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

6 months to
20 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 1,709 773 1,801
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 35.63% 24.36% 32.90%
As % of the Qualifications category 77.79% 65.23% 74.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,192 521 975
10th Percentile £309 £325 £275
25th Percentile £431 £425 £453
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £524 £550 £563
Median % change year-on-year -4.82% -2.22% +2.27%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £688 £719
England median daily rate £525 £540 £550
% change year-on-year -2.78% -1.82% -2.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 167 55 131
10th Percentile £16.35 £19.27 £27.50
25th Percentile £19.54 £31.25 £51.50
Median hourly rate £27.88 £61.50 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -54.66% +2.49% +1.90%
75th Percentile £80.05 £65.17 £72.33
90th Percentile £95.00 £80.06 £84.45
England median hourly rate £25.15 £60.00 £58.00
% change year-on-year -58.08% +3.45% -3.33%

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 2,197 1,185 2,415
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 45.81% 37.35% 44.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,468 746 1,367
10th Percentile £298 £263 £215
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -
75th Percentile £605 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £680 £700
England median daily rate £520 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -0.95% -2.78% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 220 68 172
10th Percentile £15.59 £18.64 £18.32
25th Percentile £19.34 £30.21 £38.75
Median hourly rate £26.97 £56.75 £59.50
Median % change year-on-year -52.47% -4.63% +32.22%
75th Percentile £71.25 £64.73 £70.00
90th Percentile £90.09 £80.03 £83.38
England median hourly rate £25.15 £47.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -47.05% +5.56% -1.64%

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 20 February 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 20 February 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 20 February 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 +1 836 £481 -8.33% 223
Hampshire 0 707 £550 -3.51% 208
Berkshire +2 588 £450 -18.18% 122
Buckinghamshire +1 195 £559 +24.17% 78
Surrey +16 77 £525 -19.23% 32
Oxfordshire +9 53 £378 -35.74% 32
West Sussex +7 43 £537 -14.25% 15
Kent +6 26 £443 +60.91% 26
Sussex -1 7 £475 +9.83% 4
East Sussex +6 3 £588 +6.82% 5
Middlesex - 3 - -
Isle of Wight - 1 £81 - 7
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 46 (2.69%) SharePoint
2 39 (2.28%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (0.88%) Confluence
4 5 (0.29%) Apache
5 4 (0.23%) ArcGIS
5 4 (0.23%) IIS
5 4 (0.23%) Oracle Workflow
6 3 (0.18%) MS Project Server
7 2 (0.12%) GeoServer
7 2 (0.12%) NetWeaver
7 2 (0.12%) SAP EP
7 2 (0.12%) Smallworld
8 1 (0.059%) Anypoint
8 1 (0.059%) Apache Pulsar
8 1 (0.059%) BizTalk Server
8 1 (0.059%) Documentum
8 1 (0.059%) JBoss
8 1 (0.059%) Palantir Foundry
8 1 (0.059%) SAS
8 1 (0.059%) WebLogic
Applications
1 62 (3.63%) Microsoft Excel
2 59 (3.45%) Microsoft Office
3 34 (1.99%) Microsoft Project
4 30 (1.76%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 10 (0.59%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.12%) Lectora
7 1 (0.059%) CATIA
7 1 (0.059%) PTC Creo
7 1 (0.059%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 29 (1.70%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 28 (1.64%) SAP S/4HANA
3 6 (0.35%) Oracle Assets
3 6 (0.35%) Oracle Payables
3 6 (0.35%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
3 6 (0.35%) SAP HR
3 6 (0.35%) SAP Payroll
4 5 (0.29%) Oracle ERP
4 5 (0.29%) Salesforce CRM
4 5 (0.29%) SAP HCM
4 5 (0.29%) SAP PSCD
5 4 (0.23%) SAP BRIM
5 4 (0.23%) SAP Hybris
6 3 (0.18%) Payment Gateway
6 3 (0.18%) Teamcenter
7 2 (0.12%) Oracle Cash Management
7 2 (0.12%) Oracle General Ledger
7 2 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
7 2 (0.12%) SAP CRM
7 2 (0.12%) SAP PS
Cloud Services
1 257 (15.04%) Azure
2 189 (11.06%) AWS
3 79 (4.62%) GCP
4 70 (4.10%) Microsoft 365
5 64 (3.74%) Entra ID
6 39 (2.28%) OpenShift
7 37 (2.17%) Azure DevOps
8 35 (2.05%) Power Platform
9 34 (1.99%) GitHub
10 21 (1.23%) OneDrive
11 20 (1.17%) IaaS
11 20 (1.17%) PaaS
12 19 (1.11%) GitHub Actions
13 15 (0.88%) Cloud Computing
14 14 (0.82%) SaaS
15 11 (0.64%) AWS CloudFormation
15 11 (0.64%) Serverless
16 10 (0.59%) Datadog
16 10 (0.59%) Power Automate
16 10 (0.59%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 135 (7.90%) Firewall
2 85 (4.97%) DNS
3 67 (3.92%) WAN
4 63 (3.69%) LAN
5 60 (3.51%) BGP
6 55 (3.22%) DHCP
6 55 (3.22%) OSPF
7 48 (2.81%) Network Security
8 40 (2.34%) VPN
9 39 (2.28%) TCP/IP
10 33 (1.93%) Junos
11 31 (1.81%) Cisco ISE
12 27 (1.58%) VLAN
13 26 (1.52%) IPsec
13 26 (1.52%) Wireless
14 22 (1.29%) Cisco IOS
15 21 (1.23%) Structured Cabling
16 19 (1.11%) Ethernet VPN
16 19 (1.11%) MPLS
17 18 (1.05%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (1.87%) Power BI
2 31 (1.81%) SQL Server
3 21 (1.23%) PostgreSQL
4 11 (0.64%) Metadata
5 9 (0.53%) Redis
6 8 (0.47%) Azure SQL Database
6 8 (0.47%) Oracle Database
6 8 (0.47%) Relational Database
7 7 (0.41%) NoSQL
7 7 (0.41%) SAP HANA
8 6 (0.35%) MongoDB
8 6 (0.35%) Oracle Reports
9 5 (0.29%) Data Warehouse
9 5 (0.29%) Metadata Repository
9 5 (0.29%) MySQL
10 4 (0.23%) SAP Data Services
11 3 (0.18%) GIS
11 3 (0.18%) Oracle Database 12c
11 3 (0.18%) Tableau
12 2 (0.12%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 48 (2.81%) JIRA
2 35 (2.05%) Jenkins
3 34 (1.99%) Git
4 30 (1.76%) GitLab
5 22 (1.29%) Burp Suite
5 22 (1.29%) Metasploit
6 10 (0.59%) Rational DOORS
7 8 (0.47%) Artifactory
8 7 (0.41%) Android Studio
8 7 (0.41%) SonarQube
9 6 (0.35%) Maven
10 5 (0.29%) Gradle
10 5 (0.29%) JUnit
10 5 (0.29%) Sonatype Nexus
10 5 (0.29%) Subversion
10 5 (0.29%) Visual Studio
11 4 (0.23%) Bitbucket
11 4 (0.23%) Cypress.io
11 4 (0.23%) Robot Framework
11 4 (0.23%) Storybook
General
1 455 (26.62%) Social Skills
2 289 (16.91%) Public Sector
3 177 (10.36%) Analytical Skills
4 96 (5.62%) Finance
5 72 (4.21%) Documentation Skills
6 51 (2.98%) Aerospace
7 43 (2.52%) Military
8 34 (1.99%) Manufacturing
9 31 (1.81%) Legal
9 31 (1.81%) Telecoms
10 30 (1.76%) Influencing Skills
11 16 (0.94%) Law
12 15 (0.88%) Marketing
13 14 (0.82%) Organisational Skills
13 14 (0.82%) Presentation Skills
14 9 (0.53%) Billing
14 9 (0.53%) Electronics
15 8 (0.47%) Aviation
16 6 (0.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 6 (0.35%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 276 (16.15%) Architect
2 146 (8.54%) Senior
3 124 (7.26%) Analyst
4 122 (7.14%) Lead
5 109 (6.38%) Network Engineer
6 99 (5.79%) Consultant
7 87 (5.09%) Developer
8 56 (3.28%) Support Engineer
9 54 (3.16%) Project Manager
10 51 (2.98%) Tester
11 48 (2.81%) DevOps Engineer
12 47 (2.75%) Enterprise Architect
12 47 (2.75%) Technical Architect
13 44 (2.57%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 39 (2.28%) Cloud Engineer
15 38 (2.22%) Infrastructure Architect
16 36 (2.11%) IT Engineer
16 36 (2.11%) Security Architect
17 35 (2.05%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
18 33 (1.93%) Network Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (1.81%) LDAP
2 25 (1.46%) React
3 23 (1.35%) REST
4 18 (1.05%) .NET
4 18 (1.05%) JSON
5 17 (0.99%) Elastic Stack
6 16 (0.94%) Kafka
7 14 (0.82%) 802.1X
8 13 (0.76%) AngularJS
8 13 (0.76%) Oracle Fusion
9 12 (0.70%) RESTful
9 12 (0.70%) XML
10 11 (0.64%) Loki
11 9 (0.53%) Keycloak
11 9 (0.53%) SAP Fiori
11 9 (0.53%) SOAP
11 9 (0.53%) Spring Boot
11 9 (0.53%) Web Services
11 9 (0.53%) YAML
12 8 (0.47%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 76 (4.45%) Data Centre
2 74 (4.33%) PKI
3 50 (2.93%) Onboarding
4 39 (2.28%) Management Information System
5 37 (2.17%) Product Ownership
6 30 (1.76%) Self-Motivation
7 26 (1.52%) Cloud Native
8 22 (1.29%) Analytical Mindset
9 21 (1.23%) Security Operations Centre
10 20 (1.17%) Security Posture
11 19 (1.11%) Replication
12 17 (0.99%) Driving Licence
13 16 (0.94%) PMI
14 15 (0.88%) Clustering
15 13 (0.76%) Distributed Systems
16 12 (0.70%) Cyber Security Posture
16 12 (0.70%) Cyber Threat
16 12 (0.70%) Legacy Systems
16 12 (0.70%) Private Cloud
17 11 (0.64%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 265 (15.51%) Windows
2 182 (10.65%) Linux
3 66 (3.86%) Windows Server
4 39 (2.28%) Windows 10
5 25 (1.46%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 17 (0.99%) Android
7 13 (0.76%) Unix
8 10 (0.59%) Windows 7
9 7 (0.41%) Kali Linux
9 7 (0.41%) Ubuntu
10 4 (0.23%) Apple iOS
10 4 (0.23%) Windows Server 2016
11 3 (0.18%) Debian
11 3 (0.18%) Windows Server 2019
12 2 (0.12%) CentOS
12 2 (0.12%) Mac OS
12 2 (0.12%) SUSE
12 2 (0.12%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
12 2 (0.12%) VMS
12 2 (0.12%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 284 (16.62%) Agile
2 209 (12.23%) Problem-Solving
3 177 (10.36%) DevOps
4 173 (10.12%) CI/CD
5 166 (9.71%) ITIL
6 151 (8.84%) Migration
7 144 (8.43%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 142 (8.31%) Stakeholder Management
9 137 (8.02%) Cybersecurity
10 133 (7.78%) Roadmaps
11 130 (7.61%) Continuous Improvement
12 116 (6.79%) Service Management
13 99 (5.79%) Project Management
14 95 (5.56%) ITSM
15 88 (5.15%) SIEM
16 81 (4.74%) Change Management
17 71 (4.15%) Collaborative Working
18 70 (4.10%) Infrastructure Engineering
19 69 (4.04%) DevSecOps
20 68 (3.98%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 179 (10.47%) Python
2 147 (8.60%) PowerShell
3 56 (3.28%) Bash
4 55 (3.22%) Java
5 51 (2.98%) SQL
6 30 (1.76%) C#
7 29 (1.70%) JavaScript
8 20 (1.17%) Kusto Query Language
9 18 (1.05%) C++
10 13 (0.76%) TypeScript
11 9 (0.53%) ABAP
11 9 (0.53%) C
11 9 (0.53%) Shell Script
12 8 (0.47%) Go
12 8 (0.47%) PL/SQL
13 7 (0.41%) Bicep
14 6 (0.35%) Embedded C++
15 4 (0.23%) Ada
15 4 (0.23%) Korn
16 3 (0.18%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 1,099 (64.31%) SC Cleared
2 524 (30.66%) DV Cleared
3 106 (6.20%) Degree
4 61 (3.57%) Cisco Certification
5 52 (3.04%) CCNP
6 47 (2.75%) CISSP
7 33 (1.93%) BPSS Clearance
8 25 (1.46%) CISM
9 23 (1.35%) Azure Certification
9 23 (1.35%) CCNA
9 23 (1.35%) CEH
10 22 (1.29%) Microsoft Certification
10 22 (1.29%) PMI Certification
10 22 (1.29%) PMP
11 20 (1.17%) GIAC
12 18 (1.05%) AWS Certification
13 15 (0.88%) CHECK Team Member
14 14 (0.82%) Network+ Certification
15 13 (0.76%) CREST Certified
15 13 (0.76%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 73 (4.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 71 (4.15%) NIST
3 54 (3.16%) GDPR
4 50 (2.93%) PMO
4 50 (2.93%) QA
5 44 (2.57%) NCSC
6 20 (1.17%) SLA
7 18 (1.05%) Data Quality
8 17 (0.99%) PCI DSS
9 14 (0.82%) JSP 440
10 13 (0.76%) GRC
11 10 (0.59%) Accessibility
11 10 (0.59%) COBIT
12 7 (0.41%) NIST 800
13 5 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials
13 5 (0.29%) Def Stans
13 5 (0.29%) ISO/IEC 20000
13 5 (0.29%) P3O
13 5 (0.29%) RMADS
14 4 (0.23%) Actionable Recommendations
System Software
1 162 (9.48%) Active Directory
2 80 (4.68%) VMware Infrastructure
3 46 (2.69%) Docker
4 33 (1.93%) vSphere
5 30 (1.76%) VMware NSX
6 19 (1.11%) VMware ESXi
7 16 (0.94%) Hyper-V
8 11 (0.64%) Virtual Desktop
9 7 (0.41%) Firmware
9 7 (0.41%) vCloud
9 7 (0.41%) Virtual Machines
10 5 (0.29%) NFS
11 4 (0.23%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.059%) KVM
12 1 (0.059%) NDS
12 1 (0.059%) NetIQ eDirectory
12 1 (0.059%) RHEV
12 1 (0.059%) Sendmail
12 1 (0.059%) UAG
12 1 (0.059%) Xen
Systems Management
1 95 (5.56%) Kubernetes
2 65 (3.80%) Terraform
3 62 (3.63%) Ansible
4 48 (2.81%) vCenter Server
5 44 (2.57%) Grafana
6 43 (2.52%) Prometheus
7 31 (1.81%) Argo
8 26 (1.52%) Nmap
9 25 (1.46%) SCCM
10 18 (1.05%) Microsoft Intune
11 16 (0.94%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 16 (0.94%) WMI
12 14 (0.82%) Kibana
13 13 (0.76%) FortiGate
14 11 (0.64%) Kustomize
14 11 (0.64%) Single Sign-On
15 8 (0.47%) Nagios
15 8 (0.47%) Nessus
15 8 (0.47%) Red Hat Satellite
16 7 (0.41%) Puppet
Vendors
1 223 (13.05%) Microsoft
2 169 (9.89%) Cisco
3 162 (9.48%) VMware
4 80 (4.68%) SAP
5 71 (4.15%) Juniper
6 65 (3.80%) ServiceNow
7 59 (3.45%) Aruba
8 57 (3.34%) Splunk
9 55 (3.22%) Red Hat
10 46 (2.69%) SolarWinds
11 37 (2.17%) Palo Alto
12 34 (1.99%) Oracle
13 32 (1.87%) Google
14 31 (1.81%) CyberArk
15 30 (1.76%) Sparx
16 29 (1.70%) CheckPoint
17 26 (1.52%) F5
18 25 (1.46%) BeyondTrust
19 16 (0.94%) Citrix
19 16 (0.94%) Tanium