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 £613, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 21 May 2026.

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

6 months to
21 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 19 13
Rank change year-on-year +9 -6 +5
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,405 1,086 2,024
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.77% 8.44% 9.99%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.62% 9.18% 10.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,590 729 1,210
10th Percentile £450 £450 £496
25th Percentile £513 £519 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £613 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year +2.08% -7.69% -
75th Percentile £713 £698 £731
90th Percentile £775 £750 £800
UK median daily rate £620 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -0.80% -3.85% -1.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 116 28 89
10th Percentile £49.40 £50.54 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £61.50 £61.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £71.25 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -8.77% +1.79% -
75th Percentile £78.75 £78.77 £87.46
90th Percentile £96.25 £85.50 £90.40
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £70.00 £70.00
% change year-on-year -7.14% - -

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 22,637 11,826 18,741
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.95% 91.90% 92.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,110 7,547 11,455
10th Percentile £300 £213 £213
25th Percentile £401 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £489
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -2.86% -2.20%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £595
90th Percentile £682 £650 £688
UK median daily rate £513 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +0.49% -2.86% -3.23%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,546 855 2,269
10th Percentile £14.64 £13.85 £12.50
25th Percentile £19.79 £17.30 £15.75
Median hourly rate £45.00 £26.34 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +70.88% -34.16% -5.88%
75th Percentile £67.25 £63.75 £61.60
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £42.69 £27.99 £36.50
% change year-on-year +52.50% -23.32% -18.89%

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 21 May 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 21 May 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 21 May 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 +6 701 £625 - 198
North of England +4 656 £600 - 193
Midlands +2 435 £600 - 99
North West +6 370 £608 +5.01% 98
West Midlands -2 312 £620 +3.33% 61
South West +1 274 £675 +12.50% 96
Yorkshire +7 244 £555 -7.58% 59
East of England +20 202 £569 -9.00% 67
Scotland +16 141 £650 +6.12% 52
East Midlands 0 117 £550 +2.42% 38
North East +8 50 £575 -4.17% 38
Wales -1 30 £600 +25.00% 49
Northern Ireland +4 8 £475 -28.30% 12
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 21 May 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.

1 729 (30.31%) Security Cleared
2 471 (19.58%) Azure
3 425 (17.67%) SC Cleared
4 359 (14.93%) AWS
5 342 (14.22%) Roadmaps
6 337 (14.01%) Agile
7 321 (13.35%) Microsoft
8 261 (10.85%) Stakeholder Management
9 260 (10.81%) Enterprise Architecture
10 253 (10.52%) Migration
11 249 (10.35%) DV Cleared
12 244 (10.15%) DevOps
13 216 (8.98%) CI/CD
14 207 (8.61%) Technical Leadership
15 186 (7.73%) TOGAF
16 185 (7.69%) Data Modelling
16 185 (7.69%) Integration Patterns
17 182 (7.57%) Architectural Patterns
17 182 (7.57%) Microservices
18 180 (7.48%) Stakeholder Engagement
19 165 (6.86%) Architectural Design
19 165 (6.86%) Data Architecture
20 149 (6.20%) Problem-Solving
21 148 (6.15%) SAP
22 140 (5.82%) Cybersecurity
23 133 (5.53%) Analytics
24 131 (5.45%) AI
24 131 (5.45%) GCP
25 128 (5.32%) VMware
26 126 (5.24%) ServiceNow

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 65 (2.70%) SharePoint
2 61 (2.54%) Confluence
3 38 (1.58%) Microsoft Exchange
4 20 (0.83%) SAS
5 13 (0.54%) Appian
6 11 (0.46%) Apache Airflow
7 10 (0.42%) Anypoint
7 10 (0.42%) Apache
7 10 (0.42%) CMS
8 8 (0.33%) Apache Spark
9 7 (0.29%) ArcGIS
10 6 (0.25%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 6 (0.25%) NetWeaver
10 6 (0.25%) Sitecore CMS
10 6 (0.25%) WebLogic
11 5 (0.21%) SAP EP
12 4 (0.17%) JBoss
12 4 (0.17%) OpenStack
12 4 (0.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 4 (0.17%) Smallworld
Applications
1 28 (1.16%) Microsoft Office
2 18 (0.75%) Microsoft Project
3 13 (0.54%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (0.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (0.29%) Navisworks
4 7 (0.29%) Revit
5 5 (0.21%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.17%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.083%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.042%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 57 (2.37%) SAP S/4HANA
2 22 (0.91%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 20 (0.83%) Payment Gateway
4 12 (0.50%) SAP ERP
5 10 (0.42%) Teamcenter
6 9 (0.37%) Remedy ITSM
6 9 (0.37%) Workday HCM
7 6 (0.25%) SAP MDG
8 5 (0.21%) SAP CRM
9 4 (0.17%) Oracle Retail
9 4 (0.17%) Salesforce CRM
9 4 (0.17%) SAP GRC
10 3 (0.12%) Dynamics CRM
10 3 (0.12%) Oracle Payables
10 3 (0.12%) SAP SD
11 2 (0.083%) Dynamics AX
11 2 (0.083%) Maximo
11 2 (0.083%) NetSuite
11 2 (0.083%) Oracle ERP
11 2 (0.083%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 471 (19.58%) Azure
2 359 (14.93%) AWS
3 131 (5.45%) GCP
4 94 (3.91%) Power Platform
5 93 (3.87%) Entra ID
6 82 (3.41%) Microsoft 365
7 72 (2.99%) Serverless
8 69 (2.87%) SaaS
9 54 (2.25%) PaaS
10 45 (1.87%) GitHub
11 42 (1.75%) Azure DevOps
12 41 (1.70%) IaaS
13 40 (1.66%) Microsoft Purview
14 34 (1.41%) OpenShift
15 31 (1.29%) OneDrive
16 29 (1.21%) Dynamics 365
17 26 (1.08%) AWS Lambda
17 26 (1.08%) Azure Data Factory
18 24 (1.00%) Azure Synapse Analytics
19 23 (0.96%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 95 (3.95%) Firewall
2 68 (2.83%) WAN
3 67 (2.79%) DNS
4 63 (2.62%) Network Security
5 51 (2.12%) LAN
6 49 (2.04%) VPN
7 39 (1.62%) SD-WAN
8 34 (1.41%) DHCP
9 26 (1.08%) VLAN
10 23 (0.96%) Wireless
11 21 (0.87%) BGP
12 20 (0.83%) SAN
13 19 (0.79%) NAS
14 17 (0.71%) IPsec
14 17 (0.71%) Structured Cabling
15 16 (0.67%) BIG-IP
16 15 (0.62%) MPLS
16 15 (0.62%) OSPF
17 13 (0.54%) NX-OS
18 12 (0.50%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 70 (2.91%) Power BI
2 69 (2.87%) Metadata
3 49 (2.04%) Data Warehouse
4 39 (1.62%) SQL Server
5 36 (1.50%) Data Lake
6 33 (1.37%) NoSQL
7 24 (1.00%) PostgreSQL
8 21 (0.87%) Tableau
9 19 (0.79%) Oracle Database
10 14 (0.58%) GIS
11 12 (0.50%) Azure SQL Database
12 11 (0.46%) MongoDB
13 10 (0.42%) Big Data
14 9 (0.37%) DynamoDB
14 9 (0.37%) Relational Database
15 8 (0.33%) Electronic Patient Records
16 7 (0.29%) Metadata Repository
16 7 (0.29%) MySQL
16 7 (0.29%) Spatial Data
17 6 (0.25%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 75 (3.12%) JIRA
2 40 (1.66%) Jenkins
3 22 (0.91%) Git
4 21 (0.87%) GitLab
5 7 (0.29%) Artifactory
5 7 (0.29%) ERwin
6 5 (0.21%) Selenium
6 5 (0.21%) SonarQube
6 5 (0.21%) Sonatype Nexus
7 4 (0.17%) Bitbucket
7 4 (0.17%) Hudson
7 4 (0.17%) JUnit
7 4 (0.17%) Postman
7 4 (0.17%) REST Assured
8 3 (0.12%) Cucumber
8 3 (0.12%) MLflow
8 3 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
9 2 (0.083%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.083%) Gatling
9 2 (0.083%) NeoLoad
General
1 419 (17.42%) Social Skills
2 316 (13.14%) Finance
3 224 (9.31%) Public Sector
4 139 (5.78%) Banking
5 129 (5.36%) Analytical Skills
6 71 (2.95%) Retail
7 58 (2.41%) Legal
8 56 (2.33%) Documentation Skills
9 50 (2.08%) Manufacturing
10 49 (2.04%) Military
11 32 (1.33%) Influencing Skills
12 29 (1.21%) Aerospace
13 26 (1.08%) Investment Banking
14 24 (1.00%) Presentation Skills
15 21 (0.87%) Marketing
15 21 (0.87%) Telecoms
16 19 (0.79%) Financial Institution
17 18 (0.75%) Back Office
18 13 (0.54%) Billing
19 10 (0.42%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 93 (3.87%) REST
2 79 (3.28%) Middleware
3 48 (2.00%) .NET
4 44 (1.83%) OAuth
5 40 (1.66%) OpenID
6 39 (1.62%) SOAP
7 29 (1.21%) OAuth2
8 28 (1.16%) SAML
9 27 (1.12%) SailPoint
10 26 (1.08%) Kafka
11 25 (1.04%) Oracle Fusion
11 25 (1.04%) RESTful
12 22 (0.91%) JSON
13 20 (0.83%) Node.js
13 20 (0.83%) React
14 18 (0.75%) Web Services
15 16 (0.67%) Microsoft Graph
16 15 (0.62%) LDAP
17 13 (0.54%) AngularJS
18 12 (0.50%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 161 (6.69%) Cloud Native
2 81 (3.37%) Data Centre
3 78 (3.24%) Product Ownership
4 62 (2.58%) Operational Technology
5 53 (2.20%) Public Cloud
6 51 (2.12%) Onboarding
7 49 (2.04%) Management Information System
8 48 (2.00%) Hybrid Cloud
9 44 (1.83%) Data Protection Act
10 39 (1.62%) Enterprise Software
11 38 (1.58%) Distributed Systems
12 37 (1.54%) Legacy Systems
13 34 (1.41%) PKI
14 28 (1.16%) SCADA
15 25 (1.04%) CMDB
16 19 (0.79%) Private Cloud
17 18 (0.75%) Data Structures
18 17 (0.71%) AI Agents
18 17 (0.71%) Security Posture
19 15 (0.62%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 113 (4.70%) Windows
2 64 (2.66%) Linux
3 30 (1.25%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.67%) Android
4 16 (0.67%) Apple iOS
5 12 (0.50%) Unix
6 9 (0.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 8 (0.33%) Windows 10
7 8 (0.33%) Windows Server 2016
8 7 (0.29%) Windows 7
9 5 (0.21%) Windows Server 2019
10 4 (0.17%) Mac OS
11 3 (0.12%) Data ONTAP
11 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2012
12 2 (0.083%) VMS
13 1 (0.042%) CatOS
13 1 (0.042%) Kali Linux
13 1 (0.042%) Ubuntu
13 1 (0.042%) Windows Server 2008
13 1 (0.042%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 342 (14.22%) Roadmaps
2 337 (14.01%) Agile
3 261 (10.85%) Stakeholder Management
4 260 (10.81%) Enterprise Architecture
5 253 (10.52%) Migration
6 244 (10.15%) DevOps
7 216 (8.98%) CI/CD
8 207 (8.61%) Technical Leadership
9 186 (7.73%) TOGAF
10 185 (7.69%) Data Modelling
10 185 (7.69%) Integration Patterns
11 182 (7.57%) Architectural Patterns
11 182 (7.57%) Microservices
12 180 (7.48%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 165 (6.86%) Architectural Design
13 165 (6.86%) Data Architecture
14 149 (6.20%) Problem-Solving
15 140 (5.82%) Cybersecurity
16 133 (5.53%) Analytics
17 131 (5.45%) AI
Programming Languages
1 103 (4.28%) Python
2 94 (3.91%) SQL
3 71 (2.95%) PowerShell
4 65 (2.70%) Java
5 47 (1.95%) JavaScript
6 30 (1.25%) C#
7 21 (0.87%) Bicep
8 15 (0.62%) Bash
8 15 (0.62%) TypeScript
9 12 (0.50%) PL/SQL
10 10 (0.42%) Kusto Query Language
11 7 (0.29%) VBA
12 6 (0.25%) Scala
13 5 (0.21%) ABAP
13 5 (0.21%) Apex Code
14 4 (0.17%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 4 (0.17%) Perl
14 4 (0.17%) T-SQL
14 4 (0.17%) VB
14 4 (0.17%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 729 (30.31%) Security Cleared
2 425 (17.67%) SC Cleared
3 249 (10.35%) DV Cleared
4 97 (4.03%) Degree
5 60 (2.49%) TOGAF Certification
6 51 (2.12%) BPSS Clearance
7 44 (1.83%) Cisco Certification
8 33 (1.37%) CISSP
8 33 (1.37%) Computer Science Degree
9 32 (1.33%) Azure Certification
10 31 (1.29%) CCNP
11 30 (1.25%) AWS Certification
12 20 (0.83%) Microsoft Certification
13 18 (0.75%) ITIL Certification
14 17 (0.71%) ISEB
15 16 (0.67%) CISM
15 16 (0.67%) Master's Degree
16 15 (0.62%) CCNA
17 14 (0.58%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
18 11 (0.46%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 89 (3.70%) NIST
2 72 (2.99%) GDPR
3 62 (2.58%) Data Quality
4 55 (2.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 44 (1.83%) NCSC
6 22 (0.91%) QA
7 20 (0.83%) COBIT
8 19 (0.79%) Accessibility
9 16 (0.67%) Cyber Essentials
9 16 (0.67%) PCI DSS
10 14 (0.58%) GRC
11 12 (0.50%) FINRA
11 12 (0.50%) MiFID
12 11 (0.46%) NIST 800
13 10 (0.42%) ISO 20022
14 8 (0.33%) IFRS
15 7 (0.29%) Disclosure Scotland
15 7 (0.29%) HL7
15 7 (0.29%) ISO 19650
16 6 (0.25%) JSP 440
System Software
1 98 (4.07%) Active Directory
2 57 (2.37%) VMware Infrastructure
3 32 (1.33%) Docker
3 32 (1.33%) VMware NSX
4 19 (0.79%) Hyper-V
4 19 (0.79%) Virtual Desktop
4 19 (0.79%) vSphere
5 10 (0.42%) vCloud
5 10 (0.42%) VMware ESXi
6 7 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
7 5 (0.21%) RACF
8 4 (0.17%) BitLocker
8 4 (0.17%) NFS
9 3 (0.12%) IAG
10 2 (0.083%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
10 2 (0.083%) Firmware
11 1 (0.042%) Embedded Firmware
11 1 (0.042%) ProxySG
11 1 (0.042%) Snort
11 1 (0.042%) SRDF
Systems Management
1 81 (3.37%) Terraform
2 78 (3.24%) Kubernetes
3 54 (2.25%) Ansible
4 35 (1.46%) Microsoft Intune
5 26 (1.08%) vCenter Server
6 25 (1.04%) Single Sign-On
7 18 (0.75%) OPNET
8 15 (0.62%) SCCM
9 12 (0.50%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 12 (0.50%) FortiGate
10 10 (0.42%) Argo
10 10 (0.42%) Grafana
11 8 (0.33%) WMI
12 6 (0.25%) Istio
12 6 (0.25%) Jamf Pro
12 6 (0.25%) Prometheus
13 5 (0.21%) Endace
14 3 (0.12%) EMC VPLEX
14 3 (0.12%) Puppet
14 3 (0.12%) vRealize
Vendors
1 321 (13.35%) Microsoft
2 148 (6.15%) SAP
3 128 (5.32%) VMware
4 126 (5.24%) ServiceNow
5 99 (4.12%) Oracle
6 70 (2.91%) Cisco
7 60 (2.49%) Salesforce
8 53 (2.20%) Databricks
9 52 (2.16%) Google
10 46 (1.91%) MuleSoft
11 29 (1.21%) Citrix
11 29 (1.21%) Red Hat
11 29 (1.21%) Remedy
12 28 (1.16%) F5
13 25 (1.04%) BiZZdesign
13 25 (1.04%) Palo Alto
14 23 (0.96%) Sparx
15 22 (0.91%) Juniper
16 21 (0.87%) Atlassian
17 20 (0.83%) Talend