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

6 months to
25 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 253 207 140
Rank change year-on-year -46 -67 +115
Contract jobs citing PKI 178 147 352
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.87% 1.11% 1.70%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.74% 3.34% 5.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 122 84 217
10th Percentile £313 £413 £363
25th Percentile £482 £506 £504
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £570 £575
Median % change year-on-year -3.51% -0.87% +1.10%
75th Percentile £650 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £696
UK median daily rate £550 £565 £575
% change year-on-year -2.65% -1.74% -4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 0 4
10th Percentile £61.41 - -
25th Percentile £70.50 - £55.00
Median hourly rate £79.50 - £55.70
75th Percentile £96.25 - £59.18
90th Percentile £101.65 - £64.17
UK median hourly rate £79.50 - £55.70
% change year-on-year - - +1.27%

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 6,490 4,401 6,200
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 31.54% 33.14% 29.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,044 2,562 3,728
10th Percentile £200 £200 £208
25th Percentile £358 £359 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £496 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.25% -0.79% -
75th Percentile £575 £600 £594
90th Percentile £675 £675 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £530
% change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 507 241 623
10th Percentile £14.25 £18.51 £12.86
25th Percentile £17.96 £22.72 £15.40
Median hourly rate £30.00 £32.50 £32.12
Median % change year-on-year -7.69% +1.20% +45.98%
75th Percentile £65.00 £66.00 £58.70
90th Percentile £77.35 £82.50 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £30.50 £33.54 £30.16
% change year-on-year -9.06% +11.21% +34.09%

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 25 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 25 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 25 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 +22 88 £600 -0.83% 38
South West -39 37 £550 -2.22% 3
West Midlands -36 30 £375 -11.76% 8
Midlands -40 30 £375 -11.76% 13
North of England -62 17 £482 -32.35% 1
Yorkshire -56 9 £482 -33.52% 1
North West -34 8 £379 -24.25%
Scotland -21 5 £650 +21.61%
East of England - 3 £550 - 2
Wales -2 1 £550 +20.22% 1
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 24 (13.48%) Microsoft Exchange
2 11 (6.18%) SharePoint
3 6 (3.37%) Skype for Business
4 4 (2.25%) SharePoint Server
5 3 (1.69%) Confluence
5 3 (1.69%) Exchange Server 2010
6 1 (0.56%) Apache
6 1 (0.56%) IIS
6 1 (0.56%) JBoss
Applications
1 10 (5.62%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (1.12%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.56%) Cloudability
Cloud Services
1 29 (16.29%) Azure
2 25 (14.04%) AWS
3 14 (7.87%) Entra ID
4 10 (5.62%) Microsoft 365
5 8 (4.49%) OpenShift
6 6 (3.37%) Power Platform
7 5 (2.81%) AWS CloudFormation
8 4 (2.25%) GCP
8 4 (2.25%) SaaS
9 3 (1.69%) Azure DevOps
9 3 (1.69%) Azure Key Vault
9 3 (1.69%) GitHub
9 3 (1.69%) Power Automate
10 2 (1.12%) AWS KMS
10 2 (1.12%) Google Workspace
10 2 (1.12%) OneDrive
11 1 (0.56%) Anthos
11 1 (0.56%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 46 (25.84%) DNS
2 44 (24.72%) Firewall
3 36 (20.22%) BGP
4 31 (17.42%) DHCP
5 30 (16.85%) WAN
6 25 (14.04%) VPN
7 21 (11.80%) MPLS
8 18 (10.11%) Junos
9 15 (8.43%) IPsec
9 15 (8.43%) OSPF
10 14 (7.87%) Cisco ISE
10 14 (7.87%) LAN
11 13 (7.30%) BIG-IP
11 13 (7.30%) Ethernet VPN
11 13 (7.30%) Skype
11 13 (7.30%) VXLAN
12 11 (6.18%) SSL
13 10 (5.62%) Cisco IOS
14 9 (5.06%) Network Security
14 9 (5.06%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (6.74%) SQL Server
2 2 (1.12%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 8 (4.49%) JIRA
2 5 (2.81%) Robot Framework
3 4 (2.25%) Sonatype Nexus
4 2 (1.12%) GitLab
5 1 (0.56%) Jenkins
General
1 34 (19.10%) Social Skills
2 26 (14.61%) Public Sector
3 16 (8.99%) Analytical Skills
4 7 (3.93%) Military
5 5 (2.81%) Finance
6 3 (1.69%) Banking
6 3 (1.69%) Presentation Skills
7 2 (1.12%) Financial Institution
7 2 (1.12%) Legal
8 1 (0.56%) Aerospace
8 1 (0.56%) Back Office
8 1 (0.56%) Documentation Skills
8 1 (0.56%) Influencing Skills
8 1 (0.56%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 49 (27.53%) Architect
2 26 (14.61%) Senior
3 24 (13.48%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 19 (10.67%) Support Engineer
5 17 (9.55%) 3rd Line Engineer
6 14 (7.87%) 3rd Line Support
6 14 (7.87%) Network Engineer
7 13 (7.30%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
8 11 (6.18%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
8 11 (6.18%) Wintel Engineer
9 10 (5.62%) Security Engineer
10 9 (5.06%) 2nd Line Engineer
11 8 (4.49%) Cloud Engineer
12 7 (3.93%) Platform Engineer
12 7 (3.93%) Senior Network Engineer
12 7 (3.93%) WAN Engineer
13 6 (3.37%) Firewall Specialist
13 6 (3.37%) Network Specialist
13 6 (3.37%) Senior Architect
14 5 (2.81%) Azure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (7.30%) 802.1X
2 6 (3.37%) LDAP
3 4 (2.25%) REST
4 3 (1.69%) OAuth
4 3 (1.69%) OAuth2
4 3 (1.69%) OpenID
4 3 (1.69%) SailPoint
4 3 (1.69%) SAML
5 1 (0.56%) Kafka
5 1 (0.56%) Middleware
5 1 (0.56%) OpenTelemetry
Miscellaneous
1 13 (7.30%) Clustering
1 13 (7.30%) Data Centre
2 10 (5.62%) Fat Client
2 10 (5.62%) Thin Client
3 6 (3.37%) Algorithms
3 6 (3.37%) Public Cloud
4 5 (2.81%) Smartcard
5 4 (2.25%) Security Operations Centre
6 3 (1.69%) Onboarding
6 3 (1.69%) Operational Technology
6 3 (1.69%) Security Posture
7 2 (1.12%) Cloud Native
7 2 (1.12%) Data Protection Act
7 2 (1.12%) Hybrid Cloud
7 2 (1.12%) Management Information System
7 2 (1.12%) SWIFT Messaging Network
8 1 (0.56%) CMDB
8 1 (0.56%) Replication
8 1 (0.56%) Tandem
8 1 (0.56%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 74 (41.57%) Windows
2 35 (19.66%) Linux
3 34 (19.10%) Windows Server
4 10 (5.62%) Windows 10
4 10 (5.62%) Windows 7
5 8 (4.49%) Windows Server 2012
6 6 (3.37%) Ubuntu
7 5 (2.81%) Windows Server 2016
8 4 (2.25%) CentOS
9 3 (1.69%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (1.12%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 2 (1.12%) VMS
11 1 (0.56%) Solaris
11 1 (0.56%) Unix
11 1 (0.56%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 47 (26.40%) Agile
2 32 (17.98%) Identity Access Management
3 28 (15.73%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 28 (15.73%) Problem-Solving
4 26 (14.61%) ITIL
5 23 (12.92%) Service Management
6 22 (12.36%) CI/CD
6 22 (12.36%) Key Management
7 21 (11.80%) Load Balancing
8 19 (10.67%) Change Management
8 19 (10.67%) DevOps
8 19 (10.67%) Platform Engineering
9 18 (10.11%) Cybersecurity
10 17 (9.55%) High Availability
11 15 (8.43%) Prototyping
12 14 (7.87%) Infrastructure as Code
12 14 (7.87%) ITSM
12 14 (7.87%) Knowledge Transfer
12 14 (7.87%) Observability
13 13 (7.30%) Cloud Security
Programming Languages
1 36 (20.22%) PowerShell
2 34 (19.10%) Python
3 15 (8.43%) SQL
4 11 (6.18%) Bash
5 4 (2.25%) PHP
6 2 (1.12%) C#
6 2 (1.12%) JavaScript
7 1 (0.56%) Bicep
7 1 (0.56%) Go
7 1 (0.56%) Perl
Qualifications
1 132 (74.16%) Security Cleared
2 83 (46.63%) DV Cleared
3 51 (28.65%) SC Cleared
4 17 (9.55%) Degree
5 16 (8.99%) Cisco Certification
6 14 (7.87%) CISM
6 14 (7.87%) CISSP
7 13 (7.30%) Microsoft Certification
8 11 (6.18%) MCSE
9 8 (4.49%) GIAC
10 6 (3.37%) CCNA
10 6 (3.37%) CCNP
10 6 (3.37%) ITIL Certification
10 6 (3.37%) Master's Degree
11 5 (2.81%) JNCIA
11 5 (2.81%) JNCIP
11 5 (2.81%) JNCIS
11 5 (2.81%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 4 (2.25%) APMG
12 4 (2.25%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (8.43%) NIST
2 13 (7.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 7 (3.93%) Cyber Essentials
4 6 (3.37%) NCSC
5 5 (2.81%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 5 (2.81%) PCI DSS
6 4 (2.25%) GDPR
6 4 (2.25%) SLA
7 1 (0.56%) HMG Security Policy Framework
7 1 (0.56%) JSP 440
7 1 (0.56%) NIST 800
7 1 (0.56%) RMADS
7 1 (0.56%) SOC 2
System Software
1 62 (34.83%) Active Directory
2 38 (21.35%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (6.74%) VMware NSX
4 8 (4.49%) Hyper-V
5 7 (3.93%) Docker
5 7 (3.93%) VMware ESXi
6 6 (3.37%) Firmware
7 5 (2.81%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 5 (2.81%) Virtual Servers
8 4 (2.25%) Virtual Machines
8 4 (2.25%) vSphere
9 3 (1.69%) Sendmail
10 2 (1.12%) KVM
11 1 (0.56%) NFS
Systems Management
1 22 (12.36%) Ansible
1 22 (12.36%) Terraform
2 18 (10.11%) vCenter Server
3 15 (8.43%) Kubernetes
4 13 (7.30%) FortiGate
5 12 (6.74%) Single Sign-On
6 11 (6.18%) SCCM
6 11 (6.18%) WSUS
7 10 (5.62%) WMI
8 9 (5.06%) Microsoft Intune
9 8 (4.49%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 7 (3.93%) SCOM
11 4 (2.25%) QRadar
12 3 (1.69%) Podman
12 3 (1.69%) Prometheus
12 3 (1.69%) Proxmox
13 2 (1.12%) Grafana
14 1 (0.56%) Istio
14 1 (0.56%) Progress Chef
14 1 (0.56%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 66 (37.08%) Microsoft
2 60 (33.71%) VMware
3 44 (24.72%) Cisco
4 33 (18.54%) Juniper
5 28 (15.73%) SolarWinds
6 22 (12.36%) Splunk
7 15 (8.43%) F5
8 12 (6.74%) Extreme Networks
8 12 (6.74%) Veeam
9 9 (5.06%) Thales
10 7 (3.93%) Google
11 5 (2.81%) Broadcom
11 5 (2.81%) ServiceNow
12 4 (2.25%) Palo Alto
12 4 (2.25%) Red Hat
13 3 (1.69%) CheckPoint
13 3 (1.69%) Citrix
13 3 (1.69%) Zscaler
14 2 (1.12%) BMC
14 2 (1.12%) CyberArk