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

6 months to
5 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 454 370 369
Rank change year-on-year -84 -1 +115
Contract jobs citing SSL 172 157 224
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.36% 0.54% 0.52%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 3.77% 4.21% 4.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 103 91 123
10th Percentile £325 £350 £380
25th Percentile £360 £414 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £525 £575
Median % change year-on-year -6.67% -8.70% +4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £611 £638
90th Percentile £688 £651 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £495 £585 £600
% change year-on-year -15.38% -2.50% +20.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 6 6
10th Percentile £52.15 £80.34 £41.32
25th Percentile £55.00 £80.59 -
Median hourly rate £65.00 £81.35 £45.88
Median % change year-on-year -20.10% +77.31% -27.44%
75th Percentile £75.00 £81.91 £61.16
90th Percentile £80.25 £83.05 £66.88
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £81.35 £45.88
% change year-on-year -20.10% +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 4,566 3,729 5,522
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.60% 12.73% 12.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,845 2,294 3,303
10th Percentile £250 £213 £205
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £495 £488 £495
Median % change year-on-year +1.54% -1.52% -4.81%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £465 £475
% change year-on-year +2.15% -2.11% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 230 175 420
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £21.25 £18.32 £16.72
Median hourly rate £41.94 £36.65 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +14.45% -8.39% +111.30%
75th Percentile £67.13 £58.09 £63.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £49.36 £24.71 £45.88
% change year-on-year +99.76% -46.14% +148.00%

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 5 May 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
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing SSL over the 6 months to 5 May 2026.

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 5 May 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 -97 147 £500 -4.76% 22
UK excluding London -50 117 £495 -15.38% 18
North of England -15 60 £630 +6.69% 3
Work from Home -48 49 £500 - 9
West Midlands -24 43 £340 -
Midlands -36 43 £340 -
North West +1 38 £610 +1.67% 2
London -78 34 £515 +3.00% 8
Yorkshire -34 21 £675 +63.64% 1
South East -59 15 £475 -17.39% 11
East of England -53 9 £488 -18.75% 3
Scotland -6 8 £600 +2.13%
North East -22 2 £413 -30.08%
South West -44 1 £500 -14.53% 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 18 (10.47%) Confluence
2 9 (5.23%) TPMS
3 3 (1.74%) Microsoft Exchange
4 2 (1.16%) IBM HTTP Server
4 2 (1.16%) IIS
4 2 (1.16%) Oracle HTTP Server
4 2 (1.16%) WebSphere
4 2 (1.16%) WebSphere Application Server
4 2 (1.16%) WebSphere Portal
5 1 (0.58%) Apache
5 1 (0.58%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.58%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.58%) ArcGIS
5 1 (0.58%) CMS
5 1 (0.58%) Drupal
5 1 (0.58%) Umbraco
Applications
1 9 (5.23%) MS Visio
2 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 43 (25.00%) Azure
2 37 (21.51%) AWS
3 15 (8.72%) Entra ID
3 15 (8.72%) GCP
4 12 (6.98%) GitHub
4 12 (6.98%) SaaS
5 11 (6.40%) Amazon EKS
6 7 (4.07%) OpenShift
6 7 (4.07%) Serverless
6 7 (4.07%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 6 (3.49%) IaaS
8 5 (2.91%) Microsoft 365
8 5 (2.91%) PaaS
9 4 (2.33%) Azure Logic Apps
10 3 (1.74%) Azure DevOps
10 3 (1.74%) Kong
11 2 (1.16%) Amazon S3
11 2 (1.16%) AWS Control Tower
11 2 (1.16%) AWS Lambda
11 2 (1.16%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 92 (53.49%) DNS
2 64 (37.21%) TCP/IP
3 61 (35.47%) Firewall
3 61 (35.47%) HTTP
4 49 (28.49%) BIG-IP
5 39 (22.67%) VPN
6 37 (21.51%) Wireshark
7 31 (18.02%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
8 30 (17.44%) Network Security
9 29 (16.86%) WAN
10 27 (15.70%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
10 27 (15.70%) IPsec
11 20 (11.63%) LAN
12 17 (9.88%) DHCP
12 17 (9.88%) HTTPS
12 17 (9.88%) Internet
12 17 (9.88%) SSH
13 14 (8.14%) SNMP
13 14 (8.14%) Wireless
14 13 (7.56%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (7.56%) MongoDB
2 10 (5.81%) DocumentDB
2 10 (5.81%) NoSQL
3 4 (2.33%) Metadata
4 3 (1.74%) MariaDB
4 3 (1.74%) PostgreSQL
4 3 (1.74%) Redis
5 2 (1.16%) SQL Server
6 1 (0.58%) Amazon QuickSight
6 1 (0.58%) Amazon RDS
6 1 (0.58%) SQLite
6 1 (0.58%) SQLPlus
Development Applications
1 28 (16.28%) Fiddler
2 26 (15.12%) JIRA
3 9 (5.23%) Git
4 4 (2.33%) Browser DevTools
4 4 (2.33%) GitLab
4 4 (2.33%) Sonatype Nexus
5 3 (1.74%) Jenkins
6 2 (1.16%) git-flow
6 2 (1.16%) Introscope
7 1 (0.58%) Crashlytics
7 1 (0.58%) fastlane
7 1 (0.58%) JUnit
7 1 (0.58%) Xcode
7 1 (0.58%) XCTest
7 1 (0.58%) XCUITest
General
1 28 (16.28%) Finance
2 25 (14.53%) Banking
3 23 (13.37%) Social Skills
4 20 (11.63%) Investment Banking
5 18 (10.47%) Analytical Skills
6 17 (9.88%) Public Sector
7 14 (8.14%) Documentation Skills
8 8 (4.65%) Telecoms
9 3 (1.74%) Legal
10 2 (1.16%) Financial Institution
10 2 (1.16%) Retail
11 1 (0.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.58%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.58%) Marketing
11 1 (0.58%) Military
11 1 (0.58%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 55 (31.98%) Network Engineer
2 29 (16.86%) Web Engineer
3 22 (12.79%) IP Network Engineer
4 21 (12.21%) Security Engineer
5 20 (11.63%) Senior
6 19 (11.05%) Blue Coat Engineer
7 14 (8.14%) Architect
8 10 (5.81%) Junior
9 9 (5.23%) Cryptography Engineer
9 9 (5.23%) Developer
9 9 (5.23%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 9 (5.23%) Junior Network Engineer
9 9 (5.23%) Network Security Engineer
10 8 (4.65%) Analyst
11 7 (4.07%) Full-Stack Developer
12 6 (3.49%) Technical Architect
13 5 (2.91%) Senior Network Engineer
13 5 (2.91%) Senior Technical Architect
13 5 (2.91%) SOC Analyst
13 5 (2.91%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (16.28%) SAML
2 24 (13.95%) LDAP
3 13 (7.56%) Kafka
3 13 (7.56%) OpenID
4 12 (6.98%) HTML
5 11 (6.40%) OAuth
6 10 (5.81%) OAuth2
6 10 (5.81%) RESTful
6 10 (5.81%) Spring
6 10 (5.81%) Spring Boot
7 9 (5.23%) Node.js
8 7 (4.07%) REST
9 6 (3.49%) 802.1X
9 6 (3.49%) Web Services
10 5 (2.91%) XACML
11 3 (1.74%) Middleware
11 3 (1.74%) SignalR
12 2 (1.16%) JMS
12 2 (1.16%) RabbitMQ
12 2 (1.16%) WebSphere MQ
Miscellaneous
1 25 (14.53%) Management Information System
2 21 (12.21%) PKI
3 12 (6.98%) Security Posture
4 11 (6.40%) Cloud Security Posture
5 10 (5.81%) Clustering
5 10 (5.81%) Data Centre
6 8 (4.65%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 7 (4.07%) Analytical Mindset
7 7 (4.07%) Cyber Threat
8 6 (3.49%) Enterprise Software
9 5 (2.91%) Algorithms
9 5 (2.91%) CSOC
9 5 (2.91%) Cyberattack
9 5 (2.91%) Security Operations Centre
10 3 (1.74%) Enterprise Storage
10 3 (1.74%) SCADA
10 3 (1.74%) Self-Motivation
11 2 (1.16%) Hybrid Cloud
11 2 (1.16%) Onboarding
11 2 (1.16%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 37 (21.51%) Windows
2 30 (17.44%) Linux
3 14 (8.14%) Windows Server
4 7 (4.07%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 7 (4.07%) Unix
5 4 (2.33%) CatOS
6 3 (1.74%) Mac OS
7 2 (1.16%) Oracle Linux
7 2 (1.16%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
7 2 (1.16%) Windows Server 2019
8 1 (0.58%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.58%) Data ONTAP
8 1 (0.58%) Solaris
8 1 (0.58%) VMS
8 1 (0.58%) Windows Server 2016
8 1 (0.58%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 38 (22.09%) Cybersecurity
1 38 (22.09%) Data Loss Prevention
1 38 (22.09%) Load Balancing
2 28 (16.28%) Change Management
2 28 (16.28%) CI/CD
2 28 (16.28%) Malware Detection/Protection
3 26 (15.12%) High Availability
4 25 (14.53%) Cloud Security
4 25 (14.53%) DevOps
4 25 (14.53%) ITIL
5 23 (13.37%) Identity Access Management
6 22 (12.79%) Migration
7 19 (11.05%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 19 (11.05%) SIEM
8 18 (10.47%) Observability
8 18 (10.47%) Roadmaps
9 17 (9.88%) Key Management
10 15 (8.72%) Microservices
10 15 (8.72%) Zero Trust
11 14 (8.14%) Runbook
Programming Languages
1 31 (18.02%) Python
2 16 (9.30%) PowerShell
3 15 (8.72%) SQL
4 13 (7.56%) Bash
5 12 (6.98%) JavaScript
6 4 (2.33%) Java
7 3 (1.74%) Perl
7 3 (1.74%) PL/SQL
8 2 (1.16%) Groovy
8 2 (1.16%) Jython
9 1 (0.58%) C
9 1 (0.58%) Go
9 1 (0.58%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.58%) Swift
Qualifications
1 53 (30.81%) Security Cleared
2 38 (22.09%) SC Cleared
3 15 (8.72%) CISSP
4 14 (8.14%) DV Cleared
5 13 (7.56%) Cisco Certification
6 12 (6.98%) CCNP
6 12 (6.98%) Degree
7 9 (5.23%) CISM
7 9 (5.23%) FFIEC
8 7 (4.07%) CompTIA Security+
9 6 (3.49%) Microsoft Certification
10 4 (2.33%) MCSA
10 4 (2.33%) MCSE
11 3 (1.74%) Azure Certification
12 2 (1.16%) CCIE
12 2 (1.16%) HND
12 2 (1.16%) Postgraduate
13 1 (0.58%) CCA
13 1 (0.58%) CCIP
13 1 (0.58%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (9.30%) GDPR
2 14 (8.14%) NIST
3 12 (6.98%) PCI DSS
4 9 (5.23%) GLBA
5 3 (1.74%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 2 (1.16%) Accessibility
6 2 (1.16%) SLA
7 1 (0.58%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.58%) DICOM
7 1 (0.58%) HL7
7 1 (0.58%) NCSC
7 1 (0.58%) RMADS
System Software
1 44 (25.58%) VMware Infrastructure
2 42 (24.42%) Active Directory
3 20 (11.63%) Firmware
4 19 (11.05%) VMware NSX
5 12 (6.98%) Docker
6 11 (6.40%) Virtual Machines
7 10 (5.81%) Hyper-V
8 6 (3.49%) RACF
9 5 (2.91%) VMware ESXi
10 4 (2.33%) Squid
11 3 (1.74%) Ceph
11 3 (1.74%) vSphere
12 2 (1.16%) ProxySG
12 2 (1.16%) Slurm Workload Manager
12 2 (1.16%) Virtual Servers
13 1 (0.58%) KVM
13 1 (0.58%) XenApp
13 1 (0.58%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 27 (15.70%) Ansible
2 26 (15.12%) Single Sign-On
3 18 (10.47%) Kubernetes
4 14 (8.14%) Terraform
5 13 (7.56%) CASB
6 9 (5.23%) FortiGate
7 4 (2.33%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 4 (2.33%) CA Single Sign-On
7 4 (2.33%) Nessus
7 4 (2.33%) PingFederate
8 3 (1.74%) Grafana
9 2 (1.16%) CA Wily
9 2 (1.16%) Packer
9 2 (1.16%) Prometheus
9 2 (1.16%) SCCM
9 2 (1.16%) Tivoli
9 2 (1.16%) vCenter Server
10 1 (0.58%) OMEGAMON
10 1 (0.58%) SCOM
10 1 (0.58%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 56 (32.56%) F5
1 56 (32.56%) VMware
2 35 (20.35%) Microsoft
3 34 (19.77%) Blue Coat
4 31 (18.02%) Cisco
5 29 (16.86%) McAfee
6 23 (13.37%) Palo Alto
7 21 (12.21%) CheckPoint
8 20 (11.63%) NetApp
9 16 (9.30%) Splunk
9 16 (9.30%) Zscaler
10 14 (8.14%) ServiceNow
11 12 (6.98%) Thales
12 9 (5.23%) Juniper
13 8 (4.65%) Citrix
13 8 (4.65%) Fortinet
13 8 (4.65%) SolarWinds
14 7 (4.07%) CrowdStrike
15 6 (3.49%) Netskope
15 6 (3.49%) Oracle