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

6 months to
21 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 131 113 128
Rank change year-on-year -18 +15 -2
Contract jobs citing DNS 753 595 670
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.01% 2.43% 1.78%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 20.07% 18.11% 12.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 477 408 440
10th Percentile £250 £250 £200
25th Percentile £400 £400 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £525 £463
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% +13.51% -11.90%
75th Percentile £613 £606 £570
90th Percentile £688 £663 £650
UK median daily rate £503 £525 £465
% change year-on-year -4.29% +12.90% -11.43%
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 9 25
10th Percentile £12.74 £17.26 £21.30
25th Percentile £21.25 £23.59 £25.00
Median hourly rate £38.50 £80.68 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -52.28% +101.69% -8.57%
75th Percentile £74.26 £81.35 £48.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £82.48 £64.50
UK median hourly rate £38.50 £54.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year -29.36% +36.25% -8.57%

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 3,751 3,286 5,254
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.02% 13.42% 13.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,414 2,018 3,180
10th Percentile £213 £213 £205
25th Percentile £377 £371 £336
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year - +5.26% -9.52%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK median daily rate £490 £490 £475
% change year-on-year - +3.16% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 181 115 375
10th Percentile £15.56 £14.99 £14.00
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.46 £18.00
Median hourly rate £36.00 £36.50 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year -1.37% -2.67% +97.37%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £64.14
90th Percentile £75.00 £81.01 £70.40
UK median hourly rate £32.52 £35.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year -7.09% - +84.21%

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 21 March 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 21 March 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 21 March 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 -39 236 £516 -1.81% 79
North of England -1 216 £447 -5.89% 62
South East +9 154 £525 -4.55% 90
North West +26 141 £500 +17.65% 34
Midlands +14 107 £400 -27.27% 37
West Midlands +20 99 £400 -12.57% 21
Yorkshire -29 76 £443 -19.55% 20
South West -39 55 £684 +24.77% 33
East of England -24 39 £475 -5.00% 29
East Midlands -38 7 £375 -33.92% 16
North East -23 6 £575 +64.29% 10
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 (12.22%) Microsoft Exchange
2 46 (6.11%) SharePoint
3 24 (3.19%) Skype for Business
4 14 (1.86%) Confluence
5 12 (1.59%) nginx
6 7 (0.93%) IIS
7 5 (0.66%) Apache
8 3 (0.40%) Exchange Server 2010
9 2 (0.27%) Exchange Server 2013
9 2 (0.27%) SharePoint Server
9 2 (0.27%) WordPress
10 1 (0.13%) IBM HTTP Server
10 1 (0.13%) Oracle HTTP Server
10 1 (0.13%) Traefik
10 1 (0.13%) WebSphere
10 1 (0.13%) WebSphere Application Server
10 1 (0.13%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 26 (3.45%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (1.99%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (0.27%) SystmOne
2 1 (0.13%) Cloudability
2 1 (0.13%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 264 (35.06%) Azure
2 145 (19.26%) AWS
3 129 (17.13%) Entra ID
4 123 (16.33%) Microsoft 365
5 75 (9.96%) GCP
6 60 (7.97%) GitHub
7 43 (5.71%) IaaS
8 37 (4.91%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 35 (4.65%) AWS CloudFormation
10 32 (4.25%) Serverless
11 30 (3.98%) Amazon S3
11 30 (3.98%) Route 53
12 29 (3.85%) AWS Lambda
13 28 (3.72%) Amazon EC2
13 28 (3.72%) PaaS
14 27 (3.59%) OpenShift
14 27 (3.59%) SaaS
15 24 (3.19%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 24 (3.19%) Amazon EKS
16 22 (2.92%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 323 (42.90%) DHCP
2 230 (30.54%) Firewall
3 201 (26.69%) TCP/IP
4 175 (23.24%) VPN
5 99 (13.15%) WAN
6 90 (11.95%) LAN
7 80 (10.62%) Network Security
8 75 (9.96%) SSL
9 72 (9.56%) BGP
10 70 (9.30%) BIG-IP
11 67 (8.90%) HTTP
12 65 (8.63%) VLAN
13 52 (6.91%) Wi-Fi
14 51 (6.77%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
15 42 (5.58%) OSPF
16 41 (5.44%) Wireshark
17 40 (5.31%) DMZ
18 39 (5.18%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
19 35 (4.65%) Wireless
20 34 (4.52%) Kerberos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 21 (2.79%) SQL Server
2 17 (2.26%) Elasticsearch
3 13 (1.73%) Amazon RDS
4 12 (1.59%) PostgreSQL
5 7 (0.93%) DynamoDB
6 6 (0.80%) Amazon Aurora
6 6 (0.80%) MongoDB
6 6 (0.80%) Redis
7 5 (0.66%) Azure SQL Database
7 5 (0.66%) Data Hub
7 5 (0.66%) MySQL
8 4 (0.53%) DocumentDB
8 4 (0.53%) NoSQL
8 4 (0.53%) Power BI
8 4 (0.53%) Relational Database
9 3 (0.40%) BigQuery
10 1 (0.13%) CouchDB
10 1 (0.13%) Electronic Patient Records
10 1 (0.13%) Oracle Reports
10 1 (0.13%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 64 (8.50%) Jenkins
2 36 (4.78%) JIRA
3 33 (4.38%) GitLab
4 31 (4.12%) Fiddler
5 29 (3.85%) Git
6 8 (1.06%) Bitbucket
7 7 (0.93%) SonarQube
8 6 (0.80%) Browser DevTools
8 6 (0.80%) Terragrunt
9 5 (0.66%) Chocolatey
10 4 (0.53%) CircleCI
11 2 (0.27%) Sonatype Nexus
12 1 (0.13%) Artifactory
12 1 (0.13%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 1 (0.13%) GCC
12 1 (0.13%) Introscope
12 1 (0.13%) MSI
12 1 (0.13%) Octopus Deploy
12 1 (0.13%) Subversion
12 1 (0.13%) Travis CI
General
1 187 (24.83%) Social Skills
2 92 (12.22%) Analytical Skills
3 70 (9.30%) Banking
4 60 (7.97%) Finance
5 50 (6.64%) Public Sector
6 47 (6.24%) Documentation Skills
6 47 (6.24%) Investment Banking
7 21 (2.79%) Legal
8 16 (2.12%) Military
9 13 (1.73%) Telecoms
10 9 (1.20%) Organisational Skills
11 7 (0.93%) Financial Institution
11 7 (0.93%) Influencing Skills
12 6 (0.80%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 6 (0.80%) Presentation Skills
13 5 (0.66%) Law
13 5 (0.66%) Local Government
14 4 (0.53%) Manufacturing
15 3 (0.40%) Aerospace
16 2 (0.27%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 134 (17.80%) Network Engineer
2 117 (15.54%) Architect
3 67 (8.90%) Analyst
4 66 (8.76%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 64 (8.50%) Senior
6 55 (7.30%) Support Engineer
7 50 (6.64%) Security Engineer
8 48 (6.37%) Web Engineer
9 36 (4.78%) IT Support
10 31 (4.12%) Network Security Engineer
11 29 (3.85%) Lead
11 29 (3.85%) Platform Engineer
12 28 (3.72%) Cisco Engineer
12 28 (3.72%) Cisco Network Engineer
13 27 (3.59%) IT Engineer
14 24 (3.19%) Azure Engineer
15 23 (3.05%) Data Engineer
15 23 (3.05%) Data Network Engineer
16 22 (2.92%) DevOps Engineer
16 22 (2.92%) Infrastructure Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 64 (8.50%) LDAP
2 44 (5.84%) SAML
3 37 (4.91%) OAuth
4 30 (3.98%) OpenID
5 28 (3.72%) 802.1X
6 22 (2.92%) OpenTelemetry
7 20 (2.66%) OAuth2
8 10 (1.33%) Kafka
9 8 (1.06%) Elastic Stack
9 8 (1.06%) REST
10 7 (0.93%) Microsoft Graph
10 7 (0.93%) XMPP
11 6 (0.80%) ARM Templates
11 6 (0.80%) JSON
12 5 (0.66%) RESTful
13 4 (0.53%) gRPC
13 4 (0.53%) Hibernate
13 4 (0.53%) JPA
13 4 (0.53%) Middleware
13 4 (0.53%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 64 (8.50%) Data Centre
1 64 (8.50%) PKI
2 47 (6.24%) Cloud Native
2 47 (6.24%) Replication
3 36 (4.78%) Management Information System
4 30 (3.98%) Clustering
5 29 (3.85%) Onboarding
5 29 (3.85%) Public Cloud
6 26 (3.45%) Hybrid Cloud
7 22 (2.92%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 18 (2.39%) Enterprise Software
9 15 (1.99%) Analytical Mindset
9 15 (1.99%) Cyber Threat
9 15 (1.99%) Cyberattack
9 15 (1.99%) Security Operations Centre
10 13 (1.73%) Legacy Systems
11 12 (1.59%) NHS
11 12 (1.59%) Product Ownership
11 12 (1.59%) Self-Motivation
12 11 (1.46%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 329 (43.69%) Windows
2 181 (24.04%) Windows Server
3 101 (13.41%) Linux
4 46 (6.11%) Windows 10
5 25 (3.32%) Windows Server 2019
6 18 (2.39%) Android
7 16 (2.12%) Unix
8 15 (1.99%) Windows Server 2012
9 12 (1.59%) Apple iOS
9 12 (1.59%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 12 (1.59%) Windows Server 2016
10 11 (1.46%) Windows 7
11 8 (1.06%) Mac OS
12 7 (0.93%) Windows Server 2003
13 5 (0.66%) VMS
14 4 (0.53%) CatOS
14 4 (0.53%) CentOS
15 3 (0.40%) Amazon Linux
15 3 (0.40%) Windows Server 2008
16 2 (0.27%) Oracle Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 176 (23.37%) Problem-Solving
2 175 (23.24%) Load Balancing
3 117 (15.54%) Migration
4 110 (14.61%) DevOps
5 109 (14.48%) CI/CD
6 100 (13.28%) High Availability
6 100 (13.28%) ITIL
7 97 (12.88%) Infrastructure as Code
8 89 (11.82%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 73 (9.69%) Identity Access Management
10 71 (9.43%) Disaster Recovery
11 64 (8.50%) RBAC
12 62 (8.23%) Cybersecurity
13 57 (7.57%) Observability
14 56 (7.44%) ITSM
15 53 (7.04%) Service Management
16 52 (6.91%) Incident Response
16 52 (6.91%) Roadmaps
17 51 (6.77%) Containerisation
18 50 (6.64%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 208 (27.62%) PowerShell
2 131 (17.40%) Python
3 65 (8.63%) Bash
4 40 (5.31%) SQL
5 13 (1.73%) Bicep
5 13 (1.73%) JavaScript
5 13 (1.73%) VBScript
6 11 (1.46%) Java
7 10 (1.33%) VB
8 9 (1.20%) Ruby
8 9 (1.20%) Shell Script
9 8 (1.06%) Go
10 6 (0.80%) Lisp
11 5 (0.66%) Kusto Query Language
12 3 (0.40%) Perl
13 2 (0.27%) C
13 2 (0.27%) C#
13 2 (0.27%) T-SQL
13 2 (0.27%) VBA
14 1 (0.13%) PHP
Qualifications
1 256 (34.00%) Security Cleared
2 168 (22.31%) SC Cleared
3 91 (12.08%) DV Cleared
4 61 (8.10%) Cisco Certification
5 46 (6.11%) Degree
6 43 (5.71%) Microsoft Certification
7 38 (5.05%) CCNP
8 26 (3.45%) Azure Certification
9 21 (2.79%) CCNA
10 16 (2.12%) AWS Certification
10 16 (2.12%) CompTIA Security+
11 14 (1.86%) CISSP
11 14 (1.86%) Network+ Certification
12 10 (1.33%) Computer Science Degree
12 10 (1.33%) JNCIA
12 10 (1.33%) JNCIS
13 9 (1.20%) BPSS Clearance
13 9 (1.20%) CCIE
13 9 (1.20%) JNCIP
14 8 (1.06%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (3.72%) GDPR
2 20 (2.66%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 20 (2.66%) NIST
2 20 (2.66%) SLA
3 16 (2.12%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 9 (1.20%) PCI DSS
5 8 (1.06%) Cyber Essentials
5 8 (1.06%) NCSC
6 6 (0.80%) QA
7 2 (0.27%) Accessibility
7 2 (0.27%) Data Quality
7 2 (0.27%) HMG Security Policy Framework
7 2 (0.27%) JSP 440
8 1 (0.13%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.13%) COBIT
8 1 (0.13%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 1 (0.13%) Government Security Classifications
8 1 (0.13%) RMADS
System Software
1 318 (42.23%) Active Directory
2 167 (22.18%) VMware Infrastructure
3 60 (7.97%) VMware NSX
4 59 (7.84%) Hyper-V
5 53 (7.04%) Docker
6 47 (6.24%) vSphere
7 29 (3.85%) Firmware
8 23 (3.05%) Virtual Machines
9 19 (2.52%) VMware ESXi
10 17 (2.26%) BitLocker
11 14 (1.86%) Virtual Desktop
12 9 (1.20%) Squid
13 8 (1.06%) Microsoft App-V
14 5 (0.66%) Terminal Services
15 4 (0.53%) NFS
16 3 (0.40%) DFS Replication
16 3 (0.40%) Postfix
16 3 (0.40%) Sendmail
16 3 (0.40%) Varnish
16 3 (0.40%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 148 (19.65%) Terraform
2 116 (15.41%) Ansible
3 87 (11.55%) Kubernetes
3 87 (11.55%) Microsoft Intune
4 68 (9.03%) Single Sign-On
5 65 (8.63%) SCCM
6 59 (7.84%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 44 (5.84%) vCenter Server
8 41 (5.44%) FortiGate
8 41 (5.44%) Grafana
9 27 (3.59%) Argo
10 21 (2.79%) Prometheus
11 14 (1.86%) SCOM
12 10 (1.33%) WSUS
13 9 (1.20%) Puppet
14 8 (1.06%) HAProxy
15 7 (0.93%) Consul
15 7 (0.93%) vMotion
16 6 (0.80%) Nagios
16 6 (0.80%) Nessus
Vendors
1 270 (35.86%) Microsoft
2 214 (28.42%) VMware
3 141 (18.73%) F5
4 119 (15.80%) Cisco
5 67 (8.90%) Splunk
6 63 (8.37%) ServiceNow
7 42 (5.58%) Blue Coat
7 42 (5.58%) SolarWinds
8 41 (5.44%) Citrix
9 38 (5.05%) Red Hat
10 36 (4.78%) McAfee
11 35 (4.65%) Juniper
12 33 (4.38%) Palo Alto
13 29 (3.85%) Google
13 29 (3.85%) NetApp
14 28 (3.72%) Infoblox
15 24 (3.19%) Pure Storage
16 20 (2.66%) Fortinet
17 19 (2.52%) CheckPoint
17 19 (2.52%) Extreme Networks