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 2 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 43 78 109
Rank change year-on-year +35 +31 -60
Contract jobs citing DNS 150 47 30
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 4.70% 2.39% 1.09%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 37.97% 14.33% 8.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 59 28 21
10th Percentile £305 £250 £200
25th Percentile £363 £313 £285
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £425 £400
Median % change year-on-year - +6.25% -27.27%
75th Percentile £612 £528 £525
90th Percentile £654 £556 £650
England median daily rate £493 £547 £488
% change year-on-year -9.96% +12.21% -7.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 0 0
Median hourly rate £74.26 - -
England median hourly rate £60.25 £80.68 £40.00
% change year-on-year -25.32% +101.69% -18.56%

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 395 328 359
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 12.37% 16.67% 13.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 231 192 249
10th Percentile £309 £190 £199
25th Percentile £380 £300 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +6.94% -5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £588 £528 £653
90th Percentile £645 £600 £825
England median daily rate £500 £500 £490
% change year-on-year - +2.04% -6.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 3 14
10th Percentile £16.26 £20.00 £17.72
25th Percentile £17.98 £21.12 £18.48
Median hourly rate £41.94 £24.59 £26.75
Median % change year-on-year +70.59% -8.09% -14.40%
75th Percentile £74.26 £25.47 £45.88
90th Percentile - £25.90 £83.76
England median hourly rate £42.10 £30.75 £40.00
% change year-on-year +36.89% -23.13% +114.36%

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 2 May 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 2 May 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 63 £315 - 7
Manchester -19 34 £375 -20.63% 10
Cheshire +9 33 £447 +37.62% 1
Cumbria +1 13 £613 +16.67%
Lancashire - 7 £190 - 2
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 (10.00%) Microsoft Exchange
2 7 (4.67%) Skype for Business
3 4 (2.67%) IIS
3 4 (2.67%) SharePoint
Applications
1 7 (4.67%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.67%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 33 (22.00%) Azure
2 26 (17.33%) AWS
3 11 (7.33%) Microsoft 365
4 8 (5.33%) GCP
5 6 (4.00%) Akamai
6 5 (3.33%) Entra ID
7 4 (2.67%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 4 (2.67%) IaaS
7 4 (2.67%) Nutanix
7 4 (2.67%) PaaS
7 4 (2.67%) SaaS
8 2 (1.33%) Asana
8 2 (1.33%) Google Drive
8 2 (1.33%) Google Workspace
8 2 (1.33%) OneDrive
9 1 (0.67%) Azure DevOps
9 1 (0.67%) Azure Logic Apps
9 1 (0.67%) Dynamics 365
9 1 (0.67%) Power Platform
9 1 (0.67%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 45 (30.00%) TCP/IP
1 45 (30.00%) VPN
2 36 (24.00%) DMZ
3 34 (22.67%) SSL
4 33 (22.00%) BGP
4 33 (22.00%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
4 33 (22.00%) HTTP
5 30 (20.00%) Multicast
5 30 (20.00%) Wireshark
6 29 (19.33%) BIG-IP
6 29 (19.33%) DHCP
7 25 (16.67%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
8 21 (14.00%) Firewall
9 15 (10.00%) VLAN
10 12 (8.00%) Wireless
11 11 (7.33%) LAN
11 11 (7.33%) Network Security
11 11 (7.33%) WAN
11 11 (7.33%) Wi-Fi
12 8 (5.33%) SAN
Development Applications
1 28 (18.67%) Fiddler
2 5 (3.33%) JIRA
3 1 (0.67%) Git
3 1 (0.67%) Jenkins
General
1 45 (30.00%) Banking
2 38 (25.33%) Investment Banking
3 16 (10.67%) Finance
4 13 (8.67%) Social Skills
5 10 (6.67%) Analytical Skills
6 7 (4.67%) Documentation Skills
6 7 (4.67%) Public Sector
7 5 (3.33%) Legal
8 1 (0.67%) Military
8 1 (0.67%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 69 (46.00%) Network Engineer
2 42 (28.00%) Web Engineer
3 38 (25.33%) Security Engineer
4 32 (21.33%) Network Security Engineer
5 31 (20.67%) Cisco Engineer
5 31 (20.67%) Cisco Network Engineer
5 31 (20.67%) Data Engineer
5 31 (20.67%) Data Network Engineer
6 30 (20.00%) Cisco Security Engineer
7 19 (12.67%) Blue Coat Engineer
7 19 (12.67%) IP Network Engineer
8 17 (11.33%) Analyst
9 14 (9.33%) Architect
10 12 (8.00%) Systems Analyst
11 10 (6.67%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 9 (6.00%) Junior
12 9 (6.00%) Junior Network Engineer
12 9 (6.00%) Technical Architect
13 8 (5.33%) Administrator
14 6 (4.00%) Senior
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (3.33%) LDAP
1 5 (3.33%) XMPP
2 4 (2.67%) 802.1X
3 2 (1.33%) OAuth
3 2 (1.33%) Software Packaging
4 1 (0.67%) ARM Templates
4 1 (0.67%) JSON
4 1 (0.67%) OpenTelemetry
4 1 (0.67%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 23 (15.33%) Management Information System
2 13 (8.67%) Data Centre
2 13 (8.67%) Public Cloud
3 10 (6.67%) Enterprise Cloud
4 7 (4.67%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
5 5 (3.33%) Cloud Native
5 5 (3.33%) Cloud Security Posture
5 5 (3.33%) Fat Client
5 5 (3.33%) Hybrid Cloud
5 5 (3.33%) PKI
5 5 (3.33%) Product Ownership
5 5 (3.33%) Security Posture
5 5 (3.33%) Thin Client
6 4 (2.67%) Private Cloud
7 2 (1.33%) Freedom of Information
7 2 (1.33%) iPhone
7 2 (1.33%) Onboarding
8 1 (0.67%) Cyber Defence
8 1 (0.67%) Data Protection Act
8 1 (0.67%) Team-Oriented Environment
Operating Systems
1 28 (18.67%) Windows
2 13 (8.67%) Windows Server
3 10 (6.67%) Windows 10
4 9 (6.00%) Windows Server 2019
5 8 (5.33%) Linux
6 7 (4.67%) Windows 7
6 7 (4.67%) Windows Server 2012
7 6 (4.00%) Unix
8 2 (1.33%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.67%) AIX
9 1 (0.67%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.67%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.67%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 70 (46.67%) Load Balancing
2 30 (20.00%) Data Loss Prevention
3 28 (18.67%) Malware Detection/Protection
4 23 (15.33%) Project Delivery
5 21 (14.00%) Problem-Solving
6 17 (11.33%) ITSM
6 17 (11.33%) Migration
7 16 (10.67%) Agile
8 13 (8.67%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 13 (8.67%) Service Management
9 12 (8.00%) ITIL
9 12 (8.00%) Waterfall
10 11 (7.33%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 10 (6.67%) Workshop Facilitation
12 9 (6.00%) Change Management
12 9 (6.00%) CI/CD
12 9 (6.00%) Infrastructure as Code
12 9 (6.00%) Systems Analysis
12 9 (6.00%) Validation
13 8 (5.33%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 21 (14.00%) PowerShell
2 17 (11.33%) Python
3 7 (4.67%) VB
3 7 (4.67%) VBScript
4 3 (2.00%) Bicep
4 3 (2.00%) SQL
5 1 (0.67%) Bash
5 1 (0.67%) JavaScript
5 1 (0.67%) Kusto Query Language
5 1 (0.67%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 24 (16.00%) Security Cleared
2 18 (12.00%) Cisco Certification
2 18 (12.00%) SC Cleared
3 15 (10.00%) CCNA
4 13 (8.67%) CCNP
5 9 (6.00%) Network+ Certification
6 8 (5.33%) BPSS Clearance
6 8 (5.33%) CompTIA Security+
6 8 (5.33%) Degree
7 6 (4.00%) Server+ Certification
8 5 (3.33%) Azure Certification
8 5 (3.33%) CISSP
8 5 (3.33%) DV Cleared
8 5 (3.33%) MCSA
8 5 (3.33%) MCSE
8 5 (3.33%) Microsoft Certification
9 3 (2.00%) AWS Certification
9 3 (2.00%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 2 (1.33%) CCIE
10 2 (1.33%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (2.67%) SLA
2 1 (0.67%) NIST
System Software
1 31 (20.67%) VMware Infrastructure
2 29 (19.33%) Active Directory
3 20 (13.33%) Firmware
4 14 (9.33%) VMware NSX
5 7 (4.67%) BitLocker
6 6 (4.00%) vSphere
7 5 (3.33%) Virtual Desktop
8 4 (2.67%) Docker
8 4 (2.67%) Hyper-V
9 2 (1.33%) Virtual Machines
10 1 (0.67%) NFS
10 1 (0.67%) Veritas Volume Manager
10 1 (0.67%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 15 (10.00%) SCCM
2 13 (8.67%) Ansible
3 7 (4.67%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 7 (4.67%) Terraform
4 6 (4.00%) Microsoft Intune
5 5 (3.33%) CASB
5 5 (3.33%) Kubernetes
5 5 (3.33%) Nessus
5 5 (3.33%) Single Sign-On
6 3 (2.00%) WSUS
7 2 (1.33%) AirWatch
7 2 (1.33%) CA Single Sign-On
7 2 (1.33%) FortiGate
7 2 (1.33%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.67%) Failover Clustering
8 1 (0.67%) Grafana
8 1 (0.67%) Microsoft Clustering
8 1 (0.67%) NetApp OnCommand
8 1 (0.67%) PowerBroker
8 1 (0.67%) vRealize
Vendors
1 77 (51.33%) F5
2 47 (31.33%) Cisco
2 47 (31.33%) VMware
3 29 (19.33%) Blue Coat
4 28 (18.67%) McAfee
5 23 (15.33%) Microsoft
6 19 (12.67%) NetApp
7 16 (10.67%) Infoblox
7 16 (10.67%) ServiceNow
8 8 (5.33%) Citrix
9 6 (4.00%) Remedy
10 5 (3.33%) CyberArk
10 5 (3.33%) Splunk
10 5 (3.33%) Tenable
11 4 (2.67%) Computacenter
11 4 (2.67%) Veeam
12 3 (2.00%) ForeScout
12 3 (2.00%) Red Hat
13 2 (1.33%) Meraki
13 2 (1.33%) Tanium