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

6 months to
11 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 452 378 385
Rank change year-on-year -74 +7 +74
Contract jobs citing SSL 191 149 211
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.38% 0.51% 0.48%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 3.99% 4.06% 3.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 110 83 125
10th Percentile £331 £351 £378
25th Percentile £407 £404 £453
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £518 £525 £575
Median % change year-on-year -1.43% -8.70% +4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £638
90th Percentile £688 £700 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £523 £600
% change year-on-year +0.48% -12.92% +23.46%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 6 5
10th Percentile - £80.34 £40.40
25th Percentile - £80.59 -
Median hourly rate - £81.35 £45.88
Median % change year-on-year - +77.31% -27.44%
75th Percentile - £81.91 -
90th Percentile - £83.05 £47.60
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £81.35 £45.88
% change year-on-year - +77.31% -26.73%

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 4,781 3,671 5,438
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.58% 12.50% 12.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,930 2,271 3,228
10th Percentile £263 £220 £206
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £485 £498
Median % change year-on-year +3.09% -2.51% -2.93%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £476 £469 £483
% change year-on-year +1.39% -2.95% +1.74%
Number of hourly rates quoted 284 165 420
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £21.14 £18.13 £16.30
Median hourly rate £27.50 £44.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -37.50% +10.00% +113.73%
75th Percentile £65.00 £60.13 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.18 £80.61 £70.72
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £31.79 £47.50
% change year-on-year +2.23% -33.07% +156.76%

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 June 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 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 11 June 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 -78 160 £520 -0.95% 30
UK excluding London -49 121 £525 +0.48% 28
North of England -28 64 £623 +24.60% 6
Work from Home -51 53 £518 -3.72% 13
London -84 47 £515 -10.43% 7
North West -6 38 £626 +4.33% 3
West Midlands -35 36 £358 - 1
Midlands -44 36 £358 -0.14% 4
Yorkshire -39 25 £625 +25.00% 3
South East -56 19 £488 +23.42% 11
Scotland -2 13 £600 +1.05%
East of England -36 5 £450 -25.00% 2
South West -24 2 £500 -14.53% 2
North East -28 2 £413 -22.90%

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 (7.85%) Confluence
2 6 (3.14%) TPMS
3 3 (1.57%) Microsoft Exchange
4 2 (1.05%) IBM HTTP Server
4 2 (1.05%) Oracle HTTP Server
4 2 (1.05%) WebSphere
4 2 (1.05%) WebSphere Application Server
4 2 (1.05%) WebSphere Portal
5 1 (0.52%) Apache
5 1 (0.52%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.52%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.52%) ArcGIS
5 1 (0.52%) CMS
5 1 (0.52%) Drupal
5 1 (0.52%) IIS
5 1 (0.52%) SharePoint
5 1 (0.52%) Umbraco
Applications
1 7 (3.66%) MS Visio
2 2 (1.05%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.52%) Dynamics GP
Cloud Services
1 57 (29.84%) Azure
2 40 (20.94%) AWS
3 25 (13.09%) Entra ID
4 18 (9.42%) GCP
5 13 (6.81%) GitHub
6 12 (6.28%) SaaS
7 10 (5.24%) Datadog
7 10 (5.24%) IaaS
7 10 (5.24%) Microsoft 365
8 9 (4.71%) Serverless
8 9 (4.71%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 6 (3.14%) Amazon EKS
10 5 (2.62%) Azure Logic Apps
10 5 (2.62%) PaaS
11 4 (2.09%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 4 (2.09%) Amazon S3
11 4 (2.09%) AWS CloudFormation
11 4 (2.09%) AWS Lambda
12 3 (1.57%) AWS Step Functions
12 3 (1.57%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 107 (56.02%) DNS
2 80 (41.88%) Firewall
3 69 (36.13%) TCP/IP
4 60 (31.41%) HTTP
5 48 (25.13%) BIG-IP
6 47 (24.61%) VPN
7 42 (21.99%) Network Security
8 39 (20.42%) WAN
9 35 (18.32%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
10 33 (17.28%) Wireshark
11 32 (16.75%) IPsec
12 31 (16.23%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
13 23 (12.04%) LAN
14 22 (11.52%) DHCP
15 19 (9.95%) HTTPS
16 18 (9.42%) BGP
16 18 (9.42%) Internet
17 14 (7.33%) OSPF
17 14 (7.33%) SD-WAN
17 14 (7.33%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (3.66%) MongoDB
2 4 (2.09%) MariaDB
2 4 (2.09%) Metadata
2 4 (2.09%) PostgreSQL
3 3 (1.57%) DocumentDB
3 3 (1.57%) NoSQL
4 2 (1.05%) SQL Server
4 2 (1.05%) SQLPlus
5 1 (0.52%) Amazon QuickSight
5 1 (0.52%) Amazon RDS
5 1 (0.52%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 25 (13.09%) Fiddler
2 24 (12.57%) JIRA
3 10 (5.24%) Jenkins
4 8 (4.19%) Git
5 5 (2.62%) GitLab
6 4 (2.09%) Browser DevTools
6 4 (2.09%) Sonatype Nexus
7 2 (1.05%) Introscope
8 1 (0.52%) Crashlytics
8 1 (0.52%) fastlane
8 1 (0.52%) JUnit
8 1 (0.52%) Xcode
8 1 (0.52%) XCTest
8 1 (0.52%) XCUITest
General
1 35 (18.32%) Finance
2 30 (15.71%) Banking
3 24 (12.57%) Social Skills
4 19 (9.95%) Investment Banking
5 17 (8.90%) Analytical Skills
6 14 (7.33%) Documentation Skills
6 14 (7.33%) Public Sector
7 13 (6.81%) Legal
8 7 (3.66%) Telecoms
9 5 (2.62%) Publishing
10 2 (1.05%) Retail
11 1 (0.52%) Financial Institution
11 1 (0.52%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.52%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.52%) Marketing
11 1 (0.52%) Military
11 1 (0.52%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (0.52%) Police
Job Titles
1 62 (32.46%) Network Engineer
2 26 (13.61%) Security Engineer
2 26 (13.61%) Web Engineer
3 23 (12.04%) Senior
4 21 (10.99%) IP Network Engineer
5 18 (9.42%) Blue Coat Engineer
6 15 (7.85%) Architect
7 12 (6.28%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 12 (6.28%) Network Security Engineer
8 10 (5.24%) Administrator
9 9 (4.71%) Senior Network Engineer
10 8 (4.19%) Junior
11 7 (3.66%) Junior Network Engineer
11 7 (3.66%) Network Architect
12 6 (3.14%) Cryptography Engineer
12 6 (3.14%) Linux Engineer
12 6 (3.14%) Technical Architect
13 5 (2.62%) Senior Architect
13 5 (2.62%) Senior Technical Architect
13 5 (2.62%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (16.75%) SAML
2 16 (8.38%) LDAP
3 13 (6.81%) OpenID
4 11 (5.76%) Middleware
4 11 (5.76%) OAuth
5 10 (5.24%) OAuth2
6 9 (4.71%) 802.1X
6 9 (4.71%) ISPF
7 7 (3.66%) HTML
8 6 (3.14%) CSS
8 6 (3.14%) Kafka
8 6 (3.14%) Web Services
9 5 (2.62%) XACML
10 3 (1.57%) Node.js
10 3 (1.57%) RESTful
10 3 (1.57%) Spring
10 3 (1.57%) Spring Boot
11 2 (1.05%) RabbitMQ
11 2 (1.05%) REST
11 2 (1.05%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 19 (9.95%) Clustering
1 19 (9.95%) Management Information System
1 19 (9.95%) PKI
2 18 (9.42%) Data Centre
3 15 (7.85%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
4 13 (6.81%) Security Posture
5 11 (5.76%) Cloud Security Posture
6 9 (4.71%) Cyber Threat
6 9 (4.71%) Mainframe
6 9 (4.71%) Onboarding
7 7 (3.66%) Enterprise Software
8 6 (3.14%) Self-Motivation
9 5 (2.62%) Algorithms
9 5 (2.62%) Hybrid Cloud
10 3 (1.57%) Enterprise Storage
10 3 (1.57%) SCADA
11 2 (1.05%) Analytical Mindset
11 2 (1.05%) Cyber Defence
11 2 (1.05%) Linux Command Line
11 2 (1.05%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 41 (21.47%) Windows
2 39 (20.42%) Linux
3 17 (8.90%) Windows Server
4 12 (6.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 9 (4.71%) zOS
6 7 (3.66%) Unix
7 3 (1.57%) Mac OS
7 3 (1.57%) Windows Server 2019
8 2 (1.05%) CatOS
8 2 (1.05%) Oracle Linux
8 2 (1.05%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
9 1 (0.52%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.52%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.52%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 46 (24.08%) Load Balancing
2 42 (21.99%) ITIL
3 35 (18.32%) Cybersecurity
3 35 (18.32%) Data Loss Prevention
4 30 (15.71%) DevOps
4 30 (15.71%) SIEM
5 29 (15.18%) CI/CD
6 27 (14.14%) High Availability
7 26 (13.61%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 26 (13.61%) Zero Trust
8 25 (13.09%) Malware Detection/Protection
9 24 (12.57%) Cloud Security
10 22 (11.52%) Change Management
11 20 (10.47%) Migration
12 19 (9.95%) Agile
12 19 (9.95%) Infrastructure as Code
12 19 (9.95%) Roadmaps
13 18 (9.42%) Problem-Solving
14 16 (8.38%) Observability
14 16 (8.38%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 46 (24.08%) Python
2 20 (10.47%) Bash
2 20 (10.47%) SQL
3 19 (9.95%) PowerShell
4 5 (2.62%) JavaScript
5 4 (2.09%) ActionScript
5 4 (2.09%) Groovy
5 4 (2.09%) Java
5 4 (2.09%) Perl
6 3 (1.57%) PL/SQL
6 3 (1.57%) Shell Script
7 2 (1.05%) C
7 2 (1.05%) Jython
8 1 (0.52%) Go
8 1 (0.52%) Ruby
8 1 (0.52%) Swift
Qualifications
1 45 (23.56%) Security Cleared
2 32 (16.75%) SC Cleared
3 17 (8.90%) Degree
4 16 (8.38%) Cisco Certification
5 15 (7.85%) CCNP
6 13 (6.81%) CISSP
7 12 (6.28%) DV Cleared
8 7 (3.66%) CompTIA Security+
9 6 (3.14%) FFIEC
10 5 (2.62%) Azure Certification
10 5 (2.62%) MCSE
10 5 (2.62%) Microsoft Certification
11 4 (2.09%) BPSS Clearance
11 4 (2.09%) CISM
11 4 (2.09%) MCSA
12 3 (1.57%) CCIE
13 2 (1.05%) HND
13 2 (1.05%) Postgraduate
14 1 (0.52%) CCSE
14 1 (0.52%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (7.33%) GDPR
1 14 (7.33%) NIST
2 7 (3.66%) PCI DSS
3 6 (3.14%) GLBA
4 4 (2.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (1.05%) SLA
6 1 (0.52%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (0.52%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.52%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 1 (0.52%) DICOM
6 1 (0.52%) HL7
6 1 (0.52%) NCSC
6 1 (0.52%) RMADS
System Software
1 46 (24.08%) VMware Infrastructure
2 45 (23.56%) Active Directory
3 21 (10.99%) Firmware
4 17 (8.90%) VMware NSX
5 15 (7.85%) Virtual Machines
6 14 (7.33%) Hyper-V
6 14 (7.33%) RACF
7 7 (3.66%) Docker
7 7 (3.66%) Squid
8 6 (3.14%) VMware ESXi
9 5 (2.62%) vSphere
10 4 (2.09%) Ceph
11 2 (1.05%) ProxySG
11 2 (1.05%) Slurm Workload Manager
11 2 (1.05%) Virtual Servers
12 1 (0.52%) KVM
12 1 (0.52%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 34 (17.80%) Ansible
2 27 (14.14%) Single Sign-On
3 18 (9.42%) Terraform
4 13 (6.81%) CASB
5 12 (6.28%) Kubernetes
6 10 (5.24%) Grafana
7 9 (4.71%) FortiGate
7 9 (4.71%) OMEGAMON
8 7 (3.66%) Puppet
9 6 (3.14%) Prometheus
10 4 (2.09%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 4 (2.09%) CA Single Sign-On
10 4 (2.09%) Nessus
10 4 (2.09%) Packer
10 4 (2.09%) PingFederate
11 3 (1.57%) systemd
11 3 (1.57%) yum
12 2 (1.05%) CA Wily
12 2 (1.05%) Microsoft Intune
12 2 (1.05%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 55 (28.80%) F5
2 54 (28.27%) VMware
3 38 (19.90%) Cisco
4 34 (17.80%) Microsoft
5 33 (17.28%) Blue Coat
6 28 (14.66%) Palo Alto
7 26 (13.61%) McAfee
8 24 (12.57%) Zscaler
9 19 (9.95%) NetApp
10 18 (9.42%) CheckPoint
10 18 (9.42%) ServiceNow
11 14 (7.33%) Splunk
12 12 (6.28%) Fortinet
12 12 (6.28%) Juniper
13 11 (5.76%) IBM
14 9 (4.71%) Netskope
14 9 (4.71%) SolarWinds
15 7 (3.66%) Aruba
15 7 (3.66%) CrowdStrike
15 7 (3.66%) Ping Identity