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

6 months to
11 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 139 111 134
Rank change year-on-year -28 +23 -13
Contract jobs citing DNS 889 703 770
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.94% 2.41% 1.75%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 19.67% 18.64% 13.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 560 491 510
10th Percentile £263 £256 £203
25th Percentile £400 £400 £356
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £475
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +10.53% -9.52%
75th Percentile £600 £607 £600
90th Percentile £658 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £525 £513
% change year-on-year -4.76% +2.44% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 35 11 26
10th Percentile £14.86 - £20.00
25th Percentile £21.25 £23.59 £25.00
Median hourly rate £48.72 £54.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.61% +36.25% -18.56%
75th Percentile £74.26 £81.18 £51.12
90th Percentile £75.90 £82.10 £63.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £60.25 £80.68 £40.00
% change year-on-year -25.32% +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 4,519 3,771 5,852
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.87% 12.90% 13.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,852 2,341 3,526
10th Percentile £231 £213 £205
25th Percentile £398 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £490 £485
Median % change year-on-year +2.04% +1.14% -6.74%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £468 £475
% change year-on-year +1.60% -1.58% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 203 164 421
10th Percentile £15.62 £14.99 £13.85
25th Percentile £20.41 £21.35 £17.72
Median hourly rate £42.71 £37.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +13.88% -6.25% +110.53%
75th Percentile £70.00 £62.50 £61.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £67.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £54.00 £28.00 £45.88
% change year-on-year +92.86% -38.97% +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 11 April 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 11 April 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 11 April 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 -16 784 £500 -4.76% 306
UK excluding London -9 569 £500 -4.76% 265
London -44 256 £500 - 81
North of England +4 217 £448 -5.68% 68
Work from Home -44 196 £525 +2.44% 93
South East -1 160 £525 -4.55% 80
North West +34 142 £475 +11.76% 37
Midlands +20 116 £400 -27.93% 45
West Midlands +27 104 £400 -19.40% 29
Yorkshire -26 76 £447 -18.82% 22
South West -49 48 £575 +4.93% 33
Scotland +19 46 £550 +22.22% 15
East of England -29 42 £450 -10.00% 24
East Midlands -41 11 £394 -30.62% 16
Wales -15 4 £550 +22.22% 3
North East -20 4 £200 -57.89% 11

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 (10.80%) Microsoft Exchange
2 41 (4.61%) SharePoint
3 14 (1.57%) nginx
4 13 (1.46%) Confluence
4 13 (1.46%) Skype for Business
5 9 (1.01%) Apache
5 9 (1.01%) IIS
6 4 (0.45%) Exchange Server 2010
6 4 (0.45%) WebSphere
7 2 (0.22%) Exchange Server 2013
7 2 (0.22%) IBM HTTP Server
7 2 (0.22%) Oracle HTTP Server
7 2 (0.22%) Tomcat
7 2 (0.22%) WebSphere Application Server
7 2 (0.22%) WebSphere Portal
7 2 (0.22%) WordPress
8 1 (0.11%) Traefik
Applications
1 27 (3.04%) Microsoft Office
2 13 (1.46%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.11%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.11%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (0.22%) SystmOne
2 1 (0.11%) Cloudability
2 1 (0.11%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 308 (34.65%) Azure
2 161 (18.11%) AWS
3 150 (16.87%) Entra ID
4 139 (15.64%) Microsoft 365
5 91 (10.24%) GCP
6 61 (6.86%) GitHub
7 58 (6.52%) IaaS
8 40 (4.50%) PaaS
9 37 (4.16%) Serverless
10 36 (4.05%) AWS CloudFormation
10 36 (4.05%) SaaS
10 36 (4.05%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 33 (3.71%) Amazon S3
12 32 (3.60%) Amazon EC2
12 32 (3.60%) AWS Lambda
13 31 (3.49%) Route 53
14 28 (3.15%) OpenShift
15 26 (2.92%) Amazon EKS
16 23 (2.59%) Azure DevOps
17 21 (2.36%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 386 (43.42%) DHCP
2 287 (32.28%) Firewall
3 235 (26.43%) TCP/IP
4 210 (23.62%) VPN
5 117 (13.16%) WAN
6 110 (12.37%) LAN
7 90 (10.12%) SSL
8 87 (9.79%) Network Security
9 85 (9.56%) VLAN
10 81 (9.11%) BIG-IP
10 81 (9.11%) HTTP
11 79 (8.89%) BGP
12 61 (6.86%) Wi-Fi
13 57 (6.41%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
14 46 (5.17%) OSPF
15 42 (4.72%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
16 40 (4.50%) Wireshark
17 39 (4.39%) DMZ
18 38 (4.27%) Kerberos
18 38 (4.27%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (3.15%) SQL Server
2 21 (2.36%) Elasticsearch
3 18 (2.02%) PostgreSQL
4 9 (1.01%) Amazon RDS
5 8 (0.90%) MongoDB
6 7 (0.79%) DynamoDB
7 6 (0.67%) Data Hub
8 5 (0.56%) Amazon Aurora
8 5 (0.56%) Azure SQL Database
8 5 (0.56%) MySQL
8 5 (0.56%) Redis
9 4 (0.45%) DocumentDB
9 4 (0.45%) NoSQL
9 4 (0.45%) Power BI
9 4 (0.45%) Relational Database
10 3 (0.34%) BigQuery
10 3 (0.34%) MariaDB
11 1 (0.11%) Electronic Patient Records
11 1 (0.11%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 1 (0.11%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 56 (6.30%) Jenkins
2 40 (4.50%) JIRA
3 30 (3.37%) Fiddler
4 29 (3.26%) Git
5 28 (3.15%) GitLab
6 9 (1.01%) Browser DevTools
7 7 (0.79%) Bitbucket
7 7 (0.79%) SonarQube
8 6 (0.67%) Chocolatey
9 4 (0.45%) CircleCI
9 4 (0.45%) Terragrunt
10 2 (0.22%) Introscope
10 2 (0.22%) Sonatype Nexus
11 1 (0.11%) Artifactory
11 1 (0.11%) Atlassian Bamboo
11 1 (0.11%) Subversion
11 1 (0.11%) Travis CI
General
1 210 (23.62%) Social Skills
2 95 (10.69%) Analytical Skills
3 76 (8.55%) Banking
4 68 (7.65%) Finance
5 55 (6.19%) Public Sector
6 52 (5.85%) Documentation Skills
7 44 (4.95%) Investment Banking
8 31 (3.49%) Legal
9 22 (2.47%) Telecoms
10 17 (1.91%) Military
11 10 (1.12%) Organisational Skills
12 6 (0.67%) Financial Institution
12 6 (0.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 6 (0.67%) Influencing Skills
12 6 (0.67%) Law
13 5 (0.56%) Local Government
14 4 (0.45%) Aerospace
14 4 (0.45%) Manufacturing
15 3 (0.34%) Presentation Skills
16 2 (0.22%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 148 (16.65%) Network Engineer
2 129 (14.51%) Architect
3 98 (11.02%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 84 (9.45%) Analyst
5 76 (8.55%) Senior
6 58 (6.52%) Security Engineer
7 51 (5.74%) Support Engineer
7 51 (5.74%) Web Engineer
8 44 (4.95%) IT Support
9 37 (4.16%) IT Engineer
10 36 (4.05%) Lead
10 36 (4.05%) Network Security Engineer
11 30 (3.37%) Cisco Engineer
11 30 (3.37%) Cisco Network Engineer
12 29 (3.26%) Azure Engineer
13 27 (3.04%) Data Engineer
13 27 (3.04%) Data Network Engineer
13 27 (3.04%) IT Support Engineer
13 27 (3.04%) Platform Engineer
13 27 (3.04%) SOC Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 68 (7.65%) LDAP
2 56 (6.30%) SAML
3 43 (4.84%) OAuth
4 37 (4.16%) OpenID
5 29 (3.26%) 802.1X
6 22 (2.47%) OpenTelemetry
7 20 (2.25%) OAuth2
8 12 (1.35%) JSON
9 10 (1.12%) REST
10 9 (1.01%) Elastic Stack
10 9 (1.01%) Kafka
11 7 (0.79%) ARM Templates
11 7 (0.79%) XMPP
12 6 (0.67%) Microsoft Graph
13 5 (0.56%) Middleware
13 5 (0.56%) Spring Boot
13 5 (0.56%) Web Services
14 4 (0.45%) Hibernate
14 4 (0.45%) RESTful
14 4 (0.45%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 74 (8.32%) Data Centre
2 69 (7.76%) PKI
3 50 (5.62%) Cloud Native
4 49 (5.51%) Replication
5 38 (4.27%) Management Information System
6 35 (3.94%) Clustering
7 33 (3.71%) Onboarding
8 32 (3.60%) Public Cloud
9 27 (3.04%) Hybrid Cloud
9 27 (3.04%) Security Operations Centre
10 26 (2.92%) Cyberattack
11 23 (2.59%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
12 20 (2.25%) Self-Motivation
13 19 (2.14%) Enterprise Software
14 17 (1.91%) Cyber Threat
15 16 (1.80%) Legacy Systems
16 14 (1.57%) Analytical Mindset
17 13 (1.46%) NHS
17 13 (1.46%) Product Ownership
18 12 (1.35%) Enterprise Storage
Operating Systems
1 396 (44.54%) Windows
2 216 (24.30%) Windows Server
3 139 (15.64%) Linux
4 46 (5.17%) Windows 10
5 31 (3.49%) Windows Server 2019
6 21 (2.36%) Android
7 18 (2.02%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 18 (2.02%) Unix
8 17 (1.91%) Mac OS
9 16 (1.80%) Windows Server 2012
10 14 (1.57%) Apple iOS
11 12 (1.35%) Windows Server 2016
12 11 (1.24%) VMS
12 11 (1.24%) Windows 7
13 8 (0.90%) Windows Server 2003
14 4 (0.45%) CatOS
15 3 (0.34%) Amazon Linux
15 3 (0.34%) CentOS
15 3 (0.34%) Oracle Linux
16 2 (0.22%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 197 (22.16%) Problem-Solving
2 187 (21.03%) Load Balancing
3 137 (15.41%) Migration
4 126 (14.17%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 123 (13.84%) ITIL
6 122 (13.72%) High Availability
7 114 (12.82%) DevOps
8 108 (12.15%) CI/CD
9 101 (11.36%) Infrastructure as Code
10 87 (9.79%) Cybersecurity
11 84 (9.45%) Identity Access Management
12 81 (9.11%) Disaster Recovery
13 74 (8.32%) ITSM
14 72 (8.10%) RBAC
15 65 (7.31%) Incident Response
15 65 (7.31%) Observability
16 63 (7.09%) SIEM
17 62 (6.97%) Change Management
18 60 (6.75%) Roadmaps
19 59 (6.64%) Agile
Programming Languages
1 224 (25.20%) PowerShell
2 141 (15.86%) Python
3 80 (9.00%) Bash
4 42 (4.72%) SQL
5 18 (2.02%) JavaScript
6 14 (1.57%) Bicep
7 13 (1.46%) Java
7 13 (1.46%) VBScript
8 12 (1.35%) Ruby
9 9 (1.01%) Shell Script
9 9 (1.01%) VB
10 8 (0.90%) Go
11 5 (0.56%) Perl
11 5 (0.56%) VBA
12 4 (0.45%) Kusto Query Language
12 4 (0.45%) Lisp
13 3 (0.34%) C
14 2 (0.22%) C#
14 2 (0.22%) Jython
14 2 (0.22%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 289 (32.51%) Security Cleared
2 195 (21.93%) SC Cleared
3 106 (11.92%) DV Cleared
4 71 (7.99%) Cisco Certification
5 59 (6.64%) Degree
6 44 (4.95%) CCNP
7 41 (4.61%) Microsoft Certification
8 32 (3.60%) CompTIA Security+
9 29 (3.26%) CCNA
10 27 (3.04%) Azure Certification
11 21 (2.36%) Computer Science Degree
12 18 (2.02%) CISSP
12 18 (2.02%) CompTIA CySA+
13 17 (1.91%) AWS Certification
14 15 (1.69%) Network+ Certification
15 11 (1.24%) BPSS Clearance
16 10 (1.12%) JNCIA
16 10 (1.12%) JNCIS
17 9 (1.01%) JNCIP
18 8 (0.90%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (3.49%) GDPR
2 30 (3.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 30 (3.37%) NIST
3 24 (2.70%) SLA
4 16 (1.80%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 9 (1.01%) Cyber Essentials
6 8 (0.90%) NCSC
6 8 (0.90%) PCI DSS
7 6 (0.67%) QA
8 3 (0.34%) Accessibility
8 3 (0.34%) JSP 440
8 3 (0.34%) PMO
9 2 (0.22%) Data Quality
9 2 (0.22%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 1 (0.11%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.11%) COBIT
10 1 (0.11%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 1 (0.11%) Disclosure Scotland
10 1 (0.11%) RMADS
System Software
1 362 (40.72%) Active Directory
2 196 (22.05%) VMware Infrastructure
3 78 (8.77%) Hyper-V
4 58 (6.52%) VMware NSX
5 54 (6.07%) vSphere
6 53 (5.96%) Docker
7 28 (3.15%) Firmware
8 27 (3.04%) Virtual Machines
9 26 (2.92%) VMware ESXi
10 18 (2.02%) BitLocker
11 15 (1.69%) Virtual Desktop
12 12 (1.35%) Squid
13 8 (0.90%) Microsoft App-V
13 8 (0.90%) NFS
14 6 (0.67%) Sendmail
15 5 (0.56%) Postfix
15 5 (0.56%) Terminal Services
15 5 (0.56%) Varnish
16 4 (0.45%) Ceph
17 3 (0.34%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 149 (16.76%) Terraform
2 120 (13.50%) Ansible
3 95 (10.69%) Kubernetes
4 90 (10.12%) Microsoft Intune
5 75 (8.44%) Single Sign-On
6 60 (6.75%) SCCM
7 58 (6.52%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 50 (5.62%) FortiGate
9 44 (4.95%) vCenter Server
10 38 (4.27%) Grafana
11 30 (3.37%) Argo
12 23 (2.59%) Prometheus
13 17 (1.91%) WSUS
14 14 (1.57%) SCOM
15 10 (1.12%) HAProxy
16 9 (1.01%) Puppet
17 8 (0.90%) vMotion
18 7 (0.79%) Consul
18 7 (0.79%) Nessus
19 6 (0.67%) QRadar
Vendors
1 299 (33.63%) Microsoft
2 240 (27.00%) VMware
3 148 (16.65%) F5
4 141 (15.86%) Cisco
5 82 (9.22%) Splunk
6 74 (8.32%) ServiceNow
7 49 (5.51%) Citrix
8 45 (5.06%) SolarWinds
9 43 (4.84%) Infoblox
9 43 (4.84%) Red Hat
10 40 (4.50%) Blue Coat
11 39 (4.39%) Juniper
12 38 (4.27%) Palo Alto
13 36 (4.05%) Google
14 34 (3.82%) McAfee
15 32 (3.60%) NetApp
16 24 (2.70%) Pure Storage
17 23 (2.59%) Fortinet
18 21 (2.36%) Extreme Networks
19 20 (2.25%) Okta