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 13 April 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Apr 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 120 246 219
Rank change year-on-year +126 -27 -20
Contract jobs citing BPSS Clearance 975 317 463
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.12% 1.08% 1.06%
As % of the Qualifications category 6.43% 3.52% 3.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 730 195 348
10th Percentile £313 £228 £308
25th Percentile £394 £402 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £514
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -2.68% -6.59%
75th Percentile £560 £581 £626
90th Percentile £650 £665 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £449 £490 £525
% change year-on-year -8.47% -6.67% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 75 23 51
10th Percentile £15.10 - £13.99
25th Percentile £23.63 £18.50 -
Median hourly rate £43.69 £45.00 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year -2.91% +180.20% -66.39%
75th Percentile £68.75 £67.50 £42.64
90th Percentile £84.12 £77.25 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.50 £50.00 £16.06
% change year-on-year -5.00% +211.33% -66.60%

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 15,172 9,010 13,438
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.02% 30.78% 30.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,086 5,729 8,305
10th Percentile £349 £295 £300
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £518 £525 £537
Median % change year-on-year -1.43% -2.23% -2.36%
75th Percentile £619 £625 £650
90th Percentile £725 £713 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £510 £525
% change year-on-year -1.96% -2.86% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,104 496 1,028
10th Percentile £16.35 £18.50 £13.69
25th Percentile £20.82 £22.93 £17.58
Median hourly rate £42.25 £45.00 £38.85
Median % change year-on-year -6.11% +15.83% -27.62%
75th Percentile £69.58 £67.25 £61.30
90th Percentile £85.25 £80.80 £75.24
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.25 £47.65 £40.00
% change year-on-year -11.34% +19.13% -19.22%

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 13 April 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 13 April 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 13 April 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 +105 704 £478 -4.40% 296
UK excluding London +58 519 £449 -8.47% 288
Work from Home +101 397 £438 -12.50% 135
London +95 228 £500 -6.93% 68
North of England +20 198 £445 -11.00% 61
North West +28 142 £400 -25.65% 32
Midlands +8 116 £438 +2.94% 19
West Midlands -10 87 £447 +7.07% 18
South East +5 86 £475 -16.23% 89
South West +3 50 £525 +61.54% 61
Scotland +38 48 £320 -37.25% 17
Yorkshire -40 30 £481 +78.24% 9
North East +2 28 £478 +17.18% 20
East Midlands -9 28 £395 -35.56% 1
East of England -30 24 £468 +133.88% 42
Wales -9 7 £458 -20.42% 4
Northern Ireland -1 3 £375 +33.45% 1

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 52 (5.33%) Confluence
2 33 (3.38%) SharePoint
3 11 (1.13%) nginx
4 9 (0.92%) SharePoint Server
5 8 (0.82%) Apache
5 8 (0.82%) Microsoft Exchange
6 6 (0.62%) Apache Spark
6 6 (0.62%) CMS
7 4 (0.41%) ArcGIS
7 4 (0.41%) Oracle Workflow
8 3 (0.31%) Apache Airflow
8 3 (0.31%) CICS
8 3 (0.31%) LiveCycle
8 3 (0.31%) MTS
8 3 (0.31%) SAS
8 3 (0.31%) WebLogic
9 1 (0.10%) Apache Pulsar
9 1 (0.10%) Camunda
9 1 (0.10%) Orchard CMS
9 1 (0.10%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 39 (4.00%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (1.74%) Microsoft Office
3 15 (1.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 13 (1.33%) MS Visio
5 12 (1.23%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.51%) Simulink
7 2 (0.21%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.21%) Trello
8 1 (0.10%) Autodesk Inventor
8 1 (0.10%) CATIA
8 1 (0.10%) InVision
8 1 (0.10%) MicroStation
8 1 (0.10%) PTC Creo
8 1 (0.10%) Sketch
8 1 (0.10%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 48 (4.92%) SAP S/4HANA
2 13 (1.33%) SAP Travel Management
3 12 (1.23%) SAP PSCD
4 10 (1.03%) SAP IBP
5 7 (0.72%) SAP BRIM
6 6 (0.62%) SAP EWM
6 6 (0.62%) SAP FI
7 5 (0.51%) SAP EHS
7 5 (0.51%) SAP HR
8 4 (0.41%) iTrent
8 4 (0.41%) Loan IQ
8 4 (0.41%) Payment Gateway
8 4 (0.41%) SAP FI-CA
8 4 (0.41%) SAP MM
8 4 (0.41%) SAP VC
8 4 (0.41%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
9 3 (0.31%) Exchequer
9 3 (0.31%) SAP Payroll
9 3 (0.31%) SAP PM
9 3 (0.31%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 165 (16.92%) AWS
2 154 (15.79%) Azure
3 68 (6.97%) Power Platform
4 45 (4.62%) GitHub
5 44 (4.51%) Serverless
6 43 (4.41%) Azure DevOps
7 36 (3.69%) GCP
8 32 (3.28%) Microsoft 365
9 31 (3.18%) GitHub Actions
10 25 (2.56%) AWS CloudFormation
11 24 (2.46%) AWS Lambda
12 22 (2.26%) Power Automate
13 21 (2.15%) Entra ID
14 20 (2.05%) PowerApps
15 17 (1.74%) Amazon SQS
16 15 (1.54%) Amazon EKS
16 15 (1.54%) Azure Data Factory
16 15 (1.54%) Azure Synapse Analytics
17 14 (1.44%) Microsoft Copilot
17 14 (1.44%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 20 (2.05%) SSH
2 14 (1.44%) Firewall
3 12 (1.23%) Network Security
4 11 (1.13%) DNS
5 8 (0.82%) Reverse Proxy
6 7 (0.72%) HTTPS
7 6 (0.62%) Ethernet
7 6 (0.62%) VPN
7 6 (0.62%) WAN
8 5 (0.51%) MPLS
8 5 (0.51%) WebEx
9 4 (0.41%) LAN
9 4 (0.41%) SAN
9 4 (0.41%) SDH
9 4 (0.41%) VSAN
10 3 (0.31%) Modbus
10 3 (0.31%) TCP/IP
10 3 (0.31%) Unified Communications
10 3 (0.31%) Wireless
11 2 (0.21%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 53 (5.44%) Power BI
2 28 (2.87%) PostgreSQL
3 26 (2.67%) Metadata
4 23 (2.36%) SQL Server
5 16 (1.64%) Data Warehouse
6 15 (1.54%) Relational Database
7 14 (1.44%) NoSQL
8 12 (1.23%) DynamoDB
8 12 (1.23%) Geospatial Data
8 12 (1.23%) MySQL
9 10 (1.03%) Delta Lake
10 9 (0.92%) Data Lake
10 9 (0.92%) MongoDB
10 9 (0.92%) Redis
11 8 (0.82%) DocumentDB
12 7 (0.72%) Spark SQL
12 7 (0.72%) Tableau
13 6 (0.62%) BigQuery
13 6 (0.62%) DataStage
14 5 (0.51%) GIS
Development Applications
1 86 (8.82%) JIRA
2 69 (7.08%) Git
3 46 (4.72%) GitLab
4 32 (3.28%) Jenkins
5 12 (1.23%) Selenium
6 9 (0.92%) JUnit
7 7 (0.72%) Cucumber
7 7 (0.72%) Cypress.io
8 6 (0.62%) Mockito
9 5 (0.51%) JMeter
9 5 (0.51%) Postman
10 4 (0.41%) Bitbucket
10 4 (0.41%) Gatling
10 4 (0.41%) Rational DOORS
10 4 (0.41%) SonarQube
11 3 (0.31%) Maven
11 3 (0.31%) Toad
11 3 (0.31%) WebDriver
12 2 (0.21%) Team Foundation Server
12 2 (0.21%) Visual Studio
General
1 315 (32.31%) Social Skills
2 178 (18.26%) Public Sector
3 147 (15.08%) Finance
4 107 (10.97%) Analytical Skills
5 48 (4.92%) Aerospace
6 46 (4.72%) Banking
7 25 (2.56%) Documentation Skills
8 22 (2.26%) Legal
9 21 (2.15%) Influencing Skills
10 20 (2.05%) Manufacturing
11 17 (1.74%) Aviation
12 16 (1.64%) Presentation Skills
12 16 (1.64%) Telecoms
13 12 (1.23%) Organisational Skills
14 11 (1.13%) Billing
14 11 (1.13%) Local Government
15 9 (0.92%) Publishing
16 8 (0.82%) Military
16 8 (0.82%) Retail
17 6 (0.62%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 152 (15.59%) Developer
2 116 (11.90%) Analyst
3 111 (11.38%) Senior
4 94 (9.64%) Lead
5 89 (9.13%) Architect
6 77 (7.90%) Consultant
7 54 (5.54%) SAP Consultant
8 53 (5.44%) Business Analyst
9 39 (4.00%) Java Developer
10 32 (3.28%) Administrator
10 32 (3.28%) Designer
11 30 (3.08%) Data Engineer
12 26 (2.67%) Delivery Manager
13 25 (2.56%) DevOps Engineer
14 23 (2.36%) Senior Analyst
14 23 (2.36%) Senior Developer
15 20 (2.05%) Project Manager
15 20 (2.05%) Senior Manager
16 19 (1.95%) User Researcher
17 18 (1.85%) Azure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 66 (6.77%) Node.js
2 51 (5.23%) React
3 41 (4.21%) REST
4 39 (4.00%) RESTful
5 31 (3.18%) Kafka
6 29 (2.97%) HTML
7 28 (2.87%) Spring
8 27 (2.77%) .NET
9 25 (2.56%) CSS
9 25 (2.56%) Spring Boot
10 16 (1.64%) Middleware
11 15 (1.54%) JSON
12 13 (1.33%) SAP TM
12 13 (1.33%) XML
13 12 (1.23%) LangChain
13 12 (1.23%) OAuth
13 12 (1.23%) PySpark
14 11 (1.13%) AngularJS
14 11 (1.13%) Playwright
15 10 (1.03%) Jest
Miscellaneous
1 65 (6.67%) Product Ownership
2 53 (5.44%) Onboarding
3 46 (4.72%) Cloud Native
4 21 (2.15%) Management Information System
5 18 (1.85%) Distributed Systems
5 18 (1.85%) Legacy Systems
6 15 (1.54%) NHS
7 13 (1.33%) Algorithms
8 10 (1.03%) Public Cloud
8 10 (1.03%) Self-Motivation
9 9 (0.92%) Data Centre
10 8 (0.82%) Data Structures
11 7 (0.72%) Driving Licence
11 7 (0.72%) Enterprise Software
11 7 (0.72%) Linux Command Line
12 6 (0.62%) Cyber Threat
12 6 (0.62%) Hybrid Cloud
12 6 (0.62%) Mainframe
12 6 (0.62%) Replication
13 5 (0.51%) Tandem
Operating Systems
1 92 (9.44%) Linux
2 39 (4.00%) Windows
3 19 (1.95%) Unix
4 9 (0.92%) Android
5 8 (0.82%) Windows Server
6 6 (0.62%) Apple iOS
7 4 (0.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 3 (0.31%) AIX
8 3 (0.31%) Solaris
8 3 (0.31%) Ubuntu
9 2 (0.21%) Debian
9 2 (0.21%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.10%) CentOS
10 1 (0.10%) Mac OS X
10 1 (0.10%) VME
10 1 (0.10%) VMS
10 1 (0.10%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 304 (31.18%) Agile
2 192 (19.69%) CI/CD
3 177 (18.15%) Problem-Solving
4 151 (15.49%) DevOps
5 137 (14.05%) Stakeholder Management
6 105 (10.77%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 99 (10.15%) Continuous Improvement
8 80 (8.21%) Test Automation
9 78 (8.00%) Scrum
10 76 (7.79%) Roadmaps
11 75 (7.69%) Microservices
12 70 (7.18%) Infrastructure as Code
13 69 (7.08%) AI
14 68 (6.97%) Analytics
15 67 (6.87%) Data Modelling
15 67 (6.87%) Migration
16 64 (6.56%) Decision-Making
16 64 (6.56%) Validation
17 57 (5.85%) Business Intelligence
17 57 (5.85%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 131 (13.44%) Python
2 102 (10.46%) SQL
3 101 (10.36%) Java
4 64 (6.56%) JavaScript
5 47 (4.82%) TypeScript
6 23 (2.36%) C#
6 23 (2.36%) Shell Script
7 20 (2.05%) PowerShell
8 19 (1.95%) Scala
9 14 (1.44%) Bash
9 14 (1.44%) Ruby
10 10 (1.03%) Bicep
11 9 (0.92%) PL/SQL
12 8 (0.82%) ABAP
12 8 (0.82%) C
12 8 (0.82%) C++
12 8 (0.82%) COBOL
13 6 (0.62%) MATLAB
14 4 (0.41%) R
14 4 (0.41%) VB
Qualifications
1 328 (33.64%) Security Cleared
2 240 (24.62%) SC Cleared
3 63 (6.46%) Degree
4 19 (1.95%) DV Cleared
5 17 (1.74%) Computer Science Degree
6 12 (1.23%) AWS Certification
6 12 (1.23%) Master's Degree
7 9 (0.92%) Azure Certification
8 8 (0.82%) PMI Certification
9 7 (0.72%) DBS Check
10 6 (0.62%) CompTIA CySA+
10 6 (0.62%) ISTQB
10 6 (0.62%) PMP
11 5 (0.51%) CompTIA Security+
11 5 (0.51%) GIAC
12 4 (0.41%) CTC Cleared
12 4 (0.41%) ISEB
12 4 (0.41%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
12 4 (0.41%) MBA
12 4 (0.41%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 63 (6.46%) Accessibility
2 62 (6.36%) Data Quality
3 50 (5.13%) QA
4 20 (2.05%) WCAG
5 18 (1.85%) NIST
6 16 (1.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 16 (1.64%) SLA
7 12 (1.23%) PMO
8 10 (1.03%) GDPR
9 8 (0.82%) PCI DSS
10 7 (0.72%) NCSC
11 6 (0.62%) GRC
11 6 (0.62%) ISO 20022
12 5 (0.51%) IFRS
12 5 (0.51%) IFRS 17
13 4 (0.41%) HL7
13 4 (0.41%) PSD2
14 3 (0.31%) Actionable Recommendations
14 3 (0.31%) DICOM
14 3 (0.31%) RMADS
System Software
1 61 (6.26%) Docker
2 22 (2.26%) VMware Infrastructure
3 21 (2.15%) Active Directory
4 9 (0.92%) vSphere
5 5 (0.51%) GPFS
5 5 (0.51%) NFS
5 5 (0.51%) VMware ESXi
6 4 (0.41%) Hyper-V
6 4 (0.41%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (0.31%) VMware NSX
8 2 (0.21%) ACF2
8 2 (0.21%) Firmware
8 2 (0.21%) QEMU
8 2 (0.21%) RACF
8 2 (0.21%) Time Sharing Option
9 1 (0.10%) Postfix
9 1 (0.10%) Varnish
9 1 (0.10%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 81 (8.31%) Terraform
2 66 (6.77%) Kubernetes
3 19 (1.95%) Grafana
4 17 (1.74%) Prometheus
5 16 (1.64%) Ansible
6 8 (0.82%) vRealize
7 7 (0.72%) Istio
8 6 (0.62%) Argo
9 5 (0.51%) VxRail
10 4 (0.41%) Microsoft Intune
10 4 (0.41%) Packer
10 4 (0.41%) Podman
11 3 (0.31%) Kibana
12 2 (0.21%) CA Endevor
12 2 (0.21%) Consul
12 2 (0.21%) EMC NetWorker
12 2 (0.21%) EMC VPLEX
12 2 (0.21%) SCCM
12 2 (0.21%) Tivoli
12 2 (0.21%) Tivoli Storage Manager
Vendors
1 119 (12.21%) SAP
2 97 (9.95%) Microsoft
3 50 (5.13%) Oracle
4 26 (2.67%) VMware
5 23 (2.36%) ServiceNow
6 22 (2.26%) Cisco
6 22 (2.26%) Databricks
7 19 (1.95%) Google
8 17 (1.74%) IBM
9 12 (1.23%) Pega
9 12 (1.23%) Splunk
10 10 (1.03%) Atlassian
10 10 (1.03%) Workday
11 8 (0.82%) Adobe
11 8 (0.82%) OpenAI
12 7 (0.72%) CyberArk
12 7 (0.72%) Foundry
12 7 (0.72%) Salesforce
13 6 (0.62%) BeyondTrust
14 5 (0.51%) Red Hat
331 BPSS Clearance jobs Nationwide