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 17 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 52 58 102
Rank change year-on-year +6 +44 -64
Contract jobs citing DNS 114 69 42
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 4.16% 3.34% 1.49%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 30.89% 18.75% 9.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 27 41 30
10th Percentile £250 £250 £206
25th Percentile £364 £350 £334
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £593 £475 £395
Median % change year-on-year +24.74% +20.25% -31.30%
75th Percentile £650 £538 £528
90th Percentile £689 £750 £628
England median daily rate £519 £500 £463
% change year-on-year +3.71% +8.11% -11.90%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 0 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £15.50 - -
Median hourly rate £16.00 - -
75th Percentile £74.26 - -
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £25.15 £21.30 £40.00
% change year-on-year +18.10% -46.76% -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 369 368 437
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 13.46% 17.80% 15.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 203 210 312
10th Percentile £258 £190 £213
25th Percentile £360 £313 £377
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £478 £453 £498
Median % change year-on-year +5.52% -9.05% -0.50%
75th Percentile £575 £538 £603
90th Percentile £656 £601 £672
England median daily rate £488 £500 £475
% change year-on-year -2.50% +5.26% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 4 15
10th Percentile £15.50 £20.37 £17.72
25th Percentile £17.75 £22.05 £19.24
Median hourly rate £41.94 £24.67 £41.23
Median % change year-on-year +69.99% -40.16% +99.13%
75th Percentile £74.26 £32.39 £46.38
90th Percentile - £43.56 £48.75
England median hourly rate £28.88 £32.50 £47.50
% change year-on-year -11.14% -31.58% +137.50%

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 17 February 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 17 February 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 17 February 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 56 £300 - 1
Cheshire -14 31 £450 +12.50% 9
Manchester -28 14 £650 +36.84% 18
Cumbria 0 10 £626 +19.24% 3
Lancashire -14 3 - - 8
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 13 (11.40%) Microsoft Exchange
2 9 (7.89%) Skype for Business
3 8 (7.02%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.88%) IIS
Applications
1 9 (7.89%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (6.14%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 18 (15.79%) Azure
2 14 (12.28%) Microsoft 365
3 7 (6.14%) Entra ID
3 7 (6.14%) SaaS
4 6 (5.26%) AWS
4 6 (5.26%) Power Platform
5 4 (3.51%) Nutanix
6 3 (2.63%) Azure Logic Apps
6 3 (2.63%) Azure Monitor
6 3 (2.63%) Azure Sentinel
7 2 (1.75%) IaaS
7 2 (1.75%) OneDrive
7 2 (1.75%) PaaS
8 1 (0.88%) Akamai
8 1 (0.88%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 1 (0.88%) Amazon ELB
8 1 (0.88%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 1 (0.88%) GCP
8 1 (0.88%) PowerApps
8 1 (0.88%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 42 (36.84%) TCP/IP
2 40 (35.09%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
3 37 (32.46%) SSL
4 34 (29.82%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
5 33 (28.95%) DMZ
6 31 (27.19%) BIG-IP
7 30 (26.32%) HTTP
8 29 (25.44%) Wireshark
9 28 (24.56%) DHCP
10 25 (21.93%) VPN
11 20 (17.54%) BGP
12 19 (16.67%) Network Security
13 17 (14.91%) Firewall
14 15 (13.16%) Wi-Fi
15 12 (10.53%) Multicast
16 11 (9.65%) VLAN
17 10 (8.77%) LAN
17 10 (8.77%) WAN
18 9 (7.89%) Skype
19 8 (7.02%) NX-OS
Development Applications
1 29 (25.44%) Fiddler
2 3 (2.63%) JIRA
3 2 (1.75%) Git
4 1 (0.88%) GitLab
4 1 (0.88%) Jenkins
General
1 43 (37.72%) Banking
2 42 (36.84%) Investment Banking
3 12 (10.53%) Social Skills
4 10 (8.77%) Finance
5 7 (6.14%) Public Sector
6 6 (5.26%) Analytical Skills
7 4 (3.51%) Documentation Skills
8 3 (2.63%) Legal
9 2 (1.75%) Military
10 1 (0.88%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 53 (46.49%) Network Engineer
2 32 (28.07%) Web Engineer
3 19 (16.67%) Cisco Engineer
3 19 (16.67%) Cisco Network Engineer
4 17 (14.91%) Security Engineer
5 15 (13.16%) Blue Coat Engineer
5 15 (13.16%) IP Network Engineer
6 14 (12.28%) Network Security Engineer
7 13 (11.40%) Data Engineer
7 13 (11.40%) Data Network Engineer
7 13 (11.40%) Junior
7 13 (11.40%) Junior Network Engineer
8 12 (10.53%) Cisco Security Engineer
9 10 (8.77%) Operations Engineer
10 9 (7.89%) Architect
11 8 (7.02%) Automation Engineer
11 8 (7.02%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 8 (7.02%) IT Support
12 7 (6.14%) Cisco Wireless Engineer
12 7 (6.14%) Wireless Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (3.51%) LDAP
2 3 (2.63%) JSON
2 3 (2.63%) XMPP
3 1 (0.88%) ARM Templates
Miscellaneous
1 28 (24.56%) Management Information System
2 10 (8.77%) Public Cloud
3 9 (7.89%) Data Centre
4 8 (7.02%) Onboarding
5 6 (5.26%) Enterprise Software
6 5 (4.39%) Low-Code
6 5 (4.39%) Video Conferencing
7 4 (3.51%) Cloud Security Posture
7 4 (3.51%) Private Cloud
7 4 (3.51%) Security Posture
8 3 (2.63%) Fat Client
8 3 (2.63%) Product Ownership
8 3 (2.63%) Thin Client
9 2 (1.75%) Cloud Native
9 2 (1.75%) PKI
10 1 (0.88%) Cyber Defence
10 1 (0.88%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 1 (0.88%) Hybrid Cloud
10 1 (0.88%) Team-Oriented Environment
Operating Systems
1 30 (26.32%) Windows
2 10 (8.77%) Windows 10
3 9 (7.89%) Windows 7
4 8 (7.02%) Windows Server
4 8 (7.02%) Windows Server 2019
5 5 (4.39%) Linux
6 4 (3.51%) Unix
6 4 (3.51%) Windows Server 2012
7 1 (0.88%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.88%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.88%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 63 (55.26%) Load Balancing
2 27 (23.68%) Data Loss Prevention
3 26 (22.81%) Malware Detection/Protection
4 18 (15.79%) Problem-Solving
5 13 (11.40%) Project Delivery
5 13 (11.40%) User Experience
6 12 (10.53%) Service Management
7 11 (9.65%) Business Strategy
7 11 (9.65%) ITSM
8 10 (8.77%) Design Patterns
8 10 (8.77%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 10 (8.77%) Migration
9 9 (7.89%) Cybersecurity
9 9 (7.89%) Disk Encryption
9 9 (7.89%) Ticket Management
9 9 (7.89%) Validation
10 8 (7.02%) Change Management
10 8 (7.02%) Customer Service
11 7 (6.14%) DevOps
11 7 (6.14%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 22 (19.30%) PowerShell
2 17 (14.91%) Python
3 9 (7.89%) VB
3 9 (7.89%) VBScript
4 7 (6.14%) Lisp
5 3 (2.63%) Kusto Query Language
6 1 (0.88%) Bash
6 1 (0.88%) Bicep
6 1 (0.88%) SQL
Qualifications
1 23 (20.18%) Security Cleared
2 14 (12.28%) SC Cleared
3 13 (11.40%) Degree
4 10 (8.77%) CCNP
4 10 (8.77%) Cisco Certification
5 7 (6.14%) DV Cleared
6 5 (4.39%) Azure Certification
7 4 (3.51%) CISSP
7 4 (3.51%) CompTIA Security+
7 4 (3.51%) MCSA
7 4 (3.51%) MCSE
7 4 (3.51%) Microsoft Certification
8 3 (2.63%) BPSS Clearance
9 2 (1.75%) CCIE
10 1 (0.88%) AWS Certification
10 1 (0.88%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 1 (0.88%) CCNA
10 1 (0.88%) Network+ Certification
10 1 (0.88%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (2.63%) NIST
2 1 (0.88%) SLA
System Software
1 33 (28.95%) VMware Infrastructure
2 26 (22.81%) Active Directory
3 16 (14.04%) VMware NSX
4 15 (13.16%) Firmware
5 9 (7.89%) BitLocker
6 5 (4.39%) Docker
6 5 (4.39%) Virtual Desktop
6 5 (4.39%) vSphere
7 3 (2.63%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 19 (16.67%) SCCM
2 18 (15.79%) Ansible
3 11 (9.65%) Microsoft Intune
4 9 (7.89%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 8 (7.02%) FortiGate
6 4 (3.51%) CASB
6 4 (3.51%) Kubernetes
6 4 (3.51%) Nessus
6 4 (3.51%) Terraform
7 3 (2.63%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (1.75%) CA Single Sign-On
9 1 (0.88%) Failover Clustering
Vendors
1 71 (62.28%) F5
2 50 (43.86%) VMware
3 32 (28.07%) Blue Coat
4 30 (26.32%) McAfee
5 26 (22.81%) Cisco
6 24 (21.05%) Microsoft
7 22 (19.30%) ServiceNow
8 18 (15.79%) NetApp
9 11 (9.65%) Remedy
10 7 (6.14%) Ekahau
11 5 (4.39%) Computacenter
12 4 (3.51%) Citrix
12 4 (3.51%) CyberArk
12 4 (3.51%) Splunk
12 4 (3.51%) Tenable
12 4 (3.51%) Veeam
13 3 (2.63%) LogRhythm
14 1 (0.88%) Apple
14 1 (0.88%) CheckPoint
14 1 (0.88%) Palo Alto