Architect Contract Job Trends in England

Architect
UK > England

The median Architect daily rate in England is £625, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 16 11
Rank change year-on-year +6 -5 +6
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 4,423 2,378 3,815
As % of all contract jobs in England 10.96% 9.77% 10.26%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.86% 10.55% 11.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,983 1,573 2,489
10th Percentile £463 £478 £500
25th Percentile £513 £547 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £625 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year - -3.85% -3.70%
75th Percentile £725 £725 £750
90th Percentile £800 £799 £825
UK median daily rate £620 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -0.80% -3.85% -1.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 115 32 79
10th Percentile £49.40 £52.80 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £61.50 £61.25
Median hourly rate £69.44 £72.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -4.22% +3.57% -
75th Percentile £83.00 £81.00 £87.46
90th Percentile £97.50 £85.75 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £68.00 £72.50 £70.00
% change year-on-year -6.21% +3.57% -

All Contract IT Job Roles
England

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in England. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in England with a recognized job title 37,282 22,549 34,489
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.35% 92.63% 92.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,335 15,006 22,895
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £620 £638 £643
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £515 £525
% change year-on-year -2.91% -1.90% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,521 899 2,432
10th Percentile £15.79 £14.20 £13.00
25th Percentile £21.00 £18.51 £16.30
Median hourly rate £47.00 £30.78 £36.31
Median % change year-on-year +52.70% -15.22% -19.32%
75th Percentile £67.50 £63.75 £61.25
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £44.00 £29.00 £36.42
% change year-on-year +51.72% -20.37% -19.07%

Architect
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Architect' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

Architect job vacancy trend in England

Architect
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Architect job vacancies in England.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Architect job vacancies in England

Architect
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Architect in England over the 6 months to 1 May 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Architect in England

Architect
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Architect job vacancies in England.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Architect job vacancies in England

Architect
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Architect in England over the 6 months to 1 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Architect in England

Architect
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Architect within the England region over the 6 months to 1 May 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
London +4 2,063 £625 -2.72% 403
South East +5 710 £625 - 146
North of England +3 617 £600 - 130
Midlands +1 420 £600 - 91
North West +4 356 £610 +1.67% 84
West Midlands -2 309 £613 +2.08% 63
South West 0 302 £698 +16.25% 78
Yorkshire +6 232 £557 -9.14% 27
East of England +21 201 £563 -6.25% 46
East Midlands -2 105 £525 -4.55% 28
North East +1 38 £575 -7.95% 19
Architect
UK

Architect Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England

For the 6 months to 1 May 2026, Architect contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the England region featuring Architect in the job title.

1 1,354 (30.61%) Security Cleared
2 1,014 (22.93%) Azure
3 931 (21.05%) SC Cleared
4 848 (19.17%) AWS
5 625 (14.13%) Roadmaps
6 615 (13.90%) Microsoft
7 591 (13.36%) Migration
8 560 (12.66%) Agile
9 493 (11.15%) DevOps
10 459 (10.38%) CI/CD
10 459 (10.38%) Stakeholder Management
11 437 (9.88%) Enterprise Architecture
12 400 (9.04%) AI
13 390 (8.82%) Data Modelling
13 390 (8.82%) Integration Patterns
14 387 (8.75%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 380 (8.59%) Technical Leadership
16 360 (8.14%) TOGAF
17 356 (8.05%) Analytics
18 343 (7.75%) Data Architecture
19 337 (7.62%) GCP
20 333 (7.53%) Problem-Solving
21 328 (7.42%) Architectural Patterns
22 316 (7.14%) DV Cleared
23 310 (7.01%) Architectural Design
24 301 (6.81%) Microservices
25 297 (6.71%) Python
26 278 (6.29%) ServiceNow
27 265 (5.99%) SAP
28 253 (5.72%) Security Architecture

Architect Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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
1 105 (2.37%) SharePoint
2 97 (2.19%) Confluence
3 58 (1.31%) Microsoft Exchange
4 23 (0.52%) Apache
5 22 (0.50%) Apache Spark
6 19 (0.43%) SAS
7 18 (0.41%) CMS
8 16 (0.36%) Anypoint
8 16 (0.36%) Appian
9 14 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
10 13 (0.29%) nginx
11 12 (0.27%) ArcGIS
12 11 (0.25%) Palantir Foundry
12 11 (0.25%) WebLogic
13 10 (0.23%) OpenStack
14 9 (0.20%) Adobe Experience Manager
15 8 (0.18%) Camunda
16 7 (0.16%) Oracle SOA Suite
16 7 (0.16%) Skype for Business
17 6 (0.14%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 48 (1.09%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (0.70%) Microsoft Project
3 18 (0.41%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 15 (0.34%) MS Visio
5 14 (0.32%) Microsoft Excel
6 7 (0.16%) Navisworks
6 7 (0.16%) Revit
7 4 (0.090%) Chatbot
8 2 (0.045%) PlantUML
8 2 (0.045%) Spreadsheet
9 1 (0.023%) ArchiCAD
9 1 (0.023%) AutoCAD
9 1 (0.023%) OrCAD
9 1 (0.023%) Siemens NX
9 1 (0.023%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 108 (2.44%) SAP S/4HANA
2 46 (1.04%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 20 (0.45%) Payment Gateway
3 20 (0.45%) Workday HCM
4 14 (0.32%) Dynamics CRM
4 14 (0.32%) SAP ERP
5 13 (0.29%) Oracle EBS
5 13 (0.29%) Teamcenter
6 11 (0.25%) Remedy ITSM
7 10 (0.23%) Oracle Receivables
8 9 (0.20%) Salesforce CRM
8 9 (0.20%) SAP EWM
9 8 (0.18%) Oracle ERP
9 8 (0.18%) SAP PP
10 7 (0.16%) Maximo
10 7 (0.16%) SAP PM
10 7 (0.16%) SAP QM
11 6 (0.14%) NetSuite
11 6 (0.14%) Oracle Payables
11 6 (0.14%) SAP CRM
Cloud Services
1 1,014 (22.93%) Azure
2 848 (19.17%) AWS
3 337 (7.62%) GCP
4 199 (4.50%) Power Platform
5 167 (3.78%) Entra ID
6 154 (3.48%) Serverless
7 144 (3.26%) SaaS
8 127 (2.87%) Microsoft 365
9 100 (2.26%) GitHub
10 97 (2.19%) Dynamics 365
10 97 (2.19%) PaaS
11 89 (2.01%) IaaS
12 82 (1.85%) Azure DevOps
13 74 (1.67%) AWS Lambda
14 71 (1.61%) Amazon S3
15 68 (1.54%) OpenShift
15 68 (1.54%) Snowflake
16 60 (1.36%) Microsoft Purview
17 56 (1.27%) Azure Data Factory
17 56 (1.27%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 163 (3.69%) Firewall
2 147 (3.32%) Network Security
3 119 (2.69%) WAN
4 108 (2.44%) DNS
5 102 (2.31%) VPN
6 86 (1.94%) LAN
7 60 (1.36%) SD-WAN
8 34 (0.77%) BGP
9 31 (0.70%) DHCP
10 29 (0.66%) OSPF
11 27 (0.61%) MPLS
11 27 (0.61%) Wi-Fi
12 26 (0.59%) TCP/IP
13 24 (0.54%) VLAN
14 19 (0.43%) BIG-IP
15 18 (0.41%) SAN
15 18 (0.41%) VXLAN
16 17 (0.38%) NAS
17 16 (0.36%) VSAN
17 16 (0.36%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 149 (3.37%) Power BI
2 108 (2.44%) Metadata
3 104 (2.35%) Data Lake
4 96 (2.17%) Data Warehouse
5 67 (1.51%) SQL Server
6 57 (1.29%) NoSQL
7 50 (1.13%) PostgreSQL
8 40 (0.90%) Azure SQL Database
9 38 (0.86%) Tableau
10 29 (0.66%) Amazon Redshift
10 29 (0.66%) Big Data
11 26 (0.59%) Delta Lake
12 25 (0.57%) Oracle Database
13 24 (0.54%) BigQuery
14 22 (0.50%) GIS
15 21 (0.47%) Electronic Patient Records
16 18 (0.41%) Amazon Athena
17 17 (0.38%) MongoDB
18 16 (0.36%) Relational Database
18 16 (0.36%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 111 (2.51%) JIRA
2 81 (1.83%) Jenkins
3 55 (1.24%) Git
4 42 (0.95%) GitLab
5 18 (0.41%) ERwin
6 13 (0.29%) SonarQube
7 11 (0.25%) Bitbucket
7 11 (0.25%) MLflow
8 10 (0.23%) Artifactory
9 6 (0.14%) Postman
10 5 (0.11%) JUnit
10 5 (0.11%) MSI
10 5 (0.11%) PowerDesigner
10 5 (0.11%) REST Assured
10 5 (0.11%) Selenium
11 4 (0.090%) Cucumber
11 4 (0.090%) Snyk
11 4 (0.090%) Sonatype Nexus
11 4 (0.090%) Terragrunt
12 3 (0.068%) Claude Code
General
1 833 (18.83%) Social Skills
2 694 (15.69%) Finance
3 459 (10.38%) Public Sector
4 265 (5.99%) Banking
5 264 (5.97%) Analytical Skills
6 132 (2.98%) Retail
7 130 (2.94%) Documentation Skills
8 96 (2.17%) Influencing Skills
9 91 (2.06%) Legal
10 87 (1.97%) Military
11 79 (1.79%) Telecoms
12 64 (1.45%) Manufacturing
13 62 (1.40%) Presentation Skills
14 61 (1.38%) Law
15 54 (1.22%) Marketing
16 48 (1.09%) Billing
17 42 (0.95%) Financial Institution
18 34 (0.77%) Investment Banking
19 28 (0.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
20 26 (0.59%) Aerospace
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 215 (4.86%) REST
2 165 (3.73%) Middleware
3 113 (2.55%) SOAP
4 98 (2.22%) .NET
5 80 (1.81%) LDAP
5 80 (1.81%) OpenID
6 69 (1.56%) OAuth
7 64 (1.45%) Kafka
8 57 (1.29%) SAML
9 48 (1.09%) JSON
10 41 (0.93%) OAuth2
10 41 (0.93%) Oracle Fusion
11 37 (0.84%) SailPoint
12 36 (0.81%) React
13 32 (0.72%) AngularJS
13 32 (0.72%) RESTful
14 28 (0.63%) Web Services
15 26 (0.59%) Spring
16 25 (0.57%) PySpark
17 23 (0.52%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 365 (8.25%) Cloud Native
2 131 (2.96%) Product Ownership
3 115 (2.60%) Data Centre
3 115 (2.60%) Onboarding
4 106 (2.40%) Legacy Systems
5 105 (2.37%) Enterprise Software
6 92 (2.08%) Hybrid Cloud
7 86 (1.94%) Distributed Systems
8 84 (1.90%) Management Information System
9 73 (1.65%) Public Cloud
10 72 (1.63%) Security Posture
11 68 (1.54%) Operational Technology
12 65 (1.47%) Data Protection Act
13 64 (1.45%) PKI
14 58 (1.31%) CMDB
15 45 (1.02%) AI Agents
16 40 (0.90%) Private Cloud
17 39 (0.88%) Data Structures
18 36 (0.81%) Self-Motivation
19 31 (0.70%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 153 (3.46%) Windows
2 91 (2.06%) Linux
3 31 (0.70%) Windows Server
4 26 (0.59%) Android
4 26 (0.59%) Apple iOS
5 16 (0.36%) Unix
6 14 (0.32%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 14 (0.32%) Windows 10
7 12 (0.27%) Windows 7
8 11 (0.25%) zOS
9 9 (0.20%) Mac OS
10 8 (0.18%) VMS
10 8 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
11 5 (0.11%) Windows Server 2019
12 3 (0.068%) CentOS
12 3 (0.068%) Data ONTAP
12 3 (0.068%) Solaris
12 3 (0.068%) Windows Server 2012
13 2 (0.045%) AIX
13 2 (0.045%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 625 (14.13%) Roadmaps
2 591 (13.36%) Migration
3 560 (12.66%) Agile
4 493 (11.15%) DevOps
5 459 (10.38%) CI/CD
5 459 (10.38%) Stakeholder Management
6 437 (9.88%) Enterprise Architecture
7 400 (9.04%) AI
8 390 (8.82%) Data Modelling
8 390 (8.82%) Integration Patterns
9 387 (8.75%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 380 (8.59%) Technical Leadership
11 360 (8.14%) TOGAF
12 356 (8.05%) Analytics
13 343 (7.75%) Data Architecture
14 333 (7.53%) Problem-Solving
15 328 (7.42%) Architectural Patterns
16 310 (7.01%) Architectural Design
17 301 (6.81%) Microservices
18 253 (5.72%) Security Architecture
Programming Languages
1 297 (6.71%) Python
2 227 (5.13%) SQL
3 168 (3.80%) PowerShell
4 166 (3.75%) Java
5 72 (1.63%) JavaScript
6 52 (1.18%) C#
7 42 (0.95%) Bicep
8 33 (0.75%) Bash
8 33 (0.75%) TypeScript
9 17 (0.38%) Apex Code
9 17 (0.38%) Ruby
10 16 (0.36%) Scala
11 14 (0.32%) PL/SQL
12 13 (0.29%) Kusto Query Language
13 9 (0.20%) Kotlin
13 9 (0.20%) Shell Script
13 9 (0.20%) T-SQL
14 8 (0.18%) R
14 8 (0.18%) VB
15 7 (0.16%) VBA
Qualifications
1 1,354 (30.61%) Security Cleared
2 931 (21.05%) SC Cleared
3 316 (7.14%) DV Cleared
4 185 (4.18%) Degree
5 119 (2.69%) TOGAF Certification
6 109 (2.46%) Azure Certification
7 92 (2.08%) CISSP
8 90 (2.03%) AWS Certification
9 76 (1.72%) Computer Science Degree
10 74 (1.67%) Cisco Certification
11 64 (1.45%) BPSS Clearance
12 47 (1.06%) Microsoft Certification
13 46 (1.04%) CISM
14 44 (0.99%) CCNP
15 38 (0.86%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 38 (0.86%) Master's Degree
16 32 (0.72%) ITIL Certification
17 31 (0.70%) ISEB
18 24 (0.54%) CCIE
19 23 (0.52%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 158 (3.57%) NIST
2 156 (3.53%) GDPR
3 122 (2.76%) Data Quality
4 120 (2.71%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 91 (2.06%) NCSC
6 59 (1.33%) QA
7 38 (0.86%) COBIT
7 38 (0.86%) PCI DSS
8 27 (0.61%) Cyber Essentials
9 26 (0.59%) ISO 20022
10 25 (0.57%) GRC
11 18 (0.41%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 17 (0.38%) HL7
12 17 (0.38%) NIST 800
12 17 (0.38%) SEPA
13 16 (0.36%) Accessibility
14 14 (0.32%) JSP 440
15 13 (0.29%) FINRA
15 13 (0.29%) MiFID
16 11 (0.25%) SLA
System Software
1 179 (4.05%) Active Directory
2 98 (2.22%) Docker
3 86 (1.94%) VMware Infrastructure
4 64 (1.45%) VMware NSX
5 26 (0.59%) vSphere
6 22 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
7 20 (0.45%) Virtual Machines
8 17 (0.38%) Hyper-V
9 13 (0.29%) VMware ESXi
10 10 (0.23%) vCloud
11 9 (0.20%) Squid
12 8 (0.18%) NFS
13 7 (0.16%) BitLocker
13 7 (0.16%) Varnish
14 5 (0.11%) Postfix
14 5 (0.11%) RACF
15 4 (0.090%) Firmware
15 4 (0.090%) Oracle RAC
16 3 (0.068%) IAG
16 3 (0.068%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 226 (5.11%) Terraform
2 205 (4.63%) Kubernetes
3 94 (2.13%) Ansible
4 47 (1.06%) Single Sign-On
5 40 (0.90%) Microsoft Intune
6 37 (0.84%) Grafana
7 30 (0.68%) OPNET
8 28 (0.63%) vCenter Server
9 24 (0.54%) Prometheus
9 24 (0.54%) SCCM
10 22 (0.50%) FortiGate
11 14 (0.32%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 13 (0.29%) Argo
13 11 (0.25%) WMI
14 10 (0.23%) Istio
15 8 (0.18%) Puppet
16 7 (0.16%) Consul
17 5 (0.11%) Endace
17 5 (0.11%) Kibana
17 5 (0.11%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 615 (13.90%) Microsoft
2 278 (6.29%) ServiceNow
3 265 (5.99%) SAP
4 179 (4.05%) Oracle
5 178 (4.02%) VMware
6 163 (3.69%) Databricks
7 162 (3.66%) Salesforce
8 106 (2.40%) Cisco
9 91 (2.06%) Google
10 83 (1.88%) CyberArk
11 62 (1.40%) MuleSoft
12 55 (1.24%) Splunk
13 50 (1.13%) Workday
14 48 (1.09%) Remedy
14 48 (1.09%) Sparx
15 43 (0.97%) Atlassian
15 43 (0.97%) Red Hat
16 42 (0.95%) IBM
17 41 (0.93%) Palo Alto
18 39 (0.88%) BeyondTrust