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 17 February 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 1,668 753 1,806
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 35.33% 24.15% 32.83%
As % of the Qualifications category 77.37% 64.91% 74.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,170 510 977
10th Percentile £310 £312 £275
25th Percentile £431 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £560
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -1.79% +1.82%
75th Percentile £622 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £688 £719
England median daily rate £525 £548 £550
% change year-on-year -4.20% -0.36% -2.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 152 53 133
10th Percentile £16.35 £18.98 £28.08
25th Percentile £19.38 £31.25 £51.75
Median hourly rate £25.15 £61.50 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -59.10% +2.49% +1.90%
75th Percentile £61.13 £65.62 £72.33
90th Percentile £95.00 £80.08 £84.45
England median hourly rate £25.15 £60.00 £58.30
% change year-on-year -58.08% +2.92% -2.83%

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 2,156 1,160 2,427
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 45.67% 37.20% 44.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,443 730 1,374
10th Percentile £289 £263 £215
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -
75th Percentile £606 £628 £638
90th Percentile £725 £685 £700
England median daily rate £520 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -0.95% -2.78% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 207 65 174
10th Percentile £15.25 £18.58 £18.52
25th Percentile £19.05 £31.25 £42.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £56.75 £59.50
Median % change year-on-year -55.68% -4.63% +32.22%
75th Percentile £60.00 £64.73 £70.00
90th Percentile £90.09 £80.06 £83.32
England median hourly rate £25.15 £47.37 £45.55
% change year-on-year -46.91% +4.01% +1.21%

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 17 February 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 17 February 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 17 February 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 +1 792 £481 -8.33% 201
Hampshire 0 710 £550 -3.51% 226
Berkshire +2 557 £450 -18.18% 111
Buckinghamshire +1 184 £550 +27.91% 72
Surrey +16 77 £525 -19.23% 29
Oxfordshire +10 51 £378 -39.60% 27
West Sussex +9 42 £537 -14.76% 10
Kent +5 26 £443 +60.91% 27
Sussex -1 7 £475 +9.83% 6
East Sussex +3 3 £588 +6.82% 7
Middlesex - 3 - -
Isle of Wight - 1 £81 - 5
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 47 (2.82%) SharePoint
2 40 (2.40%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (0.90%) Confluence
4 5 (0.30%) Apache
5 4 (0.24%) ArcGIS
5 4 (0.24%) IIS
5 4 (0.24%) Oracle Workflow
6 3 (0.18%) MS Project Server
7 2 (0.12%) Documentum
7 2 (0.12%) Exchange Server 2010
7 2 (0.12%) GeoServer
7 2 (0.12%) NetWeaver
7 2 (0.12%) SAP EP
7 2 (0.12%) Skype for Business
7 2 (0.12%) Smallworld
8 1 (0.060%) Anypoint
8 1 (0.060%) Apache Pulsar
8 1 (0.060%) JBoss
8 1 (0.060%) Palantir Foundry
8 1 (0.060%) SAS
Applications
1 60 (3.60%) Microsoft Excel
2 58 (3.48%) Microsoft Office
3 34 (2.04%) Microsoft Project
4 28 (1.68%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 10 (0.60%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.060%) CATIA
6 1 (0.060%) PTC Creo
6 1 (0.060%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 29 (1.74%) SAP S/4HANA
1 29 (1.74%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 6 (0.36%) Oracle Assets
2 6 (0.36%) Oracle Payables
2 6 (0.36%) SAP HR
2 6 (0.36%) SAP Payroll
3 5 (0.30%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
3 5 (0.30%) Salesforce CRM
3 5 (0.30%) SAP HCM
3 5 (0.30%) SAP PSCD
4 4 (0.24%) Oracle ERP
4 4 (0.24%) Primavera
4 4 (0.24%) SAP BRIM
4 4 (0.24%) SAP Hybris
5 3 (0.18%) Payment Gateway
5 3 (0.18%) SAP WM
6 2 (0.12%) Oracle General Ledger
6 2 (0.12%) SAP CRM
6 2 (0.12%) SAP PS
6 2 (0.12%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 250 (14.99%) Azure
2 185 (11.09%) AWS
3 79 (4.74%) GCP
4 68 (4.08%) Microsoft 365
5 63 (3.78%) Entra ID
6 38 (2.28%) Azure DevOps
6 38 (2.28%) OpenShift
7 34 (2.04%) GitHub
8 31 (1.86%) Power Platform
9 21 (1.26%) IaaS
10 20 (1.20%) PaaS
11 19 (1.14%) GitHub Actions
11 19 (1.14%) OneDrive
12 15 (0.90%) Cloud Computing
13 13 (0.78%) SaaS
14 11 (0.66%) AWS CloudFormation
14 11 (0.66%) Serverless
15 10 (0.60%) Datadog
15 10 (0.60%) Power Automate
15 10 (0.60%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 131 (7.85%) Firewall
2 85 (5.10%) DNS
3 66 (3.96%) WAN
4 63 (3.78%) LAN
5 58 (3.48%) BGP
6 55 (3.30%) DHCP
7 53 (3.18%) OSPF
8 46 (2.76%) Network Security
9 38 (2.28%) TCP/IP
9 38 (2.28%) VPN
10 35 (2.10%) Junos
11 33 (1.98%) Cisco ISE
12 26 (1.56%) VLAN
13 25 (1.50%) IPsec
14 24 (1.44%) Wireless
15 23 (1.38%) Cisco IOS
16 21 (1.26%) Structured Cabling
17 20 (1.20%) Cisco Firepower
18 19 (1.14%) Ethernet VPN
19 18 (1.08%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (1.68%) Power BI
2 27 (1.62%) SQL Server
3 20 (1.20%) PostgreSQL
4 11 (0.66%) Metadata
5 9 (0.54%) Redis
6 8 (0.48%) Azure SQL Database
6 8 (0.48%) NoSQL
6 8 (0.48%) Relational Database
7 7 (0.42%) SAP HANA
8 6 (0.36%) MongoDB
9 5 (0.30%) Metadata Repository
9 5 (0.30%) Oracle Database
9 5 (0.30%) Oracle Reports
10 4 (0.24%) MySQL
10 4 (0.24%) SAP Data Services
11 3 (0.18%) GIS
12 2 (0.12%) Data Lake
12 2 (0.12%) Data Warehouse
12 2 (0.12%) Geospatial Data
12 2 (0.12%) QGIS
Development Applications
1 47 (2.82%) JIRA
2 35 (2.10%) Jenkins
3 30 (1.80%) Git
3 30 (1.80%) GitLab
4 22 (1.32%) Burp Suite
4 22 (1.32%) Metasploit
5 8 (0.48%) Artifactory
6 7 (0.42%) Android Studio
6 7 (0.42%) SonarQube
7 6 (0.36%) Maven
8 5 (0.30%) Gradle
8 5 (0.30%) JUnit
8 5 (0.30%) Sonatype Nexus
8 5 (0.30%) Subversion
9 4 (0.24%) Bitbucket
9 4 (0.24%) Cypress.io
9 4 (0.24%) Rational DOORS
9 4 (0.24%) Robot Framework
9 4 (0.24%) Storybook
9 4 (0.24%) Visual Studio
General
1 449 (26.92%) Social Skills
2 291 (17.45%) Public Sector
3 176 (10.55%) Analytical Skills
4 92 (5.52%) Finance
5 71 (4.26%) Documentation Skills
6 41 (2.46%) Military
7 35 (2.10%) Manufacturing
8 34 (2.04%) Aerospace
9 31 (1.86%) Legal
10 30 (1.80%) Influencing Skills
10 30 (1.80%) Telecoms
11 16 (0.96%) Law
11 16 (0.96%) Presentation Skills
12 15 (0.90%) Marketing
13 14 (0.84%) Organisational Skills
14 10 (0.60%) Electronics
15 9 (0.54%) Billing
16 8 (0.48%) Aviation
17 6 (0.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 6 (0.36%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 276 (16.55%) Architect
2 140 (8.39%) Senior
3 121 (7.25%) Lead
4 120 (7.19%) Analyst
5 108 (6.47%) Network Engineer
6 96 (5.76%) Consultant
7 83 (4.98%) Developer
8 59 (3.54%) Support Engineer
9 53 (3.18%) Project Manager
10 51 (3.06%) Tester
11 49 (2.94%) DevOps Engineer
12 47 (2.82%) Enterprise Architect
13 45 (2.70%) Technical Architect
14 42 (2.52%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 41 (2.46%) Cloud Engineer
16 38 (2.28%) Infrastructure Architect
17 37 (2.22%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
18 36 (2.16%) IT Engineer
18 36 (2.16%) Security Architect
19 33 (1.98%) Network Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (1.86%) LDAP
2 24 (1.44%) React
3 23 (1.38%) REST
4 18 (1.08%) JSON
5 17 (1.02%) Elastic Stack
6 16 (0.96%) Kafka
7 15 (0.90%) .NET
8 14 (0.84%) 802.1X
9 13 (0.78%) AngularJS
10 12 (0.72%) Oracle Fusion
10 12 (0.72%) XML
11 11 (0.66%) Loki
12 9 (0.54%) Keycloak
12 9 (0.54%) RESTful
12 9 (0.54%) SAP Fiori
12 9 (0.54%) SOAP
13 8 (0.48%) Spring Boot
13 8 (0.48%) Web Services
13 8 (0.48%) YAML
14 7 (0.42%) CSS
Miscellaneous
1 76 (4.56%) Data Centre
2 74 (4.44%) PKI
3 46 (2.76%) Onboarding
4 38 (2.28%) Management Information System
5 33 (1.98%) Product Ownership
6 30 (1.80%) Self-Motivation
7 26 (1.56%) Cloud Native
8 22 (1.32%) Analytical Mindset
9 21 (1.26%) Security Operations Centre
10 20 (1.20%) Replication
10 20 (1.20%) Security Posture
11 17 (1.02%) Driving Licence
12 16 (0.96%) PMI
13 15 (0.90%) Clustering
14 12 (0.72%) Cyber Security Posture
14 12 (0.72%) Cyber Threat
14 12 (0.72%) Legacy Systems
14 12 (0.72%) Private Cloud
15 11 (0.66%) Fat Client
15 11 (0.66%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 268 (16.07%) Windows
2 177 (10.61%) Linux
3 67 (4.02%) Windows Server
4 40 (2.40%) Windows 10
5 25 (1.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 17 (1.02%) Android
7 11 (0.66%) Windows 7
8 10 (0.60%) Unix
9 7 (0.42%) Kali Linux
10 6 (0.36%) Ubuntu
11 4 (0.24%) Apple iOS
11 4 (0.24%) Windows Server 2016
12 3 (0.18%) Debian
12 3 (0.18%) Windows Server 2019
13 2 (0.12%) Mac OS
13 2 (0.12%) SUSE
13 2 (0.12%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
13 2 (0.12%) VMS
13 2 (0.12%) Windows Server 2012
14 1 (0.060%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 277 (16.61%) Agile
2 210 (12.59%) Problem-Solving
3 175 (10.49%) DevOps
4 163 (9.77%) CI/CD
5 155 (9.29%) ITIL
6 148 (8.87%) Migration
7 140 (8.39%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 137 (8.21%) Stakeholder Management
9 134 (8.03%) Cybersecurity
10 119 (7.13%) Continuous Improvement
11 118 (7.07%) Roadmaps
12 113 (6.77%) Service Management
13 97 (5.82%) Project Management
14 94 (5.64%) ITSM
15 85 (5.10%) SIEM
16 77 (4.62%) Change Management
17 71 (4.26%) Collaborative Working
18 68 (4.08%) Decision-Making
19 67 (4.02%) DevSecOps
19 67 (4.02%) Infrastructure Engineering
Programming Languages
1 172 (10.31%) Python
2 142 (8.51%) PowerShell
3 54 (3.24%) Bash
3 54 (3.24%) Java
4 47 (2.82%) SQL
5 28 (1.68%) C#
5 28 (1.68%) JavaScript
6 17 (1.02%) C++
6 17 (1.02%) Kusto Query Language
7 12 (0.72%) TypeScript
8 9 (0.54%) ABAP
9 8 (0.48%) C
9 8 (0.48%) PL/SQL
10 7 (0.42%) Bicep
10 7 (0.42%) Shell Script
11 6 (0.36%) Embedded C++
11 6 (0.36%) Go
12 4 (0.24%) Ada
13 3 (0.18%) MATLAB
13 3 (0.18%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 1,059 (63.49%) SC Cleared
2 527 (31.59%) DV Cleared
3 99 (5.94%) Degree
4 60 (3.60%) Cisco Certification
5 51 (3.06%) CCNP
6 47 (2.82%) CISSP
7 33 (1.98%) BPSS Clearance
8 25 (1.50%) CISM
9 23 (1.38%) Azure Certification
9 23 (1.38%) CCNA
9 23 (1.38%) CEH
10 22 (1.32%) Microsoft Certification
11 20 (1.20%) GIAC
12 19 (1.14%) PMI Certification
12 19 (1.14%) PMP
13 18 (1.08%) AWS Certification
14 15 (0.90%) CHECK Team Member
15 13 (0.78%) CREST Certified
15 13 (0.78%) Cyber Scheme
15 13 (0.78%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 70 (4.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 64 (3.84%) NIST
3 54 (3.24%) GDPR
4 50 (3.00%) PMO
5 48 (2.88%) QA
6 41 (2.46%) NCSC
7 20 (1.20%) SLA
8 17 (1.02%) PCI DSS
9 16 (0.96%) Data Quality
10 13 (0.78%) GRC
10 13 (0.78%) JSP 440
11 10 (0.60%) Accessibility
11 10 (0.60%) COBIT
12 6 (0.36%) NIST 800
13 5 (0.30%) ISO/IEC 20000
13 5 (0.30%) P3O
13 5 (0.30%) RMADS
14 4 (0.24%) Actionable Recommendations
14 4 (0.24%) Def Stans
15 3 (0.18%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 163 (9.77%) Active Directory
2 80 (4.80%) VMware Infrastructure
3 46 (2.76%) Docker
4 34 (2.04%) vSphere
5 32 (1.92%) VMware NSX
6 19 (1.14%) VMware ESXi
7 16 (0.96%) Hyper-V
8 8 (0.48%) Virtual Desktop
9 7 (0.42%) Firmware
9 7 (0.42%) vCloud
9 7 (0.42%) Virtual Machines
10 5 (0.30%) NFS
11 2 (0.12%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.060%) Brightmail
12 1 (0.060%) KVM
12 1 (0.060%) NetIQ eDirectory
12 1 (0.060%) RHEV
12 1 (0.060%) Sendmail
12 1 (0.060%) UAG
12 1 (0.060%) Xen
Systems Management
1 95 (5.70%) Kubernetes
2 64 (3.84%) Terraform
3 60 (3.60%) Ansible
4 50 (3.00%) vCenter Server
5 44 (2.64%) Grafana
6 43 (2.58%) Prometheus
7 31 (1.86%) Argo
8 26 (1.56%) Nmap
9 25 (1.50%) SCCM
10 17 (1.02%) Microsoft Intune
10 17 (1.02%) WMI
11 16 (0.96%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 14 (0.84%) Kibana
13 13 (0.78%) FortiGate
14 11 (0.66%) Kustomize
14 11 (0.66%) Single Sign-On
15 8 (0.48%) Nessus
15 8 (0.48%) Red Hat Satellite
15 8 (0.48%) SCOM
16 7 (0.42%) Nagios
Vendors
1 220 (13.19%) Microsoft
2 169 (10.13%) Cisco
3 162 (9.71%) VMware
4 83 (4.98%) SAP
5 71 (4.26%) Juniper
6 61 (3.66%) ServiceNow
7 59 (3.54%) Aruba
8 57 (3.42%) Splunk
9 54 (3.24%) Red Hat
10 48 (2.88%) SolarWinds
11 35 (2.10%) Palo Alto
12 32 (1.92%) Google
13 31 (1.86%) CyberArk
13 31 (1.86%) Oracle
14 30 (1.80%) Sparx
15 28 (1.68%) CheckPoint
16 25 (1.50%) BeyondTrust
17 24 (1.44%) F5
18 16 (0.96%) Tanium
19 14 (0.84%) Fortinet