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 22 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 2 3 3
Rank change year-on-year +1 0 -1
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 743 399 387
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 19.10% 18.64% 16.36%
As % of the Qualifications category 61.35% 54.21% 60.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 505 242 219
10th Percentile £359 £350 £294
25th Percentile £443 £433 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £550 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.64% +10.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £638 £650 £610
90th Percentile £688 £723 £730
England median daily rate £550 £538 £550
% change year-on-year +2.33% -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 45 45 37
10th Percentile £25.80 £17.79 £17.42
25th Percentile £28.69 £22.16 £22.22
Median hourly rate £49.50 £27.38 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +80.82% -39.17% -2.56%
75th Percentile £72.66 £52.50 £55.25
90th Percentile £83.75 £68.90 £77.09
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 1,211 736 639
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 31.12% 34.38% 27.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 779 462 346
10th Percentile £310 £313 £294
25th Percentile £420 £412 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £511 £500
Median % change year-on-year +1.70% +2.26% -4.76%
75th Percentile £616 £638 £600
90th Percentile £680 £725 £688
England median daily rate £530 £525 £538
% change year-on-year +0.86% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 120 71 58
10th Percentile £18.09 £15.50 £16.75
25th Percentile £28.50 £18.87 £22.22
Median hourly rate £43.96 £27.00 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +62.81% -41.53% +0.65%
75th Percentile £64.09 £56.88 £55.79
90th Percentile £80.38 £71.45 £81.48
England median hourly rate £52.50 £25.15 £54.00
% change year-on-year +108.75% -53.43% +0.12%

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 22 September 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 22 September 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 22 September 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 0 283 £575 +4.55% 318
Cumbria 0 194 £494 -5.07% 19
Lancashire 0 156 £600 +9.09% 91
Cheshire +1 93 £525 -15.32% 31
Merseyside -20 14 £625 -9.58% 12
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 (3.77%) Microsoft Exchange
2 22 (2.96%) SharePoint
3 15 (2.02%) Skype for Business
4 12 (1.62%) SAS
5 6 (0.81%) Confluence
6 4 (0.54%) Apache Airflow
7 3 (0.40%) Apache
7 3 (0.40%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.27%) Jupyter
8 2 (0.27%) Oracle Workflow
8 2 (0.27%) SharePoint 2013
9 1 (0.13%) IIS
9 1 (0.13%) NetWeaver
9 1 (0.13%) nginx
9 1 (0.13%) Traefik
Applications
1 27 (3.63%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (0.67%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.40%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.27%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.13%) Navisworks
5 1 (0.13%) ProjectWise
5 1 (0.13%) Revit
Business Applications
1 11 (1.48%) SAP S/4HANA
2 8 (1.08%) Oracle Payables
3 5 (0.67%) Remedy ITSM
3 5 (0.67%) SAP HR
3 5 (0.67%) Teamcenter
4 3 (0.40%) SAP MDG
5 2 (0.27%) Oracle Cash Management
5 2 (0.27%) Oracle EBS
5 2 (0.27%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 2 (0.27%) SAP PLM
6 1 (0.13%) Dynamics AX
6 1 (0.13%) Dynamics CRM
6 1 (0.13%) Integrated Workplace Management System
6 1 (0.13%) Primavera
6 1 (0.13%) SAP ERP
6 1 (0.13%) SAP MM
6 1 (0.13%) SAP PM
6 1 (0.13%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 107 (14.40%) Azure
2 100 (13.46%) AWS
3 37 (4.98%) Microsoft 365
4 29 (3.90%) Power Platform
4 29 (3.90%) SuccessFactors
5 27 (3.63%) Azure DevOps
6 23 (3.10%) Entra ID
7 19 (2.56%) OCI
8 18 (2.42%) SaaS
9 16 (2.15%) Serverless
10 15 (2.02%) GCP
10 15 (2.02%) GitHub
11 14 (1.88%) Azure Monitor
12 10 (1.35%) Google Workspace
13 9 (1.21%) GitHub Actions
14 8 (1.08%) Azure AKS
15 7 (0.94%) Google Drive
16 6 (0.81%) Dynamics 365
16 6 (0.81%) Microsoft Copilot
16 6 (0.81%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 63 (8.48%) Firewall
2 38 (5.11%) Wireless
3 35 (4.71%) VPN
4 31 (4.17%) WAN
5 30 (4.04%) Network Security
6 26 (3.50%) BGP
6 26 (3.50%) OSPF
6 26 (3.50%) Wi-Fi
7 25 (3.36%) DNS
8 23 (3.10%) LAN
9 21 (2.83%) Cisco ASA
9 21 (2.83%) VLAN
10 20 (2.69%) DHCP
11 19 (2.56%) Structured Cabling
12 18 (2.42%) EIGRP
12 18 (2.42%) Skype
13 17 (2.29%) Cisco Firepower
14 16 (2.15%) NetScaler
15 15 (2.02%) SAN
16 13 (1.75%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 46 (6.19%) SQL Server
2 29 (3.90%) MySQL
3 25 (3.36%) PostgreSQL
4 22 (2.96%) Oracle Database
5 16 (2.15%) Power BI
6 15 (2.02%) MongoDB
6 15 (2.02%) Relational Database
7 11 (1.48%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 10 (1.35%) RDBMS
9 8 (1.08%) Oracle Exadata
10 6 (0.81%) NoSQL
11 5 (0.67%) Data Warehouse
12 4 (0.54%) Metadata
12 4 (0.54%) Oracle Database 12c
13 3 (0.40%) Data Lake
14 2 (0.27%) Amazon QuickSight
14 2 (0.27%) Amazon Redshift
14 2 (0.27%) Big Data
14 2 (0.27%) Oracle BI Publisher
14 2 (0.27%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 29 (3.90%) GitLab
2 15 (2.02%) Git
3 12 (1.62%) Selenium
4 10 (1.35%) JIRA
5 9 (1.21%) Cucumber
5 9 (1.21%) Jenkins
5 9 (1.21%) REST Assured
6 6 (0.81%) MSI
7 4 (0.54%) Gatling
8 3 (0.40%) Mockito
8 3 (0.40%) Serenity BDD
8 3 (0.40%) Sonatype Nexus
8 3 (0.40%) Toad
8 3 (0.40%) WebDriver
9 2 (0.27%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.27%) JDeveloper
9 2 (0.27%) Rational DOORS
10 1 (0.13%) JMeter
10 1 (0.13%) Rational Robot
10 1 (0.13%) Visual Studio Coded UI
General
1 132 (17.77%) Social Skills
2 113 (15.21%) Public Sector
3 55 (7.40%) Military
4 42 (5.65%) Analytical Skills
5 23 (3.10%) Finance
6 22 (2.96%) Documentation Skills
7 21 (2.83%) Legal
8 20 (2.69%) Manufacturing
9 9 (1.21%) Aerospace
10 8 (1.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 8 (1.08%) Organisational Skills
11 7 (0.94%) Presentation Skills
12 4 (0.54%) Police
12 4 (0.54%) Retail
13 3 (0.40%) Influencing Skills
13 3 (0.40%) Local Government
14 2 (0.27%) Banking
14 2 (0.27%) General Ledger
14 2 (0.27%) Marketing
14 2 (0.27%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 108 (14.54%) Architect
2 102 (13.73%) Lead
3 66 (8.88%) Consultant
4 62 (8.34%) Network Engineer
4 62 (8.34%) Senior
5 50 (6.73%) DBA
6 39 (5.25%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
7 38 (5.11%) Analyst
7 38 (5.11%) Unix Engineer
8 36 (4.85%) Administrator
9 34 (4.58%) Developer
10 31 (4.17%) SQL DBA
11 30 (4.04%) Technical Architect
12 24 (3.23%) DevOps Engineer
13 22 (2.96%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 22 (2.96%) Lead Architect
14 21 (2.83%) Security Architect
15 20 (2.69%) Desktop Engineer
15 20 (2.69%) Senior Consultant
16 18 (2.42%) Oracle DBA
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 55 (7.40%) Terraform
2 20 (2.69%) Node.js
3 18 (2.42%) REST
4 15 (2.02%) Spring
5 14 (1.88%) OAuth
5 14 (1.88%) Spring Boot
6 13 (1.75%) Kafka
7 8 (1.08%) Oracle GoldenGate
8 6 (0.81%) AWS CDK
8 6 (0.81%) OpenID
8 6 (0.81%) Playwright
9 5 (0.67%) Nunjucks
9 5 (0.67%) SOAP
10 4 (0.54%) PySpark
10 4 (0.54%) XML
11 3 (0.40%) ActiveMQ
11 3 (0.40%) JAX-RS
11 3 (0.40%) Leaflet
11 3 (0.40%) ModSecurity
11 3 (0.40%) Spring Cloud
Miscellaneous
1 39 (5.25%) Onboarding
2 29 (3.90%) Data Centre
3 26 (3.50%) Clustering
4 25 (3.36%) Replication
5 18 (2.42%) Cloud Native
6 16 (2.15%) CMDB
7 13 (1.75%) Legacy Systems
8 12 (1.62%) Enterprise Software
8 12 (1.62%) Management Information System
9 11 (1.48%) Hybrid Cloud
10 10 (1.35%) PKI
10 10 (1.35%) Public Cloud
11 8 (1.08%) Operational Technology
11 8 (1.08%) Product Ownership
12 6 (0.81%) Cyber Threat
12 6 (0.81%) Data Protection Act
12 6 (0.81%) Driving Licence
13 5 (0.67%) CSOC
13 5 (0.67%) Distributed Systems
14 4 (0.54%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 83 (11.17%) Windows
2 52 (7.00%) Unix
3 47 (6.33%) Solaris
4 40 (5.38%) Windows 10
5 38 (5.11%) Linux
6 36 (4.85%) Windows Server
7 19 (2.56%) Windows 7
8 11 (1.48%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 8 (1.08%) AIX
10 5 (0.67%) Android
10 5 (0.67%) CentOS
10 5 (0.67%) Mac OS
10 5 (0.67%) Windows Server 2003
11 2 (0.27%) Apple iOS
11 2 (0.27%) VMS
12 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 97 (13.06%) Stakeholder Management
2 89 (11.98%) Cybersecurity
3 81 (10.90%) ITIL
4 79 (10.63%) DevOps
5 78 (10.50%) Migration
6 73 (9.83%) Continuous Improvement
7 72 (9.69%) CI/CD
8 67 (9.02%) ITSM
9 66 (8.88%) Service Management
10 56 (7.54%) Agile
11 54 (7.27%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 53 (7.13%) Problem-Solving
13 49 (6.59%) Roadmaps
14 47 (6.33%) High Availability
14 47 (6.33%) Project Delivery
15 45 (6.06%) Incident Management
16 44 (5.92%) Infrastructure as Code
16 44 (5.92%) Technical Leadership
17 41 (5.52%) Risk Management
18 37 (4.98%) Disaster Recovery
Programming Languages
1 63 (8.48%) SQL
2 57 (7.67%) PowerShell
2 57 (7.67%) Python
3 38 (5.11%) Java
4 22 (2.96%) JavaScript
5 16 (2.15%) VBScript
6 14 (1.88%) VB
7 11 (1.48%) T-SQL
8 9 (1.21%) Bicep
9 8 (1.08%) Bash
9 8 (1.08%) TypeScript
10 4 (0.54%) C#
11 3 (0.40%) Go
11 3 (0.40%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.27%) ABAP
12 2 (0.27%) PL/SQL
12 2 (0.27%) Search Processing Language
13 1 (0.13%) Kotlin
13 1 (0.13%) Kusto Query Language
13 1 (0.13%) Swift
Qualifications
1 610 (82.10%) SC Cleared
2 67 (9.02%) BPSS Clearance
3 42 (5.65%) Microsoft Certification
4 35 (4.71%) DV Cleared
5 29 (3.90%) Cisco Certification
6 26 (3.50%) CCNA
7 23 (3.10%) Degree
8 22 (2.96%) Azure Certification
9 16 (2.15%) CCNP
10 14 (1.88%) DBS Check
11 11 (1.48%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 11 (1.48%) Network+ Certification
11 11 (1.48%) Server+ Certification
12 10 (1.35%) CISSP
13 8 (1.08%) MCSA
13 8 (1.08%) MCSE
13 8 (1.08%) VCAP
13 8 (1.08%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 6 (0.81%) AWS Certification
15 5 (0.67%) City & Guilds
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (4.98%) NIST
2 29 (3.90%) NCSC
2 29 (3.90%) SLA
3 25 (3.36%) GRC
3 25 (3.36%) PMO
4 21 (2.83%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 17 (2.29%) Data Quality
6 11 (1.48%) GDPR
6 11 (1.48%) QA
7 10 (1.35%) Accessibility
8 6 (0.81%) NIST 800
9 3 (0.40%) JSP 440
10 2 (0.27%) Actionable Recommendations
10 2 (0.27%) Cyber Essentials
10 2 (0.27%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.27%) WCAG
11 1 (0.13%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 1 (0.13%) ISO 19650
11 1 (0.13%) ITGC
11 1 (0.13%) Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment)
System Software
1 47 (6.33%) Active Directory
2 29 (3.90%) VMware Infrastructure
3 25 (3.36%) Docker
3 25 (3.36%) Virtual Machines
4 19 (2.56%) Hyper-V
5 16 (2.15%) BitLocker
5 16 (2.15%) Oracle RAC
6 11 (1.48%) Citrix Hypervisor
7 10 (1.35%) VMware ESXi
7 10 (1.35%) vSphere
8 6 (0.81%) XenApp
8 6 (0.81%) XenDesktop
9 4 (0.54%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.13%) Microsoft App-V
10 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 1 (0.13%) Squid
10 1 (0.13%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.13%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 34 (4.58%) Ansible
2 31 (4.17%) Kubernetes
3 30 (4.04%) SCCM
4 16 (2.15%) Data Guard
5 12 (1.62%) Oracle RMAN
6 10 (1.35%) SCOM
6 10 (1.35%) vCenter Server
7 9 (1.21%) Microsoft Intune
8 8 (1.08%) Grafana
9 7 (0.94%) Prometheus
9 7 (0.94%) SysTrack
10 6 (0.81%) Failover Clustering
10 6 (0.81%) Single Sign-On
11 4 (0.54%) Nagios
11 4 (0.54%) Oracle ZFS
12 3 (0.40%) McAfee ePO
12 3 (0.40%) Microsoft Clustering
13 2 (0.27%) Packer
13 2 (0.27%) Progress Chef
13 2 (0.27%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 131 (17.63%) Microsoft
2 73 (9.83%) ServiceNow
3 69 (9.29%) Oracle
4 63 (8.48%) Cisco
5 57 (7.67%) SAP
6 38 (5.11%) Palo Alto
7 34 (4.58%) VMware
8 18 (2.42%) CheckPoint
8 18 (2.42%) Citrix
9 16 (2.15%) F5
10 12 (1.62%) Google
10 12 (1.62%) Splunk
11 10 (1.35%) Aruba
12 8 (1.08%) Meraki
13 7 (0.94%) Nexthink
14 6 (0.81%) Arista
14 6 (0.81%) Databricks
14 6 (0.81%) Ivanti
15 5 (0.67%) Qualtrics
15 5 (0.67%) Remedy