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 24 December 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 +1
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 1,430 954 1,609
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 32.44% 25.81% 32.44%
As % of the Qualifications category 74.40% 67.37% 73.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 999 674 907
10th Percentile £305 £325 £225
25th Percentile £450 £430 £435
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £523 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £603 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £724 £700
England median daily rate £525 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -4.55% - -2.31%
Number of hourly rates quoted 147 59 111
10th Percentile - £22.25 £30.73
25th Percentile £18.87 £31.25 £52.35
Median hourly rate £25.15 £59.00 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -57.37% -1.67% +9.09%
75th Percentile £53.17 £64.73 £70.00
90th Percentile £90.09 £75.08 £78.00
England median hourly rate £25.15 £58.38 £60.00
% change year-on-year -56.92% -2.71% -

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 1,922 1,416 2,185
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 43.60% 38.31% 44.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,278 940 1,297
10th Percentile £269 £263 £213
25th Percentile £415 £408 £403
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -
75th Percentile £600 £638 £638
90th Percentile £694 £700 £700
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 196 77 139
10th Percentile £16.42 £20.80 £27.40
25th Percentile £18.97 £31.25 £49.84
Median hourly rate £25.15 £56.75 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -55.68% -5.43% +33.33%
75th Percentile £61.13 £64.73 £70.00
90th Percentile £90.09 £75.00 £78.00
England median hourly rate £25.15 £47.25 £52.05
% change year-on-year -46.77% -9.24% +15.67%

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 24 December 2025.

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 24 December 2025.

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 24 December 2025. 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
Hampshire 0 674 £550 -4.35% 205
Thames Valley 0 629 £488 -7.14% 158
Berkshire 0 433 £475 -18.52% 90
Buckinghamshire 0 149 £522 +10.89% 48
Surrey +29 60 £550 -15.38% 56
Oxfordshire +5 47 £275 -56.00% 21
West Sussex +11 33 £515 -28.97% 15
Kent +9 13 £438 +143.06% 48
Middlesex - 6 - -
Home Counties - 2 £872 -
East Sussex +5 1 £450 -18.18% 14
Sussex -5 1 £525 +21.39%
Isle of Wight - 1 £81 - 10
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 31 (2.17%) SharePoint
2 29 (2.03%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (0.56%) Exchange Server 2010
3 8 (0.56%) Exchange Server 2013
3 8 (0.56%) Skype for Business
4 7 (0.49%) Confluence
4 7 (0.49%) Exchange Server 2003
4 7 (0.49%) Exchange Server 2007
4 7 (0.49%) Office Communications Server
4 7 (0.49%) SharePoint Server
5 4 (0.28%) Apache
6 3 (0.21%) CMS
6 3 (0.21%) Documentum
6 3 (0.21%) IIS
7 2 (0.14%) GeoServer
7 2 (0.14%) Smallworld
8 1 (0.070%) Anypoint
8 1 (0.070%) ArcGIS
8 1 (0.070%) NetWeaver
8 1 (0.070%) Red Hat Fuse
Applications
1 48 (3.36%) Microsoft Office
2 38 (2.66%) Microsoft Excel
3 25 (1.75%) Microsoft Project
4 14 (0.98%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.42%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.070%) PTC Creo
Business Applications
1 32 (2.24%) SAP S/4HANA
2 26 (1.82%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 9 (0.63%) SAP HR
3 9 (0.63%) SAP Payroll
4 8 (0.56%) SAP EWM
4 8 (0.56%) SAP HCM
4 8 (0.56%) SAP WM
5 5 (0.35%) Salesforce CRM
6 4 (0.28%) Primavera
7 3 (0.21%) SAP ERP
7 3 (0.21%) SAP PSCD
8 2 (0.14%) Oracle Assets
8 2 (0.14%) Oracle Cash Management
8 2 (0.14%) Oracle General Ledger
8 2 (0.14%) Oracle Payables
8 2 (0.14%) Oracle Receivables
8 2 (0.14%) SAP BRIM
8 2 (0.14%) SAP Hybris
8 2 (0.14%) SAP PS
9 1 (0.070%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 190 (13.29%) Azure
2 160 (11.19%) AWS
3 71 (4.97%) GCP
4 57 (3.99%) Microsoft 365
5 39 (2.73%) OpenShift
6 32 (2.24%) Entra ID
7 27 (1.89%) GitHub
8 20 (1.40%) Power Platform
9 19 (1.33%) Azure DevOps
10 17 (1.19%) OneDrive
11 16 (1.12%) GitHub Actions
12 14 (0.98%) Amazon EKS
12 14 (0.98%) Cloud Computing
12 14 (0.98%) IaaS
12 14 (0.98%) SaaS
13 9 (0.63%) AWS CloudFormation
13 9 (0.63%) PaaS
14 8 (0.56%) Amazon ECR
14 8 (0.56%) Serverless
15 7 (0.49%) Google Ads
Communications & Networking
1 90 (6.29%) Firewall
2 62 (4.34%) DNS
3 41 (2.87%) VPN
4 39 (2.73%) DHCP
4 39 (2.73%) LAN
5 36 (2.52%) TCP/IP
6 35 (2.45%) Network Security
6 35 (2.45%) WAN
7 29 (2.03%) BGP
7 29 (2.03%) SAN
8 27 (1.89%) Cisco IOS
9 26 (1.82%) Junos
10 25 (1.75%) OSPF
11 23 (1.61%) Cisco Firepower
11 23 (1.61%) Cisco ISE
11 23 (1.61%) VLAN
12 18 (1.26%) Wireless
13 16 (1.12%) MPLS
14 12 (0.84%) IPsec
15 11 (0.77%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (1.40%) SQL Server
2 17 (1.19%) Power BI
3 15 (1.05%) PostgreSQL
4 8 (0.56%) MongoDB
4 8 (0.56%) NoSQL
5 7 (0.49%) Redis
5 7 (0.49%) SAP HANA
6 6 (0.42%) Metadata
6 6 (0.42%) Oracle Reports
6 6 (0.42%) Relational Database
7 5 (0.35%) Azure SQL Database
7 5 (0.35%) Oracle Database
8 4 (0.28%) MySQL
9 3 (0.21%) SAP Data Services
10 2 (0.14%) Amazon RDS
10 2 (0.14%) Big Data
10 2 (0.14%) Data Warehouse
10 2 (0.14%) Geospatial Data
10 2 (0.14%) GIS
10 2 (0.14%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 49 (3.43%) JIRA
2 43 (3.01%) Jenkins
3 38 (2.66%) GitLab
4 27 (1.89%) Git
5 14 (0.98%) Burp Suite
5 14 (0.98%) Metasploit
6 7 (0.49%) Artifactory
7 5 (0.35%) Android Studio
8 4 (0.28%) Gradle
8 4 (0.28%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.21%) Cucumber
9 3 (0.21%) JUnit
9 3 (0.21%) Maven
9 3 (0.21%) Postman
9 3 (0.21%) Robot Framework
9 3 (0.21%) Selenium
9 3 (0.21%) Sonatype Nexus
9 3 (0.21%) Storybook
10 2 (0.14%) Oracle Forms
10 2 (0.14%) Visual Studio
General
1 419 (29.30%) Social Skills
2 255 (17.83%) Public Sector
3 149 (10.42%) Analytical Skills
4 72 (5.03%) Finance
5 42 (2.94%) Documentation Skills
6 36 (2.52%) Manufacturing
7 34 (2.38%) Telecoms
8 27 (1.89%) Military
9 22 (1.54%) Influencing Skills
10 21 (1.47%) Aerospace
11 20 (1.40%) Legal
12 17 (1.19%) Presentation Skills
13 15 (1.05%) Organisational Skills
14 14 (0.98%) Electronics
15 13 (0.91%) Marketing
16 12 (0.84%) Law
17 7 (0.49%) Pharmaceutical
18 5 (0.35%) Banking
19 4 (0.28%) Billing
19 4 (0.28%) General Ledger
Job Titles
1 262 (18.32%) Architect
2 109 (7.62%) Consultant
3 103 (7.20%) Analyst
4 93 (6.50%) Network Engineer
5 91 (6.36%) Senior
6 85 (5.94%) Lead
7 69 (4.83%) Support Engineer
8 50 (3.50%) Developer
9 45 (3.15%) DevOps Engineer
10 43 (3.01%) Project Manager
11 40 (2.80%) IT Engineer
12 39 (2.73%) Cloud Engineer
12 39 (2.73%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 38 (2.66%) Infrastructure Architect
14 37 (2.59%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
14 37 (2.59%) Enterprise Architect
14 37 (2.59%) Tester
15 36 (2.52%) 3rd Line Engineer
15 36 (2.52%) SAP Consultant
16 35 (2.45%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (1.40%) React
2 16 (1.12%) LDAP
3 15 (1.05%) REST
4 14 (0.98%) .NET
4 14 (0.98%) Elastic Stack
5 13 (0.91%) Kafka
5 13 (0.91%) RESTful
6 9 (0.63%) Middleware
6 9 (0.63%) SOAP
6 9 (0.63%) Web Services
6 9 (0.63%) XML
7 8 (0.56%) AngularJS
7 8 (0.56%) JSON
7 8 (0.56%) Keycloak
7 8 (0.56%) Loki
7 8 (0.56%) Oracle Fusion
7 8 (0.56%) SAP Fiori
7 8 (0.56%) Spring Boot
8 7 (0.49%) Vue
9 6 (0.42%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 58 (4.06%) PKI
2 35 (2.45%) Data Centre
3 33 (2.31%) Onboarding
4 31 (2.17%) Management Information System
5 24 (1.68%) Security Operations Centre
6 23 (1.61%) Cloud Native
6 23 (1.61%) Private Cloud
7 21 (1.47%) Analytical Mindset
8 19 (1.33%) Self-Motivation
9 17 (1.19%) Legacy Systems
10 16 (1.12%) Driving Licence
10 16 (1.12%) PMI
11 13 (0.91%) Replication
12 12 (0.84%) Cyber Security Posture
12 12 (0.84%) Cyber Threat
13 11 (0.77%) Product Ownership
13 11 (0.77%) Security Posture
14 10 (0.70%) Fat Client
14 10 (0.70%) Thin Client
15 9 (0.63%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 238 (16.64%) Windows
2 152 (10.63%) Linux
3 58 (4.06%) Windows Server
4 48 (3.36%) Windows 10
5 27 (1.89%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 13 (0.91%) Windows Server 2019
7 11 (0.77%) Android
7 11 (0.77%) Windows 7
8 8 (0.56%) Windows Server 2012
9 7 (0.49%) Ubuntu
9 7 (0.49%) Unix
9 7 (0.49%) Windows Server 2003
10 6 (0.42%) Kali Linux
10 6 (0.42%) Mac OS
11 5 (0.35%) VMS
11 5 (0.35%) Windows Server 2016
12 3 (0.21%) Debian
13 2 (0.14%) Apple iOS
13 2 (0.14%) SUSE
13 2 (0.14%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 233 (16.29%) Agile
2 177 (12.38%) Problem-Solving
3 170 (11.89%) ITIL
4 159 (11.12%) Migration
5 142 (9.93%) CI/CD
6 138 (9.65%) DevOps
7 126 (8.81%) Service Management
8 119 (8.32%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 102 (7.13%) Stakeholder Management
10 96 (6.71%) Cybersecurity
11 88 (6.15%) Roadmaps
12 81 (5.66%) Continuous Improvement
12 81 (5.66%) ITSM
13 74 (5.17%) Workflow
14 67 (4.69%) Project Management
15 66 (4.62%) SIEM
16 65 (4.55%) Project Delivery
17 60 (4.20%) Change Management
17 60 (4.20%) Collaborative Working
18 58 (4.06%) Infrastructure Engineering
Programming Languages
1 164 (11.47%) Python
2 121 (8.46%) PowerShell
3 61 (4.27%) Java
4 59 (4.13%) SQL
5 48 (3.36%) Bash
6 38 (2.66%) JavaScript
7 30 (2.10%) C#
8 14 (0.98%) ABAP
8 14 (0.98%) C++
9 11 (0.77%) Go
9 11 (0.77%) Kusto Query Language
10 10 (0.70%) Shell Script
11 7 (0.49%) C
11 7 (0.49%) PL/SQL
11 7 (0.49%) TypeScript
12 6 (0.42%) Embedded C++
13 2 (0.14%) Ada
13 2 (0.14%) Assembly Language
13 2 (0.14%) MATLAB
14 1 (0.070%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 906 (63.36%) SC Cleared
2 472 (33.01%) DV Cleared
3 75 (5.24%) Degree
4 43 (3.01%) Cisco Certification
4 43 (3.01%) CISSP
5 39 (2.73%) CCNP
6 28 (1.96%) Microsoft Certification
7 23 (1.61%) CEH
8 22 (1.54%) BPSS Clearance
9 21 (1.47%) AWS Certification
9 21 (1.47%) Azure Certification
9 21 (1.47%) CISM
10 20 (1.40%) GIAC
11 19 (1.33%) CCNA
12 18 (1.26%) PMI Certification
13 15 (1.05%) PMP
14 13 (0.91%) Network+ Certification
15 12 (0.84%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
16 10 (0.70%) ITIL Certification
16 10 (0.70%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 57 (3.99%) GDPR
2 55 (3.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 50 (3.50%) NIST
4 38 (2.66%) QA
5 32 (2.24%) ISO/IEC 20000
6 27 (1.89%) SLA
7 25 (1.75%) PMO
8 21 (1.47%) NCSC
9 10 (0.70%) COBIT
9 10 (0.70%) PCI DSS
10 9 (0.63%) GRC
10 9 (0.63%) JSP 440
11 7 (0.49%) RMADS
12 5 (0.35%) Data Quality
13 4 (0.28%) Actionable Recommendations
13 4 (0.28%) Def Stans
13 4 (0.28%) HIPAA
13 4 (0.28%) ISO 9001
13 4 (0.28%) NIST 800
13 4 (0.28%) P3O
System Software
1 132 (9.23%) Active Directory
2 76 (5.31%) VMware Infrastructure
3 42 (2.94%) Docker
4 34 (2.38%) vSphere
5 33 (2.31%) VMware NSX
6 23 (1.61%) VMware ESXi
7 12 (0.84%) Hyper-V
8 11 (0.77%) NFS
9 9 (0.63%) Virtual Desktop
10 8 (0.56%) Virtual Machines
11 7 (0.49%) Brightmail
11 7 (0.49%) ISA Server
12 5 (0.35%) Firmware
13 3 (0.21%) vCloud
14 2 (0.14%) Terminal Services
14 2 (0.14%) UAG
15 1 (0.070%) NDS
15 1 (0.070%) NetIQ eDirectory
15 1 (0.070%) Sendmail
15 1 (0.070%) Xen
Systems Management
1 93 (6.50%) Kubernetes
2 70 (4.90%) Ansible
3 57 (3.99%) Terraform
4 43 (3.01%) vCenter Server
5 35 (2.45%) Grafana
5 35 (2.45%) Prometheus
6 24 (1.68%) SCCM
7 22 (1.54%) Argo
8 17 (1.19%) Nmap
9 14 (0.98%) WMI
10 13 (0.91%) SCOM
11 12 (0.84%) Kibana
12 11 (0.77%) Microsoft Intune
13 9 (0.63%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 9 (0.63%) Single Sign-On
14 8 (0.56%) Kustomize
14 8 (0.56%) Microsoft Clustering
14 8 (0.56%) vRealize
15 7 (0.49%) Proxmox
15 7 (0.49%) Sysdig
Vendors
1 199 (13.92%) Microsoft
2 147 (10.28%) VMware
3 143 (10.00%) Cisco
4 92 (6.43%) SAP
5 70 (4.90%) Juniper
6 58 (4.06%) ServiceNow
7 57 (3.99%) Red Hat
8 43 (3.01%) Splunk
9 42 (2.94%) Aruba
10 34 (2.38%) SolarWinds
11 32 (2.24%) Google
12 27 (1.89%) Sparx
13 25 (1.75%) Oracle
13 25 (1.75%) Palo Alto
14 23 (1.61%) NetApp
15 22 (1.54%) CyberArk
16 20 (1.40%) CheckPoint
17 15 (1.05%) BeyondTrust
18 14 (0.98%) HP
19 13 (0.91%) Fortinet