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

6 months to
6 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 131 120 149
Rank change year-on-year -11 +29 -14
Contract jobs citing DNS 924 650 538
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.03% 2.35% 1.61%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 21.67% 18.89% 12.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 568 431 369
10th Percentile £290 £263 £256
25th Percentile £400 £400 £380
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £650 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £488
% change year-on-year -4.76% +7.69% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 51 31 15
10th Percentile £25.00 £29.00 £20.00
25th Percentile £31.25 £34.38 £23.45
Median hourly rate £58.25 £57.50 £24.20
Median % change year-on-year +1.30% +137.60% -27.76%
75th Percentile £74.00 £82.55 £39.38
90th Percentile £98.82 £89.63 £63.51
UK median hourly rate £55.38 £57.50 £24.20
% change year-on-year -3.70% +137.60% -39.50%

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 4,264 3,441 4,192
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.37% 12.45% 12.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,581 2,138 2,580
10th Percentile £263 £241 £240
25th Percentile £400 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £495 £500
Median % change year-on-year +0.92% -0.91% -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £613
90th Percentile £675 £680 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £488 £500
% change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 333 162 291
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £14.27
25th Percentile £19.50 £25.15 £20.00
Median hourly rate £28.00 £45.00 £54.88
Median % change year-on-year -37.78% -18.00% +5.75%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £87.25 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £26.66 £50.00 £47.50
% change year-on-year -46.68% +5.26% -5.79%

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 August 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 August 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 August 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 -35 323 £495 -2.94% 169
North of England +20 221 £460 -8.00% 66
South East +11 199 £538 -2.27% 88
North West +33 147 £450 -1.75% 39
Midlands -17 113 £450 -5.26% 40
West Midlands -23 93 £450 -5.26% 29
South West -7 83 £500 -13.98% 45
Yorkshire -28 64 £475 -13.64% 22
East of England -54 32 £450 -18.18% 31
East Midlands +2 18 £413 -26.67% 11
North East -39 10 £463 +13.50% 7
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 89 (9.63%) Microsoft Exchange
2 74 (8.01%) SharePoint
3 19 (2.06%) Confluence
4 16 (1.73%) Apache
4 16 (1.73%) nginx
5 12 (1.30%) IIS
6 6 (0.65%) Tomcat
7 3 (0.32%) Exchange Server 2013
8 2 (0.22%) IBM HTTP Server
8 2 (0.22%) OpenStack
8 2 (0.22%) Oracle HTTP Server
8 2 (0.22%) WebSphere
8 2 (0.22%) WebSphere Application Server
8 2 (0.22%) WebSphere Portal
9 1 (0.11%) Exchange Server 2010
9 1 (0.11%) SharePoint Server
9 1 (0.11%) Traefik
Applications
1 20 (2.16%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (0.97%) MS Visio
3 8 (0.87%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (0.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.22%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 2 (0.22%) Houdini
5 2 (0.22%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.22%) NUKE
Business Applications
1 9 (0.97%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 358 (38.74%) Azure
2 189 (20.45%) AWS
3 154 (16.67%) Microsoft 365
4 152 (16.45%) Entra ID
5 101 (10.93%) GCP
6 65 (7.03%) GitHub
7 52 (5.63%) IaaS
8 46 (4.98%) OneDrive
9 38 (4.11%) PaaS
9 38 (4.11%) SaaS
10 36 (3.90%) Azure DevOps
11 33 (3.57%) Azure Monitor
12 29 (3.14%) OpenShift
13 28 (3.03%) AWS CloudFormation
14 26 (2.81%) GitHub Actions
15 25 (2.71%) Google Kubernetes Engine
16 24 (2.60%) Azure ExpressRoute
16 24 (2.60%) Serverless
17 23 (2.49%) Amazon EC2
17 23 (2.49%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 427 (46.21%) DHCP
2 348 (37.66%) Firewall
3 273 (29.55%) TCP/IP
4 261 (28.25%) VPN
5 125 (13.53%) WAN
6 121 (13.10%) Network Security
7 112 (12.12%) VLAN
8 108 (11.69%) LAN
9 103 (11.15%) BGP
10 96 (10.39%) SSL
11 78 (8.44%) BIG-IP
12 68 (7.36%) HTTP
13 67 (7.25%) Wireless
14 60 (6.49%) OSPF
15 58 (6.28%) Wi-Fi
16 54 (5.84%) SAN
17 48 (5.19%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
18 44 (4.76%) DMZ
19 40 (4.33%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
20 35 (3.79%) Multicast
Database & Business Intelligence
1 48 (5.19%) SQL Server
2 12 (1.30%) Elasticsearch
3 10 (1.08%) Azure SQL Database
3 10 (1.08%) Power BI
4 9 (0.97%) Amazon RDS
4 9 (0.97%) PostgreSQL
5 8 (0.87%) MySQL
6 5 (0.54%) Data Lake
6 5 (0.54%) NoSQL
7 4 (0.43%) Db2
7 4 (0.43%) MongoDB
8 3 (0.32%) Big Data
8 3 (0.32%) Redis
9 1 (0.11%) BigQuery
9 1 (0.11%) Cloud Spanner
9 1 (0.11%) DynamoDB
9 1 (0.11%) KDB
9 1 (0.11%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 66 (7.14%) JIRA
2 55 (5.95%) Jenkins
3 37 (4.00%) Git
4 29 (3.14%) GitLab
5 18 (1.95%) Fiddler
6 10 (1.08%) Browser DevTools
7 8 (0.87%) Bitbucket
7 8 (0.87%) Chocolatey
8 7 (0.76%) Sonatype Nexus
9 5 (0.54%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 2 (0.22%) Artifactory
10 2 (0.22%) Introscope
10 2 (0.22%) MSI
10 2 (0.22%) Selenium
10 2 (0.22%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.22%) Spinnaker
10 2 (0.22%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
11 1 (0.11%) Maven
11 1 (0.11%) Visual Studio
General
1 215 (23.27%) Social Skills
2 104 (11.26%) Analytical Skills
3 82 (8.87%) Finance
4 72 (7.79%) Public Sector
5 69 (7.47%) Banking
6 42 (4.55%) Documentation Skills
7 33 (3.57%) Investment Banking
8 32 (3.46%) Telecoms
9 20 (2.16%) Military
10 16 (1.73%) Legal
11 12 (1.30%) Local Government
11 12 (1.30%) Organisational Skills
12 11 (1.19%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 10 (1.08%) Police
14 6 (0.65%) Influencing Skills
14 6 (0.65%) Manufacturing
14 6 (0.65%) Publishing
15 5 (0.54%) Law
16 4 (0.43%) Aerospace
16 4 (0.43%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 179 (19.37%) Network Engineer
2 152 (16.45%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 102 (11.04%) Senior
4 91 (9.85%) Architect
5 89 (9.63%) Support Engineer
6 71 (7.68%) Cloud Engineer
7 58 (6.28%) Security Engineer
8 48 (5.19%) IT Support
9 46 (4.98%) IT Engineer
10 45 (4.87%) Analyst
11 42 (4.55%) Network Security Engineer
12 41 (4.44%) Azure Engineer
13 40 (4.33%) Web Engineer
14 39 (4.22%) Cisco Engineer
15 37 (4.00%) Administrator
15 37 (4.00%) Cisco Network Engineer
16 36 (3.90%) DevOps Engineer
17 33 (3.57%) Platform Engineer
17 33 (3.57%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
18 32 (3.46%) Data Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 52 (5.63%) 802.1X
2 30 (3.25%) LDAP
3 29 (3.14%) SAML
4 23 (2.49%) ARM Templates
5 18 (1.95%) OpenID
6 17 (1.84%) OAuth
7 14 (1.52%) OpenTelemetry
8 12 (1.30%) REST
8 12 (1.30%) YAML
9 10 (1.08%) JSON
10 8 (0.87%) CSS
11 7 (0.76%) Middleware
12 6 (0.65%) Kafka
13 5 (0.54%) Elastic Stack
13 5 (0.54%) RabbitMQ
14 4 (0.43%) .NET
14 4 (0.43%) HTML
14 4 (0.43%) Microsoft Graph
14 4 (0.43%) Software Packaging
14 4 (0.43%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 128 (13.85%) Data Centre
2 100 (10.82%) PKI
3 63 (6.82%) Onboarding
4 61 (6.60%) Hybrid Cloud
5 51 (5.52%) Cloud Native
6 49 (5.30%) Management Information System
7 45 (4.87%) Clustering
8 41 (4.44%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 26 (2.81%) Public Cloud
10 22 (2.38%) Replication
10 22 (2.38%) Self-Motivation
11 19 (2.06%) Enterprise Cloud
12 17 (1.84%) Security Posture
13 15 (1.62%) Cyber Threat
14 14 (1.52%) Linux Command Line
15 13 (1.41%) Enterprise Software
16 11 (1.19%) Legacy Systems
17 10 (1.08%) Driving Licence
18 9 (0.97%) Product Ownership
18 9 (0.97%) Smartcard
Operating Systems
1 427 (46.21%) Windows
2 227 (24.57%) Windows Server
3 181 (19.59%) Linux
4 53 (5.74%) Windows 10
5 37 (4.00%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 36 (3.90%) Windows Server 2019
7 28 (3.03%) Unix
8 27 (2.92%) Mac OS
9 21 (2.27%) Windows Server 2012
10 20 (2.16%) Ubuntu
11 15 (1.62%) CentOS
12 13 (1.41%) Apple iOS
12 13 (1.41%) Windows Server 2016
13 11 (1.19%) Android
14 10 (1.08%) VMS
15 7 (0.76%) Rocky
15 7 (0.76%) Windows 7
15 7 (0.76%) Windows Server 2008
16 5 (0.54%) Windows Server 2003
17 3 (0.32%) OpenVMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 216 (23.38%) Problem-Solving
2 211 (22.84%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 176 (19.05%) Load Balancing
4 168 (18.18%) ITIL
5 156 (16.88%) Infrastructure as Code
6 155 (16.77%) Migration
7 143 (15.48%) DevOps
8 138 (14.94%) High Availability
9 136 (14.72%) CI/CD
10 104 (11.26%) ITSM
11 92 (9.96%) Observability
12 89 (9.63%) Continuous Improvement
13 85 (9.20%) Agile
13 85 (9.20%) Cybersecurity
14 78 (8.44%) Project Delivery
15 72 (7.79%) Technical Leadership
16 70 (7.58%) Disaster Recovery
16 70 (7.58%) Identity Access Management
17 65 (7.03%) Containerisation
17 65 (7.03%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 196 (21.21%) PowerShell
2 178 (19.26%) Python
3 130 (14.07%) Bash
4 56 (6.06%) SQL
5 37 (4.00%) Bicep
6 22 (2.38%) JavaScript
7 14 (1.52%) Shell Script
8 11 (1.19%) Go
9 10 (1.08%) Perl
10 9 (0.97%) ActionScript
11 7 (0.76%) VBA
12 6 (0.65%) Groovy
12 6 (0.65%) Java
13 5 (0.54%) C
13 5 (0.54%) Ruby
14 3 (0.32%) Lisp
15 2 (0.22%) Jython
15 2 (0.22%) Objective-C
15 2 (0.22%) T-SQL
15 2 (0.22%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 344 (37.23%) Security Cleared
2 190 (20.56%) SC Cleared
3 143 (15.48%) DV Cleared
4 107 (11.58%) Cisco Certification
5 73 (7.90%) CCNP
6 70 (7.58%) Degree
7 53 (5.74%) CCNA
8 43 (4.65%) Azure Certification
8 43 (4.65%) Microsoft Certification
9 29 (3.14%) Network+ Certification
10 18 (1.95%) CCIE
11 17 (1.84%) AWS Certification
12 15 (1.62%) BPSS Clearance
12 15 (1.62%) Computer Science Degree
12 15 (1.62%) Server+ Certification
13 14 (1.52%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 13 (1.41%) CISSP
14 13 (1.41%) JNCIS
15 12 (1.30%) MCSA
15 12 (1.30%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (3.57%) SLA
2 23 (2.49%) NIST
3 15 (1.62%) NCSC
4 14 (1.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 9 (0.97%) QA
6 6 (0.65%) GDPR
7 5 (0.54%) NIST 800
8 4 (0.43%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 4 (0.43%) JSP 440
9 3 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials
10 2 (0.22%) Government Security Classifications
10 2 (0.22%) SOC 2
11 1 (0.11%) Data Quality
11 1 (0.11%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 392 (42.42%) Active Directory
2 229 (24.78%) VMware Infrastructure
3 111 (12.01%) Hyper-V
4 68 (7.36%) VMware ESXi
5 64 (6.93%) vSphere
6 62 (6.71%) VMware NSX
7 55 (5.95%) Docker
8 42 (4.55%) Virtual Machines
9 36 (3.90%) Virtual Desktop
10 25 (2.71%) Firmware
11 18 (1.95%) NFS
12 13 (1.41%) vCloud
13 10 (1.08%) Microsoft App-V
14 9 (0.97%) BitLocker
14 9 (0.97%) Postfix
15 8 (0.87%) VMware Workstation
16 7 (0.76%) Squid
16 7 (0.76%) Virtual Servers
17 6 (0.65%) Varnish
18 5 (0.54%) UAG
Systems Management
1 195 (21.10%) Terraform
2 136 (14.72%) Ansible
3 111 (12.01%) Kubernetes
4 95 (10.28%) Microsoft Intune
5 60 (6.49%) SCCM
6 59 (6.39%) vCenter Server
7 55 (5.95%) Grafana
8 50 (5.41%) Single Sign-On
9 44 (4.76%) FortiGate
10 41 (4.44%) Prometheus
11 28 (3.03%) WSUS
12 27 (2.92%) SCOM
13 15 (1.62%) Argo
13 15 (1.62%) Puppet
14 14 (1.52%) Nessus
14 14 (1.52%) VxRail
15 13 (1.41%) Jamf Pro
16 11 (1.19%) NetBackup
16 11 (1.19%) Packer
16 11 (1.19%) vMotion
Vendors
1 326 (35.28%) Microsoft
2 281 (30.41%) VMware
3 192 (20.78%) Cisco
4 141 (15.26%) F5
5 85 (9.20%) ServiceNow
6 66 (7.14%) Splunk
7 65 (7.03%) SolarWinds
8 62 (6.71%) Google
8 62 (6.71%) Infoblox
9 60 (6.49%) Juniper
10 56 (6.06%) Citrix
11 43 (4.65%) Red Hat
12 42 (4.55%) Palo Alto
13 33 (3.57%) NetApp
14 32 (3.46%) Dynatrace
15 28 (3.03%) Blue Coat
16 26 (2.81%) CheckPoint
16 26 (2.81%) Zscaler
17 25 (2.71%) Fortinet
18 24 (2.60%) McAfee