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

6 months to
11 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 17 12 10
Rank change year-on-year -5 -2 +2
Permanent jobs citing Security Cleared 1,140 870 1,613
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 6.70% 9.93% 11.63%
As % of the Qualifications category 32.28% 24.79% 37.47%
Number of salaries quoted 787 508 1,089
10th Percentile £39,000 £37,500 £39,125
25th Percentile £52,500 £46,250 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £60,000 £56,252
Median % change year-on-year +16.67% +6.66% +7.15%
75th Percentile £85,000 £78,750 £72,500
90th Percentile £99,250 £87,500 £85,000
England median annual salary £70,000 £60,000 £58,000
% change year-on-year +16.67% +3.45% -3.33%

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 3,532 3,509 4,305
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 20.76% 40.06% 31.04%
Number of salaries quoted 2,075 1,640 2,580
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,000 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,250 £37,500 £41,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £51,000 £52,550
Median % change year-on-year +17.65% -2.95% +0.10%
75th Percentile £76,250 £70,000 £68,750
90th Percentile £90,000 £82,500 £85,000
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 11 August 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 11 August 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 -2 587 £75,000 +17.19% 270
Thames Valley +21 344 £67,500 +22.73% 191
Berkshire +19 223 £70,000 +21.74% 114
Surrey -3 143 £50,000 +25.00% 69
Buckinghamshire +23 105 £55,000 +2.33% 48
West Sussex -10 27 £35,000 -6.67% 12
Kent -33 17 £52,500 -4.55% 12
Oxfordshire -29 16 £100,000 +86.92% 35
Sussex -3 6 £77,500 +47.62% 2
East Sussex -14 6 £70,000 +40.00% 2
Middlesex +36 3 £65,000 -
Isle of Wight - 1 £70,000 - 2
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 13 (1.14%) SharePoint
2 11 (0.96%) Apache
3 6 (0.53%) Confluence
3 6 (0.53%) SAS
4 5 (0.44%) nginx
5 3 (0.26%) IIS
6 2 (0.18%) Microsoft Exchange
7 1 (0.088%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.088%) Oracle Workflow
7 1 (0.088%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 26 (2.28%) Microsoft Excel
2 18 (1.58%) Simulink
3 16 (1.40%) Microsoft Office
4 10 (0.88%) Microsoft Project
5 5 (0.44%) Solid Edge
5 5 (0.44%) SOLIDWORKS
6 4 (0.35%) Mathcad
6 4 (0.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
7 3 (0.26%) Chatbot
8 2 (0.18%) Lectora
9 1 (0.088%) AutoCAD
9 1 (0.088%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 7 (0.61%) Primavera
2 4 (0.35%) Workday HCM
3 2 (0.18%) Oracle Applications
3 2 (0.18%) Teamcenter
4 1 (0.088%) Remedy ITSM
4 1 (0.088%) SAP MDG
4 1 (0.088%) SAP MM
4 1 (0.088%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.088%) Siebel CRM
4 1 (0.088%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 187 (16.40%) Azure
2 117 (10.26%) AWS
3 55 (4.82%) Microsoft 365
4 38 (3.33%) GCP
5 34 (2.98%) Entra ID
6 22 (1.93%) Serverless
7 21 (1.84%) Power Platform
8 18 (1.58%) OpenShift
9 17 (1.49%) GitHub
10 14 (1.23%) Amazon EKS
10 14 (1.23%) Azure DevOps
11 13 (1.14%) Azure Sentinel
11 13 (1.14%) GitHub Actions
12 11 (0.96%) Azure AKS
13 10 (0.88%) Amazon EC2
13 10 (0.88%) PowerApps
14 9 (0.79%) Azure Stack
15 7 (0.61%) AWS Lambda
16 6 (0.53%) Cloud Computing
16 6 (0.53%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 118 (10.35%) Firewall
2 73 (6.40%) DNS
3 65 (5.70%) WAN
4 53 (4.65%) LAN
5 44 (3.86%) TCP/IP
6 43 (3.77%) VPN
7 41 (3.60%) Network Security
8 21 (1.84%) BGP
9 18 (1.58%) HTTP
9 18 (1.58%) VLAN
10 17 (1.49%) ATM
11 14 (1.23%) OSPF
11 14 (1.23%) VoIP
12 12 (1.05%) Intrusion Detection
12 12 (1.05%) NGFW
12 12 (1.05%) SAN
12 12 (1.05%) SD-WAN
13 11 (0.96%) NAS
13 11 (0.96%) NetScaler
13 11 (0.96%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (2.37%) PostgreSQL
2 20 (1.75%) Power BI
3 19 (1.67%) Relational Database
4 15 (1.32%) SQL Server
5 14 (1.23%) MySQL
6 6 (0.53%) Elasticsearch
7 4 (0.35%) GIS
7 4 (0.35%) MongoDB
7 4 (0.35%) Oracle Database
7 4 (0.35%) Redis
8 2 (0.18%) Data Warehouse
8 2 (0.18%) Metadata
8 2 (0.18%) Oracle Database 11g
8 2 (0.18%) Oracle Database 12c
8 2 (0.18%) RDBMS
8 2 (0.18%) Tableau
9 1 (0.088%) Big Data
9 1 (0.088%) Geospatial Data
9 1 (0.088%) NoSQL
9 1 (0.088%) Siebel EIM
Development Applications
1 73 (6.40%) Git
2 48 (4.21%) GitLab
3 30 (2.63%) JIRA
4 24 (2.11%) Jenkins
5 14 (1.23%) Visual Studio Code
6 10 (0.88%) SonarQube
7 9 (0.79%) Rational DOORS
8 6 (0.53%) Artifactory
8 6 (0.53%) JMeter
9 5 (0.44%) Cucumber
9 5 (0.44%) JUnit
10 4 (0.35%) Bitbucket
10 4 (0.35%) LabVIEW
10 4 (0.35%) Selenium
11 3 (0.26%) Android Studio
11 3 (0.26%) Gatling
11 3 (0.26%) LoadRunner
12 2 (0.18%) Cypress.io
12 2 (0.18%) Mockito
12 2 (0.18%) MSTest
General
1 270 (23.68%) Social Skills
2 126 (11.05%) Analytical Skills
3 113 (9.91%) Finance
3 113 (9.91%) Public Sector
4 99 (8.68%) Aerospace
5 60 (5.26%) Electronics
6 56 (4.91%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 56 (4.91%) Military
7 33 (2.89%) Manufacturing
8 28 (2.46%) Aviation
8 28 (2.46%) Organisational Skills
9 24 (2.11%) Law
10 23 (2.02%) Telecoms
11 22 (1.93%) Documentation Skills
12 14 (1.23%) Influencing Skills
13 12 (1.05%) Aeronautics
14 11 (0.96%) Games
14 11 (0.96%) Legal
15 10 (0.88%) Banking
15 10 (0.88%) Retail
Job Titles
1 166 (14.56%) Architect
2 163 (14.30%) Senior
3 122 (10.70%) Software Engineer
4 87 (7.63%) Lead
5 74 (6.49%) Analyst
6 62 (5.44%) Developer
7 58 (5.09%) Systems Engineer
8 56 (4.91%) Security Architect
9 46 (4.04%) Consultant
9 46 (4.04%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 41 (3.60%) Network Engineer
11 35 (3.07%) Applications Architect
11 35 (3.07%) Senior Software Engineer
12 28 (2.46%) Azure Engineer
13 27 (2.37%) Solutions Architect
14 25 (2.19%) Project Manager
14 25 (2.19%) SOC Analyst
14 25 (2.19%) Support Engineer
15 24 (2.11%) Security Engineer
16 23 (2.02%) Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (2.98%) LDAP
2 31 (2.72%) .NET
3 29 (2.54%) ModSecurity
3 29 (2.54%) React
4 23 (2.02%) Regular Expression
5 19 (1.67%) XMPP
6 16 (1.40%) Kafka
6 16 (1.40%) REST
6 16 (1.40%) Spring
7 12 (1.05%) Elastic Stack
7 12 (1.05%) JSON
7 12 (1.05%) Web Services
8 11 (0.96%) AngularJS
8 11 (0.96%) HTML
9 10 (0.88%) ARM Templates
9 10 (0.88%) CSS
9 10 (0.88%) OAuth
9 10 (0.88%) OpenID
9 10 (0.88%) SAML
9 10 (0.88%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 47 (4.12%) Cloud Native
2 40 (3.51%) Data Centre
2 40 (3.51%) Social Media
3 39 (3.42%) Onboarding
4 38 (3.33%) Driving Licence
5 32 (2.81%) Algorithms
6 28 (2.46%) Product Ownership
7 27 (2.37%) Self-Motivation
8 26 (2.28%) Management Information System
9 24 (2.11%) Cyber Threat
9 24 (2.11%) Embedded Systems
10 23 (2.02%) FPGA
11 21 (1.84%) PKI
12 20 (1.75%) Robotics
12 20 (1.75%) Security Operations Centre
13 19 (1.67%) Cyber Defence
13 19 (1.67%) Legacy Systems
13 19 (1.67%) Private Cloud
14 18 (1.58%) Hybrid Cloud
15 17 (1.49%) Analytical Mindset
Operating Systems
1 196 (17.19%) Linux
2 145 (12.72%) Windows
3 84 (7.37%) Windows Server
4 35 (3.07%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 18 (1.58%) Ubuntu
6 15 (1.32%) CentOS
7 11 (0.96%) Windows Server 2016
8 7 (0.61%) Windows Server 2019
9 6 (0.53%) Android
9 6 (0.53%) Windows 10
10 4 (0.35%) Debian
10 4 (0.35%) Unix
11 3 (0.26%) AIX
12 2 (0.18%) Mac OS
12 2 (0.18%) Rocky
13 1 (0.088%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 191 (16.75%) Agile
2 175 (15.35%) Software Engineering
3 156 (13.68%) Problem-Solving
4 153 (13.42%) Continuous Improvement
5 135 (11.84%) Cybersecurity
6 127 (11.14%) CI/CD
7 111 (9.74%) DevOps
7 111 (9.74%) Validation
8 96 (8.42%) Decision-Making
9 89 (7.81%) AI
10 85 (7.46%) Mentoring
11 81 (7.11%) Stakeholder Management
12 79 (6.93%) ITIL
12 79 (6.93%) SIEM
13 77 (6.75%) Technical Leadership
14 68 (5.96%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 65 (5.70%) Infrastructure as Code
16 63 (5.53%) Containerisation
17 61 (5.35%) Incident Response
18 59 (5.18%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 152 (13.33%) Python
2 82 (7.19%) C++
3 55 (4.82%) Java
4 50 (4.39%) C
4 50 (4.39%) PowerShell
5 49 (4.30%) C#
6 40 (3.51%) Bash
7 32 (2.81%) JavaScript
8 29 (2.54%) SQL
9 24 (2.11%) Rust
9 24 (2.11%) TypeScript
10 22 (1.93%) MATLAB
11 17 (1.49%) Embedded C
12 16 (1.40%) Shell Script
13 15 (1.32%) Embedded C++
14 13 (1.14%) Go
15 12 (1.05%) PHP
16 11 (0.96%) Ada
17 10 (0.88%) Perl
17 10 (0.88%) VBA
Qualifications
1 728 (63.86%) SC Cleared
2 436 (38.25%) DV Cleared
3 171 (15.00%) Degree
4 58 (5.09%) BPSS Clearance
5 50 (4.39%) CISSP
6 45 (3.95%) Cisco Certification
7 32 (2.81%) CCNP
8 28 (2.46%) HNC
9 25 (2.19%) Master's Degree
10 21 (1.84%) Azure Certification
10 21 (1.84%) CISM
11 18 (1.58%) CompTIA Security+
11 18 (1.58%) Computer Science Degree
12 17 (1.49%) GIAC
13 16 (1.40%) CCNA
13 16 (1.40%) CREST Certified
14 13 (1.14%) GCIA
14 13 (1.14%) PMI Certification
15 12 (1.05%) OSCP
16 11 (0.96%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (3.25%) QA
2 33 (2.89%) SLA
3 32 (2.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 22 (1.93%) NCSC
4 22 (1.93%) NIST
5 19 (1.67%) Accessibility
6 15 (1.32%) ISO 9001
7 14 (1.23%) GDPR
8 11 (0.96%) Def Stans
9 10 (0.88%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 10 (0.88%) PMO
10 7 (0.61%) MISRA
11 6 (0.53%) JSP 440
11 6 (0.53%) NIST 800
12 5 (0.44%) GRC
12 5 (0.44%) NEBOSH
13 4 (0.35%) Cyber Essentials
14 3 (0.26%) HMG Security Policy Framework
14 3 (0.26%) ISO 22301
15 2 (0.18%) MISRA C
System Software
1 77 (6.75%) Active Directory
2 74 (6.49%) Docker
3 37 (3.25%) vSphere
4 33 (2.89%) VMware Infrastructure
5 24 (2.11%) Firmware
6 18 (1.58%) VMware ESXi
7 15 (1.32%) Virtual Machines
8 12 (1.05%) VMware NSX
9 11 (0.96%) Hyper-V
10 5 (0.44%) Embedded Firmware
10 5 (0.44%) Squid
11 4 (0.35%) KVM
12 2 (0.18%) UAG
13 1 (0.088%) Oracle RAC
13 1 (0.088%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 100 (8.77%) Kubernetes
2 67 (5.88%) Terraform
3 56 (4.91%) Ansible
4 17 (1.49%) Kibana
5 16 (1.40%) Grafana
5 16 (1.40%) Microsoft Intune
6 14 (1.23%) Single Sign-On
7 13 (1.14%) Prometheus
8 10 (0.88%) vCenter Server
9 9 (0.79%) Podman
10 8 (0.70%) Nessus
11 7 (0.61%) Puppet
12 6 (0.53%) Argo
12 6 (0.53%) Graylog
12 6 (0.53%) Kustomize
12 6 (0.53%) Nagios
12 6 (0.53%) Packer
12 6 (0.53%) QRadar
13 4 (0.35%) Docker Swarm
13 4 (0.35%) Istio
Vendors
1 136 (11.93%) Microsoft
2 81 (7.11%) VMware
3 52 (4.56%) Cisco
4 35 (3.07%) Oracle
5 32 (2.81%) Red Hat
5 32 (2.81%) ServiceNow
6 28 (2.46%) Splunk
7 21 (1.84%) Fortinet
8 19 (1.67%) Palo Alto
9 15 (1.32%) McAfee
9 15 (1.32%) SAP
10 14 (1.23%) Google
11 12 (1.05%) AppDynamics
11 12 (1.05%) Citrix
11 12 (1.05%) EMC
12 11 (0.96%) IBM
13 10 (0.88%) NVIDIA
14 9 (0.79%) ForgeRock
14 9 (0.79%) Okta
14 9 (0.79%) Veeam