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 31 July 2026.

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

6 months to
31 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 17 13
Rank change year-on-year +7 -4 +2
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 5,000 2,618 3,503
As % of all contract jobs in England 11.03% 9.51% 10.30%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.92% 10.37% 11.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,339 1,746 2,315
10th Percentile £476 £468 £485
25th Percentile £525 £538 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £620 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year -0.80% -3.85% -1.89%
75th Percentile £725 £706 £738
90th Percentile £795 £788 £825
UK median daily rate £620 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -0.80% -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 165 19 79
10th Percentile £46.00 £37.19 -
25th Percentile £60.00 £61.88 £60.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £72.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.34% +3.57% -
75th Percentile £71.91 £86.50 £85.45
90th Percentile £83.60 £100.00 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £72.50 £70.00
% change year-on-year -10.34% +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 41,951 25,239 31,602
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.56% 91.71% 92.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,523 16,403 20,840
10th Percentile £329 £288 £300
25th Percentile £425 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £738 £738 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.02%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,084 1,288 1,943
10th Percentile £15.93 £13.75 £14.05
25th Percentile £22.00 £17.87 £20.00
Median hourly rate £45.00 £26.30 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +71.10% -38.84% -
75th Percentile £68.00 £56.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.04 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +68.99% -40.82% -1.16%

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 31 July 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 31 July 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 31 July 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 2,559 £625 -3.85% 1,067
North of England +8 721 £600 - 180
South East 0 721 £635 +5.83% 263
Midlands -1 407 £625 +8.70% 95
North West +4 393 £600 - 96
West Midlands -3 301 £631 +5.13% 70
South West 0 295 £625 - 109
Yorkshire +10 258 £600 - 56
East of England +15 165 £600 +8.11% 62
East Midlands +4 99 £600 +20.00% 25
North East +1 77 £600 -14.29% 30
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 31 July 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 1,481 (29.62%) Security Cleared
2 1,257 (25.14%) Azure
3 1,075 (21.50%) SC Cleared
4 1,035 (20.70%) AWS
5 753 (15.06%) Roadmaps
6 690 (13.80%) Migration
7 679 (13.58%) Stakeholder Management
8 640 (12.80%) Microsoft
9 617 (12.34%) AI
10 589 (11.78%) Enterprise Architecture
11 576 (11.52%) Agile
12 551 (11.02%) DevOps
13 520 (10.40%) CI/CD
14 519 (10.38%) Data Modelling
15 503 (10.06%) Technical Leadership
16 492 (9.84%) Integration Patterns
17 491 (9.82%) Data Architecture
18 487 (9.74%) Stakeholder Engagement
19 451 (9.02%) Analytics
20 408 (8.16%) Architectural Patterns
21 399 (7.98%) TOGAF
22 389 (7.78%) GCP
23 354 (7.08%) Security Architecture
24 330 (6.60%) Microservices
24 330 (6.60%) Problem-Solving
25 317 (6.34%) DV Cleared
26 306 (6.12%) Architectural Design
26 306 (6.12%) Event-Driven
27 302 (6.04%) Cybersecurity
28 297 (5.94%) Data Governance

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 82 (1.64%) SharePoint
2 71 (1.42%) SAS
3 54 (1.08%) Confluence
4 43 (0.86%) Apache
5 42 (0.84%) Apache Spark
6 32 (0.64%) Microsoft Exchange
7 27 (0.54%) Apache Airflow
8 22 (0.44%) Palantir Foundry
9 17 (0.34%) CMS
10 13 (0.26%) OpenStack
11 12 (0.24%) Appian
12 11 (0.22%) ArcGIS
13 8 (0.16%) nginx
14 7 (0.14%) Documentum
15 6 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
15 6 (0.12%) Camunda
16 5 (0.10%) NetWeaver
17 4 (0.080%) Jupyter
17 4 (0.080%) SAP EP
18 3 (0.060%) Anypoint
Applications
1 17 (0.34%) MS Visio
2 11 (0.22%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 9 (0.18%) Microsoft Excel
4 8 (0.16%) Chatbot
5 7 (0.14%) Navisworks
5 7 (0.14%) Revit
6 6 (0.12%) Microsoft Office
6 6 (0.12%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.040%) PlantUML
7 2 (0.040%) Windchill
8 1 (0.020%) Microsoft Project
8 1 (0.020%) Notion
Business Applications
1 123 (2.46%) SAP S/4HANA
2 34 (0.68%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 30 (0.60%) Dynamics CRM
4 18 (0.36%) Oracle EBS
5 15 (0.30%) Oracle ERP
5 15 (0.30%) Teamcenter
6 14 (0.28%) Payment Gateway
7 13 (0.26%) SAP ERP
8 12 (0.24%) NetSuite
8 12 (0.24%) Oracle Payables
8 12 (0.24%) Oracle Receivables
9 11 (0.22%) Remedy ITSM
10 9 (0.18%) Oracle Retail
11 8 (0.16%) Maximo
11 8 (0.16%) SAP BRIM
12 7 (0.14%) Workday HCM
13 6 (0.12%) Endur
13 6 (0.12%) SAP IBP
14 5 (0.10%) SAP Oil and Gas
15 4 (0.080%) SAP MM
Cloud Services
1 1,257 (25.14%) Azure
2 1,035 (20.70%) AWS
3 389 (7.78%) GCP
4 250 (5.00%) Power Platform
5 188 (3.76%) Entra ID
6 181 (3.62%) SaaS
7 158 (3.16%) Serverless
8 119 (2.38%) Dynamics 365
8 119 (2.38%) GitHub
9 110 (2.20%) PaaS
10 100 (2.00%) Azure DevOps
11 98 (1.96%) Microsoft 365
12 97 (1.94%) Snowflake
13 79 (1.58%) IaaS
14 73 (1.46%) AWS Lambda
15 71 (1.42%) Amazon S3
16 54 (1.08%) OCI
17 53 (1.06%) Azure Synapse Analytics
18 52 (1.04%) Azure Data Factory
19 51 (1.02%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 159 (3.18%) Network Security
2 157 (3.14%) Firewall
3 101 (2.02%) WAN
4 95 (1.90%) DNS
5 77 (1.54%) VPN
6 74 (1.48%) LAN
7 48 (0.96%) SD-WAN
8 44 (0.88%) BGP
8 44 (0.88%) TCP/IP
9 40 (0.80%) DHCP
10 35 (0.70%) MPLS
11 34 (0.68%) VLAN
12 29 (0.58%) Wireless
13 28 (0.56%) SAN
14 27 (0.54%) OSPF
15 25 (0.50%) NAS
16 24 (0.48%) VXLAN
17 22 (0.44%) Structured Cabling
18 21 (0.42%) IPsec
19 19 (0.38%) Radio Access Network
Database & Business Intelligence
1 183 (3.66%) Power BI
2 158 (3.16%) Data Lake
3 145 (2.90%) Metadata
4 143 (2.86%) Data Warehouse
5 65 (1.30%) NoSQL
6 53 (1.06%) SQL Server
7 45 (0.90%) Big Data
8 41 (0.82%) PostgreSQL
9 36 (0.72%) BigQuery
10 35 (0.70%) Delta Lake
11 34 (0.68%) Azure SQL Database
12 27 (0.54%) Amazon RDS
12 27 (0.54%) Amazon Redshift
12 27 (0.54%) Oracle Database
13 26 (0.52%) GIS
14 21 (0.42%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
15 20 (0.40%) Amazon Athena
15 20 (0.40%) Semantic Layer
15 20 (0.40%) Star Schema
16 18 (0.36%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 77 (1.54%) JIRA
2 65 (1.30%) Git
3 56 (1.12%) Jenkins
4 32 (0.64%) GitLab
5 22 (0.44%) ERwin
6 9 (0.18%) SonarQube
7 8 (0.16%) Artifactory
7 8 (0.16%) Claude Code
7 8 (0.16%) MLflow
8 7 (0.14%) Cypress.io
8 7 (0.14%) Maven
8 7 (0.14%) PowerDesigner
9 6 (0.12%) Oracle Forms
10 5 (0.10%) Sonatype Nexus
10 5 (0.10%) Storybook
11 4 (0.080%) Bitbucket
11 4 (0.080%) ER Studio
11 4 (0.080%) REST Assured
11 4 (0.080%) Snyk
12 3 (0.060%) VTune
General
1 938 (18.76%) Social Skills
2 790 (15.80%) Finance
3 544 (10.88%) Public Sector
4 300 (6.00%) Banking
5 268 (5.36%) Analytical Skills
6 233 (4.66%) Retail
7 128 (2.56%) Influencing Skills
8 123 (2.46%) Documentation Skills
9 116 (2.32%) Telecoms
10 100 (2.00%) Manufacturing
11 73 (1.46%) Legal
12 57 (1.14%) Marketing
13 53 (1.06%) Billing
14 49 (0.98%) Financial Institution
14 49 (0.98%) Military
15 46 (0.92%) Law
16 41 (0.82%) Aerospace
17 40 (0.80%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 34 (0.68%) Presentation Skills
19 28 (0.56%) Investment Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 238 (4.76%) REST
2 166 (3.32%) Middleware
3 114 (2.28%) .NET
4 108 (2.16%) SOAP
5 99 (1.98%) Kafka
6 97 (1.94%) OAuth
7 72 (1.44%) Oracle Fusion
8 60 (1.20%) OpenID
9 55 (1.10%) SAML
10 54 (1.08%) OAuth2
11 47 (0.94%) JSON
12 46 (0.92%) React
13 43 (0.86%) SailPoint
14 37 (0.74%) RESTful
15 35 (0.70%) .NET Framework
15 35 (0.70%) PySpark
16 29 (0.58%) Web Services
17 28 (0.56%) XML
18 27 (0.54%) LDAP
18 27 (0.54%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 423 (8.46%) Cloud Native
2 142 (2.84%) Data Centre
3 132 (2.64%) Legacy Systems
4 124 (2.48%) Product Ownership
5 122 (2.44%) Onboarding
6 121 (2.42%) Hybrid Cloud
7 119 (2.38%) Distributed Systems
8 113 (2.26%) Management Information System
9 104 (2.08%) AI Agents
10 98 (1.96%) Enterprise Software
11 88 (1.76%) Data Protection Act
12 85 (1.70%) Operational Technology
13 72 (1.44%) CMDB
14 67 (1.34%) Public Cloud
15 59 (1.18%) Enterprise Cloud
16 57 (1.14%) Security Posture
17 54 (1.08%) Data Structures
18 48 (0.96%) Private Cloud
19 47 (0.94%) Mainframe
20 38 (0.76%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 108 (2.16%) Windows
2 79 (1.58%) Linux
3 33 (0.66%) Windows Server
4 22 (0.44%) Android
4 22 (0.44%) Apple iOS
5 20 (0.40%) Unix
6 16 (0.32%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 12 (0.24%) zOS
8 8 (0.16%) AIX
9 6 (0.12%) Ubuntu
10 5 (0.10%) Data ONTAP
11 4 (0.080%) Alpine Linux
11 4 (0.080%) Solaris
11 4 (0.080%) VMS
12 2 (0.040%) CentOS
12 2 (0.040%) Mac OS
12 2 (0.040%) Windows Server 2019
13 1 (0.020%) CatOS
13 1 (0.020%) Windows 10
13 1 (0.020%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 753 (15.06%) Roadmaps
2 690 (13.80%) Migration
3 679 (13.58%) Stakeholder Management
4 617 (12.34%) AI
5 589 (11.78%) Enterprise Architecture
6 576 (11.52%) Agile
7 551 (11.02%) DevOps
8 520 (10.40%) CI/CD
9 519 (10.38%) Data Modelling
10 503 (10.06%) Technical Leadership
11 492 (9.84%) Integration Patterns
12 491 (9.82%) Data Architecture
13 487 (9.74%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 451 (9.02%) Analytics
15 408 (8.16%) Architectural Patterns
16 399 (7.98%) TOGAF
17 354 (7.08%) Security Architecture
18 330 (6.60%) Microservices
18 330 (6.60%) Problem-Solving
19 306 (6.12%) Architectural Design
Programming Languages
1 250 (5.00%) Python
2 235 (4.70%) SQL
3 205 (4.10%) Java
4 116 (2.32%) JavaScript
5 83 (1.66%) PowerShell
6 56 (1.12%) C#
7 47 (0.94%) Bash
8 43 (0.86%) Bicep
9 40 (0.80%) TypeScript
10 27 (0.54%) Apex Code
11 14 (0.28%) Ruby
12 13 (0.26%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 13 (0.26%) Shell Script
13 12 (0.24%) C++
14 11 (0.22%) Scala
15 10 (0.20%) ABAP
16 9 (0.18%) Groovy
17 8 (0.16%) PL/SQL
17 8 (0.16%) VBA
18 7 (0.14%) Rust
Qualifications
1 1,481 (29.62%) Security Cleared
2 1,075 (21.50%) SC Cleared
3 317 (6.34%) DV Cleared
4 165 (3.30%) Degree
5 128 (2.56%) CISSP
6 106 (2.12%) Azure Certification
7 102 (2.04%) AWS Certification
8 92 (1.84%) Cisco Certification
9 81 (1.62%) TOGAF Certification
10 69 (1.38%) Computer Science Degree
11 67 (1.34%) BPSS Clearance
12 58 (1.16%) CISM
13 44 (0.88%) CCNP
14 40 (0.80%) Microsoft Certification
15 35 (0.70%) (ISC)2 CCSP
16 34 (0.68%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
17 27 (0.54%) Master's Degree
18 22 (0.44%) CCSP
19 20 (0.40%) CCIE
20 19 (0.38%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 176 (3.52%) Data Quality
2 170 (3.40%) NIST
3 150 (3.00%) GDPR
4 123 (2.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 95 (1.90%) NCSC
6 59 (1.18%) GRC
7 55 (1.10%) QA
8 38 (0.76%) PCI DSS
9 35 (0.70%) Accessibility
10 30 (0.60%) NIST 800
11 28 (0.56%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 21 (0.42%) SEPA
13 20 (0.40%) Cyber Essentials
13 20 (0.40%) ISO 20022
14 19 (0.38%) IFRS
15 15 (0.30%) HL7
16 14 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 20000
16 14 (0.28%) SLA
17 12 (0.24%) COBIT
17 12 (0.24%) HIPAA
System Software
1 147 (2.94%) Active Directory
2 98 (1.96%) Docker
3 63 (1.26%) VMware Infrastructure
4 47 (0.94%) VMware NSX
5 24 (0.48%) Virtual Desktop
6 18 (0.36%) vSphere
7 15 (0.30%) Virtual Machines
8 14 (0.28%) Hyper-V
9 11 (0.22%) VMware ESXi
10 8 (0.16%) NFS
11 7 (0.14%) Varnish
12 6 (0.12%) Postfix
12 6 (0.12%) vCloud
13 5 (0.10%) IAG
14 4 (0.080%) EMC RecoverPoint
14 4 (0.080%) Sendmail
14 4 (0.080%) Squid
15 3 (0.060%) KVM
15 3 (0.060%) RACF
15 3 (0.060%) SRDF
Systems Management
1 243 (4.86%) Kubernetes
2 218 (4.36%) Terraform
3 92 (1.84%) Ansible
4 47 (0.94%) Grafana
5 41 (0.82%) Single Sign-On
6 38 (0.76%) Microsoft Intune
7 34 (0.68%) Prometheus
8 21 (0.42%) Argo
9 20 (0.40%) vCenter Server
10 15 (0.30%) Jamf Pro
11 14 (0.28%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 12 (0.24%) FortiGate
13 7 (0.14%) SCCM
14 6 (0.12%) CASB
14 6 (0.12%) EMC VPLEX
14 6 (0.12%) HAProxy
14 6 (0.12%) Istio
15 5 (0.10%) MOM
16 4 (0.080%) NetBackup
16 4 (0.080%) SnapMirror
Vendors
1 640 (12.80%) Microsoft
2 287 (5.74%) SAP
3 266 (5.32%) Oracle
4 251 (5.02%) ServiceNow
5 228 (4.56%) Databricks
6 159 (3.18%) Salesforce
7 130 (2.60%) VMware
8 128 (2.56%) Google
9 124 (2.48%) Cisco
10 57 (1.14%) IBM
11 56 (1.12%) CyberArk
12 53 (1.06%) Workday
13 50 (1.00%) Palo Alto
14 49 (0.98%) MuleSoft
15 44 (0.88%) Foundry
16 38 (0.76%) Splunk
17 36 (0.72%) Ariba
17 36 (0.72%) Sparx
18 35 (0.70%) OpenAI
19 33 (0.66%) Red Hat