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

6 months to
29 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 146 130 160
Rank change year-on-year -16 +30 -24
Contract jobs citing DNS 997 717 607
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.90% 2.18% 1.52%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 20.20% 18.17% 12.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 614 477 422
10th Percentile £296 £254 £250
25th Percentile £401 £400 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £488
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +7.69% -2.50%
75th Percentile £580 £600 £588
90th Percentile £639 £653 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £525 £500
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% +4.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 46 32 16
10th Percentile £20.88 £29.00 £19.25
25th Percentile £27.25 £37.06 £22.85
Median hourly rate £40.10 £57.50 £24.59
Median % change year-on-year -30.26% +133.83% -38.53%
75th Percentile £74.00 £82.33 £42.19
90th Percentile £91.91 £89.17 £61.58
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.71 £65.00 £47.50
% change year-on-year -29.67% +36.84% +41.79%

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 4,935 3,947 4,876
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.39% 12.03% 12.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,949 2,411 2,952
10th Percentile £250 £235 £213
25th Percentile £400 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £608
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.16% -5.00% +8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 338 196 342
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.34 £25.15 £18.01
Median hourly rate £26.22 £48.75 £45.44
Median % change year-on-year -46.22% +7.28% -9.12%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £83.50 £74.88
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.66 £44.00 £51.50
% change year-on-year -39.41% -14.56% -10.30%

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 29 July 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 29 July 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 29 July 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 -14 901 £500 -4.76% 344
UK excluding London -12 620 £500 -4.76% 269
London -35 310 £475 -6.86% 129
North of England +13 228 £450 -10.00% 55
Work from Home -40 225 £510 -2.86% 128
South East +9 191 £538 -2.27% 87
North West +29 150 £450 -7.69% 31
Midlands -14 111 £450 -5.26% 47
West Midlands -21 92 £450 -5.26% 30
South West -2 80 £500 -13.04% 40
Yorkshire -16 72 £468 -15.00% 21
Scotland +6 36 £513 +13.89% 14
East of England -54 29 £450 -18.18% 33
East Midlands -5 17 £413 -25.00% 17
Wales -12 9 £500 +15.34% 3
North East -49 6 £413 +19.57% 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 95 (9.53%) Microsoft Exchange
2 79 (7.92%) SharePoint
3 22 (2.21%) Confluence
4 17 (1.71%) Apache
5 15 (1.50%) IIS
6 14 (1.40%) nginx
7 9 (0.90%) Tomcat
8 5 (0.50%) WebSphere
9 4 (0.40%) Exchange Server 2010
10 2 (0.20%) Exchange Server 2013
10 2 (0.20%) IBM HTTP Server
10 2 (0.20%) Oracle HTTP Server
10 2 (0.20%) WebSphere Application Server
10 2 (0.20%) WebSphere Portal
11 1 (0.10%) SharePoint Server
11 1 (0.10%) Traefik
Applications
1 19 (1.91%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (1.10%) MS Visio
3 5 (0.50%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (0.30%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.20%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 2 (0.20%) Chatbot
5 2 (0.20%) Houdini
5 2 (0.20%) NUKE
6 1 (0.10%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 10 (1.00%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.10%) Cloudability
Cloud Services
1 377 (37.81%) Azure
2 197 (19.76%) AWS
3 162 (16.25%) Microsoft 365
4 157 (15.75%) Entra ID
5 109 (10.93%) GCP
6 73 (7.32%) GitHub
7 56 (5.62%) IaaS
8 51 (5.12%) OneDrive
9 42 (4.21%) PaaS
10 41 (4.11%) SaaS
11 39 (3.91%) Azure DevOps
12 36 (3.61%) Azure Monitor
13 30 (3.01%) OpenShift
14 28 (2.81%) GitHub Actions
15 27 (2.71%) AWS CloudFormation
16 26 (2.61%) Google Kubernetes Engine
16 26 (2.61%) Serverless
17 25 (2.51%) Akamai
18 24 (2.41%) Amazon EC2
19 23 (2.31%) Azure ExpressRoute
Communications & Networking
1 444 (44.53%) DHCP
2 355 (35.61%) Firewall
3 279 (27.98%) TCP/IP
4 269 (26.98%) VPN
5 135 (13.54%) WAN
6 123 (12.34%) Network Security
7 120 (12.04%) VLAN
8 116 (11.63%) LAN
9 103 (10.33%) SSL
10 102 (10.23%) BGP
11 83 (8.32%) BIG-IP
12 72 (7.22%) HTTP
13 67 (6.72%) Wi-Fi
13 67 (6.72%) Wireless
14 62 (6.22%) SAN
15 57 (5.72%) OSPF
16 54 (5.42%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
17 42 (4.21%) DMZ
18 39 (3.91%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
19 36 (3.61%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 49 (4.91%) SQL Server
2 15 (1.50%) PostgreSQL
3 13 (1.30%) Elasticsearch
4 12 (1.20%) Azure SQL Database
5 10 (1.00%) Power BI
6 8 (0.80%) Amazon RDS
7 6 (0.60%) Data Lake
7 6 (0.60%) MongoDB
7 6 (0.60%) MySQL
8 4 (0.40%) Db2
8 4 (0.40%) MariaDB
9 3 (0.30%) Big Data
10 2 (0.20%) NoSQL
10 2 (0.20%) SQLPlus
11 1 (0.10%) Cloud Spanner
11 1 (0.10%) DynamoDB
11 1 (0.10%) KDB
11 1 (0.10%) Power Query
11 1 (0.10%) Redis
11 1 (0.10%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 74 (7.42%) JIRA
2 55 (5.52%) Jenkins
3 38 (3.81%) Git
4 22 (2.21%) GitLab
5 19 (1.91%) Fiddler
6 10 (1.00%) Bitbucket
6 10 (1.00%) Browser DevTools
7 8 (0.80%) Chocolatey
8 4 (0.40%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 4 (0.40%) Sonatype Nexus
9 2 (0.20%) Artifactory
9 2 (0.20%) Introscope
9 2 (0.20%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.20%) Spinnaker
10 1 (0.10%) MSI
10 1 (0.10%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 1 (0.10%) Visual Studio
General
1 242 (24.27%) Social Skills
2 109 (10.93%) Analytical Skills
3 92 (9.23%) Finance
4 80 (8.02%) Public Sector
5 71 (7.12%) Banking
6 53 (5.32%) Documentation Skills
7 34 (3.41%) Investment Banking
8 29 (2.91%) Telecoms
9 23 (2.31%) Military
10 21 (2.11%) Legal
11 13 (1.30%) Organisational Skills
12 11 (1.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 11 (1.10%) Local Government
13 10 (1.00%) Police
14 6 (0.60%) Influencing Skills
15 5 (0.50%) Law
15 5 (0.50%) Publishing
16 4 (0.40%) Italian Language
16 4 (0.40%) Manufacturing
16 4 (0.40%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 186 (18.66%) Network Engineer
2 168 (16.85%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 111 (11.13%) Senior
4 98 (9.83%) Architect
5 94 (9.43%) Support Engineer
6 75 (7.52%) Cloud Engineer
7 64 (6.42%) Security Engineer
8 52 (5.22%) Analyst
8 52 (5.22%) IT Support
9 50 (5.02%) IT Engineer
10 42 (4.21%) Azure Engineer
10 42 (4.21%) Network Security Engineer
11 41 (4.11%) Web Engineer
12 39 (3.91%) Administrator
12 39 (3.91%) DevOps Engineer
13 38 (3.81%) Cisco Engineer
14 36 (3.61%) Cisco Network Engineer
15 34 (3.41%) Platform Engineer
16 33 (3.31%) IT Support Engineer
16 33 (3.31%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 51 (5.12%) 802.1X
2 37 (3.71%) SAML
3 29 (2.91%) LDAP
4 24 (2.41%) ARM Templates
4 24 (2.41%) OpenID
5 23 (2.31%) OAuth
6 19 (1.91%) OpenTelemetry
7 18 (1.81%) JSON
8 10 (1.00%) REST
8 10 (1.00%) YAML
9 8 (0.80%) Kafka
10 7 (0.70%) Middleware
11 6 (0.60%) OAuth2
12 5 (0.50%) CSS
13 4 (0.40%) .NET
13 4 (0.40%) Microsoft Graph
13 4 (0.40%) React
13 4 (0.40%) Web Services
14 3 (0.30%) eBPF
14 3 (0.30%) Redfish
Miscellaneous
1 131 (13.14%) Data Centre
2 108 (10.83%) PKI
3 62 (6.22%) Onboarding
4 61 (6.12%) Hybrid Cloud
5 59 (5.92%) Cloud Native
6 47 (4.71%) Management Information System
7 44 (4.41%) Clustering
7 44 (4.41%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 30 (3.01%) Public Cloud
9 28 (2.81%) Self-Motivation
10 22 (2.21%) Replication
11 19 (1.91%) Enterprise Cloud
11 19 (1.91%) Security Posture
12 15 (1.50%) Cyber Threat
13 14 (1.40%) Enterprise Software
13 14 (1.40%) Linux Command Line
14 13 (1.30%) Distributed Systems
14 13 (1.30%) Legacy Systems
15 11 (1.10%) Product Ownership
16 10 (1.00%) Driving Licence
Operating Systems
1 446 (44.73%) Windows
2 234 (23.47%) Windows Server
3 185 (18.56%) Linux
4 48 (4.81%) Windows 10
5 45 (4.51%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 40 (4.01%) Windows Server 2019
7 33 (3.31%) Mac OS
8 27 (2.71%) Unix
9 22 (2.21%) Windows Server 2012
10 18 (1.81%) Ubuntu
11 17 (1.71%) VMS
12 15 (1.50%) Apple iOS
12 15 (1.50%) CentOS
13 14 (1.40%) Windows Server 2016
14 13 (1.30%) Android
15 7 (0.70%) Rocky
16 5 (0.50%) Windows 7
16 5 (0.50%) Windows Server 2003
16 5 (0.50%) Windows Server 2008
17 3 (0.30%) AIX
Processes & Methodologies
1 223 (22.37%) Infrastructure Engineering
1 223 (22.37%) Problem-Solving
2 177 (17.75%) Load Balancing
3 175 (17.55%) ITIL
4 161 (16.15%) Migration
5 159 (15.95%) Infrastructure as Code
6 151 (15.15%) DevOps
7 145 (14.54%) CI/CD
8 141 (14.14%) High Availability
9 110 (11.03%) ITSM
10 97 (9.73%) Observability
11 88 (8.83%) Continuous Improvement
12 87 (8.73%) Project Delivery
13 84 (8.43%) Agile
14 83 (8.32%) Cybersecurity
15 79 (7.92%) Disaster Recovery
15 79 (7.92%) Identity Access Management
16 67 (6.72%) Containerisation
16 67 (6.72%) Platform Engineering
17 66 (6.62%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 210 (21.06%) PowerShell
2 193 (19.36%) Python
3 137 (13.74%) Bash
4 56 (5.62%) SQL
5 41 (4.11%) Bicep
6 24 (2.41%) JavaScript
7 12 (1.20%) Go
8 10 (1.00%) ActionScript
8 10 (1.00%) Shell Script
9 9 (0.90%) Java
9 9 (0.90%) VBA
10 8 (0.80%) Perl
11 5 (0.50%) C
11 5 (0.50%) Groovy
11 5 (0.50%) Ruby
12 4 (0.40%) TypeScript
13 3 (0.30%) Kusto Query Language
13 3 (0.30%) Lisp
14 2 (0.20%) Jython
14 2 (0.20%) Objective-C
Qualifications
1 359 (36.01%) Security Cleared
2 203 (20.36%) SC Cleared
3 149 (14.94%) DV Cleared
4 107 (10.73%) Cisco Certification
5 75 (7.52%) CCNP
6 72 (7.22%) Degree
7 53 (5.32%) CCNA
8 47 (4.71%) Microsoft Certification
9 41 (4.11%) Azure Certification
10 31 (3.11%) Network+ Certification
11 18 (1.81%) BPSS Clearance
11 18 (1.81%) CCIE
12 17 (1.71%) MCSE
12 17 (1.71%) Server+ Certification
13 16 (1.60%) CISSP
14 14 (1.40%) AWS Certification
14 14 (1.40%) CompTIA Security+
15 13 (1.30%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
16 12 (1.20%) MCSA
17 11 (1.10%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (3.71%) SLA
2 29 (2.91%) NIST
3 17 (1.71%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 15 (1.50%) NCSC
5 8 (0.80%) GDPR
5 8 (0.80%) QA
6 5 (0.50%) Cyber Essentials
6 5 (0.50%) Disclosure Scotland
6 5 (0.50%) NIST 800
7 4 (0.40%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 3 (0.30%) JSP 440
9 2 (0.20%) Government Security Classifications
9 2 (0.20%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.10%) COBIT
10 1 (0.10%) Data Quality
10 1 (0.10%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 405 (40.62%) Active Directory
2 238 (23.87%) VMware Infrastructure
3 113 (11.33%) Hyper-V
4 69 (6.92%) vSphere
5 66 (6.62%) VMware ESXi
6 65 (6.52%) VMware NSX
7 46 (4.61%) Docker
8 44 (4.41%) Virtual Machines
9 37 (3.71%) Virtual Desktop
10 25 (2.51%) Firmware
11 22 (2.21%) NFS
12 13 (1.30%) vCloud
13 10 (1.00%) Microsoft App-V
13 10 (1.00%) Squid
14 9 (0.90%) BitLocker
14 9 (0.90%) Postfix
15 8 (0.80%) VMware Workstation
16 7 (0.70%) Virtual Servers
17 6 (0.60%) Varnish
18 5 (0.50%) Ceph
Systems Management
1 195 (19.56%) Terraform
2 147 (14.74%) Ansible
3 115 (11.53%) Kubernetes
4 94 (9.43%) Microsoft Intune
5 62 (6.22%) vCenter Server
6 55 (5.52%) SCCM
6 55 (5.52%) Single Sign-On
7 53 (5.32%) Grafana
8 44 (4.41%) FortiGate
9 38 (3.81%) Prometheus
10 28 (2.81%) WSUS
11 27 (2.71%) SCOM
12 25 (2.51%) Argo
13 15 (1.50%) Puppet
14 14 (1.40%) Nessus
15 13 (1.30%) Jamf Pro
16 12 (1.20%) VxRail
17 11 (1.10%) NetBackup
17 11 (1.10%) vMotion
18 10 (1.00%) HAProxy
Vendors
1 334 (33.50%) Microsoft
2 290 (29.09%) VMware
3 194 (19.46%) Cisco
4 149 (14.94%) F5
5 87 (8.73%) ServiceNow
6 74 (7.42%) Splunk
7 66 (6.62%) Infoblox
8 63 (6.32%) Citrix
8 63 (6.32%) Google
9 62 (6.22%) SolarWinds
10 58 (5.82%) Juniper
11 50 (5.02%) Red Hat
12 45 (4.51%) Palo Alto
13 36 (3.61%) NetApp
14 33 (3.31%) Dynatrace
15 30 (3.01%) Zscaler
16 29 (2.91%) Blue Coat
17 27 (2.71%) Fortinet
18 25 (2.51%) CheckPoint
19 24 (2.41%) McAfee