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 10 February 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 138 283 229
Rank change year-on-year +145 -54 -40
Contract jobs citing BPSS Clearance 795 275 475
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.02% 0.90% 1.06%
As % of the Qualifications category 5.98% 3.02% 3.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 604 154 359
10th Percentile £325 £220 £339
25th Percentile £400 £364 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -4.76% -6.25%
75th Percentile £573 £575 £638
90th Percentile £672 £688 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £460 £475 £550
% change year-on-year -3.26% -13.64% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 48 11 39
10th Percentile £14.61 £24.50 £14.00
25th Percentile £26.66 £36.70 £21.00
Median hourly rate £33.50 £45.00 £40.28
Median % change year-on-year -25.56% +11.73% -8.54%
75th Percentile £51.67 £65.63 £60.00
90th Percentile £71.27 £67.50 £84.36
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.50 £45.00 £40.28
% change year-on-year -25.56% +11.73% -15.73%

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 13,293 9,107 13,633
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.77% 29.67% 30.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,783 5,501 8,445
10th Percentile £319 £300 £295
25th Percentile £416 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £517 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -1.52% -2.78% -1.82%
75th Percentile £619 £630 £650
90th Percentile £720 £725 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £503 £532
% change year-on-year -0.50% -5.59% +0.42%
Number of hourly rates quoted 978 435 956
10th Percentile £15.75 £20.00 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.10 £24.18 £21.19
Median hourly rate £25.15 £40.00 £45.88
Median % change year-on-year -37.13% -12.82% +1.96%
75th Percentile £63.75 £66.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £76.58 £79.42 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £42.50 £46.18
% change year-on-year -40.82% -7.97% +2.62%

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 10 February 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 10 February 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 10 February 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 +111 556 £481 -3.75% 265
UK excluding London +77 400 £460 -3.26% 271
Work from Home +118 324 £447 -10.60% 137
London +56 179 £512 -6.95% 59
North of England +21 175 £465 -7.00% 58
North West +41 132 £425 -21.00% 39
Midlands +4 91 £438 +2.94% 19
West Midlands -6 66 £473 +11.18% 16
South East +1 47 £515 -0.10% 82
South West +14 41 £529 +11.32% 49
Scotland +31 28 £380 -32.14% 20
Yorkshire -53 26 £481 +118.75% 4
East Midlands -7 25 £394 - 3
East of England -5 20 £450 -20.00% 40
North East 0 18 £475 +25.00% 15
Wales -4 6 £458 +108.00% 6
Northern Ireland - 5 £375 -

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 41 (5.16%) Confluence
2 14 (1.76%) SharePoint
3 11 (1.38%) nginx
4 7 (0.88%) Apache
5 6 (0.75%) Microsoft Exchange
6 5 (0.63%) Apache Spark
6 5 (0.63%) ArcGIS
7 4 (0.50%) CMS
7 4 (0.50%) SugarCRM
8 3 (0.38%) MTS
8 3 (0.38%) WebLogic
9 2 (0.25%) Apache Airflow
10 1 (0.13%) Apache Pulsar
10 1 (0.13%) Camunda
10 1 (0.13%) Drupal
10 1 (0.13%) JBoss
10 1 (0.13%) LiveCycle
10 1 (0.13%) Oracle Workflow
10 1 (0.13%) Palantir Foundry
10 1 (0.13%) SAS
Applications
1 21 (2.64%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (1.76%) Microsoft Office
3 12 (1.51%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (1.26%) MS Visio
5 9 (1.13%) Microsoft Project
6 3 (0.38%) Chatbot
6 3 (0.38%) Trello
7 2 (0.25%) ProjectWise
7 2 (0.25%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.13%) Adobe XD
8 1 (0.13%) PTC Creo
8 1 (0.13%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 59 (7.42%) SAP S/4HANA
2 14 (1.76%) SAP EHS
3 11 (1.38%) SAP Travel Management
4 6 (0.75%) SAP VC
5 5 (0.63%) SAP QM
6 4 (0.50%) Loan IQ
6 4 (0.50%) Payment Gateway
6 4 (0.50%) SAP BRIM
6 4 (0.50%) SAP EWM
6 4 (0.50%) SAP HCM
6 4 (0.50%) SAP Hybris
6 4 (0.50%) SAP MM
6 4 (0.50%) SAP PSCD
6 4 (0.50%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
7 3 (0.38%) Exchequer
7 3 (0.38%) Oracle EBS
7 3 (0.38%) ProductWriter
7 3 (0.38%) SAP IBP
7 3 (0.38%) SAP Payroll
7 3 (0.38%) SAP PM
Cloud Services
1 145 (18.24%) AWS
2 120 (15.09%) Azure
3 42 (5.28%) GitHub
4 40 (5.03%) Power Platform
5 37 (4.65%) Azure DevOps
6 36 (4.53%) Serverless
7 34 (4.28%) GCP
8 29 (3.65%) GitHub Actions
9 24 (3.02%) AWS CloudFormation
10 22 (2.77%) Microsoft 365
11 20 (2.52%) AWS Lambda
12 17 (2.14%) Amazon SQS
13 14 (1.76%) Amazon EKS
13 14 (1.76%) Power Automate
14 13 (1.64%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 12 (1.51%) Amazon EC2
15 12 (1.51%) PowerApps
15 12 (1.51%) SuccessFactors
16 10 (1.26%) Azure Data Factory
16 10 (1.26%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 20 (2.52%) SSH
2 16 (2.01%) Firewall
3 11 (1.38%) Network Security
4 9 (1.13%) WAN
5 7 (0.88%) DNS
5 7 (0.88%) LAN
5 7 (0.88%) MPLS
5 7 (0.88%) Reverse Proxy
6 6 (0.75%) SAN
6 6 (0.75%) VPN
7 4 (0.50%) DHCP
7 4 (0.50%) Modbus
7 4 (0.50%) SDH
7 4 (0.50%) VSAN
7 4 (0.50%) Wireless
8 3 (0.38%) 5G
8 3 (0.38%) Intrusion Detection
8 3 (0.38%) Radio Access Network
8 3 (0.38%) Unified Communications
8 3 (0.38%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (3.65%) Power BI
2 24 (3.02%) PostgreSQL
3 21 (2.64%) Metadata
4 17 (2.14%) NoSQL
4 17 (2.14%) SQL Server
5 15 (1.89%) Relational Database
6 14 (1.76%) MongoDB
7 13 (1.64%) MySQL
8 12 (1.51%) Data Warehouse
9 11 (1.38%) Redis
10 10 (1.26%) Data Lake
11 9 (1.13%) Geospatial Data
11 9 (1.13%) Tableau
12 8 (1.01%) DocumentDB
13 7 (0.88%) BigQuery
13 7 (0.88%) DynamoDB
13 7 (0.88%) GIS
13 7 (0.88%) Spatial Data
14 5 (0.63%) Amazon RDS
14 5 (0.63%) Delta Lake
Development Applications
1 71 (8.93%) JIRA
2 63 (7.92%) Git
3 44 (5.53%) GitLab
4 32 (4.03%) Jenkins
5 9 (1.13%) Mockito
5 9 (1.13%) Selenium
6 8 (1.01%) JUnit
6 8 (1.01%) SonarQube
7 7 (0.88%) Cucumber
7 7 (0.88%) Cypress.io
8 4 (0.50%) JMeter
8 4 (0.50%) Maven
9 3 (0.38%) Bitbucket
9 3 (0.38%) Gatling
9 3 (0.38%) Postman
9 3 (0.38%) Toad
10 2 (0.25%) Android Studio
10 2 (0.25%) Grunt
10 2 (0.25%) gulp
10 2 (0.25%) WebDriver
General
1 283 (35.60%) Social Skills
2 153 (19.25%) Public Sector
3 117 (14.72%) Finance
4 78 (9.81%) Analytical Skills
5 43 (5.41%) Banking
6 21 (2.64%) Telecoms
7 19 (2.39%) Aerospace
8 18 (2.26%) Manufacturing
9 17 (2.14%) Organisational Skills
10 15 (1.89%) Influencing Skills
11 11 (1.38%) Documentation Skills
11 11 (1.38%) Legal
11 11 (1.38%) Presentation Skills
12 10 (1.26%) Marketing
13 9 (1.13%) Local Government
14 8 (1.01%) Billing
14 8 (1.01%) Retail
15 6 (0.75%) Aviation
16 5 (0.63%) Law
16 5 (0.63%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 151 (18.99%) Developer
2 89 (11.19%) Analyst
2 89 (11.19%) Senior
3 73 (9.18%) Consultant
4 72 (9.06%) Architect
5 65 (8.18%) Lead
6 45 (5.66%) Java Developer
7 43 (5.41%) SAP Consultant
8 37 (4.65%) Business Analyst
9 27 (3.40%) Senior Developer
10 23 (2.89%) Designer
11 22 (2.77%) Solutions Architect
12 20 (2.52%) Management Consultant
12 20 (2.52%) Software Developer
13 19 (2.39%) DevOps Engineer
13 19 (2.39%) Project Manager
14 17 (2.14%) Administrator
15 16 (2.01%) Azure Engineer
15 16 (2.01%) Delivery Manager
15 16 (2.01%) Lead Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 60 (7.55%) Node.js
2 38 (4.78%) React
3 32 (4.03%) REST
4 31 (3.90%) Kafka
5 29 (3.65%) RESTful
6 27 (3.40%) HTML
7 24 (3.02%) Spring
8 23 (2.89%) CSS
9 21 (2.64%) JSON
10 19 (2.39%) Spring Boot
11 16 (2.01%) XML
12 15 (1.89%) .NET
13 14 (1.76%) SAP Fiori
14 13 (1.64%) Middleware
15 12 (1.51%) LangChain
15 12 (1.51%) OAuth
15 12 (1.51%) SAP TM
16 11 (1.38%) AngularJS
16 11 (1.38%) OpenAPI
16 11 (1.38%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 52 (6.54%) Product Ownership
2 43 (5.41%) Onboarding
3 36 (4.53%) Cloud Native
4 27 (3.40%) Management Information System
5 17 (2.14%) Legacy Systems
6 15 (1.89%) Security Posture
7 12 (1.51%) Distributed Systems
8 10 (1.26%) Data Centre
8 10 (1.26%) NHS
8 10 (1.26%) Public Cloud
9 8 (1.01%) Enterprise Software
9 8 (1.01%) Operational Technology
9 8 (1.01%) SCADA
10 7 (0.88%) Cyber Threat
10 7 (0.88%) Driving Licence
10 7 (0.88%) Linux Command Line
10 7 (0.88%) Low-Code
10 7 (0.88%) Self-Motivation
10 7 (0.88%) Tandem
11 6 (0.75%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 85 (10.69%) Linux
2 36 (4.53%) Windows
3 23 (2.89%) Unix
4 8 (1.01%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 8 (1.01%) Windows Server
5 6 (0.75%) Android
5 6 (0.75%) Mac OS X
6 4 (0.50%) Apple iOS
7 3 (0.38%) Ubuntu
8 2 (0.25%) Debian
8 2 (0.25%) VMS
9 1 (0.13%) AIX
9 1 (0.13%) CentOS
9 1 (0.13%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.13%) Solaris
9 1 (0.13%) VME
9 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 258 (32.45%) Agile
2 152 (19.12%) CI/CD
3 149 (18.74%) Problem-Solving
4 130 (16.35%) Stakeholder Management
5 109 (13.71%) DevOps
6 85 (10.69%) Continuous Improvement
7 78 (9.81%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 71 (8.93%) Roadmaps
9 69 (8.68%) Test Automation
10 67 (8.43%) Microservices
11 65 (8.18%) Scrum
12 61 (7.67%) AI
13 58 (7.30%) Analytics
14 56 (7.04%) Validation
15 55 (6.92%) Infrastructure as Code
15 55 (6.92%) Migration
16 53 (6.67%) Data Modelling
17 50 (6.29%) Containerisation
18 48 (6.04%) Decision-Making
18 48 (6.04%) User Research
Programming Languages
1 103 (12.96%) Python
2 95 (11.95%) Java
3 84 (10.57%) SQL
4 46 (5.79%) JavaScript
5 33 (4.15%) TypeScript
6 22 (2.77%) Shell Script
7 16 (2.01%) Bash
8 14 (1.76%) PowerShell
8 14 (1.76%) Scala
9 13 (1.64%) C#
10 12 (1.51%) Ruby
11 10 (1.26%) ABAP
12 9 (1.13%) PL/SQL
13 8 (1.01%) Bicep
13 8 (1.01%) PHP
14 6 (0.75%) COBOL
14 6 (0.75%) R
15 3 (0.38%) Apex Code
15 3 (0.38%) C
15 3 (0.38%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 302 (37.99%) Security Cleared
2 227 (28.55%) SC Cleared
3 77 (9.69%) Degree
4 30 (3.77%) Computer Science Degree
5 22 (2.77%) Master's Degree
6 18 (2.26%) DV Cleared
7 10 (1.26%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
8 8 (1.01%) AWS Certification
8 8 (1.01%) DBS Check
9 6 (0.75%) Azure Certification
9 6 (0.75%) ISTQB
9 6 (0.75%) PMI Certification
9 6 (0.75%) PMP
10 5 (0.63%) Cisco Certification
11 4 (0.50%) CompTIA Security+
11 4 (0.50%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
11 4 (0.50%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 4 (0.50%) PhD
12 3 (0.38%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 3 (0.38%) CompTIA CySA+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 58 (7.30%) Accessibility
2 41 (5.16%) QA
3 34 (4.28%) Data Quality
4 26 (3.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 17 (2.14%) GRC
5 17 (2.14%) WCAG
6 16 (2.01%) NIST
7 15 (1.89%) SLA
8 11 (1.38%) GDPR
9 10 (1.26%) Def Stans
10 8 (1.01%) NCSC
11 7 (0.88%) ISO 20022
11 7 (0.88%) PCI DSS
11 7 (0.88%) PMO
12 6 (0.75%) PSD2
13 5 (0.63%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
14 4 (0.50%) IFRS
14 4 (0.50%) IFRS 17
14 4 (0.50%) SEPA
15 3 (0.38%) Actionable Recommendations
System Software
1 60 (7.55%) Docker
2 14 (1.76%) Active Directory
3 13 (1.64%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (0.88%) vSphere
5 5 (0.63%) Virtual Machines
6 4 (0.50%) GPFS
6 4 (0.50%) Hyper-V
6 4 (0.50%) NFS
6 4 (0.50%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.25%) ACF2
7 2 (0.25%) QEMU
7 2 (0.25%) RACF
7 2 (0.25%) Time Sharing Option
7 2 (0.25%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.13%) Postfix
8 1 (0.13%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 59 (7.42%) Kubernetes
1 59 (7.42%) Terraform
2 15 (1.89%) Grafana
3 14 (1.76%) Prometheus
4 12 (1.51%) Ansible
5 7 (0.88%) vRealize
6 6 (0.75%) EMC NetWorker
6 6 (0.75%) EMC VPLEX
6 6 (0.75%) Single Sign-On
7 5 (0.63%) VxRail
8 4 (0.50%) Istio
9 3 (0.38%) Argo
9 3 (0.38%) Kibana
9 3 (0.38%) Microsoft Intune
9 3 (0.38%) Packer
9 3 (0.38%) PingFederate
9 3 (0.38%) Podman
10 2 (0.25%) CA Endevor
10 2 (0.25%) Puppet
10 2 (0.25%) SCCM
Vendors
1 103 (12.96%) SAP
2 79 (9.94%) Microsoft
3 42 (5.28%) Oracle
4 24 (3.02%) Cisco
5 21 (2.64%) VMware
6 18 (2.26%) Google
7 16 (2.01%) Databricks
8 14 (1.76%) IBM
9 13 (1.64%) ServiceNow
10 11 (1.38%) Pega
11 10 (1.26%) Adobe
11 10 (1.26%) Dell
12 8 (1.01%) Atlassian
13 7 (0.88%) Red Hat
13 7 (0.88%) Salesforce
13 7 (0.88%) Splunk
14 6 (0.75%) CyberArk
14 6 (0.75%) EMC
14 6 (0.75%) Foundry
14 6 (0.75%) Isilon