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 11 April 2026.

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

6 months to
11 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 16 11
Rank change year-on-year +3 -5 +6
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 4,256 2,401 3,820
As % of all contract jobs in England 10.88% 9.86% 10.21%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.78% 10.64% 11.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,872 1,601 2,526
10th Percentile £463 £481 £500
25th Percentile £513 £550 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £625 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year - -3.85% -3.70%
75th Percentile £725 £725 £745
90th Percentile £800 £799 £825
UK median daily rate £620 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -0.80% -3.85% -1.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 107 34 47
10th Percentile £49.40 £53.40 £55.35
25th Percentile £60.00 £61.50 £60.00
Median hourly rate £71.27 £71.25 £83.77
Median % change year-on-year +0.03% -14.94% +19.66%
75th Percentile £87.00 £80.44 £87.53
90th Percentile £97.50 £85.70 £95.00
UK median hourly rate £70.64 £70.00 £83.50
% change year-on-year +0.91% -16.17% +19.29%

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 36,130 22,574 34,661
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.34% 92.74% 92.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,725 15,118 23,117
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £409 £412
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £508 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.33% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,403 844 2,345
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.69 £12.88
25th Percentile £20.50 £20.26 £16.25
Median hourly rate £44.00 £32.50 £34.00
Median % change year-on-year +35.38% -4.41% -22.07%
75th Percentile £67.25 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £76.25 £71.89
UK median hourly rate £41.06 £31.64 £35.00
% change year-on-year +29.76% -9.60% -21.40%

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 11 April 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 11 April 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 11 April 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 1,969 £625 -3.85% 476
South East +4 701 £625 - 256
North of England +3 606 £600 - 194
Midlands -5 399 £576 -3.96% 95
North West +8 352 £610 +1.67% 100
West Midlands -5 302 £600 -0.41% 69
South West +2 287 £700 +16.67% 98
Yorkshire +7 229 £558 -7.00% 70
East of England +17 185 £556 -7.29% 71
East Midlands -7 93 £513 -9.69% 26
North East +4 34 £575 -7.95% 28
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 11 April 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 1,367 (32.12%) Security Cleared
2 1,005 (23.61%) Azure
3 934 (21.95%) SC Cleared
4 838 (19.69%) AWS
5 612 (14.38%) Roadmaps
6 605 (14.22%) Microsoft
7 565 (13.28%) Migration
8 560 (13.16%) Agile
9 484 (11.37%) DevOps
10 463 (10.88%) Stakeholder Management
11 437 (10.27%) CI/CD
12 429 (10.08%) Enterprise Architecture
13 403 (9.47%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 402 (9.45%) Data Modelling
15 381 (8.95%) Technical Leadership
16 373 (8.76%) Integration Patterns
17 365 (8.58%) AI
18 364 (8.55%) TOGAF
19 358 (8.41%) Analytics
20 346 (8.13%) GCP
21 345 (8.11%) Data Architecture
22 340 (7.99%) Problem-Solving
23 323 (7.59%) DV Cleared
24 314 (7.38%) Architectural Patterns
25 312 (7.33%) Architectural Design
26 303 (7.12%) Python
27 301 (7.07%) Microservices
28 259 (6.09%) Security Architecture
29 257 (6.04%) ServiceNow
30 246 (5.78%) SAP

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
1 107 (2.51%) SharePoint
2 103 (2.42%) Confluence
3 63 (1.48%) Microsoft Exchange
4 25 (0.59%) SAS
5 23 (0.54%) CMS
6 20 (0.47%) Apache Spark
7 16 (0.38%) Anypoint
7 16 (0.38%) Apache
7 16 (0.38%) Appian
8 15 (0.35%) ArcGIS
9 14 (0.33%) Apache Airflow
10 12 (0.28%) nginx
11 11 (0.26%) WebLogic
12 9 (0.21%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 9 (0.21%) OpenStack
13 7 (0.16%) Camunda
13 7 (0.16%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 7 (0.16%) Palantir Foundry
13 7 (0.16%) Skype for Business
14 6 (0.14%) Ethereum
Applications
1 48 (1.13%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (0.73%) Microsoft Project
3 23 (0.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 20 (0.47%) Microsoft Excel
5 15 (0.35%) MS Visio
6 6 (0.14%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.047%) Navisworks
7 2 (0.047%) Revit
8 1 (0.023%) ArchiCAD
8 1 (0.023%) AutoCAD
8 1 (0.023%) OrCAD
8 1 (0.023%) PlantUML
8 1 (0.023%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.023%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.023%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 108 (2.54%) SAP S/4HANA
2 47 (1.10%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 21 (0.49%) Workday HCM
4 18 (0.42%) Dynamics CRM
4 18 (0.42%) Payment Gateway
5 14 (0.33%) Oracle EBS
6 13 (0.31%) Salesforce CRM
6 13 (0.31%) SAP ERP
7 11 (0.26%) Teamcenter
8 10 (0.23%) NetSuite
8 10 (0.23%) Oracle Receivables
8 10 (0.23%) Remedy ITSM
8 10 (0.23%) SAP PM
9 9 (0.21%) Maximo
9 9 (0.21%) SAP EWM
10 8 (0.19%) SAP PP
11 7 (0.16%) SAP QM
12 6 (0.14%) Oracle ERP
12 6 (0.14%) Oracle Payables
12 6 (0.14%) SAP CRM
Cloud Services
1 1,005 (23.61%) Azure
2 838 (19.69%) AWS
3 346 (8.13%) GCP
4 186 (4.37%) Power Platform
5 166 (3.90%) Entra ID
6 141 (3.31%) SaaS
6 141 (3.31%) Serverless
7 130 (3.05%) Microsoft 365
8 107 (2.51%) IaaS
9 97 (2.28%) GitHub
9 97 (2.28%) PaaS
10 90 (2.11%) Dynamics 365
11 86 (2.02%) Azure DevOps
12 76 (1.79%) OpenShift
13 71 (1.67%) AWS Lambda
14 64 (1.50%) Amazon S3
15 63 (1.48%) Snowflake
16 62 (1.46%) Microsoft Purview
17 56 (1.32%) AWS CloudFormation
17 56 (1.32%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 184 (4.32%) Firewall
2 147 (3.45%) Network Security
3 124 (2.91%) DNS
3 124 (2.91%) WAN
4 109 (2.56%) VPN
5 84 (1.97%) LAN
6 63 (1.48%) SD-WAN
7 35 (0.82%) BGP
7 35 (0.82%) DHCP
8 31 (0.73%) OSPF
9 30 (0.70%) MPLS
10 29 (0.68%) Wi-Fi
11 26 (0.61%) TCP/IP
12 25 (0.59%) SAN
12 25 (0.59%) VLAN
13 20 (0.47%) VXLAN
13 20 (0.47%) Wireless
14 18 (0.42%) BIG-IP
14 18 (0.42%) NAS
15 17 (0.40%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 142 (3.34%) Power BI
2 116 (2.73%) Metadata
3 112 (2.63%) Data Warehouse
4 93 (2.19%) Data Lake
5 71 (1.67%) SQL Server
6 54 (1.27%) NoSQL
7 49 (1.15%) PostgreSQL
8 43 (1.01%) Tableau
9 36 (0.85%) Azure SQL Database
10 31 (0.73%) Big Data
10 31 (0.73%) Oracle Database
11 29 (0.68%) Amazon Redshift
12 24 (0.56%) BigQuery
12 24 (0.56%) Delta Lake
13 21 (0.49%) Electronic Patient Records
13 21 (0.49%) GIS
14 20 (0.47%) Metadata Repository
15 19 (0.45%) Amazon Athena
16 17 (0.40%) Relational Database
17 16 (0.38%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 120 (2.82%) JIRA
2 88 (2.07%) Jenkins
3 47 (1.10%) Git
4 40 (0.94%) GitLab
5 18 (0.42%) ERwin
6 13 (0.31%) SonarQube
7 11 (0.26%) Bitbucket
8 10 (0.23%) Artifactory
9 9 (0.21%) MLflow
10 6 (0.14%) Postman
11 5 (0.12%) JUnit
11 5 (0.12%) PowerDesigner
11 5 (0.12%) REST Assured
12 4 (0.094%) Cucumber
12 4 (0.094%) Selenium
12 4 (0.094%) Snyk
12 4 (0.094%) Sonatype Nexus
12 4 (0.094%) Terragrunt
13 3 (0.070%) Oracle Forms
13 3 (0.070%) Rational DOORS
General
1 869 (20.42%) Social Skills
2 686 (16.12%) Finance
3 475 (11.16%) Public Sector
4 280 (6.58%) Analytical Skills
5 267 (6.27%) Banking
6 140 (3.29%) Documentation Skills
7 112 (2.63%) Retail
8 100 (2.35%) Influencing Skills
9 87 (2.04%) Military
10 86 (2.02%) Legal
11 73 (1.72%) Telecoms
12 70 (1.64%) Presentation Skills
13 61 (1.43%) Law
14 58 (1.36%) Marketing
15 52 (1.22%) Manufacturing
16 43 (1.01%) Financial Institution
17 33 (0.78%) Billing
18 32 (0.75%) Investment Banking
19 30 (0.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
20 25 (0.59%) Aerospace
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 218 (5.12%) REST
2 163 (3.83%) Middleware
3 109 (2.56%) SOAP
4 90 (2.11%) .NET
5 78 (1.83%) OpenID
6 77 (1.81%) LDAP
7 68 (1.60%) OAuth
8 63 (1.48%) Kafka
9 59 (1.39%) SAML
10 54 (1.27%) JSON
11 44 (1.03%) OAuth2
12 36 (0.85%) AngularJS
13 35 (0.82%) React
14 34 (0.80%) SailPoint
15 32 (0.75%) RESTful
16 31 (0.73%) Oracle Fusion
17 29 (0.68%) Spring
18 28 (0.66%) Web Services
19 24 (0.56%) PySpark
20 22 (0.52%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 335 (7.87%) Cloud Native
2 131 (3.08%) Product Ownership
3 125 (2.94%) Data Centre
4 109 (2.56%) Onboarding
5 106 (2.49%) Legacy Systems
6 105 (2.47%) Enterprise Software
7 91 (2.14%) Hybrid Cloud
8 82 (1.93%) Distributed Systems
9 80 (1.88%) PKI
10 69 (1.62%) Management Information System
11 68 (1.60%) Public Cloud
12 67 (1.57%) Security Posture
13 60 (1.41%) Data Protection Act
13 60 (1.41%) Operational Technology
14 58 (1.36%) CMDB
15 50 (1.17%) Self-Motivation
16 44 (1.03%) Data Structures
17 42 (0.99%) AI Agents
17 42 (0.99%) Private Cloud
18 32 (0.75%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 161 (3.78%) Windows
2 95 (2.23%) Linux
3 37 (0.87%) Windows Server
4 25 (0.59%) Android
4 25 (0.59%) Apple iOS
5 16 (0.38%) Unix
6 14 (0.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 14 (0.33%) Windows 10
7 13 (0.31%) Windows 7
8 10 (0.23%) zOS
9 9 (0.21%) Mac OS
10 8 (0.19%) VMS
10 8 (0.19%) Windows Server 2016
11 5 (0.12%) Windows Server 2019
12 3 (0.070%) Data ONTAP
12 3 (0.070%) Solaris
12 3 (0.070%) Windows Server 2012
13 2 (0.047%) AIX
13 2 (0.047%) CentOS
14 1 (0.023%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 612 (14.38%) Roadmaps
2 565 (13.28%) Migration
3 560 (13.16%) Agile
4 484 (11.37%) DevOps
5 463 (10.88%) Stakeholder Management
6 437 (10.27%) CI/CD
7 429 (10.08%) Enterprise Architecture
8 403 (9.47%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 402 (9.45%) Data Modelling
10 381 (8.95%) Technical Leadership
11 373 (8.76%) Integration Patterns
12 365 (8.58%) AI
13 364 (8.55%) TOGAF
14 358 (8.41%) Analytics
15 345 (8.11%) Data Architecture
16 340 (7.99%) Problem-Solving
17 314 (7.38%) Architectural Patterns
18 312 (7.33%) Architectural Design
19 301 (7.07%) Microservices
20 259 (6.09%) Security Architecture
Programming Languages
1 303 (7.12%) Python
2 216 (5.08%) SQL
3 179 (4.21%) PowerShell
4 162 (3.81%) Java
5 68 (1.60%) JavaScript
6 52 (1.22%) C#
7 41 (0.96%) Bash
8 37 (0.87%) Bicep
9 28 (0.66%) TypeScript
10 17 (0.40%) Apex Code
10 17 (0.40%) Ruby
11 14 (0.33%) PL/SQL
11 14 (0.33%) Scala
12 13 (0.31%) Kusto Query Language
13 10 (0.23%) R
14 9 (0.21%) Kotlin
15 8 (0.19%) Shell Script
15 8 (0.19%) T-SQL
15 8 (0.19%) VB
16 7 (0.16%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 1,367 (32.12%) Security Cleared
2 934 (21.95%) SC Cleared
3 323 (7.59%) DV Cleared
4 172 (4.04%) Degree
5 114 (2.68%) Azure Certification
6 110 (2.58%) TOGAF Certification
7 100 (2.35%) CISSP
8 98 (2.30%) AWS Certification
9 79 (1.86%) Cisco Certification
10 67 (1.57%) Computer Science Degree
11 61 (1.43%) BPSS Clearance
12 50 (1.17%) Microsoft Certification
13 47 (1.10%) CCNP
14 44 (1.03%) CISM
15 41 (0.96%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
16 33 (0.78%) Master's Degree
17 32 (0.75%) ITIL Certification
18 31 (0.73%) ISEB
19 30 (0.70%) (ISC)2 CCSP
20 28 (0.66%) CCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 169 (3.97%) GDPR
2 164 (3.85%) NIST
3 133 (3.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 128 (3.01%) Data Quality
5 91 (2.14%) NCSC
6 64 (1.50%) QA
7 49 (1.15%) PCI DSS
8 37 (0.87%) COBIT
9 29 (0.68%) GRC
10 27 (0.63%) ISO 20022
11 26 (0.61%) Cyber Essentials
12 18 (0.42%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 17 (0.40%) HL7
14 16 (0.38%) NIST 800
15 15 (0.35%) JSP 440
16 14 (0.33%) Accessibility
16 14 (0.33%) MiFID
17 13 (0.31%) FINRA
17 13 (0.31%) PSD2
17 13 (0.31%) SEPA
System Software
1 184 (4.32%) Active Directory
2 109 (2.56%) Docker
3 99 (2.33%) VMware Infrastructure
4 71 (1.67%) VMware NSX
5 34 (0.80%) vSphere
6 22 (0.52%) Virtual Desktop
7 17 (0.40%) Hyper-V
8 16 (0.38%) Virtual Machines
9 14 (0.33%) VMware ESXi
10 10 (0.23%) vCloud
11 9 (0.21%) Squid
12 8 (0.19%) NFS
13 7 (0.16%) BitLocker
13 7 (0.16%) Varnish
14 5 (0.12%) Postfix
14 5 (0.12%) RACF
15 4 (0.094%) Firmware
15 4 (0.094%) Oracle RAC
16 3 (0.070%) IAG
16 3 (0.070%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 237 (5.57%) Terraform
2 214 (5.03%) Kubernetes
3 103 (2.42%) Ansible
4 53 (1.25%) Single Sign-On
5 40 (0.94%) Microsoft Intune
6 35 (0.82%) Grafana
6 35 (0.82%) vCenter Server
7 30 (0.70%) OPNET
8 22 (0.52%) Prometheus
8 22 (0.52%) SCCM
9 21 (0.49%) FortiGate
10 20 (0.47%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 20 (0.47%) Argo
11 12 (0.28%) WMI
12 9 (0.21%) Istio
13 7 (0.16%) Consul
13 7 (0.16%) Puppet
14 5 (0.12%) Endace
14 5 (0.12%) HAProxy
14 5 (0.12%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 605 (14.22%) Microsoft
2 257 (6.04%) ServiceNow
3 246 (5.78%) SAP
4 189 (4.44%) VMware
5 170 (3.99%) Oracle
6 168 (3.95%) Salesforce
7 152 (3.57%) Databricks
8 111 (2.61%) Cisco
9 92 (2.16%) Google
10 84 (1.97%) CyberArk
11 62 (1.46%) MuleSoft
12 55 (1.29%) Splunk
13 50 (1.17%) Red Hat
13 50 (1.17%) Remedy
14 49 (1.15%) Palo Alto
15 46 (1.08%) Sparx
15 46 (1.08%) Workday
16 44 (1.03%) Atlassian
16 44 (1.03%) IBM
17 39 (0.92%) BeyondTrust