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 26 March 2026.

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

6 months to
26 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 16 11
Rank change year-on-year +2 -5 +6
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 4,070 2,444 3,804
As % of all contract jobs in England 10.84% 10.07% 10.09%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.76% 10.83% 10.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,753 1,613 2,510
10th Percentile £463 £477 £500
25th Percentile £513 £545 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £625 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year - -3.85% -3.70%
75th Percentile £725 £725 £738
90th Percentile £800 £799 £825
UK median daily rate £620 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -0.80% -3.85% -1.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 101 31 45
10th Percentile £49.40 £55.50 £51.32
25th Percentile £60.00 £61.50 £60.00
Median hourly rate £71.27 £70.00 £83.50
Median % change year-on-year +1.81% -16.17% +19.29%
75th Percentile £90.09 £79.47 £87.53
90th Percentile £97.50 £85.50 £95.00
UK median hourly rate £71.27 £70.00 £82.38
% change year-on-year +1.81% -15.03% +17.69%

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 34,605 22,569 34,968
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.14% 93.01% 92.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,827 15,098 23,383
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £408 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £620 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -4.37%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,272 812 2,294
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.00 £13.00
25th Percentile £19.62 £21.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £40.00 £34.06 £32.70
Median % change year-on-year +17.46% +4.15% -23.68%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.00 £76.25 £72.33
UK median hourly rate £37.20 £32.50 £32.95
% change year-on-year +14.46% -1.36% -24.26%

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 26 March 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 26 March 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 26 March 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 0 1,832 £625 -3.85% 476
South East +5 702 £625 - 256
North of England +5 587 £600 - 194
Midlands 0 396 £575 -4.17% 95
North West +6 332 £605 +0.83% 100
West Midlands -2 296 £600 -0.21% 69
South West +1 278 £700 +14.29% 98
Yorkshire +10 231 £558 -7.00% 70
East of England +16 175 £540 -13.60% 71
East Midlands -2 96 £525 -6.25% 26
North East +5 33 £575 -7.95% 28
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 26 March 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 1,301 (31.97%) Security Cleared
2 990 (24.32%) Azure
3 882 (21.67%) SC Cleared
4 811 (19.93%) AWS
5 595 (14.62%) Roadmaps
6 580 (14.25%) Microsoft
7 540 (13.27%) Agile
8 526 (12.92%) Migration
9 467 (11.47%) DevOps
10 453 (11.13%) Stakeholder Management
11 427 (10.49%) Enterprise Architecture
12 416 (10.22%) CI/CD
13 393 (9.66%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 386 (9.48%) Data Modelling
15 372 (9.14%) TOGAF
16 365 (8.97%) Technical Leadership
17 345 (8.48%) AI
18 344 (8.45%) GCP
18 344 (8.45%) Problem-Solving
19 342 (8.40%) Integration Patterns
20 333 (8.18%) Analytics
20 333 (8.18%) Data Architecture
21 309 (7.59%) DV Cleared
22 303 (7.44%) Architectural Patterns
23 300 (7.37%) Python
24 293 (7.20%) Architectural Design
25 292 (7.17%) Microservices
26 246 (6.04%) Security Architecture
27 237 (5.82%) SAP
27 237 (5.82%) Terraform

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
1 115 (2.83%) Confluence
2 101 (2.48%) SharePoint
3 62 (1.52%) Microsoft Exchange
4 26 (0.64%) SAS
5 22 (0.54%) CMS
6 20 (0.49%) Apache Spark
7 16 (0.39%) Anypoint
8 15 (0.37%) Appian
8 15 (0.37%) ArcGIS
9 14 (0.34%) Apache Airflow
10 13 (0.32%) Apache
11 12 (0.29%) nginx
12 11 (0.27%) WebLogic
13 9 (0.22%) Adobe Experience Manager
13 9 (0.22%) OpenStack
13 9 (0.22%) Smallworld
14 7 (0.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 7 (0.17%) Skype for Business
15 6 (0.15%) NetWeaver
15 6 (0.15%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 50 (1.23%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (0.76%) Microsoft Project
3 27 (0.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 24 (0.59%) Microsoft Excel
5 18 (0.44%) MS Visio
6 6 (0.15%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.025%) ArchiCAD
7 1 (0.025%) AutoCAD
7 1 (0.025%) OrCAD
7 1 (0.025%) PlantUML
7 1 (0.025%) Siemens NX
7 1 (0.025%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.025%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 106 (2.60%) SAP S/4HANA
2 45 (1.11%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 23 (0.57%) Workday HCM
4 20 (0.49%) Dynamics CRM
5 19 (0.47%) Payment Gateway
6 14 (0.34%) Oracle EBS
6 14 (0.34%) Salesforce CRM
7 12 (0.29%) SAP ERP
8 10 (0.25%) NetSuite
8 10 (0.25%) Oracle Receivables
8 10 (0.25%) Remedy ITSM
8 10 (0.25%) SAP PM
9 9 (0.22%) Maximo
9 9 (0.22%) SAP EWM
9 9 (0.22%) Teamcenter
10 8 (0.20%) SAP PP
11 7 (0.17%) SAP QM
12 6 (0.15%) Oracle Payables
12 6 (0.15%) R3 Corda
12 6 (0.15%) SAP CRM
Cloud Services
1 990 (24.32%) Azure
2 811 (19.93%) AWS
3 344 (8.45%) GCP
4 171 (4.20%) Power Platform
5 166 (4.08%) Entra ID
6 135 (3.32%) Serverless
7 132 (3.24%) SaaS
8 130 (3.19%) Microsoft 365
9 99 (2.43%) IaaS
10 95 (2.33%) GitHub
11 88 (2.16%) Azure DevOps
11 88 (2.16%) PaaS
12 79 (1.94%) Dynamics 365
13 74 (1.82%) OpenShift
14 70 (1.72%) AWS Lambda
15 64 (1.57%) Amazon S3
16 62 (1.52%) Microsoft Purview
17 60 (1.47%) Azure Synapse Analytics
17 60 (1.47%) Virtual Private Cloud
18 57 (1.40%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 183 (4.50%) Firewall
2 147 (3.61%) Network Security
3 122 (3.00%) WAN
4 118 (2.90%) DNS
5 112 (2.75%) VPN
6 81 (1.99%) LAN
7 66 (1.62%) SD-WAN
8 36 (0.88%) BGP
9 32 (0.79%) DHCP
10 31 (0.76%) OSPF
11 30 (0.74%) Wi-Fi
12 28 (0.69%) MPLS
13 25 (0.61%) TCP/IP
14 22 (0.54%) VLAN
15 21 (0.52%) SAN
15 21 (0.52%) VXLAN
16 19 (0.47%) VSAN
17 18 (0.44%) Wireless
18 16 (0.39%) Internet
19 15 (0.37%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 130 (3.19%) Power BI
2 117 (2.87%) Data Warehouse
3 113 (2.78%) Metadata
4 83 (2.04%) Data Lake
5 69 (1.70%) SQL Server
6 53 (1.30%) NoSQL
7 50 (1.23%) PostgreSQL
8 44 (1.08%) Tableau
9 35 (0.86%) Azure SQL Database
10 32 (0.79%) Oracle Database
11 30 (0.74%) Big Data
12 26 (0.64%) GIS
13 25 (0.61%) Amazon Redshift
14 23 (0.57%) Delta Lake
15 20 (0.49%) BigQuery
15 20 (0.49%) Electronic Patient Records
15 20 (0.49%) Metadata Repository
16 17 (0.42%) Amazon Athena
17 16 (0.39%) Amazon Aurora
17 16 (0.39%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 129 (3.17%) JIRA
2 88 (2.16%) Jenkins
3 45 (1.11%) Git
4 42 (1.03%) GitLab
5 20 (0.49%) ERwin
6 11 (0.27%) Bitbucket
6 11 (0.27%) SonarQube
7 10 (0.25%) Artifactory
8 8 (0.20%) MLflow
9 5 (0.12%) Postman
9 5 (0.12%) PowerDesigner
9 5 (0.12%) REST Assured
10 4 (0.098%) Cucumber
10 4 (0.098%) Rational DOORS
10 4 (0.098%) Selenium
10 4 (0.098%) Snyk
10 4 (0.098%) Sonatype Nexus
10 4 (0.098%) Terragrunt
11 3 (0.074%) MSI
11 3 (0.074%) Oracle Forms
General
1 862 (21.18%) Social Skills
2 664 (16.31%) Finance
3 463 (11.38%) Public Sector
4 281 (6.90%) Analytical Skills
5 257 (6.31%) Banking
6 133 (3.27%) Documentation Skills
7 95 (2.33%) Influencing Skills
8 92 (2.26%) Retail
9 85 (2.09%) Military
10 80 (1.97%) Legal
11 75 (1.84%) Telecoms
12 68 (1.67%) Presentation Skills
13 59 (1.45%) Marketing
14 54 (1.33%) Law
15 48 (1.18%) Manufacturing
16 43 (1.06%) Financial Institution
17 32 (0.79%) Billing
18 31 (0.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
19 28 (0.69%) Investment Banking
20 22 (0.54%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 208 (5.11%) REST
2 158 (3.88%) Middleware
3 103 (2.53%) SOAP
4 80 (1.97%) OpenID
5 78 (1.92%) .NET
6 76 (1.87%) LDAP
7 72 (1.77%) OAuth
8 64 (1.57%) SAML
9 59 (1.45%) Kafka
10 53 (1.30%) JSON
11 45 (1.11%) OAuth2
12 37 (0.91%) AngularJS
13 33 (0.81%) React
14 32 (0.79%) SailPoint
15 27 (0.66%) RESTful
15 27 (0.66%) Spring
16 24 (0.59%) Web Services
17 23 (0.57%) Oracle Fusion
18 21 (0.52%) PySpark
19 20 (0.49%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 325 (7.99%) Cloud Native
2 137 (3.37%) Product Ownership
3 116 (2.85%) Data Centre
4 111 (2.73%) Legacy Systems
5 110 (2.70%) Onboarding
6 103 (2.53%) Enterprise Software
7 87 (2.14%) PKI
8 86 (2.11%) Hybrid Cloud
9 71 (1.74%) Distributed Systems
10 66 (1.62%) Security Posture
11 65 (1.60%) Public Cloud
12 62 (1.52%) Management Information System
13 61 (1.50%) Data Protection Act
14 59 (1.45%) Operational Technology
15 52 (1.28%) CMDB
16 49 (1.20%) Self-Motivation
17 39 (0.96%) AI Agents
17 39 (0.96%) Data Structures
18 37 (0.91%) Private Cloud
19 33 (0.81%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 165 (4.05%) Windows
2 99 (2.43%) Linux
3 36 (0.88%) Windows Server
4 23 (0.57%) Android
4 23 (0.57%) Apple iOS
5 16 (0.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 16 (0.39%) Windows 7
6 14 (0.34%) Unix
6 14 (0.34%) Windows 10
7 10 (0.25%) zOS
8 9 (0.22%) Mac OS
9 8 (0.20%) VMS
9 8 (0.20%) Windows Server 2016
10 5 (0.12%) Windows Server 2019
11 4 (0.098%) Ubuntu
12 3 (0.074%) Windows Server 2012
13 2 (0.049%) CentOS
14 1 (0.025%) Data ONTAP
14 1 (0.025%) Kali Linux
14 1 (0.025%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 595 (14.62%) Roadmaps
2 540 (13.27%) Agile
3 526 (12.92%) Migration
4 467 (11.47%) DevOps
5 453 (11.13%) Stakeholder Management
6 427 (10.49%) Enterprise Architecture
7 416 (10.22%) CI/CD
8 393 (9.66%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 386 (9.48%) Data Modelling
10 372 (9.14%) TOGAF
11 365 (8.97%) Technical Leadership
12 345 (8.48%) AI
13 344 (8.45%) Problem-Solving
14 342 (8.40%) Integration Patterns
15 333 (8.18%) Analytics
15 333 (8.18%) Data Architecture
16 303 (7.44%) Architectural Patterns
17 293 (7.20%) Architectural Design
18 292 (7.17%) Microservices
19 246 (6.04%) Security Architecture
Programming Languages
1 300 (7.37%) Python
2 210 (5.16%) SQL
3 177 (4.35%) PowerShell
4 150 (3.69%) Java
5 57 (1.40%) JavaScript
6 49 (1.20%) C#
7 39 (0.96%) Bash
8 36 (0.88%) Bicep
9 27 (0.66%) TypeScript
10 17 (0.42%) Apex Code
11 16 (0.39%) Ruby
12 14 (0.34%) PL/SQL
13 13 (0.32%) Kusto Query Language
13 13 (0.32%) Scala
14 12 (0.29%) R
15 8 (0.20%) Kotlin
15 8 (0.20%) T-SQL
15 8 (0.20%) VB
16 7 (0.17%) VBScript
17 6 (0.15%) C++
Qualifications
1 1,301 (31.97%) Security Cleared
2 882 (21.67%) SC Cleared
3 309 (7.59%) DV Cleared
4 176 (4.32%) Degree
5 113 (2.78%) Azure Certification
6 112 (2.75%) TOGAF Certification
7 108 (2.65%) CISSP
8 99 (2.43%) AWS Certification
9 77 (1.89%) Cisco Certification
10 69 (1.70%) Computer Science Degree
11 58 (1.43%) BPSS Clearance
12 55 (1.35%) CISM
13 52 (1.28%) Microsoft Certification
14 45 (1.11%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 44 (1.08%) CCNP
16 39 (0.96%) Master's Degree
17 33 (0.81%) ITIL Certification
18 31 (0.76%) (ISC)2 CCSP
18 31 (0.76%) ISEB
19 29 (0.71%) CCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 176 (4.32%) GDPR
2 156 (3.83%) NIST
3 131 (3.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 128 (3.14%) Data Quality
5 90 (2.21%) NCSC
6 61 (1.50%) QA
7 54 (1.33%) PCI DSS
8 37 (0.91%) COBIT
9 29 (0.71%) GRC
10 28 (0.69%) ISO 20022
11 27 (0.66%) Cyber Essentials
12 18 (0.44%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 15 (0.37%) HL7
14 14 (0.34%) Accessibility
14 14 (0.34%) HIPAA
14 14 (0.34%) JSP 440
14 14 (0.34%) MiFID
15 13 (0.32%) FINRA
15 13 (0.32%) PSD2
15 13 (0.32%) SEPA
System Software
1 181 (4.45%) Active Directory
2 118 (2.90%) Docker
3 98 (2.41%) VMware Infrastructure
4 67 (1.65%) VMware NSX
5 33 (0.81%) vSphere
6 22 (0.54%) Virtual Desktop
7 16 (0.39%) Hyper-V
8 15 (0.37%) Virtual Machines
9 12 (0.29%) VMware ESXi
10 9 (0.22%) Squid
10 9 (0.22%) vCloud
11 7 (0.17%) BitLocker
12 5 (0.12%) NFS
12 5 (0.12%) Oracle RAC
12 5 (0.12%) RACF
12 5 (0.12%) Varnish
13 4 (0.098%) Firmware
14 3 (0.074%) IAG
14 3 (0.074%) Postfix
14 3 (0.074%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 237 (5.82%) Terraform
2 216 (5.31%) Kubernetes
3 105 (2.58%) Ansible
4 58 (1.43%) Single Sign-On
5 39 (0.96%) Microsoft Intune
6 35 (0.86%) Grafana
7 34 (0.84%) vCenter Server
8 30 (0.74%) OPNET
9 25 (0.61%) Prometheus
10 22 (0.54%) FortiGate
10 22 (0.54%) SCCM
11 18 (0.44%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 18 (0.44%) Argo
12 15 (0.37%) WMI
13 9 (0.22%) Istio
14 7 (0.17%) Consul
14 7 (0.17%) Puppet
15 5 (0.12%) Endace
15 5 (0.12%) Kibana
15 5 (0.12%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 580 (14.25%) Microsoft
2 237 (5.82%) SAP
3 235 (5.77%) ServiceNow
4 183 (4.50%) VMware
5 167 (4.10%) Oracle
6 157 (3.86%) Salesforce
7 137 (3.37%) Databricks
8 113 (2.78%) Cisco
9 94 (2.31%) CyberArk
10 89 (2.19%) Google
11 63 (1.55%) MuleSoft
12 56 (1.38%) Palo Alto
12 56 (1.38%) Splunk
13 51 (1.25%) Remedy
14 50 (1.23%) Red Hat
15 49 (1.20%) Centrify
15 49 (1.20%) Workday
16 47 (1.15%) IBM
17 46 (1.13%) Atlassian
18 44 (1.08%) Sparx