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

6 months to
18 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 3 2 2
Rank change year-on-year -1 0 -1
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 529 418 432
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 16.66% 21.61% 15.73%
As % of the Qualifications category 57.13% 59.12% 53.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 347 247 278
10th Percentile £354 £242 £350
25th Percentile £419 £413 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -
75th Percentile £626 £588 £672
90th Percentile £750 £650 £725
England median daily rate £525 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -2.33% -2.27% -1.79%
Number of hourly rates quoted 53 18 59
10th Percentile £23.17 £25.26 -
25th Percentile £35.00 £32.51 £10.95
Median hourly rate £63.14 £59.29 £14.50
Median % change year-on-year +6.49% +308.90% -57.04%
75th Percentile £74.26 £75.63 £46.18
90th Percentile £75.48 £85.85 £73.75
England median hourly rate £55.00 £57.50 £52.50
% change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -12.50%

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 926 707 813
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 29.17% 36.56% 29.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 613 411 463
10th Percentile £313 £225 £248
25th Percentile £400 £388 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £478 £490 £513
Median % change year-on-year -2.55% -4.39% +0.99%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £656
90th Percentile £688 £650 £725
England median daily rate £520 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -0.95% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 86 43 121
10th Percentile £23.92 £17.95 £10.95
25th Percentile £35.14 £25.26 £11.77
Median hourly rate £49.12 £32.50 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year +51.13% +102.37% -57.17%
75th Percentile £72.25 £60.00 £38.43
90th Percentile £80.13 £82.85 £51.91
England median hourly rate £47.00 £50.00 £39.96
% change year-on-year -6.00% +25.13% -20.08%

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 18 April 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 18 April 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 18 April 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 -6 170 £500 - 100
Lancashire +3 130 £623 +43.02% 37
Cumbria 0 112 £481 -10.88% 19
Cheshire -2 81 £450 +28.57% 17
Merseyside -11 29 £625 +13.64% 5
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 32 (6.05%) Microsoft Exchange
2 12 (2.27%) SharePoint
3 9 (1.70%) Skype for Business
4 8 (1.51%) Confluence
5 6 (1.13%) Apache Spark
6 5 (0.95%) Apache
7 4 (0.76%) Jupyter
8 3 (0.57%) MTS
9 2 (0.38%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 2 (0.38%) Apache Airflow
9 2 (0.38%) CICS
9 2 (0.38%) SAS
10 1 (0.19%) CMS
10 1 (0.19%) nginx
10 1 (0.19%) OpenStack
Applications
1 19 (3.59%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (1.89%) Microsoft Excel
3 6 (1.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.57%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.38%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.38%) Siemens NX
6 1 (0.19%) Adobe Premiere
6 1 (0.19%) Quicktime
Business Applications
1 9 (1.70%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (0.95%) SAP VC
3 3 (0.57%) Remedy ITSM
3 3 (0.57%) SAP QM
4 2 (0.38%) Oracle Payables
4 2 (0.38%) Primavera
4 2 (0.38%) SAP MM
4 2 (0.38%) Teamcenter
5 1 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.19%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 77 (14.56%) AWS
2 50 (9.45%) Azure
3 30 (5.67%) Microsoft 365
4 18 (3.40%) GCP
5 14 (2.65%) Entra ID
5 14 (2.65%) Serverless
6 13 (2.46%) Power Platform
7 11 (2.08%) GitHub
8 9 (1.70%) SaaS
9 8 (1.51%) Amazon EKS
9 8 (1.51%) Azure DevOps
10 7 (1.32%) Amazon S3
10 7 (1.32%) Google Workspace
11 5 (0.95%) Azure Monitor
12 4 (0.76%) Amazon EC2
12 4 (0.76%) AWS CloudFormation
12 4 (0.76%) AWS Lambda
12 4 (0.76%) GitHub Actions
12 4 (0.76%) Google Drive
12 4 (0.76%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 60 (11.34%) Firewall
2 42 (7.94%) VLAN
3 26 (4.91%) DNS
4 24 (4.54%) Network Security
4 24 (4.54%) WAN
5 21 (3.97%) Wi-Fi
6 18 (3.40%) LAN
7 16 (3.02%) DHCP
8 13 (2.46%) BGP
8 13 (2.46%) Wireless
9 12 (2.27%) VPN
10 10 (1.89%) SAN
10 10 (1.89%) WebEx
11 9 (1.70%) Skype
11 9 (1.70%) TCP/IP
12 8 (1.51%) Software-Defined Networking
13 7 (1.32%) Cisco IOS
13 7 (1.32%) Structured Cabling
14 6 (1.13%) NAS
14 6 (1.13%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (3.78%) PostgreSQL
2 13 (2.46%) Power BI
3 11 (2.08%) MySQL
3 11 (2.08%) SQL Server
4 10 (1.89%) MongoDB
4 10 (1.89%) NoSQL
4 10 (1.89%) Oracle Database
5 9 (1.70%) Elasticsearch
5 9 (1.70%) Relational Database
6 8 (1.51%) Metadata
7 6 (1.13%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 5 (0.95%) Oracle Database 12c
9 4 (0.76%) Data Warehouse
9 4 (0.76%) Hadoop
9 4 (0.76%) Tableau
10 3 (0.57%) Amazon Redshift
10 3 (0.57%) Data Lake
10 3 (0.57%) RDBMS
11 2 (0.38%) DynamoDB
11 2 (0.38%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 24 (4.54%) GitLab
2 18 (3.40%) Git
3 15 (2.84%) JIRA
4 7 (1.32%) Jenkins
5 4 (0.76%) MSI
5 4 (0.76%) Postman
5 4 (0.76%) Selenium
6 3 (0.57%) REST Assured
7 2 (0.38%) Cucumber
7 2 (0.38%) Cypress.io
7 2 (0.38%) Gatling
7 2 (0.38%) Jasmine
7 2 (0.38%) JMeter
7 2 (0.38%) Mockito
7 2 (0.38%) Serenity BDD
7 2 (0.38%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.19%) ClearCase
8 1 (0.19%) InstallShield
8 1 (0.19%) Mocha
8 1 (0.19%) Rational DOORS
General
1 157 (29.68%) Public Sector
2 116 (21.93%) Social Skills
3 35 (6.62%) Analytical Skills
4 33 (6.24%) Finance
5 23 (4.35%) Documentation Skills
6 22 (4.16%) Military
7 19 (3.59%) Legal
8 12 (2.27%) Aerospace
8 12 (2.27%) Banking
9 9 (1.70%) Manufacturing
10 7 (1.32%) Presentation Skills
11 4 (0.76%) Aviation
11 4 (0.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 3 (0.57%) Electronics
12 3 (0.57%) Influencing Skills
12 3 (0.57%) Marketing
12 3 (0.57%) Organisational Skills
12 3 (0.57%) Telecoms
13 2 (0.38%) Corporate Banking
13 2 (0.38%) Retail
Job Titles
1 70 (13.23%) Architect
2 56 (10.59%) Developer
3 51 (9.64%) Lead
4 35 (6.62%) Network Engineer
5 32 (6.05%) Senior
6 30 (5.67%) Administrator
7 29 (5.48%) Analyst
8 23 (4.35%) Platform Engineer
9 22 (4.16%) Consultant
10 20 (3.78%) DBA
10 20 (3.78%) Technical Architect
11 18 (3.40%) Lead Architect
12 16 (3.02%) Coordinator
12 16 (3.02%) Data Engineer
12 16 (3.02%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
13 14 (2.65%) Unix Engineer
14 13 (2.46%) Engagement Manager
14 13 (2.46%) Java Developer
14 13 (2.46%) Software Engineer
14 13 (2.46%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (5.29%) Spring
2 24 (4.54%) Spring Boot
3 15 (2.84%) Node.js
4 13 (2.46%) Kafka
4 13 (2.46%) RESTful
5 11 (2.08%) 802.1X
6 10 (1.89%) OAuth
7 9 (1.70%) XMPP
8 7 (1.32%) HTML
8 7 (1.32%) JSON
8 7 (1.32%) Playwright
8 7 (1.32%) REST
9 6 (1.13%) Apache NiFi
9 6 (1.13%) CSS
9 6 (1.13%) Hibernate
9 6 (1.13%) OAuth2
9 6 (1.13%) React
9 6 (1.13%) XML
10 5 (0.95%) Middleware
10 5 (0.95%) Spring MVC
Miscellaneous
1 38 (7.18%) Product Ownership
2 34 (6.43%) Data Centre
3 17 (3.21%) Onboarding
4 16 (3.02%) Replication
5 14 (2.65%) Clustering
6 10 (1.89%) Cloud Native
6 10 (1.89%) Cyber Threat
6 10 (1.89%) Operational Technology
7 7 (1.32%) Enterprise Software
8 6 (1.13%) Management Information System
8 6 (1.13%) Private Cloud
9 5 (0.95%) Distributed Systems
9 5 (0.95%) Driving Licence
9 5 (0.95%) Fat Client
9 5 (0.95%) Legacy Systems
9 5 (0.95%) Mobile App
9 5 (0.95%) Security Posture
9 5 (0.95%) Thin Client
10 4 (0.76%) Data Protection Act
11 3 (0.57%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 57 (10.78%) Windows
2 35 (6.62%) Linux
3 23 (4.35%) Windows Server
4 22 (4.16%) Windows 10
5 20 (3.78%) Unix
6 15 (2.84%) Solaris
7 14 (2.65%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 9 (1.70%) Windows 7
9 4 (0.76%) Android
10 3 (0.57%) AIX
10 3 (0.57%) Apple iOS
11 2 (0.38%) Mac OS
11 2 (0.38%) Mac OS X
11 2 (0.38%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 76 (14.37%) Agile
2 65 (12.29%) Problem-Solving
3 55 (10.40%) ITSM
4 54 (10.21%) Migration
5 52 (9.83%) CI/CD
5 52 (9.83%) Continuous Improvement
6 51 (9.64%) DevOps
7 50 (9.45%) Service Management
8 49 (9.26%) Project Delivery
8 49 (9.26%) Stakeholder Management
9 48 (9.07%) Cybersecurity
10 47 (8.88%) High Availability
11 40 (7.56%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 35 (6.62%) Disaster Recovery
13 33 (6.24%) Platform Engineering
14 31 (5.86%) Risk Management
15 30 (5.67%) Containerisation
15 30 (5.67%) Microservices
15 30 (5.67%) Test Automation
16 29 (5.48%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 57 (10.78%) Python
2 50 (9.45%) PowerShell
3 48 (9.07%) Java
4 26 (4.91%) SQL
5 21 (3.97%) JavaScript
6 14 (2.65%) Bash
6 14 (2.65%) TypeScript
7 10 (1.89%) Perl
8 9 (1.70%) VB
8 9 (1.70%) VBScript
9 5 (0.95%) Go
9 5 (0.95%) Rust
10 4 (0.76%) Ruby
11 3 (0.57%) C#
12 2 (0.38%) AWK
12 2 (0.38%) COBOL
12 2 (0.38%) Kotlin
12 2 (0.38%) Kusto Query Language
13 1 (0.19%) ABAP
13 1 (0.19%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 347 (65.60%) SC Cleared
2 76 (14.37%) DV Cleared
3 52 (9.83%) BPSS Clearance
4 38 (7.18%) Cisco Certification
5 35 (6.62%) CCNP
6 34 (6.43%) Degree
7 32 (6.05%) CCNA
8 14 (2.65%) Microsoft Certification
9 13 (2.46%) CISSP
10 11 (2.08%) Computer Science Degree
11 9 (1.70%) AWS Certification
12 8 (1.51%) Azure Certification
12 8 (1.51%) CCDP
12 8 (1.51%) ITIL Certification
12 8 (1.51%) MCSA
12 8 (1.51%) MCSE
12 8 (1.51%) VCAP
12 8 (1.51%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 7 (1.32%) CISM
14 6 (1.13%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (4.54%) NIST
2 17 (3.21%) QA
3 15 (2.84%) Accessibility
4 13 (2.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 12 (2.27%) JSP 440
5 12 (2.27%) SLA
6 7 (1.32%) Data Quality
7 6 (1.13%) GDPR
7 6 (1.13%) NCSC
8 4 (0.76%) GRC
8 4 (0.76%) PMO
8 4 (0.76%) WCAG
9 3 (0.57%) IFRS
10 2 (0.38%) IFRS 17
10 2 (0.38%) NIST 800
10 2 (0.38%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.38%) PSD2
11 1 (0.19%) Basel III
11 1 (0.19%) RMADS
11 1 (0.19%) SOC 2
System Software
1 33 (6.24%) Active Directory
2 29 (5.48%) Docker
3 15 (2.84%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (1.89%) Virtual Machines
4 10 (1.89%) VMware ESXi
4 10 (1.89%) vSphere
5 9 (1.70%) BitLocker
6 4 (0.76%) Firmware
7 2 (0.38%) ISA Server
8 1 (0.19%) GPFS
8 1 (0.19%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.19%) NFS
8 1 (0.19%) Oracle RAC
8 1 (0.19%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 35 (6.62%) Kubernetes
2 29 (5.48%) Terraform
3 16 (3.02%) SCCM
4 14 (2.65%) Ansible
5 9 (1.70%) vCenter Server
6 8 (1.51%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 8 (1.51%) Grafana
7 6 (1.13%) Oracle RMAN
7 6 (1.13%) Prometheus
8 5 (0.95%) Microsoft Intune
9 4 (0.76%) Single Sign-On
10 3 (0.57%) FortiGate
10 3 (0.57%) Norton AntiVirus
11 1 (0.19%) Cisco CUCM
11 1 (0.19%) Cisco Prime
11 1 (0.19%) Data Guard
11 1 (0.19%) Failover Clustering
11 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Clustering
11 1 (0.19%) Nagios
11 1 (0.19%) vRealize
Vendors
1 73 (13.80%) Microsoft
2 62 (11.72%) Cisco
3 38 (7.18%) Oracle
4 33 (6.24%) SAP
5 32 (6.05%) ServiceNow
6 30 (5.67%) Palo Alto
7 20 (3.78%) VMware
8 13 (2.46%) Citrix
9 11 (2.08%) Red Hat
10 8 (1.51%) Aruba
10 8 (1.51%) Google
10 8 (1.51%) Meraki
11 6 (1.13%) CheckPoint
11 6 (1.13%) Ekahau
11 6 (1.13%) IBM
11 6 (1.13%) Splunk
12 5 (0.95%) Dell
12 5 (0.95%) SolarWinds
13 4 (0.76%) EMC
13 4 (0.76%) RedGate