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

6 months to
21 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 45 73 110
Rank change year-on-year +28 +37 -62
Contract jobs citing DNS 139 51 32
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 4.38% 2.63% 1.17%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 35.82% 15.69% 8.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 51 31 23
10th Percentile £315 £250 £208
25th Percentile £368 £313 £324
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £425 £400
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% +6.25% -27.27%
75th Percentile £628 £525 £522
90th Percentile £658 £538 £628
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% -23.27%

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 388 325 370
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 12.23% 16.76% 13.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 226 199 265
10th Percentile £328 £178 £194
25th Percentile £407 £300 £319
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £493
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -8.72% -1.40%
75th Percentile £588 £531 £650
90th Percentile £643 £604 £825
England median daily rate £500 £500 £488
% change year-on-year - +2.56% -7.14%
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 £49.36 £36.65 £40.00
% change year-on-year +34.70% -8.39% +111.30%

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 21 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 21 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 59 £315 - 3
Manchester -7 31 £376 -20.44% 12
Cheshire -4 29 £450 +28.57% 4
Cumbria +8 15 £612 +16.62%
Lancashire -11 5 - - 5
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 17 (12.23%) Microsoft Exchange
2 9 (6.47%) Skype for Business
3 5 (3.60%) SharePoint
4 3 (2.16%) IIS
Applications
1 9 (6.47%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.44%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 28 (20.14%) Azure
2 22 (15.83%) AWS
3 10 (7.19%) Microsoft 365
4 7 (5.04%) GCP
5 6 (4.32%) Akamai
5 6 (4.32%) Entra ID
6 4 (2.88%) Nutanix
6 4 (2.88%) SaaS
7 3 (2.16%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 3 (2.16%) IaaS
7 3 (2.16%) PaaS
8 2 (1.44%) Asana
8 2 (1.44%) Azure Logic Apps
8 2 (1.44%) Azure Monitor
8 2 (1.44%) Azure Sentinel
8 2 (1.44%) Google Drive
8 2 (1.44%) Google Workspace
8 2 (1.44%) OneDrive
9 1 (0.72%) Azure DevOps
9 1 (0.72%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 44 (31.65%) TCP/IP
2 40 (28.78%) VPN
3 33 (23.74%) DMZ
3 33 (23.74%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
3 33 (23.74%) SSL
4 32 (23.02%) HTTP
5 31 (22.30%) DHCP
6 30 (21.58%) BGP
7 29 (20.86%) Wireshark
8 28 (20.14%) BIG-IP
9 26 (18.71%) Multicast
10 25 (17.99%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
11 22 (15.83%) Firewall
12 17 (12.23%) VLAN
13 13 (9.35%) LAN
13 13 (9.35%) WAN
13 13 (9.35%) Wi-Fi
14 10 (7.19%) Wireless
15 9 (6.47%) Network Security
15 9 (6.47%) Skype
Development Applications
1 27 (19.42%) Fiddler
2 5 (3.60%) JIRA
3 1 (0.72%) Git
3 1 (0.72%) Jenkins
General
1 43 (30.94%) Banking
2 37 (26.62%) Investment Banking
3 16 (11.51%) Finance
4 13 (9.35%) Social Skills
5 10 (7.19%) Analytical Skills
6 9 (6.47%) Public Sector
7 8 (5.76%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (3.60%) Legal
9 1 (0.72%) Military
9 1 (0.72%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 62 (44.60%) Network Engineer
2 39 (28.06%) Web Engineer
3 35 (25.18%) Security Engineer
4 28 (20.14%) Cisco Engineer
4 28 (20.14%) Cisco Network Engineer
4 28 (20.14%) Network Security Engineer
5 27 (19.42%) Data Engineer
5 27 (19.42%) Data Network Engineer
6 26 (18.71%) Cisco Security Engineer
7 18 (12.95%) Blue Coat Engineer
7 18 (12.95%) IP Network Engineer
8 14 (10.07%) Architect
9 13 (9.35%) Analyst
10 10 (7.19%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 9 (6.47%) Junior
11 9 (6.47%) Junior Network Engineer
11 9 (6.47%) Systems Analyst
11 9 (6.47%) Technical Architect
12 7 (5.04%) Administrator
13 5 (3.60%) Infrastructure Services Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (3.60%) LDAP
1 5 (3.60%) XMPP
2 2 (1.44%) JSON
2 2 (1.44%) OAuth
2 2 (1.44%) Software Packaging
3 1 (0.72%) 802.1X
3 1 (0.72%) ARM Templates
3 1 (0.72%) OpenTelemetry
3 1 (0.72%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 23 (16.55%) Management Information System
2 13 (9.35%) Public Cloud
3 12 (8.63%) Data Centre
4 8 (5.76%) 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%) Cloud Native
7 4 (2.88%) Hybrid Cloud
7 4 (2.88%) Private Cloud
8 3 (2.16%) Onboarding
9 2 (1.44%) Freedom of Information
9 2 (1.44%) iPhone
9 2 (1.44%) PKI
10 1 (0.72%) Data Protection Act
10 1 (0.72%) Enterprise Software
10 1 (0.72%) Team-Oriented Environment
Operating Systems
1 28 (20.14%) Windows
2 12 (8.63%) Windows 10
3 10 (7.19%) Windows Server
4 9 (6.47%) Windows 7
5 8 (5.76%) Linux
5 8 (5.76%) Windows Server 2019
6 6 (4.32%) Unix
6 6 (4.32%) Windows Server 2012
7 1 (0.72%) AIX
7 1 (0.72%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.72%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.72%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.72%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 66 (47.48%) Load Balancing
2 29 (20.86%) Data Loss Prevention
3 27 (19.42%) Malware Detection/Protection
4 21 (15.11%) Problem-Solving
4 21 (15.11%) Project Delivery
5 17 (12.23%) ITSM
6 15 (10.79%) Migration
6 15 (10.79%) Service Management
7 12 (8.63%) Agile
7 12 (8.63%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 9 (6.47%) Disk Encryption
8 9 (6.47%) ITIL
8 9 (6.47%) Waterfall
9 8 (5.76%) Change Management
9 8 (5.76%) CI/CD
9 8 (5.76%) DevOps
9 8 (5.76%) Infrastructure as Code
9 8 (5.76%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 8 (5.76%) Validation
9 8 (5.76%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 24 (17.27%) PowerShell
2 17 (12.23%) Python
3 9 (6.47%) VB
3 9 (6.47%) VBScript
4 3 (2.16%) SQL
5 2 (1.44%) Bicep
5 2 (1.44%) Kusto Query Language
5 2 (1.44%) Lisp
6 1 (0.72%) Bash
6 1 (0.72%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 26 (18.71%) Security Cleared
2 18 (12.95%) SC Cleared
3 16 (11.51%) Cisco Certification
4 12 (8.63%) CCNA
5 11 (7.91%) CCNP
6 9 (6.47%) Degree
7 7 (5.04%) BPSS Clearance
7 7 (5.04%) DV Cleared
8 6 (4.32%) Network+ Certification
8 6 (4.32%) Server+ Certification
9 5 (3.60%) Azure Certification
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 2 (1.44%) AWS Certification
10 2 (1.44%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 2 (1.44%) CCIE
10 2 (1.44%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (2.16%) SLA
2 2 (1.44%) NIST
System Software
1 30 (21.58%) VMware Infrastructure
2 27 (19.42%) Active Directory
3 19 (13.67%) Firmware
4 14 (10.07%) 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
10 1 (0.72%) NFS
10 1 (0.72%) Veritas Volume Manager
10 1 (0.72%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 16 (11.51%) SCCM
2 13 (9.35%) Ansible
3 8 (5.76%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 6 (4.32%) Microsoft Intune
4 6 (4.32%) Terraform
5 5 (3.60%) CASB
5 5 (3.60%) Kubernetes
5 5 (3.60%) Nessus
5 5 (3.60%) Single Sign-On
6 3 (2.16%) FortiGate
7 2 (1.44%) AirWatch
7 2 (1.44%) CA Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.72%) Argo
8 1 (0.72%) Grafana
8 1 (0.72%) PowerBroker
8 1 (0.72%) Progress Chef
8 1 (0.72%) Tivoli
8 1 (0.72%) Tivoli Storage Manager
8 1 (0.72%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.72%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 73 (52.52%) F5
2 44 (31.65%) Cisco
2 44 (31.65%) VMware
3 28 (20.14%) Blue Coat
4 27 (19.42%) McAfee
5 24 (17.27%) Microsoft
6 19 (13.67%) ServiceNow
7 18 (12.95%) NetApp
8 12 (8.63%) Infoblox
9 7 (5.04%) Remedy
10 6 (4.32%) Citrix
11 5 (3.60%) CyberArk
11 5 (3.60%) Splunk
11 5 (3.60%) Tenable
12 4 (2.88%) Computacenter
12 4 (2.88%) Veeam
13 3 (2.16%) Red Hat
14 2 (1.44%) Bloomberg
14 2 (1.44%) Google
14 2 (1.44%) HP