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 23 January 2026.

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

6 months to
23 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 17 17 14
Rank change year-on-year 0 -3 +5
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 1,770 1,255 1,839
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.39% 9.06% 9.18%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.35% 9.80% 9.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,197 773 1,209
10th Percentile £447 £467 £500
25th Percentile £506 £550 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% -3.85% -
75th Percentile £705 £700 £700
90th Percentile £775 £750 £754
UK median daily rate £625 £625 £650
% change year-on-year - -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 38 24 34
10th Percentile £47.33 £61.50 £61.25
25th Percentile £61.25 £66.00 £63.44
Median hourly rate £83.41 £72.50 £77.27
Median % change year-on-year +15.05% -6.17% +10.38%
75th Percentile £90.09 £78.92 £85.65
90th Percentile £95.00 £84.72 £95.00
UK median hourly rate £80.00 £72.50 £76.53
% change year-on-year +10.34% -5.27% +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 17,105 12,809 18,685
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.71% 92.42% 93.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,470 7,588 11,867
10th Percentile £213 £213 £213
25th Percentile £375 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £477 £500
Median % change year-on-year -0.31% -4.70% -
75th Percentile £575 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,752 686 1,638
10th Percentile £14.00 £15.24 £13.25
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.30 £16.75
Median hourly rate £25.59 £31.64 £40.28
Median % change year-on-year -19.11% -21.44% +34.25%
75th Percentile £60.33 £64.40 £63.75
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.75 £74.00
UK median hourly rate £27.50 £32.50 £39.55
% change year-on-year -15.38% -17.83% +13.00%

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 23 January 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 23 January 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 23 January 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 +9 566 £600 -4.00% 303
North of England -4 435 £570 -5.00% 207
Midlands -5 305 £573 -4.50% 103
North West -5 261 £575 -4.17% 110
South West +1 243 £710 +13.60% 107
West Midlands -7 217 £600 -3.23% 49
Yorkshire -9 163 £554 -7.67% 64
East of England +6 121 £525 -16.00% 112
Scotland +3 98 £650 +4.00% 80
East Midlands -3 86 £500 -13.79% 51
Wales +2 31 £625 +2.04% 44
North East -23 11 £575 -4.11% 33
Northern Ireland -9 5 £500 -16.67% 12
Channel Islands - 1 £450 -
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 23 January 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.

1 593 (33.50%) Security Cleared
2 384 (21.69%) Azure
3 353 (19.94%) SC Cleared
4 290 (16.38%) AWS
5 272 (15.37%) Roadmaps
6 258 (14.58%) Agile
7 253 (14.29%) Microsoft
8 247 (13.95%) Stakeholder Management
9 222 (12.54%) Migration
10 221 (12.49%) Enterprise Architecture
10 221 (12.49%) TOGAF
11 187 (10.56%) DV Cleared
12 169 (9.55%) DevOps
12 169 (9.55%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 156 (8.81%) Data Modelling
14 155 (8.76%) Technical Leadership
15 145 (8.19%) ITIL
16 139 (7.85%) CI/CD
17 137 (7.74%) Problem-Solving
18 129 (7.29%) GCP
19 121 (6.84%) Architectural Design
20 120 (6.78%) Python
21 118 (6.67%) Analytics
21 118 (6.67%) Cybersecurity
22 114 (6.44%) Mentoring
23 112 (6.33%) Microservices
24 110 (6.21%) AI
25 108 (6.10%) Windows
26 107 (6.05%) ServiceNow
27 105 (5.93%) Decision-Making

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 80 (4.52%) Confluence
2 49 (2.77%) SharePoint
3 43 (2.43%) Microsoft Exchange
4 16 (0.90%) SAS
5 11 (0.62%) Anypoint
6 9 (0.51%) ArcGIS
6 9 (0.51%) Smallworld
7 8 (0.45%) CMS
8 7 (0.40%) OpenStack
8 7 (0.40%) Skype for Business
9 5 (0.28%) Appian
9 5 (0.28%) GeoServer
9 5 (0.28%) WebLogic
10 4 (0.23%) Apache
10 4 (0.23%) Documentum
10 4 (0.23%) Ethereum
10 4 (0.23%) Hyperledger
10 4 (0.23%) IIS
10 4 (0.23%) Tomcat
11 3 (0.17%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 42 (2.37%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (1.75%) Microsoft Project
3 23 (1.30%) Microsoft Excel
4 22 (1.24%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 8 (0.45%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.056%) FrameMaker
6 1 (0.056%) OrCAD
6 1 (0.056%) Revit
6 1 (0.056%) Siemens NX
6 1 (0.056%) Trello
Business Applications
1 55 (3.11%) SAP S/4HANA
2 25 (1.41%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 15 (0.85%) Dynamics CRM
3 15 (0.85%) Workday HCM
4 11 (0.62%) SAP CO
5 10 (0.56%) Payment Gateway
5 10 (0.56%) Salesforce CRM
5 10 (0.56%) SAP FI
5 10 (0.56%) SAP FI/CO
6 6 (0.34%) Maximo
6 6 (0.34%) SAP PM
7 5 (0.28%) Dynamics AX
7 5 (0.28%) Oracle SCM
8 4 (0.23%) Distributed Ledger
8 4 (0.23%) NetSuite
8 4 (0.23%) R3 Corda
8 4 (0.23%) SAP ERP
8 4 (0.23%) SAP PP
9 3 (0.17%) SAP CRM
9 3 (0.17%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 384 (21.69%) Azure
2 290 (16.38%) AWS
3 129 (7.29%) GCP
4 74 (4.18%) Microsoft 365
5 62 (3.50%) SaaS
6 55 (3.11%) Entra ID
7 50 (2.82%) Serverless
8 46 (2.60%) Power Platform
9 43 (2.43%) Microsoft Purview
10 39 (2.20%) Dynamics 365
11 34 (1.92%) Azure DevOps
12 32 (1.81%) OneDrive
13 31 (1.75%) AWS Lambda
13 31 (1.75%) PaaS
14 28 (1.58%) IaaS
15 26 (1.47%) GitHub
15 26 (1.47%) OpenShift
16 24 (1.36%) AWS CloudFormation
17 22 (1.24%) Azure Data Factory
18 21 (1.19%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 93 (5.25%) Firewall
2 68 (3.84%) WAN
3 53 (2.99%) DNS
4 46 (2.60%) VPN
5 42 (2.37%) LAN
6 39 (2.20%) Network Security
7 37 (2.09%) SD-WAN
8 21 (1.19%) BGP
8 21 (1.19%) MPLS
9 18 (1.02%) DHCP
10 17 (0.96%) SAN
10 17 (0.96%) Wi-Fi
11 13 (0.73%) Internet
11 13 (0.73%) VSAN
12 12 (0.68%) VLAN
13 10 (0.56%) Skype
14 9 (0.51%) IPsec
15 8 (0.45%) Cisco ASA
15 8 (0.45%) OSPF
15 8 (0.45%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 62 (3.50%) Data Warehouse
2 44 (2.49%) Metadata
3 37 (2.09%) Power BI
4 29 (1.64%) SQL Server
5 28 (1.58%) PostgreSQL
6 27 (1.53%) Tableau
7 22 (1.24%) DynamoDB
8 20 (1.13%) NoSQL
9 17 (0.96%) GIS
10 15 (0.85%) Redis
11 14 (0.79%) Data Lake
11 14 (0.79%) Oracle Database
11 14 (0.79%) Relational Database
12 10 (0.56%) Amazon Aurora
12 10 (0.56%) Azure SQL Database
12 10 (0.56%) BigQuery
12 10 (0.56%) RDBMS
13 9 (0.51%) Amazon Redshift
13 9 (0.51%) Metadata Repository
14 8 (0.45%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 91 (5.14%) JIRA
2 45 (2.54%) Jenkins
3 27 (1.53%) Git
4 14 (0.79%) GitLab
5 8 (0.45%) SonarQube
6 7 (0.40%) Artifactory
7 5 (0.28%) Gradle
7 5 (0.28%) Maven
7 5 (0.28%) MSI
7 5 (0.28%) Postman
7 5 (0.28%) SonarLint
8 4 (0.23%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.17%) Bitbucket
9 3 (0.17%) MLflow
9 3 (0.17%) Selenium
10 2 (0.11%) JMeter
10 2 (0.11%) JUnit
10 2 (0.11%) LoadRunner
10 2 (0.11%) Oracle Forms
10 2 (0.11%) REST Assured
General
1 402 (22.71%) Social Skills
2 226 (12.77%) Finance
3 212 (11.98%) Public Sector
4 128 (7.23%) Analytical Skills
5 96 (5.42%) Banking
6 53 (2.99%) Military
7 49 (2.77%) Documentation Skills
8 46 (2.60%) Legal
9 43 (2.43%) Retail
10 40 (2.26%) Telecoms
11 37 (2.09%) Influencing Skills
11 37 (2.09%) Marketing
12 33 (1.86%) Presentation Skills
13 19 (1.07%) Manufacturing
14 17 (0.96%) Aerospace
15 12 (0.68%) Billing
16 11 (0.62%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 10 (0.56%) Back Office
17 10 (0.56%) Local Government
18 9 (0.51%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 68 (3.84%) REST
2 46 (2.60%) Middleware
3 43 (2.43%) SOAP
4 35 (1.98%) .NET
5 28 (1.58%) OAuth
6 23 (1.30%) RESTful
7 21 (1.19%) SAML
8 20 (1.13%) OpenID
9 19 (1.07%) OAuth2
10 18 (1.02%) SailPoint
11 17 (0.96%) Spring Boot
11 17 (0.96%) Web Services
12 16 (0.90%) Kafka
13 15 (0.85%) Node.js
14 11 (0.62%) Lightning Web Components
14 11 (0.62%) Oracle Fusion
14 11 (0.62%) React
14 11 (0.62%) Spring
14 11 (0.62%) Visualforce
15 10 (0.56%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 118 (6.67%) Cloud Native
2 95 (5.37%) Product Ownership
3 68 (3.84%) Data Centre
4 49 (2.77%) Legacy Systems
4 49 (2.77%) Onboarding
5 47 (2.66%) PKI
6 43 (2.43%) Hybrid Cloud
7 41 (2.32%) Public Cloud
8 33 (1.86%) Operational Technology
9 28 (1.58%) Distributed Systems
10 26 (1.47%) Enterprise Software
11 25 (1.41%) CMDB
12 24 (1.36%) Management Information System
13 23 (1.30%) SCADA
14 21 (1.19%) Data Protection Act
15 17 (0.96%) NHS
15 17 (0.96%) Security Posture
16 14 (0.79%) Data Structures
17 13 (0.73%) IVR
18 12 (0.68%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 108 (6.10%) Windows
2 65 (3.67%) Linux
3 28 (1.58%) Windows Server
4 18 (1.02%) Windows 7
5 14 (0.79%) Windows 10
6 12 (0.68%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 10 (0.56%) Windows Server 2019
8 9 (0.51%) Windows Server 2016
9 5 (0.28%) Unix
10 4 (0.23%) Mac OS
10 4 (0.23%) VMS
11 3 (0.17%) Ubuntu
11 3 (0.17%) Windows Server 2008
12 2 (0.11%) Solaris
12 2 (0.11%) Windows Server 2012
12 2 (0.11%) zOS
13 1 (0.056%) CentOS
13 1 (0.056%) MVS
Processes & Methodologies
1 272 (15.37%) Roadmaps
2 258 (14.58%) Agile
3 247 (13.95%) Stakeholder Management
4 222 (12.54%) Migration
5 221 (12.49%) Enterprise Architecture
5 221 (12.49%) TOGAF
6 169 (9.55%) DevOps
6 169 (9.55%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 156 (8.81%) Data Modelling
8 155 (8.76%) Technical Leadership
9 145 (8.19%) ITIL
10 139 (7.85%) CI/CD
11 137 (7.74%) Problem-Solving
12 121 (6.84%) Architectural Design
13 118 (6.67%) Analytics
13 118 (6.67%) Cybersecurity
14 114 (6.44%) Mentoring
15 112 (6.33%) Microservices
16 110 (6.21%) AI
17 105 (5.93%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 120 (6.78%) Python
2 70 (3.95%) Java
3 67 (3.79%) PowerShell
4 59 (3.33%) SQL
5 26 (1.47%) JavaScript
6 15 (0.85%) C#
7 12 (0.68%) Bash
8 11 (0.62%) Apex Code
9 10 (0.56%) PL/SQL
10 9 (0.51%) Kusto Query Language
11 8 (0.45%) R
11 8 (0.45%) TypeScript
12 7 (0.40%) Bicep
12 7 (0.40%) VB
12 7 (0.40%) VBScript
13 6 (0.34%) ABAP
14 4 (0.23%) C
14 4 (0.23%) C++
14 4 (0.23%) Perl
14 4 (0.23%) Scala
Qualifications
1 593 (33.50%) Security Cleared
2 353 (19.94%) SC Cleared
3 187 (10.56%) DV Cleared
4 96 (5.42%) Degree
5 71 (4.01%) TOGAF Certification
6 64 (3.62%) CISSP
7 53 (2.99%) AWS Certification
8 39 (2.20%) Azure Certification
9 38 (2.15%) Cisco Certification
10 34 (1.92%) BPSS Clearance
10 34 (1.92%) CISM
11 29 (1.64%) Microsoft Certification
12 28 (1.58%) Computer Science Degree
13 27 (1.53%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 25 (1.41%) ISEB
15 24 (1.36%) ITIL Certification
16 23 (1.30%) CCIE
17 22 (1.24%) Master's Degree
18 18 (1.02%) CCNP
19 13 (0.73%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 94 (5.31%) GDPR
2 79 (4.46%) NIST
3 67 (3.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 53 (2.99%) Data Quality
5 39 (2.20%) NCSC
6 33 (1.86%) PCI DSS
7 27 (1.53%) COBIT
8 20 (1.13%) JSP 440
9 18 (1.02%) QA
10 17 (0.96%) GRC
11 15 (0.85%) ISO/IEC 20000
12 13 (0.73%) California Consumer Privacy Act
13 12 (0.68%) Cyber Essentials
14 10 (0.56%) ISO 20022
15 9 (0.51%) Def Stans
15 9 (0.51%) FINRA
15 9 (0.51%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 9 (0.51%) MiFID
15 9 (0.51%) PSD2
16 8 (0.45%) Accessibility
System Software
1 71 (4.01%) Active Directory
2 54 (3.05%) VMware Infrastructure
3 45 (2.54%) Docker
4 26 (1.47%) VMware NSX
5 20 (1.13%) vSphere
6 14 (0.79%) VMware ESXi
7 12 (0.68%) Virtual Desktop
8 11 (0.62%) Hyper-V
9 9 (0.51%) Virtual Machines
10 7 (0.40%) BitLocker
11 5 (0.28%) NFS
12 4 (0.23%) vCloud
13 2 (0.11%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
13 2 (0.11%) KVM
14 1 (0.056%) Embedded Firmware
14 1 (0.056%) Firmware
14 1 (0.056%) HDFS
14 1 (0.056%) RACF
14 1 (0.056%) SRDF
14 1 (0.056%) Veritas Cluster Server
Systems Management
1 84 (4.75%) Terraform
2 77 (4.35%) Kubernetes
3 52 (2.94%) Ansible
4 33 (1.86%) OPNET
5 30 (1.69%) Single Sign-On
6 22 (1.24%) vCenter Server
7 19 (1.07%) SCCM
8 17 (0.96%) WMI
9 15 (0.85%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 10 (0.56%) FortiGate
11 9 (0.51%) Microsoft Intune
12 7 (0.40%) Argo
13 6 (0.34%) Prometheus
14 4 (0.23%) Istio
15 3 (0.17%) Endace
15 3 (0.17%) Puppet
16 2 (0.11%) SCOM
16 2 (0.11%) vRealize
16 2 (0.11%) vRealize Orchestrator
17 1 (0.056%) Kubeflow
Vendors
1 253 (14.29%) Microsoft
2 107 (6.05%) ServiceNow
3 104 (5.88%) SAP
4 101 (5.71%) VMware
5 89 (5.03%) Salesforce
6 81 (4.58%) Oracle
7 66 (3.73%) Cisco
8 37 (2.09%) Google
9 36 (2.03%) Atlassian
10 35 (1.98%) Remedy
11 34 (1.92%) MuleSoft
12 32 (1.81%) Palo Alto
13 28 (1.58%) Red Hat
14 24 (1.36%) BiZZdesign
14 24 (1.36%) CyberArk
14 24 (1.36%) Sparx
15 23 (1.30%) Databricks
16 22 (1.24%) Virgin Media
17 21 (1.19%) Workday
18 20 (1.13%) Juniper