SC Cleared Contract Job Trends in the West Midlands

Security Check (SC) Clearance
England > West Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the West Midlands with a requirement for SC Cleared qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 2 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 3 12 8
Rank change year-on-year +9 -4 +8
Contract jobs citing SC Cleared 464 176 228
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 19.98% 10.80% 12.63%
As % of the Qualifications category 55.24% 35.34% 41.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 351 130 165
10th Percentile £350 £374 £325
25th Percentile £450 £463 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £550 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.73% +10.00% -5.66%
75th Percentile £581 £612 £610
90th Percentile £675 £700 £675
England median daily rate £525 £527 £550
% change year-on-year -0.28% -4.27% -1.61%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 3 12
10th Percentile £18.20 - £44.50
25th Percentile £18.87 - £62.50
Median hourly rate £21.46 £35.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -38.69% -46.15% -1.52%
75th Percentile £25.15 - £67.81
90th Percentile - - £69.88
England median hourly rate £25.15 £54.76 £57.42
% change year-on-year -54.07% -4.63% -8.14%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
West Midlands

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 the West Midlands.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 840 498 549
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 36.18% 30.55% 30.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 581 328 340
10th Percentile £293 £208 £313
25th Percentile £421 £400 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.44% -0.95% +5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £612 £600
90th Percentile £663 £700 £675
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 50 19 31
10th Percentile £14.00 £17.55 £17.50
25th Percentile £18.20 £19.25 £23.00
Median hourly rate £20.73 £29.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -28.52% -17.14% +79.49%
75th Percentile £25.15 £39.38 £67.50
90th Percentile £42.24 £52.50 £70.00
England median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £51.90
% change year-on-year -45.54% -11.02% +15.33%

SC Cleared
Job Vacancy Trend in the West Midlands

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

SC Cleared job vacancy trend in the West Midlands

SC Cleared
Daily Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing SC Cleared.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing SC Cleared

SC Cleared
Daily Rate Histogram in the West Midlands

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SC Cleared in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 2 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for SC Cleared in the West Midlands

SC Cleared
Hourly Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing SC Cleared.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing SC Cleared

SC Cleared
Hourly Rate Histogram in the West Midlands

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing SC Cleared in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 2 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for SC Cleared in the West Midlands

SC Cleared
Contract Job Locations in the West Midlands

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 West Midlands region over the 6 months to 2 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
Shropshire +1 182 £515 +4.25% 9
Birmingham +18 102 £475 -20.83% 21
Warwickshire +2 73 £383 -33.85% 9
Worcestershire +11 65 £625 +31.58% 9
Herefordshire 0 45 £650 +6.21% 3
Coventry - 6 £300 -
Staffordshire -1 5 £270 -40.00% 11
Solihull -4 4 £513 +40.41%
Wolverhampton +6 3 - -
SC Cleared
England

SC Cleared
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the West Midlands 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 85 (18.32%) SAS
2 41 (8.84%) Confluence
3 22 (4.74%) WebLogic
4 12 (2.59%) Apache
5 10 (2.16%) nginx
6 7 (1.51%) Apache Airflow
7 6 (1.29%) Tuxedo
8 3 (0.65%) Oracle Workflow
8 3 (0.65%) SharePoint
9 1 (0.22%) NetWeaver
9 1 (0.22%) SAP EP
Applications
1 10 (2.16%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (1.94%) Mozilla Thunderbird
3 6 (1.29%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (0.86%) Microsoft Excel
5 2 (0.43%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.43%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.22%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.22%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (0.43%) Dynamics CRM
1 2 (0.43%) SAP ERP
1 2 (0.43%) SAP PP
1 2 (0.43%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.22%) Oracle Assets
2 1 (0.22%) SAP CRM
Cloud Services
1 102 (21.98%) Azure
2 85 (18.32%) AWS
3 31 (6.68%) GitHub
4 22 (4.74%) Amazon S3
4 22 (4.74%) OpenShift
5 21 (4.53%) Amazon EC2
6 19 (4.09%) Microsoft 365
7 18 (3.88%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 17 (3.66%) Amazon ELB
8 17 (3.66%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 16 (3.45%) GCP
9 16 (3.45%) Serverless
10 15 (3.23%) AWS KMS
10 15 (3.23%) Azure Data Factory
10 15 (3.23%) SaaS
11 14 (3.02%) Azure Monitor
12 12 (2.59%) Power Platform
13 9 (1.94%) Amazon ECS
13 9 (1.94%) Azure DevOps
13 9 (1.94%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 43 (9.27%) Firewall
2 37 (7.97%) DNS
3 35 (7.54%) VPN
4 31 (6.68%) WAN
5 29 (6.25%) IPsec
6 24 (5.17%) MPLS
7 21 (4.53%) SMTP
8 20 (4.31%) BGP
9 16 (3.45%) FTP
10 15 (3.23%) HTTP
10 15 (3.23%) SSH
11 13 (2.80%) Network Security
12 11 (2.37%) SSL
12 11 (2.37%) Wireless
13 9 (1.94%) Cisco IPT
13 9 (1.94%) DMVPN
13 9 (1.94%) IMAP
13 9 (1.94%) OpenLDAP
14 6 (1.29%) DKIM
14 6 (1.29%) DMARC
Database & Business Intelligence
1 38 (8.19%) SAS Enterprise Guide
2 35 (7.54%) Pentaho
3 30 (6.47%) PostgreSQL
4 27 (5.82%) Oracle Database
5 19 (4.09%) Amazon RDS
6 16 (3.45%) Elasticsearch
7 13 (2.80%) Metadata
8 12 (2.59%) SAS Visual Analytics
9 9 (1.94%) Amazon Aurora
9 9 (1.94%) Data Warehouse
10 8 (1.72%) Redis
11 7 (1.51%) Metadata Repository
12 6 (1.29%) MongoDB
12 6 (1.29%) Power BI
13 3 (0.65%) InfluxDB
13 3 (0.65%) Relational Database
13 3 (0.65%) SAS Data Integration Studio
14 2 (0.43%) Data Hub
14 2 (0.43%) DataStage
14 2 (0.43%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 76 (16.38%) Git
2 75 (16.16%) JIRA
3 68 (14.66%) Jenkins
4 30 (6.47%) GitLab
5 18 (3.88%) JUnit
5 18 (3.88%) Selenium
6 15 (3.23%) Vagrant
7 12 (2.59%) SonarQube
8 6 (1.29%) MSI
9 5 (1.08%) Cucumber
9 5 (1.08%) Mockito
10 4 (0.86%) Bitbucket
10 4 (0.86%) Maven
10 4 (0.86%) PVCS
11 3 (0.65%) NeoLoad
12 1 (0.22%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 1 (0.22%) Postman
12 1 (0.22%) TestDirector
General
1 131 (28.23%) Social Skills
2 62 (13.36%) Public Sector
3 43 (9.27%) Analytical Skills
4 13 (2.80%) Documentation Skills
4 13 (2.80%) Finance
4 13 (2.80%) Telecoms
5 9 (1.94%) Aeronautics
5 9 (1.94%) Presentation Skills
6 8 (1.72%) Legal
7 2 (0.43%) Aerospace
7 2 (0.43%) Electronics
7 2 (0.43%) General Ledger
7 2 (0.43%) Influencing Skills
7 2 (0.43%) Manufacturing
7 2 (0.43%) Marketing
8 1 (0.22%) Advertising
8 1 (0.22%) Automotive
8 1 (0.22%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (0.22%) Police
8 1 (0.22%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 38 (8.19%) Platform Engineer
2 37 (7.97%) Senior
3 33 (7.11%) Data Engineer
4 30 (6.47%) Developer
5 28 (6.03%) Support Engineer
6 26 (5.60%) Analyst
6 26 (5.60%) Architect
6 26 (5.60%) AWS Engineer
7 22 (4.74%) DevOps Engineer
8 19 (4.09%) Release Manager
9 17 (3.66%) AWS DevOps
9 17 (3.66%) AWS DevOps Engineer
9 17 (3.66%) Cloud Platform Engineer
9 17 (3.66%) Test Specialist
10 14 (3.02%) Network Engineer
11 13 (2.80%) Senior Data Engineer
11 13 (2.80%) Senior Developer
12 12 (2.59%) 3rd Line Engineer
12 12 (2.59%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
12 12 (2.59%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (6.47%) REST
2 15 (3.23%) pytest
3 14 (3.02%) LDAP
4 13 (2.80%) Keycloak
5 12 (2.59%) Kafka
5 12 (2.59%) Spring
5 12 (2.59%) Spring Boot
5 12 (2.59%) YAML
6 11 (2.37%) FastAPI
6 11 (2.37%) Flask
7 10 (2.16%) Middleware
8 9 (1.94%) 802.1X
9 8 (1.72%) GraphQL
9 8 (1.72%) React
9 8 (1.72%) WebSockets
10 7 (1.51%) gRPC
11 6 (1.29%) HTML
11 6 (1.29%) OAuth
11 6 (1.29%) Swagger
12 5 (1.08%) Elastic Stack
Miscellaneous
1 21 (4.53%) Cloud Native
2 20 (4.31%) Onboarding
2 20 (4.31%) PKI
3 19 (4.09%) Data Centre
4 16 (3.45%) Replication
5 15 (3.23%) Driving Licence
6 11 (2.37%) Enterprise Software
6 11 (2.37%) Hybrid Cloud
7 10 (2.16%) SCADA
8 7 (1.51%) FPGA
9 6 (1.29%) Product Ownership
9 6 (1.29%) VHDL
10 5 (1.08%) Algorithms
10 5 (1.08%) Legacy Systems
10 5 (1.08%) Self-Motivation
11 4 (0.86%) Data Protection Act
11 4 (0.86%) Security Operations Centre
12 3 (0.65%) Handset
12 3 (0.65%) Mainframe
12 3 (0.65%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 78 (16.81%) Windows
2 61 (13.15%) Linux
3 22 (4.74%) Unix
4 15 (3.23%) Amazon Linux
4 15 (3.23%) VMS
5 12 (2.59%) Windows Server
6 11 (2.37%) Ubuntu
7 10 (2.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 3 (0.65%) Windows 10
9 2 (0.43%) CentOS
10 1 (0.22%) AIX
10 1 (0.22%) Android
10 1 (0.22%) Apple iOS
10 1 (0.22%) Embedded Linux
10 1 (0.22%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.22%) Mac OS X
10 1 (0.22%) Solaris
10 1 (0.22%) VME
Processes & Methodologies
1 143 (30.82%) DevOps
2 131 (28.23%) CI/CD
3 96 (20.69%) Agile
4 91 (19.61%) Analytics
5 75 (16.16%) Problem-Solving
6 60 (12.93%) Test Automation
7 57 (12.28%) Containerisation
8 56 (12.07%) Business Intelligence
8 56 (12.07%) Continuous Improvement
9 55 (11.85%) Data Integration
9 55 (11.85%) Data Pipeline
9 55 (11.85%) Scrum
10 52 (11.21%) Stakeholder Management
11 51 (10.99%) Migration
12 48 (10.34%) Change Management
12 48 (10.34%) ETL
13 47 (10.13%) Configuration Management
14 46 (9.91%) Platform Engineering
15 43 (9.27%) Data Modelling
16 39 (8.41%) Test Strategy
Programming Languages
1 93 (20.04%) SQL
2 88 (18.97%) Python
3 41 (8.84%) PowerShell
4 29 (6.25%) Java
5 23 (4.96%) Go
6 16 (3.45%) Bash
7 15 (3.23%) Groovy
8 10 (2.16%) Shell Script
9 8 (1.72%) JavaScript
10 7 (1.51%) Perl
11 6 (1.29%) MATLAB
12 5 (1.08%) PL/SQL
12 5 (1.08%) TypeScript
13 3 (0.65%) ABAP
14 2 (0.43%) C#
14 2 (0.43%) C++
15 1 (0.22%) Bicep
15 1 (0.22%) COBOL
15 1 (0.22%) Search Processing Language
15 1 (0.22%) SystemVerilog
Qualifications
1 464 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 30 (6.47%) DV Cleared
3 27 (5.82%) Azure Certification
4 17 (3.66%) Degree
5 15 (3.23%) AWS Certification
6 14 (3.02%) BPSS Clearance
7 7 (1.51%) Microsoft Certification
8 6 (1.29%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 6 (1.29%) CISSP
8 6 (1.29%) IIBA
9 3 (0.65%) CCNA
9 3 (0.65%) CEH
9 3 (0.65%) Cisco Certification
9 3 (0.65%) CISM
10 2 (0.43%) CCA
10 2 (0.43%) CCNP
10 2 (0.43%) Computer Science Degree
10 2 (0.43%) DBS Check
10 2 (0.43%) GCIH
11 1 (0.22%) CRISC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (5.60%) Data Quality
2 16 (3.45%) NCSC
3 12 (2.59%) NIST
3 12 (2.59%) QA
4 10 (2.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 8 (1.72%) Accessibility
6 5 (1.08%) GDPR
7 4 (0.86%) WCAG
8 2 (0.43%) PCI DSS
8 2 (0.43%) PMO
9 1 (0.22%) IEC 61131
9 1 (0.22%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 1 (0.22%) SLA
System Software
1 112 (24.14%) Docker
2 24 (5.17%) Active Directory
3 15 (3.23%) DFS Replication
3 15 (3.23%) Postfix
4 13 (2.80%) Dovecot
5 10 (2.16%) VMware Infrastructure
6 9 (1.94%) Squid
7 5 (1.08%) Terminal Services
8 4 (0.86%) Firmware
9 3 (0.65%) VMware NSX
10 1 (0.22%) Snort
Systems Management
1 111 (23.92%) Kubernetes
2 43 (9.27%) Terraform
3 38 (8.19%) Grafana
4 35 (7.54%) Prometheus
5 14 (3.02%) Ansible
6 9 (1.94%) Nessus
6 9 (1.94%) Proxmox
7 8 (1.72%) Kibana
8 4 (0.86%) logstash
8 4 (0.86%) Progress Chef
8 4 (0.86%) SCCM
9 3 (0.65%) FortiGate
10 2 (0.43%) QRadar
10 2 (0.43%) Single Sign-On
11 1 (0.22%) Docker Swarm
11 1 (0.22%) Fluentd
11 1 (0.22%) NetBackup
11 1 (0.22%) Puppet
11 1 (0.22%) Rsyslog
11 1 (0.22%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 83 (17.89%) Oracle
2 58 (12.50%) Microsoft
3 45 (9.70%) Cisco
4 35 (7.54%) ServiceNow
4 35 (7.54%) Talend
5 34 (7.33%) Juniper
5 34 (7.33%) Splunk
6 32 (6.90%) Dynatrace
7 31 (6.68%) Denodo
8 25 (5.39%) AppDynamics
9 15 (3.23%) F5
10 14 (3.02%) CheckPoint
11 12 (2.59%) CyberArk
11 12 (2.59%) VMware
12 11 (2.37%) SAP
13 10 (2.16%) Broadcom
14 9 (1.94%) Atlassian
14 9 (1.94%) Blue Coat
14 9 (1.94%) Jaspersoft
15 6 (1.29%) Red Hat