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 25 August 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 2 6 2
Rank change year-on-year +4 -4 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 696 382 455
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 17.78% 17.21% 18.59%
As % of the Qualifications category 60.21% 50.20% 65.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 478 205 260
10th Percentile £359 £313 £313
25th Percentile £438 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £530 £500
Median % change year-on-year - +6.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £685 £776
England median daily rate £540 £538 £550
% change year-on-year +0.47% -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 44 43 58
10th Percentile £25.73 £20.00 -
25th Percentile £40.09 £22.39 £10.95
Median hourly rate £64.09 £32.00 £18.07
Median % change year-on-year +100.28% +77.14% -60.88%
75th Percentile £80.00 £58.42 £47.17
90th Percentile £83.75 £69.45 £57.80
England median hourly rate £65.00 £25.15 £60.00
% change year-on-year +158.45% -58.08% -

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 1,156 761 694
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 29.53% 34.29% 28.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 747 439 394
10th Percentile £316 £312 £313
25th Percentile £418 £409 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £500 £506
Median % change year-on-year +3.00% -1.19% -1.80%
75th Percentile £619 £619 £605
90th Percentile £688 £715 £724
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 112 74 85
10th Percentile £17.25 £17.18 £10.95
25th Percentile £28.50 £21.02 £11.07
Median hourly rate £43.96 £30.64 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +43.50% +36.16% -47.06%
75th Percentile £66.66 £58.50 £51.91
90th Percentile £83.75 £73.06 £75.40
England median hourly rate £52.50 £25.15 £48.56
% change year-on-year +108.75% -48.21% -11.71%

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 25 August 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 25 August 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 25 August 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 0 259 £569 +7.36% 214
Cumbria 0 181 £492 -4.45% 21
Lancashire 0 137 £625 +38.89% 44
Cheshire +22 101 £510 +16.57% 24
Merseyside -25 12 £625 -0.60% 6
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 29 (4.17%) Microsoft Exchange
2 21 (3.02%) SharePoint
3 15 (2.16%) Skype for Business
4 11 (1.58%) SAS
5 5 (0.72%) Confluence
6 2 (0.29%) Apache
6 2 (0.29%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.29%) Jupyter
6 2 (0.29%) Oracle Workflow
6 2 (0.29%) SharePoint 2013
7 1 (0.14%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.14%) IIS
7 1 (0.14%) NetWeaver
Applications
1 24 (3.45%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (0.86%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.57%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.43%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.29%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.14%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.14%) Navisworks
6 1 (0.14%) ProjectWise
6 1 (0.14%) Revit
Business Applications
1 8 (1.15%) Oracle Payables
2 7 (1.01%) SAP S/4HANA
3 5 (0.72%) Remedy ITSM
4 4 (0.57%) SAP HR
5 3 (0.43%) SAP MDG
5 3 (0.43%) Teamcenter
6 2 (0.29%) Oracle Cash Management
6 2 (0.29%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.29%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 2 (0.29%) Primavera
6 2 (0.29%) SAP MM
7 1 (0.14%) Dynamics AX
7 1 (0.14%) Dynamics CRM
7 1 (0.14%) Integrated Workplace Management System
7 1 (0.14%) SAP ERP
7 1 (0.14%) SAP PM
7 1 (0.14%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 100 (14.37%) AWS
2 97 (13.94%) Azure
3 36 (5.17%) Microsoft 365
4 29 (4.17%) SuccessFactors
5 27 (3.88%) Power Platform
6 23 (3.30%) Azure DevOps
7 20 (2.87%) OCI
8 17 (2.44%) SaaS
8 17 (2.44%) Serverless
9 16 (2.30%) GCP
10 15 (2.16%) Entra ID
11 10 (1.44%) GitHub
11 10 (1.44%) Google Workspace
12 8 (1.15%) Azure Monitor
13 7 (1.01%) Google Drive
14 6 (0.86%) Azure AKS
14 6 (0.86%) Microsoft Copilot
15 5 (0.72%) AWS Lambda
15 5 (0.72%) Azure Data Factory
15 5 (0.72%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 64 (9.20%) Firewall
2 37 (5.32%) Wireless
3 32 (4.60%) VPN
4 31 (4.45%) WAN
5 29 (4.17%) DNS
6 26 (3.74%) BGP
6 26 (3.74%) OSPF
6 26 (3.74%) VLAN
7 25 (3.59%) Network Security
7 25 (3.59%) Wi-Fi
8 23 (3.30%) DHCP
8 23 (3.30%) LAN
9 21 (3.02%) Structured Cabling
10 20 (2.87%) Cisco ASA
11 18 (2.59%) EIGRP
11 18 (2.59%) SAN
12 17 (2.44%) Cisco Firepower
12 17 (2.44%) Skype
13 16 (2.30%) NAS
14 15 (2.16%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (5.03%) SQL Server
2 25 (3.59%) Oracle Database
3 22 (3.16%) PostgreSQL
4 19 (2.73%) MySQL
5 16 (2.30%) Relational Database
6 15 (2.16%) Power BI
7 14 (2.01%) MongoDB
8 11 (1.58%) RDBMS
9 9 (1.29%) Oracle Exadata
10 7 (1.01%) NoSQL
10 7 (1.01%) Oracle Database 12c
10 7 (1.01%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 6 (0.86%) Data Warehouse
12 5 (0.72%) Metadata
13 3 (0.43%) Amazon Redshift
13 3 (0.43%) Data Lake
14 2 (0.29%) Big Data
14 2 (0.29%) Oracle BI Publisher
14 2 (0.29%) Oracle Reports
14 2 (0.29%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 27 (3.88%) GitLab
2 12 (1.72%) Git
3 10 (1.44%) JIRA
3 10 (1.44%) Selenium
4 7 (1.01%) Cucumber
4 7 (1.01%) REST Assured
5 6 (0.86%) Jenkins
5 6 (0.86%) MSI
6 4 (0.57%) Gatling
7 3 (0.43%) Mockito
7 3 (0.43%) Serenity BDD
7 3 (0.43%) Toad
8 2 (0.29%) Cypress.io
8 2 (0.29%) JDeveloper
8 2 (0.29%) Rational DOORS
8 2 (0.29%) Sonatype Nexus
8 2 (0.29%) WebDriver
9 1 (0.14%) Postman
9 1 (0.14%) SonarQube
9 1 (0.14%) Visual Studio Coded UI
General
1 124 (17.82%) Social Skills
2 110 (15.80%) Public Sector
3 49 (7.04%) Military
4 38 (5.46%) Analytical Skills
5 27 (3.88%) Documentation Skills
6 22 (3.16%) Finance
7 19 (2.73%) Legal
8 17 (2.44%) Manufacturing
9 12 (1.72%) Aerospace
10 9 (1.29%) Presentation Skills
11 8 (1.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 8 (1.15%) Organisational Skills
12 4 (0.57%) Banking
12 4 (0.57%) Retail
13 3 (0.43%) Local Government
14 2 (0.29%) Aviation
14 2 (0.29%) General Ledger
14 2 (0.29%) Influencing Skills
14 2 (0.29%) Marketing
14 2 (0.29%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 101 (14.51%) Architect
2 97 (13.94%) Lead
3 61 (8.76%) Consultant
4 59 (8.48%) Network Engineer
5 58 (8.33%) Senior
6 43 (6.18%) DBA
7 37 (5.32%) Analyst
8 35 (5.03%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 35 (5.03%) Unix Engineer
9 31 (4.45%) Administrator
10 30 (4.31%) Developer
11 24 (3.45%) Lead Architect
12 23 (3.30%) SQL DBA
12 23 (3.30%) Technical Architect
13 22 (3.16%) DevOps Engineer
14 21 (3.02%) Oracle DBA
15 20 (2.87%) Desktop Engineer
15 20 (2.87%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 20 (2.87%) Security Architect
16 18 (2.59%) Senior Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 52 (7.47%) Terraform
2 20 (2.87%) Node.js
3 16 (2.30%) Spring
4 15 (2.16%) REST
5 14 (2.01%) OAuth
5 14 (2.01%) Spring Boot
6 11 (1.58%) Kafka
7 9 (1.29%) Oracle GoldenGate
8 6 (0.86%) OpenID
9 5 (0.72%) Leaflet
9 5 (0.72%) Nunjucks
9 5 (0.72%) Playwright
9 5 (0.72%) SOAP
10 4 (0.57%) AWS CDK
10 4 (0.57%) ModSecurity
10 4 (0.57%) RESTful
11 3 (0.43%) ActiveMQ
11 3 (0.43%) PySpark
11 3 (0.43%) Web Services
11 3 (0.43%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 35 (5.03%) Onboarding
2 28 (4.02%) Data Centre
3 23 (3.30%) Replication
4 20 (2.87%) Clustering
5 19 (2.73%) Cloud Native
6 15 (2.16%) Operational Technology
7 12 (1.72%) Legacy Systems
7 12 (1.72%) Product Ownership
8 11 (1.58%) CMDB
8 11 (1.58%) Enterprise Software
9 10 (1.44%) Hybrid Cloud
9 10 (1.44%) Management Information System
10 8 (1.15%) Cyber Threat
10 8 (1.15%) PKI
10 8 (1.15%) Public Cloud
11 7 (1.01%) Data Protection Act
12 5 (0.72%) CSOC
12 5 (0.72%) Distributed Systems
13 4 (0.57%) Freedom of Information
13 4 (0.57%) Learning Management System
Operating Systems
1 73 (10.49%) Windows
2 43 (6.18%) Unix
3 38 (5.46%) Solaris
4 35 (5.03%) Linux
4 35 (5.03%) Windows 10
5 27 (3.88%) Windows Server
6 19 (2.73%) Windows 7
7 9 (1.29%) AIX
8 8 (1.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 5 (0.72%) Mac OS
9 5 (0.72%) Windows Server 2003
10 4 (0.57%) CentOS
11 3 (0.43%) Android
11 3 (0.43%) VMS
12 1 (0.14%) Apple iOS
12 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 89 (12.79%) Stakeholder Management
2 84 (12.07%) Cybersecurity
3 75 (10.78%) DevOps
4 74 (10.63%) Migration
5 71 (10.20%) Continuous Improvement
6 70 (10.06%) ITSM
7 67 (9.63%) ITIL
8 66 (9.48%) CI/CD
9 59 (8.48%) Service Management
10 57 (8.19%) Agile
10 57 (8.19%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 50 (7.18%) Project Delivery
12 49 (7.04%) High Availability
13 46 (6.61%) Problem-Solving
14 41 (5.89%) Roadmaps
15 40 (5.75%) Technical Leadership
16 39 (5.60%) Incident Management
16 39 (5.60%) Risk Management
17 37 (5.32%) Infrastructure as Code
18 36 (5.17%) Disaster Recovery
Programming Languages
1 54 (7.76%) SQL
2 51 (7.33%) PowerShell
2 51 (7.33%) Python
3 34 (4.89%) Java
4 21 (3.02%) JavaScript
5 16 (2.30%) VBScript
6 14 (2.01%) VB
7 8 (1.15%) TypeScript
8 7 (1.01%) T-SQL
9 6 (0.86%) Bicep
10 5 (0.72%) Bash
11 3 (0.43%) C#
12 2 (0.29%) ABAP
12 2 (0.29%) Go
12 2 (0.29%) PL/SQL
12 2 (0.29%) Search Processing Language
13 1 (0.14%) Google Apps Script
13 1 (0.14%) Kotlin
13 1 (0.14%) Shell Script
13 1 (0.14%) VB6
Qualifications
1 551 (79.17%) SC Cleared
2 57 (8.19%) BPSS Clearance
3 43 (6.18%) DV Cleared
4 35 (5.03%) Cisco Certification
5 32 (4.60%) CCNA
6 31 (4.45%) Microsoft Certification
7 21 (3.02%) CCNP
8 18 (2.59%) Degree
9 14 (2.01%) Azure Certification
9 14 (2.01%) Network+ Certification
9 14 (2.01%) Server+ Certification
10 12 (1.72%) CISSP
10 12 (1.72%) DBS Check
11 8 (1.15%) MCSA
11 8 (1.15%) MCSE
11 8 (1.15%) VCAP
11 8 (1.15%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 7 (1.01%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 5 (0.72%) ITIL Certification
14 4 (0.57%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 34 (4.89%) NIST
2 30 (4.31%) SLA
3 27 (3.88%) PMO
4 26 (3.74%) NCSC
5 22 (3.16%) GRC
6 19 (2.73%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 16 (2.30%) Data Quality
7 16 (2.30%) QA
8 12 (1.72%) GDPR
9 8 (1.15%) Accessibility
10 6 (0.86%) JSP 440
10 6 (0.86%) NIST 800
11 2 (0.29%) Actionable Recommendations
11 2 (0.29%) PCI DSS
12 1 (0.14%) Cyber Essentials
12 1 (0.14%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 1 (0.14%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 1 (0.14%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 1 (0.14%) RMADS
12 1 (0.14%) Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment)
System Software
1 40 (5.75%) Active Directory
2 24 (3.45%) VMware Infrastructure
3 22 (3.16%) Docker
4 18 (2.59%) Virtual Machines
5 17 (2.44%) Oracle RAC
6 16 (2.30%) BitLocker
7 13 (1.87%) Hyper-V
8 11 (1.58%) VMware ESXi
8 11 (1.58%) vSphere
9 7 (1.01%) Citrix Hypervisor
10 4 (0.57%) Virtual Desktop
11 3 (0.43%) XenApp
11 3 (0.43%) XenDesktop
12 1 (0.14%) GPFS
12 1 (0.14%) Microsoft App-V
12 1 (0.14%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 1 (0.14%) NFS
12 1 (0.14%) Squid
12 1 (0.14%) Virtual Servers
12 1 (0.14%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 34 (4.89%) Ansible
2 29 (4.17%) Kubernetes
2 29 (4.17%) SCCM
3 17 (2.44%) Data Guard
4 16 (2.30%) Oracle RMAN
5 10 (1.44%) vCenter Server
6 7 (1.01%) Grafana
6 7 (1.01%) Microsoft Intune
7 6 (0.86%) Prometheus
7 6 (0.86%) SCOM
7 6 (0.86%) SysTrack
8 5 (0.72%) Single Sign-On
9 4 (0.57%) Failover Clustering
9 4 (0.57%) Nagios
9 4 (0.57%) Oracle ZFS
10 3 (0.43%) McAfee ePO
10 3 (0.43%) Microsoft Clustering
11 2 (0.29%) CASB
11 2 (0.29%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
11 2 (0.29%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 116 (16.67%) Microsoft
2 70 (10.06%) Oracle
3 68 (9.77%) ServiceNow
4 65 (9.34%) Cisco
5 56 (8.05%) SAP
6 36 (5.17%) Palo Alto
7 29 (4.17%) VMware
8 20 (2.87%) CheckPoint
9 15 (2.16%) F5
10 14 (2.01%) Citrix
11 12 (1.72%) Google
12 11 (1.58%) Splunk
13 10 (1.44%) Aruba
14 6 (0.86%) Arista
14 6 (0.86%) Databricks
14 6 (0.86%) Ivanti
14 6 (0.86%) Meraki
14 6 (0.86%) Nexthink
15 5 (0.72%) CyberArk
15 5 (0.72%) Qualtrics