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

6 months to
15 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 1,646 755 1,797
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 35.09% 24.04% 32.67%
As % of the Qualifications category 77.31% 64.97% 74.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,161 512 982
10th Percentile £310 £310 £275
25th Percentile £431 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £560
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -1.79% +1.82%
75th Percentile £623 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £688 £719
England median daily rate £525 £548 £550
% change year-on-year -4.20% -0.36% -2.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 147 53 131
10th Percentile £16.35 £18.98 £27.50
25th Percentile £19.41 £31.25 £51.50
Median hourly rate £25.15 £61.50 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -59.10% +2.49% +1.90%
75th Percentile £60.13 £65.62 £71.90
90th Percentile £95.00 £80.08 £84.40
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 2,129 1,162 2,422
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 45.38% 37.01% 44.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,432 732 1,387
10th Percentile £289 £263 £215
25th Percentile £413 £412 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £537
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.23% -0.09%
75th Percentile £606 £629 £638
90th Percentile £725 £686 £700
England median daily rate £520 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -0.95% -2.78% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 201 65 171
10th Percentile £15.25 £18.58 £18.32
25th Percentile £19.10 £31.25 £40.35
Median hourly rate £25.15 £56.75 £58.30
Median % change year-on-year -55.68% -2.67% +29.56%
75th Percentile £60.00 £64.73 £70.00
90th Percentile £90.09 £80.06 £82.17
England median hourly rate £25.15 £47.37 £45.21
% change year-on-year -46.91% +4.78% +0.47%

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 15 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 15 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 15 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 +1 773 £481 -8.33% 160
Hampshire 0 706 £550 -4.35% 192
Berkshire +2 541 £450 -17.43% 90
Buckinghamshire +1 182 £550 +27.91% 55
Surrey +18 77 £525 -19.23% 30
Oxfordshire +9 50 £375 -40.00% 23
West Sussex +9 42 £537 -14.76% 6
Kent +5 26 £443 +60.91% 24
Sussex -1 7 £475 +9.83% 5
Middlesex - 4 - -
East Sussex +4 3 £588 +6.82% 5
Isle of Wight - 1 £81 -
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 47 (2.86%) SharePoint
2 40 (2.43%) Microsoft Exchange
3 13 (0.79%) Confluence
4 5 (0.30%) Apache
5 4 (0.24%) ArcGIS
5 4 (0.24%) IIS
5 4 (0.24%) Oracle Workflow
6 3 (0.18%) MS Project Server
7 2 (0.12%) Documentum
7 2 (0.12%) Exchange Server 2010
7 2 (0.12%) GeoServer
7 2 (0.12%) NetWeaver
7 2 (0.12%) SAP EP
7 2 (0.12%) Skype for Business
7 2 (0.12%) Smallworld
8 1 (0.061%) Anypoint
8 1 (0.061%) Apache Pulsar
8 1 (0.061%) JBoss
8 1 (0.061%) Palantir Foundry
8 1 (0.061%) SAS
Applications
1 60 (3.65%) Microsoft Excel
2 58 (3.52%) Microsoft Office
3 34 (2.07%) Microsoft Project
4 28 (1.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 10 (0.61%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.061%) CATIA
6 1 (0.061%) PTC Creo
6 1 (0.061%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 29 (1.76%) SAP S/4HANA
1 29 (1.76%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 6 (0.36%) Oracle Assets
2 6 (0.36%) Oracle Payables
2 6 (0.36%) SAP HR
2 6 (0.36%) SAP Payroll
3 5 (0.30%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
3 5 (0.30%) Salesforce CRM
3 5 (0.30%) SAP HCM
3 5 (0.30%) SAP PSCD
4 4 (0.24%) Oracle ERP
4 4 (0.24%) Primavera
4 4 (0.24%) SAP BRIM
4 4 (0.24%) SAP Hybris
5 3 (0.18%) Payment Gateway
5 3 (0.18%) SAP WM
6 2 (0.12%) Oracle General Ledger
6 2 (0.12%) SAP CRM
6 2 (0.12%) SAP PS
6 2 (0.12%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 248 (15.07%) Azure
2 185 (11.24%) AWS
3 79 (4.80%) GCP
4 68 (4.13%) Microsoft 365
5 63 (3.83%) Entra ID
6 37 (2.25%) OpenShift
7 36 (2.19%) Azure DevOps
8 34 (2.07%) GitHub
9 31 (1.88%) Power Platform
10 21 (1.28%) IaaS
11 20 (1.22%) PaaS
12 19 (1.15%) GitHub Actions
12 19 (1.15%) OneDrive
13 15 (0.91%) Cloud Computing
14 13 (0.79%) SaaS
15 11 (0.67%) AWS CloudFormation
15 11 (0.67%) Serverless
16 10 (0.61%) Datadog
16 10 (0.61%) Power Automate
16 10 (0.61%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 120 (7.29%) Firewall
2 75 (4.56%) DNS
3 54 (3.28%) WAN
4 52 (3.16%) LAN
5 46 (2.79%) BGP
5 46 (2.79%) Network Security
6 45 (2.73%) DHCP
7 41 (2.49%) OSPF
8 38 (2.31%) TCP/IP
8 38 (2.31%) VPN
9 26 (1.58%) VLAN
10 25 (1.52%) Cisco ISE
10 25 (1.52%) Junos
11 24 (1.46%) IPsec
11 24 (1.46%) Wireless
12 23 (1.40%) Cisco IOS
13 21 (1.28%) Structured Cabling
14 20 (1.22%) Cisco Firepower
15 18 (1.09%) MPLS
16 13 (0.79%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (1.70%) Power BI
2 27 (1.64%) SQL Server
3 20 (1.22%) PostgreSQL
4 11 (0.67%) Metadata
5 9 (0.55%) Redis
6 8 (0.49%) Azure SQL Database
6 8 (0.49%) NoSQL
6 8 (0.49%) Relational Database
7 7 (0.43%) SAP HANA
8 6 (0.36%) MongoDB
9 5 (0.30%) Metadata Repository
9 5 (0.30%) Oracle Database
9 5 (0.30%) Oracle Reports
10 4 (0.24%) MySQL
10 4 (0.24%) SAP Data Services
11 3 (0.18%) GIS
12 2 (0.12%) Data Lake
12 2 (0.12%) Data Warehouse
12 2 (0.12%) Geospatial Data
12 2 (0.12%) QGIS
Development Applications
1 45 (2.73%) JIRA
2 35 (2.13%) Jenkins
3 30 (1.82%) Git
3 30 (1.82%) GitLab
4 22 (1.34%) Burp Suite
4 22 (1.34%) Metasploit
5 8 (0.49%) Artifactory
6 7 (0.43%) Android Studio
7 6 (0.36%) Maven
7 6 (0.36%) SonarQube
8 5 (0.30%) Gradle
8 5 (0.30%) JUnit
8 5 (0.30%) Sonatype Nexus
8 5 (0.30%) Subversion
9 4 (0.24%) Bitbucket
9 4 (0.24%) Cypress.io
9 4 (0.24%) Rational DOORS
9 4 (0.24%) Robot Framework
9 4 (0.24%) Storybook
9 4 (0.24%) Visual Studio
General
1 448 (27.22%) Social Skills
2 290 (17.62%) Public Sector
3 175 (10.63%) Analytical Skills
4 91 (5.53%) Finance
5 71 (4.31%) Documentation Skills
6 40 (2.43%) Military
7 35 (2.13%) Manufacturing
8 32 (1.94%) Aerospace
9 31 (1.88%) Legal
10 30 (1.82%) Telecoms
11 29 (1.76%) Influencing Skills
12 16 (0.97%) Law
12 16 (0.97%) Presentation Skills
13 15 (0.91%) Marketing
14 14 (0.85%) Organisational Skills
15 10 (0.61%) Electronics
16 9 (0.55%) Billing
17 8 (0.49%) Aviation
18 6 (0.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 6 (0.36%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 274 (16.65%) Architect
2 134 (8.14%) Senior
3 118 (7.17%) Lead
4 116 (7.05%) Analyst
5 102 (6.20%) Network Engineer
6 95 (5.77%) Consultant
7 82 (4.98%) Developer
8 59 (3.58%) Support Engineer
9 53 (3.22%) Project Manager
10 51 (3.10%) Tester
11 49 (2.98%) DevOps Engineer
12 47 (2.86%) Enterprise Architect
13 45 (2.73%) Technical Architect
14 42 (2.55%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 41 (2.49%) Cloud Engineer
16 38 (2.31%) Infrastructure Architect
17 36 (2.19%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
17 36 (2.19%) IT Engineer
18 35 (2.13%) Security Architect
19 33 (2.00%) Network Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (1.88%) LDAP
2 24 (1.46%) React
3 23 (1.40%) REST
4 17 (1.03%) Elastic Stack
4 17 (1.03%) JSON
5 16 (0.97%) Kafka
6 15 (0.91%) .NET
7 12 (0.73%) AngularJS
7 12 (0.73%) Oracle Fusion
7 12 (0.73%) XML
8 11 (0.67%) Loki
9 9 (0.55%) Keycloak
9 9 (0.55%) RESTful
9 9 (0.55%) SAP Fiori
9 9 (0.55%) SOAP
10 8 (0.49%) Spring Boot
10 8 (0.49%) Web Services
10 8 (0.49%) YAML
11 7 (0.43%) Node.js
11 7 (0.43%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 67 (4.07%) Data Centre
2 65 (3.95%) PKI
3 46 (2.79%) Onboarding
4 37 (2.25%) Management Information System
5 31 (1.88%) Product Ownership
6 30 (1.82%) Self-Motivation
7 26 (1.58%) Cloud Native
8 22 (1.34%) Analytical Mindset
9 21 (1.28%) Security Operations Centre
10 20 (1.22%) Replication
10 20 (1.22%) Security Posture
11 17 (1.03%) Driving Licence
12 16 (0.97%) PMI
13 12 (0.73%) Cyber Security Posture
13 12 (0.73%) Cyber Threat
13 12 (0.73%) Legacy Systems
13 12 (0.73%) Private Cloud
14 11 (0.67%) Fat Client
14 11 (0.67%) Greenfield Project
14 11 (0.67%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 259 (15.74%) Windows
2 178 (10.81%) Linux
3 67 (4.07%) Windows Server
4 40 (2.43%) Windows 10
5 25 (1.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 17 (1.03%) Android
7 11 (0.67%) Unix
7 11 (0.67%) Windows 7
8 7 (0.43%) Kali Linux
9 6 (0.36%) Ubuntu
10 4 (0.24%) Apple iOS
10 4 (0.24%) Windows Server 2016
11 3 (0.18%) Debian
11 3 (0.18%) Windows Server 2019
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
13 1 (0.061%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 273 (16.59%) Agile
2 202 (12.27%) Problem-Solving
3 173 (10.51%) DevOps
4 161 (9.78%) CI/CD
5 148 (8.99%) ITIL
5 148 (8.99%) Migration
6 138 (8.38%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 135 (8.20%) Stakeholder Management
8 133 (8.08%) Cybersecurity
9 117 (7.11%) Continuous Improvement
9 117 (7.11%) Roadmaps
10 106 (6.44%) Service Management
11 96 (5.83%) Project Management
12 88 (5.35%) ITSM
13 84 (5.10%) SIEM
14 77 (4.68%) Change Management
15 69 (4.19%) Collaborative Working
16 67 (4.07%) Infrastructure Engineering
17 66 (4.01%) Decision-Making
18 65 (3.95%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 171 (10.39%) Python
2 142 (8.63%) PowerShell
3 54 (3.28%) Bash
4 53 (3.22%) Java
5 48 (2.92%) SQL
6 28 (1.70%) C#
6 28 (1.70%) JavaScript
7 17 (1.03%) C++
7 17 (1.03%) Kusto Query Language
8 12 (0.73%) TypeScript
9 9 (0.55%) ABAP
10 8 (0.49%) C
10 8 (0.49%) PL/SQL
11 7 (0.43%) Bicep
11 7 (0.43%) Shell Script
12 6 (0.36%) Embedded C++
12 6 (0.36%) Go
13 4 (0.24%) Ada
14 3 (0.18%) MATLAB
14 3 (0.18%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 1,052 (63.91%) SC Cleared
2 517 (31.41%) DV Cleared
3 97 (5.89%) Degree
4 52 (3.16%) Cisco Certification
5 51 (3.10%) CCNP
6 47 (2.86%) CISSP
7 32 (1.94%) BPSS Clearance
8 25 (1.52%) CISM
9 23 (1.40%) Azure Certification
9 23 (1.40%) CCNA
9 23 (1.40%) CEH
10 22 (1.34%) Microsoft Certification
11 20 (1.22%) GIAC
12 19 (1.15%) PMI Certification
12 19 (1.15%) PMP
13 18 (1.09%) AWS Certification
14 15 (0.91%) CHECK Team Member
15 13 (0.79%) CREST Certified
15 13 (0.79%) Cyber Scheme
15 13 (0.79%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 69 (4.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 63 (3.83%) NIST
3 54 (3.28%) GDPR
4 50 (3.04%) PMO
5 47 (2.86%) QA
6 41 (2.49%) NCSC
7 19 (1.15%) SLA
8 17 (1.03%) PCI DSS
9 16 (0.97%) Data Quality
10 13 (0.79%) GRC
10 13 (0.79%) JSP 440
11 10 (0.61%) Accessibility
11 10 (0.61%) COBIT
12 6 (0.36%) NIST 800
13 5 (0.30%) ISO/IEC 20000
13 5 (0.30%) P3O
13 5 (0.30%) RMADS
14 4 (0.24%) Actionable Recommendations
14 4 (0.24%) Def Stans
15 3 (0.18%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 163 (9.90%) Active Directory
2 80 (4.86%) VMware Infrastructure
3 46 (2.79%) Docker
4 34 (2.07%) vSphere
5 32 (1.94%) VMware NSX
6 19 (1.15%) VMware ESXi
7 16 (0.97%) Hyper-V
8 8 (0.49%) Virtual Desktop
9 7 (0.43%) Firmware
9 7 (0.43%) vCloud
9 7 (0.43%) Virtual Machines
10 5 (0.30%) NFS
11 2 (0.12%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.061%) Brightmail
12 1 (0.061%) KVM
12 1 (0.061%) NetIQ eDirectory
12 1 (0.061%) RHEV
12 1 (0.061%) Sendmail
12 1 (0.061%) UAG
12 1 (0.061%) Xen
Systems Management
1 94 (5.71%) Kubernetes
2 64 (3.89%) Terraform
3 60 (3.65%) Ansible
4 50 (3.04%) vCenter Server
5 44 (2.67%) Grafana
6 43 (2.61%) Prometheus
7 30 (1.82%) Argo
8 26 (1.58%) Nmap
9 25 (1.52%) SCCM
10 17 (1.03%) Microsoft Intune
10 17 (1.03%) WMI
11 16 (0.97%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 14 (0.85%) Kibana
13 11 (0.67%) Kustomize
13 11 (0.67%) Single Sign-On
14 8 (0.49%) Nessus
14 8 (0.49%) Red Hat Satellite
14 8 (0.49%) SCOM
15 7 (0.43%) Nagios
15 7 (0.43%) Puppet
Vendors
1 220 (13.37%) Microsoft
2 162 (9.84%) VMware
3 159 (9.66%) Cisco
4 83 (5.04%) SAP
5 60 (3.65%) Juniper
5 60 (3.65%) ServiceNow
6 59 (3.58%) Aruba
7 53 (3.22%) Red Hat
8 47 (2.86%) Splunk
9 38 (2.31%) SolarWinds
10 35 (2.13%) Palo Alto
11 32 (1.94%) Google
12 31 (1.88%) CyberArk
12 31 (1.88%) Oracle
13 30 (1.82%) Sparx
14 28 (1.70%) CheckPoint
15 25 (1.52%) BeyondTrust
16 16 (0.97%) Tanium
17 14 (0.85%) Citrix
17 14 (0.85%) F5