SC Cleared Contract Job Trends in the North of England

Security Check (SC) Clearance
England > North of England

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the North of England with a requirement for SC Cleared qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 9 October 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 5 10 6
Rank change year-on-year +5 -4 +4
Contract jobs citing SC Cleared 1,119 525 500
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 14.68% 12.68% 12.00%
As % of the Qualifications category 51.40% 41.47% 45.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 747 325 295
10th Percentile £350 £386 £294
25th Percentile £423 £450 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £550 £475
Median % change year-on-year -6.36% +15.79% -13.64%
75th Percentile £608 £650 £587
90th Percentile £675 £720 £650
England median daily rate £549 £527 £525
% change year-on-year +4.08% +0.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 117 54 40
10th Percentile £21.33 £19.21 £18.03
25th Percentile £25.77 £22.88 £23.69
Median hourly rate £41.06 £25.15 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +63.26% -45.54% -
75th Percentile £69.75 £49.49 £55.90
90th Percentile £74.50 £67.25 £73.68
England median hourly rate £63.00 £25.15 £62.50
% change year-on-year +150.50% -59.76% +10.64%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
North of England

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 North of England.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 2,177 1,266 1,089
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 28.55% 30.59% 26.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,369 838 601
10th Percentile £313 £261 £275
25th Percentile £413 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £496 £500
Median % change year-on-year +0.81% -0.80% -4.76%
75th Percentile £600 £614 £588
90th Percentile £675 £703 £672
England median daily rate £535 £525 £525
% change year-on-year +1.90% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 270 93 80
10th Percentile £17.25 £15.50 £16.82
25th Percentile £24.72 £20.00 £24.18
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -45.54% +6.77%
75th Percentile £51.00 £52.00 £59.13
90th Percentile £70.00 £70.13 £75.19
England median hourly rate £49.50 £25.15 £52.50
% change year-on-year +96.82% -52.10% -2.36%

SC Cleared
Job Vacancy Trend in the North of England

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

SC Cleared job vacancy trend in the North of England

SC Cleared
Daily Rate Trend in the North of England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing SC Cleared.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing SC Cleared

SC Cleared
Daily Rate Histogram in the North of England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SC Cleared in the North of England over the 6 months to 9 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for SC Cleared in the North of England

SC Cleared
Hourly Rate Trend in the North of England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing SC Cleared.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing SC Cleared

SC Cleared
Hourly Rate Histogram in the North of England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing SC Cleared in the North of England over the 6 months to 9 October 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for SC Cleared in the North of England

SC Cleared
Contract Job Locations in the North of England

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 North of England region over the 6 months to 9 October 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
North West +4 661 £525 -12.50% 298
Yorkshire +4 251 £492 - 82
North East 0 211 £463 -15.91% 152
SC Cleared
England

SC Cleared
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North of England 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 34 (3.04%) Apache Spark
2 32 (2.86%) Apache Airflow
3 29 (2.59%) Apache
4 25 (2.23%) Jupyter
5 21 (1.88%) SharePoint
6 20 (1.79%) Microsoft Exchange
7 16 (1.43%) SAS
8 12 (1.07%) Skype for Business
9 7 (0.63%) Confluence
10 6 (0.54%) Palantir Foundry
11 3 (0.27%) CMS
11 3 (0.27%) WordPress
12 2 (0.18%) Oracle Workflow
12 2 (0.18%) SharePoint 2013
13 1 (0.089%) IIS
13 1 (0.089%) NetWeaver
13 1 (0.089%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 1 (0.089%) WebLogic
Applications
1 22 (1.97%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (0.45%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.27%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.18%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.089%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.089%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 8 (0.71%) Oracle Payables
1 8 (0.71%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (0.45%) SAP HR
2 5 (0.45%) Teamcenter
3 4 (0.36%) Oracle EBS
4 3 (0.27%) Remedy ITSM
4 3 (0.27%) SAP MDG
5 2 (0.18%) Oracle Cash Management
5 2 (0.18%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 2 (0.18%) SAP PLM
6 1 (0.089%) Dynamics CRM
6 1 (0.089%) Oracle Assets
6 1 (0.089%) Oracle E-Business Tax
6 1 (0.089%) Oracle ERP
6 1 (0.089%) Oracle General Ledger
6 1 (0.089%) Oracle Receivables
6 1 (0.089%) Primavera
6 1 (0.089%) SAP ERP
6 1 (0.089%) SAP MM
Cloud Services
1 204 (18.23%) AWS
2 157 (14.03%) Azure
3 49 (4.38%) GitHub
4 45 (4.02%) Power Platform
5 35 (3.13%) Azure DevOps
5 35 (3.13%) GitHub Actions
6 33 (2.95%) Microsoft 365
6 33 (2.95%) Serverless
7 30 (2.68%) OpenShift
8 27 (2.41%) GCP
9 25 (2.23%) Entra ID
9 25 (2.23%) OCI
10 24 (2.14%) Amazon S3
11 23 (2.06%) AWS Lambda
11 23 (2.06%) SuccessFactors
12 22 (1.97%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 17 (1.52%) Azure Monitor
14 12 (1.07%) Amazon EMR
15 11 (0.98%) Amazon EKS
15 11 (0.98%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 76 (6.79%) Firewall
1 76 (6.79%) Wi-Fi
2 38 (3.40%) Wireless
3 37 (3.31%) VPN
4 34 (3.04%) Network Security
5 31 (2.77%) WAN
6 30 (2.68%) BGP
6 30 (2.68%) OSPF
7 27 (2.41%) DNS
8 26 (2.32%) LAN
9 24 (2.14%) Cisco ASA
10 22 (1.97%) DHCP
10 22 (1.97%) VLAN
11 20 (1.79%) Cisco Firepower
12 18 (1.61%) NetScaler
13 17 (1.52%) EIGRP
13 17 (1.52%) Structured Cabling
14 15 (1.34%) Skype
15 14 (1.25%) SAN
15 14 (1.25%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 54 (4.83%) SQL Server
2 30 (2.68%) MySQL
3 27 (2.41%) Power BI
4 24 (2.14%) PostgreSQL
5 21 (1.88%) MongoDB
6 19 (1.70%) Oracle Database
7 17 (1.52%) Metadata
8 14 (1.25%) Data Warehouse
9 12 (1.07%) Relational Database
10 11 (0.98%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 9 (0.80%) Amazon Athena
12 8 (0.71%) Big Data
12 8 (0.71%) BigQuery
12 8 (0.71%) DynamoDB
12 8 (0.71%) Tableau
13 7 (0.63%) Amazon Redshift
13 7 (0.63%) RDBMS
14 5 (0.45%) Amazon RDS
14 5 (0.45%) NoSQL
14 5 (0.45%) Oracle Exadata
Development Applications
1 73 (6.52%) GitLab
2 37 (3.31%) Jenkins
3 35 (3.13%) Git
4 29 (2.59%) Selenium
5 23 (2.06%) SonarQube
6 21 (1.88%) Cucumber
7 16 (1.43%) REST Assured
8 13 (1.16%) Gatling
8 13 (1.16%) JIRA
9 12 (1.07%) JMeter
10 9 (0.80%) Postman
11 8 (0.71%) Maven
12 7 (0.63%) JUnit
13 6 (0.54%) LoadRunner
13 6 (0.54%) SoapUI
13 6 (0.54%) Sonatype Nexus
13 6 (0.54%) TestNG
14 5 (0.45%) Cypress.io
14 5 (0.45%) Gradle
15 4 (0.36%) Mockito
General
1 271 (24.22%) Public Sector
2 236 (21.09%) Social Skills
3 78 (6.97%) Analytical Skills
4 37 (3.31%) Military
5 33 (2.95%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 30 (2.68%) Finance
7 25 (2.23%) Documentation Skills
8 21 (1.88%) Legal
9 20 (1.79%) Organisational Skills
10 11 (0.98%) Banking
10 11 (0.98%) Police
11 10 (0.89%) Law
11 10 (0.89%) Manufacturing
12 9 (0.80%) Publishing
13 6 (0.54%) Influencing Skills
14 4 (0.36%) Presentation Skills
15 3 (0.27%) General Ledger
15 3 (0.27%) Local Government
16 2 (0.18%) Billing
16 2 (0.18%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 128 (11.44%) Senior
2 126 (11.26%) Architect
2 126 (11.26%) Developer
3 118 (10.55%) Lead
4 65 (5.81%) Analyst
4 65 (5.81%) Network Engineer
5 63 (5.63%) Consultant
6 59 (5.27%) DevOps Engineer
7 47 (4.20%) DBA
8 41 (3.66%) Unix Engineer
9 39 (3.49%) Administrator
9 39 (3.49%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
10 38 (3.40%) Java Developer
11 33 (2.95%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 32 (2.86%) Technical Architect
13 31 (2.77%) SQL DBA
14 28 (2.50%) Software Developer
15 27 (2.41%) Data Engineer
16 26 (2.32%) Python Developer
16 26 (2.32%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 121 (10.81%) Terraform
2 38 (3.40%) Kafka
3 32 (2.86%) Spring Boot
4 30 (2.68%) Node.js
5 29 (2.59%) Spring
6 25 (2.23%) AngularJS
6 25 (2.23%) REST
7 22 (1.97%) Quarkus
8 17 (1.52%) Playwright
9 15 (1.34%) RESTful
10 14 (1.25%) OAuth
11 13 (1.16%) HTML
12 10 (0.89%) CSS
13 9 (0.80%) .NET
13 9 (0.80%) Middleware
13 9 (0.80%) OpenID
13 9 (0.80%) PySpark
13 9 (0.80%) React
14 8 (0.71%) Nunjucks
14 8 (0.71%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 57 (5.09%) Cloud Native
2 41 (3.66%) Onboarding
3 38 (3.40%) Data Centre
4 28 (2.50%) Product Ownership
5 26 (2.32%) Clustering
6 22 (1.97%) Replication
7 21 (1.88%) CMDB
8 19 (1.70%) Public Cloud
9 17 (1.52%) Legacy Systems
9 17 (1.52%) PKI
10 16 (1.43%) Enterprise Software
11 14 (1.25%) Management Information System
12 13 (1.16%) Operational Technology
13 12 (1.07%) Hybrid Cloud
13 12 (1.07%) Self-Motivation
14 11 (0.98%) Data Structures
15 10 (0.89%) Distributed Systems
15 10 (0.89%) NHS
16 7 (0.63%) SCADA
16 7 (0.63%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 86 (7.69%) Windows
2 61 (5.45%) Unix
3 51 (4.56%) Solaris
4 44 (3.93%) Linux
5 41 (3.66%) Windows Server
6 39 (3.49%) Windows 10
7 17 (1.52%) Windows 7
8 8 (0.71%) Mac OS
9 6 (0.54%) Android
10 5 (0.45%) AIX
10 5 (0.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 5 (0.45%) Windows Server 2003
11 4 (0.36%) Apple iOS
11 4 (0.36%) CentOS
12 2 (0.18%) VMS
12 2 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.089%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
13 1 (0.089%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.089%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 201 (17.96%) Agile
2 163 (14.57%) CI/CD
3 156 (13.94%) DevOps
4 135 (12.06%) Stakeholder Management
5 118 (10.55%) Continuous Improvement
6 113 (10.10%) Infrastructure as Code
7 97 (8.67%) Test Automation
8 96 (8.58%) Cybersecurity
9 92 (8.22%) ITIL
10 90 (8.04%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 89 (7.95%) Migration
11 89 (7.95%) Problem-Solving
12 81 (7.24%) Service Management
12 81 (7.24%) Software Engineering
13 76 (6.79%) Containerisation
14 64 (5.72%) ITSM
15 63 (5.63%) Analytics
15 63 (5.63%) Roadmaps
16 56 (5.00%) Mentoring
17 55 (4.92%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 148 (13.23%) Python
2 110 (9.83%) Java
3 102 (9.12%) SQL
4 56 (5.00%) PowerShell
5 32 (2.86%) JavaScript
6 29 (2.59%) TypeScript
7 15 (1.34%) Bash
8 14 (1.25%) VBScript
9 13 (1.16%) VB
10 11 (0.98%) Kotlin
10 11 (0.98%) T-SQL
11 10 (0.89%) Bicep
11 10 (0.89%) Scala
12 9 (0.80%) C#
13 8 (0.71%) PL/SQL
13 8 (0.71%) Shell Script
14 5 (0.45%) Ruby
15 4 (0.36%) Groovy
15 4 (0.36%) PHP
16 3 (0.27%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 1,119 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 78 (6.97%) BPSS Clearance
3 41 (3.66%) Microsoft Certification
4 31 (2.77%) DV Cleared
5 30 (2.68%) Cisco Certification
6 24 (2.14%) Degree
7 23 (2.06%) CCNA
8 20 (1.79%) Azure Certification
9 19 (1.70%) CCNP
9 19 (1.70%) DBS Check
10 10 (0.89%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 9 (0.80%) AWS Certification
11 9 (0.80%) Network+ Certification
11 9 (0.80%) Server+ Certification
12 7 (0.63%) MCSA
12 7 (0.63%) MCSE
12 7 (0.63%) VCAP
12 7 (0.63%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 6 (0.54%) CISSP
14 4 (0.36%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 56 (5.00%) QA
2 43 (3.84%) Accessibility
3 38 (3.40%) Data Quality
4 36 (3.22%) SLA
5 33 (2.95%) NIST
6 29 (2.59%) NCSC
7 24 (2.14%) PMO
8 23 (2.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 22 (1.97%) GRC
10 16 (1.43%) WCAG
11 14 (1.25%) GDPR
12 7 (0.63%) Actionable Recommendations
13 5 (0.45%) NIST 800
14 3 (0.27%) ISO 14001
14 3 (0.27%) ISO 9001
14 3 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 20000
14 3 (0.27%) SNOMED CT
15 2 (0.18%) Cyber Essentials
16 1 (0.089%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
16 1 (0.089%) ISO 20022
System Software
1 91 (8.13%) Docker
2 41 (3.66%) Active Directory
3 36 (3.22%) VMware Infrastructure
4 24 (2.14%) Virtual Machines
5 21 (1.88%) Hyper-V
6 15 (1.34%) VMware ESXi
7 14 (1.25%) BitLocker
8 13 (1.16%) Citrix Hypervisor
9 11 (0.98%) Oracle RAC
10 9 (0.80%) vSphere
11 7 (0.63%) XenApp
11 7 (0.63%) XenDesktop
12 6 (0.54%) Virtual Desktop
12 6 (0.54%) Virtual Servers
13 3 (0.27%) Microsoft Virtual Server
14 1 (0.089%) HDFS
14 1 (0.089%) Squid
14 1 (0.089%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 83 (7.42%) Kubernetes
2 45 (4.02%) Ansible
3 28 (2.50%) SCCM
4 23 (2.06%) Argo
4 23 (2.06%) Grafana
5 16 (1.43%) Prometheus
6 12 (1.07%) Data Guard
7 10 (0.89%) Microsoft Intune
7 10 (0.89%) SCOM
8 9 (0.80%) Single Sign-On
8 9 (0.80%) vCenter Server
9 8 (0.71%) SysTrack
10 7 (0.63%) Failover Clustering
10 7 (0.63%) McAfee ePO
11 6 (0.54%) Control-M
11 6 (0.54%) Oracle RMAN
11 6 (0.54%) VxRail
12 5 (0.45%) HAProxy
13 4 (0.36%) Packer
13 4 (0.36%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 121 (10.81%) Microsoft
2 82 (7.33%) Oracle
3 71 (6.34%) ServiceNow
4 62 (5.54%) Cisco
5 49 (4.38%) SAP
6 42 (3.75%) Palo Alto
7 41 (3.66%) VMware
8 24 (2.14%) Citrix
9 23 (2.06%) Red Hat
10 22 (1.97%) CheckPoint
10 22 (1.97%) Google
10 22 (1.97%) Splunk
11 16 (1.43%) Databricks
11 16 (1.43%) F5
12 15 (1.34%) Dynatrace
13 13 (1.16%) Informatica
13 13 (1.16%) Trend Micro
14 10 (0.89%) Aruba
15 9 (0.80%) Fortinet
15 9 (0.80%) IBM