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

6 months to
31 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 2,373 969 1,520
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 35.79% 27.32% 32.11%
As % of the Qualifications category 80.55% 69.16% 72.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,670 687 1,014
10th Percentile £405 £281 £363
25th Percentile £483 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £565 £538 £582
Median % change year-on-year +5.12% -7.65% +10.86%
75th Percentile £638 £600 £663
90th Percentile £738 £675 £735
England median daily rate £545 £538 £550
% change year-on-year +1.44% -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 243 88 106
10th Percentile £24.55 - £24.29
25th Percentile £55.00 £18.87 £52.93
Median hourly rate £71.00 £25.15 £62.47
Median % change year-on-year +182.31% -59.74% +1.37%
75th Percentile £86.25 £50.94 £79.25
90th Percentile £102.10 £76.53 £92.19
England median hourly rate £65.00 £25.15 £60.00
% change year-on-year +158.45% -58.08% -

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 2,946 1,401 2,087
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 44.43% 39.50% 44.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,988 902 1,305
10th Percentile £350 £238 £350
25th Percentile £463 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £638 £600 £650
90th Percentile £730 £674 £723
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 318 121 173
10th Percentile £18.25 - £18.38
25th Percentile £38.09 £18.87 £38.00
Median hourly rate £62.25 £25.15 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +147.51% -56.15% -4.42%
75th Percentile £84.00 £64.52 £70.39
90th Percentile £95.30 £81.00 £87.46
England median hourly rate £52.50 £25.15 £50.00
% change year-on-year +108.75% -49.70% -8.36%

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 31 August 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 31 August 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 31 August 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 1,232 £560 +6.67% 153
Hampshire 0 940 £575 +4.55% 218
Berkshire +1 690 £575 +4.55% 103
Buckinghamshire +1 430 £558 +13.49% 40
Oxfordshire +6 112 £488 +150.00% 20
Surrey +3 109 £580 +10.48% 53
West Sussex +12 68 £470 -9.35% 16
Kent 0 11 £411 +9.59% 6
East Sussex +8 9 £459 -
Home Counties +1 3 £525 -39.79%
Middlesex -22 2 - -
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 54 (2.28%) SharePoint
2 34 (1.43%) Confluence
3 22 (0.93%) Oracle Application Server
4 11 (0.46%) Apache Airflow
5 10 (0.42%) Microsoft Exchange
6 7 (0.29%) Documentum
6 7 (0.29%) SAS
7 6 (0.25%) Apache
8 5 (0.21%) Apache Spark
9 4 (0.17%) IIS
9 4 (0.17%) Oracle Workflow
10 3 (0.13%) ArcGIS
10 3 (0.13%) CMS
10 3 (0.13%) NetWeaver
10 3 (0.13%) Palantir Foundry
10 3 (0.13%) SAP EP
11 2 (0.084%) Apache Superset
11 2 (0.084%) nginx
11 2 (0.084%) Tomcat
11 2 (0.084%) Umbraco
Applications
1 65 (2.74%) Microsoft Excel
2 56 (2.36%) Microsoft Project
3 43 (1.81%) Microsoft Office
4 31 (1.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.25%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.13%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.084%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 2 (0.084%) CPLEX
7 2 (0.084%) Houdini
7 2 (0.084%) NUKE
7 2 (0.084%) Windchill
8 1 (0.042%) Autodesk Inventor
8 1 (0.042%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.042%) InVision
8 1 (0.042%) MicroStation
8 1 (0.042%) Simulink
8 1 (0.042%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 53 (2.23%) SAP S/4HANA
2 28 (1.18%) Oracle ERP
3 20 (0.84%) Remedy ITSM
4 18 (0.76%) SAP PSCD
4 18 (0.76%) Teamcenter
5 12 (0.51%) Siebel CRM
6 10 (0.42%) Primavera
7 8 (0.34%) iTrent
8 7 (0.29%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
9 6 (0.25%) Remedy AR System
9 6 (0.25%) SAP BRIM
9 6 (0.25%) SAP EWM
9 6 (0.25%) SAP Hybris
10 4 (0.17%) SAP MM
10 4 (0.17%) Workday HCM
11 3 (0.13%) Oracle Financials
11 3 (0.13%) SAP CRM
11 3 (0.13%) SAP FI
11 3 (0.13%) SAP FI-CA
11 3 (0.13%) SAP PP
Cloud Services
1 383 (16.14%) Azure
2 200 (8.43%) AWS
3 84 (3.54%) Azure DevOps
4 81 (3.41%) Entra ID
5 72 (3.03%) Power Platform
6 69 (2.91%) GCP
7 45 (1.90%) Microsoft 365
7 45 (1.90%) OpenShift
8 33 (1.39%) OCI
9 31 (1.31%) IaaS
9 31 (1.31%) SaaS
10 24 (1.01%) PaaS
11 22 (0.93%) Azure Monitor
12 21 (0.88%) GitHub
13 20 (0.84%) SuccessFactors
14 19 (0.80%) GitHub Actions
15 16 (0.67%) Azure Sentinel
16 12 (0.51%) AWS CloudFormation
16 12 (0.51%) Serverless
17 11 (0.46%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 125 (5.27%) DNS
2 116 (4.89%) Firewall
3 84 (3.54%) WAN
4 77 (3.24%) LAN
5 70 (2.95%) Network Security
6 64 (2.70%) VPN
7 59 (2.49%) DHCP
8 52 (2.19%) BGP
9 43 (1.81%) TCP/IP
10 36 (1.52%) IPsec
11 33 (1.39%) OSPF
12 31 (1.31%) MPLS
13 25 (1.05%) SD-WAN
13 25 (1.05%) VSAN
14 21 (0.88%) SSL
14 21 (0.88%) VLAN
14 21 (0.88%) Wireless
15 20 (0.84%) BIG-IP
16 17 (0.72%) Cisco Firepower
17 16 (0.67%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 60 (2.53%) Power BI
2 54 (2.28%) Data Warehouse
3 53 (2.23%) SQL Server
4 32 (1.35%) Oracle Reports
5 26 (1.10%) Oracle Database
5 26 (1.10%) Oracle ODI
6 23 (0.97%) PostgreSQL
7 20 (0.84%) Metadata
8 17 (0.72%) Relational Database
9 9 (0.38%) Geospatial Data
10 8 (0.34%) MySQL
10 8 (0.34%) Pentaho
10 8 (0.34%) Siebel EIM
11 7 (0.29%) NoSQL
11 7 (0.29%) Tableau
12 6 (0.25%) Oracle Database 12c
13 5 (0.21%) Azure SQL Database
13 5 (0.21%) Data Lake
13 5 (0.21%) Oracle BI Publisher
13 5 (0.21%) Redis
Development Applications
1 84 (3.54%) JIRA
2 56 (2.36%) GitLab
3 50 (2.11%) Git
4 34 (1.43%) Jenkins
5 24 (1.01%) SonarQube
6 21 (0.88%) Rational DOORS
7 8 (0.34%) MSI
7 8 (0.34%) Postman
7 8 (0.34%) Selenium
8 6 (0.25%) MLflow
8 6 (0.25%) Sonatype Nexus
9 5 (0.21%) JUnit
10 4 (0.17%) Artifactory
10 4 (0.17%) Visual Studio
11 3 (0.13%) Zephyr
12 2 (0.084%) JMeter
12 2 (0.084%) Oracle Forms
12 2 (0.084%) Robot Framework
12 2 (0.084%) Team Foundation Server
13 1 (0.042%) Mockito
General
1 530 (22.33%) Social Skills
2 247 (10.41%) Public Sector
3 241 (10.16%) Analytical Skills
4 171 (7.21%) Aerospace
5 146 (6.15%) Finance
6 82 (3.46%) Documentation Skills
7 55 (2.32%) Influencing Skills
7 55 (2.32%) Organisational Skills
8 42 (1.77%) Military
9 37 (1.56%) Telecoms
10 29 (1.22%) Legal
11 24 (1.01%) Manufacturing
12 19 (0.80%) Law
13 18 (0.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 15 (0.63%) Billing
15 13 (0.55%) Aviation
15 13 (0.55%) Presentation Skills
16 9 (0.38%) Police
17 7 (0.29%) Advertising
18 6 (0.25%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 323 (13.61%) Architect
2 224 (9.44%) Lead
3 219 (9.23%) Senior
4 189 (7.96%) Developer
5 177 (7.46%) Analyst
6 167 (7.04%) Consultant
7 134 (5.65%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 77 (3.24%) Cloud Engineer
9 76 (3.20%) Security Architect
10 71 (2.99%) Project Manager
11 68 (2.87%) Technical Architect
12 65 (2.74%) Network Engineer
13 64 (2.70%) SAP Consultant
14 59 (2.49%) Delivery Manager
15 58 (2.44%) Support Engineer
16 50 (2.11%) Product Manager
17 49 (2.06%) SOC Analyst
18 48 (2.02%) Solutions Architect
19 43 (1.81%) Network Architect
20 42 (1.77%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 101 (4.26%) Terraform
2 66 (2.78%) REST
3 34 (1.43%) .NET
4 32 (1.35%) OAuth
5 29 (1.22%) SAML
6 28 (1.18%) RESTful
7 27 (1.14%) LDAP
7 27 (1.14%) OpenID
8 25 (1.05%) SOAP
9 24 (1.01%) AngularJS
10 23 (0.97%) React
11 22 (0.93%) ARM Templates
12 21 (0.88%) 802.1X
12 21 (0.88%) SailPoint
13 20 (0.84%) Web Services
14 19 (0.80%) HTML
15 18 (0.76%) JSON
15 18 (0.76%) Kafka
15 18 (0.76%) OAuth2
16 17 (0.72%) Quarkus
Miscellaneous
1 101 (4.26%) Onboarding
2 88 (3.71%) Product Ownership
3 78 (3.29%) Data Centre
4 75 (3.16%) PKI
5 51 (2.15%) Hybrid Cloud
6 48 (2.02%) Management Information System
7 40 (1.69%) Operational Technology
8 37 (1.56%) Cloud Native
9 27 (1.14%) Public Cloud
10 25 (1.05%) Data Structures
11 24 (1.01%) Greenfield Project
12 21 (0.88%) Enterprise Software
13 19 (0.80%) Cyber Threat
13 19 (0.80%) Distributed Systems
13 19 (0.80%) Virtual Team
14 18 (0.76%) PMI
14 18 (0.76%) Private Cloud
15 17 (0.72%) CMDB
16 16 (0.67%) Clustering
17 15 (0.63%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 287 (12.09%) Windows
2 202 (8.51%) Linux
3 135 (5.69%) Windows Server
4 44 (1.85%) Unix
5 29 (1.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 24 (1.01%) Windows Server 2019
7 17 (0.72%) Windows 10
8 14 (0.59%) Ubuntu
9 11 (0.46%) CentOS
9 11 (0.46%) Mac OS
10 10 (0.42%) Embedded Linux
11 5 (0.21%) Debian
11 5 (0.21%) Oracle Linux
11 5 (0.21%) Windows Server 2016
12 3 (0.13%) Solaris
13 2 (0.084%) AIX
13 2 (0.084%) Android
13 2 (0.084%) Apple iOS
13 2 (0.084%) HPUX
13 2 (0.084%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 476 (20.06%) Agile
2 328 (13.82%) Continuous Improvement
3 309 (13.02%) Stakeholder Management
4 273 (11.50%) Problem-Solving
5 265 (11.17%) ITIL
6 259 (10.91%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 252 (10.62%) Cybersecurity
8 215 (9.06%) CI/CD
9 208 (8.77%) DevOps
10 206 (8.68%) ITSM
11 180 (7.59%) Service Management
12 168 (7.08%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 159 (6.70%) Technical Leadership
14 149 (6.28%) Change Management
15 148 (6.24%) Roadmaps
16 127 (5.35%) Project Delivery
16 127 (5.35%) Service Delivery
17 122 (5.14%) Migration
18 121 (5.10%) DevSecOps
19 120 (5.06%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 205 (8.64%) Python
2 183 (7.71%) PowerShell
3 142 (5.98%) SQL
4 78 (3.29%) Java
5 70 (2.95%) Bash
6 54 (2.28%) JavaScript
7 31 (1.31%) Bicep
8 26 (1.10%) PL/SQL
9 25 (1.05%) C#
10 22 (0.93%) C++
11 15 (0.63%) C
12 13 (0.55%) Shell Script
12 13 (0.55%) TypeScript
13 11 (0.46%) Go
14 9 (0.38%) ABAP
15 8 (0.34%) Kusto Query Language
16 5 (0.21%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 4 (0.17%) Embedded C++
17 4 (0.17%) Groovy
17 4 (0.17%) Rust
Qualifications
1 1,452 (61.19%) SC Cleared
2 904 (38.10%) DV Cleared
3 196 (8.26%) Degree
4 53 (2.23%) CISSP
5 51 (2.15%) BPSS Clearance
6 49 (2.06%) Azure Certification
6 49 (2.06%) PMI Certification
7 43 (1.81%) Cisco Certification
8 42 (1.77%) PMP
9 34 (1.43%) ISTQB
10 31 (1.31%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 28 (1.18%) Microsoft Certification
12 25 (1.05%) Computer Science Degree
13 24 (1.01%) CISM
14 19 (0.80%) AWS Certification
15 18 (0.76%) TOGAF Certification
15 18 (0.76%) VCAP
16 17 (0.72%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
17 16 (0.67%) CCNP
18 15 (0.63%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 109 (4.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 109 (4.59%) NIST
2 87 (3.67%) PMO
3 66 (2.78%) NCSC
4 57 (2.40%) QA
5 41 (1.73%) GDPR
6 35 (1.47%) Data Quality
7 30 (1.26%) SLA
8 28 (1.18%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 26 (1.10%) JSP 440
10 17 (0.72%) NIST 800
11 15 (0.63%) GRC
12 14 (0.59%) Accessibility
12 14 (0.59%) Cyber Essentials
13 10 (0.42%) Def Stans
13 10 (0.42%) ISO 9001
14 9 (0.38%) ISO 31000
15 6 (0.25%) Government Security Classifications
15 6 (0.25%) RMADS
16 3 (0.13%) Actionable Recommendations
System Software
1 197 (8.30%) Active Directory
2 164 (6.91%) VMware Infrastructure
3 82 (3.46%) VMware NSX
4 69 (2.91%) VMware ESXi
5 61 (2.57%) Docker
6 31 (1.31%) vSphere
7 28 (1.18%) vCloud
8 22 (0.93%) Hyper-V
9 16 (0.67%) Virtual Desktop
9 16 (0.67%) Virtual Machines
10 14 (0.59%) Firmware
11 10 (0.42%) Oracle RAC
12 7 (0.29%) Embedded Firmware
13 4 (0.17%) KVM
13 4 (0.17%) Virtual Servers
14 2 (0.084%) Dovecot
14 2 (0.084%) Microsoft Virtual Server
14 2 (0.084%) Postfix
14 2 (0.084%) UAG
Systems Management
1 116 (4.89%) Kubernetes
2 83 (3.50%) vCenter Server
3 72 (3.03%) Ansible
4 59 (2.49%) SCOM
5 25 (1.05%) SCCM
6 20 (0.84%) Argo
7 19 (0.80%) Grafana
7 19 (0.80%) Microsoft Intune
8 17 (0.72%) FortiGate
9 16 (0.67%) Avamar
10 15 (0.63%) Prometheus
11 14 (0.59%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 14 (0.59%) WMI
12 12 (0.51%) Oracle RMAN
13 11 (0.46%) Single Sign-On
14 8 (0.34%) Cisco CUCM
14 8 (0.34%) Data Guard
14 8 (0.34%) Red Hat Satellite
15 6 (0.25%) Podman
15 6 (0.25%) WSUS
Vendors
1 363 (15.30%) Microsoft
2 247 (10.41%) VMware
3 177 (7.46%) Oracle
4 159 (6.70%) SAP
5 148 (6.24%) ServiceNow
6 86 (3.62%) Cisco
7 52 (2.19%) Juniper
8 51 (2.15%) Red Hat
9 39 (1.64%) Google
10 38 (1.60%) SolarWinds
11 36 (1.52%) F5
12 31 (1.31%) Citrix
13 30 (1.26%) Palo Alto
14 27 (1.14%) CyberArk
15 24 (1.01%) BeyondTrust
15 24 (1.01%) Remedy
16 21 (0.88%) Broadcom
17 20 (0.84%) Siebel
18 19 (0.80%) IBM
19 18 (0.76%) Dell