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

6 months to
28 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 136 123 157
Rank change year-on-year -13 +34 -21
Contract jobs citing DNS 906 647 549
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.01% 2.36% 1.60%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 21.31% 18.88% 12.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 557 432 380
10th Percentile £282 £263 £256
25th Percentile £400 £400 £380
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -
75th Percentile £581 £600 £595
90th Percentile £641 £652 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £485
% change year-on-year -4.76% +8.25% -3.01%
Number of hourly rates quoted 46 31 16
10th Percentile £20.88 £29.00 £19.25
25th Percentile £26.66 £34.38 £22.85
Median hourly rate £36.36 £57.50 £24.59
Median % change year-on-year -36.77% +133.83% -38.53%
75th Percentile £74.00 £82.55 £42.19
90th Percentile £91.91 £89.63 £61.58
UK median hourly rate £37.50 £57.50 £24.59
% change year-on-year -34.78% +133.83% -38.53%

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 4,252 3,427 4,363
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.43% 12.49% 12.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,594 2,137 2,679
10th Percentile £263 £235 £225
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 +2.41% -2.35% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 317 161 312
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.50 £25.15 £18.00
Median hourly rate £26.72 £45.00 £49.50
Median % change year-on-year -40.62% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.10 £87.50 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £26.44 £48.75 £45.00
% change year-on-year -45.76% +8.33% -10.00%

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 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 28 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 28 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 -37 309 £475 -6.86% 121
North of England +19 233 £450 -10.00% 54
South East +8 193 £538 -2.27% 83
North West +31 152 £450 -3.23% 29
Midlands -7 112 £450 -5.26% 42
West Midlands -16 93 £450 -5.26% 27
South West 0 78 £500 -13.04% 42
Yorkshire -10 75 £475 -13.64% 22
East of England -53 31 £450 -18.18% 35
East Midlands -5 17 £413 -25.00% 15
North East -44 6 £413 +19.57% 7
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 85 (9.38%) Microsoft Exchange
2 69 (7.62%) SharePoint
3 16 (1.77%) Confluence
4 14 (1.55%) Apache
4 14 (1.55%) nginx
5 12 (1.32%) IIS
6 6 (0.66%) Tomcat
7 2 (0.22%) IBM HTTP Server
7 2 (0.22%) Oracle HTTP Server
7 2 (0.22%) WebSphere
7 2 (0.22%) WebSphere Application Server
7 2 (0.22%) WebSphere Portal
8 1 (0.11%) Exchange Server 2010
8 1 (0.11%) SharePoint Server
8 1 (0.11%) Traefik
Applications
1 18 (1.99%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (0.88%) MS Visio
3 5 (0.55%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (0.33%) 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 9 (0.99%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.11%) Cloudability
Cloud Services
1 338 (37.31%) Azure
2 175 (19.32%) AWS
3 148 (16.34%) Microsoft 365
4 146 (16.11%) Entra ID
5 100 (11.04%) GCP
6 65 (7.17%) GitHub
7 52 (5.74%) IaaS
8 43 (4.75%) OneDrive
9 39 (4.30%) SaaS
10 38 (4.19%) PaaS
11 31 (3.42%) Azure Monitor
12 30 (3.31%) Azure DevOps
13 29 (3.20%) OpenShift
14 27 (2.98%) AWS CloudFormation
15 25 (2.76%) Google Kubernetes Engine
16 23 (2.54%) GitHub Actions
17 22 (2.43%) Azure ExpressRoute
17 22 (2.43%) Serverless
18 21 (2.32%) Amazon EC2
19 20 (2.21%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 408 (45.03%) DHCP
2 332 (36.64%) Firewall
3 260 (28.70%) TCP/IP
4 253 (27.92%) VPN
5 124 (13.69%) WAN
6 118 (13.02%) Network Security
7 108 (11.92%) VLAN
8 107 (11.81%) LAN
9 101 (11.15%) BGP
10 92 (10.15%) SSL
11 80 (8.83%) BIG-IP
12 64 (7.06%) Wireless
13 63 (6.95%) HTTP
14 60 (6.62%) Wi-Fi
15 57 (6.29%) OSPF
16 54 (5.96%) SAN
17 53 (5.85%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
18 44 (4.86%) DMZ
19 38 (4.19%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
20 36 (3.97%) Multicast
Database & Business Intelligence
1 47 (5.19%) SQL Server
2 12 (1.32%) Elasticsearch
3 11 (1.21%) Power BI
4 10 (1.10%) Azure SQL Database
5 8 (0.88%) Amazon RDS
6 6 (0.66%) PostgreSQL
7 5 (0.55%) Data Lake
7 5 (0.55%) MySQL
8 4 (0.44%) Db2
9 3 (0.33%) Big Data
10 2 (0.22%) NoSQL
11 1 (0.11%) BigQuery
11 1 (0.11%) Cloud Spanner
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 67 (7.40%) JIRA
2 54 (5.96%) Jenkins
3 32 (3.53%) Git
4 20 (2.21%) GitLab
5 19 (2.10%) Fiddler
6 10 (1.10%) Browser DevTools
7 8 (0.88%) Chocolatey
8 7 (0.77%) Bitbucket
9 4 (0.44%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 4 (0.44%) Sonatype Nexus
10 2 (0.22%) Artifactory
10 2 (0.22%) Introscope
10 2 (0.22%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.22%) Spinnaker
11 1 (0.11%) MSI
11 1 (0.11%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
11 1 (0.11%) Visual Studio
General
1 207 (22.85%) Social Skills
2 96 (10.60%) Analytical Skills
3 84 (9.27%) Finance
4 70 (7.73%) Banking
5 68 (7.51%) Public Sector
6 41 (4.53%) Documentation Skills
7 34 (3.75%) Investment Banking
8 28 (3.09%) Telecoms
9 22 (2.43%) Military
10 15 (1.66%) Legal
11 11 (1.21%) Local Government
11 11 (1.21%) Organisational Skills
12 10 (1.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 10 (1.10%) Police
13 6 (0.66%) Influencing Skills
13 6 (0.66%) Publishing
14 5 (0.55%) Law
15 4 (0.44%) Manufacturing
16 3 (0.33%) Automotive
16 3 (0.33%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 177 (19.54%) Network Engineer
2 146 (16.11%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 96 (10.60%) Architect
4 94 (10.38%) Senior
5 85 (9.38%) Support Engineer
6 68 (7.51%) Cloud Engineer
7 61 (6.73%) Security Engineer
8 47 (5.19%) Analyst
8 47 (5.19%) IT Support
9 46 (5.08%) IT Engineer
10 43 (4.75%) Network Security Engineer
11 42 (4.64%) Web Engineer
12 40 (4.42%) Azure Engineer
13 39 (4.30%) Cisco Engineer
14 37 (4.08%) Administrator
14 37 (4.08%) Cisco Network Engineer
15 34 (3.75%) DevOps Engineer
16 33 (3.64%) Data Engineer
16 33 (3.64%) Data Network Engineer
17 32 (3.53%) Cisco Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 51 (5.63%) 802.1X
2 30 (3.31%) LDAP
3 26 (2.87%) SAML
4 19 (2.10%) ARM Templates
5 17 (1.88%) OpenTelemetry
6 16 (1.77%) OAuth
6 16 (1.77%) OpenID
7 13 (1.43%) JSON
8 9 (0.99%) REST
8 9 (0.99%) YAML
9 7 (0.77%) Middleware
10 5 (0.55%) CSS
10 5 (0.55%) Microsoft Graph
11 4 (0.44%) .NET
11 4 (0.44%) eBPF
11 4 (0.44%) Kafka
11 4 (0.44%) Web Services
12 3 (0.33%) LAMP
12 3 (0.33%) Software Packaging
12 3 (0.33%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 124 (13.69%) Data Centre
2 98 (10.82%) PKI
3 59 (6.51%) Onboarding
4 56 (6.18%) Cloud Native
4 56 (6.18%) Hybrid Cloud
5 46 (5.08%) Management Information System
6 44 (4.86%) Clustering
7 42 (4.64%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 30 (3.31%) Public Cloud
9 23 (2.54%) Replication
9 23 (2.54%) Self-Motivation
10 19 (2.10%) Enterprise Cloud
11 17 (1.88%) Security Posture
12 14 (1.55%) Cyber Threat
13 13 (1.43%) Linux Command Line
14 12 (1.32%) Enterprise Software
14 12 (1.32%) Legacy Systems
15 10 (1.10%) Product Ownership
16 9 (0.99%) Distributed Systems
16 9 (0.99%) Driving Licence
Operating Systems
1 405 (44.70%) Windows
2 212 (23.40%) Windows Server
3 159 (17.55%) Linux
4 48 (5.30%) Windows 10
5 37 (4.08%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 31 (3.42%) Windows Server 2019
7 29 (3.20%) Mac OS
8 27 (2.98%) Unix
9 18 (1.99%) Ubuntu
9 18 (1.99%) Windows Server 2012
10 15 (1.66%) CentOS
11 13 (1.43%) Apple iOS
12 12 (1.32%) Windows Server 2016
13 11 (1.21%) Android
14 7 (0.77%) Rocky
14 7 (0.77%) VMS
15 5 (0.55%) Windows Server 2003
16 4 (0.44%) Windows 7
16 4 (0.44%) Windows Server 2008
17 3 (0.33%) AIX
Processes & Methodologies
1 204 (22.52%) Problem-Solving
2 197 (21.74%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 175 (19.32%) Load Balancing
4 153 (16.89%) ITIL
4 153 (16.89%) Migration
5 143 (15.78%) Infrastructure as Code
6 138 (15.23%) High Availability
7 132 (14.57%) CI/CD
7 132 (14.57%) DevOps
8 96 (10.60%) ITSM
9 90 (9.93%) Observability
10 79 (8.72%) Continuous Improvement
10 79 (8.72%) Project Delivery
11 77 (8.50%) Agile
12 76 (8.39%) Cybersecurity
13 66 (7.28%) Disaster Recovery
14 65 (7.17%) Containerisation
15 63 (6.95%) Identity Access Management
16 60 (6.62%) Technical Leadership
17 59 (6.51%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 179 (19.76%) PowerShell
2 166 (18.32%) Python
3 115 (12.69%) Bash
4 46 (5.08%) SQL
5 34 (3.75%) Bicep
6 22 (2.43%) JavaScript
7 11 (1.21%) Go
8 10 (1.10%) Shell Script
9 9 (0.99%) ActionScript
9 9 (0.99%) VBA
10 8 (0.88%) Perl
11 6 (0.66%) Java
12 5 (0.55%) C
12 5 (0.55%) Groovy
12 5 (0.55%) Ruby
13 3 (0.33%) Kusto Query Language
13 3 (0.33%) Lisp
14 2 (0.22%) Jython
14 2 (0.22%) Kotlin
14 2 (0.22%) Objective-C
Qualifications
1 322 (35.54%) Security Cleared
2 180 (19.87%) SC Cleared
3 131 (14.46%) DV Cleared
4 101 (11.15%) Cisco Certification
5 70 (7.73%) CCNP
6 64 (7.06%) Degree
7 48 (5.30%) CCNA
8 38 (4.19%) Microsoft Certification
9 35 (3.86%) Azure Certification
10 28 (3.09%) Network+ Certification
11 18 (1.99%) CCIE
12 15 (1.66%) BPSS Clearance
12 15 (1.66%) Server+ Certification
13 13 (1.43%) CISSP
14 12 (1.32%) AWS Certification
14 12 (1.32%) CompTIA Security+
14 12 (1.32%) MCSA
14 12 (1.32%) MCSE
15 11 (1.21%) JNCIP
15 11 (1.21%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (3.53%) SLA
2 25 (2.76%) NIST
3 14 (1.55%) NCSC
4 13 (1.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 6 (0.66%) GDPR
5 6 (0.66%) QA
6 5 (0.55%) NIST 800
7 4 (0.44%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 3 (0.33%) Cyber Essentials
8 3 (0.33%) JSP 440
9 2 (0.22%) Government Security Classifications
9 2 (0.22%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.11%) COBIT
10 1 (0.11%) Data Quality
10 1 (0.11%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 370 (40.84%) Active Directory
2 211 (23.29%) VMware Infrastructure
3 98 (10.82%) Hyper-V
4 65 (7.17%) VMware NSX
5 64 (7.06%) VMware ESXi
6 63 (6.95%) vSphere
7 42 (4.64%) Docker
8 41 (4.53%) Virtual Machines
9 38 (4.19%) Virtual Desktop
10 25 (2.76%) Firmware
11 18 (1.99%) NFS
12 13 (1.43%) vCloud
13 10 (1.10%) BitLocker
13 10 (1.10%) Microsoft App-V
14 9 (0.99%) Postfix
15 8 (0.88%) VMware Workstation
16 7 (0.77%) Squid
17 6 (0.66%) Varnish
18 5 (0.55%) UAG
18 5 (0.55%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 181 (19.98%) Terraform
2 128 (14.13%) Ansible
3 107 (11.81%) Kubernetes
4 91 (10.04%) Microsoft Intune
5 62 (6.84%) vCenter Server
6 53 (5.85%) Grafana
6 53 (5.85%) SCCM
7 46 (5.08%) Single Sign-On
8 43 (4.75%) FortiGate
9 37 (4.08%) Prometheus
10 25 (2.76%) WSUS
11 24 (2.65%) SCOM
12 21 (2.32%) Argo
13 15 (1.66%) Puppet
14 14 (1.55%) Jamf Pro
14 14 (1.55%) Nessus
15 11 (1.21%) vMotion
16 10 (1.10%) Active Directory Federation Services
16 10 (1.10%) HAProxy
16 10 (1.10%) VxRail
Vendors
1 303 (33.44%) Microsoft
2 263 (29.03%) VMware
3 187 (20.64%) Cisco
4 149 (16.45%) F5
5 82 (9.05%) ServiceNow
6 67 (7.40%) Splunk
7 64 (7.06%) Infoblox
8 63 (6.95%) Google
9 59 (6.51%) SolarWinds
10 57 (6.29%) Juniper
11 55 (6.07%) Citrix
12 44 (4.86%) Red Hat
13 42 (4.64%) Palo Alto
14 33 (3.64%) NetApp
15 30 (3.31%) Dynatrace
16 29 (3.20%) Blue Coat
17 26 (2.87%) Zscaler
18 25 (2.76%) CheckPoint
18 25 (2.76%) Fortinet
19 24 (2.65%) McAfee