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 3 October 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 2 1 1
Rank change year-on-year -1 0 +2
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 948 1,334 1,537
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 26.65% 30.30% 27.66%
As % of the Qualifications category 67.67% 72.34% 69.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 668 877 891
10th Percentile £219 £360 £275
25th Percentile £413 £455 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £558 £540
Median % change year-on-year -5.91% +3.33% -1.82%
75th Percentile £600 £650 £625
90th Percentile £650 £725 £700
England median daily rate £538 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -2.27% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 94 94 116
10th Percentile - £26.07 £30.36
25th Percentile £18.87 £48.18 £52.50
Median hourly rate £25.15 £61.60 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -59.17% +2.67% -
75th Percentile £38.93 £75.15 £72.65
90th Percentile £73.00 £92.37 £76.53
England median hourly rate £25.15 £61.60 £60.00
% change year-on-year -59.17% +2.67% -

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 1,401 1,844 2,226
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 39.39% 41.88% 40.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 907 1,170 1,358
10th Percentile £208 £313 £262
25th Percentile £400 £425 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £542 £526
Median % change year-on-year -7.57% +2.95% +0.19%
75th Percentile £589 £638 £638
90th Percentile £650 £700 £700
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 126 123 141
10th Percentile - £21.45 £24.50
25th Percentile £18.87 £37.70 £50.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £60.00 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -58.08% - +33.33%
75th Percentile £49.69 £72.82 £73.59
90th Percentile £81.00 £90.00 £77.50
England median hourly rate £25.15 £52.50 £53.00
% change year-on-year -52.10% -0.94% +17.78%

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 3 October 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 3 October 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 3 October 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 0 476 £538 -6.52% 159
Thames Valley -1 383 £500 -4.76% 117
Berkshire -1 270 £525 -12.21% 70
Buckinghamshire -1 82 £490 +3.16% 31
Surrey +32 47 £525 -13.51% 25
Oxfordshire +8 31 £190 -62.00% 30
West Sussex +5 22 £515 - 16
Kent +5 8 £375 - 6
Middlesex +4 5 - - 1
Home Counties - 2 £872 -
East Sussex - 1 - - 2
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 31 (3.27%) Microsoft Exchange
2 21 (2.22%) SharePoint
3 11 (1.16%) Exchange Server 2013
4 10 (1.05%) Apache
4 10 (1.05%) Exchange Server 2003
4 10 (1.05%) Exchange Server 2007
4 10 (1.05%) Exchange Server 2010
4 10 (1.05%) Office Communications Server
4 10 (1.05%) SharePoint Server
4 10 (1.05%) Skype for Business
5 9 (0.95%) Confluence
6 4 (0.42%) CMS
6 4 (0.42%) IIS
7 3 (0.32%) Documentum
8 2 (0.21%) Anypoint
8 2 (0.21%) GeoServer
8 2 (0.21%) Smallworld
9 1 (0.11%) Drupal
9 1 (0.11%) Gunicorn
9 1 (0.11%) Red Hat Fuse
Applications
1 24 (2.53%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (1.27%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (0.74%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (0.42%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.32%) Adobe Illustrator
5 3 (0.32%) Photoshop
5 3 (0.32%) Windchill
6 2 (0.21%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 1 (0.11%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 16 (1.69%) SAP S/4HANA
2 10 (1.05%) SAP HCM
3 9 (0.95%) SAP HR
3 9 (0.95%) SAP Payroll
4 7 (0.74%) SAP EWM
4 7 (0.74%) SAP WM
5 5 (0.53%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
6 3 (0.32%) Primavera
6 3 (0.32%) SAP ERP
6 3 (0.32%) Teamcenter
7 2 (0.21%) SAP PS
8 1 (0.11%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
8 1 (0.11%) Oracle ERP
8 1 (0.11%) Remedy ITSM
8 1 (0.11%) SAP PSCD
8 1 (0.11%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 96 (10.13%) Azure
2 77 (8.12%) AWS
3 31 (3.27%) Microsoft 365
4 30 (3.16%) GCP
5 21 (2.22%) OpenShift
6 18 (1.90%) Entra ID
7 13 (1.37%) Amazon EKS
8 11 (1.16%) OneDrive
9 8 (0.84%) Power Platform
9 8 (0.84%) SaaS
10 6 (0.63%) Azure DevOps
10 6 (0.63%) IaaS
10 6 (0.63%) PowerApps
11 5 (0.53%) GitHub
11 5 (0.53%) Microsoft Purview
12 4 (0.42%) Azure Storage
12 4 (0.42%) PaaS
13 3 (0.32%) Amazon S3
13 3 (0.32%) AWS KMS
13 3 (0.32%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 62 (6.54%) Firewall
2 42 (4.43%) DNS
3 36 (3.80%) VPN
4 35 (3.69%) DHCP
5 27 (2.85%) Network Security
5 27 (2.85%) SAN
6 26 (2.74%) LAN
7 24 (2.53%) TCP/IP
8 20 (2.11%) VLAN
9 18 (1.90%) Cisco Firepower
10 17 (1.79%) Cisco IOS
10 17 (1.79%) Cisco ISE
10 17 (1.79%) WAN
11 16 (1.69%) Fibre Channel
11 16 (1.69%) iSCSI
11 16 (1.69%) Junos
12 10 (1.05%) DDNS
12 10 (1.05%) SSL
13 9 (0.95%) BGP
13 9 (0.95%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (1.16%) NoSQL
2 10 (1.05%) SQL Server
3 8 (0.84%) Power BI
4 7 (0.74%) GIS
4 7 (0.74%) PostgreSQL
5 6 (0.63%) Amazon RDS
6 5 (0.53%) Big Data
6 5 (0.53%) Elasticsearch
6 5 (0.53%) Metadata
6 5 (0.53%) MongoDB
7 4 (0.42%) Oracle Database
8 3 (0.32%) Relational Database
8 3 (0.32%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 2 (0.21%) Geospatial Data
9 2 (0.21%) Oracle Database 12c
9 2 (0.21%) QGIS
9 2 (0.21%) SAP BW
10 1 (0.11%) Amazon Athena
10 1 (0.11%) Amazon Aurora
10 1 (0.11%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 56 (5.91%) JIRA
2 46 (4.85%) Jenkins
3 24 (2.53%) Git
4 20 (2.11%) GitLab
5 13 (1.37%) MSI
6 12 (1.27%) SoapUI
7 10 (1.05%) Selenium
8 9 (0.95%) Cucumber
9 7 (0.74%) REST Assured
10 6 (0.63%) Robot Framework
10 6 (0.63%) SonarQube
11 4 (0.42%) Maven
11 4 (0.42%) Rational DOORS
11 4 (0.42%) Sonatype Nexus
12 3 (0.32%) Burp Suite
12 3 (0.32%) Metasploit
13 2 (0.21%) Bitbucket
13 2 (0.21%) GoogleTest
13 2 (0.21%) Postman
13 2 (0.21%) TestRail
General
1 278 (29.32%) Social Skills
2 161 (16.98%) Public Sector
3 83 (8.76%) Analytical Skills
4 33 (3.48%) Finance
5 30 (3.16%) Aerospace
6 25 (2.64%) Telecoms
7 23 (2.43%) Manufacturing
8 18 (1.90%) Military
9 14 (1.48%) Documentation Skills
10 13 (1.37%) Organisational Skills
11 10 (1.05%) Law
12 9 (0.95%) Electronics
13 8 (0.84%) Presentation Skills
14 7 (0.74%) Legal
15 6 (0.63%) Influencing Skills
16 5 (0.53%) Pharmaceutical
17 4 (0.42%) Marketing
17 4 (0.42%) Retail
18 3 (0.32%) Aviation
18 3 (0.32%) Police
Job Titles
1 142 (14.98%) Architect
2 79 (8.33%) Consultant
3 77 (8.12%) Senior
4 61 (6.43%) Analyst
4 61 (6.43%) Network Engineer
5 55 (5.80%) Support Engineer
6 39 (4.11%) Lead
7 36 (3.80%) Developer
7 36 (3.80%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 34 (3.59%) SAP Consultant
9 27 (2.85%) Infrastructure Architect
10 26 (2.74%) Network Architect
10 26 (2.74%) Service Architect
11 25 (2.64%) Cloud Engineer
12 24 (2.53%) 3rd Line Engineer
12 24 (2.53%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
12 24 (2.53%) IT Engineer
13 23 (2.43%) Project Manager
14 21 (2.22%) Security Architect
14 21 (2.22%) VMware Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (2.22%) SOAP
2 16 (1.69%) React
3 13 (1.37%) REST
4 12 (1.27%) XML
5 10 (1.05%) RESTful
5 10 (1.05%) RFC 2544
6 9 (0.95%) Middleware
7 8 (0.84%) Elastic Stack
7 8 (0.84%) Node.js
7 8 (0.84%) Web Services
8 6 (0.63%) CSS
8 6 (0.63%) Java EE
8 6 (0.63%) JBoss Seam
8 6 (0.63%) SAP Fiori
9 5 (0.53%) .NET
9 5 (0.53%) Spring Boot
10 4 (0.42%) ARM Templates
10 4 (0.42%) HTML
10 4 (0.42%) Swagger
10 4 (0.42%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 43 (4.54%) Data Centre
2 35 (3.69%) Management Information System
3 30 (3.16%) PKI
4 24 (2.53%) Onboarding
5 19 (2.00%) Private Cloud
6 16 (1.69%) Self-Motivation
7 15 (1.58%) Replication
8 13 (1.37%) Security Operations Centre
9 12 (1.27%) Driving Licence
9 12 (1.27%) Fibre Optics
10 11 (1.16%) Legacy Systems
11 10 (1.05%) Analytical Mindset
11 10 (1.05%) Distributed Systems
12 9 (0.95%) SCADA
13 8 (0.84%) Enterprise Software
13 8 (0.84%) Enterprise Storage
13 8 (0.84%) Operational Technology
14 7 (0.74%) CMDB
14 7 (0.74%) Cyber Threat
14 7 (0.74%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 178 (18.78%) Windows
2 82 (8.65%) Linux
3 56 (5.91%) Windows Server
4 45 (4.75%) Windows 10
5 24 (2.53%) Windows Server 2019
6 17 (1.79%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 14 (1.48%) Windows Server 2003
8 9 (0.95%) Windows Server 2016
9 8 (0.84%) Unix
9 8 (0.84%) Windows Server 2012
10 6 (0.63%) VMS
10 6 (0.63%) Windows 7
11 5 (0.53%) CentOS
12 4 (0.42%) Mac OS
12 4 (0.42%) Ubuntu
13 3 (0.32%) Debian
13 3 (0.32%) Kali Linux
14 2 (0.21%) Android
14 2 (0.21%) Apple iOS
14 2 (0.21%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 143 (15.08%) Agile
2 114 (12.03%) Problem-Solving
3 100 (10.55%) ITIL
4 98 (10.34%) Migration
5 80 (8.44%) DevOps
5 80 (8.44%) Service Management
6 69 (7.28%) Stakeholder Management
7 65 (6.86%) Cybersecurity
8 64 (6.75%) CI/CD
8 64 (6.75%) Workflow
9 55 (5.80%) Test Automation
10 52 (5.49%) Risk Management
11 50 (5.27%) High Availability
12 49 (5.17%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 46 (4.85%) Project Delivery
14 44 (4.64%) Continuous Improvement
15 43 (4.54%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 41 (4.32%) Project Management
17 40 (4.22%) ITSM
17 40 (4.22%) Workflow Management
Programming Languages
1 90 (9.49%) Python
2 83 (8.76%) PowerShell
3 70 (7.38%) SQL
4 61 (6.43%) Java
5 30 (3.16%) JavaScript
6 29 (3.06%) C#
7 16 (1.69%) ABAP
8 14 (1.48%) Bash
9 11 (1.16%) Go
9 11 (1.16%) VB
10 9 (0.95%) Perl
11 8 (0.84%) C++
12 7 (0.74%) Shell Script
13 6 (0.63%) C
14 5 (0.53%) PHP
14 5 (0.53%) PL/SQL
14 5 (0.53%) TypeScript
15 4 (0.42%) Embedded C++
15 4 (0.42%) Kusto Query Language
16 2 (0.21%) Assembly Language
Qualifications
1 577 (60.86%) SC Cleared
2 341 (35.97%) DV Cleared
3 45 (4.75%) Degree
4 38 (4.01%) BPSS Clearance
5 32 (3.38%) Microsoft Certification
6 27 (2.85%) Cisco Certification
7 21 (2.22%) CCNP
7 21 (2.22%) CISSP
8 17 (1.79%) MCSE
9 16 (1.69%) Azure Certification
9 16 (1.69%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 14 (1.48%) AWS Certification
10 14 (1.48%) CISM
11 11 (1.16%) CCNA
12 10 (1.05%) Network+ Certification
12 10 (1.05%) Server+ Certification
12 10 (1.05%) VCP5
12 10 (1.05%) VCP6
13 9 (0.95%) CEH
13 9 (0.95%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 39 (4.11%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 39 (4.11%) SLA
2 31 (3.27%) QA
3 28 (2.95%) ISO/IEC 20000
3 28 (2.95%) NIST
4 21 (2.22%) GDPR
5 14 (1.48%) NCSC
6 10 (1.05%) NIST 800
7 9 (0.95%) PMO
7 9 (0.95%) RMADS
8 4 (0.42%) Actionable Recommendations
8 4 (0.42%) ISO 9001
9 3 (0.32%) Data Quality
9 3 (0.32%) HIPAA
9 3 (0.32%) P3O
10 2 (0.21%) ARP4754
10 2 (0.21%) COBIT
10 2 (0.21%) Def Stans
10 2 (0.21%) GMP
10 2 (0.21%) ISO 31000
System Software
1 82 (8.65%) Active Directory
2 61 (6.43%) VMware Infrastructure
3 43 (4.54%) VMware ESXi
4 35 (3.69%) vSphere
5 26 (2.74%) Docker
6 20 (2.11%) Hyper-V
7 18 (1.90%) VMware NSX
8 17 (1.79%) NFS
9 10 (1.05%) Brightmail
9 10 (1.05%) ISA Server
10 9 (0.95%) Virtual Machines
11 5 (0.53%) Terminal Services
12 4 (0.42%) BitLocker
12 4 (0.42%) Microsoft App-V
13 3 (0.32%) Firmware
14 2 (0.21%) Oracle RAC
14 2 (0.21%) UAG
14 2 (0.21%) Virtual Desktop
15 1 (0.11%) NetIQ eDirectory
15 1 (0.11%) Postfix
Systems Management
1 60 (6.33%) Ansible
2 48 (5.06%) Kubernetes
3 31 (3.27%) Terraform
4 24 (2.53%) SCCM
5 22 (2.32%) vCenter Server
6 12 (1.27%) SCOM
7 11 (1.16%) Microsoft Clustering
8 10 (1.05%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 9 (0.95%) WMI
10 8 (0.84%) FortiGate
11 7 (0.74%) NetBackup
11 7 (0.74%) vRealize
12 6 (0.63%) Grafana
12 6 (0.63%) Nmap
12 6 (0.63%) Prometheus
12 6 (0.63%) Puppet
13 5 (0.53%) Podman
13 5 (0.53%) QRadar
13 5 (0.53%) Rsyslog
14 4 (0.42%) Proxmox
Vendors
1 145 (15.30%) Microsoft
2 105 (11.08%) VMware
3 92 (9.70%) Cisco
4 57 (6.01%) SAP
5 55 (5.80%) Juniper
6 35 (3.69%) ServiceNow
7 30 (3.16%) Splunk
8 29 (3.06%) NetApp
9 27 (2.85%) Red Hat
9 27 (2.85%) SolarWinds
10 25 (2.64%) Google
11 21 (2.22%) Veeam
12 19 (2.00%) HP
13 14 (1.48%) Citrix
14 12 (1.27%) Palo Alto
15 11 (1.16%) CheckPoint
15 11 (1.16%) Dell
15 11 (1.16%) Fortinet
15 11 (1.16%) Oracle
16 9 (0.95%) ArcSight