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 26 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 135 107 138
Rank change year-on-year -28 +31 -5
Contract jobs citing DNS 805 592 614
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.94% 2.49% 1.68%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 20.41% 19.04% 12.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 501 413 426
10th Percentile £281 £267 £225
25th Percentile £400 £400 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £495 £550 £485
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +13.52% -7.71%
75th Percentile £588 £611 £600
90th Percentile £638 £662 £675
UK median daily rate £495 £550 £475
% change year-on-year -10.00% +15.79% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 39 9 23
10th Percentile £19.49 £26.10 £18.80
25th Percentile £25.58 £45.75 £23.53
Median hourly rate £35.22 £80.68 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -56.34% +101.69% -23.27%
75th Percentile £74.00 £81.35 -
90th Percentile £74.41 £82.48 £51.27
UK median hourly rate £36.36 £80.68 £40.00
% change year-on-year -54.93% +101.69% -23.27%

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 3,944 3,109 4,801
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.50% 13.06% 13.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,448 1,942 2,891
10th Percentile £263 £219 £213
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -3.85%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £695
UK median daily rate £500 £485 £490
% change year-on-year +3.09% -1.02% -4.39%
Number of hourly rates quoted 250 117 386
10th Percentile £16.50 £14.20 £13.50
25th Percentile £21.33 £15.44 £16.30
Median hourly rate £32.50 £37.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -13.33% -6.25% +128.57%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £81.35 £70.33
UK median hourly rate £28.88 £38.41 £40.00
% change year-on-year -24.81% -3.98% +116.22%

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 26 May 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 26 May 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 26 May 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 -50 255 £500 -4.76% 66
North of England +6 229 £446 -6.11% 58
South East -9 163 £525 -4.55% 95
North West +40 155 £449 +5.65% 36
Midlands +10 110 £413 -25.00% 32
West Midlands +14 97 £406 +1.56% 20
Yorkshire -32 68 £447 -18.82% 17
South West -27 57 £500 -17.53% 36
East of England -49 39 £450 -18.18% 30
East Midlands -30 12 £394 -30.62% 12
North East -28 6 £306 -12.50% 8
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 80 (9.94%) Microsoft Exchange
2 43 (5.34%) SharePoint
3 16 (1.99%) nginx
4 15 (1.86%) Confluence
5 13 (1.61%) IIS
6 11 (1.37%) Apache
7 6 (0.75%) Tomcat
8 4 (0.50%) Skype for Business
9 2 (0.25%) Exchange Server 2013
9 2 (0.25%) IBM HTTP Server
9 2 (0.25%) Oracle HTTP Server
9 2 (0.25%) WebSphere
9 2 (0.25%) WebSphere Application Server
9 2 (0.25%) WebSphere Portal
10 1 (0.12%) Exchange Server 2010
10 1 (0.12%) Traefik
Applications
1 16 (1.99%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (1.49%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.12%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 3 (0.37%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.12%) Cloudability
Cloud Services
1 279 (34.66%) Azure
2 148 (18.39%) AWS
3 129 (16.02%) Entra ID
4 104 (12.92%) Microsoft 365
5 90 (11.18%) GCP
6 61 (7.58%) GitHub
7 47 (5.84%) IaaS
8 37 (4.60%) PaaS
9 36 (4.47%) SaaS
10 31 (3.85%) AWS CloudFormation
10 31 (3.85%) Serverless
11 30 (3.73%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 29 (3.60%) Amazon EC2
13 28 (3.48%) Amazon S3
13 28 (3.48%) AWS Lambda
14 27 (3.35%) Amazon EKS
14 27 (3.35%) GitHub Actions
15 26 (3.23%) Route 53
16 20 (2.48%) OneDrive
16 20 (2.48%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 349 (43.35%) DHCP
2 246 (30.56%) Firewall
3 199 (24.72%) VPN
4 186 (23.11%) TCP/IP
5 106 (13.17%) WAN
6 97 (12.05%) LAN
7 88 (10.93%) Network Security
8 87 (10.81%) SSL
9 83 (10.31%) BIG-IP
10 81 (10.06%) VLAN
11 80 (9.94%) BGP
12 73 (9.07%) HTTP
13 50 (6.21%) Wireless
14 45 (5.59%) OSPF
15 43 (5.34%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
15 43 (5.34%) SAN
15 43 (5.34%) Wi-Fi
16 38 (4.72%) DMZ
16 38 (4.72%) Kerberos
16 38 (4.72%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (4.10%) SQL Server
2 18 (2.24%) Elasticsearch
3 12 (1.49%) PostgreSQL
4 10 (1.24%) Amazon RDS
5 8 (0.99%) MySQL
5 8 (0.99%) Power BI
6 5 (0.62%) Amazon Aurora
6 5 (0.62%) Azure SQL Database
6 5 (0.62%) DynamoDB
6 5 (0.62%) MongoDB
7 4 (0.50%) DocumentDB
7 4 (0.50%) NoSQL
7 4 (0.50%) Redis
8 2 (0.25%) Data Hub
9 1 (0.12%) Oracle Reports
9 1 (0.12%) Relational Database
9 1 (0.12%) SQL Server Reporting Services
9 1 (0.12%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 55 (6.83%) Jenkins
2 52 (6.46%) JIRA
3 28 (3.48%) Git
3 28 (3.48%) GitLab
4 26 (3.23%) Fiddler
5 9 (1.12%) Browser DevTools
6 7 (0.87%) Bitbucket
6 7 (0.87%) SonarQube
7 6 (0.75%) Chocolatey
8 4 (0.50%) CircleCI
8 4 (0.50%) Terragrunt
9 3 (0.37%) Sonatype Nexus
10 2 (0.25%) Introscope
11 1 (0.12%) Artifactory
11 1 (0.12%) Atlassian Bamboo
11 1 (0.12%) Spinnaker
11 1 (0.12%) Travis CI
General
1 166 (20.62%) Social Skills
2 78 (9.69%) Analytical Skills
3 70 (8.70%) Banking
4 63 (7.83%) Finance
5 50 (6.21%) Public Sector
6 39 (4.84%) Documentation Skills
7 37 (4.60%) Investment Banking
8 19 (2.36%) Legal
9 17 (2.11%) Military
10 15 (1.86%) Telecoms
11 9 (1.12%) Law
12 8 (0.99%) Organisational Skills
13 6 (0.75%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 5 (0.62%) Local Government
14 5 (0.62%) Police
15 4 (0.50%) Financial Institution
15 4 (0.50%) Manufacturing
16 3 (0.37%) Advertising
17 2 (0.25%) Aerospace
17 2 (0.25%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 153 (19.01%) Network Engineer
2 107 (13.29%) Architect
3 101 (12.55%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 65 (8.07%) Analyst
5 61 (7.58%) Security Engineer
6 54 (6.71%) Senior
7 49 (6.09%) Web Engineer
8 48 (5.96%) Support Engineer
9 41 (5.09%) Network Security Engineer
10 35 (4.35%) Cisco Engineer
10 35 (4.35%) Cloud Engineer
11 34 (4.22%) Cisco Network Engineer
11 34 (4.22%) IT Support
12 33 (4.10%) Data Engineer
12 33 (4.10%) Data Network Engineer
13 32 (3.98%) Cisco Security Engineer
14 31 (3.85%) Administrator
15 29 (3.60%) IT Engineer
16 28 (3.48%) Azure Engineer
17 27 (3.35%) Lead
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 68 (8.45%) LDAP
2 45 (5.59%) SAML
3 37 (4.60%) 802.1X
3 37 (4.60%) OAuth
4 25 (3.11%) OpenID
5 20 (2.48%) OpenTelemetry
6 10 (1.24%) ARM Templates
6 10 (1.24%) JSON
7 9 (1.12%) Kafka
7 9 (1.12%) OAuth2
7 9 (1.12%) REST
8 8 (0.99%) Elastic Stack
9 5 (0.62%) Microsoft Graph
9 5 (0.62%) XMPP
9 5 (0.62%) YAML
10 4 (0.50%) Hibernate
10 4 (0.50%) JPA
10 4 (0.50%) RESTful
10 4 (0.50%) Spring
10 4 (0.50%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 85 (10.56%) Data Centre
2 55 (6.83%) PKI
3 49 (6.09%) Cloud Native
4 43 (5.34%) Onboarding
5 39 (4.84%) Management Information System
5 39 (4.84%) Replication
6 38 (4.72%) Clustering
7 36 (4.47%) Public Cloud
8 26 (3.23%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 25 (3.11%) Hybrid Cloud
10 18 (2.24%) Cyber Threat
11 17 (2.11%) Security Operations Centre
12 16 (1.99%) Self-Motivation
13 15 (1.86%) Cyberattack
13 15 (1.86%) Enterprise Cloud
14 12 (1.49%) Enterprise Software
14 12 (1.49%) Legacy Systems
15 11 (1.37%) Analytical Mindset
15 11 (1.37%) Enterprise Storage
15 11 (1.37%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 329 (40.87%) Windows
2 193 (23.98%) Windows Server
3 101 (12.55%) Linux
4 44 (5.47%) Windows 10
5 35 (4.35%) Windows Server 2019
6 24 (2.98%) Unix
7 19 (2.36%) Windows Server 2012
8 18 (2.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 17 (2.11%) Mac OS
10 15 (1.86%) Windows Server 2016
11 13 (1.61%) Apple iOS
12 12 (1.49%) Android
13 9 (1.12%) CentOS
13 9 (1.12%) Ubuntu
14 8 (0.99%) Windows Server 2003
15 7 (0.87%) Windows 7
16 4 (0.50%) CatOS
16 4 (0.50%) VMS
17 3 (0.37%) Windows Server 2008
18 2 (0.25%) Oracle Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 169 (20.99%) Problem-Solving
2 162 (20.12%) Load Balancing
3 134 (16.65%) Migration
4 131 (16.27%) High Availability
5 127 (15.78%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 111 (13.79%) DevOps
7 104 (12.92%) CI/CD
8 101 (12.55%) Infrastructure as Code
9 100 (12.42%) ITIL
10 74 (9.19%) Observability
11 73 (9.07%) ITSM
12 71 (8.82%) Disaster Recovery
13 68 (8.45%) Identity Access Management
14 65 (8.07%) Cybersecurity
15 62 (7.70%) Agile
16 54 (6.71%) Project Delivery
17 51 (6.34%) RBAC
18 50 (6.21%) Containerisation
18 50 (6.21%) Root Cause Analysis
19 48 (5.96%) Runbook
Programming Languages
1 157 (19.50%) PowerShell
2 123 (15.28%) Python
3 72 (8.94%) Bash
4 43 (5.34%) SQL
5 21 (2.61%) JavaScript
6 19 (2.36%) Bicep
7 12 (1.49%) Go
7 12 (1.49%) Java
8 11 (1.37%) Shell Script
9 8 (0.99%) Ruby
10 7 (0.87%) VBA
11 6 (0.75%) Perl
11 6 (0.75%) VBScript
12 4 (0.50%) Groovy
12 4 (0.50%) VB
13 3 (0.37%) ActionScript
13 3 (0.37%) C
14 2 (0.25%) Jython
14 2 (0.25%) Kusto Query Language
14 2 (0.25%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 271 (33.66%) Security Cleared
2 175 (21.74%) SC Cleared
3 88 (10.93%) DV Cleared
4 78 (9.69%) Cisco Certification
5 51 (6.34%) Degree
6 48 (5.96%) CCNP
7 40 (4.97%) CCNA
8 26 (3.23%) Network+ Certification
9 25 (3.11%) Microsoft Certification
10 22 (2.73%) Azure Certification
11 17 (2.11%) CompTIA Security+
12 15 (1.86%) Server+ Certification
13 11 (1.37%) BPSS Clearance
14 10 (1.24%) AWS Certification
14 10 (1.24%) Computer Science Degree
14 10 (1.24%) JNCIA
14 10 (1.24%) JNCIS
15 8 (0.99%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 8 (0.99%) JNCIP
16 7 (0.87%) OCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (3.85%) SLA
2 21 (2.61%) GDPR
3 20 (2.48%) NIST
4 16 (1.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 15 (1.86%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 7 (0.87%) QA
7 6 (0.75%) NCSC
8 4 (0.50%) Cyber Essentials
8 4 (0.50%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 4 (0.50%) PCI DSS
9 2 (0.25%) Data Quality
9 2 (0.25%) JSP 440
10 1 (0.12%) Accessibility
10 1 (0.12%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.12%) COBIT
10 1 (0.12%) NIST 800
10 1 (0.12%) RMADS
10 1 (0.12%) SOC 2
System Software
1 323 (40.12%) Active Directory
2 179 (22.24%) VMware Infrastructure
3 83 (10.31%) Hyper-V
4 53 (6.58%) VMware NSX
5 45 (5.59%) vSphere
6 41 (5.09%) Docker
7 35 (4.35%) VMware ESXi
8 32 (3.98%) Virtual Machines
9 25 (3.11%) Firmware
10 23 (2.86%) Virtual Desktop
11 14 (1.74%) BitLocker
12 12 (1.49%) NFS
13 11 (1.37%) Squid
14 10 (1.24%) Microsoft App-V
14 10 (1.24%) Postfix
15 8 (0.99%) vCloud
15 8 (0.99%) VMware Workstation
16 7 (0.87%) Varnish
17 4 (0.50%) Sendmail
18 3 (0.37%) DFS Replication
Systems Management
1 134 (16.65%) Terraform
2 101 (12.55%) Ansible
3 89 (11.06%) Kubernetes
4 71 (8.82%) Microsoft Intune
5 69 (8.57%) Single Sign-On
6 48 (5.96%) Grafana
6 48 (5.96%) SCCM
7 44 (5.47%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 44 (5.47%) FortiGate
8 42 (5.22%) vCenter Server
9 30 (3.73%) Prometheus
10 24 (2.98%) WSUS
11 20 (2.48%) Argo
12 17 (2.11%) SCOM
13 14 (1.74%) HAProxy
14 12 (1.49%) Puppet
15 11 (1.37%) Nessus
16 9 (1.12%) vMotion
17 8 (0.99%) Consul
17 8 (0.99%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 252 (31.30%) Microsoft
2 217 (26.96%) VMware
3 149 (18.51%) Cisco
4 147 (18.26%) F5
5 72 (8.94%) ServiceNow
6 70 (8.70%) Splunk
7 48 (5.96%) Infoblox
8 47 (5.84%) Citrix
9 46 (5.71%) SolarWinds
10 45 (5.59%) Juniper
11 41 (5.09%) Google
12 39 (4.84%) Red Hat
13 35 (4.35%) Blue Coat
14 32 (3.98%) NetApp
15 29 (3.60%) McAfee
16 27 (3.35%) Dynatrace
16 27 (3.35%) Palo Alto
17 24 (2.98%) CheckPoint
18 22 (2.73%) Extreme Networks
19 18 (2.24%) AppDynamics