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 27 June 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 119 195 241
Rank change year-on-year +76 +46 -16
Contract jobs citing BPSS Clearance 1,124 421 429
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.20% 1.39% 0.99%
As % of the Qualifications category 7.06% 4.49% 3.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 809 280 290
10th Percentile £329 £293 £200
25th Percentile £400 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £492 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.24% -1.60% -7.41%
75th Percentile £570 £581 £588
90th Percentile £650 £689 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £453 £491 £475
% change year-on-year -7.74% +3.37% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 136 36 54
10th Percentile £20.00 £18.50 £13.99
25th Percentile £36.00 £25.32 -
Median hourly rate £43.96 £45.00 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year -2.31% +180.20% -63.77%
75th Percentile £62.50 £69.23 £30.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £76.25 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £50.00 £16.06
% change year-on-year -12.08% +211.33% -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 15,929 9,377 12,937
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.25% 30.92% 29.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,644 5,812 7,975
10th Percentile £350 £275 £310
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £521 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.77% -0.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £638
90th Percentile £713 £703 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £507 £500 £526
% change year-on-year +1.40% -4.85% -0.28%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,162 619 1,118
10th Percentile £17.63 £17.76 £14.00
25th Percentile £24.21 £20.24 £20.00
Median hourly rate £50.74 £28.55 £40.94
Median % change year-on-year +77.73% -30.26% -26.23%
75th Percentile £72.54 £60.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £85.25 £75.10 £75.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £50.00 £27.39 £43.00
% change year-on-year +82.57% -36.31% -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 27 June 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 27 June 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 27 June 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 +77 846 £480 -3.95% 218
UK excluding London +64 644 £453 -7.74% 212
Work from Home +76 469 £439 -7.63% 139
London +76 264 £500 +5.49% 36
North of England +26 230 £453 -9.40% 37
Midlands +8 137 £447 -5.89% 20
North West +6 130 £414 -17.20% 30
West Midlands +4 108 £470 +9.30% 17
South East -2 106 £500 -4.76% 41
South West +13 68 £525 +50.00% 57
Scotland +42 66 £331 -2.57% 21
North East +4 61 £453 +4.14% 4
Yorkshire -4 46 £480 -4.00% 4
East Midlands 0 28 £438 -37.50% 3
East of England -17 27 £500 +150.00% 37
Wales -11 8 £550 -4.35% 6
Northern Ireland +4 7 £450 +28.57% 2

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 49 (4.36%) Confluence
2 37 (3.29%) SharePoint
3 15 (1.33%) SharePoint Server
4 13 (1.16%) Apache Spark
5 8 (0.71%) Apache Airflow
5 8 (0.71%) SAS
6 7 (0.62%) Apache
7 4 (0.36%) Oracle Workflow
8 3 (0.27%) ArcGIS
8 3 (0.27%) CICS
8 3 (0.27%) CMS
8 3 (0.27%) LiveCycle
8 3 (0.27%) Microsoft Exchange
8 3 (0.27%) WordPress
9 2 (0.18%) Cloud Foundry
9 2 (0.18%) Ethereum
9 2 (0.18%) Hyperledger
10 1 (0.089%) Apache Pulsar
10 1 (0.089%) Appian
10 1 (0.089%) Camunda
Applications
1 41 (3.65%) Microsoft Excel
2 19 (1.69%) Microsoft Office
3 16 (1.42%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 14 (1.25%) Microsoft Project
5 12 (1.07%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.44%) Simulink
7 4 (0.36%) Chatbot
8 2 (0.18%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.18%) Trello
9 1 (0.089%) Autodesk Inventor
9 1 (0.089%) CATIA
9 1 (0.089%) InVision
9 1 (0.089%) MicroStation
9 1 (0.089%) Navisworks
9 1 (0.089%) PTC Creo
9 1 (0.089%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 43 (3.83%) SAP S/4HANA
2 17 (1.51%) SAP PSCD
3 14 (1.25%) SAP BRIM
4 11 (0.98%) SAP IBP
5 9 (0.80%) SAP Travel Management
6 8 (0.71%) SAP FI
7 7 (0.62%) SAP EWM
7 7 (0.62%) SAP FI-CA
8 6 (0.53%) SAP HR
9 5 (0.44%) Payment Gateway
10 4 (0.36%) Loan IQ
10 4 (0.36%) Primavera
10 4 (0.36%) SAP Convergent Charging
10 4 (0.36%) SAP EHS
10 4 (0.36%) SAP MM
11 3 (0.27%) Dynamics CRM
11 3 (0.27%) Exchequer
11 3 (0.27%) iTrent
11 3 (0.27%) ProductWriter
11 3 (0.27%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 216 (19.22%) AWS
2 201 (17.88%) Azure
3 73 (6.49%) Power Platform
4 50 (4.45%) Serverless
5 46 (4.09%) GCP
6 45 (4.00%) GitHub
7 43 (3.83%) Azure DevOps
8 37 (3.29%) Entra ID
9 35 (3.11%) AWS Lambda
10 34 (3.02%) GitHub Actions
10 34 (3.02%) Microsoft 365
11 33 (2.94%) Amazon S3
12 21 (1.87%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 21 (1.87%) Power Automate
13 20 (1.78%) PowerApps
14 19 (1.69%) Amazon ECS
15 17 (1.51%) AWS CloudFormation
16 16 (1.42%) Amazon EC2
16 16 (1.42%) Amazon EKS
16 16 (1.42%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 16 (1.42%) DNS
2 15 (1.33%) Network Security
3 14 (1.25%) Firewall
4 10 (0.89%) WAN
5 9 (0.80%) HTTPS
6 6 (0.53%) DHCP
6 6 (0.53%) Ethernet
6 6 (0.53%) SSH
7 5 (0.44%) LAN
8 4 (0.36%) MPLS
8 4 (0.36%) SDH
8 4 (0.36%) SSL
8 4 (0.36%) VPN
9 3 (0.27%) Internet
9 3 (0.27%) MQTT
9 3 (0.27%) Reverse Proxy
9 3 (0.27%) SD-WAN
9 3 (0.27%) TCP/IP
9 3 (0.27%) WebEx
9 3 (0.27%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 61 (5.43%) Power BI
2 34 (3.02%) PostgreSQL
3 29 (2.58%) Metadata
4 27 (2.40%) Data Warehouse
5 25 (2.22%) MongoDB
6 20 (1.78%) SQL Server
7 19 (1.69%) NoSQL
8 17 (1.51%) DynamoDB
8 17 (1.51%) Relational Database
9 14 (1.25%) Amazon RDS
9 14 (1.25%) Data Lake
10 12 (1.07%) Amazon Athena
10 12 (1.07%) MySQL
11 11 (0.98%) Amazon Redshift
12 8 (0.71%) Delta Lake
12 8 (0.71%) Geospatial Data
13 7 (0.62%) Amazon Aurora
13 7 (0.62%) Big Data
13 7 (0.62%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 6 (0.53%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 90 (8.01%) JIRA
2 61 (5.43%) Git
2 61 (5.43%) GitLab
3 47 (4.18%) Jenkins
4 21 (1.87%) Selenium
5 17 (1.51%) Cucumber
6 15 (1.33%) JUnit
7 11 (0.98%) Postman
8 8 (0.71%) Cypress.io
8 8 (0.71%) Team Foundation Server
9 7 (0.62%) Artifactory
9 7 (0.62%) Maven
9 7 (0.62%) Mockito
9 7 (0.62%) REST Assured
10 6 (0.53%) Visual Studio
10 6 (0.53%) WebDriver
11 5 (0.44%) Gatling
11 5 (0.44%) Rational DOORS
12 4 (0.36%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 4 (0.36%) JMeter
General
1 336 (29.89%) Social Skills
2 233 (20.73%) Public Sector
3 182 (16.19%) Finance
4 120 (10.68%) Analytical Skills
5 59 (5.25%) Legal
6 47 (4.18%) Aerospace
7 44 (3.91%) Banking
7 44 (3.91%) Organisational Skills
8 37 (3.29%) Documentation Skills
9 22 (1.96%) Influencing Skills
9 22 (1.96%) Manufacturing
10 21 (1.87%) Billing
11 20 (1.78%) Presentation Skills
12 16 (1.42%) Aviation
12 16 (1.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 16 (1.42%) Telecoms
13 13 (1.16%) Local Government
14 9 (0.80%) Law
15 8 (0.71%) Military
16 7 (0.62%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 134 (11.92%) Developer
2 118 (10.50%) Analyst
3 114 (10.14%) Lead
4 113 (10.05%) Senior
5 112 (9.96%) Architect
6 88 (7.83%) Consultant
7 59 (5.25%) SAP Consultant
8 52 (4.63%) Business Analyst
9 50 (4.45%) Data Engineer
9 50 (4.45%) Designer
10 41 (3.65%) Java Developer
11 31 (2.76%) Administrator
12 30 (2.67%) DevOps Engineer
13 25 (2.22%) Solutions Architect
14 24 (2.14%) Delivery Manager
14 24 (2.14%) Product Manager
14 24 (2.14%) Service Designer
15 23 (2.05%) Data Analyst
15 23 (2.05%) Data Architect
15 23 (2.05%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 61 (5.43%) REST
2 51 (4.54%) React
3 46 (4.09%) RESTful
4 44 (3.91%) HTML
4 44 (3.91%) Spring Boot
5 43 (3.83%) Node.js
5 43 (3.83%) Spring
6 38 (3.38%) CSS
7 28 (2.49%) Kafka
8 22 (1.96%) .NET
9 19 (1.69%) Playwright
10 18 (1.60%) PySpark
11 17 (1.51%) JSON
12 15 (1.33%) OpenAPI
12 15 (1.33%) SPFx
13 14 (1.25%) Jest
13 14 (1.25%) OAuth
14 12 (1.07%) BAPI
14 12 (1.07%) Middleware
14 12 (1.07%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 79 (7.03%) Product Ownership
2 62 (5.52%) Onboarding
3 55 (4.89%) Cloud Native
4 38 (3.38%) Virtual Team
5 33 (2.94%) Web Conferencing
6 32 (2.85%) Podcast
7 22 (1.96%) Management Information System
8 21 (1.87%) NHS
9 20 (1.78%) Distributed Systems
10 16 (1.42%) Algorithms
11 13 (1.16%) Self-Motivation
12 12 (1.07%) Enterprise Software
12 12 (1.07%) Legacy Systems
13 11 (0.98%) Data Centre
14 9 (0.80%) Data Structures
15 8 (0.71%) Mobile App
15 8 (0.71%) Public Cloud
16 7 (0.62%) BYOD
17 5 (0.44%) AI Agents
17 5 (0.44%) Legacy Code
Operating Systems
1 69 (6.14%) Linux
2 47 (4.18%) Windows
3 32 (2.85%) Unix
4 13 (1.16%) Windows Server
5 12 (1.07%) Android
6 10 (0.89%) Apple iOS
7 9 (0.80%) Mac OS
8 6 (0.53%) Windows 10
9 3 (0.27%) AIX
9 3 (0.27%) Solaris
10 2 (0.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 1 (0.089%) Debian
11 1 (0.089%) Mac OS X
11 1 (0.089%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.089%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 329 (29.27%) Agile
2 214 (19.04%) CI/CD
3 177 (15.75%) DevOps
4 163 (14.50%) Stakeholder Management
5 157 (13.97%) Problem-Solving
6 118 (10.50%) Continuous Improvement
6 118 (10.50%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 101 (8.99%) Test Automation
8 100 (8.90%) Roadmaps
9 94 (8.36%) Scrum
10 92 (8.19%) Decision-Making
11 86 (7.65%) Analytics
12 82 (7.30%) Microservices
13 81 (7.21%) Infrastructure as Code
14 77 (6.85%) Migration
15 72 (6.41%) AI
15 72 (6.41%) Data Modelling
16 68 (6.05%) Business Intelligence
17 67 (5.96%) Software Engineering
18 65 (5.78%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 131 (11.65%) Python
2 126 (11.21%) SQL
3 119 (10.59%) Java
4 75 (6.67%) JavaScript
5 47 (4.18%) TypeScript
6 31 (2.76%) Scala
7 23 (2.05%) PowerShell
8 20 (1.78%) C#
9 16 (1.42%) Shell Script
10 10 (0.89%) C++
10 10 (0.89%) PL/SQL
11 9 (0.80%) VB
12 8 (0.71%) Bicep
12 8 (0.71%) C
13 7 (0.62%) ABAP
13 7 (0.62%) VB6
14 6 (0.53%) Bash
14 6 (0.53%) COBOL
14 6 (0.53%) MATLAB
15 5 (0.44%) Go
Qualifications
1 338 (30.07%) Security Cleared
2 248 (22.06%) SC Cleared
3 65 (5.78%) Degree
4 19 (1.69%) AWS Certification
5 17 (1.51%) DV Cleared
6 11 (0.98%) Azure Certification
6 11 (0.98%) Master's Degree
7 8 (0.71%) Microsoft Certification
8 7 (0.62%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 7 (0.62%) Computer Science Degree
9 6 (0.53%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
9 6 (0.53%) PMI Certification
10 5 (0.44%) CompTIA CySA+
10 5 (0.44%) DBS Check
10 5 (0.44%) NVQ Level 4
11 4 (0.36%) Cisco Certification
11 4 (0.36%) CTC Cleared
11 4 (0.36%) GIAC
11 4 (0.36%) PhD
11 4 (0.36%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 78 (6.94%) Data Quality
2 76 (6.76%) Accessibility
3 66 (5.87%) QA
4 22 (1.96%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 19 (1.69%) PMO
5 19 (1.69%) WCAG
6 17 (1.51%) GDPR
6 17 (1.51%) NIST
6 17 (1.51%) SLA
7 8 (0.71%) GRC
7 8 (0.71%) PCI DSS
8 6 (0.53%) NCSC
9 5 (0.44%) IFRS
9 5 (0.44%) IFRS 17
9 5 (0.44%) ISO 20022
10 4 (0.36%) Actionable Recommendations
10 4 (0.36%) HL7
10 4 (0.36%) PSD2
11 3 (0.27%) DICOM
11 3 (0.27%) SEPA
System Software
1 70 (6.23%) Docker
2 33 (2.94%) Active Directory
3 19 (1.69%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (0.71%) Virtual Desktop
5 6 (0.53%) Virtual Machines
6 5 (0.44%) Hyper-V
7 4 (0.36%) vSphere
8 3 (0.27%) GPFS
8 3 (0.27%) NFS
8 3 (0.27%) VMware ESXi
8 3 (0.27%) VMware NSX
9 2 (0.18%) Firmware
10 1 (0.089%) ACF2
10 1 (0.089%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.089%) Oracle RAC
10 1 (0.089%) QEMU
10 1 (0.089%) RACF
10 1 (0.089%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 96 (8.54%) Terraform
2 72 (6.41%) Kubernetes
3 23 (2.05%) Grafana
4 15 (1.33%) Prometheus
5 12 (1.07%) Kibana
6 11 (0.98%) Ansible
7 10 (0.89%) Single Sign-On
8 7 (0.62%) Istio
9 6 (0.53%) Microsoft Intune
10 5 (0.44%) Argo
10 5 (0.44%) Podman
10 5 (0.44%) SCCM
11 4 (0.36%) HAProxy
12 3 (0.27%) Puppet
12 3 (0.27%) vRealize
13 2 (0.18%) Data Guard
13 2 (0.18%) Kubeflow
13 2 (0.18%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
13 2 (0.18%) Oracle RMAN
13 2 (0.18%) Packer
Vendors
1 117 (10.41%) SAP
2 109 (9.70%) Microsoft
3 51 (4.54%) Oracle
4 32 (2.85%) ServiceNow
5 24 (2.14%) Google
6 22 (1.96%) Databricks
7 19 (1.69%) Splunk
7 19 (1.69%) VMware
8 16 (1.42%) Cisco
9 13 (1.16%) BeyondTrust
9 13 (1.16%) IBM
9 13 (1.16%) Pega
10 11 (0.98%) CyberArk
10 11 (0.98%) Informatica
11 9 (0.80%) Salesforce
12 8 (0.71%) Talend
13 7 (0.62%) Apple
13 7 (0.62%) OpenAI
13 7 (0.62%) Workday
14 6 (0.53%) Denodo