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

6 months to
11 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 615 381 425
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 16.30% 17.32% 17.80%
As % of the Qualifications category 57.16% 51.00% 62.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 403 197 243
10th Percentile £358 £350 £313
25th Percentile £425 £425 £428
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £503
Median % change year-on-year - +4.48% -4.29%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £631
90th Percentile £750 £706 £773
England median daily rate £538 £538 £550
% change year-on-year - -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 45 39 57
10th Percentile £22.68 £20.00 -
25th Percentile £28.50 £22.39 £10.95
Median hourly rate £64.00 £29.27 £18.07
Median % change year-on-year +118.65% +62.03% -60.63%
75th Percentile £74.26 £58.42 £46.18
90th Percentile £83.75 £70.42 £58.47
England median hourly rate £65.00 £25.15 £58.49
% change year-on-year +158.45% -57.00% -2.52%

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 1,076 747 680
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 28.52% 33.95% 28.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 681 421 385
10th Percentile £318 £313 £260
25th Percentile £414 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £500 £504
Median % change year-on-year +1.00% -0.79% -1.42%
75th Percentile £623 £619 £600
90th Percentile £695 £716 £713
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 107 68 98
10th Percentile £17.25 £17.33 £10.95
25th Percentile £27.38 £21.02 £12.00
Median hourly rate £43.96 £29.27 £16.52
Median % change year-on-year +50.19% +77.18% -61.13%
75th Percentile £66.66 £58.91 £50.13
90th Percentile £83.75 £74.36 £64.68
England median hourly rate £55.00 £25.15 £47.50
% change year-on-year +118.69% -47.05% -13.64%

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 11 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 11 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 11 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 -3 236 £573 +6.76% 180
Cumbria 0 170 £492 -1.60% 15
Cheshire +21 98 £505 +24.31% 83
Lancashire 0 92 £675 +50.00% 58
Merseyside -23 13 £625 -1.19% 3
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 (4.55%) Microsoft Exchange
2 19 (3.09%) SharePoint
3 13 (2.11%) Skype for Business
4 4 (0.65%) Apache Spark
4 4 (0.65%) Confluence
4 4 (0.65%) SAS
5 3 (0.49%) Jupyter
6 2 (0.33%) Apache
6 2 (0.33%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.33%) Oracle Workflow
6 2 (0.33%) SharePoint 2013
7 1 (0.16%) IIS
7 1 (0.16%) NetWeaver
Applications
1 22 (3.58%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (1.30%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.65%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.49%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.33%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.16%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.16%) Navisworks
6 1 (0.16%) ProjectWise
6 1 (0.16%) Revit
6 1 (0.16%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 7 (1.14%) Oracle Payables
1 7 (1.14%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (0.81%) 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 HR
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 PM
Cloud Services
1 101 (16.42%) AWS
2 90 (14.63%) Azure
3 33 (5.37%) Microsoft 365
4 25 (4.07%) Power Platform
5 22 (3.58%) SuccessFactors
6 20 (3.25%) Azure DevOps
6 20 (3.25%) OCI
7 16 (2.60%) SaaS
7 16 (2.60%) Serverless
8 14 (2.28%) Entra ID
8 14 (2.28%) GCP
9 10 (1.63%) GitHub
9 10 (1.63%) Google Workspace
10 8 (1.30%) Azure Monitor
11 7 (1.14%) Google Drive
12 5 (0.81%) Azure Data Factory
12 5 (0.81%) Dynamics 365
12 5 (0.81%) Microsoft Copilot
12 5 (0.81%) OpenShift
12 5 (0.81%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 60 (9.76%) Firewall
2 38 (6.18%) Wireless
3 31 (5.04%) WAN
4 30 (4.88%) DNS
5 29 (4.72%) VLAN
5 29 (4.72%) VPN
6 26 (4.23%) Wi-Fi
7 23 (3.74%) DHCP
7 23 (3.74%) LAN
8 22 (3.58%) Structured Cabling
9 21 (3.41%) Network Security
10 20 (3.25%) BGP
10 20 (3.25%) OSPF
11 18 (2.93%) SAN
12 17 (2.76%) NAS
13 16 (2.60%) Cisco IOS
13 16 (2.60%) NX-OS
14 15 (2.44%) Skype
15 12 (1.95%) Cisco ASA
15 12 (1.95%) EIGRP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (5.37%) SQL Server
2 23 (3.74%) Oracle Database
3 20 (3.25%) PostgreSQL
4 17 (2.76%) MySQL
5 16 (2.60%) Relational Database
6 15 (2.44%) Power BI
7 14 (2.28%) MongoDB
8 11 (1.79%) RDBMS
9 9 (1.46%) Oracle Exadata
10 7 (1.14%) NoSQL
10 7 (1.14%) Oracle Database 12c
10 7 (1.14%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 5 (0.81%) Elasticsearch
11 5 (0.81%) Metadata
12 4 (0.65%) 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 26 (4.23%) GitLab
2 12 (1.95%) Git
3 10 (1.63%) Selenium
4 9 (1.46%) JIRA
5 7 (1.14%) Cucumber
5 7 (1.14%) REST Assured
6 6 (0.98%) Jenkins
7 5 (0.81%) MSI
8 4 (0.65%) Gatling
9 3 (0.49%) Cypress.io
9 3 (0.49%) Mockito
9 3 (0.49%) Serenity BDD
9 3 (0.49%) Toad
10 2 (0.33%) JDeveloper
10 2 (0.33%) Sonatype Nexus
10 2 (0.33%) WebDriver
11 1 (0.16%) Postman
11 1 (0.16%) Rational Robot
11 1 (0.16%) SonarQube
11 1 (0.16%) Visual Studio Coded UI
General
1 117 (19.02%) Public Sector
2 112 (18.21%) Social Skills
3 50 (8.13%) Military
4 33 (5.37%) Analytical Skills
5 23 (3.74%) Documentation Skills
6 22 (3.58%) Finance
7 21 (3.41%) Legal
8 15 (2.44%) Manufacturing
9 13 (2.11%) Aerospace
10 9 (1.46%) Presentation Skills
11 8 (1.30%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 5 (0.81%) Banking
13 4 (0.65%) Aviation
13 4 (0.65%) Organisational Skills
13 4 (0.65%) Retail
14 3 (0.49%) Local Government
15 2 (0.33%) General Ledger
15 2 (0.33%) Marketing
15 2 (0.33%) Telecoms
16 1 (0.16%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 90 (14.63%) Lead
2 88 (14.31%) Architect
3 54 (8.78%) Network Engineer
4 53 (8.62%) Senior
5 41 (6.67%) DBA
6 39 (6.34%) Consultant
7 38 (6.18%) Developer
8 34 (5.53%) Administrator
8 34 (5.53%) Unix Engineer
9 29 (4.72%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
10 25 (4.07%) Lead Architect
11 24 (3.90%) Analyst
12 22 (3.58%) SQL DBA
13 21 (3.41%) Oracle DBA
14 19 (3.09%) Desktop Engineer
14 19 (3.09%) DevOps Engineer
14 19 (3.09%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 18 (2.93%) Technical Architect
16 16 (2.60%) Data Engineer
16 16 (2.60%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (3.58%) Node.js
2 19 (3.09%) Spring
3 17 (2.76%) Spring Boot
4 15 (2.44%) REST
5 14 (2.28%) Kafka
5 14 (2.28%) OAuth
6 9 (1.46%) Oracle GoldenGate
7 6 (0.98%) OpenID
7 6 (0.98%) Playwright
8 5 (0.81%) 802.1X
8 5 (0.81%) Leaflet
8 5 (0.81%) Nunjucks
8 5 (0.81%) SOAP
9 4 (0.65%) Apache NiFi
9 4 (0.65%) AWS CDK
9 4 (0.65%) ModSecurity
9 4 (0.65%) RESTful
10 3 (0.49%) ActiveMQ
10 3 (0.49%) Web Services
10 3 (0.49%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 31 (5.04%) Onboarding
2 29 (4.72%) Data Centre
3 22 (3.58%) Replication
4 19 (3.09%) Clustering
5 18 (2.93%) Cloud Native
6 15 (2.44%) Operational Technology
7 13 (2.11%) Product Ownership
8 12 (1.95%) Legacy Systems
9 10 (1.63%) Enterprise Software
9 10 (1.63%) Hybrid Cloud
9 10 (1.63%) Management Information System
10 8 (1.30%) Cyber Threat
10 8 (1.30%) Data Protection Act
10 8 (1.30%) Public Cloud
11 5 (0.81%) CMDB
11 5 (0.81%) CSOC
11 5 (0.81%) Distributed Systems
11 5 (0.81%) Security Posture
12 4 (0.65%) Freedom of Information
12 4 (0.65%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 59 (9.59%) Windows
2 41 (6.67%) Unix
3 36 (5.85%) Linux
3 36 (5.85%) Solaris
4 28 (4.55%) Windows 10
5 18 (2.93%) Windows Server
6 16 (2.60%) Windows 7
7 9 (1.46%) AIX
7 9 (1.46%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 5 (0.81%) Mac OS
9 4 (0.65%) Android
9 4 (0.65%) CentOS
10 3 (0.49%) VMS
10 3 (0.49%) Windows Server 2003
11 2 (0.33%) Apple iOS
12 1 (0.16%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.16%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.16%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 74 (12.03%) DevOps
2 67 (10.89%) Stakeholder Management
3 64 (10.41%) CI/CD
4 63 (10.24%) ITSM
5 60 (9.76%) Agile
6 59 (9.59%) Migration
7 58 (9.43%) Continuous Improvement
8 55 (8.94%) Cybersecurity
9 53 (8.62%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 49 (7.97%) Project Delivery
11 47 (7.64%) High Availability
12 46 (7.48%) ITIL
12 46 (7.48%) Problem-Solving
12 46 (7.48%) Service Management
13 39 (6.34%) Technical Leadership
14 33 (5.37%) Roadmaps
15 32 (5.20%) Disaster Recovery
15 32 (5.20%) Mentoring
16 30 (4.88%) Infrastructure as Code
17 29 (4.72%) Microservices
Programming Languages
1 56 (9.11%) Python
2 51 (8.29%) SQL
3 48 (7.80%) PowerShell
4 40 (6.50%) Java
5 23 (3.74%) JavaScript
6 15 (2.44%) VBScript
7 13 (2.11%) VB
8 10 (1.63%) TypeScript
9 7 (1.14%) T-SQL
10 5 (0.81%) Bash
11 4 (0.65%) C#
12 3 (0.49%) Bicep
13 2 (0.33%) ABAP
13 2 (0.33%) Go
13 2 (0.33%) PL/SQL
13 2 (0.33%) Rust
14 1 (0.16%) Google Apps Script
14 1 (0.16%) Kotlin
14 1 (0.16%) Scala
14 1 (0.16%) VB6
Qualifications
1 478 (77.72%) SC Cleared
2 58 (9.43%) BPSS Clearance
3 46 (7.48%) DV Cleared
4 38 (6.18%) Cisco Certification
5 36 (5.85%) CCNA
6 29 (4.72%) Microsoft Certification
7 23 (3.74%) CCNP
8 20 (3.25%) Degree
9 15 (2.44%) Network+ Certification
9 15 (2.44%) Server+ Certification
10 13 (2.11%) Azure Certification
11 12 (1.95%) CISSP
12 10 (1.63%) DBS Check
13 8 (1.30%) MCSA
13 8 (1.30%) MCSE
13 8 (1.30%) VCAP
13 8 (1.30%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 7 (1.14%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 5 (0.81%) AWS Certification
16 4 (0.65%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (3.90%) PMO
2 20 (3.25%) NIST
3 19 (3.09%) SLA
4 14 (2.28%) Data Quality
5 13 (2.11%) GRC
5 13 (2.11%) NCSC
5 13 (2.11%) QA
6 11 (1.79%) GDPR
7 9 (1.46%) Accessibility
8 8 (1.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 6 (0.98%) JSP 440
9 6 (0.98%) NIST 800
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)
10 1 (0.16%) WCAG
System Software
1 33 (5.37%) Active Directory
2 19 (3.09%) Docker
3 17 (2.76%) Oracle RAC
3 17 (2.76%) Virtual Machines
4 16 (2.60%) VMware Infrastructure
5 15 (2.44%) BitLocker
6 11 (1.79%) VMware ESXi
7 10 (1.63%) vSphere
8 4 (0.65%) Virtual Desktop
9 2 (0.33%) Hyper-V
10 1 (0.16%) GPFS
10 1 (0.16%) NFS
10 1 (0.16%) Squid
10 1 (0.16%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 51 (8.29%) Terraform
2 34 (5.53%) Ansible
3 29 (4.72%) Kubernetes
4 25 (4.07%) SCCM
5 17 (2.76%) Data Guard
6 16 (2.60%) Oracle RMAN
7 10 (1.63%) vCenter Server
8 7 (1.14%) Grafana
8 7 (1.14%) Single Sign-On
9 6 (0.98%) Microsoft Intune
9 6 (0.98%) Prometheus
9 6 (0.98%) SCOM
10 4 (0.65%) Nagios
10 4 (0.65%) Oracle ZFS
11 3 (0.49%) Failover Clustering
11 3 (0.49%) McAfee ePO
12 2 (0.33%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
12 2 (0.33%) Microsoft Clustering
12 2 (0.33%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
12 2 (0.33%) WSUS
Vendors
1 103 (16.75%) Microsoft
2 66 (10.73%) Oracle
3 61 (9.92%) ServiceNow
4 60 (9.76%) Cisco
5 47 (7.64%) SAP
6 31 (5.04%) Palo Alto
7 18 (2.93%) VMware
8 17 (2.76%) CheckPoint
9 14 (2.28%) Aruba
10 13 (2.11%) F5
11 10 (1.63%) Google
12 7 (1.14%) Citrix
12 7 (1.14%) Splunk
13 6 (0.98%) Arista
13 6 (0.98%) Databricks
14 5 (0.81%) Ekahau
14 5 (0.81%) Qualtrics
14 5 (0.81%) Remedy
15 4 (0.65%) Dynatrace
15 4 (0.65%) Meraki