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

6 months to
18 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 104 191 249
Rank change year-on-year +87 +58 -23
Contract jobs citing BPSS Clearance 1,259 477 406
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.38% 1.47% 0.96%
As % of the Qualifications category 7.59% 4.76% 3.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 906 320 268
10th Percentile £328 £280 £200
25th Percentile £403 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £491 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.80% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £570 £582 £588
90th Percentile £656 £700 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £473 £490 £475
% change year-on-year -3.47% +3.16% -12.19%
Number of hourly rates quoted 167 46 50
10th Percentile £19.50 £18.50 £14.00
25th Percentile £36.35 £22.63 -
Median hourly rate £43.96 £27.63 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year +59.10% +72.04% -63.77%
75th Percentile £62.50 £56.37 £34.50
90th Percentile £74.26 £75.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £30.89 £16.06
% change year-on-year +42.33% +92.31% -60.42%

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 16,597 10,016 12,590
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.37% 30.77% 29.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,088 6,221 7,884
10th Percentile £350 £278 £310
25th Percentile £430 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.10% -0.10% -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 1,200 729 1,037
10th Percentile £17.73 £17.87 £14.16
25th Percentile £25.75 £19.38 £20.75
Median hourly rate £51.22 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +103.66% -40.82% -24.71%
75th Percentile £73.00 £56.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £85.41 £75.00 £75.65
UK excluding London median hourly rate £50.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +98.81% -41.51% -21.82%

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 18 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 18 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 18 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 +82 934 £488 -2.50% 220
UK excluding London +63 711 £473 -3.47% 200
Work from Home +88 507 £455 -4.21% 128
London +85 297 £500 - 49
North of England +24 258 £466 -1.84% 37
Midlands +25 146 £481 -2.24% 38
North West -3 139 £468 -2.71% 28
West Midlands +22 129 £481 +6.42% 35
South East +1 113 £500 -4.76% 45
South West +12 77 £525 +50.00% 38
Scotland +45 75 £350 -1.13% 18
North East +10 72 £450 +10.43% 7
Yorkshire +5 59 £475 -5.00% 2
East of England -12 28 £577 +188.53% 21
East Midlands -11 16 £520 -25.71% 3
Northern Ireland +8 11 £450 +28.57%
Wales -5 11 £463 -19.57% 5

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 55 (4.37%) Confluence
2 45 (3.57%) SharePoint
3 15 (1.19%) SharePoint Server
4 13 (1.03%) 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%) IIS
8 4 (0.32%) WordPress
9 3 (0.24%) ArcGIS
9 3 (0.24%) CICS
9 3 (0.24%) CMS
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%) OpenROAD
10 2 (0.16%) WebLogic
Applications
1 48 (3.81%) Microsoft Excel
2 26 (2.07%) Microsoft Office
3 17 (1.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 15 (1.19%) Microsoft Project
5 12 (0.95%) 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 (0.079%) AutoCAD
9 1 (0.079%) Autodesk Inventor
9 1 (0.079%) CATIA
9 1 (0.079%) InVision
9 1 (0.079%) MicroStation
9 1 (0.079%) ProjectWise
9 1 (0.079%) Revit
9 1 (0.079%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 41 (3.26%) SAP S/4HANA
2 17 (1.35%) SAP PSCD
3 14 (1.11%) SAP BRIM
4 12 (0.95%) SAP IBP
5 9 (0.71%) 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%) Shopify
9 4 (0.32%) Primavera
9 4 (0.32%) SAP Convergent Charging
9 4 (0.32%) SAP EHS
9 4 (0.32%) SAP GRC
9 4 (0.32%) SAP MDG
9 4 (0.32%) SAP MM
10 3 (0.24%) Dynamics CRM
10 3 (0.24%) iTrent
10 3 (0.24%) Payment Gateway
10 3 (0.24%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 241 (19.14%) Azure
2 230 (18.27%) AWS
3 87 (6.91%) Power Platform
4 58 (4.61%) GitHub
5 54 (4.29%) Azure DevOps
6 52 (4.13%) GCP
7 49 (3.89%) Serverless
8 43 (3.42%) GitHub Actions
9 41 (3.26%) Entra ID
10 38 (3.02%) Amazon S3
10 38 (3.02%) AWS Lambda
11 37 (2.94%) Microsoft 365
12 22 (1.75%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 22 (1.75%) Power Automate
13 21 (1.67%) PowerApps
14 20 (1.59%) Amazon ECS
15 19 (1.51%) Amazon EKS
16 18 (1.43%) AWS CloudFormation
17 17 (1.35%) Amazon EC2
18 15 (1.19%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 18 (1.43%) DNS
2 14 (1.11%) Firewall
2 14 (1.11%) Network Security
3 12 (0.95%) WAN
4 10 (0.79%) WebEx
5 9 (0.71%) HTTPS
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%) SSL
8 5 (0.40%) Intranet
8 5 (0.40%) SSH
9 4 (0.32%) Cisco IPT
9 4 (0.32%) TCP/IP
9 4 (0.32%) VPN
10 3 (0.24%) Internet
10 3 (0.24%) IP Telephony
10 3 (0.24%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 68 (5.40%) Power BI
2 39 (3.10%) PostgreSQL
3 31 (2.46%) Metadata
4 30 (2.38%) Data Warehouse
5 28 (2.22%) MongoDB
6 25 (1.99%) SQL Server
7 21 (1.67%) Relational Database
8 19 (1.51%) NoSQL
9 16 (1.27%) MySQL
10 15 (1.19%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 14 (1.11%) Amazon RDS
11 14 (1.11%) Data Lake
11 14 (1.11%) DynamoDB
12 12 (0.95%) Amazon Athena
12 12 (0.95%) Amazon Redshift
13 10 (0.79%) Geospatial Data
14 8 (0.64%) Big Data
15 7 (0.56%) Azure SQL Database
15 7 (0.56%) Oracle Database
15 7 (0.56%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 98 (7.78%) JIRA
2 79 (6.27%) Git
3 63 (5.00%) GitLab
4 55 (4.37%) Jenkins
5 20 (1.59%) Selenium
6 17 (1.35%) Cucumber
7 14 (1.11%) Team Foundation Server
8 13 (1.03%) Postman
9 12 (0.95%) JUnit
9 12 (0.95%) Maven
9 12 (0.95%) Visual Studio
10 11 (0.87%) Cypress.io
11 8 (0.64%) REST Assured
12 7 (0.56%) Artifactory
12 7 (0.56%) Gatling
13 6 (0.48%) Gradle
13 6 (0.48%) Mockito
13 6 (0.48%) WebDriver
14 5 (0.40%) Rational DOORS
14 5 (0.40%) SonarQube
General
1 384 (30.50%) Social Skills
2 287 (22.80%) Public Sector
3 196 (15.57%) Finance
4 134 (10.64%) Analytical Skills
5 81 (6.43%) Legal
6 70 (5.56%) Organisational Skills
7 49 (3.89%) Aerospace
8 43 (3.42%) Documentation Skills
9 32 (2.54%) Banking
10 29 (2.30%) Influencing Skills
11 22 (1.75%) Billing
11 22 (1.75%) Manufacturing
11 22 (1.75%) Presentation Skills
12 20 (1.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 18 (1.43%) Aviation
14 17 (1.35%) Telecoms
15 12 (0.95%) Local Government
15 12 (0.95%) Retail
16 9 (0.71%) Law
17 8 (0.64%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 159 (12.63%) Developer
2 138 (10.96%) Senior
3 132 (10.48%) Lead
4 121 (9.61%) Analyst
5 108 (8.58%) Architect
6 89 (7.07%) Consultant
7 61 (4.85%) Designer
8 59 (4.69%) SAP Consultant
9 50 (3.97%) Business Analyst
9 50 (3.97%) Data Engineer
10 47 (3.73%) Java Developer
11 38 (3.02%) DevOps Engineer
12 29 (2.30%) Product Manager
13 28 (2.22%) Administrator
14 27 (2.14%) Lead Developer
15 25 (1.99%) Data Analyst
15 25 (1.99%) Delivery Manager
15 25 (1.99%) Solutions Architect
15 25 (1.99%) User Researcher
16 24 (1.91%) AWS Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 75 (5.96%) REST
2 57 (4.53%) React
3 52 (4.13%) HTML
3 52 (4.13%) RESTful
4 49 (3.89%) Spring
4 49 (3.89%) Spring Boot
5 48 (3.81%) Node.js
6 41 (3.26%) CSS
7 32 (2.54%) Kafka
8 29 (2.30%) .NET
9 22 (1.75%) JSON
10 21 (1.67%) Playwright
11 17 (1.35%) PySpark
11 17 (1.35%) XML
12 15 (1.19%) SOAP
12 15 (1.19%) SPFx
13 14 (1.11%) BAPI
13 14 (1.11%) Jest
13 14 (1.11%) OAuth
13 14 (1.11%) OpenAPI
Miscellaneous
1 84 (6.67%) Product Ownership
2 72 (5.72%) Onboarding
3 62 (4.92%) Virtual Team
4 61 (4.85%) Web Conferencing
5 57 (4.53%) Cloud Native
6 54 (4.29%) Podcast
7 26 (2.07%) Management Information System
8 21 (1.67%) NHS
9 18 (1.43%) Legacy Systems
10 16 (1.27%) Algorithms
10 16 (1.27%) BYOD
10 16 (1.27%) Distributed Systems
10 16 (1.27%) Mobile App
10 16 (1.27%) Self-Motivation
11 15 (1.19%) Enterprise Software
12 11 (0.87%) Data Centre
13 9 (0.71%) PMI
14 8 (0.64%) Data Structures
14 8 (0.64%) Replication
15 7 (0.56%) Driving Licence
Operating Systems
1 68 (5.40%) Linux
2 61 (4.85%) Windows
3 34 (2.70%) Unix
4 18 (1.43%) Android
5 16 (1.27%) Windows Server
6 12 (0.95%) Apple iOS
7 9 (0.71%) Mac OS
8 8 (0.64%) Windows 10
9 4 (0.32%) VMS
10 3 (0.24%) AIX
10 3 (0.24%) Solaris
11 2 (0.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 1 (0.079%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 379 (30.10%) Agile
2 235 (18.67%) CI/CD
3 206 (16.36%) DevOps
4 193 (15.33%) Stakeholder Management
5 165 (13.11%) Problem-Solving
6 141 (11.20%) Continuous Improvement
7 140 (11.12%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 108 (8.58%) Decision-Making
8 108 (8.58%) Scrum
9 107 (8.50%) Roadmaps
9 107 (8.50%) Test Automation
10 104 (8.26%) Analytics
11 96 (7.63%) Infrastructure as Code
12 94 (7.47%) Microservices
13 89 (7.07%) AI
14 82 (6.51%) Migration
15 76 (6.04%) Business Intelligence
16 74 (5.88%) Customer Service
16 74 (5.88%) Software Engineering
17 73 (5.80%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 143 (11.36%) SQL
2 138 (10.96%) Python
3 132 (10.48%) Java
4 78 (6.20%) JavaScript
5 50 (3.97%) TypeScript
6 34 (2.70%) Scala
7 27 (2.14%) C#
8 25 (1.99%) PowerShell
9 16 (1.27%) PL/SQL
10 14 (1.11%) Bash
10 14 (1.11%) Shell Script
11 13 (1.03%) VB
12 11 (0.87%) VB6
13 10 (0.79%) C++
13 10 (0.79%) VBA
14 9 (0.71%) T-SQL
15 8 (0.64%) ABAP
16 7 (0.56%) Bicep
16 7 (0.56%) C
16 7 (0.56%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 399 (31.69%) Security Cleared
2 287 (22.80%) SC Cleared
3 67 (5.32%) Degree
4 18 (1.43%) AWS Certification
5 16 (1.27%) DV Cleared
6 14 (1.11%) Azure Certification
7 10 (0.79%) Microsoft Certification
7 10 (0.79%) PMI Certification
8 9 (0.71%) CTC Cleared
9 8 (0.64%) Master's Degree
10 7 (0.56%) A+ Certification
11 6 (0.48%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
11 6 (0.48%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 6 (0.48%) CCNA
11 6 (0.48%) Cisco Certification
11 6 (0.48%) Computer Science Degree
12 5 (0.40%) CompTIA CySA+
12 5 (0.40%) DBS Check
12 5 (0.40%) ISTQB
12 5 (0.40%) NVQ Level 4
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 86 (6.83%) Data Quality
2 80 (6.35%) Accessibility
3 74 (5.88%) QA
4 22 (1.75%) GDPR
4 22 (1.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 20 (1.59%) PMO
6 19 (1.51%) WCAG
7 18 (1.43%) NIST
7 18 (1.43%) SLA
8 9 (0.71%) GRC
9 8 (0.64%) NCSC
10 4 (0.32%) Actionable Recommendations
10 4 (0.32%) HL7
10 4 (0.32%) PCI DSS
11 3 (0.24%) 21 CFR Part 11
11 3 (0.24%) DICOM
11 3 (0.24%) GMP
11 3 (0.24%) GxP
11 3 (0.24%) ISO 20022
11 3 (0.24%) Solvency II
System Software
1 82 (6.51%) Docker
2 38 (3.02%) Active Directory
3 17 (1.35%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (0.64%) Virtual Desktop
4 8 (0.64%) Virtual Machines
5 5 (0.40%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.24%) VMware NSX
7 2 (0.16%) Firmware
7 2 (0.16%) vSphere
8 1 (0.079%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.079%) GPFS
8 1 (0.079%) IAG
8 1 (0.079%) NFS
8 1 (0.079%) Oracle RAC
8 1 (0.079%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 106 (8.42%) Terraform
2 80 (6.35%) Kubernetes
3 29 (2.30%) Grafana
4 19 (1.51%) Prometheus
5 13 (1.03%) Single Sign-On
6 11 (0.87%) Ansible
7 10 (0.79%) Kibana
8 9 (0.71%) 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
13 2 (0.16%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 2 (0.16%) Data Guard
13 2 (0.16%) Kubeflow
13 2 (0.16%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
13 2 (0.16%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 138 (10.96%) Microsoft
2 115 (9.13%) SAP
3 62 (4.92%) Oracle
4 46 (3.65%) ServiceNow
5 34 (2.70%) Google
6 21 (1.67%) Databricks
7 20 (1.59%) Splunk
8 17 (1.35%) BeyondTrust
8 17 (1.35%) Cisco
8 17 (1.35%) VMware
9 14 (1.11%) Pega
10 11 (0.87%) CyberArk
10 11 (0.87%) IBM
11 9 (0.71%) 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%) Dell