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

6 months to
21 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 142 107 134
Rank change year-on-year -35 +27 -8
Contract jobs citing DNS 853 730 772
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.95% 2.49% 1.74%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 19.27% 18.86% 13.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 544 492 497
10th Percentile £250 £250 £200
25th Percentile £400 £400 £333
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £503 £525 £465
Median % change year-on-year -4.29% +12.90% -11.43%
75th Percentile £612 £613 £575
90th Percentile £673 £724 £680
UK excluding London median daily rate £510 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +2.00% - -
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 4,427 3,871 5,902
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.10% 13.20% 13.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,857 2,372 3,559
10th Percentile £213 £213 £205
25th Percentile £375 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £490 £475
Median % change year-on-year - +3.16% -9.52%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £475
Number of hourly rates quoted 192 143 394
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.22 £14.00
25th Percentile £18.38 £21.46 £18.00
Median hourly rate £32.52 £35.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -7.09% - +84.21%
75th Percentile £66.31 £63.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £77.25 £75.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.94 £32.50 £45.88
% change year-on-year +29.05% -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 21 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 21 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 21 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 -18 753 £510 -2.86% 295
UK excluding London -19 553 £510 +2.00% 264
London -39 236 £516 -1.81% 78
North of England -1 216 £447 -5.89% 61
Work from Home -60 187 £525 - 86
South East +9 154 £525 -4.55% 89
North West +26 141 £500 +17.65% 31
Midlands +14 107 £400 -27.27% 37
West Midlands +20 99 £400 -12.57% 21
Yorkshire -29 76 £443 -19.55% 21
South West -39 55 £684 +24.77% 33
Scotland +10 43 £518 +15.17% 18
East of England -24 39 £475 -5.00% 28
East Midlands -38 7 £375 -33.92% 16
North East -23 6 £575 +64.29% 11
Wales -14 4 £550 +22.22% 3

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 99 (11.61%) Microsoft Exchange
2 47 (5.51%) SharePoint
3 24 (2.81%) Skype for Business
4 16 (1.88%) Confluence
5 14 (1.64%) nginx
6 9 (1.06%) IIS
7 6 (0.70%) Apache
8 4 (0.47%) Exchange Server 2010
9 2 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2013
9 2 (0.23%) SharePoint Server
9 2 (0.23%) WebSphere
9 2 (0.23%) 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 27 (3.17%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (1.76%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.12%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.12%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.12%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (0.23%) SystmOne
2 1 (0.12%) Cloudability
2 1 (0.12%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 297 (34.82%) Azure
2 164 (19.23%) AWS
3 143 (16.76%) Microsoft 365
4 140 (16.41%) Entra ID
5 82 (9.61%) GCP
6 64 (7.50%) GitHub
7 52 (6.10%) IaaS
8 41 (4.81%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 37 (4.34%) AWS CloudFormation
10 35 (4.10%) Amazon S3
11 34 (3.99%) PaaS
11 34 (3.99%) Serverless
12 33 (3.87%) Amazon EC2
13 32 (3.75%) Route 53
14 31 (3.63%) AWS Lambda
15 29 (3.40%) SaaS
16 27 (3.17%) OpenShift
17 26 (3.05%) Amazon EKS
18 25 (2.93%) Amazon CloudWatch
19 24 (2.81%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 368 (43.14%) DHCP
2 267 (31.30%) Firewall
3 242 (28.37%) TCP/IP
4 197 (23.09%) VPN
5 114 (13.36%) WAN
6 104 (12.19%) LAN
7 86 (10.08%) Network Security
8 85 (9.96%) SSL
9 79 (9.26%) HTTP
10 75 (8.79%) BIG-IP
11 74 (8.68%) BGP
11 74 (8.68%) VLAN
12 61 (7.15%) Wi-Fi
13 56 (6.57%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
14 44 (5.16%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
15 43 (5.04%) OSPF
16 41 (4.81%) Wireshark
17 40 (4.69%) DMZ
18 39 (4.57%) Wireless
19 36 (4.22%) Kerberos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (2.70%) SQL Server
2 20 (2.34%) Elasticsearch
3 16 (1.88%) PostgreSQL
4 13 (1.52%) Amazon RDS
5 9 (1.06%) MongoDB
6 7 (0.82%) DynamoDB
6 7 (0.82%) Redis
7 6 (0.70%) Amazon Aurora
7 6 (0.70%) Data Hub
8 5 (0.59%) Azure SQL Database
8 5 (0.59%) MySQL
9 4 (0.47%) DocumentDB
9 4 (0.47%) NoSQL
9 4 (0.47%) Power BI
9 4 (0.47%) Relational Database
10 3 (0.35%) BigQuery
10 3 (0.35%) MariaDB
11 1 (0.12%) CouchDB
11 1 (0.12%) Oracle Reports
11 1 (0.12%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 66 (7.74%) Jenkins
2 40 (4.69%) JIRA
3 36 (4.22%) GitLab
4 34 (3.99%) Git
5 31 (3.63%) Fiddler
6 8 (0.94%) Bitbucket
7 7 (0.82%) SonarQube
8 6 (0.70%) Browser DevTools
8 6 (0.70%) Terragrunt
9 5 (0.59%) Chocolatey
10 4 (0.47%) CircleCI
11 2 (0.23%) 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
1 213 (24.97%) Social Skills
2 101 (11.84%) Analytical Skills
3 72 (8.44%) Banking
4 64 (7.50%) Finance
5 56 (6.57%) Public Sector
6 50 (5.86%) Documentation Skills
7 47 (5.51%) Investment Banking
8 29 (3.40%) Legal
9 18 (2.11%) Telecoms
10 16 (1.88%) Military
11 10 (1.17%) Organisational Skills
12 7 (0.82%) Financial Institution
12 7 (0.82%) Influencing Skills
13 6 (0.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 6 (0.70%) Presentation Skills
14 5 (0.59%) Law
14 5 (0.59%) Local Government
15 4 (0.47%) Aerospace
15 4 (0.47%) Manufacturing
16 2 (0.23%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 143 (16.76%) Network Engineer
2 122 (14.30%) Architect
3 84 (9.85%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 81 (9.50%) Analyst
5 76 (8.91%) Senior
6 60 (7.03%) Support Engineer
7 52 (6.10%) Security Engineer
8 48 (5.63%) Web Engineer
9 44 (5.16%) IT Support
10 37 (4.34%) Lead
11 33 (3.87%) IT Engineer
12 32 (3.75%) Network Security Engineer
13 30 (3.52%) Platform Engineer
14 28 (3.28%) Cisco Engineer
14 28 (3.28%) Cisco Network Engineer
15 26 (3.05%) IT Support Engineer
15 26 (3.05%) SOC Analyst
16 25 (2.93%) Azure Engineer
17 24 (2.81%) DevOps Engineer
18 23 (2.70%) Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 69 (8.09%) LDAP
2 48 (5.63%) SAML
3 40 (4.69%) OAuth
4 33 (3.87%) OpenID
5 28 (3.28%) 802.1X
6 22 (2.58%) OpenTelemetry
7 20 (2.34%) OAuth2
8 10 (1.17%) Elastic Stack
8 10 (1.17%) Kafka
9 8 (0.94%) REST
10 7 (0.82%) ARM Templates
10 7 (0.82%) JSON
10 7 (0.82%) Microsoft Graph
10 7 (0.82%) XMPP
11 5 (0.59%) RESTful
11 5 (0.59%) Spring Boot
12 4 (0.47%) Hibernate
12 4 (0.47%) JPA
12 4 (0.47%) Middleware
12 4 (0.47%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 72 (8.44%) PKI
2 70 (8.21%) Data Centre
3 49 (5.74%) Cloud Native
4 48 (5.63%) Replication
5 39 (4.57%) Management Information System
6 31 (3.63%) Clustering
7 30 (3.52%) Onboarding
8 29 (3.40%) Public Cloud
9 27 (3.17%) Hybrid Cloud
9 27 (3.17%) Security Operations Centre
10 26 (3.05%) Cyberattack
11 23 (2.70%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
12 19 (2.23%) Enterprise Software
13 16 (1.88%) Analytical Mindset
13 16 (1.88%) Cyber Threat
14 15 (1.76%) Self-Motivation
15 14 (1.64%) Legacy Systems
16 13 (1.52%) Product Ownership
17 12 (1.41%) NHS
18 11 (1.29%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 386 (45.25%) Windows
2 205 (24.03%) Windows Server
3 131 (15.36%) Linux
4 46 (5.39%) Windows 10
5 32 (3.75%) Windows Server 2019
6 18 (2.11%) Android
7 16 (1.88%) Unix
7 16 (1.88%) Windows Server 2012
8 14 (1.64%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 13 (1.52%) Mac OS
9 13 (1.52%) Windows Server 2016
10 12 (1.41%) Apple iOS
11 11 (1.29%) Windows 7
12 9 (1.06%) VMS
13 7 (0.82%) Windows Server 2003
14 4 (0.47%) CatOS
14 4 (0.47%) CentOS
15 3 (0.35%) Amazon Linux
15 3 (0.35%) Windows Server 2008
16 2 (0.23%) Oracle Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 201 (23.56%) Problem-Solving
2 181 (21.22%) Load Balancing
3 127 (14.89%) Migration
4 121 (14.19%) ITIL
5 119 (13.95%) CI/CD
6 117 (13.72%) DevOps
7 110 (12.90%) High Availability
7 110 (12.90%) Infrastructure as Code
7 110 (12.90%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 84 (9.85%) Cybersecurity
9 79 (9.26%) Disaster Recovery
10 78 (9.14%) Identity Access Management
11 67 (7.85%) RBAC
12 66 (7.74%) Incident Response
12 66 (7.74%) ITSM
13 63 (7.39%) SIEM
14 62 (7.27%) Change Management
14 62 (7.27%) Service Management
15 61 (7.15%) Observability
16 60 (7.03%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 236 (27.67%) PowerShell
2 146 (17.12%) Python
3 79 (9.26%) Bash
4 45 (5.28%) SQL
5 14 (1.64%) Bicep
5 14 (1.64%) JavaScript
6 13 (1.52%) VBScript
7 12 (1.41%) Java
8 11 (1.29%) Go
8 11 (1.29%) Ruby
9 10 (1.17%) VB
10 9 (1.06%) Shell Script
11 6 (0.70%) Lisp
12 5 (0.59%) Kusto Query Language
13 4 (0.47%) Perl
14 2 (0.23%) C
14 2 (0.23%) C#
14 2 (0.23%) T-SQL
14 2 (0.23%) VBA
15 1 (0.12%) Jython
Qualifications
1 285 (33.41%) Security Cleared
2 194 (22.74%) SC Cleared
3 106 (12.43%) DV Cleared
4 65 (7.62%) Cisco Certification
5 59 (6.92%) Degree
6 47 (5.51%) Microsoft Certification
7 42 (4.92%) CCNP
8 32 (3.75%) CompTIA Security+
9 27 (3.17%) Azure Certification
10 24 (2.81%) CCNA
11 22 (2.58%) Computer Science Degree
12 19 (2.23%) CISSP
13 18 (2.11%) AWS Certification
13 18 (2.11%) CompTIA CySA+
14 16 (1.88%) Network+ Certification
15 10 (1.17%) BPSS Clearance
15 10 (1.17%) JNCIA
15 10 (1.17%) JNCIS
15 10 (1.17%) MCSE
16 9 (1.06%) CCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (3.52%) GDPR
2 28 (3.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 26 (3.05%) NIST
4 20 (2.34%) SLA
5 17 (1.99%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 9 (1.06%) Cyber Essentials
6 9 (1.06%) NCSC
6 9 (1.06%) PCI DSS
7 6 (0.70%) QA
8 3 (0.35%) Accessibility
8 3 (0.35%) PMO
9 2 (0.23%) Data Quality
9 2 (0.23%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 2 (0.23%) JSP 440
10 1 (0.12%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.12%) COBIT
10 1 (0.12%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 1 (0.12%) Government Security Classifications
10 1 (0.12%) RMADS
System Software
1 356 (41.74%) Active Directory
2 191 (22.39%) VMware Infrastructure
3 71 (8.32%) Hyper-V
4 60 (7.03%) VMware NSX
5 58 (6.80%) Docker
6 56 (6.57%) vSphere
7 29 (3.40%) Firmware
8 24 (2.81%) Virtual Machines
9 20 (2.34%) VMware ESXi
10 17 (1.99%) BitLocker
11 14 (1.64%) Virtual Desktop
12 11 (1.29%) Squid
13 8 (0.94%) Microsoft App-V
14 5 (0.59%) Terminal Services
15 4 (0.47%) NFS
15 4 (0.47%) Sendmail
16 3 (0.35%) Ceph
16 3 (0.35%) DFS Replication
16 3 (0.35%) Postfix
16 3 (0.35%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 155 (18.17%) Terraform
2 128 (15.01%) Ansible
3 94 (11.02%) Microsoft Intune
4 92 (10.79%) Kubernetes
5 73 (8.56%) Single Sign-On
6 65 (7.62%) SCCM
7 60 (7.03%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 46 (5.39%) FortiGate
9 44 (5.16%) vCenter Server
10 42 (4.92%) Grafana
11 29 (3.40%) Argo
12 23 (2.70%) Prometheus
13 14 (1.64%) SCOM
14 13 (1.52%) WSUS
15 9 (1.06%) Puppet
16 8 (0.94%) HAProxy
17 7 (0.82%) Consul
17 7 (0.82%) vMotion
18 6 (0.70%) Nessus
18 6 (0.70%) QRadar
Vendors
1 298 (34.94%) Microsoft
2 238 (27.90%) VMware
3 146 (17.12%) F5
4 131 (15.36%) Cisco
5 83 (9.73%) Splunk
6 75 (8.79%) ServiceNow
7 43 (5.04%) Blue Coat
7 43 (5.04%) SolarWinds
8 42 (4.92%) Citrix
9 41 (4.81%) Palo Alto
10 38 (4.45%) Red Hat
11 36 (4.22%) Juniper
11 36 (4.22%) McAfee
12 34 (3.99%) Infoblox
13 30 (3.52%) Google
14 29 (3.40%) NetApp
15 24 (2.81%) Fortinet
15 24 (2.81%) Pure Storage
16 20 (2.34%) Okta
17 19 (2.23%) Extreme Networks