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 16 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 12 15 10
Rank change year-on-year +3 -5 +2
Permanent jobs citing Security Cleared 1,388 867 1,641
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 7.56% 9.66% 12.72%
As % of the Qualifications category 36.60% 23.93% 39.62%
Number of salaries quoted 898 475 985
10th Percentile £40,000 £33,500 £39,227
25th Percentile £52,500 £46,250 £42,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £58,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +20.69% +0.87% +7.48%
75th Percentile £85,000 £75,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £97,875 £87,500 £87,500
England median annual salary £70,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +16.67% - +2.56%

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 3,792 3,623 4,142
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 20.65% 40.37% 32.11%
Number of salaries quoted 2,232 1,606 2,130
10th Percentile £30,275 £30,000 £32,500
25th Percentile £42,500 £36,250 £41,263
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £51,300 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +16.96% -6.73% +4.76%
75th Percentile £77,500 £68,750 £72,500
90th Percentile £90,000 £82,500 £85,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £56,180
% change year-on-year +9.09% -2.10% -4.78%

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 16 September 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 16 September 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 0 743 £75,000 +20.00% 366
Thames Valley +24 383 £70,000 +27.27% 318
Berkshire +29 261 £70,000 +27.27% 210
Surrey +4 187 £50,000 +31.58% 108
Buckinghamshire +20 110 £55,000 - 59
West Sussex -14 29 £41,500 +16.08% 43
Kent -28 18 £52,500 -4.55% 32
Oxfordshire -37 12 £100,000 +15.94% 51
East Sussex -10 6 £70,000 +40.00% 5
Isle of Wight - 6 £70,000 - 2
Sussex -7 5 £65,000 +23.81% 5
Middlesex +18 3 £65,000 - 2
Home Counties - 2 £80,000 -
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 14 (1.01%) SharePoint
2 11 (0.79%) Apache
3 7 (0.50%) Confluence
4 6 (0.43%) SAS
5 5 (0.36%) nginx
6 4 (0.29%) IIS
7 3 (0.22%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.14%) Microsoft Exchange
8 2 (0.14%) Oracle Workflow
8 2 (0.14%) Palantir Foundry
9 1 (0.072%) Kinematics
Applications
1 32 (2.31%) Microsoft Excel
2 25 (1.80%) Microsoft Office
3 18 (1.30%) Microsoft Project
3 18 (1.30%) Simulink
4 7 (0.50%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.43%) SOLIDWORKS
6 5 (0.36%) Solid Edge
7 4 (0.29%) Mathcad
8 3 (0.22%) Chatbot
8 3 (0.22%) Mathematica
9 2 (0.14%) Lectora
9 2 (0.14%) UserZoom
10 1 (0.072%) Adobe XD
10 1 (0.072%) AutoCAD
10 1 (0.072%) CATIA
10 1 (0.072%) MS Visio
10 1 (0.072%) OrCAD
10 1 (0.072%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 8 (0.58%) Primavera
2 4 (0.29%) Workday HCM
3 2 (0.14%) Oracle Applications
3 2 (0.14%) Siebel CRM
3 2 (0.14%) Teamcenter
4 1 (0.072%) ENOVIA
4 1 (0.072%) SAP MDG
4 1 (0.072%) SAP MM
4 1 (0.072%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.072%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 213 (15.35%) Azure
2 148 (10.66%) AWS
3 58 (4.18%) Microsoft 365
4 42 (3.03%) Entra ID
5 36 (2.59%) GCP
6 28 (2.02%) Power Platform
7 22 (1.59%) Serverless
8 20 (1.44%) OpenShift
9 18 (1.30%) GitHub
10 16 (1.15%) Cloud Computing
11 14 (1.01%) Amazon EKS
11 14 (1.01%) Azure Sentinel
12 13 (0.94%) Azure DevOps
12 13 (0.94%) GitHub Actions
13 11 (0.79%) Azure AKS
14 10 (0.72%) Amazon EC2
15 9 (0.65%) SaaS
16 8 (0.58%) Azure Stack
16 8 (0.58%) PowerApps
17 7 (0.50%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 124 (8.93%) Firewall
2 71 (5.12%) DNS
3 62 (4.47%) WAN
4 54 (3.89%) LAN
5 49 (3.53%) Network Security
6 45 (3.24%) TCP/IP
7 43 (3.10%) VPN
8 20 (1.44%) HTTP
9 19 (1.37%) BGP
10 18 (1.30%) ATM
10 18 (1.30%) VLAN
11 15 (1.08%) DHCP
11 15 (1.08%) Intrusion Detection
12 14 (1.01%) OSPF
13 13 (0.94%) VoIP
14 12 (0.86%) NGFW
14 12 (0.86%) SD-WAN
15 11 (0.79%) SSL
16 10 (0.72%) VSAT
17 9 (0.65%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (1.87%) PostgreSQL
1 26 (1.87%) Power BI
2 21 (1.51%) Relational Database
3 15 (1.08%) MySQL
4 10 (0.72%) Elasticsearch
4 10 (0.72%) SQL Server
5 4 (0.29%) GIS
5 4 (0.29%) MongoDB
5 4 (0.29%) Oracle Database
5 4 (0.29%) Redis
5 4 (0.29%) Tableau
6 3 (0.22%) Big Data
6 3 (0.22%) Metadata
7 2 (0.14%) Data Warehouse
7 2 (0.14%) Geospatial Data
7 2 (0.14%) NoSQL
7 2 (0.14%) Oracle Database 11g
7 2 (0.14%) Oracle Database 12c
7 2 (0.14%) RDBMS
7 2 (0.14%) Siebel EIM
Development Applications
1 73 (5.26%) Git
2 43 (3.10%) GitLab
3 27 (1.95%) JIRA
4 24 (1.73%) Jenkins
5 14 (1.01%) Visual Studio Code
6 10 (0.72%) JMeter
6 10 (0.72%) SonarQube
7 9 (0.65%) Rational DOORS
8 6 (0.43%) Artifactory
8 6 (0.43%) Cucumber
8 6 (0.43%) Gatling
8 6 (0.43%) LoadRunner
9 5 (0.36%) JUnit
9 5 (0.36%) LabVIEW
9 5 (0.36%) Selenium
10 4 (0.29%) Bitbucket
11 2 (0.14%) Android Studio
11 2 (0.14%) Cypress.io
11 2 (0.14%) Mockito
11 2 (0.14%) MSTest
General
1 310 (22.33%) Social Skills
2 183 (13.18%) Aerospace
3 156 (11.24%) Analytical Skills
4 137 (9.87%) Finance
5 127 (9.15%) Public Sector
6 72 (5.19%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 72 (5.19%) Military
7 68 (4.90%) Electronics
8 43 (3.10%) Manufacturing
9 38 (2.74%) Organisational Skills
10 37 (2.67%) Aviation
11 29 (2.09%) Retail
12 27 (1.95%) Law
13 26 (1.87%) Telecoms
14 20 (1.44%) Documentation Skills
15 18 (1.30%) Influencing Skills
16 17 (1.22%) Legal
17 15 (1.08%) Police
18 13 (0.94%) Aeronautics
18 13 (0.94%) Banking
Job Titles
1 204 (14.70%) Architect
2 187 (13.47%) Senior
3 121 (8.72%) Software Engineer
4 120 (8.65%) Lead
5 106 (7.64%) Systems Engineer
6 95 (6.84%) Analyst
7 84 (6.05%) Security Architect
8 57 (4.11%) Developer
9 49 (3.53%) Consultant
10 46 (3.31%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 39 (2.81%) Network Engineer
12 38 (2.74%) Project Manager
13 35 (2.52%) Senior Software Engineer
14 34 (2.45%) Security Analyst
14 34 (2.45%) Senior Manager
15 32 (2.31%) Azure Engineer
16 28 (2.02%) Platform Engineer
16 28 (2.02%) Solutions Architect
17 27 (1.95%) SOC Analyst
18 26 (1.87%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 67 (4.83%) Terraform
2 40 (2.88%) ModSecurity
3 34 (2.45%) LDAP
4 33 (2.38%) React
5 26 (1.87%) .NET
6 18 (1.30%) HTML
6 18 (1.30%) Regular Expression
7 17 (1.22%) Spring
7 17 (1.22%) XMPP
8 16 (1.15%) CSS
9 14 (1.01%) Kafka
9 14 (1.01%) REST
10 13 (0.94%) AngularJS
10 13 (0.94%) OAuth
10 13 (0.94%) OpenID
10 13 (0.94%) SAML
11 12 (0.86%) Elastic Stack
11 12 (0.86%) Web Services
12 10 (0.72%) Spring Boot
12 10 (0.72%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 58 (4.18%) Cloud Native
2 51 (3.67%) Data Centre
3 50 (3.60%) Onboarding
4 43 (3.10%) Social Media
5 42 (3.03%) Algorithms
5 42 (3.03%) Driving Licence
6 34 (2.45%) Cyber Threat
6 34 (2.45%) Management Information System
6 34 (2.45%) Self-Motivation
7 32 (2.31%) Product Ownership
7 32 (2.31%) Security Operations Centre
8 30 (2.16%) Cyber Defence
9 25 (1.80%) Embedded Systems
9 25 (1.80%) Robotics
10 23 (1.66%) FPGA
11 20 (1.44%) Enterprise Software
11 20 (1.44%) Hybrid Cloud
12 19 (1.37%) Analytical Mindset
12 19 (1.37%) Private Cloud
13 18 (1.30%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 191 (13.76%) Linux
2 145 (10.45%) Windows
3 71 (5.12%) Windows Server
4 26 (1.87%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 15 (1.08%) Ubuntu
6 11 (0.79%) CentOS
7 9 (0.65%) Windows Server 2016
8 7 (0.50%) Windows Server 2019
9 6 (0.43%) Windows 10
10 5 (0.36%) Android
10 5 (0.36%) Debian
11 4 (0.29%) Unix
12 3 (0.22%) AIX
13 2 (0.14%) Mac OS
13 2 (0.14%) Rocky
14 1 (0.072%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 210 (15.13%) Agile
2 207 (14.91%) Continuous Improvement
3 193 (13.90%) Problem-Solving
4 186 (13.40%) Software Engineering
5 173 (12.46%) Validation
6 157 (11.31%) Cybersecurity
7 140 (10.09%) CI/CD
8 120 (8.65%) Mentoring
9 118 (8.50%) DevOps
9 118 (8.50%) Stakeholder Management
10 115 (8.29%) AI
11 113 (8.14%) Decision-Making
12 97 (6.99%) Technical Leadership
13 87 (6.27%) SIEM
14 83 (5.98%) ITIL
15 77 (5.55%) Incident Response
16 74 (5.33%) Infrastructure as Code
17 73 (5.26%) Verification and Validation
18 70 (5.04%) Stakeholder Engagement
19 69 (4.97%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 163 (11.74%) Python
2 90 (6.48%) C++
3 56 (4.03%) Java
4 53 (3.82%) C#
5 51 (3.67%) C
5 51 (3.67%) PowerShell
6 43 (3.10%) Bash
7 40 (2.88%) JavaScript
8 32 (2.31%) SQL
9 31 (2.23%) MATLAB
10 29 (2.09%) TypeScript
11 23 (1.66%) Rust
12 20 (1.44%) Embedded C
13 16 (1.15%) Embedded C++
14 14 (1.01%) Go
15 13 (0.94%) PHP
16 12 (0.86%) Shell Script
17 11 (0.79%) Ada
17 11 (0.79%) Perl
18 10 (0.72%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 842 (60.66%) SC Cleared
2 550 (39.63%) DV Cleared
3 201 (14.48%) Degree
4 64 (4.61%) CISSP
5 62 (4.47%) BPSS Clearance
6 46 (3.31%) Cisco Certification
7 35 (2.52%) CISM
8 33 (2.38%) CCNP
9 30 (2.16%) Azure Certification
9 30 (2.16%) Master's Degree
10 29 (2.09%) HNC
11 20 (1.44%) CompTIA Security+
12 19 (1.37%) Computer Science Degree
13 17 (1.22%) GIAC
13 17 (1.22%) PhD
14 16 (1.15%) CREST Certified
14 16 (1.15%) PMI Certification
15 15 (1.08%) CCNA
15 15 (1.08%) HND
16 13 (0.94%) GCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 42 (3.03%) QA
2 41 (2.95%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 37 (2.67%) SLA
4 33 (2.38%) NIST
5 29 (2.09%) Accessibility
6 21 (1.51%) NCSC
7 15 (1.08%) Def Stans
7 15 (1.08%) ISO 9001
8 14 (1.01%) GDPR
9 11 (0.79%) NIST 800
10 9 (0.65%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 8 (0.58%) GRC
11 8 (0.58%) MISRA
11 8 (0.58%) PMO
12 6 (0.43%) JSP 440
12 6 (0.43%) NEBOSH
13 5 (0.36%) WCAG
14 4 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials
14 4 (0.29%) Data Quality
15 3 (0.22%) ISO 22301
System Software
1 78 (5.62%) Active Directory
2 72 (5.19%) Docker
3 32 (2.31%) VMware Infrastructure
4 30 (2.16%) vSphere
5 23 (1.66%) Firmware
6 18 (1.30%) Virtual Machines
6 18 (1.30%) VMware ESXi
7 12 (0.86%) VMware NSX
8 11 (0.79%) Hyper-V
9 5 (0.36%) Embedded Firmware
9 5 (0.36%) Squid
10 4 (0.29%) KVM
11 2 (0.14%) UAG
12 1 (0.072%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 109 (7.85%) Kubernetes
2 58 (4.18%) Ansible
3 20 (1.44%) Kibana
3 20 (1.44%) Single Sign-On
4 18 (1.30%) Grafana
4 18 (1.30%) Microsoft Intune
5 12 (0.86%) Prometheus
6 11 (0.79%) vCenter Server
7 9 (0.65%) Podman
8 7 (0.50%) Argo
8 7 (0.50%) Graylog
8 7 (0.50%) Kustomize
8 7 (0.50%) Puppet
8 7 (0.50%) QRadar
9 6 (0.43%) Nessus
9 6 (0.43%) Packer
9 6 (0.43%) SCCM
10 5 (0.36%) Istio
11 4 (0.29%) Docker Swarm
11 4 (0.29%) Nagios
Vendors
1 142 (10.23%) Microsoft
2 77 (5.55%) VMware
3 49 (3.53%) Cisco
4 32 (2.31%) Oracle
4 32 (2.31%) ServiceNow
5 30 (2.16%) Red Hat
6 27 (1.95%) Thales
7 25 (1.80%) Splunk
8 22 (1.59%) Fortinet
9 20 (1.44%) EMC
10 18 (1.30%) Palo Alto
11 17 (1.22%) SAP
12 15 (1.08%) AppDynamics
13 14 (1.01%) Google
13 14 (1.01%) McAfee
14 12 (0.86%) ForgeRock
14 12 (0.86%) IBM
14 12 (0.86%) Okta
15 11 (0.79%) Veeam
16 10 (0.72%) NVIDIA