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 21 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 118 222 227
Rank change year-on-year +104 +5 -12
Contract jobs citing BPSS Clearance 1,010 359 436
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.09% 1.23% 1.02%
As % of the Qualifications category 6.61% 3.98% 3.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 738 233 320
10th Percentile £320 £236 £219
25th Percentile £395 £408 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £507
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -1.38% -6.97%
75th Percentile £569 £581 £626
90th Percentile £671 £671 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £447 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -10.60% -4.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 89 30 51
10th Percentile £19.53 £18.50 £13.99
25th Percentile £27.88 £18.88 -
Median hourly rate £47.00 £44.50 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year +5.62% +177.09% -49.30%
75th Percentile £73.00 £73.13 £37.82
90th Percentile £85.36 £76.38 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.00 £50.00 £16.06
% change year-on-year -16.00% +211.33% -35.76%

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 15,276 9,009 12,782
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.66% 30.95% 30.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,147 5,671 7,961
10th Percentile £350 £281 £306
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year - -0.94% -3.64%
75th Percentile £623 £619 £646
90th Percentile £721 £700 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £501 £500 £530
% change year-on-year +0.10% -5.66% +0.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,080 516 1,058
10th Percentile £16.35 £18.13 £13.69
25th Percentile £21.33 £21.63 £17.80
Median hourly rate £47.80 £35.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +36.56% -12.50% -27.26%
75th Percentile £70.00 £65.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £85.25 £78.55 £76.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.50 £32.50 £40.94
% change year-on-year +46.15% -20.62% -18.12%

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 21 May 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 21 May 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 21 May 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 +94 745 £476 -7.12% 275
UK excluding London +50 542 £447 -10.60% 245
Work from Home +84 418 £438 -12.50% 125
London +92 244 £500 -7.41% 42
North of England +12 196 £450 -10.00% 56
Midlands +16 124 £438 -2.78% 30
North West +17 122 £394 -26.81% 32
West Midlands -1 92 £449 +9.39% 20
South East -3 91 £483 -10.06% 43
South West +2 54 £516 +79.57% 60
Scotland +34 51 £320 -27.68% 11
North East +8 44 £480 +33.33% 15
Yorkshire -27 36 £481 +37.50% 9
East Midlands -3 31 £395 -43.57% 10
East of England -15 26 £450 +125.00% 42
Wales -9 5 - - 5
Northern Ireland -1 3 £375 +18.86% 3

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 43 (4.26%) Confluence
2 34 (3.37%) SharePoint
3 13 (1.29%) Apache Spark
3 13 (1.29%) SharePoint Server
4 8 (0.79%) Apache Airflow
5 7 (0.69%) Apache
6 6 (0.59%) nginx
7 4 (0.40%) Microsoft Exchange
7 4 (0.40%) Oracle Workflow
8 3 (0.30%) ArcGIS
8 3 (0.30%) CICS
8 3 (0.30%) CMS
8 3 (0.30%) LiveCycle
9 2 (0.20%) Cloud Foundry
9 2 (0.20%) SAS
10 1 (0.099%) Apache Pulsar
10 1 (0.099%) Camunda
10 1 (0.099%) SharePoint 2013
10 1 (0.099%) Smallworld
10 1 (0.099%) WebLogic
Applications
1 42 (4.16%) Microsoft Excel
2 16 (1.58%) Microsoft Office
2 16 (1.58%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 13 (1.29%) Microsoft Project
3 13 (1.29%) MS Visio
4 5 (0.50%) Simulink
5 2 (0.20%) Chatbot
5 2 (0.20%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (0.20%) Trello
6 1 (0.099%) Autodesk Inventor
6 1 (0.099%) CATIA
6 1 (0.099%) InVision
6 1 (0.099%) MicroStation
6 1 (0.099%) PTC Creo
6 1 (0.099%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 46 (4.55%) SAP S/4HANA
2 15 (1.49%) SAP PSCD
3 13 (1.29%) SAP BRIM
3 13 (1.29%) SAP IBP
3 13 (1.29%) SAP Travel Management
4 8 (0.79%) SAP EWM
4 8 (0.79%) SAP FI
5 7 (0.69%) SAP EHS
5 7 (0.69%) SAP FI-CA
6 5 (0.50%) Payment Gateway
6 5 (0.50%) SAP HR
7 4 (0.40%) iTrent
7 4 (0.40%) Loan IQ
8 3 (0.30%) Exchequer
8 3 (0.30%) Primavera
8 3 (0.30%) ProductWriter
8 3 (0.30%) SAP Convergent Charging
8 3 (0.30%) SAP HCM
8 3 (0.30%) SAP MDG
8 3 (0.30%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 179 (17.72%) AWS
2 173 (17.13%) Azure
3 72 (7.13%) Power Platform
4 47 (4.65%) GitHub
5 45 (4.46%) Azure DevOps
6 43 (4.26%) Serverless
7 42 (4.16%) GCP
8 35 (3.47%) GitHub Actions
9 33 (3.27%) Microsoft 365
10 29 (2.87%) Entra ID
11 28 (2.77%) AWS Lambda
12 22 (2.18%) Power Automate
13 20 (1.98%) AWS CloudFormation
13 20 (1.98%) PowerApps
14 19 (1.88%) Amazon S3
15 17 (1.68%) Amazon ECS
15 17 (1.68%) Amazon SQS
16 16 (1.58%) Amazon EKS
17 14 (1.39%) Amazon EC2
18 13 (1.29%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 15 (1.49%) DNS
1 15 (1.49%) Firewall
2 13 (1.29%) SSH
3 12 (1.19%) Network Security
4 8 (0.79%) Reverse Proxy
5 7 (0.69%) Ethernet
5 7 (0.69%) HTTPS
5 7 (0.69%) VPN
6 6 (0.59%) DHCP
7 4 (0.40%) SAN
7 4 (0.40%) WAN
8 3 (0.30%) Internet
8 3 (0.30%) LAN
8 3 (0.30%) Modbus
8 3 (0.30%) TCP/IP
8 3 (0.30%) VSAN
8 3 (0.30%) WebEx
8 3 (0.30%) Wi-Fi
9 2 (0.20%) MPLS
9 2 (0.20%) RS-485
Database & Business Intelligence
1 58 (5.74%) Power BI
2 34 (3.37%) PostgreSQL
3 24 (2.38%) SQL Server
4 23 (2.28%) Metadata
5 19 (1.88%) Data Warehouse
6 17 (1.68%) MongoDB
7 16 (1.58%) DynamoDB
7 16 (1.58%) NoSQL
8 14 (1.39%) Relational Database
9 11 (1.09%) Amazon RDS
9 11 (1.09%) MySQL
10 10 (0.99%) Big Data
10 10 (0.99%) Delta Lake
10 10 (0.99%) Geospatial Data
11 9 (0.89%) Data Lake
12 7 (0.69%) Amazon Aurora
12 7 (0.69%) Redis
12 7 (0.69%) Spark SQL
12 7 (0.69%) Tableau
13 6 (0.59%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 79 (7.82%) JIRA
2 63 (6.24%) Git
3 47 (4.65%) GitLab
4 40 (3.96%) Jenkins
5 15 (1.49%) Selenium
6 13 (1.29%) Cucumber
7 12 (1.19%) JUnit
8 9 (0.89%) Postman
9 8 (0.79%) Cypress.io
9 8 (0.79%) Team Foundation Server
10 6 (0.59%) Gatling
11 5 (0.50%) REST Assured
12 4 (0.40%) Artifactory
12 4 (0.40%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 4 (0.40%) JMeter
12 4 (0.40%) Maven
12 4 (0.40%) Mockito
12 4 (0.40%) Rational DOORS
12 4 (0.40%) Visual Studio
13 3 (0.30%) WebDriver
General
1 307 (30.40%) Social Skills
2 179 (17.72%) Public Sector
3 141 (13.96%) Finance
4 115 (11.39%) Analytical Skills
5 46 (4.55%) Aerospace
6 41 (4.06%) Banking
7 32 (3.17%) Documentation Skills
8 23 (2.28%) Manufacturing
9 21 (2.08%) Legal
10 20 (1.98%) Billing
10 20 (1.98%) Influencing Skills
11 19 (1.88%) Aviation
12 16 (1.58%) Presentation Skills
13 13 (1.29%) Telecoms
14 12 (1.19%) Organisational Skills
15 9 (0.89%) Retail
16 8 (0.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 8 (0.79%) Military
16 8 (0.79%) Publishing
17 7 (0.69%) Law
Job Titles
1 148 (14.65%) Developer
2 120 (11.88%) Analyst
3 113 (11.19%) Senior
4 106 (10.50%) Architect
5 103 (10.20%) Lead
6 80 (7.92%) Consultant
7 60 (5.94%) SAP Consultant
8 56 (5.54%) Business Analyst
9 46 (4.55%) Designer
10 38 (3.76%) Java Developer
11 36 (3.56%) Data Engineer
12 31 (3.07%) Administrator
13 26 (2.57%) Delivery Manager
14 25 (2.48%) Senior Developer
15 24 (2.38%) DevOps Engineer
15 24 (2.38%) Service Designer
16 23 (2.28%) Data Architect
16 23 (2.28%) Senior Analyst
17 20 (1.98%) Product Manager
17 20 (1.98%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 56 (5.54%) Node.js
2 51 (5.05%) React
3 49 (4.85%) REST
4 41 (4.06%) HTML
5 38 (3.76%) RESTful
6 36 (3.56%) CSS
7 29 (2.87%) .NET
8 28 (2.77%) Spring
9 27 (2.67%) Kafka
10 25 (2.48%) Spring Boot
11 20 (1.98%) JSON
12 17 (1.68%) OAuth
12 17 (1.68%) Playwright
13 15 (1.49%) Middleware
14 14 (1.39%) AngularJS
14 14 (1.39%) OpenAPI
14 14 (1.39%) XML
15 13 (1.29%) SAP TM
15 13 (1.29%) SPFx
15 13 (1.29%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 74 (7.33%) Product Ownership
2 49 (4.85%) Onboarding
3 45 (4.46%) Cloud Native
4 21 (2.08%) Management Information System
5 19 (1.88%) Distributed Systems
6 18 (1.78%) Legacy Systems
7 16 (1.58%) NHS
8 15 (1.49%) Algorithms
9 10 (0.99%) Self-Motivation
10 9 (0.89%) Data Centre
11 8 (0.79%) Data Structures
11 8 (0.79%) Public Cloud
12 7 (0.69%) Enterprise Software
13 6 (0.59%) Hybrid Cloud
13 6 (0.59%) Mobile App
13 6 (0.59%) Operational Technology
14 5 (0.50%) BYOD
14 5 (0.50%) Linux Command Line
14 5 (0.50%) PMI
14 5 (0.50%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 78 (7.72%) Linux
2 46 (4.55%) Windows
3 23 (2.28%) Unix
4 15 (1.49%) Android
5 13 (1.29%) Windows Server
6 10 (0.99%) Apple iOS
7 9 (0.89%) Mac OS
8 6 (0.59%) Windows 10
9 3 (0.30%) AIX
9 3 (0.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 3 (0.30%) Solaris
10 2 (0.20%) Debian
10 2 (0.20%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.20%) VMS
11 1 (0.099%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 320 (31.68%) Agile
2 205 (20.30%) CI/CD
3 164 (16.24%) Problem-Solving
4 159 (15.74%) DevOps
5 144 (14.26%) Stakeholder Management
6 108 (10.69%) Continuous Improvement
7 107 (10.59%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 92 (9.11%) Roadmaps
9 82 (8.12%) Scrum
9 82 (8.12%) Test Automation
10 81 (8.02%) Infrastructure as Code
11 77 (7.62%) Decision-Making
12 75 (7.43%) Microservices
13 69 (6.83%) Analytics
14 66 (6.53%) Data Modelling
14 66 (6.53%) Migration
15 62 (6.14%) Business Intelligence
16 59 (5.84%) Workshop Facilitation
17 58 (5.74%) AI
18 57 (5.64%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 128 (12.67%) Python
2 110 (10.89%) Java
3 108 (10.69%) SQL
4 75 (7.43%) JavaScript
5 43 (4.26%) TypeScript
6 31 (3.07%) Scala
7 24 (2.38%) C#
8 18 (1.78%) PowerShell
9 17 (1.68%) Shell Script
10 11 (1.09%) Bicep
11 9 (0.89%) Bash
11 9 (0.89%) C
11 9 (0.89%) PL/SQL
12 8 (0.79%) C++
12 8 (0.79%) Ruby
12 8 (0.79%) VB
13 6 (0.59%) COBOL
13 6 (0.59%) MATLAB
13 6 (0.59%) VB6
14 5 (0.50%) Apex Code
Qualifications
1 303 (30.00%) Security Cleared
2 216 (21.39%) SC Cleared
3 64 (6.34%) Degree
4 16 (1.58%) DV Cleared
5 13 (1.29%) Computer Science Degree
6 11 (1.09%) AWS Certification
6 11 (1.09%) Azure Certification
6 11 (1.09%) Master's Degree
7 9 (0.89%) Microsoft Certification
8 8 (0.79%) PMI Certification
9 7 (0.69%) DBS Check
10 6 (0.59%) CompTIA CySA+
10 6 (0.59%) PMP
11 5 (0.50%) GIAC
11 5 (0.50%) NVQ Level 4
12 4 (0.40%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 4 (0.40%) CompTIA Security+
12 4 (0.40%) CTC Cleared
12 4 (0.40%) MBA
12 4 (0.40%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 64 (6.34%) Data Quality
2 62 (6.14%) Accessibility
3 57 (5.64%) QA
4 19 (1.88%) WCAG
5 17 (1.68%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 15 (1.49%) NIST
6 15 (1.49%) PMO
7 12 (1.19%) SLA
8 9 (0.89%) GDPR
9 8 (0.79%) PCI DSS
10 7 (0.69%) GRC
11 5 (0.50%) Actionable Recommendations
11 5 (0.50%) IFRS
11 5 (0.50%) IFRS 17
11 5 (0.50%) ISO 20022
11 5 (0.50%) NCSC
12 4 (0.40%) HL7
12 4 (0.40%) PSD2
13 3 (0.30%) DICOM
13 3 (0.30%) SEPA
System Software
1 65 (6.44%) Docker
2 30 (2.97%) Active Directory
3 22 (2.18%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (0.69%) Hyper-V
5 6 (0.59%) Virtual Machines
5 6 (0.59%) vSphere
6 5 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
7 4 (0.40%) GPFS
7 4 (0.40%) NFS
7 4 (0.40%) VMware ESXi
8 3 (0.30%) VMware NSX
9 2 (0.20%) Firmware
9 2 (0.20%) QEMU
10 1 (0.099%) ACF2
10 1 (0.099%) RACF
10 1 (0.099%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 88 (8.71%) Terraform
2 64 (6.34%) Kubernetes
3 25 (2.48%) Grafana
4 17 (1.68%) Prometheus
5 16 (1.58%) Ansible
6 10 (0.99%) Kibana
7 8 (0.79%) Istio
8 6 (0.59%) Argo
8 6 (0.59%) Microsoft Intune
8 6 (0.59%) Single Sign-On
9 5 (0.50%) vRealize
10 4 (0.40%) HAProxy
10 4 (0.40%) Podman
10 4 (0.40%) SCCM
11 3 (0.30%) VxRail
12 2 (0.20%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 2 (0.20%) EMC NetWorker
12 2 (0.20%) EMC VPLEX
12 2 (0.20%) Kubeflow
12 2 (0.20%) Packer
Vendors
1 121 (11.98%) SAP
2 96 (9.50%) Microsoft
3 49 (4.85%) Oracle
4 27 (2.67%) ServiceNow
5 24 (2.38%) VMware
6 22 (2.18%) Databricks
7 20 (1.98%) Google
8 19 (1.88%) Splunk
9 16 (1.58%) Cisco
10 15 (1.49%) IBM
11 13 (1.29%) Pega
12 11 (1.09%) Salesforce
13 8 (0.79%) Apple
13 8 (0.79%) OpenAI
14 7 (0.69%) BeyondTrust
14 7 (0.69%) Workday
15 6 (0.59%) CyberArk
15 6 (0.59%) Dell
15 6 (0.59%) MuleSoft
16 5 (0.50%) Informatica