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 28 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 23 13 11
Rank change year-on-year -10 -2 +10
Permanent jobs citing Security Cleared 792 766 1,801
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 5.45% 10.01% 10.64%
As % of the Qualifications category 23.78% 20.29% 31.81%
Number of salaries quoted 584 504 1,358
10th Percentile £40,000 £41,250 £34,000
25th Percentile £51,250 £47,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £67,500 £57,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +17.39% +4.55% +10.00%
75th Percentile £82,500 £77,500 £70,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £87,500 £82,500
England median annual salary £65,000 £60,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year +8.33% +4.35% -4.17%

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 3,331 3,776 5,662
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 22.93% 49.36% 33.46%
Number of salaries quoted 1,730 1,501 3,652
10th Percentile £31,000 £31,750 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,813 £40,000 £38,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £52,500 £52,000
Median % change year-on-year +14.29% +0.96% +1.96%
75th Percentile £75,000 £68,750 £67,500
90th Percentile £86,500 £80,000 £82,500
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 28 May 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 28 May 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 -5 360 £75,000 +29.87% 190
Thames Valley +26 284 £65,000 +12.71% 127
Berkshire +16 184 £67,500 +12.50% 77
Surrey -5 76 £56,152 +24.78% 38
Buckinghamshire +33 75 £55,000 - 33
West Sussex -6 27 £35,000 -6.67% 9
Oxfordshire -8 25 £70,000 +35.27% 28
Kent -20 24 £52,500 -19.23% 11
Sussex - 12 £85,000 -
East Sussex -13 4 £70,000 - 1
Home Counties -2 1 - -
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 24 (3.03%) SharePoint
2 5 (0.63%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (0.51%) Confluence
3 4 (0.51%) SAS
4 3 (0.38%) Apache
5 1 (0.13%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.13%) Apache Qpid
5 1 (0.13%) IIS
5 1 (0.13%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 23 (2.90%) Microsoft Office
2 20 (2.53%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (1.39%) Simulink
4 2 (0.25%) Lectora
Business Applications
1 1 (0.13%) Primavera
1 1 (0.13%) Remedy ITSM
1 1 (0.13%) SAP MM
1 1 (0.13%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 114 (14.39%) Azure
2 71 (8.96%) AWS
3 39 (4.92%) Microsoft 365
4 36 (4.55%) GCP
5 19 (2.40%) Power Platform
5 19 (2.40%) Serverless
6 18 (2.27%) Amazon EKS
7 17 (2.15%) Azure DevOps
8 12 (1.52%) Dynamics 365
9 11 (1.39%) Entra ID
9 11 (1.39%) OpenShift
9 11 (1.39%) PowerApps
10 10 (1.26%) Amazon EC2
10 10 (1.26%) Azure AKS
11 9 (1.14%) GitHub
12 7 (0.88%) AWS Lambda
12 7 (0.88%) Azure Sentinel
12 7 (0.88%) Azure Stack
13 6 (0.76%) Amazon ECS
13 6 (0.76%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 76 (9.60%) Firewall
2 54 (6.82%) DNS
3 37 (4.67%) WAN
4 28 (3.54%) LAN
5 26 (3.28%) VPN
6 23 (2.90%) BGP
7 19 (2.40%) Structured Cabling
8 18 (2.27%) TCP/IP
9 15 (1.89%) Network Security
10 14 (1.77%) HTTP
11 12 (1.52%) DHCP
12 11 (1.39%) NetScaler
12 11 (1.39%) OSPF
13 10 (1.26%) Cisco Firepower
13 10 (1.26%) MQTT
14 9 (1.14%) MPLS
14 9 (1.14%) SAN
14 9 (1.14%) Wireshark
15 8 (1.01%) NAS
15 8 (1.01%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (2.15%) Power BI
2 15 (1.89%) PostgreSQL
3 10 (1.26%) Relational Database
3 10 (1.26%) SQL Server
4 4 (0.51%) Elasticsearch
4 4 (0.51%) GIS
5 3 (0.38%) MySQL
5 3 (0.38%) Oracle Database
5 3 (0.38%) Redis
6 2 (0.25%) Metadata
7 1 (0.13%) Big Data
7 1 (0.13%) Data Lake
7 1 (0.13%) Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.13%) DynamoDB
7 1 (0.13%) Geospatial Data
7 1 (0.13%) MongoDB
7 1 (0.13%) Oracle Database 11g
7 1 (0.13%) Oracle Database 12c
7 1 (0.13%) SAS Visual Analytics
7 1 (0.13%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 61 (7.70%) Git
2 50 (6.31%) GitLab
3 21 (2.65%) Jenkins
4 18 (2.27%) JIRA
5 14 (1.77%) Visual Studio Code
6 11 (1.39%) SonarQube
7 7 (0.88%) Selenium
8 5 (0.63%) Artifactory
8 5 (0.63%) Cucumber
8 5 (0.63%) JUnit
9 4 (0.51%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 4 (0.51%) Snyk
9 4 (0.51%) Subversion
10 3 (0.38%) Android Studio
10 3 (0.38%) Bitbucket
10 3 (0.38%) JMeter
10 3 (0.38%) Rational DOORS
10 3 (0.38%) Robot Framework
10 3 (0.38%) Visual Studio
11 2 (0.25%) MSTest
General
1 170 (21.46%) Social Skills
2 79 (9.97%) Finance
3 78 (9.85%) Public Sector
4 59 (7.45%) Analytical Skills
5 37 (4.67%) Electronics
6 26 (3.28%) Aerospace
7 25 (3.16%) Military
8 22 (2.78%) Manufacturing
9 21 (2.65%) Aviation
9 21 (2.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 21 (2.65%) Law
10 17 (2.15%) Telecoms
11 16 (2.02%) Organisational Skills
12 14 (1.77%) Documentation Skills
13 12 (1.52%) Banking
14 9 (1.14%) Aeronautics
14 9 (1.14%) Games
15 8 (1.01%) Influencing Skills
15 8 (1.01%) Retail
16 5 (0.63%) French Language
Job Titles
1 126 (15.91%) Senior
2 103 (13.01%) Architect
3 71 (8.96%) Developer
4 64 (8.08%) Software Engineer
5 50 (6.31%) Lead
6 46 (5.81%) Analyst
7 40 (5.05%) Network Engineer
8 34 (4.29%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 33 (4.17%) Systems Engineer
10 32 (4.04%) Applications Architect
11 31 (3.91%) Security Architect
12 30 (3.79%) Consultant
13 29 (3.66%) Data Engineer
14 27 (3.41%) Java Developer
15 25 (3.16%) DevOps Engineer
16 22 (2.78%) Azure Engineer
16 22 (2.78%) Support Engineer
17 21 (2.65%) IT Engineer
17 21 (2.65%) Security Engineer
17 21 (2.65%) Senior Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (3.91%) .NET
2 23 (2.90%) REST
3 22 (2.78%) React
4 17 (2.15%) LDAP
4 17 (2.15%) Regular Expression
5 15 (1.89%) Spring
6 13 (1.64%) XMPP
7 12 (1.52%) JSON
7 12 (1.52%) Kafka
8 11 (1.39%) Elastic Stack
9 10 (1.26%) SOAP
10 8 (1.01%) RabbitMQ
10 8 (1.01%) RESTful
11 7 (0.88%) Middleware
11 7 (0.88%) Spring Boot
11 7 (0.88%) YAML
12 6 (0.76%) AngularJS
12 6 (0.76%) ARM Templates
12 6 (0.76%) Web Services
12 6 (0.76%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 33 (4.17%) Product Ownership
2 27 (3.41%) Algorithms
3 24 (3.03%) Data Centre
4 19 (2.40%) Onboarding
4 19 (2.40%) PKI
5 17 (2.15%) Embedded Systems
6 16 (2.02%) Cloud Native
6 16 (2.02%) Driving Licence
7 15 (1.89%) Cyber Defence
7 15 (1.89%) FPGA
8 14 (1.77%) Cyber Threat
9 13 (1.64%) Distributed Systems
9 13 (1.64%) Robotics
9 13 (1.64%) Self-Motivation
10 12 (1.52%) Analytical Mindset
10 12 (1.52%) Security Posture
11 10 (1.26%) Fibre Optics
12 9 (1.14%) Security Operations Centre
13 8 (1.01%) Data Structures
13 8 (1.01%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 128 (16.16%) Linux
2 97 (12.25%) Windows
3 61 (7.70%) Windows Server
4 27 (3.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 14 (1.77%) Ubuntu
6 12 (1.52%) CentOS
7 8 (1.01%) Android
7 8 (1.01%) Windows Server 2016
8 6 (0.76%) Windows Server 2019
9 3 (0.38%) Debian
10 2 (0.25%) AIX
10 2 (0.25%) Unix
11 1 (0.13%) Apple iOS
11 1 (0.13%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.13%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 149 (18.81%) Agile
2 106 (13.38%) CI/CD
3 100 (12.63%) DevOps
4 95 (11.99%) Software Engineering
5 84 (10.61%) Continuous Improvement
5 84 (10.61%) Problem-Solving
6 68 (8.59%) Cybersecurity
7 51 (6.44%) Mentoring
8 48 (6.06%) Scrum
9 47 (5.93%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 46 (5.81%) Infrastructure as Code
10 46 (5.81%) SIEM
11 45 (5.68%) AI
11 45 (5.68%) Containerisation
12 43 (5.43%) Decision-Making
13 41 (5.18%) Computer Science
14 40 (5.05%) Platform Engineering
15 39 (4.92%) ITIL
15 39 (4.92%) Microservices
15 39 (4.92%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 116 (14.65%) Python
2 57 (7.20%) Java
3 51 (6.44%) C++
4 37 (4.67%) C#
5 35 (4.42%) SQL
6 33 (4.17%) C
7 30 (3.79%) PowerShell
8 23 (2.90%) JavaScript
9 18 (2.27%) Bash
9 18 (2.27%) Rust
10 16 (2.02%) MATLAB
11 15 (1.89%) TypeScript
12 13 (1.64%) Embedded C
12 13 (1.64%) Embedded C++
13 11 (1.39%) VBA
14 10 (1.26%) PL/SQL
14 10 (1.26%) Shell Script
15 9 (1.14%) Go
16 7 (0.88%) PHP
17 6 (0.76%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 492 (62.12%) SC Cleared
2 293 (36.99%) DV Cleared
3 128 (16.16%) Degree
4 25 (3.16%) HNC
5 20 (2.53%) Master's Degree
6 16 (2.02%) Computer Science Degree
7 14 (1.77%) BPSS Clearance
7 14 (1.77%) CISSP
8 12 (1.52%) Cisco Certification
9 11 (1.39%) CCNP
10 10 (1.26%) CREST Certified
10 10 (1.26%) CRISC
11 9 (1.14%) APMP
11 9 (1.14%) CompTIA Security+
11 9 (1.14%) MBA
12 8 (1.01%) OSCP
13 7 (0.88%) ISACA
13 7 (0.88%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 6 (0.76%) CCNA
14 6 (0.76%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (2.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 17 (2.15%) GDPR
3 16 (2.02%) QA
4 15 (1.89%) SLA
5 14 (1.77%) NCSC
6 13 (1.64%) NIST
7 12 (1.52%) PMO
8 10 (1.26%) ISO 9001
9 9 (1.14%) Def Stans
10 6 (0.76%) Accessibility
10 6 (0.76%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 5 (0.63%) NEBOSH
12 4 (0.51%) GRC
12 4 (0.51%) JSP 440
13 3 (0.38%) Cyber Essentials
14 2 (0.25%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 2 (0.25%) ISO 22301
14 2 (0.25%) ISO/IEC 15288
14 2 (0.25%) ISO/IEC 27005
14 2 (0.25%) NIST 800
System Software
1 61 (7.70%) Docker
2 56 (7.07%) Active Directory
3 27 (3.41%) vSphere
4 24 (3.03%) Firmware
5 20 (2.53%) VMware NSX
6 19 (2.40%) VMware Infrastructure
7 6 (0.76%) Virtual Machines
8 5 (0.63%) Embedded Firmware
9 4 (0.51%) Hyper-V
10 3 (0.38%) VMware ESXi
11 2 (0.25%) Terminal Server
11 2 (0.25%) UAG
12 1 (0.13%) Oracle RAC
12 1 (0.13%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 71 (8.96%) Kubernetes
2 57 (7.20%) Terraform
3 50 (6.31%) Ansible
4 16 (2.02%) vCenter Server
5 12 (1.52%) Grafana
5 12 (1.52%) Prometheus
6 11 (1.39%) Kibana
7 8 (1.01%) Podman
7 8 (1.01%) vRealize
8 7 (0.88%) Nessus
8 7 (0.88%) Puppet
9 6 (0.76%) Nagios
9 6 (0.76%) SCCM
9 6 (0.76%) SCOM
10 5 (0.63%) Endace
10 5 (0.63%) Graylog
10 5 (0.63%) Packer
10 5 (0.63%) QRadar
11 4 (0.51%) Docker Swarm
12 3 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 99 (12.50%) Microsoft
2 57 (7.20%) VMware
3 35 (4.42%) Cisco
4 26 (3.28%) Splunk
5 25 (3.16%) Oracle
6 21 (2.65%) Red Hat
7 15 (1.89%) McAfee
8 14 (1.77%) Google
8 14 (1.77%) Juniper
8 14 (1.77%) ServiceNow
9 12 (1.52%) Citrix
10 11 (1.39%) CheckPoint
10 11 (1.39%) Tenable
11 10 (1.26%) SolarWinds
12 9 (1.14%) AppDynamics
12 9 (1.14%) NVIDIA
12 9 (1.14%) Salesforce
13 8 (1.01%) IBM
13 8 (1.01%) NetApp
13 8 (1.01%) Palo Alto