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

6 months to
21 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 64 55 42
Rank change year-on-year -9 -13 +67
Contract jobs citing DV Cleared 1,356 1,191 1,956
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.60% 3.78% 4.51%
As % of the Qualifications category 10.59% 12.69% 14.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 972 760 1,373
10th Percentile £463 £372 £370
25th Percentile £513 £500 £510
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £588 £588 £600
Median % change year-on-year - -2.08% -
75th Percentile £688 £675 £700
90th Percentile £738 £725 £785
UK excluding London median daily rate £575 £588 £600
% change year-on-year -2.13% -2.08% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 38 30 112
10th Percentile £16.70 £45.14 £48.53
25th Percentile £18.82 £56.65 £56.50
Median hourly rate £57.50 £63.15 £63.15
Median % change year-on-year -8.95% +0.01% -9.47%
75th Percentile £76.88 £73.94 £77.50
90th Percentile £87.95 £86.72 £85.64
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.50 £63.15 £63.15
% change year-on-year +3.72% +0.01% -10.81%

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 12,810 9,386 13,162
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 34.00% 29.81% 30.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,467 5,669 8,216
10th Percentile £315 £300 £300
25th Percentile £416 £414 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.13% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £635 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £729
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £503 £538
% change year-on-year -0.50% -6.51% +2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 958 464 840
10th Percentile £16.00 £19.87 £14.24
25th Percentile £19.23 £24.18 £21.46
Median hourly rate £25.15 £40.00 £48.70
Median % change year-on-year -37.13% -17.86% +8.22%
75th Percentile £60.72 £66.00 £66.25
90th Percentile £76.03 £78.01 £78.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £42.69 £49.00
% change year-on-year -41.09% -12.88% +8.89%

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 21 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 21 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 21 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 -12 1,240 £575 -2.13% 362
UK excluding London -9 953 £575 -2.13% 326
South East +4 491 £575 - 123
South West -5 291 £575 -4.17% 107
London -43 290 £625 +6.61% 56
Work from Home -5 175 £558 -2.19% 142
Midlands -20 70 £588 -15.32% 13
West Midlands -15 63 £588 -15.32% 9
North of England -39 46 £606 +10.23% 39
East of England -3 41 £575 - 45
North West -10 39 £600 +192.68% 30
Scotland -25 26 £652 +26.20% 4
Northern Ireland +6 9 £600 - 2
East Midlands -25 7 £650 +16.07% 4
Yorkshire -53 6 £613 +11.36% 8
Wales -2 5 £600 -14.29% 6
North East -23 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 (3.54%) SharePoint
2 46 (3.39%) Microsoft Exchange
3 35 (2.58%) Apache
4 29 (2.14%) Skype for Business
5 23 (1.70%) Confluence
6 6 (0.44%) OpenStack
6 6 (0.44%) SharePoint Server
7 5 (0.37%) Exchange Server 2003
7 5 (0.37%) Exchange Server 2007
7 5 (0.37%) Exchange Server 2010
7 5 (0.37%) Exchange Server 2013
7 5 (0.37%) Office Communications Server
8 3 (0.22%) Apache Spark
8 3 (0.22%) Documentum
8 3 (0.22%) IIS
8 3 (0.22%) Oracle Workflow
9 1 (0.074%) Mattermost
9 1 (0.074%) nginx
Applications
1 64 (4.72%) Microsoft Office
2 32 (2.36%) Microsoft Excel
3 16 (1.18%) Microsoft Project
4 11 (0.81%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.44%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.074%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 17 (1.25%) SAP S/4HANA
2 12 (0.88%) Remedy ITSM
3 11 (0.81%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 10 (0.74%) SAP EWM
4 10 (0.74%) SAP WM
5 8 (0.59%) Maximo
6 5 (0.37%) 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 (0.074%) Oracle Cash Management
9 1 (0.074%) Oracle General Ledger
9 1 (0.074%) Oracle Payroll
9 1 (0.074%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
9 1 (0.074%) Oracle Receivables
9 1 (0.074%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 129 (9.51%) AWS
2 128 (9.44%) Azure
3 58 (4.28%) Microsoft 365
4 48 (3.54%) GitHub
5 42 (3.10%) Serverless
6 39 (2.88%) GCP
7 37 (2.73%) OpenShift
8 32 (2.36%) Azure DevOps
9 27 (1.99%) GitHub Actions
10 24 (1.77%) Amazon S3
11 20 (1.47%) Entra ID
12 19 (1.40%) Amazon ECS
12 19 (1.40%) AWS CloudFormation
12 19 (1.40%) IaaS
13 17 (1.25%) Amazon EC2
13 17 (1.25%) AWS Lambda
13 17 (1.25%) Azure Sentinel
14 14 (1.03%) Azure AKS
14 14 (1.03%) PaaS
15 13 (0.96%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 103 (7.60%) Firewall
2 87 (6.42%) DNS
3 61 (4.50%) Network Security
4 48 (3.54%) VPN
5 44 (3.24%) LAN
6 40 (2.95%) TCP/IP
7 39 (2.88%) WAN
8 35 (2.58%) DHCP
9 28 (2.06%) Skype
10 27 (1.99%) Cisco IOS
11 25 (1.84%) Junos
12 23 (1.70%) SAN
13 22 (1.62%) Cisco ISE
14 21 (1.55%) BGP
14 21 (1.55%) Cisco Firepower
15 16 (1.18%) VLAN
16 13 (0.96%) OSPF
16 13 (0.96%) Wireless
17 12 (0.88%) MPLS
17 12 (0.88%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (2.14%) PostgreSQL
2 21 (1.55%) Big Data
3 20 (1.47%) Elasticsearch
4 16 (1.18%) Amazon RDS
5 14 (1.03%) Hadoop
5 14 (1.03%) SQL Server
6 13 (0.96%) Oracle Database
7 11 (0.81%) MongoDB
7 11 (0.81%) Redis
8 10 (0.74%) Relational Database
9 8 (0.59%) MySQL
10 7 (0.52%) InfluxDB
10 7 (0.52%) 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 42 (3.10%) JIRA
2 36 (2.65%) GitLab
3 31 (2.29%) Jenkins
4 30 (2.21%) Git
5 17 (1.25%) SonarQube
6 15 (1.11%) Maven
7 14 (1.03%) Artifactory
8 12 (0.88%) Sonatype Nexus
9 9 (0.66%) Bitbucket
10 8 (0.59%) Cypress.io
11 7 (0.52%) Selenium
12 6 (0.44%) Postman
13 5 (0.37%) CircleCI
13 5 (0.37%) Gradle
13 5 (0.37%) JUnit
13 5 (0.37%) Snyk
13 5 (0.37%) webpack
14 4 (0.29%) Oracle APEX
14 4 (0.29%) Robot Framework
15 2 (0.15%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 266 (19.62%) Social Skills
2 185 (13.64%) Public Sector
3 108 (7.96%) Analytical Skills
4 64 (4.72%) Finance
5 47 (3.47%) Military
6 40 (2.95%) Documentation Skills
7 32 (2.36%) Legal
8 29 (2.14%) Manufacturing
9 27 (1.99%) Telecoms
10 25 (1.84%) Presentation Skills
11 20 (1.47%) Law
11 20 (1.47%) Organisational Skills
12 18 (1.33%) Marketing
13 17 (1.25%) Electronics
14 15 (1.11%) Banking
15 12 (0.88%) Aerospace
15 12 (0.88%) Police
16 8 (0.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 2 (0.15%) Influencing Skills
17 2 (0.15%) Multimedia
Job Titles
1 243 (17.92%) Architect
2 82 (6.05%) Consultant
3 79 (5.83%) Analyst
4 75 (5.53%) Senior
5 64 (4.72%) Network Engineer
6 60 (4.42%) DevOps Engineer
7 57 (4.20%) Support Engineer
8 53 (3.91%) Lead
9 52 (3.83%) Developer
9 52 (3.83%) Technical Architect
10 48 (3.54%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
11 44 (3.24%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 42 (3.10%) 3rd Line Engineer
13 39 (2.88%) Solutions Architect
14 37 (2.73%) Cloud Engineer
15 36 (2.65%) Project Manager
16 35 (2.58%) Infrastructure Architect
17 34 (2.51%) Tester
18 32 (2.36%) SOC Analyst
19 31 (2.29%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 35 (2.58%) Apache NiFi
2 33 (2.43%) REST
3 23 (1.70%) React
4 22 (1.62%) OAuth
5 20 (1.47%) Kafka
5 20 (1.47%) OpenID
6 19 (1.40%) SAML
7 18 (1.33%) Node.js
7 18 (1.33%) OAuth2
8 15 (1.11%) Elastic Stack
8 15 (1.11%) YAML
9 13 (0.96%) .NET
9 13 (0.96%) RabbitMQ
10 12 (0.88%) FastAPI
10 12 (0.88%) Flask
11 10 (0.74%) JSON
12 9 (0.66%) gRPC
12 9 (0.66%) Web Services
12 9 (0.66%) WebSockets
13 8 (0.59%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 93 (6.86%) PKI
2 46 (3.39%) Data Centre
3 32 (2.36%) Management Information System
3 32 (2.36%) Security Operations Centre
4 27 (1.99%) Cyber Threat
5 20 (1.47%) Cloud Native
6 19 (1.40%) Replication
7 18 (1.33%) Onboarding
7 18 (1.33%) Private Cloud
8 16 (1.18%) Cyberattack
9 14 (1.03%) Analytical Mindset
9 14 (1.03%) Product Ownership
10 13 (0.96%) Cyber Defence
11 12 (0.88%) Enterprise Software
11 12 (0.88%) Fat Client
11 12 (0.88%) Hybrid Cloud
11 12 (0.88%) Thin Client
12 11 (0.81%) CSOC
12 11 (0.81%) Insider Threat
13 10 (0.74%) Driving Licence
Operating Systems
1 255 (18.81%) Windows
2 152 (11.21%) Linux
3 80 (5.90%) Windows Server
4 41 (3.02%) Windows 10
5 27 (1.99%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 18 (1.33%) Windows 7
7 11 (0.81%) Android
7 11 (0.81%) Mac OS
7 11 (0.81%) Ubuntu
7 11 (0.81%) Unix
8 9 (0.66%) Windows Server 2003
9 8 (0.59%) Windows Server 2019
10 7 (0.52%) CentOS
11 3 (0.22%) Debian
12 2 (0.15%) VMS
12 2 (0.15%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.074%) Data ONTAP
13 1 (0.074%) Mac OS X
13 1 (0.074%) Rocky
13 1 (0.074%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 238 (17.55%) Agile
2 151 (11.14%) Problem-Solving
3 148 (10.91%) Cybersecurity
4 142 (10.47%) DevOps
5 123 (9.07%) CI/CD
6 97 (7.15%) ITIL
7 85 (6.27%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 81 (5.97%) Continuous Improvement
9 79 (5.83%) Infrastructure as Code
10 77 (5.68%) Service Management
10 77 (5.68%) SIEM
11 73 (5.38%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 73 (5.38%) ITSM
11 73 (5.38%) Stakeholder Management
12 65 (4.79%) Containerisation
13 62 (4.57%) Incident Response
13 62 (4.57%) Risk Management
14 60 (4.42%) Project Delivery
15 57 (4.20%) Project Management
16 54 (3.98%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 137 (10.10%) Python
2 120 (8.85%) PowerShell
3 66 (4.87%) SQL
4 45 (3.32%) Java
5 33 (2.43%) JavaScript
6 32 (2.36%) Bash
7 19 (1.40%) Go
8 16 (1.18%) C#
8 16 (1.18%) TypeScript
9 15 (1.11%) Shell Script
10 13 (0.96%) C++
11 10 (0.74%) VBScript
12 9 (0.66%) Bicep
13 8 (0.59%) C
13 8 (0.59%) VB
14 5 (0.37%) ABAP
14 5 (0.37%) PL/SQL
15 3 (0.22%) T-SQL
16 2 (0.15%) Ruby
17 1 (0.074%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 1,356 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 432 (31.86%) SC Cleared
3 56 (4.13%) Degree
4 55 (4.06%) CISSP
5 39 (2.88%) CISM
6 35 (2.58%) Microsoft Certification
7 32 (2.36%) Cisco Certification
8 22 (1.62%) CCNP
9 21 (1.55%) CompTIA Security+
10 19 (1.40%) GIAC
11 17 (1.25%) BPSS Clearance
11 17 (1.25%) Computer Science Degree
12 16 (1.18%) CEH
13 14 (1.03%) CESG Certified Professional
13 14 (1.03%) CompTIA CySA+
14 13 (0.96%) Azure Certification
14 13 (0.96%) CTC Cleared
15 12 (0.88%) CCNA
16 10 (0.74%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
17 9 (0.66%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 72 (5.31%) NIST
2 59 (4.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 50 (3.69%) NCSC
4 36 (2.65%) QA
5 28 (2.06%) JSP 440
6 24 (1.77%) PMO
7 19 (1.40%) GDPR
8 18 (1.33%) SLA
9 16 (1.18%) NIST 800
10 14 (1.03%) Data Quality
10 14 (1.03%) GRC
11 10 (0.74%) RMADS
12 6 (0.44%) ISO/IEC 20000
13 5 (0.37%) Cyber Essentials
13 5 (0.37%) P3O
14 3 (0.22%) Actionable Recommendations
14 3 (0.22%) COBIT
14 3 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 3 (0.22%) HMG Security Policy Framework
14 3 (0.22%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 115 (8.48%) Active Directory
2 78 (5.75%) Docker
3 69 (5.09%) VMware Infrastructure
4 45 (3.32%) VMware NSX
5 29 (2.14%) VMware ESXi
6 19 (1.40%) vSphere
7 11 (0.81%) Virtual Machines
8 10 (0.74%) BitLocker
9 8 (0.59%) Firmware
9 8 (0.59%) Hyper-V
10 6 (0.44%) NFS
10 6 (0.44%) vCloud
11 5 (0.37%) Brightmail
11 5 (0.37%) ISA Server
12 4 (0.29%) Oracle RAC
13 3 (0.22%) Microsoft App-V
13 3 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
14 2 (0.15%) GPFS
14 2 (0.15%) Slurm Workload Manager
14 2 (0.15%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 130 (9.59%) Kubernetes
2 109 (8.04%) Terraform
3 80 (5.90%) Ansible
4 51 (3.76%) vCenter Server
5 38 (2.80%) Grafana
6 33 (2.43%) Single Sign-On
7 32 (2.36%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 32 (2.36%) Prometheus
8 26 (1.92%) SCCM
9 16 (1.18%) WMI
10 15 (1.11%) Progress Chef
11 13 (0.96%) Puppet
12 11 (0.81%) Podman
12 11 (0.81%) vRealize
13 10 (0.74%) SCOM
14 8 (0.59%) Argo
14 8 (0.59%) Microsoft Intune
15 7 (0.52%) Microsoft Clustering
15 7 (0.52%) Nessus
15 7 (0.52%) VxRail
Vendors
1 212 (15.63%) Microsoft
2 144 (10.62%) VMware
3 103 (7.60%) Cisco
4 53 (3.91%) Splunk
5 47 (3.47%) Juniper
6 46 (3.39%) SAP
7 39 (2.88%) Red Hat
8 36 (2.65%) Oracle
9 29 (2.14%) SolarWinds
10 28 (2.06%) Palantir
11 22 (1.62%) Dell
11 22 (1.62%) NetApp
12 21 (1.55%) Foundry
12 21 (1.55%) ServiceNow
13 14 (1.03%) Remedy
13 14 (1.03%) Sparx
13 14 (1.03%) Veeam
14 13 (0.96%) Atlassian
14 13 (0.96%) Google
14 13 (0.96%) IBM