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 December 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 +1
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 1,448 917 1,626
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 32.85% 25.51% 33.00%
As % of the Qualifications category 74.91% 66.59% 73.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,017 645 921
10th Percentile £306 £313 £217
25th Percentile £443 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £523 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £606 £638 £643
90th Percentile £725 £706 £700
England median daily rate £525 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -4.55% - -2.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 145 60 108
10th Percentile £18.87 £21.14 £32.00
25th Percentile £19.10 £31.25 £52.42
Median hourly rate £25.15 £59.75 £60.07
Median % change year-on-year -57.91% -0.53% +8.72%
75th Percentile £55.00 £64.73 £70.12
90th Percentile £90.09 £75.70 £78.00
England median hourly rate £25.15 £57.38 £60.00
% change year-on-year -56.17% -4.38% -

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 1,933 1,377 2,202
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 43.85% 38.31% 44.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,290 909 1,308
10th Percentile £270 £262 £213
25th Percentile £413 £408 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.78% +1.36%
75th Percentile £600 £636 £638
90th Percentile £701 £700 £700
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 194 78 137
10th Percentile £15.66 £20.07 £27.50
25th Percentile £19.17 £31.25 £50.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £56.75 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -55.68% -5.43% +33.33%
75th Percentile £60.19 £64.73 £70.00
90th Percentile £90.09 £75.00 £78.00
England median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £51.89
% change year-on-year -45.54% -11.00% +15.31%

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 December 2025.

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 December 2025.

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 December 2025. 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
Hampshire 0 672 £550 -3.93% 344
Thames Valley 0 643 £485 -7.71% 463
Berkshire 0 445 £470 -19.17% 258
Buckinghamshire 0 150 £533 +14.52% 139
Surrey +24 62 £550 -15.38% 160
Oxfordshire +6 48 £275 -56.00% 67
West Sussex +10 33 £519 -28.48% 61
Kent +8 16 £438 +143.06% 135
Middlesex - 6 - -
Home Counties - 2 £872 -
East Sussex +4 1 £450 -18.18% 60
Sussex -5 1 £525 +21.39% 1
Isle of Wight - 1 £81 - 54
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 36 (2.49%) SharePoint
2 33 (2.28%) Microsoft Exchange
3 10 (0.69%) Confluence
4 8 (0.55%) Exchange Server 2010
4 8 (0.55%) Exchange Server 2013
4 8 (0.55%) Skype for Business
5 7 (0.48%) Exchange Server 2003
5 7 (0.48%) Exchange Server 2007
5 7 (0.48%) Office Communications Server
5 7 (0.48%) SharePoint Server
6 4 (0.28%) Apache
7 3 (0.21%) CMS
7 3 (0.21%) Documentum
7 3 (0.21%) IIS
8 2 (0.14%) ArcGIS
8 2 (0.14%) GeoServer
8 2 (0.14%) Smallworld
9 1 (0.069%) Anypoint
9 1 (0.069%) Drupal
9 1 (0.069%) Red Hat Fuse
Applications
1 54 (3.73%) Microsoft Office
2 41 (2.83%) Microsoft Excel
3 25 (1.73%) Microsoft Project
4 19 (1.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.35%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.069%) PTC Creo
Business Applications
1 32 (2.21%) SAP S/4HANA
2 27 (1.86%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 9 (0.62%) SAP HR
3 9 (0.62%) SAP Payroll
4 8 (0.55%) SAP EWM
4 8 (0.55%) SAP HCM
4 8 (0.55%) SAP WM
5 5 (0.35%) Salesforce CRM
6 4 (0.28%) Primavera
7 3 (0.21%) SAP ERP
7 3 (0.21%) SAP PSCD
8 2 (0.14%) Oracle Assets
8 2 (0.14%) Oracle Cash Management
8 2 (0.14%) Oracle General Ledger
8 2 (0.14%) Oracle Payables
8 2 (0.14%) Oracle Receivables
8 2 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
8 2 (0.14%) SAP BRIM
8 2 (0.14%) SAP Hybris
8 2 (0.14%) SAP PS
Cloud Services
1 192 (13.26%) Azure
2 162 (11.19%) AWS
3 70 (4.83%) GCP
4 60 (4.14%) Microsoft 365
5 36 (2.49%) Entra ID
6 34 (2.35%) OpenShift
7 29 (2.00%) GitHub
8 24 (1.66%) Azure DevOps
9 21 (1.45%) Power Platform
10 17 (1.17%) GitHub Actions
10 17 (1.17%) OneDrive
11 15 (1.04%) IaaS
12 14 (0.97%) Cloud Computing
12 14 (0.97%) SaaS
13 11 (0.76%) PaaS
14 10 (0.69%) Amazon EKS
14 10 (0.69%) Serverless
15 9 (0.62%) AWS CloudFormation
16 8 (0.55%) Amazon ECR
16 8 (0.55%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 101 (6.98%) Firewall
2 62 (4.28%) DNS
3 41 (2.83%) VPN
4 40 (2.76%) LAN
5 39 (2.69%) DHCP
6 37 (2.56%) WAN
7 36 (2.49%) TCP/IP
8 35 (2.42%) Network Security
9 32 (2.21%) BGP
10 28 (1.93%) OSPF
11 27 (1.86%) Cisco IOS
12 26 (1.80%) Junos
13 25 (1.73%) SAN
13 25 (1.73%) VLAN
14 23 (1.59%) Cisco Firepower
14 23 (1.59%) Cisco ISE
15 20 (1.38%) Wireless
16 16 (1.10%) MPLS
17 15 (1.04%) IPsec
18 11 (0.76%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (1.31%) SQL Server
2 18 (1.24%) Power BI
3 15 (1.04%) PostgreSQL
4 8 (0.55%) Metadata
4 8 (0.55%) MongoDB
4 8 (0.55%) NoSQL
5 7 (0.48%) Redis
5 7 (0.48%) SAP HANA
6 6 (0.41%) Azure SQL Database
6 6 (0.41%) Relational Database
7 5 (0.35%) Oracle Reports
8 4 (0.28%) MySQL
8 4 (0.28%) Oracle Database
9 3 (0.21%) SAP Data Services
10 2 (0.14%) Amazon RDS
10 2 (0.14%) Big Data
10 2 (0.14%) Data Lake
10 2 (0.14%) GIS
10 2 (0.14%) QGIS
10 2 (0.14%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 51 (3.52%) JIRA
2 40 (2.76%) Jenkins
3 37 (2.56%) GitLab
4 27 (1.86%) Git
5 17 (1.17%) Burp Suite
5 17 (1.17%) Metasploit
6 7 (0.48%) Artifactory
7 6 (0.41%) Android Studio
8 4 (0.28%) Gradle
8 4 (0.28%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.21%) Bitbucket
9 3 (0.21%) Cucumber
9 3 (0.21%) Maven
9 3 (0.21%) Postman
9 3 (0.21%) Robot Framework
9 3 (0.21%) Selenium
9 3 (0.21%) SonarQube
9 3 (0.21%) Sonatype Nexus
9 3 (0.21%) Storybook
9 3 (0.21%) Subversion
General
1 411 (28.38%) Social Skills
2 256 (17.68%) Public Sector
3 144 (9.94%) Analytical Skills
4 71 (4.90%) Finance
5 45 (3.11%) Documentation Skills
6 38 (2.62%) Manufacturing
7 32 (2.21%) Telecoms
8 28 (1.93%) Military
9 21 (1.45%) Aerospace
9 21 (1.45%) Influencing Skills
10 20 (1.38%) Legal
11 17 (1.17%) Presentation Skills
12 14 (0.97%) Electronics
12 14 (0.97%) Marketing
12 14 (0.97%) Organisational Skills
13 13 (0.90%) Law
14 7 (0.48%) Pharmaceutical
15 5 (0.35%) Banking
16 4 (0.28%) Billing
16 4 (0.28%) General Ledger
Job Titles
1 268 (18.51%) Architect
2 108 (7.46%) Consultant
3 103 (7.11%) Analyst
4 97 (6.70%) Network Engineer
5 94 (6.49%) Senior
6 88 (6.08%) Lead
7 69 (4.77%) Support Engineer
8 53 (3.66%) Developer
9 45 (3.11%) DevOps Engineer
10 44 (3.04%) Project Manager
11 42 (2.90%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 42 (2.90%) Tester
12 41 (2.83%) Cloud Engineer
13 40 (2.76%) Enterprise Architect
13 40 (2.76%) IT Engineer
14 39 (2.69%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
15 38 (2.62%) Infrastructure Architect
16 36 (2.49%) 3rd Line Engineer
16 36 (2.49%) SAP Consultant
17 33 (2.28%) Network Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (1.17%) React
2 16 (1.10%) LDAP
2 16 (1.10%) REST
3 15 (1.04%) .NET
4 14 (0.97%) Elastic Stack
5 13 (0.90%) Kafka
5 13 (0.90%) RESTful
6 9 (0.62%) AngularJS
6 9 (0.62%) Web Services
7 8 (0.55%) JSON
7 8 (0.55%) Keycloak
7 8 (0.55%) Loki
7 8 (0.55%) Middleware
7 8 (0.55%) Oracle Fusion
7 8 (0.55%) SAP Fiori
7 8 (0.55%) SOAP
7 8 (0.55%) XML
8 7 (0.48%) Spring Boot
8 7 (0.48%) Vue
9 6 (0.41%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 57 (3.94%) PKI
2 36 (2.49%) Data Centre
3 35 (2.42%) Onboarding
4 32 (2.21%) Management Information System
5 25 (1.73%) Cloud Native
6 24 (1.66%) Security Operations Centre
7 20 (1.38%) Analytical Mindset
8 19 (1.31%) Self-Motivation
9 17 (1.17%) Private Cloud
9 17 (1.17%) Product Ownership
10 16 (1.10%) Legacy Systems
10 16 (1.10%) PMI
11 15 (1.04%) Driving Licence
12 13 (0.90%) Replication
12 13 (0.90%) Security Posture
13 12 (0.83%) Cyber Security Posture
13 12 (0.83%) Cyber Threat
14 10 (0.69%) Enterprise Software
14 10 (0.69%) Fat Client
14 10 (0.69%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 243 (16.78%) Windows
2 152 (10.50%) Linux
3 58 (4.01%) Windows Server
4 47 (3.25%) Windows 10
5 27 (1.86%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 12 (0.83%) Android
6 12 (0.83%) Windows Server 2019
7 10 (0.69%) Windows 7
8 7 (0.48%) Ubuntu
8 7 (0.48%) Windows Server 2003
8 7 (0.48%) Windows Server 2012
9 6 (0.41%) Kali Linux
9 6 (0.41%) Mac OS
9 6 (0.41%) Unix
9 6 (0.41%) Windows Server 2016
10 4 (0.28%) VMS
11 3 (0.21%) Debian
12 2 (0.14%) Apple iOS
12 2 (0.14%) SUSE
12 2 (0.14%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 234 (16.16%) Agile
2 174 (12.02%) Problem-Solving
3 164 (11.33%) ITIL
4 150 (10.36%) Migration
5 146 (10.08%) CI/CD
5 146 (10.08%) DevOps
6 122 (8.43%) Service Management
6 122 (8.43%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 106 (7.32%) Stakeholder Management
8 98 (6.77%) Cybersecurity
9 91 (6.28%) Roadmaps
10 85 (5.87%) Continuous Improvement
11 78 (5.39%) ITSM
12 73 (5.04%) Workflow
13 69 (4.77%) Project Delivery
13 69 (4.77%) Project Management
14 67 (4.63%) SIEM
15 65 (4.49%) Change Management
16 61 (4.21%) Infrastructure Engineering
17 59 (4.07%) Collaborative Working
Programming Languages
1 160 (11.05%) Python
2 117 (8.08%) PowerShell
3 56 (3.87%) Java
4 54 (3.73%) SQL
5 50 (3.45%) Bash
6 34 (2.35%) JavaScript
7 27 (1.86%) C#
8 14 (0.97%) ABAP
8 14 (0.97%) C++
9 11 (0.76%) Go
9 11 (0.76%) Kusto Query Language
10 10 (0.69%) Shell Script
11 7 (0.48%) C
11 7 (0.48%) PL/SQL
11 7 (0.48%) TypeScript
12 6 (0.41%) Embedded C++
13 3 (0.21%) Bicep
14 2 (0.14%) Ada
14 2 (0.14%) Assembly Language
14 2 (0.14%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 915 (63.19%) SC Cleared
2 476 (32.87%) DV Cleared
3 76 (5.25%) Degree
4 46 (3.18%) Cisco Certification
5 43 (2.97%) CISSP
6 42 (2.90%) CCNP
7 27 (1.86%) Microsoft Certification
8 23 (1.59%) CEH
9 21 (1.45%) BPSS Clearance
9 21 (1.45%) CISM
10 20 (1.38%) CCNA
10 20 (1.38%) GIAC
11 18 (1.24%) Azure Certification
11 18 (1.24%) PMI Certification
12 17 (1.17%) AWS Certification
13 15 (1.04%) PMP
14 13 (0.90%) Network+ Certification
15 12 (0.83%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
16 11 (0.76%) CHECK Team Member
17 10 (0.69%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 57 (3.94%) GDPR
2 53 (3.66%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 48 (3.31%) NIST
4 43 (2.97%) QA
5 31 (2.14%) ISO/IEC 20000
5 31 (2.14%) PMO
6 26 (1.80%) SLA
7 24 (1.66%) NCSC
8 13 (0.90%) PCI DSS
9 10 (0.69%) COBIT
9 10 (0.69%) GRC
9 10 (0.69%) JSP 440
10 7 (0.48%) Data Quality
11 6 (0.41%) RMADS
12 4 (0.28%) Def Stans
12 4 (0.28%) HIPAA
12 4 (0.28%) NIST 800
12 4 (0.28%) P3O
13 3 (0.21%) Actionable Recommendations
13 3 (0.21%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 135 (9.32%) Active Directory
2 74 (5.11%) VMware Infrastructure
3 44 (3.04%) Docker
4 36 (2.49%) vSphere
5 33 (2.28%) VMware NSX
6 24 (1.66%) VMware ESXi
7 12 (0.83%) Hyper-V
8 10 (0.69%) NFS
9 9 (0.62%) Virtual Desktop
10 7 (0.48%) Brightmail
10 7 (0.48%) ISA Server
10 7 (0.48%) Virtual Machines
11 5 (0.35%) Firmware
12 3 (0.21%) vCloud
13 2 (0.14%) Terminal Services
13 2 (0.14%) UAG
14 1 (0.069%) NDS
14 1 (0.069%) NetIQ eDirectory
14 1 (0.069%) Sendmail
14 1 (0.069%) Xen
Systems Management
1 92 (6.35%) Kubernetes
2 64 (4.42%) Ansible
3 58 (4.01%) Terraform
4 46 (3.18%) vCenter Server
5 35 (2.42%) Grafana
5 35 (2.42%) Prometheus
6 23 (1.59%) Argo
6 23 (1.59%) SCCM
7 20 (1.38%) Nmap
8 14 (0.97%) WMI
9 13 (0.90%) SCOM
10 12 (0.83%) Microsoft Intune
11 10 (0.69%) Kibana
11 10 (0.69%) Single Sign-On
12 9 (0.62%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 8 (0.55%) Kustomize
13 8 (0.55%) Microsoft Clustering
13 8 (0.55%) vRealize
14 7 (0.48%) Proxmox
14 7 (0.48%) Sysdig
Vendors
1 201 (13.88%) Microsoft
2 147 (10.15%) Cisco
2 147 (10.15%) VMware
3 92 (6.35%) SAP
4 69 (4.77%) Juniper
5 57 (3.94%) ServiceNow
6 54 (3.73%) Red Hat
7 49 (3.38%) Splunk
8 47 (3.25%) Aruba
9 34 (2.35%) SolarWinds
10 31 (2.14%) Google
11 30 (2.07%) Palo Alto
12 28 (1.93%) Sparx
13 23 (1.59%) CheckPoint
13 23 (1.59%) Oracle
14 22 (1.52%) CyberArk
15 18 (1.24%) NetApp
16 15 (1.04%) BeyondTrust
17 13 (0.90%) Fortinet
17 13 (0.90%) HP