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

6 months to
19 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 255 234 163
Rank change year-on-year -21 -71 +18
Contract jobs citing PKI 243 135 244
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.86% 0.87% 1.36%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.76% 2.52% 4.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 175 115 167
10th Percentile £421 £325 £410
25th Percentile £463 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £543
Median % change year-on-year - +1.38% -5.65%
75th Percentile £625 £600 £608
90th Percentile £700 £649 £649
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £545
% change year-on-year - +0.92% -5.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 0 1
10th Percentile £94.90 - -
25th Percentile £96.00 - £36.75
Median hourly rate £97.41 - £38.50
75th Percentile £98.82 - £40.25
90th Percentile £100.00 - -
UK median hourly rate £97.41 - £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 8,789 5,361 5,193
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 31.04% 34.65% 28.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,072 3,198 2,939
10th Percentile £281 £221 £213
25th Percentile £405 £363 £374
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £600
90th Percentile £688 £664 £700
UK median daily rate £525 £515 £540
% change year-on-year +1.94% -4.63% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 948 425 385
10th Percentile £13.67 £14.78 £13.87
25th Percentile £17.45 £18.50 £20.75
Median hourly rate £39.36 £30.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +31.20% -47.69% +18.58%
75th Percentile £68.75 £58.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.09
UK median hourly rate £37.88 £30.00 £50.00
% change year-on-year +26.25% -40.00% +11.11%

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 19 September 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 19 September 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 19 September 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 -12 83 £575 - 42
North of England -18 68 £525 +6.71% 30
Scotland +14 38 £481 -12.55% 11
North West -32 36 £525 +6.71% 18
South West -47 36 £648 +17.73% 34
Yorkshire -9 30 £568 -5.42% 10
Midlands -69 8 £475 +30.14% 16
East of England -21 7 £500 -4.76% 8
West Midlands -69 7 £475 +30.14% 14
Wales - 6 £463 - 2
North East - 2 £426 - 2
East Midlands -14 1 £475 - 2
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 (5.35%) Microsoft Exchange
2 12 (4.94%) Confluence
3 9 (3.70%) SharePoint
4 4 (1.65%) IIS
5 3 (1.23%) Exchange Server 2010
6 2 (0.82%) Apache
6 2 (0.82%) nginx
6 2 (0.82%) Tomcat
6 2 (0.82%) WebSphere
7 1 (0.41%) Traefik
Applications
1 4 (1.65%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 9 (3.70%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.41%) Dynamics GP
Cloud Services
1 60 (24.69%) Azure
2 44 (18.11%) Entra ID
3 42 (17.28%) AWS
4 23 (9.47%) GCP
5 13 (5.35%) Power Platform
6 11 (4.53%) Microsoft 365
7 6 (2.47%) Azure Key Vault
8 4 (1.65%) AWS KMS
8 4 (1.65%) Azure DevOps
8 4 (1.65%) Azure Monitor
8 4 (1.65%) GitHub
8 4 (1.65%) OpenShift
9 2 (0.82%) Azure Sentinel
9 2 (0.82%) GitHub Actions
9 2 (0.82%) Google Kubernetes Engine
10 1 (0.41%) Amazon ECS
10 1 (0.41%) AWS Fargate
10 1 (0.41%) Azure Logic Apps
10 1 (0.41%) Power Automate
10 1 (0.41%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 73 (30.04%) DNS
2 56 (23.05%) Firewall
3 51 (20.99%) DHCP
4 27 (11.11%) TCP/IP
5 26 (10.70%) VPN
6 18 (7.41%) LAN
7 17 (7.00%) SSL
7 17 (7.00%) WAN
8 15 (6.17%) BGP
8 15 (6.17%) IPsec
8 15 (6.17%) Network Security
8 15 (6.17%) VSAN
9 13 (5.35%) Cisco ASA
9 13 (5.35%) Cisco Firepower
9 13 (5.35%) Cisco Nexus
9 13 (5.35%) OSPF
10 12 (4.94%) VLAN
10 12 (4.94%) Wireless
11 10 (4.12%) VoIP
11 10 (4.12%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (9.05%) SQL Server
2 9 (3.70%) Power BI
3 2 (0.82%) Metadata
4 1 (0.41%) MongoDB
4 1 (0.41%) NoSQL
4 1 (0.41%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 15 (6.17%) JIRA
2 5 (2.06%) Jenkins
3 4 (1.65%) Git
3 4 (1.65%) GitLab
4 3 (1.23%) Sonatype Nexus
5 2 (0.82%) Burp Suite
5 2 (0.82%) Cucumber
5 2 (0.82%) Gatling
5 2 (0.82%) Gradle
5 2 (0.82%) LoadRunner
5 2 (0.82%) MSI
5 2 (0.82%) REST Assured
5 2 (0.82%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.41%) Robot Framework
General
1 52 (21.40%) Social Skills
2 25 (10.29%) Finance
3 23 (9.47%) Analytical Skills
4 18 (7.41%) Public Sector
5 14 (5.76%) Documentation Skills
6 10 (4.12%) Banking
7 6 (2.47%) Military
8 5 (2.06%) Police
9 3 (1.23%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 3 (1.23%) Investment Banking
9 3 (1.23%) Retail
10 2 (0.82%) Aerospace
10 2 (0.82%) Corporate Banking
10 2 (0.82%) Legal
10 2 (0.82%) Retail Banking
11 1 (0.41%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.41%) Law
11 1 (0.41%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.41%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 53 (21.81%) Senior
2 40 (16.46%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 25 (10.29%) Architect
4 20 (8.23%) Network Engineer
5 18 (7.41%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
6 17 (7.00%) Platform Engineer
6 17 (7.00%) Support Engineer
7 14 (5.76%) 3rd Line Engineer
7 14 (5.76%) Consultant
7 14 (5.76%) Senior Network Engineer
7 14 (5.76%) Storage Engineer
8 11 (4.53%) Solutions Architect
9 8 (3.29%) Lead
10 7 (2.88%) Integration Engineer
10 7 (2.88%) Principal Engineer
10 7 (2.88%) VMware Engineer
11 5 (2.06%) Citrix Engineer
11 5 (2.06%) Linux Engineer
11 5 (2.06%) Security Engineer
11 5 (2.06%) Security Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (15.23%) Terraform
2 20 (8.23%) LDAP
3 17 (7.00%) 802.1X
3 17 (7.00%) OpenID
4 16 (6.58%) SAML
5 15 (6.17%) OAuth
5 15 (6.17%) REST
6 8 (3.29%) .NET
6 8 (3.29%) .NET Framework
6 8 (3.29%) OAuth2
6 8 (3.29%) XML
7 5 (2.06%) RabbitMQ
8 4 (1.65%) FIDO
9 3 (1.23%) WebAuthn
10 2 (0.82%) JSON
10 2 (0.82%) Node.js
10 2 (0.82%) Playwright
10 2 (0.82%) Quarkus
10 2 (0.82%) React
10 2 (0.82%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 25 (10.29%) Data Centre
2 20 (8.23%) Clustering
3 12 (4.94%) Public Cloud
4 9 (3.70%) Legacy Systems
4 9 (3.70%) Onboarding
5 8 (3.29%) Cloud Native
5 8 (3.29%) Management Information System
5 8 (3.29%) Self-Motivation
6 7 (2.88%) Linux Command Line
7 6 (2.47%) Distributed Systems
7 6 (2.47%) Security Posture
8 5 (2.06%) Enterprise Storage
9 4 (1.65%) Data Protection Act
9 4 (1.65%) Enterprise Software
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%) Product Ownership
9 4 (1.65%) Tandem
Operating Systems
1 124 (51.03%) Windows
2 73 (30.04%) Windows Server
3 67 (27.57%) Linux
4 12 (4.94%) Windows Server 2016
5 8 (3.29%) Unix
6 7 (2.88%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 7 (2.88%) Windows Server 2012
7 6 (2.47%) Debian
7 6 (2.47%) Windows Server 2019
8 3 (1.23%) Android
8 3 (1.23%) Apple iOS
8 3 (1.23%) CentOS
8 3 (1.23%) Data ONTAP
8 3 (1.23%) Mac OS
8 3 (1.23%) Windows 10
9 2 (0.82%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.41%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 80 (32.92%) Identity Access Management
2 55 (22.63%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 45 (18.52%) Problem-Solving
4 44 (18.11%) Cybersecurity
5 43 (17.70%) ITIL
6 42 (17.28%) Technical Leadership
7 38 (15.64%) Agile
8 33 (13.58%) Continuous Improvement
9 32 (13.17%) Key Management
9 32 (13.17%) Zero Trust
10 31 (12.76%) Stakeholder Management
11 30 (12.35%) Infrastructure as Code
12 29 (11.93%) DevSecOps
12 29 (11.93%) High Availability
12 29 (11.93%) Platform Engineering
12 29 (11.93%) Service Management
13 28 (11.52%) CI/CD
14 27 (11.11%) ITSM
15 26 (10.70%) Mentoring
16 25 (10.29%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 76 (31.28%) PowerShell
2 46 (18.93%) Python
3 22 (9.05%) Bash
4 12 (4.94%) SQL
5 9 (3.70%) JavaScript
6 8 (3.29%) C#
7 5 (2.06%) Java
8 2 (0.82%) Go
9 1 (0.41%) Bicep
9 1 (0.41%) Ruby
9 1 (0.41%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 146 (60.08%) Security Cleared
2 91 (37.45%) DV Cleared
3 66 (27.16%) SC Cleared
4 19 (7.82%) Cisco Certification
5 16 (6.58%) Degree
6 14 (5.76%) CISSP
6 14 (5.76%) Microsoft Certification
7 13 (5.35%) CCNP
8 12 (4.94%) VCAP
9 11 (4.53%) MCSE
10 9 (3.70%) AWS Certification
11 7 (2.88%) Azure Certification
12 6 (2.47%) CISM
13 5 (2.06%) Computer Science Degree
13 5 (2.06%) GIAC
13 5 (2.06%) ISTQB
13 5 (2.06%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
14 4 (1.65%) Master's Degree
14 4 (1.65%) MCSA
15 3 (1.23%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (9.05%) NIST
2 17 (7.00%) NCSC
3 12 (4.94%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 11 (4.53%) SLA
5 8 (3.29%) JSP 440
6 6 (2.47%) GRC
7 2 (0.82%) Cyber Essentials
7 2 (0.82%) GDPR
7 2 (0.82%) QA
8 1 (0.41%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 122 (50.21%) Active Directory
2 60 (24.69%) VMware Infrastructure
3 30 (12.35%) VMware NSX
4 26 (10.70%) Hyper-V
5 20 (8.23%) Docker
6 19 (7.82%) vSphere
7 10 (4.12%) VMware ESXi
8 5 (2.06%) Virtual Desktop
9 3 (1.23%) OpenAM
9 3 (1.23%) UAG
9 3 (1.23%) Virtual Servers
10 2 (0.82%) Firmware
10 2 (0.82%) XenApp
10 2 (0.82%) XenDesktop
11 1 (0.41%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
Systems Management
1 40 (16.46%) Kubernetes
2 34 (13.99%) Ansible
3 20 (8.23%) vCenter Server
4 18 (7.41%) Single Sign-On
4 18 (7.41%) VxRail
5 15 (6.17%) SCOM
6 14 (5.76%) Avamar
7 9 (3.70%) Microsoft Intune
7 9 (3.70%) SCCM
8 8 (3.29%) Istio
8 8 (3.29%) WSUS
9 5 (2.06%) Failover Clustering
10 4 (1.65%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 4 (1.65%) Cisco CUCM
10 4 (1.65%) FortiGate
10 4 (1.65%) McAfee ePO
10 4 (1.65%) Nessus
10 4 (1.65%) WMI
11 3 (1.23%) OPNET
12 2 (0.82%) Kibana
Vendors
1 100 (41.15%) Microsoft
2 75 (30.86%) VMware
3 35 (14.40%) Cisco
4 26 (10.70%) Thales
5 23 (9.47%) Okta
6 21 (8.64%) ServiceNow
7 18 (7.41%) Dell
8 17 (7.00%) BeyondTrust
9 11 (4.53%) SolarWinds
10 10 (4.12%) Citrix
10 10 (4.12%) Palo Alto
11 9 (3.70%) BMC
11 9 (3.70%) CheckPoint
11 9 (3.70%) Fortinet
11 9 (3.70%) Juniper
11 9 (3.70%) Remedy
12 8 (3.29%) NetApp
13 7 (2.88%) F5
13 7 (2.88%) McAfee
14 6 (2.47%) Splunk