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

6 months to
18 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 142 105 130
Rank change year-on-year -37 +25 -5
Contract jobs citing DNS 831 738 790
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.92% 2.52% 1.78%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 19.02% 18.80% 13.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 529 498 507
10th Percentile £238 £250 £200
25th Percentile £400 £400 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £465
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% +12.91% -11.43%
75th Percentile £613 £613 £575
90th Percentile £675 £729 £680
UK excluding London median daily rate £515 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +2.90% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 11 27
10th Percentile £12.74 £18.50 £21.95
25th Percentile £21.25 £23.59 £25.00
Median hourly rate £38.50 £54.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -29.36% +36.25% -8.57%
75th Percentile £74.26 £81.18 £54.15
90th Percentile £75.00 £82.10 £63.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.71 £80.68 £40.00
% change year-on-year -47.07% +101.69% -18.56%

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 4,369 3,926 5,953
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.10% 13.39% 13.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,821 2,412 3,581
10th Percentile £213 £213 £205
25th Percentile £369 £370 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -2.50% +5.26% -9.34%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £475
Number of hourly rates quoted 185 142 396
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.01 £14.08
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.46 £18.70
Median hourly rate £37.50 £35.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% +7.69% +71.05%
75th Percentile £67.25 £63.06 £63.75
90th Percentile £78.70 £75.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.10 £32.50 £45.88
% change year-on-year +29.52% -29.16% +148.00%

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 18 March 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 18 March 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 18 March 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 -27 735 £513 -2.38% 297
UK excluding London -23 535 £515 +2.90% 273
London -35 232 £513 -2.38% 76
North of England -5 208 £450 -5.26% 68
Work from Home -64 185 £525 -1.87% 89
South East +8 149 £525 -2.78% 84
North West +18 136 £555 +24.72% 38
Midlands +15 103 £378 -31.05% 39
West Midlands +21 97 £378 -17.49% 25
Yorkshire -33 73 £445 -19.18% 21
South West -40 55 £684 +24.89% 29
Scotland +7 39 £537 +19.22% 26
East of England -25 39 £475 -5.00% 27
North East -20 6 £575 +70.37% 11
East Midlands -44 5 £375 -34.78% 14
Wales -15 4 £550 +25.71% 5

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
1 100 (12.03%) Microsoft Exchange
2 48 (5.78%) SharePoint
3 24 (2.89%) Skype for Business
4 14 (1.68%) Confluence
5 13 (1.56%) nginx
6 9 (1.08%) IIS
7 6 (0.72%) Apache
8 4 (0.48%) Exchange Server 2010
9 2 (0.24%) Exchange Server 2013
9 2 (0.24%) SharePoint Server
9 2 (0.24%) WebSphere
9 2 (0.24%) WordPress
10 1 (0.12%) IBM HTTP Server
10 1 (0.12%) Oracle HTTP Server
10 1 (0.12%) Tomcat
10 1 (0.12%) Traefik
10 1 (0.12%) WebSphere Application Server
10 1 (0.12%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 28 (3.37%) Microsoft Office
2 16 (1.93%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.12%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.12%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.12%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (0.24%) SystmOne
2 1 (0.12%) Cloudability
2 1 (0.12%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 284 (34.18%) Azure
2 151 (18.17%) AWS
3 141 (16.97%) Microsoft 365
4 137 (16.49%) Entra ID
5 76 (9.15%) GCP
6 62 (7.46%) GitHub
7 52 (6.26%) IaaS
8 39 (4.69%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 36 (4.33%) AWS CloudFormation
10 34 (4.09%) PaaS
11 33 (3.97%) Amazon S3
12 31 (3.73%) Amazon EC2
12 31 (3.73%) Serverless
13 30 (3.61%) Route 53
14 29 (3.49%) AWS Lambda
15 28 (3.37%) SaaS
16 25 (3.01%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 25 (3.01%) Amazon EKS
16 25 (3.01%) OpenShift
17 24 (2.89%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 367 (44.16%) DHCP
2 262 (31.53%) Firewall
3 239 (28.76%) TCP/IP
4 195 (23.47%) VPN
5 112 (13.48%) WAN
6 103 (12.39%) LAN
7 82 (9.87%) Network Security
8 81 (9.75%) SSL
9 78 (9.39%) HTTP
10 74 (8.90%) BIG-IP
11 72 (8.66%) VLAN
12 70 (8.42%) BGP
13 58 (6.98%) Wi-Fi
14 54 (6.50%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
15 43 (5.17%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
16 40 (4.81%) OSPF
16 40 (4.81%) Wireshark
17 38 (4.57%) DMZ
18 37 (4.45%) Wireless
19 36 (4.33%) Kerberos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (2.77%) SQL Server
2 19 (2.29%) Elasticsearch
3 13 (1.56%) Amazon RDS
3 13 (1.56%) PostgreSQL
4 7 (0.84%) DynamoDB
4 7 (0.84%) Redis
5 6 (0.72%) Amazon Aurora
5 6 (0.72%) Data Hub
5 6 (0.72%) MongoDB
6 5 (0.60%) Azure SQL Database
6 5 (0.60%) MySQL
7 4 (0.48%) DocumentDB
7 4 (0.48%) NoSQL
7 4 (0.48%) Power BI
7 4 (0.48%) Relational Database
8 3 (0.36%) BigQuery
9 1 (0.12%) CouchDB
9 1 (0.12%) Electronic Patient Records
9 1 (0.12%) Oracle Reports
9 1 (0.12%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 64 (7.70%) Jenkins
2 39 (4.69%) JIRA
3 36 (4.33%) GitLab
4 34 (4.09%) Git
5 30 (3.61%) Fiddler
6 8 (0.96%) Bitbucket
7 7 (0.84%) SonarQube
8 6 (0.72%) Browser DevTools
8 6 (0.72%) Terragrunt
9 5 (0.60%) Chocolatey
10 4 (0.48%) CircleCI
11 2 (0.24%) Sonatype Nexus
12 1 (0.12%) Artifactory
12 1 (0.12%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 1 (0.12%) GCC
12 1 (0.12%) Introscope
12 1 (0.12%) MSI
12 1 (0.12%) Octopus Deploy
12 1 (0.12%) Subversion
12 1 (0.12%) Travis CI
General
1 211 (25.39%) Social Skills
2 98 (11.79%) Analytical Skills
3 70 (8.42%) Banking
4 60 (7.22%) Finance
5 53 (6.38%) Public Sector
6 49 (5.90%) Documentation Skills
7 46 (5.54%) Investment Banking
8 30 (3.61%) Legal
9 18 (2.17%) Telecoms
10 16 (1.93%) Military
11 10 (1.20%) Organisational Skills
12 7 (0.84%) Influencing Skills
13 6 (0.72%) Financial Institution
13 6 (0.72%) Presentation Skills
14 5 (0.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 5 (0.60%) Law
15 4 (0.48%) Aerospace
15 4 (0.48%) Local Government
16 3 (0.36%) Manufacturing
17 2 (0.24%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 137 (16.49%) Network Engineer
2 117 (14.08%) Architect
3 82 (9.87%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 79 (9.51%) Analyst
5 72 (8.66%) Senior
6 60 (7.22%) Support Engineer
7 50 (6.02%) Security Engineer
8 45 (5.42%) Web Engineer
9 44 (5.29%) IT Support
10 36 (4.33%) Lead
11 31 (3.73%) IT Engineer
12 30 (3.61%) Network Security Engineer
12 30 (3.61%) Platform Engineer
13 27 (3.25%) Cisco Engineer
13 27 (3.25%) Cisco Network Engineer
14 26 (3.13%) SOC Analyst
15 25 (3.01%) Azure Engineer
15 25 (3.01%) IT Support Engineer
16 24 (2.89%) DevOps Engineer
17 21 (2.53%) Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 68 (8.18%) LDAP
2 48 (5.78%) SAML
3 40 (4.81%) OAuth
4 32 (3.85%) OpenID
5 28 (3.37%) 802.1X
6 20 (2.41%) OAuth2
6 20 (2.41%) OpenTelemetry
7 10 (1.20%) Elastic Stack
7 10 (1.20%) Kafka
8 8 (0.96%) REST
9 7 (0.84%) ARM Templates
9 7 (0.84%) JSON
9 7 (0.84%) Microsoft Graph
9 7 (0.84%) XMPP
10 5 (0.60%) RESTful
10 5 (0.60%) Spring Boot
11 4 (0.48%) Hibernate
11 4 (0.48%) JPA
11 4 (0.48%) Middleware
11 4 (0.48%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 71 (8.54%) Data Centre
1 71 (8.54%) PKI
2 48 (5.78%) Replication
3 44 (5.29%) Cloud Native
4 38 (4.57%) Management Information System
5 31 (3.73%) Clustering
6 30 (3.61%) Onboarding
7 27 (3.25%) Public Cloud
7 27 (3.25%) Security Operations Centre
8 26 (3.13%) Cyberattack
9 24 (2.89%) Hybrid Cloud
10 23 (2.77%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 19 (2.29%) Enterprise Software
12 16 (1.93%) Analytical Mindset
12 16 (1.93%) Cyber Threat
12 16 (1.93%) Self-Motivation
13 14 (1.68%) Legacy Systems
14 12 (1.44%) NHS
14 12 (1.44%) Product Ownership
15 11 (1.32%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 385 (46.33%) Windows
2 202 (24.31%) Windows Server
3 128 (15.40%) Linux
4 46 (5.54%) Windows 10
5 32 (3.85%) Windows Server 2019
6 18 (2.17%) Android
7 16 (1.93%) Unix
7 16 (1.93%) Windows Server 2012
8 14 (1.68%) Mac OS
9 13 (1.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 13 (1.56%) Windows Server 2016
10 12 (1.44%) Apple iOS
11 11 (1.32%) Windows 7
12 9 (1.08%) VMS
13 7 (0.84%) Windows Server 2003
14 4 (0.48%) CatOS
14 4 (0.48%) CentOS
15 3 (0.36%) Amazon Linux
15 3 (0.36%) Windows Server 2008
16 2 (0.24%) Oracle Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 196 (23.59%) Problem-Solving
2 173 (20.82%) Load Balancing
3 124 (14.92%) Migration
4 123 (14.80%) ITIL
5 115 (13.84%) CI/CD
6 110 (13.24%) DevOps
7 108 (13.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 107 (12.88%) Infrastructure as Code
9 106 (12.76%) High Availability
10 82 (9.87%) Cybersecurity
11 77 (9.27%) Identity Access Management
12 75 (9.03%) Disaster Recovery
13 66 (7.94%) Incident Response
13 66 (7.94%) ITSM
14 65 (7.82%) RBAC
15 62 (7.46%) Change Management
15 62 (7.46%) Service Management
15 62 (7.46%) SIEM
16 59 (7.10%) Observability
17 56 (6.74%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 235 (28.28%) PowerShell
2 138 (16.61%) Python
3 71 (8.54%) Bash
4 43 (5.17%) SQL
5 14 (1.68%) Bicep
5 14 (1.68%) JavaScript
6 13 (1.56%) VBScript
7 12 (1.44%) Java
8 11 (1.32%) Ruby
9 10 (1.20%) Go
9 10 (1.20%) VB
10 9 (1.08%) Shell Script
11 7 (0.84%) Lisp
12 5 (0.60%) Kusto Query Language
13 4 (0.48%) Perl
14 2 (0.24%) C
14 2 (0.24%) C#
14 2 (0.24%) T-SQL
14 2 (0.24%) VBA
15 1 (0.12%) PHP
Qualifications
1 279 (33.57%) Security Cleared
2 188 (22.62%) SC Cleared
3 103 (12.39%) DV Cleared
4 64 (7.70%) Cisco Certification
5 59 (7.10%) Degree
6 47 (5.66%) Microsoft Certification
7 43 (5.17%) CCNP
8 32 (3.85%) CompTIA Security+
9 27 (3.25%) Azure Certification
10 22 (2.65%) CCNA
10 22 (2.65%) Computer Science Degree
11 19 (2.29%) CISSP
12 18 (2.17%) AWS Certification
12 18 (2.17%) CompTIA CySA+
13 16 (1.93%) Network+ Certification
14 10 (1.20%) JNCIA
14 10 (1.20%) JNCIS
15 9 (1.08%) BPSS Clearance
15 9 (1.08%) JNCIP
15 9 (1.08%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (3.61%) GDPR
2 28 (3.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 25 (3.01%) NIST
4 20 (2.41%) SLA
5 17 (2.05%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 9 (1.08%) PCI DSS
7 8 (0.96%) Cyber Essentials
7 8 (0.96%) NCSC
8 6 (0.72%) QA
9 3 (0.36%) Accessibility
9 3 (0.36%) PMO
10 2 (0.24%) Data Quality
10 2 (0.24%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 2 (0.24%) JSP 440
11 1 (0.12%) Actionable Recommendations
11 1 (0.12%) COBIT
11 1 (0.12%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 1 (0.12%) Government Security Classifications
11 1 (0.12%) RMADS
System Software
1 355 (42.72%) Active Directory
2 184 (22.14%) VMware Infrastructure
3 66 (7.94%) Hyper-V
4 58 (6.98%) VMware NSX
5 56 (6.74%) Docker
6 54 (6.50%) vSphere
7 28 (3.37%) Firmware
8 23 (2.77%) Virtual Machines
9 20 (2.41%) VMware ESXi
10 17 (2.05%) BitLocker
11 14 (1.68%) Virtual Desktop
12 8 (0.96%) Microsoft App-V
12 8 (0.96%) Squid
13 5 (0.60%) Terminal Services
14 4 (0.48%) NFS
14 4 (0.48%) Sendmail
15 3 (0.36%) DFS Replication
15 3 (0.36%) Postfix
15 3 (0.36%) Varnish
15 3 (0.36%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 149 (17.93%) Terraform
2 122 (14.68%) Ansible
3 92 (11.07%) Microsoft Intune
4 85 (10.23%) Kubernetes
5 73 (8.78%) Single Sign-On
6 66 (7.94%) SCCM
7 60 (7.22%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 47 (5.66%) FortiGate
9 42 (5.05%) vCenter Server
10 37 (4.45%) Grafana
11 26 (3.13%) Argo
12 21 (2.53%) Prometheus
13 14 (1.68%) SCOM
14 12 (1.44%) WSUS
15 9 (1.08%) Puppet
16 8 (0.96%) HAProxy
17 7 (0.84%) Consul
17 7 (0.84%) vMotion
18 6 (0.72%) Nessus
18 6 (0.72%) QRadar
Vendors
1 295 (35.50%) Microsoft
2 231 (27.80%) VMware
3 141 (16.97%) F5
4 129 (15.52%) Cisco
5 80 (9.63%) Splunk
6 78 (9.39%) ServiceNow
7 44 (5.29%) Citrix
8 43 (5.17%) SolarWinds
9 42 (5.05%) Blue Coat
10 40 (4.81%) Palo Alto
11 36 (4.33%) Juniper
12 35 (4.21%) McAfee
13 34 (4.09%) Red Hat
14 30 (3.61%) Google
15 29 (3.49%) Infoblox
16 28 (3.37%) NetApp
17 23 (2.77%) Fortinet
18 22 (2.65%) Pure Storage
19 21 (2.53%) Okta
20 19 (2.29%) Extreme Networks