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 £620, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 9 July 2026.

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

6 months to
9 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 20 13
Rank change year-on-year +9 -7 +5
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,551 1,207 2,078
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.50% 8.25% 9.87%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.32% 9.06% 10.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,676 808 1,259
10th Percentile £476 £450 £488
25th Percentile £525 £525 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £620 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year +3.33% -7.69% -
75th Percentile £713 £700 £725
90th Percentile £775 £760 £788
UK median daily rate £615 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -1.60% -3.85% -1.07%
Number of hourly rates quoted 154 16 92
10th Percentile £49.40 £34.53 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £62.25 £60.94
Median hourly rate £65.00 £72.00 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -9.72% +2.86% -
75th Percentile £71.91 £86.00 £85.65
90th Percentile £83.00 £99.28 £88.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £67.50 £70.00
% change year-on-year -3.70% -3.57% -

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 24,721 13,316 19,430
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.05% 90.98% 92.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,139 8,275 11,701
10th Percentile £303 £220 £213
25th Percentile £406 £363 £371
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £494
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -3.85% -1.20%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £595
90th Percentile £688 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £523 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +4.50% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,838 1,081 2,384
10th Percentile £15.24 £13.50 £12.75
25th Percentile £20.75 £16.84 £16.00
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% +0.50%
75th Percentile £67.75 £57.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £74.37
UK median hourly rate £43.50 £26.39 £37.50
% change year-on-year +64.87% -29.64% -12.79%

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 9 July 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 9 July 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 9 July 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
North of England +7 743 £600 - 149
South East +1 721 £628 +4.67% 194
Midlands 0 432 £620 +7.83% 80
North West +6 399 £608 +1.33% 95
West Midlands 0 311 £625 +4.17% 64
Yorkshire +11 278 £600 - 34
South West -2 278 £625 - 99
East of England +19 196 £600 - 50
Scotland +12 170 £650 +4.00% 47
East Midlands +6 114 £588 +17.50% 16
North East +2 74 £575 -13.21% 20
Wales +5 37 £600 +25.00% 21
Northern Ireland +9 7 £475 -32.14% 9
Channel Islands 0 3 £575 -22.56%
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 9 July 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.

1 767 (30.07%) Security Cleared
2 554 (21.72%) Azure
3 470 (18.42%) SC Cleared
4 440 (17.25%) AWS
5 368 (14.43%) Roadmaps
6 351 (13.76%) Agile
6 351 (13.76%) Microsoft
7 314 (12.31%) Stakeholder Management
8 289 (11.33%) Migration
9 264 (10.35%) DevOps
10 262 (10.27%) Enterprise Architecture
11 258 (10.11%) Technical Leadership
12 246 (9.64%) DV Cleared
13 240 (9.41%) Integration Patterns
14 237 (9.29%) CI/CD
15 232 (9.09%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 219 (8.58%) Architectural Patterns
17 207 (8.11%) Data Modelling
18 206 (8.08%) Data Architecture
19 204 (8.00%) Microservices
20 194 (7.60%) AI
21 192 (7.53%) Cybersecurity
22 191 (7.49%) TOGAF
23 176 (6.90%) Problem-Solving
24 170 (6.66%) Security Architecture
25 164 (6.43%) Architectural Design
26 154 (6.04%) GCP
27 145 (5.68%) SAP
28 144 (5.64%) Analytics
28 144 (5.64%) Continuous Improvement

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 55 (2.16%) SharePoint
2 38 (1.49%) Confluence
3 32 (1.25%) SAS
4 31 (1.22%) Microsoft Exchange
5 14 (0.55%) Apache Airflow
6 13 (0.51%) Appian
7 11 (0.43%) Apache
8 10 (0.39%) Apache Spark
9 9 (0.35%) CMS
9 9 (0.35%) OpenStack
10 8 (0.31%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 7 (0.27%) Documentum
11 7 (0.27%) Palantir Foundry
12 6 (0.24%) JBoss
12 6 (0.24%) Sitecore CMS
12 6 (0.24%) WebLogic
13 5 (0.20%) ArcGIS
13 5 (0.20%) NetWeaver
14 4 (0.16%) SAP EP
14 4 (0.16%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 10 (0.39%) Microsoft Office
1 10 (0.39%) MS Visio
2 7 (0.27%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (0.27%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 7 (0.27%) Navisworks
2 7 (0.27%) Revit
3 6 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
4 4 (0.16%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.039%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 61 (2.39%) SAP S/4HANA
2 20 (0.78%) Payment Gateway
3 16 (0.63%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 12 (0.47%) SAP ERP
5 11 (0.43%) Teamcenter
6 10 (0.39%) Remedy ITSM
7 7 (0.27%) Oracle ERP
8 6 (0.24%) Dynamics CRM
8 6 (0.24%) Oracle Retail
9 5 (0.20%) Maximo
10 4 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
10 4 (0.16%) Salesforce CRM
10 4 (0.16%) SAP CRM
10 4 (0.16%) SAP GRC
10 4 (0.16%) SAP MDG
11 3 (0.12%) Avolution ABACUS
11 3 (0.12%) NetSuite
11 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
11 3 (0.12%) SAP IBP
12 2 (0.078%) Dynamics AX
Cloud Services
1 554 (21.72%) Azure
2 440 (17.25%) AWS
3 154 (6.04%) GCP
4 100 (3.92%) Power Platform
5 95 (3.72%) Entra ID
6 83 (3.25%) Serverless
7 81 (3.18%) SaaS
8 73 (2.86%) Microsoft 365
9 60 (2.35%) PaaS
10 48 (1.88%) GitHub
10 48 (1.88%) IaaS
11 45 (1.76%) Azure DevOps
12 37 (1.45%) OpenShift
13 32 (1.25%) AWS Lambda
14 31 (1.22%) Dynamics 365
15 27 (1.06%) Microsoft Purview
16 26 (1.02%) GitHub Actions
16 26 (1.02%) Snowflake
17 25 (0.98%) Azure Data Factory
18 23 (0.90%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 116 (4.55%) Firewall
2 78 (3.06%) DNS
3 74 (2.90%) WAN
4 73 (2.86%) Network Security
5 60 (2.35%) LAN
6 47 (1.84%) VPN
7 42 (1.65%) DHCP
8 40 (1.57%) SD-WAN
9 34 (1.33%) VLAN
10 32 (1.25%) BGP
11 30 (1.18%) TCP/IP
12 25 (0.98%) MPLS
12 25 (0.98%) Wireless
13 24 (0.94%) SAN
14 23 (0.90%) NAS
15 22 (0.86%) IPsec
16 21 (0.82%) Structured Cabling
17 20 (0.78%) BIG-IP
18 19 (0.74%) OSPF
19 14 (0.55%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 71 (2.78%) Metadata
2 69 (2.70%) Power BI
3 59 (2.31%) Data Lake
3 59 (2.31%) Data Warehouse
4 35 (1.37%) NoSQL
5 31 (1.22%) SQL Server
6 27 (1.06%) PostgreSQL
7 19 (0.74%) Oracle Database
8 16 (0.63%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
9 14 (0.55%) Amazon RDS
9 14 (0.55%) Azure SQL Database
9 14 (0.55%) Base SAS
10 13 (0.51%) Big Data
10 13 (0.51%) GIS
11 12 (0.47%) Relational Database
12 11 (0.43%) MongoDB
13 10 (0.39%) Semantic Layer
14 9 (0.35%) Electronic Patient Records
15 8 (0.31%) SAS Enterprise Guide
15 8 (0.31%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 53 (2.08%) JIRA
2 33 (1.29%) Jenkins
3 26 (1.02%) Git
4 17 (0.67%) GitLab
5 10 (0.39%) ERwin
6 8 (0.31%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.20%) Artifactory
7 5 (0.20%) Selenium
8 4 (0.16%) Hudson
8 4 (0.16%) Postman
8 4 (0.16%) REST Assured
9 3 (0.12%) Cucumber
9 3 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.12%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.078%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.078%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.078%) JMeter
10 2 (0.078%) JUnit
10 2 (0.078%) Oracle APEX
10 2 (0.078%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 472 (18.50%) Social Skills
2 350 (13.72%) Finance
3 241 (9.45%) Public Sector
4 152 (5.96%) Banking
5 142 (5.57%) Analytical Skills
6 98 (3.84%) Retail
7 69 (2.70%) Manufacturing
8 63 (2.47%) Documentation Skills
9 47 (1.84%) Legal
10 45 (1.76%) Influencing Skills
11 34 (1.33%) Aerospace
12 32 (1.25%) Military
13 24 (0.94%) Financial Institution
13 24 (0.94%) Telecoms
14 22 (0.86%) Investment Banking
15 20 (0.78%) Marketing
16 19 (0.74%) Presentation Skills
17 18 (0.71%) Back Office
17 18 (0.71%) Billing
18 14 (0.55%) Aviation
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 120 (4.70%) REST
2 74 (2.90%) Middleware
3 52 (2.04%) OAuth
4 46 (1.80%) OpenID
5 45 (1.76%) SOAP
6 44 (1.72%) .NET
7 36 (1.41%) SailPoint
8 35 (1.37%) Oracle Fusion
9 33 (1.29%) Kafka
9 33 (1.29%) SAML
10 32 (1.25%) OAuth2
11 25 (0.98%) RESTful
12 23 (0.90%) Node.js
13 21 (0.82%) LDAP
14 20 (0.78%) React
14 20 (0.78%) Web Services
15 19 (0.74%) JSON
16 15 (0.59%) AngularJS
17 12 (0.47%) FHIR
18 11 (0.43%) SAP PI
Miscellaneous
1 186 (7.29%) Cloud Native
2 96 (3.76%) Data Centre
3 74 (2.90%) Operational Technology
4 70 (2.74%) Hybrid Cloud
5 65 (2.55%) Onboarding
5 65 (2.55%) Product Ownership
6 57 (2.23%) Management Information System
7 56 (2.20%) Data Protection Act
8 55 (2.16%) Legacy Systems
9 51 (2.00%) Enterprise Software
10 48 (1.88%) Distributed Systems
11 45 (1.76%) Public Cloud
12 30 (1.18%) CMDB
12 30 (1.18%) Private Cloud
13 27 (1.06%) AI Agents
14 26 (1.02%) PKI
15 25 (0.98%) Security Posture
16 23 (0.90%) SCADA
17 21 (0.82%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
18 20 (0.78%) Data Structures
Operating Systems
1 109 (4.27%) Windows
2 53 (2.08%) Linux
3 37 (1.45%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.63%) Android
4 16 (0.63%) Apple iOS
5 13 (0.51%) Unix
6 11 (0.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
7 5 (0.20%) Windows 7
8 4 (0.16%) Windows 10
9 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2016
9 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.078%) AIX
10 2 (0.078%) VMS
10 2 (0.078%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.039%) CatOS
11 1 (0.039%) Kali Linux
11 1 (0.039%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.039%) Windows Server 2008
11 1 (0.039%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 368 (14.43%) Roadmaps
2 351 (13.76%) Agile
3 314 (12.31%) Stakeholder Management
4 289 (11.33%) Migration
5 264 (10.35%) DevOps
6 262 (10.27%) Enterprise Architecture
7 258 (10.11%) Technical Leadership
8 240 (9.41%) Integration Patterns
9 237 (9.29%) CI/CD
10 232 (9.09%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 219 (8.58%) Architectural Patterns
12 207 (8.11%) Data Modelling
13 206 (8.08%) Data Architecture
14 204 (8.00%) Microservices
15 194 (7.60%) AI
16 192 (7.53%) Cybersecurity
17 191 (7.49%) TOGAF
18 176 (6.90%) Problem-Solving
19 170 (6.66%) Security Architecture
20 164 (6.43%) Architectural Design
Programming Languages
1 116 (4.55%) SQL
2 110 (4.31%) Python
3 96 (3.76%) Java
4 56 (2.20%) PowerShell
5 53 (2.08%) JavaScript
6 28 (1.10%) C#
7 26 (1.02%) Bicep
8 21 (0.82%) Bash
9 15 (0.59%) TypeScript
10 8 (0.31%) ABAP
10 8 (0.31%) PL/SQL
10 8 (0.31%) VBA
11 6 (0.24%) Kusto Query Language
11 6 (0.24%) Scala
12 5 (0.20%) Apex Code
12 5 (0.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 4 (0.16%) Kotlin
13 4 (0.16%) VB
13 4 (0.16%) VBScript
14 3 (0.12%) C
Qualifications
1 767 (30.07%) Security Cleared
2 470 (18.42%) SC Cleared
3 246 (9.64%) DV Cleared
4 93 (3.65%) Degree
5 59 (2.31%) Cisco Certification
6 52 (2.04%) CISSP
7 50 (1.96%) BPSS Clearance
8 45 (1.76%) AWS Certification
8 45 (1.76%) TOGAF Certification
9 42 (1.65%) Azure Certification
10 35 (1.37%) Computer Science Degree
11 33 (1.29%) CCNP
12 23 (0.90%) Microsoft Certification
13 19 (0.74%) CISM
14 17 (0.67%) CCNA
15 16 (0.63%) Master's Degree
16 15 (0.59%) CCIE
17 14 (0.55%) (ISC)2 CCSP
17 14 (0.55%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
18 12 (0.47%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 99 (3.88%) NIST
2 75 (2.94%) Data Quality
3 74 (2.90%) GDPR
4 61 (2.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 60 (2.35%) NCSC
6 26 (1.02%) QA
7 20 (0.78%) PCI DSS
8 19 (0.74%) Accessibility
9 16 (0.63%) NIST 800
10 13 (0.51%) GRC
11 12 (0.47%) COBIT
12 11 (0.43%) IFRS
13 10 (0.39%) Disclosure Scotland
13 10 (0.39%) HL7
13 10 (0.39%) ISO 19650
13 10 (0.39%) JSP 440
13 10 (0.39%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 9 (0.35%) ISO 20022
14 9 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
15 8 (0.31%) FINRA
System Software
1 109 (4.27%) Active Directory
2 54 (2.12%) VMware Infrastructure
3 42 (1.65%) Docker
4 33 (1.29%) VMware NSX
5 23 (0.90%) Virtual Desktop
6 18 (0.71%) Hyper-V
6 18 (0.71%) vSphere
7 11 (0.43%) VMware ESXi
8 8 (0.31%) Virtual Machines
9 7 (0.27%) vCloud
10 4 (0.16%) BitLocker
10 4 (0.16%) RACF
11 3 (0.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
11 3 (0.12%) IAG
11 3 (0.12%) NFS
11 3 (0.12%) SRDF
12 2 (0.078%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
13 1 (0.039%) Firmware
13 1 (0.039%) ProxySG
13 1 (0.039%) Snort
Systems Management
1 102 (4.00%) Kubernetes
2 97 (3.80%) Terraform
3 52 (2.04%) Ansible
4 39 (1.53%) Microsoft Intune
5 28 (1.10%) Single Sign-On
6 21 (0.82%) vCenter Server
7 19 (0.74%) Grafana
8 16 (0.63%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 15 (0.59%) Prometheus
10 13 (0.51%) Argo
10 13 (0.51%) Jamf Pro
11 10 (0.39%) FortiGate
11 10 (0.39%) SCCM
12 8 (0.31%) Istio
13 6 (0.24%) CASB
14 5 (0.20%) EMC VPLEX
15 4 (0.16%) MOM
15 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
16 3 (0.12%) NetBackup
16 3 (0.12%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 351 (13.76%) Microsoft
2 145 (5.68%) SAP
3 116 (4.55%) ServiceNow
4 114 (4.47%) VMware
5 113 (4.43%) Oracle
6 75 (2.94%) Cisco
7 73 (2.86%) Databricks
7 73 (2.86%) Google
8 52 (2.04%) Salesforce
9 33 (1.29%) F5
10 30 (1.18%) Citrix
11 29 (1.14%) Red Hat
12 24 (0.94%) BiZZdesign
12 24 (0.94%) MuleSoft
13 23 (0.90%) Palo Alto
14 22 (0.86%) Juniper
15 20 (0.78%) Infoblox
15 20 (0.78%) Talend
16 19 (0.74%) CyberArk
17 18 (0.71%) Sparx