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 12 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 377 347 203
Rank change year-on-year -30 -144 +106
Contract jobs citing PKI 267 182 492
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.56% 0.62% 1.14%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.75% 1.84% 3.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 174 140 341
10th Percentile £413 £419 £363
25th Percentile £453 £500 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £558 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.35% +1.36% -4.35%
75th Percentile £639 £625 £625
90th Percentile £725 £702 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £558 £550
% change year-on-year -1.35% +1.36% -3.08%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 0 3
10th Percentile £61.41 - -
25th Percentile £70.50 - -
Median hourly rate £79.50 - £23.80
75th Percentile £96.25 - £32.03
90th Percentile £101.65 - £36.96
UK excluding London median hourly rate £79.50 - £38.50
% change year-on-year - - +10.00%

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.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 15,238 9,901 13,061
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 32.08% 33.91% 30.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,482 6,317 8,409
10th Percentile £308 £300 £269
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% -2.78% -1.82%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £663
90th Percentile £738 £775 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -1.54% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 726 401 904
10th Percentile £16.01 £16.95 £12.25
25th Percentile £19.78 £21.01 £15.17
Median hourly rate £43.60 £32.50 £31.25
Median % change year-on-year +34.16% +4.00% +38.98%
75th Percentile £70.00 £63.75 £61.30
90th Percentile £87.75 £83.20 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £48.77 £31.76 £29.25
% change year-on-year +53.56% +8.58% +32.95%

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 12 May 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 12 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for PKI in the UK

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 12 May 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 -62 230 £550 -4.35% 61
UK excluding London -42 176 £550 -1.35% 45
South East +10 104 £600 +4.35% 22
London -40 61 £525 -5.58% 23
Work from Home -47 55 £550 +0.92% 29
North of England -50 27 £454 -8.57% 4
North West -28 16 £418 -15.14% 2
South West -55 15 £545 -5.22% 3
Midlands -59 14 £450 +5.88% 7
West Midlands -68 14 £450 +5.88% 3
Scotland +8 13 £451 -15.79% 1
Yorkshire -45 11 £482 -34.64% 2
East of England -27 5 £475 -9.52% 5
Wales -11 1 £550 +20.22% 3

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 14 (5.24%) Microsoft Exchange
2 8 (3.00%) SharePoint
3 7 (2.62%) Confluence
4 5 (1.87%) IIS
5 3 (1.12%) Exchange Server 2010
5 3 (1.12%) nginx
6 2 (0.75%) Apache
6 2 (0.75%) Tomcat
6 2 (0.75%) WebSphere
7 1 (0.37%) ArcGIS
Applications
1 3 (1.12%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 9 (3.37%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.37%) Cloudability
Cloud Services
1 71 (26.59%) Azure
2 67 (25.09%) AWS
3 31 (11.61%) Entra ID
4 27 (10.11%) Microsoft 365
5 14 (5.24%) GCP
5 14 (5.24%) Power Platform
6 10 (3.75%) OpenShift
7 8 (3.00%) AWS KMS
7 8 (3.00%) Azure Key Vault
7 8 (3.00%) PaaS
7 8 (3.00%) SaaS
8 7 (2.62%) IaaS
9 5 (1.87%) Amazon EKS
10 4 (1.50%) AWS CloudFormation
10 4 (1.50%) Azure DevOps
10 4 (1.50%) Power Automate
10 4 (1.50%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 3 (1.12%) Route 53
12 2 (0.75%) GitHub
12 2 (0.75%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 72 (26.97%) DNS
2 63 (23.60%) Firewall
3 45 (16.85%) DHCP
4 39 (14.61%) BGP
5 33 (12.36%) WAN
6 31 (11.61%) VPN
7 29 (10.86%) LAN
7 29 (10.86%) OSPF
8 26 (9.74%) Cisco ISE
8 26 (9.74%) Ethernet VPN
8 26 (9.74%) Network Security
8 26 (9.74%) VXLAN
9 25 (9.36%) BIG-IP
9 25 (9.36%) Junos
10 21 (7.87%) SSL
11 11 (4.12%) TCP/IP
12 10 (3.75%) MPLS
13 8 (3.00%) Cisco IOS
13 8 (3.00%) SMTP
13 8 (3.00%) TACACS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (3.75%) Elasticsearch
1 10 (3.75%) SQL Server
2 9 (3.37%) Power BI
3 2 (0.75%) Metadata
3 2 (0.75%) MongoDB
3 2 (0.75%) MySQL
4 1 (0.37%) Amazon QuickSight
4 1 (0.37%) Amazon RDS
4 1 (0.37%) PostgreSQL
4 1 (0.37%) RDBMS
4 1 (0.37%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 13 (4.87%) JIRA
2 9 (3.37%) GitLab
3 7 (2.62%) Robot Framework
4 5 (1.87%) Sonatype Nexus
5 3 (1.12%) Jenkins
5 3 (1.12%) Terragrunt
6 2 (0.75%) Git
6 2 (0.75%) MSI
7 1 (0.37%) JUnit
General
1 28 (10.49%) Social Skills
2 27 (10.11%) Finance
3 24 (8.99%) Public Sector
4 10 (3.75%) Analytical Skills
5 5 (1.87%) Banking
5 5 (1.87%) Documentation Skills
6 4 (1.50%) Military
6 4 (1.50%) Retail
7 3 (1.12%) Legal
8 2 (0.75%) Financial Institution
8 2 (0.75%) Local Government
9 1 (0.37%) Aerospace
9 1 (0.37%) Back Office
9 1 (0.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 1 (0.37%) Influencing Skills
9 1 (0.37%) Law
9 1 (0.37%) Manufacturing
9 1 (0.37%) Wearables
Job Titles
1 50 (18.73%) Architect
2 46 (17.23%) Senior
3 41 (15.36%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 21 (7.87%) Network Engineer
5 18 (6.74%) 3rd Line Engineer
6 16 (5.99%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
7 14 (5.24%) Firewall Specialist
7 14 (5.24%) Network Specialist
8 12 (4.49%) Support Engineer
9 11 (4.12%) Security Engineer
10 10 (3.75%) Senior Architect
10 10 (3.75%) Senior Network Engineer
10 10 (3.75%) Storage Engineer
11 9 (3.37%) 3rd Line Infrastructure Engineer
12 8 (3.00%) Lead
13 7 (2.62%) Administrator
13 7 (2.62%) DevOps Engineer
13 7 (2.62%) NetApp Engineer
14 6 (2.25%) Analyst
14 6 (2.25%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (11.99%) 802.1X
2 15 (5.62%) OpenID
3 14 (5.24%) LDAP
3 14 (5.24%) SAML
4 13 (4.87%) OAuth
4 13 (4.87%) REST
5 7 (2.62%) OAuth2
6 6 (2.25%) JSON
7 4 (1.50%) Elastic Stack
7 4 (1.50%) SailPoint
8 3 (1.12%) RabbitMQ
9 2 (0.75%) CSS
9 2 (0.75%) eBPF
9 2 (0.75%) HTML
9 2 (0.75%) Kafka
9 2 (0.75%) Loki
9 2 (0.75%) Microsoft Graph
9 2 (0.75%) SPIFFE
9 2 (0.75%) Web Services
10 1 (0.37%) Keycloak
Miscellaneous
1 42 (15.73%) Clustering
2 28 (10.49%) Data Centre
3 12 (4.49%) Enterprise Storage
4 11 (4.12%) Onboarding
5 10 (3.75%) Algorithms
5 10 (3.75%) Hybrid Cloud
6 9 (3.37%) Public Cloud
7 7 (2.62%) Cloud Native
7 7 (2.62%) Management Information System
8 6 (2.25%) Operational Technology
9 5 (1.87%) Private Cloud
9 5 (1.87%) Smartcard
10 4 (1.50%) Enterprise Software
10 4 (1.50%) Fat Client
10 4 (1.50%) Thin Client
11 3 (1.12%) Data Protection Act
11 3 (1.12%) Distributed Systems
11 3 (1.12%) Legacy Systems
11 3 (1.12%) Linux Command Line
11 3 (1.12%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 113 (42.32%) Windows
2 58 (21.72%) Linux
3 53 (19.85%) Windows Server
4 7 (2.62%) Ubuntu
4 7 (2.62%) Windows Server 2003
5 6 (2.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 6 (2.25%) Windows Server 2012
5 6 (2.25%) Windows Server 2019
6 4 (1.50%) Windows 7
6 4 (1.50%) Windows Server 2016
7 3 (1.12%) Debian
7 3 (1.12%) Unix
8 2 (0.75%) CentOS
9 1 (0.37%) Android
9 1 (0.37%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.37%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.37%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.37%) Solaris
9 1 (0.37%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 67 (25.09%) Identity Access Management
2 47 (17.60%) Agile
3 46 (17.23%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 42 (15.73%) Cybersecurity
5 41 (15.36%) High Availability
6 40 (14.98%) ITIL
7 37 (13.86%) Problem-Solving
8 36 (13.48%) Observability
9 35 (13.11%) CI/CD
10 34 (12.73%) Key Management
11 33 (12.36%) DevOps
11 33 (12.36%) Load Balancing
12 29 (10.86%) Infrastructure as Code
13 28 (10.49%) Zero Trust
14 27 (10.11%) Service Management
15 25 (9.36%) Change Management
15 25 (9.36%) ITSM
16 24 (8.99%) Migration
17 23 (8.61%) Cryptography
18 22 (8.24%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 59 (22.10%) PowerShell
2 42 (15.73%) Python
3 16 (5.99%) SQL
4 15 (5.62%) Bash
5 11 (4.12%) JavaScript
6 8 (3.00%) C#
7 5 (1.87%) Java
8 4 (1.50%) PHP
9 3 (1.12%) C++
9 3 (1.12%) Go
10 1 (0.37%) Perl
10 1 (0.37%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 164 (61.42%) Security Cleared
2 96 (35.96%) DV Cleared
3 62 (23.22%) SC Cleared
4 30 (11.24%) Cisco Certification
5 20 (7.49%) CISSP
6 18 (6.74%) CISM
7 17 (6.37%) Degree
8 11 (4.12%) GIAC
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%) AWS Certification
11 6 (2.25%) Azure Certification
11 6 (2.25%) Microsoft Certification
12 5 (1.87%) CCNA
12 5 (1.87%) Computer Science Degree
13 4 (1.50%) Network+ Certification
13 4 (1.50%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (10.49%) NIST
2 21 (7.87%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 14 (5.24%) NCSC
4 10 (3.75%) Cyber Essentials
5 7 (2.62%) PCI DSS
6 6 (2.25%) GDPR
6 6 (2.25%) SLA
7 5 (1.87%) QA
8 4 (1.50%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 3 (1.12%) RMADS
10 2 (0.75%) ISA99
10 2 (0.75%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 2 (0.75%) JSP 440
10 2 (0.75%) NIST 800
11 1 (0.37%) GMP
11 1 (0.37%) GRC
11 1 (0.37%) GxP
11 1 (0.37%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 1 (0.37%) SOC 2
System Software
1 87 (32.58%) Active Directory
2 51 (19.10%) VMware Infrastructure
3 22 (8.24%) Docker
4 18 (6.74%) Hyper-V
5 16 (5.99%) VMware ESXi
6 13 (4.87%) VMware NSX
7 10 (3.75%) BitLocker
8 8 (3.00%) Microsoft App-V
9 7 (2.62%) Virtual Machines
10 6 (2.25%) Firmware
11 3 (1.12%) KVM
11 3 (1.12%) Sendmail
11 3 (1.12%) vSphere
11 3 (1.12%) XenApp
12 2 (0.75%) OpenSSH
12 2 (0.75%) XenDesktop
13 1 (0.37%) Embedded Firmware
13 1 (0.37%) iptables
13 1 (0.37%) Squid
13 1 (0.37%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 45 (16.85%) Ansible
2 40 (14.98%) Terraform
3 39 (14.61%) Kubernetes
4 23 (8.61%) FortiGate
5 21 (7.87%) Single Sign-On
5 21 (7.87%) vCenter Server
6 11 (4.12%) Prometheus
7 10 (3.75%) Grafana
7 10 (3.75%) Microsoft Intune
7 10 (3.75%) Puppet
8 8 (3.00%) SCOM
8 8 (3.00%) vMotion
9 6 (2.25%) SCCM
9 6 (2.25%) WMI
10 5 (1.87%) WSUS
11 4 (1.50%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 3 (1.12%) Avamar
12 3 (1.12%) CA Single Sign-On
13 2 (0.75%) Cilium
13 2 (0.75%) Suricata
Vendors
1 81 (30.34%) Microsoft
2 71 (26.59%) VMware
3 52 (19.48%) Cisco
4 40 (14.98%) Splunk
5 31 (11.61%) Juniper
6 27 (10.11%) F5
6 27 (10.11%) SolarWinds
7 22 (8.24%) Extreme Networks
8 17 (6.37%) Citrix
8 17 (6.37%) ServiceNow
9 14 (5.24%) Thales
10 13 (4.87%) Okta
11 12 (4.49%) Palo Alto
12 10 (3.75%) NetApp
13 9 (3.37%) BeyondTrust
13 9 (3.37%) BMC
13 9 (3.37%) Remedy
14 8 (3.00%) ForeScout
15 7 (2.62%) Aruba
16 6 (2.25%) Netskope