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

6 months to
13 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 3 7 3
Rank change year-on-year +4 -4 +16
Contract jobs citing SC Cleared 668 203 280
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 20.58% 13.89% 13.71%
As % of the Qualifications category 62.26% 42.74% 40.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 494 143 196
10th Percentile £358 £305 £299
25th Percentile £415 £450 £358
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £469 £515 £496
Median % change year-on-year -8.93% +3.88% -15.62%
75th Percentile £537 £622 £553
90th Percentile £634 £700 £671
England median daily rate £525 £525 £525
% change year-on-year - - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 59 6 5
10th Percentile £18.20 £18.36 £13.55
25th Percentile £25.15 £18.51 -
Median hourly rate £63.14 £18.69 £14.00
Median % change year-on-year +237.80% +33.50% -49.09%
75th Percentile £67.84 £36.20 £22.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £50.99 £31.30
England median hourly rate £55.00 £25.89 £50.00
% change year-on-year +112.44% -48.22% -13.04%

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 1,073 475 684
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 33.06% 32.51% 33.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 752 313 436
10th Percentile £325 £150 £298
25th Percentile £408 £319 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £469 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -6.20% - -7.41%
75th Percentile £544 £588 £600
90th Percentile £656 £689 £693
England median daily rate £525 £525 £535
% change year-on-year - -1.87% -2.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted 82 28 36
10th Percentile £17.39 £18.13 £14.00
25th Percentile £25.00 £18.51 £21.81
Median hourly rate £52.50 £30.15 £28.50
Median % change year-on-year +74.16% +5.77% +42.50%
75th Percentile £67.84 £50.00 £46.88
90th Percentile £75.00 £54.45 £58.75
England median hourly rate £50.49 £32.00 £40.33
% change year-on-year +57.77% -20.64% -26.68%

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 13 June 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 13 June 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 13 June 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 +3 404 £469 -8.74% 24
Birmingham -3 89 £475 -6.86% 17
Warwickshire -9 63 £413 -17.50% 9
Solihull +2 36 £456 +1.39%
Herefordshire +1 25 £625 -21.88% 2
Worcestershire +3 15 £680 -2.86%
Staffordshire +2 5 £388 -21.72% 9
Coventry -17 2 £538 - 2
Walsall - 2 £600 - 1
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
1 112 (16.77%) SAS
2 99 (14.82%) Confluence
3 18 (2.69%) Apache Airflow
4 16 (2.40%) WebLogic
5 11 (1.65%) Tuxedo
6 7 (1.05%) SharePoint
7 5 (0.75%) Apache
8 3 (0.45%) Oracle Workflow
9 2 (0.30%) Apache Spark
10 1 (0.15%) IIS
10 1 (0.15%) Jupyter
10 1 (0.15%) NetWeaver
10 1 (0.15%) SAP EP
Applications
1 10 (1.50%) Microsoft Excel
1 10 (1.50%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 8 (1.20%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (1.20%) Microsoft Project
3 4 (0.60%) MS Visio
3 4 (0.60%) Notepad++
4 1 (0.15%) Camtasia
Business Applications
1 1 (0.15%) Oracle EBS
1 1 (0.15%) Oracle ERP
1 1 (0.15%) Oracle Payroll
1 1 (0.15%) SAP CRM
1 1 (0.15%) SAP EWM
1 1 (0.15%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 192 (28.74%) AWS
2 85 (12.72%) Azure
3 40 (5.99%) GitHub
4 39 (5.84%) Amazon S3
5 34 (5.09%) Amazon CloudWatch
5 34 (5.09%) Amazon EC2
6 31 (4.64%) GitHub Actions
7 27 (4.04%) GCP
8 20 (2.99%) Serverless
9 18 (2.69%) AWS KMS
9 18 (2.69%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 15 (2.25%) Amazon SQS
10 15 (2.25%) AWS Lambda
11 14 (2.10%) Power Platform
11 14 (2.10%) Route 53
12 13 (1.95%) Azure DevOps
13 11 (1.65%) Amazon ECS
13 11 (1.65%) Amazon EKS
13 11 (1.65%) AWS CodePipeline
13 11 (1.65%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 20 (2.99%) Firewall
2 12 (1.80%) WAN
3 10 (1.50%) LAN
4 9 (1.35%) VPN
5 7 (1.05%) BGP
5 7 (1.05%) Intrusion Detection
5 7 (1.05%) Network Security
5 7 (1.05%) SSL
6 6 (0.90%) VLAN
6 6 (0.90%) Wireless
7 5 (0.75%) DNS
7 5 (0.75%) IPsec
7 5 (0.75%) MPLS
7 5 (0.75%) OSPF
7 5 (0.75%) WLAN
8 4 (0.60%) 5G
8 4 (0.60%) Internet
8 4 (0.60%) PuTTY
8 4 (0.60%) SD-WAN
8 4 (0.60%) WinSCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 73 (10.93%) Pentaho
2 63 (9.43%) Data Warehouse
3 46 (6.89%) PostgreSQL
4 35 (5.24%) Oracle Database
5 32 (4.79%) Amazon RDS
6 31 (4.64%) Oracle Reports
7 30 (4.49%) MySQL
8 23 (3.44%) SAS Enterprise Guide
9 22 (3.29%) Amazon Redshift
10 18 (2.69%) SAS Visual Analytics
11 17 (2.54%) DynamoDB
11 17 (2.54%) Metadata
12 14 (2.10%) Amazon Aurora
13 13 (1.95%) BusinessObjects
13 13 (1.95%) Power BI
14 10 (1.50%) Data Lake
15 9 (1.35%) Relational Database
15 9 (1.35%) SQL Server
16 7 (1.05%) Ingres
17 6 (0.90%) Base SAS
Development Applications
1 126 (18.86%) JIRA
2 95 (14.22%) GitLab
3 93 (13.92%) Git
4 81 (12.13%) Jenkins
5 40 (5.99%) JUnit
6 31 (4.64%) Zephyr
7 30 (4.49%) Selenium
8 26 (3.89%) Postman
9 19 (2.84%) Cucumber
10 18 (2.69%) WebDriver
11 17 (2.54%) Maven
11 17 (2.54%) Mockito
12 16 (2.40%) Bitbucket
12 16 (2.40%) JMeter
13 14 (2.10%) SonarQube
14 10 (1.50%) Artifactory
14 10 (1.50%) DbUnit
14 10 (1.50%) jMock
15 8 (1.20%) Atlassian Bamboo
15 8 (1.20%) Bitbucket Server
General
1 168 (25.15%) Social Skills
2 126 (18.86%) Public Sector
3 66 (9.88%) Analytical Skills
4 34 (5.09%) Finance
5 17 (2.54%) Documentation Skills
6 11 (1.65%) Influencing Skills
6 11 (1.65%) Organisational Skills
7 9 (1.35%) Presentation Skills
8 7 (1.05%) Telecoms
9 6 (0.90%) Advertising
10 4 (0.60%) Aerospace
11 3 (0.45%) Legal
12 1 (0.15%) Banking
12 1 (0.15%) Billing
12 1 (0.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 1 (0.15%) Military
12 1 (0.15%) Police
Job Titles
1 154 (23.05%) Data Engineer
2 69 (10.33%) Architect
3 52 (7.78%) Developer
4 44 (6.59%) Analyst
4 44 (6.59%) Senior
5 41 (6.14%) Tester
6 33 (4.94%) Java Developer
7 24 (3.59%) Lead
7 24 (3.59%) SAS Engineer
8 20 (2.99%) QA Tester
8 20 (2.99%) Support Engineer
9 19 (2.84%) Business Analyst
9 19 (2.84%) Scrum Master
10 18 (2.69%) Consultant
10 18 (2.69%) Data Architect
10 18 (2.69%) Project Manager
10 18 (2.69%) Software Engineer
11 16 (2.40%) Administrator
11 16 (2.40%) Technical Architect
11 16 (2.40%) Test Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (6.44%) Spring
2 29 (4.34%) Spring Boot
3 22 (3.29%) REST
4 17 (2.54%) JPA
5 15 (2.25%) WireMock
6 14 (2.10%) ActiveMQ
6 14 (2.10%) AngularJS
6 14 (2.10%) Hibernate
6 14 (2.10%) SOAP
6 14 (2.10%) Spring Batch
6 14 (2.10%) Spring Cloud
6 14 (2.10%) Spring Integration
6 14 (2.10%) Web Services
7 13 (1.95%) Node.js
8 10 (1.50%) Middleware
8 10 (1.50%) PowerMock
9 9 (1.35%) AWS CDK
10 8 (1.20%) Bootstrap
10 8 (1.20%) RESTful
11 5 (0.75%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 35 (5.24%) Cloud Native
2 25 (3.74%) Distributed Systems
3 22 (3.29%) Product Ownership
4 18 (2.69%) Legacy Systems
5 14 (2.10%) Data Centre
5 14 (2.10%) Onboarding
6 12 (1.80%) Enterprise Software
7 11 (1.65%) Distributed Architecture
8 9 (1.35%) Analytical Mindset
9 7 (1.05%) Enterprise Cloud
10 6 (0.90%) Driving Licence
10 6 (0.90%) Private Cloud
11 5 (0.75%) Cyber Threat
11 5 (0.75%) Linux Command Line
12 4 (0.60%) CSOC
12 4 (0.60%) Data Structures
12 4 (0.60%) Robotics
12 4 (0.60%) Security Operations Centre
13 3 (0.45%) Distributed Applications
13 3 (0.45%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 58 (8.68%) Unix
2 56 (8.38%) Linux
3 36 (5.39%) Windows
4 9 (1.35%) Windows Server
5 5 (0.75%) Android
5 5 (0.75%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.30%) AIX
6 2 (0.30%) Apple iOS
6 2 (0.30%) Solaris
7 1 (0.15%) Embedded Linux
7 1 (0.15%) HPUX
7 1 (0.15%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 223 (33.38%) Agile
2 144 (21.56%) CI/CD
3 129 (19.31%) DevOps
3 129 (19.31%) ETL
4 126 (18.86%) Test Automation
5 111 (16.62%) Continuous Improvement
6 109 (16.32%) Migration
7 107 (16.02%) Scrum
8 95 (14.22%) Analytics
9 93 (13.92%) Problem-Solving
10 87 (13.02%) Stakeholder Management
11 76 (11.38%) Data Integration
12 66 (9.88%) Data Modelling
13 63 (9.43%) Containerisation
14 59 (8.83%) Data Pipeline
15 52 (7.78%) Business Intelligence
15 52 (7.78%) Microservices
16 50 (7.49%) Validation
17 47 (7.04%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 46 (6.89%) End-to-End Testing
Programming Languages
1 217 (32.49%) SQL
2 63 (9.43%) Java
3 53 (7.93%) PL/SQL
4 45 (6.74%) Python
5 24 (3.59%) Shell Script
6 18 (2.69%) Bash
7 15 (2.25%) PowerShell
8 8 (1.20%) C
9 5 (0.75%) Perl
9 5 (0.75%) ProC
10 4 (0.60%) Go
10 4 (0.60%) Kotlin
10 4 (0.60%) Kusto Query Language
11 3 (0.45%) HiveQL
11 3 (0.45%) JavaScript
11 3 (0.45%) VB
11 3 (0.45%) VB6
12 2 (0.30%) Bicep
12 2 (0.30%) C#
12 2 (0.30%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 668 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 23 (3.44%) ISTQB
3 22 (3.29%) BPSS Clearance
4 13 (1.95%) DV Cleared
5 12 (1.80%) Cisco Certification
6 11 (1.65%) Degree
6 11 (1.65%) SAFe Agilist
7 9 (1.35%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
8 8 (1.20%) Microsoft Certification
9 7 (1.05%) CCNP
9 7 (1.05%) IIBA
9 7 (1.05%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 6 (0.90%) Azure Certification
10 6 (0.90%) CISSP
11 5 (0.75%) AWS Certification
11 5 (0.75%) CCIE
11 5 (0.75%) CCNA
12 4 (0.60%) CISM
12 4 (0.60%) Computer Science Degree
12 4 (0.60%) OCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 47 (7.04%) QA
2 34 (5.09%) Data Quality
3 16 (2.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 14 (2.10%) NIST
5 12 (1.80%) Accessibility
6 9 (1.35%) FATCA
7 8 (1.20%) GDPR
7 8 (1.20%) SLA
8 6 (0.90%) NCSC
9 4 (0.60%) GRC
10 3 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials
11 2 (0.30%) Government Security Classifications
11 2 (0.30%) PMO
11 2 (0.30%) SOC 2
12 1 (0.15%) P3O
12 1 (0.15%) WCAG
System Software
1 91 (13.62%) Docker
2 10 (1.50%) Postfix
2 10 (1.50%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (1.05%) Active Directory
4 6 (0.90%) VMware ESXi
4 6 (0.90%) vSphere
5 4 (0.60%) Hyper-V
5 4 (0.60%) Snort
6 3 (0.45%) HDFS
6 3 (0.45%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.30%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.15%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 90 (13.47%) Kubernetes
2 66 (9.88%) Grafana
3 34 (5.09%) Prometheus
4 27 (4.04%) Terraform
5 18 (2.69%) Ansible
6 5 (0.75%) Podman
7 4 (0.60%) CSIRT
7 4 (0.60%) PowerCLI
7 4 (0.60%) Progress Chef
7 4 (0.60%) vMotion
8 3 (0.45%) Kibana
8 3 (0.45%) QRadar
9 2 (0.30%) SCCM
9 2 (0.30%) vCenter Server
10 1 (0.15%) Backup Exec
10 1 (0.15%) Control-M
10 1 (0.15%) Data Guard
10 1 (0.15%) Docker Swarm
10 1 (0.15%) Host Intrusion Detection System
10 1 (0.15%) Iperf
Vendors
1 195 (29.19%) Oracle
2 112 (16.77%) Talend
3 61 (9.13%) Denodo
4 57 (8.53%) Informatica
5 40 (5.99%) Microsoft
6 23 (3.44%) Atlassian
7 22 (3.29%) ServiceNow
8 20 (2.99%) Splunk
9 19 (2.84%) Dynatrace
10 18 (2.69%) SAP
11 17 (2.54%) Cisco
12 16 (2.40%) VMware
13 14 (2.10%) Jaspersoft
14 12 (1.80%) Sage
15 9 (1.35%) AppDynamics
16 7 (1.05%) Databricks
16 7 (1.05%) HP
17 6 (0.90%) Cloudera
17 6 (0.90%) Juniper
18 5 (0.75%) F5