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

6 months to
4 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 362 379 408
Rank change year-on-year +17 +29 +42
Contract jobs citing SSL 209 177 231
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.61% 0.49% 0.49%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 5.31% 4.02% 3.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 133 103 141
10th Percentile £360 £382 £350
25th Percentile £403 £465 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £557 £550 £500
Median % change year-on-year +1.27% +10.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £663 £644 £613
90th Percentile £700 £700 £683
UK excluding London median daily rate £428 £537 £486
% change year-on-year -20.43% +10.55% -2.80%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 1 12
10th Percentile - - £55.19
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 - £66.90
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 3,937 4,398 6,540
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 11.40% 12.11% 13.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,551 2,532 4,075
10th Percentile £213 £223 £213
25th Percentile £358 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £685 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -5.26% - +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 191 161 341
10th Percentile £15.50 £18.03 £17.72
25th Percentile £20.00 £26.25 £22.75
Median hourly rate £35.00 £48.56 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -27.92% -11.71% +34.10%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £66.25
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £76.10
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £52.50 £56.49
% change year-on-year -19.05% -7.06% +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 November 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 November 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 November 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 +18 188 £555 +0.91% 46
UK excluding London -24 93 £428 -20.43% 32
London +29 92 £600 +9.09% 17
Work from Home +5 69 £566 +2.91% 21
North of England -28 38 £575 +4.82% 3
Midlands -6 30 £378 -17.49% 1
West Midlands 0 26 £380 -16.94% 1
North West -17 23 £604 +56.75% 1
South East -8 15 £380 -39.28% 15
Yorkshire -29 14 £563 -9.57% 1
East of England -5 13 £567 +95.52% 11
Scotland -15 5 £525 +1.94% 2
East Midlands -17 4 £358 -
South West +1 3 £557 +11.40% 2
Wales -1 1 £500 -9.09%
North East -11 1 £550 - 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 6 (2.87%) Apache
3 4 (1.91%) JBoss
3 4 (1.91%) TPMS
4 3 (1.44%) Oracle Application Server
4 3 (1.44%) WebSphere
4 3 (1.44%) WebSphere Application Server
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%) Oracle Service Bus
5 2 (0.96%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 2 (0.96%) Tomcat
5 2 (0.96%) WebLogic
6 1 (0.48%) Anypoint
6 1 (0.48%) SharePoint
Applications
1 2 (0.96%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.48%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 13 (6.22%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.96%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.48%) RMDS
Cloud Services
1 54 (25.84%) AWS
2 37 (17.70%) Azure
3 26 (12.44%) Amazon CloudWatch
3 26 (12.44%) Amazon S3
4 24 (11.48%) Amazon EC2
4 24 (11.48%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 22 (10.53%) Amazon ELB
6 18 (8.61%) GCP
7 12 (5.74%) GitHub
7 12 (5.74%) Serverless
8 11 (5.26%) Entra ID
9 10 (4.78%) AWS Lambda
10 9 (4.31%) AWS CloudFormation
11 8 (3.83%) GitHub Actions
12 7 (3.35%) Amazon ECS
12 7 (3.35%) Azure DevOps
13 6 (2.87%) Microsoft 365
14 5 (2.39%) IaaS
14 5 (2.39%) PaaS
15 4 (1.91%) Apigee
Communications & Networking
1 96 (45.93%) DNS
2 90 (43.06%) Firewall
3 83 (39.71%) TCP/IP
4 69 (33.01%) VPN
5 62 (29.67%) Network Security
6 51 (24.40%) HTTP
7 22 (10.53%) HTTPS
8 21 (10.05%) DHCP
8 21 (10.05%) IPsec
8 21 (10.05%) WAN
9 20 (9.57%) Wireless
10 17 (8.13%) BGP
11 16 (7.66%) OSPF
11 16 (7.66%) VLAN
11 16 (7.66%) Wireshark
12 15 (7.18%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
13 14 (6.70%) DMVPN
14 12 (5.74%) BIG-IP
15 11 (5.26%) FTP
16 10 (4.78%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (4.78%) SQL Server
2 8 (3.83%) Apache Cassandra
3 7 (3.35%) PostgreSQL
4 3 (1.44%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (1.44%) DynamoDB
4 3 (1.44%) Oracle Database
4 3 (1.44%) Relational Database
5 2 (0.96%) Big Data
5 2 (0.96%) Delta Lake
5 2 (0.96%) Hadoop
5 2 (0.96%) NoSQL
5 2 (0.96%) Parquet
6 1 (0.48%) Mixpanel
Development Applications
1 42 (20.10%) Jenkins
2 38 (18.18%) Git
3 23 (11.00%) JIRA
4 21 (10.05%) GitLab
5 12 (5.74%) Fiddler
6 5 (2.39%) SonarQube
7 4 (1.91%) Robot Framework
8 3 (1.44%) Log4j
9 2 (0.96%) Bitbucket
9 2 (0.96%) MLflow
9 2 (0.96%) Poetry
9 2 (0.96%) PyCharm
9 2 (0.96%) Visual Studio Code
10 1 (0.48%) CircleCI
10 1 (0.48%) Crashlytics
10 1 (0.48%) fastlane
10 1 (0.48%) Postman
10 1 (0.48%) Sonatype Nexus
10 1 (0.48%) Subversion
10 1 (0.48%) XCUITest
General
1 50 (23.92%) Social Skills
2 33 (15.79%) Analytical Skills
3 28 (13.40%) Finance
4 21 (10.05%) Public Sector
5 16 (7.66%) Banking
6 12 (5.74%) Investment Banking
7 8 (3.83%) Telecoms
8 7 (3.35%) Documentation Skills
9 5 (2.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 5 (2.39%) Military
10 4 (1.91%) Financial Institution
11 2 (0.96%) Advertising
11 2 (0.96%) Aerospace
11 2 (0.96%) Presentation Skills
12 1 (0.48%) Aviation
12 1 (0.48%) Billing
12 1 (0.48%) Influencing Skills
12 1 (0.48%) Law
12 1 (0.48%) Organisational Skills
12 1 (0.48%) Police
Job Titles
1 40 (19.14%) Senior
2 39 (18.66%) Network Engineer
3 32 (15.31%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 27 (12.92%) Developer
5 25 (11.96%) Architect
6 20 (9.57%) Security Engineer
7 19 (9.09%) DevOps Engineer
8 15 (7.18%) Consultant
9 14 (6.70%) Senior DevOps
9 14 (6.70%) Senior DevOps Engineer
10 13 (6.22%) Lead
11 11 (5.26%) Analyst
11 11 (5.26%) Network Security Engineer
12 10 (4.78%) ServiceNow Architect
12 10 (4.78%) SOC Analyst
13 9 (4.31%) Python Engineer
13 9 (4.31%) Senior Architect
13 9 (4.31%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
13 9 (4.31%) Web Engineer
14 8 (3.83%) Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (18.66%) REST
2 37 (17.70%) LDAP
3 29 (13.88%) SOAP
4 25 (11.96%) SAML
5 23 (11.00%) JSON
5 23 (11.00%) OAuth
6 20 (9.57%) AngularJS
7 18 (8.61%) Web Services
8 16 (7.66%) HTML
8 16 (7.66%) JDBC
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 10 (4.78%) 802.1X
10 10 (4.78%) XML
11 8 (3.83%) OAuth2
12 7 (3.35%) Kafka
12 7 (3.35%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 23 (11.00%) Management Information System
2 21 (10.05%) PKI
3 16 (7.66%) 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 7 (3.35%) Linux Command Line
8 6 (2.87%) Cloud Native
8 6 (2.87%) Security Posture
9 5 (2.39%) Algorithms
9 5 (2.39%) Cloud Security Posture
9 5 (2.39%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 5 (2.39%) Private Cloud
10 3 (1.44%) State Machine
11 2 (0.96%) Hybrid Cloud
11 2 (0.96%) Replication
11 2 (0.96%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 62 (29.67%) Linux
2 36 (17.22%) Windows
3 20 (9.57%) Unix
4 7 (3.35%) Windows Server
5 6 (2.87%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 5 (2.39%) Windows Server 2003
7 4 (1.91%) Ubuntu
8 3 (1.44%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.96%) Android
9 2 (0.96%) CentOS
9 2 (0.96%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.48%) Check Point GAiA
10 1 (0.48%) VMS
10 1 (0.48%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.48%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 77 (36.84%) DevOps
2 48 (22.97%) CI/CD
3 39 (18.66%) Problem-Solving
4 38 (18.18%) Infrastructure as Code
5 34 (16.27%) Agile
5 34 (16.27%) High Availability
6 33 (15.79%) Infrastructure Automation
6 33 (15.79%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 31 (14.83%) Incident Response
8 27 (12.92%) Load Balancing
8 27 (12.92%) Root Cause Analysis
9 26 (12.44%) Cybersecurity
10 24 (11.48%) Cloud Security
11 23 (11.00%) DevSecOps
11 23 (11.00%) Test Automation
12 21 (10.05%) SIEM
13 20 (9.57%) Containerisation
13 20 (9.57%) Migration
14 19 (9.09%) Kalman Filter
14 19 (9.09%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 69 (33.01%) Python
2 33 (15.79%) Bash
3 27 (12.92%) JavaScript
4 20 (9.57%) Java
4 20 (9.57%) PowerShell
5 18 (8.61%) SQL
6 11 (5.26%) Perl
7 5 (2.39%) PL/SQL
8 4 (1.91%) Shell Script
9 3 (1.44%) C#
10 2 (0.96%) Groovy
10 2 (0.96%) Kotlin
10 2 (0.96%) PHP
10 2 (0.96%) Swift
11 1 (0.48%) ActionScript
11 1 (0.48%) ActionScript 2.0
11 1 (0.48%) C
11 1 (0.48%) C++
11 1 (0.48%) Objective-C
11 1 (0.48%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 87 (41.63%) Security Cleared
2 77 (36.84%) SC Cleared
3 13 (6.22%) CISSP
4 10 (4.78%) Cisco Certification
4 10 (4.78%) Degree
4 10 (4.78%) Microsoft Certification
5 9 (4.31%) DV Cleared
6 6 (2.87%) CCNP
6 6 (2.87%) MCSE
7 5 (2.39%) CCSA
7 5 (2.39%) CompTIA Security+
7 5 (2.39%) MCSA
8 4 (1.91%) AWS Certification
8 4 (1.91%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 4 (1.91%) FFIEC
9 3 (1.44%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 3 (1.44%) Azure Certification
9 3 (1.44%) Computer Science Degree
9 3 (1.44%) RHCE
9 3 (1.44%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (6.70%) GDPR
2 9 (4.31%) PCI DSS
3 8 (3.83%) NIST
4 6 (2.87%) HIPAA
5 5 (2.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 4 (1.91%) GLBA
6 4 (1.91%) QA
6 4 (1.91%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 3 (1.44%) SOC 2
8 2 (0.96%) Actionable Recommendations
8 2 (0.96%) Data Quality
8 2 (0.96%) FIPS 140-2
9 1 (0.48%) SLA
System Software
1 44 (21.05%) Docker
2 20 (9.57%) Active Directory
3 11 (5.26%) Firmware
4 8 (3.83%) VMware Infrastructure
5 5 (2.39%) Hyper-V
5 5 (2.39%) NDS
5 5 (2.39%) NetIQ eDirectory
5 5 (2.39%) vSphere
6 3 (1.44%) ProxySG
6 3 (1.44%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.96%) VMware NSX
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
Systems Management
1 58 (27.75%) Ansible
2 47 (22.49%) Terraform
3 30 (14.35%) Kubernetes
4 24 (11.48%) Single Sign-On
5 8 (3.83%) Prometheus
6 7 (3.35%) CASB
7 6 (2.87%) Nessus
8 5 (2.39%) Nagios
8 5 (2.39%) Tivoli
9 4 (1.91%) CA Spectrum
10 3 (1.44%) FortiGate
10 3 (1.44%) Grafana
10 3 (1.44%) Microsoft Intune
11 2 (0.96%) Argo
11 2 (0.96%) Istio
11 2 (0.96%) Kustomize
11 2 (0.96%) McAfee ePO
11 2 (0.96%) Progress Chef
11 2 (0.96%) Puppet
11 2 (0.96%) SELinux
Vendors
1 65 (31.10%) F5
2 41 (19.62%) CheckPoint
3 29 (13.88%) Blue Coat
4 28 (13.40%) Cisco
4 28 (13.40%) Palo Alto
5 26 (12.44%) Splunk
6 22 (10.53%) Juniper
7 18 (8.61%) Microsoft
7 18 (8.61%) Oracle
7 18 (8.61%) Remedy
7 18 (8.61%) ServiceNow
8 17 (8.13%) VMware
9 16 (7.66%) McAfee
10 13 (6.22%) BMC
10 13 (6.22%) HP
10 13 (6.22%) Ivanti
11 12 (5.74%) Fortinet
11 12 (5.74%) Zscaler
12 11 (5.26%) SolarWinds
13 10 (4.78%) Axway