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

6 months to
8 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 2,132 784 1,899
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 37.79% 26.26% 33.79%
As % of the Qualifications category 81.87% 65.33% 75.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,451 565 1,094
10th Percentile £350 £350 £370
25th Percentile £454 £463 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £531 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year -3.44% -4.35% +4.55%
75th Percentile £626 £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 217 49 121
10th Percentile £18.14 £19.79 £22.52
25th Percentile £25.04 £27.11 £52.90
Median hourly rate £65.00 £60.50 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +7.44% -3.20% +2.17%
75th Percentile £85.25 £68.50 £75.24
90th Percentile £90.09 £80.02 £87.00
England median hourly rate £52.50 £58.04 £52.00
% change year-on-year -9.55% +11.62% -13.33%

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 2,604 1,200 2,531
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 46.15% 40.19% 45.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,732 779 1,424
10th Percentile £309 £306 £279
25th Percentile £430 £437 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £545 £550
Median % change year-on-year -3.67% -0.91% +4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
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 269 83 212
10th Percentile £15.72 £18.80 £17.62
25th Percentile £20.79 £27.55 £27.31
Median hourly rate £50.00 £55.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% -4.10% +7.14%
75th Percentile £84.00 £70.00 £66.81
90th Percentile £88.00 £76.85 £84.17
England median hourly rate £39.50 £50.00 £38.75
% change year-on-year -21.00% +29.03% -25.48%

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 8 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 8 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 8 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 1,111 £500 -9.09% 170
Hampshire 0 827 £600 +8.89% 149
Berkshire +1 703 £460 -20.35% 96
Buckinghamshire +1 328 £560 +11.89% 57
Surrey +7 89 £525 -9.17% 44
Oxfordshire +12 80 £450 -23.40% 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 +3 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 (2.06%) SharePoint
2 36 (1.69%) Microsoft Exchange
3 17 (0.80%) 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 (0.094%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.094%) SAS
8 1 (0.047%) Anypoint
8 1 (0.047%) Apache Pulsar
8 1 (0.047%) BizTalk Server
8 1 (0.047%) Palantir Foundry
8 1 (0.047%) Skype for Business
8 1 (0.047%) Smallworld
8 1 (0.047%) WebLogic
Applications
1 68 (3.19%) Microsoft Excel
2 62 (2.91%) Microsoft Office
3 40 (1.88%) Microsoft Project
4 30 (1.41%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 11 (0.52%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.094%) CPLEX
6 2 (0.094%) Lectora
6 2 (0.094%) Oracle Smart View
6 2 (0.094%) 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 (1.69%) SAP S/4HANA
2 29 (1.36%) 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 (0.094%) Oracle General Ledger
9 2 (0.094%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 300 (14.07%) Azure
2 200 (9.38%) AWS
3 79 (3.71%) GCP
4 74 (3.47%) Entra ID
5 63 (2.95%) Microsoft 365
6 61 (2.86%) Azure DevOps
7 50 (2.35%) Power Platform
8 45 (2.11%) OpenShift
9 34 (1.59%) IaaS
9 34 (1.59%) PaaS
10 33 (1.55%) GitHub
11 19 (0.89%) GitHub Actions
12 17 (0.80%) SaaS
13 16 (0.75%) SuccessFactors
14 15 (0.70%) Cloud Computing
15 14 (0.66%) Serverless
16 12 (0.56%) OCI
17 11 (0.52%) AWS CloudFormation
17 11 (0.52%) OneDrive
18 10 (0.47%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 161 (7.55%) Firewall
2 104 (4.88%) WAN
3 101 (4.74%) LAN
4 100 (4.69%) DNS
5 81 (3.80%) BGP
6 76 (3.56%) OSPF
7 67 (3.14%) DHCP
7 67 (3.14%) Network Security
8 50 (2.35%) VPN
9 40 (1.88%) TCP/IP
10 34 (1.59%) Junos
10 34 (1.59%) Wireless
11 30 (1.41%) Cisco ISE
12 28 (1.31%) Ethernet VPN
12 28 (1.31%) IPsec
13 27 (1.27%) VXLAN
14 25 (1.17%) BIG-IP
15 24 (1.13%) SD-WAN
15 24 (1.13%) VLAN
16 22 (1.03%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 47 (2.20%) SQL Server
2 44 (2.06%) Power BI
3 28 (1.31%) PostgreSQL
4 17 (0.80%) Oracle Reports
5 13 (0.61%) Relational Database
6 12 (0.56%) Data Warehouse
6 12 (0.56%) Oracle Database
7 11 (0.52%) Redis
8 10 (0.47%) Azure SQL Database
8 10 (0.47%) Metadata
9 8 (0.38%) Oracle ODI
10 7 (0.33%) MySQL
10 7 (0.33%) Oracle Database 12c
10 7 (0.33%) SAP HANA
11 5 (0.23%) Metadata Repository
11 5 (0.23%) SAP Data Services
12 4 (0.19%) MongoDB
12 4 (0.19%) NoSQL
12 4 (0.19%) Tableau
13 3 (0.14%) Oracle BI Publisher
Development Applications
1 52 (2.44%) JIRA
2 42 (1.97%) GitLab
3 41 (1.92%) Git
4 38 (1.78%) Rational DOORS
5 36 (1.69%) Jenkins
6 18 (0.84%) Burp Suite
6 18 (0.84%) Metasploit
7 11 (0.52%) SonarQube
8 10 (0.47%) Visual Studio
9 9 (0.42%) Postman
10 8 (0.38%) Artifactory
10 8 (0.38%) JUnit
11 7 (0.33%) Android Studio
11 7 (0.33%) Subversion
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%) Cypress.io
General
1 523 (24.53%) Social Skills
2 317 (14.87%) Public Sector
3 205 (9.62%) Analytical Skills
4 134 (6.29%) Finance
5 94 (4.41%) Aerospace
6 76 (3.56%) Documentation Skills
7 47 (2.20%) Military
8 37 (1.74%) Legal
9 36 (1.69%) Influencing Skills
10 34 (1.59%) Telecoms
11 33 (1.55%) Manufacturing
12 23 (1.08%) Law
13 21 (0.98%) Presentation Skills
14 18 (0.84%) Organisational Skills
15 15 (0.70%) Marketing
16 13 (0.61%) Billing
17 12 (0.56%) Advertising
18 11 (0.52%) Electronics
19 7 (0.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
19 7 (0.33%) Police
Job Titles
1 347 (16.28%) Architect
2 205 (9.62%) Senior
3 167 (7.83%) Lead
4 152 (7.13%) Analyst
5 129 (6.05%) Developer
6 125 (5.86%) Network Engineer
7 123 (5.77%) Consultant
8 81 (3.80%) Project Manager
9 74 (3.47%) Technical Architect
10 59 (2.77%) Delivery Manager
11 57 (2.67%) Tester
12 56 (2.63%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 56 (2.63%) Security Architect
13 55 (2.58%) Enterprise Architect
14 49 (2.30%) DevOps Engineer
14 49 (2.30%) Product Manager
15 41 (1.92%) Software Engineer
16 40 (1.88%) SOC Analyst
17 39 (1.83%) Product Delivery Manager
18 37 (1.74%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 40 (1.88%) REST
2 36 (1.69%) .NET
3 34 (1.59%) LDAP
4 33 (1.55%) React
5 25 (1.17%) RESTful
6 23 (1.08%) 802.1X
7 22 (1.03%) JSON
8 20 (0.94%) AngularJS
9 18 (0.84%) XML
10 17 (0.80%) Oracle Fusion
10 17 (0.80%) SailPoint
10 17 (0.80%) SOAP
11 16 (0.75%) Kafka
12 15 (0.70%) Elastic Stack
13 11 (0.52%) Keycloak
13 11 (0.52%) Loki
13 11 (0.52%) OAuth
13 11 (0.52%) Oracle GoldenGate
13 11 (0.52%) Web Services
13 11 (0.52%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 99 (4.64%) Data Centre
2 90 (4.22%) PKI
3 77 (3.61%) Product Ownership
4 57 (2.67%) Onboarding
5 42 (1.97%) Management Information System
6 36 (1.69%) Self-Motivation
7 33 (1.55%) Data Structures
7 33 (1.55%) Replication
8 31 (1.45%) Cloud Native
9 28 (1.31%) Clustering
10 27 (1.27%) Security Operations Centre
11 24 (1.13%) Analytical Mindset
11 24 (1.13%) Public Cloud
12 22 (1.03%) Virtual Team
13 19 (0.89%) Cyber Threat
13 19 (0.89%) Distributed Systems
13 19 (0.89%) Driving Licence
13 19 (0.89%) Security Posture
14 17 (0.80%) Private Cloud
15 15 (0.70%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 272 (12.76%) Windows
2 200 (9.38%) Linux
3 74 (3.47%) Windows Server
4 34 (1.59%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 23 (1.08%) Windows 10
6 17 (0.80%) Unix
7 16 (0.75%) Android
8 12 (0.56%) Ubuntu
9 7 (0.33%) Windows 7
9 7 (0.33%) Windows Server 2016
10 6 (0.28%) Embedded Linux
10 6 (0.28%) Mac OS
11 5 (0.23%) Debian
11 5 (0.23%) Windows Server 2019
12 4 (0.19%) CentOS
13 3 (0.14%) Apple iOS
13 3 (0.14%) Kali Linux
14 2 (0.094%) SUSE
14 2 (0.094%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
14 2 (0.094%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 405 (19.00%) Agile
2 227 (10.65%) Problem-Solving
3 211 (9.90%) ITIL
4 207 (9.71%) CI/CD
5 205 (9.62%) DevOps
6 192 (9.01%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 190 (8.91%) Stakeholder Management
8 183 (8.58%) Continuous Improvement
8 183 (8.58%) Migration
9 165 (7.74%) Cybersecurity
10 149 (6.99%) Roadmaps
11 125 (5.86%) Service Management
12 114 (5.35%) Project Management
13 112 (5.25%) ITSM
14 91 (4.27%) SIEM
15 90 (4.22%) DevSecOps
16 89 (4.17%) Software Engineering
17 88 (4.13%) Decision-Making
17 88 (4.13%) Infrastructure Engineering
18 87 (4.08%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 185 (8.68%) Python
2 157 (7.36%) PowerShell
3 68 (3.19%) SQL
4 67 (3.14%) Java
5 54 (2.53%) Bash
6 46 (2.16%) C#
6 46 (2.16%) JavaScript
7 29 (1.36%) C++
8 21 (0.98%) Kusto Query Language
9 19 (0.89%) TypeScript
10 15 (0.70%) C
11 13 (0.61%) Go
11 13 (0.61%) Shell Script
12 11 (0.52%) ABAP
13 10 (0.47%) Bicep
14 9 (0.42%) Korn
14 9 (0.42%) PL/SQL
15 6 (0.28%) T-SQL
16 5 (0.23%) Embedded C++
17 3 (0.14%) Embedded C
Qualifications
1 1,328 (62.29%) SC Cleared
2 722 (33.86%) DV Cleared
3 166 (7.79%) Degree
4 71 (3.33%) Cisco Certification
5 53 (2.49%) CCNP
6 50 (2.35%) CISSP
7 48 (2.25%) BPSS Clearance
8 31 (1.45%) PMP
9 28 (1.31%) PMI Certification
10 26 (1.22%) CISM
11 22 (1.03%) CCNA
12 18 (0.84%) GIAC
13 17 (0.80%) Azure Certification
13 17 (0.80%) CEH
13 17 (0.80%) JNCIS
14 16 (0.75%) Computer Science Degree
15 15 (0.70%) AWS Certification
15 15 (0.70%) CHECK Team Member
16 13 (0.61%) CREST Certified
16 13 (0.61%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 90 (4.22%) NIST
2 88 (4.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 57 (2.67%) GDPR
3 57 (2.67%) NCSC
3 57 (2.67%) PMO
4 52 (2.44%) QA
5 25 (1.17%) Data Quality
6 23 (1.08%) SLA
7 17 (0.80%) PCI DSS
8 16 (0.75%) Accessibility
8 16 (0.75%) JSP 440
9 14 (0.66%) GRC
9 14 (0.66%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 14 (0.66%) NIST 800
10 10 (0.47%) COBIT
11 6 (0.28%) Cyber Essentials
11 6 (0.28%) Government Security Classifications
12 5 (0.23%) P3O
13 4 (0.19%) Actionable Recommendations
13 4 (0.19%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 167 (7.83%) Active Directory
2 102 (4.78%) VMware Infrastructure
3 45 (2.11%) Docker
4 43 (2.02%) VMware NSX
5 37 (1.74%) vSphere
6 24 (1.13%) VMware ESXi
7 14 (0.66%) Firmware
8 12 (0.56%) vCloud
9 11 (0.52%) Hyper-V
9 11 (0.52%) Virtual Desktop
10 9 (0.42%) Oracle RAC
11 7 (0.33%) Virtual Machines
12 3 (0.14%) NFS
13 2 (0.094%) Embedded Firmware
13 2 (0.094%) 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%) Xen
Systems Management
1 100 (4.69%) Kubernetes
2 75 (3.52%) Terraform
3 64 (3.00%) Ansible
4 50 (2.35%) vCenter Server
5 43 (2.02%) Grafana
6 42 (1.97%) Prometheus
7 36 (1.69%) Argo
8 25 (1.17%) FortiGate
9 23 (1.08%) SCCM
10 20 (0.94%) Nmap
11 19 (0.89%) Microsoft Intune
12 18 (0.84%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 13 (0.61%) Kibana
13 13 (0.61%) Single Sign-On
13 13 (0.61%) WMI
14 11 (0.52%) Kustomize
15 10 (0.47%) Forefront Identity Manager
15 10 (0.47%) NetIQ Identity Manager
15 10 (0.47%) Oracle RMAN
16 9 (0.42%) Nagios
Vendors
1 227 (10.65%) Microsoft
2 203 (9.52%) VMware
3 176 (8.26%) Cisco
4 108 (5.07%) SAP
5 86 (4.03%) ServiceNow
6 85 (3.99%) Juniper
7 71 (3.33%) Red Hat
8 65 (3.05%) Splunk
9 61 (2.86%) Oracle
10 57 (2.67%) Aruba
11 46 (2.16%) SolarWinds
12 45 (2.11%) F5
13 38 (1.78%) Palo Alto
14 31 (1.45%) Google
14 31 (1.45%) IBM
15 30 (1.41%) Sparx
16 29 (1.36%) BeyondTrust
17 28 (1.31%) CyberArk
18 26 (1.22%) CheckPoint
19 19 (0.89%) Citrix