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

6 months to
13 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 143 119 117
Rank change year-on-year -24 -2 +6
Contract jobs citing DNS 616 558 765
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.97% 2.10% 2.10%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 18.66% 16.41% 15.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 391 353 503
10th Percentile £219 £223 £206
25th Percentile £400 £330 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year +10.53% - -9.52%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £588
90th Percentile £690 £715 £650
UK median daily rate £521 £490 £480
% change year-on-year +6.43% +2.03% -8.57%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 5 16
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.78 £24.63
25th Percentile £23.20 £18.50 £29.94
Median hourly rate £55.50 £23.59 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +135.27% -57.11% +64.18%
75th Percentile £75.00 £25.30 £67.13
90th Percentile £87.45 £40.12 £74.00
UK median hourly rate £55.50 £23.59 £55.00
% change year-on-year +135.27% -57.11% +64.18%

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 3,302 3,400 5,095
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.54% 12.79% 14.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,129 1,978 3,165
10th Percentile £204 £220 £206
25th Percentile £356 £375 £356
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.60% - -2.44%
75th Percentile £588 £607 £600
90th Percentile £688 £688 £700
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 158 98 313
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.99 £18.93
25th Percentile £19.25 £20.30 £24.00
Median hourly rate £34.50 £35.00 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year -1.43% -38.04% +125.96%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.25 £65.98
90th Percentile £74.48 £72.00 £75.59
UK median hourly rate £34.50 £32.50 £56.49
% change year-on-year +6.15% -42.47% +125.96%

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 January 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 January 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 January 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 -26 207 £550 +4.76% 60
North of England -30 126 £460 +11.52% 64
South East +8 116 £500 +8.11% 102
Midlands +15 113 £413 -2.94% 33
West Midlands +35 109 £425 - 17
North West -5 86 £450 -5.26% 29
South West -31 61 £575 +7.28% 36
Yorkshire -29 46 £454 +51.17% 30
East of England -27 29 £363 +31.82% 41
North East -16 7 £575 +206.67% 7
East Midlands -31 4 £275 -41.18% 16
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 84 (13.64%) Microsoft Exchange
2 68 (11.04%) SharePoint
3 31 (5.03%) Skype for Business
4 20 (3.25%) Confluence
5 10 (1.62%) nginx
5 10 (1.62%) SharePoint Server
6 9 (1.46%) Exchange Server 2010
7 8 (1.30%) Exchange Server 2013
7 8 (1.30%) IIS
8 6 (0.97%) Exchange Server 2003
8 6 (0.97%) Exchange Server 2007
8 6 (0.97%) Office Communications Server
9 5 (0.81%) Apache
10 3 (0.49%) OpenStack
10 3 (0.49%) Tomcat
11 2 (0.32%) Cloud Foundry
11 2 (0.32%) Oracle HTTP Server
11 2 (0.32%) WebLogic
11 2 (0.32%) WordPress
12 1 (0.16%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 41 (6.66%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (1.62%) MS Visio
3 9 (1.46%) Mozilla Thunderbird
4 2 (0.32%) Microsoft Excel
4 2 (0.32%) Spreadsheet
4 2 (0.32%) Windchill
5 1 (0.16%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (0.32%) Remedy ITSM
1 2 (0.32%) SystmOne
1 2 (0.32%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 208 (33.77%) Azure
2 159 (25.81%) AWS
3 132 (21.43%) Microsoft 365
4 83 (13.47%) Entra ID
5 63 (10.23%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 53 (8.60%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 52 (8.44%) Amazon S3
8 48 (7.79%) Amazon EC2
9 46 (7.47%) GitHub
10 43 (6.98%) GCP
11 40 (6.49%) Amazon ELB
12 31 (5.03%) Amazon ECS
12 31 (5.03%) AWS CloudFormation
13 27 (4.38%) IaaS
14 25 (4.06%) SaaS
14 25 (4.06%) Serverless
15 23 (3.73%) AWS Lambda
16 22 (3.57%) GitHub Actions
17 18 (2.92%) AWS KMS
18 17 (2.76%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 268 (43.51%) DHCP
2 205 (33.28%) TCP/IP
3 198 (32.14%) Firewall
4 159 (25.81%) VPN
5 85 (13.80%) Network Security
6 84 (13.64%) SSL
7 69 (11.20%) WAN
8 62 (10.06%) HTTP
9 57 (9.25%) LAN
10 55 (8.93%) VLAN
11 42 (6.82%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
12 40 (6.49%) SMTP
13 39 (6.33%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
14 38 (6.17%) Wireless
15 33 (5.36%) BGP
15 33 (5.36%) DMZ
15 33 (5.36%) Wireshark
16 32 (5.19%) Wi-Fi
17 29 (4.71%) BIG-IP
17 29 (4.71%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (5.03%) Amazon RDS
2 25 (4.06%) PostgreSQL
3 21 (3.41%) SQL Server
4 16 (2.60%) Amazon Aurora
5 9 (1.46%) MongoDB
6 7 (1.14%) DynamoDB
6 7 (1.14%) MySQL
7 6 (0.97%) Redis
8 5 (0.81%) Data Hub
8 5 (0.81%) Elasticsearch
8 5 (0.81%) NoSQL
9 4 (0.65%) BigQuery
9 4 (0.65%) DocumentDB
9 4 (0.65%) Relational Database
10 2 (0.32%) Big Data
11 1 (0.16%) Apache Cassandra
11 1 (0.16%) Electronic Patient Records
11 1 (0.16%) Geospatial Data
11 1 (0.16%) Parquet
11 1 (0.16%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 78 (12.66%) Jenkins
2 61 (9.90%) Git
3 46 (7.47%) GitLab
4 37 (6.01%) JIRA
5 22 (3.57%) Fiddler
6 15 (2.44%) Vagrant
7 8 (1.30%) Terragrunt
8 5 (0.81%) Subversion
9 4 (0.65%) CircleCI
9 4 (0.65%) TeamCity
10 2 (0.32%) Visual Studio Code
11 1 (0.16%) Atlassian Bamboo
11 1 (0.16%) Bitbucket
11 1 (0.16%) GCC
11 1 (0.16%) MLflow
11 1 (0.16%) Octopus Deploy
11 1 (0.16%) PyCharm
11 1 (0.16%) SonarQube
11 1 (0.16%) Travis CI
11 1 (0.16%) webpack
General
1 188 (30.52%) Social Skills
2 100 (16.23%) Analytical Skills
3 68 (11.04%) Public Sector
4 51 (8.28%) Banking
5 39 (6.33%) Investment Banking
6 38 (6.17%) Finance
7 33 (5.36%) Documentation Skills
8 16 (2.60%) Telecoms
9 15 (2.44%) Presentation Skills
10 14 (2.27%) Legal
11 9 (1.46%) Organisational Skills
12 8 (1.30%) Military
13 7 (1.14%) Law
14 6 (0.97%) Influencing Skills
15 5 (0.81%) Aerospace
16 4 (0.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 4 (0.65%) Marketing
17 3 (0.49%) Financial Institution
17 3 (0.49%) Local Government
18 2 (0.32%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 84 (13.64%) Network Engineer
2 71 (11.53%) Architect
3 69 (11.20%) Support Engineer
4 62 (10.06%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 61 (9.90%) Senior
6 56 (9.09%) Analyst
7 46 (7.47%) Platform Engineer
8 43 (6.98%) DevOps Engineer
9 40 (6.49%) IT Support
10 31 (5.03%) AWS Engineer
11 30 (4.87%) Security Engineer
12 26 (4.22%) 2nd Line Support
13 24 (3.90%) Cloud Platform Engineer
14 22 (3.57%) AWS DevOps
14 22 (3.57%) AWS DevOps Engineer
14 22 (3.57%) Operations Engineer
14 22 (3.57%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
15 21 (3.41%) Lead
15 21 (3.41%) Web Engineer
16 19 (3.08%) IT Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (5.36%) LDAP
2 23 (3.73%) SAML
3 21 (3.41%) OAuth
4 19 (3.08%) OpenID
5 18 (2.92%) OAuth2
6 12 (1.95%) 802.1X
6 12 (1.95%) Kafka
7 11 (1.79%) Elastic Stack
8 10 (1.62%) REST
9 7 (1.14%) Middleware
9 7 (1.14%) OpenTelemetry
10 6 (0.97%) YAML
11 5 (0.81%) AngularJS
11 5 (0.81%) cloud-init
11 5 (0.81%) Keycloak
11 5 (0.81%) React
11 5 (0.81%) RESTful
12 4 (0.65%) AWS CDK
12 4 (0.65%) gRPC
12 4 (0.65%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 50 (8.12%) PKI
2 49 (7.95%) Replication
3 45 (7.31%) Data Centre
4 43 (6.98%) Management Information System
5 27 (4.38%) Onboarding
6 23 (3.73%) Analytical Mindset
7 22 (3.57%) Enterprise Software
8 18 (2.92%) Cloud Native
9 13 (2.11%) Hybrid Cloud
9 13 (2.11%) Public Cloud
9 13 (2.11%) Security Operations Centre
10 12 (1.95%) Cyberattack
11 11 (1.79%) Clustering
11 11 (1.79%) Cyber Threat
11 11 (1.79%) Self-Motivation
12 10 (1.62%) Private Cloud
12 10 (1.62%) Video Conferencing
13 8 (1.30%) Distributed Systems
14 7 (1.14%) CSOC
14 7 (1.14%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 307 (49.84%) Windows
2 145 (23.54%) Windows Server
3 129 (20.94%) Linux
4 58 (9.42%) Windows 10
5 26 (4.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 24 (3.90%) Windows Server 2019
7 21 (3.41%) VMS
8 20 (3.25%) Windows Server 2016
9 18 (2.92%) Amazon Linux
9 18 (2.92%) Unix
10 16 (2.60%) Android
10 16 (2.60%) Windows Server 2012
11 14 (2.27%) Ubuntu
12 12 (1.95%) CentOS
13 11 (1.79%) Apple iOS
13 11 (1.79%) Windows Server 2003
14 10 (1.62%) Mac OS
15 7 (1.14%) Windows 7
16 5 (0.81%) Solaris
17 3 (0.49%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 140 (22.73%) Problem-Solving
2 113 (18.34%) ITIL
3 110 (17.86%) DevOps
4 107 (17.37%) CI/CD
5 103 (16.72%) Load Balancing
6 88 (14.29%) Infrastructure as Code
7 79 (12.82%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 70 (11.36%) Change Management
9 60 (9.74%) High Availability
10 58 (9.42%) Migration
11 57 (9.25%) Cybersecurity
12 55 (8.93%) Incident Response
13 52 (8.44%) Platform Engineering
14 51 (8.28%) Service Management
15 50 (8.12%) Disaster Recovery
15 50 (8.12%) Root Cause Analysis
16 45 (7.31%) Continuous Improvement
17 44 (7.14%) Mentoring
18 42 (6.82%) Containerisation
19 40 (6.49%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 176 (28.57%) PowerShell
2 142 (23.05%) Python
3 69 (11.20%) Bash
4 42 (6.82%) SQL
5 20 (3.25%) Java
6 19 (3.08%) Perl
7 16 (2.60%) Groovy
8 13 (2.11%) Bicep
9 9 (1.46%) Shell Script
10 8 (1.30%) Go
10 8 (1.30%) Ruby
11 7 (1.14%) Lisp
11 7 (1.14%) VBScript
12 6 (0.97%) Kusto Query Language
12 6 (0.97%) VB
13 5 (0.81%) C++
14 3 (0.49%) C#
14 3 (0.49%) T-SQL
15 2 (0.32%) JavaScript
16 1 (0.16%) PHP
Qualifications
1 240 (38.96%) Security Cleared
2 168 (27.27%) SC Cleared
3 78 (12.66%) DV Cleared
4 57 (9.25%) Microsoft Certification
5 56 (9.09%) Degree
6 42 (6.82%) Cisco Certification
7 37 (6.01%) CCNP
8 36 (5.84%) Azure Certification
9 21 (3.41%) AWS Certification
10 18 (2.92%) Network+ Certification
11 14 (2.27%) CCNA
12 12 (1.95%) CISSP
13 11 (1.79%) Server+ Certification
14 9 (1.46%) CCIE
15 8 (1.30%) BPSS Clearance
15 8 (1.30%) CompTIA Security+
15 8 (1.30%) ITIL Certification
15 8 (1.30%) MCSE
15 8 (1.30%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
16 7 (1.14%) MCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (4.38%) GDPR
2 18 (2.92%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 18 (2.92%) SLA
3 16 (2.60%) NIST
4 9 (1.46%) NCSC
4 9 (1.46%) PCI DSS
5 8 (1.30%) Cyber Essentials
5 8 (1.30%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 6 (0.97%) QA
7 5 (0.81%) Accessibility
8 3 (0.49%) Data Quality
8 3 (0.49%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 2 (0.32%) JSP 440
10 1 (0.16%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 1 (0.16%) Government Security Classifications
10 1 (0.16%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.16%) WCAG
System Software
1 272 (44.16%) Active Directory
2 166 (26.95%) VMware Infrastructure
3 87 (14.12%) Docker
4 47 (7.63%) Hyper-V
5 36 (5.84%) VMware NSX
6 26 (4.22%) Virtual Machines
7 21 (3.41%) vSphere
8 20 (3.25%) Firmware
9 18 (2.92%) DFS Replication
9 18 (2.92%) VMware ESXi
10 15 (2.44%) Dovecot
10 15 (2.44%) Postfix
11 11 (1.79%) Terminal Services
12 9 (1.46%) Squid
12 9 (1.46%) Virtual Servers
13 8 (1.30%) BitLocker
13 8 (1.30%) Virtual Desktop
14 6 (0.97%) Brightmail
14 6 (0.97%) ISA Server
14 6 (0.97%) Microsoft App-V
Systems Management
1 124 (20.13%) Terraform
2 104 (16.88%) Ansible
3 75 (12.18%) Microsoft Intune
4 71 (11.53%) SCCM
5 57 (9.25%) Kubernetes
6 39 (6.33%) Single Sign-On
7 38 (6.17%) vCenter Server
8 34 (5.52%) Grafana
9 32 (5.19%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 26 (4.22%) Prometheus
11 19 (3.08%) WSUS
12 14 (2.27%) FortiGate
13 13 (2.11%) Argo
14 12 (1.95%) Nessus
14 12 (1.95%) Packer
14 12 (1.95%) Proxmox
14 12 (1.95%) SCOM
15 10 (1.62%) Puppet
16 9 (1.46%) Microsoft Clustering
17 8 (1.30%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 235 (38.15%) Microsoft
2 200 (32.47%) VMware
3 104 (16.88%) F5
4 93 (15.10%) Cisco
5 70 (11.36%) ServiceNow
6 49 (7.95%) Palo Alto
7 47 (7.63%) CheckPoint
8 43 (6.98%) Splunk
9 38 (6.17%) Blue Coat
10 34 (5.52%) Citrix
11 31 (5.03%) SolarWinds
12 28 (4.55%) Red Hat
13 27 (4.38%) McAfee
14 25 (4.06%) NetApp
15 23 (3.73%) Juniper
15 23 (3.73%) Veeam
16 18 (2.92%) Zscaler
17 17 (2.76%) Dell
17 17 (2.76%) Fortinet
18 14 (2.27%) Oracle