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

6 months to
5 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 462 375 383
Rank change year-on-year -87 +8 +64
Contract jobs citing SSL 186 149 208
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.38% 0.51% 0.48%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 3.90% 4.10% 3.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 109 82 125
10th Percentile £330 £351 £378
25th Percentile £406 £400 £453
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £523 £575
Median % change year-on-year -0.62% -9.00% +4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £617 £638
90th Percentile £688 £700 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £523 £600
% change year-on-year +0.48% -12.92% +20.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 6 4
10th Percentile £52.15 £80.34 £39.49
25th Percentile £55.00 £80.59 £43.60
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 -
90th Percentile £80.25 £83.05 -
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 4,771 3,635 5,392
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.72% 12.56% 12.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,920 2,249 3,208
10th Percentile £263 £214 £206
25th Percentile £400 £360 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £480 £495
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -3.03% -3.41%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £465 £475
% change year-on-year +2.15% -2.11% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 282 163 415
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.96 £16.30
Median hourly rate £28.96 £41.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -30.22% +3.75% +119.30%
75th Percentile £65.00 £59.44 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.93 £80.81 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.86 £31.79 £45.88
% change year-on-year +6.51% -30.71% +154.89%

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 June 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 June 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 June 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 -80 155 £525 - 38
UK excluding London -60 121 £525 +0.48% 35
North of England -30 63 £620 +24.00% 9
Work from Home -41 53 £515 -1.90% 75
London -82 42 £520 -5.02% 10
North West +1 38 £623 +3.83% 6
Midlands -31 35 £358 -0.14% 3
West Midlands -32 35 £358 - 1
Yorkshire -39 24 £625 +25.00% 2
South East -64 17 £500 +26.58% 14
Scotland +4 12 £600 +1.05%
East of England -35 10 £450 -25.00% 2
North East -28 2 £413 -22.90% 1
South West -31 1 £500 -14.53% 4

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 17 (9.14%) Confluence
2 6 (3.23%) TPMS
3 3 (1.61%) Microsoft Exchange
4 2 (1.08%) IBM HTTP Server
4 2 (1.08%) Oracle HTTP Server
4 2 (1.08%) WebSphere
4 2 (1.08%) WebSphere Application Server
4 2 (1.08%) WebSphere Portal
5 1 (0.54%) Apache
5 1 (0.54%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.54%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.54%) ArcGIS
5 1 (0.54%) CMS
5 1 (0.54%) Drupal
5 1 (0.54%) IIS
5 1 (0.54%) Umbraco
Applications
1 7 (3.76%) MS Visio
2 2 (1.08%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.54%) Dynamics GP
Cloud Services
1 52 (27.96%) Azure
2 39 (20.97%) AWS
3 20 (10.75%) Entra ID
4 18 (9.68%) GCP
5 13 (6.99%) GitHub
6 12 (6.45%) SaaS
7 10 (5.38%) IaaS
8 9 (4.84%) Microsoft 365
8 9 (4.84%) Serverless
9 7 (3.76%) Amazon EKS
9 7 (3.76%) Datadog
9 7 (3.76%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 5 (2.69%) PaaS
11 4 (2.15%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 4 (2.15%) Amazon S3
11 4 (2.15%) AWS CloudFormation
11 4 (2.15%) AWS Lambda
11 4 (2.15%) Azure Logic Apps
12 3 (1.61%) AWS KMS
12 3 (1.61%) Azure Key Vault
Communications & Networking
1 106 (56.99%) DNS
2 72 (38.71%) Firewall
3 67 (36.02%) TCP/IP
4 63 (33.87%) HTTP
5 47 (25.27%) BIG-IP
6 44 (23.66%) Network Security
7 41 (22.04%) VPN
8 38 (20.43%) WAN
9 34 (18.28%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
10 32 (17.20%) IPsec
10 32 (17.20%) Wireshark
11 30 (16.13%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
12 23 (12.37%) LAN
13 21 (11.29%) DHCP
14 19 (10.22%) HTTPS
15 17 (9.14%) BGP
15 17 (9.14%) Internet
16 15 (8.06%) SSH
17 14 (7.53%) OSPF
18 13 (6.99%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (4.84%) MongoDB
2 5 (2.69%) DocumentDB
2 5 (2.69%) NoSQL
3 4 (2.15%) MariaDB
3 4 (2.15%) Metadata
3 4 (2.15%) PostgreSQL
4 2 (1.08%) SQL Server
4 2 (1.08%) SQLPlus
5 1 (0.54%) Amazon QuickSight
5 1 (0.54%) Amazon RDS
5 1 (0.54%) SQLite
Development Applications
1 26 (13.98%) JIRA
2 24 (12.90%) Fiddler
3 10 (5.38%) Jenkins
4 9 (4.84%) Git
5 5 (2.69%) GitLab
6 4 (2.15%) Browser DevTools
6 4 (2.15%) Sonatype Nexus
7 2 (1.08%) git-flow
7 2 (1.08%) Introscope
8 1 (0.54%) Crashlytics
8 1 (0.54%) fastlane
8 1 (0.54%) JUnit
8 1 (0.54%) Xcode
8 1 (0.54%) XCTest
8 1 (0.54%) XCUITest
General
1 35 (18.82%) Finance
2 29 (15.59%) Banking
3 27 (14.52%) Social Skills
4 22 (11.83%) Analytical Skills
5 18 (9.68%) Investment Banking
6 15 (8.06%) Public Sector
7 14 (7.53%) Documentation Skills
8 12 (6.45%) Legal
9 7 (3.76%) Telecoms
10 2 (1.08%) Publishing
10 2 (1.08%) Retail
11 1 (0.54%) Financial Institution
11 1 (0.54%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.54%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.54%) Marketing
11 1 (0.54%) Military
11 1 (0.54%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (0.54%) Police
Job Titles
1 61 (32.80%) Network Engineer
2 26 (13.98%) Security Engineer
3 25 (13.44%) Web Engineer
4 24 (12.90%) Senior
5 20 (10.75%) IP Network Engineer
6 17 (9.14%) Blue Coat Engineer
7 12 (6.45%) Architect
7 12 (6.45%) Network Security Engineer
8 10 (5.38%) Administrator
9 9 (4.84%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 9 (4.84%) Senior Network Engineer
10 8 (4.30%) Analyst
10 8 (4.30%) Junior
11 7 (3.76%) Junior Network Engineer
12 6 (3.23%) Cryptography Engineer
12 6 (3.23%) Developer
12 6 (3.23%) Linux Engineer
12 6 (3.23%) Technical Architect
13 5 (2.69%) Cloud Engineer
13 5 (2.69%) SOC Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (16.13%) SAML
2 21 (11.29%) LDAP
3 13 (6.99%) OpenID
4 11 (5.91%) Middleware
4 11 (5.91%) OAuth
5 10 (5.38%) OAuth2
6 9 (4.84%) 802.1X
6 9 (4.84%) HTML
6 9 (4.84%) ISPF
7 8 (4.30%) Kafka
8 6 (3.23%) Web Services
9 5 (2.69%) CSS
9 5 (2.69%) Node.js
9 5 (2.69%) RESTful
9 5 (2.69%) Spring
9 5 (2.69%) Spring Boot
9 5 (2.69%) XACML
10 3 (1.61%) REST
11 2 (1.08%) JDBC
11 2 (1.08%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 23 (12.37%) Management Information System
2 19 (10.22%) PKI
3 18 (9.68%) Clustering
4 15 (8.06%) Data Centre
5 14 (7.53%) Cyber Threat
5 14 (7.53%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 13 (6.99%) Security Posture
7 11 (5.91%) Cloud Security Posture
8 9 (4.84%) Mainframe
8 9 (4.84%) Onboarding
9 7 (3.76%) Analytical Mindset
9 7 (3.76%) Enterprise Software
10 6 (3.23%) Self-Motivation
11 5 (2.69%) Algorithms
11 5 (2.69%) CSOC
11 5 (2.69%) Cyberattack
11 5 (2.69%) Security Operations Centre
12 3 (1.61%) Enterprise Storage
12 3 (1.61%) SCADA
13 2 (1.08%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 38 (20.43%) Windows
2 36 (19.35%) Linux
3 14 (7.53%) Windows Server
4 9 (4.84%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 9 (4.84%) zOS
5 7 (3.76%) Unix
6 3 (1.61%) Mac OS
7 2 (1.08%) CatOS
7 2 (1.08%) Oracle Linux
7 2 (1.08%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
7 2 (1.08%) Windows Server 2019
8 1 (0.54%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.54%) Data ONTAP
8 1 (0.54%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 42 (22.58%) ITIL
2 40 (21.51%) Load Balancing
3 38 (20.43%) Cybersecurity
4 34 (18.28%) Data Loss Prevention
5 33 (17.74%) SIEM
6 29 (15.59%) CI/CD
7 27 (14.52%) DevOps
7 27 (14.52%) High Availability
8 24 (12.90%) Cloud Security
8 24 (12.90%) Malware Detection/Protection
9 23 (12.37%) Change Management
9 23 (12.37%) Zero Trust
10 20 (10.75%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 20 (10.75%) Migration
11 19 (10.22%) Agile
11 19 (10.22%) Roadmaps
12 17 (9.14%) Identity Access Management
12 17 (9.14%) Incident Response
12 17 (9.14%) Problem-Solving
13 16 (8.60%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 48 (25.81%) Python
2 23 (12.37%) PowerShell
3 19 (10.22%) SQL
4 17 (9.14%) Bash
5 7 (3.76%) JavaScript
6 4 (2.15%) ActionScript
6 4 (2.15%) Groovy
6 4 (2.15%) Java
6 4 (2.15%) Perl
7 3 (1.61%) PL/SQL
8 2 (1.08%) C
8 2 (1.08%) Jython
8 2 (1.08%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.54%) Go
9 1 (0.54%) Ruby
9 1 (0.54%) Swift
Qualifications
1 51 (27.42%) Security Cleared
2 38 (20.43%) SC Cleared
3 17 (9.14%) DV Cleared
4 16 (8.60%) Cisco Certification
5 15 (8.06%) CCNP
5 15 (8.06%) Degree
6 13 (6.99%) CISSP
7 7 (3.76%) CompTIA Security+
8 6 (3.23%) FFIEC
9 5 (2.69%) Azure Certification
9 5 (2.69%) MCSE
9 5 (2.69%) Microsoft Certification
10 4 (2.15%) BPSS Clearance
10 4 (2.15%) CISM
10 4 (2.15%) MCSA
11 3 (1.61%) CCIE
12 2 (1.08%) HND
12 2 (1.08%) Postgraduate
13 1 (0.54%) CCSE
13 1 (0.54%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (7.53%) NIST
2 13 (6.99%) GDPR
3 7 (3.76%) PCI DSS
4 6 (3.23%) GLBA
5 3 (1.61%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 2 (1.08%) SLA
7 1 (0.54%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.54%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.54%) DICOM
7 1 (0.54%) HL7
7 1 (0.54%) NCSC
7 1 (0.54%) RMADS
System Software
1 42 (22.58%) Active Directory
1 42 (22.58%) VMware Infrastructure
2 20 (10.75%) Firmware
3 17 (9.14%) VMware NSX
4 14 (7.53%) RACF
5 12 (6.45%) Hyper-V
5 12 (6.45%) Virtual Machines
6 8 (4.30%) Docker
7 7 (3.76%) Squid
8 4 (2.15%) Ceph
8 4 (2.15%) VMware ESXi
9 3 (1.61%) vSphere
10 2 (1.08%) ProxySG
10 2 (1.08%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 2 (1.08%) Virtual Servers
11 1 (0.54%) KVM
Systems Management
1 29 (15.59%) Ansible
2 26 (13.98%) Single Sign-On
3 15 (8.06%) Terraform
4 13 (6.99%) CASB
5 11 (5.91%) Kubernetes
6 10 (5.38%) FortiGate
7 9 (4.84%) OMEGAMON
8 7 (3.76%) Grafana
9 4 (2.15%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 4 (2.15%) CA Single Sign-On
9 4 (2.15%) Nessus
9 4 (2.15%) Packer
9 4 (2.15%) PingFederate
9 4 (2.15%) Puppet
10 3 (1.61%) Prometheus
11 2 (1.08%) CA Wily
11 2 (1.08%) Tivoli
12 1 (0.54%) Consul
12 1 (0.54%) Failover Clustering
12 1 (0.54%) QRadar
Vendors
1 53 (28.49%) F5
2 50 (26.88%) VMware
3 35 (18.82%) Cisco
4 32 (17.20%) Blue Coat
5 31 (16.67%) Microsoft
6 25 (13.44%) McAfee
6 25 (13.44%) Palo Alto
7 23 (12.37%) Zscaler
8 18 (9.68%) CheckPoint
8 18 (9.68%) NetApp
8 18 (9.68%) ServiceNow
9 14 (7.53%) Splunk
10 12 (6.45%) Fortinet
11 11 (5.91%) IBM
11 11 (5.91%) Juniper
12 9 (4.84%) Netskope
12 9 (4.84%) SolarWinds
13 7 (3.76%) CrowdStrike
14 6 (3.23%) Oracle
14 6 (3.23%) Thales