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 £600, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 11 March 2026.

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

6 months to
11 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 17 13
Rank change year-on-year +6 -4 +7
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,135 1,135 2,019
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 10.02% 8.90% 9.51%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.94% 9.62% 10.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,383 781 1,244
10th Percentile £447 £458 £500
25th Percentile £506 £545 £575
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £624 £650
Median % change year-on-year -3.89% -3.96% -
75th Percentile £705 £700 £713
90th Percentile £770 £749 £775
UK median daily rate £625 £625 £650
% change year-on-year - -3.85% -1.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 87 24 42
10th Percentile £49.40 £61.50 £52.98
25th Percentile £60.00 £64.88 £61.25
Median hourly rate £71.27 £72.50 £77.64
Median % change year-on-year -1.70% -6.61% +10.91%
75th Percentile £85.00 £78.92 £87.53
90th Percentile £95.00 £84.72 £95.00
UK median hourly rate £71.27 £71.25 £76.53
% change year-on-year +0.03% -6.90% +9.33%

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 19,513 11,800 19,710
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.58% 92.52% 92.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,574 7,546 12,266
10th Percentile £250 £210 £210
25th Percentile £388 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £475 £488
Median % change year-on-year +1.05% -2.56% -2.50%
75th Percentile £580 £588 £594
90th Percentile £675 £665 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,125 674 2,088
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.21 £12.52
25th Percentile £18.85 £20.27 £15.61
Median hourly rate £34.95 £32.50 £32.70
Median % change year-on-year +7.52% -0.60% -18.26%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £71.88
UK median hourly rate £35.00 £33.40 £32.69
% change year-on-year +4.79% +2.17% -22.84%

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 11 March 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 11 March 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 11 March 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 +4 658 £625 - 262
North of England -1 540 £593 -1.25% 162
Midlands -3 383 £575 -4.17% 112
North West +2 295 £600 - 85
West Midlands -2 285 £600 -1.15% 64
South West 0 260 £700 +12.00% 111
Yorkshire +5 224 £563 -2.00% 54
East of England +16 163 £540 -13.60% 71
Scotland +20 139 £650 +4.00% 30
East Midlands -4 94 £519 -9.78% 45
Wales +8 29 £563 +4.17% 23
North East -5 27 £625 - 25
Northern Ireland +5 10 £500 -26.47% 5
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 11 March 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.

1 682 (31.94%) Security Cleared
2 435 (20.37%) Azure
3 388 (18.17%) SC Cleared
4 329 (15.41%) AWS
5 314 (14.71%) Roadmaps
6 311 (14.57%) Microsoft
7 309 (14.47%) Agile
8 273 (12.79%) Stakeholder Management
9 258 (12.08%) Migration
10 246 (11.52%) Enterprise Architecture
11 237 (11.10%) DV Cleared
12 222 (10.40%) TOGAF
13 203 (9.51%) DevOps
14 185 (8.67%) Data Modelling
15 177 (8.29%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 175 (8.20%) CI/CD
17 169 (7.92%) Technical Leadership
18 159 (7.45%) Problem-Solving
19 150 (7.03%) Data Architecture
20 146 (6.84%) Analytics
20 146 (6.84%) Microservices
21 142 (6.65%) ITIL
22 139 (6.51%) Architectural Patterns
23 137 (6.42%) Cybersecurity
24 136 (6.37%) Architectural Design
24 136 (6.37%) GCP
25 129 (6.04%) ServiceNow
26 127 (5.95%) AI
26 127 (5.95%) Integration Patterns
26 127 (5.95%) Windows

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 86 (4.03%) Confluence
2 62 (2.90%) SharePoint
3 49 (2.30%) Microsoft Exchange
4 25 (1.17%) SAS
5 13 (0.61%) Appian
6 11 (0.52%) ArcGIS
6 11 (0.52%) CMS
7 10 (0.47%) Anypoint
8 9 (0.42%) Apache
8 9 (0.42%) Smallworld
9 7 (0.33%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 7 (0.33%) Apache Airflow
9 7 (0.33%) Apache Spark
9 7 (0.33%) Skype for Business
10 6 (0.28%) Sitecore CMS
10 6 (0.28%) WebLogic
11 5 (0.23%) GeoServer
12 4 (0.19%) IIS
12 4 (0.19%) JBoss
12 4 (0.19%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 45 (2.11%) Microsoft Office
2 30 (1.41%) Microsoft Project
3 22 (1.03%) Microsoft Excel
4 21 (0.98%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.33%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.19%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.047%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 50 (2.34%) SAP S/4HANA
2 27 (1.26%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 16 (0.75%) Payment Gateway
4 14 (0.66%) Workday HCM
5 10 (0.47%) Dynamics CRM
6 9 (0.42%) Salesforce CRM
7 7 (0.33%) Maximo
7 7 (0.33%) SAP ERP
8 5 (0.23%) Remedy ITSM
8 5 (0.23%) SAP CO
8 5 (0.23%) SAP FI
8 5 (0.23%) SAP FI/CO
9 4 (0.19%) Distributed Ledger
9 4 (0.19%) R3 Corda
9 4 (0.19%) SAP GRC
9 4 (0.19%) SAP PP
9 4 (0.19%) Teamcenter
10 3 (0.14%) SAP CRM
10 3 (0.14%) SAP MDG
10 3 (0.14%) SAP SD
Cloud Services
1 435 (20.37%) Azure
2 329 (15.41%) AWS
3 136 (6.37%) GCP
4 87 (4.07%) Microsoft 365
5 84 (3.93%) Entra ID
6 64 (3.00%) Power Platform
7 59 (2.76%) SaaS
8 55 (2.58%) Serverless
9 49 (2.30%) Microsoft Purview
10 46 (2.15%) IaaS
10 46 (2.15%) PaaS
11 39 (1.83%) OneDrive
11 39 (1.83%) OpenShift
12 34 (1.59%) Azure DevOps
13 33 (1.55%) GitHub
14 32 (1.50%) Dynamics 365
15 27 (1.26%) Azure Synapse Analytics
16 26 (1.22%) AWS CloudFormation
17 25 (1.17%) AWS Lambda
18 22 (1.03%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 101 (4.73%) Firewall
2 69 (3.23%) DNS
3 65 (3.04%) WAN
4 57 (2.67%) Network Security
5 53 (2.48%) VPN
6 42 (1.97%) LAN
7 36 (1.69%) SD-WAN
8 26 (1.22%) DHCP
9 20 (0.94%) MPLS
10 17 (0.80%) BGP
10 17 (0.80%) VLAN
11 16 (0.75%) Wi-Fi
11 16 (0.75%) Wireless
12 14 (0.66%) IPsec
12 14 (0.66%) SAN
13 12 (0.56%) OSPF
14 11 (0.52%) Kerberos
14 11 (0.52%) SSL
14 11 (0.52%) VXLAN
15 10 (0.47%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 79 (3.70%) Data Warehouse
2 69 (3.23%) Metadata
3 51 (2.39%) Power BI
4 42 (1.97%) SQL Server
5 30 (1.41%) PostgreSQL
6 26 (1.22%) Tableau
7 25 (1.17%) Data Lake
8 23 (1.08%) Oracle Database
9 21 (0.98%) NoSQL
10 20 (0.94%) GIS
11 15 (0.70%) DynamoDB
12 14 (0.66%) Metadata Repository
13 12 (0.56%) Azure SQL Database
13 12 (0.56%) Big Data
14 11 (0.52%) Relational Database
15 9 (0.42%) Amazon Redshift
16 8 (0.37%) Amazon Athena
16 8 (0.37%) SQL Server Reporting Services
17 7 (0.33%) Hadoop
17 7 (0.33%) SAS Enterprise Guide
Development Applications
1 95 (4.45%) JIRA
2 44 (2.06%) Jenkins
3 18 (0.84%) Git
3 18 (0.84%) GitLab
4 4 (0.19%) Artifactory
4 4 (0.19%) ERwin
4 4 (0.19%) Selenium
4 4 (0.19%) Sonatype Nexus
5 3 (0.14%) Bitbucket
5 3 (0.14%) Cucumber
5 3 (0.14%) MLflow
5 3 (0.14%) MSI
5 3 (0.14%) Postman
5 3 (0.14%) Rational DOORS
5 3 (0.14%) REST Assured
6 2 (0.094%) Gatling
6 2 (0.094%) JMeter
6 2 (0.094%) NeoLoad
6 2 (0.094%) Oracle Forms
6 2 (0.094%) SonarQube
General
1 430 (20.14%) Social Skills
2 271 (12.69%) Finance
3 229 (10.73%) Public Sector
4 142 (6.65%) Analytical Skills
5 118 (5.53%) Banking
6 57 (2.67%) Documentation Skills
7 55 (2.58%) Military
8 46 (2.15%) Legal
9 41 (1.92%) Telecoms
10 38 (1.78%) Retail
11 37 (1.73%) Influencing Skills
11 37 (1.73%) Marketing
12 33 (1.55%) Presentation Skills
13 21 (0.98%) Manufacturing
14 18 (0.84%) Aerospace
14 18 (0.84%) Investment Banking
15 15 (0.70%) Financial Institution
16 14 (0.66%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 12 (0.56%) Billing
18 11 (0.52%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 80 (3.75%) REST
2 55 (2.58%) Middleware
3 44 (2.06%) SOAP
4 38 (1.78%) .NET
5 36 (1.69%) OAuth
6 32 (1.50%) OpenID
7 29 (1.36%) SAML
8 28 (1.31%) OAuth2
8 28 (1.31%) SailPoint
9 26 (1.22%) Kafka
10 21 (0.98%) RESTful
11 17 (0.80%) React
11 17 (0.80%) Web Services
12 16 (0.75%) Node.js
13 15 (0.70%) Microsoft Graph
14 12 (0.56%) CSS
14 12 (0.56%) HTML
14 12 (0.56%) LDAP
14 12 (0.56%) Oracle Fusion
15 10 (0.47%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 133 (6.23%) Cloud Native
2 101 (4.73%) Product Ownership
3 77 (3.61%) Data Centre
4 59 (2.76%) Onboarding
5 52 (2.44%) Public Cloud
6 47 (2.20%) PKI
7 42 (1.97%) Hybrid Cloud
8 41 (1.92%) Operational Technology
9 38 (1.78%) Legacy Systems
10 36 (1.69%) Enterprise Software
10 36 (1.69%) Management Information System
11 35 (1.64%) Data Protection Act
12 30 (1.41%) Distributed Systems
13 27 (1.26%) CMDB
14 24 (1.12%) SCADA
15 18 (0.84%) AI Agents
16 17 (0.80%) NHS
17 15 (0.70%) Data Structures
18 14 (0.66%) Blackberry
19 12 (0.56%) Blockchain
Operating Systems
1 127 (5.95%) Windows
2 72 (3.37%) Linux
3 27 (1.26%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.75%) Windows 7
5 14 (0.66%) Android
5 14 (0.66%) Apple iOS
5 14 (0.66%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 11 (0.52%) Windows 10
7 8 (0.37%) Windows Server 2016
8 7 (0.33%) Unix
9 5 (0.23%) VMS
9 5 (0.23%) Windows Server 2019
10 4 (0.19%) Mac OS
11 3 (0.14%) Ubuntu
11 3 (0.14%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.047%) CentOS
12 1 (0.047%) Data ONTAP
12 1 (0.047%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 314 (14.71%) Roadmaps
2 309 (14.47%) Agile
3 273 (12.79%) Stakeholder Management
4 258 (12.08%) Migration
5 246 (11.52%) Enterprise Architecture
6 222 (10.40%) TOGAF
7 203 (9.51%) DevOps
8 185 (8.67%) Data Modelling
9 177 (8.29%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 175 (8.20%) CI/CD
11 169 (7.92%) Technical Leadership
12 159 (7.45%) Problem-Solving
13 150 (7.03%) Data Architecture
14 146 (6.84%) Analytics
14 146 (6.84%) Microservices
15 142 (6.65%) ITIL
16 139 (6.51%) Architectural Patterns
17 137 (6.42%) Cybersecurity
18 136 (6.37%) Architectural Design
19 127 (5.95%) Integration Patterns
Programming Languages
1 126 (5.90%) Python
2 78 (3.65%) PowerShell
3 74 (3.47%) SQL
4 58 (2.72%) Java
5 32 (1.50%) JavaScript
6 29 (1.36%) C#
7 18 (0.84%) Bash
8 16 (0.75%) Bicep
9 11 (0.52%) Kusto Query Language
10 9 (0.42%) PL/SQL
11 8 (0.37%) R
12 7 (0.33%) TypeScript
12 7 (0.33%) VB
12 7 (0.33%) VBScript
13 6 (0.28%) Apex Code
14 4 (0.19%) Perl
14 4 (0.19%) Scala
14 4 (0.19%) Shell Script
14 4 (0.19%) X++
15 3 (0.14%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 682 (31.94%) Security Cleared
2 388 (18.17%) SC Cleared
3 237 (11.10%) DV Cleared
4 107 (5.01%) Degree
5 79 (3.70%) TOGAF Certification
6 64 (3.00%) CISSP
7 54 (2.53%) AWS Certification
8 46 (2.15%) BPSS Clearance
9 38 (1.78%) Azure Certification
9 38 (1.78%) Cisco Certification
10 36 (1.69%) CISM
11 30 (1.41%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 29 (1.36%) Microsoft Certification
13 28 (1.31%) Computer Science Degree
14 27 (1.26%) ITIL Certification
15 26 (1.22%) ISEB
16 24 (1.12%) CCNP
17 23 (1.08%) Master's Degree
18 15 (0.70%) CCIE
19 13 (0.61%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 102 (4.78%) GDPR
2 82 (3.84%) NIST
3 73 (3.42%) Data Quality
4 63 (2.95%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 40 (1.87%) NCSC
6 32 (1.50%) PCI DSS
7 30 (1.41%) COBIT
8 20 (0.94%) QA
9 19 (0.89%) GRC
10 16 (0.75%) Cyber Essentials
10 16 (0.75%) JSP 440
11 13 (0.61%) Accessibility
12 12 (0.56%) FINRA
12 12 (0.56%) ISO 20022
12 12 (0.56%) MiFID
13 9 (0.42%) California Consumer Privacy Act
13 9 (0.42%) Def Stans
13 9 (0.42%) HMG Security Policy Framework
14 8 (0.37%) NIST 800
15 7 (0.33%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 95 (4.45%) Active Directory
2 55 (2.58%) VMware Infrastructure
3 37 (1.73%) Docker
4 33 (1.55%) VMware NSX
5 23 (1.08%) vSphere
6 12 (0.56%) Virtual Desktop
7 11 (0.52%) Hyper-V
8 8 (0.37%) Virtual Machines
8 8 (0.37%) VMware ESXi
9 7 (0.33%) BitLocker
9 7 (0.33%) vCloud
10 5 (0.23%) RACF
11 3 (0.14%) IAG
12 2 (0.094%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
12 2 (0.094%) Firmware
12 2 (0.094%) NFS
13 1 (0.047%) Embedded Firmware
13 1 (0.047%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 99 (4.64%) Terraform
2 76 (3.56%) Kubernetes
3 59 (2.76%) Ansible
4 31 (1.45%) Microsoft Intune
4 31 (1.45%) Single Sign-On
5 30 (1.41%) OPNET
6 28 (1.31%) vCenter Server
7 20 (0.94%) SCCM
8 15 (0.70%) WMI
9 14 (0.66%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 14 (0.66%) Argo
10 11 (0.52%) FortiGate
11 6 (0.28%) Prometheus
12 5 (0.23%) Grafana
12 5 (0.23%) Istio
13 3 (0.14%) Endace
13 3 (0.14%) SCOM
14 2 (0.094%) Jamf Pro
14 2 (0.094%) MOM
14 2 (0.094%) Nessus
Vendors
1 311 (14.57%) Microsoft
2 129 (6.04%) ServiceNow
3 124 (5.81%) VMware
4 108 (5.06%) SAP
5 94 (4.40%) Oracle
6 72 (3.37%) Salesforce
7 71 (3.33%) Cisco
8 49 (2.30%) Google
9 42 (1.97%) Remedy
10 38 (1.78%) Red Hat
11 37 (1.73%) MuleSoft
12 36 (1.69%) Databricks
13 34 (1.59%) Atlassian
14 33 (1.55%) BiZZdesign
14 33 (1.55%) Palo Alto
15 28 (1.31%) Citrix
15 28 (1.31%) CyberArk
16 26 (1.22%) Sparx
17 25 (1.17%) F5
17 25 (1.17%) Virgin Media