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 11 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 460 376 408
Rank change year-on-year -84 +32 +12
Contract jobs citing SSL 217 191 159
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.41% 0.58% 0.41%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 4.32% 4.85% 3.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 123 119 99
10th Percentile £380 £350 £396
25th Percentile £456 £381 £476
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £600
Median % change year-on-year - -12.50% +9.69%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £638
90th Percentile £650 £700 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £500 £600
% change year-on-year +5.00% -16.67% +23.46%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 13 2
10th Percentile - £45.00 £37.70
25th Percentile - £55.00 £39.13
Median hourly rate - £80.68 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year - +87.62% -35.82%
75th Percentile - £82.10 £46.63
90th Percentile - £84.80 £47.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £80.68 £43.00
% change year-on-year - +87.62% -30.63%

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 5,024 3,940 4,737
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.41% 11.97% 12.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,970 2,411 2,875
10th Percentile £250 £241 £220
25th Percentile £400 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £608
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.63% -5.00% +9.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 360 198 316
10th Percentile £15.24 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.33 £25.15 £19.79
Median hourly rate £26.07 £46.88 £49.50
Median % change year-on-year -44.38% -5.30% -3.24%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £83.30 £74.38
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.14 £45.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year -41.91% -18.18% -3.36%

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 11 August 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
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 SSL within the UK over the 6 months to 11 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 -100 188 £525 -2.33% 41
UK excluding London -49 136 £525 +5.00% 20
London -108 65 £550 -8.33% 28
North of England -29 64 £600 +20.00% 7
Work from Home -54 64 £550 +4.76% 19
North West -3 43 £600 - 6
Midlands -36 36 £390 +8.94% 3
West Midlands -35 34 £380 +3.40% 3
South East -63 27 £500 +33.33% 7
Yorkshire -35 19 £600 +20.00% 1
Scotland -1 17 £600 +14.29% 2
East of England -36 6 £450 -26.53% 1
East Midlands -12 2 £475 +32.68%
South West -39 2 - -
North East -41 2 £438 -15.87%

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 15 (6.91%) Confluence
2 3 (1.38%) Apache
3 2 (0.92%) IBM HTTP Server
3 2 (0.92%) IIS
3 2 (0.92%) Oracle HTTP Server
3 2 (0.92%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.92%) WebSphere
3 2 (0.92%) WebSphere Application Server
3 2 (0.92%) WebSphere Portal
4 1 (0.46%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.46%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.46%) ArcGIS
4 1 (0.46%) JBoss
4 1 (0.46%) nginx
Applications
1 5 (2.30%) MS Visio
2 3 (1.38%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (0.92%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 2 (0.92%) Houdini
3 2 (0.92%) NUKE
Business Applications
1 3 (1.38%) Infor LN
2 2 (0.92%) Dynamics GP
3 1 (0.46%) Oracle Assets
3 1 (0.46%) Oracle General Ledger
3 1 (0.46%) Oracle Payables
3 1 (0.46%) Oracle Receivables
3 1 (0.46%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 74 (34.10%) Azure
2 41 (18.89%) AWS
3 33 (15.21%) Entra ID
4 20 (9.22%) GCP
5 15 (6.91%) Azure DevOps
6 14 (6.45%) GitHub
6 14 (6.45%) Microsoft 365
7 12 (5.53%) Datadog
8 11 (5.07%) SaaS
9 10 (4.61%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 9 (4.15%) Power Platform
11 8 (3.69%) Azure Monitor
12 7 (3.23%) GitHub Actions
12 7 (3.23%) IaaS
13 6 (2.76%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 6 (2.76%) Amazon S3
13 6 (2.76%) Azure Key Vault
14 5 (2.30%) AWS KMS
14 5 (2.30%) AWS Lambda
14 5 (2.30%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 106 (48.85%) DNS
2 78 (35.94%) Firewall
3 61 (28.11%) TCP/IP
4 53 (24.42%) HTTP
4 53 (24.42%) VPN
5 51 (23.50%) Network Security
6 41 (18.89%) WAN
7 33 (15.21%) BIG-IP
8 32 (14.75%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
9 29 (13.36%) IPsec
10 28 (12.90%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
11 23 (10.60%) DHCP
12 21 (9.68%) LAN
12 21 (9.68%) Wireshark
13 20 (9.22%) HTTPS
13 20 (9.22%) Internet
14 18 (8.29%) BGP
14 18 (8.29%) Wireless
15 16 (7.37%) SD-WAN
16 11 (5.07%) Cisco ASA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (5.07%) SQL Server
2 10 (4.61%) MySQL
3 7 (3.23%) Power BI
3 7 (3.23%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 6 (2.76%) MariaDB
4 6 (2.76%) PostgreSQL
5 5 (2.30%) MongoDB
6 4 (1.84%) Metadata
7 3 (1.38%) SQLPlus
8 2 (0.92%) Amazon RDS
8 2 (0.92%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 2 (0.92%) Oracle Reports
9 1 (0.46%) Neo4j
9 1 (0.46%) NoSQL
9 1 (0.46%) Sybase ASE
Development Applications
1 25 (11.52%) JIRA
2 17 (7.83%) Jenkins
3 16 (7.37%) Fiddler
4 12 (5.53%) Git
5 7 (3.23%) GitLab
6 6 (2.76%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (2.30%) Browser DevTools
8 2 (0.92%) Introscope
8 2 (0.92%) Maven
9 1 (0.46%) Ant
9 1 (0.46%) Atlassian Bamboo
General
1 49 (22.58%) Finance
2 37 (17.05%) Banking
3 31 (14.29%) Social Skills
4 25 (11.52%) Legal
5 22 (10.14%) Analytical Skills
6 17 (7.83%) Investment Banking
7 14 (6.45%) Public Sector
8 9 (4.15%) Telecoms
9 8 (3.69%) Documentation Skills
10 6 (2.76%) Publishing
11 3 (1.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 3 (1.38%) Manufacturing
12 2 (0.92%) Retail
13 1 (0.46%) Financial Institution
13 1 (0.46%) Marketing
13 1 (0.46%) Organisational Skills
13 1 (0.46%) Pharmaceutical
13 1 (0.46%) Police
13 1 (0.46%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 52 (23.96%) Network Engineer
2 29 (13.36%) Security Engineer
3 25 (11.52%) Administrator
4 24 (11.06%) Senior
5 18 (8.29%) IP Network Engineer
6 17 (7.83%) Web Engineer
7 16 (7.37%) Blue Coat Engineer
8 12 (5.53%) Network Security Engineer
8 12 (5.53%) Senior Network Engineer
9 11 (5.07%) Architect
10 10 (4.61%) Lead
11 8 (3.69%) DBA
11 8 (3.69%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 8 (3.69%) Linux Engineer
11 8 (3.69%) Network Architect
12 7 (3.23%) DevOps Engineer
12 7 (3.23%) SQL DBA
13 6 (2.76%) Developer
14 5 (2.30%) Analyst
14 5 (2.30%) Infrastructure Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (12.90%) SAML
2 23 (10.60%) Middleware
3 17 (7.83%) ISPF
4 14 (6.45%) LDAP
5 13 (5.99%) 802.1X
6 12 (5.53%) OAuth
7 9 (4.15%) OAuth2
8 8 (3.69%) OpenID
9 7 (3.23%) Kafka
9 7 (3.23%) XML
10 6 (2.76%) JSON
10 6 (2.76%) REST
10 6 (2.76%) SOAP
10 6 (2.76%) Web Services
11 4 (1.84%) CSS
11 4 (1.84%) EDI
12 3 (1.38%) EDIFACT
12 3 (1.38%) JMS
12 3 (1.38%) XSLT
13 2 (0.92%) WebSphere MQ
Miscellaneous
1 34 (15.67%) Clustering
2 29 (13.36%) PKI
3 19 (8.76%) Management Information System
4 18 (8.29%) Mainframe
5 15 (6.91%) Data Centre
5 15 (6.91%) Onboarding
6 12 (5.53%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 12 (5.53%) Security Posture
7 11 (5.07%) Cloud Security Posture
8 10 (4.61%) Enterprise Software
8 10 (4.61%) Replication
8 10 (4.61%) Self-Motivation
9 9 (4.15%) Cyber Threat
10 8 (3.69%) Hybrid Cloud
11 5 (2.30%) Distributed Applications
11 5 (2.30%) Linux Command Line
12 4 (1.84%) Algorithms
12 4 (1.84%) Data Structures
12 4 (1.84%) Fibre Optics
12 4 (1.84%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 51 (23.50%) Windows
2 50 (23.04%) Linux
3 26 (11.98%) Windows Server
4 20 (9.22%) zOS
5 15 (6.91%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 14 (6.45%) Unix
7 4 (1.84%) Mac OS
7 4 (1.84%) Windows Server 2019
8 2 (0.92%) Oracle Linux
8 2 (0.92%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
8 2 (0.92%) VMS
9 1 (0.46%) Amazon Linux
9 1 (0.46%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.46%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 59 (27.19%) ITIL
2 45 (20.74%) Load Balancing
3 44 (20.28%) DevOps
4 36 (16.59%) High Availability
5 32 (14.75%) CI/CD
6 31 (14.29%) SIEM
7 27 (12.44%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 27 (12.44%) Zero Trust
8 26 (11.98%) Data Loss Prevention
9 25 (11.52%) Change Management
10 24 (11.06%) Performance Optimisation
10 24 (11.06%) Performance Tuning
10 24 (11.06%) Problem-Solving
11 22 (10.14%) Cybersecurity
12 21 (9.68%) Cloud Security
12 21 (9.68%) Migration
13 20 (9.22%) Infrastructure as Code
14 16 (7.37%) Malware Detection/Protection
14 16 (7.37%) Project Delivery
14 16 (7.37%) Vulnerability Remediation
Programming Languages
1 53 (24.42%) Python
2 30 (13.82%) SQL
3 28 (12.90%) PowerShell
4 23 (10.60%) Bash
5 10 (4.61%) Perl
6 9 (4.15%) Groovy
6 9 (4.15%) Shell Script
7 8 (3.69%) Java
8 7 (3.23%) T-SQL
9 5 (2.30%) ActionScript
9 5 (2.30%) JavaScript
10 4 (1.84%) PL/SQL
11 2 (0.92%) Go
11 2 (0.92%) Jython
12 1 (0.46%) ActionScript 2.0
12 1 (0.46%) C
12 1 (0.46%) C#
12 1 (0.46%) Cypher
12 1 (0.46%) R
12 1 (0.46%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 62 (28.57%) Security Cleared
2 43 (19.82%) SC Cleared
3 19 (8.76%) Degree
4 18 (8.29%) DV Cleared
5 15 (6.91%) Azure Certification
6 13 (5.99%) CISSP
7 12 (5.53%) Microsoft Certification
8 11 (5.07%) Cisco Certification
9 10 (4.61%) CCNP
10 8 (3.69%) BPSS Clearance
11 7 (3.23%) CompTIA Security+
12 6 (2.76%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 6 (2.76%) MCSE
13 4 (1.84%) CCIE
13 4 (1.84%) MCSA
14 3 (1.38%) CISM
15 2 (0.92%) RHCSA
16 1 (0.46%) AWS Certification
16 1 (0.46%) CCSE
16 1 (0.46%) CEH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (5.53%) NIST
2 8 (3.69%) GDPR
3 7 (3.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 7 (3.23%) SLA
4 2 (0.92%) Cyber Essentials
4 2 (0.92%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 2 (0.92%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.46%) DICOM
5 1 (0.46%) HL7
5 1 (0.46%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 50 (23.04%) VMware Infrastructure
2 48 (22.12%) Active Directory
3 22 (10.14%) Virtual Machines
4 19 (8.76%) Firmware
4 19 (8.76%) Hyper-V
5 17 (7.83%) RACF
6 10 (4.61%) Docker
6 10 (4.61%) VMware NSX
7 8 (3.69%) vSphere
8 7 (3.23%) Squid
9 6 (2.76%) Ceph
9 6 (2.76%) VMware ESXi
10 3 (1.38%) Virtual Servers
11 2 (0.92%) Apache ZooKeeper
11 2 (0.92%) ProxySG
11 2 (0.92%) Slurm Workload Manager
11 2 (0.92%) Virtual Desktop
12 1 (0.46%) KVM
12 1 (0.46%) OpenSSH
Systems Management
1 43 (19.82%) Ansible
2 26 (11.98%) Terraform
3 21 (9.68%) Single Sign-On
4 17 (7.83%) OMEGAMON
5 16 (7.37%) Grafana
5 16 (7.37%) Kubernetes
6 13 (5.99%) CASB
7 10 (4.61%) Prometheus
8 8 (3.69%) Puppet
9 7 (3.23%) SCOM
10 6 (2.76%) FortiGate
11 5 (2.30%) Packer
12 4 (1.84%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 4 (1.84%) CA Single Sign-On
12 4 (1.84%) Cisco CUCM
12 4 (1.84%) Microsoft Intune
12 4 (1.84%) Nessus
12 4 (1.84%) PingFederate
12 4 (1.84%) systemd
13 3 (1.38%) yum
Vendors
1 55 (25.35%) VMware
2 48 (22.12%) F5
3 36 (16.59%) Cisco
4 35 (16.13%) Microsoft
5 31 (14.29%) ServiceNow
6 28 (12.90%) Zscaler
7 27 (12.44%) Blue Coat
8 25 (11.52%) Palo Alto
9 23 (10.60%) IBM
10 19 (8.76%) McAfee
11 17 (7.83%) NetApp
12 14 (6.45%) CheckPoint
13 13 (5.99%) Fortinet
13 13 (5.99%) Splunk
14 11 (5.07%) Juniper
14 11 (5.07%) Oracle
14 11 (5.07%) SolarWinds
15 10 (4.61%) Red Hat
16 8 (3.69%) Dynatrace
17 7 (3.23%) Ping Identity