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

6 months to
4 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 71 51 45
Rank change year-on-year -20 -6 +74
Contract jobs citing DV Cleared 1,266 1,279 1,857
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.44% 3.95% 4.32%
As % of the Qualifications category 10.13% 13.19% 14.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 891 808 1,275
10th Percentile £463 £384 £370
25th Percentile £513 £500 £506
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £585 £600
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
75th Percentile £688 £675 £700
90th Percentile £738 £731 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £575 £575 £600
% change year-on-year - -4.17% +1.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 43 35 105
10th Percentile £17.60 £46.17 £50.34
25th Percentile £25.15 £55.87 £57.33
Median hourly rate £47.48 £63.15 £63.29
Median % change year-on-year -24.82% -0.22% -7.94%
75th Percentile £76.25 £73.75 £77.50
90th Percentile £87.25 £86.08 £81.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £63.15 £63.60
% change year-on-year +2.93% -0.70% -9.15%

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 12,492 9,697 12,958
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.95% 29.92% 30.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,184 5,894 8,163
10th Percentile £313 £300 £300
25th Percentile £419 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £631 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £540
% change year-on-year - -7.41% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 978 481 744
10th Percentile £16.23 £18.50 £16.25
25th Percentile £19.10 £23.50 £25.47
Median hourly rate £25.15 £40.00 £52.05
Median % change year-on-year -37.13% -23.15% +15.67%
75th Percentile £55.00 £67.00 £67.61
90th Percentile £76.58 £75.25 £80.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £41.00 £51.89
% change year-on-year -38.66% -20.99% +17.27%

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 4 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 4 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 4 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 -19 1,149 £588 - 441
UK excluding London -15 871 £575 - 391
South East 0 466 £575 - 156
London -37 285 £625 +5.26% 72
South West -6 252 £610 +1.58% 116
Work from Home -15 163 £574 -1.97% 174
Midlands -14 72 £588 -15.32% 31
West Midlands -18 65 £581 -16.96% 20
East of England -3 37 £550 -4.35% 52
North of England -59 29 £525 -4.55% 41
Scotland -36 26 £632 +22.62% 5
North West -14 22 £513 +150.00% 28
Northern Ireland -3 9 £600 - 1
East Midlands -20 7 £650 +27.45% 10
Yorkshire -52 6 £613 +11.36% 12
Wales -9 5 £600 -14.29% 2
North East -21 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 44 (3.48%) SharePoint
2 43 (3.40%) Microsoft Exchange
3 37 (2.92%) Apache
4 28 (2.21%) Skype for Business
5 24 (1.90%) Confluence
6 7 (0.55%) SharePoint Server
7 6 (0.47%) Exchange Server 2003
7 6 (0.47%) Exchange Server 2007
7 6 (0.47%) Exchange Server 2010
7 6 (0.47%) Exchange Server 2013
7 6 (0.47%) Office Communications Server
7 6 (0.47%) OpenStack
8 4 (0.32%) Apache Spark
9 3 (0.24%) Documentum
9 3 (0.24%) IIS
10 2 (0.16%) Oracle Workflow
11 1 (0.079%) CMS
11 1 (0.079%) Mattermost
11 1 (0.079%) nginx
Applications
1 60 (4.74%) Microsoft Office
2 26 (2.05%) Microsoft Excel
3 14 (1.11%) Microsoft Project
4 9 (0.71%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.39%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.079%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 17 (1.34%) SAP S/4HANA
2 12 (0.95%) Remedy ITSM
3 10 (0.79%) SAP EWM
3 10 (0.79%) SAP WM
3 10 (0.79%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 8 (0.63%) Maximo
5 5 (0.39%) Primavera
6 4 (0.32%) Oracle Applications
7 3 (0.24%) Oracle Assets
7 3 (0.24%) Oracle ERP
8 2 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
8 2 (0.16%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
9 1 (0.079%) Oracle Cash Management
9 1 (0.079%) Oracle General Ledger
9 1 (0.079%) Oracle Payroll
9 1 (0.079%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
9 1 (0.079%) Oracle Receivables
9 1 (0.079%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 127 (10.03%) Azure
2 120 (9.48%) AWS
3 58 (4.58%) Microsoft 365
4 42 (3.32%) Serverless
5 40 (3.16%) GitHub
6 37 (2.92%) OpenShift
7 36 (2.84%) GCP
8 32 (2.53%) Azure DevOps
9 24 (1.90%) Amazon S3
10 21 (1.66%) GitHub Actions
11 19 (1.50%) Entra ID
12 18 (1.42%) AWS CloudFormation
12 18 (1.42%) Azure Sentinel
13 17 (1.34%) Amazon EC2
13 17 (1.34%) Amazon ECS
13 17 (1.34%) AWS Lambda
14 15 (1.18%) IaaS
15 14 (1.11%) Azure AKS
16 13 (1.03%) npm
16 13 (1.03%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 90 (7.11%) Firewall
2 86 (6.79%) DNS
3 56 (4.42%) Network Security
4 42 (3.32%) VPN
5 41 (3.24%) LAN
6 37 (2.92%) TCP/IP
7 35 (2.76%) WAN
8 33 (2.61%) DHCP
9 26 (2.05%) Cisco IOS
9 26 (2.05%) Skype
10 25 (1.97%) Junos
11 24 (1.90%) SAN
12 22 (1.74%) Cisco ISE
13 21 (1.66%) Cisco Firepower
14 17 (1.34%) SSL
15 16 (1.26%) BGP
15 16 (1.26%) Wireless
16 12 (0.95%) SMTP
16 12 (0.95%) VLAN
17 11 (0.87%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (1.97%) Big Data
2 22 (1.74%) PostgreSQL
3 20 (1.58%) Elasticsearch
4 17 (1.34%) Hadoop
5 14 (1.11%) SQL Server
6 12 (0.95%) Amazon RDS
6 12 (0.95%) Oracle Database
7 10 (0.79%) Redis
7 10 (0.79%) Relational Database
8 7 (0.55%) InfluxDB
8 7 (0.55%) MongoDB
8 7 (0.55%) Power BI
9 6 (0.47%) SAP HANA
10 5 (0.39%) RDBMS
11 4 (0.32%) Metadata
11 4 (0.32%) MySQL
11 4 (0.32%) NoSQL
12 3 (0.24%) Apache Hive
12 3 (0.24%) Data Lake
12 3 (0.24%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 39 (3.08%) JIRA
2 37 (2.92%) GitLab
3 31 (2.45%) Git
3 31 (2.45%) Jenkins
4 17 (1.34%) SonarQube
5 15 (1.18%) Maven
6 14 (1.11%) Artifactory
7 10 (0.79%) Sonatype Nexus
8 8 (0.63%) Bitbucket
8 8 (0.63%) Cypress.io
9 7 (0.55%) Selenium
10 6 (0.47%) Postman
11 5 (0.39%) CircleCI
11 5 (0.39%) Gradle
11 5 (0.39%) JUnit
11 5 (0.39%) Snyk
11 5 (0.39%) webpack
12 3 (0.24%) Robot Framework
13 2 (0.16%) Atlassian Bamboo
13 2 (0.16%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 262 (20.70%) Social Skills
2 176 (13.90%) Public Sector
3 106 (8.37%) Analytical Skills
4 63 (4.98%) Finance
5 49 (3.87%) Military
6 32 (2.53%) Manufacturing
7 30 (2.37%) Telecoms
8 29 (2.29%) Documentation Skills
9 27 (2.13%) Legal
10 21 (1.66%) Presentation Skills
11 20 (1.58%) Marketing
12 19 (1.50%) Electronics
13 18 (1.42%) Law
13 18 (1.42%) Organisational Skills
14 16 (1.26%) Banking
15 13 (1.03%) Aerospace
16 10 (0.79%) Police
17 8 (0.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 3 (0.24%) Influencing Skills
19 2 (0.16%) Multimedia
Job Titles
1 225 (17.77%) Architect
2 83 (6.56%) Analyst
2 83 (6.56%) Consultant
3 68 (5.37%) Senior
4 62 (4.90%) Network Engineer
5 58 (4.58%) DevOps Engineer
5 58 (4.58%) Support Engineer
6 51 (4.03%) Lead
7 48 (3.79%) Developer
7 48 (3.79%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
8 43 (3.40%) Technical Architect
9 41 (3.24%) 3rd Line Engineer
9 41 (3.24%) Solutions Architect
10 36 (2.84%) Cloud Engineer
10 36 (2.84%) SOC Analyst
11 34 (2.69%) Project Manager
12 33 (2.61%) Infrastructure Architect
13 32 (2.53%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 30 (2.37%) Administrator
15 26 (2.05%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (2.92%) Apache NiFi
2 31 (2.45%) REST
3 22 (1.74%) Kafka
4 21 (1.66%) React
5 20 (1.58%) OAuth
6 18 (1.42%) OpenID
7 17 (1.34%) SAML
8 16 (1.26%) OAuth2
9 15 (1.18%) Elastic Stack
9 15 (1.18%) YAML
10 14 (1.11%) .NET
10 14 (1.11%) Node.js
11 13 (1.03%) RabbitMQ
12 12 (0.95%) LDAP
13 11 (0.87%) FastAPI
13 11 (0.87%) Flask
14 9 (0.71%) JSON
14 9 (0.71%) Web Services
15 8 (0.63%) AngularJS
15 8 (0.63%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 86 (6.79%) PKI
2 42 (3.32%) Data Centre
3 35 (2.76%) Security Operations Centre
4 34 (2.69%) Cyber Threat
4 34 (2.69%) Management Information System
5 20 (1.58%) Analytical Mindset
5 20 (1.58%) Cloud Native
6 19 (1.50%) Cyberattack
6 19 (1.50%) Replication
7 17 (1.34%) CSOC
7 17 (1.34%) Private Cloud
8 16 (1.26%) Onboarding
9 13 (1.03%) Cyber Defence
9 13 (1.03%) Driving Licence
9 13 (1.03%) Enterprise Software
10 11 (0.87%) Fat Client
10 11 (0.87%) Hybrid Cloud
10 11 (0.87%) Thin Client
11 10 (0.79%) Greenfield Project
11 10 (0.79%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 233 (18.40%) Windows
2 138 (10.90%) Linux
3 71 (5.61%) Windows Server
4 37 (2.92%) Windows 10
5 25 (1.97%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 15 (1.18%) Windows 7
7 14 (1.11%) Android
7 14 (1.11%) Mac OS
8 11 (0.87%) Unix
9 10 (0.79%) Ubuntu
9 10 (0.79%) Windows Server 2019
10 9 (0.71%) Windows Server 2003
11 7 (0.55%) CentOS
12 3 (0.24%) Debian
13 2 (0.16%) VMS
13 2 (0.16%) Windows Server 2016
14 1 (0.079%) Data ONTAP
14 1 (0.079%) Mac OS X
14 1 (0.079%) Rocky
14 1 (0.079%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 224 (17.69%) Agile
2 149 (11.77%) Cybersecurity
3 139 (10.98%) DevOps
4 138 (10.90%) Problem-Solving
5 119 (9.40%) CI/CD
6 87 (6.87%) ITIL
7 84 (6.64%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 77 (6.08%) Infrastructure as Code
8 77 (6.08%) SIEM
9 73 (5.77%) Continuous Improvement
10 69 (5.45%) Stakeholder Management
11 66 (5.21%) Service Management
12 65 (5.13%) Containerisation
13 64 (5.06%) ITSM
14 63 (4.98%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 62 (4.90%) Incident Response
16 59 (4.66%) Risk Management
17 56 (4.42%) Project Management
18 55 (4.34%) Scrum
19 54 (4.27%) Security Operations
Programming Languages
1 148 (11.69%) Python
2 119 (9.40%) PowerShell
3 63 (4.98%) SQL
4 47 (3.71%) Java
5 35 (2.76%) JavaScript
6 34 (2.69%) Bash
7 18 (1.42%) Go
8 17 (1.34%) C#
9 15 (1.18%) C++
9 15 (1.18%) TypeScript
10 14 (1.11%) Shell Script
11 10 (0.79%) C
12 9 (0.71%) Bicep
13 8 (0.63%) VBScript
14 6 (0.47%) VB
15 5 (0.39%) ABAP
16 3 (0.24%) Kusto Query Language
16 3 (0.24%) T-SQL
17 2 (0.16%) Ruby
18 1 (0.079%) Rust
Qualifications
1 1,266 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 419 (33.10%) SC Cleared
3 53 (4.19%) CISSP
3 53 (4.19%) Degree
4 37 (2.92%) CISM
5 35 (2.76%) Microsoft Certification
6 28 (2.21%) Cisco Certification
7 19 (1.50%) CCNP
7 19 (1.50%) CompTIA Security+
8 17 (1.34%) CEH
8 17 (1.34%) GIAC
9 15 (1.18%) Computer Science Degree
10 14 (1.11%) Azure Certification
11 13 (1.03%) CompTIA CySA+
12 12 (0.95%) BPSS Clearance
12 12 (0.95%) CESG Certified Professional
12 12 (0.95%) CTC Cleared
13 11 (0.87%) PMI Certification
14 10 (0.79%) CCNA
15 9 (0.71%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 68 (5.37%) NIST
2 48 (3.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 47 (3.71%) NCSC
4 22 (1.74%) QA
5 21 (1.66%) JSP 440
5 21 (1.66%) PMO
5 21 (1.66%) SLA
6 18 (1.42%) NIST 800
7 16 (1.26%) GDPR
8 13 (1.03%) Data Quality
9 10 (0.79%) GRC
10 8 (0.63%) RMADS
11 4 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials
11 4 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 4 (0.32%) P3O
12 3 (0.24%) Actionable Recommendations
12 3 (0.24%) Def Stans
12 3 (0.24%) EU AI Act
12 3 (0.24%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 3 (0.24%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 107 (8.45%) Active Directory
2 77 (6.08%) Docker
3 62 (4.90%) VMware Infrastructure
4 39 (3.08%) VMware NSX
5 33 (2.61%) VMware ESXi
6 22 (1.74%) vSphere
7 11 (0.87%) Virtual Machines
8 8 (0.63%) Firmware
8 8 (0.63%) NFS
9 7 (0.55%) BitLocker
10 6 (0.47%) Brightmail
10 6 (0.47%) ISA Server
11 5 (0.39%) Virtual Desktop
12 4 (0.32%) Hyper-V
13 3 (0.24%) vCloud
14 2 (0.16%) GPFS
14 2 (0.16%) Lustre
14 2 (0.16%) Microsoft App-V
14 2 (0.16%) Slurm Workload Manager
14 2 (0.16%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 124 (9.79%) Kubernetes
2 109 (8.61%) Terraform
3 78 (6.16%) Ansible
4 48 (3.79%) vCenter Server
5 39 (3.08%) Grafana
6 32 (2.53%) Prometheus
7 28 (2.21%) Single Sign-On
8 27 (2.13%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 24 (1.90%) SCCM
10 14 (1.11%) Progress Chef
11 13 (1.03%) Puppet
11 13 (1.03%) WMI
12 11 (0.87%) Podman
13 10 (0.79%) Microsoft Intune
14 8 (0.63%) Argo
14 8 (0.63%) Microsoft Clustering
14 8 (0.63%) SCOM
15 7 (0.55%) Kibana
15 7 (0.55%) Nessus
15 7 (0.55%) vRealize
Vendors
1 199 (15.72%) Microsoft
2 131 (10.35%) VMware
3 98 (7.74%) Cisco
4 53 (4.19%) Splunk
5 48 (3.79%) SAP
6 47 (3.71%) Juniper
7 37 (2.92%) Red Hat
8 32 (2.53%) Palantir
9 31 (2.45%) Oracle
10 28 (2.21%) SolarWinds
11 24 (1.90%) Foundry
12 23 (1.82%) NetApp
13 22 (1.74%) Dell
14 18 (1.42%) ServiceNow
15 16 (1.26%) Veeam
16 15 (1.18%) HP
17 14 (1.11%) Apple
17 14 (1.11%) Atlassian
17 14 (1.11%) Remedy
18 13 (1.03%) Google