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

6 months to
14 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 71 74 72
Rank change year-on-year +3 -2 +13
Contract jobs citing DNS 122 60 49
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 3.03% 2.71% 2.03%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 25.36% 20.91% 15.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 62 19 25
10th Percentile £185 £285 £313
25th Percentile £375 £415 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -10.00% +26.58%
75th Percentile £599 £543 £675
90th Percentile £630 £621 £750
England median daily rate £511 £520 £488
% change year-on-year -1.68% +6.67% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 6 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 - £41.88 -
England median hourly rate £62.00 £45.00 £23.99
% change year-on-year +37.78% +87.58% -40.03%

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 481 287 308
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 11.95% 12.95% 12.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 307 169 151
10th Percentile £200 £146 £250
25th Percentile £324 £315 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £467 £435 £500
Median % change year-on-year +7.36% -13.00% +1.42%
75th Percentile £575 £538 £586
90th Percentile £628 £682 £688
England median daily rate £500 £483 £500
% change year-on-year +3.57% -3.45% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 15 9
10th Percentile £13.68 - £24.61
25th Percentile £17.25 £15.50 £35.00
Median hourly rate £17.50 £19.00 £48.56
Median % change year-on-year -7.89% -60.87% +191.13%
75th Percentile £23.75 £34.97 £51.91
90th Percentile £43.90 £67.25 £52.02
England median hourly rate £38.72 £34.00 £57.50
% change year-on-year +13.88% -40.87% +1.79%

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 14 October 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 14 October 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 +4 42 £435 +47.46% 8
Manchester -26 27 £500 -3.38% 35
Cheshire +5 24 £417 -18.91% 6
Cumbria -12 18 £575 +30.02% 2
Lancashire -16 9 £333 +90.00% 9
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 16 (13.11%) Microsoft Exchange
2 14 (11.48%) SharePoint
3 6 (4.92%) Skype for Business
4 2 (1.64%) IIS
5 1 (0.82%) nginx
5 1 (0.82%) Traefik
Applications
1 12 (9.84%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (3.28%) MS Visio
3 2 (1.64%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 18 (14.75%) Microsoft 365
2 17 (13.93%) Azure
3 12 (9.84%) IaaS
4 11 (9.02%) AWS
5 8 (6.56%) GitHub
6 6 (4.92%) Entra ID
7 4 (3.28%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 4 (3.28%) GCP
7 4 (3.28%) PaaS
8 3 (2.46%) Asana
8 3 (2.46%) Google Drive
8 3 (2.46%) Google Workspace
8 3 (2.46%) SaaS
9 2 (1.64%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 2 (1.64%) Amazon ECS
9 2 (1.64%) Azure AKS
9 2 (1.64%) GitHub Actions
9 2 (1.64%) OneDrive
9 2 (1.64%) Rubrik
9 2 (1.64%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 46 (37.70%) VPN
2 36 (29.51%) DHCP
3 33 (27.05%) DMZ
4 31 (25.41%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
4 31 (25.41%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
5 29 (23.77%) TCP/IP
6 28 (22.95%) Firewall
7 25 (20.49%) BGP
8 23 (18.85%) BIG-IP
9 22 (18.03%) Multicast
9 22 (18.03%) VLAN
10 20 (16.39%) Network Security
11 19 (15.57%) Wireless
12 16 (13.11%) SSL
12 16 (13.11%) WAN
13 13 (10.66%) LAN
13 13 (10.66%) SAN
14 12 (9.84%) Cisco IOS
14 12 (9.84%) Wireshark
15 11 (9.02%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (2.46%) SQL Server
2 2 (1.64%) MongoDB
3 1 (0.82%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 11 (9.02%) Fiddler
2 10 (8.20%) JIRA
3 8 (6.56%) Jenkins
4 3 (2.46%) Git
4 3 (2.46%) GitLab
5 2 (1.64%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 1 (0.82%) git-flow
6 1 (0.82%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 27 (22.13%) Banking
2 26 (21.31%) Social Skills
3 22 (18.03%) Investment Banking
4 10 (8.20%) Analytical Skills
4 10 (8.20%) Documentation Skills
4 10 (8.20%) Finance
5 4 (3.28%) Public Sector
6 3 (2.46%) Legal
7 2 (1.64%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (0.82%) Manufacturing
8 1 (0.82%) Military
8 1 (0.82%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 47 (38.52%) Network Engineer
2 21 (17.21%) Cisco Engineer
3 20 (16.39%) Cisco Network Engineer
3 20 (16.39%) Cisco Security Engineer
3 20 (16.39%) Data Engineer
3 20 (16.39%) Data Network Engineer
3 20 (16.39%) Network Security Engineer
3 20 (16.39%) Security Engineer
3 20 (16.39%) Web Engineer
4 14 (11.48%) VMware Engineer
5 12 (9.84%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 11 (9.02%) Blue Coat Engineer
6 11 (9.02%) IP Network Engineer
6 11 (9.02%) IT Support
6 11 (9.02%) Senior
7 9 (7.38%) Architect
7 9 (7.38%) Support Engineer
8 7 (5.74%) Cloud Engineer
8 7 (5.74%) IT Engineer
8 7 (5.74%) IT Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (9.02%) Terraform
2 6 (4.92%) 802.1X
3 4 (3.28%) JSON
4 3 (2.46%) OAuth
5 2 (1.64%) ODBC
5 2 (1.64%) REST
6 1 (0.82%) ARM Templates
6 1 (0.82%) Azure Blueprints
6 1 (0.82%) cloud-init
6 1 (0.82%) Kafka
6 1 (0.82%) Keycloak
6 1 (0.82%) LDAP
6 1 (0.82%) Regular Expression
6 1 (0.82%) Software Packaging
6 1 (0.82%) XML
6 1 (0.82%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 24 (19.67%) Data Centre
2 22 (18.03%) Management Information System
3 8 (6.56%) Onboarding
4 7 (5.74%) Driving Licence
5 6 (4.92%) PKI
6 5 (4.10%) Public Cloud
6 5 (4.10%) Self-Motivation
7 4 (3.28%) Cloud Native
7 4 (3.28%) Hybrid Cloud
8 3 (2.46%) Enterprise Cloud
8 3 (2.46%) Freedom of Information
8 3 (2.46%) Video Conferencing
9 2 (1.64%) Handset
9 2 (1.64%) Replication
10 1 (0.82%) CMDB
10 1 (0.82%) Data Protection Act
10 1 (0.82%) Enterprise Software
10 1 (0.82%) Enterprise Storage
10 1 (0.82%) iPhone
10 1 (0.82%) PDA
Operating Systems
1 27 (22.13%) Windows
2 14 (11.48%) Windows 10
3 13 (10.66%) Windows Server
4 9 (7.38%) Linux
5 7 (5.74%) Android
6 6 (4.92%) Windows 7
7 5 (4.10%) Apple iOS
7 5 (4.10%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (4.10%) Unix
8 3 (2.46%) macOS
8 3 (2.46%) Windows Server 2012
8 3 (2.46%) Windows Server 2016
8 3 (2.46%) Windows Server 2019
9 2 (1.64%) AIX
10 1 (0.82%) CentOS
10 1 (0.82%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 48 (39.34%) Load Balancing
2 26 (21.31%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 20 (16.39%) ITSM
4 18 (14.75%) Migration
5 17 (13.93%) Problem-Solving
6 16 (13.11%) ITIL
7 15 (12.30%) CI/CD
8 14 (11.48%) Continuous Improvement
8 14 (11.48%) Data Loss Prevention
9 13 (10.66%) Network Segmentation
10 12 (9.84%) Agile
10 12 (9.84%) Infrastructure as Code
11 11 (9.02%) Malware Detection/Protection
12 10 (8.20%) Change Management
12 10 (8.20%) Service Management
13 9 (7.38%) Project Delivery
14 8 (6.56%) DevOps
14 8 (6.56%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 8 (6.56%) Validation
15 7 (5.74%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 13 (10.66%) Python
2 12 (9.84%) PowerShell
3 7 (5.74%) Bicep
4 6 (4.92%) ActionScript
4 6 (4.92%) VB
4 6 (4.92%) VBScript
5 3 (2.46%) SQL
6 2 (1.64%) Bash
6 2 (1.64%) Perl
6 2 (1.64%) T-SQL
7 1 (0.82%) Go
7 1 (0.82%) JavaScript
7 1 (0.82%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 24 (19.67%) Security Cleared
2 18 (14.75%) CCNP
2 18 (14.75%) Cisco Certification
2 18 (14.75%) SC Cleared
3 13 (10.66%) CCNA
4 12 (9.84%) Network+ Certification
5 9 (7.38%) Server+ Certification
6 5 (4.10%) Degree
7 4 (3.28%) CCIE
8 3 (2.46%) AWS Certification
8 3 (2.46%) Azure Certification
8 3 (2.46%) CompTIA Security+
9 2 (1.64%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 2 (1.64%) BPSS Clearance
10 1 (0.82%) CCIE Security
10 1 (0.82%) Computer Science Degree
10 1 (0.82%) ITIL Certification
10 1 (0.82%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 1 (0.82%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (4.10%) SLA
2 1 (0.82%) Data Quality
2 1 (0.82%) NCSC
System Software
1 34 (27.87%) VMware Infrastructure
2 29 (23.77%) Active Directory
3 11 (9.02%) Firmware
4 8 (6.56%) VMware NSX
5 6 (4.92%) BitLocker
6 2 (1.64%) Docker
6 2 (1.64%) NFS
6 2 (1.64%) Veritas Volume Manager
6 2 (1.64%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.82%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.82%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.82%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.82%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 10 (8.20%) SCCM
2 6 (4.92%) Ansible
3 5 (4.10%) WSUS
4 3 (2.46%) Kubernetes
4 3 (2.46%) Microsoft Intune
4 3 (2.46%) Progress Chef
4 3 (2.46%) Single Sign-On
5 2 (1.64%) Grafana
5 2 (1.64%) PowerBroker
5 2 (1.64%) Prometheus
5 2 (1.64%) Tivoli
5 2 (1.64%) Tivoli Storage Manager
6 1 (0.82%) Cisco Prime
6 1 (0.82%) Consul
6 1 (0.82%) Data Guard
6 1 (0.82%) Microsoft Clustering
6 1 (0.82%) Puppet
6 1 (0.82%) Rancher
6 1 (0.82%) vRealize
6 1 (0.82%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 54 (44.26%) F5
2 41 (33.61%) VMware
3 38 (31.15%) Cisco
4 34 (27.87%) Microsoft
5 22 (18.03%) ServiceNow
6 13 (10.66%) McAfee
7 11 (9.02%) Blue Coat
7 11 (9.02%) NetApp
8 6 (4.92%) CyberArk
9 5 (4.10%) Splunk
10 4 (3.28%) Arista
10 4 (3.28%) Citrix
10 4 (3.28%) Fortinet
10 4 (3.28%) Infoblox
10 4 (3.28%) Oracle
10 4 (3.28%) Red Hat
11 3 (2.46%) ForeScout
11 3 (2.46%) Google
12 2 (1.64%) Tanium
12 2 (1.64%) Veritas