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 21 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 2,293 916 1,417
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 34.82% 26.53% 31.06%
As % of the Qualifications category 80.01% 68.41% 72.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,611 645 935
10th Percentile £407 £255 £361
25th Percentile £485 £443 £458
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £564 £538 £570
Median % change year-on-year +4.98% -5.70% +8.57%
75th Percentile £650 £600 £650
90th Percentile £738 £650 £725
England median daily rate £550 £538 £550
% change year-on-year +2.33% -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 228 88 100
10th Percentile £29.07 - £26.22
25th Percentile £55.00 £18.87 £48.80
Median hourly rate £70.00 £25.15 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +178.33% -59.17% +2.67%
75th Percentile £87.16 £40.74 £77.74
90th Percentile £103.58 £76.53 £92.37
England median hourly rate £65.00 £25.15 £61.60
% change year-on-year +158.45% -59.17% +2.67%

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 2,866 1,339 1,945
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 43.52% 38.78% 42.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,915 869 1,226
10th Percentile £350 £221 £326
25th Percentile £463 £410 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £514 £550
Median % change year-on-year +7.00% -6.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £638 £600 £638
90th Percentile £733 £650 £713
England median daily rate £529 £525 £538
% change year-on-year +0.81% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 311 116 145
10th Percentile £18.25 - £21.65
25th Percentile £36.63 £18.87 £41.50
Median hourly rate £61.16 £25.15 £58.05
Median % change year-on-year +143.18% -56.67% -3.26%
75th Percentile £83.00 £62.13 £71.90
90th Percentile £102.10 £81.00 £87.48
England median hourly rate £52.50 £25.15 £54.00
% change year-on-year +108.75% -53.43% +0.12%

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 21 September 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 21 September 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 21 September 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 1,159 £560 +8.74% 371
Hampshire 0 918 £575 +4.55% 401
Berkshire +2 670 £575 +9.52% 242
Buckinghamshire +1 393 £550 +11.96% 69
Surrey +5 120 £580 +10.48% 93
Oxfordshire +4 96 £480 +146.15% 61
West Sussex +6 69 £469 -8.93% 44
Kent +6 17 £510 +36.00% 37
East Sussex +8 9 £459 - 7
Home Counties -1 2 £550 -36.93%
Middlesex -20 2 - - 4
Isle of Wight - 1 - - 2
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 62 (2.70%) SharePoint
2 32 (1.40%) Confluence
3 22 (0.96%) Oracle Application Server
4 14 (0.61%) Microsoft Exchange
5 9 (0.39%) Apache Airflow
6 7 (0.31%) Documentum
6 7 (0.31%) SAS
7 6 (0.26%) Apache
8 5 (0.22%) Apache Spark
9 4 (0.17%) NetWeaver
9 4 (0.17%) Oracle Workflow
10 3 (0.13%) CMS
10 3 (0.13%) IIS
10 3 (0.13%) Palantir Foundry
11 2 (0.087%) Apache Superset
11 2 (0.087%) ArcGIS
11 2 (0.087%) SAP EP
11 2 (0.087%) Tomcat
11 2 (0.087%) Umbraco
11 2 (0.087%) WebLogic
Applications
1 70 (3.05%) Microsoft Excel
2 47 (2.05%) Microsoft Project
3 40 (1.74%) Microsoft Office
4 36 (1.57%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.31%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.087%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 2 (0.087%) Houdini
6 2 (0.087%) NUKE
6 2 (0.087%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.044%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.044%) InVision
7 1 (0.044%) Simulink
7 1 (0.044%) Sketch
7 1 (0.044%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 55 (2.40%) SAP S/4HANA
2 28 (1.22%) Oracle ERP
3 21 (0.92%) Remedy ITSM
4 20 (0.87%) SAP PSCD
5 16 (0.70%) Teamcenter
6 12 (0.52%) Siebel CRM
7 9 (0.39%) Primavera
7 9 (0.39%) SAP BRIM
7 9 (0.39%) SAP Hybris
8 8 (0.35%) iTrent
8 8 (0.35%) Remedy AR System
9 6 (0.26%) SAP EWM
10 5 (0.22%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
11 4 (0.17%) Dynamics CRM
11 4 (0.17%) SAP FI
11 4 (0.17%) SAP FI-CA
11 4 (0.17%) SAP MM
11 4 (0.17%) Workday HCM
12 3 (0.13%) Oracle Financials
12 3 (0.13%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 375 (16.35%) Azure
2 198 (8.63%) AWS
3 84 (3.66%) Azure DevOps
4 79 (3.45%) Entra ID
5 71 (3.10%) Power Platform
6 65 (2.83%) GCP
7 51 (2.22%) Microsoft 365
8 49 (2.14%) OpenShift
9 36 (1.57%) OCI
10 32 (1.40%) SaaS
11 28 (1.22%) IaaS
12 22 (0.96%) Azure Monitor
13 21 (0.92%) GitHub
14 20 (0.87%) PaaS
15 19 (0.83%) Azure Sentinel
15 19 (0.83%) GitHub Actions
16 14 (0.61%) SuccessFactors
17 13 (0.57%) Azure Logic Apps
18 12 (0.52%) Serverless
19 11 (0.48%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 119 (5.19%) DNS
2 96 (4.19%) Firewall
3 66 (2.88%) WAN
4 61 (2.66%) Network Security
5 56 (2.44%) LAN
5 56 (2.44%) VPN
6 51 (2.22%) DHCP
7 38 (1.66%) BGP
8 35 (1.53%) TCP/IP
9 34 (1.48%) IPsec
10 26 (1.13%) MPLS
11 21 (0.92%) SSL
12 20 (0.87%) VLAN
13 19 (0.83%) OSPF
14 17 (0.74%) VSAN
14 17 (0.74%) Wireless
15 16 (0.70%) SD-WAN
16 15 (0.65%) BIG-IP
16 15 (0.65%) Cisco Firepower
17 14 (0.61%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 59 (2.57%) Power BI
2 55 (2.40%) Data Warehouse
3 47 (2.05%) SQL Server
4 33 (1.44%) Oracle Reports
5 28 (1.22%) Metadata
6 26 (1.13%) Oracle ODI
7 24 (1.05%) Oracle Database
8 20 (0.87%) Relational Database
9 19 (0.83%) PostgreSQL
10 8 (0.35%) Geospatial Data
10 8 (0.35%) MySQL
10 8 (0.35%) Pentaho
10 8 (0.35%) Siebel EIM
10 8 (0.35%) Tableau
11 5 (0.22%) Azure SQL Database
11 5 (0.22%) Data Lake
11 5 (0.22%) Elasticsearch
11 5 (0.22%) NoSQL
11 5 (0.22%) Oracle BI Publisher
11 5 (0.22%) Oracle Database 11g
Development Applications
1 78 (3.40%) JIRA
2 62 (2.70%) Git
3 58 (2.53%) GitLab
4 36 (1.57%) Jenkins
5 24 (1.05%) SonarQube
6 17 (0.74%) Selenium
7 9 (0.39%) MSI
8 7 (0.31%) Postman
9 6 (0.26%) MLflow
9 6 (0.26%) Sonatype Nexus
10 4 (0.17%) Artifactory
10 4 (0.17%) JUnit
11 3 (0.13%) JMeter
11 3 (0.13%) Rational DOORS
11 3 (0.13%) Zephyr
12 2 (0.087%) LabVIEW
12 2 (0.087%) LoadRunner
12 2 (0.087%) Oracle Forms
12 2 (0.087%) Team Foundation Server
13 1 (0.044%) TestNG
General
1 539 (23.51%) Social Skills
2 230 (10.03%) Analytical Skills
3 223 (9.73%) Public Sector
4 176 (7.68%) Aerospace
5 138 (6.02%) Finance
6 82 (3.58%) Documentation Skills
7 59 (2.57%) Organisational Skills
8 55 (2.40%) Influencing Skills
9 45 (1.96%) Military
10 37 (1.61%) Telecoms
11 36 (1.57%) Manufacturing
12 25 (1.09%) Legal
13 20 (0.87%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 17 (0.74%) Billing
15 16 (0.70%) Law
16 15 (0.65%) Aviation
17 11 (0.48%) Presentation Skills
18 8 (0.35%) Electronics
19 7 (0.31%) Automotive
19 7 (0.31%) Police
Job Titles
1 322 (14.04%) Architect
2 212 (9.25%) Lead
3 208 (9.07%) Senior
4 178 (7.76%) Developer
5 168 (7.33%) Consultant
6 167 (7.28%) Analyst
7 125 (5.45%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 82 (3.58%) Cloud Engineer
9 68 (2.97%) Security Architect
10 66 (2.88%) SAP Consultant
11 64 (2.79%) Technical Architect
12 63 (2.75%) Support Engineer
13 56 (2.44%) Project Manager
14 53 (2.31%) Solutions Architect
15 49 (2.14%) Delivery Manager
16 48 (2.09%) Network Engineer
17 42 (1.83%) SOC Analyst
18 39 (1.70%) Administrator
18 39 (1.70%) Azure Engineer
18 39 (1.70%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 104 (4.54%) Terraform
2 67 (2.92%) REST
3 31 (1.35%) OAuth
4 27 (1.18%) .NET
4 27 (1.18%) SAML
5 26 (1.13%) OpenID
5 26 (1.13%) SOAP
6 24 (1.05%) LDAP
7 23 (1.00%) AngularJS
7 23 (1.00%) RESTful
8 22 (0.96%) ARM Templates
9 19 (0.83%) HTML
9 19 (0.83%) Web Services
10 18 (0.78%) 802.1X
11 17 (0.74%) OAuth2
11 17 (0.74%) Quarkus
11 17 (0.74%) React
11 17 (0.74%) SailPoint
12 16 (0.70%) JSON
12 16 (0.70%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 109 (4.75%) Onboarding
2 75 (3.27%) Product Ownership
3 70 (3.05%) Data Centre
3 70 (3.05%) PKI
4 55 (2.40%) Management Information System
5 52 (2.27%) Operational Technology
6 49 (2.14%) Hybrid Cloud
7 35 (1.53%) Cloud Native
8 25 (1.09%) Greenfield Project
9 24 (1.05%) Public Cloud
10 21 (0.92%) Cyber Threat
11 20 (0.87%) Enterprise Software
11 20 (0.87%) PMI
12 19 (0.83%) CMDB
13 18 (0.78%) Virtual Team
14 17 (0.74%) Private Cloud
15 16 (0.70%) Distributed Systems
16 14 (0.61%) Data Protection Act
17 13 (0.57%) Clustering
17 13 (0.57%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 276 (12.04%) Windows
2 204 (8.90%) Linux
3 125 (5.45%) Windows Server
4 42 (1.83%) Unix
5 31 (1.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 24 (1.05%) Windows Server 2019
7 22 (0.96%) Windows 10
8 17 (0.74%) Ubuntu
9 16 (0.70%) CentOS
10 8 (0.35%) Embedded Linux
11 7 (0.31%) Mac OS
12 5 (0.22%) Debian
12 5 (0.22%) Oracle Linux
13 3 (0.13%) Rocky
13 3 (0.13%) Solaris
14 2 (0.087%) AIX
14 2 (0.087%) Apple iOS
14 2 (0.087%) HPUX
14 2 (0.087%) Windows Server 2012
14 2 (0.087%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 453 (19.76%) Agile
2 330 (14.39%) Continuous Improvement
3 319 (13.91%) Stakeholder Management
4 262 (11.43%) Problem-Solving
5 249 (10.86%) ITIL
6 248 (10.82%) Cybersecurity
7 239 (10.42%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 227 (9.90%) CI/CD
9 209 (9.11%) ITSM
10 206 (8.98%) DevOps
11 191 (8.33%) Service Management
12 166 (7.24%) Technical Leadership
13 165 (7.20%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 162 (7.06%) Roadmaps
15 150 (6.54%) Change Management
16 128 (5.58%) Service Delivery
16 128 (5.58%) Validation
17 126 (5.49%) Project Delivery
18 121 (5.28%) DevSecOps
19 120 (5.23%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 219 (9.55%) Python
2 188 (8.20%) PowerShell
3 143 (6.24%) SQL
4 77 (3.36%) Bash
5 68 (2.97%) Java
6 48 (2.09%) JavaScript
7 30 (1.31%) Bicep
8 26 (1.13%) PL/SQL
9 17 (0.74%) C#
10 14 (0.61%) C++
11 13 (0.57%) Shell Script
12 11 (0.48%) C
12 11 (0.48%) Go
13 10 (0.44%) ABAP
13 10 (0.44%) Kusto Query Language
13 10 (0.44%) TypeScript
14 5 (0.22%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 5 (0.22%) Groovy
15 4 (0.17%) Rust
16 2 (0.087%) Scala
Qualifications
1 1,418 (61.84%) SC Cleared
2 871 (37.99%) DV Cleared
3 180 (7.85%) Degree
4 60 (2.62%) CISSP
5 53 (2.31%) Azure Certification
6 51 (2.22%) BPSS Clearance
7 47 (2.05%) PMI Certification
8 41 (1.79%) Cisco Certification
9 38 (1.66%) ISTQB
10 35 (1.53%) PMP
11 28 (1.22%) Microsoft Certification
11 28 (1.22%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 26 (1.13%) Computer Science Degree
13 25 (1.09%) CISM
14 20 (0.87%) AWS Certification
15 19 (0.83%) TOGAF Certification
16 18 (0.78%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
17 17 (0.74%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
18 16 (0.70%) (ISC)2 CCSP
18 16 (0.70%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 107 (4.67%) NIST
2 99 (4.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 84 (3.66%) PMO
4 60 (2.62%) NCSC
5 59 (2.57%) QA
6 38 (1.66%) GDPR
7 33 (1.44%) Data Quality
8 29 (1.26%) SLA
9 27 (1.18%) JSP 440
10 22 (0.96%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 16 (0.70%) GRC
12 15 (0.65%) Cyber Essentials
12 15 (0.65%) NIST 800
13 12 (0.52%) Def Stans
14 11 (0.48%) ISO 9001
15 9 (0.39%) ISO 31000
16 8 (0.35%) Accessibility
17 6 (0.26%) RMADS
18 3 (0.13%) GMP
18 3 (0.13%) WCAG
System Software
1 191 (8.33%) Active Directory
2 147 (6.41%) VMware Infrastructure
3 73 (3.18%) VMware NSX
4 69 (3.01%) VMware ESXi
5 65 (2.83%) Docker
6 28 (1.22%) vSphere
7 26 (1.13%) vCloud
8 20 (0.87%) Hyper-V
9 17 (0.74%) Virtual Machines
10 16 (0.70%) Virtual Desktop
11 13 (0.57%) Firmware
12 8 (0.35%) Embedded Firmware
12 8 (0.35%) Oracle RAC
13 4 (0.17%) KVM
13 4 (0.17%) Virtual Servers
14 2 (0.087%) Dovecot
14 2 (0.087%) Microsoft Virtual Server
14 2 (0.087%) Postfix
14 2 (0.087%) UAG
Systems Management
1 121 (5.28%) Kubernetes
2 81 (3.53%) vCenter Server
3 74 (3.23%) Ansible
4 62 (2.70%) SCOM
5 25 (1.09%) SCCM
6 23 (1.00%) Microsoft Intune
7 20 (0.87%) Argo
8 18 (0.78%) Grafana
9 17 (0.74%) Avamar
10 15 (0.65%) WMI
11 14 (0.61%) FortiGate
11 14 (0.61%) Prometheus
12 12 (0.52%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 10 (0.44%) Oracle RMAN
14 8 (0.35%) Cisco CUCM
14 8 (0.35%) Data Guard
15 7 (0.31%) Podman
15 7 (0.31%) Red Hat Satellite
15 7 (0.31%) Single Sign-On
16 5 (0.22%) Istio
Vendors
1 374 (16.31%) Microsoft
2 225 (9.81%) VMware
3 177 (7.72%) Oracle
4 155 (6.76%) SAP
5 138 (6.02%) ServiceNow
6 69 (3.01%) Cisco
7 50 (2.18%) Red Hat
8 40 (1.74%) Juniper
9 38 (1.66%) SolarWinds
10 37 (1.61%) Google
11 30 (1.31%) Citrix
12 28 (1.22%) F5
13 26 (1.13%) Palo Alto
14 25 (1.09%) CyberArk
14 25 (1.09%) Remedy
15 22 (0.96%) BeyondTrust
16 21 (0.92%) Broadcom
17 20 (0.87%) Siebel
18 19 (0.83%) Dell
19 17 (0.74%) BMC