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 18 April 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 2 8 4
Rank change year-on-year +6 -4 +9
Contract jobs citing SC Cleared 669 182 247
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 21.84% 13.36% 12.85%
As % of the Qualifications category 61.77% 42.33% 40.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 510 128 183
10th Percentile £350 £300 £288
25th Percentile £421 £450 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £485 £537 £450
Median % change year-on-year -9.68% +19.33% -16.67%
75th Percentile £544 £671 £542
90th Percentile £627 £700 £635
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 45 5 6
10th Percentile £18.20 - £13.25
25th Percentile £21.46 £18.51 £13.44
Median hourly rate £59.50 £35.00 £14.00
Median % change year-on-year +70.00% +150.00% -63.01%
75th Percentile £67.84 £41.97 £20.00
90th Percentile £70.35 £52.79 £29.75
England median hourly rate £47.50 £57.13 £48.00
% change year-on-year -16.85% +19.01% -16.52%

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 1,083 430 616
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 35.36% 31.57% 32.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 769 294 392
10th Percentile £324 £150 £264
25th Percentile £408 £314 £362
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £482 £498 £456
Median % change year-on-year -3.12% +9.04% -13.10%
75th Percentile £552 £600 £575
90th Percentile £641 £700 £675
England median daily rate £520 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -0.95% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 64 18 35
10th Percentile £14.49 £17.26 £14.00
25th Percentile £18.20 £18.50 £22.16
Median hourly rate £25.46 £28.18 £28.50
Median % change year-on-year -9.65% -1.12% +42.50%
75th Percentile £67.84 £36.69 £49.38
90th Percentile £75.25 £54.45 £58.75
England median hourly rate £47.00 £50.00 £39.96
% change year-on-year -6.00% +25.13% -20.08%

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 18 April 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 18 April 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 18 April 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 +2 373 £481 -6.05% 29
Birmingham +5 95 £500 -13.04% 21
Warwickshire -4 75 £413 -23.61% 3
Worcestershire +6 43 £675 -3.57% 4
Herefordshire +1 38 £550 -21.43% 5
Solihull +3 22 £456 +8.63% 1
Staffordshire - 3 £350 - 16
Coventry -25 2 £488 - 2
Wolverhampton -5 1 - - 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
1 131 (19.58%) SAS
2 73 (10.91%) Confluence
3 25 (3.74%) WebLogic
4 13 (1.94%) Tuxedo
5 9 (1.35%) Apache Airflow
6 5 (0.75%) SharePoint
7 4 (0.60%) Apache
8 3 (0.45%) Oracle Workflow
9 1 (0.15%) Apache Spark
9 1 (0.15%) NetWeaver
9 1 (0.15%) SAP EP
Applications
1 7 (1.05%) Microsoft Office
1 7 (1.05%) Microsoft Project
2 6 (0.90%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (0.75%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.60%) Notepad++
5 2 (0.30%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.15%) Camtasia
Business Applications
1 2 (0.30%) SAP PP
1 2 (0.30%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.15%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (0.15%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (0.15%) SAP CRM
2 1 (0.15%) SAP EWM
2 1 (0.15%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 144 (21.52%) AWS
2 91 (13.60%) Azure
3 30 (4.48%) GitHub
4 29 (4.33%) Amazon S3
5 27 (4.04%) Amazon EC2
5 27 (4.04%) OpenShift
6 26 (3.89%) GCP
7 23 (3.44%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 18 (2.69%) GitHub Actions
9 17 (2.54%) Serverless
10 16 (2.39%) AWS KMS
11 14 (2.09%) Azure Data Factory
11 14 (2.09%) Microsoft 365
12 13 (1.94%) Amazon SQS
13 12 (1.79%) Power Platform
13 12 (1.79%) Route 53
14 11 (1.64%) SaaS
15 10 (1.49%) Azure DevOps
16 9 (1.35%) AWS Lambda
16 9 (1.35%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 23 (3.44%) Firewall
2 14 (2.09%) WAN
3 13 (1.94%) Network Security
3 13 (1.94%) VPN
4 10 (1.49%) Intrusion Detection
4 10 (1.49%) LAN
5 9 (1.35%) BGP
5 9 (1.35%) DNS
6 7 (1.05%) IPsec
6 7 (1.05%) MPLS
6 7 (1.05%) SSL
6 7 (1.05%) Wireless
7 6 (0.90%) VLAN
8 5 (0.75%) 5G
8 5 (0.75%) DHCP
8 5 (0.75%) OSPF
8 5 (0.75%) WLAN
9 4 (0.60%) PuTTY
9 4 (0.60%) SD-WAN
9 4 (0.60%) WinSCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 68 (10.16%) Pentaho
2 50 (7.47%) Data Warehouse
3 48 (7.17%) PostgreSQL
4 38 (5.68%) SAS Enterprise Guide
5 37 (5.53%) Oracle Database
6 30 (4.48%) Amazon RDS
7 26 (3.89%) Metadata
7 26 (3.89%) MySQL
8 24 (3.59%) Oracle Reports
9 17 (2.54%) Amazon Redshift
10 12 (1.79%) Amazon Aurora
10 12 (1.79%) DynamoDB
11 11 (1.64%) Metadata Repository
11 11 (1.64%) MongoDB
12 10 (1.49%) Elasticsearch
12 10 (1.49%) SAS Visual Analytics
13 9 (1.35%) Power BI
14 7 (1.05%) BusinessObjects
14 7 (1.05%) Relational Database
15 5 (0.75%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 113 (16.89%) Git
2 106 (15.84%) JIRA
3 88 (13.15%) Jenkins
4 69 (10.31%) GitLab
5 43 (6.43%) JUnit
6 37 (5.53%) Selenium
7 24 (3.59%) Zephyr
8 23 (3.44%) Postman
9 16 (2.39%) Maven
9 16 (2.39%) Mockito
10 15 (2.24%) Cucumber
11 13 (1.94%) JMeter
12 12 (1.79%) SonarQube
12 12 (1.79%) WebDriver
13 9 (1.35%) Atlassian Bamboo
13 9 (1.35%) Bitbucket
13 9 (1.35%) DbUnit
13 9 (1.35%) jMock
13 9 (1.35%) MSI
14 7 (1.05%) Bitbucket Server
General
1 167 (24.96%) Social Skills
2 87 (13.00%) Public Sector
3 67 (10.01%) Analytical Skills
4 33 (4.93%) Finance
5 20 (2.99%) Documentation Skills
6 9 (1.35%) Aeronautics
7 8 (1.20%) Presentation Skills
7 8 (1.20%) Telecoms
8 7 (1.05%) Advertising
8 7 (1.05%) Legal
8 7 (1.05%) Organisational Skills
9 6 (0.90%) Influencing Skills
10 4 (0.60%) Aerospace
11 2 (0.30%) Electronics
11 2 (0.30%) Manufacturing
12 1 (0.15%) Banking
12 1 (0.15%) Police
12 1 (0.15%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 139 (20.78%) Data Engineer
2 57 (8.52%) Architect
3 54 (8.07%) Senior
4 51 (7.62%) Analyst
5 46 (6.88%) Developer
6 36 (5.38%) Tester
7 29 (4.33%) Java Developer
8 26 (3.89%) Support Engineer
9 24 (3.59%) SAS Engineer
10 23 (3.44%) Test Specialist
11 20 (2.99%) Business Analyst
12 19 (2.84%) Data Architect
13 18 (2.69%) Platform Engineer
13 18 (2.69%) Project Manager
14 17 (2.54%) Data Manager
14 17 (2.54%) Lead
14 17 (2.54%) Release Manager
14 17 (2.54%) Senior Data Engineer
14 17 (2.54%) Software Engineer
15 15 (2.24%) Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 45 (6.73%) Spring
2 38 (5.68%) REST
3 34 (5.08%) Spring Boot
4 16 (2.39%) JPA
4 16 (2.39%) pytest
5 13 (1.94%) AngularJS
6 12 (1.79%) ActiveMQ
6 12 (1.79%) Hibernate
6 12 (1.79%) SOAP
6 12 (1.79%) Spring Batch
6 12 (1.79%) Spring Cloud
6 12 (1.79%) Spring Integration
6 12 (1.79%) Web Services
6 12 (1.79%) WireMock
7 11 (1.64%) Middleware
8 10 (1.49%) Node.js
9 9 (1.35%) Kafka
9 9 (1.35%) Keycloak
9 9 (1.35%) PowerMock
10 8 (1.20%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 27 (4.04%) Cloud Native
2 21 (3.14%) Distributed Systems
3 17 (2.54%) Product Ownership
4 16 (2.39%) Onboarding
5 15 (2.24%) Legacy Systems
6 13 (1.94%) Data Centre
6 13 (1.94%) Enterprise Software
7 8 (1.20%) Distributed Architecture
7 8 (1.20%) Driving Licence
7 8 (1.20%) Hybrid Cloud
8 7 (1.05%) SCADA
9 6 (0.90%) Analytical Mindset
9 6 (0.90%) Private Cloud
9 6 (0.90%) Security Operations Centre
10 5 (0.75%) Linux Command Line
10 5 (0.75%) Security Posture
11 4 (0.60%) CSOC
11 4 (0.60%) Cyber Threat
11 4 (0.60%) PKI
11 4 (0.60%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 60 (8.97%) Linux
2 55 (8.22%) Windows
3 45 (6.73%) Unix
4 15 (2.24%) Windows Server
5 10 (1.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (0.45%) Android
7 2 (0.30%) AIX
7 2 (0.30%) CentOS
7 2 (0.30%) Embedded Linux
7 2 (0.30%) Solaris
7 2 (0.30%) Ubuntu
7 2 (0.30%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.15%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.15%) VME
Processes & Methodologies
1 204 (30.49%) Agile
2 153 (22.87%) CI/CD
3 136 (20.33%) DevOps
4 114 (17.04%) ETL
5 111 (16.59%) Scrum
6 110 (16.44%) Test Automation
7 108 (16.14%) Analytics
8 103 (15.40%) Problem-Solving
9 99 (14.80%) Continuous Improvement
10 90 (13.45%) Stakeholder Management
11 88 (13.15%) Migration
12 76 (11.36%) Data Integration
13 69 (10.31%) Data Pipeline
14 64 (9.57%) Containerisation
14 64 (9.57%) Data Modelling
15 60 (8.97%) Business Intelligence
16 50 (7.47%) Microservices
17 45 (6.73%) Change Management
18 44 (6.58%) Validation
19 42 (6.28%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 195 (29.15%) SQL
2 74 (11.06%) Java
3 68 (10.16%) Python
4 39 (5.83%) PL/SQL
5 30 (4.48%) Shell Script
6 19 (2.84%) PowerShell
7 17 (2.54%) Bash
8 16 (2.39%) Go
9 6 (0.90%) Perl
10 4 (0.60%) Kusto Query Language
11 3 (0.45%) C++
11 3 (0.45%) HiveQL
11 3 (0.45%) Kotlin
12 2 (0.30%) Bicep
12 2 (0.30%) C
12 2 (0.30%) SystemVerilog
13 1 (0.15%) C#
13 1 (0.15%) COBOL
13 1 (0.15%) JavaScript
13 1 (0.15%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 669 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 18 (2.69%) Azure Certification
3 16 (2.39%) DV Cleared
3 16 (2.39%) ISTQB
4 15 (2.24%) BPSS Clearance
5 11 (1.64%) Microsoft Certification
6 10 (1.49%) Cisco Certification
7 9 (1.35%) AWS Certification
7 9 (1.35%) Degree
8 7 (1.05%) CCNP
8 7 (1.05%) IIBA
9 5 (0.75%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 5 (0.75%) CCIE
10 4 (0.60%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
10 4 (0.60%) CCNA
10 4 (0.60%) CISSP
10 4 (0.60%) OCP
10 4 (0.60%) Oracle Certification
10 4 (0.60%) SAFe Agilist
11 3 (0.45%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (5.23%) Data Quality
1 35 (5.23%) QA
2 16 (2.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 14 (2.09%) NIST
4 8 (1.20%) GDPR
5 6 (0.90%) Accessibility
6 5 (0.75%) FATCA
6 5 (0.75%) NCSC
7 4 (0.60%) PMO
8 3 (0.45%) WCAG
9 2 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials
9 2 (0.30%) Government Security Classifications
9 2 (0.30%) GRC
9 2 (0.30%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.15%) P3O
10 1 (0.15%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.15%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 108 (16.14%) Docker
2 16 (2.39%) Active Directory
3 11 (1.64%) Postfix
4 10 (1.49%) VMware Infrastructure
5 4 (0.60%) Snort
6 3 (0.45%) HDFS
6 3 (0.45%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.45%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (0.45%) VMware NSX
7 2 (0.30%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 121 (18.09%) Kubernetes
2 62 (9.27%) Grafana
3 33 (4.93%) Prometheus
4 22 (3.29%) Terraform
5 18 (2.69%) Ansible
6 8 (1.20%) Progress Chef
7 5 (0.75%) Kibana
8 4 (0.60%) CSIRT
8 4 (0.60%) Podman
9 3 (0.45%) FortiGate
10 2 (0.30%) Docker Swarm
10 2 (0.30%) QRadar
10 2 (0.30%) SCCM
11 1 (0.15%) Backup Exec
11 1 (0.15%) Control-M
11 1 (0.15%) Host Intrusion Detection System
11 1 (0.15%) HP ALM
11 1 (0.15%) Iperf
11 1 (0.15%) logstash
11 1 (0.15%) Puppet
Vendors
1 166 (24.81%) Oracle
2 92 (13.75%) Talend
3 55 (8.22%) Denodo
4 52 (7.77%) Microsoft
5 39 (5.83%) Informatica
6 34 (5.08%) ServiceNow
7 27 (4.04%) Splunk
8 22 (3.29%) Atlassian
8 22 (3.29%) Cisco
9 21 (3.14%) Dynatrace
10 18 (2.69%) SAP
11 12 (1.79%) AppDynamics
11 12 (1.79%) Jaspersoft
11 12 (1.79%) VMware
12 10 (1.49%) Sage
13 9 (1.35%) Juniper
14 8 (1.20%) Fujitsu
15 7 (1.05%) HP
16 6 (0.90%) Red Hat
17 5 (0.75%) Dell