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

6 months to
26 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 2,460 948 1,760
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 37.16% 27.42% 33.89%
As % of the Qualifications category 81.38% 68.20% 74.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,730 671 1,137
10th Percentile £400 £303 £398
25th Percentile £469 £450 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £543 £595
Median % change year-on-year +1.22% -8.68% +13.33%
75th Percentile £638 £600 £650
90th Percentile £730 £675 £738
England median daily rate £535 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -0.47% -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 256 75 120
10th Percentile £19.34 - £22.38
25th Percentile £46.25 £18.87 £52.25
Median hourly rate £75.71 £25.15 £61.75
Median % change year-on-year +201.02% -59.27% -0.80%
75th Percentile £87.04 £62.24 £81.10
90th Percentile £102.10 £87.40 £92.37
England median hourly rate £63.50 £25.15 £57.47
% change year-on-year +152.49% -56.24% -4.22%

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 3,023 1,390 2,358
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 45.66% 40.21% 45.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,058 908 1,436
10th Percentile £325 £263 £351
25th Percentile £458 £414 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £600 £638
90th Percentile £725 £666 £725
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 317 110 206
10th Percentile £18.29 £18.87 £17.90
25th Percentile £33.70 £19.47 £27.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £32.05 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +102.81% -44.12% -6.94%
75th Percentile £85.00 £69.91 £70.39
90th Percentile £94.50 £83.41 £87.46
England median hourly rate £54.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +114.71% -41.51% -22.77%

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 26 July 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 26 July 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 26 July 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 1,335 £550 +4.76% 107
Hampshire 0 913 £575 +4.55% 207
Berkshire +1 755 £550 - 66
Buckinghamshire +1 450 £550 +6.80% 30
Oxfordshire +6 130 £465 +145.38% 14
Surrey +2 107 £580 +10.48% 43
West Sussex +11 76 £481 +2.89% 8
Kent -2 11 £445 +18.67% 10
East Sussex +7 7 £459 -
Sussex - 4 £475 - 1
Home Counties +1 2 £525 -18.48%
Middlesex - 2 - -
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 50 (2.03%) SharePoint
2 29 (1.18%) Confluence
3 19 (0.77%) Microsoft Exchange
4 17 (0.69%) Oracle Application Server
5 9 (0.37%) Apache Airflow
6 7 (0.28%) Documentum
6 7 (0.28%) SAS
7 5 (0.20%) Apache
7 5 (0.20%) Oracle Workflow
8 4 (0.16%) Apache Spark
8 4 (0.16%) IIS
8 4 (0.16%) NetWeaver
8 4 (0.16%) SAP EP
9 3 (0.12%) ArcGIS
9 3 (0.12%) CMS
9 3 (0.12%) Palantir Foundry
10 2 (0.081%) nginx
10 2 (0.081%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.081%) Umbraco
10 2 (0.081%) WebLogic
Applications
1 64 (2.60%) Microsoft Excel
2 51 (2.07%) Microsoft Project
3 39 (1.59%) Microsoft Office
4 23 (0.93%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 9 (0.37%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.12%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.081%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 2 (0.081%) CPLEX
7 2 (0.081%) Houdini
7 2 (0.081%) Lectora
7 2 (0.081%) NUKE
7 2 (0.081%) Oracle Smart View
7 2 (0.081%) Windchill
8 1 (0.041%) Autodesk Inventor
8 1 (0.041%) CATIA
8 1 (0.041%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.041%) InVision
8 1 (0.041%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.041%) Simulink
8 1 (0.041%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 55 (2.24%) SAP S/4HANA
2 26 (1.06%) Oracle ERP
3 20 (0.81%) Teamcenter
4 19 (0.77%) SAP PSCD
5 18 (0.73%) Remedy ITSM
6 12 (0.49%) Siebel CRM
7 10 (0.41%) Primavera
8 8 (0.33%) iTrent
8 8 (0.33%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
9 7 (0.28%) SAP BRIM
9 7 (0.28%) SAP Hybris
10 6 (0.24%) SAP EWM
11 4 (0.16%) SAP CRM
11 4 (0.16%) SAP MM
12 3 (0.12%) SAP PP
13 2 (0.081%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
13 2 (0.081%) Remedy AR System
13 2 (0.081%) Salesforce CRM
13 2 (0.081%) SAP FI
13 2 (0.081%) SAP FI-CA
Cloud Services
1 367 (14.92%) Azure
2 202 (8.21%) AWS
3 90 (3.66%) Entra ID
4 80 (3.25%) Azure DevOps
5 74 (3.01%) Power Platform
6 70 (2.85%) GCP
7 48 (1.95%) Microsoft 365
8 37 (1.50%) OpenShift
9 32 (1.30%) IaaS
10 30 (1.22%) PaaS
11 28 (1.14%) SaaS
12 27 (1.10%) OCI
13 20 (0.81%) SuccessFactors
14 16 (0.65%) Azure Monitor
15 13 (0.53%) GitHub
16 12 (0.49%) AWS CloudFormation
16 12 (0.49%) Azure Sentinel
16 12 (0.49%) Serverless
17 11 (0.45%) GitHub Actions
17 11 (0.45%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 141 (5.73%) Firewall
2 131 (5.33%) DNS
3 109 (4.43%) WAN
4 104 (4.23%) LAN
5 84 (3.41%) Network Security
6 80 (3.25%) BGP
7 73 (2.97%) DHCP
8 63 (2.56%) OSPF
9 60 (2.44%) VPN
10 40 (1.63%) TCP/IP
11 38 (1.54%) IPsec
12 34 (1.38%) BIG-IP
12 34 (1.38%) MPLS
12 34 (1.38%) VXLAN
13 32 (1.30%) Ethernet VPN
14 31 (1.26%) SD-WAN
15 26 (1.06%) Junos
15 26 (1.06%) VSAN
16 25 (1.02%) Wireless
17 24 (0.98%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 67 (2.72%) SQL Server
2 62 (2.52%) Power BI
3 42 (1.71%) Data Warehouse
4 32 (1.30%) Oracle Database
5 30 (1.22%) PostgreSQL
6 28 (1.14%) Oracle Reports
7 18 (0.73%) Oracle ODI
8 12 (0.49%) Metadata
9 11 (0.45%) MySQL
10 10 (0.41%) Oracle Database 12c
11 9 (0.37%) Geospatial Data
11 9 (0.37%) Relational Database
12 8 (0.33%) Pentaho
12 8 (0.33%) Siebel EIM
13 7 (0.28%) NoSQL
13 7 (0.28%) Tableau
14 6 (0.24%) Elasticsearch
14 6 (0.24%) Oracle Database 11g
14 6 (0.24%) Redis
15 5 (0.20%) Oracle BI Publisher
Development Applications
1 76 (3.09%) JIRA
2 55 (2.24%) Git
3 48 (1.95%) GitLab
4 38 (1.54%) Rational DOORS
5 26 (1.06%) Jenkins
6 25 (1.02%) SonarQube
7 9 (0.37%) Visual Studio
8 8 (0.33%) Postman
9 7 (0.28%) Sonatype Nexus
10 6 (0.24%) MLflow
11 5 (0.20%) JUnit
12 4 (0.16%) Artifactory
12 4 (0.16%) Eclipse
12 4 (0.16%) Maven
12 4 (0.16%) Subversion
13 3 (0.12%) MSI
13 3 (0.12%) Robot Framework
13 3 (0.12%) Selenium
13 3 (0.12%) Zephyr
14 2 (0.081%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 504 (20.49%) Social Skills
2 278 (11.30%) Public Sector
3 223 (9.07%) Analytical Skills
4 167 (6.79%) Aerospace
5 160 (6.50%) Finance
6 86 (3.50%) Documentation Skills
7 50 (2.03%) Influencing Skills
8 42 (1.71%) Military
9 38 (1.54%) Organisational Skills
10 37 (1.50%) Legal
11 36 (1.46%) Telecoms
12 22 (0.89%) Law
13 18 (0.73%) Billing
14 17 (0.69%) Presentation Skills
15 16 (0.65%) Manufacturing
16 14 (0.57%) Aviation
17 12 (0.49%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 11 (0.45%) Advertising
19 8 (0.33%) Police
20 6 (0.24%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 321 (13.05%) Architect
2 251 (10.20%) Senior
3 231 (9.39%) Lead
4 217 (8.82%) Developer
5 195 (7.93%) Analyst
6 146 (5.93%) Consultant
7 113 (4.59%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 92 (3.74%) Network Engineer
9 80 (3.25%) Security Architect
10 77 (3.13%) Project Manager
10 77 (3.13%) Technical Architect
11 60 (2.44%) Delivery Manager
12 58 (2.36%) Cloud Engineer
13 54 (2.20%) Product Manager
13 54 (2.20%) SAP Consultant
14 53 (2.15%) Support Engineer
15 50 (2.03%) Network Architect
16 49 (1.99%) SOC Analyst
17 45 (1.83%) Senior Manager
18 42 (1.71%) Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 74 (3.01%) REST
2 40 (1.63%) .NET
3 36 (1.46%) OAuth
3 36 (1.46%) RESTful
4 32 (1.30%) 802.1X
5 31 (1.26%) LDAP
6 30 (1.22%) React
7 28 (1.14%) AngularJS
7 28 (1.14%) JSON
7 28 (1.14%) SAML
7 28 (1.14%) SOAP
8 27 (1.10%) OpenID
9 26 (1.06%) SailPoint
10 22 (0.89%) Web Services
11 20 (0.81%) Kafka
11 20 (0.81%) OAuth2
12 19 (0.77%) CSS
12 19 (0.77%) HTML
13 17 (0.69%) Quarkus
14 15 (0.61%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 105 (4.27%) Data Centre
2 100 (4.07%) Onboarding
3 91 (3.70%) Product Ownership
4 88 (3.58%) PKI
5 47 (1.91%) Management Information System
6 37 (1.50%) Data Structures
7 35 (1.42%) Clustering
7 35 (1.42%) Hybrid Cloud
8 33 (1.34%) Public Cloud
9 32 (1.30%) Operational Technology
10 28 (1.14%) Distributed Systems
11 26 (1.06%) Cloud Native
11 26 (1.06%) Greenfield Project
12 25 (1.02%) Self-Motivation
13 22 (0.89%) Enterprise Software
14 20 (0.81%) Replication
15 19 (0.77%) PMI
15 19 (0.77%) Security Operations Centre
16 18 (0.73%) Private Cloud
16 18 (0.73%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 287 (11.67%) Windows
2 213 (8.66%) Linux
3 118 (4.80%) Windows Server
4 56 (2.28%) Unix
5 32 (1.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 20 (0.81%) Windows Server 2019
7 11 (0.45%) Ubuntu
7 11 (0.45%) Windows 10
8 8 (0.33%) Mac OS
9 7 (0.28%) Android
9 7 (0.28%) CentOS
9 7 (0.28%) Embedded Linux
10 5 (0.20%) Debian
10 5 (0.20%) Windows Server 2016
11 4 (0.16%) Apple iOS
12 3 (0.12%) Oracle Linux
13 2 (0.081%) Solaris
13 2 (0.081%) Windows Server 2012
14 1 (0.041%) AIX
14 1 (0.041%) HPUX
Processes & Methodologies
1 471 (19.15%) Agile
2 297 (12.07%) Continuous Improvement
3 292 (11.87%) Stakeholder Management
4 274 (11.14%) ITIL
5 267 (10.85%) Problem-Solving
6 245 (9.96%) Cybersecurity
7 237 (9.63%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 214 (8.70%) CI/CD
9 196 (7.97%) ITSM
10 195 (7.93%) DevOps
11 165 (6.71%) Service Management
12 151 (6.14%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 148 (6.02%) Roadmaps
14 136 (5.53%) Migration
15 129 (5.24%) Change Management
16 123 (5.00%) Service Delivery
17 122 (4.96%) Technical Leadership
18 121 (4.92%) Decision-Making
19 120 (4.88%) Validation
20 118 (4.80%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 207 (8.41%) Python
2 161 (6.54%) PowerShell
3 140 (5.69%) SQL
4 87 (3.54%) Java
5 65 (2.64%) JavaScript
6 58 (2.36%) Bash
7 37 (1.50%) C#
8 25 (1.02%) C++
9 22 (0.89%) PL/SQL
10 19 (0.77%) Bicep
10 19 (0.77%) Go
11 18 (0.73%) C
11 18 (0.73%) Shell Script
12 17 (0.69%) TypeScript
13 14 (0.57%) Kusto Query Language
14 9 (0.37%) ABAP
14 9 (0.37%) Korn
15 6 (0.24%) Rust
16 5 (0.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 5 (0.20%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 1,537 (62.48%) SC Cleared
2 886 (36.02%) DV Cleared
3 194 (7.89%) Degree
4 65 (2.64%) BPSS Clearance
5 64 (2.60%) Cisco Certification
6 51 (2.07%) CISSP
7 48 (1.95%) PMI Certification
8 43 (1.75%) Azure Certification
9 42 (1.71%) PMP
10 32 (1.30%) CCNP
11 28 (1.14%) ISTQB
12 26 (1.06%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 25 (1.02%) Microsoft Certification
14 23 (0.93%) CISM
15 18 (0.73%) Computer Science Degree
16 17 (0.69%) AWS Certification
16 17 (0.69%) TOGAF Certification
17 16 (0.65%) VCAP
18 14 (0.57%) RHCE
19 13 (0.53%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 130 (5.28%) NIST
2 118 (4.80%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 76 (3.09%) PMO
4 66 (2.68%) NCSC
5 61 (2.48%) QA
6 44 (1.79%) GDPR
7 31 (1.26%) SLA
8 30 (1.22%) Data Quality
9 26 (1.06%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 22 (0.89%) JSP 440
10 22 (0.89%) NIST 800
11 19 (0.77%) Accessibility
12 16 (0.65%) GRC
13 14 (0.57%) Cyber Essentials
14 10 (0.41%) ISO 9001
15 9 (0.37%) ISO 31000
16 8 (0.33%) Def Stans
17 7 (0.28%) RMADS
18 6 (0.24%) Government Security Classifications
19 3 (0.12%) ISO 26262
System Software
1 196 (7.97%) Active Directory
2 158 (6.42%) VMware Infrastructure
3 78 (3.17%) VMware NSX
4 60 (2.44%) VMware ESXi
5 56 (2.28%) Docker
6 30 (1.22%) vSphere
7 22 (0.89%) vCloud
8 17 (0.69%) Virtual Machines
9 16 (0.65%) Hyper-V
10 15 (0.61%) Oracle RAC
11 13 (0.53%) Virtual Desktop
12 12 (0.49%) Firmware
13 4 (0.16%) Embedded Firmware
14 3 (0.12%) KVM
14 3 (0.12%) UAG
15 2 (0.081%) Dovecot
15 2 (0.081%) Postfix
15 2 (0.081%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 101 (4.11%) Kubernetes
2 78 (3.17%) Terraform
3 74 (3.01%) vCenter Server
4 58 (2.36%) Ansible
5 43 (1.75%) SCOM
6 33 (1.34%) FortiGate
7 23 (0.93%) Argo
8 19 (0.77%) Grafana
9 18 (0.73%) Microsoft Intune
9 18 (0.73%) Oracle RMAN
9 18 (0.73%) SCCM
10 17 (0.69%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 17 (0.69%) Prometheus
11 15 (0.61%) Avamar
12 11 (0.45%) Red Hat Satellite
13 10 (0.41%) Single Sign-On
14 9 (0.37%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
15 7 (0.28%) Data Guard
15 7 (0.28%) WMI
16 5 (0.20%) WSUS
Vendors
1 307 (12.48%) Microsoft
2 244 (9.92%) VMware
3 161 (6.54%) Oracle
4 158 (6.42%) ServiceNow
5 152 (6.18%) SAP
6 116 (4.72%) Cisco
7 77 (3.13%) Juniper
8 58 (2.36%) Red Hat
9 56 (2.28%) SolarWinds
10 52 (2.11%) F5
11 35 (1.42%) Palo Alto
12 33 (1.34%) BeyondTrust
12 33 (1.34%) Citrix
13 31 (1.26%) Google
13 31 (1.26%) Splunk
14 30 (1.22%) CyberArk
15 29 (1.18%) IBM
16 25 (1.02%) Extreme Networks
17 22 (0.89%) Remedy
18 21 (0.85%) Fortinet