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

6 months to
4 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 64 57 38
Rank change year-on-year -7 -19 +62
Contract jobs citing DV Cleared 1,434 1,136 2,143
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.67% 3.67% 4.79%
As % of the Qualifications category 10.88% 12.37% 15.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,017 721 1,500
10th Percentile £430 £372 £370
25th Percentile £506 £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 £794
UK excluding London median daily rate £575 £588 £600
% change year-on-year -2.13% -2.08% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 39 29 118
10th Percentile £16.35 £35.25 £48.40
25th Percentile £18.50 £55.87 £56.65
Median hourly rate £59.50 £63.15 £63.29
Median % change year-on-year -5.78% -0.22% -9.59%
75th Percentile £79.75 £73.75 £78.00
90th Percentile £89.45 £87.36 £87.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.50 £63.15 £63.29
% change year-on-year +3.72% -0.22% -11.67%

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 13,183 9,186 13,617
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.75% 29.69% 30.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,693 5,549 8,484
10th Percentile £315 £300 £295
25th Percentile £415 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £517 £525 £544
Median % change year-on-year -1.60% -3.40% -1.18%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £650
90th Percentile £720 £725 £729
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £535
% change year-on-year - -6.54% +1.90%
Number of hourly rates quoted 968 452 950
10th Percentile £15.71 £19.84 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.08 £24.18 £21.25
Median hourly rate £25.15 £39.02 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year -35.55% -15.50% +2.62%
75th Percentile £63.75 £65.71 £65.00
90th Percentile £76.58 £77.47 £78.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £42.50 £46.18
% change year-on-year -40.82% -7.97% +2.62%

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 February 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 February 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 February 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 -10 1,299 £575 -2.54% 460
UK excluding London -7 1,016 £575 -2.13% 408
South East +4 502 £560 -2.61% 147
South West -3 316 £575 -4.17% 155
London -45 286 £585 +1.74% 75
Work from Home +9 192 £555 -1.33% 138
Midlands -23 73 £575 -16.36% 25
West Midlands -19 62 £575 -17.12% 19
North of England -35 57 £590 +7.27% 39
East of England -1 50 £575 - 50
North West +3 47 £580 +182.93% 31
Scotland -16 29 £653 +26.80% 1
East Midlands -20 11 £650 +18.18% 6
Northern Ireland - 10 £600 -
Yorkshire -47 9 £613 +11.36% 8
Wales +3 5 £600 -14.29% 1
North East -23 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 (3.56%) Microsoft Exchange
2 50 (3.49%) SharePoint
3 30 (2.09%) Apache
4 26 (1.81%) Skype for Business
5 25 (1.74%) Confluence
6 19 (1.32%) Palantir Foundry
7 5 (0.35%) OpenStack
8 4 (0.28%) Apache Spark
9 3 (0.21%) Documentum
9 3 (0.21%) Oracle Workflow
9 3 (0.21%) SharePoint Server
10 2 (0.14%) Exchange Server 2003
10 2 (0.14%) Exchange Server 2007
10 2 (0.14%) Exchange Server 2010
10 2 (0.14%) Exchange Server 2013
10 2 (0.14%) Office Communications Server
11 1 (0.070%) Apache Airflow
11 1 (0.070%) nginx
Applications
1 61 (4.25%) Microsoft Office
2 35 (2.44%) Microsoft Excel
3 16 (1.12%) Microsoft Project
4 11 (0.77%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.42%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.070%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 18 (1.26%) SAP S/4HANA
2 12 (0.84%) Remedy ITSM
3 11 (0.77%) SAP EWM
3 11 (0.77%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 10 (0.70%) SAP WM
5 8 (0.56%) Maximo
6 5 (0.35%) Primavera
7 4 (0.28%) Oracle Applications
7 4 (0.28%) Oracle Assets
7 4 (0.28%) Oracle ERP
8 3 (0.21%) Oracle Payables
8 3 (0.21%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
9 2 (0.14%) SAP GRC
10 1 (0.070%) Oracle Cash Management
10 1 (0.070%) Oracle General Ledger
10 1 (0.070%) Oracle Payroll
10 1 (0.070%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
10 1 (0.070%) Oracle Receivables
10 1 (0.070%) SAP FI
10 1 (0.070%) SAP HR
Cloud Services
1 129 (9.00%) AWS
2 125 (8.72%) Azure
3 57 (3.97%) Microsoft 365
4 52 (3.63%) GitHub
5 40 (2.79%) GCP
5 40 (2.79%) OpenShift
6 39 (2.72%) Serverless
7 31 (2.16%) Azure DevOps
8 29 (2.02%) GitHub Actions
9 23 (1.60%) Amazon S3
10 19 (1.32%) IaaS
11 18 (1.26%) Amazon ECS
11 18 (1.26%) Entra ID
12 17 (1.19%) Amazon EC2
12 17 (1.19%) AWS CloudFormation
12 17 (1.19%) Azure Sentinel
13 16 (1.12%) AWS Lambda
14 15 (1.05%) PaaS
15 13 (0.91%) Azure AKS
16 12 (0.84%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 105 (7.32%) Firewall
2 89 (6.21%) DNS
3 64 (4.46%) Network Security
4 49 (3.42%) VPN
5 43 (3.00%) TCP/IP
6 34 (2.37%) DHCP
6 34 (2.37%) LAN
7 31 (2.16%) WAN
8 29 (2.02%) Cisco IOS
9 28 (1.95%) Skype
10 25 (1.74%) BGP
10 25 (1.74%) Junos
11 23 (1.60%) Cisco ISE
12 21 (1.46%) Cisco Firepower
13 20 (1.39%) SAN
14 18 (1.26%) VLAN
15 15 (1.05%) MPLS
15 15 (1.05%) OSPF
16 13 (0.91%) SSL
17 11 (0.77%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (2.02%) PostgreSQL
2 20 (1.39%) Elasticsearch
3 18 (1.26%) Big Data
3 18 (1.26%) SQL Server
4 16 (1.12%) Amazon RDS
5 15 (1.05%) Oracle Database
6 13 (0.91%) Hadoop
7 10 (0.70%) MongoDB
7 10 (0.70%) Redis
7 10 (0.70%) Relational Database
8 8 (0.56%) MySQL
8 8 (0.56%) Power BI
9 7 (0.49%) InfluxDB
9 7 (0.49%) SAP HANA
10 6 (0.42%) Metadata
11 5 (0.35%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 4 (0.28%) NoSQL
12 4 (0.28%) RDBMS
12 4 (0.28%) SQL Server Analysis Services
12 4 (0.28%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 44 (3.07%) JIRA
2 34 (2.37%) GitLab
3 31 (2.16%) Jenkins
4 28 (1.95%) Git
5 16 (1.12%) SonarQube
6 14 (0.98%) Maven
7 12 (0.84%) Artifactory
8 10 (0.70%) Sonatype Nexus
9 8 (0.56%) Bitbucket
10 7 (0.49%) Cypress.io
11 5 (0.35%) Postman
11 5 (0.35%) Selenium
12 4 (0.28%) CircleCI
12 4 (0.28%) Gradle
12 4 (0.28%) JUnit
12 4 (0.28%) Oracle APEX
12 4 (0.28%) Robot Framework
12 4 (0.28%) Snyk
12 4 (0.28%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
12 4 (0.28%) webpack
General
1 271 (18.90%) Social Skills
2 181 (12.62%) Public Sector
3 112 (7.81%) Analytical Skills
4 60 (4.18%) Finance
5 53 (3.70%) Military
6 43 (3.00%) Documentation Skills
7 40 (2.79%) Legal
8 26 (1.81%) Presentation Skills
8 26 (1.81%) Telecoms
9 25 (1.74%) Manufacturing
10 22 (1.53%) Aerospace
11 21 (1.46%) Law
11 21 (1.46%) Organisational Skills
12 15 (1.05%) Marketing
13 14 (0.98%) Banking
13 14 (0.98%) Electronics
14 13 (0.91%) Police
15 8 (0.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 2 (0.14%) Influencing Skills
16 2 (0.14%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 243 (16.95%) Architect
2 83 (5.79%) Analyst
2 83 (5.79%) Consultant
3 78 (5.44%) Senior
4 63 (4.39%) Network Engineer
5 56 (3.91%) Developer
5 56 (3.91%) DevOps Engineer
5 56 (3.91%) Lead
6 55 (3.84%) Support Engineer
6 55 (3.84%) Technical Architect
7 49 (3.42%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 47 (3.28%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
9 46 (3.21%) Tester
10 42 (2.93%) 3rd Line Engineer
11 38 (2.65%) Solutions Architect
12 37 (2.58%) Cloud Engineer
12 37 (2.58%) Infrastructure Architect
12 37 (2.58%) Project Manager
13 36 (2.51%) SOC Analyst
14 33 (2.30%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (2.23%) REST
2 31 (2.16%) Apache NiFi
3 22 (1.53%) OAuth
4 21 (1.46%) React
5 20 (1.39%) OpenID
6 19 (1.32%) SAML
7 18 (1.26%) Kafka
7 18 (1.26%) OAuth2
8 16 (1.12%) Node.js
9 14 (0.98%) Flask
9 14 (0.98%) YAML
10 13 (0.91%) Elastic Stack
11 12 (0.84%) .NET
11 12 (0.84%) FastAPI
11 12 (0.84%) RabbitMQ
12 10 (0.70%) LDAP
12 10 (0.70%) Web Services
13 9 (0.63%) gRPC
13 9 (0.63%) JSON
13 9 (0.63%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 91 (6.35%) PKI
2 46 (3.21%) Data Centre
3 35 (2.44%) Management Information System
4 32 (2.23%) Security Operations Centre
5 23 (1.60%) Cyber Threat
6 21 (1.46%) Cloud Native
7 19 (1.32%) Private Cloud
8 18 (1.26%) Cyberattack
8 18 (1.26%) Onboarding
9 17 (1.19%) Replication
10 15 (1.05%) Hybrid Cloud
10 15 (1.05%) Product Ownership
11 14 (0.98%) Analytical Mindset
12 13 (0.91%) Cyber Defence
13 12 (0.84%) Fat Client
13 12 (0.84%) Insider Threat
13 12 (0.84%) Thin Client
14 11 (0.77%) CSOC
14 11 (0.77%) Enterprise Software
14 11 (0.77%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 258 (17.99%) Windows
2 166 (11.58%) Linux
3 77 (5.37%) Windows Server
4 41 (2.86%) Windows 10
5 26 (1.81%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 18 (1.26%) Windows 7
7 14 (0.98%) Ubuntu
8 10 (0.70%) Android
8 10 (0.70%) Mac OS
8 10 (0.70%) Unix
9 8 (0.56%) CentOS
10 6 (0.42%) Windows Server 2003
10 6 (0.42%) Windows Server 2019
11 3 (0.21%) Debian
12 2 (0.14%) Rocky
12 2 (0.14%) VMS
12 2 (0.14%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.070%) Data ONTAP
13 1 (0.070%) Mac OS X
13 1 (0.070%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 238 (16.60%) Agile
2 178 (12.41%) Problem-Solving
3 155 (10.81%) Cybersecurity
4 142 (9.90%) DevOps
5 125 (8.72%) CI/CD
6 107 (7.46%) ITIL
7 94 (6.56%) Service Management
8 89 (6.21%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 85 (5.93%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 83 (5.79%) Continuous Improvement
11 81 (5.65%) Infrastructure as Code
12 76 (5.30%) Stakeholder Management
13 74 (5.16%) ITSM
13 74 (5.16%) SIEM
14 69 (4.81%) Containerisation
15 66 (4.60%) Incident Response
16 65 (4.53%) Risk Management
17 62 (4.32%) Project Delivery
18 59 (4.11%) Project Management
18 59 (4.11%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 137 (9.55%) Python
2 116 (8.09%) PowerShell
3 67 (4.67%) SQL
4 47 (3.28%) Java
5 32 (2.23%) JavaScript
6 30 (2.09%) Bash
7 20 (1.39%) Go
8 16 (1.12%) TypeScript
9 15 (1.05%) C#
9 15 (1.05%) Shell Script
10 12 (0.84%) C++
11 9 (0.63%) Bicep
12 8 (0.56%) C
12 8 (0.56%) VB
13 7 (0.49%) VBScript
14 6 (0.42%) ABAP
15 5 (0.35%) PL/SQL
16 3 (0.21%) PHP
16 3 (0.21%) T-SQL
17 2 (0.14%) Rust
Qualifications
1 1,434 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 461 (32.15%) SC Cleared
3 56 (3.91%) CISSP
3 56 (3.91%) Degree
4 38 (2.65%) CISM
5 36 (2.51%) Cisco Certification
6 35 (2.44%) Microsoft Certification
7 25 (1.74%) CompTIA Security+
8 24 (1.67%) CCNP
9 21 (1.46%) GIAC
10 18 (1.26%) BPSS Clearance
10 18 (1.26%) Computer Science Degree
11 16 (1.12%) CompTIA CySA+
12 15 (1.05%) CEH
12 15 (1.05%) CESG Certified Professional
13 14 (0.98%) Azure Certification
13 14 (0.98%) CTC Cleared
14 13 (0.91%) CCNA
15 10 (0.70%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
16 9 (0.63%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 75 (5.23%) NIST
2 60 (4.18%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 54 (3.77%) NCSC
4 38 (2.65%) QA
5 30 (2.09%) JSP 440
6 26 (1.81%) PMO
7 20 (1.39%) GDPR
8 18 (1.26%) GRC
9 16 (1.12%) Data Quality
9 16 (1.12%) NIST 800
10 15 (1.05%) SLA
11 10 (0.70%) RMADS
12 7 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials
13 6 (0.42%) ISO/IEC 20000
14 5 (0.35%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 5 (0.35%) P3O
15 4 (0.28%) Actionable Recommendations
15 4 (0.28%) HMG Security Policy Framework
16 3 (0.21%) EU AI Act
16 3 (0.21%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 117 (8.16%) Active Directory
2 84 (5.86%) Docker
3 75 (5.23%) VMware Infrastructure
4 46 (3.21%) VMware NSX
5 32 (2.23%) VMware ESXi
6 18 (1.26%) vSphere
7 11 (0.77%) Virtual Machines
8 10 (0.70%) BitLocker
9 9 (0.63%) Hyper-V
10 8 (0.56%) Firmware
11 6 (0.42%) vCloud
12 4 (0.28%) NFS
12 4 (0.28%) Oracle RAC
13 3 (0.21%) GPFS
13 3 (0.21%) Lustre
13 3 (0.21%) Microsoft App-V
13 3 (0.21%) Slurm Workload Manager
13 3 (0.21%) Virtual Desktop
14 2 (0.14%) Brightmail
14 2 (0.14%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 135 (9.41%) Kubernetes
2 111 (7.74%) Terraform
3 79 (5.51%) Ansible
4 56 (3.91%) vCenter Server
5 36 (2.51%) Grafana
6 34 (2.37%) Single Sign-On
7 33 (2.30%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 30 (2.09%) Prometheus
9 27 (1.88%) SCCM
10 16 (1.12%) WMI
11 14 (0.98%) Progress Chef
12 12 (0.84%) Puppet
12 12 (0.84%) SCOM
13 10 (0.70%) Podman
14 9 (0.63%) vRealize
14 9 (0.63%) VxRail
15 7 (0.49%) Argo
15 7 (0.49%) Nessus
16 6 (0.42%) Kibana
16 6 (0.42%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 215 (14.99%) Microsoft
2 149 (10.39%) VMware
3 107 (7.46%) Cisco
4 50 (3.49%) Splunk
5 45 (3.14%) Juniper
6 44 (3.07%) SAP
7 40 (2.79%) Oracle
7 40 (2.79%) Red Hat
8 30 (2.09%) SolarWinds
9 27 (1.88%) ServiceNow
10 26 (1.81%) NetApp
11 24 (1.67%) Palantir
12 23 (1.60%) Dell
13 19 (1.32%) Foundry
14 16 (1.12%) Google
15 15 (1.05%) Palo Alto
16 14 (0.98%) Fortinet
16 14 (0.98%) Remedy
16 14 (0.98%) Veeam
17 13 (0.91%) Atlassian