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 22 August 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 3 5 4
Rank change year-on-year +2 -1 +7
Contract jobs citing SC Cleared 671 273 269
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 19.42% 15.79% 14.19%
As % of the Qualifications category 57.25% 46.75% 42.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 496 196 193
10th Percentile £358 £300 £325
25th Percentile £413 £422 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £465 £500 £520
Median % change year-on-year -7.00% -3.85% -5.45%
75th Percentile £550 £575 £612
90th Percentile £632 £647 £675
England median daily rate £530 £525 £530
% change year-on-year +0.95% -0.94% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 50 18 4
10th Percentile £14.18 £18.76 £13.48
25th Percentile £58.43 - £13.81
Median hourly rate £63.14 £18.87 £18.00
Median % change year-on-year +234.58% +4.83% -34.55%
75th Percentile £70.50 £25.15 £25.88
90th Percentile £75.00 - £32.85
England median hourly rate £63.48 £25.15 £55.00
% change year-on-year +152.41% -54.27% -2.98%

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 1,172 584 636
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 33.91% 33.78% 33.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 817 387 418
10th Percentile £319 £196 £313
25th Percentile £405 £383 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £469 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -6.20% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £550 £584 £627
90th Percentile £656 £642 £725
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 85 47 20
10th Percentile £14.96 - £13.93
25th Percentile £33.99 £18.87 £20.12
Median hourly rate £52.50 £30.00 £32.15
Median % change year-on-year +75.00% -6.69% +30.69%
75th Percentile £67.84 £43.63 £50.63
90th Percentile £75.00 £51.00 £56.50
England median hourly rate £53.00 £25.15 £47.67
% change year-on-year +110.74% -47.24% -13.34%

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 22 August 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 22 August 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 22 August 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 0 432 £469 -10.67% 37
Birmingham -7 85 £488 +2.63% 50
Warwickshire -18 45 £437 -12.60% 6
Solihull +1 35 £463 +2.78% 6
Herefordshire 0 22 £700 - 2
Staffordshire 0 11 £388 +13.14% 13
Coventry -15 11 £425 +54.55% 3
Worcestershire -7 9 £700 +16.67% 7
Walsall - 4 £600 -
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 87 (12.97%) SAS
2 78 (11.62%) Confluence
3 18 (2.68%) Apache Airflow
4 12 (1.79%) SharePoint
5 11 (1.64%) WebLogic
6 7 (1.04%) Tuxedo
7 3 (0.45%) Oracle Workflow
8 2 (0.30%) Apache
8 2 (0.30%) Apache Spark
9 1 (0.15%) IIS
9 1 (0.15%) Jupyter
9 1 (0.15%) NetWeaver
9 1 (0.15%) OpenStack
9 1 (0.15%) SAP EP
Applications
1 13 (1.94%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 11 (1.64%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (1.64%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (1.04%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (0.60%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.60%) Notepad++
Business Applications
1 8 (1.19%) SAP PSCD
2 5 (0.75%) SAP S/4HANA
3 2 (0.30%) SAP ERP
4 1 (0.15%) Oracle Payroll
4 1 (0.15%) SAP BRIM
4 1 (0.15%) SAP CO
4 1 (0.15%) SAP CRM
4 1 (0.15%) SAP EWM
4 1 (0.15%) SAP FI
4 1 (0.15%) SAP FI/CO
4 1 (0.15%) SAP FI-CA
4 1 (0.15%) SAP Hybris
Cloud Services
1 163 (24.29%) AWS
2 74 (11.03%) Azure
3 45 (6.71%) GitHub
4 35 (5.22%) Amazon S3
4 35 (5.22%) GitHub Actions
5 32 (4.77%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 30 (4.47%) Amazon EC2
6 30 (4.47%) Power Platform
7 27 (4.02%) Serverless
8 23 (3.43%) AWS Lambda
8 23 (3.43%) Azure DevOps
9 21 (3.13%) Amazon ECS
9 21 (3.13%) Amazon EKS
10 17 (2.53%) Microsoft 365
11 15 (2.24%) GCP
12 14 (2.09%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 11 (1.64%) AWS CodePipeline
13 11 (1.64%) Dynamics 365
13 11 (1.64%) Power Automate
13 11 (1.64%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 16 (2.38%) Firewall
2 6 (0.89%) DNS
2 6 (0.89%) LAN
2 6 (0.89%) SSL
2 6 (0.89%) WAN
3 5 (0.75%) TCP/IP
3 5 (0.75%) VPN
4 4 (0.60%) DHCP
4 4 (0.60%) Network Security
4 4 (0.60%) PuTTY
4 4 (0.60%) SNMP
4 4 (0.60%) WinSCP
5 3 (0.45%) Internet
5 3 (0.45%) Intranet
5 3 (0.45%) SD-WAN
6 2 (0.30%) HTTPS
6 2 (0.30%) ICMP
6 2 (0.30%) VLAN
7 1 (0.15%) Intrusion Detection
7 1 (0.15%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 75 (11.18%) Data Warehouse
2 67 (9.99%) Pentaho
3 37 (5.51%) PostgreSQL
4 30 (4.47%) Oracle Reports
5 28 (4.17%) MySQL
6 27 (4.02%) Data Lake
6 27 (4.02%) Oracle Database
7 20 (2.98%) Amazon Redshift
8 19 (2.83%) Power BI
8 19 (2.83%) SAS Enterprise Guide
8 19 (2.83%) SAS Visual Analytics
9 18 (2.68%) Metadata
10 16 (2.38%) Base SAS
10 16 (2.38%) BusinessObjects
10 16 (2.38%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
11 15 (2.24%) Amazon RDS
12 11 (1.64%) DynamoDB
12 11 (1.64%) SQL Server
13 10 (1.49%) NoSQL
13 10 (1.49%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 112 (16.69%) JIRA
2 82 (12.22%) GitLab
3 75 (11.18%) Git
4 67 (9.99%) Jenkins
5 34 (5.07%) Zephyr
6 29 (4.32%) Postman
7 25 (3.73%) JUnit
8 20 (2.98%) Bitbucket
9 19 (2.83%) Selenium
10 18 (2.68%) Maven
11 13 (1.94%) Cucumber
11 13 (1.94%) Mockito
12 12 (1.79%) WebDriver
13 11 (1.64%) SonarQube
14 10 (1.49%) Artifactory
15 9 (1.34%) JMeter
16 7 (1.04%) Atlassian Bamboo
17 5 (0.75%) Bitbucket Server
17 5 (0.75%) DbUnit
17 5 (0.75%) jMock
General
1 169 (25.19%) Social Skills
2 158 (23.55%) Public Sector
3 48 (7.15%) Analytical Skills
4 39 (5.81%) Finance
5 13 (1.94%) Influencing Skills
5 13 (1.94%) Organisational Skills
6 11 (1.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 7 (1.04%) Documentation Skills
8 6 (0.89%) Presentation Skills
8 6 (0.89%) Telecoms
9 5 (0.75%) Advertising
9 5 (0.75%) Legal
10 4 (0.60%) Aerospace
10 4 (0.60%) Military
11 2 (0.30%) Banking
11 2 (0.30%) Billing
11 2 (0.30%) General Ledger
12 1 (0.15%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 141 (21.01%) Data Engineer
2 86 (12.82%) Architect
3 56 (8.35%) Developer
4 47 (7.00%) Senior
5 43 (6.41%) Analyst
6 42 (6.26%) Data Architect
7 37 (5.51%) Consultant
8 36 (5.37%) Lead
9 34 (5.07%) Tester
10 31 (4.62%) Scrum Master
11 25 (3.73%) Java Developer
11 25 (3.73%) Technical Architect
12 21 (3.13%) Test Analyst
13 19 (2.83%) QA Tester
13 19 (2.83%) Software Engineer
14 18 (2.68%) Project Manager
14 18 (2.68%) SAP Consultant
14 18 (2.68%) SAS Architect
15 16 (2.38%) Administrator
15 16 (2.38%) Data Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 35 (5.22%) Spring
2 28 (4.17%) Terraform
3 23 (3.43%) Spring Boot
4 21 (3.13%) REST
5 15 (2.24%) RESTful
5 15 (2.24%) SOAP
6 12 (1.79%) JPA
6 12 (1.79%) Web Services
7 11 (1.64%) ActiveMQ
7 11 (1.64%) JSON
8 10 (1.49%) AngularJS
8 10 (1.49%) Hibernate
8 10 (1.49%) Oracle Fusion
8 10 (1.49%) Spring Cloud
8 10 (1.49%) WireMock
9 9 (1.34%) AWS CDK
10 8 (1.19%) Node.js
10 8 (1.19%) Spring Batch
10 8 (1.19%) Spring Integration
11 6 (0.89%) SAP PI
Miscellaneous
1 42 (6.26%) Product Ownership
2 39 (5.81%) Cloud Native
3 19 (2.83%) Distributed Systems
4 14 (2.09%) Legacy Systems
4 14 (2.09%) Onboarding
5 13 (1.94%) Enterprise Software
6 11 (1.64%) Linux Command Line
7 9 (1.34%) Analytical Mindset
8 8 (1.19%) Distributed Architecture
9 7 (1.04%) SCADA
10 6 (0.89%) Autonomous Agent
10 6 (0.89%) Data Centre
10 6 (0.89%) Enterprise Cloud
11 5 (0.75%) Self-Motivation
12 4 (0.60%) Cyber Threat
12 4 (0.60%) Data Structures
13 3 (0.45%) Low-Code
14 2 (0.30%) Data Fabric
14 2 (0.30%) Security Operations Centre
14 2 (0.30%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 52 (7.75%) Unix
2 37 (5.51%) Linux
3 26 (3.87%) Windows
4 10 (1.49%) Windows Server
5 3 (0.45%) Android
5 3 (0.45%) Solaris
6 2 (0.30%) Apple iOS
6 2 (0.30%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.15%) CentOS
7 1 (0.15%) Embedded Linux
7 1 (0.15%) HPUX
7 1 (0.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.15%) Ubuntu
7 1 (0.15%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 224 (33.38%) Agile
2 134 (19.97%) CI/CD
3 130 (19.37%) DevOps
4 128 (19.08%) Test Automation
5 123 (18.33%) Continuous Improvement
6 121 (18.03%) ETL
7 116 (17.29%) Migration
8 115 (17.14%) Scrum
9 104 (15.50%) Analytics
10 97 (14.46%) Problem-Solving
11 72 (10.73%) Data Integration
12 70 (10.43%) Stakeholder Management
13 62 (9.24%) Containerisation
14 60 (8.94%) Data Modelling
14 60 (8.94%) Data Pipeline
15 57 (8.49%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 46 (6.86%) Technical Leadership
17 45 (6.71%) Validation
18 44 (6.56%) Business Intelligence
18 44 (6.56%) Observability
Programming Languages
1 175 (26.08%) SQL
2 75 (11.18%) Java
3 40 (5.96%) PL/SQL
4 33 (4.92%) Python
5 17 (2.53%) JavaScript
6 15 (2.24%) Shell Script
7 11 (1.64%) C#
8 10 (1.49%) Bash
8 10 (1.49%) C
9 9 (1.34%) ABAP
10 6 (0.89%) PowerShell
10 6 (0.89%) ProC
11 5 (0.75%) TypeScript
12 4 (0.60%) COBOL
12 4 (0.60%) Kotlin
12 4 (0.60%) Scala
13 3 (0.45%) Go
13 3 (0.45%) HiveQL
13 3 (0.45%) VB
13 3 (0.45%) VB6
Qualifications
1 671 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 47 (7.00%) BPSS Clearance
3 27 (4.02%) ISTQB
4 21 (3.13%) Microsoft Certification
5 14 (2.09%) DV Cleared
6 11 (1.64%) SAFe Agilist
7 10 (1.49%) AWS Certification
8 9 (1.34%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
8 9 (1.34%) Degree
9 8 (1.19%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 8 (1.19%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 7 (1.04%) CISSP
11 6 (0.89%) Cisco Certification
11 6 (0.89%) OCP
11 6 (0.89%) Oracle Certification
12 4 (0.60%) CCNA
12 4 (0.60%) CISM
12 4 (0.60%) MCSE
12 4 (0.60%) RHCA
12 4 (0.60%) SAS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 58 (8.64%) QA
2 41 (6.11%) Data Quality
3 25 (3.73%) Accessibility
4 16 (2.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 12 (1.79%) NIST
6 10 (1.49%) NCSC
6 10 (1.49%) SLA
7 6 (0.89%) FATCA
7 6 (0.89%) GRC
7 6 (0.89%) PMO
8 5 (0.75%) Cyber Essentials
9 3 (0.45%) GDPR
10 2 (0.30%) WCAG
11 1 (0.15%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 1 (0.15%) Government Security Classifications
11 1 (0.15%) HIPAA
11 1 (0.15%) NIST 800
11 1 (0.15%) P3O
System Software
1 76 (11.33%) Docker
2 15 (2.24%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (1.64%) Active Directory
4 8 (1.19%) VMware ESXi
4 8 (1.19%) vSphere
5 6 (0.89%) VMware NSX
6 5 (0.75%) Hyper-V
6 5 (0.75%) Postfix
6 5 (0.75%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (0.45%) HDFS
8 1 (0.15%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 65 (9.69%) Kubernetes
2 43 (6.41%) Grafana
3 20 (2.98%) Prometheus
4 16 (2.38%) Ansible
5 5 (0.75%) Podman
6 4 (0.60%) PowerCLI
6 4 (0.60%) vCenter Server
6 4 (0.60%) vMotion
7 3 (0.45%) QRadar
7 3 (0.45%) SCCM
8 2 (0.30%) Kibana
8 2 (0.30%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.30%) WMI
9 1 (0.15%) Backup Exec
9 1 (0.15%) Data Guard
9 1 (0.15%) Iperf
9 1 (0.15%) Microsoft Intune
9 1 (0.15%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 173 (25.78%) Oracle
2 89 (13.26%) Talend
3 56 (8.35%) Denodo
3 56 (8.35%) Microsoft
4 41 (6.11%) SAP
5 37 (5.51%) Informatica
6 22 (3.28%) Atlassian
7 21 (3.13%) VMware
8 15 (2.24%) Dynatrace
9 11 (1.64%) Sage
10 10 (1.49%) Cisco
11 8 (1.19%) Jaspersoft
11 8 (1.19%) ServiceNow
11 8 (1.19%) webMethods
12 7 (1.04%) Databricks
13 5 (0.75%) Splunk
14 4 (0.60%) 3PAR
14 4 (0.60%) Fortinet
14 4 (0.60%) KANA
14 4 (0.60%) Veeam