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

6 months to
2 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 46 72 106
Rank change year-on-year +26 +34 -66
Contract jobs citing DNS 138 58 32
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 4.43% 2.96% 1.14%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 33.25% 17.42% 8.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 48 33 23
10th Percentile £312 £250 £202
25th Percentile £371 £350 £324
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £528 £425 £400
Median % change year-on-year +24.12% +6.25% -27.27%
75th Percentile £630 £525 £531
90th Percentile £663 £538 £650
England median daily rate £500 £525 £475
% change year-on-year -4.76% +10.53% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 0 0
Median hourly rate £74.26 - -
England median hourly rate £48.72 £80.68 £40.00
% change year-on-year -39.61% +101.69% -13.24%

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 415 333 396
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 13.31% 17.02% 14.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 247 199 289
10th Percentile £304 £184 £199
25th Percentile £402 £300 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £493
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -8.72% -1.40%
75th Percentile £588 £538 £613
90th Percentile £646 £614 £775
England median daily rate £500 £500 £475
% change year-on-year - +5.26% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 3 13
10th Percentile £17.35 £20.00 -
25th Percentile £18.00 £21.12 £17.72
Median hourly rate £74.26 £24.59 £26.00
Median % change year-on-year +202.05% -5.44% -16.80%
75th Percentile - £25.47 £45.88
90th Percentile - £25.90 £49.18
England median hourly rate £42.10 £35.75 £32.50
% change year-on-year +17.75% +10.00% +71.05%

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 2 April 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 2 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
Merseyside +26 62 £300 - 3
Cheshire +2 30 £450 +28.57% 9
Manchester -16 26 £404 -14.68% 15
Cumbria +4 15 £612 +16.62% 2
Lancashire -11 5 - - 13
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 15 (10.87%) Microsoft Exchange
2 9 (6.52%) Skype for Business
3 6 (4.35%) SharePoint
4 2 (1.45%) IIS
Applications
1 9 (6.52%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (3.62%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 26 (18.84%) Azure
2 19 (13.77%) AWS
3 8 (5.80%) Microsoft 365
4 6 (4.35%) Akamai
4 6 (4.35%) Entra ID
5 5 (3.62%) GCP
6 4 (2.90%) Nutanix
7 2 (1.45%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 2 (1.45%) Azure Logic Apps
7 2 (1.45%) Azure Monitor
7 2 (1.45%) Azure Sentinel
7 2 (1.45%) IaaS
7 2 (1.45%) OneDrive
7 2 (1.45%) PaaS
7 2 (1.45%) SaaS
8 1 (0.72%) Azure DevOps
8 1 (0.72%) GitHub
8 1 (0.72%) OpenShift
8 1 (0.72%) Power Platform
8 1 (0.72%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 45 (32.61%) TCP/IP
2 37 (26.81%) VPN
3 36 (26.09%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
4 35 (25.36%) DMZ
4 35 (25.36%) SSL
5 34 (24.64%) HTTP
6 33 (23.91%) DHCP
7 31 (22.46%) BGP
7 31 (22.46%) BIG-IP
7 31 (22.46%) Wireshark
8 29 (21.01%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
9 24 (17.39%) Multicast
10 22 (15.94%) Firewall
11 17 (12.32%) VLAN
12 13 (9.42%) Wireless
13 12 (8.70%) LAN
13 12 (8.70%) Network Security
13 12 (8.70%) WAN
13 12 (8.70%) Wi-Fi
14 11 (7.97%) NX-OS
Development Applications
1 29 (21.01%) Fiddler
2 3 (2.17%) JIRA
3 1 (0.72%) Git
3 1 (0.72%) Jenkins
General
1 47 (34.06%) Banking
2 42 (30.43%) Investment Banking
3 15 (10.87%) Finance
4 13 (9.42%) Social Skills
5 10 (7.25%) Analytical Skills
6 7 (5.07%) Documentation Skills
6 7 (5.07%) Public Sector
7 5 (3.62%) Legal
8 1 (0.72%) Military
8 1 (0.72%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 65 (47.10%) Network Engineer
2 41 (29.71%) Web Engineer
3 33 (23.91%) Security Engineer
4 29 (21.01%) Cisco Engineer
4 29 (21.01%) Cisco Network Engineer
5 26 (18.84%) Network Security Engineer
6 25 (18.12%) Data Engineer
6 25 (18.12%) Data Network Engineer
7 24 (17.39%) Cisco Security Engineer
8 19 (13.77%) Blue Coat Engineer
8 19 (13.77%) IP Network Engineer
9 14 (10.14%) Architect
10 12 (8.70%) Analyst
11 10 (7.25%) Junior
11 10 (7.25%) Junior Network Engineer
12 9 (6.52%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 9 (6.52%) Technical Architect
13 8 (5.80%) Systems Analyst
14 5 (3.62%) Administrator
14 5 (3.62%) RF Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (3.62%) LDAP
1 5 (3.62%) XMPP
2 2 (1.45%) JSON
3 1 (0.72%) 802.1X
3 1 (0.72%) ARM Templates
3 1 (0.72%) OpenTelemetry
3 1 (0.72%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 24 (17.39%) Management Information System
2 14 (10.14%) Data Centre
3 12 (8.70%) Public Cloud
4 7 (5.07%) Enterprise Cloud
5 6 (4.35%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 5 (3.62%) Cloud Security Posture
6 5 (3.62%) Fat Client
6 5 (3.62%) Product Ownership
6 5 (3.62%) Security Posture
6 5 (3.62%) Thin Client
7 4 (2.90%) Onboarding
7 4 (2.90%) Private Cloud
8 3 (2.17%) Cloud Native
8 3 (2.17%) Hybrid Cloud
9 2 (1.45%) PKI
10 1 (0.72%) Cyber Defence
10 1 (0.72%) Enterprise Software
10 1 (0.72%) iPhone
10 1 (0.72%) Team-Oriented Environment
Operating Systems
1 26 (18.84%) Windows
2 11 (7.97%) Windows 10
3 9 (6.52%) Windows 7
3 9 (6.52%) Windows Server
4 8 (5.80%) Windows Server 2019
5 6 (4.35%) Linux
6 5 (3.62%) Unix
6 5 (3.62%) Windows Server 2012
7 1 (0.72%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.72%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.72%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 70 (50.72%) Load Balancing
2 30 (21.74%) Data Loss Prevention
3 29 (21.01%) Malware Detection/Protection
4 22 (15.94%) Problem-Solving
5 17 (12.32%) Project Delivery
6 16 (11.59%) ITSM
7 14 (10.14%) Service Management
8 13 (9.42%) Migration
9 11 (7.97%) Agile
9 11 (7.97%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 9 (6.52%) Disk Encryption
10 9 (6.52%) Platform Engineering
11 8 (5.80%) ITIL
11 8 (5.80%) Validation
11 8 (5.80%) Waterfall
12 7 (5.07%) Change Management
12 7 (5.07%) CI/CD
12 7 (5.07%) DevOps
12 7 (5.07%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 7 (5.07%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 23 (16.67%) PowerShell
2 18 (13.04%) Python
3 9 (6.52%) VB
3 9 (6.52%) VBScript
4 5 (3.62%) Lisp
5 2 (1.45%) Kusto Query Language
5 2 (1.45%) SQL
6 1 (0.72%) Bash
6 1 (0.72%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 24 (17.39%) Security Cleared
2 19 (13.77%) Cisco Certification
3 18 (13.04%) SC Cleared
4 14 (10.14%) CCNP
5 12 (8.70%) CCNA
6 8 (5.80%) Degree
7 7 (5.07%) DV Cleared
8 6 (4.35%) BPSS Clearance
8 6 (4.35%) Network+ Certification
8 6 (4.35%) Server+ Certification
9 5 (3.62%) CISSP
9 5 (3.62%) CompTIA Security+
9 5 (3.62%) MCSA
9 5 (3.62%) MCSE
9 5 (3.62%) Microsoft Certification
10 4 (2.90%) Azure Certification
11 2 (1.45%) CCIE
12 1 (0.72%) ITIL Certification
12 1 (0.72%) OCP
12 1 (0.72%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (1.45%) NIST
1 2 (1.45%) SLA
System Software
1 32 (23.19%) VMware Infrastructure
2 24 (17.39%) Active Directory
3 20 (14.49%) Firmware
4 16 (11.59%) VMware NSX
5 9 (6.52%) BitLocker
6 6 (4.35%) vSphere
7 5 (3.62%) Virtual Desktop
8 4 (2.90%) Docker
9 3 (2.17%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 15 (10.87%) SCCM
2 14 (10.14%) Ansible
3 8 (5.80%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 6 (4.35%) FortiGate
4 6 (4.35%) Microsoft Intune
5 5 (3.62%) CASB
5 5 (3.62%) Kubernetes
5 5 (3.62%) Nessus
5 5 (3.62%) Terraform
6 3 (2.17%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (1.45%) CA Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.72%) AirWatch
8 1 (0.72%) Argo
8 1 (0.72%) Failover Clustering
8 1 (0.72%) Grafana
8 1 (0.72%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 76 (55.07%) F5
2 48 (34.78%) VMware
3 45 (32.61%) Cisco
4 31 (22.46%) Blue Coat
5 30 (21.74%) McAfee
6 23 (16.67%) Microsoft
7 21 (15.22%) ServiceNow
8 19 (13.77%) NetApp
9 11 (7.97%) Infoblox
10 10 (7.25%) Remedy
11 6 (4.35%) Citrix
12 5 (3.62%) Computacenter
12 5 (3.62%) CyberArk
12 5 (3.62%) Ekahau
12 5 (3.62%) Splunk
12 5 (3.62%) Tenable
13 4 (2.90%) Veeam
14 2 (1.45%) Aruba
14 2 (1.45%) LogRhythm
14 2 (1.45%) Meraki