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 17 November 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 244 165 170
Rank change year-on-year -79 +5 +94
Contract jobs citing PKI 155 215 298
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.90% 1.30% 1.42%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.61% 4.37% 4.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 122 113 166
10th Percentile £314 £415 £400
25th Percentile £413 £475 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year - -4.35% +0.88%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £650
90th Percentile £675 £723 £700
UK median daily rate £550 £550 £575
% change year-on-year - -4.35% -7.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 5
10th Percentile - - £46.38
25th Percentile - - -
Median hourly rate - - £55.00
75th Percentile - - £56.40
90th Percentile - - £63.06
UK median hourly rate - £23.80 £55.00
% change year-on-year - -56.73% -10.57%

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 5,932 4,918 6,590
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 34.43% 29.82% 31.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,642 2,686 4,235
10th Percentile £204 £208 £213
25th Percentile £358 £363 £374
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £663 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £510 £530 £550
% change year-on-year -3.77% -3.64% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 494 278 389
10th Percentile £13.00 £15.85 £16.45
25th Percentile £16.75 £22.50 £20.85
Median hourly rate £26.25 £37.50 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year -30.00% -18.80% +81.78%
75th Percentile £55.00 £70.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £73.53 £75.16 £78.07
UK median hourly rate £26.64 £37.50 £44.50
% change year-on-year -28.96% -15.73% +50.85%

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 17 November 2025.

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
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 17 November 2025. 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 West -20 51 £550 +0.55% 9
South East -17 45 £600 -0.41% 53
Midlands -9 36 £400 -27.27% 2
West Midlands -9 35 £400 -27.27% 2
North of England -40 11 £500 -29.82% 5
North West -16 10 £444 -6.58% 5
Scotland -31 8 £538 +4.88% 2
East of England -13 3 £550 - 4
Wales +1 1 £550 - 1
Yorkshire -38 1 £600 -18.64%
East Midlands - 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 25 (16.13%) Microsoft Exchange
2 12 (7.74%) Apache
3 11 (7.10%) Confluence
3 11 (7.10%) SharePoint
4 6 (3.87%) Skype for Business
5 4 (2.58%) IIS
5 4 (2.58%) JBoss
5 4 (2.58%) SharePoint Server
6 2 (1.29%) Alfresco
6 2 (1.29%) Camunda
6 2 (1.29%) Exchange Server 2010
Applications
1 16 (10.32%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (1.29%) Dynamics GP
Cloud Services
1 24 (15.48%) Azure
2 18 (11.61%) AWS
3 9 (5.81%) Microsoft 365
4 6 (3.87%) Entra ID
5 5 (3.23%) Azure Sentinel
5 5 (3.23%) GitHub
6 4 (2.58%) Azure DevOps
7 3 (1.94%) Power Platform
8 2 (1.29%) AWS KMS
8 2 (1.29%) Datadog
8 2 (1.29%) GCP
8 2 (1.29%) GitHub Actions
8 2 (1.29%) Google Workspace
9 1 (0.65%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 1 (0.65%) Amazon EC2
9 1 (0.65%) Amazon S3
9 1 (0.65%) AWS CloudFormation
9 1 (0.65%) AWS CloudTrail
9 1 (0.65%) Route 53
9 1 (0.65%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 37 (23.87%) Firewall
2 35 (22.58%) DNS
3 33 (21.29%) VPN
4 32 (20.65%) BGP
4 32 (20.65%) IPsec
5 31 (20.00%) MPLS
6 25 (16.13%) WAN
7 16 (10.32%) Skype
8 13 (8.39%) DHCP
9 12 (7.74%) Unified Communications
10 11 (7.10%) Network Security
11 9 (5.81%) Junos
11 9 (5.81%) SSL
12 5 (3.23%) VSAN
13 4 (2.58%) SMTP
14 3 (1.94%) 4G
14 3 (1.94%) 5G
14 3 (1.94%) Cisco IOS
14 3 (1.94%) Internet
14 3 (1.94%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (9.03%) SQL Server
2 5 (3.23%) Relational Database
3 2 (1.29%) MongoDB
3 2 (1.29%) MySQL
3 2 (1.29%) PostgreSQL
4 1 (0.65%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 11 (7.10%) JIRA
2 4 (2.58%) MSI
2 4 (2.58%) Robot Framework
2 4 (2.58%) Sonatype Nexus
3 3 (1.94%) GitLab
4 2 (1.29%) Artifactory
4 2 (1.29%) JUnit
4 2 (1.29%) SpecFlow
5 1 (0.65%) CircleCI
5 1 (0.65%) Jenkins
General
1 45 (29.03%) Social Skills
2 26 (16.77%) Analytical Skills
3 23 (14.84%) Public Sector
4 6 (3.87%) Military
5 4 (2.58%) Finance
6 3 (1.94%) Presentation Skills
7 1 (0.65%) Banking
7 1 (0.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 1 (0.65%) Influencing Skills
7 1 (0.65%) Manufacturing
7 1 (0.65%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 29 (18.71%) Architect
2 25 (16.13%) 3rd Line Engineer
3 23 (14.84%) Support Engineer
4 18 (11.61%) 3rd Line Support
5 17 (10.97%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
6 16 (10.32%) Network Engineer
7 13 (8.39%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 12 (7.74%) Senior
9 11 (7.10%) WAN Engineer
10 10 (6.45%) 2nd Line Engineer
10 10 (6.45%) Administrator
10 10 (6.45%) Platform Manager
10 10 (6.45%) Systems Administrator
10 10 (6.45%) Systems Manager
10 10 (6.45%) Wintel Administrator
10 10 (6.45%) Wintel Systems Administrator
11 8 (5.16%) Wintel Engineer
12 7 (4.52%) Cloud Engineer
12 7 (4.52%) Security Architect
13 6 (3.87%) 3rd Line Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (4.52%) NETCONF
1 7 (4.52%) RESTCONF
2 6 (3.87%) Kafka
3 5 (3.23%) REST
4 4 (2.58%) AngularJS
4 4 (2.58%) YAML
5 2 (1.29%) .NET
5 2 (1.29%) Gherkin
5 2 (1.29%) Hibernate
5 2 (1.29%) HTML
5 2 (1.29%) JPA
5 2 (1.29%) Keycloak
5 2 (1.29%) ModSecurity
5 2 (1.29%) Playwright
5 2 (1.29%) Spring
5 2 (1.29%) Spring Boot
5 2 (1.29%) XML
6 1 (0.65%) Elastic Stack
6 1 (0.65%) Middleware
6 1 (0.65%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 8 (5.16%) Fat Client
1 8 (5.16%) Thin Client
2 4 (2.58%) Data Centre
2 4 (2.58%) Replication
2 4 (2.58%) Security Operations Centre
2 4 (2.58%) Self-Motivation
3 3 (1.94%) Algorithms
3 3 (1.94%) Cloud Native
3 3 (1.94%) Cyber Defence
3 3 (1.94%) Private Cloud
3 3 (1.94%) Security Posture
4 2 (1.29%) Cyber Threat
4 2 (1.29%) Public Cloud
5 1 (0.65%) Analytical Mindset
5 1 (0.65%) Cyber Security Posture
5 1 (0.65%) Enterprise Software
5 1 (0.65%) Legacy Systems
5 1 (0.65%) Linux Command Line
5 1 (0.65%) Product Ownership
5 1 (0.65%) Tandem
Operating Systems
1 63 (40.65%) Windows
2 34 (21.94%) Linux
3 32 (20.65%) Windows Server
4 13 (8.39%) Windows 10
5 8 (5.16%) Windows 7
5 8 (5.16%) Windows Server 2019
6 7 (4.52%) CentOS
6 7 (4.52%) Windows Server 2012
7 6 (3.87%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 5 (3.23%) Windows Server 2016
9 4 (2.58%) Windows Server 2008
10 2 (1.29%) VMS
11 1 (0.65%) SUSE
11 1 (0.65%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.65%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 37 (23.87%) Agile
2 25 (16.13%) Service Management
3 21 (13.55%) Change Management
4 19 (12.26%) Cryptography
5 18 (11.61%) DevOps
5 18 (11.61%) Load Balancing
6 17 (10.97%) Critical Thinking
7 16 (10.32%) ITIL
7 16 (10.32%) Prototyping
8 15 (9.68%) System Testing
9 14 (9.03%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 14 (9.03%) Problem-Solving
10 13 (8.39%) Continuous Improvement
10 13 (8.39%) Incident Response
11 12 (7.74%) Network Design
11 12 (7.74%) NsoIT
12 11 (7.10%) Migration
12 11 (7.10%) Security Operations
12 11 (7.10%) SIEM
13 10 (6.45%) Network Management
Programming Languages
1 33 (21.29%) PowerShell
2 25 (16.13%) Python
3 14 (9.03%) SQL
4 4 (2.58%) PHP
5 2 (1.29%) C#
5 2 (1.29%) Java
5 2 (1.29%) JavaScript
6 1 (0.65%) Bash
6 1 (0.65%) Bicep
6 1 (0.65%) C
6 1 (0.65%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 116 (74.84%) Security Cleared
2 60 (38.71%) DV Cleared
3 56 (36.13%) SC Cleared
4 21 (13.55%) Degree
5 14 (9.03%) Cisco Certification
5 14 (9.03%) Microsoft Certification
6 13 (8.39%) CCNP
7 12 (7.74%) MCSE
8 7 (4.52%) ITIL Certification
9 5 (3.23%) CCNA
9 5 (3.23%) Master's Degree
10 4 (2.58%) CISSP
11 3 (1.94%) CISM
11 3 (1.94%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 2 (1.29%) Computer Science Degree
12 2 (1.29%) ISTQB
12 2 (1.29%) MCSA
13 1 (0.65%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 1 (0.65%) CompTIA Security+
13 1 (0.65%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (6.45%) NIST
2 9 (5.81%) NCSC
3 5 (3.23%) PCI DSS
4 4 (2.58%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (1.94%) FIPS 140-2
5 3 (1.94%) GDPR
6 2 (1.29%) Disclosure Scotland
6 2 (1.29%) SLA
6 2 (1.29%) SOC 1
7 1 (0.65%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.65%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (0.65%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 1 (0.65%) JSP 440
7 1 (0.65%) NIST 800
7 1 (0.65%) PMO
7 1 (0.65%) RMADS
System Software
1 51 (32.90%) Active Directory
2 40 (25.81%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (7.74%) VMware ESXi
4 9 (5.81%) VMware NSX
5 8 (5.16%) Docker
6 6 (3.87%) Hyper-V
6 6 (3.87%) Virtual Machines
6 6 (3.87%) Virtual Servers
7 5 (3.23%) Microsoft Virtual Server
8 3 (1.94%) Firmware
9 2 (1.29%) Sendmail
9 2 (1.29%) vSphere
10 1 (0.65%) NFS
Systems Management
1 23 (14.84%) Ansible
2 14 (9.03%) vCenter Server
3 12 (7.74%) WMI
4 11 (7.10%) WSUS
5 10 (6.45%) Microsoft Intune
5 10 (6.45%) SCCM
6 9 (5.81%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 8 (5.16%) Terraform
8 7 (4.52%) Single Sign-On
9 5 (3.23%) Kubernetes
10 4 (2.58%) Podman
10 4 (2.58%) QRadar
11 3 (1.94%) Check_MK
11 3 (1.94%) OPNET
11 3 (1.94%) Proxmox
12 2 (1.29%) Progress Chef
12 2 (1.29%) SCOM
13 1 (0.65%) Grafana
13 1 (0.65%) Host Intrusion Detection System
13 1 (0.65%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 59 (38.06%) Microsoft
2 51 (32.90%) VMware
3 32 (20.65%) Cisco
4 30 (19.35%) Juniper
5 13 (8.39%) SolarWinds
5 13 (8.39%) Splunk
5 13 (8.39%) Veeam
6 9 (5.81%) Atlassian
7 6 (3.87%) Google
8 5 (3.23%) Fortinet
8 5 (3.23%) IBM
9 4 (2.58%) Oracle
9 4 (2.58%) Red Hat
10 3 (1.94%) Broadcom
10 3 (1.94%) Thales
10 3 (1.94%) Zscaler
11 2 (1.29%) CheckPoint
11 2 (1.29%) Citrix
11 2 (1.29%) Qualys
11 2 (1.29%) Wyse