Security Cleared Contract Job Trends in Reading

Security Clearance
Berkshire > Reading

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in Reading with a requirement for Security Cleared qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 12 February 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 2 5 1
Rank change year-on-year +3 -4 +4
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 250 143 346
As % of all contract jobs in Reading 30.01% 18.12% 30.95%
As % of the Qualifications category 76.69% 58.61% 70.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 190 71 220
10th Percentile £255 £400 £205
25th Percentile £358 £484 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £625 £575
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% +8.70% -0.86%
75th Percentile £575 £663 £621
90th Percentile £646 £700 £688
Berkshire median daily rate £450 £550 £525
% change year-on-year -18.18% +4.76% -10.41%
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 4 27
10th Percentile £58.18 £61.63 £47.55
25th Percentile £71.50 £61.71 £56.50
Median hourly rate £90.00 £68.20 £61.60
Median % change year-on-year +31.97% +10.71% -4.99%
75th Percentile £97.50 £75.45 £78.07
90th Percentile £117.64 £76.49 £87.53
Berkshire median hourly rate £75.00 £61.79 £62.32
% change year-on-year +21.38% -0.85% -3.64%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
Reading

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 contract job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications in Reading.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 326 244 490
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Reading 39.14% 30.93% 43.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 230 116 296
10th Percentile £255 £291 £205
25th Percentile £363 £423 £295
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £600 £550
Median % change year-on-year -16.67% +9.09% -
75th Percentile £588 £663 £620
90th Percentile £654 £688 £688
Berkshire median daily rate £450 £525 £513
% change year-on-year -14.29% +2.44% -6.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 28 4 28
10th Percentile £62.08 £61.63 £42.00
25th Percentile £78.00 £61.71 £55.60
Median hourly rate £90.00 £68.20 £60.87
Median % change year-on-year +31.97% +12.04% -6.35%
75th Percentile £97.50 £75.45 £74.91
90th Percentile £112.13 £76.49 £87.53
Berkshire median hourly rate £73.50 £61.76 £61.60
% change year-on-year +19.01% +0.26% -4.99%

Security Cleared
Job Vacancy Trend in Reading

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Security Cleared relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Reading.

Security Cleared job vacancy trend in Reading

Security Cleared
Daily Rate Trend in Reading

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Reading citing Security Cleared.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Reading citing Security Cleared

Security Cleared
Daily Rate Histogram in Reading

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Security Cleared in Reading over the 6 months to 12 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Security Cleared in Reading

Security Cleared
Hourly Rate Trend in Reading

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Reading citing Security Cleared.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Reading citing Security Cleared

Security Cleared
Hourly Rate Histogram in Reading

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Security Cleared in Reading over the 6 months to 12 February 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Security Cleared in Reading

Security Cleared
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Reading 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 8 (3.20%) Microsoft Exchange
2 6 (2.40%) SharePoint
3 3 (1.20%) Confluence
4 1 (0.40%) Apache
4 1 (0.40%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 4 (1.60%) Microsoft Excel
1 4 (1.60%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.40%) CATIA
2 1 (0.40%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.40%) MS Visio
2 1 (0.40%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 4 (1.60%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.80%) SAP HCM
2 2 (0.80%) SAP PS
3 1 (0.40%) Primavera
3 1 (0.40%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 48 (19.20%) Azure
2 38 (15.20%) AWS
3 20 (8.00%) Entra ID
4 17 (6.80%) OneDrive
5 14 (5.60%) GCP
6 13 (5.20%) Microsoft 365
7 7 (2.80%) Power Platform
8 6 (2.40%) Azure DevOps
8 6 (2.40%) Power Automate
9 5 (2.00%) AWS CloudFormation
9 5 (2.00%) Azure Sentinel
10 4 (1.60%) IaaS
10 4 (1.60%) OpenShift
10 4 (1.60%) PowerApps
10 4 (1.60%) Viva Engage
11 3 (1.20%) Azure AKS
11 3 (1.20%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 3 (1.20%) GitHub
11 3 (1.20%) GitHub Actions
11 3 (1.20%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 12 (4.80%) Firewall
2 11 (4.40%) Unified Communications
3 9 (3.60%) 4G
3 9 (3.60%) Wi-Fi
4 7 (2.80%) Wireless
5 6 (2.40%) DNS
5 6 (2.40%) LAN
5 6 (2.40%) Network Security
6 5 (2.00%) Cisco Nexus
6 5 (2.00%) DHCP
6 5 (2.00%) WebEx
6 5 (2.00%) WLAN
7 3 (1.20%) Cisco ISE
7 3 (1.20%) TCP/IP
8 2 (0.80%) DWDM
9 1 (0.40%) BGP
9 1 (0.40%) EIGRP
9 1 (0.40%) H.323
9 1 (0.40%) OSPF
9 1 (0.40%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (2.00%) NoSQL
1 5 (2.00%) Power BI
2 1 (0.40%) MySQL
2 1 (0.40%) SAP Data Services
2 1 (0.40%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 7 (2.80%) JIRA
2 5 (2.00%) Jenkins
3 3 (1.20%) Android Studio
3 3 (1.20%) Bitbucket
3 3 (1.20%) Subversion
4 2 (0.80%) Burp Suite
4 2 (0.80%) Metasploit
4 2 (0.80%) Visual Studio
5 1 (0.40%) Git
5 1 (0.40%) GitLab
5 1 (0.40%) Rational DOORS
General
1 69 (27.60%) Social Skills
2 52 (20.80%) Public Sector
3 17 (6.80%) Analytical Skills
4 12 (4.80%) Aerospace
5 11 (4.40%) Finance
6 9 (3.60%) Military
7 7 (2.80%) Legal
8 2 (0.80%) Influencing Skills
8 2 (0.80%) Local Government
8 2 (0.80%) Telecoms
9 1 (0.40%) Advertising
9 1 (0.40%) Billing
9 1 (0.40%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 48 (19.20%) Consultant
2 33 (13.20%) Network Consultant
3 25 (10.00%) Architect
4 21 (8.40%) Senior
5 20 (8.00%) Lead
6 14 (5.60%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 14 (5.60%) Network Engineer
7 12 (4.80%) Developer
8 11 (4.40%) Cloud Engineer
9 10 (4.00%) Tester
10 9 (3.60%) Infrastructure Support
10 9 (3.60%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
10 9 (3.60%) IT Manager
10 9 (3.60%) Support Engineer
11 8 (3.20%) Analyst
11 8 (3.20%) Platform Engineer
11 8 (3.20%) Project Manager
11 8 (3.20%) SIEM Engineer
12 7 (2.80%) Android Developer
12 7 (2.80%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (1.60%) Loki
2 3 (1.20%) ARM Templates
2 3 (1.20%) Elastic Stack
3 2 (0.80%) AngularJS
3 2 (0.80%) jQuery
3 2 (0.80%) Node.js
3 2 (0.80%) OAuth
3 2 (0.80%) OAuth2
3 2 (0.80%) OpenID
3 2 (0.80%) React
3 2 (0.80%) SAML
3 2 (0.80%) Web Services
4 1 (0.40%) .NET
4 1 (0.40%) .NET Core
4 1 (0.40%) GraphQL
4 1 (0.40%) LAMP
4 1 (0.40%) MERN Stack
4 1 (0.40%) REST
4 1 (0.40%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 10 (4.00%) Cloud Native
1 10 (4.00%) Data Centre
1 10 (4.00%) PKI
2 9 (3.60%) Onboarding
3 7 (2.80%) Self-Motivation
4 6 (2.40%) Management Information System
4 6 (2.40%) PMI
5 5 (2.00%) Driving Licence
5 5 (2.00%) Handset
5 5 (2.00%) Security Operations Centre
6 4 (1.60%) Virtual Team
7 3 (1.20%) Cyber Threat
7 3 (1.20%) Mobile App
7 3 (1.20%) Security Posture
8 2 (0.80%) Cyber Security Posture
8 2 (0.80%) Data Protection Act
8 2 (0.80%) Greenfield Project
8 2 (0.80%) Operational Technology
8 2 (0.80%) Private Cloud
8 2 (0.80%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 41 (16.40%) Windows
2 29 (11.60%) Linux
3 14 (5.60%) Windows 10
4 9 (3.60%) Android
5 4 (1.60%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 4 (1.60%) Windows Server
6 2 (0.80%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.40%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 55 (22.00%) Roadmaps
2 48 (19.20%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 41 (16.40%) Migration
4 36 (14.40%) CI/CD
5 32 (12.80%) Collaborative Working
6 28 (11.20%) Cybersecurity
7 27 (10.80%) Continuous Improvement
7 27 (10.80%) ITSM
8 25 (10.00%) Service Management
9 24 (9.60%) ITIL
9 24 (9.60%) Problem-Solving
10 22 (8.80%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 19 (7.60%) Stakeholder Management
12 18 (7.20%) Agile
12 18 (7.20%) SIEM
13 15 (6.00%) Change Management
14 14 (5.60%) DevOps
14 14 (5.60%) DevSecOps
14 14 (5.60%) Infrastructure as Code
14 14 (5.60%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 31 (12.40%) Python
2 28 (11.20%) PowerShell
3 9 (3.60%) Bash
4 6 (2.40%) Kusto Query Language
5 5 (2.00%) Bicep
5 5 (2.00%) SQL
6 4 (1.60%) Java
6 4 (1.60%) JavaScript
7 3 (1.20%) C#
8 2 (0.80%) Ada
8 2 (0.80%) Assembly Language
8 2 (0.80%) C
8 2 (0.80%) MATLAB
8 2 (0.80%) PHP
9 1 (0.40%) Perl
Qualifications
1 196 (78.40%) SC Cleared
2 33 (13.20%) DV Cleared
3 18 (7.20%) AWS Certification
4 14 (5.60%) Degree
5 11 (4.40%) Azure Certification
6 9 (3.60%) CISSP
7 7 (2.80%) PMP
8 6 (2.40%) MAPM
8 6 (2.40%) PMI Certification
8 6 (2.40%) TOGAF Certification
9 5 (2.00%) APMP
9 5 (2.00%) BPSS Clearance
9 5 (2.00%) GIAC
10 4 (1.60%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 4 (1.60%) CCNP
10 4 (1.60%) Cisco Certification
11 3 (1.20%) CEH
11 3 (1.20%) GCIA
11 3 (1.20%) GCIH
11 3 (1.20%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (5.60%) NCSC
2 13 (5.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 13 (5.20%) NIST
3 6 (2.40%) QA
4 5 (2.00%) GDPR
5 4 (1.60%) Accessibility
5 4 (1.60%) NIST 800
5 4 (1.60%) PMO
5 4 (1.60%) SLA
6 3 (1.20%) JSP 440
7 2 (0.80%) Cyber Essentials
7 2 (0.80%) HIPAA
7 2 (0.80%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.40%) Data Quality
8 1 (0.40%) Def Stans
System Software
1 32 (12.80%) Active Directory
2 8 (3.20%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (2.00%) Docker
3 5 (2.00%) vSphere
4 3 (1.20%) Hyper-V
5 2 (0.80%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.40%) Terminal Services
6 1 (0.40%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.40%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 13 (5.20%) Kubernetes
1 13 (5.20%) SCCM
2 12 (4.80%) Terraform
3 8 (3.20%) Single Sign-On
4 7 (2.80%) Microsoft Intune
5 4 (1.60%) Ansible
5 4 (1.60%) Argo
5 4 (1.60%) Cisco CUCM
5 4 (1.60%) Grafana
5 4 (1.60%) Kustomize
5 4 (1.60%) Prometheus
6 3 (1.20%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
6 3 (1.20%) Nessus
6 3 (1.20%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
7 2 (0.80%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 2 (0.80%) Kibana
7 2 (0.80%) Nmap
8 1 (0.40%) Cisco UCCE
8 1 (0.40%) Jamf Pro
8 1 (0.40%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 56 (22.40%) Cisco
2 49 (19.60%) Microsoft
3 34 (13.60%) Aruba
4 20 (8.00%) ServiceNow
5 13 (5.20%) VMware
6 12 (4.80%) Google
7 5 (2.00%) LogRhythm
7 5 (2.00%) Tanium
8 4 (1.60%) Juniper
8 4 (1.60%) Red Hat
8 4 (1.60%) SAP
8 4 (1.60%) Splunk
9 3 (1.20%) ArcSight
9 3 (1.20%) Atlassian
9 3 (1.20%) Coverity
9 3 (1.20%) Palo Alto
9 3 (1.20%) Thales
10 2 (0.80%) CloudEndure
10 2 (0.80%) F5
10 2 (0.80%) FireEye