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

6 months to
2 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 133 109 128
Rank change year-on-year -24 +19 -7
Contract jobs citing DNS 772 596 679
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.02% 2.46% 1.80%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 20.44% 18.62% 12.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 487 414 458
10th Percentile £263 £250 £200
25th Percentile £400 £400 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £475
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +10.53% -9.52%
75th Percentile £600 £606 £575
90th Percentile £671 £659 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £475
% change year-on-year -4.76% +10.53% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 34 9 25
10th Percentile £14.25 £22.57 £20.00
25th Percentile £21.25 £28.00 £25.00
Median hourly rate £48.72 £80.68 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -39.61% +101.69% -13.24%
75th Percentile £74.26 £81.35 -
90th Percentile £76.05 £82.48 £64.50
UK median hourly rate £48.72 £54.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year -10.61% +36.25% -18.56%

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 3,777 3,201 5,237
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.87% 13.20% 13.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,414 1,997 3,174
10th Percentile £213 £220 £205
25th Percentile £391 £375 £350
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 £500 £490 £475
% change year-on-year +2.04% +3.16% -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 180 120 382
10th Percentile £15.96 £14.91 £13.54
25th Percentile £20.08 £21.31 £17.72
Median hourly rate £42.10 £35.75 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +17.75% +10.00% +71.05%
75th Percentile £68.50 £65.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £75.15 £81.05 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £41.94 £35.00 £32.50
% change year-on-year +19.83% +7.69% +71.05%

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 2 April 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 2 April 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 2 April 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 -34 252 £500 -0.05% 81
North of England -5 215 £449 -5.58% 68
South East -2 156 £525 -4.55% 80
North West +26 138 £528 +24.12% 37
Midlands +20 110 £400 -27.93% 45
West Midlands +22 99 £400 -19.40% 29
Yorkshire -30 78 £447 -18.82% 22
South West -43 49 £575 +4.93% 33
East of England -30 43 £450 -10.00% 24
East Midlands -36 10 £375 -33.92% 16
North East -18 4 £200 -51.52% 11
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 88 (11.40%) Microsoft Exchange
2 39 (5.05%) SharePoint
3 16 (2.07%) Skype for Business
4 12 (1.55%) Confluence
4 12 (1.55%) nginx
5 7 (0.91%) Apache
5 7 (0.91%) IIS
6 3 (0.39%) Exchange Server 2010
7 2 (0.26%) Exchange Server 2013
7 2 (0.26%) IBM HTTP Server
7 2 (0.26%) Oracle HTTP Server
7 2 (0.26%) WebSphere
7 2 (0.26%) WebSphere Application Server
7 2 (0.26%) WebSphere Portal
7 2 (0.26%) WordPress
8 1 (0.13%) SharePoint Server
8 1 (0.13%) Traefik
Applications
1 25 (3.24%) Microsoft Office
2 14 (1.81%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (0.26%) SystmOne
2 1 (0.13%) Cloudability
2 1 (0.13%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 272 (35.23%) Azure
2 149 (19.30%) AWS
3 131 (16.97%) Entra ID
4 114 (14.77%) Microsoft 365
5 83 (10.75%) GCP
6 60 (7.77%) GitHub
7 49 (6.35%) IaaS
8 36 (4.66%) AWS CloudFormation
8 36 (4.66%) Serverless
9 34 (4.40%) PaaS
9 34 (4.40%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 32 (4.15%) SaaS
11 31 (4.02%) AWS Lambda
12 30 (3.89%) Amazon S3
12 30 (3.89%) Route 53
13 29 (3.76%) OpenShift
14 28 (3.63%) Amazon EC2
15 24 (3.11%) Amazon EKS
16 22 (2.85%) Azure DevOps
17 21 (2.72%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 331 (42.88%) DHCP
2 250 (32.38%) Firewall
3 198 (25.65%) TCP/IP
4 183 (23.70%) VPN
5 102 (13.21%) WAN
6 93 (12.05%) LAN
7 80 (10.36%) Network Security
8 76 (9.84%) BGP
9 75 (9.72%) BIG-IP
10 74 (9.59%) SSL
10 74 (9.59%) VLAN
11 69 (8.94%) HTTP
12 51 (6.61%) Wi-Fi
13 49 (6.35%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
14 45 (5.83%) OSPF
15 39 (5.05%) Wireshark
16 38 (4.92%) DMZ
17 37 (4.79%) Kerberos
18 35 (4.53%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
19 34 (4.40%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (3.24%) SQL Server
2 18 (2.33%) Elasticsearch
3 13 (1.68%) PostgreSQL
4 11 (1.42%) Amazon RDS
5 7 (0.91%) DynamoDB
6 6 (0.78%) MongoDB
7 5 (0.65%) Amazon Aurora
7 5 (0.65%) Azure SQL Database
7 5 (0.65%) Data Hub
7 5 (0.65%) MySQL
8 4 (0.52%) DocumentDB
8 4 (0.52%) NoSQL
8 4 (0.52%) Power BI
8 4 (0.52%) Redis
8 4 (0.52%) Relational Database
9 3 (0.39%) BigQuery
10 1 (0.13%) Electronic Patient Records
10 1 (0.13%) Oracle Reports
10 1 (0.13%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 1 (0.13%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 61 (7.90%) Jenkins
2 39 (5.05%) JIRA
3 29 (3.76%) Fiddler
3 29 (3.76%) Git
3 29 (3.76%) GitLab
4 7 (0.91%) Bitbucket
4 7 (0.91%) Browser DevTools
4 7 (0.91%) SonarQube
5 6 (0.78%) Chocolatey
6 5 (0.65%) Terragrunt
7 4 (0.52%) CircleCI
8 2 (0.26%) Introscope
8 2 (0.26%) Sonatype Nexus
9 1 (0.13%) Artifactory
9 1 (0.13%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 1 (0.13%) Octopus Deploy
9 1 (0.13%) Subversion
9 1 (0.13%) Travis CI
General
1 184 (23.83%) Social Skills
2 84 (10.88%) Analytical Skills
3 73 (9.46%) Banking
4 62 (8.03%) Finance
5 48 (6.22%) Documentation Skills
6 47 (6.09%) Public Sector
7 43 (5.57%) Investment Banking
8 22 (2.85%) Legal
9 17 (2.20%) Telecoms
10 15 (1.94%) Military
11 9 (1.17%) Organisational Skills
12 6 (0.78%) Financial Institution
12 6 (0.78%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 6 (0.78%) Influencing Skills
12 6 (0.78%) Law
13 5 (0.65%) Local Government
14 4 (0.52%) Manufacturing
15 3 (0.39%) Aerospace
15 3 (0.39%) Presentation Skills
16 2 (0.26%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 134 (17.36%) Network Engineer
2 126 (16.32%) Architect
3 76 (9.84%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 67 (8.68%) Analyst
5 62 (8.03%) Senior
6 52 (6.74%) Security Engineer
7 50 (6.48%) Web Engineer
8 47 (6.09%) Support Engineer
9 35 (4.53%) IT Support
10 32 (4.15%) Network Security Engineer
11 30 (3.89%) IT Engineer
12 29 (3.76%) Cisco Engineer
12 29 (3.76%) Cisco Network Engineer
13 28 (3.63%) Lead
14 27 (3.50%) Azure Engineer
14 27 (3.50%) Platform Engineer
15 25 (3.24%) Data Engineer
15 25 (3.24%) Data Network Engineer
16 24 (3.11%) Cisco Security Engineer
17 22 (2.85%) IT Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 66 (8.55%) LDAP
2 48 (6.22%) SAML
3 39 (5.05%) OAuth
4 32 (4.15%) OpenID
5 29 (3.76%) 802.1X
6 23 (2.98%) OpenTelemetry
7 20 (2.59%) OAuth2
8 10 (1.30%) Kafka
9 9 (1.17%) JSON
9 9 (1.17%) REST
10 8 (1.04%) Elastic Stack
11 7 (0.91%) ARM Templates
11 7 (0.91%) XMPP
12 6 (0.78%) Microsoft Graph
13 5 (0.65%) Middleware
13 5 (0.65%) RESTful
13 5 (0.65%) Web Services
14 4 (0.52%) Hibernate
14 4 (0.52%) JPA
14 4 (0.52%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 66 (8.55%) Data Centre
2 62 (8.03%) PKI
3 48 (6.22%) Cloud Native
3 48 (6.22%) Replication
4 34 (4.40%) Clustering
5 33 (4.27%) Management Information System
5 33 (4.27%) Public Cloud
6 31 (4.02%) Onboarding
7 25 (3.24%) Hybrid Cloud
8 22 (2.85%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 17 (2.20%) Enterprise Software
10 16 (2.07%) Cyber Threat
11 15 (1.94%) Cyberattack
11 15 (1.94%) Legacy Systems
11 15 (1.94%) Security Operations Centre
12 14 (1.81%) Self-Motivation
13 13 (1.68%) Analytical Mindset
13 13 (1.68%) NHS
14 12 (1.55%) Private Cloud
14 12 (1.55%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 332 (43.01%) Windows
2 188 (24.35%) Windows Server
3 108 (13.99%) Linux
4 45 (5.83%) Windows 10
5 25 (3.24%) Windows Server 2019
6 19 (2.46%) Android
7 18 (2.33%) Unix
8 15 (1.94%) Windows Server 2012
9 14 (1.81%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 12 (1.55%) Apple iOS
11 11 (1.42%) Windows 7
11 11 (1.42%) Windows Server 2016
12 8 (1.04%) Mac OS
12 8 (1.04%) Windows Server 2003
13 6 (0.78%) VMS
14 4 (0.52%) CatOS
14 4 (0.52%) CentOS
15 3 (0.39%) Amazon Linux
15 3 (0.39%) Oracle Linux
15 3 (0.39%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 181 (23.45%) Load Balancing
2 169 (21.89%) Problem-Solving
3 123 (15.93%) Migration
4 110 (14.25%) DevOps
5 109 (14.12%) High Availability
6 107 (13.86%) CI/CD
7 102 (13.21%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 99 (12.82%) ITIL
9 96 (12.44%) Infrastructure as Code
10 79 (10.23%) Identity Access Management
11 72 (9.33%) Disaster Recovery
12 68 (8.81%) RBAC
13 65 (8.42%) Cybersecurity
14 62 (8.03%) Observability
15 60 (7.77%) ITSM
16 56 (7.25%) Agile
17 53 (6.87%) Containerisation
17 53 (6.87%) Incident Response
18 51 (6.61%) Roadmaps
19 50 (6.48%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 201 (26.04%) PowerShell
2 135 (17.49%) Python
3 71 (9.20%) Bash
4 37 (4.79%) SQL
5 17 (2.20%) JavaScript
6 14 (1.81%) Bicep
7 13 (1.68%) VBScript
8 11 (1.42%) Java
9 10 (1.30%) Ruby
9 10 (1.30%) Shell Script
10 9 (1.17%) VB
11 8 (1.04%) Go
12 5 (0.65%) Lisp
12 5 (0.65%) VBA
13 4 (0.52%) Kusto Query Language
13 4 (0.52%) Perl
14 2 (0.26%) C
14 2 (0.26%) C#
14 2 (0.26%) Jython
14 2 (0.26%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 256 (33.16%) Security Cleared
2 168 (21.76%) SC Cleared
3 90 (11.66%) DV Cleared
4 68 (8.81%) Cisco Certification
5 45 (5.83%) Degree
6 42 (5.44%) CCNP
7 38 (4.92%) Microsoft Certification
8 25 (3.24%) Azure Certification
8 25 (3.24%) CCNA
9 16 (2.07%) AWS Certification
9 16 (2.07%) CompTIA Security+
10 14 (1.81%) CISSP
11 13 (1.68%) Network+ Certification
12 10 (1.30%) JNCIA
12 10 (1.30%) JNCIS
13 9 (1.17%) BPSS Clearance
13 9 (1.17%) CCIE
13 9 (1.17%) Computer Science Degree
13 9 (1.17%) JNCIP
14 8 (1.04%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (3.76%) GDPR
2 24 (3.11%) NIST
3 23 (2.98%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 22 (2.85%) SLA
5 15 (1.94%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 9 (1.17%) NCSC
7 8 (1.04%) Cyber Essentials
7 8 (1.04%) PCI DSS
8 6 (0.78%) QA
9 3 (0.39%) JSP 440
10 2 (0.26%) Accessibility
10 2 (0.26%) Data Quality
10 2 (0.26%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 1 (0.13%) Actionable Recommendations
11 1 (0.13%) COBIT
11 1 (0.13%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 1 (0.13%) Government Security Classifications
11 1 (0.13%) RMADS
System Software
1 319 (41.32%) Active Directory
2 168 (21.76%) VMware Infrastructure
3 63 (8.16%) Hyper-V
4 60 (7.77%) VMware NSX
5 51 (6.61%) Docker
6 48 (6.22%) vSphere
7 27 (3.50%) Firmware
8 23 (2.98%) Virtual Machines
9 21 (2.72%) VMware ESXi
10 18 (2.33%) BitLocker
11 14 (1.81%) Virtual Desktop
12 10 (1.30%) Squid
13 8 (1.04%) Microsoft App-V
14 7 (0.91%) NFS
15 5 (0.65%) Postfix
15 5 (0.65%) Sendmail
15 5 (0.65%) Terminal Services
15 5 (0.65%) Varnish
16 3 (0.39%) DFS Replication
17 2 (0.26%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 146 (18.91%) Terraform
2 116 (15.03%) Ansible
3 92 (11.92%) Kubernetes
4 82 (10.62%) Microsoft Intune
5 72 (9.33%) Single Sign-On
6 61 (7.90%) SCCM
7 57 (7.38%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 45 (5.83%) FortiGate
9 44 (5.70%) vCenter Server
10 40 (5.18%) Grafana
11 29 (3.76%) Argo
12 23 (2.98%) Prometheus
13 14 (1.81%) SCOM
14 13 (1.68%) WSUS
15 10 (1.30%) HAProxy
15 10 (1.30%) Puppet
16 8 (1.04%) vMotion
17 7 (0.91%) Consul
17 7 (0.91%) Nessus
18 6 (0.78%) Nagios
Vendors
1 265 (34.33%) Microsoft
2 214 (27.72%) VMware
3 140 (18.13%) F5
4 123 (15.93%) Cisco
5 68 (8.81%) Splunk
6 63 (8.16%) ServiceNow
7 44 (5.70%) SolarWinds
8 43 (5.57%) Citrix
9 40 (5.18%) Red Hat
10 39 (5.05%) Blue Coat
11 38 (4.92%) Juniper
12 34 (4.40%) McAfee
13 32 (4.15%) Google
13 32 (4.15%) Infoblox
13 32 (4.15%) Palo Alto
14 30 (3.89%) NetApp
15 25 (3.24%) Pure Storage
16 21 (2.72%) Extreme Networks
17 20 (2.59%) Fortinet
18 17 (2.20%) Okta