PKI Job Trends

Public-Key Infrastructure (PKI)
UK

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term PKI in permanent job vacancies. Included is a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered in vacancies that cited PKI over the 6 months leading up to 15 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 539 565 456
Rank change year-on-year +26 -109 +216
Permanent jobs citing PKI 110 146 268
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.18% 0.27% 0.48%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 0.53% 0.73% 1.32%
Number of salaries quoted 60 80 233
10th Percentile £38,000 - £42,798
25th Percentile £46,250 £47,500 £54,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,000 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -23.08% +8.33%
75th Percentile £81,250 £63,847 £92,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £110,000 £115,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £50,000 £56,525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -11.54% -3.79%

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 permanent job vacancies requiring generic IT skills.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 20,616 19,935 20,305
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 34.19% 37.19% 36.62%
Number of salaries quoted 10,355 9,359 14,728
10th Percentile £28,000 £33,750 £31,750
25th Percentile £36,250 £46,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -7.69%
75th Percentile £77,500 £83,750 £82,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £110,000 £105,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £47,500 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -13.64% +4.76% -4.55%

PKI
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing PKI relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

PKI job vacancy trend in the UK

PKI
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing PKI.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing PKI

PKI
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing PKI over the 6 months to 15 January 2026.

Salary histogram for PKI in the UK

PKI
Top 13 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing PKI within the UK over the 6 months to 15 January 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England +19 97 £58,000 +16.00% 97
UK excluding London -18 56 £52,500 +5.00% 87
London +64 34 £90,000 -6.49% 17
Work from Home +43 29 £75,000 +44.23% 31
South East +39 24 £54,375 +2.50% 26
South West -31 18 £48,500 -3.00% 21
East of England +24 6 £52,500 -27.59% 12
Midlands +5 4 £67,500 +31.70% 8
West Midlands +5 4 £67,500 +31.70% 3
North of England +3 4 £48,445 -7.72% 18
Yorkshire - 2 £49,222 - 8
North West +14 1 £48,445 -7.72% 8
North East +8 1 £48,445 - 2

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 20 (18.18%) Microsoft Exchange
2 8 (7.27%) IIS
3 4 (3.64%) Apache
3 4 (3.64%) nginx
4 3 (2.73%) SharePoint
4 3 (2.73%) Skype for Business
5 1 (0.91%) Confluence
Cloud Services
1 38 (34.55%) Azure
2 31 (28.18%) AWS
3 21 (19.09%) Microsoft 365
4 19 (17.27%) Entra ID
5 11 (10.00%) SaaS
6 9 (8.18%) OpenShift
7 7 (6.36%) AWS CloudFormation
7 7 (6.36%) IaaS
7 7 (6.36%) PaaS
8 6 (5.45%) GCP
9 5 (4.55%) Google Workspace
10 4 (3.64%) GitHub
10 4 (3.64%) OCI
10 4 (3.64%) Serverless
11 3 (2.73%) Cloudflare
11 3 (2.73%) Cohesity
11 3 (2.73%) IBM Cloud
12 2 (1.82%) Mimecast
12 2 (1.82%) Nutanix
12 2 (1.82%) Tessian
Communications & Networking
1 52 (47.27%) Firewall
2 20 (18.18%) DHCP
2 20 (18.18%) DNS
3 14 (12.73%) Network Security
3 14 (12.73%) WAN
4 13 (11.82%) Cisco Firepower
4 13 (11.82%) LAN
5 12 (10.91%) Internet
5 12 (10.91%) VPN
6 11 (10.00%) Cisco ISE
7 10 (9.09%) Cisco IOS
7 10 (9.09%) Junos
7 10 (9.09%) NX-OS
8 8 (7.27%) Kerberos
9 7 (6.36%) DMZ
10 6 (5.45%) HTTPS
10 6 (5.45%) SSL
11 5 (4.55%) HTTP
11 5 (4.55%) VoIP
11 5 (4.55%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (2.73%) SQL Server
2 2 (1.82%) MySQL
3 1 (0.91%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (0.91%) Relational Database
3 1 (0.91%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 8 (7.27%) Git
2 5 (4.55%) GitLab
2 5 (4.55%) TeamCity
3 3 (2.73%) Bitbucket
3 3 (2.73%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.91%) JIRA
General
1 36 (32.73%) Social Skills
2 17 (15.45%) Finance
3 16 (14.55%) Public Sector
4 13 (11.82%) Analytical Skills
5 8 (7.27%) Law
6 5 (4.55%) Aerospace
7 4 (3.64%) Military
8 2 (1.82%) Advertising
8 2 (1.82%) Banking
9 1 (0.91%) Electronics
9 1 (0.91%) Financial Institution
9 1 (0.91%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 20 (18.18%) Senior
2 17 (15.45%) Consultant
3 15 (13.64%) Cloud Engineer
4 14 (12.73%) Analyst
4 14 (12.73%) Architect
5 11 (10.00%) Network Engineer
6 8 (7.27%) Support Engineer
7 7 (6.36%) Cybersecurity Consultant
7 7 (6.36%) Network Manager
7 7 (6.36%) Security Architect
7 7 (6.36%) Security Consultant
7 7 (6.36%) Support Analyst
8 6 (5.45%) Microsoft Engineer
9 5 (4.55%) 2nd Line Support
9 5 (4.55%) 2nd Line Support Analyst
9 5 (4.55%) Administrator
9 5 (4.55%) Lead
9 5 (4.55%) Systems Administrator
9 5 (4.55%) Wintel Administrator
9 5 (4.55%) Wintel Systems Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (9.09%) OAuth
2 9 (8.18%) LDAP
3 6 (5.45%) OAuth2
3 6 (5.45%) OpenID
4 4 (3.64%) CSS
4 4 (3.64%) Flask
4 4 (3.64%) HTML
4 4 (3.64%) SAML
5 2 (1.82%) JDBC
5 2 (1.82%) SOAP
6 1 (0.91%) 802.1X
6 1 (0.91%) ActiveMQ
6 1 (0.91%) JSON
6 1 (0.91%) Middleware
6 1 (0.91%) OpenTelemetry
6 1 (0.91%) RabbitMQ
6 1 (0.91%) React
6 1 (0.91%) SailPoint
6 1 (0.91%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 11 (10.00%) Cloud Native
2 10 (9.09%) Security Posture
3 9 (8.18%) Cloud Security Posture
4 7 (6.36%) Management Information System
5 6 (5.45%) Cyber Kill Chain
6 5 (4.55%) Blog
6 5 (4.55%) Data Centre
6 5 (4.55%) Enterprise Software
6 5 (4.55%) Public Cloud
7 4 (3.64%) Data Structures
8 3 (2.73%) Analytical Mindset
8 3 (2.73%) Blackberry
8 3 (2.73%) RSA SecurID
9 2 (1.82%) Security Operations Centre
10 1 (0.91%) Algorithms
10 1 (0.91%) CCTV
10 1 (0.91%) CMDB
10 1 (0.91%) Derivative
10 1 (0.91%) Fat Client
10 1 (0.91%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 41 (37.27%) Windows
2 30 (27.27%) Linux
3 25 (22.73%) Windows Server
4 8 (7.27%) Unix
4 8 (7.27%) Windows 10
4 8 (7.27%) Windows Server 2016
4 8 (7.27%) Windows Server 2019
5 3 (2.73%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.91%) Windows 7
6 1 (0.91%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 26 (23.64%) Cybersecurity
2 25 (22.73%) Cloud Security
3 22 (20.00%) Problem-Solving
4 21 (19.09%) Cryptography
5 20 (18.18%) Agile
6 19 (17.27%) Containerisation
6 19 (17.27%) Security Architecture
7 17 (15.45%) Infrastructure as Code
8 15 (13.64%) Change Management
8 15 (13.64%) ITSM
8 15 (13.64%) Zero Trust
9 14 (12.73%) Data Loss Prevention
9 14 (12.73%) Disaster Recovery
10 13 (11.82%) Continuous Improvement
10 13 (11.82%) Threat Modelling
11 10 (9.09%) Collaborative Culture
11 10 (9.09%) Risk Management
12 9 (8.18%) Business Continuity
12 9 (8.18%) Incident Response
12 9 (8.18%) TOGAF
Programming Languages
1 29 (26.36%) PowerShell
2 24 (21.82%) Python
3 12 (10.91%) Java
3 12 (10.91%) JavaScript
4 8 (7.27%) C#
4 8 (7.27%) VB
5 6 (5.45%) C++
6 5 (4.55%) Google Apps Script
6 5 (4.55%) Kotlin
6 5 (4.55%) SQL
7 3 (2.73%) Bash
8 1 (0.91%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 56 (50.91%) Security Cleared
2 33 (30.00%) DV Cleared
3 22 (20.00%) SC Cleared
4 14 (12.73%) AWS Certification
5 13 (11.82%) CISSP
6 12 (10.91%) Microsoft Certification
7 9 (8.18%) Azure Certification
7 9 (8.18%) CISM
8 5 (4.55%) TOGAF Certification
9 4 (3.64%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 4 (3.64%) Cisco Certification
9 4 (3.64%) OSCP
9 4 (3.64%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 3 (2.73%) BPSS Clearance
10 3 (2.73%) CCNP
10 3 (2.73%) Computer Science Degree
10 3 (2.73%) Degree
10 3 (2.73%) MCP
11 2 (1.82%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
12 1 (0.91%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (15.45%) GDPR
1 17 (15.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 13 (11.82%) NCSC
2 13 (11.82%) NIST
3 12 (10.91%) PCI DSS
3 12 (10.91%) SLA
4 6 (5.45%) GRC
4 6 (5.45%) ISO/IEC 42001
4 6 (5.45%) JSP 440
5 3 (2.73%) RMADS
6 2 (1.82%) Cyber Essentials
6 2 (1.82%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 2 (1.82%) PSD2
7 1 (0.91%) HIPAA
7 1 (0.91%) NIST 800
7 1 (0.91%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 33 (30.00%) Active Directory
2 21 (19.09%) Docker
3 19 (17.27%) VMware Infrastructure
4 11 (10.00%) VMware NSX
5 10 (9.09%) Firmware
6 7 (6.36%) Hyper-V
6 7 (6.36%) vCloud
7 6 (5.45%) vSphere
8 5 (4.55%) KVM
9 4 (3.64%) Virtual Desktop
9 4 (3.64%) VMware ESXi
9 4 (3.64%) XenApp
9 4 (3.64%) XenDesktop
10 2 (1.82%) pfSense
11 1 (0.91%) iptables
Systems Management
1 21 (19.09%) Terraform
2 17 (15.45%) Ansible
2 17 (15.45%) Kubernetes
3 12 (10.91%) WSUS
4 11 (10.00%) vCenter Server
5 10 (9.09%) Single Sign-On
6 9 (8.18%) Microsoft Intune
7 7 (6.36%) Puppet
8 6 (5.45%) Grafana
9 5 (4.55%) SCCM
10 4 (3.64%) SCOM
11 3 (2.73%) Nessus
11 3 (2.73%) Proxmox
12 2 (1.82%) CASB
12 2 (1.82%) VxRail
13 1 (0.91%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 1 (0.91%) Avamar
13 1 (0.91%) Prometheus
13 1 (0.91%) QRadar
13 1 (0.91%) WMI
Vendors
1 39 (35.45%) Microsoft
2 23 (20.91%) VMware
3 15 (13.64%) Cisco
4 12 (10.91%) Broadcom
5 11 (10.00%) SolarWinds
6 10 (9.09%) Juniper
7 7 (6.36%) Google
7 7 (6.36%) HP
7 7 (6.36%) Red Hat
8 5 (4.55%) Arista
9 4 (3.64%) Aruba
9 4 (3.64%) Citrix
9 4 (3.64%) Imperva
9 4 (3.64%) NetScout
10 3 (2.73%) EMC
10 3 (2.73%) ForgeRock
10 3 (2.73%) IBM
10 3 (2.73%) Splunk
11 2 (1.82%) Dell
11 2 (1.82%) Netskope