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

6 months to
7 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 2,255 776 1,909
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 37.37% 26.11% 33.58%
As % of the Qualifications category 82.48% 65.54% 75.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,583 541 1,158
10th Percentile £368 £300 £400
25th Percentile £461 £431 £476
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £595
Median % change year-on-year - -7.56% +13.33%
75th Percentile £625 £613 £675
90th Percentile £725 £688 £738
England median daily rate £525 £537 £550
% change year-on-year -2.23% -2.36% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 222 50 132
10th Percentile £18.42 £18.47 £22.50
25th Percentile £41.25 £25.15 £52.90
Median hourly rate £73.60 £54.63 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +34.74% -11.32% -2.99%
75th Percentile £85.36 £70.56 £84.45
90th Percentile £101.97 £86.38 £91.80
England median hourly rate £57.75 £32.50 £56.50
% change year-on-year +77.69% -42.47% -5.84%

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 2,734 1,184 2,540
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 45.31% 39.84% 44.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,857 750 1,464
10th Percentile £316 £259 £345
25th Percentile £438 £406 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £531 £521 £550
Median % change year-on-year +1.89% -5.23% +4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £600 £650
90th Percentile £725 £675 £725
England median daily rate £525 £525 £536
% change year-on-year - -2.07% -2.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 277 82 220
10th Percentile £16.80 £18.54 £17.80
25th Percentile £27.50 £25.55 £27.31
Median hourly rate £55.00 £53.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +3.77% -7.59% -4.42%
75th Percentile £84.00 £70.00 £70.39
90th Percentile £88.00 £77.02 £87.46
England median hourly rate £51.72 £32.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +59.14% -18.75% -27.27%

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 7 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 7 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 7 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 1,205 £525 -4.55% 162
Hampshire 0 841 £575 +4.55% 230
Berkshire +1 689 £500 -13.04% 111
Buckinghamshire +2 403 £560 +8.47% 35
Oxfordshire +7 113 £450 +80.36% 26
Surrey +3 100 £525 - 51
West Sussex +4 63 £483 -10.06% 13
Kent +2 18 £445 +18.67% 16
East Sussex +3 7 £459 - 2
Sussex - 6 £475 - 2
Home Counties - 2 £525 -
Isle of Wight - 1 - - 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 50 (2.22%) SharePoint
2 32 (1.42%) Confluence
3 31 (1.37%) Microsoft Exchange
4 13 (0.58%) Oracle Application Server
5 8 (0.35%) IIS
6 7 (0.31%) Oracle Workflow
7 6 (0.27%) SAS
8 5 (0.22%) ArcGIS
9 4 (0.18%) NetWeaver
9 4 (0.18%) SAP EP
10 3 (0.13%) Apache
10 3 (0.13%) CMS
10 3 (0.13%) MS Project Server
10 3 (0.13%) Palantir Foundry
11 2 (0.089%) Apache Airflow
11 2 (0.089%) Apache Spark
11 2 (0.089%) Documentum
11 2 (0.089%) nginx
11 2 (0.089%) Tomcat
11 2 (0.089%) Umbraco
Applications
1 49 (2.17%) Microsoft Excel
2 40 (1.77%) Microsoft Office
3 32 (1.42%) Microsoft Project
4 21 (0.93%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 13 (0.58%) 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 14 (0.62%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 13 (0.58%) Remedy ITSM
3 13 (0.58%) SAP PSCD
4 12 (0.53%) Oracle ERP
5 8 (0.35%) iTrent
5 8 (0.35%) Teamcenter
6 7 (0.31%) SAP BRIM
6 7 (0.31%) SAP Hybris
7 6 (0.27%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
7 6 (0.27%) Primavera
8 5 (0.22%) Oracle Assets
8 5 (0.22%) Oracle Payables
8 5 (0.22%) Siebel CRM
9 4 (0.18%) SAP CRM
9 4 (0.18%) SAP MM
10 3 (0.13%) SAP EWM
10 3 (0.13%) SAP HCM
11 2 (0.089%) Payment Gateway
11 2 (0.089%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 342 (15.17%) Azure
2 191 (8.47%) AWS
3 89 (3.95%) Entra ID
4 75 (3.33%) Azure DevOps
4 75 (3.33%) GCP
5 62 (2.75%) Power Platform
6 53 (2.35%) Microsoft 365
7 40 (1.77%) PaaS
8 37 (1.64%) IaaS
9 35 (1.55%) OpenShift
10 22 (0.98%) GitHub
10 22 (0.98%) SaaS
11 19 (0.84%) SuccessFactors
12 17 (0.75%) OCI
13 16 (0.71%) GitHub Actions
14 14 (0.62%) Serverless
15 11 (0.49%) Azure Monitor
16 10 (0.44%) Datadog
17 8 (0.35%) Power Automate
17 8 (0.35%) SAP Commerce Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 152 (6.74%) Firewall
2 114 (5.06%) LAN
2 114 (5.06%) WAN
3 107 (4.75%) DNS
4 83 (3.68%) BGP
5 74 (3.28%) Network Security
5 74 (3.28%) OSPF
6 71 (3.15%) DHCP
7 54 (2.39%) VPN
8 33 (1.46%) TCP/IP
9 32 (1.42%) IPsec
9 32 (1.42%) VXLAN
10 31 (1.37%) Ethernet VPN
11 30 (1.33%) BIG-IP
12 29 (1.29%) Wireless
13 28 (1.24%) VLAN
14 27 (1.20%) MPLS
15 24 (1.06%) Cisco ISE
15 24 (1.06%) Junos
15 24 (1.06%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 64 (2.84%) SQL Server
2 53 (2.35%) Power BI
3 34 (1.51%) Data Warehouse
4 31 (1.37%) PostgreSQL
5 26 (1.15%) Oracle Database
6 25 (1.11%) Oracle Reports
7 14 (0.62%) Oracle ODI
7 14 (0.62%) Relational Database
8 12 (0.53%) Metadata
9 11 (0.49%) MySQL
10 9 (0.40%) Oracle Database 12c
10 9 (0.40%) Redis
11 7 (0.31%) NoSQL
12 6 (0.27%) Tableau
13 5 (0.22%) Amazon RDS
13 5 (0.22%) Azure SQL Database
13 5 (0.22%) Metadata Repository
13 5 (0.22%) MongoDB
13 5 (0.22%) Pentaho
13 5 (0.22%) Siebel EIM
Development Applications
1 66 (2.93%) JIRA
2 51 (2.26%) Git
3 47 (2.08%) GitLab
4 37 (1.64%) Rational DOORS
5 32 (1.42%) Jenkins
6 18 (0.80%) SonarQube
7 10 (0.44%) Postman
7 10 (0.44%) Visual Studio
8 9 (0.40%) Burp Suite
8 9 (0.40%) Metasploit
9 8 (0.35%) Sonatype Nexus
10 7 (0.31%) JUnit
11 6 (0.27%) Robot Framework
11 6 (0.27%) Subversion
12 5 (0.22%) Artifactory
12 5 (0.22%) Maven
13 4 (0.18%) Bitbucket
13 4 (0.18%) Eclipse
13 4 (0.18%) Selenium
14 3 (0.13%) Zephyr
General
1 468 (20.75%) Social Skills
2 257 (11.40%) Public Sector
3 197 (8.74%) Analytical Skills
4 130 (5.76%) Aerospace
5 129 (5.72%) Finance
6 79 (3.50%) Documentation Skills
7 49 (2.17%) Military
8 34 (1.51%) Legal
9 29 (1.29%) Telecoms
10 27 (1.20%) Law
11 26 (1.15%) Influencing Skills
12 18 (0.80%) Manufacturing
12 18 (0.80%) Organisational Skills
13 16 (0.71%) Billing
14 15 (0.67%) Presentation Skills
15 13 (0.58%) Aviation
15 13 (0.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 12 (0.53%) Advertising
17 9 (0.40%) Police
18 8 (0.35%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 294 (13.04%) Architect
2 244 (10.82%) Senior
3 184 (8.16%) Analyst
4 180 (7.98%) Lead
5 176 (7.80%) Developer
6 120 (5.32%) Network Engineer
7 106 (4.70%) Consultant
8 81 (3.59%) Project Manager
9 78 (3.46%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 71 (3.15%) Technical Architect
11 64 (2.84%) Security Architect
12 60 (2.66%) Delivery Manager
12 60 (2.66%) SOC Analyst
13 52 (2.31%) DevOps Engineer
14 49 (2.17%) Product Manager
15 46 (2.04%) Tester
16 44 (1.95%) Cloud Engineer
17 42 (1.86%) Software Engineer
18 41 (1.82%) Senior Manager
19 40 (1.77%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 60 (2.66%) REST
2 38 (1.69%) .NET
2 38 (1.69%) LDAP
3 35 (1.55%) React
4 33 (1.46%) RESTful
5 30 (1.33%) 802.1X
5 30 (1.33%) JSON
6 26 (1.15%) OAuth
7 25 (1.11%) AngularJS
7 25 (1.11%) SailPoint
8 23 (1.02%) SOAP
9 21 (0.93%) XML
10 19 (0.84%) SAML
11 18 (0.80%) CSS
11 18 (0.80%) OpenID
12 17 (0.75%) Oracle Fusion
13 16 (0.71%) Web Services
14 15 (0.67%) OAuth2
15 14 (0.62%) Kafka
16 13 (0.58%) HTML
Miscellaneous
1 111 (4.92%) Data Centre
2 90 (3.99%) Product Ownership
3 85 (3.77%) PKI
4 61 (2.71%) Onboarding
5 37 (1.64%) Management Information System
6 36 (1.60%) Data Structures
7 32 (1.42%) Clustering
8 30 (1.33%) Self-Motivation
9 29 (1.29%) Operational Technology
9 29 (1.29%) Replication
10 28 (1.24%) Distributed Systems
10 28 (1.24%) Public Cloud
11 27 (1.20%) Security Operations Centre
12 24 (1.06%) Greenfield Project
13 23 (1.02%) Cyber Threat
14 19 (0.84%) Analytical Mindset
14 19 (0.84%) Cloud Native
15 18 (0.80%) Enterprise Software
15 18 (0.80%) Private Cloud
15 18 (0.80%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 273 (12.11%) Windows
2 198 (8.78%) Linux
3 97 (4.30%) Windows Server
4 46 (2.04%) Unix
5 30 (1.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 12 (0.53%) Windows 10
7 11 (0.49%) Android
8 10 (0.44%) Ubuntu
8 10 (0.44%) Windows Server 2019
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 3 (0.13%) Windows 7
13 2 (0.089%) Windows Server 2012
14 1 (0.044%) Data ONTAP
14 1 (0.044%) Kali Linux
14 1 (0.044%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 436 (19.33%) Agile
2 240 (10.64%) Problem-Solving
3 226 (10.02%) Cybersecurity
4 219 (9.71%) Continuous Improvement
5 211 (9.36%) CI/CD
6 210 (9.31%) DevOps
7 207 (9.18%) Stakeholder Management
8 204 (9.05%) ITIL
9 166 (7.36%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 142 (6.30%) ITSM
11 136 (6.03%) Migration
12 130 (5.76%) Roadmaps
13 112 (4.97%) Service Management
13 112 (4.97%) SIEM
14 107 (4.75%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 103 (4.57%) Project Management
15 103 (4.57%) Software Engineering
16 99 (4.39%) Computer Science
17 98 (4.35%) Scrum
18 94 (4.17%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 194 (8.60%) Python
2 166 (7.36%) PowerShell
3 113 (5.01%) SQL
4 78 (3.46%) Java
5 60 (2.66%) JavaScript
6 45 (2.00%) C#
7 41 (1.82%) Bash
8 27 (1.20%) C++
9 22 (0.98%) Go
10 17 (0.75%) C
10 17 (0.75%) TypeScript
11 16 (0.71%) Kusto Query Language
11 16 (0.71%) PL/SQL
11 16 (0.71%) Shell Script
12 11 (0.49%) Bicep
13 9 (0.40%) Korn
14 7 (0.31%) T-SQL
15 6 (0.27%) ABAP
16 5 (0.22%) Rust
17 4 (0.18%) Embedded C++
Qualifications
1 1,421 (63.02%) SC Cleared
2 767 (34.01%) DV Cleared
3 171 (7.58%) Degree
4 71 (3.15%) Cisco Certification
5 54 (2.39%) BPSS Clearance
6 45 (2.00%) CISSP
7 44 (1.95%) CCNP
8 28 (1.24%) PMI Certification
8 28 (1.24%) PMP
9 26 (1.15%) Azure Certification
10 25 (1.11%) CISM
11 20 (0.89%) Computer Science Degree
11 20 (0.89%) ISTQB
12 17 (0.75%) GIAC
12 17 (0.75%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 15 (0.67%) CCNA
13 15 (0.67%) Microsoft Certification
14 13 (0.58%) JNCIS
14 13 (0.58%) RHCE
15 11 (0.49%) VCAP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 115 (5.10%) NIST
2 106 (4.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 59 (2.62%) NCSC
4 58 (2.57%) PMO
5 57 (2.53%) QA
6 47 (2.08%) GDPR
7 32 (1.42%) Data Quality
8 26 (1.15%) SLA
9 20 (0.89%) Accessibility
10 15 (0.67%) JSP 440
10 15 (0.67%) NIST 800
11 14 (0.62%) Cyber Essentials
12 11 (0.49%) GRC
12 11 (0.49%) ISO/IEC 20000
13 9 (0.40%) PCI DSS
14 8 (0.35%) ISO 31000
15 7 (0.31%) RMADS
16 6 (0.27%) Government Security Classifications
17 4 (0.18%) Actionable Recommendations
18 3 (0.13%) ISO 26262
System Software
1 181 (8.03%) Active Directory
2 129 (5.72%) VMware Infrastructure
3 60 (2.66%) VMware NSX
4 44 (1.95%) VMware ESXi
5 41 (1.82%) Docker
6 30 (1.33%) vSphere
7 21 (0.93%) vCloud
8 14 (0.62%) Virtual Machines
9 13 (0.58%) Firmware
10 12 (0.53%) 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%) KVM
15 1 (0.044%) NFS
15 1 (0.044%) RHEV
15 1 (0.044%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 93 (4.12%) Kubernetes
2 69 (3.06%) Terraform
3 62 (2.75%) vCenter Server
4 57 (2.53%) Ansible
5 31 (1.37%) FortiGate
6 30 (1.33%) Grafana
6 30 (1.33%) SCOM
7 28 (1.24%) Prometheus
8 25 (1.11%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 22 (0.98%) Argo
10 19 (0.84%) Microsoft Intune
11 15 (0.67%) Oracle RMAN
12 14 (0.62%) SCCM
13 13 (0.58%) Single Sign-On
14 11 (0.49%) Nmap
15 10 (0.44%) Avamar
16 9 (0.40%) Forefront Identity Manager
16 9 (0.40%) Nagios
16 9 (0.40%) NetIQ Identity Manager
16 9 (0.40%) WMI
Vendors
1 244 (10.82%) Microsoft
2 226 (10.02%) VMware
3 137 (6.08%) Cisco
4 120 (5.32%) Oracle
5 119 (5.28%) SAP
6 104 (4.61%) ServiceNow
7 80 (3.55%) Juniper
8 60 (2.66%) Red Hat
9 57 (2.53%) Splunk
10 54 (2.39%) F5
11 48 (2.13%) SolarWinds
12 36 (1.60%) Palo Alto
13 31 (1.37%) BeyondTrust
14 30 (1.33%) Citrix
14 30 (1.33%) CyberArk
14 30 (1.33%) IBM
15 25 (1.11%) Extreme Networks
16 22 (0.98%) Aruba
16 22 (0.98%) CheckPoint
17 21 (0.93%) Fortinet