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 £620, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 15 July 2026.

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

6 months to
15 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 20 13
Rank change year-on-year +9 -7 +6
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,523 1,226 2,059
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.38% 8.31% 9.94%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.18% 9.14% 10.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,654 825 1,257
10th Percentile £475 £450 £484
25th Percentile £525 £519 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £620 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year +3.33% -7.69% -
75th Percentile £713 £695 £725
90th Percentile £775 £757 £788
UK median daily rate £615 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -1.60% -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 156 17 90
10th Percentile £47.70 £35.42 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £62.50 £60.31
Median hourly rate £65.00 £72.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.34% +3.57% -
75th Percentile £71.91 £85.50 £85.65
90th Percentile £83.00 £99.13 £88.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £68.75 £70.00
% change year-on-year -5.45% -1.79% -

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 24,790 13,410 19,132
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.17% 90.84% 92.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,152 8,290 11,526
10th Percentile £305 £220 £213
25th Percentile £408 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £495
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -4.04% -1.00%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £596
90th Percentile £688 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,857 1,122 2,331
10th Percentile £15.24 £13.50 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.00 £16.95 £16.25
Median hourly rate £45.56 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +81.13% -37.13% +6.67%
75th Percentile £68.00 £57.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £74.44
UK median hourly rate £45.00 £26.45 £40.00
% change year-on-year +70.13% -33.88% -5.88%

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 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 15 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 15 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 +7 725 £600 - 218
South East +1 720 £625 +4.17% 218
Midlands 0 420 £620 +7.83% 110
North West +5 387 £608 +1.33% 121
West Midlands -4 301 £626 +4.33% 82
South West -1 283 £625 - 102
Yorkshire +9 272 £600 - 56
East of England +14 188 £600 - 64
Scotland +11 175 £650 +4.00% 71
East Midlands +6 111 £600 +20.00% 27
North East 0 74 £575 -13.21% 41
Wales +5 35 £600 +25.00% 26
Northern Ireland +5 7 £475 -32.14% 19
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 15 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.

1 763 (30.24%) Security Cleared
2 546 (21.64%) Azure
3 473 (18.75%) SC Cleared
4 443 (17.56%) AWS
5 359 (14.23%) Roadmaps
6 339 (13.44%) Agile
7 337 (13.36%) Microsoft
8 316 (12.52%) Stakeholder Management
9 286 (11.34%) Migration
10 261 (10.34%) DevOps
11 255 (10.11%) Enterprise Architecture
12 251 (9.95%) Technical Leadership
13 241 (9.55%) Integration Patterns
14 240 (9.51%) DV Cleared
15 233 (9.24%) CI/CD
16 226 (8.96%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 215 (8.52%) Architectural Patterns
18 210 (8.32%) Data Architecture
19 209 (8.28%) Data Modelling
20 201 (7.97%) Microservices
21 196 (7.77%) AI
22 194 (7.69%) TOGAF
23 191 (7.57%) Cybersecurity
24 171 (6.78%) Problem-Solving
24 171 (6.78%) Security Architecture
25 163 (6.46%) Architectural Design
26 150 (5.95%) GCP
27 144 (5.71%) Continuous Improvement
28 143 (5.67%) Event-Driven
29 141 (5.59%) SAP

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 49 (1.94%) SharePoint
2 37 (1.47%) Confluence
3 32 (1.27%) SAS
4 24 (0.95%) Microsoft Exchange
5 14 (0.55%) Apache Airflow
6 13 (0.52%) Appian
7 12 (0.48%) Apache Spark
8 11 (0.44%) Apache
9 10 (0.40%) CMS
9 10 (0.40%) OpenStack
10 8 (0.32%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 8 (0.32%) Palantir Foundry
11 7 (0.28%) Documentum
12 6 (0.24%) JBoss
12 6 (0.24%) Sitecore CMS
13 5 (0.20%) ArcGIS
13 5 (0.20%) NetWeaver
14 4 (0.16%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 4 (0.16%) SAP EP
15 3 (0.12%) Anypoint
Applications
1 11 (0.44%) MS Visio
2 9 (0.36%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.28%) Navisworks
3 7 (0.28%) Revit
4 6 (0.24%) Microsoft Excel
4 6 (0.24%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
5 4 (0.16%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.040%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 59 (2.34%) SAP S/4HANA
2 19 (0.75%) Payment Gateway
3 15 (0.59%) 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%) Maximo
9 5 (0.20%) Oracle Retail
9 5 (0.20%) SAP GRC
10 4 (0.16%) NetSuite
10 4 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
10 4 (0.16%) SAP CRM
10 4 (0.16%) SAP MDG
11 3 (0.12%) Adobe Campaign
11 3 (0.12%) Avolution ABACUS
11 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
11 3 (0.12%) SAP IBP
12 2 (0.079%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 546 (21.64%) Azure
2 443 (17.56%) AWS
3 150 (5.95%) GCP
4 99 (3.92%) Power Platform
5 94 (3.73%) Entra ID
6 84 (3.33%) Serverless
7 75 (2.97%) SaaS
8 67 (2.66%) Microsoft 365
9 57 (2.26%) PaaS
10 48 (1.90%) IaaS
11 47 (1.86%) GitHub
12 42 (1.66%) Azure DevOps
13 38 (1.51%) OpenShift
14 34 (1.35%) AWS Lambda
15 31 (1.23%) Dynamics 365
16 27 (1.07%) Amazon S3
17 26 (1.03%) Snowflake
18 25 (0.99%) GitHub Actions
19 24 (0.95%) Microsoft Purview
20 22 (0.87%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 111 (4.40%) Firewall
2 73 (2.89%) Network Security
3 72 (2.85%) DNS
4 71 (2.81%) WAN
5 58 (2.30%) LAN
6 42 (1.66%) VPN
7 40 (1.59%) DHCP
8 37 (1.47%) SD-WAN
9 36 (1.43%) BGP
10 32 (1.27%) VLAN
11 31 (1.23%) TCP/IP
12 26 (1.03%) MPLS
13 25 (0.99%) Wireless
14 24 (0.95%) SAN
15 23 (0.91%) NAS
16 22 (0.87%) IPsec
17 21 (0.83%) Structured Cabling
18 20 (0.79%) BIG-IP
19 19 (0.75%) OSPF
20 14 (0.55%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 70 (2.77%) Metadata
2 68 (2.70%) Power BI
3 63 (2.50%) Data Lake
4 62 (2.46%) Data Warehouse
5 35 (1.39%) NoSQL
6 31 (1.23%) SQL Server
7 27 (1.07%) PostgreSQL
8 21 (0.83%) Oracle Database
9 18 (0.71%) Amazon RDS
10 17 (0.67%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
11 14 (0.55%) Azure SQL Database
11 14 (0.55%) Base SAS
11 14 (0.55%) GIS
12 13 (0.52%) Big Data
13 12 (0.48%) Relational Database
14 11 (0.44%) MongoDB
15 10 (0.40%) Semantic Layer
16 9 (0.36%) Delta Lake
16 9 (0.36%) Electronic Patient Records
17 8 (0.32%) BigQuery
Development Applications
1 49 (1.94%) JIRA
2 31 (1.23%) Jenkins
3 26 (1.03%) Git
4 15 (0.59%) GitLab
5 10 (0.40%) ERwin
6 8 (0.32%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.20%) Artifactory
8 4 (0.16%) Hudson
8 4 (0.16%) Selenium
9 3 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.12%) REST Assured
9 3 (0.12%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.079%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.079%) Claude Code
10 2 (0.079%) Cucumber
10 2 (0.079%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.079%) JUnit
10 2 (0.079%) Oracle APEX
10 2 (0.079%) Postman
10 2 (0.079%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 469 (18.59%) Social Skills
2 338 (13.40%) Finance
3 239 (9.47%) Public Sector
4 148 (5.87%) Banking
5 140 (5.55%) Analytical Skills
6 93 (3.69%) Retail
7 71 (2.81%) Manufacturing
8 57 (2.26%) Documentation Skills
9 46 (1.82%) Influencing Skills
10 42 (1.66%) Legal
11 35 (1.39%) Aerospace
12 31 (1.23%) Military
13 25 (0.99%) Telecoms
14 24 (0.95%) Financial Institution
15 20 (0.79%) Investment Banking
15 20 (0.79%) Marketing
16 18 (0.71%) Back Office
16 18 (0.71%) Presentation Skills
17 17 (0.67%) Billing
18 14 (0.55%) Aviation
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 117 (4.64%) REST
2 74 (2.93%) Middleware
3 54 (2.14%) OAuth
4 45 (1.78%) .NET
4 45 (1.78%) SOAP
5 42 (1.66%) OpenID
6 35 (1.39%) Kafka
6 35 (1.39%) Oracle Fusion
7 33 (1.31%) SailPoint
8 32 (1.27%) SAML
9 30 (1.19%) OAuth2
10 25 (0.99%) RESTful
11 23 (0.91%) Node.js
12 21 (0.83%) Web Services
13 20 (0.79%) JSON
13 20 (0.79%) React
14 19 (0.75%) LDAP
15 15 (0.59%) AngularJS
16 12 (0.48%) FHIR
17 11 (0.44%) SAP PI
Miscellaneous
1 188 (7.45%) Cloud Native
2 97 (3.84%) Data Centre
3 75 (2.97%) Operational Technology
4 72 (2.85%) Hybrid Cloud
5 64 (2.54%) Product Ownership
6 61 (2.42%) Onboarding
7 55 (2.18%) Data Protection Act
7 55 (2.18%) Management Information System
8 54 (2.14%) Enterprise Software
9 53 (2.10%) Distributed Systems
10 51 (2.02%) Legacy Systems
11 45 (1.78%) Public Cloud
12 31 (1.23%) Private Cloud
13 28 (1.11%) AI Agents
14 25 (0.99%) CMDB
14 25 (0.99%) Security Posture
15 23 (0.91%) SCADA
16 22 (0.87%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
17 21 (0.83%) Enterprise Cloud
17 21 (0.83%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 101 (4.00%) Windows
2 52 (2.06%) Linux
3 36 (1.43%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.63%) Android
4 16 (0.63%) Apple iOS
5 13 (0.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.40%) Unix
7 5 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
8 3 (0.12%) AIX
8 3 (0.12%) Windows 10
8 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2019
9 2 (0.079%) VMS
9 2 (0.079%) Windows 7
9 2 (0.079%) Windows Server 2012
9 2 (0.079%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.040%) CatOS
10 1 (0.040%) CentOS
10 1 (0.040%) Kali Linux
10 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.040%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 359 (14.23%) Roadmaps
2 339 (13.44%) Agile
3 316 (12.52%) Stakeholder Management
4 286 (11.34%) Migration
5 261 (10.34%) DevOps
6 255 (10.11%) Enterprise Architecture
7 251 (9.95%) Technical Leadership
8 241 (9.55%) Integration Patterns
9 233 (9.24%) CI/CD
10 226 (8.96%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 215 (8.52%) Architectural Patterns
12 210 (8.32%) Data Architecture
13 209 (8.28%) Data Modelling
14 201 (7.97%) Microservices
15 196 (7.77%) AI
16 194 (7.69%) TOGAF
17 191 (7.57%) Cybersecurity
18 171 (6.78%) Problem-Solving
18 171 (6.78%) Security Architecture
19 163 (6.46%) Architectural Design
Programming Languages
1 110 (4.36%) SQL
2 109 (4.32%) Python
3 95 (3.77%) Java
4 52 (2.06%) JavaScript
5 48 (1.90%) PowerShell
6 28 (1.11%) C#
7 23 (0.91%) Bicep
8 22 (0.87%) Bash
9 13 (0.52%) TypeScript
10 8 (0.32%) ABAP
10 8 (0.32%) PL/SQL
10 8 (0.32%) VBA
11 5 (0.20%) Apex Code
11 5 (0.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 4 (0.16%) Kotlin
12 4 (0.16%) Scala
13 3 (0.12%) C
13 3 (0.12%) Kusto Query Language
13 3 (0.12%) Shell Script
14 2 (0.079%) C++
Qualifications
1 763 (30.24%) Security Cleared
2 473 (18.75%) SC Cleared
3 240 (9.51%) DV Cleared
4 91 (3.61%) Degree
5 59 (2.34%) Cisco Certification
6 53 (2.10%) CISSP
7 50 (1.98%) BPSS Clearance
8 46 (1.82%) AWS Certification
8 46 (1.82%) TOGAF Certification
9 42 (1.66%) Azure Certification
10 34 (1.35%) Computer Science Degree
11 33 (1.31%) CCNP
12 21 (0.83%) Microsoft Certification
13 18 (0.71%) CISM
14 17 (0.67%) CCNA
15 16 (0.63%) Master's Degree
16 15 (0.59%) CCIE
17 14 (0.55%) (ISC)2 CCSP
17 14 (0.55%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
18 12 (0.48%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 96 (3.80%) NIST
2 73 (2.89%) Data Quality
3 68 (2.70%) GDPR
4 61 (2.42%) NCSC
5 57 (2.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 25 (0.99%) QA
7 20 (0.79%) PCI DSS
8 19 (0.75%) Accessibility
9 17 (0.67%) NIST 800
10 13 (0.52%) GRC
11 12 (0.48%) COBIT
12 11 (0.44%) IFRS
13 10 (0.40%) Disclosure Scotland
13 10 (0.40%) HL7
13 10 (0.40%) ISO 19650
13 10 (0.40%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 9 (0.36%) ISO 20022
14 9 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 20000
14 9 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
15 8 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 107 (4.24%) Active Directory
2 53 (2.10%) VMware Infrastructure
3 45 (1.78%) Docker
4 33 (1.31%) VMware NSX
5 24 (0.95%) Virtual Desktop
6 17 (0.67%) Hyper-V
6 17 (0.67%) vSphere
7 11 (0.44%) VMware ESXi
8 8 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
9 6 (0.24%) vCloud
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%) BitLocker
13 1 (0.040%) KVM
13 1 (0.040%) ProxySG
13 1 (0.040%) Slurm Workload Manager
13 1 (0.040%) Snort
Systems Management
1 105 (4.16%) Kubernetes
2 94 (3.73%) Terraform
3 54 (2.14%) Ansible
4 40 (1.59%) Microsoft Intune
5 27 (1.07%) Single Sign-On
6 19 (0.75%) Grafana
6 19 (0.75%) vCenter Server
7 15 (0.59%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 15 (0.59%) Prometheus
8 14 (0.55%) Jamf Pro
9 13 (0.52%) Argo
10 8 (0.32%) FortiGate
11 7 (0.28%) Istio
12 6 (0.24%) CASB
12 6 (0.24%) SCCM
13 5 (0.20%) EMC VPLEX
13 5 (0.20%) MOM
14 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
15 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
15 3 (0.12%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 337 (13.36%) Microsoft
2 141 (5.59%) SAP
3 111 (4.40%) Oracle
4 110 (4.36%) VMware
5 108 (4.28%) ServiceNow
6 74 (2.93%) Cisco
7 72 (2.85%) Google
8 71 (2.81%) Databricks
9 49 (1.94%) Salesforce
10 34 (1.35%) F5
11 31 (1.23%) Citrix
12 29 (1.15%) Red Hat
13 23 (0.91%) BiZZdesign
13 23 (0.91%) MuleSoft
14 22 (0.87%) Juniper
15 21 (0.83%) CyberArk
15 21 (0.83%) Palo Alto
16 20 (0.79%) Infoblox
16 20 (0.79%) Talend
17 17 (0.67%) Informatica