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 4 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 385 360 393
Rank change year-on-year -25 +33 +79
Contract jobs citing SSL 209 197 224
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.57% 0.55% 0.50%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 5.25% 4.46% 3.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 132 120 117
10th Percentile £353 £373 £350
25th Percentile £402 £450 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £554 £544 £536
Median % change year-on-year +1.74% +1.55% +1.13%
75th Percentile £663 £638 £626
90th Percentile £700 £664 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £489 £539 £486
% change year-on-year -9.33% +10.85% +8.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 1 13
10th Percentile - - £54.90
25th Percentile £45.00 £46.25 -
Median hourly rate £65.00 £47.50 £65.98
Median % change year-on-year +36.84% -28.01% +14.82%
75th Percentile £80.00 £48.75 -
90th Percentile £85.00 - £67.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £47.50 £65.98
% change year-on-year +36.84% -28.01% +14.82%

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 3,978 4,418 6,206
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.90% 12.28% 13.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,586 2,547 3,845
10th Percentile £205 £220 £210
25th Percentile £355 £369 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £584 £600 £613
90th Percentile £675 £686 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -5.26% - +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 189 167 345
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.06 £17.72
25th Percentile £20.18 £22.75 £22.50
Median hourly rate £34.00 £41.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -17.07% -25.45% +26.44%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.98
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £76.19
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £47.50 £56.49
% change year-on-year -10.53% -15.91% +25.53%

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 4 December 2025.

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 4 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for SSL in the UK

SSL
Top 16 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 4 December 2025. 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 +3 187 £555 +0.91% 47
UK excluding London -49 96 £489 -9.33% 42
London +13 87 £600 +14.29% 16
Work from Home -6 64 £554 +2.98% 40
North of England -23 46 £602 +9.41% 9
Midlands -9 31 £380 -16.94% 4
West Midlands -2 30 £380 -16.94% 3
North West -12 28 £514 +33.57% 5
Yorkshire -25 17 £675 +22.73% 4
East of England -8 13 £567 +95.52% 11
South East -27 11 £430 -31.20% 16
Scotland -13 5 £525 +1.94% 1
South West -14 3 £557 +31.06% 3
Wales -4 1 £500 - 2
North East -12 1 £550 -6.78%
East Midlands -20 1 - - 1

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 21 (10.05%) Confluence
2 7 (3.35%) TPMS
3 6 (2.87%) Apache
4 4 (1.91%) JBoss
5 2 (0.96%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.96%) Apache Spark
5 2 (0.96%) Microsoft Exchange
5 2 (0.96%) Oracle HTTP Server
5 2 (0.96%) Tomcat
5 2 (0.96%) WebLogic
6 1 (0.48%) Anypoint
6 1 (0.48%) SharePoint
6 1 (0.48%) WebSphere
6 1 (0.48%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 2 (0.96%) Microsoft Excel
1 2 (0.96%) MS Visio
2 1 (0.48%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 13 (6.22%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.48%) RMDS
Cloud Services
1 57 (27.27%) AWS
2 27 (12.92%) Azure
3 26 (12.44%) Amazon S3
4 25 (11.96%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 24 (11.48%) Amazon CloudWatch
5 24 (11.48%) Amazon EC2
6 22 (10.53%) Amazon ELB
7 16 (7.66%) GCP
8 13 (6.22%) GitHub
9 9 (4.31%) Serverless
10 7 (3.35%) AWS CloudFormation
10 7 (3.35%) AWS Lambda
11 6 (2.87%) Entra ID
11 6 (2.87%) OpenShift
12 5 (2.39%) Amazon ECS
12 5 (2.39%) Amazon EKS
13 4 (1.91%) Apigee
13 4 (1.91%) GitHub Actions
13 4 (1.91%) Microsoft 365
14 3 (1.44%) Firebase
Communications & Networking
1 95 (45.45%) DNS
2 84 (40.19%) Firewall
3 79 (37.80%) TCP/IP
4 68 (32.54%) VPN
5 61 (29.19%) Network Security
6 52 (24.88%) HTTP
7 24 (11.48%) WAN
8 22 (10.53%) Wireshark
9 21 (10.05%) IPsec
9 21 (10.05%) Wireless
10 18 (8.61%) BIG-IP
11 17 (8.13%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
12 16 (7.66%) HTTPS
13 15 (7.18%) DMVPN
14 14 (6.70%) BGP
14 14 (6.70%) DHCP
15 13 (6.22%) OSPF
16 12 (5.74%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
16 12 (5.74%) SSH
17 11 (5.26%) Cisco IPT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (4.78%) SQL Server
2 8 (3.83%) Apache Cassandra
3 7 (3.35%) NoSQL
3 7 (3.35%) PostgreSQL
4 5 (2.39%) DocumentDB
4 5 (2.39%) MongoDB
5 3 (1.44%) Redis
5 3 (1.44%) Relational Database
6 2 (0.96%) Big Data
6 2 (0.96%) Delta Lake
6 2 (0.96%) Hadoop
6 2 (0.96%) Parquet
7 1 (0.48%) Mixpanel
Development Applications
1 35 (16.75%) Git
2 33 (15.79%) Jenkins
3 23 (11.00%) JIRA
4 19 (9.09%) GitLab
5 16 (7.66%) Fiddler
6 4 (1.91%) Robot Framework
7 2 (0.96%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.96%) MLflow
7 2 (0.96%) Poetry
7 2 (0.96%) PyCharm
7 2 (0.96%) SonarQube
7 2 (0.96%) Visual Studio Code
8 1 (0.48%) CircleCI
8 1 (0.48%) Log4j
8 1 (0.48%) Postman
8 1 (0.48%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.48%) Subversion
General
1 44 (21.05%) Social Skills
2 32 (15.31%) Analytical Skills
3 30 (14.35%) Finance
4 21 (10.05%) Public Sector
5 19 (9.09%) Banking
6 14 (6.70%) Investment Banking
7 11 (5.26%) Documentation Skills
8 8 (3.83%) Telecoms
9 5 (2.39%) Financial Institution
9 5 (2.39%) Military
10 3 (1.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 2 (0.96%) Advertising
11 2 (0.96%) Aerospace
11 2 (0.96%) Presentation Skills
12 1 (0.48%) Italian Language
12 1 (0.48%) Law
12 1 (0.48%) Legal
12 1 (0.48%) Police
12 1 (0.48%) Polish Language
12 1 (0.48%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 46 (22.01%) Network Engineer
2 40 (19.14%) Senior
3 28 (13.40%) Developer
4 27 (12.92%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 22 (10.53%) Architect
6 19 (9.09%) Security Engineer
7 16 (7.66%) DevOps Engineer
8 14 (6.70%) Consultant
9 13 (6.22%) Senior DevOps
9 13 (6.22%) Senior DevOps Engineer
9 13 (6.22%) Web Engineer
10 11 (5.26%) Analyst
10 11 (5.26%) Network Security Engineer
11 10 (4.78%) Full-Stack Developer
11 10 (4.78%) ServiceNow Architect
11 10 (4.78%) SOC Analyst
12 9 (4.31%) Blue Coat Engineer
12 9 (4.31%) Cryptography Engineer
12 9 (4.31%) Senior Architect
12 9 (4.31%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (18.18%) LDAP
2 33 (15.79%) REST
3 27 (12.92%) SOAP
4 25 (11.96%) SAML
5 23 (11.00%) JSON
6 18 (8.61%) OAuth
7 17 (8.13%) AngularJS
7 17 (8.13%) HTML
8 14 (6.70%) JDBC
8 14 (6.70%) Web Services
9 13 (6.22%) Apache Camel
9 13 (6.22%) HTML5
9 13 (6.22%) jQuery
9 13 (6.22%) ODBC
9 13 (6.22%) RabbitMQ
10 11 (5.26%) 802.1X
10 11 (5.26%) Kafka
11 10 (4.78%) XML
12 9 (4.31%) RESTful
13 5 (2.39%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 28 (13.40%) PKI
2 23 (11.00%) Management Information System
3 17 (8.13%) Data Centre
4 12 (5.74%) Analytical Mindset
4 12 (5.74%) Onboarding
5 10 (4.78%) Cyberattack
6 8 (3.83%) CSOC
6 8 (3.83%) Cyber Threat
6 8 (3.83%) Security Operations Centre
7 6 (2.87%) Security Posture
8 5 (2.39%) Cloud Security Posture
8 5 (2.39%) Private Cloud
9 4 (1.91%) Cloud Native
9 4 (1.91%) Linux Command Line
10 3 (1.44%) Algorithms
10 3 (1.44%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 2 (0.96%) Hybrid Cloud
11 2 (0.96%) Replication
11 2 (0.96%) Virtual Team
12 1 (0.48%) Clustering
Operating Systems
1 62 (29.67%) Linux
2 35 (16.75%) Windows
3 20 (9.57%) Unix
4 8 (3.83%) Windows Server
5 7 (3.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 4 (1.91%) Ubuntu
7 2 (0.96%) Apple iOS
7 2 (0.96%) CatOS
7 2 (0.96%) CentOS
7 2 (0.96%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.48%) Android
8 1 (0.48%) Solaris
8 1 (0.48%) VMS
8 1 (0.48%) Windows Server 2016
8 1 (0.48%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 67 (32.06%) DevOps
2 43 (20.57%) CI/CD
3 35 (16.75%) High Availability
4 32 (15.31%) Infrastructure as Code
5 31 (14.83%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 30 (14.35%) Infrastructure Automation
6 30 (14.35%) Load Balancing
6 30 (14.35%) Problem-Solving
7 29 (13.88%) Cybersecurity
7 29 (13.88%) Incident Response
8 27 (12.92%) Root Cause Analysis
9 26 (12.44%) Agile
10 23 (11.00%) Migration
10 23 (11.00%) Test Automation
11 22 (10.53%) Change Management
11 22 (10.53%) Cloud Security
12 21 (10.05%) DevSecOps
12 21 (10.05%) Microservices
13 19 (9.09%) Identity Access Management
13 19 (9.09%) Key Management
Programming Languages
1 69 (33.01%) Python
2 34 (16.27%) Bash
3 29 (13.88%) JavaScript
4 16 (7.66%) Java
4 16 (7.66%) PowerShell
5 13 (6.22%) SQL
6 12 (5.74%) Perl
7 3 (1.44%) C#
8 2 (0.96%) Groovy
8 2 (0.96%) PHP
8 2 (0.96%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.48%) ActionScript
9 1 (0.48%) ActionScript 2.0
9 1 (0.48%) C
9 1 (0.48%) C++
9 1 (0.48%) Kotlin
9 1 (0.48%) Objective-C
9 1 (0.48%) Swift
9 1 (0.48%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 82 (39.23%) Security Cleared
2 69 (33.01%) SC Cleared
3 18 (8.61%) CISSP
4 12 (5.74%) Degree
4 12 (5.74%) DV Cleared
4 12 (5.74%) Microsoft Certification
5 10 (4.78%) Cisco Certification
6 7 (3.35%) CISM
6 7 (3.35%) FFIEC
7 6 (2.87%) CCNP
7 6 (2.87%) MCSE
8 5 (2.39%) CCSA
8 5 (2.39%) CompTIA Security+
8 5 (2.39%) MCSA
9 3 (1.44%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 3 (1.44%) Computer Science Degree
9 3 (1.44%) RHCE
10 2 (0.96%) CCSP
10 2 (0.96%) CEH
10 2 (0.96%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (8.13%) GDPR
2 14 (6.70%) PCI DSS
3 9 (4.31%) NIST
4 7 (3.35%) GLBA
5 6 (2.87%) HIPAA
6 4 (1.91%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 3 (1.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 2 (0.96%) Data Quality
8 2 (0.96%) FIPS 140-2
8 2 (0.96%) QA
9 1 (0.48%) Accessibility
9 1 (0.48%) SLA
9 1 (0.48%) SOC 2
System Software
1 42 (20.10%) Docker
2 25 (11.96%) Active Directory
3 14 (6.70%) VMware Infrastructure
4 13 (6.22%) Firmware
5 6 (2.87%) VMware NSX
6 5 (2.39%) NDS
6 5 (2.39%) NetIQ eDirectory
7 4 (1.91%) ProxySG
7 4 (1.91%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.48%) Embedded Firmware
8 1 (0.48%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 1 (0.48%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.48%) Virtual Servers
8 1 (0.48%) XenApp
8 1 (0.48%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 56 (26.79%) Ansible
2 42 (20.10%) Terraform
3 30 (14.35%) Kubernetes
4 24 (11.48%) Single Sign-On
5 7 (3.35%) CASB
6 6 (2.87%) Nessus
7 4 (1.91%) CA Spectrum
8 3 (1.44%) Microsoft Intune
8 3 (1.44%) Nagios
8 3 (1.44%) Prometheus
8 3 (1.44%) SCCM
8 3 (1.44%) SCOM
9 2 (0.96%) Argo
9 2 (0.96%) FortiGate
9 2 (0.96%) Istio
9 2 (0.96%) McAfee ePO
9 2 (0.96%) Progress Chef
9 2 (0.96%) Rsyslog
9 2 (0.96%) SELinux
10 1 (0.48%) VxRail
Vendors
1 74 (35.41%) F5
2 43 (20.57%) CheckPoint
3 35 (16.75%) Blue Coat
4 30 (14.35%) Palo Alto
5 29 (13.88%) Cisco
6 24 (11.48%) Splunk
7 23 (11.00%) Microsoft
8 21 (10.05%) Juniper
8 21 (10.05%) McAfee
9 20 (9.57%) VMware
10 18 (8.61%) Remedy
10 18 (8.61%) ServiceNow
11 13 (6.22%) BMC
11 13 (6.22%) HP
11 13 (6.22%) Ivanti
11 13 (6.22%) Oracle
12 12 (5.74%) NetApp
12 12 (5.74%) Thales
12 12 (5.74%) Zscaler
13 11 (5.26%) Fortinet