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

6 months to
28 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 64 55 41
Rank change year-on-year -9 -14 +65
Contract jobs citing DV Cleared 1,390 1,168 2,052
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.62% 3.73% 4.65%
As % of the Qualifications category 10.67% 12.49% 15.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 989 736 1,422
10th Percentile £430 £371 £370
25th Percentile £510 £500 £510
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £588 £600
Median % change year-on-year -2.13% -2.08% -
75th Percentile £688 £675 £700
90th Percentile £738 £724 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £575 £588 £600
% change year-on-year -2.13% -2.08% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 39 30 117
10th Percentile £16.35 £35.75 £48.40
25th Percentile £18.50 £56.65 £56.65
Median hourly rate £55.50 £63.15 £63.00
Median % change year-on-year -12.11% +0.24% -10.00%
75th Percentile £76.25 £73.94 £77.50
90th Percentile £87.80 £86.72 £85.65
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £63.15 £63.15
% change year-on-year +2.93% +0.01% -12.90%

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 13,030 9,352 13,452
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.94% 29.88% 30.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,621 5,618 8,382
10th Percentile £315 £300 £295
25th Percentile £415 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.24% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £631 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £535
% change year-on-year - -6.54% +1.90%
Number of hourly rates quoted 952 457 908
10th Percentile £15.64 £19.06 £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 £62.50 £66.00 £65.96
90th Percentile £76.58 £77.31 £78.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £42.50 £47.50
% change year-on-year -40.82% -10.53% +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 28 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 28 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 28 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 -13 1,265 £575 -3.36% 412
UK excluding London -7 979 £575 -2.13% 368
South East +5 491 £573 -0.43% 145
South West -5 306 £575 -4.17% 114
London -40 287 £600 +4.35% 71
Work from Home +4 182 £555 -1.33% 159
Midlands -21 71 £581 -16.22% 20
West Midlands -14 63 £575 -17.12% 12
North of England -39 52 £590 +7.27% 40
East of England +9 45 £575 - 50
North West 0 44 £580 +182.93% 29
Scotland -27 25 £653 +26.80% 5
Northern Ireland +5 10 £600 - 1
East Midlands -26 8 £650 +16.07% 8
Yorkshire -50 7 £613 +11.36% 10
Wales -4 5 £600 -14.29% 6
North East -24 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 50 (3.60%) Microsoft Exchange
2 48 (3.45%) SharePoint
3 32 (2.30%) Apache
4 28 (2.01%) Skype for Business
5 22 (1.58%) Confluence
6 6 (0.43%) 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 (0.072%) Mattermost
10 1 (0.072%) nginx
Applications
1 66 (4.75%) Microsoft Office
2 34 (2.45%) Microsoft Excel
3 16 (1.15%) Microsoft Project
4 11 (0.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.43%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.072%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 16 (1.15%) SAP S/4HANA
2 12 (0.86%) Remedy ITSM
3 11 (0.79%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 10 (0.72%) SAP EWM
4 10 (0.72%) 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 (0.072%) Oracle Cash Management
9 1 (0.072%) Oracle General Ledger
9 1 (0.072%) Oracle Payroll
9 1 (0.072%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
9 1 (0.072%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 127 (9.14%) AWS
2 123 (8.85%) Azure
3 56 (4.03%) Microsoft 365
4 51 (3.67%) GitHub
5 40 (2.88%) Serverless
6 39 (2.81%) GCP
6 39 (2.81%) OpenShift
7 31 (2.23%) Azure DevOps
8 29 (2.09%) GitHub Actions
9 24 (1.73%) Amazon S3
10 19 (1.37%) Amazon ECS
10 19 (1.37%) AWS CloudFormation
10 19 (1.37%) IaaS
11 18 (1.29%) Entra ID
12 17 (1.22%) Amazon EC2
12 17 (1.22%) AWS Lambda
12 17 (1.22%) Azure Sentinel
13 14 (1.01%) Azure AKS
13 14 (1.01%) PaaS
14 13 (0.94%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 103 (7.41%) Firewall
2 89 (6.40%) DNS
3 60 (4.32%) Network Security
4 48 (3.45%) VPN
5 42 (3.02%) TCP/IP
6 37 (2.66%) LAN
7 36 (2.59%) DHCP
8 33 (2.37%) WAN
9 28 (2.01%) Skype
10 27 (1.94%) Cisco IOS
11 25 (1.80%) Junos
12 23 (1.65%) Cisco ISE
13 22 (1.58%) BGP
13 22 (1.58%) SAN
14 21 (1.51%) Cisco Firepower
15 16 (1.15%) VLAN
16 14 (1.01%) OSPF
17 13 (0.94%) MPLS
17 13 (0.94%) SSL
18 12 (0.86%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (2.09%) PostgreSQL
2 18 (1.29%) Big Data
2 18 (1.29%) Elasticsearch
3 17 (1.22%) SQL Server
4 16 (1.15%) Amazon RDS
5 15 (1.08%) Oracle Database
6 12 (0.86%) Hadoop
7 11 (0.79%) MongoDB
7 11 (0.79%) Redis
8 10 (0.72%) Relational Database
9 8 (0.58%) MySQL
10 7 (0.50%) InfluxDB
10 7 (0.50%) Power BI
11 6 (0.43%) SAP HANA
12 5 (0.36%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 4 (0.29%) Metadata
13 4 (0.29%) NoSQL
13 4 (0.29%) RDBMS
13 4 (0.29%) SQL Server Analysis Services
13 4 (0.29%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 41 (2.95%) JIRA
2 34 (2.45%) GitLab
3 30 (2.16%) Jenkins
4 29 (2.09%) Git
5 17 (1.22%) SonarQube
6 15 (1.08%) Maven
7 13 (0.94%) Artifactory
8 12 (0.86%) Sonatype Nexus
9 9 (0.65%) Bitbucket
10 8 (0.58%) Cypress.io
11 6 (0.43%) Postman
11 6 (0.43%) 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
13 4 (0.29%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 272 (19.57%) Social Skills
2 179 (12.88%) Public Sector
3 111 (7.99%) Analytical Skills
4 64 (4.60%) Finance
5 48 (3.45%) Military
6 42 (3.02%) Documentation Skills
7 34 (2.45%) Legal
8 27 (1.94%) Manufacturing
8 27 (1.94%) Telecoms
9 25 (1.80%) Presentation Skills
10 21 (1.51%) Law
10 21 (1.51%) Organisational Skills
11 19 (1.37%) Aerospace
12 17 (1.22%) Marketing
13 16 (1.15%) Electronics
14 15 (1.08%) Banking
15 13 (0.94%) Police
16 8 (0.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 2 (0.14%) Local Government
17 2 (0.14%) Multimedia
Job Titles
1 235 (16.91%) Architect
2 82 (5.90%) Analyst
2 82 (5.90%) Consultant
3 77 (5.54%) Senior
4 62 (4.46%) Network Engineer
5 59 (4.24%) DevOps Engineer
6 56 (4.03%) Support Engineer
7 53 (3.81%) Developer
7 53 (3.81%) Lead
8 50 (3.60%) Technical Architect
9 47 (3.38%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
10 45 (3.24%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 42 (3.02%) 3rd Line Engineer
11 42 (3.02%) Tester
12 37 (2.66%) Cloud Engineer
12 37 (2.66%) Project Manager
13 35 (2.52%) Infrastructure Architect
13 35 (2.52%) SOC Analyst
13 35 (2.52%) Solutions Architect
14 32 (2.30%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (2.30%) REST
2 31 (2.23%) Apache NiFi
3 22 (1.58%) OAuth
4 20 (1.44%) OpenID
4 20 (1.44%) React
5 19 (1.37%) SAML
6 18 (1.29%) OAuth2
7 17 (1.22%) Kafka
8 16 (1.15%) Node.js
9 15 (1.08%) Elastic Stack
9 15 (1.08%) YAML
10 13 (0.94%) Flask
11 12 (0.86%) .NET
11 12 (0.86%) FastAPI
11 12 (0.86%) RabbitMQ
12 10 (0.72%) JSON
13 9 (0.65%) gRPC
13 9 (0.65%) Web Services
13 9 (0.65%) WebSockets
14 8 (0.58%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 91 (6.55%) PKI
2 46 (3.31%) Data Centre
3 33 (2.37%) Management Information System
4 32 (2.30%) Security Operations Centre
5 23 (1.65%) Cyber Threat
6 20 (1.44%) Cloud Native
6 20 (1.44%) Private Cloud
7 19 (1.37%) Replication
8 18 (1.29%) Onboarding
9 17 (1.22%) Cyberattack
10 15 (1.08%) Product Ownership
11 14 (1.01%) Analytical Mindset
12 13 (0.94%) Cyber Defence
12 13 (0.94%) Hybrid Cloud
13 12 (0.86%) Fat Client
13 12 (0.86%) Insider Threat
13 12 (0.86%) Thin Client
14 11 (0.79%) CSOC
14 11 (0.79%) Enterprise Software
15 10 (0.72%) Driving Licence
Operating Systems
1 254 (18.27%) Windows
2 158 (11.37%) Linux
3 78 (5.61%) Windows Server
4 41 (2.95%) Windows 10
5 27 (1.94%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 18 (1.29%) Windows 7
7 12 (0.86%) Ubuntu
8 11 (0.79%) Android
8 11 (0.79%) Mac OS
8 11 (0.79%) Unix
9 8 (0.58%) CentOS
9 8 (0.58%) Windows Server 2003
10 6 (0.43%) Windows Server 2019
11 3 (0.22%) Debian
12 2 (0.14%) Rocky
12 2 (0.14%) VMS
12 2 (0.14%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.072%) Data ONTAP
13 1 (0.072%) Mac OS X
13 1 (0.072%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 235 (16.91%) Agile
2 170 (12.23%) Problem-Solving
3 149 (10.72%) Cybersecurity
4 140 (10.07%) DevOps
5 125 (8.99%) CI/CD
6 104 (7.48%) ITIL
7 87 (6.26%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 84 (6.04%) Service Management
9 83 (5.97%) Continuous Improvement
10 81 (5.83%) Infrastructure as Code
11 77 (5.54%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 76 (5.47%) Stakeholder Management
13 75 (5.40%) SIEM
14 74 (5.32%) ITSM
15 68 (4.89%) Containerisation
16 65 (4.68%) Risk Management
17 64 (4.60%) Incident Response
18 62 (4.46%) Project Delivery
19 59 (4.24%) Project Management
20 57 (4.10%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 134 (9.64%) Python
2 118 (8.49%) PowerShell
3 67 (4.82%) SQL
4 44 (3.17%) Java
5 33 (2.37%) JavaScript
6 32 (2.30%) Bash
7 19 (1.37%) Go
8 15 (1.08%) C#
8 15 (1.08%) Shell Script
8 15 (1.08%) TypeScript
9 12 (0.86%) C++
10 9 (0.65%) Bicep
11 8 (0.58%) C
11 8 (0.58%) VB
11 8 (0.58%) VBScript
12 5 (0.36%) ABAP
12 5 (0.36%) PL/SQL
13 3 (0.22%) T-SQL
14 2 (0.14%) Ruby
15 1 (0.072%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 1,390 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 438 (31.51%) SC Cleared
3 56 (4.03%) Degree
4 54 (3.88%) CISSP
5 37 (2.66%) CISM
6 34 (2.45%) Cisco Certification
6 34 (2.45%) Microsoft Certification
7 22 (1.58%) CCNP
7 22 (1.58%) CompTIA Security+
8 19 (1.37%) GIAC
9 17 (1.22%) BPSS Clearance
9 17 (1.22%) Computer Science Degree
10 15 (1.08%) CEH
10 15 (1.08%) CompTIA CySA+
11 14 (1.01%) CESG Certified Professional
11 14 (1.01%) CTC Cleared
12 13 (0.94%) Azure Certification
12 13 (0.94%) CCNA
13 10 (0.72%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
14 9 (0.65%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 71 (5.11%) NIST
2 58 (4.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 52 (3.74%) NCSC
4 35 (2.52%) QA
5 29 (2.09%) JSP 440
6 25 (1.80%) PMO
7 19 (1.37%) GDPR
8 16 (1.15%) SLA
9 15 (1.08%) GRC
9 15 (1.08%) NIST 800
10 14 (1.01%) Data Quality
11 10 (0.72%) RMADS
12 6 (0.43%) 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%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 3 (0.22%) EU AI Act
15 3 (0.22%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 116 (8.35%) Active Directory
2 82 (5.90%) Docker
3 70 (5.04%) VMware Infrastructure
4 46 (3.31%) VMware NSX
5 27 (1.94%) VMware ESXi
6 17 (1.22%) vSphere
7 11 (0.79%) Virtual Machines
8 10 (0.72%) BitLocker
9 8 (0.58%) Firmware
9 8 (0.58%) Hyper-V
10 6 (0.43%) 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 (9.57%) Kubernetes
2 110 (7.91%) Terraform
3 80 (5.76%) Ansible
4 51 (3.67%) vCenter Server
5 38 (2.73%) Grafana
6 34 (2.45%) Single Sign-On
7 33 (2.37%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 32 (2.30%) Prometheus
9 26 (1.87%) SCCM
10 16 (1.15%) WMI
11 15 (1.08%) Progress Chef
12 13 (0.94%) Puppet
13 11 (0.79%) Podman
13 11 (0.79%) vRealize
14 10 (0.72%) SCOM
15 8 (0.58%) Argo
15 8 (0.58%) Microsoft Clustering
16 7 (0.50%) Nessus
16 7 (0.50%) VxRail
17 6 (0.43%) Kibana
Vendors
1 211 (15.18%) Microsoft
2 144 (10.36%) VMware
3 103 (7.41%) Cisco
4 51 (3.67%) Splunk
5 45 (3.24%) Juniper
6 44 (3.17%) SAP
7 40 (2.88%) Oracle
8 39 (2.81%) Red Hat
9 30 (2.16%) SolarWinds
10 25 (1.80%) Palantir
11 22 (1.58%) Dell
11 22 (1.58%) ServiceNow
12 21 (1.51%) NetApp
13 20 (1.44%) Foundry
14 15 (1.08%) Palo Alto
15 14 (1.01%) Google
15 14 (1.01%) Remedy
15 14 (1.01%) Sparx
16 13 (0.94%) Atlassian
16 13 (0.94%) IBM