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

6 months to
25 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 139 121 152
Rank change year-on-year -18 +31 -20
Contract jobs citing DNS 916 673 676
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.89% 2.34% 1.59%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 19.68% 18.48% 12.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 567 480 465
10th Percentile £281 £299 £213
25th Percentile £400 £406 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £495 £550 £475
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +15.79% -9.52%
75th Percentile £588 £613 £588
90th Percentile £638 £676 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £545 £500
% change year-on-year -11.93% +9.00% -0.99%
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 9 24
10th Percentile £20.37 £26.10 £18.95
25th Percentile £25.79 £45.75 £23.66
Median hourly rate £36.36 £80.68 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -54.93% +101.69% -23.27%
75th Percentile £74.00 £81.35 -
90th Percentile £74.33 £82.48 £57.57
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.96 £81.01 £40.00
% change year-on-year -51.91% +102.53% -18.56%

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 4,655 3,642 5,398
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.61% 12.65% 12.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,864 2,256 3,233
10th Percentile £263 £213 £206
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £490
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -0.51% -4.39%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £463 £475
% change year-on-year +2.70% -2.63% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 265 156 414
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £20.75 £17.30 £16.30
Median hourly rate £29.04 £38.41 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -24.39% -3.98% +116.22%
75th Percentile £65.00 £59.09 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £77.50 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £36.66 £28.00 £46.14
% change year-on-year +30.93% -39.31% +156.31%

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 25 May 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 25 May 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 25 May 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 -20 801 £495 -10.00% 281
UK excluding London -13 586 £480 -11.93% 260
London -45 255 £500 -4.76% 61
North of England +9 225 £446 -6.21% 57
Work from Home -25 195 £538 +0.28% 109
South East -7 161 £525 -4.55% 88
North West +34 152 £446 +4.82% 35
Midlands +14 110 £413 -25.00% 39
West Midlands +11 97 £406 +1.56% 23
Yorkshire -38 67 £447 -18.77% 17
South West -28 56 £500 -15.79% 34
Scotland +40 51 £550 +22.22% 10
East of England -46 40 £450 -18.18% 32
East Midlands -25 12 £394 -30.62% 16
North East -31 6 £306 -12.50% 8
Wales -17 5 £300 -33.33% 10

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 (9.28%) Microsoft Exchange
2 50 (5.46%) SharePoint
3 19 (2.07%) Confluence
4 16 (1.75%) nginx
5 14 (1.53%) IIS
6 12 (1.31%) Apache
7 7 (0.76%) Tomcat
8 5 (0.55%) WebSphere
9 4 (0.44%) Skype for Business
10 2 (0.22%) Exchange Server 2013
10 2 (0.22%) IBM HTTP Server
10 2 (0.22%) Oracle HTTP Server
10 2 (0.22%) WebSphere Application Server
10 2 (0.22%) WebSphere Portal
11 1 (0.11%) Exchange Server 2010
11 1 (0.11%) Traefik
Applications
1 17 (1.86%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (1.31%) MS Visio
3 2 (0.22%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 3 (0.33%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.11%) Cloudability
Cloud Services
1 315 (34.39%) Azure
2 164 (17.90%) AWS
3 141 (15.39%) Entra ID
4 126 (13.76%) Microsoft 365
5 99 (10.81%) GCP
6 69 (7.53%) GitHub
7 54 (5.90%) IaaS
8 42 (4.59%) PaaS
9 39 (4.26%) SaaS
10 33 (3.60%) Amazon EC2
10 33 (3.60%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 32 (3.49%) Amazon S3
11 32 (3.49%) AWS CloudFormation
11 32 (3.49%) Serverless
12 31 (3.38%) GitHub Actions
13 29 (3.17%) Amazon EKS
13 29 (3.17%) AWS Lambda
13 29 (3.17%) OneDrive
14 28 (3.06%) Route 53
15 25 (2.73%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 393 (42.90%) DHCP
2 275 (30.02%) Firewall
3 227 (24.78%) TCP/IP
4 222 (24.24%) VPN
5 118 (12.88%) WAN
6 110 (12.01%) LAN
7 101 (11.03%) SSL
8 95 (10.37%) Network Security
9 90 (9.83%) BIG-IP
10 88 (9.61%) VLAN
11 84 (9.17%) HTTP
12 81 (8.84%) BGP
13 56 (6.11%) Wi-Fi
14 51 (5.57%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
15 49 (5.35%) Wireless
16 46 (5.02%) SAN
17 45 (4.91%) OSPF
18 41 (4.48%) Kerberos
19 38 (4.15%) DMZ
19 38 (4.15%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (3.71%) SQL Server
2 21 (2.29%) Elasticsearch
3 17 (1.86%) PostgreSQL
4 9 (0.98%) Amazon RDS
4 9 (0.98%) MongoDB
5 8 (0.87%) Power BI
6 6 (0.66%) MySQL
7 5 (0.55%) Amazon Aurora
7 5 (0.55%) Azure SQL Database
7 5 (0.55%) DynamoDB
8 4 (0.44%) DocumentDB
8 4 (0.44%) MariaDB
8 4 (0.44%) NoSQL
8 4 (0.44%) Redis
9 3 (0.33%) Data Hub
10 2 (0.22%) SQLPlus
11 1 (0.11%) Oracle Reports
11 1 (0.11%) Relational Database
11 1 (0.11%) SQL Server Reporting Services
11 1 (0.11%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 58 (6.33%) Jenkins
1 58 (6.33%) JIRA
2 34 (3.71%) Git
3 31 (3.38%) GitLab
4 26 (2.84%) Fiddler
5 9 (0.98%) Browser DevTools
6 7 (0.76%) Bitbucket
6 7 (0.76%) SonarQube
7 6 (0.66%) Chocolatey
8 4 (0.44%) CircleCI
8 4 (0.44%) Terragrunt
9 3 (0.33%) Sonatype Nexus
10 2 (0.22%) Introscope
11 1 (0.11%) Artifactory
11 1 (0.11%) Atlassian Bamboo
11 1 (0.11%) Spinnaker
11 1 (0.11%) Travis CI
General
1 199 (21.72%) Social Skills
2 89 (9.72%) Analytical Skills
3 72 (7.86%) Banking
4 71 (7.75%) Finance
5 61 (6.66%) Public Sector
6 44 (4.80%) Documentation Skills
7 37 (4.04%) Investment Banking
8 27 (2.95%) Legal
9 18 (1.97%) Military
10 17 (1.86%) Telecoms
11 10 (1.09%) Organisational Skills
12 9 (0.98%) Law
13 7 (0.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 5 (0.55%) Local Government
14 5 (0.55%) Police
15 4 (0.44%) Financial Institution
15 4 (0.44%) Italian Language
15 4 (0.44%) Manufacturing
16 3 (0.33%) Advertising
16 3 (0.33%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 163 (17.79%) Network Engineer
2 118 (12.88%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 112 (12.23%) Architect
4 84 (9.17%) Analyst
5 67 (7.31%) Senior
6 66 (7.21%) Security Engineer
7 54 (5.90%) Support Engineer
8 49 (5.35%) Web Engineer
9 43 (4.69%) IT Support
10 42 (4.59%) Network Security Engineer
11 37 (4.04%) Cloud Engineer
11 37 (4.04%) IT Engineer
12 36 (3.93%) Lead
13 34 (3.71%) Cisco Engineer
13 34 (3.71%) Cisco Network Engineer
14 33 (3.60%) Administrator
14 33 (3.60%) Data Engineer
14 33 (3.60%) Data Network Engineer
15 32 (3.49%) Cisco Security Engineer
16 30 (3.28%) Azure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 71 (7.75%) LDAP
2 52 (5.68%) SAML
3 42 (4.59%) OAuth
4 36 (3.93%) 802.1X
5 31 (3.38%) OpenID
6 20 (2.18%) OpenTelemetry
7 14 (1.53%) JSON
8 12 (1.31%) ARM Templates
9 10 (1.09%) Elastic Stack
9 10 (1.09%) REST
10 9 (0.98%) Kafka
10 9 (0.98%) OAuth2
11 5 (0.55%) Microsoft Graph
11 5 (0.55%) XMPP
12 4 (0.44%) AWS CDK
12 4 (0.44%) gRPC
12 4 (0.44%) Hibernate
12 4 (0.44%) Spring
12 4 (0.44%) Spring Cloud
12 4 (0.44%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 90 (9.83%) Data Centre
2 65 (7.10%) PKI
3 51 (5.57%) Cloud Native
4 43 (4.69%) Onboarding
5 42 (4.59%) Management Information System
6 40 (4.37%) Replication
7 39 (4.26%) Clustering
8 35 (3.82%) Public Cloud
9 29 (3.17%) Hybrid Cloud
9 29 (3.17%) Security Operations Centre
10 27 (2.95%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 26 (2.84%) Cyberattack
12 19 (2.07%) Cyber Threat
12 19 (2.07%) Self-Motivation
13 15 (1.64%) Enterprise Cloud
14 14 (1.53%) Enterprise Software
15 13 (1.42%) Security Posture
16 12 (1.31%) Analytical Mindset
16 12 (1.31%) Enterprise Storage
16 12 (1.31%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 386 (42.14%) Windows
2 214 (23.36%) Windows Server
3 132 (14.41%) Linux
4 43 (4.69%) Windows 10
5 39 (4.26%) Windows Server 2019
6 26 (2.84%) Mac OS
7 24 (2.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 24 (2.62%) Unix
8 17 (1.86%) Apple iOS
8 17 (1.86%) Windows Server 2012
9 16 (1.75%) Android
10 15 (1.64%) Windows Server 2016
11 10 (1.09%) VMS
12 8 (0.87%) Windows Server 2003
13 7 (0.76%) CentOS
13 7 (0.76%) Ubuntu
13 7 (0.76%) Windows 7
14 4 (0.44%) CatOS
15 3 (0.33%) Windows Server 2008
16 2 (0.22%) Oracle Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 193 (21.07%) Problem-Solving
2 170 (18.56%) Load Balancing
3 146 (15.94%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 146 (15.94%) Migration
4 141 (15.39%) High Availability
5 127 (13.86%) DevOps
6 123 (13.43%) ITIL
7 114 (12.45%) CI/CD
7 114 (12.45%) Infrastructure as Code
8 85 (9.28%) Cybersecurity
8 85 (9.28%) ITSM
9 84 (9.17%) Disaster Recovery
10 79 (8.62%) Observability
11 75 (8.19%) Identity Access Management
12 68 (7.42%) Agile
13 63 (6.88%) Change Management
13 63 (6.88%) SIEM
14 62 (6.77%) Project Delivery
15 60 (6.55%) Incident Response
15 60 (6.55%) Runbook
Programming Languages
1 178 (19.43%) PowerShell
2 137 (14.96%) Python
3 84 (9.17%) Bash
4 51 (5.57%) SQL
5 24 (2.62%) Bicep
6 22 (2.40%) JavaScript
7 15 (1.64%) Java
8 12 (1.31%) Go
9 11 (1.20%) Shell Script
10 9 (0.98%) Ruby
11 7 (0.76%) VBA
12 6 (0.66%) Perl
12 6 (0.66%) VBScript
13 4 (0.44%) ActionScript
13 4 (0.44%) Groovy
13 4 (0.44%) VB
14 3 (0.33%) C
15 2 (0.22%) Jython
15 2 (0.22%) Kusto Query Language
16 1 (0.11%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 304 (33.19%) Security Cleared
2 202 (22.05%) SC Cleared
3 105 (11.46%) DV Cleared
4 81 (8.84%) Cisco Certification
5 66 (7.21%) Degree
6 50 (5.46%) CCNP
7 42 (4.59%) CCNA
8 32 (3.49%) CompTIA Security+
9 29 (3.17%) Microsoft Certification
10 26 (2.84%) Azure Certification
10 26 (2.84%) Network+ Certification
11 21 (2.29%) Computer Science Degree
12 17 (1.86%) CompTIA CySA+
13 15 (1.64%) Server+ Certification
14 13 (1.42%) BPSS Clearance
15 12 (1.31%) AWS Certification
16 11 (1.20%) CISSP
17 10 (1.09%) JNCIA
17 10 (1.09%) JNCIS
18 8 (0.87%) JNCIP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (3.49%) SLA
2 25 (2.73%) NIST
3 23 (2.51%) GDPR
4 21 (2.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 16 (1.75%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 8 (0.87%) QA
7 7 (0.76%) NCSC
8 5 (0.55%) Cyber Essentials
9 4 (0.44%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 4 (0.44%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.22%) Accessibility
10 2 (0.22%) Data Quality
10 2 (0.22%) Disclosure Scotland
10 2 (0.22%) JSP 440
10 2 (0.22%) PMO
11 1 (0.11%) Actionable Recommendations
11 1 (0.11%) COBIT
11 1 (0.11%) NIST 800
11 1 (0.11%) RMADS
11 1 (0.11%) SOC 2
System Software
1 359 (39.19%) Active Directory
2 200 (21.83%) VMware Infrastructure
3 94 (10.26%) Hyper-V
4 54 (5.90%) VMware NSX
5 53 (5.79%) vSphere
6 44 (4.80%) Docker
7 36 (3.93%) VMware ESXi
8 35 (3.82%) Virtual Machines
9 25 (2.73%) Firmware
10 22 (2.40%) Virtual Desktop
11 14 (1.53%) BitLocker
11 14 (1.53%) NFS
11 14 (1.53%) Squid
12 10 (1.09%) Microsoft App-V
13 8 (0.87%) Postfix
13 8 (0.87%) vCloud
13 8 (0.87%) VMware Workstation
14 7 (0.76%) Varnish
15 5 (0.55%) Ceph
16 4 (0.44%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 143 (15.61%) Terraform
2 115 (12.55%) Ansible
3 93 (10.15%) Kubernetes
4 77 (8.41%) Microsoft Intune
5 72 (7.86%) Single Sign-On
6 51 (5.57%) FortiGate
7 49 (5.35%) SCCM
8 48 (5.24%) Grafana
9 43 (4.69%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 43 (4.69%) vCenter Server
10 31 (3.38%) Prometheus
11 29 (3.17%) WSUS
12 22 (2.40%) Argo
13 17 (1.86%) SCOM
14 12 (1.31%) HAProxy
14 12 (1.31%) Puppet
15 11 (1.20%) Nessus
16 9 (0.98%) vMotion
17 8 (0.87%) Consul
17 8 (0.87%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 280 (30.57%) Microsoft
2 240 (26.20%) VMware
3 158 (17.25%) Cisco
4 152 (16.59%) F5
5 85 (9.28%) Splunk
6 82 (8.95%) ServiceNow
7 54 (5.90%) Citrix
8 53 (5.79%) Infoblox
9 47 (5.13%) SolarWinds
10 44 (4.80%) Juniper
11 43 (4.69%) Google
12 41 (4.48%) Red Hat
13 35 (3.82%) Blue Coat
14 32 (3.49%) NetApp
14 32 (3.49%) Palo Alto
15 29 (3.17%) McAfee
16 27 (2.95%) Dynatrace
17 24 (2.62%) CheckPoint
18 22 (2.40%) Extreme Networks
18 22 (2.40%) Okta