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 2 June 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 268 223 114
Rank change year-on-year -45 -109 +111
Contract jobs citing PKI 174 117 394
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.70% 0.90% 1.89%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.36% 2.70% 6.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 117 101 271
10th Percentile £412 £413 £363
25th Percentile £463 £492 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £575 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £608 £608
90th Percentile £693 £649 £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 7,368 4,330 5,984
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 29.60% 33.47% 28.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,519 2,661 3,573
10th Percentile £268 £210 £208
25th Percentile £400 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.63% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £575 £600
90th Percentile £675 £650 £688
UK median daily rate £514 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -2.10% -2.42% -2.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 598 306 745
10th Percentile £15.47 £16.39 £12.15
25th Percentile £19.34 £18.87 £14.17
Median hourly rate £45.00 £32.05 £34.21
Median % change year-on-year +40.41% -6.31% +55.50%
75th Percentile £70.00 £64.52 £61.30
90th Percentile £85.12 £82.38 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £41.00 £33.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year +24.24% -5.71% +57.30%

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 2 June 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 2 June 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 2 June 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 0 98 £600 +4.35% 21
North of England -54 31 £482 -2.03% 5
Scotland +12 18 £540 +0.93%
North West -28 18 £418 -15.04% 2
Midlands -63 14 £466 +6.51% 7
West Midlands -66 14 £466 +6.51% 3
Yorkshire -49 13 £485 -33.17% 3
South West -60 13 £538 -8.12% 10
East of England -34 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 7 (4.02%) SharePoint
2 6 (3.45%) IIS
3 4 (2.30%) Confluence
4 3 (1.72%) Apache
4 3 (1.72%) Tomcat
4 3 (1.72%) WebSphere
5 1 (0.57%) ArcGIS
5 1 (0.57%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 4 (2.30%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 10 (5.75%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.57%) Cloudability
2 1 (0.57%) Dynamics GP
Cloud Services
1 42 (24.14%) Azure
2 24 (13.79%) AWS
2 24 (13.79%) Entra ID
3 15 (8.62%) Power Platform
4 11 (6.32%) GCP
5 9 (5.17%) Microsoft 365
5 9 (5.17%) OpenShift
6 6 (3.45%) Azure Key Vault
7 4 (2.30%) AWS KMS
8 3 (1.72%) Azure DevOps
9 2 (1.15%) GitHub
9 2 (1.15%) OneDrive
10 1 (0.57%) Anthos
10 1 (0.57%) Azure Logic Apps
10 1 (0.57%) Azure Sentinel
10 1 (0.57%) GitHub Actions
10 1 (0.57%) Google Kubernetes Engine
10 1 (0.57%) Google Workspace
10 1 (0.57%) Power Automate
10 1 (0.57%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 48 (27.59%) DNS
2 39 (22.41%) Firewall
3 34 (19.54%) DHCP
4 33 (18.97%) BGP
5 32 (18.39%) WAN
6 28 (16.09%) LAN
7 25 (14.37%) OSPF
8 23 (13.22%) BIG-IP
8 23 (13.22%) Ethernet VPN
8 23 (13.22%) Junos
8 23 (13.22%) VXLAN
9 22 (12.64%) Cisco ISE
10 21 (12.07%) VPN
11 16 (9.20%) SSL
12 15 (8.62%) Network Security
13 10 (5.75%) Cisco ASA
14 8 (4.60%) IPsec
14 8 (4.60%) MPLS
15 6 (3.45%) TACACS
15 6 (3.45%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (6.32%) SQL Server
2 10 (5.75%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 6 (3.45%) JIRA
1 6 (3.45%) Robot Framework
2 5 (2.87%) Sonatype Nexus
3 3 (1.72%) Jenkins
4 2 (1.15%) Git
4 2 (1.15%) GitLab
4 2 (1.15%) MSI
5 1 (0.57%) Burp Suite
5 1 (0.57%) Cucumber
5 1 (0.57%) Gatling
5 1 (0.57%) Gradle
5 1 (0.57%) LoadRunner
5 1 (0.57%) REST Assured
5 1 (0.57%) SonarQube
General
1 23 (13.22%) Social Skills
2 18 (10.34%) Public Sector
3 15 (8.62%) Finance
4 8 (4.60%) Analytical Skills
5 4 (2.30%) Banking
5 4 (2.30%) Documentation Skills
5 4 (2.30%) Military
6 2 (1.15%) Financial Institution
6 2 (1.15%) Retail
7 1 (0.57%) Back Office
7 1 (0.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 1 (0.57%) Law
7 1 (0.57%) Legal
Job Titles
1 39 (22.41%) Senior
2 28 (16.09%) Architect
3 27 (15.52%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 18 (10.34%) Network Engineer
5 14 (8.05%) Firewall Specialist
5 14 (8.05%) Network Specialist
6 13 (7.47%) Senior Network Engineer
7 11 (6.32%) Security Engineer
8 9 (5.17%) 3rd Line Engineer
8 9 (5.17%) Senior Architect
8 9 (5.17%) Support Engineer
9 8 (4.60%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
9 8 (4.60%) Storage Engineer
10 6 (3.45%) ITSM Architect
11 5 (2.87%) Citrix Engineer
11 5 (2.87%) Citrix Infrastructure Engineer
11 5 (2.87%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
11 5 (2.87%) Identity Management Engineer
11 5 (2.87%) Linux Infrastructure Engineer
11 5 (2.87%) VMware Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (17.82%) 802.1X
2 11 (6.32%) REST
3 10 (5.75%) OpenID
4 9 (5.17%) LDAP
5 8 (4.60%) OAuth
5 8 (4.60%) SAML
6 4 (2.30%) JSON
7 3 (1.72%) OAuth2
7 3 (1.72%) RabbitMQ
7 3 (1.72%) SailPoint
8 2 (1.15%) Microsoft Graph
9 1 (0.57%) FIDO
9 1 (0.57%) Node.js
9 1 (0.57%) OpenTelemetry
9 1 (0.57%) Playwright
9 1 (0.57%) React
9 1 (0.57%) Spring
9 1 (0.57%) Spring Boot
9 1 (0.57%) Web Services
9 1 (0.57%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 33 (18.97%) Clustering
2 23 (13.22%) Data Centre
3 8 (4.60%) Hybrid Cloud
4 7 (4.02%) Public Cloud
5 6 (3.45%) Algorithms
6 5 (2.87%) Operational Technology
7 4 (2.30%) Linux Command Line
7 4 (2.30%) Management Information System
7 4 (2.30%) Onboarding
7 4 (2.30%) Smartcard
8 3 (1.72%) Data Protection Act
8 3 (1.72%) Distributed Systems
8 3 (1.72%) Enterprise Cloud
8 3 (1.72%) Enterprise Software
8 3 (1.72%) Legacy Systems
8 3 (1.72%) Private Cloud
8 3 (1.72%) Tandem
9 2 (1.15%) Cyber Threat
9 2 (1.15%) Enterprise Storage
9 2 (1.15%) SWIFT Messaging Network
Operating Systems
1 86 (49.43%) Windows
2 42 (24.14%) Windows Server
3 35 (20.11%) Linux
4 6 (3.45%) Debian
4 6 (3.45%) Ubuntu
5 5 (2.87%) Windows Server 2019
6 3 (1.72%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 3 (1.72%) Unix
6 3 (1.72%) Windows Server 2016
7 2 (1.15%) CentOS
7 2 (1.15%) Windows 7
7 2 (1.15%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.57%) Data ONTAP
8 1 (0.57%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 63 (36.21%) Identity Access Management
2 42 (24.14%) Agile
3 36 (20.69%) ITIL
4 34 (19.54%) High Availability
5 33 (18.97%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 28 (16.09%) Problem-Solving
7 26 (14.94%) ITSM
7 26 (14.94%) Observability
8 25 (14.37%) Load Balancing
9 24 (13.79%) Key Management
10 23 (13.22%) Service Management
11 21 (12.07%) Cybersecurity
12 20 (11.49%) Zero Trust
13 19 (10.92%) Change Management
13 19 (10.92%) RBAC
14 18 (10.34%) Identity Management
15 16 (9.20%) CI/CD
15 16 (9.20%) DevOps
15 16 (9.20%) Migration
16 15 (8.62%) Cloud Security
Programming Languages
1 37 (21.26%) PowerShell
2 31 (17.82%) Python
3 12 (6.90%) SQL
4 10 (5.75%) JavaScript
5 7 (4.02%) Bash
6 4 (2.30%) C#
6 4 (2.30%) Java
6 4 (2.30%) PHP
7 1 (0.57%) Go
7 1 (0.57%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 107 (61.49%) Security Cleared
2 76 (43.68%) DV Cleared
3 34 (19.54%) SC Cleared
4 25 (14.37%) Cisco Certification
5 17 (9.77%) CISSP
6 16 (9.20%) CISM
7 11 (6.32%) Degree
8 10 (5.75%) GIAC
9 7 (4.02%) CompTIA Security+
9 7 (4.02%) JNCIA
9 7 (4.02%) JNCIP
9 7 (4.02%) JNCIS
10 6 (3.45%) MCSE
10 6 (3.45%) Microsoft Certification
11 4 (2.30%) APMG
11 4 (2.30%) Azure Certification
11 4 (2.30%) CCNA
11 4 (2.30%) CCNP
11 4 (2.30%) Computer Science Degree
11 4 (2.30%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (15.52%) NIST
2 20 (11.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 10 (5.75%) Cyber Essentials
4 8 (4.60%) NCSC
5 7 (4.02%) PCI DSS
6 6 (3.45%) SLA
7 4 (2.30%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 3 (1.72%) GDPR
9 2 (1.15%) ISA99
9 2 (1.15%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 1 (0.57%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 1 (0.57%) SOC 2
System Software
1 51 (29.31%) Active Directory
2 33 (18.97%) VMware Infrastructure
3 15 (8.62%) VMware NSX
4 7 (4.02%) Hyper-V
5 6 (3.45%) VMware ESXi
6 4 (2.30%) Docker
7 3 (1.72%) Firmware
8 2 (1.15%) KVM
8 2 (1.15%) Virtual Machines
8 2 (1.15%) vSphere
8 2 (1.15%) XenApp
8 2 (1.15%) XenDesktop
9 1 (0.57%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 26 (14.94%) Terraform
2 25 (14.37%) Ansible
3 23 (13.22%) FortiGate
4 17 (9.77%) Kubernetes
5 15 (8.62%) vCenter Server
6 14 (8.05%) Single Sign-On
7 12 (6.90%) SCOM
8 10 (5.75%) Microsoft Intune
9 8 (4.60%) Avamar
10 7 (4.02%) SCCM
11 5 (2.87%) WMI
12 4 (2.30%) Prometheus
13 3 (1.72%) Grafana
14 2 (1.15%) Failover Clustering
14 2 (1.15%) Istio
14 2 (1.15%) WSUS
15 1 (0.57%) Argo
15 1 (0.57%) CA Single Sign-On
15 1 (0.57%) CASB
15 1 (0.57%) Puppet
Vendors
1 53 (30.46%) VMware
2 49 (28.16%) Microsoft
3 45 (25.86%) Cisco
4 28 (16.09%) SolarWinds
5 27 (15.52%) Juniper
6 25 (14.37%) F5
7 23 (13.22%) Splunk
8 22 (12.64%) Extreme Networks
9 17 (9.77%) ServiceNow
9 17 (9.77%) Thales
10 10 (5.75%) BMC
10 10 (5.75%) Citrix
10 10 (5.75%) Remedy
11 9 (5.17%) Okta
11 9 (5.17%) Palo Alto
12 8 (4.60%) Dell
13 7 (4.02%) IBM
14 5 (2.87%) ForeScout
15 4 (2.30%) BeyondTrust
16 3 (1.72%) Becrypt