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 18 September 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 2 1 1
Rank change year-on-year -1 0 +2
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 929 1,441 1,492
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South East 26.63% 31.16% 26.87%
As % of the Qualifications category 68.66% 72.59% 69.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 658 953 885
10th Percentile £250 £363 £275
25th Percentile £445 £461 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £537 £575 £525
Median % change year-on-year -6.57% +9.52% -4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £650 £620
90th Percentile £650 £725 £697
England median daily rate £538 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -2.27% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 89 105 110
10th Percentile - £26.25 £29.75
25th Percentile £18.87 £52.50 £52.50
Median hourly rate £25.15 £61.71 £60.82
Median % change year-on-year -59.24% +1.46% +1.36%
75th Percentile £41.00 £80.00 £73.59
90th Percentile £75.60 £92.22 £76.58
England median hourly rate £25.15 £61.60 £60.00
% change year-on-year -59.17% +2.67% +4.35%

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 1,353 1,985 2,153
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 38.79% 42.93% 38.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 876 1,250 1,323
10th Percentile £220 £330 £263
25th Percentile £410 £425 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £514 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year -6.55% +4.76% -
75th Percentile £600 £638 £625
90th Percentile £650 £715 £700
England median daily rate £525 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -2.33% -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 119 154 134
10th Percentile - £22.30 £25.25
25th Percentile £18.87 £43.69 £50.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £58.17 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -56.77% -3.05% +33.33%
75th Percentile £64.25 £72.33 £73.74
90th Percentile £81.00 £87.46 £77.50
England median hourly rate £25.15 £54.00 £54.53
% change year-on-year -53.43% -0.97% +21.18%

Security Cleared
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Job postings citing Security Cleared as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Job vacancy trend for Security Cleared 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 18 September 2025.

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 18 September 2025.

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 18 September 2025. 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 0 473 £550 -4.35% 175
Thames Valley -1 361 £515 -6.92% 178
Berkshire -1 251 £525 -12.50% 114
Buckinghamshire -1 82 £491 +2.88% 53
Surrey +24 51 £525 -14.29% 68
Oxfordshire +6 28 £195 -61.00% 24
West Sussex +7 20 £511 -4.04% 19
Kent +2 9 £375 - 22
Middlesex +3 5 - - 4
Home Counties - 2 £872 -
East Sussex - 1 - - 21
Security Cleared
England

Security Cleared
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South East by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 33 (3.55%) Microsoft Exchange
2 18 (1.94%) SharePoint
3 14 (1.51%) Exchange Server 2013
4 13 (1.40%) Exchange Server 2003
4 13 (1.40%) Exchange Server 2007
4 13 (1.40%) Exchange Server 2010
4 13 (1.40%) Office Communications Server
4 13 (1.40%) SharePoint Server
4 13 (1.40%) Skype for Business
5 11 (1.18%) Apache
5 11 (1.18%) Confluence
6 6 (0.65%) IIS
7 4 (0.43%) CMS
8 3 (0.32%) Anypoint
8 3 (0.32%) Documentum
9 2 (0.22%) Mule
10 1 (0.11%) Drupal
10 1 (0.11%) Gunicorn
10 1 (0.11%) Mule ESB
10 1 (0.11%) WordPress
Applications
1 25 (2.69%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (1.29%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.43%) Microsoft Project
3 4 (0.43%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.32%) Adobe Illustrator
4 3 (0.32%) Photoshop
4 3 (0.32%) Windchill
5 2 (0.22%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.11%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 19 (2.05%) SAP S/4HANA
2 10 (1.08%) SAP HCM
3 8 (0.86%) SAP EWM
4 7 (0.75%) SAP WM
5 6 (0.65%) SAP Payroll
6 5 (0.54%) SAP HR
7 3 (0.32%) Primavera
7 3 (0.32%) Teamcenter
8 2 (0.22%) SAP ERP
8 2 (0.22%) SAP PS
8 2 (0.22%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
9 1 (0.11%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
9 1 (0.11%) Oracle ERP
9 1 (0.11%) Remedy ITSM
9 1 (0.11%) SAP PSCD
9 1 (0.11%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 89 (9.58%) Azure
2 77 (8.29%) AWS
3 28 (3.01%) GCP
4 23 (2.48%) OpenShift
5 22 (2.37%) Microsoft 365
6 11 (1.18%) Amazon EKS
6 11 (1.18%) IaaS
7 9 (0.97%) Entra ID
8 8 (0.86%) PaaS
9 7 (0.75%) Azure DevOps
10 6 (0.65%) SaaS
11 5 (0.54%) Azure Storage
12 3 (0.32%) Amazon S3
12 3 (0.32%) AWS KMS
12 3 (0.32%) Azure Sentinel
12 3 (0.32%) GitHub
13 2 (0.22%) Amazon EC2
13 2 (0.22%) Amazon SQS
13 2 (0.22%) AWS Lambda
13 2 (0.22%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 67 (7.21%) Firewall
2 45 (4.84%) DNS
3 44 (4.74%) VPN
4 40 (4.31%) DHCP
5 30 (3.23%) Network Security
5 30 (3.23%) SAN
6 28 (3.01%) LAN
7 22 (2.37%) TCP/IP
8 18 (1.94%) VLAN
8 18 (1.94%) WAN
9 17 (1.83%) Fibre Channel
9 17 (1.83%) iSCSI
10 16 (1.72%) Cisco Firepower
11 15 (1.61%) Cisco IOS
12 14 (1.51%) Cisco ISE
12 14 (1.51%) Junos
13 13 (1.40%) DDNS
13 13 (1.40%) SMTP
14 10 (1.08%) BGP
14 10 (1.08%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (1.08%) Amazon RDS
1 10 (1.08%) SQL Server
2 9 (0.97%) Big Data
2 9 (0.97%) Elasticsearch
3 8 (0.86%) NoSQL
4 7 (0.75%) PostgreSQL
5 5 (0.54%) GIS
5 5 (0.54%) Oracle Database
6 4 (0.43%) Metadata
6 4 (0.43%) Relational Database
7 3 (0.32%) MongoDB
7 3 (0.32%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 2 (0.22%) Oracle Database 12c
8 2 (0.22%) Power BI
8 2 (0.22%) SAP BW
9 1 (0.11%) Azure SQL Database
9 1 (0.11%) DynamoDB
9 1 (0.11%) MySQL
9 1 (0.11%) Redis
9 1 (0.11%) SQL Server Analysis Services
Development Applications
1 56 (6.03%) JIRA
2 49 (5.27%) Jenkins
3 26 (2.80%) GitLab
4 22 (2.37%) Git
5 17 (1.83%) Selenium
6 16 (1.72%) Cucumber
7 14 (1.51%) REST Assured
8 13 (1.40%) MSI
9 12 (1.29%) SoapUI
10 11 (1.18%) SonarQube
11 6 (0.65%) Robot Framework
12 4 (0.43%) Sonatype Nexus
13 2 (0.22%) Bitbucket
13 2 (0.22%) GoogleTest
13 2 (0.22%) Maven
13 2 (0.22%) Postman
13 2 (0.22%) Rational DOORS
13 2 (0.22%) TestRail
13 2 (0.22%) Visual Studio
13 2 (0.22%) WebDriver
General
1 277 (29.82%) Social Skills
2 160 (17.22%) Public Sector
3 77 (8.29%) Analytical Skills
4 40 (4.31%) Finance
5 27 (2.91%) Aerospace
6 23 (2.48%) Manufacturing
6 23 (2.48%) Telecoms
7 17 (1.83%) Military
8 14 (1.51%) Documentation Skills
8 14 (1.51%) Law
8 14 (1.51%) Organisational Skills
9 9 (0.97%) Electronics
10 8 (0.86%) Presentation Skills
11 7 (0.75%) Legal
12 5 (0.54%) Marketing
12 5 (0.54%) Pharmaceutical
12 5 (0.54%) Police
13 4 (0.43%) Influencing Skills
13 4 (0.43%) Retail
14 3 (0.32%) Banking
Job Titles
1 152 (16.36%) Architect
2 79 (8.50%) Consultant
3 73 (7.86%) Senior
4 59 (6.35%) Analyst
4 59 (6.35%) Network Engineer
5 54 (5.81%) Support Engineer
6 40 (4.31%) Developer
7 37 (3.98%) SAP Consultant
8 34 (3.66%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 34 (3.66%) Lead
9 30 (3.23%) Infrastructure Architect
9 30 (3.23%) Network Architect
10 27 (2.91%) 3rd Line Engineer
11 25 (2.69%) Service Architect
12 24 (2.58%) Security Architect
13 23 (2.48%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
13 23 (2.48%) Project Manager
13 23 (2.48%) VMware Architect
14 21 (2.26%) 3rd Line Support
14 21 (2.26%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (2.37%) SOAP
2 21 (2.26%) REST
3 15 (1.61%) React
4 13 (1.40%) Java EE
4 13 (1.40%) XML
5 11 (1.18%) Middleware
5 11 (1.18%) RESTful
6 10 (1.08%) ARM Templates
7 9 (0.97%) RFC 2544
8 7 (0.75%) CSS
8 7 (0.75%) Elastic Stack
8 7 (0.75%) Node.js
8 7 (0.75%) Web Services
9 6 (0.65%) .NET
9 6 (0.65%) JBoss Seam
9 6 (0.65%) SAP Fiori
10 5 (0.54%) HTML
10 5 (0.54%) YAML
11 4 (0.43%) Swagger
12 3 (0.32%) RAML
Miscellaneous
1 54 (5.81%) Data Centre
2 34 (3.66%) PKI
3 33 (3.55%) Management Information System
4 29 (3.12%) Onboarding
5 19 (2.05%) Private Cloud
6 17 (1.83%) Replication
7 16 (1.72%) Self-Motivation
8 11 (1.18%) Fibre Optics
8 11 (1.18%) Security Operations Centre
9 10 (1.08%) Distributed Systems
9 10 (1.08%) Driving Licence
10 9 (0.97%) Legacy Systems
11 8 (0.86%) Analytical Mindset
11 8 (0.86%) Clustering
11 8 (0.86%) Enterprise Software
11 8 (0.86%) Enterprise Storage
11 8 (0.86%) Operational Technology
11 8 (0.86%) Product Ownership
11 8 (0.86%) SCADA
12 7 (0.75%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 176 (18.95%) Windows
2 82 (8.83%) Linux
3 64 (6.89%) Windows Server
4 36 (3.88%) Windows 10
5 26 (2.80%) Windows Server 2019
6 20 (2.15%) Windows Server 2003
7 18 (1.94%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 12 (1.29%) Windows Server 2016
9 9 (0.97%) Windows Server 2012
10 8 (0.86%) Unix
11 6 (0.65%) CentOS
11 6 (0.65%) VMS
11 6 (0.65%) Windows 7
12 4 (0.43%) Mac OS
12 4 (0.43%) Ubuntu
13 3 (0.32%) Debian
14 2 (0.22%) Oracle Linux
14 2 (0.22%) Solaris
15 1 (0.11%) Android
15 1 (0.11%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 149 (16.04%) Agile
2 113 (12.16%) Problem-Solving
3 97 (10.44%) ITIL
4 95 (10.23%) Migration
5 82 (8.83%) DevOps
6 70 (7.53%) Service Management
7 67 (7.21%) Stakeholder Management
8 62 (6.67%) CI/CD
8 62 (6.67%) Workflow
9 60 (6.46%) Cybersecurity
10 59 (6.35%) Test Automation
11 49 (5.27%) High Availability
12 48 (5.17%) Risk Management
13 46 (4.95%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 45 (4.84%) Decision-Making
15 42 (4.52%) Project Delivery
16 39 (4.20%) Project Management
17 38 (4.09%) Service Design
18 37 (3.98%) Configuration Management
18 37 (3.98%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 86 (9.26%) Python
2 84 (9.04%) PowerShell
3 75 (8.07%) SQL
4 70 (7.53%) Java
5 30 (3.23%) JavaScript
6 29 (3.12%) C#
7 15 (1.61%) ABAP
8 12 (1.29%) Go
8 12 (1.29%) VB
9 11 (1.18%) Bash
10 9 (0.97%) Perl
11 7 (0.75%) Shell Script
12 6 (0.65%) C
12 6 (0.65%) PHP
12 6 (0.65%) PL/SQL
13 5 (0.54%) TypeScript
14 4 (0.43%) C++
14 4 (0.43%) Kusto Query Language
15 3 (0.32%) Bicep
16 2 (0.22%) Ada
Qualifications
1 545 (58.67%) SC Cleared
2 353 (38.00%) DV Cleared
3 48 (5.17%) Degree
4 40 (4.31%) BPSS Clearance
5 31 (3.34%) Microsoft Certification
6 29 (3.12%) Cisco Certification
7 23 (2.48%) CCNP
8 21 (2.26%) CISSP
9 18 (1.94%) MCSE
10 17 (1.83%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 13 (1.40%) Azure Certification
11 13 (1.40%) CCNA
12 12 (1.29%) AWS Certification
12 12 (1.29%) CISM
13 11 (1.18%) VCP5
13 11 (1.18%) VCP6
14 8 (0.86%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 8 (0.86%) Network+ Certification
14 8 (0.86%) PMI Certification
14 8 (0.86%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 40 (4.31%) SLA
2 37 (3.98%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 33 (3.55%) QA
4 27 (2.91%) ISO/IEC 20000
5 26 (2.80%) NIST
6 21 (2.26%) GDPR
7 14 (1.51%) NCSC
8 10 (1.08%) NIST 800
9 9 (0.97%) RMADS
10 7 (0.75%) PMO
11 4 (0.43%) Actionable Recommendations
12 3 (0.32%) HIPAA
12 3 (0.32%) ISO 9001
12 3 (0.32%) P3O
13 2 (0.22%) ARP4754
13 2 (0.22%) GMP
13 2 (0.22%) ISO 31000
14 1 (0.11%) Accessibility
14 1 (0.11%) Government Security Classifications
14 1 (0.11%) PSD2
System Software
1 79 (8.50%) Active Directory
2 67 (7.21%) VMware Infrastructure
3 50 (5.38%) VMware ESXi
4 37 (3.98%) vSphere
5 28 (3.01%) Docker
6 22 (2.37%) Hyper-V
7 19 (2.05%) VMware NSX
8 18 (1.94%) NFS
9 13 (1.40%) Brightmail
9 13 (1.40%) ISA Server
10 9 (0.97%) Microsoft App-V
10 9 (0.97%) Terminal Services
11 8 (0.86%) BitLocker
12 5 (0.54%) Virtual Machines
13 3 (0.32%) Firmware
13 3 (0.32%) Virtual Desktop
14 2 (0.22%) Oracle RAC
14 2 (0.22%) UAG
15 1 (0.11%) NetIQ eDirectory
15 1 (0.11%) Postfix
Systems Management
1 69 (7.43%) Ansible
2 55 (5.92%) Kubernetes
3 37 (3.98%) Terraform
4 25 (2.69%) vCenter Server
5 19 (2.05%) SCCM
6 14 (1.51%) Microsoft Clustering
6 14 (1.51%) SCOM
7 10 (1.08%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 9 (0.97%) Docker Swarm
8 9 (0.97%) Podman
9 8 (0.86%) FortiGate
9 8 (0.86%) Nagios
9 8 (0.86%) Puppet
9 8 (0.86%) vMotion
9 8 (0.86%) vRealize
9 8 (0.86%) WMI
10 7 (0.75%) NetBackup
11 5 (0.54%) QRadar
11 5 (0.54%) Rsyslog
12 4 (0.43%) Grafana
Vendors
1 136 (14.64%) Microsoft
2 109 (11.73%) VMware
3 89 (9.58%) Cisco
4 62 (6.67%) SAP
5 52 (5.60%) Juniper
6 31 (3.34%) Splunk
7 30 (3.23%) NetApp
8 29 (3.12%) ServiceNow
9 27 (2.91%) Red Hat
10 26 (2.80%) Google
11 25 (2.69%) SolarWinds
12 23 (2.48%) HP
13 22 (2.37%) Veeam
14 18 (1.94%) Citrix
15 13 (1.40%) Palo Alto
16 12 (1.29%) Dell
16 12 (1.29%) Fortinet
16 12 (1.29%) Oracle
17 11 (1.18%) CheckPoint
18 9 (0.97%) ArcSight