Architect Contract Job Trends in England

Architect
UK > England

The median Architect daily rate in England is £620, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 4 October 2026.

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

6 months to
4 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 19 15
Rank change year-on-year +8 -4 +1
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 5,071 2,505 3,190
As % of all contract jobs in England 10.95% 8.92% 9.84%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.89% 9.79% 10.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,384 1,672 1,923
10th Percentile £481 £463 £475
25th Percentile £525 £525 £531
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £620 £625 £625
Median % change year-on-year -0.80% - -3.85%
75th Percentile £700 £713 £738
90th Percentile £788 £787 £800
UK median daily rate £620 £625 £625
% change year-on-year -0.80% - -3.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 179 13 65
10th Percentile £40.00 £61.50 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £66.25 £61.25
Median hourly rate £68.17 £72.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -5.98% +3.57% -3.34%
75th Percentile £80.00 £95.00 £85.00
90th Percentile £95.00 £100.00 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £68.50 £72.50 £70.00
% change year-on-year -5.52% +3.57% -2.78%

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 42,663 25,579 30,167
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.09% 91.10% 93.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,165 16,474 18,507
10th Percentile £325 £280 £300
25th Percentile £425 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.11%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,652 1,417 1,347
10th Percentile £14.56 £13.80 £15.00
25th Percentile £20.50 £17.33 £21.37
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.90
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -42.71% -4.32%
75th Percentile £67.84 £52.50 £67.50
90th Percentile £79.00 £70.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £42.91
% change year-on-year +65.94% -41.39% -3.57%

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 4 October 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 4 October 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 4 October 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 +7 2,606 £625 -3.40% 2,773
South East +1 721 £625 +4.17% 601
North of England +2 672 £600 - 521
Midlands +6 446 £627 +8.96% 296
North West +5 364 £599 +4.16% 276
South West +6 343 £638 -1.92% 261
West Midlands +5 334 £650 +8.33% 217
Yorkshire +13 244 £600 -2.04% 175
East of England +8 155 £618 +10.63% 199
East Midlands +6 107 £600 +20.00% 79
North East -2 67 £625 -15.25% 70
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 4 October 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 1,583 (31.22%) Security Cleared
2 1,313 (25.89%) Azure
3 1,155 (22.78%) SC Cleared
4 986 (19.44%) AWS
5 981 (19.35%) Stakeholder Management
6 857 (16.90%) Roadmaps
7 746 (14.71%) Migration
8 708 (13.96%) Microsoft
9 690 (13.61%) AI
10 687 (13.55%) Enterprise Architecture
11 645 (12.72%) Technical Leadership
12 553 (10.91%) DevOps
13 533 (10.51%) Data Architecture
14 522 (10.29%) CI/CD
15 520 (10.25%) Agile
15 520 (10.25%) Data Modelling
16 498 (9.82%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 455 (8.97%) Integration Patterns
18 440 (8.68%) Analytics
19 409 (8.07%) Security Architecture
20 401 (7.91%) GCP
21 398 (7.85%) TOGAF
22 384 (7.57%) Architectural Patterns
23 363 (7.16%) DV Cleared
24 352 (6.94%) Architecture Governance
25 339 (6.69%) Event-Driven
26 335 (6.61%) Cybersecurity
27 324 (6.39%) Data Governance
28 323 (6.37%) Decision-Making
29 308 (6.07%) Infrastructure as Code

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 74 (1.46%) SAS
2 58 (1.14%) SharePoint
3 45 (0.89%) Confluence
4 40 (0.79%) Apache
5 38 (0.75%) Apache Spark
6 35 (0.69%) Apache Airflow
7 28 (0.55%) Microsoft Exchange
8 22 (0.43%) CMS
9 18 (0.35%) Palantir Foundry
10 14 (0.28%) OpenStack
11 7 (0.14%) Documentum
11 7 (0.14%) IIS
11 7 (0.14%) NetWeaver
12 6 (0.12%) ArcGIS
12 6 (0.12%) Headless CMS
13 5 (0.099%) Appian
13 5 (0.099%) SAP EP
14 4 (0.079%) Adobe Experience Manager
14 4 (0.079%) JBoss
15 3 (0.059%) nginx
Applications
1 22 (0.43%) MS Visio
2 16 (0.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 11 (0.22%) Microsoft Excel
4 9 (0.18%) Chatbot
4 9 (0.18%) Microsoft Office
5 8 (0.16%) Revit
6 6 (0.12%) Navisworks
7 5 (0.099%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.039%) AutoCAD
8 2 (0.039%) Gliffy
9 1 (0.020%) Notion
9 1 (0.020%) PlantUML
9 1 (0.020%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 148 (2.92%) SAP S/4HANA
2 43 (0.85%) Dynamics CRM
3 29 (0.57%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 15 (0.30%) Oracle ERP
4 15 (0.30%) SAP MM
5 14 (0.28%) Teamcenter
6 13 (0.26%) NetSuite
7 12 (0.24%) Oracle Payables
7 12 (0.24%) Oracle Receivables
7 12 (0.24%) Remedy ITSM
8 11 (0.22%) Oracle EBS
9 10 (0.20%) Payment Gateway
10 9 (0.18%) SAP MDG
10 9 (0.18%) Workday HCM
11 8 (0.16%) SAP BRIM
11 8 (0.16%) SAP HCM
12 7 (0.14%) Maximo
12 7 (0.14%) SAP ERP
13 6 (0.12%) SAP CO
13 6 (0.12%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 1,313 (25.89%) Azure
2 986 (19.44%) AWS
3 401 (7.91%) GCP
4 252 (4.97%) Power Platform
5 193 (3.81%) SaaS
6 188 (3.71%) Entra ID
7 146 (2.88%) Serverless
8 123 (2.43%) GitHub
9 118 (2.33%) Dynamics 365
10 114 (2.25%) Azure DevOps
11 112 (2.21%) Microsoft 365
12 105 (2.07%) Snowflake
13 70 (1.38%) PaaS
14 68 (1.34%) OCI
15 58 (1.14%) Amazon S3
16 57 (1.12%) AWS Lambda
17 56 (1.10%) Azure Synapse Analytics
18 55 (1.08%) GitHub Actions
19 53 (1.05%) dbt
20 52 (1.03%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 129 (2.54%) Network Security
2 121 (2.39%) Firewall
3 90 (1.77%) WAN
4 61 (1.20%) DNS
5 56 (1.10%) LAN
6 53 (1.05%) VPN
7 45 (0.89%) BGP
8 43 (0.85%) SD-WAN
9 37 (0.73%) MPLS
10 31 (0.61%) DHCP
10 31 (0.61%) TCP/IP
11 27 (0.53%) VXLAN
12 24 (0.47%) VLAN
13 23 (0.45%) NX-OS
14 22 (0.43%) SAN
15 18 (0.35%) Wireless
16 17 (0.34%) Ethernet VPN
16 17 (0.34%) NAS
16 17 (0.34%) NGFW
17 16 (0.32%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 203 (4.00%) Metadata
2 164 (3.23%) Data Lake
3 158 (3.12%) Data Warehouse
4 152 (3.00%) Power BI
5 53 (1.05%) NoSQL
6 46 (0.91%) SQL Server
7 37 (0.73%) Delta Lake
8 36 (0.71%) BigQuery
9 34 (0.67%) Amazon RDS
10 33 (0.65%) PostgreSQL
11 32 (0.63%) Azure SQL Database
12 31 (0.61%) Amazon Redshift
13 30 (0.59%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
13 30 (0.59%) Oracle Database
14 28 (0.55%) Big Data
15 24 (0.47%) Semantic Layer
16 23 (0.45%) GIS
17 21 (0.41%) SAP HANA
17 21 (0.41%) Tableau
18 20 (0.39%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 71 (1.40%) JIRA
2 62 (1.22%) Git
3 52 (1.03%) Jenkins
4 45 (0.89%) GitLab
5 12 (0.24%) ERwin
6 11 (0.22%) Claude Code
6 11 (0.22%) MSI
7 10 (0.20%) Oracle Forms
7 10 (0.20%) RStudio
8 9 (0.18%) Cypress.io
9 7 (0.14%) Postman
10 6 (0.12%) SonarQube
10 6 (0.12%) Storybook
11 5 (0.099%) ER Studio
11 5 (0.099%) Rational DOORS
11 5 (0.099%) Selenium
12 4 (0.079%) Artifactory
12 4 (0.079%) JMeter
12 4 (0.079%) Maven
12 4 (0.079%) MLflow
General
1 1,049 (20.69%) Social Skills
2 739 (14.57%) Finance
3 558 (11.00%) Public Sector
4 276 (5.44%) Banking
5 250 (4.93%) Retail
6 243 (4.79%) Analytical Skills
7 157 (3.10%) Influencing Skills
8 136 (2.68%) Manufacturing
9 125 (2.46%) Telecoms
10 111 (2.19%) Documentation Skills
11 72 (1.42%) Marketing
12 69 (1.36%) Legal
13 61 (1.20%) Aerospace
13 61 (1.20%) Billing
14 51 (1.01%) Military
15 48 (0.95%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 38 (0.75%) Presentation Skills
17 28 (0.55%) Local Government
17 28 (0.55%) Pharmaceutical
18 27 (0.53%) Aviation
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 261 (5.15%) REST
2 207 (4.08%) Terraform
3 133 (2.62%) Kafka
4 126 (2.48%) Middleware
5 125 (2.46%) SOAP
6 108 (2.13%) .NET
7 101 (1.99%) OAuth
8 75 (1.48%) Oracle Fusion
9 54 (1.06%) JSON
9 54 (1.06%) SAML
10 53 (1.05%) OpenID
11 50 (0.99%) LDAP
12 48 (0.95%) OAuth2
13 43 (0.85%) PySpark
14 40 (0.79%) .NET Framework
15 39 (0.77%) XML
16 37 (0.73%) SailPoint
17 35 (0.69%) JWT
18 34 (0.67%) SAP Fiori
19 31 (0.61%) React
Miscellaneous
1 418 (8.24%) Cloud Native
2 158 (3.12%) Data Centre
2 158 (3.12%) Onboarding
3 123 (2.43%) Hybrid Cloud
4 122 (2.41%) Legacy Systems
5 121 (2.39%) Product Ownership
6 119 (2.35%) AI Agents
6 119 (2.35%) Enterprise Software
7 118 (2.33%) Distributed Systems
8 100 (1.97%) Management Information System
9 96 (1.89%) CMDB
10 80 (1.58%) Data Protection Act
10 80 (1.58%) Operational Technology
11 70 (1.38%) Public Cloud
12 67 (1.32%) Enterprise Cloud
13 64 (1.26%) Private Cloud
14 59 (1.16%) Data Structures
15 54 (1.06%) Security Posture
16 43 (0.85%) Taxonomies
17 41 (0.81%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 105 (2.07%) Windows
2 80 (1.58%) Linux
3 41 (0.81%) Windows Server
4 21 (0.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 18 (0.35%) Unix
6 9 (0.18%) AIX
7 8 (0.16%) Ubuntu
8 7 (0.14%) Apple iOS
9 6 (0.12%) Android
9 6 (0.12%) zOS
10 5 (0.099%) Solaris
11 4 (0.079%) Alpine Linux
11 4 (0.079%) Data ONTAP
11 4 (0.079%) VMS
12 3 (0.059%) CentOS
13 2 (0.039%) HPUX
13 2 (0.039%) Mac OS
13 2 (0.039%) OpenWrt
13 2 (0.039%) Windows 10
14 1 (0.020%) CatOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 981 (19.35%) Stakeholder Management
2 857 (16.90%) Roadmaps
3 746 (14.71%) Migration
4 690 (13.61%) AI
5 687 (13.55%) Enterprise Architecture
6 645 (12.72%) Technical Leadership
7 553 (10.91%) DevOps
8 533 (10.51%) Data Architecture
9 522 (10.29%) CI/CD
10 520 (10.25%) Agile
10 520 (10.25%) Data Modelling
11 498 (9.82%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 455 (8.97%) Integration Patterns
13 440 (8.68%) Analytics
14 409 (8.07%) Security Architecture
15 398 (7.85%) TOGAF
16 384 (7.57%) Architectural Patterns
17 352 (6.94%) Architecture Governance
18 339 (6.69%) Event-Driven
19 335 (6.61%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 215 (4.24%) SQL
2 203 (4.00%) Python
3 185 (3.65%) Java
4 99 (1.95%) JavaScript
5 87 (1.72%) PowerShell
6 50 (0.99%) C#
7 45 (0.89%) TypeScript
8 38 (0.75%) Bash
9 33 (0.65%) Bicep
10 27 (0.53%) ABAP
10 27 (0.53%) Apex Code
11 15 (0.30%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 13 (0.26%) Shell Script
13 11 (0.22%) Groovy
14 10 (0.20%) R
15 9 (0.18%) C++
16 8 (0.16%) PL/SQL
17 7 (0.14%) BeanShell
17 7 (0.14%) Rust
18 6 (0.12%) Cypher
Qualifications
1 1,583 (31.22%) Security Cleared
2 1,155 (22.78%) SC Cleared
3 363 (7.16%) DV Cleared
4 152 (3.00%) Degree
5 129 (2.54%) CISSP
6 121 (2.39%) BPSS Clearance
7 104 (2.05%) Azure Certification
8 98 (1.93%) AWS Certification
9 87 (1.72%) Cisco Certification
10 83 (1.64%) TOGAF Certification
11 62 (1.22%) CISM
12 59 (1.16%) Computer Science Degree
13 43 (0.85%) Microsoft Certification
14 38 (0.75%) CCNP
15 34 (0.67%) (ISC)2 CCSP
16 33 (0.65%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
17 26 (0.51%) CCSP
18 23 (0.45%) CCIE
18 23 (0.45%) Master's Degree
19 18 (0.35%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 220 (4.34%) Data Quality
2 183 (3.61%) NIST
3 151 (2.98%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 129 (2.54%) GDPR
5 106 (2.09%) NCSC
6 69 (1.36%) GRC
7 47 (0.93%) QA
8 40 (0.79%) Accessibility
9 33 (0.65%) PCI DSS
10 26 (0.51%) NIST 800
11 25 (0.49%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 22 (0.43%) ISO/IEC 20000
12 22 (0.43%) SLA
13 20 (0.39%) JSP 440
14 18 (0.35%) SEPA
15 15 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials
15 15 (0.30%) IFRS
15 15 (0.30%) ISO 19650
15 15 (0.30%) ISO 20022
16 13 (0.26%) Government Security Classifications
System Software
1 166 (3.27%) Active Directory
2 80 (1.58%) Docker
3 63 (1.24%) VMware Infrastructure
4 35 (0.69%) VMware NSX
5 27 (0.53%) Virtual Desktop
6 16 (0.32%) vSphere
7 15 (0.30%) Virtual Machines
8 13 (0.26%) VMware ESXi
9 11 (0.22%) Hyper-V
10 5 (0.099%) ISA Server
11 4 (0.079%) EMC RecoverPoint
11 4 (0.079%) KVM
12 3 (0.059%) Ceph
12 3 (0.059%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 3 (0.059%) NFS
12 3 (0.059%) SRDF
12 3 (0.059%) Virtual Servers
13 2 (0.039%) Microsoft App-V
13 2 (0.039%) Postfix
13 2 (0.039%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 230 (4.54%) Kubernetes
2 88 (1.74%) Ansible
3 40 (0.79%) Single Sign-On
4 37 (0.73%) Grafana
5 29 (0.57%) Prometheus
6 26 (0.51%) Microsoft Intune
7 14 (0.28%) Jamf Pro
8 12 (0.24%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 12 (0.24%) Argo
8 12 (0.24%) WMI
9 11 (0.22%) FortiGate
10 10 (0.20%) CASB
11 7 (0.14%) SCCM
11 7 (0.14%) vCenter Server
12 6 (0.12%) NetBackup
12 6 (0.12%) Progress Chef
12 6 (0.12%) Puppet
13 5 (0.099%) EMC VPLEX
13 5 (0.099%) Istio
14 4 (0.079%) VxRail
Vendors
1 708 (13.96%) Microsoft
2 293 (5.78%) SAP
3 264 (5.21%) Oracle
4 243 (4.79%) ServiceNow
5 238 (4.69%) Databricks
6 180 (3.55%) Google
7 166 (3.27%) Salesforce
8 131 (2.58%) Cisco
9 108 (2.13%) VMware
10 84 (1.66%) CyberArk
11 61 (1.20%) MuleSoft
12 52 (1.03%) IBM
12 52 (1.03%) Workday
13 48 (0.95%) Palo Alto
14 42 (0.83%) Foundry
15 34 (0.67%) Fortinet
15 34 (0.67%) Informatica
15 34 (0.67%) Splunk
16 33 (0.65%) Adobe
17 32 (0.63%) OpenAI