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

6 months to
15 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 2 4 2
Rank change year-on-year +2 -2 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 736 373 399
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 18.75% 17.41% 16.84%
As % of the Qualifications category 61.08% 51.45% 61.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 502 209 233
10th Percentile £350 £333 £294
25th Percentile £440 £425 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £530 £500
Median % change year-on-year - +6.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £643
90th Percentile £694 £702 £800
England median daily rate £550 £538 £550
% change year-on-year +2.33% -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 42 42 36
10th Percentile £26.25 £18.87 £17.27
25th Percentile £41.78 £22.16 £21.92
Median hourly rate £62.79 £26.26 £41.00
Median % change year-on-year +139.07% -35.95% -11.22%
75th Percentile £80.00 £51.16 £55.25
90th Percentile £83.75 £67.25 £71.54
England median hourly rate £65.00 £25.15 £61.60
% change year-on-year +158.45% -59.17% +2.67%

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 1,205 725 644
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 30.69% 33.85% 27.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 779 438 361
10th Percentile £310 £313 £294
25th Percentile £418 £406 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £518 £492 £503
Median % change year-on-year +5.18% -2.09% -4.29%
75th Percentile £613 £619 £613
90th Percentile £682 £713 £713
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 115 70 57
10th Percentile £17.25 £15.34 £16.71
25th Percentile £28.69 £19.15 £22.22
Median hourly rate £43.96 £27.19 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +61.69% -41.13% +0.65%
75th Percentile £64.09 £57.57 £55.79
90th Percentile £83.75 £71.68 £81.77
England median hourly rate £52.50 £25.15 £54.00
% change year-on-year +108.75% -53.43% -1.42%

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 15 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 15 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 15 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 0 277 £575 +7.98% 460
Cumbria 0 191 £492 -5.18% 19
Lancashire 0 147 £600 +9.09% 105
Cheshire +18 100 £525 +20.00% 28
Merseyside -19 14 £625 -16.67% 13
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 (3.80%) Microsoft Exchange
2 22 (2.99%) SharePoint
3 15 (2.04%) Skype for Business
4 12 (1.63%) SAS
5 5 (0.68%) Confluence
6 4 (0.54%) Apache Airflow
7 3 (0.41%) Apache
7 3 (0.41%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.27%) Jupyter
8 2 (0.27%) Oracle Workflow
8 2 (0.27%) SharePoint 2013
9 1 (0.14%) IIS
9 1 (0.14%) NetWeaver
9 1 (0.14%) nginx
9 1 (0.14%) Traefik
Applications
1 28 (3.80%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (0.68%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.41%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.14%) AutoCAD
4 1 (0.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.14%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.14%) Navisworks
4 1 (0.14%) ProjectWise
4 1 (0.14%) Revit
Business Applications
1 10 (1.36%) SAP S/4HANA
2 8 (1.09%) Oracle Payables
3 5 (0.68%) Remedy ITSM
3 5 (0.68%) SAP HR
3 5 (0.68%) Teamcenter
4 3 (0.41%) SAP MDG
5 2 (0.27%) Oracle Cash Management
5 2 (0.27%) Oracle EBS
5 2 (0.27%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 2 (0.27%) SAP PLM
6 1 (0.14%) Dynamics AX
6 1 (0.14%) Dynamics CRM
6 1 (0.14%) Integrated Workplace Management System
6 1 (0.14%) Primavera
6 1 (0.14%) SAP ERP
6 1 (0.14%) SAP MM
6 1 (0.14%) SAP PM
6 1 (0.14%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 105 (14.27%) Azure
2 98 (13.32%) AWS
3 37 (5.03%) Microsoft 365
4 31 (4.21%) Power Platform
5 30 (4.08%) SuccessFactors
6 27 (3.67%) Azure DevOps
7 21 (2.85%) Entra ID
8 19 (2.58%) OCI
9 18 (2.45%) SaaS
10 16 (2.17%) Serverless
11 15 (2.04%) GCP
12 14 (1.90%) GitHub
13 12 (1.63%) Azure Monitor
14 10 (1.36%) Google Workspace
15 7 (0.95%) Azure AKS
15 7 (0.95%) GitHub Actions
15 7 (0.95%) Google Drive
16 6 (0.82%) Dynamics 365
16 6 (0.82%) Microsoft Copilot
16 6 (0.82%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 62 (8.42%) Firewall
2 38 (5.16%) Wireless
3 35 (4.76%) VPN
4 31 (4.21%) WAN
5 30 (4.08%) Network Security
6 26 (3.53%) BGP
6 26 (3.53%) OSPF
6 26 (3.53%) Wi-Fi
7 25 (3.40%) DNS
8 23 (3.13%) LAN
9 21 (2.85%) Cisco ASA
9 21 (2.85%) VLAN
10 20 (2.72%) DHCP
11 19 (2.58%) Structured Cabling
12 18 (2.45%) EIGRP
12 18 (2.45%) Skype
13 17 (2.31%) Cisco Firepower
14 16 (2.17%) NetScaler
15 15 (2.04%) SAN
16 13 (1.77%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 46 (6.25%) SQL Server
2 29 (3.94%) MySQL
3 25 (3.40%) PostgreSQL
4 23 (3.13%) Oracle Database
5 18 (2.45%) Power BI
6 16 (2.17%) MongoDB
7 15 (2.04%) Relational Database
8 11 (1.49%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 10 (1.36%) RDBMS
10 8 (1.09%) Oracle Exadata
11 7 (0.95%) NoSQL
12 5 (0.68%) Data Warehouse
12 5 (0.68%) Metadata
13 4 (0.54%) Oracle Database 12c
14 3 (0.41%) Data Lake
15 2 (0.27%) Amazon QuickSight
15 2 (0.27%) Amazon Redshift
15 2 (0.27%) Big Data
15 2 (0.27%) Oracle BI Publisher
15 2 (0.27%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 29 (3.94%) GitLab
2 15 (2.04%) Git
3 12 (1.63%) Selenium
4 10 (1.36%) JIRA
5 9 (1.22%) Cucumber
5 9 (1.22%) Jenkins
5 9 (1.22%) REST Assured
6 6 (0.82%) MSI
7 4 (0.54%) Gatling
8 3 (0.41%) Mockito
8 3 (0.41%) Serenity BDD
8 3 (0.41%) Sonatype Nexus
8 3 (0.41%) Toad
8 3 (0.41%) WebDriver
9 2 (0.27%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.27%) JDeveloper
9 2 (0.27%) Rational DOORS
10 1 (0.14%) ClearCase
10 1 (0.14%) Rational Robot
10 1 (0.14%) Visual Studio Coded UI
General
1 134 (18.21%) Social Skills
2 113 (15.35%) Public Sector
3 57 (7.74%) Military
4 40 (5.43%) Analytical Skills
5 23 (3.13%) Documentation Skills
6 21 (2.85%) Finance
7 20 (2.72%) Legal
7 20 (2.72%) Manufacturing
8 9 (1.22%) Aerospace
9 8 (1.09%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 8 (1.09%) Organisational Skills
10 7 (0.95%) Presentation Skills
11 4 (0.54%) Retail
12 3 (0.41%) Influencing Skills
12 3 (0.41%) Local Government
12 3 (0.41%) Police
13 2 (0.27%) Banking
13 2 (0.27%) General Ledger
13 2 (0.27%) Marketing
13 2 (0.27%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 110 (14.95%) Architect
2 107 (14.54%) Lead
3 64 (8.70%) Consultant
4 62 (8.42%) Network Engineer
4 62 (8.42%) Senior
5 50 (6.79%) DBA
6 39 (5.30%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
7 38 (5.16%) Unix Engineer
8 37 (5.03%) Analyst
9 35 (4.76%) Administrator
10 32 (4.35%) Developer
11 31 (4.21%) SQL DBA
12 28 (3.80%) Technical Architect
13 26 (3.53%) Lead Architect
14 24 (3.26%) DevOps Engineer
15 21 (2.85%) Desktop Engineer
15 21 (2.85%) Infrastructure Engineer
16 20 (2.72%) Security Architect
16 20 (2.72%) Senior Consultant
17 19 (2.58%) Oracle DBA
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 53 (7.20%) Terraform
2 20 (2.72%) Node.js
3 18 (2.45%) REST
4 16 (2.17%) Spring
5 15 (2.04%) Spring Boot
6 13 (1.77%) Kafka
6 13 (1.77%) OAuth
7 8 (1.09%) Oracle GoldenGate
8 6 (0.82%) AWS CDK
8 6 (0.82%) OpenID
8 6 (0.82%) Playwright
9 5 (0.68%) Nunjucks
9 5 (0.68%) SOAP
10 4 (0.54%) PySpark
10 4 (0.54%) XML
11 3 (0.41%) .NET
11 3 (0.41%) ActiveMQ
11 3 (0.41%) Django
11 3 (0.41%) RESTful
11 3 (0.41%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 34 (4.62%) Onboarding
2 29 (3.94%) Data Centre
3 26 (3.53%) Clustering
4 25 (3.40%) Replication
5 18 (2.45%) Cloud Native
6 15 (2.04%) CMDB
7 13 (1.77%) Enterprise Software
7 13 (1.77%) Legacy Systems
8 12 (1.63%) Operational Technology
9 11 (1.49%) Hybrid Cloud
10 10 (1.36%) Management Information System
10 10 (1.36%) PKI
11 9 (1.22%) Cyber Threat
11 9 (1.22%) Public Cloud
12 7 (0.95%) Product Ownership
13 6 (0.82%) Data Protection Act
13 6 (0.82%) Driving Licence
14 5 (0.68%) CSOC
14 5 (0.68%) Distributed Systems
15 4 (0.54%) Freedom of Information
Operating Systems
1 83 (11.28%) Windows
2 51 (6.93%) Unix
3 46 (6.25%) Solaris
4 40 (5.43%) Windows 10
5 37 (5.03%) Linux
6 35 (4.76%) Windows Server
7 19 (2.58%) Windows 7
8 10 (1.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 8 (1.09%) AIX
10 5 (0.68%) CentOS
10 5 (0.68%) Mac OS
10 5 (0.68%) Windows Server 2003
11 4 (0.54%) Android
12 3 (0.41%) 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 95 (12.91%) Stakeholder Management
2 88 (11.96%) Cybersecurity
3 81 (11.01%) ITIL
4 80 (10.87%) DevOps
5 77 (10.46%) Migration
6 71 (9.65%) Continuous Improvement
7 69 (9.38%) CI/CD
8 66 (8.97%) ITSM
9 65 (8.83%) Service Management
10 58 (7.88%) Agile
10 58 (7.88%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 53 (7.20%) Problem-Solving
12 47 (6.39%) High Availability
12 47 (6.39%) Project Delivery
12 47 (6.39%) Roadmaps
13 45 (6.11%) Incident Management
13 45 (6.11%) Technical Leadership
14 40 (5.43%) Infrastructure as Code
15 39 (5.30%) Risk Management
16 37 (5.03%) Disaster Recovery
Programming Languages
1 63 (8.56%) SQL
2 56 (7.61%) PowerShell
3 55 (7.47%) Python
4 38 (5.16%) Java
5 22 (2.99%) JavaScript
6 16 (2.17%) VBScript
7 14 (1.90%) VB
8 11 (1.49%) T-SQL
9 8 (1.09%) Bash
9 8 (1.09%) TypeScript
10 6 (0.82%) Bicep
11 4 (0.54%) C#
12 3 (0.41%) Go
12 3 (0.41%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.27%) ABAP
13 2 (0.27%) PL/SQL
13 2 (0.27%) Search Processing Language
14 1 (0.14%) Google Apps Script
14 1 (0.14%) Kusto Query Language
14 1 (0.14%) VB6
Qualifications
1 604 (82.07%) SC Cleared
2 63 (8.56%) BPSS Clearance
3 41 (5.57%) Microsoft Certification
4 34 (4.62%) DV Cleared
5 29 (3.94%) Cisco Certification
6 26 (3.53%) CCNA
7 23 (3.13%) Degree
8 20 (2.72%) Azure Certification
9 16 (2.17%) CCNP
10 13 (1.77%) DBS Check
11 11 (1.49%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 11 (1.49%) Network+ Certification
11 11 (1.49%) Server+ Certification
12 9 (1.22%) CISSP
13 8 (1.09%) MCSA
13 8 (1.09%) MCSE
13 8 (1.09%) VCAP
13 8 (1.09%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 6 (0.82%) AWS Certification
15 5 (0.68%) HNC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 34 (4.62%) NIST
2 31 (4.21%) SLA
3 27 (3.67%) NCSC
3 27 (3.67%) PMO
4 22 (2.99%) GRC
5 20 (2.72%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 18 (2.45%) Data Quality
7 13 (1.77%) GDPR
8 11 (1.49%) QA
9 10 (1.36%) Accessibility
10 6 (0.82%) NIST 800
11 3 (0.41%) JSP 440
12 2 (0.27%) Actionable Recommendations
12 2 (0.27%) PCI DSS
12 2 (0.27%) WCAG
13 1 (0.14%) Cyber Essentials
13 1 (0.14%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 1 (0.14%) ISO/IEC 27005
13 1 (0.14%) ITGC
13 1 (0.14%) Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment)
System Software
1 47 (6.39%) Active Directory
2 28 (3.80%) VMware Infrastructure
3 25 (3.40%) Virtual Machines
4 24 (3.26%) Docker
5 19 (2.58%) Hyper-V
6 16 (2.17%) BitLocker
6 16 (2.17%) Oracle RAC
7 11 (1.49%) Citrix Hypervisor
8 10 (1.36%) VMware ESXi
8 10 (1.36%) vSphere
9 6 (0.82%) XenApp
9 6 (0.82%) XenDesktop
10 5 (0.68%) Virtual Desktop
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 33 (4.48%) Ansible
2 30 (4.08%) Kubernetes
2 30 (4.08%) SCCM
3 16 (2.17%) Data Guard
4 12 (1.63%) Oracle RMAN
5 10 (1.36%) SCOM
5 10 (1.36%) vCenter Server
6 9 (1.22%) Microsoft Intune
7 8 (1.09%) Grafana
8 7 (0.95%) Prometheus
8 7 (0.95%) SysTrack
9 6 (0.82%) Failover Clustering
9 6 (0.82%) Single Sign-On
10 4 (0.54%) Nagios
10 4 (0.54%) Oracle ZFS
11 3 (0.41%) McAfee ePO
11 3 (0.41%) Microsoft Clustering
12 2 (0.27%) CASB
12 2 (0.27%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
12 2 (0.27%) Packer
Vendors
1 131 (17.80%) Microsoft
2 72 (9.78%) ServiceNow
3 70 (9.51%) Oracle
4 62 (8.42%) Cisco
5 57 (7.74%) SAP
6 37 (5.03%) Palo Alto
7 33 (4.48%) VMware
8 18 (2.45%) CheckPoint
8 18 (2.45%) Citrix
9 16 (2.17%) F5
10 12 (1.63%) Google
10 12 (1.63%) Splunk
11 9 (1.22%) Aruba
12 8 (1.09%) Meraki
13 7 (0.95%) Nexthink
14 6 (0.82%) Arista
14 6 (0.82%) Databricks
14 6 (0.82%) Ivanti
15 5 (0.68%) Qualtrics
15 5 (0.68%) Remedy