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

6 months to
24 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 2,062 758 1,909
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 38.14% 25.76% 33.93%
As % of the Qualifications category 80.99% 65.34% 75.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,407 548 1,085
10th Percentile £324 £330 £350
25th Percentile £443 £456 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -4.35% +4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £655
90th Percentile £725 £700 £738
England median daily rate £525 £548 £550
% change year-on-year -4.20% -0.36% -2.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 207 53 115
10th Percentile £16.80 £24.24 £22.54
25th Percentile £21.08 £31.25 £51.63
Median hourly rate £58.50 £61.50 £61.63
Median % change year-on-year -4.87% -0.22% +2.72%
75th Percentile £85.36 £65.62 £73.67
90th Percentile £90.09 £80.08 £85.65
England median hourly rate £37.00 £60.00 £54.25
% change year-on-year -38.33% +10.60% -9.58%

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 2,546 1,160 2,530
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 47.09% 39.43% 44.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,689 760 1,425
10th Percentile £305 £284 £263
25th Percentile £416 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £522 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -5.09% - +4.76%
75th Percentile £615 £630 £638
90th Percentile £725 £700 £719
England median daily rate £520 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -0.95% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 261 82 187
10th Percentile £15.62 £19.98 £17.80
25th Percentile £19.54 £28.00 £24.13
Median hourly rate £47.50 £56.75 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -16.30% -1.05% +10.29%
75th Percentile £84.00 £69.38 £66.87
90th Percentile £88.00 £78.24 £84.42
England median hourly rate £31.18 £50.00 £38.45
% change year-on-year -37.65% +30.03% -23.10%

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 24 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 24 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 24 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 1,076 £500 -9.09% 168
Hampshire 0 811 £575 +2.22% 152
Berkshire +2 702 £450 -22.41% 93
Buckinghamshire +1 292 £560 +13.36% 57
Oxfordshire +13 82 £445 -24.26% 21
Surrey +11 77 £525 -15.15% 43
West Sussex +4 49 £537 -14.25% 17
Kent +2 26 £443 +4.12% 20
Sussex +1 7 £475 +9.83% 4
East Sussex +3 3 £588 +6.82% 5
Middlesex - 1 - -
Isle of Wight - 1 £81 - 4
Home Counties - 1 £500 -
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 50 (2.42%) SharePoint
2 40 (1.94%) Microsoft Exchange
3 17 (0.82%) Confluence
4 5 (0.24%) Apache
4 5 (0.24%) ArcGIS
4 5 (0.24%) IIS
4 5 (0.24%) NetWeaver
4 5 (0.24%) Oracle Workflow
4 5 (0.24%) SAP EP
5 3 (0.15%) MS Project Server
5 3 (0.15%) Smallworld
6 2 (0.097%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.097%) GeoServer
7 1 (0.048%) Anypoint
7 1 (0.048%) Apache Pulsar
7 1 (0.048%) BizTalk Server
7 1 (0.048%) Exchange Server 2010
7 1 (0.048%) Palantir Foundry
7 1 (0.048%) Skype for Business
7 1 (0.048%) WebLogic
Applications
1 64 (3.10%) Microsoft Excel
2 61 (2.96%) Microsoft Office
3 40 (1.94%) Microsoft Project
4 30 (1.45%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 12 (0.58%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.097%) CPLEX
6 2 (0.097%) Lectora
6 2 (0.097%) Oracle Smart View
6 2 (0.097%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.048%) Autodesk Inventor
7 1 (0.048%) CATIA
7 1 (0.048%) MicroStation
7 1 (0.048%) PTC Creo
7 1 (0.048%) Siemens NX
7 1 (0.048%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 32 (1.55%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 30 (1.45%) SAP S/4HANA
3 8 (0.39%) SAP PSCD
4 7 (0.34%) Oracle Assets
4 7 (0.34%) Oracle ERP
4 7 (0.34%) Oracle Payables
4 7 (0.34%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 6 (0.29%) Salesforce CRM
5 6 (0.29%) SAP BRIM
5 6 (0.29%) SAP Hybris
6 5 (0.24%) Remedy ITSM
6 5 (0.24%) SAP CRM
6 5 (0.24%) Teamcenter
7 4 (0.19%) SAP HR
7 4 (0.19%) SAP Payroll
8 3 (0.15%) Payment Gateway
8 3 (0.15%) Primavera
8 3 (0.15%) SAP HCM
9 2 (0.097%) Oracle General Ledger
9 2 (0.097%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 284 (13.77%) Azure
2 193 (9.36%) AWS
3 87 (4.22%) GCP
4 77 (3.73%) Entra ID
5 72 (3.49%) Microsoft 365
6 52 (2.52%) Azure DevOps
7 45 (2.18%) OpenShift
7 45 (2.18%) Power Platform
8 36 (1.75%) GitHub
9 30 (1.45%) IaaS
9 30 (1.45%) PaaS
10 21 (1.02%) GitHub Actions
11 20 (0.97%) OneDrive
12 15 (0.73%) Cloud Computing
13 14 (0.68%) SaaS
13 14 (0.68%) Serverless
14 12 (0.58%) AWS CloudFormation
14 12 (0.58%) Power Automate
14 12 (0.58%) PowerApps
15 11 (0.53%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 159 (7.71%) Firewall
2 99 (4.80%) WAN
3 97 (4.70%) DNS
4 96 (4.66%) LAN
5 79 (3.83%) BGP
6 74 (3.59%) OSPF
7 67 (3.25%) Network Security
8 64 (3.10%) DHCP
9 50 (2.42%) VPN
10 39 (1.89%) TCP/IP
11 37 (1.79%) Junos
12 34 (1.65%) Cisco ISE
13 32 (1.55%) Wireless
14 29 (1.41%) IPsec
15 27 (1.31%) Ethernet VPN
16 26 (1.26%) VXLAN
17 24 (1.16%) BIG-IP
18 23 (1.12%) MPLS
19 22 (1.07%) Structured Cabling
20 21 (1.02%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 43 (2.09%) SQL Server
2 40 (1.94%) Power BI
3 27 (1.31%) PostgreSQL
4 14 (0.68%) Relational Database
5 12 (0.58%) Oracle Database
6 11 (0.53%) Metadata
7 10 (0.48%) Azure SQL Database
7 10 (0.48%) Redis
8 8 (0.39%) MongoDB
8 8 (0.39%) Oracle Reports
9 7 (0.34%) Oracle Database 12c
9 7 (0.34%) SAP HANA
10 6 (0.29%) MySQL
10 6 (0.29%) NoSQL
11 5 (0.24%) Data Warehouse
11 5 (0.24%) Metadata Repository
11 5 (0.24%) SAP Data Services
12 4 (0.19%) GIS
13 3 (0.15%) Oracle BI Publisher
13 3 (0.15%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 59 (2.86%) JIRA
2 44 (2.13%) Git
3 41 (1.99%) Rational DOORS
4 39 (1.89%) Jenkins
5 37 (1.79%) GitLab
6 20 (0.97%) Burp Suite
6 20 (0.97%) Metasploit
7 10 (0.48%) Visual Studio
8 8 (0.39%) Artifactory
8 8 (0.39%) Maven
8 8 (0.39%) SonarQube
9 7 (0.34%) Android Studio
9 7 (0.34%) Subversion
10 6 (0.29%) JUnit
10 6 (0.29%) Robot Framework
11 5 (0.24%) Bitbucket
11 5 (0.24%) Gradle
11 5 (0.24%) Sonatype Nexus
12 4 (0.19%) Cypress.io
12 4 (0.19%) Eclipse
General
1 527 (25.56%) Social Skills
2 328 (15.91%) Public Sector
3 202 (9.80%) Analytical Skills
4 126 (6.11%) Finance
5 93 (4.51%) Aerospace
6 75 (3.64%) Documentation Skills
7 44 (2.13%) Military
8 36 (1.75%) Influencing Skills
9 35 (1.70%) Legal
10 32 (1.55%) Manufacturing
11 31 (1.50%) Telecoms
12 20 (0.97%) Law
12 20 (0.97%) Presentation Skills
13 15 (0.73%) Marketing
13 15 (0.73%) Organisational Skills
14 12 (0.58%) Billing
15 10 (0.48%) Electronics
16 9 (0.44%) Advertising
17 7 (0.34%) Aviation
18 6 (0.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 336 (16.29%) Architect
2 195 (9.46%) Senior
3 157 (7.61%) Lead
4 144 (6.98%) Analyst
5 127 (6.16%) Consultant
6 126 (6.11%) Network Engineer
7 114 (5.53%) Developer
8 71 (3.44%) Project Manager
9 65 (3.15%) Technical Architect
10 55 (2.67%) Delivery Manager
11 54 (2.62%) Tester
12 52 (2.52%) Enterprise Architect
13 50 (2.42%) Security Architect
14 49 (2.38%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 49 (2.38%) Product Manager
15 47 (2.28%) Support Engineer
16 43 (2.09%) DevOps Engineer
17 39 (1.89%) Product Delivery Manager
18 38 (1.84%) Software Engineer
19 36 (1.75%) IT Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (1.65%) LDAP
1 34 (1.65%) REST
2 32 (1.55%) React
3 31 (1.50%) .NET
4 23 (1.12%) 802.1X
5 22 (1.07%) JSON
6 20 (0.97%) RESTful
7 19 (0.92%) Elastic Stack
8 18 (0.87%) Kafka
9 17 (0.82%) AngularJS
9 17 (0.82%) Oracle Fusion
9 17 (0.82%) XML
10 16 (0.78%) SailPoint
10 16 (0.78%) SOAP
11 12 (0.58%) OAuth
11 12 (0.58%) Web Services
12 11 (0.53%) CSS
12 11 (0.53%) Loki
12 11 (0.53%) Oracle GoldenGate
12 11 (0.53%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 97 (4.70%) Data Centre
2 90 (4.36%) PKI
3 72 (3.49%) Product Ownership
4 51 (2.47%) Onboarding
5 41 (1.99%) Management Information System
6 34 (1.65%) Replication
7 33 (1.60%) Self-Motivation
8 32 (1.55%) Data Structures
9 27 (1.31%) Cloud Native
9 27 (1.31%) Security Operations Centre
10 26 (1.26%) Clustering
11 24 (1.16%) Analytical Mindset
12 21 (1.02%) Security Posture
13 19 (0.92%) Distributed Systems
13 19 (0.92%) Driving Licence
14 18 (0.87%) Cyber Threat
15 16 (0.78%) Public Cloud
15 16 (0.78%) Virtual Team
16 14 (0.68%) Legacy Systems
17 13 (0.63%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 285 (13.82%) Windows
2 197 (9.55%) Linux
3 76 (3.69%) Windows Server
4 37 (1.79%) Windows 10
5 34 (1.65%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 17 (0.82%) Android
7 16 (0.78%) Unix
8 13 (0.63%) Ubuntu
9 9 (0.44%) Windows 7
10 7 (0.34%) Windows Server 2016
11 6 (0.29%) Mac OS
12 5 (0.24%) Kali Linux
12 5 (0.24%) Windows Server 2019
13 4 (0.19%) Apple iOS
13 4 (0.19%) CentOS
13 4 (0.19%) Embedded Linux
14 3 (0.15%) Debian
15 2 (0.097%) SUSE
15 2 (0.097%) VMS
15 2 (0.097%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 385 (18.67%) Agile
2 231 (11.20%) Problem-Solving
3 215 (10.43%) ITIL
4 198 (9.60%) DevOps
5 192 (9.31%) CI/CD
5 192 (9.31%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 179 (8.68%) Migration
7 178 (8.63%) Continuous Improvement
7 178 (8.63%) Stakeholder Management
8 160 (7.76%) Cybersecurity
9 155 (7.52%) Roadmaps
10 132 (6.40%) Service Management
11 116 (5.63%) ITSM
11 116 (5.63%) Project Management
12 93 (4.51%) Change Management
13 91 (4.41%) SIEM
14 85 (4.12%) DevSecOps
15 83 (4.03%) Decision-Making
16 81 (3.93%) Collaborative Working
16 81 (3.93%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 191 (9.26%) Python
2 160 (7.76%) PowerShell
3 66 (3.20%) Java
4 62 (3.01%) SQL
5 55 (2.67%) Bash
6 43 (2.09%) C#
6 43 (2.09%) JavaScript
7 30 (1.45%) C++
8 21 (1.02%) Kusto Query Language
9 17 (0.82%) TypeScript
10 14 (0.68%) Shell Script
11 13 (0.63%) C
12 12 (0.58%) ABAP
12 12 (0.58%) Go
13 9 (0.44%) Embedded C++
13 9 (0.44%) Korn
13 9 (0.44%) PL/SQL
14 7 (0.34%) Bicep
15 5 (0.24%) T-SQL
16 3 (0.15%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 1,291 (62.61%) SC Cleared
2 669 (32.44%) DV Cleared
3 161 (7.81%) Degree
4 66 (3.20%) Cisco Certification
5 49 (2.38%) CCNP
6 48 (2.33%) CISSP
7 45 (2.18%) BPSS Clearance
8 26 (1.26%) CISM
8 26 (1.26%) PMP
9 22 (1.07%) PMI Certification
10 21 (1.02%) CCNA
11 19 (0.92%) CEH
12 18 (0.87%) Azure Certification
12 18 (0.87%) GIAC
13 16 (0.78%) JNCIS
14 15 (0.73%) AWS Certification
14 15 (0.73%) CHECK Team Member
14 15 (0.73%) Computer Science Degree
15 13 (0.63%) CREST Certified
15 13 (0.63%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 87 (4.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 84 (4.07%) NIST
3 58 (2.81%) GDPR
4 55 (2.67%) PMO
5 51 (2.47%) NCSC
6 46 (2.23%) QA
7 23 (1.12%) Data Quality
7 23 (1.12%) SLA
8 17 (0.82%) PCI DSS
9 16 (0.78%) Accessibility
9 16 (0.78%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 16 (0.78%) JSP 440
10 13 (0.63%) GRC
10 13 (0.63%) NIST 800
11 11 (0.53%) COBIT
12 6 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials
12 6 (0.29%) Government Security Classifications
13 5 (0.24%) Def Stans
13 5 (0.24%) P3O
14 4 (0.19%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 180 (8.73%) Active Directory
2 95 (4.61%) VMware Infrastructure
3 48 (2.33%) Docker
4 36 (1.75%) VMware NSX
5 34 (1.65%) vSphere
6 20 (0.97%) VMware ESXi
7 11 (0.53%) Hyper-V
7 11 (0.53%) vCloud
8 10 (0.48%) Firmware
8 10 (0.48%) Virtual Desktop
9 9 (0.44%) Oracle RAC
10 8 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
11 3 (0.15%) NFS
12 1 (0.048%) KVM
12 1 (0.048%) RHEV
12 1 (0.048%) Sendmail
12 1 (0.048%) Terminal Services
12 1 (0.048%) UAG
12 1 (0.048%) Xen
Systems Management
1 103 (5.00%) Kubernetes
2 67 (3.25%) Terraform
3 66 (3.20%) Ansible
4 50 (2.42%) vCenter Server
5 46 (2.23%) Grafana
6 45 (2.18%) Prometheus
7 33 (1.60%) Argo
8 28 (1.36%) SCCM
9 24 (1.16%) FortiGate
10 22 (1.07%) Nmap
11 18 (0.87%) Microsoft Intune
12 17 (0.82%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 15 (0.73%) WMI
14 14 (0.68%) Single Sign-On
15 13 (0.63%) Kibana
16 11 (0.53%) Kustomize
17 10 (0.48%) Oracle RMAN
18 9 (0.44%) Nagios
18 9 (0.44%) NetIQ Identity Manager
18 9 (0.44%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
Vendors
1 226 (10.96%) Microsoft
2 188 (9.12%) VMware
3 184 (8.92%) Cisco
4 94 (4.56%) SAP
5 87 (4.22%) Juniper
6 83 (4.03%) ServiceNow
7 68 (3.30%) Red Hat
8 63 (3.06%) Splunk
9 60 (2.91%) Aruba
10 48 (2.33%) SolarWinds
11 47 (2.28%) Oracle
12 45 (2.18%) F5
13 40 (1.94%) Palo Alto
14 37 (1.79%) Google
15 34 (1.65%) IBM
16 33 (1.60%) Sparx
17 32 (1.55%) CyberArk
18 29 (1.41%) BeyondTrust
19 27 (1.31%) CheckPoint
20 18 (0.87%) Extreme Networks