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 28 June 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 2,304 824 1,919
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 36.89% 26.43% 33.63%
As % of the Qualifications category 81.73% 66.34% 75.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,619 573 1,171
10th Percentile £375 £300 £400
25th Percentile £463 £450 £484
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £600
Median % change year-on-year - -8.33% +14.29%
75th Percentile £625 £606 £675
90th Percentile £725 £675 £738
England median daily rate £525 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -2.33% -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 233 57 138
10th Percentile £19.34 £18.87 £22.50
25th Percentile £43.81 £24.66 £52.90
Median hourly rate £76.80 £41.00 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +87.32% -33.44% -1.52%
75th Percentile £85.50 £68.50 £84.44
90th Percentile £100.18 £87.35 £90.60
England median hourly rate £63.14 £25.15 £57.50
% change year-on-year +151.03% -56.26% -4.17%

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 2,819 1,242 2,555
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 45.14% 39.83% 44.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,911 787 1,483
10th Percentile £313 £250 £352
25th Percentile £447 £406 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £535 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +1.90% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £600 £650
90th Percentile £725 £663 £725
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 296 89 226
10th Percentile £18.06 £18.87 £17.80
25th Percentile £29.07 £25.15 £27.55
Median hourly rate £60.00 £47.81 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +25.51% -16.64% -4.42%
75th Percentile £84.25 £70.00 £70.21
90th Percentile £88.00 £80.20 £87.46
England median hourly rate £53.00 £29.27 £42.50
% change year-on-year +81.07% -31.13% -22.73%

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 28 June 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 28 June 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 28 June 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 1,267 £530 -3.68% 117
Hampshire 0 820 £575 +4.55% 213
Berkshire +1 721 £519 -9.11% 70
Buckinghamshire +2 426 £550 +7.32% 34
Oxfordshire +10 120 £465 +159.78% 17
Surrey +5 116 £525 - 26
West Sussex +7 66 £483 -4.31% 12
Kent -2 13 £445 +18.67% 7
East Sussex +5 7 £459 - 1
Sussex - 6 £475 - 4
Home Counties - 2 £525 -
Isle of Wight - 1 - -
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 43 (1.87%) SharePoint
2 27 (1.17%) Confluence
3 26 (1.13%) Microsoft Exchange
4 14 (0.61%) Oracle Application Server
5 9 (0.39%) Oracle Workflow
6 7 (0.30%) Apache Airflow
6 7 (0.30%) SAS
7 5 (0.22%) ArcGIS
7 5 (0.22%) Documentum
7 5 (0.22%) IIS
8 4 (0.17%) NetWeaver
8 4 (0.17%) SAP EP
9 3 (0.13%) Apache
9 3 (0.13%) CMS
9 3 (0.13%) Palantir Foundry
10 2 (0.087%) Apache Spark
10 2 (0.087%) MS Project Server
10 2 (0.087%) nginx
10 2 (0.087%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.087%) Umbraco
Applications
1 49 (2.13%) Microsoft Excel
2 39 (1.69%) Microsoft Project
3 37 (1.61%) Microsoft Office
4 17 (0.74%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 10 (0.43%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.13%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.087%) CPLEX
7 2 (0.087%) Lectora
7 2 (0.087%) Oracle Smart View
7 2 (0.087%) Windchill
8 1 (0.043%) Autodesk Inventor
8 1 (0.043%) CATIA
8 1 (0.043%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.043%) InVision
8 1 (0.043%) MicroStation
8 1 (0.043%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.043%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 46 (2.00%) SAP S/4HANA
2 24 (1.04%) Oracle ERP
3 15 (0.65%) Remedy ITSM
3 15 (0.65%) SAP PSCD
4 13 (0.56%) Teamcenter
5 12 (0.52%) Siebel CRM
6 10 (0.43%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
7 8 (0.35%) iTrent
7 8 (0.35%) SAP BRIM
7 8 (0.35%) SAP Hybris
8 7 (0.30%) Primavera
9 6 (0.26%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
10 5 (0.22%) Oracle Assets
10 5 (0.22%) Oracle Payables
11 4 (0.17%) SAP CRM
11 4 (0.17%) SAP MM
12 3 (0.13%) SAP EWM
13 2 (0.087%) Remedy AR System
13 2 (0.087%) SAP FI
13 2 (0.087%) SAP FI-CA
Cloud Services
1 341 (14.80%) Azure
2 196 (8.51%) AWS
3 90 (3.91%) Entra ID
4 78 (3.39%) GCP
5 70 (3.04%) Azure DevOps
6 67 (2.91%) Power Platform
7 46 (2.00%) Microsoft 365
8 36 (1.56%) OpenShift
9 35 (1.52%) PaaS
10 34 (1.48%) IaaS
11 28 (1.22%) SaaS
12 25 (1.09%) OCI
13 19 (0.82%) SuccessFactors
14 16 (0.69%) GitHub
15 12 (0.52%) Serverless
16 11 (0.48%) AWS CloudFormation
16 11 (0.48%) GitHub Actions
16 11 (0.48%) Route 53
17 10 (0.43%) SAP Commerce Cloud
18 9 (0.39%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 139 (6.03%) Firewall
2 114 (4.95%) DNS
3 106 (4.60%) LAN
3 106 (4.60%) WAN
4 78 (3.39%) BGP
5 73 (3.17%) Network Security
6 71 (3.08%) DHCP
7 68 (2.95%) OSPF
8 47 (2.04%) VPN
9 35 (1.52%) TCP/IP
10 34 (1.48%) BIG-IP
11 33 (1.43%) IPsec
12 32 (1.39%) VXLAN
13 31 (1.35%) SD-WAN
14 30 (1.30%) Ethernet VPN
15 29 (1.26%) MPLS
16 27 (1.17%) Wireless
17 26 (1.13%) Junos
18 25 (1.09%) VLAN
19 24 (1.04%) Cisco ISE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 64 (2.78%) SQL Server
2 56 (2.43%) Power BI
3 35 (1.52%) Data Warehouse
4 30 (1.30%) PostgreSQL
5 29 (1.26%) Oracle Database
6 25 (1.09%) Oracle Reports
7 15 (0.65%) Oracle ODI
8 13 (0.56%) Metadata
9 11 (0.48%) MySQL
9 11 (0.48%) Relational Database
10 9 (0.39%) Geospatial Data
10 9 (0.39%) Oracle Database 12c
11 8 (0.35%) Siebel EIM
12 7 (0.30%) Redis
12 7 (0.30%) Tableau
13 6 (0.26%) NoSQL
14 5 (0.22%) Amazon RDS
14 5 (0.22%) Elasticsearch
14 5 (0.22%) Metadata Repository
14 5 (0.22%) Pentaho
Development Applications
1 64 (2.78%) JIRA
2 50 (2.17%) Git
3 46 (2.00%) GitLab
4 37 (1.61%) Rational DOORS
5 29 (1.26%) Jenkins
6 22 (0.95%) SonarQube
7 10 (0.43%) Visual Studio
8 9 (0.39%) Postman
9 8 (0.35%) Sonatype Nexus
10 7 (0.30%) JUnit
11 5 (0.22%) Artifactory
11 5 (0.22%) Burp Suite
11 5 (0.22%) Maven
11 5 (0.22%) Metasploit
11 5 (0.22%) MLflow
11 5 (0.22%) Subversion
12 4 (0.17%) Eclipse
12 4 (0.17%) Robot Framework
12 4 (0.17%) Selenium
13 3 (0.13%) Bitbucket
General
1 478 (20.75%) Social Skills
2 280 (12.15%) Public Sector
3 208 (9.03%) Analytical Skills
4 150 (6.51%) Aerospace
5 143 (6.21%) Finance
6 79 (3.43%) Documentation Skills
7 45 (1.95%) Military
8 38 (1.65%) Influencing Skills
9 35 (1.52%) Legal
10 32 (1.39%) Telecoms
11 26 (1.13%) Law
12 24 (1.04%) Organisational Skills
13 17 (0.74%) Billing
13 17 (0.74%) Presentation Skills
14 16 (0.69%) Manufacturing
15 14 (0.61%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 13 (0.56%) Aviation
17 12 (0.52%) Advertising
18 9 (0.39%) Police
19 7 (0.30%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 294 (12.76%) Architect
2 251 (10.89%) Senior
3 201 (8.72%) Lead
4 196 (8.51%) Developer
5 183 (7.94%) Analyst
6 109 (4.73%) Consultant
7 102 (4.43%) Network Engineer
8 86 (3.73%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 83 (3.60%) Project Manager
10 78 (3.39%) Technical Architect
11 67 (2.91%) Security Architect
12 61 (2.65%) Delivery Manager
13 54 (2.34%) Product Manager
14 52 (2.26%) SOC Analyst
15 48 (2.08%) Cloud Engineer
16 47 (2.04%) Senior Manager
17 44 (1.91%) Network Architect
18 43 (1.87%) Administrator
18 43 (1.87%) Software Engineer
19 42 (1.82%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 64 (2.78%) REST
2 41 (1.78%) LDAP
3 40 (1.74%) .NET
4 34 (1.48%) RESTful
5 32 (1.39%) React
6 31 (1.35%) OAuth
7 30 (1.30%) 802.1X
8 28 (1.22%) JSON
9 25 (1.09%) AngularJS
9 25 (1.09%) SOAP
10 24 (1.04%) SailPoint
10 24 (1.04%) SAML
11 23 (1.00%) OpenID
12 21 (0.91%) CSS
13 19 (0.82%) HTML
14 17 (0.74%) Oracle Fusion
14 17 (0.74%) Web Services
15 16 (0.69%) OAuth2
16 15 (0.65%) XML
17 14 (0.61%) Quarkus
Miscellaneous
1 106 (4.60%) Data Centre
2 103 (4.47%) Product Ownership
3 82 (3.56%) PKI
4 68 (2.95%) Onboarding
5 41 (1.78%) Management Information System
6 37 (1.61%) Data Structures
7 32 (1.39%) Clustering
7 32 (1.39%) Operational Technology
8 30 (1.30%) Distributed Systems
9 29 (1.26%) Replication
10 28 (1.22%) Public Cloud
11 26 (1.13%) Self-Motivation
12 24 (1.04%) Greenfield Project
12 24 (1.04%) Security Operations Centre
13 23 (1.00%) Cloud Native
14 22 (0.95%) Hybrid Cloud
15 20 (0.87%) Cyber Threat
16 19 (0.82%) CMDB
17 18 (0.78%) Enterprise Software
17 18 (0.78%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 262 (11.37%) Windows
2 200 (8.68%) Linux
3 90 (3.91%) Windows Server
4 49 (2.13%) Unix
5 33 (1.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 11 (0.48%) Windows Server 2019
7 9 (0.39%) Ubuntu
8 8 (0.35%) Android
8 8 (0.35%) Embedded Linux
8 8 (0.35%) Windows 10
9 6 (0.26%) Windows Server 2016
10 5 (0.22%) Apple iOS
10 5 (0.22%) CentOS
10 5 (0.22%) Debian
10 5 (0.22%) Mac OS
11 2 (0.087%) Oracle Linux
11 2 (0.087%) Windows 7
11 2 (0.087%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.043%) VMS
12 1 (0.043%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 443 (19.23%) Agile
2 254 (11.02%) Problem-Solving
3 252 (10.94%) Continuous Improvement
4 250 (10.85%) Stakeholder Management
5 234 (10.16%) Cybersecurity
6 229 (9.94%) ITIL
7 203 (8.81%) CI/CD
8 190 (8.25%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 187 (8.12%) DevOps
10 154 (6.68%) ITSM
11 143 (6.21%) Roadmaps
12 135 (5.86%) Migration
13 117 (5.08%) Service Management
14 115 (4.99%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 109 (4.73%) Computer Science
15 109 (4.73%) Decision-Making
15 109 (4.73%) SIEM
16 107 (4.64%) Software Engineering
17 106 (4.60%) Scrum
18 104 (4.51%) Project Management
Programming Languages
1 203 (8.81%) Python
2 158 (6.86%) PowerShell
3 126 (5.47%) SQL
4 82 (3.56%) Java
5 64 (2.78%) JavaScript
6 47 (2.04%) Bash
7 42 (1.82%) C#
8 28 (1.22%) C++
9 22 (0.95%) Go
10 18 (0.78%) PL/SQL
10 18 (0.78%) TypeScript
11 17 (0.74%) C
11 17 (0.74%) Shell Script
12 12 (0.52%) Kusto Query Language
13 11 (0.48%) Bicep
14 9 (0.39%) Korn
15 6 (0.26%) Rust
15 6 (0.26%) T-SQL
16 5 (0.22%) ABAP
17 4 (0.17%) Embedded C++
Qualifications
1 1,479 (64.19%) SC Cleared
2 775 (33.64%) DV Cleared
3 177 (7.68%) Degree
4 64 (2.78%) Cisco Certification
5 61 (2.65%) BPSS Clearance
6 42 (1.82%) CISSP
7 37 (1.61%) CCNP
7 37 (1.61%) PMI Certification
8 33 (1.43%) Azure Certification
9 32 (1.39%) PMP
10 24 (1.04%) ISTQB
11 22 (0.95%) CISM
11 22 (0.95%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 19 (0.82%) Computer Science Degree
13 18 (0.78%) Microsoft Certification
14 15 (0.65%) AWS Certification
15 14 (0.61%) RHCE
16 13 (0.56%) CCNA
17 12 (0.52%) VCAP
18 11 (0.48%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 122 (5.30%) NIST
2 116 (5.03%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 65 (2.82%) NCSC
4 61 (2.65%) PMO
5 57 (2.47%) QA
6 48 (2.08%) GDPR
7 31 (1.35%) Data Quality
8 24 (1.04%) SLA
9 21 (0.91%) Accessibility
10 16 (0.69%) JSP 440
10 16 (0.69%) NIST 800
11 15 (0.65%) GRC
12 14 (0.61%) Cyber Essentials
12 14 (0.61%) ISO/IEC 20000
13 8 (0.35%) ISO 31000
14 7 (0.30%) RMADS
15 6 (0.26%) Government Security Classifications
16 5 (0.22%) PCI DSS
17 4 (0.17%) Def Stans
18 3 (0.13%) ISO 26262
System Software
1 177 (7.68%) Active Directory
2 127 (5.51%) VMware Infrastructure
3 68 (2.95%) VMware NSX
4 46 (2.00%) Docker
5 45 (1.95%) VMware ESXi
6 26 (1.13%) vSphere
7 21 (0.91%) vCloud
8 16 (0.69%) Virtual Machines
9 14 (0.61%) Hyper-V
10 13 (0.56%) Firmware
11 12 (0.52%) Oracle RAC
12 8 (0.35%) Virtual Desktop
13 4 (0.17%) Embedded Firmware
14 3 (0.13%) UAG
15 2 (0.087%) Dovecot
15 2 (0.087%) KVM
15 2 (0.087%) Postfix
16 1 (0.043%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 90 (3.91%) Kubernetes
2 69 (2.99%) Terraform
3 57 (2.47%) vCenter Server
4 54 (2.34%) Ansible
5 33 (1.43%) FortiGate
6 30 (1.30%) SCOM
7 26 (1.13%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 23 (1.00%) Grafana
9 21 (0.91%) Argo
9 21 (0.91%) Prometheus
10 16 (0.69%) Microsoft Intune
11 15 (0.65%) Oracle RMAN
12 12 (0.52%) SCCM
12 12 (0.52%) Single Sign-On
13 11 (0.48%) Red Hat Satellite
14 10 (0.43%) Avamar
15 9 (0.39%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
16 7 (0.30%) Nmap
16 7 (0.30%) WMI
17 6 (0.26%) NetIQ Identity Manager
Vendors
1 261 (11.33%) Microsoft
2 215 (9.33%) VMware
3 144 (6.25%) Oracle
4 126 (5.47%) Cisco
5 124 (5.38%) SAP
5 124 (5.38%) ServiceNow
6 75 (3.26%) Juniper
7 56 (2.43%) Red Hat
8 54 (2.34%) F5
9 49 (2.13%) SolarWinds
10 40 (1.74%) Splunk
11 35 (1.52%) Palo Alto
12 33 (1.43%) BeyondTrust
13 31 (1.35%) Citrix
13 31 (1.35%) CyberArk
14 30 (1.30%) Google
15 29 (1.26%) IBM
16 25 (1.09%) Extreme Networks
17 22 (0.95%) Fortinet
18 20 (0.87%) Siebel