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 20 June 2026.

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

6 months to
20 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 20 12
Rank change year-on-year +9 -8 +6
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,491 1,089 2,157
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.62% 8.11% 10.06%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.47% 8.87% 10.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,656 720 1,300
10th Percentile £463 £450 £490
25th Percentile £521 £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 £760 £788
UK median daily rate £620 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -0.80% -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 132 24 94
10th Percentile £49.40 £43.92 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £65.13 £61.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £73.25 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -11.26% +4.64% -
75th Percentile £74.25 £82.25 £87.35
90th Percentile £83.90 £86.90 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £72.50 £70.00
% change year-on-year -10.34% +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 23,794 12,283 19,829
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.93% 91.47% 92.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,649 7,724 11,772
10th Percentile £303 £220 £213
25th Percentile £406 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £490
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -3.06% -2.00%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £594
90th Percentile £688 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £515 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +3.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,728 950 2,566
10th Percentile £14.86 £13.50 £12.66
25th Percentile £20.35 £16.84 £15.99
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -3.61%
75th Percentile £67.50 £58.75 £63.75
90th Percentile £78.83 £75.00 £74.37
UK median hourly rate £44.94 £27.50 £37.50
% change year-on-year +63.40% -26.67% -16.67%

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 20 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 20 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 20 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 +5 706 £625 +4.17% 183
North of England +7 699 £600 - 156
Midlands +1 438 £613 +3.90% 66
North West +3 373 £610 +2.95% 82
West Midlands -1 311 £625 +4.17% 53
South West 0 274 £643 +4.90% 73
Yorkshire +7 267 £558 -7.00% 42
East of England +16 210 £588 -2.08% 38
Scotland +10 161 £650 +4.00% 25
East Midlands +6 121 £575 +15.00% 13
North East +7 66 £575 -8.00% 33
Wales +2 34 £620 +30.53% 23
Northern Ireland +5 7 £475 -28.30% 14
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 20 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.

1 724 (29.06%) Security Cleared
2 524 (21.04%) Azure
3 448 (17.98%) SC Cleared
4 411 (16.50%) AWS
5 356 (14.29%) Roadmaps
6 349 (14.01%) Microsoft
7 343 (13.77%) Agile
8 302 (12.12%) Migration
9 301 (12.08%) Stakeholder Management
10 267 (10.72%) DevOps
11 265 (10.64%) Enterprise Architecture
12 241 (9.67%) Technical Leadership
13 231 (9.27%) CI/CD
14 223 (8.95%) DV Cleared
15 222 (8.91%) Integration Patterns
16 209 (8.39%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 203 (8.15%) Architectural Patterns
18 201 (8.07%) Data Modelling
19 196 (7.87%) Microservices
20 188 (7.55%) Data Architecture
21 172 (6.90%) TOGAF
22 168 (6.74%) Cybersecurity
23 164 (6.58%) Architectural Design
24 162 (6.50%) Problem-Solving
25 156 (6.26%) AI
26 148 (5.94%) SAP
27 141 (5.66%) Security Architecture
28 140 (5.62%) Analytics
29 139 (5.58%) GCP
30 136 (5.46%) Technical Architecture

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 (2.53%) SharePoint
2 49 (1.97%) Confluence
3 34 (1.36%) 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%) Anypoint
10 6 (0.24%) Sitecore CMS
10 6 (0.24%) WebLogic
11 5 (0.20%) NetWeaver
11 5 (0.20%) Palantir Foundry
12 4 (0.16%) Documentum
12 4 (0.16%) JBoss
12 4 (0.16%) SAP EP
Applications
1 14 (0.56%) Microsoft Excel
1 14 (0.56%) 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 62 (2.49%) SAP S/4HANA
2 20 (0.80%) Payment Gateway
3 19 (0.76%) 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 LN
12 2 (0.080%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 524 (21.04%) Azure
2 411 (16.50%) AWS
3 139 (5.58%) GCP
4 102 (4.09%) Power Platform
5 88 (3.53%) Entra ID
6 83 (3.33%) Microsoft 365
7 77 (3.09%) Serverless
8 76 (3.05%) SaaS
9 58 (2.33%) PaaS
10 50 (2.01%) GitHub
11 47 (1.89%) IaaS
12 42 (1.69%) Azure DevOps
13 35 (1.41%) Microsoft Purview
14 33 (1.32%) OpenShift
15 31 (1.24%) Dynamics 365
16 29 (1.16%) OneDrive
17 28 (1.12%) AWS Lambda
18 25 (1.00%) GitHub Actions
18 25 (1.00%) PowerApps
19 24 (0.96%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 101 (4.05%) Firewall
2 73 (2.93%) WAN
3 71 (2.85%) DNS
4 64 (2.57%) Network Security
5 56 (2.25%) LAN
6 48 (1.93%) VPN
7 40 (1.61%) SD-WAN
8 37 (1.49%) DHCP
9 30 (1.20%) VLAN
10 25 (1.00%) Wireless
11 24 (0.96%) BGP
11 24 (0.96%) SAN
12 23 (0.92%) NAS
13 21 (0.84%) Structured Cabling
14 20 (0.80%) IPsec
14 20 (0.80%) MPLS
15 19 (0.76%) BIG-IP
16 17 (0.68%) TCP/IP
17 16 (0.64%) OSPF
18 14 (0.56%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (2.89%) Metadata
1 72 (2.89%) Power BI
2 58 (2.33%) Data Warehouse
3 52 (2.09%) Data Lake
4 34 (1.36%) NoSQL
5 30 (1.20%) SQL Server
6 25 (1.00%) PostgreSQL
7 17 (0.68%) Tableau
8 16 (0.64%) Oracle Database
9 15 (0.60%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
9 15 (0.60%) GIS
10 13 (0.52%) Azure SQL Database
10 13 (0.52%) Base SAS
11 11 (0.44%) Big Data
11 11 (0.44%) MongoDB
12 10 (0.40%) Amazon RDS
12 10 (0.40%) Relational Database
13 9 (0.36%) Electronic Patient Records
14 8 (0.32%) DynamoDB
14 8 (0.32%) SAS Enterprise Guide
Development Applications
1 63 (2.53%) JIRA
2 35 (1.41%) Jenkins
3 22 (0.88%) Git
4 19 (0.76%) GitLab
5 9 (0.36%) ERwin
6 6 (0.24%) Artifactory
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
8 4 (0.16%) Sonatype Nexus
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%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.080%) NeoLoad
10 2 (0.080%) Oracle Forms
10 2 (0.080%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 445 (17.86%) Social Skills
2 350 (14.05%) Finance
3 241 (9.67%) Public Sector
4 140 (5.62%) Banking
5 126 (5.06%) Analytical Skills
6 94 (3.77%) Retail
7 68 (2.73%) Manufacturing
8 58 (2.33%) Documentation Skills
8 58 (2.33%) Legal
9 37 (1.49%) Influencing Skills
10 33 (1.32%) Aerospace
10 33 (1.32%) Military
11 25 (1.00%) Investment Banking
12 21 (0.84%) Presentation Skills
13 20 (0.80%) Financial Institution
13 20 (0.80%) Telecoms
14 18 (0.72%) Back Office
14 18 (0.72%) Marketing
15 13 (0.52%) Billing
16 11 (0.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 110 (4.42%) REST
2 80 (3.21%) Middleware
3 50 (2.01%) OAuth
4 48 (1.93%) .NET
5 46 (1.85%) OpenID
6 43 (1.73%) SOAP
7 34 (1.36%) Oracle Fusion
7 34 (1.36%) SAML
8 33 (1.32%) SailPoint
9 32 (1.28%) OAuth2
10 31 (1.24%) Kafka
11 27 (1.08%) RESTful
12 23 (0.92%) Node.js
13 22 (0.88%) React
14 21 (0.84%) JSON
14 21 (0.84%) LDAP
14 21 (0.84%) Web Services
15 14 (0.56%) Microsoft Graph
16 13 (0.52%) AngularJS
16 13 (0.52%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 176 (7.07%) Cloud Native
2 87 (3.49%) Data Centre
3 77 (3.09%) Product Ownership
4 71 (2.85%) Operational Technology
5 60 (2.41%) Hybrid Cloud
6 58 (2.33%) Management Information System
7 52 (2.09%) Legacy Systems
8 51 (2.05%) Onboarding
9 49 (1.97%) Data Protection Act
9 49 (1.97%) Enterprise Software
10 48 (1.93%) Public Cloud
11 45 (1.81%) Distributed Systems
12 27 (1.08%) CMDB
13 26 (1.04%) Private Cloud
14 25 (1.00%) PKI
15 24 (0.96%) SCADA
16 23 (0.92%) Security Posture
17 20 (0.80%) AI Agents
18 19 (0.76%) Data Structures
19 17 (0.68%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 106 (4.26%) Windows
2 47 (1.89%) Linux
3 32 (1.28%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.64%) Android
4 16 (0.64%) Apple iOS
5 13 (0.52%) Unix
6 6 (0.24%) Windows Server 2016
7 5 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
7 5 (0.20%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (0.20%) Windows 7
8 4 (0.16%) Windows 10
8 4 (0.16%) Windows Server 2019
9 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2012
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
1 356 (14.29%) Roadmaps
2 343 (13.77%) Agile
3 302 (12.12%) Migration
4 301 (12.08%) Stakeholder Management
5 267 (10.72%) DevOps
6 265 (10.64%) Enterprise Architecture
7 241 (9.67%) Technical Leadership
8 231 (9.27%) CI/CD
9 222 (8.91%) Integration Patterns
10 209 (8.39%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 203 (8.15%) Architectural Patterns
12 201 (8.07%) Data Modelling
13 196 (7.87%) Microservices
14 188 (7.55%) Data Architecture
15 172 (6.90%) TOGAF
16 168 (6.74%) Cybersecurity
17 164 (6.58%) Architectural Design
18 162 (6.50%) Problem-Solving
19 156 (6.26%) AI
20 141 (5.66%) Security Architecture
Programming Languages
1 109 (4.38%) SQL
2 105 (4.22%) Python
3 85 (3.41%) Java
4 59 (2.37%) PowerShell
5 47 (1.89%) JavaScript
6 31 (1.24%) C#
7 24 (0.96%) Bicep
8 15 (0.60%) TypeScript
9 14 (0.56%) Bash
10 10 (0.40%) Kusto Query Language
11 8 (0.32%) PL/SQL
11 8 (0.32%) VBA
12 7 (0.28%) ABAP
13 6 (0.24%) Scala
14 5 (0.20%) Apex Code
15 4 (0.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 4 (0.16%) Kotlin
15 4 (0.16%) VB
15 4 (0.16%) VBScript
16 3 (0.12%) C
Qualifications
1 724 (29.06%) Security Cleared
2 448 (17.98%) SC Cleared
3 223 (8.95%) DV Cleared
4 88 (3.53%) Degree
5 53 (2.13%) BPSS Clearance
5 53 (2.13%) Cisco Certification
6 39 (1.57%) TOGAF Certification
7 38 (1.53%) AWS Certification
8 37 (1.49%) CISSP
9 36 (1.45%) Azure Certification
10 33 (1.32%) CCNP
11 32 (1.28%) Computer Science Degree
12 20 (0.80%) Microsoft Certification
13 17 (0.68%) CISM
14 16 (0.64%) CCNA
15 15 (0.60%) Master's Degree
16 12 (0.48%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
16 12 (0.48%) Network+ Certification
16 12 (0.48%) Server+ Certification
17 11 (0.44%) CCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 92 (3.69%) NIST
2 75 (3.01%) GDPR
3 73 (2.93%) Data Quality
4 57 (2.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 52 (2.09%) NCSC
6 25 (1.00%) QA
7 20 (0.80%) Accessibility
8 16 (0.64%) PCI DSS
9 13 (0.52%) GRC
10 12 (0.48%) COBIT
10 12 (0.48%) FINRA
10 12 (0.48%) MiFID
10 12 (0.48%) NIST 800
11 11 (0.44%) IFRS
12 10 (0.40%) Cyber Essentials
12 10 (0.40%) HL7
12 10 (0.40%) ISO 19650
13 9 (0.36%) ISO 20022
14 8 (0.32%) Disclosure Scotland
14 8 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
System Software
1 101 (4.05%) Active Directory
2 55 (2.21%) VMware Infrastructure
3 37 (1.49%) Docker
4 33 (1.32%) VMware NSX
5 21 (0.84%) Hyper-V
6 20 (0.80%) vSphere
7 16 (0.64%) Virtual Desktop
8 11 (0.44%) VMware ESXi
9 8 (0.32%) vCloud
9 8 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
10 5 (0.20%) RACF
11 4 (0.16%) BitLocker
11 4 (0.16%) NFS
12 3 (0.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
12 3 (0.12%) IAG
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 87 (3.49%) Kubernetes
2 81 (3.25%) Terraform
3 52 (2.09%) Ansible
4 33 (1.32%) Microsoft Intune
5 25 (1.00%) Single Sign-On
6 24 (0.96%) vCenter Server
7 16 (0.64%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 15 (0.60%) FortiGate
8 15 (0.60%) Grafana
9 12 (0.48%) Argo
10 11 (0.44%) Prometheus
11 10 (0.40%) SCCM
12 7 (0.28%) Jamf Pro
13 6 (0.24%) Istio
14 5 (0.20%) EMC VPLEX
15 4 (0.16%) Endace
15 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
15 4 (0.16%) WMI
16 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
16 3 (0.12%) MOM
Vendors
1 349 (14.01%) Microsoft
2 148 (5.94%) SAP
3 120 (4.82%) VMware
4 110 (4.42%) Oracle
5 104 (4.18%) ServiceNow
6 74 (2.97%) Cisco
7 66 (2.65%) Databricks
8 57 (2.29%) Google
9 54 (2.17%) Salesforce
10 31 (1.24%) MuleSoft
11 30 (1.20%) F5
11 30 (1.20%) Red Hat
12 27 (1.08%) Palo Alto
13 24 (0.96%) BiZZdesign
14 21 (0.84%) Citrix
14 21 (0.84%) Juniper
14 21 (0.84%) Sparx
15 20 (0.80%) Talend
16 15 (0.60%) BMC
16 15 (0.60%) Splunk