Security Cleared Contract Job Trends in the North West

Security Clearance
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the North West with a requirement for Security Cleared qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 30 June 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 3 3 4
Rank change year-on-year 0 +1 -3
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 541 379 400
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 15.23% 18.59% 14.47%
As % of the Qualifications category 55.54% 55.17% 52.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 349 216 236
10th Percentile £360 £308 £364
25th Percentile £425 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £512
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -2.27% -3.92%
75th Percentile £640 £638 £638
90th Percentile £800 £713 £744
England median daily rate £525 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -2.33% -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 39 31 63
10th Percentile £22.68 £22.16 -
25th Percentile £29.50 £25.15 £10.95
Median hourly rate £64.09 £35.00 £14.50
Median % change year-on-year +83.11% +141.38% -65.88%
75th Percentile £74.26 £59.95 £49.50
90th Percentile £83.75 £70.00 £71.50
England median hourly rate £63.14 £25.15 £57.50
% change year-on-year +151.03% -56.26% -4.17%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
North West

Security 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 West.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 974 687 768
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 27.42% 33.69% 27.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 627 398 420
10th Percentile £348 £302 £299
25th Percentile £400 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £499 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.71% -0.30% -3.85%
75th Percentile £612 £598 £602
90th Percentile £697 £713 £696
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 82 58 131
10th Percentile £18.63 £17.33 £10.95
25th Percentile £29.25 £21.30 £11.89
Median hourly rate £43.96 £31.00 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year +41.81% +93.03% -60.43%
75th Percentile £73.57 £59.98 £43.43
90th Percentile £89.15 £75.93 £62.50
England median hourly rate £52.50 £28.60 £42.50
% change year-on-year +83.57% -32.71% -22.73%

Security Cleared
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

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

Security Cleared job vacancy trend in the North West

Security Cleared
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Security Cleared.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Security Cleared

Security Cleared
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Security Cleared in the North West over the 6 months to 30 June 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Security Cleared in the North West

Security Cleared
Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Security Cleared.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Security Cleared

Security Cleared
Hourly Rate Histogram in the North West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Security Cleared in the North West over the 6 months to 30 June 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Security Cleared in the North West

Security Cleared
Contract Job Locations in the North West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Security Cleared within the North West region over the 6 months to 30 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
Manchester -9 183 £525 +5.03% 99
Cumbria 0 159 £485 -7.97% 4
Lancashire +2 94 £700 +55.56% 26
Cheshire +20 79 £450 +16.13% 14
Merseyside -19 19 £638 +6.25% 2
Security Cleared
England

Security Cleared
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West 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 25 (4.62%) Microsoft Exchange
2 12 (2.22%) SharePoint
3 11 (2.03%) Skype for Business
4 7 (1.29%) Confluence
5 5 (0.92%) Apache Spark
6 3 (0.55%) Apache
6 3 (0.55%) Jupyter
6 3 (0.55%) SAS
7 2 (0.37%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.37%) CICS
7 2 (0.37%) Oracle Workflow
7 2 (0.37%) SharePoint 2013
8 1 (0.18%) IIS
8 1 (0.18%) NetWeaver
8 1 (0.18%) nginx
8 1 (0.18%) OpenStack
Applications
1 19 (3.51%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (1.85%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (0.92%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 5 (0.92%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.74%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.18%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 7 (1.29%) Oracle Payables
2 6 (1.11%) SAP S/4HANA
3 3 (0.55%) Primavera
3 3 (0.55%) Remedy ITSM
3 3 (0.55%) SAP MM
4 2 (0.37%) Oracle Cash Management
4 2 (0.37%) Oracle EBS
4 2 (0.37%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
4 2 (0.37%) Teamcenter
5 1 (0.18%) Dynamics AX
5 1 (0.18%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.18%) SAP PM
Cloud Services
1 98 (18.11%) AWS
2 79 (14.60%) Azure
3 26 (4.81%) Microsoft 365
4 21 (3.88%) Power Platform
5 19 (3.51%) Serverless
6 18 (3.33%) SaaS
7 16 (2.96%) Azure DevOps
8 14 (2.59%) GCP
8 14 (2.59%) OCI
9 13 (2.40%) Entra ID
10 11 (2.03%) GitHub
11 9 (1.66%) Google Workspace
12 8 (1.48%) Azure Monitor
13 7 (1.29%) Google Drive
14 6 (1.11%) Amazon S3
14 6 (1.11%) AWS Lambda
14 6 (1.11%) OpenShift
15 5 (0.92%) Power Automate
16 4 (0.74%) Dynamics 365
16 4 (0.74%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 64 (11.83%) Firewall
2 35 (6.47%) Wireless
3 33 (6.10%) VLAN
4 30 (5.55%) DNS
5 29 (5.36%) WAN
6 27 (4.99%) Network Security
7 22 (4.07%) DHCP
7 22 (4.07%) LAN
7 22 (4.07%) Structured Cabling
7 22 (4.07%) VPN
8 21 (3.88%) Wi-Fi
9 17 (3.14%) NAS
9 17 (3.14%) SAN
10 16 (2.96%) Cisco IOS
10 16 (2.96%) NX-OS
11 11 (2.03%) BGP
11 11 (2.03%) Broadband
11 11 (2.03%) Converged Networks
11 11 (2.03%) Skype
12 10 (1.85%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (3.51%) SQL Server
2 18 (3.33%) PostgreSQL
3 17 (3.14%) Oracle Database
4 16 (2.96%) MySQL
4 16 (2.96%) Power BI
5 15 (2.77%) MongoDB
5 15 (2.77%) Relational Database
6 9 (1.66%) Elasticsearch
7 8 (1.48%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 7 (1.29%) RDBMS
9 6 (1.11%) Metadata
10 5 (0.92%) Oracle Database 12c
10 5 (0.92%) Oracle Exadata
11 4 (0.74%) Hadoop
11 4 (0.74%) NoSQL
12 3 (0.55%) Data Lake
12 3 (0.55%) Data Warehouse
12 3 (0.55%) Tableau
13 2 (0.37%) Amazon Redshift
13 2 (0.37%) Oracle BI Publisher
Development Applications
1 31 (5.73%) GitLab
2 13 (2.40%) Selenium
3 12 (2.22%) JIRA
4 10 (1.85%) Git
5 9 (1.66%) REST Assured
6 8 (1.48%) Jenkins
7 6 (1.11%) Cucumber
7 6 (1.11%) Gatling
8 5 (0.92%) MSI
8 5 (0.92%) Serenity BDD
9 3 (0.55%) Cypress.io
9 3 (0.55%) JMeter
10 2 (0.37%) JDeveloper
10 2 (0.37%) Postman
10 2 (0.37%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.37%) WebDriver
11 1 (0.18%) Rational Robot
11 1 (0.18%) Sonatype Nexus
11 1 (0.18%) Visual Studio
11 1 (0.18%) Visual Studio Coded UI
General
1 129 (23.84%) Public Sector
2 114 (21.07%) Social Skills
3 42 (7.76%) Military
4 33 (6.10%) Analytical Skills
5 32 (5.91%) Documentation Skills
6 28 (5.18%) Finance
7 18 (3.33%) Legal
8 14 (2.59%) Aerospace
9 10 (1.85%) Manufacturing
10 8 (1.48%) Banking
11 5 (0.92%) Presentation Skills
12 4 (0.74%) Aviation
12 4 (0.74%) Retail
13 3 (0.55%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 3 (0.55%) Local Government
14 2 (0.37%) Corporate Banking
14 2 (0.37%) General Ledger
14 2 (0.37%) Influencing Skills
14 2 (0.37%) Organisational Skills
15 1 (0.18%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 81 (14.97%) Lead
2 76 (14.05%) Architect
3 47 (8.69%) Network Engineer
4 42 (7.76%) Developer
5 30 (5.55%) Administrator
6 29 (5.36%) Senior
7 28 (5.18%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 27 (4.99%) Analyst
8 27 (4.99%) DBA
9 24 (4.44%) Consultant
10 22 (4.07%) Technical Architect
10 22 (4.07%) Unix Engineer
11 20 (3.70%) Lead Architect
12 18 (3.33%) Data Engineer
13 17 (3.14%) DevOps Engineer
14 16 (2.96%) Coordinator
15 15 (2.77%) Wintel Engineer
16 14 (2.59%) Infrastructure Engineer
16 14 (2.59%) Security Architect
17 13 (2.40%) Security Assurance Coordinator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (4.81%) Spring
2 23 (4.25%) Spring Boot
3 22 (4.07%) Node.js
4 16 (2.96%) Kafka
5 10 (1.85%) OAuth
6 9 (1.66%) REST
7 8 (1.48%) Playwright
8 7 (1.29%) OpenID
9 6 (1.11%) 802.1X
9 6 (1.11%) RESTful
10 5 (0.92%) Apache NiFi
10 5 (0.92%) Leaflet
10 5 (0.92%) Nunjucks
10 5 (0.92%) Oracle GoldenGate
10 5 (0.92%) Spring Cloud
11 4 (0.74%) AWS CDK
11 4 (0.74%) ModSecurity
11 4 (0.74%) React
12 3 (0.55%) OAuth2
12 3 (0.55%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 35 (6.47%) Data Centre
2 24 (4.44%) Clustering
2 24 (4.44%) Onboarding
3 23 (4.25%) Replication
4 20 (3.70%) Cloud Native
5 15 (2.77%) Operational Technology
5 15 (2.77%) Product Ownership
6 10 (1.85%) Management Information System
7 8 (1.48%) Enterprise Software
7 8 (1.48%) Legacy Systems
8 7 (1.29%) Hybrid Cloud
9 6 (1.11%) Public Cloud
10 5 (0.92%) Cyber Threat
10 5 (0.92%) Data Protection Act
10 5 (0.92%) Private Cloud
10 5 (0.92%) Security Posture
11 3 (0.55%) Fat Client
11 3 (0.55%) Freedom of Information
11 3 (0.55%) Mainframe
11 3 (0.55%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 57 (10.54%) Windows
2 28 (5.18%) Solaris
2 28 (5.18%) Unix
3 26 (4.81%) Linux
4 22 (4.07%) Windows 10
5 21 (3.88%) Windows Server
6 11 (2.03%) Windows 7
7 7 (1.29%) AIX
8 5 (0.92%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 4 (0.74%) VMS
10 2 (0.37%) Android
10 2 (0.37%) Apple iOS
10 2 (0.37%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.18%) Mac OS X
11 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 75 (13.86%) DevOps
2 66 (12.20%) CI/CD
3 65 (12.01%) Agile
4 56 (10.35%) Stakeholder Management
5 52 (9.61%) Continuous Improvement
5 52 (9.61%) ITSM
6 51 (9.43%) High Availability
6 51 (9.43%) Migration
7 50 (9.24%) Problem-Solving
7 50 (9.24%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 49 (9.06%) Project Delivery
9 46 (8.50%) Cybersecurity
10 45 (8.32%) Service Management
11 36 (6.65%) Disaster Recovery
12 34 (6.28%) Microservices
12 34 (6.28%) Risk Management
12 34 (6.28%) Technical Leadership
13 29 (5.36%) ITIL
14 28 (5.18%) Test Automation
15 27 (4.99%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 56 (10.35%) Python
2 51 (9.43%) Java
3 49 (9.06%) PowerShell
4 35 (6.47%) SQL
5 25 (4.62%) JavaScript
6 16 (2.96%) TypeScript
7 13 (2.40%) VBScript
8 11 (2.03%) VB
9 5 (0.92%) Rust
10 4 (0.74%) C#
10 4 (0.74%) Go
10 4 (0.74%) T-SQL
11 3 (0.55%) Bash
11 3 (0.55%) Bicep
12 2 (0.37%) ABAP
12 2 (0.37%) COBOL
12 2 (0.37%) PL/SQL
13 1 (0.18%) Perl
13 1 (0.18%) Scala
13 1 (0.18%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 396 (73.20%) SC Cleared
2 66 (12.20%) DV Cleared
3 42 (7.76%) Cisco Certification
4 40 (7.39%) CCNA
5 38 (7.02%) BPSS Clearance
6 31 (5.73%) Microsoft Certification
7 27 (4.99%) CCNP
8 26 (4.81%) Degree
9 15 (2.77%) Network+ Certification
9 15 (2.77%) Server+ Certification
10 14 (2.59%) Azure Certification
11 12 (2.22%) CISSP
11 12 (2.22%) MCSA
11 12 (2.22%) MCSE
11 12 (2.22%) VCAP
11 12 (2.22%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 9 (1.66%) AWS Certification
13 6 (1.11%) DBS Check
14 5 (0.92%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 5 (0.92%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (5.18%) NIST
2 24 (4.44%) PMO
3 16 (2.96%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 14 (2.59%) QA
4 14 (2.59%) SLA
5 13 (2.40%) Accessibility
6 12 (2.22%) Data Quality
6 12 (2.22%) GRC
6 12 (2.22%) JSP 440
7 11 (2.03%) GDPR
8 8 (1.48%) NCSC
9 6 (1.11%) NIST 800
10 1 (0.18%) Cyber Essentials
10 1 (0.18%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 1 (0.18%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 1 (0.18%) IFRS
10 1 (0.18%) IFRS 17
10 1 (0.18%) ISO/IEC 27005
10 1 (0.18%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.18%) Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment)
System Software
1 28 (5.18%) Active Directory
2 23 (4.25%) Docker
3 20 (3.70%) Virtual Machines
3 20 (3.70%) VMware Infrastructure
4 16 (2.96%) VMware ESXi
5 15 (2.77%) vSphere
6 13 (2.40%) BitLocker
7 5 (0.92%) Oracle RAC
8 3 (0.55%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.18%) GPFS
9 1 (0.18%) Hyper-V
9 1 (0.18%) NFS
9 1 (0.18%) Squid
Systems Management
1 46 (8.50%) Terraform
2 29 (5.36%) Ansible
3 28 (5.18%) Kubernetes
4 20 (3.70%) SCCM
5 15 (2.77%) vCenter Server
6 11 (2.03%) Grafana
7 10 (1.85%) Oracle RMAN
8 7 (1.29%) Prometheus
9 5 (0.92%) Data Guard
9 5 (0.92%) Single Sign-On
10 4 (0.74%) Microsoft Intune
10 4 (0.74%) SCOM
11 3 (0.55%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 2 (0.37%) McAfee ePO
12 2 (0.37%) WSUS
13 1 (0.18%) Nagios
13 1 (0.18%) Netcool
13 1 (0.18%) Norton AntiVirus
13 1 (0.18%) Tivoli
13 1 (0.18%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 82 (15.16%) Microsoft
2 62 (11.46%) Cisco
3 48 (8.87%) Oracle
4 43 (7.95%) ServiceNow
5 29 (5.36%) SAP
6 24 (4.44%) Palo Alto
7 21 (3.88%) VMware
8 13 (2.40%) Aruba
9 10 (1.85%) Google
10 9 (1.66%) F5
10 9 (1.66%) Splunk
11 8 (1.48%) CheckPoint
12 6 (1.11%) Arista
13 5 (0.92%) Citrix
13 5 (0.92%) Ekahau
13 5 (0.92%) IBM
13 5 (0.92%) SolarWinds
14 4 (0.74%) Dynatrace
14 4 (0.74%) RedGate
15 3 (0.55%) Remedy