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

6 months to
30 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 138 117 119
Rank change year-on-year -21 +2 -2
Contract jobs citing DNS 679 574 764
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.06% 2.16% 2.03%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 19.68% 16.67% 14.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 435 360 500
10th Percentile £219 £223 £200
25th Percentile £400 £348 £355
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £482 £475
Median % change year-on-year +8.86% +1.53% -9.52%
75th Percentile £604 £609 £588
90th Percentile £688 £713 £650
UK median daily rate £513 £500 £488
% change year-on-year +2.50% +2.56% -7.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 5 22
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.78 £24.33
25th Percentile £21.25 £18.50 £31.44
Median hourly rate £27.50 £23.59 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +16.57% -41.03% +3.90%
75th Percentile £74.26 £25.30 £55.00
90th Percentile £78.00 £40.12 £66.75
UK median hourly rate £27.50 £23.59 £40.00
% change year-on-year +16.57% -41.03% +3.90%

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 3,451 3,443 5,333
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.45% 12.96% 14.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,249 1,979 3,245
10th Percentile £204 £220 £205
25th Percentile £356 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £500 £488
Median % change year-on-year -2.00% +2.56% -7.14%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £680 £685 £700
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £493
% change year-on-year -5.00% +1.42% -4.83%
Number of hourly rates quoted 153 105 372
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.08 £15.54
25th Percentile £19.00 £21.46 £22.00
Median hourly rate £30.00 £35.00 £50.20
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% -30.27% +139.02%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £70.00 £75.60
UK median hourly rate £30.00 £35.00 £50.00
% change year-on-year -14.29% -30.00% +141.49%

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 30 January 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 30 January 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 30 January 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 +3 229 £538 +2.38% 74
North of England -27 150 £460 +8.24% 71
South East -10 123 £520 +12.43% 104
Midlands +8 115 £380 -6.17% 45
West Midlands +33 111 £380 -1.30% 22
North West -2 100 £500 +6.95% 27
South West -28 65 £575 +5.02% 48
Yorkshire -35 54 £449 +49.50% 37
East of England -18 38 £475 +72.73% 57
North East -20 8 £411 +82.56% 11
East Midlands -41 4 £275 -38.89% 22
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 90 (13.25%) Microsoft Exchange
2 64 (9.43%) SharePoint
3 33 (4.86%) Skype for Business
4 22 (3.24%) Confluence
5 14 (2.06%) nginx
6 8 (1.18%) SharePoint Server
7 7 (1.03%) IIS
8 6 (0.88%) Exchange Server 2010
8 6 (0.88%) Exchange Server 2013
9 5 (0.74%) Apache
10 4 (0.59%) Exchange Server 2003
10 4 (0.59%) Exchange Server 2007
10 4 (0.59%) Office Communications Server
11 3 (0.44%) OpenStack
12 2 (0.29%) Cloud Foundry
12 2 (0.29%) Oracle HTTP Server
12 2 (0.29%) Tomcat
12 2 (0.29%) WebLogic
12 2 (0.29%) WordPress
Applications
1 44 (6.48%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (2.21%) MS Visio
3 8 (1.18%) Mozilla Thunderbird
4 2 (0.29%) Microsoft Excel
4 2 (0.29%) Spreadsheet
4 2 (0.29%) Windchill
5 1 (0.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (0.29%) Remedy ITSM
1 2 (0.29%) SystmOne
1 2 (0.29%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 240 (35.35%) Azure
2 163 (24.01%) AWS
3 134 (19.73%) Microsoft 365
4 115 (16.94%) Entra ID
5 64 (9.43%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 54 (7.95%) Amazon S3
7 51 (7.51%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 48 (7.07%) Amazon EC2
9 44 (6.48%) GCP
10 42 (6.19%) GitHub
11 37 (5.45%) Amazon ELB
12 31 (4.57%) AWS CloudFormation
13 30 (4.42%) IaaS
14 29 (4.27%) Amazon ECS
15 28 (4.12%) Route 53
15 28 (4.12%) Serverless
16 26 (3.83%) AWS Lambda
17 23 (3.39%) SaaS
18 19 (2.80%) Amazon EKS
18 19 (2.80%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 309 (45.51%) DHCP
2 213 (31.37%) TCP/IP
3 211 (31.08%) Firewall
4 176 (25.92%) VPN
5 92 (13.55%) Network Security
6 89 (13.11%) SSL
7 84 (12.37%) WAN
8 69 (10.16%) LAN
9 65 (9.57%) HTTP
10 59 (8.69%) VLAN
11 47 (6.92%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
12 43 (6.33%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
13 41 (6.04%) BGP
14 39 (5.74%) Wireshark
15 38 (5.60%) BIG-IP
15 38 (5.60%) DMZ
15 38 (5.60%) Wi-Fi
16 35 (5.15%) Wireless
17 33 (4.86%) Kerberos
17 33 (4.86%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (3.83%) Amazon RDS
2 22 (3.24%) PostgreSQL
3 20 (2.95%) SQL Server
4 14 (2.06%) Amazon Aurora
5 10 (1.47%) Elasticsearch
6 8 (1.18%) MongoDB
7 7 (1.03%) DynamoDB
7 7 (1.03%) MySQL
8 6 (0.88%) Redis
9 5 (0.74%) Data Hub
10 4 (0.59%) DocumentDB
10 4 (0.59%) NoSQL
10 4 (0.59%) Relational Database
11 3 (0.44%) BigQuery
12 2 (0.29%) Power BI
13 1 (0.15%) Apache Cassandra
13 1 (0.15%) Electronic Patient Records
13 1 (0.15%) Geospatial Data
13 1 (0.15%) GIS
13 1 (0.15%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 74 (10.90%) Jenkins
2 58 (8.54%) Git
3 45 (6.63%) GitLab
4 38 (5.60%) JIRA
5 26 (3.83%) Fiddler
6 12 (1.77%) Vagrant
7 8 (1.18%) Terragrunt
8 6 (0.88%) Bitbucket
9 5 (0.74%) SonarQube
10 4 (0.59%) CircleCI
10 4 (0.59%) Subversion
11 3 (0.44%) TeamCity
12 2 (0.29%) Sonatype Nexus
13 1 (0.15%) Browser DevTools
13 1 (0.15%) GCC
13 1 (0.15%) Octopus Deploy
13 1 (0.15%) Travis CI
13 1 (0.15%) Visual Studio Code
13 1 (0.15%) Vite
13 1 (0.15%) webpack
General
1 199 (29.31%) Social Skills
2 101 (14.87%) Analytical Skills
3 66 (9.72%) Public Sector
4 54 (7.95%) Banking
5 42 (6.19%) Documentation Skills
5 42 (6.19%) Investment Banking
6 38 (5.60%) Finance
7 16 (2.36%) Telecoms
8 14 (2.06%) Presentation Skills
9 13 (1.91%) Legal
10 8 (1.18%) Military
11 7 (1.03%) Influencing Skills
12 6 (0.88%) Organisational Skills
13 5 (0.74%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 5 (0.74%) Law
14 4 (0.59%) Financial Institution
14 4 (0.59%) Marketing
15 3 (0.44%) Aerospace
15 3 (0.44%) Local Government
15 3 (0.44%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 98 (14.43%) Network Engineer
2 90 (13.25%) Architect
3 69 (10.16%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 65 (9.57%) Analyst
5 61 (8.98%) Support Engineer
6 60 (8.84%) Senior
7 42 (6.19%) Platform Engineer
8 37 (5.45%) DevOps Engineer
8 37 (5.45%) IT Support
9 34 (5.01%) Security Engineer
10 28 (4.12%) Web Engineer
11 27 (3.98%) AWS Engineer
12 26 (3.83%) 2nd Line Support
13 23 (3.39%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
14 22 (3.24%) Lead
15 21 (3.09%) Cloud Platform Engineer
15 21 (3.09%) Operations Engineer
16 19 (2.80%) Cisco Engineer
16 19 (2.80%) Cisco Network Engineer
16 19 (2.80%) Network Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 59 (8.69%) LDAP
2 40 (5.89%) SAML
3 35 (5.15%) OAuth
4 26 (3.83%) OpenID
5 20 (2.95%) OAuth2
6 12 (1.77%) 802.1X
7 11 (1.62%) Kafka
8 9 (1.33%) REST
9 8 (1.18%) Elastic Stack
9 8 (1.18%) OpenTelemetry
10 7 (1.03%) Middleware
11 6 (0.88%) AWS CDK
12 5 (0.74%) AngularJS
12 5 (0.74%) Microsoft Graph
12 5 (0.74%) React
12 5 (0.74%) RESTful
12 5 (0.74%) YAML
13 4 (0.59%) ASP.NET Web API
13 4 (0.59%) JPA
13 4 (0.59%) Keycloak
Miscellaneous
1 66 (9.72%) Replication
2 50 (7.36%) PKI
3 49 (7.22%) Data Centre
4 39 (5.74%) Management Information System
5 28 (4.12%) Onboarding
6 23 (3.39%) Cloud Native
7 22 (3.24%) Enterprise Software
8 21 (3.09%) Analytical Mindset
9 16 (2.36%) Public Cloud
10 13 (1.91%) Cyberattack
10 13 (1.91%) Hybrid Cloud
10 13 (1.91%) Security Operations Centre
11 12 (1.77%) Private Cloud
12 11 (1.62%) NHS
13 10 (1.47%) Cyber Threat
13 10 (1.47%) Self-Motivation
14 9 (1.33%) Clustering
14 9 (1.33%) SCADA
14 9 (1.33%) Video Conferencing
15 6 (0.88%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 330 (48.60%) Windows
2 167 (24.59%) Windows Server
3 121 (17.82%) Linux
4 62 (9.13%) Windows 10
5 30 (4.42%) Windows Server 2019
6 20 (2.95%) Android
6 20 (2.95%) Windows Server 2016
7 18 (2.65%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 17 (2.50%) VMS
8 17 (2.50%) Windows Server 2012
9 16 (2.36%) Unix
10 15 (2.21%) Amazon Linux
11 14 (2.06%) Apple iOS
12 13 (1.91%) Ubuntu
13 11 (1.62%) CentOS
14 10 (1.47%) Windows 7
15 9 (1.33%) Mac OS
15 9 (1.33%) Windows Server 2003
16 4 (0.59%) CatOS
16 4 (0.59%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 153 (22.53%) Problem-Solving
2 125 (18.41%) Load Balancing
3 111 (16.35%) ITIL
4 110 (16.20%) DevOps
5 106 (15.61%) CI/CD
6 87 (12.81%) Infrastructure as Code
6 87 (12.81%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 78 (11.49%) Migration
8 77 (11.34%) High Availability
9 72 (10.60%) Change Management
10 63 (9.28%) Disaster Recovery
11 59 (8.69%) Cybersecurity
12 56 (8.25%) Service Management
13 55 (8.10%) Incident Response
13 55 (8.10%) Root Cause Analysis
14 50 (7.36%) Mentoring
15 49 (7.22%) Platform Engineering
16 46 (6.77%) Identity Access Management
17 44 (6.48%) Continuous Improvement
17 44 (6.48%) RBAC
Programming Languages
1 210 (30.93%) PowerShell
2 137 (20.18%) Python
3 64 (9.43%) Bash
4 38 (5.60%) SQL
5 17 (2.50%) Java
6 16 (2.36%) Perl
7 12 (1.77%) Groovy
7 12 (1.77%) VBScript
8 11 (1.62%) Bicep
9 10 (1.47%) VB
10 9 (1.33%) Shell Script
11 8 (1.18%) Ruby
12 7 (1.03%) Go
12 7 (1.03%) Lisp
13 5 (0.74%) C++
13 5 (0.74%) Kusto Query Language
14 3 (0.44%) C#
14 3 (0.44%) JavaScript
14 3 (0.44%) T-SQL
15 1 (0.15%) PHP
Qualifications
1 264 (38.88%) Security Cleared
2 191 (28.13%) SC Cleared
3 82 (12.08%) DV Cleared
4 61 (8.98%) Degree
5 56 (8.25%) Microsoft Certification
6 40 (5.89%) Cisco Certification
7 38 (5.60%) CCNP
8 37 (5.45%) Azure Certification
9 24 (3.53%) AWS Certification
10 17 (2.50%) Network+ Certification
11 14 (2.06%) CCNA
12 11 (1.62%) Server+ Certification
13 10 (1.47%) CISSP
13 10 (1.47%) Computer Science Degree
14 9 (1.33%) ITIL Certification
15 8 (1.18%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 8 (1.18%) CCIE
15 8 (1.18%) CompTIA Security+
15 8 (1.18%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
16 7 (1.03%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (4.71%) GDPR
2 21 (3.09%) SLA
3 19 (2.80%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 18 (2.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 16 (2.36%) NIST
6 9 (1.33%) NCSC
6 9 (1.33%) PCI DSS
7 8 (1.18%) Cyber Essentials
8 6 (0.88%) QA
9 5 (0.74%) Accessibility
10 3 (0.44%) Data Quality
10 3 (0.44%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 2 (0.29%) JSP 440
12 1 (0.15%) Actionable Recommendations
12 1 (0.15%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 1 (0.15%) Government Security Classifications
12 1 (0.15%) RMADS
12 1 (0.15%) SOC 2
12 1 (0.15%) WCAG
System Software
1 312 (45.95%) Active Directory
2 169 (24.89%) VMware Infrastructure
3 82 (12.08%) Docker
4 46 (6.77%) Hyper-V
4 46 (6.77%) VMware NSX
5 29 (4.27%) vSphere
6 26 (3.83%) Virtual Machines
7 22 (3.24%) Firmware
8 17 (2.50%) VMware ESXi
9 15 (2.21%) DFS Replication
10 13 (1.91%) BitLocker
10 13 (1.91%) Squid
11 11 (1.62%) Virtual Desktop
12 9 (1.33%) Postfix
13 8 (1.18%) Dovecot
13 8 (1.18%) Virtual Servers
14 6 (0.88%) Microsoft App-V
15 5 (0.74%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 5 (0.74%) NFS
15 5 (0.74%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 131 (19.29%) Terraform
2 113 (16.64%) Ansible
3 83 (12.22%) Microsoft Intune
4 76 (11.19%) SCCM
5 63 (9.28%) Single Sign-On
6 62 (9.13%) Kubernetes
7 60 (8.84%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 39 (5.74%) vCenter Server
9 34 (5.01%) Grafana
10 25 (3.68%) Prometheus
11 19 (2.80%) FortiGate
12 18 (2.65%) WSUS
13 14 (2.06%) Argo
14 13 (1.91%) SCOM
15 11 (1.62%) Proxmox
16 10 (1.47%) Packer
17 9 (1.33%) Nessus
18 8 (1.18%) Puppet
19 7 (1.03%) Microsoft Clustering
20 6 (0.88%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 273 (40.21%) Microsoft
2 207 (30.49%) VMware
3 120 (17.67%) F5
4 99 (14.58%) Cisco
5 75 (11.05%) ServiceNow
6 48 (7.07%) CheckPoint
6 48 (7.07%) Palo Alto
7 43 (6.33%) Splunk
8 42 (6.19%) Blue Coat
9 34 (5.01%) Citrix
10 31 (4.57%) McAfee
10 31 (4.57%) SolarWinds
11 26 (3.83%) NetApp
12 24 (3.53%) Juniper
12 24 (3.53%) Red Hat
12 24 (3.53%) Veeam
13 20 (2.95%) Okta
14 19 (2.80%) Dell
15 18 (2.65%) Fortinet
15 18 (2.65%) Zscaler