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 February 2026.

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

6 months to
11 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 17 16 13
Rank change year-on-year -1 -3 +8
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 3,396 2,635 3,698
As % of all contract jobs in England 10.03% 10.17% 9.77%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.94% 10.92% 10.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,319 1,599 2,458
10th Percentile £455 £475 £500
25th Percentile £513 £550 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £625 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year - -3.85% -1.52%
75th Percentile £725 £725 £738
90th Percentile £788 £799 £800
UK median daily rate £625 £625 £650
% change year-on-year - -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 62 28 42
10th Percentile £49.40 £57.43 £51.20
25th Percentile £60.00 £61.50 £61.25
Median hourly rate £72.50 £71.25 £77.27
Median % change year-on-year +1.75% -7.78% +10.38%
75th Percentile £90.09 £78.92 £87.53
90th Percentile £95.00 £86.30 £95.00
UK median hourly rate £72.50 £71.25 £76.53
% change year-on-year +1.75% -6.90% +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 31,053 24,121 35,236
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.67% 93.07% 93.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 19,752 15,028 23,675
10th Percentile £300 £300 £270
25th Percentile £406 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £640
90th Percentile £725 £750 £745
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,981 713 2,112
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.92 £13.19
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.46 £16.63
Median hourly rate £31.25 £35.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.71% - -6.67%
75th Percentile £63.75 £64.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £72.50 £75.00 £72.44
UK median hourly rate £30.00 £33.54 £35.00
% change year-on-year -10.55% -4.17% -2.51%

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 February 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 February 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 February 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 -2 1,501 £630 -3.08% 383
South East +10 590 £625 - 254
North of England -3 482 £575 -4.17% 154
Midlands -2 339 £573 -4.58% 96
North West -7 273 £577 -3.83% 85
South West 0 251 £706 +12.96% 62
West Midlands -2 249 £600 -1.15% 67
Yorkshire -4 190 £563 -2.17% 43
East of England +14 140 £550 -13.73% 41
East Midlands -4 88 £492 -13.30% 29
North East -11 24 £625 -1.96% 28
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 11 February 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 1,057 (31.12%) Security Cleared
2 889 (26.18%) Azure
3 740 (21.79%) SC Cleared
4 683 (20.11%) AWS
5 506 (14.90%) Microsoft
6 499 (14.69%) Roadmaps
7 482 (14.19%) Agile
8 435 (12.81%) Stakeholder Management
9 412 (12.13%) Migration
10 391 (11.51%) DevOps
11 383 (11.28%) Enterprise Architecture
12 339 (9.98%) Data Modelling
13 332 (9.78%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 332 (9.78%) TOGAF
14 328 (9.66%) CI/CD
15 321 (9.45%) Technical Leadership
16 302 (8.89%) Problem-Solving
17 289 (8.51%) GCP
18 280 (8.24%) Analytics
19 271 (7.98%) AI
20 270 (7.95%) Data Architecture
21 269 (7.92%) Python
22 248 (7.30%) Integration Patterns
23 245 (7.21%) DV Cleared
24 243 (7.16%) Microservices
25 223 (6.57%) Architectural Design
26 209 (6.15%) Architectural Patterns
27 206 (6.07%) Terraform
28 198 (5.83%) Cybersecurity
29 197 (5.80%) 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
1 107 (3.15%) Confluence
2 83 (2.44%) SharePoint
3 57 (1.68%) Microsoft Exchange
4 27 (0.80%) SAS
5 22 (0.65%) CMS
6 17 (0.50%) Apache Spark
7 16 (0.47%) Apache Airflow
8 15 (0.44%) Anypoint
9 14 (0.41%) OpenStack
10 12 (0.35%) Apache
10 12 (0.35%) Appian
10 12 (0.35%) ArcGIS
10 12 (0.35%) WebLogic
11 10 (0.29%) nginx
12 9 (0.27%) Smallworld
13 7 (0.21%) Skype for Business
14 6 (0.18%) Ethereum
14 6 (0.18%) GeoServer
14 6 (0.18%) Hyperledger
14 6 (0.18%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 51 (1.50%) Microsoft Office
2 32 (0.94%) Microsoft Project
3 29 (0.85%) Microsoft Excel
4 28 (0.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 13 (0.38%) MS Visio
6 6 (0.18%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.059%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.029%) ArchiCAD
8 1 (0.029%) AutoCAD
8 1 (0.029%) FrameMaker
8 1 (0.029%) OrCAD
8 1 (0.029%) Revit
8 1 (0.029%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.029%) Trello
Business Applications
1 89 (2.62%) SAP S/4HANA
2 39 (1.15%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 22 (0.65%) Dynamics CRM
3 22 (0.65%) Workday HCM
4 17 (0.50%) Payment Gateway
5 16 (0.47%) Salesforce CRM
6 11 (0.32%) NetSuite
7 9 (0.27%) Oracle Receivables
7 9 (0.27%) SAP PM
8 8 (0.24%) Oracle EBS
8 8 (0.24%) SAP EWM
8 8 (0.24%) SAP PP
9 7 (0.21%) Maximo
9 7 (0.21%) SAP CO
9 7 (0.21%) SAP ERP
10 6 (0.18%) Oracle SCM
10 6 (0.18%) R3 Corda
10 6 (0.18%) Remedy ITSM
10 6 (0.18%) SAP QM
11 5 (0.15%) Distributed Ledger
Cloud Services
1 889 (26.18%) Azure
2 683 (20.11%) AWS
3 289 (8.51%) GCP
4 129 (3.80%) Power Platform
5 119 (3.50%) Entra ID
6 116 (3.42%) Microsoft 365
6 116 (3.42%) SaaS
6 116 (3.42%) Serverless
7 80 (2.36%) Azure DevOps
8 77 (2.27%) IaaS
9 74 (2.18%) GitHub
10 65 (1.91%) AWS Lambda
11 63 (1.86%) Amazon S3
11 63 (1.86%) Microsoft Purview
11 63 (1.86%) OpenShift
12 62 (1.83%) PaaS
13 57 (1.68%) Dynamics 365
14 54 (1.59%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 52 (1.53%) Azure Data Factory
15 52 (1.53%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 167 (4.92%) Firewall
2 111 (3.27%) WAN
3 107 (3.15%) Network Security
4 100 (2.94%) DNS
5 96 (2.83%) VPN
6 73 (2.15%) LAN
7 54 (1.59%) SD-WAN
8 34 (1.00%) BGP
9 29 (0.85%) Wi-Fi
10 28 (0.82%) MPLS
11 27 (0.80%) DHCP
12 25 (0.74%) TCP/IP
13 23 (0.68%) OSPF
14 20 (0.59%) SAN
15 19 (0.56%) VSAN
16 18 (0.53%) IPsec
16 18 (0.53%) SSL
17 16 (0.47%) Internet
17 16 (0.47%) VLAN
18 15 (0.44%) Kerberos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 114 (3.36%) Data Warehouse
2 96 (2.83%) Metadata
3 90 (2.65%) Power BI
4 70 (2.06%) Data Lake
5 56 (1.65%) SQL Server
6 46 (1.35%) PostgreSQL
6 46 (1.35%) Tableau
7 36 (1.06%) NoSQL
8 27 (0.80%) Amazon Redshift
8 27 (0.80%) Oracle Database
9 26 (0.77%) Azure SQL Database
10 22 (0.65%) GIS
11 20 (0.59%) DynamoDB
12 18 (0.53%) Big Data
12 18 (0.53%) Relational Database
13 17 (0.50%) Amazon Aurora
13 17 (0.50%) Metadata Repository
14 16 (0.47%) Amazon Athena
14 16 (0.47%) Delta Lake
15 15 (0.44%) BigQuery
Development Applications
1 125 (3.68%) JIRA
2 83 (2.44%) Jenkins
3 40 (1.18%) GitLab
4 30 (0.88%) Git
5 17 (0.50%) ERwin
6 10 (0.29%) Bitbucket
7 9 (0.27%) Artifactory
7 9 (0.27%) SonarQube
8 7 (0.21%) MLflow
9 6 (0.18%) Postman
10 5 (0.15%) Oracle Forms
11 4 (0.12%) MSI
11 4 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
11 4 (0.12%) REST Assured
11 4 (0.12%) Selenium
11 4 (0.12%) Terragrunt
12 3 (0.088%) Cucumber
12 3 (0.088%) JUnit
12 3 (0.088%) Visual Studio Code
13 2 (0.059%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 809 (23.82%) Social Skills
2 550 (16.20%) Finance
3 389 (11.45%) Public Sector
4 247 (7.27%) Analytical Skills
5 209 (6.15%) Banking
6 112 (3.30%) Documentation Skills
7 83 (2.44%) Influencing Skills
8 78 (2.30%) Legal
9 75 (2.21%) Military
10 71 (2.09%) Telecoms
11 70 (2.06%) Retail
12 68 (2.00%) Presentation Skills
13 64 (1.88%) Marketing
14 48 (1.41%) Manufacturing
15 37 (1.09%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 36 (1.06%) Billing
17 24 (0.71%) Financial Institution
17 24 (0.71%) Law
18 17 (0.50%) Investment Banking
19 16 (0.47%) Back Office
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 193 (5.68%) REST
2 112 (3.30%) Middleware
3 106 (3.12%) SOAP
4 74 (2.18%) LDAP
5 72 (2.12%) OpenID
6 70 (2.06%) .NET
7 65 (1.91%) OAuth
8 64 (1.88%) SAML
9 52 (1.53%) Kafka
10 50 (1.47%) JSON
11 38 (1.12%) OAuth2
12 31 (0.91%) SailPoint
13 29 (0.85%) RESTful
14 28 (0.82%) AngularJS
15 25 (0.74%) PySpark
16 24 (0.71%) Web Services
17 22 (0.65%) React
18 21 (0.62%) Microsoft Graph
19 20 (0.59%) Oracle Fusion
19 20 (0.59%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 252 (7.42%) Cloud Native
2 127 (3.74%) Product Ownership
3 98 (2.89%) Onboarding
4 97 (2.86%) Legacy Systems
5 92 (2.71%) Data Centre
6 89 (2.62%) Enterprise Software
7 85 (2.50%) PKI
8 72 (2.12%) Hybrid Cloud
9 55 (1.62%) Security Posture
10 51 (1.50%) Public Cloud
11 49 (1.44%) Distributed Systems
12 48 (1.41%) Operational Technology
13 47 (1.38%) Management Information System
14 45 (1.33%) Data Protection Act
15 44 (1.30%) Self-Motivation
16 42 (1.24%) CMDB
17 32 (0.94%) Data Structures
18 30 (0.88%) Private Cloud
19 25 (0.74%) NHS
20 24 (0.71%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 148 (4.36%) Windows
2 82 (2.41%) Linux
3 40 (1.18%) Windows Server
4 18 (0.53%) Windows 7
5 17 (0.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 15 (0.44%) Windows 10
7 13 (0.38%) Unix
8 12 (0.35%) Android
8 12 (0.35%) Apple iOS
9 9 (0.27%) Mac OS
9 9 (0.27%) Windows Server 2016
9 9 (0.27%) Windows Server 2019
10 8 (0.24%) VMS
11 6 (0.18%) Ubuntu
11 6 (0.18%) zOS
12 4 (0.12%) CentOS
13 2 (0.059%) Windows Server 2012
14 1 (0.029%) Kali Linux
14 1 (0.029%) Solaris
14 1 (0.029%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 499 (14.69%) Roadmaps
2 482 (14.19%) Agile
3 435 (12.81%) Stakeholder Management
4 412 (12.13%) Migration
5 391 (11.51%) DevOps
6 383 (11.28%) Enterprise Architecture
7 339 (9.98%) Data Modelling
8 332 (9.78%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 332 (9.78%) TOGAF
9 328 (9.66%) CI/CD
10 321 (9.45%) Technical Leadership
11 302 (8.89%) Problem-Solving
12 280 (8.24%) Analytics
13 271 (7.98%) AI
14 270 (7.95%) Data Architecture
15 248 (7.30%) Integration Patterns
16 243 (7.16%) Microservices
17 223 (6.57%) Architectural Design
18 209 (6.15%) Architectural Patterns
19 198 (5.83%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 269 (7.92%) Python
2 177 (5.21%) SQL
3 169 (4.98%) PowerShell
4 117 (3.45%) Java
5 53 (1.56%) JavaScript
6 42 (1.24%) C#
7 35 (1.03%) Bash
8 30 (0.88%) Bicep
9 29 (0.85%) TypeScript
10 16 (0.47%) PL/SQL
11 15 (0.44%) Apex Code
12 14 (0.41%) Kusto Query Language
13 13 (0.38%) R
14 9 (0.27%) Scala
14 9 (0.27%) T-SQL
15 8 (0.24%) Ruby
15 8 (0.24%) VB
16 7 (0.21%) Korn
16 7 (0.21%) VBScript
17 5 (0.15%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 1,057 (31.12%) Security Cleared
2 740 (21.79%) SC Cleared
3 245 (7.21%) DV Cleared
4 172 (5.06%) Degree
5 100 (2.94%) TOGAF Certification
6 93 (2.74%) AWS Certification
7 90 (2.65%) Azure Certification
8 85 (2.50%) CISSP
9 66 (1.94%) Computer Science Degree
10 59 (1.74%) Microsoft Certification
11 58 (1.71%) Cisco Certification
12 56 (1.65%) BPSS Clearance
13 45 (1.33%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 45 (1.33%) Master's Degree
14 41 (1.21%) CISM
15 37 (1.09%) CCNP
16 30 (0.88%) CCIE
17 29 (0.85%) ITIL Certification
18 28 (0.82%) ISEB
19 16 (0.47%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 155 (4.56%) GDPR
2 119 (3.50%) NIST
3 107 (3.15%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 105 (3.09%) Data Quality
5 73 (2.15%) NCSC
6 54 (1.59%) QA
7 43 (1.27%) PCI DSS
8 31 (0.91%) COBIT
9 29 (0.85%) GRC
10 21 (0.62%) Cyber Essentials
11 19 (0.56%) ISO 20022
12 17 (0.50%) Accessibility
13 15 (0.44%) HIPAA
13 15 (0.44%) JSP 440
13 15 (0.44%) MiFID
14 14 (0.41%) California Consumer Privacy Act
15 12 (0.35%) FINRA
16 11 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
16 11 (0.32%) HMG Security Policy Framework
17 10 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 156 (4.59%) Active Directory
2 112 (3.30%) Docker
3 80 (2.36%) VMware Infrastructure
4 54 (1.59%) VMware NSX
5 34 (1.00%) vSphere
6 21 (0.62%) Virtual Desktop
7 15 (0.44%) VMware ESXi
8 13 (0.38%) Hyper-V
8 13 (0.38%) Virtual Machines
9 7 (0.21%) BitLocker
9 7 (0.21%) Squid
10 5 (0.15%) Oracle RAC
10 5 (0.15%) RACF
10 5 (0.15%) vCloud
11 4 (0.12%) NFS
12 3 (0.088%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
12 3 (0.088%) Firmware
13 2 (0.059%) HDFS
13 2 (0.059%) Lustre
13 2 (0.059%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 206 (6.07%) Terraform
2 173 (5.09%) Kubernetes
3 92 (2.71%) Ansible
4 57 (1.68%) Single Sign-On
5 31 (0.91%) OPNET
6 29 (0.85%) vCenter Server
7 25 (0.74%) Microsoft Intune
8 23 (0.68%) SCCM
9 21 (0.62%) Grafana
10 20 (0.59%) FortiGate
11 18 (0.53%) Prometheus
12 17 (0.50%) WMI
13 16 (0.47%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 15 (0.44%) Argo
15 7 (0.21%) Istio
16 6 (0.18%) Consul
17 5 (0.15%) Kibana
17 5 (0.15%) Puppet
18 4 (0.12%) Progress Chef
19 3 (0.088%) SCOM
Vendors
1 506 (14.90%) Microsoft
2 195 (5.74%) ServiceNow
3 189 (5.57%) SAP
4 158 (4.65%) Salesforce
5 148 (4.36%) Oracle
6 146 (4.30%) VMware
7 112 (3.30%) Databricks
8 92 (2.71%) Cisco
8 92 (2.71%) CyberArk
9 91 (2.68%) Google
10 54 (1.59%) Splunk
11 53 (1.56%) Palo Alto
12 50 (1.47%) MuleSoft
13 49 (1.44%) Centrify
14 46 (1.35%) Remedy
15 45 (1.33%) Atlassian
16 44 (1.30%) Red Hat
17 40 (1.18%) Workday
18 38 (1.12%) Sparx
19 37 (1.09%) OpenAI