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 23 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 136 125 115
Rank change year-on-year -11 -10 +17
Contract jobs citing DNS 669 578 790
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.12% 2.02% 2.15%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 19.59% 15.75% 15.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 417 361 509
10th Percentile £219 £223 £213
25th Percentile £400 £325 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £475 £488
Median % change year-on-year +10.53% -2.56% -7.14%
75th Percentile £600 £588 £594
90th Percentile £689 £700 £650
UK median daily rate £525 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +10.53% -4.04% -5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 37 6 17
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.40 £25.60
25th Percentile £26.25 £19.65 £31.25
Median hourly rate £57.50 £23.90 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +140.64% -56.55% +109.52%
75th Percentile £80.00 £28.83 £67.00
90th Percentile £87.45 £40.00 £73.20
UK median hourly rate £57.50 £23.59 £55.00
% change year-on-year +143.75% -57.11% +109.52%

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 3,415 3,670 5,204
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.80% 12.81% 14.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,209 2,151 3,235
10th Percentile £206 £220 £210
25th Percentile £358 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.50% - -1.96%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £608
90th Percentile £675 £685 £700
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 172 112 311
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.22 £18.57
25th Percentile £20.42 £21.28 £23.00
Median hourly rate £34.00 £35.00 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% -38.04% +25.53%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.98
90th Percentile £75.00 £73.75 £76.25
UK median hourly rate £34.00 £35.00 £55.70
% change year-on-year -2.86% -37.16% +35.75%

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 23 December 2025.

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 23 December 2025.

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 23 December 2025. 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 +10 237 £550 +4.76% 122
North of England -20 130 £475 +22.58% 145
Midlands +15 119 £401 +6.93% 86
South East -4 115 £500 +8.11% 209
West Midlands +34 114 £401 -5.65% 46
North West +1 87 £518 +8.95% 79
South West -5 61 £575 +36.90% 70
Yorkshire -28 50 £447 +49.00% 56
East of England -19 39 £363 +31.82% 88
North East -15 7 £575 +283.33% 13
East Midlands -35 5 £363 -3.33% 37
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 87 (13.00%) Microsoft Exchange
2 73 (10.91%) SharePoint
3 32 (4.78%) Skype for Business
4 24 (3.59%) Confluence
5 11 (1.64%) nginx
5 11 (1.64%) SharePoint Server
6 10 (1.49%) Exchange Server 2010
7 9 (1.35%) Exchange Server 2013
8 7 (1.05%) Exchange Server 2003
8 7 (1.05%) Exchange Server 2007
8 7 (1.05%) IIS
8 7 (1.05%) Office Communications Server
9 4 (0.60%) Apache
9 4 (0.60%) OpenStack
10 3 (0.45%) Tomcat
11 2 (0.30%) Apache Spark
11 2 (0.30%) Cloud Foundry
11 2 (0.30%) Oracle HTTP Server
11 2 (0.30%) WebLogic
11 2 (0.30%) WordPress
Applications
1 48 (7.17%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (1.49%) Mozilla Thunderbird
2 10 (1.49%) MS Visio
3 4 (0.60%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (0.45%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (0.30%) Windchill
6 1 (0.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (0.30%) Remedy ITSM
1 2 (0.30%) SystmOne
1 2 (0.30%) Teamcenter
2 1 (0.15%) Eikon
2 1 (0.15%) Eze OMS
2 1 (0.15%) Fidessa
Cloud Services
1 216 (32.29%) Azure
2 171 (25.56%) AWS
3 143 (21.38%) Microsoft 365
4 90 (13.45%) Entra ID
5 71 (10.61%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 57 (8.52%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 56 (8.37%) Amazon S3
8 55 (8.22%) Amazon EC2
9 46 (6.88%) GCP
9 46 (6.88%) GitHub
10 43 (6.43%) Amazon ELB
11 34 (5.08%) IaaS
12 31 (4.63%) SaaS
13 29 (4.33%) Amazon ECS
13 29 (4.33%) AWS CloudFormation
14 25 (3.74%) AWS KMS
14 25 (3.74%) Serverless
15 23 (3.44%) AWS Lambda
16 22 (3.29%) GitHub Actions
17 18 (2.69%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 287 (42.90%) DHCP
2 240 (35.87%) Firewall
3 221 (33.03%) TCP/IP
4 168 (25.11%) VPN
5 105 (15.70%) Network Security
6 99 (14.80%) SSL
7 77 (11.51%) WAN
8 73 (10.91%) HTTP
9 63 (9.42%) LAN
9 63 (9.42%) VLAN
10 51 (7.62%) SMTP
11 50 (7.47%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
12 46 (6.88%) Wireless
13 42 (6.28%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
14 39 (5.83%) BGP
14 39 (5.83%) FTP
15 35 (5.23%) DMZ
15 35 (5.23%) Wi-Fi
16 30 (4.48%) Wireshark
17 29 (4.33%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (4.63%) Amazon RDS
2 22 (3.29%) PostgreSQL
2 22 (3.29%) SQL Server
3 13 (1.94%) Amazon Aurora
4 10 (1.49%) MongoDB
5 5 (0.75%) BigQuery
5 5 (0.75%) Data Hub
6 4 (0.60%) Big Data
6 4 (0.60%) Elasticsearch
6 4 (0.60%) MySQL
7 3 (0.45%) DynamoDB
7 3 (0.45%) Relational Database
8 2 (0.30%) Apache Cassandra
8 2 (0.30%) Delta Lake
8 2 (0.30%) Hadoop
8 2 (0.30%) NoSQL
8 2 (0.30%) Parquet
8 2 (0.30%) Power BI
8 2 (0.30%) Redis
9 1 (0.15%) CouchDB
Development Applications
1 83 (12.41%) Jenkins
2 68 (10.16%) Git
3 47 (7.03%) GitLab
4 44 (6.58%) JIRA
5 19 (2.84%) Fiddler
6 18 (2.69%) Vagrant
7 8 (1.20%) Terragrunt
8 5 (0.75%) Subversion
9 4 (0.60%) CircleCI
9 4 (0.60%) TeamCity
10 3 (0.45%) Visual Studio Code
11 2 (0.30%) Browser DevTools
11 2 (0.30%) MLflow
11 2 (0.30%) Poetry
11 2 (0.30%) PyCharm
11 2 (0.30%) SonarQube
11 2 (0.30%) Vite
11 2 (0.30%) webpack
12 1 (0.15%) Octopus Deploy
12 1 (0.15%) Postman
General
1 211 (31.54%) Social Skills
2 115 (17.19%) Analytical Skills
3 79 (11.81%) Public Sector
4 48 (7.17%) Banking
4 48 (7.17%) Finance
5 38 (5.68%) Documentation Skills
6 36 (5.38%) Investment Banking
7 18 (2.69%) Presentation Skills
8 17 (2.54%) Legal
8 17 (2.54%) Telecoms
9 12 (1.79%) Law
10 10 (1.49%) Organisational Skills
11 9 (1.35%) Military
12 7 (1.05%) Aerospace
12 7 (1.05%) Influencing Skills
13 5 (0.75%) Marketing
14 4 (0.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 4 (0.60%) Manufacturing
15 3 (0.45%) Financial Institution
15 3 (0.45%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 86 (12.86%) Network Engineer
2 75 (11.21%) Support Engineer
3 70 (10.46%) Architect
4 69 (10.31%) Senior
5 67 (10.01%) Analyst
5 67 (10.01%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 49 (7.32%) Platform Engineer
7 48 (7.17%) DevOps Engineer
8 40 (5.98%) IT Support
9 37 (5.53%) Security Engineer
10 34 (5.08%) AWS Engineer
11 26 (3.89%) Cloud Platform Engineer
12 25 (3.74%) 2nd Line Support
13 24 (3.59%) AWS DevOps
13 24 (3.59%) AWS DevOps Engineer
13 24 (3.59%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
14 23 (3.44%) Administrator
14 23 (3.44%) Lead
14 23 (3.44%) Operations Engineer
14 23 (3.44%) SOC Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (6.43%) LDAP
2 23 (3.44%) SAML
3 18 (2.69%) OAuth
4 15 (2.24%) OpenID
5 14 (2.09%) Elastic Stack
5 14 (2.09%) OAuth2
6 12 (1.79%) 802.1X
7 10 (1.49%) Middleware
8 9 (1.35%) Kafka
9 7 (1.05%) AngularJS
9 7 (1.05%) React
10 6 (0.90%) cloud-init
10 6 (0.90%) Keycloak
10 6 (0.90%) REST
10 6 (0.90%) YAML
11 5 (0.75%) Flask
11 5 (0.75%) JSON
12 4 (0.60%) ASP.NET Web API
12 4 (0.60%) Microsoft Graph
12 4 (0.60%) WCF
Miscellaneous
1 54 (8.07%) Replication
2 52 (7.77%) Management Information System
2 52 (7.77%) PKI
3 50 (7.47%) Data Centre
4 30 (4.48%) Analytical Mindset
5 27 (4.04%) Onboarding
6 21 (3.14%) Enterprise Software
7 20 (2.99%) Cyberattack
8 19 (2.84%) Security Operations Centre
9 17 (2.54%) Cyber Threat
10 15 (2.24%) Hybrid Cloud
11 13 (1.94%) CSOC
12 12 (1.79%) Cloud Native
12 12 (1.79%) Video Conferencing
13 10 (1.49%) Clustering
13 10 (1.49%) Private Cloud
13 10 (1.49%) Self-Motivation
14 8 (1.20%) Public Cloud
14 8 (1.20%) SCADA
15 7 (1.05%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 333 (49.78%) Windows
2 151 (22.57%) Linux
3 149 (22.27%) Windows Server
4 63 (9.42%) Windows 10
5 31 (4.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 27 (4.04%) VMS
7 24 (3.59%) Windows Server 2016
8 23 (3.44%) Windows Server 2019
9 22 (3.29%) Unix
10 21 (3.14%) Amazon Linux
11 20 (2.99%) Windows Server 2012
12 19 (2.84%) Android
13 18 (2.69%) Ubuntu
14 15 (2.24%) CentOS
14 15 (2.24%) Mac OS
15 12 (1.79%) Apple iOS
16 11 (1.64%) Windows Server 2003
17 9 (1.35%) Windows 7
18 5 (0.75%) Solaris
19 3 (0.45%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 153 (22.87%) Problem-Solving
2 122 (18.24%) ITIL
3 119 (17.79%) DevOps
4 116 (17.34%) CI/CD
5 105 (15.70%) Load Balancing
6 96 (14.35%) Infrastructure as Code
7 90 (13.45%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 78 (11.66%) Change Management
9 75 (11.21%) Cybersecurity
10 66 (9.87%) High Availability
11 65 (9.72%) Incident Response
11 65 (9.72%) Migration
12 56 (8.37%) Platform Engineering
12 56 (8.37%) Root Cause Analysis
13 52 (7.77%) Continuous Improvement
14 51 (7.62%) Disaster Recovery
14 51 (7.62%) Service Management
14 51 (7.62%) SIEM
15 46 (6.88%) Containerisation
16 44 (6.58%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 200 (29.90%) PowerShell
2 164 (24.51%) Python
3 80 (11.96%) Bash
4 46 (6.88%) SQL
5 21 (3.14%) Perl
6 20 (2.99%) Groovy
7 17 (2.54%) Java
8 13 (1.94%) Bicep
9 11 (1.64%) Go
9 11 (1.64%) Shell Script
10 8 (1.20%) Kusto Query Language
10 8 (1.20%) Ruby
11 7 (1.05%) Lisp
11 7 (1.05%) VBScript
12 6 (0.90%) VB
13 5 (0.75%) C++
14 4 (0.60%) JavaScript
15 3 (0.45%) C#
15 3 (0.45%) T-SQL
15 3 (0.45%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 256 (38.27%) Security Cleared
2 182 (27.20%) SC Cleared
3 82 (12.26%) DV Cleared
4 65 (9.72%) Degree
5 62 (9.27%) Microsoft Certification
6 56 (8.37%) Cisco Certification
7 47 (7.03%) CCNP
8 40 (5.98%) Azure Certification
9 27 (4.04%) AWS Certification
10 19 (2.84%) CCNA
10 19 (2.84%) CISSP
11 17 (2.54%) Network+ Certification
12 12 (1.79%) CompTIA Security+
13 11 (1.64%) CCIE
13 11 (1.64%) Computer Science Degree
13 11 (1.64%) MCSE
13 11 (1.64%) Server+ Certification
14 9 (1.35%) BPSS Clearance
14 9 (1.35%) ITIL Certification
14 9 (1.35%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (4.48%) GDPR
2 18 (2.69%) SLA
3 13 (1.94%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 13 (1.94%) NIST
4 10 (1.49%) NCSC
5 9 (1.35%) Cyber Essentials
6 7 (1.05%) Accessibility
7 6 (0.90%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 5 (0.75%) PCI DSS
9 4 (0.60%) Data Quality
9 4 (0.60%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 2 (0.30%) JSP 440
10 2 (0.30%) QA
10 2 (0.30%) WCAG
11 1 (0.15%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 1 (0.15%) Government Security Classifications
11 1 (0.15%) SOC 2
System Software
1 292 (43.65%) Active Directory
2 166 (24.81%) VMware Infrastructure
3 89 (13.30%) Docker
4 44 (6.58%) Hyper-V
5 41 (6.13%) VMware NSX
6 30 (4.48%) Virtual Machines
7 24 (3.59%) vSphere
8 22 (3.29%) Firmware
9 21 (3.14%) DFS Replication
10 18 (2.69%) VMware ESXi
11 16 (2.39%) Dovecot
11 16 (2.39%) Postfix
12 14 (2.09%) Terminal Services
13 10 (1.49%) Squid
14 9 (1.35%) Virtual Servers
15 8 (1.20%) Virtual Desktop
16 7 (1.05%) BitLocker
16 7 (1.05%) Brightmail
16 7 (1.05%) ISA Server
17 6 (0.90%) NFS
Systems Management
1 137 (20.48%) Terraform
2 104 (15.55%) Ansible
3 74 (11.06%) SCCM
4 73 (10.91%) Microsoft Intune
5 62 (9.27%) Kubernetes
6 42 (6.28%) Grafana
6 42 (6.28%) vCenter Server
7 40 (5.98%) Single Sign-On
8 35 (5.23%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 33 (4.93%) Prometheus
10 20 (2.99%) WSUS
11 16 (2.39%) Argo
11 16 (2.39%) Nessus
12 15 (2.24%) FortiGate
13 13 (1.94%) Packer
13 13 (1.94%) Proxmox
14 12 (1.79%) SCOM
15 10 (1.49%) Microsoft Clustering
16 9 (1.35%) Progress Chef
16 9 (1.35%) Puppet
Vendors
1 253 (37.82%) Microsoft
2 201 (30.04%) VMware
3 111 (16.59%) F5
4 101 (15.10%) Cisco
5 74 (11.06%) ServiceNow
6 55 (8.22%) CheckPoint
7 54 (8.07%) Palo Alto
8 48 (7.17%) Splunk
9 39 (5.83%) Citrix
10 34 (5.08%) Blue Coat
10 34 (5.08%) SolarWinds
11 33 (4.93%) Red Hat
12 30 (4.48%) Juniper
13 25 (3.74%) Veeam
14 23 (3.44%) McAfee
14 23 (3.44%) NetApp
15 20 (2.99%) Zscaler
16 19 (2.84%) Google
17 18 (2.69%) Fortinet
18 16 (2.39%) Dell