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 £600, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 24 January 2026.

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

6 months to
24 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 17 17 14
Rank change year-on-year 0 -3 +6
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 1,778 1,259 1,860
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.42% 9.12% 9.16%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.38% 9.87% 9.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,202 773 1,223
10th Percentile £447 £467 £500
25th Percentile £506 £550 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% -3.85% -
75th Percentile £706 £700 £700
90th Percentile £775 £750 £756
UK median daily rate £625 £625 £650
% change year-on-year - -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 39 26 34
10th Percentile £48.02 £61.50 £61.25
25th Percentile £60.00 £66.00 £63.44
Median hourly rate £83.00 £71.25 £77.27
Median % change year-on-year +16.49% -7.78% +10.38%
75th Percentile £90.09 £77.65 £85.65
90th Percentile £95.00 £84.02 £95.00
UK median hourly rate £80.00 £70.00 £76.53
% change year-on-year +14.29% -8.53% +9.33%

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 17,136 12,762 18,950
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.75% 92.40% 93.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,470 7,561 12,030
10th Percentile £213 £213 £213
25th Percentile £375 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £478 £477 £500
Median % change year-on-year +0.16% -4.60% -
75th Percentile £575 £588 £600
90th Percentile £678 £675 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,757 682 1,670
10th Percentile £14.00 £15.22 £13.25
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.30 £16.57
Median hourly rate £26.00 £30.98 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -16.07% -22.56% +33.33%
75th Percentile £60.61 £64.01 £63.22
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.75 £74.00
UK median hourly rate £27.72 £32.50 £38.10
% change year-on-year -14.72% -14.69% +9.53%

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 24 January 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 24 January 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 24 January 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
South East +9 570 £613 -2.00% 326
North of England -6 434 £570 -5.00% 207
Midlands -4 308 £575 -4.17% 109
North West -6 260 £575 -4.17% 106
South West -1 243 £710 +13.60% 109
West Midlands -6 220 £600 -3.23% 53
Yorkshire -12 162 £554 -9.18% 66
East of England +10 123 £528 -15.50% 120
Scotland -1 99 £650 +4.00% 88
East Midlands -2 86 £500 -13.79% 53
Wales +1 31 £625 +2.04% 45
North East -23 12 £575 -7.89% 35
Northern Ireland -9 5 £500 -16.67% 13
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 24 January 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.

1 594 (33.41%) Security Cleared
2 384 (21.60%) Azure
3 353 (19.85%) SC Cleared
4 291 (16.37%) AWS
5 275 (15.47%) Roadmaps
6 262 (14.74%) Agile
7 254 (14.29%) Microsoft
8 248 (13.95%) Stakeholder Management
9 222 (12.49%) Enterprise Architecture
9 222 (12.49%) Migration
9 222 (12.49%) TOGAF
10 187 (10.52%) DV Cleared
11 173 (9.73%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 170 (9.56%) DevOps
13 158 (8.89%) Data Modelling
14 155 (8.72%) Technical Leadership
15 143 (8.04%) ITIL
16 139 (7.82%) CI/CD
17 135 (7.59%) Problem-Solving
18 128 (7.20%) GCP
19 122 (6.86%) Architectural Design
20 120 (6.75%) Python
21 118 (6.64%) Analytics
21 118 (6.64%) Cybersecurity
22 116 (6.52%) Microservices
23 114 (6.41%) Mentoring
24 113 (6.36%) AI
25 109 (6.13%) Windows
26 108 (6.07%) ServiceNow
27 105 (5.91%) Decision-Making

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 80 (4.50%) Confluence
2 49 (2.76%) SharePoint
3 43 (2.42%) Microsoft Exchange
4 16 (0.90%) SAS
5 11 (0.62%) Anypoint
6 9 (0.51%) ArcGIS
6 9 (0.51%) Smallworld
7 8 (0.45%) CMS
8 7 (0.39%) OpenStack
8 7 (0.39%) Skype for Business
9 6 (0.34%) Appian
10 5 (0.28%) GeoServer
10 5 (0.28%) WebLogic
11 4 (0.22%) Apache
11 4 (0.22%) Documentum
11 4 (0.22%) Ethereum
11 4 (0.22%) Hyperledger
11 4 (0.22%) IIS
11 4 (0.22%) Tomcat
12 3 (0.17%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 42 (2.36%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (1.74%) Microsoft Project
3 23 (1.29%) Microsoft Excel
4 22 (1.24%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 8 (0.45%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.17%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.056%) FrameMaker
7 1 (0.056%) OrCAD
7 1 (0.056%) Revit
7 1 (0.056%) Siemens NX
7 1 (0.056%) Trello
Business Applications
1 55 (3.09%) SAP S/4HANA
2 25 (1.41%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 15 (0.84%) Workday HCM
4 14 (0.79%) Dynamics CRM
5 11 (0.62%) SAP CO
6 10 (0.56%) Payment Gateway
6 10 (0.56%) Salesforce CRM
6 10 (0.56%) SAP FI
6 10 (0.56%) SAP FI/CO
7 6 (0.34%) Maximo
7 6 (0.34%) SAP PM
8 5 (0.28%) Dynamics AX
8 5 (0.28%) Oracle SCM
9 4 (0.22%) Distributed Ledger
9 4 (0.22%) NetSuite
9 4 (0.22%) R3 Corda
9 4 (0.22%) SAP ERP
9 4 (0.22%) SAP PP
10 3 (0.17%) SAP CRM
10 3 (0.17%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 384 (21.60%) Azure
2 291 (16.37%) AWS
3 128 (7.20%) GCP
4 74 (4.16%) Microsoft 365
5 63 (3.54%) SaaS
6 56 (3.15%) Entra ID
7 50 (2.81%) Serverless
8 46 (2.59%) Power Platform
9 43 (2.42%) Microsoft Purview
10 37 (2.08%) Dynamics 365
11 35 (1.97%) Azure DevOps
12 32 (1.80%) OneDrive
13 31 (1.74%) AWS Lambda
13 31 (1.74%) PaaS
14 28 (1.57%) IaaS
15 26 (1.46%) GitHub
15 26 (1.46%) OpenShift
16 24 (1.35%) AWS CloudFormation
17 22 (1.24%) Azure Data Factory
18 21 (1.18%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 93 (5.23%) Firewall
2 68 (3.82%) WAN
3 53 (2.98%) DNS
4 46 (2.59%) VPN
5 42 (2.36%) LAN
6 39 (2.19%) Network Security
7 38 (2.14%) SD-WAN
8 21 (1.18%) BGP
8 21 (1.18%) MPLS
9 18 (1.01%) DHCP
10 17 (0.96%) SAN
10 17 (0.96%) Wi-Fi
11 13 (0.73%) Internet
11 13 (0.73%) VSAN
12 12 (0.67%) VLAN
13 10 (0.56%) IPsec
13 10 (0.56%) Skype
14 8 (0.45%) OSPF
14 8 (0.45%) VXLAN
14 8 (0.45%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 62 (3.49%) Data Warehouse
2 44 (2.47%) Metadata
3 37 (2.08%) Power BI
4 29 (1.63%) SQL Server
5 28 (1.57%) PostgreSQL
6 27 (1.52%) Tableau
7 22 (1.24%) DynamoDB
8 21 (1.18%) NoSQL
9 17 (0.96%) GIS
10 15 (0.84%) Oracle Database
10 15 (0.84%) Redis
11 14 (0.79%) Data Lake
11 14 (0.79%) Relational Database
12 10 (0.56%) Amazon Aurora
12 10 (0.56%) Azure SQL Database
12 10 (0.56%) BigQuery
12 10 (0.56%) RDBMS
13 9 (0.51%) Amazon Redshift
13 9 (0.51%) Metadata Repository
14 8 (0.45%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 94 (5.29%) JIRA
2 45 (2.53%) Jenkins
3 27 (1.52%) Git
4 14 (0.79%) GitLab
5 8 (0.45%) SonarQube
6 7 (0.39%) Artifactory
7 5 (0.28%) Gradle
7 5 (0.28%) Maven
7 5 (0.28%) MSI
7 5 (0.28%) Postman
7 5 (0.28%) SonarLint
8 4 (0.22%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.17%) Bitbucket
9 3 (0.17%) MLflow
9 3 (0.17%) Selenium
10 2 (0.11%) JMeter
10 2 (0.11%) JUnit
10 2 (0.11%) LoadRunner
10 2 (0.11%) Oracle Forms
10 2 (0.11%) REST Assured
General
1 404 (22.72%) Social Skills
2 226 (12.71%) Finance
3 213 (11.98%) Public Sector
4 128 (7.20%) Analytical Skills
5 97 (5.46%) Banking
6 53 (2.98%) Military
7 49 (2.76%) Documentation Skills
8 46 (2.59%) Legal
9 43 (2.42%) Retail
10 41 (2.31%) Telecoms
11 37 (2.08%) Influencing Skills
11 37 (2.08%) Marketing
12 33 (1.86%) Presentation Skills
13 19 (1.07%) Manufacturing
14 17 (0.96%) Aerospace
15 12 (0.67%) Billing
16 11 (0.62%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 10 (0.56%) Back Office
17 10 (0.56%) Local Government
18 9 (0.51%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 69 (3.88%) REST
2 46 (2.59%) Middleware
3 44 (2.47%) SOAP
4 36 (2.02%) .NET
5 28 (1.57%) OAuth
6 23 (1.29%) RESTful
7 21 (1.18%) SAML
8 20 (1.12%) OpenID
9 19 (1.07%) OAuth2
10 18 (1.01%) SailPoint
11 17 (0.96%) Spring Boot
11 17 (0.96%) Web Services
12 16 (0.90%) Kafka
13 15 (0.84%) Node.js
14 11 (0.62%) Lightning Web Components
14 11 (0.62%) Oracle Fusion
14 11 (0.62%) React
14 11 (0.62%) Spring
14 11 (0.62%) Visualforce
15 10 (0.56%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 121 (6.81%) Cloud Native
2 96 (5.40%) Product Ownership
3 68 (3.82%) Data Centre
4 53 (2.98%) Onboarding
5 49 (2.76%) Legacy Systems
6 47 (2.64%) PKI
7 43 (2.42%) Hybrid Cloud
8 41 (2.31%) Public Cloud
9 34 (1.91%) Operational Technology
10 28 (1.57%) Distributed Systems
11 26 (1.46%) Enterprise Software
12 25 (1.41%) CMDB
13 24 (1.35%) Management Information System
14 23 (1.29%) SCADA
15 20 (1.12%) Data Protection Act
16 17 (0.96%) NHS
16 17 (0.96%) Security Posture
17 14 (0.79%) Data Structures
18 13 (0.73%) IVR
19 12 (0.67%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 109 (6.13%) Windows
2 65 (3.66%) Linux
3 28 (1.57%) Windows Server
4 18 (1.01%) Windows 7
5 14 (0.79%) Windows 10
6 12 (0.67%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 10 (0.56%) Windows Server 2019
8 9 (0.51%) Windows Server 2016
9 5 (0.28%) Unix
10 4 (0.22%) Mac OS
10 4 (0.22%) VMS
11 3 (0.17%) Ubuntu
11 3 (0.17%) Windows Server 2008
12 2 (0.11%) Solaris
12 2 (0.11%) Windows Server 2012
12 2 (0.11%) zOS
13 1 (0.056%) CentOS
13 1 (0.056%) MVS
Processes & Methodologies
1 275 (15.47%) Roadmaps
2 262 (14.74%) Agile
3 248 (13.95%) Stakeholder Management
4 222 (12.49%) Enterprise Architecture
4 222 (12.49%) Migration
4 222 (12.49%) TOGAF
5 173 (9.73%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 170 (9.56%) DevOps
7 158 (8.89%) Data Modelling
8 155 (8.72%) Technical Leadership
9 143 (8.04%) ITIL
10 139 (7.82%) CI/CD
11 135 (7.59%) Problem-Solving
12 122 (6.86%) Architectural Design
13 118 (6.64%) Analytics
13 118 (6.64%) Cybersecurity
14 116 (6.52%) Microservices
15 114 (6.41%) Mentoring
16 113 (6.36%) AI
17 105 (5.91%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 120 (6.75%) Python
2 70 (3.94%) Java
3 67 (3.77%) PowerShell
4 60 (3.37%) SQL
5 26 (1.46%) JavaScript
6 16 (0.90%) C#
7 12 (0.67%) Bash
8 11 (0.62%) Apex Code
9 10 (0.56%) PL/SQL
10 9 (0.51%) Kusto Query Language
11 8 (0.45%) R
11 8 (0.45%) TypeScript
12 7 (0.39%) Bicep
12 7 (0.39%) VB
12 7 (0.39%) VBScript
13 6 (0.34%) ABAP
14 4 (0.22%) C
14 4 (0.22%) C++
14 4 (0.22%) Perl
14 4 (0.22%) Scala
Qualifications
1 594 (33.41%) Security Cleared
2 353 (19.85%) SC Cleared
3 187 (10.52%) DV Cleared
4 97 (5.46%) Degree
5 72 (4.05%) TOGAF Certification
6 64 (3.60%) CISSP
7 53 (2.98%) AWS Certification
8 39 (2.19%) Azure Certification
9 38 (2.14%) Cisco Certification
10 37 (2.08%) BPSS Clearance
11 34 (1.91%) CISM
12 29 (1.63%) Microsoft Certification
13 28 (1.57%) Computer Science Degree
14 27 (1.52%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 25 (1.41%) ISEB
16 24 (1.35%) ITIL Certification
17 23 (1.29%) CCIE
18 22 (1.24%) Master's Degree
19 18 (1.01%) CCNP
20 13 (0.73%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 93 (5.23%) GDPR
2 80 (4.50%) NIST
3 67 (3.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 53 (2.98%) Data Quality
5 40 (2.25%) NCSC
6 33 (1.86%) PCI DSS
7 27 (1.52%) COBIT
8 20 (1.12%) JSP 440
9 18 (1.01%) QA
10 17 (0.96%) GRC
11 14 (0.79%) ISO/IEC 20000
12 12 (0.67%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 12 (0.67%) Cyber Essentials
13 11 (0.62%) ISO 20022
14 9 (0.51%) Def Stans
14 9 (0.51%) FINRA
14 9 (0.51%) HMG Security Policy Framework
14 9 (0.51%) MiFID
14 9 (0.51%) PSD2
15 8 (0.45%) Accessibility
System Software
1 72 (4.05%) Active Directory
2 54 (3.04%) VMware Infrastructure
3 45 (2.53%) Docker
4 26 (1.46%) VMware NSX
5 20 (1.12%) vSphere
6 14 (0.79%) VMware ESXi
7 12 (0.67%) Virtual Desktop
8 11 (0.62%) Hyper-V
9 9 (0.51%) Virtual Machines
10 7 (0.39%) BitLocker
11 5 (0.28%) NFS
12 4 (0.22%) vCloud
13 2 (0.11%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
13 2 (0.11%) KVM
14 1 (0.056%) Embedded Firmware
14 1 (0.056%) Firmware
14 1 (0.056%) HDFS
14 1 (0.056%) RACF
14 1 (0.056%) SRDF
14 1 (0.056%) Veritas Cluster Server
Systems Management
1 84 (4.72%) Terraform
2 77 (4.33%) Kubernetes
3 52 (2.92%) Ansible
4 33 (1.86%) OPNET
5 30 (1.69%) Single Sign-On
6 22 (1.24%) vCenter Server
7 19 (1.07%) SCCM
8 17 (0.96%) WMI
9 15 (0.84%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 10 (0.56%) FortiGate
11 9 (0.51%) Microsoft Intune
12 7 (0.39%) Argo
13 6 (0.34%) Prometheus
14 4 (0.22%) Istio
15 3 (0.17%) Endace
15 3 (0.17%) Puppet
16 2 (0.11%) SCOM
16 2 (0.11%) vRealize
16 2 (0.11%) vRealize Orchestrator
17 1 (0.056%) Kubeflow
Vendors
1 254 (14.29%) Microsoft
2 108 (6.07%) ServiceNow
3 104 (5.85%) SAP
4 101 (5.68%) VMware
5 89 (5.01%) Salesforce
6 82 (4.61%) Oracle
7 66 (3.71%) Cisco
8 37 (2.08%) Google
9 36 (2.02%) Atlassian
10 35 (1.97%) Remedy
11 34 (1.91%) MuleSoft
12 32 (1.80%) Palo Alto
13 28 (1.57%) Red Hat
14 25 (1.41%) BiZZdesign
15 24 (1.35%) CyberArk
15 24 (1.35%) Sparx
16 23 (1.29%) Databricks
17 22 (1.24%) Virgin Media
18 21 (1.18%) Workday
19 20 (1.12%) Juniper