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 2 January 2026.

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

6 months to
2 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 19 16 14
Rank change year-on-year -3 -2 +7
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 1,645 1,296 1,713
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 8.98% 9.00% 8.78%
As % of the Job Titles category 9.94% 9.75% 9.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,128 813 1,144
10th Percentile £450 £463 £500
25th Percentile £513 £547 £561
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £625 £649
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% -3.70% -0.15%
75th Percentile £700 £700 £700
90th Percentile £773 £762 £750
UK median daily rate £625 £625 £650
% change year-on-year - -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 25 33
10th Percentile £65.00 £61.50 £61.25
25th Percentile £66.25 £65.00 £72.50
Median hourly rate £83.82 £70.00 £78.00
Median % change year-on-year +19.74% -10.26% +11.43%
75th Percentile £94.83 £78.36 £85.61
90th Percentile £95.00 £84.37 £94.75
UK median hourly rate £83.82 £72.50 £76.53
% change year-on-year +15.61% -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 16,552 13,292 18,225
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.37% 92.34% 93.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,214 7,875 11,830
10th Percentile £213 £213 £213
25th Percentile £375 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.04% -4.00% -
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 1,639 745 1,302
10th Percentile £13.95 £15.28 £14.16
25th Percentile £17.60 £20.26 £18.25
Median hourly rate £25.15 £31.76 £46.09
Median % change year-on-year -20.81% -31.09% +78.99%
75th Percentile £60.00 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £71.25 £76.53
UK median hourly rate £26.11 £32.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -19.66% -27.78% +41.02%

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 2 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 2 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 2 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 +7 545 £600 -4.00% 176
North of England -10 387 £575 -4.17% 109
Midlands -4 271 £574 -4.38% 58
South West +1 244 £706 +12.96% 43
North West -5 234 £575 -4.17% 65
West Midlands -8 203 £585 -3.33% 38
Yorkshire -13 142 £588 -5.24% 31
East of England 0 100 £551 -11.80% 60
Scotland -6 97 £626 +0.08% 22
East Midlands -2 68 £496 -13.74% 20
Wales -2 25 £625 +0.40% 17
North East -15 12 £625 +4.23% 14
Northern Ireland -13 5 £500 -16.67% 2
Channel Islands - 2 £625 -
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 2 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.

1 608 (36.96%) Security Cleared
2 374 (22.74%) SC Cleared
3 365 (22.19%) Azure
4 287 (17.45%) AWS
5 270 (16.41%) Roadmaps
6 236 (14.35%) Agile
7 229 (13.92%) Stakeholder Management
8 226 (13.74%) Microsoft
9 210 (12.77%) TOGAF
10 201 (12.22%) Migration
11 190 (11.55%) Enterprise Architecture
12 177 (10.76%) DV Cleared
13 166 (10.09%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 155 (9.42%) ITIL
15 149 (9.06%) Data Modelling
16 147 (8.94%) DevOps
17 140 (8.51%) Technical Leadership
18 138 (8.39%) Problem-Solving
19 128 (7.78%) CI/CD
20 118 (7.17%) GCP
21 116 (7.05%) Mentoring
22 113 (6.87%) Architectural Design
22 113 (6.87%) Cybersecurity
23 110 (6.69%) VMware
24 106 (6.44%) AI
25 105 (6.38%) Python
26 101 (6.14%) Degree
27 98 (5.96%) Analytics
27 98 (5.96%) Decision-Making
28 97 (5.90%) Terraform

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 74 (4.50%) Confluence
2 36 (2.19%) SharePoint
3 28 (1.70%) Microsoft Exchange
4 16 (0.97%) SAS
5 14 (0.85%) ArcGIS
6 9 (0.55%) Smallworld
6 9 (0.55%) WebLogic
7 8 (0.49%) Anypoint
8 6 (0.36%) OpenStack
9 5 (0.30%) GeoServer
10 4 (0.24%) CMS
10 4 (0.24%) Documentum
11 3 (0.18%) Exchange Server 2013
11 3 (0.18%) Skype for Business
12 2 (0.12%) Apache Spark
12 2 (0.12%) CICS
12 2 (0.12%) Ethereum
12 2 (0.12%) Hyperledger
12 2 (0.12%) ThingWorx
12 2 (0.12%) Tomcat
Applications
1 38 (2.31%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (1.88%) Microsoft Project
3 20 (1.22%) Microsoft Excel
4 19 (1.16%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 9 (0.55%) Siemens NX
6 8 (0.49%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.061%) FrameMaker
7 1 (0.061%) OrCAD
7 1 (0.061%) Revit
7 1 (0.061%) Trello
Business Applications
1 39 (2.37%) SAP S/4HANA
2 22 (1.34%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 18 (1.09%) Dynamics CRM
4 16 (0.97%) Workday HCM
5 12 (0.73%) Maximo
6 11 (0.67%) SAP CO
7 10 (0.61%) SAP FI
7 10 (0.61%) SAP FI/CO
7 10 (0.61%) SAP PM
8 9 (0.55%) Teamcenter
9 8 (0.49%) Salesforce CRM
10 6 (0.36%) Payment Gateway
10 6 (0.36%) SAP HR
11 5 (0.30%) Dynamics AX
11 5 (0.30%) Oracle SCM
12 4 (0.24%) SAP PP
13 3 (0.18%) NetSuite
13 3 (0.18%) SAP CRM
13 3 (0.18%) SAP EWM
13 3 (0.18%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 365 (22.19%) Azure
2 287 (17.45%) AWS
3 118 (7.17%) GCP
4 65 (3.95%) SaaS
5 61 (3.71%) Microsoft 365
6 48 (2.92%) Serverless
7 47 (2.86%) Entra ID
8 45 (2.74%) Dynamics 365
9 43 (2.61%) Power Platform
10 38 (2.31%) GitHub
11 37 (2.25%) Microsoft Purview
12 31 (1.88%) AWS Lambda
13 29 (1.76%) PaaS
14 28 (1.70%) Azure DevOps
15 27 (1.64%) IaaS
16 26 (1.58%) OpenShift
17 23 (1.40%) AWS CloudFormation
18 21 (1.28%) Salesforce Service Cloud
19 20 (1.22%) Azure Synapse Analytics
20 19 (1.16%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 89 (5.41%) Firewall
2 58 (3.53%) WAN
3 43 (2.61%) DNS
4 42 (2.55%) VPN
5 40 (2.43%) LAN
6 39 (2.37%) Network Security
7 34 (2.07%) SD-WAN
8 20 (1.22%) BGP
8 20 (1.22%) MPLS
9 17 (1.03%) SAN
10 15 (0.91%) Internet
11 13 (0.79%) DHCP
11 13 (0.79%) VSAN
11 13 (0.79%) Wi-Fi
12 9 (0.55%) iSCSI
13 8 (0.49%) Cisco ASA
13 8 (0.49%) IPsec
13 8 (0.49%) OSPF
13 8 (0.49%) VLAN
13 8 (0.49%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 58 (3.53%) Data Warehouse
2 40 (2.43%) Metadata
3 34 (2.07%) SQL Server
4 33 (2.01%) Power BI
5 27 (1.64%) PostgreSQL
6 24 (1.46%) Tableau
7 19 (1.16%) DynamoDB
7 19 (1.16%) GIS
7 19 (1.16%) Oracle Database
8 15 (0.91%) NoSQL
9 14 (0.85%) Redis
10 12 (0.73%) Relational Database
11 11 (0.67%) BigQuery
11 11 (0.67%) Data Lake
12 10 (0.61%) Azure SQL Database
12 10 (0.61%) RDBMS
12 10 (0.61%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 9 (0.55%) Amazon Aurora
13 9 (0.55%) Amazon Redshift
14 8 (0.49%) Amazon Athena
Development Applications
1 86 (5.23%) JIRA
2 40 (2.43%) Jenkins
3 28 (1.70%) Git
4 10 (0.61%) GitLab
5 9 (0.55%) CircleCI
5 9 (0.55%) Oracle Forms
6 8 (0.49%) SonarQube
7 7 (0.43%) Artifactory
8 5 (0.30%) Gradle
8 5 (0.30%) Maven
8 5 (0.30%) SonarLint
9 4 (0.24%) Bitbucket
9 4 (0.24%) MLflow
9 4 (0.24%) MSI
9 4 (0.24%) Rational DOORS
10 3 (0.18%) Sonatype Nexus
11 2 (0.12%) Postman
11 2 (0.12%) Visual Studio Code
12 1 (0.061%) ERwin
12 1 (0.061%) Selenium
General
1 417 (25.35%) Social Skills
2 209 (12.71%) Public Sector
3 186 (11.31%) Finance
4 127 (7.72%) Analytical Skills
5 79 (4.80%) Banking
6 53 (3.22%) Military
7 48 (2.92%) Telecoms
8 41 (2.49%) Documentation Skills
8 41 (2.49%) Marketing
9 37 (2.25%) Retail
10 35 (2.13%) Legal
11 34 (2.07%) Presentation Skills
12 33 (2.01%) Influencing Skills
13 27 (1.64%) Manufacturing
14 23 (1.40%) Aerospace
15 12 (0.73%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 10 (0.61%) Back Office
17 9 (0.55%) Pharmaceutical
18 8 (0.49%) Local Government
19 7 (0.43%) Billing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (3.04%) REST
2 40 (2.43%) Middleware
3 39 (2.37%) SOAP
4 31 (1.88%) .NET
5 23 (1.40%) RESTful
6 22 (1.34%) OAuth
7 19 (1.16%) Lightning Web Components
8 18 (1.09%) Visualforce
9 17 (1.03%) Spring Boot
10 16 (0.97%) SAML
11 15 (0.91%) Node.js
12 14 (0.85%) SailPoint
12 14 (0.85%) SAP PI
13 13 (0.79%) Kafka
13 13 (0.79%) OAuth2
13 13 (0.79%) Web Services
14 11 (0.67%) Spring
15 10 (0.61%) GraphQL
15 10 (0.61%) React
16 9 (0.55%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 110 (6.69%) Cloud Native
2 89 (5.41%) Product Ownership
3 64 (3.89%) Data Centre
4 62 (3.77%) Legacy Systems
5 46 (2.80%) Hybrid Cloud
6 45 (2.74%) Onboarding
7 42 (2.55%) PKI
8 33 (2.01%) Operational Technology
9 32 (1.95%) Public Cloud
10 25 (1.52%) SCADA
11 23 (1.40%) Distributed Systems
12 21 (1.28%) Enterprise Software
12 21 (1.28%) Management Information System
13 19 (1.16%) CMDB
13 19 (1.16%) Data Protection Act
14 16 (0.97%) NHS
14 16 (0.97%) Security Posture
15 13 (0.79%) Analytical Mindset
15 13 (0.79%) Cyber Threat
15 13 (0.79%) IVR
Operating Systems
1 97 (5.90%) Windows
2 65 (3.95%) Linux
3 29 (1.76%) Windows Server
4 15 (0.91%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 13 (0.79%) Windows 7
5 13 (0.79%) Windows Server 2019
6 10 (0.61%) Windows 10
7 7 (0.43%) Windows Server 2016
8 5 (0.30%) Unix
8 5 (0.30%) VMS
9 4 (0.24%) Mac OS
10 3 (0.18%) Ubuntu
10 3 (0.18%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.12%) Solaris
11 2 (0.12%) zOS
12 1 (0.061%) Android
12 1 (0.061%) Apple iOS
12 1 (0.061%) CentOS
12 1 (0.061%) MVS
12 1 (0.061%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 270 (16.41%) Roadmaps
2 236 (14.35%) Agile
3 229 (13.92%) Stakeholder Management
4 210 (12.77%) TOGAF
5 201 (12.22%) Migration
6 190 (11.55%) Enterprise Architecture
7 166 (10.09%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 155 (9.42%) ITIL
9 149 (9.06%) Data Modelling
10 147 (8.94%) DevOps
11 140 (8.51%) Technical Leadership
12 138 (8.39%) Problem-Solving
13 128 (7.78%) CI/CD
14 116 (7.05%) Mentoring
15 113 (6.87%) Architectural Design
15 113 (6.87%) Cybersecurity
16 106 (6.44%) AI
17 98 (5.96%) Analytics
17 98 (5.96%) Decision-Making
18 95 (5.78%) Microservices
Programming Languages
1 105 (6.38%) Python
2 67 (4.07%) Java
3 55 (3.34%) PowerShell
4 46 (2.80%) SQL
5 24 (1.46%) JavaScript
6 19 (1.16%) Apex Code
7 17 (1.03%) TypeScript
8 14 (0.85%) C#
9 12 (0.73%) Bash
10 8 (0.49%) PL/SQL
10 8 (0.49%) R
11 6 (0.36%) ABAP
12 5 (0.30%) Bicep
12 5 (0.30%) Kusto Query Language
13 4 (0.24%) C
13 4 (0.24%) C++
13 4 (0.24%) Ruby
14 3 (0.18%) Perl
14 3 (0.18%) Shell Script
14 3 (0.18%) X++
Qualifications
1 608 (36.96%) Security Cleared
2 374 (22.74%) SC Cleared
3 177 (10.76%) DV Cleared
4 101 (6.14%) Degree
5 72 (4.38%) CISSP
6 71 (4.32%) TOGAF Certification
7 51 (3.10%) AWS Certification
8 43 (2.61%) Azure Certification
9 38 (2.31%) Cisco Certification
10 34 (2.07%) CISM
11 32 (1.95%) Microsoft Certification
12 27 (1.64%) Computer Science Degree
13 25 (1.52%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 22 (1.34%) Master's Degree
15 21 (1.28%) CCIE
15 21 (1.28%) ISEB
15 21 (1.28%) ITIL Certification
16 20 (1.22%) BPSS Clearance
17 19 (1.16%) CCNP
18 14 (0.85%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 87 (5.29%) GDPR
2 76 (4.62%) NIST
3 67 (4.07%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 51 (3.10%) Data Quality
5 40 (2.43%) NCSC
6 31 (1.88%) PCI DSS
7 30 (1.82%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 23 (1.40%) COBIT
9 20 (1.22%) JSP 440
10 19 (1.16%) QA
11 17 (1.03%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 13 (0.79%) Cyber Essentials
13 10 (0.61%) GRC
14 9 (0.55%) HMG Security Policy Framework
14 9 (0.55%) PSD2
15 8 (0.49%) Def Stans
15 8 (0.49%) ISO 20022
15 8 (0.49%) SLA
16 7 (0.43%) Accessibility
16 7 (0.43%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 64 (3.89%) VMware Infrastructure
2 63 (3.83%) Active Directory
3 43 (2.61%) Docker
4 23 (1.40%) vSphere
5 22 (1.34%) VMware NSX
6 17 (1.03%) VMware ESXi
7 10 (0.61%) Virtual Desktop
7 10 (0.61%) Virtual Machines
8 9 (0.55%) NFS
9 8 (0.49%) Hyper-V
10 3 (0.18%) BitLocker
10 3 (0.18%) Dovecot
10 3 (0.18%) Postfix
10 3 (0.18%) vCloud
11 2 (0.12%) KVM
12 1 (0.061%) Embedded Firmware
12 1 (0.061%) Firmware
12 1 (0.061%) HDFS
12 1 (0.061%) SRDF
12 1 (0.061%) Veritas Cluster Server
Systems Management
1 97 (5.90%) Terraform
2 81 (4.92%) Kubernetes
3 55 (3.34%) Ansible
4 33 (2.01%) OPNET
5 25 (1.52%) Single Sign-On
6 20 (1.22%) vCenter Server
7 14 (0.85%) WMI
8 12 (0.73%) Prometheus
8 12 (0.73%) SCCM
9 11 (0.67%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 9 (0.55%) Grafana
10 9 (0.55%) Microsoft Intune
11 7 (0.43%) Argo
12 6 (0.36%) FortiGate
13 3 (0.18%) Puppet
14 2 (0.12%) Istio
14 2 (0.12%) Microsoft Clustering
14 2 (0.12%) SCOM
14 2 (0.12%) vRealize
14 2 (0.12%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 226 (13.74%) Microsoft
2 110 (6.69%) VMware
3 93 (5.65%) Salesforce
4 92 (5.59%) ServiceNow
5 88 (5.35%) SAP
6 76 (4.62%) Oracle
7 67 (4.07%) Cisco
8 35 (2.13%) Atlassian
8 35 (2.13%) Remedy
9 34 (2.07%) Google
10 29 (1.76%) Palo Alto
10 29 (1.76%) Red Hat
11 27 (1.64%) MuleSoft
12 25 (1.52%) Workday
13 23 (1.40%) CyberArk
13 23 (1.40%) Virgin Media
14 21 (1.28%) Sparx
15 20 (1.22%) BiZZdesign
15 20 (1.22%) Databricks
15 20 (1.22%) Pega