SC Cleared Contract Job Trends in the West Midlands

Security Check (SC) Clearance
England > West Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the West Midlands with a requirement for SC Cleared qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 16 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 3 11 6
Rank change year-on-year +8 -5 +10
Contract jobs citing SC Cleared 476 171 226
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 20.33% 10.82% 12.97%
As % of the Qualifications category 56.60% 35.11% 42.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 360 122 168
10th Percentile £350 £374 £325
25th Percentile £450 £456 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £540 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.94% +8.00% -6.54%
75th Percentile £577 £612 £610
90th Percentile £675 £700 £675
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -2.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 3 12
10th Percentile £18.20 - £44.50
25th Percentile £18.37 - £62.50
Median hourly rate £20.17 £35.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -42.39% -46.15% -1.52%
75th Percentile £25.15 - £67.81
90th Percentile - - £69.88
England median hourly rate £25.15 £60.00 £59.68
% change year-on-year -58.08% +0.54% -5.61%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
West Midlands

SC 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 the West Midlands.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 841 487 534
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 35.92% 30.82% 30.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 585 317 324
10th Percentile £300 £200 £313
25th Percentile £421 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £510 £500
Median % change year-on-year +0.98% +2.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £658 £700 £675
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 47 18 32
10th Percentile £14.00 £17.26 £17.53
25th Percentile £17.15 £18.88 £23.00
Median hourly rate £18.87 £27.56 £34.75
Median % change year-on-year -31.54% -20.68% +78.21%
75th Percentile £25.15 £35.00 £67.50
90th Percentile £47.45 £52.50 £69.88
England median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £50.00
% change year-on-year -45.54% -7.64% +11.11%

SC Cleared
Job Vacancy Trend in the West Midlands

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing SC Cleared relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands.

SC Cleared job vacancy trend in the West Midlands

SC Cleared
Daily Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing SC Cleared.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing SC Cleared

SC Cleared
Daily Rate Histogram in the West Midlands

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SC Cleared in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 16 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for SC Cleared in the West Midlands

SC Cleared
Hourly Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing SC Cleared.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing SC Cleared

SC Cleared
Hourly Rate Histogram in the West Midlands

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing SC Cleared in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 16 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for SC Cleared in the West Midlands

SC Cleared
Contract Job Locations in the West Midlands

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing SC Cleared within the West Midlands region over the 6 months to 16 January 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Shropshire 0 196 £515 +6.40% 20
Birmingham +23 99 £475 -20.83% 8
Warwickshire +1 76 £380 -32.24% 5
Worcestershire +11 62 £650 +36.84% 7
Herefordshire 0 46 £650 +6.21% 6
Staffordshire +3 5 £270 -39.50% 11
Coventry - 5 £325 -
Solihull -4 4 £513 +40.41%
Wolverhampton +4 2 - - 2
SC Cleared
England

SC Cleared
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the West Midlands 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 92 (19.33%) SAS
2 39 (8.19%) Confluence
3 25 (5.25%) WebLogic
4 15 (3.15%) Apache
5 9 (1.89%) nginx
6 7 (1.47%) Apache Airflow
7 6 (1.26%) Tuxedo
8 3 (0.63%) Oracle Workflow
9 2 (0.42%) SharePoint
10 1 (0.21%) NetWeaver
10 1 (0.21%) SAP EP
Applications
1 8 (1.68%) Mozilla Thunderbird
2 6 (1.26%) Microsoft Project
3 5 (1.05%) Microsoft Office
4 4 (0.84%) Microsoft Excel
5 2 (0.42%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.42%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.21%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.21%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (0.42%) Dynamics CRM
1 2 (0.42%) SAP ERP
1 2 (0.42%) SAP PP
1 2 (0.42%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.21%) Oracle Assets
2 1 (0.21%) SAP CRM
2 1 (0.21%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 103 (21.64%) Azure
2 93 (19.54%) AWS
3 31 (6.51%) GitHub
4 23 (4.83%) OpenShift
5 21 (4.41%) Amazon S3
6 20 (4.20%) Amazon EC2
7 18 (3.78%) Microsoft 365
7 18 (3.78%) SaaS
8 16 (3.36%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 16 (3.36%) GCP
8 16 (3.36%) Serverless
9 15 (3.15%) Amazon ELB
9 15 (3.15%) Azure Data Factory
9 15 (3.15%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 14 (2.94%) Azure Monitor
11 13 (2.73%) AWS KMS
12 11 (2.31%) Power Platform
13 9 (1.89%) Azure DevOps
13 9 (1.89%) Datadog
14 8 (1.68%) Amazon ECS
Communications & Networking
1 40 (8.40%) Firewall
2 35 (7.35%) DNS
2 35 (7.35%) VPN
3 33 (6.93%) WAN
4 29 (6.09%) IPsec
5 22 (4.62%) BGP
5 22 (4.62%) MPLS
6 19 (3.99%) SMTP
7 15 (3.15%) Network Security
8 14 (2.94%) FTP
9 13 (2.73%) HTTP
9 13 (2.73%) SSH
9 13 (2.73%) Wireless
10 11 (2.31%) SSL
11 9 (1.89%) Cisco IPT
11 9 (1.89%) DMVPN
12 8 (1.68%) IMAP
12 8 (1.68%) OpenLDAP
13 7 (1.47%) Internet
14 6 (1.26%) DKIM
Database & Business Intelligence
1 41 (8.61%) Pentaho
2 39 (8.19%) SAS Enterprise Guide
3 29 (6.09%) PostgreSQL
4 28 (5.88%) Oracle Database
5 21 (4.41%) Amazon RDS
6 16 (3.36%) Elasticsearch
7 13 (2.73%) Metadata
8 12 (2.52%) SAS Visual Analytics
9 9 (1.89%) Data Warehouse
10 8 (1.68%) Amazon Aurora
10 8 (1.68%) Redis
11 7 (1.47%) Metadata Repository
12 6 (1.26%) MongoDB
13 5 (1.05%) Power BI
14 3 (0.63%) Amazon Redshift
14 3 (0.63%) InfluxDB
14 3 (0.63%) Relational Database
14 3 (0.63%) SAS Data Integration Studio
15 2 (0.42%) MySQL
15 2 (0.42%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 76 (15.97%) Git
2 73 (15.34%) JIRA
3 70 (14.71%) Jenkins
4 35 (7.35%) GitLab
5 20 (4.20%) JUnit
6 19 (3.99%) Selenium
7 13 (2.73%) Vagrant
8 12 (2.52%) SonarQube
9 7 (1.47%) Mockito
10 6 (1.26%) Cucumber
10 6 (1.26%) Maven
10 6 (1.26%) MSI
11 3 (0.63%) Bitbucket
11 3 (0.63%) NeoLoad
12 2 (0.42%) Postman
13 1 (0.21%) Atlassian Bamboo
13 1 (0.21%) JMeter
13 1 (0.21%) TestDirector
General
1 127 (26.68%) Social Skills
2 60 (12.61%) Public Sector
3 41 (8.61%) Analytical Skills
4 14 (2.94%) Documentation Skills
4 14 (2.94%) Finance
5 13 (2.73%) Telecoms
6 9 (1.89%) Aeronautics
7 8 (1.68%) Legal
7 8 (1.68%) Presentation Skills
8 2 (0.42%) Electronics
8 2 (0.42%) General Ledger
8 2 (0.42%) Influencing Skills
8 2 (0.42%) Manufacturing
8 2 (0.42%) Marketing
8 2 (0.42%) Police
9 1 (0.21%) Advertising
9 1 (0.21%) Aerospace
9 1 (0.21%) Automotive
9 1 (0.21%) Banking
9 1 (0.21%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 43 (9.03%) Data Engineer
2 37 (7.77%) Senior
3 36 (7.56%) Platform Engineer
4 31 (6.51%) Developer
5 30 (6.30%) Architect
6 29 (6.09%) Support Engineer
7 23 (4.83%) AWS Engineer
8 22 (4.62%) Analyst
9 20 (4.20%) DevOps Engineer
9 20 (4.20%) Release Manager
10 17 (3.57%) Test Specialist
11 15 (3.15%) AWS DevOps
11 15 (3.15%) AWS DevOps Engineer
11 15 (3.15%) Cloud Platform Engineer
12 14 (2.94%) Tester
13 13 (2.73%) Network Engineer
13 13 (2.73%) Senior Data Engineer
13 13 (2.73%) Senior Developer
14 12 (2.52%) 3rd Line Engineer
14 12 (2.52%) WAN Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (6.30%) REST
2 15 (3.15%) pytest
3 14 (2.94%) Spring
3 14 (2.94%) Spring Boot
4 13 (2.73%) Keycloak
4 13 (2.73%) LDAP
5 12 (2.52%) Kafka
5 12 (2.52%) YAML
6 11 (2.31%) FastAPI
6 11 (2.31%) Flask
7 10 (2.10%) Middleware
8 9 (1.89%) 802.1X
9 8 (1.68%) GraphQL
9 8 (1.68%) React
9 8 (1.68%) WebSockets
10 7 (1.47%) gRPC
11 6 (1.26%) HTML
11 6 (1.26%) JPA
11 6 (1.26%) OAuth
11 6 (1.26%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 21 (4.41%) Cloud Native
2 20 (4.20%) Onboarding
2 20 (4.20%) PKI
3 18 (3.78%) Data Centre
4 14 (2.94%) Replication
5 12 (2.52%) Driving Licence
6 11 (2.31%) Enterprise Software
6 11 (2.31%) Hybrid Cloud
7 8 (1.68%) SCADA
8 7 (1.47%) FPGA
8 7 (1.47%) Legacy Systems
8 7 (1.47%) Product Ownership
9 6 (1.26%) VHDL
10 5 (1.05%) Algorithms
10 5 (1.05%) Self-Motivation
11 4 (0.84%) Data Protection Act
11 4 (0.84%) Security Operations Centre
12 3 (0.63%) Handset
12 3 (0.63%) Mainframe
12 3 (0.63%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 73 (15.34%) Windows
2 63 (13.24%) Linux
3 28 (5.88%) Unix
4 13 (2.73%) Amazon Linux
4 13 (2.73%) VMS
5 11 (2.31%) Windows Server
6 10 (2.10%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (2.10%) Ubuntu
7 3 (0.63%) Windows 10
8 2 (0.42%) CentOS
9 1 (0.21%) AIX
9 1 (0.21%) Android
9 1 (0.21%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.21%) Embedded Linux
9 1 (0.21%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.21%) Mac OS X
9 1 (0.21%) Solaris
9 1 (0.21%) VME
Processes & Methodologies
1 144 (30.25%) DevOps
2 137 (28.78%) CI/CD
3 102 (21.43%) Agile
4 92 (19.33%) Analytics
5 81 (17.02%) Problem-Solving
6 64 (13.45%) Test Automation
7 61 (12.82%) Continuous Improvement
8 59 (12.39%) Scrum
9 58 (12.18%) Containerisation
9 58 (12.18%) Data Integration
10 57 (11.97%) Business Intelligence
10 57 (11.97%) Data Pipeline
11 54 (11.34%) Stakeholder Management
12 53 (11.13%) Migration
13 52 (10.92%) ETL
14 47 (9.87%) Change Management
15 46 (9.66%) Configuration Management
16 45 (9.45%) Data Modelling
17 44 (9.24%) Platform Engineering
18 40 (8.40%) Test Strategy
Programming Languages
1 109 (22.90%) SQL
2 87 (18.28%) Python
3 38 (7.98%) PowerShell
4 32 (6.72%) Java
5 23 (4.83%) Go
6 17 (3.57%) Bash
7 13 (2.73%) Groovy
7 13 (2.73%) Shell Script
8 8 (1.68%) JavaScript
9 6 (1.26%) MATLAB
9 6 (1.26%) Perl
9 6 (1.26%) PL/SQL
10 5 (1.05%) TypeScript
11 3 (0.63%) ABAP
12 2 (0.42%) C#
12 2 (0.42%) C++
13 1 (0.21%) C
13 1 (0.21%) COBOL
13 1 (0.21%) Search Processing Language
13 1 (0.21%) SystemVerilog
Qualifications
1 476 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 30 (6.30%) DV Cleared
3 25 (5.25%) Azure Certification
4 16 (3.36%) BPSS Clearance
5 14 (2.94%) Degree
6 13 (2.73%) AWS Certification
7 7 (1.47%) IIBA
8 6 (1.26%) CISSP
8 6 (1.26%) Microsoft Certification
9 5 (1.05%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 3 (0.63%) CEH
10 3 (0.63%) Cisco Certification
10 3 (0.63%) CISM
11 2 (0.42%) CCA
11 2 (0.42%) CCIE
11 2 (0.42%) CCNP
11 2 (0.42%) Computer Science Degree
11 2 (0.42%) DBS Check
11 2 (0.42%) GCIH
11 2 (0.42%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (6.09%) Data Quality
2 16 (3.36%) NCSC
3 13 (2.73%) QA
4 12 (2.52%) NIST
5 10 (2.10%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 8 (1.68%) Accessibility
7 6 (1.26%) GDPR
8 4 (0.84%) WCAG
9 2 (0.42%) PCI DSS
9 2 (0.42%) PMO
10 1 (0.21%) IEC 61131
10 1 (0.21%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 1 (0.21%) SLA
System Software
1 112 (23.53%) Docker
2 21 (4.41%) Active Directory
3 14 (2.94%) Postfix
4 13 (2.73%) DFS Replication
5 12 (2.52%) Dovecot
6 10 (2.10%) VMware Infrastructure
7 8 (1.68%) Squid
8 5 (1.05%) Terminal Services
9 3 (0.63%) Firmware
9 3 (0.63%) VMware NSX
10 1 (0.21%) Snort
Systems Management
1 118 (24.79%) Kubernetes
2 41 (8.61%) Terraform
3 39 (8.19%) Grafana
4 34 (7.14%) Prometheus
5 14 (2.94%) Ansible
6 10 (2.10%) Kibana
7 8 (1.68%) Nessus
7 8 (1.68%) Proxmox
8 5 (1.05%) Progress Chef
9 4 (0.84%) logstash
10 3 (0.63%) FortiGate
10 3 (0.63%) SCCM
11 2 (0.42%) QRadar
12 1 (0.21%) Docker Swarm
12 1 (0.21%) Fluentd
12 1 (0.21%) HP ALM
12 1 (0.21%) NetBackup
12 1 (0.21%) Puppet
12 1 (0.21%) Rsyslog
12 1 (0.21%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 94 (19.75%) Oracle
2 54 (11.34%) Microsoft
3 44 (9.24%) Cisco
3 44 (9.24%) Talend
4 35 (7.35%) Denodo
4 35 (7.35%) Dynatrace
4 35 (7.35%) ServiceNow
5 34 (7.14%) Splunk
6 33 (6.93%) Juniper
7 25 (5.25%) AppDynamics
8 15 (3.15%) F5
9 14 (2.94%) CheckPoint
10 12 (2.52%) CyberArk
10 12 (2.52%) SAP
10 12 (2.52%) VMware
11 10 (2.10%) Broadcom
12 9 (1.89%) Blue Coat
12 9 (1.89%) Informatica
13 8 (1.68%) Jaspersoft
14 7 (1.47%) Atlassian