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

6 months to
22 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 3 4 2
Rank change year-on-year +1 -2 -1
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 569 384 420
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 15.46% 17.86% 16.35%
As % of the Qualifications category 56.34% 53.41% 57.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 370 207 242
10th Percentile £360 £313 £313
25th Percentile £424 £431 £424
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £501
Median % change year-on-year - +4.74% -6.74%
75th Percentile £640 £638 £608
90th Percentile £752 £725 £763
England median daily rate £531 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -1.19% -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 39 40 62
10th Percentile £22.68 £21.94 -
25th Percentile £28.50 £22.63 £10.95
Median hourly rate £64.09 £33.50 £18.10
Median % change year-on-year +91.31% +85.11% -57.42%
75th Percentile £77.13 £59.93 £46.11
90th Percentile £84.95 £70.29 £55.79
England median hourly rate £63.50 £25.15 £57.50
% change year-on-year +152.49% -56.26% -4.17%

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 1,010 719 736
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 27.45% 33.44% 28.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 643 412 414
10th Percentile £335 £271 £230
25th Percentile £401 £405 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.67%
75th Percentile £619 £616 £600
90th Percentile £700 £724 £699
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 88 67 121
10th Percentile £17.25 £17.44 £10.95
25th Percentile £28.50 £22.16 £14.00
Median hourly rate £43.96 £32.00 £17.00
Median % change year-on-year +37.38% +88.24% -58.12%
75th Percentile £72.19 £59.95 £43.75
90th Percentile £92.08 £74.57 £62.50
England median hourly rate £54.00 £25.30 £43.00
% change year-on-year +113.44% -41.16% -23.76%

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 22 July 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 22 July 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 22 July 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 -1 229 £538 +1.42% 120
Cumbria 0 158 £485 -7.62% 13
Cheshire +25 87 £528 +34.82% 21
Lancashire 0 74 £700 +55.56% 42
Merseyside -20 16 £650 +3.38%
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 21 (3.69%) Microsoft Exchange
2 14 (2.46%) SharePoint
3 7 (1.23%) Skype for Business
4 5 (0.88%) Apache Spark
4 5 (0.88%) Confluence
5 4 (0.70%) SAS
6 3 (0.53%) Jupyter
7 2 (0.35%) Apache
7 2 (0.35%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.35%) CICS
7 2 (0.35%) Oracle Workflow
7 2 (0.35%) SharePoint 2013
8 1 (0.18%) IIS
8 1 (0.18%) NetWeaver
8 1 (0.18%) nginx
Applications
1 16 (2.81%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (1.58%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (0.88%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.70%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.18%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.18%) Navisworks
5 1 (0.18%) ProjectWise
5 1 (0.18%) Revit
5 1 (0.18%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 7 (1.23%) Oracle Payables
2 6 (1.05%) SAP S/4HANA
3 4 (0.70%) Remedy ITSM
4 3 (0.53%) Primavera
4 3 (0.53%) SAP MM
5 2 (0.35%) Oracle Cash Management
5 2 (0.35%) Oracle EBS
5 2 (0.35%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 2 (0.35%) Teamcenter
6 1 (0.18%) Dynamics AX
6 1 (0.18%) Dynamics CRM
6 1 (0.18%) Integrated Workplace Management System
6 1 (0.18%) SAP PM
Cloud Services
1 103 (18.10%) AWS
2 84 (14.76%) Azure
3 27 (4.75%) Microsoft 365
4 25 (4.39%) Power Platform
5 19 (3.34%) OCI
6 18 (3.16%) Azure DevOps
7 16 (2.81%) SaaS
7 16 (2.81%) Serverless
8 14 (2.46%) GitHub
9 13 (2.28%) Entra ID
10 12 (2.11%) GCP
11 9 (1.58%) Azure Monitor
11 9 (1.58%) Google Workspace
12 7 (1.23%) Google Drive
13 6 (1.05%) OpenShift
14 5 (0.88%) Dynamics 365
14 5 (0.88%) GitHub Actions
14 5 (0.88%) Power Automate
15 4 (0.70%) AWS Lambda
15 4 (0.70%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 62 (10.90%) Firewall
2 38 (6.68%) Wireless
3 27 (4.75%) DNS
3 27 (4.75%) WAN
4 26 (4.57%) VLAN
5 25 (4.39%) VPN
6 23 (4.04%) Network Security
7 22 (3.87%) Structured Cabling
8 19 (3.34%) DHCP
8 19 (3.34%) LAN
9 18 (3.16%) Wi-Fi
10 17 (2.99%) BGP
10 17 (2.99%) NAS
10 17 (2.99%) SAN
11 16 (2.81%) Cisco IOS
11 16 (2.81%) NX-OS
11 16 (2.81%) OSPF
12 11 (1.93%) Broadband
12 11 (1.93%) Converged Networks
13 10 (1.76%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (5.80%) SQL Server
2 22 (3.87%) Oracle Database
3 21 (3.69%) PostgreSQL
4 17 (2.99%) MongoDB
4 17 (2.99%) MySQL
4 17 (2.99%) Power BI
4 17 (2.99%) Relational Database
5 9 (1.58%) Elasticsearch
5 9 (1.58%) RDBMS
5 9 (1.58%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 7 (1.23%) Metadata
6 7 (1.23%) Oracle Database 12c
6 7 (1.23%) Oracle Exadata
7 6 (1.05%) NoSQL
8 4 (0.70%) Hadoop
9 2 (0.35%) Data Lake
9 2 (0.35%) Data Warehouse
9 2 (0.35%) DataStage
9 2 (0.35%) Oracle Reports
9 2 (0.35%) WebFOCUS
Development Applications
1 32 (5.62%) GitLab
2 13 (2.28%) Git
2 13 (2.28%) Selenium
3 10 (1.76%) Jenkins
3 10 (1.76%) JIRA
4 9 (1.58%) REST Assured
5 6 (1.05%) Cucumber
5 6 (1.05%) Gatling
6 5 (0.88%) MSI
6 5 (0.88%) Serenity BDD
7 3 (0.53%) Cypress.io
7 3 (0.53%) JMeter
7 3 (0.53%) Mockito
8 2 (0.35%) JDeveloper
8 2 (0.35%) Postman
8 2 (0.35%) Sonatype Nexus
8 2 (0.35%) Toad
8 2 (0.35%) WebDriver
9 1 (0.18%) SonarQube
9 1 (0.18%) Visual Studio Coded UI
General
1 119 (20.91%) Public Sector
2 111 (19.51%) Social Skills
3 48 (8.44%) Military
4 39 (6.85%) Analytical Skills
5 28 (4.92%) Finance
6 24 (4.22%) Documentation Skills
7 22 (3.87%) Legal
8 11 (1.93%) Manufacturing
9 10 (1.76%) Aerospace
10 6 (1.05%) Banking
11 5 (0.88%) Organisational Skills
11 5 (0.88%) Presentation Skills
12 4 (0.70%) Aviation
12 4 (0.70%) Retail
13 3 (0.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 3 (0.53%) Local Government
14 2 (0.35%) General Ledger
14 2 (0.35%) Influencing Skills
14 2 (0.35%) Marketing
15 1 (0.18%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 87 (15.29%) Lead
2 74 (13.01%) Architect
3 48 (8.44%) Network Engineer
4 42 (7.38%) DBA
4 42 (7.38%) Developer
5 35 (6.15%) Senior
6 34 (5.98%) Administrator
7 28 (4.92%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
7 28 (4.92%) Unix Engineer
8 24 (4.22%) Analyst
9 23 (4.04%) SQL DBA
10 21 (3.69%) Lead Architect
11 20 (3.51%) Consultant
12 19 (3.34%) DevOps Engineer
12 19 (3.34%) Oracle DBA
13 17 (2.99%) Technical Architect
14 16 (2.81%) Coordinator
14 16 (2.81%) Data Engineer
14 16 (2.81%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 15 (2.64%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (4.22%) Spring
2 22 (3.87%) Node.js
2 22 (3.87%) Spring Boot
3 18 (3.16%) Kafka
4 15 (2.64%) REST
5 14 (2.46%) OAuth
6 8 (1.41%) Playwright
7 7 (1.23%) Oracle GoldenGate
8 6 (1.05%) OpenID
9 5 (0.88%) 802.1X
9 5 (0.88%) Apache NiFi
9 5 (0.88%) Leaflet
9 5 (0.88%) Nunjucks
9 5 (0.88%) RESTful
9 5 (0.88%) SOAP
9 5 (0.88%) Spring Cloud
10 4 (0.70%) AWS CDK
10 4 (0.70%) ModSecurity
10 4 (0.70%) React
11 3 (0.53%) JAX-RS
Miscellaneous
1 33 (5.80%) Data Centre
2 30 (5.27%) Onboarding
3 23 (4.04%) Replication
4 21 (3.69%) Clustering
5 19 (3.34%) Cloud Native
6 16 (2.81%) Operational Technology
7 14 (2.46%) Legacy Systems
7 14 (2.46%) Product Ownership
8 11 (1.93%) Management Information System
9 10 (1.76%) Hybrid Cloud
10 9 (1.58%) Enterprise Software
11 8 (1.41%) Cyber Threat
12 7 (1.23%) Data Protection Act
12 7 (1.23%) Public Cloud
13 6 (1.05%) Security Posture
14 5 (0.88%) CMDB
14 5 (0.88%) CSOC
14 5 (0.88%) Distributed Systems
15 4 (0.70%) Freedom of Information
15 4 (0.70%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 51 (8.96%) Windows
2 40 (7.03%) Linux
3 38 (6.68%) Unix
4 34 (5.98%) Solaris
5 19 (3.34%) Windows 10
6 18 (3.16%) Windows Server
7 10 (1.76%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 9 (1.58%) AIX
9 7 (1.23%) Windows 7
10 4 (0.70%) CentOS
10 4 (0.70%) Mac OS
11 3 (0.53%) VMS
12 2 (0.35%) Android
12 2 (0.35%) Apple iOS
13 1 (0.18%) Mac OS X
13 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 78 (13.71%) DevOps
2 67 (11.78%) CI/CD
3 64 (11.25%) Agile
4 61 (10.72%) Continuous Improvement
5 56 (9.84%) ITSM
5 56 (9.84%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 55 (9.67%) Problem-Solving
7 54 (9.49%) Cybersecurity
7 54 (9.49%) Stakeholder Management
8 52 (9.14%) Migration
9 51 (8.96%) High Availability
10 44 (7.73%) ITIL
10 44 (7.73%) Project Delivery
11 40 (7.03%) Service Management
12 35 (6.15%) Technical Leadership
13 34 (5.98%) Disaster Recovery
13 34 (5.98%) Microservices
14 32 (5.62%) Risk Management
15 31 (5.45%) Infrastructure as Code
16 29 (5.10%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 58 (10.19%) Python
2 51 (8.96%) SQL
3 50 (8.79%) Java
4 45 (7.91%) PowerShell
5 26 (4.57%) JavaScript
6 15 (2.64%) TypeScript
7 9 (1.58%) VBScript
8 7 (1.23%) VB
9 6 (1.05%) Bash
10 5 (0.88%) Rust
10 5 (0.88%) T-SQL
11 4 (0.70%) C#
11 4 (0.70%) Go
12 3 (0.53%) Bicep
13 2 (0.35%) ABAP
13 2 (0.35%) COBOL
13 2 (0.35%) PL/SQL
14 1 (0.18%) Perl
14 1 (0.18%) Scala
14 1 (0.18%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 435 (76.45%) SC Cleared
2 49 (8.61%) DV Cleared
3 47 (8.26%) BPSS Clearance
4 39 (6.85%) Cisco Certification
5 37 (6.50%) CCNA
6 29 (5.10%) Microsoft Certification
7 24 (4.22%) CCNP
8 23 (4.04%) Degree
9 15 (2.64%) Network+ Certification
9 15 (2.64%) Server+ Certification
10 13 (2.28%) Azure Certification
11 11 (1.93%) CISSP
12 9 (1.58%) MCSA
12 9 (1.58%) MCSE
12 9 (1.58%) VCAP
12 9 (1.58%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 8 (1.41%) AWS Certification
14 6 (1.05%) DBS Check
14 6 (1.05%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
15 5 (0.88%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (4.22%) PMO
2 21 (3.69%) NIST
3 15 (2.64%) QA
4 14 (2.46%) SLA
5 13 (2.28%) GRC
6 12 (2.11%) Accessibility
6 12 (2.11%) Data Quality
7 11 (1.93%) GDPR
7 11 (1.93%) NCSC
8 8 (1.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 6 (1.05%) JSP 440
9 6 (1.05%) NIST 800
10 1 (0.18%) Basel III
10 1 (0.18%) Cyber Essentials
10 1 (0.18%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 1 (0.18%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 1 (0.18%) ISO/IEC 27005
10 1 (0.18%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.18%) RMADS
10 1 (0.18%) Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment)
System Software
1 28 (4.92%) Active Directory
2 24 (4.22%) Docker
3 17 (2.99%) Virtual Machines
3 17 (2.99%) VMware Infrastructure
4 15 (2.64%) Oracle RAC
5 12 (2.11%) VMware ESXi
6 11 (1.93%) vSphere
7 9 (1.58%) BitLocker
8 3 (0.53%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.18%) GPFS
9 1 (0.18%) Hyper-V
9 1 (0.18%) NFS
9 1 (0.18%) Squid
9 1 (0.18%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 52 (9.14%) Terraform
2 33 (5.80%) Ansible
3 32 (5.62%) Kubernetes
4 16 (2.81%) SCCM
5 15 (2.64%) Data Guard
6 14 (2.46%) Oracle RMAN
7 12 (2.11%) Grafana
8 11 (1.93%) vCenter Server
9 8 (1.41%) Prometheus
10 5 (0.88%) SCOM
10 5 (0.88%) Single Sign-On
11 4 (0.70%) Microsoft Intune
11 4 (0.70%) Nagios
11 4 (0.70%) Oracle ZFS
12 3 (0.53%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 3 (0.53%) McAfee ePO
13 2 (0.35%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
13 2 (0.35%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
13 2 (0.35%) WSUS
14 1 (0.18%) Failover Clustering
Vendors
1 86 (15.11%) Microsoft
2 61 (10.72%) Oracle
3 57 (10.02%) Cisco
4 52 (9.14%) ServiceNow
5 29 (5.10%) SAP
6 27 (4.75%) Palo Alto
7 18 (3.16%) VMware
8 14 (2.46%) Aruba
9 13 (2.28%) F5
10 12 (2.11%) CheckPoint
11 9 (1.58%) Google
11 9 (1.58%) Splunk
12 8 (1.41%) Citrix
13 6 (1.05%) Arista
13 6 (1.05%) SolarWinds
14 5 (0.88%) Ekahau
15 4 (0.70%) Databricks
15 4 (0.70%) Dynatrace
15 4 (0.70%) Meraki
15 4 (0.70%) RedGate