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 24 March 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 253 194 125
Rank change year-on-year -59 -69 +114
Contract jobs citing PKI 182 152 370
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.83% 1.20% 1.76%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.68% 3.62% 5.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 118 92 237
10th Percentile £360 £413 £363
25th Percentile £483 £513 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £570 £550
Median % change year-on-year -3.51% +3.64% -4.35%
75th Percentile £650 £632 £625
90th Percentile £725 £725 £675
UK median daily rate £565 £550 £550
% change year-on-year +2.73% - -8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 0 1
10th Percentile £61.41 - -
25th Percentile £70.50 - £58.50
Median hourly rate £79.50 - £63.00
75th Percentile £96.25 - £67.50
90th Percentile £101.65 - -
UK median hourly rate £79.50 - £63.00
% change year-on-year - - +5.88%

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 6,784 4,200 6,255
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 30.80% 33.23% 29.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,232 2,611 3,711
10th Percentile £213 £205 £205
25th Percentile £363 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £575 £600 £594
90th Percentile £675 £675 £680
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £530
% change year-on-year -4.71% -0.94% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 535 279 685
10th Percentile £15.25 £16.95 £12.25
25th Percentile £18.38 £21.38 £14.50
Median hourly rate £42.71 £31.76 £25.50
Median % change year-on-year +34.46% +24.55% +14.84%
75th Percentile £68.75 £66.00 £57.50
90th Percentile £85.40 £84.20 £66.93
UK median hourly rate £39.00 £32.50 £27.50
% change year-on-year +20.00% +18.18% +22.22%

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 24 March 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 24 March 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 24 March 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 +22 105 £600 - 20
South West -53 25 £625 +8.70% 5
West Midlands -53 25 £400 -8.57% 2
Midlands -59 25 £400 -8.57% 6
North of England -69 18 £482 -32.35% 9
Yorkshire -56 10 £482 -33.52% 4
North West -32 8 £444 -11.25% 5
Scotland -26 6 £550 +2.90% 1
East of England -23 5 £550 - 4
Wales -8 1 £550 +20.22% 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 16 (8.79%) Microsoft Exchange
2 4 (2.20%) SharePoint
3 3 (1.65%) Confluence
3 3 (1.65%) Exchange Server 2010
4 2 (1.10%) IIS
4 2 (1.10%) SharePoint Server
5 1 (0.55%) Apache
5 1 (0.55%) ArcGIS
5 1 (0.55%) Tomcat
5 1 (0.55%) WebSphere
Applications
1 5 (2.75%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 5 (2.75%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.55%) Cloudability
Cloud Services
1 31 (17.03%) Azure
2 27 (14.84%) AWS
3 16 (8.79%) Entra ID
4 11 (6.04%) Microsoft 365
5 10 (5.49%) Power Platform
6 9 (4.95%) OpenShift
7 4 (2.20%) AWS CloudFormation
7 4 (2.20%) Azure Key Vault
7 4 (2.20%) GCP
7 4 (2.20%) SaaS
8 3 (1.65%) Azure DevOps
8 3 (1.65%) GitHub
8 3 (1.65%) Power Automate
9 2 (1.10%) AWS KMS
9 2 (1.10%) Google Workspace
9 2 (1.10%) OneDrive
10 1 (0.55%) Anthos
10 1 (0.55%) Azure Sentinel
10 1 (0.55%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 50 (27.47%) Firewall
2 47 (25.82%) DNS
3 39 (21.43%) BGP
4 33 (18.13%) WAN
5 32 (17.58%) DHCP
6 24 (13.19%) Junos
6 24 (13.19%) VPN
7 22 (12.09%) OSPF
8 21 (11.54%) Cisco ISE
8 21 (11.54%) LAN
9 20 (10.99%) BIG-IP
9 20 (10.99%) Ethernet VPN
9 20 (10.99%) VXLAN
10 17 (9.34%) MPLS
11 13 (7.14%) IPsec
12 12 (6.59%) SSL
13 10 (5.49%) Cisco IOS
14 9 (4.95%) Network Security
14 9 (4.95%) TCP/IP
15 6 (3.30%) TACACS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (4.95%) SQL Server
2 5 (2.75%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 8 (4.40%) JIRA
2 6 (3.30%) Robot Framework
3 4 (2.20%) Sonatype Nexus
4 2 (1.10%) GitLab
5 1 (0.55%) Git
5 1 (0.55%) Jenkins
General
1 28 (15.38%) Social Skills
2 21 (11.54%) Public Sector
3 12 (6.59%) Analytical Skills
4 7 (3.85%) Finance
4 7 (3.85%) Military
5 3 (1.65%) Banking
5 3 (1.65%) Presentation Skills
6 2 (1.10%) Financial Institution
6 2 (1.10%) Legal
7 1 (0.55%) Aerospace
7 1 (0.55%) Back Office
7 1 (0.55%) Documentation Skills
7 1 (0.55%) Influencing Skills
7 1 (0.55%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 51 (28.02%) Architect
2 37 (20.33%) Senior
3 27 (14.84%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 15 (8.24%) Network Engineer
5 14 (7.69%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
6 13 (7.14%) Support Engineer
7 12 (6.59%) 3rd Line Engineer
8 11 (6.04%) Firewall Specialist
8 11 (6.04%) Network Specialist
8 11 (6.04%) Security Engineer
8 11 (6.04%) Senior Architect
9 9 (4.95%) 3rd Line Support
9 9 (4.95%) Cloud Engineer
9 9 (4.95%) Senior Network Engineer
10 8 (4.40%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
11 7 (3.85%) 2nd Line Engineer
11 7 (3.85%) Technical Architect
12 6 (3.30%) Senior Technical Architect
12 6 (3.30%) WAN Engineer
12 6 (3.30%) Wintel Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (10.99%) 802.1X
2 7 (3.85%) LDAP
2 7 (3.85%) REST
3 5 (2.75%) OpenID
4 4 (2.20%) OAuth
4 4 (2.20%) SAML
5 3 (1.65%) OAuth2
5 3 (1.65%) SailPoint
6 2 (1.10%) JSON
7 1 (0.55%) OpenTelemetry
7 1 (0.55%) Web Services
7 1 (0.55%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 22 (12.09%) Clustering
2 21 (11.54%) Data Centre
3 9 (4.95%) Fat Client
3 9 (4.95%) Thin Client
4 8 (4.40%) Public Cloud
5 6 (3.30%) Algorithms
5 6 (3.30%) Hybrid Cloud
6 5 (2.75%) Operational Technology
6 5 (2.75%) Smartcard
7 4 (2.20%) Onboarding
7 4 (2.20%) Security Operations Centre
8 3 (1.65%) Security Posture
9 2 (1.10%) Data Protection Act
9 2 (1.10%) Management Information System
9 2 (1.10%) SCADA
9 2 (1.10%) SWIFT Messaging Network
10 1 (0.55%) CMDB
10 1 (0.55%) Enterprise Software
10 1 (0.55%) Replication
10 1 (0.55%) Tandem
Operating Systems
1 72 (39.56%) Windows
2 36 (19.78%) Linux
3 32 (17.58%) Windows Server
4 9 (4.95%) Windows 7
5 8 (4.40%) Windows Server 2012
6 6 (3.30%) Ubuntu
7 5 (2.75%) CentOS
7 5 (2.75%) Windows 10
8 4 (2.20%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 3 (1.65%) Windows Server 2016
10 2 (1.10%) VMS
10 2 (1.10%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.55%) Solaris
11 1 (0.55%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 52 (28.57%) Agile
2 42 (23.08%) Identity Access Management
3 31 (17.03%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 30 (16.48%) Problem-Solving
5 26 (14.29%) Load Balancing
6 25 (13.74%) ITIL
7 24 (13.19%) CI/CD
8 23 (12.64%) High Availability
8 23 (12.64%) Key Management
8 23 (12.64%) Observability
9 20 (10.99%) Cybersecurity
9 20 (10.99%) Service Management
10 19 (10.44%) ITSM
11 18 (9.89%) DevOps
11 18 (9.89%) Infrastructure as Code
12 17 (9.34%) Change Management
12 17 (9.34%) Platform Engineering
13 16 (8.79%) Continuous Improvement
14 15 (8.24%) Prototyping
15 14 (7.69%) Cloud Security
Programming Languages
1 37 (20.33%) PowerShell
1 37 (20.33%) Python
2 13 (7.14%) SQL
3 11 (6.04%) Bash
4 5 (2.75%) JavaScript
5 4 (2.20%) C#
5 4 (2.20%) PHP
6 1 (0.55%) Go
6 1 (0.55%) Java
6 1 (0.55%) Perl
6 1 (0.55%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 133 (73.08%) Security Cleared
2 85 (46.70%) DV Cleared
3 45 (24.73%) SC Cleared
4 18 (9.89%) Cisco Certification
5 14 (7.69%) CISM
5 14 (7.69%) CISSP
6 13 (7.14%) Degree
7 9 (4.95%) Microsoft Certification
8 8 (4.40%) GIAC
9 7 (3.85%) JNCIA
9 7 (3.85%) JNCIP
9 7 (3.85%) JNCIS
9 7 (3.85%) MCSE
10 5 (2.75%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 4 (2.20%) APMG
11 4 (2.20%) AWS Certification
11 4 (2.20%) CompTIA Security+
11 4 (2.20%) SSCP
12 3 (1.65%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 3 (1.65%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (9.34%) NIST
2 14 (7.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 10 (5.49%) Cyber Essentials
3 10 (5.49%) NCSC
4 6 (3.30%) PCI DSS
5 5 (2.75%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 4 (2.20%) GDPR
6 4 (2.20%) SLA
7 2 (1.10%) ISA99
7 2 (1.10%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 1 (0.55%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 1 (0.55%) NIST 800
8 1 (0.55%) SOC 2
System Software
1 55 (30.22%) Active Directory
2 34 (18.68%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (6.04%) VMware NSX
4 7 (3.85%) Docker
4 7 (3.85%) Firmware
4 7 (3.85%) Hyper-V
4 7 (3.85%) VMware ESXi
5 4 (2.20%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (1.65%) Sendmail
7 2 (1.10%) KVM
7 2 (1.10%) vSphere
8 1 (0.55%) NFS
Systems Management
1 25 (13.74%) Ansible
1 25 (13.74%) Terraform
2 20 (10.99%) FortiGate
3 16 (8.79%) Kubernetes
4 15 (8.24%) vCenter Server
5 13 (7.14%) Single Sign-On
6 9 (4.95%) WMI
7 8 (4.40%) Microsoft Intune
8 5 (2.75%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 5 (2.75%) SCOM
8 5 (2.75%) WSUS
9 4 (2.20%) Prometheus
9 4 (2.20%) QRadar
9 4 (2.20%) SCCM
10 3 (1.65%) Grafana
10 3 (1.65%) Podman
10 3 (1.65%) Proxmox
11 1 (0.55%) Argo
11 1 (0.55%) CASB
11 1 (0.55%) Istio
Vendors
1 60 (32.97%) Microsoft
2 55 (30.22%) VMware
3 45 (24.73%) Cisco
4 36 (19.78%) Juniper
5 27 (14.84%) SolarWinds
6 24 (13.19%) Splunk
7 22 (12.09%) F5
8 19 (10.44%) Extreme Networks
9 10 (5.49%) Thales
10 9 (4.95%) ServiceNow
11 7 (3.85%) Google
12 6 (3.30%) Palo Alto
13 5 (2.75%) BMC
13 5 (2.75%) Broadcom
13 5 (2.75%) Remedy
14 4 (2.20%) Red Hat
14 4 (2.20%) Veeam
15 3 (1.65%) Citrix
15 3 (1.65%) IBM
15 3 (1.65%) Zscaler