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

6 months to
28 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 61 57 81
Rank change year-on-year -4 +24 -42
Contract jobs citing DNS 91 64 56
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 3.63% 2.96% 2.10%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 25.49% 18.99% 12.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 21 34 36
10th Percentile £300 £250 £233
25th Percentile £315 £350 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £400
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% +18.75% -27.27%
75th Percentile £615 £569 £522
90th Percentile £690 £750 £641
England median daily rate £525 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +10.53% -2.56% -7.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 0 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £15.50 - -
Median hourly rate £16.00 - -
75th Percentile £69.00 - -
90th Percentile £74.26 - -
England median hourly rate £57.50 £23.90 £55.00
% change year-on-year +140.64% -56.55% +109.52%

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 357 337 432
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 14.22% 15.59% 16.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 202 178 314
10th Percentile £170 £180 £302
25th Percentile £330 £350 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £468 £461 £500
Median % change year-on-year +1.63% -7.85% +2.56%
75th Percentile £550 £538 £627
90th Percentile £668 £604 £672
England median daily rate £488 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -2.50% - -1.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 6 13
10th Percentile £15.50 £18.64 -
25th Percentile £18.50 £20.63 £15.75
Median hourly rate £27.00 £36.66 £17.72
Median % change year-on-year -26.35% +106.88% -10.87%
75th Percentile £67.25 £51.68 £46.88
90th Percentile £74.26 £52.20 £49.38
England median hourly rate £34.00 £35.00 £56.49
% change year-on-year -2.86% -38.04% +50.64%

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 28 December 2025.

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
Hourly Rate Histogram in the North West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing DNS in the North West over the 6 months to 28 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for DNS in the North West

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 28 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
Merseyside +16 41 £315 - 15
Cheshire -13 30 £604 +50.88% 22
Manchester -24 12 £543 +11.28% 50
Cumbria +7 5 £690 - 1
Lancashire -8 3 £175 +16.67% 17
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 9 (9.89%) Microsoft Exchange
1 9 (9.89%) SharePoint
2 5 (5.49%) Skype for Business
3 1 (1.10%) IIS
Applications
1 7 (7.69%) MS Visio
2 6 (6.59%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 15 (16.48%) Azure
2 12 (13.19%) Microsoft 365
3 9 (9.89%) SaaS
4 6 (6.59%) AWS
4 6 (6.59%) Power Platform
5 5 (5.49%) Entra ID
6 3 (3.30%) Azure Logic Apps
6 3 (3.30%) Azure Monitor
6 3 (3.30%) Azure Sentinel
6 3 (3.30%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 2 (2.20%) AWS Direct Connect
7 2 (2.20%) Nutanix
7 2 (2.20%) OneDrive
8 1 (1.10%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 1 (1.10%) Amazon ELB
8 1 (1.10%) Dynamics 365
8 1 (1.10%) Fastly
8 1 (1.10%) Heroku
8 1 (1.10%) PowerApps
8 1 (1.10%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 40 (43.96%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
2 39 (42.86%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
3 37 (40.66%) TCP/IP
4 33 (36.26%) DMZ
5 27 (29.67%) Network Security
5 27 (29.67%) SSL
6 21 (23.08%) BIG-IP
6 21 (23.08%) HTTP
7 20 (21.98%) DHCP
7 20 (21.98%) Wireshark
8 12 (13.19%) Firewall
9 11 (12.09%) VLAN
9 11 (12.09%) Wi-Fi
10 10 (10.99%) BGP
10 10 (10.99%) VPN
11 7 (7.69%) Cisco ISE
11 7 (7.69%) LAN
11 7 (7.69%) NX-OS
11 7 (7.69%) WAN
11 7 (7.69%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.10%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 20 (21.98%) Fiddler
2 1 (1.10%) Git
2 1 (1.10%) GitLab
2 1 (1.10%) Jenkins
2 1 (1.10%) JIRA
General
1 37 (40.66%) Banking
1 37 (40.66%) Investment Banking
2 16 (17.58%) Social Skills
3 10 (10.99%) Analytical Skills
3 10 (10.99%) Public Sector
4 6 (6.59%) Finance
5 3 (3.30%) Documentation Skills
6 2 (2.20%) Legal
6 2 (2.20%) Military
7 1 (1.10%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 35 (38.46%) Network Engineer
2 17 (18.68%) Web Engineer
3 14 (15.38%) Operations Engineer
4 10 (10.99%) Blue Coat Engineer
4 10 (10.99%) IP Network Engineer
5 9 (9.89%) Automation Engineer
5 9 (9.89%) Cisco Engineer
5 9 (9.89%) Cisco Network Engineer
5 9 (9.89%) Junior
5 9 (9.89%) Junior Network Engineer
6 7 (7.69%) Cisco Wireless Engineer
6 7 (7.69%) RF Engineer
6 7 (7.69%) Wireless Engineer
6 7 (7.69%) Wireless Network Engineer
7 6 (6.59%) IT Support
7 6 (6.59%) Security Engineer
8 5 (5.49%) IT Technician
8 5 (5.49%) Python Engineer
8 5 (5.49%) Service Desk Support
8 5 (5.49%) Service Desk Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (3.30%) JSON
1 3 (3.30%) LDAP
2 2 (2.20%) XMPP
3 1 (1.10%) Flask
3 1 (1.10%) SQLAlchemy
Miscellaneous
1 31 (34.07%) Management Information System
2 9 (9.89%) Data Centre
2 9 (9.89%) Onboarding
3 6 (6.59%) Enterprise Software
4 5 (5.49%) Low-Code
4 5 (5.49%) Replication
4 5 (5.49%) Video Conferencing
5 3 (3.30%) Cloud Security Posture
5 3 (3.30%) Private Cloud
5 3 (3.30%) Product Ownership
5 3 (3.30%) Public Cloud
5 3 (3.30%) Security Posture
6 2 (2.20%) Clustering
6 2 (2.20%) Fat Client
6 2 (2.20%) Hybrid Cloud
6 2 (2.20%) Thin Client
7 1 (1.10%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 24 (26.37%) Windows
2 7 (7.69%) Windows 10
2 7 (7.69%) Windows Server
3 6 (6.59%) Windows 7
4 5 (5.49%) Windows Server 2019
5 3 (3.30%) Linux
5 3 (3.30%) Unix
6 2 (2.20%) Windows Server 2012
7 1 (1.10%) Apple iOS
7 1 (1.10%) Mac OS
7 1 (1.10%) Windows 8
7 1 (1.10%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 51 (56.04%) Load Balancing
2 20 (21.98%) Business Strategy
3 17 (18.68%) Data Loss Prevention
4 16 (17.58%) Malware Detection/Protection
5 14 (15.38%) Design Patterns
5 14 (15.38%) User Experience
6 12 (13.19%) Problem-Solving
7 10 (10.99%) Change Management
7 10 (10.99%) Project Delivery
8 9 (9.89%) Migration
9 8 (8.79%) Cybersecurity
9 8 (8.79%) Ticket Management
10 7 (7.69%) Service Management
11 6 (6.59%) Customer Service
11 6 (6.59%) Validation
12 5 (5.49%) Business Intelligence
12 5 (5.49%) High Availability
12 5 (5.49%) ITSM
12 5 (5.49%) Mentoring
12 5 (5.49%) Problem Management
Programming Languages
1 17 (18.68%) PowerShell
2 14 (15.38%) Python
3 7 (7.69%) Lisp
4 5 (5.49%) VB
4 5 (5.49%) VBScript
5 3 (3.30%) Kusto Query Language
6 1 (1.10%) Bash
6 1 (1.10%) SQL
Qualifications
1 21 (23.08%) Security Cleared
2 12 (13.19%) SC Cleared
3 9 (9.89%) Degree
4 7 (7.69%) CCNP
4 7 (7.69%) Cisco Certification
5 5 (5.49%) DV Cleared
6 3 (3.30%) Azure Certification
6 3 (3.30%) BPSS Clearance
6 3 (3.30%) CISSP
6 3 (3.30%) CompTIA Security+
6 3 (3.30%) MCSA
6 3 (3.30%) MCSE
6 3 (3.30%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (3.30%) NIST
2 1 (1.10%) GDPR
System Software
1 38 (41.76%) VMware Infrastructure
2 21 (23.08%) Active Directory
3 11 (12.09%) VMware NSX
4 10 (10.99%) Firmware
5 5 (5.49%) BitLocker
6 3 (3.30%) Docker
6 3 (3.30%) Virtual Desktop
6 3 (3.30%) vSphere
7 2 (2.20%) Virtual Servers
8 1 (1.10%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 13 (14.29%) Ansible
1 13 (14.29%) SCCM
2 9 (9.89%) Microsoft Intune
3 8 (8.79%) FortiGate
4 5 (5.49%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 3 (3.30%) CASB
5 3 (3.30%) Nessus
5 3 (3.30%) Terraform
5 3 (3.30%) vCenter Server
6 2 (2.20%) Kubernetes
6 2 (2.20%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (1.10%) Failover Clustering
Vendors
1 53 (58.24%) F5
2 51 (56.04%) VMware
3 22 (24.18%) Blue Coat
4 21 (23.08%) McAfee
5 19 (20.88%) NetApp
6 18 (19.78%) Microsoft
7 17 (18.68%) ServiceNow
8 16 (17.58%) Cisco
9 10 (10.99%) Remedy
10 7 (7.69%) Ekahau
10 7 (7.69%) Veeam
11 5 (5.49%) Computacenter
11 5 (5.49%) Dell
11 5 (5.49%) SolarWinds
12 3 (3.30%) Citrix
12 3 (3.30%) CyberArk
12 3 (3.30%) LogRhythm
12 3 (3.30%) Splunk
12 3 (3.30%) Tenable
13 1 (1.10%) Palo Alto