diff --git a/src/main/java/com/ibm/watson/modelmesh/ModelMesh.java b/src/main/java/com/ibm/watson/modelmesh/ModelMesh.java
index fefa4a5e..3040e107 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/ibm/watson/modelmesh/ModelMesh.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/ibm/watson/modelmesh/ModelMesh.java
@@ -100,8 +100,12 @@
 import org.eclipse.collections.impl.list.mutable.primitive.IntArrayList;
 
 import javax.annotation.concurrent.GuardedBy;
+import javax.net.ssl.SSLContext;
+import javax.net.ssl.SSLParameters;
 import java.io.File;
+import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InterruptedIOException;
+import java.io.UncheckedIOException;
 import java.lang.management.ManagementFactory;
 import java.lang.management.MemoryMXBean;
 import java.lang.management.MemoryUsage;
@@ -109,6 +113,7 @@
 import java.lang.reflect.Method;
 import java.net.URI;
 import java.nio.channels.ClosedByInterruptException;
+import java.security.NoSuchAlgorithmException;
 import java.text.ParseException;
 import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
 import java.util.*;
@@ -431,7 +436,7 @@ public abstract class ModelMesh extends ThriftService
     private PayloadProcessor initPayloadProcessor() {
         String payloadProcessorsDefinitions = getStringParameter(MM_PAYLOAD_PROCESSORS, null);
         logger.info("Parsing PayloadProcessor definition '{}'", payloadProcessorsDefinitions);
-        if (payloadProcessorsDefinitions != null && payloadProcessorsDefinitions.length() > 0) {
+        if (payloadProcessorsDefinitions != null && !payloadProcessorsDefinitions.isEmpty()) {
             List<PayloadProcessor> payloadProcessors = new ArrayList<>();
             for (String processorDefinition : payloadProcessorsDefinitions.split(" ")) {
                 try {
@@ -442,6 +447,14 @@ private PayloadProcessor initPayloadProcessor() {
                     String method = uri.getFragment();
                     if ("http".equals(processorName)) {
                         processor = new RemotePayloadProcessor(uri);
+                    } else if ("https".equals(processorName)) {
+                        SSLContext sslContext;
+                        try {
+                            sslContext = SSLContext.getDefault();
+                        } catch (NoSuchAlgorithmException missingAlgorithmException) {
+                            throw new UncheckedIOException(new IOException(missingAlgorithmException));
+                        }
+                        processor = new RemotePayloadProcessor(uri, sslContext, sslContext.getDefaultSSLParameters());
                     } else if ("logger".equals(processorName)) {
                         processor = new LoggingPayloadProcessor();
                     }
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/ibm/watson/modelmesh/payload/RemotePayloadProcessor.java b/src/main/java/com/ibm/watson/modelmesh/payload/RemotePayloadProcessor.java
index 23c2fba1..c8a958a6 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/ibm/watson/modelmesh/payload/RemotePayloadProcessor.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/ibm/watson/modelmesh/payload/RemotePayloadProcessor.java
@@ -31,6 +31,9 @@
 import org.slf4j.Logger;
 import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
 
+import javax.net.ssl.SSLContext;
+import javax.net.ssl.SSLParameters;
+
 /**
  * A {@link PayloadProcessor} that sends payloads to a remote service via HTTP POST.
  */
@@ -45,8 +48,19 @@ public class RemotePayloadProcessor implements PayloadProcessor {
     private final HttpClient client;
 
     public RemotePayloadProcessor(URI uri) {
+        this(uri, null, null);
+    }
+
+    public RemotePayloadProcessor(URI uri, SSLContext sslContext, SSLParameters sslParameters) {
         this.uri = uri;
-        this.client = HttpClient.newHttpClient();
+        if (sslContext != null && sslParameters != null) {
+            this.client = HttpClient.newBuilder()
+                    .sslContext(sslContext)
+                    .sslParameters(sslParameters)
+                    .build();
+        } else {
+            this.client = HttpClient.newHttpClient();
+        }
     }
 
     @Override
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/ibm/watson/modelmesh/payload/RemotePayloadProcessorTest.java b/src/test/java/com/ibm/watson/modelmesh/payload/RemotePayloadProcessorTest.java
index ec08ea0a..cfa7e29e 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/ibm/watson/modelmesh/payload/RemotePayloadProcessorTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/ibm/watson/modelmesh/payload/RemotePayloadProcessorTest.java
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 
 package com.ibm.watson.modelmesh.payload;
 
+import java.io.IOException;
 import java.net.URI;
 
 import io.grpc.Metadata;
@@ -29,17 +30,36 @@
 class RemotePayloadProcessorTest {
 
     @Test
-    void testDestinationUnreachable() {
-        RemotePayloadProcessor remotePayloadProcessor = new RemotePayloadProcessor(URI.create("http://this-does-not-exist:123"));
-        String id = "123";
-        String modelId = "456";
-        String method = "predict";
-        Status kind = Status.INVALID_ARGUMENT;
-        Metadata metadata = new Metadata();
-        metadata.put(Metadata.Key.of("foo", Metadata.ASCII_STRING_MARSHALLER), "bar");
-        metadata.put(Metadata.Key.of("binary-bin", Metadata.BINARY_BYTE_MARSHALLER), "string".getBytes());
-        ByteBuf data = Unpooled.buffer(4);
-        Payload payload = new Payload(id, modelId, method, metadata, data, kind);
-        assertFalse(remotePayloadProcessor.process(payload));
+    void testDestinationUnreachable() throws IOException {
+        URI uri = URI.create("http://this-does-not-exist:123");
+        try (RemotePayloadProcessor remotePayloadProcessor = new RemotePayloadProcessor(uri)) {
+            String id = "123";
+            String modelId = "456";
+            String method = "predict";
+            Status kind = Status.INVALID_ARGUMENT;
+            Metadata metadata = new Metadata();
+            metadata.put(Metadata.Key.of("foo", Metadata.ASCII_STRING_MARSHALLER), "bar");
+            metadata.put(Metadata.Key.of("binary-bin", Metadata.BINARY_BYTE_MARSHALLER), "string".getBytes());
+            ByteBuf data = Unpooled.buffer(4);
+            Payload payload = new Payload(id, modelId, method, metadata, data, kind);
+            assertFalse(remotePayloadProcessor.process(payload));
+        }
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void testDestinationUnreachableHTTPS() throws IOException {
+        URI uri = URI.create("https://this-does-not-exist:123");
+        try (RemotePayloadProcessor remotePayloadProcessor = new RemotePayloadProcessor(uri)) {
+            String id = "123";
+            String modelId = "456";
+            String method = "predict";
+            Status kind = Status.INVALID_ARGUMENT;
+            Metadata metadata = new Metadata();
+            metadata.put(Metadata.Key.of("foo", Metadata.ASCII_STRING_MARSHALLER), "bar");
+            metadata.put(Metadata.Key.of("binary-bin", Metadata.BINARY_BYTE_MARSHALLER), "string".getBytes());
+            ByteBuf data = Unpooled.buffer(4);
+            Payload payload = new Payload(id, modelId, method, metadata, data, kind);
+            assertFalse(remotePayloadProcessor.process(payload));
+        }
     }
 }
\ No newline at end of file