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

6 months to
28 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 37 78 95
Rank change year-on-year +41 +17 -28
Contract jobs citing DNS 157 47 32
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 4.72% 2.43% 1.19%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 37.03% 14.69% 10.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 69 29 24
10th Percentile £313 £250 £204
25th Percentile £374 £313 £285
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £425 £456
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% -6.85% -13.10%
75th Percentile £612 £525 £520
90th Percentile £638 £550 £618
England median daily rate £495 £550 £488
% change year-on-year -10.00% +12.82% -7.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 0
Median hourly rate £74.26 - -
England median hourly rate £35.22 £80.68 £40.00
% change year-on-year -56.34% +101.69% -23.27%

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 424 320 320
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 12.75% 16.51% 11.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 260 191 216
10th Percentile £312 £193 £205
25th Percentile £390 £313 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £450 £495
Median % change year-on-year +8.78% -9.09% +4.21%
75th Percentile £595 £538 £665
90th Percentile £638 £625 £838
England median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -3.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 1 13
10th Percentile £14.50 - £18.33
25th Percentile £17.57 £22.98 £22.50
Median hourly rate £29.16 £24.59 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +18.61% -29.76% +12.00%
75th Percentile £50.02 £26.19 £45.88
90th Percentile £74.26 - £89.18
England median hourly rate £32.50 £39.66 £40.00
% change year-on-year -18.05% -0.85% +131.45%

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 May 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 28 May 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 +21 61 £315 +6.78% 6
Manchester -18 36 £375 -21.05% 16
Cheshire +7 35 £450 +38.31% 7
Cumbria -1 20 £612 +16.57% 2
Lancashire - 5 £190 - 5
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 11 (7.01%) Microsoft Exchange
2 4 (2.55%) IIS
2 4 (2.55%) SharePoint
2 4 (2.55%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 4 (2.55%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.64%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 33 (21.02%) Azure
2 28 (17.83%) AWS
3 12 (7.64%) Microsoft 365
4 9 (5.73%) GCP
5 6 (3.82%) Akamai
6 5 (3.18%) Entra ID
6 5 (3.18%) IaaS
6 5 (3.18%) SaaS
7 4 (2.55%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 4 (2.55%) Nutanix
7 4 (2.55%) PaaS
8 3 (1.91%) Asana
8 3 (1.91%) Google Drive
8 3 (1.91%) Google Workspace
9 2 (1.27%) GitHub
9 2 (1.27%) OneDrive
10 1 (0.64%) Azure Logic Apps
10 1 (0.64%) Azure Sentinel
10 1 (0.64%) Power Platform
10 1 (0.64%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 44 (28.03%) VPN
2 43 (27.39%) TCP/IP
3 36 (22.93%) DHCP
3 36 (22.93%) DMZ
4 34 (21.66%) BGP
5 33 (21.02%) SSL
6 32 (20.38%) Multicast
7 31 (19.75%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
7 31 (19.75%) Firewall
7 31 (19.75%) HTTP
8 28 (17.83%) BIG-IP
8 28 (17.83%) Wireshark
9 23 (14.65%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
10 22 (14.01%) VLAN
10 22 (14.01%) Wireless
11 18 (11.46%) SAN
12 17 (10.83%) Cisco IOS
13 16 (10.19%) NAS
13 16 (10.19%) NX-OS
13 16 (10.19%) Structured Cabling
Development Applications
1 26 (16.56%) Fiddler
2 7 (4.46%) JIRA
3 2 (1.27%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.64%) Git
General
1 43 (27.39%) Banking
2 35 (22.29%) Investment Banking
3 23 (14.65%) Social Skills
4 16 (10.19%) Finance
5 12 (7.64%) Documentation Skills
6 10 (6.37%) Analytical Skills
7 7 (4.46%) Public Sector
8 3 (1.91%) Legal
9 1 (0.64%) Manufacturing
9 1 (0.64%) Military
9 1 (0.64%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 71 (45.22%) Network Engineer
2 41 (26.11%) Web Engineer
3 40 (25.48%) Security Engineer
4 34 (21.66%) Network Security Engineer
5 33 (21.02%) Cisco Engineer
5 33 (21.02%) Data Engineer
5 33 (21.02%) Data Network Engineer
6 32 (20.38%) Cisco Network Engineer
6 32 (20.38%) Cisco Security Engineer
7 19 (12.10%) Architect
8 18 (11.46%) Blue Coat Engineer
8 18 (11.46%) IP Network Engineer
9 17 (10.83%) Analyst
10 12 (7.64%) Systems Analyst
11 11 (7.01%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 11 (7.01%) Technical Architect
12 8 (5.10%) Junior
12 8 (5.10%) Junior Network Engineer
13 7 (4.46%) Administrator
13 7 (4.46%) Senior
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (3.18%) 802.1X
1 5 (3.18%) LDAP
2 3 (1.91%) OAuth
2 3 (1.91%) XMPP
3 2 (1.27%) Software Packaging
4 1 (0.64%) ARM Templates
4 1 (0.64%) JSON
4 1 (0.64%) OpenTelemetry
4 1 (0.64%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 23 (14.65%) Data Centre
2 21 (13.38%) Management Information System
3 13 (8.28%) Public Cloud
4 10 (6.37%) Enterprise Cloud
5 7 (4.46%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 5 (3.18%) Cloud Native
6 5 (3.18%) Cloud Security Posture
6 5 (3.18%) Hybrid Cloud
6 5 (3.18%) PKI
6 5 (3.18%) Security Posture
7 4 (2.55%) Private Cloud
8 3 (1.91%) Fat Client
8 3 (1.91%) Freedom of Information
8 3 (1.91%) Product Ownership
8 3 (1.91%) Thin Client
9 2 (1.27%) iPhone
9 2 (1.27%) Onboarding
10 1 (0.64%) Cyber Defence
10 1 (0.64%) Data Protection Act
10 1 (0.64%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 25 (15.92%) Windows
2 13 (8.28%) Windows Server
3 10 (6.37%) Linux
4 9 (5.73%) Windows Server 2019
5 8 (5.10%) Unix
6 7 (4.46%) Windows 10
6 7 (4.46%) Windows Server 2012
7 4 (2.55%) Windows 7
8 3 (1.91%) AIX
8 3 (1.91%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 2 (1.27%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.64%) Apple iOS
10 1 (0.64%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 68 (43.31%) Load Balancing
2 29 (18.47%) Data Loss Prevention
3 26 (16.56%) Malware Detection/Protection
4 24 (15.29%) Project Delivery
5 23 (14.65%) ITSM
6 19 (12.10%) Problem-Solving
7 18 (11.46%) Migration
8 17 (10.83%) Agile
9 15 (9.55%) Network Segmentation
10 14 (8.92%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 13 (8.28%) ITIL
12 12 (7.64%) Waterfall
13 11 (7.01%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 10 (6.37%) Change Management
14 10 (6.37%) CI/CD
14 10 (6.37%) Workshop Facilitation
15 9 (5.73%) Infrastructure as Code
15 9 (5.73%) Systems Analysis
15 9 (5.73%) Validation
16 8 (5.10%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 17 (10.83%) Python
2 16 (10.19%) PowerShell
3 4 (2.55%) VB
3 4 (2.55%) VBScript
4 3 (1.91%) Bicep
4 3 (1.91%) SQL
5 1 (0.64%) ActionScript
5 1 (0.64%) Bash
5 1 (0.64%) JavaScript
5 1 (0.64%) Kusto Query Language
5 1 (0.64%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 30 (19.11%) Security Cleared
2 27 (17.20%) Cisco Certification
3 24 (15.29%) CCNA
3 24 (15.29%) SC Cleared
4 22 (14.01%) CCNP
5 18 (11.46%) Network+ Certification
6 15 (9.55%) Server+ Certification
7 10 (6.37%) Degree
8 8 (5.10%) CompTIA Security+
9 6 (3.82%) BPSS Clearance
10 5 (3.18%) Azure Certification
10 5 (3.18%) CISSP
10 5 (3.18%) MCSA
10 5 (3.18%) MCSE
10 5 (3.18%) Microsoft Certification
11 3 (1.91%) AWS Certification
11 3 (1.91%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 3 (1.91%) CCIE
12 2 (1.27%) DV Cleared
12 2 (1.27%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (2.55%) SLA
2 1 (0.64%) NIST
System Software
1 29 (18.47%) Active Directory
2 28 (17.83%) VMware Infrastructure
3 19 (12.10%) Firmware
4 13 (8.28%) VMware NSX
5 6 (3.82%) vSphere
6 5 (3.18%) Virtual Desktop
7 4 (2.55%) BitLocker
7 4 (2.55%) Docker
7 4 (2.55%) Hyper-V
8 3 (1.91%) NFS
8 3 (1.91%) Veritas Volume Manager
8 3 (1.91%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.64%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 12 (7.64%) Ansible
1 12 (7.64%) SCCM
2 7 (4.46%) Active Directory Federation Services
2 7 (4.46%) Terraform
3 6 (3.82%) Microsoft Intune
3 6 (3.82%) Single Sign-On
4 5 (3.18%) CASB
4 5 (3.18%) Kubernetes
4 5 (3.18%) Nessus
5 3 (1.91%) PowerBroker
5 3 (1.91%) Progress Chef
5 3 (1.91%) Tivoli
5 3 (1.91%) Tivoli Storage Manager
5 3 (1.91%) WSUS
6 2 (1.27%) AirWatch
6 2 (1.27%) CA Single Sign-On
6 2 (1.27%) vCenter Server
7 1 (0.64%) Argo
7 1 (0.64%) vMotion
7 1 (0.64%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 77 (49.04%) F5
2 57 (36.31%) Cisco
3 43 (27.39%) VMware
4 27 (17.20%) Blue Coat
5 26 (16.56%) McAfee
6 21 (13.38%) ServiceNow
7 19 (12.10%) Microsoft
8 18 (11.46%) NetApp
9 16 (10.19%) Infoblox
10 6 (3.82%) Citrix
11 5 (3.18%) CyberArk
11 5 (3.18%) Red Hat
11 5 (3.18%) Remedy
11 5 (3.18%) Splunk
11 5 (3.18%) Tenable
12 4 (2.55%) Computacenter
12 4 (2.55%) Veeam
13 3 (1.91%) Google
13 3 (1.91%) Oracle
13 3 (1.91%) Veritas