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 7 February 2026.

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

6 months to
7 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 18 16 13
Rank change year-on-year -2 -3 +8
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 3,309 2,641 3,724
As % of all contract jobs in England 9.94% 10.08% 9.71%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.84% 10.83% 10.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,261 1,590 2,497
10th Percentile £457 £475 £500
25th Percentile £513 £548 £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 £790 £799 £800
UK median daily rate £625 £625 £650
% change year-on-year - -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 57 30 47
10th Percentile £49.40 £57.98 £58.90
25th Percentile £60.00 £61.50 £61.25
Median hourly rate £72.50 £70.00 £78.74
Median % change year-on-year +3.57% -11.10% +12.49%
75th Percentile £90.09 £77.65 £87.27
90th Percentile £95.00 £85.95 £95.00
UK median hourly rate £72.50 £70.00 £78.00
% change year-on-year +3.57% -10.26% +11.43%

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 30,520 24,375 35,670
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.64% 93.06% 93.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 19,434 15,100 24,021
10th Percentile £300 £300 £270
25th Percentile £406 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £624 £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 1,939 720 2,128
10th Percentile £14.99 £15.89 £13.23
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.25 £16.80
Median hourly rate £30.00 £35.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% - -3.19%
75th Percentile £63.75 £64.56 £61.25
90th Percentile £72.10 £75.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £29.82 £33.77 £35.00
% change year-on-year -11.69% -3.51% -

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 7 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 7 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 7 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 1,466 £630 -3.08% 440
South East +9 576 £625 - 257
North of England -2 467 £575 -4.17% 159
Midlands -2 326 £573 -4.50% 105
North West -5 263 £575 -4.17% 86
South West 0 248 £707 +13.08% 70
West Midlands -4 238 £600 -1.15% 78
Yorkshire -1 188 £563 -2.00% 45
East of England +13 137 £550 -12.00% 49
East Midlands -4 86 £480 -14.33% 27
North East -15 21 £625 -1.96% 29
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 7 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 1,026 (31.01%) Security Cleared
2 854 (25.81%) Azure
3 719 (21.73%) SC Cleared
4 657 (19.85%) AWS
5 493 (14.90%) Microsoft
6 484 (14.63%) Roadmaps
7 465 (14.05%) Agile
8 427 (12.90%) Stakeholder Management
9 400 (12.09%) Migration
10 381 (11.51%) DevOps
11 373 (11.27%) Enterprise Architecture
12 327 (9.88%) Data Modelling
13 326 (9.85%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 317 (9.58%) TOGAF
15 316 (9.55%) CI/CD
16 311 (9.40%) Technical Leadership
17 293 (8.85%) Problem-Solving
18 278 (8.40%) GCP
19 268 (8.10%) Analytics
20 264 (7.98%) AI
20 264 (7.98%) Data Architecture
21 257 (7.77%) Python
22 237 (7.16%) Microservices
23 236 (7.13%) Integration Patterns
24 233 (7.04%) DV Cleared
25 219 (6.62%) Architectural Design
26 199 (6.01%) Terraform
27 196 (5.92%) Architectural Patterns
28 193 (5.83%) Cybersecurity
29 192 (5.80%) ServiceNow

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
1 104 (3.14%) Confluence
2 82 (2.48%) SharePoint
3 57 (1.72%) Microsoft Exchange
4 24 (0.73%) SAS
5 22 (0.66%) CMS
6 15 (0.45%) Anypoint
6 15 (0.45%) Apache Spark
6 15 (0.45%) OpenStack
7 14 (0.42%) Apache Airflow
8 11 (0.33%) Apache
8 11 (0.33%) Appian
8 11 (0.33%) WebLogic
9 10 (0.30%) ArcGIS
10 9 (0.27%) Smallworld
11 8 (0.24%) nginx
12 7 (0.21%) Skype for Business
13 6 (0.18%) Ethereum
13 6 (0.18%) GeoServer
13 6 (0.18%) Hyperledger
14 5 (0.15%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 51 (1.54%) Microsoft Office
2 32 (0.97%) Microsoft Project
3 29 (0.88%) Microsoft Excel
4 28 (0.85%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 14 (0.42%) MS Visio
6 6 (0.18%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.060%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.030%) ArchiCAD
8 1 (0.030%) AutoCAD
8 1 (0.030%) FrameMaker
8 1 (0.030%) OrCAD
8 1 (0.030%) Revit
8 1 (0.030%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.030%) Trello
Business Applications
1 86 (2.60%) SAP S/4HANA
2 38 (1.15%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 22 (0.66%) Workday HCM
4 21 (0.63%) Dynamics CRM
5 17 (0.51%) Payment Gateway
6 16 (0.48%) Salesforce CRM
7 11 (0.33%) NetSuite
8 9 (0.27%) Oracle Receivables
8 9 (0.27%) SAP PM
9 8 (0.24%) Oracle EBS
9 8 (0.24%) SAP CO
9 8 (0.24%) SAP EWM
9 8 (0.24%) SAP PP
10 7 (0.21%) Maximo
11 6 (0.18%) Oracle SCM
11 6 (0.18%) R3 Corda
11 6 (0.18%) SAP ERP
11 6 (0.18%) SAP FI
11 6 (0.18%) SAP FI/CO
11 6 (0.18%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 854 (25.81%) Azure
2 657 (19.85%) AWS
3 278 (8.40%) GCP
4 125 (3.78%) Power Platform
5 118 (3.57%) SaaS
6 115 (3.48%) Microsoft 365
7 113 (3.41%) Serverless
8 111 (3.35%) Entra ID
9 77 (2.33%) Azure DevOps
10 75 (2.27%) IaaS
11 70 (2.12%) GitHub
12 64 (1.93%) AWS Lambda
13 63 (1.90%) Microsoft Purview
14 62 (1.87%) OpenShift
15 60 (1.81%) Amazon S3
15 60 (1.81%) PaaS
16 56 (1.69%) Dynamics 365
17 51 (1.54%) Virtual Private Cloud
18 50 (1.51%) Azure Data Factory
18 50 (1.51%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 162 (4.90%) Firewall
2 110 (3.32%) WAN
3 102 (3.08%) Network Security
4 98 (2.96%) DNS
5 94 (2.84%) VPN
6 73 (2.21%) LAN
7 54 (1.63%) SD-WAN
8 33 (1.00%) BGP
9 30 (0.91%) Wi-Fi
10 27 (0.82%) DHCP
10 27 (0.82%) MPLS
11 24 (0.73%) TCP/IP
12 22 (0.66%) OSPF
13 20 (0.60%) SAN
14 19 (0.57%) VSAN
15 18 (0.54%) SSL
16 17 (0.51%) Internet
16 17 (0.51%) IPsec
17 16 (0.48%) VLAN
18 15 (0.45%) Kerberos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 109 (3.29%) Data Warehouse
2 94 (2.84%) Metadata
3 86 (2.60%) Power BI
4 67 (2.02%) Data Lake
5 55 (1.66%) SQL Server
6 45 (1.36%) PostgreSQL
6 45 (1.36%) Tableau
7 34 (1.03%) NoSQL
8 27 (0.82%) Amazon Redshift
9 26 (0.79%) Azure SQL Database
10 23 (0.70%) Oracle Database
11 20 (0.60%) DynamoDB
11 20 (0.60%) GIS
12 17 (0.51%) Amazon Aurora
12 17 (0.51%) Metadata Repository
12 17 (0.51%) Relational Database
13 16 (0.48%) Big Data
14 15 (0.45%) Delta Lake
14 15 (0.45%) Redis
15 14 (0.42%) Data Vault
Development Applications
1 122 (3.69%) JIRA
2 80 (2.42%) Jenkins
3 40 (1.21%) GitLab
4 28 (0.85%) Git
5 16 (0.48%) ERwin
6 9 (0.27%) Artifactory
6 9 (0.27%) Bitbucket
7 8 (0.24%) SonarQube
8 6 (0.18%) Postman
9 5 (0.15%) Oracle Forms
10 4 (0.12%) MLflow
10 4 (0.12%) MSI
10 4 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
10 4 (0.12%) REST Assured
10 4 (0.12%) Selenium
10 4 (0.12%) Terragrunt
11 3 (0.091%) Cucumber
11 3 (0.091%) JUnit
11 3 (0.091%) Visual Studio Code
12 2 (0.060%) LoadRunner
General
1 795 (24.03%) Social Skills
2 531 (16.05%) Finance
3 377 (11.39%) Public Sector
4 240 (7.25%) Analytical Skills
5 205 (6.20%) Banking
6 111 (3.35%) Documentation Skills
7 83 (2.51%) Influencing Skills
8 78 (2.36%) Legal
9 75 (2.27%) Military
10 71 (2.15%) Telecoms
11 68 (2.06%) Presentation Skills
12 67 (2.02%) Retail
13 64 (1.93%) Marketing
14 46 (1.39%) Manufacturing
15 37 (1.12%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 36 (1.09%) Billing
17 25 (0.76%) Financial Institution
18 24 (0.73%) Law
19 17 (0.51%) Investment Banking
20 16 (0.48%) Back Office
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 189 (5.71%) REST
2 106 (3.20%) Middleware
3 105 (3.17%) SOAP
4 73 (2.21%) LDAP
5 70 (2.12%) .NET
6 69 (2.09%) OpenID
7 62 (1.87%) OAuth
8 61 (1.84%) SAML
9 52 (1.57%) Kafka
10 50 (1.51%) JSON
11 36 (1.09%) OAuth2
12 29 (0.88%) RESTful
13 28 (0.85%) AngularJS
14 27 (0.82%) SailPoint
15 23 (0.70%) PySpark
15 23 (0.70%) Web Services
16 22 (0.66%) React
17 21 (0.63%) Microsoft Graph
18 20 (0.60%) Spring
18 20 (0.60%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 240 (7.25%) Cloud Native
2 125 (3.78%) Product Ownership
3 100 (3.02%) Onboarding
4 96 (2.90%) Legacy Systems
5 91 (2.75%) Data Centre
6 87 (2.63%) Enterprise Software
7 83 (2.51%) PKI
8 69 (2.09%) Hybrid Cloud
9 56 (1.69%) Security Posture
10 50 (1.51%) Public Cloud
11 47 (1.42%) Distributed Systems
11 47 (1.42%) Management Information System
11 47 (1.42%) Operational Technology
12 43 (1.30%) Self-Motivation
13 42 (1.27%) CMDB
13 42 (1.27%) Data Protection Act
14 31 (0.94%) Data Structures
15 25 (0.76%) NHS
15 25 (0.76%) Private Cloud
16 24 (0.73%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 143 (4.32%) Windows
2 81 (2.45%) Linux
3 39 (1.18%) Windows Server
4 18 (0.54%) Windows 7
5 16 (0.48%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 15 (0.45%) Windows 10
7 12 (0.36%) Unix
8 11 (0.33%) Android
8 11 (0.33%) Apple iOS
9 9 (0.27%) Mac OS
9 9 (0.27%) Windows Server 2016
9 9 (0.27%) Windows Server 2019
10 7 (0.21%) VMS
11 6 (0.18%) Ubuntu
12 5 (0.15%) zOS
13 4 (0.12%) CentOS
14 2 (0.060%) Windows Server 2012
15 1 (0.030%) Kali Linux
15 1 (0.030%) Solaris
15 1 (0.030%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 484 (14.63%) Roadmaps
2 465 (14.05%) Agile
3 427 (12.90%) Stakeholder Management
4 400 (12.09%) Migration
5 381 (11.51%) DevOps
6 373 (11.27%) Enterprise Architecture
7 327 (9.88%) Data Modelling
8 326 (9.85%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 317 (9.58%) TOGAF
10 316 (9.55%) CI/CD
11 311 (9.40%) Technical Leadership
12 293 (8.85%) Problem-Solving
13 268 (8.10%) Analytics
14 264 (7.98%) AI
14 264 (7.98%) Data Architecture
15 237 (7.16%) Microservices
16 236 (7.13%) Integration Patterns
17 219 (6.62%) Architectural Design
18 196 (5.92%) Architectural Patterns
19 193 (5.83%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 257 (7.77%) Python
2 170 (5.14%) SQL
3 168 (5.08%) PowerShell
4 117 (3.54%) Java
5 50 (1.51%) JavaScript
6 41 (1.24%) C#
7 34 (1.03%) Bash
8 30 (0.91%) Bicep
9 29 (0.88%) TypeScript
10 16 (0.48%) PL/SQL
11 15 (0.45%) Apex Code
12 14 (0.42%) Kusto Query Language
13 13 (0.39%) R
14 9 (0.27%) T-SQL
15 8 (0.24%) Ruby
15 8 (0.24%) Scala
15 8 (0.24%) VB
16 7 (0.21%) Korn
16 7 (0.21%) VBScript
17 5 (0.15%) C
Qualifications
1 1,026 (31.01%) Security Cleared
2 719 (21.73%) SC Cleared
3 233 (7.04%) DV Cleared
4 164 (4.96%) Degree
5 97 (2.93%) TOGAF Certification
6 89 (2.69%) AWS Certification
6 89 (2.69%) Azure Certification
7 78 (2.36%) CISSP
8 64 (1.93%) Computer Science Degree
9 57 (1.72%) Microsoft Certification
10 53 (1.60%) BPSS Clearance
11 52 (1.57%) Cisco Certification
12 43 (1.30%) Master's Degree
13 42 (1.27%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 39 (1.18%) CISM
15 34 (1.03%) CCNP
16 29 (0.88%) CCIE
16 29 (0.88%) ITIL Certification
17 28 (0.85%) ISEB
18 14 (0.42%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 151 (4.56%) GDPR
2 113 (3.41%) NIST
3 103 (3.11%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 100 (3.02%) Data Quality
5 72 (2.18%) NCSC
6 53 (1.60%) QA
7 41 (1.24%) PCI DSS
8 31 (0.94%) COBIT
9 29 (0.88%) GRC
10 20 (0.60%) Cyber Essentials
11 19 (0.57%) ISO 20022
12 17 (0.51%) Accessibility
13 15 (0.45%) HIPAA
13 15 (0.45%) JSP 440
13 15 (0.45%) MiFID
14 14 (0.42%) California Consumer Privacy Act
15 12 (0.36%) FINRA
16 11 (0.33%) HMG Security Policy Framework
17 10 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
18 9 (0.27%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 148 (4.47%) Active Directory
2 106 (3.20%) Docker
3 77 (2.33%) VMware Infrastructure
4 51 (1.54%) VMware NSX
5 33 (1.00%) vSphere
6 21 (0.63%) Virtual Desktop
7 15 (0.45%) VMware ESXi
8 13 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
9 12 (0.36%) Hyper-V
10 7 (0.21%) BitLocker
11 6 (0.18%) Squid
12 5 (0.15%) Oracle RAC
12 5 (0.15%) RACF
13 4 (0.12%) NFS
13 4 (0.12%) vCloud
14 3 (0.091%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
14 3 (0.091%) Firmware
15 2 (0.060%) Ceph
15 2 (0.060%) Lustre
15 2 (0.060%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 199 (6.01%) Terraform
2 166 (5.02%) Kubernetes
3 90 (2.72%) Ansible
4 55 (1.66%) Single Sign-On
5 31 (0.94%) OPNET
6 27 (0.82%) vCenter Server
7 24 (0.73%) Microsoft Intune
8 23 (0.70%) SCCM
9 19 (0.57%) FortiGate
9 19 (0.57%) Grafana
10 17 (0.51%) Prometheus
10 17 (0.51%) WMI
11 15 (0.45%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 14 (0.42%) Argo
13 7 (0.21%) Istio
14 5 (0.15%) Consul
14 5 (0.15%) Kibana
14 5 (0.15%) Puppet
15 4 (0.12%) Progress Chef
16 3 (0.091%) SCOM
Vendors
1 493 (14.90%) Microsoft
2 192 (5.80%) ServiceNow
3 183 (5.53%) SAP
4 157 (4.74%) Salesforce
5 142 (4.29%) Oracle
6 139 (4.20%) VMware
7 104 (3.14%) Databricks
8 91 (2.75%) CyberArk
8 91 (2.75%) Google
9 90 (2.72%) Cisco
10 57 (1.72%) Splunk
11 52 (1.57%) Palo Alto
12 50 (1.51%) MuleSoft
13 49 (1.48%) Centrify
14 45 (1.36%) Remedy
15 44 (1.33%) Atlassian
16 41 (1.24%) Red Hat
17 39 (1.18%) Workday
18 37 (1.12%) Sparx
19 35 (1.06%) OpenAI