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 3 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 3 5 5
Rank change year-on-year +2 0 +6
Contract jobs citing SC Cleared 662 286 257
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 19.27% 16.31% 13.57%
As % of the Qualifications category 55.96% 47.67% 42.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 480 207 182
10th Percentile £360 £315 £351
25th Percentile £413 £425 £428
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £472 £512 £525
Median % change year-on-year -7.91% -2.48% -4.55%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £612
90th Percentile £663 £641 £675
England median daily rate £537 £525 £525
% change year-on-year +2.29% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 51 19 2
10th Percentile £14.26 - £15.18
25th Percentile £54.84 - £18.06
Median hourly rate £63.14 £18.87 £24.25
Median % change year-on-year +234.58% -22.19% -62.69%
75th Percentile £70.41 £25.15 £31.56
90th Percentile £75.00 - £35.13
England median hourly rate £63.14 £25.15 £57.77
% change year-on-year +151.03% -56.47% +2.27%

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 1,183 600 608
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 34.44% 34.21% 32.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 820 402 391
10th Percentile £341 £220 £313
25th Percentile £410 £400 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £473 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -5.40% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £575 £587 £635
90th Percentile £665 £640 £725
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 86 48 14
10th Percentile £15.14 - £19.43
25th Percentile £33.99 £18.87 £22.33
Median hourly rate £52.50 £30.00 £34.47
Median % change year-on-year +75.00% -12.96% +25.33%
75th Percentile £67.84 £43.44 £51.88
90th Percentile £75.00 £50.75 £58.30
England median hourly rate £52.50 £25.15 £50.00
% change year-on-year +108.75% -49.70% -8.36%

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 3 September 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 3 September 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 3 September 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 0 418 £475 -9.52% 33
Birmingham -5 90 £510 +7.37% 50
Warwickshire -15 46 £413 -17.50% 7
Solihull +2 36 £463 +2.78% 5
Herefordshire -1 19 £700 - 3
Staffordshire 0 12 £388 +13.14% 14
Coventry -17 11 £425 +54.55% 2
Worcestershire -6 9 £650 +8.33% 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 75 (11.33%) SAS
2 68 (10.27%) Confluence
3 18 (2.72%) Apache Airflow
4 12 (1.81%) SharePoint
5 9 (1.36%) WebLogic
6 4 (0.60%) Oracle Workflow
7 3 (0.45%) Apache
7 3 (0.45%) Apache Spark
7 3 (0.45%) Tuxedo
8 1 (0.15%) IIS
8 1 (0.15%) Jupyter
8 1 (0.15%) NetWeaver
8 1 (0.15%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.15%) SAP EP
Applications
1 14 (2.11%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 13 (1.96%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (1.81%) Microsoft Office
4 7 (1.06%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (0.60%) MS Visio
5 4 (0.60%) Notepad++
6 1 (0.15%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 8 (1.21%) SAP PSCD
2 5 (0.76%) SAP S/4HANA
3 2 (0.30%) SAP ERP
4 1 (0.15%) Oracle Payroll
4 1 (0.15%) ResourceLink
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
1 170 (25.68%) AWS
2 77 (11.63%) Azure
3 42 (6.34%) GitHub
4 35 (5.29%) Amazon S3
5 32 (4.83%) Amazon CloudWatch
5 32 (4.83%) GitHub Actions
6 30 (4.53%) Amazon EC2
7 27 (4.08%) Power Platform
8 26 (3.93%) Serverless
9 24 (3.63%) AWS Lambda
10 22 (3.32%) Amazon ECS
10 22 (3.32%) Amazon EKS
11 21 (3.17%) Azure DevOps
12 17 (2.57%) Microsoft 365
13 14 (2.11%) GCP
13 14 (2.11%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 11 (1.66%) AWS CodePipeline
14 11 (1.66%) Dynamics 365
14 11 (1.66%) Power Automate
14 11 (1.66%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 17 (2.57%) Firewall
2 8 (1.21%) DNS
2 8 (1.21%) SSL
2 8 (1.21%) WAN
3 7 (1.06%) VPN
4 6 (0.91%) LAN
5 5 (0.76%) Network Security
5 5 (0.76%) TCP/IP
6 4 (0.60%) DHCP
6 4 (0.60%) PuTTY
6 4 (0.60%) SNMP
6 4 (0.60%) WinSCP
7 3 (0.45%) DMVPN
7 3 (0.45%) Internet
7 3 (0.45%) Intranet
7 3 (0.45%) IPsec
7 3 (0.45%) SD-WAN
8 2 (0.30%) Cisco IPT
8 2 (0.30%) VLAN
8 2 (0.30%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 66 (9.97%) Data Warehouse
2 60 (9.06%) Pentaho
3 30 (4.53%) PostgreSQL
4 29 (4.38%) Oracle Database
5 27 (4.08%) Data Lake
6 25 (3.78%) Metadata
6 25 (3.78%) Oracle Reports
7 22 (3.32%) MySQL
8 18 (2.72%) SAS Enterprise Guide
8 18 (2.72%) SAS Visual Analytics
9 16 (2.42%) Base SAS
9 16 (2.42%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
9 16 (2.42%) Power BI
10 14 (2.11%) Amazon Redshift
11 13 (1.96%) Amazon RDS
11 13 (1.96%) BusinessObjects
11 13 (1.96%) Relational Database
12 12 (1.81%) NoSQL
13 11 (1.66%) SQL Server
14 10 (1.51%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 98 (14.80%) JIRA
2 79 (11.93%) GitLab
3 64 (9.67%) Git
4 58 (8.76%) Jenkins
5 27 (4.08%) Zephyr
6 25 (3.78%) JUnit
7 23 (3.47%) Postman
8 20 (3.02%) Maven
9 17 (2.57%) Selenium
10 15 (2.27%) Bitbucket
11 13 (1.96%) Mockito
12 11 (1.66%) Cucumber
12 11 (1.66%) SonarQube
13 10 (1.51%) Artifactory
13 10 (1.51%) WebDriver
14 7 (1.06%) JMeter
15 5 (0.76%) Atlassian Bamboo
15 5 (0.76%) Bitbucket Server
15 5 (0.76%) DbUnit
15 5 (0.76%) jMock
General
1 176 (26.59%) Social Skills
2 171 (25.83%) Public Sector
3 54 (8.16%) Analytical Skills
4 38 (5.74%) Finance
5 19 (2.87%) Influencing Skills
6 13 (1.96%) Organisational Skills
7 11 (1.66%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 8 (1.21%) Documentation Skills
9 6 (0.91%) Legal
9 6 (0.91%) Military
9 6 (0.91%) Telecoms
10 5 (0.76%) Presentation Skills
11 4 (0.60%) Aerospace
12 3 (0.45%) Advertising
13 2 (0.30%) Banking
13 2 (0.30%) Billing
13 2 (0.30%) General Ledger
14 1 (0.15%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 131 (19.79%) Data Engineer
2 98 (14.80%) Architect
3 62 (9.37%) Developer
4 51 (7.70%) Data Architect
5 49 (7.40%) Senior
6 40 (6.04%) Analyst
6 40 (6.04%) Lead
7 37 (5.59%) Consultant
8 32 (4.83%) Scrum Master
9 28 (4.23%) Technical Architect
10 25 (3.78%) Java Developer
11 24 (3.63%) Tester
12 19 (2.87%) Test Analyst
13 18 (2.72%) Project Manager
13 18 (2.72%) SAP Consultant
13 18 (2.72%) SAS Architect
13 18 (2.72%) Senior Developer
14 17 (2.57%) Administrator
14 17 (2.57%) Software Engineer
15 15 (2.27%) Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (5.74%) Spring
2 29 (4.38%) Terraform
3 28 (4.23%) Spring Boot
4 26 (3.93%) REST
5 22 (3.32%) SOAP
6 17 (2.57%) RESTful
7 13 (1.96%) Web Services
8 12 (1.81%) JPA
9 11 (1.66%) ActiveMQ
9 11 (1.66%) JSON
9 11 (1.66%) Oracle Fusion
10 10 (1.51%) AngularJS
10 10 (1.51%) Hibernate
10 10 (1.51%) Spring Cloud
11 9 (1.36%) AWS CDK
12 8 (1.21%) WireMock
13 7 (1.06%) Node.js
13 7 (1.06%) Spring Batch
13 7 (1.06%) Spring Integration
14 6 (0.91%) SAP PI
Miscellaneous
1 45 (6.80%) Product Ownership
2 39 (5.89%) Cloud Native
3 17 (2.57%) Distributed Systems
4 16 (2.42%) Enterprise Software
5 14 (2.11%) Legacy Systems
5 14 (2.11%) Onboarding
6 11 (1.66%) Linux Command Line
7 9 (1.36%) Analytical Mindset
8 7 (1.06%) Data Centre
8 7 (1.06%) Data Fabric
8 7 (1.06%) Distributed Architecture
8 7 (1.06%) SCADA
9 6 (0.91%) Autonomous Agent
9 6 (0.91%) Enterprise Cloud
10 5 (0.76%) Data Structures
10 5 (0.76%) Self-Motivation
11 4 (0.60%) Cyber Threat
12 3 (0.45%) Low-Code
13 2 (0.30%) Security Operations Centre
13 2 (0.30%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 44 (6.65%) Unix
2 37 (5.59%) Linux
3 26 (3.93%) Windows
4 11 (1.66%) Windows Server
5 3 (0.45%) Solaris
6 2 (0.30%) Android
6 2 (0.30%) Apple iOS
6 2 (0.30%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.15%) AIX
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
1 215 (32.48%) Agile
2 125 (18.88%) Continuous Improvement
3 122 (18.43%) CI/CD
4 115 (17.37%) DevOps
5 114 (17.22%) Test Automation
6 111 (16.77%) Migration
7 105 (15.86%) ETL
8 103 (15.56%) Scrum
9 99 (14.95%) Problem-Solving
10 97 (14.65%) Analytics
11 76 (11.48%) Stakeholder Management
12 75 (11.33%) Data Integration
13 65 (9.82%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 62 (9.37%) Data Pipeline
15 59 (8.91%) Containerisation
15 59 (8.91%) Technical Leadership
16 58 (8.76%) Data Modelling
17 44 (6.65%) Observability
17 44 (6.65%) Validation
18 42 (6.34%) Microservices
Programming Languages
1 158 (23.87%) SQL
2 76 (11.48%) Java
3 36 (5.44%) PL/SQL
4 33 (4.98%) Python
5 22 (3.32%) JavaScript
6 15 (2.27%) Shell Script
7 12 (1.81%) C#
8 10 (1.51%) Bash
8 10 (1.51%) C
9 9 (1.36%) ABAP
10 8 (1.21%) TypeScript
11 6 (0.91%) PowerShell
11 6 (0.91%) ProC
12 5 (0.76%) Kotlin
13 4 (0.60%) COBOL
13 4 (0.60%) Scala
14 3 (0.45%) VB
14 3 (0.45%) VB6
15 2 (0.30%) T-SQL
16 1 (0.15%) C++
Qualifications
1 662 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 52 (7.85%) BPSS Clearance
3 22 (3.32%) ISTQB
3 22 (3.32%) Microsoft Certification
4 13 (1.96%) DV Cleared
5 11 (1.66%) AWS Certification
5 11 (1.66%) SAFe Agilist
6 9 (1.36%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
7 8 (1.21%) Degree
7 8 (1.21%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 7 (1.06%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 7 (1.06%) OCP
8 7 (1.06%) Oracle Certification
9 6 (0.91%) Cisco Certification
9 6 (0.91%) CISSP
10 4 (0.60%) CCNA
10 4 (0.60%) CISM
10 4 (0.60%) MCSE
10 4 (0.60%) RHCA
10 4 (0.60%) SAS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 52 (7.85%) QA
2 38 (5.74%) Data Quality
3 25 (3.78%) Accessibility
4 15 (2.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 11 (1.66%) NIST
6 10 (1.51%) NCSC
6 10 (1.51%) SLA
7 6 (0.91%) FATCA
7 6 (0.91%) PMO
8 5 (0.76%) Cyber Essentials
8 5 (0.76%) GRC
9 3 (0.45%) GDPR
10 2 (0.30%) WCAG
11 1 (0.15%) 21 CFR Part 11
11 1 (0.15%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 1 (0.15%) GMP
11 1 (0.15%) GxP
11 1 (0.15%) HIPAA
11 1 (0.15%) ISO/IEC 17025
11 1 (0.15%) NIST 800
System Software
1 67 (10.12%) Docker
2 15 (2.27%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (1.66%) Active Directory
4 9 (1.36%) vSphere
5 8 (1.21%) VMware ESXi
6 7 (1.06%) VMware NSX
7 5 (0.76%) Hyper-V
7 5 (0.76%) Postfix
7 5 (0.76%) Virtual Machines
8 2 (0.30%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 58 (8.76%) Kubernetes
2 35 (5.29%) Grafana
3 19 (2.87%) Prometheus
4 14 (2.11%) Ansible
5 4 (0.60%) Podman
5 4 (0.60%) PowerCLI
5 4 (0.60%) vCenter Server
5 4 (0.60%) vMotion
6 3 (0.45%) QRadar
6 3 (0.45%) SCCM
7 2 (0.30%) Data Guard
7 2 (0.30%) Kibana
7 2 (0.30%) Oracle RMAN
7 2 (0.30%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.30%) WMI
8 1 (0.15%) Backup Exec
8 1 (0.15%) Iperf
8 1 (0.15%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 161 (24.32%) Oracle
2 78 (11.78%) Talend
3 58 (8.76%) Microsoft
4 46 (6.95%) Denodo
5 41 (6.19%) SAP
6 32 (4.83%) Informatica
7 22 (3.32%) VMware
8 18 (2.72%) Atlassian
9 17 (2.57%) Dynatrace
10 14 (2.11%) ServiceNow
11 12 (1.81%) Cisco
12 11 (1.66%) Databricks
13 8 (1.21%) webMethods
14 7 (1.06%) Jaspersoft
14 7 (1.06%) Sage
15 5 (0.76%) F5
15 5 (0.76%) Palo Alto
15 5 (0.76%) Splunk
15 5 (0.76%) Zscaler
16 4 (0.60%) Veeam