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

6 months to
9 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 1,907 754 1,907
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 37.33% 24.93% 33.82%
As % of the Qualifications category 80.06% 64.89% 75.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,301 531 1,058
10th Percentile £311 £313 £309
25th Percentile £435 £456 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -4.35% +4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £700 £725
England median daily rate £525 £547 £550
% change year-on-year -4.02% -0.55% -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 190 52 123
10th Percentile £16.35 £20.52 £22.91
25th Percentile £20.79 £30.21 £51.38
Median hourly rate £55.00 £61.50 £60.14
Median % change year-on-year -10.56% +2.25% +4.12%
75th Percentile £84.00 £67.96 £71.90
90th Percentile £90.09 £80.09 £85.65
England median hourly rate £25.77 £60.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year -57.05% +9.09% -8.33%

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 2,382 1,162 2,529
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 46.62% 38.41% 44.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,578 752 1,421
10th Percentile £300 £263 £250
25th Percentile £413 £415 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £540 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.63% -1.82% +3.77%
75th Percentile £610 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £688 £700
England median daily rate £520 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -0.95% -2.42% -2.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 240 74 180
10th Percentile £15.62 £19.08 £17.80
25th Percentile £19.52 £25.64 £23.88
Median hourly rate £37.00 £56.75 £58.00
Median % change year-on-year -34.80% -2.15% +20.62%
75th Percentile £83.81 £67.50 £67.31
90th Percentile £90.09 £79.51 £83.14
England median hourly rate £25.77 £52.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year -50.91% +31.25% -19.80%

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 March 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 March 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 March 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 +1 976 £492 -10.55% 172
Hampshire 0 759 £575 - 164
Berkshire +2 657 £450 -20.63% 102
Buckinghamshire +1 246 £560 +17.89% 53
Surrey +12 79 £525 -19.23% 25
Oxfordshire +9 73 £415 -29.36% 27
West Sussex +8 47 £526 -15.58% 13
Kent +3 26 £443 +60.91% 23
Sussex -1 7 £475 +9.83% 6
East Sussex +5 3 £588 +6.82% 6
Middlesex - 1 - -
Isle of Wight - 1 £81 - 4
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 (2.67%) SharePoint
2 39 (2.05%) Microsoft Exchange
3 17 (0.89%) Confluence
4 5 (0.26%) Apache
4 5 (0.26%) IIS
4 5 (0.26%) Oracle Workflow
5 4 (0.21%) ArcGIS
6 3 (0.16%) MS Project Server
7 2 (0.10%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.10%) GeoServer
7 2 (0.10%) NetWeaver
7 2 (0.10%) SAP EP
7 2 (0.10%) Smallworld
8 1 (0.052%) Anypoint
8 1 (0.052%) Apache Pulsar
8 1 (0.052%) BizTalk Server
8 1 (0.052%) JBoss
8 1 (0.052%) Palantir Foundry
8 1 (0.052%) SAS
8 1 (0.052%) WebLogic
Applications
1 63 (3.30%) Microsoft Excel
2 58 (3.04%) Microsoft Office
3 34 (1.78%) Microsoft Project
4 30 (1.57%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 12 (0.63%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.10%) Lectora
6 2 (0.10%) Oracle Smart View
6 2 (0.10%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.052%) CATIA
7 1 (0.052%) PTC Creo
7 1 (0.052%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 30 (1.57%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 26 (1.36%) SAP S/4HANA
3 7 (0.37%) Oracle Assets
3 7 (0.37%) Oracle ERP
3 7 (0.37%) Oracle Payables
3 7 (0.37%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
4 6 (0.31%) SAP HR
4 6 (0.31%) SAP Payroll
5 5 (0.26%) Salesforce CRM
5 5 (0.26%) SAP PSCD
6 4 (0.21%) SAP BRIM
6 4 (0.21%) SAP Hybris
7 3 (0.16%) Payment Gateway
7 3 (0.16%) Remedy ITSM
7 3 (0.16%) SAP HCM
7 3 (0.16%) Teamcenter
8 2 (0.10%) Oracle General Ledger
8 2 (0.10%) Oracle Receivables
8 2 (0.10%) Primavera
8 2 (0.10%) SAP CRM
Cloud Services
1 270 (14.16%) Azure
2 189 (9.91%) AWS
3 88 (4.61%) GCP
4 76 (3.99%) Entra ID
5 71 (3.72%) Microsoft 365
6 44 (2.31%) OpenShift
7 43 (2.25%) Azure DevOps
8 40 (2.10%) Power Platform
9 35 (1.84%) GitHub
10 26 (1.36%) IaaS
10 26 (1.36%) PaaS
11 21 (1.10%) OneDrive
12 20 (1.05%) GitHub Actions
13 15 (0.79%) Cloud Computing
13 15 (0.79%) SaaS
14 14 (0.73%) Serverless
15 12 (0.63%) Power Automate
15 12 (0.63%) PowerApps
16 11 (0.58%) AWS CloudFormation
16 11 (0.58%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 142 (7.45%) Firewall
2 90 (4.72%) DNS
3 81 (4.25%) WAN
4 78 (4.09%) LAN
5 67 (3.51%) BGP
6 62 (3.25%) OSPF
7 58 (3.04%) DHCP
7 58 (3.04%) Network Security
8 44 (2.31%) VPN
9 35 (1.84%) TCP/IP
10 34 (1.78%) Junos
11 29 (1.52%) Cisco ISE
12 28 (1.47%) Wireless
13 26 (1.36%) IPsec
14 24 (1.26%) Ethernet VPN
15 23 (1.21%) VXLAN
16 22 (1.15%) VLAN
17 21 (1.10%) MPLS
17 21 (1.10%) Structured Cabling
18 18 (0.94%) BIG-IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 39 (2.05%) SQL Server
2 35 (1.84%) Power BI
3 25 (1.31%) PostgreSQL
4 11 (0.58%) Metadata
4 11 (0.58%) Oracle Database
5 10 (0.52%) Azure SQL Database
5 10 (0.52%) Redis
6 8 (0.42%) Oracle Reports
6 8 (0.42%) Relational Database
7 7 (0.37%) SAP HANA
8 6 (0.31%) MongoDB
8 6 (0.31%) MySQL
8 6 (0.31%) NoSQL
8 6 (0.31%) Oracle Database 12c
9 5 (0.26%) Data Warehouse
9 5 (0.26%) Metadata Repository
10 4 (0.21%) SAP Data Services
11 3 (0.16%) Amazon RDS
11 3 (0.16%) Oracle BI Publisher
11 3 (0.16%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 53 (2.78%) JIRA
2 42 (2.20%) Git
3 36 (1.89%) Jenkins
4 34 (1.78%) GitLab
5 32 (1.68%) Rational DOORS
6 22 (1.15%) Burp Suite
6 22 (1.15%) Metasploit
7 10 (0.52%) Visual Studio
8 8 (0.42%) Artifactory
8 8 (0.42%) Maven
8 8 (0.42%) SonarQube
9 7 (0.37%) Android Studio
9 7 (0.37%) Subversion
10 6 (0.31%) Robot Framework
11 5 (0.26%) Bitbucket
11 5 (0.26%) Gradle
11 5 (0.26%) JUnit
11 5 (0.26%) Sonatype Nexus
12 4 (0.21%) Cypress.io
12 4 (0.21%) Eclipse
General
1 486 (25.49%) Social Skills
2 308 (16.15%) Public Sector
3 187 (9.81%) Analytical Skills
4 110 (5.77%) Finance
5 81 (4.25%) Aerospace
6 73 (3.83%) Documentation Skills
7 42 (2.20%) Military
8 35 (1.84%) Manufacturing
9 34 (1.78%) Influencing Skills
10 32 (1.68%) Legal
11 27 (1.42%) Telecoms
12 18 (0.94%) Law
12 18 (0.94%) Presentation Skills
13 15 (0.79%) Marketing
14 13 (0.68%) Organisational Skills
15 9 (0.47%) Billing
16 8 (0.42%) Electronics
17 7 (0.37%) Advertising
17 7 (0.37%) Aviation
18 6 (0.31%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 307 (16.10%) Architect
2 172 (9.02%) Senior
3 141 (7.39%) Lead
4 136 (7.13%) Analyst
5 114 (5.98%) Consultant
5 114 (5.98%) Network Engineer
6 109 (5.72%) Developer
7 58 (3.04%) Technical Architect
8 55 (2.88%) Project Manager
9 52 (2.73%) Tester
10 49 (2.57%) Enterprise Architect
10 49 (2.57%) Support Engineer
11 44 (2.31%) Delivery Manager
11 44 (2.31%) DevOps Engineer
12 43 (2.25%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 43 (2.25%) Security Architect
13 39 (2.05%) Product Manager
14 35 (1.84%) IT Engineer
15 33 (1.73%) Infrastructure Architect
15 33 (1.73%) Network Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (1.73%) LDAP
2 32 (1.68%) REST
3 28 (1.47%) .NET
3 28 (1.47%) React
4 22 (1.15%) JSON
5 20 (1.05%) 802.1X
6 19 (1.00%) Elastic Stack
7 17 (0.89%) AngularJS
7 17 (0.89%) Kafka
7 17 (0.89%) Oracle Fusion
7 17 (0.89%) RESTful
7 17 (0.89%) XML
8 16 (0.84%) SOAP
9 15 (0.79%) SailPoint
10 12 (0.63%) OAuth
10 12 (0.63%) Web Services
11 11 (0.58%) CSS
11 11 (0.58%) Loki
11 11 (0.58%) YAML
12 10 (0.52%) Oracle GoldenGate
Miscellaneous
1 91 (4.77%) Data Centre
2 83 (4.35%) PKI
3 61 (3.20%) Product Ownership
4 52 (2.73%) Onboarding
5 42 (2.20%) Management Information System
6 30 (1.57%) Self-Motivation
7 27 (1.42%) Cloud Native
8 26 (1.36%) Security Operations Centre
9 23 (1.21%) Data Structures
9 23 (1.21%) Replication
10 22 (1.15%) Clustering
11 21 (1.10%) Security Posture
12 20 (1.05%) Analytical Mindset
13 19 (1.00%) Driving Licence
14 16 (0.84%) Cyber Threat
14 16 (0.84%) Distributed Systems
15 13 (0.68%) PMI
15 13 (0.68%) Private Cloud
15 13 (0.68%) Public Cloud
16 12 (0.63%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 272 (14.26%) Windows
2 191 (10.02%) Linux
3 70 (3.67%) Windows Server
4 39 (2.05%) Windows 10
5 33 (1.73%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 17 (0.89%) Android
7 13 (0.68%) Unix
8 12 (0.63%) Ubuntu
9 9 (0.47%) Windows 7
10 7 (0.37%) Kali Linux
11 6 (0.31%) Windows Server 2016
12 5 (0.26%) Mac OS
13 4 (0.21%) Apple iOS
13 4 (0.21%) CentOS
13 4 (0.21%) Windows Server 2019
14 3 (0.16%) Debian
15 2 (0.10%) Embedded Linux
15 2 (0.10%) SUSE
15 2 (0.10%) VMS
15 2 (0.10%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 341 (17.88%) Agile
2 219 (11.48%) Problem-Solving
3 188 (9.86%) DevOps
4 187 (9.81%) CI/CD
5 186 (9.75%) ITIL
6 172 (9.02%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 166 (8.70%) Migration
8 160 (8.39%) Continuous Improvement
9 159 (8.34%) Stakeholder Management
10 148 (7.76%) Cybersecurity
10 148 (7.76%) Roadmaps
11 121 (6.35%) Service Management
12 108 (5.66%) ITSM
13 99 (5.19%) Project Management
14 91 (4.77%) SIEM
15 83 (4.35%) Change Management
16 79 (4.14%) Decision-Making
17 78 (4.09%) DevSecOps
18 74 (3.88%) Collaborative Working
18 74 (3.88%) Infrastructure Engineering
Programming Languages
1 194 (10.17%) Python
2 158 (8.29%) PowerShell
3 58 (3.04%) Bash
3 58 (3.04%) Java
4 57 (2.99%) SQL
5 39 (2.05%) C#
6 38 (1.99%) JavaScript
7 24 (1.26%) C++
8 21 (1.10%) Kusto Query Language
9 16 (0.84%) TypeScript
10 12 (0.63%) Go
10 12 (0.63%) Shell Script
11 11 (0.58%) C
12 9 (0.47%) ABAP
13 8 (0.42%) Korn
13 8 (0.42%) PL/SQL
14 7 (0.37%) Embedded C++
15 6 (0.31%) Bicep
16 5 (0.26%) T-SQL
17 3 (0.16%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 1,201 (62.98%) SC Cleared
2 595 (31.20%) DV Cleared
3 141 (7.39%) Degree
4 63 (3.30%) Cisco Certification
5 50 (2.62%) CCNP
5 50 (2.62%) CISSP
6 39 (2.05%) BPSS Clearance
7 27 (1.42%) CISM
8 22 (1.15%) CEH
8 22 (1.15%) PMP
9 21 (1.10%) CCNA
10 20 (1.05%) PMI Certification
11 19 (1.00%) Azure Certification
11 19 (1.00%) GIAC
12 17 (0.89%) AWS Certification
13 15 (0.79%) CHECK Team Member
13 15 (0.79%) JNCIS
14 14 (0.73%) Computer Science Degree
15 13 (0.68%) CREST Certified
15 13 (0.68%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 80 (4.20%) NIST
2 79 (4.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 56 (2.94%) GDPR
4 51 (2.67%) PMO
5 50 (2.62%) NCSC
5 50 (2.62%) QA
6 21 (1.10%) SLA
7 20 (1.05%) Data Quality
8 17 (0.89%) PCI DSS
9 15 (0.79%) JSP 440
10 13 (0.68%) Accessibility
10 13 (0.68%) GRC
11 12 (0.63%) ISO/IEC 20000
12 11 (0.58%) NIST 800
13 10 (0.52%) COBIT
14 5 (0.26%) Cyber Essentials
14 5 (0.26%) Def Stans
14 5 (0.26%) Government Security Classifications
14 5 (0.26%) P3O
15 4 (0.21%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 171 (8.97%) Active Directory
2 83 (4.35%) VMware Infrastructure
3 48 (2.52%) Docker
4 32 (1.68%) vSphere
5 30 (1.57%) VMware NSX
6 17 (0.89%) VMware ESXi
7 11 (0.58%) Hyper-V
8 10 (0.52%) Virtual Desktop
9 9 (0.47%) vCloud
10 8 (0.42%) Firmware
10 8 (0.42%) Oracle RAC
10 8 (0.42%) Virtual Machines
11 3 (0.16%) NFS
12 1 (0.052%) NDS
12 1 (0.052%) NetIQ eDirectory
12 1 (0.052%) RHEV
12 1 (0.052%) Sendmail
12 1 (0.052%) Terminal Services
12 1 (0.052%) UAG
12 1 (0.052%) Xen
Systems Management
1 101 (5.30%) Kubernetes
2 67 (3.51%) Terraform
3 66 (3.46%) Ansible
4 45 (2.36%) Grafana
4 45 (2.36%) vCenter Server
5 44 (2.31%) Prometheus
6 33 (1.73%) Argo
7 27 (1.42%) SCCM
8 24 (1.26%) Nmap
9 19 (1.00%) FortiGate
10 18 (0.94%) Microsoft Intune
11 17 (0.89%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 15 (0.79%) WMI
13 13 (0.68%) Kibana
13 13 (0.68%) Single Sign-On
14 11 (0.58%) Kustomize
15 9 (0.47%) Nagios
15 9 (0.47%) Oracle RMAN
15 9 (0.47%) Red Hat Satellite
16 8 (0.42%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
Vendors
1 222 (11.64%) Microsoft
2 170 (8.91%) VMware
3 169 (8.86%) Cisco
4 79 (4.14%) ServiceNow
5 78 (4.09%) SAP
6 77 (4.04%) Juniper
7 65 (3.41%) Red Hat
8 60 (3.15%) Aruba
9 59 (3.09%) Splunk
10 44 (2.31%) SolarWinds
11 42 (2.20%) Oracle
12 36 (1.89%) F5
12 36 (1.89%) Google
12 36 (1.89%) Palo Alto
13 32 (1.68%) CyberArk
14 31 (1.63%) Sparx
15 28 (1.47%) BeyondTrust
16 26 (1.36%) IBM
17 25 (1.31%) CheckPoint
18 15 (0.79%) Citrix