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 29 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 63 81 93
Rank change year-on-year +18 +12 -25
Contract jobs citing DNS 138 46 29
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 3.50% 2.08% 1.20%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 27.77% 15.44% 9.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 64 20 18
10th Percentile £279 £299 £233
25th Percentile £366 £416 £391
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £458 £463
Median % change year-on-year -1.75% -1.08% +2.21%
75th Percentile £588 £539 £511
90th Percentile £611 £612 £571
England median daily rate £500 £523 £500
% change year-on-year -4.31% +4.50% -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 1 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £29.00 £65.75 £46.25
Median hourly rate £30.00 £66.50 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -54.89% +40.00% -
75th Percentile £31.00 £67.25 £48.75
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £63.48 £57.50 £24.18
% change year-on-year +10.40% +137.80% -34.65%

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 497 298 302
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 12.60% 13.47% 12.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 318 175 196
10th Percentile £218 £147 £256
25th Percentile £350 £325 £392
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £473 £435 £515
Median % change year-on-year +8.74% -15.53% +8.42%
75th Percentile £575 £538 £675
90th Percentile £625 £663 £838
England median daily rate £500 £492 £505
% change year-on-year +1.63% -2.57% +1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 6 10
10th Percentile £13.89 £19.25 £25.43
25th Percentile £16.50 £21.50 £37.55
Median hourly rate £17.50 £46.75 £48.56
Median % change year-on-year -62.57% -3.73% +191.13%
75th Percentile £20.88 £67.25 £51.91
90th Percentile £28.83 £68.71 £57.65
England median hourly rate £27.11 £42.50 £56.49
% change year-on-year -36.21% -24.77% -

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 29 August 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 29 August 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 +13 53 £425 +44.07% 7
Cheshire +10 28 £417 -30.50% 7
Manchester -17 28 £375 -25.00% 24
Cumbria -4 18 £595 +33.11% 1
Lancashire +1 9 £333 +90.00% 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 13 (9.42%) Microsoft Exchange
2 11 (7.97%) SharePoint
3 6 (4.35%) Skype for Business
4 3 (2.17%) IIS
Applications
1 12 (8.70%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.90%) MS Visio
3 2 (1.45%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 28 (20.29%) Azure
2 20 (14.49%) AWS
3 15 (10.87%) Microsoft 365
4 7 (5.07%) IaaS
5 5 (3.62%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 4 (2.90%) Entra ID
6 4 (2.90%) GCP
6 4 (2.90%) GitHub
6 4 (2.90%) PaaS
7 3 (2.17%) Asana
7 3 (2.17%) Google Drive
7 3 (2.17%) Google Workspace
7 3 (2.17%) SaaS
8 2 (1.45%) Azure AKS
8 2 (1.45%) Azure DevOps
8 2 (1.45%) GitHub Actions
8 2 (1.45%) OneDrive
8 2 (1.45%) Rubrik
9 1 (0.72%) IBM Watson
9 1 (0.72%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 52 (37.68%) VPN
2 41 (29.71%) DMZ
3 35 (25.36%) DHCP
4 33 (23.91%) BGP
5 31 (22.46%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
5 31 (22.46%) Multicast
6 29 (21.01%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
7 27 (19.57%) TCP/IP
8 22 (15.94%) BIG-IP
8 22 (15.94%) Firewall
9 21 (15.22%) VLAN
9 21 (15.22%) Wireless
10 18 (13.04%) SSL
10 18 (13.04%) Wireshark
11 15 (10.87%) HTTP
11 15 (10.87%) SAN
12 14 (10.14%) Cisco IOS
12 14 (10.14%) Network Security
12 14 (10.14%) WAN
13 12 (8.70%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.45%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 15 (10.87%) Fiddler
2 8 (5.80%) JIRA
3 3 (2.17%) Jenkins
4 2 (1.45%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
5 1 (0.72%) Git
5 1 (0.72%) GitLab
5 1 (0.72%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 37 (26.81%) Banking
2 30 (21.74%) Investment Banking
3 29 (21.01%) Social Skills
4 14 (10.14%) Documentation Skills
5 9 (6.52%) Analytical Skills
5 9 (6.52%) Finance
6 4 (2.90%) Public Sector
7 2 (1.45%) Legal
7 2 (1.45%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (0.72%) Manufacturing
8 1 (0.72%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 60 (43.48%) Network Engineer
2 30 (21.74%) Cisco Engineer
3 29 (21.01%) Cisco Network Engineer
3 29 (21.01%) Cisco Security Engineer
3 29 (21.01%) Data Engineer
3 29 (21.01%) Data Network Engineer
3 29 (21.01%) Network Security Engineer
3 29 (21.01%) Security Engineer
3 29 (21.01%) Web Engineer
4 15 (10.87%) Analyst
4 15 (10.87%) Blue Coat Engineer
4 15 (10.87%) IP Network Engineer
5 13 (9.42%) VMware Engineer
6 12 (8.70%) Architect
7 11 (7.97%) Systems Analyst
8 9 (6.52%) Senior
8 9 (6.52%) Support Engineer
9 8 (5.80%) Cloud Engineer
9 8 (5.80%) IT Support
9 8 (5.80%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (7.97%) Terraform
2 7 (5.07%) 802.1X
3 3 (2.17%) JSON
3 3 (2.17%) OAuth
4 2 (1.45%) ODBC
4 2 (1.45%) REST
4 2 (1.45%) Software Packaging
5 1 (0.72%) ARM Templates
5 1 (0.72%) Azure Blueprints
5 1 (0.72%) OpenTelemetry
5 1 (0.72%) XML
5 1 (0.72%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 25 (18.12%) Management Information System
2 21 (15.22%) Data Centre
3 11 (7.97%) Enterprise Cloud
4 7 (5.07%) Driving Licence
5 6 (4.35%) Hybrid Cloud
6 5 (3.62%) Cloud Native
7 4 (2.90%) Onboarding
7 4 (2.90%) PKI
8 3 (2.17%) Freedom of Information
8 3 (2.17%) Public Cloud
9 2 (1.45%) Handset
9 2 (1.45%) iPhone
9 2 (1.45%) Video Conferencing
10 1 (0.72%) Data Protection Act
10 1 (0.72%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 1 (0.72%) Enterprise Storage
10 1 (0.72%) Replication
10 1 (0.72%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 26 (18.84%) Windows
2 14 (10.14%) Windows 10
3 13 (9.42%) Windows Server
4 7 (5.07%) Linux
5 6 (4.35%) Windows 7
6 5 (3.62%) Unix
7 4 (2.90%) Android
7 4 (2.90%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 4 (2.90%) Windows Server 2012
8 3 (2.17%) AIX
9 2 (1.45%) Apple iOS
9 2 (1.45%) Mac OS
9 2 (1.45%) Windows Server 2016
9 2 (1.45%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.72%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 59 (42.75%) Load Balancing
2 26 (18.84%) Migration
3 20 (14.49%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 19 (13.77%) ITSM
5 18 (13.04%) Data Loss Prevention
6 17 (12.32%) Project Delivery
7 16 (11.59%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 15 (10.87%) Agile
8 15 (10.87%) ITIL
8 15 (10.87%) Malware Detection/Protection
9 14 (10.14%) Continuous Improvement
9 14 (10.14%) Network Segmentation
10 12 (8.70%) Problem-Solving
10 12 (8.70%) Waterfall
11 11 (7.97%) Workshop Facilitation
12 10 (7.25%) Infrastructure as Code
13 9 (6.52%) Change Management
13 9 (6.52%) Systems Analysis
14 8 (5.80%) CI/CD
15 7 (5.07%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 11 (7.97%) PowerShell
2 8 (5.80%) Python
3 7 (5.07%) Bicep
4 6 (4.35%) VB
4 6 (4.35%) VBScript
5 4 (2.90%) SQL
6 2 (1.45%) Bash
6 2 (1.45%) Perl
6 2 (1.45%) T-SQL
7 1 (0.72%) ActionScript
7 1 (0.72%) JavaScript
7 1 (0.72%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 25 (18.12%) Cisco Certification
1 25 (18.12%) Security Cleared
2 21 (15.22%) CCNA
3 20 (14.49%) CCNP
4 18 (13.04%) SC Cleared
5 14 (10.14%) Network+ Certification
6 11 (7.97%) Server+ Certification
7 7 (5.07%) Degree
8 4 (2.90%) CCIE
9 3 (2.17%) Azure Certification
9 3 (2.17%) BPSS Clearance
9 3 (2.17%) CompTIA Security+
10 2 (1.45%) AWS Certification
10 2 (1.45%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 2 (1.45%) ITIL Certification
11 1 (0.72%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 1 (0.72%) JNCIA
11 1 (0.72%) JNCIS
11 1 (0.72%) Microsoft Certification
11 1 (0.72%) OCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (3.62%) SLA
2 1 (0.72%) Data Quality
System Software
1 38 (27.54%) VMware Infrastructure
2 25 (18.12%) Active Directory
3 16 (11.59%) Firmware
4 9 (6.52%) VMware NSX
5 6 (4.35%) BitLocker
6 3 (2.17%) NFS
6 3 (2.17%) Veritas Volume Manager
6 3 (2.17%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (1.45%) vSphere
8 1 (0.72%) Docker
8 1 (0.72%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.72%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.72%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 11 (7.97%) SCCM
2 7 (5.07%) Ansible
3 5 (3.62%) WSUS
4 4 (2.90%) Progress Chef
5 3 (2.17%) Kubernetes
5 3 (2.17%) PowerBroker
5 3 (2.17%) Single Sign-On
5 3 (2.17%) Tivoli
5 3 (2.17%) Tivoli Storage Manager
6 2 (1.45%) AirWatch
6 2 (1.45%) Microsoft Intune
6 2 (1.45%) vCenter Server
7 1 (0.72%) Argo
7 1 (0.72%) Grafana
7 1 (0.72%) Microsoft Clustering
7 1 (0.72%) NetApp OnCommand
7 1 (0.72%) Puppet
7 1 (0.72%) vMotion
7 1 (0.72%) vRealize
7 1 (0.72%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 62 (44.93%) F5
2 50 (36.23%) Cisco
3 45 (32.61%) VMware
4 32 (23.19%) Microsoft
5 23 (16.67%) ServiceNow
6 17 (12.32%) McAfee
7 15 (10.87%) Blue Coat
7 15 (10.87%) Infoblox
7 15 (10.87%) NetApp
8 6 (4.35%) CyberArk
9 5 (3.62%) Red Hat
10 4 (2.90%) Citrix
10 4 (2.90%) Oracle
10 4 (2.90%) Splunk
11 3 (2.17%) Arista
11 3 (2.17%) Aruba
11 3 (2.17%) ForeScout
11 3 (2.17%) Google
11 3 (2.17%) Veritas
12 2 (1.45%) Bloomberg