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

6 months to
11 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 44 62 104
Rank change year-on-year +18 +42 -62
Contract jobs citing DNS 132 61 37
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 4.55% 3.03% 1.29%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 33.76% 16.67% 8.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 38 37 26
10th Percentile £304 £250 £203
25th Percentile £385 £350 £304
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £569 £473 £398
Median % change year-on-year +20.37% +18.87% -27.73%
75th Percentile £630 £538 £511
90th Percentile £675 £610 £540
England median daily rate £515 £525 £456
% change year-on-year -1.90% +15.07% -13.10%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 0 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £15.50 - -
Median hourly rate £74.26 - -
75th Percentile - - -
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £33.50 £80.68 £40.00
% change year-on-year -58.48% +101.69% -4.48%

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 391 366 416
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 13.47% 18.16% 14.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 220 216 306
10th Percentile £273 £183 £200
25th Percentile £390 £317 £361
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £453 £481
Median % change year-on-year +10.50% -5.93% -3.80%
75th Percentile £588 £538 £594
90th Percentile £638 £606 £675
England median daily rate £500 £500 £475
% change year-on-year - +5.26% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 3 13
10th Percentile £15.50 £20.00 -
25th Percentile £18.75 £21.12 £17.72
Median hourly rate £41.94 £24.59 £26.00
Median % change year-on-year +70.59% -5.44% +7.87%
75th Percentile £74.26 £25.47 £45.88
90th Percentile - £25.90 £49.18
England median hourly rate £40.02 £35.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +14.34% -12.50% +110.53%

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 11 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 11 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 11 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 +20 62 £300 - 4
Cheshire -6 32 £503 +43.57% 11
Manchester -17 20 £620 +30.53% 14
Cumbria +4 13 £619 +17.86% 1
Lancashire -13 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 (11.36%) Microsoft Exchange
2 9 (6.82%) Skype for Business
3 8 (6.06%) SharePoint
4 2 (1.52%) IIS
Applications
1 9 (6.82%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (5.30%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 22 (16.67%) Azure
2 12 (9.09%) AWS
3 11 (8.33%) Microsoft 365
4 6 (4.55%) Akamai
4 6 (4.55%) Entra ID
5 5 (3.79%) GCP
5 5 (3.79%) SaaS
6 4 (3.03%) Nutanix
6 4 (3.03%) Power Platform
7 2 (1.52%) Azure Logic Apps
7 2 (1.52%) Azure Monitor
7 2 (1.52%) Azure Sentinel
7 2 (1.52%) IaaS
7 2 (1.52%) OneDrive
7 2 (1.52%) PaaS
8 1 (0.76%) Azure DevOps
8 1 (0.76%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 1 (0.76%) Dynamics 365
8 1 (0.76%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 48 (36.36%) TCP/IP
2 40 (30.30%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
3 38 (28.79%) SSL
4 37 (28.03%) HTTP
5 36 (27.27%) DMZ
6 34 (25.76%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
7 33 (25.00%) BIG-IP
8 32 (24.24%) DHCP
9 31 (23.48%) Wireshark
10 30 (22.73%) VPN
11 26 (19.70%) BGP
12 19 (14.39%) Firewall
13 18 (13.64%) Multicast
14 16 (12.12%) Network Security
15 14 (10.61%) VLAN
15 14 (10.61%) Wi-Fi
16 11 (8.33%) LAN
16 11 (8.33%) NX-OS
16 11 (8.33%) WAN
16 11 (8.33%) Wireless
Development Applications
1 31 (23.48%) Fiddler
2 3 (2.27%) JIRA
3 1 (0.76%) Git
General
1 49 (37.12%) Banking
2 45 (34.09%) Investment Banking
3 15 (11.36%) Finance
4 14 (10.61%) Social Skills
5 11 (8.33%) Analytical Skills
6 7 (5.30%) Public Sector
7 5 (3.79%) Legal
8 4 (3.03%) Documentation Skills
9 1 (0.76%) Military
9 1 (0.76%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 62 (46.97%) Network Engineer
2 38 (28.79%) Web Engineer
3 27 (20.45%) Security Engineer
4 25 (18.94%) Cisco Engineer
4 25 (18.94%) Cisco Network Engineer
5 20 (15.15%) Network Security Engineer
6 19 (14.39%) Data Engineer
6 19 (14.39%) Data Network Engineer
7 18 (13.64%) Blue Coat Engineer
7 18 (13.64%) Cisco Security Engineer
7 18 (13.64%) IP Network Engineer
8 12 (9.09%) Junior
8 12 (9.09%) Junior Network Engineer
9 11 (8.33%) Architect
10 8 (6.06%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 8 (6.06%) Operations Engineer
11 7 (5.30%) Automation Engineer
11 7 (5.30%) Cisco Wireless Engineer
11 7 (5.30%) RF Engineer
11 7 (5.30%) Wireless Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (3.79%) LDAP
1 5 (3.79%) XMPP
2 2 (1.52%) JSON
3 1 (0.76%) ARM Templates
3 1 (0.76%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 28 (21.21%) Management Information System
2 12 (9.09%) Data Centre
3 10 (7.58%) Public Cloud
4 7 (5.30%) Onboarding
5 6 (4.55%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 5 (3.79%) Cloud Security Posture
6 5 (3.79%) Fat Client
6 5 (3.79%) Product Ownership
6 5 (3.79%) Security Posture
6 5 (3.79%) Thin Client
7 4 (3.03%) Enterprise Software
7 4 (3.03%) Private Cloud
8 3 (2.27%) Low-Code
8 3 (2.27%) Video Conferencing
9 2 (1.52%) Cloud Native
9 2 (1.52%) Enterprise Cloud
9 2 (1.52%) PKI
10 1 (0.76%) Cyber Defence
10 1 (0.76%) Hybrid Cloud
10 1 (0.76%) iPhone
Operating Systems
1 29 (21.97%) Windows
2 11 (8.33%) Windows 10
3 9 (6.82%) Windows 7
3 9 (6.82%) Windows Server
4 8 (6.06%) Windows Server 2019
5 6 (4.55%) Linux
6 5 (3.79%) Unix
6 5 (3.79%) Windows Server 2012
7 1 (0.76%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.76%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.76%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 69 (52.27%) Load Balancing
2 30 (22.73%) Data Loss Prevention
3 29 (21.97%) Malware Detection/Protection
4 21 (15.91%) Problem-Solving
5 14 (10.61%) ITSM
5 14 (10.61%) Project Delivery
5 14 (10.61%) Service Management
6 11 (8.33%) User Experience
7 10 (7.58%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 10 (7.58%) Migration
8 9 (6.82%) Business Strategy
8 9 (6.82%) Disk Encryption
8 9 (6.82%) Platform Engineering
9 8 (6.06%) Change Management
9 8 (6.06%) Design Patterns
9 8 (6.06%) ITIL
9 8 (6.06%) Ticket Management
9 8 (6.06%) Validation
10 6 (4.55%) Customer Service
10 6 (4.55%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 23 (17.42%) PowerShell
2 20 (15.15%) Python
3 9 (6.82%) VB
3 9 (6.82%) VBScript
4 7 (5.30%) Lisp
5 2 (1.52%) Kusto Query Language
5 2 (1.52%) SQL
6 1 (0.76%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 25 (18.94%) Security Cleared
2 17 (12.88%) SC Cleared
3 16 (12.12%) Cisco Certification
4 13 (9.85%) CCNP
5 10 (7.58%) Degree
6 7 (5.30%) CCNA
6 7 (5.30%) DV Cleared
7 6 (4.55%) BPSS Clearance
8 5 (3.79%) CISSP
8 5 (3.79%) CompTIA Security+
8 5 (3.79%) MCSA
8 5 (3.79%) MCSE
8 5 (3.79%) Microsoft Certification
9 4 (3.03%) Azure Certification
9 4 (3.03%) Network+ Certification
9 4 (3.03%) Server+ Certification
10 2 (1.52%) CCIE
11 1 (0.76%) AWS Certification
11 1 (0.76%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 1 (0.76%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (1.52%) NIST
1 2 (1.52%) SLA
System Software
1 34 (25.76%) VMware Infrastructure
2 27 (20.45%) Active Directory
3 18 (13.64%) Firmware
4 16 (12.12%) VMware NSX
5 9 (6.82%) BitLocker
6 5 (3.79%) Virtual Desktop
6 5 (3.79%) vSphere
7 4 (3.03%) Docker
8 3 (2.27%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 18 (13.64%) SCCM
2 16 (12.12%) Ansible
3 9 (6.82%) Microsoft Intune
4 8 (6.06%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 8 (6.06%) FortiGate
5 5 (3.79%) CASB
5 5 (3.79%) Nessus
6 4 (3.03%) Kubernetes
7 3 (2.27%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (2.27%) Terraform
8 2 (1.52%) CA Single Sign-On
9 1 (0.76%) AirWatch
9 1 (0.76%) Failover Clustering
Vendors
1 76 (57.58%) F5
2 51 (38.64%) VMware
3 37 (28.03%) Cisco
4 34 (25.76%) Blue Coat
5 32 (24.24%) McAfee
6 25 (18.94%) Microsoft
7 24 (18.18%) ServiceNow
8 20 (15.15%) NetApp
9 12 (9.09%) Remedy
10 7 (5.30%) Ekahau
11 6 (4.55%) Citrix
12 5 (3.79%) Computacenter
12 5 (3.79%) CyberArk
12 5 (3.79%) Tenable
13 4 (3.03%) Infoblox
13 4 (3.03%) Splunk
13 4 (3.03%) Veeam
14 2 (1.52%) LogRhythm
15 1 (0.76%) Fortinet
15 1 (0.76%) SolarWinds