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 29 December 2025.

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

 6 months to
29 Dec 2025		 Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 19 16 14
Rank change year-on-year -3 -2 +8
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 1,664 1,319 1,704
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.11% 9.04% 8.73%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.09% 9.79% 9.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,138 828 1,147
10th Percentile £458 £469 £500
25th Percentile £513 £547 £560
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £625 £648
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% -3.47% -0.38%
75th Percentile £700 £700 £700
90th Percentile £762 £765 £750
UK median daily rate £625 £625 £650
% change year-on-year - -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 25 31
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 £85.13
90th Percentile £95.00 £84.37 £93.75
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 16,495 13,472 18,234
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.33% 92.34% 93.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,135 8,008 11,848
10th Percentile £213 £213 £213
25th Percentile £373 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £487 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.41% -2.65% -
75th Percentile £575 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £676 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,657 759 1,280
10th Percentile £13.95 £15.33 £14.16
25th Percentile £17.69 £20.26 £18.50
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £45.94
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -29.26% +77.99%
75th Percentile £58.75 £64.30 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £71.38 £76.58
UK median hourly rate £25.47 £32.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -21.63% -27.78% +41.93%

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 29 December 2025.

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 29 December 2025.

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 29 December 2025. 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 +8 558 £600 -4.00% 785
North of England -7 392 £590 -4.48% 703
Midlands -5 266 £573 -4.58% 542
South West 0 250 £702 +12.24% 317
North West -7 232 £577 -6.06% 356
West Midlands -6 200 £582 -3.44% 292
Yorkshire -14 142 £600 -1.23% 300
East of England +6 102 £553 -9.80% 460
Scotland -7 94 £625 - 149
East Midlands -2 66 £505 -12.17% 222
Wales -1 25 £625 +0.40% 93
North East -7 19 £700 +16.74% 47
Northern Ireland -14 5 £500 -16.67% 32
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 29 December 2025, 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.

1 624 (37.50%) Security Cleared
2 381 (22.90%) SC Cleared
3 367 (22.06%) Azure
4 305 (18.33%) AWS
5 279 (16.77%) Roadmaps
6 239 (14.36%) Agile
7 231 (13.88%) Stakeholder Management
8 223 (13.40%) Microsoft
9 211 (12.68%) TOGAF
10 199 (11.96%) Enterprise Architecture
11 194 (11.66%) Migration
12 187 (11.24%) DV Cleared
13 168 (10.10%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 158 (9.50%) ITIL
15 151 (9.07%) Data Modelling
16 144 (8.65%) Problem-Solving
17 143 (8.59%) DevOps
18 139 (8.35%) Technical Leadership
19 130 (7.81%) CI/CD
20 121 (7.27%) GCP
21 114 (6.85%) Architectural Design
22 113 (6.79%) VMware
23 112 (6.73%) Cybersecurity
23 112 (6.73%) Mentoring
24 110 (6.61%) AI
25 107 (6.43%) Microservices
26 106 (6.37%) Python
27 105 (6.31%) Degree
28 102 (6.13%) Terraform
29 101 (6.07%) Analytics

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 68 (4.09%) Confluence
2 32 (1.92%) SharePoint
3 26 (1.56%) Microsoft Exchange
4 16 (0.96%) SAS
5 13 (0.78%) ArcGIS
6 9 (0.54%) Anypoint
6 9 (0.54%) WebLogic
7 8 (0.48%) Smallworld
8 6 (0.36%) OpenStack
9 4 (0.24%) CMS
9 4 (0.24%) Documentum
9 4 (0.24%) GeoServer
10 3 (0.18%) Exchange Server 2013
10 3 (0.18%) Skype for Business
11 2 (0.12%) Apache Spark
11 2 (0.12%) Ethereum
11 2 (0.12%) Hyperledger
11 2 (0.12%) Mule
11 2 (0.12%) SAP EP
11 2 (0.12%) ThingWorx
Applications
1 38 (2.28%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (1.86%) Microsoft Project
3 16 (0.96%) Microsoft Excel
4 15 (0.90%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 9 (0.54%) Siemens NX
6 8 (0.48%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.060%) FrameMaker
7 1 (0.060%) Revit
7 1 (0.060%) Trello
Business Applications
1 40 (2.40%) SAP S/4HANA
2 23 (1.38%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 19 (1.14%) Workday HCM
4 18 (1.08%) Dynamics CRM
5 12 (0.72%) Maximo
6 11 (0.66%) SAP CO
7 10 (0.60%) SAP FI
7 10 (0.60%) SAP FI/CO
7 10 (0.60%) SAP PM
8 9 (0.54%) Payment Gateway
8 9 (0.54%) Teamcenter
9 8 (0.48%) Salesforce CRM
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
1 367 (22.06%) Azure
2 305 (18.33%) AWS
3 121 (7.27%) GCP
4 65 (3.91%) SaaS
5 58 (3.49%) Microsoft 365
6 49 (2.94%) Serverless
7 48 (2.88%) Entra ID
8 46 (2.76%) Dynamics 365
9 43 (2.58%) Power Platform
10 37 (2.22%) GitHub
11 34 (2.04%) Microsoft Purview
12 32 (1.92%) AWS Lambda
13 30 (1.80%) PaaS
14 28 (1.68%) IaaS
15 27 (1.62%) Azure DevOps
16 26 (1.56%) OpenShift
17 24 (1.44%) AWS CloudFormation
18 21 (1.26%) Salesforce Service Cloud
19 20 (1.20%) Azure Synapse Analytics
19 20 (1.20%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 89 (5.35%) Firewall
2 55 (3.31%) WAN
3 42 (2.52%) DNS
4 41 (2.46%) LAN
5 40 (2.40%) Network Security
5 40 (2.40%) VPN
6 32 (1.92%) SD-WAN
7 20 (1.20%) BGP
7 20 (1.20%) MPLS
8 17 (1.02%) SAN
9 15 (0.90%) Internet
10 13 (0.78%) DHCP
10 13 (0.78%) VSAN
11 12 (0.72%) Wi-Fi
12 10 (0.60%) iSCSI
13 8 (0.48%) Cisco ASA
13 8 (0.48%) Fibre Channel
13 8 (0.48%) IPsec
13 8 (0.48%) VLAN
13 8 (0.48%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 57 (3.43%) Data Warehouse
2 37 (2.22%) Metadata
3 34 (2.04%) PostgreSQL
3 34 (2.04%) SQL Server
4 33 (1.98%) Power BI
5 20 (1.20%) DynamoDB
5 20 (1.20%) Tableau
6 19 (1.14%) Oracle Database
7 18 (1.08%) GIS
8 16 (0.96%) NoSQL
9 14 (0.84%) MongoDB
9 14 (0.84%) Redis
10 12 (0.72%) BigQuery
10 12 (0.72%) Relational Database
11 11 (0.66%) Data Lake
12 10 (0.60%) Azure SQL Database
12 10 (0.60%) RDBMS
12 10 (0.60%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 9 (0.54%) Amazon Aurora
13 9 (0.54%) Amazon Redshift
Development Applications
1 80 (4.81%) JIRA
2 43 (2.58%) Jenkins
3 34 (2.04%) Git
4 13 (0.78%) GitLab
5 9 (0.54%) CircleCI
5 9 (0.54%) Oracle Forms
6 8 (0.48%) SonarQube
7 6 (0.36%) Artifactory
8 5 (0.30%) Gradle
8 5 (0.30%) Maven
8 5 (0.30%) Rational DOORS
8 5 (0.30%) SonarLint
9 4 (0.24%) Bitbucket
9 4 (0.24%) MLflow
9 4 (0.24%) MSI
10 3 (0.18%) Sonatype Nexus
11 2 (0.12%) Postman
11 2 (0.12%) Visual Studio Code
12 1 (0.060%) ERwin
12 1 (0.060%) Selenium
General
1 427 (25.66%) Social Skills
2 207 (12.44%) Public Sector
3 184 (11.06%) Finance
4 130 (7.81%) Analytical Skills
5 78 (4.69%) Banking
6 53 (3.19%) Military
7 48 (2.88%) Telecoms
8 41 (2.46%) Documentation Skills
8 41 (2.46%) Marketing
9 37 (2.22%) Retail
10 35 (2.10%) Influencing Skills
11 34 (2.04%) Presentation Skills
12 29 (1.74%) Legal
13 27 (1.62%) Manufacturing
14 22 (1.32%) Aerospace
15 12 (0.72%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 10 (0.60%) Back Office
17 9 (0.54%) Pharmaceutical
18 8 (0.48%) Aviation
18 8 (0.48%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 52 (3.13%) REST
2 41 (2.46%) SOAP
3 38 (2.28%) Middleware
4 29 (1.74%) .NET
5 23 (1.38%) OAuth
5 23 (1.38%) RESTful
6 19 (1.14%) Lightning Web Components
7 18 (1.08%) Spring Boot
7 18 (1.08%) Visualforce
8 16 (0.96%) SAML
9 15 (0.90%) Kafka
9 15 (0.90%) Node.js
9 15 (0.90%) Web Services
10 14 (0.84%) OAuth2
10 14 (0.84%) SailPoint
10 14 (0.84%) SAP PI
11 12 (0.72%) Spring
12 10 (0.60%) GraphQL
12 10 (0.60%) PyTorch
12 10 (0.60%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 112 (6.73%) Cloud Native
2 83 (4.99%) Product Ownership
3 66 (3.97%) Data Centre
4 62 (3.73%) Legacy Systems
5 47 (2.82%) Hybrid Cloud
6 45 (2.70%) Onboarding
7 42 (2.52%) PKI
8 31 (1.86%) Operational Technology
8 31 (1.86%) Public Cloud
9 27 (1.62%) CMDB
10 24 (1.44%) Distributed Systems
11 23 (1.38%) SCADA
12 21 (1.26%) Enterprise Software
13 20 (1.20%) Management Information System
14 19 (1.14%) Data Protection Act
14 19 (1.14%) NHS
15 18 (1.08%) Security Posture
16 13 (0.78%) Analytical Mindset
16 13 (0.78%) Cyber Threat
17 12 (0.72%) IVR
Operating Systems
1 96 (5.77%) Windows
2 63 (3.79%) Linux
3 29 (1.74%) Windows Server
4 15 (0.90%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 14 (0.84%) Windows Server 2019
6 13 (0.78%) Windows 10
6 13 (0.78%) Windows 7
7 7 (0.42%) Mac OS
8 6 (0.36%) Windows Server 2016
9 5 (0.30%) Unix
9 5 (0.30%) VMS
10 3 (0.18%) Ubuntu
10 3 (0.18%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.12%) Solaris
11 2 (0.12%) zOS
12 1 (0.060%) Android
12 1 (0.060%) Apple iOS
12 1 (0.060%) CentOS
12 1 (0.060%) MVS
12 1 (0.060%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 279 (16.77%) Roadmaps
2 239 (14.36%) Agile
3 231 (13.88%) Stakeholder Management
4 211 (12.68%) TOGAF
5 199 (11.96%) Enterprise Architecture
6 194 (11.66%) Migration
7 168 (10.10%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 158 (9.50%) ITIL
9 151 (9.07%) Data Modelling
10 144 (8.65%) Problem-Solving
11 143 (8.59%) DevOps
12 139 (8.35%) Technical Leadership
13 130 (7.81%) CI/CD
14 114 (6.85%) Architectural Design
15 112 (6.73%) Cybersecurity
15 112 (6.73%) Mentoring
16 110 (6.61%) AI
17 107 (6.43%) Microservices
18 101 (6.07%) Analytics
19 100 (6.01%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 106 (6.37%) Python
2 76 (4.57%) Java
3 52 (3.13%) PowerShell
4 49 (2.94%) SQL
5 24 (1.44%) JavaScript
6 19 (1.14%) Apex Code
7 17 (1.02%) TypeScript
8 14 (0.84%) Bash
9 12 (0.72%) C#
9 12 (0.72%) R
10 8 (0.48%) C++
10 8 (0.48%) PL/SQL
11 7 (0.42%) C
12 6 (0.36%) ABAP
13 5 (0.30%) Bicep
14 4 (0.24%) Ruby
15 3 (0.18%) Shell Script
15 3 (0.18%) T-SQL
15 3 (0.18%) VBScript
15 3 (0.18%) X++
Qualifications
1 624 (37.50%) Security Cleared
2 381 (22.90%) SC Cleared
3 187 (11.24%) DV Cleared
4 105 (6.31%) Degree
5 76 (4.57%) CISSP
6 70 (4.21%) TOGAF Certification
7 52 (3.13%) AWS Certification
8 43 (2.58%) Azure Certification
9 37 (2.22%) Cisco Certification
10 36 (2.16%) Microsoft Certification
11 34 (2.04%) CISM
12 30 (1.80%) Computer Science Degree
13 26 (1.56%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 25 (1.50%) Master's Degree
15 21 (1.26%) CCIE
15 21 (1.26%) ISEB
15 21 (1.26%) ITIL Certification
16 18 (1.08%) BPSS Clearance
16 18 (1.08%) CCNP
17 14 (0.84%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 90 (5.41%) GDPR
2 77 (4.63%) NIST
3 74 (4.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 49 (2.94%) Data Quality
5 40 (2.40%) NCSC
6 31 (1.86%) PCI DSS
7 30 (1.80%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 23 (1.38%) COBIT
9 22 (1.32%) QA
10 20 (1.20%) JSP 440
11 17 (1.02%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 12 (0.72%) Cyber Essentials
13 11 (0.66%) GRC
14 9 (0.54%) HMG Security Policy Framework
14 9 (0.54%) PSD2
15 8 (0.48%) ISO 20022
15 8 (0.48%) SLA
16 7 (0.42%) Def Stans
17 6 (0.36%) HIPAA
17 6 (0.36%) NIST 800
System Software
1 68 (4.09%) VMware Infrastructure
2 64 (3.85%) Active Directory
3 45 (2.70%) Docker
4 23 (1.38%) vSphere
5 22 (1.32%) VMware NSX
6 18 (1.08%) VMware ESXi
7 10 (0.60%) NFS
7 10 (0.60%) Virtual Desktop
7 10 (0.60%) Virtual Machines
8 7 (0.42%) Hyper-V
9 3 (0.18%) BitLocker
9 3 (0.18%) Dovecot
9 3 (0.18%) Postfix
9 3 (0.18%) vCloud
10 2 (0.12%) KVM
11 1 (0.060%) HDFS
11 1 (0.060%) RACF
11 1 (0.060%) SRDF
11 1 (0.060%) Veritas Cluster Server
11 1 (0.060%) Xen
Systems Management
1 102 (6.13%) Terraform
2 87 (5.23%) Kubernetes
3 54 (3.25%) Ansible
4 33 (1.98%) OPNET
5 25 (1.50%) Single Sign-On
6 19 (1.14%) vCenter Server
7 15 (0.90%) SCCM
8 14 (0.84%) WMI
9 13 (0.78%) Prometheus
10 11 (0.66%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 11 (0.66%) Microsoft Intune
11 9 (0.54%) Grafana
12 7 (0.42%) Argo
13 4 (0.24%) FortiGate
14 3 (0.18%) Puppet
15 2 (0.12%) Endace
15 2 (0.12%) Istio
15 2 (0.12%) Microsoft Clustering
15 2 (0.12%) SCOM
15 2 (0.12%) vRealize
Vendors
1 223 (13.40%) Microsoft
2 113 (6.79%) VMware
3 100 (6.01%) ServiceNow
4 92 (5.53%) Salesforce
5 88 (5.29%) SAP
6 79 (4.75%) Oracle
7 67 (4.03%) Cisco
8 35 (2.10%) Google
8 35 (2.10%) Remedy
9 34 (2.04%) Atlassian
10 30 (1.80%) Workday
11 27 (1.62%) MuleSoft
11 27 (1.62%) Palo Alto
11 27 (1.62%) Red Hat
12 23 (1.38%) Virgin Media
13 22 (1.32%) CyberArk
13 22 (1.32%) Juniper
13 22 (1.32%) Pega
13 22 (1.32%) Sparx
14 21 (1.26%) BiZZdesign
3,025 Architect jobs in the UK excluding London