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

6 months to
8 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 470 357 412
Rank change year-on-year -113 +55 -8
Contract jobs citing SSL 221 204 148
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.41% 0.62% 0.39%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 4.39% 5.39% 3.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 107 123 80
10th Percentile £380 £369 £378
25th Percentile £463 £413 £474
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £575 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +4.55% +10.00%
75th Percentile £600 £656 £653
90th Percentile £650 £700 £751
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £425 £538
% change year-on-year +29.41% -20.93% +10.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 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 £76.88 £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 5,039 3,784 4,518
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.24% 11.45% 11.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,916 2,391 2,600
10th Percentile £236 £219 £225
25th Percentile £390 £360 £364
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £606
90th Percentile £675 £680 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £450 £485
% change year-on-year +5.56% -7.22% +5.43%
Number of hourly rates quoted 434 196 193
10th Percentile £14.10 £15.50 £14.24
25th Percentile £19.50 £20.81 £24.18
Median hourly rate £32.50 £40.50 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -19.75% -19.00% -11.49%
75th Percentile £68.75 £64.63 £65.00
90th Percentile £92.11 £75.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.14 £42.50 £56.13
% change year-on-year -38.49% -24.28% -2.39%

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 8 October 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 8 October 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 8 October 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 -97 191 £550 -4.35% 112
UK excluding London -66 132 £550 +29.41% 56
London -110 68 £550 -8.33% 57
Work from Home -70 63 £550 -4.35% 42
North of England -37 55 £600 +9.09% 16
North West -25 37 £600 -0.58% 13
Midlands -54 27 £469 +24.24% 6
South East -52 25 £525 +40.00% 13
West Midlands -50 22 £450 +18.42% 4
East of England -30 18 £400 -41.18% 11
Scotland -5 17 £600 +14.29% 1
Yorkshire -30 16 £600 +9.09% 3
East Midlands -11 5 £525 +46.65% 2
South West -38 3 £350 -37.16% 9
North East -39 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 12 (5.43%) Confluence
2 5 (2.26%) Apache
3 4 (1.81%) IIS
4 3 (1.36%) SharePoint
5 2 (0.90%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.90%) Microsoft Exchange
5 2 (0.90%) nginx
6 1 (0.45%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.45%) JBoss
Applications
1 3 (1.36%) MS Visio
2 2 (0.90%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 2 (0.90%) Houdini
2 2 (0.90%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.90%) NUKE
Business Applications
1 3 (1.36%) Infor LN
2 2 (0.90%) 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 68 (30.77%) Azure
2 44 (19.91%) AWS
3 26 (11.76%) Entra ID
4 19 (8.60%) GCP
5 17 (7.69%) GitHub
6 16 (7.24%) Azure DevOps
7 14 (6.33%) Microsoft 365
8 13 (5.88%) Power Platform
9 12 (5.43%) Azure Monitor
10 11 (4.98%) Datadog
11 8 (3.62%) Azure Key Vault
11 8 (3.62%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 7 (3.17%) AWS CloudFormation
12 7 (3.17%) AWS Lambda
12 7 (3.17%) GitHub Actions
12 7 (3.17%) Serverless
13 6 (2.71%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 6 (2.71%) Amazon S3
13 6 (2.71%) AWS KMS
13 6 (2.71%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 98 (44.34%) DNS
2 74 (33.48%) Firewall
3 62 (28.05%) VPN
4 58 (26.24%) Network Security
5 56 (25.34%) TCP/IP
6 54 (24.43%) HTTP
7 42 (19.00%) WAN
8 35 (15.84%) IPsec
9 32 (14.48%) BGP
10 29 (13.12%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
11 28 (12.67%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
12 27 (12.22%) BIG-IP
13 24 (10.86%) LAN
13 24 (10.86%) OSPF
14 23 (10.41%) DHCP
14 23 (10.41%) Wireless
15 16 (7.24%) Wireshark
16 15 (6.79%) HTTPS
16 15 (6.79%) SD-WAN
17 13 (5.88%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (8.60%) SQL Server
2 16 (7.24%) MySQL
3 11 (4.98%) Power BI
3 11 (4.98%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 5 (2.26%) PostgreSQL
5 4 (1.81%) MariaDB
5 4 (1.81%) Relational Database
6 2 (0.90%) Amazon RDS
6 2 (0.90%) MongoDB
6 2 (0.90%) Oracle BI Publisher
6 2 (0.90%) Oracle Reports
6 2 (0.90%) RDBMS
6 2 (0.90%) SQLPlus
7 1 (0.45%) InfluxDB
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 (8.60%) Jenkins
2 17 (7.69%) Git
2 17 (7.69%) JIRA
3 11 (4.98%) Fiddler
3 11 (4.98%) GitLab
4 7 (3.17%) Sonatype Nexus
5 3 (1.36%) Artifactory
5 3 (1.36%) Maven
6 2 (0.90%) git-flow
7 1 (0.45%) Ant
7 1 (0.45%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 1 (0.45%) Browser DevTools
7 1 (0.45%) Gerrit
7 1 (0.45%) Mockito
7 1 (0.45%) REST Assured
7 1 (0.45%) Tricentis qTest
General
1 39 (17.65%) Finance
1 39 (17.65%) Social Skills
2 31 (14.03%) Banking
3 25 (11.31%) Legal
4 24 (10.86%) Analytical Skills
5 12 (5.43%) Investment Banking
6 11 (4.98%) Public Sector
7 8 (3.62%) Documentation Skills
8 6 (2.71%) Publishing
8 6 (2.71%) Telecoms
9 4 (1.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 4 (1.81%) Manufacturing
10 2 (0.90%) Aerospace
11 1 (0.45%) Law
11 1 (0.45%) Local Government
11 1 (0.45%) Marketing
11 1 (0.45%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.45%) Police
11 1 (0.45%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 55 (24.89%) Network Engineer
2 28 (12.67%) Security Engineer
3 25 (11.31%) Administrator
3 25 (11.31%) Senior
4 14 (6.33%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 14 (6.33%) Lead
5 13 (5.88%) DBA
5 13 (5.88%) IP Network Engineer
6 12 (5.43%) Architect
6 12 (5.43%) Network Security Engineer
6 12 (5.43%) Senior Network Engineer
6 12 (5.43%) SQL DBA
7 11 (4.98%) Blue Coat Engineer
7 11 (4.98%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
7 11 (4.98%) Web Engineer
8 9 (4.07%) Developer
9 8 (3.62%) DevOps Engineer
9 8 (3.62%) Linux Engineer
10 7 (3.17%) Network Architect
11 6 (2.71%) Infrastructure Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (12.67%) Terraform
2 22 (9.95%) SAML
3 21 (9.50%) Middleware
4 20 (9.05%) 802.1X
5 17 (7.69%) ISPF
6 14 (6.33%) REST
7 12 (5.43%) OAuth
8 10 (4.52%) Web Services
9 9 (4.07%) LDAP
9 9 (4.07%) SOAP
10 8 (3.62%) JSON
10 8 (3.62%) OpenID
11 7 (3.17%) Kafka
11 7 (3.17%) XML
12 5 (2.26%) OAuth2
13 4 (1.81%) Apache NiFi
13 4 (1.81%) CSS
13 4 (1.81%) EDI
13 4 (1.81%) YAML
14 3 (1.36%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 34 (15.38%) PKI
2 30 (13.57%) Clustering
3 24 (10.86%) Onboarding
4 18 (8.14%) Mainframe
5 16 (7.24%) Data Centre
5 16 (7.24%) Management Information System
6 15 (6.79%) Replication
7 14 (6.33%) Self-Motivation
8 13 (5.88%) Cyber Threat
9 9 (4.07%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 9 (4.07%) Enterprise Software
10 8 (3.62%) Hybrid Cloud
11 6 (2.71%) Distributed Applications
12 5 (2.26%) Analytical Mindset
12 5 (2.26%) Linux Command Line
12 5 (2.26%) Video Conferencing
13 4 (1.81%) Data Protection Act
13 4 (1.81%) Data Structures
13 4 (1.81%) Fibre Optics
13 4 (1.81%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 56 (25.34%) Linux
2 52 (23.53%) Windows
3 33 (14.93%) Windows Server
4 22 (9.95%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 20 (9.05%) zOS
6 9 (4.07%) Unix
7 3 (1.36%) Windows Server 2019
8 2 (0.90%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.45%) Amazon Linux
9 1 (0.45%) Android
9 1 (0.45%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.45%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.45%) Rocky
9 1 (0.45%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 54 (24.43%) DevOps
2 49 (22.17%) Load Balancing
3 47 (21.27%) ITIL
4 37 (16.74%) CI/CD
5 32 (14.48%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 29 (13.12%) High Availability
7 25 (11.31%) Migration
7 25 (11.31%) Problem-Solving
8 24 (10.86%) Performance Optimisation
8 24 (10.86%) SIEM
9 23 (10.41%) Infrastructure as Code
9 23 (10.41%) Performance Tuning
10 22 (9.95%) Zero Trust
11 21 (9.50%) Change Management
11 21 (9.50%) Cybersecurity
12 18 (8.14%) Agile
12 18 (8.14%) Containerisation
13 17 (7.69%) Incident Response
13 17 (7.69%) Observability
13 17 (7.69%) Runbook
Programming Languages
1 59 (26.70%) Python
2 33 (14.93%) PowerShell
3 32 (14.48%) SQL
4 21 (9.50%) Bash
5 12 (5.43%) T-SQL
6 11 (4.98%) Shell Script
7 9 (4.07%) Groovy
7 9 (4.07%) Java
7 9 (4.07%) Perl
8 7 (3.17%) JavaScript
9 6 (2.71%) ActionScript
10 3 (1.36%) C#
10 3 (1.36%) C++
11 2 (0.90%) 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 68 (30.77%) Security Cleared
2 44 (19.91%) SC Cleared
3 25 (11.31%) DV Cleared
4 20 (9.05%) Degree
5 18 (8.14%) Azure Certification
6 17 (7.69%) Cisco Certification
7 15 (6.79%) CCNP
8 13 (5.88%) BPSS Clearance
9 12 (5.43%) Microsoft Certification
10 10 (4.52%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 6 (2.71%) CCIE
11 6 (2.71%) CCNA
12 5 (2.26%) CISSP
12 5 (2.26%) RHCSA
13 4 (1.81%) RHCE
14 2 (0.90%) JNCIE
14 2 (0.90%) MCSE
14 2 (0.90%) PMI Certification
14 2 (0.90%) PMP
14 2 (0.90%) PRINCE2 Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (4.52%) NIST
2 6 (2.71%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 6 (2.71%) SLA
3 4 (1.81%) GDPR
4 2 (0.90%) Cyber Essentials
4 2 (0.90%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 2 (0.90%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.45%) DICOM
5 1 (0.45%) HL7
System Software
1 45 (20.36%) Active Directory
2 39 (17.65%) VMware Infrastructure
3 18 (8.14%) Docker
4 17 (7.69%) RACF
4 17 (7.69%) Virtual Machines
5 15 (6.79%) vSphere
6 13 (5.88%) Firmware
6 13 (5.88%) Hyper-V
7 9 (4.07%) VMware NSX
8 4 (1.81%) Ceph
8 4 (1.81%) Squid
9 3 (1.36%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 3 (1.36%) Virtual Servers
10 2 (0.90%) Apache ZooKeeper
10 2 (0.90%) Virtual Desktop
10 2 (0.90%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.45%) KVM
11 1 (0.45%) OpenSSH
11 1 (0.45%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 49 (22.17%) Ansible
2 20 (9.05%) Kubernetes
3 18 (8.14%) Grafana
4 17 (7.69%) OMEGAMON
5 16 (7.24%) Single Sign-On
6 13 (5.88%) Prometheus
7 11 (4.98%) SCOM
8 10 (4.52%) Puppet
9 8 (3.62%) Nagios
10 7 (3.17%) FortiGate
11 5 (2.26%) Argo
11 5 (2.26%) Packer
12 4 (1.81%) Cisco CUCM
12 4 (1.81%) Microsoft Intune
12 4 (1.81%) systemd
13 3 (1.36%) Progress Chef
13 3 (1.36%) yum
14 2 (0.90%) Consul
14 2 (0.90%) HAProxy
14 2 (0.90%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 51 (23.08%) Cisco
1 51 (23.08%) F5
1 51 (23.08%) VMware
2 43 (19.46%) Microsoft
3 32 (14.48%) Palo Alto
4 26 (11.76%) Blue Coat
4 26 (11.76%) ServiceNow
5 25 (11.31%) Zscaler
6 21 (9.50%) IBM
7 18 (8.14%) Juniper
8 17 (7.69%) Fortinet
8 17 (7.69%) SolarWinds
9 14 (6.33%) CheckPoint
9 14 (6.33%) McAfee
10 11 (4.98%) NetApp
10 11 (4.98%) Red Hat
10 11 (4.98%) Splunk
11 7 (3.17%) Dynatrace
12 6 (2.71%) Oracle
13 5 (2.26%) Aruba