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

6 months to
17 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 1,987 756 1,907
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 37.70% 25.48% 33.88%
As % of the Qualifications category 79.99% 65.28% 75.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,346 537 1,073
10th Percentile £316 £325 £334
25th Percentile £437 £456 £465
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -4.35% +4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £700 £737
England median daily rate £525 £548 £550
% change year-on-year -4.20% -0.36% -2.31%
Number of hourly rates quoted 206 54 116
10th Percentile £16.72 £24.28 £22.55
25th Percentile £20.82 £31.25 £51.25
Median hourly rate £55.00 £61.50 £60.07
Median % change year-on-year -10.56% +2.37% +0.12%
75th Percentile £85.36 £65.62 £70.50
90th Percentile £90.09 £80.07 £85.65
England median hourly rate £27.50 £60.00 £54.03
% change year-on-year -54.17% +11.05% -9.95%

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 2,484 1,158 2,533
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 47.13% 39.03% 45.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,642 752 1,427
10th Percentile £303 £263 £260
25th Percentile £413 £419 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £517 £541 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.48% -1.59% +3.77%
75th Percentile £610 £630 £638
90th Percentile £725 £700 £713
England median daily rate £520 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -0.95% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 257 81 179
10th Percentile £15.62 £19.97 £17.80
25th Percentile £20.32 £28.00 £23.50
Median hourly rate £42.25 £56.75 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -25.55% -1.05% +14.70%
75th Percentile £84.00 £67.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £88.84 £78.36 £82.42
England median hourly rate £28.50 £50.75 £38.95
% change year-on-year -43.84% +30.30% -22.10%

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 17 March 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 17 March 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 17 March 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 1,026 £495 -10.00% 160
Hampshire 0 791 £575 - 139
Berkshire +2 686 £450 -23.08% 82
Buckinghamshire +1 265 £560 +14.87% 54
Surrey +12 75 £525 -19.23% 33
Oxfordshire +10 75 £420 -28.51% 27
West Sussex +5 48 £537 -14.25% 17
Kent +1 26 £443 +26.43% 21
Sussex 0 7 £475 +9.83% 3
East Sussex +5 3 £588 +6.82% 7
Middlesex - 1 - -
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 50 (2.52%) SharePoint
2 40 (2.01%) Microsoft Exchange
3 18 (0.91%) Confluence
4 5 (0.25%) Apache
4 5 (0.25%) ArcGIS
4 5 (0.25%) IIS
4 5 (0.25%) Oracle Workflow
5 3 (0.15%) MS Project Server
5 3 (0.15%) Smallworld
6 2 (0.10%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.10%) GeoServer
6 2 (0.10%) NetWeaver
6 2 (0.10%) SAP EP
7 1 (0.050%) Anypoint
7 1 (0.050%) Apache Pulsar
7 1 (0.050%) BizTalk Server
7 1 (0.050%) JBoss
7 1 (0.050%) Palantir Foundry
7 1 (0.050%) SAS
7 1 (0.050%) WebLogic
Applications
1 64 (3.22%) Microsoft Excel
2 61 (3.07%) Microsoft Office
3 37 (1.86%) Microsoft Project
4 30 (1.51%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 12 (0.60%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.10%) Lectora
6 2 (0.10%) Oracle Smart View
6 2 (0.10%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.050%) Autodesk Inventor
7 1 (0.050%) CATIA
7 1 (0.050%) CPLEX
7 1 (0.050%) MicroStation
7 1 (0.050%) PTC Creo
7 1 (0.050%) Siemens NX
7 1 (0.050%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 31 (1.56%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 24 (1.21%) SAP S/4HANA
3 7 (0.35%) Oracle Assets
3 7 (0.35%) Oracle ERP
3 7 (0.35%) Oracle Payables
3 7 (0.35%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
3 7 (0.35%) SAP PSCD
4 6 (0.30%) SAP BRIM
4 6 (0.30%) SAP HR
4 6 (0.30%) SAP Hybris
4 6 (0.30%) SAP Payroll
5 5 (0.25%) Salesforce CRM
5 5 (0.25%) Teamcenter
6 4 (0.20%) Remedy ITSM
7 3 (0.15%) Payment Gateway
7 3 (0.15%) Primavera
7 3 (0.15%) SAP HCM
8 2 (0.10%) Oracle General Ledger
8 2 (0.10%) Oracle Receivables
8 2 (0.10%) SAP CRM
Cloud Services
1 276 (13.89%) Azure
2 191 (9.61%) AWS
3 87 (4.38%) GCP
4 79 (3.98%) Entra ID
5 71 (3.57%) Microsoft 365
6 49 (2.47%) Azure DevOps
7 44 (2.21%) OpenShift
7 44 (2.21%) Power Platform
8 36 (1.81%) GitHub
9 28 (1.41%) IaaS
9 28 (1.41%) PaaS
10 21 (1.06%) GitHub Actions
11 20 (1.01%) OneDrive
12 15 (0.75%) Cloud Computing
12 15 (0.75%) SaaS
13 14 (0.70%) Serverless
14 12 (0.60%) AWS CloudFormation
14 12 (0.60%) Power Automate
14 12 (0.60%) PowerApps
15 11 (0.55%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 153 (7.70%) Firewall
2 93 (4.68%) DNS
3 92 (4.63%) WAN
4 88 (4.43%) LAN
5 75 (3.77%) BGP
6 70 (3.52%) OSPF
7 63 (3.17%) Network Security
8 61 (3.07%) DHCP
9 48 (2.42%) VPN
10 38 (1.91%) TCP/IP
11 36 (1.81%) Junos
12 33 (1.66%) Cisco ISE
13 30 (1.51%) Wireless
14 29 (1.46%) IPsec
15 26 (1.31%) Ethernet VPN
16 25 (1.26%) VXLAN
17 23 (1.16%) BIG-IP
18 22 (1.11%) MPLS
18 22 (1.11%) Structured Cabling
19 21 (1.06%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 41 (2.06%) SQL Server
2 39 (1.96%) Power BI
3 26 (1.31%) PostgreSQL
4 12 (0.60%) Oracle Database
5 11 (0.55%) Metadata
6 10 (0.50%) Azure SQL Database
6 10 (0.50%) Redis
6 10 (0.50%) Relational Database
7 8 (0.40%) Oracle Reports
8 7 (0.35%) MongoDB
8 7 (0.35%) Oracle Database 12c
8 7 (0.35%) SAP HANA
9 6 (0.30%) MySQL
9 6 (0.30%) NoSQL
10 5 (0.25%) Data Warehouse
10 5 (0.25%) Metadata Repository
10 5 (0.25%) SAP Data Services
11 4 (0.20%) GIS
12 3 (0.15%) Oracle BI Publisher
12 3 (0.15%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 59 (2.97%) JIRA
2 44 (2.21%) Git
3 41 (2.06%) Rational DOORS
4 39 (1.96%) Jenkins
5 37 (1.86%) GitLab
6 22 (1.11%) Burp Suite
6 22 (1.11%) Metasploit
7 10 (0.50%) Visual Studio
8 8 (0.40%) Artifactory
8 8 (0.40%) Maven
8 8 (0.40%) SonarQube
9 7 (0.35%) Android Studio
9 7 (0.35%) Subversion
10 6 (0.30%) JUnit
10 6 (0.30%) Robot Framework
11 5 (0.25%) Bitbucket
11 5 (0.25%) Gradle
11 5 (0.25%) Sonatype Nexus
12 4 (0.20%) Cypress.io
12 4 (0.20%) Eclipse
General
1 505 (25.42%) Social Skills
2 323 (16.26%) Public Sector
3 196 (9.86%) Analytical Skills
4 117 (5.89%) Finance
5 90 (4.53%) Aerospace
6 76 (3.82%) Documentation Skills
7 44 (2.21%) Military
8 34 (1.71%) Influencing Skills
9 32 (1.61%) Legal
10 31 (1.56%) Manufacturing
11 30 (1.51%) Telecoms
12 20 (1.01%) Presentation Skills
13 19 (0.96%) Law
14 15 (0.75%) Marketing
15 14 (0.70%) Organisational Skills
16 12 (0.60%) Billing
17 8 (0.40%) Advertising
17 8 (0.40%) Electronics
18 7 (0.35%) Aviation
19 6 (0.30%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 318 (16.00%) Architect
2 179 (9.01%) Senior
3 146 (7.35%) Lead
4 143 (7.20%) Analyst
5 123 (6.19%) Network Engineer
6 117 (5.89%) Consultant
7 111 (5.59%) Developer
8 61 (3.07%) Project Manager
9 60 (3.02%) Technical Architect
10 54 (2.72%) Delivery Manager
10 54 (2.72%) Tester
11 50 (2.52%) Enterprise Architect
12 49 (2.47%) Product Manager
12 49 (2.47%) Support Engineer
13 48 (2.42%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 46 (2.32%) Security Architect
15 45 (2.26%) DevOps Engineer
16 39 (1.96%) Product Delivery Manager
17 36 (1.81%) IT Engineer
18 34 (1.71%) Infrastructure Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (1.71%) LDAP
2 33 (1.66%) REST
3 29 (1.46%) React
4 28 (1.41%) .NET
5 22 (1.11%) 802.1X
5 22 (1.11%) JSON
6 19 (0.96%) Elastic Stack
6 19 (0.96%) RESTful
7 18 (0.91%) Kafka
8 17 (0.86%) AngularJS
8 17 (0.86%) Oracle Fusion
8 17 (0.86%) XML
9 16 (0.81%) SailPoint
9 16 (0.81%) SOAP
10 12 (0.60%) OAuth
10 12 (0.60%) Web Services
11 11 (0.55%) CSS
11 11 (0.55%) Loki
11 11 (0.55%) Oracle GoldenGate
11 11 (0.55%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 95 (4.78%) Data Centre
2 86 (4.33%) PKI
3 71 (3.57%) Product Ownership
4 50 (2.52%) Onboarding
5 42 (2.11%) Management Information System
6 31 (1.56%) Data Structures
6 31 (1.56%) Self-Motivation
7 28 (1.41%) Cloud Native
8 26 (1.31%) Security Operations Centre
9 25 (1.26%) Replication
10 24 (1.21%) Clustering
11 22 (1.11%) Analytical Mindset
12 21 (1.06%) Security Posture
13 20 (1.01%) Driving Licence
14 17 (0.86%) Distributed Systems
15 15 (0.75%) Cyber Threat
16 13 (0.65%) Legacy Systems
16 13 (0.65%) Private Cloud
16 13 (0.65%) Public Cloud
16 13 (0.65%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 278 (13.99%) Windows
2 191 (9.61%) Linux
3 73 (3.67%) Windows Server
4 37 (1.86%) Windows 10
5 33 (1.66%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 17 (0.86%) Android
7 14 (0.70%) Unix
8 13 (0.65%) Ubuntu
9 9 (0.45%) Windows 7
10 7 (0.35%) Kali Linux
10 7 (0.35%) Windows Server 2016
11 6 (0.30%) Mac OS
12 5 (0.25%) Windows Server 2019
13 4 (0.20%) Apple iOS
13 4 (0.20%) CentOS
14 3 (0.15%) Debian
14 3 (0.15%) Embedded Linux
15 2 (0.10%) SUSE
15 2 (0.10%) VMS
15 2 (0.10%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 365 (18.37%) Agile
2 227 (11.42%) Problem-Solving
3 201 (10.12%) ITIL
4 193 (9.71%) DevOps
5 190 (9.56%) CI/CD
5 190 (9.56%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 174 (8.76%) Continuous Improvement
7 172 (8.66%) Migration
8 170 (8.56%) Stakeholder Management
9 153 (7.70%) Roadmaps
10 152 (7.65%) Cybersecurity
11 127 (6.39%) Service Management
12 111 (5.59%) ITSM
13 108 (5.44%) Project Management
14 91 (4.58%) SIEM
15 87 (4.38%) Change Management
16 82 (4.13%) Decision-Making
17 81 (4.08%) DevSecOps
18 79 (3.98%) Infrastructure Engineering
19 78 (3.93%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 194 (9.76%) Python
2 159 (8.00%) PowerShell
3 59 (2.97%) Java
4 58 (2.92%) Bash
4 58 (2.92%) SQL
5 40 (2.01%) C#
6 39 (1.96%) JavaScript
7 25 (1.26%) C++
8 21 (1.06%) Kusto Query Language
9 17 (0.86%) TypeScript
10 13 (0.65%) Shell Script
11 12 (0.60%) C
11 12 (0.60%) Go
12 9 (0.45%) ABAP
12 9 (0.45%) Korn
13 8 (0.40%) Embedded C++
13 8 (0.40%) PL/SQL
14 7 (0.35%) Bicep
15 5 (0.25%) T-SQL
16 3 (0.15%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 1,248 (62.81%) SC Cleared
2 625 (31.45%) DV Cleared
3 157 (7.90%) Degree
4 65 (3.27%) Cisco Certification
5 50 (2.52%) CISSP
6 49 (2.47%) CCNP
7 44 (2.21%) BPSS Clearance
8 28 (1.41%) CISM
9 26 (1.31%) PMP
10 23 (1.16%) PMI Certification
11 22 (1.11%) CEH
12 21 (1.06%) CCNA
13 19 (0.96%) Azure Certification
14 18 (0.91%) GIAC
15 16 (0.81%) AWS Certification
15 16 (0.81%) JNCIS
16 15 (0.75%) CHECK Team Member
16 15 (0.75%) Computer Science Degree
17 13 (0.65%) CREST Certified
17 13 (0.65%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 85 (4.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 84 (4.23%) NIST
3 57 (2.87%) GDPR
4 54 (2.72%) PMO
5 50 (2.52%) NCSC
6 47 (2.37%) QA
7 23 (1.16%) Data Quality
8 22 (1.11%) SLA
9 17 (0.86%) PCI DSS
10 15 (0.75%) JSP 440
11 14 (0.70%) Accessibility
12 13 (0.65%) GRC
12 13 (0.65%) ISO/IEC 20000
13 12 (0.60%) NIST 800
14 10 (0.50%) COBIT
15 5 (0.25%) Cyber Essentials
15 5 (0.25%) Def Stans
15 5 (0.25%) Government Security Classifications
15 5 (0.25%) P3O
16 4 (0.20%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 177 (8.91%) Active Directory
2 91 (4.58%) VMware Infrastructure
3 50 (2.52%) Docker
4 34 (1.71%) vSphere
5 32 (1.61%) VMware NSX
6 17 (0.86%) VMware ESXi
7 11 (0.55%) Hyper-V
8 10 (0.50%) Firmware
8 10 (0.50%) vCloud
8 10 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
9 9 (0.45%) Oracle RAC
10 8 (0.40%) Virtual Machines
11 3 (0.15%) NFS
12 1 (0.050%) KVM
12 1 (0.050%) RHEV
12 1 (0.050%) Sendmail
12 1 (0.050%) Terminal Services
12 1 (0.050%) UAG
12 1 (0.050%) Xen
Systems Management
1 102 (5.13%) Kubernetes
2 68 (3.42%) Terraform
3 67 (3.37%) Ansible
4 46 (2.32%) Grafana
4 46 (2.32%) vCenter Server
5 45 (2.26%) Prometheus
6 33 (1.66%) Argo
7 28 (1.41%) SCCM
8 24 (1.21%) Nmap
9 22 (1.11%) FortiGate
10 18 (0.91%) Microsoft Intune
11 17 (0.86%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 15 (0.75%) Single Sign-On
12 15 (0.75%) WMI
13 13 (0.65%) Kibana
14 11 (0.55%) Kustomize
15 10 (0.50%) Oracle RMAN
16 9 (0.45%) Nagios
16 9 (0.45%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
16 9 (0.45%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 222 (11.17%) Microsoft
2 181 (9.11%) VMware
3 180 (9.06%) Cisco
4 83 (4.18%) Juniper
4 83 (4.18%) ServiceNow
5 77 (3.88%) SAP
6 65 (3.27%) Red Hat
7 60 (3.02%) Aruba
7 60 (3.02%) Splunk
8 46 (2.32%) SolarWinds
9 44 (2.21%) Oracle
10 43 (2.16%) F5
11 39 (1.96%) Palo Alto
12 37 (1.86%) Google
13 34 (1.71%) IBM
14 33 (1.66%) CyberArk
15 32 (1.61%) Sparx
16 29 (1.46%) BeyondTrust
17 25 (1.26%) CheckPoint
18 17 (0.86%) Extreme Networks