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 25 June 2026.

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

 6 months to
25 Jun 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 20 13
Rank change year-on-year +9 -7 +5
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,498 1,076 2,131
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.59% 7.95% 10.03%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.44% 8.70% 10.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,660 716 1,281
10th Percentile £463 £450 £490
25th Percentile £524 £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 £616 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -1.44% -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 135 16 94
10th Percentile £49.40 £34.53 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £62.25 £61.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £70.00 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -7.14% - -
75th Percentile £72.58 £85.50 £87.35
90th Percentile £83.60 £93.03 £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 23,929 12,368 19,637
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.91% 91.42% 92.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,711 7,769 11,718
10th Percentile £303 £220 £213
25th Percentile £406 £363 £363
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 £519 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +3.80% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,758 959 2,494
10th Percentile £14.96 £13.46 £12.60
25th Percentile £20.35 £16.65 £15.97
Median hourly rate £44.75 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +77.93% -37.13% -
75th Percentile £67.50 £57.55 £63.75
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £74.48
UK median hourly rate £43.50 £27.13 £37.50
% change year-on-year +60.37% -27.67% -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 25 June 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 25 June 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 25 June 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 +5 710 £625 +2.46% 176
North of England +7 709 £600 - 188
Midlands +2 434 £613 +5.20% 79
North West +4 374 £610 +2.95% 101
West Midlands +2 311 £625 +4.17% 66
South West 0 279 £643 +4.90% 75
Yorkshire +9 274 £558 -7.00% 47
East of England +26 201 £600 - 46
Scotland +11 161 £650 +4.00% 42
East Midlands +5 117 £575 +15.00% 12
North East +10 68 £575 -8.00% 42
Wales +3 34 £620 +30.53% 29
Northern Ireland +5 7 £475 -28.30% 15
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 25 June 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.

1 728 (29.14%) Security Cleared
2 537 (21.50%) Azure
3 456 (18.25%) SC Cleared
4 426 (17.05%) AWS
5 355 (14.21%) Roadmaps
6 353 (14.13%) Microsoft
7 341 (13.65%) Agile
8 306 (12.25%) Stakeholder Management
9 298 (11.93%) Migration
10 270 (10.81%) DevOps
11 263 (10.53%) Enterprise Architecture
12 250 (10.01%) Technical Leadership
13 233 (9.33%) Integration Patterns
14 232 (9.29%) CI/CD
15 222 (8.89%) DV Cleared
16 214 (8.57%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 208 (8.33%) Architectural Patterns
18 202 (8.09%) Data Modelling
19 200 (8.01%) Microservices
20 192 (7.69%) Data Architecture
21 175 (7.01%) TOGAF
22 171 (6.85%) Cybersecurity
23 167 (6.69%) Problem-Solving
24 164 (6.57%) Architectural Design
25 161 (6.45%) AI
26 153 (6.12%) GCP
27 147 (5.88%) SAP
28 142 (5.68%) Analytics
28 142 (5.68%) Security Architecture
29 135 (5.40%) 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 63 (2.52%) SharePoint
2 47 (1.88%) Confluence
3 35 (1.40%) Microsoft Exchange
4 31 (1.24%) 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
9 7 (0.28%) ArcGIS
9 7 (0.28%) OpenStack
10 6 (0.24%) Sitecore CMS
10 6 (0.24%) WebLogic
11 5 (0.20%) Documentum
11 5 (0.20%) NetWeaver
11 5 (0.20%) Palantir Foundry
12 4 (0.16%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 4 (0.16%) SAP EP
12 4 (0.16%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 11 (0.44%) Microsoft Excel
1 11 (0.44%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 8 (0.32%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.28%) 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
6 1 (0.040%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 63 (2.52%) SAP S/4HANA
2 20 (0.80%) Payment Gateway
3 18 (0.72%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 12 (0.48%) SAP ERP
5 10 (0.40%) Teamcenter
6 9 (0.36%) 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%) Oracle Receivables
11 3 (0.12%) SAP IBP
12 2 (0.080%) Infor M3
12 2 (0.080%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 537 (21.50%) Azure
2 426 (17.05%) AWS
3 153 (6.12%) GCP
4 102 (4.08%) Power Platform
5 90 (3.60%) Entra ID
6 83 (3.32%) Microsoft 365
7 78 (3.12%) Serverless
8 75 (3.00%) SaaS
9 56 (2.24%) PaaS
10 51 (2.04%) GitHub
11 46 (1.84%) IaaS
12 44 (1.76%) Azure DevOps
13 34 (1.36%) Microsoft Purview
14 32 (1.28%) OpenShift
15 31 (1.24%) Dynamics 365
16 30 (1.20%) AWS Lambda
17 28 (1.12%) OneDrive
18 25 (1.00%) GitHub Actions
18 25 (1.00%) PowerApps
18 25 (1.00%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 109 (4.36%) Firewall
2 76 (3.04%) DNS
3 75 (3.00%) WAN
4 67 (2.68%) Network Security
5 59 (2.36%) LAN
6 46 (1.84%) VPN
7 43 (1.72%) SD-WAN
8 40 (1.60%) DHCP
9 32 (1.28%) VLAN
10 27 (1.08%) BGP
11 25 (1.00%) Wireless
12 24 (0.96%) SAN
12 24 (0.96%) TCP/IP
13 23 (0.92%) MPLS
13 23 (0.92%) NAS
14 21 (0.84%) IPsec
14 21 (0.84%) Structured Cabling
15 20 (0.80%) BIG-IP
16 19 (0.76%) OSPF
17 14 (0.56%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 74 (2.96%) Metadata
2 72 (2.88%) Power BI
3 58 (2.32%) Data Warehouse
4 55 (2.20%) Data Lake
5 34 (1.36%) NoSQL
6 30 (1.20%) SQL Server
7 25 (1.00%) PostgreSQL
8 16 (0.64%) Oracle Database
9 15 (0.60%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
9 15 (0.60%) GIS
10 14 (0.56%) Tableau
11 13 (0.52%) Azure SQL Database
11 13 (0.52%) Base SAS
12 12 (0.48%) Amazon RDS
13 11 (0.44%) Big Data
13 11 (0.44%) MongoDB
14 10 (0.40%) Relational Database
15 9 (0.36%) Electronic Patient Records
15 9 (0.36%) Semantic Layer
16 8 (0.32%) BigQuery
Development Applications
1 61 (2.44%) JIRA
2 35 (1.40%) Jenkins
3 23 (0.92%) Git
4 19 (0.76%) 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%) JUnit
8 4 (0.16%) Postman
8 4 (0.16%) REST Assured
9 3 (0.12%) Cucumber
9 3 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.12%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.080%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.080%) Claude Code
10 2 (0.080%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.080%) NeoLoad
10 2 (0.080%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 452 (18.09%) Social Skills
2 350 (14.01%) Finance
3 236 (9.45%) Public Sector
4 143 (5.72%) Banking
5 130 (5.20%) Analytical Skills
6 96 (3.84%) Retail
7 69 (2.76%) Manufacturing
8 61 (2.44%) Documentation Skills
9 58 (2.32%) Legal
10 39 (1.56%) Influencing Skills
11 33 (1.32%) Military
12 32 (1.28%) Aerospace
13 24 (0.96%) Investment Banking
14 23 (0.92%) Financial Institution
15 22 (0.88%) Telecoms
16 19 (0.76%) Presentation Skills
17 18 (0.72%) Back Office
17 18 (0.72%) Marketing
18 14 (0.56%) Billing
19 11 (0.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 112 (4.48%) REST
2 79 (3.16%) Middleware
3 49 (1.96%) OAuth
4 48 (1.92%) .NET
5 45 (1.80%) OpenID
6 44 (1.76%) SOAP
7 34 (1.36%) Oracle Fusion
7 34 (1.36%) SailPoint
8 33 (1.32%) SAML
9 32 (1.28%) Kafka
10 31 (1.24%) OAuth2
11 27 (1.08%) RESTful
12 24 (0.96%) Node.js
13 22 (0.88%) React
14 21 (0.84%) JSON
14 21 (0.84%) LDAP
15 20 (0.80%) Web Services
16 13 (0.52%) AngularJS
16 13 (0.52%) Microsoft Graph
17 12 (0.48%) FHIR
Miscellaneous
1 180 (7.21%) Cloud Native
2 90 (3.60%) Data Centre
3 76 (3.04%) Product Ownership
4 71 (2.84%) Operational Technology
5 63 (2.52%) Hybrid Cloud
6 57 (2.28%) Management Information System
7 53 (2.12%) Onboarding
8 52 (2.08%) Legacy Systems
9 50 (2.00%) Data Protection Act
10 49 (1.96%) Enterprise Software
11 48 (1.92%) Distributed Systems
12 46 (1.84%) Public Cloud
13 28 (1.12%) Private Cloud
14 27 (1.08%) CMDB
15 23 (0.92%) PKI
15 23 (0.92%) SCADA
15 23 (0.92%) Security Posture
16 22 (0.88%) AI Agents
17 19 (0.76%) Data Structures
17 19 (0.76%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
Operating Systems
1 108 (4.32%) Windows
2 47 (1.88%) Linux
3 32 (1.28%) 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 (0.080%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.040%) AIX
10 1 (0.040%) CatOS
10 1 (0.040%) Kali Linux
10 1 (0.040%) VMS
10 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.040%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 355 (14.21%) Roadmaps
2 341 (13.65%) Agile
3 306 (12.25%) Stakeholder Management
4 298 (11.93%) Migration
5 270 (10.81%) DevOps
6 263 (10.53%) Enterprise Architecture
7 250 (10.01%) Technical Leadership
8 233 (9.33%) Integration Patterns
9 232 (9.29%) CI/CD
10 214 (8.57%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 208 (8.33%) Architectural Patterns
12 202 (8.09%) Data Modelling
13 200 (8.01%) Microservices
14 192 (7.69%) Data Architecture
15 175 (7.01%) TOGAF
16 171 (6.85%) Cybersecurity
17 167 (6.69%) Problem-Solving
18 164 (6.57%) Architectural Design
19 161 (6.45%) AI
20 142 (5.68%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 112 (4.48%) Python
2 109 (4.36%) SQL
3 87 (3.48%) Java
4 60 (2.40%) PowerShell
5 48 (1.92%) JavaScript
6 31 (1.24%) C#
7 24 (0.96%) Bicep
8 18 (0.72%) Bash
9 15 (0.60%) TypeScript
10 9 (0.36%) Kusto Query Language
11 8 (0.32%) ABAP
11 8 (0.32%) PL/SQL
11 8 (0.32%) VBA
12 6 (0.24%) Scala
13 5 (0.20%) Apex Code
14 4 (0.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 4 (0.16%) Kotlin
14 4 (0.16%) VB
14 4 (0.16%) VBScript
15 3 (0.12%) C
Qualifications
1 728 (29.14%) Security Cleared
2 456 (18.25%) SC Cleared
3 222 (8.89%) DV Cleared
4 90 (3.60%) Degree
5 55 (2.20%) Cisco Certification
6 53 (2.12%) BPSS Clearance
7 40 (1.60%) AWS Certification
8 37 (1.48%) CISSP
8 37 (1.48%) TOGAF Certification
9 36 (1.44%) Azure Certification
10 35 (1.40%) CCNP
11 32 (1.28%) Computer Science Degree
12 20 (0.80%) Microsoft Certification
13 16 (0.64%) CCNA
13 16 (0.64%) CISM
14 15 (0.60%) Master's Degree
15 13 (0.52%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 13 (0.52%) CCIE
16 12 (0.48%) Network+ Certification
16 12 (0.48%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 92 (3.68%) NIST
2 76 (3.04%) GDPR
3 74 (2.96%) Data Quality
4 58 (2.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 54 (2.16%) NCSC
6 26 (1.04%) QA
7 20 (0.80%) Accessibility
8 18 (0.72%) PCI DSS
9 13 (0.52%) GRC
10 12 (0.48%) COBIT
10 12 (0.48%) NIST 800
11 11 (0.44%) FINRA
11 11 (0.44%) IFRS
11 11 (0.44%) MiFID
12 10 (0.40%) HL7
12 10 (0.40%) ISO 19650
13 9 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials
13 9 (0.36%) ISO 20022
13 9 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
14 8 (0.32%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 104 (4.16%) Active Directory
2 53 (2.12%) VMware Infrastructure
3 39 (1.56%) Docker
4 33 (1.32%) VMware NSX
5 20 (0.80%) Hyper-V
6 19 (0.76%) vSphere
7 18 (0.72%) Virtual Desktop
8 9 (0.36%) VMware ESXi
9 8 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
10 7 (0.28%) vCloud
11 4 (0.16%) BitLocker
11 4 (0.16%) RACF
12 3 (0.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
12 3 (0.12%) IAG
12 3 (0.12%) NFS
12 3 (0.12%) SRDF
13 2 (0.080%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
13 2 (0.080%) Firmware
14 1 (0.040%) Embedded Firmware
14 1 (0.040%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 93 (3.72%) Terraform
2 91 (3.64%) Kubernetes
3 53 (2.12%) Ansible
4 35 (1.40%) Microsoft Intune
5 24 (0.96%) Single Sign-On
6 22 (0.88%) vCenter Server
7 16 (0.64%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 15 (0.60%) Grafana
9 14 (0.56%) FortiGate
10 13 (0.52%) Argo
11 11 (0.44%) Prometheus
12 10 (0.40%) SCCM
13 9 (0.36%) Jamf Pro
14 8 (0.32%) Istio
15 5 (0.20%) EMC VPLEX
16 4 (0.16%) CASB
16 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
17 3 (0.12%) Endace
17 3 (0.12%) SnapVault
17 3 (0.12%) WMI
Vendors
1 353 (14.13%) Microsoft
2 147 (5.88%) SAP
3 115 (4.60%) VMware
4 108 (4.32%) Oracle
5 107 (4.28%) ServiceNow
6 75 (3.00%) Cisco
7 69 (2.76%) Google
8 68 (2.72%) Databricks
9 54 (2.16%) Salesforce
10 31 (1.24%) F5
11 28 (1.12%) MuleSoft
11 28 (1.12%) Red Hat
12 27 (1.08%) Palo Alto
13 24 (0.96%) Citrix
14 23 (0.92%) BiZZdesign
15 20 (0.80%) Juniper
15 20 (0.80%) Sparx
15 20 (0.80%) Talend
16 19 (0.76%) Infoblox
17 15 (0.60%) BMC
638 Architect jobs in the UK excluding London