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

6 months to
18 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 247 197 149
Rank change year-on-year -50 -48 +96
Contract jobs citing PKI 174 150 329
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.86% 1.12% 1.58%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.71% 3.40% 5.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 119 80 192
10th Percentile £310 £411 £406
25th Percentile £425 £484 £519
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £570 £575
Median % change year-on-year -3.51% -0.87% +2.68%
75th Percentile £650 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £700
UK median daily rate £550 £575 £590
% change year-on-year -4.35% -2.54% -1.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 0 5
10th Percentile £61.41 - £46.38
25th Percentile £70.50 - -
Median hourly rate £79.50 - £55.00
75th Percentile £96.25 - £56.40
90th Percentile £101.65 - £63.06
UK median hourly rate £79.50 - £55.00

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 6,411 4,409 6,259
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 31.77% 32.90% 30.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,999 2,526 3,768
10th Percentile £200 £200 £209
25th Percentile £356 £356 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £495 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.04% -1.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £600 £595
90th Percentile £675 £675 £680
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £531
% change year-on-year -4.76% -1.13% -3.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 513 233 628
10th Percentile £14.25 £18.51 £12.86
25th Percentile £17.87 £23.00 £15.75
Median hourly rate £30.00 £32.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -7.69% -7.14% +59.09%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.80 £82.25 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £30.50 £34.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year -11.59% +6.15% +44.54%

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 18 February 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 18 February 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 18 February 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 +23 80 £600 -1.64% 37
South West -37 39 £550 - 6
West Midlands -29 32 £400 -5.88% 6
Midlands -36 32 £400 -5.88% 11
North of England -57 16 £482 -33.52% 5
North West -24 8 £379 -22.31% 1
Yorkshire -50 8 £482 -33.52% 4
Scotland -22 6 £650 +31.65% 1
East of England - 3 £550 - 2
Wales -3 1 £550 +20.22% 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 24 (13.79%) Microsoft Exchange
2 11 (6.32%) SharePoint
3 6 (3.45%) Skype for Business
4 4 (2.30%) SharePoint Server
5 3 (1.72%) Confluence
5 3 (1.72%) Exchange Server 2010
6 1 (0.57%) Apache
6 1 (0.57%) IIS
6 1 (0.57%) JBoss
Applications
1 10 (5.75%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.57%) Cloudability
1 1 (0.57%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 27 (15.52%) Azure
2 24 (13.79%) AWS
3 13 (7.47%) Entra ID
4 9 (5.17%) OpenShift
5 8 (4.60%) Microsoft 365
6 5 (2.87%) AWS CloudFormation
6 5 (2.87%) GCP
6 5 (2.87%) Power Platform
7 4 (2.30%) SaaS
8 3 (1.72%) Azure DevOps
8 3 (1.72%) Azure Key Vault
8 3 (1.72%) GitHub
8 3 (1.72%) Power Automate
9 2 (1.15%) AWS KMS
9 2 (1.15%) Google Workspace
9 2 (1.15%) OneDrive
10 1 (0.57%) Anthos
10 1 (0.57%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 44 (25.29%) Firewall
2 42 (24.14%) DNS
3 35 (20.11%) BGP
4 30 (17.24%) WAN
5 28 (16.09%) DHCP
6 27 (15.52%) VPN
7 23 (13.22%) MPLS
8 17 (9.77%) IPsec
8 17 (9.77%) Junos
9 13 (7.47%) Cisco ISE
9 13 (7.47%) OSPF
9 13 (7.47%) Skype
10 12 (6.90%) LAN
10 12 (6.90%) SSL
11 11 (6.32%) BIG-IP
11 11 (6.32%) Ethernet VPN
11 11 (6.32%) VXLAN
12 10 (5.75%) Cisco IOS
12 10 (5.75%) Network Security
13 8 (4.60%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (6.32%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.57%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 8 (4.60%) JIRA
2 4 (2.30%) Robot Framework
2 4 (2.30%) Sonatype Nexus
3 3 (1.72%) GitLab
4 1 (0.57%) CircleCI
4 1 (0.57%) Jenkins
General
1 35 (20.11%) Social Skills
2 25 (14.37%) Public Sector
3 16 (9.20%) Analytical Skills
4 7 (4.02%) Military
5 5 (2.87%) Finance
6 3 (1.72%) Banking
6 3 (1.72%) Presentation Skills
7 2 (1.15%) Financial Institution
7 2 (1.15%) Legal
8 1 (0.57%) Aerospace
8 1 (0.57%) Back Office
8 1 (0.57%) Documentation Skills
8 1 (0.57%) Influencing Skills
8 1 (0.57%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 47 (27.01%) Architect
2 21 (12.07%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 21 (12.07%) Senior
2 21 (12.07%) Support Engineer
3 19 (10.92%) 3rd Line Engineer
4 16 (9.20%) 3rd Line Support
5 15 (8.62%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
6 13 (7.47%) Network Engineer
7 11 (6.32%) Wintel Engineer
8 10 (5.75%) Security Engineer
9 9 (5.17%) 2nd Line Engineer
9 9 (5.17%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
10 8 (4.60%) Cloud Engineer
11 7 (4.02%) Platform Engineer
11 7 (4.02%) WAN Engineer
12 6 (3.45%) Senior Network Engineer
13 5 (2.87%) Azure Engineer
13 5 (2.87%) Firewall Specialist
13 5 (2.87%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
13 5 (2.87%) Network Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (6.32%) 802.1X
2 6 (3.45%) LDAP
3 4 (2.30%) OpenID
3 4 (2.30%) REST
4 3 (1.72%) OAuth
4 3 (1.72%) OAuth2
4 3 (1.72%) SailPoint
4 3 (1.72%) SAML
5 1 (0.57%) Elastic Stack
5 1 (0.57%) Kafka
5 1 (0.57%) Middleware
5 1 (0.57%) OpenTelemetry
Miscellaneous
1 11 (6.32%) Clustering
1 11 (6.32%) Data Centre
1 11 (6.32%) Fat Client
1 11 (6.32%) Thin Client
2 6 (3.45%) Algorithms
3 5 (2.87%) Public Cloud
3 5 (2.87%) Smartcard
4 4 (2.30%) Security Operations Centre
5 3 (1.72%) Cloud Native
5 3 (1.72%) Onboarding
5 3 (1.72%) Operational Technology
5 3 (1.72%) Security Posture
6 2 (1.15%) Management Information System
6 2 (1.15%) Self-Motivation
6 2 (1.15%) SWIFT Messaging Network
7 1 (0.57%) CMDB
7 1 (0.57%) Data Protection Act
7 1 (0.57%) Legacy Systems
7 1 (0.57%) Replication
7 1 (0.57%) Tandem
Operating Systems
1 72 (41.38%) Windows
2 34 (19.54%) Linux
3 31 (17.82%) Windows Server
4 11 (6.32%) Windows 7
5 10 (5.75%) Windows 10
6 8 (4.60%) Windows Server 2012
7 6 (3.45%) Ubuntu
8 5 (2.87%) Windows Server 2016
9 3 (1.72%) CentOS
10 2 (1.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 2 (1.15%) VMS
10 2 (1.15%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.57%) Solaris
11 1 (0.57%) Unix
11 1 (0.57%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 46 (26.44%) Agile
2 30 (17.24%) Identity Access Management
3 27 (15.52%) Problem-Solving
4 25 (14.37%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 24 (13.79%) ITIL
6 22 (12.64%) Key Management
7 21 (12.07%) Load Balancing
7 21 (12.07%) Service Management
8 20 (11.49%) Change Management
9 19 (10.92%) CI/CD
9 19 (10.92%) Cybersecurity
9 19 (10.92%) Platform Engineering
10 18 (10.34%) DevOps
11 15 (8.62%) High Availability
11 15 (8.62%) Prototyping
12 14 (8.05%) Knowledge Transfer
13 13 (7.47%) Cloud Security
13 13 (7.47%) Infrastructure as Code
14 12 (6.90%) Incident Response
14 12 (6.90%) Observability
Programming Languages
1 33 (18.97%) PowerShell
1 33 (18.97%) Python
2 14 (8.05%) SQL
3 10 (5.75%) Bash
4 4 (2.30%) PHP
5 1 (0.57%) Bicep
5 1 (0.57%) C
5 1 (0.57%) C#
5 1 (0.57%) Go
5 1 (0.57%) JavaScript
5 1 (0.57%) Perl
5 1 (0.57%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 131 (75.29%) Security Cleared
2 81 (46.55%) DV Cleared
3 51 (29.31%) SC Cleared
4 17 (9.77%) Degree
5 15 (8.62%) Cisco Certification
5 15 (8.62%) CISM
5 15 (8.62%) CISSP
6 14 (8.05%) Microsoft Certification
7 12 (6.90%) MCSE
8 8 (4.60%) GIAC
9 7 (4.02%) CCNP
10 6 (3.45%) CCNA
10 6 (3.45%) ITIL Certification
10 6 (3.45%) Master's Degree
11 5 (2.87%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 4 (2.30%) APMG
12 4 (2.30%) JNCIA
12 4 (2.30%) JNCIP
12 4 (2.30%) JNCIS
12 4 (2.30%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (7.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 13 (7.47%) NIST
2 5 (2.87%) Cyber Essentials
2 5 (2.87%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
2 5 (2.87%) PCI DSS
3 4 (2.30%) GDPR
3 4 (2.30%) NCSC
3 4 (2.30%) SLA
4 1 (0.57%) HMG Security Policy Framework
4 1 (0.57%) JSP 440
4 1 (0.57%) NIST 800
4 1 (0.57%) RMADS
4 1 (0.57%) SOC 2
System Software
1 60 (34.48%) Active Directory
2 35 (20.11%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (5.17%) VMware NSX
4 8 (4.60%) Docker
4 8 (4.60%) Hyper-V
5 7 (4.02%) VMware ESXi
6 6 (3.45%) Firmware
7 5 (2.87%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 5 (2.87%) Virtual Servers
8 4 (2.30%) Virtual Machines
9 3 (1.72%) Sendmail
9 3 (1.72%) vSphere
10 1 (0.57%) KVM
10 1 (0.57%) NFS
Systems Management
1 21 (12.07%) Ansible
1 21 (12.07%) Terraform
2 18 (10.34%) vCenter Server
3 16 (9.20%) Kubernetes
4 12 (6.90%) Single Sign-On
5 11 (6.32%) FortiGate
5 11 (6.32%) SCCM
5 11 (6.32%) WMI
5 11 (6.32%) WSUS
6 9 (5.17%) Microsoft Intune
7 8 (4.60%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 7 (4.02%) SCOM
9 4 (2.30%) Podman
9 4 (2.30%) Prometheus
9 4 (2.30%) QRadar
10 3 (1.72%) Grafana
10 3 (1.72%) Proxmox
11 1 (0.57%) Host Intrusion Detection System
11 1 (0.57%) Istio
11 1 (0.57%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 63 (36.21%) Microsoft
2 56 (32.18%) VMware
3 41 (23.56%) Cisco
4 33 (18.97%) Juniper
5 26 (14.94%) SolarWinds
6 20 (11.49%) Splunk
7 13 (7.47%) Veeam
8 12 (6.90%) F5
9 10 (5.75%) Extreme Networks
10 9 (5.17%) Thales
11 7 (4.02%) Google
12 5 (2.87%) Broadcom
12 5 (2.87%) Red Hat
13 4 (2.30%) ServiceNow
14 3 (1.72%) CheckPoint
14 3 (1.72%) Citrix
14 3 (1.72%) Zscaler
15 2 (1.15%) CyberArk
15 2 (1.15%) IBM
15 2 (1.15%) Palo Alto