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 13 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 144 126 113
Rank change year-on-year -18 -13 +24
Contract jobs citing DNS 728 717 989
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.01% 2.01% 2.17%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 18.45% 16.20% 15.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 448 437 630
10th Percentile £213 £223 £225
25th Percentile £384 £330 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £511 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +7.63% -5.00% -4.31%
75th Percentile £600 £588 £600
90th Percentile £691 £730 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £425 £500
% change year-on-year +11.76% -15.00% +6.04%
Number of hourly rates quoted 34 10 23
10th Percentile £15.50 £17.88 £24.60
25th Percentile £29.00 £21.71 £31.25
Median hourly rate £46.86 £23.59 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +98.64% -57.11% +91.30%
75th Percentile £78.75 £28.83 £63.50
90th Percentile £88.54 £39.20 £76.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £46.86 £23.35 £55.00
% change year-on-year +100.69% -57.55% +19.29%

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 3,946 4,427 6,289
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.88% 12.40% 13.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,569 2,561 3,890
10th Percentile £206 £220 £211
25th Percentile £356 £370 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £584 £600 £613
90th Percentile £675 £685 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -5.26% - +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 186 165 349
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.95 £17.72
25th Percentile £20.04 £22.50 £22.75
Median hourly rate £33.39 £41.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -18.57% -25.45% +25.00%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.98
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £76.13
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £48.03 £56.49
% change year-on-year -11.51% -14.98% +25.53%

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 13 December 2025.

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 13 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for DNS in the UK

DNS
Top 17 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 13 December 2025. 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 +4 655 £525 +10.53% 488
UK excluding London -16 428 £475 +11.76% 418
London +10 242 £534 +1.67% 125
Work from Home -38 182 £500 - 164
Midlands +16 123 £414 +10.27% 48
North of England -20 122 £475 +11.76% 94
West Midlands +32 117 £401 -5.65% 25
South East -12 99 £500 +6.67% 161
North West +12 83 £475 - 52
South West -13 59 £575 +36.90% 43
Yorkshire -31 47 £464 +48.32% 34
East of England -8 40 £363 +31.82% 57
Scotland -28 18 £450 +1.18% 25
North East -10 6 £575 +283.33% 11
East Midlands -33 6 £450 +20.00% 23
Wales -5 3 £550 +83.33% 6
Channel Islands - 1 £440 -

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 89 (12.23%) Microsoft Exchange
2 73 (10.03%) SharePoint
3 35 (4.81%) Skype for Business
4 31 (4.26%) Confluence
5 15 (2.06%) Exchange Server 2010
6 14 (1.92%) SharePoint Server
7 12 (1.65%) OpenStack
8 11 (1.51%) Exchange Server 2013
8 11 (1.51%) nginx
9 10 (1.37%) Exchange Server 2003
9 10 (1.37%) Exchange Server 2007
9 10 (1.37%) IIS
9 10 (1.37%) Office Communications Server
10 6 (0.82%) Apache
11 3 (0.41%) Tomcat
12 2 (0.27%) Apache Spark
12 2 (0.27%) Cloud Foundry
12 2 (0.27%) Oracle HTTP Server
12 2 (0.27%) WebLogic
12 2 (0.27%) WordPress
Applications
1 58 (7.97%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (1.37%) Mozilla Thunderbird
2 10 (1.37%) MS Visio
3 4 (0.55%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (0.41%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (0.27%) Windchill
6 1 (0.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.14%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (0.27%) Remedy ITSM
1 2 (0.27%) SystmOne
1 2 (0.27%) 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
1 211 (28.98%) Azure
2 190 (26.10%) AWS
3 146 (20.05%) Microsoft 365
4 85 (11.68%) Entra ID
5 74 (10.16%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 57 (7.83%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 57 (7.83%) Amazon EC2
7 56 (7.69%) Amazon S3
8 42 (5.77%) Amazon ELB
9 41 (5.63%) GitHub
10 38 (5.22%) GCP
11 33 (4.53%) IaaS
11 33 (4.53%) SaaS
12 31 (4.26%) Amazon ECS
13 28 (3.85%) AWS CloudFormation
14 24 (3.30%) AWS KMS
15 23 (3.16%) Serverless
16 21 (2.88%) AWS Lambda
16 21 (2.88%) Route 53
17 18 (2.47%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 329 (45.19%) DHCP
2 272 (37.36%) Firewall
3 231 (31.73%) TCP/IP
4 176 (24.18%) VPN
5 103 (14.15%) Network Security
6 96 (13.19%) SSL
7 85 (11.68%) HTTP
8 84 (11.54%) WAN
9 76 (10.44%) VLAN
10 69 (9.48%) LAN
11 58 (7.97%) Wireless
12 49 (6.73%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
13 46 (6.32%) SMTP
14 42 (5.77%) BGP
15 40 (5.49%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
16 38 (5.22%) Wi-Fi
17 35 (4.81%) Wireshark
18 34 (4.67%) FTP
19 33 (4.53%) DMZ
19 33 (4.53%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (4.81%) Amazon RDS
2 21 (2.88%) SQL Server
3 19 (2.61%) PostgreSQL
4 15 (2.06%) Amazon Aurora
5 8 (1.10%) MongoDB
6 6 (0.82%) BigQuery
6 6 (0.82%) Data Hub
7 4 (0.55%) Apache Cassandra
7 4 (0.55%) Big Data
7 4 (0.55%) Elasticsearch
7 4 (0.55%) MySQL
8 3 (0.41%) DynamoDB
8 3 (0.41%) Redis
8 3 (0.41%) Relational Database
9 2 (0.27%) Delta Lake
9 2 (0.27%) Geospatial Data
9 2 (0.27%) GIS
9 2 (0.27%) NoSQL
9 2 (0.27%) Parquet
9 2 (0.27%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 91 (12.50%) Jenkins
2 82 (11.26%) Git
3 58 (7.97%) JIRA
4 48 (6.59%) GitLab
5 20 (2.75%) Vagrant
6 17 (2.34%) Fiddler
7 7 (0.96%) TeamCity
8 5 (0.69%) Subversion
8 5 (0.69%) Visual Studio Code
9 4 (0.55%) Terragrunt
10 3 (0.41%) Browser DevTools
10 3 (0.41%) Vite
10 3 (0.41%) webpack
11 2 (0.27%) MLflow
11 2 (0.27%) Oracle APEX
11 2 (0.27%) Poetry
11 2 (0.27%) PyCharm
11 2 (0.27%) SonarQube
12 1 (0.14%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 1 (0.14%) MSI
General
1 224 (30.77%) Social Skills
2 103 (14.15%) Analytical Skills
3 84 (11.54%) Public Sector
4 59 (8.10%) Finance
5 47 (6.46%) Banking
6 40 (5.49%) Documentation Skills
7 37 (5.08%) Investment Banking
8 25 (3.43%) Telecoms
9 19 (2.61%) Presentation Skills
10 18 (2.47%) Legal
11 11 (1.51%) Organisational Skills
12 10 (1.37%) Manufacturing
13 9 (1.24%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 9 (1.24%) Military
14 8 (1.10%) Influencing Skills
14 8 (1.10%) Law
15 7 (0.96%) Aerospace
16 6 (0.82%) Marketing
17 4 (0.55%) Local Government
18 3 (0.41%) Retail
Job Titles
1 88 (12.09%) Network Engineer
2 86 (11.81%) Support Engineer
3 73 (10.03%) Senior
4 70 (9.62%) Architect
5 67 (9.20%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 61 (8.38%) Analyst
7 54 (7.42%) DevOps Engineer
8 44 (6.04%) Platform Engineer
9 40 (5.49%) IT Support
10 35 (4.81%) AWS Engineer
11 33 (4.53%) Administrator
11 33 (4.53%) Security Engineer
12 26 (3.57%) Cloud Platform Engineer
12 26 (3.57%) Consultant
13 25 (3.43%) Operations Engineer
13 25 (3.43%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
14 24 (3.30%) AWS DevOps
14 24 (3.30%) AWS DevOps Engineer
15 23 (3.16%) IT Engineer
16 22 (3.02%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (5.91%) LDAP
2 22 (3.02%) SAML
3 17 (2.34%) OAuth
4 15 (2.06%) 802.1X
4 15 (2.06%) OpenID
5 14 (1.92%) OAuth2
5 14 (1.92%) REST
6 12 (1.65%) AngularJS
6 12 (1.65%) Elastic Stack
6 12 (1.65%) SOAP
7 9 (1.24%) Middleware
8 8 (1.10%) Kafka
8 8 (1.10%) React
8 8 (1.10%) YAML
9 7 (0.96%) cloud-init
9 7 (0.96%) Keycloak
10 6 (0.82%) CSS
10 6 (0.82%) HTML
10 6 (0.82%) JSON
11 5 (0.69%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 62 (8.52%) Replication
2 61 (8.38%) Data Centre
3 58 (7.97%) PKI
4 50 (6.87%) Management Information System
5 29 (3.98%) Onboarding
6 22 (3.02%) Analytical Mindset
7 21 (2.88%) Enterprise Software
8 19 (2.61%) Hybrid Cloud
9 15 (2.06%) Video Conferencing
10 12 (1.65%) Cloud Native
11 11 (1.51%) Operational Technology
11 11 (1.51%) Security Operations Centre
12 10 (1.37%) Cyberattack
12 10 (1.37%) Private Cloud
12 10 (1.37%) SCADA
12 10 (1.37%) Security Posture
12 10 (1.37%) Self-Motivation
13 9 (1.24%) Cyber Threat
13 9 (1.24%) Virtual Team
14 8 (1.10%) CSOC
Operating Systems
1 344 (47.25%) Windows
2 167 (22.94%) Linux
3 146 (20.05%) Windows Server
4 64 (8.79%) Windows 10
5 32 (4.40%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 32 (4.40%) VMS
6 29 (3.98%) Unix
7 25 (3.43%) Windows Server 2016
8 24 (3.30%) Windows Server 2019
9 23 (3.16%) Amazon Linux
10 20 (2.75%) Windows Server 2012
11 19 (2.61%) Ubuntu
12 18 (2.47%) Android
12 18 (2.47%) CentOS
12 18 (2.47%) Mac OS
13 12 (1.65%) Windows Server 2003
14 11 (1.51%) Apple iOS
14 11 (1.51%) Windows 7
15 5 (0.69%) Solaris
16 2 (0.27%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 154 (21.15%) Problem-Solving
2 128 (17.58%) CI/CD
3 126 (17.31%) DevOps
3 126 (17.31%) ITIL
4 103 (14.15%) Load Balancing
5 101 (13.87%) Infrastructure as Code
6 94 (12.91%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 82 (11.26%) Change Management
8 79 (10.85%) Migration
9 76 (10.44%) High Availability
10 67 (9.20%) Cybersecurity
11 63 (8.65%) Agile
12 60 (8.24%) Service Management
13 57 (7.83%) Platform Engineering
14 54 (7.42%) Continuous Improvement
14 54 (7.42%) Incident Response
15 53 (7.28%) Containerisation
15 53 (7.28%) Root Cause Analysis
16 49 (6.73%) Disaster Recovery
16 49 (6.73%) Patch Management
Programming Languages
1 204 (28.02%) PowerShell
2 181 (24.86%) Python
3 94 (12.91%) Bash
4 48 (6.59%) SQL
5 29 (3.98%) Perl
6 22 (3.02%) Groovy
7 20 (2.75%) Java
8 14 (1.92%) Go
9 13 (1.79%) Shell Script
10 12 (1.65%) Bicep
11 11 (1.51%) JavaScript
12 9 (1.24%) Ruby
13 8 (1.10%) VBScript
14 7 (0.96%) Kusto Query Language
14 7 (0.96%) Lisp
15 6 (0.82%) C++
15 6 (0.82%) VB
16 4 (0.55%) TypeScript
17 3 (0.41%) Search Processing Language
17 3 (0.41%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 259 (35.58%) Security Cleared
2 188 (25.82%) SC Cleared
3 75 (10.30%) DV Cleared
4 74 (10.16%) Degree
5 69 (9.48%) Cisco Certification
6 61 (8.38%) Microsoft Certification
7 50 (6.87%) CCNP
8 39 (5.36%) Azure Certification
9 31 (4.26%) CCNA
10 30 (4.12%) AWS Certification
11 22 (3.02%) CISSP
12 19 (2.61%) Computer Science Degree
13 14 (1.92%) CCIE
13 14 (1.92%) Network+ Certification
14 13 (1.79%) MCSE
15 12 (1.65%) CompTIA Security+
16 11 (1.51%) Server+ Certification
16 11 (1.51%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
17 10 (1.37%) BPSS Clearance
17 10 (1.37%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (3.85%) GDPR
2 19 (2.61%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 15 (2.06%) NIST
4 14 (1.92%) SLA
5 11 (1.51%) NCSC
6 10 (1.37%) Cyber Essentials
6 10 (1.37%) PCI DSS
7 9 (1.24%) Accessibility
8 5 (0.69%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 4 (0.55%) Data Quality
9 4 (0.55%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 3 (0.41%) QA
10 3 (0.41%) WCAG
11 2 (0.27%) Disclosure Scotland
11 2 (0.27%) JSP 440
11 2 (0.27%) PMO
12 1 (0.14%) COBIT
12 1 (0.14%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 1 (0.14%) Government Security Classifications
12 1 (0.14%) SOC 2
System Software
1 314 (43.13%) Active Directory
2 179 (24.59%) VMware Infrastructure
3 91 (12.50%) Docker
4 51 (7.01%) Hyper-V
5 40 (5.49%) VMware NSX
6 30 (4.12%) Virtual Machines
6 30 (4.12%) vSphere
7 22 (3.02%) Firmware
8 21 (2.88%) DFS Replication
8 21 (2.88%) VMware ESXi
9 16 (2.20%) Dovecot
9 16 (2.20%) Postfix
10 14 (1.92%) Terminal Services
11 10 (1.37%) Brightmail
11 10 (1.37%) ISA Server
11 10 (1.37%) Squid
11 10 (1.37%) Virtual Servers
12 9 (1.24%) Microsoft App-V
13 8 (1.10%) NFS
13 8 (1.10%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 146 (20.05%) Terraform
2 116 (15.93%) Ansible
3 72 (9.89%) SCCM
4 64 (8.79%) Microsoft Intune
5 62 (8.52%) Kubernetes
6 45 (6.18%) Grafana
6 45 (6.18%) Single Sign-On
7 43 (5.91%) vCenter Server
8 40 (5.49%) Prometheus
9 31 (4.26%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 21 (2.88%) WSUS
11 17 (2.34%) Argo
11 17 (2.34%) Nessus
12 14 (1.92%) FortiGate
12 14 (1.92%) Packer
12 14 (1.92%) Progress Chef
13 13 (1.79%) Microsoft Clustering
13 13 (1.79%) Proxmox
14 12 (1.65%) Puppet
15 9 (1.24%) SCOM
Vendors
1 264 (36.26%) Microsoft
2 213 (29.26%) VMware
3 117 (16.07%) Cisco
4 113 (15.52%) F5
5 85 (11.68%) ServiceNow
6 59 (8.10%) Palo Alto
7 56 (7.69%) CheckPoint
8 45 (6.18%) Splunk
9 40 (5.49%) Citrix
10 38 (5.22%) Red Hat
11 33 (4.53%) Blue Coat
12 32 (4.40%) SolarWinds
13 27 (3.71%) Juniper
14 25 (3.43%) Veeam
15 24 (3.30%) Dell
16 22 (3.02%) Google
17 21 (2.88%) Fortinet
17 21 (2.88%) McAfee
17 21 (2.88%) NetApp
18 20 (2.75%) Meraki