Security Cleared Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Security Clearance
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies advertised in the Thames Valley with a requirement for Security Cleared qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered over the 6 months leading up to 14 October 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 21 44 10
Rank change year-on-year +23 -34 -5
Permanent jobs citing Security Cleared 407 215 532
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 5.36% 5.68% 11.84%
As % of the Qualifications category 30.01% 13.99% 35.30%
Number of salaries quoted 200 128 233
10th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £37,050
25th Percentile £54,375 £45,000 £41,263
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +27.27% - +4.66%
75th Percentile £92,500 £73,750 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £84,125 £78,500
South East median annual salary £70,000 £58,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +20.69% -3.33% +11.61%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
Thames Valley

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 Thames Valley.

Permanent vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 1,356 1,537 1,507
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 17.87% 40.58% 33.54%
Number of salaries quoted 803 495 593
10th Percentile £33,750 £29,500 £35,150
25th Percentile £41,750 £36,875 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £56,000 £47,500 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +17.89% -17.39% +6.96%
75th Percentile £72,500 £67,250 £75,000
90th Percentile £91,000 £81,250 £85,000
South East median annual salary £60,000 £50,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year +20.00% -13.04% +9.42%

Security Cleared
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Security Cleared relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley.

Security Cleared job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

Security Cleared
Salary Trend in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Security Cleared.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Security Cleared

Security Cleared
Salary Histogram in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution for jobs citing Security Cleared in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 14 October 2026.

Salary histogram for Security Cleared in the Thames Valley

Security Cleared
Job Locations in the Thames Valley

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Security Cleared within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 14 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
Berkshire +26 279 £73,750 +34.09% 191
Buckinghamshire +16 107 £55,000 - 56
Oxfordshire -31 22 £100,000 +17.65% 57
Security Cleared
South East

Security Cleared
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley 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 5 (1.23%) Apache
1 5 (1.23%) nginx
2 3 (0.74%) Apache Spark
2 3 (0.74%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.25%) Confluence
3 1 (0.25%) Kinematics
3 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.25%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 7 (1.72%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (1.23%) Mathematica
2 5 (1.23%) Microsoft Project
3 4 (0.98%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (0.74%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.74%) Solid Edge
4 3 (0.74%) SOLIDWORKS
5 2 (0.49%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.49%) UserZoom
6 1 (0.25%) Adobe XD
6 1 (0.25%) CATIA
6 1 (0.25%) OrCAD
6 1 (0.25%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 7 (1.72%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (1.47%) SAP PM
3 3 (0.74%) SAP MM
3 3 (0.74%) SAP PP
3 3 (0.74%) SAP PS
3 3 (0.74%) SAP QM
4 1 (0.25%) ENOVIA
4 1 (0.25%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 65 (15.97%) AWS
2 59 (14.50%) Azure
3 23 (5.65%) Cloud Computing
4 16 (3.93%) Azure Sentinel
4 16 (3.93%) Entra ID
4 16 (3.93%) OpenShift
5 13 (3.19%) GCP
6 12 (2.95%) Microsoft 365
7 6 (1.47%) Azure DevOps
7 6 (1.47%) Cloudflare
8 5 (1.23%) Azure Logic Apps
8 5 (1.23%) GitHub
8 5 (1.23%) Google Analytics
8 5 (1.23%) Power Platform
8 5 (1.23%) Serverless
9 4 (0.98%) Amazon ECS
9 4 (0.98%) Amazon EKS
9 4 (0.98%) GitHub Actions
10 2 (0.49%) AWS CloudFormation
10 2 (0.49%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 52 (12.78%) DNS
2 44 (10.81%) Firewall
3 21 (5.16%) TCP/IP
4 15 (3.69%) VPN
5 9 (2.21%) HTTP
5 9 (2.21%) Network Security
6 8 (1.97%) SSL
7 7 (1.72%) LAN
8 6 (1.47%) WAN
9 5 (1.23%) Cisco Firepower
9 5 (1.23%) Cisco Nexus
9 5 (1.23%) NGFW
9 5 (1.23%) SD-WAN
10 4 (0.98%) NAS
10 4 (0.98%) NetScaler
10 4 (0.98%) SAN
10 4 (0.98%) Wireshark
11 3 (0.74%) DHCP
11 3 (0.74%) Remote Desktop
12 2 (0.49%) Software-Defined Radio
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (3.93%) PostgreSQL
2 7 (1.72%) Relational Database
3 6 (1.47%) Big Data
4 5 (1.23%) MySQL
4 5 (1.23%) Power BI
5 3 (0.74%) Oracle Database
5 3 (0.74%) SQL Server
6 2 (0.49%) Metadata
6 2 (0.49%) NoSQL
6 2 (0.49%) Oracle Database 11g
6 2 (0.49%) Oracle Database 12c
7 1 (0.25%) Amazon Athena
7 1 (0.25%) DynamoDB
7 1 (0.25%) MongoDB
7 1 (0.25%) Redis
7 1 (0.25%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 7 (1.72%) Jenkins
2 5 (1.23%) JUnit
3 4 (0.98%) GitLab
4 3 (0.74%) JIRA
4 3 (0.74%) JMeter
5 2 (0.49%) Git
5 2 (0.49%) MLflow
5 2 (0.49%) Mockito
5 2 (0.49%) Selenium
6 1 (0.25%) Axure RP
6 1 (0.25%) Balsamiq
6 1 (0.25%) Burp Suite
6 1 (0.25%) Mocha
6 1 (0.25%) Rational DOORS
6 1 (0.25%) Rational Rhapsody
6 1 (0.25%) Storybook
General
1 68 (16.71%) Social Skills
2 50 (12.29%) Aerospace
3 46 (11.30%) Public Sector
4 43 (10.57%) Analytical Skills
5 39 (9.58%) Finance
6 32 (7.86%) Manufacturing
7 27 (6.63%) Retail
8 19 (4.67%) Electronics
9 14 (3.44%) Law
10 13 (3.19%) Legal
11 12 (2.95%) Organisational Skills
12 9 (2.21%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 6 (1.47%) Military
13 6 (1.47%) Presentation Skills
14 5 (1.23%) Banking
14 5 (1.23%) Games
14 5 (1.23%) Marketing
15 4 (0.98%) Automotive
15 4 (0.98%) French Language
15 4 (0.98%) Public Speaking
Job Titles
1 59 (14.50%) Architect
2 58 (14.25%) Senior
3 35 (8.60%) Analyst
4 34 (8.35%) Lead
5 25 (6.14%) Support Specialist
6 23 (5.65%) Electrical Engineer
7 21 (5.16%) Mechanical Engineer
8 18 (4.42%) Technical Leader
9 17 (4.18%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 17 (4.18%) SOC Analyst
9 17 (4.18%) Systems Engineer
10 15 (3.69%) Senior Manager
11 14 (3.44%) Security Architect
12 13 (3.19%) Infrastructure Support
12 13 (3.19%) Software Engineer
13 12 (2.95%) Designer
14 11 (2.70%) Applications Architect
14 11 (2.70%) Developer
15 10 (2.46%) Consultant
15 10 (2.46%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (3.44%) Regular Expression
2 13 (3.19%) LDAP
2 13 (3.19%) XMPP
3 10 (2.46%) HTML
3 10 (2.46%) Loki
4 8 (1.97%) CSS
4 8 (1.97%) Spring
5 7 (1.72%) .NET
5 7 (1.72%) Spring Boot
5 7 (1.72%) Terraform
6 6 (1.47%) OpenTelemetry
6 6 (1.47%) Web Services
7 5 (1.23%) JSON
7 5 (1.23%) XML
8 4 (0.98%) JSON Schema
8 4 (0.98%) React
9 3 (0.74%) FastAPI
9 3 (0.74%) PyTorch
9 3 (0.74%) RESTful
9 3 (0.74%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 34 (8.35%) Onboarding
2 29 (7.13%) Cloud Native
2 29 (7.13%) Data Centre
3 20 (4.91%) Product Ownership
4 19 (4.67%) Cyber Threat
5 17 (4.18%) Cyber Defence
6 14 (3.44%) Driving Licence
6 14 (3.44%) Security Operations Centre
7 12 (2.95%) Hybrid Cloud
8 10 (2.46%) PKI
9 9 (2.21%) Analytical Mindset
9 9 (2.21%) Management Information System
10 8 (1.97%) Embedded Systems
11 7 (1.72%) Algorithms
11 7 (1.72%) CSOC
11 7 (1.72%) Hackathon
11 7 (1.72%) Synthetic Data
12 6 (1.47%) Private Cloud
12 6 (1.47%) Robotics
13 4 (0.98%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 68 (16.71%) Linux
2 63 (15.48%) Windows
3 25 (6.14%) Windows Server
4 18 (4.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 5 (1.23%) Windows 10
6 3 (0.74%) Rocky
7 2 (0.49%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 80 (19.66%) Continuous Improvement
2 67 (16.46%) Cybersecurity
3 57 (14.00%) Validation
4 55 (13.51%) Mentoring
5 54 (13.27%) Problem-Solving
6 49 (12.04%) Stakeholder Management
7 39 (9.58%) SIEM
8 38 (9.34%) CI/CD
9 34 (8.35%) Technical Leadership
10 32 (7.86%) AI
10 32 (7.86%) Root Cause Analysis
11 30 (7.37%) Agile
11 30 (7.37%) Kalman Filter
12 29 (7.13%) Software Engineering
13 28 (6.88%) Service Delivery
14 27 (6.63%) DevOps
15 25 (6.14%) Incident Response
15 25 (6.14%) Preventative Maintenance
16 24 (5.90%) Network Design
17 23 (5.65%) Data Centre Operations
Programming Languages
1 44 (10.81%) Python
2 19 (4.67%) PowerShell
3 16 (3.93%) Bash
4 14 (3.44%) C++
4 14 (3.44%) Java
5 13 (3.19%) C
6 12 (2.95%) C#
7 11 (2.70%) JavaScript
8 9 (2.21%) Rust
8 9 (2.21%) Shell Script
9 7 (1.72%) Kusto Query Language
9 7 (1.72%) MATLAB
9 7 (1.72%) Search Processing Language
9 7 (1.72%) SQL
10 5 (1.23%) R
10 5 (1.23%) TypeScript
11 2 (0.49%) Bicep
11 2 (0.49%) Embedded C
11 2 (0.49%) Go
12 1 (0.25%) ABAP
Qualifications
1 235 (57.74%) SC Cleared
2 139 (34.15%) DV Cleared
3 70 (17.20%) Degree
4 17 (4.18%) CISSP
5 16 (3.93%) CompTIA Security+
6 14 (3.44%) GIAC
7 13 (3.19%) GCIA
8 12 (2.95%) Master's Degree
9 10 (2.46%) Azure Certification
9 10 (2.46%) PhD
9 10 (2.46%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 9 (2.21%) CREST Certified
10 9 (2.21%) OSCP
11 8 (1.97%) BPSS Clearance
11 8 (1.97%) GCIH
12 7 (1.72%) CompTIA CySA+
12 7 (1.72%) Computer Science Degree
12 7 (1.72%) GCED
12 7 (1.72%) SANS
13 6 (1.47%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (2.21%) MISRA
2 7 (1.72%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 7 (1.72%) NCSC
3 6 (1.47%) ISO 9001
4 5 (1.23%) Accessibility
4 5 (1.23%) Data Quality
5 4 (0.98%) NEBOSH
5 4 (0.98%) QA
6 3 (0.74%) ISO 22301
6 3 (0.74%) NIST
6 3 (0.74%) SLA
6 3 (0.74%) WCAG
7 2 (0.49%) Actionable Recommendations
7 2 (0.49%) COBIT
7 2 (0.49%) COSO
7 2 (0.49%) GDPR
7 2 (0.49%) JSP 440
7 2 (0.49%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.25%) ARP4761
8 1 (0.25%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 41 (10.07%) Active Directory
2 21 (5.16%) vSphere
3 12 (2.95%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (2.46%) Firmware
5 9 (2.21%) Docker
6 8 (1.97%) VMware ESXi
7 6 (1.47%) Virtual Machines
7 6 (1.47%) VMware NSX
8 5 (1.23%) Squid
9 2 (0.49%) Hyper-V
9 2 (0.49%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.25%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 28 (6.88%) Kubernetes
2 11 (2.70%) Grafana
3 10 (2.46%) Argo
3 10 (2.46%) Kibana
3 10 (2.46%) Kustomize
3 10 (2.46%) Prometheus
4 7 (1.72%) Ansible
4 7 (1.72%) Graylog
4 7 (1.72%) Istio
4 7 (1.72%) Microsoft Intune
5 6 (1.47%) SCCM
6 3 (0.74%) vCenter Server
7 2 (0.49%) Oracle RMAN
8 1 (0.25%) Progress Chef
8 1 (0.25%) Puppet
8 1 (0.25%) QRadar
8 1 (0.25%) vRealize
Vendors
1 77 (18.92%) Microsoft
2 37 (9.09%) VMware
3 25 (6.14%) Red Hat
3 25 (6.14%) Thales
4 13 (3.19%) Splunk
5 10 (2.46%) Cisco
5 10 (2.46%) CrowdStrike
5 10 (2.46%) McAfee
6 9 (2.21%) ServiceNow
7 8 (1.97%) SAP
8 7 (1.72%) Carbon Black
9 6 (1.47%) EMC
9 6 (1.47%) Google
10 5 (1.23%) Citrix
10 5 (1.23%) Fortinet
10 5 (1.23%) Oracle
10 5 (1.23%) Palo Alto
10 5 (1.23%) Veeam
11 4 (0.98%) CA Agile Central
11 4 (0.98%) NetApp