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 23 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 150 131 146
Rank change year-on-year -19 +15 -17
Contract jobs citing DNS 1,013 699 632
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.85% 2.14% 1.68%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 19.74% 18.54% 14.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 625 442 408
10th Percentile £296 £219 £224
25th Percentile £413 £380 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
75th Percentile £588 £600 £599
90th Percentile £650 £650 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £510 £475 £450
% change year-on-year +7.37% +5.56% -7.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 57 31 12
10th Percentile £26.40 £25.15 £20.13
25th Percentile £31.25 £29.00 £22.64
Median hourly rate £63.48 £45.00 £23.99
Median % change year-on-year +41.07% +87.58% -49.49%
75th Percentile £76.50 £78.18 £32.00
90th Percentile £96.53 £89.63 £47.68
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.00 £45.00 £27.10
% change year-on-year +48.89% +66.05% -42.95%

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 5,132 3,770 4,463
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.36% 11.53% 11.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,973 2,341 2,598
10th Percentile £235 £225 £225
25th Percentile £393 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £478 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.69% -4.48% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £608
90th Percentile £675 £680 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £450 £500
% change year-on-year +5.56% -10.00% +8.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 424 199 229
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.50 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.50 £25.15 £23.80
Median hourly rate £34.75 £42.50 £51.50
Median % change year-on-year -18.24% -17.48% -8.83%
75th Percentile £68.75 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £90.00 £73.40 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £42.50 £57.35
% change year-on-year -23.53% -25.89% -0.26%

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 23 September 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 23 September 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 23 September 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 -12 918 £500 - 919
UK excluding London -15 623 £510 +7.37% 563
London -38 324 £495 -5.10% 416
Work from Home -27 240 £500 +1.94% 329
North of England +6 201 £500 +11.48% 114
South East -1 176 £538 +7.50% 177
North West +13 124 £500 +11.48% 80
Midlands -40 109 £450 - 83
South West +6 99 £575 +4.55% 76
West Midlands -37 90 £425 -5.56% 50
Yorkshire -12 63 £500 - 23
East of England -44 42 £475 -13.64% 53
Scotland +1 37 £488 +7.38% 42
East Midlands -6 18 £450 - 33
North East -36 14 £419 +23.16% 15
Wales -6 10 £440 +16.02% 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
1 115 (11.35%) Microsoft Exchange
2 94 (9.28%) SharePoint
3 32 (3.16%) Confluence
4 16 (1.58%) Apache
5 14 (1.38%) nginx
6 12 (1.18%) IIS
7 8 (0.79%) Skype for Business
7 8 (0.79%) Tomcat
8 5 (0.49%) OpenStack
9 3 (0.30%) Exchange Server 2010
9 3 (0.30%) Exchange Server 2013
9 3 (0.30%) WebSphere
10 1 (0.099%) Apache Spark
10 1 (0.099%) CMS
10 1 (0.099%) Drupal
10 1 (0.099%) IBM HTTP Server
10 1 (0.099%) Oracle HTTP Server
10 1 (0.099%) SharePoint Server
10 1 (0.099%) WebSphere Portal
10 1 (0.099%) WordPress
Applications
1 24 (2.37%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (1.09%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (1.09%) MS Visio
3 3 (0.30%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.20%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 2 (0.20%) Chatbot
4 2 (0.20%) Houdini
4 2 (0.20%) NUKE
5 1 (0.099%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.099%) Mozilla Thunderbird
Business Applications
1 14 (1.38%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.099%) Magento
2 1 (0.099%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (0.099%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (0.099%) Oracle Retail
Cloud Services
1 421 (41.56%) Azure
2 206 (20.34%) AWS
3 195 (19.25%) Microsoft 365
4 194 (19.15%) Entra ID
5 85 (8.39%) GCP
6 80 (7.90%) GitHub
7 56 (5.53%) IaaS
8 54 (5.33%) OneDrive
9 50 (4.94%) Azure DevOps
10 47 (4.64%) GitHub Actions
11 43 (4.24%) Azure Monitor
12 40 (3.95%) SaaS
13 32 (3.16%) PaaS
14 28 (2.76%) Azure ExpressRoute
15 26 (2.57%) OpenShift
15 26 (2.57%) Serverless
16 25 (2.47%) Virtual Private Cloud
17 24 (2.37%) Amazon EKS
17 24 (2.37%) AWS CloudFormation
17 24 (2.37%) Azure Key Vault
Communications & Networking
1 494 (48.77%) DHCP
2 370 (36.53%) Firewall
3 300 (29.62%) TCP/IP
4 283 (27.94%) VPN
5 137 (13.52%) Network Security
6 133 (13.13%) VLAN
7 117 (11.55%) WAN
8 103 (10.17%) SSL
9 89 (8.79%) LAN
10 83 (8.19%) BGP
11 80 (7.90%) Wireless
12 68 (6.71%) HTTP
13 66 (6.52%) Wi-Fi
14 65 (6.42%) BIG-IP
15 61 (6.02%) SAN
16 59 (5.82%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
17 54 (5.33%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
18 45 (4.44%) OSPF
19 44 (4.34%) IPsec
20 41 (4.05%) DMZ
Database & Business Intelligence
1 51 (5.03%) SQL Server
2 24 (2.37%) PostgreSQL
3 14 (1.38%) Amazon RDS
3 14 (1.38%) MySQL
4 13 (1.28%) MongoDB
5 9 (0.89%) Data Lake
6 8 (0.79%) NoSQL
6 8 (0.79%) Power BI
7 7 (0.69%) Azure SQL Database
7 7 (0.69%) Elasticsearch
7 7 (0.69%) Redis
8 5 (0.49%) Big Data
9 4 (0.39%) Db2
10 3 (0.30%) MariaDB
10 3 (0.30%) Metadata
11 2 (0.20%) Amazon Aurora
11 2 (0.20%) Flink
11 2 (0.20%) KDB
11 2 (0.20%) SQLPlus
12 1 (0.099%) Cloud Spanner
Development Applications
1 85 (8.39%) JIRA
2 56 (5.53%) Jenkins
3 54 (5.33%) Git
4 40 (3.95%) GitLab
5 13 (1.28%) Fiddler
6 11 (1.09%) Bitbucket
7 8 (0.79%) Sonatype Nexus
8 5 (0.49%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 5 (0.49%) Chocolatey
8 5 (0.49%) Selenium
9 4 (0.39%) Browser DevTools
10 3 (0.30%) Artifactory
10 3 (0.30%) MSI
11 2 (0.20%) Spinnaker
11 2 (0.20%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
11 2 (0.20%) Vagrant
12 1 (0.099%) Locust
12 1 (0.099%) Newman
12 1 (0.099%) Robot Framework
12 1 (0.099%) TestCafe
General
1 280 (27.64%) Social Skills
2 120 (11.85%) Analytical Skills
3 85 (8.39%) Finance
4 77 (7.60%) Public Sector
5 58 (5.73%) Banking
6 56 (5.53%) Documentation Skills
7 35 (3.46%) Telecoms
8 25 (2.47%) Investment Banking
9 18 (1.78%) Legal
10 14 (1.38%) Aerospace
11 12 (1.18%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 12 (1.18%) Police
12 11 (1.09%) Local Government
12 11 (1.09%) Military
13 10 (0.99%) Organisational Skills
14 9 (0.89%) Front Office
14 9 (0.89%) Manufacturing
15 8 (0.79%) Law
15 8 (0.79%) Pharmaceutical
16 7 (0.69%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 189 (18.66%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 167 (16.49%) Network Engineer
3 124 (12.24%) Senior
4 101 (9.97%) Support Engineer
5 84 (8.29%) Cloud Engineer
6 73 (7.21%) Architect
7 50 (4.94%) IT Support
8 49 (4.84%) Azure Engineer
8 49 (4.84%) Platform Engineer
9 48 (4.74%) IT Engineer
9 48 (4.74%) Security Engineer
10 47 (4.64%) Analyst
11 45 (4.44%) DevOps Engineer
12 44 (4.34%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
13 37 (3.65%) Administrator
14 35 (3.46%) Senior Network Engineer
15 33 (3.26%) Cisco Engineer
15 33 (3.26%) Network Security Engineer
16 32 (3.16%) IT Support Engineer
17 31 (3.06%) Cisco Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 216 (21.32%) Terraform
2 43 (4.24%) SAML
3 35 (3.46%) 802.1X
4 33 (3.26%) OAuth
5 30 (2.96%) LDAP
5 30 (2.96%) REST
6 29 (2.86%) ARM Templates
7 26 (2.57%) OpenID
8 21 (2.07%) Kafka
9 20 (1.97%) JSON
10 15 (1.48%) YAML
11 12 (1.18%) OAuth2
12 11 (1.09%) Elastic Stack
12 11 (1.09%) OpenTelemetry
13 10 (0.99%) CSS
14 8 (0.79%) React
15 7 (0.69%) .NET
15 7 (0.69%) Jinja
15 7 (0.69%) Software Packaging
16 6 (0.59%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 128 (12.64%) Data Centre
2 109 (10.76%) PKI
3 75 (7.40%) Onboarding
4 72 (7.11%) Hybrid Cloud
5 54 (5.33%) Management Information System
6 41 (4.05%) Cloud Native
7 32 (3.16%) Replication
8 29 (2.86%) Public Cloud
9 26 (2.57%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 25 (2.47%) Clustering
11 23 (2.27%) Self-Motivation
12 21 (2.07%) Linux Command Line
13 16 (1.58%) Distributed Systems
14 15 (1.48%) Cyber Threat
14 15 (1.48%) Driving Licence
14 15 (1.48%) Enterprise Software
14 15 (1.48%) Security Posture
15 12 (1.18%) Operational Technology
16 11 (1.09%) Enterprise Cloud
16 11 (1.09%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 488 (48.17%) Windows
2 273 (26.95%) Windows Server
3 229 (22.61%) Linux
4 64 (6.32%) Windows 10
5 49 (4.84%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 43 (4.24%) Windows Server 2019
7 37 (3.65%) Mac OS
8 30 (2.96%) Unix
9 26 (2.57%) Ubuntu
9 26 (2.57%) Windows Server 2012
10 24 (2.37%) Apple iOS
11 22 (2.17%) Android
12 21 (2.07%) CentOS
13 18 (1.78%) VMS
14 15 (1.48%) Windows Server 2016
15 12 (1.18%) Windows 7
16 7 (0.69%) Rocky
16 7 (0.69%) Windows Server 2008
17 4 (0.39%) AIX
17 4 (0.39%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 259 (25.57%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 222 (21.92%) Problem-Solving
3 205 (20.24%) ITIL
4 199 (19.64%) Infrastructure as Code
5 174 (17.18%) DevOps
6 165 (16.29%) CI/CD
6 165 (16.29%) Load Balancing
7 156 (15.40%) Migration
8 131 (12.93%) ITSM
9 113 (11.15%) Continuous Improvement
10 112 (11.06%) High Availability
11 109 (10.76%) Agile
12 97 (9.58%) Cybersecurity
12 97 (9.58%) Technical Leadership
13 95 (9.38%) Observability
14 92 (9.08%) Disaster Recovery
15 89 (8.79%) Platform Engineering
15 89 (8.79%) Root Cause Analysis
16 88 (8.69%) Runbook
17 86 (8.49%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 279 (27.54%) PowerShell
2 213 (21.03%) Python
3 144 (14.22%) Bash
4 65 (6.42%) SQL
5 51 (5.03%) Bicep
6 18 (1.78%) Shell Script
7 17 (1.68%) ActionScript
8 16 (1.58%) JavaScript
9 14 (1.38%) Go
10 12 (1.18%) Java
11 10 (0.99%) VBScript
12 9 (0.89%) Perl
13 7 (0.69%) Groovy
13 7 (0.69%) VBA
14 6 (0.59%) TypeScript
14 6 (0.59%) VB
15 4 (0.39%) Kusto Query Language
15 4 (0.39%) Ruby
16 3 (0.30%) C
16 3 (0.30%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 388 (38.30%) Security Cleared
2 218 (21.52%) SC Cleared
3 169 (16.68%) DV Cleared
4 86 (8.49%) Cisco Certification
5 85 (8.39%) Degree
6 72 (7.11%) CCNP
7 59 (5.82%) Azure Certification
8 55 (5.43%) Microsoft Certification
9 45 (4.44%) CCNA
10 27 (2.67%) Network+ Certification
11 26 (2.57%) Computer Science Degree
12 23 (2.27%) AWS Certification
13 19 (1.88%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 17 (1.68%) BPSS Clearance
15 16 (1.58%) CCIE
15 16 (1.58%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
16 15 (1.48%) VCAP
17 11 (1.09%) A+ Certification
17 11 (1.09%) MCSE
17 11 (1.09%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 42 (4.15%) SLA
2 23 (2.27%) NIST
3 18 (1.78%) QA
4 17 (1.68%) NCSC
5 16 (1.58%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 7 (0.69%) Cyber Essentials
7 6 (0.59%) GDPR
8 5 (0.49%) Disclosure Scotland
8 5 (0.49%) NIST 800
9 4 (0.39%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 4 (0.39%) JSP 440
10 3 (0.30%) SOC 2
11 2 (0.20%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 2 (0.20%) Data Quality
11 2 (0.20%) Government Security Classifications
11 2 (0.20%) HIPAA
11 2 (0.20%) PCI DSS
11 2 (0.20%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 451 (44.52%) Active Directory
2 280 (27.64%) VMware Infrastructure
3 122 (12.04%) Hyper-V
4 90 (8.88%) VMware ESXi
5 82 (8.09%) vSphere
6 66 (6.52%) VMware NSX
7 65 (6.42%) Docker
8 49 (4.84%) Virtual Machines
9 41 (4.05%) Virtual Desktop
10 21 (2.07%) Firmware
10 21 (2.07%) NFS
11 16 (1.58%) vCloud
12 11 (1.09%) BitLocker
12 11 (1.09%) Virtual Servers
13 9 (0.89%) Postfix
14 8 (0.79%) UAG
15 7 (0.69%) Squid
16 6 (0.59%) Microsoft App-V
16 6 (0.59%) VMware Workstation
17 5 (0.49%) Dovecot
Systems Management
1 151 (14.91%) Ansible
2 124 (12.24%) Kubernetes
3 113 (11.15%) Microsoft Intune
4 83 (8.19%) SCCM
5 68 (6.71%) vCenter Server
6 59 (5.82%) Grafana
7 58 (5.73%) Single Sign-On
8 51 (5.03%) Prometheus
9 42 (4.15%) SCOM
10 34 (3.36%) WSUS
11 24 (2.37%) FortiGate
12 17 (1.68%) Jamf Pro
12 17 (1.68%) NetBackup
13 16 (1.58%) Packer
13 16 (1.58%) Puppet
13 16 (1.58%) VxRail
14 14 (1.38%) Istio
15 12 (1.18%) Active Directory Federation Services
15 12 (1.18%) Argo
16 11 (1.09%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 409 (40.38%) Microsoft
2 341 (33.66%) VMware
3 184 (18.16%) Cisco
4 129 (12.73%) F5
5 88 (8.69%) ServiceNow
6 57 (5.63%) Citrix
7 55 (5.43%) Palo Alto
8 52 (5.13%) Google
8 52 (5.13%) SolarWinds
9 51 (5.03%) Infoblox
10 44 (4.34%) Splunk
11 42 (4.15%) Juniper
12 40 (3.95%) Red Hat
13 35 (3.46%) Dynatrace
13 35 (3.46%) NetApp
14 33 (3.26%) CheckPoint
15 30 (2.96%) Fortinet
15 30 (2.96%) Zscaler
16 24 (2.37%) CyberArk
17 23 (2.27%) Blue Coat