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 19 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 122 214 217
Rank change year-on-year +92 +3 -1
Contract jobs citing BPSS Clearance 1,009 355 441
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.10% 1.22% 1.04%
As % of the Qualifications category 6.63% 3.92% 3.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 734 232 326
10th Percentile £320 £234 £225
25th Percentile £394 £405 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -2.44% -6.39%
75th Percentile £569 £580 £626
90th Percentile £668 £655 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £439 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -12.25% -4.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 91 27 51
10th Percentile £17.63 - £13.99
25th Percentile £26.07 £18.50 -
Median hourly rate £47.00 £45.00 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year +4.44% +180.20% -49.30%
75th Percentile £73.00 £74.38 £37.82
90th Percentile £85.36 £76.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.85 £53.75 £16.06
% change year-on-year -20.28% +234.65% -35.76%

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 15,214 9,060 12,827
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.67% 31.02% 30.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,135 5,710 7,978
10th Percentile £350 £281 £306
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £533
Median % change year-on-year - -1.50% -3.09%
75th Percentile £623 £620 £646
90th Percentile £721 £700 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £533
% change year-on-year - -6.10% +1.43%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,064 512 1,058
10th Percentile £16.35 £18.04 £13.69
25th Percentile £21.25 £21.25 £17.73
Median hourly rate £47.80 £37.25 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +28.31% -6.88% -27.25%
75th Percentile £70.00 £65.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £85.25 £79.87 £76.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.50 £37.07 £40.30
% change year-on-year +28.13% -8.01% -19.40%

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 19 May 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 19 May 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 19 May 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 +96 746 £475 -5.00% 281
UK excluding London +49 543 £439 -12.25% 261
Work from Home +87 417 £438 -12.50% 175
London +86 242 £500 -6.10% 40
North of England +19 199 £445 -11.00% 60
North West +19 126 £394 -26.81% 33
Midlands +13 123 £442 -1.28% 44
West Midlands 0 91 £455 +10.85% 33
South East -11 90 £483 -10.06% 45
South West +10 54 £508 +76.52% 57
Scotland +30 49 £325 -26.55% 13
North East +10 44 £480 +33.33% 16
Yorkshire -28 35 £481 +37.50% 11
East Midlands -4 31 £395 -39.83% 11
East of England -16 28 £450 +125.00% 37
Wales -11 5 - - 10
Northern Ireland -1 3 £375 +18.86%

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 43 (4.26%) Confluence
2 33 (3.27%) SharePoint
3 13 (1.29%) Apache Spark
4 12 (1.19%) SharePoint Server
5 9 (0.89%) Apache Airflow
6 8 (0.79%) Apache
7 6 (0.59%) nginx
8 4 (0.40%) Microsoft Exchange
8 4 (0.40%) Oracle Workflow
9 3 (0.30%) ArcGIS
9 3 (0.30%) CICS
9 3 (0.30%) CMS
9 3 (0.30%) LiveCycle
9 3 (0.30%) SAS
10 1 (0.099%) Apache Pulsar
10 1 (0.099%) Camunda
10 1 (0.099%) Cloud Foundry
10 1 (0.099%) SharePoint 2013
10 1 (0.099%) Smallworld
10 1 (0.099%) WebLogic
Applications
1 42 (4.16%) Microsoft Excel
2 16 (1.59%) Microsoft Office
2 16 (1.59%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 13 (1.29%) Microsoft Project
3 13 (1.29%) MS Visio
4 5 (0.50%) Simulink
5 2 (0.20%) Chatbot
5 2 (0.20%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (0.20%) Trello
6 1 (0.099%) Autodesk Inventor
6 1 (0.099%) CATIA
6 1 (0.099%) InVision
6 1 (0.099%) MicroStation
6 1 (0.099%) PTC Creo
6 1 (0.099%) Sketch
6 1 (0.099%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 45 (4.46%) SAP S/4HANA
2 15 (1.49%) SAP PSCD
3 13 (1.29%) SAP BRIM
3 13 (1.29%) SAP IBP
3 13 (1.29%) SAP Travel Management
4 8 (0.79%) SAP FI
5 7 (0.69%) SAP EHS
5 7 (0.69%) SAP EWM
5 7 (0.69%) SAP FI-CA
6 5 (0.50%) Payment Gateway
6 5 (0.50%) SAP HR
7 4 (0.40%) iTrent
7 4 (0.40%) Loan IQ
8 3 (0.30%) Exchequer
8 3 (0.30%) Primavera
8 3 (0.30%) ProductWriter
8 3 (0.30%) SAP Convergent Charging
8 3 (0.30%) SAP HCM
8 3 (0.30%) SAP MDG
8 3 (0.30%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 180 (17.84%) AWS
2 169 (16.75%) Azure
3 70 (6.94%) Power Platform
4 47 (4.66%) GitHub
5 45 (4.46%) Azure DevOps
6 43 (4.26%) Serverless
7 41 (4.06%) GCP
8 35 (3.47%) GitHub Actions
9 31 (3.07%) Microsoft 365
10 28 (2.78%) AWS Lambda
11 27 (2.68%) Entra ID
12 21 (2.08%) Power Automate
13 20 (1.98%) AWS CloudFormation
14 19 (1.88%) PowerApps
15 18 (1.78%) Amazon S3
16 17 (1.68%) Amazon ECS
16 17 (1.68%) Amazon SQS
17 15 (1.49%) Amazon EKS
18 13 (1.29%) Azure Data Factory
18 13 (1.29%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 15 (1.49%) DNS
2 14 (1.39%) Firewall
2 14 (1.39%) SSH
3 12 (1.19%) Network Security
4 8 (0.79%) Reverse Proxy
5 7 (0.69%) Ethernet
5 7 (0.69%) HTTPS
5 7 (0.69%) VPN
6 6 (0.59%) DHCP
7 4 (0.40%) SAN
7 4 (0.40%) WAN
8 3 (0.30%) Internet
8 3 (0.30%) LAN
8 3 (0.30%) Modbus
8 3 (0.30%) TCP/IP
8 3 (0.30%) VSAN
8 3 (0.30%) WebEx
8 3 (0.30%) Wi-Fi
9 2 (0.20%) RS-485
9 2 (0.20%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 57 (5.65%) Power BI
2 34 (3.37%) PostgreSQL
3 24 (2.38%) SQL Server
4 22 (2.18%) Metadata
5 20 (1.98%) Data Warehouse
6 17 (1.68%) MongoDB
7 15 (1.49%) DynamoDB
7 15 (1.49%) NoSQL
8 14 (1.39%) Relational Database
9 11 (1.09%) MySQL
10 10 (0.99%) Amazon RDS
10 10 (0.99%) Big Data
10 10 (0.99%) Delta Lake
10 10 (0.99%) Geospatial Data
11 9 (0.89%) Data Lake
12 8 (0.79%) Redis
13 7 (0.69%) Amazon Aurora
13 7 (0.69%) DocumentDB
13 7 (0.69%) Spark SQL
13 7 (0.69%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 80 (7.93%) JIRA
2 64 (6.34%) Git
3 46 (4.56%) GitLab
4 39 (3.87%) Jenkins
5 15 (1.49%) Selenium
6 13 (1.29%) Cucumber
7 12 (1.19%) JUnit
8 9 (0.89%) Postman
9 8 (0.79%) Cypress.io
10 6 (0.59%) Gatling
11 5 (0.50%) REST Assured
11 5 (0.50%) Team Foundation Server
12 4 (0.40%) Artifactory
12 4 (0.40%) JMeter
12 4 (0.40%) Maven
12 4 (0.40%) Mockito
12 4 (0.40%) Rational DOORS
13 3 (0.30%) SonarQube
13 3 (0.30%) Terragrunt
13 3 (0.30%) WebDriver
General
1 305 (30.23%) Social Skills
2 180 (17.84%) Public Sector
3 145 (14.37%) Finance
4 117 (11.60%) Analytical Skills
5 49 (4.86%) Aerospace
6 41 (4.06%) Banking
7 31 (3.07%) Documentation Skills
8 23 (2.28%) Manufacturing
9 21 (2.08%) Legal
10 20 (1.98%) Billing
10 20 (1.98%) Influencing Skills
11 19 (1.88%) Aviation
12 16 (1.59%) Presentation Skills
13 13 (1.29%) Telecoms
14 12 (1.19%) Organisational Skills
15 9 (0.89%) Retail
16 8 (0.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 8 (0.79%) Law
16 8 (0.79%) Military
16 8 (0.79%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 147 (14.57%) Developer
2 123 (12.19%) Analyst
3 113 (11.20%) Senior
4 105 (10.41%) Architect
5 102 (10.11%) Lead
6 79 (7.83%) Consultant
7 59 (5.85%) SAP Consultant
8 58 (5.75%) Business Analyst
9 46 (4.56%) Designer
10 37 (3.67%) Java Developer
11 36 (3.57%) Data Engineer
12 32 (3.17%) Administrator
13 26 (2.58%) Delivery Manager
14 25 (2.48%) Senior Analyst
14 25 (2.48%) Senior Developer
15 24 (2.38%) Service Designer
16 23 (2.28%) Data Architect
16 23 (2.28%) DevOps Engineer
17 21 (2.08%) Senior Business Analyst
18 20 (1.98%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 56 (5.55%) Node.js
2 50 (4.96%) React
3 46 (4.56%) REST
4 40 (3.96%) HTML
5 37 (3.67%) RESTful
6 35 (3.47%) CSS
7 29 (2.87%) .NET
8 27 (2.68%) Kafka
8 27 (2.68%) Spring
9 24 (2.38%) Spring Boot
10 19 (1.88%) JSON
11 17 (1.68%) OAuth
11 17 (1.68%) Playwright
12 15 (1.49%) Middleware
13 13 (1.29%) AngularJS
13 13 (1.29%) OpenAPI
13 13 (1.29%) SAP TM
14 12 (1.19%) PySpark
14 12 (1.19%) SPFx
14 12 (1.19%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 72 (7.14%) Product Ownership
2 49 (4.86%) Onboarding
3 44 (4.36%) Cloud Native
4 21 (2.08%) Management Information System
5 18 (1.78%) Distributed Systems
5 18 (1.78%) Legacy Systems
6 15 (1.49%) Algorithms
7 14 (1.39%) NHS
8 11 (1.09%) Self-Motivation
9 9 (0.89%) Data Centre
10 8 (0.79%) Data Structures
10 8 (0.79%) Public Cloud
11 7 (0.69%) Enterprise Software
12 6 (0.59%) Hybrid Cloud
12 6 (0.59%) Linux Command Line
12 6 (0.59%) Mobile App
12 6 (0.59%) Operational Technology
12 6 (0.59%) Replication
13 5 (0.50%) BYOD
13 5 (0.50%) Tandem
Operating Systems
1 80 (7.93%) Linux
2 45 (4.46%) Windows
3 23 (2.28%) Unix
4 15 (1.49%) Android
5 12 (1.19%) Windows Server
6 10 (0.99%) Apple iOS
7 9 (0.89%) Mac OS
8 6 (0.59%) Windows 10
9 3 (0.30%) AIX
9 3 (0.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 3 (0.30%) Solaris
10 2 (0.20%) Debian
10 2 (0.20%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.20%) VMS
11 1 (0.099%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 319 (31.62%) Agile
2 201 (19.92%) CI/CD
3 165 (16.35%) Problem-Solving
4 157 (15.56%) DevOps
5 145 (14.37%) Stakeholder Management
6 108 (10.70%) Continuous Improvement
7 106 (10.51%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 91 (9.02%) Roadmaps
9 82 (8.13%) Scrum
10 81 (8.03%) Infrastructure as Code
11 80 (7.93%) Test Automation
12 76 (7.53%) Decision-Making
13 74 (7.33%) Microservices
14 70 (6.94%) Analytics
15 67 (6.64%) Data Modelling
16 66 (6.54%) Migration
17 61 (6.05%) Business Intelligence
18 59 (5.85%) AI
18 59 (5.85%) Workshop Facilitation
19 56 (5.55%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 130 (12.88%) Python
2 107 (10.60%) SQL
3 105 (10.41%) Java
4 73 (7.23%) JavaScript
5 42 (4.16%) TypeScript
6 31 (3.07%) Scala
7 24 (2.38%) C#
8 18 (1.78%) PowerShell
9 17 (1.68%) Shell Script
10 11 (1.09%) Bicep
11 9 (0.89%) Bash
11 9 (0.89%) C
11 9 (0.89%) PL/SQL
11 9 (0.89%) Ruby
12 8 (0.79%) C++
13 6 (0.59%) COBOL
13 6 (0.59%) MATLAB
13 6 (0.59%) VB
14 5 (0.50%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 5 (0.50%) R
Qualifications
1 309 (30.62%) Security Cleared
2 219 (21.70%) SC Cleared
3 64 (6.34%) Degree
4 16 (1.59%) DV Cleared
5 14 (1.39%) Computer Science Degree
6 11 (1.09%) AWS Certification
6 11 (1.09%) Azure Certification
6 11 (1.09%) Master's Degree
7 8 (0.79%) Microsoft Certification
7 8 (0.79%) PMI Certification
8 6 (0.59%) CompTIA CySA+
8 6 (0.59%) DBS Check
8 6 (0.59%) PMP
9 5 (0.50%) GIAC
9 5 (0.50%) NVQ Level 4
10 4 (0.40%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 4 (0.40%) CompTIA Security+
10 4 (0.40%) CTC Cleared
10 4 (0.40%) MBA
10 4 (0.40%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 64 (6.34%) Data Quality
2 61 (6.05%) Accessibility
3 57 (5.65%) QA
4 19 (1.88%) WCAG
5 17 (1.68%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 15 (1.49%) NIST
6 15 (1.49%) PMO
7 12 (1.19%) SLA
8 9 (0.89%) GDPR
9 8 (0.79%) PCI DSS
10 7 (0.69%) GRC
11 5 (0.50%) IFRS
11 5 (0.50%) IFRS 17
11 5 (0.50%) ISO 20022
11 5 (0.50%) NCSC
12 4 (0.40%) HL7
12 4 (0.40%) PSD2
13 3 (0.30%) Actionable Recommendations
13 3 (0.30%) DICOM
13 3 (0.30%) ISO 8583
System Software
1 63 (6.24%) Docker
2 29 (2.87%) Active Directory
3 23 (2.28%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (0.69%) vSphere
5 6 (0.59%) Hyper-V
5 6 (0.59%) Virtual Machines
6 5 (0.50%) GPFS
6 5 (0.50%) NFS
6 5 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
6 5 (0.50%) VMware ESXi
7 3 (0.30%) VMware NSX
8 2 (0.20%) Firmware
8 2 (0.20%) QEMU
9 1 (0.099%) ACF2
9 1 (0.099%) RACF
9 1 (0.099%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 88 (8.72%) Terraform
2 62 (6.14%) Kubernetes
3 25 (2.48%) Grafana
4 17 (1.68%) Prometheus
5 16 (1.59%) Ansible
6 10 (0.99%) Kibana
7 8 (0.79%) Istio
8 6 (0.59%) Argo
8 6 (0.59%) vRealize
9 5 (0.50%) Microsoft Intune
10 4 (0.40%) HAProxy
10 4 (0.40%) Podman
10 4 (0.40%) Single Sign-On
11 3 (0.30%) SCCM
11 3 (0.30%) VxRail
12 2 (0.20%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 2 (0.20%) EMC NetWorker
12 2 (0.20%) EMC VPLEX
12 2 (0.20%) Kubeflow
12 2 (0.20%) Packer
Vendors
1 120 (11.89%) SAP
2 93 (9.22%) Microsoft
3 50 (4.96%) Oracle
4 26 (2.58%) ServiceNow
5 25 (2.48%) VMware
6 22 (2.18%) Databricks
7 20 (1.98%) Google
8 19 (1.88%) Splunk
9 17 (1.68%) Cisco
10 16 (1.59%) IBM
11 13 (1.29%) Pega
12 11 (1.09%) Salesforce
13 8 (0.79%) Apple
13 8 (0.79%) OpenAI
14 7 (0.69%) BeyondTrust
14 7 (0.69%) Dell
14 7 (0.69%) Workday
15 6 (0.59%) CyberArk
15 6 (0.59%) MuleSoft
16 5 (0.50%) Foundry