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 20 March 2026.

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

6 months to
20 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 15 16 13
Rank change year-on-year +1 -3 +4
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 3,962 2,476 3,742
As % of all contract jobs in England 10.67% 10.13% 9.92%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.59% 10.89% 10.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,680 1,618 2,463
10th Percentile £463 £476 £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 £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 99 29 42
10th Percentile £49.40 £57.70 £50.72
25th Percentile £60.00 £61.50 £60.00
Median hourly rate £72.50 £72.50 £76.53
Median % change year-on-year - -5.27% +9.33%
75th Percentile £90.09 £80.59 £87.53
90th Percentile £97.50 £85.56 £95.00
UK median hourly rate £71.27 £72.50 £76.53
% change year-on-year -1.70% -5.27% +9.33%

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 34,185 22,733 34,999
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.02% 93.02% 92.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,607 15,058 23,418
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £408 £411
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £521 £525
% change year-on-year -4.03% -0.76% -4.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,238 789 2,273
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.14 £13.00
25th Percentile £19.40 £21.24 £16.25
Median hourly rate £37.50 £35.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% +7.69% -23.53%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £59.44
90th Percentile £76.58 £77.50 £71.25
UK median hourly rate £36.00 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year +10.77% - -23.53%

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 20 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 20 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 20 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 -1 1,777 £625 -3.85% 453
South East +5 682 £625 - 241
North of England +3 581 £600 - 168
Midlands -1 384 £575 -4.17% 86
North West +6 328 £603 +1.05% 93
West Midlands -3 288 £600 -2.04% 65
South West +1 268 £700 +14.29% 96
Yorkshire +5 230 £563 -6.25% 55
East of England +18 167 £531 -18.27% 55
East Midlands -2 92 £519 -6.53% 21
North East -1 31 £625 - 23
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 20 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 1,264 (31.90%) Security Cleared
2 978 (24.68%) Azure
3 865 (21.83%) SC Cleared
4 785 (19.81%) AWS
5 583 (14.71%) Roadmaps
6 564 (14.24%) Microsoft
7 526 (13.28%) Agile
8 504 (12.72%) Migration
9 456 (11.51%) DevOps
10 448 (11.31%) Stakeholder Management
11 416 (10.50%) Enterprise Architecture
12 399 (10.07%) CI/CD
13 387 (9.77%) Data Modelling
14 380 (9.59%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 368 (9.29%) TOGAF
16 358 (9.04%) Technical Leadership
17 334 (8.43%) AI
17 334 (8.43%) Data Architecture
18 332 (8.38%) GCP
19 331 (8.35%) Problem-Solving
20 328 (8.28%) Integration Patterns
21 325 (8.20%) Analytics
22 298 (7.52%) DV Cleared
23 292 (7.37%) Python
24 289 (7.29%) Architectural Patterns
25 278 (7.02%) Microservices
26 274 (6.92%) Architectural Design
27 233 (5.88%) Security Architecture
27 233 (5.88%) Terraform
28 229 (5.78%) Cybersecurity

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
1 113 (2.85%) Confluence
2 100 (2.52%) SharePoint
3 62 (1.56%) Microsoft Exchange
4 27 (0.68%) SAS
5 22 (0.56%) CMS
6 20 (0.50%) Apache Spark
7 15 (0.38%) Anypoint
7 15 (0.38%) Appian
7 15 (0.38%) ArcGIS
8 14 (0.35%) Apache Airflow
9 12 (0.30%) Apache
9 12 (0.30%) nginx
10 11 (0.28%) WebLogic
11 9 (0.23%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 9 (0.23%) OpenStack
11 9 (0.23%) Smallworld
12 7 (0.18%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 7 (0.18%) Skype for Business
13 6 (0.15%) NetWeaver
13 6 (0.15%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 50 (1.26%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (0.78%) Microsoft Project
3 27 (0.68%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 24 (0.61%) Microsoft Excel
5 19 (0.48%) MS Visio
6 7 (0.18%) 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
Business Applications
1 100 (2.52%) SAP S/4HANA
2 42 (1.06%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 23 (0.58%) Workday HCM
4 20 (0.50%) Dynamics CRM
5 19 (0.48%) Payment Gateway
6 15 (0.38%) Salesforce CRM
7 14 (0.35%) Oracle EBS
8 10 (0.25%) NetSuite
8 10 (0.25%) SAP PM
9 9 (0.23%) Maximo
9 9 (0.23%) Oracle Receivables
9 9 (0.23%) Remedy ITSM
9 9 (0.23%) SAP ERP
9 9 (0.23%) SAP EWM
10 8 (0.20%) Teamcenter
11 7 (0.18%) SAP PP
12 6 (0.15%) R3 Corda
12 6 (0.15%) SAP CRM
12 6 (0.15%) SAP QM
13 5 (0.13%) Distributed Ledger
Cloud Services
1 978 (24.68%) Azure
2 785 (19.81%) AWS
3 332 (8.38%) GCP
4 165 (4.16%) Power Platform
5 154 (3.89%) Entra ID
6 130 (3.28%) Serverless
7 129 (3.26%) Microsoft 365
8 125 (3.15%) SaaS
9 96 (2.42%) IaaS
10 91 (2.30%) GitHub
11 85 (2.15%) Azure DevOps
12 84 (2.12%) PaaS
13 74 (1.87%) OpenShift
14 69 (1.74%) Dynamics 365
15 68 (1.72%) AWS Lambda
16 62 (1.56%) Amazon S3
16 62 (1.56%) Microsoft Purview
17 59 (1.49%) Azure Synapse Analytics
18 58 (1.46%) Virtual Private Cloud
19 56 (1.41%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 183 (4.62%) Firewall
2 142 (3.58%) Network Security
3 118 (2.98%) WAN
4 116 (2.93%) DNS
5 109 (2.75%) VPN
6 77 (1.94%) LAN
7 64 (1.62%) SD-WAN
8 34 (0.86%) BGP
9 32 (0.81%) DHCP
10 30 (0.76%) Wi-Fi
11 29 (0.73%) OSPF
12 27 (0.68%) MPLS
13 25 (0.63%) TCP/IP
14 21 (0.53%) SAN
14 21 (0.53%) VXLAN
15 20 (0.50%) VLAN
16 18 (0.45%) VSAN
17 17 (0.43%) Internet
17 17 (0.43%) Wireless
18 16 (0.40%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 122 (3.08%) Power BI
2 119 (3.00%) Data Warehouse
3 115 (2.90%) Metadata
4 78 (1.97%) Data Lake
5 69 (1.74%) SQL Server
6 54 (1.36%) NoSQL
7 52 (1.31%) PostgreSQL
8 44 (1.11%) Tableau
9 36 (0.91%) Azure SQL Database
10 32 (0.81%) Oracle Database
11 28 (0.71%) Big Data
12 26 (0.66%) GIS
13 25 (0.63%) Amazon Redshift
14 22 (0.56%) Delta Lake
15 20 (0.50%) Electronic Patient Records
15 20 (0.50%) Metadata Repository
16 18 (0.45%) Relational Database
17 17 (0.43%) Amazon Athena
18 16 (0.40%) Amazon Aurora
19 15 (0.38%) Data Vault
Development Applications
1 126 (3.18%) JIRA
2 87 (2.20%) Jenkins
3 44 (1.11%) Git
4 43 (1.09%) GitLab
5 21 (0.53%) ERwin
6 11 (0.28%) Bitbucket
7 10 (0.25%) SonarQube
8 9 (0.23%) Artifactory
9 8 (0.20%) MLflow
10 5 (0.13%) Postman
10 5 (0.13%) PowerDesigner
10 5 (0.13%) REST Assured
11 4 (0.10%) Cucumber
11 4 (0.10%) Oracle Forms
11 4 (0.10%) Rational DOORS
11 4 (0.10%) Selenium
11 4 (0.10%) Snyk
11 4 (0.10%) Terragrunt
12 3 (0.076%) JUnit
12 3 (0.076%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 853 (21.53%) Social Skills
2 633 (15.98%) Finance
3 465 (11.74%) Public Sector
4 277 (6.99%) Analytical Skills
5 247 (6.23%) Banking
6 129 (3.26%) Documentation Skills
7 93 (2.35%) Influencing Skills
8 87 (2.20%) Retail
9 86 (2.17%) Military
10 77 (1.94%) Legal
10 77 (1.94%) Telecoms
11 69 (1.74%) Presentation Skills
12 61 (1.54%) Marketing
13 48 (1.21%) Manufacturing
14 43 (1.09%) Law
15 39 (0.98%) Financial Institution
16 36 (0.91%) Billing
17 31 (0.78%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 28 (0.71%) Investment Banking
19 20 (0.50%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 203 (5.12%) REST
2 155 (3.91%) Middleware
3 103 (2.60%) SOAP
4 77 (1.94%) OpenID
5 75 (1.89%) .NET
5 75 (1.89%) LDAP
6 69 (1.74%) OAuth
7 63 (1.59%) SAML
8 57 (1.44%) Kafka
9 50 (1.26%) JSON
10 43 (1.09%) OAuth2
11 36 (0.91%) AngularJS
12 31 (0.78%) React
13 30 (0.76%) SailPoint
14 27 (0.68%) RESTful
15 25 (0.63%) Spring
16 24 (0.61%) Web Services
17 22 (0.56%) Oracle Fusion
18 21 (0.53%) PySpark
19 20 (0.50%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 318 (8.03%) Cloud Native
2 136 (3.43%) Product Ownership
3 111 (2.80%) Data Centre
3 111 (2.80%) Legacy Systems
4 103 (2.60%) Onboarding
5 101 (2.55%) Enterprise Software
6 88 (2.22%) PKI
7 84 (2.12%) Hybrid Cloud
8 66 (1.67%) Distributed Systems
9 62 (1.56%) Public Cloud
9 62 (1.56%) Security Posture
10 59 (1.49%) Management Information System
11 58 (1.46%) Data Protection Act
11 58 (1.46%) Operational Technology
12 51 (1.29%) CMDB
13 47 (1.19%) Self-Motivation
14 41 (1.03%) Data Structures
15 38 (0.96%) AI Agents
16 37 (0.93%) Private Cloud
17 33 (0.83%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 159 (4.01%) Windows
2 91 (2.30%) Linux
3 35 (0.88%) Windows Server
4 22 (0.56%) Android
4 22 (0.56%) Apple iOS
5 16 (0.40%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 16 (0.40%) Windows 7
6 14 (0.35%) Windows 10
7 10 (0.25%) Unix
7 10 (0.25%) zOS
8 9 (0.23%) Mac OS
9 8 (0.20%) VMS
9 8 (0.20%) Windows Server 2016
10 5 (0.13%) Windows Server 2019
11 4 (0.10%) Ubuntu
12 3 (0.076%) Windows Server 2012
13 2 (0.050%) CentOS
14 1 (0.025%) Data ONTAP
14 1 (0.025%) Kali Linux
14 1 (0.025%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 583 (14.71%) Roadmaps
2 526 (13.28%) Agile
3 504 (12.72%) Migration
4 456 (11.51%) DevOps
5 448 (11.31%) Stakeholder Management
6 416 (10.50%) Enterprise Architecture
7 399 (10.07%) CI/CD
8 387 (9.77%) Data Modelling
9 380 (9.59%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 368 (9.29%) TOGAF
11 358 (9.04%) Technical Leadership
12 334 (8.43%) AI
12 334 (8.43%) Data Architecture
13 331 (8.35%) Problem-Solving
14 328 (8.28%) Integration Patterns
15 325 (8.20%) Analytics
16 289 (7.29%) Architectural Patterns
17 278 (7.02%) Microservices
18 274 (6.92%) Architectural Design
19 233 (5.88%) Security Architecture
Programming Languages
1 292 (7.37%) Python
2 208 (5.25%) SQL
3 174 (4.39%) PowerShell
4 138 (3.48%) Java
5 56 (1.41%) JavaScript
6 48 (1.21%) C#
7 39 (0.98%) Bash
8 36 (0.91%) Bicep
9 26 (0.66%) TypeScript
10 18 (0.45%) Apex Code
11 15 (0.38%) PL/SQL
12 14 (0.35%) Kusto Query Language
12 14 (0.35%) Ruby
13 12 (0.30%) R
13 12 (0.30%) Scala
14 9 (0.23%) T-SQL
15 8 (0.20%) Kotlin
15 8 (0.20%) VB
16 7 (0.18%) VBScript
17 6 (0.15%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 1,264 (31.90%) Security Cleared
2 865 (21.83%) SC Cleared
3 298 (7.52%) DV Cleared
4 179 (4.52%) Degree
5 112 (2.83%) TOGAF Certification
6 111 (2.80%) Azure Certification
7 99 (2.50%) AWS Certification
7 99 (2.50%) CISSP
8 72 (1.82%) Cisco Certification
8 72 (1.82%) Computer Science Degree
9 58 (1.46%) BPSS Clearance
10 54 (1.36%) CISM
11 51 (1.29%) Microsoft Certification
12 46 (1.16%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 43 (1.09%) CCNP
14 40 (1.01%) Master's Degree
15 31 (0.78%) ITIL Certification
16 29 (0.73%) CCIE
17 28 (0.71%) ISEB
18 27 (0.68%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 174 (4.39%) GDPR
2 146 (3.69%) NIST
3 130 (3.28%) Data Quality
4 126 (3.18%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 89 (2.25%) NCSC
6 56 (1.41%) QA
7 53 (1.34%) PCI DSS
8 35 (0.88%) COBIT
9 29 (0.73%) GRC
10 27 (0.68%) ISO 20022
11 26 (0.66%) Cyber Essentials
12 15 (0.38%) Accessibility
12 15 (0.38%) HL7
12 15 (0.38%) MiFID
13 14 (0.35%) JSP 440
14 13 (0.33%) FINRA
14 13 (0.33%) PSD2
15 12 (0.30%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 12 (0.30%) SEPA
16 11 (0.28%) HIPAA
System Software
1 171 (4.32%) Active Directory
2 114 (2.88%) Docker
3 95 (2.40%) VMware Infrastructure
4 64 (1.62%) VMware NSX
5 33 (0.83%) vSphere
6 22 (0.56%) Virtual Desktop
7 16 (0.40%) Hyper-V
8 14 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
9 11 (0.28%) VMware ESXi
10 9 (0.23%) Squid
11 8 (0.20%) vCloud
12 7 (0.18%) BitLocker
13 5 (0.13%) NFS
13 5 (0.13%) Oracle RAC
13 5 (0.13%) RACF
13 5 (0.13%) Varnish
14 4 (0.10%) Firmware
15 3 (0.076%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
15 3 (0.076%) IAG
15 3 (0.076%) Postfix
Systems Management
1 233 (5.88%) Terraform
2 207 (5.22%) Kubernetes
3 102 (2.57%) Ansible
4 55 (1.39%) Single Sign-On
5 40 (1.01%) Microsoft Intune
6 33 (0.83%) Grafana
6 33 (0.83%) vCenter Server
7 30 (0.76%) OPNET
8 24 (0.61%) Prometheus
9 22 (0.56%) FortiGate
9 22 (0.56%) SCCM
10 18 (0.45%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 18 (0.45%) Argo
11 15 (0.38%) WMI
12 8 (0.20%) Istio
13 7 (0.18%) Consul
14 6 (0.15%) Puppet
15 5 (0.13%) Kibana
15 5 (0.13%) Progress Chef
16 4 (0.10%) Endace
Vendors
1 564 (14.24%) Microsoft
2 220 (5.55%) ServiceNow
3 219 (5.53%) SAP
4 176 (4.44%) VMware
5 162 (4.09%) Oracle
6 159 (4.01%) Salesforce
7 131 (3.31%) Databricks
8 108 (2.73%) Cisco
9 87 (2.20%) CyberArk
9 87 (2.20%) Google
10 61 (1.54%) MuleSoft
11 55 (1.39%) Palo Alto
12 54 (1.36%) Splunk
13 50 (1.26%) Red Hat
13 50 (1.26%) Remedy
14 49 (1.24%) Centrify
15 46 (1.16%) Atlassian
16 44 (1.11%) IBM
16 44 (1.11%) Workday
17 41 (1.03%) Sparx