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

6 months to
5 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 133 113 127
Rank change year-on-year -20 +14 -3
Contract jobs citing DNS 777 593 685
As % of all contract jobs in England 2.01% 2.43% 1.82%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 20.52% 18.54% 13.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 492 415 464
10th Percentile £263 £250 £200
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 £600 £606 £575
90th Percentile £669 £659 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £475
% change year-on-year -4.76% +10.53% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 34 9 24
10th Percentile £14.25 £22.57 £20.00
25th Percentile £21.25 £28.00 £24.81
Median hourly rate £48.72 £80.68 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -39.61% +101.69% -13.24%
75th Percentile £74.26 £81.35 £42.19
90th Percentile £76.05 £82.48 £65.25
UK median hourly rate £48.72 £54.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year -10.61% +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 3,787 3,199 5,211
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.78% 13.13% 13.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,416 2,000 3,167
10th Percentile £215 £220 £205
25th Percentile £400 £370 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year - +5.26% -9.52%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK median daily rate £500 £488 £480
% change year-on-year +2.56% +1.67% -7.79%
Number of hourly rates quoted 182 120 382
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.20 £13.50
25th Percentile £20.75 £20.64 £17.70
Median hourly rate £42.38 £35.75 £38.00
Median % change year-on-year +18.53% -5.92% +100.37%
75th Percentile £67.96 £65.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £81.05 £69.86
UK median hourly rate £42.25 £35.00 £37.50
% change year-on-year +20.71% -6.67% +97.37%

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 5 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 5 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 5 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 -37 252 £500 - 81
North of England -4 214 £447 -5.89% 68
South East +2 156 £525 -4.55% 80
North West +24 138 £500 +17.65% 37
Midlands +18 112 £400 -27.93% 45
West Midlands +29 101 £400 -19.40% 29
Yorkshire -30 77 £447 -18.82% 22
South West -42 51 £575 +4.93% 33
East of England -29 43 £450 -10.00% 24
East Midlands -35 10 £375 -33.92% 16
North East -18 4 £200 -51.52% 11
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 88 (11.33%) Microsoft Exchange
2 39 (5.02%) SharePoint
3 16 (2.06%) Skype for Business
4 12 (1.54%) nginx
5 11 (1.42%) Confluence
6 7 (0.90%) Apache
6 7 (0.90%) IIS
7 3 (0.39%) Exchange Server 2010
8 2 (0.26%) Exchange Server 2013
8 2 (0.26%) IBM HTTP Server
8 2 (0.26%) Oracle HTTP Server
8 2 (0.26%) WebSphere
8 2 (0.26%) WebSphere Application Server
8 2 (0.26%) WebSphere Portal
8 2 (0.26%) WordPress
9 1 (0.13%) SharePoint Server
9 1 (0.13%) Traefik
Applications
1 25 (3.22%) Microsoft Office
2 13 (1.67%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (0.26%) SystmOne
2 1 (0.13%) Cloudability
2 1 (0.13%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 275 (35.39%) Azure
2 147 (18.92%) AWS
3 134 (17.25%) Entra ID
4 119 (15.32%) Microsoft 365
5 83 (10.68%) GCP
6 59 (7.59%) GitHub
7 49 (6.31%) IaaS
8 36 (4.63%) AWS CloudFormation
8 36 (4.63%) Serverless
9 34 (4.38%) PaaS
10 33 (4.25%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 32 (4.12%) SaaS
12 31 (3.99%) AWS Lambda
13 30 (3.86%) Route 53
14 29 (3.73%) Amazon S3
14 29 (3.73%) OpenShift
15 27 (3.47%) Amazon EC2
16 24 (3.09%) Amazon EKS
17 22 (2.83%) Azure DevOps
18 20 (2.57%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 336 (43.24%) DHCP
2 250 (32.18%) Firewall
3 198 (25.48%) TCP/IP
4 185 (23.81%) VPN
5 103 (13.26%) WAN
6 96 (12.36%) LAN
7 81 (10.42%) Network Security
8 75 (9.65%) BGP
8 75 (9.65%) BIG-IP
8 75 (9.65%) SSL
9 74 (9.52%) VLAN
10 69 (8.88%) HTTP
11 51 (6.56%) Wi-Fi
12 49 (6.31%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
13 45 (5.79%) OSPF
14 39 (5.02%) Wireshark
15 38 (4.89%) DMZ
16 37 (4.76%) Kerberos
17 35 (4.50%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
18 34 (4.38%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (3.22%) SQL Server
2 18 (2.32%) Elasticsearch
3 13 (1.67%) PostgreSQL
4 11 (1.42%) Amazon RDS
5 7 (0.90%) DynamoDB
6 6 (0.77%) MongoDB
7 5 (0.64%) Amazon Aurora
7 5 (0.64%) Azure SQL Database
7 5 (0.64%) Data Hub
7 5 (0.64%) MySQL
8 4 (0.51%) DocumentDB
8 4 (0.51%) NoSQL
8 4 (0.51%) Power BI
8 4 (0.51%) Redis
8 4 (0.51%) Relational Database
9 3 (0.39%) BigQuery
10 1 (0.13%) Electronic Patient Records
10 1 (0.13%) Oracle Reports
10 1 (0.13%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 1 (0.13%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 58 (7.46%) Jenkins
2 39 (5.02%) JIRA
3 29 (3.73%) Fiddler
4 28 (3.60%) Git
5 26 (3.35%) GitLab
6 9 (1.16%) Browser DevTools
7 7 (0.90%) Bitbucket
7 7 (0.90%) SonarQube
8 6 (0.77%) Chocolatey
9 5 (0.64%) Terragrunt
10 4 (0.51%) CircleCI
11 2 (0.26%) Introscope
11 2 (0.26%) Sonatype Nexus
12 1 (0.13%) Artifactory
12 1 (0.13%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 1 (0.13%) Octopus Deploy
12 1 (0.13%) Subversion
12 1 (0.13%) Travis CI
General
1 186 (23.94%) Social Skills
2 86 (11.07%) Analytical Skills
3 72 (9.27%) Banking
4 62 (7.98%) Finance
5 49 (6.31%) Documentation Skills
6 47 (6.05%) Public Sector
7 42 (5.41%) Investment Banking
8 22 (2.83%) Legal
9 17 (2.19%) Telecoms
10 15 (1.93%) Military
11 9 (1.16%) Organisational Skills
12 6 (0.77%) Financial Institution
12 6 (0.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 6 (0.77%) Influencing Skills
12 6 (0.77%) Law
13 5 (0.64%) Local Government
14 4 (0.51%) Manufacturing
15 3 (0.39%) Aerospace
15 3 (0.39%) Presentation Skills
16 2 (0.26%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 133 (17.12%) Network Engineer
2 126 (16.22%) Architect
3 75 (9.65%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 69 (8.88%) Analyst
5 62 (7.98%) Senior
6 53 (6.82%) Security Engineer
7 50 (6.44%) Web Engineer
8 48 (6.18%) Support Engineer
9 36 (4.63%) IT Support
10 33 (4.25%) Network Security Engineer
11 30 (3.86%) IT Engineer
12 28 (3.60%) Cisco Engineer
12 28 (3.60%) Cisco Network Engineer
12 28 (3.60%) Lead
13 27 (3.47%) Azure Engineer
13 27 (3.47%) Platform Engineer
14 25 (3.22%) Data Engineer
14 25 (3.22%) Data Network Engineer
15 24 (3.09%) Cisco Security Engineer
16 22 (2.83%) IT Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 66 (8.49%) LDAP
2 50 (6.44%) SAML
3 39 (5.02%) OAuth
4 32 (4.12%) OpenID
5 29 (3.73%) 802.1X
6 23 (2.96%) OpenTelemetry
7 20 (2.57%) OAuth2
8 10 (1.29%) Kafka
9 9 (1.16%) JSON
9 9 (1.16%) REST
10 8 (1.03%) Elastic Stack
11 7 (0.90%) ARM Templates
11 7 (0.90%) XMPP
12 6 (0.77%) Microsoft Graph
13 5 (0.64%) Middleware
13 5 (0.64%) RESTful
13 5 (0.64%) Web Services
14 4 (0.51%) Hibernate
14 4 (0.51%) JPA
14 4 (0.51%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 66 (8.49%) Data Centre
2 62 (7.98%) PKI
3 48 (6.18%) Cloud Native
3 48 (6.18%) Replication
4 34 (4.38%) Clustering
5 33 (4.25%) Management Information System
6 32 (4.12%) Onboarding
7 31 (3.99%) Public Cloud
8 25 (3.22%) Hybrid Cloud
9 22 (2.83%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 19 (2.45%) Enterprise Software
11 16 (2.06%) Cyber Threat
11 16 (2.06%) Self-Motivation
12 15 (1.93%) Cyberattack
12 15 (1.93%) Legacy Systems
12 15 (1.93%) Security Operations Centre
13 13 (1.67%) Analytical Mindset
13 13 (1.67%) NHS
14 12 (1.54%) Enterprise Cloud
14 12 (1.54%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 337 (43.37%) Windows
2 189 (24.32%) Windows Server
3 109 (14.03%) Linux
4 47 (6.05%) Windows 10
5 25 (3.22%) Windows Server 2019
6 19 (2.45%) Android
7 18 (2.32%) Unix
8 15 (1.93%) Windows Server 2012
9 14 (1.80%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 12 (1.54%) Apple iOS
11 11 (1.42%) Windows 7
11 11 (1.42%) Windows Server 2016
12 10 (1.29%) Mac OS
13 8 (1.03%) Windows Server 2003
14 6 (0.77%) VMS
15 4 (0.51%) CatOS
15 4 (0.51%) CentOS
16 3 (0.39%) Amazon Linux
16 3 (0.39%) Oracle Linux
16 3 (0.39%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 181 (23.29%) Load Balancing
2 171 (22.01%) Problem-Solving
3 124 (15.96%) Migration
4 109 (14.03%) DevOps
4 109 (14.03%) High Availability
5 104 (13.38%) CI/CD
6 103 (13.26%) ITIL
7 100 (12.87%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 93 (11.97%) Infrastructure as Code
9 79 (10.17%) Identity Access Management
10 72 (9.27%) Disaster Recovery
11 68 (8.75%) RBAC
12 65 (8.37%) Cybersecurity
13 63 (8.11%) ITSM
14 62 (7.98%) Observability
15 55 (7.08%) Agile
16 53 (6.82%) Containerisation
17 52 (6.69%) Incident Response
17 52 (6.69%) Service Management
18 51 (6.56%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 202 (26.00%) PowerShell
2 132 (16.99%) Python
3 70 (9.01%) Bash
4 37 (4.76%) SQL
5 17 (2.19%) JavaScript
6 14 (1.80%) Bicep
7 13 (1.67%) VBScript
8 11 (1.42%) Java
9 10 (1.29%) Ruby
9 10 (1.29%) Shell Script
10 9 (1.16%) VB
11 8 (1.03%) Go
12 5 (0.64%) VBA
13 4 (0.51%) Kusto Query Language
13 4 (0.51%) Lisp
13 4 (0.51%) Perl
14 3 (0.39%) C
15 2 (0.26%) C#
15 2 (0.26%) Jython
15 2 (0.26%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 258 (33.20%) Security Cleared
2 170 (21.88%) SC Cleared
3 90 (11.58%) DV Cleared
4 68 (8.75%) Cisco Certification
5 45 (5.79%) Degree
6 41 (5.28%) CCNP
7 38 (4.89%) Microsoft Certification
8 27 (3.47%) Azure Certification
9 26 (3.35%) CCNA
10 16 (2.06%) AWS Certification
10 16 (2.06%) CompTIA Security+
11 14 (1.80%) CISSP
12 13 (1.67%) Network+ Certification
13 10 (1.29%) BPSS Clearance
13 10 (1.29%) JNCIA
13 10 (1.29%) 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 (3.73%) GDPR
2 24 (3.09%) NIST
3 23 (2.96%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 23 (2.96%) SLA
4 15 (1.93%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 9 (1.16%) NCSC
6 8 (1.03%) Cyber Essentials
6 8 (1.03%) PCI DSS
7 6 (0.77%) QA
8 3 (0.39%) JSP 440
9 2 (0.26%) Accessibility
9 2 (0.26%) Data Quality
9 2 (0.26%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 1 (0.13%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.13%) COBIT
10 1 (0.13%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 1 (0.13%) Government Security Classifications
10 1 (0.13%) RMADS
System Software
1 323 (41.57%) Active Directory
2 168 (21.62%) VMware Infrastructure
3 63 (8.11%) Hyper-V
4 60 (7.72%) VMware NSX
5 50 (6.44%) Docker
6 48 (6.18%) vSphere
7 27 (3.47%) Firmware
8 23 (2.96%) Virtual Machines
9 21 (2.70%) VMware ESXi
10 18 (2.32%) BitLocker
11 14 (1.80%) Virtual Desktop
12 10 (1.29%) Squid
13 8 (1.03%) Microsoft App-V
14 7 (0.90%) NFS
15 5 (0.64%) Postfix
15 5 (0.64%) Sendmail
15 5 (0.64%) Terminal Services
15 5 (0.64%) Varnish
16 3 (0.39%) DFS Replication
17 2 (0.26%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 145 (18.66%) Terraform
2 113 (14.54%) Ansible
3 92 (11.84%) Kubernetes
4 84 (10.81%) Microsoft Intune
5 74 (9.52%) Single Sign-On
6 61 (7.85%) SCCM
7 57 (7.34%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 44 (5.66%) FortiGate
8 44 (5.66%) vCenter Server
9 38 (4.89%) Grafana
10 29 (3.73%) Argo
11 21 (2.70%) Prometheus
12 14 (1.80%) SCOM
13 13 (1.67%) WSUS
14 10 (1.29%) HAProxy
14 10 (1.29%) Puppet
15 8 (1.03%) vMotion
16 7 (0.90%) Consul
16 7 (0.90%) Nagios
16 7 (0.90%) Nessus
Vendors
1 268 (34.49%) Microsoft
2 214 (27.54%) VMware
3 139 (17.89%) F5
4 123 (15.83%) Cisco
5 68 (8.75%) Splunk
6 64 (8.24%) ServiceNow
7 45 (5.79%) Citrix
8 44 (5.66%) SolarWinds
9 40 (5.15%) Red Hat
10 39 (5.02%) Blue Coat
11 38 (4.89%) Juniper
12 35 (4.50%) Infoblox
13 34 (4.38%) Google
13 34 (4.38%) McAfee
14 31 (3.99%) Palo Alto
15 30 (3.86%) NetApp
16 25 (3.22%) Pure Storage
17 21 (2.70%) Extreme Networks
18 20 (2.57%) Fortinet
19 17 (2.19%) Okta