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 20 March 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 2,033 746 1,908
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 37.96% 25.38% 33.91%
As % of the Qualifications category 80.61% 65.10% 75.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,388 533 1,083
10th Percentile £322 £325 £336
25th Percentile £438 £456 £465
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -4.35% +4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £700 £737
England median daily rate £525 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -4.55% - -2.31%
Number of hourly rates quoted 207 53 114
10th Percentile £16.80 £24.24 £22.54
25th Percentile £20.82 £31.25 £51.57
Median hourly rate £55.00 £61.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year -10.56% -0.17% +2.67%
75th Percentile £85.36 £65.62 £72.18
90th Percentile £90.09 £80.08 £85.65
England median hourly rate £31.25 £60.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year -47.92% +9.09% -8.33%

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 2,522 1,146 2,536
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 47.10% 38.99% 45.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,674 740 1,437
10th Percentile £303 £273 £260
25th Percentile £415 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -5.45% - +3.77%
75th Percentile £613 £630 £638
90th Percentile £725 £700 £713
England median daily rate £520 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -0.95% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 260 82 180
10th Percentile £15.62 £19.98 £17.80
25th Percentile £19.54 £28.00 £23.88
Median hourly rate £42.48 £56.75 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -25.15% -1.05% +14.70%
75th Percentile £84.00 £69.38 £66.74
90th Percentile £88.21 £78.24 £82.29
England median hourly rate £28.50 £50.00 £37.83
% change year-on-year -43.00% +32.18% -24.35%

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 20 March 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 20 March 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 20 March 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 1,060 £500 -9.09% 155
Hampshire 0 798 £575 +0.88% 163
Berkshire +2 695 £450 -23.24% 86
Buckinghamshire +1 283 £560 +14.87% 49
Oxfordshire +10 82 £445 -24.26% 23
Surrey +11 77 £525 -19.23% 34
West Sussex +8 50 £550 -12.18% 13
Kent +1 26 £443 +4.12% 16
Sussex 0 7 £475 +9.83% 4
East Sussex +4 3 £588 +6.82% 2
Middlesex - 1 - -
Home Counties - 1 £500 -
Isle of Wight - 1 £81 - 2
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 50 (2.46%) SharePoint
2 40 (1.97%) Microsoft Exchange
3 18 (0.89%) Confluence
4 5 (0.25%) Apache
4 5 (0.25%) ArcGIS
4 5 (0.25%) IIS
4 5 (0.25%) NetWeaver
4 5 (0.25%) Oracle Workflow
4 5 (0.25%) SAP EP
5 3 (0.15%) MS Project Server
5 3 (0.15%) Smallworld
6 2 (0.098%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.098%) GeoServer
7 1 (0.049%) Anypoint
7 1 (0.049%) Apache Pulsar
7 1 (0.049%) BizTalk Server
7 1 (0.049%) Exchange Server 2010
7 1 (0.049%) Palantir Foundry
7 1 (0.049%) Skype for Business
7 1 (0.049%) WebLogic
Applications
1 64 (3.15%) Microsoft Excel
2 62 (3.05%) Microsoft Office
3 42 (2.07%) Microsoft Project
4 30 (1.48%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 12 (0.59%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.098%) CPLEX
6 2 (0.098%) Lectora
6 2 (0.098%) Oracle Smart View
6 2 (0.098%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.049%) Autodesk Inventor
7 1 (0.049%) CATIA
7 1 (0.049%) MicroStation
7 1 (0.049%) PTC Creo
7 1 (0.049%) Siemens NX
7 1 (0.049%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 31 (1.52%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 25 (1.23%) SAP S/4HANA
3 7 (0.34%) Oracle Assets
3 7 (0.34%) Oracle ERP
3 7 (0.34%) Oracle Payables
3 7 (0.34%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
3 7 (0.34%) SAP PSCD
4 6 (0.30%) Salesforce CRM
4 6 (0.30%) SAP BRIM
4 6 (0.30%) SAP Hybris
5 5 (0.25%) SAP CRM
5 5 (0.25%) SAP HR
5 5 (0.25%) SAP Payroll
5 5 (0.25%) Teamcenter
6 4 (0.20%) Remedy ITSM
7 3 (0.15%) Payment Gateway
7 3 (0.15%) Primavera
7 3 (0.15%) SAP HCM
8 2 (0.098%) Oracle General Ledger
8 2 (0.098%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 283 (13.92%) Azure
2 195 (9.59%) AWS
3 87 (4.28%) GCP
4 78 (3.84%) Entra ID
5 72 (3.54%) Microsoft 365
6 51 (2.51%) Azure DevOps
7 45 (2.21%) OpenShift
8 44 (2.16%) Power Platform
9 36 (1.77%) GitHub
10 28 (1.38%) IaaS
10 28 (1.38%) PaaS
11 21 (1.03%) GitHub Actions
12 20 (0.98%) OneDrive
13 16 (0.79%) SaaS
14 15 (0.74%) Cloud Computing
15 14 (0.69%) Serverless
16 12 (0.59%) AWS CloudFormation
16 12 (0.59%) Power Automate
16 12 (0.59%) PowerApps
17 11 (0.54%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 155 (7.62%) Firewall
2 95 (4.67%) DNS
2 95 (4.67%) WAN
3 91 (4.48%) LAN
4 78 (3.84%) BGP
5 73 (3.59%) OSPF
6 67 (3.30%) Network Security
7 63 (3.10%) DHCP
8 49 (2.41%) VPN
9 39 (1.92%) TCP/IP
10 36 (1.77%) Junos
11 33 (1.62%) Cisco ISE
12 32 (1.57%) Wireless
13 29 (1.43%) IPsec
14 26 (1.28%) Ethernet VPN
15 25 (1.23%) VXLAN
16 23 (1.13%) BIG-IP
16 23 (1.13%) MPLS
17 22 (1.08%) Structured Cabling
18 21 (1.03%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 42 (2.07%) SQL Server
2 39 (1.92%) Power BI
3 27 (1.33%) PostgreSQL
4 14 (0.69%) Relational Database
5 12 (0.59%) Oracle Database
6 11 (0.54%) Metadata
7 10 (0.49%) Azure SQL Database
7 10 (0.49%) Redis
8 8 (0.39%) MongoDB
8 8 (0.39%) Oracle Reports
9 7 (0.34%) NoSQL
9 7 (0.34%) Oracle Database 12c
9 7 (0.34%) SAP HANA
10 6 (0.30%) MySQL
11 5 (0.25%) Data Warehouse
11 5 (0.25%) Metadata Repository
11 5 (0.25%) SAP Data Services
12 4 (0.20%) GIS
13 3 (0.15%) Oracle BI Publisher
13 3 (0.15%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 61 (3.00%) JIRA
2 44 (2.16%) Git
3 41 (2.02%) Rational DOORS
4 39 (1.92%) Jenkins
5 37 (1.82%) GitLab
6 22 (1.08%) Burp Suite
6 22 (1.08%) Metasploit
7 10 (0.49%) Visual Studio
8 8 (0.39%) Artifactory
8 8 (0.39%) Maven
8 8 (0.39%) SonarQube
9 7 (0.34%) Android Studio
9 7 (0.34%) Subversion
10 6 (0.30%) JUnit
10 6 (0.30%) Robot Framework
11 5 (0.25%) Bitbucket
11 5 (0.25%) Gradle
11 5 (0.25%) Sonatype Nexus
12 4 (0.20%) Cypress.io
12 4 (0.20%) Eclipse
General
1 519 (25.53%) Social Skills
2 326 (16.04%) Public Sector
3 204 (10.03%) Analytical Skills
4 122 (6.00%) Finance
5 93 (4.57%) Aerospace
6 75 (3.69%) Documentation Skills
7 44 (2.16%) Military
8 36 (1.77%) Influencing Skills
9 32 (1.57%) Legal
9 32 (1.57%) Manufacturing
10 31 (1.52%) Telecoms
11 20 (0.98%) Presentation Skills
12 19 (0.93%) Law
13 15 (0.74%) Marketing
14 14 (0.69%) Organisational Skills
15 12 (0.59%) Billing
16 10 (0.49%) Electronics
17 8 (0.39%) Advertising
18 7 (0.34%) Aviation
19 6 (0.30%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 327 (16.08%) Architect
2 191 (9.39%) Senior
3 154 (7.58%) Lead
4 146 (7.18%) Analyst
5 125 (6.15%) Network Engineer
6 120 (5.90%) Consultant
7 113 (5.56%) Developer
8 70 (3.44%) Project Manager
9 64 (3.15%) Technical Architect
10 56 (2.75%) Tester
11 55 (2.71%) Delivery Manager
12 50 (2.46%) Enterprise Architect
12 50 (2.46%) Security Architect
13 49 (2.41%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 49 (2.41%) Product Manager
14 48 (2.36%) Support Engineer
15 43 (2.12%) DevOps Engineer
16 39 (1.92%) Product Delivery Manager
17 37 (1.82%) Software Engineer
18 36 (1.77%) IT Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (1.67%) LDAP
2 33 (1.62%) REST
3 32 (1.57%) React
4 31 (1.52%) .NET
5 22 (1.08%) 802.1X
5 22 (1.08%) JSON
6 20 (0.98%) RESTful
7 19 (0.93%) Elastic Stack
8 18 (0.89%) Kafka
9 17 (0.84%) AngularJS
9 17 (0.84%) Oracle Fusion
9 17 (0.84%) XML
10 16 (0.79%) SailPoint
10 16 (0.79%) SOAP
11 12 (0.59%) OAuth
11 12 (0.59%) Web Services
12 11 (0.54%) CSS
12 11 (0.54%) Loki
12 11 (0.54%) Oracle GoldenGate
12 11 (0.54%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 95 (4.67%) Data Centre
2 87 (4.28%) PKI
3 72 (3.54%) Product Ownership
4 51 (2.51%) Onboarding
5 42 (2.07%) Management Information System
6 33 (1.62%) Self-Motivation
7 32 (1.57%) Data Structures
8 30 (1.48%) Replication
9 28 (1.38%) Security Operations Centre
10 27 (1.33%) Cloud Native
11 24 (1.18%) Analytical Mindset
11 24 (1.18%) Clustering
12 21 (1.03%) Security Posture
13 20 (0.98%) Driving Licence
14 19 (0.93%) Distributed Systems
15 18 (0.89%) Cyber Threat
16 16 (0.79%) Public Cloud
16 16 (0.79%) Virtual Team
17 14 (0.69%) Legacy Systems
18 13 (0.64%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 282 (13.87%) Windows
2 195 (9.59%) Linux
3 74 (3.64%) Windows Server
4 37 (1.82%) Windows 10
5 33 (1.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 17 (0.84%) Android
7 15 (0.74%) Unix
8 13 (0.64%) Ubuntu
9 9 (0.44%) Windows 7
10 7 (0.34%) Kali Linux
10 7 (0.34%) Windows Server 2016
11 6 (0.30%) Mac OS
12 5 (0.25%) Windows Server 2019
13 4 (0.20%) Apple iOS
13 4 (0.20%) CentOS
14 3 (0.15%) Debian
14 3 (0.15%) Embedded Linux
15 2 (0.098%) SUSE
15 2 (0.098%) VMS
15 2 (0.098%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 377 (18.54%) Agile
2 232 (11.41%) Problem-Solving
3 208 (10.23%) ITIL
4 197 (9.69%) DevOps
5 192 (9.44%) CI/CD
6 189 (9.30%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 177 (8.71%) Migration
7 177 (8.71%) Stakeholder Management
8 175 (8.61%) Continuous Improvement
9 161 (7.92%) Cybersecurity
10 153 (7.53%) Roadmaps
11 129 (6.35%) Service Management
12 116 (5.71%) Project Management
13 115 (5.66%) ITSM
14 92 (4.53%) SIEM
15 91 (4.48%) Change Management
16 85 (4.18%) DevSecOps
17 82 (4.03%) Decision-Making
18 81 (3.98%) PRINCE2
19 80 (3.94%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 194 (9.54%) Python
2 159 (7.82%) PowerShell
3 66 (3.25%) Java
4 61 (3.00%) SQL
5 57 (2.80%) Bash
6 43 (2.12%) C#
7 42 (2.07%) JavaScript
8 28 (1.38%) C++
9 21 (1.03%) Kusto Query Language
10 17 (0.84%) TypeScript
11 13 (0.64%) Shell Script
12 12 (0.59%) ABAP
12 12 (0.59%) C
12 12 (0.59%) Go
13 9 (0.44%) Korn
14 8 (0.39%) Embedded C++
14 8 (0.39%) PL/SQL
15 7 (0.34%) Bicep
16 5 (0.25%) T-SQL
17 3 (0.15%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 1,282 (63.06%) SC Cleared
2 642 (31.58%) DV Cleared
3 163 (8.02%) Degree
4 65 (3.20%) Cisco Certification
5 50 (2.46%) CISSP
6 49 (2.41%) CCNP
7 44 (2.16%) BPSS Clearance
8 28 (1.38%) CISM
8 28 (1.38%) PMP
9 24 (1.18%) PMI Certification
10 22 (1.08%) CEH
11 21 (1.03%) CCNA
12 19 (0.93%) Azure Certification
13 18 (0.89%) GIAC
14 16 (0.79%) AWS Certification
14 16 (0.79%) JNCIS
15 15 (0.74%) CHECK Team Member
15 15 (0.74%) Computer Science Degree
16 13 (0.64%) CREST Certified
16 13 (0.64%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 89 (4.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 86 (4.23%) NIST
3 58 (2.85%) GDPR
4 56 (2.75%) PMO
5 52 (2.56%) NCSC
6 47 (2.31%) QA
7 23 (1.13%) Data Quality
7 23 (1.13%) SLA
8 17 (0.84%) PCI DSS
9 16 (0.79%) Accessibility
10 15 (0.74%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 15 (0.74%) JSP 440
11 13 (0.64%) GRC
11 13 (0.64%) NIST 800
12 10 (0.49%) COBIT
13 6 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials
13 6 (0.30%) Government Security Classifications
14 5 (0.25%) Def Stans
14 5 (0.25%) P3O
15 4 (0.20%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 177 (8.71%) Active Directory
2 96 (4.72%) VMware Infrastructure
3 48 (2.36%) Docker
4 36 (1.77%) VMware NSX
5 34 (1.67%) vSphere
6 20 (0.98%) VMware ESXi
7 11 (0.54%) Hyper-V
8 10 (0.49%) Firmware
8 10 (0.49%) vCloud
8 10 (0.49%) Virtual Desktop
9 9 (0.44%) Oracle RAC
10 8 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
11 3 (0.15%) NFS
12 1 (0.049%) KVM
12 1 (0.049%) RHEV
12 1 (0.049%) Sendmail
12 1 (0.049%) Terminal Services
12 1 (0.049%) UAG
12 1 (0.049%) Xen
Systems Management
1 103 (5.07%) Kubernetes
2 66 (3.25%) Terraform
3 65 (3.20%) Ansible
4 49 (2.41%) vCenter Server
5 46 (2.26%) Grafana
6 45 (2.21%) Prometheus
7 33 (1.62%) Argo
8 28 (1.38%) SCCM
9 24 (1.18%) Nmap
10 22 (1.08%) FortiGate
11 18 (0.89%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 18 (0.89%) Microsoft Intune
12 15 (0.74%) Single Sign-On
12 15 (0.74%) WMI
13 13 (0.64%) Kibana
14 11 (0.54%) Kustomize
15 10 (0.49%) Oracle RMAN
16 9 (0.44%) Nagios
16 9 (0.44%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
16 9 (0.44%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 227 (11.17%) Microsoft
2 186 (9.15%) VMware
3 180 (8.85%) Cisco
4 84 (4.13%) Juniper
5 83 (4.08%) SAP
6 82 (4.03%) ServiceNow
7 66 (3.25%) Red Hat
8 61 (3.00%) Splunk
9 60 (2.95%) Aruba
10 46 (2.26%) SolarWinds
11 45 (2.21%) Oracle
12 43 (2.12%) F5
13 40 (1.97%) Palo Alto
14 37 (1.82%) Google
15 34 (1.67%) IBM
16 33 (1.62%) CyberArk
17 32 (1.57%) Sparx
18 29 (1.43%) BeyondTrust
19 27 (1.33%) CheckPoint
20 17 (0.84%) Extreme Networks