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

6 months to
4 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 140 125 164
Rank change year-on-year -15 +39 -24
Contract jobs citing DNS 1,005 705 648
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.95% 2.23% 1.49%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 20.41% 18.23% 11.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 620 487 435
10th Percentile £298 £263 £235
25th Percentile £400 £406 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £538 £488
Median % change year-on-year -7.06% +10.36% -6.25%
75th Percentile £581 £606 £588
90th Percentile £638 £675 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £535 £500
% change year-on-year -6.54% +7.00% -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 19 25
10th Percentile £19.69 - £19.10
25th Percentile £24.06 £29.00 £23.80
Median hourly rate £32.50 £41.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -21.69% +3.75% -16.56%
75th Percentile £65.33 £81.18 -
90th Percentile £74.03 £82.48 £50.64
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £41.45 £40.00
% change year-on-year -21.59% +3.63% -4.48%

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 4,925 3,867 5,433
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.54% 12.26% 12.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,996 2,363 3,200
10th Percentile £250 £230 £213
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -0.50%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £485 £470 £493
% change year-on-year +3.25% -4.57% +3.68%
Number of hourly rates quoted 307 182 427
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.86
25th Percentile £19.34 £21.50 £17.69
Median hourly rate £26.44 £44.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -40.58% -1.11% +100.00%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.00 £79.50 £73.45
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.00 £35.00 £47.50
% change year-on-year -25.71% -26.32% +90.00%

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 4 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 4 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 4 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 -13 893 £500 -8.26% 349
UK excluding London -8 629 £500 -6.54% 310
London -31 298 £500 -1.96% 83
North of England +22 243 £450 -10.00% 37
Work from Home -27 233 £525 -3.67% 144
South East +3 182 £525 -4.55% 105
North West +48 161 £458 +2.35% 17
Midlands +4 119 £450 -5.26% 57
West Midlands +1 102 £444 -6.58% 34
Yorkshire -21 76 £447 -18.73% 17
South West -16 66 £480 -21.63% 54
Scotland +18 42 £525 +16.67% 11
East of England -51 36 £475 -13.64% 40
East Midlands -12 15 £450 -10.00% 23
Wales -14 9 £500 +13.70% 9
North East -40 6 £413 - 8

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 (9.35%) Microsoft Exchange
2 65 (6.47%) SharePoint
3 20 (1.99%) Confluence
4 16 (1.59%) nginx
5 15 (1.49%) IIS
6 14 (1.39%) Apache
7 9 (0.90%) Tomcat
8 5 (0.50%) WebSphere
9 4 (0.40%) Exchange Server 2010
9 4 (0.40%) Skype for Business
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 (0.100%) SharePoint Server
11 1 (0.100%) Traefik
Applications
1 21 (2.09%) Microsoft Office
2 16 (1.59%) MS Visio
3 3 (0.30%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.30%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.20%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.100%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 1 (0.100%) Houdini
5 1 (0.100%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.100%) NUKE
Business Applications
1 5 (0.50%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.100%) Cloudability
Cloud Services
1 359 (35.72%) Azure
2 184 (18.31%) AWS
3 162 (16.12%) Entra ID
4 140 (13.93%) Microsoft 365
5 105 (10.45%) GCP
6 69 (6.87%) GitHub
7 57 (5.67%) IaaS
8 42 (4.18%) OneDrive
8 42 (4.18%) PaaS
8 42 (4.18%) SaaS
9 33 (3.28%) Route 53
10 30 (2.99%) Azure DevOps
11 29 (2.89%) Amazon EC2
11 29 (2.89%) AWS CloudFormation
11 29 (2.89%) Serverless
11 29 (2.89%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 27 (2.69%) OpenShift
13 26 (2.59%) GitHub Actions
14 25 (2.49%) Amazon S3
15 24 (2.39%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 444 (44.18%) DHCP
2 320 (31.84%) Firewall
3 254 (25.27%) TCP/IP
4 253 (25.17%) VPN
5 147 (14.63%) WAN
6 126 (12.54%) LAN
7 116 (11.54%) Network Security
8 105 (10.45%) VLAN
9 103 (10.25%) SSL
10 96 (9.55%) BGP
11 94 (9.35%) BIG-IP
12 76 (7.56%) HTTP
13 66 (6.57%) Wi-Fi
14 60 (5.97%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
14 60 (5.97%) Wireless
15 56 (5.57%) SAN
16 54 (5.37%) OSPF
17 45 (4.48%) DMZ
18 44 (4.38%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
19 39 (3.88%) Kerberos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 39 (3.88%) SQL Server
2 18 (1.79%) Elasticsearch
3 13 (1.29%) PostgreSQL
4 11 (1.09%) Azure SQL Database
5 10 (1.00%) Power BI
6 9 (0.90%) Amazon RDS
7 6 (0.60%) MySQL
8 5 (0.50%) Data Lake
8 5 (0.50%) MongoDB
9 4 (0.40%) MariaDB
10 3 (0.30%) Big Data
10 3 (0.30%) NoSQL
11 2 (0.20%) Db2
11 2 (0.20%) DynamoDB
11 2 (0.20%) SQLPlus
12 1 (0.100%) Amazon Aurora
12 1 (0.100%) KDB
12 1 (0.100%) Redis
12 1 (0.100%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 1 (0.100%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 68 (6.77%) JIRA
2 54 (5.37%) Jenkins
3 30 (2.99%) Git
4 22 (2.19%) Fiddler
5 19 (1.89%) GitLab
6 10 (1.00%) Browser DevTools
7 9 (0.90%) Bitbucket
8 7 (0.70%) SonarQube
9 6 (0.60%) Chocolatey
10 5 (0.50%) Sonatype Nexus
11 2 (0.20%) Introscope
11 2 (0.20%) Spinnaker
12 1 (0.100%) Artifactory
12 1 (0.100%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 1 (0.100%) MSI
12 1 (0.100%) Visual Studio
General
1 241 (23.98%) Social Skills
2 94 (9.35%) Analytical Skills
3 82 (8.16%) Finance
4 70 (6.97%) Public Sector
5 69 (6.87%) Banking
6 61 (6.07%) Documentation Skills
7 36 (3.58%) Investment Banking
8 27 (2.69%) Legal
9 19 (1.89%) Military
9 19 (1.89%) Telecoms
10 13 (1.29%) Organisational Skills
11 10 (1.00%) Local Government
12 9 (0.90%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 8 (0.80%) Police
14 6 (0.60%) Publishing
15 5 (0.50%) Influencing Skills
15 5 (0.50%) Law
15 5 (0.50%) Manufacturing
16 4 (0.40%) Advertising
16 4 (0.40%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 182 (18.11%) Network Engineer
2 145 (14.43%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 122 (12.14%) Architect
4 80 (7.96%) Support Engineer
5 78 (7.76%) Senior
6 63 (6.27%) Analyst
6 63 (6.27%) Security Engineer
7 62 (6.17%) Cloud Engineer
8 47 (4.68%) IT Support
9 46 (4.58%) Web Engineer
10 45 (4.48%) IT Engineer
11 44 (4.38%) Network Security Engineer
12 41 (4.08%) Cisco Engineer
13 39 (3.88%) Cisco Network Engineer
14 38 (3.78%) Azure Engineer
14 38 (3.78%) DevOps Engineer
15 37 (3.68%) Administrator
16 35 (3.48%) Data Engineer
16 35 (3.48%) Data Network Engineer
17 34 (3.38%) Cisco Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 59 (5.87%) LDAP
2 53 (5.27%) SAML
3 45 (4.48%) 802.1X
4 37 (3.68%) OAuth
5 30 (2.99%) OpenID
6 19 (1.89%) OpenTelemetry
7 16 (1.59%) ARM Templates
8 15 (1.49%) JSON
9 8 (0.80%) REST
10 7 (0.70%) OAuth2
11 6 (0.60%) Kafka
12 5 (0.50%) CSS
12 5 (0.50%) Microsoft Graph
12 5 (0.50%) YAML
13 4 (0.40%) AWS CDK
13 4 (0.40%) Middleware
13 4 (0.40%) Web Services
14 3 (0.30%) LAMP
14 3 (0.30%) RabbitMQ
14 3 (0.30%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 117 (11.64%) Data Centre
2 81 (8.06%) PKI
3 61 (6.07%) Cloud Native
4 50 (4.98%) Onboarding
5 46 (4.58%) Hybrid Cloud
6 43 (4.28%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 43 (4.28%) Management Information System
7 42 (4.18%) Replication
8 41 (4.08%) Clustering
9 28 (2.79%) Public Cloud
10 24 (2.39%) Self-Motivation
11 18 (1.79%) Security Posture
12 17 (1.69%) Enterprise Cloud
13 13 (1.29%) Enterprise Software
13 13 (1.29%) Legacy Systems
13 13 (1.29%) Security Operations Centre
14 12 (1.19%) Virtual Team
15 11 (1.09%) Cyber Threat
15 11 (1.09%) Product Ownership
16 10 (1.00%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 423 (42.09%) Windows
2 233 (23.18%) Windows Server
3 148 (14.73%) Linux
4 43 (4.28%) Windows 10
5 40 (3.98%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 38 (3.78%) Windows Server 2019
7 35 (3.48%) Mac OS
8 25 (2.49%) Unix
9 21 (2.09%) Windows Server 2012
10 18 (1.79%) Apple iOS
11 15 (1.49%) VMS
12 14 (1.39%) Android
12 14 (1.39%) Ubuntu
13 13 (1.29%) CentOS
14 12 (1.19%) Windows Server 2016
15 7 (0.70%) Windows 7
16 6 (0.60%) Windows Server 2003
17 4 (0.40%) Rocky
18 3 (0.30%) AIX
19 2 (0.20%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 214 (21.29%) Problem-Solving
2 189 (18.81%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 189 (18.81%) Load Balancing
3 167 (16.62%) Migration
4 158 (15.72%) High Availability
5 151 (15.02%) ITIL
6 139 (13.83%) DevOps
7 128 (12.74%) Infrastructure as Code
8 119 (11.84%) CI/CD
9 103 (10.25%) ITSM
10 85 (8.46%) Disaster Recovery
10 85 (8.46%) Identity Access Management
11 82 (8.16%) Observability
12 79 (7.86%) Project Delivery
13 78 (7.76%) Agile
14 67 (6.67%) Cybersecurity
15 64 (6.37%) RBAC
15 64 (6.37%) Runbook
16 63 (6.27%) Continuous Improvement
17 61 (6.07%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 208 (20.70%) PowerShell
2 165 (16.42%) Python
3 105 (10.45%) Bash
4 51 (5.07%) SQL
5 30 (2.99%) Bicep
6 25 (2.49%) JavaScript
7 11 (1.09%) Go
8 10 (1.00%) ActionScript
9 9 (0.90%) Java
9 9 (0.90%) Shell Script
9 9 (0.90%) VBA
10 8 (0.80%) Perl
11 6 (0.60%) VBScript
12 5 (0.50%) Groovy
12 5 (0.50%) Ruby
13 4 (0.40%) C
13 4 (0.40%) VB
14 3 (0.30%) Lisp
15 2 (0.20%) Jython
15 2 (0.20%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 348 (34.63%) Security Cleared
2 221 (21.99%) SC Cleared
3 120 (11.94%) DV Cleared
4 100 (9.95%) Cisco Certification
5 79 (7.86%) Degree
6 68 (6.77%) CCNP
7 53 (5.27%) CCNA
8 41 (4.08%) Microsoft Certification
9 34 (3.38%) Azure Certification
10 27 (2.69%) Network+ Certification
11 21 (2.09%) CompTIA Security+
12 17 (1.69%) MCSE
12 17 (1.69%) Server+ Certification
13 16 (1.59%) BPSS Clearance
13 16 (1.59%) CCIE
14 15 (1.49%) CISSP
15 14 (1.39%) Computer Science Degree
16 13 (1.29%) AWS Certification
17 12 (1.19%) MCSA
18 11 (1.09%) JNCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (2.79%) SLA
2 27 (2.69%) NIST
3 21 (2.09%) GDPR
4 19 (1.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 14 (1.39%) NCSC
6 13 (1.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 9 (0.90%) QA
8 6 (0.60%) Cyber Essentials
9 4 (0.40%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 3 (0.30%) Disclosure Scotland
10 3 (0.30%) JSP 440
10 3 (0.30%) NIST 800
11 2 (0.20%) Government Security Classifications
11 2 (0.20%) PCI DSS
11 2 (0.20%) SOC 2
12 1 (0.100%) Actionable Recommendations
12 1 (0.100%) COBIT
12 1 (0.100%) Data Quality
12 1 (0.100%) PMO
12 1 (0.100%) RMADS
System Software
1 397 (39.50%) Active Directory
2 215 (21.39%) VMware Infrastructure
3 92 (9.15%) Hyper-V
4 62 (6.17%) vSphere
5 58 (5.77%) VMware NSX
6 57 (5.67%) VMware ESXi
7 44 (4.38%) Virtual Machines
8 36 (3.58%) Virtual Desktop
9 30 (2.99%) Docker
10 26 (2.59%) Firmware
11 21 (2.09%) NFS
12 15 (1.49%) BitLocker
12 15 (1.49%) Squid
13 13 (1.29%) vCloud
14 11 (1.09%) Microsoft App-V
15 10 (1.00%) Postfix
16 8 (0.80%) VMware Workstation
17 7 (0.70%) Varnish
18 5 (0.50%) Ceph
19 4 (0.40%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 165 (16.42%) Terraform
2 123 (12.24%) Ansible
3 90 (8.96%) Kubernetes
4 78 (7.76%) Single Sign-On
5 76 (7.56%) Microsoft Intune
6 57 (5.67%) vCenter Server
7 54 (5.37%) FortiGate
8 51 (5.07%) Grafana
9 48 (4.78%) SCCM
10 39 (3.88%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 38 (3.78%) Prometheus
12 27 (2.69%) WSUS
13 24 (2.39%) Argo
13 24 (2.39%) SCOM
14 15 (1.49%) Puppet
15 14 (1.39%) HAProxy
15 14 (1.39%) Nessus
16 13 (1.29%) Jamf Pro
17 12 (1.19%) vMotion
18 8 (0.80%) Consul
Vendors
1 334 (33.23%) Microsoft
2 258 (25.67%) VMware
3 185 (18.41%) Cisco
4 159 (15.82%) F5
5 91 (9.05%) ServiceNow
6 78 (7.76%) Splunk
7 70 (6.97%) Infoblox
8 65 (6.47%) Citrix
9 62 (6.17%) Google
10 58 (5.77%) SolarWinds
11 53 (5.27%) Red Hat
12 47 (4.68%) Juniper
13 40 (3.98%) Palo Alto
14 35 (3.48%) NetApp
15 32 (3.18%) Dynatrace
16 29 (2.89%) Blue Coat
17 27 (2.69%) McAfee
18 25 (2.49%) Fortinet
18 25 (2.49%) Okta
19 24 (2.39%) Zscaler