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 26 August 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 365 346 255
Rank change year-on-year -19 -91 +40
Contract jobs citing PKI 341 218 378
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.64% 0.67% 0.97%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.89% 1.89% 3.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 247 169 263
10th Percentile £419 £358 £363
25th Percentile £463 £463 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £538
Median % change year-on-year - +2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £638 £626 £608
90th Percentile £709 £689 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £550 £538
% change year-on-year - +2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 0 4
10th Percentile £92.70 - -
25th Percentile £96.00 - -
Median hourly rate £98.82 - £23.80
75th Percentile £99.12 - £27.91
90th Percentile £100.00 - £35.32
UK excluding London median hourly rate £98.82 - £38.50
% change year-on-year - - -12.00%

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 18,018 11,535 11,761
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.59% 35.26% 30.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,898 7,083 7,454
10th Percentile £321 £300 £300
25th Percentile £423 £406 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £520 £550
Median % change year-on-year +0.96% -5.45% -
75th Percentile £638 £638 £675
90th Percentile £750 £763 £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,065 575 570
10th Percentile £14.68 £15.13 £12.30
25th Percentile £19.25 £18.87 £18.39
Median hourly rate £41.00 £30.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +36.67% -33.33% +2.86%
75th Percentile £68.75 £57.50 £69.45
90th Percentile £84.60 £75.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £30.00 £49.00
% change year-on-year +46.53% -38.78% +7.91%

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 26 August 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 26 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for PKI in the UK

PKI
Top 15 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 26 August 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 -51 280 £575 +4.55% 65
UK excluding London -7 231 £550 - 48
South East -14 92 £590 +2.61% 11
London -63 82 £574 -1.97% 20
Work from Home -46 81 £555 +0.91% 36
North of England -27 58 £519 +5.49% 8
North West -26 35 £525 +6.71% 4
Scotland +10 32 £481 -1.33%
South West -65 28 £683 +21.47% 20
Yorkshire -16 23 £500 -16.67% 4
Midlands -72 9 £475 +18.75% 5
East of England -20 8 £500 -4.76% 4
West Midlands -78 8 £475 +18.75% 2
Wales - 6 £463 -
East Midlands -15 1 £475 - 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 16 (4.69%) Microsoft Exchange
2 11 (3.23%) Confluence
2 11 (3.23%) SharePoint
3 7 (2.05%) IIS
4 4 (1.17%) Apache
5 3 (0.88%) Exchange Server 2010
5 3 (0.88%) Tomcat
5 3 (0.88%) WebSphere
6 1 (0.29%) ArcGIS
6 1 (0.29%) nginx
Applications
1 4 (1.17%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 10 (2.93%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.29%) Dynamics GP
Cloud Services
1 114 (33.43%) Azure
2 84 (24.63%) AWS
3 64 (18.77%) Entra ID
4 32 (9.38%) GCP
5 24 (7.04%) Microsoft 365
6 17 (4.99%) Power Platform
7 14 (4.11%) Azure Key Vault
8 12 (3.52%) IaaS
9 11 (3.23%) OpenShift
9 11 (3.23%) PaaS
10 8 (2.35%) SaaS
11 7 (2.05%) Azure DevOps
11 7 (2.05%) GitHub
12 6 (1.76%) Amazon EKS
12 6 (1.76%) AWS KMS
13 4 (1.17%) Google Kubernetes Engine
13 4 (1.17%) OCI
14 3 (0.88%) Azure Monitor
14 3 (0.88%) Azure Sentinel
14 3 (0.88%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 108 (31.67%) DNS
2 83 (24.34%) Firewall
3 78 (22.87%) DHCP
4 42 (12.32%) VPN
5 33 (9.68%) TCP/IP
6 29 (8.50%) SSL
7 25 (7.33%) Network Security
8 24 (7.04%) LAN
9 23 (6.74%) WAN
10 21 (6.16%) BGP
11 19 (5.57%) OSPF
12 17 (4.99%) IPsec
12 17 (4.99%) VLAN
13 16 (4.69%) VSAN
14 15 (4.40%) Wireless
15 14 (4.11%) SSH
16 13 (3.81%) Cisco ASA
16 13 (3.81%) Cisco Firepower
17 12 (3.52%) Cisco ISE
17 12 (3.52%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (8.50%) SQL Server
2 12 (3.52%) Power BI
3 8 (2.35%) Elasticsearch
3 8 (2.35%) MySQL
3 8 (2.35%) PostgreSQL
4 6 (1.76%) Amazon RDS
4 6 (1.76%) MongoDB
4 6 (1.76%) Relational Database
5 4 (1.17%) Db2
6 3 (0.88%) Big Data
6 3 (0.88%) NoSQL
7 2 (0.59%) Metadata
7 2 (0.59%) RDBMS
8 1 (0.29%) DynamoDB
8 1 (0.29%) MariaDB
8 1 (0.29%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 17 (4.99%) Git
2 13 (3.81%) JIRA
3 11 (3.23%) GitLab
4 8 (2.35%) Jenkins
5 3 (0.88%) Sonatype Nexus
5 3 (0.88%) Terragrunt
6 2 (0.59%) Burp Suite
6 2 (0.59%) Cucumber
6 2 (0.59%) Gatling
6 2 (0.59%) Gradle
6 2 (0.59%) LoadRunner
6 2 (0.59%) MSI
6 2 (0.59%) REST Assured
6 2 (0.59%) Robot Framework
6 2 (0.59%) SonarQube
General
1 65 (19.06%) Social Skills
2 43 (12.61%) Finance
3 29 (8.50%) Analytical Skills
3 29 (8.50%) Public Sector
4 15 (4.40%) Documentation Skills
5 13 (3.81%) Banking
6 6 (1.76%) Legal
7 5 (1.47%) Influencing Skills
7 5 (1.47%) Police
7 5 (1.47%) Retail
8 4 (1.17%) Automotive
8 4 (1.17%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 3 (0.88%) Aerospace
9 3 (0.88%) Military
10 2 (0.59%) Corporate Banking
10 2 (0.59%) Investment Banking
10 2 (0.59%) Law
10 2 (0.59%) Retail Banking
11 1 (0.29%) Manufacturing
11 1 (0.29%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 70 (20.53%) Senior
2 57 (16.72%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 30 (8.80%) Architect
4 29 (8.50%) Network Engineer
5 26 (7.62%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
6 21 (6.16%) Platform Engineer
7 20 (5.87%) 3rd Line Engineer
7 20 (5.87%) Senior Network Engineer
7 20 (5.87%) Support Engineer
8 16 (4.69%) Storage Engineer
9 15 (4.40%) Consultant
9 15 (4.40%) Lead
10 14 (4.11%) DevOps Engineer
11 9 (2.64%) Active Directory Engineer
11 9 (2.64%) Linux Engineer
11 9 (2.64%) Solutions Architect
12 8 (2.35%) Cloud Engineer
12 8 (2.35%) Firewall Specialist
12 8 (2.35%) Network Specialist
12 8 (2.35%) VMware Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 63 (18.48%) Terraform
2 29 (8.50%) LDAP
3 27 (7.92%) OpenID
4 26 (7.62%) 802.1X
5 25 (7.33%) SAML
6 19 (5.57%) OAuth
7 14 (4.11%) REST
8 10 (2.93%) .NET
9 9 (2.64%) Kafka
9 9 (2.64%) OAuth2
10 8 (2.35%) .NET Framework
10 8 (2.35%) XML
11 7 (2.05%) JSON
11 7 (2.05%) Keycloak
11 7 (2.05%) RabbitMQ
12 5 (1.47%) Middleware
13 4 (1.17%) Web Services
14 3 (0.88%) RESTful
14 3 (0.88%) Ruby on Rails
14 3 (0.88%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 40 (11.73%) Data Centre
2 37 (10.85%) Clustering
3 18 (5.28%) Cloud Native
4 17 (4.99%) Onboarding
5 16 (4.69%) Public Cloud
6 13 (3.81%) Distributed Systems
6 13 (3.81%) Linux Command Line
7 12 (3.52%) Hybrid Cloud
8 9 (2.64%) Enterprise Software
8 9 (2.64%) Enterprise Storage
9 8 (2.35%) Management Information System
9 8 (2.35%) Security Posture
9 8 (2.35%) Self-Motivation
10 7 (2.05%) Legacy Systems
11 6 (1.76%) Replication
12 5 (1.47%) Data Protection Act
12 5 (1.47%) Mainframe
12 5 (1.47%) Private Cloud
12 5 (1.47%) Robotics
12 5 (1.47%) Smartcard
Operating Systems
1 161 (47.21%) Windows
2 104 (30.50%) Linux
3 88 (25.81%) Windows Server
4 15 (4.40%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 12 (3.52%) Ubuntu
5 12 (3.52%) Unix
5 12 (3.52%) Windows Server 2016
6 10 (2.93%) Windows Server 2012
7 7 (2.05%) Windows Server 2019
8 6 (1.76%) Debian
9 4 (1.17%) Android
9 4 (1.17%) CentOS
9 4 (1.17%) Windows Server 2003
10 3 (0.88%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.88%) Mac OS
11 2 (0.59%) Data ONTAP
11 2 (0.59%) Windows 10
12 1 (0.29%) VMS
12 1 (0.29%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 97 (28.45%) Identity Access Management
2 68 (19.94%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 60 (17.60%) Infrastructure as Code
4 56 (16.42%) ITIL
5 55 (16.13%) Cybersecurity
5 55 (16.13%) Problem-Solving
6 54 (15.84%) High Availability
7 47 (13.78%) DevOps
8 46 (13.49%) CI/CD
9 44 (12.90%) Zero Trust
10 43 (12.61%) Technical Leadership
11 41 (12.02%) Continuous Improvement
12 40 (11.73%) Key Management
12 40 (11.73%) Stakeholder Management
13 38 (11.14%) Agile
14 37 (10.85%) Cryptography
15 36 (10.56%) Platform Engineering
16 34 (9.97%) DevSecOps
17 33 (9.68%) Change Management
18 32 (9.38%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 93 (27.27%) PowerShell
2 62 (18.18%) Python
3 33 (9.68%) Bash
4 14 (4.11%) SQL
5 11 (3.23%) C#
5 11 (3.23%) JavaScript
6 10 (2.93%) Java
7 3 (0.88%) Go
7 3 (0.88%) Ruby
7 3 (0.88%) Shell Script
8 1 (0.29%) Bicep
8 1 (0.29%) C++
Qualifications
1 172 (50.44%) Security Cleared
2 99 (29.03%) DV Cleared
3 78 (22.87%) SC Cleared
4 30 (8.80%) Cisco Certification
5 22 (6.45%) Degree
6 20 (5.87%) Microsoft Certification
7 18 (5.28%) CCNP
8 15 (4.40%) CISSP
9 13 (3.81%) Azure Certification
10 12 (3.52%) VCAP
11 11 (3.23%) MCSE
12 9 (2.64%) AWS Certification
13 7 (2.05%) CISM
14 6 (1.76%) GIAC
14 6 (1.76%) JNCIP
14 6 (1.76%) JNCIS
14 6 (1.76%) Master's Degree
15 5 (1.47%) BPSS Clearance
15 5 (1.47%) Computer Science Degree
15 5 (1.47%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (9.38%) NIST
2 23 (6.74%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 19 (5.57%) NCSC
4 14 (4.11%) SLA
5 8 (2.35%) QA
6 6 (1.76%) GRC
6 6 (1.76%) JSP 440
7 5 (1.47%) GDPR
8 4 (1.17%) Cyber Essentials
9 3 (0.88%) PCI DSS
9 3 (0.88%) SOC 2
10 2 (0.59%) Government Security Classifications
10 2 (0.59%) ISA99
10 2 (0.59%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 2 (0.59%) ITGC
10 2 (0.59%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 1 (0.29%) Accessibility
11 1 (0.29%) GMP
11 1 (0.29%) GxP
11 1 (0.29%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 159 (46.63%) Active Directory
2 70 (20.53%) VMware Infrastructure
3 41 (12.02%) Docker
4 34 (9.97%) Hyper-V
5 31 (9.09%) VMware NSX
6 18 (5.28%) vSphere
7 11 (3.23%) VMware ESXi
8 8 (2.35%) BitLocker
8 8 (2.35%) Virtual Machines
9 7 (2.05%) Microsoft App-V
10 4 (1.17%) Firmware
10 4 (1.17%) NFS
10 4 (1.17%) OpenSSH
10 4 (1.17%) Terminal Services
10 4 (1.17%) Virtual Desktop
11 3 (0.88%) OpenAM
12 2 (0.59%) XenApp
12 2 (0.59%) XenDesktop
13 1 (0.29%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
13 1 (0.29%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 69 (20.23%) Kubernetes
2 62 (18.18%) Ansible
3 31 (9.09%) Single Sign-On
4 23 (6.74%) vCenter Server
5 21 (6.16%) Microsoft Intune
6 14 (4.11%) VxRail
7 13 (3.81%) Avamar
7 13 (3.81%) SCOM
8 11 (3.23%) Puppet
9 10 (2.93%) FortiGate
9 10 (2.93%) Grafana
9 10 (2.93%) Prometheus
10 8 (2.35%) Istio
11 7 (2.05%) SCCM
11 7 (2.05%) vMotion
12 6 (1.76%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 6 (1.76%) CA Single Sign-On
12 6 (1.76%) Kibana
12 6 (1.76%) WSUS
13 5 (1.47%) Failover Clustering
Vendors
1 141 (41.35%) Microsoft
2 86 (25.22%) VMware
3 51 (14.96%) Cisco
4 29 (8.50%) Thales
5 27 (7.92%) ServiceNow
6 24 (7.04%) Okta
7 21 (6.16%) Splunk
8 19 (5.57%) BeyondTrust
8 19 (5.57%) Juniper
9 17 (4.99%) Citrix
9 17 (4.99%) SolarWinds
10 14 (4.11%) CyberArk
10 14 (4.11%) Dell
10 14 (4.11%) F5
10 14 (4.11%) Google
11 12 (3.52%) NetApp
11 12 (3.52%) Palo Alto
12 10 (2.93%) BMC
12 10 (2.93%) Extreme Networks
12 10 (2.93%) Remedy