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

6 months to
27 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 22 13 11
Rank change year-on-year -9 -2 +10
Permanent jobs citing Security Cleared 792 758 1,792
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 5.46% 9.99% 10.64%
As % of the Qualifications category 23.82% 20.21% 31.72%
Number of salaries quoted 580 500 1,358
10th Percentile £41,110 £41,250 £34,000
25th Percentile £52,500 £47,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £67,500 £57,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +17.39% +4.55% +10.55%
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 3,325 3,750 5,649
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 22.91% 49.41% 33.53%
Number of salaries quoted 1,724 1,485 3,652
10th Percentile £31,000 £31,750 £30,000
25th Percentile £41,110 £40,000 £38,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £52,500 £51,676
Median % change year-on-year +14.29% +1.59% +1.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £68,750 £67,500
90th Percentile £86,790 £79,500 £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 27 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 27 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 -5 358 £75,000 +30.43% 188
Thames Valley +26 287 £65,000 +13.04% 133
Berkshire +14 185 £67,500 +12.50% 83
Buckinghamshire +30 77 £55,000 - 37
Surrey -10 75 £57,303 +27.34% 39
West Sussex -6 27 £35,000 -6.67% 8
Oxfordshire -9 25 £70,000 +35.27% 24
Kent -24 24 £52,500 -19.23% 12
Sussex - 12 £85,000 -
East Sussex -13 4 £70,000 - 3
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 25 (3.16%) 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%) Camunda
5 1 (0.13%) IIS
5 1 (0.13%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 22 (2.78%) Microsoft Office
2 19 (2.40%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (1.39%) Simulink
4 2 (0.25%) Lectora
5 1 (0.13%) Adobe XD
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 72 (9.09%) AWS
3 38 (4.80%) 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
8 12 (1.52%) OpenShift
9 11 (1.39%) PowerApps
10 10 (1.26%) Amazon EC2
10 10 (1.26%) Azure AKS
10 10 (1.26%) Entra ID
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 77 (9.72%) Firewall
2 54 (6.82%) DNS
3 36 (4.55%) WAN
4 27 (3.41%) LAN
5 25 (3.16%) VPN
6 22 (2.78%) BGP
7 19 (2.40%) Structured Cabling
8 17 (2.15%) TCP/IP
9 15 (1.89%) Network Security
10 14 (1.77%) HTTP
11 12 (1.52%) DHCP
12 11 (1.39%) NetScaler
13 10 (1.26%) Cisco Firepower
13 10 (1.26%) MQTT
13 10 (1.26%) OSPF
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 11 (1.39%) Relational Database
4 10 (1.26%) SQL Server
5 4 (0.51%) Elasticsearch
5 4 (0.51%) GIS
5 4 (0.51%) MySQL
6 3 (0.38%) Oracle Database
6 3 (0.38%) Redis
7 2 (0.25%) Metadata
8 1 (0.13%) Big Data
8 1 (0.13%) Data Lake
8 1 (0.13%) Data Warehouse
8 1 (0.13%) DynamoDB
8 1 (0.13%) Geospatial Data
8 1 (0.13%) MongoDB
8 1 (0.13%) Oracle Database 11g
8 1 (0.13%) Oracle Database 12c
8 1 (0.13%) SAS Visual Analytics
8 1 (0.13%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 62 (7.83%) Git
2 49 (6.19%) 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 6 (0.76%) Cucumber
8 6 (0.76%) JUnit
9 5 (0.63%) Artifactory
10 4 (0.51%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 4 (0.51%) Snyk
10 4 (0.51%) Subversion
11 3 (0.38%) Android Studio
11 3 (0.38%) Bitbucket
11 3 (0.38%) Cypress.io
11 3 (0.38%) JMeter
11 3 (0.38%) Mockito
11 3 (0.38%) Rational DOORS
11 3 (0.38%) Visual Studio
General
1 169 (21.34%) Social Skills
2 80 (10.10%) Finance
3 79 (9.97%) 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%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 22 (2.78%) Law
8 22 (2.78%) Manufacturing
9 21 (2.65%) Aviation
10 16 (2.02%) Organisational Skills
10 16 (2.02%) Telecoms
11 14 (1.77%) Documentation Skills
12 12 (1.52%) Banking
13 9 (1.14%) Aeronautics
13 9 (1.14%) Games
14 8 (1.01%) Influencing Skills
14 8 (1.01%) Retail
15 5 (0.63%) French Language
Job Titles
1 126 (15.91%) Senior
2 104 (13.13%) Architect
3 72 (9.09%) Developer
4 64 (8.08%) Software Engineer
5 52 (6.57%) Lead
6 44 (5.56%) Analyst
7 39 (4.92%) Network Engineer
8 35 (4.42%) 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%) Senior Software Engineer
18 20 (2.53%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (3.91%) .NET
2 23 (2.90%) React
2 23 (2.90%) REST
3 17 (2.15%) LDAP
3 17 (2.15%) Regular Expression
4 16 (2.02%) Spring
5 13 (1.64%) XMPP
6 12 (1.52%) JSON
6 12 (1.52%) Kafka
7 11 (1.39%) Elastic Stack
8 10 (1.26%) SOAP
9 8 (1.01%) RabbitMQ
9 8 (1.01%) RESTful
9 8 (1.01%) Spring Boot
10 7 (0.88%) AngularJS
10 7 (0.88%) Middleware
10 7 (0.88%) YAML
11 6 (0.76%) JPA
11 6 (0.76%) Web Services
11 6 (0.76%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 34 (4.29%) 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 13 (1.64%) Cyber Threat
8 13 (1.64%) Distributed Systems
8 13 (1.64%) Robotics
9 12 (1.52%) Analytical Mindset
9 12 (1.52%) Security Posture
9 12 (1.52%) Self-Motivation
10 10 (1.26%) Fibre Optics
11 8 (1.01%) Data Structures
11 8 (1.01%) Legacy Systems
11 8 (1.01%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 127 (16.04%) Linux
2 99 (12.50%) Windows
3 64 (8.08%) 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
1 152 (19.19%) Agile
2 106 (13.38%) CI/CD
3 100 (12.63%) DevOps
4 95 (11.99%) Software Engineering
5 85 (10.73%) Continuous Improvement
5 85 (10.73%) Problem-Solving
6 67 (8.46%) Cybersecurity
7 50 (6.31%) Mentoring
8 48 (6.06%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 48 (6.06%) Scrum
9 46 (5.81%) Containerisation
9 46 (5.81%) Infrastructure as Code
10 45 (5.68%) SIEM
11 44 (5.56%) AI
12 43 (5.43%) Decision-Making
13 39 (4.92%) Computer Science
13 39 (4.92%) Microservices
13 39 (4.92%) Platform Engineering
13 39 (4.92%) Test Automation
13 39 (4.92%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 115 (14.52%) Python
2 57 (7.20%) Java
3 50 (6.31%) C++
4 37 (4.67%) C#
5 35 (4.42%) SQL
6 32 (4.04%) 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%) Go
14 10 (1.26%) Shell Script
15 9 (1.14%) PL/SQL
16 7 (0.88%) PHP
17 6 (0.76%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 493 (62.25%) SC Cleared
2 292 (36.87%) DV Cleared
3 127 (16.04%) Degree
4 25 (3.16%) HNC
5 20 (2.53%) Master's Degree
6 16 (2.02%) Computer Science Degree
7 13 (1.64%) BPSS Clearance
7 13 (1.64%) CISSP
8 11 (1.39%) Cisco Certification
9 10 (1.26%) CCNP
9 10 (1.26%) CRISC
10 9 (1.14%) APMP
10 9 (1.14%) CompTIA Security+
10 9 (1.14%) CREST Certified
10 9 (1.14%) MBA
11 7 (0.88%) ISACA
11 7 (0.88%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 7 (0.88%) OSCP
12 5 (0.63%) CHECK Team Member
12 5 (0.63%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (2.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 17 (2.15%) GDPR
3 16 (2.02%) QA
4 14 (1.77%) NCSC
4 14 (1.77%) SLA
5 12 (1.52%) NIST
5 12 (1.52%) PMO
6 10 (1.26%) ISO 9001
7 9 (1.14%) Def Stans
8 7 (0.88%) Accessibility
9 6 (0.76%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 5 (0.63%) NEBOSH
11 4 (0.51%) JSP 440
12 3 (0.38%) GRC
12 3 (0.38%) WCAG
13 2 (0.25%) Cyber Essentials
13 2 (0.25%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 2 (0.25%) ISO 22301
13 2 (0.25%) ISO/IEC 15288
13 2 (0.25%) NIST 800
System Software
1 62 (7.83%) Docker
2 58 (7.32%) Active Directory
3 27 (3.41%) vSphere
4 24 (3.03%) Firmware
5 21 (2.65%) 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 72 (9.09%) 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 9 (1.14%) vRealize
8 8 (1.01%) Nessus
8 8 (1.01%) Podman
9 7 (0.88%) Puppet
10 6 (0.76%) Nagios
10 6 (0.76%) SCCM
10 6 (0.76%) SCOM
11 5 (0.63%) Endace
11 5 (0.63%) Graylog
11 5 (0.63%) Packer
11 5 (0.63%) QRadar
12 4 (0.51%) Docker Swarm
13 3 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 97 (12.25%) Microsoft
2 59 (7.45%) VMware
3 34 (4.29%) Cisco
4 26 (3.28%) Splunk
5 25 (3.16%) Oracle
6 22 (2.78%) Red Hat
7 15 (1.89%) McAfee
8 14 (1.77%) Google
9 13 (1.64%) Juniper
10 12 (1.52%) Citrix
10 12 (1.52%) ServiceNow
11 11 (1.39%) CheckPoint
11 11 (1.39%) Tenable
12 10 (1.26%) SolarWinds
13 9 (1.14%) AppDynamics
13 9 (1.14%) NVIDIA
13 9 (1.14%) Salesforce
14 8 (1.01%) IBM
14 8 (1.01%) NetApp
14 8 (1.01%) Palo Alto