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 3 October 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 12 14 10
Rank change year-on-year +2 -4 +2
Permanent jobs citing Security Cleared 1,418 851 1,664
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 7.48% 9.49% 13.25%
As % of the Qualifications category 36.86% 23.67% 39.42%
Number of salaries quoted 900 479 968
10th Percentile £39,000 £30,750 £39,304
25th Percentile £51,250 £45,608 £43,871
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £57,500 £58,000
Median % change year-on-year +21.74% -0.86% +7.89%
75th Percentile £85,000 £74,875 £77,500
90th Percentile £97,625 £87,300 £87,500
England median annual salary £70,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +16.67% - +1.69%

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 3,847 3,595 4,221
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 20.29% 40.11% 33.60%
Number of salaries quoted 2,300 1,613 2,011
10th Percentile £30,725 £30,000 £32,750
25th Percentile £42,000 £35,854 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £50,000 £56,000
Median % change year-on-year +20.00% -10.71% +6.67%
75th Percentile £76,250 £68,750 £75,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £82,500 £85,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -2.46%

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 3 October 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 3 October 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 0 748 £75,000 +22.70% 398
Thames Valley +23 393 £70,000 +27.27% 432
Berkshire +27 270 £70,000 +27.27% 279
Surrey +6 190 £50,000 +33.33% 81
Buckinghamshire +18 107 £55,000 +4.76% 95
West Sussex -14 35 £41,500 +16.08% 48
Kent -16 24 £47,500 -13.64% 25
Oxfordshire -31 17 £100,000 +15.94% 69
East Sussex -5 6 £70,000 +40.00% 16
Sussex -9 6 £65,000 +23.81% 5
Isle of Wight - 6 £70,000 - 1
Middlesex +18 3 £65,000 - 3
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 15 (1.06%) SharePoint
2 11 (0.78%) Apache
3 7 (0.49%) Confluence
4 6 (0.42%) SAS
5 5 (0.35%) nginx
6 4 (0.28%) IIS
7 3 (0.21%) Apache Spark
7 3 (0.21%) Palantir Foundry
8 2 (0.14%) Microsoft Exchange
8 2 (0.14%) Oracle Workflow
9 1 (0.071%) Kinematics
Applications
1 33 (2.33%) Microsoft Office
2 30 (2.12%) Microsoft Excel
3 19 (1.34%) Microsoft Project
4 18 (1.27%) Simulink
5 7 (0.49%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.49%) SOLIDWORKS
6 5 (0.35%) Solid Edge
7 4 (0.28%) Mathcad
7 4 (0.28%) Mathematica
8 3 (0.21%) Chatbot
8 3 (0.21%) MS Visio
9 2 (0.14%) AutoCAD
9 2 (0.14%) Lectora
9 2 (0.14%) OrCAD
9 2 (0.14%) UserZoom
10 1 (0.071%) Adobe XD
10 1 (0.071%) CATIA
10 1 (0.071%) Revit
10 1 (0.071%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 8 (0.56%) Primavera
2 5 (0.35%) SAP S/4HANA
3 4 (0.28%) Workday HCM
4 3 (0.21%) SAP MM
4 3 (0.21%) SAP PM
5 2 (0.14%) Oracle Applications
5 2 (0.14%) SAP PP
5 2 (0.14%) SAP QM
5 2 (0.14%) Siebel CRM
5 2 (0.14%) Teamcenter
6 1 (0.071%) ENOVIA
6 1 (0.071%) SAP CO
6 1 (0.071%) SAP FI
6 1 (0.071%) SAP FI/CO
6 1 (0.071%) SAP MDG
6 1 (0.071%) SAP PS
Cloud Services
1 212 (14.95%) Azure
2 152 (10.72%) AWS
3 62 (4.37%) Microsoft 365
4 45 (3.17%) Entra ID
5 38 (2.68%) GCP
6 26 (1.83%) Power Platform
7 21 (1.48%) Cloud Computing
8 20 (1.41%) OpenShift
9 19 (1.34%) GitHub
10 15 (1.06%) Serverless
11 14 (0.99%) Azure Sentinel
11 14 (0.99%) GitHub Actions
12 12 (0.85%) Azure DevOps
13 11 (0.78%) Azure AKS
14 10 (0.71%) Azure Stack
15 8 (0.56%) SaaS
16 7 (0.49%) Amazon EKS
16 7 (0.49%) PowerApps
17 6 (0.42%) Cloudflare
17 6 (0.42%) Google Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 122 (8.60%) Firewall
2 72 (5.08%) DNS
3 59 (4.16%) WAN
4 52 (3.67%) Network Security
5 51 (3.60%) LAN
6 45 (3.17%) TCP/IP
7 43 (3.03%) VPN
8 20 (1.41%) DHCP
8 20 (1.41%) VLAN
9 19 (1.34%) HTTP
10 18 (1.27%) BGP
11 17 (1.20%) ATM
12 15 (1.06%) Intrusion Detection
13 13 (0.92%) OSPF
13 13 (0.92%) VoIP
14 12 (0.85%) SD-WAN
15 11 (0.78%) NGFW
15 11 (0.78%) SSL
16 10 (0.71%) Software-Defined Radio
16 10 (0.71%) VSAT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (1.83%) PostgreSQL
2 24 (1.69%) Power BI
3 18 (1.27%) Relational Database
4 15 (1.06%) MySQL
5 10 (0.71%) Elasticsearch
5 10 (0.71%) SQL Server
6 7 (0.49%) Big Data
7 4 (0.28%) GIS
7 4 (0.28%) MongoDB
7 4 (0.28%) Redis
8 3 (0.21%) Metadata
8 3 (0.21%) NoSQL
8 3 (0.21%) Oracle Database
8 3 (0.21%) Tableau
9 2 (0.14%) Data Warehouse
9 2 (0.14%) Geospatial Data
9 2 (0.14%) Oracle Database 11g
9 2 (0.14%) Oracle Database 12c
9 2 (0.14%) RDBMS
9 2 (0.14%) Siebel EIM
Development Applications
1 64 (4.51%) Git
2 39 (2.75%) GitLab
3 23 (1.62%) JIRA
4 17 (1.20%) Jenkins
5 14 (0.99%) Visual Studio Code
6 10 (0.71%) JMeter
7 7 (0.49%) LabVIEW
7 7 (0.49%) Rational DOORS
8 6 (0.42%) Gatling
8 6 (0.42%) LoadRunner
9 5 (0.35%) JUnit
9 5 (0.35%) SonarQube
10 4 (0.28%) Bitbucket
10 4 (0.28%) Selenium
11 3 (0.21%) Artifactory
12 2 (0.14%) Android Studio
12 2 (0.14%) Cucumber
12 2 (0.14%) Cypress.io
12 2 (0.14%) MLflow
12 2 (0.14%) Subversion
General
1 321 (22.64%) Social Skills
2 200 (14.10%) Aerospace
3 162 (11.42%) Analytical Skills
4 136 (9.59%) Finance
5 131 (9.24%) Public Sector
6 79 (5.57%) Military
7 76 (5.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 72 (5.08%) Electronics
9 59 (4.16%) Manufacturing
10 40 (2.82%) Aviation
10 40 (2.82%) Organisational Skills
11 36 (2.54%) Retail
12 26 (1.83%) Law
12 26 (1.83%) Telecoms
13 21 (1.48%) Documentation Skills
13 21 (1.48%) Legal
14 20 (1.41%) Influencing Skills
15 18 (1.27%) Police
16 14 (0.99%) Aeronautics
17 12 (0.85%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 204 (14.39%) Architect
2 195 (13.75%) Senior
3 133 (9.38%) Lead
4 117 (8.25%) Software Engineer
5 105 (7.40%) Systems Engineer
6 97 (6.84%) Analyst
7 83 (5.85%) Security Architect
8 53 (3.74%) Consultant
9 47 (3.31%) Developer
10 45 (3.17%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 35 (2.47%) Network Engineer
11 35 (2.47%) Project Manager
11 35 (2.47%) Senior Software Engineer
12 33 (2.33%) Security Analyst
13 32 (2.26%) Senior Manager
14 30 (2.12%) Azure Engineer
15 29 (2.05%) Platform Engineer
16 28 (1.97%) Solutions Architect
17 27 (1.90%) Tester
18 26 (1.83%) Senior Platform Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 59 (4.16%) Terraform
2 40 (2.82%) ModSecurity
3 29 (2.05%) LDAP
4 28 (1.97%) React
5 24 (1.69%) .NET
6 18 (1.27%) HTML
7 16 (1.13%) CSS
8 14 (0.99%) Kafka
8 14 (0.99%) Regular Expression
9 13 (0.92%) Spring
9 13 (0.92%) XMPP
10 12 (0.85%) OAuth
10 12 (0.85%) OpenID
10 12 (0.85%) SAML
11 10 (0.71%) ARM Templates
12 9 (0.63%) Web Services
13 8 (0.56%) .NET Core
13 8 (0.56%) AngularJS
13 8 (0.56%) Entity Framework
14 7 (0.49%) gRPC
Miscellaneous
1 64 (4.51%) Cloud Native
2 56 (3.95%) Onboarding
3 55 (3.88%) Data Centre
4 46 (3.24%) Algorithms
4 46 (3.24%) Driving Licence
5 43 (3.03%) Social Media
6 38 (2.68%) Self-Motivation
7 37 (2.61%) Management Information System
8 34 (2.40%) Cyber Threat
8 34 (2.40%) Security Operations Centre
9 33 (2.33%) Product Ownership
10 32 (2.26%) Robotics
11 29 (2.05%) Cyber Defence
12 28 (1.97%) Embedded Systems
13 25 (1.76%) FPGA
14 20 (1.41%) Enterprise Software
14 20 (1.41%) Hybrid Cloud
15 18 (1.27%) Analytical Mindset
15 18 (1.27%) Private Cloud
16 17 (1.20%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 184 (12.98%) Linux
2 153 (10.79%) Windows
3 69 (4.87%) Windows Server
4 23 (1.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 14 (0.99%) Ubuntu
6 10 (0.71%) CentOS
6 10 (0.71%) Windows Server 2016
7 9 (0.63%) Windows Server 2019
8 6 (0.42%) Windows 10
9 5 (0.35%) Android
9 5 (0.35%) Debian
10 4 (0.28%) Unix
11 3 (0.21%) AIX
11 3 (0.21%) Rocky
12 2 (0.14%) Mac OS
13 1 (0.071%) Embedded Linux
13 1 (0.071%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 221 (15.59%) Continuous Improvement
2 205 (14.46%) Agile
3 204 (14.39%) Problem-Solving
4 183 (12.91%) Software Engineering
5 173 (12.20%) Validation
6 163 (11.50%) Cybersecurity
7 139 (9.80%) CI/CD
8 130 (9.17%) Mentoring
9 127 (8.96%) Stakeholder Management
10 126 (8.89%) AI
11 114 (8.04%) Decision-Making
12 113 (7.97%) DevOps
13 101 (7.12%) Technical Leadership
14 88 (6.21%) ITIL
15 84 (5.92%) SIEM
16 80 (5.64%) Incident Response
17 77 (5.43%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 75 (5.29%) Service Management
19 74 (5.22%) Infrastructure as Code
19 74 (5.22%) Verification and Validation
Programming Languages
1 168 (11.85%) Python
2 95 (6.70%) C++
3 55 (3.88%) C
4 54 (3.81%) C#
5 51 (3.60%) PowerShell
6 48 (3.39%) Java
7 46 (3.24%) Bash
8 40 (2.82%) JavaScript
9 36 (2.54%) MATLAB
10 28 (1.97%) SQL
10 28 (1.97%) TypeScript
11 27 (1.90%) Rust
12 20 (1.41%) Embedded C
13 16 (1.13%) Embedded C++
14 14 (0.99%) Go
14 14 (0.99%) PHP
15 12 (0.85%) Shell Script
16 11 (0.78%) Ada
17 8 (0.56%) Perl
18 7 (0.49%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 853 (60.16%) SC Cleared
2 560 (39.49%) DV Cleared
3 213 (15.02%) Degree
4 68 (4.80%) CISSP
5 66 (4.65%) BPSS Clearance
6 45 (3.17%) Cisco Certification
7 35 (2.47%) CISM
8 34 (2.40%) Master's Degree
9 32 (2.26%) CCNP
9 32 (2.26%) HNC
10 30 (2.12%) Azure Certification
11 20 (1.41%) CompTIA Security+
12 19 (1.34%) Computer Science Degree
12 19 (1.34%) HND
12 19 (1.34%) PhD
13 17 (1.20%) GIAC
14 15 (1.06%) CCNA
14 15 (1.06%) CREST Certified
14 15 (1.06%) PMI Certification
15 13 (0.92%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 42 (2.96%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 39 (2.75%) SLA
3 38 (2.68%) NIST
4 36 (2.54%) QA
5 27 (1.90%) Accessibility
6 19 (1.34%) NCSC
7 18 (1.27%) ISO 9001
8 15 (1.06%) Def Stans
9 13 (0.92%) GDPR
10 12 (0.85%) NIST 800
11 10 (0.71%) MISRA
11 10 (0.71%) PMO
12 9 (0.63%) ISO/IEC 20000
13 7 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials
13 7 (0.49%) GRC
14 6 (0.42%) JSP 440
14 6 (0.42%) NEBOSH
15 5 (0.35%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 5 (0.35%) Data Quality
16 4 (0.28%) WCAG
System Software
1 80 (5.64%) Active Directory
2 67 (4.72%) Docker
3 33 (2.33%) VMware Infrastructure
4 26 (1.83%) Firmware
4 26 (1.83%) vSphere
5 21 (1.48%) VMware ESXi
6 18 (1.27%) Virtual Machines
7 15 (1.06%) Hyper-V
8 12 (0.85%) VMware NSX
9 6 (0.42%) Embedded Firmware
10 5 (0.35%) Squid
11 4 (0.28%) KVM
12 2 (0.14%) UAG
12 2 (0.14%) Virtual Servers
13 1 (0.071%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 107 (7.55%) Kubernetes
2 51 (3.60%) Ansible
3 21 (1.48%) Microsoft Intune
3 21 (1.48%) Single Sign-On
4 19 (1.34%) Grafana
5 16 (1.13%) Kibana
6 12 (0.85%) Prometheus
7 10 (0.71%) vCenter Server
8 9 (0.63%) Podman
9 7 (0.49%) Argo
9 7 (0.49%) Graylog
9 7 (0.49%) Kustomize
9 7 (0.49%) Puppet
10 6 (0.42%) QRadar
10 6 (0.42%) SCCM
11 5 (0.35%) Istio
11 5 (0.35%) Nessus
11 5 (0.35%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
12 4 (0.28%) Docker Swarm
12 4 (0.28%) Nagios
Vendors
1 150 (10.58%) Microsoft
2 74 (5.22%) VMware
3 53 (3.74%) Cisco
4 39 (2.75%) Thales
5 33 (2.33%) ServiceNow
6 26 (1.83%) Oracle
6 26 (1.83%) Red Hat
7 23 (1.62%) Splunk
8 22 (1.55%) Fortinet
9 21 (1.48%) EMC
10 20 (1.41%) SAP
11 18 (1.27%) Palo Alto
12 14 (0.99%) Google
13 12 (0.85%) ForgeRock
13 12 (0.85%) Okta
14 11 (0.78%) Veeam
15 10 (0.71%) McAfee
15 10 (0.71%) NVIDIA
16 9 (0.63%) Dynatrace
17 8 (0.56%) CrowdStrike