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

6 months to
21 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 118 198 230
Rank change year-on-year +80 +32 +1
Contract jobs citing BPSS Clearance 1,108 415 445
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.19% 1.39% 1.01%
As % of the Qualifications category 6.99% 4.47% 3.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 791 271 308
10th Percentile £333 £285 £209
25th Percentile £400 £400 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £492 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.24% -1.60% -6.76%
75th Percentile £570 £581 £602
90th Percentile £656 £671 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £453 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -7.55% -2.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 137 36 55
10th Percentile £19.05 £18.50 £13.99
25th Percentile £36.00 £25.32 -
Median hourly rate £43.96 £45.00 £16.06
Median % change year-on-year -2.31% +180.20% -60.42%
75th Percentile £62.50 £69.23 £34.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £76.25 £73.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £50.00 £16.06
% change year-on-year -12.08% +211.33% -59.30%

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 15,850 9,277 13,081
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.27% 31.01% 29.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,577 5,766 8,070
10th Percentile £350 £275 £310
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.96% -0.95% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £618 £638
90th Percentile £714 £700 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £507 £500 £533
% change year-on-year +1.40% -6.19% +0.57%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,164 606 1,136
10th Percentile £17.24 £17.87 £14.00
25th Percentile £23.00 £20.43 £19.25
Median hourly rate £50.00 £30.00 £40.29
Median % change year-on-year +66.67% -25.54% -27.13%
75th Percentile £72.54 £62.88 £64.25
90th Percentile £85.25 £76.25 £75.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £50.00 £28.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year +78.57% -34.12% -20.80%

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 June 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 June 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 June 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 +79 835 £481 -3.80% 214
UK excluding London +62 640 £453 -7.55% 231
Work from Home +82 464 £438 -7.89% 157
London +80 255 £510 +7.54% 28
North of England +22 231 £453 -8.67% 50
Midlands +12 139 £442 -6.89% 26
North West +14 132 £407 -18.70% 37
West Midlands +6 106 £470 +9.30% 19
South East -8 103 £492 -6.38% 32
South West +15 66 £525 +16.67% 54
Scotland +38 62 £333 -2.21% 24
North East +4 58 £453 +4.14% 5
Yorkshire -18 48 £481 -2.90% 10
East Midlands 0 32 £416 -40.54% 7
East of England -14 29 £450 +125.00% 32
Wales -11 8 £550 -4.35% 10
Northern Ireland +2 7 £450 +28.57% 11

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 52 (4.69%) Confluence
2 38 (3.43%) SharePoint
3 15 (1.35%) SharePoint Server
4 13 (1.17%) Apache Spark
5 8 (0.72%) Apache Airflow
5 8 (0.72%) SAS
6 7 (0.63%) Apache
7 4 (0.36%) Oracle Workflow
8 3 (0.27%) ArcGIS
8 3 (0.27%) CICS
8 3 (0.27%) CMS
8 3 (0.27%) LiveCycle
8 3 (0.27%) Microsoft Exchange
8 3 (0.27%) WordPress
9 2 (0.18%) Cloud Foundry
9 2 (0.18%) Ethereum
9 2 (0.18%) Hyperledger
10 1 (0.090%) Appian
10 1 (0.090%) Camunda
10 1 (0.090%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 43 (3.88%) Microsoft Excel
2 19 (1.71%) Microsoft Office
3 16 (1.44%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 15 (1.35%) Microsoft Project
5 12 (1.08%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.45%) Simulink
7 2 (0.18%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.18%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.18%) Trello
8 1 (0.090%) Autodesk Inventor
8 1 (0.090%) CATIA
8 1 (0.090%) InVision
8 1 (0.090%) MicroStation
8 1 (0.090%) Navisworks
8 1 (0.090%) PTC Creo
8 1 (0.090%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 44 (3.97%) SAP S/4HANA
2 16 (1.44%) SAP PSCD
3 14 (1.26%) SAP BRIM
4 11 (0.99%) SAP IBP
4 11 (0.99%) SAP Travel Management
5 8 (0.72%) SAP EWM
5 8 (0.72%) SAP FI
6 7 (0.63%) SAP FI-CA
7 6 (0.54%) SAP HR
8 5 (0.45%) Payment Gateway
9 4 (0.36%) Loan IQ
9 4 (0.36%) Primavera
9 4 (0.36%) SAP Convergent Charging
9 4 (0.36%) SAP EHS
9 4 (0.36%) SAP MM
10 3 (0.27%) Exchequer
10 3 (0.27%) iTrent
10 3 (0.27%) ProductWriter
10 3 (0.27%) SAP MDG
11 2 (0.18%) R3 Corda
Cloud Services
1 204 (18.41%) AWS
2 193 (17.42%) Azure
3 73 (6.59%) Power Platform
4 48 (4.33%) Serverless
5 44 (3.97%) GCP
6 43 (3.88%) Azure DevOps
7 39 (3.52%) GitHub
8 38 (3.43%) Entra ID
9 35 (3.16%) Microsoft 365
10 34 (3.07%) AWS Lambda
11 31 (2.80%) Amazon S3
11 31 (2.80%) GitHub Actions
12 20 (1.81%) Power Automate
13 19 (1.71%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 19 (1.71%) PowerApps
14 17 (1.53%) Amazon ECS
15 14 (1.26%) Amazon EC2
15 14 (1.26%) Amazon EKS
15 14 (1.26%) AWS CloudFormation
16 13 (1.17%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 16 (1.44%) DNS
2 15 (1.35%) Network Security
3 14 (1.26%) Firewall
4 9 (0.81%) HTTPS
5 8 (0.72%) WAN
6 7 (0.63%) SSH
7 6 (0.54%) DHCP
7 6 (0.54%) Ethernet
8 4 (0.36%) SSL
8 4 (0.36%) VPN
9 3 (0.27%) Internet
9 3 (0.27%) LAN
9 3 (0.27%) MQTT
9 3 (0.27%) Reverse Proxy
9 3 (0.27%) SD-WAN
9 3 (0.27%) TCP/IP
9 3 (0.27%) WebEx
9 3 (0.27%) Wireless
10 2 (0.18%) SAN
10 2 (0.18%) SDH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 62 (5.60%) Power BI
2 34 (3.07%) PostgreSQL
3 28 (2.53%) Metadata
4 26 (2.35%) Data Warehouse
5 24 (2.17%) MongoDB
6 20 (1.81%) NoSQL
7 19 (1.71%) SQL Server
8 16 (1.44%) DynamoDB
8 16 (1.44%) Relational Database
9 13 (1.17%) Amazon RDS
9 13 (1.17%) Data Lake
10 12 (1.08%) Amazon Athena
11 11 (0.99%) Amazon Redshift
11 11 (0.99%) MySQL
12 8 (0.72%) Big Data
12 8 (0.72%) Delta Lake
12 8 (0.72%) Geospatial Data
13 7 (0.63%) Amazon Aurora
13 7 (0.63%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 6 (0.54%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 91 (8.21%) JIRA
2 60 (5.42%) GitLab
3 59 (5.32%) Git
4 42 (3.79%) Jenkins
5 20 (1.81%) Selenium
6 17 (1.53%) Cucumber
7 13 (1.17%) JUnit
8 10 (0.90%) Postman
9 8 (0.72%) Cypress.io
9 8 (0.72%) Team Foundation Server
10 7 (0.63%) Artifactory
11 6 (0.54%) Maven
11 6 (0.54%) REST Assured
11 6 (0.54%) Visual Studio
12 5 (0.45%) Gatling
12 5 (0.45%) Mockito
12 5 (0.45%) Rational DOORS
12 5 (0.45%) WebDriver
13 4 (0.36%) Atlassian Bamboo
13 4 (0.36%) JMeter
General
1 340 (30.69%) Social Skills
2 219 (19.77%) Public Sector
3 185 (16.70%) Finance
4 122 (11.01%) Analytical Skills
5 59 (5.32%) Legal
6 48 (4.33%) Banking
7 46 (4.15%) Aerospace
8 44 (3.97%) Organisational Skills
9 35 (3.16%) Documentation Skills
10 21 (1.90%) Billing
10 21 (1.90%) Influencing Skills
11 20 (1.81%) Manufacturing
12 19 (1.71%) Presentation Skills
13 16 (1.44%) Aviation
14 14 (1.26%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 14 (1.26%) Telecoms
15 13 (1.17%) Local Government
16 8 (0.72%) Law
16 8 (0.72%) Military
16 8 (0.72%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 133 (12.00%) Developer
2 122 (11.01%) Analyst
3 113 (10.20%) Architect
4 112 (10.11%) Lead
5 109 (9.84%) Senior
6 86 (7.76%) Consultant
7 60 (5.42%) SAP Consultant
8 55 (4.96%) Business Analyst
9 49 (4.42%) Designer
10 46 (4.15%) Data Engineer
11 40 (3.61%) Java Developer
12 32 (2.89%) Administrator
13 26 (2.35%) DevOps Engineer
14 25 (2.26%) Service Designer
15 24 (2.17%) Delivery Manager
15 24 (2.17%) Product Manager
15 24 (2.17%) Solutions Architect
16 23 (2.08%) Data Analyst
16 23 (2.08%) Data Architect
16 23 (2.08%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 59 (5.32%) REST
2 49 (4.42%) React
3 45 (4.06%) RESTful
4 44 (3.97%) HTML
5 42 (3.79%) Node.js
6 40 (3.61%) Spring
6 40 (3.61%) Spring Boot
7 39 (3.52%) CSS
8 27 (2.44%) Kafka
9 22 (1.99%) .NET
10 19 (1.71%) JSON
11 18 (1.62%) Playwright
11 18 (1.62%) PySpark
12 16 (1.44%) OAuth
13 15 (1.35%) OpenAPI
13 15 (1.35%) SPFx
14 14 (1.26%) Jest
15 13 (1.17%) Middleware
15 13 (1.17%) Swagger
16 12 (1.08%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 78 (7.04%) Product Ownership
2 63 (5.69%) Onboarding
3 51 (4.60%) Cloud Native
4 36 (3.25%) Virtual Team
5 33 (2.98%) Web Conferencing
6 32 (2.89%) Podcast
7 22 (1.99%) Management Information System
8 20 (1.81%) Distributed Systems
9 16 (1.44%) Algorithms
9 16 (1.44%) NHS
10 14 (1.26%) Self-Motivation
11 13 (1.17%) Legacy Systems
12 12 (1.08%) Enterprise Software
13 10 (0.90%) Data Centre
14 9 (0.81%) Data Structures
15 8 (0.72%) Public Cloud
16 5 (0.45%) AI Agents
16 5 (0.45%) BYOD
16 5 (0.45%) Legacy Code
16 5 (0.45%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 68 (6.14%) Linux
2 46 (4.15%) Windows
3 31 (2.80%) Unix
4 12 (1.08%) Android
4 12 (1.08%) Windows Server
5 10 (0.90%) Apple iOS
6 9 (0.81%) Mac OS
7 6 (0.54%) Windows 10
8 3 (0.27%) AIX
8 3 (0.27%) Solaris
9 2 (0.18%) Debian
9 2 (0.18%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.090%) Mac OS X
10 1 (0.090%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.090%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 328 (29.60%) Agile
2 208 (18.77%) CI/CD
3 168 (15.16%) DevOps
4 166 (14.98%) Stakeholder Management
5 161 (14.53%) Problem-Solving
6 118 (10.65%) Continuous Improvement
7 116 (10.47%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 102 (9.21%) Roadmaps
9 95 (8.57%) Test Automation
10 92 (8.30%) Scrum
11 91 (8.21%) Decision-Making
12 86 (7.76%) Analytics
13 81 (7.31%) Microservices
14 75 (6.77%) Infrastructure as Code
15 74 (6.68%) Data Modelling
16 72 (6.50%) AI
17 69 (6.23%) Business Intelligence
17 69 (6.23%) Migration
18 65 (5.87%) Software Engineering
19 64 (5.78%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 129 (11.64%) Python
2 124 (11.19%) SQL
3 118 (10.65%) Java
4 72 (6.50%) JavaScript
5 44 (3.97%) TypeScript
6 32 (2.89%) Scala
7 24 (2.17%) PowerShell
8 20 (1.81%) C#
9 16 (1.44%) Shell Script
10 10 (0.90%) PL/SQL
11 9 (0.81%) Bicep
11 9 (0.81%) C++
11 9 (0.81%) VB
12 8 (0.72%) C
13 7 (0.63%) VB6
14 6 (0.54%) ABAP
14 6 (0.54%) COBOL
14 6 (0.54%) MATLAB
15 5 (0.45%) Apex Code
15 5 (0.45%) Go
Qualifications
1 334 (30.14%) Security Cleared
2 245 (22.11%) SC Cleared
3 70 (6.32%) Degree
4 17 (1.53%) AWS Certification
4 17 (1.53%) DV Cleared
5 12 (1.08%) Master's Degree
6 10 (0.90%) Azure Certification
7 9 (0.81%) Computer Science Degree
8 8 (0.72%) PMI Certification
9 7 (0.63%) Microsoft Certification
10 6 (0.54%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
10 6 (0.54%) CompTIA CySA+
10 6 (0.54%) PMP
11 5 (0.45%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 5 (0.45%) DBS Check
11 5 (0.45%) GIAC
11 5 (0.45%) NVQ Level 4
12 4 (0.36%) CompTIA Security+
12 4 (0.36%) CTC Cleared
12 4 (0.36%) MBA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 78 (7.04%) Data Quality
2 71 (6.41%) Accessibility
3 64 (5.78%) QA
4 23 (2.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 20 (1.81%) PMO
6 18 (1.62%) NIST
6 18 (1.62%) WCAG
7 15 (1.35%) GDPR
7 15 (1.35%) SLA
8 9 (0.81%) GRC
9 8 (0.72%) PCI DSS
10 6 (0.54%) NCSC
11 5 (0.45%) IFRS
11 5 (0.45%) IFRS 17
11 5 (0.45%) ISO 20022
12 4 (0.36%) Actionable Recommendations
12 4 (0.36%) HL7
12 4 (0.36%) PSD2
13 3 (0.27%) DICOM
13 3 (0.27%) SEPA
System Software
1 66 (5.96%) Docker
2 32 (2.89%) Active Directory
3 18 (1.62%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (0.63%) Virtual Desktop
5 6 (0.54%) Virtual Machines
6 5 (0.45%) Hyper-V
7 4 (0.36%) vSphere
8 3 (0.27%) GPFS
8 3 (0.27%) NFS
8 3 (0.27%) VMware ESXi
8 3 (0.27%) VMware NSX
9 2 (0.18%) Firmware
9 2 (0.18%) QEMU
10 1 (0.090%) ACF2
10 1 (0.090%) BitLocker
10 1 (0.090%) Oracle RAC
10 1 (0.090%) RACF
10 1 (0.090%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 90 (8.12%) Terraform
2 64 (5.78%) Kubernetes
3 23 (2.08%) Grafana
4 15 (1.35%) Prometheus
5 12 (1.08%) Ansible
6 11 (0.99%) Kibana
7 9 (0.81%) Single Sign-On
8 7 (0.63%) Istio
9 6 (0.54%) Microsoft Intune
9 6 (0.54%) Podman
10 5 (0.45%) Argo
10 5 (0.45%) SCCM
11 4 (0.36%) HAProxy
12 3 (0.27%) Puppet
12 3 (0.27%) vRealize
13 2 (0.18%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 2 (0.18%) Data Guard
13 2 (0.18%) Kubeflow
13 2 (0.18%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
13 2 (0.18%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 116 (10.47%) SAP
2 106 (9.57%) Microsoft
3 48 (4.33%) Oracle
4 31 (2.80%) ServiceNow
5 23 (2.08%) Google
6 21 (1.90%) Databricks
7 19 (1.71%) Splunk
8 18 (1.62%) VMware
9 14 (1.26%) Cisco
10 13 (1.17%) IBM
10 13 (1.17%) Pega
11 11 (0.99%) BeyondTrust
11 11 (0.99%) CyberArk
11 11 (0.99%) Informatica
12 9 (0.81%) Salesforce
13 8 (0.72%) OpenAI
13 8 (0.72%) Talend
14 7 (0.63%) Apple
14 7 (0.63%) MuleSoft
14 7 (0.63%) Workday