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

6 months to
9 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 245 240 114
Rank change year-on-year -5 -126 +95
Contract jobs citing PKI 229 134 345
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.84% 0.87% 1.89%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.74% 2.57% 6.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 159 111 248
10th Percentile £416 £350 £363
25th Percentile £463 £463 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
75th Percentile £620 £601 £608
90th Percentile £678 £649 £638
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £539
% change year-on-year - +2.09% -3.92%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 0 1
10th Percentile £61.87 - -
25th Percentile £81.42 - £36.75
Median hourly rate £98.82 - £38.50
75th Percentile £99.12 - £40.25
90th Percentile £100.00 - -
UK median hourly rate £98.82 - £23.80
% change year-on-year - - -68.05%

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 8,370 5,222 5,279
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 30.53% 34.04% 28.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,018 3,099 3,161
10th Percentile £300 £230 £220
25th Percentile £406 £363 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £608
90th Percentile £688 £650 £700
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 775 407 499
10th Percentile £14.57 £14.94 £12.15
25th Percentile £19.33 £18.11 £17.61
Median hourly rate £43.96 £30.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +46.53% -33.33% +7.78%
75th Percentile £70.00 £63.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £85.00 £80.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £43.56 £29.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year +47.66% -34.44% +15.38%

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 9 August 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 9 August 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 9 August 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 +2 108 £590 +2.61% 18
North of England -34 45 £500 +1.63% 15
Scotland +13 30 £481 -10.09%
South West -68 26 £683 +18.83% 12
North West -35 24 £418 -15.04% 5
Yorkshire - 21 £500 - 9
Midlands -66 11 £463 +12.12% 3
West Midlands -64 10 £450 +9.09% 1
Wales - 6 £463 -
East of England -18 5 £400 -23.81% 4
East Midlands -10 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 10 (4.37%) SharePoint
2 8 (3.49%) Microsoft Exchange
3 7 (3.06%) Confluence
4 5 (2.18%) IIS
5 3 (1.31%) Apache
5 3 (1.31%) Exchange Server 2010
5 3 (1.31%) Tomcat
5 3 (1.31%) WebSphere
6 1 (0.44%) ArcGIS
Applications
1 5 (2.18%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 12 (5.24%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.44%) Dynamics GP
Cloud Services
1 56 (24.45%) Azure
2 41 (17.90%) Entra ID
3 36 (15.72%) AWS
4 17 (7.42%) GCP
4 17 (7.42%) Power Platform
5 15 (6.55%) Microsoft 365
6 5 (2.18%) Azure Key Vault
7 4 (1.75%) Azure DevOps
7 4 (1.75%) OpenShift
8 3 (1.31%) AWS KMS
8 3 (1.31%) GitHub
9 2 (0.87%) Azure Monitor
9 2 (0.87%) Google Kubernetes Engine
9 2 (0.87%) OneDrive
10 1 (0.44%) Apigee
10 1 (0.44%) Azure Logic Apps
10 1 (0.44%) Azure Sentinel
10 1 (0.44%) GitHub Actions
10 1 (0.44%) Google Workspace
10 1 (0.44%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 81 (35.37%) DNS
2 67 (29.26%) Firewall
3 60 (26.20%) DHCP
4 35 (15.28%) LAN
5 34 (14.85%) BGP
5 34 (14.85%) WAN
6 30 (13.10%) OSPF
7 23 (10.04%) BIG-IP
7 23 (10.04%) Ethernet VPN
7 23 (10.04%) Junos
7 23 (10.04%) TCP/IP
7 23 (10.04%) VXLAN
8 22 (9.61%) Cisco ISE
9 21 (9.17%) VPN
10 18 (7.86%) SSL
11 17 (7.42%) VSAN
12 15 (6.55%) IPsec
13 13 (5.68%) Cisco ASA
13 13 (5.68%) Network Security
14 12 (5.24%) Cisco Firepower
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (10.48%) SQL Server
2 12 (5.24%) Power BI
3 1 (0.44%) NoSQL
3 1 (0.44%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 10 (4.37%) JIRA
2 4 (1.75%) Git
2 4 (1.75%) Jenkins
3 3 (1.31%) Robot Framework
3 3 (1.31%) Sonatype Nexus
4 2 (0.87%) Burp Suite
4 2 (0.87%) Cucumber
4 2 (0.87%) Gatling
4 2 (0.87%) GitLab
4 2 (0.87%) Gradle
4 2 (0.87%) LoadRunner
4 2 (0.87%) MSI
4 2 (0.87%) REST Assured
4 2 (0.87%) SonarQube
General
1 33 (14.41%) Social Skills
2 20 (8.73%) Finance
2 20 (8.73%) Public Sector
3 15 (6.55%) Analytical Skills
4 7 (3.06%) Banking
4 7 (3.06%) Documentation Skills
4 7 (3.06%) Military
5 4 (1.75%) Police
6 3 (1.31%) Retail
7 2 (0.87%) Corporate Banking
7 2 (0.87%) Investment Banking
7 2 (0.87%) Legal
7 2 (0.87%) Retail Banking
8 1 (0.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 1 (0.44%) Influencing Skills
8 1 (0.44%) Law
Job Titles
1 61 (26.64%) Senior
2 39 (17.03%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 26 (11.35%) Network Engineer
4 24 (10.48%) Architect
5 19 (8.30%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
5 19 (8.30%) Senior Network Engineer
6 16 (6.99%) Support Engineer
7 14 (6.11%) Firewall Specialist
7 14 (6.11%) Network Specialist
8 13 (5.68%) 3rd Line Engineer
8 13 (5.68%) Platform Engineer
8 13 (5.68%) Storage Engineer
9 10 (4.37%) Lead
10 8 (3.49%) Senior Architect
11 7 (3.06%) Principal Engineer
11 7 (3.06%) Solutions Architect
11 7 (3.06%) VMware Engineer
12 6 (2.62%) Cloud Engineer
12 6 (2.62%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
13 5 (2.18%) ITSM Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (13.54%) 802.1X
2 18 (7.86%) LDAP
2 18 (7.86%) OpenID
3 17 (7.42%) SAML
4 16 (6.99%) OAuth
5 13 (5.68%) REST
6 8 (3.49%) .NET
6 8 (3.49%) .NET Framework
6 8 (3.49%) OAuth2
6 8 (3.49%) XML
7 5 (2.18%) RabbitMQ
8 4 (1.75%) JSON
9 3 (1.31%) SailPoint
10 2 (0.87%) Microsoft Graph
10 2 (0.87%) Node.js
10 2 (0.87%) Playwright
10 2 (0.87%) React
10 2 (0.87%) Spring
10 2 (0.87%) Spring Boot
10 2 (0.87%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 41 (17.90%) Data Centre
2 40 (17.47%) Clustering
3 11 (4.80%) Public Cloud
4 8 (3.49%) Hybrid Cloud
5 7 (3.06%) Cloud Native
5 7 (3.06%) Linux Command Line
6 6 (2.62%) Legacy Systems
6 6 (2.62%) Onboarding
6 6 (2.62%) Self-Motivation
7 4 (1.75%) Data Protection Act
7 4 (1.75%) Distributed Systems
7 4 (1.75%) Enterprise Software
7 4 (1.75%) Fat Client
7 4 (1.75%) Fibre Optics
7 4 (1.75%) Management Information System
7 4 (1.75%) Operational Technology
7 4 (1.75%) Product Ownership
7 4 (1.75%) Security Posture
7 4 (1.75%) Thin Client
8 3 (1.31%) Tandem
Operating Systems
1 127 (55.46%) Windows
2 63 (27.51%) Windows Server
3 60 (26.20%) Linux
4 7 (3.06%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 7 (3.06%) Windows Server 2016
5 6 (2.62%) Debian
5 6 (2.62%) Windows Server 2012
6 5 (2.18%) Unix
6 5 (2.18%) Windows Server 2019
7 2 (0.87%) Android
7 2 (0.87%) Apple iOS
7 2 (0.87%) CentOS
7 2 (0.87%) Mac OS
7 2 (0.87%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.44%) Data ONTAP
8 1 (0.44%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.44%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 93 (40.61%) Identity Access Management
2 47 (20.52%) ITIL
3 46 (20.09%) Problem-Solving
4 44 (19.21%) High Availability
5 43 (18.78%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 35 (15.28%) Agile
7 33 (14.41%) ITSM
8 32 (13.97%) Cybersecurity
8 32 (13.97%) Technical Leadership
8 32 (13.97%) Zero Trust
9 30 (13.10%) Service Management
10 29 (12.66%) CI/CD
10 29 (12.66%) Infrastructure as Code
11 28 (12.23%) DevSecOps
11 28 (12.23%) Observability
12 27 (11.79%) Continuous Improvement
12 27 (11.79%) Load Balancing
13 24 (10.48%) Platform Engineering
14 23 (10.04%) Identity Management
14 23 (10.04%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 69 (30.13%) PowerShell
2 42 (18.34%) Python
3 19 (8.30%) Bash
4 12 (5.24%) JavaScript
4 12 (5.24%) SQL
5 11 (4.80%) C#
6 6 (2.62%) Java
7 1 (0.44%) PHP
7 1 (0.44%) Ruby
7 1 (0.44%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 135 (58.95%) Security Cleared
2 91 (39.74%) DV Cleared
3 50 (21.83%) SC Cleared
4 32 (13.97%) Cisco Certification
5 14 (6.11%) Degree
5 14 (6.11%) Microsoft Certification
6 11 (4.80%) CCNP
6 11 (4.80%) MCSE
6 11 (4.80%) VCAP
7 9 (3.93%) CISSP
8 7 (3.06%) Azure Certification
8 7 (3.06%) JNCIA
8 7 (3.06%) JNCIP
8 7 (3.06%) JNCIS
9 6 (2.62%) AWS Certification
10 5 (2.18%) GIAC
11 4 (1.75%) CISM
11 4 (1.75%) ISTQB
11 4 (1.75%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
11 4 (1.75%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (8.73%) NIST
2 12 (5.24%) NCSC
3 11 (4.80%) SLA
4 10 (4.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 7 (3.06%) Cyber Essentials
6 2 (0.87%) GDPR
6 2 (0.87%) ISA99
6 2 (0.87%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
6 2 (0.87%) JSP 440
6 2 (0.87%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 1 (0.44%) HMG Security Policy Framework
7 1 (0.44%) QA
System Software
1 101 (44.10%) Active Directory
2 57 (24.89%) VMware Infrastructure
3 33 (14.41%) VMware NSX
4 25 (10.92%) Hyper-V
5 20 (8.73%) Docker
6 14 (6.11%) vSphere
7 3 (1.31%) Firmware
7 3 (1.31%) OpenAM
7 3 (1.31%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.87%) Virtual Desktop
8 2 (0.87%) Virtual Machines
8 2 (0.87%) XenApp
8 2 (0.87%) XenDesktop
9 1 (0.44%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
9 1 (0.44%) KVM
Systems Management
1 38 (16.59%) Ansible
2 37 (16.16%) Terraform
3 35 (15.28%) Kubernetes
4 23 (10.04%) FortiGate
5 18 (7.86%) Single Sign-On
6 17 (7.42%) vCenter Server
7 13 (5.68%) Avamar
7 13 (5.68%) SCOM
7 13 (5.68%) VxRail
8 9 (3.93%) Microsoft Intune
9 7 (3.06%) SCCM
10 5 (2.18%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 5 (2.18%) Failover Clustering
10 5 (2.18%) Istio
10 5 (2.18%) WSUS
11 4 (1.75%) Cisco CUCM
11 4 (1.75%) WMI
12 2 (0.87%) Kibana
13 1 (0.44%) Forefront Identity Manager
13 1 (0.44%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 83 (36.24%) Microsoft
2 72 (31.44%) VMware
3 53 (23.14%) Cisco
4 30 (13.10%) SolarWinds
5 28 (12.23%) Juniper
6 26 (11.35%) F5
7 23 (10.04%) Splunk
7 23 (10.04%) Thales
8 22 (9.61%) Extreme Networks
9 21 (9.17%) Okta
9 21 (9.17%) ServiceNow
10 15 (6.55%) BeyondTrust
11 13 (5.68%) Dell
12 12 (5.24%) BMC
12 12 (5.24%) Remedy
13 11 (4.80%) Palo Alto
14 9 (3.93%) Citrix
15 7 (3.06%) IBM
16 5 (2.18%) CheckPoint
16 5 (2.18%) NetApp