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 11 February 2026.

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

6 months to
11 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 16 16 14
Rank change year-on-year 0 -2 +6
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 1,928 1,233 1,945
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.72% 9.17% 9.31%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.70% 9.91% 9.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,281 781 1,232
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 £705 £700 £710
90th Percentile £770 £750 £775
UK median daily rate £625 £625 £650
% change year-on-year - -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 58 24 40
10th Percentile £49.40 £61.50 £59.73
25th Percentile £60.00 £64.88 £61.25
Median hourly rate £72.50 £72.50 £78.37
Median % change year-on-year - -7.49% +11.96%
75th Percentile £90.09 £78.92 £87.53
90th Percentile £95.00 £84.72 £95.00
UK median hourly rate £72.50 £71.25 £76.53
% change year-on-year +1.75% -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 18,012 12,438 19,502
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.85% 92.50% 93.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,920 7,471 12,259
10th Percentile £219 £210 £213
25th Percentile £375 £363 £368
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £479 £489
Median % change year-on-year -0.84% -2.04% -2.20%
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 1,906 641 1,904
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.22 £12.86
25th Percentile £18.26 £20.30 £16.00
Median hourly rate £29.60 £31.76 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -6.80% -9.26% -
75th Percentile £62.50 £64.50 £61.66
90th Percentile £70.00 £74.44 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £30.00 £33.54 £35.00
% change year-on-year -10.55% -4.17% -2.51%

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 11 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 11 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 11 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 +10 590 £625 - 254
North of England -3 482 £575 -4.17% 154
Midlands -2 339 £573 -4.58% 96
North West -7 273 £577 -3.83% 85
South West 0 251 £706 +12.96% 62
West Midlands -2 249 £600 -1.15% 67
Yorkshire -4 190 £563 -2.17% 43
East of England +14 140 £550 -13.73% 41
Scotland +10 129 £650 +4.00% 44
East Midlands -4 88 £492 -13.30% 29
Wales +8 32 £600 +5.26% 7
North East -11 24 £625 -1.96% 28
Northern Ireland -1 8 £500 -26.47% 5
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 11 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.

1 633 (32.83%) Security Cleared
2 419 (21.73%) Azure
3 376 (19.50%) SC Cleared
4 321 (16.65%) AWS
5 293 (15.20%) Agile
6 288 (14.94%) Roadmaps
7 281 (14.57%) Microsoft
8 260 (13.49%) Stakeholder Management
9 248 (12.86%) Enterprise Architecture
10 240 (12.45%) Migration
11 221 (11.46%) TOGAF
12 209 (10.84%) DV Cleared
13 191 (9.91%) DevOps
14 172 (8.92%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 171 (8.87%) Data Modelling
16 169 (8.77%) Technical Leadership
17 151 (7.83%) CI/CD
18 147 (7.62%) Problem-Solving
19 137 (7.11%) Analytics
20 136 (7.05%) ITIL
21 132 (6.85%) Cybersecurity
21 132 (6.85%) Microservices
22 130 (6.74%) GCP
23 126 (6.54%) Python
24 125 (6.48%) Architectural Design
25 124 (6.43%) Data Architecture
26 115 (5.96%) Decision-Making
26 115 (5.96%) VMware
26 115 (5.96%) Windows
27 114 (5.91%) AI

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 84 (4.36%) Confluence
2 56 (2.90%) SharePoint
3 47 (2.44%) Microsoft Exchange
4 25 (1.30%) SAS
5 10 (0.52%) Anypoint
5 10 (0.52%) Appian
5 10 (0.52%) CMS
6 9 (0.47%) Apache
6 9 (0.47%) ArcGIS
6 9 (0.47%) Smallworld
7 8 (0.41%) Apache Airflow
8 7 (0.36%) Apache Spark
8 7 (0.36%) Skype for Business
9 6 (0.31%) OpenStack
9 6 (0.31%) WebLogic
10 5 (0.26%) GeoServer
10 5 (0.26%) IIS
10 5 (0.26%) Sitecore CMS
11 4 (0.21%) Ethereum
11 4 (0.21%) Hyperledger
Applications
1 45 (2.33%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (1.61%) Microsoft Project
3 23 (1.19%) Microsoft Excel
4 22 (1.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.26%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.16%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.052%) FrameMaker
7 1 (0.052%) OrCAD
7 1 (0.052%) Revit
7 1 (0.052%) Trello
Business Applications
1 47 (2.44%) SAP S/4HANA
2 26 (1.35%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 14 (0.73%) Payment Gateway
3 14 (0.73%) Workday HCM
4 11 (0.57%) Dynamics CRM
5 9 (0.47%) Salesforce CRM
6 7 (0.36%) SAP ERP
7 6 (0.31%) Maximo
7 6 (0.31%) SAP CO
8 5 (0.26%) Dynamics AX
8 5 (0.26%) Oracle SCM
8 5 (0.26%) SAP FI
8 5 (0.26%) SAP FI/CO
9 4 (0.21%) Distributed Ledger
9 4 (0.21%) R3 Corda
9 4 (0.21%) SAP CRM
9 4 (0.21%) SAP PP
10 3 (0.16%) NetSuite
10 3 (0.16%) SAP PM
10 3 (0.16%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 419 (21.73%) Azure
2 321 (16.65%) AWS
3 130 (6.74%) GCP
4 83 (4.30%) Microsoft 365
5 66 (3.42%) Entra ID
6 61 (3.16%) SaaS
7 51 (2.65%) Serverless
8 48 (2.49%) Power Platform
9 46 (2.39%) Microsoft Purview
10 36 (1.87%) IaaS
10 36 (1.87%) OneDrive
11 35 (1.82%) PaaS
12 34 (1.76%) Azure DevOps
12 34 (1.76%) Dynamics 365
13 32 (1.66%) OpenShift
14 27 (1.40%) GitHub
15 25 (1.30%) AWS CloudFormation
15 25 (1.30%) AWS Lambda
16 23 (1.19%) Azure Data Factory
16 23 (1.19%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 94 (4.88%) Firewall
2 67 (3.48%) WAN
3 62 (3.22%) DNS
4 50 (2.59%) Network Security
5 49 (2.54%) VPN
6 40 (2.07%) LAN
7 36 (1.87%) SD-WAN
8 22 (1.14%) MPLS
9 21 (1.09%) DHCP
10 20 (1.04%) BGP
11 16 (0.83%) SAN
11 16 (0.83%) Wi-Fi
12 13 (0.67%) IPsec
13 12 (0.62%) Kerberos
13 12 (0.62%) VLAN
14 11 (0.57%) Internet
14 11 (0.57%) VSAN
14 11 (0.57%) Wireless
15 10 (0.52%) OSPF
15 10 (0.52%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 78 (4.05%) Data Warehouse
2 61 (3.16%) Metadata
3 39 (2.02%) Power BI
4 38 (1.97%) SQL Server
5 28 (1.45%) PostgreSQL
6 27 (1.40%) Tableau
7 22 (1.14%) Oracle Database
8 20 (1.04%) Data Lake
9 18 (0.93%) GIS
10 16 (0.83%) NoSQL
11 15 (0.78%) DynamoDB
12 13 (0.67%) Metadata Repository
13 11 (0.57%) Big Data
13 11 (0.57%) Relational Database
14 10 (0.52%) Amazon Redshift
14 10 (0.52%) Azure SQL Database
14 10 (0.52%) Redis
15 8 (0.41%) Amazon Athena
16 7 (0.36%) Hadoop
16 7 (0.36%) SAS Enterprise Guide
Development Applications
1 97 (5.03%) JIRA
2 43 (2.23%) Jenkins
3 18 (0.93%) Git
4 17 (0.88%) GitLab
5 6 (0.31%) Artifactory
6 5 (0.26%) Postman
7 4 (0.21%) MSI
7 4 (0.21%) Rational DOORS
7 4 (0.21%) Selenium
8 3 (0.16%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.16%) Cucumber
8 3 (0.16%) MLflow
8 3 (0.16%) REST Assured
8 3 (0.16%) 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
1 414 (21.47%) Social Skills
2 241 (12.50%) Finance
3 223 (11.57%) Public Sector
4 134 (6.95%) Analytical Skills
5 108 (5.60%) Banking
6 58 (3.01%) Documentation Skills
7 54 (2.80%) Military
8 48 (2.49%) Legal
9 41 (2.13%) Influencing Skills
10 39 (2.02%) Telecoms
11 37 (1.92%) Retail
12 36 (1.87%) Marketing
13 32 (1.66%) Presentation Skills
14 19 (0.99%) Aerospace
14 19 (0.99%) Manufacturing
15 13 (0.67%) Investment Banking
16 12 (0.62%) Billing
17 11 (0.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 10 (0.52%) Local Government
19 6 (0.31%) Corporate Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 78 (4.05%) REST
2 45 (2.33%) SOAP
3 44 (2.28%) Middleware
4 35 (1.82%) .NET
4 35 (1.82%) OAuth
5 29 (1.50%) SAML
6 28 (1.45%) OpenID
7 26 (1.35%) SailPoint
8 25 (1.30%) OAuth2
9 21 (1.09%) Kafka
10 19 (0.99%) RESTful
10 19 (0.99%) Web Services
11 17 (0.88%) Node.js
12 14 (0.73%) React
13 13 (0.67%) Microsoft Graph
14 12 (0.62%) LDAP
15 11 (0.57%) Oracle Fusion
16 10 (0.52%) CSS
16 10 (0.52%) HTML
16 10 (0.52%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 122 (6.33%) Cloud Native
2 96 (4.98%) Product Ownership
3 69 (3.58%) Data Centre
4 52 (2.70%) Onboarding
5 46 (2.39%) PKI
6 44 (2.28%) Legacy Systems
7 43 (2.23%) Hybrid Cloud
8 42 (2.18%) Public Cloud
9 35 (1.82%) Operational Technology
10 33 (1.71%) Enterprise Software
11 31 (1.61%) Management Information System
12 30 (1.56%) Distributed Systems
13 25 (1.30%) CMDB
14 23 (1.19%) Data Protection Act
15 22 (1.14%) SCADA
16 18 (0.93%) NHS
17 12 (0.62%) Blockchain
17 12 (0.62%) Data Structures
17 12 (0.62%) Security Posture
18 11 (0.57%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 115 (5.96%) Windows
2 69 (3.58%) Linux
3 28 (1.45%) Windows Server
4 18 (0.93%) Windows 7
5 14 (0.73%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 12 (0.62%) Windows 10
7 8 (0.41%) Windows Server 2016
8 7 (0.36%) Unix
8 7 (0.36%) Windows Server 2019
9 5 (0.26%) VMS
10 4 (0.21%) Android
10 4 (0.21%) Apple iOS
10 4 (0.21%) Mac OS
11 3 (0.16%) Ubuntu
12 2 (0.10%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.052%) CentOS
13 1 (0.052%) Kali Linux
13 1 (0.052%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 293 (15.20%) Agile
2 288 (14.94%) Roadmaps
3 260 (13.49%) Stakeholder Management
4 248 (12.86%) Enterprise Architecture
5 240 (12.45%) Migration
6 221 (11.46%) TOGAF
7 191 (9.91%) DevOps
8 172 (8.92%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 171 (8.87%) Data Modelling
10 169 (8.77%) Technical Leadership
11 151 (7.83%) CI/CD
12 147 (7.62%) Problem-Solving
13 137 (7.11%) Analytics
14 136 (7.05%) ITIL
15 132 (6.85%) Cybersecurity
15 132 (6.85%) Microservices
16 125 (6.48%) Architectural Design
17 124 (6.43%) Data Architecture
18 115 (5.96%) Decision-Making
19 114 (5.91%) AI
Programming Languages
1 126 (6.54%) Python
2 75 (3.89%) PowerShell
3 71 (3.68%) SQL
4 63 (3.27%) Java
5 30 (1.56%) JavaScript
6 22 (1.14%) C#
7 16 (0.83%) Bash
8 12 (0.62%) Bicep
9 11 (0.57%) Kusto Query Language
10 9 (0.47%) PL/SQL
11 8 (0.41%) R
11 8 (0.41%) TypeScript
12 7 (0.36%) VB
12 7 (0.36%) VBScript
13 6 (0.31%) Apex Code
14 4 (0.21%) ABAP
14 4 (0.21%) Perl
14 4 (0.21%) Scala
14 4 (0.21%) Shell Script
15 3 (0.16%) C++
Qualifications
1 633 (32.83%) Security Cleared
2 376 (19.50%) SC Cleared
3 209 (10.84%) DV Cleared
4 107 (5.55%) Degree
5 72 (3.73%) TOGAF Certification
6 64 (3.32%) CISSP
7 51 (2.65%) AWS Certification
8 42 (2.18%) BPSS Clearance
9 37 (1.92%) Azure Certification
9 37 (1.92%) Cisco Certification
10 35 (1.82%) CISM
11 33 (1.71%) Microsoft Certification
12 29 (1.50%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 28 (1.45%) Computer Science Degree
13 28 (1.45%) Master's Degree
14 26 (1.35%) ISEB
15 25 (1.30%) ITIL Certification
16 22 (1.14%) CCIE
16 22 (1.14%) CCNP
17 10 (0.52%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 97 (5.03%) GDPR
2 77 (3.99%) NIST
3 63 (3.27%) Data Quality
4 62 (3.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 36 (1.87%) NCSC
6 28 (1.45%) COBIT
6 28 (1.45%) PCI DSS
7 19 (0.99%) GRC
7 19 (0.99%) QA
8 17 (0.88%) JSP 440
9 12 (0.62%) Cyber Essentials
10 11 (0.57%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 11 (0.57%) FINRA
10 11 (0.57%) ISO 20022
10 11 (0.57%) MiFID
11 9 (0.47%) Def Stans
11 9 (0.47%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 7 (0.36%) Accessibility
12 7 (0.36%) Disclosure Scotland
13 6 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 84 (4.36%) Active Directory
2 55 (2.85%) VMware Infrastructure
3 38 (1.97%) Docker
4 31 (1.61%) VMware NSX
5 25 (1.30%) vSphere
6 13 (0.67%) Virtual Desktop
7 12 (0.62%) VMware ESXi
8 10 (0.52%) Hyper-V
9 8 (0.41%) Virtual Machines
10 7 (0.36%) BitLocker
11 5 (0.26%) RACF
11 5 (0.26%) vCloud
12 4 (0.21%) NFS
13 2 (0.10%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
14 1 (0.052%) Embedded Firmware
14 1 (0.052%) Firmware
14 1 (0.052%) HDFS
14 1 (0.052%) IAG
Systems Management
1 89 (4.62%) Terraform
2 74 (3.84%) Kubernetes
3 58 (3.01%) Ansible
4 37 (1.92%) Single Sign-On
5 31 (1.61%) OPNET
6 26 (1.35%) vCenter Server
7 19 (0.99%) SCCM
8 17 (0.88%) WMI
9 16 (0.83%) Microsoft Intune
10 14 (0.73%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 12 (0.62%) Argo
12 11 (0.57%) FortiGate
13 6 (0.31%) Prometheus
14 5 (0.26%) Istio
15 3 (0.16%) Endace
15 3 (0.16%) Grafana
15 3 (0.16%) SCOM
16 2 (0.10%) Puppet
16 2 (0.10%) vRealize
16 2 (0.10%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 281 (14.57%) Microsoft
2 115 (5.96%) VMware
3 112 (5.81%) ServiceNow
4 96 (4.98%) SAP
5 92 (4.77%) Oracle
6 83 (4.30%) Salesforce
7 64 (3.32%) Cisco
8 48 (2.49%) Google
9 39 (2.02%) Remedy
10 36 (1.87%) Atlassian
11 35 (1.82%) Red Hat
12 34 (1.76%) MuleSoft
12 34 (1.76%) Palo Alto
13 29 (1.50%) BiZZdesign
13 29 (1.50%) Databricks
14 27 (1.40%) CyberArk
15 25 (1.30%) Sparx
16 22 (1.14%) Virgin Media
17 21 (1.09%) F5
17 21 (1.09%) Workday