SSL Contracts

Secure Socket Layer (SSL)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring SSL skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited SSL over the 6 months leading up to 20 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 374 372 471
Rank change year-on-year -2 +99 +46
Contract jobs citing SSL 151 214 229
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.52% 0.50% 0.40%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 4.03% 3.97% 3.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 82 123 171
10th Percentile £350 £400 £381
25th Percentile £400 £452 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £575 £550
Median % change year-on-year -8.70% +4.55% -
75th Percentile £613 £638 £650
90th Percentile £700 £743 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £575 £600 £499
% change year-on-year -4.17% +20.30% -0.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 5 7
10th Percentile £80.34 £40.40 £57.75
25th Percentile £80.59 - £62.00
Median hourly rate £81.35 £45.88 £63.23
Median % change year-on-year +77.31% -27.44% +20.44%
75th Percentile £81.91 - £69.61
90th Percentile £83.05 £58.10 £78.79
UK excluding London median hourly rate £81.35 £45.88 £62.62
% change year-on-year +77.31% -26.73% +8.90%

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 3,746 5,396 7,129
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 12.82% 12.68% 12.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,286 3,217 4,605
10th Percentile £213 £205 £235
25th Percentile £358 £350 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £485 £490 £518
Median % change year-on-year -1.02% -5.31% +3.50%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £638
90th Percentile £675 £694 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £455 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -4.21% - +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 168 417 460
10th Percentile £14.20 £13.50 £9.80
25th Percentile £16.30 £16.30 £10.63
Median hourly rate £30.70 £40.00 £18.50
Median % change year-on-year -23.25% +116.22% -32.73%
75th Percentile £57.80 £63.75 £59.09
90th Percentile £75.00 £70.00 £74.55
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.66 £45.88 £18.22
% change year-on-year -46.25% +151.88% -15.28%

SSL
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing SSL as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for SSL in the UK

SSL
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing SSL.

Daily rate trend for SSL in the UK

SSL
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SSL over the 6 months to 20 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for SSL in the UK

SSL
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing SSL.

Hourly rate trend for SSL in the UK

SSL
Top 16 Contract 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 20 May 2025. 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 0 125 £525 -12.50% 104
UK excluding London -2 73 £575 -4.17% 69
Work from Home +17 56 £525 -16.00% 77
London +35 53 £523 -9.13% 63
East of England +40 18 £600 +106.90% 1
South East -26 16 £510 -18.40% 33
Midlands +24 15 £358 -46.96% 5
North of England +13 15 £535 +23.27% 6
West Midlands +10 12 - - 2
Yorkshire +15 10 £413 -4.95% 4
South West +44 4 £585 +17.00% 14
Scotland -1 3 £594 +9.95% 6
East Midlands - 3 £358 - 3
North East - 3 £550 -
North West +12 2 £600 - 2
Wales +3 2 - -

SSL
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 5 (3.31%) Confluence
2 4 (2.65%) nginx
3 3 (1.99%) Oracle Application Server
4 2 (1.32%) CMS
4 2 (1.32%) IIS
4 2 (1.32%) WebSphere
5 1 (0.66%) Apache
5 1 (0.66%) JBoss
5 1 (0.66%) Microsoft Exchange
5 1 (0.66%) Oracle Service Bus
5 1 (0.66%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 1 (0.66%) SharePoint
5 1 (0.66%) Tomcat
5 1 (0.66%) WebLogic
5 1 (0.66%) WebLogic Portal
5 1 (0.66%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 5 (3.31%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.65%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (0.66%) Dynamics GP
1 1 (0.66%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 46 (30.46%) AWS
2 39 (25.83%) Azure
3 14 (9.27%) Azure DevOps
4 11 (7.28%) AWS KMS
5 10 (6.62%) PaaS
6 9 (5.96%) GCP
6 9 (5.96%) GitHub
6 9 (5.96%) IaaS
6 9 (5.96%) Serverless
7 8 (5.30%) Entra ID
8 7 (4.64%) Amazon EC2
8 7 (4.64%) Azure Monitor
8 7 (4.64%) Azure Sentinel
8 7 (4.64%) SaaS
9 6 (3.97%) AWS Lambda
9 6 (3.97%) Microsoft 365
9 6 (3.97%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 5 (3.31%) Amazon SQS
10 5 (3.31%) AWS CloudFormation
10 5 (3.31%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 54 (35.76%) DNS
2 50 (33.11%) Firewall
2 50 (33.11%) Network Security
3 44 (29.14%) VPN
4 39 (25.83%) HTTP
5 34 (22.52%) BGP
6 32 (21.19%) IPsec
6 32 (21.19%) OSPF
7 31 (20.53%) TCP/IP
8 24 (15.89%) VLAN
9 23 (15.23%) FTP
9 23 (15.23%) SMTP
10 19 (12.58%) WAN
10 19 (12.58%) Wireless
11 18 (11.92%) HTTPS
12 16 (10.60%) DHCP
13 11 (7.28%) LAN
14 10 (6.62%) MPLS
15 9 (5.96%) EIGRP
15 9 (5.96%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (3.31%) Amazon RDS
2 4 (2.65%) MongoDB
2 4 (2.65%) NoSQL
2 4 (2.65%) PostgreSQL
2 4 (2.65%) RDBMS
2 4 (2.65%) Relational Database
3 3 (1.99%) Oracle Database
3 3 (1.99%) Power BI
4 2 (1.32%) DynamoDB
4 2 (1.32%) Redis
4 2 (1.32%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 11 (7.28%) Git
2 10 (6.62%) Jenkins
3 8 (5.30%) JIRA
4 7 (4.64%) GitLab
5 5 (3.31%) Maven
6 2 (1.32%) Bitbucket
6 2 (1.32%) SonarQube
6 2 (1.32%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.66%) Mockito
7 1 (0.66%) Toad
General
1 51 (33.77%) Social Skills
2 29 (19.21%) Analytical Skills
3 20 (13.25%) Finance
4 16 (10.60%) Banking
5 9 (5.96%) Public Sector
6 8 (5.30%) Telecoms
7 5 (3.31%) Presentation Skills
8 4 (2.65%) Documentation Skills
8 4 (2.65%) Law
9 3 (1.99%) Organisational Skills
10 2 (1.32%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.66%) Aerospace
11 1 (0.66%) Aviation
11 1 (0.66%) Dutch Language
11 1 (0.66%) Front Office
11 1 (0.66%) Manufacturing
11 1 (0.66%) Retail
11 1 (0.66%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 28 (18.54%) Architect
2 19 (12.58%) Network Engineer
3 18 (11.92%) Analyst
4 13 (8.61%) SOC Analyst
5 8 (5.30%) Administrator
5 8 (5.30%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 8 (5.30%) Lead
6 7 (4.64%) Developer
6 7 (4.64%) Security Engineer
7 6 (3.97%) Check Point Expert
7 6 (3.97%) Consultant
7 6 (3.97%) DevOps Engineer
8 5 (3.31%) Infrastructure Architect
8 5 (3.31%) Network Security Engineer
8 5 (3.31%) Senior
8 5 (3.31%) Support Specialist
9 4 (2.65%) Cisco Engineer
9 4 (2.65%) Cisco Network Engineer
9 4 (2.65%) Network Architect
9 4 (2.65%) Site Reliability Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (18.54%) LDAP
2 23 (15.23%) REST
3 17 (11.26%) Web Services
4 10 (6.62%) Middleware
4 10 (6.62%) OAuth
4 10 (6.62%) SAML
5 9 (5.96%) .NET
5 9 (5.96%) JSON
5 9 (5.96%) XML
6 8 (5.30%) 802.1X
6 8 (5.30%) HTML
6 8 (5.30%) RESTful
6 8 (5.30%) SOAP
7 7 (4.64%) CSS
7 7 (4.64%) React
7 7 (4.64%) Spring
7 7 (4.64%) Spring Boot
7 7 (4.64%) YAML
8 6 (3.97%) AngularJS
8 6 (3.97%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 19 (12.58%) PKI
2 14 (9.27%) Data Centre
2 14 (9.27%) Management Information System
3 13 (8.61%) Cyberattack
4 11 (7.28%) Cyber Threat
4 11 (7.28%) Security Operations Centre
5 10 (6.62%) Analytical Mindset
5 10 (6.62%) Onboarding
6 8 (5.30%) CSOC
7 7 (4.64%) Distributed Systems
8 6 (3.97%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 4 (2.65%) Algorithms
9 4 (2.65%) Cloud Native
9 4 (2.65%) Clustering
9 4 (2.65%) Data Protection Act
9 4 (2.65%) Security Posture
10 3 (1.99%) Enterprise Software
10 3 (1.99%) Linux Command Line
10 3 (1.99%) Product Ownership
10 3 (1.99%) State Machine
Operating Systems
1 25 (16.56%) Windows
2 16 (10.60%) Linux
3 13 (8.61%) Unix
4 6 (3.97%) Check Point GAiA
5 5 (3.31%) Windows Server
6 3 (1.99%) CentOS
6 3 (1.99%) Ubuntu
7 2 (1.32%) Debian
7 2 (1.32%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (1.32%) Windows Server 2003
8 1 (0.66%) Android
8 1 (0.66%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.66%) Windows 7
8 1 (0.66%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 35 (23.18%) Agile
1 35 (23.18%) DevOps
2 27 (17.88%) Problem-Solving
3 24 (15.89%) Key Management
4 23 (15.23%) Cybersecurity
5 22 (14.57%) CI/CD
6 20 (13.25%) Cryptography
6 20 (13.25%) SIEM
7 19 (12.58%) Information Security
8 17 (11.26%) Microservices
9 16 (10.60%) Security Operations
9 16 (10.60%) Threat Detection
10 15 (9.93%) High Availability
10 15 (9.93%) Roadmaps
11 14 (9.27%) Disaster Recovery
11 14 (9.27%) Incident Response
12 13 (8.61%) Analytics
12 13 (8.61%) Data Security
13 12 (7.95%) Information Management
13 12 (7.95%) Process Improvement
Programming Languages
1 21 (13.91%) Python
2 20 (13.25%) PowerShell
3 13 (8.61%) SQL
4 11 (7.28%) JavaScript
5 10 (6.62%) ActionScript
5 10 (6.62%) ActionScript 2.0
6 9 (5.96%) C#
6 9 (5.96%) Java
7 8 (5.30%) C
8 7 (4.64%) Bash
9 5 (3.31%) Perl
9 5 (3.31%) PL/SQL
9 5 (3.31%) Shell Script
10 3 (1.99%) Bicep
10 3 (1.99%) Kusto Query Language
10 3 (1.99%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 44 (29.14%) Security Cleared
2 25 (16.56%) SC Cleared
3 23 (15.23%) DV Cleared
4 14 (9.27%) Degree
5 13 (8.61%) Cisco Certification
6 11 (7.28%) CCNP
7 7 (4.64%) CCSE
8 6 (3.97%) AWS Certification
9 5 (3.31%) Azure Certification
10 4 (2.65%) CCSA
11 3 (1.99%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
11 3 (1.99%) CCIE
11 3 (1.99%) CISM
11 3 (1.99%) CISSP
11 3 (1.99%) Computer Science Degree
11 3 (1.99%) Microsoft Certification
11 3 (1.99%) TOGAF Certification
12 2 (1.32%) BPSS Clearance
12 2 (1.32%) ITIL Certification
13 1 (0.66%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (5.30%) NIST
2 7 (4.64%) GDPR
3 6 (3.97%) SOC 2
4 4 (2.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 4 (2.65%) PCI DSS
5 3 (1.99%) SLA
6 2 (1.32%) FIPS 140-2
6 2 (1.32%) NIST 800
6 2 (1.32%) QA
7 1 (0.66%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.66%) Disclosure Scotland
7 1 (0.66%) HIPAA
System Software
1 15 (9.93%) Docker
2 14 (9.27%) Active Directory
3 5 (3.31%) Apache ZooKeeper
3 5 (3.31%) Hyper-V
4 4 (2.65%) Firmware
5 3 (1.99%) RACF
6 2 (1.32%) Microsoft App-V
6 2 (1.32%) VMware Infrastructure
6 2 (1.32%) vSphere
7 1 (0.66%) LXC
7 1 (0.66%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 20 (13.25%) Kubernetes
2 19 (12.58%) Ansible
2 19 (12.58%) Terraform
3 12 (7.95%) Grafana
4 9 (5.96%) Prometheus
5 8 (5.30%) Single Sign-On
6 6 (3.97%) FortiGate
7 3 (1.99%) CA Spectrum
7 3 (1.99%) OPNET
7 3 (1.99%) Packer
7 3 (1.99%) Puppet
7 3 (1.99%) SCCM
8 2 (1.32%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 2 (1.32%) Nagios
8 2 (1.32%) Nessus
8 2 (1.32%) Tivoli
8 2 (1.32%) WSUS
9 1 (0.66%) CASB
9 1 (0.66%) Cisco Prime
9 1 (0.66%) Kustomize
Vendors
1 35 (23.18%) Cisco
2 23 (15.23%) F5
3 20 (13.25%) Microsoft
4 19 (12.58%) Palo Alto
5 18 (11.92%) CheckPoint
6 13 (8.61%) Splunk
7 12 (7.95%) Juniper
8 11 (7.28%) IBM
9 10 (6.62%) Fortinet
9 10 (6.62%) Oracle
10 9 (5.96%) Arista
10 9 (5.96%) SolarWinds
11 8 (5.30%) Meraki
12 7 (4.64%) IBM Sterling
12 7 (4.64%) VMware
13 5 (3.31%) Confluent
13 5 (3.31%) Thales
14 4 (2.65%) OpenText
14 4 (2.65%) Qualtrics
14 4 (2.65%) SAP