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

6 months to
26 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 462 367 436
Rank change year-on-year -95 +69 -19
Contract jobs citing SSL 219 195 140
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.41% 0.60% 0.36%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 4.32% 5.03% 3.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 119 123 81
10th Percentile £380 £350 £400
25th Percentile £456 £381 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -4.35% +4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £638
90th Percentile £650 £700 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £500 £575
% change year-on-year +5.00% -13.04% +18.31%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 11 2
10th Percentile - £45.00 £37.70
25th Percentile - £50.00 £39.13
Median hourly rate - £80.68 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year - +87.62% -34.83%
75th Percentile - £82.68 £46.63
90th Percentile - £85.00 £47.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £80.68 £43.00
% change year-on-year - +87.62% -34.83%

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 5,068 3,874 4,665
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.45% 11.84% 12.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,992 2,362 2,803
10th Percentile £250 £241 £220
25th Percentile £400 £367 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £485 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.09% -3.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £608
90th Percentile £675 £677 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £472 £500
% change year-on-year +0.58% -5.55% +9.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 371 201 302
10th Percentile £15.18 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.33 £25.15 £20.50
Median hourly rate £26.00 £46.25 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -43.78% -7.50% -11.49%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £81.35 £74.88
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.77 £44.50 £54.94
% change year-on-year -42.09% -19.00% -4.46%

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 26 August 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
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 26 August 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 -103 187 £525 -5.58% 27
UK excluding London -38 133 £525 +5.00% 21
London -101 69 £550 -8.33% 10
Work from Home -56 66 £550 +2.33% 11
North of England -31 60 £600 +12.15% 6
North West -20 39 £600 -0.29% 6
Midlands -37 35 £406 +11.91% 1
West Midlands -42 32 £400 +5.26% 1
South East -60 27 £463 +23.33% 8
Scotland -2 20 £600 +14.29% 2
Yorkshire -26 19 £600 +20.00%
East of England -37 5 £450 -25.31% 6
East Midlands -16 3 £475 +32.68%
North East -41 2 £438 -18.22%
South West -48 2 - - 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 15 (6.85%) Confluence
2 3 (1.37%) Apache
3 2 (0.91%) IBM HTTP Server
3 2 (0.91%) IIS
3 2 (0.91%) Oracle HTTP Server
3 2 (0.91%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.91%) WebSphere
3 2 (0.91%) WebSphere Application Server
3 2 (0.91%) WebSphere Portal
4 1 (0.46%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.46%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.46%) ArcGIS
4 1 (0.46%) JBoss
4 1 (0.46%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.46%) nginx
Applications
1 4 (1.83%) MS Visio
2 2 (0.91%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 2 (0.91%) Houdini
2 2 (0.91%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.91%) NUKE
Business Applications
1 3 (1.37%) Infor LN
2 2 (0.91%) Dynamics GP
3 1 (0.46%) Oracle Assets
3 1 (0.46%) Oracle General Ledger
3 1 (0.46%) Oracle Payables
3 1 (0.46%) Oracle Receivables
3 1 (0.46%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 72 (32.88%) Azure
2 46 (21.00%) AWS
3 33 (15.07%) Entra ID
4 20 (9.13%) GCP
5 15 (6.85%) Azure DevOps
5 15 (6.85%) Microsoft 365
6 14 (6.39%) GitHub
7 12 (5.48%) Datadog
8 11 (5.02%) SaaS
9 10 (4.57%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 9 (4.11%) Power Platform
11 8 (3.65%) AWS CloudFormation
11 8 (3.65%) AWS Lambda
11 8 (3.65%) Azure Key Vault
11 8 (3.65%) Azure Monitor
11 8 (3.65%) Serverless
12 7 (3.20%) AWS KMS
12 7 (3.20%) GitHub Actions
13 6 (2.74%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 6 (2.74%) Amazon S3
Communications & Networking
1 103 (47.03%) DNS
2 72 (32.88%) Firewall
3 57 (26.03%) TCP/IP
4 54 (24.66%) HTTP
5 52 (23.74%) VPN
6 49 (22.37%) Network Security
7 40 (18.26%) WAN
8 33 (15.07%) BIG-IP
9 32 (14.61%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
10 28 (12.79%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
11 27 (12.33%) IPsec
12 22 (10.05%) HTTPS
13 21 (9.59%) DHCP
13 21 (9.59%) LAN
13 21 (9.59%) Wireshark
14 20 (9.13%) Internet
15 18 (8.22%) BGP
15 18 (8.22%) Wireless
16 16 (7.31%) SD-WAN
17 11 (5.02%) Cisco ASA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (5.48%) SQL Server
2 10 (4.57%) MySQL
3 7 (3.20%) PostgreSQL
3 7 (3.20%) Power BI
3 7 (3.20%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 6 (2.74%) MariaDB
5 5 (2.28%) MongoDB
6 4 (1.83%) Metadata
7 3 (1.37%) SQLPlus
8 2 (0.91%) Amazon RDS
8 2 (0.91%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 2 (0.91%) Oracle Reports
8 2 (0.91%) RDBMS
8 2 (0.91%) Relational Database
9 1 (0.46%) Neo4j
9 1 (0.46%) NoSQL
9 1 (0.46%) Sybase ASE
Development Applications
1 25 (11.42%) JIRA
2 17 (7.76%) Jenkins
3 16 (7.31%) Fiddler
4 13 (5.94%) Git
5 10 (4.57%) GitLab
6 6 (2.74%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (2.28%) Browser DevTools
8 3 (1.37%) Maven
9 2 (0.91%) git-flow
9 2 (0.91%) Introscope
10 1 (0.46%) Ant
10 1 (0.46%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 1 (0.46%) Mockito
General
1 45 (20.55%) Finance
2 37 (16.89%) Banking
3 32 (14.61%) Social Skills
4 25 (11.42%) Legal
5 23 (10.50%) Analytical Skills
6 17 (7.76%) Investment Banking
7 14 (6.39%) Public Sector
8 10 (4.57%) Telecoms
9 7 (3.20%) Documentation Skills
10 6 (2.74%) Publishing
11 3 (1.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 3 (1.37%) Manufacturing
12 2 (0.91%) Retail
13 1 (0.46%) Financial Institution
13 1 (0.46%) Marketing
13 1 (0.46%) Organisational Skills
13 1 (0.46%) Pharmaceutical
13 1 (0.46%) Police
13 1 (0.46%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 51 (23.29%) Network Engineer
2 28 (12.79%) Security Engineer
3 24 (10.96%) Administrator
3 24 (10.96%) Senior
4 18 (8.22%) IP Network Engineer
5 17 (7.76%) Web Engineer
6 16 (7.31%) Blue Coat Engineer
7 13 (5.94%) Lead
8 12 (5.48%) Senior Network Engineer
9 11 (5.02%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 11 (5.02%) Network Security Engineer
10 10 (4.57%) Linux Engineer
11 9 (4.11%) Architect
11 9 (4.11%) Developer
12 8 (3.65%) DBA
13 7 (3.20%) DevOps Engineer
13 7 (3.20%) Network Architect
13 7 (3.20%) SQL DBA
14 6 (2.74%) Infrastructure Specialist
14 6 (2.74%) Senior Linux Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (13.70%) SAML
2 25 (11.42%) Terraform
3 23 (10.50%) Middleware
4 17 (7.76%) ISPF
5 14 (6.39%) 802.1X
6 13 (5.94%) OAuth
7 10 (4.57%) LDAP
8 9 (4.11%) OAuth2
8 9 (4.11%) OpenID
8 9 (4.11%) REST
8 9 (4.11%) SOAP
8 9 (4.11%) Web Services
9 7 (3.20%) Kafka
9 7 (3.20%) XML
10 6 (2.74%) JSON
11 4 (1.83%) CSS
11 4 (1.83%) EDI
12 3 (1.37%) JMS
12 3 (1.37%) Spring
12 3 (1.37%) XSLT
Miscellaneous
1 33 (15.07%) Clustering
2 29 (13.24%) PKI
3 18 (8.22%) Mainframe
3 18 (8.22%) Management Information System
4 16 (7.31%) Onboarding
5 13 (5.94%) Data Centre
6 12 (5.48%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 12 (5.48%) Enterprise Software
7 10 (4.57%) Replication
7 10 (4.57%) Self-Motivation
8 9 (4.11%) Cyber Threat
9 8 (3.65%) Security Posture
10 7 (3.20%) Cloud Security Posture
10 7 (3.20%) Hybrid Cloud
11 6 (2.74%) Distributed Applications
12 5 (2.28%) Linux Command Line
13 4 (1.83%) Algorithms
13 4 (1.83%) Data Structures
13 4 (1.83%) Fibre Optics
13 4 (1.83%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 50 (22.83%) Linux
2 45 (20.55%) Windows
3 24 (10.96%) Windows Server
4 20 (9.13%) zOS
5 15 (6.85%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 11 (5.02%) Unix
7 4 (1.83%) Mac OS
8 3 (1.37%) Windows Server 2019
9 2 (0.91%) Oracle Linux
9 2 (0.91%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
9 2 (0.91%) VMS
10 1 (0.46%) Amazon Linux
10 1 (0.46%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 53 (24.20%) ITIL
2 47 (21.46%) DevOps
3 46 (21.00%) Load Balancing
4 34 (15.53%) CI/CD
5 32 (14.61%) High Availability
6 30 (13.70%) SIEM
7 29 (13.24%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 27 (12.33%) Zero Trust
9 26 (11.87%) Data Loss Prevention
10 24 (10.96%) Cybersecurity
10 24 (10.96%) Performance Optimisation
10 24 (10.96%) Performance Tuning
10 24 (10.96%) Problem-Solving
11 23 (10.50%) Change Management
12 22 (10.05%) Migration
13 20 (9.13%) Agile
14 19 (8.68%) Infrastructure as Code
15 18 (8.22%) Project Delivery
16 17 (7.76%) Network Virtualisation
17 16 (7.31%) Cloud Security
Programming Languages
1 55 (25.11%) Python
2 29 (13.24%) SQL
3 27 (12.33%) PowerShell
4 24 (10.96%) Bash
5 11 (5.02%) Java
5 11 (5.02%) Perl
6 10 (4.57%) Shell Script
7 9 (4.11%) Groovy
8 7 (3.20%) T-SQL
9 5 (2.28%) ActionScript
9 5 (2.28%) JavaScript
10 4 (1.83%) PL/SQL
11 2 (0.91%) Go
11 2 (0.91%) Jython
12 1 (0.46%) ActionScript 2.0
12 1 (0.46%) C
12 1 (0.46%) C#
12 1 (0.46%) Cypher
12 1 (0.46%) R
12 1 (0.46%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 63 (28.77%) Security Cleared
2 43 (19.63%) SC Cleared
3 18 (8.22%) DV Cleared
4 16 (7.31%) Degree
5 15 (6.85%) Azure Certification
6 9 (4.11%) Cisco Certification
7 8 (3.65%) BPSS Clearance
7 8 (3.65%) CCNP
7 8 (3.65%) Microsoft Certification
8 7 (3.20%) CISSP
9 6 (2.74%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 4 (1.83%) CCIE
11 3 (1.37%) RHCSA
12 2 (0.91%) CompTIA Security+
12 2 (0.91%) LFCS
12 2 (0.91%) MCSE
12 2 (0.91%) PMI Certification
12 2 (0.91%) PMP
12 2 (0.91%) PRINCE2 Certification
12 2 (0.91%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (5.48%) NIST
2 8 (3.65%) GDPR
3 7 (3.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 6 (2.74%) SLA
5 2 (0.91%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (0.91%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 2 (0.91%) Data Quality
6 1 (0.46%) DICOM
6 1 (0.46%) HL7
6 1 (0.46%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 49 (22.37%) VMware Infrastructure
2 43 (19.63%) Active Directory
3 19 (8.68%) Firmware
3 19 (8.68%) Hyper-V
3 19 (8.68%) Virtual Machines
4 17 (7.76%) RACF
5 14 (6.39%) Docker
6 10 (4.57%) VMware NSX
7 7 (3.20%) Ceph
7 7 (3.20%) Squid
7 7 (3.20%) vSphere
8 4 (1.83%) VMware ESXi
9 3 (1.37%) Virtual Servers
10 2 (0.91%) Apache ZooKeeper
10 2 (0.91%) ProxySG
10 2 (0.91%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 2 (0.91%) Virtual Desktop
11 1 (0.46%) KVM
11 1 (0.46%) OpenSSH
Systems Management
1 45 (20.55%) Ansible
2 22 (10.05%) Single Sign-On
3 17 (7.76%) Kubernetes
3 17 (7.76%) OMEGAMON
4 16 (7.31%) Grafana
5 10 (4.57%) Prometheus
6 9 (4.11%) CASB
7 8 (3.65%) Puppet
8 7 (3.20%) SCOM
9 6 (2.74%) FortiGate
10 5 (2.28%) Packer
11 4 (1.83%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 4 (1.83%) CA Single Sign-On
11 4 (1.83%) Cisco CUCM
11 4 (1.83%) Microsoft Intune
11 4 (1.83%) PingFederate
11 4 (1.83%) systemd
12 3 (1.37%) Argo
12 3 (1.37%) yum
13 2 (0.91%) Consul
Vendors
1 54 (24.66%) VMware
2 49 (22.37%) F5
3 36 (16.44%) Cisco
4 35 (15.98%) Microsoft
5 31 (14.16%) ServiceNow
6 30 (13.70%) Zscaler
7 27 (12.33%) Blue Coat
8 26 (11.87%) Palo Alto
9 23 (10.50%) IBM
10 19 (8.68%) McAfee
11 16 (7.31%) NetApp
12 12 (5.48%) CheckPoint
12 12 (5.48%) Fortinet
13 11 (5.02%) Juniper
13 11 (5.02%) Oracle
13 11 (5.02%) Red Hat
13 11 (5.02%) SolarWinds
14 8 (3.65%) Dynatrace
14 8 (3.65%) Splunk
15 7 (3.20%) Ping Identity