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

6 months to
28 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 137 123 153
Rank change year-on-year -14 +30 -17
Contract jobs citing DNS 944 665 672
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.93% 2.32% 1.57%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 19.92% 18.37% 12.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 587 471 463
10th Percentile £281 £300 £213
25th Percentile £400 £407 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £550 £475
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% +15.79% -9.52%
75th Percentile £584 £613 £591
90th Percentile £638 £675 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £548 £500
% change year-on-year -12.41% +9.60% -0.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 10 23
10th Percentile £20.37 £28.90 £18.80
25th Percentile £25.79 £48.38 £23.53
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 £82.29 £51.27
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 4,738 3,621 5,426
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.70% 12.64% 12.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,909 2,244 3,253
10th Percentile £263 £213 £206
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £484 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.31% -3.20% -2.44%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £463 £483
% change year-on-year +2.70% -4.15% +1.58%
Number of hourly rates quoted 280 156 414
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £21.14 £17.30 £16.30
Median hourly rate £28.44 £40.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -29.78% +1.25% +116.22%
75th Percentile £65.00 £59.09 £63.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £77.50 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £30.32 £45.88
% change year-on-year +7.19% -33.91% +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 28 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 28 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 28 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 -20 825 £495 -10.00% 283
UK excluding London -2 604 £480 -12.41% 258
London -40 262 £500 -4.76% 68
North of England +10 237 £447 -5.89% 49
Work from Home -27 205 £525 -3.23% 111
South East -5 164 £525 -4.55% 100
North West +41 157 £450 +5.88% 29
Midlands +9 111 £413 -23.96% 32
West Midlands +15 98 £413 -5.71% 18
Yorkshire -28 74 £447 -18.73% 16
South West -23 57 £500 -18.70% 36
Scotland +38 52 £550 +22.22% 8
East of England -43 41 £450 -18.18% 30
East Midlands -27 12 £394 -30.62% 14
North East -34 6 £306 -12.50% 7
Wales -22 5 £300 -33.33% 11

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 (9.00%) Microsoft Exchange
2 51 (5.40%) SharePoint
3 20 (2.12%) Confluence
4 17 (1.80%) nginx
5 16 (1.69%) IIS
6 14 (1.48%) 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 17 (1.80%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (1.59%) MS Visio
3 2 (0.21%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 4 (0.42%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.11%) Cloudability
Cloud Services
1 327 (34.64%) Azure
2 175 (18.54%) AWS
3 146 (15.47%) Entra ID
4 125 (13.24%) Microsoft 365
5 100 (10.59%) GCP
6 73 (7.73%) GitHub
7 56 (5.93%) IaaS
8 42 (4.45%) PaaS
9 39 (4.13%) SaaS
10 34 (3.60%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 33 (3.50%) Amazon EC2
11 33 (3.50%) Amazon S3
11 33 (3.50%) Serverless
12 32 (3.39%) AWS CloudFormation
12 32 (3.39%) GitHub Actions
13 30 (3.18%) AWS Lambda
14 29 (3.07%) Amazon EKS
14 29 (3.07%) OneDrive
15 28 (2.97%) Route 53
16 25 (2.65%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 409 (43.33%) DHCP
2 287 (30.40%) Firewall
3 234 (24.79%) TCP/IP
4 228 (24.15%) VPN
5 127 (13.45%) WAN
6 114 (12.08%) LAN
7 108 (11.44%) SSL
8 101 (10.70%) Network Security
9 96 (10.17%) BIG-IP
10 93 (9.85%) VLAN
11 85 (9.00%) HTTP
12 84 (8.90%) BGP
13 56 (5.93%) Wi-Fi
14 54 (5.72%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
14 54 (5.72%) Wireless
15 48 (5.08%) SAN
16 47 (4.98%) OSPF
17 41 (4.34%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
17 41 (4.34%) Kerberos
18 39 (4.13%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 38 (4.03%) SQL Server
2 20 (2.12%) Elasticsearch
3 18 (1.91%) PostgreSQL
4 9 (0.95%) Amazon RDS
4 9 (0.95%) MongoDB
5 8 (0.85%) MySQL
5 8 (0.85%) Power BI
6 5 (0.53%) Azure SQL Database
6 5 (0.53%) DynamoDB
6 5 (0.53%) NoSQL
7 4 (0.42%) Amazon Aurora
7 4 (0.42%) DocumentDB
7 4 (0.42%) MariaDB
7 4 (0.42%) Redis
8 3 (0.32%) Data Hub
9 2 (0.21%) SQLPlus
10 1 (0.11%) Oracle Reports
10 1 (0.11%) Relational Database
10 1 (0.11%) SQL Server Reporting Services
10 1 (0.11%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 65 (6.89%) JIRA
2 61 (6.46%) Jenkins
3 37 (3.92%) Git
4 31 (3.28%) GitLab
5 26 (2.75%) Fiddler
6 9 (0.95%) Browser DevTools
7 7 (0.74%) Bitbucket
7 7 (0.74%) SonarQube
8 6 (0.64%) 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
1 212 (22.46%) Social Skills
2 93 (9.85%) Analytical Skills
3 74 (7.84%) Banking
3 74 (7.84%) Finance
4 63 (6.67%) Public Sector
5 48 (5.08%) Documentation Skills
6 37 (3.92%) Investment Banking
7 27 (2.86%) Legal
8 18 (1.91%) Military
9 14 (1.48%) Telecoms
10 11 (1.17%) 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%) Financial Institution
14 4 (0.42%) Italian Language
15 3 (0.32%) Aerospace
15 3 (0.32%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 172 (18.22%) Network Engineer
2 125 (13.24%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 116 (12.29%) Architect
4 85 (9.00%) Analyst
5 70 (7.42%) Senior
6 64 (6.78%) Security Engineer
7 55 (5.83%) Support Engineer
8 49 (5.19%) Web Engineer
9 43 (4.56%) IT Support
10 42 (4.45%) Network Security Engineer
11 40 (4.24%) Cloud Engineer
12 36 (3.81%) Cisco Engineer
12 36 (3.81%) IT Engineer
12 36 (3.81%) Lead
13 34 (3.60%) Cisco Network Engineer
14 33 (3.50%) Data Engineer
14 33 (3.50%) Data Network Engineer
15 32 (3.39%) Administrator
15 32 (3.39%) Cisco Security Engineer
16 31 (3.28%) Azure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 70 (7.42%) LDAP
2 57 (6.04%) SAML
3 43 (4.56%) OAuth
4 39 (4.13%) 802.1X
5 32 (3.39%) OpenID
6 20 (2.12%) OpenTelemetry
7 16 (1.69%) JSON
8 12 (1.27%) ARM Templates
9 10 (1.06%) Kafka
9 10 (1.06%) OAuth2
9 10 (1.06%) REST
10 8 (0.85%) Elastic Stack
11 5 (0.53%) Microsoft Graph
11 5 (0.53%) XMPP
11 5 (0.53%) YAML
12 4 (0.42%) Hibernate
12 4 (0.42%) JPA
12 4 (0.42%) RESTful
12 4 (0.42%) Spring
12 4 (0.42%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 96 (10.17%) Data Centre
2 68 (7.20%) PKI
3 55 (5.83%) Cloud Native
4 51 (5.40%) Onboarding
5 42 (4.45%) Management Information System
6 40 (4.24%) Replication
7 39 (4.13%) Clustering
8 36 (3.81%) Public Cloud
9 31 (3.28%) Hybrid Cloud
10 29 (3.07%) Security Operations Centre
11 28 (2.97%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
12 26 (2.75%) Cyberattack
13 21 (2.22%) Self-Motivation
14 19 (2.01%) Cyber Threat
15 15 (1.59%) Enterprise Cloud
16 14 (1.48%) Enterprise Software
17 13 (1.38%) Security Posture
18 12 (1.27%) Analytical Mindset
18 12 (1.27%) Enterprise Storage
18 12 (1.27%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 396 (41.95%) Windows
2 220 (23.31%) Windows Server
3 141 (14.94%) Linux
4 44 (4.66%) Windows 10
5 41 (4.34%) Windows Server 2019
6 27 (2.86%) Mac OS
6 27 (2.86%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 26 (2.75%) Unix
8 19 (2.01%) Windows Server 2012
9 17 (1.80%) Apple iOS
10 16 (1.69%) Android
11 15 (1.59%) Windows Server 2016
12 10 (1.06%) VMS
13 9 (0.95%) CentOS
13 9 (0.95%) Ubuntu
14 8 (0.85%) 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
1 197 (20.87%) Problem-Solving
2 174 (18.43%) Load Balancing
3 155 (16.42%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 150 (15.89%) Migration
5 144 (15.25%) High Availability
6 132 (13.98%) DevOps
7 131 (13.88%) ITIL
8 119 (12.61%) CI/CD
8 119 (12.61%) Infrastructure as Code
9 87 (9.22%) Disaster Recovery
9 87 (9.22%) ITSM
10 86 (9.11%) Cybersecurity
11 82 (8.69%) Observability
12 80 (8.47%) Identity Access Management
13 74 (7.84%) Agile
14 67 (7.10%) SIEM
15 64 (6.78%) Project Delivery
16 62 (6.57%) Runbook
17 61 (6.46%) Root Cause Analysis
18 60 (6.36%) Incident Response
Programming Languages
1 188 (19.92%) PowerShell
2 151 (16.00%) Python
3 89 (9.43%) Bash
4 51 (5.40%) SQL
5 25 (2.65%) Bicep
5 25 (2.65%) JavaScript
6 16 (1.69%) Java
7 12 (1.27%) Go
8 11 (1.17%) Shell Script
9 9 (0.95%) Ruby
9 9 (0.95%) VBA
10 7 (0.74%) ActionScript
11 6 (0.64%) Perl
11 6 (0.64%) VBScript
12 5 (0.53%) Groovy
13 4 (0.42%) C
13 4 (0.42%) VB
14 3 (0.32%) Lisp
15 2 (0.21%) Jython
15 2 (0.21%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 313 (33.16%) Security Cleared
2 206 (21.82%) SC Cleared
3 109 (11.55%) DV Cleared
4 85 (9.00%) Cisco Certification
5 69 (7.31%) Degree
6 54 (5.72%) CCNP
7 45 (4.77%) CCNA
8 31 (3.28%) CompTIA Security+
9 30 (3.18%) Microsoft Certification
10 29 (3.07%) Network+ Certification
11 26 (2.75%) Azure Certification
12 21 (2.22%) Computer Science Degree
13 17 (1.80%) CompTIA CySA+
13 17 (1.80%) Server+ Certification
14 15 (1.59%) BPSS Clearance
15 12 (1.27%) AWS Certification
16 11 (1.17%) CISSP
16 11 (1.17%) JNCIA
17 10 (1.06%) JNCIS
18 8 (0.85%) JNCIP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (3.50%) SLA
2 27 (2.86%) NIST
3 23 (2.44%) GDPR
4 20 (2.12%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 16 (1.69%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 10 (1.06%) QA
7 7 (0.74%) NCSC
8 5 (0.53%) Cyber Essentials
9 4 (0.42%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 4 (0.42%) PCI DSS
10 2 (0.21%) Accessibility
10 2 (0.21%) Data Quality
10 2 (0.21%) Disclosure Scotland
10 2 (0.21%) JSP 440
10 2 (0.21%) SOC 2
11 1 (0.11%) Actionable Recommendations
11 1 (0.11%) COBIT
11 1 (0.11%) Government Security Classifications
11 1 (0.11%) PMO
11 1 (0.11%) RMADS
System Software
1 372 (39.41%) Active Directory
2 204 (21.61%) VMware Infrastructure
3 96 (10.17%) Hyper-V
4 56 (5.93%) VMware NSX
5 54 (5.72%) vSphere
6 42 (4.45%) Docker
7 37 (3.92%) VMware ESXi
8 35 (3.71%) Virtual Machines
9 25 (2.65%) Firmware
10 24 (2.54%) Virtual Desktop
11 16 (1.69%) NFS
12 15 (1.59%) Squid
13 14 (1.48%) BitLocker
14 10 (1.06%) Microsoft App-V
14 10 (1.06%) Postfix
15 8 (0.85%) vCloud
15 8 (0.85%) VMware Workstation
16 7 (0.74%) Varnish
17 5 (0.53%) Ceph
18 4 (0.42%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 148 (15.68%) Terraform
2 120 (12.71%) Ansible
3 93 (9.85%) Kubernetes
4 76 (8.05%) Microsoft Intune
4 76 (8.05%) Single Sign-On
5 51 (5.40%) FortiGate
6 47 (4.98%) Grafana
6 47 (4.98%) SCCM
7 45 (4.77%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 42 (4.45%) vCenter Server
9 30 (3.18%) Prometheus
10 27 (2.86%) WSUS
11 22 (2.33%) Argo
12 16 (1.69%) SCOM
13 14 (1.48%) HAProxy
14 12 (1.27%) Puppet
15 11 (1.17%) Nessus
16 9 (0.95%) vMotion
17 8 (0.85%) Consul
17 8 (0.85%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 286 (30.30%) Microsoft
2 244 (25.85%) VMware
3 168 (17.80%) Cisco
4 159 (16.84%) F5
5 85 (9.00%) ServiceNow
5 85 (9.00%) Splunk
6 55 (5.83%) Infoblox
7 54 (5.72%) Citrix
8 50 (5.30%) SolarWinds
9 45 (4.77%) Juniper
9 45 (4.77%) Red Hat
10 43 (4.56%) Google
11 33 (3.50%) Blue Coat
11 33 (3.50%) Palo Alto
12 32 (3.39%) NetApp
13 28 (2.97%) McAfee
14 27 (2.86%) Dynatrace
15 26 (2.75%) Okta
16 23 (2.44%) CheckPoint
17 22 (2.33%) Extreme Networks