DNS Contract Job Trends in England

Domain Name System (DNS)
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in England requiring DNS skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 13 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 135 116 122
Rank change year-on-year -19 +6 -2
Contract jobs citing DNS 706 588 733
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.07% 2.26% 1.94%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 20.11% 17.29% 13.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 450 379 481
10th Percentile £219 £241 £200
25th Percentile £400 £351 £320
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £500 £465
Median % change year-on-year +3.71% +7.53% -11.43%
75th Percentile £601 £613 £588
90th Percentile £690 £702 £650
UK median daily rate £503 £500 £475
% change year-on-year +0.50% +5.26% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 4 25
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.16 £23.65
25th Percentile £18.50 £16.95 £31.25
Median hourly rate £25.15 £21.30 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +18.10% -46.76% -
75th Percentile £74.26 £33.51 £55.00
90th Percentile £76.00 £51.35 £64.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £23.59 £40.00
% change year-on-year +6.61% -41.03% -

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
England

DNS 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 in England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 3,510 3,400 5,297
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.28% 13.05% 14.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,282 1,986 3,179
10th Percentile £204 £211 £205
25th Percentile £353 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £486 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -2.80% +5.26% -9.52%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £680 £680 £700
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £488
% change year-on-year -5.00% +2.56% -6.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 158 99 382
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.17 £14.48
25th Percentile £18.59 £20.30 £21.25
Median hourly rate £31.44 £32.50 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -3.26% -31.58% +138.93%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £71.75 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £31.44 £32.50 £47.50
% change year-on-year -3.26% -31.58% +143.59%

DNS
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing DNS relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

DNS job vacancy trend in England

DNS
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing DNS.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing DNS

DNS
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing DNS in England over the 6 months to 13 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for DNS in England

DNS
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing DNS.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing DNS

DNS
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing DNS in England over the 6 months to 13 February 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for DNS in England

DNS
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing DNS within the England region over the 6 months to 13 February 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
London +2 237 £525 - 79
North of England -17 173 £455 -3.70% 64
South East -12 125 £525 +13.51% 94
Midlands +12 112 £390 -13.33% 41
North West +3 112 £575 +21.05% 37
West Midlands +28 108 £395 +2.60% 30
South West -26 67 £575 +4.93% 48
Yorkshire -38 64 £449 -0.33% 24
East of England -16 39 £475 +63.79% 50
North East -22 7 £247 -24.15% 7
East Midlands -38 4 £275 -45.54% 11
DNS
UK

DNS
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 93 (13.17%) Microsoft Exchange
2 60 (8.50%) SharePoint
3 30 (4.25%) Skype for Business
4 20 (2.83%) Confluence
5 14 (1.98%) nginx
6 7 (0.99%) IIS
7 5 (0.71%) Apache
7 5 (0.71%) SharePoint Server
8 3 (0.42%) Exchange Server 2010
8 3 (0.42%) Exchange Server 2013
8 3 (0.42%) OpenStack
9 2 (0.28%) Cloud Foundry
9 2 (0.28%) Oracle HTTP Server
9 2 (0.28%) Tomcat
9 2 (0.28%) WebLogic
9 2 (0.28%) WordPress
10 1 (0.14%) Exchange Server 2003
10 1 (0.14%) Exchange Server 2007
10 1 (0.14%) Office Communications Server
Applications
1 41 (5.81%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (2.12%) MS Visio
3 6 (0.85%) Mozilla Thunderbird
4 2 (0.28%) Microsoft Excel
4 2 (0.28%) Spreadsheet
4 2 (0.28%) Windchill
5 1 (0.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (0.28%) Remedy ITSM
1 2 (0.28%) SystmOne
1 2 (0.28%) Teamcenter
2 1 (0.14%) Cloudability
Cloud Services
1 246 (34.84%) Azure
2 155 (21.95%) AWS
3 136 (19.26%) Microsoft 365
4 115 (16.29%) Entra ID
5 54 (7.65%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 47 (6.66%) GCP
6 47 (6.66%) GitHub
7 45 (6.37%) Amazon S3
8 39 (5.52%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 39 (5.52%) Amazon EC2
9 31 (4.39%) AWS CloudFormation
9 31 (4.39%) IaaS
10 30 (4.25%) Serverless
11 29 (4.11%) Route 53
12 28 (3.97%) AWS Lambda
13 27 (3.82%) Amazon ECS
14 25 (3.54%) Amazon ELB
14 25 (3.54%) SaaS
15 21 (2.97%) Amazon EKS
16 19 (2.69%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 315 (44.62%) DHCP
2 221 (31.30%) TCP/IP
3 208 (29.46%) Firewall
4 175 (24.79%) VPN
5 85 (12.04%) Network Security
6 82 (11.61%) SSL
7 81 (11.47%) WAN
8 74 (10.48%) LAN
9 65 (9.21%) HTTP
9 65 (9.21%) VLAN
10 52 (7.37%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
11 46 (6.52%) BIG-IP
12 45 (6.37%) BGP
13 43 (6.09%) Wi-Fi
13 43 (6.09%) Wireshark
14 42 (5.95%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
15 38 (5.38%) DMZ
16 33 (4.67%) Kerberos
16 33 (4.67%) Skype
17 31 (4.39%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (3.12%) Amazon RDS
2 21 (2.97%) SQL Server
3 19 (2.69%) PostgreSQL
4 13 (1.84%) Elasticsearch
5 12 (1.70%) Amazon Aurora
6 8 (1.13%) MongoDB
7 7 (0.99%) DynamoDB
7 7 (0.99%) MySQL
8 6 (0.85%) Redis
9 5 (0.71%) Data Hub
10 4 (0.57%) DocumentDB
10 4 (0.57%) NoSQL
10 4 (0.57%) Relational Database
11 3 (0.42%) BigQuery
12 2 (0.28%) Power BI
13 1 (0.14%) Apache Cassandra
13 1 (0.14%) Electronic Patient Records
13 1 (0.14%) Geospatial Data
13 1 (0.14%) GIS
13 1 (0.14%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 68 (9.63%) Jenkins
2 45 (6.37%) Git
3 42 (5.95%) GitLab
4 39 (5.52%) JIRA
5 30 (4.25%) Fiddler
6 8 (1.13%) Terragrunt
6 8 (1.13%) Vagrant
7 7 (0.99%) Bitbucket
8 6 (0.85%) SonarQube
9 4 (0.57%) CircleCI
10 3 (0.42%) Subversion
11 2 (0.28%) Chocolatey
11 2 (0.28%) Sonatype Nexus
11 2 (0.28%) TeamCity
12 1 (0.14%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 1 (0.14%) GCC
12 1 (0.14%) Octopus Deploy
12 1 (0.14%) Travis CI
12 1 (0.14%) Visual Studio Code
12 1 (0.14%) webpack
General
1 211 (29.89%) Social Skills
2 103 (14.59%) Analytical Skills
3 60 (8.50%) Banking
3 60 (8.50%) Public Sector
4 47 (6.66%) Documentation Skills
5 45 (6.37%) Finance
5 45 (6.37%) Investment Banking
6 15 (2.12%) Legal
7 14 (1.98%) Telecoms
8 13 (1.84%) Military
9 12 (1.70%) Presentation Skills
10 8 (1.13%) Organisational Skills
11 7 (0.99%) Influencing Skills
12 5 (0.71%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 5 (0.71%) Law
13 4 (0.57%) Financial Institution
13 4 (0.57%) Local Government
13 4 (0.57%) Marketing
14 3 (0.42%) Aerospace
14 3 (0.42%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 105 (14.87%) Network Engineer
2 101 (14.31%) Architect
3 66 (9.35%) Analyst
3 66 (9.35%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 62 (8.78%) Support Engineer
5 55 (7.79%) Senior
6 42 (5.95%) IT Support
6 42 (5.95%) Security Engineer
7 39 (5.52%) Platform Engineer
8 35 (4.96%) DevOps Engineer
9 34 (4.82%) Web Engineer
10 26 (3.68%) 2nd Line Support
11 24 (3.40%) Lead
11 24 (3.40%) Network Security Engineer
12 22 (3.12%) Cisco Engineer
12 22 (3.12%) Cisco Network Engineer
12 22 (3.12%) IT Engineer
13 21 (2.97%) AWS Engineer
14 20 (2.83%) Solutions Architect
15 19 (2.69%) Network Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 60 (8.50%) LDAP
2 40 (5.67%) SAML
3 35 (4.96%) OAuth
4 28 (3.97%) OpenID
5 20 (2.83%) OAuth2
6 14 (1.98%) OpenTelemetry
7 11 (1.56%) Kafka
8 10 (1.42%) REST
9 8 (1.13%) Elastic Stack
10 7 (0.99%) 802.1X
10 7 (0.99%) JSON
11 6 (0.85%) AWS CDK
11 6 (0.85%) Microsoft Graph
11 6 (0.85%) Middleware
12 5 (0.71%) AngularJS
12 5 (0.71%) ARM Templates
12 5 (0.71%) React
12 5 (0.71%) RESTful
12 5 (0.71%) XMPP
13 4 (0.57%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 55 (7.79%) Replication
2 52 (7.37%) PKI
3 46 (6.52%) Data Centre
4 38 (5.38%) Management Information System
5 32 (4.53%) Cloud Native
6 30 (4.25%) Onboarding
7 23 (3.26%) Public Cloud
8 21 (2.97%) Analytical Mindset
8 21 (2.97%) Enterprise Software
9 18 (2.55%) Hybrid Cloud
10 13 (1.84%) Cyberattack
10 13 (1.84%) Security Operations Centre
11 12 (1.70%) Cyber Threat
11 12 (1.70%) NHS
11 12 (1.70%) Private Cloud
11 12 (1.70%) Self-Motivation
12 10 (1.42%) Legacy Systems
13 9 (1.27%) SCADA
13 9 (1.27%) Video Conferencing
14 8 (1.13%) Clustering
Operating Systems
1 334 (47.31%) Windows
2 173 (24.50%) Windows Server
3 125 (17.71%) Linux
4 63 (8.92%) Windows 10
5 31 (4.39%) Windows Server 2019
6 20 (2.83%) Android
7 19 (2.69%) Windows Server 2016
8 18 (2.55%) Windows Server 2012
9 17 (2.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 17 (2.41%) Unix
10 14 (1.98%) Apple iOS
11 13 (1.84%) VMS
12 11 (1.56%) Amazon Linux
12 11 (1.56%) CentOS
12 11 (1.56%) Ubuntu
13 10 (1.42%) Windows 7
14 9 (1.27%) Mac OS
15 7 (0.99%) Windows Server 2003
16 4 (0.57%) CatOS
17 3 (0.42%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 167 (23.65%) Problem-Solving
2 137 (19.41%) Load Balancing
3 111 (15.72%) ITIL
4 105 (14.87%) DevOps
5 103 (14.59%) CI/CD
6 90 (12.75%) Migration
7 89 (12.61%) Infrastructure as Code
8 87 (12.32%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 76 (10.76%) High Availability
10 68 (9.63%) Disaster Recovery
11 64 (9.07%) Change Management
12 63 (8.92%) Cybersecurity
13 58 (8.22%) Service Management
14 53 (7.51%) Incident Response
14 53 (7.51%) Root Cause Analysis
15 50 (7.08%) RBAC
16 49 (6.94%) Identity Access Management
16 49 (6.94%) Mentoring
17 48 (6.80%) Containerisation
18 47 (6.66%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 208 (29.46%) PowerShell
2 136 (19.26%) Python
3 64 (9.07%) Bash
4 38 (5.38%) SQL
5 14 (1.98%) Java
6 13 (1.84%) VBScript
7 12 (1.70%) Perl
8 10 (1.42%) Bicep
8 10 (1.42%) Shell Script
8 10 (1.42%) VB
9 8 (1.13%) Go
9 8 (1.13%) Groovy
9 8 (1.13%) Ruby
10 7 (0.99%) Lisp
11 6 (0.85%) JavaScript
11 6 (0.85%) Kusto Query Language
12 4 (0.57%) C++
13 3 (0.42%) C#
13 3 (0.42%) T-SQL
14 2 (0.28%) VBA
Qualifications
1 258 (36.54%) Security Cleared
2 182 (25.78%) SC Cleared
3 83 (11.76%) DV Cleared
4 61 (8.64%) Degree
5 58 (8.22%) Microsoft Certification
6 44 (6.23%) Cisco Certification
7 42 (5.95%) CCNP
8 37 (5.24%) Azure Certification
9 23 (3.26%) AWS Certification
10 18 (2.55%) Network+ Certification
11 17 (2.41%) CCNA
12 12 (1.70%) CISSP
12 12 (1.70%) Server+ Certification
13 10 (1.42%) CompTIA Security+
13 10 (1.42%) Computer Science Degree
14 9 (1.27%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 9 (1.27%) CCIE
14 9 (1.27%) ITIL Certification
15 8 (1.13%) MCSE
15 8 (1.13%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (4.39%) GDPR
2 23 (3.26%) SLA
3 19 (2.69%) NIST
4 18 (2.55%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 18 (2.55%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 9 (1.27%) NCSC
5 9 (1.27%) PCI DSS
6 8 (1.13%) Cyber Essentials
7 6 (0.85%) QA
8 4 (0.57%) Accessibility
9 3 (0.42%) Data Quality
9 3 (0.42%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 2 (0.28%) JSP 440
11 1 (0.14%) Actionable Recommendations
11 1 (0.14%) COBIT
11 1 (0.14%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 1 (0.14%) Government Security Classifications
11 1 (0.14%) RMADS
11 1 (0.14%) SOC 2
11 1 (0.14%) WCAG
System Software
1 318 (45.04%) Active Directory
2 176 (24.93%) VMware Infrastructure
3 74 (10.48%) Docker
4 55 (7.79%) Hyper-V
5 54 (7.65%) VMware NSX
6 37 (5.24%) vSphere
7 28 (3.97%) Virtual Machines
8 24 (3.40%) Firmware
9 17 (2.41%) VMware ESXi
10 14 (1.98%) BitLocker
11 13 (1.84%) Squid
11 13 (1.84%) Virtual Desktop
12 11 (1.56%) DFS Replication
13 7 (0.99%) Postfix
13 7 (0.99%) Virtual Servers
14 6 (0.85%) Dovecot
14 6 (0.85%) Microsoft App-V
15 5 (0.71%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 5 (0.71%) Terminal Services
16 4 (0.57%) NFS
Systems Management
1 132 (18.70%) Terraform
2 120 (17.00%) Ansible
3 87 (12.32%) Microsoft Intune
4 77 (10.91%) SCCM
5 75 (10.62%) Kubernetes
6 64 (9.07%) Single Sign-On
7 62 (8.78%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 44 (6.23%) vCenter Server
9 38 (5.38%) Grafana
10 25 (3.54%) Prometheus
11 22 (3.12%) FortiGate
12 20 (2.83%) Argo
13 18 (2.55%) WSUS
14 13 (1.84%) SCOM
15 9 (1.27%) Proxmox
15 9 (1.27%) Puppet
16 8 (1.13%) Nessus
17 7 (0.99%) Packer
18 6 (0.85%) Consul
18 6 (0.85%) vMotion
Vendors
1 281 (39.80%) Microsoft
2 220 (31.16%) VMware
3 123 (17.42%) F5
4 99 (14.02%) Cisco
5 72 (10.20%) ServiceNow
6 49 (6.94%) Splunk
7 42 (5.95%) Blue Coat
7 42 (5.95%) Palo Alto
8 36 (5.10%) Citrix
9 35 (4.96%) CheckPoint
9 35 (4.96%) McAfee
10 31 (4.39%) Red Hat
11 29 (4.11%) SolarWinds
12 26 (3.68%) NetApp
13 22 (3.12%) Veeam
14 20 (2.83%) Okta
15 18 (2.55%) Fortinet
15 18 (2.55%) Juniper
15 18 (2.55%) Zscaler
16 17 (2.41%) Dell