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

6 months to
15 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 46 73 102
Rank change year-on-year +27 +29 -56
Contract jobs citing DNS 138 51 33
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 4.36% 2.64% 1.21%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 33.74% 15.64% 8.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 51 31 24
10th Percentile £315 £250 £213
25th Percentile £368 £313 £343
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £425 £400
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% +6.25% -27.27%
75th Percentile £628 £525 £528
90th Percentile £658 £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 £55.50 £80.68 £40.00
% change year-on-year -31.21% +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 409 326 378
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 12.91% 16.90% 13.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 244 202 268
10th Percentile £318 £182 £196
25th Percentile £406 £300 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £494
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -8.91% -1.20%
75th Percentile £588 £534 £650
90th Percentile £647 £600 £825
England median daily rate £500 £500 £475
% change year-on-year - +5.26% -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 3 14
10th Percentile £17.49 £20.00 £17.72
25th Percentile £22.12 £21.12 £18.48
Median hourly rate £58.10 £24.59 £33.62
Median % change year-on-year +136.32% -26.86% +7.57%
75th Percentile £74.26 £25.47 £45.88
90th Percentile - £25.90 £85.00
England median hourly rate £48.11 £37.50 £38.50
% change year-on-year +28.29% -2.60% +103.38%

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 15 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 15 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 +23 62 £315 - 3
Cheshire +1 29 £450 +28.57% 4
Manchester -19 27 £376 -20.44% 12
Cumbria +2 15 £612 +16.62%
Lancashire -10 5 - - 7
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 4 (2.90%) SharePoint
4 2 (1.45%) IIS
Applications
1 9 (6.52%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (2.17%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 28 (20.29%) Azure
2 22 (15.94%) 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 3 (2.17%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 3 (2.17%) IaaS
7 3 (2.17%) PaaS
8 2 (1.45%) Azure Logic Apps
8 2 (1.45%) Azure Monitor
8 2 (1.45%) Azure Sentinel
8 2 (1.45%) OneDrive
8 2 (1.45%) SaaS
9 1 (0.72%) Azure DevOps
9 1 (0.72%) Dynamics 365
9 1 (0.72%) OpenShift
9 1 (0.72%) Power Platform
9 1 (0.72%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 43 (31.16%) TCP/IP
2 40 (28.99%) VPN
3 35 (25.36%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
4 34 (24.64%) DMZ
4 34 (24.64%) SSL
5 33 (23.91%) HTTP
6 31 (22.46%) BGP
6 31 (22.46%) DHCP
7 30 (21.74%) Wireshark
8 29 (21.01%) BIG-IP
9 27 (19.57%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
10 26 (18.84%) Multicast
11 22 (15.94%) Firewall
12 17 (12.32%) VLAN
13 12 (8.70%) LAN
13 12 (8.70%) WAN
13 12 (8.70%) Wi-Fi
14 11 (7.97%) Wireless
15 10 (7.25%) Network Security
16 9 (6.52%) Skype
Development Applications
1 28 (20.29%) Fiddler
2 3 (2.17%) JIRA
3 1 (0.72%) Git
3 1 (0.72%) Jenkins
General
1 45 (32.61%) Banking
2 40 (28.99%) Investment Banking
3 15 (10.87%) Finance
4 12 (8.70%) Social Skills
5 10 (7.25%) Analytical Skills
6 8 (5.80%) Documentation Skills
7 7 (5.07%) Public Sector
8 5 (3.62%) Legal
9 1 (0.72%) Military
9 1 (0.72%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 64 (46.38%) Network Engineer
2 40 (28.99%) Web Engineer
3 35 (25.36%) Security Engineer
4 29 (21.01%) Cisco Engineer
4 29 (21.01%) Cisco Network Engineer
5 28 (20.29%) Network Security Engineer
6 27 (19.57%) Data Engineer
6 27 (19.57%) Data Network Engineer
7 26 (18.84%) Cisco Security Engineer
8 19 (13.77%) Blue Coat Engineer
8 19 (13.77%) IP Network Engineer
9 14 (10.14%) Architect
10 13 (9.42%) Analyst
11 10 (7.25%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 9 (6.52%) Junior
12 9 (6.52%) Junior Network Engineer
12 9 (6.52%) Systems Analyst
12 9 (6.52%) Technical Architect
13 5 (3.62%) Administrator
13 5 (3.62%) Infrastructure Services 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 23 (16.67%) Management Information System
2 13 (9.42%) Data Centre
2 13 (9.42%) Public Cloud
3 8 (5.80%) Enterprise Cloud
4 6 (4.35%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
5 5 (3.62%) Cloud Security Posture
5 5 (3.62%) Fat Client
5 5 (3.62%) Product Ownership
5 5 (3.62%) Security Posture
5 5 (3.62%) Thin Client
6 4 (2.90%) Cloud Native
6 4 (2.90%) Hybrid Cloud
6 4 (2.90%) Private Cloud
7 3 (2.17%) Onboarding
8 2 (1.45%) PKI
9 1 (0.72%) Cyber Defence
9 1 (0.72%) Enterprise Software
9 1 (0.72%) iPhone
9 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 7 (5.07%) Linux
6 6 (4.35%) Unix
7 5 (3.62%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.72%) AIX
8 1 (0.72%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.72%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.72%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.72%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 68 (49.28%) Load Balancing
2 28 (20.29%) Data Loss Prevention
2 28 (20.29%) Malware Detection/Protection
3 21 (15.22%) Problem-Solving
4 19 (13.77%) Project Delivery
5 16 (11.59%) ITSM
6 14 (10.14%) Service Management
7 13 (9.42%) Migration
8 12 (8.70%) Agile
8 12 (8.70%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 9 (6.52%) Disk Encryption
9 9 (6.52%) Waterfall
10 8 (5.80%) CI/CD
10 8 (5.80%) ITIL
10 8 (5.80%) Platform Engineering
10 8 (5.80%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 8 (5.80%) Validation
10 8 (5.80%) Workshop Facilitation
11 7 (5.07%) DevOps
11 7 (5.07%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 23 (16.67%) PowerShell
2 16 (11.59%) Python
3 9 (6.52%) VB
3 9 (6.52%) VBScript
4 3 (2.17%) Lisp
5 2 (1.45%) Bicep
5 2 (1.45%) Kusto Query Language
5 2 (1.45%) SQL
6 1 (0.72%) Bash
Qualifications
1 24 (17.39%) Security Cleared
2 18 (13.04%) SC Cleared
3 17 (12.32%) Cisco Certification
4 12 (8.70%) CCNA
4 12 (8.70%) CCNP
5 9 (6.52%) Degree
6 7 (5.07%) BPSS Clearance
6 7 (5.07%) DV Cleared
7 6 (4.35%) Network+ Certification
7 6 (4.35%) Server+ Certification
8 5 (3.62%) Azure Certification
8 5 (3.62%) CISSP
8 5 (3.62%) CompTIA Security+
8 5 (3.62%) MCSA
8 5 (3.62%) MCSE
8 5 (3.62%) Microsoft Certification
9 2 (1.45%) AWS Certification
9 2 (1.45%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 2 (1.45%) CCIE
10 1 (0.72%) OCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (1.45%) NIST
1 2 (1.45%) SLA
System Software
1 31 (22.46%) VMware Infrastructure
2 24 (17.39%) Active Directory
3 20 (14.49%) Firmware
4 14 (10.14%) 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
10 1 (0.72%) NFS
10 1 (0.72%) Veritas Volume Manager
10 1 (0.72%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 15 (10.87%) SCCM
2 12 (8.70%) Ansible
3 8 (5.80%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 6 (4.35%) Microsoft Intune
4 6 (4.35%) Terraform
5 5 (3.62%) CASB
5 5 (3.62%) Kubernetes
5 5 (3.62%) Nessus
6 4 (2.90%) FortiGate
7 3 (2.17%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (1.45%) CA Single Sign-On
9 1 (0.72%) AirWatch
9 1 (0.72%) Argo
9 1 (0.72%) Failover Clustering
9 1 (0.72%) Grafana
9 1 (0.72%) PowerBroker
9 1 (0.72%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.72%) Tivoli
9 1 (0.72%) Tivoli Storage Manager
9 1 (0.72%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 75 (54.35%) F5
2 45 (32.61%) Cisco
2 45 (32.61%) VMware
3 29 (21.01%) Blue Coat
4 28 (20.29%) McAfee
5 23 (16.67%) Microsoft
6 19 (13.77%) NetApp
6 19 (13.77%) ServiceNow
7 12 (8.70%) Infoblox
8 8 (5.80%) Remedy
9 6 (4.35%) Citrix
10 5 (3.62%) CyberArk
10 5 (3.62%) Splunk
10 5 (3.62%) Tenable
11 4 (2.90%) Computacenter
11 4 (2.90%) Veeam
12 3 (2.17%) Ekahau
13 2 (1.45%) Aruba
13 2 (1.45%) LogRhythm
13 2 (1.45%) Red Hat