Architect Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Architect
UK > UK excluding London

The median Architect daily rate in the UK excluding London is £617, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 July 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 20 13
Rank change year-on-year +9 -7 +5
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,517 1,106 2,084
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.55% 7.99% 9.89%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.39% 8.77% 10.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,659 739 1,257
10th Percentile £469 £450 £490
25th Percentile £525 £513 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £617 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year +2.83% -7.69% -
75th Percentile £713 £700 £725
90th Percentile £775 £763 £788
UK median daily rate £615 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -1.60% -3.85% -0.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 145 16 92
10th Percentile £49.40 £34.53 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £62.25 £60.94
Median hourly rate £65.00 £72.00 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -9.72% +2.86% -
75th Percentile £71.91 £86.00 £87.12
90th Percentile £83.60 £99.28 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £67.50 £70.00
% change year-on-year -3.70% -3.57% -

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the UK excluding London. 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 the UK excluding London with a recognized job title 24,231 12,618 19,465
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.97% 91.12% 92.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,811 7,881 11,641
10th Percentile £303 £220 £213
25th Percentile £406 £363 £368
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £493
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -3.65% -1.40%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £594
90th Percentile £688 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £520 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,810 1,009 2,454
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.49 £12.70
25th Percentile £20.52 £16.84 £15.99
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -
75th Percentile £67.50 £57.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £74.48
UK median hourly rate £43.00 £26.50 £37.50
% change year-on-year +62.26% -29.33% -12.79%

Architect
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Architect' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Architect job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Architect
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Architect job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Architect job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Architect
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Architect in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 1 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Architect in the UK excluding London

Architect
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Architect job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Architect job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Architect
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Architect in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 1 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Architect in the UK excluding London

Architect
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Architect within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 1 July 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
North of England +5 725 £600 - 280
South East +5 708 £625 +4.17% 241
Midlands +3 436 £613 +6.52% 118
North West +5 388 £610 +1.67% 167
West Midlands +1 312 £625 +4.17% 94
South West +2 279 £635 +3.67% 145
Yorkshire +10 274 £575 -4.17% 63
East of England +25 197 £600 - 55
Scotland +12 166 £650 +4.00% 74
East Midlands +6 118 £575 +15.00% 24
North East +10 70 £575 -8.00% 53
Wales +3 34 £620 +29.17% 59
Northern Ireland +5 7 £475 -32.14% 29
Channel Islands 0 3 £575 -22.56%
Architect
UK

Architect Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 1 July 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 UK excluding London region featuring Architect in the job title.

1 741 (29.44%) Security Cleared
2 544 (21.61%) Azure
3 457 (18.16%) SC Cleared
4 432 (17.16%) AWS
5 358 (14.22%) Roadmaps
6 353 (14.02%) Microsoft
7 347 (13.79%) Agile
8 313 (12.44%) Stakeholder Management
9 290 (11.52%) Migration
10 268 (10.65%) DevOps
11 261 (10.37%) Enterprise Architecture
12 253 (10.05%) Technical Leadership
13 234 (9.30%) DV Cleared
14 233 (9.26%) Integration Patterns
15 230 (9.14%) CI/CD
16 221 (8.78%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 211 (8.38%) Architectural Patterns
18 209 (8.30%) Data Modelling
19 200 (7.95%) Microservices
20 199 (7.91%) Data Architecture
21 179 (7.11%) TOGAF
22 174 (6.91%) Cybersecurity
22 174 (6.91%) Problem-Solving
23 167 (6.63%) Architectural Design
24 166 (6.60%) AI
25 155 (6.16%) GCP
26 149 (5.92%) Security Architecture
27 148 (5.88%) SAP
28 144 (5.72%) Analytics
29 142 (5.64%) Continuous Improvement

Architect Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 61 (2.42%) SharePoint
2 44 (1.75%) Confluence
3 35 (1.39%) Microsoft Exchange
4 31 (1.23%) SAS
5 13 (0.52%) Apache Airflow
5 13 (0.52%) Appian
6 10 (0.40%) Apache
7 9 (0.36%) Apache Spark
7 9 (0.36%) CMS
8 8 (0.32%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 8 (0.32%) OpenStack
9 6 (0.24%) ArcGIS
9 6 (0.24%) Documentum
9 6 (0.24%) Palantir Foundry
9 6 (0.24%) Sitecore CMS
9 6 (0.24%) WebLogic
10 5 (0.20%) NetWeaver
11 4 (0.16%) JBoss
11 4 (0.16%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 4 (0.16%) SAP EP
Applications
1 10 (0.40%) Microsoft Excel
1 10 (0.40%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 9 (0.36%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (0.36%) MS Visio
3 7 (0.28%) Navisworks
3 7 (0.28%) Revit
4 6 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
5 4 (0.16%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.040%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 63 (2.50%) SAP S/4HANA
2 21 (0.83%) Payment Gateway
3 17 (0.68%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 12 (0.48%) SAP ERP
5 11 (0.44%) Teamcenter
6 10 (0.40%) Remedy ITSM
7 7 (0.28%) Oracle ERP
8 6 (0.24%) Dynamics CRM
8 6 (0.24%) Oracle Retail
9 5 (0.20%) Maximo
10 4 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
10 4 (0.16%) Salesforce CRM
10 4 (0.16%) SAP CRM
10 4 (0.16%) SAP GRC
10 4 (0.16%) SAP MDG
11 3 (0.12%) Avolution ABACUS
11 3 (0.12%) NetSuite
11 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
11 3 (0.12%) SAP IBP
12 2 (0.079%) Dynamics AX
Cloud Services
1 544 (21.61%) Azure
2 432 (17.16%) AWS
3 155 (6.16%) GCP
4 102 (4.05%) Power Platform
5 94 (3.73%) Entra ID
6 82 (3.26%) SaaS
7 79 (3.14%) Microsoft 365
7 79 (3.14%) Serverless
8 59 (2.34%) PaaS
9 49 (1.95%) GitHub
10 48 (1.91%) IaaS
11 43 (1.71%) Azure DevOps
12 34 (1.35%) OpenShift
13 31 (1.23%) Dynamics 365
14 30 (1.19%) AWS Lambda
14 30 (1.19%) Microsoft Purview
15 26 (1.03%) Snowflake
16 25 (0.99%) GitHub Actions
16 25 (0.99%) OneDrive
17 24 (0.95%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 112 (4.45%) Firewall
2 78 (3.10%) DNS
3 75 (2.98%) WAN
4 73 (2.90%) Network Security
5 59 (2.34%) LAN
6 47 (1.87%) VPN
7 42 (1.67%) DHCP
7 42 (1.67%) SD-WAN
8 34 (1.35%) VLAN
9 29 (1.15%) BGP
10 26 (1.03%) TCP/IP
11 25 (0.99%) Wireless
12 24 (0.95%) MPLS
12 24 (0.95%) SAN
13 23 (0.91%) NAS
14 21 (0.83%) IPsec
14 21 (0.83%) Structured Cabling
15 20 (0.79%) BIG-IP
16 19 (0.75%) OSPF
17 14 (0.56%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 74 (2.94%) Metadata
2 72 (2.86%) Power BI
3 59 (2.34%) Data Warehouse
4 57 (2.26%) Data Lake
5 34 (1.35%) NoSQL
6 31 (1.23%) SQL Server
7 24 (0.95%) PostgreSQL
8 16 (0.64%) Oracle Database
9 15 (0.60%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
10 14 (0.56%) GIS
11 13 (0.52%) Amazon RDS
11 13 (0.52%) Azure SQL Database
11 13 (0.52%) Base SAS
12 12 (0.48%) Big Data
12 12 (0.48%) Tableau
13 11 (0.44%) MongoDB
14 10 (0.40%) Relational Database
14 10 (0.40%) Semantic Layer
15 9 (0.36%) Electronic Patient Records
16 8 (0.32%) BigQuery
Development Applications
1 58 (2.30%) JIRA
2 34 (1.35%) Jenkins
3 25 (0.99%) Git
4 18 (0.72%) GitLab
5 10 (0.40%) ERwin
6 6 (0.24%) Artifactory
6 6 (0.24%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.20%) Selenium
8 4 (0.16%) Hudson
8 4 (0.16%) Postman
8 4 (0.16%) REST Assured
9 3 (0.12%) Cucumber
9 3 (0.12%) JUnit
9 3 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.12%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.079%) IntelliJ
10 2 (0.079%) JMeter
10 2 (0.079%) LoadRunner
10 2 (0.079%) Oracle APEX
10 2 (0.079%) Oracle Forms
General
1 462 (18.36%) Social Skills
2 356 (14.14%) Finance
3 238 (9.46%) Public Sector
4 144 (5.72%) Banking
5 138 (5.48%) Analytical Skills
6 97 (3.85%) Retail
7 70 (2.78%) Manufacturing
8 61 (2.42%) Documentation Skills
9 53 (2.11%) Legal
10 42 (1.67%) Influencing Skills
11 33 (1.31%) Military
12 32 (1.27%) Aerospace
13 24 (0.95%) Financial Institution
13 24 (0.95%) Investment Banking
14 23 (0.91%) Telecoms
15 20 (0.79%) Marketing
16 19 (0.75%) Presentation Skills
17 18 (0.72%) Back Office
18 17 (0.68%) Billing
19 11 (0.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 117 (4.65%) REST
2 77 (3.06%) Middleware
3 49 (1.95%) OAuth
4 46 (1.83%) SOAP
5 45 (1.79%) .NET
5 45 (1.79%) OpenID
6 35 (1.39%) Oracle Fusion
6 35 (1.39%) SailPoint
7 33 (1.31%) SAML
8 32 (1.27%) Kafka
9 31 (1.23%) OAuth2
10 25 (0.99%) RESTful
11 23 (0.91%) Node.js
12 21 (0.83%) LDAP
13 20 (0.79%) JSON
13 20 (0.79%) React
13 20 (0.79%) Web Services
14 14 (0.56%) AngularJS
15 12 (0.48%) FHIR
15 12 (0.48%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 181 (7.19%) Cloud Native
2 94 (3.73%) Data Centre
3 71 (2.82%) Operational Technology
3 71 (2.82%) Product Ownership
4 68 (2.70%) Hybrid Cloud
5 58 (2.30%) Management Information System
6 57 (2.26%) Onboarding
7 53 (2.11%) Data Protection Act
7 53 (2.11%) Legacy Systems
8 49 (1.95%) Enterprise Software
9 47 (1.87%) Distributed Systems
10 45 (1.79%) Public Cloud
11 30 (1.19%) CMDB
12 29 (1.15%) Private Cloud
13 23 (0.91%) PKI
13 23 (0.91%) Security Posture
14 22 (0.87%) AI Agents
15 21 (0.83%) SCADA
16 20 (0.79%) Data Structures
16 20 (0.79%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
Operating Systems
1 109 (4.33%) Windows
2 46 (1.83%) Linux
3 35 (1.39%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.64%) Android
4 16 (0.64%) Apple iOS
5 13 (0.52%) Unix
6 5 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
6 5 (0.20%) Windows 7
7 4 (0.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 4 (0.16%) Windows 10
7 4 (0.16%) Windows Server 2016
8 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2019
9 2 (0.079%) AIX
9 2 (0.079%) VMS
9 2 (0.079%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.040%) CatOS
10 1 (0.040%) Kali Linux
10 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.040%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 358 (14.22%) Roadmaps
2 347 (13.79%) Agile
3 313 (12.44%) Stakeholder Management
4 290 (11.52%) Migration
5 268 (10.65%) DevOps
6 261 (10.37%) Enterprise Architecture
7 253 (10.05%) Technical Leadership
8 233 (9.26%) Integration Patterns
9 230 (9.14%) CI/CD
10 221 (8.78%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 211 (8.38%) Architectural Patterns
12 209 (8.30%) Data Modelling
13 200 (7.95%) Microservices
14 199 (7.91%) Data Architecture
15 179 (7.11%) TOGAF
16 174 (6.91%) Cybersecurity
16 174 (6.91%) Problem-Solving
17 167 (6.63%) Architectural Design
18 166 (6.60%) AI
19 149 (5.92%) Security Architecture
Programming Languages
1 112 (4.45%) Python
1 112 (4.45%) SQL
2 89 (3.54%) Java
3 60 (2.38%) PowerShell
4 49 (1.95%) JavaScript
5 29 (1.15%) C#
6 25 (0.99%) Bicep
7 21 (0.83%) Bash
8 15 (0.60%) TypeScript
9 8 (0.32%) ABAP
9 8 (0.32%) Kusto Query Language
9 8 (0.32%) PL/SQL
9 8 (0.32%) VBA
10 6 (0.24%) Scala
11 5 (0.20%) Apex Code
11 5 (0.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 4 (0.16%) Kotlin
12 4 (0.16%) VB
12 4 (0.16%) VBScript
13 3 (0.12%) C
Qualifications
1 741 (29.44%) Security Cleared
2 457 (18.16%) SC Cleared
3 234 (9.30%) DV Cleared
4 93 (3.69%) Degree
5 58 (2.30%) Cisco Certification
6 51 (2.03%) BPSS Clearance
7 42 (1.67%) AWS Certification
8 40 (1.59%) CISSP
9 39 (1.55%) Azure Certification
10 38 (1.51%) TOGAF Certification
11 35 (1.39%) Computer Science Degree
12 34 (1.35%) CCNP
13 23 (0.91%) Microsoft Certification
14 17 (0.68%) CCNA
15 16 (0.64%) CISM
15 16 (0.64%) Master's Degree
16 14 (0.56%) CCIE
17 13 (0.52%) (ISC)2 CCSP
17 13 (0.52%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
18 12 (0.48%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 96 (3.81%) NIST
2 75 (2.98%) Data Quality
2 75 (2.98%) GDPR
3 57 (2.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 55 (2.19%) NCSC
5 26 (1.03%) QA
6 19 (0.75%) Accessibility
6 19 (0.75%) PCI DSS
7 14 (0.56%) NIST 800
8 13 (0.52%) GRC
9 12 (0.48%) COBIT
10 11 (0.44%) IFRS
11 10 (0.40%) FINRA
11 10 (0.40%) HL7
11 10 (0.40%) ISO 19650
11 10 (0.40%) MiFID
12 9 (0.36%) Disclosure Scotland
12 9 (0.36%) ISO 20022
12 9 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 8 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 107 (4.25%) Active Directory
2 53 (2.11%) VMware Infrastructure
3 40 (1.59%) Docker
4 33 (1.31%) VMware NSX
5 22 (0.87%) Virtual Desktop
6 19 (0.75%) Hyper-V
6 19 (0.75%) vSphere
7 9 (0.36%) VMware ESXi
8 8 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
9 7 (0.28%) vCloud
10 4 (0.16%) BitLocker
10 4 (0.16%) RACF
11 3 (0.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
11 3 (0.12%) IAG
11 3 (0.12%) NFS
11 3 (0.12%) SRDF
12 2 (0.079%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
13 1 (0.040%) Firmware
13 1 (0.040%) KVM
13 1 (0.040%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 95 (3.77%) Kubernetes
1 95 (3.77%) Terraform
2 52 (2.07%) Ansible
3 38 (1.51%) Microsoft Intune
4 26 (1.03%) Single Sign-On
5 22 (0.87%) vCenter Server
6 17 (0.68%) Grafana
7 16 (0.64%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 13 (0.52%) Argo
8 13 (0.52%) Prometheus
9 12 (0.48%) FortiGate
9 12 (0.48%) Jamf Pro
10 10 (0.40%) SCCM
11 8 (0.32%) Istio
12 6 (0.24%) CASB
13 5 (0.20%) EMC VPLEX
14 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
15 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
15 3 (0.12%) Endace
15 3 (0.12%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 353 (14.02%) Microsoft
2 148 (5.88%) SAP
3 115 (4.57%) VMware
4 111 (4.41%) ServiceNow
5 110 (4.37%) Oracle
6 76 (3.02%) Cisco
7 71 (2.82%) Google
8 70 (2.78%) Databricks
9 52 (2.07%) Salesforce
10 32 (1.27%) F5
11 29 (1.15%) Citrix
12 27 (1.07%) Red Hat
13 26 (1.03%) MuleSoft
14 25 (0.99%) Palo Alto
15 23 (0.91%) BiZZdesign
16 21 (0.83%) Juniper
17 20 (0.79%) Talend
18 19 (0.75%) Infoblox
18 19 (0.75%) Sparx
19 18 (0.72%) CyberArk