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

6 months to
11 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 379 353 388
Rank change year-on-year -26 +35 +81
Contract jobs citing SSL 207 197 228
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.57% 0.55% 0.50%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 5.25% 4.45% 3.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 131 121 118
10th Percentile £350 £375 £350
25th Percentile £400 £450 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £549 £533
Median % change year-on-year +0.26% +2.92% +0.57%
75th Percentile £663 £638 £626
90th Percentile £700 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £482 £540 £486
% change year-on-year -10.74% +11.11% +8.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 0 14
10th Percentile - - £55.35
25th Percentile £45.00 - £60.56
Median hourly rate £65.00 - £65.98
75th Percentile £80.00 - £66.18
90th Percentile £85.00 - £67.35
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 - £65.98
% change year-on-year - - +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 3,946 4,427 6,289
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.88% 12.40% 13.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,569 2,561 3,890
10th Percentile £206 £220 £211
25th Percentile £356 £370 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £584 £600 £613
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 186 165 349
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.95 £17.72
25th Percentile £20.04 £22.50 £22.75
Median hourly rate £33.39 £41.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -18.57% -25.45% +25.00%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.98
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £76.13
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £48.03 £56.49
% change year-on-year -11.51% -14.98% +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 11 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 11 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for SSL in the UK

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 11 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 -6 186 £550 - 57
UK excluding London -43 98 £482 -10.74% 53
London +14 83 £575 +9.52% 17
Work from Home -15 64 £554 +2.98% 25
North of England -18 48 £600 +9.09% 10
Midlands -10 33 £380 -16.94% 7
West Midlands +3 32 £380 -16.94% 5
North West -3 30 £425 +10.39% 6
Yorkshire -34 17 £675 +22.73% 4
East of England -7 13 £567 +95.52% 15
South East -37 11 £430 -31.20% 18
Scotland -12 5 £525 +1.94% 1
South West -19 3 £557 +31.06% 3
North East -7 1 £550 -6.78%
East Midlands -24 1 - - 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 21 (10.14%) Confluence
2 7 (3.38%) TPMS
3 6 (2.90%) Apache
4 4 (1.93%) JBoss
5 2 (0.97%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.97%) Apache Spark
5 2 (0.97%) Microsoft Exchange
5 2 (0.97%) Oracle HTTP Server
5 2 (0.97%) Tomcat
5 2 (0.97%) WebLogic
6 1 (0.48%) Anypoint
6 1 (0.48%) IIS
6 1 (0.48%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (1.45%) MS Visio
2 2 (0.97%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.48%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 13 (6.28%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.48%) RMDS
Cloud Services
1 55 (26.57%) AWS
2 27 (13.04%) Azure
3 25 (12.08%) Virtual Private Cloud
4 24 (11.59%) Amazon S3
5 22 (10.63%) Amazon CloudWatch
5 22 (10.63%) Amazon EC2
5 22 (10.63%) Amazon ELB
6 16 (7.73%) GCP
7 13 (6.28%) GitHub
8 7 (3.38%) Entra ID
8 7 (3.38%) Serverless
9 5 (2.42%) Amazon ECS
9 5 (2.42%) Amazon EKS
9 5 (2.42%) AWS CloudFormation
9 5 (2.42%) AWS Lambda
9 5 (2.42%) OpenShift
10 4 (1.93%) Apigee
10 4 (1.93%) GitHub Actions
10 4 (1.93%) Microsoft 365
11 3 (1.45%) Firebase
Communications & Networking
1 96 (46.38%) DNS
2 83 (40.10%) Firewall
3 81 (39.13%) TCP/IP
4 67 (32.37%) VPN
5 60 (28.99%) Network Security
6 54 (26.09%) HTTP
7 25 (12.08%) WAN
8 24 (11.59%) Wireshark
9 22 (10.63%) IPsec
9 22 (10.63%) Wireless
10 20 (9.66%) BIG-IP
11 18 (8.70%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
12 17 (8.21%) HTTPS
13 15 (7.25%) DMVPN
14 14 (6.76%) BGP
15 13 (6.28%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
15 13 (6.28%) OSPF
16 12 (5.80%) DHCP
16 12 (5.80%) LAN
16 12 (5.80%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (4.83%) SQL Server
2 8 (3.86%) Apache Cassandra
3 7 (3.38%) NoSQL
3 7 (3.38%) PostgreSQL
4 5 (2.42%) DocumentDB
4 5 (2.42%) MongoDB
5 3 (1.45%) Redis
5 3 (1.45%) Relational Database
6 2 (0.97%) Big Data
6 2 (0.97%) Delta Lake
6 2 (0.97%) Hadoop
6 2 (0.97%) Parquet
7 1 (0.48%) Mixpanel
Development Applications
1 35 (16.91%) Git
2 32 (15.46%) Jenkins
3 24 (11.59%) JIRA
4 19 (9.18%) GitLab
5 17 (8.21%) Fiddler
6 4 (1.93%) Robot Framework
7 2 (0.97%) Bitbucket
7 2 (0.97%) MLflow
7 2 (0.97%) Poetry
7 2 (0.97%) PyCharm
7 2 (0.97%) SonarQube
7 2 (0.97%) Visual Studio Code
8 1 (0.48%) CircleCI
8 1 (0.48%) Postman
8 1 (0.48%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.48%) Subversion
General
1 41 (19.81%) Social Skills
2 31 (14.98%) Analytical Skills
2 31 (14.98%) Finance
3 21 (10.14%) Banking
3 21 (10.14%) Public Sector
4 15 (7.25%) Investment Banking
5 11 (5.31%) Documentation Skills
6 8 (3.86%) Telecoms
7 5 (2.42%) Financial Institution
8 4 (1.93%) Military
9 3 (1.45%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (0.97%) Advertising
10 2 (0.97%) Aerospace
10 2 (0.97%) Presentation Skills
11 1 (0.48%) Billing
11 1 (0.48%) Italian Language
11 1 (0.48%) Law
11 1 (0.48%) Legal
11 1 (0.48%) Polish Language
11 1 (0.48%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 48 (23.19%) Network Engineer
2 39 (18.84%) Senior
3 28 (13.53%) Developer
4 27 (13.04%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 22 (10.63%) Architect
6 18 (8.70%) Security Engineer
7 16 (7.73%) DevOps Engineer
8 14 (6.76%) Web Engineer
9 13 (6.28%) Consultant
9 13 (6.28%) Senior DevOps
9 13 (6.28%) Senior DevOps Engineer
10 11 (5.31%) Analyst
10 11 (5.31%) Network Security Engineer
11 10 (4.83%) Blue Coat Engineer
11 10 (4.83%) Full-Stack Developer
11 10 (4.83%) ServiceNow Architect
11 10 (4.83%) SOC Analyst
12 9 (4.35%) Cryptography Engineer
12 9 (4.35%) Python Engineer
12 9 (4.35%) Senior Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (18.36%) LDAP
2 33 (15.94%) REST
3 27 (13.04%) SOAP
4 25 (12.08%) SAML
5 23 (11.11%) JSON
6 17 (8.21%) AngularJS
6 17 (8.21%) HTML
6 17 (8.21%) OAuth
7 14 (6.76%) Web Services
8 13 (6.28%) Apache Camel
8 13 (6.28%) HTML5
8 13 (6.28%) JDBC
8 13 (6.28%) jQuery
8 13 (6.28%) ODBC
8 13 (6.28%) RabbitMQ
9 11 (5.31%) 802.1X
10 10 (4.83%) Kafka
10 10 (4.83%) XML
11 9 (4.35%) RESTful
12 5 (2.42%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 28 (13.53%) PKI
2 24 (11.59%) Management Information System
3 17 (8.21%) Data Centre
4 12 (5.80%) Analytical Mindset
4 12 (5.80%) Onboarding
5 10 (4.83%) Cyberattack
6 8 (3.86%) CSOC
6 8 (3.86%) Cyber Threat
6 8 (3.86%) Security Operations Centre
7 5 (2.42%) Cloud Security Posture
7 5 (2.42%) Private Cloud
7 5 (2.42%) Security Posture
8 4 (1.93%) Linux Command Line
9 3 (1.45%) Algorithms
9 3 (1.45%) Cloud Native
9 3 (1.45%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 2 (0.97%) Hybrid Cloud
10 2 (0.97%) Replication
10 2 (0.97%) Virtual Team
11 1 (0.48%) Clustering
Operating Systems
1 59 (28.50%) Linux
2 36 (17.39%) Windows
3 20 (9.66%) Unix
4 9 (4.35%) Windows Server
5 7 (3.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 4 (1.93%) Ubuntu
7 2 (0.97%) Apple iOS
7 2 (0.97%) CatOS
7 2 (0.97%) CentOS
7 2 (0.97%) Mac OS
7 2 (0.97%) Windows Server 2016
7 2 (0.97%) Windows Server 2019
8 1 (0.48%) Android
8 1 (0.48%) Solaris
8 1 (0.48%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 66 (31.88%) DevOps
2 42 (20.29%) CI/CD
3 36 (17.39%) High Availability
4 32 (15.46%) Infrastructure as Code
5 31 (14.98%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 31 (14.98%) Load Balancing
6 30 (14.49%) Cybersecurity
6 30 (14.49%) Infrastructure Automation
7 29 (14.01%) Incident Response
8 28 (13.53%) Problem-Solving
9 26 (12.56%) Agile
9 26 (12.56%) Root Cause Analysis
10 23 (11.11%) Change Management
10 23 (11.11%) Test Automation
11 22 (10.63%) Cloud Security
11 22 (10.63%) Migration
12 21 (10.14%) DevSecOps
12 21 (10.14%) Microservices
13 19 (9.18%) Data Loss Prevention
13 19 (9.18%) Identity Access Management
Programming Languages
1 68 (32.85%) Python
2 34 (16.43%) Bash
3 29 (14.01%) JavaScript
4 16 (7.73%) Java
5 15 (7.25%) PowerShell
6 14 (6.76%) SQL
7 12 (5.80%) Perl
8 3 (1.45%) C#
9 2 (0.97%) Groovy
9 2 (0.97%) PHP
9 2 (0.97%) Shell Script
10 1 (0.48%) C
10 1 (0.48%) C++
10 1 (0.48%) Kotlin
10 1 (0.48%) Objective-C
10 1 (0.48%) Swift
Qualifications
1 81 (39.13%) Security Cleared
2 68 (32.85%) SC Cleared
3 17 (8.21%) CISSP
4 12 (5.80%) Degree
4 12 (5.80%) DV Cleared
5 11 (5.31%) Microsoft Certification
6 10 (4.83%) Cisco Certification
7 7 (3.38%) CISM
7 7 (3.38%) FFIEC
8 6 (2.90%) CCNP
8 6 (2.90%) MCSE
9 5 (2.42%) CCSA
9 5 (2.42%) CompTIA Security+
9 5 (2.42%) MCSA
10 3 (1.45%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 3 (1.45%) Computer Science Degree
10 3 (1.45%) RHCE
11 2 (0.97%) AWS Certification
11 2 (0.97%) CCSP
11 2 (0.97%) JNCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (8.21%) GDPR
2 14 (6.76%) PCI DSS
3 9 (4.35%) NIST
4 7 (3.38%) GLBA
5 6 (2.90%) HIPAA
6 4 (1.93%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 3 (1.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 2 (0.97%) Data Quality
8 2 (0.97%) FIPS 140-2
8 2 (0.97%) QA
9 1 (0.48%) Accessibility
9 1 (0.48%) SLA
9 1 (0.48%) SOC 2
System Software
1 41 (19.81%) Docker
2 26 (12.56%) Active Directory
3 16 (7.73%) VMware Infrastructure
4 14 (6.76%) Firmware
5 7 (3.38%) VMware NSX
6 5 (2.42%) NDS
6 5 (2.42%) NetIQ eDirectory
7 4 (1.93%) ProxySG
7 4 (1.93%) VMware ESXi
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
8 1 (0.48%) vSphere
8 1 (0.48%) XenApp
8 1 (0.48%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 56 (27.05%) Ansible
2 42 (20.29%) Terraform
3 29 (14.01%) Kubernetes
4 25 (12.08%) Single Sign-On
5 7 (3.38%) CASB
6 6 (2.90%) Nessus
7 4 (1.93%) CA Spectrum
7 4 (1.93%) Microsoft Intune
7 4 (1.93%) SCCM
8 3 (1.45%) Nagios
8 3 (1.45%) SCOM
9 2 (0.97%) Argo
9 2 (0.97%) FortiGate
9 2 (0.97%) Istio
9 2 (0.97%) McAfee ePO
9 2 (0.97%) Progress Chef
9 2 (0.97%) Prometheus
9 2 (0.97%) Rsyslog
10 1 (0.48%) Host Intrusion Detection System
10 1 (0.48%) VxRail
Vendors
1 77 (37.20%) F5
2 44 (21.26%) CheckPoint
3 36 (17.39%) Blue Coat
4 30 (14.49%) Cisco
4 30 (14.49%) Palo Alto
5 24 (11.59%) VMware
6 23 (11.11%) Microsoft
6 23 (11.11%) Splunk
7 22 (10.63%) McAfee
8 21 (10.14%) Juniper
9 18 (8.70%) Remedy
9 18 (8.70%) ServiceNow
10 13 (6.28%) BMC
10 13 (6.28%) HP
10 13 (6.28%) Ivanti
10 13 (6.28%) NetApp
10 13 (6.28%) Oracle
11 12 (5.80%) Thales
12 11 (5.31%) Zscaler
13 10 (4.83%) Fortinet