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 21 June 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 2,293 804 1,955
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 37.07% 26.46% 33.74%
As % of the Qualifications category 82.01% 66.28% 75.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,607 560 1,190
10th Percentile £370 £300 £400
25th Percentile £463 £450 £482
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £600
Median % change year-on-year - -8.33% +14.29%
75th Percentile £625 £607 £675
90th Percentile £725 £676 £738
England median daily rate £525 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -2.33% -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 230 56 138
10th Percentile £19.34 £18.69 £22.51
25th Percentile £43.81 £24.66 £52.90
Median hourly rate £76.90 £46.90 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +63.97% -23.86% -4.75%
75th Percentile £85.50 £71.88 £84.44
90th Percentile £102.14 £87.38 £90.60
England median hourly rate £63.14 £27.40 £57.39
% change year-on-year +130.42% -52.25% -4.36%

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 2,796 1,213 2,598
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 45.20% 39.93% 44.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,892 770 1,503
10th Percentile £313 £259 £350
25th Percentile £445 £410 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £533 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +1.43% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £600 £650
90th Percentile £725 £675 £725
England median daily rate £525 £525 £537
% change year-on-year - -2.23% -2.36%
Number of hourly rates quoted 294 87 226
10th Percentile £17.87 £18.72 £17.80
25th Percentile £28.83 £25.15 £30.10
Median hourly rate £60.00 £52.50 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +14.29% -8.46% -7.50%
75th Percentile £84.00 £70.63 £70.21
90th Percentile £88.00 £82.50 £87.46
England median hourly rate £52.50 £30.13 £41.50
% change year-on-year +74.27% -27.41% -24.55%

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 21 June 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 21 June 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 21 June 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 +2 1,249 £528 -4.09% 120
Hampshire 0 827 £575 +4.55% 164
Berkshire +1 714 £508 -11.74% 72
Buckinghamshire +2 417 £550 +7.06% 36
Oxfordshire +8 118 £450 +151.40% 16
Surrey +5 110 £525 - 32
West Sussex +7 66 £483 -10.06% 8
Kent +3 16 £445 +18.67% 7
East Sussex +3 7 £459 - 1
Sussex - 6 £475 - 1
Home Counties - 2 £525 -
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 48 (2.09%) SharePoint
2 30 (1.31%) Confluence
3 28 (1.22%) Microsoft Exchange
4 14 (0.61%) Oracle Application Server
5 8 (0.35%) Oracle Workflow
6 6 (0.26%) ArcGIS
6 6 (0.26%) SAS
7 5 (0.22%) Apache Airflow
7 5 (0.22%) Documentum
7 5 (0.22%) IIS
8 4 (0.17%) NetWeaver
8 4 (0.17%) SAP EP
9 3 (0.13%) Apache
9 3 (0.13%) CMS
9 3 (0.13%) Palantir Foundry
10 2 (0.087%) Apache Spark
10 2 (0.087%) MS Project Server
10 2 (0.087%) nginx
10 2 (0.087%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.087%) Umbraco
Applications
1 53 (2.31%) Microsoft Excel
2 41 (1.79%) Microsoft Office
3 39 (1.70%) Microsoft Project
4 21 (0.92%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 11 (0.48%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.13%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.087%) CPLEX
7 2 (0.087%) Lectora
7 2 (0.087%) Oracle Smart View
8 1 (0.044%) Autodesk Inventor
8 1 (0.044%) CATIA
8 1 (0.044%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.044%) InVision
8 1 (0.044%) MicroStation
8 1 (0.044%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.044%) Sketch
8 1 (0.044%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 45 (1.96%) SAP S/4HANA
2 23 (1.00%) Oracle ERP
3 15 (0.65%) SAP PSCD
4 13 (0.57%) Remedy ITSM
5 12 (0.52%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
6 10 (0.44%) Siebel CRM
6 10 (0.44%) Teamcenter
7 8 (0.35%) iTrent
7 8 (0.35%) SAP BRIM
7 8 (0.35%) SAP Hybris
8 6 (0.26%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
8 6 (0.26%) Primavera
9 5 (0.22%) Oracle Assets
9 5 (0.22%) Oracle Payables
10 4 (0.17%) SAP CRM
10 4 (0.17%) SAP MM
11 3 (0.13%) SAP EWM
12 2 (0.087%) Payment Gateway
12 2 (0.087%) SAP FI
12 2 (0.087%) SAP FI-CA
Cloud Services
1 341 (14.87%) Azure
2 191 (8.33%) AWS
3 94 (4.10%) Entra ID
4 74 (3.23%) Azure DevOps
4 74 (3.23%) GCP
5 66 (2.88%) Power Platform
6 50 (2.18%) Microsoft 365
7 40 (1.74%) PaaS
8 37 (1.61%) IaaS
9 34 (1.48%) OpenShift
10 25 (1.09%) SaaS
11 24 (1.05%) OCI
12 19 (0.83%) SuccessFactors
13 18 (0.78%) GitHub
14 14 (0.61%) Serverless
15 12 (0.52%) GitHub Actions
16 11 (0.48%) Azure Monitor
17 10 (0.44%) SAP Commerce Cloud
18 9 (0.39%) Datadog
19 8 (0.35%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 143 (6.24%) Firewall
2 108 (4.71%) LAN
2 108 (4.71%) WAN
3 107 (4.67%) DNS
4 78 (3.40%) BGP
5 70 (3.05%) Network Security
6 69 (3.01%) OSPF
7 66 (2.88%) DHCP
8 47 (2.05%) VPN
9 34 (1.48%) IPsec
10 32 (1.40%) BIG-IP
11 31 (1.35%) VXLAN
12 29 (1.26%) Ethernet VPN
12 29 (1.26%) TCP/IP
12 29 (1.26%) Wireless
13 28 (1.22%) SD-WAN
14 27 (1.18%) MPLS
15 25 (1.09%) Junos
16 24 (1.05%) Cisco ISE
16 24 (1.05%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 63 (2.75%) SQL Server
2 55 (2.40%) Power BI
3 35 (1.53%) Data Warehouse
4 29 (1.26%) PostgreSQL
5 28 (1.22%) Oracle Database
6 25 (1.09%) Oracle Reports
7 15 (0.65%) Oracle ODI
8 13 (0.57%) Metadata
9 11 (0.48%) MySQL
9 11 (0.48%) Relational Database
10 9 (0.39%) Oracle Database 12c
11 8 (0.35%) Geospatial Data
11 8 (0.35%) Siebel EIM
12 6 (0.26%) NoSQL
12 6 (0.26%) Redis
12 6 (0.26%) Tableau
13 5 (0.22%) Amazon RDS
13 5 (0.22%) Azure SQL Database
13 5 (0.22%) Elasticsearch
13 5 (0.22%) Pentaho
Development Applications
1 65 (2.83%) JIRA
2 51 (2.22%) Git
3 44 (1.92%) GitLab
4 37 (1.61%) Rational DOORS
5 30 (1.31%) Jenkins
6 23 (1.00%) SonarQube
7 10 (0.44%) Visual Studio
8 9 (0.39%) Postman
9 8 (0.35%) Burp Suite
9 8 (0.35%) Metasploit
10 7 (0.31%) JUnit
10 7 (0.31%) Sonatype Nexus
11 6 (0.26%) Subversion
12 5 (0.22%) Artifactory
12 5 (0.22%) Maven
12 5 (0.22%) Robot Framework
13 4 (0.17%) Bitbucket
13 4 (0.17%) Eclipse
13 4 (0.17%) Selenium
14 3 (0.13%) HP UFT
General
1 480 (20.93%) Social Skills
2 277 (12.08%) Public Sector
3 203 (8.85%) Analytical Skills
4 148 (6.45%) Aerospace
5 142 (6.19%) Finance
6 79 (3.45%) Documentation Skills
7 47 (2.05%) Military
8 35 (1.53%) Legal
9 31 (1.35%) Influencing Skills
10 30 (1.31%) Telecoms
11 28 (1.22%) Law
12 22 (0.96%) Organisational Skills
13 18 (0.78%) Manufacturing
13 18 (0.78%) Presentation Skills
14 17 (0.74%) Billing
15 15 (0.65%) Aviation
16 13 (0.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 12 (0.52%) Advertising
18 9 (0.39%) Police
19 7 (0.31%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 298 (13.00%) Architect
2 247 (10.77%) Senior
3 199 (8.68%) Lead
4 191 (8.33%) Developer
5 181 (7.89%) Analyst
6 111 (4.84%) Consultant
7 108 (4.71%) Network Engineer
8 83 (3.62%) Project Manager
9 82 (3.58%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 78 (3.40%) Technical Architect
11 66 (2.88%) Security Architect
12 61 (2.66%) Delivery Manager
13 53 (2.31%) SOC Analyst
14 48 (2.09%) Product Manager
15 47 (2.05%) Cloud Engineer
16 44 (1.92%) Senior Manager
17 42 (1.83%) Administrator
18 41 (1.79%) Azure Engineer
18 41 (1.79%) Support Engineer
19 39 (1.70%) Product Delivery Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 61 (2.66%) REST
2 41 (1.79%) LDAP
3 39 (1.70%) .NET
4 34 (1.48%) RESTful
5 32 (1.40%) React
6 31 (1.35%) OAuth
7 30 (1.31%) 802.1X
8 29 (1.26%) JSON
9 26 (1.13%) AngularJS
10 25 (1.09%) SailPoint
11 24 (1.05%) SAML
12 23 (1.00%) OpenID
12 23 (1.00%) SOAP
13 20 (0.87%) CSS
14 18 (0.78%) Oracle Fusion
15 17 (0.74%) HTML
15 17 (0.74%) Web Services
16 16 (0.70%) OAuth2
16 16 (0.70%) XML
17 15 (0.65%) Quarkus
Miscellaneous
1 104 (4.54%) Data Centre
2 97 (4.23%) Product Ownership
3 83 (3.62%) PKI
4 64 (2.79%) Onboarding
5 39 (1.70%) Management Information System
6 37 (1.61%) Data Structures
7 32 (1.40%) Clustering
7 32 (1.40%) Operational Technology
8 29 (1.26%) Replication
9 28 (1.22%) Distributed Systems
9 28 (1.22%) Public Cloud
10 27 (1.18%) Self-Motivation
11 25 (1.09%) Security Operations Centre
12 24 (1.05%) Greenfield Project
13 23 (1.00%) Cloud Native
14 21 (0.92%) Cyber Threat
15 20 (0.87%) Enterprise Software
15 20 (0.87%) Hybrid Cloud
16 18 (0.78%) Security Posture
16 18 (0.78%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 262 (11.43%) Windows
2 192 (8.37%) Linux
3 91 (3.97%) Windows Server
4 48 (2.09%) Unix
5 30 (1.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 11 (0.48%) Windows Server 2019
7 9 (0.39%) Android
7 9 (0.39%) Ubuntu
8 8 (0.35%) Embedded Linux
9 7 (0.31%) Windows 10
9 7 (0.31%) Windows Server 2016
10 5 (0.22%) Apple iOS
10 5 (0.22%) CentOS
10 5 (0.22%) Debian
10 5 (0.22%) Mac OS
11 2 (0.087%) Windows 7
11 2 (0.087%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.044%) OpenVMS
12 1 (0.044%) VMS
12 1 (0.044%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 437 (19.06%) Agile
2 248 (10.82%) Continuous Improvement
3 245 (10.68%) Problem-Solving
4 241 (10.51%) Stakeholder Management
5 233 (10.16%) Cybersecurity
6 216 (9.42%) ITIL
7 208 (9.07%) CI/CD
8 192 (8.37%) DevOps
9 186 (8.11%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 150 (6.54%) ITSM
11 142 (6.19%) Roadmaps
12 132 (5.76%) Migration
13 112 (4.88%) Service Management
14 110 (4.80%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 110 (4.80%) SIEM
15 106 (4.62%) Decision-Making
16 104 (4.54%) Software Engineering
17 103 (4.49%) Computer Science
17 103 (4.49%) Project Management
18 102 (4.45%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 187 (8.16%) Python
2 157 (6.85%) PowerShell
3 122 (5.32%) SQL
4 82 (3.58%) Java
5 61 (2.66%) JavaScript
6 42 (1.83%) C#
7 39 (1.70%) Bash
8 28 (1.22%) C++
9 22 (0.96%) Go
10 17 (0.74%) C
10 17 (0.74%) Shell Script
10 17 (0.74%) TypeScript
11 16 (0.70%) PL/SQL
12 13 (0.57%) Bicep
13 12 (0.52%) Kusto Query Language
14 9 (0.39%) Korn
15 6 (0.26%) Rust
15 6 (0.26%) T-SQL
16 5 (0.22%) ABAP
17 4 (0.17%) Embedded C++
Qualifications
1 1,459 (63.63%) SC Cleared
2 779 (33.97%) DV Cleared
3 175 (7.63%) Degree
4 66 (2.88%) Cisco Certification
5 59 (2.57%) BPSS Clearance
6 42 (1.83%) CISSP
7 39 (1.70%) CCNP
8 36 (1.57%) PMI Certification
9 33 (1.44%) Azure Certification
10 32 (1.40%) PMP
11 23 (1.00%) CISM
12 22 (0.96%) ISTQB
13 20 (0.87%) Computer Science Degree
13 20 (0.87%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 17 (0.74%) Microsoft Certification
15 15 (0.65%) AWS Certification
15 15 (0.65%) CCNA
16 13 (0.57%) RHCE
17 12 (0.52%) GIAC
17 12 (0.52%) VCAP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 122 (5.32%) NIST
2 114 (4.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 66 (2.88%) PMO
4 64 (2.79%) NCSC
5 59 (2.57%) QA
6 51 (2.22%) GDPR
7 31 (1.35%) Data Quality
8 24 (1.05%) SLA
9 21 (0.92%) Accessibility
10 16 (0.70%) JSP 440
11 15 (0.65%) GRC
11 15 (0.65%) NIST 800
12 14 (0.61%) Cyber Essentials
13 11 (0.48%) ISO/IEC 20000
14 8 (0.35%) ISO 31000
14 8 (0.35%) PCI DSS
15 7 (0.31%) RMADS
16 6 (0.26%) Government Security Classifications
17 4 (0.17%) Def Stans
18 3 (0.13%) ISO 26262
System Software
1 178 (7.76%) Active Directory
2 127 (5.54%) VMware Infrastructure
3 65 (2.83%) VMware NSX
4 46 (2.01%) VMware ESXi
5 42 (1.83%) Docker
6 29 (1.26%) vSphere
7 21 (0.92%) vCloud
8 16 (0.70%) Virtual Machines
9 13 (0.57%) Firmware
9 13 (0.57%) Hyper-V
10 12 (0.52%) Oracle RAC
11 8 (0.35%) Virtual Desktop
12 4 (0.17%) Embedded Firmware
13 3 (0.13%) UAG
14 2 (0.087%) Dovecot
14 2 (0.087%) Postfix
15 1 (0.044%) NFS
15 1 (0.044%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 89 (3.88%) Kubernetes
2 65 (2.83%) Terraform
3 60 (2.62%) vCenter Server
4 51 (2.22%) Ansible
5 32 (1.40%) FortiGate
6 30 (1.31%) SCOM
7 26 (1.13%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 25 (1.09%) Grafana
9 23 (1.00%) Prometheus
10 22 (0.96%) Argo
11 17 (0.74%) Microsoft Intune
12 15 (0.65%) Oracle RMAN
13 13 (0.57%) SCCM
13 13 (0.57%) Single Sign-On
14 10 (0.44%) Avamar
14 10 (0.44%) Nmap
14 10 (0.44%) Red Hat Satellite
15 9 (0.39%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
16 8 (0.35%) WMI
17 7 (0.31%) NetIQ Identity Manager
Vendors
1 257 (11.21%) Microsoft
2 219 (9.55%) VMware
3 140 (6.11%) Oracle
4 131 (5.71%) Cisco
5 120 (5.23%) SAP
6 113 (4.93%) ServiceNow
7 77 (3.36%) Juniper
8 55 (2.40%) Red Hat
9 54 (2.35%) F5
10 48 (2.09%) SolarWinds
11 47 (2.05%) Splunk
12 37 (1.61%) Palo Alto
13 32 (1.40%) BeyondTrust
14 31 (1.35%) Citrix
15 30 (1.31%) CyberArk
16 29 (1.26%) IBM
17 25 (1.09%) Extreme Networks
18 23 (1.00%) Google
19 22 (0.96%) Aruba
20 21 (0.92%) Fortinet