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 £601, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 31 March 2026.

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

6 months to
31 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 18 13
Rank change year-on-year +8 -5 +7
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,280 1,121 2,034
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 10.17% 8.89% 9.66%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.08% 9.61% 10.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,474 778 1,252
10th Percentile £450 £450 £500
25th Percentile £506 £537 £575
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £601 £621 £650
Median % change year-on-year -3.22% -4.42% -
75th Percentile £701 £700 £725
90th Percentile £764 £750 £788
UK median daily rate £620 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -0.80% -3.85% -1.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 97 28 43
10th Percentile £49.40 £58.65 £53.45
25th Percentile £60.00 £61.50 £60.00
Median hourly rate £71.27 £72.50 £83.77
Median % change year-on-year -1.70% -13.45% +19.66%
75th Percentile £85.00 £80.15 £87.53
90th Percentile £96.00 £85.50 £95.00
UK median hourly rate £71.27 £70.00 £83.50
% change year-on-year +1.81% -16.17% +19.29%

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 20,576 11,660 19,540
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.79% 92.47% 92.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,177 7,598 12,133
10th Percentile £261 £213 £213
25th Percentile £400 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £485 £475 £488
Median % change year-on-year +2.11% -2.56% -2.50%
75th Percentile £582 £588 £595
90th Percentile £675 £660 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -3.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,250 748 2,112
10th Percentile £14.38 £14.84 £12.50
25th Percentile £19.00 £19.19 £15.50
Median hourly rate £40.00 £31.88 £32.90
Median % change year-on-year +25.47% -3.09% -21.32%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £76.25 £71.90
UK median hourly rate £38.63 £32.50 £32.90
% change year-on-year +18.86% -1.20% -25.00%

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 31 March 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 31 March 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 31 March 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 +4 701 £625 - 256
North of England +5 597 £600 - 194
Midlands 0 398 £575 -4.17% 95
North West +7 337 £610 +1.67% 100
West Midlands -2 298 £600 -0.50% 69
South West +1 281 £700 +15.46% 98
Yorkshire +7 236 £558 -10.72% 70
East of England +17 180 £545 -12.80% 71
Scotland +14 135 £650 +4.00% 35
East Midlands 0 96 £525 -7.49% 26
North East +5 33 £575 -7.95% 28
Wales +2 28 £550 -3.51% 24
Northern Ireland +6 11 £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 31 March 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.

1 746 (32.72%) Security Cleared
2 458 (20.09%) Azure
3 418 (18.33%) SC Cleared
4 346 (15.18%) AWS
5 332 (14.56%) Roadmaps
6 327 (14.34%) Agile
7 323 (14.17%) Microsoft
8 269 (11.80%) DV Cleared
9 256 (11.23%) Enterprise Architecture
9 256 (11.23%) Stakeholder Management
10 254 (11.14%) Migration
11 224 (9.82%) TOGAF
12 214 (9.39%) DevOps
13 191 (8.38%) CI/CD
14 189 (8.29%) Data Modelling
15 186 (8.16%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 186 (8.16%) Technical Leadership
16 160 (7.02%) Problem-Solving
17 159 (6.97%) Architectural Design
17 159 (6.97%) Architectural Patterns
18 158 (6.93%) Microservices
19 157 (6.89%) Data Architecture
20 152 (6.67%) Cybersecurity
21 149 (6.54%) ITIL
22 147 (6.45%) Analytics
23 146 (6.40%) Integration Patterns
24 143 (6.27%) GCP
25 140 (6.14%) VMware
26 133 (5.83%) Windows
27 130 (5.70%) Security Architecture

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 90 (3.95%) Confluence
2 64 (2.81%) SharePoint
3 48 (2.11%) Microsoft Exchange
4 25 (1.10%) SAS
5 13 (0.57%) Appian
6 12 (0.53%) ArcGIS
7 11 (0.48%) CMS
8 10 (0.44%) Anypoint
9 9 (0.39%) Apache
10 7 (0.31%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 7 (0.31%) Apache Airflow
10 7 (0.31%) Skype for Business
11 6 (0.26%) Apache Spark
11 6 (0.26%) NetWeaver
11 6 (0.26%) Sitecore CMS
11 6 (0.26%) Smallworld
11 6 (0.26%) WebLogic
12 5 (0.22%) SAP EP
13 4 (0.18%) IIS
13 4 (0.18%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 45 (1.97%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (1.36%) Microsoft Project
3 22 (0.96%) Microsoft Excel
4 21 (0.92%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.31%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.18%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.044%) OrCAD
7 1 (0.044%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 55 (2.41%) SAP S/4HANA
2 31 (1.36%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 19 (0.83%) Payment Gateway
4 13 (0.57%) Workday HCM
5 11 (0.48%) SAP ERP
6 10 (0.44%) Dynamics CRM
7 8 (0.35%) Salesforce CRM
8 7 (0.31%) Maximo
8 7 (0.31%) Remedy ITSM
9 6 (0.26%) SAP CRM
10 4 (0.18%) Distributed Ledger
10 4 (0.18%) Oracle Retail
10 4 (0.18%) R3 Corda
10 4 (0.18%) SAP CO
10 4 (0.18%) SAP FI
10 4 (0.18%) SAP FI/CO
10 4 (0.18%) SAP GRC
10 4 (0.18%) SAP PP
10 4 (0.18%) Teamcenter
11 3 (0.13%) SAP SD
Cloud Services
1 458 (20.09%) Azure
2 346 (15.18%) AWS
3 143 (6.27%) GCP
4 89 (3.90%) Entra ID
5 87 (3.82%) Microsoft 365
6 66 (2.89%) Power Platform
7 60 (2.63%) Serverless
8 58 (2.54%) SaaS
9 51 (2.24%) PaaS
10 50 (2.19%) IaaS
11 46 (2.02%) Microsoft Purview
12 43 (1.89%) OpenShift
13 38 (1.67%) Azure DevOps
13 38 (1.67%) GitHub
13 38 (1.67%) OneDrive
14 29 (1.27%) Dynamics 365
15 27 (1.18%) Azure Synapse Analytics
16 26 (1.14%) AWS CloudFormation
17 23 (1.01%) AWS Lambda
17 23 (1.01%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 119 (5.22%) Firewall
2 79 (3.46%) DNS
3 78 (3.42%) WAN
4 70 (3.07%) Network Security
5 63 (2.76%) VPN
6 53 (2.32%) LAN
7 45 (1.97%) SD-WAN
8 32 (1.40%) DHCP
9 22 (0.96%) VLAN
10 20 (0.88%) MPLS
10 20 (0.88%) Wireless
11 19 (0.83%) BGP
11 19 (0.83%) SAN
12 18 (0.79%) Wi-Fi
13 15 (0.66%) OSPF
14 14 (0.61%) IPsec
15 12 (0.53%) BIG-IP
15 12 (0.53%) NAS
15 12 (0.53%) SSL
16 11 (0.48%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 73 (3.20%) Data Warehouse
2 69 (3.03%) Metadata
3 53 (2.32%) Power BI
4 42 (1.84%) SQL Server
5 27 (1.18%) NoSQL
6 26 (1.14%) PostgreSQL
6 26 (1.14%) Tableau
7 25 (1.10%) Data Lake
7 25 (1.10%) Oracle Database
8 18 (0.79%) GIS
9 14 (0.61%) Metadata Repository
10 13 (0.57%) Azure SQL Database
10 13 (0.57%) DynamoDB
11 12 (0.53%) Big Data
12 11 (0.48%) MongoDB
12 11 (0.48%) Relational Database
13 10 (0.44%) Electronic Patient Records
14 8 (0.35%) SAP BW
15 7 (0.31%) MySQL
15 7 (0.31%) SAS Enterprise Guide
Development Applications
1 99 (4.34%) JIRA
2 45 (1.97%) Jenkins
3 19 (0.83%) GitLab
4 16 (0.70%) Git
5 7 (0.31%) ERwin
6 5 (0.22%) Artifactory
6 5 (0.22%) Rational DOORS
6 5 (0.22%) Sonatype Nexus
7 4 (0.18%) Selenium
8 3 (0.13%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.13%) Cucumber
8 3 (0.13%) MLflow
8 3 (0.13%) MSI
8 3 (0.13%) Postman
8 3 (0.13%) REST Assured
8 3 (0.13%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.088%) Gatling
9 2 (0.088%) JMeter
9 2 (0.088%) JUnit
9 2 (0.088%) LoadRunner
General
1 430 (18.86%) Social Skills
2 284 (12.46%) Finance
3 237 (10.39%) Public Sector
4 147 (6.45%) Analytical Skills
5 140 (6.14%) Banking
6 62 (2.72%) Military
7 59 (2.59%) Documentation Skills
8 49 (2.15%) Legal
9 39 (1.71%) Retail
10 38 (1.67%) Influencing Skills
11 34 (1.49%) Telecoms
12 33 (1.45%) Presentation Skills
13 30 (1.32%) Marketing
14 25 (1.10%) Aerospace
15 22 (0.96%) Manufacturing
16 21 (0.92%) Investment Banking
17 20 (0.88%) Financial Institution
18 13 (0.57%) Billing
19 12 (0.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
19 12 (0.53%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 78 (3.42%) REST
2 62 (2.72%) Middleware
3 41 (1.80%) .NET
4 39 (1.71%) OAuth
5 37 (1.62%) SOAP
6 35 (1.54%) OpenID
7 31 (1.36%) OAuth2
8 28 (1.23%) SAML
9 26 (1.14%) SailPoint
10 25 (1.10%) Kafka
11 23 (1.01%) RESTful
12 17 (0.75%) JSON
12 17 (0.75%) React
12 17 (0.75%) Web Services
13 15 (0.66%) Microsoft Graph
14 14 (0.61%) Node.js
15 12 (0.53%) CSS
15 12 (0.53%) HTML
15 12 (0.53%) LDAP
16 11 (0.48%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 154 (6.75%) Cloud Native
2 96 (4.21%) Product Ownership
3 77 (3.38%) Data Centre
4 55 (2.41%) Onboarding
5 54 (2.37%) Public Cloud
6 49 (2.15%) Operational Technology
7 47 (2.06%) Hybrid Cloud
7 47 (2.06%) PKI
8 39 (1.71%) Management Information System
9 38 (1.67%) Enterprise Software
10 36 (1.58%) Data Protection Act
10 36 (1.58%) Distributed Systems
11 33 (1.45%) Legacy Systems
12 27 (1.18%) CMDB
12 27 (1.18%) SCADA
13 23 (1.01%) NHS
14 18 (0.79%) Private Cloud
15 16 (0.70%) AI Agents
15 16 (0.70%) Data Structures
16 15 (0.66%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 133 (5.83%) Windows
2 79 (3.46%) Linux
3 32 (1.40%) Windows Server
4 15 (0.66%) Android
4 15 (0.66%) Apple iOS
4 15 (0.66%) Windows 7
5 14 (0.61%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 11 (0.48%) Windows 10
7 8 (0.35%) Unix
7 8 (0.35%) Windows Server 2016
8 5 (0.22%) VMS
8 5 (0.22%) Windows Server 2019
9 4 (0.18%) Mac OS
10 3 (0.13%) Ubuntu
10 3 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.044%) CentOS
11 1 (0.044%) Data ONTAP
11 1 (0.044%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 332 (14.56%) Roadmaps
2 327 (14.34%) Agile
3 256 (11.23%) Enterprise Architecture
3 256 (11.23%) Stakeholder Management
4 254 (11.14%) Migration
5 224 (9.82%) TOGAF
6 214 (9.39%) DevOps
7 191 (8.38%) CI/CD
8 189 (8.29%) Data Modelling
9 186 (8.16%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 186 (8.16%) Technical Leadership
10 160 (7.02%) Problem-Solving
11 159 (6.97%) Architectural Design
11 159 (6.97%) Architectural Patterns
12 158 (6.93%) Microservices
13 157 (6.89%) Data Architecture
14 152 (6.67%) Cybersecurity
15 149 (6.54%) ITIL
16 147 (6.45%) Analytics
17 146 (6.40%) Integration Patterns
Programming Languages
1 126 (5.53%) Python
2 83 (3.64%) SQL
3 78 (3.42%) PowerShell
4 63 (2.76%) Java
5 34 (1.49%) JavaScript
6 30 (1.32%) C#
7 20 (0.88%) Bash
7 20 (0.88%) Bicep
8 11 (0.48%) Kusto Query Language
9 8 (0.35%) PL/SQL
10 7 (0.31%) R
10 7 (0.31%) VB
10 7 (0.31%) VBScript
11 5 (0.22%) ABAP
11 5 (0.22%) Scala
11 5 (0.22%) TypeScript
12 4 (0.18%) Apex Code
12 4 (0.18%) Kotlin
12 4 (0.18%) Shell Script
12 4 (0.18%) VBA
Qualifications
1 746 (32.72%) Security Cleared
2 418 (18.33%) SC Cleared
3 269 (11.80%) DV Cleared
4 108 (4.74%) Degree
5 79 (3.46%) TOGAF Certification
6 66 (2.89%) CISSP
7 47 (2.06%) BPSS Clearance
8 44 (1.93%) AWS Certification
9 43 (1.89%) Cisco Certification
10 40 (1.75%) Azure Certification
11 37 (1.62%) CISM
12 30 (1.32%) Microsoft Certification
13 29 (1.27%) ISEB
14 28 (1.23%) CCNP
14 28 (1.23%) ITIL Certification
15 23 (1.01%) Computer Science Degree
16 21 (0.92%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
17 20 (0.88%) Master's Degree
18 16 (0.70%) CCIE
19 14 (0.61%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 103 (4.52%) NIST
2 102 (4.47%) GDPR
3 77 (3.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 73 (3.20%) Data Quality
5 49 (2.15%) NCSC
6 33 (1.45%) PCI DSS
7 32 (1.40%) COBIT
8 21 (0.92%) QA
9 20 (0.88%) GRC
10 18 (0.79%) Cyber Essentials
11 16 (0.70%) JSP 440
12 15 (0.66%) ISO 20022
13 12 (0.53%) FINRA
13 12 (0.53%) MiFID
13 12 (0.53%) NIST 800
14 10 (0.44%) Accessibility
15 9 (0.39%) Def Stans
15 9 (0.39%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 9 (0.39%) ISO/IEC 20000
16 8 (0.35%) HL7
System Software
1 103 (4.52%) Active Directory
2 66 (2.89%) VMware Infrastructure
3 44 (1.93%) Docker
4 37 (1.62%) VMware NSX
5 25 (1.10%) vSphere
6 15 (0.66%) Hyper-V
6 15 (0.66%) Virtual Desktop
7 9 (0.39%) vCloud
7 9 (0.39%) VMware ESXi
8 8 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
9 7 (0.31%) BitLocker
10 5 (0.22%) RACF
11 3 (0.13%) IAG
11 3 (0.13%) NFS
12 2 (0.088%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
12 2 (0.088%) Firmware
13 1 (0.044%) Embedded Firmware
13 1 (0.044%) ProxySG
13 1 (0.044%) Slurm Workload Manager
13 1 (0.044%) Snort
Systems Management
1 106 (4.65%) Terraform
2 87 (3.82%) Kubernetes
3 66 (2.89%) Ansible
4 31 (1.36%) Microsoft Intune
4 31 (1.36%) Single Sign-On
5 30 (1.32%) OPNET
5 30 (1.32%) vCenter Server
6 20 (0.88%) SCCM
7 16 (0.70%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 15 (0.66%) Argo
9 14 (0.61%) WMI
10 11 (0.48%) FortiGate
11 8 (0.35%) Grafana
12 6 (0.26%) Istio
13 5 (0.22%) Endace
14 4 (0.18%) Prometheus
15 3 (0.13%) Puppet
15 3 (0.13%) SCOM
15 3 (0.13%) vRealize
16 2 (0.088%) Nessus
Vendors
1 323 (14.17%) Microsoft
2 140 (6.14%) VMware
3 129 (5.66%) ServiceNow
4 128 (5.61%) SAP
5 84 (3.68%) Oracle
6 83 (3.64%) Cisco
7 67 (2.94%) Salesforce
8 50 (2.19%) Google
9 44 (1.93%) Remedy
10 43 (1.89%) Databricks
11 41 (1.80%) MuleSoft
12 40 (1.75%) Palo Alto
13 38 (1.67%) Red Hat
14 36 (1.58%) BiZZdesign
15 35 (1.54%) Atlassian
16 30 (1.32%) Citrix
16 30 (1.32%) Sparx
17 29 (1.27%) F5
18 28 (1.23%) CyberArk
19 26 (1.14%) Juniper