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 25 August 2026.

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

6 months to
25 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 18 14
Rank change year-on-year +8 -4 +2
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 5,022 2,542 3,396
As % of all contract jobs in England 10.99% 9.23% 10.22%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.89% 10.08% 10.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,377 1,682 2,223
10th Percentile £480 £468 £485
25th Percentile £525 £538 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £620 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year -0.80% -3.85% -0.23%
75th Percentile £719 £704 £738
90th Percentile £789 £788 £823
UK median daily rate £616 £625 £646
% change year-on-year -1.42% -3.25% -0.62%
Number of hourly rates quoted 164 18 73
10th Percentile £46.00 £36.30 -
25th Percentile £60.00 £62.50 £60.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £72.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.34% +3.57% -
75th Percentile £73.25 £87.00 £85.00
90th Percentile £95.00 £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 42,233 25,214 30,900
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.44% 91.54% 92.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,442 16,270 19,985
10th Percentile £325 £280 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £630 £625 £638
90th Percentile £738 £738 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,231 1,370 1,701
10th Percentile £15.20 £13.64 £14.16
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.45 £20.50
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.23 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.48% -43.94% +2.60%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £66.61
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.25 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £41.92 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +66.68% -41.51% -1.58%

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 25 August 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 25 August 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 25 August 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 2,585 £625 -2.72% 326
South East 0 733 £625 +4.17% 177
North of England +4 691 £600 - 131
Midlands +1 414 £625 +8.70% 53
North West +6 405 £600 +0.84% 69
South West +1 315 £648 +1.17% 83
West Midlands 0 300 £644 +7.33% 37
Yorkshire +7 222 £600 -4.00% 47
East of England +14 152 £604 +8.83% 20
East Midlands +6 107 £600 +16.50% 16
North East -4 66 £588 -16.07% 15
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 25 August 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 1,502 (29.91%) Security Cleared
2 1,306 (26.01%) Azure
3 1,088 (21.66%) SC Cleared
4 1,033 (20.57%) AWS
5 772 (15.37%) Roadmaps
6 768 (15.29%) Stakeholder Management
7 730 (14.54%) Migration
8 692 (13.78%) Microsoft
9 656 (13.06%) AI
10 640 (12.74%) Enterprise Architecture
11 558 (11.11%) DevOps
12 554 (11.03%) Agile
12 554 (11.03%) Technical Leadership
13 533 (10.61%) CI/CD
14 527 (10.49%) Data Modelling
15 519 (10.33%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 493 (9.82%) Data Architecture
17 489 (9.74%) Integration Patterns
18 459 (9.14%) Analytics
19 406 (8.08%) GCP
20 397 (7.91%) Architectural Patterns
21 385 (7.67%) TOGAF
22 379 (7.55%) Security Architecture
23 326 (6.49%) Event-Driven
24 324 (6.45%) DV Cleared
25 322 (6.41%) Cybersecurity
26 314 (6.25%) Infrastructure as Code
27 310 (6.17%) Data Governance
28 307 (6.11%) Microservices
29 305 (6.07%) Problem-Solving

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 72 (1.43%) SAS
2 69 (1.37%) SharePoint
3 50 (1.00%) Confluence
4 42 (0.84%) Apache
5 40 (0.80%) Apache Spark
6 29 (0.58%) Microsoft Exchange
7 28 (0.56%) Apache Airflow
8 22 (0.44%) Palantir Foundry
9 17 (0.34%) CMS
10 15 (0.30%) OpenStack
11 7 (0.14%) ArcGIS
11 7 (0.14%) Camunda
11 7 (0.14%) Documentum
12 6 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 6 (0.12%) Appian
13 4 (0.080%) Jupyter
14 3 (0.060%) Anypoint
14 3 (0.060%) Drupal
14 3 (0.060%) NetWeaver
14 3 (0.060%) nginx
Applications
1 19 (0.38%) MS Visio
2 12 (0.24%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (0.24%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 9 (0.18%) Microsoft Office
4 8 (0.16%) Chatbot
5 7 (0.14%) Navisworks
5 7 (0.14%) Revit
6 6 (0.12%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.040%) Windchill
8 1 (0.020%) Gliffy
8 1 (0.020%) Microsoft Project
8 1 (0.020%) Notion
8 1 (0.020%) PlantUML
Business Applications
1 123 (2.45%) SAP S/4HANA
2 35 (0.70%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 31 (0.62%) Dynamics CRM
4 15 (0.30%) Oracle EBS
5 14 (0.28%) Remedy ITSM
6 13 (0.26%) Oracle ERP
6 13 (0.26%) Payment Gateway
6 13 (0.26%) Teamcenter
7 12 (0.24%) NetSuite
7 12 (0.24%) Oracle Payables
7 12 (0.24%) Oracle Receivables
8 11 (0.22%) SAP ERP
9 8 (0.16%) Oracle Retail
9 8 (0.16%) SAP BRIM
10 7 (0.14%) SAP IBP
10 7 (0.14%) Workday HCM
11 6 (0.12%) Maximo
11 6 (0.12%) SAP MM
12 5 (0.100%) Endur
12 5 (0.100%) SAP Oil and Gas
Cloud Services
1 1,306 (26.01%) Azure
2 1,033 (20.57%) AWS
3 406 (8.08%) GCP
4 279 (5.56%) Power Platform
5 190 (3.78%) Entra ID
6 186 (3.70%) SaaS
7 170 (3.39%) Serverless
8 135 (2.69%) Dynamics 365
9 124 (2.47%) GitHub
10 109 (2.17%) Azure DevOps
11 108 (2.15%) Snowflake
12 102 (2.03%) Microsoft 365
13 94 (1.87%) PaaS
14 75 (1.49%) AWS Lambda
15 67 (1.33%) Amazon S3
16 63 (1.25%) IaaS
17 62 (1.23%) Azure Synapse Analytics
18 59 (1.17%) Azure Data Factory
18 59 (1.17%) GitHub Actions
19 55 (1.10%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 139 (2.77%) Firewall
1 139 (2.77%) Network Security
2 99 (1.97%) WAN
3 80 (1.59%) DNS
4 68 (1.35%) LAN
5 67 (1.33%) VPN
6 48 (0.96%) BGP
6 48 (0.96%) SD-WAN
7 40 (0.80%) DHCP
8 37 (0.74%) TCP/IP
9 35 (0.70%) MPLS
10 30 (0.60%) VLAN
11 29 (0.58%) VXLAN
12 28 (0.56%) SAN
13 24 (0.48%) NAS
13 24 (0.48%) NX-OS
14 23 (0.46%) OSPF
15 21 (0.42%) Ethernet VPN
15 21 (0.42%) Structured Cabling
15 21 (0.42%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 196 (3.90%) Power BI
2 172 (3.42%) Data Lake
3 161 (3.21%) Metadata
4 149 (2.97%) Data Warehouse
5 65 (1.29%) NoSQL
6 55 (1.10%) SQL Server
7 43 (0.86%) Delta Lake
8 40 (0.80%) Big Data
8 40 (0.80%) PostgreSQL
9 39 (0.78%) Azure SQL Database
10 36 (0.72%) BigQuery
11 32 (0.64%) Amazon RDS
12 31 (0.62%) Amazon Redshift
13 29 (0.58%) Oracle Database
14 26 (0.52%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
15 23 (0.46%) GIS
16 22 (0.44%) Tableau
17 21 (0.42%) MongoDB
17 21 (0.42%) Semantic Layer
18 18 (0.36%) Amazon Athena
Development Applications
1 70 (1.39%) JIRA
2 69 (1.37%) Git
3 47 (0.94%) Jenkins
4 33 (0.66%) GitLab
5 18 (0.36%) ERwin
6 10 (0.20%) Claude Code
7 8 (0.16%) Cypress.io
7 8 (0.16%) Oracle Forms
8 7 (0.14%) MLflow
8 7 (0.14%) MSI
8 7 (0.14%) RStudio
8 7 (0.14%) SonarQube
9 6 (0.12%) Artifactory
9 6 (0.12%) Storybook
10 5 (0.100%) ER Studio
10 5 (0.100%) Maven
10 5 (0.100%) PowerDesigner
11 4 (0.080%) Rational DOORS
11 4 (0.080%) Sonatype Nexus
12 3 (0.060%) Hudson
General
1 975 (19.41%) Social Skills
2 753 (14.99%) Finance
3 542 (10.79%) Public Sector
4 281 (5.60%) Banking
5 273 (5.44%) Analytical Skills
6 252 (5.02%) Retail
7 138 (2.75%) Influencing Skills
8 122 (2.43%) Documentation Skills
9 119 (2.37%) Telecoms
10 107 (2.13%) Manufacturing
11 78 (1.55%) Legal
12 62 (1.23%) Billing
12 62 (1.23%) Marketing
13 52 (1.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 46 (0.92%) Aerospace
14 46 (0.92%) Law
15 45 (0.90%) Military
16 36 (0.72%) Financial Institution
17 33 (0.66%) Presentation Skills
18 30 (0.60%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 253 (5.04%) REST
2 213 (4.24%) Terraform
3 144 (2.87%) Middleware
4 119 (2.37%) .NET
5 117 (2.33%) SOAP
6 108 (2.15%) Kafka
7 104 (2.07%) OAuth
8 66 (1.31%) Oracle Fusion
9 58 (1.15%) SAML
10 56 (1.12%) OpenID
11 55 (1.10%) JSON
12 52 (1.04%) OAuth2
13 43 (0.86%) PySpark
14 39 (0.78%) RESTful
15 38 (0.76%) React
16 37 (0.74%) .NET Framework
17 36 (0.72%) SailPoint
18 35 (0.70%) XML
19 33 (0.66%) LDAP
20 32 (0.64%) JWT
Miscellaneous
1 440 (8.76%) Cloud Native
2 155 (3.09%) Data Centre
3 134 (2.67%) Onboarding
4 125 (2.49%) Hybrid Cloud
4 125 (2.49%) Legacy Systems
5 122 (2.43%) Distributed Systems
5 122 (2.43%) Product Ownership
6 115 (2.29%) AI Agents
7 109 (2.17%) Enterprise Software
7 109 (2.17%) Management Information System
8 90 (1.79%) Data Protection Act
9 86 (1.71%) CMDB
10 75 (1.49%) Operational Technology
11 69 (1.37%) Enterprise Cloud
12 63 (1.25%) Public Cloud
13 58 (1.15%) Security Posture
14 54 (1.08%) Data Structures
15 48 (0.96%) Private Cloud
16 43 (0.86%) Mainframe
17 41 (0.82%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 100 (1.99%) Windows
2 85 (1.69%) Linux
3 35 (0.70%) Windows Server
4 20 (0.40%) Unix
5 18 (0.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 13 (0.26%) Apple iOS
7 12 (0.24%) Android
8 9 (0.18%) AIX
9 8 (0.16%) Ubuntu
10 7 (0.14%) zOS
11 5 (0.100%) Solaris
12 4 (0.080%) Alpine Linux
12 4 (0.080%) Data ONTAP
13 3 (0.060%) CentOS
13 3 (0.060%) VMS
14 2 (0.040%) HPUX
14 2 (0.040%) Mac OS
14 2 (0.040%) Windows 10
15 1 (0.020%) CatOS
15 1 (0.020%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 772 (15.37%) Roadmaps
2 768 (15.29%) Stakeholder Management
3 730 (14.54%) Migration
4 656 (13.06%) AI
5 640 (12.74%) Enterprise Architecture
6 558 (11.11%) DevOps
7 554 (11.03%) Agile
7 554 (11.03%) Technical Leadership
8 533 (10.61%) CI/CD
9 527 (10.49%) Data Modelling
10 519 (10.33%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 493 (9.82%) Data Architecture
12 489 (9.74%) Integration Patterns
13 459 (9.14%) Analytics
14 397 (7.91%) Architectural Patterns
15 385 (7.67%) TOGAF
16 379 (7.55%) Security Architecture
17 326 (6.49%) Event-Driven
18 322 (6.41%) Cybersecurity
19 314 (6.25%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 244 (4.86%) Python
2 241 (4.80%) SQL
3 207 (4.12%) Java
4 112 (2.23%) JavaScript
5 87 (1.73%) PowerShell
6 48 (0.96%) C#
7 42 (0.84%) Bash
7 42 (0.84%) Bicep
7 42 (0.84%) TypeScript
8 27 (0.54%) Apex Code
9 16 (0.32%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 16 (0.32%) Shell Script
10 14 (0.28%) Ruby
11 12 (0.24%) ABAP
11 12 (0.24%) C++
12 11 (0.22%) Groovy
13 10 (0.20%) R
13 10 (0.20%) Scala
14 8 (0.16%) PL/SQL
15 7 (0.14%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 1,502 (29.91%) Security Cleared
2 1,088 (21.66%) SC Cleared
3 324 (6.45%) DV Cleared
4 152 (3.03%) Degree
5 127 (2.53%) CISSP
6 111 (2.21%) Azure Certification
7 95 (1.89%) AWS Certification
8 85 (1.69%) Cisco Certification
9 77 (1.53%) TOGAF Certification
10 75 (1.49%) BPSS Clearance
11 59 (1.17%) CISM
11 59 (1.17%) Computer Science Degree
12 42 (0.84%) Microsoft Certification
13 41 (0.82%) CCNP
14 32 (0.64%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 32 (0.64%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 24 (0.48%) Master's Degree
16 19 (0.38%) CCSP
17 18 (0.36%) CCIE
17 18 (0.36%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 198 (3.94%) Data Quality
2 186 (3.70%) NIST
3 144 (2.87%) GDPR
4 140 (2.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 94 (1.87%) NCSC
6 65 (1.29%) GRC
7 50 (1.00%) QA
8 35 (0.70%) Accessibility
8 35 (0.70%) PCI DSS
9 33 (0.66%) NIST 800
10 29 (0.58%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 20 (0.40%) SLA
12 19 (0.38%) IFRS
12 19 (0.38%) SEPA
13 17 (0.34%) ISO 20022
14 16 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials
14 16 (0.32%) JSP 440
15 15 (0.30%) ISO/IEC 20000
16 13 (0.26%) Government Security Classifications
16 13 (0.26%) ISO 19650
System Software
1 150 (2.99%) Active Directory
2 94 (1.87%) Docker
3 59 (1.17%) VMware Infrastructure
4 37 (0.74%) VMware NSX
5 29 (0.58%) Virtual Desktop
6 17 (0.34%) Virtual Machines
7 15 (0.30%) Hyper-V
8 14 (0.28%) VMware ESXi
9 13 (0.26%) vSphere
10 8 (0.16%) NFS
11 7 (0.14%) Varnish
12 6 (0.12%) Postfix
13 5 (0.100%) vCloud
14 4 (0.080%) EMC RecoverPoint
14 4 (0.080%) KVM
14 4 (0.080%) Sendmail
15 3 (0.060%) Ceph
15 3 (0.060%) IAG
15 3 (0.060%) SRDF
16 2 (0.040%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 237 (4.72%) Kubernetes
2 91 (1.81%) Ansible
3 42 (0.84%) Grafana
4 38 (0.76%) Single Sign-On
5 32 (0.64%) Prometheus
6 25 (0.50%) Microsoft Intune
7 15 (0.30%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 15 (0.30%) Argo
8 14 (0.28%) Jamf Pro
9 12 (0.24%) vCenter Server
10 8 (0.16%) WMI
11 7 (0.14%) FortiGate
11 7 (0.14%) Istio
12 6 (0.12%) CASB
12 6 (0.12%) HAProxy
12 6 (0.12%) NetBackup
12 6 (0.12%) SCCM
13 5 (0.100%) EMC VPLEX
13 5 (0.100%) MOM
13 5 (0.100%) Puppet
Vendors
1 692 (13.78%) Microsoft
2 290 (5.77%) SAP
3 265 (5.28%) Oracle
4 252 (5.02%) Databricks
5 251 (5.00%) ServiceNow
6 163 (3.25%) Salesforce
7 155 (3.09%) Google
8 133 (2.65%) Cisco
9 113 (2.25%) VMware
10 62 (1.23%) CyberArk
11 58 (1.15%) IBM
12 56 (1.12%) MuleSoft
13 55 (1.10%) Workday
14 49 (0.98%) Palo Alto
15 44 (0.88%) Foundry
16 37 (0.74%) Sparx
17 35 (0.70%) Adobe
18 34 (0.68%) Ariba
19 33 (0.66%) OpenAI
20 30 (0.60%) F5