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

6 months to
10 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 245 193 148
Rank change year-on-year -52 -45 +106
Contract jobs citing PKI 161 165 323
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.89% 1.18% 1.66%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.74% 3.74% 5.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 120 93 183
10th Percentile £300 £413 £401
25th Percentile £425 £475 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £551 £563
Median % change year-on-year -0.18% -2.04% -2.17%
75th Percentile £664 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £700
UK median daily rate £550 £565 £570
% change year-on-year -2.65% -0.88% -5.00%
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 5,884 4,414 5,946
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 32.47% 31.64% 30.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,651 2,471 3,744
10th Percentile £204 £200 £210
25th Percentile £358 £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 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £530 £545
% change year-on-year -5.66% -2.75% -0.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 464 238 407
10th Percentile £13.50 £18.39 £15.16
25th Percentile £17.23 £22.72 £17.86
Median hourly rate £27.50 £32.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -15.38% -23.53% +106.26%
75th Percentile £64.50 £65.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £76.25 £82.25 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £27.50 £34.25 £37.75
% change year-on-year -19.71% -9.27% +51.00%

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 10 January 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 10 January 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 10 January 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 +8 64 £600 -1.64% 19
South West -43 37 £556 +1.14% 16
West Midlands -11 35 £400 -17.95% 3
Midlands -17 35 £400 -17.95% 3
North of England -40 17 £489 -32.62% 13
North West -23 9 £500 +2.56% 6
Yorkshire -46 8 £487 -32.83% 5
Scotland -23 6 £650 +48.57% 1
East of England - 3 £550 - 6
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 26 (16.15%) Microsoft Exchange
2 11 (6.83%) SharePoint
3 6 (3.73%) Skype for Business
4 4 (2.48%) Confluence
4 4 (2.48%) SharePoint Server
5 3 (1.86%) Exchange Server 2010
6 1 (0.62%) Apache
6 1 (0.62%) IIS
6 1 (0.62%) JBoss
Applications
1 9 (5.59%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 27 (16.77%) AWS
1 27 (16.77%) Azure
2 9 (5.59%) Entra ID
2 9 (5.59%) OpenShift
3 7 (4.35%) Microsoft 365
4 5 (3.11%) AWS CloudFormation
5 4 (2.48%) GCP
5 4 (2.48%) GitHub
5 4 (2.48%) Power Platform
6 3 (1.86%) AWS KMS
6 3 (1.86%) Azure DevOps
6 3 (1.86%) Azure Key Vault
6 3 (1.86%) Power Automate
6 3 (1.86%) SaaS
7 2 (1.24%) Google Workspace
8 1 (0.62%) Azure Sentinel
8 1 (0.62%) Datadog
8 1 (0.62%) GitHub Actions
8 1 (0.62%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 36 (22.36%) Firewall
2 29 (18.01%) DNS
3 27 (16.77%) VPN
4 23 (14.29%) BGP
5 22 (13.66%) IPsec
5 22 (13.66%) WAN
6 21 (13.04%) MPLS
7 16 (9.94%) DHCP
7 16 (9.94%) Skype
8 13 (8.07%) SSL
9 9 (5.59%) TCP/IP
10 8 (4.97%) Junos
11 7 (4.35%) Network Security
12 5 (3.11%) Unified Communications
13 4 (2.48%) Cisco Firepower
13 4 (2.48%) Cisco IOS
13 4 (2.48%) Cisco ISE
13 4 (2.48%) Internet
13 4 (2.48%) NX-OS
13 4 (2.48%) S/MIME
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (6.21%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 8 (4.97%) JIRA
2 4 (2.48%) Robot Framework
2 4 (2.48%) Sonatype Nexus
3 3 (1.86%) GitLab
4 1 (0.62%) Artifactory
4 1 (0.62%) CircleCI
4 1 (0.62%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.62%) SpecFlow
General
1 41 (25.47%) Social Skills
2 22 (13.66%) Public Sector
3 19 (11.80%) Analytical Skills
4 5 (3.11%) Finance
5 3 (1.86%) Banking
5 3 (1.86%) Military
5 3 (1.86%) Presentation Skills
6 2 (1.24%) Financial Institution
6 2 (1.24%) Legal
7 1 (0.62%) Aerospace
7 1 (0.62%) Documentation Skills
7 1 (0.62%) Influencing Skills
7 1 (0.62%) Manufacturing
7 1 (0.62%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 44 (27.33%) Architect
2 25 (15.53%) Support Engineer
3 22 (13.66%) 3rd Line Engineer
4 19 (11.80%) 3rd Line Support
5 18 (11.18%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
6 16 (9.94%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 16 (9.94%) Senior
7 11 (6.83%) Wintel Engineer
8 10 (6.21%) 2nd Line Engineer
8 10 (6.21%) WAN Engineer
9 9 (5.59%) Network Engineer
9 9 (5.59%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
10 8 (4.97%) Cloud Engineer
11 7 (4.35%) Platform Engineer
11 7 (4.35%) Security Architect
12 6 (3.73%) Platform Manager
12 6 (3.73%) Systems Administrator
12 6 (3.73%) Systems Manager
12 6 (3.73%) Wintel Administrator
12 6 (3.73%) Wintel Systems Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (1.86%) REST
2 2 (1.24%) ModSecurity
2 2 (1.24%) OpenID
3 1 (0.62%) .NET
3 1 (0.62%) AngularJS
3 1 (0.62%) Elastic Stack
3 1 (0.62%) Gherkin
3 1 (0.62%) Kafka
3 1 (0.62%) Middleware
3 1 (0.62%) OAuth
3 1 (0.62%) OAuth2
3 1 (0.62%) Playwright
3 1 (0.62%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 11 (6.83%) Fat Client
1 11 (6.83%) Thin Client
2 9 (5.59%) Algorithms
3 5 (3.11%) Public Cloud
3 5 (3.11%) Smartcard
4 4 (2.48%) Data Centre
4 4 (2.48%) Security Operations Centre
4 4 (2.48%) Self-Motivation
5 3 (1.86%) Cloud Native
5 3 (1.86%) Cyber Defence
5 3 (1.86%) Onboarding
5 3 (1.86%) Private Cloud
5 3 (1.86%) Security Posture
6 2 (1.24%) Legacy Systems
6 2 (1.24%) SWIFT Messaging Network
7 1 (0.62%) CMDB
7 1 (0.62%) Cyber Security Posture
7 1 (0.62%) Management Information System
7 1 (0.62%) Replication
7 1 (0.62%) Tandem
Operating Systems
1 62 (38.51%) Windows
2 32 (19.88%) Linux
3 30 (18.63%) Windows Server
4 13 (8.07%) Windows 10
5 11 (6.83%) Windows 7
6 8 (4.97%) Windows Server 2012
7 5 (3.11%) Windows Server 2016
8 4 (2.48%) Windows Server 2008
8 4 (2.48%) Windows Server 2019
9 3 (1.86%) CentOS
10 2 (1.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 2 (1.24%) VMS
11 1 (0.62%) Solaris
11 1 (0.62%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 45 (27.95%) Agile
2 23 (14.29%) Key Management
3 22 (13.66%) Change Management
4 21 (13.04%) ITIL
4 21 (13.04%) Problem-Solving
5 20 (12.42%) CI/CD
5 20 (12.42%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 19 (11.80%) Platform Engineering
7 18 (11.18%) DevOps
7 18 (11.18%) Service Management
8 17 (10.56%) Cryptography
9 15 (9.32%) Load Balancing
9 15 (9.32%) Prototyping
10 14 (8.70%) Identity Access Management
10 14 (8.70%) Knowledge Transfer
10 14 (8.70%) Migration
10 14 (8.70%) SIEM
11 13 (8.07%) Cybersecurity
11 13 (8.07%) Incident Response
11 13 (8.07%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 34 (21.12%) PowerShell
2 29 (18.01%) Python
3 15 (9.32%) SQL
4 10 (6.21%) Bash
5 1 (0.62%) Bicep
5 1 (0.62%) C
5 1 (0.62%) C#
5 1 (0.62%) JavaScript
5 1 (0.62%) Perl
5 1 (0.62%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 119 (73.91%) Security Cleared
2 71 (44.10%) DV Cleared
3 49 (30.43%) SC Cleared
4 17 (10.56%) CISSP
5 16 (9.94%) CISM
6 15 (9.32%) Degree
7 14 (8.70%) Microsoft Certification
8 12 (7.45%) MCSE
9 8 (4.97%) Cisco Certification
10 7 (4.35%) CCNP
11 6 (3.73%) CCNA
11 6 (3.73%) ITIL Certification
11 6 (3.73%) Master's Degree
12 5 (3.11%) GIAC
12 5 (3.11%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 4 (2.48%) AWS Certification
14 3 (1.86%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 3 (1.86%) Computer Science Degree
15 2 (1.24%) FFIEC
15 2 (1.24%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (6.83%) NIST
2 10 (6.21%) PCI DSS
3 9 (5.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 7 (4.35%) GDPR
5 6 (3.73%) NCSC
6 4 (2.48%) SLA
7 3 (1.86%) FIPS 140-2
8 2 (1.24%) SOC 1
9 1 (0.62%) Accessibility
9 1 (0.62%) Cyber Essentials
9 1 (0.62%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 1 (0.62%) JSP 440
9 1 (0.62%) NIST 800
9 1 (0.62%) PMO
9 1 (0.62%) RMADS
System Software
1 55 (34.16%) Active Directory
2 32 (19.88%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (5.59%) Docker
3 9 (5.59%) VMware NSX
4 7 (4.35%) Hyper-V
5 6 (3.73%) Firmware
6 5 (3.11%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 5 (3.11%) Virtual Servers
7 4 (2.48%) Virtual Machines
7 4 (2.48%) VMware ESXi
8 3 (1.86%) Sendmail
8 3 (1.86%) vSphere
9 1 (0.62%) NFS
Systems Management
1 21 (13.04%) Ansible
2 19 (11.80%) Terraform
3 16 (9.94%) Kubernetes
4 15 (9.32%) vCenter Server
5 12 (7.45%) Single Sign-On
6 11 (6.83%) WMI
6 11 (6.83%) WSUS
7 10 (6.21%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 10 (6.21%) SCCM
8 9 (5.59%) Microsoft Intune
9 4 (2.48%) Podman
9 4 (2.48%) QRadar
10 3 (1.86%) Grafana
10 3 (1.86%) OPNET
10 3 (1.86%) Prometheus
10 3 (1.86%) Proxmox
10 3 (1.86%) SCOM
11 1 (0.62%) Nagios
11 1 (0.62%) Red Hat Satellite
11 1 (0.62%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 66 (40.99%) Microsoft
2 50 (31.06%) VMware
3 25 (15.53%) Juniper
4 24 (14.91%) Cisco
5 15 (9.32%) SolarWinds
6 12 (7.45%) Veeam
7 10 (6.21%) Splunk
8 9 (5.59%) Thales
9 6 (3.73%) Google
10 5 (3.11%) Broadcom
10 5 (3.11%) Red Hat
11 3 (1.86%) CheckPoint
11 3 (1.86%) Citrix
11 3 (1.86%) ServiceNow
11 3 (1.86%) Zscaler
12 2 (1.24%) CyberArk
12 2 (1.24%) IBM
12 2 (1.24%) Palo Alto
12 2 (1.24%) Wyse
13 1 (0.62%) Symantec