PKI Contract Job Trends in England

Public-Key Infrastructure (PKI)
UK > England

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term PKI in contract job vacancies in England. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited PKI over the 6 months leading up to 18 February 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 302 337 221
Rank change year-on-year +35 -116 +91
Contract jobs citing PKI 277 156 408
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.80% 0.60% 1.08%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.34% 1.81% 3.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 203 105 255
10th Percentile £400 £407 £401
25th Percentile £480 £475 £519
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £575 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% - -8.00%
75th Percentile £681 £649 £675
90th Percentile £838 £738 £795
UK median daily rate £550 £575 £590
% change year-on-year -4.35% -2.54% -1.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 0 5
10th Percentile £61.41 - £46.38
25th Percentile £70.50 - -
Median hourly rate £79.50 - £55.00
75th Percentile £96.25 - £56.40
90th Percentile £101.65 - £63.06
UK median hourly rate £79.50 - £55.00

All Generic Skills
England

PKI falls under the General and Transferable Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring generic IT skills in England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 11,823 8,615 11,700
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 34.19% 33.37% 31.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,531 5,270 7,654
10th Percentile £275 £275 £257
25th Percentile £406 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £540 £550
Median % change year-on-year -5.56% -1.82% -4.35%
75th Percentile £626 £663 £661
90th Percentile £738 £775 £775
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £531
% change year-on-year -4.76% -1.13% -3.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 588 249 756
10th Percentile £15.50 £18.20 £13.00
25th Percentile £18.87 £24.18 £17.00
Median hourly rate £33.09 £37.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -10.58% +13.85% +44.44%
75th Percentile £64.06 £66.50 £58.75
90th Percentile £75.30 £83.20 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £30.50 £34.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year -11.59% +6.15% +44.54%

PKI
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing PKI relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

PKI job vacancy trend in England

PKI
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing PKI.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing PKI

PKI
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing PKI in England over the 6 months to 18 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for PKI in England

PKI
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing PKI.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing PKI

PKI
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing PKI in England over the 6 months to 18 February 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for PKI in England

PKI
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing PKI within the England region over the 6 months to 18 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
London +31 98 £588 +11.90% 23
South East +23 80 £600 -1.64% 38
South West -37 39 £550 - 6
West Midlands -29 32 £400 -5.88% 6
Midlands -36 32 £400 -5.88% 11
North of England -57 16 £482 -33.52% 5
North West -24 8 £379 -22.31% 1
Yorkshire -50 8 £482 -33.52% 4
East of England - 3 £550 - 2
PKI
UK

PKI
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 32 (11.55%) Microsoft Exchange
2 15 (5.42%) SharePoint
3 7 (2.53%) Confluence
4 6 (2.17%) Skype for Business
5 4 (1.44%) SharePoint Server
6 2 (0.72%) Exchange Server 2010
7 1 (0.36%) Apache
7 1 (0.36%) IIS
7 1 (0.36%) JBoss
7 1 (0.36%) nginx
Applications
1 11 (3.97%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.36%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (0.36%) Cloudability
1 1 (0.36%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 44 (15.88%) Azure
2 39 (14.08%) AWS
3 30 (10.83%) IaaS
4 24 (8.66%) Entra ID
5 23 (8.30%) Microsoft 365
6 10 (3.61%) GitHub
7 9 (3.25%) OpenShift
8 8 (2.89%) AWS CloudFormation
9 7 (2.53%) GCP
9 7 (2.53%) PaaS
9 7 (2.53%) SaaS
10 6 (2.17%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 5 (1.81%) Power Platform
12 4 (1.44%) Amazon ECS
12 4 (1.44%) AWS Fargate
13 3 (1.08%) Azure DevOps
13 3 (1.08%) OneDrive
13 3 (1.08%) Power Automate
14 2 (0.72%) Amazon EKS
14 2 (0.72%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 64 (23.10%) DNS
2 63 (22.74%) Firewall
3 47 (16.97%) BGP
4 36 (13.00%) DHCP
4 36 (13.00%) WAN
5 35 (12.64%) VPN
6 30 (10.83%) Network Security
7 25 (9.03%) IPsec
7 25 (9.03%) MPLS
8 23 (8.30%) OSPF
9 21 (7.58%) SSL
10 18 (6.50%) LAN
11 17 (6.14%) Junos
12 15 (5.42%) Cisco ISE
13 14 (5.05%) Ethernet VPN
13 14 (5.05%) VXLAN
14 13 (4.69%) BIG-IP
14 13 (4.69%) Skype
15 11 (3.97%) Cisco IOS
15 11 (3.97%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (4.33%) SQL Server
2 5 (1.81%) Elasticsearch
3 4 (1.44%) Amazon RDS
3 4 (1.44%) MongoDB
4 1 (0.36%) Amazon QuickSight
4 1 (0.36%) Power BI
4 1 (0.36%) Redis
Development Applications
1 13 (4.69%) JIRA
2 10 (3.61%) GitLab
3 6 (2.17%) Jenkins
4 4 (1.44%) Robot Framework
4 4 (1.44%) Sonatype Nexus
4 4 (1.44%) Terragrunt
5 1 (0.36%) CircleCI
5 1 (0.36%) Git
5 1 (0.36%) JUnit
General
1 45 (16.25%) Analytical Skills
2 42 (15.16%) Social Skills
3 29 (10.47%) Public Sector
4 11 (3.97%) Finance
5 10 (3.61%) Military
6 5 (1.81%) Documentation Skills
7 4 (1.44%) Banking
7 4 (1.44%) Presentation Skills
8 2 (0.72%) Legal
8 2 (0.72%) Local Government
9 1 (0.36%) Aerospace
9 1 (0.36%) Back Office
9 1 (0.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 86 (31.05%) Architect
2 34 (12.27%) Senior
3 25 (9.03%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 24 (8.66%) 3rd Line Engineer
5 22 (7.94%) Support Engineer
6 19 (6.86%) Network Engineer
7 17 (6.14%) 3rd Line Support
7 17 (6.14%) Wintel Engineer
8 16 (5.78%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
9 13 (4.69%) Administrator
9 13 (4.69%) Platform Manager
9 13 (4.69%) Systems Administrator
9 13 (4.69%) Systems Manager
9 13 (4.69%) Wintel Administrator
9 13 (4.69%) Wintel Systems Administrator
10 11 (3.97%) Lead
11 10 (3.61%) Security Architect
11 10 (3.61%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
12 9 (3.25%) 2nd Line Engineer
12 9 (3.25%) Platform Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (11.19%) REST
2 27 (9.75%) JSON
3 16 (5.78%) OpenID
4 13 (4.69%) 802.1X
5 11 (3.97%) OAuth
5 11 (3.97%) OAuth2
5 11 (3.97%) SAML
6 10 (3.61%) LDAP
7 5 (1.81%) Kafka
8 4 (1.44%) AWS CDK
8 4 (1.44%) cloud-init
8 4 (1.44%) Elastic Stack
8 4 (1.44%) Keycloak
9 3 (1.08%) CSS
9 3 (1.08%) HTML
9 3 (1.08%) JDBC
9 3 (1.08%) SailPoint
9 3 (1.08%) SOAP
10 2 (0.72%) .NET
10 2 (0.72%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 28 (10.11%) Self-Motivation
2 16 (5.78%) Clustering
3 15 (5.42%) Data Centre
4 12 (4.33%) Fat Client
4 12 (4.33%) Thin Client
5 8 (2.89%) Algorithms
5 8 (2.89%) Management Information System
6 6 (2.17%) Enterprise Storage
7 5 (1.81%) Public Cloud
7 5 (1.81%) Smartcard
8 4 (1.44%) Legacy Applications
8 4 (1.44%) Onboarding
8 4 (1.44%) Private Cloud
8 4 (1.44%) Replication
8 4 (1.44%) Security Operations Centre
9 3 (1.08%) Operational Technology
9 3 (1.08%) Security Posture
9 3 (1.08%) Taxonomies
10 2 (0.72%) CESG
10 2 (0.72%) Cloud Native
Operating Systems
1 100 (36.10%) Windows
2 50 (18.05%) Linux
3 43 (15.52%) Windows Server
4 11 (3.97%) Windows 7
5 10 (3.61%) Windows 10
6 8 (2.89%) Windows Server 2012
7 7 (2.53%) CentOS
7 7 (2.53%) Ubuntu
7 7 (2.53%) Unix
8 5 (1.81%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 5 (1.81%) Windows Server 2016
9 4 (1.44%) Windows Server 2003
10 3 (1.08%) VMS
10 3 (1.08%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.72%) Windows Server 2008
12 1 (0.36%) Android
12 1 (0.36%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 76 (27.44%) Agile
2 58 (20.94%) Key Management
3 40 (14.44%) Identity Access Management
4 35 (12.64%) Change Management
5 33 (11.91%) Problem-Solving
6 32 (11.55%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 32 (11.55%) ITIL
7 30 (10.83%) CI/CD
7 30 (10.83%) Configuration Management
8 28 (10.11%) Cybersecurity
9 26 (9.39%) DevOps
10 25 (9.03%) Load Balancing
10 25 (9.03%) Service Management
11 24 (8.66%) Incident Response
12 22 (7.94%) Platform Engineering
13 20 (7.22%) Containerisation
13 20 (7.22%) Cryptography
13 20 (7.22%) Observability
13 20 (7.22%) SIEM
14 19 (6.86%) Cloud Security
Programming Languages
1 67 (24.19%) PowerShell
2 45 (16.25%) Python
3 17 (6.14%) Bash
3 17 (6.14%) SQL
4 7 (2.53%) JavaScript
5 5 (1.81%) C++
5 5 (1.81%) Go
5 5 (1.81%) Java
5 5 (1.81%) Perl
5 5 (1.81%) Shell Script
6 4 (1.44%) PHP
7 2 (0.72%) C#
8 1 (0.36%) C
8 1 (0.36%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 198 (71.48%) Security Cleared
2 100 (36.10%) DV Cleared
3 96 (34.66%) SC Cleared
4 26 (9.39%) Degree
5 25 (9.03%) Cisco Certification
6 22 (7.94%) Microsoft Certification
7 20 (7.22%) CISSP
8 16 (5.78%) CISM
9 13 (4.69%) CCNP
10 10 (3.61%) MCSE
11 8 (2.89%) GIAC
11 8 (2.89%) JNCIA
11 8 (2.89%) JNCIS
11 8 (2.89%) Master's Degree
12 6 (2.17%) CCNA
12 6 (2.17%) Computer Science Degree
12 6 (2.17%) ITIL Certification
12 6 (2.17%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 5 (1.81%) AWS Certification
14 4 (1.44%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (5.05%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 13 (4.69%) NIST
3 12 (4.33%) NCSC
4 7 (2.53%) GDPR
5 6 (2.17%) PCI DSS
6 4 (1.44%) Cyber Essentials
6 4 (1.44%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 4 (1.44%) RMADS
6 4 (1.44%) SLA
7 3 (1.08%) JSP 440
8 2 (0.72%) HIPAA
8 2 (0.72%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 1 (0.36%) Accessibility
9 1 (0.36%) FIPS 140-2
9 1 (0.36%) NIST 800
9 1 (0.36%) PSD2
9 1 (0.36%) QA
9 1 (0.36%) SOC 2
System Software
1 85 (30.69%) Active Directory
2 43 (15.52%) VMware Infrastructure
3 18 (6.50%) Docker
4 13 (4.69%) VMware ESXi
5 11 (3.97%) Hyper-V
5 11 (3.97%) VMware NSX
6 9 (3.25%) Firmware
6 9 (3.25%) vSphere
7 5 (1.81%) BitLocker
7 5 (1.81%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 5 (1.81%) Virtual Servers
8 4 (1.44%) Microsoft App-V
8 4 (1.44%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.72%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
9 2 (0.72%) Sendmail
10 1 (0.36%) KVM
10 1 (0.36%) NFS
10 1 (0.36%) Squid
10 1 (0.36%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 30 (10.83%) Ansible
2 29 (10.47%) Kubernetes
3 27 (9.75%) Terraform
4 23 (8.30%) vCenter Server
5 15 (5.42%) Single Sign-On
6 14 (5.05%) FortiGate
7 13 (4.69%) SCOM
8 12 (4.33%) Microsoft Intune
8 12 (4.33%) SCCM
8 12 (4.33%) WSUS
9 11 (3.97%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 11 (3.97%) WMI
10 8 (2.89%) Prometheus
11 7 (2.53%) Grafana
12 4 (1.44%) Jamf Pro
12 4 (1.44%) Packer
12 4 (1.44%) Podman
12 4 (1.44%) Puppet
12 4 (1.44%) QRadar
12 4 (1.44%) vMotion
Vendors
1 87 (31.41%) Microsoft
2 69 (24.91%) VMware
3 54 (19.49%) Cisco
4 41 (14.80%) Juniper
5 32 (11.55%) Splunk
6 26 (9.39%) SolarWinds
7 15 (5.42%) F5
8 14 (5.05%) Veeam
9 12 (4.33%) Extreme Networks
10 10 (3.61%) Palo Alto
11 8 (2.89%) Citrix
11 8 (2.89%) Thales
12 7 (2.53%) Broadcom
12 7 (2.53%) Dell
12 7 (2.53%) Google
13 6 (2.17%) Okta
14 5 (1.81%) Aruba
14 5 (1.81%) Fortinet
14 5 (1.81%) Netskope
14 5 (1.81%) Zscaler