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 18 February 2026.

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

6 months to
18 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 17 14
Rank change year-on-year +3 -3 +7
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 1,988 1,201 1,943
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.85% 8.96% 9.33%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.83% 9.70% 10.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,314 761 1,212
10th Percentile £447 £450 £500
25th Percentile £506 £547 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% -3.85% -
75th Percentile £701 £689 £713
90th Percentile £775 £750 £775
UK median daily rate £625 £625 £650
% change year-on-year - -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 65 24 43
10th Percentile £49.40 £61.50 £57.80
25th Percentile £58.11 £64.88 £61.25
Median hourly rate £72.50 £72.50 £78.74
Median % change year-on-year - -7.92% +12.49%
75th Percentile £89.00 £78.92 £87.53
90th Percentile £95.00 £84.72 £95.00
UK median hourly rate £71.25 £71.25 £76.53
% change year-on-year - -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 18,362 12,385 19,413
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.99% 92.43% 93.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,064 7,480 12,138
10th Percentile £223 £210 £213
25th Percentile £380 £363 £365
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £478 £475 £488
Median % change year-on-year +0.53% -2.56% -2.50%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £595
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 1,951 622 1,930
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.44 £12.86
25th Percentile £18.26 £20.96 £16.00
Median hourly rate £29.60 £32.50 £35.58
Median % change year-on-year -8.92% -8.64% +1.64%
75th Percentile £62.17 £65.00 £62.00
90th Percentile £71.00 £75.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £30.00 £34.11 £35.00
% change year-on-year -12.05% -2.54% -9.09%

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 18 February 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 18 February 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 18 February 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 +7 606 £625 - 306
North of England -2 493 £575 -4.17% 157
Midlands -3 354 £573 -4.58% 99
North West -3 280 £579 -3.50% 90
West Midlands 0 263 £600 - 67
South West +1 250 £708 +13.20% 70
Yorkshire +2 195 £563 -2.17% 45
East of England +13 151 £550 -13.73% 45
Scotland +14 138 £650 +4.00% 54
East Midlands -3 89 £496 -12.60% 31
Wales +4 31 £600 +5.26% 9
North East -11 23 £625 -1.96% 24
Northern Ireland +1 9 £500 -26.47% 4
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 18 February 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.

1 644 (32.39%) Security Cleared
2 427 (21.48%) Azure
3 383 (19.27%) SC Cleared
4 325 (16.35%) AWS
5 296 (14.89%) Roadmaps
6 293 (14.74%) Agile
6 293 (14.74%) Microsoft
7 268 (13.48%) Stakeholder Management
8 251 (12.63%) Enterprise Architecture
9 246 (12.37%) Migration
10 225 (11.32%) TOGAF
11 212 (10.66%) DV Cleared
12 191 (9.61%) DevOps
13 178 (8.95%) Data Modelling
14 176 (8.85%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 174 (8.75%) Technical Leadership
16 151 (7.60%) CI/CD
16 151 (7.60%) Problem-Solving
17 140 (7.04%) Data Architecture
18 138 (6.94%) Microservices
19 137 (6.89%) Analytics
19 137 (6.89%) ITIL
20 129 (6.49%) Cybersecurity
20 129 (6.49%) GCP
21 128 (6.44%) Architectural Design
22 126 (6.34%) Python
23 122 (6.14%) AI
24 117 (5.89%) Architectural Patterns
24 117 (5.89%) Decision-Making
24 117 (5.89%) 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 85 (4.28%) Confluence
2 61 (3.07%) SharePoint
3 49 (2.46%) Microsoft Exchange
4 25 (1.26%) SAS
5 12 (0.60%) Appian
6 11 (0.55%) CMS
7 10 (0.50%) Anypoint
7 10 (0.50%) ArcGIS
8 9 (0.45%) Apache
8 9 (0.45%) Smallworld
9 8 (0.40%) Apache Airflow
10 7 (0.35%) Apache Spark
10 7 (0.35%) Skype for Business
11 6 (0.30%) Sitecore CMS
11 6 (0.30%) WebLogic
12 5 (0.25%) GeoServer
12 5 (0.25%) IIS
12 5 (0.25%) OpenStack
13 4 (0.20%) Adobe Experience Manager
13 4 (0.20%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 45 (2.26%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (1.56%) Microsoft Project
3 23 (1.16%) Microsoft Excel
4 22 (1.11%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.25%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.20%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.050%) FrameMaker
7 1 (0.050%) OrCAD
7 1 (0.050%) Revit
7 1 (0.050%) Trello
Business Applications
1 46 (2.31%) SAP S/4HANA
2 25 (1.26%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 14 (0.70%) Payment Gateway
3 14 (0.70%) Workday HCM
4 11 (0.55%) Dynamics CRM
5 9 (0.45%) Salesforce CRM
6 7 (0.35%) SAP ERP
7 6 (0.30%) Maximo
7 6 (0.30%) SAP CO
8 5 (0.25%) Dynamics AX
8 5 (0.25%) Oracle SCM
8 5 (0.25%) SAP FI
8 5 (0.25%) SAP FI/CO
9 4 (0.20%) Distributed Ledger
9 4 (0.20%) R3 Corda
9 4 (0.20%) SAP PP
10 3 (0.15%) NetSuite
10 3 (0.15%) Remedy ITSM
10 3 (0.15%) SAP CRM
10 3 (0.15%) SAP EWM
Cloud Services
1 427 (21.48%) Azure
2 325 (16.35%) AWS
3 129 (6.49%) GCP
4 89 (4.48%) Microsoft 365
5 71 (3.57%) Entra ID
6 64 (3.22%) SaaS
7 51 (2.57%) Power Platform
7 51 (2.57%) Serverless
8 47 (2.36%) Microsoft Purview
9 39 (1.96%) OneDrive
10 38 (1.91%) IaaS
10 38 (1.91%) PaaS
11 34 (1.71%) Dynamics 365
12 33 (1.66%) Azure DevOps
13 32 (1.61%) OpenShift
14 27 (1.36%) GitHub
15 25 (1.26%) AWS CloudFormation
15 25 (1.26%) AWS Lambda
16 24 (1.21%) Azure Synapse Analytics
17 23 (1.16%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 95 (4.78%) Firewall
2 64 (3.22%) DNS
2 64 (3.22%) WAN
3 56 (2.82%) Network Security
4 47 (2.36%) VPN
5 39 (1.96%) LAN
6 34 (1.71%) SD-WAN
7 23 (1.16%) DHCP
8 20 (1.01%) MPLS
9 19 (0.96%) BGP
10 17 (0.86%) SAN
11 16 (0.80%) Wi-Fi
12 13 (0.65%) VLAN
13 11 (0.55%) IPsec
13 11 (0.55%) Kerberos
13 11 (0.55%) OSPF
13 11 (0.55%) VXLAN
13 11 (0.55%) Wireless
14 10 (0.50%) Internet
14 10 (0.50%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 79 (3.97%) Data Warehouse
2 66 (3.32%) Metadata
3 43 (2.16%) Power BI
4 39 (1.96%) SQL Server
5 28 (1.41%) PostgreSQL
6 27 (1.36%) Tableau
7 22 (1.11%) Oracle Database
8 21 (1.06%) Data Lake
9 19 (0.96%) GIS
10 18 (0.91%) NoSQL
11 15 (0.75%) DynamoDB
12 14 (0.70%) Metadata Repository
13 11 (0.55%) Big Data
13 11 (0.55%) Relational Database
14 10 (0.50%) Amazon Redshift
14 10 (0.50%) Azure SQL Database
14 10 (0.50%) Redis
15 8 (0.40%) Amazon Athena
16 7 (0.35%) Hadoop
16 7 (0.35%) SAS Enterprise Guide
Development Applications
1 97 (4.88%) JIRA
2 43 (2.16%) Jenkins
3 18 (0.91%) Git
4 17 (0.86%) GitLab
5 6 (0.30%) Artifactory
6 5 (0.25%) Postman
7 4 (0.20%) Rational DOORS
7 4 (0.20%) Selenium
8 3 (0.15%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.15%) Cucumber
8 3 (0.15%) MLflow
8 3 (0.15%) MSI
8 3 (0.15%) REST Assured
8 3 (0.15%) Sonatype Nexus
9 2 (0.10%) Gatling
9 2 (0.10%) JMeter
9 2 (0.10%) JUnit
9 2 (0.10%) NeoLoad
9 2 (0.10%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.10%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 429 (21.58%) Social Skills
2 248 (12.47%) Finance
3 230 (11.57%) Public Sector
4 136 (6.84%) Analytical Skills
5 111 (5.58%) Banking
6 59 (2.97%) Documentation Skills
7 55 (2.77%) Military
8 49 (2.46%) Legal
9 41 (2.06%) Influencing Skills
10 39 (1.96%) Telecoms
11 38 (1.91%) Marketing
12 37 (1.86%) Retail
13 34 (1.71%) Presentation Skills
14 19 (0.96%) Aerospace
14 19 (0.96%) Manufacturing
15 14 (0.70%) Investment Banking
16 12 (0.60%) Billing
17 11 (0.55%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 11 (0.55%) Local Government
18 6 (0.30%) Aviation
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 81 (4.07%) REST
2 46 (2.31%) Middleware
3 44 (2.21%) SOAP
4 39 (1.96%) .NET
5 35 (1.76%) OAuth
6 30 (1.51%) SAML
7 29 (1.46%) OpenID
8 27 (1.36%) SailPoint
9 26 (1.31%) OAuth2
10 24 (1.21%) Kafka
11 21 (1.06%) RESTful
12 18 (0.91%) Node.js
12 18 (0.91%) Web Services
13 16 (0.80%) React
14 14 (0.70%) Oracle Fusion
15 13 (0.65%) Microsoft Graph
16 12 (0.60%) LDAP
17 11 (0.55%) CSS
17 11 (0.55%) HTML
18 10 (0.50%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 122 (6.14%) Cloud Native
2 97 (4.88%) Product Ownership
3 72 (3.62%) Data Centre
4 55 (2.77%) Onboarding
5 47 (2.36%) PKI
6 42 (2.11%) Hybrid Cloud
6 42 (2.11%) Legacy Systems
7 41 (2.06%) Public Cloud
8 36 (1.81%) Enterprise Software
8 36 (1.81%) Operational Technology
9 32 (1.61%) Management Information System
10 30 (1.51%) Distributed Systems
11 26 (1.31%) CMDB
12 24 (1.21%) Data Protection Act
13 22 (1.11%) SCADA
14 18 (0.91%) NHS
15 15 (0.75%) AI Agents
16 14 (0.70%) Data Structures
17 12 (0.60%) Blockchain
18 11 (0.55%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 117 (5.89%) Windows
2 68 (3.42%) Linux
3 27 (1.36%) Windows Server
4 18 (0.91%) Windows 7
5 14 (0.70%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 11 (0.55%) Windows 10
7 8 (0.40%) Windows Server 2016
8 7 (0.35%) Windows Server 2019
9 6 (0.30%) Unix
10 5 (0.25%) Android
10 5 (0.25%) Apple iOS
10 5 (0.25%) VMS
11 4 (0.20%) Mac OS
12 3 (0.15%) Ubuntu
13 2 (0.10%) Windows Server 2012
14 1 (0.050%) CentOS
14 1 (0.050%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 296 (14.89%) Roadmaps
2 293 (14.74%) Agile
3 268 (13.48%) Stakeholder Management
4 251 (12.63%) Enterprise Architecture
5 246 (12.37%) Migration
6 225 (11.32%) TOGAF
7 191 (9.61%) DevOps
8 178 (8.95%) Data Modelling
9 176 (8.85%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 174 (8.75%) Technical Leadership
11 151 (7.60%) CI/CD
11 151 (7.60%) Problem-Solving
12 140 (7.04%) Data Architecture
13 138 (6.94%) Microservices
14 137 (6.89%) Analytics
14 137 (6.89%) ITIL
15 129 (6.49%) Cybersecurity
16 128 (6.44%) Architectural Design
17 122 (6.14%) AI
18 117 (5.89%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 126 (6.34%) Python
2 75 (3.77%) PowerShell
3 69 (3.47%) SQL
4 61 (3.07%) Java
5 30 (1.51%) JavaScript
6 26 (1.31%) C#
7 15 (0.75%) Bash
8 13 (0.65%) Bicep
9 11 (0.55%) Kusto Query Language
10 9 (0.45%) PL/SQL
11 8 (0.40%) R
11 8 (0.40%) TypeScript
12 7 (0.35%) VB
12 7 (0.35%) VBScript
13 6 (0.30%) Apex Code
14 4 (0.20%) Perl
14 4 (0.20%) Scala
14 4 (0.20%) Shell Script
15 3 (0.15%) C
15 3 (0.15%) C++
Qualifications
1 644 (32.39%) Security Cleared
2 383 (19.27%) SC Cleared
3 212 (10.66%) DV Cleared
4 113 (5.68%) Degree
5 76 (3.82%) TOGAF Certification
6 67 (3.37%) CISSP
7 51 (2.57%) AWS Certification
8 43 (2.16%) BPSS Clearance
9 38 (1.91%) Azure Certification
9 38 (1.91%) Cisco Certification
10 36 (1.81%) CISM
11 33 (1.66%) Microsoft Certification
12 32 (1.61%) Computer Science Degree
13 29 (1.46%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 28 (1.41%) Master's Degree
15 26 (1.31%) ISEB
16 25 (1.26%) ITIL Certification
17 23 (1.16%) CCNP
18 21 (1.06%) CCIE
19 10 (0.50%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 102 (5.13%) GDPR
2 75 (3.77%) NIST
3 69 (3.47%) Data Quality
4 61 (3.07%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 37 (1.86%) NCSC
6 29 (1.46%) PCI DSS
7 28 (1.41%) COBIT
8 21 (1.06%) QA
9 19 (0.96%) GRC
10 18 (0.91%) JSP 440
11 12 (0.60%) Cyber Essentials
11 12 (0.60%) FINRA
11 12 (0.60%) ISO 20022
11 12 (0.60%) MiFID
12 10 (0.50%) Accessibility
12 10 (0.50%) California Consumer Privacy Act
13 9 (0.45%) Def Stans
13 9 (0.45%) HMG Security Policy Framework
14 7 (0.35%) Disclosure Scotland
15 6 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 87 (4.38%) Active Directory
2 55 (2.77%) VMware Infrastructure
3 38 (1.91%) Docker
4 32 (1.61%) VMware NSX
5 25 (1.26%) vSphere
6 14 (0.70%) Virtual Desktop
7 11 (0.55%) VMware ESXi
8 10 (0.50%) Hyper-V
9 8 (0.40%) Virtual Machines
10 7 (0.35%) BitLocker
11 5 (0.25%) RACF
11 5 (0.25%) vCloud
12 4 (0.20%) NFS
13 2 (0.10%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
14 1 (0.050%) Embedded Firmware
14 1 (0.050%) Firmware
14 1 (0.050%) HDFS
14 1 (0.050%) IAG
Systems Management
1 89 (4.48%) Terraform
2 74 (3.72%) Kubernetes
3 56 (2.82%) Ansible
4 37 (1.86%) Single Sign-On
5 30 (1.51%) OPNET
6 25 (1.26%) vCenter Server
7 20 (1.01%) Microsoft Intune
8 19 (0.96%) SCCM
9 17 (0.86%) WMI
10 14 (0.70%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 12 (0.60%) Argo
11 12 (0.60%) FortiGate
12 6 (0.30%) Prometheus
13 5 (0.25%) Istio
14 3 (0.15%) Endace
14 3 (0.15%) Grafana
14 3 (0.15%) SCOM
15 2 (0.10%) Nessus
15 2 (0.10%) Puppet
15 2 (0.10%) vRealize
Vendors
1 293 (14.74%) Microsoft
2 116 (5.84%) VMware
3 114 (5.73%) ServiceNow
4 96 (4.83%) Oracle
5 95 (4.78%) SAP
6 83 (4.18%) Salesforce
7 63 (3.17%) Cisco
8 48 (2.41%) Google
9 40 (2.01%) Remedy
10 36 (1.81%) Atlassian
11 35 (1.76%) Red Hat
12 34 (1.71%) MuleSoft
12 34 (1.71%) Palo Alto
13 31 (1.56%) Databricks
14 30 (1.51%) BiZZdesign
15 27 (1.36%) CyberArk
16 24 (1.21%) Sparx
16 24 (1.21%) Virgin Media
17 21 (1.06%) F5
17 21 (1.06%) Juniper