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 21 November 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 2 1 1
Rank change year-on-year -1 0 +2
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 1,217 1,143 1,640
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 29.89% 27.76% 30.82%
As % of the Qualifications category 71.63% 70.47% 72.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 834 765 906
10th Percentile £256 £344 £263
25th Percentile £429 £450 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -6.82% - -
75th Percentile £600 £638 £638
90th Percentile £650 £725 £700
England median daily rate £530 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -3.64% - -2.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 139 80 124
10th Percentile - £25.81 £25.60
25th Percentile £18.87 £35.00 £50.94
Median hourly rate £25.15 £60.53 £60.82
Median % change year-on-year -58.45% -0.47% +11.64%
75th Percentile £51.88 £68.42 £71.41
90th Percentile £90.09 £97.50 £77.70
England median hourly rate £25.15 £58.49 £60.00
% change year-on-year -57.00% -2.52% -

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 1,699 1,622 2,274
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 41.73% 39.39% 42.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,103 1,052 1,345
10th Percentile £250 £275 £214
25th Percentile £407 £413 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £528 £538
Median % change year-on-year -5.21% -1.86% +2.38%
75th Percentile £588 £638 £638
90th Percentile £650 £700 £688
England median daily rate £525 £526 £550
% change year-on-year -0.24% -4.32% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 181 99 147
10th Percentile - £22.48 £26.19
25th Percentile £18.87 £31.25 £49.84
Median hourly rate £25.15 £58.30 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -56.86% -2.83% +33.33%
75th Percentile £65.00 £68.84 £71.57
90th Percentile £89.63 £88.00 £78.00
England median hourly rate £25.15 £50.00 £53.50
% change year-on-year -49.70% -6.54% +18.89%

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 21 November 2025.

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 21 November 2025.

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 21 November 2025. 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 0 566 £550 -4.35% 234
Thames Valley -1 556 £491 -6.48% 150
Berkshire -1 391 £492 -15.46% 96
Buckinghamshire 0 115 £512 +10.21% 29
Oxfordshire +7 50 £275 -43.59% 36
Surrey +29 45 £525 -12.75% 64
West Sussex +5 26 £515 -22.26% 15
Kent +3 6 £333 - 11
Middlesex - 6 - - 1
Home Counties - 2 £872 -
Sussex -4 1 £525 -4.55% 8
Isle of Wight - 1 £81 -
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 32 (2.63%) SharePoint
2 31 (2.55%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (0.90%) Apache
3 11 (0.90%) Exchange Server 2013
3 11 (0.90%) Skype for Business
4 10 (0.82%) Exchange Server 2003
4 10 (0.82%) Exchange Server 2007
4 10 (0.82%) Exchange Server 2010
4 10 (0.82%) Office Communications Server
4 10 (0.82%) SharePoint Server
5 7 (0.58%) Confluence
6 4 (0.33%) CMS
6 4 (0.33%) IIS
7 3 (0.25%) Anypoint
7 3 (0.25%) Documentum
8 2 (0.16%) GeoServer
8 2 (0.16%) Smallworld
9 1 (0.082%) ArcGIS
9 1 (0.082%) JBoss
9 1 (0.082%) SAS
Applications
1 33 (2.71%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (2.55%) Microsoft Excel
3 18 (1.48%) Microsoft Project
4 6 (0.49%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.25%) Adobe Illustrator
5 3 (0.25%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.25%) Photoshop
5 3 (0.25%) Windchill
6 1 (0.082%) PTC Creo
6 1 (0.082%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 29 (2.38%) SAP S/4HANA
2 14 (1.15%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 9 (0.74%) SAP HR
3 9 (0.74%) SAP Payroll
4 8 (0.66%) SAP EWM
4 8 (0.66%) SAP WM
5 6 (0.49%) SAP HCM
6 5 (0.41%) Salesforce CRM
7 4 (0.33%) Primavera
8 3 (0.25%) SAP ERP
8 3 (0.25%) SAP PSCD
8 3 (0.25%) Teamcenter
9 2 (0.16%) SAP BRIM
9 2 (0.16%) SAP Hybris
9 2 (0.16%) SAP PS
10 1 (0.082%) assyst
10 1 (0.082%) Dynamics CRM
10 1 (0.082%) Oracle ERP
10 1 (0.082%) SAP MM
10 1 (0.082%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 148 (12.16%) Azure
2 122 (10.02%) AWS
3 59 (4.85%) GCP
4 52 (4.27%) Microsoft 365
5 34 (2.79%) OpenShift
6 26 (2.14%) Entra ID
7 20 (1.64%) GitHub
8 18 (1.48%) Power Platform
9 17 (1.40%) OneDrive
10 13 (1.07%) Amazon EKS
10 13 (1.07%) Azure DevOps
10 13 (1.07%) SaaS
11 9 (0.74%) GitHub Actions
12 8 (0.66%) Amazon ECR
12 8 (0.66%) Cloud Computing
13 7 (0.58%) IaaS
14 6 (0.49%) Power Automate
14 6 (0.49%) PowerApps
15 5 (0.41%) AWS CloudFormation
15 5 (0.41%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 68 (5.59%) Firewall
2 52 (4.27%) DNS
3 35 (2.88%) DHCP
4 34 (2.79%) VPN
5 31 (2.55%) SAN
6 28 (2.30%) Network Security
7 26 (2.14%) Cisco IOS
7 26 (2.14%) LAN
8 25 (2.05%) Cisco Firepower
8 25 (2.05%) Junos
9 24 (1.97%) Cisco ISE
9 24 (1.97%) TCP/IP
10 18 (1.48%) VLAN
11 16 (1.31%) WAN
12 14 (1.15%) Fibre Channel
12 14 (1.15%) iSCSI
13 13 (1.07%) BGP
14 12 (0.99%) MPLS
15 11 (0.90%) OSPF
15 11 (0.90%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (1.23%) Power BI
2 10 (0.82%) SQL Server
3 9 (0.74%) NoSQL
3 9 (0.74%) PostgreSQL
4 7 (0.58%) MongoDB
4 7 (0.58%) SAP HANA
5 5 (0.41%) Metadata
5 5 (0.41%) Oracle Database
5 5 (0.41%) Oracle Reports
6 4 (0.33%) MySQL
6 4 (0.33%) Relational Database
7 2 (0.16%) Geospatial Data
7 2 (0.16%) GIS
7 2 (0.16%) QGIS
7 2 (0.16%) SAP BW
7 2 (0.16%) SAP Data Services
8 1 (0.082%) Amazon Athena
8 1 (0.082%) Data Hub
8 1 (0.082%) Data Lake
8 1 (0.082%) Data Warehouse
Development Applications
1 48 (3.94%) JIRA
2 41 (3.37%) Jenkins
3 25 (2.05%) GitLab
4 21 (1.73%) Git
5 7 (0.58%) Artifactory
5 7 (0.58%) MSI
6 6 (0.49%) Burp Suite
6 6 (0.49%) Metasploit
6 6 (0.49%) SoapUI
7 5 (0.41%) Rational DOORS
8 4 (0.33%) Android Studio
8 4 (0.33%) Cucumber
8 4 (0.33%) Gradle
8 4 (0.33%) Maven
8 4 (0.33%) Robot Framework
8 4 (0.33%) Selenium
8 4 (0.33%) Sonatype Nexus
9 3 (0.25%) JUnit
9 3 (0.25%) Storybook
10 2 (0.16%) Visual Studio
General
1 391 (32.13%) Social Skills
2 229 (18.82%) Public Sector
3 125 (10.27%) Analytical Skills
4 57 (4.68%) Finance
5 33 (2.71%) Telecoms
6 32 (2.63%) Documentation Skills
7 30 (2.47%) Manufacturing
8 28 (2.30%) Aerospace
9 21 (1.73%) Influencing Skills
10 18 (1.48%) Military
11 15 (1.23%) Electronics
11 15 (1.23%) Legal
12 14 (1.15%) Presentation Skills
13 11 (0.90%) Marketing
13 11 (0.90%) Organisational Skills
14 9 (0.74%) Law
15 7 (0.58%) Pharmaceutical
16 5 (0.41%) Banking
17 4 (0.33%) Aviation
18 3 (0.25%) Billing
Job Titles
1 208 (17.09%) Architect
2 105 (8.63%) Consultant
3 78 (6.41%) Network Engineer
4 74 (6.08%) Senior
5 71 (5.83%) Analyst
6 68 (5.59%) Support Engineer
7 63 (5.18%) Lead
8 48 (3.94%) Developer
9 37 (3.04%) Cloud Engineer
9 37 (3.04%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
9 37 (3.04%) Infrastructure Architect
9 37 (3.04%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 37 (3.04%) Solutions Architect
10 36 (2.96%) IT Engineer
11 34 (2.79%) 3rd Line Engineer
11 34 (2.79%) SAP Consultant
12 33 (2.71%) Network Consultant
13 31 (2.55%) Service Architect
14 30 (2.47%) Project Manager
14 30 (2.47%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (1.48%) React
2 15 (1.23%) LDAP
3 14 (1.15%) Elastic Stack
4 13 (1.07%) RESTful
4 13 (1.07%) SOAP
5 11 (0.90%) REST
6 9 (0.74%) Middleware
6 9 (0.74%) Web Services
7 8 (0.66%) Loki
7 8 (0.66%) Spring Boot
8 7 (0.58%) .NET
8 7 (0.58%) SAP Fiori
9 6 (0.49%) CSS
9 6 (0.49%) HTML
9 6 (0.49%) RFC 2544
9 6 (0.49%) XML
10 5 (0.41%) AngularJS
10 5 (0.41%) Flask
10 5 (0.41%) Kafka
10 5 (0.41%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 48 (3.94%) PKI
2 39 (3.20%) Management Information System
3 32 (2.63%) Onboarding
4 20 (1.64%) Data Centre
5 19 (1.56%) Cloud Native
5 19 (1.56%) Driving Licence
5 19 (1.56%) Private Cloud
6 17 (1.40%) Self-Motivation
7 16 (1.31%) Analytical Mindset
7 16 (1.31%) Legacy Systems
7 16 (1.31%) Replication
7 16 (1.31%) Security Operations Centre
8 13 (1.07%) PMI
9 11 (0.90%) Virtual Team
10 10 (0.82%) Enterprise Software
11 9 (0.74%) Distributed Systems
12 8 (0.66%) Cyber Security Posture
12 8 (0.66%) Cyber Threat
12 8 (0.66%) Data Protection Act
12 8 (0.66%) Enterprise Storage
Operating Systems
1 212 (17.42%) Windows
2 112 (9.20%) Linux
3 55 (4.52%) Windows Server
4 53 (4.35%) Windows 10
5 27 (2.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 22 (1.81%) Windows Server 2019
7 12 (0.99%) Windows Server 2003
8 11 (0.90%) Windows 7
9 8 (0.66%) Unix
10 7 (0.58%) Windows Server 2012
10 7 (0.58%) Windows Server 2016
11 6 (0.49%) Android
11 6 (0.49%) Kali Linux
12 5 (0.41%) CentOS
12 5 (0.41%) Ubuntu
12 5 (0.41%) VMS
13 4 (0.33%) Mac OS
14 3 (0.25%) Debian
15 2 (0.16%) Apple iOS
15 2 (0.16%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 191 (15.69%) Agile
2 160 (13.15%) Problem-Solving
3 145 (11.91%) ITIL
4 143 (11.75%) Migration
5 116 (9.53%) Service Management
6 111 (9.12%) CI/CD
7 105 (8.63%) DevOps
7 105 (8.63%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 85 (6.98%) Cybersecurity
8 85 (6.98%) Stakeholder Management
9 79 (6.49%) Continuous Improvement
10 78 (6.41%) ITSM
11 73 (6.00%) Workflow
12 69 (5.67%) Roadmaps
13 66 (5.42%) Collaborative Working
14 59 (4.85%) Risk Management
15 58 (4.77%) Project Delivery
16 54 (4.44%) Change Management
17 53 (4.35%) Asset Management
17 53 (4.35%) Workflow Management
Programming Languages
1 142 (11.67%) Python
2 102 (8.38%) PowerShell
3 62 (5.09%) Java
3 62 (5.09%) SQL
4 36 (2.96%) JavaScript
5 35 (2.88%) Bash
6 27 (2.22%) C#
7 13 (1.07%) C++
8 12 (0.99%) ABAP
9 11 (0.90%) Go
10 7 (0.58%) C
10 7 (0.58%) Kusto Query Language
10 7 (0.58%) Shell Script
11 6 (0.49%) Embedded C++
11 6 (0.49%) TypeScript
12 5 (0.41%) PHP
12 5 (0.41%) VB
13 4 (0.33%) PL/SQL
14 2 (0.16%) Ada
14 2 (0.16%) Assembly Language
Qualifications
1 772 (63.43%) SC Cleared
2 395 (32.46%) DV Cleared
3 61 (5.01%) Degree
4 37 (3.04%) CISSP
5 35 (2.88%) Microsoft Certification
6 27 (2.22%) BPSS Clearance
6 27 (2.22%) Cisco Certification
7 22 (1.81%) CISM
8 21 (1.73%) AWS Certification
8 21 (1.73%) Azure Certification
8 21 (1.73%) CCNP
9 18 (1.48%) CEH
10 17 (1.40%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 16 (1.31%) MCSE
12 15 (1.23%) PMI Certification
13 13 (1.07%) CCNA
13 13 (1.07%) GIAC
14 12 (0.99%) PMP
15 10 (0.82%) Network+ Certification
15 10 (0.82%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 53 (4.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 47 (3.86%) NIST
3 44 (3.62%) GDPR
4 35 (2.88%) SLA
5 31 (2.55%) ISO/IEC 20000
5 31 (2.55%) QA
6 19 (1.56%) PMO
7 14 (1.15%) NCSC
8 11 (0.90%) RMADS
9 10 (0.82%) NIST 800
10 7 (0.58%) COBIT
10 7 (0.58%) JSP 440
11 4 (0.33%) Actionable Recommendations
11 4 (0.33%) Def Stans
11 4 (0.33%) GRC
11 4 (0.33%) HIPAA
11 4 (0.33%) ISO 9001
11 4 (0.33%) P3O
12 3 (0.25%) Data Quality
12 3 (0.25%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 121 (9.94%) Active Directory
2 76 (6.24%) VMware Infrastructure
3 44 (3.62%) vSphere
4 34 (2.79%) VMware ESXi
5 30 (2.47%) VMware NSX
6 29 (2.38%) Docker
7 15 (1.23%) Hyper-V
7 15 (1.23%) NFS
8 11 (0.90%) Virtual Machines
9 10 (0.82%) Brightmail
9 10 (0.82%) ISA Server
10 4 (0.33%) Firmware
11 3 (0.25%) Virtual Desktop
12 2 (0.16%) UAG
13 1 (0.082%) NDS
13 1 (0.082%) NetIQ eDirectory
13 1 (0.082%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 69 (5.67%) Kubernetes
2 64 (5.26%) Ansible
3 42 (3.45%) Terraform
4 33 (2.71%) vCenter Server
5 30 (2.47%) SCCM
6 23 (1.89%) Grafana
6 23 (1.89%) Prometheus
7 16 (1.31%) Argo
8 15 (1.23%) SCOM
9 13 (1.07%) WMI
10 11 (0.90%) Microsoft Clustering
11 9 (0.74%) Microsoft Intune
11 9 (0.74%) Nmap
12 8 (0.66%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 8 (0.66%) Kibana
12 8 (0.66%) Kustomize
13 7 (0.58%) NetBackup
13 7 (0.58%) Single Sign-On
13 7 (0.58%) Sysdig
14 6 (0.49%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 186 (15.28%) Microsoft
2 141 (11.59%) Cisco
3 133 (10.93%) VMware
4 78 (6.41%) SAP
5 70 (5.75%) Juniper
6 53 (4.35%) ServiceNow
7 39 (3.20%) Red Hat
8 36 (2.96%) Aruba
9 35 (2.88%) SolarWinds
10 33 (2.71%) Google
11 32 (2.63%) Splunk
12 30 (2.47%) NetApp
13 19 (1.56%) CyberArk
14 17 (1.40%) Palo Alto
15 16 (1.31%) Oracle
15 16 (1.31%) Veeam
16 15 (1.23%) HP
16 15 (1.23%) Sparx
17 14 (1.15%) Fortinet
18 13 (1.07%) BeyondTrust