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 2 August 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 2,468 979 1,664
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 36.98% 27.99% 33.37%
As % of the Qualifications category 81.45% 68.80% 74.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,729 694 1,102
10th Percentile £400 £300 £390
25th Percentile £475 £450 £471
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £560 £538 £595
Median % change year-on-year +4.19% -9.66% +13.33%
75th Percentile £638 £600 £650
90th Percentile £733 £675 £738
England median daily rate £537 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -0.09% -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 261 81 105
10th Percentile £19.34 - £22.53
25th Percentile £50.00 £18.87 £52.90
Median hourly rate £75.00 £25.15 £61.80
Median % change year-on-year +198.21% -59.30% -0.33%
75th Percentile £87.16 £60.00 £80.00
90th Percentile £102.10 £87.25 £92.37
England median hourly rate £64.55 £25.15 £57.77
% change year-on-year +156.64% -56.47% -3.71%

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 3,030 1,423 2,241
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 45.40% 40.68% 44.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,049 930 1,393
10th Percentile £325 £250 £350
25th Percentile £460 £413 £445
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £627 £600 £638
90th Percentile £725 £664 £725
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 328 116 185
10th Percentile £18.32 £18.87 £17.88
25th Percentile £35.22 £20.66 £30.41
Median hourly rate £65.00 £28.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +132.14% -51.18% -4.42%
75th Percentile £85.00 £68.79 £70.39
90th Percentile £94.00 £82.00 £87.46
England median hourly rate £54.00 £25.15 £46.03
% change year-on-year +114.71% -45.36% -16.31%

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 2 August 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 2 August 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 2 August 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 1,338 £550 +4.76% 170
Hampshire 0 930 £580 +5.45% 241
Berkshire +1 761 £550 - 108
Buckinghamshire +1 445 £555 +8.03% 37
Oxfordshire +7 132 £465 +144.74% 28
Surrey +1 107 £580 +10.48% 63
West Sussex +10 74 £475 -8.39% 14
Kent -2 7 £445 +18.67% 13
East Sussex +5 6 £459 - 1
Sussex - 3 £475 - 2
Home Counties +1 2 £525 -39.79%
Middlesex -14 2 - - 2
Isle of Wight - 1 - - 2
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 51 (2.07%) SharePoint
2 30 (1.22%) Confluence
3 19 (0.77%) Oracle Application Server
4 14 (0.57%) Microsoft Exchange
5 10 (0.41%) Apache Airflow
6 7 (0.28%) Documentum
6 7 (0.28%) SAS
7 5 (0.20%) Apache
7 5 (0.20%) Oracle Workflow
8 4 (0.16%) Apache Spark
8 4 (0.16%) IIS
8 4 (0.16%) NetWeaver
8 4 (0.16%) SAP EP
9 3 (0.12%) ArcGIS
9 3 (0.12%) CMS
9 3 (0.12%) Palantir Foundry
10 2 (0.081%) nginx
10 2 (0.081%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.081%) Umbraco
10 2 (0.081%) WebLogic
Applications
1 64 (2.59%) Microsoft Excel
2 53 (2.15%) Microsoft Project
3 40 (1.62%) Microsoft Office
4 24 (0.97%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.24%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.081%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 2 (0.081%) CPLEX
7 2 (0.081%) Houdini
7 2 (0.081%) Lectora
7 2 (0.081%) NUKE
7 2 (0.081%) Oracle Smart View
7 2 (0.081%) Windchill
8 1 (0.041%) Autodesk Inventor
8 1 (0.041%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.041%) InVision
8 1 (0.041%) MicroStation
8 1 (0.041%) Simulink
8 1 (0.041%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 55 (2.23%) SAP S/4HANA
2 29 (1.18%) Oracle ERP
3 20 (0.81%) Remedy ITSM
4 19 (0.77%) SAP PSCD
4 19 (0.77%) Teamcenter
5 12 (0.49%) Siebel CRM
6 10 (0.41%) Primavera
7 8 (0.32%) iTrent
7 8 (0.32%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
8 7 (0.28%) SAP BRIM
8 7 (0.28%) SAP Hybris
9 6 (0.24%) SAP EWM
10 4 (0.16%) Remedy AR System
10 4 (0.16%) SAP CRM
10 4 (0.16%) SAP MM
10 4 (0.16%) Workday HCM
11 3 (0.12%) Oracle Financials
11 3 (0.12%) Oracle Payables
11 3 (0.12%) SAP FI
11 3 (0.12%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 367 (14.87%) Azure
2 204 (8.27%) AWS
3 88 (3.57%) Entra ID
4 80 (3.24%) Azure DevOps
5 74 (3.00%) GCP
5 74 (3.00%) Power Platform
6 44 (1.78%) Microsoft 365
7 37 (1.50%) OpenShift
8 33 (1.34%) IaaS
8 33 (1.34%) OCI
9 32 (1.30%) SaaS
10 31 (1.26%) PaaS
11 20 (0.81%) SuccessFactors
12 16 (0.65%) Azure Monitor
12 16 (0.65%) GitHub
13 14 (0.57%) Azure Sentinel
13 14 (0.57%) GitHub Actions
14 13 (0.53%) AWS CloudFormation
15 12 (0.49%) Serverless
16 11 (0.45%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 136 (5.51%) Firewall
2 131 (5.31%) DNS
3 105 (4.25%) WAN
4 100 (4.05%) LAN
5 80 (3.24%) Network Security
6 76 (3.08%) BGP
7 71 (2.88%) DHCP
8 59 (2.39%) VPN
9 57 (2.31%) OSPF
10 39 (1.58%) TCP/IP
11 36 (1.46%) IPsec
12 34 (1.38%) BIG-IP
12 34 (1.38%) VXLAN
13 32 (1.30%) Ethernet VPN
13 32 (1.30%) MPLS
14 30 (1.22%) SD-WAN
15 27 (1.09%) VSAN
16 26 (1.05%) Junos
17 25 (1.01%) Wireless
18 22 (0.89%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 67 (2.71%) SQL Server
2 61 (2.47%) Power BI
3 46 (1.86%) Data Warehouse
4 33 (1.34%) Oracle Database
5 31 (1.26%) Oracle Reports
5 31 (1.26%) PostgreSQL
6 20 (0.81%) Oracle ODI
7 13 (0.53%) Metadata
8 11 (0.45%) MySQL
9 10 (0.41%) Oracle Database 12c
10 9 (0.36%) Geospatial Data
10 9 (0.36%) Relational Database
11 8 (0.32%) Pentaho
11 8 (0.32%) Siebel EIM
12 7 (0.28%) NoSQL
12 7 (0.28%) Oracle BI Publisher
12 7 (0.28%) Tableau
13 6 (0.24%) Elasticsearch
13 6 (0.24%) Oracle Database 11g
13 6 (0.24%) Redis
Development Applications
1 81 (3.28%) JIRA
2 54 (2.19%) Git
3 50 (2.03%) GitLab
4 39 (1.58%) Rational DOORS
5 27 (1.09%) Jenkins
6 26 (1.05%) SonarQube
7 8 (0.32%) Postman
7 8 (0.32%) Visual Studio
8 7 (0.28%) Sonatype Nexus
9 6 (0.24%) MLflow
10 5 (0.20%) JUnit
11 4 (0.16%) Artifactory
11 4 (0.16%) Eclipse
11 4 (0.16%) Maven
11 4 (0.16%) Subversion
12 3 (0.12%) MSI
12 3 (0.12%) Robot Framework
12 3 (0.12%) Zephyr
13 2 (0.081%) Balsamiq
13 2 (0.081%) Oracle Forms
General
1 515 (20.87%) Social Skills
2 279 (11.30%) Public Sector
3 221 (8.95%) Analytical Skills
4 173 (7.01%) Aerospace
5 166 (6.73%) Finance
6 86 (3.48%) Documentation Skills
7 52 (2.11%) Influencing Skills
8 44 (1.78%) Military
9 38 (1.54%) Organisational Skills
10 35 (1.42%) Telecoms
11 33 (1.34%) Legal
12 21 (0.85%) Law
13 18 (0.73%) Billing
13 18 (0.73%) Presentation Skills
14 16 (0.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 16 (0.65%) Manufacturing
15 14 (0.57%) Aviation
16 11 (0.45%) Advertising
17 8 (0.32%) Police
18 6 (0.24%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 322 (13.05%) Architect
2 252 (10.21%) Senior
3 232 (9.40%) Lead
4 220 (8.91%) Developer
5 196 (7.94%) Analyst
6 158 (6.40%) Consultant
7 123 (4.98%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 87 (3.53%) Network Engineer
9 81 (3.28%) Security Architect
10 75 (3.04%) Technical Architect
11 74 (3.00%) Project Manager
12 65 (2.63%) Delivery Manager
13 62 (2.51%) Cloud Engineer
14 57 (2.31%) Product Manager
15 56 (2.27%) SAP Consultant
16 55 (2.23%) Support Engineer
17 49 (1.99%) Network Architect
17 49 (1.99%) SOC Analyst
18 43 (1.74%) Senior Manager
19 42 (1.70%) Product Delivery Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 75 (3.04%) REST
2 39 (1.58%) .NET
3 36 (1.46%) OAuth
4 35 (1.42%) RESTful
5 32 (1.30%) 802.1X
6 30 (1.22%) AngularJS
7 29 (1.18%) React
7 29 (1.18%) SAML
7 29 (1.18%) SOAP
8 28 (1.13%) OpenID
9 27 (1.09%) LDAP
9 27 (1.09%) SailPoint
10 26 (1.05%) JSON
11 24 (0.97%) Web Services
12 20 (0.81%) OAuth2
13 19 (0.77%) HTML
13 19 (0.77%) Kafka
13 19 (0.77%) Quarkus
14 18 (0.73%) CSS
15 17 (0.69%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 103 (4.17%) Data Centre
1 103 (4.17%) Onboarding
2 93 (3.77%) Product Ownership
3 89 (3.61%) PKI
4 51 (2.07%) Management Information System
5 38 (1.54%) Hybrid Cloud
6 37 (1.50%) Data Structures
7 35 (1.42%) Clustering
8 33 (1.34%) Operational Technology
9 32 (1.30%) Public Cloud
10 26 (1.05%) Cloud Native
10 26 (1.05%) Greenfield Project
11 25 (1.01%) Distributed Systems
12 22 (0.89%) Enterprise Software
12 22 (0.89%) Self-Motivation
13 21 (0.85%) Cyber Threat
14 19 (0.77%) PMI
14 19 (0.77%) Private Cloud
14 19 (0.77%) Security Operations Centre
15 18 (0.73%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 286 (11.59%) Windows
2 215 (8.71%) Linux
3 121 (4.90%) Windows Server
4 57 (2.31%) Unix
5 32 (1.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 22 (0.89%) Windows Server 2019
7 12 (0.49%) Ubuntu
8 11 (0.45%) Windows 10
9 8 (0.32%) Mac OS
10 7 (0.28%) CentOS
10 7 (0.28%) Embedded Linux
11 5 (0.20%) Android
11 5 (0.20%) Debian
11 5 (0.20%) Oracle Linux
11 5 (0.20%) Windows Server 2016
12 3 (0.12%) Apple iOS
12 3 (0.12%) Solaris
13 2 (0.081%) AIX
13 2 (0.081%) HPUX
13 2 (0.081%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 480 (19.45%) Agile
2 310 (12.56%) Continuous Improvement
3 295 (11.95%) Stakeholder Management
4 275 (11.14%) ITIL
5 265 (10.74%) Problem-Solving
6 252 (10.21%) Cybersecurity
7 237 (9.60%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 215 (8.71%) CI/CD
9 208 (8.43%) ITSM
10 197 (7.98%) DevOps
11 169 (6.85%) Service Management
12 161 (6.52%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 149 (6.04%) Roadmaps
14 133 (5.39%) Migration
15 131 (5.31%) Change Management
16 128 (5.19%) Service Delivery
17 125 (5.06%) Technical Leadership
18 123 (4.98%) Computer Science
19 122 (4.94%) Validation
20 120 (4.86%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 213 (8.63%) Python
2 163 (6.60%) PowerShell
3 140 (5.67%) SQL
4 88 (3.57%) Java
5 64 (2.59%) JavaScript
6 60 (2.43%) Bash
7 35 (1.42%) C#
8 25 (1.01%) C++
9 24 (0.97%) PL/SQL
10 22 (0.89%) Bicep
11 19 (0.77%) Go
11 19 (0.77%) Shell Script
12 17 (0.69%) C
13 15 (0.61%) TypeScript
14 14 (0.57%) Kusto Query Language
15 9 (0.36%) ABAP
15 9 (0.36%) Korn
16 5 (0.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 5 (0.20%) Rust
16 5 (0.20%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 1,532 (62.07%) SC Cleared
2 898 (36.39%) DV Cleared
3 201 (8.14%) Degree
4 60 (2.43%) Cisco Certification
5 59 (2.39%) BPSS Clearance
6 51 (2.07%) CISSP
7 49 (1.99%) PMI Certification
8 47 (1.90%) Azure Certification
9 42 (1.70%) PMP
10 30 (1.22%) ISTQB
11 28 (1.13%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 26 (1.05%) CCNP
13 24 (0.97%) Microsoft Certification
14 22 (0.89%) CISM
15 20 (0.81%) AWS Certification
16 19 (0.77%) Computer Science Degree
17 17 (0.69%) TOGAF Certification
17 17 (0.69%) VCAP
18 14 (0.57%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
18 14 (0.57%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 132 (5.35%) NIST
2 122 (4.94%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 77 (3.12%) PMO
4 66 (2.67%) NCSC
5 61 (2.47%) QA
6 43 (1.74%) GDPR
7 33 (1.34%) Data Quality
8 31 (1.26%) SLA
9 27 (1.09%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 23 (0.93%) JSP 440
10 23 (0.93%) NIST 800
11 18 (0.73%) Accessibility
12 15 (0.61%) GRC
13 14 (0.57%) Cyber Essentials
14 10 (0.41%) ISO 9001
15 9 (0.36%) Def Stans
15 9 (0.36%) ISO 31000
16 7 (0.28%) RMADS
17 6 (0.24%) Government Security Classifications
18 4 (0.16%) ISO 26262
System Software
1 190 (7.70%) Active Directory
2 160 (6.48%) VMware Infrastructure
3 79 (3.20%) VMware NSX
4 61 (2.47%) VMware ESXi
5 58 (2.35%) Docker
6 30 (1.22%) vSphere
7 22 (0.89%) vCloud
8 17 (0.69%) Hyper-V
8 17 (0.69%) Virtual Machines
9 15 (0.61%) Oracle RAC
10 13 (0.53%) Virtual Desktop
11 12 (0.49%) Firmware
12 4 (0.16%) Embedded Firmware
12 4 (0.16%) KVM
13 3 (0.12%) UAG
14 2 (0.081%) Dovecot
14 2 (0.081%) Postfix
14 2 (0.081%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 105 (4.25%) Kubernetes
2 85 (3.44%) Terraform
3 76 (3.08%) vCenter Server
4 62 (2.51%) Ansible
5 46 (1.86%) SCOM
6 33 (1.34%) FortiGate
7 23 (0.93%) Argo
8 20 (0.81%) SCCM
9 18 (0.73%) Microsoft Intune
9 18 (0.73%) Oracle RMAN
10 17 (0.69%) Grafana
11 16 (0.65%) Avamar
12 14 (0.57%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 14 (0.57%) Prometheus
13 11 (0.45%) Red Hat Satellite
13 11 (0.45%) Single Sign-On
14 9 (0.36%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
15 7 (0.28%) Data Guard
15 7 (0.28%) WMI
16 5 (0.20%) WSUS
Vendors
1 311 (12.60%) Microsoft
2 245 (9.93%) VMware
3 173 (7.01%) Oracle
4 166 (6.73%) ServiceNow
5 156 (6.32%) SAP
6 110 (4.46%) Cisco
7 77 (3.12%) Juniper
8 60 (2.43%) Red Hat
9 57 (2.31%) SolarWinds
10 52 (2.11%) F5
11 37 (1.50%) Google
12 33 (1.34%) Citrix
12 33 (1.34%) Splunk
13 32 (1.30%) BeyondTrust
14 31 (1.26%) Palo Alto
15 30 (1.22%) CyberArk
15 30 (1.22%) IBM
16 25 (1.01%) Extreme Networks
17 24 (0.97%) Remedy
18 20 (0.81%) Siebel