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 October 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.
| 6 months to 17 Oct 2026 |
Same period 2025 | Same period 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | 354 | 355 | 303 |
| Rank change year-on-year | +1 | -52 | -35 |
| Contract jobs citing PKI | 386 | 216 | 280 |
| As % of all contract jobs in the UK | 0.70% | 0.65% | 0.75% |
| As % of the Miscellaneous category | 2.00% | 1.80% | 2.43% |
| Number of daily rates quoted | 280 | 171 | 164 |
| 10th Percentile | £425 | £350 | £366 |
| 25th Percentile | £463 | £450 | £460 |
| Median daily rate (50th Percentile) | £550 | £550 | £540 |
| Median % change year-on-year | - | +1.90% | -6.13% |
| 75th Percentile | £638 | £625 | £608 |
| 90th Percentile | £700 | £695 | £674 |
| UK excluding London median daily rate | £550 | £550 | £538 |
| % change year-on-year | - | +2.33% | -9.66% |
| Number of hourly rates quoted | 11 | 0 | 3 |
| 10th Percentile | £85.00 | - | - |
| 25th Percentile | - | - | - |
| Median hourly rate | £96.00 | - | £23.80 |
| 75th Percentile | £98.82 | - | - |
| 90th Percentile | £100.00 | - | - |
| UK excluding London median hourly rate | £96.00 | - | - |
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.
| 6 months to 17 Oct 2026 |
Same period 2025 | Same period 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills | 19,334 | 12,011 | 11,525 |
| As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK | 34.98% | 36.07% | 30.75% |
| Number of daily rates quoted | 11,543 | 7,363 | 6,855 |
| 10th Percentile | £318 | £293 | £280 |
| 25th Percentile | £423 | £408 | £412 |
| Median daily rate (50th Percentile) | £525 | £515 | £531 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +1.94% | -2.92% | -3.55% |
| 75th Percentile | £638 | £638 | £668 |
| 90th Percentile | £749 | £750 | £800 |
| UK excluding London median daily rate | £500 | £475 | £495 |
| % change year-on-year | +5.26% | -4.04% | -1.00% |
| Number of hourly rates quoted | 1,406 | 642 | 397 |
| 10th Percentile | £13.81 | £14.32 | £16.99 |
| 25th Percentile | £17.49 | £18.50 | £23.60 |
| Median hourly rate | £35.11 | £27.21 | £47.50 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +29.03% | -42.72% | +5.56% |
| 75th Percentile | £67.50 | £51.25 | £70.00 |
| 90th Percentile | £85.00 | £72.50 | £75.16 |
| UK excluding London median hourly rate | £33.99 | £25.15 | £53.25 |
| % change year-on-year | +35.15% | -52.77% | +6.50% |
PKI Job Vacancy Trend
Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing PKI relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.
PKI Daily Rate Trend
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 October 2026.
PKI Hourly Rate Trend
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 October 2026.
PKI Top 16 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 October 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 | -35 | 317 | £575 | +4.55% | 198 |
| UK excluding London | -14 | 246 | £550 | - | 109 |
| London | -47 | 111 | £586 | +8.32% | 80 |
| Work from Home | -24 | 95 | £575 | +4.55% | 102 |
| South East | -18 | 76 | £575 | - | 23 |
| North of England | -12 | 72 | £525 | -4.55% | 25 |
| Scotland | +11 | 41 | £481 | -10.51% | 12 |
| North West | -16 | 38 | £522 | +4.40% | 6 |
| South West | -48 | 38 | £625 | +13.64% | 22 |
| Yorkshire | 0 | 32 | £570 | -5.00% | 15 |
| Midlands | -65 | 9 | £475 | +18.75% | 13 |
| East of England | - | 7 | £610 | - | 10 |
| Wales | - | 6 | £463 | - | 3 |
| West Midlands | -69 | 5 | £475 | +18.75% | 8 |
| East Midlands | -8 | 4 | £513 | - | 5 |
| North East | - | 2 | £426 | - | 4 |
PKI Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category
The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.
Miscellaneous
| Rank | Skill | Share | Job Ads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Data Centre | 7.5% | 29 |
| 2 | Onboarding | 7.0% | 27 |
| 3 | Cloud Native | 6.7% | 26 |
| 4 | Clustering | 6.0% | 23 |
| 5 | Enterprise Software | 4.9% | 19 |
| 6 | Distributed Systems | 4.1% | 16 |
| 7 | Public Cloud | 3.9% | 15 |
| 8 | Replication | 3.6% | 14 |
| 9 | Linux Command Line | 3.4% | 13 |
| 10 | Management Information System | 3.1% | 12 |
| 10 | Security Posture | 3.1% | 12 |
| 12 | Legacy Systems | 2.6% | 10 |
| 13 | Hybrid Cloud | 2.1% | 8 |
| 13 | Self-Motivation | 2.1% | 8 |
| 15 | Smartcard | 1.8% | 7 |
| 16 | Distributed Architecture | 1.6% | 6 |
| 16 | Enterprise Storage | 1.6% | 6 |
| 16 | Operational Technology | 1.6% | 6 |
| 19 | Data Protection Act | 1.3% | 5 |
| 19 | Mainframe | 1.3% | 5 |