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

6 months to
9 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 1,616 769 1,797
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 34.76% 24.47% 32.64%
As % of the Qualifications category 77.10% 65.39% 74.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,149 518 986
10th Percentile £306 £311 £273
25th Percentile £431 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £550 £560
Median % change year-on-year -5.45% -1.79% +1.82%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £688 £719
England median daily rate £525 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -4.55% - -2.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 142 58 133
10th Percentile £16.35 £19.69 £28.08
25th Percentile £19.40 £35.00 £51.75
Median hourly rate £25.15 £61.50 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -59.10% +2.49% +3.90%
75th Percentile £60.00 £65.62 £72.33
90th Percentile £95.00 £78.88 £84.44
England median hourly rate £25.15 £60.00 £58.30
% change year-on-year -58.08% +2.92% -2.83%

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 2,096 1,176 2,416
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 45.08% 37.42% 43.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,415 732 1,393
10th Percentile £285 £263 £213
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -
75th Percentile £600 £630 £638
90th Percentile £722 £688 £700
England median daily rate £520 £525 £545
% change year-on-year -0.95% -3.67% -0.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 198 68 171
10th Percentile £15.25 £19.59 £19.00
25th Percentile £19.02 £31.25 £41.35
Median hourly rate £25.15 £58.69 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -57.15% -2.19% +33.33%
75th Percentile £58.75 £64.95 £70.25
90th Percentile £90.09 £78.88 £83.11
England median hourly rate £25.15 £50.00 £46.18
% change year-on-year -49.70% +8.27% +2.62%

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 9 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 9 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 9 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 +1 745 £486 -7.38% 109
Hampshire 0 707 £550 -4.35% 178
Berkshire +1 513 £450 -18.18% 65
Buckinghamshire +1 189 £550 +18.28% 32
Surrey +22 77 £525 -19.23% 45
Oxfordshire +7 43 £325 -48.00% 13
West Sussex +8 42 £537 -20.74% 11
Kent +5 25 £439 +59.55% 13
Sussex -3 5 £475 +9.83% 6
Middlesex - 4 - - 1
East Sussex +2 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 41 (2.54%) SharePoint
2 40 (2.48%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (0.93%) Confluence
4 5 (0.31%) Apache
5 4 (0.25%) ArcGIS
5 4 (0.25%) IIS
5 4 (0.25%) Oracle Workflow
6 3 (0.19%) Documentum
6 3 (0.19%) MS Project Server
7 2 (0.12%) Exchange Server 2010
7 2 (0.12%) Exchange Server 2013
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 (0.062%) Anypoint
8 1 (0.062%) Apache Pulsar
8 1 (0.062%) Exchange Server 2003
8 1 (0.062%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 58 (3.59%) Microsoft Office
2 56 (3.47%) Microsoft Excel
3 34 (2.10%) Microsoft Project
4 27 (1.67%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 10 (0.62%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.062%) CATIA
6 1 (0.062%) PTC Creo
6 1 (0.062%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 29 (1.79%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 27 (1.67%) SAP S/4HANA
3 6 (0.37%) Oracle Assets
3 6 (0.37%) Oracle Payables
3 6 (0.37%) SAP HR
3 6 (0.37%) SAP Payroll
4 5 (0.31%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
4 5 (0.31%) Salesforce CRM
4 5 (0.31%) SAP HCM
4 5 (0.31%) SAP PSCD
5 4 (0.25%) Oracle ERP
5 4 (0.25%) Primavera
5 4 (0.25%) SAP BRIM
5 4 (0.25%) SAP Hybris
5 4 (0.25%) SAP WM
6 3 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
6 3 (0.19%) SAP EWM
7 2 (0.12%) Oracle Cash Management
7 2 (0.12%) Oracle General Ledger
7 2 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 243 (15.04%) Azure
2 184 (11.39%) AWS
3 80 (4.95%) GCP
4 69 (4.27%) Microsoft 365
5 59 (3.65%) Entra ID
6 36 (2.23%) Azure DevOps
6 36 (2.23%) OpenShift
7 34 (2.10%) GitHub
8 29 (1.79%) Power Platform
9 21 (1.30%) IaaS
10 19 (1.18%) GitHub Actions
10 19 (1.18%) PaaS
11 17 (1.05%) OneDrive
12 15 (0.93%) Cloud Computing
13 12 (0.74%) SaaS
14 11 (0.68%) AWS CloudFormation
14 11 (0.68%) Serverless
15 10 (0.62%) Datadog
16 9 (0.56%) Power Automate
17 8 (0.50%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 114 (7.05%) Firewall
2 71 (4.39%) DNS
3 51 (3.16%) WAN
4 49 (3.03%) LAN
5 44 (2.72%) Network Security
6 43 (2.66%) BGP
6 43 (2.66%) DHCP
7 38 (2.35%) OSPF
7 38 (2.35%) TCP/IP
8 37 (2.29%) VPN
9 27 (1.67%) VLAN
10 26 (1.61%) Cisco IOS
11 25 (1.55%) Junos
12 24 (1.49%) Cisco ISE
13 23 (1.42%) Cisco Firepower
14 22 (1.36%) IPsec
14 22 (1.36%) Wireless
15 20 (1.24%) Structured Cabling
16 17 (1.05%) MPLS
17 13 (0.80%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (1.61%) Power BI
2 21 (1.30%) SQL Server
3 19 (1.18%) PostgreSQL
4 10 (0.62%) Metadata
5 9 (0.56%) Redis
6 8 (0.50%) NoSQL
6 8 (0.50%) Relational Database
7 7 (0.43%) Azure SQL Database
7 7 (0.43%) SAP HANA
8 6 (0.37%) MongoDB
9 5 (0.31%) Metadata Repository
9 5 (0.31%) Oracle Reports
10 4 (0.25%) MySQL
10 4 (0.25%) Oracle Database
11 3 (0.19%) GIS
11 3 (0.19%) SAP Data Services
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 49 (3.03%) JIRA
2 36 (2.23%) Jenkins
3 34 (2.10%) GitLab
4 31 (1.92%) Git
5 21 (1.30%) Burp Suite
5 21 (1.30%) Metasploit
6 8 (0.50%) Artifactory
7 7 (0.43%) Android Studio
8 5 (0.31%) Bitbucket
8 5 (0.31%) Gradle
8 5 (0.31%) JUnit
8 5 (0.31%) SonarQube
9 4 (0.25%) Cypress.io
9 4 (0.25%) Maven
9 4 (0.25%) Rational DOORS
9 4 (0.25%) Robot Framework
9 4 (0.25%) Selenium
9 4 (0.25%) Sonatype Nexus
9 4 (0.25%) Subversion
9 4 (0.25%) Visual Studio
General
1 445 (27.54%) Social Skills
2 280 (17.33%) Public Sector
3 175 (10.83%) Analytical Skills
4 89 (5.51%) Finance
5 64 (3.96%) Documentation Skills
6 38 (2.35%) Military
7 36 (2.23%) Manufacturing
8 32 (1.98%) Aerospace
9 29 (1.79%) Influencing Skills
9 29 (1.79%) Legal
9 29 (1.79%) Telecoms
10 19 (1.18%) Law
11 15 (0.93%) Marketing
11 15 (0.93%) Presentation Skills
12 14 (0.87%) Organisational Skills
13 10 (0.62%) Electronics
14 8 (0.50%) Aviation
14 8 (0.50%) Billing
15 6 (0.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 6 (0.37%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 262 (16.21%) Architect
2 132 (8.17%) Senior
3 121 (7.49%) Analyst
4 117 (7.24%) Lead
5 103 (6.37%) Network Engineer
6 94 (5.82%) Consultant
7 74 (4.58%) Developer
8 60 (3.71%) Support Engineer
9 51 (3.16%) Project Manager
10 50 (3.09%) DevOps Engineer
11 49 (3.03%) Tester
12 46 (2.85%) Enterprise Architect
13 44 (2.72%) Cloud Engineer
14 43 (2.66%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 42 (2.60%) Technical Architect
16 37 (2.29%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
16 37 (2.29%) Infrastructure Architect
17 35 (2.17%) IT Engineer
18 34 (2.10%) 3rd Line Engineer
19 33 (2.04%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (2.04%) LDAP
2 26 (1.61%) REST
3 22 (1.36%) React
4 17 (1.05%) .NET
4 17 (1.05%) Elastic Stack
5 16 (0.99%) Kafka
6 14 (0.87%) RESTful
7 13 (0.80%) JSON
8 12 (0.74%) AngularJS
8 12 (0.74%) Oracle Fusion
9 11 (0.68%) Loki
10 10 (0.62%) SOAP
10 10 (0.62%) XML
11 9 (0.56%) Keycloak
11 9 (0.56%) SAP Fiori
12 8 (0.50%) OAuth
12 8 (0.50%) Spring Boot
12 8 (0.50%) Swagger
12 8 (0.50%) Web Services
12 8 (0.50%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 63 (3.90%) PKI
2 58 (3.59%) Data Centre
3 40 (2.48%) Onboarding
4 33 (2.04%) Management Information System
5 31 (1.92%) Self-Motivation
6 30 (1.86%) Product Ownership
7 26 (1.61%) Cloud Native
8 22 (1.36%) Analytical Mindset
9 21 (1.30%) Security Operations Centre
10 20 (1.24%) Replication
11 19 (1.18%) Security Posture
12 18 (1.11%) Private Cloud
13 17 (1.05%) Driving Licence
14 15 (0.93%) PMI
15 14 (0.87%) Legacy Systems
16 12 (0.74%) Cyber Security Posture
16 12 (0.74%) Cyber Threat
17 11 (0.68%) Distributed Systems
17 11 (0.68%) Fat Client
17 11 (0.68%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 259 (16.03%) Windows
2 170 (10.52%) Linux
3 63 (3.90%) Windows Server
4 43 (2.66%) Windows 10
5 22 (1.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 16 (0.99%) Android
7 11 (0.68%) Windows 7
8 7 (0.43%) Kali Linux
9 6 (0.37%) Ubuntu
10 4 (0.25%) Apple iOS
10 4 (0.25%) Unix
10 4 (0.25%) Windows Server 2016
11 3 (0.19%) Debian
11 3 (0.19%) Windows Server 2012
11 3 (0.19%) Windows Server 2019
12 2 (0.12%) Mac OS
12 2 (0.12%) SUSE
12 2 (0.12%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
13 1 (0.062%) CentOS
13 1 (0.062%) Embedded Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 276 (17.08%) Agile
2 200 (12.38%) Problem-Solving
3 173 (10.71%) DevOps
4 163 (10.09%) CI/CD
5 143 (8.85%) ITIL
6 140 (8.66%) Migration
6 140 (8.66%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 139 (8.60%) Stakeholder Management
8 126 (7.80%) Cybersecurity
9 117 (7.24%) Continuous Improvement
10 111 (6.87%) Roadmaps
11 109 (6.75%) Service Management
12 95 (5.88%) Project Management
13 87 (5.38%) ITSM
14 77 (4.76%) Change Management
15 75 (4.64%) SIEM
16 69 (4.27%) Infrastructure Engineering
17 67 (4.15%) Collaborative Working
18 63 (3.90%) Decision-Making
18 63 (3.90%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 172 (10.64%) Python
2 142 (8.79%) PowerShell
3 59 (3.65%) Bash
4 54 (3.34%) Java
5 50 (3.09%) SQL
6 33 (2.04%) JavaScript
7 30 (1.86%) C#
8 18 (1.11%) C++
9 17 (1.05%) Kusto Query Language
10 13 (0.80%) TypeScript
11 10 (0.62%) Go
12 9 (0.56%) ABAP
13 8 (0.50%) C
13 8 (0.50%) PL/SQL
14 7 (0.43%) Bicep
15 6 (0.37%) Embedded C++
16 5 (0.31%) Shell Script
17 3 (0.19%) Ada
17 3 (0.19%) MATLAB
17 3 (0.19%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 1,039 (64.29%) SC Cleared
2 510 (31.56%) DV Cleared
3 92 (5.69%) Degree
4 50 (3.09%) Cisco Certification
5 49 (3.03%) CCNP
6 45 (2.78%) CISSP
7 28 (1.73%) BPSS Clearance
8 25 (1.55%) CISM
9 23 (1.42%) CEH
10 22 (1.36%) Azure Certification
11 21 (1.30%) CCNA
11 21 (1.30%) Microsoft Certification
12 20 (1.24%) GIAC
13 18 (1.11%) AWS Certification
13 18 (1.11%) PMI Certification
13 18 (1.11%) PMP
14 14 (0.87%) CHECK Team Member
15 13 (0.80%) Network+ Certification
16 12 (0.74%) CREST Certified
16 12 (0.74%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 62 (3.84%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 57 (3.53%) GDPR
2 57 (3.53%) NIST
3 48 (2.97%) QA
4 46 (2.85%) PMO
5 39 (2.41%) NCSC
6 21 (1.30%) SLA
7 16 (0.99%) PCI DSS
8 15 (0.93%) Data Quality
9 13 (0.80%) GRC
10 12 (0.74%) JSP 440
11 10 (0.62%) Accessibility
11 10 (0.62%) COBIT
12 6 (0.37%) NIST 800
13 5 (0.31%) ISO/IEC 20000
13 5 (0.31%) P3O
13 5 (0.31%) RMADS
14 4 (0.25%) Actionable Recommendations
14 4 (0.25%) Def Stans
15 3 (0.19%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 159 (9.84%) Active Directory
2 83 (5.14%) VMware Infrastructure
3 46 (2.85%) Docker
4 36 (2.23%) VMware NSX
5 35 (2.17%) vSphere
6 19 (1.18%) VMware ESXi
7 13 (0.80%) Hyper-V
8 9 (0.56%) Virtual Desktop
9 7 (0.43%) Firmware
9 7 (0.43%) vCloud
9 7 (0.43%) Virtual Machines
10 5 (0.31%) NFS
11 3 (0.19%) UAG
12 1 (0.062%) Brightmail
12 1 (0.062%) KVM
12 1 (0.062%) NDS
12 1 (0.062%) NetIQ eDirectory
12 1 (0.062%) RHEV
12 1 (0.062%) Sendmail
12 1 (0.062%) Xen
Systems Management
1 94 (5.82%) Kubernetes
2 68 (4.21%) Terraform
3 60 (3.71%) Ansible
4 52 (3.22%) vCenter Server
5 44 (2.72%) Grafana
6 43 (2.66%) Prometheus
7 29 (1.79%) Argo
8 25 (1.55%) Nmap
8 25 (1.55%) SCCM
9 18 (1.11%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 17 (1.05%) WMI
11 15 (0.93%) Microsoft Intune
12 13 (0.80%) Kibana
13 12 (0.74%) Single Sign-On
14 11 (0.68%) Kustomize
15 8 (0.50%) SCOM
16 7 (0.43%) Istio
16 7 (0.43%) linkerd
16 7 (0.43%) Nagios
16 7 (0.43%) Puppet
Vendors
1 219 (13.55%) Microsoft
2 164 (10.15%) VMware
3 155 (9.59%) Cisco
4 81 (5.01%) SAP
5 62 (3.84%) ServiceNow
6 59 (3.65%) Juniper
7 56 (3.47%) Aruba
8 49 (3.03%) Red Hat
9 45 (2.78%) Splunk
10 37 (2.29%) SolarWinds
11 32 (1.98%) Google
11 32 (1.98%) Palo Alto
12 30 (1.86%) Sparx
13 27 (1.67%) CyberArk
14 26 (1.61%) Oracle
15 25 (1.55%) CheckPoint
16 20 (1.24%) BeyondTrust
17 16 (0.99%) Tanium
18 14 (0.87%) Citrix
19 13 (0.80%) FireEye