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

6 months to
18 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 66 55 43
Rank change year-on-year -11 -12 +72
Contract jobs citing DV Cleared 1,336 1,212 1,917
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.60% 3.82% 4.43%
As % of the Qualifications category 10.59% 12.78% 14.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 953 779 1,350
10th Percentile £463 £369 £370
25th Percentile £513 £498 £510
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 £725 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £575 £585 £600
% change year-on-year -1.71% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 30 106
10th Percentile £16.80 £45.14 £49.07
25th Percentile £18.82 £56.65 £56.53
Median hourly rate £51.49 £63.15 £63.00
Median % change year-on-year -18.47% +0.24% -9.68%
75th Percentile £75.63 £73.94 £76.81
90th Percentile £87.65 £86.72 £81.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £63.15 £63.00
% change year-on-year +2.93% +0.24% -11.02%

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 12,617 9,480 13,128
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.98% 29.86% 30.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,314 5,736 8,232
10th Percentile £313 £300 £300
25th Percentile £416 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £630 £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 948 468 796
10th Percentile £16.00 £19.54 £14.50
25th Percentile £19.10 £24.18 £22.64
Median hourly rate £25.15 £39.52 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -36.36% -20.96% +11.11%
75th Percentile £60.00 £66.00 £67.50
90th Percentile £76.58 £77.54 £78.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £42.50 £50.00
% change year-on-year -40.82% -15.00% +11.11%

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 18 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 18 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 18 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 -14 1,220 £575 -1.92% 393
UK excluding London -9 935 £575 -1.71% 360
South East +3 490 £575 - 127
London -40 288 £625 +8.68% 52
South West -7 277 £575 -4.17% 116
Work from Home 0 174 £560 - 139
Midlands -21 68 £588 -15.32% 17
West Midlands -15 61 £588 -15.32% 8
North of England -42 45 £606 +10.23% 49
East of England +3 40 £563 -2.17% 51
North West -6 38 £600 +192.68% 36
Scotland -28 26 £652 +26.50% 3
Northern Ireland +4 9 £600 - 2
East Midlands -17 7 £650 +16.07% 9
Yorkshire -51 6 £613 +11.36% 11
Wales -1 5 £600 -14.29% 8
North East -23 1 - - 2

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 47 (3.52%) SharePoint
2 46 (3.44%) Microsoft Exchange
3 35 (2.62%) Apache
4 29 (2.17%) Skype for Business
5 22 (1.65%) Confluence
6 6 (0.45%) OpenStack
6 6 (0.45%) SharePoint Server
7 5 (0.37%) Exchange Server 2003
7 5 (0.37%) Exchange Server 2007
7 5 (0.37%) Exchange Server 2010
7 5 (0.37%) Exchange Server 2013
7 5 (0.37%) Office Communications Server
8 3 (0.22%) Apache Spark
8 3 (0.22%) Documentum
8 3 (0.22%) IIS
8 3 (0.22%) Oracle Workflow
9 1 (0.075%) Mattermost
9 1 (0.075%) nginx
Applications
1 65 (4.87%) Microsoft Office
2 32 (2.40%) Microsoft Excel
3 16 (1.20%) Microsoft Project
4 11 (0.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.45%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.075%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 17 (1.27%) SAP S/4HANA
2 12 (0.90%) Remedy ITSM
3 11 (0.82%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 10 (0.75%) SAP EWM
4 10 (0.75%) SAP WM
5 8 (0.60%) Maximo
6 5 (0.37%) Primavera
7 4 (0.30%) Oracle Applications
7 4 (0.30%) Oracle Assets
7 4 (0.30%) Oracle ERP
8 3 (0.22%) Oracle Payables
8 3 (0.22%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
9 1 (0.075%) Oracle Cash Management
9 1 (0.075%) Oracle General Ledger
9 1 (0.075%) Oracle Payroll
9 1 (0.075%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
9 1 (0.075%) Oracle Receivables
9 1 (0.075%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 129 (9.66%) AWS
2 126 (9.43%) Azure
3 59 (4.42%) Microsoft 365
4 46 (3.44%) GitHub
5 40 (2.99%) Serverless
6 37 (2.77%) GCP
7 36 (2.69%) OpenShift
8 30 (2.25%) Azure DevOps
9 25 (1.87%) GitHub Actions
10 24 (1.80%) Amazon S3
11 20 (1.50%) Entra ID
12 19 (1.42%) Amazon ECS
12 19 (1.42%) AWS CloudFormation
12 19 (1.42%) IaaS
13 17 (1.27%) Amazon EC2
13 17 (1.27%) AWS Lambda
13 17 (1.27%) Azure Sentinel
14 14 (1.05%) Azure AKS
14 14 (1.05%) PaaS
15 13 (0.97%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 98 (7.34%) Firewall
2 88 (6.59%) DNS
3 59 (4.42%) Network Security
4 47 (3.52%) VPN
5 43 (3.22%) LAN
6 40 (2.99%) TCP/IP
7 38 (2.84%) WAN
8 35 (2.62%) DHCP
9 28 (2.10%) Skype
10 27 (2.02%) Cisco IOS
11 25 (1.87%) Junos
12 23 (1.72%) SAN
13 22 (1.65%) Cisco ISE
14 21 (1.57%) Cisco Firepower
15 20 (1.50%) BGP
16 15 (1.12%) VLAN
17 14 (1.05%) Wireless
18 13 (0.97%) SSL
19 12 (0.90%) MPLS
19 12 (0.90%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (2.10%) PostgreSQL
2 21 (1.57%) Big Data
3 20 (1.50%) Elasticsearch
4 16 (1.20%) Amazon RDS
5 14 (1.05%) Hadoop
5 14 (1.05%) SQL Server
6 13 (0.97%) Oracle Database
7 11 (0.82%) MongoDB
8 10 (0.75%) Redis
9 9 (0.67%) Relational Database
10 8 (0.60%) MySQL
11 7 (0.52%) Power BI
12 6 (0.45%) InfluxDB
12 6 (0.45%) SAP HANA
13 4 (0.30%) Amazon Aurora
13 4 (0.30%) DynamoDB
13 4 (0.30%) Metadata
13 4 (0.30%) NoSQL
13 4 (0.30%) RDBMS
14 3 (0.22%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 40 (2.99%) JIRA
2 36 (2.69%) GitLab
3 30 (2.25%) Git
3 30 (2.25%) Jenkins
4 17 (1.27%) SonarQube
5 15 (1.12%) Maven
6 14 (1.05%) Artifactory
7 12 (0.90%) Sonatype Nexus
8 9 (0.67%) Bitbucket
9 8 (0.60%) Cypress.io
10 7 (0.52%) Selenium
11 6 (0.45%) Postman
12 5 (0.37%) CircleCI
12 5 (0.37%) Gradle
12 5 (0.37%) JUnit
12 5 (0.37%) Snyk
12 5 (0.37%) webpack
13 4 (0.30%) Oracle APEX
13 4 (0.30%) Robot Framework
14 2 (0.15%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 268 (20.06%) Social Skills
2 184 (13.77%) Public Sector
3 107 (8.01%) Analytical Skills
4 65 (4.87%) Finance
5 47 (3.52%) Military
6 40 (2.99%) Documentation Skills
7 32 (2.40%) Legal
8 30 (2.25%) Manufacturing
9 28 (2.10%) Telecoms
10 25 (1.87%) Presentation Skills
11 20 (1.50%) Law
11 20 (1.50%) Organisational Skills
12 19 (1.42%) Marketing
13 18 (1.35%) Electronics
14 16 (1.20%) Banking
15 12 (0.90%) Aerospace
15 12 (0.90%) Police
16 8 (0.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 2 (0.15%) Influencing Skills
17 2 (0.15%) Multimedia
Job Titles
1 239 (17.89%) Architect
2 82 (6.14%) Consultant
3 79 (5.91%) Analyst
4 74 (5.54%) Senior
5 63 (4.72%) Network Engineer
6 60 (4.49%) DevOps Engineer
7 57 (4.27%) Support Engineer
8 54 (4.04%) Lead
9 51 (3.82%) Developer
10 49 (3.67%) Technical Architect
11 48 (3.59%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
12 42 (3.14%) 3rd Line Engineer
13 40 (2.99%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 39 (2.92%) Solutions Architect
15 37 (2.77%) Cloud Engineer
16 36 (2.69%) Project Manager
17 35 (2.62%) Infrastructure Architect
18 33 (2.47%) SOC Analyst
19 31 (2.32%) Tester
20 30 (2.25%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 35 (2.62%) Apache NiFi
2 32 (2.40%) REST
3 23 (1.72%) React
4 22 (1.65%) OAuth
5 20 (1.50%) Kafka
5 20 (1.50%) OpenID
6 19 (1.42%) SAML
7 18 (1.35%) Node.js
7 18 (1.35%) OAuth2
8 15 (1.12%) YAML
9 14 (1.05%) Elastic Stack
10 13 (0.97%) .NET
11 12 (0.90%) RabbitMQ
12 11 (0.82%) FastAPI
12 11 (0.82%) Flask
13 10 (0.75%) JSON
14 9 (0.67%) LDAP
14 9 (0.67%) Web Services
15 8 (0.60%) ARM Templates
15 8 (0.60%) gRPC
Miscellaneous
1 93 (6.96%) PKI
2 43 (3.22%) Data Centre
3 34 (2.54%) Security Operations Centre
4 32 (2.40%) Management Information System
5 29 (2.17%) Cyber Threat
6 19 (1.42%) Cloud Native
6 19 (1.42%) Replication
7 18 (1.35%) Private Cloud
8 17 (1.27%) Cyberattack
8 17 (1.27%) Onboarding
9 15 (1.12%) Analytical Mindset
10 14 (1.05%) Product Ownership
11 13 (0.97%) CSOC
11 13 (0.97%) Cyber Defence
12 12 (0.90%) Enterprise Software
12 12 (0.90%) Fat Client
12 12 (0.90%) Thin Client
13 11 (0.82%) Driving Licence
13 11 (0.82%) Hybrid Cloud
13 11 (0.82%) Insider Threat
Operating Systems
1 252 (18.86%) Windows
2 147 (11.00%) Linux
3 77 (5.76%) Windows Server
4 41 (3.07%) Windows 10
5 27 (2.02%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 18 (1.35%) Windows 7
7 12 (0.90%) Android
7 12 (0.90%) Mac OS
8 11 (0.82%) Ubuntu
8 11 (0.82%) Unix
9 9 (0.67%) Windows Server 2003
10 8 (0.60%) Windows Server 2019
11 7 (0.52%) CentOS
12 3 (0.22%) Debian
13 2 (0.15%) VMS
13 2 (0.15%) Windows Server 2016
14 1 (0.075%) Data ONTAP
14 1 (0.075%) Mac OS X
14 1 (0.075%) Rocky
14 1 (0.075%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 235 (17.59%) Agile
2 148 (11.08%) Cybersecurity
3 147 (11.00%) Problem-Solving
4 140 (10.48%) DevOps
5 120 (8.98%) CI/CD
6 95 (7.11%) ITIL
7 87 (6.51%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 80 (5.99%) Continuous Improvement
9 77 (5.76%) SIEM
10 76 (5.69%) Service Management
11 75 (5.61%) Infrastructure as Code
12 73 (5.46%) Stakeholder Management
13 71 (5.31%) ITSM
14 69 (5.16%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 64 (4.79%) Containerisation
16 63 (4.72%) Risk Management
17 62 (4.64%) Incident Response
18 57 (4.27%) Project Management
19 55 (4.12%) Project Delivery
20 54 (4.04%) Security Operations
Programming Languages
1 138 (10.33%) Python
2 121 (9.06%) PowerShell
3 64 (4.79%) SQL
4 45 (3.37%) Java
5 33 (2.47%) JavaScript
6 32 (2.40%) Bash
7 18 (1.35%) Go
8 16 (1.20%) C#
8 16 (1.20%) TypeScript
9 14 (1.05%) C++
9 14 (1.05%) Shell Script
10 10 (0.75%) VBScript
11 9 (0.67%) Bicep
11 9 (0.67%) C
12 8 (0.60%) VB
13 5 (0.37%) ABAP
13 5 (0.37%) PL/SQL
14 3 (0.22%) T-SQL
15 2 (0.15%) Ruby
16 1 (0.075%) Rust
Qualifications
1 1,336 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 426 (31.89%) SC Cleared
3 56 (4.19%) Degree
4 55 (4.12%) CISSP
5 39 (2.92%) CISM
6 35 (2.62%) Microsoft Certification
7 32 (2.40%) Cisco Certification
8 22 (1.65%) CCNP
9 21 (1.57%) CompTIA Security+
10 19 (1.42%) GIAC
11 17 (1.27%) Computer Science Degree
12 16 (1.20%) CEH
13 14 (1.05%) CESG Certified Professional
13 14 (1.05%) CompTIA CySA+
14 13 (0.97%) Azure Certification
14 13 (0.97%) BPSS Clearance
14 13 (0.97%) CTC Cleared
15 12 (0.90%) CCNA
16 10 (0.75%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
17 9 (0.67%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 72 (5.39%) NIST
2 58 (4.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 51 (3.82%) NCSC
4 32 (2.40%) QA
5 29 (2.17%) JSP 440
6 24 (1.80%) PMO
7 20 (1.50%) SLA
8 19 (1.42%) GDPR
9 16 (1.20%) NIST 800
10 14 (1.05%) Data Quality
11 13 (0.97%) GRC
12 10 (0.75%) RMADS
13 5 (0.37%) Cyber Essentials
13 5 (0.37%) ISO/IEC 20000
13 5 (0.37%) P3O
14 3 (0.22%) Actionable Recommendations
14 3 (0.22%) COBIT
14 3 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 3 (0.22%) HMG Security Policy Framework
14 3 (0.22%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 112 (8.38%) Active Directory
2 75 (5.61%) Docker
3 66 (4.94%) VMware Infrastructure
4 41 (3.07%) VMware NSX
5 29 (2.17%) VMware ESXi
6 19 (1.42%) vSphere
7 11 (0.82%) Virtual Machines
8 10 (0.75%) BitLocker
9 8 (0.60%) Firmware
9 8 (0.60%) Hyper-V
10 6 (0.45%) NFS
10 6 (0.45%) vCloud
11 5 (0.37%) Brightmail
11 5 (0.37%) ISA Server
12 4 (0.30%) Oracle RAC
13 3 (0.22%) Microsoft App-V
13 3 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
14 2 (0.15%) GPFS
14 2 (0.15%) Slurm Workload Manager
14 2 (0.15%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 127 (9.51%) Kubernetes
2 107 (8.01%) Terraform
3 79 (5.91%) Ansible
4 51 (3.82%) vCenter Server
5 36 (2.69%) Grafana
6 33 (2.47%) Single Sign-On
7 30 (2.25%) Prometheus
8 29 (2.17%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 26 (1.95%) SCCM
10 16 (1.20%) WMI
11 14 (1.05%) Progress Chef
12 13 (0.97%) Puppet
13 11 (0.82%) Podman
13 11 (0.82%) vRealize
14 10 (0.75%) SCOM
15 8 (0.60%) Argo
15 8 (0.60%) Microsoft Intune
16 7 (0.52%) Microsoft Clustering
16 7 (0.52%) Nessus
16 7 (0.52%) VxRail
Vendors
1 210 (15.72%) Microsoft
2 140 (10.48%) VMware
3 103 (7.71%) Cisco
4 52 (3.89%) Splunk
5 47 (3.52%) SAP
6 46 (3.44%) Juniper
7 39 (2.92%) Red Hat
8 36 (2.69%) Oracle
9 29 (2.17%) SolarWinds
10 28 (2.10%) Palantir
11 23 (1.72%) Dell
12 22 (1.65%) NetApp
13 21 (1.57%) Foundry
13 21 (1.57%) ServiceNow
14 14 (1.05%) Remedy
14 14 (1.05%) Sparx
14 14 (1.05%) Veeam
15 13 (0.97%) Atlassian
15 13 (0.97%) HP
15 13 (0.97%) IBM