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 20 August 2026.

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

6 months to
20 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 5,015 2,561 3,407
As % of all contract jobs in England 10.99% 9.28% 10.27%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.88% 10.13% 11.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,371 1,692 2,250
10th Percentile £481 £471 £485
25th Percentile £525 £538 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £620 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year -0.80% -3.85% -1.59%
75th Percentile £725 £705 £738
90th Percentile £800 £787 £825
UK median daily rate £620 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -0.80% -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 162 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 £71.91 £87.00 £85.00
90th Percentile £94.48 £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 42,197 25,269 30,827
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.44% 91.56% 92.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,494 16,320 20,128
10th Percentile £325 £281 £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 3,196 1,350 1,742
10th Percentile £15.24 £13.64 £14.16
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.79 £21.00
Median hourly rate £42.50 £26.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +63.46% -42.22% +6.95%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £66.33
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.75 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +65.94% -41.51% +2.38%

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 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 20 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 20 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 2,566 £625 -3.85% 554
South East +1 739 £625 +4.17% 206
North of England +5 695 £600 - 193
Midlands 0 411 £625 +8.70% 83
North West +6 405 £600 - 93
South West -2 313 £638 -0.39% 95
West Midlands -1 295 £640 +6.58% 64
Yorkshire +4 226 £594 -1.04% 73
East of England +16 158 £602 +8.47% 38
East Midlands +5 109 £600 +18.23% 19
North East -3 66 £588 -16.07% 27
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 20 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 (29.95%) Security Cleared
2 1,293 (25.78%) Azure
3 1,081 (21.56%) SC Cleared
4 1,027 (20.48%) AWS
5 767 (15.29%) Roadmaps
6 753 (15.01%) Stakeholder Management
7 722 (14.40%) Migration
8 681 (13.58%) Microsoft
9 640 (12.76%) AI
10 633 (12.62%) Enterprise Architecture
11 553 (11.03%) Agile
12 549 (10.95%) DevOps
13 544 (10.85%) Technical Leadership
14 527 (10.51%) CI/CD
15 524 (10.45%) Data Modelling
16 515 (10.27%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 487 (9.71%) Data Architecture
18 486 (9.69%) Integration Patterns
19 458 (9.13%) Analytics
20 403 (8.04%) GCP
21 393 (7.84%) Architectural Patterns
22 388 (7.74%) TOGAF
23 372 (7.42%) Security Architecture
24 334 (6.66%) DV Cleared
25 323 (6.44%) Event-Driven
26 321 (6.40%) Cybersecurity
27 312 (6.22%) Problem-Solving
28 311 (6.20%) Infrastructure as Code
29 309 (6.16%) Microservices
30 299 (5.96%) Architectural Design

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 73 (1.46%) SharePoint
2 71 (1.42%) SAS
3 49 (0.98%) Confluence
4 42 (0.84%) Apache
5 40 (0.80%) Apache Spark
6 28 (0.56%) Microsoft Exchange
7 26 (0.52%) Apache Airflow
8 22 (0.44%) Palantir Foundry
9 17 (0.34%) CMS
10 15 (0.30%) OpenStack
11 7 (0.14%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 7 (0.14%) Appian
11 7 (0.14%) ArcGIS
11 7 (0.14%) Camunda
11 7 (0.14%) Documentum
12 4 (0.080%) Jupyter
12 4 (0.080%) nginx
13 3 (0.060%) Drupal
13 3 (0.060%) NetWeaver
13 3 (0.060%) SAP EP
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
1 124 (2.47%) SAP S/4HANA
2 35 (0.70%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 30 (0.60%) Dynamics CRM
4 17 (0.34%) Oracle EBS
5 15 (0.30%) Remedy ITSM
6 14 (0.28%) Teamcenter
7 13 (0.26%) Oracle ERP
7 13 (0.26%) Payment Gateway
8 12 (0.24%) NetSuite
8 12 (0.24%) Oracle Payables
8 12 (0.24%) Oracle Receivables
9 11 (0.22%) SAP ERP
10 9 (0.18%) Oracle Retail
11 8 (0.16%) SAP BRIM
12 7 (0.14%) SAP IBP
12 7 (0.14%) Workday HCM
13 6 (0.12%) Endur
13 6 (0.12%) Maximo
13 6 (0.12%) SAP MM
14 5 (0.100%) SAP Oil and Gas
Cloud Services
1 1,293 (25.78%) Azure
2 1,027 (20.48%) AWS
3 403 (8.04%) GCP
4 275 (5.48%) Power Platform
5 188 (3.75%) Entra ID
6 184 (3.67%) SaaS
7 164 (3.27%) Serverless
8 128 (2.55%) Dynamics 365
9 124 (2.47%) GitHub
10 105 (2.09%) Azure DevOps
11 103 (2.05%) Snowflake
12 100 (1.99%) Microsoft 365
13 98 (1.95%) PaaS
14 74 (1.48%) AWS Lambda
15 68 (1.36%) Amazon S3
16 67 (1.34%) IaaS
17 60 (1.20%) GitHub Actions
18 59 (1.18%) OCI
19 58 (1.16%) Azure Synapse Analytics
20 57 (1.14%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 144 (2.87%) Network Security
2 143 (2.85%) Firewall
3 99 (1.97%) WAN
4 86 (1.71%) DNS
5 71 (1.42%) LAN
6 70 (1.40%) VPN
7 47 (0.94%) SD-WAN
8 46 (0.92%) BGP
9 40 (0.80%) DHCP
10 38 (0.76%) TCP/IP
11 37 (0.74%) MPLS
12 32 (0.64%) VLAN
13 28 (0.56%) SAN
13 28 (0.56%) VXLAN
14 24 (0.48%) NAS
14 24 (0.48%) NX-OS
15 23 (0.46%) OSPF
15 23 (0.46%) Wireless
16 21 (0.42%) Ethernet VPN
16 21 (0.42%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 194 (3.87%) Power BI
2 169 (3.37%) Data Lake
3 152 (3.03%) Metadata
4 148 (2.95%) Data Warehouse
5 63 (1.26%) NoSQL
6 58 (1.16%) SQL Server
7 42 (0.84%) Big Data
7 42 (0.84%) Delta Lake
8 41 (0.82%) Azure SQL Database
9 37 (0.74%) BigQuery
9 37 (0.74%) PostgreSQL
10 30 (0.60%) Amazon RDS
11 29 (0.58%) Amazon Redshift
12 28 (0.56%) Oracle Database
13 25 (0.50%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
14 23 (0.46%) GIS
15 22 (0.44%) MongoDB
16 20 (0.40%) Tableau
17 19 (0.38%) Semantic Layer
18 18 (0.36%) Amazon Athena
Development Applications
1 69 (1.38%) JIRA
2 68 (1.36%) 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
7 8 (0.16%) SonarQube
8 7 (0.14%) PowerDesigner
9 6 (0.12%) Artifactory
9 6 (0.12%) MLflow
9 6 (0.12%) MSI
9 6 (0.12%) Storybook
10 5 (0.100%) Maven
10 5 (0.100%) RStudio
11 4 (0.080%) ER Studio
11 4 (0.080%) Rational DOORS
11 4 (0.080%) Snyk
11 4 (0.080%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 970 (19.34%) Social Skills
2 758 (15.11%) Finance
3 539 (10.75%) Public Sector
4 282 (5.62%) Banking
5 271 (5.40%) Analytical Skills
6 250 (4.99%) Retail
7 134 (2.67%) Influencing Skills
8 126 (2.51%) Documentation Skills
9 119 (2.37%) Telecoms
10 108 (2.15%) Manufacturing
11 78 (1.56%) Legal
12 63 (1.26%) Marketing
13 58 (1.16%) Billing
14 51 (1.02%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 47 (0.94%) Law
15 47 (0.94%) Military
16 46 (0.92%) Aerospace
17 42 (0.84%) Financial Institution
18 34 (0.68%) Presentation Skills
19 30 (0.60%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 253 (5.04%) REST
2 218 (4.35%) Terraform
3 149 (2.97%) Middleware
4 117 (2.33%) .NET
5 115 (2.29%) SOAP
6 108 (2.15%) Kafka
7 102 (2.03%) OAuth
8 69 (1.38%) Oracle Fusion
9 57 (1.14%) SAML
10 55 (1.10%) OpenID
11 54 (1.08%) JSON
12 52 (1.04%) OAuth2
13 40 (0.80%) PySpark
13 40 (0.80%) RESTful
14 39 (0.78%) React
15 36 (0.72%) .NET Framework
16 35 (0.70%) SailPoint
17 33 (0.66%) LDAP
18 32 (0.64%) JWT
18 32 (0.64%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 434 (8.65%) Cloud Native
2 154 (3.07%) Data Centre
3 133 (2.65%) Onboarding
4 126 (2.51%) Hybrid Cloud
5 125 (2.49%) Legacy Systems
6 121 (2.41%) Distributed Systems
6 121 (2.41%) Product Ownership
7 109 (2.17%) AI Agents
8 108 (2.15%) Enterprise Software
8 108 (2.15%) Management Information System
9 93 (1.85%) Data Protection Act
10 81 (1.62%) CMDB
11 78 (1.56%) Operational Technology
12 66 (1.32%) Enterprise Cloud
13 63 (1.26%) Public Cloud
14 61 (1.22%) Security Posture
15 56 (1.12%) Data Structures
16 47 (0.94%) Private Cloud
17 44 (0.88%) Mainframe
18 42 (0.84%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 108 (2.15%) Windows
2 85 (1.69%) Linux
3 36 (0.72%) Windows Server
4 20 (0.40%) Unix
5 18 (0.36%) Apple iOS
6 17 (0.34%) Android
6 17 (0.34%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 9 (0.18%) AIX
8 8 (0.16%) Ubuntu
8 8 (0.16%) zOS
9 5 (0.100%) Data ONTAP
9 5 (0.100%) Solaris
10 4 (0.080%) Alpine Linux
11 3 (0.060%) CentOS
11 3 (0.060%) VMS
12 2 (0.040%) HPUX
12 2 (0.040%) Mac OS
12 2 (0.040%) Windows 10
12 2 (0.040%) Windows Server 2019
13 1 (0.020%) CatOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 767 (15.29%) Roadmaps
2 753 (15.01%) Stakeholder Management
3 722 (14.40%) Migration
4 640 (12.76%) AI
5 633 (12.62%) Enterprise Architecture
6 553 (11.03%) Agile
7 549 (10.95%) DevOps
8 544 (10.85%) Technical Leadership
9 527 (10.51%) CI/CD
10 524 (10.45%) Data Modelling
11 515 (10.27%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 487 (9.71%) Data Architecture
13 486 (9.69%) Integration Patterns
14 458 (9.13%) Analytics
15 393 (7.84%) Architectural Patterns
16 388 (7.74%) TOGAF
17 372 (7.42%) Security Architecture
18 323 (6.44%) Event-Driven
19 321 (6.40%) Cybersecurity
20 312 (6.22%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 241 (4.81%) SQL
2 240 (4.79%) Python
3 203 (4.05%) Java
4 112 (2.23%) JavaScript
5 93 (1.85%) PowerShell
6 47 (0.94%) C#
7 43 (0.86%) Bash
7 43 (0.86%) Bicep
8 41 (0.82%) TypeScript
9 27 (0.54%) Apex Code
10 16 (0.32%) Shell Script
11 15 (0.30%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 14 (0.28%) Ruby
13 12 (0.24%) ABAP
13 12 (0.24%) C++
14 11 (0.22%) Groovy
15 10 (0.20%) Scala
16 9 (0.18%) PL/SQL
16 9 (0.18%) R
17 7 (0.14%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 1,502 (29.95%) Security Cleared
2 1,081 (21.56%) SC Cleared
3 334 (6.66%) DV Cleared
4 152 (3.03%) Degree
5 128 (2.55%) CISSP
6 110 (2.19%) Azure Certification
7 94 (1.87%) AWS Certification
8 85 (1.69%) Cisco Certification
9 77 (1.54%) TOGAF Certification
10 71 (1.42%) BPSS Clearance
11 61 (1.22%) CISM
12 59 (1.18%) Computer Science Degree
13 41 (0.82%) Microsoft Certification
14 39 (0.78%) CCNP
15 34 (0.68%) (ISC)2 CCSP
16 31 (0.62%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
17 24 (0.48%) Master's Degree
18 21 (0.42%) CCSP
19 18 (0.36%) CCIE
19 18 (0.36%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 189 (3.77%) Data Quality
2 183 (3.65%) NIST
3 144 (2.87%) GDPR
4 137 (2.73%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 95 (1.89%) NCSC
6 63 (1.26%) GRC
7 51 (1.02%) QA
8 35 (0.70%) Accessibility
8 35 (0.70%) PCI DSS
9 31 (0.62%) NIST 800
10 28 (0.56%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 19 (0.38%) IFRS
11 19 (0.38%) SEPA
11 19 (0.38%) SLA
12 17 (0.34%) Cyber Essentials
13 16 (0.32%) ISO 20022
13 16 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 20000
14 15 (0.30%) JSP 440
15 13 (0.26%) Government Security Classifications
15 13 (0.26%) HL7
System Software
1 151 (3.01%) Active Directory
2 95 (1.89%) Docker
3 62 (1.24%) VMware Infrastructure
4 40 (0.80%) VMware NSX
5 29 (0.58%) Virtual Desktop
6 16 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
7 15 (0.30%) Hyper-V
7 15 (0.30%) vSphere
8 14 (0.28%) VMware ESXi
9 8 (0.16%) NFS
10 7 (0.14%) Varnish
11 6 (0.12%) Postfix
11 6 (0.12%) vCloud
12 4 (0.080%) EMC RecoverPoint
12 4 (0.080%) KVM
12 4 (0.080%) Sendmail
13 3 (0.060%) Ceph
13 3 (0.060%) IAG
13 3 (0.060%) SRDF
14 2 (0.040%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 239 (4.77%) Kubernetes
2 92 (1.83%) Ansible
3 43 (0.86%) Grafana
4 39 (0.78%) Single Sign-On
5 33 (0.66%) Prometheus
6 30 (0.60%) Microsoft Intune
7 15 (0.30%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 15 (0.30%) Argo
8 14 (0.28%) Jamf Pro
8 14 (0.28%) vCenter Server
9 9 (0.18%) FortiGate
10 7 (0.14%) Istio
10 7 (0.14%) WMI
11 6 (0.12%) HAProxy
11 6 (0.12%) NetBackup
11 6 (0.12%) SCCM
12 5 (0.100%) CASB
12 5 (0.100%) EMC VPLEX
12 5 (0.100%) MOM
12 5 (0.100%) Puppet
Vendors
1 681 (13.58%) Microsoft
2 288 (5.74%) SAP
3 269 (5.36%) Oracle
4 250 (4.99%) ServiceNow
5 239 (4.77%) Databricks
6 163 (3.25%) Salesforce
7 154 (3.07%) Google
8 132 (2.63%) Cisco
9 122 (2.43%) VMware
10 61 (1.22%) CyberArk
11 58 (1.16%) IBM
12 54 (1.08%) MuleSoft
13 53 (1.06%) Workday
14 48 (0.96%) Palo Alto
15 43 (0.86%) Foundry
16 37 (0.74%) Sparx
17 35 (0.70%) Adobe
18 34 (0.68%) Ariba
19 33 (0.66%) Splunk
20 32 (0.64%) F5