SSL Contract Job Trends

Secure Socket Layer (SSL)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring SSL skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 13 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 431 347 397
Rank change year-on-year -84 +50 +68
Contract jobs citing SSL 183 189 220
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.46% 0.61% 0.49%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 4.41% 4.65% 3.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 107 115 109
10th Percentile £335 £387 £350
25th Percentile £370 £465 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £550 £500
Median % change year-on-year -6.36% +10.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £680 £638 £625
90th Percentile £700 £657 £660
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £575 £437
% change year-on-year -13.04% +31.65% -1.19%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 0 13
10th Percentile £52.15 - -
25th Percentile £55.00 - £45.88
Median hourly rate £65.00 - £65.98
75th Percentile £75.00 - -
90th Percentile £80.25 - £66.20
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 - £65.98
% change year-on-year - - +5.37%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

SSL falls under the Communications and Computer Networking category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring communications or computer networking skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 4,148 4,068 6,007
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.37% 13.14% 13.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,722 2,402 3,589
10th Percentile £204 £210 £205
25th Percentile £355 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £488
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +2.56% -6.25%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £680 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £473 £475
% change year-on-year -4.76% -0.53% +0.32%
Number of hourly rates quoted 168 131 405
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.44 £14.41
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.46 £21.00
Median hourly rate £31.44 £32.50 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -3.26% -31.58% +143.59%
75th Percentile £65.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £70.00 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.54 £26.75 £51.89
% change year-on-year +51.55% -48.45% +161.00%

SSL
Job Vacancy Trend

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

SSL job vacancy trend in the UK

SSL
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing SSL.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing SSL

SSL
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SSL over the 6 months to 13 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for SSL in the UK

SSL
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing SSL.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing SSL

SSL
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing SSL over the 6 months to 13 February 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for SSL in the UK

SSL
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 SSL within the UK over the 6 months to 13 February 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 -67 155 £518 -5.91% 28
UK excluding London -58 103 £500 -13.04% 30
North of England -14 67 £670 +21.82% 4
Work from Home -34 58 £518 -5.91% 14
London -34 46 £575 +10.58% 3
North West -5 40 £548 +57.55% 3
West Midlands -17 38 £378 -17.49% 3
Midlands -27 38 £378 -17.49% 4
Yorkshire -45 26 £675 +22.73%
South East -61 8 £430 -31.20% 6
East of England -25 7 £427 -28.83% 10
Scotland -3 3 £300 -41.75% 3
North East -17 2 £550 -6.78% 1
South West -19 2 £500 +42.86% 4

SSL
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 13 (7.10%) TPMS
2 12 (6.56%) Confluence
3 3 (1.64%) Apache
3 3 (1.64%) Microsoft Exchange
4 2 (1.09%) Oracle HTTP Server
4 2 (1.09%) Tomcat
4 2 (1.09%) WebLogic
5 1 (0.55%) CMS
5 1 (0.55%) Drupal
5 1 (0.55%) IIS
5 1 (0.55%) JBoss
5 1 (0.55%) Umbraco
Applications
1 6 (3.28%) MS Visio
2 1 (0.55%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (0.55%) RMDS
Cloud Services
1 56 (30.60%) AWS
2 33 (18.03%) Azure
3 18 (9.84%) Virtual Private Cloud
4 17 (9.29%) GCP
5 15 (8.20%) GitHub
6 14 (7.65%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 14 (7.65%) Amazon EC2
6 14 (7.65%) Amazon ELB
6 14 (7.65%) Amazon S3
7 12 (6.56%) Serverless
8 11 (6.01%) Amazon EKS
9 6 (3.28%) SaaS
10 5 (2.73%) Amazon ECS
10 5 (2.73%) AWS CloudFormation
10 5 (2.73%) AWS Lambda
10 5 (2.73%) IaaS
10 5 (2.73%) OpenShift
10 5 (2.73%) PaaS
11 4 (2.19%) Entra ID
11 4 (2.19%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 89 (48.63%) DNS
2 75 (40.98%) TCP/IP
3 68 (37.16%) Firewall
4 58 (31.69%) HTTP
5 54 (29.51%) VPN
6 42 (22.95%) Network Security
7 41 (22.40%) BIG-IP
8 40 (21.86%) Wireshark
9 26 (14.21%) IPsec
10 24 (13.11%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
10 24 (13.11%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
11 23 (12.57%) WAN
12 18 (9.84%) HTTPS
12 18 (9.84%) SNMP
12 18 (9.84%) SSH
13 15 (8.20%) LAN
14 13 (7.10%) Wireless
15 12 (6.56%) BGP
15 12 (6.56%) OSPF
16 9 (4.92%) DHCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (5.46%) DocumentDB
1 10 (5.46%) MongoDB
1 10 (5.46%) NoSQL
2 9 (4.92%) SQL Server
3 8 (4.37%) Apache Cassandra
4 5 (2.73%) PostgreSQL
5 3 (1.64%) Redis
6 1 (0.55%) Amazon QuickSight
6 1 (0.55%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 30 (16.39%) Fiddler
2 20 (10.93%) Git
3 17 (9.29%) Jenkins
4 15 (8.20%) GitLab
5 14 (7.65%) JIRA
6 2 (1.09%) git-flow
7 1 (0.55%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.55%) CircleCI
7 1 (0.55%) Crashlytics
7 1 (0.55%) fastlane
7 1 (0.55%) JUnit
7 1 (0.55%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.55%) Subversion
7 1 (0.55%) Xcode
7 1 (0.55%) XCTest
7 1 (0.55%) XCUITest
General
1 29 (15.85%) Social Skills
2 27 (14.75%) Analytical Skills
3 23 (12.57%) Banking
3 23 (12.57%) Finance
4 19 (10.38%) Investment Banking
5 16 (8.74%) Documentation Skills
5 16 (8.74%) Public Sector
6 6 (3.28%) Telecoms
7 4 (2.19%) Military
8 2 (1.09%) Influencing Skills
8 2 (1.09%) Legal
8 2 (1.09%) Presentation Skills
9 1 (0.55%) Billing
9 1 (0.55%) Financial Institution
9 1 (0.55%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 62 (33.88%) Network Engineer
2 28 (15.30%) Senior
3 27 (14.75%) Web Engineer
4 24 (13.11%) Developer
5 18 (9.84%) Architect
6 17 (9.29%) Blue Coat Engineer
7 16 (8.74%) IP Network Engineer
8 15 (8.20%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 15 (8.20%) Junior
9 14 (7.65%) Cryptography Engineer
9 14 (7.65%) Junior Network Engineer
10 13 (7.10%) DevOps Engineer
10 13 (7.10%) Security Engineer
11 12 (6.56%) Consultant
11 12 (6.56%) Senior DevOps
11 12 (6.56%) Senior DevOps Engineer
12 11 (6.01%) Full-Stack Developer
13 8 (4.37%) Network Security Engineer
14 6 (3.28%) Analyst
14 6 (3.28%) Lead
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (10.93%) OAuth
1 20 (10.93%) SAML
2 19 (10.38%) REST
3 18 (9.84%) LDAP
4 11 (6.01%) HTML
4 11 (6.01%) Kafka
4 11 (6.01%) OpenID
4 11 (6.01%) RESTful
5 10 (5.46%) JSON
5 10 (5.46%) OAuth2
5 10 (5.46%) SOAP
5 10 (5.46%) Spring
5 10 (5.46%) Spring Boot
5 10 (5.46%) XML
6 9 (4.92%) Node.js
7 6 (3.28%) 802.1X
7 6 (3.28%) Web Services
8 5 (2.73%) XACML
9 4 (2.19%) .NET
10 3 (1.64%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 27 (14.75%) Management Information System
2 22 (12.02%) PKI
3 13 (7.10%) Data Centre
4 9 (4.92%) Analytical Mindset
5 7 (3.83%) Cyber Threat
6 6 (3.28%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 6 (3.28%) Onboarding
7 5 (2.73%) CSOC
7 5 (2.73%) Cyberattack
7 5 (2.73%) Security Operations Centre
8 3 (1.64%) Cloud Native
9 2 (1.09%) Algorithms
9 2 (1.09%) Enterprise Storage
9 2 (1.09%) Hybrid Cloud
9 2 (1.09%) Linux Command Line
9 2 (1.09%) Security Posture
10 1 (0.55%) Animation
10 1 (0.55%) Life Science
10 1 (0.55%) Mobile App
10 1 (0.55%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 43 (23.50%) Linux
2 35 (19.13%) Windows
3 10 (5.46%) Windows Server
4 5 (2.73%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 4 (2.19%) CatOS
6 3 (1.64%) Unix
7 2 (1.09%) Apple iOS
7 2 (1.09%) CentOS
7 2 (1.09%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.55%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.55%) Solaris
8 1 (0.55%) Windows Server 2016
8 1 (0.55%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 46 (25.14%) DevOps
2 41 (22.40%) CI/CD
2 41 (22.40%) Load Balancing
3 37 (20.22%) Cybersecurity
4 28 (15.30%) Data Loss Prevention
5 27 (14.75%) High Availability
5 27 (14.75%) Infrastructure as Code
6 26 (14.21%) Malware Detection/Protection
7 25 (13.66%) Identity Access Management
8 23 (12.57%) Incident Response
8 23 (12.57%) Problem-Solving
8 23 (12.57%) Stakeholder Management
8 23 (12.57%) Test Automation
9 22 (12.02%) API Management
9 22 (12.02%) Change Management
9 22 (12.02%) Key Management
10 21 (11.48%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 21 (11.48%) Observability
10 21 (11.48%) Roadmaps
10 21 (11.48%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 52 (28.42%) Python
2 22 (12.02%) Bash
3 19 (10.38%) JavaScript
4 17 (9.29%) SQL
5 12 (6.56%) PowerShell
6 11 (6.01%) Java
7 3 (1.64%) C#
8 2 (1.09%) PHP
8 2 (1.09%) Swift
9 1 (0.55%) C
9 1 (0.55%) Objective-C
9 1 (0.55%) Perl
Qualifications
1 62 (33.88%) Security Cleared
2 50 (27.32%) SC Cleared
3 15 (8.20%) Degree
4 13 (7.10%) CISSP
4 13 (7.10%) DV Cleared
4 13 (7.10%) FFIEC
5 12 (6.56%) Cisco Certification
6 9 (4.92%) CCNP
7 7 (3.83%) CISM
7 7 (3.83%) Microsoft Certification
8 4 (2.19%) Computer Science Degree
9 3 (1.64%) RHCE
10 2 (1.09%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 2 (1.09%) AWS Certification
10 2 (1.09%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 2 (1.09%) CCIE
10 2 (1.09%) CCSP
10 2 (1.09%) CompTIA Security+
10 2 (1.09%) Master's Degree
10 2 (1.09%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (12.57%) GDPR
2 18 (9.84%) PCI DSS
3 14 (7.65%) NIST
4 13 (7.10%) GLBA
5 6 (3.28%) HIPAA
6 4 (2.19%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 3 (1.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 2 (1.09%) Accessibility
8 2 (1.09%) Data Quality
9 1 (0.55%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.55%) FIPS 140-2
9 1 (0.55%) NCSC
9 1 (0.55%) RMADS
9 1 (0.55%) SOC 2
System Software
1 34 (18.58%) Docker
2 25 (13.66%) Active Directory
3 24 (13.11%) VMware Infrastructure
4 17 (9.29%) VMware NSX
5 15 (8.20%) Firmware
6 5 (2.73%) NDS
6 5 (2.73%) NetIQ eDirectory
6 5 (2.73%) RACF
7 4 (2.19%) ProxySG
8 2 (1.09%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.55%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 1 (0.55%) Squid
9 1 (0.55%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.55%) vSphere
9 1 (0.55%) XenApp
9 1 (0.55%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 41 (22.40%) Ansible
2 30 (16.39%) Kubernetes
3 26 (14.21%) Terraform
4 18 (9.84%) Single Sign-On
5 5 (2.73%) FortiGate
6 3 (1.64%) CASB
6 3 (1.64%) Nagios
6 3 (1.64%) Prometheus
7 2 (1.09%) SCCM
8 1 (0.55%) Failover Clustering
8 1 (0.55%) Grafana
8 1 (0.55%) Host Intrusion Detection System
8 1 (0.55%) Microsoft Intune
8 1 (0.55%) Nessus
8 1 (0.55%) Progress Chef
8 1 (0.55%) QRadar
8 1 (0.55%) Red Hat Satellite
8 1 (0.55%) SCOM
8 1 (0.55%) SCOrch
8 1 (0.55%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 69 (37.70%) F5
2 42 (22.95%) Blue Coat
3 37 (20.22%) VMware
4 34 (18.58%) CheckPoint
4 34 (18.58%) McAfee
5 32 (17.49%) Cisco
6 31 (16.94%) Palo Alto
7 29 (15.85%) Microsoft
8 23 (12.57%) Splunk
9 20 (10.93%) NetApp
10 16 (8.74%) Thales
11 12 (6.56%) Juniper
12 10 (5.46%) Axway
12 10 (5.46%) Oracle
13 9 (4.92%) OpenText
14 8 (4.37%) Zscaler
15 7 (3.83%) Fortinet
16 5 (2.73%) Google
16 5 (2.73%) Micro Focus
16 5 (2.73%) NetIQ