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

6 months to
5 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 +1
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 1,445 869 1,627
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 33.10% 25.17% 33.00%
As % of the Qualifications category 75.38% 65.93% 73.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,017 609 926
10th Percentile £305 £313 £250
25th Percentile £440 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -5.45% - -
75th Percentile £606 £638 £643
90th Percentile £725 £703 £700
England median daily rate £525 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -4.55% - -2.31%
Number of hourly rates quoted 144 57 103
10th Percentile £18.87 £22.56 £31.46
25th Percentile £19.38 £31.25 £52.97
Median hourly rate £25.15 £59.00 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -57.37% -1.67% +9.09%
75th Percentile £60.00 £64.73 £70.50
90th Percentile £90.09 £76.58 £78.00
England median hourly rate £25.15 £57.00 £60.00
% change year-on-year -55.88% -5.00% -

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 1,917 1,318 2,202
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 43.92% 38.18% 44.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,278 866 1,312
10th Percentile £270 £260 £213
25th Percentile £413 £408 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.78% +0.93%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £700 £700
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 193 75 134
10th Percentile £15.62 £20.03 £27.50
25th Percentile £19.38 £31.25 £49.96
Median hourly rate £25.15 £56.75 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -55.68% -5.43% +33.33%
75th Percentile £60.00 £65.17 £70.39
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 5 January 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 5 January 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 5 January 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
Hampshire 0 659 £550 -2.22% 170
Thames Valley +1 650 £488 -7.14% 118
Berkshire 0 446 £465 -20.24% 63
Buckinghamshire +1 156 £550 +22.22% 42
Surrey +22 61 £550 -15.38% 50
Oxfordshire +6 48 £275 -56.00% 13
West Sussex +13 34 £522 -28.03% 8
Kent +9 19 £438 +143.06% 26
Middlesex - 6 - - 1
East Sussex +4 1 £450 -18.18% 6
Sussex -5 1 £525 +21.39%
Isle of Wight - 1 £81 - 6
Home Counties - 1 £1,100 -
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 40 (2.77%) SharePoint
2 33 (2.28%) Microsoft Exchange
3 13 (0.90%) Confluence
4 7 (0.48%) Exchange Server 2010
4 7 (0.48%) Exchange Server 2013
4 7 (0.48%) Skype for Business
5 6 (0.42%) Exchange Server 2003
5 6 (0.42%) Exchange Server 2007
5 6 (0.42%) Office Communications Server
5 6 (0.42%) SharePoint Server
6 4 (0.28%) Apache
7 3 (0.21%) ArcGIS
7 3 (0.21%) CMS
7 3 (0.21%) Documentum
7 3 (0.21%) IIS
7 3 (0.21%) Oracle Workflow
8 2 (0.14%) GeoServer
8 2 (0.14%) Smallworld
9 1 (0.069%) Anypoint
9 1 (0.069%) Red Hat Fuse
Applications
1 58 (4.01%) Microsoft Office
2 44 (3.04%) Microsoft Excel
3 26 (1.80%) Microsoft Project
4 23 (1.59%) 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 (1.87%) 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%) Oracle Assets
5 5 (0.35%) Oracle Payables
5 5 (0.35%) Salesforce CRM
6 4 (0.28%) Oracle ERP
6 4 (0.28%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 4 (0.28%) Primavera
7 3 (0.21%) Payment Gateway
7 3 (0.21%) SAP ERP
7 3 (0.21%) SAP PSCD
8 2 (0.14%) Oracle Cash Management
8 2 (0.14%) Oracle General Ledger
8 2 (0.14%) Oracle Receivables
8 2 (0.14%) SAP PS
Cloud Services
1 199 (13.77%) Azure
2 166 (11.49%) AWS
3 72 (4.98%) GCP
4 63 (4.36%) Microsoft 365
5 39 (2.70%) Entra ID
6 34 (2.35%) OpenShift
7 31 (2.15%) GitHub
8 27 (1.87%) Azure DevOps
9 22 (1.52%) Power Platform
10 18 (1.25%) GitHub Actions
11 17 (1.18%) OneDrive
12 16 (1.11%) IaaS
13 14 (0.97%) Cloud Computing
13 14 (0.97%) SaaS
14 13 (0.90%) PaaS
15 11 (0.76%) Serverless
16 10 (0.69%) Datadog
17 9 (0.62%) Amazon EKS
17 9 (0.62%) AWS CloudFormation
18 8 (0.55%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 111 (7.68%) Firewall
2 61 (4.22%) DNS
3 40 (2.77%) LAN
3 40 (2.77%) VPN
3 40 (2.77%) WAN
4 38 (2.63%) DHCP
5 36 (2.49%) TCP/IP
6 35 (2.42%) BGP
6 35 (2.42%) Network Security
7 31 (2.15%) OSPF
8 27 (1.87%) VLAN
9 26 (1.80%) Cisco IOS
10 25 (1.73%) Junos
11 22 (1.52%) Cisco Firepower
11 22 (1.52%) Cisco ISE
11 22 (1.52%) Wireless
12 18 (1.25%) IPsec
13 17 (1.18%) SAN
14 16 (1.11%) MPLS
15 14 (0.97%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (1.31%) Power BI
1 19 (1.31%) SQL Server
2 15 (1.04%) PostgreSQL
3 9 (0.62%) Metadata
4 8 (0.55%) MongoDB
4 8 (0.55%) NoSQL
5 7 (0.48%) Azure SQL Database
5 7 (0.48%) Redis
5 7 (0.48%) SAP HANA
6 6 (0.42%) 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%) Data Warehouse
10 2 (0.14%) Geospatial Data
10 2 (0.14%) GIS
10 2 (0.14%) QGIS
10 2 (0.14%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 51 (3.53%) JIRA
2 38 (2.63%) Jenkins
3 36 (2.49%) GitLab
4 26 (1.80%) Git
5 20 (1.38%) Burp Suite
5 20 (1.38%) Metasploit
6 7 (0.48%) Android Studio
6 7 (0.48%) Artifactory
7 4 (0.28%) Bitbucket
7 4 (0.28%) Gradle
7 4 (0.28%) Rational DOORS
7 4 (0.28%) Selenium
7 4 (0.28%) SonarQube
7 4 (0.28%) Subversion
8 3 (0.21%) Cucumber
8 3 (0.21%) Cypress.io
8 3 (0.21%) JUnit
8 3 (0.21%) Maven
8 3 (0.21%) Robot Framework
8 3 (0.21%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 413 (28.58%) Social Skills
2 251 (17.37%) Public Sector
3 149 (10.31%) Analytical Skills
4 72 (4.98%) Finance
5 49 (3.39%) Documentation Skills
6 39 (2.70%) Manufacturing
7 32 (2.21%) Military
8 31 (2.15%) Telecoms
9 21 (1.45%) Aerospace
9 21 (1.45%) Influencing Skills
10 19 (1.31%) Legal
11 17 (1.18%) Presentation Skills
12 15 (1.04%) Law
13 14 (0.97%) Organisational Skills
14 13 (0.90%) Electronics
14 13 (0.90%) Marketing
15 7 (0.48%) Pharmaceutical
16 6 (0.42%) Aviation
17 5 (0.35%) Banking
18 4 (0.28%) Billing
Job Titles
1 256 (17.72%) Architect
2 107 (7.40%) Consultant
3 102 (7.06%) Analyst
4 100 (6.92%) Network Engineer
5 93 (6.44%) Senior
6 89 (6.16%) Lead
7 68 (4.71%) Support Engineer
8 55 (3.81%) Developer
9 45 (3.11%) DevOps Engineer
9 45 (3.11%) Tester
10 44 (3.04%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 44 (3.04%) Project Manager
11 43 (2.98%) Cloud Engineer
12 40 (2.77%) Enterprise Architect
13 38 (2.63%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
13 38 (2.63%) IT Engineer
14 36 (2.49%) Infrastructure Architect
15 35 (2.42%) 3rd Line Engineer
15 35 (2.42%) SAP Consultant
16 33 (2.28%) Network Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (1.18%) React
2 16 (1.11%) .NET
2 16 (1.11%) LDAP
2 16 (1.11%) REST
3 14 (0.97%) Elastic Stack
4 13 (0.90%) Kafka
4 13 (0.90%) RESTful
5 11 (0.76%) Oracle Fusion
6 10 (0.69%) AngularJS
7 9 (0.62%) Web Services
8 8 (0.55%) JSON
8 8 (0.55%) Keycloak
8 8 (0.55%) Loki
8 8 (0.55%) Middleware
8 8 (0.55%) SAP Fiori
9 7 (0.48%) SOAP
9 7 (0.48%) Spring Boot
9 7 (0.48%) Vue
9 7 (0.48%) XML
10 6 (0.42%) CSS
Miscellaneous
1 57 (3.94%) PKI
2 39 (2.70%) Data Centre
3 37 (2.56%) Onboarding
4 30 (2.08%) Management Information System
5 26 (1.80%) Cloud Native
6 23 (1.59%) Security Operations Centre
7 20 (1.38%) Analytical Mindset
8 19 (1.31%) Product Ownership
8 19 (1.31%) Self-Motivation
9 16 (1.11%) Legacy Systems
9 16 (1.11%) PMI
9 16 (1.11%) Private Cloud
10 15 (1.04%) Driving Licence
10 15 (1.04%) Security Posture
11 12 (0.83%) Cyber Security Posture
11 12 (0.83%) Replication
12 11 (0.76%) Cyber Threat
13 10 (0.69%) Enterprise Software
13 10 (0.69%) Fat Client
13 10 (0.69%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 241 (16.68%) Windows
2 148 (10.24%) Linux
3 58 (4.01%) Windows Server
4 47 (3.25%) Windows 10
5 21 (1.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 13 (0.90%) Android
7 10 (0.69%) Windows 7
8 7 (0.48%) Ubuntu
8 7 (0.48%) Windows Server 2019
9 6 (0.42%) Kali Linux
9 6 (0.42%) Mac OS
9 6 (0.42%) Unix
9 6 (0.42%) Windows Server 2003
10 4 (0.28%) VMS
11 3 (0.21%) Debian
11 3 (0.21%) Windows Server 2012
11 3 (0.21%) Windows Server 2016
12 2 (0.14%) Apple iOS
12 2 (0.14%) SUSE
12 2 (0.14%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 231 (15.99%) Agile
2 173 (11.97%) Problem-Solving
3 156 (10.80%) ITIL
4 150 (10.38%) CI/CD
4 150 (10.38%) DevOps
5 146 (10.10%) Migration
6 121 (8.37%) Service Management
6 121 (8.37%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 105 (7.27%) Stakeholder Management
8 100 (6.92%) Cybersecurity
9 93 (6.44%) Roadmaps
10 87 (6.02%) Continuous Improvement
11 78 (5.40%) ITSM
12 75 (5.19%) Project Management
13 72 (4.98%) Project Delivery
14 71 (4.91%) Workflow
15 66 (4.57%) Change Management
15 66 (4.57%) SIEM
16 63 (4.36%) Infrastructure Engineering
17 59 (4.08%) Collaborative Working
Programming Languages
1 156 (10.80%) Python
2 118 (8.17%) PowerShell
3 52 (3.60%) SQL
4 50 (3.46%) Bash
5 49 (3.39%) Java
6 34 (2.35%) JavaScript
7 28 (1.94%) C#
8 14 (0.97%) ABAP
9 13 (0.90%) C++
10 11 (0.76%) Go
10 11 (0.76%) Kusto Query Language
11 7 (0.48%) PL/SQL
11 7 (0.48%) TypeScript
12 6 (0.42%) C
12 6 (0.42%) Embedded C++
13 5 (0.35%) Bicep
14 4 (0.28%) Shell Script
15 2 (0.14%) Ada
15 2 (0.14%) Assembly Language
15 2 (0.14%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 927 (64.15%) SC Cleared
2 464 (32.11%) DV Cleared
3 79 (5.47%) Degree
4 48 (3.32%) Cisco Certification
5 44 (3.04%) CCNP
6 42 (2.91%) CISSP
7 26 (1.80%) Microsoft Certification
8 23 (1.59%) CEH
9 21 (1.45%) CISM
10 20 (1.38%) BPSS Clearance
10 20 (1.38%) CCNA
11 19 (1.31%) Azure Certification
11 19 (1.31%) GIAC
12 18 (1.25%) PMI Certification
13 17 (1.18%) AWS Certification
14 15 (1.04%) PMP
15 14 (0.97%) CHECK Team Member
16 13 (0.90%) Network+ Certification
17 12 (0.83%) CREST Certified
17 12 (0.83%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 57 (3.94%) GDPR
2 51 (3.53%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 47 (3.25%) QA
4 46 (3.18%) NIST
5 37 (2.56%) PMO
6 29 (2.01%) ISO/IEC 20000
7 28 (1.94%) SLA
8 27 (1.87%) NCSC
9 16 (1.11%) PCI DSS
10 10 (0.69%) COBIT
10 10 (0.69%) GRC
10 10 (0.69%) JSP 440
11 8 (0.55%) Data Quality
12 6 (0.42%) RMADS
13 5 (0.35%) Accessibility
14 4 (0.28%) Def Stans
14 4 (0.28%) NIST 800
14 4 (0.28%) P3O
15 3 (0.21%) HIPAA
15 3 (0.21%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 136 (9.41%) Active Directory
2 72 (4.98%) VMware Infrastructure
3 45 (3.11%) Docker
4 38 (2.63%) vSphere
5 33 (2.28%) VMware NSX
6 25 (1.73%) VMware ESXi
7 12 (0.83%) Hyper-V
8 9 (0.62%) NFS
8 9 (0.62%) Virtual Desktop
9 7 (0.48%) Virtual Machines
10 6 (0.42%) Brightmail
10 6 (0.42%) ISA Server
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 93 (6.44%) Kubernetes
2 62 (4.29%) Ansible
3 60 (4.15%) Terraform
4 49 (3.39%) vCenter Server
5 36 (2.49%) Grafana
5 36 (2.49%) Prometheus
6 24 (1.66%) Argo
7 23 (1.59%) Nmap
7 23 (1.59%) SCCM
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%) vRealize
14 7 (0.48%) Microsoft Clustering
14 7 (0.48%) Proxmox
14 7 (0.48%) Sysdig
Vendors
1 205 (14.19%) Microsoft
2 146 (10.10%) Cisco
2 146 (10.10%) VMware
3 89 (6.16%) SAP
4 64 (4.43%) Juniper
5 55 (3.81%) ServiceNow
6 51 (3.53%) Aruba
7 49 (3.39%) Splunk
8 48 (3.32%) Red Hat
9 34 (2.35%) Palo Alto
9 34 (2.35%) SolarWinds
10 32 (2.21%) Google
11 28 (1.94%) Sparx
12 26 (1.80%) CheckPoint
12 26 (1.80%) Oracle
13 22 (1.52%) CyberArk
14 15 (1.04%) BeyondTrust
15 13 (0.90%) Fortinet
16 12 (0.83%) Salesforce
17 11 (0.76%) NetApp