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

6 months to
12 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 139 121 159
Rank change year-on-year -18 +38 -18
Contract jobs citing DNS 955 676 663
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.91% 2.30% 1.52%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 19.98% 18.36% 12.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 586 479 449
10th Percentile £300 £263 £213
25th Percentile £400 £410 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £498 £550 £475
Median % change year-on-year -9.55% +15.79% -9.52%
75th Percentile £586 £613 £588
90th Percentile £638 £675 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £484 £550 £500
% change year-on-year -12.00% +10.00% -2.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 39 14 25
10th Percentile £18.89 - £19.10
25th Percentile £23.13 £29.00 £23.80
Median hourly rate £32.50 £56.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -41.96% +40.00% -23.27%
75th Percentile £62.87 £81.27 -
90th Percentile £74.05 £81.88 £50.64
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £61.09 £40.00
% change year-on-year -46.80% +52.72% -16.56%

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 4,779 3,681 5,433
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.56% 12.51% 12.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,930 2,266 3,221
10th Percentile £263 £220 £208
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £482 £495
Median % change year-on-year +3.73% -2.63% -3.41%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £469 £481
% change year-on-year +2.27% -2.47% +1.32%
Number of hourly rates quoted 287 165 420
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £21.25 £18.13 £16.30
Median hourly rate £27.50 £44.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -37.50% +10.00% +113.73%
75th Percentile £65.00 £60.13 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £80.61 £71.31
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £31.79 £47.50
% change year-on-year +2.23% -33.07% +156.76%

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 12 June 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 12 June 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 12 June 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 -17 843 £495 -10.00% 273
UK excluding London +1 606 £484 -12.00% 256
London -26 279 £500 -0.99% 60
North of England +16 237 £447 -5.89% 53
Work from Home -35 210 £525 -3.67% 113
South East -4 171 £525 -4.55% 93
North West +43 154 £450 +0.67% 37
Midlands 0 110 £450 -5.26% 34
West Midlands +7 98 £450 +2.86% 22
Yorkshire -21 77 £447 -18.73% 11
South West -22 62 £500 -18.70% 33
Scotland +30 50 £550 +22.22% 12
East of England -50 34 £450 -18.18% 31
East Midlands -24 11 £413 -27.31% 12
Wales -20 6 £300 -33.04% 8
North East -40 6 £306 -12.50% 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 85 (8.90%) Microsoft Exchange
2 58 (6.07%) SharePoint
3 19 (1.99%) Confluence
4 16 (1.68%) IIS
5 15 (1.57%) nginx
6 14 (1.47%) Apache
7 9 (0.94%) Tomcat
8 5 (0.52%) WebSphere
9 4 (0.42%) Skype for Business
10 2 (0.21%) Exchange Server 2013
10 2 (0.21%) IBM HTTP Server
10 2 (0.21%) Oracle HTTP Server
10 2 (0.21%) WebSphere Application Server
10 2 (0.21%) WebSphere Portal
11 1 (0.10%) Exchange Server 2010
11 1 (0.10%) SharePoint Server
11 1 (0.10%) Traefik
Applications
1 19 (1.99%) Microsoft Office
2 13 (1.36%) MS Visio
3 2 (0.21%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.10%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.10%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.10%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 6 (0.63%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.10%) Cloudability
Cloud Services
1 339 (35.50%) Azure
2 174 (18.22%) AWS
3 153 (16.02%) Entra ID
4 133 (13.93%) Microsoft 365
5 104 (10.89%) GCP
6 73 (7.64%) GitHub
7 58 (6.07%) IaaS
8 41 (4.29%) PaaS
9 38 (3.98%) SaaS
10 37 (3.87%) OneDrive
11 31 (3.25%) Serverless
12 29 (3.04%) Amazon EC2
12 29 (3.04%) Amazon S3
12 29 (3.04%) GitHub Actions
12 29 (3.04%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 27 (2.83%) Amazon EKS
13 27 (2.83%) AWS CloudFormation
14 26 (2.72%) Azure DevOps
14 26 (2.72%) Route 53
15 25 (2.62%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 416 (43.56%) DHCP
2 284 (29.74%) Firewall
3 238 (24.92%) TCP/IP
4 224 (23.46%) VPN
5 130 (13.61%) WAN
6 111 (11.62%) LAN
7 107 (11.20%) SSL
8 97 (10.16%) Network Security
9 95 (9.95%) BIG-IP
10 91 (9.53%) VLAN
11 84 (8.80%) BGP
12 78 (8.17%) HTTP
13 58 (6.07%) Wi-Fi
14 56 (5.86%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
15 52 (5.45%) Wireless
16 49 (5.13%) SAN
17 44 (4.61%) OSPF
18 43 (4.50%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
19 38 (3.98%) DMZ
20 37 (3.87%) Kerberos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 38 (3.98%) SQL Server
2 19 (1.99%) PostgreSQL
3 18 (1.88%) Elasticsearch
4 11 (1.15%) Amazon RDS
5 10 (1.05%) Azure SQL Database
6 9 (0.94%) MongoDB
6 9 (0.94%) Power BI
7 8 (0.84%) MySQL
8 6 (0.63%) NoSQL
9 5 (0.52%) DynamoDB
10 4 (0.42%) Amazon Aurora
10 4 (0.42%) Data Lake
10 4 (0.42%) DocumentDB
10 4 (0.42%) MariaDB
10 4 (0.42%) Redis
11 2 (0.21%) Big Data
11 2 (0.21%) SQLPlus
12 1 (0.10%) Oracle Reports
12 1 (0.10%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 1 (0.10%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 66 (6.91%) JIRA
2 62 (6.49%) Jenkins
3 34 (3.56%) Git
4 28 (2.93%) GitLab
5 25 (2.62%) Fiddler
6 9 (0.94%) Browser DevTools
7 7 (0.73%) Bitbucket
7 7 (0.73%) SonarQube
8 6 (0.63%) Chocolatey
9 3 (0.31%) CircleCI
9 3 (0.31%) Sonatype Nexus
10 2 (0.21%) Introscope
10 2 (0.21%) Spinnaker
11 1 (0.10%) Artifactory
11 1 (0.10%) Terragrunt
General
1 212 (22.20%) Social Skills
2 82 (8.59%) Analytical Skills
3 76 (7.96%) Finance
4 75 (7.85%) Banking
5 63 (6.60%) Public Sector
6 45 (4.71%) Documentation Skills
7 38 (3.98%) Investment Banking
8 27 (2.83%) Legal
9 17 (1.78%) Military
10 13 (1.36%) Telecoms
11 10 (1.05%) Organisational Skills
12 8 (0.84%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 8 (0.84%) Law
13 7 (0.73%) Local Government
14 6 (0.63%) Publishing
15 5 (0.52%) Manufacturing
15 5 (0.52%) Police
16 4 (0.42%) Advertising
16 4 (0.42%) Financial Institution
16 4 (0.42%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 172 (18.01%) Network Engineer
2 134 (14.03%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 115 (12.04%) Architect
4 77 (8.06%) Analyst
5 71 (7.43%) Senior
6 66 (6.91%) Support Engineer
7 63 (6.60%) Security Engineer
8 48 (5.03%) Web Engineer
9 47 (4.92%) IT Support
10 46 (4.82%) Cloud Engineer
11 43 (4.50%) Network Security Engineer
12 38 (3.98%) Cisco Engineer
12 38 (3.98%) IT Engineer
13 36 (3.77%) Cisco Network Engineer
13 36 (3.77%) DevOps Engineer
14 34 (3.56%) Administrator
14 34 (3.56%) Data Engineer
14 34 (3.56%) Data Network Engineer
15 33 (3.46%) Azure Engineer
15 33 (3.46%) Cisco Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 57 (5.97%) LDAP
2 50 (5.24%) SAML
3 40 (4.19%) 802.1X
4 39 (4.08%) OAuth
5 30 (3.14%) OpenID
6 20 (2.09%) OpenTelemetry
7 15 (1.57%) JSON
8 13 (1.36%) ARM Templates
9 10 (1.05%) Kafka
9 10 (1.05%) REST
10 9 (0.94%) OAuth2
11 5 (0.52%) CSS
11 5 (0.52%) Microsoft Graph
11 5 (0.52%) XMPP
12 4 (0.42%) Hibernate
12 4 (0.42%) JPA
12 4 (0.42%) RESTful
12 4 (0.42%) Spring
12 4 (0.42%) Web Services
12 4 (0.42%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 105 (10.99%) Data Centre
2 68 (7.12%) PKI
3 60 (6.28%) Cloud Native
4 51 (5.34%) Onboarding
5 39 (4.08%) Replication
6 38 (3.98%) Clustering
6 38 (3.98%) Hybrid Cloud
7 37 (3.87%) Management Information System
8 35 (3.66%) Public Cloud
9 30 (3.14%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 24 (2.51%) Security Operations Centre
11 21 (2.20%) Cyberattack
11 21 (2.20%) Self-Motivation
12 16 (1.68%) Enterprise Cloud
13 15 (1.57%) Cyber Threat
14 13 (1.36%) Enterprise Software
14 13 (1.36%) Legacy Systems
15 12 (1.26%) Security Posture
15 12 (1.26%) Virtual Team
16 11 (1.15%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 407 (42.62%) Windows
2 222 (23.25%) Windows Server
3 148 (15.50%) Linux
4 41 (4.29%) Windows 10
5 38 (3.98%) Windows Server 2019
6 33 (3.46%) Mac OS
6 33 (3.46%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 27 (2.83%) Unix
8 20 (2.09%) Apple iOS
8 20 (2.09%) Windows Server 2012
9 15 (1.57%) Android
10 12 (1.26%) Windows Server 2016
11 11 (1.15%) Ubuntu
11 11 (1.15%) VMS
12 9 (0.94%) CentOS
13 7 (0.73%) Windows 7
13 7 (0.73%) Windows Server 2003
14 3 (0.31%) AIX
15 2 (0.21%) Oracle Linux
15 2 (0.21%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 198 (20.73%) Problem-Solving
2 178 (18.64%) Load Balancing
3 168 (17.59%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 161 (16.86%) Migration
5 144 (15.08%) High Availability
6 140 (14.66%) DevOps
7 133 (13.93%) ITIL
8 119 (12.46%) Infrastructure as Code
9 118 (12.36%) CI/CD
10 96 (10.05%) ITSM
11 83 (8.69%) Disaster Recovery
12 82 (8.59%) Observability
13 79 (8.27%) Cybersecurity
13 79 (8.27%) Identity Access Management
14 76 (7.96%) Agile
15 68 (7.12%) Project Delivery
16 59 (6.18%) Runbook
17 58 (6.07%) SIEM
18 57 (5.97%) Root Cause Analysis
19 56 (5.86%) RBAC
Programming Languages
1 182 (19.06%) PowerShell
2 149 (15.60%) Python
3 95 (9.95%) Bash
4 56 (5.86%) SQL
5 25 (2.62%) JavaScript
6 24 (2.51%) Bicep
7 17 (1.78%) Java
8 13 (1.36%) Go
9 12 (1.26%) Shell Script
10 9 (0.94%) ActionScript
10 9 (0.94%) VBA
11 7 (0.73%) Perl
12 6 (0.63%) VBScript
13 5 (0.52%) Groovy
13 5 (0.52%) Ruby
14 4 (0.42%) C
14 4 (0.42%) VB
15 3 (0.31%) Lisp
16 2 (0.21%) Jython
16 2 (0.21%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 308 (32.25%) Security Cleared
2 194 (20.31%) SC Cleared
3 109 (11.41%) DV Cleared
4 85 (8.90%) Cisco Certification
5 76 (7.96%) Degree
6 54 (5.65%) CCNP
7 47 (4.92%) CCNA
8 30 (3.14%) CompTIA Security+
8 30 (3.14%) Microsoft Certification
9 27 (2.83%) Azure Certification
10 26 (2.72%) Network+ Certification
11 20 (2.09%) Computer Science Degree
12 17 (1.78%) CompTIA CySA+
12 17 (1.78%) Server+ Certification
13 16 (1.68%) BPSS Clearance
14 12 (1.26%) CISSP
15 11 (1.15%) AWS Certification
15 11 (1.15%) JNCIA
16 10 (1.05%) CCIE
16 10 (1.05%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 34 (3.56%) SLA
2 28 (2.93%) NIST
3 22 (2.30%) GDPR
4 20 (2.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 14 (1.47%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 11 (1.15%) QA
7 7 (0.73%) NCSC
8 5 (0.52%) PCI DSS
9 4 (0.42%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 2 (0.21%) Cyber Essentials
10 2 (0.21%) Disclosure Scotland
10 2 (0.21%) Government Security Classifications
10 2 (0.21%) SOC 2
11 1 (0.10%) Actionable Recommendations
11 1 (0.10%) COBIT
11 1 (0.10%) JSP 440
11 1 (0.10%) NIST 800
11 1 (0.10%) PMO
11 1 (0.10%) RMADS
System Software
1 374 (39.16%) Active Directory
2 204 (21.36%) VMware Infrastructure
3 94 (9.84%) Hyper-V
4 57 (5.97%) vSphere
5 54 (5.65%) VMware NSX
6 46 (4.82%) VMware ESXi
7 40 (4.19%) Virtual Machines
8 38 (3.98%) Docker
9 33 (3.46%) Virtual Desktop
10 25 (2.62%) Firmware
11 18 (1.88%) NFS
12 15 (1.57%) BitLocker
12 15 (1.57%) Squid
13 11 (1.15%) Microsoft App-V
14 10 (1.05%) Postfix
14 10 (1.05%) vCloud
15 8 (0.84%) VMware Workstation
16 7 (0.73%) Varnish
17 5 (0.52%) Ceph
17 5 (0.52%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 150 (15.71%) Terraform
2 123 (12.88%) Ansible
3 95 (9.95%) Kubernetes
4 77 (8.06%) Microsoft Intune
5 72 (7.54%) Single Sign-On
6 52 (5.45%) Grafana
7 50 (5.24%) FortiGate
8 46 (4.82%) vCenter Server
9 45 (4.71%) SCCM
10 40 (4.19%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 35 (3.66%) Prometheus
12 23 (2.41%) Argo
12 23 (2.41%) WSUS
13 17 (1.78%) SCOM
14 15 (1.57%) Puppet
15 14 (1.47%) HAProxy
16 13 (1.36%) Jamf Pro
17 12 (1.26%) vMotion
18 11 (1.15%) Nessus
19 8 (0.84%) Consul
Vendors
1 302 (31.62%) Microsoft
2 241 (25.24%) VMware
3 167 (17.49%) Cisco
4 157 (16.44%) F5
5 93 (9.74%) ServiceNow
6 88 (9.21%) Splunk
7 57 (5.97%) Citrix
7 57 (5.97%) Infoblox
8 48 (5.03%) Google
8 48 (5.03%) Red Hat
8 48 (5.03%) SolarWinds
9 45 (4.71%) Juniper
10 34 (3.56%) Palo Alto
11 33 (3.46%) Blue Coat
12 31 (3.25%) NetApp
13 29 (3.04%) Dynatrace
14 27 (2.83%) McAfee
15 24 (2.51%) Okta
16 22 (2.30%) Extreme Networks
17 21 (2.20%) CheckPoint