Security Cleared Job Trends in the North West

Security Clearance
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies advertised in the North West with a requirement for Security Cleared qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered over the 6 months leading up to 11 October 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 25 22 38
Rank change year-on-year -3 +16 -19
Permanent jobs citing Security Cleared 611 633 326
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 4.74% 12.16% 4.47%
As % of the Qualifications category 34.62% 32.36% 18.12%
Number of salaries quoted 420 84 182
10th Percentile £42,500 £45,375 £42,500
25th Percentile £52,688 £55,938 £47,688
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £69,692 £54,625
Median % change year-on-year +0.44% +27.58% -11.18%
75th Percentile £85,000 £87,500 £67,500
90th Percentile £97,750 £95,000 £79,960
England median annual salary £70,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +16.67% - +1.78%

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 permanent job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications in the North West.

Permanent vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 1,765 1,956 1,799
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 13.71% 37.59% 24.65%
Number of salaries quoted 1,062 600 851
10th Percentile £32,775 £27,950 £31,250
25th Percentile £42,500 £33,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,500 £48,068 £50,055
Median % change year-on-year +15.46% -3.97% -12.95%
75th Percentile £75,000 £60,000 £62,500
90th Percentile £91,250 £76,250 £75,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -0.86%

Security Cleared
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Security Cleared relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the North West.

Security Cleared job vacancy trend in the North West

Security Cleared
Salary Trend in the North West

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Security Cleared.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Security Cleared

Security Cleared
Salary Histogram in the North West

Salary distribution for jobs citing Security Cleared in the North West over the 6 months to 11 October 2026.

Salary histogram for Security Cleared in the North West

Security Cleared
Job Locations in the North West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Security Cleared within the North West region over the 6 months to 11 October 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Manchester +10 492 £71,746 -4.23% 272
Lancashire -9 71 £60,000 - 73
Cheshire -18 21 £42,500 -26.72% 38
Cumbria +9 18 £38,000 +28.81% 10
Merseyside -34 7 £55,000 -21.43% 4
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 10 (1.64%) Microsoft Exchange
2 9 (1.47%) SharePoint
3 4 (0.65%) Confluence
4 3 (0.49%) Apache Spark
4 3 (0.49%) Skype for Business
5 2 (0.33%) Apache
6 1 (0.16%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 14 (2.29%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (0.49%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.33%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (0.33%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.16%) AutoCAD
4 1 (0.16%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.16%) Revit
Business Applications
1 10 (1.64%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (0.82%) SAP PSCD
3 4 (0.65%) Remedy ITSM
4 2 (0.33%) SAP ERP
5 1 (0.16%) Academy Revenues and Benefits
5 1 (0.16%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 117 (19.15%) AWS
2 87 (14.24%) Azure
3 20 (3.27%) GitHub
4 17 (2.78%) AWS CloudFormation
4 17 (2.78%) Power Platform
5 14 (2.29%) Serverless
6 10 (1.64%) Microsoft 365
7 9 (1.47%) Azure Data Factory
7 9 (1.47%) OpenShift
8 8 (1.31%) Amazon S3
9 7 (1.15%) Azure DevOps
9 7 (1.15%) Dynamics 365
9 7 (1.15%) GCP
10 6 (0.98%) AWS Lambda
10 6 (0.98%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 5 (0.82%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 5 (0.82%) Amazon ECS
11 5 (0.82%) Amazon EKS
11 5 (0.82%) Azure Monitor
11 5 (0.82%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 11 (1.80%) DNS
2 10 (1.64%) SAN
3 9 (1.47%) Network Security
4 8 (1.31%) DHCP
5 7 (1.15%) Firewall
6 6 (0.98%) Internet
7 4 (0.65%) Cisco ASA
7 4 (0.65%) Cisco Firepower
7 4 (0.65%) Cisco Nexus
7 4 (0.65%) Skype
8 3 (0.49%) TCP/IP
9 2 (0.33%) AMQP
9 2 (0.33%) CTI
9 2 (0.33%) NetScaler
9 2 (0.33%) NX-OS
9 2 (0.33%) VLAN
9 2 (0.33%) VPN
9 2 (0.33%) WAN
10 1 (0.16%) SD-WAN
10 1 (0.16%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (1.80%) Data Lake
1 11 (1.80%) Power BI
2 9 (1.47%) Data Warehouse
3 8 (1.31%) Big Data
3 8 (1.31%) PostgreSQL
4 5 (0.82%) Elasticsearch
4 5 (0.82%) NoSQL
5 4 (0.65%) MongoDB
5 4 (0.65%) Neo4j
5 4 (0.65%) Tableau
6 3 (0.49%) Hadoop
6 3 (0.49%) OLAP
6 3 (0.49%) Power Query
6 3 (0.49%) PowerPivot
6 3 (0.49%) SQL Server Analysis Services
6 3 (0.49%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 3 (0.49%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 2 (0.33%) Amazon Athena
7 2 (0.33%) Chroma
7 2 (0.33%) Pinecone
Development Applications
1 28 (4.58%) GitLab
2 18 (2.95%) Git
3 16 (2.62%) Jenkins
4 10 (1.64%) Cypress.io
5 9 (1.47%) JIRA
6 5 (0.82%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 5 (0.82%) Cucumber
6 5 (0.82%) Selenium
7 4 (0.65%) REST Assured
7 4 (0.65%) Robot Framework
7 4 (0.65%) Vite
8 2 (0.33%) Artifactory
8 2 (0.33%) Maven
8 2 (0.33%) Rational DOORS
9 1 (0.16%) Claude Code
9 1 (0.16%) Mocha
General
1 74 (12.11%) Social Skills
2 52 (8.51%) Public Sector
3 46 (7.53%) Analytical Skills
4 45 (7.36%) Finance
5 32 (5.24%) Aerospace
6 25 (4.09%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 22 (3.60%) Retail
8 21 (3.44%) Law
9 15 (2.45%) Influencing Skills
9 15 (2.45%) Manufacturing
10 11 (1.80%) Legal
11 10 (1.64%) Marketing
11 10 (1.64%) Police
12 6 (0.98%) Presentation Skills
13 5 (0.82%) Electronics
14 3 (0.49%) Automotive
14 3 (0.49%) Documentation Skills
14 3 (0.49%) Organisational Skills
15 2 (0.33%) Military
16 1 (0.16%) Banking
Job Titles
1 82 (13.42%) DevOps Engineer
2 72 (11.78%) Senior
3 64 (10.47%) Cloud Engineer
4 53 (8.67%) Software Engineer
5 48 (7.86%) Architect
6 46 (7.53%) Consultant
7 44 (7.20%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 44 (7.20%) Lead
8 35 (5.73%) Analyst
9 32 (5.24%) Data Engineer
10 28 (4.58%) Developer
11 25 (4.09%) Cloud Native Engineer
11 25 (4.09%) Principal Engineer
12 22 (3.60%) Full-Stack Engineer
13 21 (3.44%) Systems Engineer
14 18 (2.95%) AWS Engineer
15 16 (2.62%) Security Consultant
16 14 (2.29%) AWS DevOps
16 14 (2.29%) AWS DevOps Engineer
17 13 (2.13%) Senior Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 87 (14.24%) Terraform
2 32 (5.24%) Spring
2 32 (5.24%) Spring Boot
3 20 (3.27%) React
4 14 (2.29%) REST
5 11 (1.80%) AngularJS
6 10 (1.64%) .NET
6 10 (1.64%) Kafka
6 10 (1.64%) Oracle Fusion
7 8 (1.31%) Node.js
7 8 (1.31%) PySpark
7 8 (1.31%) Vue
8 6 (0.98%) HTML
9 5 (0.82%) CSS
9 5 (0.82%) JSON
9 5 (0.82%) LangChain
9 5 (0.82%) Next.js
9 5 (0.82%) pgvector
9 5 (0.82%) SAP Fiori
10 4 (0.65%) HTML5 Canvas
Miscellaneous
1 54 (8.84%) Cloud Native
2 20 (3.27%) Driving Licence
3 17 (2.78%) Management Information System
4 15 (2.45%) Self-Motivation
5 14 (2.29%) Data Centre
5 14 (2.29%) Product Ownership
6 11 (1.80%) Onboarding
7 10 (1.64%) Enterprise Storage
8 9 (1.47%) Clustering
9 8 (1.31%) PDA
10 7 (1.15%) Enterprise Cloud
11 6 (0.98%) CMDB
12 5 (0.82%) Cyber Threat
13 4 (0.65%) Cyberattack
14 3 (0.49%) Cybercrime
14 3 (0.49%) Data Structures
14 3 (0.49%) Distributed Systems
14 3 (0.49%) NHS
15 2 (0.33%) Replication
15 2 (0.33%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 39 (6.38%) Linux
2 37 (6.06%) Windows
3 17 (2.78%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 14 (2.29%) Windows Server
5 12 (1.96%) Windows 10
6 9 (1.47%) AIX
7 7 (1.15%) CentOS
7 7 (1.15%) Unix
8 5 (0.82%) Windows 7
9 3 (0.49%) Solaris
10 2 (0.33%) Debian
10 2 (0.33%) macOS
10 2 (0.33%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.33%) VMS
11 1 (0.16%) Android
Processes & Methodologies
1 130 (21.28%) DevOps
2 104 (17.02%) Agile
3 93 (15.22%) CI/CD
4 73 (11.95%) Infrastructure as Code
5 72 (11.78%) Stakeholder Management
6 70 (11.46%) AI
6 70 (11.46%) Problem-Solving
7 69 (11.29%) Continuous Improvement
7 69 (11.29%) Software Engineering
8 55 (9.00%) Containerisation
8 55 (9.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 53 (8.67%) Coaching
10 49 (8.02%) Cybersecurity
11 46 (7.53%) Risk Management
12 42 (6.87%) Mentoring
13 40 (6.55%) Site Reliability Engineering
13 40 (6.55%) Validation
14 38 (6.22%) Analytics
15 36 (5.89%) Collaborative Culture
16 35 (5.73%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 96 (15.71%) Python
2 70 (11.46%) Java
3 25 (4.09%) JavaScript
3 25 (4.09%) PowerShell
3 25 (4.09%) SQL
4 20 (3.27%) Bash
5 15 (2.45%) TypeScript
6 9 (1.47%) C#
6 9 (1.47%) Go
7 8 (1.31%) C++
8 5 (0.82%) ABAP
8 5 (0.82%) C
8 5 (0.82%) VBScript
9 3 (0.49%) Bicep
9 3 (0.49%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 3 (0.49%) Kusto Query Language
9 3 (0.49%) R
10 2 (0.33%) Korn
10 2 (0.33%) Rust
10 2 (0.33%) Scala
Qualifications
1 418 (68.41%) SC Cleared
2 174 (28.48%) DV Cleared
3 33 (5.40%) Degree
4 21 (3.44%) BPSS Clearance
5 15 (2.45%) Microsoft Certification
6 6 (0.98%) Azure Certification
6 6 (0.98%) CCNA
6 6 (0.98%) Cisco Certification
6 6 (0.98%) MCSE
6 6 (0.98%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 5 (0.82%) DBS Check
7 5 (0.82%) ITIL Certification
7 5 (0.82%) SAP Certification
8 4 (0.65%) AWS Certification
8 4 (0.65%) CCNP
8 4 (0.65%) MCSA
9 3 (0.49%) Computer Science Degree
9 3 (0.49%) HNC
9 3 (0.49%) HND
9 3 (0.49%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (2.62%) Accessibility
2 13 (2.13%) Data Quality
2 13 (2.13%) QA
3 10 (1.64%) SLA
4 7 (1.15%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 6 (0.98%) NIST
6 3 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials
6 3 (0.49%) GDPR
7 2 (0.33%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 2 (0.33%) GRC
7 2 (0.33%) NCSC
7 2 (0.33%) PCI DSS
7 2 (0.33%) PMO
8 1 (0.16%) COSHH
System Software
1 60 (9.82%) Docker
2 24 (3.93%) VMware Infrastructure
3 20 (3.27%) Active Directory
4 8 (1.31%) BitLocker
5 7 (1.15%) Firmware
5 7 (1.15%) VMware NSX
5 7 (1.15%) vSphere
6 5 (0.82%) Virtual Machines
7 4 (0.65%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.33%) UAG
Systems Management
1 78 (12.77%) Kubernetes
2 64 (10.47%) Ansible
3 16 (2.62%) SCCM
4 8 (1.31%) Puppet
5 6 (0.98%) vCenter Server
6 5 (0.82%) Podman
7 4 (0.65%) Argo
7 4 (0.65%) Grafana
7 4 (0.65%) Microsoft Clustering
7 4 (0.65%) Microsoft Intune
7 4 (0.65%) Prometheus
8 3 (0.49%) FortiGate
8 3 (0.49%) WSUS
9 2 (0.33%) AirWatch
9 2 (0.33%) Jamf Pro
9 2 (0.33%) Single Sign-On
10 1 (0.16%) Opsview
10 1 (0.16%) Proxmox
Vendors
1 74 (12.11%) Microsoft
2 26 (4.26%) ServiceNow
2 26 (4.26%) VMware
3 20 (3.27%) Thales
4 19 (3.11%) SAP
5 18 (2.95%) YouTube
6 12 (1.96%) Databricks
6 12 (1.96%) Oracle
6 12 (1.96%) Red Hat
7 10 (1.64%) Cisco
8 7 (1.15%) Google
9 6 (0.98%) OpenAI
10 5 (0.82%) HP
10 5 (0.82%) Qualys
10 5 (0.82%) Tenable
11 4 (0.65%) Aruba
11 4 (0.65%) Mistral
11 4 (0.65%) Remedy
12 3 (0.49%) BeyondTrust
12 3 (0.49%) Dell