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 17 April 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 3 2 2
Rank change year-on-year -1 0 -1
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 526 420 433
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 16.56% 21.78% 15.75%
As % of the Qualifications category 56.99% 59.66% 53.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 346 248 279
10th Percentile £354 £244 £350
25th Percentile £418 £413 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -0.94%
75th Percentile £620 £588 £671
90th Percentile £750 £650 £725
England median daily rate £525 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -2.33% -2.27% -1.79%
Number of hourly rates quoted 54 18 59
10th Percentile £23.42 £25.26 -
25th Percentile £36.74 £32.51 £10.95
Median hourly rate £62.35 £59.29 £14.50
Median % change year-on-year +5.17% +308.90% -57.04%
75th Percentile £74.26 £75.63 £46.18
90th Percentile £75.33 £85.85 £73.75
England median hourly rate £55.00 £56.75 £52.50
% change year-on-year -3.08% +8.10% -12.50%

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 923 704 816
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 29.06% 36.51% 29.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 612 408 466
10th Percentile £313 £224 £244
25th Percentile £394 £387 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £476 £479 £513
Median % change year-on-year -0.63% -6.54% +0.49%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £656
90th Percentile £680 £650 £725
England median daily rate £520 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -0.95% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 87 43 121
10th Percentile £24.16 £17.95 £10.95
25th Percentile £35.28 £25.26 £11.77
Median hourly rate £45.46 £32.50 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year +39.88% +102.37% -57.17%
75th Percentile £72.00 £60.00 £38.43
90th Percentile £79.85 £82.85 £51.91
England median hourly rate £45.46 £50.00 £39.44
% change year-on-year -9.08% +26.79% -23.80%

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 17 April 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 17 April 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 17 April 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 -7 164 £494 -1.23% 100
Lancashire +2 131 £623 +43.02% 35
Cumbria 0 114 £484 -10.30% 19
Cheshire -4 81 £450 +28.57% 17
Merseyside -11 29 £625 +13.64% 7
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 31 (5.89%) Microsoft Exchange
2 11 (2.09%) SharePoint
3 9 (1.71%) Confluence
3 9 (1.71%) Skype for Business
4 6 (1.14%) Apache Spark
5 5 (0.95%) Apache
6 4 (0.76%) Jupyter
7 3 (0.57%) MTS
8 2 (0.38%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 2 (0.38%) Apache Airflow
8 2 (0.38%) CICS
9 1 (0.19%) CMS
9 1 (0.19%) nginx
9 1 (0.19%) OpenStack
9 1 (0.19%) SAS
Applications
1 19 (3.61%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (1.90%) Microsoft Excel
3 6 (1.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.57%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.38%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.38%) Siemens NX
6 1 (0.19%) Adobe Premiere
6 1 (0.19%) Quicktime
Business Applications
1 9 (1.71%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (0.95%) SAP VC
3 3 (0.57%) Remedy ITSM
3 3 (0.57%) SAP QM
4 2 (0.38%) Oracle Payables
4 2 (0.38%) Primavera
4 2 (0.38%) SAP MM
4 2 (0.38%) Teamcenter
5 1 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 75 (14.26%) AWS
2 51 (9.70%) Azure
3 29 (5.51%) Microsoft 365
4 18 (3.42%) GCP
5 14 (2.66%) Entra ID
6 13 (2.47%) Power Platform
7 12 (2.28%) Serverless
8 11 (2.09%) GitHub
9 9 (1.71%) Azure DevOps
10 8 (1.52%) Amazon EKS
10 8 (1.52%) SaaS
11 7 (1.33%) Amazon S3
12 5 (0.95%) Azure Monitor
12 5 (0.95%) Google Workspace
13 4 (0.76%) Amazon EC2
13 4 (0.76%) AWS CloudFormation
13 4 (0.76%) AWS Lambda
13 4 (0.76%) GitHub Actions
13 4 (0.76%) OpenShift
14 3 (0.57%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 62 (11.79%) Firewall
2 42 (7.98%) VLAN
3 26 (4.94%) DNS
3 26 (4.94%) WAN
4 24 (4.56%) Network Security
5 23 (4.37%) Wi-Fi
6 18 (3.42%) LAN
7 16 (3.04%) DHCP
8 13 (2.47%) BGP
8 13 (2.47%) Wireless
9 12 (2.28%) VPN
10 10 (1.90%) SAN
10 10 (1.90%) WebEx
11 9 (1.71%) Skype
11 9 (1.71%) TCP/IP
12 8 (1.52%) Software-Defined Networking
13 7 (1.33%) Cisco IOS
13 7 (1.33%) Cisco ISE
13 7 (1.33%) Structured Cabling
14 6 (1.14%) NetScaler
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (3.80%) PostgreSQL
2 13 (2.47%) Power BI
3 11 (2.09%) MySQL
3 11 (2.09%) SQL Server
4 10 (1.90%) MongoDB
4 10 (1.90%) NoSQL
5 9 (1.71%) Elasticsearch
5 9 (1.71%) Oracle Database
5 9 (1.71%) Relational Database
6 7 (1.33%) Metadata
7 6 (1.14%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 5 (0.95%) Oracle Database 12c
9 4 (0.76%) Data Warehouse
9 4 (0.76%) Hadoop
9 4 (0.76%) Tableau
10 3 (0.57%) Amazon Redshift
10 3 (0.57%) Data Lake
10 3 (0.57%) RDBMS
11 2 (0.38%) BigQuery
11 2 (0.38%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 24 (4.56%) GitLab
2 18 (3.42%) Git
3 16 (3.04%) JIRA
4 7 (1.33%) Jenkins
5 4 (0.76%) MSI
5 4 (0.76%) Postman
5 4 (0.76%) Selenium
6 3 (0.57%) REST Assured
7 2 (0.38%) Cucumber
7 2 (0.38%) Cypress.io
7 2 (0.38%) Gatling
7 2 (0.38%) Jasmine
7 2 (0.38%) JMeter
7 2 (0.38%) Mockito
7 2 (0.38%) Serenity BDD
7 2 (0.38%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.19%) CircleCI
8 1 (0.19%) Mocha
8 1 (0.19%) Rational DOORS
8 1 (0.19%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 153 (29.09%) Public Sector
2 117 (22.24%) Social Skills
3 36 (6.84%) Analytical Skills
4 33 (6.27%) Finance
5 23 (4.37%) Documentation Skills
6 22 (4.18%) Military
7 19 (3.61%) Legal
8 12 (2.28%) Aerospace
8 12 (2.28%) Banking
9 9 (1.71%) Manufacturing
10 7 (1.33%) Presentation Skills
11 4 (0.76%) Aviation
11 4 (0.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 4 (0.76%) Influencing Skills
12 3 (0.57%) Electronics
12 3 (0.57%) Marketing
12 3 (0.57%) Organisational Skills
12 3 (0.57%) Telecoms
13 2 (0.38%) Law
13 2 (0.38%) Retail
Job Titles
1 68 (12.93%) Architect
2 56 (10.65%) Developer
3 50 (9.51%) Lead
4 37 (7.03%) Network Engineer
5 32 (6.08%) Senior
6 29 (5.51%) Administrator
6 29 (5.51%) Analyst
7 23 (4.37%) Platform Engineer
8 21 (3.99%) Consultant
9 19 (3.61%) DBA
10 18 (3.42%) Technical Architect
11 17 (3.23%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
12 16 (3.04%) Coordinator
12 16 (3.04%) Lead Architect
13 15 (2.85%) Data Engineer
14 14 (2.66%) Unix Engineer
15 13 (2.47%) DevOps Engineer
15 13 (2.47%) Engagement Manager
15 13 (2.47%) Java Developer
15 13 (2.47%) Security Assurance Coordinator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (5.32%) Spring
2 24 (4.56%) Spring Boot
3 13 (2.47%) 802.1X
3 13 (2.47%) Kafka
3 13 (2.47%) Node.js
3 13 (2.47%) RESTful
4 9 (1.71%) XMPP
5 8 (1.52%) OAuth
6 7 (1.33%) HTML
6 7 (1.33%) JSON
6 7 (1.33%) Playwright
6 7 (1.33%) REST
7 6 (1.14%) Apache NiFi
7 6 (1.14%) CSS
7 6 (1.14%) Hibernate
7 6 (1.14%) React
7 6 (1.14%) XML
8 5 (0.95%) Leaflet
8 5 (0.95%) Middleware
8 5 (0.95%) Spring MVC
Miscellaneous
1 38 (7.22%) Product Ownership
2 36 (6.84%) Data Centre
3 17 (3.23%) Onboarding
4 16 (3.04%) Replication
5 14 (2.66%) Clustering
6 10 (1.90%) Cyber Threat
6 10 (1.90%) Operational Technology
7 8 (1.52%) Cloud Native
8 7 (1.33%) Enterprise Software
9 6 (1.14%) Management Information System
9 6 (1.14%) Private Cloud
10 5 (0.95%) Distributed Systems
10 5 (0.95%) Driving Licence
10 5 (0.95%) Fat Client
10 5 (0.95%) Legacy Systems
10 5 (0.95%) Mobile App
10 5 (0.95%) Security Posture
10 5 (0.95%) Thin Client
11 4 (0.76%) Data Protection Act
12 3 (0.57%) Freedom of Information
Operating Systems
1 57 (10.84%) Windows
2 35 (6.65%) Linux
3 23 (4.37%) Windows Server
4 22 (4.18%) Windows 10
5 20 (3.80%) Unix
6 15 (2.85%) Solaris
7 14 (2.66%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 9 (1.71%) Windows 7
9 4 (0.76%) Android
10 3 (0.57%) AIX
10 3 (0.57%) Apple iOS
11 2 (0.38%) Mac OS
11 2 (0.38%) Mac OS X
11 2 (0.38%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 76 (14.45%) Agile
2 66 (12.55%) Problem-Solving
3 55 (10.46%) ITSM
4 52 (9.89%) CI/CD
4 52 (9.89%) Continuous Improvement
4 52 (9.89%) DevOps
4 52 (9.89%) Migration
5 51 (9.70%) Service Management
6 50 (9.51%) Project Delivery
6 50 (9.51%) Stakeholder Management
7 49 (9.32%) Cybersecurity
8 47 (8.94%) High Availability
9 40 (7.60%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 35 (6.65%) Disaster Recovery
11 33 (6.27%) Platform Engineering
12 31 (5.89%) Risk Management
13 30 (5.70%) Containerisation
13 30 (5.70%) Microservices
13 30 (5.70%) Test Automation
14 28 (5.32%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 57 (10.84%) Python
2 50 (9.51%) PowerShell
3 48 (9.13%) Java
4 25 (4.75%) SQL
5 19 (3.61%) JavaScript
6 14 (2.66%) Bash
7 12 (2.28%) TypeScript
8 10 (1.90%) Perl
9 9 (1.71%) VB
9 9 (1.71%) VBScript
10 5 (0.95%) Go
10 5 (0.95%) Rust
11 4 (0.76%) Ruby
12 3 (0.57%) C#
13 2 (0.38%) AWK
13 2 (0.38%) COBOL
13 2 (0.38%) Kotlin
13 2 (0.38%) Kusto Query Language
14 1 (0.19%) Bicep
14 1 (0.19%) Scala
Qualifications
1 343 (65.21%) SC Cleared
2 76 (14.45%) DV Cleared
3 53 (10.08%) BPSS Clearance
4 38 (7.22%) Cisco Certification
5 35 (6.65%) CCNP
5 35 (6.65%) Degree
6 32 (6.08%) CCNA
7 14 (2.66%) CISSP
7 14 (2.66%) Microsoft Certification
8 11 (2.09%) Computer Science Degree
9 8 (1.52%) AWS Certification
9 8 (1.52%) Azure Certification
9 8 (1.52%) CCDP
9 8 (1.52%) CISM
9 8 (1.52%) ITIL Certification
9 8 (1.52%) MCSA
9 8 (1.52%) MCSE
9 8 (1.52%) VCAP
9 8 (1.52%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 6 (1.14%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (4.75%) NIST
2 16 (3.04%) QA
3 15 (2.85%) Accessibility
4 14 (2.66%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 12 (2.28%) JSP 440
5 12 (2.28%) SLA
6 7 (1.33%) Data Quality
7 6 (1.14%) GDPR
7 6 (1.14%) NCSC
8 4 (0.76%) GRC
8 4 (0.76%) PMO
8 4 (0.76%) WCAG
9 3 (0.57%) IFRS
10 2 (0.38%) IFRS 17
10 2 (0.38%) NIST 800
10 2 (0.38%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.38%) PSD2
11 1 (0.19%) Basel III
11 1 (0.19%) CRD IV
11 1 (0.19%) SOC 2
System Software
1 33 (6.27%) Active Directory
2 29 (5.51%) Docker
3 15 (2.85%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (1.90%) Virtual Machines
4 10 (1.90%) VMware ESXi
4 10 (1.90%) vSphere
5 9 (1.71%) BitLocker
6 4 (0.76%) Firmware
7 2 (0.38%) ISA Server
8 1 (0.19%) GPFS
8 1 (0.19%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.19%) NFS
8 1 (0.19%) Oracle RAC
8 1 (0.19%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 35 (6.65%) Kubernetes
2 29 (5.51%) Terraform
3 16 (3.04%) SCCM
4 14 (2.66%) Ansible
5 9 (1.71%) vCenter Server
6 8 (1.52%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 8 (1.52%) Grafana
7 6 (1.14%) Oracle RMAN
7 6 (1.14%) Prometheus
8 5 (0.95%) Microsoft Intune
9 4 (0.76%) Single Sign-On
10 3 (0.57%) FortiGate
10 3 (0.57%) Norton AntiVirus
11 1 (0.19%) Cisco CUCM
11 1 (0.19%) Cisco Prime
11 1 (0.19%) Data Guard
11 1 (0.19%) Failover Clustering
11 1 (0.19%) Nagios
11 1 (0.19%) vRealize
11 1 (0.19%) VxRail
Vendors
1 73 (13.88%) Microsoft
2 64 (12.17%) Cisco
3 37 (7.03%) Oracle
4 33 (6.27%) SAP
5 32 (6.08%) Palo Alto
5 32 (6.08%) ServiceNow
6 20 (3.80%) VMware
7 14 (2.66%) Citrix
8 11 (2.09%) Red Hat
9 10 (1.90%) Meraki
10 8 (1.52%) Aruba
11 6 (1.14%) CheckPoint
11 6 (1.14%) Ekahau
11 6 (1.14%) Google
11 6 (1.14%) IBM
11 6 (1.14%) Splunk
12 5 (0.95%) Dell
12 5 (0.95%) SolarWinds
13 4 (0.76%) RedGate
13 4 (0.76%) Veritas