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 21 July 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 3 4 2
Rank change year-on-year +1 -2 -1
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 567 381 420
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 15.38% 17.78% 16.34%
As % of the Qualifications category 56.03% 53.44% 57.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 367 205 242
10th Percentile £358 £322 £313
25th Percentile £422 £431 £424
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £527 £501
Median % change year-on-year -0.38% +5.14% -5.42%
75th Percentile £639 £638 £608
90th Percentile £755 £729 £763
England median daily rate £531 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -1.19% -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 39 39 62
10th Percentile £22.68 £21.73 -
25th Percentile £28.50 £22.63 £10.95
Median hourly rate £64.09 £32.00 £18.10
Median % change year-on-year +100.28% +76.82% -57.42%
75th Percentile £77.13 £59.95 £46.11
90th Percentile £84.95 £70.42 £55.79
England median hourly rate £63.50 £25.15 £57.50
% change year-on-year +152.49% -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 1,012 713 736
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 27.45% 33.27% 28.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 644 407 414
10th Percentile £330 £284 £230
25th Percentile £400 £405 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -3.85%
75th Percentile £618 £617 £600
90th Percentile £700 £720 £699
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 88 66 121
10th Percentile £17.25 £17.44 £10.95
25th Percentile £28.50 £22.16 £14.00
Median hourly rate £43.96 £31.00 £17.00
Median % change year-on-year +41.81% +82.35% -58.33%
75th Percentile £72.19 £59.98 £43.75
90th Percentile £92.08 £74.77 £62.50
England median hourly rate £54.00 £25.32 £43.00
% change year-on-year +113.27% -41.12% -23.76%

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 21 July 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 21 July 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 21 July 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 -1 224 £550 +3.77% 113
Cumbria 0 157 £484 -8.16% 13
Cheshire +24 87 £528 +33.54% 20
Lancashire 0 78 £700 +55.56% 41
Merseyside -19 16 £650 +3.38%
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 (3.70%) Microsoft Exchange
2 14 (2.47%) SharePoint
3 7 (1.23%) Skype for Business
4 5 (0.88%) Apache Spark
4 5 (0.88%) Confluence
5 4 (0.71%) SAS
6 3 (0.53%) Jupyter
7 2 (0.35%) Apache
7 2 (0.35%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.35%) CICS
7 2 (0.35%) Oracle Workflow
7 2 (0.35%) SharePoint 2013
8 1 (0.18%) IIS
8 1 (0.18%) NetWeaver
8 1 (0.18%) nginx
Applications
1 16 (2.82%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (1.59%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (0.88%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.71%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.71%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.18%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.18%) Navisworks
5 1 (0.18%) ProjectWise
5 1 (0.18%) Revit
5 1 (0.18%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 7 (1.23%) Oracle Payables
2 6 (1.06%) SAP S/4HANA
3 4 (0.71%) Remedy ITSM
4 3 (0.53%) Primavera
4 3 (0.53%) SAP MM
5 2 (0.35%) Oracle Cash Management
5 2 (0.35%) Oracle EBS
5 2 (0.35%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 2 (0.35%) Teamcenter
6 1 (0.18%) Dynamics AX
6 1 (0.18%) Dynamics CRM
6 1 (0.18%) Integrated Workplace Management System
6 1 (0.18%) SAP PM
Cloud Services
1 102 (17.99%) AWS
2 82 (14.46%) Azure
3 27 (4.76%) Microsoft 365
4 24 (4.23%) Power Platform
5 18 (3.17%) OCI
6 16 (2.82%) Azure DevOps
6 16 (2.82%) SaaS
6 16 (2.82%) Serverless
7 13 (2.29%) Entra ID
7 13 (2.29%) GitHub
8 12 (2.12%) GCP
9 9 (1.59%) Google Workspace
10 8 (1.41%) Azure Monitor
11 7 (1.23%) Google Drive
12 6 (1.06%) OpenShift
13 5 (0.88%) Dynamics 365
13 5 (0.88%) Power Automate
14 4 (0.71%) AWS Lambda
14 4 (0.71%) GitHub Actions
14 4 (0.71%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 62 (10.93%) Firewall
2 38 (6.70%) Wireless
3 26 (4.59%) DNS
3 26 (4.59%) VLAN
3 26 (4.59%) WAN
4 24 (4.23%) VPN
5 23 (4.06%) Network Security
6 22 (3.88%) Structured Cabling
7 19 (3.35%) LAN
8 18 (3.17%) DHCP
8 18 (3.17%) Wi-Fi
9 17 (3.00%) NAS
9 17 (3.00%) SAN
10 16 (2.82%) BGP
10 16 (2.82%) Cisco IOS
10 16 (2.82%) NX-OS
11 15 (2.65%) OSPF
12 11 (1.94%) Broadband
12 11 (1.94%) Converged Networks
13 9 (1.59%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (5.64%) SQL Server
2 22 (3.88%) Oracle Database
3 21 (3.70%) PostgreSQL
4 17 (3.00%) Relational Database
5 16 (2.82%) MongoDB
5 16 (2.82%) MySQL
5 16 (2.82%) Power BI
6 9 (1.59%) Elasticsearch
6 9 (1.59%) RDBMS
7 8 (1.41%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 7 (1.23%) Metadata
8 7 (1.23%) Oracle Database 12c
8 7 (1.23%) Oracle Exadata
9 5 (0.88%) NoSQL
10 4 (0.71%) Hadoop
11 2 (0.35%) Data Warehouse
11 2 (0.35%) DataStage
11 2 (0.35%) Oracle Reports
11 2 (0.35%) Tableau
11 2 (0.35%) WebFOCUS
Development Applications
1 31 (5.47%) GitLab
2 13 (2.29%) Selenium
3 12 (2.12%) Git
4 10 (1.76%) JIRA
5 9 (1.59%) Jenkins
5 9 (1.59%) REST Assured
6 6 (1.06%) Cucumber
6 6 (1.06%) Gatling
7 5 (0.88%) MSI
7 5 (0.88%) Serenity BDD
8 3 (0.53%) Cypress.io
8 3 (0.53%) JMeter
9 2 (0.35%) JDeveloper
9 2 (0.35%) Mockito
9 2 (0.35%) Postman
9 2 (0.35%) Toad
9 2 (0.35%) WebDriver
10 1 (0.18%) SonarQube
10 1 (0.18%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.18%) Visual Studio Coded UI
General
1 119 (20.99%) Public Sector
2 110 (19.40%) Social Skills
3 47 (8.29%) Military
4 37 (6.53%) Analytical Skills
5 28 (4.94%) Finance
6 25 (4.41%) Documentation Skills
7 22 (3.88%) Legal
8 13 (2.29%) Aerospace
9 11 (1.94%) Manufacturing
10 6 (1.06%) Banking
11 5 (0.88%) Organisational Skills
11 5 (0.88%) Presentation Skills
12 4 (0.71%) Aviation
12 4 (0.71%) Retail
13 3 (0.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 3 (0.53%) Local Government
14 2 (0.35%) General Ledger
14 2 (0.35%) Influencing Skills
14 2 (0.35%) Marketing
15 1 (0.18%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 86 (15.17%) Lead
2 74 (13.05%) Architect
3 47 (8.29%) Network Engineer
4 41 (7.23%) DBA
4 41 (7.23%) Developer
5 35 (6.17%) Administrator
6 34 (6.00%) Senior
7 27 (4.76%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
7 27 (4.76%) Unix Engineer
8 24 (4.23%) Analyst
9 22 (3.88%) SQL DBA
10 21 (3.70%) Consultant
10 21 (3.70%) Lead Architect
11 19 (3.35%) DevOps Engineer
11 19 (3.35%) Oracle DBA
12 17 (3.00%) Technical Architect
13 16 (2.82%) Coordinator
13 16 (2.82%) Data Engineer
13 16 (2.82%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 15 (2.65%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (4.23%) Spring
2 22 (3.88%) Node.js
2 22 (3.88%) Spring Boot
3 17 (3.00%) Kafka
4 14 (2.47%) OAuth
4 14 (2.47%) REST
5 8 (1.41%) Playwright
6 7 (1.23%) Oracle GoldenGate
7 6 (1.06%) OpenID
8 5 (0.88%) 802.1X
8 5 (0.88%) Apache NiFi
8 5 (0.88%) Leaflet
8 5 (0.88%) Nunjucks
8 5 (0.88%) SOAP
8 5 (0.88%) Spring Cloud
9 4 (0.71%) AWS CDK
9 4 (0.71%) ModSecurity
9 4 (0.71%) React
9 4 (0.71%) RESTful
10 3 (0.53%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 33 (5.82%) Data Centre
2 29 (5.11%) Onboarding
3 22 (3.88%) Replication
4 20 (3.53%) Clustering
5 19 (3.35%) Cloud Native
6 16 (2.82%) Operational Technology
7 14 (2.47%) Legacy Systems
7 14 (2.47%) Product Ownership
8 11 (1.94%) Management Information System
9 9 (1.59%) Enterprise Software
9 9 (1.59%) Hybrid Cloud
10 8 (1.41%) Cyber Threat
11 7 (1.23%) Public Cloud
11 7 (1.23%) Security Posture
12 6 (1.06%) Data Protection Act
13 5 (0.88%) CMDB
13 5 (0.88%) CSOC
14 4 (0.71%) Distributed Systems
14 4 (0.71%) Private Cloud
15 3 (0.53%) Driving Licence
Operating Systems
1 49 (8.64%) Windows
2 37 (6.53%) Linux
3 35 (6.17%) Unix
4 33 (5.82%) Solaris
5 19 (3.35%) Windows 10
6 16 (2.82%) Windows Server
7 10 (1.76%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 9 (1.59%) AIX
9 7 (1.23%) Windows 7
10 4 (0.71%) CentOS
10 4 (0.71%) Mac OS
11 3 (0.53%) VMS
12 2 (0.35%) Android
12 2 (0.35%) Apple iOS
13 1 (0.18%) Mac OS X
13 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 76 (13.40%) DevOps
2 65 (11.46%) CI/CD
3 62 (10.93%) Agile
4 58 (10.23%) Continuous Improvement
5 56 (9.88%) ITSM
6 55 (9.70%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 54 (9.52%) Cybersecurity
7 54 (9.52%) Problem-Solving
8 52 (9.17%) Migration
8 52 (9.17%) Stakeholder Management
9 50 (8.82%) High Availability
10 43 (7.58%) Project Delivery
11 42 (7.41%) ITIL
12 39 (6.88%) Service Management
13 34 (6.00%) Disaster Recovery
13 34 (6.00%) Risk Management
13 34 (6.00%) Technical Leadership
14 33 (5.82%) Microservices
15 30 (5.29%) Infrastructure as Code
16 28 (4.94%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 56 (9.88%) Python
2 50 (8.82%) SQL
3 49 (8.64%) Java
4 43 (7.58%) PowerShell
5 26 (4.59%) JavaScript
6 15 (2.65%) TypeScript
7 9 (1.59%) VBScript
8 7 (1.23%) VB
9 5 (0.88%) Bash
9 5 (0.88%) Rust
10 4 (0.71%) C#
10 4 (0.71%) Go
10 4 (0.71%) T-SQL
11 3 (0.53%) Bicep
12 2 (0.35%) ABAP
12 2 (0.35%) COBOL
12 2 (0.35%) PL/SQL
13 1 (0.18%) Perl
13 1 (0.18%) Scala
13 1 (0.18%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 429 (75.66%) SC Cleared
2 53 (9.35%) DV Cleared
3 46 (8.11%) BPSS Clearance
4 38 (6.70%) Cisco Certification
5 37 (6.53%) CCNA
6 28 (4.94%) Microsoft Certification
7 23 (4.06%) CCNP
8 22 (3.88%) Degree
9 15 (2.65%) Network+ Certification
9 15 (2.65%) Server+ Certification
10 12 (2.12%) Azure Certification
11 11 (1.94%) CISSP
12 9 (1.59%) MCSA
12 9 (1.59%) MCSE
12 9 (1.59%) VCAP
12 9 (1.59%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 8 (1.41%) AWS Certification
14 6 (1.06%) DBS Check
15 5 (0.88%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 5 (0.88%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (4.23%) PMO
2 21 (3.70%) NIST
3 15 (2.65%) QA
4 14 (2.47%) SLA
5 13 (2.29%) GRC
6 12 (2.12%) Accessibility
6 12 (2.12%) Data Quality
7 11 (1.94%) NCSC
8 10 (1.76%) GDPR
9 8 (1.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 6 (1.06%) JSP 440
10 6 (1.06%) NIST 800
11 1 (0.18%) Cyber Essentials
11 1 (0.18%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 1 (0.18%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 1 (0.18%) ISO/IEC 27005
11 1 (0.18%) PCI DSS
11 1 (0.18%) RMADS
11 1 (0.18%) Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment)
11 1 (0.18%) WCAG
System Software
1 28 (4.94%) Active Directory
2 23 (4.06%) Docker
3 16 (2.82%) Virtual Machines
3 16 (2.82%) VMware Infrastructure
4 15 (2.65%) Oracle RAC
5 12 (2.12%) VMware ESXi
6 11 (1.94%) vSphere
7 9 (1.59%) BitLocker
8 3 (0.53%) 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 51 (8.99%) Terraform
2 32 (5.64%) Ansible
3 31 (5.47%) Kubernetes
4 16 (2.82%) SCCM
5 15 (2.65%) Data Guard
6 14 (2.47%) Oracle RMAN
7 12 (2.12%) Grafana
8 11 (1.94%) vCenter Server
9 8 (1.41%) Prometheus
10 5 (0.88%) Single Sign-On
11 4 (0.71%) Microsoft Intune
11 4 (0.71%) Nagios
11 4 (0.71%) Oracle ZFS
11 4 (0.71%) SCOM
12 3 (0.53%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 3 (0.53%) McAfee ePO
13 2 (0.35%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
13 2 (0.35%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
13 2 (0.35%) WSUS
14 1 (0.18%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 84 (14.81%) Microsoft
2 60 (10.58%) Oracle
3 56 (9.88%) Cisco
4 51 (8.99%) ServiceNow
5 29 (5.11%) SAP
6 26 (4.59%) Palo Alto
7 17 (3.00%) VMware
8 14 (2.47%) Aruba
9 12 (2.12%) CheckPoint
9 12 (2.12%) F5
10 9 (1.59%) Google
10 9 (1.59%) Splunk
11 8 (1.41%) Citrix
12 6 (1.06%) Arista
12 6 (1.06%) SolarWinds
13 5 (0.88%) Ekahau
14 4 (0.71%) Databricks
14 4 (0.71%) Dynatrace
14 4 (0.71%) Meraki
14 4 (0.71%) RedGate