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

6 months to
17 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 132 113 130
Rank change year-on-year -19 +17 -14
Contract jobs citing DNS 779 596 674
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.98% 2.44% 1.80%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 20.65% 18.51% 13.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 489 419 457
10th Percentile £263 £250 £203
25th Percentile £400 £400 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £475
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +10.53% -9.52%
75th Percentile £588 £609 £575
90th Percentile £663 £663 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £475
% change year-on-year -4.76% +10.53% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 35 9 25
10th Percentile £15.96 £22.57 £20.00
25th Percentile £23.20 £28.00 £24.25
Median hourly rate £55.50 £80.68 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -31.21% +101.69% -13.24%
75th Percentile £74.26 £81.35 -
90th Percentile £75.90 £82.48 £64.50
UK median hourly rate £55.50 £54.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +1.83% +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 3,772 3,220 5,121
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.59% 13.18% 13.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,381 2,012 3,091
10th Percentile £225 £220 £205
25th Percentile £400 £364 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year - +5.26% -9.09%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK median daily rate £497 £488 £488
% change year-on-year +1.98% - -5.34%
Number of hourly rates quoted 189 123 398
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.20 £13.50
25th Percentile £20.75 £18.32 £17.69
Median hourly rate £45.00 £36.65 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +22.80% -8.39% +111.30%
75th Percentile £70.00 £65.00 £62.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £79.81 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £42.71 £37.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +13.88% -6.25% +110.53%

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 17 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 17 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 17 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 -49 250 £500 -0.05% 58
North of England -2 218 £447 -5.89% 64
South East -5 155 £525 -4.55% 80
North West +33 141 £450 +5.88% 29
Midlands +13 116 £400 -27.93% 33
West Midlands +30 103 £400 -19.40% 17
Yorkshire -31 77 £445 -19.18% 26
South West -48 51 £575 +4.74% 31
East of England -25 43 £450 -10.00% 30
East Midlands -33 12 £394 -30.62% 16
North East -23 4 £200 -51.52% 10
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 94 (12.07%) Microsoft Exchange
2 40 (5.13%) SharePoint
3 13 (1.67%) nginx
4 12 (1.54%) Skype for Business
5 11 (1.41%) Confluence
6 9 (1.16%) IIS
7 8 (1.03%) Apache
8 3 (0.39%) Exchange Server 2010
9 2 (0.26%) Exchange Server 2013
9 2 (0.26%) IBM HTTP Server
9 2 (0.26%) Oracle HTTP Server
9 2 (0.26%) WebSphere
9 2 (0.26%) WebSphere Application Server
9 2 (0.26%) WebSphere Portal
9 2 (0.26%) WordPress
10 1 (0.13%) Tomcat
10 1 (0.13%) Traefik
Applications
1 26 (3.34%) Microsoft Office
2 14 (1.80%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (0.13%) Cloudability
1 1 (0.13%) Remedy ITSM
1 1 (0.13%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 266 (34.15%) Azure
2 141 (18.10%) AWS
3 136 (17.46%) Entra ID
4 119 (15.28%) Microsoft 365
5 87 (11.17%) GCP
6 55 (7.06%) GitHub
7 45 (5.78%) IaaS
8 40 (5.13%) SaaS
9 35 (4.49%) PaaS
9 35 (4.49%) Serverless
10 34 (4.36%) AWS CloudFormation
11 32 (4.11%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 30 (3.85%) AWS Lambda
13 29 (3.72%) Route 53
14 28 (3.59%) Amazon S3
15 27 (3.47%) Amazon EC2
16 24 (3.08%) Amazon EKS
17 23 (2.95%) OpenShift
18 22 (2.82%) Azure DevOps
19 20 (2.57%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 344 (44.16%) DHCP
2 252 (32.35%) Firewall
3 190 (24.39%) TCP/IP
4 185 (23.75%) VPN
5 106 (13.61%) WAN
6 100 (12.84%) LAN
7 80 (10.27%) Network Security
8 78 (10.01%) BGP
9 77 (9.88%) VLAN
10 76 (9.76%) SSL
11 74 (9.50%) BIG-IP
12 67 (8.60%) HTTP
13 50 (6.42%) Wi-Fi
14 47 (6.03%) OSPF
15 46 (5.91%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
16 39 (5.01%) Wireshark
17 38 (4.88%) Wireless
18 36 (4.62%) DMZ
18 36 (4.62%) Kerberos
19 31 (3.98%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (3.59%) SQL Server
2 18 (2.31%) Elasticsearch
3 13 (1.67%) PostgreSQL
4 9 (1.16%) Amazon RDS
5 7 (0.90%) DynamoDB
6 5 (0.64%) Amazon Aurora
6 5 (0.64%) Azure SQL Database
6 5 (0.64%) Data Hub
6 5 (0.64%) MongoDB
6 5 (0.64%) MySQL
7 4 (0.51%) DocumentDB
7 4 (0.51%) NoSQL
7 4 (0.51%) Power BI
7 4 (0.51%) Redis
7 4 (0.51%) Relational Database
8 1 (0.13%) Electronic Patient Records
8 1 (0.13%) Oracle Reports
8 1 (0.13%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 1 (0.13%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 50 (6.42%) Jenkins
2 43 (5.52%) JIRA
3 28 (3.59%) Fiddler
4 27 (3.47%) Git
5 25 (3.21%) GitLab
6 9 (1.16%) Browser DevTools
7 7 (0.90%) Bitbucket
7 7 (0.90%) SonarQube
8 6 (0.77%) Chocolatey
9 4 (0.51%) CircleCI
9 4 (0.51%) Terragrunt
10 2 (0.26%) Introscope
10 2 (0.26%) Sonatype Nexus
11 1 (0.13%) Artifactory
11 1 (0.13%) Atlassian Bamboo
11 1 (0.13%) Subversion
11 1 (0.13%) Travis CI
General
1 178 (22.85%) Social Skills
2 82 (10.53%) Analytical Skills
3 71 (9.11%) Banking
4 59 (7.57%) Finance
5 54 (6.93%) Public Sector
6 49 (6.29%) Documentation Skills
7 41 (5.26%) Investment Banking
8 22 (2.82%) Legal
9 17 (2.18%) Military
9 17 (2.18%) Telecoms
10 9 (1.16%) Organisational Skills
11 6 (0.77%) Financial Institution
11 6 (0.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 6 (0.77%) Influencing Skills
11 6 (0.77%) Law
12 5 (0.64%) Local Government
13 4 (0.51%) Manufacturing
14 3 (0.39%) Aerospace
14 3 (0.39%) Presentation Skills
15 2 (0.26%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 138 (17.72%) Network Engineer
2 119 (15.28%) Architect
3 84 (10.78%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 67 (8.60%) Analyst
5 62 (7.96%) Senior
6 53 (6.80%) Security Engineer
7 48 (6.16%) Web Engineer
8 45 (5.78%) Support Engineer
9 36 (4.62%) IT Support
9 36 (4.62%) Network Security Engineer
10 32 (4.11%) IT Engineer
11 30 (3.85%) Cisco Engineer
11 30 (3.85%) Cisco Network Engineer
12 29 (3.72%) Lead
13 27 (3.47%) Data Engineer
13 27 (3.47%) Data Network Engineer
14 26 (3.34%) Administrator
14 26 (3.34%) Azure Engineer
14 26 (3.34%) Cisco Security Engineer
14 26 (3.34%) Platform Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 66 (8.47%) LDAP
2 52 (6.68%) SAML
3 45 (5.78%) OAuth
4 33 (4.24%) OpenID
5 30 (3.85%) 802.1X
6 22 (2.82%) OpenTelemetry
7 21 (2.70%) OAuth2
8 10 (1.28%) REST
9 9 (1.16%) JSON
9 9 (1.16%) Kafka
10 7 (0.90%) Elastic Stack
10 7 (0.90%) XMPP
11 6 (0.77%) ARM Templates
12 5 (0.64%) Microsoft Graph
12 5 (0.64%) Middleware
12 5 (0.64%) Web Services
13 4 (0.51%) Hibernate
13 4 (0.51%) JPA
13 4 (0.51%) RESTful
13 4 (0.51%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 69 (8.86%) Data Centre
2 60 (7.70%) PKI
3 49 (6.29%) Cloud Native
4 47 (6.03%) Replication
5 37 (4.75%) Clustering
5 37 (4.75%) Management Information System
6 32 (4.11%) Public Cloud
7 30 (3.85%) Onboarding
8 26 (3.34%) Hybrid Cloud
9 21 (2.70%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 17 (2.18%) Self-Motivation
11 16 (2.05%) Enterprise Software
12 15 (1.93%) Cyber Threat
12 15 (1.93%) Cyberattack
12 15 (1.93%) Legacy Systems
12 15 (1.93%) Security Operations Centre
13 13 (1.67%) Analytical Mindset
14 12 (1.54%) Enterprise Cloud
14 12 (1.54%) Private Cloud
14 12 (1.54%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 344 (44.16%) Windows
2 198 (25.42%) Windows Server
3 101 (12.97%) Linux
4 47 (6.03%) Windows 10
5 27 (3.47%) Windows Server 2019
6 20 (2.57%) Unix
7 18 (2.31%) Android
8 17 (2.18%) Windows Server 2012
9 13 (1.67%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 13 (1.67%) Windows Server 2016
10 12 (1.54%) Apple iOS
11 11 (1.41%) Windows 7
12 10 (1.28%) Mac OS
13 8 (1.03%) Windows Server 2003
14 7 (0.90%) VMS
15 4 (0.51%) CatOS
16 3 (0.39%) Amazon Linux
16 3 (0.39%) CentOS
16 3 (0.39%) Ubuntu
17 2 (0.26%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 170 (21.82%) Load Balancing
2 169 (21.69%) Problem-Solving
3 130 (16.69%) Migration
4 116 (14.89%) High Availability
5 110 (14.12%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 102 (13.09%) DevOps
7 101 (12.97%) ITIL
8 98 (12.58%) CI/CD
9 96 (12.32%) Infrastructure as Code
10 76 (9.76%) Identity Access Management
11 72 (9.24%) Disaster Recovery
12 70 (8.99%) Cybersecurity
13 63 (8.09%) Observability
13 63 (8.09%) RBAC
14 62 (7.96%) ITSM
15 54 (6.93%) Agile
16 51 (6.55%) Roadmaps
17 50 (6.42%) Change Management
17 50 (6.42%) Continuous Improvement
17 50 (6.42%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 194 (24.90%) PowerShell
2 122 (15.66%) Python
3 64 (8.22%) Bash
4 35 (4.49%) SQL
5 18 (2.31%) JavaScript
6 14 (1.80%) Bicep
7 13 (1.67%) VBScript
8 11 (1.41%) Java
9 10 (1.28%) Ruby
10 9 (1.16%) Go
10 9 (1.16%) Shell Script
10 9 (1.16%) VB
11 5 (0.64%) VBA
12 4 (0.51%) Kusto Query Language
12 4 (0.51%) Lisp
13 3 (0.39%) C
13 3 (0.39%) Perl
14 2 (0.26%) C#
14 2 (0.26%) Jython
14 2 (0.26%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 261 (33.50%) Security Cleared
2 168 (21.57%) SC Cleared
3 91 (11.68%) DV Cleared
4 68 (8.73%) Cisco Certification
5 46 (5.91%) Degree
6 39 (5.01%) CCNP
7 36 (4.62%) Microsoft Certification
8 26 (3.34%) Azure Certification
8 26 (3.34%) CCNA
9 16 (2.05%) CompTIA Security+
10 15 (1.93%) AWS Certification
11 13 (1.67%) Network+ Certification
12 11 (1.41%) CISSP
13 10 (1.28%) BPSS Clearance
13 10 (1.28%) JNCIA
13 10 (1.28%) JNCIS
14 9 (1.16%) CCIE
14 9 (1.16%) Computer Science Degree
14 9 (1.16%) JNCIP
15 8 (1.03%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (3.72%) GDPR
2 23 (2.95%) NIST
2 23 (2.95%) SLA
3 22 (2.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 15 (1.93%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 8 (1.03%) NCSC
5 8 (1.03%) PCI DSS
6 7 (0.90%) Cyber Essentials
7 6 (0.77%) QA
8 3 (0.39%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 2 (0.26%) Data Quality
9 2 (0.26%) JSP 440
10 1 (0.13%) Accessibility
10 1 (0.13%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.13%) COBIT
10 1 (0.13%) NIST 800
10 1 (0.13%) RMADS
System Software
1 328 (42.11%) Active Directory
2 173 (22.21%) VMware Infrastructure
3 68 (8.73%) Hyper-V
4 53 (6.80%) VMware NSX
5 44 (5.65%) vSphere
6 42 (5.39%) Docker
7 26 (3.34%) Firmware
7 26 (3.34%) Virtual Machines
7 26 (3.34%) VMware ESXi
8 18 (2.31%) BitLocker
9 15 (1.93%) Virtual Desktop
10 10 (1.28%) Squid
11 8 (1.03%) Microsoft App-V
11 8 (1.03%) NFS
12 5 (0.64%) Postfix
12 5 (0.64%) Sendmail
12 5 (0.64%) Terminal Services
12 5 (0.64%) Varnish
13 4 (0.51%) XenApp
14 3 (0.39%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 139 (17.84%) Terraform
2 102 (13.09%) Ansible
3 86 (11.04%) Kubernetes
4 83 (10.65%) Microsoft Intune
5 78 (10.01%) Single Sign-On
6 62 (7.96%) SCCM
7 58 (7.45%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 43 (5.52%) FortiGate
9 41 (5.26%) vCenter Server
10 37 (4.75%) Grafana
11 23 (2.95%) Argo
12 21 (2.70%) Prometheus
13 18 (2.31%) WSUS
14 14 (1.80%) SCOM
15 10 (1.28%) Puppet
16 9 (1.16%) HAProxy
17 8 (1.03%) Nessus
17 8 (1.03%) vMotion
18 7 (0.90%) Consul
19 6 (0.77%) Nagios
Vendors
1 270 (34.66%) Microsoft
2 214 (27.47%) VMware
3 140 (17.97%) F5
4 131 (16.82%) Cisco
5 65 (8.34%) ServiceNow
6 64 (8.22%) Splunk
7 49 (6.29%) Citrix
8 46 (5.91%) SolarWinds
9 40 (5.13%) Google
10 38 (4.88%) Juniper
10 38 (4.88%) Red Hat
11 37 (4.75%) Infoblox
12 36 (4.62%) Blue Coat
13 32 (4.11%) McAfee
14 31 (3.98%) Palo Alto
15 30 (3.85%) NetApp
16 21 (2.70%) Extreme Networks
17 19 (2.44%) Pure Storage
18 17 (2.18%) CheckPoint
18 17 (2.18%) Fortinet