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

6 months to
9 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 105 195 247
Rank change year-on-year +90 +52 -20
Contract jobs citing BPSS Clearance 1,216 453 427
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.32% 1.40% 0.98%
As % of the Qualifications category 7.38% 4.56% 3.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 880 301 285
10th Percentile £332 £308 £216
25th Percentile £402 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.50% - -9.09%
75th Percentile £570 £588 £588
90th Percentile £663 £707 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £466 £492 £475
% change year-on-year -5.34% +3.58% -9.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 153 45 54
10th Percentile £20.00 £18.50 £13.99
25th Percentile £36.00 £22.63 -
Median hourly rate £43.96 £29.27 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year +50.19% +82.25% -63.77%
75th Percentile £62.50 £57.24 £30.75
90th Percentile £74.85 £75.75 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £44.00 £16.06
% change year-on-year -0.09% +173.97% -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 16,480 9,928 12,965
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.40% 30.74% 29.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,007 6,162 8,061
10th Percentile £350 £278 £310
25th Percentile £429 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £638
90th Percentile £713 £703 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £513 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +2.50% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,198 695 1,107
10th Percentile £17.69 £17.87 £14.00
25th Percentile £25.19 £20.00 £20.12
Median hourly rate £50.00 £27.38 £40.94
Median % change year-on-year +82.65% -33.13% -25.56%
75th Percentile £72.54 £58.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £85.25 £75.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £50.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +98.81% -41.51% -19.87%

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 9 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 9 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 9 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 +86 913 £481 -3.75% 409
UK excluding London +65 685 £466 -5.34% 408
Work from Home +92 499 £450 -5.26% 299
London +79 293 £500 +3.41% 71
North of England +24 243 £454 -7.54% 82
Midlands +20 149 £473 -6.61% 20
North West +14 136 £450 -12.20% 53
West Midlands +16 126 £475 +4.86% 16
South East +1 110 £500 -2.91% 68
South West +18 73 £525 +50.00% 122
Scotland +40 69 £333 -6.07% 54
North East +7 65 £453 +4.14% 20
Yorkshire -11 50 £473 -4.49% 9
East of England -16 27 £550 +175.00% 57
East Midlands -6 22 £438 -37.50% 4
Wales -9 10 £463 -19.57% 4
Northern Ireland +11 9 £450 +28.57% 4

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 55 (4.52%) Confluence
2 40 (3.29%) SharePoint
3 15 (1.23%) SharePoint Server
4 13 (1.07%) Apache Spark
5 8 (0.66%) Apache Airflow
5 8 (0.66%) SAS
6 7 (0.58%) Apache
7 5 (0.41%) Oracle Workflow
8 4 (0.33%) CMS
8 4 (0.33%) WordPress
9 3 (0.25%) ArcGIS
9 3 (0.25%) CICS
9 3 (0.25%) LiveCycle
9 3 (0.25%) Microsoft Exchange
10 2 (0.16%) Cloud Foundry
10 2 (0.16%) Ethereum
10 2 (0.16%) Hyperledger
10 2 (0.16%) IIS
10 2 (0.16%) WebLogic
11 1 (0.082%) Appian
Applications
1 43 (3.54%) Microsoft Excel
2 21 (1.73%) Microsoft Office
3 16 (1.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 13 (1.07%) Microsoft Project
5 12 (0.99%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.41%) Simulink
7 4 (0.33%) Chatbot
8 2 (0.16%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.16%) Trello
9 1 (0.082%) Autodesk Inventor
9 1 (0.082%) CATIA
9 1 (0.082%) InVision
9 1 (0.082%) MicroStation
9 1 (0.082%) Navisworks
9 1 (0.082%) PTC Creo
9 1 (0.082%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 44 (3.62%) SAP S/4HANA
2 17 (1.40%) SAP PSCD
3 14 (1.15%) SAP BRIM
4 12 (0.99%) SAP IBP
5 8 (0.66%) SAP FI
6 7 (0.58%) SAP EWM
6 7 (0.58%) SAP FI-CA
6 7 (0.58%) SAP Travel Management
7 6 (0.49%) SAP HR
8 5 (0.41%) Payment Gateway
9 4 (0.33%) Loan IQ
9 4 (0.33%) Primavera
9 4 (0.33%) SAP Convergent Charging
9 4 (0.33%) SAP EHS
9 4 (0.33%) SAP MDG
9 4 (0.33%) SAP MM
10 3 (0.25%) Dynamics CRM
10 3 (0.25%) Exchequer
10 3 (0.25%) iTrent
10 3 (0.25%) ProductWriter
Cloud Services
1 229 (18.83%) AWS
2 228 (18.75%) Azure
3 83 (6.83%) Power Platform
4 53 (4.36%) GitHub
5 52 (4.28%) GCP
6 51 (4.19%) Azure DevOps
6 51 (4.19%) Serverless
7 38 (3.13%) Entra ID
7 38 (3.13%) GitHub Actions
8 37 (3.04%) Amazon S3
8 37 (3.04%) AWS Lambda
8 37 (3.04%) Microsoft 365
9 22 (1.81%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 22 (1.81%) Power Automate
10 21 (1.73%) PowerApps
11 20 (1.64%) Amazon ECS
11 20 (1.64%) Amazon EKS
12 19 (1.56%) AWS CloudFormation
13 17 (1.40%) Amazon EC2
14 16 (1.32%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 18 (1.48%) DNS
2 15 (1.23%) Network Security
3 14 (1.15%) Firewall
4 11 (0.90%) WAN
5 9 (0.74%) HTTPS
6 7 (0.58%) WebEx
7 6 (0.49%) DHCP
7 6 (0.49%) Ethernet
7 6 (0.49%) LAN
7 6 (0.49%) SSH
7 6 (0.49%) SSL
8 5 (0.41%) MPLS
8 5 (0.41%) SDH
9 4 (0.33%) TCP/IP
9 4 (0.33%) VPN
10 3 (0.25%) Internet
10 3 (0.25%) IP Telephony
10 3 (0.25%) MQTT
10 3 (0.25%) Reverse Proxy
10 3 (0.25%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 66 (5.43%) Power BI
2 35 (2.88%) PostgreSQL
3 30 (2.47%) Metadata
4 29 (2.38%) Data Warehouse
5 26 (2.14%) MongoDB
6 25 (2.06%) SQL Server
7 19 (1.56%) NoSQL
7 19 (1.56%) Relational Database
8 15 (1.23%) Data Lake
8 15 (1.23%) DynamoDB
8 15 (1.23%) MySQL
9 14 (1.15%) Amazon RDS
10 12 (0.99%) Amazon Athena
11 11 (0.90%) Amazon Redshift
11 11 (0.90%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 9 (0.74%) Geospatial Data
13 8 (0.66%) Delta Lake
13 8 (0.66%) Tableau
14 7 (0.58%) Azure SQL Database
14 7 (0.58%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 94 (7.73%) JIRA
2 68 (5.59%) Git
3 63 (5.18%) GitLab
4 50 (4.11%) Jenkins
5 22 (1.81%) Selenium
6 17 (1.40%) Cucumber
7 13 (1.07%) JUnit
7 13 (1.07%) Postman
8 11 (0.90%) Cypress.io
9 10 (0.82%) Team Foundation Server
10 9 (0.74%) Maven
11 8 (0.66%) REST Assured
11 8 (0.66%) Visual Studio
12 7 (0.58%) Artifactory
12 7 (0.58%) Gatling
12 7 (0.58%) Mockito
13 6 (0.49%) WebDriver
14 5 (0.41%) JMeter
14 5 (0.41%) Rational DOORS
15 4 (0.33%) Atlassian Bamboo
General
1 366 (30.10%) Social Skills
2 263 (21.63%) Public Sector
3 193 (15.87%) Finance
4 124 (10.20%) Analytical Skills
5 69 (5.67%) Legal
6 56 (4.61%) Organisational Skills
7 46 (3.78%) Aerospace
8 40 (3.29%) Documentation Skills
9 39 (3.21%) Banking
10 27 (2.22%) Influencing Skills
11 22 (1.81%) Billing
11 22 (1.81%) Manufacturing
12 21 (1.73%) Presentation Skills
13 17 (1.40%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 16 (1.32%) Aviation
14 16 (1.32%) Telecoms
15 13 (1.07%) Local Government
16 10 (0.82%) Law
17 9 (0.74%) Military
18 8 (0.66%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 151 (12.42%) Developer
2 128 (10.53%) Senior
3 126 (10.36%) Lead
4 123 (10.12%) Analyst
5 117 (9.62%) Architect
6 88 (7.24%) Consultant
7 57 (4.69%) SAP Consultant
8 56 (4.61%) Designer
9 53 (4.36%) Data Engineer
10 52 (4.28%) Business Analyst
11 47 (3.87%) Java Developer
12 37 (3.04%) DevOps Engineer
13 30 (2.47%) Administrator
14 28 (2.30%) Solutions Architect
15 27 (2.22%) Product Manager
16 25 (2.06%) Delivery Manager
16 25 (2.06%) Lead Developer
17 24 (1.97%) Data Analyst
17 24 (1.97%) Data Architect
17 24 (1.97%) User Researcher
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 70 (5.76%) REST
2 52 (4.28%) React
3 50 (4.11%) RESTful
4 49 (4.03%) HTML
5 48 (3.95%) Spring Boot
6 47 (3.87%) Spring
7 45 (3.70%) Node.js
8 40 (3.29%) CSS
9 29 (2.38%) Kafka
10 26 (2.14%) .NET
11 21 (1.73%) Playwright
12 20 (1.64%) JSON
13 18 (1.48%) PySpark
14 15 (1.23%) OAuth
14 15 (1.23%) OpenAPI
14 15 (1.23%) SPFx
15 14 (1.15%) BAPI
15 14 (1.15%) Jest
16 13 (1.07%) Middleware
16 13 (1.07%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 85 (6.99%) Product Ownership
2 66 (5.43%) Onboarding
3 58 (4.77%) Cloud Native
4 49 (4.03%) Virtual Team
5 47 (3.87%) Web Conferencing
6 43 (3.54%) Podcast
7 24 (1.97%) Management Information System
8 21 (1.73%) NHS
9 19 (1.56%) Distributed Systems
10 16 (1.32%) Algorithms
11 15 (1.23%) BYOD
11 15 (1.23%) Enterprise Software
11 15 (1.23%) Self-Motivation
12 14 (1.15%) Legacy Systems
13 11 (0.90%) Data Centre
14 10 (0.82%) Mobile App
15 9 (0.74%) Data Structures
16 8 (0.66%) Public Cloud
16 8 (0.66%) Replication
17 7 (0.58%) AI Agents
Operating Systems
1 70 (5.76%) Linux
2 56 (4.61%) Windows
3 33 (2.71%) Unix
4 17 (1.40%) Android
5 16 (1.32%) Windows Server
6 11 (0.90%) Apple iOS
7 9 (0.74%) Mac OS
8 7 (0.58%) Windows 10
9 3 (0.25%) AIX
9 3 (0.25%) Solaris
10 2 (0.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 1 (0.082%) Mac OS X
11 1 (0.082%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 358 (29.44%) Agile
2 231 (19.00%) CI/CD
3 198 (16.28%) DevOps
4 177 (14.56%) Stakeholder Management
5 161 (13.24%) Problem-Solving
6 133 (10.94%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 130 (10.69%) Continuous Improvement
8 107 (8.80%) Test Automation
9 105 (8.63%) Roadmaps
9 105 (8.63%) Scrum
10 102 (8.39%) Decision-Making
11 100 (8.22%) Analytics
12 95 (7.81%) Infrastructure as Code
13 86 (7.07%) Microservices
14 80 (6.58%) AI
14 80 (6.58%) Migration
15 74 (6.09%) Business Intelligence
15 74 (6.09%) Data Modelling
16 71 (5.84%) Software Engineering
17 67 (5.51%) User Research
Programming Languages
1 142 (11.68%) Python
2 140 (11.51%) SQL
3 128 (10.53%) Java
4 80 (6.58%) JavaScript
5 48 (3.95%) TypeScript
6 33 (2.71%) Scala
7 24 (1.97%) C#
7 24 (1.97%) PowerShell
8 17 (1.40%) Shell Script
9 13 (1.07%) Bash
9 13 (1.07%) PL/SQL
10 10 (0.82%) C++
11 9 (0.74%) Bicep
11 9 (0.74%) C
11 9 (0.74%) VB
12 8 (0.66%) ABAP
13 7 (0.58%) T-SQL
13 7 (0.58%) VB6
14 6 (0.49%) COBOL
14 6 (0.49%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 372 (30.59%) Security Cleared
2 272 (22.37%) SC Cleared
3 61 (5.02%) Degree
4 19 (1.56%) AWS Certification
5 17 (1.40%) DV Cleared
6 14 (1.15%) Azure Certification
7 10 (0.82%) Master's Degree
8 9 (0.74%) Microsoft Certification
9 7 (0.58%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 6 (0.49%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
10 6 (0.49%) Computer Science Degree
11 5 (0.41%) CCNA
11 5 (0.41%) Cisco Certification
11 5 (0.41%) CompTIA CySA+
11 5 (0.41%) DBS Check
11 5 (0.41%) NVQ Level 4
11 5 (0.41%) PMI Certification
12 4 (0.33%) A+ Certification
12 4 (0.33%) GIAC
12 4 (0.33%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 86 (7.07%) Data Quality
2 81 (6.66%) Accessibility
3 72 (5.92%) QA
4 22 (1.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 20 (1.64%) PMO
5 20 (1.64%) WCAG
6 19 (1.56%) GDPR
7 18 (1.48%) NIST
7 18 (1.48%) SLA
8 8 (0.66%) PCI DSS
9 7 (0.58%) GRC
9 7 (0.58%) NCSC
10 5 (0.41%) ISO 20022
11 4 (0.33%) Actionable Recommendations
11 4 (0.33%) HL7
11 4 (0.33%) IFRS
11 4 (0.33%) IFRS 17
11 4 (0.33%) PSD2
12 3 (0.25%) DICOM
12 3 (0.25%) Solvency II
System Software
1 79 (6.50%) Docker
2 34 (2.80%) Active Directory
3 19 (1.56%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (0.66%) Virtual Desktop
4 8 (0.66%) Virtual Machines
5 5 (0.41%) Hyper-V
6 4 (0.33%) vSphere
7 3 (0.25%) GPFS
7 3 (0.25%) NFS
7 3 (0.25%) VMware ESXi
7 3 (0.25%) VMware NSX
8 2 (0.16%) Firmware
9 1 (0.082%) ACF2
9 1 (0.082%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.082%) Oracle RAC
9 1 (0.082%) RACF
9 1 (0.082%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 105 (8.63%) Terraform
2 80 (6.58%) Kubernetes
3 28 (2.30%) Grafana
4 18 (1.48%) Prometheus
5 12 (0.99%) Kibana
6 11 (0.90%) Ansible
7 10 (0.82%) Single Sign-On
8 9 (0.74%) Argo
9 7 (0.58%) Istio
10 6 (0.49%) Microsoft Intune
10 6 (0.49%) SCCM
11 4 (0.33%) HAProxy
11 4 (0.33%) Podman
11 4 (0.33%) Puppet
12 3 (0.25%) SCOM
12 3 (0.25%) vRealize
13 2 (0.16%) Data Guard
13 2 (0.16%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
13 2 (0.16%) Oracle RMAN
13 2 (0.16%) Packer
Vendors
1 125 (10.28%) Microsoft
2 118 (9.70%) SAP
3 61 (5.02%) Oracle
4 44 (3.62%) ServiceNow
5 29 (2.38%) Google
6 23 (1.89%) Databricks
7 20 (1.64%) Splunk
8 19 (1.56%) VMware
9 18 (1.48%) Cisco
10 13 (1.07%) BeyondTrust
10 13 (1.07%) IBM
10 13 (1.07%) Pega
11 11 (0.90%) Informatica
12 10 (0.82%) CyberArk
13 9 (0.74%) Salesforce
14 8 (0.66%) OpenAI
14 8 (0.66%) Talend
15 7 (0.58%) Adobe
15 7 (0.58%) Apple
15 7 (0.58%) Workday