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

6 months to
14 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 20 45 8
Rank change year-on-year +25 -37 -2
Permanent jobs citing Security Cleared 378 226 624
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 5.27% 5.73% 12.87%
As % of the Qualifications category 28.46% 13.36% 39.32%
Number of salaries quoted 204 135 307
10th Percentile £40,375 £38,500 £38,880
25th Percentile £52,500 £45,608 £41,263
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £55,000 £53,818
Median % change year-on-year +27.27% +2.20% +2.51%
75th Percentile £84,063 £73,125 £67,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £83,750 £78,546
South East median annual salary £70,000 £58,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year +20.69% +0.87% +9.42%

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 1,328 1,692 1,587
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 18.52% 42.88% 32.74%
Number of salaries quoted 774 502 731
10th Percentile £33,750 £29,525 £35,750
25th Percentile £42,500 £38,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £47,760 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +20.39% -13.16% +4.76%
75th Percentile £71,250 £67,500 £73,750
90th Percentile £86,250 £81,250 £82,500
South East median annual salary £60,000 £51,300 £55,000
% change year-on-year +16.96% -6.73% +4.76%

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 September 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 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
Berkshire +30 260 £70,000 +27.27% 213
Buckinghamshire +17 106 £55,000 +2.33% 65
Oxfordshire -34 12 £100,000 +15.94% 51
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 (1.32%) Apache
1 5 (1.32%) nginx
2 4 (1.06%) SharePoint
3 3 (0.79%) Apache Spark
4 2 (0.53%) Microsoft Exchange
5 1 (0.26%) Confluence
5 1 (0.26%) Kinematics
Applications
1 6 (1.59%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.06%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.79%) Mathematica
3 3 (0.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (0.79%) Solid Edge
3 3 (0.79%) SOLIDWORKS
4 2 (0.53%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.53%) UserZoom
5 1 (0.26%) Adobe XD
5 1 (0.26%) CATIA
5 1 (0.26%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 1 (0.26%) ENOVIA
1 1 (0.26%) SAP MDG
1 1 (0.26%) SAP MM
1 1 (0.26%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 58 (15.34%) Azure
2 51 (13.49%) AWS
3 14 (3.70%) Azure Sentinel
4 13 (3.44%) Entra ID
4 13 (3.44%) Microsoft 365
5 12 (3.17%) Cloud Computing
5 12 (3.17%) Serverless
6 11 (2.91%) Amazon EKS
6 11 (2.91%) GCP
6 11 (2.91%) OpenShift
7 7 (1.85%) Amazon EC2
7 7 (1.85%) AWS Lambda
7 7 (1.85%) Google Analytics
7 7 (1.85%) Power Platform
8 6 (1.59%) Amazon ECS
8 6 (1.59%) Amazon S3
8 6 (1.59%) Cloudflare
8 6 (1.59%) GitHub
9 5 (1.32%) Azure Logic Apps
10 4 (1.06%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 56 (14.81%) DNS
2 47 (12.43%) Firewall
3 18 (4.76%) TCP/IP
4 13 (3.44%) VPN
5 10 (2.65%) HTTP
6 8 (2.12%) LAN
6 8 (2.12%) SSL
7 7 (1.85%) Network Security
7 7 (1.85%) WAN
8 6 (1.59%) NetScaler
9 5 (1.32%) Cisco Firepower
9 5 (1.32%) Cisco Nexus
9 5 (1.32%) NGFW
9 5 (1.32%) Remote Desktop
9 5 (1.32%) SD-WAN
10 4 (1.06%) NAS
10 4 (1.06%) SAN
10 4 (1.06%) Wireshark
11 3 (0.79%) Internet
12 2 (0.53%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (3.17%) PostgreSQL
2 9 (2.38%) Relational Database
3 7 (1.85%) Power BI
4 5 (1.32%) MySQL
5 4 (1.06%) Oracle Database
5 4 (1.06%) SQL Server
6 2 (0.53%) Big Data
6 2 (0.53%) Metadata
6 2 (0.53%) Oracle Database 11g
6 2 (0.53%) Oracle Database 12c
6 2 (0.53%) Tableau
7 1 (0.26%) Amazon Athena
7 1 (0.26%) DynamoDB
7 1 (0.26%) MongoDB
7 1 (0.26%) NoSQL
7 1 (0.26%) Redis
Development Applications
1 15 (3.97%) Jenkins
2 10 (2.65%) Git
3 9 (2.38%) GitLab
4 6 (1.59%) JIRA
5 5 (1.32%) JUnit
5 5 (1.32%) SonarQube
6 4 (1.06%) Cucumber
7 3 (0.79%) Artifactory
8 2 (0.53%) JMeter
8 2 (0.53%) MLflow
8 2 (0.53%) Mockito
9 1 (0.26%) Axure RP
9 1 (0.26%) Balsamiq
9 1 (0.26%) Mocha
9 1 (0.26%) Rational DOORS
9 1 (0.26%) Rational Rhapsody
9 1 (0.26%) Selenium
9 1 (0.26%) Storybook
9 1 (0.26%) TestDirector
General
1 66 (17.46%) Social Skills
2 53 (14.02%) Public Sector
3 43 (11.38%) Analytical Skills
4 41 (10.85%) Finance
5 34 (8.99%) Aerospace
6 23 (6.08%) Manufacturing
7 20 (5.29%) Retail
8 14 (3.70%) Law
8 14 (3.70%) Organisational Skills
9 13 (3.44%) Electronics
10 8 (2.12%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 6 (1.59%) Banking
11 6 (1.59%) Legal
12 5 (1.32%) French Language
13 4 (1.06%) Games
13 4 (1.06%) Influencing Skills
13 4 (1.06%) Marketing
13 4 (1.06%) Public Speaking
14 3 (0.79%) Documentation Skills
14 3 (0.79%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 65 (17.20%) Architect
2 45 (11.90%) Senior
3 38 (10.05%) Analyst
4 28 (7.41%) Developer
4 28 (7.41%) Lead
5 25 (6.61%) Support Specialist
6 20 (5.29%) Applications Architect
6 20 (5.29%) Security Architect
7 19 (5.03%) SOC Analyst
8 17 (4.50%) Java Developer
9 16 (4.23%) Systems Engineer
10 13 (3.44%) Infrastructure Support
10 13 (3.44%) Software Engineer
11 12 (3.17%) Electrical Engineer
11 12 (3.17%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 12 (3.17%) Senior Manager
11 12 (3.17%) Technical Leader
12 11 (2.91%) DevOps Engineer
12 11 (2.91%) Mechanical Engineer
13 10 (2.65%) Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (4.76%) Regular Expression
2 17 (4.50%) LDAP
2 17 (4.50%) XMPP
3 15 (3.97%) Spring
4 11 (2.91%) .NET
4 11 (2.91%) Terraform
5 10 (2.65%) HTML
5 10 (2.65%) REST
5 10 (2.65%) Spring Boot
6 9 (2.38%) React
6 9 (2.38%) Web Services
7 8 (2.12%) CSS
7 8 (2.12%) Elastic Stack
7 8 (2.12%) JSON
7 8 (2.12%) RabbitMQ
8 7 (1.85%) Loki
9 6 (1.59%) Jakarta EE
9 6 (1.59%) JPA
10 5 (1.32%) AngularJS
11 4 (1.06%) JSON Schema
Miscellaneous
1 23 (6.08%) Cloud Native
2 21 (5.56%) Cyber Threat
2 21 (5.56%) Onboarding
3 18 (4.76%) Cyber Defence
3 18 (4.76%) Data Centre
4 14 (3.70%) Security Operations Centre
5 13 (3.44%) Product Ownership
6 11 (2.91%) Driving Licence
7 10 (2.65%) Analytical Mindset
8 9 (2.38%) Distributed Systems
8 9 (2.38%) Hybrid Cloud
9 8 (2.12%) PKI
10 7 (1.85%) CSOC
10 7 (1.85%) Hackathon
11 6 (1.59%) Management Information System
11 6 (1.59%) Private Cloud
12 5 (1.32%) Algorithms
12 5 (1.32%) Embedded Systems
12 5 (1.32%) Synthetic Data
13 4 (1.06%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 70 (18.52%) Linux
2 63 (16.67%) Windows
3 27 (7.14%) Windows Server
4 21 (5.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 5 (1.32%) Windows 10
6 2 (0.53%) Rocky
6 2 (0.53%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 68 (17.99%) Cybersecurity
2 67 (17.72%) Continuous Improvement
3 56 (14.81%) Validation
4 46 (12.17%) Problem-Solving
5 44 (11.64%) SIEM
6 41 (10.85%) Stakeholder Management
7 38 (10.05%) Mentoring
8 34 (8.99%) Agile
9 29 (7.67%) CI/CD
10 28 (7.41%) DevOps
11 27 (7.14%) Service Delivery
12 26 (6.88%) Technical Leadership
13 24 (6.35%) AI
13 24 (6.35%) Decision-Making
13 24 (6.35%) Software Engineering
14 23 (6.08%) Analytics
15 22 (5.82%) Incident Response
15 22 (5.82%) Platform Engineering
16 21 (5.56%) Containerisation
17 20 (5.29%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 39 (10.32%) Python
2 24 (6.35%) Java
3 17 (4.50%) PowerShell
4 13 (3.44%) Bash
4 13 (3.44%) SQL
5 10 (2.65%) C#
5 10 (2.65%) JavaScript
6 9 (2.38%) Shell Script
7 8 (2.12%) C
7 8 (2.12%) C++
8 7 (1.85%) Kusto Query Language
8 7 (1.85%) Search Processing Language
9 6 (1.59%) TypeScript
10 5 (1.32%) Groovy
10 5 (1.32%) Rust
11 4 (1.06%) MATLAB
11 4 (1.06%) PL/SQL
12 3 (0.79%) Perl
13 2 (0.53%) Go
13 2 (0.53%) Pascal
Qualifications
1 231 (61.11%) SC Cleared
2 124 (32.80%) DV Cleared
3 48 (12.70%) Degree
4 16 (4.23%) CompTIA Security+
5 15 (3.97%) CISSP
6 14 (3.70%) GIAC
7 13 (3.44%) GCIA
8 10 (2.65%) CREST Certified
8 10 (2.65%) OSCP
8 10 (2.65%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 8 (2.12%) GCIH
9 8 (2.12%) Master's Degree
10 7 (1.85%) BPSS Clearance
10 7 (1.85%) CompTIA CySA+
10 7 (1.85%) GCED
10 7 (1.85%) PhD
10 7 (1.85%) SANS
11 6 (1.59%) CRISC
11 6 (1.59%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 5 (1.32%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (2.12%) NCSC
2 7 (1.85%) QA
3 6 (1.59%) Accessibility
3 6 (1.59%) ISO 9001
3 6 (1.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 6 (1.59%) MISRA
4 5 (1.32%) NEBOSH
5 4 (1.06%) Data Quality
5 4 (1.06%) GDPR
6 3 (0.79%) ISO 22301
6 3 (0.79%) PMO
6 3 (0.79%) WCAG
7 2 (0.53%) Actionable Recommendations
7 2 (0.53%) COBIT
7 2 (0.53%) COSO
7 2 (0.53%) NIST
7 2 (0.53%) PCI DSS
7 2 (0.53%) SLA
8 1 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 15288
8 1 (0.26%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 41 (10.85%) Active Directory
2 24 (6.35%) vSphere
3 14 (3.70%) Docker
4 10 (2.65%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (1.85%) VMware ESXi
5 7 (1.85%) VMware NSX
6 6 (1.59%) Firmware
7 5 (1.32%) Squid
7 5 (1.32%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 26 (6.88%) Kubernetes
2 14 (3.70%) Kibana
3 11 (2.91%) Ansible
4 7 (1.85%) Argo
4 7 (1.85%) Grafana
4 7 (1.85%) Graylog
4 7 (1.85%) Kustomize
4 7 (1.85%) Prometheus
5 5 (1.32%) Microsoft Intune
6 4 (1.06%) Istio
6 4 (1.06%) Packer
6 4 (1.06%) SCCM
7 3 (0.79%) vCenter Server
8 2 (0.53%) Oracle RMAN
8 2 (0.53%) QRadar
8 2 (0.53%) vRealize
Vendors
1 74 (19.58%) Microsoft
2 40 (10.58%) VMware
3 24 (6.35%) Red Hat
4 19 (5.03%) Thales
5 15 (3.97%) Splunk
6 14 (3.70%) McAfee
7 10 (2.65%) Cisco
8 9 (2.38%) AppDynamics
8 9 (2.38%) IBM
8 9 (2.38%) Oracle
9 8 (2.12%) CrowdStrike
9 8 (2.12%) Google
10 7 (1.85%) Carbon Black
11 6 (1.59%) Citrix
11 6 (1.59%) EMC
11 6 (1.59%) ServiceNow
12 5 (1.32%) Fortinet
12 5 (1.32%) Palo Alto
12 5 (1.32%) Veeam
13 4 (1.06%) CA Agile Central