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

6 months to
28 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 120 211 224
Rank change year-on-year +91 +13 +10
Contract jobs citing BPSS Clearance 1,024 370 434
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.10% 1.29% 1.02%
As % of the Qualifications category 6.63% 4.16% 3.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 750 240 315
10th Percentile £320 £248 £216
25th Percentile £396 £411 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £562 £581 £614
90th Percentile £657 £672 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £444 £500 £523
% change year-on-year -11.30% -4.31% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 93 31 53
10th Percentile £16.33 £18.50 £13.99
25th Percentile £24.25 £22.66 -
Median hourly rate £47.00 £45.00 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year +4.44% +180.20% -23.52%
75th Percentile £73.00 £72.50 £33.00
90th Percentile £85.36 £76.25 £75.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.00 £50.00 £16.06
% change year-on-year -16.00% +211.33% -21.66%

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 15,438 8,898 12,812
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.61% 31.06% 29.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,233 5,612 8,001
10th Percentile £350 £275 £310
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £521 £533
Median % change year-on-year +0.77% -2.25% -3.09%
75th Percentile £620 £615 £645
90th Percentile £715 £700 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £534
% change year-on-year - -6.32% +1.66%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,136 509 1,073
10th Percentile £16.35 £17.87 £13.69
25th Percentile £21.33 £21.50 £18.00
Median hourly rate £47.54 £32.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +46.28% -18.75% -27.27%
75th Percentile £71.50 £65.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £85.25 £78.46 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.50 £32.50 £40.63
% change year-on-year +46.15% -20.01% -21.10%

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 28 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 28 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 28 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 +83 757 £480 -4.00% 254
UK excluding London +51 550 £444 -11.30% 209
Work from Home +76 421 £438 -12.50% 137
London +83 247 £510 -3.78% 48
North of England +11 197 £450 -10.00% 37
Midlands +7 128 £438 -2.78% 19
North West +13 116 £393 -26.95% 22
West Midlands -1 96 £449 +9.39% 14
South East -2 91 £483 -9.04% 39
Scotland +35 53 £320 -27.68% 13
South West +8 51 £516 +79.57% 69
North East +3 46 £478 +25.66% 10
Yorkshire -28 41 £481 +37.50% 5
East Midlands -4 31 £395 -39.83% 5
East of England -20 27 £450 +125.00% 32
Wales -15 5 - - 5
Northern Ireland +2 2 £413 +30.74%

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 45 (4.39%) Confluence
2 38 (3.71%) SharePoint
3 15 (1.46%) SharePoint Server
4 13 (1.27%) Apache Spark
5 8 (0.78%) Apache Airflow
6 7 (0.68%) Apache
7 6 (0.59%) nginx
8 4 (0.39%) Microsoft Exchange
8 4 (0.39%) Oracle Workflow
8 4 (0.39%) SAS
9 3 (0.29%) ArcGIS
9 3 (0.29%) CICS
9 3 (0.29%) CMS
9 3 (0.29%) LiveCycle
10 2 (0.20%) Cloud Foundry
10 2 (0.20%) Ethereum
10 2 (0.20%) Hyperledger
10 2 (0.20%) WordPress
11 1 (0.098%) Camunda
11 1 (0.098%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 44 (4.30%) Microsoft Excel
2 18 (1.76%) Microsoft Office
3 16 (1.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 14 (1.37%) Microsoft Project
5 13 (1.27%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.49%) Simulink
7 2 (0.20%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.20%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.20%) Trello
8 1 (0.098%) Autodesk Inventor
8 1 (0.098%) CATIA
8 1 (0.098%) InVision
8 1 (0.098%) MicroStation
8 1 (0.098%) PTC Creo
8 1 (0.098%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 46 (4.49%) SAP S/4HANA
2 15 (1.46%) SAP PSCD
3 14 (1.37%) SAP BRIM
4 13 (1.27%) SAP IBP
4 13 (1.27%) SAP Travel Management
5 8 (0.78%) SAP EWM
5 8 (0.78%) SAP FI
6 7 (0.68%) SAP FI-CA
7 6 (0.59%) SAP EHS
8 5 (0.49%) Payment Gateway
8 5 (0.49%) SAP HR
9 4 (0.39%) Loan IQ
9 4 (0.39%) 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
11 2 (0.20%) R3 Corda
Cloud Services
1 185 (18.07%) Azure
2 184 (17.97%) AWS
3 73 (7.13%) Power Platform
4 49 (4.79%) Azure DevOps
5 46 (4.49%) GitHub
6 42 (4.10%) GCP
7 40 (3.91%) Serverless
8 36 (3.52%) Microsoft 365
9 34 (3.32%) Entra ID
9 34 (3.32%) GitHub Actions
10 26 (2.54%) AWS Lambda
11 23 (2.25%) Power Automate
12 21 (2.05%) Amazon S3
12 21 (2.05%) PowerApps
13 18 (1.76%) AWS CloudFormation
14 16 (1.56%) Amazon EKS
15 15 (1.46%) Amazon EC2
15 15 (1.46%) Amazon ECS
15 15 (1.46%) Amazon SQS
16 14 (1.37%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 15 (1.46%) DNS
1 15 (1.46%) Firewall
2 14 (1.37%) Network Security
3 12 (1.17%) SSH
4 9 (0.88%) HTTPS
5 7 (0.68%) Ethernet
5 7 (0.68%) VPN
6 6 (0.59%) DHCP
6 6 (0.59%) Reverse Proxy
6 6 (0.59%) WAN
7 4 (0.39%) SSL
8 3 (0.29%) Internet
8 3 (0.29%) LAN
8 3 (0.29%) Modbus
8 3 (0.29%) SAN
8 3 (0.29%) TCP/IP
8 3 (0.29%) VSAN
8 3 (0.29%) WebEx
8 3 (0.29%) Wi-Fi
9 2 (0.20%) RS-485
Database & Business Intelligence
1 60 (5.86%) Power BI
2 35 (3.42%) PostgreSQL
3 24 (2.34%) SQL Server
4 22 (2.15%) Metadata
5 20 (1.95%) Data Warehouse
6 18 (1.76%) MongoDB
7 17 (1.66%) NoSQL
8 16 (1.56%) DynamoDB
9 14 (1.37%) Relational Database
10 12 (1.17%) Amazon RDS
10 12 (1.17%) MySQL
11 10 (0.98%) Delta Lake
12 9 (0.88%) Data Lake
12 9 (0.88%) Geospatial Data
13 8 (0.78%) Big Data
14 7 (0.68%) Amazon Aurora
14 7 (0.68%) Spark SQL
14 7 (0.68%) Tableau
15 6 (0.59%) BigQuery
15 6 (0.59%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 79 (7.71%) JIRA
2 56 (5.47%) Git
3 49 (4.79%) GitLab
4 41 (4.00%) Jenkins
5 17 (1.66%) Selenium
6 15 (1.46%) Cucumber
7 12 (1.17%) JUnit
8 9 (0.88%) Postman
8 9 (0.88%) Team Foundation Server
9 8 (0.78%) Cypress.io
10 5 (0.49%) Artifactory
10 5 (0.49%) Gatling
10 5 (0.49%) REST Assured
10 5 (0.49%) Visual Studio
10 5 (0.49%) WebDriver
11 4 (0.39%) Atlassian Bamboo
11 4 (0.39%) Maven
11 4 (0.39%) Mockito
11 4 (0.39%) Rational DOORS
12 3 (0.29%) JMeter
General
1 310 (30.27%) Social Skills
2 183 (17.87%) Public Sector
3 143 (13.96%) Finance
4 114 (11.13%) Analytical Skills
5 46 (4.49%) Aerospace
6 44 (4.30%) Banking
7 35 (3.42%) Documentation Skills
8 24 (2.34%) Legal
9 23 (2.25%) Manufacturing
10 21 (2.05%) Billing
10 21 (2.05%) Influencing Skills
11 18 (1.76%) Aviation
12 17 (1.66%) Presentation Skills
13 13 (1.27%) Telecoms
14 12 (1.17%) Organisational Skills
15 10 (0.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 9 (0.88%) Local Government
16 9 (0.88%) Retail
17 8 (0.78%) Military
17 8 (0.78%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 149 (14.55%) Developer
2 120 (11.72%) Analyst
3 116 (11.33%) Senior
4 107 (10.45%) Architect
5 104 (10.16%) Lead
6 81 (7.91%) Consultant
7 60 (5.86%) SAP Consultant
8 55 (5.37%) Business Analyst
9 47 (4.59%) Designer
10 39 (3.81%) Java Developer
11 38 (3.71%) Data Engineer
12 31 (3.03%) Administrator
13 26 (2.54%) Delivery Manager
14 25 (2.44%) DevOps Engineer
14 25 (2.44%) Service Designer
15 24 (2.34%) Data Architect
16 23 (2.25%) Senior Developer
17 22 (2.15%) Senior Analyst
18 21 (2.05%) Product Manager
18 21 (2.05%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 58 (5.66%) Node.js
2 52 (5.08%) REST
3 51 (4.98%) React
4 43 (4.20%) HTML
5 42 (4.10%) RESTful
6 38 (3.71%) CSS
7 32 (3.13%) Spring
8 31 (3.03%) Spring Boot
9 28 (2.73%) .NET
10 26 (2.54%) Kafka
11 19 (1.86%) JSON
12 17 (1.66%) OAuth
12 17 (1.66%) Playwright
13 15 (1.46%) SPFx
14 14 (1.37%) AngularJS
14 14 (1.37%) Middleware
14 14 (1.37%) OpenAPI
15 13 (1.27%) SAP TM
15 13 (1.27%) Swagger
15 13 (1.27%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 79 (7.71%) Product Ownership
2 52 (5.08%) Onboarding
3 49 (4.79%) Cloud Native
4 22 (2.15%) Management Information System
5 20 (1.95%) Distributed Systems
6 18 (1.76%) Legacy Systems
7 16 (1.56%) Algorithms
7 16 (1.56%) NHS
8 13 (1.27%) Self-Motivation
9 9 (0.88%) Data Centre
10 8 (0.78%) Data Structures
10 8 (0.78%) Enterprise Software
10 8 (0.78%) Public Cloud
11 6 (0.59%) Mobile App
11 6 (0.59%) Operational Technology
12 5 (0.49%) BYOD
12 5 (0.49%) Linux Command Line
12 5 (0.49%) PMI
12 5 (0.49%) Replication
12 5 (0.49%) Tandem
Operating Systems
1 73 (7.13%) Linux
2 45 (4.39%) Windows
3 24 (2.34%) Unix
4 15 (1.46%) Android
5 13 (1.27%) Windows Server
6 10 (0.98%) Apple iOS
7 9 (0.88%) Mac OS
8 6 (0.59%) Windows 10
9 3 (0.29%) AIX
9 3 (0.29%) Solaris
10 2 (0.20%) Debian
10 2 (0.20%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 2 (0.20%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.20%) VMS
11 1 (0.098%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 322 (31.45%) Agile
2 206 (20.12%) CI/CD
3 164 (16.02%) DevOps
4 161 (15.72%) Problem-Solving
5 150 (14.65%) Stakeholder Management
6 109 (10.64%) Continuous Improvement
6 109 (10.64%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 96 (9.38%) Roadmaps
8 85 (8.30%) Scrum
8 85 (8.30%) Test Automation
9 82 (8.01%) Infrastructure as Code
10 79 (7.71%) Microservices
11 78 (7.62%) Decision-Making
12 69 (6.74%) Analytics
12 69 (6.74%) Data Modelling
13 65 (6.35%) Migration
14 64 (6.25%) Business Intelligence
15 62 (6.05%) AI
16 60 (5.86%) Workshop Facilitation
17 57 (5.57%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 123 (12.01%) Python
2 119 (11.62%) Java
3 111 (10.84%) SQL
4 75 (7.32%) JavaScript
5 45 (4.39%) TypeScript
6 32 (3.13%) Scala
7 23 (2.25%) C#
8 19 (1.86%) PowerShell
9 17 (1.66%) Shell Script
10 11 (1.07%) PL/SQL
11 10 (0.98%) Bicep
12 9 (0.88%) Bash
12 9 (0.88%) C
12 9 (0.88%) VB
13 8 (0.78%) C++
14 7 (0.68%) VB6
15 6 (0.59%) COBOL
15 6 (0.59%) MATLAB
16 5 (0.49%) Apex Code
16 5 (0.49%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 297 (29.00%) Security Cleared
2 209 (20.41%) SC Cleared
3 65 (6.35%) Degree
4 14 (1.37%) DV Cleared
5 12 (1.17%) AWS Certification
6 11 (1.07%) Azure Certification
6 11 (1.07%) Master's Degree
7 10 (0.98%) Computer Science Degree
8 8 (0.78%) Microsoft Certification
8 8 (0.78%) PMI Certification
9 7 (0.68%) DBS Check
10 6 (0.59%) CompTIA CySA+
10 6 (0.59%) PMP
11 5 (0.49%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 5 (0.49%) GIAC
11 5 (0.49%) NVQ Level 4
12 4 (0.39%) CompTIA Security+
12 4 (0.39%) CTC Cleared
12 4 (0.39%) MBA
12 4 (0.39%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 66 (6.45%) Accessibility
1 66 (6.45%) Data Quality
2 58 (5.66%) QA
3 21 (2.05%) WCAG
4 17 (1.66%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 15 (1.46%) NIST
5 15 (1.46%) PMO
6 14 (1.37%) SLA
7 11 (1.07%) GDPR
8 8 (0.78%) GRC
8 8 (0.78%) PCI DSS
9 5 (0.49%) Actionable Recommendations
9 5 (0.49%) IFRS
9 5 (0.49%) IFRS 17
9 5 (0.49%) ISO 20022
9 5 (0.49%) NCSC
10 4 (0.39%) HL7
10 4 (0.39%) PSD2
11 3 (0.29%) DICOM
11 3 (0.29%) ISO 8583
System Software
1 67 (6.54%) Docker
2 30 (2.93%) Active Directory
3 21 (2.05%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (0.68%) Hyper-V
5 6 (0.59%) vSphere
6 5 (0.49%) Virtual Desktop
7 4 (0.39%) GPFS
7 4 (0.39%) NFS
7 4 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
7 4 (0.39%) VMware ESXi
8 3 (0.29%) VMware NSX
9 2 (0.20%) Firmware
9 2 (0.20%) QEMU
10 1 (0.098%) ACF2
10 1 (0.098%) RACF
10 1 (0.098%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 87 (8.50%) Terraform
2 62 (6.05%) Kubernetes
3 25 (2.44%) Grafana
4 17 (1.66%) Prometheus
5 16 (1.56%) Ansible
6 10 (0.98%) Kibana
7 9 (0.88%) Single Sign-On
8 8 (0.78%) Istio
9 6 (0.59%) Argo
9 6 (0.59%) Microsoft Intune
10 5 (0.49%) vRealize
11 4 (0.39%) HAProxy
11 4 (0.39%) Podman
11 4 (0.39%) SCCM
12 3 (0.29%) VxRail
13 2 (0.20%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 2 (0.20%) Kubeflow
13 2 (0.20%) Packer
14 1 (0.098%) EMC VPLEX
14 1 (0.098%) linkerd
Vendors
1 118 (11.52%) SAP
2 98 (9.57%) Microsoft
3 51 (4.98%) Oracle
4 28 (2.73%) ServiceNow
5 23 (2.25%) Databricks
6 22 (2.15%) VMware
7 20 (1.95%) Google
8 19 (1.86%) Splunk
9 15 (1.46%) Cisco
10 13 (1.27%) IBM
11 12 (1.17%) Pega
12 10 (0.98%) Salesforce
13 8 (0.78%) Apple
13 8 (0.78%) CyberArk
13 8 (0.78%) OpenAI
14 7 (0.68%) BeyondTrust
14 7 (0.68%) Workday
15 6 (0.59%) Informatica
15 6 (0.59%) MuleSoft
15 6 (0.59%) Talend