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

6 months to
25 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 134 120 151
Rank change year-on-year -14 +31 -19
Contract jobs citing DNS 935 644 535
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.05% 2.34% 1.61%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 21.77% 19.18% 13.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 573 413 361
10th Percentile £288 £257 £256
25th Percentile £406 £388 £380
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -2.44%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £650 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £500
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 48 31 14
10th Percentile £26.46 - £20.00
25th Percentile £31.25 £29.00 £23.28
Median hourly rate £61.11 £57.50 £24.19
Median % change year-on-year +6.27% +137.70% -28.85%
75th Percentile £74.07 £82.18 £49.69
90th Percentile £98.82 £89.63 £65.45
UK median hourly rate £61.11 £57.50 £24.19
% change year-on-year +6.27% +137.70% -36.41%

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 4,295 3,358 4,092
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.40% 12.19% 12.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,585 2,087 2,484
10th Percentile £263 £250 £243
25th Percentile £400 £375 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £492 £505
Median % change year-on-year +1.63% -2.57% +1.00%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £614
90th Percentile £686 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £484 £500
% change year-on-year +3.31% -3.20% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 342 168 266
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.50 £25.15 £21.37
Median hourly rate £27.11 £43.00 £55.75
Median % change year-on-year -36.95% -22.86% -1.32%
75th Percentile £65.17 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £84.30 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £26.00 £46.25 £50.00
% change year-on-year -43.78% -7.50% -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 25 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 25 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 25 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 -38 318 £495 -1.98% 95
North of England +30 232 £483 -0.92% 43
South East +10 184 £538 -2.27% 100
North West +33 151 £465 +1.64% 23
Midlands -25 121 £450 -5.26% 35
West Midlands -21 99 £450 -5.26% 27
South West +6 95 £550 +0.92% 48
Yorkshire -8 67 £500 -9.09% 15
East of England -53 33 £463 -15.91% 35
East Midlands -7 20 £431 -21.59% 8
North East -35 14 £413 +21.32% 6
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 (10.48%) Microsoft Exchange
2 80 (8.56%) SharePoint
3 18 (1.93%) Confluence
4 16 (1.71%) Apache
5 13 (1.39%) IIS
5 13 (1.39%) nginx
6 6 (0.64%) Skype for Business
6 6 (0.64%) Tomcat
7 3 (0.32%) Exchange Server 2013
7 3 (0.32%) OpenStack
8 2 (0.21%) IBM HTTP Server
8 2 (0.21%) Oracle HTTP Server
8 2 (0.21%) WebSphere
8 2 (0.21%) WebSphere Application Server
8 2 (0.21%) WebSphere Portal
9 1 (0.11%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 24 (2.57%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (1.18%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (0.96%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.21%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 2 (0.21%) Houdini
5 2 (0.21%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.21%) NUKE
6 1 (0.11%) Mozilla Thunderbird
Business Applications
1 10 (1.07%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.11%) Oracle Retail
Cloud Services
1 378 (40.43%) Azure
2 192 (20.53%) AWS
3 175 (18.72%) Microsoft 365
4 164 (17.54%) Entra ID
5 98 (10.48%) GCP
6 63 (6.74%) GitHub
7 51 (5.45%) OneDrive
8 50 (5.35%) IaaS
9 38 (4.06%) Azure DevOps
10 37 (3.96%) SaaS
11 35 (3.74%) Azure Monitor
11 35 (3.74%) PaaS
12 32 (3.42%) GitHub Actions
13 28 (2.99%) OpenShift
14 24 (2.57%) AWS CloudFormation
14 24 (2.57%) Azure ExpressRoute
15 22 (2.35%) Virtual Private Cloud
16 21 (2.25%) Serverless
17 20 (2.14%) Google Kubernetes Engine
18 19 (2.03%) Azure AKS
Communications & Networking
1 447 (47.81%) DHCP
2 342 (36.58%) Firewall
3 284 (30.37%) TCP/IP
4 273 (29.20%) VPN
5 126 (13.48%) Network Security
6 119 (12.73%) VLAN
6 119 (12.73%) WAN
7 99 (10.59%) LAN
8 95 (10.16%) BGP
9 90 (9.63%) SSL
10 72 (7.70%) Wireless
11 70 (7.49%) HTTP
12 68 (7.27%) BIG-IP
13 65 (6.95%) Wi-Fi
14 56 (5.99%) SAN
15 53 (5.67%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
16 51 (5.45%) OSPF
17 48 (5.13%) DMZ
18 46 (4.92%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
19 35 (3.74%) Multicast
Database & Business Intelligence
1 47 (5.03%) SQL Server
2 13 (1.39%) PostgreSQL
3 11 (1.18%) Amazon RDS
4 10 (1.07%) MySQL
4 10 (1.07%) Power BI
5 9 (0.96%) Elasticsearch
6 7 (0.75%) Azure SQL Database
7 6 (0.64%) NoSQL
8 5 (0.53%) Data Lake
8 5 (0.53%) MongoDB
9 4 (0.43%) Db2
9 4 (0.43%) Redis
10 3 (0.32%) Big Data
11 2 (0.21%) Amazon Aurora
11 2 (0.21%) 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 66 (7.06%) JIRA
2 51 (5.45%) Jenkins
3 37 (3.96%) Git
4 31 (3.32%) GitLab
5 17 (1.82%) Fiddler
6 10 (1.07%) Browser DevTools
7 7 (0.75%) Bitbucket
7 7 (0.75%) Sonatype Nexus
8 6 (0.64%) Chocolatey
9 5 (0.53%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 3 (0.32%) MSI
10 3 (0.32%) Selenium
11 2 (0.21%) Artifactory
11 2 (0.21%) Introscope
11 2 (0.21%) Spinnaker
11 2 (0.21%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
11 2 (0.21%) Vagrant
12 1 (0.11%) Maven
12 1 (0.11%) Visual Studio
General
1 233 (24.92%) Social Skills
2 111 (11.87%) Analytical Skills
3 89 (9.52%) Finance
4 70 (7.49%) Public Sector
5 69 (7.38%) Banking
6 43 (4.60%) Documentation Skills
7 33 (3.53%) Investment Banking
8 31 (3.32%) Telecoms
9 17 (1.82%) Legal
10 12 (1.28%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 11 (1.18%) Local Government
11 11 (1.18%) Military
11 11 (1.18%) Police
12 8 (0.86%) Aerospace
12 8 (0.86%) Manufacturing
12 8 (0.86%) Organisational Skills
13 7 (0.75%) Front Office
13 7 (0.75%) Pharmaceutical
14 6 (0.64%) Law
14 6 (0.64%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 172 (18.40%) Network Engineer
2 160 (17.11%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 108 (11.55%) Senior
4 96 (10.27%) Support Engineer
5 80 (8.56%) Architect
6 71 (7.59%) Cloud Engineer
7 53 (5.67%) Security Engineer
8 48 (5.13%) Analyst
8 48 (5.13%) IT Support
9 46 (4.92%) IT Engineer
10 42 (4.49%) Platform Engineer
11 39 (4.17%) Azure Engineer
11 39 (4.17%) Cisco Engineer
11 39 (4.17%) Web Engineer
12 38 (4.06%) Network Security Engineer
13 37 (3.96%) Cisco Network Engineer
13 37 (3.96%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
14 36 (3.85%) DevOps Engineer
15 35 (3.74%) Administrator
16 34 (3.64%) Senior Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 201 (21.50%) Terraform
2 38 (4.06%) 802.1X
3 35 (3.74%) SAML
4 26 (2.78%) LDAP
5 23 (2.46%) ARM Templates
6 22 (2.35%) OAuth
7 17 (1.82%) OpenID
8 16 (1.71%) REST
9 13 (1.39%) JSON
10 12 (1.28%) OpenTelemetry
10 12 (1.28%) YAML
11 10 (1.07%) Kafka
12 8 (0.86%) CSS
13 7 (0.75%) Elastic Stack
13 7 (0.75%) Middleware
14 6 (0.64%) Software Packaging
15 5 (0.53%) .NET
15 5 (0.53%) RabbitMQ
15 5 (0.53%) RESTful
16 4 (0.43%) Jinja
Miscellaneous
1 122 (13.05%) Data Centre
2 95 (10.16%) PKI
3 68 (7.27%) Hybrid Cloud
3 68 (7.27%) Onboarding
4 54 (5.78%) Management Information System
5 42 (4.49%) Cloud Native
6 38 (4.06%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 32 (3.42%) Clustering
8 27 (2.89%) Public Cloud
9 25 (2.67%) Replication
10 21 (2.25%) Self-Motivation
11 18 (1.93%) Enterprise Cloud
12 16 (1.71%) Linux Command Line
13 14 (1.50%) Driving Licence
13 14 (1.50%) Enterprise Software
14 13 (1.39%) Cyber Threat
14 13 (1.39%) Security Posture
15 10 (1.07%) Distributed Systems
16 9 (0.96%) CMDB
16 9 (0.96%) Enterprise Storage
Operating Systems
1 438 (46.84%) Windows
2 245 (26.20%) Windows Server
3 195 (20.86%) Linux
4 65 (6.95%) Windows 10
5 38 (4.06%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 35 (3.74%) Windows Server 2019
7 29 (3.10%) Mac OS
8 27 (2.89%) Unix
9 24 (2.57%) Windows Server 2012
10 23 (2.46%) Ubuntu
11 17 (1.82%) Apple iOS
12 16 (1.71%) CentOS
13 15 (1.60%) Android
14 14 (1.50%) Windows Server 2016
15 12 (1.28%) VMS
15 12 (1.28%) Windows 7
16 7 (0.75%) Rocky
16 7 (0.75%) Windows Server 2008
17 4 (0.43%) Windows Server 2003
18 3 (0.32%) OpenVMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 221 (23.64%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 208 (22.25%) Problem-Solving
3 175 (18.72%) ITIL
4 174 (18.61%) Load Balancing
5 173 (18.50%) Infrastructure as Code
6 152 (16.26%) Migration
7 146 (15.61%) DevOps
8 140 (14.97%) CI/CD
9 120 (12.83%) High Availability
10 117 (12.51%) ITSM
11 100 (10.70%) Continuous Improvement
12 94 (10.05%) Cybersecurity
13 91 (9.73%) Agile
14 89 (9.52%) Observability
15 86 (9.20%) Technical Leadership
16 77 (8.24%) Project Delivery
17 74 (7.91%) Platform Engineering
17 74 (7.91%) Root Cause Analysis
18 73 (7.81%) Disaster Recovery
19 68 (7.27%) Runbook
Programming Languages
1 222 (23.74%) PowerShell
2 187 (20.00%) Python
3 131 (14.01%) Bash
4 58 (6.20%) SQL
5 40 (4.28%) Bicep
6 19 (2.03%) JavaScript
7 17 (1.82%) Shell Script
8 12 (1.28%) Go
9 10 (1.07%) Perl
10 9 (0.96%) ActionScript
10 9 (0.96%) VBScript
11 8 (0.86%) Groovy
11 8 (0.86%) Java
12 7 (0.75%) VBA
13 6 (0.64%) VB
14 5 (0.53%) Ruby
15 3 (0.32%) C
15 3 (0.32%) Lisp
16 2 (0.21%) C++
16 2 (0.21%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 342 (36.58%) Security Cleared
2 188 (20.11%) SC Cleared
3 146 (15.61%) DV Cleared
4 96 (10.27%) Cisco Certification
5 75 (8.02%) Degree
6 72 (7.70%) CCNP
7 51 (5.45%) CCNA
8 49 (5.24%) Azure Certification
9 43 (4.60%) Microsoft Certification
10 29 (3.10%) Network+ Certification
11 23 (2.46%) AWS Certification
12 20 (2.14%) Computer Science Degree
13 18 (1.93%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 17 (1.82%) CCIE
15 15 (1.60%) VCAP
16 14 (1.50%) Server+ Certification
17 13 (1.39%) BPSS Clearance
17 13 (1.39%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
18 11 (1.18%) A+ Certification
19 10 (1.07%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (4.06%) SLA
2 24 (2.57%) NIST
3 16 (1.71%) NCSC
4 14 (1.50%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 12 (1.28%) QA
6 6 (0.64%) GDPR
7 5 (0.53%) NIST 800
8 4 (0.43%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 4 (0.43%) JSP 440
9 3 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials
10 2 (0.21%) Data Quality
10 2 (0.21%) Government Security Classifications
10 2 (0.21%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.21%) SOC 2
11 1 (0.11%) HIPAA
11 1 (0.11%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 404 (43.21%) Active Directory
2 255 (27.27%) VMware Infrastructure
3 110 (11.76%) Hyper-V
4 76 (8.13%) VMware ESXi
5 71 (7.59%) vSphere
6 68 (7.27%) VMware NSX
7 58 (6.20%) Docker
8 41 (4.39%) Virtual Machines
9 36 (3.85%) Virtual Desktop
10 26 (2.78%) Firmware
11 18 (1.93%) NFS
12 15 (1.60%) vCloud
13 14 (1.50%) BitLocker
14 11 (1.18%) Postfix
15 9 (0.96%) Microsoft App-V
16 8 (0.86%) Virtual Servers
17 7 (0.75%) VMware Workstation
18 6 (0.64%) Squid
18 6 (0.64%) Varnish
19 5 (0.53%) UAG
Systems Management
1 144 (15.40%) Ansible
2 116 (12.41%) Kubernetes
3 105 (11.23%) Microsoft Intune
4 78 (8.34%) SCCM
5 62 (6.63%) vCenter Server
6 57 (6.10%) Grafana
7 54 (5.78%) Single Sign-On
8 45 (4.81%) Prometheus
9 31 (3.32%) WSUS
10 29 (3.10%) FortiGate
10 29 (3.10%) SCOM
11 16 (1.71%) VxRail
12 15 (1.60%) Puppet
13 13 (1.39%) Jamf Pro
13 13 (1.39%) Packer
14 12 (1.28%) vMotion
15 11 (1.18%) Argo
15 11 (1.18%) NetBackup
16 10 (1.07%) Active Directory Federation Services
16 10 (1.07%) Istio
Vendors
1 353 (37.75%) Microsoft
2 306 (32.73%) VMware
3 183 (19.57%) Cisco
4 131 (14.01%) F5
5 92 (9.84%) ServiceNow
6 61 (6.52%) Infoblox
7 57 (6.10%) Google
8 53 (5.67%) Citrix
9 50 (5.35%) SolarWinds
10 46 (4.92%) Splunk
11 44 (4.71%) Juniper
11 44 (4.71%) Palo Alto
12 37 (3.96%) Red Hat
13 34 (3.64%) NetApp
14 31 (3.32%) Dynatrace
15 30 (3.21%) CheckPoint
16 28 (2.99%) Fortinet
17 25 (2.67%) McAfee
17 25 (2.67%) Zscaler
18 24 (2.57%) Blue Coat