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 14 December 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 242 180 154
Rank change year-on-year -62 -26 +101
Contract jobs citing PKI 169 193 317
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.94% 1.28% 1.60%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.83% 4.10% 5.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 125 109 177
10th Percentile £305 £423 £398
25th Percentile £413 £475 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £551 £563
Median % change year-on-year -5.63% -2.04% -2.17%
75th Percentile £606 £630 £650
90th Percentile £701 £725 £700
UK median daily rate £550 £563 £575
% change year-on-year -2.22% -2.17% -4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 0 5
10th Percentile £74.80 - £46.38
25th Percentile £82.00 - -
Median hourly rate £90.00 - £55.00
75th Percentile £100.00 - £56.40
90th Percentile £103.30 - £63.06
UK median hourly rate £90.00 - £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 5,974 4,708 6,263
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 33.28% 31.10% 31.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,694 2,638 3,992
10th Percentile £200 £203 £213
25th Percentile £358 £360 £380
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £669 £688 £698
UK median daily rate £501 £538 £550
% change year-on-year -6.88% -2.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 477 260 372
10th Percentile £12.97 £16.32 £16.25
25th Percentile £16.95 £22.50 £20.50
Median hourly rate £27.21 £32.50 £45.11
Median % change year-on-year -16.28% -27.95% +52.90%
75th Percentile £63.75 £65.25 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.16 £78.00
UK median hourly rate £27.21 £33.27 £42.40
% change year-on-year -18.21% -21.54% +21.15%

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 14 December 2025.

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 14 December 2025.

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 14 December 2025. 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 +12 60 £588 -2.08% 46
South West -37 44 £550 +0.18% 17
Midlands -5 40 £400 -27.27% 16
West Midlands -4 39 £400 -27.27% 9
North of England -34 19 £482 -33.52% 23
North West -12 12 £379 -22.31% 11
Yorkshire -43 7 £485 -33.17% 10
Scotland -30 4 £575 +27.78% 4
East of England -20 3 £550 - 26
Wales -3 1 £550 +20.22% 2
East Midlands - 1 - - 6
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 26 (15.38%) Microsoft Exchange
2 11 (6.51%) SharePoint
3 6 (3.55%) Skype for Business
4 5 (2.96%) Apache
5 4 (2.37%) JBoss
5 4 (2.37%) SharePoint Server
6 3 (1.78%) Confluence
6 3 (1.78%) Exchange Server 2010
7 1 (0.59%) IIS
Applications
1 9 (5.33%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 27 (15.98%) Azure
2 24 (14.20%) AWS
3 9 (5.33%) OpenShift
4 8 (4.73%) Microsoft 365
5 7 (4.14%) Entra ID
6 5 (2.96%) AWS CloudFormation
7 4 (2.37%) Azure DevOps
7 4 (2.37%) GitHub
7 4 (2.37%) Power Platform
8 3 (1.78%) Power Automate
8 3 (1.78%) SaaS
9 2 (1.18%) AWS KMS
9 2 (1.18%) GCP
9 2 (1.18%) Google Workspace
10 1 (0.59%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 1 (0.59%) AWS CloudTrail
10 1 (0.59%) AWS Lambda
10 1 (0.59%) Datadog
10 1 (0.59%) OneDrive
10 1 (0.59%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 41 (24.26%) Firewall
2 31 (18.34%) DNS
3 28 (16.57%) VPN
4 26 (15.38%) BGP
4 26 (15.38%) WAN
5 25 (14.79%) IPsec
6 24 (14.20%) MPLS
7 17 (10.06%) DHCP
7 17 (10.06%) SSL
8 16 (9.47%) Skype
9 10 (5.92%) Junos
9 10 (5.92%) Network Security
10 9 (5.33%) TCP/IP
11 6 (3.55%) VSAN
12 5 (2.96%) Unified Communications
13 4 (2.37%) Cisco Firepower
13 4 (2.37%) Cisco IOS
13 4 (2.37%) Cisco ISE
13 4 (2.37%) Internet
13 4 (2.37%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (8.28%) SQL Server
2 3 (1.78%) Relational Database
3 1 (0.59%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 7 (4.14%) JIRA
2 3 (1.78%) GitLab
2 3 (1.78%) Robot Framework
2 3 (1.78%) Sonatype Nexus
3 1 (0.59%) Artifactory
3 1 (0.59%) CircleCI
3 1 (0.59%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.59%) MSI
3 1 (0.59%) SpecFlow
General
1 42 (24.85%) Social Skills
2 23 (13.61%) Public Sector
3 19 (11.24%) Analytical Skills
4 6 (3.55%) Military
5 4 (2.37%) Finance
6 3 (1.78%) Presentation Skills
7 1 (0.59%) Aerospace
7 1 (0.59%) Banking
7 1 (0.59%) Documentation Skills
7 1 (0.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 1 (0.59%) Influencing Skills
7 1 (0.59%) Legal
7 1 (0.59%) Manufacturing
7 1 (0.59%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 40 (23.67%) Architect
2 25 (14.79%) 3rd Line Engineer
2 25 (14.79%) Support Engineer
3 20 (11.83%) 3rd Line Support
4 19 (11.24%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
5 16 (9.47%) Senior
6 15 (8.88%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 11 (6.51%) Network Engineer
7 11 (6.51%) WAN Engineer
8 10 (5.92%) 2nd Line Engineer
9 9 (5.33%) Administrator
9 9 (5.33%) Platform Manager
9 9 (5.33%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
9 9 (5.33%) Systems Administrator
9 9 (5.33%) Systems Manager
9 9 (5.33%) Wintel Administrator
9 9 (5.33%) Wintel Engineer
9 9 (5.33%) Wintel Systems Administrator
10 8 (4.73%) Cloud Engineer
11 7 (4.14%) Platform Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (2.37%) Kafka
2 3 (1.78%) REST
3 2 (1.18%) ModSecurity
3 2 (1.18%) OpenID
4 1 (0.59%) .NET
4 1 (0.59%) AngularJS
4 1 (0.59%) Elastic Stack
4 1 (0.59%) Gherkin
4 1 (0.59%) Middleware
4 1 (0.59%) OAuth
4 1 (0.59%) OAuth2
4 1 (0.59%) Playwright
4 1 (0.59%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 10 (5.92%) Fat Client
1 10 (5.92%) Thin Client
2 5 (2.96%) Algorithms
2 5 (2.96%) Public Cloud
3 4 (2.37%) Data Centre
3 4 (2.37%) Security Operations Centre
3 4 (2.37%) Self-Motivation
4 3 (1.78%) Cloud Native
4 3 (1.78%) Cyber Defence
4 3 (1.78%) Onboarding
4 3 (1.78%) Private Cloud
4 3 (1.78%) Replication
4 3 (1.78%) Security Posture
5 2 (1.18%) Legacy Systems
5 2 (1.18%) Smartcard
6 1 (0.59%) Analytical Mindset
6 1 (0.59%) Cyber Security Posture
6 1 (0.59%) Linux Command Line
6 1 (0.59%) Product Ownership
6 1 (0.59%) Tandem
Operating Systems
1 70 (41.42%) Windows
2 39 (23.08%) Linux
3 33 (19.53%) Windows Server
4 13 (7.69%) Windows 10
5 10 (5.92%) Windows 7
6 8 (4.73%) Windows Server 2012
7 6 (3.55%) Windows Server 2016
7 6 (3.55%) Windows Server 2019
8 4 (2.37%) CentOS
8 4 (2.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 4 (2.37%) Windows Server 2008
9 2 (1.18%) VMS
10 1 (0.59%) Solaris
10 1 (0.59%) SUSE
10 1 (0.59%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.59%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 42 (24.85%) Agile
2 29 (17.16%) Change Management
3 21 (12.43%) ITIL
3 21 (12.43%) Service Management
4 20 (11.83%) CI/CD
4 20 (11.83%) Cryptography
5 19 (11.24%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 19 (11.24%) Migration
6 18 (10.65%) DevOps
6 18 (10.65%) Key Management
6 18 (10.65%) Load Balancing
6 18 (10.65%) Platform Engineering
7 17 (10.06%) Problem-Solving
8 14 (8.28%) Identity Access Management
8 14 (8.28%) SIEM
9 13 (7.69%) Incident Response
9 13 (7.69%) Prototyping
10 12 (7.10%) Continuous Improvement
10 12 (7.10%) Knowledge Transfer
10 12 (7.10%) Network Design
Programming Languages
1 35 (20.71%) PowerShell
2 25 (14.79%) Python
3 16 (9.47%) SQL
4 8 (4.73%) Bash
5 1 (0.59%) Bicep
5 1 (0.59%) C
5 1 (0.59%) C#
5 1 (0.59%) JavaScript
5 1 (0.59%) Perl
5 1 (0.59%) PHP
5 1 (0.59%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 123 (72.78%) Security Cleared
2 69 (40.83%) DV Cleared
3 54 (31.95%) SC Cleared
4 14 (8.28%) CISSP
4 14 (8.28%) Degree
4 14 (8.28%) Microsoft Certification
5 13 (7.69%) CISM
6 12 (7.10%) MCSE
7 8 (4.73%) Cisco Certification
8 7 (4.14%) CCNP
9 6 (3.55%) CCNA
9 6 (3.55%) ITIL Certification
9 6 (3.55%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 5 (2.96%) AWS Certification
10 5 (2.96%) Master's Degree
11 3 (1.78%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 3 (1.78%) Computer Science Degree
11 3 (1.78%) GIAC
12 2 (1.18%) ISTQB
12 2 (1.18%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (7.10%) NIST
2 9 (5.33%) NCSC
3 8 (4.73%) PCI DSS
4 7 (4.14%) GDPR
4 7 (4.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (1.78%) FIPS 140-2
6 2 (1.18%) SLA
6 2 (1.18%) SOC 1
7 1 (0.59%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.59%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (0.59%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 1 (0.59%) JSP 440
7 1 (0.59%) NIST 800
7 1 (0.59%) PMO
7 1 (0.59%) RMADS
System Software
1 55 (32.54%) Active Directory
2 33 (19.53%) VMware Infrastructure
3 10 (5.92%) VMware NSX
4 9 (5.33%) Docker
5 7 (4.14%) Hyper-V
6 6 (3.55%) Virtual Machines
6 6 (3.55%) Virtual Servers
7 5 (2.96%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 5 (2.96%) VMware ESXi
8 4 (2.37%) Firmware
9 3 (1.78%) Sendmail
9 3 (1.78%) vSphere
10 1 (0.59%) NFS
Systems Management
1 21 (12.43%) Ansible
2 16 (9.47%) Terraform
2 16 (9.47%) vCenter Server
3 14 (8.28%) Kubernetes
4 11 (6.51%) WMI
4 11 (6.51%) WSUS
5 10 (5.92%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 10 (5.92%) SCCM
6 8 (4.73%) Single Sign-On
7 7 (4.14%) Microsoft Intune
8 4 (2.37%) Podman
8 4 (2.37%) QRadar
9 3 (1.78%) Check_MK
9 3 (1.78%) Grafana
9 3 (1.78%) OPNET
9 3 (1.78%) Prometheus
9 3 (1.78%) Proxmox
9 3 (1.78%) SCOM
10 2 (1.18%) Progress Chef
11 1 (0.59%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 68 (40.24%) Microsoft
2 49 (28.99%) VMware
3 31 (18.34%) Juniper
4 27 (15.98%) Cisco
5 15 (8.88%) SolarWinds
6 14 (8.28%) Veeam
7 13 (7.69%) Splunk
8 6 (3.55%) Google
9 5 (2.96%) Broadcom
9 5 (2.96%) IBM
9 5 (2.96%) Red Hat
9 5 (2.96%) Thales
10 4 (2.37%) Fortinet
10 4 (2.37%) Oracle
11 3 (1.78%) CheckPoint
11 3 (1.78%) Citrix
11 3 (1.78%) ServiceNow
11 3 (1.78%) Zscaler
12 2 (1.18%) CyberArk
12 2 (1.18%) Palo Alto