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 15 February 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 252 192 149
Rank change year-on-year -60 -43 +102
Contract jobs citing PKI 165 152 330
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.83% 1.13% 1.57%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.62% 3.44% 5.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 118 82 190
10th Percentile £313 £413 £405
25th Percentile £431 £494 £514
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £575 £569
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +1.10% +2.02%
75th Percentile £650 £646 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £700
UK median daily rate £550 £578 £595
% change year-on-year -4.82% -2.88% -0.83%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 0 5
10th Percentile £71.27 - £46.38
25th Percentile £74.91 - -
Median hourly rate £87.00 - £55.00
75th Percentile £98.75 - £56.40
90th Percentile £102.75 - £63.06
UK median hourly rate £87.00 - £55.00

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 6,290 4,417 6,325
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 31.57% 32.74% 30.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,927 2,531 3,828
10th Percentile £200 £200 £208
25th Percentile £354 £356 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £498 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.52% -0.50% -
75th Percentile £575 £600 £595
90th Percentile £675 £675 £680
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £530
% change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 507 234 625
10th Percentile £14.25 £18.51 £12.86
25th Percentile £17.96 £23.07 £15.71
Median hourly rate £30.00 £32.50 £34.21
Median % change year-on-year -7.69% -5.00% +56.50%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £76.10 £81.58 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £30.05 £34.50 £32.12
% change year-on-year -12.89% +7.43% +42.83%

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 15 February 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 15 February 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 15 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
South East +14 71 £600 -1.64% 36
South West -40 39 £550 - 6
West Midlands -25 32 £400 -5.88% 6
Midlands -34 32 £400 -5.88% 12
North of England -64 16 £482 -33.52% 5
North West -27 8 £379 -22.31% 1
Yorkshire -62 8 £482 -33.52% 4
Scotland -25 6 £650 +31.65% 1
East of England - 3 £550 - 3
Wales 0 1 £550 +20.22% 1
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 24 (14.55%) Microsoft Exchange
2 11 (6.67%) SharePoint
3 6 (3.64%) Skype for Business
4 4 (2.42%) SharePoint Server
5 3 (1.82%) Confluence
5 3 (1.82%) Exchange Server 2010
6 1 (0.61%) Apache
6 1 (0.61%) IIS
6 1 (0.61%) JBoss
Applications
1 10 (6.06%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.61%) Cloudability
1 1 (0.61%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 27 (16.36%) Azure
2 24 (14.55%) AWS
3 13 (7.88%) Entra ID
4 9 (5.45%) OpenShift
5 8 (4.85%) Microsoft 365
6 5 (3.03%) AWS CloudFormation
6 5 (3.03%) GCP
6 5 (3.03%) Power Platform
7 4 (2.42%) SaaS
8 3 (1.82%) Azure DevOps
8 3 (1.82%) Azure Key Vault
8 3 (1.82%) GitHub
8 3 (1.82%) Power Automate
9 2 (1.21%) AWS KMS
9 2 (1.21%) Google Workspace
9 2 (1.21%) OneDrive
10 1 (0.61%) Anthos
10 1 (0.61%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 35 (21.21%) Firewall
2 33 (20.00%) DNS
3 27 (16.36%) VPN
4 26 (15.76%) BGP
5 23 (13.94%) MPLS
6 21 (12.73%) WAN
7 19 (11.52%) DHCP
8 17 (10.30%) IPsec
9 13 (7.88%) Skype
10 12 (7.27%) SSL
11 10 (6.06%) Cisco IOS
11 10 (6.06%) Network Security
12 8 (4.85%) Junos
12 8 (4.85%) TCP/IP
13 6 (3.64%) Cisco ASA
13 6 (3.64%) Cisco ISE
13 6 (3.64%) TACACS
14 5 (3.03%) Cisco Firepower
14 5 (3.03%) Unified Communications
15 4 (2.42%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (6.67%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.61%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 8 (4.85%) JIRA
2 4 (2.42%) Robot Framework
2 4 (2.42%) Sonatype Nexus
3 3 (1.82%) GitLab
4 1 (0.61%) CircleCI
4 1 (0.61%) Jenkins
General
1 35 (21.21%) Social Skills
2 25 (15.15%) Public Sector
3 16 (9.70%) Analytical Skills
4 5 (3.03%) Finance
4 5 (3.03%) Military
5 3 (1.82%) Banking
5 3 (1.82%) Presentation Skills
6 2 (1.21%) Financial Institution
6 2 (1.21%) Legal
7 1 (0.61%) Aerospace
7 1 (0.61%) Back Office
7 1 (0.61%) Documentation Skills
7 1 (0.61%) Influencing Skills
7 1 (0.61%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 46 (27.88%) Architect
2 21 (12.73%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 21 (12.73%) Support Engineer
3 19 (11.52%) 3rd Line Engineer
4 18 (10.91%) Senior
5 16 (9.70%) 3rd Line Support
6 15 (9.09%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
7 11 (6.67%) Wintel Engineer
8 10 (6.06%) Network Engineer
8 10 (6.06%) Security Engineer
9 9 (5.45%) 2nd Line Engineer
9 9 (5.45%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
10 8 (4.85%) Cloud Engineer
11 7 (4.24%) Platform Engineer
11 7 (4.24%) WAN Engineer
12 5 (3.03%) Azure Engineer
12 5 (3.03%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
12 5 (3.03%) Infrastructure Support
12 5 (3.03%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
13 4 (2.42%) SOC Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (3.64%) LDAP
2 4 (2.42%) OpenID
2 4 (2.42%) REST
3 3 (1.82%) OAuth
3 3 (1.82%) OAuth2
3 3 (1.82%) SailPoint
3 3 (1.82%) SAML
4 2 (1.21%) 802.1X
5 1 (0.61%) Elastic Stack
5 1 (0.61%) Kafka
5 1 (0.61%) Middleware
5 1 (0.61%) OpenTelemetry
Miscellaneous
1 11 (6.67%) Fat Client
1 11 (6.67%) Thin Client
2 6 (3.64%) Algorithms
3 5 (3.03%) Public Cloud
3 5 (3.03%) Smartcard
4 4 (2.42%) Security Operations Centre
5 3 (1.82%) Cloud Native
5 3 (1.82%) Data Centre
5 3 (1.82%) Onboarding
5 3 (1.82%) Operational Technology
5 3 (1.82%) Security Posture
6 2 (1.21%) Clustering
6 2 (1.21%) Management Information System
6 2 (1.21%) Self-Motivation
6 2 (1.21%) SWIFT Messaging Network
7 1 (0.61%) CMDB
7 1 (0.61%) Cyber Security Posture
7 1 (0.61%) Data Protection Act
7 1 (0.61%) Replication
7 1 (0.61%) Tandem
Operating Systems
1 63 (38.18%) Windows
2 34 (20.61%) Linux
3 31 (18.79%) Windows Server
4 11 (6.67%) Windows 7
5 10 (6.06%) Windows 10
6 8 (4.85%) Windows Server 2012
7 6 (3.64%) Ubuntu
8 5 (3.03%) Windows Server 2016
9 3 (1.82%) CentOS
10 2 (1.21%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 2 (1.21%) VMS
10 2 (1.21%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.61%) Solaris
11 1 (0.61%) Unix
11 1 (0.61%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 46 (27.88%) Agile
2 25 (15.15%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 22 (13.33%) Key Management
4 21 (12.73%) Identity Access Management
4 21 (12.73%) Problem-Solving
5 20 (12.12%) Change Management
5 20 (12.12%) ITIL
6 19 (11.52%) CI/CD
6 19 (11.52%) Cybersecurity
6 19 (11.52%) Platform Engineering
7 18 (10.91%) DevOps
8 17 (10.30%) Service Management
9 15 (9.09%) Prototyping
10 14 (8.48%) Knowledge Transfer
11 13 (7.88%) Cloud Security
11 13 (7.88%) Infrastructure as Code
12 12 (7.27%) Cryptography
12 12 (7.27%) Incident Response
12 12 (7.27%) Load Balancing
12 12 (7.27%) Open Source
Programming Languages
1 33 (20.00%) PowerShell
1 33 (20.00%) Python
2 14 (8.48%) SQL
3 10 (6.06%) Bash
4 4 (2.42%) PHP
5 1 (0.61%) Bicep
5 1 (0.61%) C
5 1 (0.61%) C#
5 1 (0.61%) Go
5 1 (0.61%) JavaScript
5 1 (0.61%) Perl
5 1 (0.61%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 122 (73.94%) Security Cleared
2 75 (45.45%) DV Cleared
3 51 (30.91%) SC Cleared
4 17 (10.30%) Degree
5 15 (9.09%) CISM
5 15 (9.09%) CISSP
6 14 (8.48%) Microsoft Certification
7 12 (7.27%) MCSE
8 8 (4.85%) GIAC
9 7 (4.24%) CCNP
9 7 (4.24%) Cisco Certification
10 6 (3.64%) CCNA
10 6 (3.64%) ITIL Certification
10 6 (3.64%) Master's Degree
11 5 (3.03%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 4 (2.42%) APMG
12 4 (2.42%) AWS Certification
12 4 (2.42%) CompTIA Security+
12 4 (2.42%) SSCP
13 3 (1.82%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (7.88%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 13 (7.88%) NIST
2 5 (3.03%) Cyber Essentials
2 5 (3.03%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
2 5 (3.03%) PCI DSS
3 4 (2.42%) GDPR
3 4 (2.42%) NCSC
3 4 (2.42%) SLA
4 1 (0.61%) HMG Security Policy Framework
4 1 (0.61%) JSP 440
4 1 (0.61%) NIST 800
4 1 (0.61%) RMADS
4 1 (0.61%) SOC 2
System Software
1 60 (36.36%) Active Directory
2 35 (21.21%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (5.45%) VMware NSX
4 8 (4.85%) Docker
4 8 (4.85%) Hyper-V
5 7 (4.24%) VMware ESXi
6 6 (3.64%) Firmware
7 5 (3.03%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 5 (3.03%) Virtual Servers
8 4 (2.42%) Virtual Machines
9 3 (1.82%) Sendmail
9 3 (1.82%) vSphere
10 1 (0.61%) KVM
10 1 (0.61%) NFS
Systems Management
1 21 (12.73%) Ansible
1 21 (12.73%) Terraform
2 18 (10.91%) vCenter Server
3 16 (9.70%) Kubernetes
4 12 (7.27%) Single Sign-On
5 11 (6.67%) SCCM
5 11 (6.67%) WMI
5 11 (6.67%) WSUS
6 9 (5.45%) Microsoft Intune
7 8 (4.85%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 7 (4.24%) SCOM
9 4 (2.42%) Podman
9 4 (2.42%) Prometheus
9 4 (2.42%) QRadar
10 3 (1.82%) Grafana
10 3 (1.82%) Proxmox
11 2 (1.21%) FortiGate
12 1 (0.61%) Nagios
12 1 (0.61%) Progress Chef
12 1 (0.61%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 63 (38.18%) Microsoft
2 56 (33.94%) VMware
3 32 (19.39%) Cisco
4 24 (14.55%) Juniper
5 17 (10.30%) SolarWinds
6 13 (7.88%) Veeam
7 11 (6.67%) Splunk
8 9 (5.45%) Thales
9 7 (4.24%) Google
10 5 (3.03%) Broadcom
10 5 (3.03%) Red Hat
11 4 (2.42%) ServiceNow
12 3 (1.82%) CheckPoint
12 3 (1.82%) Citrix
12 3 (1.82%) F5
12 3 (1.82%) Zscaler
13 2 (1.21%) CyberArk
13 2 (1.21%) Extreme Networks
13 2 (1.21%) IBM
13 2 (1.21%) Palo Alto