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 £620, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 16 July 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 12 20 13
Rank change year-on-year +8 -7 +6
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,511 1,226 2,060
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.34% 8.30% 9.96%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.13% 9.16% 10.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,647 828 1,260
10th Percentile £476 £450 £487
25th Percentile £525 £519 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £620 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year +3.33% -7.69% -
75th Percentile £713 £698 £725
90th Percentile £775 £755 £788
UK median daily rate £615 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -1.60% -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 156 17 90
10th Percentile £47.70 £35.42 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £62.50 £60.31
Median hourly rate £65.00 £72.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.34% +3.57% -
75th Percentile £71.91 £85.50 £85.65
90th Percentile £83.00 £99.13 £88.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £68.75 £70.00
% change year-on-year -5.45% -1.79% -

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 24,782 13,388 19,075
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.14% 90.65% 92.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,152 8,263 11,515
10th Percentile £305 £220 £213
25th Percentile £408 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £495
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -4.04% -1.00%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £595
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 2,854 1,128 2,318
10th Percentile £15.24 £13.50 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.04 £16.84 £16.25
Median hourly rate £45.56 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +81.13% -37.13% +6.67%
75th Percentile £68.00 £57.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £74.44
UK median hourly rate £45.00 £26.21 £40.00
% change year-on-year +71.69% -34.48% -5.88%

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 16 July 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 16 July 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 16 July 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 +1 719 £626 +4.25% 183
North of England +6 718 £600 - 180
Midlands 0 419 £620 +7.83% 95
North West +4 384 £610 +1.67% 105
West Midlands -3 300 £626 +4.33% 71
South West -1 285 £625 - 91
Yorkshire +8 267 £600 - 42
East of England +16 188 £600 - 43
Scotland +7 172 £650 +4.00% 45
East Midlands +4 111 £600 +20.00% 24
North East 0 75 £588 -16.07% 33
Wales +7 33 £600 +25.00% 17
Northern Ireland +4 7 £475 -32.14% 10
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 16 July 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.

1 764 (30.43%) Security Cleared
2 543 (21.62%) Azure
3 476 (18.96%) SC Cleared
4 439 (17.48%) AWS
5 361 (14.38%) Roadmaps
6 338 (13.46%) Agile
7 336 (13.38%) Microsoft
8 314 (12.50%) Stakeholder Management
9 285 (11.35%) Migration
10 257 (10.23%) Enterprise Architecture
11 255 (10.16%) DevOps
12 250 (9.96%) Technical Leadership
13 240 (9.56%) Integration Patterns
14 239 (9.52%) DV Cleared
15 229 (9.12%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 228 (9.08%) CI/CD
17 215 (8.56%) Architectural Patterns
18 213 (8.48%) Data Architecture
19 210 (8.36%) Data Modelling
20 200 (7.96%) Microservices
21 195 (7.77%) AI
22 193 (7.69%) TOGAF
23 191 (7.61%) Cybersecurity
24 172 (6.85%) Problem-Solving
25 171 (6.81%) Security Architecture
26 163 (6.49%) Architectural Design
27 147 (5.85%) GCP
28 144 (5.73%) Continuous Improvement
29 141 (5.62%) SAP
30 140 (5.58%) Data Governance

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 49 (1.95%) SharePoint
2 34 (1.35%) Confluence
3 32 (1.27%) SAS
4 24 (0.96%) Microsoft Exchange
5 14 (0.56%) Apache Airflow
6 13 (0.52%) Appian
7 12 (0.48%) Apache Spark
8 11 (0.44%) Apache
9 10 (0.40%) CMS
9 10 (0.40%) OpenStack
10 8 (0.32%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 8 (0.32%) Palantir Foundry
11 7 (0.28%) Documentum
12 6 (0.24%) JBoss
12 6 (0.24%) Sitecore CMS
13 5 (0.20%) ArcGIS
13 5 (0.20%) NetWeaver
14 4 (0.16%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 4 (0.16%) SAP EP
15 3 (0.12%) Anypoint
Applications
1 11 (0.44%) MS Visio
2 9 (0.36%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.28%) Navisworks
3 7 (0.28%) Revit
4 6 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.20%) Microsoft Excel
5 5 (0.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 4 (0.16%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.040%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 59 (2.35%) SAP S/4HANA
2 18 (0.72%) Payment Gateway
3 15 (0.60%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 12 (0.48%) SAP ERP
5 11 (0.44%) Teamcenter
6 10 (0.40%) Remedy ITSM
7 7 (0.28%) Oracle ERP
8 6 (0.24%) Dynamics CRM
8 6 (0.24%) Maximo
9 5 (0.20%) Oracle Retail
9 5 (0.20%) SAP GRC
10 4 (0.16%) NetSuite
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%) Avolution ABACUS
11 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
11 3 (0.12%) SAP IBP
12 2 (0.080%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 543 (21.62%) Azure
2 439 (17.48%) AWS
3 147 (5.85%) GCP
4 99 (3.94%) Power Platform
5 93 (3.70%) Entra ID
6 82 (3.27%) Serverless
7 75 (2.99%) SaaS
8 66 (2.63%) Microsoft 365
9 56 (2.23%) PaaS
10 47 (1.87%) IaaS
11 46 (1.83%) GitHub
12 41 (1.63%) Azure DevOps
13 38 (1.51%) OpenShift
14 33 (1.31%) AWS Lambda
15 31 (1.23%) Dynamics 365
16 27 (1.08%) Amazon S3
17 26 (1.04%) Snowflake
18 25 (1.00%) Microsoft Purview
19 24 (0.96%) GitHub Actions
20 22 (0.88%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 110 (4.38%) Firewall
2 72 (2.87%) DNS
3 71 (2.83%) Network Security
3 71 (2.83%) WAN
4 58 (2.31%) LAN
5 42 (1.67%) VPN
6 40 (1.59%) DHCP
7 37 (1.47%) SD-WAN
8 35 (1.39%) BGP
9 32 (1.27%) VLAN
10 31 (1.23%) TCP/IP
11 26 (1.04%) MPLS
12 25 (1.00%) Wireless
13 24 (0.96%) SAN
14 23 (0.92%) NAS
15 22 (0.88%) IPsec
16 21 (0.84%) Structured Cabling
17 20 (0.80%) BIG-IP
18 19 (0.76%) OSPF
19 14 (0.56%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (2.87%) Metadata
2 68 (2.71%) Power BI
3 63 (2.51%) Data Lake
4 62 (2.47%) Data Warehouse
5 34 (1.35%) NoSQL
6 31 (1.23%) SQL Server
7 26 (1.04%) PostgreSQL
8 21 (0.84%) Oracle Database
9 17 (0.68%) Amazon RDS
9 17 (0.68%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
10 14 (0.56%) Azure SQL Database
10 14 (0.56%) Base SAS
10 14 (0.56%) GIS
11 13 (0.52%) Big Data
12 12 (0.48%) Relational Database
13 11 (0.44%) MongoDB
14 10 (0.40%) Semantic Layer
15 9 (0.36%) Delta Lake
15 9 (0.36%) Electronic Patient Records
16 8 (0.32%) BigQuery
Development Applications
1 46 (1.83%) JIRA
2 28 (1.12%) Jenkins
3 25 (1.00%) Git
4 14 (0.56%) GitLab
5 10 (0.40%) ERwin
6 8 (0.32%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.20%) Artifactory
8 4 (0.16%) Hudson
8 4 (0.16%) Selenium
9 3 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.12%) REST Assured
9 3 (0.12%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.080%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.080%) Claude Code
10 2 (0.080%) Cucumber
10 2 (0.080%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.080%) JUnit
10 2 (0.080%) Oracle APEX
10 2 (0.080%) Oracle Forms
10 2 (0.080%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 468 (18.64%) Social Skills
2 333 (13.26%) Finance
3 240 (9.56%) Public Sector
4 145 (5.77%) Banking
5 140 (5.58%) Analytical Skills
6 93 (3.70%) Retail
7 71 (2.83%) Manufacturing
8 57 (2.27%) Documentation Skills
9 47 (1.87%) Influencing Skills
10 43 (1.71%) Legal
11 35 (1.39%) Aerospace
12 31 (1.23%) Military
13 25 (1.00%) Telecoms
14 24 (0.96%) Financial Institution
15 20 (0.80%) Investment Banking
15 20 (0.80%) Marketing
16 18 (0.72%) Back Office
16 18 (0.72%) Presentation Skills
17 17 (0.68%) Billing
18 14 (0.56%) Aviation
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 117 (4.66%) REST
2 75 (2.99%) Middleware
3 53 (2.11%) OAuth
4 45 (1.79%) SOAP
5 44 (1.75%) .NET
6 41 (1.63%) OpenID
7 36 (1.43%) Oracle Fusion
8 34 (1.35%) Kafka
9 33 (1.31%) SailPoint
10 31 (1.23%) SAML
11 29 (1.15%) OAuth2
12 25 (1.00%) RESTful
13 23 (0.92%) Node.js
14 21 (0.84%) Web Services
15 20 (0.80%) JSON
15 20 (0.80%) React
16 19 (0.76%) LDAP
17 15 (0.60%) AngularJS
18 12 (0.48%) FHIR
19 11 (0.44%) SAP PI
Miscellaneous
1 184 (7.33%) Cloud Native
2 96 (3.82%) Data Centre
3 75 (2.99%) Operational Technology
4 72 (2.87%) Hybrid Cloud
5 61 (2.43%) Onboarding
5 61 (2.43%) Product Ownership
6 55 (2.19%) Data Protection Act
6 55 (2.19%) Management Information System
7 53 (2.11%) Enterprise Software
8 52 (2.07%) Distributed Systems
9 50 (1.99%) Legacy Systems
10 44 (1.75%) Public Cloud
11 31 (1.23%) Private Cloud
12 28 (1.12%) AI Agents
13 25 (1.00%) CMDB
13 25 (1.00%) Security Posture
14 23 (0.92%) SCADA
15 22 (0.88%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
16 21 (0.84%) Enterprise Cloud
16 21 (0.84%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 101 (4.02%) Windows
2 52 (2.07%) Linux
3 36 (1.43%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.64%) Android
4 16 (0.64%) Apple iOS
5 13 (0.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.40%) Unix
7 5 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
8 3 (0.12%) AIX
8 3 (0.12%) Windows 10
8 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2019
9 2 (0.080%) VMS
9 2 (0.080%) Windows 7
9 2 (0.080%) Windows Server 2012
9 2 (0.080%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.040%) CatOS
10 1 (0.040%) Kali Linux
10 1 (0.040%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.040%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 361 (14.38%) Roadmaps
2 338 (13.46%) Agile
3 314 (12.50%) Stakeholder Management
4 285 (11.35%) Migration
5 257 (10.23%) Enterprise Architecture
6 255 (10.16%) DevOps
7 250 (9.96%) Technical Leadership
8 240 (9.56%) Integration Patterns
9 229 (9.12%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 228 (9.08%) CI/CD
11 215 (8.56%) Architectural Patterns
12 213 (8.48%) Data Architecture
13 210 (8.36%) Data Modelling
14 200 (7.96%) Microservices
15 195 (7.77%) AI
16 193 (7.69%) TOGAF
17 191 (7.61%) Cybersecurity
18 172 (6.85%) Problem-Solving
19 171 (6.81%) Security Architecture
20 163 (6.49%) Architectural Design
Programming Languages
1 110 (4.38%) SQL
2 107 (4.26%) Python
3 94 (3.74%) Java
4 52 (2.07%) JavaScript
5 48 (1.91%) PowerShell
6 28 (1.12%) C#
7 22 (0.88%) Bash
7 22 (0.88%) Bicep
8 12 (0.48%) TypeScript
9 8 (0.32%) ABAP
9 8 (0.32%) PL/SQL
9 8 (0.32%) VBA
10 5 (0.20%) Apex Code
10 5 (0.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 4 (0.16%) Kotlin
12 3 (0.12%) C
12 3 (0.12%) Kusto Query Language
12 3 (0.12%) Scala
12 3 (0.12%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.080%) C++
Qualifications
1 764 (30.43%) Security Cleared
2 476 (18.96%) SC Cleared
3 239 (9.52%) DV Cleared
4 90 (3.58%) Degree
5 59 (2.35%) Cisco Certification
6 54 (2.15%) CISSP
7 49 (1.95%) BPSS Clearance
8 47 (1.87%) TOGAF Certification
9 44 (1.75%) AWS Certification
10 42 (1.67%) Azure Certification
11 34 (1.35%) Computer Science Degree
12 33 (1.31%) CCNP
13 21 (0.84%) Microsoft Certification
14 18 (0.72%) CISM
15 17 (0.68%) CCNA
16 15 (0.60%) CCIE
16 15 (0.60%) Master's Degree
17 14 (0.56%) (ISC)2 CCSP
18 13 (0.52%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
19 12 (0.48%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 95 (3.78%) NIST
2 75 (2.99%) Data Quality
3 67 (2.67%) GDPR
4 62 (2.47%) NCSC
5 57 (2.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 25 (1.00%) QA
7 19 (0.76%) Accessibility
7 19 (0.76%) PCI DSS
8 17 (0.68%) NIST 800
9 12 (0.48%) COBIT
9 12 (0.48%) GRC
10 11 (0.44%) IFRS
11 10 (0.40%) Disclosure Scotland
11 10 (0.40%) HL7
11 10 (0.40%) ISO 19650
11 10 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 10 (0.40%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 9 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials
12 9 (0.36%) ISO 20022
13 8 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
System Software
1 107 (4.26%) Active Directory
2 53 (2.11%) VMware Infrastructure
3 44 (1.75%) Docker
4 33 (1.31%) VMware NSX
5 24 (0.96%) Virtual Desktop
6 17 (0.68%) Hyper-V
6 17 (0.68%) vSphere
7 11 (0.44%) VMware ESXi
8 8 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
9 6 (0.24%) vCloud
10 4 (0.16%) RACF
11 3 (0.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
11 3 (0.12%) IAG
11 3 (0.12%) NFS
11 3 (0.12%) SRDF
12 2 (0.080%) BitLocker
13 1 (0.040%) KVM
13 1 (0.040%) ProxySG
13 1 (0.040%) Slurm Workload Manager
13 1 (0.040%) Snort
Systems Management
1 102 (4.06%) Kubernetes
2 91 (3.62%) Terraform
3 54 (2.15%) Ansible
4 40 (1.59%) Microsoft Intune
5 27 (1.08%) Single Sign-On
6 19 (0.76%) Grafana
6 19 (0.76%) vCenter Server
7 15 (0.60%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 15 (0.60%) Prometheus
8 14 (0.56%) Jamf Pro
9 13 (0.52%) Argo
10 8 (0.32%) FortiGate
11 6 (0.24%) CASB
11 6 (0.24%) Istio
11 6 (0.24%) SCCM
12 5 (0.20%) EMC VPLEX
12 5 (0.20%) MOM
13 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
14 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
14 3 (0.12%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 336 (13.38%) Microsoft
2 141 (5.62%) SAP
3 112 (4.46%) Oracle
4 110 (4.38%) VMware
5 108 (4.30%) ServiceNow
6 74 (2.95%) Cisco
7 71 (2.83%) Databricks
8 70 (2.79%) Google
9 49 (1.95%) Salesforce
10 34 (1.35%) F5
11 31 (1.23%) Citrix
12 29 (1.15%) Red Hat
13 23 (0.92%) BiZZdesign
13 23 (0.92%) MuleSoft
14 22 (0.88%) CyberArk
15 21 (0.84%) Juniper
15 21 (0.84%) Palo Alto
16 20 (0.80%) Infoblox
16 20 (0.80%) Talend
17 19 (0.76%) Informatica