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

6 months to
29 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 64 55 41
Rank change year-on-year -9 -14 +63
Contract jobs citing DV Cleared 1,403 1,173 2,029
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.65% 3.73% 4.63%
As % of the Qualifications category 10.73% 12.49% 15.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 999 740 1,409
10th Percentile £430 £372 £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 £725 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £575 £588 £600
% change year-on-year -2.13% -2.08% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 38 30 114
10th Percentile £16.35 £35.75 £48.40
25th Percentile £18.33 £56.65 £56.65
Median hourly rate £57.50 £63.15 £63.29
Median % change year-on-year -8.95% -0.22% -9.59%
75th Percentile £76.88 £73.94 £77.50
90th Percentile £87.95 £86.72 £85.65
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £63.15 £63.29
% change year-on-year +2.93% -0.22% -12.70%

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 13,071 9,389 13,363
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.96% 29.83% 30.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,629 5,647 8,330
10th Percentile £317 £300 £296
25th Percentile £415 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £525 £548
Median % change year-on-year -1.24% -4.11% -0.45%
75th Percentile £625 £632 £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 958 457 900
10th Percentile £15.62 £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 £66.25
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 29 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 29 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 29 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 -11 1,277 £575 -3.36% 414
UK excluding London -7 990 £575 -2.13% 367
South East +4 497 £565 -1.74% 148
South West -5 308 £575 -4.17% 109
London -38 288 £600 +4.35% 73
Work from Home +18 184 £555 -0.89% 156
Midlands -27 72 £581 -16.22% 18
West Midlands -14 63 £575 -17.12% 12
North of England -44 52 £590 +7.27% 39
East of England +8 46 £575 - 54
North West +4 44 £580 +182.93% 29
Scotland -28 26 £652 +26.50% 5
Northern Ireland +6 10 £600 - 1
East Midlands -21 9 £650 +16.07% 6
Yorkshire -53 7 £613 +11.36% 9
Wales -4 5 £600 -14.29% 5
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 51 (3.64%) Microsoft Exchange
2 49 (3.49%) SharePoint
3 32 (2.28%) Apache
4 28 (2.00%) Skype for Business
5 22 (1.57%) 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 (0.21%) Apache Spark
9 3 (0.21%) Documentum
9 3 (0.21%) IIS
9 3 (0.21%) Oracle Workflow
10 1 (0.071%) Mattermost
10 1 (0.071%) nginx
Applications
1 66 (4.70%) Microsoft Office
2 34 (2.42%) Microsoft Excel
3 16 (1.14%) Microsoft Project
4 11 (0.78%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.43%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.071%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 16 (1.14%) SAP S/4HANA
2 12 (0.86%) Remedy ITSM
3 11 (0.78%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 10 (0.71%) SAP EWM
4 10 (0.71%) SAP WM
5 8 (0.57%) 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 (0.21%) Oracle Payables
8 3 (0.21%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
9 1 (0.071%) Oracle Cash Management
9 1 (0.071%) Oracle General Ledger
9 1 (0.071%) Oracle Payroll
9 1 (0.071%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
9 1 (0.071%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 127 (9.05%) AWS
2 124 (8.84%) Azure
3 57 (4.06%) Microsoft 365
4 51 (3.64%) GitHub
5 40 (2.85%) Serverless
6 39 (2.78%) GCP
6 39 (2.78%) OpenShift
7 31 (2.21%) Azure DevOps
8 29 (2.07%) GitHub Actions
9 24 (1.71%) Amazon S3
10 19 (1.35%) Amazon ECS
10 19 (1.35%) AWS CloudFormation
10 19 (1.35%) IaaS
11 18 (1.28%) Entra ID
12 17 (1.21%) Amazon EC2
12 17 (1.21%) AWS Lambda
12 17 (1.21%) Azure Sentinel
13 14 (1.00%) Azure AKS
13 14 (1.00%) PaaS
14 13 (0.93%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 104 (7.41%) Firewall
2 90 (6.41%) DNS
3 62 (4.42%) Network Security
4 50 (3.56%) VPN
5 43 (3.06%) TCP/IP
6 37 (2.64%) LAN
7 36 (2.57%) DHCP
8 33 (2.35%) WAN
9 29 (2.07%) Cisco IOS
10 28 (2.00%) Skype
11 25 (1.78%) Junos
12 24 (1.71%) BGP
13 23 (1.64%) Cisco ISE
14 22 (1.57%) SAN
15 21 (1.50%) Cisco Firepower
16 17 (1.21%) VLAN
17 15 (1.07%) MPLS
18 14 (1.00%) OSPF
19 13 (0.93%) SSL
20 11 (0.78%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (2.07%) PostgreSQL
2 18 (1.28%) Big Data
2 18 (1.28%) Elasticsearch
3 17 (1.21%) SQL Server
4 16 (1.14%) Amazon RDS
5 15 (1.07%) Oracle Database
6 12 (0.86%) Hadoop
7 11 (0.78%) MongoDB
7 11 (0.78%) Redis
8 10 (0.71%) Relational Database
9 8 (0.57%) MySQL
9 8 (0.57%) Power BI
10 7 (0.50%) InfluxDB
11 6 (0.43%) SAP HANA
12 5 (0.36%) Metadata
12 5 (0.36%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 4 (0.29%) DynamoDB
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 (2.92%) JIRA
2 34 (2.42%) GitLab
3 31 (2.21%) Jenkins
4 29 (2.07%) Git
5 17 (1.21%) SonarQube
6 15 (1.07%) Maven
7 13 (0.93%) Artifactory
8 11 (0.78%) Sonatype Nexus
9 9 (0.64%) Bitbucket
10 8 (0.57%) 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
1 273 (19.46%) Social Skills
2 181 (12.90%) Public Sector
3 111 (7.91%) Analytical Skills
4 63 (4.49%) Finance
5 49 (3.49%) Military
6 42 (2.99%) Documentation Skills
7 37 (2.64%) Legal
8 26 (1.85%) Manufacturing
8 26 (1.85%) Telecoms
9 25 (1.78%) Presentation Skills
10 21 (1.50%) Law
10 21 (1.50%) Organisational Skills
11 19 (1.35%) Aerospace
12 16 (1.14%) Marketing
13 15 (1.07%) Electronics
14 14 (1.00%) Banking
15 13 (0.93%) Police
16 8 (0.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 2 (0.14%) Influencing Skills
17 2 (0.14%) Multimedia
Job Titles
1 237 (16.89%) Architect
2 83 (5.92%) Analyst
3 82 (5.84%) Consultant
4 77 (5.49%) Senior
5 62 (4.42%) Network Engineer
6 59 (4.21%) DevOps Engineer
7 57 (4.06%) Support Engineer
8 54 (3.85%) Developer
8 54 (3.85%) Lead
9 51 (3.64%) Technical Architect
10 47 (3.35%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
11 46 (3.28%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 42 (2.99%) 3rd Line Engineer
12 42 (2.99%) Tester
13 37 (2.64%) Cloud Engineer
13 37 (2.64%) Project Manager
14 36 (2.57%) SOC Analyst
15 35 (2.49%) Infrastructure Architect
15 35 (2.49%) Solutions Architect
16 32 (2.28%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (2.28%) REST
2 31 (2.21%) Apache NiFi
3 22 (1.57%) OAuth
4 20 (1.43%) OpenID
4 20 (1.43%) React
5 19 (1.35%) SAML
6 18 (1.28%) OAuth2
7 17 (1.21%) Kafka
8 16 (1.14%) Node.js
9 15 (1.07%) Elastic Stack
9 15 (1.07%) YAML
10 14 (1.00%) Flask
11 12 (0.86%) .NET
11 12 (0.86%) FastAPI
11 12 (0.86%) RabbitMQ
12 10 (0.71%) JSON
12 10 (0.71%) LDAP
13 9 (0.64%) gRPC
13 9 (0.64%) Web Services
13 9 (0.64%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 93 (6.63%) PKI
2 45 (3.21%) Data Centre
3 33 (2.35%) Management Information System
3 33 (2.35%) Security Operations Centre
4 23 (1.64%) Cyber Threat
5 20 (1.43%) Cloud Native
5 20 (1.43%) Private Cloud
6 19 (1.35%) Replication
7 18 (1.28%) Cyberattack
7 18 (1.28%) Onboarding
8 15 (1.07%) Product Ownership
9 14 (1.00%) Analytical Mindset
10 13 (0.93%) Cyber Defence
10 13 (0.93%) Hybrid Cloud
11 12 (0.86%) Fat Client
11 12 (0.86%) Insider Threat
11 12 (0.86%) Thin Client
12 11 (0.78%) CSOC
12 11 (0.78%) Enterprise Software
13 10 (0.71%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 254 (18.10%) Windows
2 160 (11.40%) Linux
3 77 (5.49%) Windows Server
4 41 (2.92%) Windows 10
5 27 (1.92%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 18 (1.28%) Windows 7
7 14 (1.00%) Ubuntu
8 11 (0.78%) Unix
9 10 (0.71%) Android
9 10 (0.71%) Mac OS
10 8 (0.57%) CentOS
10 8 (0.57%) Windows Server 2003
11 6 (0.43%) Windows Server 2019
12 3 (0.21%) Debian
13 2 (0.14%) Rocky
13 2 (0.14%) VMS
13 2 (0.14%) Windows Server 2016
14 1 (0.071%) Data ONTAP
14 1 (0.071%) Mac OS X
14 1 (0.071%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 238 (16.96%) Agile
2 172 (12.26%) Problem-Solving
3 153 (10.91%) Cybersecurity
4 141 (10.05%) DevOps
5 126 (8.98%) CI/CD
6 109 (7.77%) ITIL
7 88 (6.27%) Service Management
8 87 (6.20%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 82 (5.84%) Continuous Improvement
9 82 (5.84%) Infrastructure as Code
10 79 (5.63%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 77 (5.49%) Stakeholder Management
12 76 (5.42%) SIEM
13 74 (5.27%) ITSM
14 70 (4.99%) Containerisation
15 65 (4.63%) Incident Response
15 65 (4.63%) Risk Management
16 62 (4.42%) Project Delivery
17 59 (4.21%) Project Management
18 57 (4.06%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 137 (9.76%) Python
2 118 (8.41%) PowerShell
3 68 (4.85%) SQL
4 44 (3.14%) Java
5 33 (2.35%) JavaScript
6 32 (2.28%) Bash
7 19 (1.35%) Go
8 15 (1.07%) C#
8 15 (1.07%) Shell Script
8 15 (1.07%) TypeScript
9 12 (0.86%) C++
10 9 (0.64%) Bicep
11 8 (0.57%) C
11 8 (0.57%) VB
11 8 (0.57%) VBScript
12 5 (0.36%) ABAP
12 5 (0.36%) PL/SQL
13 3 (0.21%) PHP
13 3 (0.21%) T-SQL
14 2 (0.14%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 1,403 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 446 (31.79%) SC Cleared
3 57 (4.06%) Degree
4 54 (3.85%) CISSP
5 37 (2.64%) CISM
6 35 (2.49%) Cisco Certification
6 35 (2.49%) Microsoft Certification
7 25 (1.78%) CompTIA Security+
8 23 (1.64%) CCNP
9 21 (1.50%) GIAC
10 18 (1.28%) BPSS Clearance
10 18 (1.28%) Computer Science Degree
11 16 (1.14%) CompTIA CySA+
12 15 (1.07%) CEH
13 14 (1.00%) CESG Certified Professional
13 14 (1.00%) CTC Cleared
14 13 (0.93%) Azure Certification
14 13 (0.93%) CCNA
15 10 (0.71%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
16 9 (0.64%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 74 (5.27%) NIST
2 60 (4.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 53 (3.78%) NCSC
4 36 (2.57%) QA
5 29 (2.07%) JSP 440
6 25 (1.78%) PMO
7 19 (1.35%) GDPR
8 16 (1.14%) GRC
9 15 (1.07%) Data Quality
9 15 (1.07%) NIST 800
9 15 (1.07%) SLA
10 10 (0.71%) RMADS
11 7 (0.50%) Cyber Essentials
12 6 (0.43%) ISO/IEC 20000
13 5 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 5 (0.36%) P3O
14 4 (0.29%) Actionable Recommendations
14 4 (0.29%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 3 (0.21%) COBIT
15 3 (0.21%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 116 (8.27%) Active Directory
2 83 (5.92%) Docker
3 72 (5.13%) VMware Infrastructure
4 46 (3.28%) VMware NSX
5 30 (2.14%) VMware ESXi
6 17 (1.21%) vSphere
7 11 (0.78%) Virtual Machines
8 10 (0.71%) BitLocker
9 8 (0.57%) Firmware
9 8 (0.57%) 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 (0.21%) GPFS
12 3 (0.21%) Lustre
12 3 (0.21%) Microsoft App-V
12 3 (0.21%) Slurm Workload Manager
12 3 (0.21%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 132 (9.41%) Kubernetes
2 109 (7.77%) Terraform
3 79 (5.63%) Ansible
4 54 (3.85%) vCenter Server
5 38 (2.71%) Grafana
6 34 (2.42%) Single Sign-On
7 33 (2.35%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 32 (2.28%) Prometheus
9 26 (1.85%) SCCM
10 16 (1.14%) WMI
11 15 (1.07%) Progress Chef
12 13 (0.93%) Puppet
13 11 (0.78%) Podman
13 11 (0.78%) SCOM
14 10 (0.71%) vRealize
15 8 (0.57%) Argo
15 8 (0.57%) Microsoft Clustering
15 8 (0.57%) VxRail
16 7 (0.50%) Nessus
17 6 (0.43%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 212 (15.11%) Microsoft
2 146 (10.41%) VMware
3 104 (7.41%) Cisco
4 52 (3.71%) Splunk
5 45 (3.21%) Juniper
6 43 (3.06%) SAP
7 40 (2.85%) Oracle
8 39 (2.78%) Red Hat
9 30 (2.14%) SolarWinds
10 24 (1.71%) Palantir
11 23 (1.64%) ServiceNow
12 22 (1.57%) Dell
12 22 (1.57%) NetApp
13 19 (1.35%) Foundry
14 15 (1.07%) Palo Alto
15 14 (1.00%) Google
15 14 (1.00%) Remedy
15 14 (1.00%) Sparx
16 13 (0.93%) Atlassian
16 13 (0.93%) Veeam