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 16 August 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 2,463 994 1,610
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 36.39% 27.94% 33.12%
As % of the Qualifications category 81.18% 69.17% 73.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,727 706 1,075
10th Percentile £401 £284 £394
25th Percentile £475 £450 £470
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £560 £538 £596
Median % change year-on-year +4.19% -9.82% +13.52%
75th Percentile £638 £600 £663
90th Percentile £735 £675 £738
England median daily rate £538 £538 £550
% change year-on-year - -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 261 83 106
10th Percentile £24.25 - £24.29
25th Percentile £55.00 £18.87 £53.41
Median hourly rate £76.42 £25.15 £62.15
Median % change year-on-year +203.84% -59.53% +0.24%
75th Percentile £87.00 £52.42 £80.00
90th Percentile £102.10 £86.40 £92.37
England median hourly rate £65.00 £25.15 £58.43
% change year-on-year +158.45% -56.96% -2.61%

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 3,034 1,437 2,178
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 44.82% 40.39% 44.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,052 930 1,369
10th Percentile £336 £244 £350
25th Percentile £462 £415 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £630 £600 £644
90th Percentile £725 £664 £725
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 334 117 183
10th Percentile £19.25 - £17.91
25th Percentile £38.25 £18.87 £35.00
Median hourly rate £69.75 £27.76 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +151.26% -51.60% -5.70%
75th Percentile £85.00 £67.50 £70.39
90th Percentile £88.00 £81.00 £87.46
England median hourly rate £55.00 £25.15 £47.50
% change year-on-year +118.69% -47.05% -13.64%

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 16 August 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 16 August 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 16 August 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 1,327 £550 +4.76% 133
Hampshire 0 939 £578 +5.00% 182
Berkshire +1 748 £555 +0.91% 93
Buckinghamshire +1 453 £555 +11.84% 31
Oxfordshire +5 126 £480 +152.63% 12
Surrey +1 108 £580 +10.48% 36
West Sussex +8 71 £473 -8.56% 5
Kent -4 7 £411 +9.59% 12
East Sussex +5 6 £459 -
Home Counties +1 2 £525 -39.79%
Middlesex -18 2 - - 1
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 52 (2.11%) SharePoint
2 33 (1.34%) Confluence
3 22 (0.89%) Oracle Application Server
4 11 (0.45%) Apache Airflow
5 9 (0.37%) Microsoft Exchange
6 7 (0.28%) Documentum
6 7 (0.28%) SAS
7 5 (0.20%) Apache
7 5 (0.20%) Apache Spark
7 5 (0.20%) Oracle Workflow
8 4 (0.16%) IIS
9 3 (0.12%) ArcGIS
9 3 (0.12%) CMS
9 3 (0.12%) NetWeaver
9 3 (0.12%) Palantir Foundry
9 3 (0.12%) SAP EP
10 2 (0.081%) nginx
10 2 (0.081%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.081%) Umbraco
10 2 (0.081%) WebLogic
Applications
1 64 (2.60%) Microsoft Excel
2 52 (2.11%) Microsoft Project
3 41 (1.66%) Microsoft Office
4 28 (1.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.24%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.081%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 2 (0.081%) CPLEX
7 2 (0.081%) Houdini
7 2 (0.081%) Lectora
7 2 (0.081%) NUKE
7 2 (0.081%) Oracle Smart View
7 2 (0.081%) Windchill
8 1 (0.041%) Autodesk Inventor
8 1 (0.041%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.041%) InVision
8 1 (0.041%) MicroStation
8 1 (0.041%) Simulink
8 1 (0.041%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 52 (2.11%) SAP S/4HANA
2 31 (1.26%) Oracle ERP
3 22 (0.89%) Remedy ITSM
4 19 (0.77%) Teamcenter
5 18 (0.73%) SAP PSCD
6 12 (0.49%) Siebel CRM
7 11 (0.45%) Primavera
8 8 (0.32%) iTrent
9 7 (0.28%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
10 6 (0.24%) Remedy AR System
10 6 (0.24%) SAP BRIM
10 6 (0.24%) SAP EWM
10 6 (0.24%) SAP Hybris
11 4 (0.16%) SAP MM
11 4 (0.16%) Workday HCM
12 3 (0.12%) Oracle Financials
12 3 (0.12%) Oracle Payables
12 3 (0.12%) SAP CRM
12 3 (0.12%) SAP FI
12 3 (0.12%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 385 (15.63%) Azure
2 198 (8.04%) AWS
3 89 (3.61%) Azure DevOps
4 85 (3.45%) Entra ID
5 74 (3.00%) GCP
5 74 (3.00%) Power Platform
6 48 (1.95%) OpenShift
7 43 (1.75%) Microsoft 365
8 37 (1.50%) OCI
9 35 (1.42%) SaaS
10 34 (1.38%) IaaS
11 28 (1.14%) PaaS
12 21 (0.85%) Azure Monitor
13 20 (0.81%) SuccessFactors
14 19 (0.77%) GitHub
15 17 (0.69%) GitHub Actions
16 16 (0.65%) Azure Sentinel
17 12 (0.49%) AWS CloudFormation
17 12 (0.49%) Serverless
18 11 (0.45%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 135 (5.48%) DNS
2 134 (5.44%) Firewall
3 102 (4.14%) WAN
4 97 (3.94%) LAN
5 77 (3.13%) Network Security
6 74 (3.00%) DHCP
7 69 (2.80%) BGP
8 60 (2.44%) VPN
9 50 (2.03%) OSPF
10 43 (1.75%) TCP/IP
11 34 (1.38%) IPsec
12 32 (1.30%) BIG-IP
12 32 (1.30%) MPLS
13 30 (1.22%) VXLAN
14 28 (1.14%) SD-WAN
15 27 (1.10%) Ethernet VPN
15 27 (1.10%) VSAN
16 24 (0.97%) Junos
17 21 (0.85%) VLAN
17 21 (0.85%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 62 (2.52%) SQL Server
2 60 (2.44%) Power BI
3 57 (2.31%) Data Warehouse
4 35 (1.42%) Oracle Reports
5 32 (1.30%) Oracle Database
6 27 (1.10%) PostgreSQL
7 26 (1.06%) Oracle ODI
8 14 (0.57%) Metadata
9 12 (0.49%) Relational Database
10 10 (0.41%) MySQL
10 10 (0.41%) Oracle Database 12c
11 9 (0.37%) Geospatial Data
12 8 (0.32%) Pentaho
12 8 (0.32%) Siebel EIM
12 8 (0.32%) Tableau
13 7 (0.28%) NoSQL
13 7 (0.28%) Oracle BI Publisher
14 6 (0.24%) Oracle Database 11g
15 5 (0.20%) Azure SQL Database
15 5 (0.20%) Redis
Development Applications
1 83 (3.37%) JIRA
2 58 (2.35%) Git
3 57 (2.31%) GitLab
4 39 (1.58%) Rational DOORS
5 34 (1.38%) Jenkins
6 26 (1.06%) SonarQube
7 8 (0.32%) Postman
7 8 (0.32%) Visual Studio
8 6 (0.24%) MLflow
8 6 (0.24%) MSI
8 6 (0.24%) Sonatype Nexus
9 5 (0.20%) JUnit
10 4 (0.16%) Artifactory
11 3 (0.12%) Robot Framework
11 3 (0.12%) Zephyr
12 2 (0.081%) Balsamiq
12 2 (0.081%) Eclipse
12 2 (0.081%) Oracle Forms
12 2 (0.081%) Selenium
12 2 (0.081%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 517 (20.99%) Social Skills
2 266 (10.80%) Public Sector
3 240 (9.74%) Analytical Skills
4 184 (7.47%) Aerospace
5 152 (6.17%) Finance
6 81 (3.29%) Documentation Skills
7 54 (2.19%) Influencing Skills
8 43 (1.75%) Organisational Skills
9 42 (1.71%) Military
10 33 (1.34%) Telecoms
11 30 (1.22%) Legal
12 18 (0.73%) Law
12 18 (0.73%) Manufacturing
13 17 (0.69%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 16 (0.65%) Presentation Skills
15 15 (0.61%) Billing
16 13 (0.53%) Aviation
17 12 (0.49%) Advertising
18 8 (0.32%) Police
19 6 (0.24%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 326 (13.24%) Architect
2 248 (10.07%) Senior
3 223 (9.05%) Lead
4 213 (8.65%) Developer
5 195 (7.92%) Analyst
6 167 (6.78%) Consultant
7 133 (5.40%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 79 (3.21%) Network Engineer
9 78 (3.17%) Security Architect
10 73 (2.96%) Project Manager
10 73 (2.96%) Technical Architect
11 70 (2.84%) Delivery Manager
12 67 (2.72%) Cloud Engineer
13 63 (2.56%) Product Manager
14 58 (2.35%) SAP Consultant
15 54 (2.19%) Support Engineer
16 52 (2.11%) SOC Analyst
17 48 (1.95%) Network Architect
18 46 (1.87%) Product Delivery Manager
19 45 (1.83%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 74 (3.00%) REST
2 41 (1.66%) .NET
3 37 (1.50%) OAuth
4 35 (1.42%) RESTful
5 31 (1.26%) SOAP
6 30 (1.22%) 802.1X
6 30 (1.22%) SAML
7 29 (1.18%) AngularJS
8 28 (1.14%) OpenID
9 27 (1.10%) LDAP
10 26 (1.06%) SailPoint
11 24 (0.97%) React
11 24 (0.97%) Web Services
12 20 (0.81%) HTML
12 20 (0.81%) JSON
12 20 (0.81%) OAuth2
13 19 (0.77%) CSS
13 19 (0.77%) Quarkus
14 18 (0.73%) ARM Templates
14 18 (0.73%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 101 (4.10%) Onboarding
1 101 (4.10%) Product Ownership
2 91 (3.69%) Data Centre
3 89 (3.61%) PKI
4 47 (1.91%) Hybrid Cloud
4 47 (1.91%) Management Information System
5 35 (1.42%) Data Structures
5 35 (1.42%) Operational Technology
6 33 (1.34%) Cloud Native
6 33 (1.34%) Clustering
7 32 (1.30%) Public Cloud
8 24 (0.97%) Distributed Systems
8 24 (0.97%) Greenfield Project
9 22 (0.89%) Cyber Threat
9 22 (0.89%) Enterprise Software
10 20 (0.81%) Security Operations Centre
11 19 (0.77%) CMDB
12 18 (0.73%) PMI
12 18 (0.73%) Replication
12 18 (0.73%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 297 (12.06%) Windows
2 214 (8.69%) Linux
3 133 (5.40%) Windows Server
4 49 (1.99%) Unix
5 32 (1.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 23 (0.93%) Windows Server 2019
7 16 (0.65%) Ubuntu
8 14 (0.57%) Windows 10
9 11 (0.45%) CentOS
9 11 (0.45%) Mac OS
10 9 (0.37%) Embedded Linux
11 5 (0.20%) Debian
11 5 (0.20%) Oracle Linux
11 5 (0.20%) Windows Server 2016
12 3 (0.12%) Android
12 3 (0.12%) Apple iOS
12 3 (0.12%) Solaris
13 2 (0.081%) AIX
13 2 (0.081%) HPUX
13 2 (0.081%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 494 (20.06%) Agile
2 324 (13.15%) Continuous Improvement
3 302 (12.26%) Stakeholder Management
4 284 (11.53%) ITIL
5 278 (11.29%) Problem-Solving
6 257 (10.43%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 252 (10.23%) Cybersecurity
8 222 (9.01%) CI/CD
9 213 (8.65%) DevOps
10 211 (8.57%) ITSM
11 177 (7.19%) Service Management
12 170 (6.90%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 157 (6.37%) Roadmaps
14 145 (5.89%) Technical Leadership
15 137 (5.56%) Migration
16 136 (5.52%) Change Management
17 132 (5.36%) Service Delivery
18 125 (5.08%) Computer Science
19 124 (5.03%) DevSecOps
20 123 (4.99%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 212 (8.61%) Python
2 180 (7.31%) PowerShell
3 146 (5.93%) SQL
4 81 (3.29%) Java
5 71 (2.88%) Bash
6 62 (2.52%) JavaScript
7 34 (1.38%) C#
8 27 (1.10%) C++
9 26 (1.06%) Bicep
9 26 (1.06%) PL/SQL
10 17 (0.69%) C
10 17 (0.69%) Go
10 17 (0.69%) Shell Script
11 14 (0.57%) Kusto Query Language
12 13 (0.53%) TypeScript
13 9 (0.37%) ABAP
14 7 (0.28%) Korn
15 5 (0.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 5 (0.20%) T-SQL
16 4 (0.16%) Embedded C++
Qualifications
1 1,515 (61.51%) SC Cleared
2 920 (37.35%) DV Cleared
3 203 (8.24%) Degree
4 55 (2.23%) BPSS Clearance
4 55 (2.23%) Cisco Certification
4 55 (2.23%) CISSP
5 52 (2.11%) PMI Certification
6 49 (1.99%) Azure Certification
7 45 (1.83%) PMP
8 31 (1.26%) ISTQB
9 29 (1.18%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 25 (1.02%) CISM
10 25 (1.02%) Microsoft Certification
11 22 (0.89%) Computer Science Degree
12 19 (0.77%) TOGAF Certification
13 18 (0.73%) AWS Certification
13 18 (0.73%) CCNP
14 17 (0.69%) VCAP
15 16 (0.65%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
16 14 (0.57%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 119 (4.83%) NIST
2 114 (4.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 80 (3.25%) PMO
4 64 (2.60%) NCSC
5 61 (2.48%) QA
6 41 (1.66%) GDPR
7 37 (1.50%) Data Quality
8 30 (1.22%) SLA
9 28 (1.14%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 26 (1.06%) JSP 440
11 18 (0.73%) NIST 800
12 16 (0.65%) Cyber Essentials
13 15 (0.61%) Accessibility
13 15 (0.61%) GRC
14 10 (0.41%) ISO 9001
15 9 (0.37%) Def Stans
15 9 (0.37%) ISO 31000
16 7 (0.28%) RMADS
17 6 (0.24%) Government Security Classifications
18 4 (0.16%) ISO 26262
System Software
1 191 (7.75%) Active Directory
2 163 (6.62%) VMware Infrastructure
3 81 (3.29%) VMware NSX
4 64 (2.60%) VMware ESXi
5 62 (2.52%) Docker
6 30 (1.22%) vSphere
7 25 (1.02%) vCloud
8 21 (0.85%) Hyper-V
9 17 (0.69%) Virtual Desktop
9 17 (0.69%) Virtual Machines
10 15 (0.61%) Oracle RAC
11 13 (0.53%) Firmware
12 6 (0.24%) Embedded Firmware
13 4 (0.16%) KVM
13 4 (0.16%) Virtual Servers
14 2 (0.081%) Dovecot
14 2 (0.081%) Microsoft Virtual Server
14 2 (0.081%) Postfix
14 2 (0.081%) UAG
Systems Management
1 117 (4.75%) Kubernetes
2 95 (3.86%) Terraform
3 79 (3.21%) vCenter Server
4 68 (2.76%) Ansible
5 53 (2.15%) SCOM
6 32 (1.30%) FortiGate
7 22 (0.89%) Argo
7 22 (0.89%) SCCM
8 19 (0.77%) Microsoft Intune
9 18 (0.73%) Oracle RMAN
10 17 (0.69%) Grafana
11 16 (0.65%) Avamar
12 14 (0.57%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 14 (0.57%) Prometheus
13 11 (0.45%) Single Sign-On
13 11 (0.45%) WMI
14 9 (0.37%) Data Guard
15 8 (0.32%) Red Hat Satellite
16 7 (0.28%) Cisco CUCM
16 7 (0.28%) WSUS
Vendors
1 346 (14.05%) Microsoft
2 247 (10.03%) VMware
3 185 (7.51%) Oracle
4 163 (6.62%) ServiceNow
5 152 (6.17%) SAP
6 101 (4.10%) Cisco
7 70 (2.84%) Juniper
8 59 (2.40%) Red Hat
9 53 (2.15%) SolarWinds
10 51 (2.07%) F5
11 40 (1.62%) Google
12 33 (1.34%) Citrix
13 31 (1.26%) Splunk
14 30 (1.22%) IBM
15 28 (1.14%) Palo Alto
16 27 (1.10%) CyberArk
17 26 (1.06%) BeyondTrust
17 26 (1.06%) Remedy
18 23 (0.93%) Extreme Networks
19 20 (0.81%) Siebel