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

6 months to
10 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 1,923 753 1,909
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 37.35% 24.98% 33.83%
As % of the Qualifications category 80.13% 64.97% 75.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,313 531 1,060
10th Percentile £311 £313 £310
25th Percentile £435 £456 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -4.35% +4.55%
75th Percentile £623 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £700 £725
England median daily rate £525 £547 £550
% change year-on-year -4.02% -0.55% -2.28%
Number of hourly rates quoted 191 52 123
10th Percentile £16.35 £20.52 £22.91
25th Percentile £20.80 £30.21 £51.38
Median hourly rate £55.00 £61.50 £60.14
Median % change year-on-year -10.56% +2.25% +4.12%
75th Percentile £85.31 £67.96 £71.90
90th Percentile £90.09 £80.09 £85.65
England median hourly rate £26.97 £60.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year -55.05% +9.09% -8.33%

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 2,400 1,159 2,532
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 46.61% 38.45% 44.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,595 751 1,423
10th Percentile £300 £263 £250
25th Percentile £413 £415 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £540 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.63% -1.82% +3.77%
75th Percentile £610 £626 £638
90th Percentile £725 £688 £700
England median daily rate £520 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -0.95% -2.42% -2.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 240 74 180
10th Percentile £15.62 £19.08 £17.80
25th Percentile £19.54 £25.64 £23.88
Median hourly rate £37.06 £56.75 £58.00
Median % change year-on-year -34.69% -2.15% +19.48%
75th Percentile £84.00 £67.50 £67.31
90th Percentile £90.09 £79.51 £83.14
England median hourly rate £27.50 £53.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year -48.11% +32.50% -20.00%

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 10 March 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 10 March 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 10 March 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 +1 988 £492 -10.55% 167
Hampshire 0 761 £575 - 165
Berkshire +2 664 £450 -20.63% 99
Buckinghamshire +1 250 £560 +17.89% 50
Surrey +12 79 £525 -19.23% 25
Oxfordshire +9 74 £420 -28.51% 27
West Sussex +8 49 £537 -13.73% 15
Kent +4 26 £443 +60.91% 24
Sussex -1 7 £475 +9.83% 4
East Sussex +5 3 £588 +6.82% 4
Middlesex - 1 - -
Isle of Wight - 1 £81 - 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 51 (2.65%) SharePoint
2 41 (2.13%) Microsoft Exchange
3 17 (0.88%) Confluence
4 5 (0.26%) Apache
4 5 (0.26%) IIS
4 5 (0.26%) Oracle Workflow
5 4 (0.21%) ArcGIS
6 3 (0.16%) MS Project Server
7 2 (0.10%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.10%) GeoServer
7 2 (0.10%) NetWeaver
7 2 (0.10%) SAP EP
7 2 (0.10%) Smallworld
8 1 (0.052%) Anypoint
8 1 (0.052%) Apache Pulsar
8 1 (0.052%) BizTalk Server
8 1 (0.052%) JBoss
8 1 (0.052%) Palantir Foundry
8 1 (0.052%) SAS
8 1 (0.052%) WebLogic
Applications
1 63 (3.28%) Microsoft Excel
2 59 (3.07%) Microsoft Office
3 34 (1.77%) Microsoft Project
4 30 (1.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 12 (0.62%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.10%) Lectora
6 2 (0.10%) Oracle Smart View
6 2 (0.10%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.052%) CATIA
7 1 (0.052%) PTC Creo
7 1 (0.052%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 30 (1.56%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 26 (1.35%) SAP S/4HANA
3 7 (0.36%) Oracle Assets
3 7 (0.36%) Oracle ERP
3 7 (0.36%) Oracle Payables
3 7 (0.36%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
4 6 (0.31%) SAP HR
4 6 (0.31%) SAP Payroll
5 5 (0.26%) Salesforce CRM
5 5 (0.26%) SAP PSCD
6 4 (0.21%) SAP BRIM
6 4 (0.21%) SAP Hybris
7 3 (0.16%) Payment Gateway
7 3 (0.16%) Remedy ITSM
7 3 (0.16%) SAP HCM
7 3 (0.16%) Teamcenter
8 2 (0.10%) Oracle General Ledger
8 2 (0.10%) Oracle Receivables
8 2 (0.10%) Primavera
8 2 (0.10%) SAP CRM
Cloud Services
1 275 (14.30%) Azure
2 189 (9.83%) AWS
3 88 (4.58%) GCP
4 79 (4.11%) Entra ID
5 74 (3.85%) Microsoft 365
6 45 (2.34%) Azure DevOps
7 44 (2.29%) OpenShift
8 40 (2.08%) Power Platform
9 35 (1.82%) GitHub
10 26 (1.35%) IaaS
10 26 (1.35%) PaaS
11 21 (1.09%) OneDrive
12 20 (1.04%) GitHub Actions
13 15 (0.78%) Cloud Computing
13 15 (0.78%) SaaS
14 14 (0.73%) Serverless
15 12 (0.62%) Power Automate
15 12 (0.62%) PowerApps
16 11 (0.57%) AWS CloudFormation
16 11 (0.57%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 146 (7.59%) Firewall
2 92 (4.78%) DNS
3 86 (4.47%) WAN
4 83 (4.32%) LAN
5 71 (3.69%) BGP
6 66 (3.43%) OSPF
7 61 (3.17%) Network Security
8 60 (3.12%) DHCP
9 45 (2.34%) VPN
10 37 (1.92%) TCP/IP
11 35 (1.82%) Junos
12 30 (1.56%) Cisco ISE
13 29 (1.51%) Wireless
14 27 (1.40%) IPsec
15 25 (1.30%) Ethernet VPN
16 24 (1.25%) VXLAN
17 22 (1.14%) VLAN
18 21 (1.09%) MPLS
18 21 (1.09%) Structured Cabling
19 20 (1.04%) BIG-IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 40 (2.08%) SQL Server
2 35 (1.82%) Power BI
3 25 (1.30%) PostgreSQL
4 12 (0.62%) Oracle Database
5 11 (0.57%) Metadata
6 10 (0.52%) Azure SQL Database
6 10 (0.52%) Redis
7 8 (0.42%) Oracle Reports
7 8 (0.42%) Relational Database
8 7 (0.36%) Oracle Database 12c
8 7 (0.36%) SAP HANA
9 6 (0.31%) MongoDB
9 6 (0.31%) MySQL
10 5 (0.26%) Data Warehouse
10 5 (0.26%) Metadata Repository
10 5 (0.26%) NoSQL
11 4 (0.21%) SAP Data Services
12 3 (0.16%) Amazon RDS
12 3 (0.16%) Oracle BI Publisher
12 3 (0.16%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 54 (2.81%) JIRA
2 42 (2.18%) Git
3 37 (1.92%) Jenkins
4 35 (1.82%) GitLab
5 34 (1.77%) Rational DOORS
6 22 (1.14%) Burp Suite
6 22 (1.14%) Metasploit
7 10 (0.52%) Visual Studio
8 8 (0.42%) Artifactory
8 8 (0.42%) Maven
8 8 (0.42%) SonarQube
9 7 (0.36%) Android Studio
9 7 (0.36%) Subversion
10 6 (0.31%) Robot Framework
11 5 (0.26%) Bitbucket
11 5 (0.26%) Gradle
11 5 (0.26%) JUnit
11 5 (0.26%) Sonatype Nexus
12 4 (0.21%) Cypress.io
12 4 (0.21%) Eclipse
General
1 485 (25.22%) Social Skills
2 310 (16.12%) Public Sector
3 187 (9.72%) Analytical Skills
4 111 (5.77%) Finance
5 84 (4.37%) Aerospace
6 73 (3.80%) Documentation Skills
7 42 (2.18%) Military
8 35 (1.82%) Manufacturing
9 34 (1.77%) Influencing Skills
10 31 (1.61%) Legal
11 27 (1.40%) Telecoms
12 18 (0.94%) Law
12 18 (0.94%) Presentation Skills
13 15 (0.78%) Marketing
14 13 (0.68%) Organisational Skills
15 9 (0.47%) Billing
16 8 (0.42%) Advertising
16 8 (0.42%) Electronics
17 7 (0.36%) Aviation
18 6 (0.31%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 306 (15.91%) Architect
2 176 (9.15%) Senior
3 144 (7.49%) Lead
4 136 (7.07%) Analyst
5 118 (6.14%) Network Engineer
6 114 (5.93%) Consultant
7 109 (5.67%) Developer
8 58 (3.02%) Technical Architect
9 55 (2.86%) Project Manager
10 52 (2.70%) Tester
11 50 (2.60%) Support Engineer
12 49 (2.55%) Enterprise Architect
13 46 (2.39%) Delivery Manager
13 46 (2.39%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 44 (2.29%) DevOps Engineer
15 43 (2.24%) Security Architect
16 41 (2.13%) Product Manager
17 35 (1.82%) IT Engineer
18 33 (1.72%) Infrastructure Architect
18 33 (1.72%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (1.72%) LDAP
2 32 (1.66%) REST
3 28 (1.46%) .NET
3 28 (1.46%) React
4 22 (1.14%) JSON
5 21 (1.09%) 802.1X
6 19 (0.99%) Elastic Stack
7 17 (0.88%) AngularJS
7 17 (0.88%) Kafka
7 17 (0.88%) Oracle Fusion
7 17 (0.88%) RESTful
7 17 (0.88%) XML
8 16 (0.83%) SOAP
9 15 (0.78%) SailPoint
10 12 (0.62%) OAuth
10 12 (0.62%) Web Services
11 11 (0.57%) CSS
11 11 (0.57%) Loki
11 11 (0.57%) Oracle GoldenGate
11 11 (0.57%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 92 (4.78%) Data Centre
2 83 (4.32%) PKI
3 63 (3.28%) Product Ownership
4 52 (2.70%) Onboarding
5 41 (2.13%) Management Information System
6 31 (1.61%) Self-Motivation
7 27 (1.40%) Cloud Native
8 25 (1.30%) Data Structures
8 25 (1.30%) Security Operations Centre
9 23 (1.20%) Clustering
9 23 (1.20%) Replication
10 21 (1.09%) Security Posture
11 20 (1.04%) Analytical Mindset
12 19 (0.99%) Driving Licence
13 16 (0.83%) Distributed Systems
14 15 (0.78%) Cyber Threat
15 13 (0.68%) Operational Technology
15 13 (0.68%) PMI
15 13 (0.68%) Private Cloud
15 13 (0.68%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 276 (14.35%) Windows
2 190 (9.88%) Linux
3 72 (3.74%) Windows Server
4 39 (2.03%) Windows 10
5 33 (1.72%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 17 (0.88%) Android
7 14 (0.73%) Unix
8 12 (0.62%) Ubuntu
9 9 (0.47%) Windows 7
10 7 (0.36%) Kali Linux
11 6 (0.31%) Mac OS
11 6 (0.31%) Windows Server 2016
12 4 (0.21%) Apple iOS
12 4 (0.21%) CentOS
12 4 (0.21%) Windows Server 2019
13 3 (0.16%) Debian
14 2 (0.10%) Embedded Linux
14 2 (0.10%) SUSE
14 2 (0.10%) VMS
14 2 (0.10%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 343 (17.84%) Agile
2 219 (11.39%) Problem-Solving
3 190 (9.88%) ITIL
4 189 (9.83%) DevOps
5 187 (9.72%) CI/CD
6 175 (9.10%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 166 (8.63%) Migration
8 162 (8.42%) Continuous Improvement
9 160 (8.32%) Stakeholder Management
10 149 (7.75%) Cybersecurity
11 148 (7.70%) Roadmaps
12 122 (6.34%) Service Management
13 109 (5.67%) ITSM
14 99 (5.15%) Project Management
15 90 (4.68%) SIEM
16 84 (4.37%) Change Management
17 79 (4.11%) Decision-Making
18 78 (4.06%) DevSecOps
19 77 (4.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
20 75 (3.90%) Collaborative Working
Programming Languages
1 193 (10.04%) Python
2 157 (8.16%) PowerShell
3 59 (3.07%) Java
4 58 (3.02%) Bash
5 56 (2.91%) SQL
6 39 (2.03%) C#
7 38 (1.98%) JavaScript
8 24 (1.25%) C++
9 21 (1.09%) Kusto Query Language
10 16 (0.83%) TypeScript
11 13 (0.68%) Shell Script
12 12 (0.62%) Go
13 11 (0.57%) C
14 9 (0.47%) ABAP
14 9 (0.47%) Korn
15 8 (0.42%) PL/SQL
16 7 (0.36%) Embedded C++
17 6 (0.31%) Bicep
18 5 (0.26%) T-SQL
19 3 (0.16%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 1,214 (63.13%) SC Cleared
2 599 (31.15%) DV Cleared
3 144 (7.49%) Degree
4 65 (3.38%) Cisco Certification
5 50 (2.60%) CCNP
6 49 (2.55%) CISSP
7 40 (2.08%) BPSS Clearance
8 27 (1.40%) CISM
9 22 (1.14%) CCNA
9 22 (1.14%) CEH
9 22 (1.14%) PMP
10 20 (1.04%) Azure Certification
10 20 (1.04%) PMI Certification
11 18 (0.94%) GIAC
12 16 (0.83%) AWS Certification
13 15 (0.78%) CHECK Team Member
13 15 (0.78%) JNCIS
14 14 (0.73%) Computer Science Degree
15 13 (0.68%) CREST Certified
15 13 (0.68%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 79 (4.11%) NIST
2 78 (4.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 55 (2.86%) GDPR
4 51 (2.65%) PMO
5 50 (2.60%) NCSC
6 49 (2.55%) QA
7 21 (1.09%) SLA
8 20 (1.04%) Data Quality
9 17 (0.88%) PCI DSS
10 15 (0.78%) JSP 440
11 13 (0.68%) Accessibility
11 13 (0.68%) GRC
12 12 (0.62%) ISO/IEC 20000
13 11 (0.57%) NIST 800
14 10 (0.52%) COBIT
15 5 (0.26%) Cyber Essentials
15 5 (0.26%) Def Stans
15 5 (0.26%) Government Security Classifications
15 5 (0.26%) P3O
16 4 (0.21%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 175 (9.10%) Active Directory
2 87 (4.52%) VMware Infrastructure
3 48 (2.50%) Docker
4 33 (1.72%) vSphere
5 30 (1.56%) VMware NSX
6 17 (0.88%) VMware ESXi
7 11 (0.57%) Hyper-V
8 10 (0.52%) Firmware
8 10 (0.52%) Virtual Desktop
9 9 (0.47%) Oracle RAC
9 9 (0.47%) vCloud
10 8 (0.42%) Virtual Machines
11 3 (0.16%) NFS
12 1 (0.052%) KVM
12 1 (0.052%) NDS
12 1 (0.052%) NetIQ eDirectory
12 1 (0.052%) RHEV
12 1 (0.052%) Terminal Services
12 1 (0.052%) UAG
12 1 (0.052%) Xen
Systems Management
1 101 (5.25%) Kubernetes
2 67 (3.48%) Terraform
3 66 (3.43%) Ansible
4 45 (2.34%) Grafana
4 45 (2.34%) vCenter Server
5 44 (2.29%) Prometheus
6 33 (1.72%) Argo
7 28 (1.46%) SCCM
8 24 (1.25%) Nmap
9 21 (1.09%) FortiGate
10 18 (0.94%) Microsoft Intune
11 17 (0.88%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 15 (0.78%) WMI
13 14 (0.73%) Single Sign-On
14 13 (0.68%) Kibana
15 11 (0.57%) Kustomize
16 10 (0.52%) Oracle RMAN
17 9 (0.47%) Nagios
17 9 (0.47%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
17 9 (0.47%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 224 (11.65%) Microsoft
2 175 (9.10%) Cisco
3 174 (9.05%) VMware
4 80 (4.16%) Juniper
4 80 (4.16%) ServiceNow
5 78 (4.06%) SAP
6 65 (3.38%) Red Hat
7 60 (3.12%) Aruba
8 59 (3.07%) Splunk
9 45 (2.34%) SolarWinds
10 43 (2.24%) Oracle
11 38 (1.98%) F5
12 37 (1.92%) Palo Alto
13 36 (1.87%) Google
14 32 (1.66%) CyberArk
15 31 (1.61%) Sparx
16 28 (1.46%) BeyondTrust
16 28 (1.46%) IBM
17 25 (1.30%) CheckPoint
18 16 (0.83%) Citrix