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

6 months to
14 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 448 342 374
Rank change year-on-year -106 +32 +110
Contract jobs citing SSL 176 178 223
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.38% 0.61% 0.51%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 3.92% 4.72% 3.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 108 112 121
10th Percentile £329 £350 £375
25th Percentile £362 £424 £436
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £485 £520 £575
Median % change year-on-year -6.73% -9.57% +4.55%
75th Percentile £600 £613 £638
90th Percentile £688 £651 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £550 £600
% change year-on-year -10.91% -8.33% +20.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 5 6
10th Percentile £52.15 - £41.32
25th Percentile £55.00 £80.34 -
Median hourly rate £65.00 £81.35 £45.88
Median % change year-on-year -20.10% +77.31% -27.44%
75th Percentile £75.00 £82.10 £61.16
90th Percentile £80.25 £83.24 £66.88
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 4,488 3,775 5,741
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.82% 12.89% 13.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,825 2,338 3,442
10th Percentile £232 £213 £205
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £490 £486
Median % change year-on-year +2.04% +0.82% -5.63%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £468 £475
% change year-on-year +1.60% -1.58% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 203 169 421
10th Percentile £15.70 £14.99 £13.85
25th Percentile £20.63 £21.46 £17.69
Median hourly rate £47.50 £37.50 £38.50
Median % change year-on-year +26.67% -2.60% +102.63%
75th Percentile £70.00 £62.25 £61.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £67.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £55.00 £28.00 £45.44
% change year-on-year +96.43% -38.38% +145.62%

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 14 April 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 14 April 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 14 April 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 -100 146 £489 -6.95% 23
UK excluding London -65 117 £490 -10.91% 21
North of England -33 60 £639 +16.18% 3
Work from Home -54 55 £454 -4.42% 11
West Midlands -27 41 £340 -25.68% 1
Midlands -32 41 £340 -25.68% 1
North West +1 39 £610 +12.96% 2
London -97 31 £513 +7.89% 6
Yorkshire -48 21 £675 +35.00%
South East -57 16 £450 -25.00% 10
East of England -37 10 £452 -24.67% 6
Scotland -1 8 £600 +18.23%
North East -22 1 - - 1
South West -37 1 £500 -7.83%

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 18 (10.23%) Confluence
2 10 (5.68%) TPMS
3 3 (1.70%) Microsoft Exchange
4 2 (1.14%) IBM HTTP Server
4 2 (1.14%) Oracle HTTP Server
4 2 (1.14%) WebSphere
4 2 (1.14%) WebSphere Application Server
4 2 (1.14%) WebSphere Portal
5 1 (0.57%) ArcGIS
5 1 (0.57%) CMS
5 1 (0.57%) Drupal
5 1 (0.57%) IIS
5 1 (0.57%) Umbraco
Applications
1 8 (4.55%) MS Visio
2 1 (0.57%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 44 (25.00%) Azure
2 37 (21.02%) AWS
3 17 (9.66%) Entra ID
4 14 (7.95%) GitHub
5 13 (7.39%) GCP
5 13 (7.39%) SaaS
6 11 (6.25%) Amazon EKS
7 9 (5.11%) Serverless
8 6 (3.41%) IaaS
8 6 (3.41%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 5 (2.84%) Azure DevOps
9 5 (2.84%) Microsoft 365
9 5 (2.84%) OpenShift
9 5 (2.84%) PaaS
10 4 (2.27%) Azure Logic Apps
10 4 (2.27%) GitHub Actions
11 3 (1.70%) Kong
12 2 (1.14%) AWS Control Tower
12 2 (1.14%) Azure API Management
12 2 (1.14%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 88 (50.00%) DNS
2 65 (36.93%) TCP/IP
3 62 (35.23%) HTTP
4 59 (33.52%) Firewall
5 47 (26.70%) BIG-IP
6 36 (20.45%) Wireshark
7 33 (18.75%) VPN
8 30 (17.05%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
9 29 (16.48%) Network Security
10 27 (15.34%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
11 26 (14.77%) WAN
12 24 (13.64%) IPsec
13 20 (11.36%) LAN
14 18 (10.23%) SSH
15 15 (8.52%) DHCP
15 15 (8.52%) HTTPS
15 15 (8.52%) Internet
16 14 (7.95%) SNMP
17 13 (7.39%) FTP
18 12 (6.82%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (7.39%) MongoDB
2 10 (5.68%) DocumentDB
2 10 (5.68%) NoSQL
3 5 (2.84%) PostgreSQL
4 4 (2.27%) Metadata
4 4 (2.27%) SQL Server
5 3 (1.70%) MariaDB
5 3 (1.70%) Redis
6 1 (0.57%) Amazon QuickSight
6 1 (0.57%) SQLite
6 1 (0.57%) SQLPlus
Development Applications
1 29 (16.48%) Fiddler
2 26 (14.77%) JIRA
3 8 (4.55%) Git
4 5 (2.84%) Jenkins
5 4 (2.27%) Browser DevTools
6 3 (1.70%) GitLab
6 3 (1.70%) Sonatype Nexus
7 2 (1.14%) git-flow
7 2 (1.14%) Introscope
8 1 (0.57%) Bitbucket
8 1 (0.57%) CircleCI
8 1 (0.57%) Crashlytics
8 1 (0.57%) fastlane
8 1 (0.57%) JUnit
8 1 (0.57%) Xcode
8 1 (0.57%) XCTest
8 1 (0.57%) XCUITest
General
1 29 (16.48%) Finance
2 27 (15.34%) Analytical Skills
3 26 (14.77%) Social Skills
4 24 (13.64%) Banking
5 19 (10.80%) Investment Banking
6 17 (9.66%) Public Sector
7 14 (7.95%) Documentation Skills
8 8 (4.55%) Telecoms
9 2 (1.14%) Financial Institution
9 2 (1.14%) Legal
9 2 (1.14%) Retail
10 1 (0.57%) Billing
10 1 (0.57%) Influencing Skills
10 1 (0.57%) Marketing
10 1 (0.57%) Military
10 1 (0.57%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 57 (32.39%) Network Engineer
2 31 (17.61%) Web Engineer
3 22 (12.50%) IP Network Engineer
4 21 (11.93%) Blue Coat Engineer
5 19 (10.80%) Senior
6 16 (9.09%) Security Engineer
7 14 (7.95%) Architect
8 11 (6.25%) Developer
8 11 (6.25%) Junior
9 10 (5.68%) Cryptography Engineer
9 10 (5.68%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 10 (5.68%) Junior Network Engineer
10 8 (4.55%) Analyst
10 8 (4.55%) Consultant
10 8 (4.55%) Full-Stack Developer
10 8 (4.55%) Network Security Engineer
11 6 (3.41%) Technical Architect
12 5 (2.84%) Senior Architect
12 5 (2.84%) SOC Analyst
12 5 (2.84%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 27 (15.34%) LDAP
1 27 (15.34%) SAML
2 14 (7.95%) OpenID
3 13 (7.39%) OAuth
4 12 (6.82%) Kafka
4 12 (6.82%) OAuth2
5 11 (6.25%) HTML
5 11 (6.25%) RESTful
6 10 (5.68%) Spring
6 10 (5.68%) Spring Boot
7 9 (5.11%) Node.js
7 9 (5.11%) REST
8 6 (3.41%) Web Services
9 5 (2.84%) 802.1X
9 5 (2.84%) XACML
10 3 (1.70%) GraphQL
10 3 (1.70%) SignalR
11 2 (1.14%) .NET Core
11 2 (1.14%) Core Data
11 2 (1.14%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 25 (14.20%) Management Information System
2 19 (10.80%) PKI
3 12 (6.82%) Security Posture
4 11 (6.25%) Cloud Security Posture
4 11 (6.25%) Data Centre
5 9 (5.11%) Analytical Mindset
5 9 (5.11%) Clustering
6 8 (4.55%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 7 (3.98%) Cyber Threat
8 6 (3.41%) Enterprise Software
9 5 (2.84%) Algorithms
9 5 (2.84%) CSOC
9 5 (2.84%) Cyberattack
9 5 (2.84%) Security Operations Centre
10 3 (1.70%) Enterprise Storage
10 3 (1.70%) SCADA
10 3 (1.70%) Self-Motivation
11 2 (1.14%) Cyber Defence
11 2 (1.14%) Hybrid Cloud
11 2 (1.14%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 43 (24.43%) Windows
2 30 (17.05%) Linux
3 19 (10.80%) Windows Server
4 6 (3.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 6 (3.41%) Unix
5 4 (2.27%) CatOS
5 4 (2.27%) Mac OS
6 2 (1.14%) Apple iOS
6 2 (1.14%) Oracle Linux
6 2 (1.14%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
6 2 (1.14%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (0.57%) Data ONTAP
7 1 (0.57%) Solaris
7 1 (0.57%) VMS
7 1 (0.57%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 40 (22.73%) Load Balancing
2 38 (21.59%) Cybersecurity
3 37 (21.02%) Data Loss Prevention
4 29 (16.48%) Change Management
4 29 (16.48%) Malware Detection/Protection
5 28 (15.91%) CI/CD
6 25 (14.20%) DevOps
6 25 (14.20%) ITIL
7 24 (13.64%) Cloud Security
7 24 (13.64%) High Availability
7 24 (13.64%) Migration
8 23 (13.07%) Identity Access Management
9 20 (11.36%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 20 (11.36%) Problem-Solving
9 20 (11.36%) Stakeholder Management
10 19 (10.80%) Observability
10 19 (10.80%) Roadmaps
11 17 (9.66%) Agile
11 17 (9.66%) Key Management
11 17 (9.66%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 30 (17.05%) Python
2 20 (11.36%) SQL
3 16 (9.09%) PowerShell
4 15 (8.52%) JavaScript
5 11 (6.25%) Bash
6 8 (4.55%) Java
7 3 (1.70%) Perl
7 3 (1.70%) PL/SQL
8 2 (1.14%) C#
8 2 (1.14%) Jython
8 2 (1.14%) PHP
8 2 (1.14%) Swift
9 1 (0.57%) C
9 1 (0.57%) Groovy
9 1 (0.57%) Objective-C
Qualifications
1 57 (32.39%) Security Cleared
2 43 (24.43%) SC Cleared
3 15 (8.52%) CISSP
4 14 (7.95%) Degree
4 14 (7.95%) DV Cleared
5 12 (6.82%) Cisco Certification
6 11 (6.25%) CCNP
7 10 (5.68%) FFIEC
8 9 (5.11%) CISM
9 7 (3.98%) CompTIA Security+
10 6 (3.41%) Microsoft Certification
11 4 (2.27%) MCSA
11 4 (2.27%) MCSE
12 3 (1.70%) Azure Certification
13 2 (1.14%) CCIE
13 2 (1.14%) HND
13 2 (1.14%) Postgraduate
14 1 (0.57%) CCSE
14 1 (0.57%) CEH
14 1 (0.57%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (10.80%) GDPR
2 14 (7.95%) NIST
3 13 (7.39%) PCI DSS
4 10 (5.68%) GLBA
5 3 (1.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 2 (1.14%) Accessibility
6 2 (1.14%) Data Quality
6 2 (1.14%) HIPAA
6 2 (1.14%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (0.57%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.57%) NCSC
7 1 (0.57%) RMADS
7 1 (0.57%) SLA
System Software
1 41 (23.30%) VMware Infrastructure
2 40 (22.73%) Active Directory
3 20 (11.36%) Firmware
4 17 (9.66%) VMware NSX
5 13 (7.39%) Docker
6 10 (5.68%) Virtual Machines
7 8 (4.55%) Hyper-V
8 5 (2.84%) ProxySG
8 5 (2.84%) RACF
8 5 (2.84%) VMware ESXi
9 4 (2.27%) Squid
10 3 (1.70%) Ceph
11 2 (1.14%) NDS
11 2 (1.14%) NetIQ eDirectory
11 2 (1.14%) Slurm Workload Manager
11 2 (1.14%) Virtual Servers
11 2 (1.14%) vSphere
12 1 (0.57%) XenApp
12 1 (0.57%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 25 (14.20%) Ansible
2 22 (12.50%) Single Sign-On
3 19 (10.80%) Kubernetes
4 13 (7.39%) CASB
5 11 (6.25%) Terraform
6 8 (4.55%) FortiGate
7 4 (2.27%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 4 (2.27%) CA Single Sign-On
7 4 (2.27%) Nessus
7 4 (2.27%) PingFederate
8 2 (1.14%) CA Wily
8 2 (1.14%) Grafana
8 2 (1.14%) SCCM
8 2 (1.14%) Tivoli
8 2 (1.14%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.57%) Failover Clustering
9 1 (0.57%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.57%) Prometheus
9 1 (0.57%) QRadar
9 1 (0.57%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 55 (31.25%) F5
2 53 (30.11%) VMware
3 37 (21.02%) Blue Coat
4 35 (19.89%) Microsoft
5 32 (18.18%) McAfee
6 28 (15.91%) Cisco
7 21 (11.93%) NetApp
8 18 (10.23%) CheckPoint
8 18 (10.23%) Palo Alto
9 15 (8.52%) Splunk
10 13 (7.39%) ServiceNow
10 13 (7.39%) Thales
11 12 (6.82%) Zscaler
12 9 (5.11%) Juniper
13 8 (4.55%) Citrix
14 7 (3.98%) CrowdStrike
14 7 (3.98%) OpenText
14 7 (3.98%) Oracle
15 6 (3.41%) Fortinet
15 6 (3.41%) Symantec