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 26 April 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 2,166 793 1,883
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 37.42% 26.49% 33.85%
As % of the Qualifications category 82.01% 64.89% 75.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,491 552 1,104
10th Percentile £356 £363 £388
25th Percentile £454 £464 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £535 £550 £580
Median % change year-on-year -2.73% -5.17% +6.39%
75th Percentile £634 £630 £675
90th Percentile £725 £700 £738
England median daily rate £525 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -2.33% -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 216 51 121
10th Percentile £18.32 £24.18 £22.52
25th Percentile £25.77 £26.13 £52.90
Median hourly rate £70.00 £60.50 £61.65
Median % change year-on-year +15.70% -1.86% -1.45%
75th Percentile £85.06 £72.50 £79.78
90th Percentile £90.09 £80.10 £87.46
England median hourly rate £55.00 £56.75 £56.15
% change year-on-year -3.08% +1.08% -6.43%

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 2,641 1,222 2,500
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 45.62% 40.81% 44.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,774 773 1,414
10th Percentile £309 £301 £311
25th Percentile £425 £438 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £538 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.33% -2.27% +4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £650
90th Percentile £725 £688 £735
England median daily rate £520 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -0.95% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 266 84 215
10th Percentile £16.35 £20.01 £17.54
25th Percentile £22.79 £26.62 £27.12
Median hourly rate £55.00 £57.13 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -3.72% -0.39% +0.82%
75th Percentile £84.00 £70.31 £66.87
90th Percentile £88.00 £78.01 £85.17
England median hourly rate £47.50 £47.65 £40.00
% change year-on-year -0.32% +19.13% -23.81%

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 26 April 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 26 April 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 26 April 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 1,123 £500 -10.71% 104
Hampshire 0 846 £600 +9.09% 177
Berkshire +1 682 £450 -23.24% 56
Buckinghamshire +1 354 £558 +2.29% 32
Oxfordshire +12 87 £450 -28.00% 18
Surrey +4 87 £525 -6.67% 46
West Sussex +3 57 £509 -5.31% 9
Kent +4 27 £443 +26.43% 8
Sussex +1 7 £475 +9.83% 4
East Sussex +3 4 £459 -16.55% 2
Home Counties - 2 £525 -
Middlesex - 1 - - 1
Isle of Wight - 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 44 (2.03%) SharePoint
2 37 (1.71%) Microsoft Exchange
3 18 (0.83%) Confluence
4 12 (0.55%) Oracle Application Server
5 5 (0.23%) ArcGIS
5 5 (0.23%) IIS
5 5 (0.23%) NetWeaver
5 5 (0.23%) Oracle Workflow
5 5 (0.23%) SAP EP
6 4 (0.18%) Apache
7 3 (0.14%) MS Project Server
8 2 (0.092%) Apache Airflow
8 2 (0.092%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.092%) CMS
8 2 (0.092%) Palantir Foundry
8 2 (0.092%) Umbraco
9 1 (0.046%) Apache Pulsar
9 1 (0.046%) BizTalk Server
9 1 (0.046%) SAS
9 1 (0.046%) Smallworld
Applications
1 64 (2.95%) Microsoft Excel
2 60 (2.77%) Microsoft Office
3 35 (1.62%) Microsoft Project
4 29 (1.34%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 12 (0.55%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.092%) CPLEX
7 2 (0.092%) Lectora
7 2 (0.092%) Oracle Smart View
8 1 (0.046%) Autodesk Inventor
8 1 (0.046%) CATIA
8 1 (0.046%) InVision
8 1 (0.046%) MicroStation
8 1 (0.046%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.046%) Sketch
8 1 (0.046%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 35 (1.62%) SAP S/4HANA
2 29 (1.34%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 12 (0.55%) SAP PSCD
4 7 (0.32%) iTrent
4 7 (0.32%) Oracle ERP
4 7 (0.32%) Remedy ITSM
5 6 (0.28%) Oracle Assets
5 6 (0.28%) Oracle Payables
5 6 (0.28%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 6 (0.28%) SAP BRIM
5 6 (0.28%) SAP Hybris
6 5 (0.23%) SAP CRM
7 4 (0.18%) Primavera
7 4 (0.18%) SAP EWM
7 4 (0.18%) Teamcenter
8 3 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
8 3 (0.14%) SAP HCM
9 2 (0.092%) SAP MM
10 1 (0.046%) SAP FI
10 1 (0.046%) SAP WM
Cloud Services
1 322 (14.87%) Azure
2 200 (9.23%) AWS
3 84 (3.88%) GCP
4 80 (3.69%) Entra ID
5 63 (2.91%) Azure DevOps
6 58 (2.68%) Power Platform
7 57 (2.63%) Microsoft 365
8 34 (1.57%) PaaS
9 33 (1.52%) OpenShift
10 29 (1.34%) IaaS
11 27 (1.25%) GitHub
12 20 (0.92%) GitHub Actions
13 18 (0.83%) SaaS
13 18 (0.83%) SuccessFactors
14 14 (0.65%) Serverless
15 11 (0.51%) AWS CloudFormation
15 11 (0.51%) Azure Monitor
15 11 (0.51%) Cloud Computing
15 11 (0.51%) OCI
16 10 (0.46%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 167 (7.71%) Firewall
2 112 (5.17%) WAN
3 107 (4.94%) LAN
4 100 (4.62%) DNS
5 86 (3.97%) BGP
6 81 (3.74%) OSPF
7 75 (3.46%) DHCP
8 71 (3.28%) Network Security
9 51 (2.35%) VPN
10 40 (1.85%) TCP/IP
11 36 (1.66%) Wireless
12 33 (1.52%) Junos
13 31 (1.43%) Ethernet VPN
13 31 (1.43%) VXLAN
14 30 (1.39%) IPsec
15 29 (1.34%) Cisco ISE
16 28 (1.29%) BIG-IP
17 26 (1.20%) SD-WAN
17 26 (1.20%) VLAN
18 23 (1.06%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 55 (2.54%) SQL Server
2 50 (2.31%) Power BI
3 29 (1.34%) PostgreSQL
4 27 (1.25%) Data Warehouse
5 21 (0.97%) Oracle Reports
6 13 (0.60%) Oracle Database
6 13 (0.60%) Oracle ODI
7 12 (0.55%) Redis
7 12 (0.55%) Relational Database
8 11 (0.51%) Metadata
9 10 (0.46%) Azure SQL Database
10 8 (0.37%) MySQL
11 7 (0.32%) NoSQL
11 7 (0.32%) Oracle Database 12c
12 6 (0.28%) Tableau
13 5 (0.23%) Metadata Repository
14 4 (0.18%) MongoDB
14 4 (0.18%) Oracle BI Publisher
14 4 (0.18%) SAP Data Services
14 4 (0.18%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 53 (2.45%) JIRA
2 45 (2.08%) Git
3 39 (1.80%) GitLab
4 37 (1.71%) Rational DOORS
5 29 (1.34%) Jenkins
6 16 (0.74%) Burp Suite
6 16 (0.74%) Metasploit
7 12 (0.55%) SonarQube
8 10 (0.46%) Postman
8 10 (0.46%) Visual Studio
9 8 (0.37%) JUnit
10 7 (0.32%) Android Studio
10 7 (0.32%) Subversion
11 6 (0.28%) Robot Framework
12 5 (0.23%) Bitbucket
12 5 (0.23%) Gradle
12 5 (0.23%) Maven
12 5 (0.23%) Sonatype Nexus
13 4 (0.18%) Artifactory
13 4 (0.18%) Eclipse
General
1 497 (22.95%) Social Skills
2 301 (13.90%) Public Sector
3 202 (9.33%) Analytical Skills
4 129 (5.96%) Finance
5 98 (4.52%) Aerospace
6 79 (3.65%) Documentation Skills
7 50 (2.31%) Military
8 36 (1.66%) Telecoms
9 35 (1.62%) Influencing Skills
10 34 (1.57%) Legal
11 31 (1.43%) Manufacturing
12 22 (1.02%) Law
13 21 (0.97%) Presentation Skills
14 19 (0.88%) Organisational Skills
15 15 (0.69%) Marketing
16 13 (0.60%) Billing
17 12 (0.55%) Advertising
18 11 (0.51%) Electronics
19 8 (0.37%) Aviation
20 7 (0.32%) Police
Job Titles
1 341 (15.74%) Architect
2 219 (10.11%) Senior
3 173 (7.99%) Lead
4 157 (7.25%) Developer
5 154 (7.11%) Analyst
6 125 (5.77%) Network Engineer
7 113 (5.22%) Consultant
8 82 (3.79%) Project Manager
9 77 (3.55%) Technical Architect
10 59 (2.72%) Delivery Manager
11 58 (2.68%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 58 (2.68%) Security Architect
12 55 (2.54%) Enterprise Architect
13 54 (2.49%) DevOps Engineer
14 51 (2.35%) Tester
15 49 (2.26%) Product Manager
16 43 (1.99%) SOC Analyst
17 41 (1.89%) Software Engineer
18 39 (1.80%) Product Delivery Manager
19 38 (1.75%) Senior Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (1.99%) REST
2 40 (1.85%) .NET
3 33 (1.52%) LDAP
4 32 (1.48%) React
5 30 (1.39%) RESTful
6 28 (1.29%) 802.1X
7 24 (1.11%) JSON
8 23 (1.06%) AngularJS
9 21 (0.97%) SailPoint
10 19 (0.88%) XML
11 18 (0.83%) Oracle Fusion
12 17 (0.78%) SOAP
13 15 (0.69%) Kafka
13 15 (0.69%) OAuth
14 14 (0.65%) Web Services
15 12 (0.55%) CSS
15 12 (0.55%) OAuth2
16 11 (0.51%) Elastic Stack
16 11 (0.51%) Keycloak
16 11 (0.51%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 104 (4.80%) Data Centre
2 86 (3.97%) PKI
3 77 (3.55%) Product Ownership
4 68 (3.14%) Onboarding
5 40 (1.85%) Management Information System
6 36 (1.66%) Self-Motivation
7 34 (1.57%) Data Structures
8 32 (1.48%) Replication
9 30 (1.39%) Clustering
10 27 (1.25%) Security Operations Centre
11 26 (1.20%) Cloud Native
11 26 (1.20%) Distributed Systems
12 23 (1.06%) Analytical Mindset
13 22 (1.02%) Greenfield Project
13 22 (1.02%) Public Cloud
14 20 (0.92%) Security Posture
15 19 (0.88%) Cyber Threat
16 16 (0.74%) PMI
16 16 (0.74%) Private Cloud
16 16 (0.74%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 269 (12.42%) Windows
2 196 (9.05%) Linux
3 77 (3.55%) Windows Server
4 30 (1.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 27 (1.25%) Unix
6 17 (0.78%) Android
7 16 (0.74%) Windows 10
8 12 (0.55%) Ubuntu
9 8 (0.37%) Embedded Linux
10 7 (0.32%) Mac OS
10 7 (0.32%) Windows Server 2016
11 6 (0.28%) Windows Server 2019
12 5 (0.23%) Debian
12 5 (0.23%) Windows 7
13 4 (0.18%) Apple iOS
13 4 (0.18%) CentOS
14 2 (0.092%) VMS
14 2 (0.092%) Windows Server 2012
15 1 (0.046%) OpenVMS
15 1 (0.046%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 410 (18.93%) Agile
2 234 (10.80%) Problem-Solving
3 221 (10.20%) ITIL
4 205 (9.46%) DevOps
5 198 (9.14%) CI/CD
6 191 (8.82%) Stakeholder Management
7 182 (8.40%) Continuous Improvement
8 177 (8.17%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 176 (8.13%) Cybersecurity
10 168 (7.76%) Migration
11 135 (6.23%) Roadmaps
12 125 (5.77%) ITSM
12 125 (5.77%) Service Management
13 109 (5.03%) Project Management
14 99 (4.57%) SIEM
15 95 (4.39%) Software Engineering
16 92 (4.25%) Computer Science
17 87 (4.02%) Change Management
17 87 (4.02%) DevSecOps
18 86 (3.97%) Infrastructure Engineering
Programming Languages
1 193 (8.91%) Python
2 164 (7.57%) PowerShell
3 80 (3.69%) SQL
4 71 (3.28%) Java
5 50 (2.31%) JavaScript
6 48 (2.22%) C#
7 45 (2.08%) Bash
8 30 (1.39%) C++
9 22 (1.02%) Go
10 21 (0.97%) Kusto Query Language
11 17 (0.78%) C
11 17 (0.78%) TypeScript
12 13 (0.60%) Shell Script
13 10 (0.46%) ABAP
13 10 (0.46%) Bicep
14 9 (0.42%) Korn
15 7 (0.32%) PL/SQL
15 7 (0.32%) T-SQL
16 4 (0.18%) Embedded C++
17 3 (0.14%) Embedded C
Qualifications
1 1,367 (63.11%) SC Cleared
2 727 (33.56%) DV Cleared
3 171 (7.89%) Degree
4 75 (3.46%) Cisco Certification
5 55 (2.54%) CCNP
6 51 (2.35%) BPSS Clearance
7 45 (2.08%) CISSP
8 33 (1.52%) PMP
9 30 (1.39%) PMI Certification
10 22 (1.02%) CCNA
10 22 (1.02%) CISM
11 18 (0.83%) GIAC
12 17 (0.78%) Azure Certification
12 17 (0.78%) Computer Science Degree
12 17 (0.78%) JNCIS
13 15 (0.69%) AWS Certification
13 15 (0.69%) CHECK Team Member
14 14 (0.65%) CEH
15 13 (0.60%) ISTQB
15 13 (0.60%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 101 (4.66%) NIST
2 96 (4.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 61 (2.82%) NCSC
3 61 (2.82%) PMO
4 58 (2.68%) QA
5 53 (2.45%) GDPR
6 28 (1.29%) Data Quality
7 22 (1.02%) SLA
8 17 (0.78%) Accessibility
8 17 (0.78%) PCI DSS
9 16 (0.74%) JSP 440
10 15 (0.69%) GRC
10 15 (0.69%) NIST 800
11 12 (0.55%) ISO/IEC 20000
12 10 (0.46%) COBIT
13 7 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials
14 6 (0.28%) Government Security Classifications
15 4 (0.18%) Actionable Recommendations
15 4 (0.18%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 4 (0.18%) RMADS
System Software
1 172 (7.94%) Active Directory
2 103 (4.76%) VMware Infrastructure
3 42 (1.94%) Docker
3 42 (1.94%) VMware NSX
4 27 (1.25%) VMware ESXi
5 26 (1.20%) vSphere
6 16 (0.74%) Firmware
7 12 (0.55%) Hyper-V
7 12 (0.55%) vCloud
8 11 (0.51%) Virtual Desktop
9 10 (0.46%) Oracle RAC
10 7 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
11 4 (0.18%) Embedded Firmware
12 3 (0.14%) NFS
12 3 (0.14%) UAG
13 1 (0.046%) KVM
13 1 (0.046%) Sendmail
13 1 (0.046%) Terminal Services
13 1 (0.046%) Virtual Servers
13 1 (0.046%) Xen
Systems Management
1 93 (4.29%) Kubernetes
2 67 (3.09%) Terraform
3 57 (2.63%) Ansible
4 45 (2.08%) vCenter Server
5 32 (1.48%) Grafana
6 31 (1.43%) Prometheus
7 30 (1.39%) FortiGate
8 25 (1.15%) Argo
9 19 (0.88%) Microsoft Intune
10 18 (0.83%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 18 (0.83%) Nmap
10 18 (0.83%) SCCM
11 13 (0.60%) Kibana
12 12 (0.55%) Oracle RMAN
12 12 (0.55%) Single Sign-On
13 11 (0.51%) SCOM
13 11 (0.51%) WMI
14 10 (0.46%) Forefront Identity Manager
14 10 (0.46%) NetIQ Identity Manager
15 9 (0.42%) Nagios
Vendors
1 224 (10.34%) Microsoft
2 198 (9.14%) VMware
3 161 (7.43%) Cisco
4 116 (5.36%) SAP
5 84 (3.88%) ServiceNow
6 82 (3.79%) Juniper
7 81 (3.74%) Oracle
8 65 (3.00%) Splunk
9 62 (2.86%) Red Hat
10 50 (2.31%) F5
11 46 (2.12%) SolarWinds
12 41 (1.89%) Aruba
13 38 (1.75%) Palo Alto
14 34 (1.57%) BeyondTrust
15 33 (1.52%) CyberArk
16 32 (1.48%) Google
17 30 (1.39%) IBM
17 30 (1.39%) Sparx
18 26 (1.20%) CheckPoint
19 21 (0.97%) Extreme Networks