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

6 months to
29 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 1,521 797 1,702
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 33.46% 24.67% 32.06%
As % of the Qualifications category 76.05% 65.76% 73.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,084 536 943
10th Percentile £306 £294 £230
25th Percentile £430 £424 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -6.82% - -
75th Percentile £613 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £694 £713
England median daily rate £525 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -4.55% - -3.51%
Number of hourly rates quoted 134 59 120
10th Percentile £17.51 £19.83 £32.21
25th Percentile £19.47 £33.13 £52.72
Median hourly rate £25.15 £61.50 £60.87
Median % change year-on-year -59.10% +1.03% +1.45%
75th Percentile £60.00 £65.62 £72.33
90th Percentile £93.53 £78.71 £83.41
England median hourly rate £25.15 £60.00 £60.00
% change year-on-year -58.08% - -

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 2,000 1,212 2,311
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 43.99% 37.51% 43.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,344 759 1,352
10th Percentile £275 £250 £213
25th Percentile £413 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £535
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -1.87% -
75th Percentile £600 £633 £641
90th Percentile £724 £688 £700
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -0.10% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 189 69 151
10th Percentile £15.25 £19.18 £20.75
25th Percentile £19.34 £31.25 £46.25
Median hourly rate £25.15 £56.75 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -55.68% -5.43% +33.33%
75th Percentile £55.00 £64.73 £70.50
90th Percentile £90.09 £77.42 £79.78
England median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £47.50
% change year-on-year -45.54% -2.78% +5.56%

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 29 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 29 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 29 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
Thames Valley +1 693 £475 -9.52% 142
Hampshire 0 672 £550 -4.35% 187
Berkshire 0 477 £445 -19.09% 82
Buckinghamshire +1 174 £550 +18.28% 41
Surrey +22 74 £525 -19.23% 36
Oxfordshire +6 42 £275 -53.19% 20
West Sussex +9 38 £526 -22.36% 16
Kent +9 21 £438 +143.06% 19
Middlesex - 6 - -
Sussex -3 4 £475 +9.83% 7
East Sussex +4 2 £588 +6.82% 12
Home Counties - 1 £1,100 -
Isle of Wight - 1 £81 - 6
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 43 (2.83%) SharePoint
2 40 (2.63%) Microsoft Exchange
3 14 (0.92%) Confluence
4 5 (0.33%) Exchange Server 2010
4 5 (0.33%) Exchange Server 2013
4 5 (0.33%) Skype for Business
5 4 (0.26%) Apache
5 4 (0.26%) ArcGIS
5 4 (0.26%) Exchange Server 2003
5 4 (0.26%) Exchange Server 2007
5 4 (0.26%) IIS
5 4 (0.26%) Office Communications Server
5 4 (0.26%) Oracle Workflow
5 4 (0.26%) SharePoint Server
6 3 (0.20%) Documentum
6 3 (0.20%) MS Project Server
7 2 (0.13%) GeoServer
7 2 (0.13%) Smallworld
8 1 (0.066%) Anypoint
8 1 (0.066%) Drupal
Applications
1 59 (3.88%) Microsoft Office
2 50 (3.29%) Microsoft Excel
3 30 (1.97%) Microsoft Project
4 26 (1.71%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 8 (0.53%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.066%) CATIA
6 1 (0.066%) PTC Creo
6 1 (0.066%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 31 (2.04%) SAP S/4HANA
2 28 (1.84%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 8 (0.53%) SAP WM
4 7 (0.46%) SAP EWM
5 6 (0.39%) Oracle Assets
5 6 (0.39%) Oracle Payables
5 6 (0.39%) SAP HR
5 6 (0.39%) SAP Payroll
6 5 (0.33%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 5 (0.33%) Salesforce CRM
7 4 (0.26%) Oracle ERP
7 4 (0.26%) Primavera
7 4 (0.26%) SAP HCM
7 4 (0.26%) 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 Receivables
9 2 (0.13%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 228 (14.99%) Azure
2 174 (11.44%) AWS
3 76 (5.00%) GCP
4 70 (4.60%) Microsoft 365
5 58 (3.81%) Entra ID
6 35 (2.30%) OpenShift
7 34 (2.24%) Azure DevOps
7 34 (2.24%) GitHub
8 24 (1.58%) Power Platform
9 20 (1.31%) IaaS
10 19 (1.25%) GitHub Actions
11 17 (1.12%) OneDrive
11 17 (1.12%) PaaS
12 16 (1.05%) SaaS
13 15 (0.99%) Cloud Computing
14 11 (0.72%) Serverless
15 10 (0.66%) Datadog
16 8 (0.53%) AWS CloudFormation
16 8 (0.53%) Power Automate
16 8 (0.53%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 111 (7.30%) Firewall
2 73 (4.80%) DNS
3 46 (3.02%) DHCP
3 46 (3.02%) WAN
4 44 (2.89%) LAN
5 42 (2.76%) Network Security
6 39 (2.56%) BGP
7 38 (2.50%) TCP/IP
7 38 (2.50%) VPN
8 34 (2.24%) OSPF
9 27 (1.78%) VLAN
10 26 (1.71%) Cisco IOS
11 25 (1.64%) Junos
12 24 (1.58%) Cisco ISE
13 23 (1.51%) Cisco Firepower
14 20 (1.31%) IPsec
15 19 (1.25%) Wireless
16 17 (1.12%) MPLS
16 17 (1.12%) Structured Cabling
17 16 (1.05%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 21 (1.38%) Power BI
2 19 (1.25%) SQL Server
3 16 (1.05%) PostgreSQL
4 10 (0.66%) Metadata
5 8 (0.53%) NoSQL
5 8 (0.53%) Redis
6 7 (0.46%) Azure SQL Database
6 7 (0.46%) Relational Database
6 7 (0.46%) SAP HANA
7 6 (0.39%) MongoDB
8 5 (0.33%) Metadata Repository
8 5 (0.33%) Oracle Reports
9 4 (0.26%) Oracle Database
10 3 (0.20%) GIS
10 3 (0.20%) MySQL
10 3 (0.20%) SAP Data Services
11 2 (0.13%) Data Lake
11 2 (0.13%) Data Warehouse
11 2 (0.13%) QGIS
11 2 (0.13%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 45 (2.96%) JIRA
2 35 (2.30%) Jenkins
3 33 (2.17%) GitLab
4 28 (1.84%) Git
5 21 (1.38%) Burp Suite
5 21 (1.38%) Metasploit
6 8 (0.53%) Artifactory
7 7 (0.46%) Android Studio
8 5 (0.33%) Bitbucket
8 5 (0.33%) Gradle
8 5 (0.33%) JUnit
8 5 (0.33%) SonarQube
9 4 (0.26%) Maven
9 4 (0.26%) Postman
9 4 (0.26%) Rational DOORS
9 4 (0.26%) Robot Framework
9 4 (0.26%) Selenium
9 4 (0.26%) Sonatype Nexus
9 4 (0.26%) Storybook
9 4 (0.26%) Subversion
General
1 428 (28.14%) Social Skills
2 272 (17.88%) Public Sector
3 167 (10.98%) Analytical Skills
4 73 (4.80%) Finance
5 60 (3.94%) Documentation Skills
6 40 (2.63%) Manufacturing
7 37 (2.43%) Military
8 31 (2.04%) Telecoms
9 24 (1.58%) Legal
10 22 (1.45%) Influencing Skills
11 21 (1.38%) Aerospace
12 18 (1.18%) Presentation Skills
13 17 (1.12%) Law
14 13 (0.85%) Marketing
15 12 (0.79%) Organisational Skills
16 10 (0.66%) Electronics
17 7 (0.46%) Aviation
18 6 (0.39%) Billing
18 6 (0.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 6 (0.39%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 249 (16.37%) Architect
2 118 (7.76%) Senior
3 111 (7.30%) Analyst
4 99 (6.51%) Network Engineer
5 96 (6.31%) Consultant
6 95 (6.25%) Lead
7 65 (4.27%) Developer
8 62 (4.08%) Support Engineer
9 49 (3.22%) Project Manager
10 48 (3.16%) DevOps Engineer
10 48 (3.16%) Tester
11 44 (2.89%) Cloud Engineer
11 44 (2.89%) Enterprise Architect
12 42 (2.76%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 37 (2.43%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
13 37 (2.43%) Infrastructure Architect
14 36 (2.37%) Technical Architect
15 34 (2.24%) 3rd Line Engineer
16 33 (2.17%) IT Engineer
16 33 (2.17%) Network Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (2.17%) LDAP
2 22 (1.45%) REST
3 17 (1.12%) React
4 16 (1.05%) .NET
4 16 (1.05%) Elastic Stack
5 14 (0.92%) Kafka
6 13 (0.85%) RESTful
7 12 (0.79%) Oracle Fusion
8 11 (0.72%) AngularJS
8 11 (0.72%) Loki
9 10 (0.66%) JSON
10 9 (0.59%) Keycloak
10 9 (0.59%) SOAP
10 9 (0.59%) XML
11 8 (0.53%) SAP Fiori
11 8 (0.53%) Spring Boot
11 8 (0.53%) YAML
12 7 (0.46%) Spring
12 7 (0.46%) Swagger
12 7 (0.46%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 62 (4.08%) PKI
2 53 (3.48%) Data Centre
3 32 (2.10%) Management Information System
3 32 (2.10%) Onboarding
4 30 (1.97%) Product Ownership
5 25 (1.64%) Cloud Native
6 24 (1.58%) Security Operations Centre
6 24 (1.58%) Self-Motivation
7 23 (1.51%) Replication
8 21 (1.38%) Analytical Mindset
9 16 (1.05%) Driving Licence
9 16 (1.05%) Security Posture
10 15 (0.99%) Cyber Security Posture
10 15 (0.99%) PMI
10 15 (0.99%) Private Cloud
11 13 (0.85%) Legacy Systems
12 11 (0.72%) Distributed Systems
12 11 (0.72%) Fat Client
12 11 (0.72%) Thin Client
13 10 (0.66%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 259 (17.03%) Windows
2 160 (10.52%) Linux
3 60 (3.94%) Windows Server
4 48 (3.16%) Windows 10
5 22 (1.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 14 (0.92%) Android
7 11 (0.72%) Windows 7
8 7 (0.46%) Kali Linux
9 6 (0.39%) Ubuntu
10 5 (0.33%) Unix
11 4 (0.26%) Apple iOS
11 4 (0.26%) Windows Server 2003
11 4 (0.26%) Windows Server 2016
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 (0.066%) Embedded Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 254 (16.70%) Agile
2 194 (12.75%) Problem-Solving
3 165 (10.85%) DevOps
4 159 (10.45%) CI/CD
5 140 (9.20%) ITIL
6 138 (9.07%) Migration
7 132 (8.68%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 115 (7.56%) Cybersecurity
9 114 (7.50%) Stakeholder Management
10 101 (6.64%) Service Management
11 99 (6.51%) Roadmaps
12 96 (6.31%) Continuous Improvement
13 85 (5.59%) Project Management
14 78 (5.13%) ITSM
15 76 (5.00%) SIEM
16 70 (4.60%) Change Management
17 65 (4.27%) Collaborative Working
18 64 (4.21%) Workflow
19 63 (4.14%) Infrastructure Engineering
20 61 (4.01%) DevSecOps
Programming Languages
1 168 (11.05%) Python
2 141 (9.27%) PowerShell
3 58 (3.81%) Bash
4 52 (3.42%) Java
5 48 (3.16%) SQL
6 33 (2.17%) JavaScript
7 29 (1.91%) C#
8 18 (1.18%) C++
9 14 (0.92%) Kusto Query Language
10 10 (0.66%) ABAP
10 10 (0.66%) Go
10 10 (0.66%) TypeScript
11 7 (0.46%) PL/SQL
12 6 (0.39%) Bicep
12 6 (0.39%) C
12 6 (0.39%) Embedded C++
13 5 (0.33%) Shell Script
14 3 (0.20%) MATLAB
14 3 (0.20%) VBScript
15 2 (0.13%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 967 (63.58%) SC Cleared
2 497 (32.68%) DV Cleared
3 85 (5.59%) Degree
4 47 (3.09%) CISSP
5 44 (2.89%) Cisco Certification
6 43 (2.83%) CCNP
7 26 (1.71%) CEH
8 25 (1.64%) CISM
9 23 (1.51%) GIAC
10 21 (1.38%) BPSS Clearance
11 19 (1.25%) Azure Certification
11 19 (1.25%) CCNA
11 19 (1.25%) Microsoft Certification
12 17 (1.12%) PMI Certification
12 17 (1.12%) PMP
13 16 (1.05%) AWS Certification
14 14 (0.92%) CHECK Team Member
15 13 (0.85%) Network+ Certification
16 12 (0.79%) CREST Certified
16 12 (0.79%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 56 (3.68%) GDPR
2 55 (3.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 46 (3.02%) NIST
3 46 (3.02%) QA
4 44 (2.89%) PMO
5 32 (2.10%) NCSC
6 19 (1.25%) SLA
7 15 (0.99%) PCI DSS
8 13 (0.85%) Data Quality
8 13 (0.85%) GRC
9 11 (0.72%) COBIT
10 10 (0.66%) JSP 440
11 7 (0.46%) ISO/IEC 20000
12 6 (0.39%) Accessibility
13 5 (0.33%) P3O
13 5 (0.33%) RMADS
14 4 (0.26%) Actionable Recommendations
14 4 (0.26%) Def Stans
15 3 (0.20%) HMG Security Policy Framework
16 2 (0.13%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 162 (10.65%) Active Directory
2 78 (5.13%) VMware Infrastructure
3 44 (2.89%) Docker
4 35 (2.30%) VMware NSX
4 35 (2.30%) vSphere
5 18 (1.18%) VMware ESXi
6 12 (0.79%) Hyper-V
7 9 (0.59%) Virtual Desktop
8 7 (0.46%) Firmware
8 7 (0.46%) Virtual Machines
9 6 (0.39%) vCloud
10 5 (0.33%) NFS
11 4 (0.26%) Brightmail
11 4 (0.26%) ISA Server
12 2 (0.13%) UAG
13 1 (0.066%) KVM
13 1 (0.066%) NetIQ eDirectory
13 1 (0.066%) RHEV
13 1 (0.066%) Sendmail
13 1 (0.066%) Xen
Systems Management
1 91 (5.98%) Kubernetes
2 63 (4.14%) Terraform
3 58 (3.81%) Ansible
4 50 (3.29%) vCenter Server
5 40 (2.63%) Grafana
5 40 (2.63%) Prometheus
6 28 (1.84%) Argo
7 25 (1.64%) Nmap
7 25 (1.64%) SCCM
8 18 (1.18%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 17 (1.12%) WMI
10 15 (0.99%) Microsoft Intune
11 13 (0.85%) Kibana
12 12 (0.79%) Single Sign-On
13 11 (0.72%) Kustomize
14 8 (0.53%) SCOM
14 8 (0.53%) vRealize
15 7 (0.46%) Proxmox
15 7 (0.46%) Puppet
15 7 (0.46%) Sysdig
Vendors
1 212 (13.94%) Microsoft
2 157 (10.32%) VMware
3 150 (9.86%) Cisco
4 80 (5.26%) SAP
5 57 (3.75%) Juniper
6 54 (3.55%) ServiceNow
7 53 (3.48%) Aruba
8 50 (3.29%) Splunk
9 48 (3.16%) Red Hat
10 36 (2.37%) SolarWinds
11 31 (2.04%) Google
11 31 (2.04%) Palo Alto
12 29 (1.91%) Sparx
13 27 (1.78%) CyberArk
14 26 (1.71%) Oracle
15 25 (1.64%) CheckPoint
16 19 (1.25%) BeyondTrust
17 15 (0.99%) Tanium
18 14 (0.92%) Citrix
18 14 (0.92%) F5