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 £625, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 12 August 2026.

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

6 months to
12 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 20 13
Rank change year-on-year +6 -7 +4
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,468 1,256 1,801
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.03% 8.23% 9.84%
As % of the Job Titles category 9.81% 9.11% 10.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,642 853 1,127
10th Percentile £480 £462 £481
25th Percentile £525 £519 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £625 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -7.69% -
75th Percentile £713 £688 £725
90th Percentile £775 £760 £788
UK median daily rate £620 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -0.80% -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 154 15 74
10th Percentile £46.00 £33.64 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £64.38 £60.31
Median hourly rate £65.00 £72.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.34% +3.57% -
75th Percentile £71.91 £86.50 £85.00
90th Percentile £83.00 £99.42 £89.26
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 25,147 13,783 16,847
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.98% 90.27% 92.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,197 8,465 10,270
10th Percentile £305 £217 £220
25th Percentile £410 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £600
90th Percentile £688 £650 £682
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,022 1,220 1,735
10th Percentile £14.56 £13.27 £14.05
25th Percentile £20.50 £16.34 £19.05
Median hourly rate £42.68 £25.08 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +70.20% -44.28% +27.66%
75th Percentile £68.00 £53.99 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.25 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +67.99% -41.51% +2.87%

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 12 August 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 12 August 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 12 August 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 0 729 £630 +5.00% 435
North of England +4 687 £600 - 398
Midlands -1 415 £625 +8.70% 201
North West +5 392 £600 - 226
West Midlands -3 305 £627 +4.42% 143
South West -2 299 £625 -2.34% 239
Yorkshire +3 232 £600 0.00% 126
East of England +13 160 £600 +8.11% 134
Scotland +16 153 £650 +4.00% 166
East Midlands +8 103 £600 +16.50% 58
North East -4 65 £600 -15.79% 48
Wales +8 40 £640 +2.40% 26
Northern Ireland +10 6 £475 -32.14% 76
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 12 August 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.

1 795 (32.21%) Security Cleared
2 548 (22.20%) Azure
3 508 (20.58%) SC Cleared
4 425 (17.22%) AWS
5 346 (14.02%) Stakeholder Management
6 341 (13.82%) Roadmaps
7 332 (13.45%) Microsoft
8 309 (12.52%) Agile
9 285 (11.55%) Migration
10 269 (10.90%) Technical Leadership
11 260 (10.53%) Enterprise Architecture
12 243 (9.85%) DV Cleared
13 242 (9.81%) DevOps
14 238 (9.64%) Integration Patterns
15 228 (9.24%) AI
16 225 (9.12%) Data Architecture
17 224 (9.08%) CI/CD
18 223 (9.04%) Stakeholder Engagement
19 213 (8.63%) Data Modelling
20 200 (8.10%) Architectural Patterns
21 190 (7.70%) Cybersecurity
22 180 (7.29%) TOGAF
23 176 (7.13%) Security Architecture
24 162 (6.56%) GCP
24 162 (6.56%) Microservices
25 154 (6.24%) Architecture Governance
26 152 (6.16%) Problem-Solving
27 146 (5.92%) Event-Driven
28 144 (5.83%) Architectural Design
28 144 (5.83%) 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 38 (1.54%) SharePoint
2 31 (1.26%) SAS
3 29 (1.18%) Confluence
4 13 (0.53%) Microsoft Exchange
5 11 (0.45%) OpenStack
6 10 (0.41%) Palantir Foundry
7 9 (0.36%) Apache
7 9 (0.36%) Apache Spark
8 8 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
9 7 (0.28%) Documentum
10 5 (0.20%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 4 (0.16%) CMS
11 4 (0.16%) NetWeaver
12 3 (0.12%) Appian
12 3 (0.12%) ArcGIS
12 3 (0.12%) JBoss
12 3 (0.12%) SAP EP
13 2 (0.081%) Alfresco
14 1 (0.041%) Oracle Coherence
14 1 (0.041%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 11 (0.45%) Microsoft Excel
1 11 (0.45%) MS Visio
2 7 (0.28%) Navisworks
2 7 (0.28%) Revit
3 6 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
4 5 (0.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.16%) Microsoft Office
6 1 (0.041%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.041%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 60 (2.43%) SAP S/4HANA
2 13 (0.53%) Payment Gateway
3 12 (0.49%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 12 (0.49%) Teamcenter
4 10 (0.41%) Remedy ITSM
5 7 (0.28%) Oracle ERP
5 7 (0.28%) SAP ERP
6 5 (0.20%) Dynamics CRM
6 5 (0.20%) Maximo
7 4 (0.16%) NetSuite
7 4 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
7 4 (0.16%) Oracle Retail
7 4 (0.16%) SAP GRC
7 4 (0.16%) SAP MDG
8 3 (0.12%) Adobe Campaign
8 3 (0.12%) Dynamics NAV
8 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
8 3 (0.12%) Remedy AR System
8 3 (0.12%) SAP IBP
8 3 (0.12%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 548 (22.20%) Azure
2 425 (17.22%) AWS
3 162 (6.56%) GCP
4 96 (3.89%) Power Platform
5 79 (3.20%) Serverless
6 78 (3.16%) Entra ID
7 76 (3.08%) SaaS
8 55 (2.23%) Microsoft 365
9 48 (1.94%) PaaS
10 45 (1.82%) GitHub
11 44 (1.78%) Azure DevOps
12 39 (1.58%) IaaS
13 37 (1.50%) AWS Lambda
13 37 (1.50%) Dynamics 365
14 33 (1.34%) OpenShift
15 29 (1.18%) GitHub Actions
15 29 (1.18%) Snowflake
16 28 (1.13%) Amazon S3
17 25 (1.01%) OCI
18 23 (0.93%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 99 (4.01%) Firewall
2 65 (2.63%) WAN
3 59 (2.39%) DNS
4 55 (2.23%) Network Security
5 53 (2.15%) LAN
6 37 (1.50%) VPN
7 34 (1.38%) BGP
7 34 (1.38%) DHCP
8 33 (1.34%) SD-WAN
9 30 (1.22%) VLAN
10 27 (1.09%) TCP/IP
11 26 (1.05%) SAN
12 24 (0.97%) MPLS
13 23 (0.93%) NAS
14 22 (0.89%) Wireless
15 21 (0.85%) Structured Cabling
16 17 (0.69%) OSPF
17 16 (0.65%) BIG-IP
18 14 (0.57%) IPsec
18 14 (0.57%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (2.92%) Data Lake
2 70 (2.84%) Metadata
3 68 (2.76%) Power BI
4 65 (2.63%) Data Warehouse
5 37 (1.50%) NoSQL
6 20 (0.81%) Amazon RDS
7 19 (0.77%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
8 16 (0.65%) Base SAS
8 16 (0.65%) Oracle Database
8 16 (0.65%) SQL Server
9 15 (0.61%) Azure SQL Database
9 15 (0.61%) PostgreSQL
10 14 (0.57%) BigQuery
11 13 (0.53%) GIS
12 12 (0.49%) Delta Lake
13 10 (0.41%) MySQL
13 10 (0.41%) Semantic Layer
14 9 (0.36%) Big Data
14 9 (0.36%) Electronic Patient Records
14 9 (0.36%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 33 (1.34%) JIRA
2 30 (1.22%) Git
3 23 (0.93%) Jenkins
4 11 (0.45%) GitLab
5 9 (0.36%) ERwin
6 6 (0.24%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.20%) Artifactory
7 5 (0.20%) Claude Code
8 4 (0.16%) Hudson
8 4 (0.16%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.12%) MSI
9 3 (0.12%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.081%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.081%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.081%) IntelliJ
10 2 (0.081%) JUnit
10 2 (0.081%) Oracle APEX
10 2 (0.081%) Oracle Forms
10 2 (0.081%) Rational Rhapsody
10 2 (0.081%) Selenium
General
1 464 (18.80%) Social Skills
2 305 (12.36%) Finance
3 236 (9.56%) Public Sector
4 135 (5.47%) Banking
5 129 (5.23%) Analytical Skills
6 98 (3.97%) Retail
7 87 (3.53%) Manufacturing
8 55 (2.23%) Documentation Skills
9 54 (2.19%) Influencing Skills
10 37 (1.50%) Legal
11 33 (1.34%) Aerospace
12 30 (1.22%) Military
13 26 (1.05%) Telecoms
14 23 (0.93%) Financial Institution
15 21 (0.85%) Marketing
15 21 (0.85%) Presentation Skills
16 20 (0.81%) Aviation
16 20 (0.81%) Back Office
17 18 (0.73%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 17 (0.69%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 101 (4.09%) REST
2 75 (3.04%) Middleware
3 53 (2.15%) OAuth
4 43 (1.74%) SOAP
5 42 (1.70%) Oracle Fusion
6 35 (1.42%) .NET
6 35 (1.42%) OpenID
7 33 (1.34%) Kafka
8 31 (1.26%) SAML
9 25 (1.01%) OAuth2
10 24 (0.97%) SailPoint
11 22 (0.89%) JSON
12 20 (0.81%) RESTful
13 17 (0.69%) Node.js
14 15 (0.61%) LDAP
15 14 (0.57%) GraphQL
15 14 (0.57%) Web Services
16 13 (0.53%) JWT
16 13 (0.53%) React
17 12 (0.49%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 186 (7.54%) Cloud Native
2 84 (3.40%) Data Centre
3 77 (3.12%) Hybrid Cloud
4 72 (2.92%) Operational Technology
5 61 (2.47%) Product Ownership
6 60 (2.43%) Data Protection Act
7 56 (2.27%) Onboarding
8 55 (2.23%) Distributed Systems
8 55 (2.23%) Legacy Systems
8 55 (2.23%) Management Information System
9 50 (2.03%) Enterprise Software
10 41 (1.66%) AI Agents
11 40 (1.62%) Public Cloud
12 30 (1.22%) Private Cloud
13 27 (1.09%) Security Posture
14 26 (1.05%) IVR
15 24 (0.97%) Enterprise Cloud
16 23 (0.93%) PKI
16 23 (0.93%) SCADA
17 20 (0.81%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 88 (3.57%) Windows
2 50 (2.03%) Linux
3 35 (1.42%) Windows Server
4 12 (0.49%) Android
4 12 (0.49%) Apple iOS
4 12 (0.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (0.32%) Unix
6 6 (0.24%) AIX
7 5 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
8 2 (0.081%) HPUX
8 2 (0.081%) Solaris
8 2 (0.081%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.041%) CatOS
9 1 (0.041%) CentOS
9 1 (0.041%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.041%) VMS
9 1 (0.041%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.041%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.041%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.041%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 346 (14.02%) Stakeholder Management
2 341 (13.82%) Roadmaps
3 309 (12.52%) Agile
4 285 (11.55%) Migration
5 269 (10.90%) Technical Leadership
6 260 (10.53%) Enterprise Architecture
7 242 (9.81%) DevOps
8 238 (9.64%) Integration Patterns
9 228 (9.24%) AI
10 225 (9.12%) Data Architecture
11 224 (9.08%) CI/CD
12 223 (9.04%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 213 (8.63%) Data Modelling
14 200 (8.10%) Architectural Patterns
15 190 (7.70%) Cybersecurity
16 180 (7.29%) TOGAF
17 176 (7.13%) Security Architecture
18 162 (6.56%) Microservices
19 154 (6.24%) Architecture Governance
20 152 (6.16%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 98 (3.97%) Java
2 93 (3.77%) SQL
3 88 (3.57%) Python
4 51 (2.07%) JavaScript
5 42 (1.70%) PowerShell
6 23 (0.93%) Bash
7 17 (0.69%) Bicep
7 17 (0.69%) C#
8 12 (0.49%) TypeScript
9 10 (0.41%) Shell Script
10 8 (0.32%) ABAP
11 6 (0.24%) Apex Code
11 6 (0.24%) PL/SQL
11 6 (0.24%) VBA
12 5 (0.20%) Groovy
13 4 (0.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 4 (0.16%) Kotlin
14 3 (0.12%) C
15 2 (0.081%) C++
15 2 (0.081%) ProC
Qualifications
1 795 (32.21%) Security Cleared
2 508 (20.58%) SC Cleared
3 243 (9.85%) DV Cleared
4 73 (2.96%) Degree
5 54 (2.19%) Cisco Certification
6 53 (2.15%) CISSP
7 45 (1.82%) TOGAF Certification
8 42 (1.70%) Azure Certification
9 40 (1.62%) AWS Certification
9 40 (1.62%) BPSS Clearance
10 32 (1.30%) Computer Science Degree
11 28 (1.13%) CCNP
12 19 (0.77%) CISM
13 18 (0.73%) Microsoft Certification
14 17 (0.69%) CCNA
15 14 (0.57%) CCIE
16 13 (0.53%) (ISC)2 CCSP
17 12 (0.49%) Network+ Certification
17 12 (0.49%) Server+ Certification
18 11 (0.45%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 88 (3.57%) NIST
2 76 (3.08%) Data Quality
3 59 (2.39%) NCSC
4 58 (2.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 57 (2.31%) GDPR
6 23 (0.93%) QA
7 20 (0.81%) Accessibility
8 17 (0.69%) NIST 800
8 17 (0.69%) PCI DSS
9 15 (0.61%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 13 (0.53%) ISO 19650
11 12 (0.49%) IFRS
11 12 (0.49%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 11 (0.45%) GRC
12 11 (0.45%) JSP 440
13 10 (0.41%) Cyber Essentials
13 10 (0.41%) Disclosure Scotland
14 9 (0.36%) HL7
14 9 (0.36%) SLA
15 6 (0.24%) COBIT
System Software
1 87 (3.53%) Active Directory
2 49 (1.99%) Docker
3 47 (1.90%) VMware Infrastructure
4 27 (1.09%) VMware NSX
5 22 (0.89%) Virtual Desktop
6 18 (0.73%) Hyper-V
7 12 (0.49%) vSphere
8 11 (0.45%) VMware ESXi
9 9 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
10 6 (0.24%) vCloud
11 3 (0.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
11 3 (0.12%) KVM
11 3 (0.12%) NFS
11 3 (0.12%) SRDF
12 2 (0.081%) Ceph
12 2 (0.081%) IAG
12 2 (0.081%) zsh
13 1 (0.041%) Firmware
13 1 (0.041%) Microsoft Virtual Server
13 1 (0.041%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 125 (5.06%) Kubernetes
2 92 (3.73%) Terraform
3 48 (1.94%) Ansible
4 30 (1.22%) Microsoft Intune
5 18 (0.73%) Single Sign-On
6 16 (0.65%) Grafana
7 14 (0.57%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 14 (0.57%) vCenter Server
8 13 (0.53%) Jamf Pro
8 13 (0.53%) Prometheus
9 8 (0.32%) Argo
9 8 (0.32%) FortiGate
10 6 (0.24%) Istio
11 5 (0.20%) CASB
11 5 (0.20%) MOM
11 5 (0.20%) NetBackup
11 5 (0.20%) WMI
12 4 (0.16%) EMC VPLEX
12 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
13 3 (0.12%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 332 (13.45%) Microsoft
2 136 (5.51%) SAP
3 109 (4.42%) Oracle
4 97 (3.93%) ServiceNow
5 95 (3.85%) VMware
6 79 (3.20%) Google
7 77 (3.12%) Cisco
8 76 (3.08%) Databricks
9 47 (1.90%) Salesforce
10 29 (1.18%) F5
11 26 (1.05%) MuleSoft
12 24 (0.97%) Citrix
13 23 (0.93%) Palo Alto
14 22 (0.89%) Red Hat
15 21 (0.85%) CyberArk
15 21 (0.85%) Informatica
16 19 (0.77%) IBM
17 17 (0.69%) Infoblox
18 16 (0.65%) Juniper
19 15 (0.61%) Workday