PKI Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Public-Key Infrastructure (PKI)
UK > UK excluding London

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term PKI in contract job vacancies in the UK excluding London. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited PKI over the 6 months leading up to 22 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 257 248 159
Rank change year-on-year -9 -89 +23
Contract jobs citing PKI 244 133 236
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.87% 0.87% 1.34%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.79% 2.51% 4.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 175 113 161
10th Percentile £421 £325 £410
25th Percentile £463 £425 £440
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £540 £538
Median % change year-on-year +1.85% +0.47% -6.52%
75th Percentile £625 £600 £608
90th Percentile £700 £649 £650
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £543
% change year-on-year - +1.38% -5.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 0 1
10th Percentile £94.90 - -
25th Percentile £96.00 - £36.75
Median hourly rate £97.41 - £38.50
75th Percentile £98.82 - £40.25
90th Percentile £100.00 - -
UK median hourly rate £97.41 - £23.80
% change year-on-year - - -56.73%

All Generic Skills
UK excluding London

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 the UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 8,745 5,292 5,106
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 31.03% 34.67% 28.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,032 3,159 2,888
10th Percentile £281 £222 £213
25th Percentile £405 £363 £372
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £576 £600
90th Percentile £688 £663 £700
UK median daily rate £525 £515 £540
% change year-on-year +1.94% -4.63% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 944 423 367
10th Percentile £13.56 £14.13 £13.99
25th Percentile £17.48 £17.99 £21.25
Median hourly rate £39.36 £30.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +31.20% -47.69% +17.04%
75th Percentile £68.75 £57.50 £70.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.75 £75.06
UK median hourly rate £37.88 £29.50 £50.00
% change year-on-year +28.39% -41.00% +12.36%

PKI
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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

PKI job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

PKI
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing PKI.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing PKI

PKI
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing PKI in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 22 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for PKI in the UK excluding London

PKI
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing PKI.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing PKI

PKI
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing PKI in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 22 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for PKI in the UK excluding London

PKI
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing PKI within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 22 September 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
South East -16 83 £575 - 38
North of England -15 68 £525 +6.71% 28
Scotland +8 38 £481 -12.55% 9
North West -28 36 £525 +6.71% 17
South West -48 36 £648 +17.73% 35
Yorkshire -15 30 £568 -5.42% 9
East of England -27 8 £500 -4.76% 9
Midlands -70 8 £475 +30.14% 13
West Midlands -68 7 £475 +30.14% 10
Wales - 6 £463 - 1
North East - 2 £426 - 2
East Midlands -14 1 £475 - 3
PKI
UK

PKI
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 13 (5.33%) Microsoft Exchange
2 12 (4.92%) Confluence
3 9 (3.69%) SharePoint
4 4 (1.64%) IIS
5 3 (1.23%) Exchange Server 2010
6 2 (0.82%) Apache
6 2 (0.82%) nginx
6 2 (0.82%) Tomcat
6 2 (0.82%) WebSphere
7 1 (0.41%) Traefik
Applications
1 4 (1.64%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 9 (3.69%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.41%) Dynamics GP
Cloud Services
1 61 (25.00%) Azure
2 46 (18.85%) Entra ID
3 41 (16.80%) AWS
4 23 (9.43%) GCP
5 13 (5.33%) Power Platform
6 10 (4.10%) Microsoft 365
7 6 (2.46%) Azure Key Vault
8 5 (2.05%) Azure Monitor
9 4 (1.64%) AWS KMS
9 4 (1.64%) Azure DevOps
9 4 (1.64%) GitHub
9 4 (1.64%) OpenShift
10 2 (0.82%) Azure Sentinel
10 2 (0.82%) GitHub Actions
10 2 (0.82%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 1 (0.41%) Amazon ECS
11 1 (0.41%) AWS Fargate
11 1 (0.41%) Azure Logic Apps
11 1 (0.41%) Power Automate
11 1 (0.41%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 73 (29.92%) DNS
2 56 (22.95%) Firewall
3 51 (20.90%) DHCP
4 27 (11.07%) TCP/IP
5 26 (10.66%) VPN
6 18 (7.38%) LAN
7 17 (6.97%) SSL
7 17 (6.97%) WAN
8 15 (6.15%) BGP
8 15 (6.15%) IPsec
8 15 (6.15%) Network Security
9 14 (5.74%) VSAN
10 13 (5.33%) Cisco ASA
10 13 (5.33%) Cisco Firepower
10 13 (5.33%) Cisco Nexus
10 13 (5.33%) OSPF
11 12 (4.92%) VLAN
11 12 (4.92%) Wireless
12 10 (4.10%) VoIP
12 10 (4.10%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (9.02%) SQL Server
2 9 (3.69%) Power BI
3 2 (0.82%) Metadata
4 1 (0.41%) MongoDB
4 1 (0.41%) NoSQL
4 1 (0.41%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 15 (6.15%) JIRA
2 5 (2.05%) Jenkins
3 4 (1.64%) Git
3 4 (1.64%) GitLab
4 3 (1.23%) Sonatype Nexus
5 2 (0.82%) Burp Suite
5 2 (0.82%) Cucumber
5 2 (0.82%) Gatling
5 2 (0.82%) Gradle
5 2 (0.82%) LoadRunner
5 2 (0.82%) MSI
5 2 (0.82%) REST Assured
5 2 (0.82%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.41%) Robot Framework
General
1 52 (21.31%) Social Skills
2 25 (10.25%) Finance
3 24 (9.84%) Analytical Skills
4 18 (7.38%) Public Sector
5 14 (5.74%) Documentation Skills
6 10 (4.10%) Banking
7 6 (2.46%) Military
8 5 (2.05%) Police
9 3 (1.23%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 3 (1.23%) Investment Banking
9 3 (1.23%) Retail
10 2 (0.82%) Aerospace
10 2 (0.82%) Corporate Banking
10 2 (0.82%) Legal
10 2 (0.82%) Retail Banking
11 1 (0.41%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.41%) Law
11 1 (0.41%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.41%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 52 (21.31%) Senior
2 40 (16.39%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 24 (9.84%) Architect
4 20 (8.20%) Network Engineer
5 18 (7.38%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
6 17 (6.97%) Platform Engineer
6 17 (6.97%) Support Engineer
7 14 (5.74%) 3rd Line Engineer
7 14 (5.74%) Consultant
7 14 (5.74%) Senior Network Engineer
7 14 (5.74%) Storage Engineer
8 11 (4.51%) Solutions Architect
9 8 (3.28%) Lead
10 7 (2.87%) Integration Engineer
10 7 (2.87%) Principal Engineer
10 7 (2.87%) VMware Engineer
11 5 (2.05%) Citrix Engineer
11 5 (2.05%) Cybersecurity Specialist
11 5 (2.05%) Linux Engineer
11 5 (2.05%) Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (15.16%) Terraform
2 20 (8.20%) LDAP
3 18 (7.38%) OpenID
4 17 (6.97%) 802.1X
4 17 (6.97%) SAML
5 16 (6.56%) OAuth
6 15 (6.15%) REST
7 9 (3.69%) OAuth2
8 8 (3.28%) .NET
8 8 (3.28%) .NET Framework
8 8 (3.28%) XML
9 5 (2.05%) RabbitMQ
10 4 (1.64%) FIDO
11 3 (1.23%) WebAuthn
12 2 (0.82%) JSON
12 2 (0.82%) Node.js
12 2 (0.82%) Playwright
12 2 (0.82%) Quarkus
12 2 (0.82%) React
12 2 (0.82%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 25 (10.25%) Data Centre
2 20 (8.20%) Clustering
3 11 (4.51%) Public Cloud
4 9 (3.69%) Legacy Systems
4 9 (3.69%) Onboarding
5 8 (3.28%) Cloud Native
5 8 (3.28%) Management Information System
5 8 (3.28%) Self-Motivation
6 7 (2.87%) Linux Command Line
7 6 (2.46%) Distributed Systems
7 6 (2.46%) Security Posture
8 5 (2.05%) Enterprise Software
8 5 (2.05%) Enterprise Storage
9 4 (1.64%) Data Protection Act
9 4 (1.64%) Fibre Optics
9 4 (1.64%) Operational Technology
9 4 (1.64%) Private Cloud
9 4 (1.64%) Product Ownership
9 4 (1.64%) SCADA
9 4 (1.64%) Tandem
Operating Systems
1 125 (51.23%) Windows
2 73 (29.92%) Windows Server
3 66 (27.05%) Linux
4 12 (4.92%) Windows Server 2016
5 8 (3.28%) Unix
6 7 (2.87%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 7 (2.87%) Windows Server 2012
7 6 (2.46%) Debian
7 6 (2.46%) Windows Server 2019
8 4 (1.64%) Android
8 4 (1.64%) Apple iOS
8 4 (1.64%) Mac OS
8 4 (1.64%) Windows 10
9 3 (1.23%) CentOS
9 3 (1.23%) Data ONTAP
10 2 (0.82%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.41%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 80 (32.79%) Identity Access Management
2 55 (22.54%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 45 (18.44%) Problem-Solving
4 44 (18.03%) Cybersecurity
4 44 (18.03%) ITIL
5 42 (17.21%) Technical Leadership
6 38 (15.57%) Agile
7 33 (13.52%) Continuous Improvement
8 32 (13.11%) Key Management
8 32 (13.11%) Stakeholder Management
8 32 (13.11%) Zero Trust
9 30 (12.30%) Service Management
10 29 (11.89%) High Availability
10 29 (11.89%) Infrastructure as Code
10 29 (11.89%) Platform Engineering
11 28 (11.48%) DevSecOps
11 28 (11.48%) ITSM
12 27 (11.07%) CI/CD
12 27 (11.07%) Mentoring
13 25 (10.25%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 78 (31.97%) PowerShell
2 46 (18.85%) Python
3 22 (9.02%) Bash
4 12 (4.92%) SQL
5 9 (3.69%) JavaScript
6 8 (3.28%) C#
7 5 (2.05%) Java
8 2 (0.82%) Go
9 1 (0.41%) Bicep
9 1 (0.41%) Ruby
9 1 (0.41%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 146 (59.84%) Security Cleared
2 91 (37.30%) DV Cleared
3 66 (27.05%) SC Cleared
4 19 (7.79%) Cisco Certification
5 16 (6.56%) Degree
6 15 (6.15%) Microsoft Certification
7 14 (5.74%) CISSP
8 13 (5.33%) CCNP
9 12 (4.92%) VCAP
10 11 (4.51%) MCSE
11 9 (3.69%) AWS Certification
12 7 (2.87%) Azure Certification
13 6 (2.46%) CISM
14 5 (2.05%) Computer Science Degree
14 5 (2.05%) GIAC
14 5 (2.05%) ISTQB
14 5 (2.05%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
15 4 (1.64%) Master's Degree
15 4 (1.64%) MCSA
16 3 (1.23%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (8.61%) NIST
2 16 (6.56%) NCSC
3 12 (4.92%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 12 (4.92%) SLA
4 8 (3.28%) JSP 440
5 6 (2.46%) GRC
6 2 (0.82%) GDPR
6 2 (0.82%) QA
7 1 (0.41%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (0.41%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 123 (50.41%) Active Directory
2 59 (24.18%) VMware Infrastructure
3 29 (11.89%) VMware NSX
4 26 (10.66%) Hyper-V
5 20 (8.20%) Docker
6 19 (7.79%) vSphere
7 10 (4.10%) VMware ESXi
8 5 (2.05%) Virtual Desktop
9 3 (1.23%) OpenAM
9 3 (1.23%) UAG
9 3 (1.23%) Virtual Servers
10 2 (0.82%) Firmware
10 2 (0.82%) XenApp
10 2 (0.82%) XenDesktop
11 1 (0.41%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
Systems Management
1 40 (16.39%) Kubernetes
2 34 (13.93%) Ansible
3 20 (8.20%) vCenter Server
4 19 (7.79%) Single Sign-On
5 18 (7.38%) VxRail
6 15 (6.15%) SCOM
7 14 (5.74%) Avamar
8 10 (4.10%) Microsoft Intune
8 10 (4.10%) SCCM
9 8 (3.28%) Istio
9 8 (3.28%) WSUS
10 5 (2.05%) Failover Clustering
11 4 (1.64%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 4 (1.64%) Cisco CUCM
11 4 (1.64%) FortiGate
11 4 (1.64%) McAfee ePO
11 4 (1.64%) Nessus
11 4 (1.64%) WMI
12 3 (1.23%) OPNET
13 2 (0.82%) Kibana
Vendors
1 101 (41.39%) Microsoft
2 74 (30.33%) VMware
3 34 (13.93%) Cisco
4 26 (10.66%) Thales
5 23 (9.43%) Okta
5 23 (9.43%) ServiceNow
6 18 (7.38%) Dell
7 17 (6.97%) BeyondTrust
8 11 (4.51%) SolarWinds
9 10 (4.10%) Citrix
10 9 (3.69%) BMC
10 9 (3.69%) CheckPoint
10 9 (3.69%) Fortinet
10 9 (3.69%) Juniper
10 9 (3.69%) Palo Alto
10 9 (3.69%) Remedy
11 8 (3.28%) NetApp
12 7 (2.87%) F5
12 7 (2.87%) McAfee
13 6 (2.46%) Splunk