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 23 November 2025.

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

6 months to
23 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 20 14 18
Rank change year-on-year -6 +4 +4
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 1,480 1,537 1,735
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 8.42% 9.20% 8.38%
As % of the Job Titles category 9.37% 9.97% 8.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,020 934 1,210
10th Percentile £462 £467 £500
25th Percentile £519 £538 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £625 £633
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% -1.19% -2.69%
75th Percentile £700 £706 £700
90th Percentile £775 £769 £750
UK median daily rate £625 £625 £650
% change year-on-year - -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 23 35
10th Percentile £66.25 £60.30 £61.25
25th Percentile £77.55 £63.13 £72.50
Median hourly rate £85.00 £70.00 £76.53
Median % change year-on-year +21.43% -8.53% +9.33%
75th Percentile £95.00 £83.18 £81.56
90th Percentile £99.00 £89.50 £91.75
UK median hourly rate £85.00 £70.00 £75.67
% change year-on-year +21.43% -7.49% +8.10%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 15,797 15,420 19,418
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 89.91% 92.26% 93.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,738 8,817 12,803
10th Percentile £210 £219 £213
25th Percentile £363 £375 £378
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £495 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.04% -1.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £594 £600
90th Percentile £675 £677 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,580 1,079 1,278
10th Percentile £13.80 £15.09 £14.40
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.00 £18.40
Median hourly rate £25.15 £33.54 £44.75
Median % change year-on-year -25.01% -25.05% +83.48%
75th Percentile £56.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.00 £73.75 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +48.33%

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 23 November 2025.

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 23 November 2025.

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 23 November 2025. 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 +3 461 £600 -4.00% 341
North of England -8 368 £600 - 81
South West 0 237 £688 +5.77% 92
Midlands -9 227 £578 -3.67% 90
North West -9 218 £579 -3.50% 46
West Midlands -13 167 £594 -3.26% 70
Yorkshire -17 133 £613 +5.60% 25
Scotland -13 93 £600 -4.00% 39
East of England -7 83 £553 -7.92% 54
East Midlands +1 60 £500 -9.09% 19
Wales -5 23 £625 +0.81% 9
North East -6 18 £713 +14.13% 10
Northern Ireland -9 6 £550 -8.33% 8
Channel Islands - 6 £743 -
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 23 November 2025, 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.

1 540 (36.49%) Security Cleared
2 363 (24.53%) Azure
3 324 (21.89%) SC Cleared
4 309 (20.88%) AWS
5 252 (17.03%) Roadmaps
6 222 (15.00%) Stakeholder Management
7 212 (14.32%) Microsoft
8 202 (13.65%) Agile
9 196 (13.24%) TOGAF
10 172 (11.62%) Migration
11 170 (11.49%) Enterprise Architecture
12 166 (11.22%) DV Cleared
13 160 (10.81%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 154 (10.41%) Problem-Solving
15 140 (9.46%) Data Modelling
16 139 (9.39%) Technical Leadership
17 134 (9.05%) ITIL
18 131 (8.85%) CI/CD
19 129 (8.72%) DevOps
20 128 (8.65%) GCP
21 119 (8.04%) AI
22 114 (7.70%) Cybersecurity
23 111 (7.50%) Mentoring
24 109 (7.36%) VMware
25 108 (7.30%) Microservices
26 104 (7.03%) Python
27 101 (6.82%) Architectural Design
28 97 (6.55%) Terraform
29 95 (6.42%) Analytics
30 90 (6.08%) Degree

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 47 (3.18%) Confluence
2 23 (1.55%) SharePoint
3 18 (1.22%) Microsoft Exchange
3 18 (1.22%) SAS
4 13 (0.88%) ArcGIS
5 9 (0.61%) WebLogic
6 7 (0.47%) Apache Spark
7 6 (0.41%) OpenStack
7 6 (0.41%) Smallworld
8 5 (0.34%) WebSphere
9 4 (0.27%) Apache Airflow
9 4 (0.27%) Documentum
10 3 (0.20%) GeoServer
10 3 (0.20%) Skype for Business
11 2 (0.14%) CICS
11 2 (0.14%) CMS
11 2 (0.14%) IIS
11 2 (0.14%) Mule
11 2 (0.14%) Oracle Coherence
11 2 (0.14%) Tomcat
Applications
1 21 (1.42%) Microsoft Office
2 17 (1.15%) Microsoft Project
3 11 (0.74%) Microsoft Excel
4 10 (0.68%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (0.68%) MS Visio
4 10 (0.68%) Siemens NX
5 1 (0.068%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.068%) FrameMaker
5 1 (0.068%) Fusion 360
5 1 (0.068%) Revit
5 1 (0.068%) Trello
Business Applications
1 38 (2.57%) SAP S/4HANA
2 19 (1.28%) Dynamics CRM
3 14 (0.95%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 13 (0.88%) Payment Gateway
5 12 (0.81%) Maximo
5 12 (0.81%) Workday HCM
6 11 (0.74%) SAP CO
7 10 (0.68%) SAP FI
7 10 (0.68%) SAP FI/CO
7 10 (0.68%) SAP PM
7 10 (0.68%) Teamcenter
8 7 (0.47%) Salesforce CRM
9 6 (0.41%) SAP HR
10 5 (0.34%) Dynamics AX
10 5 (0.34%) Oracle SCM
11 4 (0.27%) SAP PP
12 3 (0.20%) NetSuite
12 3 (0.20%) SAP EWM
12 3 (0.20%) SAP QM
13 2 (0.14%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 363 (24.53%) Azure
2 309 (20.88%) AWS
3 128 (8.65%) GCP
4 67 (4.53%) SaaS
5 56 (3.78%) Serverless
6 50 (3.38%) Dynamics 365
7 40 (2.70%) Microsoft 365
7 40 (2.70%) Power Platform
8 37 (2.50%) Entra ID
9 35 (2.36%) AWS Lambda
10 34 (2.30%) GitHub
11 27 (1.82%) IaaS
11 27 (1.82%) PaaS
12 26 (1.76%) Amazon S3
12 26 (1.76%) Microsoft Purview
13 25 (1.69%) Azure DevOps
14 20 (1.35%) Salesforce Service Cloud
15 19 (1.28%) Azure Synapse Analytics
16 18 (1.22%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 18 (1.22%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 89 (6.01%) Firewall
2 50 (3.38%) Network Security
3 47 (3.18%) WAN
4 40 (2.70%) LAN
5 35 (2.36%) VPN
6 31 (2.09%) DNS
7 28 (1.89%) SD-WAN
8 22 (1.49%) SAN
9 21 (1.42%) BGP
10 18 (1.22%) MPLS
11 14 (0.95%) Fibre Channel
11 14 (0.95%) iSCSI
11 14 (0.95%) VSAN
12 13 (0.88%) Wi-Fi
13 12 (0.81%) DHCP
14 9 (0.61%) Cisco ASA
14 9 (0.61%) Internet
14 9 (0.61%) VLAN
15 8 (0.54%) Wireless
16 7 (0.47%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 55 (3.72%) Data Warehouse
2 38 (2.57%) PostgreSQL
3 35 (2.36%) Metadata
4 30 (2.03%) Power BI
5 26 (1.76%) SQL Server
6 23 (1.55%) MongoDB
6 23 (1.55%) NoSQL
7 19 (1.28%) DynamoDB
8 18 (1.22%) GIS
9 17 (1.15%) Oracle Database
10 13 (0.88%) BigQuery
10 13 (0.88%) Redis
10 13 (0.88%) Relational Database
11 12 (0.81%) Big Data
11 12 (0.81%) Data Lake
12 11 (0.74%) Amazon Redshift
12 11 (0.74%) RDBMS
12 11 (0.74%) Tableau
13 10 (0.68%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 9 (0.61%) Amazon Aurora
Development Applications
1 63 (4.26%) JIRA
2 40 (2.70%) Jenkins
3 31 (2.09%) Git
4 12 (0.81%) GitLab
5 10 (0.68%) CircleCI
6 9 (0.61%) Oracle Forms
7 6 (0.41%) SonarQube
8 5 (0.34%) Artifactory
8 5 (0.34%) Gradle
8 5 (0.34%) Maven
8 5 (0.34%) Rational DOORS
8 5 (0.34%) SonarLint
9 3 (0.20%) MSI
9 3 (0.20%) Visual Studio Code
10 2 (0.14%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.14%) Hudson
10 2 (0.14%) MLflow
10 2 (0.14%) Postman
10 2 (0.14%) Sonatype Nexus
11 1 (0.068%) Selenium
General
1 411 (27.77%) Social Skills
2 186 (12.57%) Public Sector
3 183 (12.36%) Finance
4 111 (7.50%) Analytical Skills
5 80 (5.41%) Banking
6 48 (3.24%) Telecoms
7 45 (3.04%) Retail
8 43 (2.91%) Marketing
9 41 (2.77%) Documentation Skills
10 33 (2.23%) Influencing Skills
10 33 (2.23%) Military
11 31 (2.09%) Presentation Skills
12 28 (1.89%) Legal
12 28 (1.89%) Manufacturing
13 22 (1.49%) Aerospace
14 13 (0.88%) Local Government
15 10 (0.68%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 9 (0.61%) Aviation
16 9 (0.61%) Back Office
16 9 (0.61%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 45 (3.04%) REST
2 40 (2.70%) Middleware
3 33 (2.23%) SOAP
4 27 (1.82%) RESTful
5 24 (1.62%) .NET
5 24 (1.62%) Kafka
6 21 (1.42%) OAuth
7 19 (1.28%) Lightning Web Components
7 19 (1.28%) Spring Boot
8 18 (1.22%) Visualforce
9 16 (1.08%) SailPoint
9 16 (1.08%) Web Services
10 15 (1.01%) Node.js
11 14 (0.95%) SAML
12 13 (0.88%) GraphQL
12 13 (0.88%) SAP PI
13 12 (0.81%) OAuth2
14 11 (0.74%) Spring
15 9 (0.61%) Celery
15 9 (0.61%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 99 (6.69%) Cloud Native
2 74 (5.00%) Product Ownership
3 65 (4.39%) Legacy Systems
4 61 (4.12%) Data Centre
5 48 (3.24%) Hybrid Cloud
6 47 (3.18%) Onboarding
7 33 (2.23%) PKI
8 25 (1.69%) Operational Technology
9 24 (1.62%) Enterprise Software
10 23 (1.55%) CMDB
10 23 (1.55%) Distributed Systems
10 23 (1.55%) Public Cloud
11 21 (1.42%) Security Posture
12 20 (1.35%) Data Protection Act
13 19 (1.28%) Management Information System
13 19 (1.28%) SCADA
14 18 (1.22%) NHS
15 14 (0.95%) Security Operations Centre
16 13 (0.88%) Analytical Mindset
16 13 (0.88%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 86 (5.81%) Windows
2 52 (3.51%) Linux
3 33 (2.23%) Windows Server
4 18 (1.22%) Windows Server 2019
5 12 (0.81%) Windows 7
6 10 (0.68%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.68%) Unix
6 10 (0.68%) Windows 10
7 4 (0.27%) VMS
8 3 (0.20%) Mac OS
8 3 (0.20%) Windows Server 2008
9 2 (0.14%) Android
9 2 (0.14%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.14%) Solaris
9 2 (0.14%) Ubuntu
9 2 (0.14%) Windows Server 2016
9 2 (0.14%) zOS
10 1 (0.068%) MVS
10 1 (0.068%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 252 (17.03%) Roadmaps
2 222 (15.00%) Stakeholder Management
3 202 (13.65%) Agile
4 196 (13.24%) TOGAF
5 172 (11.62%) Migration
6 170 (11.49%) Enterprise Architecture
7 160 (10.81%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 154 (10.41%) Problem-Solving
9 140 (9.46%) Data Modelling
10 139 (9.39%) Technical Leadership
11 134 (9.05%) ITIL
12 131 (8.85%) CI/CD
13 129 (8.72%) DevOps
14 119 (8.04%) AI
15 114 (7.70%) Cybersecurity
16 111 (7.50%) Mentoring
17 108 (7.30%) Microservices
18 101 (6.82%) Architectural Design
19 95 (6.42%) Analytics
20 87 (5.88%) Data Architecture
Programming Languages
1 104 (7.03%) Python
2 77 (5.20%) Java
3 54 (3.65%) SQL
4 33 (2.23%) PowerShell
5 20 (1.35%) JavaScript
6 19 (1.28%) Apex Code
7 18 (1.22%) TypeScript
8 13 (0.88%) C#
9 12 (0.81%) R
10 9 (0.61%) Bash
11 8 (0.54%) C++
12 6 (0.41%) Bicep
12 6 (0.41%) C
13 5 (0.34%) ABAP
14 4 (0.27%) VB
15 3 (0.20%) Shell Script
15 3 (0.20%) VBScript
15 3 (0.20%) X++
16 2 (0.14%) Ruby
16 2 (0.14%) Scala
Qualifications
1 540 (36.49%) Security Cleared
2 324 (21.89%) SC Cleared
3 166 (11.22%) DV Cleared
4 90 (6.08%) Degree
5 79 (5.34%) CISSP
6 55 (3.72%) AWS Certification
7 52 (3.51%) Azure Certification
7 52 (3.51%) TOGAF Certification
8 40 (2.70%) Microsoft Certification
9 37 (2.50%) Cisco Certification
10 36 (2.43%) CISM
11 25 (1.69%) Computer Science Degree
12 24 (1.62%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 23 (1.55%) Master's Degree
14 21 (1.42%) CCIE
14 21 (1.42%) ISEB
15 18 (1.22%) CCNP
16 17 (1.15%) ITIL Certification
17 15 (1.01%) (ISC)2 CCSP
17 15 (1.01%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 85 (5.74%) GDPR
2 75 (5.07%) NIST
3 72 (4.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 47 (3.18%) Data Quality
5 40 (2.70%) NCSC
6 32 (2.16%) PCI DSS
7 29 (1.96%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 23 (1.55%) COBIT
9 20 (1.35%) JSP 440
10 19 (1.28%) QA
11 18 (1.22%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 13 (0.88%) GRC
13 10 (0.68%) SLA
14 9 (0.61%) Accessibility
14 9 (0.61%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 8 (0.54%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 8 (0.54%) NIST 800
15 8 (0.54%) PSD2
16 7 (0.47%) Cyber Essentials
16 7 (0.47%) ISO 20022
System Software
1 69 (4.66%) VMware Infrastructure
2 56 (3.78%) Active Directory
3 47 (3.18%) Docker
4 28 (1.89%) vSphere
5 21 (1.42%) VMware ESXi
6 19 (1.28%) VMware NSX
7 14 (0.95%) NFS
8 7 (0.47%) Virtual Desktop
8 7 (0.47%) Virtual Machines
9 5 (0.34%) Hyper-V
10 3 (0.20%) BitLocker
10 3 (0.20%) Dovecot
10 3 (0.20%) Postfix
11 2 (0.14%) KVM
12 1 (0.068%) HDFS
12 1 (0.068%) Microsoft App-V
12 1 (0.068%) Slurm Workload Manager
12 1 (0.068%) SRDF
12 1 (0.068%) Veritas Cluster Server
12 1 (0.068%) Xen
Systems Management
1 97 (6.55%) Terraform
2 81 (5.47%) Kubernetes
3 44 (2.97%) Ansible
4 21 (1.42%) Single Sign-On
5 19 (1.28%) OPNET
6 15 (1.01%) Prometheus
7 14 (0.95%) vCenter Server
8 11 (0.74%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 10 (0.68%) Grafana
9 10 (0.68%) Microsoft Intune
9 10 (0.68%) WMI
10 9 (0.61%) SCCM
11 7 (0.47%) Argo
12 3 (0.20%) FortiGate
13 2 (0.14%) Kubeflow
13 2 (0.14%) Microsoft Clustering
13 2 (0.14%) SCOM
14 1 (0.068%) BMC PATROL
14 1 (0.068%) Puppet
14 1 (0.068%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 212 (14.32%) Microsoft
2 109 (7.36%) VMware
3 81 (5.47%) Salesforce
4 78 (5.27%) SAP
5 76 (5.14%) Oracle
6 71 (4.80%) Cisco
7 66 (4.46%) ServiceNow
8 32 (2.16%) Google
9 25 (1.69%) Palo Alto
9 25 (1.69%) Splunk
10 24 (1.62%) Juniper
10 24 (1.62%) Workday
11 23 (1.55%) F5
12 22 (1.49%) IBM
13 20 (1.35%) Atlassian
13 20 (1.35%) Databricks
13 20 (1.35%) NetApp
13 20 (1.35%) Pega
13 20 (1.35%) Remedy
13 20 (1.35%) Virgin Media