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

6 months to
29 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 471 355 421
Rank change year-on-year -116 +66 -20
Contract jobs citing SSL 224 202 149
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.41% 0.62% 0.39%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 4.41% 5.41% 3.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 111 125 84
10th Percentile £380 £370 £354
25th Percentile £463 £413 £469
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £557 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.26% +1.27% +7.32%
75th Percentile £600 £650 £650
90th Percentile £650 £700 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £433 £525
% change year-on-year +21.39% -17.62% +8.02%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 8 1
10th Percentile £61.00 - -
25th Percentile - £45.00 £46.25
Median hourly rate £68.75 £65.00 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +5.77% +36.84% -28.01%
75th Percentile £80.94 £82.26 £48.75
90th Percentile £85.00 £85.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £68.75 £65.00 £47.50
% change year-on-year +5.77% +36.84% -28.01%

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 5,084 3,735 4,513
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.31% 11.46% 11.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,934 2,338 2,593
10th Percentile £231 £219 £228
25th Percentile £390 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £608
90th Percentile £675 £680 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £450 £488
% change year-on-year +5.56% -7.69% +5.41%
Number of hourly rates quoted 427 200 213
10th Percentile £14.10 £15.50 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.50 £25.11 £23.80
Median hourly rate £34.28 £42.50 £50.50
Median % change year-on-year -19.34% -15.84% -10.53%
75th Percentile £68.75 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £92.11 £73.20 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.50 £42.50 £57.35
% change year-on-year -32.94% -25.89% -0.26%

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 29 September 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 29 September 2026.

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 29 September 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 -124 194 £550 -2.83% 96
UK excluding London -58 136 £525 +21.39% 52
London -111 68 £550 -8.33% 50
Work from Home -61 60 £550 -4.35% 43
North of England -46 56 £600 +12.15% 10
North West -29 38 £600 -0.58% 9
Midlands -42 30 £425 +12.58% 6
South East -56 28 £520 +37.02% 13
West Midlands -44 26 £400 +5.26% 4
Scotland -14 17 £600 +14.29% 2
East of England -26 16 £400 -33.61% 16
Yorkshire -33 16 £600 +20.00% 1
East Midlands -17 4 £475 +32.68% 2
South West -39 3 £350 -37.16% 7
North East -40 2 £438 -18.22%

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 13 (5.80%) Confluence
2 5 (2.23%) Apache
3 2 (0.89%) Apache Airflow
3 2 (0.89%) IIS
3 2 (0.89%) nginx
3 2 (0.89%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.45%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.45%) JBoss
4 1 (0.45%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 3 (1.34%) MS Visio
2 2 (0.89%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 2 (0.89%) Houdini
2 2 (0.89%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.89%) NUKE
Business Applications
1 3 (1.34%) Infor LN
2 2 (0.89%) Dynamics GP
3 1 (0.45%) Oracle Assets
3 1 (0.45%) Oracle General Ledger
3 1 (0.45%) Oracle Payables
3 1 (0.45%) Oracle Receivables
3 1 (0.45%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 73 (32.59%) Azure
2 44 (19.64%) AWS
3 30 (13.39%) Entra ID
4 20 (8.93%) GCP
5 18 (8.04%) Azure DevOps
6 16 (7.14%) GitHub
7 15 (6.70%) Microsoft 365
8 13 (5.80%) Power Platform
9 12 (5.36%) Azure Monitor
10 11 (4.91%) Datadog
11 9 (4.02%) Azure Key Vault
12 8 (3.57%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 7 (3.13%) AWS CloudFormation
13 7 (3.13%) AWS KMS
13 7 (3.13%) AWS Lambda
13 7 (3.13%) GitHub Actions
13 7 (3.13%) Serverless
14 6 (2.68%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 6 (2.68%) Amazon S3
14 6 (2.68%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 100 (44.64%) DNS
2 75 (33.48%) Firewall
3 64 (28.57%) VPN
4 60 (26.79%) Network Security
5 57 (25.45%) TCP/IP
6 54 (24.11%) HTTP
7 44 (19.64%) WAN
8 35 (15.63%) IPsec
9 31 (13.84%) BGP
10 30 (13.39%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
11 28 (12.50%) BIG-IP
11 28 (12.50%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
12 27 (12.05%) DHCP
13 24 (10.71%) LAN
14 23 (10.27%) OSPF
15 22 (9.82%) Wireless
16 17 (7.59%) SD-WAN
16 17 (7.59%) Wireshark
17 16 (7.14%) HTTPS
18 12 (5.36%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (7.59%) SQL Server
2 16 (7.14%) MySQL
3 11 (4.91%) Power BI
3 11 (4.91%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 5 (2.23%) PostgreSQL
5 4 (1.79%) MariaDB
6 2 (0.89%) Amazon RDS
6 2 (0.89%) MongoDB
6 2 (0.89%) Oracle BI Publisher
6 2 (0.89%) Oracle Reports
6 2 (0.89%) RDBMS
6 2 (0.89%) Relational Database
6 2 (0.89%) SQLPlus
7 1 (0.45%) InfluxDB
7 1 (0.45%) Metadata
7 1 (0.45%) Neo4j
7 1 (0.45%) NoSQL
7 1 (0.45%) SQLite
7 1 (0.45%) Sybase ASE
Development Applications
1 19 (8.48%) JIRA
2 18 (8.04%) Jenkins
3 16 (7.14%) Git
4 12 (5.36%) Fiddler
5 10 (4.46%) GitLab
6 7 (3.13%) Sonatype Nexus
7 3 (1.34%) Artifactory
7 3 (1.34%) Browser DevTools
7 3 (1.34%) Maven
8 2 (0.89%) git-flow
9 1 (0.45%) Ant
9 1 (0.45%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 1 (0.45%) Gerrit
9 1 (0.45%) Mockito
9 1 (0.45%) Tricentis qTest
General
1 41 (18.30%) Social Skills
2 39 (17.41%) Finance
3 32 (14.29%) Banking
4 26 (11.61%) Analytical Skills
5 25 (11.16%) Legal
6 13 (5.80%) Investment Banking
7 11 (4.91%) Public Sector
8 8 (3.57%) Documentation Skills
8 8 (3.57%) Telecoms
9 6 (2.68%) Publishing
10 4 (1.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 4 (1.79%) Manufacturing
11 2 (0.89%) Aerospace
12 1 (0.45%) Law
12 1 (0.45%) Local Government
12 1 (0.45%) Marketing
12 1 (0.45%) Organisational Skills
12 1 (0.45%) Police
12 1 (0.45%) Presentation Skills
12 1 (0.45%) Retail
Job Titles
1 57 (25.45%) Network Engineer
2 30 (13.39%) Security Engineer
3 25 (11.16%) Administrator
3 25 (11.16%) Senior
4 14 (6.25%) IP Network Engineer
4 14 (6.25%) Lead
4 14 (6.25%) Network Security Engineer
5 13 (5.80%) DBA
5 13 (5.80%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 13 (5.80%) Senior Network Engineer
6 12 (5.36%) Blue Coat Engineer
6 12 (5.36%) SQL DBA
6 12 (5.36%) Web Engineer
7 11 (4.91%) Architect
8 10 (4.46%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
9 9 (4.02%) Developer
10 8 (3.57%) DevOps Engineer
10 8 (3.57%) Linux Engineer
11 7 (3.13%) Network Architect
12 6 (2.68%) Infrastructure Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 27 (12.05%) Terraform
2 24 (10.71%) SAML
3 21 (9.38%) Middleware
4 20 (8.93%) 802.1X
5 17 (7.59%) ISPF
6 13 (5.80%) REST
7 12 (5.36%) OAuth
8 10 (4.46%) LDAP
8 10 (4.46%) Web Services
9 9 (4.02%) SOAP
10 8 (3.57%) JSON
10 8 (3.57%) OpenID
11 7 (3.13%) Kafka
11 7 (3.13%) XML
12 6 (2.68%) OAuth2
13 4 (1.79%) Apache NiFi
13 4 (1.79%) CSS
13 4 (1.79%) EDI
13 4 (1.79%) YAML
14 3 (1.34%) JWT
Miscellaneous
1 33 (14.73%) PKI
2 31 (13.84%) Clustering
3 21 (9.38%) Onboarding
4 18 (8.04%) Mainframe
5 17 (7.59%) Data Centre
5 17 (7.59%) Management Information System
6 15 (6.70%) Replication
6 15 (6.70%) Self-Motivation
7 13 (5.80%) Cyber Threat
8 10 (4.46%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 8 (3.57%) Enterprise Software
9 8 (3.57%) Hybrid Cloud
10 6 (2.68%) Distributed Applications
11 5 (2.23%) Analytical Mindset
11 5 (2.23%) Linux Command Line
12 4 (1.79%) Cyberattack
12 4 (1.79%) Data Protection Act
12 4 (1.79%) Data Structures
12 4 (1.79%) Fibre Optics
12 4 (1.79%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 55 (24.55%) Windows
2 54 (24.11%) Linux
3 34 (15.18%) Windows Server
4 21 (9.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 20 (8.93%) zOS
6 9 (4.02%) Unix
7 3 (1.34%) Mac OS
7 3 (1.34%) Windows Server 2019
8 2 (0.89%) Ubuntu
8 2 (0.89%) VMS
9 1 (0.45%) Amazon Linux
9 1 (0.45%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 55 (24.55%) DevOps
2 50 (22.32%) ITIL
3 49 (21.88%) Load Balancing
4 36 (16.07%) CI/CD
5 33 (14.73%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 32 (14.29%) High Availability
7 27 (12.05%) Problem-Solving
8 24 (10.71%) Performance Optimisation
8 24 (10.71%) SIEM
9 23 (10.27%) Performance Tuning
10 22 (9.82%) Change Management
10 22 (9.82%) Infrastructure as Code
10 22 (9.82%) Migration
11 21 (9.38%) Zero Trust
12 20 (8.93%) Cybersecurity
13 18 (8.04%) Containerisation
14 17 (7.59%) Agile
14 17 (7.59%) Configuration Management
14 17 (7.59%) Incident Response
15 16 (7.14%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 58 (25.89%) Python
2 32 (14.29%) PowerShell
3 30 (13.39%) SQL
4 20 (8.93%) Bash
5 12 (5.36%) T-SQL
6 10 (4.46%) Java
6 10 (4.46%) Shell Script
7 9 (4.02%) Groovy
7 9 (4.02%) Perl
8 7 (3.13%) JavaScript
9 5 (2.23%) ActionScript
10 3 (1.34%) C#
10 3 (1.34%) C++
11 2 (0.89%) Go
12 1 (0.45%) ActionScript 2.0
12 1 (0.45%) Cypher
12 1 (0.45%) MATLAB
12 1 (0.45%) PL/SQL
12 1 (0.45%) R
12 1 (0.45%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 71 (31.70%) Security Cleared
2 45 (20.09%) SC Cleared
3 24 (10.71%) DV Cleared
4 20 (8.93%) Azure Certification
5 19 (8.48%) Degree
6 17 (7.59%) Cisco Certification
7 14 (6.25%) CCNP
8 13 (5.80%) BPSS Clearance
9 12 (5.36%) Microsoft Certification
10 10 (4.46%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 6 (2.68%) CCIE
12 5 (2.23%) CCNA
12 5 (2.23%) CISSP
12 5 (2.23%) RHCSA
13 4 (1.79%) RHCE
14 2 (0.89%) JNCIE
14 2 (0.89%) MCSE
14 2 (0.89%) PMI Certification
14 2 (0.89%) PMP
14 2 (0.89%) PRINCE2 Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (4.46%) NIST
2 6 (2.68%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 6 (2.68%) SLA
3 5 (2.23%) GDPR
4 2 (0.89%) Cyber Essentials
4 2 (0.89%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 2 (0.89%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.45%) DICOM
5 1 (0.45%) HL7
5 1 (0.45%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 46 (20.54%) Active Directory
2 42 (18.75%) VMware Infrastructure
3 19 (8.48%) Virtual Machines
4 18 (8.04%) Docker
5 17 (7.59%) RACF
6 16 (7.14%) Hyper-V
7 14 (6.25%) Firmware
7 14 (6.25%) vSphere
8 9 (4.02%) VMware NSX
9 4 (1.79%) Ceph
9 4 (1.79%) Squid
9 4 (1.79%) VMware ESXi
10 3 (1.34%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 3 (1.34%) Virtual Servers
11 2 (0.89%) Apache ZooKeeper
11 2 (0.89%) Virtual Desktop
12 1 (0.45%) KVM
12 1 (0.45%) OpenSSH
12 1 (0.45%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 48 (21.43%) Ansible
2 20 (8.93%) Kubernetes
3 18 (8.04%) Grafana
4 17 (7.59%) OMEGAMON
4 17 (7.59%) Single Sign-On
5 13 (5.80%) Prometheus
6 11 (4.91%) SCOM
7 10 (4.46%) Puppet
8 7 (3.13%) FortiGate
8 7 (3.13%) Nagios
9 5 (2.23%) Argo
9 5 (2.23%) Packer
10 4 (1.79%) Cisco CUCM
10 4 (1.79%) Microsoft Intune
10 4 (1.79%) systemd
11 3 (1.34%) Progress Chef
11 3 (1.34%) yum
12 2 (0.89%) Consul
12 2 (0.89%) HAProxy
12 2 (0.89%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 53 (23.66%) VMware
2 52 (23.21%) F5
3 51 (22.77%) Cisco
4 42 (18.75%) Microsoft
5 33 (14.73%) Palo Alto
6 27 (12.05%) Blue Coat
6 27 (12.05%) ServiceNow
6 27 (12.05%) Zscaler
7 21 (9.38%) IBM
8 19 (8.48%) Juniper
9 17 (7.59%) Fortinet
10 16 (7.14%) SolarWinds
11 15 (6.70%) CheckPoint
11 15 (6.70%) McAfee
12 12 (5.36%) NetApp
13 11 (4.91%) Red Hat
14 10 (4.46%) Splunk
15 7 (3.13%) Dynatrace
16 6 (2.68%) Citrix
16 6 (2.68%) Oracle