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

6 months to
9 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 2 4 3
Rank change year-on-year +2 -1 -1
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 748 380 393
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 18.73% 17.53% 16.69%
As % of the Qualifications category 61.36% 51.84% 62.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 517 211 227
10th Percentile £359 £350 £304
25th Percentile £440 £429 £412
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £530 £503
Median % change year-on-year - +5.47% -6.29%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
90th Percentile £714 £688 £800
England median daily rate £549 £538 £550
% change year-on-year +2.14% -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 42 43 37
10th Percentile £26.48 £18.87 £17.42
25th Percentile £41.78 £22.16 £22.22
Median hourly rate £64.05 £27.38 £37.00
Median % change year-on-year +133.95% -26.01% -19.88%
75th Percentile £80.00 £54.00 £55.25
90th Percentile £83.75 £69.45 £69.74
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 1,219 733 629
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 30.53% 33.81% 26.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 795 436 355
10th Percentile £311 £313 £294
25th Percentile £418 £408 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £492 £505
Median % change year-on-year +5.39% -2.57% -3.81%
75th Percentile £618 £619 £626
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 112 71 58
10th Percentile £17.25 £15.50 £16.75
25th Percentile £28.64 £19.44 £22.22
Median hourly rate £43.96 £27.38 £45.59
Median % change year-on-year +60.58% -39.95% +3.17%
75th Percentile £64.63 £58.42 £55.65
90th Percentile £83.75 £73.75 £81.48
England median hourly rate £52.50 £25.15 £55.00
% change year-on-year +108.75% -54.27% -

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 9 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 9 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 9 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 0 280 £571 +7.74% 265
Cumbria 0 189 £489 -5.79% 15
Lancashire 0 156 £625 +19.05% 74
Cheshire +16 102 £511 +18.49% 25
Merseyside -21 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 (3.74%) Microsoft Exchange
2 22 (2.94%) SharePoint
3 15 (2.01%) Skype for Business
4 12 (1.60%) SAS
5 4 (0.53%) Confluence
6 3 (0.40%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.27%) Apache
7 2 (0.27%) Apache Spark
7 2 (0.27%) Jupyter
7 2 (0.27%) Oracle Workflow
7 2 (0.27%) SharePoint 2013
8 1 (0.13%) IIS
8 1 (0.13%) NetWeaver
Applications
1 28 (3.74%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (0.80%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.53%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.27%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.27%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.13%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.13%) Navisworks
5 1 (0.13%) ProjectWise
5 1 (0.13%) Revit
Business Applications
1 10 (1.34%) SAP S/4HANA
2 9 (1.20%) Oracle Payables
3 5 (0.67%) Remedy ITSM
3 5 (0.67%) SAP HR
3 5 (0.67%) Teamcenter
4 3 (0.40%) 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%) Primavera
5 2 (0.27%) SAP MM
5 2 (0.27%) SAP PLM
6 1 (0.13%) Dynamics AX
6 1 (0.13%) Dynamics CRM
6 1 (0.13%) Integrated Workplace Management System
6 1 (0.13%) SAP ERP
6 1 (0.13%) SAP PM
6 1 (0.13%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 106 (14.17%) Azure
2 103 (13.77%) AWS
3 37 (4.95%) Microsoft 365
4 32 (4.28%) Power Platform
5 30 (4.01%) SuccessFactors
6 27 (3.61%) Azure DevOps
7 19 (2.54%) OCI
8 18 (2.41%) Entra ID
8 18 (2.41%) SaaS
9 17 (2.27%) Serverless
10 15 (2.01%) GCP
11 14 (1.87%) GitHub
12 12 (1.60%) Azure Monitor
13 10 (1.34%) Google Workspace
14 7 (0.94%) Azure AKS
14 7 (0.94%) GitHub Actions
14 7 (0.94%) Google Drive
15 6 (0.80%) Dynamics 365
15 6 (0.80%) Microsoft Copilot
15 6 (0.80%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 62 (8.29%) Firewall
2 37 (4.95%) Wireless
3 35 (4.68%) VPN
4 31 (4.14%) WAN
5 29 (3.88%) Network Security
6 26 (3.48%) BGP
6 26 (3.48%) OSPF
6 26 (3.48%) Wi-Fi
7 24 (3.21%) DNS
8 23 (3.07%) LAN
9 22 (2.94%) VLAN
10 21 (2.81%) Cisco ASA
11 20 (2.67%) DHCP
12 18 (2.41%) EIGRP
12 18 (2.41%) Skype
12 18 (2.41%) Structured Cabling
13 17 (2.27%) Cisco Firepower
14 15 (2.01%) SAN
15 14 (1.87%) NetScaler
16 13 (1.74%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 44 (5.88%) SQL Server
2 28 (3.74%) MySQL
3 26 (3.48%) PostgreSQL
4 24 (3.21%) Oracle Database
5 19 (2.54%) Power BI
6 16 (2.14%) MongoDB
7 15 (2.01%) Relational Database
8 11 (1.47%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 10 (1.34%) RDBMS
10 8 (1.07%) NoSQL
10 8 (1.07%) Oracle Exadata
11 7 (0.94%) Oracle Database 12c
12 5 (0.67%) Data Warehouse
12 5 (0.67%) Metadata
13 3 (0.40%) Data Lake
14 2 (0.27%) Amazon QuickSight
14 2 (0.27%) Amazon Redshift
14 2 (0.27%) Big Data
14 2 (0.27%) Oracle BI Publisher
14 2 (0.27%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 28 (3.74%) GitLab
2 14 (1.87%) Git
3 12 (1.60%) Selenium
4 9 (1.20%) Cucumber
4 9 (1.20%) REST Assured
5 8 (1.07%) Jenkins
5 8 (1.07%) JIRA
6 6 (0.80%) MSI
7 4 (0.53%) Gatling
8 3 (0.40%) Mockito
8 3 (0.40%) Serenity BDD
8 3 (0.40%) Sonatype Nexus
8 3 (0.40%) Toad
8 3 (0.40%) WebDriver
9 2 (0.27%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.27%) JDeveloper
9 2 (0.27%) Rational DOORS
10 1 (0.13%) Postman
10 1 (0.13%) SonarQube
10 1 (0.13%) Visual Studio Coded UI
General
1 135 (18.05%) Social Skills
2 115 (15.37%) Public Sector
3 53 (7.09%) Military
4 39 (5.21%) Analytical Skills
5 26 (3.48%) Documentation Skills
6 22 (2.94%) Finance
7 20 (2.67%) Legal
7 20 (2.67%) Manufacturing
8 10 (1.34%) Aerospace
9 9 (1.20%) Presentation Skills
10 8 (1.07%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 8 (1.07%) Organisational Skills
11 4 (0.53%) Retail
12 3 (0.40%) Influencing Skills
12 3 (0.40%) Local Government
13 2 (0.27%) Banking
13 2 (0.27%) General Ledger
13 2 (0.27%) Marketing
13 2 (0.27%) Telecoms
14 1 (0.13%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 112 (14.97%) Architect
2 110 (14.71%) Lead
3 66 (8.82%) Consultant
4 62 (8.29%) Network Engineer
5 61 (8.16%) Senior
6 51 (6.82%) DBA
7 38 (5.08%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
7 38 (5.08%) Unix Engineer
8 37 (4.95%) Analyst
9 34 (4.55%) Developer
10 31 (4.14%) Administrator
11 29 (3.88%) SQL DBA
12 28 (3.74%) Technical Architect
13 27 (3.61%) Lead Architect
14 24 (3.21%) DevOps Engineer
15 21 (2.81%) Desktop Engineer
15 21 (2.81%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 21 (2.81%) Security Architect
16 20 (2.67%) Oracle DBA
16 20 (2.67%) Senior Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 52 (6.95%) Terraform
2 20 (2.67%) Node.js
3 18 (2.41%) Spring
4 17 (2.27%) REST
4 17 (2.27%) Spring Boot
5 14 (1.87%) OAuth
6 13 (1.74%) Kafka
7 8 (1.07%) Oracle GoldenGate
8 6 (0.80%) AWS CDK
8 6 (0.80%) OpenID
8 6 (0.80%) Playwright
9 5 (0.67%) Leaflet
9 5 (0.67%) Nunjucks
9 5 (0.67%) SOAP
10 4 (0.53%) ModSecurity
10 4 (0.53%) RESTful
10 4 (0.53%) XML
11 3 (0.40%) ActiveMQ
11 3 (0.40%) Django
11 3 (0.40%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 35 (4.68%) Onboarding
2 28 (3.74%) Data Centre
3 26 (3.48%) Clustering
4 25 (3.34%) Replication
5 19 (2.54%) Cloud Native
6 15 (2.01%) CMDB
6 15 (2.01%) Operational Technology
7 13 (1.74%) Enterprise Software
7 13 (1.74%) Legacy Systems
8 11 (1.47%) Hybrid Cloud
8 11 (1.47%) Management Information System
9 10 (1.34%) Cyber Threat
10 9 (1.20%) PKI
10 9 (1.20%) Public Cloud
11 8 (1.07%) Product Ownership
12 6 (0.80%) Data Protection Act
13 5 (0.67%) CSOC
13 5 (0.67%) Distributed Systems
13 5 (0.67%) Driving Licence
14 4 (0.53%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 81 (10.83%) Windows
2 48 (6.42%) Unix
3 42 (5.61%) Solaris
4 38 (5.08%) Windows 10
5 36 (4.81%) Linux
6 33 (4.41%) Windows Server
7 19 (2.54%) Windows 7
8 8 (1.07%) AIX
8 8 (1.07%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 5 (0.67%) Mac OS
9 5 (0.67%) Windows Server 2003
10 4 (0.53%) Android
10 4 (0.53%) CentOS
11 3 (0.40%) VMS
12 1 (0.13%) Apple iOS
12 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 98 (13.10%) Stakeholder Management
2 93 (12.43%) Cybersecurity
3 81 (10.83%) DevOps
4 80 (10.70%) ITIL
5 78 (10.43%) Migration
6 74 (9.89%) Continuous Improvement
7 69 (9.22%) CI/CD
8 68 (9.09%) ITSM
9 67 (8.96%) Service Management
10 59 (7.89%) Agile
10 59 (7.89%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 50 (6.68%) High Availability
11 50 (6.68%) Problem-Solving
12 49 (6.55%) Project Delivery
13 48 (6.42%) Roadmaps
14 46 (6.15%) Incident Management
14 46 (6.15%) Technical Leadership
15 43 (5.75%) Risk Management
16 38 (5.08%) Infrastructure as Code
17 37 (4.95%) Disaster Recovery
Programming Languages
1 63 (8.42%) SQL
2 55 (7.35%) PowerShell
3 54 (7.22%) Python
4 39 (5.21%) Java
5 21 (2.81%) JavaScript
6 16 (2.14%) VBScript
7 14 (1.87%) VB
8 11 (1.47%) T-SQL
9 8 (1.07%) TypeScript
10 6 (0.80%) Bash
10 6 (0.80%) Bicep
11 4 (0.53%) C#
12 3 (0.40%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.27%) ABAP
13 2 (0.27%) Go
13 2 (0.27%) PL/SQL
13 2 (0.27%) Search Processing Language
14 1 (0.13%) Google Apps Script
14 1 (0.13%) Kotlin
14 1 (0.13%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 604 (80.75%) SC Cleared
2 64 (8.56%) BPSS Clearance
3 44 (5.88%) DV Cleared
4 38 (5.08%) Microsoft Certification
5 30 (4.01%) Cisco Certification
6 27 (3.61%) CCNA
7 25 (3.34%) Degree
8 19 (2.54%) Azure Certification
9 17 (2.27%) CCNP
10 13 (1.74%) DBS Check
11 12 (1.60%) CISSP
12 11 (1.47%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 11 (1.47%) Network+ Certification
12 11 (1.47%) Server+ Certification
13 8 (1.07%) MCSA
13 8 (1.07%) MCSE
13 8 (1.07%) VCAP
13 8 (1.07%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 5 (0.67%) HNC
14 5 (0.67%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (4.95%) NIST
2 32 (4.28%) SLA
3 28 (3.74%) NCSC
4 27 (3.61%) PMO
5 22 (2.94%) GRC
6 21 (2.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 18 (2.41%) Data Quality
8 16 (2.14%) QA
9 13 (1.74%) GDPR
10 11 (1.47%) Accessibility
11 7 (0.94%) NIST 800
12 6 (0.80%) JSP 440
13 3 (0.40%) WCAG
14 2 (0.27%) Actionable Recommendations
14 2 (0.27%) PCI DSS
15 1 (0.13%) Cyber Essentials
15 1 (0.13%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 1 (0.13%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 1 (0.13%) ITGC
15 1 (0.13%) Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment)
System Software
1 43 (5.75%) Active Directory
2 26 (3.48%) Docker
2 26 (3.48%) VMware Infrastructure
3 24 (3.21%) Virtual Machines
4 17 (2.27%) Hyper-V
5 16 (2.14%) BitLocker
5 16 (2.14%) Oracle RAC
6 10 (1.34%) VMware ESXi
6 10 (1.34%) vSphere
7 9 (1.20%) Citrix Hypervisor
8 5 (0.67%) Virtual Desktop
8 5 (0.67%) XenApp
8 5 (0.67%) XenDesktop
9 1 (0.13%) Microsoft App-V
9 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Virtual Server
9 1 (0.13%) Squid
9 1 (0.13%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.13%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 33 (4.41%) Ansible
2 30 (4.01%) Kubernetes
2 30 (4.01%) SCCM
3 16 (2.14%) Data Guard
4 15 (2.01%) Oracle RMAN
5 10 (1.34%) SCOM
5 10 (1.34%) vCenter Server
6 9 (1.20%) Microsoft Intune
7 7 (0.94%) Grafana
8 6 (0.80%) Failover Clustering
8 6 (0.80%) Prometheus
8 6 (0.80%) SysTrack
9 5 (0.67%) Single Sign-On
10 4 (0.53%) Nagios
10 4 (0.53%) Oracle ZFS
11 3 (0.40%) McAfee ePO
11 3 (0.40%) Microsoft Clustering
12 2 (0.27%) CASB
12 2 (0.27%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
12 2 (0.27%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 126 (16.84%) Microsoft
2 73 (9.76%) ServiceNow
3 72 (9.63%) Oracle
4 61 (8.16%) Cisco
5 57 (7.62%) SAP
6 38 (5.08%) Palo Alto
7 31 (4.14%) VMware
8 19 (2.54%) CheckPoint
9 16 (2.14%) Citrix
9 16 (2.14%) F5
10 12 (1.60%) Google
11 11 (1.47%) Splunk
12 9 (1.20%) Aruba
13 7 (0.94%) Meraki
14 6 (0.80%) Arista
14 6 (0.80%) Databricks
14 6 (0.80%) Ivanti
14 6 (0.80%) Nexthink
15 5 (0.67%) Qualtrics
15 5 (0.67%) Remedy