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

6 months to
4 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 268 194 119
Rank change year-on-year -74 -75 +115
Contract jobs citing PKI 171 150 390
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.75% 1.18% 1.86%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.48% 3.55% 6.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 112 100 254
10th Percentile £363 £411 £363
25th Percentile £489 £513 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £575 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +4.55% -4.35%
75th Percentile £650 £625 £625
90th Percentile £725 £725 £675
UK median daily rate £563 £575 £550
% change year-on-year -2.17% +4.55% -8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 0 2
10th Percentile £61.41 - £38.93
25th Percentile £70.50 - £42.19
Median hourly rate £79.50 - £50.75
75th Percentile £96.25 - £60.69
90th Percentile £101.65 - £64.78
UK median hourly rate £79.50 - £50.75
% change year-on-year - - -14.71%

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 6,893 4,222 6,234
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 30.33% 33.33% 29.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,310 2,624 3,720
10th Percentile £214 £205 £206
25th Percentile £366 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £498 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.67% -0.35% -
75th Percentile £575 £600 £595
90th Percentile £675 £675 £680
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £536
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.05% -2.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 545 286 698
10th Percentile £15.62 £16.95 £12.15
25th Percentile £19.34 £21.31 £14.36
Median hourly rate £45.46 £31.42 £26.00
Median % change year-on-year +44.68% +20.85% +18.18%
75th Percentile £70.00 £66.00 £57.50
90th Percentile £85.40 £83.71 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £45.00 £32.50 £28.00
% change year-on-year +38.46% +16.07% +24.53%

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 April 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 April 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 April 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 +18 104 £600 - 20
South West -53 20 £563 -2.17% 6
North of England -66 20 £485 -33.17% 7
West Midlands -58 18 £400 -5.88% 2
Midlands -73 18 £400 -5.88% 5
North West -38 10 £510 -12.26% 3
Yorkshire -53 10 £482 -33.52% 4
East of England -28 6 £475 -9.52% 5
Scotland -24 5 £550 +2.90% 1
Wales -13 1 £550 +20.22% 3
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 14 (8.19%) Microsoft Exchange
2 4 (2.34%) SharePoint
3 3 (1.75%) Exchange Server 2010
4 2 (1.17%) Confluence
4 2 (1.17%) IIS
5 1 (0.58%) Apache
5 1 (0.58%) ArcGIS
5 1 (0.58%) SharePoint Server
5 1 (0.58%) Tomcat
5 1 (0.58%) WebSphere
Applications
1 5 (2.92%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 6 (3.51%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.58%) Cloudability
Cloud Services
1 33 (19.30%) Azure
2 26 (15.20%) AWS
3 17 (9.94%) Entra ID
4 12 (7.02%) Power Platform
5 11 (6.43%) Microsoft 365
6 9 (5.26%) OpenShift
7 6 (3.51%) GCP
8 5 (2.92%) Azure Key Vault
9 4 (2.34%) AWS CloudFormation
9 4 (2.34%) AWS KMS
9 4 (2.34%) SaaS
10 3 (1.75%) Azure DevOps
10 3 (1.75%) OneDrive
10 3 (1.75%) Power Automate
11 2 (1.17%) GitHub
11 2 (1.17%) Google Workspace
12 1 (0.58%) Anthos
12 1 (0.58%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 46 (26.90%) DNS
1 46 (26.90%) Firewall
2 36 (21.05%) BGP
3 32 (18.71%) DHCP
4 30 (17.54%) WAN
5 25 (14.62%) Junos
6 23 (13.45%) OSPF
7 22 (12.87%) Cisco ISE
7 22 (12.87%) LAN
8 21 (12.28%) BIG-IP
8 21 (12.28%) Ethernet VPN
8 21 (12.28%) VPN
8 21 (12.28%) VXLAN
9 13 (7.60%) MPLS
9 13 (7.60%) SSL
10 10 (5.85%) Cisco IOS
11 9 (5.26%) IPsec
11 9 (5.26%) TCP/IP
12 8 (4.68%) Network Security
13 6 (3.51%) Cisco ASA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (5.26%) SQL Server
2 6 (3.51%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 7 (4.09%) JIRA
2 6 (3.51%) Robot Framework
3 4 (2.34%) Sonatype Nexus
4 2 (1.17%) GitLab
5 1 (0.58%) Git
5 1 (0.58%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.58%) MSI
General
1 26 (15.20%) Social Skills
2 19 (11.11%) Public Sector
3 12 (7.02%) Analytical Skills
4 9 (5.26%) Finance
5 5 (2.92%) Military
6 2 (1.17%) Banking
6 2 (1.17%) Financial Institution
6 2 (1.17%) Legal
7 1 (0.58%) Aerospace
7 1 (0.58%) Back Office
7 1 (0.58%) Documentation Skills
7 1 (0.58%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 46 (26.90%) Architect
2 35 (20.47%) Senior
3 30 (17.54%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 15 (8.77%) Network Engineer
4 15 (8.77%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
5 12 (7.02%) Firewall Specialist
5 12 (7.02%) Network Specialist
6 11 (6.43%) Security Engineer
6 11 (6.43%) Support Engineer
7 10 (5.85%) 3rd Line Engineer
8 9 (5.26%) Senior Architect
8 9 (5.26%) Senior Network Engineer
9 8 (4.68%) Cloud Engineer
10 7 (4.09%) 3rd Line Support
11 6 (3.51%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
11 6 (3.51%) ITSM Architect
11 6 (3.51%) Wintel Engineer
12 5 (2.92%) 2nd Line Engineer
12 5 (2.92%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
12 5 (2.92%) Infrastructure Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (12.28%) 802.1X
2 8 (4.68%) REST
3 7 (4.09%) LDAP
3 7 (4.09%) OpenID
4 6 (3.51%) OAuth
4 6 (3.51%) SAML
5 3 (1.75%) OAuth2
5 3 (1.75%) SailPoint
6 2 (1.17%) JSON
7 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Graph
7 1 (0.58%) OpenTelemetry
7 1 (0.58%) Web Services
7 1 (0.58%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 24 (14.04%) Clustering
2 22 (12.87%) Data Centre
3 9 (5.26%) Public Cloud
4 7 (4.09%) Algorithms
4 7 (4.09%) Fat Client
4 7 (4.09%) Thin Client
5 6 (3.51%) Hybrid Cloud
6 5 (2.92%) Operational Technology
6 5 (2.92%) Smartcard
7 4 (2.34%) Onboarding
8 2 (1.17%) Data Protection Act
8 2 (1.17%) Management Information System
8 2 (1.17%) SCADA
8 2 (1.17%) SWIFT Messaging Network
9 1 (0.58%) Cloud Native
9 1 (0.58%) Enterprise Software
9 1 (0.58%) Legacy Systems
9 1 (0.58%) Private Cloud
9 1 (0.58%) Security Operations Centre
9 1 (0.58%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 72 (42.11%) Windows
2 35 (20.47%) Linux
3 33 (19.30%) Windows Server
4 7 (4.09%) Windows 7
4 7 (4.09%) Windows Server 2012
5 6 (3.51%) Ubuntu
6 5 (2.92%) CentOS
7 4 (2.34%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 4 (2.34%) Windows 10
8 2 (1.17%) VMS
8 2 (1.17%) Windows Server 2016
8 2 (1.17%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.58%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.58%) Debian
9 1 (0.58%) Solaris
9 1 (0.58%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 45 (26.32%) Agile
2 43 (25.15%) Identity Access Management
3 34 (19.88%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 33 (19.30%) Problem-Solving
5 27 (15.79%) ITIL
6 25 (14.62%) High Availability
6 25 (14.62%) Load Balancing
7 24 (14.04%) Key Management
7 24 (14.04%) Observability
8 22 (12.87%) CI/CD
9 21 (12.28%) ITSM
9 21 (12.28%) Service Management
10 20 (11.70%) Cybersecurity
11 17 (9.94%) DevOps
11 17 (9.94%) Infrastructure as Code
12 16 (9.36%) Change Management
12 16 (9.36%) Platform Engineering
13 15 (8.77%) Cloud Security
13 15 (8.77%) Continuous Improvement
14 14 (8.19%) Migration
Programming Languages
1 38 (22.22%) PowerShell
2 34 (19.88%) Python
3 13 (7.60%) SQL
4 11 (6.43%) Bash
5 6 (3.51%) JavaScript
6 4 (2.34%) C#
6 4 (2.34%) PHP
7 1 (0.58%) Go
7 1 (0.58%) Java
7 1 (0.58%) Perl
7 1 (0.58%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 125 (73.10%) Security Cleared
2 81 (47.37%) DV Cleared
3 40 (23.39%) SC Cleared
4 20 (11.70%) Cisco Certification
5 15 (8.77%) CISSP
6 14 (8.19%) CISM
7 13 (7.60%) Degree
8 8 (4.68%) GIAC
8 8 (4.68%) Microsoft Certification
9 7 (4.09%) JNCIA
9 7 (4.09%) JNCIP
9 7 (4.09%) JNCIS
10 6 (3.51%) MCSE
11 4 (2.34%) APMG
11 4 (2.34%) AWS Certification
11 4 (2.34%) CompTIA Security+
11 4 (2.34%) SSCP
11 4 (2.34%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 3 (1.75%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 3 (1.75%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (10.53%) NIST
2 17 (9.94%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 11 (6.43%) Cyber Essentials
4 9 (5.26%) NCSC
5 7 (4.09%) PCI DSS
6 5 (2.92%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 4 (2.34%) GDPR
7 4 (2.34%) SLA
8 2 (1.17%) ISA99
8 2 (1.17%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
9 1 (0.58%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 1 (0.58%) SOC 2
System Software
1 53 (30.99%) Active Directory
2 33 (19.30%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (6.43%) VMware NSX
4 8 (4.68%) Hyper-V
5 7 (4.09%) Firmware
5 7 (4.09%) VMware ESXi
6 6 (3.51%) Docker
7 3 (1.75%) Sendmail
7 3 (1.75%) Virtual Machines
8 2 (1.17%) KVM
8 2 (1.17%) vSphere
9 1 (0.58%) NFS
Systems Management
1 25 (14.62%) Terraform
2 24 (14.04%) Ansible
3 21 (12.28%) FortiGate
4 16 (9.36%) Kubernetes
5 14 (8.19%) vCenter Server
6 13 (7.60%) Single Sign-On
7 9 (5.26%) Microsoft Intune
8 7 (4.09%) WMI
9 5 (2.92%) SCOM
10 4 (2.34%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 4 (2.34%) Prometheus
10 4 (2.34%) SCCM
10 4 (2.34%) WSUS
11 3 (1.75%) Grafana
12 2 (1.17%) Podman
12 2 (1.17%) Proxmox
13 1 (0.58%) Argo
13 1 (0.58%) CASB
13 1 (0.58%) Istio
13 1 (0.58%) QRadar
Vendors
1 57 (33.33%) Microsoft
2 53 (30.99%) VMware
3 44 (25.73%) Cisco
4 34 (19.88%) Juniper
5 27 (15.79%) SolarWinds
6 23 (13.45%) F5
7 22 (12.87%) Splunk
8 20 (11.70%) Extreme Networks
9 11 (6.43%) ServiceNow
10 9 (5.26%) Thales
11 6 (3.51%) BMC
11 6 (3.51%) Palo Alto
11 6 (3.51%) Remedy
12 5 (2.92%) Broadcom
13 4 (2.34%) Citrix
13 4 (2.34%) Google
13 4 (2.34%) Red Hat
14 3 (1.75%) IBM
14 3 (1.75%) Veeam
15 2 (1.17%) Wyse