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

6 months to
23 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 366 342 237
Rank change year-on-year -24 -105 +69
Contract jobs citing PKI 345 217 386
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.64% 0.66% 1.00%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.90% 1.87% 3.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 250 169 273
10th Percentile £424 £358 £363
25th Percentile £463 £463 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £538
Median % change year-on-year - +2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £608
90th Percentile £717 £689 £674
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

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 18,125 11,625 11,771
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.64% 35.25% 30.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,985 7,151 7,486
10th Percentile £322 £300 £300
25th Percentile £424 £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 1,055 577 574
10th Percentile £14.86 £15.13 £12.30
25th Percentile £19.33 £18.87 £18.35
Median hourly rate £43.50 £30.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +45.00% -33.33% +6.27%
75th Percentile £68.75 £57.50 £68.75
90th Percentile £84.60 £75.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £30.00 £47.75
% change year-on-year +46.53% -37.17% +6.11%

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 23 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 23 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 23 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 -54 284 £575 +1.32% 62
UK excluding London -19 236 £550 - 43
South East -6 97 £590 +2.61% 14
London -75 81 £597 +0.76% 21
Work from Home -41 80 £560 +1.82% 30
North of England -15 58 £519 +4.64% 9
North West -20 35 £525 +6.71% 4
Scotland +14 32 £481 -1.33%
South West -61 28 £683 +18.83% 11
Yorkshire -17 23 £500 -16.67% 5
Midlands -64 9 £475 +18.75% 5
East of England -14 8 £500 -4.76% 4
West Midlands -69 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 (4.64%) Microsoft Exchange
2 11 (3.19%) Confluence
2 11 (3.19%) SharePoint
3 7 (2.03%) IIS
4 4 (1.16%) Apache
5 3 (0.87%) Exchange Server 2010
5 3 (0.87%) Tomcat
5 3 (0.87%) WebSphere
6 1 (0.29%) ArcGIS
6 1 (0.29%) nginx
Applications
1 4 (1.16%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 12 (3.48%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.29%) Dynamics GP
Cloud Services
1 113 (32.75%) Azure
2 83 (24.06%) AWS
3 63 (18.26%) Entra ID
4 32 (9.28%) GCP
5 24 (6.96%) Microsoft 365
6 19 (5.51%) Power Platform
7 14 (4.06%) Azure Key Vault
8 12 (3.48%) IaaS
9 11 (3.19%) OpenShift
9 11 (3.19%) PaaS
10 8 (2.32%) SaaS
11 7 (2.03%) Azure DevOps
11 7 (2.03%) GitHub
12 6 (1.74%) AWS KMS
13 5 (1.45%) Amazon EKS
14 4 (1.16%) Google Kubernetes Engine
14 4 (1.16%) OCI
15 3 (0.87%) Azure Monitor
15 3 (0.87%) Azure Sentinel
15 3 (0.87%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 109 (31.59%) DNS
2 85 (24.64%) Firewall
3 79 (22.90%) DHCP
4 42 (12.17%) VPN
5 33 (9.57%) TCP/IP
6 29 (8.41%) SSL
7 25 (7.25%) LAN
7 25 (7.25%) Network Security
8 24 (6.96%) WAN
9 23 (6.67%) BGP
10 20 (5.80%) OSPF
11 17 (4.93%) IPsec
11 17 (4.93%) VLAN
11 17 (4.93%) VSAN
12 15 (4.35%) Wireless
13 14 (4.06%) SSH
14 13 (3.77%) Cisco ASA
14 13 (3.77%) Cisco Firepower
15 12 (3.48%) BIG-IP
15 12 (3.48%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (8.99%) SQL Server
2 14 (4.06%) Power BI
3 8 (2.32%) Elasticsearch
4 7 (2.03%) MySQL
4 7 (2.03%) PostgreSQL
5 5 (1.45%) Amazon RDS
5 5 (1.45%) MongoDB
5 5 (1.45%) Relational Database
6 4 (1.16%) Db2
7 3 (0.87%) Big Data
7 3 (0.87%) NoSQL
8 2 (0.58%) Metadata
8 2 (0.58%) RDBMS
9 1 (0.29%) DynamoDB
9 1 (0.29%) MariaDB
9 1 (0.29%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 17 (4.93%) Git
2 13 (3.77%) JIRA
3 10 (2.90%) GitLab
4 8 (2.32%) Jenkins
5 3 (0.87%) Robot Framework
5 3 (0.87%) Sonatype Nexus
5 3 (0.87%) Terragrunt
6 2 (0.58%) Burp Suite
6 2 (0.58%) Cucumber
6 2 (0.58%) Gatling
6 2 (0.58%) Gradle
6 2 (0.58%) LoadRunner
6 2 (0.58%) MSI
6 2 (0.58%) REST Assured
6 2 (0.58%) SonarQube
General
1 65 (18.84%) Social Skills
2 43 (12.46%) Finance
3 31 (8.99%) Public Sector
4 29 (8.41%) Analytical Skills
5 15 (4.35%) Documentation Skills
6 13 (3.77%) Banking
7 6 (1.74%) Legal
8 5 (1.45%) Influencing Skills
8 5 (1.45%) Police
8 5 (1.45%) Retail
9 4 (1.16%) Automotive
9 4 (1.16%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 3 (0.87%) Aerospace
10 3 (0.87%) Military
11 2 (0.58%) Corporate Banking
11 2 (0.58%) Investment Banking
11 2 (0.58%) Law
11 2 (0.58%) Retail Banking
12 1 (0.29%) Local Government
12 1 (0.29%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 72 (20.87%) Senior
2 58 (16.81%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 33 (9.57%) Architect
4 29 (8.41%) Network Engineer
5 26 (7.54%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
6 21 (6.09%) Platform Engineer
7 20 (5.80%) 3rd Line Engineer
7 20 (5.80%) Senior Network Engineer
7 20 (5.80%) Support Engineer
8 16 (4.64%) Storage Engineer
9 15 (4.35%) Consultant
9 15 (4.35%) Lead
10 13 (3.77%) DevOps Engineer
11 9 (2.61%) Firewall Specialist
11 9 (2.61%) Linux Engineer
11 9 (2.61%) Network Specialist
11 9 (2.61%) Solutions Architect
12 8 (2.32%) Cloud Engineer
12 8 (2.32%) Senior Architect
12 8 (2.32%) VMware Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 64 (18.55%) Terraform
2 29 (8.41%) LDAP
3 27 (7.83%) 802.1X
3 27 (7.83%) OpenID
4 25 (7.25%) SAML
5 19 (5.51%) OAuth
6 16 (4.64%) REST
7 10 (2.90%) .NET
8 9 (2.61%) OAuth2
9 8 (2.32%) .NET Framework
9 8 (2.32%) Kafka
9 8 (2.32%) XML
10 7 (2.03%) JSON
10 7 (2.03%) Keycloak
10 7 (2.03%) RabbitMQ
11 5 (1.45%) Middleware
11 5 (1.45%) Web Services
12 3 (0.87%) RESTful
12 3 (0.87%) Ruby on Rails
12 3 (0.87%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 42 (12.17%) Data Centre
2 39 (11.30%) Clustering
3 18 (5.22%) Cloud Native
4 17 (4.93%) Onboarding
5 16 (4.64%) Public Cloud
6 13 (3.77%) Distributed Systems
6 13 (3.77%) Hybrid Cloud
6 13 (3.77%) Linux Command Line
7 9 (2.61%) Enterprise Software
7 9 (2.61%) Enterprise Storage
8 8 (2.32%) Management Information System
8 8 (2.32%) Security Posture
8 8 (2.32%) Self-Motivation
9 7 (2.03%) Legacy Systems
10 6 (1.74%) Private Cloud
10 6 (1.74%) Replication
11 5 (1.45%) Data Protection Act
11 5 (1.45%) Mainframe
11 5 (1.45%) Robotics
11 5 (1.45%) Smartcard
Operating Systems
1 166 (48.12%) Windows
2 105 (30.43%) Linux
3 93 (26.96%) Windows Server
4 15 (4.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 12 (3.48%) Unix
5 12 (3.48%) Windows Server 2016
6 11 (3.19%) Ubuntu
7 10 (2.90%) Windows Server 2012
8 8 (2.32%) Windows Server 2019
9 6 (1.74%) Debian
10 5 (1.45%) CentOS
11 4 (1.16%) Android
11 4 (1.16%) Windows Server 2003
12 3 (0.87%) Apple iOS
12 3 (0.87%) Mac OS
13 2 (0.58%) Data ONTAP
13 2 (0.58%) Windows 10
14 1 (0.29%) VMS
14 1 (0.29%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 98 (28.41%) Identity Access Management
2 69 (20.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 60 (17.39%) Infrastructure as Code
4 58 (16.81%) ITIL
5 56 (16.23%) Cybersecurity
5 56 (16.23%) Problem-Solving
6 55 (15.94%) High Availability
7 47 (13.62%) DevOps
8 46 (13.33%) CI/CD
9 44 (12.75%) Zero Trust
10 43 (12.46%) Technical Leadership
11 41 (11.88%) Agile
11 41 (11.88%) Continuous Improvement
12 40 (11.59%) Key Management
12 40 (11.59%) Stakeholder Management
13 37 (10.72%) Cryptography
14 36 (10.43%) Platform Engineering
15 33 (9.57%) Change Management
15 33 (9.57%) DevSecOps
16 32 (9.28%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 96 (27.83%) PowerShell
2 63 (18.26%) Python
3 33 (9.57%) Bash
4 17 (4.93%) SQL
5 13 (3.77%) C#
5 13 (3.77%) JavaScript
6 10 (2.90%) Java
7 3 (0.87%) Go
7 3 (0.87%) Ruby
7 3 (0.87%) Shell Script
8 1 (0.29%) Bicep
8 1 (0.29%) C++
Qualifications
1 176 (51.01%) Security Cleared
2 103 (29.86%) DV Cleared
3 78 (22.61%) SC Cleared
4 31 (8.99%) Cisco Certification
5 22 (6.38%) Degree
6 20 (5.80%) Microsoft Certification
7 18 (5.22%) CCNP
8 15 (4.35%) CISSP
9 13 (3.77%) Azure Certification
10 12 (3.48%) VCAP
11 11 (3.19%) MCSE
12 9 (2.61%) AWS Certification
13 7 (2.03%) CISM
14 6 (1.74%) GIAC
14 6 (1.74%) JNCIP
14 6 (1.74%) JNCIS
14 6 (1.74%) Master's Degree
15 5 (1.45%) BPSS Clearance
15 5 (1.45%) Computer Science Degree
15 5 (1.45%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (9.57%) NIST
2 23 (6.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 20 (5.80%) NCSC
4 14 (4.06%) SLA
5 8 (2.32%) QA
6 6 (1.74%) GRC
6 6 (1.74%) JSP 440
7 5 (1.45%) GDPR
8 4 (1.16%) Cyber Essentials
9 3 (0.87%) PCI DSS
9 3 (0.87%) SOC 2
10 2 (0.58%) Government Security Classifications
10 2 (0.58%) ISA99
10 2 (0.58%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 2 (0.58%) ITGC
10 2 (0.58%) NIST 800
10 2 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 1 (0.29%) GMP
11 1 (0.29%) GxP
11 1 (0.29%) PSD2
System Software
1 163 (47.25%) Active Directory
2 71 (20.58%) VMware Infrastructure
3 41 (11.88%) Docker
4 34 (9.86%) Hyper-V
5 33 (9.57%) VMware NSX
6 19 (5.51%) vSphere
7 11 (3.19%) VMware ESXi
8 8 (2.32%) BitLocker
8 8 (2.32%) Virtual Machines
9 7 (2.03%) Microsoft App-V
10 4 (1.16%) Firmware
10 4 (1.16%) NFS
10 4 (1.16%) OpenSSH
10 4 (1.16%) Terminal Services
10 4 (1.16%) Virtual Desktop
11 3 (0.87%) OpenAM
12 2 (0.58%) XenApp
12 2 (0.58%) XenDesktop
13 1 (0.29%) KVM
13 1 (0.29%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 69 (20.00%) Kubernetes
2 63 (18.26%) Ansible
3 30 (8.70%) Single Sign-On
4 23 (6.67%) vCenter Server
5 20 (5.80%) Microsoft Intune
6 15 (4.35%) VxRail
7 13 (3.77%) Avamar
7 13 (3.77%) SCOM
8 11 (3.19%) FortiGate
8 11 (3.19%) Puppet
9 9 (2.61%) Grafana
9 9 (2.61%) Prometheus
10 8 (2.32%) Istio
11 7 (2.03%) SCCM
11 7 (2.03%) vMotion
12 6 (1.74%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 6 (1.74%) CA Single Sign-On
12 6 (1.74%) Kibana
12 6 (1.74%) WSUS
13 5 (1.45%) Failover Clustering
Vendors
1 142 (41.16%) Microsoft
2 89 (25.80%) VMware
3 52 (15.07%) Cisco
4 29 (8.41%) ServiceNow
4 29 (8.41%) Thales
5 24 (6.96%) Okta
6 23 (6.67%) Splunk
7 20 (5.80%) Juniper
8 19 (5.51%) BeyondTrust
9 18 (5.22%) SolarWinds
10 17 (4.93%) Citrix
11 15 (4.35%) Dell
11 15 (4.35%) F5
12 14 (4.06%) CyberArk
12 14 (4.06%) Google
13 13 (3.77%) Palo Alto
14 12 (3.48%) BMC
14 12 (3.48%) NetApp
14 12 (3.48%) Remedy
15 11 (3.19%) Extreme Networks