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

6 months to
2 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 460 382 413
Rank change year-on-year -78 +31 +11
Contract jobs citing SSL 219 191 157
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.41% 0.58% 0.40%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 4.38% 4.80% 3.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 124 118 98
10th Percentile £370 £350 £400
25th Percentile £450 £380 £476
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £531 £525 £600
Median % change year-on-year +1.19% -12.50% +13.05%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £638
90th Percentile £650 £700 £741
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £500 £611
% change year-on-year +5.00% -18.17% +25.72%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 13 3
10th Percentile - £45.00 £38.58
25th Percentile - £55.00 £41.32
Median hourly rate - £80.68 £45.88
Median % change year-on-year - +75.84% -30.46%
75th Percentile - £82.10 £47.32
90th Percentile - £84.80 £48.18
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £80.68 £45.88
% change year-on-year - +75.84% -26.00%

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 4,999 3,977 4,746
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.37% 12.01% 12.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,975 2,427 2,895
10th Percentile £250 £235 £220
25th Percentile £400 £374 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
75th Percentile £588 £592 £608
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.16% -5.00% +8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 345 195 329
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.34 £25.15 £18.27
Median hourly rate £26.66 £50.00 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -46.68% +5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £83.60 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.69 £45.00 £54.88
% change year-on-year -40.69% -18.00% -4.57%

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 2 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 2 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 -102 189 £525 - 42
UK excluding London -45 142 £525 +5.00% 21
North of England -20 68 £600 +20.00% 5
Work from Home -57 64 £550 +4.76% 21
London -87 61 £550 -6.78% 26
North West -17 45 £600 - 4
Midlands -33 36 £390 +8.94% 4
West Midlands -39 34 £380 +3.40% 3
South East -58 28 £488 +30.00% 8
Yorkshire -31 22 £600 +20.00% 1
Scotland +5 18 £600 +14.29% 3
East of England -29 6 £450 -26.53%
East Midlands -15 2 £475 +32.68% 1
North East -38 2 £413 -20.67%
South West -41 2 - -

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 14 (6.39%) Confluence
2 3 (1.37%) Apache
3 2 (0.91%) IBM HTTP Server
3 2 (0.91%) IIS
3 2 (0.91%) Oracle HTTP Server
3 2 (0.91%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.91%) WebSphere
3 2 (0.91%) WebSphere Application Server
3 2 (0.91%) 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 (2.28%) MS Visio
2 3 (1.37%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (0.91%) Adobe Creative Suite
3 2 (0.91%) Houdini
3 2 (0.91%) NUKE
Business Applications
1 3 (1.37%) Infor LN
2 2 (0.91%) 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 78 (35.62%) Azure
2 43 (19.63%) AWS
3 33 (15.07%) Entra ID
4 20 (9.13%) GCP
5 15 (6.85%) Azure DevOps
5 15 (6.85%) Microsoft 365
6 13 (5.94%) GitHub
6 13 (5.94%) SaaS
7 12 (5.48%) Datadog
8 10 (4.57%) IaaS
9 9 (4.11%) Power Platform
9 9 (4.11%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 8 (3.65%) Azure Monitor
11 7 (3.20%) Serverless
12 6 (2.74%) Azure Key Vault
12 6 (2.74%) GitHub Actions
13 5 (2.28%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 5 (2.28%) AWS CloudFormation
13 5 (2.28%) AWS KMS
13 5 (2.28%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 107 (48.86%) DNS
2 80 (36.53%) Firewall
3 60 (27.40%) TCP/IP
4 54 (24.66%) VPN
5 52 (23.74%) HTTP
6 51 (23.29%) Network Security
7 41 (18.72%) WAN
8 35 (15.98%) BIG-IP
9 33 (15.07%) IPsec
10 32 (14.61%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
11 28 (12.79%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
12 23 (10.50%) DHCP
12 23 (10.50%) Wireshark
13 21 (9.59%) LAN
14 20 (9.13%) HTTPS
14 20 (9.13%) Internet
15 18 (8.22%) BGP
15 18 (8.22%) Wireless
16 16 (7.31%) SD-WAN
17 11 (5.02%) Cisco ASA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (5.48%) SQL Server
2 9 (4.11%) MySQL
3 7 (3.20%) Power BI
3 7 (3.20%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 6 (2.74%) MariaDB
4 6 (2.74%) PostgreSQL
5 5 (2.28%) MongoDB
6 4 (1.83%) Metadata
7 3 (1.37%) SQLPlus
8 2 (0.91%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 2 (0.91%) Oracle Reports
9 1 (0.46%) Amazon RDS
9 1 (0.46%) Neo4j
9 1 (0.46%) NoSQL
9 1 (0.46%) Sybase ASE
Development Applications
1 25 (11.42%) JIRA
2 18 (8.22%) Fiddler
3 16 (7.31%) Jenkins
4 12 (5.48%) Git
5 6 (2.74%) GitLab
5 6 (2.74%) Sonatype Nexus
6 5 (2.28%) Browser DevTools
7 2 (0.91%) Introscope
7 2 (0.91%) Maven
8 1 (0.46%) Ant
8 1 (0.46%) Atlassian Bamboo
General
1 48 (21.92%) Finance
2 37 (16.89%) Banking
3 30 (13.70%) Social Skills
4 25 (11.42%) Legal
5 20 (9.13%) Analytical Skills
6 17 (7.76%) Investment Banking
7 14 (6.39%) Public Sector
8 10 (4.57%) Telecoms
9 8 (3.65%) Documentation Skills
10 6 (2.74%) Publishing
11 3 (1.37%) Manufacturing
12 2 (0.91%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 2 (0.91%) Retail
13 1 (0.46%) Financial Institution
13 1 (0.46%) Influencing Skills
13 1 (0.46%) Marketing
13 1 (0.46%) Military
13 1 (0.46%) Pharmaceutical
13 1 (0.46%) Police
13 1 (0.46%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 55 (25.11%) Network Engineer
2 29 (13.24%) Security Engineer
3 27 (12.33%) Senior
4 24 (10.96%) Administrator
5 19 (8.68%) IP Network Engineer
5 19 (8.68%) Web Engineer
6 16 (7.31%) Blue Coat Engineer
7 14 (6.39%) Architect
8 12 (5.48%) Network Security Engineer
8 12 (5.48%) Senior Network Engineer
9 10 (4.57%) Lead
10 8 (3.65%) DBA
10 8 (3.65%) Linux Engineer
10 8 (3.65%) Network Architect
11 7 (3.20%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 7 (3.20%) SQL DBA
12 6 (2.74%) Developer
12 6 (2.74%) DevOps Engineer
13 5 (2.28%) Cloud Engineer
13 5 (2.28%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (13.70%) SAML
2 23 (10.50%) Middleware
3 17 (7.76%) ISPF
4 15 (6.85%) OAuth
5 14 (6.39%) LDAP
6 13 (5.94%) 802.1X
7 12 (5.48%) OAuth2
8 10 (4.57%) OpenID
9 9 (4.11%) Web Services
10 7 (3.20%) Kafka
10 7 (3.20%) XML
11 6 (2.74%) JSON
11 6 (2.74%) REST
11 6 (2.74%) SOAP
12 4 (1.83%) CSS
12 4 (1.83%) EDI
13 3 (1.37%) EDIFACT
13 3 (1.37%) JMS
13 3 (1.37%) XACML
13 3 (1.37%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 34 (15.53%) Clustering
2 28 (12.79%) PKI
3 19 (8.68%) Management Information System
4 18 (8.22%) Mainframe
5 15 (6.85%) Data Centre
5 15 (6.85%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 13 (5.94%) Onboarding
7 12 (5.48%) Security Posture
8 11 (5.02%) Cloud Security Posture
9 10 (4.57%) Cyber Threat
9 10 (4.57%) Enterprise Software
9 10 (4.57%) Replication
9 10 (4.57%) Self-Motivation
10 7 (3.20%) Hybrid Cloud
11 4 (1.83%) Algorithms
11 4 (1.83%) Data Structures
11 4 (1.83%) Fibre Optics
11 4 (1.83%) Legacy Systems
11 4 (1.83%) Linux Command Line
12 3 (1.37%) Distributed Applications
Operating Systems
1 51 (23.29%) Windows
2 47 (21.46%) Linux
3 26 (11.87%) Windows Server
4 20 (9.13%) zOS
5 15 (6.85%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 11 (5.02%) Unix
7 4 (1.83%) Mac OS
7 4 (1.83%) Windows Server 2019
8 2 (0.91%) Oracle Linux
8 2 (0.91%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
8 2 (0.91%) VMS
9 1 (0.46%) Amazon Linux
9 1 (0.46%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.46%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 59 (26.94%) ITIL
2 46 (21.00%) Load Balancing
3 45 (20.55%) DevOps
4 35 (15.98%) High Availability
5 32 (14.61%) CI/CD
6 31 (14.16%) SIEM
7 28 (12.79%) Data Loss Prevention
8 27 (12.33%) Zero Trust
9 26 (11.87%) Cybersecurity
10 25 (11.42%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 24 (10.96%) Change Management
11 24 (10.96%) Performance Optimisation
11 24 (10.96%) Performance Tuning
11 24 (10.96%) Problem-Solving
12 22 (10.05%) Cloud Security
13 20 (9.13%) Migration
14 19 (8.68%) Agile
14 19 (8.68%) Infrastructure as Code
15 18 (8.22%) Malware Detection/Protection
16 16 (7.31%) Vulnerability Remediation
Programming Languages
1 51 (23.29%) Python
2 32 (14.61%) SQL
3 27 (12.33%) PowerShell
4 22 (10.05%) Bash
5 8 (3.65%) Groovy
5 8 (3.65%) Java
5 8 (3.65%) Perl
6 7 (3.20%) Shell Script
6 7 (3.20%) T-SQL
7 5 (2.28%) ActionScript
7 5 (2.28%) JavaScript
8 4 (1.83%) PL/SQL
9 2 (0.91%) Jython
10 1 (0.46%) C
10 1 (0.46%) C#
10 1 (0.46%) C++
10 1 (0.46%) Cypher
10 1 (0.46%) Go
10 1 (0.46%) R
10 1 (0.46%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 61 (27.85%) Security Cleared
2 42 (19.18%) SC Cleared
3 20 (9.13%) Degree
4 18 (8.22%) DV Cleared
5 15 (6.85%) Azure Certification
6 13 (5.94%) CISSP
7 12 (5.48%) Cisco Certification
7 12 (5.48%) Microsoft Certification
8 11 (5.02%) CCNP
9 8 (3.65%) BPSS Clearance
10 7 (3.20%) CompTIA Security+
11 6 (2.74%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 6 (2.74%) MCSE
12 4 (1.83%) CCIE
12 4 (1.83%) MCSA
13 3 (1.37%) CISM
14 2 (0.91%) RHCSA
15 1 (0.46%) AWS Certification
15 1 (0.46%) CCIE Security
15 1 (0.46%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (5.48%) NIST
2 8 (3.65%) GDPR
3 7 (3.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 6 (2.74%) SLA
5 2 (0.91%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (0.91%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 1 (0.46%) Data Quality
6 1 (0.46%) DICOM
6 1 (0.46%) HL7
6 1 (0.46%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 50 (22.83%) VMware Infrastructure
2 49 (22.37%) Active Directory
3 22 (10.05%) Virtual Machines
4 20 (9.13%) RACF
5 19 (8.68%) Firmware
5 19 (8.68%) Hyper-V
6 12 (5.48%) VMware NSX
7 9 (4.11%) Docker
8 8 (3.65%) vSphere
9 7 (3.20%) Squid
10 6 (2.74%) Ceph
10 6 (2.74%) VMware ESXi
11 3 (1.37%) Virtual Servers
12 2 (0.91%) Apache ZooKeeper
12 2 (0.91%) ProxySG
12 2 (0.91%) Slurm Workload Manager
12 2 (0.91%) Virtual Desktop
13 1 (0.46%) KVM
13 1 (0.46%) OpenSSH
Systems Management
1 42 (19.18%) Ansible
2 23 (10.50%) Single Sign-On
2 23 (10.50%) Terraform
3 17 (7.76%) OMEGAMON
4 15 (6.85%) Grafana
4 15 (6.85%) Kubernetes
5 13 (5.94%) CASB
6 9 (4.11%) Prometheus
7 8 (3.65%) Puppet
8 7 (3.20%) SCOM
9 6 (2.74%) FortiGate
10 4 (1.83%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 4 (1.83%) CA Single Sign-On
10 4 (1.83%) Cisco CUCM
10 4 (1.83%) Microsoft Intune
10 4 (1.83%) Nessus
10 4 (1.83%) Packer
10 4 (1.83%) PingFederate
10 4 (1.83%) systemd
11 3 (1.37%) Argo
Vendors
1 57 (26.03%) VMware
2 49 (22.37%) F5
3 39 (17.81%) Microsoft
4 37 (16.89%) Cisco
5 30 (13.70%) ServiceNow
6 29 (13.24%) Blue Coat
7 28 (12.79%) Zscaler
8 25 (11.42%) Palo Alto
9 23 (10.50%) IBM
10 21 (9.59%) McAfee
11 17 (7.76%) NetApp
12 15 (6.85%) CheckPoint
13 14 (6.39%) Fortinet
14 12 (5.48%) Juniper
15 11 (5.02%) Oracle
15 11 (5.02%) SolarWinds
15 11 (5.02%) Splunk
16 10 (4.57%) Red Hat
17 8 (3.65%) Citrix
18 7 (3.20%) Dynatrace