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 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 135 126 116
Rank change year-on-year -9 -10 +12
Contract jobs citing DNS 661 589 785
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.08% 2.06% 2.12%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 19.30% 16.06% 15.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 414 371 504
10th Percentile £219 £223 £213
25th Percentile £400 £328 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £475 £488
Median % change year-on-year +10.53% -2.56% -7.14%
75th Percentile £605 £588 £589
90th Percentile £689 £700 £650
UK median daily rate £525 £476 £490
% change year-on-year +10.29% -2.86% -6.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 36 6 17
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.40 £25.60
25th Percentile £25.98 £19.65 £31.25
Median hourly rate £61.25 £23.90 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +156.33% -56.55% +109.52%
75th Percentile £80.75 £28.83 £67.00
90th Percentile £87.82 £40.00 £73.20
UK median hourly rate £61.25 £23.59 £55.00
% change year-on-year +159.64% -57.11% +109.52%

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 3,425 3,668 5,221
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.78% 12.81% 14.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,222 2,158 3,238
10th Percentile £206 £220 £210
25th Percentile £360 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.50% - -1.96%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £677 £700
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 170 108 316
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.15 £17.88
25th Percentile £20.26 £20.64 £23.00
Median hourly rate £34.00 £35.00 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% -38.04% +29.27%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.81 £65.98
90th Percentile £75.50 £72.00 £76.18
UK median hourly rate £34.00 £35.00 £56.40
% change year-on-year -2.86% -37.94% +38.23%

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 December 2025.

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 December 2025.

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 December 2025. 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 +7 228 £550 +4.76% 104
North of England -32 134 £475 +23.38% 150
Midlands +8 119 £400 +3.90% 94
South East -4 115 £500 +8.11% 208
West Midlands +34 114 £400 -5.88% 50
North West -2 90 £518 +9.23% 82
South West -16 61 £575 +15.00% 68
Yorkshire -24 51 £447 +52.17% 59
East of England -21 39 £363 +28.32% 100
North East -16 7 £575 +283.33% 13
East Midlands -35 5 £363 -3.33% 39
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 87 (13.16%) Microsoft Exchange
2 72 (10.89%) SharePoint
3 32 (4.84%) Skype for Business
4 23 (3.48%) Confluence
5 11 (1.66%) nginx
5 11 (1.66%) SharePoint Server
6 10 (1.51%) Exchange Server 2010
7 9 (1.36%) Exchange Server 2013
8 8 (1.21%) IIS
9 7 (1.06%) Exchange Server 2003
9 7 (1.06%) Exchange Server 2007
9 7 (1.06%) Office Communications Server
10 5 (0.76%) Apache
11 4 (0.61%) OpenStack
12 3 (0.45%) Tomcat
13 2 (0.30%) Apache Spark
13 2 (0.30%) Cloud Foundry
13 2 (0.30%) Oracle HTTP Server
13 2 (0.30%) WebLogic
13 2 (0.30%) WordPress
Applications
1 45 (6.81%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (1.51%) Mozilla Thunderbird
2 10 (1.51%) MS Visio
3 4 (0.61%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (0.45%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (0.30%) Windchill
6 1 (0.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (0.30%) Remedy ITSM
1 2 (0.30%) SystmOne
1 2 (0.30%) Teamcenter
2 1 (0.15%) Eikon
2 1 (0.15%) Eze OMS
2 1 (0.15%) Fidessa
Cloud Services
1 215 (32.53%) Azure
2 167 (25.26%) AWS
3 141 (21.33%) Microsoft 365
4 90 (13.62%) Entra ID
5 69 (10.44%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 56 (8.47%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 55 (8.32%) Amazon S3
8 54 (8.17%) Amazon EC2
9 47 (7.11%) GitHub
10 45 (6.81%) GCP
11 42 (6.35%) Amazon ELB
12 33 (4.99%) IaaS
13 31 (4.69%) SaaS
14 29 (4.39%) Amazon ECS
14 29 (4.39%) AWS CloudFormation
15 25 (3.78%) Serverless
16 24 (3.63%) AWS KMS
17 23 (3.48%) AWS Lambda
18 22 (3.33%) GitHub Actions
19 18 (2.72%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 282 (42.66%) DHCP
2 231 (34.95%) Firewall
3 221 (33.43%) TCP/IP
4 166 (25.11%) VPN
5 103 (15.58%) Network Security
6 100 (15.13%) SSL
7 75 (11.35%) WAN
8 74 (11.20%) HTTP
9 63 (9.53%) VLAN
10 62 (9.38%) LAN
11 50 (7.56%) SMTP
12 49 (7.41%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
13 44 (6.66%) Wireless
14 42 (6.35%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
15 38 (5.75%) BGP
15 38 (5.75%) FTP
16 36 (5.45%) DMZ
17 35 (5.30%) Wi-Fi
18 32 (4.84%) Wireshark
19 29 (4.39%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 30 (4.54%) Amazon RDS
2 23 (3.48%) PostgreSQL
3 22 (3.33%) SQL Server
4 13 (1.97%) Amazon Aurora
5 10 (1.51%) MongoDB
6 5 (0.76%) BigQuery
6 5 (0.76%) Data Hub
7 4 (0.61%) Big Data
7 4 (0.61%) Elasticsearch
7 4 (0.61%) Relational Database
8 3 (0.45%) DynamoDB
8 3 (0.45%) MySQL
9 2 (0.30%) Apache Cassandra
9 2 (0.30%) Delta Lake
9 2 (0.30%) Hadoop
9 2 (0.30%) NoSQL
9 2 (0.30%) Parquet
9 2 (0.30%) Power BI
9 2 (0.30%) Redis
10 1 (0.15%) Electronic Patient Records
Development Applications
1 83 (12.56%) Jenkins
2 68 (10.29%) Git
3 47 (7.11%) GitLab
4 43 (6.51%) JIRA
5 21 (3.18%) Fiddler
6 17 (2.57%) Vagrant
7 8 (1.21%) Terragrunt
8 5 (0.76%) Subversion
9 4 (0.61%) CircleCI
9 4 (0.61%) TeamCity
10 3 (0.45%) Visual Studio Code
11 2 (0.30%) Browser DevTools
11 2 (0.30%) MLflow
11 2 (0.30%) Poetry
11 2 (0.30%) PyCharm
11 2 (0.30%) SonarQube
11 2 (0.30%) Vite
11 2 (0.30%) webpack
12 1 (0.15%) Octopus Deploy
12 1 (0.15%) Postman
General
1 210 (31.77%) Social Skills
2 112 (16.94%) Analytical Skills
3 79 (11.95%) Public Sector
4 51 (7.72%) Banking
5 46 (6.96%) Finance
6 38 (5.75%) Investment Banking
7 37 (5.60%) Documentation Skills
8 18 (2.72%) Presentation Skills
9 17 (2.57%) Telecoms
10 16 (2.42%) Legal
11 10 (1.51%) Law
11 10 (1.51%) Organisational Skills
12 9 (1.36%) Military
13 7 (1.06%) Aerospace
13 7 (1.06%) Influencing Skills
14 5 (0.76%) Marketing
15 4 (0.61%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 3 (0.45%) Financial Institution
16 3 (0.45%) Front Office
16 3 (0.45%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 87 (13.16%) Network Engineer
2 74 (11.20%) Support Engineer
3 70 (10.59%) Architect
4 67 (10.14%) Senior
5 65 (9.83%) Analyst
5 65 (9.83%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 49 (7.41%) Platform Engineer
7 47 (7.11%) DevOps Engineer
8 39 (5.90%) IT Support
9 37 (5.60%) Security Engineer
10 34 (5.14%) AWS Engineer
11 26 (3.93%) Cloud Platform Engineer
12 25 (3.78%) 2nd Line Support
13 24 (3.63%) AWS DevOps
13 24 (3.63%) AWS DevOps Engineer
14 23 (3.48%) Administrator
14 23 (3.48%) Lead
14 23 (3.48%) Operations Engineer
14 23 (3.48%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
14 23 (3.48%) SOC Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (6.51%) LDAP
2 23 (3.48%) SAML
3 18 (2.72%) OAuth
4 15 (2.27%) OpenID
5 14 (2.12%) OAuth2
6 13 (1.97%) Elastic Stack
7 12 (1.82%) 802.1X
8 10 (1.51%) Middleware
9 9 (1.36%) Kafka
10 7 (1.06%) AngularJS
10 7 (1.06%) React
11 6 (0.91%) cloud-init
11 6 (0.91%) Keycloak
11 6 (0.91%) REST
11 6 (0.91%) YAML
12 5 (0.76%) Flask
12 5 (0.76%) JSON
13 4 (0.61%) ASP.NET Web API
13 4 (0.61%) Microsoft Graph
13 4 (0.61%) WCF
Miscellaneous
1 53 (8.02%) Management Information System
1 53 (8.02%) Replication
2 52 (7.87%) PKI
3 50 (7.56%) Data Centre
4 29 (4.39%) Analytical Mindset
5 28 (4.24%) Onboarding
6 22 (3.33%) Enterprise Software
7 20 (3.03%) Cyberattack
8 19 (2.87%) Security Operations Centre
9 17 (2.57%) Cyber Threat
10 15 (2.27%) Hybrid Cloud
11 13 (1.97%) Cloud Native
11 13 (1.97%) CSOC
12 12 (1.82%) Video Conferencing
13 11 (1.66%) Self-Motivation
14 10 (1.51%) Clustering
14 10 (1.51%) Private Cloud
15 9 (1.36%) Public Cloud
16 8 (1.21%) SCADA
17 7 (1.06%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 330 (49.92%) Windows
2 148 (22.39%) Linux
2 148 (22.39%) Windows Server
3 62 (9.38%) Windows 10
4 29 (4.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 26 (3.93%) VMS
6 23 (3.48%) Unix
6 23 (3.48%) Windows Server 2016
6 23 (3.48%) Windows Server 2019
7 20 (3.03%) Amazon Linux
8 19 (2.87%) Windows Server 2012
9 18 (2.72%) Android
10 17 (2.57%) Ubuntu
11 15 (2.27%) Mac OS
12 14 (2.12%) CentOS
13 12 (1.82%) Apple iOS
14 11 (1.66%) Windows Server 2003
15 9 (1.36%) Windows 7
16 5 (0.76%) Solaris
17 3 (0.45%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 151 (22.84%) Problem-Solving
2 122 (18.46%) ITIL
3 117 (17.70%) DevOps
4 115 (17.40%) CI/CD
5 106 (16.04%) Load Balancing
6 94 (14.22%) Infrastructure as Code
7 88 (13.31%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 75 (11.35%) Change Management
8 75 (11.35%) Cybersecurity
9 66 (9.98%) Migration
10 65 (9.83%) Incident Response
11 64 (9.68%) High Availability
12 57 (8.62%) Root Cause Analysis
13 55 (8.32%) Platform Engineering
14 53 (8.02%) Continuous Improvement
15 52 (7.87%) Disaster Recovery
15 52 (7.87%) Service Management
16 51 (7.72%) SIEM
17 45 (6.81%) Containerisation
18 44 (6.66%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 197 (29.80%) PowerShell
2 162 (24.51%) Python
3 77 (11.65%) Bash
4 46 (6.96%) SQL
5 20 (3.03%) Perl
6 19 (2.87%) Groovy
7 17 (2.57%) Java
8 13 (1.97%) Bicep
9 11 (1.66%) Shell Script
10 10 (1.51%) Go
11 8 (1.21%) Kusto Query Language
11 8 (1.21%) Ruby
12 7 (1.06%) Lisp
12 7 (1.06%) VBScript
13 6 (0.91%) VB
14 5 (0.76%) C++
15 4 (0.61%) JavaScript
16 3 (0.45%) C#
16 3 (0.45%) T-SQL
16 3 (0.45%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 255 (38.58%) Security Cleared
2 180 (27.23%) SC Cleared
3 82 (12.41%) DV Cleared
4 63 (9.53%) Degree
5 61 (9.23%) Microsoft Certification
6 53 (8.02%) Cisco Certification
7 45 (6.81%) CCNP
8 39 (5.90%) Azure Certification
9 25 (3.78%) AWS Certification
10 19 (2.87%) CISSP
11 17 (2.57%) CCNA
11 17 (2.57%) Network+ Certification
12 12 (1.82%) CompTIA Security+
13 11 (1.66%) CCIE
13 11 (1.66%) MCSE
13 11 (1.66%) Server+ Certification
14 9 (1.36%) BPSS Clearance
14 9 (1.36%) Computer Science Degree
14 9 (1.36%) ITIL Certification
14 9 (1.36%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (4.39%) GDPR
2 19 (2.87%) SLA
3 13 (1.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 13 (1.97%) NIST
4 10 (1.51%) NCSC
5 9 (1.36%) Cyber Essentials
6 7 (1.06%) Accessibility
7 6 (0.91%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 5 (0.76%) PCI DSS
9 4 (0.61%) Data Quality
9 4 (0.61%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 2 (0.30%) JSP 440
10 2 (0.30%) QA
10 2 (0.30%) WCAG
11 1 (0.15%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 1 (0.15%) Government Security Classifications
11 1 (0.15%) SOC 2
System Software
1 289 (43.72%) Active Directory
2 166 (25.11%) VMware Infrastructure
3 88 (13.31%) Docker
4 44 (6.66%) Hyper-V
5 42 (6.35%) VMware NSX
6 30 (4.54%) Virtual Machines
7 24 (3.63%) vSphere
8 22 (3.33%) Firmware
9 20 (3.03%) DFS Replication
10 18 (2.72%) VMware ESXi
11 16 (2.42%) Dovecot
11 16 (2.42%) Postfix
12 13 (1.97%) Terminal Services
13 10 (1.51%) Squid
14 9 (1.36%) Virtual Servers
15 8 (1.21%) Virtual Desktop
16 7 (1.06%) BitLocker
16 7 (1.06%) Brightmail
16 7 (1.06%) ISA Server
17 6 (0.91%) NFS
Systems Management
1 135 (20.42%) Terraform
2 107 (16.19%) Ansible
3 74 (11.20%) SCCM
4 72 (10.89%) Microsoft Intune
5 61 (9.23%) Kubernetes
6 42 (6.35%) vCenter Server
7 41 (6.20%) Grafana
8 40 (6.05%) Single Sign-On
9 35 (5.30%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 31 (4.69%) Prometheus
11 20 (3.03%) WSUS
12 16 (2.42%) Nessus
13 15 (2.27%) Argo
14 14 (2.12%) FortiGate
15 13 (1.97%) Packer
15 13 (1.97%) Proxmox
16 12 (1.82%) SCOM
17 10 (1.51%) Microsoft Clustering
18 9 (1.36%) Progress Chef
18 9 (1.36%) Puppet
Vendors
1 249 (37.67%) Microsoft
2 202 (30.56%) VMware
3 112 (16.94%) F5
4 100 (15.13%) Cisco
5 72 (10.89%) ServiceNow
6 54 (8.17%) CheckPoint
7 53 (8.02%) Palo Alto
8 48 (7.26%) Splunk
9 38 (5.75%) Citrix
10 36 (5.45%) Blue Coat
11 34 (5.14%) SolarWinds
12 31 (4.69%) Red Hat
13 28 (4.24%) Juniper
14 25 (3.78%) McAfee
14 25 (3.78%) Veeam
15 24 (3.63%) NetApp
16 20 (3.03%) Zscaler
17 18 (2.72%) Fortinet
17 18 (2.72%) Google
18 16 (2.42%) Dell