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

6 months to
4 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 241 201 141
Rank change year-on-year -40 -60 +106
Contract jobs citing PKI 164 154 344
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.84% 1.14% 1.64%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.64% 3.51% 5.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 123 83 193
10th Percentile £303 £413 £408
25th Percentile £425 £497 £504
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £560 £563
Median % change year-on-year -1.79% -0.44% +0.45%
75th Percentile £666 £649 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £700
UK median daily rate £550 £581 £580
% change year-on-year -5.28% +0.12% -3.33%
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 6,210 4,392 6,325
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 31.81% 32.50% 30.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,895 2,484 3,873
10th Percentile £200 £200 £207
25th Percentile £356 £356 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £677 £680
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £530
% change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 493 235 610
10th Percentile £14.11 £19.25 £12.86
25th Percentile £17.50 £23.30 £16.06
Median hourly rate £30.00 £32.50 £33.36
Median % change year-on-year -7.69% -2.56% +58.80%
75th Percentile £64.34 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £81.35 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £30.00 £35.00 £32.22
% change year-on-year -14.29% +8.64% +43.28%

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 4 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 4 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 4 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 +10 67 £600 - 29
South West -34 40 £550 - 9
West Midlands -22 31 £400 -5.88% 6
Midlands -32 31 £400 -5.88% 7
North of England -57 18 £485 -33.17% 6
North West -22 9 £444 -8.97% 1
Yorkshire -47 9 £485 -33.17% 4
Scotland -16 6 £650 +48.57% 1
East of England - 3 £550 - 4
Wales +3 1 £550 +20.22%
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 27 (16.46%) Microsoft Exchange
2 11 (6.71%) SharePoint
3 6 (3.66%) Skype for Business
4 4 (2.44%) SharePoint Server
5 3 (1.83%) Confluence
5 3 (1.83%) Exchange Server 2010
6 1 (0.61%) Apache
6 1 (0.61%) IIS
6 1 (0.61%) JBoss
Applications
1 9 (5.49%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.61%) Cloudability
Cloud Services
1 27 (16.46%) Azure
2 26 (15.85%) AWS
3 10 (6.10%) Entra ID
4 9 (5.49%) OpenShift
5 7 (4.27%) Microsoft 365
6 5 (3.05%) AWS CloudFormation
6 5 (3.05%) GCP
7 4 (2.44%) Power Platform
7 4 (2.44%) SaaS
8 3 (1.83%) AWS KMS
8 3 (1.83%) Azure DevOps
8 3 (1.83%) Azure Key Vault
8 3 (1.83%) GitHub
8 3 (1.83%) Power Automate
9 2 (1.22%) Google Workspace
10 1 (0.61%) Anthos
10 1 (0.61%) Azure Sentinel
10 1 (0.61%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 36 (21.95%) Firewall
2 31 (18.90%) VPN
3 30 (18.29%) DNS
4 27 (16.46%) BGP
5 25 (15.24%) MPLS
6 22 (13.41%) WAN
7 21 (12.80%) IPsec
8 16 (9.76%) DHCP
8 16 (9.76%) Skype
9 13 (7.93%) SSL
10 11 (6.71%) Network Security
11 9 (5.49%) Cisco IOS
11 9 (5.49%) TCP/IP
12 7 (4.27%) Junos
13 5 (3.05%) Cisco ASA
13 5 (3.05%) Cisco Firepower
13 5 (3.05%) TACACS
13 5 (3.05%) Unified Communications
14 4 (2.44%) NX-OS
14 4 (2.44%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (6.10%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 7 (4.27%) JIRA
2 4 (2.44%) Robot Framework
2 4 (2.44%) Sonatype Nexus
3 3 (1.83%) GitLab
4 1 (0.61%) CircleCI
4 1 (0.61%) Jenkins
General
1 36 (21.95%) Social Skills
2 28 (17.07%) Public Sector
3 17 (10.37%) Analytical Skills
4 5 (3.05%) Finance
5 3 (1.83%) Banking
5 3 (1.83%) Military
5 3 (1.83%) Presentation Skills
6 2 (1.22%) Financial Institution
6 2 (1.22%) 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 48 (29.27%) Architect
2 24 (14.63%) Support Engineer
3 21 (12.80%) 3rd Line Engineer
3 21 (12.80%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 18 (10.98%) 3rd Line Support
5 17 (10.37%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
5 17 (10.37%) Senior
6 11 (6.71%) Wintel Engineer
7 10 (6.10%) 2nd Line Engineer
7 10 (6.10%) Network Engineer
8 9 (5.49%) Security Engineer
8 9 (5.49%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
8 9 (5.49%) WAN Engineer
9 8 (4.88%) Cloud Engineer
9 8 (4.88%) Security Architect
10 7 (4.27%) Platform Engineer
11 5 (3.05%) 3rd Line Network Engineer
11 5 (3.05%) Senior Architect
11 5 (3.05%) Wintel Administrator
11 5 (3.05%) Wintel Systems Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (3.05%) LDAP
2 3 (1.83%) REST
3 2 (1.22%) ModSecurity
3 2 (1.22%) OpenID
4 1 (0.61%) Elastic Stack
4 1 (0.61%) Kafka
4 1 (0.61%) Middleware
4 1 (0.61%) OAuth
4 1 (0.61%) OAuth2
4 1 (0.61%) OpenTelemetry
4 1 (0.61%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 11 (6.71%) Fat Client
1 11 (6.71%) Thin Client
2 6 (3.66%) Algorithms
3 5 (3.05%) Public Cloud
3 5 (3.05%) Smartcard
4 4 (2.44%) Cloud Native
4 4 (2.44%) Data Centre
4 4 (2.44%) Security Operations Centre
5 3 (1.83%) Cyber Defence
5 3 (1.83%) Onboarding
5 3 (1.83%) Private Cloud
5 3 (1.83%) Security Posture
5 3 (1.83%) Self-Motivation
6 2 (1.22%) Legacy Systems
6 2 (1.22%) SWIFT Messaging Network
7 1 (0.61%) CMDB
7 1 (0.61%) Data Protection Act
7 1 (0.61%) Management Information System
7 1 (0.61%) Replication
7 1 (0.61%) Tandem
Operating Systems
1 64 (39.02%) Windows
2 36 (21.95%) Linux
3 31 (18.90%) Windows Server
4 13 (7.93%) Windows 10
5 11 (6.71%) Windows 7
6 8 (4.88%) Windows Server 2012
7 5 (3.05%) Ubuntu
7 5 (3.05%) Windows Server 2016
8 4 (2.44%) Windows Server 2008
8 4 (2.44%) Windows Server 2019
9 3 (1.83%) CentOS
10 2 (1.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 2 (1.22%) VMS
11 1 (0.61%) Solaris
11 1 (0.61%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 43 (26.22%) Agile
2 25 (15.24%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 22 (13.41%) Key Management
4 21 (12.80%) Change Management
4 21 (12.80%) ITIL
5 19 (11.59%) CI/CD
5 19 (11.59%) Platform Engineering
5 19 (11.59%) Problem-Solving
6 18 (10.98%) DevOps
6 18 (10.98%) Service Management
7 16 (9.76%) Cybersecurity
7 16 (9.76%) Identity Access Management
8 15 (9.15%) Prototyping
9 14 (8.54%) Knowledge Transfer
9 14 (8.54%) Load Balancing
9 14 (8.54%) SIEM
10 13 (7.93%) Cloud Security
10 13 (7.93%) Infrastructure as Code
11 12 (7.32%) Incident Response
11 12 (7.32%) Security Architecture
Programming Languages
1 32 (19.51%) Python
2 31 (18.90%) PowerShell
3 16 (9.76%) SQL
4 10 (6.10%) Bash
5 3 (1.83%) PHP
6 1 (0.61%) Bicep
6 1 (0.61%) C
6 1 (0.61%) Go
6 1 (0.61%) Perl
6 1 (0.61%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 125 (76.22%) Security Cleared
2 73 (44.51%) DV Cleared
3 55 (33.54%) SC Cleared
4 16 (9.76%) CISSP
5 15 (9.15%) CISM
5 15 (9.15%) Degree
6 14 (8.54%) Microsoft Certification
7 12 (7.32%) MCSE
8 8 (4.88%) Cisco Certification
8 8 (4.88%) GIAC
9 7 (4.27%) CCNP
10 6 (3.66%) CCNA
10 6 (3.66%) ITIL Certification
10 6 (3.66%) Master's Degree
11 5 (3.05%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 4 (2.44%) AWS Certification
13 3 (1.83%) APMG
13 3 (1.83%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 3 (1.83%) CompTIA Security+
13 3 (1.83%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (8.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 14 (8.54%) NIST
2 7 (4.27%) PCI DSS
3 6 (3.66%) NCSC
4 4 (2.44%) Cyber Essentials
4 4 (2.44%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 4 (2.44%) GDPR
4 4 (2.44%) SLA
5 2 (1.22%) SOC 1
6 1 (0.61%) JSP 440
6 1 (0.61%) NIST 800
6 1 (0.61%) RMADS
6 1 (0.61%) SOC 2
System Software
1 58 (35.37%) Active Directory
2 37 (22.56%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (5.49%) VMware ESXi
3 9 (5.49%) VMware NSX
4 8 (4.88%) Docker
5 7 (4.27%) Hyper-V
6 6 (3.66%) Firmware
7 5 (3.05%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 5 (3.05%) Virtual Servers
8 4 (2.44%) Virtual Machines
9 3 (1.83%) Sendmail
9 3 (1.83%) vSphere
10 1 (0.61%) NFS
Systems Management
1 21 (12.80%) Ansible
1 21 (12.80%) Terraform
2 20 (12.20%) vCenter Server
3 16 (9.76%) Kubernetes
4 12 (7.32%) Single Sign-On
5 11 (6.71%) SCCM
5 11 (6.71%) WMI
5 11 (6.71%) WSUS
6 10 (6.10%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 9 (5.49%) Microsoft Intune
8 7 (4.27%) SCOM
9 4 (2.44%) Podman
9 4 (2.44%) Prometheus
9 4 (2.44%) QRadar
10 3 (1.83%) Grafana
10 3 (1.83%) OPNET
10 3 (1.83%) Proxmox
11 1 (0.61%) Nagios
11 1 (0.61%) Red Hat Satellite
11 1 (0.61%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 65 (39.63%) Microsoft
2 58 (35.37%) VMware
3 29 (17.68%) Cisco
4 25 (15.24%) Juniper
5 15 (9.15%) SolarWinds
6 13 (7.93%) Veeam
7 10 (6.10%) Splunk
8 9 (5.49%) Thales
9 7 (4.27%) Google
10 5 (3.05%) Broadcom
10 5 (3.05%) Red Hat
11 3 (1.83%) CheckPoint
11 3 (1.83%) Citrix
11 3 (1.83%) ServiceNow
11 3 (1.83%) Zscaler
12 2 (1.22%) CyberArk
12 2 (1.22%) IBM
12 2 (1.22%) Palo Alto
12 2 (1.22%) Wyse
13 1 (0.61%) Oracle