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 November 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 74 45 52
Rank change year-on-year -29 +7 +82
Contract jobs citing DV Cleared 1,222 1,549 1,896
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.39% 4.25% 4.13%
As % of the Qualifications category 10.16% 14.46% 14.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 855 974 1,271
10th Percentile £465 £413 £388
25th Percentile £513 £500 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £599 £600
Median % change year-on-year +0.17% -0.17% -
75th Percentile £688 £685 £688
90th Percentile £750 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £600 £598 £577
% change year-on-year +0.33% +3.64% -1.54%
Number of hourly rates quoted 36 59 112
10th Percentile £19.82 £46.25 £54.06
25th Percentile - £55.87 £58.75
Median hourly rate £25.15 £63.15 £67.13
Median % change year-on-year -60.17% -5.92% -4.79%
75th Percentile £71.00 £74.00 £77.50
90th Percentile £85.63 £100.00 £80.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.00 £63.15 £68.63
% change year-on-year +6.10% -7.98% -4.21%

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 12,027 10,710 13,528
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.37% 29.38% 29.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,762 6,441 8,543
10th Percentile £305 £309 £300
25th Percentile £413 £423 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £520 £538
% change year-on-year -3.85% -3.26% +2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,015 520 767
10th Percentile £17.50 £18.94 £17.72
25th Percentile £19.38 £24.18 £27.50
Median hourly rate £25.15 £42.50 £53.67
Median % change year-on-year -40.82% -20.80% +19.26%
75th Percentile £47.62 £66.00 £68.72
90th Percentile £74.06 £75.00 £80.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £52.50
% change year-on-year -45.54% -12.04% +16.67%

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 November 2025.

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 November 2025.

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 November 2025. 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 -27 1,121 £600 - 426
UK excluding London -20 826 £600 +0.33% 399
South East -3 420 £600 +2.13% 216
London -28 293 £625 +6.38% 82
South West -7 263 £625 +4.17% 127
Work from Home -11 173 £600 - 128
Midlands -20 87 £588 -2.08% 15
West Midlands -9 82 £575 -11.54% 12
East of England -17 28 £538 -2.23% 26
North of England -60 23 £500 -9.09% 15
Scotland -43 19 £628 +21.55% 5
North West -23 15 £500 - 13
Northern Ireland 0 8 £594 -
Yorkshire -39 6 £521 -5.23% 2
Wales -11 5 £600 -14.29% 8
East Midlands -12 5 £725 +55.91% 3
North East -15 2 £625 +11.11%

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 49 (4.01%) SharePoint
2 46 (3.76%) Microsoft Exchange
3 40 (3.27%) Apache
4 32 (2.62%) Skype for Business
5 25 (2.05%) Confluence
6 11 (0.90%) SharePoint Server
7 10 (0.82%) Exchange Server 2003
7 10 (0.82%) Exchange Server 2007
7 10 (0.82%) Exchange Server 2010
7 10 (0.82%) Exchange Server 2013
7 10 (0.82%) Office Communications Server
8 6 (0.49%) IIS
9 5 (0.41%) OpenStack
10 4 (0.33%) CMS
11 3 (0.25%) Apache Spark
11 3 (0.25%) Documentum
11 3 (0.25%) nginx
12 1 (0.082%) Mattermost
Applications
1 59 (4.83%) Microsoft Office
2 19 (1.55%) Microsoft Excel
3 15 (1.23%) Microsoft Project
4 7 (0.57%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.41%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.082%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 17 (1.39%) SAP S/4HANA
2 11 (0.90%) Remedy ITSM
3 10 (0.82%) SAP EWM
3 10 (0.82%) SAP WM
4 7 (0.57%) Primavera
5 6 (0.49%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
6 3 (0.25%) Maximo
6 3 (0.25%) Oracle Applications
7 1 (0.082%) Oracle Assets
7 1 (0.082%) Oracle Cash Management
7 1 (0.082%) Oracle ERP
7 1 (0.082%) Oracle General Ledger
7 1 (0.082%) Oracle Payroll
7 1 (0.082%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 1 (0.082%) Oracle Receivables
7 1 (0.082%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 133 (10.88%) Azure
2 127 (10.39%) AWS
3 61 (4.99%) Microsoft 365
4 43 (3.52%) Serverless
5 42 (3.44%) GitHub
6 36 (2.95%) GCP
7 29 (2.37%) OpenShift
8 28 (2.29%) Azure DevOps
9 21 (1.72%) Amazon S3
10 20 (1.64%) GitHub Actions
11 17 (1.39%) AWS CloudFormation
11 17 (1.39%) Entra ID
12 15 (1.23%) Amazon EC2
12 15 (1.23%) Amazon ECS
12 15 (1.23%) AWS Lambda
13 13 (1.06%) Azure Sentinel
13 13 (1.06%) Power Platform
14 11 (0.90%) IaaS
14 11 (0.90%) npm
15 10 (0.82%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 83 (6.79%) Firewall
2 75 (6.14%) DNS
3 50 (4.09%) Network Security
4 46 (3.76%) LAN
5 38 (3.11%) VPN
6 34 (2.78%) DHCP
7 31 (2.54%) WAN
8 28 (2.29%) Cisco IOS
8 28 (2.29%) TCP/IP
9 27 (2.21%) Junos
10 26 (2.13%) Skype
11 24 (1.96%) BGP
11 24 (1.96%) Cisco ISE
12 23 (1.88%) Cisco Firepower
13 21 (1.72%) SAN
13 21 (1.72%) Wireless
14 15 (1.23%) VLAN
15 14 (1.15%) OSPF
16 13 (1.06%) iSCSI
17 12 (0.98%) Unified Communications
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (2.13%) Big Data
2 23 (1.88%) PostgreSQL
3 18 (1.47%) Elasticsearch
4 17 (1.39%) Hadoop
5 13 (1.06%) SQL Server
6 12 (0.98%) Oracle Database
7 11 (0.90%) Redis
8 10 (0.82%) Amazon RDS
8 10 (0.82%) Relational Database
9 8 (0.65%) MongoDB
10 7 (0.57%) InfluxDB
10 7 (0.57%) Power BI
11 6 (0.49%) SAP HANA
12 5 (0.41%) RDBMS
13 4 (0.33%) Metadata
14 3 (0.25%) Apache Hive
14 3 (0.25%) Looker
14 3 (0.25%) MySQL
14 3 (0.25%) NoSQL
14 3 (0.25%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 45 (3.68%) Jenkins
2 44 (3.60%) GitLab
3 39 (3.19%) JIRA
4 36 (2.95%) Git
5 18 (1.47%) SonarQube
6 14 (1.15%) Maven
7 11 (0.90%) Artifactory
7 11 (0.90%) Bitbucket
8 10 (0.82%) Sonatype Nexus
9 7 (0.57%) Cypress.io
10 6 (0.49%) Selenium
11 5 (0.41%) JUnit
11 5 (0.41%) Postman
12 4 (0.33%) CircleCI
12 4 (0.33%) Gradle
12 4 (0.33%) MSI
12 4 (0.33%) Robot Framework
12 4 (0.33%) Snyk
12 4 (0.33%) SoapUI
12 4 (0.33%) webpack
General
1 257 (21.03%) Social Skills
2 194 (15.88%) Public Sector
3 87 (7.12%) Analytical Skills
4 68 (5.56%) Finance
5 44 (3.60%) Military
5 44 (3.60%) Telecoms
6 38 (3.11%) Manufacturing
7 26 (2.13%) Documentation Skills
8 25 (2.05%) Electronics
8 25 (2.05%) Legal
8 25 (2.05%) Marketing
9 23 (1.88%) Law
10 21 (1.72%) Banking
11 17 (1.39%) Presentation Skills
12 12 (0.98%) Aerospace
12 12 (0.98%) Police
13 10 (0.82%) Organisational Skills
14 8 (0.65%) Influencing Skills
15 7 (0.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 1 (0.082%) Aviation
Job Titles
1 222 (18.17%) Architect
2 91 (7.45%) Consultant
3 65 (5.32%) Analyst
3 65 (5.32%) Network Engineer
4 61 (4.99%) Support Engineer
5 55 (4.50%) Developer
5 55 (4.50%) Senior
6 53 (4.34%) Solutions Architect
7 49 (4.01%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
8 48 (3.93%) DevOps Engineer
8 48 (3.93%) Lead
9 39 (3.19%) Technical Architect
10 37 (3.03%) 3rd Line Engineer
11 35 (2.86%) Cloud Engineer
12 34 (2.78%) Infrastructure Architect
13 33 (2.70%) Network Architect
14 32 (2.62%) Project Manager
15 29 (2.37%) Administrator
15 29 (2.37%) Infrastructure Engineer
16 25 (2.05%) Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (3.03%) Apache NiFi
2 30 (2.45%) REST
3 26 (2.13%) Kafka
4 21 (1.72%) React
5 18 (1.47%) OAuth
6 17 (1.39%) Elastic Stack
6 17 (1.39%) Node.js
6 17 (1.39%) YAML
7 16 (1.31%) .NET
7 16 (1.31%) OpenID
8 15 (1.23%) OAuth2
8 15 (1.23%) SAML
9 14 (1.15%) RabbitMQ
10 13 (1.06%) RESTful
11 9 (0.74%) JSON
11 9 (0.74%) SOAP
11 9 (0.74%) Spring
11 9 (0.74%) Web Services
12 8 (0.65%) Flask
12 8 (0.65%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 74 (6.06%) PKI
2 46 (3.76%) Data Centre
3 34 (2.78%) Management Information System
4 31 (2.54%) Onboarding
5 25 (2.05%) Cyber Threat
6 21 (1.72%) Private Cloud
6 21 (1.72%) Security Operations Centre
7 20 (1.64%) Cloud Native
7 20 (1.64%) Replication
8 16 (1.31%) Driving Licence
9 13 (1.06%) Analytical Mindset
9 13 (1.06%) Greenfield Project
10 12 (0.98%) Cyber Defence
10 12 (0.98%) Enterprise Software
11 10 (0.82%) CSOC
11 10 (0.82%) Fat Client
11 10 (0.82%) Hybrid Cloud
11 10 (0.82%) Legacy Systems
11 10 (0.82%) Thin Client
12 9 (0.74%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 204 (16.69%) Windows
2 115 (9.41%) Linux
3 75 (6.14%) Windows Server
4 31 (2.54%) Windows 10
5 28 (2.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 19 (1.55%) Android
6 19 (1.55%) Mac OS
7 18 (1.47%) Windows Server 2019
8 15 (1.23%) Windows 7
9 13 (1.06%) Unix
10 11 (0.90%) Windows Server 2003
11 10 (0.82%) CentOS
12 8 (0.65%) Ubuntu
13 3 (0.25%) Windows Server 2016
14 2 (0.16%) Debian
14 2 (0.16%) VMS
15 1 (0.082%) Data ONTAP
15 1 (0.082%) Mac OS X
15 1 (0.082%) Rocky
15 1 (0.082%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 223 (18.25%) Agile
2 130 (10.64%) DevOps
3 129 (10.56%) Cybersecurity
4 126 (10.31%) Problem-Solving
5 118 (9.66%) CI/CD
6 85 (6.96%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 80 (6.55%) ITIL
8 76 (6.22%) Infrastructure as Code
8 76 (6.22%) Stakeholder Management
9 68 (5.56%) Containerisation
10 65 (5.32%) Continuous Improvement
10 65 (5.32%) Risk Management
11 63 (5.16%) Service Management
12 62 (5.07%) ITSM
13 61 (4.99%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 58 (4.75%) Mentoring
15 57 (4.66%) Scrum
16 56 (4.58%) SIEM
17 55 (4.50%) Migration
18 51 (4.17%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 147 (12.03%) Python
2 109 (8.92%) PowerShell
3 68 (5.56%) SQL
4 63 (5.16%) Java
5 39 (3.19%) JavaScript
6 35 (2.86%) Bash
7 20 (1.64%) C#
8 19 (1.55%) Go
9 17 (1.39%) C++
10 16 (1.31%) TypeScript
11 11 (0.90%) Shell Script
12 10 (0.82%) C
13 8 (0.65%) VB
13 8 (0.65%) VBScript
14 5 (0.41%) ABAP
15 4 (0.33%) Bicep
16 3 (0.25%) Kusto Query Language
16 3 (0.25%) PHP
16 3 (0.25%) T-SQL
17 2 (0.16%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 1,222 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 385 (31.51%) SC Cleared
3 44 (3.60%) CISSP
4 41 (3.36%) Degree
5 35 (2.86%) Microsoft Certification
6 27 (2.21%) Cisco Certification
6 27 (2.21%) CISM
7 18 (1.47%) CCNP
8 15 (1.23%) BPSS Clearance
8 15 (1.23%) CEH
9 14 (1.15%) CESG Certified Professional
10 12 (0.98%) CCNA
10 12 (0.98%) GIAC
10 12 (0.98%) MCSE
11 10 (0.82%) Azure Certification
11 10 (0.82%) CompTIA Security+
11 10 (0.82%) PMI Certification
12 9 (0.74%) AWS Certification
12 9 (0.74%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
13 8 (0.65%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 62 (5.07%) NIST
2 52 (4.26%) NCSC
3 42 (3.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 28 (2.29%) SLA
5 20 (1.64%) NIST 800
6 19 (1.55%) JSP 440
6 19 (1.55%) PMO
7 18 (1.47%) GDPR
7 18 (1.47%) QA
8 14 (1.15%) RMADS
9 12 (0.98%) Data Quality
10 5 (0.41%) P3O
11 4 (0.33%) Cyber Essentials
11 4 (0.33%) Def Stans
11 4 (0.33%) GRC
11 4 (0.33%) ISO/IEC 20000
12 3 (0.25%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 3 (0.25%) EU AI Act
12 3 (0.25%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 3 (0.25%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 103 (8.43%) Active Directory
2 76 (6.22%) Docker
3 71 (5.81%) VMware Infrastructure
4 42 (3.44%) VMware ESXi
5 37 (3.03%) VMware NSX
6 30 (2.45%) vSphere
7 14 (1.15%) Virtual Machines
8 13 (1.06%) NFS
9 10 (0.82%) Brightmail
9 10 (0.82%) ISA Server
10 7 (0.57%) Virtual Desktop
11 5 (0.41%) BitLocker
11 5 (0.41%) Firmware
12 4 (0.33%) Hyper-V
13 2 (0.16%) GPFS
13 2 (0.16%) Lustre
13 2 (0.16%) Oracle RAC
13 2 (0.16%) Slurm Workload Manager
13 2 (0.16%) Virtual Servers
14 1 (0.082%) Microsoft App-V
Systems Management
1 116 (9.49%) Kubernetes
2 104 (8.51%) Terraform
3 85 (6.96%) Ansible
4 37 (3.03%) Grafana
4 37 (3.03%) vCenter Server
5 31 (2.54%) Prometheus
6 24 (1.96%) SCCM
7 21 (1.72%) Single Sign-On
8 20 (1.64%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 13 (1.06%) Progress Chef
9 13 (1.06%) WMI
10 11 (0.90%) Microsoft Clustering
11 10 (0.82%) Podman
11 10 (0.82%) Puppet
12 9 (0.74%) Microsoft Intune
12 9 (0.74%) SCOM
13 8 (0.65%) Argo
14 7 (0.57%) FortiGate
15 6 (0.49%) Proxmox
15 6 (0.49%) vRealize
Vendors
1 187 (15.30%) Microsoft
2 144 (11.78%) VMware
3 117 (9.57%) Cisco
4 68 (5.56%) Juniper
5 54 (4.42%) SAP
6 49 (4.01%) Splunk
7 33 (2.70%) Palantir
8 32 (2.62%) SolarWinds
9 29 (2.37%) Oracle
10 26 (2.13%) Red Hat
11 25 (2.05%) Dell
11 25 (2.05%) Foundry
12 21 (1.72%) Veeam
13 20 (1.64%) HP
14 19 (1.55%) Apple
15 18 (1.47%) NetApp
16 16 (1.31%) ServiceNow
17 14 (1.15%) Atlassian
17 14 (1.15%) Google
18 13 (1.06%) Cloudera