DV Cleared Contract Job Trends

Developed Vetting (DV) Clearance
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for DV Cleared qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 24 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 64 55 42
Rank change year-on-year -9 -13 +64
Contract jobs citing DV Cleared 1,372 1,188 2,006
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.61% 3.76% 4.55%
As % of the Qualifications category 10.64% 12.57% 15.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 974 756 1,402
10th Percentile £450 £374 £371
25th Percentile £513 £500 £510
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £581 £588 £600
Median % change year-on-year -1.11% -2.08% -
75th Percentile £688 £675 £700
90th Percentile £738 £725 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £575 £588 £600
% change year-on-year -2.13% -2.08% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 39 30 113
10th Percentile £16.35 £35.75 £48.67
25th Percentile £18.50 £56.65 £56.50
Median hourly rate £55.50 £63.15 £63.00
Median % change year-on-year -12.11% +0.24% -9.68%
75th Percentile £76.25 £73.94 £77.50
90th Percentile £87.80 £86.72 £85.11
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £63.15 £63.00
% change year-on-year +2.93% +0.24% -11.02%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

DV Cleared 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 12,889 9,450 13,357
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.92% 29.89% 30.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,517 5,703 8,331
10th Percentile £315 £300 £300
25th Percentile £416 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.24% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £635 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £538
% change year-on-year - -6.98% +2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 954 460 871
10th Percentile £15.91 £18.69 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.10 £24.18 £21.46
Median hourly rate £25.15 £39.00 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -35.51% -17.89% +5.56%
75th Percentile £61.50 £65.71 £65.00
90th Percentile £76.58 £77.31 £78.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £42.00 £47.50
% change year-on-year -40.12% -11.58% +5.56%

DV Cleared
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing DV Cleared relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

DV Cleared job vacancy trend in the UK

DV Cleared
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing DV Cleared.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing DV Cleared

DV Cleared
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing DV Cleared over the 6 months to 24 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for DV Cleared in the UK

DV Cleared
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing DV Cleared.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing DV Cleared

DV Cleared
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing DV Cleared over the 6 months to 24 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for DV Cleared in the UK

DV Cleared
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 DV Cleared within the UK over the 6 months to 24 January 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 -15 1,249 £575 -4.17% 393
UK excluding London -7 968 £575 -2.13% 357
South East +5 493 £575 - 137
South West -5 293 £575 -4.17% 114
London -42 284 £613 +4.26% 64
Work from Home -4 179 £555 -1.33% 157
Midlands -16 72 £588 -15.32% 14
West Midlands -24 64 £588 -15.32% 10
North of England -46 50 £590 +7.27% 40
East of England +5 45 £575 - 47
North West -4 43 £580 +182.93% 32
Scotland -32 27 £652 +26.20% 8
Northern Ireland +4 9 £600 - 2
East Midlands -21 8 £650 +16.07% 4
Yorkshire -60 6 £613 +11.36% 7
Wales -6 5 £600 -14.29% 7
North East -22 1 - - 1

DV Cleared
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 48 (3.50%) SharePoint
2 47 (3.43%) Microsoft Exchange
3 32 (2.33%) Apache
4 28 (2.04%) Skype for Business
5 22 (1.60%) Confluence
6 6 (0.44%) OpenStack
7 5 (0.36%) SharePoint Server
8 4 (0.29%) Exchange Server 2003
8 4 (0.29%) Exchange Server 2007
8 4 (0.29%) Exchange Server 2010
8 4 (0.29%) Exchange Server 2013
8 4 (0.29%) Office Communications Server
9 3 (0.22%) Apache Spark
9 3 (0.22%) Documentum
9 3 (0.22%) IIS
9 3 (0.22%) Oracle Workflow
10 1 (0.073%) Mattermost
10 1 (0.073%) nginx
Applications
1 65 (4.74%) Microsoft Office
2 34 (2.48%) Microsoft Excel
3 16 (1.17%) Microsoft Project
4 11 (0.80%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.44%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.073%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 17 (1.24%) SAP S/4HANA
2 12 (0.87%) Remedy ITSM
3 11 (0.80%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 10 (0.73%) SAP EWM
4 10 (0.73%) SAP WM
5 8 (0.58%) Maximo
6 5 (0.36%) Primavera
7 4 (0.29%) Oracle Applications
7 4 (0.29%) Oracle Assets
7 4 (0.29%) Oracle ERP
8 3 (0.22%) Oracle Payables
8 3 (0.22%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
9 1 (0.073%) Oracle Cash Management
9 1 (0.073%) Oracle General Ledger
9 1 (0.073%) Oracle Payroll
9 1 (0.073%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
9 1 (0.073%) Oracle Receivables
9 1 (0.073%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 131 (9.55%) AWS
2 128 (9.33%) Azure
3 58 (4.23%) Microsoft 365
4 50 (3.64%) GitHub
5 40 (2.92%) Serverless
6 39 (2.84%) GCP
7 38 (2.77%) OpenShift
8 32 (2.33%) Azure DevOps
9 28 (2.04%) GitHub Actions
10 24 (1.75%) Amazon S3
11 19 (1.38%) Amazon ECS
11 19 (1.38%) AWS CloudFormation
11 19 (1.38%) Entra ID
11 19 (1.38%) IaaS
12 17 (1.24%) Amazon EC2
12 17 (1.24%) AWS Lambda
12 17 (1.24%) Azure Sentinel
13 14 (1.02%) Azure AKS
13 14 (1.02%) PaaS
14 13 (0.95%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 105 (7.65%) Firewall
2 87 (6.34%) DNS
3 61 (4.45%) Network Security
4 48 (3.50%) VPN
5 41 (2.99%) TCP/IP
6 38 (2.77%) LAN
7 35 (2.55%) DHCP
8 34 (2.48%) WAN
9 28 (2.04%) Skype
10 27 (1.97%) Cisco IOS
11 25 (1.82%) Junos
12 22 (1.60%) BGP
12 22 (1.60%) Cisco ISE
12 22 (1.60%) SAN
13 21 (1.53%) Cisco Firepower
14 16 (1.17%) VLAN
15 14 (1.02%) OSPF
16 13 (0.95%) MPLS
16 13 (0.95%) SSL
16 13 (0.95%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (2.11%) PostgreSQL
2 18 (1.31%) Big Data
2 18 (1.31%) Elasticsearch
3 16 (1.17%) Amazon RDS
4 14 (1.02%) SQL Server
5 13 (0.95%) Oracle Database
6 12 (0.87%) Hadoop
7 11 (0.80%) MongoDB
7 11 (0.80%) Redis
8 10 (0.73%) Relational Database
9 8 (0.58%) MySQL
10 7 (0.51%) InfluxDB
10 7 (0.51%) Power BI
11 6 (0.44%) SAP HANA
12 4 (0.29%) Amazon Aurora
12 4 (0.29%) DynamoDB
12 4 (0.29%) Metadata
12 4 (0.29%) NoSQL
12 4 (0.29%) RDBMS
13 3 (0.22%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 41 (2.99%) JIRA
2 34 (2.48%) GitLab
3 30 (2.19%) Jenkins
4 29 (2.11%) Git
5 17 (1.24%) SonarQube
6 15 (1.09%) Maven
7 13 (0.95%) Artifactory
8 12 (0.87%) Sonatype Nexus
9 9 (0.66%) Bitbucket
10 8 (0.58%) Cypress.io
11 6 (0.44%) Postman
11 6 (0.44%) Selenium
12 5 (0.36%) CircleCI
12 5 (0.36%) Gradle
12 5 (0.36%) JUnit
12 5 (0.36%) Snyk
12 5 (0.36%) webpack
13 4 (0.29%) Oracle APEX
13 4 (0.29%) Robot Framework
14 2 (0.15%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 272 (19.83%) Social Skills
2 183 (13.34%) Public Sector
3 112 (8.16%) Analytical Skills
4 64 (4.66%) Finance
5 47 (3.43%) Military
6 43 (3.13%) Documentation Skills
7 33 (2.41%) Legal
8 28 (2.04%) Manufacturing
9 27 (1.97%) Telecoms
10 25 (1.82%) Presentation Skills
11 21 (1.53%) Organisational Skills
12 20 (1.46%) Law
13 19 (1.38%) Aerospace
14 17 (1.24%) Marketing
15 16 (1.17%) Electronics
16 15 (1.09%) Banking
17 13 (0.95%) Police
18 8 (0.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
19 2 (0.15%) Influencing Skills
19 2 (0.15%) Multimedia
Job Titles
1 233 (16.98%) Architect
2 81 (5.90%) Analyst
2 81 (5.90%) Consultant
3 78 (5.69%) Senior
4 63 (4.59%) Network Engineer
5 59 (4.30%) DevOps Engineer
6 56 (4.08%) Support Engineer
7 54 (3.94%) Developer
8 53 (3.86%) Lead
9 51 (3.72%) Technical Architect
10 47 (3.43%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
11 44 (3.21%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 42 (3.06%) 3rd Line Engineer
13 40 (2.92%) Tester
14 37 (2.70%) Cloud Engineer
14 37 (2.70%) Project Manager
15 36 (2.62%) Solutions Architect
16 34 (2.48%) SOC Analyst
17 33 (2.41%) Infrastructure Architect
18 32 (2.33%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (2.33%) REST
2 31 (2.26%) Apache NiFi
3 22 (1.60%) OAuth
3 22 (1.60%) React
4 20 (1.46%) OpenID
5 19 (1.38%) SAML
6 18 (1.31%) Node.js
6 18 (1.31%) OAuth2
7 17 (1.24%) Kafka
8 15 (1.09%) Elastic Stack
8 15 (1.09%) YAML
9 13 (0.95%) Flask
10 12 (0.87%) .NET
10 12 (0.87%) FastAPI
10 12 (0.87%) RabbitMQ
11 10 (0.73%) JSON
12 9 (0.66%) gRPC
12 9 (0.66%) Web Services
12 9 (0.66%) WebSockets
13 8 (0.58%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 91 (6.63%) PKI
2 48 (3.50%) Data Centre
3 32 (2.33%) Management Information System
3 32 (2.33%) Security Operations Centre
4 27 (1.97%) Cyber Threat
5 20 (1.46%) Cloud Native
6 19 (1.38%) Private Cloud
7 18 (1.31%) Onboarding
7 18 (1.31%) Replication
8 16 (1.17%) Cyberattack
9 15 (1.09%) Product Ownership
10 14 (1.02%) Analytical Mindset
10 14 (1.02%) Cyber Defence
11 13 (0.95%) Hybrid Cloud
12 12 (0.87%) Fat Client
12 12 (0.87%) Insider Threat
12 12 (0.87%) Thin Client
13 11 (0.80%) CSOC
13 11 (0.80%) Enterprise Software
14 10 (0.73%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 252 (18.37%) Windows
2 155 (11.30%) Linux
3 79 (5.76%) Windows Server
4 41 (2.99%) Windows 10
5 28 (2.04%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 18 (1.31%) Windows 7
7 12 (0.87%) Ubuntu
8 11 (0.80%) Android
8 11 (0.80%) Mac OS
8 11 (0.80%) Unix
9 8 (0.58%) CentOS
9 8 (0.58%) Windows Server 2003
10 6 (0.44%) Windows Server 2019
11 3 (0.22%) Debian
12 2 (0.15%) Rocky
12 2 (0.15%) VMS
12 2 (0.15%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.073%) Data ONTAP
13 1 (0.073%) Mac OS X
13 1 (0.073%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 235 (17.13%) Agile
2 159 (11.59%) Problem-Solving
3 153 (11.15%) Cybersecurity
4 141 (10.28%) DevOps
5 123 (8.97%) CI/CD
6 101 (7.36%) ITIL
7 87 (6.34%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 83 (6.05%) Continuous Improvement
9 82 (5.98%) Service Management
10 81 (5.90%) Infrastructure as Code
11 79 (5.76%) SIEM
12 76 (5.54%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 76 (5.54%) Stakeholder Management
13 74 (5.39%) ITSM
14 68 (4.96%) Containerisation
15 64 (4.66%) Incident Response
15 64 (4.66%) Risk Management
16 60 (4.37%) Project Delivery
17 59 (4.30%) Project Management
18 56 (4.08%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 135 (9.84%) Python
2 118 (8.60%) PowerShell
3 63 (4.59%) SQL
4 44 (3.21%) Java
5 33 (2.41%) JavaScript
6 32 (2.33%) Bash
7 19 (1.38%) Go
8 16 (1.17%) TypeScript
9 15 (1.09%) C#
9 15 (1.09%) Shell Script
10 12 (0.87%) C++
11 10 (0.73%) VBScript
12 9 (0.66%) Bicep
13 8 (0.58%) C
13 8 (0.58%) VB
14 5 (0.36%) ABAP
14 5 (0.36%) PL/SQL
15 3 (0.22%) T-SQL
16 2 (0.15%) Ruby
17 1 (0.073%) PHP
Qualifications
1 1,372 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 437 (31.85%) SC Cleared
3 55 (4.01%) CISSP
3 55 (4.01%) Degree
4 39 (2.84%) CISM
5 34 (2.48%) Cisco Certification
6 33 (2.41%) Microsoft Certification
7 23 (1.68%) CCNP
8 21 (1.53%) CompTIA Security+
9 20 (1.46%) GIAC
10 17 (1.24%) BPSS Clearance
11 16 (1.17%) CEH
11 16 (1.17%) Computer Science Degree
12 14 (1.02%) CompTIA CySA+
12 14 (1.02%) CTC Cleared
13 13 (0.95%) Azure Certification
13 13 (0.95%) CCNA
13 13 (0.95%) CESG Certified Professional
14 10 (0.73%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
15 9 (0.66%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 71 (5.17%) NIST
2 59 (4.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 52 (3.79%) NCSC
4 35 (2.55%) QA
5 28 (2.04%) JSP 440
6 25 (1.82%) PMO
7 19 (1.38%) GDPR
8 17 (1.24%) SLA
9 15 (1.09%) GRC
9 15 (1.09%) NIST 800
10 14 (1.02%) Data Quality
11 10 (0.73%) RMADS
12 6 (0.44%) ISO/IEC 20000
13 5 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials
13 5 (0.36%) P3O
14 4 (0.29%) Actionable Recommendations
14 4 (0.29%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 3 (0.22%) COBIT
15 3 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 3 (0.22%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 114 (8.31%) Active Directory
2 82 (5.98%) Docker
3 68 (4.96%) VMware Infrastructure
4 45 (3.28%) VMware NSX
5 27 (1.97%) VMware ESXi
6 17 (1.24%) vSphere
7 11 (0.80%) Virtual Machines
8 10 (0.73%) BitLocker
9 8 (0.58%) Firmware
9 8 (0.58%) Hyper-V
10 6 (0.44%) vCloud
11 4 (0.29%) Brightmail
11 4 (0.29%) ISA Server
11 4 (0.29%) NFS
11 4 (0.29%) Oracle RAC
12 3 (0.22%) GPFS
12 3 (0.22%) Lustre
12 3 (0.22%) Microsoft App-V
12 3 (0.22%) Slurm Workload Manager
12 3 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 133 (9.69%) Kubernetes
2 110 (8.02%) Terraform
3 80 (5.83%) Ansible
4 51 (3.72%) vCenter Server
5 38 (2.77%) Grafana
6 33 (2.41%) Single Sign-On
7 32 (2.33%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 32 (2.33%) Prometheus
8 26 (1.90%) SCCM
9 16 (1.17%) WMI
10 15 (1.09%) Progress Chef
11 13 (0.95%) Puppet
12 11 (0.80%) Podman
12 11 (0.80%) vRealize
13 10 (0.73%) SCOM
14 8 (0.58%) Argo
15 7 (0.51%) Microsoft Intune
15 7 (0.51%) Nessus
15 7 (0.51%) VxRail
16 6 (0.44%) Kibana
Vendors
1 210 (15.31%) Microsoft
2 143 (10.42%) VMware
3 103 (7.51%) Cisco
4 51 (3.72%) Splunk
5 47 (3.43%) Juniper
6 45 (3.28%) SAP
7 38 (2.77%) Oracle
7 38 (2.77%) Red Hat
8 29 (2.11%) SolarWinds
9 24 (1.75%) Palantir
10 22 (1.60%) Dell
10 22 (1.60%) ServiceNow
11 21 (1.53%) NetApp
12 19 (1.38%) Foundry
13 14 (1.02%) Google
13 14 (1.02%) Palo Alto
13 14 (1.02%) Remedy
13 14 (1.02%) Sparx
14 13 (0.95%) Atlassian
14 13 (0.95%) IBM