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

6 months to
10 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 2,142 797 1,910
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 37.90% 26.64% 33.85%
As % of the Qualifications category 81.88% 65.60% 75.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,463 569 1,106
10th Percentile £351 £350 £386
25th Percentile £454 £463 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £531 £550 £580
Median % change year-on-year -3.44% -5.17% +5.45%
75th Percentile £627 £630 £663
90th Percentile £725 £700 £738
England median daily rate £525 £540 £550
% change year-on-year -2.78% -1.82% -1.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 218 50 122
10th Percentile £18.19 £19.96 £22.53
25th Percentile £25.15 £28.14 £52.04
Median hourly rate £65.00 £61.00 £62.07
Median % change year-on-year +6.56% -1.73% +1.47%
75th Percentile £85.19 £73.38 £75.18
90th Percentile £90.09 £80.34 £86.86
England median hourly rate £52.78 £59.00 £51.50
% change year-on-year -10.55% +14.56% -14.17%

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 2,616 1,215 2,545
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 46.29% 40.61% 45.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,745 787 1,435
10th Percentile £310 £302 £290
25th Percentile £430 £438 £434
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £540 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.78% -1.82% +4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £642
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 270 83 216
10th Percentile £15.74 £18.80 £17.70
25th Percentile £20.79 £27.55 £27.50
Median hourly rate £52.25 £56.75 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -7.93% -1.05% +7.14%
75th Percentile £84.00 £70.00 £66.81
90th Percentile £88.00 £78.13 £83.28
England median hourly rate £42.00 £50.00 £39.96
% change year-on-year -16.00% +25.13% -22.41%

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 10 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 10 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 10 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 1,120 £500 -9.09% 170
Hampshire 0 831 £600 +8.89% 149
Berkshire +1 698 £460 -20.00% 96
Buckinghamshire +1 339 £560 +11.89% 57
Surrey +8 86 £525 -9.17% 44
Oxfordshire +11 83 £445 -24.26% 20
West Sussex +4 51 £532 -7.24% 13
Kent +5 27 £443 +4.12% 17
Sussex +1 7 £475 +9.83% 4
East Sussex +2 4 £459 -16.55% 3
Isle of Wight - 2 £81 -
Home Counties - 2 £525 -
Middlesex - 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 44 (2.05%) SharePoint
2 36 (1.68%) Microsoft Exchange
3 17 (0.79%) Confluence
4 6 (0.28%) Oracle Application Server
5 5 (0.23%) Apache
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 3 (0.14%) MS Project Server
7 2 (0.093%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.093%) SAS
8 1 (0.047%) Anypoint
8 1 (0.047%) Apache Pulsar
8 1 (0.047%) BizTalk Server
8 1 (0.047%) Exchange Server 2010
8 1 (0.047%) Palantir Foundry
8 1 (0.047%) Skype for Business
8 1 (0.047%) WebLogic
Applications
1 68 (3.17%) Microsoft Excel
2 62 (2.89%) Microsoft Office
3 41 (1.91%) Microsoft Project
4 30 (1.40%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 11 (0.51%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.093%) CPLEX
6 2 (0.093%) Lectora
6 2 (0.093%) Oracle Smart View
6 2 (0.093%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.047%) Autodesk Inventor
7 1 (0.047%) CATIA
7 1 (0.047%) InVision
7 1 (0.047%) MicroStation
7 1 (0.047%) Siemens NX
7 1 (0.047%) Sketch
7 1 (0.047%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 36 (1.68%) SAP S/4HANA
2 29 (1.35%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 10 (0.47%) 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 (0.23%) iTrent
6 5 (0.23%) SAP CRM
7 4 (0.19%) Primavera
7 4 (0.19%) SAP EWM
7 4 (0.19%) Teamcenter
8 3 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
8 3 (0.14%) SAP HCM
9 2 (0.093%) Oracle Cash Management
9 2 (0.093%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 302 (14.10%) Azure
2 197 (9.20%) AWS
3 80 (3.73%) GCP
4 75 (3.50%) Entra ID
5 63 (2.94%) Microsoft 365
6 62 (2.89%) Azure DevOps
7 52 (2.43%) Power Platform
8 41 (1.91%) OpenShift
9 34 (1.59%) IaaS
9 34 (1.59%) PaaS
10 31 (1.45%) GitHub
11 19 (0.89%) GitHub Actions
12 17 (0.79%) SaaS
13 16 (0.75%) SuccessFactors
14 14 (0.65%) Serverless
15 13 (0.61%) Cloud Computing
16 12 (0.56%) OCI
17 11 (0.51%) AWS CloudFormation
18 10 (0.47%) Datadog
18 10 (0.47%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 163 (7.61%) Firewall
2 106 (4.95%) WAN
3 103 (4.81%) LAN
4 100 (4.67%) DNS
5 83 (3.87%) BGP
6 78 (3.64%) OSPF
7 67 (3.13%) DHCP
7 67 (3.13%) Network Security
8 51 (2.38%) VPN
9 40 (1.87%) TCP/IP
10 34 (1.59%) Junos
10 34 (1.59%) Wireless
11 30 (1.40%) Cisco ISE
12 29 (1.35%) Ethernet VPN
12 29 (1.35%) VXLAN
13 28 (1.31%) IPsec
14 26 (1.21%) BIG-IP
15 25 (1.17%) SD-WAN
15 25 (1.17%) VLAN
16 22 (1.03%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 54 (2.52%) SQL Server
2 46 (2.15%) Power BI
3 29 (1.35%) PostgreSQL
4 17 (0.79%) Oracle Reports
5 14 (0.65%) Data Warehouse
6 13 (0.61%) Relational Database
7 12 (0.56%) Oracle Database
8 11 (0.51%) Redis
9 10 (0.47%) Azure SQL Database
9 10 (0.47%) Metadata
10 8 (0.37%) MySQL
10 8 (0.37%) Oracle ODI
11 7 (0.33%) Oracle Database 12c
11 7 (0.33%) SAP HANA
12 5 (0.23%) Metadata Repository
12 5 (0.23%) SAP Data Services
12 5 (0.23%) Tableau
13 4 (0.19%) MongoDB
13 4 (0.19%) NoSQL
14 3 (0.14%) Oracle BI Publisher
Development Applications
1 51 (2.38%) JIRA
2 44 (2.05%) Git
3 40 (1.87%) GitLab
4 37 (1.73%) Rational DOORS
5 35 (1.63%) Jenkins
6 17 (0.79%) Burp Suite
6 17 (0.79%) Metasploit
7 11 (0.51%) SonarQube
8 10 (0.47%) Visual Studio
9 9 (0.42%) Postman
10 8 (0.37%) JUnit
11 7 (0.33%) Android Studio
11 7 (0.33%) Subversion
12 6 (0.28%) Artifactory
12 6 (0.28%) Robot Framework
13 5 (0.23%) Bitbucket
13 5 (0.23%) Gradle
13 5 (0.23%) Maven
13 5 (0.23%) Sonatype Nexus
14 4 (0.19%) Selenium
General
1 518 (24.18%) Social Skills
2 314 (14.66%) Public Sector
3 208 (9.71%) Analytical Skills
4 134 (6.26%) Finance
5 95 (4.44%) Aerospace
6 79 (3.69%) Documentation Skills
7 47 (2.19%) Military
8 37 (1.73%) Legal
9 36 (1.68%) Influencing Skills
10 35 (1.63%) Telecoms
11 33 (1.54%) Manufacturing
12 24 (1.12%) Law
13 21 (0.98%) Presentation Skills
14 19 (0.89%) Organisational Skills
15 15 (0.70%) Marketing
16 13 (0.61%) Billing
17 12 (0.56%) Advertising
18 11 (0.51%) Electronics
19 7 (0.33%) Aviation
19 7 (0.33%) Police
Job Titles
1 347 (16.20%) Architect
2 207 (9.66%) Senior
3 170 (7.94%) Lead
4 154 (7.19%) Analyst
5 134 (6.26%) Developer
6 127 (5.93%) Network Engineer
7 121 (5.65%) Consultant
8 81 (3.78%) Project Manager
9 74 (3.45%) Technical Architect
10 59 (2.75%) Delivery Manager
11 57 (2.66%) Security Architect
12 56 (2.61%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 55 (2.57%) Enterprise Architect
13 55 (2.57%) Tester
14 50 (2.33%) DevOps Engineer
15 49 (2.29%) Product Manager
16 40 (1.87%) SOC Analyst
16 40 (1.87%) Software Engineer
17 39 (1.82%) Product Delivery Manager
18 37 (1.73%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (1.91%) .NET
2 40 (1.87%) REST
3 34 (1.59%) LDAP
4 32 (1.49%) React
5 29 (1.35%) RESTful
6 25 (1.17%) 802.1X
7 22 (1.03%) JSON
8 19 (0.89%) AngularJS
9 18 (0.84%) XML
10 17 (0.79%) Oracle Fusion
10 17 (0.79%) SailPoint
10 17 (0.79%) SOAP
11 15 (0.70%) Kafka
12 13 (0.61%) Elastic Stack
13 11 (0.51%) Keycloak
13 11 (0.51%) OAuth
13 11 (0.51%) Oracle GoldenGate
13 11 (0.51%) Web Services
13 11 (0.51%) YAML
14 10 (0.47%) Quarkus
Miscellaneous
1 100 (4.67%) Data Centre
2 90 (4.20%) PKI
3 77 (3.59%) Product Ownership
4 62 (2.89%) Onboarding
5 43 (2.01%) Management Information System
6 36 (1.68%) Self-Motivation
7 33 (1.54%) Data Structures
7 33 (1.54%) Replication
8 28 (1.31%) Clustering
9 27 (1.26%) Cloud Native
9 27 (1.26%) Security Operations Centre
10 24 (1.12%) Analytical Mindset
10 24 (1.12%) Public Cloud
11 23 (1.07%) Distributed Systems
12 19 (0.89%) Driving Licence
12 19 (0.89%) Security Posture
13 18 (0.84%) Cyber Threat
13 18 (0.84%) Virtual Team
14 17 (0.79%) Private Cloud
15 16 (0.75%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 275 (12.84%) Windows
2 197 (9.20%) Linux
3 76 (3.55%) Windows Server
4 30 (1.40%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 22 (1.03%) Unix
5 22 (1.03%) Windows 10
6 16 (0.75%) Android
7 12 (0.56%) Ubuntu
8 7 (0.33%) Windows 7
8 7 (0.33%) Windows Server 2016
9 6 (0.28%) Embedded Linux
9 6 (0.28%) Mac OS
10 5 (0.23%) Debian
10 5 (0.23%) Windows Server 2019
11 4 (0.19%) CentOS
12 3 (0.14%) Apple iOS
13 2 (0.093%) Kali Linux
13 2 (0.093%) SUSE
13 2 (0.093%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
13 2 (0.093%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 400 (18.67%) Agile
2 229 (10.69%) Problem-Solving
3 209 (9.76%) ITIL
4 207 (9.66%) CI/CD
5 204 (9.52%) DevOps
6 190 (8.87%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 190 (8.87%) Stakeholder Management
7 185 (8.64%) Continuous Improvement
8 182 (8.50%) Migration
9 167 (7.80%) Cybersecurity
10 145 (6.77%) Roadmaps
11 125 (5.84%) Service Management
12 117 (5.46%) ITSM
13 114 (5.32%) Project Management
14 96 (4.48%) SIEM
15 89 (4.15%) DevSecOps
15 89 (4.15%) Software Engineering
16 88 (4.11%) Change Management
17 87 (4.06%) Computer Science
17 87 (4.06%) Infrastructure Engineering
Programming Languages
1 191 (8.92%) Python
2 161 (7.52%) PowerShell
3 71 (3.31%) SQL
4 67 (3.13%) Java
5 50 (2.33%) C#
6 49 (2.29%) Bash
7 45 (2.10%) JavaScript
8 28 (1.31%) C++
9 21 (0.98%) Kusto Query Language
10 19 (0.89%) Go
11 18 (0.84%) TypeScript
12 15 (0.70%) C
13 13 (0.61%) Shell Script
14 11 (0.51%) ABAP
15 10 (0.47%) Bicep
16 9 (0.42%) Korn
16 9 (0.42%) PL/SQL
17 7 (0.33%) T-SQL
18 4 (0.19%) Embedded C++
19 3 (0.14%) Embedded C
Qualifications
1 1,337 (62.42%) SC Cleared
2 730 (34.08%) DV Cleared
3 169 (7.89%) Degree
4 73 (3.41%) Cisco Certification
5 55 (2.57%) CCNP
6 49 (2.29%) BPSS Clearance
7 48 (2.24%) CISSP
8 31 (1.45%) PMP
9 28 (1.31%) PMI Certification
10 25 (1.17%) CISM
11 22 (1.03%) CCNA
12 18 (0.84%) GIAC
13 17 (0.79%) Azure Certification
13 17 (0.79%) JNCIS
14 16 (0.75%) Computer Science Degree
15 15 (0.70%) AWS Certification
15 15 (0.70%) CEH
15 15 (0.70%) CHECK Team Member
16 13 (0.61%) CREST Certified
16 13 (0.61%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 95 (4.44%) NIST
2 92 (4.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 58 (2.71%) PMO
4 57 (2.66%) NCSC
5 56 (2.61%) GDPR
6 54 (2.52%) QA
7 26 (1.21%) Data Quality
8 23 (1.07%) SLA
9 17 (0.79%) PCI DSS
10 16 (0.75%) Accessibility
10 16 (0.75%) JSP 440
11 14 (0.65%) GRC
11 14 (0.65%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 14 (0.65%) NIST 800
12 10 (0.47%) COBIT
13 6 (0.28%) Cyber Essentials
13 6 (0.28%) Government Security Classifications
14 5 (0.23%) P3O
15 4 (0.19%) Actionable Recommendations
15 4 (0.19%) RMADS
System Software
1 171 (7.98%) Active Directory
2 100 (4.67%) VMware Infrastructure
3 45 (2.10%) VMware NSX
4 44 (2.05%) Docker
5 33 (1.54%) vSphere
6 25 (1.17%) VMware ESXi
7 14 (0.65%) Firmware
8 12 (0.56%) vCloud
9 11 (0.51%) Hyper-V
9 11 (0.51%) Virtual Desktop
10 9 (0.42%) Oracle RAC
11 6 (0.28%) Virtual Machines
12 3 (0.14%) NFS
13 2 (0.093%) Embedded Firmware
13 2 (0.093%) UAG
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%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 95 (4.44%) Kubernetes
2 73 (3.41%) Terraform
3 64 (2.99%) Ansible
4 51 (2.38%) vCenter Server
5 37 (1.73%) Grafana
6 36 (1.68%) Prometheus
7 32 (1.49%) Argo
8 26 (1.21%) FortiGate
9 22 (1.03%) SCCM
10 19 (0.89%) Microsoft Intune
10 19 (0.89%) Nmap
11 18 (0.84%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 13 (0.61%) Kibana
12 13 (0.61%) Single Sign-On
12 13 (0.61%) WMI
13 10 (0.47%) Forefront Identity Manager
13 10 (0.47%) NetIQ Identity Manager
13 10 (0.47%) Oracle RMAN
14 9 (0.42%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
14 9 (0.42%) SCOM
Vendors
1 228 (10.64%) Microsoft
2 201 (9.38%) VMware
3 175 (8.17%) Cisco
4 108 (5.04%) SAP
5 86 (4.01%) ServiceNow
6 84 (3.92%) Juniper
7 67 (3.13%) Red Hat
8 66 (3.08%) Oracle
9 64 (2.99%) Splunk
10 55 (2.57%) Aruba
11 46 (2.15%) F5
11 46 (2.15%) SolarWinds
12 38 (1.77%) Palo Alto
13 34 (1.59%) BeyondTrust
14 33 (1.54%) CyberArk
15 31 (1.45%) Google
16 30 (1.40%) IBM
16 30 (1.40%) Sparx
17 26 (1.21%) CheckPoint
18 19 (0.89%) Veeam