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 6 October 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 2 3 3
Rank change year-on-year +1 0 -1
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 798 405 413
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 20.07% 18.56% 17.19%
As % of the Qualifications category 63.38% 53.78% 60.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 536 244 214
10th Percentile £350 £333 £294
25th Percentile £438 £431 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £550 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.64% +10.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £600
90th Percentile £675 £722 £688
England median daily rate £550 £538 £550
% change year-on-year +2.33% -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 51 48 38
10th Percentile £26.25 £15.50 £18.03
25th Percentile £30.03 £21.62 £22.71
Median hourly rate £47.50 £26.26 £45.59
Median % change year-on-year +80.87% -42.39% -1.28%
75th Percentile £69.66 £53.25 £55.65
90th Percentile £83.75 £68.08 £76.50
England median hourly rate £65.00 £25.15 £61.60
% change year-on-year +158.45% -59.17% +2.67%

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 1,259 753 682
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 31.66% 34.51% 28.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 801 478 346
10th Percentile £305 £302 £294
25th Percentile £420 £405 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% - -4.76%
75th Percentile £608 £638 £600
90th Percentile £675 £719 £675
England median daily rate £535 £525 £525
% change year-on-year +1.90% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 130 73 60
10th Percentile £17.69 £15.50 £17.91
25th Percentile £28.50 £19.00 £23.69
Median hourly rate £43.96 £27.38 £45.59
Median % change year-on-year +60.58% -39.95% -0.63%
75th Percentile £63.21 £63.40 £56.34
90th Percentile £80.00 £71.19 £80.88
England median hourly rate £50.00 £25.15 £52.50
% change year-on-year +98.81% -52.10% -2.36%

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 6 October 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 6 October 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 6 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
Manchester -1 305 £570 +3.55% 339
Cumbria 0 205 £499 -3.19% 9
Lancashire 0 178 £591 +7.50% 99
Cheshire 0 93 £525 -16.00% 39
Merseyside -22 14 £625 -16.67% 8
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 28 (3.51%) Microsoft Exchange
2 24 (3.01%) SharePoint
3 15 (1.88%) Skype for Business
4 14 (1.75%) SAS
5 6 (0.75%) Confluence
6 5 (0.63%) Apache Airflow
7 4 (0.50%) Apache
7 4 (0.50%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.25%) Oracle Workflow
8 2 (0.25%) SharePoint 2013
9 1 (0.13%) Exchange Server 2010
9 1 (0.13%) IIS
9 1 (0.13%) Jupyter
9 1 (0.13%) NetWeaver
9 1 (0.13%) nginx
9 1 (0.13%) SharePoint 2010
9 1 (0.13%) Traefik
Applications
1 27 (3.38%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (0.63%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.38%) AutoCAD
3 3 (0.38%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.13%) Navisworks
4 1 (0.13%) ProjectWise
4 1 (0.13%) Revit
Business Applications
1 10 (1.25%) SAP S/4HANA
2 8 (1.00%) Oracle Payables
3 5 (0.63%) Remedy ITSM
3 5 (0.63%) SAP HR
3 5 (0.63%) Teamcenter
4 3 (0.38%) Oracle EBS
4 3 (0.38%) SAP MDG
5 2 (0.25%) Oracle Cash Management
5 2 (0.25%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 2 (0.25%) SAP PLM
6 1 (0.13%) Dynamics AX
6 1 (0.13%) Dynamics CRM
6 1 (0.13%) Oracle Assets
6 1 (0.13%) Oracle E-Business Tax
6 1 (0.13%) Oracle ERP
6 1 (0.13%) Oracle General Ledger
6 1 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
6 1 (0.13%) SAP ERP
6 1 (0.13%) SAP PM
6 1 (0.13%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 110 (13.78%) Azure
2 105 (13.16%) AWS
3 38 (4.76%) Microsoft 365
4 32 (4.01%) Azure DevOps
5 31 (3.88%) Power Platform
6 28 (3.51%) SuccessFactors
7 24 (3.01%) Entra ID
8 21 (2.63%) GitHub
9 19 (2.38%) OCI
10 18 (2.26%) SaaS
11 17 (2.13%) Serverless
12 16 (2.01%) GCP
13 15 (1.88%) Azure Monitor
14 13 (1.63%) GitHub Actions
15 11 (1.38%) Google Workspace
16 9 (1.13%) Azure AKS
17 8 (1.00%) AWS Lambda
17 8 (1.00%) Power Automate
18 7 (0.88%) Amazon ECS
18 7 (0.88%) Google Drive
Communications & Networking
1 61 (7.64%) Firewall
2 37 (4.64%) VPN
3 36 (4.51%) Wireless
4 32 (4.01%) Network Security
5 31 (3.88%) WAN
6 27 (3.38%) Wi-Fi
7 25 (3.13%) BGP
7 25 (3.13%) OSPF
8 24 (3.01%) DNS
9 23 (2.88%) LAN
10 21 (2.63%) Cisco ASA
11 19 (2.38%) VLAN
12 18 (2.26%) DHCP
12 18 (2.26%) EIGRP
12 18 (2.26%) NetScaler
12 18 (2.26%) Skype
13 17 (2.13%) Cisco Firepower
13 17 (2.13%) Structured Cabling
14 14 (1.75%) SAN
15 12 (1.50%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 47 (5.89%) SQL Server
2 30 (3.76%) MySQL
3 23 (2.88%) PostgreSQL
4 21 (2.63%) Oracle Database
5 17 (2.13%) MongoDB
6 16 (2.01%) Power BI
7 15 (1.88%) Relational Database
8 11 (1.38%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 10 (1.25%) RDBMS
10 8 (1.00%) Oracle Exadata
11 7 (0.88%) Data Warehouse
12 6 (0.75%) NoSQL
13 4 (0.50%) DynamoDB
13 4 (0.50%) Metadata
14 3 (0.38%) Big Data
15 2 (0.25%) Amazon QuickSight
15 2 (0.25%) Data Lake
15 2 (0.25%) Oracle BI Publisher
15 2 (0.25%) Oracle Database 12c
15 2 (0.25%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 33 (4.14%) GitLab
2 17 (2.13%) Git
3 13 (1.63%) Jenkins
3 13 (1.63%) Selenium
4 11 (1.38%) Cucumber
4 11 (1.38%) JIRA
5 10 (1.25%) REST Assured
6 5 (0.63%) Gatling
7 4 (0.50%) MSI
7 4 (0.50%) Sonatype Nexus
8 3 (0.38%) JUnit
8 3 (0.38%) Mockito
8 3 (0.38%) Serenity BDD
8 3 (0.38%) TestNG
8 3 (0.38%) Toad
8 3 (0.38%) WebDriver
9 2 (0.25%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.25%) Rational DOORS
9 2 (0.25%) Team Foundation Server
9 2 (0.25%) Visual Studio Coded UI
General
1 148 (18.55%) Social Skills
2 131 (16.42%) Public Sector
3 55 (6.89%) Military
4 48 (6.02%) Analytical Skills
5 21 (2.63%) Finance
6 20 (2.51%) Documentation Skills
6 20 (2.51%) Legal
6 20 (2.51%) Manufacturing
7 17 (2.13%) Organisational Skills
8 10 (1.25%) Aerospace
9 8 (1.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 6 (0.75%) Police
10 6 (0.75%) Presentation Skills
11 4 (0.50%) Influencing Skills
11 4 (0.50%) Retail
12 3 (0.38%) General Ledger
12 3 (0.38%) Local Government
13 2 (0.25%) Billing
13 2 (0.25%) Marketing
13 2 (0.25%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 105 (13.16%) Architect
2 97 (12.16%) Lead
3 72 (9.02%) Consultant
4 70 (8.77%) Senior
5 62 (7.77%) Network Engineer
6 54 (6.77%) Analyst
7 49 (6.14%) DBA
8 42 (5.26%) Unix Engineer
9 39 (4.89%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
10 38 (4.76%) Administrator
10 38 (4.76%) Developer
11 31 (3.88%) SQL DBA
12 27 (3.38%) DevOps Engineer
13 25 (3.13%) Technical Architect
14 23 (2.88%) Security Architect
15 21 (2.63%) Desktop Engineer
15 21 (2.63%) Infrastructure Engineer
16 20 (2.51%) Senior Consultant
17 18 (2.26%) Lead Architect
17 18 (2.26%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 59 (7.39%) Terraform
2 21 (2.63%) Node.js
3 19 (2.38%) REST
4 16 (2.01%) Spring Boot
5 15 (1.88%) Spring
6 14 (1.75%) Kafka
6 14 (1.75%) OAuth
7 8 (1.00%) Oracle GoldenGate
8 7 (0.88%) AWS CDK
8 7 (0.88%) Playwright
8 7 (0.88%) RESTful
9 5 (0.63%) OpenID
9 5 (0.63%) SOAP
9 5 (0.63%) XML
10 4 (0.50%) .NET
10 4 (0.50%) Nunjucks
11 3 (0.38%) JAX-RS
11 3 (0.38%) OAuth2
11 3 (0.38%) PySpark
11 3 (0.38%) Spring Cloud
Miscellaneous
1 43 (5.39%) Onboarding
2 28 (3.51%) Clustering
2 28 (3.51%) Data Centre
3 25 (3.13%) Replication
4 23 (2.88%) Cloud Native
5 16 (2.01%) CMDB
6 14 (1.75%) Legacy Systems
7 13 (1.63%) Enterprise Software
8 12 (1.50%) Hybrid Cloud
8 12 (1.50%) Management Information System
9 11 (1.38%) Public Cloud
10 10 (1.25%) Product Ownership
11 9 (1.13%) PKI
12 7 (0.88%) Operational Technology
12 7 (0.88%) Security Operations Centre
13 6 (0.75%) Cyber Threat
13 6 (0.75%) Data Protection Act
13 6 (0.75%) Driving Licence
14 5 (0.63%) CSOC
14 5 (0.63%) Distributed Systems
Operating Systems
1 87 (10.90%) Windows
2 57 (7.14%) Unix
3 53 (6.64%) Solaris
4 41 (5.14%) Windows 10
5 40 (5.01%) Windows Server
6 38 (4.76%) Linux
7 19 (2.38%) Windows 7
8 11 (1.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 8 (1.00%) AIX
10 5 (0.63%) Android
10 5 (0.63%) CentOS
10 5 (0.63%) Mac OS
10 5 (0.63%) Windows Server 2003
11 4 (0.50%) Apple iOS
12 2 (0.25%) VMS
12 2 (0.25%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 102 (12.78%) Cybersecurity
2 99 (12.41%) Stakeholder Management
3 93 (11.65%) DevOps
4 90 (11.28%) ITIL
5 88 (11.03%) Migration
6 83 (10.40%) CI/CD
7 80 (10.03%) Continuous Improvement
8 77 (9.65%) Service Management
9 65 (8.15%) Agile
10 64 (8.02%) ITSM
11 57 (7.14%) Problem-Solving
11 57 (7.14%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 54 (6.77%) Incident Management
13 52 (6.52%) Project Delivery
14 51 (6.39%) Roadmaps
15 50 (6.27%) High Availability
15 50 (6.27%) Technical Leadership
16 49 (6.14%) Infrastructure as Code
17 43 (5.39%) Test Automation
18 42 (5.26%) Disaster Recovery
Programming Languages
1 70 (8.77%) SQL
2 62 (7.77%) Python
3 59 (7.39%) PowerShell
4 41 (5.14%) Java
5 20 (2.51%) JavaScript
6 16 (2.01%) VBScript
7 15 (1.88%) VB
8 11 (1.38%) T-SQL
8 11 (1.38%) TypeScript
9 10 (1.25%) Bicep
10 8 (1.00%) Bash
11 5 (0.63%) C#
12 3 (0.38%) Go
12 3 (0.38%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.25%) ABAP
13 2 (0.25%) Objective-C
13 2 (0.25%) PL/SQL
13 2 (0.25%) Search Processing Language
13 2 (0.25%) Swift
13 2 (0.25%) VB6
Qualifications
1 662 (82.96%) SC Cleared
2 74 (9.27%) BPSS Clearance
3 43 (5.39%) Microsoft Certification
4 41 (5.14%) DV Cleared
5 26 (3.26%) Cisco Certification
5 26 (3.26%) Degree
6 24 (3.01%) CCNA
7 22 (2.76%) DBS Check
8 21 (2.63%) Azure Certification
9 14 (1.75%) CCNP
10 11 (1.38%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 9 (1.13%) Network+ Certification
11 9 (1.13%) Server+ Certification
12 8 (1.00%) CISSP
12 8 (1.00%) MCSA
12 8 (1.00%) MCSE
12 8 (1.00%) VCAP
12 8 (1.00%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 7 (0.88%) AWS Certification
14 6 (0.75%) HNC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (4.76%) SLA
2 37 (4.64%) NIST
3 35 (4.39%) NCSC
4 26 (3.26%) GRC
5 25 (3.13%) PMO
6 23 (2.88%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 20 (2.51%) Data Quality
8 14 (1.75%) Accessibility
9 13 (1.63%) QA
10 11 (1.38%) GDPR
11 5 (0.63%) NIST 800
12 2 (0.25%) Actionable Recommendations
12 2 (0.25%) Cyber Essentials
12 2 (0.25%) IEC 61508
12 2 (0.25%) WCAG
13 1 (0.13%) COBIT
13 1 (0.13%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 1 (0.13%) JSP 440
13 1 (0.13%) PCI DSS
13 1 (0.13%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 51 (6.39%) Active Directory
2 32 (4.01%) VMware Infrastructure
3 28 (3.51%) Docker
4 25 (3.13%) Virtual Machines
5 21 (2.63%) Hyper-V
6 16 (2.01%) BitLocker
6 16 (2.01%) Oracle RAC
7 13 (1.63%) Citrix Hypervisor
8 10 (1.25%) VMware ESXi
8 10 (1.25%) vSphere
9 7 (0.88%) XenApp
9 7 (0.88%) XenDesktop
10 6 (0.75%) Virtual Desktop
11 1 (0.13%) Microsoft App-V
11 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 1 (0.13%) Squid
11 1 (0.13%) Virtual Servers
11 1 (0.13%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 35 (4.39%) Ansible
2 32 (4.01%) Kubernetes
2 32 (4.01%) SCCM
3 16 (2.01%) Data Guard
4 12 (1.50%) Microsoft Intune
5 10 (1.25%) Oracle RMAN
5 10 (1.25%) SCOM
5 10 (1.25%) vCenter Server
6 9 (1.13%) Grafana
7 8 (1.00%) Failover Clustering
7 8 (1.00%) Prometheus
7 8 (1.00%) SysTrack
8 6 (0.75%) Single Sign-On
9 4 (0.50%) Nagios
9 4 (0.50%) Oracle ZFS
10 3 (0.38%) McAfee ePO
10 3 (0.38%) Microsoft Clustering
11 2 (0.25%) Progress Chef
11 2 (0.25%) WSUS
11 2 (0.25%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 134 (16.79%) Microsoft
2 79 (9.90%) Oracle
3 69 (8.65%) ServiceNow
4 61 (7.64%) Cisco
5 54 (6.77%) SAP
6 38 (4.76%) VMware
7 37 (4.64%) Palo Alto
8 23 (2.88%) Citrix
9 18 (2.26%) CheckPoint
10 15 (1.88%) F5
11 13 (1.63%) Google
12 12 (1.50%) Splunk
13 10 (1.25%) Aruba
14 8 (1.00%) Meraki
14 8 (1.00%) Nexthink
15 7 (0.88%) Informatica
16 6 (0.75%) Ivanti
17 5 (0.63%) Okta
17 5 (0.63%) Qualtrics
17 5 (0.63%) Remedy