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 £613, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 26 May 2026.

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

6 months to
26 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 19 13
Rank change year-on-year +9 -6 +5
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,398 1,078 2,059
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.68% 8.49% 10.06%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.53% 9.26% 10.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,588 723 1,236
10th Percentile £450 £450 £500
25th Percentile £513 £513 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £613 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year +2.08% -7.69% -
75th Percentile £713 £694 £725
90th Percentile £775 £750 £800
UK median daily rate £618 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -1.20% -3.85% -0.08%
Number of hourly rates quoted 120 24 90
10th Percentile £49.06 £43.92 -
25th Percentile £60.00 £65.13 £60.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £72.91 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.84% +4.15% -
75th Percentile £78.75 £80.56 £85.65
90th Percentile £95.25 £85.50 £88.20
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 22,778 11,641 18,920
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.93% 91.72% 92.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,148 7,465 11,518
10th Percentile £300 £213 £213
25th Percentile £402 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £488
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £594
90th Percentile £682 £650 £688
UK median daily rate £513 £508 £525
% change year-on-year +0.99% -3.33% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,599 813 2,337
10th Percentile £14.65 £13.85 £12.50
25th Percentile £20.00 £17.25 £15.75
Median hourly rate £43.69 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +73.72% -37.13% -5.88%
75th Percentile £67.25 £62.50 £61.60
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £27.52 £36.50
% change year-on-year +54.46% -24.62% -18.89%

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 26 May 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 26 May 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 26 May 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 +6 700 £625 - 223
North of England +3 664 £600 - 222
Midlands +1 435 £600 +0.97% 100
North West +6 371 £608 +4.29% 125
West Midlands -2 313 £620 +3.33% 69
South West 0 257 £650 +8.33% 130
Yorkshire +6 250 £557 -7.25% 58
East of England +19 202 £575 -4.17% 52
Scotland +12 145 £650 +4.00% 69
East Midlands 0 116 £560 +6.46% 31
North East +7 51 £575 -4.17% 40
Wales -3 30 £600 +25.00% 46
Northern Ireland +6 7 £475 -28.30% 21
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 26 May 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.

1 710 (29.61%) Security Cleared
2 480 (20.02%) Azure
3 413 (17.22%) SC Cleared
4 368 (15.35%) AWS
5 334 (13.93%) Agile
6 330 (13.76%) Roadmaps
7 325 (13.55%) Microsoft
8 261 (10.88%) Migration
9 260 (10.84%) Stakeholder Management
10 250 (10.43%) Enterprise Architecture
11 247 (10.30%) DevOps
12 244 (10.18%) DV Cleared
13 217 (9.05%) CI/CD
14 205 (8.55%) Technical Leadership
15 189 (7.88%) Integration Patterns
16 187 (7.80%) Architectural Patterns
17 186 (7.76%) Data Modelling
18 185 (7.71%) Microservices
18 185 (7.71%) Stakeholder Engagement
19 169 (7.05%) TOGAF
20 166 (6.92%) Data Architecture
21 158 (6.59%) Architectural Design
22 149 (6.21%) Problem-Solving
23 147 (6.13%) Cybersecurity
23 147 (6.13%) SAP
24 134 (5.59%) GCP
25 133 (5.55%) Analytics
26 132 (5.50%) AI
27 128 (5.34%) VMware
28 125 (5.21%) 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 62 (2.59%) SharePoint
2 54 (2.25%) Confluence
3 36 (1.50%) Microsoft Exchange
4 21 (0.88%) SAS
5 13 (0.54%) Appian
6 11 (0.46%) Apache Airflow
7 10 (0.42%) Anypoint
7 10 (0.42%) Apache
7 10 (0.42%) CMS
8 9 (0.38%) Apache Spark
9 7 (0.29%) ArcGIS
10 6 (0.25%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 6 (0.25%) Sitecore CMS
10 6 (0.25%) WebLogic
11 5 (0.21%) NetWeaver
11 5 (0.21%) OpenStack
12 4 (0.17%) JBoss
12 4 (0.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 4 (0.17%) SAP EP
12 4 (0.17%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 21 (0.88%) Microsoft Office
2 13 (0.54%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (0.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 11 (0.46%) Microsoft Project
4 7 (0.29%) Navisworks
4 7 (0.29%) Revit
5 6 (0.25%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.17%) Chatbot
6 4 (0.17%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.042%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 57 (2.38%) SAP S/4HANA
2 23 (0.96%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 20 (0.83%) Payment Gateway
4 12 (0.50%) SAP ERP
5 10 (0.42%) Teamcenter
6 9 (0.38%) Remedy ITSM
6 9 (0.38%) Workday HCM
7 6 (0.25%) SAP MDG
8 4 (0.17%) Oracle Retail
8 4 (0.17%) Salesforce CRM
8 4 (0.17%) SAP CRM
8 4 (0.17%) SAP GRC
9 3 (0.13%) Dynamics CRM
9 3 (0.13%) Maximo
9 3 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
9 3 (0.13%) SAP SD
10 2 (0.083%) Dynamics AX
10 2 (0.083%) Infor LN
10 2 (0.083%) Infor M3
10 2 (0.083%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 480 (20.02%) Azure
2 368 (15.35%) AWS
3 134 (5.59%) GCP
4 93 (3.88%) Entra ID
4 93 (3.88%) Power Platform
5 80 (3.34%) Microsoft 365
6 70 (2.92%) Serverless
7 69 (2.88%) SaaS
8 56 (2.34%) PaaS
9 43 (1.79%) IaaS
10 42 (1.75%) GitHub
11 39 (1.63%) Azure DevOps
12 38 (1.58%) Microsoft Purview
13 35 (1.46%) OpenShift
14 29 (1.21%) OneDrive
15 27 (1.13%) Dynamics 365
16 26 (1.08%) Azure Data Factory
17 24 (1.00%) AWS Lambda
17 24 (1.00%) Azure Synapse Analytics
18 23 (0.96%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 96 (4.00%) Firewall
2 70 (2.92%) WAN
3 66 (2.75%) DNS
4 64 (2.67%) Network Security
5 53 (2.21%) LAN
6 49 (2.04%) VPN
7 40 (1.67%) SD-WAN
8 35 (1.46%) DHCP
9 28 (1.17%) VLAN
10 25 (1.04%) Wireless
11 23 (0.96%) BGP
12 22 (0.92%) SAN
13 21 (0.88%) NAS
14 20 (0.83%) Structured Cabling
15 18 (0.75%) IPsec
16 17 (0.71%) MPLS
17 16 (0.67%) BIG-IP
17 16 (0.67%) OSPF
18 14 (0.58%) NX-OS
19 13 (0.54%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 70 (2.92%) Power BI
2 69 (2.88%) Metadata
3 52 (2.17%) Data Warehouse
4 40 (1.67%) Data Lake
5 38 (1.58%) SQL Server
6 34 (1.42%) NoSQL
7 24 (1.00%) PostgreSQL
8 20 (0.83%) Tableau
9 19 (0.79%) Oracle Database
10 14 (0.58%) GIS
11 12 (0.50%) Azure SQL Database
12 11 (0.46%) MongoDB
13 10 (0.42%) Big Data
14 9 (0.38%) DynamoDB
14 9 (0.38%) Relational Database
15 8 (0.33%) Electronic Patient Records
16 7 (0.29%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
16 7 (0.29%) Metadata Repository
16 7 (0.29%) MySQL
16 7 (0.29%) Spatial Data
Development Applications
1 67 (2.79%) JIRA
2 38 (1.58%) Jenkins
3 21 (0.88%) GitLab
4 18 (0.75%) Git
5 7 (0.29%) ERwin
6 6 (0.25%) Artifactory
7 5 (0.21%) Selenium
8 4 (0.17%) Hudson
8 4 (0.17%) JUnit
8 4 (0.17%) Postman
8 4 (0.17%) REST Assured
8 4 (0.17%) Sonatype Nexus
9 3 (0.13%) Cucumber
9 3 (0.13%) MLflow
9 3 (0.13%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.13%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.083%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.083%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.083%) Gatling
10 2 (0.083%) NeoLoad
General
1 412 (17.18%) Social Skills
2 319 (13.30%) Finance
3 220 (9.17%) Public Sector
4 142 (5.92%) Banking
5 123 (5.13%) Analytical Skills
6 74 (3.09%) Retail
7 57 (2.38%) Documentation Skills
8 53 (2.21%) Legal
8 53 (2.21%) Manufacturing
9 40 (1.67%) Military
10 33 (1.38%) Influencing Skills
11 30 (1.25%) Aerospace
12 26 (1.08%) Investment Banking
13 22 (0.92%) Presentation Skills
14 21 (0.88%) Telecoms
15 19 (0.79%) Back Office
15 19 (0.79%) Financial Institution
15 19 (0.79%) Marketing
16 13 (0.54%) Billing
17 10 (0.42%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 97 (4.05%) REST
2 80 (3.34%) Middleware
3 51 (2.13%) .NET
4 47 (1.96%) OAuth
5 43 (1.79%) OpenID
6 41 (1.71%) SOAP
7 32 (1.33%) OAuth2
8 31 (1.29%) SAML
9 27 (1.13%) Kafka
9 27 (1.13%) Oracle Fusion
9 27 (1.13%) SailPoint
10 25 (1.04%) RESTful
11 22 (0.92%) JSON
12 20 (0.83%) Node.js
12 20 (0.83%) React
13 18 (0.75%) LDAP
13 18 (0.75%) Web Services
14 16 (0.67%) Microsoft Graph
15 13 (0.54%) AngularJS
16 12 (0.50%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 166 (6.92%) Cloud Native
2 83 (3.46%) Data Centre
3 70 (2.92%) Product Ownership
4 63 (2.63%) Operational Technology
5 52 (2.17%) Hybrid Cloud
5 52 (2.17%) Public Cloud
6 51 (2.13%) Onboarding
7 50 (2.09%) Management Information System
8 46 (1.92%) Data Protection Act
9 42 (1.75%) Distributed Systems
10 40 (1.67%) Enterprise Software
11 38 (1.58%) Legacy Systems
12 31 (1.29%) PKI
13 28 (1.17%) SCADA
14 25 (1.04%) CMDB
15 19 (0.79%) Data Structures
15 19 (0.79%) Private Cloud
16 17 (0.71%) AI Agents
16 17 (0.71%) Security Posture
17 15 (0.63%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 112 (4.67%) Windows
2 61 (2.54%) Linux
3 30 (1.25%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.67%) Android
4 16 (0.67%) Apple iOS
5 11 (0.46%) Unix
6 9 (0.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 8 (0.33%) Windows 10
7 8 (0.33%) Windows Server 2016
8 6 (0.25%) Windows 7
9 5 (0.21%) Windows Server 2019
10 4 (0.17%) Mac OS
11 3 (0.13%) Data ONTAP
11 3 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
12 2 (0.083%) VMS
13 1 (0.042%) CatOS
13 1 (0.042%) Kali Linux
13 1 (0.042%) Ubuntu
13 1 (0.042%) Windows Server 2008
13 1 (0.042%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 334 (13.93%) Agile
2 330 (13.76%) Roadmaps
3 261 (10.88%) Migration
4 260 (10.84%) Stakeholder Management
5 250 (10.43%) Enterprise Architecture
6 247 (10.30%) DevOps
7 217 (9.05%) CI/CD
8 205 (8.55%) Technical Leadership
9 189 (7.88%) Integration Patterns
10 187 (7.80%) Architectural Patterns
11 186 (7.76%) Data Modelling
12 185 (7.71%) Microservices
12 185 (7.71%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 169 (7.05%) TOGAF
14 166 (6.92%) Data Architecture
15 158 (6.59%) Architectural Design
16 149 (6.21%) Problem-Solving
17 147 (6.13%) Cybersecurity
18 133 (5.55%) Analytics
19 132 (5.50%) AI
Programming Languages
1 101 (4.21%) Python
2 97 (4.05%) SQL
3 71 (2.96%) PowerShell
4 65 (2.71%) Java
5 47 (1.96%) JavaScript
6 30 (1.25%) C#
7 21 (0.88%) Bicep
8 15 (0.63%) Bash
8 15 (0.63%) TypeScript
9 12 (0.50%) PL/SQL
10 10 (0.42%) Kusto Query Language
11 7 (0.29%) VBA
12 6 (0.25%) Scala
13 5 (0.21%) Apex Code
14 4 (0.17%) ABAP
14 4 (0.17%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 4 (0.17%) Kotlin
14 4 (0.17%) T-SQL
14 4 (0.17%) VB
14 4 (0.17%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 710 (29.61%) Security Cleared
2 413 (17.22%) SC Cleared
3 244 (10.18%) DV Cleared
4 91 (3.79%) Degree
5 52 (2.17%) TOGAF Certification
6 50 (2.09%) BPSS Clearance
7 47 (1.96%) Cisco Certification
8 36 (1.50%) CISSP
9 33 (1.38%) Computer Science Degree
10 32 (1.33%) AWS Certification
10 32 (1.33%) Azure Certification
10 32 (1.33%) CCNP
11 21 (0.88%) Microsoft Certification
12 19 (0.79%) CISM
13 16 (0.67%) CCNA
13 16 (0.67%) Master's Degree
14 14 (0.58%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 12 (0.50%) ITIL Certification
15 12 (0.50%) Network+ Certification
15 12 (0.50%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 91 (3.79%) NIST
2 75 (3.13%) GDPR
3 61 (2.54%) Data Quality
4 56 (2.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 47 (1.96%) NCSC
6 23 (0.96%) QA
7 20 (0.83%) Accessibility
8 17 (0.71%) PCI DSS
9 16 (0.67%) Cyber Essentials
10 14 (0.58%) GRC
11 12 (0.50%) FINRA
11 12 (0.50%) MiFID
11 12 (0.50%) NIST 800
12 11 (0.46%) COBIT
13 10 (0.42%) ISO 20022
14 8 (0.33%) Disclosure Scotland
14 8 (0.33%) HL7
14 8 (0.33%) IFRS
15 7 (0.29%) ISO 19650
16 6 (0.25%) JSP 440
System Software
1 100 (4.17%) Active Directory
2 58 (2.42%) VMware Infrastructure
3 32 (1.33%) Docker
3 32 (1.33%) VMware NSX
4 20 (0.83%) Hyper-V
4 20 (0.83%) vSphere
5 19 (0.79%) Virtual Desktop
6 11 (0.46%) VMware ESXi
7 10 (0.42%) vCloud
8 5 (0.21%) RACF
8 5 (0.21%) Virtual Machines
9 4 (0.17%) BitLocker
9 4 (0.17%) NFS
10 3 (0.13%) IAG
11 2 (0.083%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
11 2 (0.083%) Firmware
12 1 (0.042%) Embedded Firmware
12 1 (0.042%) ProxySG
12 1 (0.042%) Snort
12 1 (0.042%) SRDF
Systems Management
1 80 (3.34%) Terraform
2 75 (3.13%) Kubernetes
3 54 (2.25%) Ansible
4 35 (1.46%) Microsoft Intune
5 26 (1.08%) Single Sign-On
5 26 (1.08%) vCenter Server
6 15 (0.63%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 15 (0.63%) SCCM
7 12 (0.50%) FortiGate
8 11 (0.46%) OPNET
9 10 (0.42%) Argo
9 10 (0.42%) Grafana
10 7 (0.29%) WMI
11 6 (0.25%) Jamf Pro
11 6 (0.25%) Prometheus
12 5 (0.21%) Endace
12 5 (0.21%) Istio
13 3 (0.13%) EMC VPLEX
13 3 (0.13%) MOM
13 3 (0.13%) vRealize
Vendors
1 325 (13.55%) Microsoft
2 147 (6.13%) SAP
3 128 (5.34%) VMware
4 119 (4.96%) ServiceNow
5 103 (4.30%) Oracle
6 72 (3.00%) Cisco
7 58 (2.42%) Salesforce
8 54 (2.25%) Databricks
9 52 (2.17%) Google
10 46 (1.92%) MuleSoft
11 29 (1.21%) Citrix
11 29 (1.21%) Red Hat
12 28 (1.17%) F5
13 25 (1.04%) Palo Alto
13 25 (1.04%) Sparx
14 24 (1.00%) BiZZdesign
15 22 (0.92%) Juniper
15 22 (0.92%) Remedy
16 20 (0.83%) Talend
17 17 (0.71%) Splunk