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 12 July 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 104 198 245
Rank change year-on-year +94 +47 -14
Contract jobs citing BPSS Clearance 1,243 459 421
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.35% 1.41% 0.98%
As % of the Qualifications category 7.48% 4.57% 3.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 900 303 278
10th Percentile £325 £282 £200
25th Percentile £402 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.50% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £570 £588 £588
90th Percentile £670 £705 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £469 £490 £470
% change year-on-year -4.29% +4.26% -13.04%
Number of hourly rates quoted 156 46 54
10th Percentile £19.50 £18.50 £13.99
25th Percentile £35.75 £22.63 -
Median hourly rate £43.96 £29.27 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year +50.19% +82.25% -66.60%
75th Percentile £62.50 £56.37 £30.75
90th Percentile £74.63 £75.63 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £44.00 £16.06
% change year-on-year -0.09% +173.97% -63.77%

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 16,627 10,051 12,823
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.40% 30.77% 29.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,112 6,244 7,979
10th Percentile £350 £280 £310
25th Percentile £428 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £523 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.38% -0.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £638
90th Percentile £713 £704 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £513 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +2.50% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,199 712 1,089
10th Percentile £17.58 £17.87 £14.16
25th Percentile £25.25 £20.00 £20.30
Median hourly rate £50.00 £27.50 £41.50
Median % change year-on-year +81.82% -33.73% -24.98%
75th Percentile £72.54 £58.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £85.25 £75.00 £75.24
UK excluding London median hourly rate £50.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +98.81% -41.51% -21.19%

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 12 July 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 12 July 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 12 July 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 +92 936 £481 -3.75% 398
UK excluding London +63 703 £469 -4.29% 381
Work from Home +95 505 £450 -5.26% 279
London +86 299 £500 +0.81% 78
North of England +32 252 £459 -4.62% 75
Midlands +30 152 £475 -3.46% 25
North West +13 143 £455 -9.00% 53
West Midlands +20 129 £478 +5.76% 20
South East -9 114 £483 -6.21% 71
South West +17 74 £525 +110.00% 105
Scotland +38 70 £331 -6.43% 43
North East +6 68 £453 +11.17% 12
Yorkshire -10 51 £473 -4.49% 10
East of England -15 28 £577 +188.53% 56
East Midlands -8 22 £438 -37.50% 5
Wales -10 10 £463 -19.57% 5
Northern Ireland +10 9 £450 +28.57% 4

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 56 (4.51%) Confluence
2 42 (3.38%) SharePoint
3 15 (1.21%) SharePoint Server
4 13 (1.05%) Apache Spark
5 8 (0.64%) Apache Airflow
5 8 (0.64%) SAS
6 7 (0.56%) Apache
7 5 (0.40%) Oracle Workflow
8 4 (0.32%) CMS
8 4 (0.32%) IIS
8 4 (0.32%) WordPress
9 3 (0.24%) ArcGIS
9 3 (0.24%) CICS
9 3 (0.24%) LiveCycle
9 3 (0.24%) Microsoft Exchange
10 2 (0.16%) Cloud Foundry
10 2 (0.16%) Ethereum
10 2 (0.16%) Hyperledger
10 2 (0.16%) WebLogic
11 1 (0.080%) Appian
Applications
1 44 (3.54%) Microsoft Excel
2 24 (1.93%) Microsoft Office
3 16 (1.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 13 (1.05%) Microsoft Project
5 12 (0.97%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.40%) Simulink
7 4 (0.32%) Chatbot
8 2 (0.16%) Navisworks
8 2 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.16%) Trello
9 1 (0.080%) AutoCAD
9 1 (0.080%) Autodesk Inventor
9 1 (0.080%) CATIA
9 1 (0.080%) InVision
9 1 (0.080%) MicroStation
9 1 (0.080%) ProjectWise
9 1 (0.080%) PTC Creo
9 1 (0.080%) Revit
9 1 (0.080%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 44 (3.54%) SAP S/4HANA
2 17 (1.37%) SAP PSCD
3 14 (1.13%) SAP BRIM
4 12 (0.97%) SAP IBP
5 8 (0.64%) SAP FI
6 7 (0.56%) SAP EWM
6 7 (0.56%) SAP FI-CA
6 7 (0.56%) SAP Travel Management
7 6 (0.48%) SAP HR
8 5 (0.40%) Payment Gateway
9 4 (0.32%) Loan IQ
9 4 (0.32%) Primavera
9 4 (0.32%) SAP Convergent Charging
9 4 (0.32%) SAP EHS
9 4 (0.32%) SAP MDG
9 4 (0.32%) SAP MM
9 4 (0.32%) Shopify
10 3 (0.24%) Dynamics CRM
10 3 (0.24%) iTrent
10 3 (0.24%) ProductWriter
Cloud Services
1 236 (18.99%) AWS
2 235 (18.91%) Azure
3 85 (6.84%) Power Platform
4 57 (4.59%) GitHub
5 54 (4.34%) Azure DevOps
6 53 (4.26%) GCP
7 52 (4.18%) Serverless
8 41 (3.30%) GitHub Actions
9 39 (3.14%) Entra ID
10 38 (3.06%) Amazon S3
10 38 (3.06%) AWS Lambda
10 38 (3.06%) Microsoft 365
11 22 (1.77%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 22 (1.77%) Power Automate
12 21 (1.69%) PowerApps
13 20 (1.61%) Amazon ECS
13 20 (1.61%) Amazon EKS
14 19 (1.53%) AWS CloudFormation
15 17 (1.37%) Amazon EC2
16 16 (1.29%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 18 (1.45%) DNS
2 15 (1.21%) Network Security
3 14 (1.13%) Firewall
4 12 (0.97%) WAN
5 9 (0.72%) HTTPS
5 9 (0.72%) WebEx
6 7 (0.56%) LAN
7 6 (0.48%) DHCP
7 6 (0.48%) Ethernet
7 6 (0.48%) MPLS
7 6 (0.48%) SDH
7 6 (0.48%) SSH
7 6 (0.48%) SSL
8 4 (0.32%) TCP/IP
8 4 (0.32%) VPN
9 3 (0.24%) Internet
9 3 (0.24%) IP Telephony
9 3 (0.24%) MQTT
9 3 (0.24%) Reverse Proxy
9 3 (0.24%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 68 (5.47%) Power BI
2 35 (2.82%) PostgreSQL
3 31 (2.49%) Metadata
4 30 (2.41%) Data Warehouse
5 27 (2.17%) SQL Server
6 26 (2.09%) MongoDB
7 19 (1.53%) NoSQL
7 19 (1.53%) Relational Database
8 15 (1.21%) Data Lake
8 15 (1.21%) DynamoDB
8 15 (1.21%) MySQL
9 14 (1.13%) Amazon RDS
10 13 (1.05%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 12 (0.97%) Amazon Athena
11 12 (0.97%) Amazon Redshift
12 9 (0.72%) Geospatial Data
13 8 (0.64%) Delta Lake
13 8 (0.64%) Tableau
14 7 (0.56%) Azure SQL Database
14 7 (0.56%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 95 (7.64%) JIRA
2 76 (6.11%) Git
3 65 (5.23%) GitLab
4 54 (4.34%) Jenkins
5 22 (1.77%) Selenium
6 17 (1.37%) Cucumber
7 13 (1.05%) JUnit
7 13 (1.05%) Postman
8 12 (0.97%) Team Foundation Server
9 11 (0.88%) Cypress.io
9 11 (0.88%) Maven
10 10 (0.80%) Visual Studio
11 8 (0.64%) REST Assured
12 7 (0.56%) Artifactory
12 7 (0.56%) Gatling
12 7 (0.56%) Mockito
13 6 (0.48%) WebDriver
14 5 (0.40%) JMeter
14 5 (0.40%) Rational DOORS
14 5 (0.40%) SonarQube
General
1 376 (30.25%) Social Skills
2 267 (21.48%) Public Sector
3 194 (15.61%) Finance
4 130 (10.46%) Analytical Skills
5 70 (5.63%) Legal
6 58 (4.67%) Organisational Skills
7 46 (3.70%) Aerospace
8 43 (3.46%) Documentation Skills
9 39 (3.14%) Banking
10 27 (2.17%) Influencing Skills
11 22 (1.77%) Billing
11 22 (1.77%) Manufacturing
11 22 (1.77%) Presentation Skills
12 19 (1.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 17 (1.37%) Aviation
13 17 (1.37%) Telecoms
14 13 (1.05%) Local Government
15 12 (0.97%) Retail
16 10 (0.80%) Law
17 9 (0.72%) Military
Job Titles
1 155 (12.47%) Developer
2 134 (10.78%) Senior
3 130 (10.46%) Lead
4 126 (10.14%) Analyst
5 118 (9.49%) Architect
6 88 (7.08%) Consultant
7 57 (4.59%) SAP Consultant
8 56 (4.51%) Designer
9 54 (4.34%) Business Analyst
10 53 (4.26%) Data Engineer
11 48 (3.86%) Java Developer
12 38 (3.06%) DevOps Engineer
13 30 (2.41%) Administrator
14 29 (2.33%) Product Manager
15 28 (2.25%) Solutions Architect
16 27 (2.17%) Lead Developer
17 25 (2.01%) Data Analyst
17 25 (2.01%) Delivery Manager
17 25 (2.01%) User Researcher
18 24 (1.93%) AWS Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 73 (5.87%) REST
2 57 (4.59%) React
3 53 (4.26%) HTML
4 51 (4.10%) Spring Boot
5 50 (4.02%) Spring
6 49 (3.94%) Node.js
6 49 (3.94%) RESTful
7 42 (3.38%) CSS
8 31 (2.49%) Kafka
9 28 (2.25%) .NET
10 22 (1.77%) JSON
11 21 (1.69%) Playwright
12 18 (1.45%) PySpark
13 15 (1.21%) OAuth
13 15 (1.21%) OpenAPI
13 15 (1.21%) SPFx
14 14 (1.13%) BAPI
14 14 (1.13%) Jest
14 14 (1.13%) XML
15 13 (1.05%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 85 (6.84%) Product Ownership
2 68 (5.47%) Onboarding
3 63 (5.07%) Cloud Native
4 49 (3.94%) Virtual Team
4 49 (3.94%) Web Conferencing
5 43 (3.46%) Podcast
6 26 (2.09%) Management Information System
7 21 (1.69%) NHS
8 19 (1.53%) Distributed Systems
9 16 (1.29%) Algorithms
10 15 (1.21%) BYOD
10 15 (1.21%) Enterprise Software
10 15 (1.21%) Legacy Systems
10 15 (1.21%) Self-Motivation
11 13 (1.05%) Mobile App
12 11 (0.88%) Data Centre
13 10 (0.80%) Replication
14 9 (0.72%) Data Structures
15 8 (0.64%) Public Cloud
16 7 (0.56%) Driving Licence
Operating Systems
1 71 (5.71%) Linux
2 61 (4.91%) Windows
3 34 (2.74%) Unix
4 17 (1.37%) Android
5 16 (1.29%) Windows Server
6 11 (0.88%) Apple iOS
7 9 (0.72%) Mac OS
8 8 (0.64%) Windows 10
9 3 (0.24%) AIX
9 3 (0.24%) Solaris
10 2 (0.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 1 (0.080%) Mac OS X
11 1 (0.080%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 371 (29.85%) Agile
2 238 (19.15%) CI/CD
3 207 (16.65%) DevOps
4 186 (14.96%) Stakeholder Management
5 164 (13.19%) Problem-Solving
6 137 (11.02%) Continuous Improvement
6 137 (11.02%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 110 (8.85%) Test Automation
8 109 (8.77%) Roadmaps
9 106 (8.53%) Decision-Making
9 106 (8.53%) Scrum
10 103 (8.29%) Analytics
11 98 (7.88%) Infrastructure as Code
12 93 (7.48%) Microservices
13 85 (6.84%) AI
14 80 (6.44%) Migration
15 76 (6.11%) Business Intelligence
15 76 (6.11%) Software Engineering
16 75 (6.03%) Data Modelling
17 71 (5.71%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 145 (11.67%) SQL
2 143 (11.50%) Python
3 132 (10.62%) Java
4 81 (6.52%) JavaScript
5 51 (4.10%) TypeScript
6 33 (2.65%) Scala
7 26 (2.09%) C#
8 24 (1.93%) PowerShell
9 17 (1.37%) Shell Script
10 16 (1.29%) PL/SQL
11 14 (1.13%) Bash
12 10 (0.80%) C++
13 9 (0.72%) Bicep
13 9 (0.72%) C
13 9 (0.72%) T-SQL
13 9 (0.72%) VB
14 8 (0.64%) ABAP
15 7 (0.56%) VB6
15 7 (0.56%) VBA
16 6 (0.48%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 388 (31.21%) Security Cleared
2 281 (22.61%) SC Cleared
3 64 (5.15%) Degree
4 19 (1.53%) AWS Certification
5 18 (1.45%) DV Cleared
6 15 (1.21%) Azure Certification
7 10 (0.80%) Master's Degree
7 10 (0.80%) Microsoft Certification
8 7 (0.56%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 6 (0.48%) A+ Certification
9 6 (0.48%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
9 6 (0.48%) CCNA
9 6 (0.48%) Cisco Certification
9 6 (0.48%) Computer Science Degree
10 5 (0.40%) CompTIA CySA+
10 5 (0.40%) CTC Cleared
10 5 (0.40%) DBS Check
10 5 (0.40%) NVQ Level 4
10 5 (0.40%) PMI Certification
11 4 (0.32%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 89 (7.16%) Data Quality
2 81 (6.52%) Accessibility
3 77 (6.19%) QA
4 23 (1.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 21 (1.69%) GDPR
6 20 (1.61%) PMO
6 20 (1.61%) WCAG
7 19 (1.53%) NIST
8 18 (1.45%) SLA
9 8 (0.64%) NCSC
9 8 (0.64%) PCI DSS
10 7 (0.56%) GRC
11 5 (0.40%) ISO 20022
12 4 (0.32%) Actionable Recommendations
12 4 (0.32%) HL7
12 4 (0.32%) IFRS
12 4 (0.32%) IFRS 17
12 4 (0.32%) PSD2
13 3 (0.24%) DICOM
13 3 (0.24%) Solvency II
System Software
1 82 (6.60%) Docker
2 35 (2.82%) Active Directory
3 19 (1.53%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (0.64%) Virtual Desktop
4 8 (0.64%) Virtual Machines
5 5 (0.40%) Hyper-V
6 4 (0.32%) vSphere
7 3 (0.24%) GPFS
7 3 (0.24%) NFS
7 3 (0.24%) VMware ESXi
7 3 (0.24%) VMware NSX
8 2 (0.16%) Firmware
9 1 (0.080%) ACF2
9 1 (0.080%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.080%) Oracle RAC
9 1 (0.080%) RACF
9 1 (0.080%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 109 (8.77%) Terraform
2 83 (6.68%) Kubernetes
3 28 (2.25%) Grafana
4 18 (1.45%) Prometheus
5 12 (0.97%) Kibana
6 11 (0.88%) Ansible
7 10 (0.80%) Single Sign-On
8 9 (0.72%) Argo
9 7 (0.56%) Istio
9 7 (0.56%) SCCM
10 6 (0.48%) Microsoft Intune
11 4 (0.32%) HAProxy
11 4 (0.32%) Podman
11 4 (0.32%) Puppet
12 3 (0.24%) SCOM
12 3 (0.24%) vRealize
13 2 (0.16%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 2 (0.16%) Data Guard
13 2 (0.16%) Kubeflow
13 2 (0.16%) Packer
Vendors
1 133 (10.70%) Microsoft
2 118 (9.49%) SAP
3 63 (5.07%) Oracle
4 47 (3.78%) ServiceNow
5 30 (2.41%) Google
6 23 (1.85%) Databricks
7 20 (1.61%) Splunk
8 19 (1.53%) Cisco
8 19 (1.53%) VMware
9 14 (1.13%) BeyondTrust
10 13 (1.05%) IBM
10 13 (1.05%) Pega
11 11 (0.88%) CyberArk
11 11 (0.88%) Informatica
12 8 (0.64%) OpenAI
12 8 (0.64%) Salesforce
12 8 (0.64%) Talend
13 7 (0.56%) Apple
13 7 (0.56%) Workday
14 6 (0.48%) Adobe