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

6 months to
14 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 1 3 1
Rank change year-on-year +2 -2 +2
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 377 114 350
As % of all contract jobs in Reading 36.82% 19.90% 30.17%
As % of the Qualifications category 83.04% 60.32% 68.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 191 70 222
10th Percentile £268 £470 £213
25th Percentile £396 £556 £501
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £631 £605
Median % change year-on-year -12.87% +4.34% +5.22%
75th Percentile £688 £700 £688
90th Percentile £738 £704 £734
Berkshire median daily rate £470 £583 £575
% change year-on-year -19.31% +1.30% +0.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 109 1 43
10th Percentile £71.44 - £51.30
25th Percentile £80.75 - £56.50
Median hourly rate £84.00 £77.19 £62.50
Median % change year-on-year +8.82% +23.50% -4.58%
75th Percentile £88.00 - £86.55
90th Percentile £100.17 - £87.53
Berkshire median hourly rate £83.58 £68.87 £62.07
% change year-on-year +21.35% +10.95% -4.26%

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 454 189 510
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Reading 44.34% 32.98% 43.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 233 105 261
10th Percentile £280 £389 £205
25th Percentile £401 £475 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £625 £600
Median % change year-on-year -12.00% +4.17% +5.26%
75th Percentile £675 £700 £663
90th Percentile £733 - £725
Berkshire median daily rate £478 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -13.18% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 121 4 45
10th Percentile £35.22 - £44.80
25th Percentile £80.75 - £56.25
Median hourly rate £84.00 £70.00 £61.65
Median % change year-on-year +20.00% +13.55% -6.60%
75th Percentile £88.00 £71.80 £85.65
90th Percentile £100.85 £75.03 £87.53
Berkshire median hourly rate £83.00 £70.00 £61.60
% change year-on-year +18.57% +13.64% -5.23%

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 14 May 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 14 May 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 5 (1.33%) Microsoft Exchange
2 4 (1.06%) SharePoint
3 3 (0.80%) Confluence
4 2 (0.53%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.27%) Apache
Applications
1 15 (3.98%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (2.12%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (1.06%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.53%) Lectora
4 2 (0.53%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.27%) CATIA
5 1 (0.27%) Siemens NX
5 1 (0.27%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 30 (7.96%) SAP S/4HANA
2 8 (2.12%) iTrent
3 4 (1.06%) SAP MM
4 3 (0.80%) SAP EWM
4 3 (0.80%) Teamcenter
5 1 (0.27%) Primavera
5 1 (0.27%) SAP PS
5 1 (0.27%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 49 (13.00%) Azure
2 32 (8.49%) AWS
3 20 (5.31%) Power Platform
4 14 (3.71%) GCP
5 13 (3.45%) Azure DevOps
6 12 (3.18%) Entra ID
7 8 (2.12%) SuccessFactors
8 6 (1.59%) Azure Sentinel
8 6 (1.59%) Microsoft 365
9 5 (1.33%) AWS CloudFormation
10 4 (1.06%) Power Automate
10 4 (1.06%) SaaS
10 4 (1.06%) Viva Engage
11 3 (0.80%) Azure AKS
11 3 (0.80%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 3 (0.80%) Azure Monitor
11 3 (0.80%) GitHub
11 3 (0.80%) GitHub Actions
11 3 (0.80%) IaaS
11 3 (0.80%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 26 (6.90%) Firewall
2 21 (5.57%) LAN
3 16 (4.24%) DHCP
3 16 (4.24%) DNS
4 15 (3.98%) BGP
4 15 (3.98%) Cisco ISE
4 15 (3.98%) OSPF
4 15 (3.98%) WAN
5 14 (3.71%) BIG-IP
5 14 (3.71%) VXLAN
6 12 (3.18%) Ethernet VPN
6 12 (3.18%) Junos
7 7 (1.86%) Cisco Nexus
7 7 (1.86%) Wireless
8 5 (1.33%) Network Security
8 5 (1.33%) WLAN
9 3 (0.80%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
9 3 (0.80%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
9 3 (0.80%) TCP/IP
9 3 (0.80%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (4.24%) Power BI
2 12 (3.18%) Oracle Database
3 6 (1.59%) Data Warehouse
3 6 (1.59%) Tableau
4 5 (1.33%) Oracle Database 12c
5 4 (1.06%) SQL Server
6 3 (0.80%) NoSQL
6 3 (0.80%) Oracle Reports
7 2 (0.53%) Big Data
7 2 (0.53%) Hadoop
7 2 (0.53%) SAP Data Services
8 1 (0.27%) MySQL
8 1 (0.27%) Oracle Database 11g
8 1 (0.27%) PostgreSQL
8 1 (0.27%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 37 (9.81%) Rational DOORS
2 5 (1.33%) Jenkins
3 4 (1.06%) Bitbucket
4 3 (0.80%) Android Studio
4 3 (0.80%) JIRA
4 3 (0.80%) Subversion
5 2 (0.53%) Burp Suite
5 2 (0.53%) Metasploit
6 1 (0.27%) Git
6 1 (0.27%) GitLab
6 1 (0.27%) JUnit
6 1 (0.27%) Liquibase
6 1 (0.27%) Mockito
6 1 (0.27%) TestDirector
General
1 86 (22.81%) Aerospace
2 74 (19.63%) Social Skills
3 27 (7.16%) Finance
4 19 (5.04%) Public Sector
5 18 (4.77%) Analytical Skills
6 15 (3.98%) Military
7 8 (2.12%) Influencing Skills
8 7 (1.86%) Advertising
8 7 (1.86%) Legal
8 7 (1.86%) Manufacturing
9 4 (1.06%) Telecoms
10 2 (0.53%) Local Government
11 1 (0.27%) Avionics
11 1 (0.27%) Billing
11 1 (0.27%) Documentation Skills
11 1 (0.27%) Marketing
11 1 (0.27%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.27%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 55 (14.59%) Lead
2 42 (11.14%) Product Manager
3 41 (10.88%) Delivery Manager
4 39 (10.34%) Senior
5 38 (10.08%) Product Delivery Manager
6 35 (9.28%) Architect
7 30 (7.96%) Consultant
8 27 (7.16%) Network Engineer
9 26 (6.90%) Analyst
10 22 (5.84%) Systems Delivery Manager
10 22 (5.84%) Systems Manager
11 20 (5.31%) Data Migration Lead
12 16 (4.24%) IT Manager
13 15 (3.98%) Systems Engineer
14 14 (3.71%) Data Analyst
15 13 (3.45%) SAP Consultant
16 11 (2.92%) SIEM Engineer
17 10 (2.65%) Administrator
17 10 (2.65%) Developer
17 10 (2.65%) Senior Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (3.45%) 802.1X
2 4 (1.06%) Elastic Stack
2 4 (1.06%) Oracle GoldenGate
3 3 (0.80%) ARM Templates
4 2 (0.53%) Apache NiFi
4 2 (0.53%) SAP Fiori
5 1 (0.27%) .NET
5 1 (0.27%) .NET Core
5 1 (0.27%) CSS
5 1 (0.27%) GraphQL
5 1 (0.27%) HTML
5 1 (0.27%) iOS SDK
5 1 (0.27%) LAMP
5 1 (0.27%) MERN Stack
5 1 (0.27%) Middleware
5 1 (0.27%) OAuth
5 1 (0.27%) OpenID
5 1 (0.27%) React
5 1 (0.27%) SAML
5 1 (0.27%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 33 (8.75%) Product Ownership
2 23 (6.10%) Data Structures
3 20 (5.31%) PKI
4 19 (5.04%) Data Centre
5 18 (4.77%) Greenfield Project
6 13 (3.45%) Onboarding
7 12 (3.18%) Clustering
8 10 (2.65%) Management Information System
9 8 (2.12%) PMI
9 8 (2.12%) Virtual Team
10 6 (1.59%) Cloud Native
10 6 (1.59%) Self-Motivation
11 5 (1.33%) Data Protection Act
12 4 (1.06%) Operational Technology
12 4 (1.06%) Security Posture
13 3 (0.80%) Mobile App
13 3 (0.80%) Security Operations Centre
13 3 (0.80%) Taxonomies
13 3 (0.80%) Video Conferencing
14 2 (0.53%) e-Learning
Operating Systems
1 33 (8.75%) Windows
2 24 (6.37%) Linux
3 8 (2.12%) Android
4 6 (1.59%) Unix
5 4 (1.06%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.27%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.27%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 72 (19.10%) Continuous Improvement
2 62 (16.45%) Agile
3 53 (14.06%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 49 (13.00%) Systems Engineering
5 48 (12.73%) Computer Science
6 47 (12.47%) Scaled Agile Framework
7 45 (11.94%) Roadmaps
8 44 (11.67%) Stakeholder Management
9 43 (11.41%) ITIL
9 43 (11.41%) Migration
10 42 (11.14%) Cybersecurity
11 39 (10.34%) ITSM
12 38 (10.08%) Configuration Management
12 38 (10.08%) PRINCE2
13 37 (9.81%) CI/CD
13 37 (9.81%) Programme Management
13 37 (9.81%) Service Management
14 36 (9.55%) Change Control
15 33 (8.75%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
16 32 (8.49%) Data Migration
Programming Languages
1 28 (7.43%) Python
2 22 (5.84%) PowerShell
3 14 (3.71%) SQL
4 10 (2.65%) Kusto Query Language
5 5 (1.33%) Bash
5 5 (1.33%) Bicep
6 4 (1.06%) Korn
6 4 (1.06%) Shell Script
7 3 (0.80%) C++
7 3 (0.80%) PL/SQL
8 2 (0.53%) C#
8 2 (0.53%) JavaScript
8 2 (0.53%) PHP
9 1 (0.27%) Go
9 1 (0.27%) Java
9 1 (0.27%) Perl
9 1 (0.27%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 244 (64.72%) SC Cleared
2 80 (21.22%) DV Cleared
3 57 (15.12%) Degree
4 14 (3.71%) AWS Certification
4 14 (3.71%) PMP
5 13 (3.45%) PMI Certification
6 12 (3.18%) Cisco Certification
7 11 (2.92%) Azure Certification
8 8 (2.12%) CISSP
8 8 (2.12%) MAPM
8 8 (2.12%) TOGAF Certification
9 7 (1.86%) BPSS Clearance
10 6 (1.59%) APMP
11 4 (1.06%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 4 (1.06%) Chartered Engineer
11 4 (1.06%) JNCIA
11 4 (1.06%) JNCIP
11 4 (1.06%) JNCIS
12 2 (0.53%) Cyber Scheme
12 2 (0.53%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (6.10%) NIST
2 22 (5.84%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 14 (3.71%) NCSC
4 12 (3.18%) NIST 800
5 10 (2.65%) Data Quality
6 7 (1.86%) GDPR
6 7 (1.86%) PMO
7 5 (1.33%) QA
8 4 (1.06%) Accessibility
9 3 (0.80%) DO-254
9 3 (0.80%) IEC 61508
9 3 (0.80%) ISO 26262
9 3 (0.80%) JSP 440
10 2 (0.53%) Cyber Essentials
10 2 (0.53%) Def Stans
10 2 (0.53%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.53%) SLA
System Software
1 12 (3.18%) Active Directory
2 8 (2.12%) Docker
3 7 (1.86%) Oracle RAC
4 3 (0.80%) Hyper-V
4 3 (0.80%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.53%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.27%) Terminal Services
6 1 (0.27%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.27%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 13 (3.45%) FortiGate
1 13 (3.45%) Terraform
2 8 (2.12%) Kubernetes
2 8 (2.12%) Oracle RMAN
3 5 (1.33%) Ansible
4 4 (1.06%) Microsoft Intune
4 4 (1.06%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
5 3 (0.80%) Data Guard
5 3 (0.80%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
6 2 (0.53%) Nessus
6 2 (0.53%) Nmap
6 2 (0.53%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.27%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 1 (0.27%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
7 1 (0.27%) Jamf Pro
7 1 (0.27%) Kibana
7 1 (0.27%) OpenVAS
7 1 (0.27%) SCCM
Vendors
1 58 (15.38%) SAP
2 32 (8.49%) Cisco
2 32 (8.49%) Microsoft
3 28 (7.43%) IBM
4 23 (6.10%) Juniper
5 22 (5.84%) Oracle
6 17 (4.51%) F5
7 14 (3.71%) Extreme Networks
7 14 (3.71%) ServiceNow
7 14 (3.71%) Splunk
8 12 (3.18%) SolarWinds
9 10 (2.65%) Google
10 8 (2.12%) Workday
11 7 (1.86%) VMware
12 4 (1.06%) LogRhythm
12 4 (1.06%) Palo Alto
12 4 (1.06%) Siemens
12 4 (1.06%) Tanium
13 3 (0.80%) Atlassian
13 3 (0.80%) Thales