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

6 months to
13 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 248 234 144
Rank change year-on-year -14 -90 +37
Contract jobs citing PKI 239 143 253
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.85% 0.93% 1.41%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.76% 2.68% 4.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 171 118 173
10th Percentile £425 £325 £411
25th Percentile £463 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £538
Median % change year-on-year - +2.33% -6.52%
75th Percentile £625 £600 £608
90th Percentile £700 £649 £650
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £541
% change year-on-year - +1.67% -5.01%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 0 1
10th Percentile £94.90 - -
25th Percentile £96.00 - £36.75
Median hourly rate £97.41 - £38.50
75th Percentile £98.82 - £40.25
90th Percentile £100.00 - -
UK median hourly rate £97.41 - £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 8,656 5,326 5,136
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 30.84% 34.52% 28.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,037 3,176 2,942
10th Percentile £281 £220 £213
25th Percentile £405 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £607
90th Percentile £688 £662 £700
UK median daily rate £525 £515 £543
% change year-on-year +1.94% -5.07% -1.36%
Number of hourly rates quoted 905 419 400
10th Percentile £13.77 £14.78 £13.85
25th Percentile £17.36 £18.50 £20.50
Median hourly rate £38.72 £30.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +29.07% -47.69% +19.16%
75th Percentile £68.75 £58.75 £70.00
90th Percentile £81.35 £75.00 £75.02
UK median hourly rate £37.50 £30.00 £50.00
% change year-on-year +25.00% -40.00% +11.11%

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 13 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 13 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 13 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 -15 83 £583 +1.30% 36
North of England -19 64 £525 +6.71% 29
Scotland +7 37 £481 -12.55% 8
North West -33 36 £525 +6.71% 13
South West -57 34 £648 +17.73% 36
Yorkshire -13 27 £565 -5.83% 12
East of England -16 9 £500 -4.76% 14
Midlands -68 9 £475 +18.75% 11
West Midlands -71 8 £475 +18.75% 3
Wales - 6 £463 - 5
East Midlands -16 1 £475 - 8
North East - 1 £426 - 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 12 (5.02%) Microsoft Exchange
2 11 (4.60%) Confluence
3 9 (3.77%) SharePoint
4 4 (1.67%) IIS
5 3 (1.26%) Exchange Server 2010
6 2 (0.84%) Apache
6 2 (0.84%) nginx
6 2 (0.84%) Tomcat
6 2 (0.84%) WebSphere
7 1 (0.42%) Traefik
Applications
1 4 (1.67%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 10 (4.18%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.42%) Dynamics GP
Cloud Services
1 58 (24.27%) Azure
2 43 (17.99%) Entra ID
3 41 (17.15%) AWS
4 23 (9.62%) GCP
5 15 (6.28%) Power Platform
6 13 (5.44%) Microsoft 365
7 6 (2.51%) Azure Key Vault
8 4 (1.67%) AWS KMS
8 4 (1.67%) Azure DevOps
8 4 (1.67%) GitHub
9 3 (1.26%) Azure Monitor
9 3 (1.26%) OpenShift
10 2 (0.84%) Azure Sentinel
10 2 (0.84%) GitHub Actions
10 2 (0.84%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 1 (0.42%) Amazon ECS
11 1 (0.42%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 1 (0.42%) Azure Logic Apps
11 1 (0.42%) Kong
11 1 (0.42%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 73 (30.54%) DNS
2 56 (23.43%) Firewall
3 50 (20.92%) DHCP
4 28 (11.72%) VPN
5 27 (11.30%) TCP/IP
6 18 (7.53%) LAN
7 17 (7.11%) IPsec
7 17 (7.11%) SSL
7 17 (7.11%) WAN
8 16 (6.69%) Network Security
8 16 (6.69%) VSAN
9 15 (6.28%) BGP
10 13 (5.44%) Cisco ASA
10 13 (5.44%) Cisco Firepower
10 13 (5.44%) Cisco Nexus
10 13 (5.44%) OSPF
11 12 (5.02%) VLAN
11 12 (5.02%) Wireless
12 10 (4.18%) VoIP
12 10 (4.18%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (9.62%) SQL Server
2 10 (4.18%) Power BI
3 1 (0.42%) MongoDB
3 1 (0.42%) NoSQL
3 1 (0.42%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 14 (5.86%) JIRA
2 5 (2.09%) Jenkins
3 4 (1.67%) Git
3 4 (1.67%) GitLab
4 3 (1.26%) Sonatype Nexus
5 2 (0.84%) Burp Suite
5 2 (0.84%) Cucumber
5 2 (0.84%) Gatling
5 2 (0.84%) Gradle
5 2 (0.84%) LoadRunner
5 2 (0.84%) MSI
5 2 (0.84%) REST Assured
5 2 (0.84%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.42%) Robot Framework
General
1 50 (20.92%) Social Skills
2 26 (10.88%) Finance
3 22 (9.21%) Analytical Skills
4 20 (8.37%) Public Sector
5 13 (5.44%) Documentation Skills
6 10 (4.18%) Banking
7 6 (2.51%) Military
8 5 (2.09%) Police
9 3 (1.26%) Investment Banking
9 3 (1.26%) Retail
10 2 (0.84%) Aerospace
10 2 (0.84%) Corporate Banking
10 2 (0.84%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (0.84%) Legal
10 2 (0.84%) Retail Banking
11 1 (0.42%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.42%) Law
11 1 (0.42%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.42%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 56 (23.43%) Senior
2 40 (16.74%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 25 (10.46%) Architect
4 20 (8.37%) Network Engineer
5 19 (7.95%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
6 17 (7.11%) Support Engineer
7 16 (6.69%) Platform Engineer
8 14 (5.86%) Consultant
8 14 (5.86%) Senior Network Engineer
9 13 (5.44%) 3rd Line Engineer
9 13 (5.44%) Storage Engineer
10 9 (3.77%) Solutions Architect
11 8 (3.35%) Lead
12 7 (2.93%) Principal Engineer
12 7 (2.93%) VMware Engineer
13 6 (2.51%) Cloud Engineer
13 6 (2.51%) Integration Engineer
14 5 (2.09%) Citrix Engineer
14 5 (2.09%) Linux Engineer
14 5 (2.09%) Senior Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (15.48%) Terraform
2 20 (8.37%) LDAP
3 17 (7.11%) 802.1X
3 17 (7.11%) OpenID
4 16 (6.69%) SAML
5 15 (6.28%) OAuth
6 14 (5.86%) REST
7 8 (3.35%) .NET
7 8 (3.35%) .NET Framework
7 8 (3.35%) OAuth2
7 8 (3.35%) XML
8 5 (2.09%) RabbitMQ
9 4 (1.67%) FIDO
10 3 (1.26%) WebAuthn
11 2 (0.84%) ModSecurity
11 2 (0.84%) Node.js
11 2 (0.84%) Playwright
11 2 (0.84%) Quarkus
11 2 (0.84%) React
11 2 (0.84%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 25 (10.46%) Data Centre
2 20 (8.37%) Clustering
3 12 (5.02%) Public Cloud
4 9 (3.77%) Legacy Systems
5 8 (3.35%) Cloud Native
5 8 (3.35%) Self-Motivation
6 7 (2.93%) Linux Command Line
7 6 (2.51%) Distributed Systems
7 6 (2.51%) Management Information System
7 6 (2.51%) Onboarding
8 5 (2.09%) Enterprise Software
8 5 (2.09%) Enterprise Storage
8 5 (2.09%) Hybrid Cloud
8 5 (2.09%) Security Posture
9 4 (1.67%) Data Protection Act
9 4 (1.67%) Fat Client
9 4 (1.67%) Private Cloud
9 4 (1.67%) SCADA
9 4 (1.67%) Tandem
9 4 (1.67%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 122 (51.05%) Windows
2 72 (30.13%) Windows Server
3 67 (28.03%) Linux
4 11 (4.60%) Windows Server 2016
5 8 (3.35%) Unix
6 7 (2.93%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 7 (2.93%) Windows Server 2012
7 6 (2.51%) Debian
8 5 (2.09%) Windows Server 2019
9 3 (1.26%) CentOS
9 3 (1.26%) Data ONTAP
10 2 (0.84%) Android
10 2 (0.84%) Apple iOS
10 2 (0.84%) Mac OS
10 2 (0.84%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.84%) Windows 10
11 1 (0.42%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 77 (32.22%) Identity Access Management
2 53 (22.18%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 46 (19.25%) Cybersecurity
4 44 (18.41%) ITIL
5 42 (17.57%) Problem-Solving
6 41 (17.15%) Technical Leadership
7 38 (15.90%) Agile
8 34 (14.23%) Continuous Improvement
9 31 (12.97%) Infrastructure as Code
9 31 (12.97%) Key Management
9 31 (12.97%) Zero Trust
10 29 (12.13%) DevSecOps
10 29 (12.13%) Service Management
10 29 (12.13%) Stakeholder Management
11 28 (11.72%) CI/CD
11 28 (11.72%) High Availability
12 27 (11.30%) Platform Engineering
13 26 (10.88%) ITSM
14 25 (10.46%) Mentoring
15 24 (10.04%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 75 (31.38%) PowerShell
2 46 (19.25%) Python
3 22 (9.21%) Bash
4 13 (5.44%) SQL
5 10 (4.18%) JavaScript
6 9 (3.77%) C#
7 5 (2.09%) Java
8 2 (0.84%) Go
9 1 (0.42%) Bicep
9 1 (0.42%) Ruby
9 1 (0.42%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 144 (60.25%) Security Cleared
2 90 (37.66%) DV Cleared
3 62 (25.94%) SC Cleared
4 19 (7.95%) Cisco Certification
5 16 (6.69%) Degree
6 15 (6.28%) Microsoft Certification
7 13 (5.44%) CCNP
8 12 (5.02%) CISSP
8 12 (5.02%) MCSE
8 12 (5.02%) VCAP
9 9 (3.77%) AWS Certification
10 6 (2.51%) Azure Certification
10 6 (2.51%) CISM
11 5 (2.09%) Computer Science Degree
11 5 (2.09%) GIAC
11 5 (2.09%) ISTQB
11 5 (2.09%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
12 4 (1.67%) Master's Degree
12 4 (1.67%) MCSA
13 3 (1.26%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (10.04%) NIST
2 20 (8.37%) NCSC
3 14 (5.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 11 (4.60%) SLA
5 8 (3.35%) JSP 440
6 6 (2.51%) GRC
7 4 (1.67%) Cyber Essentials
8 2 (0.84%) GDPR
8 2 (0.84%) ISA99
8 2 (0.84%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 2 (0.84%) QA
9 1 (0.42%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 122 (51.05%) Active Directory
2 61 (25.52%) VMware Infrastructure
3 31 (12.97%) VMware NSX
4 27 (11.30%) Hyper-V
5 20 (8.37%) Docker
6 18 (7.53%) vSphere
7 8 (3.35%) VMware ESXi
8 4 (1.67%) Virtual Desktop
9 3 (1.26%) OpenAM
9 3 (1.26%) UAG
10 2 (0.84%) Firmware
10 2 (0.84%) XenApp
10 2 (0.84%) XenDesktop
11 1 (0.42%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
11 1 (0.42%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 39 (16.32%) Kubernetes
2 34 (14.23%) Ansible
3 19 (7.95%) Single Sign-On
3 19 (7.95%) vCenter Server
4 16 (6.69%) VxRail
5 14 (5.86%) SCOM
6 13 (5.44%) Avamar
7 9 (3.77%) Microsoft Intune
8 8 (3.35%) Istio
8 8 (3.35%) SCCM
8 8 (3.35%) WSUS
9 5 (2.09%) Failover Clustering
10 4 (1.67%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 4 (1.67%) Cisco CUCM
10 4 (1.67%) FortiGate
10 4 (1.67%) WMI
11 3 (1.26%) OPNET
12 2 (0.84%) Kibana
12 2 (0.84%) McAfee ePO
12 2 (0.84%) Nessus
Vendors
1 100 (41.84%) Microsoft
2 75 (31.38%) VMware
3 38 (15.90%) Cisco
4 25 (10.46%) Thales
5 23 (9.62%) Okta
6 21 (8.79%) ServiceNow
7 17 (7.11%) BeyondTrust
8 15 (6.28%) Dell
9 11 (4.60%) SolarWinds
10 10 (4.18%) BMC
10 10 (4.18%) Palo Alto
10 10 (4.18%) Remedy
11 9 (3.77%) CheckPoint
11 9 (3.77%) Citrix
11 9 (3.77%) Juniper
12 8 (3.35%) Fortinet
12 8 (3.35%) NetApp
13 7 (2.93%) F5
14 6 (2.51%) CyberArk
14 6 (2.51%) Splunk