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

6 months to
3 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 121 205 227
Rank change year-on-year +84 +22 -4
Contract jobs citing BPSS Clearance 1,046 377 440
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.14% 1.31% 1.02%
As % of the Qualifications category 6.79% 4.21% 3.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 760 243 315
10th Percentile £320 £298 £216
25th Percentile £400 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -7.41%
75th Percentile £569 £581 £622
90th Percentile £670 £678 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -10.00% -4.76% -0.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 104 32 52
10th Percentile £16.49 £18.50 £13.99
25th Percentile £28.35 £23.99 -
Median hourly rate £43.96 £45.00 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year -2.31% +180.20% -30.17%
75th Percentile £68.75 £71.88 £26.25
90th Percentile £84.43 £76.25 £76.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £50.00 £16.06
% change year-on-year -12.08% +211.33% -23.52%

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 15,413 8,949 12,884
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.55% 31.10% 29.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,220 5,610 8,017
10th Percentile £350 £275 £310
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £520 £530
Median % change year-on-year +0.96% -1.89% -3.64%
75th Percentile £620 £619 £644
90th Percentile £713 £700 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £534
% change year-on-year - -6.30% +1.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,135 529 1,104
10th Percentile £16.88 £17.59 £13.87
25th Percentile £21.33 £21.50 £18.13
Median hourly rate £48.50 £32.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +49.23% -18.75% -27.27%
75th Percentile £71.50 £65.00 £62.50
90th Percentile £85.25 £77.68 £76.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.50 £32.05 £41.27
% change year-on-year +48.21% -22.33% -21.40%

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 3 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 3 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 3 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 +77 778 £478 -6.87% 321
UK excluding London +56 568 £450 -10.00% 289
Work from Home +82 439 £438 -12.50% 192
London +73 255 £510 -2.90% 48
North of England +17 205 £450 -10.00% 59
Midlands +14 131 £438 -7.89% 24
North West +16 118 £393 -26.33% 42
West Midlands -1 99 £450 +9.76% 18
South East -12 92 £483 -9.04% 70
Scotland +41 55 £320 -10.49% 13
South West +7 53 £525 +82.61% 73
North East +2 49 £453 +11.17% 8
Yorkshire -25 43 £481 +1.32% 9
East Midlands -7 31 £395 -43.57% 6
East of England -21 27 £450 +125.00% 36
Wales -11 6 £550 -4.35% 12
Northern Ireland +3 3 £450 +28.57% 7

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 50 (4.78%) Confluence
2 38 (3.63%) SharePoint
3 15 (1.43%) SharePoint Server
4 13 (1.24%) Apache Spark
5 8 (0.76%) Apache Airflow
6 7 (0.67%) Apache
6 7 (0.67%) SAS
7 5 (0.48%) nginx
8 4 (0.38%) Microsoft Exchange
8 4 (0.38%) Oracle Workflow
9 3 (0.29%) ArcGIS
9 3 (0.29%) CICS
9 3 (0.29%) CMS
9 3 (0.29%) LiveCycle
10 2 (0.19%) Cloud Foundry
10 2 (0.19%) Ethereum
10 2 (0.19%) Hyperledger
10 2 (0.19%) WordPress
11 1 (0.096%) Apache Pulsar
11 1 (0.096%) Camunda
Applications
1 44 (4.21%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (1.63%) Microsoft Office
3 15 (1.43%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 14 (1.34%) Microsoft Project
5 12 (1.15%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.48%) Simulink
7 2 (0.19%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.19%) Trello
8 1 (0.096%) Autodesk Inventor
8 1 (0.096%) CATIA
8 1 (0.096%) InVision
8 1 (0.096%) MicroStation
8 1 (0.096%) PTC Creo
8 1 (0.096%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 45 (4.30%) SAP S/4HANA
2 15 (1.43%) SAP PSCD
3 14 (1.34%) SAP BRIM
4 13 (1.24%) SAP Travel Management
5 11 (1.05%) SAP IBP
6 8 (0.76%) SAP EWM
6 8 (0.76%) SAP FI
7 7 (0.67%) SAP FI-CA
8 5 (0.48%) Payment Gateway
8 5 (0.48%) SAP EHS
8 5 (0.48%) SAP HR
9 4 (0.38%) Loan IQ
9 4 (0.38%) SAP Convergent Charging
10 3 (0.29%) Exchequer
10 3 (0.29%) iTrent
10 3 (0.29%) Primavera
10 3 (0.29%) ProductWriter
10 3 (0.29%) SAP HCM
10 3 (0.29%) SAP MDG
10 3 (0.29%) SAP MM
Cloud Services
1 190 (18.16%) AWS
2 187 (17.88%) Azure
3 74 (7.07%) Power Platform
4 49 (4.68%) Azure DevOps
5 46 (4.40%) GitHub
6 43 (4.11%) GCP
6 43 (4.11%) Serverless
7 35 (3.35%) Entra ID
7 35 (3.35%) Microsoft 365
8 34 (3.25%) GitHub Actions
9 28 (2.68%) AWS Lambda
10 25 (2.39%) Amazon S3
11 22 (2.10%) Power Automate
12 20 (1.91%) PowerApps
13 16 (1.53%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 16 (1.53%) Amazon EC2
13 16 (1.53%) Amazon EKS
13 16 (1.53%) AWS CloudFormation
14 15 (1.43%) Amazon ECS
15 13 (1.24%) Amazon SQS
Communications & Networking
1 15 (1.43%) DNS
1 15 (1.43%) Firewall
1 15 (1.43%) Network Security
2 11 (1.05%) SSH
3 9 (0.86%) HTTPS
4 7 (0.67%) Ethernet
4 7 (0.67%) VPN
5 6 (0.57%) DHCP
5 6 (0.57%) WAN
6 5 (0.48%) Reverse Proxy
7 4 (0.38%) SSL
8 3 (0.29%) Internet
8 3 (0.29%) LAN
8 3 (0.29%) Modbus
8 3 (0.29%) TCP/IP
8 3 (0.29%) VSAN
8 3 (0.29%) WebEx
8 3 (0.29%) Wi-Fi
9 2 (0.19%) MQTT
9 2 (0.19%) RS-485
Database & Business Intelligence
1 61 (5.83%) Power BI
2 35 (3.35%) PostgreSQL
3 22 (2.10%) Metadata
3 22 (2.10%) SQL Server
4 20 (1.91%) Data Warehouse
5 18 (1.72%) MongoDB
6 16 (1.53%) NoSQL
7 15 (1.43%) DynamoDB
8 13 (1.24%) Amazon RDS
8 13 (1.24%) Relational Database
9 12 (1.15%) MySQL
10 9 (0.86%) Delta Lake
10 9 (0.86%) Geospatial Data
11 8 (0.76%) Big Data
12 7 (0.67%) Amazon Athena
12 7 (0.67%) Amazon Aurora
12 7 (0.67%) Data Lake
12 7 (0.67%) Spark SQL
12 7 (0.67%) Tableau
13 6 (0.57%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 85 (8.13%) JIRA
2 57 (5.45%) Git
3 53 (5.07%) GitLab
4 40 (3.82%) Jenkins
5 18 (1.72%) Selenium
6 16 (1.53%) Cucumber
7 12 (1.15%) JUnit
8 9 (0.86%) Postman
8 9 (0.86%) Team Foundation Server
9 8 (0.76%) Cypress.io
10 7 (0.67%) Artifactory
11 5 (0.48%) Gatling
11 5 (0.48%) REST Assured
11 5 (0.48%) Visual Studio
11 5 (0.48%) WebDriver
12 4 (0.38%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 4 (0.38%) Maven
12 4 (0.38%) Mockito
12 4 (0.38%) Rational DOORS
13 3 (0.29%) JMeter
General
1 323 (30.88%) Social Skills
2 192 (18.36%) Public Sector
3 157 (15.01%) Finance
4 113 (10.80%) Analytical Skills
5 46 (4.40%) Aerospace
5 46 (4.40%) Banking
6 37 (3.54%) Documentation Skills
7 35 (3.35%) Legal
8 22 (2.10%) Organisational Skills
9 21 (2.01%) Billing
9 21 (2.01%) Manufacturing
10 20 (1.91%) Influencing Skills
11 17 (1.63%) Aviation
11 17 (1.63%) Presentation Skills
12 13 (1.24%) Telecoms
13 11 (1.05%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 10 (0.96%) Local Government
15 9 (0.86%) Retail
16 8 (0.76%) Military
16 8 (0.76%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 146 (13.96%) Developer
2 119 (11.38%) Analyst
2 119 (11.38%) Senior
3 109 (10.42%) Architect
4 103 (9.85%) Lead
5 80 (7.65%) Consultant
6 59 (5.64%) SAP Consultant
7 54 (5.16%) Business Analyst
8 49 (4.68%) Designer
9 41 (3.92%) Data Engineer
10 38 (3.63%) Java Developer
11 30 (2.87%) Administrator
12 26 (2.49%) Delivery Manager
12 26 (2.49%) Service Designer
13 25 (2.39%) DevOps Engineer
14 24 (2.29%) Solutions Architect
15 22 (2.10%) Data Architect
15 22 (2.10%) Senior Analyst
15 22 (2.10%) Senior Developer
16 20 (1.91%) Product Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 55 (5.26%) Node.js
2 54 (5.16%) REST
3 51 (4.88%) React
4 46 (4.40%) HTML
5 43 (4.11%) RESTful
6 41 (3.92%) CSS
7 31 (2.96%) Spring
7 31 (2.96%) Spring Boot
8 28 (2.68%) .NET
9 22 (2.10%) Kafka
10 20 (1.91%) JSON
11 18 (1.72%) Playwright
12 17 (1.63%) OAuth
13 15 (1.43%) AngularJS
13 15 (1.43%) Middleware
13 15 (1.43%) SPFx
14 14 (1.34%) OpenAPI
14 14 (1.34%) PySpark
15 13 (1.24%) Swagger
15 13 (1.24%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 79 (7.55%) Product Ownership
2 53 (5.07%) Cloud Native
3 52 (4.97%) Onboarding
4 21 (2.01%) Management Information System
5 20 (1.91%) Distributed Systems
6 17 (1.63%) Legacy Systems
6 17 (1.63%) NHS
7 16 (1.53%) Algorithms
8 14 (1.34%) Self-Motivation
8 14 (1.34%) Virtual Team
9 11 (1.05%) Web Conferencing
10 10 (0.96%) Podcast
11 9 (0.86%) Data Centre
11 9 (0.86%) Enterprise Software
12 8 (0.76%) Data Structures
12 8 (0.76%) Public Cloud
13 6 (0.57%) Mobile App
13 6 (0.57%) Operational Technology
14 5 (0.48%) AI Agents
14 5 (0.48%) BYOD
Operating Systems
1 70 (6.69%) Linux
2 44 (4.21%) Windows
3 25 (2.39%) Unix
4 15 (1.43%) Android
5 13 (1.24%) Windows Server
6 10 (0.96%) Apple iOS
7 9 (0.86%) Mac OS
8 6 (0.57%) Windows 10
9 3 (0.29%) AIX
9 3 (0.29%) Solaris
10 2 (0.19%) Debian
10 2 (0.19%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.19%) VMS
11 1 (0.096%) Mac OS X
11 1 (0.096%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 327 (31.26%) Agile
2 209 (19.98%) CI/CD
3 167 (15.97%) DevOps
4 160 (15.30%) Problem-Solving
5 150 (14.34%) Stakeholder Management
6 113 (10.80%) Continuous Improvement
7 109 (10.42%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 96 (9.18%) Roadmaps
9 92 (8.80%) Test Automation
10 84 (8.03%) Scrum
11 81 (7.74%) Infrastructure as Code
12 78 (7.46%) Decision-Making
12 78 (7.46%) Microservices
13 72 (6.88%) Analytics
14 69 (6.60%) Data Modelling
14 69 (6.60%) Migration
15 66 (6.31%) AI
16 65 (6.21%) Business Intelligence
17 64 (6.12%) Validation
18 63 (6.02%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 126 (12.05%) Python
2 118 (11.28%) Java
3 115 (10.99%) SQL
4 77 (7.36%) JavaScript
5 44 (4.21%) TypeScript
6 32 (3.06%) Scala
7 23 (2.20%) C#
8 19 (1.82%) PowerShell
9 17 (1.63%) Shell Script
10 13 (1.24%) PL/SQL
11 10 (0.96%) Bicep
12 9 (0.86%) C
12 9 (0.86%) VB
13 8 (0.76%) Bash
13 8 (0.76%) C++
14 7 (0.67%) VB6
15 6 (0.57%) COBOL
15 6 (0.57%) MATLAB
16 5 (0.48%) Apex Code
16 5 (0.48%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 303 (28.97%) Security Cleared
2 215 (20.55%) SC Cleared
3 66 (6.31%) Degree
4 15 (1.43%) AWS Certification
4 15 (1.43%) DV Cleared
5 11 (1.05%) Master's Degree
6 10 (0.96%) Azure Certification
6 10 (0.96%) Computer Science Degree
7 8 (0.76%) PMI Certification
8 7 (0.67%) DBS Check
8 7 (0.67%) Microsoft Certification
9 6 (0.57%) CompTIA CySA+
9 6 (0.57%) PMP
10 5 (0.48%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 5 (0.48%) GIAC
10 5 (0.48%) NVQ Level 4
11 4 (0.38%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
11 4 (0.38%) CompTIA Security+
11 4 (0.38%) CTC Cleared
11 4 (0.38%) MBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 70 (6.69%) Accessibility
2 68 (6.50%) Data Quality
3 61 (5.83%) QA
4 22 (2.10%) WCAG
5 17 (1.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 16 (1.53%) PMO
7 15 (1.43%) NIST
8 14 (1.34%) SLA
9 11 (1.05%) GDPR
10 9 (0.86%) GRC
11 8 (0.76%) PCI DSS
12 6 (0.57%) NCSC
13 5 (0.48%) Actionable Recommendations
13 5 (0.48%) IFRS
13 5 (0.48%) IFRS 17
13 5 (0.48%) ISO 20022
14 4 (0.38%) HL7
14 4 (0.38%) PSD2
15 3 (0.29%) Basel III
15 3 (0.29%) DICOM
System Software
1 66 (6.31%) Docker
2 30 (2.87%) Active Directory
3 21 (2.01%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (0.67%) Hyper-V
5 6 (0.57%) vSphere
6 5 (0.48%) Virtual Desktop
7 4 (0.38%) GPFS
7 4 (0.38%) NFS
7 4 (0.38%) Virtual Machines
7 4 (0.38%) VMware ESXi
8 3 (0.29%) VMware NSX
9 2 (0.19%) Firmware
9 2 (0.19%) QEMU
10 1 (0.096%) ACF2
10 1 (0.096%) RACF
10 1 (0.096%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 88 (8.41%) Terraform
2 63 (6.02%) Kubernetes
3 26 (2.49%) Grafana
4 18 (1.72%) Prometheus
5 16 (1.53%) Ansible
6 10 (0.96%) Kibana
7 9 (0.86%) Istio
7 9 (0.86%) Single Sign-On
8 7 (0.67%) Argo
9 6 (0.57%) Microsoft Intune
10 5 (0.48%) Podman
10 5 (0.48%) vRealize
11 4 (0.38%) HAProxy
11 4 (0.38%) SCCM
12 3 (0.29%) VxRail
13 2 (0.19%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 2 (0.19%) Kubeflow
13 2 (0.19%) Packer
13 2 (0.19%) Puppet
14 1 (0.096%) SELinux
Vendors
1 115 (10.99%) SAP
2 93 (8.89%) Microsoft
3 53 (5.07%) Oracle
4 32 (3.06%) ServiceNow
5 21 (2.01%) Databricks
5 21 (2.01%) VMware
6 20 (1.91%) Google
7 19 (1.82%) Splunk
8 14 (1.34%) Cisco
9 13 (1.24%) IBM
10 12 (1.15%) Pega
11 10 (0.96%) Salesforce
12 9 (0.86%) Informatica
13 8 (0.76%) Apple
13 8 (0.76%) CyberArk
13 8 (0.76%) OpenAI
13 8 (0.76%) Talend
14 7 (0.67%) BeyondTrust
14 7 (0.67%) MuleSoft
14 7 (0.67%) Workday