BPSS Clearance Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) Clearance
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies advertised in the UK excluding London with a requirement for BPSS Clearance qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered over the 6 months leading up to 10 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 145 143 271
Rank change year-on-year -2 +128 +286
Permanent jobs citing BPSS Clearance 787 656 665
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 1.20% 2.29% 0.97%
As % of the Qualifications category 4.83% 5.29% 3.65%
Number of salaries quoted 339 348 538
10th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £24,807
25th Percentile £45,500 £47,818 £31,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £55,000 £52,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% +5.77% +9.47%
75th Percentile £62,500 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,750 £73,212 £70,000
UK median annual salary £56,766 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +3.21% - -4.15%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK excluding London

BPSS Clearance falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications in the UK excluding London.

Permanent vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 16,288 12,409 18,198
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 24.77% 43.24% 26.51%
Number of salaries quoted 6,002 5,290 12,161
10th Percentile £28,250 £29,000 £27,000
25th Percentile £37,000 £37,170 £36,181
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £53,750 £51,999 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.37% +4.00% -1.96%
75th Percentile £70,000 £66,254 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £78,750 £78,750
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £54,237
% change year-on-year +9.09% +1.41% -7.29%

BPSS Clearance
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing BPSS Clearance relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

BPSS Clearance job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

BPSS Clearance
Salary Trend in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing BPSS Clearance.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing BPSS Clearance

BPSS Clearance
Salary Histogram in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution for jobs citing BPSS Clearance in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 10 May 2026.

Salary histogram for BPSS Clearance in the UK excluding London

BPSS Clearance
Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing BPSS Clearance within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 10 May 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
North of England -17 283 £50,000 -2.50% 48
North West -2 253 £49,650 -2.30% 32
South East +42 240 £58,000 -3.33% 56
South West -45 89 £58,500 +0.86% 54
Midlands -65 67 £52,500 -19.23% 32
West Midlands -53 50 £52,500 -19.85% 28
Scotland +14 48 £49,000 -5.12% 5
East of England +23 38 £40,000 -16.11% 40
East Midlands -58 17 £43,608 -8.55% 4
Wales -34 16 £91,436 +40.67% 2
North East - 16 £60,000 - 15
Yorkshire -57 14 £51,722 -5.60% 1
Northern Ireland - 6 - -
BPSS Clearance
UK

BPSS Clearance
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 17 (2.16%) SharePoint
2 12 (1.52%) Confluence
3 9 (1.14%) Microsoft Exchange
4 5 (0.64%) CMS
5 3 (0.38%) Apache Airflow
Applications
1 48 (6.10%) Simulink
2 29 (3.68%) CATIA
3 16 (2.03%) Microsoft Office
4 15 (1.91%) Microsoft Excel
5 10 (1.27%) Abaqus
6 7 (0.89%) AutoCAD
6 7 (0.89%) SOLIDWORKS
7 5 (0.64%) Siemens NX
8 3 (0.38%) Adobe After Effects
8 3 (0.38%) Adobe Illustrator
8 3 (0.38%) Adobe Premiere
8 3 (0.38%) Camtasia
8 3 (0.38%) Photoshop
8 3 (0.38%) Windchill
9 2 (0.25%) Microsoft PowerPoint
9 2 (0.25%) MS Visio
10 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 20 (2.54%) SAP ERP
2 14 (1.78%) SAP QM
2 14 (1.78%) SAP S/4HANA
3 6 (0.76%) Infor LN
4 4 (0.51%) IBM Planning Analytics
4 4 (0.51%) Infor CloudSuite
5 3 (0.38%) Primavera
5 3 (0.38%) SAP IBP
6 2 (0.25%) SAP BPC
6 2 (0.25%) Teamcenter
7 1 (0.13%) Oracle 11i
7 1 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
7 1 (0.13%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 25 (3.18%) Azure
2 20 (2.54%) Microsoft 365
3 10 (1.27%) Entra ID
4 9 (1.14%) AWS
5 6 (0.76%) IaaS
6 4 (0.51%) GCP
7 3 (0.38%) Azure Cosmos DB
7 3 (0.38%) Power Platform
8 2 (0.25%) Cloud Computing
9 1 (0.13%) Asana
9 1 (0.13%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 16 (2.03%) SAN
2 13 (1.65%) LAN
2 13 (1.65%) VPN
2 13 (1.65%) WAN
3 9 (1.14%) Firewall
3 9 (1.14%) Wi-Fi
4 8 (1.02%) DHCP
4 8 (1.02%) DNS
4 8 (1.02%) TCP/IP
5 7 (0.89%) Profibus
6 6 (0.76%) ATM
6 6 (0.76%) Multicast
6 6 (0.76%) tcpdump
6 6 (0.76%) Wireshark
7 5 (0.64%) VoIP
8 4 (0.51%) SNA
8 4 (0.51%) WLAN
9 3 (0.38%) Skype
10 2 (0.25%) RS-485
10 2 (0.25%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (1.02%) PostgreSQL
2 7 (0.89%) Data Warehouse
2 7 (0.89%) MongoDB
3 6 (0.76%) Relational Database
3 6 (0.76%) SQL Server
3 6 (0.76%) Tableau
4 5 (0.64%) RDBMS
5 4 (0.51%) Amazon Redshift
5 4 (0.51%) Apache Cassandra
5 4 (0.51%) BigQuery
5 4 (0.51%) MySQL
5 4 (0.51%) NoSQL
6 3 (0.38%) Delta Lake
6 3 (0.38%) Metadata
6 3 (0.38%) Oracle Database
6 3 (0.38%) Power BI
7 2 (0.25%) EDMS
7 2 (0.25%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 1 (0.13%) Oracle Database 12c
8 1 (0.13%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 152 (19.31%) Rational DOORS
2 42 (5.34%) JIRA
3 5 (0.64%) Apache Continuum
4 4 (0.51%) Rational Rhapsody
5 3 (0.38%) LabVIEW
6 2 (0.25%) GitLab
7 1 (0.13%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.13%) Git
7 1 (0.13%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 261 (33.16%) Finance
2 181 (23.00%) Aerospace
3 168 (21.35%) Social Skills
4 100 (12.71%) Legal
5 85 (10.80%) Electronics
6 71 (9.02%) Analytical Skills
7 68 (8.64%) Organisational Skills
8 62 (7.88%) Manufacturing
9 43 (5.46%) Military
10 36 (4.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 28 (3.56%) Public Sector
12 13 (1.65%) Documentation Skills
12 13 (1.65%) Local Government
13 10 (1.27%) Telecoms
14 8 (1.02%) Influencing Skills
15 6 (0.76%) Automotive
15 6 (0.76%) Italian Language
15 6 (0.76%) Japanese Language
15 6 (0.76%) Spanish Language
16 5 (0.64%) Avionics
Job Titles
1 278 (35.32%) Senior
2 277 (35.20%) Systems Engineer
3 169 (21.47%) Principal Engineer
4 123 (15.63%) Principal Systems Engineer
5 112 (14.23%) Senior Systems Engineer
6 59 (7.50%) Lead
7 32 (4.07%) Senior Electrical Engineer
8 28 (3.56%) Analyst
8 28 (3.56%) IT Engineer
9 24 (3.05%) Integration Engineer
10 22 (2.80%) Instrumentation Engineer
11 19 (2.41%) Architect
12 17 (2.16%) Field Engineer
12 17 (2.16%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 16 (2.03%) Field Service Engineer
13 16 (2.03%) Systems Integration Engineer
14 15 (1.91%) Developer
15 14 (1.78%) Hardware Engineer
15 14 (1.78%) Team Leader
16 13 (1.65%) Senior Integration Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (1.91%) SAP Fiori
2 9 (1.14%) OLE
3 6 (0.76%) Middleware
4 4 (0.51%) Oracle Fusion
5 3 (0.38%) JSON
5 3 (0.38%) OpenGL
5 3 (0.38%) Vulkan
6 2 (0.25%) Flash
6 2 (0.25%) Hugging Face
6 2 (0.25%) LangChain
6 2 (0.25%) Ray
6 2 (0.25%) vLLM
6 2 (0.25%) YAML
7 1 (0.13%) CSS
7 1 (0.13%) Pyramid
7 1 (0.13%) React
7 1 (0.13%) REST
7 1 (0.13%) RESTful
7 1 (0.13%) SOAP
7 1 (0.13%) WebSockets
Miscellaneous
1 68 (8.64%) Virtual Team
2 64 (8.13%) Podcast
2 64 (8.13%) Web Conferencing
3 59 (7.50%) Management Information System
4 21 (2.67%) Data Centre
5 20 (2.54%) Driving Licence
6 18 (2.29%) Algorithms
7 16 (2.03%) Analytical Mindset
7 16 (2.03%) Smartphone
8 12 (1.52%) Analogue Electronics
8 12 (1.52%) Self-Motivation
9 10 (1.27%) Acoustics
10 9 (1.14%) Enterprise Software
11 8 (1.02%) Replication
12 7 (0.89%) Onboarding
12 7 (0.89%) SCADA
12 7 (0.89%) Security Posture
13 5 (0.64%) Augmented Reality
13 5 (0.64%) FPGA
14 4 (0.51%) Embedded Systems
Operating Systems
1 29 (3.68%) Windows
2 25 (3.18%) Linux
3 11 (1.40%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 6 (0.76%) Windows Server
5 2 (0.25%) Ubuntu
5 2 (0.25%) VMS
6 1 (0.13%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 285 (36.21%) Systems Engineering
2 125 (15.88%) Validation
3 106 (13.47%) Requirements Management
4 88 (11.18%) Verification and Validation
5 87 (11.05%) Customer Service
5 87 (11.05%) Problem-Solving
6 84 (10.67%) Agile
7 72 (9.15%) Technical Leadership
8 70 (8.89%) Continuous Improvement
8 70 (8.89%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
9 69 (8.77%) Cybersecurity
9 69 (8.77%) Software Engineering
10 68 (8.64%) Coaching
10 68 (8.64%) Mathematics
11 56 (7.12%) Physics
12 51 (6.48%) Mentoring
13 49 (6.23%) Decision-Making
14 48 (6.10%) ERP
15 46 (5.84%) Test Planning
16 45 (5.72%) Systems Thinking
Programming Languages
1 66 (8.39%) MATLAB
2 32 (4.07%) Python
3 17 (2.16%) C
4 11 (1.40%) Java
5 9 (1.14%) ABAP
5 9 (1.14%) SQL
6 8 (1.02%) C++
7 6 (0.76%) Ada
7 6 (0.76%) Ada 95
7 6 (0.76%) Bash
8 5 (0.64%) JavaScript
8 5 (0.64%) PowerShell
9 3 (0.38%) GLSL
9 3 (0.38%) VB
10 1 (0.13%) C#
10 1 (0.13%) Delphi
10 1 (0.13%) Perl
10 1 (0.13%) PHP
10 1 (0.13%) T-SQL
10 1 (0.13%) VBA
Qualifications
1 336 (42.69%) Degree
2 83 (10.55%) Chartered Engineer
3 79 (10.04%) Security Cleared
4 53 (6.73%) HNC
5 41 (5.21%) HND
6 40 (5.08%) SC Cleared
7 30 (3.81%) Master's Degree
8 26 (3.30%) Microsoft Certification
9 25 (3.18%) Cisco Certification
10 22 (2.80%) CCNA
11 17 (2.16%) A+ Certification
12 16 (2.03%) MCSE
12 16 (2.03%) Network+ Certification
13 14 (1.78%) ACCA
13 14 (1.78%) CIMA
13 14 (1.78%) Numerate Degree
14 11 (1.40%) Computer Science Degree
15 10 (1.27%) RIBA
16 8 (1.02%) ICAEW
17 7 (0.89%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 84 (10.67%) ISO/IEC 15288
2 36 (4.57%) ISO/IEC 12207
3 20 (2.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 19 (2.41%) IEC 61508
5 15 (1.91%) Cyber Essentials
6 14 (1.78%) QA
7 13 (1.65%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 9 (1.14%) Data Quality
8 9 (1.14%) GDPR
9 5 (0.64%) NEBOSH
9 5 (0.64%) NIST
10 4 (0.51%) IFRS
10 4 (0.51%) ISO 9001
10 4 (0.51%) NIST 800
11 3 (0.38%) Def Stans
11 3 (0.38%) DO-178B
11 3 (0.38%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 3 (0.38%) PMO
12 2 (0.25%) GRC
12 2 (0.25%) SOC 2
System Software
1 9 (1.14%) Docker
2 6 (0.76%) KVM
2 6 (0.76%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (0.25%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.25%) Firmware
3 2 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 17 (2.16%) Functional Safety
2 13 (1.65%) Microsoft Intune
3 10 (1.27%) Ansible
4 8 (1.02%) Kubernetes
5 6 (0.76%) Puppet
6 3 (0.38%) SCCM
7 2 (0.25%) BMC PATROL
7 2 (0.25%) Data Guard
7 2 (0.25%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
7 2 (0.25%) Oracle RMAN
7 2 (0.25%) Terraform
Vendors
1 89 (11.31%) IBM
2 54 (6.86%) Microsoft
3 52 (6.61%) Siemens
4 44 (5.59%) SAP
5 16 (2.03%) Cisco
5 16 (2.03%) Dell
6 11 (1.40%) Mentor Graphics
7 10 (1.27%) Oracle
8 9 (1.14%) Infor
9 8 (1.02%) Meraki
10 7 (0.89%) EMC
11 6 (0.76%) Cognos
11 6 (0.76%) VMware
12 5 (0.64%) Fortinet
12 5 (0.64%) Red Hat
13 4 (0.51%) Aruba
13 4 (0.51%) Autodesk
13 4 (0.51%) Google
13 4 (0.51%) Sage
13 4 (0.51%) Xilinx