DNS Contract Job Trends in the North West

Domain Name System (DNS)
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the North West requiring DNS skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 25 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 73 76 79
Rank change year-on-year +3 +3 -3
Contract jobs citing DNS 123 52 41
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 3.15% 2.40% 1.70%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 25.89% 18.37% 13.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 60 20 22
10th Percentile £185 £299 £256
25th Percentile £375 £413 £422
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £449 £500
Median % change year-on-year +11.48% -10.30% +25.00%
75th Percentile £596 £539 £722
90th Percentile £630 £618 £750
England median daily rate £500 £510 £500
% change year-on-year -1.96% +2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 5 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £29.00 £15.50 £46.25
Median hourly rate £30.00 £16.00 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +87.50% -66.32% -
75th Percentile £31.00 £16.50 £48.75
90th Percentile - £46.95 -
England median hourly rate £62.74 £45.00 £23.99
% change year-on-year +39.42% +87.58% -49.49%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
North West

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 the North West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 475 283 295
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 12.16% 13.04% 12.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 302 170 153
10th Percentile £201 £147 £263
25th Percentile £336 £351 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £466 £453 £505
Median % change year-on-year +2.87% -10.30% +3.91%
75th Percentile £575 £547 £675
90th Percentile £624 £681 £818
England median daily rate £500 £490 £506
% change year-on-year +2.04% -3.21% +1.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 13 10
10th Percentile £13.33 - £25.43
25th Percentile £17.06 £15.50 £37.55
Median hourly rate £17.50 £20.00 £48.56
Median % change year-on-year -12.50% -58.81% +191.13%
75th Percentile £25.56 £41.94 £51.91
90th Percentile £36.54 £67.25 £57.65
England median hourly rate £43.50 £39.66 £57.35
% change year-on-year +9.68% -30.85% +1.52%

DNS
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing DNS relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West.

DNS job vacancy trend in the North West

DNS
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing DNS.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing DNS

DNS
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing DNS in the North West over the 6 months to 25 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for DNS in the North West

DNS
Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing DNS.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing DNS

DNS
Contract Job Locations in the North West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing DNS within the North West region over the 6 months to 25 September 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
Merseyside +7 45 £435 +47.46% 16
Cheshire +4 25 £417 -1.88% 10
Manchester -20 24 £475 -8.21% 46
Cumbria -12 18 £595 +34.54% 1
Lancashire -11 9 £333 +90.00% 14
DNS
England

DNS
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West 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 14 (11.38%) Microsoft Exchange
2 12 (9.76%) SharePoint
3 6 (4.88%) Skype for Business
4 2 (1.63%) IIS
5 1 (0.81%) nginx
5 1 (0.81%) Traefik
Applications
1 12 (9.76%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (3.25%) MS Visio
3 2 (1.63%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 18 (14.63%) Azure
2 16 (13.01%) Microsoft 365
3 13 (10.57%) AWS
4 10 (8.13%) IaaS
5 6 (4.88%) GitHub
6 5 (4.07%) Entra ID
7 4 (3.25%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 4 (3.25%) GCP
7 4 (3.25%) PaaS
8 3 (2.44%) Asana
8 3 (2.44%) Google Drive
8 3 (2.44%) Google Workspace
8 3 (2.44%) SaaS
9 2 (1.63%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 2 (1.63%) Amazon ECS
9 2 (1.63%) Azure AKS
9 2 (1.63%) GitHub Actions
9 2 (1.63%) OneDrive
9 2 (1.63%) Rubrik
9 2 (1.63%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 46 (37.40%) VPN
2 35 (28.46%) DHCP
2 35 (28.46%) DMZ
3 30 (24.39%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
4 29 (23.58%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
5 27 (21.95%) BGP
5 27 (21.95%) TCP/IP
6 25 (20.33%) Firewall
6 25 (20.33%) Multicast
7 22 (17.89%) BIG-IP
8 21 (17.07%) VLAN
9 19 (15.45%) Wireless
10 17 (13.82%) Network Security
11 15 (12.20%) SAN
11 15 (12.20%) SSL
12 14 (11.38%) Cisco IOS
13 13 (10.57%) WAN
13 13 (10.57%) Wireshark
14 12 (9.76%) HTTP
14 12 (9.76%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.63%) MongoDB
1 2 (1.63%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 12 (9.76%) Fiddler
2 10 (8.13%) JIRA
3 6 (4.88%) Jenkins
4 3 (2.44%) GitLab
5 2 (1.63%) Git
5 2 (1.63%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 1 (0.81%) git-flow
6 1 (0.81%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 28 (22.76%) Banking
1 28 (22.76%) Social Skills
2 24 (19.51%) Investment Banking
3 13 (10.57%) Documentation Skills
4 9 (7.32%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (5.69%) Finance
6 4 (3.25%) Public Sector
7 2 (1.63%) Legal
7 2 (1.63%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (0.81%) Manufacturing
8 1 (0.81%) Military
8 1 (0.81%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 50 (40.65%) Network Engineer
2 24 (19.51%) Cisco Engineer
3 23 (18.70%) Cisco Network Engineer
3 23 (18.70%) Cisco Security Engineer
3 23 (18.70%) Data Engineer
3 23 (18.70%) Data Network Engineer
3 23 (18.70%) Network Security Engineer
3 23 (18.70%) Security Engineer
3 23 (18.70%) Web Engineer
4 13 (10.57%) VMware Engineer
5 12 (9.76%) Blue Coat Engineer
5 12 (9.76%) IP Network Engineer
6 11 (8.94%) Architect
6 11 (8.94%) Senior
7 9 (7.32%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 9 (7.32%) IT Support
7 9 (7.32%) Support Engineer
8 8 (6.50%) Technical Architect
9 7 (5.69%) Analyst
9 7 (5.69%) IT Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (8.94%) Terraform
2 6 (4.88%) 802.1X
3 3 (2.44%) JSON
3 3 (2.44%) OAuth
4 2 (1.63%) ODBC
4 2 (1.63%) REST
5 1 (0.81%) ARM Templates
5 1 (0.81%) Azure Blueprints
5 1 (0.81%) cloud-init
5 1 (0.81%) Kafka
5 1 (0.81%) Keycloak
5 1 (0.81%) Software Packaging
5 1 (0.81%) XML
5 1 (0.81%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 23 (18.70%) Data Centre
2 22 (17.89%) Management Information System
3 7 (5.69%) Driving Licence
4 6 (4.88%) Onboarding
5 5 (4.07%) PKI
6 4 (3.25%) Cloud Native
6 4 (3.25%) Enterprise Cloud
6 4 (3.25%) Hybrid Cloud
6 4 (3.25%) Public Cloud
7 3 (2.44%) Freedom of Information
7 3 (2.44%) Self-Motivation
7 3 (2.44%) Video Conferencing
8 2 (1.63%) Handset
9 1 (0.81%) BBC
9 1 (0.81%) Data Protection Act
9 1 (0.81%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 1 (0.81%) Enterprise Software
9 1 (0.81%) Enterprise Storage
9 1 (0.81%) iPhone
9 1 (0.81%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 26 (21.14%) Windows
2 14 (11.38%) Windows 10
3 12 (9.76%) Windows Server
4 9 (7.32%) Linux
5 6 (4.88%) Unix
5 6 (4.88%) Windows 7
6 5 (4.07%) Android
6 5 (4.07%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (2.44%) AIX
7 3 (2.44%) Apple iOS
7 3 (2.44%) Mac OS
7 3 (2.44%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (1.63%) Windows Server 2016
8 2 (1.63%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.81%) CentOS
9 1 (0.81%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 50 (40.65%) Load Balancing
2 22 (17.89%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 19 (15.45%) ITSM
4 18 (14.63%) Migration
5 16 (13.01%) ITIL
6 15 (12.20%) Data Loss Prevention
6 15 (12.20%) Network Segmentation
7 14 (11.38%) Continuous Improvement
7 14 (11.38%) Problem-Solving
8 12 (9.76%) CI/CD
8 12 (9.76%) Infrastructure as Code
8 12 (9.76%) Malware Detection/Protection
9 11 (8.94%) Agile
9 11 (8.94%) Project Delivery
10 9 (7.32%) Change Management
10 9 (7.32%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 8 (6.50%) DevOps
12 7 (5.69%) Service Management
12 7 (5.69%) User Experience
12 7 (5.69%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 11 (8.94%) PowerShell
2 10 (8.13%) Python
3 7 (5.69%) Bicep
4 6 (4.88%) VB
4 6 (4.88%) VBScript
5 4 (3.25%) ActionScript
6 3 (2.44%) SQL
7 2 (1.63%) Bash
7 2 (1.63%) Perl
7 2 (1.63%) T-SQL
8 1 (0.81%) Go
8 1 (0.81%) JavaScript
8 1 (0.81%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 26 (21.14%) Security Cleared
2 20 (16.26%) CCNP
2 20 (16.26%) Cisco Certification
3 19 (15.45%) SC Cleared
4 15 (12.20%) CCNA
5 14 (11.38%) Network+ Certification
6 11 (8.94%) Server+ Certification
7 6 (4.88%) Degree
8 4 (3.25%) CCIE
9 3 (2.44%) AWS Certification
9 3 (2.44%) Azure Certification
9 3 (2.44%) BPSS Clearance
9 3 (2.44%) CompTIA Security+
10 2 (1.63%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 1 (0.81%) CCIE Security
11 1 (0.81%) Computer Science Degree
11 1 (0.81%) ITIL Certification
11 1 (0.81%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 1 (0.81%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (4.07%) SLA
2 1 (0.81%) Data Quality
2 1 (0.81%) NCSC
System Software
1 34 (27.64%) VMware Infrastructure
2 25 (20.33%) Active Directory
3 12 (9.76%) Firmware
4 8 (6.50%) VMware NSX
5 6 (4.88%) BitLocker
6 3 (2.44%) NFS
6 3 (2.44%) Veritas Volume Manager
6 3 (2.44%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (1.63%) Docker
8 1 (0.81%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.81%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.81%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.81%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 10 (8.13%) SCCM
2 5 (4.07%) Ansible
2 5 (4.07%) WSUS
3 4 (3.25%) Progress Chef
4 3 (2.44%) Kubernetes
4 3 (2.44%) Microsoft Intune
4 3 (2.44%) PowerBroker
4 3 (2.44%) Single Sign-On
4 3 (2.44%) Tivoli
4 3 (2.44%) Tivoli Storage Manager
5 2 (1.63%) Grafana
5 2 (1.63%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.81%) AirWatch
6 1 (0.81%) Consul
6 1 (0.81%) Jamf Pro
6 1 (0.81%) Microsoft Clustering
6 1 (0.81%) NetApp OnCommand
6 1 (0.81%) Packer
6 1 (0.81%) Rancher
6 1 (0.81%) vRealize
Vendors
1 55 (44.72%) F5
2 42 (34.15%) Cisco
3 41 (33.33%) VMware
4 31 (25.20%) Microsoft
5 23 (18.70%) ServiceNow
6 14 (11.38%) McAfee
7 12 (9.76%) Blue Coat
7 12 (9.76%) NetApp
8 6 (4.88%) CyberArk
9 5 (4.07%) Infoblox
10 4 (3.25%) Citrix
10 4 (3.25%) Oracle
10 4 (3.25%) Red Hat
10 4 (3.25%) Splunk
11 3 (2.44%) Arista
11 3 (2.44%) ForeScout
11 3 (2.44%) Fortinet
11 3 (2.44%) Google
11 3 (2.44%) Veritas
12 2 (1.63%) Tanium