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

6 months to
14 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 1,980 755 1,907
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 37.61% 25.29% 33.89%
As % of the Qualifications category 80.00% 64.92% 75.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,346 531 1,069
10th Percentile £314 £313 £325
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 £727
England median daily rate £525 £545 £550
% change year-on-year -3.67% -0.91% -2.57%
Number of hourly rates quoted 204 54 118
10th Percentile £16.57 £24.28 £22.56
25th Percentile £20.81 £31.25 £51.25
Median hourly rate £55.00 £61.50 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.56% +2.49% -
75th Percentile £85.40 £65.62 £70.37
90th Percentile £90.09 £80.07 £85.65
England median hourly rate £27.50 £60.00 £53.50
% change year-on-year -54.17% +12.15% -10.83%

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 2,475 1,163 2,531
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 47.02% 38.96% 44.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,640 750 1,428
10th Percentile £303 £263 £250
25th Percentile £413 £416 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £540 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.63% -1.82% +3.77%
75th Percentile £610 £630 £638
90th Percentile £725 £689 £713
England median daily rate £520 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -0.95% -2.42% -2.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 254 79 177
10th Percentile £15.62 £19.68 £17.80
25th Percentile £19.74 £27.55 £22.75
Median hourly rate £40.22 £56.75 £56.89
Median % change year-on-year -29.13% -0.24% +14.92%
75th Percentile £84.00 £67.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £89.46 £78.69 £82.67
England median hourly rate £27.50 £52.00 £39.44
% change year-on-year -47.12% +31.86% -21.13%

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 14 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 14 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 14 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 1,020 £495 -10.00% 162
Hampshire 0 783 £575 - 145
Berkshire +2 681 £450 -22.41% 83
Buckinghamshire +1 264 £560 +14.87% 54
Surrey +10 79 £525 -19.23% 31
Oxfordshire +9 75 £420 -28.51% 27
West Sussex +8 51 £526 -16.09% 16
Kent +2 26 £443 +60.91% 21
Sussex 0 7 £475 +9.83% 2
East Sussex +5 3 £588 +6.82% 7
Isle of Wight - 1 £81 - 9
Middlesex - 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 (2.53%) SharePoint
2 40 (2.02%) Microsoft Exchange
3 17 (0.86%) 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 (0.051%) Anypoint
7 1 (0.051%) Apache Pulsar
7 1 (0.051%) BizTalk Server
7 1 (0.051%) JBoss
7 1 (0.051%) Palantir Foundry
7 1 (0.051%) SAS
7 1 (0.051%) WebLogic
Applications
1 64 (3.23%) Microsoft Excel
2 60 (3.03%) Microsoft Office
3 38 (1.92%) Microsoft Project
4 30 (1.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 12 (0.61%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.10%) Lectora
6 2 (0.10%) Oracle Smart View
6 2 (0.10%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.051%) Autodesk Inventor
7 1 (0.051%) CATIA
7 1 (0.051%) MicroStation
7 1 (0.051%) PTC Creo
7 1 (0.051%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 31 (1.57%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 27 (1.36%) 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
6 4 (0.20%) Remedy ITSM
6 4 (0.20%) Teamcenter
7 3 (0.15%) Payment Gateway
7 3 (0.15%) SAP HCM
8 2 (0.10%) Oracle Cash Management
8 2 (0.10%) Oracle General Ledger
8 2 (0.10%) Oracle Receivables
8 2 (0.10%) SAP CRM
Cloud Services
1 278 (14.04%) Azure
2 195 (9.85%) AWS
3 89 (4.49%) GCP
4 79 (3.99%) Entra ID
5 71 (3.59%) Microsoft 365
6 47 (2.37%) Azure DevOps
7 44 (2.22%) OpenShift
7 44 (2.22%) Power Platform
8 36 (1.82%) GitHub
9 28 (1.41%) IaaS
9 28 (1.41%) PaaS
10 21 (1.06%) GitHub Actions
11 20 (1.01%) OneDrive
12 15 (0.76%) Cloud Computing
12 15 (0.76%) SaaS
13 14 (0.71%) Serverless
14 12 (0.61%) AWS CloudFormation
14 12 (0.61%) Power Automate
14 12 (0.61%) PowerApps
15 11 (0.56%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 153 (7.73%) Firewall
2 94 (4.75%) DNS
3 91 (4.60%) WAN
4 89 (4.49%) LAN
5 75 (3.79%) BGP
6 70 (3.54%) OSPF
7 63 (3.18%) Network Security
8 62 (3.13%) DHCP
9 47 (2.37%) VPN
10 40 (2.02%) TCP/IP
11 36 (1.82%) Junos
12 33 (1.67%) Cisco ISE
13 31 (1.57%) 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
18 22 (1.11%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 42 (2.12%) SQL Server
2 39 (1.97%) Power BI
3 25 (1.26%) PostgreSQL
4 12 (0.61%) Oracle Database
5 11 (0.56%) Metadata
6 10 (0.51%) Azure SQL Database
6 10 (0.51%) Redis
7 8 (0.40%) Oracle Reports
7 8 (0.40%) Relational Database
8 7 (0.35%) Oracle Database 12c
8 7 (0.35%) SAP HANA
9 6 (0.30%) MongoDB
9 6 (0.30%) MySQL
10 5 (0.25%) Data Warehouse
10 5 (0.25%) Metadata Repository
10 5 (0.25%) NoSQL
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 58 (2.93%) JIRA
2 42 (2.12%) Git
3 39 (1.97%) Rational DOORS
4 37 (1.87%) Jenkins
5 36 (1.82%) GitLab
6 22 (1.11%) Burp Suite
6 22 (1.11%) Metasploit
7 10 (0.51%) 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%) Robot Framework
11 5 (0.25%) Bitbucket
11 5 (0.25%) Gradle
11 5 (0.25%) JUnit
11 5 (0.25%) Sonatype Nexus
12 4 (0.20%) Cypress.io
12 4 (0.20%) Eclipse
General
1 501 (25.30%) Social Skills
2 323 (16.31%) Public Sector
3 196 (9.90%) Analytical Skills
4 120 (6.06%) Finance
5 92 (4.65%) Aerospace
6 75 (3.79%) Documentation Skills
7 44 (2.22%) Military
8 35 (1.77%) Manufacturing
9 34 (1.72%) Influencing Skills
10 32 (1.62%) Legal
11 30 (1.52%) Telecoms
12 20 (1.01%) Presentation Skills
13 19 (0.96%) Law
14 15 (0.76%) Marketing
15 14 (0.71%) Organisational Skills
16 12 (0.61%) 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 (16.06%) Architect
2 181 (9.14%) Senior
3 150 (7.58%) Lead
4 143 (7.22%) Analyst
5 122 (6.16%) Network Engineer
6 117 (5.91%) Consultant
7 109 (5.51%) Developer
8 60 (3.03%) Project Manager
8 60 (3.03%) Technical Architect
9 53 (2.68%) Tester
10 52 (2.63%) Delivery Manager
11 50 (2.53%) Enterprise Architect
11 50 (2.53%) Support Engineer
12 49 (2.47%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 47 (2.37%) Product Manager
14 46 (2.32%) Security Architect
15 45 (2.27%) DevOps Engineer
16 37 (1.87%) Product Delivery Manager
17 36 (1.82%) IT Engineer
18 34 (1.72%) Infrastructure Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (1.72%) LDAP
2 33 (1.67%) REST
3 28 (1.41%) .NET
3 28 (1.41%) React
4 22 (1.11%) 802.1X
4 22 (1.11%) JSON
5 19 (0.96%) Elastic Stack
6 18 (0.91%) RESTful
7 17 (0.86%) AngularJS
7 17 (0.86%) Kafka
7 17 (0.86%) Oracle Fusion
7 17 (0.86%) XML
8 16 (0.81%) SailPoint
8 16 (0.81%) SOAP
9 12 (0.61%) OAuth
9 12 (0.61%) Web Services
10 11 (0.56%) CSS
10 11 (0.56%) Loki
10 11 (0.56%) Oracle GoldenGate
10 11 (0.56%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 96 (4.85%) Data Centre
2 86 (4.34%) PKI
3 69 (3.48%) Product Ownership
4 53 (2.68%) Onboarding
5 41 (2.07%) Management Information System
6 32 (1.62%) Self-Motivation
7 30 (1.52%) Data Structures
8 27 (1.36%) Cloud Native
9 26 (1.31%) Security Operations Centre
10 25 (1.26%) Replication
11 24 (1.21%) Clustering
12 23 (1.16%) Analytical Mindset
13 21 (1.06%) Security Posture
14 20 (1.01%) Driving Licence
15 16 (0.81%) Distributed Systems
16 15 (0.76%) Cyber Threat
17 13 (0.66%) Legacy Systems
17 13 (0.66%) Private Cloud
17 13 (0.66%) Public Cloud
17 13 (0.66%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 278 (14.04%) Windows
2 191 (9.65%) Linux
3 72 (3.64%) Windows Server
4 37 (1.87%) Windows 10
5 33 (1.67%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 17 (0.86%) Android
7 14 (0.71%) Unix
8 12 (0.61%) Ubuntu
9 9 (0.45%) Windows 7
10 7 (0.35%) Kali Linux
11 6 (0.30%) Mac OS
11 6 (0.30%) Windows Server 2016
12 4 (0.20%) Apple iOS
12 4 (0.20%) CentOS
12 4 (0.20%) Windows Server 2019
13 3 (0.15%) Debian
14 2 (0.10%) Embedded Linux
14 2 (0.10%) SUSE
14 2 (0.10%) VMS
14 2 (0.10%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 365 (18.43%) Agile
2 226 (11.41%) Problem-Solving
3 202 (10.20%) ITIL
4 193 (9.75%) DevOps
5 190 (9.60%) CI/CD
6 187 (9.44%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 172 (8.69%) Continuous Improvement
7 172 (8.69%) Migration
8 171 (8.64%) Stakeholder Management
9 154 (7.78%) Cybersecurity
10 153 (7.73%) Roadmaps
11 128 (6.46%) Service Management
12 111 (5.61%) ITSM
13 108 (5.45%) Project Management
14 91 (4.60%) SIEM
15 90 (4.55%) Change Management
16 81 (4.09%) Decision-Making
16 81 (4.09%) DevSecOps
17 80 (4.04%) Infrastructure Engineering
18 77 (3.89%) Collaborative Working
Programming Languages
1 194 (9.80%) Python
2 159 (8.03%) PowerShell
3 59 (2.98%) Java
4 58 (2.93%) Bash
4 58 (2.93%) SQL
5 40 (2.02%) C#
6 39 (1.97%) JavaScript
7 24 (1.21%) C++
8 21 (1.06%) Kusto Query Language
9 16 (0.81%) TypeScript
10 13 (0.66%) Shell Script
11 12 (0.61%) Go
12 11 (0.56%) C
13 9 (0.45%) ABAP
13 9 (0.45%) Korn
14 8 (0.40%) PL/SQL
15 7 (0.35%) Bicep
15 7 (0.35%) Embedded C++
16 5 (0.25%) T-SQL
17 3 (0.15%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 1,247 (62.98%) SC Cleared
2 619 (31.26%) DV Cleared
3 155 (7.83%) Degree
4 65 (3.28%) Cisco Certification
5 50 (2.53%) CISSP
6 49 (2.47%) CCNP
7 43 (2.17%) BPSS Clearance
8 28 (1.41%) CISM
9 25 (1.26%) PMP
10 22 (1.11%) CEH
10 22 (1.11%) PMI Certification
11 21 (1.06%) CCNA
12 20 (1.01%) Azure Certification
13 18 (0.91%) GIAC
14 16 (0.81%) AWS Certification
14 16 (0.81%) JNCIS
15 15 (0.76%) CHECK Team Member
16 14 (0.71%) Computer Science Degree
17 13 (0.66%) CREST Certified
17 13 (0.66%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 85 (4.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 84 (4.24%) NIST
3 57 (2.88%) GDPR
4 54 (2.73%) PMO
5 50 (2.53%) NCSC
6 48 (2.42%) QA
7 22 (1.11%) Data Quality
7 22 (1.11%) SLA
8 17 (0.86%) PCI DSS
9 15 (0.76%) JSP 440
10 13 (0.66%) Accessibility
10 13 (0.66%) GRC
10 13 (0.66%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 12 (0.61%) NIST 800
12 10 (0.51%) COBIT
13 5 (0.25%) Cyber Essentials
13 5 (0.25%) Def Stans
13 5 (0.25%) Government Security Classifications
13 5 (0.25%) P3O
14 4 (0.20%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 177 (8.94%) Active Directory
2 90 (4.55%) VMware Infrastructure
3 49 (2.47%) Docker
4 33 (1.67%) vSphere
5 30 (1.52%) VMware NSX
6 17 (0.86%) VMware ESXi
7 12 (0.61%) Hyper-V
8 10 (0.51%) Firmware
8 10 (0.51%) vCloud
8 10 (0.51%) Virtual Desktop
9 9 (0.45%) Oracle RAC
10 8 (0.40%) Virtual Machines
11 3 (0.15%) NFS
12 1 (0.051%) NDS
12 1 (0.051%) NetIQ eDirectory
12 1 (0.051%) RHEV
12 1 (0.051%) Sendmail
12 1 (0.051%) Terminal Services
12 1 (0.051%) UAG
12 1 (0.051%) Xen
Systems Management
1 101 (5.10%) Kubernetes
2 67 (3.38%) Terraform
3 66 (3.33%) Ansible
4 46 (2.32%) vCenter Server
5 45 (2.27%) Grafana
6 44 (2.22%) Prometheus
7 33 (1.67%) Argo
8 28 (1.41%) SCCM
9 24 (1.21%) Nmap
10 22 (1.11%) FortiGate
11 18 (0.91%) Microsoft Intune
12 17 (0.86%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 15 (0.76%) Single Sign-On
13 15 (0.76%) WMI
14 13 (0.66%) Kibana
15 11 (0.56%) Kustomize
16 10 (0.51%) Oracle RMAN
17 9 (0.45%) Nagios
17 9 (0.45%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
17 9 (0.45%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 225 (11.36%) Microsoft
2 180 (9.09%) Cisco
3 179 (9.04%) VMware
4 85 (4.29%) ServiceNow
5 83 (4.19%) Juniper
6 82 (4.14%) SAP
7 65 (3.28%) Red Hat
8 60 (3.03%) Aruba
8 60 (3.03%) Splunk
9 46 (2.32%) SolarWinds
10 45 (2.27%) Oracle
11 42 (2.12%) F5
12 39 (1.97%) Palo Alto
13 36 (1.82%) Google
14 33 (1.67%) CyberArk
14 33 (1.67%) IBM
15 32 (1.62%) Sparx
16 29 (1.46%) BeyondTrust
17 25 (1.26%) CheckPoint
18 17 (0.86%) Extreme Networks