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

6 months to
11 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 138 122 159
Rank change year-on-year -16 +37 -19
Contract jobs citing DNS 956 666 663
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.92% 2.27% 1.52%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 20.00% 18.14% 12.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 588 474 448
10th Percentile £300 £269 £213
25th Percentile £400 £407 £359
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £498 £550 £475
Median % change year-on-year -9.55% +15.79% -9.52%
75th Percentile £583 £613 £588
90th Percentile £638 £675 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £483 £550 £500
% change year-on-year -12.18% +10.00% -2.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 39 14 25
10th Percentile £18.89 - £19.10
25th Percentile £23.13 £29.00 £23.80
Median hourly rate £32.50 £56.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -41.96% +40.00% -23.27%
75th Percentile £62.87 £81.27 -
90th Percentile £74.05 £81.88 £50.64
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £61.09 £40.00
% change year-on-year -46.80% +52.72% -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 4,781 3,671 5,438
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.58% 12.50% 12.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,930 2,271 3,228
10th Percentile £263 £220 £206
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £485 £498
Median % change year-on-year +3.09% -2.51% -2.93%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £476 £469 £483
% change year-on-year +1.39% -2.95% +1.74%
Number of hourly rates quoted 284 165 420
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £21.14 £18.13 £16.30
Median hourly rate £27.50 £44.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -37.50% +10.00% +113.73%
75th Percentile £65.00 £60.13 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.18 £80.61 £70.72
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £31.79 £47.50
% change year-on-year +2.23% -33.07% +156.76%

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 11 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 11 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 11 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 -22 843 £495 -10.00% 293
UK excluding London -2 608 £483 -12.18% 267
London -36 277 £500 - 67
North of England +9 238 £447 -10.60% 58
Work from Home -30 210 £525 -3.23% 111
South East +1 171 £525 -4.55% 93
North West +39 155 £450 -1.64% 41
Midlands -2 111 £444 -6.58% 35
West Midlands +8 98 £450 -5.26% 23
Yorkshire -18 77 £447 -18.73% 13
South West -22 61 £500 -18.70% 37
Scotland +27 50 £550 +22.22% 10
East of England -49 35 £450 -18.18% 32
East Midlands -28 12 £394 -30.62% 12
Wales -17 6 £300 -33.04% 9
North East -34 6 £306 -12.50% 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 86 (9.00%) Microsoft Exchange
2 59 (6.17%) SharePoint
3 19 (1.99%) Confluence
4 15 (1.57%) IIS
4 15 (1.57%) nginx
5 14 (1.46%) Apache
6 9 (0.94%) Tomcat
7 5 (0.52%) WebSphere
8 4 (0.42%) Skype for Business
9 2 (0.21%) Exchange Server 2013
9 2 (0.21%) IBM HTTP Server
9 2 (0.21%) Oracle HTTP Server
9 2 (0.21%) WebSphere Application Server
9 2 (0.21%) WebSphere Portal
10 1 (0.10%) Exchange Server 2010
10 1 (0.10%) SharePoint Server
10 1 (0.10%) Traefik
Applications
1 19 (1.99%) Microsoft Office
2 13 (1.36%) MS Visio
3 2 (0.21%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.10%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.10%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.10%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 6 (0.63%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.10%) Cloudability
Cloud Services
1 338 (35.36%) Azure
2 174 (18.20%) AWS
3 155 (16.21%) Entra ID
4 134 (14.02%) Microsoft 365
5 102 (10.67%) GCP
6 73 (7.64%) GitHub
7 58 (6.07%) IaaS
8 41 (4.29%) PaaS
9 39 (4.08%) SaaS
10 37 (3.87%) OneDrive
11 31 (3.24%) Serverless
12 29 (3.03%) Amazon EC2
12 29 (3.03%) Amazon S3
12 29 (3.03%) GitHub Actions
12 29 (3.03%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 26 (2.72%) Amazon EKS
13 26 (2.72%) AWS CloudFormation
13 26 (2.72%) Azure DevOps
13 26 (2.72%) Route 53
14 25 (2.62%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 419 (43.83%) DHCP
2 285 (29.81%) Firewall
3 237 (24.79%) TCP/IP
4 225 (23.54%) VPN
5 130 (13.60%) WAN
6 111 (11.61%) LAN
7 107 (11.19%) SSL
8 97 (10.15%) Network Security
9 95 (9.94%) BIG-IP
10 92 (9.62%) VLAN
11 84 (8.79%) BGP
12 77 (8.05%) HTTP
13 58 (6.07%) Wi-Fi
14 56 (5.86%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
15 52 (5.44%) Wireless
16 49 (5.13%) SAN
17 44 (4.60%) OSPF
18 43 (4.50%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
19 38 (3.97%) DMZ
19 38 (3.97%) Kerberos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 38 (3.97%) SQL Server
2 19 (1.99%) PostgreSQL
3 18 (1.88%) Elasticsearch
4 11 (1.15%) Amazon RDS
5 10 (1.05%) Azure SQL Database
6 9 (0.94%) MongoDB
6 9 (0.94%) Power BI
7 8 (0.84%) MySQL
8 6 (0.63%) NoSQL
9 5 (0.52%) DynamoDB
10 4 (0.42%) Amazon Aurora
10 4 (0.42%) Data Lake
10 4 (0.42%) DocumentDB
10 4 (0.42%) MariaDB
10 4 (0.42%) Redis
11 2 (0.21%) Big Data
11 2 (0.21%) SQLPlus
12 1 (0.10%) Oracle Reports
12 1 (0.10%) SQL Server Reporting Services
12 1 (0.10%) TimescaleDB
Development Applications
1 66 (6.90%) JIRA
2 61 (6.38%) Jenkins
3 34 (3.56%) Git
4 27 (2.82%) GitLab
5 25 (2.62%) Fiddler
6 9 (0.94%) Browser DevTools
7 7 (0.73%) Bitbucket
7 7 (0.73%) SonarQube
8 6 (0.63%) Chocolatey
9 3 (0.31%) CircleCI
9 3 (0.31%) Sonatype Nexus
10 2 (0.21%) Introscope
11 1 (0.10%) Artifactory
11 1 (0.10%) Spinnaker
11 1 (0.10%) Terragrunt
General
1 212 (22.18%) Social Skills
2 84 (8.79%) Analytical Skills
3 76 (7.95%) Finance
4 75 (7.85%) Banking
5 63 (6.59%) Public Sector
6 46 (4.81%) Documentation Skills
7 38 (3.97%) Investment Banking
8 27 (2.82%) Legal
9 17 (1.78%) Military
10 14 (1.46%) Telecoms
11 10 (1.05%) Organisational Skills
12 9 (0.94%) Law
13 8 (0.84%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 7 (0.73%) Local Government
15 6 (0.63%) Publishing
16 5 (0.52%) Manufacturing
16 5 (0.52%) Police
17 4 (0.42%) Advertising
17 4 (0.42%) Italian Language
17 4 (0.42%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 172 (17.99%) Network Engineer
2 136 (14.23%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 115 (12.03%) Architect
4 77 (8.05%) Analyst
5 72 (7.53%) Senior
6 67 (7.01%) Support Engineer
7 63 (6.59%) Security Engineer
8 48 (5.02%) Web Engineer
9 47 (4.92%) IT Support
10 46 (4.81%) Cloud Engineer
11 43 (4.50%) Network Security Engineer
12 38 (3.97%) Cisco Engineer
12 38 (3.97%) IT Engineer
13 36 (3.77%) Cisco Network Engineer
13 36 (3.77%) DevOps Engineer
14 34 (3.56%) Administrator
14 34 (3.56%) Data Engineer
14 34 (3.56%) Data Network Engineer
14 34 (3.56%) Lead
15 33 (3.45%) Cisco Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 57 (5.96%) LDAP
2 51 (5.33%) SAML
3 40 (4.18%) 802.1X
3 40 (4.18%) OAuth
4 31 (3.24%) OpenID
5 20 (2.09%) OpenTelemetry
6 15 (1.57%) JSON
7 13 (1.36%) ARM Templates
8 10 (1.05%) Kafka
8 10 (1.05%) REST
9 9 (0.94%) OAuth2
10 5 (0.52%) CSS
10 5 (0.52%) Microsoft Graph
10 5 (0.52%) XMPP
11 4 (0.42%) AWS CDK
11 4 (0.42%) gRPC
11 4 (0.42%) RESTful
11 4 (0.42%) Spring Boot
11 4 (0.42%) Spring Cloud
11 4 (0.42%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 105 (10.98%) Data Centre
2 69 (7.22%) PKI
3 59 (6.17%) Cloud Native
4 51 (5.33%) Onboarding
5 39 (4.08%) Replication
6 38 (3.97%) Clustering
7 37 (3.87%) Hybrid Cloud
7 37 (3.87%) Management Information System
8 36 (3.77%) Public Cloud
9 30 (3.14%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 24 (2.51%) Security Operations Centre
11 21 (2.20%) Cyberattack
11 21 (2.20%) Self-Motivation
12 16 (1.67%) Enterprise Cloud
13 14 (1.46%) Cyber Threat
13 14 (1.46%) Legacy Systems
14 13 (1.36%) Enterprise Software
14 13 (1.36%) Security Posture
15 12 (1.26%) Virtual Team
16 11 (1.15%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 408 (42.68%) Windows
2 223 (23.33%) Windows Server
3 147 (15.38%) Linux
4 42 (4.39%) Windows 10
5 40 (4.18%) Windows Server 2019
6 33 (3.45%) Mac OS
6 33 (3.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 27 (2.82%) Unix
8 20 (2.09%) Apple iOS
8 20 (2.09%) Windows Server 2012
9 15 (1.57%) Android
10 13 (1.36%) Windows Server 2016
11 11 (1.15%) Ubuntu
11 11 (1.15%) VMS
12 9 (0.94%) 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%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 198 (20.71%) Problem-Solving
2 178 (18.62%) Load Balancing
3 170 (17.78%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 162 (16.95%) Migration
5 143 (14.96%) High Availability
6 141 (14.75%) DevOps
7 134 (14.02%) ITIL
8 119 (12.45%) Infrastructure as Code
9 117 (12.24%) CI/CD
10 96 (10.04%) ITSM
11 82 (8.58%) Disaster Recovery
12 81 (8.47%) Observability
13 80 (8.37%) Cybersecurity
14 79 (8.26%) Identity Access Management
15 76 (7.95%) Agile
16 69 (7.22%) Project Delivery
17 59 (6.17%) Runbook
18 58 (6.07%) Root Cause Analysis
19 57 (5.96%) RBAC
19 57 (5.96%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 185 (19.35%) PowerShell
2 148 (15.48%) Python
3 94 (9.83%) Bash
4 56 (5.86%) SQL
5 25 (2.62%) JavaScript
6 24 (2.51%) Bicep
7 17 (1.78%) Java
8 12 (1.26%) Go
8 12 (1.26%) Shell Script
9 9 (0.94%) ActionScript
9 9 (0.94%) VBA
10 7 (0.73%) 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%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 309 (32.32%) Security Cleared
2 195 (20.40%) SC Cleared
3 109 (11.40%) DV Cleared
4 85 (8.89%) Cisco Certification
5 77 (8.05%) Degree
6 54 (5.65%) CCNP
7 47 (4.92%) CCNA
8 33 (3.45%) Microsoft Certification
9 31 (3.24%) CompTIA Security+
10 27 (2.82%) Azure Certification
11 26 (2.72%) Network+ Certification
12 20 (2.09%) Computer Science Degree
13 17 (1.78%) CompTIA CySA+
13 17 (1.78%) Server+ Certification
14 16 (1.67%) BPSS Clearance
15 11 (1.15%) AWS Certification
15 11 (1.15%) CISSP
15 11 (1.15%) JNCIA
16 10 (1.05%) CCIE
16 10 (1.05%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 34 (3.56%) SLA
2 28 (2.93%) NIST
3 21 (2.20%) GDPR
4 19 (1.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 14 (1.46%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 11 (1.15%) QA
7 7 (0.73%) NCSC
8 4 (0.42%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 4 (0.42%) PCI DSS
9 2 (0.21%) Cyber Essentials
9 2 (0.21%) Disclosure Scotland
9 2 (0.21%) Government Security Classifications
9 2 (0.21%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.10%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.10%) COBIT
10 1 (0.10%) Data Quality
10 1 (0.10%) JSP 440
10 1 (0.10%) NIST 800
10 1 (0.10%) PMO
10 1 (0.10%) RMADS
System Software
1 375 (39.23%) Active Directory
2 207 (21.65%) VMware Infrastructure
3 96 (10.04%) Hyper-V
4 58 (6.07%) vSphere
5 54 (5.65%) VMware NSX
6 46 (4.81%) VMware ESXi
7 40 (4.18%) Virtual Machines
8 38 (3.97%) Docker
9 33 (3.45%) Virtual Desktop
10 25 (2.62%) Firmware
11 18 (1.88%) NFS
12 15 (1.57%) BitLocker
12 15 (1.57%) Squid
13 11 (1.15%) Microsoft App-V
14 10 (1.05%) Postfix
14 10 (1.05%) vCloud
15 8 (0.84%) VMware Workstation
16 7 (0.73%) Varnish
17 5 (0.52%) Ceph
17 5 (0.52%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 149 (15.59%) Terraform
2 123 (12.87%) Ansible
3 95 (9.94%) Kubernetes
4 78 (8.16%) Microsoft Intune
5 73 (7.64%) Single Sign-On
6 51 (5.33%) Grafana
7 50 (5.23%) FortiGate
8 46 (4.81%) SCCM
8 46 (4.81%) vCenter Server
9 41 (4.29%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 34 (3.56%) Prometheus
11 23 (2.41%) WSUS
12 22 (2.30%) Argo
13 17 (1.78%) SCOM
14 15 (1.57%) Puppet
15 14 (1.46%) HAProxy
16 13 (1.36%) Jamf Pro
17 12 (1.26%) vMotion
18 11 (1.15%) Nessus
19 8 (0.84%) Consul
Vendors
1 304 (31.80%) Microsoft
2 244 (25.52%) VMware
3 167 (17.47%) Cisco
4 158 (16.53%) F5
5 93 (9.73%) ServiceNow
6 86 (9.00%) Splunk
7 57 (5.96%) Citrix
7 57 (5.96%) Infoblox
8 48 (5.02%) Red Hat
8 48 (5.02%) SolarWinds
9 47 (4.92%) Google
10 45 (4.71%) Juniper
11 34 (3.56%) Palo Alto
12 33 (3.45%) Blue Coat
13 31 (3.24%) NetApp
14 28 (2.93%) Dynatrace
15 27 (2.82%) McAfee
16 24 (2.51%) Okta
17 22 (2.30%) Extreme Networks
18 21 (2.20%) CheckPoint