BPSS Clearance Contract Job Trends

Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) Clearance
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for BPSS Clearance qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 30 August 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 99 164 262
Rank change year-on-year +65 +98 -38
Contract jobs citing BPSS Clearance 1,431 578 336
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.65% 1.75% 0.87%
As % of the Qualifications category 8.45% 5.61% 2.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,014 384 212
10th Percentile £350 £310 £220
25th Percentile £415 £407 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% +2.50% -9.09%
75th Percentile £579 £605 £578
90th Percentile £670 £713 £637
UK excluding London median daily rate £483 £500 £473
% change year-on-year -3.40% +5.82% -14.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 216 49 25
10th Percentile £19.50 £18.50 £13.55
25th Percentile - £22.63 £20.12
Median hourly rate £43.96 £27.50 £21.59
Median % change year-on-year +59.85% +27.37% -62.34%
75th Percentile £48.00 £52.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £72.58 £74.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £29.27 £21.59
% change year-on-year +50.19% +35.57% -62.03%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

BPSS Clearance 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.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 16,935 10,304 11,457
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.37% 31.27% 29.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,321 6,385 7,210
10th Percentile £350 £297 £313
25th Percentile £437 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.55%
75th Percentile £626 £623 £638
90th Percentile £715 £700 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £523 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +4.50% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,264 825 738
10th Percentile £17.41 £17.99 £15.10
25th Percentile £25.77 £18.87 £21.56
Median hourly rate £48.61 £25.15 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +93.28% -47.05% -13.64%
75th Percentile £72.54 £50.00 £67.50
90th Percentile £87.16 £71.37 £75.66
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.54 £25.15 £49.00
% change year-on-year +89.03% -48.67% -4.85%

BPSS Clearance
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing BPSS Clearance relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

BPSS Clearance job vacancy trend in the UK

BPSS Clearance
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing BPSS Clearance.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing BPSS Clearance

BPSS Clearance
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing BPSS Clearance over the 6 months to 30 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for BPSS Clearance in the UK

BPSS Clearance
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing BPSS Clearance.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing BPSS Clearance

BPSS Clearance
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing BPSS Clearance over the 6 months to 30 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for BPSS Clearance in the UK

BPSS Clearance
Top 17 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing BPSS Clearance within the UK over the 6 months to 30 August 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
England +71 1,060 £492 -4.00% 435
UK excluding London +50 835 £483 -3.40% 440
Work from Home +66 546 £490 -2.00% 316
London +62 302 £506 -1.80% 83
North of England +15 299 £484 +0.62% 107
Midlands +52 221 £490 -6.31% 57
West Midlands +60 212 £490 -6.67% 43
North West -5 160 £505 +12.24% 66
South East -15 102 £483 -6.21% 94
South West +12 83 £525 +16.67% 95
North East +14 82 £452 -1.85% 23
Scotland +31 75 £401 -8.46% 47
Yorkshire -13 68 £475 -5.00% 19
East of England -10 33 £605 +26.83% 46
Northern Ireland +17 21 £450 +28.57% 7
Wales -6 12 £413 -28.26% 10
East Midlands -26 8 £613 +24.49% 14

BPSS Clearance
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 61 (4.26%) Confluence
2 46 (3.21%) SharePoint
3 17 (1.19%) SharePoint Server
4 9 (0.63%) SAS
5 8 (0.56%) Apache Spark
6 7 (0.49%) Apache Airflow
6 7 (0.49%) Microsoft Exchange
7 6 (0.42%) CMS
8 5 (0.35%) WebLogic
9 4 (0.28%) IIS
9 4 (0.28%) Oracle Workflow
9 4 (0.28%) WordPress
10 3 (0.21%) Headless CMS
11 2 (0.14%) Apache
11 2 (0.14%) CICS
11 2 (0.14%) Cloud Foundry
11 2 (0.14%) Ethereum
11 2 (0.14%) Hyperledger
11 2 (0.14%) LiveCycle
11 2 (0.14%) OpenROAD
Applications
1 39 (2.73%) Microsoft Excel
2 29 (2.03%) Microsoft Office
3 15 (1.05%) Microsoft Project
4 11 (0.77%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.35%) Simulink
6 4 (0.28%) MS Visio
7 3 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
7 3 (0.21%) Windchill
8 2 (0.14%) Chatbot
8 2 (0.14%) Navisworks
8 2 (0.14%) Trello
9 1 (0.070%) AutoCAD
9 1 (0.070%) Autodesk Inventor
9 1 (0.070%) CATIA
9 1 (0.070%) InVision
9 1 (0.070%) MicroStation
9 1 (0.070%) ProjectWise
9 1 (0.070%) Revit
9 1 (0.070%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 49 (3.42%) SAP S/4HANA
2 16 (1.12%) SAP HR
2 16 (1.12%) SAP PSCD
3 13 (0.91%) SAP BRIM
4 12 (0.84%) SAP IBP
5 10 (0.70%) SAP FI
5 10 (0.70%) SAP Payroll
6 7 (0.49%) SAP FI-CA
7 6 (0.42%) SAP GRC
8 5 (0.35%) Shopify
9 4 (0.28%) SAP Convergent Charging
9 4 (0.28%) SAP EHS
9 4 (0.28%) SAP EWM
9 4 (0.28%) SAP MDG
9 4 (0.28%) SAP PP
10 3 (0.21%) Exchequer
10 3 (0.21%) iTrent
10 3 (0.21%) Primavera
10 3 (0.21%) SAP ERP
10 3 (0.21%) SAP MM
Cloud Services
1 256 (17.89%) Azure
2 252 (17.61%) AWS
3 81 (5.66%) Power Platform
4 63 (4.40%) GitHub
5 61 (4.26%) Azure DevOps
6 52 (3.63%) Serverless
7 47 (3.28%) GCP
7 47 (3.28%) Microsoft 365
8 45 (3.14%) Amazon S3
8 45 (3.14%) Entra ID
9 44 (3.07%) GitHub Actions
10 43 (3.00%) AWS Lambda
11 27 (1.89%) Power Automate
11 27 (1.89%) PowerApps
12 23 (1.61%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 22 (1.54%) AWS CloudFormation
13 22 (1.54%) SuccessFactors
14 21 (1.47%) Amazon ECS
15 18 (1.26%) Amazon EKS
16 16 (1.12%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 18 (1.26%) DNS
2 13 (0.91%) WAN
3 11 (0.77%) Network Security
4 10 (0.70%) Firewall
4 10 (0.70%) WebEx
5 9 (0.63%) SSL
6 8 (0.56%) Intranet
7 7 (0.49%) Cisco IPT
7 7 (0.49%) HTTPS
7 7 (0.49%) MPLS
8 6 (0.42%) LAN
8 6 (0.42%) SDH
8 6 (0.42%) VPN
9 5 (0.35%) Ethernet
10 4 (0.28%) 5G
10 4 (0.28%) DHCP
10 4 (0.28%) Internet
10 4 (0.28%) Radio Access Network
10 4 (0.28%) Wireshark
11 3 (0.21%) 3GPP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 56 (3.91%) Power BI
2 47 (3.28%) PostgreSQL
3 38 (2.66%) Metadata
4 37 (2.59%) MongoDB
5 33 (2.31%) Data Warehouse
6 29 (2.03%) SQL Server
7 26 (1.82%) Amazon RDS
8 23 (1.61%) NoSQL
9 21 (1.47%) MySQL
10 19 (1.33%) Data Lake
11 17 (1.19%) Relational Database
11 17 (1.19%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 14 (0.98%) Amazon Redshift
13 13 (0.91%) DynamoDB
13 13 (0.91%) Oracle Database
14 12 (0.84%) Amazon Athena
14 12 (0.84%) Amazon Aurora
15 10 (0.70%) Big Data
16 8 (0.56%) Azure SQL Database
16 8 (0.56%) Redis
Development Applications
1 104 (7.27%) JIRA
2 92 (6.43%) Git
3 72 (5.03%) GitLab
4 61 (4.26%) Jenkins
5 28 (1.96%) JUnit
6 26 (1.82%) Selenium
7 23 (1.61%) Maven
8 22 (1.54%) Cucumber
9 16 (1.12%) Postman
10 15 (1.05%) SonarQube
11 14 (0.98%) Cypress.io
11 14 (0.98%) Team Foundation Server
12 13 (0.91%) Mockito
13 12 (0.84%) Gatling
13 12 (0.84%) Visual Studio
14 10 (0.70%) Atlassian Bamboo
14 10 (0.70%) REST Assured
15 9 (0.63%) Bitbucket
16 7 (0.49%) Artifactory
16 7 (0.49%) Gradle
General
1 478 (33.40%) Social Skills
2 340 (23.76%) Public Sector
3 235 (16.42%) Finance
4 135 (9.43%) Organisational Skills
5 133 (9.29%) Legal
6 130 (9.08%) Analytical Skills
7 47 (3.28%) Aerospace
8 40 (2.80%) Documentation Skills
9 30 (2.10%) Influencing Skills
10 26 (1.82%) Manufacturing
11 24 (1.68%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 23 (1.61%) Banking
13 22 (1.54%) Billing
13 22 (1.54%) Presentation Skills
14 20 (1.40%) Telecoms
15 12 (0.84%) Aviation
16 11 (0.77%) Local Government
17 10 (0.70%) Military
18 9 (0.63%) Law
18 9 (0.63%) Retail
Job Titles
1 198 (13.84%) Developer
2 156 (10.90%) Senior
3 153 (10.69%) Lead
4 135 (9.43%) Architect
5 99 (6.92%) Analyst
6 95 (6.64%) Consultant
7 66 (4.61%) Designer
8 62 (4.33%) Java Developer
9 56 (3.91%) SAP Consultant
10 48 (3.35%) DevOps Engineer
11 45 (3.14%) Data Engineer
12 38 (2.66%) Business Analyst
12 38 (2.66%) Solutions Architect
13 30 (2.10%) Delivery Manager
14 28 (1.96%) Data Architect
14 28 (1.96%) Lead Developer
14 28 (1.96%) Product Manager
14 28 (1.96%) User Researcher
15 26 (1.82%) Technical Architect
16 24 (1.68%) AWS Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 110 (7.69%) Terraform
2 80 (5.59%) REST
3 73 (5.10%) Spring
4 66 (4.61%) Spring Boot
5 54 (3.77%) HTML
6 52 (3.63%) React
7 51 (3.56%) RESTful
8 47 (3.28%) Node.js
9 43 (3.00%) CSS
10 35 (2.45%) Kafka
11 30 (2.10%) Playwright
12 27 (1.89%) .NET
13 19 (1.33%) OpenAPI
14 18 (1.26%) JSON
14 18 (1.26%) XML
15 17 (1.19%) Jest
16 16 (1.12%) OAuth
16 16 (1.12%) SOAP
17 15 (1.05%) BAPI
18 14 (0.98%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 119 (8.32%) Virtual Team
1 119 (8.32%) Web Conferencing
2 109 (7.62%) Podcast
3 85 (5.94%) Onboarding
4 75 (5.24%) Product Ownership
5 61 (4.26%) Cloud Native
6 25 (1.75%) Enterprise Software
7 21 (1.47%) Management Information System
8 20 (1.40%) Legacy Systems
8 20 (1.40%) NHS
9 18 (1.26%) Replication
9 18 (1.26%) Self-Motivation
10 17 (1.19%) BYOD
10 17 (1.19%) Mobile App
11 14 (0.98%) Driving Licence
12 13 (0.91%) Algorithms
13 12 (0.84%) Distributed Systems
14 11 (0.77%) Data Centre
14 11 (0.77%) Low-Code
15 10 (0.70%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 64 (4.47%) Windows
2 62 (4.33%) Linux
3 32 (2.24%) Unix
4 19 (1.33%) Android
5 16 (1.12%) Windows Server
6 11 (0.77%) Windows 10
7 9 (0.63%) Apple iOS
8 8 (0.56%) Mac OS
8 8 (0.56%) VMS
9 3 (0.21%) AIX
10 2 (0.14%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 2 (0.14%) Solaris
11 1 (0.070%) Robot Operating System
11 1 (0.070%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 1 (0.070%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.070%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 433 (30.26%) Agile
2 253 (17.68%) CI/CD
3 241 (16.84%) Stakeholder Management
4 227 (15.86%) DevOps
5 172 (12.02%) Continuous Improvement
6 162 (11.32%) Problem-Solving
7 152 (10.62%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 134 (9.36%) Customer Service
9 133 (9.29%) Scrum
10 116 (8.11%) Test Automation
11 114 (7.97%) Roadmaps
12 111 (7.76%) Decision-Making
13 105 (7.34%) Microservices
14 104 (7.27%) Analytics
15 103 (7.20%) Migration
16 98 (6.85%) Infrastructure as Code
17 88 (6.15%) Mentoring
18 78 (5.45%) Digital Transformation Programme
18 78 (5.45%) Software Engineering
18 78 (5.45%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 165 (11.53%) Java
2 148 (10.34%) SQL
3 119 (8.32%) Python
4 82 (5.73%) JavaScript
5 44 (3.07%) TypeScript
6 39 (2.73%) Scala
7 31 (2.17%) PowerShell
8 23 (1.61%) C#
9 20 (1.40%) Bash
9 20 (1.40%) PL/SQL
10 18 (1.26%) Shell Script
11 12 (0.84%) VB
12 11 (0.77%) T-SQL
12 11 (0.77%) VB6
12 11 (0.77%) VBA
13 10 (0.70%) C++
13 10 (0.70%) Kotlin
14 8 (0.56%) ABAP
15 7 (0.49%) C
15 7 (0.49%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 466 (32.56%) Security Cleared
2 352 (24.60%) SC Cleared
3 66 (4.61%) Degree
4 20 (1.40%) AWS Certification
5 15 (1.05%) Azure Certification
5 15 (1.05%) DV Cleared
5 15 (1.05%) Microsoft Certification
6 11 (0.77%) A+ Certification
7 10 (0.70%) DBS Check
8 9 (0.63%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 7 (0.49%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
9 7 (0.49%) CCNA
9 7 (0.49%) Cisco Certification
9 7 (0.49%) ISTQB
10 6 (0.42%) CTC Cleared
10 6 (0.42%) PMI Certification
11 5 (0.35%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 5 (0.35%) Master's Degree
11 5 (0.35%) NVQ Level 4
12 4 (0.28%) CompTIA CySA+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 91 (6.36%) Accessibility
2 89 (6.22%) QA
3 68 (4.75%) Data Quality
4 33 (2.31%) WCAG
5 29 (2.03%) GDPR
6 23 (1.61%) PMO
7 18 (1.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 17 (1.19%) SLA
9 13 (0.91%) NIST
10 10 (0.70%) GRC
11 5 (0.35%) NCSC
12 4 (0.28%) 21 CFR Part 11
12 4 (0.28%) GMP
12 4 (0.28%) GxP
12 4 (0.28%) IEC 61508
12 4 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 17025
12 4 (0.28%) PERC
13 3 (0.21%) Cyber Essentials
13 3 (0.21%) Def Stans
13 3 (0.21%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 90 (6.29%) Docker
2 37 (2.59%) Active Directory
3 14 (0.98%) VMware Infrastructure
4 11 (0.77%) Virtual Machines
5 9 (0.63%) Virtual Desktop
6 5 (0.35%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.14%) Firmware
7 2 (0.14%) vSphere
8 1 (0.070%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.070%) GPFS
8 1 (0.070%) IAG
8 1 (0.070%) NFS
8 1 (0.070%) Oracle RAC
8 1 (0.070%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.070%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 100 (6.99%) Kubernetes
2 34 (2.38%) Grafana
3 20 (1.40%) Prometheus
4 17 (1.19%) Single Sign-On
5 16 (1.12%) Kibana
6 12 (0.84%) Ansible
6 12 (0.84%) Argo
7 11 (0.77%) SCCM
8 9 (0.63%) Microsoft Intune
9 6 (0.42%) Istio
9 6 (0.42%) Packer
10 5 (0.35%) SCOM
11 4 (0.28%) Functional Safety
11 4 (0.28%) HAProxy
11 4 (0.28%) Podman
11 4 (0.28%) Puppet
12 2 (0.14%) Data Guard
12 2 (0.14%) Karpenter
12 2 (0.14%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
12 2 (0.14%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 168 (11.74%) Microsoft
2 126 (8.81%) SAP
3 80 (5.59%) Oracle
4 60 (4.19%) ServiceNow
5 38 (2.66%) Google
6 24 (1.68%) BeyondTrust
7 20 (1.40%) Databricks
8 16 (1.12%) Splunk
9 14 (0.98%) Atlassian
9 14 (0.98%) Cisco
9 14 (0.98%) VMware
10 13 (0.91%) Talend
11 10 (0.70%) CyberArk
11 10 (0.70%) Salesforce
12 9 (0.63%) Informatica
13 8 (0.56%) Dell
14 7 (0.49%) Apple
14 7 (0.49%) IBM
14 7 (0.49%) Qualtrics
14 7 (0.49%) Workday