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 21 August 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 98 162 261
Rank change year-on-year +64 +99 -35
Contract jobs citing BPSS Clearance 1,370 570 354
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.56% 1.74% 0.91%
As % of the Qualifications category 8.18% 5.54% 3.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 955 383 217
10th Percentile £350 £309 £220
25th Percentile £410 £407 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £510 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.96% +2.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £575 £594 £588
90th Percentile £670 £705 £643
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £492 £470
% change year-on-year -2.24% +4.68% -13.84%
Number of hourly rates quoted 222 48 40
10th Percentile £19.50 £18.50 £15.85
25th Percentile - £22.63 £16.06
Median hourly rate £43.96 £27.50 £20.24
Median % change year-on-year +59.85% +35.90% -47.24%
75th Percentile £48.00 £54.62 £46.25
90th Percentile £72.97 £75.00 £66.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £29.27 £20.24
% change year-on-year +50.19% +44.65% -47.24%

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 16,756 10,280 11,679
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.28% 31.36% 30.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,216 6,335 7,385
10th Percentile £350 £289 £313
25th Percentile £434 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £620 £638
90th Percentile £716 £700 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £515 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +3.00% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,262 829 816
10th Percentile £17.51 £17.98 £14.75
25th Percentile £25.77 £19.38 £21.25
Median hourly rate £48.77 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +93.90% -41.51% -21.82%
75th Percentile £72.54 £53.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £87.16 £73.75 £75.32
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.54 £25.15 £47.50
% change year-on-year +89.03% -47.05% -6.40%

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 21 August 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 21 August 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 21 August 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 +58 1,015 £490 -2.00% 295
UK excluding London +50 804 £481 -2.24% 262
Work from Home +61 531 £481 -2.21% 127
North of England +19 295 £481 +1.16% 80
London +50 285 £505 -0.98% 60
Midlands +43 200 £490 -5.95% 37
West Midlands +44 186 £488 -6.79% 34
North West +2 157 £500 +11.11% 53
South East -16 104 £483 -6.03% 54
North East +13 83 £453 -1.52% 20
South West +1 79 £525 +16.67% 51
Scotland +36 71 £390 -10.86% 21
Yorkshire -4 66 £480 -4.00% 9
East of England -2 33 £605 +110.28% 26
Northern Ireland +16 21 £450 +28.57% 1
East Midlands -26 13 £600 +21.95% 3
Wales -7 12 £413 -28.26% 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 61 (4.45%) Confluence
2 48 (3.50%) SharePoint
3 19 (1.39%) SharePoint Server
4 9 (0.66%) Apache Spark
4 9 (0.66%) SAS
5 7 (0.51%) Apache Airflow
5 7 (0.51%) Microsoft Exchange
6 5 (0.36%) Oracle Workflow
6 5 (0.36%) WebLogic
7 4 (0.29%) IIS
7 4 (0.29%) WordPress
8 3 (0.22%) Apache
8 3 (0.22%) CMS
9 2 (0.15%) CICS
9 2 (0.15%) Cloud Foundry
9 2 (0.15%) Ethereum
9 2 (0.15%) Hyperledger
9 2 (0.15%) LiveCycle
9 2 (0.15%) OpenROAD
10 1 (0.073%) Appian
Applications
1 39 (2.85%) Microsoft Excel
2 27 (1.97%) Microsoft Office
3 15 (1.09%) Microsoft Project
4 10 (0.73%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.36%) Simulink
6 4 (0.29%) MS Visio
7 3 (0.22%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.15%) Chatbot
8 2 (0.15%) Navisworks
8 2 (0.15%) Trello
8 2 (0.15%) Windchill
9 1 (0.073%) AutoCAD
9 1 (0.073%) Autodesk Inventor
9 1 (0.073%) CATIA
9 1 (0.073%) InVision
9 1 (0.073%) MicroStation
9 1 (0.073%) ProjectWise
9 1 (0.073%) Revit
9 1 (0.073%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 45 (3.28%) SAP S/4HANA
2 16 (1.17%) SAP PSCD
3 13 (0.95%) SAP BRIM
3 13 (0.95%) SAP HR
4 12 (0.88%) SAP IBP
5 10 (0.73%) SAP FI
6 9 (0.66%) SAP Payroll
7 7 (0.51%) SAP FI-CA
8 6 (0.44%) SAP GRC
9 5 (0.36%) Shopify
10 4 (0.29%) SAP Convergent Charging
10 4 (0.29%) SAP EHS
10 4 (0.29%) SAP EWM
10 4 (0.29%) SAP MDG
10 4 (0.29%) SAP PP
11 3 (0.22%) Dynamics CRM
11 3 (0.22%) Primavera
11 3 (0.22%) SAP ERP
11 3 (0.22%) SAP FI/CO
11 3 (0.22%) SAP MM
Cloud Services
1 247 (18.03%) Azure
2 240 (17.52%) AWS
3 87 (6.35%) Power Platform
4 58 (4.23%) GitHub
5 57 (4.16%) Azure DevOps
6 55 (4.01%) Serverless
7 47 (3.43%) Microsoft 365
8 45 (3.28%) GCP
9 44 (3.21%) Amazon S3
9 44 (3.21%) AWS Lambda
10 43 (3.14%) Entra ID
10 43 (3.14%) GitHub Actions
11 27 (1.97%) PowerApps
12 26 (1.90%) Power Automate
13 23 (1.68%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 22 (1.61%) Amazon ECS
15 20 (1.46%) AWS CloudFormation
15 20 (1.46%) SuccessFactors
16 17 (1.24%) Amazon EKS
16 17 (1.24%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 17 (1.24%) DNS
2 12 (0.88%) WAN
3 11 (0.80%) WebEx
4 10 (0.73%) Network Security
5 8 (0.58%) Intranet
5 8 (0.58%) SSL
6 7 (0.51%) Ethernet
6 7 (0.51%) Firewall
6 7 (0.51%) HTTPS
6 7 (0.51%) MPLS
7 6 (0.44%) Cisco IPT
7 6 (0.44%) LAN
7 6 (0.44%) SDH
8 5 (0.36%) VPN
9 4 (0.29%) DHCP
9 4 (0.29%) Internet
9 4 (0.29%) TCP/IP
10 3 (0.22%) HTTP
10 3 (0.22%) IP Telephony
10 3 (0.22%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 61 (4.45%) Power BI
2 47 (3.43%) PostgreSQL
3 33 (2.41%) Metadata
4 32 (2.34%) MongoDB
5 31 (2.26%) Data Warehouse
6 29 (2.12%) SQL Server
7 25 (1.82%) Amazon RDS
8 21 (1.53%) MySQL
9 18 (1.31%) NoSQL
10 17 (1.24%) Data Lake
10 17 (1.24%) SQL Server Integration Services
11 16 (1.17%) Relational Database
12 14 (1.02%) Amazon Redshift
12 14 (1.02%) DynamoDB
13 12 (0.88%) Amazon Athena
13 12 (0.88%) Amazon Aurora
14 11 (0.80%) Oracle Database
15 10 (0.73%) Big Data
16 8 (0.58%) Redis
16 8 (0.58%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 103 (7.52%) JIRA
2 83 (6.06%) Git
3 59 (4.31%) GitLab
3 59 (4.31%) Jenkins
4 22 (1.61%) Selenium
5 20 (1.46%) JUnit
6 18 (1.31%) Cucumber
6 18 (1.31%) Maven
7 15 (1.09%) Postman
8 14 (1.02%) Cypress.io
8 14 (1.02%) Team Foundation Server
8 14 (1.02%) Visual Studio
9 11 (0.80%) Mockito
10 10 (0.73%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 10 (0.73%) REST Assured
11 9 (0.66%) Bitbucket
11 9 (0.66%) SonarQube
12 8 (0.58%) Gatling
13 7 (0.51%) Artifactory
13 7 (0.51%) Gradle
General
1 456 (33.28%) Social Skills
2 318 (23.21%) Public Sector
3 229 (16.72%) Finance
4 134 (9.78%) Legal
5 133 (9.71%) Organisational Skills
6 124 (9.05%) Analytical Skills
7 53 (3.87%) Aerospace
8 41 (2.99%) Documentation Skills
9 30 (2.19%) Influencing Skills
10 25 (1.82%) Manufacturing
11 24 (1.75%) Presentation Skills
12 23 (1.68%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 22 (1.61%) Billing
14 20 (1.46%) Banking
15 19 (1.39%) Telecoms
16 14 (1.02%) Aviation
17 11 (0.80%) Local Government
18 9 (0.66%) Law
18 9 (0.66%) Military
18 9 (0.66%) Retail
Job Titles
1 186 (13.58%) Developer
2 152 (11.09%) Senior
3 148 (10.80%) Lead
4 122 (8.91%) Architect
5 96 (7.01%) Analyst
6 94 (6.86%) Consultant
7 65 (4.74%) Designer
8 58 (4.23%) Java Developer
9 56 (4.09%) SAP Consultant
10 44 (3.21%) Data Engineer
10 44 (3.21%) DevOps Engineer
11 37 (2.70%) Business Analyst
12 35 (2.55%) Solutions Architect
13 30 (2.19%) Delivery Manager
14 29 (2.12%) Product Manager
15 28 (2.04%) User Researcher
16 26 (1.90%) Data Architect
16 26 (1.90%) Lead Developer
17 24 (1.75%) Service Designer
18 23 (1.68%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 107 (7.81%) Terraform
2 84 (6.13%) REST
3 56 (4.09%) Spring
4 55 (4.01%) Spring Boot
5 54 (3.94%) HTML
6 52 (3.80%) RESTful
7 49 (3.58%) Node.js
8 47 (3.43%) React
9 42 (3.07%) CSS
10 29 (2.12%) Kafka
11 28 (2.04%) .NET
12 27 (1.97%) Playwright
13 18 (1.31%) JSON
13 18 (1.31%) XML
14 17 (1.24%) Jest
15 16 (1.17%) SOAP
16 15 (1.09%) BAPI
16 15 (1.09%) SPFx
16 15 (1.09%) Web Services
17 14 (1.02%) OpenAPI
Miscellaneous
1 119 (8.69%) Virtual Team
1 119 (8.69%) Web Conferencing
2 109 (7.96%) Podcast
3 82 (5.99%) Onboarding
4 74 (5.40%) Product Ownership
5 62 (4.53%) Cloud Native
6 23 (1.68%) Enterprise Software
7 20 (1.46%) Management Information System
8 19 (1.39%) Legacy Systems
8 19 (1.39%) NHS
9 17 (1.24%) Mobile App
9 17 (1.24%) Replication
9 17 (1.24%) Self-Motivation
10 16 (1.17%) BYOD
11 13 (0.95%) Algorithms
12 12 (0.88%) Distributed Systems
13 11 (0.80%) Driving Licence
14 10 (0.73%) Data Centre
14 10 (0.73%) Video Conferencing
15 9 (0.66%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 62 (4.53%) Windows
2 60 (4.38%) Linux
3 30 (2.19%) Unix
4 19 (1.39%) Android
5 16 (1.17%) Windows Server
6 11 (0.80%) Windows 10
7 9 (0.66%) Apple iOS
8 8 (0.58%) Mac OS
9 6 (0.44%) VMS
10 3 (0.22%) AIX
11 2 (0.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 2 (0.15%) Solaris
12 1 (0.073%) Robot Operating System
12 1 (0.073%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
12 1 (0.073%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.073%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 414 (30.22%) Agile
2 248 (18.10%) CI/CD
3 225 (16.42%) DevOps
4 219 (15.99%) Stakeholder Management
5 165 (12.04%) Continuous Improvement
6 155 (11.31%) Problem-Solving
7 146 (10.66%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 132 (9.64%) Customer Service
9 123 (8.98%) Scrum
10 110 (8.03%) Roadmaps
11 105 (7.66%) Decision-Making
11 105 (7.66%) Test Automation
12 103 (7.52%) Analytics
13 101 (7.37%) Microservices
14 96 (7.01%) Infrastructure as Code
14 96 (7.01%) Migration
15 83 (6.06%) Mentoring
16 82 (5.99%) Software Engineering
17 74 (5.40%) User Research
18 72 (5.26%) Digital Transformation Programme
Programming Languages
1 147 (10.73%) Java
2 143 (10.44%) SQL
3 115 (8.39%) Python
4 82 (5.99%) JavaScript
5 49 (3.58%) TypeScript
6 39 (2.85%) Scala
7 28 (2.04%) PowerShell
8 25 (1.82%) C#
9 19 (1.39%) PL/SQL
10 17 (1.24%) Bash
11 15 (1.09%) Shell Script
12 13 (0.95%) C++
13 12 (0.88%) VB
14 11 (0.80%) T-SQL
14 11 (0.80%) VB6
14 11 (0.80%) VBA
15 10 (0.73%) Kotlin
16 8 (0.58%) ABAP
17 7 (0.51%) MATLAB
17 7 (0.51%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 444 (32.41%) Security Cleared
2 332 (24.23%) SC Cleared
3 65 (4.74%) Degree
4 21 (1.53%) AWS Certification
5 15 (1.09%) DV Cleared
6 14 (1.02%) Azure Certification
6 14 (1.02%) Microsoft Certification
7 11 (0.80%) A+ Certification
8 9 (0.66%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 8 (0.58%) DBS Check
10 7 (0.51%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
10 7 (0.51%) CCNA
10 7 (0.51%) Cisco Certification
10 7 (0.51%) ISTQB
11 6 (0.44%) CTC Cleared
11 6 (0.44%) PMI Certification
12 5 (0.36%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 5 (0.36%) NVQ Level 4
13 4 (0.29%) CCA
13 4 (0.29%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 79 (5.77%) Accessibility
2 76 (5.55%) QA
3 69 (5.04%) Data Quality
4 29 (2.12%) GDPR
5 23 (1.68%) PMO
5 23 (1.68%) WCAG
6 17 (1.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 17 (1.24%) SLA
7 13 (0.95%) NIST
8 10 (0.73%) GRC
9 5 (0.36%) NCSC
10 4 (0.29%) 21 CFR Part 11
10 4 (0.29%) GMP
10 4 (0.29%) GxP
10 4 (0.29%) ISO/IEC 17025
10 4 (0.29%) PERC
11 3 (0.22%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials
11 3 (0.22%) Def Stans
11 3 (0.22%) HL7
System Software
1 82 (5.99%) Docker
2 40 (2.92%) Active Directory
3 14 (1.02%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (0.73%) Virtual Machines
5 9 (0.66%) Virtual Desktop
6 5 (0.36%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.15%) Firmware
7 2 (0.15%) vSphere
8 1 (0.073%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.073%) GPFS
8 1 (0.073%) IAG
8 1 (0.073%) NFS
8 1 (0.073%) Oracle RAC
8 1 (0.073%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.073%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 87 (6.35%) Kubernetes
2 29 (2.12%) Grafana
3 17 (1.24%) Single Sign-On
4 15 (1.09%) Prometheus
5 14 (1.02%) Kibana
6 12 (0.88%) Argo
7 10 (0.73%) Ansible
7 10 (0.73%) SCCM
8 8 (0.58%) Microsoft Intune
9 6 (0.44%) Istio
10 5 (0.36%) Packer
10 5 (0.36%) SCOM
11 4 (0.29%) HAProxy
11 4 (0.29%) Puppet
12 3 (0.22%) Functional Safety
12 3 (0.22%) Podman
13 2 (0.15%) Data Guard
13 2 (0.15%) Karpenter
13 2 (0.15%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
13 2 (0.15%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 165 (12.04%) Microsoft
2 122 (8.91%) SAP
3 77 (5.62%) Oracle
4 59 (4.31%) ServiceNow
5 36 (2.63%) Google
6 22 (1.61%) BeyondTrust
7 19 (1.39%) Databricks
8 16 (1.17%) Splunk
9 14 (1.02%) Atlassian
9 14 (1.02%) Cisco
9 14 (1.02%) VMware
10 10 (0.73%) Talend
11 9 (0.66%) CyberArk
11 9 (0.66%) Informatica
12 8 (0.58%) Dell
12 8 (0.58%) Salesforce
13 7 (0.51%) Apple
13 7 (0.51%) Okta
13 7 (0.51%) Qualtrics
14 6 (0.44%) Denodo