps
4 159 (10.67%) CI/CD
5 141 (9.46%) ITIL
6 132 (8.86%) Migration
7 127 (8.52%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 113 (7.58%) Cybersecurity
9 110 (7.38%) Stakeholder Management
10 109 (7.32%) Service Management
11 97 (6.51%) Roadmaps
12 91 (6.11%) Continuous Improvement
13 84 (5.64%) Project Management
14 77 (5.17%) ITSM
15 75 (5.03%) SIEM
16 69 (4.63%) Change Management
17 68 (4.56%) Workflow
18 64 (4.30%) Collaborative Working
19 62 (4.16%) Infrastructure Engineering
19 62 (4.16%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 167 (11.21%) Python
2 128 (8.59%) PowerShell
3 54 (3.62%) Java
4 53 (3.56%) Bash
5 47 (3.15%) SQL
6 31 (2.08%) JavaScript
7 28 (1.88%) C#
8 18 (1.21%) C++
9 15 (1.01%) Go
10 14 (0.94%) Kusto Query Language
11 11 (0.74%) ABAP
12 8 (0.54%) TypeScript
13 7 (0.47%) PL/SQL
14 6 (0.40%) Bicep
14 6 (0.40%) C
14 6 (0.40%) Embedded C++
15 5 (0.34%) Shell Script
16 3 (0.20%) MATLAB
17 2 (0.13%) Assembly Language
17 2 (0.13%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 949 (63.69%) SC Cleared
2 491 (32.95%) DV Cleared
3 83 (5.57%) Degree
4 47 (3.15%) CISSP
5 45 (3.02%) Cisco Certification
6 43 (2.89%) CCNP
7 26 (1.74%) CEH
8 24 (1.61%) CISM
9 23 (1.54%) GIAC
10 22 (1.48%) BPSS Clearance
11 20 (1.34%) Azure Certification
12 19 (1.28%) CCNA
13 18 (1.21%) Microsoft Certification
14 17 (1.14%) AWS Certification
14 17 (1.14%) PMI Certification
15 16 (1.07%) PMP
16 14 (0.94%) CHECK Team Member
17 13 (0.87%) Network+ Certification
18 12 (0.81%) CREST Certified
18 12 (0.81%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 55 (3.69%) GDPR
1 55 (3.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 45 (3.02%) NIST
3 44 (2.95%) QA
4 43 (2.89%) PMO
5 30 (2.01%) NCSC
6 20 (1.34%) SLA
7 17 (1.14%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 16 (1.07%) PCI DSS
9 12 (0.81%) Data Quality
10 11 (0.74%) GRC
11 10 (0.67%) COBIT
11 10 (0.67%) JSP 440
12 5 (0.34%) Accessibility
12 5 (0.34%) P3O
12 5 (0.34%) RMADS
13 4 (0.27%) Def Stans
14 3 (0.20%) Actionable Recommendations
14 3 (0.20%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 2 (0.13%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 145 (9.73%) Active Directory
2 75 (5.03%) VMware Infrastructure
3 44 (2.95%) Docker
4 35 (2.35%) VMware NSX
5 34 (2.28%) vSphere
6 17 (1.14%) VMware ESXi
7 12 (0.81%) Hyper-V
8 9 (0.60%) Virtual Desktop
9 7 (0.47%) Virtual Machines
10 6 (0.40%) Firmware
10 6 (0.40%) vCloud
11 5 (0.34%) Brightmail
11 5 (0.34%) ISA Server
11 5 (0.34%) NFS
12 2 (0.13%) UAG
13 1 (0.067%) KVM
13 1 (0.067%) NetIQ eDirectory
13 1 (0.067%) RHEV
13 1 (0.067%) Sendmail
13 1 (0.067%) Xen
Systems Management
1 95 (6.38%) Kubernetes
2 62 (4.16%) Terraform
3 59 (3.96%) Ansible
4 49 (3.29%) vCenter Server
5 37 (2.48%) Grafana
5 37 (2.48%) Prometheus
6 25 (1.68%) Argo
6 25 (1.68%) SCCM
7 24 (1.61%) Nmap
8 17 (1.14%) WMI
9 14 (0.94%) Microsoft Intune
10 13 (0.87%) Kibana
11 11 (0.74%) Single Sign-On
12 9 (0.60%) SCOM
13 8 (0.54%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 8 (0.54%) Kustomize
13 8 (0.54%) vRealize
14 7 (0.47%) Proxmox
14 7 (0.47%) Puppet
14 7 (0.47%) Sysdig
Vendors
1 199 (13.36%) Microsoft
2 152 (10.20%) VMware
3 148 (9.93%) Cisco
4 88 (5.91%) SAP
5 59 (3.96%) Juniper
6 52 (3.49%) Aruba
6 52 (3.49%) ServiceNow
7 49 (3.29%) Splunk
8 47 (3.15%) Red Hat
9 35 (2.35%) SolarWinds
10 31 (2.08%) Google
10 31 (2.08%) Palo Alto
11 29 (1.95%) Sparx
12 26 (1.74%) Oracle
13 25 (1.68%) CyberArk
14 23 (1.54%) CheckPoint
15 17 (1.14%) BeyondTrust
16 15 (1.01%) Tanium
17 14 (0.94%) Fortinet
18 13 (0.87%) Citrix