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

6 months to
25 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 43 68 106
Rank change year-on-year +25 +38 -63
Contract jobs citing DNS 139 60 31
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 4.52% 3.05% 1.10%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 33.02% 17.24% 7.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 46 35 24
10th Percentile £311 £250 £202
25th Percentile £365 £331 £343
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £425 £425
Median % change year-on-year +11.76% - -22.73%
75th Percentile £630 £525 £538
90th Percentile £666 £538 £650
England median daily rate £500 £525 £465
% change year-on-year -4.76% +12.91% -11.43%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 0 0
10th Percentile £44.88 - -
25th Percentile - - -
Median hourly rate £74.26 - -
75th Percentile - - -
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £45.71 £80.68 £40.00
% change year-on-year -43.34% +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 421 348 393
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 13.70% 17.69% 13.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 249 208 293
10th Percentile £298 £184 £199
25th Percentile £380 £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 £602
90th Percentile £646 £591 £710
England median daily rate £500 £500 £475
% change year-on-year - +5.26% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 3 13
10th Percentile £16.40 £20.00 -
25th Percentile £18.00 £21.12 £17.72
Median hourly rate £41.94 £24.59 £26.00
Median % change year-on-year +70.59% -5.44% -5.45%
75th Percentile £74.26 £25.47 £45.88
90th Percentile - £25.90 £49.18
England median hourly rate £40.02 £35.00 £32.50
% change year-on-year +14.34% +7.69% +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 25 March 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
Hourly Rate Histogram in the North West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing DNS in the North West over the 6 months to 25 March 2026.

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 25 March 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 +27 62 £300 - 3
Cheshire -3 33 £450 +28.57% 9
Manchester -25 26 £404 -14.68% 15
Cumbria 0 13 £619 +17.86% 2
Lancashire -12 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 (10.79%) Microsoft Exchange
2 9 (6.47%) Skype for Business
3 7 (5.04%) SharePoint
4 2 (1.44%) IIS
Applications
1 9 (6.47%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (4.32%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 27 (19.42%) Azure
2 19 (13.67%) AWS
3 9 (6.47%) Microsoft 365
4 6 (4.32%) Akamai
4 6 (4.32%) Entra ID
5 5 (3.60%) GCP
6 4 (2.88%) Nutanix
7 3 (2.16%) SaaS
8 2 (1.44%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 2 (1.44%) Azure Logic Apps
8 2 (1.44%) Azure Monitor
8 2 (1.44%) Azure Sentinel
8 2 (1.44%) IaaS
8 2 (1.44%) OneDrive
8 2 (1.44%) PaaS
8 2 (1.44%) Power Platform
9 1 (0.72%) Azure DevOps
9 1 (0.72%) Dynamics 365
9 1 (0.72%) OpenShift
9 1 (0.72%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 46 (33.09%) TCP/IP
2 38 (27.34%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
3 36 (25.90%) SSL
4 35 (25.18%) DMZ
4 35 (25.18%) HTTP
4 35 (25.18%) VPN
5 32 (23.02%) BIG-IP
5 32 (23.02%) DHCP
5 32 (23.02%) Wireshark
6 31 (22.30%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
7 30 (21.58%) BGP
8 22 (15.83%) Multicast
9 20 (14.39%) Firewall
10 15 (10.79%) VLAN
11 14 (10.07%) Network Security
12 13 (9.35%) Wi-Fi
13 12 (8.63%) LAN
13 12 (8.63%) WAN
13 12 (8.63%) Wireless
14 10 (7.19%) NX-OS
Development Applications
1 30 (21.58%) Fiddler
2 3 (2.16%) JIRA
3 1 (0.72%) Git
3 1 (0.72%) Jenkins
General
1 48 (34.53%) Banking
2 43 (30.94%) Investment Banking
3 15 (10.79%) Finance
4 13 (9.35%) Social Skills
5 11 (7.91%) Analytical Skills
6 7 (5.04%) Public Sector
7 5 (3.60%) Documentation Skills
7 5 (3.60%) Legal
8 1 (0.72%) Military
8 1 (0.72%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 65 (46.76%) Network Engineer
2 41 (29.50%) Web Engineer
3 31 (22.30%) Security Engineer
4 28 (20.14%) Cisco Engineer
4 28 (20.14%) Cisco Network Engineer
5 24 (17.27%) Network Security Engineer
6 23 (16.55%) Data Engineer
6 23 (16.55%) Data Network Engineer
7 22 (15.83%) Cisco Security Engineer
8 19 (13.67%) Blue Coat Engineer
8 19 (13.67%) IP Network Engineer
9 12 (8.63%) Analyst
9 12 (8.63%) Architect
10 11 (7.91%) Junior
10 11 (7.91%) Junior Network Engineer
11 9 (6.47%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 8 (5.76%) Systems Analyst
13 7 (5.04%) Technical Architect
14 6 (4.32%) RF Engineer
14 6 (4.32%) Wireless Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (3.60%) LDAP
1 5 (3.60%) XMPP
2 2 (1.44%) 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 25 (17.99%) Management Information System
2 13 (9.35%) Data Centre
3 12 (8.63%) Public Cloud
4 7 (5.04%) Enterprise Cloud
5 6 (4.32%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 5 (3.60%) Cloud Security Posture
6 5 (3.60%) Fat Client
6 5 (3.60%) Product Ownership
6 5 (3.60%) Security Posture
6 5 (3.60%) Thin Client
7 4 (2.88%) Onboarding
7 4 (2.88%) Private Cloud
8 3 (2.16%) Cloud Native
8 3 (2.16%) Hybrid Cloud
9 2 (1.44%) Enterprise Software
9 2 (1.44%) PKI
10 1 (0.72%) Cyber Defence
10 1 (0.72%) iPhone
10 1 (0.72%) Low-Code
10 1 (0.72%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 27 (19.42%) Windows
2 11 (7.91%) Windows 10
3 9 (6.47%) Windows 7
3 9 (6.47%) Windows Server
4 8 (5.76%) Windows Server 2019
5 6 (4.32%) Linux
6 5 (3.60%) Unix
6 5 (3.60%) 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 71 (51.08%) Load Balancing
2 31 (22.30%) Data Loss Prevention
3 30 (21.58%) Malware Detection/Protection
4 22 (15.83%) Problem-Solving
5 17 (12.23%) Project Delivery
6 14 (10.07%) ITSM
6 14 (10.07%) Service Management
7 13 (9.35%) Migration
8 11 (7.91%) Agile
8 11 (7.91%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 9 (6.47%) Disk Encryption
9 9 (6.47%) Platform Engineering
10 8 (5.76%) Change Management
10 8 (5.76%) ITIL
10 8 (5.76%) User Experience
10 8 (5.76%) Validation
10 8 (5.76%) Waterfall
11 7 (5.04%) DevOps
11 7 (5.04%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 7 (5.04%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 23 (16.55%) PowerShell
2 19 (13.67%) Python
3 9 (6.47%) VB
3 9 (6.47%) VBScript
4 6 (4.32%) Lisp
5 2 (1.44%) Kusto Query Language
5 2 (1.44%) SQL
6 1 (0.72%) Bash
6 1 (0.72%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 23 (16.55%) Security Cleared
2 18 (12.95%) Cisco Certification
3 17 (12.23%) SC Cleared
4 13 (9.35%) CCNP
5 10 (7.19%) CCNA
6 9 (6.47%) Degree
7 7 (5.04%) DV Cleared
8 6 (4.32%) BPSS Clearance
9 5 (3.60%) CISSP
9 5 (3.60%) CompTIA Security+
9 5 (3.60%) MCSA
9 5 (3.60%) MCSE
9 5 (3.60%) Microsoft Certification
10 4 (2.88%) Azure Certification
10 4 (2.88%) Network+ Certification
10 4 (2.88%) Server+ Certification
11 2 (1.44%) CCIE
12 1 (0.72%) ITIL Certification
12 1 (0.72%) OCP
12 1 (0.72%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (1.44%) NIST
1 2 (1.44%) SLA
System Software
1 34 (24.46%) VMware Infrastructure
2 25 (17.99%) Active Directory
3 20 (14.39%) Firmware
4 17 (12.23%) VMware NSX
5 9 (6.47%) BitLocker
6 6 (4.32%) vSphere
7 5 (3.60%) Virtual Desktop
8 4 (2.88%) Docker
9 3 (2.16%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 16 (11.51%) SCCM
2 15 (10.79%) Ansible
3 8 (5.76%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 7 (5.04%) FortiGate
4 7 (5.04%) Microsoft Intune
5 5 (3.60%) CASB
5 5 (3.60%) Kubernetes
5 5 (3.60%) Nessus
5 5 (3.60%) Terraform
6 3 (2.16%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (1.44%) 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 77 (55.40%) F5
2 51 (36.69%) VMware
3 42 (30.22%) Cisco
4 32 (23.02%) Blue Coat
5 31 (22.30%) McAfee
6 24 (17.27%) Microsoft
7 21 (15.11%) ServiceNow
8 19 (13.67%) NetApp
9 11 (7.91%) Infoblox
9 11 (7.91%) Remedy
10 6 (4.32%) Citrix
10 6 (4.32%) Ekahau
11 5 (3.60%) Computacenter
11 5 (3.60%) CyberArk
11 5 (3.60%) Splunk
11 5 (3.60%) Tenable
12 4 (2.88%) Veeam
13 2 (1.44%) Aruba
13 2 (1.44%) LogRhythm
13 2 (1.44%) Meraki