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

6 months to
23 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 2 3 3
Rank change year-on-year +1 0 -1
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 751 399 382
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 19.26% 18.50% 16.33%
As % of the Qualifications category 61.61% 53.99% 60.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 508 242 214
10th Percentile £359 £350 £294
25th Percentile £442 £433 £396
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £550 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.64% +10.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £630 £650 £605
90th Percentile £688 £723 £713
England median daily rate £550 £538 £550
% change year-on-year +2.33% -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 47 45 36
10th Percentile £25.95 £17.79 £18.03
25th Percentile £33.36 £22.16 £22.22
Median hourly rate £49.50 £27.38 £45.59
Median % change year-on-year +80.82% -39.95% -1.28%
75th Percentile £72.71 £52.50 £55.38
90th Percentile £83.75 £68.90 £77.67
England median hourly rate £65.00 £25.15 £61.60
% change year-on-year +158.45% -59.17% +2.94%

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 1,219 739 632
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 31.26% 34.26% 27.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 782 465 339
10th Percentile £310 £313 £294
25th Percentile £420 £411 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £505 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.89% +1.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £600
90th Percentile £675 £723 £688
England median daily rate £530 £525 £535
% change year-on-year +0.95% -1.87% -2.73%
Number of hourly rates quoted 122 71 57
10th Percentile £18.19 £15.50 £17.56
25th Percentile £28.50 £18.87 £22.22
Median hourly rate £43.96 £27.00 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +62.81% -41.53% +0.65%
75th Percentile £64.09 £56.88 £55.79
90th Percentile £80.00 £71.45 £81.77
England median hourly rate £52.50 £25.15 £55.00
% change year-on-year +108.75% -54.27% +1.85%

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 23 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 23 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 23 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 +1 290 £572 +4.00% 334
Cumbria 0 195 £495 -4.81% 19
Lancashire 0 156 £600 +9.09% 100
Cheshire +2 93 £525 -15.32% 32
Merseyside -21 14 £625 -9.58% 11
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 (3.73%) Microsoft Exchange
2 22 (2.93%) SharePoint
3 15 (2.00%) Skype for Business
4 12 (1.60%) SAS
5 6 (0.80%) Confluence
6 5 (0.67%) Apache Airflow
7 3 (0.40%) Apache
7 3 (0.40%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.27%) Jupyter
8 2 (0.27%) Oracle Workflow
8 2 (0.27%) SharePoint 2013
9 1 (0.13%) IIS
9 1 (0.13%) NetWeaver
9 1 (0.13%) nginx
9 1 (0.13%) Traefik
Applications
1 27 (3.60%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (0.67%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.40%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.27%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.13%) Navisworks
5 1 (0.13%) ProjectWise
5 1 (0.13%) Revit
Business Applications
1 11 (1.46%) SAP S/4HANA
2 8 (1.07%) 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%) 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%) Primavera
6 1 (0.13%) SAP ERP
6 1 (0.13%) SAP MM
6 1 (0.13%) SAP PM
6 1 (0.13%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 110 (14.65%) Azure
2 102 (13.58%) AWS
3 38 (5.06%) Microsoft 365
4 29 (3.86%) Azure DevOps
4 29 (3.86%) Power Platform
4 29 (3.86%) SuccessFactors
5 24 (3.20%) Entra ID
6 19 (2.53%) OCI
7 18 (2.40%) SaaS
8 17 (2.26%) GCP
8 17 (2.26%) Serverless
9 16 (2.13%) GitHub
10 15 (2.00%) Azure Monitor
11 11 (1.46%) Google Workspace
12 10 (1.33%) GitHub Actions
13 9 (1.20%) Azure AKS
14 7 (0.93%) Google Drive
15 6 (0.80%) AWS Lambda
15 6 (0.80%) Microsoft Copilot
15 6 (0.80%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 63 (8.39%) Firewall
2 38 (5.06%) Wireless
3 35 (4.66%) VPN
4 32 (4.26%) Network Security
5 31 (4.13%) WAN
6 26 (3.46%) BGP
6 26 (3.46%) DNS
6 26 (3.46%) OSPF
6 26 (3.46%) Wi-Fi
7 23 (3.06%) LAN
8 21 (2.80%) Cisco ASA
8 21 (2.80%) VLAN
9 20 (2.66%) DHCP
10 19 (2.53%) Structured Cabling
11 18 (2.40%) EIGRP
11 18 (2.40%) Skype
12 17 (2.26%) Cisco Firepower
13 16 (2.13%) NetScaler
13 16 (2.13%) SAN
14 14 (1.86%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 46 (6.13%) SQL Server
2 29 (3.86%) MySQL
3 25 (3.33%) PostgreSQL
4 23 (3.06%) Oracle Database
5 16 (2.13%) MongoDB
5 16 (2.13%) Power BI
6 15 (2.00%) Relational Database
7 11 (1.46%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 10 (1.33%) RDBMS
9 8 (1.07%) Oracle Exadata
10 6 (0.80%) NoSQL
11 5 (0.67%) Data Warehouse
12 4 (0.53%) Metadata
12 4 (0.53%) Oracle Database 12c
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 31 (4.13%) GitLab
2 17 (2.26%) Git
3 13 (1.73%) Selenium
4 10 (1.33%) Cucumber
4 10 (1.33%) Jenkins
4 10 (1.33%) JIRA
4 10 (1.33%) REST Assured
5 6 (0.80%) MSI
6 4 (0.53%) Gatling
7 3 (0.40%) Mockito
7 3 (0.40%) Serenity BDD
7 3 (0.40%) Sonatype Nexus
7 3 (0.40%) Toad
7 3 (0.40%) WebDriver
8 2 (0.27%) Cypress.io
8 2 (0.27%) JDeveloper
8 2 (0.27%) Rational DOORS
8 2 (0.27%) Rational Robot
8 2 (0.27%) Team Foundation Server
8 2 (0.27%) TestNG
General
1 137 (18.24%) Social Skills
2 117 (15.58%) Public Sector
3 55 (7.32%) Military
4 42 (5.59%) Analytical Skills
5 23 (3.06%) Finance
6 21 (2.80%) Documentation Skills
6 21 (2.80%) Legal
7 20 (2.66%) Manufacturing
8 9 (1.20%) Aerospace
9 8 (1.07%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 8 (1.07%) Organisational Skills
10 7 (0.93%) Presentation Skills
11 5 (0.67%) Police
12 4 (0.53%) Retail
13 3 (0.40%) Influencing Skills
13 3 (0.40%) Local Government
14 2 (0.27%) Banking
14 2 (0.27%) General Ledger
14 2 (0.27%) Marketing
14 2 (0.27%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 109 (14.51%) Architect
2 101 (13.45%) Lead
3 66 (8.79%) Consultant
4 63 (8.39%) Senior
5 62 (8.26%) Network Engineer
6 50 (6.66%) DBA
7 39 (5.19%) Analyst
7 39 (5.19%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
7 39 (5.19%) Unix Engineer
8 36 (4.79%) Administrator
9 35 (4.66%) Developer
10 31 (4.13%) SQL DBA
11 30 (3.99%) Technical Architect
12 26 (3.46%) DevOps Engineer
13 22 (2.93%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 22 (2.93%) Lead Architect
14 21 (2.80%) Security Architect
15 20 (2.66%) Desktop Engineer
15 20 (2.66%) Senior Consultant
16 18 (2.40%) Oracle DBA
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 57 (7.59%) Terraform
2 21 (2.80%) Node.js
3 19 (2.53%) REST
4 16 (2.13%) Spring
5 15 (2.00%) Spring Boot
6 14 (1.86%) OAuth
7 13 (1.73%) Kafka
8 8 (1.07%) Oracle GoldenGate
9 7 (0.93%) Playwright
10 6 (0.80%) AWS CDK
10 6 (0.80%) OpenID
11 5 (0.67%) Nunjucks
11 5 (0.67%) RESTful
11 5 (0.67%) SOAP
11 5 (0.67%) XML
12 4 (0.53%) .NET
12 4 (0.53%) PySpark
13 3 (0.40%) Django
13 3 (0.40%) Spring Cloud
13 3 (0.40%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 39 (5.19%) Onboarding
2 30 (3.99%) Data Centre
3 26 (3.46%) Clustering
4 25 (3.33%) Replication
5 19 (2.53%) Cloud Native
6 16 (2.13%) CMDB
7 13 (1.73%) Legacy Systems
8 12 (1.60%) Enterprise Software
8 12 (1.60%) Hybrid Cloud
8 12 (1.60%) Management Information System
9 10 (1.33%) PKI
9 10 (1.33%) Public Cloud
10 8 (1.07%) Operational Technology
10 8 (1.07%) Product Ownership
11 6 (0.80%) Cyber Threat
11 6 (0.80%) Data Protection Act
11 6 (0.80%) Driving Licence
12 5 (0.67%) CSOC
12 5 (0.67%) Distributed Systems
12 5 (0.67%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 83 (11.05%) Windows
2 53 (7.06%) Unix
3 48 (6.39%) Solaris
4 40 (5.33%) Windows 10
5 38 (5.06%) Linux
6 36 (4.79%) Windows Server
7 19 (2.53%) Windows 7
8 11 (1.46%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 8 (1.07%) AIX
10 5 (0.67%) Android
10 5 (0.67%) CentOS
10 5 (0.67%) Mac OS
10 5 (0.67%) Windows Server 2003
11 2 (0.27%) Apple iOS
11 2 (0.27%) VMS
12 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 96 (12.78%) Stakeholder Management
2 89 (11.85%) Cybersecurity
3 84 (11.19%) DevOps
4 82 (10.92%) ITIL
5 81 (10.79%) Migration
6 76 (10.12%) CI/CD
6 76 (10.12%) Continuous Improvement
7 67 (8.92%) ITSM
7 67 (8.92%) Service Management
8 59 (7.86%) Agile
9 56 (7.46%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 54 (7.19%) Problem-Solving
11 50 (6.66%) Project Delivery
11 50 (6.66%) Roadmaps
12 48 (6.39%) High Availability
13 46 (6.13%) Incident Management
13 46 (6.13%) Infrastructure as Code
14 45 (5.99%) Technical Leadership
15 41 (5.46%) Risk Management
16 39 (5.19%) Disaster Recovery
Programming Languages
1 64 (8.52%) SQL
2 58 (7.72%) PowerShell
2 58 (7.72%) Python
3 40 (5.33%) Java
4 22 (2.93%) JavaScript
5 16 (2.13%) VBScript
6 15 (2.00%) VB
7 11 (1.46%) T-SQL
8 10 (1.33%) Bicep
9 9 (1.20%) TypeScript
10 8 (1.07%) Bash
11 5 (0.67%) C#
12 3 (0.40%) Go
12 3 (0.40%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.27%) ABAP
13 2 (0.27%) PL/SQL
13 2 (0.27%) Search Processing Language
13 2 (0.27%) VB6
14 1 (0.13%) Kotlin
14 1 (0.13%) Swift
Qualifications
1 620 (82.56%) SC Cleared
2 68 (9.05%) BPSS Clearance
3 42 (5.59%) Microsoft Certification
4 34 (4.53%) DV Cleared
5 29 (3.86%) Cisco Certification
6 26 (3.46%) CCNA
7 24 (3.20%) Degree
8 22 (2.93%) Azure Certification
9 16 (2.13%) CCNP
10 14 (1.86%) DBS Check
11 11 (1.46%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 11 (1.46%) Network+ Certification
11 11 (1.46%) Server+ Certification
12 9 (1.20%) CISSP
13 8 (1.07%) MCSA
13 8 (1.07%) MCSE
13 8 (1.07%) VCAP
13 8 (1.07%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 6 (0.80%) AWS Certification
14 6 (0.80%) HNC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (4.93%) NIST
2 30 (3.99%) NCSC
3 29 (3.86%) SLA
4 26 (3.46%) GRC
5 25 (3.33%) PMO
6 22 (2.93%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 17 (2.26%) Data Quality
8 12 (1.60%) QA
9 11 (1.46%) Accessibility
9 11 (1.46%) GDPR
10 6 (0.80%) NIST 800
11 2 (0.27%) Actionable Recommendations
11 2 (0.27%) Cyber Essentials
11 2 (0.27%) IEC 61508
11 2 (0.27%) JSP 440
11 2 (0.27%) PCI DSS
11 2 (0.27%) WCAG
12 1 (0.13%) COBIT
12 1 (0.13%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 1 (0.13%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 48 (6.39%) Active Directory
2 29 (3.86%) VMware Infrastructure
3 27 (3.60%) Docker
4 25 (3.33%) Virtual Machines
5 19 (2.53%) Hyper-V
6 16 (2.13%) BitLocker
6 16 (2.13%) Oracle RAC
7 11 (1.46%) Citrix Hypervisor
8 10 (1.33%) VMware ESXi
8 10 (1.33%) vSphere
9 6 (0.80%) XenApp
9 6 (0.80%) XenDesktop
10 4 (0.53%) Virtual Desktop
11 1 (0.13%) Microsoft App-V
11 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 1 (0.13%) Squid
11 1 (0.13%) Virtual Servers
11 1 (0.13%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 34 (4.53%) Ansible
2 32 (4.26%) Kubernetes
3 30 (3.99%) SCCM
4 16 (2.13%) Data Guard
5 12 (1.60%) Oracle RMAN
6 10 (1.33%) Grafana
6 10 (1.33%) SCOM
6 10 (1.33%) vCenter Server
7 9 (1.20%) Microsoft Intune
7 9 (1.20%) Prometheus
8 7 (0.93%) SysTrack
9 6 (0.80%) Failover Clustering
9 6 (0.80%) 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%) Packer
12 2 (0.27%) Progress Chef
12 2 (0.27%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 132 (17.58%) Microsoft
2 73 (9.72%) ServiceNow
3 71 (9.45%) Oracle
4 63 (8.39%) Cisco
5 57 (7.59%) SAP
6 38 (5.06%) Palo Alto
7 34 (4.53%) VMware
8 18 (2.40%) CheckPoint
8 18 (2.40%) Citrix
9 16 (2.13%) F5
10 13 (1.73%) Google
11 12 (1.60%) Splunk
12 10 (1.33%) Aruba
13 8 (1.07%) Meraki
14 7 (0.93%) Nexthink
15 6 (0.80%) Arista
15 6 (0.80%) Databricks
15 6 (0.80%) Ivanti
16 5 (0.67%) Qualtrics
16 5 (0.67%) Remedy