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

6 months to
5 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 142 121 110
Rank change year-on-year -21 -11 +16
Contract jobs citing DNS 639 566 782
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.03% 2.07% 2.16%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 19.06% 16.20% 15.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 398 354 514
10th Percentile £219 £223 £210
25th Percentile £400 £326 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year +10.53% - -9.52%
75th Percentile £611 £595 £588
90th Percentile £688 £714 £650
UK median daily rate £525 £475 £485
% change year-on-year +10.53% -2.06% -7.62%
Number of hourly rates quoted 35 6 15
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.40 £25.40
25th Percentile £25.70 £19.65 £31.25
Median hourly rate £57.50 £23.90 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +140.64% -56.55% +92.98%
75th Percentile £77.50 £28.83 £67.25
90th Percentile £85.60 £40.00 £74.80
UK median hourly rate £57.50 £23.59 £55.70
% change year-on-year +143.75% -57.65% +95.44%

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 3,352 3,493 5,073
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.65% 12.79% 14.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,169 2,039 3,147
10th Percentile £204 £220 £208
25th Percentile £356 £375 £356
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.00% - -1.96%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £680 £687 £700
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 165 103 315
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.99 £18.71
25th Percentile £20.00 £20.24 £24.00
Median hourly rate £37.50 £35.00 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% -38.04% +88.30%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.50 £65.98
90th Percentile £76.50 £73.25 £75.50
UK median hourly rate £36.75 £32.50 £56.49
% change year-on-year +13.08% -42.47% +89.88%

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 5 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 5 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 5 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 +3 212 £550 +4.76% 85
North of England -16 135 £460 +15.00% 82
Midlands +21 115 £401 -0.99% 49
South East -2 115 £500 +11.11% 137
West Midlands +29 111 £402 -5.41% 27
North West -5 92 £475 - 35
South West -14 62 £575 +9.52% 44
Yorkshire -31 50 £447 +43.04% 40
East of England -18 37 £363 +28.32% 60
North East -18 7 £575 +283.33% 8
East Midlands -40 4 £275 -26.67% 20
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 (13.30%) Microsoft Exchange
2 69 (10.80%) SharePoint
3 31 (4.85%) Skype for Business
4 21 (3.29%) Confluence
5 11 (1.72%) nginx
6 10 (1.56%) SharePoint Server
7 9 (1.41%) Exchange Server 2010
8 8 (1.25%) Exchange Server 2013
8 8 (1.25%) IIS
9 6 (0.94%) Exchange Server 2003
9 6 (0.94%) Exchange Server 2007
9 6 (0.94%) Office Communications Server
10 5 (0.78%) Apache
11 3 (0.47%) OpenStack
11 3 (0.47%) Tomcat
12 2 (0.31%) Apache Airflow
12 2 (0.31%) Apache Spark
12 2 (0.31%) Cloud Foundry
12 2 (0.31%) Oracle HTTP Server
12 2 (0.31%) WebLogic
Applications
1 43 (6.73%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (1.56%) Mozilla Thunderbird
2 10 (1.56%) MS Visio
3 4 (0.63%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (0.47%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (0.31%) Windchill
6 1 (0.16%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (0.31%) Remedy ITSM
1 2 (0.31%) SystmOne
1 2 (0.31%) Teamcenter
2 1 (0.16%) Eikon
2 1 (0.16%) Eze OMS
2 1 (0.16%) Fidessa
Cloud Services
1 208 (32.55%) Azure
2 158 (24.73%) AWS
3 138 (21.60%) Microsoft 365
4 84 (13.15%) Entra ID
5 64 (10.02%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 54 (8.45%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 53 (8.29%) Amazon S3
8 49 (7.67%) Amazon EC2
9 47 (7.36%) GitHub
10 42 (6.57%) GCP
11 41 (6.42%) Amazon ELB
12 32 (5.01%) Amazon ECS
13 31 (4.85%) AWS CloudFormation
14 26 (4.07%) IaaS
15 25 (3.91%) SaaS
16 24 (3.76%) Serverless
17 23 (3.60%) GitHub Actions
18 22 (3.44%) AWS Lambda
19 19 (2.97%) AWS KMS
20 18 (2.82%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 267 (41.78%) DHCP
2 214 (33.49%) TCP/IP
3 209 (32.71%) Firewall
4 159 (24.88%) VPN
5 96 (15.02%) Network Security
5 96 (15.02%) SSL
6 73 (11.42%) HTTP
7 69 (10.80%) WAN
8 57 (8.92%) LAN
9 56 (8.76%) VLAN
10 49 (7.67%) SMTP
11 44 (6.89%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
12 41 (6.42%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
13 39 (6.10%) Wireless
14 37 (5.79%) FTP
15 35 (5.48%) DMZ
16 33 (5.16%) BGP
16 33 (5.16%) Wi-Fi
16 33 (5.16%) Wireshark
17 29 (4.54%) BIG-IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (4.85%) Amazon RDS
2 26 (4.07%) PostgreSQL
3 21 (3.29%) SQL Server
4 16 (2.50%) Amazon Aurora
5 10 (1.56%) MongoDB
6 6 (0.94%) DynamoDB
6 6 (0.94%) MySQL
7 5 (0.78%) Data Hub
7 5 (0.78%) NoSQL
7 5 (0.78%) Redis
8 4 (0.63%) BigQuery
8 4 (0.63%) Elasticsearch
8 4 (0.63%) Relational Database
9 3 (0.47%) Big Data
9 3 (0.47%) DocumentDB
10 2 (0.31%) Delta Lake
10 2 (0.31%) Hadoop
10 2 (0.31%) Parquet
10 2 (0.31%) Power BI
11 1 (0.16%) CouchDB
Development Applications
1 84 (13.15%) Jenkins
2 66 (10.33%) Git
3 49 (7.67%) GitLab
4 40 (6.26%) JIRA
5 22 (3.44%) Fiddler
6 16 (2.50%) Vagrant
7 8 (1.25%) Terragrunt
8 5 (0.78%) Subversion
9 4 (0.63%) CircleCI
9 4 (0.63%) TeamCity
10 3 (0.47%) Visual Studio Code
11 2 (0.31%) MLflow
11 2 (0.31%) Poetry
11 2 (0.31%) PyCharm
11 2 (0.31%) SonarQube
12 1 (0.16%) Bitbucket
12 1 (0.16%) Browser DevTools
12 1 (0.16%) Octopus Deploy
12 1 (0.16%) Vite
12 1 (0.16%) webpack
General
1 201 (31.46%) Social Skills
2 106 (16.59%) Analytical Skills
3 72 (11.27%) Public Sector
4 53 (8.29%) Banking
5 44 (6.89%) Finance
6 40 (6.26%) Investment Banking
7 35 (5.48%) Documentation Skills
8 17 (2.66%) Presentation Skills
9 16 (2.50%) Telecoms
10 15 (2.35%) Legal
11 10 (1.56%) Organisational Skills
12 9 (1.41%) Law
12 9 (1.41%) Military
13 7 (1.10%) Aerospace
13 7 (1.10%) Influencing Skills
14 4 (0.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 4 (0.63%) Marketing
15 3 (0.47%) Financial Institution
15 3 (0.47%) Front Office
15 3 (0.47%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 85 (13.30%) Network Engineer
2 72 (11.27%) Support Engineer
3 70 (10.95%) Architect
4 66 (10.33%) Analyst
5 63 (9.86%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 61 (9.55%) Senior
7 47 (7.36%) Platform Engineer
8 45 (7.04%) DevOps Engineer
9 41 (6.42%) IT Support
10 33 (5.16%) Security Engineer
11 32 (5.01%) AWS Engineer
12 26 (4.07%) 2nd Line Support
13 25 (3.91%) Cloud Platform Engineer
14 23 (3.60%) AWS DevOps
14 23 (3.60%) AWS DevOps Engineer
14 23 (3.60%) Lead
14 23 (3.60%) Operations Engineer
14 23 (3.60%) SOC Analyst
15 22 (3.44%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
16 21 (3.29%) Web Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (6.73%) LDAP
2 22 (3.44%) SAML
3 19 (2.97%) OAuth
4 18 (2.82%) OpenID
5 17 (2.66%) OAuth2
6 12 (1.88%) 802.1X
6 12 (1.88%) Elastic Stack
6 12 (1.88%) Kafka
7 10 (1.56%) Middleware
8 9 (1.41%) REST
9 6 (0.94%) cloud-init
9 6 (0.94%) Keycloak
9 6 (0.94%) OpenTelemetry
9 6 (0.94%) YAML
10 5 (0.78%) AngularJS
10 5 (0.78%) Flask
10 5 (0.78%) JSON
10 5 (0.78%) React
11 4 (0.63%) ASP.NET Web API
11 4 (0.63%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 52 (8.14%) Management Information System
2 50 (7.82%) PKI
3 49 (7.67%) Replication
4 46 (7.20%) Data Centre
5 29 (4.54%) Analytical Mindset
6 28 (4.38%) Onboarding
7 22 (3.44%) Enterprise Software
8 20 (3.13%) Cyberattack
9 19 (2.97%) Security Operations Centre
10 17 (2.66%) Cloud Native
10 17 (2.66%) Cyber Threat
11 14 (2.19%) Hybrid Cloud
12 13 (2.03%) CSOC
13 12 (1.88%) Public Cloud
14 11 (1.72%) Self-Motivation
15 10 (1.56%) Clustering
15 10 (1.56%) Private Cloud
15 10 (1.56%) Video Conferencing
16 7 (1.10%) NHS
16 7 (1.10%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 319 (49.92%) Windows
2 146 (22.85%) Windows Server
3 138 (21.60%) Linux
4 60 (9.39%) Windows 10
5 27 (4.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 24 (3.76%) VMS
7 23 (3.60%) Windows Server 2019
8 22 (3.44%) Unix
9 21 (3.29%) Windows Server 2016
10 19 (2.97%) Amazon Linux
11 17 (2.66%) Android
11 17 (2.66%) Windows Server 2012
12 15 (2.35%) Ubuntu
13 13 (2.03%) CentOS
14 12 (1.88%) Apple iOS
14 12 (1.88%) Mac OS
15 10 (1.56%) Windows Server 2003
16 7 (1.10%) Windows 7
17 5 (0.78%) Solaris
18 3 (0.47%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 148 (23.16%) Problem-Solving
2 118 (18.47%) ITIL
3 114 (17.84%) DevOps
4 111 (17.37%) CI/CD
5 105 (16.43%) Load Balancing
6 90 (14.08%) Infrastructure as Code
7 82 (12.83%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 71 (11.11%) Change Management
9 69 (10.80%) Cybersecurity
10 64 (10.02%) Migration
11 63 (9.86%) Incident Response
12 61 (9.55%) High Availability
13 56 (8.76%) Root Cause Analysis
14 53 (8.29%) Platform Engineering
15 52 (8.14%) Continuous Improvement
15 52 (8.14%) Service Management
16 50 (7.82%) Disaster Recovery
17 49 (7.67%) SIEM
18 45 (7.04%) Containerisation
19 44 (6.89%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 188 (29.42%) PowerShell
2 156 (24.41%) Python
3 73 (11.42%) Bash
4 43 (6.73%) SQL
5 19 (2.97%) Java
5 19 (2.97%) Perl
6 18 (2.82%) Groovy
7 13 (2.03%) Bicep
8 11 (1.72%) Shell Script
9 9 (1.41%) Go
10 8 (1.25%) Kusto Query Language
10 8 (1.25%) Ruby
11 7 (1.10%) Lisp
11 7 (1.10%) VBScript
12 6 (0.94%) VB
13 5 (0.78%) C++
14 3 (0.47%) C#
14 3 (0.47%) T-SQL
15 2 (0.31%) JavaScript
16 1 (0.16%) PHP
Qualifications
1 245 (38.34%) Security Cleared
2 174 (27.23%) SC Cleared
3 81 (12.68%) DV Cleared
4 62 (9.70%) Degree
5 61 (9.55%) Microsoft Certification
6 44 (6.89%) Cisco Certification
7 39 (6.10%) Azure Certification
8 37 (5.79%) CCNP
9 22 (3.44%) AWS Certification
10 17 (2.66%) Network+ Certification
11 16 (2.50%) CISSP
12 15 (2.35%) CCNA
13 12 (1.88%) CompTIA Security+
14 11 (1.72%) MCSE
14 11 (1.72%) Server+ Certification
15 9 (1.41%) CCIE
16 8 (1.25%) Computer Science Degree
16 8 (1.25%) ITIL Certification
16 8 (1.25%) MCSA
16 8 (1.25%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (4.38%) GDPR
2 18 (2.82%) SLA
3 16 (2.50%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 16 (2.50%) NIST
4 10 (1.56%) NCSC
5 8 (1.25%) PCI DSS
6 7 (1.10%) Cyber Essentials
6 7 (1.10%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 6 (0.94%) Accessibility
8 5 (0.78%) QA
9 3 (0.47%) Data Quality
9 3 (0.47%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 2 (0.31%) JSP 440
11 1 (0.16%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 1 (0.16%) Government Security Classifications
11 1 (0.16%) SOC 2
11 1 (0.16%) WCAG
System Software
1 277 (43.35%) Active Directory
2 168 (26.29%) VMware Infrastructure
3 88 (13.77%) Docker
4 46 (7.20%) Hyper-V
5 41 (6.42%) VMware NSX
6 29 (4.54%) Virtual Machines
7 24 (3.76%) vSphere
8 20 (3.13%) Firmware
9 19 (2.97%) DFS Replication
10 18 (2.82%) VMware ESXi
11 16 (2.50%) Dovecot
11 16 (2.50%) Postfix
12 12 (1.88%) Terminal Services
13 10 (1.56%) Squid
14 9 (1.41%) Virtual Servers
15 8 (1.25%) Virtual Desktop
16 7 (1.10%) BitLocker
17 6 (0.94%) Brightmail
17 6 (0.94%) ISA Server
18 5 (0.78%) NFS
Systems Management
1 128 (20.03%) Terraform
2 106 (16.59%) Ansible
3 74 (11.58%) SCCM
4 73 (11.42%) Microsoft Intune
5 59 (9.23%) Kubernetes
6 41 (6.42%) vCenter Server
7 38 (5.95%) Grafana
7 38 (5.95%) Single Sign-On
8 31 (4.85%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 28 (4.38%) Prometheus
10 19 (2.97%) WSUS
11 16 (2.50%) Nessus
12 15 (2.35%) Argo
13 14 (2.19%) FortiGate
14 13 (2.03%) Packer
14 13 (2.03%) Proxmox
15 12 (1.88%) SCOM
16 9 (1.41%) Microsoft Clustering
16 9 (1.41%) Puppet
17 8 (1.25%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 243 (38.03%) Microsoft
2 203 (31.77%) VMware
3 109 (17.06%) F5
4 94 (14.71%) Cisco
5 71 (11.11%) ServiceNow
6 51 (7.98%) Palo Alto
7 49 (7.67%) CheckPoint
8 47 (7.36%) Splunk
9 38 (5.95%) Blue Coat
10 34 (5.32%) Citrix
11 31 (4.85%) SolarWinds
12 29 (4.54%) Red Hat
13 27 (4.23%) McAfee
14 25 (3.91%) NetApp
15 23 (3.60%) Juniper
15 23 (3.60%) Veeam
16 18 (2.82%) Zscaler
17 17 (2.66%) Fortinet
18 16 (2.50%) Dell
19 15 (2.35%) Oracle