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

6 months to
6 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 271 211 115
Rank change year-on-year -60 -96 +120
Contract jobs citing PKI 173 128 400
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.71% 1.00% 1.95%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.41% 3.01% 6.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 112 105 274
10th Percentile £402 £413 £363
25th Percentile £463 £513 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.35%
75th Percentile £645 £613 £608
90th Percentile £725 £725 £675
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £550
% change year-on-year - - -6.78%
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 - £31.15
% change year-on-year - - -47.65%

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 7,172 4,246 6,032
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 29.60% 33.21% 29.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,454 2,609 3,624
10th Percentile £250 £208 £208
25th Percentile £381 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £478 £493 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.05% -1.50% -
75th Percentile £575 £588 £596
90th Percentile £675 £663 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 568 308 721
10th Percentile £15.79 £16.95 £12.15
25th Percentile £19.34 £20.72 £14.06
Median hourly rate £50.00 £31.76 £28.25
Median % change year-on-year +57.43% +12.42% +28.41%
75th Percentile £70.00 £64.64 £61.30
90th Percentile £85.43 £83.26 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £45.00 £32.50 £30.16
% change year-on-year +38.46% +7.76% +34.13%

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 6 May 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 6 May 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 6 May 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 +11 104 £600 +4.35% 21
North of England -53 23 £482 -29.25% 3
South West -62 17 £550 -4.35% 5
West Midlands -60 15 £450 +5.88% 2
Midlands -74 15 £450 +5.88% 7
North West -36 13 £417 -15.24% 2
Scotland +4 11 £451 -15.72% 2
Yorkshire -53 10 £482 -33.52% 1
East of England -33 5 £475 -9.52% 3
Wales -15 1 £550 +20.22% 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 (5.78%) Microsoft Exchange
2 5 (2.89%) IIS
3 3 (1.73%) Exchange Server 2010
3 3 (1.73%) SharePoint
4 2 (1.16%) Apache
4 2 (1.16%) Tomcat
4 2 (1.16%) WebSphere
5 1 (0.58%) ArcGIS
5 1 (0.58%) Confluence
Applications
1 2 (1.16%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 8 (4.62%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.58%) Cloudability
Cloud Services
1 33 (19.08%) Azure
2 26 (15.03%) AWS
3 18 (10.40%) Entra ID
4 13 (7.51%) Power Platform
5 9 (5.20%) Microsoft 365
5 9 (5.20%) OpenShift
6 6 (3.47%) Azure Key Vault
6 6 (3.47%) GCP
7 4 (2.31%) AWS CloudFormation
7 4 (2.31%) AWS KMS
7 4 (2.31%) SaaS
8 3 (1.73%) Power Automate
9 2 (1.16%) OneDrive
10 1 (0.58%) Anthos
10 1 (0.58%) Azure DevOps
10 1 (0.58%) Google Workspace
10 1 (0.58%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 52 (30.06%) DNS
2 44 (25.43%) Firewall
3 36 (20.81%) DHCP
4 34 (19.65%) BGP
5 30 (17.34%) WAN
6 27 (15.61%) Junos
7 26 (15.03%) Cisco ISE
8 25 (14.45%) LAN
8 25 (14.45%) OSPF
9 23 (13.29%) BIG-IP
9 23 (13.29%) Ethernet VPN
9 23 (13.29%) VXLAN
10 20 (11.56%) VPN
11 15 (8.67%) SSL
12 12 (6.94%) Network Security
13 10 (5.78%) Cisco IOS
14 9 (5.20%) MPLS
15 8 (4.62%) TCP/IP
16 7 (4.05%) Cisco ASA
17 6 (3.47%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (5.20%) SQL Server
2 8 (4.62%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 7 (4.05%) Robot Framework
2 6 (3.47%) JIRA
3 5 (2.89%) Sonatype Nexus
4 2 (1.16%) MSI
5 1 (0.58%) Git
5 1 (0.58%) GitLab
5 1 (0.58%) Jenkins
General
1 23 (13.29%) Social Skills
2 18 (10.40%) Public Sector
3 11 (6.36%) Finance
4 9 (5.20%) Analytical Skills
5 5 (2.89%) Military
6 2 (1.16%) Banking
6 2 (1.16%) Documentation Skills
6 2 (1.16%) Financial Institution
6 2 (1.16%) Legal
6 2 (1.16%) Retail
7 1 (0.58%) Aerospace
7 1 (0.58%) Back Office
Job Titles
1 40 (23.12%) Architect
2 37 (21.39%) Senior
3 29 (16.76%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 19 (10.98%) Network Engineer
5 14 (8.09%) Firewall Specialist
5 14 (8.09%) Network Specialist
6 13 (7.51%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
7 11 (6.36%) Security Engineer
8 10 (5.78%) 3rd Line Engineer
8 10 (5.78%) Senior Network Engineer
8 10 (5.78%) Support Engineer
9 9 (5.20%) Senior Architect
10 6 (3.47%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
10 6 (3.47%) ITSM Architect
11 5 (2.89%) Cloud Engineer
11 5 (2.89%) Identity Management Engineer
12 4 (2.31%) 3rd Line Network Engineer
12 4 (2.31%) Cloud Network Engineer
12 4 (2.31%) Infrastructure Security Engineer
12 4 (2.31%) Infrastructure Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 29 (16.76%) 802.1X
2 9 (5.20%) OpenID
2 9 (5.20%) REST
3 8 (4.62%) LDAP
3 8 (4.62%) OAuth
3 8 (4.62%) SAML
4 4 (2.31%) OAuth2
5 3 (1.73%) JSON
5 3 (1.73%) SailPoint
6 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Graph
6 1 (0.58%) OpenTelemetry
6 1 (0.58%) Web Services
6 1 (0.58%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 30 (17.34%) Clustering
2 23 (13.29%) Data Centre
3 8 (4.62%) Public Cloud
4 7 (4.05%) Algorithms
4 7 (4.05%) Hybrid Cloud
4 7 (4.05%) Onboarding
5 5 (2.89%) Fat Client
5 5 (2.89%) Operational Technology
5 5 (2.89%) Smartcard
5 5 (2.89%) Thin Client
6 2 (1.16%) Data Protection Act
6 2 (1.16%) Enterprise Software
6 2 (1.16%) Private Cloud
6 2 (1.16%) SCADA
6 2 (1.16%) SWIFT Messaging Network
7 1 (0.58%) Cloud Native
7 1 (0.58%) Distributed Architecture
7 1 (0.58%) Legacy Systems
7 1 (0.58%) Product Ownership
7 1 (0.58%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 74 (42.77%) Windows
2 35 (20.23%) Windows Server
3 31 (17.92%) Linux
4 7 (4.05%) Windows Server 2012
5 6 (3.47%) Ubuntu
6 5 (2.89%) Windows 7
6 5 (2.89%) Windows Server 2019
7 4 (2.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 3 (1.73%) CentOS
8 3 (1.73%) Windows Server 2016
9 2 (1.16%) Debian
10 1 (0.58%) Data ONTAP
10 1 (0.58%) Solaris
10 1 (0.58%) VMS
10 1 (0.58%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 47 (27.17%) Identity Access Management
2 45 (26.01%) Agile
3 33 (19.08%) High Availability
3 33 (19.08%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 32 (18.50%) Problem-Solving
5 29 (16.76%) ITIL
6 26 (15.03%) Observability
7 25 (14.45%) ITSM
7 25 (14.45%) Load Balancing
8 24 (13.87%) Key Management
9 21 (12.14%) Service Management
10 19 (10.98%) CI/CD
10 19 (10.98%) Cybersecurity
11 17 (9.83%) Change Management
12 16 (9.25%) Identity Management
13 15 (8.67%) Cloud Security
13 15 (8.67%) Migration
13 15 (8.67%) Zero Trust
14 14 (8.09%) Infrastructure as Code
14 14 (8.09%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 37 (21.39%) PowerShell
2 30 (17.34%) Python
3 13 (7.51%) SQL
4 11 (6.36%) Bash
5 8 (4.62%) JavaScript
6 4 (2.31%) C#
6 4 (2.31%) PHP
7 2 (1.16%) Java
8 1 (0.58%) Go
8 1 (0.58%) Perl
8 1 (0.58%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 120 (69.36%) Security Cleared
2 79 (45.66%) DV Cleared
3 37 (21.39%) SC Cleared
4 25 (14.45%) Cisco Certification
5 14 (8.09%) CISSP
6 13 (7.51%) CISM
7 10 (5.78%) Degree
8 8 (4.62%) GIAC
9 7 (4.05%) CompTIA Security+
9 7 (4.05%) JNCIA
9 7 (4.05%) JNCIP
9 7 (4.05%) JNCIS
10 5 (2.89%) Microsoft Certification
11 4 (2.31%) APMG
11 4 (2.31%) AWS Certification
11 4 (2.31%) Azure Certification
11 4 (2.31%) CCNA
11 4 (2.31%) CCNP
11 4 (2.31%) SSCP
11 4 (2.31%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (12.14%) NIST
2 17 (9.83%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 10 (5.78%) Cyber Essentials
4 8 (4.62%) NCSC
5 7 (4.05%) PCI DSS
6 5 (2.89%) SLA
7 4 (2.31%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 4 (2.31%) GDPR
8 2 (1.16%) ISA99
8 2 (1.16%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
9 1 (0.58%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 1 (0.58%) SOC 2
System Software
1 56 (32.37%) Active Directory
2 36 (20.81%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (6.94%) VMware NSX
4 8 (4.62%) Hyper-V
5 7 (4.05%) Firmware
5 7 (4.05%) VMware ESXi
6 4 (2.31%) Docker
7 3 (1.73%) Sendmail
8 2 (1.16%) KVM
8 2 (1.16%) Virtual Machines
8 2 (1.16%) vSphere
8 2 (1.16%) XenApp
8 2 (1.16%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 26 (15.03%) Terraform
2 24 (13.87%) Ansible
3 23 (13.29%) FortiGate
4 16 (9.25%) Kubernetes
5 15 (8.67%) Single Sign-On
6 14 (8.09%) vCenter Server
7 7 (4.05%) SCOM
8 6 (3.47%) Microsoft Intune
8 6 (3.47%) WMI
9 5 (2.89%) SCCM
10 4 (2.31%) Prometheus
11 3 (1.73%) Grafana
11 3 (1.73%) WSUS
12 2 (1.16%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 2 (1.16%) Avamar
12 2 (1.16%) Failover Clustering
13 1 (0.58%) Argo
13 1 (0.58%) CASB
13 1 (0.58%) Istio
13 1 (0.58%) Puppet
Vendors
1 54 (31.21%) Microsoft
1 54 (31.21%) VMware
2 47 (27.17%) Cisco
3 32 (18.50%) Juniper
4 29 (16.76%) SolarWinds
5 25 (14.45%) F5
6 23 (13.29%) Splunk
7 22 (12.72%) Extreme Networks
8 14 (8.09%) ServiceNow
9 11 (6.36%) Thales
10 8 (4.62%) BMC
10 8 (4.62%) Remedy
11 7 (4.05%) Okta
11 7 (4.05%) Palo Alto
12 6 (3.47%) Citrix
13 5 (2.89%) BeyondTrust
13 5 (2.89%) Broadcom
13 5 (2.89%) ForeScout
14 3 (1.73%) Aruba
14 3 (1.73%) IBM