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 £623, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 August 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 20 12
Rank change year-on-year +7 -8 +6
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,493 1,244 1,836
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.15% 8.21% 9.82%
As % of the Job Titles category 9.93% 9.08% 10.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,635 843 1,153
10th Percentile £481 £456 £480
25th Percentile £525 £519 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £623 £600 £646
Median % change year-on-year +3.75% -7.12% -0.62%
75th Percentile £710 £688 £725
90th Percentile £775 £750 £788
UK median daily rate £620 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -0.80% -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 156 15 75
10th Percentile £46.00 £33.64 -
25th Percentile £60.00 £64.38 £60.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £72.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.34% +3.57% -
75th Percentile £71.91 £86.50 £85.13
90th Percentile £83.00 £99.42 £89.01
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £72.50 £70.00
% change year-on-year -10.34% +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 25,115 13,693 17,205
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.17% 90.41% 92.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,230 8,417 10,528
10th Percentile £306 £215 £219
25th Percentile £410 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £600
90th Percentile £688 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,956 1,195 1,846
10th Percentile £14.82 £13.48 £13.69
25th Percentile £20.97 £16.65 £18.13
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -41.51% +11.69%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £42.91
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.39% +0.96%

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 1 August 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 1 August 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 1 August 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 +9 724 £600 - 253
South East 0 723 £633 +5.42% 316
Midlands -2 411 £625 +8.70% 132
North West +5 395 £600 - 128
West Midlands -3 305 £627 +4.42% 95
South West 0 298 £625 -2.34% 133
Yorkshire +12 259 £600 - 90
East of England +16 165 £600 +8.11% 77
Scotland +10 156 £650 +4.00% 80
East Midlands +5 99 £600 +20.00% 37
North East +1 77 £600 -14.29% 37
Wales +5 34 £620 +14.81% 43
Northern Ireland +4 7 £475 -32.14% 28
Channel Islands -1 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 1 August 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.

1 782 (31.37%) Security Cleared
2 555 (22.26%) Azure
3 493 (19.78%) SC Cleared
4 438 (17.57%) AWS
5 355 (14.24%) Roadmaps
6 339 (13.60%) Stakeholder Management
7 328 (13.16%) Microsoft
8 327 (13.12%) Agile
9 276 (11.07%) Migration
10 265 (10.63%) Technical Leadership
11 262 (10.51%) Enterprise Architecture
12 243 (9.75%) Integration Patterns
13 242 (9.71%) DevOps
14 241 (9.67%) DV Cleared
15 229 (9.19%) CI/CD
16 223 (8.95%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 222 (8.90%) Data Architecture
18 217 (8.70%) AI
19 214 (8.58%) Architectural Patterns
20 212 (8.50%) Data Modelling
21 197 (7.90%) Cybersecurity
22 178 (7.14%) Security Architecture
23 177 (7.10%) TOGAF
24 174 (6.98%) Microservices
25 162 (6.50%) GCP
26 161 (6.46%) Problem-Solving
27 150 (6.02%) Architectural Design
28 148 (5.94%) Architecture Governance
29 146 (5.86%) Continuous Improvement
30 145 (5.82%) Event-Driven

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 42 (1.68%) SharePoint
2 33 (1.32%) Confluence
3 31 (1.24%) SAS
4 16 (0.64%) Microsoft Exchange
5 12 (0.48%) Apache Spark
6 11 (0.44%) Apache
6 11 (0.44%) Apache Airflow
7 10 (0.40%) OpenStack
7 10 (0.40%) Palantir Foundry
8 7 (0.28%) Documentum
9 6 (0.24%) Appian
9 6 (0.24%) CMS
10 5 (0.20%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 5 (0.20%) ArcGIS
10 5 (0.20%) JBoss
10 5 (0.20%) NetWeaver
11 4 (0.16%) SAP EP
12 2 (0.080%) Alfresco
12 2 (0.080%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 2 (0.080%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 11 (0.44%) MS Visio
2 8 (0.32%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (0.28%) Navisworks
3 7 (0.28%) Revit
4 6 (0.24%) Microsoft Office
4 6 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.040%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.040%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 59 (2.37%) SAP S/4HANA
2 15 (0.60%) Payment Gateway
3 13 (0.52%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 11 (0.44%) Teamcenter
5 10 (0.40%) Remedy ITSM
6 9 (0.36%) SAP ERP
7 7 (0.28%) Oracle ERP
8 6 (0.24%) Dynamics CRM
8 6 (0.24%) Maximo
9 5 (0.20%) NetSuite
9 5 (0.20%) Oracle Retail
9 5 (0.20%) SAP GRC
10 4 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
10 4 (0.16%) SAP CRM
10 4 (0.16%) SAP MDG
11 3 (0.12%) Adobe Campaign
11 3 (0.12%) Dynamics NAV
11 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
11 3 (0.12%) SAP IBP
11 3 (0.12%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 555 (22.26%) Azure
2 438 (17.57%) AWS
3 162 (6.50%) GCP
4 96 (3.85%) Power Platform
5 86 (3.45%) Entra ID
6 80 (3.21%) SaaS
6 80 (3.21%) Serverless
7 55 (2.21%) PaaS
8 54 (2.17%) Microsoft 365
9 46 (1.85%) GitHub
10 45 (1.81%) IaaS
11 39 (1.56%) Azure DevOps
12 38 (1.52%) Dynamics 365
13 37 (1.48%) OpenShift
14 34 (1.36%) AWS Lambda
15 27 (1.08%) Amazon S3
15 27 (1.08%) Snowflake
16 26 (1.04%) GitHub Actions
17 24 (0.96%) OCI
18 21 (0.84%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 98 (3.93%) Firewall
2 67 (2.69%) WAN
3 65 (2.61%) DNS
4 61 (2.45%) Network Security
5 54 (2.17%) LAN
6 39 (1.56%) VPN
7 36 (1.44%) DHCP
8 34 (1.36%) BGP
8 34 (1.36%) SD-WAN
9 30 (1.20%) TCP/IP
9 30 (1.20%) VLAN
10 26 (1.04%) SAN
11 24 (0.96%) Wireless
12 23 (0.92%) MPLS
12 23 (0.92%) NAS
13 21 (0.84%) Structured Cabling
14 19 (0.76%) BIG-IP
15 18 (0.72%) IPsec
15 18 (0.72%) OSPF
16 14 (0.56%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 69 (2.77%) Power BI
2 67 (2.69%) Data Lake
3 64 (2.57%) Data Warehouse
3 64 (2.57%) Metadata
4 34 (1.36%) NoSQL
5 23 (0.92%) PostgreSQL
6 22 (0.88%) SQL Server
7 19 (0.76%) Amazon RDS
8 18 (0.72%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
8 18 (0.72%) Oracle Database
9 15 (0.60%) Base SAS
10 14 (0.56%) BigQuery
10 14 (0.56%) GIS
11 13 (0.52%) Azure SQL Database
12 12 (0.48%) Big Data
13 11 (0.44%) Delta Lake
13 11 (0.44%) MongoDB
13 11 (0.44%) MySQL
14 10 (0.40%) Relational Database
14 10 (0.40%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 40 (1.60%) JIRA
2 28 (1.12%) Git
3 27 (1.08%) Jenkins
4 12 (0.48%) GitLab
5 10 (0.40%) ERwin
6 8 (0.32%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.20%) Artifactory
8 4 (0.16%) Hudson
9 3 (0.12%) Claude Code
9 3 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.12%) Selenium
9 3 (0.12%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.080%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.080%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.080%) IntelliJ
10 2 (0.080%) JUnit
10 2 (0.080%) Oracle APEX
10 2 (0.080%) Oracle Forms
10 2 (0.080%) Rational Rhapsody
10 2 (0.080%) REST Assured
General
1 467 (18.73%) Social Skills
2 319 (12.80%) Finance
3 235 (9.43%) Public Sector
4 140 (5.62%) Banking
5 132 (5.29%) Analytical Skills
6 96 (3.85%) Retail
7 78 (3.13%) Manufacturing
8 57 (2.29%) Documentation Skills
9 54 (2.17%) Influencing Skills
10 36 (1.44%) Aerospace
11 35 (1.40%) Legal
12 31 (1.24%) Military
13 26 (1.04%) Telecoms
14 24 (0.96%) Financial Institution
15 21 (0.84%) Back Office
15 21 (0.84%) Marketing
16 20 (0.80%) Presentation Skills
17 18 (0.72%) Aviation
17 18 (0.72%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 17 (0.68%) Investment Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 106 (4.25%) REST
2 74 (2.97%) Middleware
3 57 (2.29%) OAuth
4 41 (1.64%) OpenID
4 41 (1.64%) SOAP
5 40 (1.60%) Oracle Fusion
6 37 (1.48%) .NET
7 36 (1.44%) Kafka
8 35 (1.40%) SAML
9 31 (1.24%) SailPoint
10 30 (1.20%) OAuth2
11 23 (0.92%) JSON
12 19 (0.76%) Node.js
12 19 (0.76%) RESTful
12 19 (0.76%) Web Services
13 16 (0.64%) LDAP
14 15 (0.60%) React
15 12 (0.48%) GraphQL
16 11 (0.44%) SAP PI
16 11 (0.44%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 185 (7.42%) Cloud Native
2 85 (3.41%) Data Centre
3 76 (3.05%) Hybrid Cloud
4 73 (2.93%) Operational Technology
5 62 (2.49%) Product Ownership
6 58 (2.33%) Onboarding
7 57 (2.29%) Data Protection Act
7 57 (2.29%) Management Information System
8 56 (2.25%) Distributed Systems
9 53 (2.13%) Enterprise Software
9 53 (2.13%) Legacy Systems
10 41 (1.64%) Public Cloud
11 38 (1.52%) AI Agents
12 34 (1.36%) Private Cloud
13 27 (1.08%) Security Posture
14 26 (1.04%) PKI
15 23 (0.92%) SCADA
16 22 (0.88%) Enterprise Cloud
16 22 (0.88%) IVR
17 21 (0.84%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
Operating Systems
1 88 (3.53%) Windows
2 52 (2.09%) Linux
3 33 (1.32%) Windows Server
4 14 (0.56%) Android
4 14 (0.56%) Apple iOS
4 14 (0.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 9 (0.36%) Unix
6 6 (0.24%) AIX
7 5 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
8 2 (0.080%) HPUX
8 2 (0.080%) Solaris
8 2 (0.080%) VMS
8 2 (0.080%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.040%) CatOS
9 1 (0.040%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.040%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.040%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 355 (14.24%) Roadmaps
2 339 (13.60%) Stakeholder Management
3 327 (13.12%) Agile
4 276 (11.07%) Migration
5 265 (10.63%) Technical Leadership
6 262 (10.51%) Enterprise Architecture
7 243 (9.75%) Integration Patterns
8 242 (9.71%) DevOps
9 229 (9.19%) CI/CD
10 223 (8.95%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 222 (8.90%) Data Architecture
12 217 (8.70%) AI
13 214 (8.58%) Architectural Patterns
14 212 (8.50%) Data Modelling
15 197 (7.90%) Cybersecurity
16 178 (7.14%) Security Architecture
17 177 (7.10%) TOGAF
18 174 (6.98%) Microservices
19 161 (6.46%) Problem-Solving
20 150 (6.02%) Architectural Design
Programming Languages
1 99 (3.97%) SQL
2 97 (3.89%) Java
3 95 (3.81%) Python
4 58 (2.33%) JavaScript
5 41 (1.64%) PowerShell
6 23 (0.92%) Bash
7 22 (0.88%) C#
8 19 (0.76%) Bicep
9 12 (0.48%) TypeScript
10 8 (0.32%) ABAP
10 8 (0.32%) VBA
11 7 (0.28%) Shell Script
12 6 (0.24%) Apex Code
12 6 (0.24%) PL/SQL
13 5 (0.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 4 (0.16%) Kotlin
15 3 (0.12%) C
15 3 (0.12%) Groovy
16 2 (0.080%) C++
16 2 (0.080%) ProC
Qualifications
1 782 (31.37%) Security Cleared
2 493 (19.78%) SC Cleared
3 241 (9.67%) DV Cleared
4 84 (3.37%) Degree
5 57 (2.29%) Cisco Certification
5 57 (2.29%) CISSP
6 45 (1.81%) TOGAF Certification
7 42 (1.68%) BPSS Clearance
8 41 (1.64%) AWS Certification
9 40 (1.60%) Azure Certification
10 33 (1.32%) Computer Science Degree
11 31 (1.24%) CCNP
12 20 (0.80%) Microsoft Certification
13 19 (0.76%) CISM
14 18 (0.72%) CCNA
15 14 (0.56%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 14 (0.56%) CCIE
16 12 (0.48%) Network+ Certification
16 12 (0.48%) Server+ Certification
17 11 (0.44%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 93 (3.73%) NIST
2 75 (3.01%) Data Quality
3 62 (2.49%) NCSC
4 58 (2.33%) GDPR
4 58 (2.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 25 (1.00%) QA
6 20 (0.80%) Accessibility
7 18 (0.72%) PCI DSS
8 16 (0.64%) NIST 800
9 14 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 12 (0.48%) IFRS
10 12 (0.48%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 11 (0.44%) Disclosure Scotland
12 10 (0.40%) Cyber Essentials
12 10 (0.40%) GRC
12 10 (0.40%) ISO 19650
13 9 (0.36%) HL7
13 9 (0.36%) JSP 440
14 8 (0.32%) SLA
15 6 (0.24%) COBIT
System Software
1 96 (3.85%) Active Directory
2 48 (1.93%) Docker
2 48 (1.93%) VMware Infrastructure
3 30 (1.20%) VMware NSX
4 21 (0.84%) Virtual Desktop
5 17 (0.68%) Hyper-V
6 16 (0.64%) vSphere
7 10 (0.40%) VMware ESXi
8 8 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
9 6 (0.24%) vCloud
10 3 (0.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
10 3 (0.12%) IAG
10 3 (0.12%) KVM
10 3 (0.12%) NFS
10 3 (0.12%) RACF
10 3 (0.12%) SRDF
11 2 (0.080%) Ceph
12 1 (0.040%) Firmware
12 1 (0.040%) ProxySG
12 1 (0.040%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 120 (4.81%) Kubernetes
2 93 (3.73%) Terraform
3 52 (2.09%) Ansible
4 33 (1.32%) Microsoft Intune
5 23 (0.92%) Single Sign-On
6 19 (0.76%) Grafana
7 18 (0.72%) vCenter Server
8 14 (0.56%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 13 (0.52%) Jamf Pro
9 13 (0.52%) Prometheus
10 12 (0.48%) Argo
11 8 (0.32%) FortiGate
12 6 (0.24%) CASB
13 5 (0.20%) EMC VPLEX
13 5 (0.20%) Istio
13 5 (0.20%) MOM
13 5 (0.20%) NetBackup
14 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
15 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
15 3 (0.12%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 328 (13.16%) Microsoft
2 137 (5.50%) SAP
3 113 (4.53%) Oracle
4 102 (4.09%) ServiceNow
4 102 (4.09%) VMware
5 80 (3.21%) Google
6 76 (3.05%) Cisco
6 76 (3.05%) Databricks
7 47 (1.89%) Salesforce
8 31 (1.24%) F5
9 28 (1.12%) Red Hat
10 27 (1.08%) Citrix
11 24 (0.96%) Palo Alto
12 23 (0.92%) CyberArk
12 23 (0.92%) MuleSoft
13 20 (0.80%) Infoblox
13 20 (0.80%) Informatica
14 18 (0.72%) IBM
14 18 (0.72%) Juniper
14 18 (0.72%) Talend