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 23 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 274 231 114
Rank change year-on-year -43 -117 +121
Contract jobs citing PKI 171 109 387
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.69% 0.86% 1.91%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.35% 2.58% 6.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 114 92 271
10th Percentile £414 £413 £363
25th Percentile £463 £492 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £570 £550
Median % change year-on-year -3.51% +3.64% -1.92%
75th Percentile £639 £606 £608
90th Percentile £725 £638 £675
UK median daily rate £550 £575 £550
% change year-on-year -4.35% +4.55% -4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 1
10th Percentile £47.22 - -
25th Percentile £56.01 - £36.75
Median hourly rate £71.33 - £38.50
75th Percentile £72.27 - £40.25
90th Percentile £72.43 - -
UK median hourly rate £71.33 - £23.80
% change year-on-year - - -63.38%

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 7,275 4,220 5,877
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 29.38% 33.29% 29.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,470 2,598 3,534
10th Percentile £268 £205 £210
25th Percentile £395 £363 £378
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £486 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.32% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £584 £595
90th Percentile £675 £650 £688
UK median daily rate £513 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -2.38% -2.42% -2.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 586 288 726
10th Percentile £15.67 £16.95 £12.15
25th Percentile £19.33 £18.89 £14.06
Median hourly rate £45.00 £29.90 £31.25
Median % change year-on-year +50.50% -4.32% +43.68%
75th Percentile £70.00 £64.52 £61.30
90th Percentile £85.00 £82.25 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £40.96 £31.76 £32.12
% change year-on-year +28.97% -1.11% +44.92%

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 23 May 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 23 May 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 23 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
South East -9 97 £600 +4.35% 26
North of England -54 29 £482 -2.03% 5
Scotland +14 18 £540 +0.93% 1
North West -28 17 £422 -14.33% 4
South West -55 14 £539 -6.30% 3
West Midlands -70 13 £450 +2.86% 7
Midlands -78 13 £450 +2.86% 11
Yorkshire -50 12 £482 -33.52% 1
East of England -31 4 £400 -23.81% 4
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 6 (3.51%) IIS
1 6 (3.51%) SharePoint
2 3 (1.75%) Apache
2 3 (1.75%) Confluence
2 3 (1.75%) Tomcat
2 3 (1.75%) WebSphere
3 2 (1.17%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.58%) ArcGIS
4 1 (0.58%) Exchange Server 2010
Applications
1 3 (1.75%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 9 (5.26%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.58%) Cloudability
2 1 (0.58%) Dynamics GP
Cloud Services
1 38 (22.22%) Azure
2 23 (13.45%) AWS
3 22 (12.87%) Entra ID
4 14 (8.19%) Power Platform
5 10 (5.85%) GCP
6 9 (5.26%) Microsoft 365
6 9 (5.26%) OpenShift
7 6 (3.51%) Azure Key Vault
8 4 (2.34%) AWS KMS
9 2 (1.17%) Azure DevOps
9 2 (1.17%) OneDrive
10 1 (0.58%) Anthos
10 1 (0.58%) GitHub
10 1 (0.58%) Google Kubernetes Engine
10 1 (0.58%) Google Workspace
10 1 (0.58%) OCI
10 1 (0.58%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 44 (25.73%) DNS
2 37 (21.64%) Firewall
3 33 (19.30%) BGP
4 30 (17.54%) DHCP
5 29 (16.96%) WAN
6 25 (14.62%) LAN
6 25 (14.62%) OSPF
7 24 (14.04%) Junos
8 23 (13.45%) BIG-IP
8 23 (13.45%) Cisco ISE
8 23 (13.45%) Ethernet VPN
8 23 (13.45%) VXLAN
9 19 (11.11%) VPN
10 13 (7.60%) SSL
11 12 (7.02%) Network Security
12 8 (4.68%) MPLS
13 7 (4.09%) Cisco ASA
13 7 (4.09%) Cisco IOS
14 6 (3.51%) TACACS
14 6 (3.51%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (5.85%) SQL Server
2 9 (5.26%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 7 (4.09%) Robot Framework
2 6 (3.51%) Sonatype Nexus
3 5 (2.92%) JIRA
4 2 (1.17%) Git
4 2 (1.17%) Jenkins
4 2 (1.17%) MSI
5 1 (0.58%) Burp Suite
5 1 (0.58%) Cucumber
5 1 (0.58%) Gatling
5 1 (0.58%) GitLab
5 1 (0.58%) Gradle
5 1 (0.58%) LoadRunner
5 1 (0.58%) REST Assured
5 1 (0.58%) SonarQube
General
1 24 (14.04%) Social Skills
2 20 (11.70%) Public Sector
3 15 (8.77%) Finance
4 8 (4.68%) Analytical Skills
5 4 (2.34%) Banking
5 4 (2.34%) Military
6 3 (1.75%) Documentation Skills
7 2 (1.17%) Financial Institution
7 2 (1.17%) Retail
8 1 (0.58%) Back Office
8 1 (0.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 1 (0.58%) Law
8 1 (0.58%) Legal
Job Titles
1 34 (19.88%) Senior
2 32 (18.71%) Architect
3 26 (15.20%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 16 (9.36%) Network Engineer
5 14 (8.19%) Firewall Specialist
5 14 (8.19%) Network Specialist
6 11 (6.43%) Security Engineer
6 11 (6.43%) Support Engineer
7 10 (5.85%) 3rd Line Engineer
7 10 (5.85%) Senior Network Engineer
8 9 (5.26%) Senior Architect
9 8 (4.68%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
10 6 (3.51%) ITSM Architect
10 6 (3.51%) Storage Engineer
11 5 (2.92%) Identity Management Engineer
12 4 (2.34%) Citrix Infrastructure Engineer
12 4 (2.34%) Infrastructure Support
12 4 (2.34%) Lead
12 4 (2.34%) Linux Infrastructure Engineer
12 4 (2.34%) VMware Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 29 (16.96%) 802.1X
2 10 (5.85%) OpenID
2 10 (5.85%) REST
3 9 (5.26%) OAuth
3 9 (5.26%) SAML
4 8 (4.68%) LDAP
5 4 (2.34%) JSON
5 4 (2.34%) OAuth2
6 3 (1.75%) RabbitMQ
6 3 (1.75%) SailPoint
7 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Graph
7 1 (0.58%) Node.js
7 1 (0.58%) OpenTelemetry
7 1 (0.58%) Playwright
7 1 (0.58%) Quarkus
7 1 (0.58%) React
7 1 (0.58%) Spring
7 1 (0.58%) Spring Boot
7 1 (0.58%) Web Services
7 1 (0.58%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 31 (18.13%) Clustering
2 23 (13.45%) Data Centre
3 8 (4.68%) Hybrid Cloud
3 8 (4.68%) Public Cloud
4 7 (4.09%) Algorithms
5 5 (2.92%) Operational Technology
5 5 (2.92%) Smartcard
6 4 (2.34%) Linux Command Line
6 4 (2.34%) Onboarding
7 3 (1.75%) Data Protection Act
7 3 (1.75%) Management Information System
8 2 (1.17%) Distributed Systems
8 2 (1.17%) Enterprise Software
8 2 (1.17%) Enterprise Storage
8 2 (1.17%) Fat Client
8 2 (1.17%) Legacy Systems
8 2 (1.17%) SCADA
8 2 (1.17%) SWIFT Messaging Network
8 2 (1.17%) Tandem
8 2 (1.17%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 80 (46.78%) Windows
2 42 (24.56%) Windows Server
3 32 (18.71%) Linux
4 6 (3.51%) Ubuntu
5 5 (2.92%) Debian
5 5 (2.92%) Windows Server 2019
6 3 (1.75%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (1.75%) Windows Server 2012
6 3 (1.75%) Windows Server 2016
7 2 (1.17%) CentOS
7 2 (1.17%) Unix
7 2 (1.17%) Windows 7
8 1 (0.58%) Data ONTAP
8 1 (0.58%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 60 (35.09%) Identity Access Management
2 45 (26.32%) Agile
3 32 (18.71%) High Availability
3 32 (18.71%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 30 (17.54%) ITIL
4 30 (17.54%) Problem-Solving
5 26 (15.20%) Observability
6 25 (14.62%) Load Balancing
7 24 (14.04%) ITSM
8 23 (13.45%) Key Management
9 21 (12.28%) Cybersecurity
9 21 (12.28%) Service Management
10 18 (10.53%) Zero Trust
11 17 (9.94%) Change Management
12 16 (9.36%) DevOps
13 15 (8.77%) CI/CD
13 15 (8.77%) Cloud Security
13 15 (8.77%) Identity Management
13 15 (8.77%) Migration
13 15 (8.77%) RBAC
Programming Languages
1 37 (21.64%) PowerShell
2 31 (18.13%) Python
3 11 (6.43%) SQL
4 9 (5.26%) JavaScript
5 7 (4.09%) Bash
6 4 (2.34%) C#
6 4 (2.34%) Java
6 4 (2.34%) PHP
7 1 (0.58%) Go
7 1 (0.58%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 108 (63.16%) Security Cleared
2 75 (43.86%) DV Cleared
3 33 (19.30%) SC Cleared
4 25 (14.62%) Cisco Certification
5 17 (9.94%) CISSP
6 16 (9.36%) CISM
7 11 (6.43%) GIAC
8 10 (5.85%) Degree
9 7 (4.09%) CompTIA Security+
9 7 (4.09%) JNCIA
9 7 (4.09%) JNCIP
9 7 (4.09%) JNCIS
10 4 (2.34%) APMG
10 4 (2.34%) Azure Certification
10 4 (2.34%) CCNA
10 4 (2.34%) CCNP
10 4 (2.34%) MCSE
10 4 (2.34%) Microsoft Certification
10 4 (2.34%) SSCP
11 3 (1.75%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (14.04%) NIST
2 20 (11.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 10 (5.85%) Cyber Essentials
4 8 (4.68%) NCSC
5 7 (4.09%) PCI DSS
6 6 (3.51%) SLA
7 4 (2.34%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 3 (1.75%) GDPR
9 2 (1.17%) ISA99
9 2 (1.17%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 1 (0.58%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 1 (0.58%) SOC 2
System Software
1 46 (26.90%) Active Directory
2 31 (18.13%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (7.02%) VMware NSX
4 7 (4.09%) Hyper-V
5 6 (3.51%) VMware ESXi
6 4 (2.34%) Firmware
7 3 (1.75%) Docker
8 2 (1.17%) KVM
8 2 (1.17%) Virtual Machines
8 2 (1.17%) vSphere
8 2 (1.17%) XenApp
8 2 (1.17%) XenDesktop
9 1 (0.58%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 26 (15.20%) Ansible
1 26 (15.20%) Terraform
2 23 (13.45%) FortiGate
3 16 (9.36%) Kubernetes
4 14 (8.19%) Single Sign-On
4 14 (8.19%) vCenter Server
5 10 (5.85%) SCOM
6 9 (5.26%) Microsoft Intune
7 7 (4.09%) SCCM
8 6 (3.51%) Avamar
9 5 (2.92%) WMI
10 4 (2.34%) Prometheus
11 3 (1.75%) Grafana
12 2 (1.17%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 2 (1.17%) Failover Clustering
12 2 (1.17%) Istio
12 2 (1.17%) WSUS
13 1 (0.58%) Argo
13 1 (0.58%) CA Single Sign-On
13 1 (0.58%) Puppet
Vendors
1 51 (29.82%) VMware
2 45 (26.32%) Microsoft
3 43 (25.15%) Cisco
4 28 (16.37%) Juniper
5 26 (15.20%) SolarWinds
6 25 (14.62%) F5
7 23 (13.45%) Splunk
8 22 (12.87%) Extreme Networks
9 15 (8.77%) Thales
10 12 (7.02%) ServiceNow
11 9 (5.26%) BMC
11 9 (5.26%) Citrix
11 9 (5.26%) Okta
11 9 (5.26%) Remedy
12 6 (3.51%) Dell
12 6 (3.51%) IBM
12 6 (3.51%) Palo Alto
13 5 (2.92%) BeyondTrust
13 5 (2.92%) ForeScout
14 3 (1.75%) Aruba