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 12 February 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 1,648 763 1,776
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 34.92% 24.23% 32.64%
As % of the Qualifications category 77.23% 65.38% 74.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,164 519 971
10th Percentile £309 £312 £275
25th Percentile £431 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £522 £550 £560
Median % change year-on-year -5.09% -1.79% +1.82%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £688 £719
England median daily rate £525 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -4.55% - -2.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 147 56 130
10th Percentile £16.35 £19.41 £27.45
25th Percentile £19.41 £34.06 £51.75
Median hourly rate £25.15 £61.50 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -59.10% +2.49% -
75th Percentile £60.00 £65.62 £71.90
90th Percentile £95.00 £80.05 £84.40
England median hourly rate £25.15 £60.00 £58.00
% change year-on-year -58.08% +3.45% -3.33%

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 2,134 1,167 2,394
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 45.22% 37.06% 44.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,433 736 1,374
10th Percentile £291 £263 £215
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £537
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.19% -0.14%
75th Percentile £600 £630 £638
90th Percentile £725 £688 £700
England median daily rate £521 £525 £545
% change year-on-year -0.86% -3.58% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 201 66 169
10th Percentile £15.25 £19.34 £18.32
25th Percentile £19.10 £31.25 £40.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £57.87 £58.30
Median % change year-on-year -56.54% -0.73% +29.56%
75th Percentile £55.00 £64.73 £70.00
90th Percentile £90.09 £80.05 £82.36
England median hourly rate £25.15 £47.50 £45.88
% change year-on-year -47.05% +3.53% +1.96%

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 12 February 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 12 February 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 12 February 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 +1 767 £486 -7.38% 131
Hampshire 0 713 £550 -4.35% 182
Berkshire +1 531 £450 -18.18% 85
Buckinghamshire +1 187 £550 +20.22% 33
Surrey +21 78 £525 -19.23% 34
Oxfordshire +9 49 £325 -48.00% 20
West Sussex +11 42 £537 -20.74% 10
Kent +5 27 £441 +60.45% 20
Sussex -1 6 £475 +9.83% 7
Middlesex - 4 - - 1
East Sussex +1 3 £588 +6.82% 5
Isle of Wight - 1 £81 -
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 46 (2.79%) SharePoint
2 40 (2.43%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (0.91%) Confluence
4 5 (0.30%) Apache
5 4 (0.24%) ArcGIS
5 4 (0.24%) IIS
5 4 (0.24%) Oracle Workflow
6 3 (0.18%) Documentum
6 3 (0.18%) MS Project Server
7 2 (0.12%) Exchange Server 2010
7 2 (0.12%) GeoServer
7 2 (0.12%) NetWeaver
7 2 (0.12%) SAP EP
7 2 (0.12%) Skype for Business
7 2 (0.12%) Smallworld
8 1 (0.061%) Anypoint
8 1 (0.061%) Apache Pulsar
8 1 (0.061%) BizTalk Server
8 1 (0.061%) Palantir Foundry
8 1 (0.061%) SAS
Applications
1 60 (3.64%) Microsoft Excel
2 59 (3.58%) Microsoft Office
3 34 (2.06%) Microsoft Project
4 28 (1.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 10 (0.61%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.061%) CATIA
6 1 (0.061%) PTC Creo
6 1 (0.061%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 29 (1.76%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 28 (1.70%) SAP S/4HANA
3 6 (0.36%) Oracle Assets
3 6 (0.36%) Oracle Payables
3 6 (0.36%) SAP HR
3 6 (0.36%) SAP Payroll
4 5 (0.30%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
4 5 (0.30%) Salesforce CRM
4 5 (0.30%) SAP HCM
4 5 (0.30%) SAP PSCD
5 4 (0.24%) Oracle ERP
5 4 (0.24%) Primavera
5 4 (0.24%) SAP BRIM
5 4 (0.24%) SAP Hybris
6 3 (0.18%) Payment Gateway
6 3 (0.18%) SAP WM
7 2 (0.12%) Oracle General Ledger
7 2 (0.12%) SAP CRM
7 2 (0.12%) SAP PS
7 2 (0.12%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 250 (15.17%) Azure
2 187 (11.35%) AWS
3 81 (4.92%) GCP
4 69 (4.19%) Microsoft 365
5 63 (3.82%) Entra ID
6 37 (2.25%) Azure DevOps
6 37 (2.25%) OpenShift
7 34 (2.06%) GitHub
8 31 (1.88%) Power Platform
9 22 (1.33%) IaaS
10 20 (1.21%) PaaS
11 19 (1.15%) GitHub Actions
11 19 (1.15%) OneDrive
12 15 (0.91%) Cloud Computing
13 13 (0.79%) SaaS
14 11 (0.67%) AWS CloudFormation
14 11 (0.67%) Power Automate
14 11 (0.67%) Serverless
15 10 (0.61%) Datadog
15 10 (0.61%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 120 (7.28%) Firewall
2 73 (4.43%) DNS
3 53 (3.22%) WAN
4 51 (3.09%) LAN
5 46 (2.79%) Network Security
6 45 (2.73%) BGP
7 43 (2.61%) DHCP
8 40 (2.43%) OSPF
9 38 (2.31%) TCP/IP
9 38 (2.31%) VPN
10 27 (1.64%) VLAN
11 24 (1.46%) Cisco IOS
11 24 (1.46%) IPsec
11 24 (1.46%) Wireless
12 23 (1.40%) Cisco ISE
12 23 (1.40%) Junos
13 21 (1.27%) Cisco Firepower
13 21 (1.27%) Structured Cabling
14 18 (1.09%) MPLS
15 13 (0.79%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (1.70%) Power BI
2 26 (1.58%) SQL Server
3 18 (1.09%) PostgreSQL
4 10 (0.61%) Metadata
5 9 (0.55%) NoSQL
5 9 (0.55%) Redis
6 8 (0.49%) Azure SQL Database
6 8 (0.49%) Relational Database
7 7 (0.42%) SAP HANA
8 6 (0.36%) MongoDB
9 5 (0.30%) Metadata Repository
9 5 (0.30%) Oracle Reports
10 4 (0.24%) MySQL
10 4 (0.24%) Oracle Database
10 4 (0.24%) SAP Data Services
11 3 (0.18%) GIS
12 2 (0.12%) Data Lake
12 2 (0.12%) Data Warehouse
12 2 (0.12%) Geospatial Data
12 2 (0.12%) QGIS
Development Applications
1 49 (2.97%) JIRA
2 36 (2.18%) Jenkins
3 34 (2.06%) GitLab
4 31 (1.88%) Git
5 22 (1.33%) Burp Suite
5 22 (1.33%) Metasploit
6 8 (0.49%) Artifactory
7 7 (0.42%) Android Studio
8 6 (0.36%) Maven
8 6 (0.36%) SonarQube
8 6 (0.36%) Subversion
9 5 (0.30%) Bitbucket
9 5 (0.30%) Gradle
9 5 (0.30%) JUnit
9 5 (0.30%) Sonatype Nexus
10 4 (0.24%) Cypress.io
10 4 (0.24%) Postman
10 4 (0.24%) Rational DOORS
10 4 (0.24%) Robot Framework
10 4 (0.24%) Storybook
General
1 453 (27.49%) Social Skills
2 288 (17.48%) Public Sector
3 177 (10.74%) Analytical Skills
4 90 (5.46%) Finance
5 69 (4.19%) Documentation Skills
6 40 (2.43%) Military
7 35 (2.12%) Manufacturing
8 32 (1.94%) Aerospace
9 29 (1.76%) Influencing Skills
9 29 (1.76%) Legal
9 29 (1.76%) Telecoms
10 20 (1.21%) Law
11 15 (0.91%) Marketing
11 15 (0.91%) Presentation Skills
12 14 (0.85%) Organisational Skills
13 10 (0.61%) Electronics
14 8 (0.49%) Aviation
14 8 (0.49%) Billing
15 6 (0.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 6 (0.36%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 272 (16.50%) Architect
2 134 (8.13%) Senior
3 121 (7.34%) Lead
4 116 (7.04%) Analyst
5 103 (6.25%) Network Engineer
6 94 (5.70%) Consultant
7 79 (4.79%) Developer
8 59 (3.58%) Support Engineer
9 51 (3.09%) Project Manager
9 51 (3.09%) Tester
10 50 (3.03%) DevOps Engineer
11 47 (2.85%) Enterprise Architect
12 45 (2.73%) Technical Architect
13 43 (2.61%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 42 (2.55%) Cloud Engineer
15 38 (2.31%) Infrastructure Architect
16 36 (2.18%) IT Engineer
17 35 (2.12%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
17 35 (2.12%) Security Architect
18 33 (2.00%) Network Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (2.00%) LDAP
2 26 (1.58%) REST
3 22 (1.33%) React
4 17 (1.03%) .NET
4 17 (1.03%) Elastic Stack
5 16 (0.97%) Kafka
6 14 (0.85%) JSON
6 14 (0.85%) RESTful
7 13 (0.79%) AngularJS
8 12 (0.73%) Oracle Fusion
8 12 (0.73%) XML
9 11 (0.67%) Loki
10 10 (0.61%) SOAP
11 9 (0.55%) Keycloak
11 9 (0.55%) SAP Fiori
12 8 (0.49%) OAuth
12 8 (0.49%) Spring Boot
12 8 (0.49%) Swagger
12 8 (0.49%) Web Services
12 8 (0.49%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 63 (3.82%) Data Centre
1 63 (3.82%) PKI
2 45 (2.73%) Onboarding
3 37 (2.25%) Management Information System
4 31 (1.88%) Product Ownership
4 31 (1.88%) Self-Motivation
5 26 (1.58%) Cloud Native
6 22 (1.33%) Analytical Mindset
7 21 (1.27%) Security Operations Centre
8 20 (1.21%) Replication
8 20 (1.21%) Security Posture
9 18 (1.09%) Private Cloud
10 17 (1.03%) Driving Licence
11 16 (0.97%) Legacy Systems
12 15 (0.91%) PMI
13 12 (0.73%) Cyber Security Posture
13 12 (0.73%) Cyber Threat
14 11 (0.67%) Distributed Systems
14 11 (0.67%) Fat Client
14 11 (0.67%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 263 (15.96%) Windows
2 185 (11.23%) Linux
3 67 (4.07%) Windows Server
4 40 (2.43%) Windows 10
5 25 (1.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 17 (1.03%) Android
7 11 (0.67%) Windows 7
8 10 (0.61%) Unix
9 7 (0.42%) Kali Linux
10 6 (0.36%) Ubuntu
11 4 (0.24%) Apple iOS
11 4 (0.24%) Windows Server 2016
12 3 (0.18%) Debian
12 3 (0.18%) Windows Server 2019
13 2 (0.12%) Mac OS
13 2 (0.12%) SUSE
13 2 (0.12%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
13 2 (0.12%) VMS
13 2 (0.12%) Windows Server 2012
14 1 (0.061%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 277 (16.81%) Agile
2 204 (12.38%) Problem-Solving
3 175 (10.62%) DevOps
4 165 (10.01%) CI/CD
5 146 (8.86%) Migration
6 145 (8.80%) ITIL
7 139 (8.43%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 139 (8.43%) Stakeholder Management
8 133 (8.07%) Cybersecurity
9 117 (7.10%) Continuous Improvement
10 115 (6.98%) Roadmaps
11 105 (6.37%) Service Management
12 95 (5.76%) Project Management
13 87 (5.28%) ITSM
14 82 (4.98%) SIEM
15 77 (4.67%) Change Management
16 69 (4.19%) Infrastructure Engineering
17 68 (4.13%) Collaborative Working
18 65 (3.94%) DevSecOps
19 64 (3.88%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 177 (10.74%) Python
2 148 (8.98%) PowerShell
3 58 (3.52%) Bash
4 57 (3.46%) Java
5 53 (3.22%) SQL
6 33 (2.00%) JavaScript
7 30 (1.82%) C#
8 18 (1.09%) C++
9 17 (1.03%) Kusto Query Language
10 13 (0.79%) TypeScript
11 10 (0.61%) Go
12 9 (0.55%) ABAP
12 9 (0.55%) C
13 8 (0.49%) PL/SQL
14 7 (0.42%) Bicep
15 6 (0.36%) Embedded C++
15 6 (0.36%) Shell Script
16 4 (0.24%) Ada
17 3 (0.18%) MATLAB
17 3 (0.18%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 1,057 (64.14%) SC Cleared
2 518 (31.43%) DV Cleared
3 98 (5.95%) Degree
4 53 (3.22%) Cisco Certification
5 52 (3.16%) CCNP
6 46 (2.79%) CISSP
7 32 (1.94%) BPSS Clearance
8 25 (1.52%) CISM
9 23 (1.40%) Azure Certification
9 23 (1.40%) CCNA
9 23 (1.40%) CEH
10 22 (1.33%) Microsoft Certification
11 20 (1.21%) GIAC
12 19 (1.15%) AWS Certification
13 18 (1.09%) PMI Certification
13 18 (1.09%) PMP
14 15 (0.91%) CHECK Team Member
15 13 (0.79%) Computer Science Degree
15 13 (0.79%) CREST Certified
15 13 (0.79%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 69 (4.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 63 (3.82%) NIST
3 59 (3.58%) GDPR
4 49 (2.97%) QA
5 48 (2.91%) PMO
6 41 (2.49%) NCSC
7 19 (1.15%) SLA
8 17 (1.03%) PCI DSS
9 15 (0.91%) Data Quality
10 13 (0.79%) GRC
10 13 (0.79%) JSP 440
11 10 (0.61%) Accessibility
11 10 (0.61%) COBIT
12 6 (0.36%) NIST 800
13 5 (0.30%) ISO/IEC 20000
13 5 (0.30%) P3O
13 5 (0.30%) RMADS
14 4 (0.24%) Actionable Recommendations
14 4 (0.24%) Def Stans
15 3 (0.18%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 166 (10.07%) Active Directory
2 87 (5.28%) VMware Infrastructure
3 47 (2.85%) Docker
4 35 (2.12%) vSphere
5 34 (2.06%) VMware NSX
6 19 (1.15%) VMware ESXi
7 16 (0.97%) Hyper-V
8 9 (0.55%) Virtual Desktop
9 8 (0.49%) Firmware
10 7 (0.42%) vCloud
10 7 (0.42%) Virtual Machines
11 5 (0.30%) NFS
12 3 (0.18%) UAG
13 1 (0.061%) Brightmail
13 1 (0.061%) KVM
13 1 (0.061%) NetIQ eDirectory
13 1 (0.061%) Oracle RAC
13 1 (0.061%) RHEV
13 1 (0.061%) Sendmail
13 1 (0.061%) Xen
Systems Management
1 96 (5.83%) Kubernetes
2 68 (4.13%) Terraform
3 64 (3.88%) Ansible
4 50 (3.03%) vCenter Server
5 44 (2.67%) Grafana
6 43 (2.61%) Prometheus
7 30 (1.82%) Argo
8 26 (1.58%) Nmap
9 25 (1.52%) SCCM
10 18 (1.09%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 17 (1.03%) Microsoft Intune
11 17 (1.03%) WMI
12 13 (0.79%) Kibana
13 12 (0.73%) Single Sign-On
14 11 (0.67%) Kustomize
15 8 (0.49%) Red Hat Satellite
15 8 (0.49%) SCOM
16 7 (0.42%) Nagios
16 7 (0.42%) Nessus
16 7 (0.42%) Puppet
Vendors
1 222 (13.47%) Microsoft
2 171 (10.38%) VMware
3 157 (9.53%) Cisco
4 82 (4.98%) SAP
5 59 (3.58%) Aruba
5 59 (3.58%) Juniper
5 59 (3.58%) ServiceNow
6 53 (3.22%) Red Hat
7 45 (2.73%) Splunk
8 36 (2.18%) Palo Alto
8 36 (2.18%) SolarWinds
9 32 (1.94%) Google
10 31 (1.88%) CyberArk
11 30 (1.82%) Oracle
11 30 (1.82%) Sparx
12 28 (1.70%) CheckPoint
13 25 (1.52%) BeyondTrust
14 16 (0.97%) Tanium
15 14 (0.85%) Citrix
15 14 (0.85%) Fortinet