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 1 March 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 24 10 10
Rank change year-on-year -14 0 +8
Permanent jobs citing Security Cleared 713 976 1,507
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 6.10% 12.82% 11.54%
As % of the Qualifications category 22.16% 26.62% 32.93%
Number of salaries quoted 446 638 1,189
10th Percentile £38,000 £41,925 £31,250
25th Percentile £50,000 £47,500 £42,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year - +9.09% +14.29%
75th Percentile £75,250 £77,500 £66,500
90th Percentile £90,000 £85,000 £78,750
England median annual salary £62,500 £61,419 £57,500
% change year-on-year +1.76% +6.82% +1.95%

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 3,217 3,667 4,577
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 27.51% 48.15% 35.05%
Number of salaries quoted 1,426 1,540 3,143
10th Percentile £28,375 £32,750 £28,500
25th Percentile £37,980 £46,250 £36,625
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £53,750 £57,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -6.52% +9.52% +2.59%
75th Percentile £70,000 £75,000 £67,500
90th Percentile £85,000 £85,000 £82,500
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -4.35%

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 1 March 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 1 March 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 -1 395 £65,000 +8.33% 185
Thames Valley 0 201 £60,000 +1.48% 207
Berkshire 0 118 £53,750 -10.42% 119
Surrey -15 67 £55,000 -16.98% 26
Buckinghamshire +21 61 £60,000 +4.19% 69
Oxfordshire +5 22 £65,000 +33.33% 30
West Sussex +6 21 £35,000 -9.68% 11
Kent -7 15 £39,000 -37.60% 24
Sussex - 10 £85,000 - 5
Home Counties 0 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 42 (5.89%) SharePoint
2 34 (4.77%) Microsoft Exchange
3 23 (3.23%) Exchange Server 2003
4 5 (0.70%) WordPress
5 4 (0.56%) Apache
5 4 (0.56%) Apache Airflow
5 4 (0.56%) Confluence
6 3 (0.42%) Appian
7 1 (0.14%) Apache Qpid
7 1 (0.14%) Camunda
7 1 (0.14%) IIS
7 1 (0.14%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 1 (0.14%) SAS
Applications
1 33 (4.63%) Microsoft Office
2 32 (4.49%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (0.70%) Adobe XD
4 2 (0.28%) Adobe After Effects
4 2 (0.28%) Adobe Captivate
4 2 (0.28%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 2 (0.28%) Adobe Illustrator
4 2 (0.28%) Adobe Premiere
4 2 (0.28%) Elementor
4 2 (0.28%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.28%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.28%) Photoshop
5 1 (0.14%) CATIA
5 1 (0.14%) GNU Octave
5 1 (0.14%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.14%) OrCAD
5 1 (0.14%) Simulink
5 1 (0.14%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 3 (0.42%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.28%) C-CURE
3 1 (0.14%) Primavera
3 1 (0.14%) Q-Pulse
3 1 (0.14%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.14%) Salesforce CRM
3 1 (0.14%) SAP GTS
3 1 (0.14%) SAP HR
3 1 (0.14%) SAP Payroll
3 1 (0.14%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 1 (0.14%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 76 (10.66%) Azure
2 63 (8.84%) AWS
3 41 (5.75%) Microsoft 365
4 29 (4.07%) Power Platform
5 28 (3.93%) Azure DevOps
6 22 (3.09%) GCP
7 19 (2.66%) PowerApps
8 17 (2.38%) Dynamics 365
9 13 (1.82%) Amazon EKS
10 10 (1.40%) Amazon EC2
10 10 (1.40%) Serverless
11 9 (1.26%) Amazon ECS
11 9 (1.26%) GitHub
11 9 (1.26%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
11 9 (1.26%) Salesforce Service Cloud
12 7 (0.98%) OpenShift
13 6 (0.84%) Entra ID
13 6 (0.84%) GitHub Actions
14 5 (0.70%) Amazon S3
14 5 (0.70%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 59 (8.27%) Firewall
2 52 (7.29%) DNS
3 33 (4.63%) DHCP
4 26 (3.65%) Structured Cabling
5 19 (2.66%) VPN
6 17 (2.38%) Cisco Firepower
6 17 (2.38%) Junos
6 17 (2.38%) WAN
7 15 (2.10%) BGP
7 15 (2.10%) Cisco IOS
8 14 (1.96%) Cisco ISE
8 14 (1.96%) LAN
9 12 (1.68%) Wi-Fi
10 11 (1.54%) MPLS
10 11 (1.54%) Network Security
10 11 (1.54%) TCP/IP
11 10 (1.40%) NX-OS
12 7 (0.98%) SNMP
13 6 (0.84%) Cisco ASA
14 5 (0.70%) VSAT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (3.65%) Oracle Database
2 24 (3.37%) Oracle Database 10g
3 21 (2.95%) Power BI
4 13 (1.82%) PostgreSQL
5 10 (1.40%) Relational Database
6 8 (1.12%) RDBMS
7 7 (0.98%) SQL Server
8 3 (0.42%) Airbyte
8 3 (0.42%) Big Data
8 3 (0.42%) Data Mining
9 2 (0.28%) BigQuery
9 2 (0.28%) MongoDB
9 2 (0.28%) MySQL
9 2 (0.28%) NoSQL
10 1 (0.14%) Amazon RDS
10 1 (0.14%) Data Warehouse
10 1 (0.14%) DB2
10 1 (0.14%) DynamoDB
10 1 (0.14%) Elasticsearch
10 1 (0.14%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 29 (4.07%) Git
2 27 (3.79%) GitLab
3 24 (3.37%) Selenium
4 23 (3.23%) Jenkins
5 19 (2.66%) Robot Framework
6 18 (2.52%) JIRA
7 17 (2.38%) Snyk
8 10 (1.40%) JUnit
9 9 (1.26%) Mockito
10 8 (1.12%) JMeter
11 6 (0.84%) Atlassian Bamboo
11 6 (0.84%) Subversion
12 5 (0.70%) Axure RP
12 5 (0.70%) Balsamiq
13 4 (0.56%) Cypress.io
14 3 (0.42%) Rational Rhapsody
15 2 (0.28%) Artifactory
15 2 (0.28%) Rational DOORS
15 2 (0.28%) TestRail
15 2 (0.28%) WebDriver
General
1 209 (29.31%) Social Skills
2 104 (14.59%) Analytical Skills
3 64 (8.98%) Public Sector
4 56 (7.85%) Finance
5 31 (4.35%) Law
6 28 (3.93%) Aeronautics
6 28 (3.93%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 27 (3.79%) Aviation
8 25 (3.51%) Manufacturing
9 20 (2.81%) Telecoms
10 18 (2.52%) Aerospace
11 16 (2.24%) Electronics
12 13 (1.82%) Legal
12 13 (1.82%) Marketing
12 13 (1.82%) Organisational Skills
13 12 (1.68%) Military
14 10 (1.40%) Banking
15 9 (1.26%) Documentation Skills
16 8 (1.12%) Influencing Skills
17 7 (0.98%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 83 (11.64%) Senior
2 80 (11.22%) Architect
3 58 (8.13%) Lead
4 49 (6.87%) Business Manager
5 47 (6.59%) Business Systems Manager
5 47 (6.59%) Systems Manager
6 45 (6.31%) Systems Engineer
7 44 (6.17%) Developer
8 41 (5.75%) Consultant
9 38 (5.33%) Support Engineer
10 37 (5.19%) Analyst
11 33 (4.63%) Network Engineer
12 30 (4.21%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 30 (4.21%) Systems Support
13 29 (4.07%) Software Engineer
14 28 (3.93%) Data Engineer
15 25 (3.51%) 3rd Line Support
16 18 (2.52%) Cloud Engineer
17 17 (2.38%) Technical Support
18 15 (2.10%) Java Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 27 (3.79%) REST
2 18 (2.52%) SOAP
3 16 (2.24%) HTML
4 13 (1.82%) .NET
4 13 (1.82%) Spring
5 12 (1.68%) XML
6 11 (1.54%) JSON
6 11 (1.54%) Middleware
6 11 (1.54%) Spring Boot
7 10 (1.40%) Kafka
7 10 (1.40%) React
7 10 (1.40%) Web Services
8 9 (1.26%) Hibernate
8 9 (1.26%) Lightning Web Components
8 9 (1.26%) Visualforce
9 8 (1.12%) ActiveMQ
9 8 (1.12%) Apache Camel
9 8 (1.12%) jQuery
9 8 (1.12%) WireMock
10 4 (0.56%) CSS
Miscellaneous
1 49 (6.87%) Robotics
2 28 (3.93%) Product Ownership
3 25 (3.51%) PKI
4 18 (2.52%) Cloud Native
4 18 (2.52%) Driving Licence
5 15 (2.10%) Data Centre
6 13 (1.82%) Security Posture
7 12 (1.68%) Distributed Systems
7 12 (1.68%) Onboarding
8 11 (1.54%) Security Operations Centre
9 8 (1.12%) e-Learning
9 8 (1.12%) Fibre Optics
9 8 (1.12%) Management Information System
10 7 (0.98%) Self-Motivation
11 6 (0.84%) Enterprise Software
12 5 (0.70%) Algorithms
12 5 (0.70%) Cloud Security Posture
12 5 (0.70%) Low-Code
13 4 (0.56%) Cyber Defence
13 4 (0.56%) Embedded Systems
Operating Systems
1 113 (15.85%) Windows
2 57 (7.99%) Linux
3 51 (7.15%) Windows Server
4 28 (3.93%) Unix
5 24 (3.37%) HPUX
5 24 (3.37%) Solaris
6 23 (3.23%) Windows 7
6 23 (3.23%) Windows Server 2003
7 22 (3.09%) Windows Server 2008
8 10 (1.40%) Windows Server 2016
9 9 (1.26%) Android
10 6 (0.84%) Ubuntu
11 5 (0.70%) Apple iOS
11 5 (0.70%) CentOS
12 4 (0.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 4 (0.56%) Windows 10
12 4 (0.56%) Windows Server 2019
13 1 (0.14%) AIX
13 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 143 (20.06%) Agile
2 91 (12.76%) Software Engineering
3 90 (12.62%) Project Management
4 85 (11.92%) Continuous Improvement
4 85 (11.92%) Problem-Solving
5 78 (10.94%) CI/CD
6 71 (9.96%) DevOps
7 70 (9.82%) AI
8 58 (8.13%) Risk Management
9 56 (7.85%) Process Improvement
10 54 (7.57%) Mentoring
11 49 (6.87%) Budget Management
11 49 (6.87%) Contract Negotiation
11 49 (6.87%) IT Strategy
11 49 (6.87%) Strategic Planning
12 42 (5.89%) Cybersecurity
13 41 (5.75%) Test Automation
14 39 (5.47%) Decision-Making
15 38 (5.33%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 38 (5.33%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 83 (11.64%) Python
2 45 (6.31%) PowerShell
3 42 (5.89%) Java
4 33 (4.63%) JavaScript
4 33 (4.63%) SQL
5 22 (3.09%) Perl
6 19 (2.66%) C#
6 19 (2.66%) C++
6 19 (2.66%) VBA
7 13 (1.82%) Rust
8 11 (1.54%) Bash
9 10 (1.40%) C
10 9 (1.26%) Apex Code
11 8 (1.12%) Shell Script
12 7 (0.98%) MATLAB
13 6 (0.84%) PL/SQL
14 5 (0.70%) Ladder Logic
15 4 (0.56%) TypeScript
16 2 (0.28%) Go
16 2 (0.28%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 451 (63.25%) SC Cleared
2 268 (37.59%) DV Cleared
3 107 (15.01%) Degree
4 28 (3.93%) Master's Degree
5 17 (2.38%) Cisco Certification
5 17 (2.38%) HNC
6 16 (2.24%) CCNA
7 15 (2.10%) BPSS Clearance
8 14 (1.96%) APMP
8 14 (1.96%) MBA
9 12 (1.68%) CCNP
9 12 (1.68%) CISSP
10 11 (1.54%) Microsoft Certification
11 9 (1.26%) DBS Check
12 8 (1.12%) Computer Science Degree
13 7 (0.98%) CISM
13 7 (0.98%) CRISC
13 7 (0.98%) ISTQB
13 7 (0.98%) JNCIA
13 7 (0.98%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 34 (4.77%) SLA
2 21 (2.95%) GDPR
3 18 (2.52%) QA
4 17 (2.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 13 (1.82%) Accessibility
5 13 (1.82%) NIST
6 10 (1.40%) NCSC
7 9 (1.26%) GRC
8 7 (0.98%) PMO
9 6 (0.84%) ISO 9001
10 5 (0.70%) WCAG
11 4 (0.56%) PCI DSS
12 3 (0.42%) ISO 13485
12 3 (0.42%) JSP 440
12 3 (0.42%) NIST 800
13 2 (0.28%) Data Quality
13 2 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 20000
13 2 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 42001
13 2 (0.28%) RMADS
14 1 (0.14%) HIPAA
System Software
1 59 (8.27%) Active Directory
2 30 (4.21%) Docker
3 25 (3.51%) VMware NSX
4 22 (3.09%) VMware Infrastructure
5 17 (2.38%) Firmware
6 7 (0.98%) vSphere
7 6 (0.84%) VMware ESXi
8 3 (0.42%) Hyper-V
8 3 (0.42%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.28%) Terminal Server
10 1 (0.14%) Apache ZooKeeper
10 1 (0.14%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 39 (5.47%) Kubernetes
2 38 (5.33%) Terraform
3 33 (4.63%) Ansible
4 23 (3.23%) vCenter Server
5 11 (1.54%) SCCM
5 11 (1.54%) SCOM
6 10 (1.40%) Grafana
7 9 (1.26%) Prometheus
7 9 (1.26%) vRealize
8 8 (1.12%) Kibana
9 7 (0.98%) Endace
9 7 (0.98%) Nessus
10 5 (0.70%) ZABBIX
11 4 (0.56%) Jamf Pro
11 4 (0.56%) WSUS
12 3 (0.42%) Nagios
12 3 (0.42%) QRadar
13 2 (0.28%) OpenView
13 2 (0.28%) Tivoli
13 2 (0.28%) WMI
Vendors
1 99 (13.88%) Microsoft
2 66 (9.26%) VMware
3 50 (7.01%) Cisco
4 37 (5.19%) Juniper
4 37 (5.19%) Oracle
5 22 (3.09%) Splunk
6 19 (2.66%) Salesforce
7 17 (2.38%) Black Duck
7 17 (2.38%) Coverity
7 17 (2.38%) SolarWinds
8 13 (1.82%) Google
9 12 (1.68%) SAP
10 11 (1.54%) CheckPoint
11 10 (1.40%) Broadcom
12 9 (1.26%) F5
12 9 (1.26%) LogRhythm
12 9 (1.26%) Palo Alto
12 9 (1.26%) ServiceNow
13 8 (1.12%) Dynatrace
13 8 (1.12%) MuleSoft