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

6 months to
29 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 3 3 2
Rank change year-on-year 0 -1 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 595 391 427
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 16.05% 18.11% 17.40%
As % of the Qualifications category 56.83% 53.64% 60.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 391 210 245
10th Percentile £360 £313 £313
25th Percentile £425 £427 £430
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £527 £503
Median % change year-on-year -0.38% +4.88% -6.51%
75th Percentile £639 £638 £625
90th Percentile £751 £718 £770
England median daily rate £536 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -0.37% -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 43 40 60
10th Percentile £22.68 £20.00 -
25th Percentile £28.50 £22.51 £10.95
Median hourly rate £64.09 £29.27 £18.10
Median % change year-on-year +118.96% +61.74% -59.28%
75th Percentile £74.26 £58.34 £46.51
90th Percentile £83.75 £70.29 £56.46
England median hourly rate £64.55 £25.15 £57.44
% change year-on-year +156.64% -56.22% -4.27%

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 1,047 729 704
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 28.24% 33.77% 28.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 668 413 400
10th Percentile £336 £308 £255
25th Percentile £412 £409 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.58%
75th Percentile £621 £630 £600
90th Percentile £697 £725 £713
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 96 67 108
10th Percentile £17.72 £17.44 £10.95
25th Percentile £28.50 £21.59 £13.50
Median hourly rate £43.96 £29.27 £16.93
Median % change year-on-year +50.19% +72.94% -59.29%
75th Percentile £71.50 £58.42 £47.63
90th Percentile £86.75 £74.57 £64.41
England median hourly rate £55.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +118.69% -41.51% -21.82%

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 29 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 29 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 29 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 -2 239 £570 +7.04% 108
Cumbria 0 162 £485 -7.62% 12
Cheshire +21 92 £510 +29.11% 17
Lancashire 0 81 £675 +50.00% 44
Merseyside -25 16 £650 +3.38% 2
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 (3.53%) Microsoft Exchange
2 17 (2.86%) SharePoint
3 7 (1.18%) Skype for Business
4 5 (0.84%) Apache Spark
4 5 (0.84%) Confluence
5 4 (0.67%) SAS
6 3 (0.50%) Jupyter
7 2 (0.34%) Apache
7 2 (0.34%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.34%) CICS
7 2 (0.34%) Oracle Workflow
7 2 (0.34%) SharePoint 2013
8 1 (0.17%) IIS
8 1 (0.17%) NetWeaver
8 1 (0.17%) nginx
Applications
1 16 (2.69%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (1.51%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (0.84%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.67%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.67%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.17%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.17%) Navisworks
5 1 (0.17%) ProjectWise
5 1 (0.17%) Revit
5 1 (0.17%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 7 (1.18%) Oracle Payables
2 6 (1.01%) SAP S/4HANA
3 4 (0.67%) Remedy ITSM
4 3 (0.50%) Primavera
4 3 (0.50%) SAP MM
5 2 (0.34%) Oracle Cash Management
5 2 (0.34%) Oracle EBS
5 2 (0.34%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
5 2 (0.34%) Teamcenter
6 1 (0.17%) Dynamics AX
6 1 (0.17%) Dynamics CRM
6 1 (0.17%) Integrated Workplace Management System
6 1 (0.17%) SAP PM
Cloud Services
1 104 (17.48%) AWS
2 88 (14.79%) Azure
3 30 (5.04%) Microsoft 365
4 23 (3.87%) Power Platform
5 19 (3.19%) Azure DevOps
5 19 (3.19%) OCI
6 16 (2.69%) SaaS
6 16 (2.69%) Serverless
7 13 (2.18%) SuccessFactors
8 12 (2.02%) Entra ID
8 12 (2.02%) GCP
9 10 (1.68%) Azure Monitor
9 10 (1.68%) GitHub
10 9 (1.51%) Google Workspace
11 7 (1.18%) Google Drive
12 6 (1.01%) OpenShift
13 5 (0.84%) Amazon S3
13 5 (0.84%) Dynamics 365
13 5 (0.84%) Power Automate
14 4 (0.67%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 64 (10.76%) Firewall
2 38 (6.39%) Wireless
3 27 (4.54%) DNS
3 27 (4.54%) WAN
4 26 (4.37%) VLAN
5 24 (4.03%) VPN
6 22 (3.70%) Network Security
6 22 (3.70%) Structured Cabling
7 21 (3.53%) Wi-Fi
8 20 (3.36%) BGP
9 19 (3.19%) DHCP
9 19 (3.19%) LAN
9 19 (3.19%) OSPF
10 17 (2.86%) NAS
10 17 (2.86%) SAN
11 16 (2.69%) Cisco IOS
11 16 (2.69%) NX-OS
12 11 (1.85%) Cisco ASA
12 11 (1.85%) Converged Networks
12 11 (1.85%) EIGRP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (5.55%) SQL Server
2 22 (3.70%) Oracle Database
3 21 (3.53%) PostgreSQL
4 16 (2.69%) MySQL
4 16 (2.69%) Relational Database
5 14 (2.35%) MongoDB
5 14 (2.35%) Power BI
6 10 (1.68%) RDBMS
7 9 (1.51%) Elasticsearch
8 8 (1.34%) Oracle Exadata
8 8 (1.34%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 7 (1.18%) Oracle Database 12c
10 6 (1.01%) Metadata
10 6 (1.01%) NoSQL
11 4 (0.67%) Hadoop
12 3 (0.50%) Data Lake
12 3 (0.50%) Data Warehouse
13 2 (0.34%) Amazon Redshift
13 2 (0.34%) Oracle BI Publisher
13 2 (0.34%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 28 (4.71%) GitLab
2 12 (2.02%) Git
3 10 (1.68%) JIRA
3 10 (1.68%) Selenium
4 7 (1.18%) Cucumber
4 7 (1.18%) Jenkins
4 7 (1.18%) REST Assured
5 5 (0.84%) MSI
6 4 (0.67%) Gatling
7 3 (0.50%) Cypress.io
7 3 (0.50%) Mockito
7 3 (0.50%) Serenity BDD
8 2 (0.34%) JDeveloper
8 2 (0.34%) Sonatype Nexus
8 2 (0.34%) Toad
8 2 (0.34%) WebDriver
9 1 (0.17%) ClearCase
9 1 (0.17%) Postman
9 1 (0.17%) SonarQube
9 1 (0.17%) Visual Studio Coded UI
General
1 123 (20.67%) Public Sector
2 113 (18.99%) Social Skills
3 51 (8.57%) Military
4 38 (6.39%) Analytical Skills
5 27 (4.54%) Finance
6 23 (3.87%) Documentation Skills
7 22 (3.70%) Legal
8 12 (2.02%) Manufacturing
9 10 (1.68%) Aerospace
10 9 (1.51%) Presentation Skills
11 7 (1.18%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 6 (1.01%) Banking
13 4 (0.67%) Aviation
13 4 (0.67%) Organisational Skills
13 4 (0.67%) Retail
14 3 (0.50%) Local Government
15 2 (0.34%) General Ledger
15 2 (0.34%) Influencing Skills
15 2 (0.34%) Marketing
16 1 (0.17%) Police
Job Titles
1 88 (14.79%) Lead
2 84 (14.12%) Architect
3 53 (8.91%) Network Engineer
4 45 (7.56%) Senior
5 42 (7.06%) DBA
6 41 (6.89%) Developer
7 35 (5.88%) Administrator
8 32 (5.38%) Unix Engineer
9 29 (4.87%) Consultant
9 29 (4.87%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
10 25 (4.20%) Lead Architect
11 23 (3.87%) SQL DBA
12 22 (3.70%) Analyst
13 21 (3.53%) DevOps Engineer
14 20 (3.36%) Oracle DBA
15 18 (3.03%) Technical Architect
16 17 (2.86%) Infrastructure Engineer
17 16 (2.69%) Coordinator
17 16 (2.69%) Desktop Engineer
18 15 (2.52%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (3.70%) Node.js
2 20 (3.36%) Spring
3 18 (3.03%) Spring Boot
4 15 (2.52%) Kafka
4 15 (2.52%) REST
5 14 (2.35%) OAuth
6 8 (1.34%) Oracle GoldenGate
7 6 (1.01%) OpenID
7 6 (1.01%) Playwright
8 5 (0.84%) 802.1X
8 5 (0.84%) Apache NiFi
8 5 (0.84%) Leaflet
8 5 (0.84%) Nunjucks
8 5 (0.84%) SOAP
9 4 (0.67%) AWS CDK
9 4 (0.67%) ModSecurity
9 4 (0.67%) RESTful
10 3 (0.50%) ActiveMQ
10 3 (0.50%) Web Services
10 3 (0.50%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 33 (5.55%) Data Centre
2 31 (5.21%) Onboarding
3 22 (3.70%) Replication
4 20 (3.36%) Clustering
5 19 (3.19%) Cloud Native
6 15 (2.52%) Operational Technology
6 15 (2.52%) Product Ownership
7 13 (2.18%) Legacy Systems
8 11 (1.85%) Management Information System
9 10 (1.68%) Hybrid Cloud
10 9 (1.51%) Enterprise Software
11 8 (1.34%) Cyber Threat
11 8 (1.34%) Public Cloud
12 7 (1.18%) Data Protection Act
13 5 (0.84%) CMDB
13 5 (0.84%) CSOC
13 5 (0.84%) Distributed Systems
13 5 (0.84%) Security Posture
14 4 (0.67%) Freedom of Information
14 4 (0.67%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 48 (8.07%) Windows
2 43 (7.23%) Linux
3 41 (6.89%) Unix
4 38 (6.39%) Solaris
5 19 (3.19%) Windows 10
6 17 (2.86%) Windows Server
7 11 (1.85%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 10 (1.68%) AIX
9 7 (1.18%) Windows 7
10 4 (0.67%) Android
10 4 (0.67%) CentOS
10 4 (0.67%) Mac OS
11 3 (0.50%) VMS
12 2 (0.34%) Apple iOS
13 1 (0.17%) Mac OS X
13 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 78 (13.11%) DevOps
2 65 (10.92%) CI/CD
3 62 (10.42%) Stakeholder Management
4 60 (10.08%) Agile
4 60 (10.08%) Continuous Improvement
5 56 (9.41%) Cybersecurity
5 56 (9.41%) ITSM
5 56 (9.41%) Migration
6 55 (9.24%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 54 (9.08%) Problem-Solving
8 51 (8.57%) High Availability
9 50 (8.40%) Project Delivery
10 42 (7.06%) ITIL
11 41 (6.89%) Service Management
12 37 (6.22%) Technical Leadership
13 36 (6.05%) Mentoring
14 34 (5.71%) Roadmaps
15 33 (5.55%) Disaster Recovery
16 32 (5.38%) Risk Management
17 31 (5.21%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 60 (10.08%) Python
2 51 (8.57%) SQL
3 45 (7.56%) Java
4 42 (7.06%) PowerShell
5 26 (4.37%) JavaScript
6 13 (2.18%) TypeScript
7 9 (1.51%) VBScript
8 7 (1.18%) VB
9 6 (1.01%) Bash
10 5 (0.84%) Rust
10 5 (0.84%) T-SQL
11 4 (0.67%) C#
12 3 (0.50%) Bicep
12 3 (0.50%) Go
13 2 (0.34%) ABAP
13 2 (0.34%) COBOL
13 2 (0.34%) PL/SQL
14 1 (0.17%) Perl
14 1 (0.17%) Scala
14 1 (0.17%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 461 (77.48%) SC Cleared
2 55 (9.24%) BPSS Clearance
3 49 (8.24%) DV Cleared
4 39 (6.55%) Cisco Certification
5 37 (6.22%) CCNA
6 28 (4.71%) Microsoft Certification
7 24 (4.03%) CCNP
8 22 (3.70%) Degree
9 15 (2.52%) Network+ Certification
9 15 (2.52%) Server+ Certification
10 13 (2.18%) Azure Certification
11 11 (1.85%) CISSP
12 10 (1.68%) DBS Check
13 8 (1.34%) AWS Certification
13 8 (1.34%) MCSA
13 8 (1.34%) MCSE
13 8 (1.34%) VCAP
13 8 (1.34%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 5 (0.84%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 5 (0.84%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (4.03%) PMO
2 21 (3.53%) NIST
3 16 (2.69%) SLA
4 14 (2.35%) QA
5 13 (2.18%) Data Quality
5 13 (2.18%) GRC
5 13 (2.18%) NCSC
6 11 (1.85%) GDPR
7 9 (1.51%) Accessibility
8 8 (1.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 6 (1.01%) JSP 440
9 6 (1.01%) NIST 800
10 1 (0.17%) Basel III
10 1 (0.17%) Cyber Essentials
10 1 (0.17%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 1 (0.17%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 1 (0.17%) ISO/IEC 27005
10 1 (0.17%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.17%) RMADS
10 1 (0.17%) Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment)
System Software
1 27 (4.54%) Active Directory
2 20 (3.36%) Docker
3 16 (2.69%) Oracle RAC
3 16 (2.69%) Virtual Machines
3 16 (2.69%) VMware Infrastructure
4 11 (1.85%) VMware ESXi
5 10 (1.68%) vSphere
6 9 (1.51%) BitLocker
7 3 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.17%) GPFS
8 1 (0.17%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.17%) NFS
8 1 (0.17%) Squid
8 1 (0.17%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 55 (9.24%) Terraform
2 34 (5.71%) Ansible
3 31 (5.21%) Kubernetes
4 16 (2.69%) Data Guard
4 16 (2.69%) SCCM
5 15 (2.52%) Oracle RMAN
6 10 (1.68%) vCenter Server
7 8 (1.34%) Grafana
8 6 (1.01%) Microsoft Intune
8 6 (1.01%) Prometheus
9 5 (0.84%) SCOM
9 5 (0.84%) Single Sign-On
10 4 (0.67%) Nagios
10 4 (0.67%) Oracle ZFS
11 3 (0.50%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 3 (0.50%) McAfee ePO
12 2 (0.34%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
12 2 (0.34%) Failover Clustering
12 2 (0.34%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
12 2 (0.34%) WSUS
Vendors
1 89 (14.96%) Microsoft
2 64 (10.76%) Oracle
3 59 (9.92%) Cisco
4 53 (8.91%) ServiceNow
5 39 (6.55%) SAP
6 30 (5.04%) Palo Alto
7 17 (2.86%) VMware
8 15 (2.52%) CheckPoint
9 14 (2.35%) Aruba
10 13 (2.18%) F5
11 9 (1.51%) Google
12 8 (1.34%) Citrix
13 7 (1.18%) Splunk
14 6 (1.01%) Arista
15 5 (0.84%) Ekahau
15 5 (0.84%) Qualtrics
15 5 (0.84%) SolarWinds
16 4 (0.67%) Databricks
16 4 (0.67%) IBM
16 4 (0.67%) Remedy