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

6 months to
1 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 2 5 2
Rank change year-on-year +3 -3 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 721 378 449
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 18.28% 17.28% 18.58%
As % of the Qualifications category 61.05% 51.08% 65.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 497 205 258
10th Percentile £360 £341 £313
25th Percentile £438 £431 £424
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £535 £500
Median % change year-on-year -0.93% +7.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £688 £779
England median daily rate £548 £538 £550
% change year-on-year +1.86% -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 41 44 52
10th Percentile £26.25 £19.21 -
25th Percentile £41.78 £22.16 £10.95
Median hourly rate £64.09 £30.64 £22.44
Median % change year-on-year +109.21% +36.53% -51.41%
75th Percentile £80.00 £58.34 £51.22
90th Percentile £83.75 £69.18 £61.83
England median hourly rate £65.00 £25.15 £60.00
% change year-on-year +158.45% -58.08% -

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 1,181 740 687
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 29.94% 33.82% 28.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 763 435 394
10th Percentile £313 £313 £313
25th Percentile £418 £408 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £492 £505
Median % change year-on-year +4.67% -2.48% -3.90%
75th Percentile £618 £620 £602
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 110 73 73
10th Percentile £17.25 £16.82 £10.95
25th Percentile £28.55 £20.00 £12.00
Median hourly rate £43.96 £29.27 £31.50
Median % change year-on-year +50.19% -7.08% -25.88%
75th Percentile £65.71 £58.27 £54.00
90th Percentile £83.75 £71.19 £77.29
England median hourly rate £52.50 £25.15 £50.00
% change year-on-year +108.75% -49.70% -8.36%

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 1 September 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 1 September 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 1 September 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 -1 270 £570 +6.29% 314
Cumbria 0 183 £489 -5.79% 20
Lancashire 0 148 £625 +28.21% 91
Cheshire +20 100 £511 +16.69% 35
Merseyside -25 14 £625 -0.60% 9
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 (3.88%) Microsoft Exchange
2 21 (2.91%) SharePoint
3 15 (2.08%) Skype for Business
4 12 (1.66%) SAS
5 5 (0.69%) Confluence
6 2 (0.28%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.28%) Jupyter
6 2 (0.28%) Oracle Workflow
6 2 (0.28%) SharePoint 2013
7 1 (0.14%) Apache
7 1 (0.14%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.14%) IIS
7 1 (0.14%) NetWeaver
Applications
1 25 (3.47%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (0.83%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.55%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.42%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.28%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.14%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.14%) Navisworks
6 1 (0.14%) ProjectWise
6 1 (0.14%) Revit
Business Applications
1 9 (1.25%) Oracle Payables
1 9 (1.25%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (0.69%) Remedy ITSM
2 5 (0.69%) SAP HR
2 5 (0.69%) Teamcenter
3 3 (0.42%) SAP MDG
4 2 (0.28%) Oracle Cash Management
4 2 (0.28%) Oracle EBS
4 2 (0.28%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
4 2 (0.28%) Primavera
4 2 (0.28%) SAP MM
4 2 (0.28%) SAP PLM
5 1 (0.14%) Dynamics AX
5 1 (0.14%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.14%) Integrated Workplace Management System
5 1 (0.14%) SAP ERP
5 1 (0.14%) SAP PM
5 1 (0.14%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 102 (14.15%) Azure
2 101 (14.01%) AWS
3 36 (4.99%) Microsoft 365
4 31 (4.30%) Power Platform
5 30 (4.16%) SuccessFactors
6 26 (3.61%) Azure DevOps
7 20 (2.77%) OCI
8 17 (2.36%) SaaS
8 17 (2.36%) Serverless
9 16 (2.22%) Entra ID
10 15 (2.08%) GCP
11 11 (1.53%) Azure Monitor
11 11 (1.53%) GitHub
12 10 (1.39%) Google Workspace
13 7 (0.97%) Azure AKS
13 7 (0.97%) Google Drive
14 6 (0.83%) Dynamics 365
14 6 (0.83%) Microsoft Copilot
14 6 (0.83%) Power Automate
15 5 (0.69%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 62 (8.60%) Firewall
2 35 (4.85%) Wireless
3 34 (4.72%) VPN
4 31 (4.30%) WAN
5 27 (3.74%) Network Security
6 26 (3.61%) BGP
6 26 (3.61%) OSPF
7 25 (3.47%) Wi-Fi
8 24 (3.33%) DNS
9 23 (3.19%) LAN
10 22 (3.05%) VLAN
11 21 (2.91%) Cisco ASA
12 20 (2.77%) DHCP
13 18 (2.50%) EIGRP
13 18 (2.50%) Structured Cabling
14 17 (2.36%) Cisco Firepower
14 17 (2.36%) Skype
15 15 (2.08%) SAN
16 13 (1.80%) NAS
16 13 (1.80%) NetScaler
Database & Business Intelligence
1 40 (5.55%) SQL Server
2 25 (3.47%) Oracle Database
3 24 (3.33%) MySQL
3 24 (3.33%) PostgreSQL
4 18 (2.50%) Power BI
5 16 (2.22%) MongoDB
5 16 (2.22%) Relational Database
6 11 (1.53%) RDBMS
7 10 (1.39%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 9 (1.25%) Oracle Exadata
9 8 (1.11%) NoSQL
10 7 (0.97%) Oracle Database 12c
11 5 (0.69%) Data Warehouse
11 5 (0.69%) Metadata
12 3 (0.42%) Data Lake
13 2 (0.28%) Amazon Redshift
13 2 (0.28%) Big Data
13 2 (0.28%) Oracle BI Publisher
13 2 (0.28%) Oracle Reports
13 2 (0.28%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 28 (3.88%) GitLab
2 13 (1.80%) Git
3 11 (1.53%) Selenium
4 9 (1.25%) JIRA
5 8 (1.11%) Cucumber
5 8 (1.11%) REST Assured
6 7 (0.97%) Jenkins
7 6 (0.83%) MSI
8 4 (0.55%) Gatling
9 3 (0.42%) Mockito
9 3 (0.42%) Serenity BDD
9 3 (0.42%) Toad
9 3 (0.42%) WebDriver
10 2 (0.28%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.28%) JDeveloper
10 2 (0.28%) Rational DOORS
10 2 (0.28%) Sonatype Nexus
11 1 (0.14%) Postman
11 1 (0.14%) SonarQube
11 1 (0.14%) Visual Studio Coded UI
General
1 126 (17.48%) Social Skills
2 111 (15.40%) Public Sector
3 51 (7.07%) Military
4 39 (5.41%) Analytical Skills
5 26 (3.61%) Documentation Skills
6 21 (2.91%) Finance
7 19 (2.64%) Legal
8 18 (2.50%) Manufacturing
9 11 (1.53%) Aerospace
10 9 (1.25%) Presentation Skills
11 8 (1.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 8 (1.11%) Organisational Skills
12 4 (0.55%) Retail
13 3 (0.42%) Banking
13 3 (0.42%) Local Government
14 2 (0.28%) General Ledger
14 2 (0.28%) Influencing Skills
14 2 (0.28%) Marketing
14 2 (0.28%) Telecoms
15 1 (0.14%) Police
Job Titles
1 106 (14.70%) Architect
2 105 (14.56%) Lead
3 65 (9.02%) Consultant
4 60 (8.32%) Network Engineer
5 58 (8.04%) Senior
6 48 (6.66%) DBA
7 37 (5.13%) Unix Engineer
8 36 (4.99%) Analyst
8 36 (4.99%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
9 32 (4.44%) Developer
10 30 (4.16%) Administrator
11 27 (3.74%) SQL DBA
12 25 (3.47%) Lead Architect
12 25 (3.47%) Technical Architect
13 23 (3.19%) DevOps Engineer
14 21 (2.91%) Oracle DBA
15 20 (2.77%) Desktop Engineer
15 20 (2.77%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 20 (2.77%) Security Architect
15 20 (2.77%) Senior Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 52 (7.21%) Terraform
2 20 (2.77%) Node.js
3 18 (2.50%) Spring
4 16 (2.22%) REST
4 16 (2.22%) Spring Boot
5 14 (1.94%) OAuth
6 13 (1.80%) Kafka
7 9 (1.25%) Oracle GoldenGate
8 6 (0.83%) OpenID
8 6 (0.83%) Playwright
9 5 (0.69%) Leaflet
9 5 (0.69%) Nunjucks
9 5 (0.69%) SOAP
10 4 (0.55%) AWS CDK
10 4 (0.55%) ModSecurity
10 4 (0.55%) RESTful
10 4 (0.55%) XML
11 3 (0.42%) ActiveMQ
11 3 (0.42%) PySpark
11 3 (0.42%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 35 (4.85%) Onboarding
2 26 (3.61%) Data Centre
3 24 (3.33%) Replication
4 23 (3.19%) Clustering
5 19 (2.64%) Cloud Native
6 15 (2.08%) Operational Technology
7 13 (1.80%) Legacy Systems
8 12 (1.66%) Enterprise Software
9 11 (1.53%) CMDB
9 11 (1.53%) Hybrid Cloud
9 11 (1.53%) Management Information System
10 10 (1.39%) Product Ownership
11 9 (1.25%) Public Cloud
12 8 (1.11%) Cyber Threat
12 8 (1.11%) PKI
13 7 (0.97%) Data Protection Act
14 5 (0.69%) CSOC
14 5 (0.69%) Distributed Systems
14 5 (0.69%) Driving Licence
15 4 (0.55%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 78 (10.82%) Windows
2 44 (6.10%) Unix
3 40 (5.55%) Solaris
4 36 (4.99%) Windows 10
5 35 (4.85%) Linux
6 31 (4.30%) Windows Server
7 19 (2.64%) Windows 7
8 9 (1.25%) AIX
9 8 (1.11%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 5 (0.69%) Mac OS
10 5 (0.69%) Windows Server 2003
11 4 (0.55%) CentOS
12 3 (0.42%) Android
12 3 (0.42%) VMS
13 1 (0.14%) Apple iOS
13 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 92 (12.76%) Stakeholder Management
2 89 (12.34%) Cybersecurity
3 80 (11.10%) DevOps
4 76 (10.54%) Migration
5 73 (10.12%) ITIL
6 72 (9.99%) Continuous Improvement
7 68 (9.43%) ITSM
8 66 (9.15%) CI/CD
9 61 (8.46%) Service Management
10 58 (8.04%) Agile
10 58 (8.04%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 50 (6.93%) High Availability
12 49 (6.80%) Problem-Solving
12 49 (6.80%) Project Delivery
13 45 (6.24%) Incident Management
14 42 (5.83%) Roadmaps
14 42 (5.83%) Technical Leadership
15 41 (5.69%) Risk Management
16 37 (5.13%) Disaster Recovery
16 37 (5.13%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 59 (8.18%) SQL
2 53 (7.35%) PowerShell
3 52 (7.21%) Python
4 37 (5.13%) Java
5 21 (2.91%) JavaScript
6 16 (2.22%) VBScript
7 14 (1.94%) VB
8 10 (1.39%) T-SQL
9 8 (1.11%) TypeScript
10 6 (0.83%) Bicep
11 5 (0.69%) Bash
12 3 (0.42%) C#
13 2 (0.28%) ABAP
13 2 (0.28%) Go
13 2 (0.28%) PL/SQL
13 2 (0.28%) Search Processing Language
14 1 (0.14%) Google Apps Script
14 1 (0.14%) Kotlin
14 1 (0.14%) Kusto Query Language
14 1 (0.14%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 577 (80.03%) SC Cleared
2 63 (8.74%) BPSS Clearance
3 44 (6.10%) DV Cleared
4 35 (4.85%) Microsoft Certification
5 30 (4.16%) Cisco Certification
6 27 (3.74%) CCNA
7 22 (3.05%) Degree
8 18 (2.50%) Azure Certification
9 17 (2.36%) CCNP
10 12 (1.66%) CISSP
10 12 (1.66%) DBS Check
11 11 (1.53%) Network+ Certification
11 11 (1.53%) Server+ Certification
12 10 (1.39%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 8 (1.11%) MCSA
13 8 (1.11%) MCSE
13 8 (1.11%) VCAP
13 8 (1.11%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 5 (0.69%) AWS Certification
14 5 (0.69%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (4.99%) NIST
2 31 (4.30%) SLA
3 27 (3.74%) PMO
4 26 (3.61%) NCSC
5 21 (2.91%) GRC
6 20 (2.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 17 (2.36%) Data Quality
8 16 (2.22%) QA
9 12 (1.66%) GDPR
10 9 (1.25%) Accessibility
11 7 (0.97%) NIST 800
12 6 (0.83%) JSP 440
13 2 (0.28%) Actionable Recommendations
13 2 (0.28%) PCI DSS
13 2 (0.28%) WCAG
14 1 (0.14%) Cyber Essentials
14 1 (0.14%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 1 (0.14%) HMG Security Policy Framework
14 1 (0.14%) ITGC
14 1 (0.14%) Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment)
System Software
1 40 (5.55%) Active Directory
2 24 (3.33%) VMware Infrastructure
3 22 (3.05%) Docker
4 21 (2.91%) Virtual Machines
5 17 (2.36%) Oracle RAC
6 16 (2.22%) BitLocker
7 14 (1.94%) Hyper-V
8 10 (1.39%) VMware ESXi
8 10 (1.39%) vSphere
9 8 (1.11%) Citrix Hypervisor
10 4 (0.55%) Virtual Desktop
10 4 (0.55%) XenApp
10 4 (0.55%) XenDesktop
11 1 (0.14%) Microsoft App-V
11 1 (0.14%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 1 (0.14%) Squid
11 1 (0.14%) Virtual Servers
11 1 (0.14%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 34 (4.72%) Ansible
2 30 (4.16%) Kubernetes
3 29 (4.02%) SCCM
4 17 (2.36%) Data Guard
5 16 (2.22%) Oracle RMAN
6 10 (1.39%) vCenter Server
7 9 (1.25%) SCOM
8 7 (0.97%) Grafana
8 7 (0.97%) Microsoft Intune
9 6 (0.83%) Prometheus
9 6 (0.83%) SysTrack
10 5 (0.69%) Single Sign-On
11 4 (0.55%) Failover Clustering
11 4 (0.55%) Nagios
11 4 (0.55%) Oracle ZFS
12 3 (0.42%) McAfee ePO
12 3 (0.42%) Microsoft Clustering
13 2 (0.28%) CASB
13 2 (0.28%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
13 2 (0.28%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 120 (16.64%) Microsoft
2 71 (9.85%) Oracle
3 67 (9.29%) ServiceNow
4 61 (8.46%) Cisco
5 58 (8.04%) SAP
6 38 (5.27%) Palo Alto
7 29 (4.02%) VMware
8 19 (2.64%) CheckPoint
9 16 (2.22%) F5
10 14 (1.94%) Citrix
11 12 (1.66%) Google
12 11 (1.53%) Splunk
13 9 (1.25%) Aruba
14 7 (0.97%) Meraki
15 6 (0.83%) Arista
15 6 (0.83%) Databricks
15 6 (0.83%) Ivanti
15 6 (0.83%) Nexthink
16 5 (0.69%) Qualtrics
16 5 (0.69%) Remedy