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 18 September 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 6 1 3
Rank change year-on-year -5 +2 +8
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 95 325 248
As % of all contract jobs advertised in Reading 16.35% 29.12% 21.89%
As % of the Qualifications category 57.58% 68.71% 59.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 61 200 156
10th Percentile £245 £463 £210
25th Percentile £443 £582 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £605 £525
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +15.24% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £688 £615
90th Percentile £775 £765 £650
Berkshire median daily rate £525 £600 £520
% change year-on-year -12.50% +15.38% -5.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 36 10
10th Percentile - £50.95 £58.63
25th Percentile £26.75 £60.95 £64.36
Median hourly rate £28.50 £72.33 £70.63
Median % change year-on-year -60.60% +2.41% -
75th Percentile £30.25 £90.00 £75.19
90th Percentile - £100.00 £77.21
Berkshire median hourly rate £47.48 £64.72 £64.52
% change year-on-year -26.64% +0.31% +207.21%

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 165 473 419
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Reading 28.40% 42.38% 36.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 95 248 266
10th Percentile £247 £378 £221
25th Percentile £447 £525 £407
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £605 £546
Median % change year-on-year -17.36% +10.81% +9.20%
75th Percentile £612 £688 £624
90th Percentile £744 £765 £688
Berkshire median daily rate £500 £583 £525
% change year-on-year -14.24% +11.05% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 36 12
10th Percentile £35.40 £50.95 £57.63
25th Percentile £48.38 £60.95 £62.55
Median hourly rate £70.00 £72.33 £70.63
Median % change year-on-year -3.22% +2.41% -
75th Percentile - £90.00 £75.06
90th Percentile - £100.00 £76.82
Berkshire median hourly rate £43.96 £63.15 £64.52
% change year-on-year -30.40% -2.12% +206.85%

Security Cleared
Job Vacancy Trend in Reading

Job postings citing Security Cleared as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in Reading.

Job vacancy trend for Security Cleared 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 18 September 2025.

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
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in Reading by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 1 (1.05%) CMS
1 1 (1.05%) Drupal
1 1 (1.05%) WordPress
Applications
1 1 (1.05%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 6 (6.32%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (2.11%) SAP EWM
2 2 (2.11%) SAP HCM
2 2 (2.11%) SAP PS
2 2 (2.11%) Teamcenter
3 1 (1.05%) Infor CloudSuite Industrial (formerly SyteLine)
3 1 (1.05%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (1.05%) Primavera
3 1 (1.05%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 24 (25.26%) AWS
2 18 (18.95%) Azure
3 3 (3.16%) GCP
4 2 (2.11%) Microsoft 365
5 1 (1.05%) Amazon CloudWatch
5 1 (1.05%) Amazon EC2
5 1 (1.05%) Amazon S3
5 1 (1.05%) Amazon SQS
5 1 (1.05%) AWS KMS
5 1 (1.05%) Azure Data Factory
5 1 (1.05%) Azure DevOps
5 1 (1.05%) Azure Synapse Analytics
5 1 (1.05%) Boomi
5 1 (1.05%) Entra ID
5 1 (1.05%) IaaS
5 1 (1.05%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 5 (5.26%) Firewall
2 4 (4.21%) LAN
3 2 (2.11%) SAN
3 2 (2.11%) Unified Communications
3 2 (2.11%) WAN
4 1 (1.05%) Cisco Nexus
4 1 (1.05%) DWDM
4 1 (1.05%) Ethernet
4 1 (1.05%) Intrusion Detection
4 1 (1.05%) Network Security
4 1 (1.05%) Software-Defined Networking
4 1 (1.05%) VPN
4 1 (1.05%) Wi-Fi
4 1 (1.05%) Wireless
4 1 (1.05%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (7.37%) NoSQL
2 5 (5.26%) GIS
3 3 (3.16%) SQL Server
4 2 (2.11%) PostgreSQL
4 2 (2.11%) SQL Server Reporting Services
5 1 (1.05%) Amazon Aurora
5 1 (1.05%) Amazon RDS
5 1 (1.05%) Data Hub
5 1 (1.05%) DynamoDB
5 1 (1.05%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 17 (17.89%) JIRA
2 12 (12.63%) Jenkins
3 11 (11.58%) GitLab
4 10 (10.53%) Cucumber
4 10 (10.53%) REST Assured
4 10 (10.53%) Selenium
5 7 (7.37%) SonarQube
6 2 (2.11%) Git
6 2 (2.11%) Rational DOORS
6 2 (2.11%) Visual Studio
7 1 (1.05%) Bitbucket Server
7 1 (1.05%) DbUnit
7 1 (1.05%) jMock
7 1 (1.05%) JUnit
7 1 (1.05%) Maven
7 1 (1.05%) Mockito
General
1 38 (40.00%) Social Skills
2 23 (24.21%) Analytical Skills
3 16 (16.84%) Public Sector
4 6 (6.32%) Finance
5 5 (5.26%) Law
6 4 (4.21%) Legal
6 4 (4.21%) Police
7 3 (3.16%) Telecoms
8 2 (2.11%) Aerospace
8 2 (2.11%) Manufacturing
9 1 (1.05%) Billing
9 1 (1.05%) Documentation Skills
9 1 (1.05%) Electronics
9 1 (1.05%) Marketing
9 1 (1.05%) Military
9 1 (1.05%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (1.05%) Pharmaceutical
9 1 (1.05%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 18 (18.95%) Consultant
2 11 (11.58%) Architect
2 11 (11.58%) Solutions Consultant
3 9 (9.47%) Java Engineer
3 9 (9.47%) Java Software Engineer
3 9 (9.47%) Senior
3 9 (9.47%) Software Engineer
4 8 (8.42%) Cloud Engineer
4 8 (8.42%) Security Architect
5 7 (7.37%) Developer
6 6 (6.32%) Analyst
6 6 (6.32%) DevOps Engineer
7 5 (5.26%) AWS Engineer
7 5 (5.26%) Information Security Specialist
7 5 (5.26%) Information Specialist
7 5 (5.26%) Network Engineer
7 5 (5.26%) SAP Consultant
7 5 (5.26%) Security Specialist
8 4 (4.21%) SC Cleared Software Engineer
9 3 (3.16%) SOC Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (11.58%) REST
2 10 (10.53%) Java EE
3 6 (6.32%) ARM Templates
3 6 (6.32%) SOAP
4 3 (3.16%) RESTful
4 3 (3.16%) Web Services
5 2 (2.11%) .NET
5 2 (2.11%) AngularJS
5 2 (2.11%) RFC 2544
5 2 (2.11%) Spring
5 2 (2.11%) Spring Boot
6 1 (1.05%) Bootstrap
6 1 (1.05%) Elastic Stack
6 1 (1.05%) PowerMock
6 1 (1.05%) React
6 1 (1.05%) scikit-learn
6 1 (1.05%) Spring Batch
6 1 (1.05%) Spring Integration
6 1 (1.05%) TensorFlow
6 1 (1.05%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 10 (10.53%) Management Information System
2 5 (5.26%) Operational Technology
2 5 (5.26%) SCADA
3 4 (4.21%) Data Centre
4 3 (3.16%) Cyber Threat
4 3 (3.16%) Fibre Optics
4 3 (3.16%) Security Operations Centre
5 2 (2.11%) Data Protection Act
5 2 (2.11%) Distributed Systems
5 2 (2.11%) Enterprise Storage
5 2 (2.11%) Hybrid Cloud
5 2 (2.11%) Replication
6 1 (1.05%) Algorithms
6 1 (1.05%) CESG
6 1 (1.05%) Cloud Native
6 1 (1.05%) Enterprise Software
6 1 (1.05%) Greenfield Project
6 1 (1.05%) HP Storage
6 1 (1.05%) Product Ownership
6 1 (1.05%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 12 (12.63%) Windows
2 10 (10.53%) Linux
3 2 (2.11%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 2 (2.11%) Windows 10
4 1 (1.05%) Android
4 1 (1.05%) Apple iOS
4 1 (1.05%) Windows Server
4 1 (1.05%) Windows Server 2012
4 1 (1.05%) Windows Server 2016
4 1 (1.05%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 23 (24.21%) DevOps
2 20 (21.05%) Test Automation
3 16 (16.84%) Problem-Solving
4 13 (13.68%) CI/CD
4 13 (13.68%) Decision-Making
4 13 (13.68%) Software Engineering
5 12 (12.63%) Technical Leadership
6 11 (11.58%) Agile
6 11 (11.58%) Configuration Management
6 11 (11.58%) Continuous Integration
6 11 (11.58%) Risk Management
7 10 (10.53%) Analytical Thinking
7 10 (10.53%) Information Security
7 10 (10.53%) Software Architecture
8 9 (9.47%) Security Architecture
8 9 (9.47%) Test Scripting
9 8 (8.42%) High Availability
9 8 (8.42%) Infrastructure as Code
9 8 (8.42%) Vulnerability Assessment
10 7 (7.37%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 18 (18.95%) Java
2 15 (15.79%) Python
3 13 (13.68%) SQL
4 5 (5.26%) C#
4 5 (5.26%) Perl
4 5 (5.26%) PL/SQL
4 5 (5.26%) PowerShell
5 3 (3.16%) C
6 2 (2.11%) Ada
6 2 (2.11%) Assembly Language
6 2 (2.11%) Bash
6 2 (2.11%) JavaScript
6 2 (2.11%) MATLAB
6 2 (2.11%) Shell Script
7 1 (1.05%) C++
7 1 (1.05%) Go
7 1 (1.05%) R
Qualifications
1 68 (71.58%) SC Cleared
2 22 (23.16%) DV Cleared
3 8 (8.42%) AWS Certification
4 7 (7.37%) CISSP
5 5 (5.26%) Degree
6 4 (4.21%) Cisco Certification
6 4 (4.21%) CISM
7 3 (3.16%) CCNA
7 3 (3.16%) CCNP
7 3 (3.16%) CFCE
7 3 (3.16%) GCFA
7 3 (3.16%) GCIA
7 3 (3.16%) GCIH
7 3 (3.16%) GIAC
8 2 (2.11%) BPSS Clearance
9 1 (1.05%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 1 (1.05%) Azure Certification
9 1 (1.05%) Computer Science Degree
9 1 (1.05%) DBS Check
9 1 (1.05%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (12.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 9 (9.47%) QA
3 7 (7.37%) NIST
4 6 (6.32%) GDPR
5 4 (4.21%) NCSC
6 3 (3.16%) HIPAA
7 2 (2.11%) NIST 800
7 2 (2.11%) RMADS
8 1 (1.05%) EU AI Act
8 1 (1.05%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 1 (1.05%) PCI DSS
8 1 (1.05%) PSD2
System Software
1 10 (10.53%) Docker
2 2 (2.11%) Active Directory
3 1 (1.05%) Postfix
3 1 (1.05%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (1.05%) VMware NSX
3 1 (1.05%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 11 (11.58%) Kubernetes
2 8 (8.42%) Terraform
3 7 (7.37%) Ansible
4 6 (6.32%) Docker Swarm
4 6 (6.32%) Podman
5 3 (3.16%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
6 2 (2.11%) NetBackup
7 1 (1.05%) Grafana
7 1 (1.05%) Prometheus
7 1 (1.05%) vRealize
7 1 (1.05%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 11 (11.58%) SAP
2 10 (10.53%) Microsoft
3 5 (5.26%) Cisco
4 3 (3.16%) ArcSight
4 3 (3.16%) CrowdStrike
4 3 (3.16%) LogRhythm
4 3 (3.16%) Oracle
4 3 (3.16%) Splunk
5 2 (2.11%) 3PAR
5 2 (2.11%) Dell
5 2 (2.11%) HP
5 2 (2.11%) IBM
5 2 (2.11%) Nokia
5 2 (2.11%) Red Hat
5 2 (2.11%) ServiceNow
5 2 (2.11%) Veritas
6 1 (1.05%) Ariba
6 1 (1.05%) Juniper
6 1 (1.05%) NetApp
6 1 (1.05%) Salesforce