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

6 months to
24 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 52 84 31
Rank change year-on-year +32 -53 +39
Contract jobs citing DV Cleared 1,835 877 2,404
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 3.95% 2.97% 5.51%
As % of the Qualifications category 12.12% 9.65% 17.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,329 607 1,728
10th Percentile £413 £425 £411
25th Percentile £513 £513 £510
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £590 £586 £600
Median % change year-on-year +0.68% -2.33% -
75th Percentile £688 £656 £688
90th Percentile £750 £713 £780
UK excluding London median daily rate £600 £586 £599
% change year-on-year +2.35% -2.13% -0.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 51 24 111
10th Percentile £16.35 £44.75 £51.25
25th Percentile £35.00 £60.75 £57.33
Median hourly rate £57.00 £76.85 £67.50
Median % change year-on-year -25.83% +13.85% -3.57%
75th Percentile £77.13 £82.32 £85.00
90th Percentile £91.25 £88.46 £87.53
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.00 £80.68 £67.81
% change year-on-year -29.35% +18.97% -9.59%

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 15,143 9,091 13,401
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 32.59% 30.78% 30.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,080 5,749 8,271
10th Percentile £350 £295 £300
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £518 £525 £534
Median % change year-on-year -1.43% -1.59% -3.00%
75th Percentile £620 £625 £646
90th Percentile £725 £708 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £501 £525
% change year-on-year -0.20% -4.57% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,096 512 1,063
10th Percentile £16.35 £18.22 £13.85
25th Percentile £21.25 £22.27 £17.80
Median hourly rate £46.13 £41.38 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +11.49% +3.44% -25.93%
75th Percentile £70.00 £66.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £85.25 £79.87 £75.19
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.46 £45.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +1.02% +12.50% -20.00%

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 24 April 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 24 April 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 24 April 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 1,691 £581 -1.11% 342
UK excluding London +12 1,324 £600 +2.35% 294
South East +9 724 £600 +2.56% 138
London +33 363 £575 -4.17% 70
South West -3 321 £550 -8.33% 77
Work from Home +30 238 £560 -2.61% 106
North of England 0 90 £690 +236.59% 23
East of England +10 85 £650 +18.18% 41
North West +18 74 £760 +270.73% 16
Midlands -23 63 £563 -19.64% 23
West Midlands -36 47 £569 -18.75% 23
Scotland +37 41 £661 +25.86%
East Midlands -21 16 £550 -
Yorkshire -38 14 £538 -14.00% 6
Northern Ireland - 4 £625 -
Wales -11 2 - - 2
North East -16 2 £675 +22.73% 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 39 (2.13%) Microsoft Exchange
2 24 (1.31%) Confluence
2 24 (1.31%) SharePoint
3 15 (0.82%) Apache
4 10 (0.54%) Skype for Business
5 9 (0.49%) Apache Spark
6 8 (0.44%) Palantir Foundry
7 5 (0.27%) Mattermost
8 4 (0.22%) Apache Airflow
8 4 (0.22%) Oracle Workflow
9 2 (0.11%) nginx
10 1 (0.054%) OpenStack
Applications
1 51 (2.78%) Microsoft Office
2 41 (2.23%) Microsoft Excel
3 21 (1.14%) Microsoft Project
4 13 (0.71%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.38%) Spreadsheet
6 5 (0.27%) MS Visio
7 4 (0.22%) AutoCAD
7 4 (0.22%) Revit
7 4 (0.22%) SOLIDWORKS
8 2 (0.11%) Lectora
8 2 (0.11%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 31 (1.69%) SAP S/4HANA
2 25 (1.36%) Remedy ITSM
3 17 (0.93%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 6 (0.33%) Maximo
4 6 (0.33%) SAP EWM
5 4 (0.22%) Oracle Assets
5 4 (0.22%) Oracle ERP
5 4 (0.22%) Oracle Payables
5 4 (0.22%) Oracle Subledger Accounting
6 3 (0.16%) SAP GRC
7 2 (0.11%) Primavera
7 2 (0.11%) SAP FI
7 2 (0.11%) SAP WM
8 1 (0.054%) Oracle Applications
8 1 (0.054%) SAP CCM
8 1 (0.054%) SAP FI-GL
8 1 (0.054%) SAP HR
8 1 (0.054%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 182 (9.92%) AWS
2 143 (7.79%) Azure
3 51 (2.78%) GCP
4 46 (2.51%) IaaS
5 43 (2.34%) PaaS
6 40 (2.18%) GitHub
7 35 (1.91%) Azure DevOps
7 35 (1.91%) Microsoft 365
8 30 (1.63%) OpenShift
9 29 (1.58%) Serverless
10 27 (1.47%) GitHub Actions
11 19 (1.04%) Amazon S3
12 16 (0.87%) Amazon EC2
13 15 (0.82%) OCI
14 14 (0.76%) AWS Lambda
14 14 (0.76%) Power Platform
15 12 (0.65%) Amazon EKS
15 12 (0.65%) Azure AKS
15 12 (0.65%) Entra ID
16 11 (0.60%) Amazon ECS
Communications & Networking
1 115 (6.27%) Firewall
2 97 (5.29%) DNS
3 72 (3.92%) Network Security
4 61 (3.32%) LAN
4 61 (3.32%) WAN
5 54 (2.94%) VPN
6 41 (2.23%) BGP
6 41 (2.23%) DHCP
7 31 (1.69%) OSPF
8 26 (1.42%) TCP/IP
9 23 (1.25%) Junos
10 19 (1.04%) SAN
10 19 (1.04%) VSAN
11 18 (0.98%) Cisco ISE
11 18 (0.98%) Ethernet VPN
12 17 (0.93%) MPLS
12 17 (0.93%) VLAN
12 17 (0.93%) VXLAN
13 16 (0.87%) BIG-IP
13 16 (0.87%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (1.58%) PostgreSQL
2 24 (1.31%) SQL Server
3 23 (1.25%) Elasticsearch
4 16 (0.87%) Oracle Database
5 15 (0.82%) Amazon RDS
6 14 (0.76%) MongoDB
7 11 (0.60%) Hadoop
7 11 (0.60%) Power BI
8 10 (0.54%) Big Data
9 9 (0.49%) MySQL
10 8 (0.44%) Relational Database
11 7 (0.38%) InfluxDB
11 7 (0.38%) Metadata
11 7 (0.38%) Redis
11 7 (0.38%) SAP HANA
12 6 (0.33%) MariaDB
12 6 (0.33%) NoSQL
13 5 (0.27%) Data Warehouse
13 5 (0.27%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 4 (0.22%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 63 (3.43%) JIRA
2 26 (1.42%) Git
3 25 (1.36%) GitLab
4 24 (1.31%) Jenkins
5 9 (0.49%) Maven
6 8 (0.44%) Sonatype Nexus
7 6 (0.33%) Artifactory
7 6 (0.33%) Robot Framework
8 4 (0.22%) Cypress.io
8 4 (0.22%) Oracle APEX
9 3 (0.16%) Bitbucket
9 3 (0.16%) MLflow
9 3 (0.16%) Selenium
9 3 (0.16%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 2 (0.11%) ERwin
10 2 (0.11%) MSI
10 2 (0.11%) Postman
10 2 (0.11%) REST Assured
10 2 (0.11%) Visual Studio
11 1 (0.054%) TestDirector
General
1 293 (15.97%) Social Skills
2 204 (11.12%) Public Sector
3 114 (6.21%) Analytical Skills
4 84 (4.58%) Finance
5 62 (3.38%) Military
6 54 (2.94%) Documentation Skills
7 47 (2.56%) Legal
8 30 (1.63%) Presentation Skills
9 26 (1.42%) Telecoms
10 24 (1.31%) Organisational Skills
11 21 (1.14%) Police
12 20 (1.09%) Aerospace
12 20 (1.09%) Law
13 17 (0.93%) Manufacturing
14 10 (0.54%) Electronics
14 10 (0.54%) Marketing
15 9 (0.49%) Banking
16 6 (0.33%) Influencing Skills
17 5 (0.27%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 3 (0.16%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 328 (17.87%) Architect
2 133 (7.25%) Lead
3 131 (7.14%) Senior
4 107 (5.83%) Analyst
5 94 (5.12%) Consultant
6 93 (5.07%) Network Engineer
7 86 (4.69%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 86 (4.69%) Technical Architect
8 79 (4.31%) Developer
9 58 (3.16%) SOC Analyst
10 57 (3.11%) Tester
11 55 (3.00%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
11 55 (3.00%) Project Manager
11 55 (3.00%) Security Architect
12 53 (2.89%) DevOps Engineer
13 43 (2.34%) Software Engineer
14 38 (2.07%) Designer
14 38 (2.07%) DV Cleared Project Manager
15 35 (1.91%) 3rd Line Engineer
15 35 (1.91%) Service Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (1.85%) REST
2 24 (1.31%) React
3 19 (1.04%) Node.js
4 18 (0.98%) Elastic Stack
5 17 (0.93%) Apache NiFi
6 15 (0.82%) 802.1X
6 15 (0.82%) Kafka
7 14 (0.76%) OAuth
7 14 (0.76%) Web Services
8 13 (0.71%) .NET
8 13 (0.71%) AngularJS
8 13 (0.71%) LDAP
9 12 (0.65%) ModSecurity
10 11 (0.60%) SailPoint
11 10 (0.54%) Flask
11 10 (0.54%) PyTorch
11 10 (0.54%) RESTful
11 10 (0.54%) SOAP
11 10 (0.54%) Spring
12 9 (0.49%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 94 (5.12%) PKI
2 68 (3.71%) Data Centre
3 49 (2.67%) Security Operations Centre
4 35 (1.91%) Cloud Native
5 32 (1.74%) Onboarding
6 29 (1.58%) Clustering
6 29 (1.58%) Management Information System
7 23 (1.25%) Hybrid Cloud
7 23 (1.25%) Product Ownership
8 20 (1.09%) Cyberattack
9 19 (1.04%) Public Cloud
10 18 (0.98%) Analytical Mindset
10 18 (0.98%) Cyber Threat
11 16 (0.87%) Greenfield Project
11 16 (0.87%) Replication
12 15 (0.82%) Security Posture
13 14 (0.76%) Driving Licence
13 14 (0.76%) Enterprise Storage
13 14 (0.76%) Legacy Systems
14 13 (0.71%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 252 (13.73%) Windows
2 202 (11.01%) Linux
3 82 (4.47%) Windows Server
4 27 (1.47%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 27 (1.47%) Windows 10
5 13 (0.71%) Ubuntu
6 12 (0.65%) Windows 7
7 10 (0.54%) Android
7 10 (0.54%) Mac OS
8 9 (0.49%) Unix
9 7 (0.38%) VMS
9 7 (0.38%) Windows Server 2003
10 6 (0.33%) CentOS
11 5 (0.27%) Data ONTAP
11 5 (0.27%) Debian
11 5 (0.27%) Windows Server 2019
12 4 (0.22%) Windows Server 2016
13 3 (0.16%) Embedded Linux
14 2 (0.11%) AIX
14 2 (0.11%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 299 (16.29%) Agile
2 191 (10.41%) Problem-Solving
3 151 (8.23%) DevOps
3 151 (8.23%) ITIL
4 142 (7.74%) CI/CD
5 134 (7.30%) Cybersecurity
6 128 (6.98%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 121 (6.59%) Service Management
8 114 (6.21%) Stakeholder Management
9 111 (6.05%) Continuous Improvement
9 111 (6.05%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 92 (5.01%) ITSM
11 85 (4.63%) Infrastructure as Code
11 85 (4.63%) Project Delivery
12 82 (4.47%) Decision-Making
13 79 (4.31%) Risk Management
14 74 (4.03%) SIEM
15 73 (3.98%) Project Management
16 72 (3.92%) Roadmaps
17 71 (3.87%) Identity Access Management
Programming Languages
1 138 (7.52%) Python
2 108 (5.89%) PowerShell
3 58 (3.16%) SQL
4 46 (2.51%) Java
5 35 (1.91%) Bash
6 33 (1.80%) JavaScript
7 22 (1.20%) C#
8 21 (1.14%) TypeScript
9 15 (0.82%) Go
10 14 (0.76%) Shell Script
11 11 (0.60%) Bicep
12 9 (0.49%) C
12 9 (0.49%) C++
12 9 (0.49%) PL/SQL
13 8 (0.44%) VB
14 7 (0.38%) VBScript
15 6 (0.33%) Embedded C
15 6 (0.33%) Rust
16 5 (0.27%) ABAP
16 5 (0.27%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 1,835 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 579 (31.55%) SC Cleared
3 57 (3.11%) Degree
4 52 (2.83%) CISSP
5 47 (2.56%) Cisco Certification
6 39 (2.13%) CISM
7 27 (1.47%) Microsoft Certification
8 26 (1.42%) CompTIA Security+
9 23 (1.25%) CCNP
10 22 (1.20%) CCNA
11 19 (1.04%) CESG Certified Professional
12 18 (0.98%) Computer Science Degree
13 17 (0.93%) AWS Certification
13 17 (0.93%) BPSS Clearance
13 17 (0.93%) GIAC
14 13 (0.71%) Azure Certification
14 13 (0.71%) CEH
14 13 (0.71%) CompTIA CySA+
14 13 (0.71%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 12 (0.65%) CTC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 78 (4.25%) NIST
2 61 (3.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 50 (2.72%) PMO
4 46 (2.51%) NCSC
5 41 (2.23%) QA
6 34 (1.85%) JSP 440
7 23 (1.25%) GRC
8 20 (1.09%) RMADS
9 15 (0.82%) SLA
10 12 (0.65%) GDPR
11 11 (0.60%) NIST 800
12 10 (0.54%) Cyber Essentials
12 10 (0.54%) Data Quality
13 9 (0.49%) ISO/IEC 20000
14 5 (0.27%) Government Security Classifications
15 4 (0.22%) Accessibility
15 4 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 4 (0.22%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 4 (0.22%) P3O
16 3 (0.16%) Def Stans
System Software
1 119 (6.49%) Active Directory
2 104 (5.67%) VMware Infrastructure
3 94 (5.12%) Docker
4 53 (2.89%) VMware NSX
5 43 (2.34%) VMware ESXi
6 33 (1.80%) Hyper-V
7 22 (1.20%) vSphere
8 15 (0.82%) BitLocker
9 12 (0.65%) vCloud
10 11 (0.60%) Firmware
11 8 (0.44%) Microsoft App-V
12 7 (0.38%) Oracle RAC
13 6 (0.33%) Virtual Machines
14 4 (0.22%) UAG
14 4 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
15 3 (0.16%) Ceph
15 3 (0.16%) GPFS
15 3 (0.16%) Lustre
15 3 (0.16%) Slurm Workload Manager
16 2 (0.11%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 135 (7.36%) Kubernetes
2 119 (6.49%) Terraform
3 80 (4.36%) Ansible
4 56 (3.05%) vCenter Server
5 39 (2.13%) SCCM
6 26 (1.42%) Grafana
7 25 (1.36%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 25 (1.36%) Single Sign-On
8 21 (1.14%) Prometheus
9 15 (0.82%) FortiGate
9 15 (0.82%) Puppet
10 13 (0.71%) SCOM
11 12 (0.65%) Progress Chef
12 11 (0.60%) Nessus
13 10 (0.54%) Forefront Identity Manager
13 10 (0.54%) NetIQ Identity Manager
13 10 (0.54%) Podman
13 10 (0.54%) WMI
14 8 (0.44%) vMotion
14 8 (0.44%) VxRail
Vendors
1 199 (10.84%) Microsoft
2 192 (10.46%) VMware
3 108 (5.89%) Cisco
4 62 (3.38%) Splunk
5 59 (3.22%) ServiceNow
6 58 (3.16%) SAP
7 51 (2.78%) Juniper
8 49 (2.67%) NetApp
9 47 (2.56%) Oracle
10 38 (2.07%) Red Hat
11 27 (1.47%) F5
12 26 (1.42%) Remedy
13 25 (1.36%) SolarWinds
14 23 (1.25%) Dell
14 23 (1.25%) Fortinet
15 19 (1.04%) Palo Alto
16 18 (0.98%) Sparx
17 17 (0.93%) Citrix
17 17 (0.93%) Google
18 15 (0.82%) Veeam