Security Cleared Contract Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Security Clearance
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the Thames Valley with a requirement for Security Cleared qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 6 October 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 2 1
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 1,147 389 585
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 38.17% 23.10% 27.20%
As % of the Qualifications category 81.29% 66.04% 67.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 787 267 360
10th Percentile £400 £211 £330
25th Percentile £488 £358 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £570 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +14.00% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £625 £584 £638
90th Percentile £738 £638 £716
South East median daily rate £569 £525 £560
% change year-on-year +8.38% -6.25% +2.75%
Number of hourly rates quoted 152 39 57
10th Percentile £29.07 £18.67 £39.84
25th Percentile £51.25 - £56.65
Median hourly rate £81.03 £25.15 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +222.17% -59.17% +2.67%
75th Percentile £91.31 £44.68 £75.40
90th Percentile £104.00 £88.87 £100.00
South East median hourly rate £71.00 £25.15 £61.60
% change year-on-year +182.31% -59.17% +2.67%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
Thames Valley

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 Thames Valley.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 1,411 589 861
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 46.96% 34.98% 40.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 906 377 507
10th Percentile £375 £219 £279
25th Percentile £463 £363 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £554 £475 £510
Median % change year-on-year +16.58% -6.86% -2.86%
75th Percentile £625 £575 £625
90th Percentile £738 £638 £700
South East median daily rate £550 £500 £543
% change year-on-year +10.00% -7.83% +1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 196 51 65
10th Percentile £18.49 £18.87 £27.59
25th Percentile £34.84 - £48.18
Median hourly rate £73.60 £25.15 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +192.64% -59.17% +2.67%
75th Percentile £91.31 £36.48 £74.87
90th Percentile £104.00 £88.87 £99.00
South East median hourly rate £61.16 £25.15 £60.46
% change year-on-year +143.18% -58.40% +0.76%

Security Cleared
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Security Cleared relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley.

Security Cleared job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

Security Cleared
Daily Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Security Cleared.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Security Cleared

Security Cleared
Daily Rate Histogram in the Thames Valley

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Security Cleared in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 6 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Security Cleared in the Thames Valley

Security Cleared
Hourly Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Security Cleared.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Security Cleared

Security Cleared
Hourly Rate Histogram in the Thames Valley

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Security Cleared in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 6 October 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Security Cleared in the Thames Valley

Security Cleared
Contract Job Locations in the Thames Valley

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 Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 6 October 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
Berkshire +1 670 £575 +9.52% 267
Buckinghamshire +1 381 £560 +14.29% 94
Oxfordshire +2 96 £500 +163.16% 76
Security Cleared
South East

Security Cleared
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley 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 22 (1.92%) SharePoint
2 8 (0.70%) Confluence
3 7 (0.61%) Microsoft Exchange
4 4 (0.35%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.26%) Apache
6 2 (0.17%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.17%) Apache Superset
7 1 (0.087%) CMS
7 1 (0.087%) Kinematics
7 1 (0.087%) Oracle Service Bus
7 1 (0.087%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 1 (0.087%) SAS
7 1 (0.087%) WebLogic
Applications
1 33 (2.88%) Microsoft Excel
2 29 (2.53%) Microsoft Office
3 21 (1.83%) Microsoft Project
4 14 (1.22%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.61%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 28 (2.44%) Oracle ERP
2 26 (2.27%) SAP S/4HANA
3 18 (1.57%) Teamcenter
4 7 (0.61%) Primavera
5 4 (0.35%) iTrent
5 4 (0.35%) Remedy ITSM
5 4 (0.35%) SAP MM
5 4 (0.35%) SAP PP
6 3 (0.26%) Oracle Financials
6 3 (0.26%) SAP EWM
7 2 (0.17%) Oracle General Ledger
7 2 (0.17%) Oracle Payables
7 2 (0.17%) Oracle Receivables
8 1 (0.087%) Cloudability
8 1 (0.087%) Dynamics CRM
8 1 (0.087%) Salesforce CRM
8 1 (0.087%) SAP PLM
8 1 (0.087%) SAP PS
8 1 (0.087%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 265 (23.10%) Azure
2 88 (7.67%) AWS
3 63 (5.49%) Entra ID
4 57 (4.97%) Azure DevOps
5 40 (3.49%) GCP
6 39 (3.40%) Power Platform
7 34 (2.96%) Microsoft 365
8 25 (2.18%) OCI
9 23 (2.01%) Azure Monitor
10 21 (1.83%) OpenShift
10 21 (1.83%) SaaS
11 18 (1.57%) Azure Sentinel
12 13 (1.13%) Azure Logic Apps
13 12 (1.05%) IaaS
14 11 (0.96%) PaaS
15 9 (0.78%) AWS CloudFormation
15 9 (0.78%) GitHub
15 9 (0.78%) GitHub Actions
16 7 (0.61%) Azure AKS
16 7 (0.61%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 64 (5.58%) DNS
2 63 (5.49%) Firewall
3 47 (4.10%) Network Security
4 45 (3.92%) VPN
5 40 (3.49%) DHCP
6 32 (2.79%) WAN
7 27 (2.35%) TCP/IP
8 25 (2.18%) LAN
9 19 (1.66%) IPsec
9 19 (1.66%) SSL
10 15 (1.31%) Cisco Firepower
10 15 (1.31%) VSAN
11 13 (1.13%) Cisco ASA
12 12 (1.05%) BGP
12 12 (1.05%) MPLS
12 12 (1.05%) OSPF
12 12 (1.05%) SD-WAN
13 11 (0.96%) BIG-IP
13 11 (0.96%) Cisco Nexus
13 11 (0.96%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (2.70%) Power BI
2 29 (2.53%) SQL Server
3 21 (1.83%) Oracle Database
4 19 (1.66%) Metadata
5 7 (0.61%) Data Warehouse
5 7 (0.61%) Tableau
6 6 (0.52%) Azure SQL Database
6 6 (0.52%) MS Access
6 6 (0.52%) NoSQL
7 5 (0.44%) Oracle Database 11g
7 5 (0.44%) Oracle Reports
8 4 (0.35%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 4 (0.35%) Oracle Database 12c
8 4 (0.35%) Relational Database
9 3 (0.26%) Big Data
9 3 (0.26%) Hadoop
9 3 (0.26%) Oracle Database 10g
10 2 (0.17%) BusinessObjects
10 2 (0.17%) PostgreSQL
10 2 (0.17%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 21 (1.83%) JIRA
2 20 (1.74%) Git
3 18 (1.57%) Jenkins
4 13 (1.13%) GitLab
5 3 (0.26%) Rational DOORS
6 2 (0.17%) HP UFT
6 2 (0.17%) JMeter
6 2 (0.17%) Oracle Forms
6 2 (0.17%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.087%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.087%) Burp Suite
7 1 (0.087%) LoadRunner
7 1 (0.087%) NeoLoad
7 1 (0.087%) Oracle Developer 2000
7 1 (0.087%) Selenium
General
1 270 (23.54%) Social Skills
2 161 (14.04%) Aerospace
3 156 (13.60%) Public Sector
4 117 (10.20%) Analytical Skills
5 61 (5.32%) Documentation Skills
6 57 (4.97%) Finance
7 39 (3.40%) Influencing Skills
8 35 (3.05%) Military
9 33 (2.88%) Organisational Skills
10 26 (2.27%) Manufacturing
11 20 (1.74%) Telecoms
12 14 (1.22%) Aviation
13 12 (1.05%) Legal
14 9 (0.78%) Law
15 6 (0.52%) Police
16 5 (0.44%) Presentation Skills
17 4 (0.35%) Automotive
17 4 (0.35%) Billing
18 3 (0.26%) Inclusion and Diversity
19 2 (0.17%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 138 (12.03%) Analyst
2 133 (11.60%) Architect
3 131 (11.42%) Senior
4 128 (11.16%) Lead
5 78 (6.80%) Consultant
6 75 (6.54%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 46 (4.01%) Cloud Engineer
8 43 (3.75%) Delivery Manager
8 43 (3.75%) SOC Analyst
9 36 (3.14%) Administrator
10 35 (3.05%) Solutions Architect
11 34 (2.96%) Azure Engineer
11 34 (2.96%) Product Manager
12 30 (2.62%) DBA
12 30 (2.62%) Security Analyst
12 30 (2.62%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
13 29 (2.53%) Cybersecurity Analyst
14 27 (2.35%) Business Analyst
15 26 (2.27%) Project Manager
15 26 (2.27%) Security Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 61 (5.32%) Terraform
2 23 (2.01%) OAuth
3 21 (1.83%) ARM Templates
4 20 (1.74%) SAML
5 19 (1.66%) LDAP
5 19 (1.66%) OpenID
6 17 (1.48%) .NET
7 15 (1.31%) SailPoint
8 13 (1.13%) REST
9 11 (0.96%) 802.1X
9 11 (0.96%) OAuth2
9 11 (0.96%) Web Services
10 9 (0.78%) Middleware
11 8 (0.70%) XML
12 7 (0.61%) Oracle Fusion
12 7 (0.61%) RESTful
12 7 (0.61%) SOAP
13 4 (0.35%) JSON
13 4 (0.35%) YAML
14 3 (0.26%) SAP PI
Miscellaneous
1 65 (5.67%) Onboarding
2 51 (4.45%) Product Ownership
3 44 (3.84%) Hybrid Cloud
4 43 (3.75%) Operational Technology
5 37 (3.23%) Data Centre
6 31 (2.70%) Management Information System
7 22 (1.92%) PKI
8 21 (1.83%) Cloud Native
8 21 (1.83%) Greenfield Project
9 19 (1.66%) Cyber Threat
10 14 (1.22%) Data Protection Act
11 13 (1.13%) Virtual Team
12 12 (1.05%) Private Cloud
12 12 (1.05%) Public Cloud
12 12 (1.05%) Security Operations Centre
13 11 (0.96%) Distributed Systems
13 11 (0.96%) Security Posture
14 10 (0.87%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
14 10 (0.87%) Enterprise Software
14 10 (0.87%) PMI
Operating Systems
1 103 (8.98%) Linux
2 100 (8.72%) Windows
3 39 (3.40%) Windows Server
4 27 (2.35%) Unix
5 21 (1.83%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 12 (1.05%) Windows 10
7 4 (0.35%) Debian
8 2 (0.17%) Rocky
9 1 (0.087%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.087%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 206 (17.96%) Cybersecurity
2 188 (16.39%) Stakeholder Management
3 172 (15.00%) Continuous Improvement
4 170 (14.82%) Agile
5 151 (13.16%) ITIL
6 130 (11.33%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 127 (11.07%) DevOps
8 113 (9.85%) Roadmaps
9 110 (9.59%) CI/CD
10 107 (9.33%) ITSM
11 106 (9.24%) Problem-Solving
12 100 (8.72%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 98 (8.54%) SIEM
14 91 (7.93%) Change Management
15 89 (7.76%) Service Management
16 83 (7.24%) Project Delivery
17 79 (6.89%) Computer Science
18 74 (6.45%) Decision-Making
19 69 (6.02%) Technical Leadership
20 68 (5.93%) Digital Engineering
Programming Languages
1 115 (10.03%) Python
2 102 (8.89%) PowerShell
3 55 (4.80%) SQL
4 42 (3.66%) Bash
5 27 (2.35%) Bicep
6 12 (1.05%) Java
6 12 (1.05%) JavaScript
7 10 (0.87%) Kusto Query Language
7 10 (0.87%) PL/SQL
8 9 (0.78%) Go
9 8 (0.70%) C#
10 4 (0.35%) Shell Script
11 3 (0.26%) Groovy
11 3 (0.26%) T-SQL
12 2 (0.17%) VBScript
13 1 (0.087%) C++
13 1 (0.087%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 1 (0.087%) Gremlin
13 1 (0.087%) Scala
13 1 (0.087%) X++
Qualifications
1 819 (71.40%) SC Cleared
2 330 (28.77%) DV Cleared
3 131 (11.42%) Degree
4 41 (3.57%) Azure Certification
5 33 (2.88%) CISSP
6 30 (2.62%) PMI Certification
7 28 (2.44%) Cisco Certification
8 26 (2.27%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 25 (2.18%) PMP
10 22 (1.92%) BPSS Clearance
10 22 (1.92%) Microsoft Certification
11 17 (1.48%) Computer Science Degree
12 15 (1.31%) CISM
12 15 (1.31%) VCAP
13 13 (1.13%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 13 (1.13%) ISTQB
14 12 (1.05%) AWS Certification
15 11 (0.96%) GIAC
16 10 (0.87%) CCNP
16 10 (0.87%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 83 (7.24%) NIST
2 80 (6.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 34 (2.96%) PMO
4 31 (2.70%) NCSC
5 22 (1.92%) GDPR
6 19 (1.66%) QA
7 18 (1.57%) Data Quality
8 17 (1.48%) SLA
9 15 (1.31%) GRC
10 13 (1.13%) Cyber Essentials
11 11 (0.96%) ISO 9001
12 9 (0.78%) Def Stans
12 9 (0.78%) NIST 800
13 8 (0.70%) ISO 31000
14 6 (0.52%) ISO/IEC 20000
15 3 (0.26%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 3 (0.26%) GMP
15 3 (0.26%) JSP 440
16 2 (0.17%) ISO 22301
16 2 (0.17%) RMADS
System Software
1 102 (8.89%) Active Directory
2 68 (5.93%) VMware Infrastructure
3 35 (3.05%) VMware NSX
4 21 (1.83%) VMware ESXi
5 18 (1.57%) Docker
6 15 (1.31%) Hyper-V
7 14 (1.22%) Virtual Machines
8 9 (0.78%) vSphere
9 8 (0.70%) Oracle RAC
10 7 (0.61%) Virtual Desktop
11 6 (0.52%) Virtual Servers
12 4 (0.35%) Microsoft Virtual Server
13 3 (0.26%) BitLocker
14 1 (0.087%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 52 (4.53%) Kubernetes
2 42 (3.66%) Ansible
3 23 (2.01%) Microsoft Intune
4 22 (1.92%) SCCM
5 16 (1.39%) vCenter Server
6 10 (0.87%) Oracle RMAN
6 10 (0.87%) SCOM
7 8 (0.70%) Cisco CUCM
7 8 (0.70%) Data Guard
7 8 (0.70%) FortiGate
8 7 (0.61%) Grafana
8 7 (0.61%) QRadar
8 7 (0.61%) Red Hat Satellite
9 6 (0.52%) Single Sign-On
10 4 (0.35%) Prometheus
11 3 (0.26%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 3 (0.26%) Istio
11 3 (0.26%) MOM
12 2 (0.17%) NetBackup
12 2 (0.17%) Podman
Vendors
1 243 (21.19%) Microsoft
2 101 (8.81%) VMware
3 94 (8.20%) Oracle
4 82 (7.15%) ServiceNow
5 73 (6.36%) SAP
6 50 (4.36%) Cisco
7 26 (2.27%) Citrix
8 25 (2.18%) CyberArk
9 24 (2.09%) Red Hat
10 23 (2.01%) Google
11 22 (1.92%) BeyondTrust
11 22 (1.92%) F5
11 22 (1.92%) SolarWinds
12 20 (1.74%) Palo Alto
13 19 (1.66%) Juniper
14 13 (1.13%) Splunk
15 9 (0.78%) CheckPoint
15 9 (0.78%) CrowdStrike
15 9 (0.78%) Infoblox
16 8 (0.70%) Fortinet