DNS Contract Job Trends

Domain Name System (DNS)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring DNS skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 9 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 134 129 160
Rank change year-on-year -5 +31 -17
Contract jobs citing DNS 1,031 712 666
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.96% 2.20% 1.54%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 20.60% 18.08% 12.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 634 489 444
10th Percentile £300 £263 £234
25th Percentile £401 £406 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £535 £488
Median % change year-on-year -6.54% +9.74% -6.25%
75th Percentile £581 £603 £588
90th Percentile £638 £675 £672
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £525 £500
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -1.23%
Number of hourly rates quoted 43 20 24
10th Percentile £20.65 - £20.00
25th Percentile £25.50 £29.00 £23.80
Median hourly rate £32.50 £48.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -32.29% +20.00% -8.57%
75th Percentile £73.00 £81.10 -
90th Percentile £74.26 £82.29 £50.96
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £41.45 £40.00
% change year-on-year -21.59% +3.63% -

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

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.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 5,006 3,938 5,457
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.54% 12.19% 12.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,044 2,412 3,219
10th Percentile £238 £231 £213
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £481 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.06% -3.90% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £482 £470 £490
% change year-on-year +2.58% -4.08% +3.16%
Number of hourly rates quoted 316 185 428
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.75
25th Percentile £19.34 £23.75 £17.69
Median hourly rate £26.55 £45.00 £44.00
Median % change year-on-year -41.00% +2.27% +53.04%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £78.00 £73.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.22 £36.65 £47.50
% change year-on-year -28.45% -22.85% +5.56%

DNS
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing DNS relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

DNS job vacancy trend in the UK

DNS
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing DNS.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing DNS

DNS
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing DNS over the 6 months to 9 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for DNS in the UK

DNS
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing DNS.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing DNS

DNS
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing DNS over the 6 months to 9 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for DNS in the UK

DNS
Top 16 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing DNS within the UK over the 6 months to 9 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
England -12 919 £500 -7.41% 379
UK excluding London -2 647 £500 -4.76% 341
London -44 307 £500 -1.96% 96
North of England +17 245 £450 -10.00% 50
Work from Home -18 238 £525 -2.60% 165
South East +11 189 £530 -3.73% 118
North West +49 163 £458 +2.35% 26
Midlands -1 121 £450 -5.26% 41
West Midlands -4 103 £450 -5.26% 29
Yorkshire -19 76 £447 -18.73% 19
South West -14 72 £500 -18.37% 76
Scotland +23 43 £500 +11.11% 14
East of England -48 36 £475 -13.64% 37
East Midlands -9 16 £431 -13.75% 12
Wales -12 9 £500 +13.70% 6
North East -37 6 £413 - 9

DNS
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 96 (9.31%) Microsoft Exchange
2 68 (6.60%) SharePoint
3 21 (2.04%) Confluence
4 17 (1.65%) nginx
5 15 (1.45%) Apache
5 15 (1.45%) IIS
6 9 (0.87%) Tomcat
7 5 (0.48%) WebSphere
8 4 (0.39%) Exchange Server 2010
8 4 (0.39%) Skype for Business
9 2 (0.19%) IBM HTTP Server
9 2 (0.19%) Oracle HTTP Server
9 2 (0.19%) WebSphere Application Server
9 2 (0.19%) WebSphere Portal
10 1 (0.097%) SharePoint Server
10 1 (0.097%) Traefik
Applications
1 21 (2.04%) Microsoft Office
2 16 (1.55%) MS Visio
3 3 (0.29%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.19%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.097%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 1 (0.097%) Houdini
5 1 (0.097%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.097%) NUKE
Business Applications
1 7 (0.68%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.097%) Cloudability
Cloud Services
1 371 (35.98%) Azure
2 190 (18.43%) AWS
3 170 (16.49%) Entra ID
4 148 (14.35%) Microsoft 365
5 104 (10.09%) GCP
6 70 (6.79%) GitHub
7 58 (5.63%) IaaS
8 43 (4.17%) OneDrive
8 43 (4.17%) PaaS
8 43 (4.17%) SaaS
9 34 (3.30%) Azure DevOps
10 33 (3.20%) Route 53
11 29 (2.81%) Amazon EC2
11 29 (2.81%) AWS CloudFormation
11 29 (2.81%) Serverless
11 29 (2.81%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 27 (2.62%) GitHub Actions
12 27 (2.62%) OpenShift
13 26 (2.52%) Azure Monitor
14 25 (2.42%) Amazon S3
Communications & Networking
1 456 (44.23%) DHCP
2 332 (32.20%) Firewall
3 266 (25.80%) TCP/IP
4 258 (25.02%) VPN
5 147 (14.26%) WAN
6 126 (12.22%) LAN
7 119 (11.54%) Network Security
8 107 (10.38%) VLAN
9 103 (9.99%) SSL
10 98 (9.51%) BGP
11 94 (9.12%) BIG-IP
12 76 (7.37%) HTTP
13 66 (6.40%) Wi-Fi
14 61 (5.92%) Wireless
15 60 (5.82%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
16 57 (5.53%) SAN
17 54 (5.24%) OSPF
18 46 (4.46%) DMZ
19 44 (4.27%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
20 38 (3.69%) Kerberos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 40 (3.88%) SQL Server
2 18 (1.75%) Elasticsearch
3 14 (1.36%) PostgreSQL
4 12 (1.16%) Azure SQL Database
5 11 (1.07%) Power BI
6 9 (0.87%) Amazon RDS
7 7 (0.68%) MySQL
8 6 (0.58%) MongoDB
9 5 (0.48%) Data Lake
10 4 (0.39%) MariaDB
11 3 (0.29%) Big Data
11 3 (0.29%) Db2
11 3 (0.29%) NoSQL
12 2 (0.19%) DynamoDB
12 2 (0.19%) Redis
12 2 (0.19%) SQLPlus
13 1 (0.097%) Amazon Aurora
13 1 (0.097%) KDB
13 1 (0.097%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 1 (0.097%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 72 (6.98%) JIRA
2 54 (5.24%) Jenkins
3 33 (3.20%) Git
4 22 (2.13%) Fiddler
5 19 (1.84%) GitLab
6 10 (0.97%) Bitbucket
6 10 (0.97%) Browser DevTools
7 7 (0.68%) SonarQube
8 6 (0.58%) Chocolatey
9 5 (0.48%) Sonatype Nexus
10 2 (0.19%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 2 (0.19%) Introscope
10 2 (0.19%) Spinnaker
11 1 (0.097%) Artifactory
11 1 (0.097%) MSI
11 1 (0.097%) Visual Studio
General
1 253 (24.54%) Social Skills
2 96 (9.31%) Analytical Skills
3 84 (8.15%) Finance
4 74 (7.18%) Public Sector
5 69 (6.69%) Banking
6 64 (6.21%) Documentation Skills
7 36 (3.49%) Investment Banking
8 27 (2.62%) Legal
9 19 (1.84%) Military
9 19 (1.84%) Telecoms
10 13 (1.26%) Organisational Skills
11 10 (0.97%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 10 (0.97%) Local Government
12 8 (0.78%) Police
13 6 (0.58%) Influencing Skills
13 6 (0.58%) Publishing
14 5 (0.48%) Law
14 5 (0.48%) Manufacturing
15 4 (0.39%) Advertising
15 4 (0.39%) Italian Language
Job Titles
1 182 (17.65%) Network Engineer
2 152 (14.74%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 123 (11.93%) Architect
4 85 (8.24%) Support Engineer
5 81 (7.86%) Senior
6 64 (6.21%) Analyst
6 64 (6.21%) Cloud Engineer
7 63 (6.11%) Security Engineer
8 51 (4.95%) IT Support
9 49 (4.75%) IT Engineer
10 46 (4.46%) Web Engineer
11 44 (4.27%) Network Security Engineer
12 41 (3.98%) Cisco Engineer
12 41 (3.98%) DevOps Engineer
13 39 (3.78%) Azure Engineer
13 39 (3.78%) Cisco Network Engineer
14 37 (3.59%) Administrator
15 35 (3.39%) Data Engineer
15 35 (3.39%) Data Network Engineer
16 34 (3.30%) Cisco Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 58 (5.63%) LDAP
2 53 (5.14%) SAML
3 45 (4.36%) 802.1X
4 36 (3.49%) OAuth
5 31 (3.01%) OpenID
6 19 (1.84%) OpenTelemetry
7 17 (1.65%) ARM Templates
8 16 (1.55%) JSON
9 10 (0.97%) REST
10 9 (0.87%) YAML
11 7 (0.68%) OAuth2
12 6 (0.58%) Kafka
13 5 (0.48%) CSS
13 5 (0.48%) Microsoft Graph
13 5 (0.48%) Middleware
14 4 (0.39%) AWS CDK
14 4 (0.39%) Web Services
15 3 (0.29%) .NET
15 3 (0.29%) LEMP Stack
15 3 (0.29%) Redfish
Miscellaneous
1 122 (11.83%) Data Centre
2 88 (8.54%) PKI
3 62 (6.01%) Cloud Native
4 51 (4.95%) Onboarding
5 46 (4.46%) Hybrid Cloud
6 43 (4.17%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 43 (4.17%) Management Information System
7 42 (4.07%) Clustering
8 41 (3.98%) Replication
9 28 (2.72%) Public Cloud
10 24 (2.33%) Self-Motivation
11 19 (1.84%) Security Posture
12 18 (1.75%) Enterprise Cloud
13 14 (1.36%) Enterprise Software
13 14 (1.36%) Security Operations Centre
14 13 (1.26%) Legacy Systems
15 12 (1.16%) Cyber Threat
15 12 (1.16%) Virtual Team
16 11 (1.07%) Distributed Systems
16 11 (1.07%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 442 (42.87%) Windows
2 239 (23.18%) Windows Server
3 160 (15.52%) Linux
4 47 (4.56%) Windows 10
5 42 (4.07%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 40 (3.88%) Windows Server 2019
7 35 (3.39%) Mac OS
8 26 (2.52%) Unix
9 21 (2.04%) Windows Server 2012
10 18 (1.75%) Apple iOS
11 16 (1.55%) Android
12 15 (1.45%) Ubuntu
12 15 (1.45%) VMS
13 13 (1.26%) CentOS
13 13 (1.26%) Windows Server 2016
14 7 (0.68%) Windows 7
15 6 (0.58%) Windows Server 2003
16 4 (0.39%) Rocky
17 3 (0.29%) AIX
18 2 (0.19%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 223 (21.63%) Problem-Solving
2 198 (19.20%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 191 (18.53%) Load Balancing
4 167 (16.20%) Migration
5 158 (15.32%) High Availability
6 156 (15.13%) ITIL
7 144 (13.97%) DevOps
8 138 (13.39%) Infrastructure as Code
9 131 (12.71%) CI/CD
10 107 (10.38%) ITSM
11 88 (8.54%) Identity Access Management
12 86 (8.34%) Observability
13 84 (8.15%) Disaster Recovery
14 82 (7.95%) Project Delivery
15 80 (7.76%) Agile
16 77 (7.47%) Cybersecurity
17 70 (6.79%) Continuous Improvement
18 67 (6.50%) RBAC
19 66 (6.40%) Runbook
20 62 (6.01%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 218 (21.14%) PowerShell
2 176 (17.07%) Python
3 114 (11.06%) Bash
4 53 (5.14%) SQL
5 31 (3.01%) Bicep
6 25 (2.42%) JavaScript
7 11 (1.07%) Go
8 10 (0.97%) ActionScript
9 9 (0.87%) Java
9 9 (0.87%) Shell Script
9 9 (0.87%) VBA
10 8 (0.78%) Perl
11 6 (0.58%) VBScript
12 5 (0.48%) C
12 5 (0.48%) Groovy
12 5 (0.48%) Ruby
13 4 (0.39%) VB
14 3 (0.29%) Lisp
15 2 (0.19%) Jython
15 2 (0.19%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 360 (34.92%) Security Cleared
2 226 (21.92%) SC Cleared
3 128 (12.42%) DV Cleared
4 100 (9.70%) Cisco Certification
5 79 (7.66%) Degree
6 68 (6.60%) CCNP
7 53 (5.14%) CCNA
8 45 (4.36%) Microsoft Certification
9 36 (3.49%) Azure Certification
10 29 (2.81%) Network+ Certification
11 21 (2.04%) CompTIA Security+
12 18 (1.75%) BPSS Clearance
13 17 (1.65%) MCSE
13 17 (1.65%) Server+ Certification
14 16 (1.55%) CCIE
15 15 (1.45%) CISSP
16 14 (1.36%) AWS Certification
16 14 (1.36%) Computer Science Degree
17 12 (1.16%) MCSA
18 11 (1.07%) JNCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (2.91%) SLA
2 28 (2.72%) NIST
3 20 (1.94%) GDPR
4 19 (1.84%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 15 (1.45%) NCSC
6 12 (1.16%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 9 (0.87%) QA
8 6 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials
9 4 (0.39%) Disclosure Scotland
9 4 (0.39%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 4 (0.39%) NIST 800
10 3 (0.29%) JSP 440
11 2 (0.19%) Government Security Classifications
11 2 (0.19%) PCI DSS
11 2 (0.19%) SOC 2
12 1 (0.097%) Actionable Recommendations
12 1 (0.097%) COBIT
12 1 (0.097%) Data Quality
12 1 (0.097%) PMO
12 1 (0.097%) RMADS
System Software
1 413 (40.06%) Active Directory
2 227 (22.02%) VMware Infrastructure
3 100 (9.70%) Hyper-V
4 68 (6.60%) vSphere
5 64 (6.21%) VMware NSX
6 61 (5.92%) VMware ESXi
7 44 (4.27%) Virtual Machines
8 39 (3.78%) Virtual Desktop
9 35 (3.39%) Docker
10 26 (2.52%) Firmware
11 22 (2.13%) NFS
12 15 (1.45%) BitLocker
12 15 (1.45%) Squid
13 13 (1.26%) vCloud
14 11 (1.07%) Microsoft App-V
15 10 (0.97%) Postfix
16 8 (0.78%) VMware Workstation
17 7 (0.68%) Varnish
18 5 (0.48%) Ceph
18 5 (0.48%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 177 (17.17%) Terraform
2 129 (12.51%) Ansible
3 101 (9.80%) Kubernetes
4 80 (7.76%) Microsoft Intune
5 78 (7.57%) Single Sign-On
6 59 (5.72%) vCenter Server
7 55 (5.33%) Grafana
8 53 (5.14%) FortiGate
9 48 (4.66%) SCCM
10 42 (4.07%) Prometheus
11 37 (3.59%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 27 (2.62%) WSUS
13 25 (2.42%) Argo
14 24 (2.33%) SCOM
15 15 (1.45%) Puppet
16 14 (1.36%) HAProxy
16 14 (1.36%) Nessus
17 13 (1.26%) Jamf Pro
18 12 (1.16%) vMotion
19 8 (0.78%) Packer
Vendors
1 343 (33.27%) Microsoft
2 273 (26.48%) VMware
3 184 (17.85%) Cisco
4 159 (15.42%) F5
5 95 (9.21%) ServiceNow
6 79 (7.66%) Splunk
7 71 (6.89%) Infoblox
8 66 (6.40%) Citrix
9 62 (6.01%) Google
10 58 (5.63%) SolarWinds
11 55 (5.33%) Red Hat
12 48 (4.66%) Juniper
13 40 (3.88%) Palo Alto
14 35 (3.39%) NetApp
15 33 (3.20%) Dynatrace
16 29 (2.81%) Blue Coat
17 27 (2.62%) McAfee
18 25 (2.42%) Fortinet
19 24 (2.33%) Okta
19 24 (2.33%) Zscaler