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

6 months to
2 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 132 122 157
Rank change year-on-year -10 +35 -24
Contract jobs citing DNS 951 670 661
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.95% 2.32% 1.54%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 20.09% 18.37% 12.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 593 475 455
10th Percentile £285 £300 £213
25th Percentile £400 £406 £353
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £550 £475
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +15.79% -9.52%
75th Percentile £588 £613 £588
90th Percentile £638 £675 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £550 £500
% change year-on-year -12.73% +10.00% -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 12 24
10th Percentile £20.37 - £18.95
25th Percentile £25.79 £29.00 £23.66
Median hourly rate £33.86 £69.09 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -50.99% +112.58% -37.66%
75th Percentile £74.00 £81.35 £40.00
90th Percentile £74.33 £82.03 £50.96
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.86 £80.68 £40.00
% change year-on-year -58.03% +101.69% -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 4,734 3,647 5,426
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.71% 12.60% 12.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,900 2,261 3,234
10th Percentile £263 £220 £206
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -2.44%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £466 £480
% change year-on-year +1.99% -2.87% +0.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 281 160 417
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.67 £16.30
Median hourly rate £28.88 £40.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -28.69% +1.25% +119.30%
75th Percentile £65.00 £59.09 £63.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £80.10 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £30.70 £45.88
% change year-on-year +5.86% -33.09% +154.89%

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 2 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 2 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 2 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 -23 833 £500 -9.09% 353
UK excluding London -5 607 £480 -12.73% 305
London -28 267 £500 -3.51% 93
North of England +10 236 £447 -5.89% 65
Work from Home -25 207 £525 -3.23% 212
South East -6 166 £525 -4.55% 110
North West +39 156 £450 +5.88% 43
Midlands +15 113 £425 -21.66% 36
West Midlands +12 100 £438 - 20
Yorkshire -28 74 £447 -18.73% 15
South West -31 57 £500 -18.70% 45
Scotland +38 51 £550 +22.22% 8
East of England -48 41 £450 -18.18% 30
East Midlands -29 12 £394 -30.62% 16
Wales -18 6 £300 -33.33% 12
North East -32 6 £306 -12.50% 9

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 86 (9.04%) Microsoft Exchange
2 54 (5.68%) SharePoint
3 20 (2.10%) Confluence
4 17 (1.79%) nginx
5 16 (1.68%) IIS
6 14 (1.47%) Apache
7 9 (0.95%) Tomcat
8 5 (0.53%) 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 (0.11%) Exchange Server 2010
11 1 (0.11%) Traefik
Applications
1 18 (1.89%) Microsoft Office
2 16 (1.68%) MS Visio
3 2 (0.21%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.11%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 4 (0.42%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.11%) Cloudability
Cloud Services
1 331 (34.81%) Azure
2 179 (18.82%) AWS
3 151 (15.88%) Entra ID
4 128 (13.46%) Microsoft 365
5 101 (10.62%) GCP
6 74 (7.78%) GitHub
7 55 (5.78%) IaaS
8 41 (4.31%) PaaS
9 40 (4.21%) SaaS
10 34 (3.58%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 33 (3.47%) GitHub Actions
11 33 (3.47%) Serverless
12 32 (3.36%) Amazon EC2
12 32 (3.36%) Amazon S3
12 32 (3.36%) AWS CloudFormation
12 32 (3.36%) OneDrive
13 30 (3.15%) Amazon EKS
13 30 (3.15%) AWS Lambda
14 28 (2.94%) Route 53
15 25 (2.63%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 412 (43.32%) DHCP
2 287 (30.18%) Firewall
3 236 (24.82%) TCP/IP
4 228 (23.97%) VPN
5 129 (13.56%) WAN
6 116 (12.20%) LAN
7 110 (11.57%) SSL
8 101 (10.62%) Network Security
9 95 (9.99%) BIG-IP
10 93 (9.78%) VLAN
11 85 (8.94%) BGP
12 84 (8.83%) HTTP
13 57 (5.99%) Wi-Fi
14 55 (5.78%) Wireless
15 53 (5.57%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
16 49 (5.15%) SAN
17 48 (5.05%) OSPF
18 41 (4.31%) Kerberos
19 40 (4.21%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
20 38 (4.00%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 37 (3.89%) SQL Server
2 20 (2.10%) Elasticsearch
3 19 (2.00%) PostgreSQL
4 9 (0.95%) Amazon RDS
4 9 (0.95%) MongoDB
5 8 (0.84%) MySQL
5 8 (0.84%) Power BI
6 6 (0.63%) Azure SQL Database
6 6 (0.63%) NoSQL
7 5 (0.53%) DynamoDB
8 4 (0.42%) Amazon Aurora
8 4 (0.42%) DocumentDB
8 4 (0.42%) MariaDB
8 4 (0.42%) Redis
9 3 (0.32%) Data Hub
10 2 (0.21%) 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 65 (6.83%) JIRA
2 62 (6.52%) Jenkins
3 37 (3.89%) Git
4 32 (3.36%) GitLab
5 25 (2.63%) Fiddler
6 9 (0.95%) Browser DevTools
7 7 (0.74%) Bitbucket
7 7 (0.74%) SonarQube
8 6 (0.63%) Chocolatey
9 4 (0.42%) CircleCI
9 4 (0.42%) Terragrunt
10 3 (0.32%) Sonatype Nexus
11 2 (0.21%) Introscope
12 1 (0.11%) Artifactory
12 1 (0.11%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 1 (0.11%) Spinnaker
12 1 (0.11%) Travis CI
General
1 213 (22.40%) Social Skills
2 91 (9.57%) Analytical Skills
3 74 (7.78%) Banking
3 74 (7.78%) Finance
4 65 (6.83%) Public Sector
5 50 (5.26%) Documentation Skills
6 37 (3.89%) Investment Banking
7 27 (2.84%) Legal
8 17 (1.79%) Military
9 14 (1.47%) Telecoms
10 10 (1.05%) Organisational Skills
11 9 (0.95%) Law
12 7 (0.74%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 5 (0.53%) Local Government
13 5 (0.53%) Manufacturing
13 5 (0.53%) Police
14 4 (0.42%) Advertising
14 4 (0.42%) Financial Institution
14 4 (0.42%) Italian Language
15 3 (0.32%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 172 (18.09%) Network Engineer
2 125 (13.14%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 117 (12.30%) Architect
4 84 (8.83%) Analyst
5 71 (7.47%) Senior
6 64 (6.73%) Security Engineer
7 57 (5.99%) Support Engineer
8 48 (5.05%) Web Engineer
9 43 (4.52%) Cloud Engineer
9 43 (4.52%) IT Support
10 42 (4.42%) Network Security Engineer
11 36 (3.79%) Cisco Engineer
11 36 (3.79%) IT Engineer
11 36 (3.79%) Lead
12 34 (3.58%) Cisco Network Engineer
13 33 (3.47%) Data Engineer
13 33 (3.47%) Data Network Engineer
14 32 (3.36%) Administrator
14 32 (3.36%) Azure Engineer
14 32 (3.36%) Cisco Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 70 (7.36%) LDAP
2 57 (5.99%) SAML
3 43 (4.52%) OAuth
4 40 (4.21%) 802.1X
5 32 (3.36%) OpenID
6 20 (2.10%) OpenTelemetry
7 16 (1.68%) JSON
8 12 (1.26%) ARM Templates
9 10 (1.05%) Kafka
9 10 (1.05%) OAuth2
9 10 (1.05%) REST
10 8 (0.84%) Elastic Stack
11 5 (0.53%) Microsoft Graph
11 5 (0.53%) XMPP
11 5 (0.53%) YAML
12 4 (0.42%) AWS CDK
12 4 (0.42%) Hibernate
12 4 (0.42%) JPA
12 4 (0.42%) Spring
12 4 (0.42%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 97 (10.20%) Data Centre
2 72 (7.57%) PKI
3 55 (5.78%) Cloud Native
4 50 (5.26%) Onboarding
5 42 (4.42%) Management Information System
5 42 (4.42%) Replication
6 39 (4.10%) Clustering
7 36 (3.79%) Public Cloud
8 33 (3.47%) Hybrid Cloud
9 29 (3.05%) Security Operations Centre
10 28 (2.94%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 26 (2.73%) Cyberattack
12 21 (2.21%) Self-Motivation
13 19 (2.00%) Cyber Threat
14 15 (1.58%) Enterprise Cloud
15 14 (1.47%) Enterprise Software
16 13 (1.37%) Legacy Systems
16 13 (1.37%) Security Posture
17 12 (1.26%) Analytical Mindset
17 12 (1.26%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 401 (42.17%) Windows
2 220 (23.13%) Windows Server
3 145 (15.25%) Linux
4 42 (4.42%) Windows 10
5 41 (4.31%) Windows Server 2019
6 29 (3.05%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 28 (2.94%) Mac OS
8 26 (2.73%) Unix
9 19 (2.00%) Windows Server 2012
10 17 (1.79%) Apple iOS
11 15 (1.58%) Android
11 15 (1.58%) Windows Server 2016
12 11 (1.16%) VMS
13 9 (0.95%) CentOS
13 9 (0.95%) Ubuntu
14 8 (0.84%) Windows Server 2003
15 7 (0.74%) Windows 7
16 4 (0.42%) CatOS
17 3 (0.32%) AIX
17 3 (0.32%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 193 (20.29%) Problem-Solving
2 173 (18.19%) Load Balancing
3 158 (16.61%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 157 (16.51%) Migration
5 146 (15.35%) High Availability
6 133 (13.99%) DevOps
7 132 (13.88%) ITIL
8 120 (12.62%) CI/CD
9 119 (12.51%) Infrastructure as Code
10 90 (9.46%) ITSM
11 87 (9.15%) Cybersecurity
12 86 (9.04%) Disaster Recovery
13 83 (8.73%) Observability
14 81 (8.52%) Identity Access Management
15 75 (7.89%) Agile
16 68 (7.15%) Project Delivery
17 65 (6.83%) SIEM
18 64 (6.73%) Runbook
19 62 (6.52%) Root Cause Analysis
20 60 (6.31%) Incident Response
Programming Languages
1 189 (19.87%) PowerShell
2 153 (16.09%) Python
3 91 (9.57%) Bash
4 52 (5.47%) SQL
5 25 (2.63%) JavaScript
6 24 (2.52%) Bicep
7 16 (1.68%) Java
8 12 (1.26%) Go
9 11 (1.16%) Shell Script
10 9 (0.95%) Ruby
10 9 (0.95%) VBA
11 7 (0.74%) ActionScript
11 7 (0.74%) Perl
12 6 (0.63%) VBScript
13 5 (0.53%) Groovy
14 4 (0.42%) C
14 4 (0.42%) VB
15 3 (0.32%) Lisp
16 2 (0.21%) Jython
16 2 (0.21%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 317 (33.33%) Security Cleared
2 206 (21.66%) SC Cleared
3 113 (11.88%) DV Cleared
4 86 (9.04%) Cisco Certification
5 72 (7.57%) Degree
6 55 (5.78%) CCNP
7 45 (4.73%) CCNA
8 31 (3.26%) CompTIA Security+
9 29 (3.05%) Microsoft Certification
10 28 (2.94%) Network+ Certification
11 25 (2.63%) Azure Certification
12 21 (2.21%) Computer Science Degree
13 17 (1.79%) CompTIA CySA+
13 17 (1.79%) Server+ Certification
14 15 (1.58%) BPSS Clearance
15 12 (1.26%) AWS Certification
16 11 (1.16%) CISSP
16 11 (1.16%) JNCIA
17 10 (1.05%) JNCIS
18 9 (0.95%) CCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (3.47%) SLA
2 28 (2.94%) NIST
3 23 (2.42%) GDPR
4 19 (2.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 16 (1.68%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 11 (1.16%) QA
7 7 (0.74%) NCSC
8 4 (0.42%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 4 (0.42%) PCI DSS
9 3 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials
10 2 (0.21%) Accessibility
10 2 (0.21%) Data Quality
10 2 (0.21%) Disclosure Scotland
10 2 (0.21%) Government Security Classifications
10 2 (0.21%) SOC 2
11 1 (0.11%) Actionable Recommendations
11 1 (0.11%) COBIT
11 1 (0.11%) JSP 440
11 1 (0.11%) PMO
11 1 (0.11%) RMADS
System Software
1 376 (39.54%) Active Directory
2 204 (21.45%) VMware Infrastructure
3 95 (9.99%) Hyper-V
4 56 (5.89%) VMware NSX
5 55 (5.78%) vSphere
6 42 (4.42%) Docker
7 39 (4.10%) VMware ESXi
8 36 (3.79%) Virtual Machines
9 26 (2.73%) Virtual Desktop
10 25 (2.63%) Firmware
11 17 (1.79%) NFS
12 15 (1.58%) Squid
13 14 (1.47%) BitLocker
14 10 (1.05%) Microsoft App-V
14 10 (1.05%) Postfix
15 9 (0.95%) vCloud
16 8 (0.84%) VMware Workstation
17 7 (0.74%) Varnish
18 5 (0.53%) Ceph
19 4 (0.42%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 148 (15.56%) Terraform
2 121 (12.72%) Ansible
3 94 (9.88%) Kubernetes
4 78 (8.20%) Microsoft Intune
4 78 (8.20%) Single Sign-On
5 51 (5.36%) FortiGate
6 48 (5.05%) Grafana
7 47 (4.94%) SCCM
8 45 (4.73%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 43 (4.52%) vCenter Server
10 31 (3.26%) Prometheus
11 26 (2.73%) WSUS
12 22 (2.31%) Argo
13 16 (1.68%) SCOM
14 14 (1.47%) HAProxy
15 12 (1.26%) Puppet
16 11 (1.16%) Nessus
17 9 (0.95%) Jamf Pro
17 9 (0.95%) vMotion
18 8 (0.84%) Consul
Vendors
1 291 (30.60%) Microsoft
2 242 (25.45%) VMware
3 170 (17.88%) Cisco
4 157 (16.51%) F5
5 88 (9.25%) ServiceNow
6 86 (9.04%) Splunk
7 55 (5.78%) Infoblox
8 54 (5.68%) Citrix
9 51 (5.36%) SolarWinds
10 46 (4.84%) Red Hat
11 45 (4.73%) Juniper
12 43 (4.52%) Google
13 34 (3.58%) Palo Alto
14 32 (3.36%) Blue Coat
14 32 (3.36%) NetApp
15 27 (2.84%) Dynatrace
15 27 (2.84%) McAfee
16 26 (2.73%) Okta
17 23 (2.42%) CheckPoint
18 22 (2.31%) Extreme Networks