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

6 months to
1 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 254 236 138
Rank change year-on-year -18 -98 +47
Contract jobs citing PKI 229 140 286
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.83% 0.91% 1.59%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.71% 2.65% 5.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 167 114 195
10th Percentile £418 £350 £395
25th Percentile £463 £452 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £548 £538
Median % change year-on-year +0.46% +1.86% -2.27%
75th Percentile £624 £600 £608
90th Percentile £688 £645 £671
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £538
% change year-on-year - +2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 0 1
10th Percentile £93.80 - -
25th Percentile £96.00 - £36.75
Median hourly rate £98.82 - £38.50
75th Percentile - - £40.25
90th Percentile £100.00 - -
UK median hourly rate £98.82 - £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 8,460 5,278 5,164
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 30.61% 34.43% 28.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,983 3,148 3,004
10th Percentile £281 £220 £213
25th Percentile £405 £363 £390
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 £657 £700
UK median daily rate £525 £518 £550
% change year-on-year +1.45% -5.91% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 855 412 442
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.80 £12.25
25th Percentile £17.85 £18.22 £18.27
Median hourly rate £43.96 £30.00 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year +46.53% -42.86% +15.61%
75th Percentile £68.75 £60.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £82.75 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £38.72 £29.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year +31.25% -34.44% +3.75%

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 1 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 1 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 1 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 -8 89 £583 +1.30% 27
North of England -26 56 £519 +5.49% 22
North West -34 34 £525 +6.71% 11
Scotland +7 32 £481 -1.33% 3
South West -61 30 £623 +13.18% 25
Yorkshire -15 22 £500 -16.67% 11
East of England -17 9 £500 -4.76% 6
Midlands -75 9 £475 +18.75% 9
West Midlands -70 8 £475 +18.75% 5
Wales - 6 £463 - 2
East Midlands -14 1 £475 - 4
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 11 (4.80%) Microsoft Exchange
2 10 (4.37%) SharePoint
3 8 (3.49%) 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
6 1 (0.44%) nginx
Applications
1 4 (1.75%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 10 (4.37%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.44%) Dynamics GP
Cloud Services
1 57 (24.89%) Azure
2 40 (17.47%) Entra ID
3 38 (16.59%) AWS
4 20 (8.73%) GCP
5 15 (6.55%) Power Platform
6 13 (5.68%) Microsoft 365
7 6 (2.62%) Azure Key Vault
8 4 (1.75%) AWS KMS
8 4 (1.75%) Azure DevOps
9 3 (1.31%) Azure Monitor
9 3 (1.31%) GitHub
9 3 (1.31%) OpenShift
10 2 (0.87%) Azure Sentinel
10 2 (0.87%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 1 (0.44%) Akamai
11 1 (0.44%) Azure Logic Apps
11 1 (0.44%) GitHub Actions
11 1 (0.44%) Google Workspace
11 1 (0.44%) OCI
11 1 (0.44%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 72 (31.44%) DNS
2 58 (25.33%) Firewall
3 49 (21.40%) DHCP
4 27 (11.79%) VPN
5 26 (11.35%) TCP/IP
6 21 (9.17%) LAN
7 20 (8.73%) WAN
8 18 (7.86%) BGP
8 18 (7.86%) SSL
9 17 (7.42%) IPsec
10 16 (6.99%) OSPF
10 16 (6.99%) VSAN
11 15 (6.55%) Network Security
12 13 (5.68%) Cisco ASA
12 13 (5.68%) Cisco Firepower
12 13 (5.68%) Cisco Nexus
13 12 (5.24%) VLAN
13 12 (5.24%) Wireless
14 10 (4.37%) VoIP
14 10 (4.37%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (10.04%) SQL Server
2 10 (4.37%) Power BI
3 1 (0.44%) NoSQL
3 1 (0.44%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 10 (4.37%) JIRA
2 5 (2.18%) Git
3 3 (1.31%) Jenkins
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
5 1 (0.44%) Robot Framework
General
1 42 (18.34%) Social Skills
2 23 (10.04%) Finance
3 18 (7.86%) Analytical Skills
4 17 (7.42%) Public Sector
5 11 (4.80%) Documentation Skills
6 9 (3.93%) Banking
7 5 (2.18%) Police
8 3 (1.31%) Military
8 3 (1.31%) Retail
9 2 (0.87%) Aerospace
9 2 (0.87%) Corporate Banking
9 2 (0.87%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 2 (0.87%) Investment Banking
9 2 (0.87%) Legal
9 2 (0.87%) Retail Banking
10 1 (0.44%) Influencing Skills
10 1 (0.44%) Law
10 1 (0.44%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 57 (24.89%) Senior
2 42 (18.34%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 21 (9.17%) Architect
3 21 (9.17%) Network Engineer
3 21 (9.17%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
4 17 (7.42%) Support Engineer
5 16 (6.99%) Platform Engineer
6 15 (6.55%) Senior Network Engineer
7 13 (5.68%) 3rd Line Engineer
7 13 (5.68%) Consultant
7 13 (5.68%) Storage Engineer
8 8 (3.49%) Lead
9 7 (3.06%) Principal Engineer
9 7 (3.06%) VMware Engineer
10 6 (2.62%) Cloud Engineer
10 6 (2.62%) Firewall Specialist
10 6 (2.62%) Network Specialist
10 6 (2.62%) Solutions Architect
11 5 (2.18%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
11 5 (2.18%) Linux Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (16.16%) Terraform
2 20 (8.73%) LDAP
3 19 (8.30%) 802.1X
4 16 (6.99%) OpenID
5 15 (6.55%) SAML
6 14 (6.11%) OAuth
7 11 (4.80%) REST
8 8 (3.49%) .NET
8 8 (3.49%) .NET Framework
8 8 (3.49%) XML
9 6 (2.62%) OAuth2
10 5 (2.18%) RabbitMQ
11 4 (1.75%) JSON
12 2 (0.87%) Microsoft Graph
12 2 (0.87%) ModSecurity
12 2 (0.87%) Node.js
12 2 (0.87%) Quarkus
12 2 (0.87%) React
12 2 (0.87%) Spring
12 2 (0.87%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 28 (12.23%) Data Centre
2 23 (10.04%) Clustering
3 11 (4.80%) Public Cloud
4 8 (3.49%) Cloud Native
4 8 (3.49%) Self-Motivation
5 7 (3.06%) Linux Command Line
5 7 (3.06%) Onboarding
6 6 (2.62%) Distributed Systems
6 6 (2.62%) Hybrid Cloud
6 6 (2.62%) Legacy Systems
6 6 (2.62%) Management Information System
7 5 (2.18%) Enterprise Storage
8 4 (1.75%) Data Protection Act
8 4 (1.75%) Enterprise Software
8 4 (1.75%) Fat Client
8 4 (1.75%) Fibre Optics
8 4 (1.75%) Private Cloud
8 4 (1.75%) Product Ownership
8 4 (1.75%) Tandem
8 4 (1.75%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 121 (52.84%) Windows
2 69 (30.13%) Windows Server
3 64 (27.95%) Linux
4 11 (4.80%) Windows Server 2016
5 7 (3.06%) Unix
5 7 (3.06%) Windows Server 2012
6 6 (2.62%) Debian
6 6 (2.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (2.18%) Windows Server 2019
8 3 (1.31%) Data ONTAP
9 2 (0.87%) Android
9 2 (0.87%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.87%) CentOS
9 2 (0.87%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.87%) Ubuntu
9 2 (0.87%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.44%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 80 (34.93%) Identity Access Management
2 52 (22.71%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 44 (19.21%) ITIL
4 40 (17.47%) Problem-Solving
5 39 (17.03%) Cybersecurity
5 39 (17.03%) Technical Leadership
6 34 (14.85%) Continuous Improvement
7 31 (13.54%) Agile
7 31 (13.54%) High Availability
8 30 (13.10%) Infrastructure as Code
9 29 (12.66%) DevSecOps
9 29 (12.66%) Zero Trust
10 28 (12.23%) Key Management
11 27 (11.79%) CI/CD
12 26 (11.35%) Platform Engineering
12 26 (11.35%) Service Management
13 25 (10.92%) ITSM
13 25 (10.92%) Mentoring
14 24 (10.48%) Stakeholder Management
15 23 (10.04%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 69 (30.13%) PowerShell
2 41 (17.90%) Python
3 21 (9.17%) Bash
4 12 (5.24%) SQL
5 10 (4.37%) JavaScript
6 9 (3.93%) C#
7 6 (2.62%) Java
8 1 (0.44%) Bicep
8 1 (0.44%) Ruby
8 1 (0.44%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 136 (59.39%) Security Cleared
2 87 (37.99%) DV Cleared
3 58 (25.33%) SC Cleared
4 22 (9.61%) Cisco Certification
5 16 (6.99%) Degree
6 14 (6.11%) Microsoft Certification
7 13 (5.68%) CCNP
8 12 (5.24%) CISSP
8 12 (5.24%) VCAP
9 11 (4.80%) MCSE
10 8 (3.49%) AWS Certification
11 6 (2.62%) Azure Certification
11 6 (2.62%) CISM
12 5 (2.18%) Computer Science Degree
12 5 (2.18%) GIAC
12 5 (2.18%) ISTQB
12 5 (2.18%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 4 (1.75%) Master's Degree
13 4 (1.75%) MCSA
14 3 (1.31%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (10.04%) NIST
2 17 (7.42%) NCSC
3 13 (5.68%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 11 (4.80%) SLA
5 7 (3.06%) JSP 440
6 5 (2.18%) GRC
7 4 (1.75%) Cyber Essentials
8 2 (0.87%) GDPR
8 2 (0.87%) ISA99
8 2 (0.87%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
9 1 (0.44%) PCI DSS
9 1 (0.44%) QA
System Software
1 115 (50.22%) Active Directory
2 55 (24.02%) VMware Infrastructure
3 31 (13.54%) VMware NSX
4 27 (11.79%) Hyper-V
5 20 (8.73%) Docker
6 15 (6.55%) vSphere
7 3 (1.31%) OpenAM
7 3 (1.31%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.87%) Firmware
8 2 (0.87%) Virtual Desktop
8 2 (0.87%) XenApp
8 2 (0.87%) XenDesktop
9 1 (0.44%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
9 1 (0.44%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 36 (15.72%) Ansible
1 36 (15.72%) Kubernetes
2 17 (7.42%) Single Sign-On
3 16 (6.99%) vCenter Server
4 14 (6.11%) VxRail
5 13 (5.68%) Avamar
5 13 (5.68%) SCOM
6 9 (3.93%) Microsoft Intune
7 7 (3.06%) FortiGate
7 7 (3.06%) Istio
7 7 (3.06%) SCCM
7 7 (3.06%) WSUS
8 5 (2.18%) Failover Clustering
9 4 (1.75%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 4 (1.75%) Cisco CUCM
9 4 (1.75%) WMI
10 2 (0.87%) Kibana
10 2 (0.87%) OPNET
11 1 (0.44%) Progress Chef
11 1 (0.44%) Puppet
Vendors
1 93 (40.61%) Microsoft
2 69 (30.13%) VMware
3 40 (17.47%) Cisco
4 25 (10.92%) Thales
5 23 (10.04%) Okta
6 20 (8.73%) ServiceNow
7 17 (7.42%) BeyondTrust
8 14 (6.11%) SolarWinds
9 13 (5.68%) Dell
10 12 (5.24%) Juniper
11 10 (4.37%) BMC
11 10 (4.37%) F5
11 10 (4.37%) Palo Alto
11 10 (4.37%) Remedy
12 9 (3.93%) CheckPoint
12 9 (3.93%) Citrix
13 8 (3.49%) NetApp
13 8 (3.49%) Splunk
14 7 (3.06%) Extreme Networks
14 7 (3.06%) IBM