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 17 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 145 120 109
Rank change year-on-year -25 -11 +22
Contract jobs citing DNS 743 724 957
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.02% 2.10% 2.18%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 18.68% 16.60% 15.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 461 448 606
10th Percentile £213 £223 £243
25th Percentile £385 £330 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +10.53% -5.00% -4.31%
75th Percentile £600 £588 £600
90th Percentile £690 £716 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £425 £500
% change year-on-year +17.65% -15.00% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 37 10 21
10th Percentile £15.50 £17.88 £25.00
25th Percentile £29.00 £21.71 £31.25
Median hourly rate £57.50 £23.59 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +143.75% -57.11% +42.86%
75th Percentile £80.00 £28.83 £60.00
90th Percentile £87.45 £39.20 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £23.35 £55.00
% change year-on-year +178.37% -57.55% +42.86%

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 3,978 4,361 6,057
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.81% 12.67% 13.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,596 2,554 3,733
10th Percentile £206 £220 £210
25th Percentile £356 £368 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £582 £600 £610
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -5.26% - +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 184 151 338
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.22 £17.72
25th Percentile £20.00 £21.93 £22.00
Median hourly rate £35.50 £37.50 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -5.33% -31.82% +30.49%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.50 £65.98
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.75 £75.80
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £41.00 £56.49
% change year-on-year +3.66% -27.42% +25.53%

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 17 December 2025.

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 17 December 2025.

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 17 December 2025. 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 -7 666 £525 +10.53% 462
UK excluding London -25 439 £500 +17.65% 463
London +15 241 £548 +4.29% 88
Work from Home -45 181 £500 - 206
North of England -29 123 £480 +20.00% 94
Midlands +21 122 £402 +7.20% 59
West Midlands +30 116 £402 -5.41% 37
South East -12 107 £500 +8.11% 153
North West -6 85 £535 +14.13% 46
South West -7 61 £575 +32.18% 56
Yorkshire -35 46 £447 +43.04% 42
East of England -9 42 £363 +31.82% 67
Scotland -23 21 £454 +0.89% 42
North East -14 6 £575 +283.33% 10
East Midlands -37 6 £363 -3.33% 19
Wales -7 3 £550 +69.23% 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 91 (12.25%) Microsoft Exchange
2 74 (9.96%) SharePoint
3 34 (4.58%) Skype for Business
4 26 (3.50%) Confluence
5 14 (1.88%) Exchange Server 2010
6 13 (1.75%) nginx
6 13 (1.75%) SharePoint Server
7 10 (1.35%) Exchange Server 2013
8 9 (1.21%) Exchange Server 2003
8 9 (1.21%) Exchange Server 2007
8 9 (1.21%) Office Communications Server
9 8 (1.08%) IIS
10 6 (0.81%) OpenStack
11 4 (0.54%) Apache
12 3 (0.40%) Tomcat
13 2 (0.27%) Apache Spark
13 2 (0.27%) Cloud Foundry
13 2 (0.27%) Oracle HTTP Server
13 2 (0.27%) WebLogic
13 2 (0.27%) WordPress
Applications
1 54 (7.27%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (1.35%) Mozilla Thunderbird
2 10 (1.35%) MS Visio
3 4 (0.54%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (0.40%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (0.27%) Windchill
6 1 (0.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (0.27%) Remedy ITSM
1 2 (0.27%) SystmOne
1 2 (0.27%) Teamcenter
2 1 (0.13%) Eikon
2 1 (0.13%) Eze OMS
2 1 (0.13%) Fidessa
2 1 (0.13%) Pegasus Opera
Cloud Services
1 229 (30.82%) Azure
2 195 (26.24%) AWS
3 146 (19.65%) Microsoft 365
4 92 (12.38%) Entra ID
5 79 (10.63%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 60 (8.08%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 60 (8.08%) Amazon EC2
7 59 (7.94%) Amazon S3
8 48 (6.46%) GitHub
9 45 (6.06%) GCP
10 44 (5.92%) Amazon ELB
11 35 (4.71%) IaaS
12 34 (4.58%) AWS CloudFormation
12 34 (4.58%) SaaS
13 32 (4.31%) Amazon ECS
14 27 (3.63%) Serverless
15 26 (3.50%) AWS KMS
16 25 (3.36%) AWS Lambda
16 25 (3.36%) GitHub Actions
17 23 (3.10%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 321 (43.20%) DHCP
2 273 (36.74%) Firewall
3 246 (33.11%) TCP/IP
4 184 (24.76%) VPN
5 109 (14.67%) Network Security
6 104 (14.00%) SSL
7 91 (12.25%) HTTP
8 86 (11.57%) WAN
9 73 (9.83%) VLAN
10 69 (9.29%) LAN
11 52 (7.00%) Wireless
12 49 (6.59%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
12 49 (6.59%) SMTP
13 43 (5.79%) BGP
14 41 (5.52%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
15 40 (5.38%) FTP
16 36 (4.85%) Wi-Fi
17 34 (4.58%) DMZ
18 32 (4.31%) SD-WAN
19 31 (4.17%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (4.58%) Amazon RDS
2 24 (3.23%) SQL Server
3 21 (2.83%) PostgreSQL
4 15 (2.02%) Amazon Aurora
5 10 (1.35%) MongoDB
6 7 (0.94%) Elasticsearch
7 6 (0.81%) BigQuery
7 6 (0.81%) Data Hub
8 4 (0.54%) Apache Cassandra
8 4 (0.54%) Big Data
8 4 (0.54%) MySQL
9 3 (0.40%) DynamoDB
9 3 (0.40%) Redis
9 3 (0.40%) Relational Database
10 2 (0.27%) Delta Lake
10 2 (0.27%) Hadoop
10 2 (0.27%) NoSQL
10 2 (0.27%) Parquet
10 2 (0.27%) Power BI
11 1 (0.13%) CouchDB
Development Applications
1 94 (12.65%) Jenkins
2 82 (11.04%) Git
3 54 (7.27%) GitLab
3 54 (7.27%) JIRA
4 19 (2.56%) Fiddler
4 19 (2.56%) Vagrant
5 8 (1.08%) Terragrunt
6 5 (0.67%) Subversion
6 5 (0.67%) TeamCity
7 3 (0.40%) Browser DevTools
7 3 (0.40%) CircleCI
7 3 (0.40%) Visual Studio Code
7 3 (0.40%) Vite
7 3 (0.40%) webpack
8 2 (0.27%) MLflow
8 2 (0.27%) Poetry
8 2 (0.27%) PyCharm
8 2 (0.27%) SonarQube
9 1 (0.13%) Postman
9 1 (0.13%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 231 (31.09%) Social Skills
2 118 (15.88%) Analytical Skills
3 84 (11.31%) Public Sector
4 55 (7.40%) Finance
5 50 (6.73%) Banking
6 42 (5.65%) Documentation Skills
7 39 (5.25%) Investment Banking
8 24 (3.23%) Telecoms
9 19 (2.56%) Presentation Skills
10 17 (2.29%) Legal
11 11 (1.48%) Law
12 10 (1.35%) Organisational Skills
13 9 (1.21%) Military
14 8 (1.08%) Aerospace
14 8 (1.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 8 (1.08%) Influencing Skills
15 7 (0.94%) Manufacturing
16 6 (0.81%) Marketing
17 4 (0.54%) Local Government
18 3 (0.40%) Retail
Job Titles
1 90 (12.11%) Network Engineer
2 83 (11.17%) Support Engineer
3 78 (10.50%) Architect
4 73 (9.83%) Senior
5 71 (9.56%) Analyst
5 71 (9.56%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 53 (7.13%) DevOps Engineer
7 48 (6.46%) Platform Engineer
8 41 (5.52%) IT Support
9 35 (4.71%) AWS Engineer
9 35 (4.71%) Security Engineer
10 30 (4.04%) Administrator
11 27 (3.63%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
12 26 (3.50%) Cloud Platform Engineer
13 25 (3.36%) Operations Engineer
14 24 (3.23%) AWS DevOps
14 24 (3.23%) AWS DevOps Engineer
14 24 (3.23%) SOC Analyst
15 23 (3.10%) IT Engineer
15 23 (3.10%) Lead
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 53 (7.13%) LDAP
2 25 (3.36%) SAML
3 20 (2.69%) OAuth
4 18 (2.42%) Elastic Stack
5 16 (2.15%) OpenID
6 15 (2.02%) 802.1X
7 14 (1.88%) OAuth2
7 14 (1.88%) REST
8 12 (1.62%) AngularJS
8 12 (1.62%) SOAP
9 10 (1.35%) Kafka
9 10 (1.35%) Middleware
10 8 (1.08%) React
11 7 (0.94%) cloud-init
11 7 (0.94%) Keycloak
12 6 (0.81%) JSON
12 6 (0.81%) YAML
13 5 (0.67%) Flask
13 5 (0.67%) RESTful
14 4 (0.54%) ASP.NET Web API
Miscellaneous
1 63 (8.48%) Replication
2 61 (8.21%) PKI
3 59 (7.94%) Data Centre
4 57 (7.67%) Management Information System
5 31 (4.17%) Onboarding
6 30 (4.04%) Analytical Mindset
7 21 (2.83%) Enterprise Software
7 21 (2.83%) Security Operations Centre
8 20 (2.69%) Cyberattack
9 18 (2.42%) Hybrid Cloud
10 15 (2.02%) Cyber Threat
11 14 (1.88%) Cloud Native
11 14 (1.88%) Video Conferencing
12 13 (1.75%) CSOC
13 11 (1.48%) Private Cloud
13 11 (1.48%) Security Posture
14 10 (1.35%) Clustering
14 10 (1.35%) SCADA
14 10 (1.35%) Self-Motivation
15 8 (1.08%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 359 (48.32%) Windows
2 177 (23.82%) Linux
3 159 (21.40%) Windows Server
4 64 (8.61%) Windows 10
5 32 (4.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 30 (4.04%) Unix
7 29 (3.90%) VMS
8 28 (3.77%) Windows Server 2016
9 27 (3.63%) Windows Server 2019
10 22 (2.96%) Amazon Linux
10 22 (2.96%) Windows Server 2012
11 18 (2.42%) Android
11 18 (2.42%) Ubuntu
12 16 (2.15%) CentOS
12 16 (2.15%) Mac OS
13 13 (1.75%) Windows Server 2003
14 11 (1.48%) Apple iOS
15 10 (1.35%) Windows 7
16 5 (0.67%) Solaris
17 3 (0.40%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 163 (21.94%) Problem-Solving
2 134 (18.03%) CI/CD
3 132 (17.77%) ITIL
4 124 (16.69%) DevOps
5 110 (14.80%) Infrastructure as Code
6 106 (14.27%) Load Balancing
7 98 (13.19%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 83 (11.17%) Change Management
9 80 (10.77%) High Availability
10 79 (10.63%) Cybersecurity
11 78 (10.50%) Migration
12 69 (9.29%) Incident Response
13 63 (8.48%) Root Cause Analysis
14 62 (8.34%) Service Management
15 61 (8.21%) SIEM
16 59 (7.94%) Platform Engineering
17 58 (7.81%) Agile
18 57 (7.67%) Continuous Improvement
19 56 (7.54%) Disaster Recovery
20 55 (7.40%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 214 (28.80%) PowerShell
2 187 (25.17%) Python
3 94 (12.65%) Bash
4 50 (6.73%) SQL
5 28 (3.77%) Perl
6 21 (2.83%) Groovy
6 21 (2.83%) Java
7 16 (2.15%) Go
8 14 (1.88%) Bicep
9 13 (1.75%) Shell Script
10 10 (1.35%) Ruby
11 9 (1.21%) JavaScript
12 7 (0.94%) Kusto Query Language
12 7 (0.94%) Lisp
12 7 (0.94%) VBScript
13 6 (0.81%) C++
13 6 (0.81%) VB
14 4 (0.54%) TypeScript
15 3 (0.40%) Search Processing Language
15 3 (0.40%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 278 (37.42%) Security Cleared
2 203 (27.32%) SC Cleared
3 84 (11.31%) DV Cleared
4 74 (9.96%) Degree
5 64 (8.61%) Microsoft Certification
6 63 (8.48%) Cisco Certification
7 50 (6.73%) CCNP
8 41 (5.52%) Azure Certification
9 31 (4.17%) AWS Certification
10 22 (2.96%) CCNA
10 22 (2.96%) CISSP
11 20 (2.69%) Computer Science Degree
12 17 (2.29%) CompTIA Security+
12 17 (2.29%) Network+ Certification
13 14 (1.88%) CCIE
14 13 (1.75%) MCSE
15 11 (1.48%) Server+ Certification
16 10 (1.35%) BPSS Clearance
16 10 (1.35%) MCSA
17 9 (1.21%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (4.04%) GDPR
2 19 (2.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 15 (2.02%) NIST
4 13 (1.75%) SLA
5 11 (1.48%) NCSC
6 10 (1.35%) Cyber Essentials
7 9 (1.21%) Accessibility
8 8 (1.08%) PCI DSS
9 7 (0.94%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 5 (0.67%) Data Quality
11 4 (0.54%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 3 (0.40%) QA
12 3 (0.40%) WCAG
13 2 (0.27%) Disclosure Scotland
13 2 (0.27%) JSP 440
13 2 (0.27%) PMO
14 1 (0.13%) COBIT
14 1 (0.13%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 1 (0.13%) Government Security Classifications
14 1 (0.13%) SOC 2
System Software
1 324 (43.61%) Active Directory
2 185 (24.90%) VMware Infrastructure
3 95 (12.79%) Docker
4 56 (7.54%) Hyper-V
5 40 (5.38%) VMware NSX
6 33 (4.44%) Virtual Machines
7 28 (3.77%) vSphere
8 23 (3.10%) Firmware
9 20 (2.69%) VMware ESXi
10 19 (2.56%) DFS Replication
11 16 (2.15%) Dovecot
11 16 (2.15%) Postfix
12 14 (1.88%) Terminal Services
13 10 (1.35%) Squid
13 10 (1.35%) Virtual Servers
14 9 (1.21%) Brightmail
14 9 (1.21%) ISA Server
15 8 (1.08%) Virtual Desktop
16 7 (0.94%) NFS
17 6 (0.81%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 149 (20.05%) Terraform
2 119 (16.02%) Ansible
3 75 (10.09%) SCCM
4 72 (9.69%) Microsoft Intune
5 71 (9.56%) Kubernetes
6 48 (6.46%) Single Sign-On
7 46 (6.19%) Grafana
8 43 (5.79%) vCenter Server
9 39 (5.25%) Prometheus
10 35 (4.71%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 23 (3.10%) WSUS
12 17 (2.29%) Argo
12 17 (2.29%) Nessus
13 15 (2.02%) FortiGate
14 14 (1.88%) Packer
15 13 (1.75%) Microsoft Clustering
15 13 (1.75%) Progress Chef
15 13 (1.75%) Proxmox
16 12 (1.62%) Puppet
17 11 (1.48%) SCOM
Vendors
1 266 (35.80%) Microsoft
2 221 (29.74%) VMware
3 113 (15.21%) Cisco
3 113 (15.21%) F5
4 84 (11.31%) ServiceNow
5 59 (7.94%) Palo Alto
6 55 (7.40%) CheckPoint
7 53 (7.13%) Splunk
8 38 (5.11%) Citrix
9 37 (4.98%) Red Hat
10 35 (4.71%) Blue Coat
11 34 (4.58%) SolarWinds
12 30 (4.04%) Juniper
13 27 (3.63%) Veeam
14 23 (3.10%) McAfee
14 23 (3.10%) NetApp
15 22 (2.96%) Fortinet
15 22 (2.96%) Google
16 20 (2.69%) Zscaler
17 19 (2.56%) Dell