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

6 months to
24 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 148 115 113
Rank change year-on-year -33 -2 +11
Contract jobs citing DNS 731 712 912
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.92% 2.25% 2.07%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 18.39% 17.55% 15.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 472 445 584
10th Percentile £219 £223 £206
25th Percentile £400 £350 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £514 £500 £488
Median % change year-on-year +2.75% +2.56% -7.14%
75th Percentile £607 £615 £600
90th Percentile £675 £745 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £450 £500
% change year-on-year +11.11% -10.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 9 25
10th Percentile £15.50 £17.26 £24.55
25th Percentile £21.25 £21.25 £32.00
Median hourly rate £39.50 £23.59 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.44% -41.03% +3.90%
75th Percentile £74.26 £25.30 £60.00
90th Percentile £78.00 £40.40 £69.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £48.72 £22.50 £51.25
% change year-on-year +116.53% -56.10% +33.12%

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 3,974 4,058 6,031
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.46% 12.84% 13.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,606 2,359 3,677
10th Percentile £204 £213 £208
25th Percentile £355 £363 £360
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -2.91%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £686 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £466 £475
% change year-on-year -3.43% -1.89% +2.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 164 139 377
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.05 £16.97
25th Percentile £18.97 £21.46 £23.00
Median hourly rate £30.00 £35.00 £53.00
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% -33.96% +155.98%
75th Percentile £65.00 £58.69 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £70.00 £74.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.54 £32.50 £56.49
% change year-on-year +24.74% -42.47% +202.73%

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 24 January 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 24 January 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 24 January 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 -20 658 £525 +10.53% 392
UK excluding London -26 452 £500 +11.11% 387
London +10 228 £550 +4.76% 61
Work from Home -54 174 £525 - 100
North of England -31 142 £463 +8.82% 80
South East -6 115 £510 +10.27% 120
Midlands +13 111 £385 -9.41% 52
West Midlands +22 107 £390 -3.70% 23
North West -2 96 £488 +2.90% 28
South West -28 63 £575 +5.02% 55
Yorkshire -43 51 £447 +49.00% 43
East of England -19 36 £475 +72.73% 53
Scotland -16 28 £454 -4.62% 23
North East -21 7 £575 +155.56% 13
East Midlands -40 4 £275 -38.89% 28
Wales -16 3 £550 +33.33% 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 92 (12.59%) Microsoft Exchange
2 64 (8.76%) SharePoint
3 33 (4.51%) Skype for Business
4 22 (3.01%) Confluence
5 16 (2.19%) nginx
6 9 (1.23%) Exchange Server 2010
7 8 (1.09%) IIS
7 8 (1.09%) SharePoint Server
8 7 (0.96%) Exchange Server 2013
9 5 (0.68%) Apache
10 4 (0.55%) Exchange Server 2003
10 4 (0.55%) Exchange Server 2007
10 4 (0.55%) Office Communications Server
10 4 (0.55%) OpenStack
11 2 (0.27%) Cloud Foundry
11 2 (0.27%) Oracle HTTP Server
11 2 (0.27%) Tomcat
11 2 (0.27%) WebLogic
11 2 (0.27%) WordPress
Applications
1 44 (6.02%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (2.05%) MS Visio
3 8 (1.09%) Mozilla Thunderbird
4 2 (0.27%) Microsoft Excel
4 2 (0.27%) Spreadsheet
4 2 (0.27%) Windchill
5 1 (0.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (0.27%) Remedy ITSM
1 2 (0.27%) SystmOne
1 2 (0.27%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 256 (35.02%) Azure
2 184 (25.17%) AWS
3 142 (19.43%) Microsoft 365
4 109 (14.91%) Entra ID
5 69 (9.44%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 57 (7.80%) Amazon S3
7 53 (7.25%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 51 (6.98%) Amazon EC2
9 45 (6.16%) GCP
9 45 (6.16%) GitHub
10 37 (5.06%) Amazon ELB
11 33 (4.51%) AWS CloudFormation
12 32 (4.38%) IaaS
13 31 (4.24%) Serverless
14 30 (4.10%) Amazon ECS
14 30 (4.10%) Route 53
15 29 (3.97%) AWS Lambda
16 23 (3.15%) GitHub Actions
17 22 (3.01%) SaaS
18 21 (2.87%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 323 (44.19%) DHCP
2 244 (33.38%) TCP/IP
3 240 (32.83%) Firewall
4 189 (25.85%) VPN
5 92 (12.59%) Network Security
5 92 (12.59%) SSL
5 92 (12.59%) WAN
6 78 (10.67%) HTTP
7 71 (9.71%) LAN
8 66 (9.03%) VLAN
9 47 (6.43%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
10 44 (6.02%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
11 41 (5.61%) BGP
11 41 (5.61%) BIG-IP
12 40 (5.47%) Wireshark
13 39 (5.34%) Wireless
14 38 (5.20%) Wi-Fi
15 35 (4.79%) DMZ
16 33 (4.51%) Skype
17 30 (4.10%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (3.69%) Amazon RDS
2 23 (3.15%) PostgreSQL
3 21 (2.87%) SQL Server
4 14 (1.92%) Amazon Aurora
4 14 (1.92%) Elasticsearch
5 8 (1.09%) MongoDB
6 7 (0.96%) DynamoDB
6 7 (0.96%) MySQL
6 7 (0.96%) Redis
7 6 (0.82%) Data Hub
8 4 (0.55%) DocumentDB
8 4 (0.55%) NoSQL
8 4 (0.55%) Relational Database
9 3 (0.41%) BigQuery
10 1 (0.14%) Apache Cassandra
10 1 (0.14%) CouchDB
10 1 (0.14%) Electronic Patient Records
10 1 (0.14%) Geospatial Data
10 1 (0.14%) Oracle Reports
10 1 (0.14%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 74 (10.12%) Jenkins
2 66 (9.03%) Git
3 48 (6.57%) GitLab
4 43 (5.88%) JIRA
5 25 (3.42%) Fiddler
6 12 (1.64%) Vagrant
7 8 (1.09%) Terragrunt
8 6 (0.82%) Bitbucket
9 5 (0.68%) SonarQube
9 5 (0.68%) Subversion
10 4 (0.55%) CircleCI
10 4 (0.55%) TeamCity
11 2 (0.27%) Sonatype Nexus
12 1 (0.14%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 1 (0.14%) Browser DevTools
12 1 (0.14%) Octopus Deploy
12 1 (0.14%) Travis CI
12 1 (0.14%) Visual Studio Code
12 1 (0.14%) Vite
12 1 (0.14%) webpack
General
1 217 (29.69%) Social Skills
2 104 (14.23%) Analytical Skills
3 69 (9.44%) Public Sector
4 54 (7.39%) Banking
5 43 (5.88%) Documentation Skills
5 43 (5.88%) Finance
6 41 (5.61%) Investment Banking
7 21 (2.87%) Telecoms
8 18 (2.46%) Legal
9 14 (1.92%) Presentation Skills
10 8 (1.09%) Military
11 7 (0.96%) Influencing Skills
11 7 (0.96%) Organisational Skills
12 5 (0.68%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 5 (0.68%) Law
13 4 (0.55%) Aerospace
13 4 (0.55%) Financial Institution
13 4 (0.55%) Marketing
14 3 (0.41%) Local Government
15 2 (0.27%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 100 (13.68%) Network Engineer
2 91 (12.45%) Architect
3 75 (10.26%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 72 (9.85%) Analyst
5 68 (9.30%) Senior
6 64 (8.76%) Support Engineer
7 43 (5.88%) Platform Engineer
8 40 (5.47%) IT Support
9 38 (5.20%) DevOps Engineer
10 33 (4.51%) Security Engineer
11 29 (3.97%) AWS Engineer
12 28 (3.83%) Lead
12 28 (3.83%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
13 26 (3.56%) 2nd Line Support
13 26 (3.56%) Web Engineer
14 24 (3.28%) SOC Analyst
15 21 (2.87%) Cloud Platform Engineer
15 21 (2.87%) Operations Engineer
16 19 (2.60%) Administrator
16 19 (2.60%) Network Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 62 (8.48%) LDAP
2 43 (5.88%) SAML
3 37 (5.06%) OAuth
4 28 (3.83%) OpenID
5 20 (2.74%) OAuth2
6 14 (1.92%) REST
7 12 (1.64%) 802.1X
7 12 (1.64%) Kafka
8 10 (1.37%) Elastic Stack
9 8 (1.09%) SOAP
10 7 (0.96%) Middleware
10 7 (0.96%) OpenTelemetry
11 6 (0.82%) AngularJS
11 6 (0.82%) AWS CDK
11 6 (0.82%) RESTful
12 5 (0.68%) React
12 5 (0.68%) Spring Boot
12 5 (0.68%) YAML
13 4 (0.55%) ASP.NET Web API
13 4 (0.55%) gRPC
Miscellaneous
1 64 (8.76%) Replication
2 56 (7.66%) PKI
3 53 (7.25%) Data Centre
4 42 (5.75%) Management Information System
5 29 (3.97%) Onboarding
6 25 (3.42%) Security Operations Centre
7 23 (3.15%) Enterprise Software
8 22 (3.01%) Analytical Mindset
8 22 (3.01%) Cloud Native
8 22 (3.01%) Cyberattack
9 15 (2.05%) Hybrid Cloud
9 15 (2.05%) Private Cloud
9 15 (2.05%) Public Cloud
10 12 (1.64%) Clustering
11 11 (1.50%) Cyber Threat
11 11 (1.50%) Self-Motivation
12 10 (1.37%) Video Conferencing
13 9 (1.23%) NHS
13 9 (1.23%) SCADA
14 8 (1.09%) Distributed Systems
Operating Systems
1 365 (49.93%) Windows
2 177 (24.21%) Windows Server
3 144 (19.70%) Linux
4 62 (8.48%) Windows 10
5 32 (4.38%) Windows Server 2019
6 21 (2.87%) Windows Server 2016
7 20 (2.74%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 20 (2.74%) Unix
8 18 (2.46%) VMS
8 18 (2.46%) Windows Server 2012
9 17 (2.33%) Android
10 15 (2.05%) Amazon Linux
11 13 (1.78%) Ubuntu
12 12 (1.64%) Apple iOS
12 12 (1.64%) CentOS
13 11 (1.50%) Windows 7
14 10 (1.37%) Windows Server 2003
15 8 (1.09%) Mac OS
16 5 (0.68%) Solaris
17 4 (0.55%) CatOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 167 (22.85%) Problem-Solving
2 122 (16.69%) ITIL
3 121 (16.55%) Load Balancing
4 114 (15.60%) CI/CD
5 112 (15.32%) DevOps
6 98 (13.41%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 97 (13.27%) Infrastructure as Code
8 91 (12.45%) High Availability
9 79 (10.81%) Migration
10 78 (10.67%) Cybersecurity
11 76 (10.40%) Change Management
12 71 (9.71%) Incident Response
13 69 (9.44%) Disaster Recovery
14 62 (8.48%) Service Management
15 59 (8.07%) Root Cause Analysis
16 58 (7.93%) SIEM
17 55 (7.52%) Mentoring
18 52 (7.11%) Platform Engineering
19 49 (6.70%) Continuous Improvement
20 48 (6.57%) Identity Access Management
Programming Languages
1 225 (30.78%) PowerShell
2 153 (20.93%) Python
3 75 (10.26%) Bash
4 42 (5.75%) SQL
5 19 (2.60%) Perl
6 18 (2.46%) Java
7 13 (1.78%) Bicep
8 12 (1.64%) Groovy
8 12 (1.64%) VBScript
9 11 (1.50%) Shell Script
10 10 (1.37%) Go
10 10 (1.37%) Ruby
10 10 (1.37%) VB
11 7 (0.96%) Lisp
12 6 (0.82%) Kusto Query Language
13 5 (0.68%) C++
14 4 (0.55%) JavaScript
15 3 (0.41%) C#
15 3 (0.41%) Search Processing Language
15 3 (0.41%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 271 (37.07%) Security Cleared
2 197 (26.95%) SC Cleared
3 87 (11.90%) DV Cleared
4 70 (9.58%) Degree
5 59 (8.07%) Microsoft Certification
6 45 (6.16%) Cisco Certification
7 41 (5.61%) CCNP
8 37 (5.06%) Azure Certification
9 25 (3.42%) AWS Certification
10 21 (2.87%) CompTIA Security+
11 20 (2.74%) Computer Science Degree
12 17 (2.33%) CCNA
12 17 (2.33%) Network+ Certification
13 15 (2.05%) CompTIA CySA+
14 13 (1.78%) CISSP
15 11 (1.50%) Server+ Certification
16 9 (1.23%) CCIE
17 8 (1.09%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
17 8 (1.09%) ITIL Certification
17 8 (1.09%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 34 (4.65%) GDPR
2 23 (3.15%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 21 (2.87%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 19 (2.60%) SLA
5 18 (2.46%) NIST
6 9 (1.23%) NCSC
6 9 (1.23%) PCI DSS
7 8 (1.09%) Cyber Essentials
8 6 (0.82%) Accessibility
8 6 (0.82%) QA
9 3 (0.41%) Data Quality
9 3 (0.41%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 3 (0.41%) PMO
10 2 (0.27%) Disclosure Scotland
10 2 (0.27%) JSP 440
11 1 (0.14%) Actionable Recommendations
11 1 (0.14%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 1 (0.14%) Government Security Classifications
11 1 (0.14%) RMADS
11 1 (0.14%) WCAG
System Software
1 326 (44.60%) Active Directory
2 188 (25.72%) VMware Infrastructure
3 88 (12.04%) Docker
4 53 (7.25%) Hyper-V
5 43 (5.88%) VMware NSX
6 32 (4.38%) vSphere
7 27 (3.69%) Virtual Machines
8 21 (2.87%) Firmware
9 18 (2.46%) VMware ESXi
10 15 (2.05%) DFS Replication
11 13 (1.78%) Squid
12 12 (1.64%) BitLocker
13 11 (1.50%) Virtual Desktop
14 9 (1.23%) Postfix
14 9 (1.23%) Virtual Servers
15 8 (1.09%) Dovecot
16 6 (0.82%) Microsoft App-V
16 6 (0.82%) NFS
16 6 (0.82%) Terminal Services
17 5 (0.68%) Microsoft Virtual Server
Systems Management
1 134 (18.33%) Terraform
2 121 (16.55%) Ansible
3 83 (11.35%) Microsoft Intune
4 77 (10.53%) SCCM
5 71 (9.71%) Single Sign-On
6 64 (8.76%) Kubernetes
7 53 (7.25%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 37 (5.06%) vCenter Server
9 34 (4.65%) Grafana
10 26 (3.56%) Prometheus
11 23 (3.15%) FortiGate
12 20 (2.74%) WSUS
13 13 (1.78%) Argo
13 13 (1.78%) SCOM
14 11 (1.50%) Proxmox
15 10 (1.37%) Packer
16 9 (1.23%) Nessus
16 9 (1.23%) Puppet
17 8 (1.09%) Microsoft Clustering
18 6 (0.82%) QRadar
Vendors
1 284 (38.85%) Microsoft
2 224 (30.64%) VMware
3 120 (16.42%) F5
4 111 (15.18%) Cisco
5 82 (11.22%) ServiceNow
6 57 (7.80%) Splunk
7 55 (7.52%) Palo Alto
8 48 (6.57%) CheckPoint
9 42 (5.75%) Blue Coat
10 33 (4.51%) Citrix
11 32 (4.38%) SolarWinds
12 30 (4.10%) McAfee
13 27 (3.69%) Veeam
14 26 (3.56%) NetApp
15 25 (3.42%) Juniper
15 25 (3.42%) Red Hat
16 22 (3.01%) Dell
16 22 (3.01%) Fortinet
17 21 (2.87%) Okta
18 19 (2.60%) Zscaler