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

6 months to
23 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 1,500 822 1,674
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 33.51% 25.03% 32.17%
As % of the Qualifications category 76.18% 65.87% 73.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,070 562 928
10th Percentile £306 £308 £216
25th Percentile £431 £423 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -6.36% - -
75th Percentile £613 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £700 £713
England median daily rate £525 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -4.55% - -3.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 134 59 115
10th Percentile £18.61 £19.83 £32.79
25th Percentile £19.54 £33.13 £52.55
Median hourly rate £25.15 £61.50 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -59.10% +2.49% +9.09%
75th Percentile £60.00 £65.62 £71.20
90th Percentile £93.53 £78.71 £81.21
England median hourly rate £25.15 £60.00 £59.00
% change year-on-year -58.08% +1.69% -1.67%

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 1,969 1,248 2,277
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 43.99% 38.00% 43.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,324 796 1,336
10th Percentile £275 £250 £213
25th Percentile £413 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £534
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -1.69% -0.65%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £688 £700
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -0.10% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 187 70 145
10th Percentile £15.47 £19.24 £24.55
25th Percentile £19.36 £31.25 £48.40
Median hourly rate £25.15 £56.75 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -55.68% -5.43% +33.33%
75th Percentile £57.50 £64.73 £70.00
90th Percentile £90.09 £77.31 £78.22
England median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £47.75
% change year-on-year -45.54% -3.29% +6.11%

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 23 January 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 23 January 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 23 January 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
Hampshire 0 676 £550 -3.93% 167
Thames Valley +1 674 £481 -8.33% 140
Berkshire 0 472 £450 -20.00% 69
Buckinghamshire +1 162 £550 +22.22% 45
Surrey +27 70 £532 -18.15% 42
Oxfordshire +6 40 £275 -53.19% 27
West Sussex +8 39 £519 -23.47% 22
Kent +11 20 £438 +143.06% 26
Middlesex - 6 - - 1
Sussex -3 3 £475 +9.83% 6
East Sussex +4 2 £588 +6.82% 18
Home Counties - 1 £1,100 -
Isle of Wight - 1 £81 - 14
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 44 (2.93%) SharePoint
2 37 (2.47%) Microsoft Exchange
3 14 (0.93%) Confluence
4 6 (0.40%) Exchange Server 2010
4 6 (0.40%) Exchange Server 2013
4 6 (0.40%) Skype for Business
5 5 (0.33%) Exchange Server 2003
5 5 (0.33%) Exchange Server 2007
5 5 (0.33%) Office Communications Server
5 5 (0.33%) SharePoint Server
6 4 (0.27%) Apache
6 4 (0.27%) ArcGIS
6 4 (0.27%) IIS
6 4 (0.27%) Oracle Workflow
7 3 (0.20%) Documentum
7 3 (0.20%) MS Project Server
8 2 (0.13%) GeoServer
8 2 (0.13%) Smallworld
9 1 (0.067%) Anypoint
9 1 (0.067%) BizTalk Server
Applications
1 58 (3.87%) Microsoft Office
2 48 (3.20%) Microsoft Excel
3 30 (2.00%) Microsoft Project
4 26 (1.73%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.47%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.067%) PTC Creo
Business Applications
1 32 (2.13%) SAP S/4HANA
2 28 (1.87%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 9 (0.60%) SAP HR
3 9 (0.60%) SAP Payroll
4 8 (0.53%) SAP EWM
4 8 (0.53%) SAP WM
5 6 (0.40%) Oracle Assets
5 6 (0.40%) Oracle Payables
6 5 (0.33%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 5 (0.33%) Salesforce CRM
6 5 (0.33%) SAP HCM
7 4 (0.27%) Oracle ERP
7 4 (0.27%) Primavera
7 4 (0.27%) SAP PSCD
8 3 (0.20%) Payment Gateway
8 3 (0.20%) SAP BRIM
8 3 (0.20%) SAP ERP
8 3 (0.20%) SAP Hybris
9 2 (0.13%) Oracle General Ledger
9 2 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 218 (14.53%) Azure
2 176 (11.73%) AWS
3 79 (5.27%) GCP
4 66 (4.40%) Microsoft 365
5 48 (3.20%) Entra ID
6 33 (2.20%) GitHub
7 32 (2.13%) OpenShift
8 31 (2.07%) Azure DevOps
9 23 (1.53%) Power Platform
10 20 (1.33%) IaaS
11 18 (1.20%) GitHub Actions
12 17 (1.13%) OneDrive
12 17 (1.13%) PaaS
13 16 (1.07%) SaaS
14 15 (1.00%) Cloud Computing
15 11 (0.73%) Serverless
16 10 (0.67%) Datadog
17 8 (0.53%) AWS CloudFormation
17 8 (0.53%) Power Automate
17 8 (0.53%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 111 (7.40%) Firewall
2 64 (4.27%) DNS
3 43 (2.87%) WAN
4 41 (2.73%) LAN
4 41 (2.73%) Network Security
5 39 (2.60%) BGP
6 38 (2.53%) DHCP
6 38 (2.53%) VPN
7 36 (2.40%) TCP/IP
8 33 (2.20%) OSPF
9 28 (1.87%) VLAN
10 26 (1.73%) Cisco IOS
11 25 (1.67%) Junos
12 23 (1.53%) Cisco ISE
13 22 (1.47%) Cisco Firepower
14 20 (1.33%) Wireless
15 19 (1.27%) IPsec
16 18 (1.20%) SAN
17 16 (1.07%) Structured Cabling
18 15 (1.00%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (1.33%) Power BI
2 19 (1.27%) SQL Server
3 15 (1.00%) PostgreSQL
4 9 (0.60%) Metadata
5 8 (0.53%) NoSQL
5 8 (0.53%) Redis
6 7 (0.47%) Azure SQL Database
6 7 (0.47%) SAP HANA
7 6 (0.40%) MongoDB
7 6 (0.40%) Relational Database
8 5 (0.33%) Oracle Reports
9 4 (0.27%) Metadata Repository
9 4 (0.27%) Oracle Database
10 3 (0.20%) GIS
10 3 (0.20%) MySQL
10 3 (0.20%) SAP Data Services
11 2 (0.13%) Data Warehouse
11 2 (0.13%) Geospatial Data
11 2 (0.13%) QGIS
11 2 (0.13%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 44 (2.93%) JIRA
2 34 (2.27%) Jenkins
3 33 (2.20%) GitLab
4 27 (1.80%) Git
5 21 (1.40%) Burp Suite
5 21 (1.40%) Metasploit
6 8 (0.53%) Artifactory
7 7 (0.47%) Android Studio
8 5 (0.33%) Bitbucket
8 5 (0.33%) Gradle
9 4 (0.27%) JUnit
9 4 (0.27%) Maven
9 4 (0.27%) Postman
9 4 (0.27%) Rational DOORS
9 4 (0.27%) Robot Framework
9 4 (0.27%) Selenium
9 4 (0.27%) SonarQube
9 4 (0.27%) Sonatype Nexus
9 4 (0.27%) Subversion
10 3 (0.20%) Storybook
General
1 430 (28.67%) Social Skills
2 269 (17.93%) Public Sector
3 161 (10.73%) Analytical Skills
4 75 (5.00%) Finance
5 56 (3.73%) Documentation Skills
6 39 (2.60%) Manufacturing
7 36 (2.40%) Military
8 30 (2.00%) Telecoms
9 22 (1.47%) Influencing Skills
10 21 (1.40%) Legal
11 20 (1.33%) Aerospace
12 19 (1.27%) Presentation Skills
13 17 (1.13%) Law
14 12 (0.80%) Marketing
14 12 (0.80%) Organisational Skills
15 10 (0.67%) Electronics
16 7 (0.47%) Pharmaceutical
17 6 (0.40%) Aviation
17 6 (0.40%) Billing
18 5 (0.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 257 (17.13%) Architect
2 116 (7.73%) Senior
3 105 (7.00%) Analyst
4 102 (6.80%) Consultant
5 100 (6.67%) Network Engineer
6 91 (6.07%) Lead
7 63 (4.20%) Developer
7 63 (4.20%) Support Engineer
8 49 (3.27%) Project Manager
9 47 (3.13%) Tester
10 46 (3.07%) DevOps Engineer
11 44 (2.93%) Cloud Engineer
11 44 (2.93%) Enterprise Architect
12 42 (2.80%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 37 (2.47%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
13 37 (2.47%) Infrastructure Architect
14 35 (2.33%) Technical Architect
15 34 (2.27%) 3rd Line Engineer
15 34 (2.27%) IT Engineer
16 33 (2.20%) Network Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (1.53%) LDAP
2 21 (1.40%) REST
3 16 (1.07%) .NET
3 16 (1.07%) Elastic Stack
3 16 (1.07%) React
4 14 (0.93%) Kafka
5 13 (0.87%) RESTful
6 12 (0.80%) Oracle Fusion
7 11 (0.73%) AngularJS
8 9 (0.60%) JSON
8 9 (0.60%) Keycloak
8 9 (0.60%) Loki
9 8 (0.53%) SAP Fiori
9 8 (0.53%) SOAP
9 8 (0.53%) Web Services
9 8 (0.53%) XML
10 7 (0.47%) Spring Boot
10 7 (0.47%) Swagger
10 7 (0.47%) Vue
10 7 (0.47%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 61 (4.07%) PKI
2 51 (3.40%) Data Centre
3 34 (2.27%) Onboarding
4 31 (2.07%) Management Information System
5 27 (1.80%) Product Ownership
6 25 (1.67%) Cloud Native
7 24 (1.60%) Security Operations Centre
8 23 (1.53%) Self-Motivation
9 21 (1.40%) Analytical Mindset
10 16 (1.07%) Driving Licence
10 16 (1.07%) Replication
11 15 (1.00%) Cyber Security Posture
11 15 (1.00%) Distributed Systems
11 15 (1.00%) PMI
11 15 (1.00%) Private Cloud
11 15 (1.00%) Security Posture
12 14 (0.93%) Legacy Systems
13 11 (0.73%) Cyber Threat
13 11 (0.73%) Fat Client
13 11 (0.73%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 252 (16.80%) Windows
2 157 (10.47%) Linux
3 59 (3.93%) Windows Server
4 48 (3.20%) Windows 10
5 21 (1.40%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 13 (0.87%) Android
7 11 (0.73%) Windows 7
8 7 (0.47%) Kali Linux
9 6 (0.40%) Ubuntu
9 6 (0.40%) Unix
10 5 (0.33%) Windows Server 2003
11 4 (0.27%) Windows Server 2016
12 3 (0.20%) Apple iOS
12 3 (0.20%) Debian
12 3 (0.20%) Windows Server 2012
12 3 (0.20%) Windows Server 2019
13 2 (0.13%) Mac OS
13 2 (0.13%) SUSE
13 2 (0.13%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
14 1 (0.067%) Embedded Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 246 (16.40%) Agile
2 191 (12.73%) Problem-Solving
3 159 (10.60%) CI/CD
3 159 (10.60%) DevOps
4 142 (9.47%) ITIL
5 134 (8.93%) Migration
6 127 (8.47%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 115 (7.67%) Cybersecurity
8 111 (7.40%) Stakeholder Management
9 107 (7.13%) Service Management
10 100 (6.67%) Roadmaps
11 91 (6.07%) Continuous Improvement
12 84 (5.60%) Project Management
13 78 (5.20%) ITSM
14 76 (5.07%) SIEM
15 69 (4.60%) Change Management
16 68 (4.53%) Workflow
17 64 (4.27%) Collaborative Working
18 62 (4.13%) Infrastructure Engineering
19 60 (4.00%) DevSecOps
Programming Languages
1 168 (11.20%) Python
2 130 (8.67%) PowerShell
3 54 (3.60%) Bash
3 54 (3.60%) Java
4 47 (3.13%) SQL
5 32 (2.13%) JavaScript
6 28 (1.87%) C#
7 18 (1.20%) C++
8 15 (1.00%) Go
9 14 (0.93%) Kusto Query Language
10 11 (0.73%) ABAP
11 8 (0.53%) TypeScript
12 7 (0.47%) PL/SQL
13 6 (0.40%) Bicep
13 6 (0.40%) C
13 6 (0.40%) Embedded C++
14 5 (0.33%) Shell Script
15 3 (0.20%) MATLAB
16 2 (0.13%) Assembly Language
16 2 (0.13%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 952 (63.47%) SC Cleared
2 494 (32.93%) DV Cleared
3 84 (5.60%) Degree
4 47 (3.13%) CISSP
5 45 (3.00%) Cisco Certification
6 43 (2.87%) CCNP
7 26 (1.73%) CEH
8 24 (1.60%) CISM
9 23 (1.53%) BPSS Clearance
9 23 (1.53%) GIAC
10 20 (1.33%) Azure Certification
11 19 (1.27%) CCNA
12 18 (1.20%) Microsoft Certification
13 17 (1.13%) AWS Certification
13 17 (1.13%) PMI Certification
14 16 (1.07%) PMP
15 14 (0.93%) CHECK Team Member
16 13 (0.87%) Network+ Certification
17 12 (0.80%) CREST Certified
17 12 (0.80%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 55 (3.67%) GDPR
1 55 (3.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 45 (3.00%) NIST
3 43 (2.87%) PMO
3 43 (2.87%) QA
4 30 (2.00%) NCSC
5 20 (1.33%) SLA
6 16 (1.07%) PCI DSS
7 15 (1.00%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 12 (0.80%) Data Quality
8 12 (0.80%) GRC
9 11 (0.73%) COBIT
10 10 (0.67%) JSP 440
11 5 (0.33%) Accessibility
11 5 (0.33%) P3O
11 5 (0.33%) RMADS
12 4 (0.27%) Def Stans
13 3 (0.20%) Actionable Recommendations
13 3 (0.20%) HMG Security Policy Framework
14 2 (0.13%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 148 (9.87%) Active Directory
2 75 (5.00%) VMware Infrastructure
3 44 (2.93%) Docker
4 35 (2.33%) VMware NSX
5 34 (2.27%) vSphere
6 17 (1.13%) VMware ESXi
7 12 (0.80%) Hyper-V
8 9 (0.60%) Virtual Desktop
9 7 (0.47%) Virtual Machines
10 6 (0.40%) Firmware
10 6 (0.40%) vCloud
11 5 (0.33%) Brightmail
11 5 (0.33%) ISA Server
11 5 (0.33%) NFS
12 2 (0.13%) UAG
13 1 (0.067%) KVM
13 1 (0.067%) NetIQ eDirectory
13 1 (0.067%) RHEV
13 1 (0.067%) Sendmail
13 1 (0.067%) Xen
Systems Management
1 95 (6.33%) Kubernetes
2 62 (4.13%) Terraform
3 58 (3.87%) Ansible
4 49 (3.27%) vCenter Server
5 38 (2.53%) Grafana
5 38 (2.53%) Prometheus
6 26 (1.73%) Argo
7 25 (1.67%) SCCM
8 24 (1.60%) Nmap
9 17 (1.13%) WMI
10 14 (0.93%) Microsoft Intune
11 13 (0.87%) Kibana
12 12 (0.80%) Single Sign-On
13 10 (0.67%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 9 (0.60%) Kustomize
15 8 (0.53%) SCOM
15 8 (0.53%) vRealize
16 7 (0.47%) Nagios
16 7 (0.47%) Puppet
16 7 (0.47%) Sysdig
Vendors
1 203 (13.53%) Microsoft
2 152 (10.13%) VMware
3 149 (9.93%) Cisco
4 88 (5.87%) SAP
5 59 (3.93%) Juniper
6 53 (3.53%) ServiceNow
7 52 (3.47%) Aruba
8 50 (3.33%) Splunk
9 47 (3.13%) Red Hat
10 35 (2.33%) SolarWinds
11 31 (2.07%) Google
11 31 (2.07%) Palo Alto
12 29 (1.93%) Sparx
13 26 (1.73%) Oracle
14 25 (1.67%) CyberArk
15 23 (1.53%) CheckPoint
16 17 (1.13%) BeyondTrust
17 15 (1.00%) Tanium
18 14 (0.93%) Fortinet
19 13 (0.87%) Citrix