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

6 months to
18 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 3 6 2
Rank change year-on-year +3 -4 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 656 372 440
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 16.99% 16.98% 18.30%
As % of the Qualifications category 58.52% 50.13% 63.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 447 192 249
10th Percentile £357 £337 £313
25th Percentile £437 £425 £430
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £530 £503
Median % change year-on-year -0.94% +5.47% -4.29%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £638
90th Percentile £738 £714 £780
England median daily rate £538 £538 £550
% change year-on-year - -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 46 40 58
10th Percentile £24.09 £20.00 -
25th Percentile £30.27 £22.51 £10.95
Median hourly rate £62.79 £30.64 £18.07
Median % change year-on-year +104.95% +69.58% -60.88%
75th Percentile £78.57 £58.91 £47.17
90th Percentile £83.75 £70.02 £57.80
England median hourly rate £65.00 £25.15 £59.50
% change year-on-year +158.45% -57.73% -0.83%

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 1,121 742 688
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 29.03% 33.87% 28.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 726 417 386
10th Percentile £313 £313 £305
25th Percentile £418 £408 £424
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £511 £500 £509
Median % change year-on-year +2.12% -1.67% +1.70%
75th Percentile £620 £613 £608
90th Percentile £688 £716 £724
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 111 70 97
10th Percentile £17.25 £17.40 £10.95
25th Percentile £28.50 £21.30 £12.00
Median hourly rate £43.96 £30.64 £18.07
Median % change year-on-year +43.50% +69.58% -57.15%
75th Percentile £66.46 £59.57 £51.88
90th Percentile £83.75 £73.95 £65.40
England median hourly rate £54.00 £25.15 £47.50
% change year-on-year +114.71% -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 18 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 18 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 18 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 -2 242 £567 +5.73% 231
Cumbria 0 180 £492 -4.45% 21
Lancashire 0 119 £645 +43.33% 74
Cheshire +23 97 £510 +25.54% 34
Merseyside -24 12 £625 -1.19% 2
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 (4.27%) Microsoft Exchange
2 19 (2.90%) SharePoint
3 14 (2.13%) Skype for Business
4 7 (1.07%) SAS
5 4 (0.61%) Confluence
6 2 (0.30%) Apache
6 2 (0.30%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.30%) Jupyter
6 2 (0.30%) Oracle Workflow
6 2 (0.30%) SharePoint 2013
7 1 (0.15%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.15%) IIS
7 1 (0.15%) NetWeaver
Applications
1 23 (3.51%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (1.07%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.61%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.46%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.30%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.15%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.15%) Navisworks
6 1 (0.15%) ProjectWise
6 1 (0.15%) Revit
6 1 (0.15%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 8 (1.22%) Oracle Payables
2 7 (1.07%) SAP S/4HANA
3 5 (0.76%) Remedy ITSM
4 4 (0.61%) Teamcenter
5 3 (0.46%) SAP HR
6 2 (0.30%) Oracle Cash Management
6 2 (0.30%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.30%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 2 (0.30%) Primavera
6 2 (0.30%) SAP MDG
6 2 (0.30%) SAP MM
7 1 (0.15%) Dynamics AX
7 1 (0.15%) Dynamics CRM
7 1 (0.15%) Integrated Workplace Management System
7 1 (0.15%) SAP ERP
7 1 (0.15%) SAP PM
Cloud Services
1 100 (15.24%) AWS
2 93 (14.18%) Azure
3 32 (4.88%) Microsoft 365
4 27 (4.12%) SuccessFactors
5 24 (3.66%) Power Platform
6 20 (3.05%) Azure DevOps
6 20 (3.05%) OCI
7 17 (2.59%) SaaS
8 16 (2.44%) GCP
8 16 (2.44%) Serverless
9 12 (1.83%) Entra ID
10 10 (1.52%) GitHub
10 10 (1.52%) Google Workspace
11 8 (1.22%) Azure Monitor
12 7 (1.07%) Google Drive
13 5 (0.76%) Azure Data Factory
13 5 (0.76%) Dynamics 365
13 5 (0.76%) Microsoft Copilot
13 5 (0.76%) Power Automate
14 4 (0.61%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 64 (9.76%) Firewall
2 37 (5.64%) Wireless
3 32 (4.88%) WAN
4 30 (4.57%) VPN
5 29 (4.42%) DNS
5 29 (4.42%) VLAN
6 28 (4.27%) Wi-Fi
7 24 (3.66%) BGP
7 24 (3.66%) LAN
7 24 (3.66%) OSPF
8 23 (3.51%) DHCP
9 22 (3.35%) Network Security
10 21 (3.20%) Structured Cabling
11 17 (2.59%) SAN
12 16 (2.44%) Cisco ASA
12 16 (2.44%) EIGRP
12 16 (2.44%) NAS
12 16 (2.44%) Skype
13 15 (2.29%) Cisco Firepower
13 15 (2.29%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (5.34%) SQL Server
2 24 (3.66%) Oracle Database
3 22 (3.35%) PostgreSQL
4 19 (2.90%) MySQL
5 16 (2.44%) Relational Database
6 14 (2.13%) MongoDB
6 14 (2.13%) Power BI
7 11 (1.68%) RDBMS
8 9 (1.37%) Oracle Exadata
9 7 (1.07%) NoSQL
9 7 (1.07%) Oracle Database 12c
9 7 (1.07%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 5 (0.76%) Metadata
11 4 (0.61%) Data Warehouse
12 3 (0.46%) Data Lake
13 2 (0.30%) Amazon Redshift
13 2 (0.30%) Oracle BI Publisher
13 2 (0.30%) Oracle Reports
13 2 (0.30%) Tableau
14 1 (0.15%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 26 (3.96%) GitLab
2 11 (1.68%) Git
3 10 (1.52%) Selenium
4 9 (1.37%) JIRA
5 7 (1.07%) Cucumber
5 7 (1.07%) REST Assured
6 6 (0.91%) Jenkins
7 5 (0.76%) MSI
8 4 (0.61%) Gatling
9 3 (0.46%) Mockito
9 3 (0.46%) Serenity BDD
9 3 (0.46%) Toad
10 2 (0.30%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.30%) JDeveloper
10 2 (0.30%) Rational DOORS
10 2 (0.30%) Sonatype Nexus
10 2 (0.30%) WebDriver
11 1 (0.15%) Postman
11 1 (0.15%) SonarQube
11 1 (0.15%) Visual Studio Coded UI
General
1 119 (18.14%) Social Skills
2 110 (16.77%) Public Sector
3 48 (7.32%) Military
4 35 (5.34%) Analytical Skills
5 24 (3.66%) Documentation Skills
6 22 (3.35%) Finance
7 20 (3.05%) Legal
8 17 (2.59%) Manufacturing
9 14 (2.13%) Aerospace
10 9 (1.37%) Presentation Skills
11 8 (1.22%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 6 (0.91%) Organisational Skills
13 4 (0.61%) Banking
13 4 (0.61%) Retail
14 3 (0.46%) Aviation
14 3 (0.46%) Local Government
15 2 (0.30%) General Ledger
15 2 (0.30%) Marketing
15 2 (0.30%) Telecoms
16 1 (0.15%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 96 (14.63%) Architect
2 89 (13.57%) Lead
3 58 (8.84%) Network Engineer
4 54 (8.23%) Senior
5 51 (7.77%) Consultant
6 43 (6.55%) DBA
7 35 (5.34%) Unix Engineer
8 33 (5.03%) Administrator
9 31 (4.73%) Developer
9 31 (4.73%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
10 29 (4.42%) Analyst
11 24 (3.66%) Lead Architect
12 23 (3.51%) SQL DBA
13 22 (3.35%) Technical Architect
14 21 (3.20%) Oracle DBA
15 19 (2.90%) Desktop Engineer
15 19 (2.90%) Infrastructure Engineer
16 18 (2.74%) DevOps Engineer
17 17 (2.59%) Security Architect
17 17 (2.59%) Senior Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (3.20%) Node.js
2 16 (2.44%) Spring
3 15 (2.29%) REST
4 14 (2.13%) OAuth
4 14 (2.13%) Spring Boot
5 11 (1.68%) Kafka
6 9 (1.37%) Oracle GoldenGate
7 6 (0.91%) OpenID
8 5 (0.76%) 802.1X
8 5 (0.76%) Leaflet
8 5 (0.76%) Nunjucks
8 5 (0.76%) Playwright
8 5 (0.76%) SOAP
9 4 (0.61%) AWS CDK
9 4 (0.61%) ModSecurity
9 4 (0.61%) RESTful
10 3 (0.46%) ActiveMQ
10 3 (0.46%) Spring Cloud
10 3 (0.46%) Web Services
10 3 (0.46%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 31 (4.73%) Onboarding
2 27 (4.12%) Data Centre
3 22 (3.35%) Replication
4 20 (3.05%) Cloud Native
5 19 (2.90%) Clustering
6 15 (2.29%) Operational Technology
7 12 (1.83%) Legacy Systems
8 11 (1.68%) Product Ownership
9 10 (1.52%) Enterprise Software
9 10 (1.52%) Hybrid Cloud
9 10 (1.52%) Management Information System
10 9 (1.37%) CMDB
11 8 (1.22%) Cyber Threat
11 8 (1.22%) Public Cloud
12 7 (1.07%) Data Protection Act
13 6 (0.91%) PKI
14 5 (0.76%) CSOC
14 5 (0.76%) Distributed Systems
14 5 (0.76%) Security Posture
15 4 (0.61%) Freedom of Information
Operating Systems
1 69 (10.52%) Windows
2 42 (6.40%) Unix
3 38 (5.79%) Solaris
4 35 (5.34%) Linux
4 35 (5.34%) Windows 10
5 25 (3.81%) Windows Server
6 19 (2.90%) Windows 7
7 9 (1.37%) AIX
8 8 (1.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 5 (0.76%) Mac OS
9 5 (0.76%) Windows Server 2003
10 4 (0.61%) CentOS
11 3 (0.46%) Android
11 3 (0.46%) VMS
12 1 (0.15%) Apple iOS
12 1 (0.15%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.15%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.15%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 77 (11.74%) Stakeholder Management
2 72 (10.98%) DevOps
3 69 (10.52%) Cybersecurity
4 68 (10.37%) Continuous Improvement
5 67 (10.21%) ITSM
6 65 (9.91%) Migration
7 64 (9.76%) CI/CD
8 58 (8.84%) Agile
9 57 (8.69%) ITIL
10 54 (8.23%) Service Management
11 53 (8.08%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 49 (7.47%) High Availability
12 49 (7.47%) Project Delivery
13 47 (7.16%) Problem-Solving
14 38 (5.79%) Technical Leadership
15 37 (5.64%) Risk Management
16 36 (5.49%) Roadmaps
17 33 (5.03%) Disaster Recovery
17 33 (5.03%) Infrastructure as Code
18 32 (4.88%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 52 (7.93%) Python
1 52 (7.93%) SQL
2 50 (7.62%) PowerShell
3 36 (5.49%) Java
4 22 (3.35%) JavaScript
5 16 (2.44%) VBScript
6 14 (2.13%) VB
7 9 (1.37%) TypeScript
8 7 (1.07%) T-SQL
9 5 (0.76%) Bash
10 3 (0.46%) Bicep
10 3 (0.46%) C#
11 2 (0.30%) ABAP
11 2 (0.30%) Go
11 2 (0.30%) PL/SQL
11 2 (0.30%) Search Processing Language
12 1 (0.15%) Google Apps Script
12 1 (0.15%) Kotlin
12 1 (0.15%) Rust
12 1 (0.15%) VB6
Qualifications
1 518 (78.96%) SC Cleared
2 55 (8.38%) BPSS Clearance
3 43 (6.55%) DV Cleared
4 37 (5.64%) Cisco Certification
5 35 (5.34%) CCNA
6 31 (4.73%) Microsoft Certification
7 22 (3.35%) CCNP
8 20 (3.05%) Degree
9 14 (2.13%) Azure Certification
9 14 (2.13%) Network+ Certification
9 14 (2.13%) Server+ Certification
10 12 (1.83%) CISSP
11 11 (1.68%) DBS Check
12 8 (1.22%) MCSA
12 8 (1.22%) MCSE
12 8 (1.22%) VCAP
12 8 (1.22%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 7 (1.07%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 4 (0.61%) AWS Certification
14 4 (0.61%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (3.96%) NIST
1 26 (3.96%) PMO
2 23 (3.51%) SLA
3 20 (3.05%) NCSC
4 18 (2.74%) GRC
5 14 (2.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 14 (2.13%) QA
6 13 (1.98%) Data Quality
7 11 (1.68%) GDPR
8 8 (1.22%) Accessibility
9 6 (0.91%) JSP 440
9 6 (0.91%) NIST 800
10 2 (0.30%) PCI DSS
11 1 (0.15%) Cyber Essentials
11 1 (0.15%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 1 (0.15%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 1 (0.15%) RMADS
11 1 (0.15%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 1 (0.15%) Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment)
11 1 (0.15%) WCAG
System Software
1 38 (5.79%) Active Directory
2 23 (3.51%) VMware Infrastructure
3 19 (2.90%) Docker
4 17 (2.59%) Oracle RAC
4 17 (2.59%) Virtual Machines
5 16 (2.44%) BitLocker
6 11 (1.68%) VMware ESXi
6 11 (1.68%) vSphere
7 10 (1.52%) Hyper-V
8 6 (0.91%) Citrix Hypervisor
9 4 (0.61%) Virtual Desktop
10 3 (0.46%) XenApp
10 3 (0.46%) XenDesktop
11 1 (0.15%) GPFS
11 1 (0.15%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 1 (0.15%) NFS
11 1 (0.15%) Squid
11 1 (0.15%) Virtual Servers
11 1 (0.15%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 49 (7.47%) Terraform
2 34 (5.18%) Ansible
3 28 (4.27%) SCCM
4 25 (3.81%) Kubernetes
5 17 (2.59%) Data Guard
6 16 (2.44%) Oracle RMAN
7 10 (1.52%) vCenter Server
8 7 (1.07%) Grafana
9 6 (0.91%) Microsoft Intune
9 6 (0.91%) Prometheus
9 6 (0.91%) SCOM
10 5 (0.76%) Single Sign-On
10 5 (0.76%) SysTrack
11 4 (0.61%) Nagios
11 4 (0.61%) Oracle ZFS
12 3 (0.46%) Failover Clustering
12 3 (0.46%) McAfee ePO
13 2 (0.30%) CASB
13 2 (0.30%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
13 2 (0.30%) Microsoft Clustering
Vendors
1 110 (16.77%) Microsoft
2 69 (10.52%) Oracle
3 65 (9.91%) ServiceNow
4 62 (9.45%) Cisco
5 54 (8.23%) SAP
6 35 (5.34%) Palo Alto
7 27 (4.12%) VMware
8 21 (3.20%) CheckPoint
9 14 (2.13%) Aruba
10 13 (1.98%) F5
11 12 (1.83%) Citrix
11 12 (1.83%) Google
12 9 (1.37%) Splunk
13 6 (0.91%) Arista
13 6 (0.91%) Databricks
14 5 (0.76%) CyberArk
14 5 (0.76%) Ekahau
14 5 (0.76%) Ivanti
14 5 (0.76%) Qualtrics
14 5 (0.76%) Remedy