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

6 months to
1 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 25 12 11
Rank change year-on-year -13 -1 +11
Permanent jobs citing Security Cleared 749 787 1,754
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 5.16% 11.07% 10.76%
As % of the Qualifications category 20.63% 22.53% 31.63%
Number of salaries quoted 528 576 1,361
10th Percentile £39,280 £41,250 £32,500
25th Percentile £51,250 £47,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £57,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +13.04% +4.55% +12.59%
75th Percentile £82,500 £77,500 £68,750
90th Percentile £90,000 £85,000 £82,500
England median annual salary £65,000 £60,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year +8.33% +4.35% -

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 3,630 3,493 5,545
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 25.01% 49.13% 34.01%
Number of salaries quoted 1,569 1,542 3,672
10th Percentile £30,250 £31,750 £29,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £41,750 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £55,000 £51,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% +7.84% +2.00%
75th Percentile £75,000 £70,000 £67,000
90th Percentile £86,790 £82,500 £82,500
England median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -5.17%

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 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 1 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 -4 341 £75,000 +30.43% 167
Thames Valley +17 279 £65,000 +10.17% 90
Berkshire +14 182 £67,500 +12.50% 43
Buckinghamshire +18 73 £55,000 -4.49% 33
Surrey -22 72 £56,152 +21.41% 36
Oxfordshire -1 24 £65,000 +30.00% 17
West Sussex -9 22 £35,000 -6.67% 12
Kent -38 19 £39,000 -40.00% 8
Sussex - 11 £85,000 - 4
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 30 (4.01%) SharePoint
2 5 (0.67%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.13%) Apache
3 1 (0.13%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (0.13%) Apache Qpid
3 1 (0.13%) Camunda
3 1 (0.13%) Confluence
3 1 (0.13%) Oracle SOA Suite
3 1 (0.13%) SAS
3 1 (0.13%) WordPress
Applications
1 22 (2.94%) Microsoft Excel
1 22 (2.94%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (0.93%) Simulink
3 5 (0.67%) Adobe XD
4 2 (0.27%) Lectora
5 1 (0.13%) Adobe After Effects
5 1 (0.13%) Adobe Captivate
5 1 (0.13%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 1 (0.13%) Adobe Illustrator
5 1 (0.13%) Adobe Premiere
5 1 (0.13%) CATIA
5 1 (0.13%) Elementor
5 1 (0.13%) Photoshop
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 79 (10.55%) Azure
2 52 (6.94%) AWS
3 36 (4.81%) Microsoft 365
4 26 (3.47%) GCP
4 26 (3.47%) Power Platform
5 16 (2.14%) Amazon EKS
5 16 (2.14%) Azure DevOps
5 16 (2.14%) Dynamics 365
6 15 (2.00%) PowerApps
7 10 (1.34%) GitHub
7 10 (1.34%) OpenShift
7 10 (1.34%) Serverless
8 7 (0.93%) Amazon EC2
8 7 (0.93%) AWS Lambda
8 7 (0.93%) GitHub Actions
8 7 (0.93%) Salesforce Sales Cloud
8 7 (0.93%) Salesforce Service Cloud
9 6 (0.80%) Amazon S3
9 6 (0.80%) Azure Sentinel
9 6 (0.80%) Google Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 67 (8.95%) Firewall
2 47 (6.28%) DNS
3 23 (3.07%) WAN
4 20 (2.67%) Structured Cabling
5 18 (2.40%) VPN
6 17 (2.27%) BGP
7 14 (1.87%) LAN
8 13 (1.74%) Cisco Firepower
9 12 (1.60%) DHCP
9 12 (1.60%) Network Security
10 10 (1.34%) Cisco ISE
10 10 (1.34%) HTTP
10 10 (1.34%) NetScaler
10 10 (1.34%) TCP/IP
11 9 (1.20%) Cisco IOS
12 8 (1.07%) Junos
12 8 (1.07%) MPLS
12 8 (1.07%) Wireshark
13 7 (0.93%) NX-OS
13 7 (0.93%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 21 (2.80%) Power BI
2 10 (1.34%) PostgreSQL
3 9 (1.20%) SQL Server
4 7 (0.93%) Relational Database
5 2 (0.27%) Metadata
5 2 (0.27%) MySQL
5 2 (0.27%) Oracle Database
6 1 (0.13%) Big Data
6 1 (0.13%) Data Lake
6 1 (0.13%) Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.13%) DynamoDB
6 1 (0.13%) Elasticsearch
6 1 (0.13%) Geospatial Data
6 1 (0.13%) MongoDB
6 1 (0.13%) NoSQL
6 1 (0.13%) Pinecone
6 1 (0.13%) Redis
6 1 (0.13%) SAS Visual Analytics
6 1 (0.13%) Tableau
6 1 (0.13%) Weaviate
Development Applications
1 42 (5.61%) Git
1 42 (5.61%) GitLab
2 23 (3.07%) Jenkins
3 16 (2.14%) JIRA
4 13 (1.74%) Visual Studio Code
5 7 (0.93%) Selenium
6 6 (0.80%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 6 (0.80%) SonarQube
7 5 (0.67%) Axure RP
7 5 (0.67%) Balsamiq
7 5 (0.67%) Cucumber
7 5 (0.67%) Subversion
8 4 (0.53%) Artifactory
8 4 (0.53%) Rational DOORS
8 4 (0.53%) Robot Framework
9 3 (0.40%) Android Studio
9 3 (0.40%) Snyk
10 2 (0.27%) JUnit
10 2 (0.27%) MSTest
10 2 (0.27%) Visual Studio
General
1 152 (20.29%) Social Skills
2 75 (10.01%) Finance
3 73 (9.75%) Public Sector
4 68 (9.08%) Analytical Skills
5 31 (4.14%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 29 (3.87%) Law
7 23 (3.07%) Manufacturing
8 22 (2.94%) Aerospace
9 20 (2.67%) Electronics
10 18 (2.40%) Organisational Skills
11 17 (2.27%) Aeronautics
12 15 (2.00%) Military
12 15 (2.00%) Telecoms
13 13 (1.74%) Banking
14 12 (1.60%) Aviation
15 11 (1.47%) Documentation Skills
16 9 (1.20%) Games
17 8 (1.07%) Retail
18 7 (0.93%) Influencing Skills
18 7 (0.93%) Legal
Job Titles
1 113 (15.09%) Senior
2 108 (14.42%) Architect
3 67 (8.95%) Developer
4 57 (7.61%) Lead
5 50 (6.68%) Software Engineer
6 45 (6.01%) Analyst
7 36 (4.81%) Systems Engineer
8 33 (4.41%) Consultant
8 33 (4.41%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 32 (4.27%) Network Engineer
10 29 (3.87%) Applications Architect
11 24 (3.20%) DevOps Engineer
11 24 (3.20%) Java Developer
11 24 (3.20%) Security Architect
12 21 (2.80%) IT Engineer
13 20 (2.67%) Data Engineer
13 20 (2.67%) Senior Developer
13 20 (2.67%) Support Engineer
14 19 (2.54%) Cloud Engineer
14 19 (2.54%) IT Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (3.74%) .NET
2 22 (2.94%) REST
3 14 (1.87%) React
3 14 (1.87%) Regular Expression
3 14 (1.87%) Spring
4 13 (1.74%) LDAP
4 13 (1.74%) SOAP
5 11 (1.47%) JSON
6 10 (1.34%) Middleware
6 10 (1.34%) XMPP
7 9 (1.20%) Elastic Stack
8 8 (1.07%) RabbitMQ
9 7 (0.93%) AngularJS
9 7 (0.93%) Lightning Web Components
9 7 (0.93%) Visualforce
9 7 (0.93%) XML
10 6 (0.80%) HTML
10 6 (0.80%) Java EE
10 6 (0.80%) Kafka
10 6 (0.80%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 32 (4.27%) Product Ownership
2 23 (3.07%) PKI
3 19 (2.54%) Algorithms
4 18 (2.40%) Data Centre
4 18 (2.40%) Robotics
5 16 (2.14%) Cloud Native
5 16 (2.14%) Onboarding
6 14 (1.87%) Cyber Defence
7 13 (1.74%) Security Posture
8 12 (1.60%) Embedded Systems
9 11 (1.47%) Distributed Systems
9 11 (1.47%) FPGA
10 9 (1.20%) Cyber Threat
10 9 (1.20%) Self-Motivation
11 8 (1.07%) Management Information System
12 7 (0.93%) Driving Licence
13 6 (0.80%) Analytical Mindset
13 6 (0.80%) Fibre Optics
14 5 (0.67%) Hybrid Cloud
14 5 (0.67%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 92 (12.28%) Linux
2 87 (11.62%) Windows
3 61 (8.14%) Windows Server
4 21 (2.80%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 10 (1.34%) Windows Server 2016
6 6 (0.80%) Android
6 6 (0.80%) CentOS
6 6 (0.80%) Ubuntu
7 4 (0.53%) Windows Server 2019
8 1 (0.13%) AIX
8 1 (0.13%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.13%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 131 (17.49%) Agile
2 87 (11.62%) Software Engineering
3 82 (10.95%) DevOps
4 78 (10.41%) Continuous Improvement
5 74 (9.88%) CI/CD
6 71 (9.48%) Problem-Solving
7 58 (7.74%) Cybersecurity
8 45 (6.01%) Decision-Making
8 45 (6.01%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 44 (5.87%) Project Management
10 43 (5.74%) Mentoring
11 41 (5.47%) AI
11 41 (5.47%) Scrum
12 38 (5.07%) Service Management
12 38 (5.07%) Technical Leadership
13 37 (4.94%) SIEM
14 34 (4.54%) Stakeholder Management
15 32 (4.27%) Infrastructure as Code
16 31 (4.14%) Analytics
16 31 (4.14%) Community of Practice
Programming Languages
1 89 (11.88%) Python
2 49 (6.54%) Java
3 33 (4.41%) C++
4 32 (4.27%) SQL
5 26 (3.47%) C#
6 21 (2.80%) JavaScript
7 19 (2.54%) C
8 17 (2.27%) PowerShell
9 15 (2.00%) VBA
10 13 (1.74%) Rust
11 9 (1.20%) Bash
11 9 (1.20%) PL/SQL
12 8 (1.07%) MATLAB
12 8 (1.07%) TypeScript
13 7 (0.93%) Apex Code
13 7 (0.93%) Shell Script
14 6 (0.80%) Groovy
15 5 (0.67%) Ladder Logic
16 4 (0.53%) Go
17 3 (0.40%) Pascal
Qualifications
1 453 (60.48%) SC Cleared
2 286 (38.18%) DV Cleared
3 119 (15.89%) Degree
4 24 (3.20%) Master's Degree
5 17 (2.27%) HNC
6 11 (1.47%) APMP
6 11 (1.47%) CISSP
6 11 (1.47%) MBA
7 9 (1.20%) DBS Check
8 8 (1.07%) Computer Science Degree
9 7 (0.93%) BPSS Clearance
9 7 (0.93%) CRISC
9 7 (0.93%) Microsoft Certification
10 6 (0.80%) CCNP
10 6 (0.80%) CHECK Team Member
10 6 (0.80%) Cisco Certification
10 6 (0.80%) CompTIA Security+
10 6 (0.80%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 6 (0.80%) OSCP
11 5 (0.67%) CREST Certified
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (2.40%) GDPR
1 18 (2.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 17 (2.27%) QA
3 15 (2.00%) NCSC
4 13 (1.74%) NIST
5 12 (1.60%) PMO
6 11 (1.47%) Accessibility
6 11 (1.47%) SLA
7 9 (1.20%) GRC
8 7 (0.93%) WCAG
9 6 (0.80%) ISO 9001
10 5 (0.67%) Def Stans
10 5 (0.67%) NEBOSH
11 3 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 15288
11 3 (0.40%) NIST 800
11 3 (0.40%) PCI DSS
12 2 (0.27%) ISO 22301
12 2 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 20000
12 2 (0.27%) JSP 440
12 2 (0.27%) RMADS
System Software
1 52 (6.94%) Active Directory
2 41 (5.47%) Docker
3 23 (3.07%) VMware NSX
4 21 (2.80%) vSphere
5 17 (2.27%) Firmware
6 15 (2.00%) VMware Infrastructure
7 5 (0.67%) Virtual Machines
8 2 (0.27%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.27%) Terminal Server
8 2 (0.27%) UAG
8 2 (0.27%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.13%) Oracle RAC
9 1 (0.13%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 44 (5.87%) Kubernetes
2 36 (4.81%) Terraform
3 32 (4.27%) Ansible
4 15 (2.00%) vCenter Server
5 10 (1.34%) vRealize
6 9 (1.20%) Grafana
6 9 (1.20%) Prometheus
7 8 (1.07%) Nessus
8 7 (0.93%) Kibana
8 7 (0.93%) SCCM
8 7 (0.93%) SCOM
9 6 (0.80%) Endace
10 5 (0.67%) Packer
11 4 (0.53%) WSUS
12 3 (0.40%) Graylog
12 3 (0.40%) Nagios
12 3 (0.40%) QRadar
13 2 (0.27%) FortiGate
13 2 (0.27%) Istio
13 2 (0.27%) Puppet
Vendors
1 87 (11.62%) Microsoft
2 52 (6.94%) VMware
3 37 (4.94%) Cisco
4 22 (2.94%) Oracle
5 20 (2.67%) Juniper
6 17 (2.27%) Splunk
7 16 (2.14%) Google
7 16 (2.14%) Red Hat
8 13 (1.74%) McAfee
9 12 (1.60%) Salesforce
9 12 (1.60%) SolarWinds
10 11 (1.47%) CheckPoint
10 11 (1.47%) Citrix
11 10 (1.34%) ServiceNow
12 9 (1.20%) AppDynamics
12 9 (1.20%) IBM
13 8 (1.07%) Palo Alto
14 7 (0.93%) Broadcom
14 7 (0.93%) LogRhythm
14 7 (0.93%) NetApp