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 24 July 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 104 181 264
Rank change year-on-year +77 +83 -42
Contract jobs citing BPSS Clearance 1,273 508 385
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.41% 1.55% 0.94%
As % of the Qualifications category 7.69% 5.04% 3.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 906 345 247
10th Percentile £334 £288 £200
25th Percentile £403 £402 £396
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £485 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -2.95% +5.26% -13.64%
75th Percentile £570 £582 £569
90th Percentile £650 £695 £633
UK excluding London median daily rate £473 £475 £450
% change year-on-year -0.42% +5.56% -16.81%
Number of hourly rates quoted 178 47 50
10th Percentile £19.85 £18.50 £14.00
25th Percentile £38.07 £22.63 -
Median hourly rate £43.96 £27.50 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year +59.85% +71.23% -63.77%
75th Percentile £53.86 £55.50 £34.50
90th Percentile £74.26 £75.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £29.27 £16.06
% change year-on-year +50.19% +82.25% -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 16,550 10,081 12,235
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.36% 30.84% 29.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,044 6,256 7,729
10th Percentile £350 £278 £311
25th Percentile £430 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £521 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.86% -0.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £619 £638
90th Percentile £713 £700 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £513 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +2.50% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,211 751 962
10th Percentile £17.87 £17.87 £14.25
25th Percentile £25.75 £19.38 £21.05
Median hourly rate £50.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +98.81% -41.51% -25.00%
75th Percentile £73.00 £56.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £87.00 £75.00 £76.92
UK excluding London median hourly rate £50.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +98.81% -41.51% -21.82%

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 24 July 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 24 July 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 24 July 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 +73 940 £481 -3.80% 270
UK excluding London +55 725 £473 -0.42% 246
Work from Home +72 502 £451 -5.16% 150
London +61 290 £481 -3.80% 47
North of England +33 264 £470 +0.21% 60
Midlands +28 154 £481 -0.52% 48
West Midlands +27 141 £478 +2.91% 46
North West +4 140 £476 +4.51% 36
South East -6 114 £500 -2.82% 50
South West +9 76 £525 +50.00% 48
Scotland +40 75 £350 -5.79% 20
North East +8 75 £450 +3.45% 21
Yorkshire +2 61 £475 -5.00% 3
East of England -15 26 £604 +202.06% 19
Northern Ireland +13 13 £450 +28.57%
Wales -6 12 £463 -19.57% 2
East Midlands -17 12 £600 +8.60% 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 57 (4.48%) Confluence
2 44 (3.46%) SharePoint
3 16 (1.26%) SharePoint Server
4 9 (0.71%) Apache Spark
5 8 (0.63%) Apache Airflow
5 8 (0.63%) SAS
6 5 (0.39%) Oracle Workflow
6 5 (0.39%) WebLogic
7 4 (0.31%) IIS
7 4 (0.31%) Microsoft Exchange
7 4 (0.31%) WordPress
8 3 (0.24%) Apache
8 3 (0.24%) CICS
8 3 (0.24%) CMS
8 3 (0.24%) LiveCycle
9 2 (0.16%) ArcGIS
9 2 (0.16%) Cloud Foundry
9 2 (0.16%) Ethereum
9 2 (0.16%) Hyperledger
9 2 (0.16%) OpenROAD
Applications
1 46 (3.61%) Microsoft Excel
2 26 (2.04%) Microsoft Office
3 15 (1.18%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 12 (0.94%) Microsoft Project
5 11 (0.86%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.39%) Simulink
7 2 (0.16%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.16%) Navisworks
7 2 (0.16%) Trello
8 1 (0.079%) AutoCAD
8 1 (0.079%) Autodesk Inventor
8 1 (0.079%) CATIA
8 1 (0.079%) InVision
8 1 (0.079%) MicroStation
8 1 (0.079%) ProjectWise
8 1 (0.079%) Revit
8 1 (0.079%) Sketch
8 1 (0.079%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 42 (3.30%) SAP S/4HANA
2 16 (1.26%) SAP PSCD
3 13 (1.02%) SAP BRIM
4 12 (0.94%) SAP IBP
5 10 (0.79%) SAP FI
6 7 (0.55%) SAP FI-CA
7 6 (0.47%) SAP GRC
7 6 (0.47%) SAP HR
8 5 (0.39%) SAP EWM
8 5 (0.39%) Shopify
9 4 (0.31%) Primavera
9 4 (0.31%) SAP Convergent Charging
9 4 (0.31%) SAP EHS
9 4 (0.31%) SAP MDG
9 4 (0.31%) SAP MM
9 4 (0.31%) SAP Travel Management
10 3 (0.24%) iTrent
10 3 (0.24%) SAP CO
10 3 (0.24%) SAP FI/CO
10 3 (0.24%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 238 (18.70%) Azure
2 230 (18.07%) AWS
3 88 (6.91%) Power Platform
4 59 (4.63%) GitHub
5 50 (3.93%) Azure DevOps
5 50 (3.93%) GCP
6 48 (3.77%) Serverless
7 44 (3.46%) GitHub Actions
8 41 (3.22%) Entra ID
9 39 (3.06%) Microsoft 365
10 38 (2.99%) Amazon S3
10 38 (2.99%) AWS Lambda
11 23 (1.81%) PowerApps
12 22 (1.73%) Power Automate
13 21 (1.65%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 20 (1.57%) Amazon ECS
15 19 (1.49%) Amazon EKS
15 19 (1.49%) AWS CloudFormation
16 16 (1.26%) Amazon EC2
17 15 (1.18%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 18 (1.41%) DNS
2 11 (0.86%) Network Security
2 11 (0.86%) WAN
2 11 (0.86%) WebEx
3 10 (0.79%) Firewall
4 8 (0.63%) HTTPS
5 7 (0.55%) SSL
6 6 (0.47%) Ethernet
6 6 (0.47%) LAN
6 6 (0.47%) MPLS
6 6 (0.47%) SDH
7 5 (0.39%) DHCP
7 5 (0.39%) Intranet
8 4 (0.31%) Cisco IPT
8 4 (0.31%) SSH
8 4 (0.31%) TCP/IP
8 4 (0.31%) VPN
9 3 (0.24%) Internet
9 3 (0.24%) IP Telephony
9 3 (0.24%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 66 (5.18%) Power BI
2 40 (3.14%) PostgreSQL
3 32 (2.51%) Metadata
4 28 (2.20%) Data Warehouse
5 27 (2.12%) MongoDB
6 25 (1.96%) SQL Server
7 21 (1.65%) Relational Database
8 19 (1.49%) MySQL
8 19 (1.49%) NoSQL
9 16 (1.26%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 14 (1.10%) Amazon RDS
10 14 (1.10%) Data Lake
10 14 (1.10%) DynamoDB
11 13 (1.02%) Amazon Redshift
12 12 (0.94%) Amazon Athena
13 9 (0.71%) Big Data
13 9 (0.71%) Geospatial Data
14 8 (0.63%) Oracle Database
15 7 (0.55%) Azure SQL Database
15 7 (0.55%) BigQuery
Development Applications
1 100 (7.86%) JIRA
2 79 (6.21%) Git
3 62 (4.87%) GitLab
4 57 (4.48%) Jenkins
5 21 (1.65%) Selenium
6 17 (1.34%) Cucumber
7 16 (1.26%) Maven
8 15 (1.18%) Team Foundation Server
9 13 (1.02%) Postman
9 13 (1.02%) Visual Studio
10 12 (0.94%) JUnit
11 11 (0.86%) Cypress.io
12 9 (0.71%) REST Assured
13 7 (0.55%) Artifactory
13 7 (0.55%) Atlassian Bamboo
13 7 (0.55%) Gatling
13 7 (0.55%) Gradle
13 7 (0.55%) WebDriver
14 6 (0.47%) Mockito
15 5 (0.39%) Rational DOORS
General
1 389 (30.56%) Social Skills
2 294 (23.10%) Public Sector
3 198 (15.55%) Finance
4 130 (10.21%) Analytical Skills
5 92 (7.23%) Legal
6 81 (6.36%) Organisational Skills
7 51 (4.01%) Aerospace
8 42 (3.30%) Documentation Skills
9 31 (2.44%) Influencing Skills
10 30 (2.36%) Banking
11 23 (1.81%) Manufacturing
11 23 (1.81%) Presentation Skills
12 21 (1.65%) Billing
12 21 (1.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 18 (1.41%) Aviation
14 15 (1.18%) Telecoms
15 13 (1.02%) Local Government
16 11 (0.86%) Retail
17 9 (0.71%) Law
18 8 (0.63%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 161 (12.65%) Developer
2 141 (11.08%) Senior
3 135 (10.60%) Lead
4 115 (9.03%) Analyst
5 105 (8.25%) Architect
6 87 (6.83%) Consultant
7 59 (4.63%) Designer
8 58 (4.56%) SAP Consultant
9 51 (4.01%) Data Engineer
10 50 (3.93%) Business Analyst
11 49 (3.85%) Java Developer
12 39 (3.06%) DevOps Engineer
13 31 (2.44%) Product Manager
14 28 (2.20%) Administrator
15 27 (2.12%) Delivery Manager
15 27 (2.12%) Solutions Architect
16 26 (2.04%) Lead Developer
16 26 (2.04%) User Researcher
17 25 (1.96%) AWS Engineer
17 25 (1.96%) Data Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 75 (5.89%) REST
2 57 (4.48%) React
3 52 (4.08%) HTML
3 52 (4.08%) RESTful
4 49 (3.85%) Spring Boot
5 48 (3.77%) Spring
6 47 (3.69%) Node.js
7 41 (3.22%) CSS
8 32 (2.51%) Kafka
9 29 (2.28%) .NET
10 22 (1.73%) Playwright
11 20 (1.57%) JSON
12 18 (1.41%) PySpark
13 17 (1.34%) XML
14 15 (1.18%) SPFx
15 14 (1.10%) BAPI
15 14 (1.10%) HTML5
15 14 (1.10%) OAuth
15 14 (1.10%) SOAP
15 14 (1.10%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 82 (6.44%) Product Ownership
2 75 (5.89%) Onboarding
3 74 (5.81%) Virtual Team
4 73 (5.73%) Web Conferencing
5 65 (5.11%) Podcast
6 57 (4.48%) Cloud Native
7 23 (1.81%) Management Information System
8 21 (1.65%) NHS
9 19 (1.49%) Legacy Systems
10 18 (1.41%) Self-Motivation
11 17 (1.34%) Distributed Systems
12 16 (1.26%) Algorithms
12 16 (1.26%) BYOD
12 16 (1.26%) Enterprise Software
12 16 (1.26%) Mobile App
13 9 (0.71%) Data Centre
13 9 (0.71%) Data Structures
13 9 (0.71%) Replication
14 8 (0.63%) PMI
14 8 (0.63%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 68 (5.34%) Linux
2 60 (4.71%) Windows
3 34 (2.67%) Unix
4 18 (1.41%) Android
5 15 (1.18%) Windows Server
6 12 (0.94%) Apple iOS
7 9 (0.71%) Mac OS
8 8 (0.63%) Windows 10
9 4 (0.31%) VMS
10 3 (0.24%) AIX
10 3 (0.24%) Solaris
11 2 (0.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 1 (0.079%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 389 (30.56%) Agile
2 232 (18.22%) CI/CD
3 209 (16.42%) DevOps
4 197 (15.48%) Stakeholder Management
5 160 (12.57%) Problem-Solving
6 143 (11.23%) Continuous Improvement
7 138 (10.84%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 115 (9.03%) Scrum
9 114 (8.96%) Decision-Making
10 112 (8.80%) Roadmaps
11 109 (8.56%) Analytics
12 108 (8.48%) Test Automation
13 93 (7.31%) Infrastructure as Code
13 93 (7.31%) Microservices
14 85 (6.68%) Customer Service
15 84 (6.60%) Migration
16 81 (6.36%) AI
17 74 (5.81%) Business Intelligence
17 74 (5.81%) Software Engineering
18 70 (5.50%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 143 (11.23%) SQL
2 135 (10.60%) Java
3 132 (10.37%) Python
4 79 (6.21%) JavaScript
5 47 (3.69%) TypeScript
6 30 (2.36%) Scala
7 27 (2.12%) C#
8 26 (2.04%) PowerShell
9 16 (1.26%) PL/SQL
9 16 (1.26%) Shell Script
10 15 (1.18%) Bash
10 15 (1.18%) VB
11 13 (1.02%) VB6
12 11 (0.86%) C++
12 11 (0.86%) VBA
13 10 (0.79%) T-SQL
14 8 (0.63%) ABAP
15 7 (0.55%) C
15 7 (0.55%) Kotlin
16 6 (0.47%) Go
Qualifications
1 407 (31.97%) Security Cleared
2 299 (23.49%) SC Cleared
3 66 (5.18%) Degree
4 17 (1.34%) AWS Certification
5 14 (1.10%) Azure Certification
6 13 (1.02%) DV Cleared
7 11 (0.86%) Microsoft Certification
8 9 (0.71%) CTC Cleared
8 9 (0.71%) PMI Certification
9 8 (0.63%) A+ Certification
10 7 (0.55%) Master's Degree
11 6 (0.47%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
11 6 (0.47%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 6 (0.47%) CCNA
11 6 (0.47%) Cisco Certification
12 5 (0.39%) CompTIA CySA+
12 5 (0.39%) DBS Check
12 5 (0.39%) ISTQB
12 5 (0.39%) NVQ Level 4
13 4 (0.31%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 84 (6.60%) Data Quality
2 83 (6.52%) Accessibility
3 72 (5.66%) QA
4 24 (1.89%) GDPR
5 21 (1.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 21 (1.65%) WCAG
6 20 (1.57%) PMO
7 17 (1.34%) NIST
7 17 (1.34%) SLA
8 11 (0.86%) GRC
9 7 (0.55%) NCSC
10 5 (0.39%) Actionable Recommendations
11 4 (0.31%) HL7
12 3 (0.24%) 21 CFR Part 11
12 3 (0.24%) DICOM
12 3 (0.24%) GMP
12 3 (0.24%) GxP
12 3 (0.24%) ISO 20022
12 3 (0.24%) PCI DSS
12 3 (0.24%) Solvency II
System Software
1 81 (6.36%) Docker
2 37 (2.91%) Active Directory
3 15 (1.18%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (0.71%) Virtual Machines
5 8 (0.63%) Virtual Desktop
6 5 (0.39%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.16%) Firmware
7 2 (0.16%) vSphere
8 1 (0.079%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.079%) GPFS
8 1 (0.079%) IAG
8 1 (0.079%) NFS
8 1 (0.079%) Oracle RAC
8 1 (0.079%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.079%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 105 (8.25%) Terraform
2 85 (6.68%) Kubernetes
3 28 (2.20%) Grafana
4 18 (1.41%) Prometheus
5 14 (1.10%) Single Sign-On
6 10 (0.79%) Ansible
6 10 (0.79%) Kibana
7 9 (0.71%) Argo
8 7 (0.55%) Istio
8 7 (0.55%) SCCM
9 6 (0.47%) Microsoft Intune
10 4 (0.31%) HAProxy
10 4 (0.31%) Podman
10 4 (0.31%) Puppet
10 4 (0.31%) SCOM
11 2 (0.16%) Data Guard
11 2 (0.16%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
11 2 (0.16%) Oracle RMAN
11 2 (0.16%) Packer
12 1 (0.079%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 140 (11.00%) Microsoft
2 114 (8.96%) SAP
3 68 (5.34%) Oracle
4 48 (3.77%) ServiceNow
5 35 (2.75%) Google
6 22 (1.73%) Splunk
7 21 (1.65%) Databricks
8 18 (1.41%) BeyondTrust
9 16 (1.26%) Pega
10 15 (1.18%) Cisco
10 15 (1.18%) VMware
11 11 (0.86%) CyberArk
12 10 (0.79%) IBM
13 9 (0.71%) Informatica
14 8 (0.63%) Atlassian
14 8 (0.63%) Talend
15 7 (0.55%) Apple
15 7 (0.55%) OpenAI
15 7 (0.55%) Workday
16 6 (0.47%) Okta