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

6 months to
19 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 138 123 158
Rank change year-on-year -15 +35 -19
Contract jobs citing DNS 954 674 667
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.89% 2.26% 1.52%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 19.82% 18.14% 12.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 584 474 453
10th Percentile £300 £263 £213
25th Percentile £400 £407 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £498 £543 £475
Median % change year-on-year -8.29% +14.21% -9.52%
75th Percentile £583 £610 £588
90th Percentile £638 £675 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £485 £550 £500
% change year-on-year -11.82% +10.00% -2.68%
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 15 25
10th Percentile £19.69 - £19.10
25th Percentile £24.06 £29.00 £23.80
Median hourly rate £32.50 £54.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -40.37% +36.25% -32.28%
75th Percentile £58.31 £81.18 -
90th Percentile £74.03 £81.80 £50.64
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £41.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year -21.69% +3.75% -23.27%

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 4,813 3,715 5,429
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.52% 12.46% 12.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,959 2,278 3,209
10th Percentile £250 £225 £210
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £484 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.31% -3.20% -1.96%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £471 £488
% change year-on-year +1.91% -3.38% +2.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 291 173 422
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £20.79 £18.82 £17.69
Median hourly rate £28.00 £44.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -36.36% +10.00% +110.53%
75th Percentile £65.00 £61.25 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £79.00 £71.81
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.00 £30.32 £47.50
% change year-on-year -7.65% -36.17% +150.46%

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 19 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 19 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 19 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 -14 845 £495 -10.00% 293
UK excluding London -10 598 £485 -11.82% 273
London -35 284 £500 - 66
North of England +13 233 £449 -10.20% 48
Work from Home -22 212 £525 -2.42% 117
South East 0 168 £525 -4.55% 98
North West +42 153 £458 +1.67% 30
Midlands +5 110 £450 -5.26% 37
West Midlands +4 96 £444 -6.58% 20
Yorkshire -26 74 £447 -18.77% 14
South West -18 62 £500 -18.70% 41
Scotland +26 46 £550 +22.22% 7
East of England -53 35 £450 -18.18% 34
East Midlands -16 13 £450 -19.64% 17
Wales -17 6 £300 -32.74% 11
North East -41 6 £413 +17.86% 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 85 (8.91%) Microsoft Exchange
2 61 (6.39%) 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%) 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 14 (1.47%) MS Visio
3 3 (0.31%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.21%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.10%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 6 (0.63%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.10%) Cloudability
Cloud Services
1 336 (35.22%) Azure
2 172 (18.03%) AWS
3 155 (16.25%) Entra ID
4 132 (13.84%) Microsoft 365
5 100 (10.48%) GCP
6 71 (7.44%) GitHub
7 58 (6.08%) IaaS
8 41 (4.30%) PaaS
9 40 (4.19%) SaaS
10 39 (4.09%) OneDrive
11 32 (3.35%) Serverless
12 29 (3.04%) Amazon EC2
13 28 (2.94%) Amazon S3
13 28 (2.94%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 27 (2.83%) Amazon EKS
14 27 (2.83%) Azure DevOps
15 26 (2.73%) GitHub Actions
15 26 (2.73%) OpenShift
15 26 (2.73%) Route 53
16 24 (2.52%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 422 (44.23%) DHCP
2 292 (30.61%) Firewall
3 229 (24.00%) VPN
4 227 (23.79%) TCP/IP
5 137 (14.36%) WAN
6 116 (12.16%) LAN
7 104 (10.90%) SSL
8 103 (10.80%) Network Security
9 94 (9.85%) BIG-IP
9 94 (9.85%) VLAN
10 85 (8.91%) BGP
11 77 (8.07%) HTTP
12 62 (6.50%) Wi-Fi
13 56 (5.87%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
14 53 (5.56%) Wireless
15 51 (5.35%) SAN
16 46 (4.82%) OSPF
17 44 (4.61%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
18 41 (4.30%) DMZ
19 37 (3.88%) Kerberos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (3.77%) SQL Server
2 19 (1.99%) Elasticsearch
3 17 (1.78%) PostgreSQL
4 12 (1.26%) Amazon RDS
5 11 (1.15%) Azure SQL Database
6 9 (0.94%) Power BI
7 8 (0.84%) MySQL
8 6 (0.63%) MongoDB
8 6 (0.63%) NoSQL
9 5 (0.52%) Data Lake
9 5 (0.52%) DynamoDB
10 4 (0.42%) Amazon Aurora
10 4 (0.42%) DocumentDB
10 4 (0.42%) MariaDB
10 4 (0.42%) Redis
11 3 (0.31%) Big Data
12 2 (0.21%) SQLPlus
13 1 (0.10%) Relational Database
13 1 (0.10%) SQL Server Reporting Services
13 1 (0.10%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 65 (6.81%) JIRA
2 59 (6.18%) Jenkins
3 32 (3.35%) Git
4 24 (2.52%) Fiddler
4 24 (2.52%) GitLab
5 9 (0.94%) Browser DevTools
6 8 (0.84%) Bitbucket
7 7 (0.73%) SonarQube
8 6 (0.63%) Chocolatey
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%) MSI
11 1 (0.10%) Visual Studio
General
1 215 (22.54%) Social Skills
2 80 (8.39%) Analytical Skills
3 74 (7.76%) Finance
4 70 (7.34%) Banking
5 66 (6.92%) Public Sector
6 49 (5.14%) Documentation Skills
7 36 (3.77%) Investment Banking
8 25 (2.62%) Legal
9 18 (1.89%) Military
10 15 (1.57%) Telecoms
11 10 (1.05%) Organisational Skills
12 8 (0.84%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 8 (0.84%) Local Government
13 6 (0.63%) Police
13 6 (0.63%) Publishing
14 5 (0.52%) Law
14 5 (0.52%) Manufacturing
15 4 (0.42%) Advertising
15 4 (0.42%) Financial Institution
15 4 (0.42%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 176 (18.45%) Network Engineer
2 139 (14.57%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 111 (11.64%) Architect
4 71 (7.44%) Senior
5 70 (7.34%) Support Engineer
6 65 (6.81%) Analyst
7 61 (6.39%) Security Engineer
8 52 (5.45%) Cloud Engineer
9 48 (5.03%) IT Support
10 46 (4.82%) Web Engineer
11 41 (4.30%) IT Engineer
11 41 (4.30%) Network Security Engineer
12 37 (3.88%) Cisco Engineer
12 37 (3.88%) DevOps Engineer
13 35 (3.67%) Cisco Network Engineer
14 34 (3.56%) Administrator
15 33 (3.46%) Azure Engineer
15 33 (3.46%) Data Engineer
15 33 (3.46%) Data Network Engineer
16 32 (3.35%) Cisco Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 57 (5.97%) LDAP
2 52 (5.45%) SAML
3 44 (4.61%) 802.1X
4 40 (4.19%) OAuth
5 33 (3.46%) OpenID
6 21 (2.20%) OpenTelemetry
7 15 (1.57%) JSON
8 13 (1.36%) ARM Templates
9 11 (1.15%) REST
10 10 (1.05%) OAuth2
11 8 (0.84%) Kafka
12 5 (0.52%) CSS
12 5 (0.52%) gRPC
12 5 (0.52%) XMPP
13 4 (0.42%) Hibernate
13 4 (0.42%) Microsoft Graph
13 4 (0.42%) Spring
13 4 (0.42%) Spring Boot
13 4 (0.42%) Spring Cloud
13 4 (0.42%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 110 (11.53%) Data Centre
2 71 (7.44%) PKI
3 60 (6.29%) Cloud Native
4 51 (5.35%) Onboarding
5 41 (4.30%) Hybrid Cloud
6 39 (4.09%) Clustering
6 39 (4.09%) Replication
7 37 (3.88%) Management Information System
8 32 (3.35%) Public Cloud
9 30 (3.14%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 21 (2.20%) Self-Motivation
11 16 (1.68%) Enterprise Cloud
11 16 (1.68%) Security Operations Centre
12 15 (1.57%) Security Posture
13 13 (1.36%) Cyberattack
13 13 (1.36%) Enterprise Software
13 13 (1.36%) Legacy Systems
14 12 (1.26%) Cyber Threat
14 12 (1.26%) Virtual Team
15 11 (1.15%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 400 (41.93%) Windows
2 223 (23.38%) Windows Server
3 138 (14.47%) Linux
4 42 (4.40%) Windows 10
5 36 (3.77%) Windows Server 2019
6 34 (3.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 33 (3.46%) Mac OS
8 24 (2.52%) Unix
9 19 (1.99%) Apple iOS
9 19 (1.99%) Windows Server 2012
10 13 (1.36%) Android
11 11 (1.15%) Ubuntu
11 11 (1.15%) VMS
11 11 (1.15%) Windows Server 2016
12 10 (1.05%) 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%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 191 (20.02%) Problem-Solving
2 174 (18.24%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 174 (18.24%) Load Balancing
3 164 (17.19%) Migration
4 147 (15.41%) High Availability
5 138 (14.47%) DevOps
6 136 (14.26%) ITIL
7 117 (12.26%) CI/CD
7 117 (12.26%) Infrastructure as Code
8 97 (10.17%) ITSM
9 81 (8.49%) Observability
10 80 (8.39%) Disaster Recovery
11 79 (8.28%) Identity Access Management
12 75 (7.86%) Agile
13 72 (7.55%) Project Delivery
14 65 (6.81%) Cybersecurity
15 59 (6.18%) Runbook
16 58 (6.08%) RBAC
17 55 (5.77%) Root Cause Analysis
18 54 (5.66%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 185 (19.39%) PowerShell
2 149 (15.62%) Python
3 92 (9.64%) Bash
4 55 (5.77%) SQL
5 25 (2.62%) JavaScript
6 24 (2.52%) Bicep
7 13 (1.36%) Java
8 10 (1.05%) ActionScript
8 10 (1.05%) Go
9 9 (0.94%) Shell Script
9 9 (0.94%) VBA
10 8 (0.84%) Perl
11 6 (0.63%) VBScript
12 5 (0.52%) Groovy
12 5 (0.52%) Ruby
13 4 (0.42%) C
13 4 (0.42%) VB
14 3 (0.31%) Lisp
15 2 (0.21%) Jython
15 2 (0.21%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 309 (32.39%) Security Cleared
2 195 (20.44%) SC Cleared
3 109 (11.43%) DV Cleared
4 92 (9.64%) Cisco Certification
5 75 (7.86%) Degree
6 60 (6.29%) CCNP
7 51 (5.35%) CCNA
8 31 (3.25%) Microsoft Certification
9 28 (2.94%) Azure Certification
10 26 (2.73%) Network+ Certification
11 24 (2.52%) CompTIA Security+
12 17 (1.78%) Server+ Certification
13 16 (1.68%) BPSS Clearance
14 15 (1.57%) Computer Science Degree
15 14 (1.47%) CISSP
16 12 (1.26%) AWS Certification
16 12 (1.26%) CCIE
16 12 (1.26%) MCSE
17 11 (1.15%) CompTIA CySA+
17 11 (1.15%) JNCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (3.25%) SLA
2 29 (3.04%) NIST
3 21 (2.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 20 (2.10%) GDPR
5 14 (1.47%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 12 (1.26%) QA
7 7 (0.73%) NCSC
8 5 (0.52%) PCI DSS
9 4 (0.42%) Cyber Essentials
9 4 (0.42%) HMG Security Policy Framework
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
1 376 (39.41%) Active Directory
2 207 (21.70%) VMware Infrastructure
3 94 (9.85%) Hyper-V
4 57 (5.97%) vSphere
5 55 (5.77%) VMware NSX
6 51 (5.35%) VMware ESXi
7 40 (4.19%) Virtual Machines
8 34 (3.56%) Docker
9 33 (3.46%) Virtual Desktop
10 25 (2.62%) Firmware
11 18 (1.89%) NFS
12 16 (1.68%) BitLocker
13 15 (1.57%) Squid
14 12 (1.26%) Microsoft App-V
15 11 (1.15%) vCloud
16 10 (1.05%) Postfix
17 8 (0.84%) VMware Workstation
18 7 (0.73%) Varnish
19 6 (0.63%) Terminal Services
20 5 (0.52%) Ceph
Systems Management
1 148 (15.51%) Terraform
2 123 (12.89%) Ansible
3 92 (9.64%) Kubernetes
4 75 (7.86%) Microsoft Intune
4 75 (7.86%) Single Sign-On
5 53 (5.56%) FortiGate
6 51 (5.35%) vCenter Server
7 50 (5.24%) Grafana
8 46 (4.82%) SCCM
9 39 (4.09%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 36 (3.77%) Prometheus
11 24 (2.52%) Argo
11 24 (2.52%) WSUS
12 18 (1.89%) SCOM
13 16 (1.68%) Puppet
14 14 (1.47%) HAProxy
15 13 (1.36%) Jamf Pro
15 13 (1.36%) Nessus
15 13 (1.36%) vMotion
16 8 (0.84%) Consul
Vendors
1 305 (31.97%) Microsoft
2 244 (25.58%) VMware
3 174 (18.24%) Cisco
4 156 (16.35%) F5
5 88 (9.22%) ServiceNow
6 78 (8.18%) Splunk
7 59 (6.18%) Infoblox
8 58 (6.08%) Citrix
9 50 (5.24%) Google
9 50 (5.24%) SolarWinds
10 49 (5.14%) Red Hat
11 45 (4.72%) Juniper
12 36 (3.77%) Palo Alto
13 31 (3.25%) Blue Coat
13 31 (3.25%) NetApp
14 30 (3.14%) Dynatrace
15 26 (2.73%) McAfee
16 24 (2.52%) Okta
17 23 (2.41%) Fortinet
18 22 (2.31%) Extreme Networks