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

6 months to
22 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 2 2 2
Rank change year-on-year 0 0 +3
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 547 410 477
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 21.18% 19.44% 17.49%
As % of the Qualifications category 61.05% 60.29% 57.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 375 223 346
10th Percentile £318 £287 £353
25th Percentile £424 £386 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £475 £550
Median % change year-on-year +7.89% -13.64% +4.76%
75th Percentile £628 £563 £639
90th Percentile £701 £675 £714
England median daily rate £525 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -4.55% - -3.51%
Number of hourly rates quoted 53 20 42
10th Percentile £16.17 £25.26 £14.50
25th Percentile £25.15 £37.00 £34.25
Median hourly rate £52.78 £47.59 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year +10.90% +3.05% +53.93%
75th Percentile £68.09 £73.86 £60.69
90th Percentile £74.26 £85.80 £73.75
England median hourly rate £25.15 £60.00 £58.30
% change year-on-year -58.08% +2.92% -2.83%

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 896 680 836
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 34.69% 32.24% 30.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 610 368 527
10th Percentile £219 £250 £256
25th Percentile £380 £375 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £535
Median % change year-on-year - -11.21% +4.90%
75th Percentile £588 £572 £650
90th Percentile £688 £667 £720
England median daily rate £523 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -0.48% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 82 40 84
10th Percentile £18.88 £23.87 £14.50
25th Percentile £25.15 £29.63 £25.50
Median hourly rate £45.46 £34.75 £45.44
Median % change year-on-year +30.82% -23.53% +65.81%
75th Percentile £66.75 £53.19 £46.89
90th Percentile £74.26 £75.33 £65.88
England median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £48.40
% change year-on-year -45.54% -4.59% +7.56%

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 January 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 January 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 January 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 -2 167 £500 +8.70% 88
Cheshire +5 120 £563 +39.75% 19
Cumbria 0 119 £501 +0.12% 8
Lancashire 0 104 £550 +49.86% 45
Merseyside -8 27 £500 -4.31% 8
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 (3.84%) Microsoft Exchange
2 9 (1.65%) SharePoint
2 9 (1.65%) Skype for Business
3 8 (1.46%) Confluence
4 4 (0.73%) Apache
4 4 (0.73%) Apache Airflow
5 3 (0.55%) MTS
6 2 (0.37%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 2 (0.37%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.37%) Jupyter
6 2 (0.37%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.18%) CMS
7 1 (0.18%) SAS
Applications
1 26 (4.75%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (1.10%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.73%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (0.73%) Siemens NX
4 1 (0.18%) Adobe Premiere
4 1 (0.18%) Quicktime
Business Applications
1 60 (10.97%) SAP S/4HANA
2 10 (1.83%) SAP EHS
2 10 (1.83%) SAP VC
3 9 (1.65%) SAP MM
3 9 (1.65%) SAP QM
4 4 (0.73%) Teamcenter
5 2 (0.37%) Remedy ITSM
5 2 (0.37%) SAP EWM
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.18%) Payment Gateway
6 1 (0.18%) SAP HCM
6 1 (0.18%) SAP SD
6 1 (0.18%) SAP Travel Management
6 1 (0.18%) SAP WM
Cloud Services
1 68 (12.43%) AWS
2 48 (8.78%) Azure
3 32 (5.85%) Microsoft 365
4 21 (3.84%) GCP
5 20 (3.66%) SaaS
6 14 (2.56%) Power Platform
7 11 (2.01%) GitHub
7 11 (2.01%) Serverless
8 10 (1.83%) Entra ID
9 9 (1.65%) Azure DevOps
10 8 (1.46%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 7 (1.28%) AWS CloudFormation
11 7 (1.28%) Google Workspace
12 6 (1.10%) Amazon EC2
12 6 (1.10%) Amazon EKS
12 6 (1.10%) Amazon S3
12 6 (1.10%) Amazon SQS
12 6 (1.10%) AWS Lambda
13 5 (0.91%) GitHub Actions
13 5 (0.91%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 63 (11.52%) Firewall
2 32 (5.85%) VLAN
3 30 (5.48%) WAN
4 29 (5.30%) Wi-Fi
5 24 (4.39%) Network Security
6 23 (4.20%) DNS
7 16 (2.93%) LAN
7 16 (2.93%) VPN
8 15 (2.74%) SAN
9 14 (2.56%) TCP/IP
10 13 (2.38%) BGP
10 13 (2.38%) Cisco ISE
10 13 (2.38%) NetScaler
11 11 (2.01%) DHCP
12 9 (1.65%) Skype
13 8 (1.46%) Software-Defined Networking
13 8 (1.46%) Unified Communications
14 7 (1.28%) Internet
14 7 (1.28%) WebEx
14 7 (1.28%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (2.74%) PostgreSQL
2 10 (1.83%) SAP HANA
3 9 (1.65%) NoSQL
3 9 (1.65%) Power BI
3 9 (1.65%) Relational Database
4 8 (1.46%) MySQL
5 7 (1.28%) Data Warehouse
5 7 (1.28%) DynamoDB
6 6 (1.10%) MongoDB
6 6 (1.10%) Redis
7 5 (0.91%) BigQuery
7 5 (0.91%) SQL Server
8 4 (0.73%) Metadata
8 4 (0.73%) RDBMS
9 3 (0.55%) Amazon Aurora
9 3 (0.55%) Amazon Redshift
9 3 (0.55%) Big Data
10 2 (0.37%) Amazon RDS
10 2 (0.37%) Data Lake
10 2 (0.37%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 26 (4.75%) GitLab
2 25 (4.57%) Git
3 16 (2.93%) JIRA
4 13 (2.38%) Jenkins
5 6 (1.10%) SonarQube
6 5 (0.91%) Rational DOORS
7 3 (0.55%) Artifactory
7 3 (0.55%) Cypress.io
8 2 (0.37%) Gradle
8 2 (0.37%) Grunt
8 2 (0.37%) gulp
8 2 (0.37%) Jasmine
8 2 (0.37%) Maven
8 2 (0.37%) Mockito
8 2 (0.37%) MSI
8 2 (0.37%) Postman
8 2 (0.37%) SonarLint
9 1 (0.18%) Browser DevTools
9 1 (0.18%) MLflow
9 1 (0.18%) REST Assured
General
1 174 (31.81%) Public Sector
2 121 (22.12%) Social Skills
3 38 (6.95%) Analytical Skills
4 34 (6.22%) Finance
5 20 (3.66%) Manufacturing
6 18 (3.29%) Military
7 17 (3.11%) Documentation Skills
8 11 (2.01%) Banking
8 11 (2.01%) Telecoms
9 10 (1.83%) Electronics
9 10 (1.83%) Legal
10 9 (1.65%) Marketing
11 8 (1.46%) Aerospace
12 7 (1.28%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 5 (0.91%) Influencing Skills
13 5 (0.91%) Organisational Skills
14 3 (0.55%) Presentation Skills
15 1 (0.18%) Aviation
15 1 (0.18%) Corporate Banking
15 1 (0.18%) Law
Job Titles
1 75 (13.71%) Consultant
2 74 (13.53%) Architect
3 46 (8.41%) Senior
4 45 (8.23%) Developer
5 44 (8.04%) Network Engineer
6 39 (7.13%) Analyst
6 39 (7.13%) SAP Consultant
7 25 (4.57%) Technical Architect
8 23 (4.20%) Management Consultant
9 21 (3.84%) Administrator
9 21 (3.84%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
10 18 (3.29%) DevOps Engineer
10 18 (3.29%) Lead
11 16 (2.93%) Platform Engineer
12 14 (2.56%) IT Support
12 14 (2.56%) Support Engineer
13 13 (2.38%) Business Analyst
14 12 (2.19%) AWS Engineer
15 11 (2.01%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 11 (2.01%) Java Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (3.84%) SAP Fiori
2 14 (2.56%) 802.1X
2 14 (2.56%) JSON
2 14 (2.56%) RESTful
2 14 (2.56%) Spring Boot
3 13 (2.38%) Spring
4 12 (2.19%) Node.js
4 12 (2.19%) Web Services
4 12 (2.19%) XML
5 11 (2.01%) HTML
6 10 (1.83%) BAPI
6 10 (1.83%) REST
7 9 (1.65%) CSS
8 7 (1.28%) Kafka
8 7 (1.28%) SOAP
9 6 (1.10%) AngularJS
9 6 (1.10%) Hibernate
9 6 (1.10%) Playwright
9 6 (1.10%) React
9 6 (1.10%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 54 (9.87%) Data Centre
2 31 (5.67%) Onboarding
2 31 (5.67%) Product Ownership
3 12 (2.19%) Cyber Threat
4 11 (2.01%) Replication
5 9 (1.65%) Clustering
5 9 (1.65%) Enterprise Software
6 7 (1.28%) Cloud Native
7 6 (1.10%) Driving Licence
7 6 (1.10%) Hybrid Cloud
8 5 (0.91%) Analytical Mindset
8 5 (0.91%) Distributed Systems
8 5 (0.91%) Fibre Optics
8 5 (0.91%) Low-Code
8 5 (0.91%) Video Conferencing
9 4 (0.73%) Legacy Systems
9 4 (0.73%) Mobile App
9 4 (0.73%) Operational Technology
9 4 (0.73%) SCADA
10 3 (0.55%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 69 (12.61%) Windows
2 36 (6.58%) Linux
3 23 (4.20%) Windows 10
4 22 (4.02%) Windows Server
5 15 (2.74%) Unix
6 12 (2.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 9 (1.65%) Solaris
7 9 (1.65%) Windows 7
8 8 (1.46%) Android
9 7 (1.28%) Mac OS
10 4 (0.73%) Apple iOS
11 2 (0.37%) Mac OS X
12 1 (0.18%) VMS
12 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 64 (11.70%) Agile
2 63 (11.52%) Problem-Solving
3 55 (10.05%) Stakeholder Management
4 51 (9.32%) DevOps
5 50 (9.14%) CI/CD
5 50 (9.14%) Cybersecurity
6 45 (8.23%) ITSM
7 43 (7.86%) Migration
8 42 (7.68%) Service Management
9 39 (7.13%) Containerisation
10 34 (6.22%) Continuous Improvement
10 34 (6.22%) Project Delivery
11 33 (6.03%) High Availability
11 33 (6.03%) Validation
12 29 (5.30%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 29 (5.30%) User Experience
13 28 (5.12%) Disaster Recovery
14 27 (4.94%) Change Management
14 27 (4.94%) Risk Management
14 27 (4.94%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 64 (11.70%) Python
2 44 (8.04%) PowerShell
3 35 (6.40%) Java
4 22 (4.02%) Bash
5 16 (2.93%) Perl
6 12 (2.19%) JavaScript
6 12 (2.19%) SQL
7 11 (2.01%) ABAP
7 11 (2.01%) TypeScript
8 9 (1.65%) VB
8 9 (1.65%) VBScript
9 6 (1.10%) C++
10 4 (0.73%) C
10 4 (0.73%) Ruby
11 3 (0.55%) Go
12 2 (0.37%) AWK
12 2 (0.37%) C#
12 2 (0.37%) Kusto Query Language
12 2 (0.37%) PHP
12 2 (0.37%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 402 (73.49%) SC Cleared
2 70 (12.80%) BPSS Clearance
3 43 (7.86%) DV Cleared
4 34 (6.22%) Degree
5 26 (4.75%) CCNP
5 26 (4.75%) Cisco Certification
6 19 (3.47%) CCNA
7 10 (1.83%) Computer Science Degree
7 10 (1.83%) Microsoft Certification
8 9 (1.65%) CCDP
8 9 (1.65%) CISSP
9 8 (1.46%) CISM
9 8 (1.46%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 7 (1.28%) MCSA
10 7 (1.28%) MCSE
10 7 (1.28%) VCAP
11 6 (1.10%) Azure Certification
11 6 (1.10%) DBS Check
11 6 (1.10%) ITIL Certification
12 5 (0.91%) BC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (4.75%) NIST
2 15 (2.74%) Accessibility
3 13 (2.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 9 (1.65%) Data Quality
4 9 (1.65%) SLA
5 7 (1.28%) NCSC
6 6 (1.10%) JSP 440
7 5 (0.91%) QA
8 4 (0.73%) IEC 61508
8 4 (0.73%) ISO 26262
8 4 (0.73%) WCAG
9 3 (0.55%) GDPR
9 3 (0.55%) IEC 62304
9 3 (0.55%) IFRS
9 3 (0.55%) PMO
10 2 (0.37%) IEC 61131
10 2 (0.37%) IFRS 17
10 2 (0.37%) PSD2
11 1 (0.18%) Cyber Essentials
11 1 (0.18%) GRC
System Software
1 35 (6.40%) Docker
2 28 (5.12%) Active Directory
3 18 (3.29%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (1.65%) BitLocker
4 9 (1.65%) vSphere
5 8 (1.46%) Virtual Machines
5 8 (1.46%) VMware ESXi
6 4 (0.73%) Firmware
7 2 (0.37%) ISA Server
8 1 (0.18%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 36 (6.58%) Kubernetes
2 35 (6.40%) Terraform
3 26 (4.75%) SCCM
4 15 (2.74%) Ansible
5 14 (2.56%) Microsoft Intune
6 10 (1.83%) vCenter Server
7 6 (1.10%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 6 (1.10%) Norton AntiVirus
8 4 (0.73%) Grafana
8 4 (0.73%) Nessus
9 3 (0.55%) FortiGate
9 3 (0.55%) Prometheus
10 2 (0.37%) Packer
10 2 (0.37%) SELinux
11 1 (0.18%) AirWatch
11 1 (0.18%) Cisco CUCM
11 1 (0.18%) Failover Clustering
11 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Clustering
11 1 (0.18%) QRadar
11 1 (0.18%) vRealize
Vendors
1 80 (14.63%) SAP
2 75 (13.71%) Microsoft
3 72 (13.16%) Cisco
4 37 (6.76%) Palo Alto
5 32 (5.85%) ServiceNow
6 31 (5.67%) Oracle
7 24 (4.39%) VMware
8 19 (3.47%) Meraki
9 12 (2.19%) Adobe
9 12 (2.19%) Google
10 11 (2.01%) Citrix
10 11 (2.01%) Dell
10 11 (2.01%) Red Hat
11 8 (1.46%) Splunk
12 7 (1.28%) HP
12 7 (1.28%) IBM
12 7 (1.28%) McAfee
12 7 (1.28%) Symantec
13 6 (1.10%) Apple
13 6 (1.10%) NetApp