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

6 months to
5 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 145 115 120
Rank change year-on-year -30 +5 +4
Contract jobs citing DNS 765 720 895
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.95% 2.31% 2.01%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 18.69% 17.77% 14.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 488 457 577
10th Percentile £213 £225 £203
25th Percentile £400 £353 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% +5.26% -9.52%
75th Percentile £600 £623 £600
90th Percentile £675 £750 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £450 £500
% change year-on-year +11.11% -10.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 8 27
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.64 £23.85
25th Percentile £19.19 £20.56 £31.63
Median hourly rate £26.33 £23.59 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +11.59% -41.03% -
75th Percentile £72.51 £27.31 £55.70
90th Percentile £77.50 £41.60 £63.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £20.75 £43.75
% change year-on-year +32.53% -52.57% -5.11%

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 4,093 4,052 6,073
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.45% 13.01% 13.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,697 2,371 3,657
10th Percentile £204 £213 £206
25th Percentile £356 £360 £356
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £493
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +1.52% -4.83%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £680 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £452 £470 £475
% change year-on-year -3.83% -1.05% +2.15%
Number of hourly rates quoted 166 137 407
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.93 £15.43
25th Percentile £18.90 £21.46 £21.25
Median hourly rate £32.00 £35.00 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -8.57% -30.00% +150.00%
75th Percentile £65.00 £53.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £69.25 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.94 £31.79 £55.00
% change year-on-year +31.93% -42.20% +177.08%

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 February 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 February 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 February 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 -13 685 £525 +7.69% 355
UK excluding London -25 485 £500 +11.11% 322
London -2 228 £538 +2.38% 84
Work from Home -49 178 £500 -4.76% 121
North of England -20 164 £450 +5.88% 71
South East -6 124 £515 +9.87% 91
Midlands +9 111 £395 -12.22% 44
West Midlands +28 107 £400 +3.90% 30
North West 0 105 £575 +21.05% 34
South West -23 65 £575 +5.12% 44
Yorkshire -27 63 £447 +49.00% 30
East of England -19 38 £475 +72.73% 55
Scotland -1 33 £454 +0.89% 20
North East -21 7 £247 -24.15% 10
East Midlands -33 4 £275 -45.54% 14
Wales -8 3 £550 +33.33% 6

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 94 (12.29%) Microsoft Exchange
2 62 (8.10%) SharePoint
3 31 (4.05%) Skype for Business
4 21 (2.75%) Confluence
5 15 (1.96%) nginx
6 8 (1.05%) IIS
7 6 (0.78%) SharePoint Server
8 5 (0.65%) Apache
8 5 (0.65%) Exchange Server 2010
9 4 (0.52%) Exchange Server 2013
9 4 (0.52%) OpenStack
10 2 (0.26%) Cloud Foundry
10 2 (0.26%) Exchange Server 2003
10 2 (0.26%) Exchange Server 2007
10 2 (0.26%) Office Communications Server
10 2 (0.26%) Oracle HTTP Server
10 2 (0.26%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.26%) WebLogic
10 2 (0.26%) WordPress
Applications
1 42 (5.49%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (1.96%) MS Visio
3 7 (0.92%) Mozilla Thunderbird
4 2 (0.26%) Microsoft Excel
4 2 (0.26%) Spreadsheet
4 2 (0.26%) Windchill
5 1 (0.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (0.26%) Remedy ITSM
1 2 (0.26%) SystmOne
1 2 (0.26%) Teamcenter
2 1 (0.13%) Cloudability
Cloud Services
1 271 (35.42%) Azure
2 172 (22.48%) AWS
3 150 (19.61%) Microsoft 365
4 126 (16.47%) Entra ID
5 56 (7.32%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 48 (6.27%) GitHub
7 47 (6.14%) Amazon S3
7 47 (6.14%) GCP
8 42 (5.49%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 41 (5.36%) Amazon EC2
10 36 (4.71%) IaaS
11 33 (4.31%) AWS CloudFormation
12 29 (3.79%) Amazon ECS
12 29 (3.79%) Route 53
12 29 (3.79%) Serverless
13 27 (3.53%) Amazon ELB
13 27 (3.53%) AWS Lambda
14 25 (3.27%) SaaS
15 21 (2.75%) Amazon EKS
15 21 (2.75%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 345 (45.10%) DHCP
2 244 (31.90%) TCP/IP
3 233 (30.46%) Firewall
4 180 (23.53%) VPN
5 89 (11.63%) WAN
6 86 (11.24%) Network Security
7 85 (11.11%) SSL
8 81 (10.59%) HTTP
9 76 (9.93%) LAN
10 66 (8.63%) VLAN
11 57 (7.45%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
12 49 (6.41%) BIG-IP
13 48 (6.27%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
14 45 (5.88%) Wi-Fi
15 43 (5.62%) BGP
16 42 (5.49%) Wireshark
17 37 (4.84%) DMZ
18 36 (4.71%) Kerberos
19 33 (4.31%) Skype
20 32 (4.18%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (3.14%) Amazon RDS
2 22 (2.88%) SQL Server
3 21 (2.75%) PostgreSQL
4 14 (1.83%) Elasticsearch
5 13 (1.70%) Amazon Aurora
6 8 (1.05%) MongoDB
7 7 (0.92%) DynamoDB
7 7 (0.92%) MySQL
7 7 (0.92%) Redis
8 6 (0.78%) Data Hub
9 4 (0.52%) DocumentDB
9 4 (0.52%) NoSQL
9 4 (0.52%) Relational Database
10 3 (0.39%) BigQuery
11 2 (0.26%) Power BI
12 1 (0.13%) Apache Cassandra
12 1 (0.13%) CouchDB
12 1 (0.13%) Electronic Patient Records
12 1 (0.13%) Geospatial Data
12 1 (0.13%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 69 (9.02%) Jenkins
2 56 (7.32%) Git
3 46 (6.01%) JIRA
4 43 (5.62%) GitLab
5 28 (3.66%) Fiddler
6 10 (1.31%) Vagrant
7 8 (1.05%) Terragrunt
8 6 (0.78%) Bitbucket
9 5 (0.65%) SonarQube
10 4 (0.52%) CircleCI
10 4 (0.52%) Subversion
11 3 (0.39%) TeamCity
12 2 (0.26%) Sonatype Nexus
13 1 (0.13%) Atlassian Bamboo
13 1 (0.13%) Browser DevTools
13 1 (0.13%) Chocolatey
13 1 (0.13%) MSI
13 1 (0.13%) Travis CI
13 1 (0.13%) Vite
13 1 (0.13%) webpack
General
1 230 (30.07%) Social Skills
2 107 (13.99%) Analytical Skills
3 63 (8.24%) Public Sector
4 59 (7.71%) Banking
5 46 (6.01%) Documentation Skills
5 46 (6.01%) Finance
6 44 (5.75%) Investment Banking
7 18 (2.35%) Telecoms
8 17 (2.22%) Legal
9 13 (1.70%) Presentation Skills
10 9 (1.18%) Military
11 8 (1.05%) Organisational Skills
12 7 (0.92%) Influencing Skills
13 5 (0.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 5 (0.65%) Law
14 4 (0.52%) Aerospace
14 4 (0.52%) Financial Institution
14 4 (0.52%) Marketing
15 3 (0.39%) Local Government
15 3 (0.39%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 102 (13.33%) Network Engineer
2 101 (13.20%) Architect
3 78 (10.20%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 77 (10.07%) Analyst
5 64 (8.37%) Support Engineer
6 59 (7.71%) Senior
7 45 (5.88%) IT Support
8 42 (5.49%) Platform Engineer
9 37 (4.84%) DevOps Engineer
9 37 (4.84%) Security Engineer
10 31 (4.05%) Lead
11 30 (3.92%) Web Engineer
12 26 (3.40%) 2nd Line Support
12 26 (3.40%) SOC Analyst
13 24 (3.14%) AWS Engineer
14 23 (3.01%) IT Engineer
15 21 (2.75%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
16 20 (2.61%) Operations Engineer
17 19 (2.48%) Cisco Engineer
17 19 (2.48%) Cisco Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 67 (8.76%) LDAP
2 43 (5.62%) SAML
3 37 (4.84%) OAuth
4 28 (3.66%) OpenID
5 20 (2.61%) OAuth2
6 13 (1.70%) REST
7 12 (1.57%) Kafka
7 12 (1.57%) OpenTelemetry
8 10 (1.31%) Elastic Stack
9 7 (0.92%) 802.1X
9 7 (0.92%) JSON
9 7 (0.92%) Middleware
9 7 (0.92%) SOAP
10 6 (0.78%) AWS CDK
11 5 (0.65%) AngularJS
11 5 (0.65%) Microsoft Graph
11 5 (0.65%) React
11 5 (0.65%) RESTful
11 5 (0.65%) Spring Boot
11 5 (0.65%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 63 (8.24%) Replication
2 57 (7.45%) PKI
3 52 (6.80%) Data Centre
4 41 (5.36%) Management Information System
5 31 (4.05%) Onboarding
6 29 (3.79%) Cloud Native
7 26 (3.40%) Security Operations Centre
8 24 (3.14%) Cyberattack
9 23 (3.01%) Enterprise Software
10 22 (2.88%) Analytical Mindset
10 22 (2.88%) Public Cloud
11 17 (2.22%) Hybrid Cloud
12 15 (1.96%) Private Cloud
13 12 (1.57%) Cyber Threat
13 12 (1.57%) Self-Motivation
14 11 (1.44%) NHS
15 9 (1.18%) Clustering
15 9 (1.18%) SCADA
15 9 (1.18%) Video Conferencing
15 9 (1.18%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 374 (48.89%) Windows
2 185 (24.18%) Windows Server
3 147 (19.22%) Linux
4 62 (8.10%) Windows 10
5 36 (4.71%) Windows Server 2019
6 21 (2.75%) Windows Server 2016
7 20 (2.61%) Android
8 19 (2.48%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 19 (2.48%) Unix
8 19 (2.48%) Windows Server 2012
9 15 (1.96%) VMS
10 14 (1.83%) Apple iOS
11 13 (1.70%) Amazon Linux
12 12 (1.57%) Ubuntu
13 11 (1.44%) CentOS
13 11 (1.44%) Mac OS
14 10 (1.31%) Windows 7
15 7 (0.92%) Windows Server 2003
16 4 (0.52%) CatOS
16 4 (0.52%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 183 (23.92%) Problem-Solving
2 136 (17.78%) Load Balancing
3 126 (16.47%) ITIL
4 114 (14.90%) CI/CD
5 109 (14.25%) DevOps
6 100 (13.07%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 96 (12.55%) Migration
8 95 (12.42%) Infrastructure as Code
9 85 (11.11%) High Availability
10 83 (10.85%) Cybersecurity
11 74 (9.67%) Change Management
12 72 (9.41%) Disaster Recovery
13 69 (9.02%) Incident Response
14 65 (8.50%) Service Management
15 60 (7.84%) SIEM
16 59 (7.71%) Root Cause Analysis
17 54 (7.06%) Mentoring
18 53 (6.93%) RBAC
19 51 (6.67%) Containerisation
19 51 (6.67%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 231 (30.20%) PowerShell
2 147 (19.22%) Python
3 68 (8.89%) Bash
4 40 (5.23%) SQL
5 16 (2.09%) Java
6 15 (1.96%) Perl
7 13 (1.70%) Bicep
8 12 (1.57%) Shell Script
8 12 (1.57%) VBScript
9 11 (1.44%) Go
10 10 (1.31%) Groovy
10 10 (1.31%) Ruby
10 10 (1.31%) VB
11 7 (0.92%) Lisp
12 6 (0.78%) Kusto Query Language
13 5 (0.65%) JavaScript
14 4 (0.52%) C++
15 3 (0.39%) C#
15 3 (0.39%) Search Processing Language
15 3 (0.39%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 270 (35.29%) Security Cleared
2 194 (25.36%) SC Cleared
3 89 (11.63%) DV Cleared
4 74 (9.67%) Degree
5 58 (7.58%) Microsoft Certification
6 41 (5.36%) Cisco Certification
7 39 (5.10%) CCNP
8 38 (4.97%) Azure Certification
9 24 (3.14%) AWS Certification
10 22 (2.88%) CompTIA Security+
10 22 (2.88%) Computer Science Degree
11 17 (2.22%) Network+ Certification
12 16 (2.09%) CompTIA CySA+
13 15 (1.96%) CCNA
14 12 (1.57%) CISSP
15 11 (1.44%) Server+ Certification
16 9 (1.18%) ITIL Certification
17 8 (1.05%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
17 8 (1.05%) CCIE
17 8 (1.05%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (4.18%) GDPR
2 23 (3.01%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 22 (2.88%) SLA
4 21 (2.75%) NIST
5 20 (2.61%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 9 (1.18%) NCSC
6 9 (1.18%) PCI DSS
7 8 (1.05%) Cyber Essentials
8 6 (0.78%) Accessibility
8 6 (0.78%) QA
9 3 (0.39%) Data Quality
9 3 (0.39%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 3 (0.39%) PMO
10 2 (0.26%) Disclosure Scotland
10 2 (0.26%) JSP 440
11 1 (0.13%) Actionable Recommendations
11 1 (0.13%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 1 (0.13%) Government Security Classifications
11 1 (0.13%) RMADS
11 1 (0.13%) SOC 2
System Software
1 347 (45.36%) Active Directory
2 194 (25.36%) VMware Infrastructure
3 78 (10.20%) Docker
4 54 (7.06%) Hyper-V
5 51 (6.67%) VMware NSX
6 41 (5.36%) vSphere
7 27 (3.53%) Virtual Machines
8 22 (2.88%) Firmware
9 17 (2.22%) VMware ESXi
10 14 (1.83%) Virtual Desktop
11 13 (1.70%) BitLocker
11 13 (1.70%) DFS Replication
12 12 (1.57%) Squid
13 8 (1.05%) Postfix
14 7 (0.92%) Dovecot
14 7 (0.92%) Virtual Servers
15 6 (0.78%) Microsoft App-V
16 5 (0.65%) Microsoft Virtual Server
16 5 (0.65%) NFS
16 5 (0.65%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 131 (17.12%) Terraform
2 124 (16.21%) Ansible
3 90 (11.76%) Microsoft Intune
4 77 (10.07%) SCCM
5 72 (9.41%) Kubernetes
5 72 (9.41%) Single Sign-On
6 63 (8.24%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 43 (5.62%) vCenter Server
8 36 (4.71%) Grafana
9 25 (3.27%) FortiGate
9 25 (3.27%) Prometheus
10 20 (2.61%) WSUS
11 19 (2.48%) Argo
12 13 (1.70%) SCOM
13 10 (1.31%) Packer
13 10 (1.31%) Proxmox
14 8 (1.05%) Nessus
14 8 (1.05%) Puppet
15 6 (0.78%) Microsoft Clustering
15 6 (0.78%) Nagios
Vendors
1 300 (39.22%) Microsoft
2 235 (30.72%) VMware
3 123 (16.08%) F5
4 103 (13.46%) Cisco
5 84 (10.98%) ServiceNow
6 62 (8.10%) Splunk
7 48 (6.27%) Palo Alto
8 40 (5.23%) Blue Coat
9 35 (4.58%) CheckPoint
10 34 (4.44%) Citrix
11 33 (4.31%) McAfee
12 31 (4.05%) SolarWinds
13 28 (3.66%) Red Hat
14 26 (3.40%) NetApp
15 25 (3.27%) Veeam
16 23 (3.01%) Dell
17 22 (2.88%) Fortinet
18 21 (2.75%) Okta
19 19 (2.48%) Infoblox
19 19 (2.48%) Juniper