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 29 December 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 +1
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 1,446 917 1,626
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 32.79% 25.55% 32.68%
As % of the Qualifications category 74.84% 66.79% 73.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,014 645 924
10th Percentile £305 £313 £221
25th Percentile £446 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% - -
75th Percentile £608 £638 £643
90th Percentile £725 £706 £700
England median daily rate £525 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -4.55% - -2.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 147 60 109
10th Percentile £18.87 £21.14 £32.11
25th Percentile £18.94 £31.25 £52.50
Median hourly rate £25.15 £59.75 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -57.91% -0.42% +8.11%
75th Percentile £54.38 £64.73 £70.00
90th Percentile £90.09 £75.70 £78.00
England median hourly rate £25.15 £57.94 £60.00
% change year-on-year -56.59% -3.44% -

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 1,932 1,373 2,206
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 43.81% 38.26% 44.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,287 908 1,316
10th Percentile £270 £263 £213
25th Percentile £415 £408 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.78% +0.47%
75th Percentile £600 £636 £638
90th Percentile £704 £700 £700
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 196 78 137
10th Percentile £15.69 £20.07 £27.50
25th Percentile £18.97 £31.25 £50.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £56.75 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -55.68% -5.43% +33.33%
75th Percentile £60.06 £64.73 £70.00
90th Percentile £90.09 £75.00 £78.00
England median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £51.89
% change year-on-year -45.54% -11.00% +15.31%

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 29 December 2025.

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 29 December 2025.

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 29 December 2025. 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 0 675 £550 -3.93% 309
Thames Valley 0 639 £488 -7.14% 373
Berkshire 0 442 £475 -18.31% 206
Buckinghamshire 0 150 £528 +13.44% 112
Surrey +23 61 £550 -15.38% 123
Oxfordshire +6 47 £275 -56.00% 56
West Sussex +10 33 £519 -28.48% 45
Kent +8 16 £438 +143.06% 109
Middlesex - 6 - -
Home Counties - 2 £872 -
East Sussex +2 1 £450 -18.18% 41
Sussex -5 1 £525 +21.39% 1
Isle of Wight - 1 £81 - 43
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 36 (2.49%) SharePoint
2 31 (2.14%) Microsoft Exchange
3 10 (0.69%) Confluence
4 8 (0.55%) Exchange Server 2010
4 8 (0.55%) Exchange Server 2013
4 8 (0.55%) Skype for Business
5 7 (0.48%) Exchange Server 2003
5 7 (0.48%) Exchange Server 2007
5 7 (0.48%) Office Communications Server
5 7 (0.48%) SharePoint Server
6 4 (0.28%) Apache
7 3 (0.21%) CMS
7 3 (0.21%) Documentum
7 3 (0.21%) IIS
8 2 (0.14%) ArcGIS
8 2 (0.14%) GeoServer
8 2 (0.14%) Smallworld
9 1 (0.069%) JBoss
9 1 (0.069%) NetWeaver
9 1 (0.069%) SAS
Applications
1 53 (3.67%) Microsoft Office
2 41 (2.84%) Microsoft Excel
3 26 (1.80%) Microsoft Project
4 18 (1.24%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.41%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.069%) PTC Creo
Business Applications
1 32 (2.21%) SAP S/4HANA
2 27 (1.87%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 9 (0.62%) SAP HR
3 9 (0.62%) SAP Payroll
4 8 (0.55%) SAP EWM
4 8 (0.55%) SAP HCM
4 8 (0.55%) SAP WM
5 5 (0.35%) Salesforce CRM
6 4 (0.28%) Primavera
7 3 (0.21%) SAP ERP
7 3 (0.21%) SAP PSCD
8 2 (0.14%) Oracle Assets
8 2 (0.14%) Oracle Cash Management
8 2 (0.14%) Oracle General Ledger
8 2 (0.14%) Oracle Payables
8 2 (0.14%) Oracle Receivables
8 2 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
8 2 (0.14%) SAP BRIM
8 2 (0.14%) SAP Hybris
8 2 (0.14%) SAP PS
Cloud Services
1 195 (13.49%) Azure
2 162 (11.20%) AWS
3 70 (4.84%) GCP
4 60 (4.15%) Microsoft 365
5 36 (2.49%) OpenShift
6 35 (2.42%) Entra ID
7 29 (2.01%) GitHub
8 24 (1.66%) Azure DevOps
9 21 (1.45%) Power Platform
10 17 (1.18%) GitHub Actions
10 17 (1.18%) OneDrive
11 15 (1.04%) IaaS
12 14 (0.97%) Cloud Computing
12 14 (0.97%) SaaS
13 11 (0.76%) Amazon EKS
13 11 (0.76%) PaaS
14 10 (0.69%) Serverless
15 9 (0.62%) AWS CloudFormation
16 8 (0.55%) Amazon ECR
17 7 (0.48%) Google Ads
Communications & Networking
1 100 (6.92%) Firewall
2 62 (4.29%) DNS
3 41 (2.84%) LAN
3 41 (2.84%) VPN
4 39 (2.70%) DHCP
5 37 (2.56%) WAN
6 36 (2.49%) TCP/IP
7 35 (2.42%) Network Security
8 32 (2.21%) BGP
9 28 (1.94%) OSPF
10 27 (1.87%) Cisco IOS
11 26 (1.80%) Junos
12 25 (1.73%) SAN
12 25 (1.73%) VLAN
13 23 (1.59%) Cisco Firepower
13 23 (1.59%) Cisco ISE
14 20 (1.38%) Wireless
15 16 (1.11%) MPLS
16 15 (1.04%) IPsec
17 11 (0.76%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (1.38%) SQL Server
2 18 (1.24%) Power BI
3 15 (1.04%) PostgreSQL
4 8 (0.55%) MongoDB
4 8 (0.55%) NoSQL
5 7 (0.48%) Metadata
5 7 (0.48%) Redis
5 7 (0.48%) SAP HANA
6 6 (0.41%) Azure SQL Database
6 6 (0.41%) Relational Database
7 5 (0.35%) Oracle Reports
8 4 (0.28%) MySQL
8 4 (0.28%) Oracle Database
9 3 (0.21%) SAP Data Services
10 2 (0.14%) Amazon RDS
10 2 (0.14%) Big Data
10 2 (0.14%) Data Lake
10 2 (0.14%) Geospatial Data
10 2 (0.14%) QGIS
10 2 (0.14%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 51 (3.53%) JIRA
2 41 (2.84%) Jenkins
3 37 (2.56%) GitLab
4 27 (1.87%) Git
5 17 (1.18%) Burp Suite
5 17 (1.18%) Metasploit
6 7 (0.48%) Artifactory
7 6 (0.41%) Android Studio
8 4 (0.28%) Gradle
8 4 (0.28%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.21%) Bitbucket
9 3 (0.21%) Cucumber
9 3 (0.21%) Maven
9 3 (0.21%) Postman
9 3 (0.21%) Robot Framework
9 3 (0.21%) Selenium
9 3 (0.21%) SonarQube
9 3 (0.21%) Sonatype Nexus
9 3 (0.21%) Storybook
9 3 (0.21%) Subversion
General
1 411 (28.42%) Social Skills
2 253 (17.50%) Public Sector
3 145 (10.03%) Analytical Skills
4 71 (4.91%) Finance
5 45 (3.11%) Documentation Skills
6 38 (2.63%) Manufacturing
7 31 (2.14%) Telecoms
8 28 (1.94%) Military
9 21 (1.45%) Aerospace
9 21 (1.45%) Influencing Skills
10 20 (1.38%) Legal
11 17 (1.18%) Presentation Skills
12 14 (0.97%) Electronics
12 14 (0.97%) Organisational Skills
13 13 (0.90%) Law
13 13 (0.90%) Marketing
14 7 (0.48%) Pharmaceutical
15 5 (0.35%) Banking
16 4 (0.28%) Billing
16 4 (0.28%) General Ledger
Job Titles
1 269 (18.60%) Architect
2 108 (7.47%) Consultant
3 104 (7.19%) Analyst
4 96 (6.64%) Network Engineer
5 94 (6.50%) Senior
6 87 (6.02%) Lead
7 69 (4.77%) Support Engineer
8 53 (3.67%) Developer
9 45 (3.11%) DevOps Engineer
10 42 (2.90%) Project Manager
10 42 (2.90%) Tester
11 41 (2.84%) Cloud Engineer
11 41 (2.84%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 40 (2.77%) Enterprise Architect
12 40 (2.77%) IT Engineer
13 38 (2.63%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
13 38 (2.63%) Infrastructure Architect
14 36 (2.49%) 3rd Line Engineer
14 36 (2.49%) SAP Consultant
15 33 (2.28%) Network Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (1.31%) React
2 16 (1.11%) LDAP
3 15 (1.04%) .NET
3 15 (1.04%) REST
4 14 (0.97%) Elastic Stack
5 13 (0.90%) Kafka
5 13 (0.90%) RESTful
6 9 (0.62%) AngularJS
6 9 (0.62%) Middleware
6 9 (0.62%) SOAP
6 9 (0.62%) Web Services
6 9 (0.62%) XML
7 8 (0.55%) JSON
7 8 (0.55%) Keycloak
7 8 (0.55%) Loki
7 8 (0.55%) Oracle Fusion
7 8 (0.55%) SAP Fiori
7 8 (0.55%) Spring Boot
8 7 (0.48%) Vue
9 6 (0.41%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 56 (3.87%) PKI
2 37 (2.56%) Data Centre
3 35 (2.42%) Onboarding
4 31 (2.14%) Management Information System
5 25 (1.73%) Cloud Native
6 24 (1.66%) Security Operations Centre
7 21 (1.45%) Analytical Mindset
8 19 (1.31%) Private Cloud
8 19 (1.31%) Self-Motivation
9 16 (1.11%) Legacy Systems
9 16 (1.11%) PMI
10 15 (1.04%) Driving Licence
11 13 (0.90%) Replication
11 13 (0.90%) Security Posture
12 12 (0.83%) Cyber Security Posture
12 12 (0.83%) Cyber Threat
12 12 (0.83%) Product Ownership
13 10 (0.69%) Enterprise Software
13 10 (0.69%) Fat Client
13 10 (0.69%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 241 (16.67%) Windows
2 152 (10.51%) Linux
3 57 (3.94%) Windows Server
4 48 (3.32%) Windows 10
5 27 (1.87%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 12 (0.83%) Android
6 12 (0.83%) Windows Server 2019
7 10 (0.69%) Windows 7
8 7 (0.48%) Ubuntu
8 7 (0.48%) Unix
8 7 (0.48%) Windows Server 2003
8 7 (0.48%) Windows Server 2012
9 6 (0.41%) Kali Linux
9 6 (0.41%) Mac OS
9 6 (0.41%) Windows Server 2016
10 4 (0.28%) VMS
11 3 (0.21%) Debian
12 2 (0.14%) Apple iOS
12 2 (0.14%) SUSE
12 2 (0.14%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 234 (16.18%) Agile
2 175 (12.10%) Problem-Solving
3 167 (11.55%) ITIL
4 152 (10.51%) Migration
5 147 (10.17%) CI/CD
5 147 (10.17%) DevOps
6 124 (8.58%) Service Management
7 119 (8.23%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 105 (7.26%) Stakeholder Management
9 98 (6.78%) Cybersecurity
10 89 (6.15%) Roadmaps
11 83 (5.74%) Continuous Improvement
12 78 (5.39%) ITSM
13 72 (4.98%) Workflow
14 69 (4.77%) Project Delivery
14 69 (4.77%) Project Management
15 66 (4.56%) SIEM
16 63 (4.36%) Change Management
17 60 (4.15%) Collaborative Working
17 60 (4.15%) Infrastructure Engineering
Programming Languages
1 162 (11.20%) Python
2 119 (8.23%) PowerShell
3 58 (4.01%) Java
4 56 (3.87%) SQL
5 50 (3.46%) Bash
6 36 (2.49%) JavaScript
7 29 (2.01%) C#
8 14 (0.97%) ABAP
8 14 (0.97%) C++
9 11 (0.76%) Go
9 11 (0.76%) Kusto Query Language
10 10 (0.69%) Shell Script
11 7 (0.48%) C
11 7 (0.48%) PL/SQL
11 7 (0.48%) TypeScript
12 6 (0.41%) Embedded C++
13 3 (0.21%) Bicep
14 2 (0.14%) Ada
14 2 (0.14%) Assembly Language
14 2 (0.14%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 918 (63.49%) SC Cleared
2 473 (32.71%) DV Cleared
3 77 (5.33%) Degree
4 46 (3.18%) Cisco Certification
5 43 (2.97%) CISSP
6 42 (2.90%) CCNP
7 27 (1.87%) Microsoft Certification
8 23 (1.59%) CEH
9 22 (1.52%) BPSS Clearance
10 21 (1.45%) CISM
11 20 (1.38%) CCNA
11 20 (1.38%) GIAC
12 18 (1.24%) Azure Certification
12 18 (1.24%) PMI Certification
13 17 (1.18%) AWS Certification
14 15 (1.04%) PMP
15 13 (0.90%) Network+ Certification
16 12 (0.83%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
17 11 (0.76%) CHECK Team Member
18 10 (0.69%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 57 (3.94%) GDPR
2 54 (3.73%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 48 (3.32%) NIST
4 42 (2.90%) QA
5 32 (2.21%) ISO/IEC 20000
6 31 (2.14%) PMO
7 26 (1.80%) SLA
8 24 (1.66%) NCSC
9 13 (0.90%) PCI DSS
10 10 (0.69%) COBIT
10 10 (0.69%) GRC
11 9 (0.62%) JSP 440
12 6 (0.41%) Data Quality
12 6 (0.41%) RMADS
13 4 (0.28%) Def Stans
13 4 (0.28%) HIPAA
13 4 (0.28%) ISO 9001
13 4 (0.28%) NIST 800
13 4 (0.28%) P3O
14 3 (0.21%) Accessibility
System Software
1 134 (9.27%) Active Directory
2 74 (5.12%) VMware Infrastructure
3 44 (3.04%) Docker
4 36 (2.49%) vSphere
5 33 (2.28%) VMware NSX
6 24 (1.66%) VMware ESXi
7 12 (0.83%) Hyper-V
8 10 (0.69%) NFS
9 9 (0.62%) Virtual Desktop
10 7 (0.48%) Brightmail
10 7 (0.48%) ISA Server
10 7 (0.48%) Virtual Machines
11 5 (0.35%) Firmware
12 3 (0.21%) vCloud
13 2 (0.14%) Terminal Services
13 2 (0.14%) UAG
14 1 (0.069%) NDS
14 1 (0.069%) NetIQ eDirectory
14 1 (0.069%) Sendmail
14 1 (0.069%) Xen
Systems Management
1 93 (6.43%) Kubernetes
2 66 (4.56%) Ansible
3 59 (4.08%) Terraform
4 46 (3.18%) vCenter Server
5 36 (2.49%) Grafana
5 36 (2.49%) Prometheus
6 24 (1.66%) SCCM
7 23 (1.59%) Argo
8 20 (1.38%) Nmap
9 14 (0.97%) WMI
10 13 (0.90%) SCOM
11 11 (0.76%) Kibana
11 11 (0.76%) Microsoft Intune
12 9 (0.62%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 9 (0.62%) Single Sign-On
13 8 (0.55%) Kustomize
13 8 (0.55%) Microsoft Clustering
13 8 (0.55%) vRealize
14 7 (0.48%) Proxmox
14 7 (0.48%) Sysdig
Vendors
1 200 (13.83%) Microsoft
2 147 (10.17%) Cisco
2 147 (10.17%) VMware
3 92 (6.36%) SAP
4 70 (4.84%) Juniper
5 55 (3.80%) Red Hat
5 55 (3.80%) ServiceNow
6 47 (3.25%) Splunk
7 46 (3.18%) Aruba
8 34 (2.35%) SolarWinds
9 32 (2.21%) Google
10 29 (2.01%) Palo Alto
11 28 (1.94%) Sparx
12 24 (1.66%) Oracle
13 23 (1.59%) CheckPoint
14 22 (1.52%) CyberArk
15 18 (1.24%) NetApp
16 15 (1.04%) BeyondTrust
17 14 (0.97%) HP
18 13 (0.90%) Fortinet