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

6 months to
2 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 2 5 2
Rank change year-on-year +3 -3 0
Contract jobs citing Security Cleared 729 376 449
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 18.45% 17.30% 18.58%
As % of the Qualifications category 61.16% 51.16% 65.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 502 204 258
10th Percentile £360 £340 £313
25th Percentile £438 £431 £424
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £536 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.17% +7.25% -4.76%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £638
90th Percentile £724 £688 £779
England median daily rate £549 £538 £550
% change year-on-year +2.14% -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 42 43 52
10th Percentile £26.25 £19.10 -
25th Percentile £36.70 £22.16 £10.95
Median hourly rate £64.05 £29.27 £22.44
Median % change year-on-year +118.81% +30.45% -51.41%
75th Percentile £80.00 £58.42 £51.22
90th Percentile £83.75 £69.45 £61.83
England median hourly rate £65.00 £25.15 £60.00
% change year-on-year +158.45% -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 1,192 735 687
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 30.17% 33.82% 28.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 772 432 394
10th Percentile £313 £313 £313
25th Percentile £418 £407 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £492 £505
Median % change year-on-year +4.67% -2.48% -3.90%
75th Percentile £619 £622 £602
90th Percentile £688 £716 £724
England median daily rate £525 £525 £538
% change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 112 72 73
10th Percentile £17.25 £16.78 £10.95
25th Percentile £28.50 £20.00 £12.00
Median hourly rate £43.96 £29.27 £31.50
Median % change year-on-year +50.19% -7.08% -25.88%
75th Percentile £64.63 £58.34 £54.00
90th Percentile £83.75 £71.32 £77.29
England median hourly rate £52.50 £25.15 £50.00
% change year-on-year +108.75% -49.70% -8.36%

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 2 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 2 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 2 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 +2 276 £571 +6.23% 313
Cumbria 0 184 £492 -5.11% 22
Lancashire 0 149 £625 +28.21% 85
Cheshire +15 100 £511 +16.69% 34
Merseyside -23 14 £625 -0.60% 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 (3.84%) Microsoft Exchange
2 21 (2.88%) SharePoint
3 15 (2.06%) Skype for Business
4 12 (1.65%) SAS
5 5 (0.69%) Confluence
6 3 (0.41%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.27%) Apache
7 2 (0.27%) Apache Spark
7 2 (0.27%) Jupyter
7 2 (0.27%) Oracle Workflow
7 2 (0.27%) SharePoint 2013
8 1 (0.14%) IIS
8 1 (0.14%) NetWeaver
Applications
1 25 (3.43%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (0.82%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.55%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.41%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.27%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.14%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.14%) Navisworks
6 1 (0.14%) ProjectWise
6 1 (0.14%) Revit
Business Applications
1 9 (1.23%) Oracle Payables
1 9 (1.23%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (0.69%) Remedy ITSM
2 5 (0.69%) SAP HR
2 5 (0.69%) Teamcenter
3 3 (0.41%) SAP MDG
4 2 (0.27%) Oracle Cash Management
4 2 (0.27%) Oracle EBS
4 2 (0.27%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
4 2 (0.27%) Primavera
4 2 (0.27%) SAP MM
4 2 (0.27%) SAP PLM
5 1 (0.14%) Dynamics AX
5 1 (0.14%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.14%) Integrated Workplace Management System
5 1 (0.14%) SAP ERP
5 1 (0.14%) SAP PM
5 1 (0.14%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 103 (14.13%) AWS
1 103 (14.13%) Azure
2 36 (4.94%) Microsoft 365
3 32 (4.39%) Power Platform
4 30 (4.12%) SuccessFactors
5 27 (3.70%) Azure DevOps
6 20 (2.74%) OCI
7 17 (2.33%) SaaS
7 17 (2.33%) Serverless
8 16 (2.19%) Entra ID
9 15 (2.06%) GCP
10 13 (1.78%) GitHub
11 12 (1.65%) Azure Monitor
12 10 (1.37%) Google Workspace
13 7 (0.96%) Azure AKS
13 7 (0.96%) GitHub Actions
13 7 (0.96%) Google Drive
14 6 (0.82%) Dynamics 365
14 6 (0.82%) Microsoft Copilot
14 6 (0.82%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 62 (8.50%) Firewall
2 35 (4.80%) Wireless
3 34 (4.66%) VPN
4 31 (4.25%) WAN
5 27 (3.70%) Network Security
6 26 (3.57%) BGP
6 26 (3.57%) OSPF
7 25 (3.43%) Wi-Fi
8 24 (3.29%) DNS
9 23 (3.16%) LAN
10 22 (3.02%) VLAN
11 21 (2.88%) Cisco ASA
12 20 (2.74%) DHCP
13 18 (2.47%) EIGRP
13 18 (2.47%) Structured Cabling
14 17 (2.33%) Cisco Firepower
14 17 (2.33%) Skype
15 15 (2.06%) SAN
16 14 (1.92%) NetScaler
17 13 (1.78%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 42 (5.76%) SQL Server
2 26 (3.57%) MySQL
3 25 (3.43%) Oracle Database
3 25 (3.43%) PostgreSQL
4 19 (2.61%) Power BI
5 16 (2.19%) MongoDB
5 16 (2.19%) Relational Database
6 11 (1.51%) RDBMS
6 11 (1.51%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 9 (1.23%) Oracle Exadata
8 8 (1.10%) NoSQL
9 7 (0.96%) Oracle Database 12c
10 5 (0.69%) Data Warehouse
10 5 (0.69%) Metadata
11 3 (0.41%) Data Lake
12 2 (0.27%) Amazon QuickSight
12 2 (0.27%) Amazon Redshift
12 2 (0.27%) Big Data
12 2 (0.27%) Oracle BI Publisher
12 2 (0.27%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 28 (3.84%) GitLab
2 15 (2.06%) Git
3 12 (1.65%) Selenium
4 9 (1.23%) Cucumber
4 9 (1.23%) JIRA
4 9 (1.23%) REST Assured
5 7 (0.96%) Jenkins
6 6 (0.82%) MSI
7 4 (0.55%) Gatling
8 3 (0.41%) Mockito
8 3 (0.41%) Serenity BDD
8 3 (0.41%) Toad
8 3 (0.41%) WebDriver
9 2 (0.27%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.27%) JDeveloper
9 2 (0.27%) Rational DOORS
9 2 (0.27%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.14%) Postman
10 1 (0.14%) SonarQube
10 1 (0.14%) Visual Studio Coded UI
General
1 128 (17.56%) Social Skills
2 115 (15.78%) Public Sector
3 52 (7.13%) Military
4 39 (5.35%) Analytical Skills
5 26 (3.57%) Documentation Skills
6 21 (2.88%) Finance
7 19 (2.61%) Legal
7 19 (2.61%) Manufacturing
8 11 (1.51%) Aerospace
9 9 (1.23%) Presentation Skills
10 8 (1.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 8 (1.10%) Organisational Skills
11 4 (0.55%) Retail
12 3 (0.41%) Banking
12 3 (0.41%) Local Government
13 2 (0.27%) General Ledger
13 2 (0.27%) Influencing Skills
13 2 (0.27%) Marketing
13 2 (0.27%) Telecoms
14 1 (0.14%) Police
Job Titles
1 106 (14.54%) Architect
1 106 (14.54%) Lead
2 65 (8.92%) Consultant
3 60 (8.23%) Network Engineer
3 60 (8.23%) Senior
4 50 (6.86%) DBA
5 37 (5.08%) Analyst
5 37 (5.08%) Unix Engineer
6 36 (4.94%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
7 34 (4.66%) Developer
8 31 (4.25%) Administrator
9 28 (3.84%) SQL DBA
10 25 (3.43%) Lead Architect
10 25 (3.43%) Technical Architect
11 23 (3.16%) DevOps Engineer
12 21 (2.88%) Oracle DBA
13 20 (2.74%) Desktop Engineer
13 20 (2.74%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 20 (2.74%) Security Architect
13 20 (2.74%) Senior Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 52 (7.13%) Terraform
2 20 (2.74%) Node.js
3 18 (2.47%) Spring
4 17 (2.33%) REST
4 17 (2.33%) Spring Boot
5 14 (1.92%) OAuth
6 13 (1.78%) Kafka
7 9 (1.23%) Oracle GoldenGate
8 6 (0.82%) AWS CDK
8 6 (0.82%) OpenID
8 6 (0.82%) Playwright
9 5 (0.69%) Leaflet
9 5 (0.69%) Nunjucks
9 5 (0.69%) SOAP
10 4 (0.55%) ModSecurity
10 4 (0.55%) PySpark
10 4 (0.55%) RESTful
10 4 (0.55%) XML
11 3 (0.41%) ActiveMQ
11 3 (0.41%) Django
Miscellaneous
1 35 (4.80%) Onboarding
2 26 (3.57%) Data Centre
3 25 (3.43%) Replication
4 24 (3.29%) Clustering
5 19 (2.61%) Cloud Native
6 15 (2.06%) Operational Technology
7 13 (1.78%) Legacy Systems
8 12 (1.65%) Enterprise Software
9 11 (1.51%) CMDB
9 11 (1.51%) Hybrid Cloud
9 11 (1.51%) Management Information System
10 10 (1.37%) Cyber Threat
10 10 (1.37%) Product Ownership
11 9 (1.23%) Public Cloud
12 8 (1.10%) PKI
13 7 (0.96%) Data Protection Act
14 5 (0.69%) CSOC
14 5 (0.69%) Distributed Systems
14 5 (0.69%) Driving Licence
15 4 (0.55%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 80 (10.97%) Windows
2 46 (6.31%) Unix
3 41 (5.62%) Solaris
4 37 (5.08%) Linux
4 37 (5.08%) Windows 10
5 33 (4.53%) Windows Server
6 19 (2.61%) Windows 7
7 9 (1.23%) AIX
8 8 (1.10%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 5 (0.69%) Mac OS
9 5 (0.69%) Windows Server 2003
10 4 (0.55%) CentOS
11 3 (0.41%) Android
11 3 (0.41%) VMS
12 1 (0.14%) Apple iOS
12 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 92 (12.62%) Stakeholder Management
2 91 (12.48%) Cybersecurity
3 81 (11.11%) DevOps
4 76 (10.43%) Migration
5 75 (10.29%) ITIL
6 72 (9.88%) Continuous Improvement
7 69 (9.47%) CI/CD
8 68 (9.33%) ITSM
9 62 (8.50%) Service Management
10 60 (8.23%) Agile
11 58 (7.96%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 50 (6.86%) High Availability
12 50 (6.86%) Problem-Solving
13 49 (6.72%) Project Delivery
14 45 (6.17%) Incident Management
15 42 (5.76%) Roadmaps
15 42 (5.76%) Technical Leadership
16 41 (5.62%) Risk Management
17 39 (5.35%) Infrastructure as Code
18 37 (5.08%) Disaster Recovery
Programming Languages
1 62 (8.50%) SQL
2 55 (7.54%) Python
3 54 (7.41%) PowerShell
4 39 (5.35%) Java
5 22 (3.02%) JavaScript
6 16 (2.19%) VBScript
7 14 (1.92%) VB
8 11 (1.51%) T-SQL
9 8 (1.10%) TypeScript
10 6 (0.82%) Bash
10 6 (0.82%) Bicep
11 3 (0.41%) C#
11 3 (0.41%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.27%) ABAP
12 2 (0.27%) Go
12 2 (0.27%) PL/SQL
12 2 (0.27%) Search Processing Language
13 1 (0.14%) Google Apps Script
13 1 (0.14%) Kotlin
13 1 (0.14%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 585 (80.25%) SC Cleared
2 64 (8.78%) BPSS Clearance
3 44 (6.04%) DV Cleared
4 37 (5.08%) Microsoft Certification
5 30 (4.12%) Cisco Certification
6 27 (3.70%) CCNA
7 23 (3.16%) Degree
8 19 (2.61%) Azure Certification
9 17 (2.33%) CCNP
10 12 (1.65%) CISSP
10 12 (1.65%) DBS Check
11 11 (1.51%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 11 (1.51%) Network+ Certification
11 11 (1.51%) Server+ Certification
12 8 (1.10%) MCSA
12 8 (1.10%) MCSE
12 8 (1.10%) VCAP
12 8 (1.10%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 5 (0.69%) AWS Certification
13 5 (0.69%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (4.94%) NIST
2 31 (4.25%) SLA
3 27 (3.70%) PMO
4 26 (3.57%) NCSC
5 21 (2.88%) GRC
6 20 (2.74%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 17 (2.33%) Data Quality
8 16 (2.19%) QA
9 12 (1.65%) GDPR
10 10 (1.37%) Accessibility
11 7 (0.96%) NIST 800
12 6 (0.82%) JSP 440
13 3 (0.41%) WCAG
14 2 (0.27%) Actionable Recommendations
14 2 (0.27%) PCI DSS
15 1 (0.14%) Cyber Essentials
15 1 (0.14%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 1 (0.14%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 1 (0.14%) ITGC
15 1 (0.14%) Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment)
System Software
1 41 (5.62%) Active Directory
2 25 (3.43%) Docker
2 25 (3.43%) VMware Infrastructure
3 22 (3.02%) Virtual Machines
4 17 (2.33%) Oracle RAC
5 16 (2.19%) BitLocker
6 15 (2.06%) Hyper-V
7 10 (1.37%) VMware ESXi
7 10 (1.37%) vSphere
8 9 (1.23%) Citrix Hypervisor
9 5 (0.69%) XenApp
9 5 (0.69%) XenDesktop
10 4 (0.55%) Virtual Desktop
11 1 (0.14%) Microsoft App-V
11 1 (0.14%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 1 (0.14%) Squid
11 1 (0.14%) Virtual Servers
11 1 (0.14%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 34 (4.66%) Ansible
2 30 (4.12%) Kubernetes
3 29 (3.98%) SCCM
4 17 (2.33%) Data Guard
5 16 (2.19%) Oracle RMAN
6 10 (1.37%) SCOM
6 10 (1.37%) vCenter Server
7 7 (0.96%) Grafana
7 7 (0.96%) Microsoft Intune
8 6 (0.82%) Prometheus
8 6 (0.82%) SysTrack
9 5 (0.69%) Single Sign-On
10 4 (0.55%) Failover Clustering
10 4 (0.55%) Nagios
10 4 (0.55%) Oracle ZFS
11 3 (0.41%) McAfee ePO
11 3 (0.41%) Microsoft Clustering
12 2 (0.27%) CASB
12 2 (0.27%) Enterprise Manager Cloud Control
12 2 (0.27%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 122 (16.74%) Microsoft
2 72 (9.88%) Oracle
3 68 (9.33%) ServiceNow
4 61 (8.37%) Cisco
5 58 (7.96%) SAP
6 38 (5.21%) Palo Alto
7 30 (4.12%) VMware
8 19 (2.61%) CheckPoint
9 16 (2.19%) F5
10 15 (2.06%) Citrix
11 12 (1.65%) Google
12 11 (1.51%) Splunk
13 9 (1.23%) Aruba
14 7 (0.96%) Meraki
15 6 (0.82%) Arista
15 6 (0.82%) Databricks
15 6 (0.82%) Ivanti
15 6 (0.82%) Nexthink
16 5 (0.69%) Qualtrics
16 5 (0.69%) Remedy