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

6 months to
31 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 2,236 781 1,899
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 37.29% 26.38% 33.83%
As % of the Qualifications category 82.27% 66.02% 75.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,567 548 1,155
10th Percentile £368 £306 £400
25th Percentile £461 £450 £482
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £600
Median % change year-on-year - -8.33% +14.29%
75th Percentile £625 £613 £675
90th Percentile £725 £688 £738
England median daily rate £525 £537 £550
% change year-on-year -2.23% -2.36% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 223 49 130
10th Percentile £18.26 £18.44 £22.52
25th Percentile £34.51 £25.15 £53.43
Median hourly rate £70.00 £57.50 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +21.74% -6.66% -2.99%
75th Percentile £85.31 £73.75 £83.30
90th Percentile £97.50 £86.50 £87.78
England median hourly rate £55.00 £40.00 £56.49
% change year-on-year +37.50% -29.19% -5.85%

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 2,718 1,183 2,521
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 45.33% 39.95% 44.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,843 752 1,455
10th Percentile £315 £263 £346
25th Percentile £438 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £531 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +1.16% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £603 £650
90th Percentile £725 £675 £733
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 277 82 219
10th Percentile £16.35 £18.65 £17.76
25th Percentile £25.77 £28.00 £27.12
Median hourly rate £55.00 £55.88 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -1.57% -2.57% -4.42%
75th Percentile £84.00 £70.94 £70.00
90th Percentile £88.00 £78.24 £87.46
England median hourly rate £47.50 £32.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +46.15% -18.75% -27.27%

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 31 May 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 31 May 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 31 May 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 +2 1,196 £525 -5.41% 99
Hampshire 0 834 £575 +4.55% 139
Berkshire +1 680 £500 -13.04% 65
Buckinghamshire +1 406 £560 +3.23% 23
Oxfordshire +8 110 £450 +80.36% 22
Surrey +2 97 £525 - 23
West Sussex +3 60 £483 -10.06% 3
Kent +2 20 £443 +18.00% 11
East Sussex +3 7 £459 -16.55% 2
Sussex - 6 £475 -
Home Counties - 2 £525 -
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 49 (2.19%) SharePoint
2 33 (1.48%) Microsoft Exchange
3 28 (1.25%) Confluence
4 13 (0.58%) Oracle Application Server
5 8 (0.36%) IIS
6 7 (0.31%) Oracle Workflow
7 6 (0.27%) SAS
8 5 (0.22%) Apache
8 5 (0.22%) ArcGIS
9 4 (0.18%) NetWeaver
9 4 (0.18%) SAP EP
10 3 (0.13%) MS Project Server
11 2 (0.089%) Apache Airflow
11 2 (0.089%) Apache Spark
11 2 (0.089%) CMS
11 2 (0.089%) nginx
11 2 (0.089%) Palantir Foundry
11 2 (0.089%) Tomcat
11 2 (0.089%) Umbraco
12 1 (0.045%) Apache Pulsar
Applications
1 52 (2.33%) Microsoft Excel
2 43 (1.92%) Microsoft Office
3 34 (1.52%) Microsoft Project
4 24 (1.07%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 13 (0.58%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.13%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.089%) CPLEX
7 2 (0.089%) Lectora
7 2 (0.089%) Oracle Smart View
8 1 (0.045%) Autodesk Inventor
8 1 (0.045%) CATIA
8 1 (0.045%) InVision
8 1 (0.045%) MicroStation
8 1 (0.045%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.045%) Sketch
8 1 (0.045%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 42 (1.88%) SAP S/4HANA
2 18 (0.81%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 13 (0.58%) SAP PSCD
4 10 (0.45%) Remedy ITSM
5 8 (0.36%) iTrent
5 8 (0.36%) Teamcenter
6 7 (0.31%) Oracle ERP
6 7 (0.31%) SAP BRIM
6 7 (0.31%) SAP Hybris
7 6 (0.27%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
7 6 (0.27%) Primavera
8 5 (0.22%) Oracle Assets
8 5 (0.22%) Oracle Payables
8 5 (0.22%) Siebel CRM
9 4 (0.18%) SAP CRM
9 4 (0.18%) SAP MM
10 3 (0.13%) SAP EWM
10 3 (0.13%) SAP HCM
11 2 (0.089%) SAP FI
11 2 (0.089%) SAP FI-CA
Cloud Services
1 332 (14.85%) Azure
2 194 (8.68%) AWS
3 87 (3.89%) Entra ID
4 72 (3.22%) Azure DevOps
5 71 (3.18%) GCP
6 59 (2.64%) Power Platform
7 51 (2.28%) Microsoft 365
8 37 (1.65%) PaaS
9 34 (1.52%) IaaS
9 34 (1.52%) OpenShift
10 22 (0.98%) GitHub
11 19 (0.85%) SaaS
11 19 (0.85%) SuccessFactors
12 16 (0.72%) GitHub Actions
13 15 (0.67%) OCI
14 13 (0.58%) Serverless
15 11 (0.49%) Azure Monitor
16 10 (0.45%) Datadog
17 8 (0.36%) Power Automate
17 8 (0.36%) SAP Commerce Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 159 (7.11%) Firewall
2 117 (5.23%) WAN
3 116 (5.19%) LAN
4 106 (4.74%) DNS
5 84 (3.76%) BGP
6 76 (3.40%) OSPF
7 71 (3.18%) DHCP
7 71 (3.18%) Network Security
8 53 (2.37%) VPN
9 37 (1.65%) TCP/IP
10 33 (1.48%) IPsec
11 32 (1.43%) VXLAN
11 32 (1.43%) Wireless
12 31 (1.39%) Ethernet VPN
13 30 (1.34%) BIG-IP
14 27 (1.21%) VLAN
15 26 (1.16%) MPLS
16 25 (1.12%) Cisco ISE
16 25 (1.12%) Junos
17 24 (1.07%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 62 (2.77%) SQL Server
2 51 (2.28%) Power BI
3 34 (1.52%) Data Warehouse
4 30 (1.34%) PostgreSQL
5 26 (1.16%) Oracle Database
6 25 (1.12%) Oracle Reports
7 14 (0.63%) Oracle ODI
8 13 (0.58%) Relational Database
9 12 (0.54%) Metadata
10 9 (0.40%) Oracle Database 12c
10 9 (0.40%) Redis
11 7 (0.31%) MySQL
11 7 (0.31%) NoSQL
12 6 (0.27%) Tableau
13 5 (0.22%) Amazon RDS
13 5 (0.22%) Azure SQL Database
13 5 (0.22%) Metadata Repository
13 5 (0.22%) MongoDB
13 5 (0.22%) Siebel EIM
14 4 (0.18%) Oracle BI Publisher
Development Applications
1 63 (2.82%) JIRA
2 46 (2.06%) Git
2 46 (2.06%) GitLab
3 37 (1.65%) Rational DOORS
4 29 (1.30%) Jenkins
5 17 (0.76%) SonarQube
6 12 (0.54%) Burp Suite
6 12 (0.54%) Metasploit
7 11 (0.49%) Postman
8 10 (0.45%) Visual Studio
9 8 (0.36%) Sonatype Nexus
10 6 (0.27%) Robot Framework
10 6 (0.27%) Subversion
11 5 (0.22%) Artifactory
11 5 (0.22%) JUnit
11 5 (0.22%) Maven
12 4 (0.18%) Bitbucket
12 4 (0.18%) Eclipse
12 4 (0.18%) Selenium
13 3 (0.13%) HP UFT
General
1 462 (20.66%) Social Skills
2 250 (11.18%) Public Sector
3 184 (8.23%) Analytical Skills
4 131 (5.86%) Finance
5 126 (5.64%) Aerospace
6 77 (3.44%) Documentation Skills
7 52 (2.33%) Military
8 33 (1.48%) Legal
9 29 (1.30%) Telecoms
10 25 (1.12%) Influencing Skills
10 25 (1.12%) Law
11 19 (0.85%) Manufacturing
11 19 (0.85%) Organisational Skills
12 15 (0.67%) Presentation Skills
13 13 (0.58%) Aviation
13 13 (0.58%) Billing
14 12 (0.54%) Advertising
15 11 (0.49%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 9 (0.40%) Police
17 8 (0.36%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 292 (13.06%) Architect
2 241 (10.78%) Senior
3 186 (8.32%) Analyst
4 173 (7.74%) Lead
5 172 (7.69%) Developer
6 122 (5.46%) Network Engineer
7 107 (4.79%) Consultant
8 86 (3.85%) Project Manager
9 78 (3.49%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 71 (3.18%) Technical Architect
11 59 (2.64%) Security Architect
12 58 (2.59%) Delivery Manager
12 58 (2.59%) SOC Analyst
13 52 (2.33%) DevOps Engineer
14 51 (2.28%) Tester
15 49 (2.19%) Product Manager
16 44 (1.97%) Cloud Engineer
17 43 (1.92%) Software Engineer
18 42 (1.88%) Senior Manager
19 40 (1.79%) Network Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 57 (2.55%) REST
2 37 (1.65%) .NET
2 37 (1.65%) LDAP
3 34 (1.52%) React
4 32 (1.43%) RESTful
5 30 (1.34%) 802.1X
6 29 (1.30%) JSON
7 25 (1.12%) OAuth
8 24 (1.07%) AngularJS
8 24 (1.07%) SailPoint
9 22 (0.98%) SOAP
10 21 (0.94%) XML
11 18 (0.81%) SAML
12 17 (0.76%) OpenID
12 17 (0.76%) Oracle Fusion
13 15 (0.67%) CSS
13 15 (0.67%) OAuth2
13 15 (0.67%) Web Services
14 13 (0.58%) Kafka
14 13 (0.58%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 112 (5.01%) Data Centre
2 88 (3.94%) PKI
3 86 (3.85%) Product Ownership
4 60 (2.68%) Onboarding
5 36 (1.61%) Data Structures
6 33 (1.48%) Management Information System
7 32 (1.43%) Clustering
8 30 (1.34%) Self-Motivation
9 29 (1.30%) Replication
10 28 (1.25%) Distributed Systems
10 28 (1.25%) Operational Technology
11 27 (1.21%) Public Cloud
11 27 (1.21%) Security Operations Centre
12 24 (1.07%) Greenfield Project
13 23 (1.03%) Cyber Threat
14 18 (0.81%) Analytical Mindset
14 18 (0.81%) Cloud Native
14 18 (0.81%) Private Cloud
14 18 (0.81%) Virtual Team
15 17 (0.76%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 275 (12.30%) Windows
2 207 (9.26%) Linux
3 93 (4.16%) Windows Server
4 42 (1.88%) Unix
5 30 (1.34%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 14 (0.63%) Ubuntu
7 12 (0.54%) Android
8 11 (0.49%) Windows 10
9 10 (0.45%) Windows Server 2019
10 8 (0.36%) Debian
10 8 (0.36%) Embedded Linux
11 7 (0.31%) Windows Server 2016
12 6 (0.27%) CentOS
12 6 (0.27%) Mac OS
13 4 (0.18%) Apple iOS
14 3 (0.13%) Windows 7
15 2 (0.089%) Windows Server 2012
16 1 (0.045%) OpenVMS
16 1 (0.045%) VMS
16 1 (0.045%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 435 (19.45%) Agile
2 230 (10.29%) Problem-Solving
3 215 (9.62%) Cybersecurity
4 213 (9.53%) DevOps
5 211 (9.44%) CI/CD
6 209 (9.35%) Continuous Improvement
7 207 (9.26%) ITIL
8 203 (9.08%) Stakeholder Management
9 166 (7.42%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 141 (6.31%) Migration
11 134 (5.99%) ITSM
12 128 (5.72%) Roadmaps
13 110 (4.92%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 110 (4.92%) Service Management
13 110 (4.92%) SIEM
14 104 (4.65%) Project Management
15 103 (4.61%) Software Engineering
16 95 (4.25%) Computer Science
17 93 (4.16%) Project Delivery
18 91 (4.07%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 190 (8.50%) Python
2 158 (7.07%) PowerShell
3 107 (4.79%) SQL
4 73 (3.26%) Java
5 56 (2.50%) JavaScript
6 45 (2.01%) C#
7 40 (1.79%) Bash
8 28 (1.25%) C++
9 22 (0.98%) Go
10 17 (0.76%) C
10 17 (0.76%) Kusto Query Language
10 17 (0.76%) TypeScript
11 16 (0.72%) Shell Script
12 15 (0.67%) PL/SQL
13 11 (0.49%) Bicep
14 9 (0.40%) Korn
15 7 (0.31%) T-SQL
16 6 (0.27%) ABAP
17 4 (0.18%) Embedded C++
17 4 (0.18%) Rust
Qualifications
1 1,414 (63.24%) SC Cleared
2 768 (34.35%) DV Cleared
3 169 (7.56%) Degree
4 72 (3.22%) Cisco Certification
5 52 (2.33%) BPSS Clearance
6 46 (2.06%) CCNP
6 46 (2.06%) CISSP
7 29 (1.30%) PMP
8 28 (1.25%) PMI Certification
9 27 (1.21%) CISM
10 23 (1.03%) Azure Certification
11 20 (0.89%) ISTQB
12 19 (0.85%) Computer Science Degree
13 18 (0.81%) GIAC
14 16 (0.72%) CCNA
15 14 (0.63%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
16 13 (0.58%) JNCIS
17 12 (0.54%) RHCE
18 11 (0.49%) Microsoft Certification
18 11 (0.49%) VCAP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 113 (5.05%) NIST
2 106 (4.74%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 62 (2.77%) NCSC
4 56 (2.50%) QA
5 55 (2.46%) PMO
6 50 (2.24%) GDPR
7 31 (1.39%) Data Quality
8 24 (1.07%) SLA
9 20 (0.89%) Accessibility
10 16 (0.72%) Cyber Essentials
10 16 (0.72%) JSP 440
11 15 (0.67%) NIST 800
12 12 (0.54%) PCI DSS
13 11 (0.49%) ISO/IEC 20000
14 10 (0.45%) GRC
15 8 (0.36%) ISO 31000
16 6 (0.27%) Government Security Classifications
16 6 (0.27%) RMADS
17 4 (0.18%) Actionable Recommendations
18 3 (0.13%) ISO 26262
System Software
1 175 (7.83%) Active Directory
2 124 (5.55%) VMware Infrastructure
3 59 (2.64%) VMware NSX
4 40 (1.79%) VMware ESXi
5 39 (1.74%) Docker
6 27 (1.21%) vSphere
7 21 (0.94%) vCloud
8 14 (0.63%) Firmware
9 12 (0.54%) Oracle RAC
10 11 (0.49%) Virtual Machines
11 10 (0.45%) Hyper-V
12 8 (0.36%) Virtual Desktop
13 4 (0.18%) Embedded Firmware
14 3 (0.13%) UAG
15 2 (0.089%) Dovecot
15 2 (0.089%) Postfix
16 1 (0.045%) NFS
16 1 (0.045%) Terminal Services
16 1 (0.045%) Virtual Servers
16 1 (0.045%) Xen
Systems Management
1 91 (4.07%) Kubernetes
2 67 (3.00%) Terraform
3 60 (2.68%) vCenter Server
4 54 (2.42%) Ansible
5 31 (1.39%) FortiGate
6 30 (1.34%) Grafana
7 28 (1.25%) Prometheus
8 27 (1.21%) SCOM
9 26 (1.16%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 22 (0.98%) Argo
11 15 (0.67%) Oracle RMAN
12 14 (0.63%) Microsoft Intune
12 14 (0.63%) Nmap
13 12 (0.54%) Single Sign-On
14 11 (0.49%) SCCM
15 10 (0.45%) Avamar
16 9 (0.40%) Forefront Identity Manager
16 9 (0.40%) Nagios
16 9 (0.40%) NetIQ Identity Manager
16 9 (0.40%) WMI
Vendors
1 236 (10.55%) Microsoft
2 222 (9.93%) VMware
3 139 (6.22%) Cisco
4 118 (5.28%) SAP
5 111 (4.96%) Oracle
6 97 (4.34%) ServiceNow
7 81 (3.62%) Juniper
8 65 (2.91%) Red Hat
9 57 (2.55%) Splunk
10 55 (2.46%) F5
11 46 (2.06%) SolarWinds
12 38 (1.70%) Palo Alto
13 30 (1.34%) BeyondTrust
13 30 (1.34%) IBM
14 29 (1.30%) CyberArk
15 27 (1.21%) Citrix
16 25 (1.12%) Extreme Networks
17 24 (1.07%) Aruba
18 23 (1.03%) CheckPoint
19 20 (0.89%) Fortinet