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

6 months to
5 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 146 113 109
Rank change year-on-year -33 -4 +23
Contract jobs citing DNS 710 702 928
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.93% 2.18% 2.17%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 18.11% 17.07% 15.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 443 437 601
10th Percentile £213 £223 £213
25th Percentile £400 £350 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £475 £485
Median % change year-on-year +10.53% -2.06% -7.62%
75th Percentile £600 £599 £600
90th Percentile £686 £738 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £425 £488
% change year-on-year +17.65% -12.82% +2.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 35 10 18
10th Percentile £15.50 £17.88 £25.70
25th Percentile £25.70 £21.71 £31.44
Median hourly rate £57.50 £23.59 £55.70
Median % change year-on-year +143.75% -57.65% +95.44%
75th Percentile £77.50 £28.83 £65.25
90th Percentile £85.60 £39.20 £72.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £23.35 £58.20
% change year-on-year +178.37% -59.88% +51.17%

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 3,921 4,112 5,830
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.65% 12.77% 13.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,565 2,406 3,601
10th Percentile £206 £220 £210
25th Percentile £356 £370 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £680 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £475 £473
% change year-on-year -5.26% +0.53% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 176 138 330
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.86 £17.75
25th Percentile £19.75 £20.81 £23.02
Median hourly rate £36.75 £32.50 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year +13.08% -42.47% +89.88%
75th Percentile £66.31 £53.44 £65.98
90th Percentile £80.00 £70.38 £75.03
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £31.79 £59.03
% change year-on-year +33.69% -46.15% +81.63%

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 5 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 5 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 5 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 -21 639 £525 +10.53% 433
UK excluding London -18 447 £500 +17.65% 397
London +3 212 £550 +4.76% 84
Work from Home -47 171 £500 - 102
North of England -16 135 £460 +15.00% 84
Midlands +21 115 £401 -0.99% 51
South East -2 115 £500 +11.11% 139
West Midlands +29 111 £402 -5.41% 29
North West -5 92 £475 - 36
South West -14 62 £575 +9.52% 44
Yorkshire -31 50 £447 +43.04% 41
East of England -18 37 £363 +28.32% 62
Scotland -20 25 £460 +2.11% 17
North East -18 7 £575 +283.33% 8
East Midlands -40 4 £275 -26.67% 20
Wales -11 3 £550 +33.33% 7

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 90 (12.68%) Microsoft Exchange
2 69 (9.72%) SharePoint
3 31 (4.37%) Skype for Business
4 21 (2.96%) Confluence
5 13 (1.83%) nginx
6 11 (1.55%) Exchange Server 2010
7 10 (1.41%) SharePoint Server
8 9 (1.27%) Exchange Server 2013
8 9 (1.27%) IIS
9 6 (0.85%) Exchange Server 2003
9 6 (0.85%) Exchange Server 2007
9 6 (0.85%) Office Communications Server
10 5 (0.70%) Apache
11 4 (0.56%) OpenStack
12 3 (0.42%) Tomcat
13 2 (0.28%) Apache Spark
13 2 (0.28%) Cloud Foundry
13 2 (0.28%) Oracle HTTP Server
13 2 (0.28%) WebLogic
13 2 (0.28%) WordPress
Applications
1 45 (6.34%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (1.41%) Mozilla Thunderbird
2 10 (1.41%) MS Visio
3 4 (0.56%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (0.42%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (0.28%) Windchill
6 1 (0.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (0.28%) Remedy ITSM
1 2 (0.28%) SystmOne
1 2 (0.28%) Teamcenter
2 1 (0.14%) Eikon
2 1 (0.14%) Eze OMS
2 1 (0.14%) Fidessa
2 1 (0.14%) Pegasus Opera
Cloud Services
1 232 (32.68%) Azure
2 178 (25.07%) AWS
3 148 (20.85%) Microsoft 365
4 92 (12.96%) Entra ID
5 67 (9.44%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 55 (7.75%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 55 (7.75%) Amazon S3
7 53 (7.46%) Amazon EC2
8 49 (6.90%) GitHub
9 43 (6.06%) GCP
10 41 (5.77%) Amazon ELB
11 35 (4.93%) AWS CloudFormation
12 33 (4.65%) Amazon ECS
13 31 (4.37%) IaaS
14 26 (3.66%) SaaS
14 26 (3.66%) Serverless
15 25 (3.52%) GitHub Actions
16 24 (3.38%) AWS Lambda
17 20 (2.82%) AWS KMS
18 19 (2.68%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 295 (41.55%) DHCP
2 244 (34.37%) TCP/IP
3 240 (33.80%) Firewall
4 173 (24.37%) VPN
5 102 (14.37%) SSL
6 99 (13.94%) Network Security
7 89 (12.54%) HTTP
8 75 (10.56%) WAN
9 64 (9.01%) VLAN
10 59 (8.31%) LAN
11 49 (6.90%) SMTP
12 46 (6.48%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
13 43 (6.06%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
13 43 (6.06%) Wireless
14 37 (5.21%) FTP
15 35 (4.93%) BGP
15 35 (4.93%) DMZ
16 34 (4.79%) Wireshark
17 33 (4.65%) Wi-Fi
18 31 (4.37%) BIG-IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (4.65%) Amazon RDS
2 27 (3.80%) PostgreSQL
3 23 (3.24%) SQL Server
4 18 (2.54%) Amazon Aurora
5 10 (1.41%) MongoDB
6 8 (1.13%) Elasticsearch
7 6 (0.85%) Data Hub
7 6 (0.85%) DynamoDB
7 6 (0.85%) MySQL
7 6 (0.85%) Redis
8 5 (0.70%) NoSQL
9 4 (0.56%) BigQuery
9 4 (0.56%) Relational Database
10 3 (0.42%) Big Data
10 3 (0.42%) DocumentDB
11 2 (0.28%) Delta Lake
11 2 (0.28%) Hadoop
11 2 (0.28%) Parquet
11 2 (0.28%) Power BI
12 1 (0.14%) Electronic Patient Records
Development Applications
1 90 (12.68%) Jenkins
2 77 (10.85%) Git
3 52 (7.32%) GitLab
4 47 (6.62%) JIRA
5 22 (3.10%) Fiddler
6 16 (2.25%) Vagrant
7 8 (1.13%) Terragrunt
8 5 (0.70%) Subversion
9 4 (0.56%) CircleCI
9 4 (0.56%) TeamCity
10 3 (0.42%) Visual Studio Code
11 2 (0.28%) MLflow
11 2 (0.28%) Poetry
11 2 (0.28%) PyCharm
11 2 (0.28%) SonarQube
12 1 (0.14%) Browser DevTools
12 1 (0.14%) Sonatype Nexus
12 1 (0.14%) Travis CI
12 1 (0.14%) Vite
12 1 (0.14%) webpack
General
1 220 (30.99%) Social Skills
2 111 (15.63%) Analytical Skills
3 74 (10.42%) Public Sector
4 56 (7.89%) Banking
5 49 (6.90%) Finance
6 41 (5.77%) Investment Banking
7 37 (5.21%) Documentation Skills
8 21 (2.96%) Telecoms
9 17 (2.39%) Legal
9 17 (2.39%) Presentation Skills
10 10 (1.41%) Organisational Skills
11 9 (1.27%) Law
11 9 (1.27%) Military
12 8 (1.13%) Aerospace
13 7 (0.99%) Influencing Skills
14 4 (0.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 4 (0.56%) Marketing
15 3 (0.42%) Financial Institution
15 3 (0.42%) Front Office
15 3 (0.42%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 90 (12.68%) Network Engineer
2 75 (10.56%) Support Engineer
3 74 (10.42%) Analyst
4 73 (10.28%) Architect
4 73 (10.28%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 69 (9.72%) Senior
6 48 (6.76%) DevOps Engineer
7 47 (6.62%) Platform Engineer
8 42 (5.92%) IT Support
9 34 (4.79%) Security Engineer
10 33 (4.65%) AWS Engineer
11 31 (4.37%) SOC Analyst
12 27 (3.80%) Lead
12 27 (3.80%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
13 26 (3.66%) 2nd Line Support
14 25 (3.52%) Cloud Platform Engineer
14 25 (3.52%) Operations Engineer
15 23 (3.24%) AWS DevOps
15 23 (3.24%) AWS DevOps Engineer
16 22 (3.10%) IT Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 53 (7.46%) LDAP
2 24 (3.38%) SAML
3 21 (2.96%) OAuth
4 19 (2.68%) OpenID
5 17 (2.39%) OAuth2
6 16 (2.25%) Elastic Stack
7 15 (2.11%) REST
8 14 (1.97%) 802.1X
9 13 (1.83%) Kafka
10 10 (1.41%) Middleware
10 10 (1.41%) SOAP
11 7 (0.99%) AngularJS
12 6 (0.85%) cloud-init
12 6 (0.85%) Keycloak
12 6 (0.85%) OpenTelemetry
12 6 (0.85%) YAML
13 5 (0.70%) Flask
13 5 (0.70%) JSON
13 5 (0.70%) React
13 5 (0.70%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 57 (8.03%) PKI
2 56 (7.89%) Management Information System
3 51 (7.18%) Data Centre
3 51 (7.18%) Replication
4 30 (4.23%) Analytical Mindset
4 30 (4.23%) Onboarding
5 28 (3.94%) Security Operations Centre
6 27 (3.80%) Cyberattack
7 23 (3.24%) Enterprise Software
8 18 (2.54%) Cloud Native
8 18 (2.54%) Cyber Threat
9 16 (2.25%) Hybrid Cloud
10 13 (1.83%) CSOC
11 12 (1.69%) Private Cloud
11 12 (1.69%) Public Cloud
12 11 (1.55%) Clustering
12 11 (1.55%) Security Posture
12 11 (1.55%) Self-Motivation
12 11 (1.55%) Video Conferencing
13 8 (1.13%) Distributed Systems
Operating Systems
1 352 (49.58%) Windows
2 164 (23.10%) Linux
3 159 (22.39%) Windows Server
4 60 (8.45%) Windows 10
5 28 (3.94%) Unix
6 27 (3.80%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 25 (3.52%) VMS
8 24 (3.38%) Windows Server 2019
9 22 (3.10%) Windows Server 2016
10 19 (2.68%) Amazon Linux
11 18 (2.54%) Windows Server 2012
12 17 (2.39%) Android
13 15 (2.11%) Ubuntu
14 13 (1.83%) CentOS
15 12 (1.69%) Apple iOS
15 12 (1.69%) Mac OS
16 11 (1.55%) Windows Server 2003
17 7 (0.99%) Windows 7
18 5 (0.70%) Solaris
19 3 (0.42%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 165 (23.24%) Problem-Solving
2 130 (18.31%) ITIL
3 123 (17.32%) CI/CD
4 120 (16.90%) DevOps
5 108 (15.21%) Load Balancing
6 104 (14.65%) Infrastructure as Code
7 95 (13.38%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 85 (11.97%) Cybersecurity
9 77 (10.85%) Change Management
10 75 (10.56%) Incident Response
11 73 (10.28%) Migration
12 71 (10.00%) High Availability
13 65 (9.15%) SIEM
14 63 (8.87%) Service Management
15 62 (8.73%) Root Cause Analysis
16 56 (7.89%) Disaster Recovery
17 55 (7.75%) Platform Engineering
18 54 (7.61%) Agile
18 54 (7.61%) Continuous Improvement
19 51 (7.18%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 207 (29.15%) PowerShell
2 171 (24.08%) Python
3 82 (11.55%) Bash
4 46 (6.48%) SQL
5 22 (3.10%) Java
5 22 (3.10%) Perl
6 18 (2.54%) Groovy
7 14 (1.97%) Bicep
8 13 (1.83%) Shell Script
9 12 (1.69%) Go
10 10 (1.41%) Ruby
11 8 (1.13%) Kusto Query Language
12 7 (0.99%) Lisp
12 7 (0.99%) VBScript
13 6 (0.85%) VB
14 5 (0.70%) C++
15 4 (0.56%) JavaScript
16 3 (0.42%) C#
16 3 (0.42%) Search Processing Language
16 3 (0.42%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 261 (36.76%) Security Cleared
2 189 (26.62%) SC Cleared
3 86 (12.11%) DV Cleared
4 70 (9.86%) Degree
5 65 (9.15%) Microsoft Certification
6 46 (6.48%) Cisco Certification
7 40 (5.63%) Azure Certification
8 38 (5.35%) CCNP
9 23 (3.24%) AWS Certification
10 22 (3.10%) CompTIA Security+
11 18 (2.54%) CISSP
12 17 (2.39%) Network+ Certification
13 16 (2.25%) CCNA
13 16 (2.25%) Computer Science Degree
14 13 (1.83%) MCSE
15 12 (1.69%) CompTIA CySA+
16 11 (1.55%) Server+ Certification
17 10 (1.41%) MCSA
18 9 (1.27%) BPSS Clearance
18 9 (1.27%) CCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (4.08%) GDPR
2 21 (2.96%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 18 (2.54%) NIST
3 18 (2.54%) SLA
4 10 (1.41%) NCSC
5 9 (1.27%) PCI DSS
6 8 (1.13%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 7 (0.99%) Accessibility
7 7 (0.99%) Cyber Essentials
8 5 (0.70%) QA
9 3 (0.42%) Data Quality
9 3 (0.42%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 2 (0.28%) Disclosure Scotland
10 2 (0.28%) JSP 440
10 2 (0.28%) PMO
11 1 (0.14%) COBIT
11 1 (0.14%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 1 (0.14%) Government Security Classifications
11 1 (0.14%) SOC 2
11 1 (0.14%) WCAG
System Software
1 309 (43.52%) Active Directory
2 187 (26.34%) VMware Infrastructure
3 95 (13.38%) Docker
4 54 (7.61%) Hyper-V
5 41 (5.77%) VMware NSX
6 30 (4.23%) Virtual Machines
7 28 (3.94%) vSphere
8 20 (2.82%) Firmware
9 19 (2.68%) DFS Replication
10 18 (2.54%) VMware ESXi
11 16 (2.25%) Dovecot
11 16 (2.25%) Postfix
12 14 (1.97%) Terminal Services
13 10 (1.41%) Squid
13 10 (1.41%) Virtual Desktop
14 9 (1.27%) Virtual Servers
15 7 (0.99%) BitLocker
16 6 (0.85%) Brightmail
16 6 (0.85%) ISA Server
17 5 (0.70%) Microsoft App-V
Systems Management
1 135 (19.01%) Terraform
2 119 (16.76%) Ansible
3 77 (10.85%) Microsoft Intune
4 76 (10.70%) SCCM
5 65 (9.15%) Kubernetes
6 48 (6.76%) Single Sign-On
7 41 (5.77%) Grafana
7 41 (5.77%) vCenter Server
8 32 (4.51%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 31 (4.37%) Prometheus
10 21 (2.96%) WSUS
11 17 (2.39%) Nessus
12 16 (2.25%) Argo
12 16 (2.25%) FortiGate
13 13 (1.83%) Packer
13 13 (1.83%) Proxmox
14 12 (1.69%) SCOM
15 11 (1.55%) Puppet
16 10 (1.41%) Microsoft Clustering
16 10 (1.41%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 262 (36.90%) Microsoft
2 223 (31.41%) VMware
3 114 (16.06%) F5
4 104 (14.65%) Cisco
5 79 (11.13%) ServiceNow
6 60 (8.45%) Splunk
7 59 (8.31%) Palo Alto
8 49 (6.90%) CheckPoint
9 39 (5.49%) Blue Coat
10 34 (4.79%) Citrix
11 31 (4.37%) Red Hat
11 31 (4.37%) SolarWinds
12 27 (3.80%) McAfee
13 25 (3.52%) NetApp
13 25 (3.52%) Veeam
14 24 (3.38%) Juniper
15 21 (2.96%) Fortinet
16 18 (2.54%) Zscaler
17 17 (2.39%) Dell
18 16 (2.25%) Oracle