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

6 months to
2 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 252 247 165
Rank change year-on-year -5 -82 +7
Contract jobs citing PKI 242 134 225
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.85% 0.85% 1.28%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.70% 2.46% 4.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 173 112 148
10th Percentile £417 £328 £382
25th Percentile £463 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £538
Median % change year-on-year - +2.33% -6.52%
75th Percentile £625 £600 £608
90th Percentile £700 £649 £649
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £540
% change year-on-year - +1.90% -5.72%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 0 0
10th Percentile £85.00 - -
25th Percentile - - -
Median hourly rate £96.00 - -
75th Percentile £98.82 - -
90th Percentile £100.00 - -
UK median hourly rate £96.00 - £23.80
% change year-on-year - - -56.73%

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 8,954 5,448 5,134
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 31.62% 34.76% 29.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,067 3,268 2,865
10th Percentile £280 £225 £205
25th Percentile £404 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £580 £600
90th Percentile £688 £664 £690
UK median daily rate £525 £520 £535
% change year-on-year +0.96% -2.71% -2.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,016 441 341
10th Percentile £13.58 £13.90 £14.41
25th Percentile £17.24 £17.30 £22.00
Median hourly rate £37.50 £29.27 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +28.12% -48.96% +14.70%
75th Percentile £67.55 £56.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.00 £75.16
UK median hourly rate £36.00 £28.13 £49.75
% change year-on-year +28.00% -43.47% +10.56%

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 October 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 October 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 October 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 -20 78 £575 - 40
North of England -19 67 £525 +6.71% 24
Scotland +6 41 £481 -12.55% 5
South West -50 36 £670 +21.82% 32
North West -29 34 £522 +6.10% 13
Yorkshire -3 31 £570 -5.00% 9
East of England -19 9 £600 +14.29% 15
Midlands -72 8 £475 +18.75% 14
West Midlands -59 7 £475 +18.75% 11
Wales - 6 £463 - 4
North East - 2 £426 - 2
East Midlands -14 1 £475 - 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 13 (5.37%) Microsoft Exchange
2 12 (4.96%) Confluence
3 9 (3.72%) SharePoint
4 4 (1.65%) IIS
5 3 (1.24%) Exchange Server 2010
6 2 (0.83%) Apache
6 2 (0.83%) nginx
6 2 (0.83%) Tomcat
6 2 (0.83%) WebSphere
7 1 (0.41%) Traefik
Applications
1 4 (1.65%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 7 (2.89%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.41%) Dynamics GP
Cloud Services
1 62 (25.62%) Azure
2 49 (20.25%) Entra ID
3 40 (16.53%) AWS
4 22 (9.09%) GCP
5 10 (4.13%) Microsoft 365
5 10 (4.13%) Power Platform
6 5 (2.07%) Azure DevOps
6 5 (2.07%) Azure Monitor
6 5 (2.07%) GitHub
7 4 (1.65%) Azure Key Vault
7 4 (1.65%) OpenShift
8 3 (1.24%) GitHub Actions
9 2 (0.83%) AWS KMS
9 2 (0.83%) Azure Sentinel
9 2 (0.83%) Google Kubernetes Engine
10 1 (0.41%) Amazon ECS
10 1 (0.41%) AWS Fargate
10 1 (0.41%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 1 (0.41%) Kong
10 1 (0.41%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 73 (30.17%) DNS
2 54 (22.31%) Firewall
3 49 (20.25%) DHCP
4 27 (11.16%) TCP/IP
5 26 (10.74%) VPN
6 16 (6.61%) LAN
6 16 (6.61%) SSL
7 15 (6.20%) IPsec
7 15 (6.20%) Network Security
7 15 (6.20%) WAN
8 14 (5.79%) VSAN
9 13 (5.37%) BGP
9 13 (5.37%) Cisco ASA
9 13 (5.37%) Cisco Firepower
10 12 (4.96%) Cisco Nexus
10 12 (4.96%) VLAN
10 12 (4.96%) Wireless
11 11 (4.55%) OSPF
12 10 (4.13%) VoIP
12 10 (4.13%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (8.26%) SQL Server
2 7 (2.89%) Power BI
3 2 (0.83%) Amazon RDS
3 2 (0.83%) Metadata
4 1 (0.41%) MongoDB
4 1 (0.41%) NoSQL
4 1 (0.41%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 15 (6.20%) JIRA
2 6 (2.48%) Jenkins
3 5 (2.07%) Git
3 5 (2.07%) GitLab
4 3 (1.24%) Sonatype Nexus
5 2 (0.83%) Burp Suite
5 2 (0.83%) Cucumber
5 2 (0.83%) Gatling
5 2 (0.83%) Gradle
5 2 (0.83%) LoadRunner
5 2 (0.83%) MSI
5 2 (0.83%) REST Assured
5 2 (0.83%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.41%) Robot Framework
General
1 51 (21.07%) Social Skills
2 24 (9.92%) Analytical Skills
2 24 (9.92%) Finance
3 20 (8.26%) Public Sector
4 14 (5.79%) Documentation Skills
5 10 (4.13%) Banking
6 6 (2.48%) Military
6 6 (2.48%) Police
7 3 (1.24%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 3 (1.24%) Investment Banking
7 3 (1.24%) Retail
8 2 (0.83%) Aerospace
8 2 (0.83%) Corporate Banking
8 2 (0.83%) Legal
8 2 (0.83%) Retail Banking
9 1 (0.41%) Influencing Skills
9 1 (0.41%) Law
9 1 (0.41%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (0.41%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 52 (21.49%) Senior
2 39 (16.12%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 23 (9.50%) Architect
4 20 (8.26%) Network Engineer
5 19 (7.85%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
6 17 (7.02%) Platform Engineer
6 17 (7.02%) Support Engineer
7 14 (5.79%) 3rd Line Engineer
7 14 (5.79%) Consultant
7 14 (5.79%) Senior Network Engineer
7 14 (5.79%) Storage Engineer
8 11 (4.55%) Solutions Architect
9 8 (3.31%) Lead
10 7 (2.89%) Integration Engineer
10 7 (2.89%) Principal Engineer
11 6 (2.48%) Security Engineer
11 6 (2.48%) VMware Engineer
12 5 (2.07%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
12 5 (2.07%) Security Architect
12 5 (2.07%) Wintel Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (16.12%) Terraform
2 20 (8.26%) LDAP
3 17 (7.02%) OpenID
4 16 (6.61%) SAML
5 15 (6.20%) 802.1X
5 15 (6.20%) OAuth
6 14 (5.79%) REST
7 10 (4.13%) OAuth2
8 8 (3.31%) .NET
8 8 (3.31%) .NET Framework
8 8 (3.31%) XML
9 5 (2.07%) FIDO
9 5 (2.07%) RabbitMQ
10 4 (1.65%) WebAuthn
11 2 (0.83%) A2A Protocol
11 2 (0.83%) Model Context Protocol
11 2 (0.83%) Node.js
11 2 (0.83%) Playwright
11 2 (0.83%) Quarkus
11 2 (0.83%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 23 (9.50%) Data Centre
2 19 (7.85%) Clustering
3 10 (4.13%) Public Cloud
4 9 (3.72%) Legacy Systems
4 9 (3.72%) Onboarding
5 8 (3.31%) Cloud Native
5 8 (3.31%) Management Information System
5 8 (3.31%) Self-Motivation
6 7 (2.89%) Linux Command Line
7 6 (2.48%) Distributed Systems
7 6 (2.48%) Replication
7 6 (2.48%) Security Posture
8 5 (2.07%) Enterprise Software
9 4 (1.65%) Data Protection Act
9 4 (1.65%) Enterprise Storage
9 4 (1.65%) Fibre Optics
9 4 (1.65%) Hybrid Cloud
9 4 (1.65%) Operational Technology
9 4 (1.65%) Private Cloud
9 4 (1.65%) Tandem
Operating Systems
1 122 (50.41%) Windows
2 73 (30.17%) Windows Server
3 65 (26.86%) Linux
4 12 (4.96%) Windows Server 2016
5 8 (3.31%) Unix
6 7 (2.89%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 7 (2.89%) Windows Server 2012
7 6 (2.48%) Windows Server 2019
8 5 (2.07%) Debian
9 4 (1.65%) Android
9 4 (1.65%) Apple iOS
9 4 (1.65%) Mac OS
9 4 (1.65%) Windows 10
10 3 (1.24%) CentOS
11 2 (0.83%) Data ONTAP
11 2 (0.83%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.41%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 76 (31.40%) Identity Access Management
2 56 (23.14%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 47 (19.42%) Cybersecurity
4 44 (18.18%) ITIL
5 43 (17.77%) Problem-Solving
5 43 (17.77%) Technical Leadership
6 36 (14.88%) Agile
7 34 (14.05%) Continuous Improvement
8 33 (13.64%) Zero Trust
9 32 (13.22%) Stakeholder Management
10 31 (12.81%) Infrastructure as Code
10 31 (12.81%) Key Management
11 30 (12.40%) CI/CD
12 29 (11.98%) Platform Engineering
12 29 (11.98%) Service Management
13 28 (11.57%) DevSecOps
13 28 (11.57%) Mentoring
14 27 (11.16%) High Availability
15 26 (10.74%) Change Management
15 26 (10.74%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 80 (33.06%) PowerShell
2 49 (20.25%) Python
3 23 (9.50%) Bash
4 10 (4.13%) SQL
5 8 (3.31%) C#
6 7 (2.89%) JavaScript
7 5 (2.07%) Java
8 3 (1.24%) Go
9 1 (0.41%) Bicep
9 1 (0.41%) Ruby
9 1 (0.41%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 140 (57.85%) Security Cleared
2 88 (36.36%) DV Cleared
3 65 (26.86%) SC Cleared
4 17 (7.02%) Microsoft Certification
5 16 (6.61%) Cisco Certification
5 16 (6.61%) Degree
6 13 (5.37%) CCNP
6 13 (5.37%) CISSP
6 13 (5.37%) MCSE
7 12 (4.96%) VCAP
8 9 (3.72%) AWS Certification
9 7 (2.89%) Azure Certification
10 6 (2.48%) CISM
10 6 (2.48%) MCSA
11 5 (2.07%) Computer Science Degree
11 5 (2.07%) GIAC
11 5 (2.07%) ISTQB
11 5 (2.07%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
12 4 (1.65%) Master's Degree
13 3 (1.24%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (8.26%) NIST
2 16 (6.61%) NCSC
3 12 (4.96%) SLA
4 10 (4.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 8 (3.31%) JSP 440
6 6 (2.48%) GRC
7 2 (0.83%) GDPR
7 2 (0.83%) QA
8 1 (0.41%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 124 (51.24%) Active Directory
2 61 (25.21%) VMware Infrastructure
3 28 (11.57%) Hyper-V
3 28 (11.57%) VMware NSX
4 21 (8.68%) Docker
4 21 (8.68%) vSphere
5 10 (4.13%) VMware ESXi
6 5 (2.07%) Virtual Desktop
7 4 (1.65%) Virtual Servers
8 3 (1.24%) OpenAM
8 3 (1.24%) UAG
9 2 (0.83%) DFS Replication
9 2 (0.83%) Firmware
9 2 (0.83%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.83%) XenApp
9 2 (0.83%) XenDesktop
10 1 (0.41%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
10 1 (0.41%) Microsoft Virtual Server
Systems Management
1 42 (17.36%) Kubernetes
2 35 (14.46%) Ansible
3 20 (8.26%) Single Sign-On
3 20 (8.26%) vCenter Server
4 18 (7.44%) VxRail
5 15 (6.20%) SCOM
6 14 (5.79%) Avamar
7 12 (4.96%) SCCM
8 10 (4.13%) Microsoft Intune
8 10 (4.13%) WSUS
9 8 (3.31%) Failover Clustering
9 8 (3.31%) Istio
10 4 (1.65%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 4 (1.65%) Cisco CUCM
10 4 (1.65%) McAfee ePO
10 4 (1.65%) Nessus
10 4 (1.65%) WMI
11 3 (1.24%) OPNET
12 2 (0.83%) FortiGate
12 2 (0.83%) Kibana
Vendors
1 105 (43.39%) Microsoft
2 75 (30.99%) VMware
3 31 (12.81%) Cisco
4 26 (10.74%) Thales
5 23 (9.50%) Okta
6 21 (8.68%) ServiceNow
7 18 (7.44%) Dell
8 17 (7.02%) BeyondTrust
9 11 (4.55%) Citrix
10 9 (3.72%) CheckPoint
10 9 (3.72%) Fortinet
10 9 (3.72%) Palo Alto
10 9 (3.72%) SolarWinds
11 7 (2.89%) BMC
11 7 (2.89%) Juniper
11 7 (2.89%) McAfee
11 7 (2.89%) NetApp
11 7 (2.89%) Remedy
12 6 (2.48%) Google
12 6 (2.48%) IBM