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

6 months to
11 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 325 300 252
Rank change year-on-year -25 -48 +148
Contract jobs citing PKI 260 271 469
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.74% 0.75% 1.00%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.08% 2.44% 3.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 207 148 299
10th Percentile £358 £413 £400
25th Percentile £463 £467 £494
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year - -4.35% -6.20%
75th Percentile £675 £627 £675
90th Percentile £838 £716 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £550 £585
% change year-on-year - -5.98% +2.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 1 5
10th Percentile - - £46.38
25th Percentile - - -
Median hourly rate - £23.80 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year - -56.73% -14.73%
75th Percentile - - £56.40
90th Percentile - - £63.06
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £55.00
% change year-on-year - - -27.87%

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 12,487 11,095 15,049
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 35.77% 30.80% 32.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,701 6,549 10,140
10th Percentile £278 £275 £275
25th Percentile £406 £409 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £638 £656 £669
90th Percentile £750 £788 £768
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 677 349 502
10th Percentile £13.50 £16.82 £17.00
25th Percentile £17.98 £22.40 £21.01
Median hourly rate £27.00 £37.50 £43.84
Median % change year-on-year -28.00% -14.46% +51.69%
75th Percentile £50.00 £68.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £72.50 £75.16 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.25 £37.50 £46.18
% change year-on-year -30.00% -18.80% +94.89%

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 11 November 2025.

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
Top 14 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 11 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
England -7 245 £550 - 76
UK excluding London -89 148 £550 - 61
London +46 93 £663 +15.22% 18
Work from Home +16 82 £641 +8.00% 26
South West -28 52 £550 +2.33% 10
South East -20 38 £600 -0.41% 39
Midlands -6 37 £400 -27.27% 5
West Midlands -11 36 £400 -27.27% 4
North of England -28 11 £500 +2.56% 3
North West -11 10 £444 -6.58% 3
Scotland -37 8 £538 +10.26% 1
East of England -16 2 - - 3
Yorkshire - 1 £600 -
East Midlands - 1 - - 1

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 32 (12.31%) Microsoft Exchange
2 18 (6.92%) Confluence
3 13 (5.00%) SharePoint
4 12 (4.62%) Apache
5 10 (3.85%) IIS
6 6 (2.31%) Skype for Business
7 4 (1.54%) JBoss
7 4 (1.54%) SharePoint Server
8 2 (0.77%) Alfresco
8 2 (0.77%) Camunda
9 1 (0.38%) Tomcat
Applications
1 24 (9.23%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (1.15%) Chatbot
3 2 (0.77%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (0.77%) Dynamics GP
Cloud Services
1 50 (19.23%) Azure
2 39 (15.00%) AWS
3 25 (9.62%) IaaS
4 22 (8.46%) Entra ID
5 20 (7.69%) Microsoft 365
6 14 (5.38%) GitHub
7 8 (3.08%) AWS CloudFormation
7 8 (3.08%) Azure Sentinel
7 8 (3.08%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 7 (2.69%) Amazon ECS
8 7 (2.69%) AWS Fargate
9 6 (2.31%) Azure DevOps
9 6 (2.31%) GCP
10 5 (1.92%) SaaS
10 5 (1.92%) Serverless
11 4 (1.54%) Amazon S3
11 4 (1.54%) Power Platform
12 3 (1.15%) Amazon EC2
12 3 (1.15%) Azure Key Vault
12 3 (1.15%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 56 (21.54%) DNS
2 47 (18.08%) Firewall
3 41 (15.77%) BGP
4 40 (15.38%) IPsec
5 39 (15.00%) VPN
6 31 (11.92%) MPLS
7 27 (10.38%) WAN
8 22 (8.46%) SSL
9 21 (8.08%) Network Security
10 20 (7.69%) DHCP
11 16 (6.15%) Skype
12 12 (4.62%) Unified Communications
13 9 (3.46%) HTTPS
14 8 (3.08%) Junos
14 8 (3.08%) OSPF
15 6 (2.31%) EIGRP
15 6 (2.31%) Kerberos
15 6 (2.31%) S/MIME
15 6 (2.31%) VSAN
16 5 (1.92%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (6.15%) SQL Server
2 10 (3.85%) MongoDB
3 5 (1.92%) Amazon RDS
3 5 (1.92%) Relational Database
4 3 (1.15%) PostgreSQL
5 2 (0.77%) MySQL
6 1 (0.38%) Power BI
6 1 (0.38%) Redis
Development Applications
1 18 (6.92%) JIRA
2 13 (5.00%) GitLab
3 9 (3.46%) Jenkins
4 5 (1.92%) MSI
4 5 (1.92%) Terragrunt
5 4 (1.54%) Git
5 4 (1.54%) Robot Framework
5 4 (1.54%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (0.77%) Artifactory
6 2 (0.77%) JUnit
6 2 (0.77%) SpecFlow
7 1 (0.38%) CircleCI
7 1 (0.38%) Fiddler
7 1 (0.38%) Jaeger
7 1 (0.38%) Postman
General
1 58 (22.31%) Social Skills
2 54 (20.77%) Analytical Skills
3 39 (15.00%) Public Sector
4 20 (7.69%) Military
5 18 (6.92%) Finance
6 6 (2.31%) Documentation Skills
7 4 (1.54%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 4 (1.54%) Presentation Skills
8 3 (1.15%) Banking
9 1 (0.38%) Influencing Skills
9 1 (0.38%) Manufacturing
9 1 (0.38%) Pharmaceutical
9 1 (0.38%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 63 (24.23%) Architect
2 25 (9.62%) Senior
3 24 (9.23%) 3rd Line Engineer
4 22 (8.46%) Network Engineer
4 22 (8.46%) Support Engineer
5 17 (6.54%) 3rd Line Support
5 17 (6.54%) Lead
6 16 (6.15%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
6 16 (6.15%) Administrator
6 16 (6.15%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 16 (6.15%) Security Architect
7 15 (5.77%) Platform Manager
7 15 (5.77%) Systems Administrator
7 15 (5.77%) Systems Manager
7 15 (5.77%) Wintel Administrator
7 15 (5.77%) Wintel Systems Administrator
8 14 (5.38%) Wintel Engineer
9 11 (4.23%) WAN Engineer
10 10 (3.85%) 2nd Line Engineer
10 10 (3.85%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (12.31%) REST
2 27 (10.38%) JSON
3 13 (5.00%) Kafka
3 13 (5.00%) OpenID
4 10 (3.85%) OAuth
4 10 (3.85%) OAuth2
4 10 (3.85%) SAML
5 9 (3.46%) Keycloak
6 7 (2.69%) cloud-init
6 7 (2.69%) NETCONF
6 7 (2.69%) RESTCONF
7 5 (1.92%) LDAP
8 4 (1.54%) .NET
8 4 (1.54%) AngularJS
8 4 (1.54%) AWS CDK
8 4 (1.54%) YAML
9 3 (1.15%) HTML
9 3 (1.15%) JDBC
9 3 (1.15%) SOAP
10 2 (0.77%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 29 (11.15%) Self-Motivation
2 11 (4.23%) Data Centre
3 10 (3.85%) Management Information System
4 9 (3.46%) Fat Client
4 9 (3.46%) Thin Client
5 8 (3.08%) Algorithms
5 8 (3.08%) Replication
6 7 (2.69%) Private Cloud
7 6 (2.31%) Security Operations Centre
8 5 (1.92%) Legacy Applications
9 4 (1.54%) Cloud Native
9 4 (1.54%) Cyber Defence
9 4 (1.54%) Onboarding
9 4 (1.54%) Security Posture
10 3 (1.15%) Taxonomies
11 2 (0.77%) CMDB
11 2 (0.77%) CSOC
11 2 (0.77%) Cyber Threat
11 2 (0.77%) Product Ownership
11 2 (0.77%) Tandem
Operating Systems
1 84 (32.31%) Windows
2 46 (17.69%) Linux
3 41 (15.77%) Windows Server
4 14 (5.38%) CentOS
4 14 (5.38%) Windows 10
5 13 (5.00%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 9 (3.46%) Unix
6 9 (3.46%) Windows Server 2019
7 7 (2.69%) Windows 7
7 7 (2.69%) Windows Server 2012
8 6 (2.31%) Windows Server 2016
9 5 (1.92%) Windows Server 2008
10 3 (1.15%) VMS
11 2 (0.77%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.38%) Android
12 1 (0.38%) Apple iOS
12 1 (0.38%) Mac OS
12 1 (0.38%) Solaris
12 1 (0.38%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 80 (30.77%) Agile
2 47 (18.08%) Key Management
3 38 (14.62%) DevOps
4 30 (11.54%) Change Management
4 30 (11.54%) Configuration Management
4 30 (11.54%) ITIL
5 29 (11.15%) Service Management
6 27 (10.38%) CI/CD
6 27 (10.38%) Cybersecurity
7 25 (9.62%) Problem-Solving
8 24 (9.23%) Cryptography
8 24 (9.23%) Information Security
9 22 (8.46%) Incident Response
10 21 (8.08%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 20 (7.69%) Containerisation
11 20 (7.69%) Identity Access Management
11 20 (7.69%) SIEM
12 19 (7.31%) Infrastructure as Code
12 19 (7.31%) Load Balancing
13 18 (6.92%) Kalman Filter
Programming Languages
1 69 (26.54%) PowerShell
2 47 (18.08%) Python
3 17 (6.54%) Bash
3 17 (6.54%) SQL
4 8 (3.08%) Java
5 7 (2.69%) Go
6 6 (2.31%) C++
6 6 (2.31%) JavaScript
6 6 (2.31%) Perl
6 6 (2.31%) Shell Script
7 4 (1.54%) PHP
8 3 (1.15%) Kusto Query Language
9 2 (0.77%) C#
10 1 (0.38%) Bicep
10 1 (0.38%) C
Qualifications
1 170 (65.38%) Security Cleared
2 102 (39.23%) SC Cleared
3 63 (24.23%) DV Cleared
4 36 (13.85%) Degree
5 25 (9.62%) Cisco Certification
6 24 (9.23%) Microsoft Certification
7 20 (7.69%) CCNP
8 12 (4.62%) CISSP
8 12 (4.62%) MCSE
9 9 (3.46%) ITIL Certification
10 7 (2.69%) Master's Degree
11 6 (2.31%) CCNA
11 6 (2.31%) IISP
11 6 (2.31%) ISACA
11 6 (2.31%) JNCIA
11 6 (2.31%) JNCIS
12 5 (1.92%) Computer Science Degree
13 4 (1.54%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 4 (1.54%) CISM
13 4 (1.54%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (7.31%) NIST
2 17 (6.54%) NCSC
3 11 (4.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 10 (3.85%) PCI DSS
5 7 (2.69%) GDPR
6 5 (1.92%) FIPS 140-2
7 3 (1.15%) SLA
7 3 (1.15%) SOC 2
8 2 (0.77%) Accessibility
8 2 (0.77%) COBIT
8 2 (0.77%) Disclosure Scotland
8 2 (0.77%) HIPAA
8 2 (0.77%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 2 (0.77%) NIST 800
8 2 (0.77%) QA
8 2 (0.77%) SOC 1
9 1 (0.38%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 1 (0.38%) JSP 440
9 1 (0.38%) PSD2
9 1 (0.38%) RMADS
System Software
1 69 (26.54%) Active Directory
2 42 (16.15%) VMware Infrastructure
3 15 (5.77%) VMware ESXi
4 13 (5.00%) Docker
5 10 (3.85%) Firmware
6 9 (3.46%) VMware NSX
7 8 (3.08%) vSphere
8 7 (2.69%) Hyper-V
9 6 (2.31%) Virtual Machines
9 6 (2.31%) Virtual Servers
10 5 (1.92%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 2 (0.77%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
12 1 (0.38%) NFS
Systems Management
1 29 (11.15%) Ansible
2 22 (8.46%) Terraform
3 20 (7.69%) Kubernetes
4 15 (5.77%) Microsoft Intune
4 15 (5.77%) Single Sign-On
5 14 (5.38%) vCenter Server
6 13 (5.00%) SCCM
7 12 (4.62%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 12 (4.62%) WMI
8 11 (4.23%) WSUS
9 8 (3.08%) SCOM
10 7 (2.69%) Jamf Pro
10 7 (2.69%) Packer
11 6 (2.31%) Grafana
11 6 (2.31%) Prometheus
12 4 (1.54%) Podman
12 4 (1.54%) QRadar
13 3 (1.15%) Check_MK
13 3 (1.15%) FortiGate
13 3 (1.15%) Proxmox
Vendors
1 91 (35.00%) Microsoft
2 59 (22.69%) VMware
3 42 (16.15%) Cisco
4 37 (14.23%) Juniper
5 26 (10.00%) Splunk
6 15 (5.77%) Veeam
7 12 (4.62%) SolarWinds
8 9 (3.46%) Atlassian
9 8 (3.08%) Dell
9 8 (3.08%) Fortinet
9 8 (3.08%) Okta
10 6 (2.31%) Google
10 6 (2.31%) IBM
10 6 (2.31%) Thales
11 5 (1.92%) Oracle
11 5 (1.92%) Palo Alto
11 5 (1.92%) Red Hat
12 4 (1.54%) CyberArk
12 4 (1.54%) Zscaler
13 3 (1.15%) ForgeRock