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

6 months to
4 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 3 5 2
Rank change year-on-year +2 -3 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 609 379 422
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 16.33% 17.43% 17.59%
As % of the Qualifications category 57.34% 51.71% 61.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 398 193 242
10th Percentile £360 £313 £313
25th Percentile £425 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £503
Median % change year-on-year - +4.48% -6.51%
75th Percentile £640 £638 £634
90th Percentile £750 £713 £774
England median daily rate £537 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -0.09% -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 44 39 59
10th Percentile £22.68 £20.00 -
25th Percentile £33.38 £22.39 £10.95
Median hourly rate £64.09 £29.27 £18.07
Median % change year-on-year +118.96% +62.03% -60.63%
75th Percentile £75.70 £58.42 £46.18
90th Percentile £83.75 £70.42 £57.13
England median hourly rate £65.00 £25.15 £57.77
% change year-on-year +158.45% -56.47% -3.71%

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 1,062 733 686
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 28.47% 33.70% 28.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 673 406 388
10th Percentile £326 £308 £258
25th Percentile £413 £405 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £495 £500
Median % change year-on-year +1.11% -1.10% -3.85%
75th Percentile £622 £621 £600
90th Percentile £694 £716 £713
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 101 68 103
10th Percentile £17.25 £17.33 £10.95
25th Percentile £28.50 £21.02 £13.61
Median hourly rate £43.96 £29.27 £18.07
Median % change year-on-year +50.19% +62.03% -57.49%
75th Percentile £71.50 £58.91 £49.25
90th Percentile £83.75 £74.36 £67.60
England median hourly rate £55.00 £25.15 £46.18
% change year-on-year +118.69% -45.54% -16.04%

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 4 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 4 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 4 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 -1 240 £574 +8.21% 160
Cumbria 0 166 £485 -3.00% 24
Cheshire +21 94 £500 +26.58% 36
Lancashire 0 87 £675 +50.00% 53
Merseyside -19 16 £650 +2.77% 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 21 (3.45%) Microsoft Exchange
2 17 (2.79%) SharePoint
3 7 (1.15%) Skype for Business
4 5 (0.82%) Confluence
5 4 (0.66%) Apache Spark
5 4 (0.66%) SAS
6 3 (0.49%) Jupyter
7 2 (0.33%) Apache
7 2 (0.33%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.33%) Oracle Workflow
7 2 (0.33%) SharePoint 2013
8 1 (0.16%) CICS
8 1 (0.16%) IIS
8 1 (0.16%) NetWeaver
Applications
1 16 (2.63%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (1.31%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.66%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.49%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.49%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.16%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.16%) Navisworks
5 1 (0.16%) ProjectWise
5 1 (0.16%) Revit
5 1 (0.16%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 7 (1.15%) Oracle Payables
1 7 (1.15%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (0.82%) Remedy ITSM
3 2 (0.33%) Oracle Cash Management
3 2 (0.33%) Oracle EBS
3 2 (0.33%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
3 2 (0.33%) Primavera
3 2 (0.33%) SAP MM
3 2 (0.33%) Teamcenter
4 1 (0.16%) Dynamics AX
4 1 (0.16%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.16%) Integrated Workplace Management System
4 1 (0.16%) SAP HR
4 1 (0.16%) SAP PM
Cloud Services
1 104 (17.08%) AWS
2 91 (14.94%) Azure
3 30 (4.93%) Microsoft 365
4 25 (4.11%) Power Platform
5 21 (3.45%) Azure DevOps
6 20 (3.28%) OCI
7 17 (2.79%) SuccessFactors
8 16 (2.63%) SaaS
8 16 (2.63%) Serverless
9 13 (2.13%) Entra ID
9 13 (2.13%) GCP
10 10 (1.64%) Azure Monitor
10 10 (1.64%) GitHub
11 9 (1.48%) Google Workspace
12 7 (1.15%) Google Drive
13 5 (0.82%) Amazon S3
13 5 (0.82%) Azure Data Factory
13 5 (0.82%) Dynamics 365
13 5 (0.82%) OpenShift
13 5 (0.82%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 63 (10.34%) Firewall
2 38 (6.24%) Wireless
3 27 (4.43%) WAN
4 26 (4.27%) DNS
4 26 (4.27%) VLAN
5 25 (4.11%) VPN
6 22 (3.61%) Network Security
6 22 (3.61%) Structured Cabling
6 22 (3.61%) Wi-Fi
7 21 (3.45%) BGP
8 20 (3.28%) OSPF
9 19 (3.12%) DHCP
9 19 (3.12%) LAN
10 17 (2.79%) NAS
10 17 (2.79%) SAN
11 16 (2.63%) Cisco IOS
11 16 (2.63%) NX-OS
12 12 (1.97%) Cisco ASA
12 12 (1.97%) EIGRP
13 11 (1.81%) Broadband
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (5.75%) SQL Server
2 23 (3.78%) Oracle Database
3 20 (3.28%) PostgreSQL
4 17 (2.79%) MySQL
5 16 (2.63%) Power BI
5 16 (2.63%) Relational Database
6 15 (2.46%) MongoDB
7 11 (1.81%) RDBMS
8 10 (1.64%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 9 (1.48%) Oracle Exadata
10 7 (1.15%) Elasticsearch
10 7 (1.15%) NoSQL
10 7 (1.15%) Oracle Database 12c
11 5 (0.82%) Metadata
12 4 (0.66%) Data Warehouse
13 3 (0.49%) Data Lake
13 3 (0.49%) Hadoop
14 2 (0.33%) Amazon Redshift
14 2 (0.33%) Oracle BI Publisher
14 2 (0.33%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 27 (4.43%) GitLab
2 12 (1.97%) Git
3 10 (1.64%) JIRA
3 10 (1.64%) Selenium
4 7 (1.15%) Cucumber
4 7 (1.15%) Jenkins
4 7 (1.15%) REST Assured
5 5 (0.82%) MSI
6 4 (0.66%) Gatling
6 4 (0.66%) Mockito
7 3 (0.49%) Cypress.io
7 3 (0.49%) Serenity BDD
7 3 (0.49%) Toad
8 2 (0.33%) JDeveloper
8 2 (0.33%) Sonatype Nexus
8 2 (0.33%) WebDriver
9 1 (0.16%) Postman
9 1 (0.16%) SonarQube
9 1 (0.16%) Team Foundation Server
9 1 (0.16%) Visual Studio Coded UI
General
1 123 (20.20%) Public Sector
2 116 (19.05%) Social Skills
3 50 (8.21%) Military
4 38 (6.24%) Analytical Skills
5 25 (4.11%) Finance
6 22 (3.61%) Documentation Skills
6 22 (3.61%) Legal
7 12 (1.97%) Aerospace
7 12 (1.97%) Manufacturing
8 9 (1.48%) Presentation Skills
9 7 (1.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 6 (0.99%) Banking
11 4 (0.66%) Aviation
11 4 (0.66%) Organisational Skills
11 4 (0.66%) Retail
12 3 (0.49%) Local Government
13 2 (0.33%) General Ledger
13 2 (0.33%) Marketing
14 1 (0.16%) Corporate Banking
14 1 (0.16%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 91 (14.94%) Lead
2 86 (14.12%) Architect
3 54 (8.87%) Network Engineer
4 49 (8.05%) Senior
5 43 (7.06%) DBA
6 40 (6.57%) Developer
7 35 (5.75%) Administrator
8 33 (5.42%) Consultant
8 33 (5.42%) Unix Engineer
9 29 (4.76%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
10 25 (4.11%) Lead Architect
11 24 (3.94%) Analyst
11 24 (3.94%) SQL DBA
12 21 (3.45%) DevOps Engineer
13 20 (3.28%) Oracle DBA
14 18 (2.96%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 18 (2.96%) Technical Architect
15 16 (2.63%) Data Engineer
15 16 (2.63%) Desktop Engineer
15 16 (2.63%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (3.61%) Node.js
2 19 (3.12%) Spring
3 17 (2.79%) Spring Boot
4 15 (2.46%) Kafka
4 15 (2.46%) REST
5 14 (2.30%) OAuth
6 9 (1.48%) Oracle GoldenGate
7 6 (0.99%) OpenID
7 6 (0.99%) Playwright
8 5 (0.82%) 802.1X
8 5 (0.82%) Leaflet
8 5 (0.82%) Nunjucks
8 5 (0.82%) RESTful
8 5 (0.82%) SOAP
9 4 (0.66%) ActiveMQ
9 4 (0.66%) Apache NiFi
9 4 (0.66%) AWS CDK
9 4 (0.66%) JAX-RS
9 4 (0.66%) ModSecurity
10 3 (0.49%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 32 (5.25%) Data Centre
2 29 (4.76%) Onboarding
3 25 (4.11%) Replication
4 21 (3.45%) Clustering
5 19 (3.12%) Cloud Native
6 15 (2.46%) Operational Technology
6 15 (2.46%) Product Ownership
7 13 (2.13%) Legacy Systems
8 10 (1.64%) Enterprise Software
8 10 (1.64%) Hybrid Cloud
8 10 (1.64%) Management Information System
9 8 (1.31%) Cyber Threat
9 8 (1.31%) Data Protection Act
9 8 (1.31%) Public Cloud
10 6 (0.99%) Distributed Systems
10 6 (0.99%) Security Posture
11 5 (0.82%) CMDB
11 5 (0.82%) CSOC
12 4 (0.66%) Freedom of Information
12 4 (0.66%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 49 (8.05%) Windows
2 42 (6.90%) Linux
2 42 (6.90%) Unix
3 37 (6.08%) Solaris
4 19 (3.12%) Windows 10
5 18 (2.96%) Windows Server
6 11 (1.81%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 10 (1.64%) AIX
8 7 (1.15%) Windows 7
9 5 (0.82%) Mac OS
10 4 (0.66%) Android
10 4 (0.66%) CentOS
11 3 (0.49%) VMS
12 2 (0.33%) Apple iOS
13 1 (0.16%) Mac OS X
13 1 (0.16%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.16%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.16%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 79 (12.97%) DevOps
2 67 (11.00%) CI/CD
2 67 (11.00%) Stakeholder Management
3 64 (10.51%) Continuous Improvement
4 61 (10.02%) Agile
5 58 (9.52%) ITSM
5 58 (9.52%) Migration
6 56 (9.20%) Cybersecurity
7 55 (9.03%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 53 (8.70%) Problem-Solving
9 51 (8.37%) High Availability
9 51 (8.37%) Project Delivery
10 45 (7.39%) ITIL
11 41 (6.73%) Service Management
12 39 (6.40%) Technical Leadership
13 36 (5.91%) Mentoring
13 36 (5.91%) Roadmaps
14 34 (5.58%) Risk Management
15 33 (5.42%) Disaster Recovery
16 31 (5.09%) Microservices
Programming Languages
1 59 (9.69%) Python
2 53 (8.70%) SQL
3 44 (7.22%) Java
4 43 (7.06%) PowerShell
5 25 (4.11%) JavaScript
6 12 (1.97%) TypeScript
7 9 (1.48%) VBScript
8 7 (1.15%) T-SQL
8 7 (1.15%) VB
9 6 (0.99%) Bash
10 4 (0.66%) Bicep
10 4 (0.66%) C#
10 4 (0.66%) Rust
11 2 (0.33%) ABAP
11 2 (0.33%) Go
11 2 (0.33%) PL/SQL
12 1 (0.16%) COBOL
12 1 (0.16%) Perl
12 1 (0.16%) Scala
12 1 (0.16%) VB6
Qualifications
1 476 (78.16%) SC Cleared
2 57 (9.36%) BPSS Clearance
3 48 (7.88%) DV Cleared
4 39 (6.40%) Cisco Certification
5 37 (6.08%) CCNA
6 29 (4.76%) Microsoft Certification
7 24 (3.94%) CCNP
8 21 (3.45%) Degree
9 15 (2.46%) Network+ Certification
9 15 (2.46%) Server+ Certification
10 13 (2.13%) Azure Certification
11 11 (1.81%) CISSP
12 10 (1.64%) DBS Check
13 8 (1.31%) MCSA
13 8 (1.31%) MCSE
13 8 (1.31%) VCAP
13 8 (1.31%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 7 (1.15%) AWS Certification
14 7 (1.15%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 4 (0.66%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (3.94%) PMO
2 20 (3.28%) NIST
3 19 (3.12%) SLA
4 14 (2.30%) Data Quality
4 14 (2.30%) QA
5 13 (2.13%) GRC
5 13 (2.13%) NCSC
6 11 (1.81%) GDPR
7 9 (1.48%) Accessibility
8 8 (1.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 6 (0.99%) JSP 440
9 6 (0.99%) NIST 800
10 1 (0.16%) Basel III
10 1 (0.16%) Cyber Essentials
10 1 (0.16%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 1 (0.16%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 1 (0.16%) ISO/IEC 27005
10 1 (0.16%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.16%) RMADS
10 1 (0.16%) Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment)
System Software
1 29 (4.76%) Active Directory
2 20 (3.28%) Docker
3 17 (2.79%) Oracle RAC
4 16 (2.63%) Virtual Machines
5 15 (2.46%) VMware Infrastructure
6 11 (1.81%) VMware ESXi
7 10 (1.64%) vSphere
8 9 (1.48%) BitLocker
9 3 (0.49%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.16%) GPFS
10 1 (0.16%) Hyper-V
10 1 (0.16%) NFS
10 1 (0.16%) Squid
10 1 (0.16%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 55 (9.03%) Terraform
2 35 (5.75%) Ansible
3 31 (5.09%) Kubernetes
4 17 (2.79%) Data Guard
5 16 (2.63%) Oracle RMAN
5 16 (2.63%) SCCM
6 10 (1.64%) vCenter Server
7 8 (1.31%) Grafana
8 6 (0.99%) Microsoft Intune
8 6 (0.99%) Prometheus
8 6 (0.99%) SCOM
8 6 (0.99%) Single Sign-On
9 4 (0.66%) Nagios
9 4 (0.66%) Oracle ZFS
10 3 (0.49%) McAfee ePO
11 2 (0.33%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 2 (0.33%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
11 2 (0.33%) Failover Clustering
11 2 (0.33%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
11 2 (0.33%) WSUS
Vendors
1 91 (14.94%) Microsoft
2 65 (10.67%) Oracle
3 60 (9.85%) Cisco
4 55 (9.03%) ServiceNow
5 42 (6.90%) SAP
6 31 (5.09%) Palo Alto
7 17 (2.79%) CheckPoint
8 16 (2.63%) VMware
9 14 (2.30%) Aruba
10 13 (2.13%) F5
11 9 (1.48%) Google
12 8 (1.31%) Citrix
13 7 (1.15%) Splunk
14 6 (0.99%) Arista
14 6 (0.99%) Databricks
15 5 (0.82%) Ekahau
15 5 (0.82%) Qualtrics
15 5 (0.82%) Remedy
15 5 (0.82%) SolarWinds
16 4 (0.66%) Meraki