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

6 months to
11 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 2 2 2
Rank change year-on-year 0 0 +2
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 536 431 434
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 19.84% 20.61% 15.41%
As % of the Qualifications category 61.12% 62.01% 51.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 370 247 308
10th Percentile £325 £257 £400
25th Percentile £418 £397 £468
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £478 £550
Median % change year-on-year +4.60% -13.09% +4.76%
75th Percentile £630 £575 £649
90th Percentile £701 £673 £725
England median daily rate £525 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -4.55% - -2.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 54 21 45
10th Percentile £16.51 £25.26 £14.50
25th Percentile £25.15 £37.00 £33.48
Median hourly rate £52.78 £50.00 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +5.55% +8.27% +59.24%
75th Percentile £69.25 £73.56 £51.50
90th Percentile £74.26 £85.78 £73.75
England median hourly rate £25.15 £60.00 £58.00
% change year-on-year -58.08% +3.45% -3.33%

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 877 695 844
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 32.47% 33.24% 29.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 598 393 512
10th Percentile £216 £226 £270
25th Percentile £380 £363 £444
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £474 £475 £540
Median % change year-on-year -0.21% -12.04% +8.00%
75th Percentile £581 £564 £650
90th Percentile £685 £655 £720
England median daily rate £520 £525 £545
% change year-on-year -0.95% -3.67% -0.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 84 41 98
10th Percentile £18.91 £24.00 £13.74
25th Percentile £29.63 £26.25 £16.25
Median hourly rate £45.46 £32.50 £35.95
Median % change year-on-year +39.88% -9.60% +23.33%
75th Percentile £67.40 £55.25 £46.18
90th Percentile £74.26 £74.75 £64.50
England median hourly rate £25.15 £47.37 £45.88
% change year-on-year -46.91% +3.25% +1.96%

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 February 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 February 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 February 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 -7 159 £480 +3.78% 90
Cheshire +4 118 £600 +50.06% 9
Cumbria 0 112 £500 -5.12% 9
Lancashire +1 108 £550 +69.23% 28
Merseyside -3 30 £623 +71.13% 4
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 (3.92%) Microsoft Exchange
2 10 (1.87%) Confluence
2 10 (1.87%) SharePoint
3 9 (1.68%) Skype for Business
4 4 (0.75%) Apache
4 4 (0.75%) Apache Airflow
5 3 (0.56%) Apache Spark
5 3 (0.56%) MTS
6 2 (0.37%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 2 (0.37%) CICS
6 2 (0.37%) Jupyter
6 2 (0.37%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.19%) CMS
7 1 (0.19%) nginx
7 1 (0.19%) SAS
Applications
1 27 (5.04%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (0.93%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (0.75%) Microsoft Excel
4 2 (0.37%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.37%) Siemens NX
5 1 (0.19%) Adobe Premiere
5 1 (0.19%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.19%) Quicktime
Business Applications
1 60 (11.19%) SAP S/4HANA
2 10 (1.87%) SAP EHS
2 10 (1.87%) SAP MM
2 10 (1.87%) SAP VC
3 9 (1.68%) SAP QM
4 2 (0.37%) Remedy ITSM
4 2 (0.37%) SAP EWM
4 2 (0.37%) Teamcenter
5 1 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
5 1 (0.19%) Primavera
5 1 (0.19%) SAP HCM
5 1 (0.19%) SAP SD
5 1 (0.19%) SAP Travel Management
5 1 (0.19%) SAP WM
Cloud Services
1 67 (12.50%) AWS
2 47 (8.77%) Azure
3 32 (5.97%) Microsoft 365
4 18 (3.36%) Power Platform
5 17 (3.17%) GCP
6 13 (2.43%) Entra ID
6 13 (2.43%) GitHub
7 11 (2.05%) SaaS
8 10 (1.87%) Azure DevOps
9 8 (1.49%) Serverless
10 7 (1.31%) Amazon EKS
11 6 (1.12%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 6 (1.12%) Amazon S3
11 6 (1.12%) AWS CloudFormation
11 6 (1.12%) Azure Monitor
11 6 (1.12%) GitHub Actions
12 5 (0.93%) Amazon EC2
12 5 (0.93%) OneDrive
13 4 (0.75%) AWS Lambda
13 4 (0.75%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 64 (11.94%) Firewall
2 32 (5.97%) VLAN
3 27 (5.04%) WAN
3 27 (5.04%) Wi-Fi
4 25 (4.66%) Network Security
5 22 (4.10%) DNS
6 17 (3.17%) VPN
7 15 (2.80%) LAN
8 14 (2.61%) SAN
9 13 (2.43%) BGP
10 11 (2.05%) Cisco ISE
10 11 (2.05%) NetScaler
10 11 (2.05%) TCP/IP
11 10 (1.87%) DHCP
12 9 (1.68%) Skype
13 8 (1.49%) Software-Defined Networking
13 8 (1.49%) Unified Communications
14 7 (1.31%) Internet
14 7 (1.31%) WebEx
14 7 (1.31%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (2.43%) Power BI
2 12 (2.24%) PostgreSQL
3 10 (1.87%) SAP HANA
4 9 (1.68%) MongoDB
4 9 (1.68%) Relational Database
4 9 (1.68%) SQL Server
5 8 (1.49%) NoSQL
6 7 (1.31%) Data Warehouse
6 7 (1.31%) MySQL
7 6 (1.12%) Metadata
7 6 (1.12%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 5 (0.93%) Redis
9 4 (0.75%) DynamoDB
9 4 (0.75%) Elasticsearch
10 3 (0.56%) Big Data
10 3 (0.56%) BigQuery
11 2 (0.37%) Amazon Redshift
11 2 (0.37%) Apache Cassandra
11 2 (0.37%) Data Lake
11 2 (0.37%) Looker
Development Applications
1 30 (5.60%) GitLab
2 23 (4.29%) Git
3 15 (2.80%) JIRA
4 11 (2.05%) Jenkins
5 4 (0.75%) Rational DOORS
5 4 (0.75%) SonarQube
6 3 (0.56%) Cypress.io
6 3 (0.56%) Mockito
6 3 (0.56%) Postman
6 3 (0.56%) Selenium
7 2 (0.37%) Artifactory
7 2 (0.37%) Gatling
7 2 (0.37%) Grunt
7 2 (0.37%) gulp
7 2 (0.37%) Jasmine
7 2 (0.37%) JMeter
7 2 (0.37%) MSI
7 2 (0.37%) REST Assured
7 2 (0.37%) Serenity BDD
8 1 (0.19%) CircleCI
General
1 167 (31.16%) Public Sector
2 120 (22.39%) Social Skills
3 38 (7.09%) Analytical Skills
3 38 (7.09%) Finance
4 18 (3.36%) Documentation Skills
4 18 (3.36%) Military
5 13 (2.43%) Manufacturing
6 11 (2.05%) Legal
7 10 (1.87%) Telecoms
8 9 (1.68%) Electronics
9 8 (1.49%) Marketing
10 7 (1.31%) Banking
11 6 (1.12%) Aerospace
11 6 (1.12%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 6 (1.12%) Organisational Skills
12 5 (0.93%) Influencing Skills
13 3 (0.56%) Presentation Skills
14 2 (0.37%) Corporate Banking
14 2 (0.37%) Law
15 1 (0.19%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 74 (13.81%) Consultant
2 66 (12.31%) Architect
3 51 (9.51%) Developer
4 40 (7.46%) Network Engineer
5 39 (7.28%) SAP Consultant
5 39 (7.28%) Senior
6 33 (6.16%) Analyst
7 23 (4.29%) Management Consultant
8 22 (4.10%) Technical Architect
9 21 (3.92%) Administrator
10 20 (3.73%) Lead
11 19 (3.54%) Platform Engineer
12 18 (3.36%) DevOps Engineer
12 18 (3.36%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
13 14 (2.61%) IT Support
13 14 (2.61%) Support Engineer
14 12 (2.24%) Business Analyst
14 12 (2.24%) Java Developer
14 12 (2.24%) Software Engineer
15 11 (2.05%) Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (3.92%) SAP Fiori
2 18 (3.36%) Spring
3 16 (2.99%) Spring Boot
4 15 (2.80%) JSON
5 13 (2.43%) RESTful
6 12 (2.24%) 802.1X
6 12 (2.24%) Web Services
6 12 (2.24%) XML
7 11 (2.05%) HTML
7 11 (2.05%) Kafka
7 11 (2.05%) Node.js
8 10 (1.87%) BAPI
8 10 (1.87%) REST
9 9 (1.68%) CSS
10 8 (1.49%) Playwright
11 7 (1.31%) React
11 7 (1.31%) SOAP
12 6 (1.12%) Hibernate
12 6 (1.12%) Jest
12 6 (1.12%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 56 (10.45%) Data Centre
2 29 (5.41%) Onboarding
2 29 (5.41%) Product Ownership
3 15 (2.80%) Replication
4 14 (2.61%) Clustering
5 10 (1.87%) Cyber Threat
6 9 (1.68%) Enterprise Software
7 6 (1.12%) Driving Licence
7 6 (1.12%) Legacy Systems
8 5 (0.93%) Cloud Native
8 5 (0.93%) Distributed Systems
8 5 (0.93%) Low-Code
8 5 (0.93%) Operational Technology
8 5 (0.93%) Video Conferencing
9 4 (0.75%) Mobile App
9 4 (0.75%) SCADA
9 4 (0.75%) Security Posture
10 3 (0.56%) Handset
10 3 (0.56%) Management Information System
10 3 (0.56%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 72 (13.43%) Windows
2 43 (8.02%) Linux
3 24 (4.48%) Windows Server
4 23 (4.29%) Windows 10
5 19 (3.54%) Unix
6 13 (2.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 11 (2.05%) Solaris
8 9 (1.68%) Windows 7
9 8 (1.49%) Android
10 7 (1.31%) Mac OS
11 4 (0.75%) Apple iOS
12 3 (0.56%) Mac OS X
13 2 (0.37%) AIX
14 1 (0.19%) VMS
14 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2016
14 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 70 (13.06%) Problem-Solving
2 66 (12.31%) Agile
3 55 (10.26%) DevOps
4 53 (9.89%) CI/CD
5 47 (8.77%) ITSM
6 45 (8.40%) Migration
7 44 (8.21%) Stakeholder Management
8 43 (8.02%) Cybersecurity
8 43 (8.02%) Service Management
9 40 (7.46%) Continuous Improvement
10 38 (7.09%) High Availability
11 37 (6.90%) Project Delivery
12 36 (6.72%) Containerisation
13 35 (6.53%) Validation
14 33 (6.16%) Test Automation
15 32 (5.97%) Disaster Recovery
16 27 (5.04%) Platform Engineering
17 26 (4.85%) Change Management
17 26 (4.85%) Mentoring
17 26 (4.85%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 62 (11.57%) Python
2 51 (9.51%) PowerShell
3 39 (7.28%) Java
4 23 (4.29%) Bash
5 16 (2.99%) JavaScript
6 15 (2.80%) Perl
6 15 (2.80%) SQL
6 15 (2.80%) TypeScript
7 11 (2.05%) ABAP
8 9 (1.68%) VB
8 9 (1.68%) VBScript
9 4 (0.75%) Go
9 4 (0.75%) Ruby
9 4 (0.75%) Rust
10 3 (0.56%) C
10 3 (0.56%) C++
10 3 (0.56%) Kusto Query Language
11 2 (0.37%) C#
11 2 (0.37%) COBOL
11 2 (0.37%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 386 (72.01%) SC Cleared
2 63 (11.75%) BPSS Clearance
3 49 (9.14%) DV Cleared
4 38 (7.09%) Degree
5 26 (4.85%) CCNP
5 26 (4.85%) Cisco Certification
6 20 (3.73%) CCNA
7 11 (2.05%) Microsoft Certification
8 10 (1.87%) Computer Science Degree
9 9 (1.68%) CCDP
9 9 (1.68%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 8 (1.49%) CISSP
10 8 (1.49%) MCSA
10 8 (1.49%) MCSE
10 8 (1.49%) VCAP
11 7 (1.31%) AWS Certification
11 7 (1.31%) CISM
12 6 (1.12%) Azure Certification
12 6 (1.12%) ITIL Certification
13 5 (0.93%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (3.54%) NIST
2 18 (3.36%) Accessibility
3 12 (2.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 9 (1.68%) Data Quality
4 9 (1.68%) SLA
5 7 (1.31%) NCSC
5 7 (1.31%) QA
6 6 (1.12%) JSP 440
7 4 (0.75%) WCAG
8 3 (0.56%) GDPR
8 3 (0.56%) IEC 61508
8 3 (0.56%) IFRS
8 3 (0.56%) ISO 26262
9 2 (0.37%) IEC 61131
9 2 (0.37%) IEC 62304
9 2 (0.37%) IFRS 17
9 2 (0.37%) PMO
9 2 (0.37%) PSD2
10 1 (0.19%) GRC
10 1 (0.19%) SOC 2
System Software
1 35 (6.53%) Docker
2 31 (5.78%) Active Directory
3 20 (3.73%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (1.87%) Virtual Machines
4 10 (1.87%) vSphere
5 9 (1.68%) BitLocker
5 9 (1.68%) VMware ESXi
6 4 (0.75%) Firmware
7 2 (0.37%) ISA Server
8 1 (0.19%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 36 (6.72%) Kubernetes
2 34 (6.34%) Terraform
3 26 (4.85%) SCCM
4 15 (2.80%) Ansible
5 13 (2.43%) Microsoft Intune
6 10 (1.87%) vCenter Server
7 8 (1.49%) Grafana
8 7 (1.31%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 6 (1.12%) Norton AntiVirus
9 6 (1.12%) Prometheus
10 3 (0.56%) FortiGate
11 1 (0.19%) AirWatch
11 1 (0.19%) Argo
11 1 (0.19%) Cisco CUCM
11 1 (0.19%) Cisco Prime
11 1 (0.19%) Failover Clustering
11 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Clustering
11 1 (0.19%) Nessus
11 1 (0.19%) Packer
11 1 (0.19%) vRealize
Vendors
1 79 (14.74%) SAP
2 74 (13.81%) Microsoft
3 69 (12.87%) Cisco
4 34 (6.34%) Palo Alto
5 31 (5.78%) Oracle
5 31 (5.78%) ServiceNow
6 27 (5.04%) VMware
7 16 (2.99%) Meraki
8 12 (2.24%) Adobe
8 12 (2.24%) Citrix
9 11 (2.05%) Red Hat
10 10 (1.87%) Dell
11 9 (1.68%) IBM
12 7 (1.31%) HP
12 7 (1.31%) McAfee
12 7 (1.31%) SolarWinds
12 7 (1.31%) Splunk
12 7 (1.31%) Symantec
13 6 (1.12%) CyberArk
13 6 (1.12%) Google