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

6 months to
26 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 369 358 377
Rank change year-on-year -11 +19 +97
Contract jobs citing SSL 222 200 220
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.60% 0.59% 0.50%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 5.53% 4.64% 3.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 136 125 113
10th Percentile £351 £383 £350
25th Percentile £400 £463 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.27% - +3.04%
75th Percentile £663 £638 £627
90th Percentile £700 £675 £716
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £550 £475
% change year-on-year -9.09% +15.79% +7.47%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 0 14
10th Percentile £45.00 - £55.35
25th Percentile £48.94 - £60.56
Median hourly rate £65.00 - £65.98
75th Percentile £77.19 - £66.18
90th Percentile £84.88 - £67.35
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 - £65.98

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 4,011 4,306 6,012
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.79% 12.76% 13.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,629 2,532 3,708
10th Percentile £206 £220 £210
25th Percentile £358 £364 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £473 £475
% change year-on-year -4.76% -0.53% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 181 141 333
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.99 £17.72
25th Percentile £20.00 £21.46 £22.75
Median hourly rate £34.00 £35.00 £56.40
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% -37.94% +38.23%
75th Percentile £65.00 £60.00 £65.98
90th Percentile £80.00 £70.00 £75.59
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £35.00 £56.49
% change year-on-year +21.43% -38.04% +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 26 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 26 December 2025.

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 26 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 -15 195 £550 -4.35% 60
UK excluding London -45 110 £500 -9.09% 54
London +18 81 £575 +6.98% 12
Work from Home -4 71 £525 -2.33% 29
North of England -31 53 £604 +9.73% 17
West Midlands -2 35 £380 -16.94% 6
Midlands -24 35 £380 -16.94% 7
North West -12 33 £589 +53.05% 12
Yorkshire -31 19 £675 +22.73% 4
East of England -13 18 £567 -5.50% 10
South East -36 11 £430 -31.20% 14
Scotland -7 6 £525 +5.00%
South West -12 4 £529 +24.35% 6
North East -13 1 £550 -6.78% 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 22 (9.91%) Confluence
2 9 (4.05%) TPMS
3 3 (1.35%) Apache
4 2 (0.90%) Apache Airflow
4 2 (0.90%) Apache Spark
4 2 (0.90%) Oracle HTTP Server
4 2 (0.90%) Tomcat
4 2 (0.90%) WebLogic
5 1 (0.45%) Anypoint
5 1 (0.45%) CMS
5 1 (0.45%) Drupal
5 1 (0.45%) IIS
5 1 (0.45%) JBoss
5 1 (0.45%) Microsoft Exchange
5 1 (0.45%) SharePoint
5 1 (0.45%) Umbraco
Applications
1 3 (1.35%) MS Visio
2 2 (0.90%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.45%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 9 (4.05%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.45%) RMDS
Cloud Services
1 62 (27.93%) AWS
2 29 (13.06%) Azure
3 26 (11.71%) Virtual Private Cloud
4 24 (10.81%) Amazon S3
5 22 (9.91%) Amazon CloudWatch
5 22 (9.91%) Amazon EC2
5 22 (9.91%) Amazon ELB
6 18 (8.11%) GCP
6 18 (8.11%) GitHub
7 10 (4.50%) Amazon EKS
8 8 (3.60%) Serverless
9 6 (2.70%) Entra ID
10 5 (2.25%) Amazon ECS
10 5 (2.25%) AWS CloudFormation
10 5 (2.25%) AWS Lambda
10 5 (2.25%) GitHub Actions
10 5 (2.25%) OpenShift
11 4 (1.80%) Apigee
11 4 (1.80%) Firebase
12 3 (1.35%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 106 (47.75%) DNS
2 88 (39.64%) TCP/IP
3 85 (38.29%) Firewall
4 69 (31.08%) VPN
5 65 (29.28%) Network Security
6 63 (28.38%) HTTP
7 28 (12.61%) Wireshark
8 27 (12.16%) WAN
9 26 (11.71%) IPsec
10 24 (10.81%) BIG-IP
11 21 (9.46%) Wireless
12 19 (8.56%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
13 17 (7.66%) HTTPS
14 16 (7.21%) BGP
15 15 (6.76%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
15 15 (6.76%) FTP
15 15 (6.76%) OSPF
15 15 (6.76%) SMTP
15 15 (6.76%) SSH
16 14 (6.31%) DMVPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (4.95%) NoSQL
2 9 (4.05%) DocumentDB
2 9 (4.05%) MongoDB
3 8 (3.60%) Apache Cassandra
3 8 (3.60%) SQL Server
4 7 (3.15%) PostgreSQL
5 3 (1.35%) Redis
6 2 (0.90%) Big Data
6 2 (0.90%) Delta Lake
6 2 (0.90%) Hadoop
6 2 (0.90%) Parquet
7 1 (0.45%) Amazon QuickSight
7 1 (0.45%) Mixpanel
7 1 (0.45%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 36 (16.22%) Git
2 32 (14.41%) Jenkins
3 25 (11.26%) JIRA
4 21 (9.46%) Fiddler
5 20 (9.01%) GitLab
6 4 (1.80%) Robot Framework
7 2 (0.90%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.90%) git-flow
7 2 (0.90%) MLflow
7 2 (0.90%) Poetry
7 2 (0.90%) PyCharm
7 2 (0.90%) SonarQube
7 2 (0.90%) Visual Studio Code
8 1 (0.45%) CircleCI
8 1 (0.45%) Crashlytics
8 1 (0.45%) fastlane
8 1 (0.45%) Postman
8 1 (0.45%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.45%) XCTest
8 1 (0.45%) XCUITest
General
1 46 (20.72%) Social Skills
2 39 (17.57%) Analytical Skills
3 33 (14.86%) Finance
4 25 (11.26%) Public Sector
5 23 (10.36%) Banking
6 17 (7.66%) Investment Banking
7 13 (5.86%) Documentation Skills
8 8 (3.60%) Telecoms
9 5 (2.25%) Financial Institution
10 4 (1.80%) Military
11 2 (0.90%) Advertising
11 2 (0.90%) Aerospace
11 2 (0.90%) Presentation Skills
12 1 (0.45%) Billing
12 1 (0.45%) Influencing Skills
12 1 (0.45%) Italian Language
12 1 (0.45%) Marketing
12 1 (0.45%) Organisational Skills
12 1 (0.45%) Police
12 1 (0.45%) Polish Language
Job Titles
1 56 (25.23%) Network Engineer
2 40 (18.02%) Senior
3 32 (14.41%) Developer
4 27 (12.16%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 20 (9.01%) Architect
5 20 (9.01%) Security Engineer
6 18 (8.11%) Web Engineer
7 16 (7.21%) Analyst
7 16 (7.21%) DevOps Engineer
8 15 (6.76%) SOC Analyst
9 13 (5.86%) Consultant
9 13 (5.86%) Full-Stack Developer
9 13 (5.86%) Network Security Engineer
9 13 (5.86%) Senior DevOps
9 13 (5.86%) Senior DevOps Engineer
10 12 (5.41%) Blue Coat Engineer
11 11 (4.95%) Cryptography Engineer
12 10 (4.50%) IP Network Engineer
13 9 (4.05%) Junior
13 9 (4.05%) Junior Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (17.57%) LDAP
2 31 (13.96%) REST
3 23 (10.36%) SAML
3 23 (10.36%) SOAP
4 19 (8.56%) JSON
4 19 (8.56%) OAuth
5 18 (8.11%) HTML
6 13 (5.86%) AngularJS
6 13 (5.86%) RESTful
7 11 (4.95%) 802.1X
7 11 (4.95%) Kafka
7 11 (4.95%) Web Services
8 10 (4.50%) XML
9 9 (4.05%) Apache Camel
9 9 (4.05%) HTML5
9 9 (4.05%) JDBC
9 9 (4.05%) jQuery
9 9 (4.05%) ODBC
9 9 (4.05%) RabbitMQ
9 9 (4.05%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 31 (13.96%) Management Information System
2 26 (11.71%) PKI
3 17 (7.66%) Analytical Mindset
3 17 (7.66%) Data Centre
4 15 (6.76%) Cyberattack
5 14 (6.31%) Cyber Threat
6 13 (5.86%) CSOC
6 13 (5.86%) Security Operations Centre
7 11 (4.95%) Onboarding
8 5 (2.25%) Cloud Security Posture
8 5 (2.25%) Private Cloud
8 5 (2.25%) Security Posture
9 4 (1.80%) Algorithms
9 4 (1.80%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 4 (1.80%) Linux Command Line
10 3 (1.35%) Cloud Native
11 2 (0.90%) Hybrid Cloud
11 2 (0.90%) Mobile App
11 2 (0.90%) Virtual Team
12 1 (0.45%) Distributed Applications
Operating Systems
1 60 (27.03%) Linux
2 35 (15.77%) Windows
3 20 (9.01%) Unix
4 8 (3.60%) Windows Server
5 7 (3.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 4 (1.80%) Ubuntu
7 3 (1.35%) Apple iOS
8 2 (0.90%) CatOS
8 2 (0.90%) CentOS
8 2 (0.90%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.45%) Android
9 1 (0.45%) Solaris
9 1 (0.45%) VMS
9 1 (0.45%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.45%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 64 (28.83%) DevOps
2 49 (22.07%) CI/CD
3 39 (17.57%) Cybersecurity
4 36 (16.22%) High Availability
5 35 (15.77%) Load Balancing
6 34 (15.32%) Incident Response
7 33 (14.86%) Infrastructure as Code
8 31 (13.96%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 31 (13.96%) Problem-Solving
8 31 (13.96%) Root Cause Analysis
9 30 (13.51%) Infrastructure Automation
10 28 (12.61%) Test Automation
11 24 (10.81%) Agile
11 24 (10.81%) Change Management
12 23 (10.36%) Cloud Security
12 23 (10.36%) Data Loss Prevention
12 23 (10.36%) Identity Access Management
12 23 (10.36%) Migration
13 22 (9.91%) Containerisation
13 22 (9.91%) Microservices
Programming Languages
1 76 (34.23%) Python
2 35 (15.77%) Bash
3 30 (13.51%) JavaScript
4 20 (9.01%) PowerShell
5 16 (7.21%) Java
6 15 (6.76%) SQL
7 12 (5.41%) Perl
8 3 (1.35%) C#
9 2 (0.90%) C
9 2 (0.90%) Groovy
9 2 (0.90%) PHP
9 2 (0.90%) Shell Script
9 2 (0.90%) Swift
10 1 (0.45%) C++
10 1 (0.45%) Kotlin
10 1 (0.45%) Objective-C
Qualifications
1 91 (40.99%) Security Cleared
2 77 (34.68%) SC Cleared
3 17 (7.66%) CISSP
3 17 (7.66%) DV Cleared
4 15 (6.76%) Degree
5 13 (5.86%) Cisco Certification
6 11 (4.95%) Microsoft Certification
7 9 (4.05%) CCNP
7 9 (4.05%) FFIEC
8 7 (3.15%) CISM
9 6 (2.70%) MCSE
10 5 (2.25%) CompTIA Security+
10 5 (2.25%) MCSA
11 4 (1.80%) CCSA
11 4 (1.80%) Computer Science Degree
12 3 (1.35%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 3 (1.35%) RHCE
13 2 (0.90%) CCSP
13 2 (0.90%) CEH
13 2 (0.90%) JNCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (8.56%) GDPR
2 16 (7.21%) PCI DSS
3 11 (4.95%) NIST
4 9 (4.05%) GLBA
5 6 (2.70%) HIPAA
6 4 (1.80%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 3 (1.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 2 (0.90%) Accessibility
8 2 (0.90%) Data Quality
8 2 (0.90%) FIPS 140-2
8 2 (0.90%) QA
9 1 (0.45%) SLA
9 1 (0.45%) SOC 2
System Software
1 46 (20.72%) Docker
2 26 (11.71%) Active Directory
3 16 (7.21%) VMware Infrastructure
4 15 (6.76%) Firmware
5 9 (4.05%) VMware NSX
6 5 (2.25%) NDS
6 5 (2.25%) NetIQ eDirectory
7 4 (1.80%) ProxySG
8 2 (0.90%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.45%) Embedded Firmware
9 1 (0.45%) RACF
9 1 (0.45%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 1 (0.45%) Squid
9 1 (0.45%) vSphere
9 1 (0.45%) XenApp
9 1 (0.45%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 55 (24.77%) Ansible
2 43 (19.37%) Terraform
3 34 (15.32%) Kubernetes
4 22 (9.91%) Single Sign-On
5 7 (3.15%) CASB
6 6 (2.70%) Nessus
7 3 (1.35%) CA Spectrum
7 3 (1.35%) FortiGate
7 3 (1.35%) Microsoft Intune
7 3 (1.35%) Nagios
7 3 (1.35%) Prometheus
7 3 (1.35%) SCCM
7 3 (1.35%) SCOM
8 2 (0.90%) Argo
8 2 (0.90%) Istio
8 2 (0.90%) Rsyslog
9 1 (0.45%) Failover Clustering
9 1 (0.45%) Grafana
9 1 (0.45%) Host Intrusion Detection System
9 1 (0.45%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 80 (36.04%) F5
2 45 (20.27%) CheckPoint
3 40 (18.02%) Blue Coat
4 34 (15.32%) Palo Alto
5 33 (14.86%) Cisco
6 26 (11.71%) VMware
7 25 (11.26%) McAfee
7 25 (11.26%) Splunk
8 22 (9.91%) Juniper
8 22 (9.91%) Microsoft
9 15 (6.76%) NetApp
10 14 (6.31%) Remedy
10 14 (6.31%) ServiceNow
10 14 (6.31%) Thales
11 11 (4.95%) Fortinet
11 11 (4.95%) Zscaler
12 10 (4.50%) Axway
12 10 (4.50%) Oracle
13 9 (4.05%) BMC
13 9 (4.05%) HP