SC Cleared Contract Job Trends in Scotland

Security Check (SC) Clearance
UK > Scotland

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in Scotland with a requirement for SC Cleared qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 26 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 38 48 12
Rank change year-on-year +10 -36 +33
Contract jobs citing SC Cleared 80 72 259
As % of all contract jobs in Scotland 5.41% 4.51% 11.02%
As % of the Qualifications category 23.88% 20.22% 36.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 33 39 142
10th Percentile £90 £164 £303
25th Percentile £263 £325 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £500 £575
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -13.04% +27.78%
75th Percentile £653 £582 £650
90th Percentile £763 £685 £700
UK median daily rate £525 £535 £550
% change year-on-year -1.87% -2.73% -2.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 5 19
10th Percentile £17.13 £18.67 £45.00
25th Percentile - £24.18 £55.00
Median hourly rate £19.38 £33.00 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -41.27% -45.00% +2.13%
75th Percentile £25.15 £65.00 £68.13
90th Percentile £28.55 £71.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £50.00 £59.59
% change year-on-year -49.70% -16.09% -4.91%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
Scotland

SC 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 Scotland.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 335 356 713
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Scotland 22.67% 22.28% 30.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 199 205 384
10th Percentile £186 £168 £189
25th Percentile £358 £356 £361
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £455 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year +1.11% -10.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £568 £538 £600
90th Percentile £665 £638 £684
UK median daily rate £519 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -1.24% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 24 44
10th Percentile £17.23 £17.28 £16.25
25th Percentile £19.23 £20.99 £22.10
Median hourly rate £19.38 £23.00 £55.70
Median % change year-on-year -15.74% -58.71% +168.30%
75th Percentile £45.92 £29.91 £62.50
90th Percentile £81.24 £68.50 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £39.00 £47.50
% change year-on-year -35.51% -17.89% +5.56%

SC Cleared
Job Vacancy Trend in Scotland

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing SC Cleared relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Scotland.

SC Cleared job vacancy trend in Scotland

SC Cleared
Daily Rate Trend in Scotland

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Scotland citing SC Cleared.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Scotland citing SC Cleared

SC Cleared
Daily Rate Histogram in Scotland

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SC Cleared in Scotland over the 6 months to 26 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for SC Cleared in Scotland

SC Cleared
Hourly Rate Trend in Scotland

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Scotland citing SC Cleared.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Scotland citing SC Cleared

SC Cleared
Hourly Rate Histogram in Scotland

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing SC Cleared in Scotland over the 6 months to 26 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for SC Cleared in Scotland

SC Cleared
Contract Job Locations in Scotland

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing SC Cleared within the Scotland region over the 6 months to 26 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
Glasgow +11 34 £625 +21.95% 23
Edinburgh -10 17 £420 -25.99% 16
South Lanarkshire +1 14 £550 +27.91% 4
Highlands - 4 - - 1
Renfrewshire - 4 £675 -
Dumfries and Galloway - 1 - -
SC Cleared
UK

SC Cleared
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Scotland 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 2 (2.50%) Oracle Coherence
2 1 (1.25%) Confluence
2 1 (1.25%) Exchange Server 2013
2 1 (1.25%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 3 (3.75%) Simulink
2 1 (1.25%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (1.25%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (1.25%) LabWindows
1 1 (1.25%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 5 (6.25%) AWS
1 5 (6.25%) Azure
1 5 (6.25%) GCP
2 1 (1.25%) Azure AI
2 1 (1.25%) Azure Machine Learning
2 1 (1.25%) IaaS
2 1 (1.25%) Lucidchart
2 1 (1.25%) Microsoft 365
2 1 (1.25%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 5 (6.25%) DNS
1 5 (6.25%) TCP/IP
2 3 (3.75%) Ethernet
2 3 (3.75%) MPLS
2 3 (3.75%) WAN
3 2 (2.50%) Firewall
3 2 (2.50%) LAN
3 2 (2.50%) Network Security
3 2 (2.50%) SDH
3 2 (2.50%) Software-Defined Networking
4 1 (1.25%) Cisco ASA
4 1 (1.25%) Cisco Firepower
4 1 (1.25%) Cisco ISE
4 1 (1.25%) Cisco Nexus
4 1 (1.25%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
4 1 (1.25%) Multicast
4 1 (1.25%) Structured Cabling
4 1 (1.25%) VLAN
4 1 (1.25%) VXLAN
4 1 (1.25%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.25%) Big Data
1 1 (1.25%) Data Vault
1 1 (1.25%) Elasticsearch
1 1 (1.25%) Metadata
1 1 (1.25%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 1 (1.25%) ERwin
1 1 (1.25%) Git
1 1 (1.25%) GitLab
1 1 (1.25%) JIRA
1 1 (1.25%) LabVIEW
1 1 (1.25%) PowerDesigner
General
1 19 (23.75%) Social Skills
2 17 (21.25%) Public Sector
3 9 (11.25%) Analytical Skills
4 6 (7.50%) Organisational Skills
5 4 (5.00%) Electronics
6 3 (3.75%) Aerospace
6 3 (3.75%) Influencing Skills
6 3 (3.75%) Police
7 2 (2.50%) Legal
7 2 (2.50%) Telecoms
8 1 (1.25%) Documentation Skills
8 1 (1.25%) General Ledger
8 1 (1.25%) Military
8 1 (1.25%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 11 (13.75%) Analyst
2 10 (12.50%) Consultant
3 7 (8.75%) Architect
3 7 (8.75%) CyberArk Consultant
3 7 (8.75%) Senior
4 6 (7.50%) Solutions Architect
5 5 (6.25%) SOC Analyst
6 4 (5.00%) Field Engineer
6 4 (5.00%) Lead
6 4 (5.00%) Service Analyst
6 4 (5.00%) Service Desk Analyst
7 3 (3.75%) Firmware Engineer
7 3 (3.75%) OAT Tester
7 3 (3.75%) Security Consultant
7 3 (3.75%) Senior Firmware Engineer
7 3 (3.75%) Tester
8 2 (2.50%) Field Hardware Engineer
8 2 (2.50%) Platform Engineer
8 2 (2.50%) Printer Engineer
8 2 (2.50%) Security Advisor
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (1.25%) 802.1X
1 1 (1.25%) Elastic Stack
1 1 (1.25%) Express.js
1 1 (1.25%) Kafka
1 1 (1.25%) Node.js
1 1 (1.25%) Oracle Fusion
1 1 (1.25%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 5 (6.25%) Cyberattack
1 5 (6.25%) Data Centre
1 5 (6.25%) Security Operations Centre
2 4 (5.00%) Driving Licence
3 3 (3.75%) Data Protection Act
3 3 (3.75%) FPGA
3 3 (3.75%) PCIe
3 3 (3.75%) VHDL
4 2 (2.50%) Virtual Team
5 1 (1.25%) AI Agents
5 1 (1.25%) Analytical Mindset
5 1 (1.25%) Data Structures
5 1 (1.25%) Enterprise Software
5 1 (1.25%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 10 (12.50%) Windows
2 8 (10.00%) Linux
3 1 (1.25%) Apple iOS
3 1 (1.25%) Windows 10
3 1 (1.25%) Windows Server
3 1 (1.25%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 13 (16.25%) Cybersecurity
2 11 (13.75%) Problem-Solving
3 10 (12.50%) Migration
3 10 (12.50%) Workflow
3 10 (12.50%) Workflow Management
4 7 (8.75%) Agile
4 7 (8.75%) Decision-Making
4 7 (8.75%) DevOps
4 7 (8.75%) ITIL
5 6 (7.50%) Incident Response
5 6 (7.50%) Infrastructure as Code
5 6 (7.50%) Security Operations
6 5 (6.25%) Computer Science
6 5 (6.25%) SIEM
6 5 (6.25%) Stakeholder Management
7 4 (5.00%) Containerisation
7 4 (5.00%) Roadmaps
8 3 (3.75%) Customer Service
8 3 (3.75%) Disaster Recovery
8 3 (3.75%) UVM
Programming Languages
1 4 (5.00%) MATLAB
2 3 (3.75%) Bash
2 3 (3.75%) PowerShell
2 3 (3.75%) SystemVerilog
3 2 (2.50%) JavaScript
3 2 (2.50%) Python
4 1 (1.25%) Java
Qualifications
1 80 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 14 (17.50%) DV Cleared
3 8 (10.00%) Degree
4 5 (6.25%) CompTIA CySA+
4 5 (6.25%) CompTIA Security+
4 5 (6.25%) Computer Science Degree
5 2 (2.50%) BPSS Clearance
6 1 (1.25%) CCNA
6 1 (1.25%) CIPD
6 1 (1.25%) Cisco Certification
6 1 (1.25%) CISSP
6 1 (1.25%) IIBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (5.00%) QA
2 3 (3.75%) DO-254
3 2 (2.50%) PMO
3 2 (2.50%) SLA
4 1 (1.25%) Data Quality
System Software
1 3 (3.75%) Firmware
2 2 (2.50%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (1.25%) Active Directory
3 1 (1.25%) Docker
3 1 (1.25%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 1 (1.25%) Kibana
1 1 (1.25%) logstash
Vendors
1 7 (8.75%) CyberArk
2 6 (7.50%) Microsoft
3 5 (6.25%) Cisco
3 5 (6.25%) Oracle
3 5 (6.25%) Splunk
4 3 (3.75%) Altera
4 3 (3.75%) Xilinx
5 2 (2.50%) Canon
5 2 (2.50%) Dell
5 2 (2.50%) HP
5 2 (2.50%) Microsemi
5 2 (2.50%) VMware
6 1 (1.25%) AppDynamics
6 1 (1.25%) F5
6 1 (1.25%) Foundry
6 1 (1.25%) Meraki
6 1 (1.25%) ServiceNow
6 1 (1.25%) Snow
6 1 (1.25%) SolarWinds
6 1 (1.25%) Sparx