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

 6 months to
28 Apr 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 129 110 129
Rank change year-on-year -19 +19 +2
Contract jobs citing DNS 787 588 658
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.96% 2.40% 1.78%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 20.60% 18.39% 13.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 490 415 440
10th Percentile £263 £250 £213
25th Percentile £400 £400 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £545 £480
Median % change year-on-year -8.26% +13.66% -8.67%
75th Percentile £583 £613 £600
90th Percentile £650 £675 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £535 £480
% change year-on-year -6.54% +11.57% -8.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 36 10 25
10th Percentile £16.84 £23.08 £19.10
25th Percentile £24.18 £32.44 £23.80
Median hourly rate £60.25 £80.68 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -25.32% +101.69% -23.27%
75th Percentile £74.26 £81.35 -
90th Percentile £75.75 £82.29 £61.26
UK median hourly rate £60.25 £67.59 £40.00
% change year-on-year -10.86% +68.97% -23.27%

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 3,821 3,197 5,003
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.51% 13.07% 13.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,395 1,989 3,017
10th Percentile £246 £220 £206
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £490
Median % change year-on-year - +2.04% -6.67%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK median daily rate £500 £489 £490
% change year-on-year +2.30% -0.26% -5.59%
Number of hourly rates quoted 203 123 396
10th Percentile £16.11 £14.20 £13.50
25th Percentile £21.25 £16.30 £17.00
Median hourly rate £41.94 £36.65 £39.25
Median % change year-on-year +14.45% -6.64% +107.95%
75th Percentile £65.94 £65.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £81.01 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £41.24 £37.50 £38.00
% change year-on-year +9.97% -1.32% +100.00%

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 28 April 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 28 April 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 28 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
London -33 255 £500 -4.14% 67
North of England +8 227 £444 -6.53% 57
South East -4 161 £525 -5.83% 74
North West +38 150 £439 +3.29% 26
Midlands +17 112 £400 -27.93% 30
West Midlands +25 98 £390 -21.41% 19
Yorkshire -37 74 £447 -18.77% 23
South West -57 43 £575 - 41
East of England -32 42 £450 -14.29% 25
East Midlands -36 13 £394 -30.62% 11
North East -26 6 £306 -9.93% 9
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 92 (11.69%) Microsoft Exchange
2 36 (4.57%) SharePoint
3 13 (1.65%) nginx
4 11 (1.40%) Confluence
4 11 (1.40%) IIS
5 9 (1.14%) Skype for Business
6 8 (1.02%) Apache
7 3 (0.38%) Exchange Server 2010
8 2 (0.25%) Exchange Server 2013
8 2 (0.25%) IBM HTTP Server
8 2 (0.25%) Oracle HTTP Server
8 2 (0.25%) WebSphere
8 2 (0.25%) WebSphere Application Server
8 2 (0.25%) WebSphere Portal
8 2 (0.25%) WordPress
9 1 (0.13%) Tomcat
9 1 (0.13%) Traefik
Applications
1 27 (3.43%) Microsoft Office
2 13 (1.65%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (0.13%) Cloudability
1 1 (0.13%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 268 (34.05%) Azure
2 136 (17.28%) AWS
3 132 (16.77%) Entra ID
4 112 (14.23%) Microsoft 365
5 85 (10.80%) GCP
6 60 (7.62%) GitHub
7 43 (5.46%) IaaS
8 39 (4.96%) SaaS
9 36 (4.57%) Serverless
10 34 (4.32%) AWS CloudFormation
10 34 (4.32%) PaaS
11 31 (3.94%) AWS Lambda
12 29 (3.68%) Amazon S3
12 29 (3.68%) Route 53
12 29 (3.68%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 27 (3.43%) Amazon EC2
14 24 (3.05%) Amazon EKS
14 24 (3.05%) GitHub Actions
15 23 (2.92%) OpenShift
16 22 (2.80%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 338 (42.95%) DHCP
2 246 (31.26%) Firewall
3 191 (24.27%) VPN
4 184 (23.38%) TCP/IP
5 105 (13.34%) WAN
6 99 (12.58%) LAN
7 86 (10.93%) Network Security
8 80 (10.17%) SSL
9 78 (9.91%) BIG-IP
10 77 (9.78%) BGP
11 72 (9.15%) VLAN
12 68 (8.64%) HTTP
13 49 (6.23%) Wi-Fi
14 45 (5.72%) OSPF
15 44 (5.59%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
16 40 (5.08%) Wireless
16 40 (5.08%) Wireshark
17 37 (4.70%) DMZ
18 35 (4.45%) Kerberos
19 30 (3.81%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (3.43%) SQL Server
2 18 (2.29%) Elasticsearch
3 13 (1.65%) PostgreSQL
4 10 (1.27%) Amazon RDS
5 7 (0.89%) DynamoDB
5 7 (0.89%) Power BI
6 5 (0.64%) Amazon Aurora
6 5 (0.64%) Azure SQL Database
6 5 (0.64%) Data Hub
6 5 (0.64%) MongoDB
6 5 (0.64%) MySQL
7 4 (0.51%) DocumentDB
7 4 (0.51%) NoSQL
7 4 (0.51%) Redis
7 4 (0.51%) Relational Database
8 1 (0.13%) Oracle Reports
8 1 (0.13%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 1 (0.13%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 50 (6.35%) Jenkins
2 44 (5.59%) JIRA
3 28 (3.56%) Fiddler
4 26 (3.30%) Git
5 25 (3.18%) GitLab
6 9 (1.14%) Browser DevTools
7 7 (0.89%) Bitbucket
7 7 (0.89%) SonarQube
8 6 (0.76%) Chocolatey
9 4 (0.51%) CircleCI
9 4 (0.51%) Terragrunt
10 3 (0.38%) Sonatype Nexus
11 2 (0.25%) Introscope
12 1 (0.13%) Artifactory
12 1 (0.13%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 1 (0.13%) Subversion
12 1 (0.13%) Travis CI
General
1 169 (21.47%) Social Skills
2 80 (10.17%) Analytical Skills
3 71 (9.02%) Banking
4 63 (8.01%) Finance
5 56 (7.12%) Public Sector
6 41 (5.21%) Documentation Skills
7 40 (5.08%) Investment Banking
8 22 (2.80%) Legal
9 18 (2.29%) Telecoms
10 17 (2.16%) Military
11 9 (1.14%) Organisational Skills
12 8 (1.02%) Law
13 7 (0.89%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 6 (0.76%) Financial Institution
15 5 (0.64%) Local Government
16 4 (0.51%) Manufacturing
17 3 (0.38%) Advertising
17 3 (0.38%) Aerospace
17 3 (0.38%) Influencing Skills
17 3 (0.38%) Police
Job Titles
1 147 (18.68%) Network Engineer
2 109 (13.85%) Architect
3 88 (11.18%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 69 (8.77%) Analyst
5 60 (7.62%) Senior
6 55 (6.99%) Security Engineer
7 49 (6.23%) Web Engineer
8 38 (4.83%) Network Security Engineer
9 37 (4.70%) Support Engineer
10 32 (4.07%) Cisco Engineer
10 32 (4.07%) Cisco Network Engineer
11 30 (3.81%) Azure Engineer
11 30 (3.81%) IT Support
12 29 (3.68%) Administrator
12 29 (3.68%) Data Engineer
12 29 (3.68%) Data Network Engineer
12 29 (3.68%) IT Engineer
13 28 (3.56%) Cisco Security Engineer
13 28 (3.56%) Lead
14 24 (3.05%) Platform Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 66 (8.39%) LDAP
2 44 (5.59%) SAML
3 35 (4.45%) 802.1X
3 35 (4.45%) OAuth
4 24 (3.05%) OpenID
5 22 (2.80%) OpenTelemetry
6 11 (1.40%) OAuth2
7 10 (1.27%) JSON
8 9 (1.14%) Kafka
8 9 (1.14%) REST
9 7 (0.89%) Elastic Stack
9 7 (0.89%) XMPP
10 6 (0.76%) ARM Templates
11 5 (0.64%) Microsoft Graph
12 4 (0.51%) gRPC
12 4 (0.51%) JPA
12 4 (0.51%) RESTful
12 4 (0.51%) Spring
12 4 (0.51%) Spring Boot
12 4 (0.51%) Spring Cloud
Miscellaneous
1 65 (8.26%) Data Centre
2 64 (8.13%) PKI
3 49 (6.23%) Cloud Native
4 40 (5.08%) Replication
5 38 (4.83%) Clustering
6 37 (4.70%) Management Information System
7 32 (4.07%) Onboarding
7 32 (4.07%) Public Cloud
8 25 (3.18%) Hybrid Cloud
9 22 (2.80%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 18 (2.29%) Self-Motivation
11 15 (1.91%) Cyber Threat
11 15 (1.91%) Cyberattack
11 15 (1.91%) Enterprise Software
11 15 (1.91%) Legacy Systems
11 15 (1.91%) Security Operations Centre
12 13 (1.65%) Analytical Mindset
12 13 (1.65%) Enterprise Cloud
13 12 (1.52%) Product Ownership
14 11 (1.40%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 334 (42.44%) Windows
2 192 (24.40%) Windows Server
3 101 (12.83%) Linux
4 45 (5.72%) Windows 10
5 28 (3.56%) Windows Server 2019
6 21 (2.67%) Unix
7 19 (2.41%) Windows Server 2012
8 15 (1.91%) Android
8 15 (1.91%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 14 (1.78%) Windows Server 2016
10 11 (1.40%) Windows 7
11 10 (1.27%) Apple iOS
11 10 (1.27%) Mac OS
12 8 (1.02%) Windows Server 2003
13 6 (0.76%) VMS
14 4 (0.51%) CatOS
14 4 (0.51%) CentOS
14 4 (0.51%) Ubuntu
15 3 (0.38%) Amazon Linux
16 2 (0.25%) Oracle Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 163 (20.71%) Load Balancing
2 160 (20.33%) Problem-Solving
3 130 (16.52%) Migration
4 125 (15.88%) High Availability
5 112 (14.23%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 108 (13.72%) DevOps
7 105 (13.34%) ITIL
8 103 (13.09%) CI/CD
9 98 (12.45%) Infrastructure as Code
10 72 (9.15%) Disaster Recovery
11 71 (9.02%) Identity Access Management
12 69 (8.77%) Observability
13 67 (8.51%) Cybersecurity
14 62 (7.88%) ITSM
15 59 (7.50%) Agile
16 52 (6.61%) RBAC
17 51 (6.48%) Containerisation
18 48 (6.10%) Change Management
18 48 (6.10%) Continuous Improvement
18 48 (6.10%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 173 (21.98%) PowerShell
2 120 (15.25%) Python
3 65 (8.26%) Bash
4 36 (4.57%) SQL
5 19 (2.41%) JavaScript
6 14 (1.78%) Bicep
7 12 (1.52%) VBScript
8 11 (1.40%) Go
8 11 (1.40%) Java
9 10 (1.27%) Ruby
9 10 (1.27%) Shell Script
10 9 (1.14%) VB
11 6 (0.76%) VBA
12 3 (0.38%) C
12 3 (0.38%) Groovy
12 3 (0.38%) Kusto Query Language
12 3 (0.38%) Lisp
12 3 (0.38%) Perl
13 2 (0.25%) Jython
14 1 (0.13%) C#
Qualifications
1 265 (33.67%) Security Cleared
2 179 (22.74%) SC Cleared
3 83 (10.55%) DV Cleared
4 70 (8.89%) Cisco Certification
5 44 (5.59%) Degree
6 40 (5.08%) CCNP
7 29 (3.68%) CCNA
8 26 (3.30%) Microsoft Certification
9 23 (2.92%) Azure Certification
10 19 (2.41%) CompTIA Security+
11 17 (2.16%) Network+ Certification
12 12 (1.52%) BPSS Clearance
13 11 (1.40%) AWS Certification
14 10 (1.27%) Computer Science Degree
14 10 (1.27%) JNCIA
14 10 (1.27%) JNCIS
15 8 (1.02%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 8 (1.02%) JNCIP
16 7 (0.89%) OCP
16 7 (0.89%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (3.30%) SLA
2 25 (3.18%) GDPR
3 21 (2.67%) NIST
4 19 (2.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 15 (1.91%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 8 (1.02%) NCSC
7 7 (0.89%) Cyber Essentials
7 7 (0.89%) QA
8 4 (0.51%) PCI DSS
9 3 (0.38%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 2 (0.25%) Data Quality
10 2 (0.25%) JSP 440
11 1 (0.13%) Accessibility
11 1 (0.13%) Actionable Recommendations
11 1 (0.13%) COBIT
11 1 (0.13%) NIST 800
11 1 (0.13%) RMADS
System Software
1 321 (40.79%) Active Directory
2 171 (21.73%) VMware Infrastructure
3 73 (9.28%) Hyper-V
4 50 (6.35%) VMware NSX
5 43 (5.46%) Docker
5 43 (5.46%) vSphere
6 30 (3.81%) Virtual Machines
7 27 (3.43%) VMware ESXi
8 26 (3.30%) Firmware
9 18 (2.29%) BitLocker
10 15 (1.91%) Virtual Desktop
11 10 (1.27%) Squid
12 9 (1.14%) NFS
13 8 (1.02%) Microsoft App-V
14 5 (0.64%) Postfix
14 5 (0.64%) Sendmail
14 5 (0.64%) Terminal Services
14 5 (0.64%) Varnish
15 4 (0.51%) XenApp
16 3 (0.38%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 137 (17.41%) Terraform
2 99 (12.58%) Ansible
3 94 (11.94%) Kubernetes
4 79 (10.04%) Microsoft Intune
5 70 (8.89%) Single Sign-On
6 60 (7.62%) SCCM
7 46 (5.84%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 44 (5.59%) FortiGate
9 42 (5.34%) Grafana
10 40 (5.08%) vCenter Server
11 26 (3.30%) Prometheus
12 24 (3.05%) WSUS
13 22 (2.80%) Argo
14 13 (1.65%) SCOM
15 10 (1.27%) Nessus
15 10 (1.27%) Puppet
16 9 (1.14%) HAProxy
16 9 (1.14%) vMotion
17 8 (1.02%) Consul
18 6 (0.76%) Nagios
Vendors
1 257 (32.66%) Microsoft
2 212 (26.94%) VMware
3 141 (17.92%) F5
4 137 (17.41%) Cisco
5 71 (9.02%) Splunk
6 68 (8.64%) ServiceNow
7 51 (6.48%) Citrix
8 45 (5.72%) SolarWinds
9 43 (5.46%) Infoblox
10 39 (4.96%) Google
10 39 (4.96%) Juniper
11 38 (4.83%) Red Hat
12 36 (4.57%) Blue Coat
13 32 (4.07%) McAfee
14 31 (3.94%) NetApp
15 30 (3.81%) Palo Alto
16 22 (2.80%) Dynatrace
16 22 (2.80%) Extreme Networks
17 19 (2.41%) CheckPoint
18 18 (2.29%) Pure Storage
271 DNS jobs in England