Security Cleared Job Trends in the South East

Security Clearance
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies advertised in the South East with a requirement for Security Cleared qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered over the 6 months leading up to 12 August 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 16 12 10
Rank change year-on-year -4 -2 +2
Permanent jobs citing Security Cleared 1,148 875 1,613
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 6.76% 9.94% 11.64%
As % of the Qualifications category 32.62% 24.70% 37.52%
Number of salaries quoted 788 510 1,089
10th Percentile £39,000 £37,500 £39,125
25th Percentile £52,500 £46,250 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £60,000 £56,252
Median % change year-on-year +16.67% +6.66% +7.15%
75th Percentile £85,000 £78,750 £72,500
90th Percentile £98,750 £87,500 £85,000
England median annual salary £70,000 £60,000 £58,000
% change year-on-year +16.67% +3.45% -3.33%

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 permanent job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications in the South East.

Permanent vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 3,519 3,543 4,299
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 20.71% 40.26% 31.02%
Number of salaries quoted 2,074 1,643 2,578
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,050 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,250 £37,500 £41,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £51,000 £52,550
Median % change year-on-year +17.65% -2.95% +0.10%
75th Percentile £76,250 £70,000 £68,750
90th Percentile £90,000 £82,500 £85,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.33%

Security Cleared
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Security Cleared relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Security Cleared job vacancy trend in the South East

Security Cleared
Salary Trend in the South East

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Security Cleared.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Security Cleared

Security Cleared
Salary Histogram in the South East

Salary distribution for jobs citing Security Cleared in the South East over the 6 months to 12 August 2026.

Salary histogram for Security Cleared in the South East

Security Cleared
Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Security Cleared within the South East region over the 6 months to 12 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Hampshire -2 590 £75,000 +15.38% 317
Thames Valley +22 345 £67,500 +22.73% 217
Berkshire +21 224 £70,000 +23.35% 119
Surrey -1 147 £50,000 +25.00% 71
Buckinghamshire +24 105 £55,000 +2.33% 55
West Sussex -11 27 £35,000 -6.67% 16
Kent -25 17 £52,500 -4.55% 29
Oxfordshire -22 16 £100,000 +86.92% 50
Sussex -3 6 £77,500 +47.62% 3
East Sussex -15 6 £70,000 +40.00% 3
Middlesex +35 3 £65,000 - 1
Isle of Wight - 1 £70,000 - 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 13 (1.13%) SharePoint
2 11 (0.96%) Apache
3 6 (0.52%) Confluence
3 6 (0.52%) SAS
4 5 (0.44%) nginx
5 3 (0.26%) IIS
6 2 (0.17%) Microsoft Exchange
6 2 (0.17%) Oracle Workflow
7 1 (0.087%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.087%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 26 (2.26%) Microsoft Excel
2 18 (1.57%) Simulink
3 16 (1.39%) Microsoft Office
4 10 (0.87%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (0.44%) Solid Edge
5 5 (0.44%) SOLIDWORKS
6 4 (0.35%) Mathcad
6 4 (0.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 3 (0.26%) Chatbot
8 2 (0.17%) Lectora
9 1 (0.087%) AutoCAD
9 1 (0.087%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 8 (0.70%) Primavera
2 4 (0.35%) Workday HCM
3 2 (0.17%) Oracle Applications
3 2 (0.17%) Siebel CRM
3 2 (0.17%) Teamcenter
4 1 (0.087%) SAP MDG
4 1 (0.087%) SAP MM
4 1 (0.087%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.087%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 187 (16.29%) Azure
2 117 (10.19%) AWS
3 55 (4.79%) Microsoft 365
4 38 (3.31%) GCP
5 34 (2.96%) Entra ID
6 22 (1.92%) Serverless
7 21 (1.83%) Power Platform
8 18 (1.57%) OpenShift
9 16 (1.39%) GitHub
10 14 (1.22%) Amazon EKS
11 13 (1.13%) Azure DevOps
11 13 (1.13%) Azure Sentinel
12 12 (1.05%) GitHub Actions
13 11 (0.96%) Azure AKS
14 10 (0.87%) Amazon EC2
14 10 (0.87%) PowerApps
15 9 (0.78%) Azure Stack
16 7 (0.61%) AWS Lambda
17 6 (0.52%) Amazon ECS
17 6 (0.52%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 119 (10.37%) Firewall
2 73 (6.36%) DNS
3 65 (5.66%) WAN
4 53 (4.62%) LAN
5 44 (3.83%) TCP/IP
6 43 (3.75%) VPN
7 42 (3.66%) Network Security
8 21 (1.83%) BGP
9 18 (1.57%) HTTP
9 18 (1.57%) VLAN
10 17 (1.48%) ATM
11 14 (1.22%) OSPF
11 14 (1.22%) VoIP
12 12 (1.05%) Intrusion Detection
12 12 (1.05%) NGFW
12 12 (1.05%) SAN
12 12 (1.05%) SD-WAN
13 11 (0.96%) NAS
13 11 (0.96%) NetScaler
13 11 (0.96%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (2.35%) PostgreSQL
2 20 (1.74%) Power BI
3 19 (1.66%) Relational Database
4 14 (1.22%) MySQL
4 14 (1.22%) SQL Server
5 6 (0.52%) Elasticsearch
6 4 (0.35%) GIS
6 4 (0.35%) MongoDB
6 4 (0.35%) Oracle Database
6 4 (0.35%) Redis
7 3 (0.26%) Tableau
8 2 (0.17%) Data Warehouse
8 2 (0.17%) Geospatial Data
8 2 (0.17%) Metadata
8 2 (0.17%) Oracle Database 11g
8 2 (0.17%) Oracle Database 12c
8 2 (0.17%) RDBMS
8 2 (0.17%) Siebel EIM
9 1 (0.087%) Big Data
9 1 (0.087%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 73 (6.36%) Git
2 47 (4.09%) GitLab
3 30 (2.61%) JIRA
4 23 (2.00%) Jenkins
5 14 (1.22%) Visual Studio Code
6 10 (0.87%) SonarQube
7 9 (0.78%) Rational DOORS
8 6 (0.52%) Artifactory
8 6 (0.52%) JMeter
9 5 (0.44%) Cucumber
9 5 (0.44%) JUnit
10 4 (0.35%) Bitbucket
10 4 (0.35%) LabVIEW
10 4 (0.35%) Selenium
11 3 (0.26%) Android Studio
11 3 (0.26%) Gatling
11 3 (0.26%) LoadRunner
12 2 (0.17%) Cypress.io
12 2 (0.17%) Mockito
12 2 (0.17%) MSTest
General
1 275 (23.95%) Social Skills
2 128 (11.15%) Analytical Skills
3 117 (10.19%) Finance
4 115 (10.02%) Public Sector
5 102 (8.89%) Aerospace
6 60 (5.23%) Electronics
7 57 (4.97%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 57 (4.97%) Military
8 33 (2.87%) Manufacturing
9 28 (2.44%) Aviation
9 28 (2.44%) Organisational Skills
10 24 (2.09%) Law
11 23 (2.00%) Telecoms
12 22 (1.92%) Documentation Skills
13 15 (1.31%) Influencing Skills
14 12 (1.05%) Aeronautics
14 12 (1.05%) Games
14 12 (1.05%) Legal
15 11 (0.96%) Banking
15 11 (0.96%) Police
Job Titles
1 166 (14.46%) Architect
1 166 (14.46%) Senior
2 121 (10.54%) Software Engineer
3 86 (7.49%) Lead
4 76 (6.62%) Analyst
5 63 (5.49%) Developer
6 59 (5.14%) Systems Engineer
7 57 (4.97%) Security Architect
8 48 (4.18%) Consultant
9 46 (4.01%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 41 (3.57%) Network Engineer
11 35 (3.05%) Applications Architect
11 35 (3.05%) Senior Software Engineer
12 28 (2.44%) Azure Engineer
13 27 (2.35%) Project Manager
13 27 (2.35%) Solutions Architect
14 25 (2.18%) SOC Analyst
15 24 (2.09%) Security Engineer
15 24 (2.09%) Support Engineer
16 23 (2.00%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (2.96%) LDAP
2 31 (2.70%) .NET
3 30 (2.61%) ModSecurity
4 29 (2.53%) React
5 23 (2.00%) Regular Expression
6 19 (1.66%) XMPP
7 16 (1.39%) Kafka
7 16 (1.39%) Spring
8 15 (1.31%) REST
9 12 (1.05%) Elastic Stack
9 12 (1.05%) JSON
10 11 (0.96%) AngularJS
10 11 (0.96%) HTML
10 11 (0.96%) Web Services
11 10 (0.87%) ARM Templates
11 10 (0.87%) CSS
11 10 (0.87%) OAuth
11 10 (0.87%) OpenID
11 10 (0.87%) SAML
11 10 (0.87%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 48 (4.18%) Cloud Native
2 41 (3.57%) Social Media
3 40 (3.48%) Data Centre
4 39 (3.40%) Onboarding
5 38 (3.31%) Driving Licence
6 32 (2.79%) Algorithms
7 28 (2.44%) Product Ownership
8 27 (2.35%) Management Information System
8 27 (2.35%) Self-Motivation
9 24 (2.09%) Cyber Threat
9 24 (2.09%) Embedded Systems
10 23 (2.00%) FPGA
11 20 (1.74%) PKI
11 20 (1.74%) Robotics
11 20 (1.74%) Security Operations Centre
12 19 (1.66%) Cyber Defence
12 19 (1.66%) Legacy Systems
12 19 (1.66%) Private Cloud
13 18 (1.57%) Hybrid Cloud
14 17 (1.48%) Analytical Mindset
Operating Systems
1 197 (17.16%) Linux
2 144 (12.54%) Windows
3 83 (7.23%) Windows Server
4 35 (3.05%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 18 (1.57%) Ubuntu
6 15 (1.31%) CentOS
7 11 (0.96%) Windows Server 2016
8 7 (0.61%) Windows Server 2019
9 6 (0.52%) Android
9 6 (0.52%) Windows 10
10 5 (0.44%) Unix
11 4 (0.35%) Debian
12 3 (0.26%) AIX
13 2 (0.17%) Mac OS
13 2 (0.17%) Rocky
14 1 (0.087%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 190 (16.55%) Agile
2 175 (15.24%) Software Engineering
3 159 (13.85%) Problem-Solving
4 155 (13.50%) Continuous Improvement
5 138 (12.02%) Cybersecurity
6 126 (10.98%) CI/CD
7 113 (9.84%) Validation
8 110 (9.58%) DevOps
9 99 (8.62%) Decision-Making
10 91 (7.93%) AI
11 87 (7.58%) Mentoring
12 82 (7.14%) Stakeholder Management
13 81 (7.06%) SIEM
14 78 (6.79%) ITIL
15 77 (6.71%) Technical Leadership
16 69 (6.01%) Infrastructure Engineering
17 65 (5.66%) Containerisation
18 64 (5.57%) Infrastructure as Code
19 62 (5.40%) Incident Response
20 59 (5.14%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 153 (13.33%) Python
2 82 (7.14%) C++
3 55 (4.79%) Java
4 50 (4.36%) C
5 49 (4.27%) PowerShell
6 48 (4.18%) C#
7 40 (3.48%) Bash
8 31 (2.70%) JavaScript
9 29 (2.53%) SQL
10 24 (2.09%) Rust
10 24 (2.09%) TypeScript
11 22 (1.92%) MATLAB
12 17 (1.48%) Embedded C
13 16 (1.39%) Shell Script
14 15 (1.31%) Embedded C++
15 13 (1.13%) Go
16 12 (1.05%) PHP
17 11 (0.96%) Ada
18 10 (0.87%) PL/SQL
18 10 (0.87%) VBA
Qualifications
1 735 (64.02%) SC Cleared
2 440 (38.33%) DV Cleared
3 173 (15.07%) Degree
4 59 (5.14%) BPSS Clearance
5 52 (4.53%) CISSP
6 46 (4.01%) Cisco Certification
7 33 (2.87%) CCNP
8 28 (2.44%) HNC
9 25 (2.18%) Master's Degree
10 23 (2.00%) CISM
11 21 (1.83%) Azure Certification
12 18 (1.57%) CompTIA Security+
12 18 (1.57%) Computer Science Degree
13 17 (1.48%) GIAC
14 16 (1.39%) CCNA
14 16 (1.39%) CREST Certified
15 13 (1.13%) GCIA
15 13 (1.13%) PMI Certification
16 12 (1.05%) OSCP
17 11 (0.96%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (3.31%) QA
2 33 (2.87%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 33 (2.87%) SLA
3 23 (2.00%) NIST
4 22 (1.92%) NCSC
5 21 (1.83%) Accessibility
6 15 (1.31%) ISO 9001
7 14 (1.22%) GDPR
8 11 (0.96%) Def Stans
9 10 (0.87%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 10 (0.87%) PMO
10 7 (0.61%) MISRA
11 6 (0.52%) JSP 440
11 6 (0.52%) NIST 800
12 5 (0.44%) GRC
12 5 (0.44%) NEBOSH
13 4 (0.35%) Cyber Essentials
14 3 (0.26%) HMG Security Policy Framework
14 3 (0.26%) ISO 22301
15 2 (0.17%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 76 (6.62%) Active Directory
2 74 (6.45%) Docker
3 37 (3.22%) vSphere
4 33 (2.87%) VMware Infrastructure
5 24 (2.09%) Firmware
6 18 (1.57%) VMware ESXi
7 16 (1.39%) Virtual Machines
8 12 (1.05%) VMware NSX
9 11 (0.96%) Hyper-V
10 5 (0.44%) Embedded Firmware
10 5 (0.44%) Squid
11 4 (0.35%) KVM
12 2 (0.17%) UAG
13 1 (0.087%) Oracle RAC
13 1 (0.087%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 100 (8.71%) Kubernetes
2 67 (5.84%) Terraform
3 56 (4.88%) Ansible
4 17 (1.48%) Kibana
5 16 (1.39%) Grafana
5 16 (1.39%) Microsoft Intune
6 14 (1.22%) Single Sign-On
7 13 (1.13%) Prometheus
8 10 (0.87%) vCenter Server
9 9 (0.78%) Podman
10 8 (0.70%) Nessus
11 7 (0.61%) Puppet
12 6 (0.52%) Argo
12 6 (0.52%) Graylog
12 6 (0.52%) Kustomize
12 6 (0.52%) Nagios
12 6 (0.52%) Packer
12 6 (0.52%) QRadar
13 4 (0.35%) Docker Swarm
13 4 (0.35%) Istio
Vendors
1 137 (11.93%) Microsoft
2 81 (7.06%) VMware
3 53 (4.62%) Cisco
4 36 (3.14%) Oracle
5 32 (2.79%) Red Hat
6 31 (2.70%) ServiceNow
7 28 (2.44%) Splunk
8 22 (1.92%) Fortinet
9 20 (1.74%) Palo Alto
10 16 (1.39%) SAP
11 15 (1.31%) McAfee
12 14 (1.22%) Google
13 12 (1.05%) AppDynamics
13 12 (1.05%) Citrix
13 12 (1.05%) EMC
14 11 (0.96%) IBM
15 10 (0.87%) NVIDIA
16 9 (0.78%) ForgeRock
16 9 (0.78%) Okta
16 9 (0.78%) Veeam