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

6 months to
28 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 133 119 153
Rank change year-on-year -14 +34 -19
Contract jobs citing DNS 927 645 539
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.03% 2.34% 1.62%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 21.45% 19.13% 13.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 569 410 362
10th Percentile £286 £260 £256
25th Percentile £406 £389 £386
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -2.44%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £648 £651 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £500
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -1.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 49 31 13
10th Percentile £26.53 - £20.00
25th Percentile £31.25 £29.00 £23.10
Median hourly rate £63.48 £57.50 £24.18
Median % change year-on-year +10.40% +137.80% -34.65%
75th Percentile £74.00 £82.18 £48.75
90th Percentile £98.82 £89.63 £51.52
UK median hourly rate £63.48 £57.50 £24.18
% change year-on-year +10.40% +137.80% -38.03%

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 4,321 3,371 4,078
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.44% 12.24% 12.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,599 2,090 2,451
10th Percentile £263 £250 £243
25th Percentile £400 £373 £380
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £492 £505
Median % change year-on-year +1.63% -2.57% +1.00%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £613
90th Percentile £676 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £485 £500
% change year-on-year +3.09% -3.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 343 171 266
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.50 £25.15 £21.37
Median hourly rate £26.72 £42.50 £54.94
Median % change year-on-year -37.13% -22.64% -2.75%
75th Percentile £65.55 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £83.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £26.00 £45.00 £50.00
% change year-on-year -42.22% -10.00% -11.49%

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 August 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 August 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 August 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 -50 318 £500 - 324
North of England +18 219 £475 -2.56% 82
South East +15 185 £538 -2.27% 133
North West +27 138 £450 -1.75% 50
Midlands -20 120 £450 -5.26% 46
South West +17 98 £550 - 74
West Midlands -28 98 £450 -5.26% 26
Yorkshire -13 67 £500 -9.09% 21
East of England -50 34 £450 -18.18% 47
East Midlands -6 20 £431 -21.59% 20
North East -35 14 £413 +21.32% 12
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 98 (10.57%) Microsoft Exchange
2 80 (8.63%) SharePoint
3 18 (1.94%) Confluence
4 15 (1.62%) Apache
5 13 (1.40%) IIS
5 13 (1.40%) nginx
6 7 (0.76%) Skype for Business
7 6 (0.65%) Tomcat
8 4 (0.43%) OpenStack
9 3 (0.32%) Exchange Server 2013
10 2 (0.22%) IBM HTTP Server
10 2 (0.22%) Oracle HTTP Server
10 2 (0.22%) WebSphere
10 2 (0.22%) WebSphere Application Server
10 2 (0.22%) WebSphere Portal
11 1 (0.11%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 24 (2.59%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (1.19%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (0.97%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.22%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 2 (0.22%) Houdini
5 2 (0.22%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.22%) NUKE
6 1 (0.11%) Mozilla Thunderbird
Business Applications
1 10 (1.08%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.11%) Oracle Retail
Cloud Services
1 376 (40.56%) Azure
2 188 (20.28%) AWS
3 175 (18.88%) Microsoft 365
4 166 (17.91%) Entra ID
5 92 (9.92%) GCP
6 63 (6.80%) GitHub
7 51 (5.50%) OneDrive
8 47 (5.07%) IaaS
9 40 (4.31%) Azure DevOps
10 36 (3.88%) Azure Monitor
10 36 (3.88%) SaaS
11 33 (3.56%) GitHub Actions
11 33 (3.56%) PaaS
12 30 (3.24%) OpenShift
13 24 (2.59%) AWS CloudFormation
13 24 (2.59%) Azure ExpressRoute
14 22 (2.37%) Virtual Private Cloud
15 21 (2.27%) Azure Sentinel
15 21 (2.27%) Serverless
16 20 (2.16%) Google Kubernetes Engine
Communications & Networking
1 448 (48.33%) DHCP
2 338 (36.46%) Firewall
3 285 (30.74%) TCP/IP
4 273 (29.45%) VPN
5 124 (13.38%) Network Security
6 119 (12.84%) WAN
7 115 (12.41%) VLAN
8 97 (10.46%) LAN
9 92 (9.92%) BGP
10 90 (9.71%) SSL
11 71 (7.66%) Wireless
12 65 (7.01%) BIG-IP
12 65 (7.01%) Wi-Fi
13 64 (6.90%) HTTP
14 54 (5.83%) SAN
15 52 (5.61%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
16 50 (5.39%) OSPF
17 46 (4.96%) DMZ
18 45 (4.85%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
19 35 (3.78%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 47 (5.07%) SQL Server
2 14 (1.51%) PostgreSQL
3 11 (1.19%) Amazon RDS
3 11 (1.19%) MySQL
4 10 (1.08%) Power BI
5 9 (0.97%) Elasticsearch
6 7 (0.76%) Azure SQL Database
6 7 (0.76%) NoSQL
7 6 (0.65%) MongoDB
8 5 (0.54%) Data Lake
8 5 (0.54%) Redis
9 4 (0.43%) Db2
10 3 (0.32%) Big Data
11 2 (0.22%) Amazon Aurora
11 2 (0.22%) KDB
12 1 (0.11%) BigQuery
12 1 (0.11%) Cloud Spanner
12 1 (0.11%) DynamoDB
12 1 (0.11%) Flink
12 1 (0.11%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 67 (7.23%) JIRA
2 49 (5.29%) Jenkins
3 38 (4.10%) Git
4 31 (3.34%) GitLab
5 16 (1.73%) Fiddler
6 9 (0.97%) Browser DevTools
7 7 (0.76%) Bitbucket
7 7 (0.76%) Sonatype Nexus
8 5 (0.54%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 5 (0.54%) Chocolatey
9 4 (0.43%) Selenium
10 3 (0.32%) MSI
11 2 (0.22%) Artifactory
11 2 (0.22%) Introscope
11 2 (0.22%) Spinnaker
11 2 (0.22%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
11 2 (0.22%) Vagrant
12 1 (0.11%) Maven
12 1 (0.11%) Visual Studio
General
1 233 (25.13%) Social Skills
2 106 (11.43%) Analytical Skills
3 87 (9.39%) Finance
4 70 (7.55%) Public Sector
5 65 (7.01%) Banking
6 42 (4.53%) Documentation Skills
7 32 (3.45%) Telecoms
8 31 (3.34%) Investment Banking
9 16 (1.73%) Legal
10 12 (1.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 11 (1.19%) Local Government
11 11 (1.19%) Police
12 10 (1.08%) Aerospace
12 10 (1.08%) Military
13 8 (0.86%) Manufacturing
13 8 (0.86%) Organisational Skills
14 7 (0.76%) Front Office
14 7 (0.76%) Pharmaceutical
15 6 (0.65%) Law
15 6 (0.65%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 166 (17.91%) Network Engineer
2 163 (17.58%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 107 (11.54%) Senior
4 98 (10.57%) Support Engineer
5 77 (8.31%) Architect
6 74 (7.98%) Cloud Engineer
7 48 (5.18%) IT Support
8 47 (5.07%) Security Engineer
9 46 (4.96%) Analyst
9 46 (4.96%) IT Engineer
10 43 (4.64%) Platform Engineer
11 39 (4.21%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
12 38 (4.10%) Azure Engineer
13 37 (3.99%) Cisco Engineer
14 36 (3.88%) DevOps Engineer
14 36 (3.88%) Network Security Engineer
14 36 (3.88%) Web Engineer
15 35 (3.78%) Administrator
15 35 (3.78%) Cisco Network Engineer
16 34 (3.67%) IT Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 203 (21.90%) Terraform
2 37 (3.99%) 802.1X
3 35 (3.78%) SAML
4 27 (2.91%) LDAP
5 25 (2.70%) ARM Templates
6 22 (2.37%) OAuth
7 17 (1.83%) OpenID
7 17 (1.83%) REST
8 13 (1.40%) JSON
9 12 (1.29%) OpenTelemetry
9 12 (1.29%) YAML
10 11 (1.19%) Kafka
11 9 (0.97%) CSS
12 8 (0.86%) Elastic Stack
13 7 (0.76%) Middleware
14 6 (0.65%) RabbitMQ
14 6 (0.65%) Software Packaging
15 5 (0.54%) Flask
15 5 (0.54%) Jinja
15 5 (0.54%) Pandas
Miscellaneous
1 118 (12.73%) Data Centre
2 95 (10.25%) PKI
3 70 (7.55%) Hybrid Cloud
4 67 (7.23%) Onboarding
5 53 (5.72%) Management Information System
6 43 (4.64%) Cloud Native
7 33 (3.56%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 30 (3.24%) Clustering
9 26 (2.80%) Public Cloud
9 26 (2.80%) Replication
10 21 (2.27%) Self-Motivation
11 18 (1.94%) Enterprise Cloud
12 17 (1.83%) Linux Command Line
13 14 (1.51%) Driving Licence
13 14 (1.51%) Enterprise Software
14 13 (1.40%) Security Posture
15 12 (1.29%) Cyber Threat
16 10 (1.08%) Distributed Systems
16 10 (1.08%) Enterprise Storage
17 9 (0.97%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 441 (47.57%) Windows
2 248 (26.75%) Windows Server
3 198 (21.36%) Linux
4 65 (7.01%) Windows 10
5 40 (4.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 37 (3.99%) Windows Server 2019
7 29 (3.13%) Mac OS
8 27 (2.91%) Unix
9 24 (2.59%) Ubuntu
10 23 (2.48%) Windows Server 2012
11 18 (1.94%) Apple iOS
12 17 (1.83%) CentOS
13 16 (1.73%) Android
14 13 (1.40%) Windows Server 2016
15 12 (1.29%) VMS
15 12 (1.29%) Windows 7
16 7 (0.76%) Rocky
16 7 (0.76%) Windows Server 2008
17 5 (0.54%) Windows Server 2003
18 4 (0.43%) AIX
Processes & Methodologies
1 223 (24.06%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 206 (22.22%) Problem-Solving
3 180 (19.42%) ITIL
4 172 (18.55%) Infrastructure as Code
5 171 (18.45%) Load Balancing
6 151 (16.29%) Migration
7 149 (16.07%) DevOps
8 137 (14.78%) CI/CD
9 117 (12.62%) High Availability
10 114 (12.30%) ITSM
11 98 (10.57%) Continuous Improvement
12 94 (10.14%) Agile
13 93 (10.03%) Cybersecurity
14 88 (9.49%) Observability
15 86 (9.28%) Technical Leadership
16 76 (8.20%) Project Delivery
17 75 (8.09%) Platform Engineering
18 74 (7.98%) Disaster Recovery
18 74 (7.98%) Root Cause Analysis
19 67 (7.23%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 227 (24.49%) PowerShell
2 182 (19.63%) Python
3 131 (14.13%) Bash
4 60 (6.47%) SQL
5 42 (4.53%) Bicep
6 19 (2.05%) JavaScript
7 17 (1.83%) Shell Script
8 12 (1.29%) Go
9 10 (1.08%) Perl
10 9 (0.97%) ActionScript
10 9 (0.97%) VBScript
11 8 (0.86%) Groovy
11 8 (0.86%) Java
12 7 (0.76%) VBA
13 6 (0.65%) VB
14 4 (0.43%) Ruby
15 3 (0.32%) C
15 3 (0.32%) Kusto Query Language
15 3 (0.32%) Lisp
16 2 (0.22%) C++
Qualifications
1 342 (36.89%) Security Cleared
2 185 (19.96%) SC Cleared
3 150 (16.18%) DV Cleared
4 90 (9.71%) Cisco Certification
5 75 (8.09%) Degree
6 68 (7.34%) CCNP
7 51 (5.50%) Azure Certification
8 47 (5.07%) CCNA
9 45 (4.85%) Microsoft Certification
10 26 (2.80%) Network+ Certification
11 23 (2.48%) AWS Certification
12 20 (2.16%) Computer Science Degree
13 19 (2.05%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 17 (1.83%) CCIE
15 15 (1.62%) VCAP
16 14 (1.51%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
17 13 (1.40%) BPSS Clearance
18 11 (1.19%) A+ Certification
18 11 (1.19%) Server+ Certification
19 10 (1.08%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (3.99%) SLA
2 24 (2.59%) NIST
3 16 (1.73%) NCSC
4 14 (1.51%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 13 (1.40%) QA
6 6 (0.65%) GDPR
7 5 (0.54%) NIST 800
8 4 (0.43%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 4 (0.43%) JSP 440
9 3 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials
10 2 (0.22%) Data Quality
10 2 (0.22%) Government Security Classifications
10 2 (0.22%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.22%) SOC 2
11 1 (0.11%) HIPAA
11 1 (0.11%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 407 (43.91%) Active Directory
2 259 (27.94%) VMware Infrastructure
3 113 (12.19%) Hyper-V
4 78 (8.41%) VMware ESXi
5 71 (7.66%) vSphere
6 68 (7.34%) VMware NSX
7 61 (6.58%) Docker
8 42 (4.53%) Virtual Machines
9 35 (3.78%) Virtual Desktop
10 25 (2.70%) Firmware
11 18 (1.94%) NFS
12 15 (1.62%) vCloud
13 14 (1.51%) BitLocker
14 10 (1.08%) Postfix
15 9 (0.97%) Microsoft App-V
16 8 (0.86%) Virtual Servers
17 6 (0.65%) Squid
17 6 (0.65%) VMware Workstation
18 5 (0.54%) Dovecot
18 5 (0.54%) UAG
Systems Management
1 146 (15.75%) Ansible
2 118 (12.73%) Kubernetes
3 104 (11.22%) Microsoft Intune
4 77 (8.31%) SCCM
5 65 (7.01%) vCenter Server
6 59 (6.36%) Grafana
7 54 (5.83%) Single Sign-On
8 47 (5.07%) Prometheus
9 31 (3.34%) SCOM
9 31 (3.34%) WSUS
10 27 (2.91%) FortiGate
11 16 (1.73%) Puppet
11 16 (1.73%) VxRail
12 14 (1.51%) Packer
13 13 (1.40%) Jamf Pro
14 12 (1.29%) NetBackup
14 12 (1.29%) vMotion
15 11 (1.19%) Argo
15 11 (1.19%) Istio
16 10 (1.08%) Active Directory Federation Services
Vendors
1 355 (38.30%) Microsoft
2 309 (33.33%) VMware
3 178 (19.20%) Cisco
4 127 (13.70%) F5
5 90 (9.71%) ServiceNow
6 60 (6.47%) Infoblox
7 56 (6.04%) Google
8 51 (5.50%) Citrix
9 50 (5.39%) SolarWinds
10 46 (4.96%) Palo Alto
11 43 (4.64%) Juniper
11 43 (4.64%) Splunk
12 40 (4.31%) Red Hat
13 34 (3.67%) NetApp
14 31 (3.34%) CheckPoint
15 30 (3.24%) Dynatrace
15 30 (3.24%) Fortinet
16 26 (2.80%) Zscaler
17 24 (2.59%) Blue Coat
17 24 (2.59%) McAfee