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

6 months to
14 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 2,310 935 1,446
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 35.04% 26.97% 31.31%
As % of the Qualifications category 80.21% 69.31% 72.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,637 662 959
10th Percentile £407 £269 £363
25th Percentile £488 £450 £462
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £565 £538 £575
Median % change year-on-year +5.12% -6.52% +9.52%
75th Percentile £640 £600 £650
90th Percentile £738 £650 £725
England median daily rate £550 £538 £550
% change year-on-year +2.33% -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 221 88 105
10th Percentile £29.07 - £26.25
25th Percentile £52.50 £18.87 £52.50
Median hourly rate £70.00 £25.15 £61.80
Median % change year-on-year +178.33% -59.30% +0.27%
75th Percentile £85.25 £42.93 £80.00
90th Percentile £103.75 £76.53 £92.22
England median hourly rate £65.00 £25.15 £61.60
% change year-on-year +158.45% -59.17% +2.67%

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 2,880 1,349 1,992
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 43.69% 38.91% 43.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,944 872 1,252
10th Percentile £350 £222 £335
25th Percentile £463 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £519 £550
Median % change year-on-year +5.92% -5.59% +4.76%
75th Percentile £638 £600 £638
90th Percentile £732 £650 £716
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 304 119 159
10th Percentile £18.25 - £22.37
25th Percentile £35.22 £18.87 £47.15
Median hourly rate £61.16 £25.15 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +143.18% -56.15% -4.42%
75th Percentile £83.00 £69.08 £72.11
90th Percentile £101.48 £81.00 £87.46
England median hourly rate £52.50 £25.15 £55.00
% change year-on-year +108.75% -54.27% -

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 September 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 September 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 September 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 1,177 £560 +7.18% 298
Hampshire 0 922 £575 +4.55% 288
Berkshire +1 667 £575 +8.49% 198
Buckinghamshire +1 407 £550 +11.96% 58
Surrey +5 115 £580 +10.48% 97
Oxfordshire +4 103 £480 +146.15% 44
West Sussex +8 72 £470 -8.76% 38
Kent +3 12 £443 +18.13% 40
East Sussex +6 9 £459 - 10
Home Counties +1 3 £525 -39.79%
Middlesex -23 2 - - 2
Isle of Wight - 1 - - 5
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 60 (2.60%) SharePoint
2 33 (1.43%) Confluence
3 22 (0.95%) Oracle Application Server
4 11 (0.48%) Microsoft Exchange
5 9 (0.39%) Apache Airflow
6 7 (0.30%) Documentum
6 7 (0.30%) SAS
7 6 (0.26%) Apache
7 6 (0.26%) NetWeaver
8 5 (0.22%) Apache Spark
9 4 (0.17%) Oracle Workflow
9 4 (0.17%) SAP EP
10 3 (0.13%) CMS
10 3 (0.13%) IIS
10 3 (0.13%) Palantir Foundry
11 2 (0.087%) Apache Superset
11 2 (0.087%) ArcGIS
11 2 (0.087%) Tomcat
11 2 (0.087%) Umbraco
11 2 (0.087%) WebLogic
Applications
1 70 (3.03%) Microsoft Excel
2 54 (2.34%) Microsoft Project
3 42 (1.82%) Microsoft Office
4 36 (1.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.30%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.087%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 2 (0.087%) CPLEX
6 2 (0.087%) Houdini
6 2 (0.087%) NUKE
6 2 (0.087%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.087%) Windchill
7 1 (0.043%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.043%) InVision
7 1 (0.043%) Simulink
7 1 (0.043%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 56 (2.42%) SAP S/4HANA
2 28 (1.21%) Oracle ERP
3 21 (0.91%) Remedy ITSM
3 21 (0.91%) SAP PSCD
4 17 (0.74%) Teamcenter
5 12 (0.52%) Siebel CRM
6 10 (0.43%) Primavera
7 9 (0.39%) SAP BRIM
7 9 (0.39%) SAP Hybris
8 8 (0.35%) iTrent
8 8 (0.35%) Remedy AR System
9 6 (0.26%) SAP EWM
10 5 (0.22%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
11 4 (0.17%) SAP CRM
11 4 (0.17%) SAP FI
11 4 (0.17%) SAP FI-CA
11 4 (0.17%) SAP MM
11 4 (0.17%) Workday HCM
12 3 (0.13%) Oracle Financials
12 3 (0.13%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 374 (16.19%) Azure
2 201 (8.70%) AWS
3 80 (3.46%) Azure DevOps
4 76 (3.29%) Entra ID
5 71 (3.07%) Power Platform
6 64 (2.77%) GCP
7 48 (2.08%) Microsoft 365
8 47 (2.03%) OpenShift
9 35 (1.52%) OCI
10 33 (1.43%) SaaS
11 27 (1.17%) IaaS
12 22 (0.95%) Azure Monitor
12 22 (0.95%) SuccessFactors
13 21 (0.91%) GitHub
14 20 (0.87%) PaaS
15 19 (0.82%) GitHub Actions
16 17 (0.74%) Azure Sentinel
17 12 (0.52%) Azure Logic Apps
17 12 (0.52%) Serverless
18 11 (0.48%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 120 (5.19%) DNS
2 100 (4.33%) Firewall
3 70 (3.03%) WAN
4 65 (2.81%) Network Security
5 59 (2.55%) LAN
6 58 (2.51%) VPN
7 53 (2.29%) DHCP
8 41 (1.77%) BGP
9 36 (1.56%) TCP/IP
10 34 (1.47%) IPsec
11 27 (1.17%) MPLS
12 22 (0.95%) OSPF
12 22 (0.95%) VSAN
13 21 (0.91%) SSL
14 20 (0.87%) VLAN
15 19 (0.82%) Wireless
16 18 (0.78%) SD-WAN
17 15 (0.65%) BIG-IP
17 15 (0.65%) Cisco Firepower
18 14 (0.61%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 59 (2.55%) Power BI
2 55 (2.38%) Data Warehouse
3 48 (2.08%) SQL Server
4 33 (1.43%) Oracle Reports
5 26 (1.13%) Metadata
5 26 (1.13%) Oracle ODI
5 26 (1.13%) Relational Database
6 24 (1.04%) Oracle Database
7 22 (0.95%) PostgreSQL
8 8 (0.35%) Geospatial Data
8 8 (0.35%) MySQL
8 8 (0.35%) Pentaho
8 8 (0.35%) Siebel EIM
8 8 (0.35%) Tableau
9 7 (0.30%) NoSQL
10 5 (0.22%) Azure SQL Database
10 5 (0.22%) Data Lake
10 5 (0.22%) Elasticsearch
10 5 (0.22%) Oracle BI Publisher
10 5 (0.22%) Oracle Database 11g
Development Applications
1 78 (3.38%) JIRA
2 61 (2.64%) Git
3 57 (2.47%) GitLab
4 36 (1.56%) Jenkins
5 24 (1.04%) SonarQube
6 17 (0.74%) Selenium
7 9 (0.39%) MSI
8 7 (0.30%) Postman
9 6 (0.26%) MLflow
9 6 (0.26%) Sonatype Nexus
10 5 (0.22%) JUnit
10 5 (0.22%) Rational DOORS
11 4 (0.17%) Artifactory
12 3 (0.13%) Zephyr
13 2 (0.087%) JMeter
13 2 (0.087%) Oracle Forms
13 2 (0.087%) Team Foundation Server
14 1 (0.043%) LabVIEW
14 1 (0.043%) NUnit
14 1 (0.043%) Toad
General
1 546 (23.64%) Social Skills
2 233 (10.09%) Analytical Skills
3 228 (9.87%) Public Sector
4 164 (7.10%) Aerospace
5 142 (6.15%) Finance
6 80 (3.46%) Documentation Skills
7 58 (2.51%) Organisational Skills
8 53 (2.29%) Influencing Skills
9 45 (1.95%) Military
10 38 (1.65%) Telecoms
11 27 (1.17%) Manufacturing
12 25 (1.08%) Legal
13 18 (0.78%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 17 (0.74%) Billing
15 16 (0.69%) Law
16 15 (0.65%) Aviation
17 10 (0.43%) Presentation Skills
18 8 (0.35%) Electronics
19 7 (0.30%) Police
20 6 (0.26%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 320 (13.85%) Architect
2 215 (9.31%) Lead
3 213 (9.22%) Senior
4 182 (7.88%) Developer
5 170 (7.36%) Consultant
6 169 (7.32%) Analyst
7 126 (5.45%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 80 (3.46%) Cloud Engineer
9 72 (3.12%) Security Architect
10 69 (2.99%) SAP Consultant
11 66 (2.86%) Technical Architect
12 65 (2.81%) Project Manager
13 61 (2.64%) Support Engineer
14 53 (2.29%) Network Engineer
14 53 (2.29%) Solutions Architect
15 48 (2.08%) Delivery Manager
16 44 (1.90%) SOC Analyst
17 39 (1.69%) Administrator
17 39 (1.69%) Azure Engineer
17 39 (1.69%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 103 (4.46%) Terraform
2 67 (2.90%) REST
3 31 (1.34%) OAuth
4 30 (1.30%) .NET
5 27 (1.17%) SAML
6 26 (1.13%) OpenID
6 26 (1.13%) SOAP
7 25 (1.08%) RESTful
8 24 (1.04%) LDAP
9 23 (1.00%) AngularJS
10 22 (0.95%) ARM Templates
11 21 (0.91%) React
12 19 (0.82%) HTML
12 19 (0.82%) Web Services
13 18 (0.78%) 802.1X
14 17 (0.74%) Kafka
14 17 (0.74%) OAuth2
14 17 (0.74%) Quarkus
14 17 (0.74%) SailPoint
15 16 (0.69%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 108 (4.68%) Onboarding
2 74 (3.20%) Product Ownership
3 70 (3.03%) Data Centre
3 70 (3.03%) PKI
4 53 (2.29%) Management Information System
5 51 (2.21%) Hybrid Cloud
6 47 (2.03%) Operational Technology
7 35 (1.52%) Cloud Native
8 27 (1.17%) Public Cloud
9 25 (1.08%) Greenfield Project
10 21 (0.91%) Enterprise Software
10 21 (0.91%) Virtual Team
11 20 (0.87%) Cyber Threat
12 19 (0.82%) CMDB
13 18 (0.78%) Distributed Systems
13 18 (0.78%) PMI
14 17 (0.74%) Private Cloud
15 14 (0.61%) Data Protection Act
15 14 (0.61%) Security Operations Centre
15 14 (0.61%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 276 (11.95%) Windows
2 203 (8.79%) Linux
3 127 (5.50%) Windows Server
4 43 (1.86%) Unix
5 28 (1.21%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 24 (1.04%) Windows Server 2019
7 19 (0.82%) Windows 10
8 15 (0.65%) Ubuntu
9 13 (0.56%) CentOS
10 9 (0.39%) Embedded Linux
11 7 (0.30%) Mac OS
12 5 (0.22%) Debian
12 5 (0.22%) Oracle Linux
13 3 (0.13%) Rocky
13 3 (0.13%) Solaris
13 3 (0.13%) Windows Server 2016
14 2 (0.087%) AIX
14 2 (0.087%) Apple iOS
14 2 (0.087%) HPUX
14 2 (0.087%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 454 (19.65%) Agile
2 325 (14.07%) Continuous Improvement
3 312 (13.51%) Stakeholder Management
4 266 (11.52%) Problem-Solving
5 251 (10.87%) Cybersecurity
5 251 (10.87%) ITIL
6 239 (10.35%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 226 (9.78%) CI/CD
8 205 (8.87%) ITSM
9 204 (8.83%) DevOps
10 185 (8.01%) Service Management
11 164 (7.10%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 160 (6.93%) Technical Leadership
13 148 (6.41%) Change Management
14 147 (6.36%) Roadmaps
15 127 (5.50%) Service Delivery
16 126 (5.45%) Project Delivery
16 126 (5.45%) Validation
17 123 (5.32%) DevSecOps
18 122 (5.28%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 215 (9.31%) Python
2 184 (7.97%) PowerShell
3 147 (6.36%) SQL
4 75 (3.25%) Bash
4 75 (3.25%) Java
5 51 (2.21%) JavaScript
6 30 (1.30%) Bicep
7 26 (1.13%) PL/SQL
8 20 (0.87%) C#
9 19 (0.82%) C++
10 13 (0.56%) Shell Script
11 12 (0.52%) ABAP
11 12 (0.52%) C
12 11 (0.48%) Go
12 11 (0.48%) TypeScript
13 9 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
14 5 (0.22%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 5 (0.22%) Groovy
15 4 (0.17%) Rust
16 3 (0.13%) Embedded C++
Qualifications
1 1,423 (61.60%) SC Cleared
2 879 (38.05%) DV Cleared
3 176 (7.62%) Degree
4 59 (2.55%) CISSP
5 52 (2.25%) BPSS Clearance
6 50 (2.16%) Azure Certification
7 47 (2.03%) PMI Certification
8 41 (1.77%) Cisco Certification
9 38 (1.65%) PMP
10 36 (1.56%) ISTQB
11 30 (1.30%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 28 (1.21%) Microsoft Certification
13 26 (1.13%) Computer Science Degree
14 24 (1.04%) CISM
15 20 (0.87%) AWS Certification
16 19 (0.82%) TOGAF Certification
17 18 (0.78%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
18 17 (0.74%) VCAP
19 16 (0.69%) (ISC)2 CCSP
19 16 (0.69%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 104 (4.50%) NIST
2 98 (4.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 86 (3.72%) PMO
4 62 (2.68%) NCSC
5 60 (2.60%) QA
6 39 (1.69%) GDPR
7 33 (1.43%) Data Quality
8 30 (1.30%) SLA
9 27 (1.17%) JSP 440
10 22 (0.95%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 16 (0.69%) GRC
11 16 (0.69%) NIST 800
12 15 (0.65%) Cyber Essentials
13 12 (0.52%) Def Stans
14 11 (0.48%) Accessibility
14 11 (0.48%) ISO 9001
15 9 (0.39%) ISO 31000
16 6 (0.26%) RMADS
17 3 (0.13%) GMP
17 3 (0.13%) WCAG
System Software
1 189 (8.18%) Active Directory
2 151 (6.54%) VMware Infrastructure
3 78 (3.38%) VMware NSX
4 71 (3.07%) VMware ESXi
5 64 (2.77%) Docker
6 28 (1.21%) vSphere
7 26 (1.13%) vCloud
8 21 (0.91%) Hyper-V
9 17 (0.74%) Virtual Machines
10 16 (0.69%) Virtual Desktop
11 12 (0.52%) Firmware
12 8 (0.35%) Embedded Firmware
12 8 (0.35%) Oracle RAC
13 4 (0.17%) KVM
13 4 (0.17%) Virtual Servers
14 2 (0.087%) Dovecot
14 2 (0.087%) Microsoft Virtual Server
14 2 (0.087%) Postfix
14 2 (0.087%) UAG
Systems Management
1 120 (5.19%) Kubernetes
2 82 (3.55%) vCenter Server
3 74 (3.20%) Ansible
4 60 (2.60%) SCOM
5 24 (1.04%) SCCM
6 20 (0.87%) Argo
6 20 (0.87%) Microsoft Intune
7 19 (0.82%) Grafana
8 16 (0.69%) Avamar
9 15 (0.65%) Prometheus
9 15 (0.65%) WMI
10 14 (0.61%) FortiGate
11 13 (0.56%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 10 (0.43%) Oracle RMAN
13 8 (0.35%) Cisco CUCM
13 8 (0.35%) Data Guard
14 7 (0.30%) Podman
14 7 (0.30%) Red Hat Satellite
14 7 (0.30%) Single Sign-On
15 5 (0.22%) Istio
Vendors
1 370 (16.02%) Microsoft
2 231 (10.00%) VMware
3 177 (7.66%) Oracle
4 165 (7.14%) SAP
5 139 (6.02%) ServiceNow
6 71 (3.07%) Cisco
7 50 (2.16%) Red Hat
8 41 (1.77%) Juniper
9 38 (1.65%) Google
10 37 (1.60%) SolarWinds
11 30 (1.30%) Citrix
12 29 (1.26%) F5
13 27 (1.17%) Palo Alto
14 25 (1.08%) CyberArk
14 25 (1.08%) Remedy
15 23 (1.00%) Broadcom
16 22 (0.95%) BeyondTrust
17 20 (0.87%) Siebel
18 18 (0.78%) Dell
19 17 (0.74%) BMC