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

6 months to
13 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 142 132 161
Rank change year-on-year -10 +29 -28
Contract jobs citing DNS 1,031 692 597
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.93% 2.10% 1.53%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 20.54% 17.74% 12.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 631 449 411
10th Percentile £294 £255 £242
25th Percentile £409 £400 £369
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £488
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +7.69% -2.50%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £588
90th Percentile £648 £650 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £525 £500
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 52 31 15
10th Percentile £26.00 £29.00 £20.00
25th Percentile £31.25 £34.38 £23.45
Median hourly rate £58.49 £57.50 £24.20
Median % change year-on-year +1.73% +137.60% -39.50%
75th Percentile £74.00 £82.55 £49.38
90th Percentile £97.94 £89.63 £63.51
UK excluding London median hourly rate £61.11 £65.00 £48.03
% change year-on-year -5.99% +35.33% +84.73%

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 5,020 3,900 4,751
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.41% 11.84% 12.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,973 2,384 2,884
10th Percentile £250 £250 £220
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 £600 £608
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.58% -5.00% +9.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 363 200 319
10th Percentile £15.19 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.33 £25.15 £20.00
Median hourly rate £26.00 £46.88 £49.00
Median % change year-on-year -44.53% -4.34% -6.67%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £83.10 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.14 £45.00 £54.88
% change year-on-year -41.91% -18.00% -2.86%

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 August 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 August 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 August 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 -7 936 £500 -4.76% 430
UK excluding London -5 641 £500 -4.76% 285
London -42 320 £500 -1.96% 184
Work from Home -10 239 £510 -4.40% 150
North of England +27 228 £465 -7.00% 55
South East +13 200 £538 -2.27% 99
North West +38 152 £483 +3.87% 27
Midlands -13 118 £450 -5.26% 41
West Midlands -16 97 £431 -9.21% 28
South West +4 85 £500 -14.89% 43
Yorkshire -14 64 £475 -13.64% 19
Scotland +13 34 £550 +20.22% 13
East of England -53 32 £450 -18.18% 33
East Midlands -6 19 £413 -26.67% 13
North East -39 12 £413 +1.23% 10
Wales -10 8 £463 +21.95% 5

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
1 103 (9.99%) Microsoft Exchange
2 88 (8.54%) SharePoint
3 24 (2.33%) Confluence
4 19 (1.84%) Apache
5 16 (1.55%) IIS
6 14 (1.36%) nginx
7 9 (0.87%) Tomcat
8 6 (0.58%) Skype for Business
9 5 (0.48%) WebSphere
10 4 (0.39%) Exchange Server 2010
11 3 (0.29%) Exchange Server 2013
12 2 (0.19%) IBM HTTP Server
12 2 (0.19%) OpenStack
12 2 (0.19%) Oracle HTTP Server
12 2 (0.19%) WebSphere Application Server
12 2 (0.19%) WebSphere Portal
13 1 (0.097%) SharePoint Server
13 1 (0.097%) Traefik
Applications
1 26 (2.52%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (1.16%) MS Visio
3 9 (0.87%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (0.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.19%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 2 (0.19%) Chatbot
5 2 (0.19%) Houdini
5 2 (0.19%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.19%) NUKE
Business Applications
1 10 (0.97%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 414 (40.16%) Azure
2 212 (20.56%) AWS
3 178 (17.26%) Entra ID
4 176 (17.07%) Microsoft 365
5 113 (10.96%) GCP
6 76 (7.37%) GitHub
7 58 (5.63%) IaaS
8 55 (5.33%) OneDrive
9 43 (4.17%) Azure DevOps
10 40 (3.88%) PaaS
11 39 (3.78%) Azure Monitor
11 39 (3.78%) SaaS
12 36 (3.49%) GitHub Actions
13 31 (3.01%) OpenShift
14 28 (2.72%) AWS CloudFormation
14 28 (2.72%) Google Kubernetes Engine
15 26 (2.52%) Serverless
16 25 (2.42%) Akamai
16 25 (2.42%) Azure ExpressRoute
17 23 (2.23%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 481 (46.65%) DHCP
2 374 (36.28%) Firewall
3 285 (27.64%) TCP/IP
4 280 (27.16%) VPN
5 144 (13.97%) WAN
6 127 (12.32%) Network Security
7 126 (12.22%) VLAN
8 123 (11.93%) LAN
9 104 (10.09%) BGP
9 104 (10.09%) SSL
10 83 (8.05%) BIG-IP
11 74 (7.18%) HTTP
12 71 (6.89%) Wireless
13 69 (6.69%) Wi-Fi
14 62 (6.01%) SAN
15 60 (5.82%) OSPF
16 53 (5.14%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
17 47 (4.56%) DMZ
18 46 (4.46%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
19 38 (3.69%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 52 (5.04%) SQL Server
2 20 (1.94%) PostgreSQL
3 12 (1.16%) Azure SQL Database
4 10 (0.97%) Elasticsearch
4 10 (0.97%) MongoDB
4 10 (0.97%) Power BI
5 9 (0.87%) Amazon RDS
5 9 (0.87%) MySQL
6 6 (0.58%) Data Lake
7 5 (0.48%) MariaDB
7 5 (0.48%) NoSQL
8 4 (0.39%) Db2
8 4 (0.39%) Redis
9 3 (0.29%) Big Data
9 3 (0.29%) SQLPlus
10 1 (0.097%) Cloud Spanner
10 1 (0.097%) DynamoDB
10 1 (0.097%) Metadata
10 1 (0.097%) Power Query
10 1 (0.097%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 73 (7.08%) JIRA
2 57 (5.53%) Jenkins
3 44 (4.27%) Git
4 33 (3.20%) GitLab
5 17 (1.65%) Fiddler
6 11 (1.07%) Bitbucket
7 10 (0.97%) Browser DevTools
8 7 (0.68%) Chocolatey
8 7 (0.68%) Sonatype Nexus
9 5 (0.48%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 3 (0.29%) MSI
11 2 (0.19%) Artifactory
11 2 (0.19%) Introscope
11 2 (0.19%) Selenium
11 2 (0.19%) Spinnaker
11 2 (0.19%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
12 1 (0.097%) Maven
12 1 (0.097%) SonarQube
12 1 (0.097%) Visual Studio
General
1 260 (25.22%) Social Skills
2 120 (11.64%) Analytical Skills
3 91 (8.83%) Finance
4 86 (8.34%) Public Sector
5 70 (6.79%) Banking
6 55 (5.33%) Documentation Skills
7 33 (3.20%) Investment Banking
7 33 (3.20%) Telecoms
8 25 (2.42%) Legal
9 17 (1.65%) Military
10 13 (1.26%) Organisational Skills
11 12 (1.16%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 11 (1.07%) Local Government
13 10 (0.97%) Police
14 9 (0.87%) Manufacturing
15 7 (0.68%) Pharmaceutical
16 6 (0.58%) Aerospace
16 6 (0.58%) Influencing Skills
16 6 (0.58%) Law
16 6 (0.58%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 184 (17.85%) Network Engineer
2 176 (17.07%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 117 (11.35%) Senior
4 96 (9.31%) Support Engineer
5 90 (8.73%) Architect
6 74 (7.18%) Cloud Engineer
7 58 (5.63%) Security Engineer
8 55 (5.33%) Analyst
9 50 (4.85%) IT Support
10 49 (4.75%) IT Engineer
11 43 (4.17%) Azure Engineer
12 40 (3.88%) DevOps Engineer
12 40 (3.88%) Platform Engineer
13 39 (3.78%) Cisco Engineer
13 39 (3.78%) Network Security Engineer
13 39 (3.78%) Web Engineer
14 38 (3.69%) Administrator
14 38 (3.69%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
15 37 (3.59%) Cisco Network Engineer
16 33 (3.20%) IT Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 52 (5.04%) 802.1X
2 43 (4.17%) SAML
3 27 (2.62%) LDAP
3 27 (2.62%) OAuth
3 27 (2.62%) OpenID
4 26 (2.52%) ARM Templates
5 19 (1.84%) JSON
6 17 (1.65%) OpenTelemetry
6 17 (1.65%) REST
7 14 (1.36%) Kafka
8 13 (1.26%) YAML
9 10 (0.97%) OAuth2
10 7 (0.68%) CSS
10 7 (0.68%) Middleware
10 7 (0.68%) React
11 6 (0.58%) Elastic Stack
12 5 (0.48%) RabbitMQ
12 5 (0.48%) Software Packaging
13 4 (0.39%) .NET
13 4 (0.39%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 134 (13.00%) Data Centre
2 112 (10.86%) PKI
3 68 (6.60%) Onboarding
4 66 (6.40%) Hybrid Cloud
5 53 (5.14%) Cloud Native
6 52 (5.04%) Management Information System
7 46 (4.46%) Clustering
8 42 (4.07%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 26 (2.52%) Public Cloud
10 25 (2.42%) Self-Motivation
11 23 (2.23%) Replication
12 19 (1.84%) Enterprise Cloud
13 18 (1.75%) Security Posture
14 17 (1.65%) Linux Command Line
15 16 (1.55%) Enterprise Software
16 14 (1.36%) Cyber Threat
16 14 (1.36%) Distributed Systems
16 14 (1.36%) Driving Licence
17 10 (0.97%) CMDB
17 10 (0.97%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 479 (46.46%) Windows
2 255 (24.73%) Windows Server
3 211 (20.47%) Linux
4 59 (5.72%) Windows 10
5 47 (4.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 41 (3.98%) Windows Server 2019
7 32 (3.10%) Mac OS
8 30 (2.91%) Unix
9 25 (2.42%) Windows Server 2012
10 20 (1.94%) Ubuntu
11 18 (1.75%) VMS
12 17 (1.65%) Apple iOS
13 15 (1.45%) Android
13 15 (1.45%) CentOS
13 15 (1.45%) Windows Server 2016
14 13 (1.26%) Windows 7
15 8 (0.78%) Windows Server 2008
16 7 (0.68%) Rocky
17 4 (0.39%) Windows Server 2003
18 3 (0.29%) OpenVMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 240 (23.28%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 232 (22.50%) Problem-Solving
3 188 (18.23%) ITIL
4 185 (17.94%) Load Balancing
5 175 (16.97%) Infrastructure as Code
6 170 (16.49%) Migration
7 162 (15.71%) DevOps
8 154 (14.94%) CI/CD
9 142 (13.77%) High Availability
10 128 (12.42%) ITSM
11 104 (10.09%) Observability
12 101 (9.80%) Continuous Improvement
13 94 (9.12%) Cybersecurity
14 91 (8.83%) Agile
15 89 (8.63%) Project Delivery
16 87 (8.44%) Disaster Recovery
17 85 (8.24%) Identity Access Management
18 80 (7.76%) Technical Leadership
19 78 (7.57%) Platform Engineering
20 75 (7.27%) Runbook
Programming Languages
1 246 (23.86%) PowerShell
2 209 (20.27%) Python
3 154 (14.94%) Bash
4 67 (6.50%) SQL
5 44 (4.27%) Bicep
6 25 (2.42%) JavaScript
7 14 (1.36%) Shell Script
8 12 (1.16%) Go
9 10 (0.97%) ActionScript
9 10 (0.97%) Perl
10 9 (0.87%) Java
11 8 (0.78%) VBScript
12 7 (0.68%) VBA
13 6 (0.58%) Groovy
13 6 (0.58%) VB
14 5 (0.48%) Ruby
14 5 (0.48%) TypeScript
15 3 (0.29%) C
15 3 (0.29%) Lisp
16 2 (0.19%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 382 (37.05%) Security Cleared
2 217 (21.05%) SC Cleared
3 156 (15.13%) DV Cleared
4 109 (10.57%) Cisco Certification
5 82 (7.95%) Degree
6 74 (7.18%) CCNP
7 55 (5.33%) CCNA
8 52 (5.04%) Microsoft Certification
9 48 (4.66%) Azure Certification
10 32 (3.10%) Network+ Certification
11 21 (2.04%) Computer Science Degree
12 18 (1.75%) CCIE
13 17 (1.65%) AWS Certification
13 17 (1.65%) BPSS Clearance
14 16 (1.55%) MCSE
14 16 (1.55%) Server+ Certification
15 15 (1.45%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
16 13 (1.26%) JNCIS
17 12 (1.16%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
17 12 (1.16%) JNCIP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (3.59%) SLA
2 26 (2.52%) NIST
3 16 (1.55%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 16 (1.55%) NCSC
4 13 (1.26%) QA
5 8 (0.78%) GDPR
6 5 (0.48%) Cyber Essentials
6 5 (0.48%) Disclosure Scotland
6 5 (0.48%) NIST 800
7 4 (0.39%) HMG Security Policy Framework
7 4 (0.39%) JSP 440
8 2 (0.19%) Data Quality
8 2 (0.19%) Government Security Classifications
8 2 (0.19%) PCI DSS
8 2 (0.19%) SOC 2
9 1 (0.097%) HIPAA
9 1 (0.097%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 433 (42.00%) Active Directory
2 265 (25.70%) VMware Infrastructure
3 126 (12.22%) Hyper-V
4 69 (6.69%) VMware ESXi
4 69 (6.69%) vSphere
5 63 (6.11%) VMware NSX
6 55 (5.33%) Docker
7 43 (4.17%) Virtual Machines
8 38 (3.69%) Virtual Desktop
9 24 (2.33%) Firmware
10 22 (2.13%) NFS
11 14 (1.36%) BitLocker
12 13 (1.26%) vCloud
13 9 (0.87%) Microsoft App-V
13 9 (0.87%) Postfix
13 9 (0.87%) Squid
14 8 (0.78%) Virtual Servers
14 8 (0.78%) VMware Workstation
15 7 (0.68%) Ceph
16 6 (0.58%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 213 (20.66%) Terraform
2 154 (14.94%) Ansible
3 122 (11.83%) Kubernetes
4 105 (10.18%) Microsoft Intune
5 76 (7.37%) SCCM
6 60 (5.82%) Single Sign-On
7 57 (5.53%) vCenter Server
8 54 (5.24%) Grafana
9 45 (4.36%) FortiGate
10 42 (4.07%) Prometheus
11 32 (3.10%) WSUS
12 31 (3.01%) SCOM
13 19 (1.84%) Argo
14 15 (1.45%) NetBackup
14 15 (1.45%) VxRail
15 14 (1.36%) Jamf Pro
15 14 (1.36%) Puppet
16 13 (1.26%) Nessus
17 12 (1.16%) Packer
18 11 (1.07%) Istio
Vendors
1 368 (35.69%) Microsoft
2 321 (31.13%) VMware
3 198 (19.20%) Cisco
4 145 (14.06%) F5
5 93 (9.02%) ServiceNow
6 71 (6.89%) Splunk
7 70 (6.79%) SolarWinds
8 68 (6.60%) Citrix
9 65 (6.30%) Google
10 63 (6.11%) Infoblox
11 60 (5.82%) Juniper
12 46 (4.46%) Red Hat
13 43 (4.17%) Palo Alto
14 35 (3.39%) NetApp
15 33 (3.20%) Dynatrace
16 28 (2.72%) CyberArk
16 28 (2.72%) Fortinet
17 27 (2.62%) Zscaler
18 26 (2.52%) Blue Coat
18 26 (2.52%) CheckPoint