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

6 months to
6 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 148 123 147
Rank change year-on-year -25 +24 -11
Contract jobs citing DNS 893 639 543
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.93% 2.30% 1.69%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 20.79% 19.54% 13.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 562 404 326
10th Percentile £294 £219 £253
25th Percentile £413 £380 £351
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £505 £500
Median % change year-on-year - +1.00% -
75th Percentile £595 £600 £600
90th Percentile £650 £653 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £494
% change year-on-year - +1.27% -1.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 51 32 10
10th Percentile £26.00 £15.50 £17.88
25th Percentile £31.25 £29.00 £23.28
Median hourly rate £62.00 £45.00 £23.99
Median % change year-on-year +37.78% +87.58% -40.03%
75th Percentile £79.50 £76.59 £28.83
90th Percentile £98.82 £89.17 £48.88
UK median hourly rate £62.00 £45.00 £23.99
% change year-on-year +37.78% +87.58% -40.03%

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 4,296 3,270 3,892
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.27% 11.78% 12.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,525 2,078 2,231
10th Percentile £250 £219 £243
25th Percentile £400 £361 £378
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
75th Percentile £598 £600 £608
90th Percentile £688 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 391 172 167
10th Percentile £16.01 £15.50 £15.87
25th Percentile £21.33 £20.81 £24.59
Median hourly rate £38.72 £35.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +10.63% -38.97% +1.52%
75th Percentile £68.75 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £92.53 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £32.50 £41.48 £50.00
% change year-on-year -21.64% -17.05% -11.49%

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 6 October 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 6 October 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 6 October 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 -42 313 £500 -4.76% 443
North of England +3 197 £500 +11.48% 141
South East -4 173 £538 +7.50% 189
North West +6 122 £500 +11.48% 86
Midlands -47 102 £450 - 97
South West +1 97 £575 - 90
West Midlands -52 84 £450 +2.86% 48
Yorkshire -7 60 £500 - 38
East of England -40 42 £513 -6.82% 59
East Midlands +4 17 £450 - 47
North East -34 15 £425 +25.00% 21
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
1 100 (11.20%) Microsoft Exchange
2 82 (9.18%) SharePoint
3 26 (2.91%) Confluence
4 15 (1.68%) nginx
5 13 (1.46%) Apache
6 12 (1.34%) IIS
7 8 (0.90%) Skype for Business
8 6 (0.67%) Tomcat
9 5 (0.56%) OpenStack
10 3 (0.34%) Exchange Server 2013
11 2 (0.22%) Apache Spark
12 1 (0.11%) SharePoint Server
12 1 (0.11%) Traefik
Applications
1 24 (2.69%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (1.23%) Microsoft Excel
3 8 (0.90%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.34%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.22%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 2 (0.22%) Houdini
5 2 (0.22%) NUKE
5 2 (0.22%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.11%) Mozilla Thunderbird
Business Applications
1 15 (1.68%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.11%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (0.11%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (0.11%) Oracle Retail
2 1 (0.11%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 376 (42.11%) Azure
2 183 (20.49%) Microsoft 365
3 178 (19.93%) Entra ID
4 177 (19.82%) AWS
5 73 (8.17%) GCP
5 73 (8.17%) GitHub
6 49 (5.49%) IaaS
7 46 (5.15%) OneDrive
8 44 (4.93%) Azure DevOps
9 43 (4.82%) GitHub Actions
10 41 (4.59%) Azure Monitor
11 33 (3.70%) SaaS
12 27 (3.02%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 26 (2.91%) PaaS
14 24 (2.69%) AWS CloudFormation
15 23 (2.58%) Virtual Private Cloud
16 22 (2.46%) Azure Key Vault
16 22 (2.46%) OpenShift
17 20 (2.24%) Azure Sentinel
18 19 (2.13%) Azure AKS
Communications & Networking
1 438 (49.05%) DHCP
2 337 (37.74%) Firewall
3 278 (31.13%) TCP/IP
4 262 (29.34%) VPN
5 135 (15.12%) Network Security
6 114 (12.77%) VLAN
7 106 (11.87%) WAN
8 90 (10.08%) SSL
9 83 (9.29%) LAN
10 78 (8.73%) BGP
11 72 (8.06%) Wireless
12 61 (6.83%) Wi-Fi
13 58 (6.49%) BIG-IP
13 58 (6.49%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
13 58 (6.49%) HTTP
14 55 (6.16%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
15 51 (5.71%) SAN
16 41 (4.59%) DMZ
17 40 (4.48%) OSPF
18 37 (4.14%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 45 (5.04%) SQL Server
2 14 (1.57%) Amazon RDS
2 14 (1.57%) PostgreSQL
3 12 (1.34%) MySQL
4 9 (1.01%) Data Lake
4 9 (1.01%) Power BI
5 8 (0.90%) MongoDB
5 8 (0.90%) NoSQL
6 7 (0.78%) Elasticsearch
7 6 (0.67%) Big Data
7 6 (0.67%) Redis
8 5 (0.56%) Azure SQL Database
9 4 (0.45%) Db2
10 3 (0.34%) Metadata
11 2 (0.22%) Amazon Aurora
11 2 (0.22%) BigQuery
11 2 (0.22%) DynamoDB
11 2 (0.22%) Flink
11 2 (0.22%) KDB
11 2 (0.22%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 70 (7.84%) JIRA
2 56 (6.27%) Jenkins
3 47 (5.26%) Git
4 37 (4.14%) GitLab
5 13 (1.46%) Fiddler
6 9 (1.01%) Sonatype Nexus
7 7 (0.78%) Bitbucket
8 5 (0.56%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 5 (0.56%) Selenium
9 4 (0.45%) Artifactory
9 4 (0.45%) Chocolatey
10 3 (0.34%) MSI
11 2 (0.22%) Spinnaker
11 2 (0.22%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
11 2 (0.22%) Vagrant
12 1 (0.11%) Browser DevTools
12 1 (0.11%) Locust
12 1 (0.11%) Newman
12 1 (0.11%) REST Assured
12 1 (0.11%) TestCafe
General
1 239 (26.76%) Social Skills
2 103 (11.53%) Analytical Skills
3 82 (9.18%) Finance
4 67 (7.50%) Public Sector
5 49 (5.49%) Banking
6 39 (4.37%) Documentation Skills
7 28 (3.14%) Telecoms
8 25 (2.80%) Investment Banking
9 15 (1.68%) Legal
10 12 (1.34%) Aerospace
10 12 (1.34%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 12 (1.34%) Police
11 11 (1.23%) Local Government
12 10 (1.12%) Military
13 9 (1.01%) Front Office
14 8 (0.90%) Manufacturing
15 7 (0.78%) Influencing Skills
15 7 (0.78%) Law
15 7 (0.78%) Organisational Skills
15 7 (0.78%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 172 (19.26%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 149 (16.69%) Network Engineer
3 111 (12.43%) Senior
4 97 (10.86%) Support Engineer
5 78 (8.73%) Cloud Engineer
6 63 (7.05%) Architect
7 48 (5.38%) IT Support
8 45 (5.04%) IT Engineer
9 44 (4.93%) Azure Engineer
10 43 (4.82%) Security Engineer
11 41 (4.59%) DevOps Engineer
11 41 (4.59%) Platform Engineer
11 41 (4.59%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
12 36 (4.03%) Analyst
13 34 (3.81%) Senior Network Engineer
14 33 (3.70%) IT Support Engineer
15 31 (3.47%) Administrator
15 31 (3.47%) Network Security Engineer
16 30 (3.36%) Cisco Engineer
17 28 (3.14%) Cisco Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 200 (22.40%) Terraform
2 33 (3.70%) 802.1X
3 25 (2.80%) REST
3 25 (2.80%) SAML
4 24 (2.69%) ARM Templates
4 24 (2.69%) LDAP
5 23 (2.58%) OAuth
6 17 (1.90%) OpenID
7 15 (1.68%) Kafka
8 13 (1.46%) YAML
9 12 (1.34%) Elastic Stack
10 10 (1.12%) CSS
10 10 (1.12%) JSON
11 7 (0.78%) .NET
11 7 (0.78%) Jinja
11 7 (0.78%) Software Packaging
12 6 (0.67%) Flask
12 6 (0.67%) Pandas
12 6 (0.67%) pytest
12 6 (0.67%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 123 (13.77%) Data Centre
2 94 (10.53%) PKI
3 74 (8.29%) Onboarding
4 70 (7.84%) Hybrid Cloud
5 55 (6.16%) Management Information System
6 33 (3.70%) Cloud Native
7 28 (3.14%) Public Cloud
8 27 (3.02%) Replication
9 26 (2.91%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 22 (2.46%) Linux Command Line
11 21 (2.35%) Clustering
12 18 (2.02%) Self-Motivation
13 15 (1.68%) Driving Licence
14 14 (1.57%) Cyber Threat
14 14 (1.57%) Enterprise Software
15 12 (1.34%) Security Posture
16 11 (1.23%) Distributed Systems
17 10 (1.12%) Video Conferencing
18 9 (1.01%) CMDB
18 9 (1.01%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 449 (50.28%) Windows
2 251 (28.11%) Windows Server
3 201 (22.51%) Linux
4 59 (6.61%) Windows 10
5 40 (4.48%) Windows Server 2019
6 38 (4.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 32 (3.58%) Mac OS
8 29 (3.25%) Unix
9 23 (2.58%) Ubuntu
10 22 (2.46%) Windows Server 2012
11 20 (2.24%) Apple iOS
12 19 (2.13%) CentOS
13 18 (2.02%) Android
14 14 (1.57%) VMS
15 12 (1.34%) Windows 7
15 12 (1.34%) Windows Server 2016
16 7 (0.78%) Rocky
16 7 (0.78%) Windows Server 2008
17 4 (0.45%) AIX
18 3 (0.34%) OpenVMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 237 (26.54%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 203 (22.73%) Problem-Solving
3 191 (21.39%) Infrastructure as Code
4 179 (20.04%) ITIL
5 153 (17.13%) Load Balancing
6 148 (16.57%) CI/CD
7 145 (16.24%) DevOps
8 142 (15.90%) Migration
9 110 (12.32%) ITSM
10 104 (11.65%) Continuous Improvement
11 98 (10.97%) Cybersecurity
12 96 (10.75%) Technical Leadership
13 95 (10.64%) High Availability
14 94 (10.53%) Agile
15 81 (9.07%) Disaster Recovery
15 81 (9.07%) Observability
16 80 (8.96%) Project Delivery
17 79 (8.85%) Root Cause Analysis
18 78 (8.73%) Change Management
19 74 (8.29%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 236 (26.43%) PowerShell
2 177 (19.82%) Python
3 114 (12.77%) Bash
4 65 (7.28%) SQL
5 45 (5.04%) Bicep
6 19 (2.13%) Shell Script
7 18 (2.02%) ActionScript
8 14 (1.57%) Java
9 13 (1.46%) Go
10 11 (1.23%) JavaScript
11 10 (1.12%) VBScript
12 8 (0.90%) Perl
13 6 (0.67%) Groovy
13 6 (0.67%) VB
14 5 (0.56%) C#
14 5 (0.56%) Kusto Query Language
15 4 (0.45%) C++
15 4 (0.45%) Kotlin
15 4 (0.45%) VBA
16 3 (0.34%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 340 (38.07%) Security Cleared
2 189 (21.16%) SC Cleared
3 151 (16.91%) DV Cleared
4 72 (8.06%) Cisco Certification
4 72 (8.06%) Degree
5 64 (7.17%) CCNP
6 53 (5.94%) Azure Certification
7 48 (5.38%) Microsoft Certification
8 34 (3.81%) CCNA
9 24 (2.69%) Network+ Certification
10 23 (2.58%) AWS Certification
11 22 (2.46%) Computer Science Degree
12 18 (2.02%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 17 (1.90%) CCIE
14 15 (1.68%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 15 (1.68%) VCAP
15 12 (1.34%) BPSS Clearance
16 11 (1.23%) A+ Certification
17 10 (1.12%) CISSP
18 9 (1.01%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (3.92%) SLA
2 19 (2.13%) NIST
3 18 (2.02%) QA
4 14 (1.57%) NCSC
5 11 (1.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 6 (0.67%) Cyber Essentials
7 5 (0.56%) NIST 800
8 4 (0.45%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 3 (0.34%) Data Quality
9 3 (0.34%) GDPR
9 3 (0.34%) JSP 440
9 3 (0.34%) PCI DSS
9 3 (0.34%) SOC 2
10 2 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 2 (0.22%) Government Security Classifications
10 2 (0.22%) HIPAA
10 2 (0.22%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 1 (0.11%) GLBA
System Software
1 413 (46.25%) Active Directory
2 263 (29.45%) VMware Infrastructure
3 112 (12.54%) Hyper-V
4 87 (9.74%) VMware ESXi
5 79 (8.85%) vSphere
6 64 (7.17%) VMware NSX
7 63 (7.05%) Docker
8 45 (5.04%) Virtual Machines
9 39 (4.37%) Virtual Desktop
10 18 (2.02%) Firmware
11 16 (1.79%) vCloud
12 14 (1.57%) NFS
13 12 (1.34%) Virtual Servers
14 10 (1.12%) BitLocker
15 7 (0.78%) Postfix
16 6 (0.67%) VMware Workstation
17 5 (0.56%) Dovecot
17 5 (0.56%) Microsoft App-V
17 5 (0.56%) Microsoft Virtual Server
17 5 (0.56%) UAG
Systems Management
1 131 (14.67%) Ansible
2 111 (12.43%) Microsoft Intune
3 108 (12.09%) Kubernetes
4 79 (8.85%) SCCM
5 62 (6.94%) vCenter Server
6 61 (6.83%) Grafana
7 51 (5.71%) Prometheus
8 47 (5.26%) Single Sign-On
9 38 (4.26%) SCOM
10 29 (3.25%) WSUS
11 17 (1.90%) FortiGate
12 16 (1.79%) Jamf Pro
12 16 (1.79%) Puppet
12 16 (1.79%) VxRail
13 15 (1.68%) Packer
14 13 (1.46%) NetBackup
14 13 (1.46%) Progress Chef
15 12 (1.34%) Istio
16 10 (1.12%) Active Directory Federation Services
16 10 (1.12%) Nessus
Vendors
1 377 (42.22%) Microsoft
2 319 (35.72%) VMware
3 164 (18.37%) Cisco
4 122 (13.66%) F5
5 82 (9.18%) ServiceNow
6 51 (5.71%) Palo Alto
7 50 (5.60%) Google
8 46 (5.15%) SolarWinds
9 41 (4.59%) Citrix
10 39 (4.37%) Infoblox
11 38 (4.26%) Juniper
12 33 (3.70%) CheckPoint
12 33 (3.70%) NetApp
13 32 (3.58%) Splunk
14 31 (3.47%) Red Hat
15 30 (3.36%) Dynatrace
16 28 (3.14%) Fortinet
17 26 (2.91%) Veeam
18 24 (2.69%) Zscaler
19 22 (2.46%) Blue Coat