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

6 months to
11 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 2 2 2
Rank change year-on-year 0 0 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 534 419 470
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 18.39% 20.79% 16.42%
As % of the Qualifications category 59.40% 59.69% 52.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 354 235 306
10th Percentile £351 £230 £400
25th Percentile £418 £400 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £480 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -8.57% -
75th Percentile £626 £575 £639
90th Percentile £701 £650 £694
England median daily rate £525 £541 £550
% change year-on-year -3.00% -1.59% -2.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 61 20 69
10th Percentile £21.46 £25.26 -
25th Percentile £25.77 £35.44 £10.95
Median hourly rate £56.44 £60.00 £31.50
Median % change year-on-year -5.93% +90.48% +6.24%
75th Percentile £71.50 £74.00 £48.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £85.80 £73.75
England median hourly rate £26.00 £60.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year -56.67% +9.09% -8.33%

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 899 702 894
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 30.97% 34.84% 31.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 599 391 521
10th Percentile £254 £208 £263
25th Percentile £381 £371 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £490 £515
Median % change year-on-year -3.06% -4.85% +3.00%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £645
90th Percentile £680 £650 £703
England median daily rate £520 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -0.95% -2.42% -2.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 86 44 134
10th Percentile £21.14 £23.10 £10.95
25th Percentile £28.88 £26.00 £14.00
Median hourly rate £45.46 £32.50 £16.78
Median % change year-on-year +39.88% +93.68% -53.39%
75th Percentile £68.96 £60.00 £44.77
90th Percentile £74.26 £82.56 £51.05
England median hourly rate £26.22 £52.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year -50.06% +31.25% -20.00%

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 March 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 March 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 March 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 -3 161 £478 +0.63% 71
Cumbria 0 115 £499 -4.77% 6
Lancashire +3 112 £550 +120.00% 31
Cheshire +7 110 £598 +70.86% 10
Merseyside -13 29 £623 +71.13% 8
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 24 (4.49%) Microsoft Exchange
2 10 (1.87%) Confluence
2 10 (1.87%) SharePoint
3 9 (1.69%) Skype for Business
4 6 (1.12%) Apache Spark
5 5 (0.94%) Apache
6 4 (0.75%) Apache Airflow
7 3 (0.56%) Jupyter
7 3 (0.56%) MTS
8 2 (0.37%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 2 (0.37%) CICS
8 2 (0.37%) OpenStack
9 1 (0.19%) CMS
9 1 (0.19%) nginx
9 1 (0.19%) SAS
Applications
1 25 (4.68%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (1.87%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (1.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.56%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.37%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.37%) Siemens NX
6 1 (0.19%) Adobe Premiere
6 1 (0.19%) Quicktime
Business Applications
1 49 (9.18%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (2.06%) SAP MM
3 10 (1.87%) SAP VC
4 9 (1.69%) SAP QM
5 4 (0.75%) SAP EHS
6 2 (0.37%) Oracle Payables
6 2 (0.37%) Primavera
6 2 (0.37%) Remedy ITSM
6 2 (0.37%) Teamcenter
7 1 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
7 1 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
7 1 (0.19%) SAP SD
7 1 (0.19%) SAP Travel Management
7 1 (0.19%) SAP WM
Cloud Services
1 70 (13.11%) AWS
2 43 (8.05%) Azure
3 28 (5.24%) Microsoft 365
4 16 (3.00%) GCP
4 16 (3.00%) Power Platform
5 13 (2.43%) GitHub
6 12 (2.25%) Entra ID
7 10 (1.87%) Azure DevOps
8 8 (1.50%) Amazon EKS
9 7 (1.31%) SaaS
9 7 (1.31%) Serverless
10 6 (1.12%) Amazon S3
10 6 (1.12%) GitHub Actions
11 5 (0.94%) AWS CloudFormation
11 5 (0.94%) Azure Monitor
11 5 (0.94%) OCI
12 4 (0.75%) Amazon EC2
12 4 (0.75%) OneDrive
12 4 (0.75%) OpenShift
13 3 (0.56%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 69 (12.92%) Firewall
2 40 (7.49%) VLAN
3 30 (5.62%) WAN
3 30 (5.62%) Wi-Fi
4 25 (4.68%) DNS
5 23 (4.31%) Network Security
6 18 (3.37%) LAN
7 16 (3.00%) VPN
8 15 (2.81%) Wireless
9 14 (2.62%) DHCP
10 13 (2.43%) SAN
10 13 (2.43%) TCP/IP
11 12 (2.25%) BGP
12 10 (1.87%) Cisco ISE
12 10 (1.87%) NetScaler
12 10 (1.87%) WebEx
13 9 (1.69%) Skype
14 8 (1.50%) Software-Defined Networking
15 6 (1.12%) SNMP
15 6 (1.12%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (2.62%) PostgreSQL
2 13 (2.43%) Power BI
3 11 (2.06%) SQL Server
4 10 (1.87%) SAP HANA
5 9 (1.69%) Elasticsearch
5 9 (1.69%) MongoDB
5 9 (1.69%) MySQL
5 9 (1.69%) NoSQL
5 9 (1.69%) Relational Database
6 6 (1.12%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 5 (0.94%) Data Warehouse
8 4 (0.75%) Hadoop
8 4 (0.75%) Metadata
8 4 (0.75%) Oracle Database
9 3 (0.56%) Amazon Redshift
9 3 (0.56%) BigQuery
9 3 (0.56%) DynamoDB
9 3 (0.56%) RDBMS
9 3 (0.56%) Redis
9 3 (0.56%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 27 (5.06%) GitLab
2 22 (4.12%) Git
3 15 (2.81%) JIRA
4 9 (1.69%) Jenkins
5 3 (0.56%) Mockito
5 3 (0.56%) Postman
5 3 (0.56%) Selenium
6 2 (0.37%) Cypress.io
6 2 (0.37%) Gatling
6 2 (0.37%) Jasmine
6 2 (0.37%) JMeter
6 2 (0.37%) MSI
6 2 (0.37%) REST Assured
6 2 (0.37%) Serenity BDD
7 1 (0.19%) Browser DevTools
7 1 (0.19%) CircleCI
7 1 (0.19%) InstallShield
7 1 (0.19%) MLflow
7 1 (0.19%) Rational DOORS
7 1 (0.19%) SonarQube
General
1 160 (29.96%) Public Sector
2 115 (21.54%) Social Skills
3 38 (7.12%) Finance
4 34 (6.37%) Analytical Skills
5 16 (3.00%) Documentation Skills
6 15 (2.81%) Legal
7 14 (2.62%) Military
8 13 (2.43%) Manufacturing
9 11 (2.06%) Aerospace
9 11 (2.06%) Banking
10 8 (1.50%) Electronics
10 8 (1.50%) Telecoms
11 7 (1.31%) Marketing
12 5 (0.94%) Influencing Skills
12 5 (0.94%) Organisational Skills
13 4 (0.75%) Aviation
13 4 (0.75%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 3 (0.56%) Presentation Skills
15 2 (0.37%) Corporate Banking
15 2 (0.37%) Law
Job Titles
1 64 (11.99%) Consultant
2 63 (11.80%) Architect
3 53 (9.93%) Developer
4 45 (8.43%) Network Engineer
5 42 (7.87%) Senior
6 34 (6.37%) SAP Consultant
7 32 (5.99%) Analyst
8 28 (5.24%) Administrator
9 22 (4.12%) Lead
9 22 (4.12%) Platform Engineer
10 20 (3.75%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
11 17 (3.18%) Technical Architect
12 16 (3.00%) Management Consultant
13 15 (2.81%) DevOps Engineer
14 14 (2.62%) Data Engineer
14 14 (2.62%) DBA
14 14 (2.62%) Engagement Manager
14 14 (2.62%) Support Engineer
15 13 (2.43%) Java Developer
15 13 (2.43%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (4.12%) Spring
2 20 (3.75%) Spring Boot
3 16 (3.00%) 802.1X
4 15 (2.81%) SAP Fiori
5 13 (2.43%) Kafka
5 13 (2.43%) RESTful
6 12 (2.25%) Web Services
7 10 (1.87%) HTML
7 10 (1.87%) JSON
8 9 (1.69%) BAPI
8 9 (1.69%) Node.js
8 9 (1.69%) XML
8 9 (1.69%) XMPP
9 8 (1.50%) CSS
9 8 (1.50%) Playwright
10 7 (1.31%) REST
11 6 (1.12%) Apache NiFi
11 6 (1.12%) Hibernate
11 6 (1.12%) OAuth
11 6 (1.12%) React
Miscellaneous
1 54 (10.11%) Data Centre
2 36 (6.74%) Product Ownership
3 25 (4.68%) Onboarding
4 16 (3.00%) Replication
5 14 (2.62%) Clustering
6 9 (1.69%) Cyber Threat
7 8 (1.50%) Enterprise Software
8 6 (1.12%) Cloud Native
9 5 (0.94%) Driving Licence
9 5 (0.94%) Fat Client
9 5 (0.94%) Legacy Systems
9 5 (0.94%) Mobile App
9 5 (0.94%) Security Posture
9 5 (0.94%) Thin Client
10 3 (0.56%) Data Protection Act
10 3 (0.56%) Distributed Systems
10 3 (0.56%) Handset
10 3 (0.56%) Management Information System
10 3 (0.56%) Public Cloud
10 3 (0.56%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 65 (12.17%) Windows
2 46 (8.61%) Linux
3 24 (4.49%) Windows Server
4 20 (3.75%) Unix
4 20 (3.75%) Windows 10
5 14 (2.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 11 (2.06%) Solaris
7 9 (1.69%) Windows 7
8 8 (1.50%) Android
9 6 (1.12%) Mac OS
10 3 (0.56%) AIX
10 3 (0.56%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.56%) Mac OS X
11 1 (0.19%) VMS
11 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 70 (13.11%) Agile
2 67 (12.55%) Problem-Solving
3 52 (9.74%) DevOps
4 49 (9.18%) CI/CD
5 47 (8.80%) ITSM
6 45 (8.43%) Continuous Improvement
6 45 (8.43%) Migration
6 45 (8.43%) Service Management
7 42 (7.87%) Project Delivery
8 39 (7.30%) Cybersecurity
8 39 (7.30%) High Availability
8 39 (7.30%) Stakeholder Management
9 34 (6.37%) Platform Engineering
10 33 (6.18%) Containerisation
11 32 (5.99%) Test Automation
12 31 (5.81%) Disaster Recovery
13 30 (5.62%) Change Management
14 29 (5.43%) Validation
15 27 (5.06%) Project Management
16 26 (4.87%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 64 (11.99%) Python
2 53 (9.93%) PowerShell
3 42 (7.87%) Java
4 21 (3.93%) Bash
4 21 (3.93%) SQL
5 15 (2.81%) JavaScript
5 15 (2.81%) TypeScript
6 14 (2.62%) Perl
7 10 (1.87%) ABAP
8 9 (1.69%) VB
8 9 (1.69%) VBScript
9 5 (0.94%) Rust
10 4 (0.75%) Go
10 4 (0.75%) Ruby
11 3 (0.56%) C#
12 2 (0.37%) AWK
12 2 (0.37%) COBOL
12 2 (0.37%) Kotlin
12 2 (0.37%) Kusto Query Language
12 2 (0.37%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 382 (71.54%) SC Cleared
2 62 (11.61%) BPSS Clearance
3 51 (9.55%) DV Cleared
4 40 (7.49%) Degree
5 35 (6.55%) Cisco Certification
6 33 (6.18%) CCNP
7 30 (5.62%) CCNA
8 13 (2.43%) Computer Science Degree
8 13 (2.43%) Microsoft Certification
9 9 (1.69%) AWS Certification
10 8 (1.50%) CCDP
10 8 (1.50%) CISSP
10 8 (1.50%) MCSA
10 8 (1.50%) MCSE
10 8 (1.50%) VCAP
10 8 (1.50%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 6 (1.12%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 6 (1.12%) CISM
11 6 (1.12%) ITIL Certification
12 5 (0.94%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (3.37%) NIST
2 16 (3.00%) Accessibility
3 13 (2.43%) QA
4 11 (2.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 9 (1.69%) SLA
6 6 (1.12%) Data Quality
6 6 (1.12%) JSP 440
6 6 (1.12%) NCSC
7 4 (0.75%) WCAG
8 3 (0.56%) GDPR
8 3 (0.56%) GRC
8 3 (0.56%) IFRS
8 3 (0.56%) PMO
9 2 (0.37%) IFRS 17
9 2 (0.37%) PSD2
10 1 (0.19%) Basel III
10 1 (0.19%) CRD IV
10 1 (0.19%) FINREP
10 1 (0.19%) IEC 61131
10 1 (0.19%) SOC 2
System Software
1 32 (5.99%) Active Directory
1 32 (5.99%) Docker
2 20 (3.75%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (2.06%) vSphere
4 10 (1.87%) Virtual Machines
4 10 (1.87%) VMware ESXi
5 9 (1.69%) BitLocker
6 4 (0.75%) Firmware
7 2 (0.37%) ISA Server
8 1 (0.19%) GPFS
8 1 (0.19%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.19%) NFS
8 1 (0.19%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 35 (6.55%) Kubernetes
2 31 (5.81%) Terraform
3 21 (3.93%) SCCM
4 15 (2.81%) Ansible
5 9 (1.69%) Microsoft Intune
5 9 (1.69%) vCenter Server
6 8 (1.50%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 7 (1.31%) Grafana
8 5 (0.94%) Prometheus
9 4 (0.75%) Norton AntiVirus
10 3 (0.56%) FortiGate
10 3 (0.56%) Oracle RMAN
11 2 (0.37%) Single Sign-On
12 1 (0.19%) Cisco CUCM
12 1 (0.19%) Failover Clustering
12 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Clustering
12 1 (0.19%) Nagios
12 1 (0.19%) Packer
12 1 (0.19%) vRealize
12 1 (0.19%) VxRail
Vendors
1 74 (13.86%) Cisco
1 74 (13.86%) Microsoft
2 71 (13.30%) SAP
3 36 (6.74%) Palo Alto
4 34 (6.37%) Oracle
5 32 (5.99%) ServiceNow
6 26 (4.87%) VMware
7 15 (2.81%) Citrix
8 14 (2.62%) Meraki
9 12 (2.25%) Adobe
10 11 (2.06%) Red Hat
11 9 (1.69%) Dell
11 9 (1.69%) IBM
12 8 (1.50%) Aruba
13 7 (1.31%) HP
14 6 (1.12%) CheckPoint
14 6 (1.12%) CyberArk
14 6 (1.12%) Ekahau
14 6 (1.12%) Splunk
15 5 (0.94%) Symantec