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 1 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 147 126 163
Rank change year-on-year -21 +37 -22
Contract jobs citing DNS 1,019 729 596
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.91% 2.22% 1.51%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 20.40% 18.40% 12.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 627 481 416
10th Percentile £300 £263 £246
25th Percentile £407 £400 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £488
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +7.69% -2.50%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £588
90th Percentile £650 £650 £658
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £525 £500
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% +2.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 48 32 16
10th Percentile £21.25 £29.00 £19.25
25th Percentile £29.00 £37.06 £22.33
Median hourly rate £50.11 £57.50 £24.19
Median % change year-on-year -12.85% +137.70% -39.53%
75th Percentile £74.00 £82.33 £34.69
90th Percentile £98.82 £89.17 £61.58
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.00 £65.00 £47.50
% change year-on-year -20.00% +36.84% +75.93%

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 4,995 3,963 4,799
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.37% 12.05% 12.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,973 2,421 2,922
10th Percentile £250 £235 £213
25th Percentile £400 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
75th Percentile £588 £595 £608
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.16% -5.00% +8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 344 195 335
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.34 £25.15 £18.15
Median hourly rate £26.69 £50.00 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -46.62% +5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £83.60 £74.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.72 £45.00 £54.88
% change year-on-year -40.62% -18.00% -3.58%

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 1 August 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 1 August 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 1 August 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 -18 920 £500 -4.76% 394
UK excluding London -12 625 £500 -4.76% 294
London -32 323 £490 -4.39% 153
Work from Home -27 235 £510 -2.86% 152
North of England +14 227 £450 -10.00% 56
South East +11 195 £538 -2.27% 95
North West +27 149 £450 -5.26% 35
Midlands -17 112 £450 -5.26% 48
West Midlands -29 92 £450 -5.26% 32
South West +1 82 £500 -13.98% 51
Yorkshire -14 72 £475 -13.64% 18
Scotland +11 36 £550 +22.22% 16
East of England -54 29 £450 -18.18% 32
East Midlands -6 18 £413 -26.67% 16
Wales -9 8 £463 +6.69% 5
North East -41 6 £413 +21.32% 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 97 (9.52%) Microsoft Exchange
2 80 (7.85%) SharePoint
3 23 (2.26%) Confluence
4 18 (1.77%) Apache
5 15 (1.47%) IIS
5 15 (1.47%) nginx
6 9 (0.88%) Tomcat
7 5 (0.49%) WebSphere
8 4 (0.39%) Exchange Server 2010
9 2 (0.20%) Exchange Server 2013
9 2 (0.20%) IBM HTTP Server
9 2 (0.20%) Oracle HTTP Server
9 2 (0.20%) WebSphere Application Server
9 2 (0.20%) WebSphere Portal
10 1 (0.098%) SharePoint Server
10 1 (0.098%) Traefik
Applications
1 21 (2.06%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (1.18%) MS Visio
3 7 (0.69%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (0.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.20%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 2 (0.20%) Chatbot
5 2 (0.20%) Houdini
5 2 (0.20%) NUKE
6 1 (0.098%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 10 (0.98%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.098%) Cloudability
Cloud Services
1 391 (38.37%) Azure
2 205 (20.12%) AWS
3 164 (16.09%) Microsoft 365
4 162 (15.90%) Entra ID
5 113 (11.09%) GCP
6 76 (7.46%) GitHub
7 57 (5.59%) IaaS
8 51 (5.00%) OneDrive
9 45 (4.42%) Azure DevOps
10 43 (4.22%) PaaS
11 42 (4.12%) SaaS
12 35 (3.43%) Azure Monitor
13 32 (3.14%) OpenShift
14 30 (2.94%) GitHub Actions
15 28 (2.75%) AWS CloudFormation
16 27 (2.65%) Serverless
17 26 (2.55%) Amazon EC2
17 26 (2.55%) Google Kubernetes Engine
18 25 (2.45%) Akamai
19 24 (2.36%) Azure ExpressRoute
Communications & Networking
1 459 (45.04%) DHCP
2 367 (36.02%) Firewall
3 288 (28.26%) TCP/IP
4 273 (26.79%) VPN
5 138 (13.54%) WAN
6 127 (12.46%) Network Security
7 125 (12.27%) VLAN
8 118 (11.58%) LAN
9 107 (10.50%) SSL
10 105 (10.30%) BGP
11 83 (8.15%) BIG-IP
12 74 (7.26%) HTTP
13 70 (6.87%) Wireless
14 64 (6.28%) Wi-Fi
15 63 (6.18%) SAN
16 60 (5.89%) OSPF
17 55 (5.40%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
18 42 (4.12%) DMZ
19 40 (3.93%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
20 38 (3.73%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 52 (5.10%) SQL Server
2 16 (1.57%) PostgreSQL
3 13 (1.28%) Elasticsearch
4 12 (1.18%) Azure SQL Database
5 10 (0.98%) Power BI
6 8 (0.79%) Amazon RDS
7 7 (0.69%) MongoDB
8 6 (0.59%) Data Lake
8 6 (0.59%) MySQL
9 5 (0.49%) MariaDB
10 4 (0.39%) Db2
11 3 (0.29%) Big Data
11 3 (0.29%) SQLPlus
12 2 (0.20%) NoSQL
13 1 (0.098%) Cloud Spanner
13 1 (0.098%) DynamoDB
13 1 (0.098%) KDB
13 1 (0.098%) Power Query
13 1 (0.098%) Redis
13 1 (0.098%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 75 (7.36%) JIRA
2 58 (5.69%) Jenkins
3 40 (3.93%) Git
4 25 (2.45%) GitLab
5 19 (1.86%) Fiddler
6 10 (0.98%) Bitbucket
6 10 (0.98%) Browser DevTools
7 9 (0.88%) Chocolatey
8 6 (0.59%) Sonatype Nexus
9 4 (0.39%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 2 (0.20%) Artifactory
10 2 (0.20%) Introscope
10 2 (0.20%) MSI
10 2 (0.20%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.20%) Spinnaker
10 2 (0.20%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
11 1 (0.098%) Maven
11 1 (0.098%) Visual Studio
General
1 250 (24.53%) Social Skills
2 114 (11.19%) Analytical Skills
3 93 (9.13%) Finance
4 84 (8.24%) Public Sector
5 73 (7.16%) Banking
6 55 (5.40%) Documentation Skills
7 34 (3.34%) Investment Banking
8 29 (2.85%) Telecoms
9 21 (2.06%) Legal
9 21 (2.06%) Military
10 13 (1.28%) Organisational Skills
11 12 (1.18%) Local Government
12 11 (1.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 10 (0.98%) Police
14 6 (0.59%) Influencing Skills
14 6 (0.59%) Manufacturing
14 6 (0.59%) Publishing
15 5 (0.49%) Law
16 4 (0.39%) Automotive
16 4 (0.39%) Italian Language
Job Titles
1 191 (18.74%) Network Engineer
2 174 (17.08%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 116 (11.38%) Senior
4 99 (9.72%) Architect
5 92 (9.03%) Support Engineer
6 76 (7.46%) Cloud Engineer
7 62 (6.08%) Security Engineer
8 55 (5.40%) Analyst
9 49 (4.81%) IT Engineer
9 49 (4.81%) IT Support
10 43 (4.22%) Azure Engineer
11 42 (4.12%) Network Security Engineer
12 41 (4.02%) Web Engineer
13 39 (3.83%) Administrator
13 39 (3.83%) Cisco Engineer
13 39 (3.83%) DevOps Engineer
14 37 (3.63%) Cisco Network Engineer
15 36 (3.53%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
16 35 (3.43%) Platform Engineer
17 32 (3.14%) Data Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 52 (5.10%) 802.1X
2 39 (3.83%) SAML
3 30 (2.94%) LDAP
4 25 (2.45%) ARM Templates
4 25 (2.45%) OpenID
5 24 (2.36%) OAuth
6 21 (2.06%) OpenTelemetry
7 18 (1.77%) JSON
8 11 (1.08%) REST
8 11 (1.08%) YAML
9 8 (0.79%) Kafka
10 7 (0.69%) Middleware
10 7 (0.69%) OAuth2
11 5 (0.49%) CSS
12 4 (0.39%) .NET
12 4 (0.39%) Microsoft Graph
12 4 (0.39%) React
12 4 (0.39%) Software Packaging
12 4 (0.39%) Web Services
13 3 (0.29%) Redfish
Miscellaneous
1 134 (13.15%) Data Centre
2 111 (10.89%) PKI
3 63 (6.18%) Hybrid Cloud
3 63 (6.18%) Onboarding
4 59 (5.79%) Cloud Native
5 48 (4.71%) Management Information System
6 45 (4.42%) Clustering
7 43 (4.22%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 31 (3.04%) Public Cloud
9 28 (2.75%) Self-Motivation
10 22 (2.16%) Replication
11 19 (1.86%) Enterprise Cloud
11 19 (1.86%) Security Posture
12 16 (1.57%) Cyber Threat
13 15 (1.47%) Enterprise Software
13 15 (1.47%) Linux Command Line
14 13 (1.28%) Distributed Systems
15 12 (1.18%) Driving Licence
15 12 (1.18%) Legacy Systems
16 11 (1.08%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 461 (45.24%) Windows
2 241 (23.65%) Windows Server
3 198 (19.43%) Linux
4 52 (5.10%) Windows 10
5 47 (4.61%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 40 (3.93%) Windows Server 2019
7 33 (3.24%) Mac OS
8 27 (2.65%) Unix
9 22 (2.16%) Windows Server 2012
10 20 (1.96%) Ubuntu
11 17 (1.67%) VMS
12 16 (1.57%) Apple iOS
13 15 (1.47%) CentOS
14 14 (1.37%) Android
14 14 (1.37%) Windows Server 2016
15 7 (0.69%) Rocky
16 6 (0.59%) Windows 7
16 6 (0.59%) Windows Server 2008
17 5 (0.49%) Windows Server 2003
18 3 (0.29%) AIX
Processes & Methodologies
1 235 (23.06%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 231 (22.67%) Problem-Solving
3 181 (17.76%) Load Balancing
4 180 (17.66%) ITIL
5 168 (16.49%) Migration
6 164 (16.09%) Infrastructure as Code
7 158 (15.51%) DevOps
8 150 (14.72%) CI/CD
9 143 (14.03%) High Availability
10 116 (11.38%) ITSM
11 99 (9.72%) Observability
12 93 (9.13%) Project Delivery
13 90 (8.83%) Continuous Improvement
14 87 (8.54%) Agile
15 85 (8.34%) Cybersecurity
16 84 (8.24%) Disaster Recovery
17 80 (7.85%) Identity Access Management
18 72 (7.07%) Technical Leadership
19 70 (6.87%) Platform Engineering
19 70 (6.87%) Runbook
Programming Languages
1 223 (21.88%) PowerShell
2 202 (19.82%) Python
3 148 (14.52%) Bash
4 59 (5.79%) SQL
5 42 (4.12%) Bicep
6 24 (2.36%) JavaScript
7 12 (1.18%) Go
8 11 (1.08%) Shell Script
9 10 (0.98%) ActionScript
10 9 (0.88%) Java
10 9 (0.88%) VBA
11 8 (0.79%) Perl
12 5 (0.49%) C
12 5 (0.49%) Groovy
12 5 (0.49%) Ruby
13 4 (0.39%) TypeScript
14 3 (0.29%) Lisp
15 2 (0.20%) Jython
15 2 (0.20%) Objective-C
15 2 (0.20%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 372 (36.51%) Security Cleared
2 213 (20.90%) SC Cleared
3 153 (15.01%) DV Cleared
4 112 (10.99%) Cisco Certification
5 77 (7.56%) CCNP
6 75 (7.36%) Degree
7 57 (5.59%) CCNA
8 50 (4.91%) Microsoft Certification
9 43 (4.22%) Azure Certification
10 32 (3.14%) Network+ Certification
11 18 (1.77%) BPSS Clearance
11 18 (1.77%) CCIE
12 17 (1.67%) CISSP
12 17 (1.67%) MCSE
12 17 (1.67%) Server+ Certification
13 16 (1.57%) AWS Certification
14 15 (1.47%) CompTIA Security+
14 15 (1.47%) Computer Science Degree
15 13 (1.28%) JNCIS
15 13 (1.28%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (3.73%) SLA
2 29 (2.85%) NIST
3 19 (1.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 16 (1.57%) NCSC
5 8 (0.79%) GDPR
5 8 (0.79%) QA
6 5 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials
6 5 (0.49%) Disclosure Scotland
6 5 (0.49%) NIST 800
7 4 (0.39%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 3 (0.29%) JSP 440
9 2 (0.20%) Government Security Classifications
9 2 (0.20%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.098%) Data Quality
10 1 (0.098%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 419 (41.12%) Active Directory
2 247 (24.24%) VMware Infrastructure
3 120 (11.78%) Hyper-V
4 71 (6.97%) vSphere
5 67 (6.58%) VMware ESXi
5 67 (6.58%) VMware NSX
6 50 (4.91%) Docker
7 44 (4.32%) Virtual Machines
8 37 (3.63%) Virtual Desktop
9 25 (2.45%) Firmware
10 22 (2.16%) NFS
11 13 (1.28%) vCloud
12 11 (1.08%) Squid
13 10 (0.98%) Microsoft App-V
14 9 (0.88%) BitLocker
14 9 (0.88%) Postfix
15 8 (0.79%) VMware Workstation
16 7 (0.69%) Ceph
16 7 (0.69%) Virtual Servers
17 6 (0.59%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 204 (20.02%) Terraform
2 157 (15.41%) Ansible
3 120 (11.78%) Kubernetes
4 98 (9.62%) Microsoft Intune
5 63 (6.18%) vCenter Server
6 62 (6.08%) SCCM
7 56 (5.50%) Single Sign-On
8 54 (5.30%) Grafana
9 46 (4.51%) FortiGate
10 39 (3.83%) Prometheus
11 31 (3.04%) SCOM
12 28 (2.75%) WSUS
13 25 (2.45%) Argo
14 15 (1.47%) Puppet
15 14 (1.37%) Nessus
15 14 (1.37%) NetBackup
15 14 (1.37%) VxRail
16 13 (1.28%) Jamf Pro
17 11 (1.08%) vMotion
18 10 (0.98%) HAProxy
Vendors
1 346 (33.95%) Microsoft
2 304 (29.83%) VMware
3 199 (19.53%) Cisco
4 150 (14.72%) F5
5 90 (8.83%) ServiceNow
6 78 (7.65%) Splunk
7 68 (6.67%) SolarWinds
8 66 (6.48%) Citrix
8 66 (6.48%) Infoblox
9 65 (6.38%) Google
10 60 (5.89%) Juniper
11 53 (5.20%) Red Hat
12 44 (4.32%) Palo Alto
13 36 (3.53%) Dynatrace
13 36 (3.53%) NetApp
14 30 (2.94%) Zscaler
15 29 (2.85%) Blue Coat
16 27 (2.65%) Fortinet
17 26 (2.55%) CheckPoint
18 25 (2.45%) McAfee