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 24 November 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 2 3 2
Rank change year-on-year +1 -1 +6
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 496 396 483
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 20.49% 16.93% 17.69%
As % of the Qualifications category 57.08% 59.37% 58.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 320 187 347
10th Percentile £307 £258 £358
25th Percentile £427 £356 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £536 £493 £550
Median % change year-on-year +8.72% -10.36% +2.80%
75th Percentile £638 £600 £638
90th Percentile £716 £684 £678
England median daily rate £528 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -4.00% - -1.43%
Number of hourly rates quoted 60 37 29
10th Percentile £16.92 £18.03 £34.62
25th Percentile £21.98 £22.22 £45.88
Median hourly rate £43.70 £37.00 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +18.11% -19.88% +76.90%
75th Percentile £69.25 £55.25 £50.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £74.04 £63.75
England median hourly rate £25.15 £60.00 £60.00
% change year-on-year -58.08% - -

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 869 667 832
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 35.89% 28.52% 30.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 565 324 548
10th Percentile £216 £257 £249
25th Percentile £400 £389 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £500 £538
Median % change year-on-year -1.60% -6.98% +2.88%
75th Percentile £625 £595 £638
90th Percentile £716 £675 £700
England median daily rate £525 £530 £550
% change year-on-year -0.99% -3.59% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 101 59 68
10th Percentile £15.50 £18.11 £16.25
25th Percentile £21.46 £24.18 £29.58
Median hourly rate £45.46 £37.00 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +22.86% -19.88% +85.42%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.88 £46.89
90th Percentile £74.26 £75.92 £55.00
England median hourly rate £25.15 £50.00 £53.50
% change year-on-year -49.70% -6.54% +18.89%

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 24 November 2025.

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 24 November 2025.

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 24 November 2025. 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 +3 179 £503 +14.33% 62
Cheshire +16 112 £620 +18.10% 7
Cumbria 0 87 £515 +0.59% 9
Lancashire 0 86 £550 +69.23% 55
Merseyside -8 21 £624 +211.88% 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 17 (3.43%) Microsoft Exchange
2 10 (2.02%) SharePoint
3 7 (1.41%) Confluence
4 5 (1.01%) Skype for Business
5 4 (0.81%) Apache
5 4 (0.81%) Apache Airflow
6 3 (0.60%) MTS
6 3 (0.60%) Resin
7 2 (0.40%) Apache Spark
7 2 (0.40%) Jupyter
7 2 (0.40%) NetWeaver
7 2 (0.40%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.20%) CMS
8 1 (0.20%) IIS
8 1 (0.20%) SAS
8 1 (0.20%) WebSphere
Applications
1 25 (5.04%) Microsoft Office
2 18 (3.63%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (2.22%) Siemens NX
4 5 (1.01%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.60%) PTC Creo
6 1 (0.20%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.20%) SPSS
6 1 (0.20%) Stata
Business Applications
1 60 (12.10%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (2.22%) Teamcenter
3 10 (2.02%) SAP EHS
3 10 (2.02%) SAP VC
4 9 (1.81%) SAP MM
4 9 (1.81%) SAP QM
5 2 (0.40%) Remedy ITSM
5 2 (0.40%) SAP EWM
6 1 (0.20%) Maximo
6 1 (0.20%) SAP HCM
6 1 (0.20%) SAP SD
6 1 (0.20%) SAP Travel Management
6 1 (0.20%) SAP WM
Cloud Services
1 62 (12.50%) AWS
2 48 (9.68%) Azure
3 36 (7.26%) Microsoft 365
4 34 (6.85%) SaaS
5 18 (3.63%) Google Workspace
6 16 (3.23%) GCP
7 13 (2.62%) Power Platform
8 10 (2.02%) Entra ID
8 10 (2.02%) GitHub
9 8 (1.61%) Azure DevOps
10 7 (1.41%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 7 (1.41%) AWS CloudFormation
10 7 (1.41%) Serverless
11 6 (1.21%) Amazon EC2
11 6 (1.21%) OneDrive
12 5 (1.01%) Amazon SQS
12 5 (1.01%) AWS Lambda
12 5 (1.01%) PaaS
13 4 (0.81%) Amazon EMR
13 4 (0.81%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 36 (7.26%) Firewall
2 21 (4.23%) DNS
3 20 (4.03%) Wi-Fi
4 18 (3.63%) WAN
5 16 (3.23%) VLAN
6 11 (2.22%) BGP
6 11 (2.22%) SAN
6 11 (2.22%) TCP/IP
7 10 (2.02%) VPN
8 9 (1.81%) LAN
8 9 (1.81%) NetScaler
9 8 (1.61%) Cisco ISE
9 8 (1.61%) DHCP
9 8 (1.61%) Network Security
9 8 (1.61%) Software-Defined Networking
9 8 (1.61%) Unified Communications
10 6 (1.21%) HTTPS
10 6 (1.21%) Internet
10 6 (1.21%) WebEx
10 6 (1.21%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (2.82%) PostgreSQL
2 9 (1.81%) MySQL
2 9 (1.81%) Relational Database
2 9 (1.81%) SAP HANA
3 8 (1.61%) MongoDB
4 7 (1.41%) Power BI
5 6 (1.21%) Data Warehouse
5 6 (1.21%) NoSQL
5 6 (1.21%) Redis
5 6 (1.21%) SQL Server
6 5 (1.01%) BigQuery
6 5 (1.01%) DynamoDB
7 4 (0.81%) Metadata
8 3 (0.60%) Amazon Aurora
8 3 (0.60%) Amazon RDS
8 3 (0.60%) Amazon Redshift
8 3 (0.60%) Big Data
8 3 (0.60%) RDBMS
9 2 (0.40%) Azure SQL Database
9 2 (0.40%) Siebel EIM
Development Applications
1 24 (4.84%) Git
2 20 (4.03%) GitLab
3 17 (3.43%) JIRA
4 15 (3.02%) Jenkins
5 8 (1.61%) Rational DOORS
6 7 (1.41%) SonarQube
7 4 (0.81%) Artifactory
8 3 (0.60%) Cypress.io
8 3 (0.60%) Gradle
8 3 (0.60%) Grunt
8 3 (0.60%) gulp
8 3 (0.60%) Maven
9 2 (0.40%) Mockito
9 2 (0.40%) Selenium
9 2 (0.40%) SonarLint
10 1 (0.20%) Browser DevTools
10 1 (0.20%) Gatling
10 1 (0.20%) MLflow
10 1 (0.20%) Postman
10 1 (0.20%) REST Assured
General
1 153 (30.85%) Public Sector
2 115 (23.19%) Social Skills
3 51 (10.28%) Analytical Skills
4 32 (6.45%) Finance
5 28 (5.65%) Manufacturing
6 25 (5.04%) Military
7 19 (3.83%) Documentation Skills
8 14 (2.82%) Aerospace
9 11 (2.22%) Banking
10 10 (2.02%) Electronics
10 10 (2.02%) Legal
10 10 (2.02%) Telecoms
11 9 (1.81%) Marketing
12 6 (1.21%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 6 (1.21%) Influencing Skills
12 6 (1.21%) Organisational Skills
13 5 (1.01%) Aviation
14 1 (0.20%) Financial Institution
14 1 (0.20%) Law
Job Titles
1 87 (17.54%) Consultant
2 59 (11.90%) Architect
3 43 (8.67%) Developer
4 42 (8.47%) SAP Consultant
4 42 (8.47%) Senior
5 26 (5.24%) Analyst
6 25 (5.04%) Management Consultant
7 23 (4.64%) Administrator
7 23 (4.64%) Lead
8 22 (4.44%) Network Engineer
9 19 (3.83%) Technical Architect
10 18 (3.63%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 16 (3.23%) Platform Engineer
12 15 (3.02%) IT Support
13 14 (2.82%) DevOps Engineer
13 14 (2.82%) Software Engineer
14 13 (2.62%) AWS Engineer
15 11 (2.22%) Engagement Manager
15 11 (2.22%) Support Engineer
15 11 (2.22%) Systems Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (4.23%) SAP Fiori
2 15 (3.02%) Web Services
3 14 (2.82%) JSON
4 12 (2.42%) XML
5 11 (2.22%) Node.js
6 10 (2.02%) BAPI
7 9 (1.81%) 802.1X
7 9 (1.81%) Kafka
7 9 (1.81%) REST
7 9 (1.81%) RESTful
7 9 (1.81%) SOAP
7 9 (1.81%) Spring Boot
8 8 (1.61%) HTML
9 7 (1.41%) Spring
10 6 (1.21%) CSS
10 6 (1.21%) JMS
10 6 (1.21%) XMPP
11 5 (1.01%) SAP TM
12 4 (0.81%) HTML5
12 4 (0.81%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 40 (8.06%) Data Centre
2 27 (5.44%) Onboarding
3 22 (4.44%) Product Ownership
4 21 (4.23%) Hybrid Cloud
5 14 (2.82%) Analytical Mindset
6 9 (1.81%) Cloud Native
6 9 (1.81%) Cyber Threat
7 8 (1.61%) Enterprise Software
8 5 (1.01%) Driving Licence
8 5 (1.01%) Fibre Optics
8 5 (1.01%) Low-Code
8 5 (1.01%) Video Conferencing
9 4 (0.81%) Distributed Systems
9 4 (0.81%) Operational Technology
9 4 (0.81%) SCADA
10 3 (0.60%) CSOC
10 3 (0.60%) Digital Signage
10 3 (0.60%) Legacy Systems
10 3 (0.60%) Security Operations Centre
10 3 (0.60%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 56 (11.29%) Windows
2 36 (7.26%) Linux
3 19 (3.83%) Windows 10
4 12 (2.42%) Windows Server
5 11 (2.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 8 (1.61%) Android
7 7 (1.41%) Mac OS
7 7 (1.41%) Windows 7
8 5 (1.01%) Unix
9 4 (0.81%) Apple iOS
10 2 (0.40%) Mac OS X
11 1 (0.20%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.20%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 67 (13.51%) Problem-Solving
2 50 (10.08%) Agile
3 49 (9.88%) Cybersecurity
4 46 (9.27%) DevOps
5 44 (8.87%) CI/CD
6 43 (8.67%) Stakeholder Management
7 36 (7.26%) Containerisation
7 36 (7.26%) User Experience
8 33 (6.65%) Mentoring
8 33 (6.65%) Service Management
9 32 (6.45%) Migration
10 31 (6.25%) ITSM
11 26 (5.24%) Change Management
11 26 (5.24%) Infrastructure as Code
12 25 (5.04%) Customer Service
12 25 (5.04%) Validation
13 24 (4.84%) Continuous Improvement
13 24 (4.84%) Risk Management
14 23 (4.64%) Logistics
15 22 (4.44%) Project Management
Programming Languages
1 55 (11.09%) Python
2 32 (6.45%) Java
2 32 (6.45%) PowerShell
3 24 (4.84%) Bash
4 17 (3.43%) Perl
5 15 (3.02%) SQL
6 11 (2.22%) ABAP
7 10 (2.02%) JavaScript
8 8 (1.61%) C++
8 8 (1.61%) TypeScript
9 5 (1.01%) VB
9 5 (1.01%) VBScript
10 4 (0.81%) C
11 3 (0.60%) Go
11 3 (0.60%) Kusto Query Language
11 3 (0.60%) PHP
11 3 (0.60%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.40%) AWK
12 2 (0.40%) C#
12 2 (0.40%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 392 (79.03%) SC Cleared
2 84 (16.94%) BPSS Clearance
3 28 (5.65%) Degree
4 15 (3.02%) DV Cleared
5 11 (2.22%) CCNP
5 11 (2.22%) Cisco Certification
6 9 (1.81%) CCDP
7 8 (1.61%) CCNA
8 7 (1.41%) Computer Science Degree
9 6 (1.21%) Azure Certification
9 6 (1.21%) CTC Cleared
9 6 (1.21%) DBS Check
10 5 (1.01%) BC Cleared
10 5 (1.01%) CISM
10 5 (1.01%) CISSP
11 4 (0.81%) Microsoft Certification
12 3 (0.60%) AWS Certification
12 3 (0.60%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
13 2 (0.40%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
13 2 (0.40%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (3.83%) NIST
2 10 (2.02%) Data Quality
3 9 (1.81%) Accessibility
4 7 (1.41%) QA
5 6 (1.21%) NCSC
6 5 (1.01%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 4 (0.81%) IEC 61508
7 4 (0.81%) ISO 26262
7 4 (0.81%) SLA
8 3 (0.60%) IEC 62304
8 3 (0.60%) PMO
9 2 (0.40%) COBIT
9 2 (0.40%) GDPR
9 2 (0.40%) IEC 61131
10 1 (0.20%) Cyber Essentials
10 1 (0.20%) IFRS
10 1 (0.20%) ISO 20022
10 1 (0.20%) PSD2
10 1 (0.20%) SEPA
10 1 (0.20%) WCAG
System Software
1 35 (7.06%) Docker
2 24 (4.84%) Active Directory
3 17 (3.43%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (1.01%) BitLocker
5 4 (0.81%) UAG
6 3 (0.60%) vSphere
7 2 (0.40%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.20%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 36 (7.26%) Terraform
2 35 (7.06%) Kubernetes
3 22 (4.44%) SCCM
4 15 (3.02%) Microsoft Intune
5 12 (2.42%) Ansible
6 7 (1.41%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 5 (1.01%) Grafana
7 5 (1.01%) Norton AntiVirus
8 4 (0.81%) Nessus
8 4 (0.81%) SELinux
9 3 (0.60%) Packer
9 3 (0.60%) Podman
9 3 (0.60%) Prometheus
9 3 (0.60%) Single Sign-On
10 2 (0.40%) FortiGate
10 2 (0.40%) PowerCLI
10 2 (0.40%) vCenter Server
11 1 (0.20%) AirWatch
11 1 (0.20%) QRadar
11 1 (0.20%) vRealize
Vendors
1 92 (18.55%) SAP
2 78 (15.73%) Microsoft
3 34 (6.85%) Cisco
4 26 (5.24%) ServiceNow
5 25 (5.04%) Google
6 23 (4.64%) Oracle
6 23 (4.64%) VMware
7 18 (3.63%) Palo Alto
8 12 (2.42%) Meraki
9 11 (2.22%) Citrix
9 11 (2.22%) Red Hat
10 10 (2.02%) Siemens
11 9 (1.81%) Adobe
11 9 (1.81%) IBM
11 9 (1.81%) Splunk
12 8 (1.61%) Dell
13 6 (1.21%) Apple
13 6 (1.21%) Axway
13 6 (1.21%) CyberArk
13 6 (1.21%) McAfee