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

6 months to
19 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 130 116 146
Rank change year-on-year -14 +30 -6
Contract jobs citing DNS 926 653 592
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.06% 2.38% 1.64%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 21.58% 18.94% 12.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 569 433 399
10th Percentile £296 £267 £256
25th Percentile £400 £400 £380
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -2.44%
75th Percentile £577 £600 £588
90th Percentile £638 £653 £667
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £484
% change year-on-year -4.76% +8.47% -5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 46 30 24
10th Percentile £20.88 £29.00 £20.00
25th Percentile £26.00 £31.69 £23.80
Median hourly rate £33.86 £61.25 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -44.72% +75.00% -12.50%
75th Percentile £74.00 £82.78 £40.00
90th Percentile £80.75 £89.63 £50.96
UK median hourly rate £35.22 £61.25 £35.00
% change year-on-year -42.50% +75.00% -12.50%

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 4,292 3,448 4,666
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.53% 12.58% 12.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,635 2,139 2,800
10th Percentile £250 £237 £220
25th Percentile £400 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
75th Percentile £588 £600 £608
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £488 £500
% change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 314 158 364
10th Percentile £16.04 £14.99 £13.86
25th Percentile £19.50 £25.04 £16.72
Median hourly rate £26.72 £44.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -39.96% +11.25% -8.57%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.18 £87.50 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £26.22 £48.75 £40.00
% change year-on-year -46.22% +21.88% -11.11%

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 19 July 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 19 July 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 19 July 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 -36 311 £475 -6.86% 85
North of England +19 240 £450 -10.00% 37
South East +8 199 £538 -2.27% 89
North West +34 156 £450 -1.64% 15
Midlands -2 113 £450 -5.26% 30
West Midlands -18 94 £450 -5.26% 21
Yorkshire -15 78 £455 -17.27% 17
South West -9 77 £500 -14.89% 39
East of England -49 34 £450 -18.18% 31
East Midlands -8 17 £413 -17.50% 9
North East -39 6 £413 +19.57% 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 86 (9.29%) Microsoft Exchange
2 62 (6.70%) SharePoint
3 19 (2.05%) Confluence
4 18 (1.94%) nginx
5 13 (1.40%) Apache
6 12 (1.30%) IIS
7 6 (0.65%) Tomcat
8 2 (0.22%) IBM HTTP Server
8 2 (0.22%) Oracle HTTP Server
8 2 (0.22%) WebSphere
8 2 (0.22%) WebSphere Application Server
8 2 (0.22%) WebSphere Portal
9 1 (0.11%) Exchange Server 2010
9 1 (0.11%) SharePoint Server
9 1 (0.11%) Skype for Business
9 1 (0.11%) Traefik
Applications
1 16 (1.73%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (0.97%) MS Visio
3 4 (0.43%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (0.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.22%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 2 (0.22%) Houdini
5 2 (0.22%) NUKE
6 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 7 (0.76%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.11%) Cloudability
Cloud Services
1 337 (36.39%) Azure
2 176 (19.01%) AWS
3 152 (16.41%) Entra ID
4 137 (14.79%) Microsoft 365
5 99 (10.69%) GCP
6 61 (6.59%) GitHub
7 53 (5.72%) IaaS
8 42 (4.54%) SaaS
9 39 (4.21%) PaaS
10 37 (4.00%) OneDrive
11 29 (3.13%) AWS CloudFormation
12 28 (3.02%) Azure DevOps
12 28 (3.02%) Azure Monitor
12 28 (3.02%) Route 53
13 27 (2.92%) Serverless
13 27 (2.92%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 26 (2.81%) Amazon EC2
14 26 (2.81%) OpenShift
15 24 (2.59%) Google Kubernetes Engine
16 21 (2.27%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 413 (44.60%) DHCP
2 327 (35.31%) Firewall
3 262 (28.29%) TCP/IP
4 249 (26.89%) VPN
5 126 (13.61%) WAN
6 118 (12.74%) Network Security
7 106 (11.45%) LAN
8 102 (11.02%) VLAN
9 99 (10.69%) BGP
10 93 (10.04%) SSL
11 82 (8.86%) BIG-IP
12 66 (7.13%) HTTP
13 61 (6.59%) Wireless
14 56 (6.05%) OSPF
15 55 (5.94%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
16 54 (5.83%) Wi-Fi
17 53 (5.72%) SAN
18 44 (4.75%) DMZ
19 39 (4.21%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
20 34 (3.67%) Multicast
Database & Business Intelligence
1 40 (4.32%) SQL Server
2 17 (1.84%) Elasticsearch
3 11 (1.19%) Power BI
4 10 (1.08%) Azure SQL Database
5 8 (0.86%) Amazon RDS
6 6 (0.65%) PostgreSQL
7 5 (0.54%) Data Lake
7 5 (0.54%) MySQL
8 4 (0.43%) Db2
9 3 (0.32%) Big Data
10 2 (0.22%) NoSQL
11 1 (0.11%) DynamoDB
11 1 (0.11%) KDB
11 1 (0.11%) MongoDB
11 1 (0.11%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 1 (0.11%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 71 (7.67%) JIRA
2 51 (5.51%) Jenkins
3 32 (3.46%) Git
4 20 (2.16%) Fiddler
5 18 (1.94%) GitLab
6 11 (1.19%) Bitbucket
7 10 (1.08%) Browser DevTools
8 7 (0.76%) Chocolatey
8 7 (0.76%) SonarQube
9 4 (0.43%) Sonatype Nexus
10 3 (0.32%) Atlassian Bamboo
11 2 (0.22%) Artifactory
11 2 (0.22%) Introscope
11 2 (0.22%) Spinnaker
12 1 (0.11%) MSI
12 1 (0.11%) Visual Studio
General
1 210 (22.68%) Social Skills
2 94 (10.15%) Analytical Skills
3 81 (8.75%) Finance
4 69 (7.45%) Banking
4 69 (7.45%) Public Sector
5 49 (5.29%) Documentation Skills
6 34 (3.67%) Investment Banking
7 22 (2.38%) Telecoms
8 21 (2.27%) Military
9 15 (1.62%) Legal
10 11 (1.19%) Local Government
11 10 (1.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 10 (1.08%) Organisational Skills
12 9 (0.97%) Police
13 6 (0.65%) Influencing Skills
13 6 (0.65%) Publishing
14 5 (0.54%) Law
15 4 (0.43%) Financial Institution
15 4 (0.43%) Manufacturing
16 3 (0.32%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 173 (18.68%) Network Engineer
2 143 (15.44%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 108 (11.66%) Architect
4 83 (8.96%) Senior
5 81 (8.75%) Support Engineer
6 65 (7.02%) Cloud Engineer
7 61 (6.59%) Security Engineer
8 49 (5.29%) Analyst
9 44 (4.75%) IT Engineer
9 44 (4.75%) Network Security Engineer
10 43 (4.64%) IT Support
10 43 (4.64%) Web Engineer
11 40 (4.32%) Azure Engineer
12 39 (4.21%) Cisco Engineer
13 37 (4.00%) Cisco Network Engineer
14 36 (3.89%) Administrator
14 36 (3.89%) DevOps Engineer
15 33 (3.56%) Data Engineer
15 33 (3.56%) Data Network Engineer
16 32 (3.46%) Cisco Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (5.40%) 802.1X
2 49 (5.29%) LDAP
3 30 (3.24%) SAML
4 21 (2.27%) OpenID
5 20 (2.16%) OAuth
6 19 (2.05%) ARM Templates
7 17 (1.84%) OpenTelemetry
8 12 (1.30%) JSON
9 8 (0.86%) REST
9 8 (0.86%) YAML
10 6 (0.65%) Middleware
11 5 (0.54%) CSS
11 5 (0.54%) Microsoft Graph
12 4 (0.43%) .NET
12 4 (0.43%) AWS CDK
12 4 (0.43%) Kafka
12 4 (0.43%) Web Services
13 3 (0.32%) LAMP
13 3 (0.32%) Software Packaging
13 3 (0.32%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 124 (13.39%) Data Centre
2 92 (9.94%) PKI
3 56 (6.05%) Cloud Native
4 55 (5.94%) Onboarding
5 50 (5.40%) Hybrid Cloud
6 44 (4.75%) Management Information System
7 42 (4.54%) Clustering
7 42 (4.54%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 35 (3.78%) Replication
9 31 (3.35%) Public Cloud
10 21 (2.27%) Self-Motivation
11 18 (1.94%) Enterprise Cloud
12 17 (1.84%) Security Posture
13 12 (1.30%) Cyber Threat
13 12 (1.30%) Enterprise Software
13 12 (1.30%) Legacy Systems
13 12 (1.30%) Linux Command Line
14 10 (1.08%) Product Ownership
15 9 (0.97%) Distributed Systems
15 9 (0.97%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 395 (42.66%) Windows
2 209 (22.57%) Windows Server
3 152 (16.41%) Linux
4 47 (5.08%) Windows 10
5 36 (3.89%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 32 (3.46%) Windows Server 2019
7 27 (2.92%) Mac OS
8 26 (2.81%) Unix
9 19 (2.05%) Windows Server 2012
10 17 (1.84%) Ubuntu
11 14 (1.51%) CentOS
12 13 (1.40%) Apple iOS
12 13 (1.40%) Windows Server 2016
13 11 (1.19%) Android
14 7 (0.76%) VMS
15 6 (0.65%) Rocky
16 5 (0.54%) Windows 7
16 5 (0.54%) Windows Server 2003
17 3 (0.32%) AIX
17 3 (0.32%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 206 (22.25%) Problem-Solving
2 190 (20.52%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 175 (18.90%) Load Balancing
4 157 (16.95%) Migration
5 145 (15.66%) ITIL
6 141 (15.23%) High Availability
7 137 (14.79%) Infrastructure as Code
8 133 (14.36%) DevOps
9 130 (14.04%) CI/CD
10 94 (10.15%) ITSM
11 86 (9.29%) Observability
12 76 (8.21%) Agile
12 76 (8.21%) Project Delivery
13 74 (7.99%) Cybersecurity
14 69 (7.45%) Continuous Improvement
15 67 (7.24%) Identity Access Management
16 65 (7.02%) Disaster Recovery
17 62 (6.70%) Containerisation
18 57 (6.16%) RBAC
19 56 (6.05%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 191 (20.63%) PowerShell
2 162 (17.49%) Python
3 108 (11.66%) Bash
4 44 (4.75%) SQL
5 32 (3.46%) Bicep
6 22 (2.38%) JavaScript
7 11 (1.19%) Go
8 10 (1.08%) Shell Script
9 9 (0.97%) ActionScript
9 9 (0.97%) VBA
10 8 (0.86%) Perl
11 6 (0.65%) Java
12 5 (0.54%) C
12 5 (0.54%) Groovy
12 5 (0.54%) Ruby
13 3 (0.32%) Kusto Query Language
13 3 (0.32%) Lisp
13 3 (0.32%) VBScript
14 2 (0.22%) Kotlin
14 2 (0.22%) Objective-C
Qualifications
1 335 (36.18%) Security Cleared
2 196 (21.17%) SC Cleared
3 127 (13.71%) DV Cleared
4 99 (10.69%) Cisco Certification
5 68 (7.34%) CCNP
6 67 (7.24%) Degree
7 49 (5.29%) CCNA
8 37 (4.00%) Microsoft Certification
9 34 (3.67%) Azure Certification
10 26 (2.81%) Network+ Certification
11 17 (1.84%) CCIE
12 15 (1.62%) BPSS Clearance
12 15 (1.62%) Server+ Certification
13 14 (1.51%) AWS Certification
14 13 (1.40%) CISSP
14 13 (1.40%) CompTIA Security+
15 12 (1.30%) MCSA
15 12 (1.30%) MCSE
16 11 (1.19%) JNCIS
17 10 (1.08%) JNCIP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (3.02%) SLA
2 25 (2.70%) NIST
3 15 (1.62%) NCSC
4 13 (1.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 10 (1.08%) GDPR
6 6 (0.65%) QA
7 5 (0.54%) NIST 800
8 4 (0.43%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 4 (0.43%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 3 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials
9 3 (0.32%) JSP 440
10 2 (0.22%) Government Security Classifications
10 2 (0.22%) SOC 2
11 1 (0.11%) Actionable Recommendations
11 1 (0.11%) COBIT
11 1 (0.11%) Data Quality
11 1 (0.11%) PCI DSS
11 1 (0.11%) RMADS
System Software
1 376 (40.60%) Active Directory
2 205 (22.14%) VMware Infrastructure
3 92 (9.94%) Hyper-V
4 64 (6.91%) VMware NSX
5 63 (6.80%) vSphere
6 61 (6.59%) VMware ESXi
7 42 (4.54%) Virtual Machines
8 39 (4.21%) Docker
9 38 (4.10%) Virtual Desktop
10 25 (2.70%) Firmware
11 18 (1.94%) NFS
12 13 (1.40%) vCloud
13 12 (1.30%) Squid
14 11 (1.19%) BitLocker
15 10 (1.08%) Microsoft App-V
16 9 (0.97%) Postfix
17 8 (0.86%) VMware Workstation
18 6 (0.65%) Varnish
19 5 (0.54%) UAG
20 4 (0.43%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 181 (19.55%) Terraform
2 123 (13.28%) Ansible
3 105 (11.34%) Kubernetes
4 79 (8.53%) Microsoft Intune
5 60 (6.48%) vCenter Server
6 56 (6.05%) Grafana
6 56 (6.05%) Single Sign-On
7 50 (5.40%) SCCM
8 48 (5.18%) FortiGate
9 41 (4.43%) Prometheus
10 27 (2.92%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 25 (2.70%) WSUS
12 24 (2.59%) SCOM
13 21 (2.27%) Argo
14 14 (1.51%) Nessus
14 14 (1.51%) Puppet
15 13 (1.40%) Jamf Pro
16 11 (1.19%) vMotion
17 10 (1.08%) HAProxy
18 8 (0.86%) Packer
Vendors
1 310 (33.48%) Microsoft
2 251 (27.11%) VMware
3 180 (19.44%) Cisco
4 150 (16.20%) F5
5 82 (8.86%) ServiceNow
6 67 (7.24%) Splunk
7 64 (6.91%) Google
7 64 (6.91%) Infoblox
8 58 (6.26%) SolarWinds
9 55 (5.94%) Juniper
10 54 (5.83%) Citrix
11 49 (5.29%) Red Hat
12 40 (4.32%) Palo Alto
13 34 (3.67%) Dynatrace
14 32 (3.46%) NetApp
15 30 (3.24%) Blue Coat
16 25 (2.70%) CheckPoint
16 25 (2.70%) McAfee
17 23 (2.48%) Fortinet
18 22 (2.38%) Zscaler