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

6 months to
14 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 2,258 791 1,939
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 37.13% 26.18% 33.76%
As % of the Qualifications category 82.23% 65.59% 75.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,580 544 1,183
10th Percentile £370 £300 £400
25th Percentile £462 £432 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £595
Median % change year-on-year - -7.56% +13.33%
75th Percentile £625 £608 £675
90th Percentile £725 £688 £738
England median daily rate £525 £537 £550
% change year-on-year -2.14% -2.45% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 227 54 135
10th Percentile £18.93 £18.61 £22.51
25th Percentile £41.25 £24.78 £52.90
Median hourly rate £73.60 £47.81 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +53.96% -22.39% -4.99%
75th Percentile £85.50 £73.13 £84.42
90th Percentile £102.26 £87.43 £91.20
England median hourly rate £60.00 £30.46 £56.89
% change year-on-year +97.01% -46.46% -5.19%

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 2,746 1,206 2,579
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 45.15% 39.92% 44.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,855 758 1,495
10th Percentile £313 £250 £350
25th Percentile £442 £407 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £531 £523 £550
Median % change year-on-year +1.60% -4.95% +4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £600 £650
90th Percentile £725 £675 £725
England median daily rate £525 £525 £535
% change year-on-year - -1.87% -2.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted 289 86 221
10th Percentile £16.94 £18.69 £17.80
25th Percentile £27.50 £25.15 £30.41
Median hourly rate £55.00 £52.50 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -8.46% -7.50%
75th Percentile £84.00 £70.94 £70.39
90th Percentile £88.00 £83.13 £87.46
England median hourly rate £51.22 £31.57 £41.27
% change year-on-year +62.27% -23.51% -24.97%

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 14 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 14 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 14 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 +2 1,219 £525 -4.55% 139
Hampshire 0 828 £575 +4.55% 193
Berkshire +1 695 £500 -13.04% 87
Buckinghamshire +2 410 £550 +7.06% 37
Oxfordshire +9 114 £450 +125.00% 18
Surrey +4 106 £525 - 40
West Sussex +5 65 £483 -10.06% 12
Kent +3 16 £445 +18.67% 9
East Sussex +2 6 £459 - 1
Sussex - 6 £475 - 5
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 49 (2.17%) SharePoint
2 30 (1.33%) Confluence
2 30 (1.33%) Microsoft Exchange
3 14 (0.62%) Oracle Application Server
4 7 (0.31%) Oracle Workflow
5 6 (0.27%) ArcGIS
5 6 (0.27%) SAS
6 5 (0.22%) IIS
7 4 (0.18%) Documentum
7 4 (0.18%) NetWeaver
7 4 (0.18%) SAP EP
8 3 (0.13%) Apache
8 3 (0.13%) CMS
8 3 (0.13%) MS Project Server
8 3 (0.13%) Palantir Foundry
9 2 (0.089%) Apache Airflow
9 2 (0.089%) Apache Spark
9 2 (0.089%) nginx
9 2 (0.089%) Tomcat
9 2 (0.089%) Umbraco
Applications
1 49 (2.17%) Microsoft Excel
2 41 (1.82%) Microsoft Office
3 37 (1.64%) Microsoft Project
4 21 (0.93%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 11 (0.49%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.13%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.089%) CPLEX
7 2 (0.089%) Lectora
7 2 (0.089%) Oracle Smart View
8 1 (0.044%) Autodesk Inventor
8 1 (0.044%) CATIA
8 1 (0.044%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.044%) InVision
8 1 (0.044%) MicroStation
8 1 (0.044%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.044%) Sketch
8 1 (0.044%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 44 (1.95%) SAP S/4HANA
2 20 (0.89%) Oracle ERP
3 13 (0.58%) Remedy ITSM
3 13 (0.58%) SAP PSCD
3 13 (0.58%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 9 (0.40%) Teamcenter
5 8 (0.35%) iTrent
6 7 (0.31%) SAP BRIM
6 7 (0.31%) SAP Hybris
7 6 (0.27%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
7 6 (0.27%) Primavera
7 6 (0.27%) Siebel CRM
8 5 (0.22%) Oracle Assets
8 5 (0.22%) Oracle Payables
9 4 (0.18%) SAP CRM
9 4 (0.18%) SAP MM
10 3 (0.13%) SAP EWM
11 2 (0.089%) Payment Gateway
11 2 (0.089%) SAP FI
11 2 (0.089%) SAP FI-CA
Cloud Services
1 343 (15.19%) Azure
2 188 (8.33%) AWS
3 92 (4.07%) Entra ID
4 75 (3.32%) Azure DevOps
5 74 (3.28%) GCP
6 63 (2.79%) Power Platform
7 52 (2.30%) Microsoft 365
8 39 (1.73%) PaaS
9 37 (1.64%) OpenShift
10 36 (1.59%) IaaS
11 23 (1.02%) SaaS
12 22 (0.97%) GitHub
13 19 (0.84%) OCI
13 19 (0.84%) SuccessFactors
14 16 (0.71%) GitHub Actions
15 14 (0.62%) Serverless
16 11 (0.49%) Azure Monitor
17 10 (0.44%) Datadog
18 8 (0.35%) Power Automate
18 8 (0.35%) SAP Commerce Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 142 (6.29%) Firewall
2 109 (4.83%) LAN
2 109 (4.83%) WAN
3 105 (4.65%) DNS
4 79 (3.50%) BGP
5 70 (3.10%) OSPF
6 68 (3.01%) DHCP
6 68 (3.01%) Network Security
7 47 (2.08%) VPN
8 31 (1.37%) Ethernet VPN
8 31 (1.37%) IPsec
8 31 (1.37%) VXLAN
9 30 (1.33%) BIG-IP
9 30 (1.33%) Wireless
10 28 (1.24%) TCP/IP
11 27 (1.20%) MPLS
12 26 (1.15%) SD-WAN
13 25 (1.11%) Junos
14 24 (1.06%) Cisco ISE
15 22 (0.97%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 62 (2.75%) SQL Server
2 53 (2.35%) Power BI
3 35 (1.55%) Data Warehouse
4 33 (1.46%) PostgreSQL
5 27 (1.20%) Oracle Database
6 26 (1.15%) Oracle Reports
7 15 (0.66%) Oracle ODI
8 12 (0.53%) Metadata
9 11 (0.49%) MySQL
9 11 (0.49%) Relational Database
10 10 (0.44%) Redis
11 9 (0.40%) Oracle Database 12c
12 6 (0.27%) NoSQL
12 6 (0.27%) Siebel EIM
12 6 (0.27%) Tableau
13 5 (0.22%) Amazon RDS
13 5 (0.22%) Azure SQL Database
13 5 (0.22%) Elasticsearch
13 5 (0.22%) Geospatial Data
13 5 (0.22%) Pentaho
Development Applications
1 63 (2.79%) JIRA
2 51 (2.26%) Git
3 46 (2.04%) GitLab
4 37 (1.64%) Rational DOORS
5 31 (1.37%) Jenkins
6 22 (0.97%) SonarQube
7 10 (0.44%) Visual Studio
8 9 (0.40%) Postman
9 8 (0.35%) Burp Suite
9 8 (0.35%) Metasploit
10 7 (0.31%) JUnit
10 7 (0.31%) Sonatype Nexus
11 6 (0.27%) Subversion
12 5 (0.22%) Artifactory
12 5 (0.22%) Maven
12 5 (0.22%) Robot Framework
13 4 (0.18%) Bitbucket
13 4 (0.18%) Eclipse
13 4 (0.18%) Selenium
14 3 (0.13%) HP UFT
General
1 463 (20.50%) Social Skills
2 269 (11.91%) Public Sector
3 196 (8.68%) Analytical Skills
4 140 (6.20%) Aerospace
5 131 (5.80%) Finance
6 75 (3.32%) Documentation Skills
7 47 (2.08%) Military
8 35 (1.55%) Legal
9 28 (1.24%) Influencing Skills
9 28 (1.24%) Law
10 26 (1.15%) Telecoms
11 19 (0.84%) Organisational Skills
12 17 (0.75%) Manufacturing
13 15 (0.66%) Billing
13 15 (0.66%) Presentation Skills
14 13 (0.58%) Aviation
14 13 (0.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 12 (0.53%) Advertising
16 9 (0.40%) Police
17 6 (0.27%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 292 (12.93%) Architect
2 247 (10.94%) Senior
3 193 (8.55%) Lead
4 183 (8.10%) Developer
5 181 (8.02%) Analyst
6 113 (5.00%) Network Engineer
7 105 (4.65%) Consultant
8 81 (3.59%) Project Manager
9 80 (3.54%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 75 (3.32%) Technical Architect
11 66 (2.92%) Security Architect
12 62 (2.75%) Delivery Manager
13 59 (2.61%) SOC Analyst
14 47 (2.08%) Cloud Engineer
14 47 (2.08%) Product Manager
15 45 (1.99%) DevOps Engineer
16 42 (1.86%) Azure Engineer
16 42 (1.86%) Senior Manager
16 42 (1.86%) Support Engineer
17 41 (1.82%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 60 (2.66%) REST
2 40 (1.77%) .NET
2 40 (1.77%) LDAP
3 34 (1.51%) RESTful
4 32 (1.42%) React
5 30 (1.33%) 802.1X
5 30 (1.33%) JSON
5 30 (1.33%) OAuth
6 25 (1.11%) AngularJS
7 24 (1.06%) SailPoint
8 23 (1.02%) SAML
8 23 (1.02%) SOAP
9 22 (0.97%) OpenID
10 20 (0.89%) CSS
11 18 (0.80%) Oracle Fusion
11 18 (0.80%) XML
12 17 (0.75%) Web Services
13 16 (0.71%) HTML
13 16 (0.71%) OAuth2
14 14 (0.62%) Quarkus
Miscellaneous
1 103 (4.56%) Data Centre
2 91 (4.03%) Product Ownership
3 81 (3.59%) PKI
4 64 (2.83%) Onboarding
5 40 (1.77%) Management Information System
6 37 (1.64%) Data Structures
7 32 (1.42%) Clustering
8 29 (1.28%) Operational Technology
8 29 (1.28%) Replication
8 29 (1.28%) Self-Motivation
9 28 (1.24%) Distributed Systems
9 28 (1.24%) Public Cloud
10 27 (1.20%) Security Operations Centre
11 24 (1.06%) Cyber Threat
11 24 (1.06%) Greenfield Project
12 21 (0.93%) Cloud Native
13 19 (0.84%) Enterprise Software
14 18 (0.80%) Virtual Team
15 17 (0.75%) Private Cloud
15 17 (0.75%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 264 (11.69%) Windows
2 191 (8.46%) Linux
3 94 (4.16%) Windows Server
4 47 (2.08%) Unix
5 26 (1.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 11 (0.49%) Windows Server 2019
7 10 (0.44%) Android
7 10 (0.44%) Ubuntu
8 9 (0.40%) Windows 10
9 8 (0.35%) Embedded Linux
9 8 (0.35%) Windows Server 2016
10 6 (0.27%) CentOS
10 6 (0.27%) Mac OS
11 5 (0.22%) Apple iOS
11 5 (0.22%) Debian
12 2 (0.089%) Windows 7
12 2 (0.089%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.044%) OpenVMS
13 1 (0.044%) VMS
13 1 (0.044%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 427 (18.91%) Agile
2 236 (10.45%) Problem-Solving
3 231 (10.23%) Continuous Improvement
4 227 (10.05%) Stakeholder Management
5 226 (10.01%) Cybersecurity
6 214 (9.48%) CI/CD
7 206 (9.12%) ITIL
8 201 (8.90%) DevOps
9 174 (7.71%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 143 (6.33%) ITSM
11 134 (5.93%) Migration
12 131 (5.80%) Roadmaps
13 111 (4.92%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 110 (4.87%) Service Management
15 109 (4.83%) SIEM
16 103 (4.56%) Software Engineering
17 101 (4.47%) Project Management
18 100 (4.43%) Computer Science
19 98 (4.34%) Decision-Making
19 98 (4.34%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 186 (8.24%) Python
2 155 (6.86%) PowerShell
3 117 (5.18%) SQL
4 80 (3.54%) Java
5 59 (2.61%) JavaScript
6 42 (1.86%) C#
7 40 (1.77%) Bash
8 27 (1.20%) C++
9 22 (0.97%) Go
10 17 (0.75%) C
10 17 (0.75%) Shell Script
10 17 (0.75%) TypeScript
11 16 (0.71%) PL/SQL
12 13 (0.58%) Bicep
13 12 (0.53%) Kusto Query Language
14 9 (0.40%) Korn
15 7 (0.31%) T-SQL
16 6 (0.27%) Rust
17 5 (0.22%) ABAP
18 4 (0.18%) Embedded C++
Qualifications
1 1,436 (63.60%) SC Cleared
2 761 (33.70%) DV Cleared
3 170 (7.53%) Degree
4 66 (2.92%) Cisco Certification
5 56 (2.48%) BPSS Clearance
6 39 (1.73%) CCNP
6 39 (1.73%) CISSP
7 31 (1.37%) PMI Certification
7 31 (1.37%) PMP
8 29 (1.28%) Azure Certification
9 23 (1.02%) CISM
10 22 (0.97%) ISTQB
11 20 (0.89%) Computer Science Degree
12 17 (0.75%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 15 (0.66%) CCNA
13 15 (0.66%) Microsoft Certification
14 13 (0.58%) RHCE
15 12 (0.53%) AWS Certification
15 12 (0.53%) GIAC
16 11 (0.49%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 116 (5.14%) NIST
2 108 (4.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 63 (2.79%) NCSC
4 62 (2.75%) PMO
5 58 (2.57%) QA
6 50 (2.21%) GDPR
7 31 (1.37%) Data Quality
8 25 (1.11%) SLA
9 21 (0.93%) Accessibility
10 16 (0.71%) JSP 440
11 15 (0.66%) NIST 800
12 14 (0.62%) Cyber Essentials
12 14 (0.62%) GRC
13 11 (0.49%) ISO/IEC 20000
14 8 (0.35%) ISO 31000
14 8 (0.35%) PCI DSS
15 7 (0.31%) RMADS
16 6 (0.27%) Government Security Classifications
17 3 (0.13%) Actionable Recommendations
17 3 (0.13%) Def Stans
System Software
1 180 (7.97%) Active Directory
2 128 (5.67%) VMware Infrastructure
3 61 (2.70%) VMware NSX
4 45 (1.99%) VMware ESXi
5 39 (1.73%) Docker
6 29 (1.28%) vSphere
7 21 (0.93%) vCloud
8 16 (0.71%) Virtual Machines
9 13 (0.58%) Firmware
9 13 (0.58%) Hyper-V
10 12 (0.53%) Oracle RAC
11 7 (0.31%) Virtual Desktop
12 4 (0.18%) Embedded Firmware
13 3 (0.13%) UAG
14 2 (0.089%) Dovecot
14 2 (0.089%) Postfix
15 1 (0.044%) NFS
15 1 (0.044%) Terminal Services
15 1 (0.044%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 94 (4.16%) Kubernetes
2 71 (3.14%) Terraform
3 60 (2.66%) vCenter Server
4 54 (2.39%) Ansible
5 31 (1.37%) FortiGate
5 31 (1.37%) Grafana
6 30 (1.33%) SCOM
7 29 (1.28%) Prometheus
8 26 (1.15%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 25 (1.11%) Argo
10 18 (0.80%) Microsoft Intune
11 15 (0.66%) Oracle RMAN
12 13 (0.58%) SCCM
12 13 (0.58%) Single Sign-On
13 10 (0.44%) Avamar
13 10 (0.44%) Nmap
14 9 (0.40%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
15 8 (0.35%) WMI
16 7 (0.31%) Nessus
16 7 (0.31%) NetIQ Identity Manager
Vendors
1 247 (10.94%) Microsoft
2 220 (9.74%) VMware
3 131 (5.80%) Cisco
3 131 (5.80%) Oracle
4 118 (5.23%) SAP
5 109 (4.83%) ServiceNow
6 77 (3.41%) Juniper
7 57 (2.52%) Red Hat
8 56 (2.48%) Splunk
9 52 (2.30%) F5
10 46 (2.04%) SolarWinds
11 34 (1.51%) Palo Alto
12 31 (1.37%) BeyondTrust
13 30 (1.33%) Citrix
14 29 (1.28%) CyberArk
14 29 (1.28%) IBM
15 25 (1.11%) Extreme Networks
16 22 (0.97%) Aruba
17 21 (0.93%) CheckPoint
18 20 (0.89%) Fortinet