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 £622, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 15 October 2026.

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

6 months to
15 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 21 13
Rank change year-on-year +7 -8 +2
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,580 1,258 1,614
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.05% 7.89% 9.32%
As % of the Job Titles category 9.96% 8.80% 10.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,705 873 943
10th Percentile £465 £450 £455
25th Percentile £525 £519 £525
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £622 £600 £625
Median % change year-on-year +3.67% -4.00% -1.57%
75th Percentile £700 £694 £700
90th Percentile £769 £775 £775
UK median daily rate £620 £625 £625
% change year-on-year -0.80% - -3.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 179 12 56
10th Percentile £38.57 £58.55 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £65.31 £62.19
Median hourly rate £68.50 £72.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -5.52% +3.57% -7.49%
75th Percentile £86.13 £85.63 £76.40
90th Percentile £95.20 £98.75 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £70.00 £77.75 £70.00
% change year-on-year -9.97% +11.07% -5.30%

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 25,908 14,300 15,977
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.90% 89.63% 92.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,943 8,801 9,090
10th Percentile £300 £206 £220
25th Percentile £412 £363 £370
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £490
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -3.06% -2.00%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £588
90th Percentile £688 £669 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,599 1,345 1,204
10th Percentile £14.22 £13.56 £14.73
25th Percentile £18.50 £16.50 £19.57
Median hourly rate £41.06 £25.00 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +64.24% -41.18% -4.49%
75th Percentile £67.84 £50.00 £66.33
90th Percentile £78.75 £69.65 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £41.56 £25.15 £41.27
% change year-on-year +65.23% -39.05% -8.30%

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 15 October 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 15 October 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 15 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
South East -1 733 £626 +4.33% 153
North of England +4 664 £600 - 89
Midlands +7 456 £627 +8.96% 72
South West +5 346 £625 -3.85% 86
North West -1 344 £598 +4.00% 43
West Midlands +10 339 £644 +7.40% 59
Yorkshire +10 244 £600 -1.03% 28
Scotland +18 203 £616 +3.10% 32
East of England +3 144 £618 +11.37% 26
East Midlands +4 112 £600 +20.00% 13
North East +7 79 £625 -15.25% 18
Wales +7 43 £633 +1.20% 11
Channel Islands +1 12 £700 -5.72%
Northern Ireland +4 3 - - 3
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 15 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 UK excluding London region featuring Architect in the job title.

1 883 (34.22%) Security Cleared
2 584 (22.64%) SC Cleared
3 581 (22.52%) Azure
4 511 (19.81%) Stakeholder Management
5 436 (16.90%) AWS
6 395 (15.31%) Roadmaps
7 379 (14.69%) Microsoft
8 356 (13.80%) Technical Leadership
9 330 (12.79%) Migration
10 328 (12.71%) Enterprise Architecture
11 288 (11.16%) Agile
12 286 (11.09%) DV Cleared
13 253 (9.81%) Data Architecture
14 246 (9.53%) AI
15 242 (9.38%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 232 (8.99%) CI/CD
17 230 (8.91%) DevOps
18 221 (8.57%) Data Modelling
19 219 (8.49%) Integration Patterns
20 212 (8.22%) Cybersecurity
21 206 (7.98%) Security Architecture
22 203 (7.87%) Architectural Patterns
23 199 (7.71%) Architecture Governance
24 196 (7.60%) GCP
25 195 (7.56%) TOGAF
26 164 (6.36%) Event-Driven
27 160 (6.20%) Continuous Improvement
27 160 (6.20%) Microservices
28 154 (5.97%) Analytics
29 153 (5.93%) Problem-Solving

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 32 (1.24%) SAS
1 32 (1.24%) SharePoint
2 26 (1.01%) Confluence
3 18 (0.70%) Microsoft Exchange
4 14 (0.54%) Apache
5 13 (0.50%) OpenStack
6 11 (0.43%) Apache Spark
7 10 (0.39%) Apache Airflow
7 10 (0.39%) Palantir Foundry
8 7 (0.27%) Documentum
9 6 (0.23%) NetWeaver
10 5 (0.19%) IIS
11 4 (0.16%) SAP EP
12 3 (0.12%) CMS
12 3 (0.12%) JBoss
13 2 (0.078%) Oracle HTTP Server
13 2 (0.078%) Tomcat
13 2 (0.078%) WebLogic
13 2 (0.078%) WebLogic Portal
13 2 (0.078%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 15 (0.58%) MS Visio
2 11 (0.43%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 10 (0.39%) Microsoft Excel
4 9 (0.35%) Microsoft Office
5 5 (0.19%) Navisworks
5 5 (0.19%) Revit
5 5 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 74 (2.87%) SAP S/4HANA
2 9 (0.35%) Dynamics CRM
2 9 (0.35%) Teamcenter
3 8 (0.31%) Payment Gateway
4 7 (0.27%) Oracle ERP
4 7 (0.27%) Remedy ITSM
5 6 (0.23%) Maximo
5 6 (0.23%) SAP MDG
5 6 (0.23%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
6 5 (0.19%) Remedy AR System
6 5 (0.19%) SAP ERP
6 5 (0.19%) SAP Hybris
6 5 (0.19%) Workday HCM
7 4 (0.16%) NetSuite
7 4 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
7 4 (0.16%) SAP CRM
8 3 (0.12%) Dynamics NAV
8 3 (0.12%) Oracle Retail
8 3 (0.12%) SAP HR
8 3 (0.12%) SAP MM
Cloud Services
1 581 (22.52%) Azure
2 436 (16.90%) AWS
3 196 (7.60%) GCP
4 100 (3.88%) SaaS
5 96 (3.72%) Power Platform
6 77 (2.98%) Microsoft 365
7 68 (2.64%) Entra ID
8 63 (2.44%) Serverless
9 53 (2.05%) Dynamics 365
10 50 (1.94%) Azure DevOps
11 48 (1.86%) GitHub
12 36 (1.40%) PaaS
13 31 (1.20%) IaaS
14 30 (1.16%) AWS Lambda
14 30 (1.16%) Snowflake
15 27 (1.05%) Amazon S3
16 26 (1.01%) GitHub Actions
16 26 (1.01%) OCI
17 23 (0.89%) Microsoft Purview
18 21 (0.81%) iPaaS
Communications & Networking
1 72 (2.79%) Firewall
2 56 (2.17%) Network Security
3 54 (2.09%) WAN
4 49 (1.90%) DNS
5 36 (1.40%) BGP
6 35 (1.36%) LAN
7 30 (1.16%) MPLS
8 29 (1.12%) VPN
9 28 (1.09%) SD-WAN
10 27 (1.05%) DHCP
11 25 (0.97%) TCP/IP
12 20 (0.78%) VLAN
13 16 (0.62%) NX-OS
14 15 (0.58%) SAN
14 15 (0.58%) VXLAN
15 14 (0.54%) OSPF
15 14 (0.54%) Wireless
16 13 (0.50%) HTTP
16 13 (0.50%) NAS
16 13 (0.50%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 89 (3.45%) Metadata
2 83 (3.22%) Data Warehouse
3 78 (3.02%) Data Lake
4 59 (2.29%) Power BI
5 27 (1.05%) NoSQL
6 24 (0.93%) BigQuery
7 22 (0.85%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
8 21 (0.81%) Amazon RDS
9 19 (0.74%) Azure SQL Database
10 17 (0.66%) Base SAS
10 17 (0.66%) Oracle Database
11 13 (0.50%) SQL Server
12 12 (0.47%) GIS
12 12 (0.47%) Looker
13 10 (0.39%) Amazon Redshift
13 10 (0.39%) Delta Lake
13 10 (0.39%) PostgreSQL
13 10 (0.39%) Semantic Layer
14 9 (0.35%) MySQL
15 8 (0.31%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 36 (1.40%) JIRA
2 33 (1.28%) Git
3 23 (0.89%) Jenkins
4 19 (0.74%) GitLab
5 9 (0.35%) MSI
6 5 (0.19%) Claude Code
6 5 (0.19%) Postman
7 4 (0.16%) Artifactory
7 4 (0.16%) Cucumber
7 4 (0.16%) ERwin
7 4 (0.16%) REST Assured
7 4 (0.16%) Sonatype Nexus
8 3 (0.12%) Applitools
8 3 (0.12%) JMeter
8 3 (0.12%) Newman
8 3 (0.12%) Selenium
9 2 (0.078%) Appium
9 2 (0.078%) Hudson
9 2 (0.078%) Oracle APEX
9 2 (0.078%) Oracle Forms
General
1 554 (21.47%) Social Skills
2 304 (11.78%) Finance
3 275 (10.66%) Public Sector
4 128 (4.96%) Analytical Skills
5 111 (4.30%) Banking
6 102 (3.95%) Retail
7 97 (3.76%) Manufacturing
8 76 (2.95%) Influencing Skills
9 63 (2.44%) Aerospace
10 59 (2.29%) Documentation Skills
11 41 (1.59%) Telecoms
12 40 (1.55%) Legal
13 31 (1.20%) Military
14 28 (1.09%) Marketing
15 23 (0.89%) Aviation
16 19 (0.74%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 18 (0.70%) Local Government
18 17 (0.66%) Billing
18 17 (0.66%) Presentation Skills
19 16 (0.62%) Back Office
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 115 (4.46%) REST
2 90 (3.49%) Terraform
3 71 (2.75%) Middleware
4 58 (2.25%) SOAP
5 52 (2.02%) OAuth
6 48 (1.86%) Kafka
7 43 (1.67%) Oracle Fusion
8 38 (1.47%) LDAP
9 33 (1.28%) SAML
10 28 (1.09%) .NET
10 28 (1.09%) OpenID
11 22 (0.85%) JSON
12 20 (0.78%) OAuth2
12 20 (0.78%) SAP Fiori
13 19 (0.74%) Node.js
14 18 (0.70%) GraphQL
15 17 (0.66%) JWT
15 17 (0.66%) Swagger
16 16 (0.62%) SailPoint
17 15 (0.58%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 197 (7.64%) Cloud Native
2 87 (3.37%) Data Centre
3 80 (3.10%) Hybrid Cloud
4 74 (2.87%) Onboarding
5 71 (2.75%) Product Ownership
6 66 (2.56%) Enterprise Software
7 64 (2.48%) Data Protection Act
8 62 (2.40%) Legacy Systems
9 61 (2.36%) Operational Technology
10 60 (2.33%) Distributed Systems
11 49 (1.90%) AI Agents
12 48 (1.86%) Management Information System
13 40 (1.55%) Public Cloud
14 38 (1.47%) Private Cloud
15 36 (1.40%) CMDB
16 28 (1.09%) Enterprise Cloud
17 27 (1.05%) IVR
18 25 (0.97%) PKI
19 23 (0.89%) Data Structures
20 21 (0.81%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 87 (3.37%) Windows
2 53 (2.05%) Linux
3 34 (1.32%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 10 (0.39%) Unix
6 6 (0.23%) AIX
7 2 (0.078%) Data ONTAP
7 2 (0.078%) HPUX
7 2 (0.078%) Solaris
7 2 (0.078%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.039%) Android
8 1 (0.039%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.039%) CatOS
8 1 (0.039%) CentOS
8 1 (0.039%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.039%) VMS
8 1 (0.039%) Windows Server 2008
8 1 (0.039%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 511 (19.81%) Stakeholder Management
2 395 (15.31%) Roadmaps
3 356 (13.80%) Technical Leadership
4 330 (12.79%) Migration
5 328 (12.71%) Enterprise Architecture
6 288 (11.16%) Agile
7 253 (9.81%) Data Architecture
8 246 (9.53%) AI
9 242 (9.38%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 232 (8.99%) CI/CD
11 230 (8.91%) DevOps
12 221 (8.57%) Data Modelling
13 219 (8.49%) Integration Patterns
14 212 (8.22%) Cybersecurity
15 206 (7.98%) Security Architecture
16 203 (7.87%) Architectural Patterns
17 199 (7.71%) Architecture Governance
18 195 (7.56%) TOGAF
19 164 (6.36%) Event-Driven
20 160 (6.20%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 90 (3.49%) SQL
2 88 (3.41%) Java
3 80 (3.10%) Python
4 50 (1.94%) PowerShell
5 44 (1.71%) JavaScript
6 23 (0.89%) Bash
7 16 (0.62%) ABAP
7 16 (0.62%) TypeScript
8 11 (0.43%) C#
9 10 (0.39%) Shell Script
10 9 (0.35%) Bicep
11 8 (0.31%) Apex Code
12 6 (0.23%) PL/SQL
13 5 (0.19%) Groovy
14 4 (0.16%) PHP
15 3 (0.12%) R
15 3 (0.12%) VBA
16 2 (0.078%) BeanShell
16 2 (0.078%) Go
16 2 (0.078%) ProC
Qualifications
1 883 (34.22%) Security Cleared
2 584 (22.64%) SC Cleared
3 286 (11.09%) DV Cleared
4 72 (2.79%) BPSS Clearance
5 71 (2.75%) Degree
6 69 (2.67%) CISSP
7 58 (2.25%) Cisco Certification
8 49 (1.90%) AWS Certification
9 47 (1.82%) TOGAF Certification
10 41 (1.59%) Azure Certification
11 32 (1.24%) Computer Science Degree
12 25 (0.97%) CISM
13 24 (0.93%) CCIE
13 24 (0.93%) CCNP
14 17 (0.66%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 17 (0.66%) Microsoft Certification
15 16 (0.62%) JNCIE
16 12 (0.47%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
16 12 (0.47%) CCSP
17 10 (0.39%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 104 (4.03%) NIST
2 97 (3.76%) Data Quality
3 75 (2.91%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 64 (2.48%) NCSC
5 46 (1.78%) GDPR
6 23 (0.89%) QA
7 21 (0.81%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 20 (0.78%) Accessibility
8 20 (0.78%) PCI DSS
9 18 (0.70%) JSP 440
10 16 (0.62%) GRC
11 14 (0.54%) Disclosure Scotland
12 13 (0.50%) NIST 800
13 11 (0.43%) SLA
14 10 (0.39%) IFRS
14 10 (0.39%) ISO 19650
15 9 (0.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
16 6 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials
16 6 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
17 5 (0.19%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 94 (3.64%) Active Directory
2 49 (1.90%) VMware Infrastructure
3 43 (1.67%) Docker
4 26 (1.01%) VMware NSX
5 24 (0.93%) Virtual Desktop
6 12 (0.47%) Hyper-V
7 9 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
7 9 (0.35%) vSphere
8 8 (0.31%) VMware ESXi
9 4 (0.16%) ISA Server
9 4 (0.16%) KVM
10 3 (0.12%) Ceph
10 3 (0.12%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 3 (0.12%) Virtual Servers
11 2 (0.078%) EMC RecoverPoint
11 2 (0.078%) SRDF
11 2 (0.078%) zsh
12 1 (0.039%) BitLocker
12 1 (0.039%) NFS
12 1 (0.039%) vCloud
Systems Management
1 133 (5.16%) Kubernetes
2 47 (1.82%) Ansible
3 23 (0.89%) Microsoft Intune
4 20 (0.78%) Single Sign-On
5 12 (0.47%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 12 (0.47%) Jamf Pro
5 12 (0.47%) WMI
6 11 (0.43%) Prometheus
7 10 (0.39%) Grafana
8 9 (0.35%) CASB
9 7 (0.27%) FortiGate
10 6 (0.23%) Istio
11 4 (0.16%) Argo
11 4 (0.16%) Cisco CUCM
11 4 (0.16%) vCenter Server
11 4 (0.16%) VxRail
12 3 (0.12%) MOM
12 3 (0.12%) NetBackup
12 3 (0.12%) SCCM
13 2 (0.078%) EMC VPLEX
Vendors
1 379 (14.69%) Microsoft
2 136 (5.27%) SAP
3 120 (4.65%) Oracle
4 116 (4.50%) Google
5 92 (3.57%) ServiceNow
6 82 (3.18%) Databricks
7 81 (3.14%) VMware
8 78 (3.02%) Cisco
9 54 (2.09%) Salesforce
10 44 (1.71%) CyberArk
11 33 (1.28%) MuleSoft
12 23 (0.89%) F5
13 22 (0.85%) IBM
13 22 (0.85%) Workday
14 21 (0.81%) Informatica
15 19 (0.74%) Red Hat
16 18 (0.70%) Palo Alto
17 17 (0.66%) Infoblox
18 16 (0.62%) Foundry
18 16 (0.62%) OutSystems