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

6 months to
13 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 151 112 113
Rank change year-on-year -39 +1 +19
Contract jobs citing DNS 688 695 913
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.88% 2.22% 2.13%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 17.79% 17.29% 15.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 440 438 590
10th Percentile £213 £223 £210
25th Percentile £396 £350 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £521 £490 £480
Median % change year-on-year +6.43% +2.03% -8.57%
75th Percentile £600 £600 £600
90th Percentile £688 £738 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £439 £500
% change year-on-year +14.03% -12.30% +2.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 9 19
10th Percentile £15.50 £17.26 £24.85
25th Percentile £23.20 £21.25 £31.25
Median hourly rate £55.50 £23.59 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +135.27% -57.11% +64.18%
75th Percentile £75.00 £25.30 £63.50
90th Percentile £87.45 £40.40 £71.60
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £22.50 £58.20
% change year-on-year +188.89% -61.34% +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 3,868 4,020 5,832
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.57% 12.82% 13.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,529 2,349 3,602
10th Percentile £205 £219 £210
25th Percentile £356 £368 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -2.44%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £685 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £470 £475
% change year-on-year -4.26% -1.05% +3.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 168 131 328
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.22 £17.74
25th Percentile £19.00 £21.13 £23.07
Median hourly rate £34.50 £32.50 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year +6.15% -42.47% +125.96%
75th Percentile £65.00 £52.20 £65.98
90th Percentile £75.00 £70.00 £75.08
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £30.04 £60.00
% change year-on-year +41.48% -49.93% +172.73%

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 13 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 13 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 13 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 -24 616 £525 +10.53% 322
UK excluding London -24 431 £500 +14.03% 303
London -26 207 £550 +4.76% 62
Work from Home -49 168 £500 -2.44% 85
North of England -30 126 £460 +11.52% 67
South East +8 116 £500 +8.11% 108
Midlands +15 113 £413 -2.94% 36
West Midlands +35 109 £425 - 18
North West -5 86 £450 -5.26% 32
South West -31 61 £575 +7.28% 36
Yorkshire -29 46 £454 +51.17% 31
East of England -27 29 £363 +31.82% 43
Scotland -15 27 £454 +0.89% 16
North East -16 7 £575 +206.67% 6
East Midlands -31 4 £275 -41.18% 18
Wales -13 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 89 (12.94%) Microsoft Exchange
2 68 (9.88%) SharePoint
3 31 (4.51%) Skype for Business
4 20 (2.91%) Confluence
5 12 (1.74%) nginx
6 11 (1.60%) Exchange Server 2010
7 10 (1.45%) SharePoint Server
8 9 (1.31%) Exchange Server 2013
8 9 (1.31%) IIS
9 6 (0.87%) Exchange Server 2003
9 6 (0.87%) Exchange Server 2007
9 6 (0.87%) Office Communications Server
10 5 (0.73%) Apache
11 4 (0.58%) OpenStack
12 3 (0.44%) Tomcat
13 2 (0.29%) Cloud Foundry
13 2 (0.29%) Oracle HTTP Server
13 2 (0.29%) WebLogic
13 2 (0.29%) WordPress
14 1 (0.15%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 43 (6.25%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (1.45%) MS Visio
3 9 (1.31%) Mozilla Thunderbird
4 2 (0.29%) Microsoft Excel
4 2 (0.29%) Spreadsheet
4 2 (0.29%) Windchill
5 1 (0.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (0.29%) Remedy ITSM
1 2 (0.29%) SystmOne
1 2 (0.29%) Teamcenter
2 1 (0.15%) Pegasus Opera
Cloud Services
1 234 (34.01%) Azure
2 179 (26.02%) AWS
3 142 (20.64%) Microsoft 365
4 91 (13.23%) Entra ID
5 66 (9.59%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 54 (7.85%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 54 (7.85%) Amazon S3
7 52 (7.56%) Amazon EC2
8 48 (6.98%) GitHub
9 44 (6.40%) GCP
10 40 (5.81%) Amazon ELB
11 35 (5.09%) AWS CloudFormation
12 32 (4.65%) Amazon ECS
12 32 (4.65%) IaaS
13 27 (3.92%) Serverless
14 26 (3.78%) SaaS
15 25 (3.63%) AWS Lambda
16 24 (3.49%) GitHub Actions
17 19 (2.76%) AWS KMS
17 19 (2.76%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 297 (43.17%) DHCP
2 235 (34.16%) TCP/IP
3 228 (33.14%) Firewall
4 172 (25.00%) VPN
5 90 (13.08%) SSL
6 87 (12.65%) Network Security
7 79 (11.48%) HTTP
8 77 (11.19%) WAN
9 61 (8.87%) LAN
9 61 (8.87%) VLAN
10 44 (6.40%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
11 41 (5.96%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
11 41 (5.96%) Wireless
12 40 (5.81%) SMTP
13 35 (5.09%) BGP
14 34 (4.94%) Wireshark
15 33 (4.80%) DMZ
16 32 (4.65%) Wi-Fi
17 31 (4.51%) BIG-IP
18 29 (4.22%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (4.80%) Amazon RDS
2 26 (3.78%) PostgreSQL
3 23 (3.34%) SQL Server
4 18 (2.62%) Amazon Aurora
5 9 (1.31%) Elasticsearch
5 9 (1.31%) MongoDB
6 7 (1.02%) DynamoDB
6 7 (1.02%) MySQL
6 7 (1.02%) Redis
7 6 (0.87%) Data Hub
8 5 (0.73%) NoSQL
9 4 (0.58%) BigQuery
9 4 (0.58%) DocumentDB
9 4 (0.58%) Relational Database
10 2 (0.29%) Big Data
11 1 (0.15%) Delta Lake
11 1 (0.15%) Electronic Patient Records
11 1 (0.15%) Geospatial Data
11 1 (0.15%) Parquet
11 1 (0.15%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 84 (12.21%) Jenkins
2 72 (10.47%) Git
3 49 (7.12%) GitLab
4 44 (6.40%) JIRA
5 22 (3.20%) Fiddler
6 15 (2.18%) Vagrant
7 8 (1.16%) Terragrunt
8 5 (0.73%) Subversion
9 4 (0.58%) CircleCI
9 4 (0.58%) TeamCity
10 2 (0.29%) Visual Studio Code
11 1 (0.15%) Atlassian Bamboo
11 1 (0.15%) Bitbucket
11 1 (0.15%) GCC
11 1 (0.15%) MSI
11 1 (0.15%) Octopus Deploy
11 1 (0.15%) PyCharm
11 1 (0.15%) SonarQube
11 1 (0.15%) Travis CI
11 1 (0.15%) webpack
General
1 208 (30.23%) Social Skills
2 104 (15.12%) Analytical Skills
3 70 (10.17%) Public Sector
4 54 (7.85%) Banking
5 43 (6.25%) Finance
6 40 (5.81%) Investment Banking
7 36 (5.23%) Documentation Skills
8 21 (3.05%) Telecoms
9 18 (2.62%) Legal
10 15 (2.18%) Presentation Skills
11 9 (1.31%) Organisational Skills
12 8 (1.16%) Military
13 7 (1.02%) Law
14 6 (0.87%) Aerospace
14 6 (0.87%) Influencing Skills
15 4 (0.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 4 (0.58%) Marketing
16 3 (0.44%) Financial Institution
16 3 (0.44%) Local Government
16 3 (0.44%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 89 (12.94%) Network Engineer
2 74 (10.76%) Architect
3 72 (10.47%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 71 (10.32%) Support Engineer
5 69 (10.03%) Senior
6 64 (9.30%) Analyst
7 46 (6.69%) DevOps Engineer
7 46 (6.69%) Platform Engineer
8 41 (5.96%) IT Support
9 32 (4.65%) AWS Engineer
10 31 (4.51%) Security Engineer
11 27 (3.92%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
12 26 (3.78%) 2nd Line Support
13 25 (3.63%) Lead
14 24 (3.49%) Cloud Platform Engineer
14 24 (3.49%) Operations Engineer
15 22 (3.20%) AWS DevOps
15 22 (3.20%) AWS DevOps Engineer
15 22 (3.20%) SOC Analyst
16 21 (3.05%) IT Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (6.25%) LDAP
2 25 (3.63%) SAML
3 23 (3.34%) OAuth
4 20 (2.91%) OpenID
5 18 (2.62%) OAuth2
6 16 (2.33%) REST
7 15 (2.18%) Elastic Stack
8 13 (1.89%) Kafka
9 12 (1.74%) 802.1X
10 10 (1.45%) SOAP
11 7 (1.02%) AngularJS
11 7 (1.02%) Middleware
11 7 (1.02%) OpenTelemetry
12 6 (0.87%) RESTful
12 6 (0.87%) YAML
13 5 (0.73%) cloud-init
13 5 (0.73%) Keycloak
13 5 (0.73%) React
13 5 (0.73%) Spring Boot
14 4 (0.58%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 57 (8.28%) PKI
2 51 (7.41%) Replication
3 50 (7.27%) Data Centre
4 47 (6.83%) Management Information System
5 29 (4.22%) Onboarding
6 24 (3.49%) Analytical Mindset
7 23 (3.34%) Enterprise Software
8 22 (3.20%) Security Operations Centre
9 19 (2.76%) Cloud Native
9 19 (2.76%) Cyberattack
10 15 (2.18%) Hybrid Cloud
11 13 (1.89%) Public Cloud
12 12 (1.74%) Clustering
12 12 (1.74%) Cyber Threat
12 12 (1.74%) Private Cloud
13 11 (1.60%) Self-Motivation
13 11 (1.60%) Video Conferencing
14 9 (1.31%) Distributed Systems
15 7 (1.02%) SCADA
15 7 (1.02%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 343 (49.85%) Windows
2 160 (23.26%) Windows Server
3 156 (22.67%) Linux
4 58 (8.43%) Windows 10
5 27 (3.92%) Windows Server 2019
6 26 (3.78%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 24 (3.49%) Unix
8 22 (3.20%) VMS
9 21 (3.05%) Windows Server 2016
10 18 (2.62%) Amazon Linux
11 17 (2.47%) Windows Server 2012
12 16 (2.33%) Android
13 14 (2.03%) Ubuntu
14 12 (1.74%) CentOS
14 12 (1.74%) Windows Server 2003
15 11 (1.60%) Apple iOS
16 10 (1.45%) Mac OS
17 7 (1.02%) Windows 7
18 5 (0.73%) Solaris
19 3 (0.44%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 157 (22.82%) Problem-Solving
2 125 (18.17%) ITIL
3 119 (17.30%) CI/CD
4 116 (16.86%) DevOps
5 106 (15.41%) Load Balancing
6 102 (14.83%) Infrastructure as Code
7 92 (13.37%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 76 (11.05%) Change Management
9 72 (10.47%) Cybersecurity
10 71 (10.32%) High Availability
11 67 (9.74%) Incident Response
11 67 (9.74%) Migration
12 62 (9.01%) Service Management
13 57 (8.28%) Root Cause Analysis
14 56 (8.14%) Disaster Recovery
15 55 (7.99%) SIEM
16 54 (7.85%) Platform Engineering
17 49 (7.12%) Agile
18 48 (6.98%) Containerisation
19 47 (6.83%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 197 (28.63%) PowerShell
2 157 (22.82%) Python
3 79 (11.48%) Bash
4 45 (6.54%) SQL
5 23 (3.34%) Java
6 22 (3.20%) Perl
7 16 (2.33%) Groovy
8 14 (2.03%) Bicep
9 11 (1.60%) Go
9 11 (1.60%) Shell Script
10 10 (1.45%) Ruby
11 7 (1.02%) Lisp
11 7 (1.02%) VBScript
12 6 (0.87%) Kusto Query Language
12 6 (0.87%) VB
13 5 (0.73%) C++
14 4 (0.58%) JavaScript
15 3 (0.44%) C#
15 3 (0.44%) Search Processing Language
15 3 (0.44%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 257 (37.35%) Security Cleared
2 184 (26.74%) SC Cleared
3 83 (12.06%) DV Cleared
4 64 (9.30%) Degree
5 61 (8.87%) Microsoft Certification
6 44 (6.40%) Cisco Certification
7 38 (5.52%) CCNP
8 37 (5.38%) Azure Certification
9 22 (3.20%) AWS Certification
10 19 (2.76%) CompTIA Security+
11 18 (2.62%) Network+ Certification
12 15 (2.18%) CCNA
12 15 (2.18%) CISSP
13 14 (2.03%) Computer Science Degree
14 11 (1.60%) CompTIA CySA+
14 11 (1.60%) Server+ Certification
15 10 (1.45%) MCSE
16 9 (1.31%) BPSS Clearance
16 9 (1.31%) CCIE
17 8 (1.16%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (4.07%) GDPR
2 23 (3.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 18 (2.62%) NIST
3 18 (2.62%) SLA
4 9 (1.31%) NCSC
4 9 (1.31%) PCI DSS
4 9 (1.31%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 8 (1.16%) Cyber Essentials
6 6 (0.87%) Accessibility
6 6 (0.87%) QA
7 3 (0.44%) Data Quality
7 3 (0.44%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 2 (0.29%) Disclosure Scotland
8 2 (0.29%) JSP 440
8 2 (0.29%) PMO
9 1 (0.15%) COBIT
9 1 (0.15%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 1 (0.15%) Government Security Classifications
9 1 (0.15%) SOC 2
9 1 (0.15%) WCAG
System Software
1 304 (44.19%) Active Directory
2 187 (27.18%) VMware Infrastructure
3 94 (13.66%) Docker
4 55 (7.99%) Hyper-V
5 36 (5.23%) VMware NSX
6 27 (3.92%) Virtual Machines
6 27 (3.92%) vSphere
7 20 (2.91%) Firmware
8 18 (2.62%) DFS Replication
8 18 (2.62%) VMware ESXi
9 15 (2.18%) Dovecot
9 15 (2.18%) Postfix
10 13 (1.89%) Terminal Services
11 10 (1.45%) Virtual Desktop
12 9 (1.31%) Squid
12 9 (1.31%) Virtual Servers
13 8 (1.16%) BitLocker
14 6 (0.87%) Brightmail
14 6 (0.87%) ISA Server
14 6 (0.87%) Microsoft App-V
Systems Management
1 131 (19.04%) Terraform
2 117 (17.01%) Ansible
3 79 (11.48%) Microsoft Intune
4 71 (10.32%) SCCM
5 63 (9.16%) Kubernetes
6 49 (7.12%) Single Sign-On
7 38 (5.52%) vCenter Server
8 37 (5.38%) Grafana
9 33 (4.80%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 29 (4.22%) Prometheus
11 21 (3.05%) WSUS
12 16 (2.33%) FortiGate
13 14 (2.03%) Argo
14 13 (1.89%) Nessus
15 12 (1.74%) Packer
15 12 (1.74%) Proxmox
15 12 (1.74%) Puppet
15 12 (1.74%) SCOM
16 10 (1.45%) Microsoft Clustering
16 10 (1.45%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 254 (36.92%) Microsoft
2 221 (32.12%) VMware
3 109 (15.84%) F5
4 102 (14.83%) Cisco
5 77 (11.19%) ServiceNow
6 56 (8.14%) Palo Alto
6 56 (8.14%) Splunk
7 47 (6.83%) CheckPoint
8 39 (5.67%) Blue Coat
9 34 (4.94%) Citrix
10 31 (4.51%) SolarWinds
11 30 (4.36%) Red Hat
12 27 (3.92%) McAfee
13 25 (3.63%) NetApp
13 25 (3.63%) Veeam
14 24 (3.49%) Juniper
15 20 (2.91%) Dell
15 20 (2.91%) Fortinet
16 18 (2.62%) Zscaler
17 15 (2.18%) Oracle