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 4 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 132 113 152
Rank change year-on-year -19 +39 -14
Contract jobs citing DNS 833 591 597
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.99% 2.46% 1.63%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 20.80% 18.97% 12.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 520 408 413
10th Percentile £300 £285 £225
25th Percentile £400 £400 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £550 £488
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +12.82% -7.14%
75th Percentile £577 £611 £600
90th Percentile £638 £660 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £550 £475
% change year-on-year -9.09% +15.79% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 13 24
10th Percentile £20.37 - £18.95
25th Percentile £25.79 £29.00 £23.66
Median hourly rate £33.86 £57.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -41.11% +76.92% -37.66%
75th Percentile £74.00 £81.35 £40.00
90th Percentile £74.33 £81.95 £50.96
UK median hourly rate £35.22 £57.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year -38.75% +76.92% -37.66%

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 4,005 3,115 4,798
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.59% 12.99% 13.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,477 1,953 2,876
10th Percentile £263 £220 £213
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -3.85%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £601
90th Percentile £675 £675 £694
UK median daily rate £500 £480 £495
% change year-on-year +4.17% -3.03% -3.41%
Number of hourly rates quoted 263 122 386
10th Percentile £16.50 £14.25 £13.50
25th Percentile £21.33 £16.30 £16.30
Median hourly rate £32.50 £39.66 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -18.05% -0.85% +134.40%
75th Percentile £65.00 £64.69 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £82.03 £70.66
UK median hourly rate £28.96 £41.25 £40.00
% change year-on-year -29.79% +3.13% +118.16%

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 4 June 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 4 June 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 4 June 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 -32 268 £500 -2.44% 94
North of England +9 236 £447 -5.89% 61
South East +3 168 £525 -4.55% 106
North West +41 154 £450 +5.88% 39
Midlands +5 108 £438 -19.35% 36
West Midlands +8 95 £444 +1.43% 21
Yorkshire -30 76 £447 -18.73% 17
South West -37 56 £490 -20.33% 49
East of England -48 41 £450 -18.18% 30
East Midlands -26 12 £394 -30.62% 15
North East -34 6 £306 -12.50% 7
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 81 (9.72%) Microsoft Exchange
2 47 (5.64%) SharePoint
3 16 (1.92%) nginx
4 15 (1.80%) Confluence
5 12 (1.44%) IIS
6 11 (1.32%) Apache
7 6 (0.72%) Tomcat
8 4 (0.48%) Skype for Business
9 2 (0.24%) Exchange Server 2013
9 2 (0.24%) IBM HTTP Server
9 2 (0.24%) Oracle HTTP Server
9 2 (0.24%) WebSphere
9 2 (0.24%) WebSphere Application Server
9 2 (0.24%) WebSphere Portal
10 1 (0.12%) Exchange Server 2010
10 1 (0.12%) Traefik
Applications
1 17 (2.04%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (1.32%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.12%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.12%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.12%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 4 (0.48%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.12%) Cloudability
Cloud Services
1 293 (35.17%) Azure
2 160 (19.21%) AWS
3 135 (16.21%) Entra ID
4 109 (13.09%) Microsoft 365
5 92 (11.04%) GCP
6 67 (8.04%) GitHub
7 51 (6.12%) IaaS
8 37 (4.44%) PaaS
8 37 (4.44%) SaaS
9 31 (3.72%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 30 (3.60%) AWS CloudFormation
10 30 (3.60%) Serverless
11 29 (3.48%) Amazon EC2
11 29 (3.48%) Amazon S3
12 28 (3.36%) GitHub Actions
13 27 (3.24%) Amazon EKS
13 27 (3.24%) AWS Lambda
14 26 (3.12%) Route 53
15 24 (2.88%) OneDrive
16 21 (2.52%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 368 (44.18%) DHCP
2 255 (30.61%) Firewall
3 206 (24.73%) VPN
4 194 (23.29%) TCP/IP
5 113 (13.57%) WAN
6 100 (12.00%) LAN
7 95 (11.40%) Network Security
8 89 (10.68%) SSL
9 85 (10.20%) BGP
9 85 (10.20%) BIG-IP
10 84 (10.08%) VLAN
11 70 (8.40%) HTTP
12 49 (5.88%) Wireless
13 48 (5.76%) OSPF
14 46 (5.52%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
15 44 (5.28%) Wi-Fi
16 43 (5.16%) SAN
17 38 (4.56%) Kerberos
18 37 (4.44%) DMZ
19 34 (4.08%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (4.32%) SQL Server
2 18 (2.16%) Elasticsearch
3 14 (1.68%) PostgreSQL
4 9 (1.08%) Amazon RDS
4 9 (1.08%) Power BI
5 8 (0.96%) MySQL
6 6 (0.72%) Azure SQL Database
6 6 (0.72%) NoSQL
7 5 (0.60%) DynamoDB
7 5 (0.60%) MongoDB
8 4 (0.48%) Amazon Aurora
8 4 (0.48%) DocumentDB
8 4 (0.48%) Redis
9 1 (0.12%) Oracle Reports
9 1 (0.12%) Relational Database
9 1 (0.12%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 1 (0.12%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 60 (7.20%) Jenkins
2 58 (6.96%) JIRA
3 29 (3.48%) Git
3 29 (3.48%) GitLab
4 24 (2.88%) Fiddler
5 9 (1.08%) Browser DevTools
6 7 (0.84%) Bitbucket
6 7 (0.84%) SonarQube
7 6 (0.72%) Chocolatey
8 4 (0.48%) CircleCI
8 4 (0.48%) Terragrunt
9 3 (0.36%) Sonatype Nexus
10 2 (0.24%) Introscope
11 1 (0.12%) Artifactory
11 1 (0.12%) Atlassian Bamboo
11 1 (0.12%) Spinnaker
11 1 (0.12%) Travis CI
General
1 173 (20.77%) Social Skills
2 78 (9.36%) Analytical Skills
3 72 (8.64%) Banking
4 67 (8.04%) Finance
5 50 (6.00%) Public Sector
6 39 (4.68%) Documentation Skills
7 36 (4.32%) Investment Banking
8 19 (2.28%) Legal
9 16 (1.92%) Military
10 14 (1.68%) Telecoms
11 9 (1.08%) Law
12 7 (0.84%) Organisational Skills
13 6 (0.72%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 5 (0.60%) Local Government
14 5 (0.60%) Police
15 4 (0.48%) Advertising
15 4 (0.48%) Financial Institution
15 4 (0.48%) Manufacturing
16 3 (0.36%) Pharmaceutical
16 3 (0.36%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 158 (18.97%) Network Engineer
2 110 (13.21%) Architect
2 110 (13.21%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 66 (7.92%) Analyst
4 59 (7.08%) Security Engineer
4 59 (7.08%) Senior
5 51 (6.12%) Support Engineer
6 47 (5.64%) Web Engineer
7 41 (4.92%) Network Security Engineer
8 40 (4.80%) Cloud Engineer
9 36 (4.32%) Cisco Engineer
10 35 (4.20%) IT Support
11 34 (4.08%) Cisco Network Engineer
12 33 (3.96%) Data Engineer
12 33 (3.96%) Data Network Engineer
13 32 (3.84%) Administrator
13 32 (3.84%) Cisco Security Engineer
14 31 (3.72%) Azure Engineer
15 30 (3.60%) IT Engineer
16 28 (3.36%) DevOps Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 65 (7.80%) LDAP
2 42 (5.04%) SAML
3 40 (4.80%) 802.1X
4 36 (4.32%) OAuth
5 24 (2.88%) OpenID
6 20 (2.40%) OpenTelemetry
7 12 (1.44%) JSON
8 10 (1.20%) ARM Templates
9 9 (1.08%) Kafka
9 9 (1.08%) REST
10 8 (0.96%) OAuth2
11 7 (0.84%) Elastic Stack
12 5 (0.60%) Microsoft Graph
12 5 (0.60%) XMPP
12 5 (0.60%) YAML
13 4 (0.48%) CSS
13 4 (0.48%) JPA
13 4 (0.48%) RESTful
13 4 (0.48%) Spring
13 4 (0.48%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 92 (11.04%) Data Centre
2 61 (7.32%) PKI
3 55 (6.60%) Cloud Native
4 47 (5.64%) Onboarding
5 41 (4.92%) Replication
6 38 (4.56%) Clustering
6 38 (4.56%) Management Information System
7 36 (4.32%) Public Cloud
8 29 (3.48%) Hybrid Cloud
9 28 (3.36%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 18 (2.16%) Cyber Threat
11 17 (2.04%) Security Operations Centre
12 16 (1.92%) Enterprise Cloud
12 16 (1.92%) Self-Motivation
13 15 (1.80%) Cyberattack
14 12 (1.44%) Enterprise Software
15 11 (1.32%) Analytical Mindset
15 11 (1.32%) Enterprise Storage
15 11 (1.32%) Legacy Systems
15 11 (1.32%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 345 (41.42%) Windows
2 199 (23.89%) Windows Server
3 110 (13.21%) Linux
4 42 (5.04%) Windows 10
5 34 (4.08%) Windows Server 2019
6 26 (3.12%) Unix
7 22 (2.64%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 20 (2.40%) Mac OS
9 19 (2.28%) Windows Server 2012
10 14 (1.68%) Apple iOS
10 14 (1.68%) Windows Server 2016
11 11 (1.32%) Android
12 9 (1.08%) CentOS
12 9 (1.08%) Ubuntu
13 8 (0.96%) Windows Server 2003
14 7 (0.84%) Windows 7
15 5 (0.60%) VMS
16 3 (0.36%) AIX
16 3 (0.36%) Windows Server 2008
17 2 (0.24%) Oracle Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 169 (20.29%) Problem-Solving
2 166 (19.93%) Load Balancing
3 142 (17.05%) Migration
4 137 (16.45%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 136 (16.33%) High Availability
6 118 (14.17%) DevOps
7 112 (13.45%) CI/CD
8 107 (12.85%) Infrastructure as Code
8 107 (12.85%) ITIL
9 77 (9.24%) ITSM
10 76 (9.12%) Observability
11 71 (8.52%) Disaster Recovery
12 69 (8.28%) Agile
12 69 (8.28%) Identity Access Management
13 65 (7.80%) Cybersecurity
14 59 (7.08%) Project Delivery
15 54 (6.48%) Root Cause Analysis
16 52 (6.24%) Runbook
17 51 (6.12%) RBAC
18 49 (5.88%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 162 (19.45%) PowerShell
2 130 (15.61%) Python
3 75 (9.00%) Bash
4 45 (5.40%) SQL
5 23 (2.76%) JavaScript
6 20 (2.40%) Bicep
7 14 (1.68%) Java
8 12 (1.44%) Go
9 11 (1.32%) Shell Script
10 9 (1.08%) VBA
11 7 (0.84%) ActionScript
11 7 (0.84%) Perl
12 6 (0.72%) Ruby
12 6 (0.72%) VBScript
13 5 (0.60%) Groovy
14 4 (0.48%) C
14 4 (0.48%) VB
15 3 (0.36%) Lisp
16 2 (0.24%) Jython
16 2 (0.24%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 279 (33.49%) Security Cleared
2 178 (21.37%) SC Cleared
3 93 (11.16%) DV Cleared
4 80 (9.60%) Cisco Certification
5 56 (6.72%) Degree
6 50 (6.00%) CCNP
7 40 (4.80%) CCNA
8 25 (3.00%) Network+ Certification
9 24 (2.88%) Microsoft Certification
10 23 (2.76%) Azure Certification
11 17 (2.04%) CompTIA Security+
12 15 (1.80%) Server+ Certification
13 12 (1.44%) BPSS Clearance
14 10 (1.20%) AWS Certification
14 10 (1.20%) JNCIA
14 10 (1.20%) JNCIS
15 9 (1.08%) CCIE
15 9 (1.08%) Computer Science Degree
16 8 (0.96%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
16 8 (0.96%) JNCIP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (3.84%) SLA
2 23 (2.76%) NIST
3 21 (2.52%) GDPR
4 15 (1.80%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 15 (1.80%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 9 (1.08%) QA
6 6 (0.72%) NCSC
7 4 (0.48%) HMG Security Policy Framework
7 4 (0.48%) PCI DSS
8 2 (0.24%) Cyber Essentials
8 2 (0.24%) Government Security Classifications
8 2 (0.24%) SOC 2
9 1 (0.12%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.12%) COBIT
9 1 (0.12%) Data Quality
9 1 (0.12%) JSP 440
9 1 (0.12%) NIST 800
9 1 (0.12%) RMADS
System Software
1 334 (40.10%) Active Directory
2 183 (21.97%) VMware Infrastructure
3 84 (10.08%) Hyper-V
4 52 (6.24%) VMware NSX
5 47 (5.64%) vSphere
6 40 (4.80%) Docker
7 39 (4.68%) VMware ESXi
8 33 (3.96%) Virtual Machines
9 27 (3.24%) Virtual Desktop
10 24 (2.88%) Firmware
11 14 (1.68%) BitLocker
11 14 (1.68%) NFS
12 12 (1.44%) Squid
13 10 (1.20%) Microsoft App-V
13 10 (1.20%) Postfix
14 9 (1.08%) vCloud
15 8 (0.96%) VMware Workstation
16 7 (0.84%) Varnish
17 4 (0.48%) Sendmail
18 3 (0.36%) Dovecot
Systems Management
1 139 (16.69%) Terraform
2 105 (12.61%) Ansible
3 91 (10.92%) Kubernetes
4 74 (8.88%) Microsoft Intune
5 67 (8.04%) Single Sign-On
6 49 (5.88%) Grafana
7 46 (5.52%) SCCM
8 44 (5.28%) FortiGate
9 43 (5.16%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 43 (5.16%) vCenter Server
10 31 (3.72%) Prometheus
11 22 (2.64%) WSUS
12 20 (2.40%) Argo
13 17 (2.04%) SCOM
14 14 (1.68%) HAProxy
15 12 (1.44%) Puppet
16 11 (1.32%) Nessus
17 10 (1.20%) Jamf Pro
17 10 (1.20%) vMotion
18 8 (0.96%) Consul
Vendors
1 262 (31.45%) Microsoft
2 218 (26.17%) VMware
3 155 (18.61%) Cisco
4 147 (17.65%) F5
5 79 (9.48%) ServiceNow
6 72 (8.64%) Splunk
7 51 (6.12%) Infoblox
8 49 (5.88%) SolarWinds
9 48 (5.76%) Citrix
10 44 (5.28%) Juniper
11 42 (5.04%) Red Hat
12 41 (4.92%) Google
13 32 (3.84%) Blue Coat
14 31 (3.72%) NetApp
15 29 (3.48%) Palo Alto
16 28 (3.36%) Dynatrace
17 26 (3.12%) McAfee
18 22 (2.64%) Extreme Networks
19 21 (2.52%) CheckPoint
19 21 (2.52%) Fortinet