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

6 months to
17 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 48 84 98
Rank change year-on-year +36 +14 -25
Contract jobs citing DNS 156 43 33
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 4.25% 2.00% 1.24%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 32.64% 13.61% 10.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 68 24 25
10th Percentile £352 £278 £213
25th Percentile £375 £406 £285
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £458 £450
Median % change year-on-year -1.64% +1.67% -0.55%
75th Percentile £609 £541 £515
90th Percentile £638 £614 £607
England median daily rate £500 £530 £500
% change year-on-year -5.66% +6.00% -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 0 1
10th Percentile £42.58 - -
25th Percentile £62.95 - £46.25
Median hourly rate £74.26 - £47.50
75th Percentile - - £48.75
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £33.86 £61.25 £35.00
% change year-on-year -44.72% +75.00% -12.50%

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 478 316 327
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 13.03% 14.70% 12.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 306 185 230
10th Percentile £256 £156 £209
25th Percentile £369 £325 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £487 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year +8.23% -10.00% +9.59%
75th Percentile £588 £538 £669
90th Percentile £636 £642 £825
England median daily rate £500 £494 £500
% change year-on-year +1.21% -1.20% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 2 14
10th Percentile £15.71 £25.02 £18.85
25th Percentile £17.06 £32.54 £23.38
Median hourly rate £17.75 £45.08 £40.44
Median % change year-on-year -60.63% +11.47% +139.86%
75th Percentile £32.54 £57.62 £50.44
90th Percentile £74.26 £65.14 £51.91
England median hourly rate £26.72 £44.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year -39.96% +11.25% +23.08%

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 July 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 July 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 July 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 +21 56 £425 +44.07% 1
Cheshire +20 36 £446 -25.75% 3
Manchester -20 34 £375 -28.57% 9
Cumbria -7 17 £610 +33.77%
Lancashire +3 11 £261 +49.29% 4
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 7 (4.49%) Microsoft Exchange
1 7 (4.49%) SharePoint
2 3 (1.92%) IIS
3 1 (0.64%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 5 (3.21%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.56%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 35 (22.44%) Azure
2 26 (16.67%) AWS
3 13 (8.33%) Microsoft 365
4 9 (5.77%) GCP
5 6 (3.85%) Akamai
5 6 (3.85%) IaaS
6 5 (3.21%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 5 (3.21%) Entra ID
6 5 (3.21%) PaaS
7 4 (2.56%) SaaS
8 3 (1.92%) Asana
8 3 (1.92%) GitHub
8 3 (1.92%) Google Drive
8 3 (1.92%) Google Workspace
9 2 (1.28%) Azure AKS
9 2 (1.28%) Azure Monitor
9 2 (1.28%) Nutanix
9 2 (1.28%) Rubrik
10 1 (0.64%) IBM Watson
10 1 (0.64%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 46 (29.49%) VPN
2 40 (25.64%) DMZ
3 38 (24.36%) TCP/IP
4 35 (22.44%) BGP
5 34 (21.79%) Firewall
5 34 (21.79%) Multicast
6 32 (20.51%) DHCP
7 30 (19.23%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
8 26 (16.67%) SSL
9 25 (16.03%) Wireless
10 24 (15.38%) HTTP
11 23 (14.74%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
12 22 (14.10%) BIG-IP
12 22 (14.10%) Wireshark
13 18 (11.54%) Cisco IOS
13 18 (11.54%) SAN
13 18 (11.54%) VLAN
14 16 (10.26%) NAS
14 16 (10.26%) NX-OS
14 16 (10.26%) Structured Cabling
Development Applications
1 19 (12.18%) Fiddler
2 10 (6.41%) JIRA
3 2 (1.28%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.64%) Git
General
1 40 (25.64%) Banking
2 32 (20.51%) Investment Banking
3 29 (18.59%) Social Skills
4 15 (9.62%) Documentation Skills
4 15 (9.62%) Finance
5 11 (7.05%) Analytical Skills
6 5 (3.21%) Public Sector
7 3 (1.92%) Legal
8 1 (0.64%) Manufacturing
8 1 (0.64%) Military
8 1 (0.64%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 68 (43.59%) Network Engineer
2 40 (25.64%) Security Engineer
3 35 (22.44%) Web Engineer
4 34 (21.79%) Network Security Engineer
5 33 (21.15%) Cisco Engineer
5 33 (21.15%) Data Engineer
5 33 (21.15%) Data Network Engineer
6 32 (20.51%) Cisco Network Engineer
6 32 (20.51%) Cisco Security Engineer
7 17 (10.90%) Architect
8 16 (10.26%) Analyst
8 16 (10.26%) Blue Coat Engineer
8 16 (10.26%) IP Network Engineer
9 12 (7.69%) Systems Analyst
10 9 (5.77%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 9 (5.77%) Senior
10 9 (5.77%) Technical Architect
11 8 (5.13%) Cloud Engineer
12 7 (4.49%) 2nd Line Engineer
12 7 (4.49%) 2nd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (4.49%) 802.1X
2 5 (3.21%) LDAP
3 3 (1.92%) OAuth
3 3 (1.92%) XMPP
4 2 (1.28%) ARM Templates
4 2 (1.28%) Software Packaging
5 1 (0.64%) Azure Blueprints
5 1 (0.64%) JSON
5 1 (0.64%) OpenTelemetry
5 1 (0.64%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 24 (15.38%) Data Centre
2 22 (14.10%) Management Information System
3 11 (7.05%) Enterprise Cloud
4 10 (6.41%) Public Cloud
5 7 (4.49%) Cloud Native
5 7 (4.49%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 6 (3.85%) Hybrid Cloud
6 6 (3.85%) Onboarding
7 5 (3.21%) Cloud Security Posture
7 5 (3.21%) Security Posture
8 4 (2.56%) Driving Licence
8 4 (2.56%) PKI
9 3 (1.92%) Fat Client
9 3 (1.92%) Freedom of Information
9 3 (1.92%) Product Ownership
9 3 (1.92%) Thin Client
10 2 (1.28%) iPhone
10 2 (1.28%) Private Cloud
11 1 (0.64%) Cyber Defence
11 1 (0.64%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 21 (13.46%) Windows
2 10 (6.41%) Linux
3 9 (5.77%) Windows Server
4 8 (5.13%) Unix
5 7 (4.49%) Windows 10
6 5 (3.21%) Windows Server 2012
7 3 (1.92%) AIX
7 3 (1.92%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (1.92%) Windows Server 2019
8 2 (1.28%) Android
9 1 (0.64%) VMS
9 1 (0.64%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.64%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 62 (39.74%) Load Balancing
2 25 (16.03%) Migration
3 22 (14.10%) Data Loss Prevention
3 22 (14.10%) Project Delivery
4 20 (12.82%) ITSM
5 19 (12.18%) Malware Detection/Protection
6 18 (11.54%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 18 (11.54%) ITIL
7 16 (10.26%) Agile
7 16 (10.26%) Network Segmentation
7 16 (10.26%) Problem-Solving
8 15 (9.62%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 14 (8.97%) Infrastructure as Code
10 13 (8.33%) Continuous Improvement
10 13 (8.33%) Validation
11 12 (7.69%) CI/CD
11 12 (7.69%) Waterfall
12 11 (7.05%) Workshop Facilitation
13 9 (5.77%) DevOps
13 9 (5.77%) Systems Analysis
Programming Languages
1 14 (8.97%) Python
2 12 (7.69%) PowerShell
3 8 (5.13%) Bicep
4 2 (1.28%) Perl
4 2 (1.28%) SQL
5 1 (0.64%) ActionScript
5 1 (0.64%) Bash
5 1 (0.64%) JavaScript
5 1 (0.64%) Kusto Query Language
5 1 (0.64%) Lisp
5 1 (0.64%) VB
5 1 (0.64%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 30 (19.23%) Cisco Certification
2 27 (17.31%) Security Cleared
3 25 (16.03%) CCNA
3 25 (16.03%) CCNP
4 22 (14.10%) SC Cleared
5 18 (11.54%) Network+ Certification
6 15 (9.62%) Server+ Certification
7 10 (6.41%) Degree
8 8 (5.13%) CompTIA Security+
9 6 (3.85%) Azure Certification
9 6 (3.85%) BPSS Clearance
9 6 (3.85%) Microsoft Certification
10 5 (3.21%) CCIE
10 5 (3.21%) CISSP
10 5 (3.21%) MCSA
10 5 (3.21%) MCSE
11 3 (1.92%) AWS Certification
11 3 (1.92%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 2 (1.28%) ITIL Certification
13 1 (0.64%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (2.56%) SLA
2 1 (0.64%) Data Quality
2 1 (0.64%) NIST
System Software
1 30 (19.23%) Active Directory
2 26 (16.67%) VMware Infrastructure
3 17 (10.90%) Firmware
4 8 (5.13%) VMware NSX
5 4 (2.56%) vSphere
6 3 (1.92%) NFS
6 3 (1.92%) Veritas Volume Manager
6 3 (1.92%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (1.28%) Docker
7 2 (1.28%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.64%) BitLocker
8 1 (0.64%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.64%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 12 (7.69%) Terraform
2 9 (5.77%) Ansible
3 6 (3.85%) SCCM
4 5 (3.21%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 5 (3.21%) CASB
4 5 (3.21%) Nessus
4 5 (3.21%) Single Sign-On
5 4 (2.56%) Kubernetes
6 3 (1.92%) PowerBroker
6 3 (1.92%) Progress Chef
6 3 (1.92%) Tivoli
6 3 (1.92%) Tivoli Storage Manager
6 3 (1.92%) WSUS
7 2 (1.28%) AirWatch
7 2 (1.28%) CA Single Sign-On
7 2 (1.28%) Microsoft Intune
7 2 (1.28%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.64%) Argo
8 1 (0.64%) vMotion
8 1 (0.64%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 69 (44.23%) F5
2 60 (38.46%) Cisco
3 34 (21.79%) VMware
4 27 (17.31%) Microsoft
5 24 (15.38%) ServiceNow
6 21 (13.46%) McAfee
7 20 (12.82%) Blue Coat
8 16 (10.26%) Infoblox
8 16 (10.26%) NetApp
9 8 (5.13%) Splunk
10 5 (3.21%) Citrix
10 5 (3.21%) CyberArk
10 5 (3.21%) Red Hat
10 5 (3.21%) Remedy
10 5 (3.21%) Tenable
11 3 (1.92%) Arista
11 3 (1.92%) Aruba
11 3 (1.92%) ForeScout
11 3 (1.92%) Oracle
11 3 (1.92%) Veritas