PKI Contract Job Trends

Public-Key Infrastructure (PKI)
UK

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term PKI in contract job vacancies. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited PKI over the 6 months leading up to 17 June 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 385 343 216
Rank change year-on-year -42 -127 +111
Contract jobs citing PKI 267 191 473
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.53% 0.64% 1.09%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.63% 1.87% 3.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 179 150 332
10th Percentile £413 £412 £363
25th Percentile £463 £492 £447
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £559 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.57% +1.59% -5.98%
75th Percentile £638 £617 £625
90th Percentile £707 £685 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £575 £550
% change year-on-year -4.35% +4.55% -2.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 4
10th Percentile £47.22 - -
25th Percentile £56.01 - -
Median hourly rate £71.33 - £23.80
75th Percentile £72.27 - £27.91
90th Percentile £72.43 - £35.32
UK excluding London median hourly rate £71.33 - £38.50
% change year-on-year - - +156.67%

All Generic Skills
UK

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.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 16,333 10,217 13,028
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 32.46% 34.42% 29.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,008 6,407 8,268
10th Percentile £314 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -1.24% -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £631 £650 £660
90th Percentile £750 £775 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 838 448 941
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.84 £12.25
25th Percentile £21.00 £20.33 £15.25
Median hourly rate £42.40 £33.03 £35.50
Median % change year-on-year +28.39% -6.97% +57.88%
75th Percentile £70.00 £60.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £86.08 £81.58 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £32.05 £35.00
% change year-on-year +37.16% -8.43% +59.09%

PKI
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing PKI relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

PKI job vacancy trend in the UK

PKI
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing PKI.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing PKI

PKI
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing PKI over the 6 months to 17 June 2026.

Daily rate histogram for PKI in the UK

PKI
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing PKI.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing PKI

PKI
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing PKI over the 6 months to 17 June 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for PKI in the UK

PKI
Top 13 Contract Job Locations

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 over the 6 months to 17 June 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
England -63 230 £555 -3.48% 74
UK excluding London -45 172 £550 -4.35% 68
South East +3 98 £595 +3.48% 30
London -48 71 £550 -4.35% 22
Work from Home -51 62 £560 +1.82% 42
North of England -45 30 £425 -13.62% 5
North West -24 21 £422 -14.33% 1
Scotland 0 19 £533 -0.47% 8
South West -56 13 £538 -8.12% 10
West Midlands -64 10 £400 -8.57% 1
Midlands -67 10 £400 -8.57% 3
Yorkshire - 9 £650 - 3
East of England -27 4 £400 -23.81% 4

PKI
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 11 (4.12%) SharePoint
2 10 (3.75%) Confluence
3 7 (2.62%) IIS
4 6 (2.25%) Microsoft Exchange
5 3 (1.12%) Apache
5 3 (1.12%) Tomcat
5 3 (1.12%) WebSphere
6 1 (0.37%) ArcGIS
Applications
1 4 (1.50%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 10 (3.75%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.37%) Cloudability
2 1 (0.37%) Dynamics GP
Cloud Services
1 83 (31.09%) Azure
2 59 (22.10%) AWS
3 44 (16.48%) Entra ID
4 21 (7.87%) Microsoft 365
5 20 (7.49%) GCP
6 17 (6.37%) Power Platform
7 11 (4.12%) Azure Key Vault
8 10 (3.75%) IaaS
9 9 (3.37%) PaaS
10 7 (2.62%) Azure DevOps
11 6 (2.25%) AWS KMS
12 5 (1.87%) GitHub
12 5 (1.87%) OpenShift
13 4 (1.50%) Amazon EKS
14 3 (1.12%) SaaS
15 2 (0.75%) Azure Monitor
15 2 (0.75%) Azure Sentinel
15 2 (0.75%) GitHub Actions
15 2 (0.75%) OneDrive
15 2 (0.75%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 70 (26.22%) DNS
2 59 (22.10%) Firewall
3 50 (18.73%) DHCP
4 38 (14.23%) BGP
5 36 (13.48%) WAN
6 32 (11.99%) LAN
6 32 (11.99%) VPN
7 29 (10.86%) Network Security
7 29 (10.86%) OSPF
8 26 (9.74%) Ethernet VPN
8 26 (9.74%) VXLAN
9 25 (9.36%) BIG-IP
10 24 (8.99%) Cisco ISE
11 23 (8.61%) Junos
12 19 (7.12%) SSL
13 12 (4.49%) MPLS
14 11 (4.12%) SSH
15 10 (3.75%) Cisco ASA
15 10 (3.75%) IPsec
15 10 (3.75%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (5.24%) SQL Server
2 12 (4.49%) Power BI
3 9 (3.37%) Elasticsearch
4 5 (1.87%) PostgreSQL
5 4 (1.50%) Amazon RDS
5 4 (1.50%) MongoDB
5 4 (1.50%) MySQL
6 3 (1.12%) Big Data
7 2 (0.75%) Metadata
7 2 (0.75%) NoSQL
8 1 (0.37%) Amazon QuickSight
8 1 (0.37%) RDBMS
8 1 (0.37%) Relational Database
8 1 (0.37%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 12 (4.49%) JIRA
2 9 (3.37%) GitLab
3 6 (2.25%) Git
3 6 (2.25%) Jenkins
4 5 (1.87%) Robot Framework
4 5 (1.87%) Sonatype Nexus
5 3 (1.12%) Terragrunt
6 2 (0.75%) Burp Suite
6 2 (0.75%) Cucumber
6 2 (0.75%) Gatling
6 2 (0.75%) Gradle
6 2 (0.75%) LoadRunner
6 2 (0.75%) MSI
6 2 (0.75%) REST Assured
6 2 (0.75%) SonarQube
7 1 (0.37%) JUnit
General
1 33 (12.36%) Social Skills
2 31 (11.61%) Finance
3 29 (10.86%) Public Sector
4 11 (4.12%) Analytical Skills
5 9 (3.37%) Banking
6 8 (3.00%) Documentation Skills
7 6 (2.25%) Legal
8 4 (1.50%) Military
8 4 (1.50%) Retail
9 3 (1.12%) Local Government
10 2 (0.75%) Corporate Banking
10 2 (0.75%) Financial Institution
10 2 (0.75%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (0.75%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (0.75%) Investment Banking
10 2 (0.75%) Retail Banking
11 1 (0.37%) Back Office
11 1 (0.37%) Law
11 1 (0.37%) Manufacturing
11 1 (0.37%) Wearables
Job Titles
1 46 (17.23%) Senior
2 40 (14.98%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 33 (12.36%) Architect
4 22 (8.24%) Network Engineer
5 20 (7.49%) 3rd Line Engineer
6 14 (5.24%) Firewall Specialist
6 14 (5.24%) Network Specialist
6 14 (5.24%) Storage Engineer
6 14 (5.24%) Support Engineer
7 12 (4.49%) Security Engineer
7 12 (4.49%) Senior Network Engineer
8 11 (4.12%) 3rd Line Infrastructure Engineer
8 11 (4.12%) DevOps Engineer
9 10 (3.75%) Lead
9 10 (3.75%) Senior Architect
9 10 (3.75%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
10 9 (3.37%) Linux Engineer
11 8 (3.00%) Analyst
12 7 (2.62%) Administrator
13 6 (2.25%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (12.73%) 802.1X
2 20 (7.49%) OpenID
3 17 (6.37%) SAML
4 14 (5.24%) LDAP
4 14 (5.24%) OAuth
4 14 (5.24%) REST
5 7 (2.62%) JSON
5 7 (2.62%) OAuth2
5 7 (2.62%) RabbitMQ
6 5 (1.87%) Kafka
7 4 (1.50%) SailPoint
8 3 (1.12%) Keycloak
8 3 (1.12%) Microsoft Graph
8 3 (1.12%) SPIFFE
9 2 (0.75%) .NET Core
9 2 (0.75%) Blazor
9 2 (0.75%) eBPF
9 2 (0.75%) Loki
9 2 (0.75%) Playwright
9 2 (0.75%) Quarkus
Miscellaneous
1 45 (16.85%) Clustering
2 29 (10.86%) Data Centre
3 11 (4.12%) Onboarding
4 10 (3.75%) Enterprise Storage
4 10 (3.75%) Hybrid Cloud
5 9 (3.37%) Algorithms
5 9 (3.37%) Cloud Native
5 9 (3.37%) Linux Command Line
6 8 (3.00%) Public Cloud
7 7 (2.62%) Management Information System
8 6 (2.25%) Operational Technology
9 5 (1.87%) Distributed Systems
9 5 (1.87%) Enterprise Software
9 5 (1.87%) Legacy Systems
9 5 (1.87%) Private Cloud
10 4 (1.50%) Enterprise Cloud
11 3 (1.12%) Cyber Threat
11 3 (1.12%) Data Protection Act
11 3 (1.12%) Security Posture
11 3 (1.12%) Tandem
Operating Systems
1 127 (47.57%) Windows
2 71 (26.59%) Linux
3 64 (23.97%) Windows Server
4 9 (3.37%) Ubuntu
5 8 (3.00%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 7 (2.62%) Windows Server 2003
7 6 (2.25%) Debian
8 5 (1.87%) Windows Server 2019
9 4 (1.50%) Android
9 4 (1.50%) Unix
9 4 (1.50%) Windows Server 2012
10 3 (1.12%) Apple iOS
10 3 (1.12%) Mac OS
10 3 (1.12%) Windows Server 2016
11 2 (0.75%) CentOS
11 2 (0.75%) Windows 10
12 1 (0.37%) Data ONTAP
12 1 (0.37%) VMS
12 1 (0.37%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 71 (26.59%) Identity Access Management
2 46 (17.23%) ITIL
3 44 (16.48%) High Availability
4 43 (16.10%) Agile
4 43 (16.10%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 40 (14.98%) Cybersecurity
6 37 (13.86%) Problem-Solving
7 36 (13.48%) Observability
8 33 (12.36%) DevOps
9 32 (11.99%) Zero Trust
10 31 (11.61%) Load Balancing
11 28 (10.49%) ITSM
12 27 (10.11%) CI/CD
12 27 (10.11%) Infrastructure as Code
12 27 (10.11%) Key Management
12 27 (10.11%) Service Management
13 26 (9.74%) Cryptography
14 25 (9.36%) RBAC
15 22 (8.24%) Change Management
16 20 (7.49%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 65 (24.34%) PowerShell
2 42 (15.73%) Python
3 13 (4.87%) SQL
4 11 (4.12%) Bash
4 11 (4.12%) JavaScript
5 8 (3.00%) C#
5 8 (3.00%) Java
6 4 (1.50%) PHP
7 3 (1.12%) C++
7 3 (1.12%) Go
8 2 (0.75%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 145 (54.31%) Security Cleared
2 93 (34.83%) DV Cleared
3 51 (19.10%) SC Cleared
4 30 (11.24%) Cisco Certification
5 19 (7.12%) Degree
6 12 (4.49%) CISSP
7 10 (3.75%) CISM
8 9 (3.37%) Azure Certification
8 9 (3.37%) GIAC
8 9 (3.37%) Microsoft Certification
9 8 (3.00%) CompTIA Security+
10 7 (2.62%) CCNP
10 7 (2.62%) JNCIA
10 7 (2.62%) JNCIP
10 7 (2.62%) JNCIS
11 6 (2.25%) MCSE
12 4 (1.50%) APMG
12 4 (1.50%) CCNA
12 4 (1.50%) Network+ Certification
12 4 (1.50%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (11.24%) NIST
2 20 (7.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 14 (5.24%) NCSC
4 10 (3.75%) Cyber Essentials
5 7 (2.62%) QA
5 7 (2.62%) SLA
6 5 (1.87%) PCI DSS
7 4 (1.50%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 4 (1.50%) GDPR
8 3 (1.12%) RMADS
9 2 (0.75%) Government Security Classifications
9 2 (0.75%) ISA99
9 2 (0.75%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
9 2 (0.75%) JSP 440
9 2 (0.75%) NIST 800
10 1 (0.37%) GMP
10 1 (0.37%) GRC
10 1 (0.37%) GxP
10 1 (0.37%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 1 (0.37%) SOC 2
System Software
1 88 (32.96%) Active Directory
2 51 (19.10%) VMware Infrastructure
3 25 (9.36%) Docker
4 19 (7.12%) Hyper-V
5 17 (6.37%) VMware ESXi
5 17 (6.37%) VMware NSX
6 11 (4.12%) BitLocker
7 10 (3.75%) Microsoft App-V
8 8 (3.00%) Virtual Machines
9 6 (2.25%) Firmware
10 4 (1.50%) Terminal Services
10 4 (1.50%) Virtual Desktop
11 3 (1.12%) KVM
11 3 (1.12%) OpenSSH
12 2 (0.75%) vSphere
12 2 (0.75%) XenApp
12 2 (0.75%) XenDesktop
13 1 (0.37%) iptables
13 1 (0.37%) OpenAM
13 1 (0.37%) Squid
Systems Management
1 47 (17.60%) Ansible
2 38 (14.23%) Kubernetes
3 37 (13.86%) Terraform
4 26 (9.74%) vCenter Server
5 24 (8.99%) Single Sign-On
6 23 (8.61%) FortiGate
7 17 (6.37%) Microsoft Intune
8 14 (5.24%) Puppet
9 12 (4.49%) SCOM
10 11 (4.12%) Prometheus
11 10 (3.75%) Grafana
11 10 (3.75%) vMotion
12 8 (3.00%) Avamar
12 8 (3.00%) SCCM
13 5 (1.87%) WMI
14 4 (1.50%) Active Directory Federation Services
15 3 (1.12%) CA Single Sign-On
15 3 (1.12%) Istio
15 3 (1.12%) Nagios
16 2 (0.75%) WSUS
Vendors
1 88 (32.96%) Microsoft
2 70 (26.22%) VMware
3 55 (20.60%) Cisco
4 36 (13.48%) Splunk
5 31 (11.61%) Juniper
6 29 (10.86%) F5
7 27 (10.11%) SolarWinds
8 23 (8.61%) ServiceNow
9 22 (8.24%) Extreme Networks
10 20 (7.49%) Citrix
11 18 (6.74%) Thales
12 14 (5.24%) Okta
13 13 (4.87%) Palo Alto
14 10 (3.75%) BMC
14 10 (3.75%) Dell
14 10 (3.75%) Remedy
15 9 (3.37%) NetApp
16 8 (3.00%) BeyondTrust
16 8 (3.00%) ForeScout
17 7 (2.62%) IBM