Architect Contract Job Trends in England

Architect
UK > England

The median Architect daily rate in England is £622, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 8 October 2026.

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

6 months to
8 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 12 19 15
Rank change year-on-year +7 -4 +1
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 5,060 2,516 3,180
As % of all contract jobs in England 10.94% 8.99% 9.85%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.88% 9.87% 10.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,377 1,681 1,909
10th Percentile £481 £462 £475
25th Percentile £525 £525 £531
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £622 £625 £625
Median % change year-on-year -0.56% - -3.85%
75th Percentile £705 £713 £738
90th Percentile £788 £787 £800
UK median daily rate £620 £625 £625
% change year-on-year -0.80% - -3.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 183 12 62
10th Percentile £40.00 £61.38 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £65.31 £62.50
Median hourly rate £68.50 £72.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -5.52% +3.57% -4.00%
75th Percentile £82.50 £95.00 £85.00
90th Percentile £95.00 £99.50 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £68.50 £72.50 £70.00
% change year-on-year -5.52% +3.57% -3.34%

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 42,578 25,492 30,053
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.05% 91.10% 93.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,092 16,398 18,391
10th Percentile £325 £277 £300
25th Percentile £425 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -3.67%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,683 1,411 1,311
10th Percentile £14.50 £13.80 £15.00
25th Percentile £20.31 £17.31 £21.25
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% -6.70%
75th Percentile £67.84 £52.50 £67.63
90th Percentile £79.00 £70.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £41.71 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +65.84% -40.82% -4.49%

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 8 October 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 8 October 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 8 October 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 2,601 £625 -2.95% 2,740
South East +1 722 £625 +4.17% 556
North of England +3 664 £600 - 496
Midlands +6 451 £627 +8.96% 275
North West +1 354 £598 +4.08% 259
South West +5 339 £638 -1.92% 218
West Midlands +6 337 £650 +8.33% 214
Yorkshire +10 239 £600 - 174
East of England +3 154 £614 +9.96% 199
East Midlands +6 109 £600 +20.00% 61
North East +2 74 £625 -15.25% 63
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 8 October 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 1,583 (31.28%) Security Cleared
2 1,326 (26.21%) Azure
3 1,155 (22.83%) SC Cleared
4 1,006 (19.88%) Stakeholder Management
5 985 (19.47%) AWS
6 876 (17.31%) Roadmaps
7 750 (14.82%) Migration
8 720 (14.23%) Microsoft
9 697 (13.77%) Enterprise Architecture
10 692 (13.68%) AI
11 647 (12.79%) Technical Leadership
12 560 (11.07%) DevOps
13 536 (10.59%) Data Architecture
14 526 (10.40%) CI/CD
15 518 (10.24%) Data Modelling
16 516 (10.20%) Agile
17 500 (9.88%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 452 (8.93%) Integration Patterns
19 443 (8.75%) Analytics
20 410 (8.10%) TOGAF
21 408 (8.06%) Security Architecture
22 404 (7.98%) GCP
23 387 (7.65%) Architectural Patterns
24 360 (7.11%) Architecture Governance
24 360 (7.11%) DV Cleared
25 345 (6.82%) Event-Driven
26 342 (6.76%) Cybersecurity
27 331 (6.54%) Data Governance
28 323 (6.38%) Decision-Making
29 315 (6.23%) Infrastructure as Code

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 74 (1.46%) SAS
2 54 (1.07%) SharePoint
3 45 (0.89%) Confluence
4 41 (0.81%) Apache
5 38 (0.75%) Apache Spark
6 35 (0.69%) Apache Airflow
7 29 (0.57%) Microsoft Exchange
8 22 (0.43%) CMS
9 17 (0.34%) Palantir Foundry
10 14 (0.28%) OpenStack
11 7 (0.14%) Documentum
11 7 (0.14%) IIS
11 7 (0.14%) NetWeaver
12 6 (0.12%) ArcGIS
12 6 (0.12%) Headless CMS
13 5 (0.099%) Appian
13 5 (0.099%) SAP EP
14 4 (0.079%) Adobe Experience Manager
14 4 (0.079%) JBoss
14 4 (0.079%) nginx
Applications
1 22 (0.43%) MS Visio
2 16 (0.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 11 (0.22%) Microsoft Excel
4 9 (0.18%) Chatbot
4 9 (0.18%) Microsoft Office
5 8 (0.16%) Revit
6 6 (0.12%) Navisworks
7 5 (0.099%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.040%) AutoCAD
8 2 (0.040%) Gliffy
9 1 (0.020%) Notion
9 1 (0.020%) PlantUML
9 1 (0.020%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 155 (3.06%) SAP S/4HANA
2 45 (0.89%) Dynamics CRM
3 30 (0.59%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 17 (0.34%) SAP MM
5 15 (0.30%) Oracle ERP
6 13 (0.26%) NetSuite
6 13 (0.26%) Oracle Payables
6 13 (0.26%) Teamcenter
7 12 (0.24%) Oracle Receivables
7 12 (0.24%) Remedy ITSM
8 11 (0.22%) Oracle EBS
9 9 (0.18%) Payment Gateway
9 9 (0.18%) SAP CO
9 9 (0.18%) SAP FI
9 9 (0.18%) SAP FI/CO
9 9 (0.18%) SAP MDG
9 9 (0.18%) Workday HCM
10 8 (0.16%) SAP BRIM
10 8 (0.16%) SAP HCM
11 7 (0.14%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 1,326 (26.21%) Azure
2 985 (19.47%) AWS
3 404 (7.98%) GCP
4 258 (5.10%) Power Platform
5 196 (3.87%) Entra ID
5 196 (3.87%) SaaS
6 149 (2.94%) Serverless
7 130 (2.57%) GitHub
8 122 (2.41%) Azure DevOps
9 116 (2.29%) Microsoft 365
10 115 (2.27%) Dynamics 365
11 105 (2.08%) Snowflake
12 71 (1.40%) PaaS
13 65 (1.28%) OCI
14 61 (1.21%) Amazon S3
15 60 (1.19%) AWS Lambda
16 56 (1.11%) Azure Synapse Analytics
17 55 (1.09%) GitHub Actions
18 54 (1.07%) Power Automate
19 53 (1.05%) dbt
Communications & Networking
1 131 (2.59%) Network Security
2 121 (2.39%) Firewall
3 91 (1.80%) WAN
4 64 (1.26%) DNS
5 56 (1.11%) LAN
5 56 (1.11%) VPN
6 45 (0.89%) BGP
6 45 (0.89%) SD-WAN
7 37 (0.73%) MPLS
8 32 (0.63%) DHCP
8 32 (0.63%) TCP/IP
9 27 (0.53%) VXLAN
10 24 (0.47%) VLAN
11 23 (0.45%) NX-OS
12 19 (0.38%) SAN
12 19 (0.38%) Wireless
13 17 (0.34%) Ethernet VPN
13 17 (0.34%) Internet
13 17 (0.34%) NGFW
13 17 (0.34%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 209 (4.13%) Metadata
2 164 (3.24%) Data Lake
3 163 (3.22%) Data Warehouse
4 155 (3.06%) Power BI
5 53 (1.05%) NoSQL
6 47 (0.93%) SQL Server
7 38 (0.75%) Delta Lake
8 37 (0.73%) BigQuery
9 36 (0.71%) Amazon RDS
10 35 (0.69%) Azure SQL Database
11 34 (0.67%) PostgreSQL
12 32 (0.63%) Oracle Database
13 31 (0.61%) Amazon Redshift
14 30 (0.59%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
15 28 (0.55%) Big Data
16 25 (0.49%) Semantic Layer
17 23 (0.45%) GIS
18 21 (0.42%) SAP HANA
18 21 (0.42%) Tableau
19 20 (0.40%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 72 (1.42%) JIRA
2 62 (1.23%) Git
3 53 (1.05%) Jenkins
4 45 (0.89%) GitLab
5 12 (0.24%) ERwin
6 11 (0.22%) Claude Code
6 11 (0.22%) MSI
7 10 (0.20%) Oracle Forms
7 10 (0.20%) RStudio
8 9 (0.18%) Cypress.io
9 7 (0.14%) Postman
10 6 (0.12%) SonarQube
10 6 (0.12%) Storybook
11 5 (0.099%) ER Studio
11 5 (0.099%) Rational DOORS
11 5 (0.099%) Selenium
12 4 (0.079%) Artifactory
12 4 (0.079%) JMeter
12 4 (0.079%) Maven
12 4 (0.079%) MLflow
General
1 1,063 (21.01%) Social Skills
2 743 (14.68%) Finance
3 565 (11.17%) Public Sector
4 272 (5.38%) Banking
5 244 (4.82%) Retail
6 243 (4.80%) Analytical Skills
7 157 (3.10%) Influencing Skills
8 140 (2.77%) Manufacturing
9 128 (2.53%) Telecoms
10 110 (2.17%) Documentation Skills
11 73 (1.44%) Marketing
12 68 (1.34%) Legal
13 64 (1.26%) Aerospace
14 62 (1.23%) Billing
15 50 (0.99%) Military
16 47 (0.93%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 40 (0.79%) Presentation Skills
18 29 (0.57%) Local Government
19 28 (0.55%) Automotive
19 28 (0.55%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 264 (5.22%) REST
2 218 (4.31%) Terraform
3 135 (2.67%) Kafka
4 124 (2.45%) Middleware
5 123 (2.43%) SOAP
6 106 (2.09%) .NET
7 103 (2.04%) OAuth
8 71 (1.40%) Oracle Fusion
9 55 (1.09%) JSON
9 55 (1.09%) OpenID
9 55 (1.09%) SAML
10 51 (1.01%) LDAP
11 50 (0.99%) OAuth2
12 44 (0.87%) PySpark
13 39 (0.77%) XML
14 37 (0.73%) .NET Framework
14 37 (0.73%) JWT
15 35 (0.69%) SAP Fiori
16 34 (0.67%) SailPoint
17 31 (0.61%) React
Miscellaneous
1 417 (8.24%) Cloud Native
2 157 (3.10%) Onboarding
3 155 (3.06%) Data Centre
4 125 (2.47%) Enterprise Software
5 124 (2.45%) Product Ownership
6 123 (2.43%) Legacy Systems
7 121 (2.39%) Hybrid Cloud
8 119 (2.35%) Distributed Systems
9 118 (2.33%) AI Agents
10 106 (2.09%) Management Information System
11 93 (1.84%) CMDB
12 82 (1.62%) Operational Technology
13 81 (1.60%) Data Protection Act
14 70 (1.38%) Public Cloud
15 66 (1.30%) Enterprise Cloud
16 61 (1.21%) Private Cloud
17 57 (1.13%) Data Structures
18 51 (1.01%) Security Posture
19 43 (0.85%) PKI
19 43 (0.85%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 107 (2.11%) Windows
2 80 (1.58%) Linux
3 41 (0.81%) Windows Server
4 21 (0.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 18 (0.36%) Unix
6 8 (0.16%) Ubuntu
7 7 (0.14%) AIX
8 6 (0.12%) Apple iOS
8 6 (0.12%) zOS
9 5 (0.099%) Android
10 4 (0.079%) Alpine Linux
10 4 (0.079%) VMS
11 3 (0.059%) CentOS
11 3 (0.059%) Solaris
11 3 (0.059%) Windows 10
12 2 (0.040%) Data ONTAP
12 2 (0.040%) HPUX
12 2 (0.040%) Mac OS
12 2 (0.040%) OpenWrt
13 1 (0.020%) CatOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,006 (19.88%) Stakeholder Management
2 876 (17.31%) Roadmaps
3 750 (14.82%) Migration
4 697 (13.77%) Enterprise Architecture
5 692 (13.68%) AI
6 647 (12.79%) Technical Leadership
7 560 (11.07%) DevOps
8 536 (10.59%) Data Architecture
9 526 (10.40%) CI/CD
10 518 (10.24%) Data Modelling
11 516 (10.20%) Agile
12 500 (9.88%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 452 (8.93%) Integration Patterns
14 443 (8.75%) Analytics
15 410 (8.10%) TOGAF
16 408 (8.06%) Security Architecture
17 387 (7.65%) Architectural Patterns
18 360 (7.11%) Architecture Governance
19 345 (6.82%) Event-Driven
20 342 (6.76%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 218 (4.31%) SQL
2 201 (3.97%) Python
3 185 (3.66%) Java
4 100 (1.98%) JavaScript
5 88 (1.74%) PowerShell
6 48 (0.95%) C#
6 48 (0.95%) TypeScript
7 40 (0.79%) Bicep
8 37 (0.73%) Bash
9 27 (0.53%) ABAP
9 27 (0.53%) Apex Code
10 15 (0.30%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 13 (0.26%) Shell Script
12 11 (0.22%) Groovy
13 10 (0.20%) R
14 9 (0.18%) C++
15 8 (0.16%) PL/SQL
16 7 (0.14%) BeanShell
16 7 (0.14%) Rust
17 6 (0.12%) Cypher
Qualifications
1 1,583 (31.28%) Security Cleared
2 1,155 (22.83%) SC Cleared
3 360 (7.11%) DV Cleared
4 155 (3.06%) Degree
5 135 (2.67%) CISSP
6 128 (2.53%) BPSS Clearance
7 110 (2.17%) Azure Certification
8 102 (2.02%) AWS Certification
9 89 (1.76%) TOGAF Certification
10 88 (1.74%) Cisco Certification
11 63 (1.25%) CISM
12 61 (1.21%) Computer Science Degree
13 45 (0.89%) Microsoft Certification
14 38 (0.75%) CCNP
15 35 (0.69%) (ISC)2 CCSP
16 33 (0.65%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
17 27 (0.53%) CCSP
18 23 (0.45%) CCIE
18 23 (0.45%) Master's Degree
19 18 (0.36%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 226 (4.47%) Data Quality
2 183 (3.62%) NIST
3 156 (3.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 128 (2.53%) GDPR
5 108 (2.13%) NCSC
6 67 (1.32%) GRC
7 46 (0.91%) QA
8 41 (0.81%) Accessibility
9 33 (0.65%) PCI DSS
10 26 (0.51%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 25 (0.49%) NIST 800
12 22 (0.43%) ISO/IEC 20000
12 22 (0.43%) SLA
13 20 (0.40%) JSP 440
14 18 (0.36%) SEPA
15 16 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials
16 15 (0.30%) IFRS
16 15 (0.30%) ISO 19650
16 15 (0.30%) ISO 20022
17 13 (0.26%) Government Security Classifications
System Software
1 163 (3.22%) Active Directory
2 81 (1.60%) Docker
3 65 (1.28%) VMware Infrastructure
4 34 (0.67%) VMware NSX
5 28 (0.55%) Virtual Desktop
6 15 (0.30%) Virtual Machines
7 14 (0.28%) vSphere
8 11 (0.22%) VMware ESXi
9 10 (0.20%) Hyper-V
10 5 (0.099%) ISA Server
11 4 (0.079%) KVM
12 3 (0.059%) Ceph
12 3 (0.059%) EMC RecoverPoint
12 3 (0.059%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 3 (0.059%) Virtual Servers
13 2 (0.040%) IAG
13 2 (0.040%) Microsoft App-V
13 2 (0.040%) Postfix
13 2 (0.040%) SRDF
13 2 (0.040%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 237 (4.68%) Kubernetes
2 87 (1.72%) Ansible
3 43 (0.85%) Grafana
4 39 (0.77%) Single Sign-On
5 29 (0.57%) Microsoft Intune
6 28 (0.55%) Prometheus
7 14 (0.28%) Jamf Pro
8 12 (0.24%) WMI
9 11 (0.22%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 11 (0.22%) Argo
9 11 (0.22%) CASB
9 11 (0.22%) FortiGate
10 7 (0.14%) SCCM
11 6 (0.12%) Progress Chef
11 6 (0.12%) Puppet
12 5 (0.099%) Istio
12 5 (0.099%) vCenter Server
13 4 (0.079%) Functional Safety
13 4 (0.079%) QRadar
13 4 (0.079%) VxRail
Vendors
1 720 (14.23%) Microsoft
2 296 (5.85%) SAP
3 263 (5.20%) Oracle
4 241 (4.76%) Databricks
5 235 (4.64%) ServiceNow
6 182 (3.60%) Google
7 167 (3.30%) Salesforce
8 132 (2.61%) Cisco
9 109 (2.15%) VMware
10 83 (1.64%) CyberArk
11 61 (1.21%) MuleSoft
12 54 (1.07%) IBM
13 51 (1.01%) Workday
14 46 (0.91%) Palo Alto
15 40 (0.79%) Foundry
16 35 (0.69%) Fortinet
17 34 (0.67%) Adobe
17 34 (0.67%) Informatica
17 34 (0.67%) Splunk
18 32 (0.63%) Ariba