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 24 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 138 109 125
Rank change year-on-year -29 +16 0
Contract jobs citing DNS 817 731 828
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.99% 2.42% 1.86%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 19.48% 18.20% 13.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 524 475 525
10th Percentile £213 £243 £200
25th Percentile £400 £385 £333
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £509 £510 £467
Median % change year-on-year -0.25% +9.21% -11.05%
75th Percentile £600 £623 £600
90th Percentile £675 £750 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £513 £463 £500
% change year-on-year +10.97% -7.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 10 27
10th Percentile £13.04 £17.88 £23.85
25th Percentile £15.50 £21.84 £28.13
Median hourly rate £25.15 £23.59 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +6.61% -41.03% -
75th Percentile £74.26 £56.94 £55.70
90th Percentile £75.00 £81.12 £63.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.50 £22.50 £43.75
% change year-on-year - -48.57% -5.11%

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 4,195 4,017 5,946
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.24% 13.30% 13.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,741 2,407 3,555
10th Percentile £204 £209 £205
25th Percentile £358 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £486
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +2.88% -6.09%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £680 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £463 £470 £475
% change year-on-year -1.60% -1.05% +1.06%
Number of hourly rates quoted 170 131 388
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.44 £14.27
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.46 £19.99
Median hourly rate £28.38 £32.50 £45.88
Median % change year-on-year -12.68% -29.16% +130.78%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £73.75 £74.30
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.54 £30.04 £50.00
% change year-on-year +34.95% -39.92% +151.51%

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 24 February 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 24 February 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 24 February 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 -14 730 £519 +3.71% 322
UK excluding London -19 518 £513 +10.97% 279
London -9 239 £525 - 80
Work from Home -55 192 £500 -6.54% 101
North of England -21 183 £463 -2.37% 75
South East 0 144 £525 - 88
North West +3 117 £603 +26.84% 42
Midlands +13 109 £375 -16.67% 37
West Midlands +17 105 £378 -6.79% 29
Yorkshire -31 69 £447 -0.67% 27
South West -28 63 £575 +5.02% 33
East of England -20 39 £463 +2.78% 34
Scotland -1 34 £465 +3.33% 16
North East -23 6 £411 +26.38% 9
Wales -13 4 £550 +25.71% 4
East Midlands -36 4 £325 -41.96% 8

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
1 100 (12.24%) Microsoft Exchange
2 58 (7.10%) SharePoint
3 29 (3.55%) Skype for Business
4 17 (2.08%) Confluence
5 15 (1.84%) nginx
6 5 (0.61%) Apache
6 5 (0.61%) IIS
7 4 (0.49%) Exchange Server 2010
7 4 (0.49%) OpenStack
7 4 (0.49%) SharePoint Server
8 2 (0.24%) Exchange Server 2013
8 2 (0.24%) Oracle HTTP Server
8 2 (0.24%) Tomcat
8 2 (0.24%) WebLogic
8 2 (0.24%) WordPress
9 1 (0.12%) Traefik
Applications
1 38 (4.65%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (1.84%) MS Visio
3 3 (0.37%) Mozilla Thunderbird
4 1 (0.12%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.12%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.12%) Spreadsheet
4 1 (0.12%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 2 (0.24%) SystmOne
2 1 (0.12%) Cloudability
2 1 (0.12%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.12%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 280 (34.27%) Azure
2 172 (21.05%) AWS
3 148 (18.12%) Microsoft 365
4 127 (15.54%) Entra ID
5 57 (6.98%) GCP
6 54 (6.61%) GitHub
7 52 (6.36%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 44 (5.39%) Amazon S3
9 41 (5.02%) Amazon EC2
10 40 (4.90%) IaaS
11 38 (4.65%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 35 (4.28%) AWS CloudFormation
13 32 (3.92%) Serverless
14 30 (3.67%) AWS Lambda
14 30 (3.67%) Route 53
14 30 (3.67%) SaaS
15 24 (2.94%) Amazon ECS
15 24 (2.94%) PaaS
16 23 (2.82%) Amazon EKS
17 22 (2.69%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 369 (45.17%) DHCP
2 260 (31.82%) Firewall
3 259 (31.70%) TCP/IP
4 198 (24.24%) VPN
5 101 (12.36%) WAN
6 94 (11.51%) SSL
7 92 (11.26%) LAN
8 90 (11.02%) Network Security
9 76 (9.30%) HTTP
9 76 (9.30%) VLAN
10 65 (7.96%) BGP
10 65 (7.96%) BIG-IP
11 55 (6.73%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
11 55 (6.73%) Wi-Fi
12 45 (5.51%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
13 44 (5.39%) Wireshark
14 41 (5.02%) OSPF
15 37 (4.53%) DMZ
16 35 (4.28%) Kerberos
17 34 (4.16%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (3.06%) SQL Server
2 17 (2.08%) Amazon RDS
2 17 (2.08%) PostgreSQL
3 16 (1.96%) Elasticsearch
4 9 (1.10%) Amazon Aurora
5 7 (0.86%) DynamoDB
5 7 (0.86%) MongoDB
5 7 (0.86%) Redis
6 6 (0.73%) Data Hub
6 6 (0.73%) MySQL
7 4 (0.49%) DocumentDB
7 4 (0.49%) NoSQL
7 4 (0.49%) Relational Database
8 3 (0.37%) BigQuery
9 2 (0.24%) Azure SQL Database
10 1 (0.12%) Apache Cassandra
10 1 (0.12%) CouchDB
10 1 (0.12%) GIS
10 1 (0.12%) Oracle Reports
10 1 (0.12%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 70 (8.57%) Jenkins
2 52 (6.36%) Git
3 44 (5.39%) GitLab
4 42 (5.14%) JIRA
5 30 (3.67%) Fiddler
6 7 (0.86%) Bitbucket
6 7 (0.86%) Terragrunt
7 6 (0.73%) SonarQube
8 4 (0.49%) Chocolatey
8 4 (0.49%) CircleCI
8 4 (0.49%) Vagrant
9 3 (0.37%) Subversion
10 2 (0.24%) Sonatype Nexus
10 2 (0.24%) TeamCity
11 1 (0.12%) Browser DevTools
11 1 (0.12%) Octopus Deploy
11 1 (0.12%) Travis CI
11 1 (0.12%) Visual Studio Code
11 1 (0.12%) Vite
11 1 (0.12%) webpack
General
1 228 (27.91%) Social Skills
2 106 (12.97%) Analytical Skills
3 63 (7.71%) Banking
4 58 (7.10%) Public Sector
5 48 (5.88%) Finance
6 46 (5.63%) Documentation Skills
7 45 (5.51%) Investment Banking
8 22 (2.69%) Legal
9 19 (2.33%) Telecoms
10 17 (2.08%) Military
11 11 (1.35%) Organisational Skills
12 9 (1.10%) Presentation Skills
13 7 (0.86%) Influencing Skills
14 5 (0.61%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 5 (0.61%) Law
15 4 (0.49%) Aerospace
15 4 (0.49%) Financial Institution
15 4 (0.49%) Local Government
16 3 (0.37%) Marketing
17 2 (0.24%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 126 (15.42%) Network Engineer
2 111 (13.59%) Architect
3 80 (9.79%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 76 (9.30%) Analyst
5 70 (8.57%) Senior
6 66 (8.08%) Support Engineer
7 53 (6.49%) IT Support
8 46 (5.63%) Security Engineer
9 36 (4.41%) Web Engineer
10 35 (4.28%) Platform Engineer
11 33 (4.04%) Lead
12 31 (3.79%) DevOps Engineer
12 31 (3.79%) IT Engineer
13 29 (3.55%) Network Security Engineer
14 26 (3.18%) SOC Analyst
15 24 (2.94%) IT Support Engineer
16 23 (2.82%) 2nd Line Support
16 23 (2.82%) Cisco Engineer
16 23 (2.82%) Cisco Network Engineer
17 22 (2.69%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 70 (8.57%) LDAP
2 43 (5.26%) SAML
3 37 (4.53%) OAuth
4 30 (3.67%) OpenID
5 22 (2.69%) 802.1X
6 20 (2.45%) OAuth2
7 15 (1.84%) OpenTelemetry
8 10 (1.22%) Elastic Stack
8 10 (1.22%) Kafka
8 10 (1.22%) REST
9 6 (0.73%) ARM Templates
9 6 (0.73%) JSON
9 6 (0.73%) Microsoft Graph
9 6 (0.73%) Middleware
9 6 (0.73%) XMPP
10 5 (0.61%) AngularJS
10 5 (0.61%) AWS CDK
10 5 (0.61%) React
10 5 (0.61%) RESTful
10 5 (0.61%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 72 (8.81%) PKI
2 60 (7.34%) Data Centre
3 53 (6.49%) Replication
4 39 (4.77%) Cloud Native
4 39 (4.77%) Management Information System
5 30 (3.67%) Onboarding
6 25 (3.06%) Security Operations Centre
7 24 (2.94%) Cyberattack
8 23 (2.82%) Analytical Mindset
8 23 (2.82%) Clustering
8 23 (2.82%) Public Cloud
9 21 (2.57%) Enterprise Software
10 20 (2.45%) Hybrid Cloud
11 15 (1.84%) Cyber Threat
11 15 (1.84%) Self-Motivation
12 12 (1.47%) Legacy Systems
12 12 (1.47%) NHS
13 11 (1.35%) Private Cloud
14 10 (1.22%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
14 10 (1.22%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 398 (48.71%) Windows
2 189 (23.13%) Windows Server
3 149 (18.24%) Linux
4 59 (7.22%) Windows 10
5 34 (4.16%) Windows Server 2019
6 19 (2.33%) Unix
7 18 (2.20%) Android
8 17 (2.08%) Windows Server 2016
9 16 (1.96%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 15 (1.84%) Windows Server 2012
11 14 (1.71%) Mac OS
12 13 (1.59%) Apple iOS
13 11 (1.35%) Windows 7
14 10 (1.22%) VMS
15 9 (1.10%) CentOS
16 7 (0.86%) Amazon Linux
16 7 (0.86%) Ubuntu
17 5 (0.61%) Windows Server 2003
18 4 (0.49%) CatOS
18 4 (0.49%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 204 (24.97%) Problem-Solving
2 156 (19.09%) Load Balancing
3 135 (16.52%) ITIL
4 115 (14.08%) CI/CD
5 110 (13.46%) DevOps
6 106 (12.97%) High Availability
6 106 (12.97%) Migration
7 104 (12.73%) Infrastructure as Code
7 104 (12.73%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 79 (9.67%) Cybersecurity
8 79 (9.67%) Disaster Recovery
9 76 (9.30%) Service Management
10 71 (8.69%) Change Management
11 68 (8.32%) Identity Access Management
12 66 (8.08%) Incident Response
13 61 (7.47%) SIEM
14 59 (7.22%) Root Cause Analysis
15 56 (6.85%) ITSM
15 56 (6.85%) RBAC
16 54 (6.61%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 232 (28.40%) PowerShell
2 145 (17.75%) Python
3 77 (9.42%) Bash
4 42 (5.14%) SQL
5 13 (1.59%) VBScript
6 12 (1.47%) Bicep
6 12 (1.47%) Java
7 11 (1.35%) Go
7 11 (1.35%) Perl
8 10 (1.22%) JavaScript
8 10 (1.22%) Ruby
8 10 (1.22%) VB
9 9 (1.10%) Shell Script
10 7 (0.86%) Lisp
11 5 (0.61%) Kusto Query Language
12 4 (0.49%) Groovy
13 3 (0.37%) C#
13 3 (0.37%) C++
13 3 (0.37%) T-SQL
14 2 (0.24%) C
Qualifications
1 287 (35.13%) Security Cleared
2 198 (24.24%) SC Cleared
3 100 (12.24%) DV Cleared
4 69 (8.45%) Degree
5 66 (8.08%) Microsoft Certification
6 58 (7.10%) Cisco Certification
7 46 (5.63%) CCNP
8 36 (4.41%) Azure Certification
9 30 (3.67%) CompTIA Security+
10 22 (2.69%) AWS Certification
11 21 (2.57%) CISSP
11 21 (2.57%) Computer Science Degree
11 21 (2.57%) Network+ Certification
12 18 (2.20%) CCNA
13 16 (1.96%) CompTIA CySA+
14 13 (1.59%) MCSE
14 13 (1.59%) Server+ Certification
15 10 (1.22%) ITIL Certification
15 10 (1.22%) JNCIA
15 10 (1.22%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (3.92%) GDPR
2 26 (3.18%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 23 (2.82%) NIST
4 22 (2.69%) SLA
5 19 (2.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 9 (1.10%) PCI DSS
7 8 (0.98%) Cyber Essentials
7 8 (0.98%) NCSC
8 6 (0.73%) QA
9 4 (0.49%) Accessibility
10 3 (0.37%) Data Quality
10 3 (0.37%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 3 (0.37%) PMO
11 2 (0.24%) JSP 440
12 1 (0.12%) Actionable Recommendations
12 1 (0.12%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 1 (0.12%) Government Security Classifications
12 1 (0.12%) RMADS
12 1 (0.12%) SOC 2
12 1 (0.12%) WCAG
System Software
1 358 (43.82%) Active Directory
2 194 (23.75%) VMware Infrastructure
3 75 (9.18%) Docker
4 63 (7.71%) Hyper-V
5 56 (6.85%) VMware NSX
6 48 (5.88%) vSphere
7 29 (3.55%) Virtual Machines
8 24 (2.94%) Firmware
9 18 (2.20%) VMware ESXi
10 14 (1.71%) BitLocker
10 14 (1.71%) Virtual Desktop
11 10 (1.22%) Squid
12 7 (0.86%) DFS Replication
12 7 (0.86%) Virtual Servers
13 6 (0.73%) Microsoft App-V
14 5 (0.61%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 4 (0.49%) NFS
15 4 (0.49%) Postfix
15 4 (0.49%) Terminal Services
16 3 (0.37%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 142 (17.38%) Terraform
2 132 (16.16%) Ansible
3 94 (11.51%) Microsoft Intune
4 81 (9.91%) Kubernetes
5 78 (9.55%) SCCM
6 73 (8.94%) Single Sign-On
7 63 (7.71%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 43 (5.26%) vCenter Server
9 41 (5.02%) FortiGate
10 36 (4.41%) Grafana
11 23 (2.82%) Prometheus
12 22 (2.69%) Argo
13 19 (2.33%) WSUS
14 14 (1.71%) SCOM
15 9 (1.10%) Nessus
15 9 (1.10%) Puppet
16 8 (0.98%) Nagios
16 8 (0.98%) QRadar
17 6 (0.73%) HAProxy
17 6 (0.73%) Packer
Vendors
1 311 (38.07%) Microsoft
2 240 (29.38%) VMware
3 142 (17.38%) F5
4 127 (15.54%) Cisco
5 83 (10.16%) ServiceNow
6 82 (10.04%) Splunk
7 49 (6.00%) Palo Alto
8 45 (5.51%) Blue Coat
9 43 (5.26%) SolarWinds
10 40 (4.90%) Citrix
11 35 (4.28%) Juniper
11 35 (4.28%) McAfee
12 34 (4.16%) CheckPoint
13 32 (3.92%) Red Hat
14 25 (3.06%) NetApp
15 21 (2.57%) Fortinet
15 21 (2.57%) Infoblox
15 21 (2.57%) Veeam
16 20 (2.45%) Dell
16 20 (2.45%) Zscaler