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 20 January 2026.

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

6 months to
20 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 17 17 14
Rank change year-on-year 0 -3 +7
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 1,733 1,230 1,807
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.36% 9.00% 9.11%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.32% 9.73% 9.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,177 757 1,193
10th Percentile £447 £475 £500
25th Percentile £506 £550 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% -3.85% -
75th Percentile £701 £700 £700
90th Percentile £775 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £625 £625 £650
% change year-on-year - -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 37 24 33
10th Percentile £46.64 £61.50 £61.25
25th Percentile £65.00 £66.00 £70.00
Median hourly rate £83.82 £72.50 £78.00
Median % change year-on-year +15.61% -7.05% +11.43%
75th Percentile £90.09 £78.92 £85.65
90th Percentile £95.00 £84.72 £95.00
UK median hourly rate £80.00 £72.50 £76.53
% change year-on-year +10.34% -5.27% +9.33%

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 16,799 12,635 18,505
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.74% 92.43% 93.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,313 7,458 11,813
10th Percentile £213 £213 £213
25th Percentile £375 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.04% -4.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,704 689 1,542
10th Percentile £14.00 £15.36 £13.41
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.30 £17.50
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -23.53% +41.67%
75th Percentile £60.00 £64.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.75 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £27.50 £32.50 £40.28
% change year-on-year -15.38% -19.30% +15.07%

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 20 January 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 20 January 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 20 January 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 +11 556 £600 -4.00% 250
North of England -6 427 £570 -5.00% 163
Midlands -2 305 £575 -4.17% 76
North West -5 258 £575 -4.17% 84
South West 0 237 £710 +13.60% 84
West Midlands -4 224 £590 -3.89% 46
Yorkshire -8 160 £555 -7.50% 47
East of England +5 110 £525 -16.00% 94
Scotland -3 95 £650 +4.00% 53
East Midlands -3 79 £509 -11.52% 29
Wales -1 30 £625 +2.04% 35
North East -25 9 £625 +4.23% 32
Northern Ireland -6 5 £500 -16.67% 7
Channel Islands - 2 £625 -
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 20 January 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.

1 597 (34.45%) Security Cleared
2 371 (21.41%) Azure
3 358 (20.66%) SC Cleared
4 278 (16.04%) AWS
5 257 (14.83%) Roadmaps
6 249 (14.37%) Agile
7 247 (14.25%) Microsoft
8 236 (13.62%) Stakeholder Management
9 213 (12.29%) Enterprise Architecture
10 212 (12.23%) Migration
11 211 (12.18%) TOGAF
12 189 (10.91%) DV Cleared
13 166 (9.58%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 159 (9.17%) DevOps
15 150 (8.66%) Technical Leadership
16 148 (8.54%) Data Modelling
17 142 (8.19%) ITIL
18 131 (7.56%) CI/CD
19 130 (7.50%) Problem-Solving
20 125 (7.21%) GCP
21 118 (6.81%) VMware
22 116 (6.69%) Architectural Design
23 115 (6.64%) Cybersecurity
24 114 (6.58%) Analytics
25 113 (6.52%) Mentoring
25 113 (6.52%) Windows
26 112 (6.46%) Python
27 106 (6.12%) AI
28 105 (6.06%) Microservices
29 104 (6.00%) Decision-Making

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 80 (4.62%) Confluence
2 46 (2.65%) SharePoint
3 41 (2.37%) Microsoft Exchange
4 16 (0.92%) SAS
5 11 (0.63%) Anypoint
6 9 (0.52%) ArcGIS
6 9 (0.52%) Smallworld
7 7 (0.40%) Skype for Business
8 6 (0.35%) OpenStack
9 5 (0.29%) GeoServer
9 5 (0.29%) WebLogic
10 4 (0.23%) Apache
10 4 (0.23%) Appian
10 4 (0.23%) CMS
10 4 (0.23%) Documentum
10 4 (0.23%) Ethereum
10 4 (0.23%) Hyperledger
10 4 (0.23%) IIS
10 4 (0.23%) Tomcat
11 3 (0.17%) Exchange Server 2013
Applications
1 42 (2.42%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (1.79%) Microsoft Project
3 23 (1.33%) Microsoft Excel
4 22 (1.27%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 8 (0.46%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.12%) Siemens NX
7 1 (0.058%) FrameMaker
7 1 (0.058%) OrCAD
7 1 (0.058%) Revit
7 1 (0.058%) Trello
Business Applications
1 55 (3.17%) SAP S/4HANA
2 24 (1.38%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 16 (0.92%) Dynamics CRM
4 15 (0.87%) Workday HCM
5 11 (0.63%) SAP CO
6 10 (0.58%) Salesforce CRM
6 10 (0.58%) SAP FI
6 10 (0.58%) SAP FI/CO
7 9 (0.52%) Payment Gateway
8 7 (0.40%) SAP PM
9 6 (0.35%) Maximo
10 5 (0.29%) Dynamics AX
10 5 (0.29%) Oracle SCM
11 4 (0.23%) Distributed Ledger
11 4 (0.23%) NetSuite
11 4 (0.23%) R3 Corda
11 4 (0.23%) SAP PP
12 3 (0.17%) SAP CRM
12 3 (0.17%) SAP ERP
12 3 (0.17%) SAP HR
Cloud Services
1 371 (21.41%) Azure
2 278 (16.04%) AWS
3 125 (7.21%) GCP
4 72 (4.15%) SaaS
5 70 (4.04%) Microsoft 365
6 52 (3.00%) Entra ID
7 51 (2.94%) Serverless
8 41 (2.37%) Dynamics 365
8 41 (2.37%) Microsoft Purview
8 41 (2.37%) Power Platform
9 32 (1.85%) Azure DevOps
10 31 (1.79%) AWS Lambda
10 31 (1.79%) PaaS
11 30 (1.73%) GitHub
11 30 (1.73%) OneDrive
12 28 (1.62%) IaaS
13 26 (1.50%) OpenShift
14 23 (1.33%) AWS CloudFormation
15 21 (1.21%) Azure Synapse Analytics
16 19 (1.10%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 91 (5.25%) Firewall
2 66 (3.81%) WAN
3 54 (3.12%) DNS
4 46 (2.65%) VPN
5 42 (2.42%) LAN
6 37 (2.14%) SD-WAN
7 36 (2.08%) Network Security
8 20 (1.15%) BGP
8 20 (1.15%) MPLS
9 18 (1.04%) DHCP
10 17 (0.98%) SAN
10 17 (0.98%) Wi-Fi
11 16 (0.92%) Internet
12 13 (0.75%) VSAN
13 12 (0.69%) VLAN
14 10 (0.58%) Skype
15 9 (0.52%) IPsec
16 8 (0.46%) Cisco ASA
16 8 (0.46%) OSPF
16 8 (0.46%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 58 (3.35%) Data Warehouse
2 41 (2.37%) Metadata
3 33 (1.90%) Power BI
4 28 (1.62%) PostgreSQL
5 26 (1.50%) Tableau
6 25 (1.44%) SQL Server
7 22 (1.27%) DynamoDB
8 17 (0.98%) GIS
9 15 (0.87%) NoSQL
9 15 (0.87%) Redis
10 14 (0.81%) Oracle Database
10 14 (0.81%) Relational Database
11 11 (0.63%) Data Lake
12 10 (0.58%) Amazon Aurora
12 10 (0.58%) BigQuery
12 10 (0.58%) RDBMS
13 9 (0.52%) Amazon Redshift
13 9 (0.52%) Azure SQL Database
14 8 (0.46%) Amazon Athena
14 8 (0.46%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 92 (5.31%) JIRA
2 46 (2.65%) Jenkins
3 28 (1.62%) Git
4 15 (0.87%) GitLab
5 8 (0.46%) SonarQube
6 7 (0.40%) Artifactory
7 5 (0.29%) Gradle
7 5 (0.29%) Maven
7 5 (0.29%) MSI
7 5 (0.29%) Postman
7 5 (0.29%) SonarLint
8 4 (0.23%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.17%) Bitbucket
9 3 (0.17%) MLflow
9 3 (0.17%) Selenium
10 2 (0.12%) JMeter
10 2 (0.12%) JUnit
10 2 (0.12%) LoadRunner
10 2 (0.12%) Oracle Forms
10 2 (0.12%) REST Assured
General
1 406 (23.43%) Social Skills
2 225 (12.98%) Finance
3 206 (11.89%) Public Sector
4 122 (7.04%) Analytical Skills
5 96 (5.54%) Banking
6 51 (2.94%) Military
7 47 (2.71%) Documentation Skills
8 42 (2.42%) Legal
9 41 (2.37%) Retail
10 40 (2.31%) Telecoms
11 37 (2.14%) Influencing Skills
11 37 (2.14%) Marketing
12 32 (1.85%) Presentation Skills
13 20 (1.15%) Manufacturing
14 18 (1.04%) Aerospace
15 11 (0.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 11 (0.63%) Local Government
16 10 (0.58%) Back Office
17 9 (0.52%) Billing
17 9 (0.52%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 61 (3.52%) REST
2 46 (2.65%) Middleware
3 40 (2.31%) SOAP
4 31 (1.79%) .NET
5 27 (1.56%) OAuth
6 24 (1.38%) RESTful
7 19 (1.10%) SAML
8 18 (1.04%) OAuth2
8 18 (1.04%) OpenID
8 18 (1.04%) SailPoint
9 17 (0.98%) Spring Boot
10 16 (0.92%) Kafka
10 16 (0.92%) Web Services
11 12 (0.69%) Lightning Web Components
11 12 (0.69%) Node.js
11 12 (0.69%) Visualforce
12 11 (0.63%) SAP PI
12 11 (0.63%) Spring
13 9 (0.52%) Microsoft Graph
13 9 (0.52%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 116 (6.69%) Cloud Native
2 93 (5.37%) Product Ownership
3 68 (3.92%) Data Centre
4 49 (2.83%) Onboarding
5 47 (2.71%) PKI
6 46 (2.65%) Legacy Systems
7 42 (2.42%) Hybrid Cloud
8 41 (2.37%) Public Cloud
9 33 (1.90%) Operational Technology
10 28 (1.62%) Distributed Systems
11 27 (1.56%) SCADA
12 24 (1.38%) Enterprise Software
13 22 (1.27%) Management Information System
14 21 (1.21%) CMDB
14 21 (1.21%) Data Protection Act
15 17 (0.98%) NHS
16 15 (0.87%) Security Posture
17 14 (0.81%) Data Structures
18 13 (0.75%) IVR
19 12 (0.69%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 113 (6.52%) Windows
2 69 (3.98%) Linux
3 30 (1.73%) Windows Server
4 18 (1.04%) Windows 7
5 15 (0.87%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 14 (0.81%) Windows 10
7 12 (0.69%) Windows Server 2019
8 9 (0.52%) Windows Server 2016
9 5 (0.29%) Unix
10 4 (0.23%) Mac OS
10 4 (0.23%) VMS
11 3 (0.17%) Ubuntu
11 3 (0.17%) Windows Server 2008
12 2 (0.12%) Solaris
12 2 (0.12%) Windows Server 2012
12 2 (0.12%) zOS
13 1 (0.058%) CentOS
13 1 (0.058%) MVS
Processes & Methodologies
1 257 (14.83%) Roadmaps
2 249 (14.37%) Agile
3 236 (13.62%) Stakeholder Management
4 213 (12.29%) Enterprise Architecture
5 212 (12.23%) Migration
6 211 (12.18%) TOGAF
7 166 (9.58%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 159 (9.17%) DevOps
9 150 (8.66%) Technical Leadership
10 148 (8.54%) Data Modelling
11 142 (8.19%) ITIL
12 131 (7.56%) CI/CD
13 130 (7.50%) Problem-Solving
14 116 (6.69%) Architectural Design
15 115 (6.64%) Cybersecurity
16 114 (6.58%) Analytics
17 113 (6.52%) Mentoring
18 106 (6.12%) AI
19 105 (6.06%) Microservices
20 104 (6.00%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 112 (6.46%) Python
2 69 (3.98%) Java
3 65 (3.75%) PowerShell
4 54 (3.12%) SQL
5 25 (1.44%) JavaScript
6 13 (0.75%) C#
7 12 (0.69%) Apex Code
7 12 (0.69%) Bash
8 8 (0.46%) Kusto Query Language
8 8 (0.46%) PL/SQL
8 8 (0.46%) R
8 8 (0.46%) TypeScript
9 7 (0.40%) Bicep
9 7 (0.40%) VB
9 7 (0.40%) VBScript
10 6 (0.35%) ABAP
11 4 (0.23%) C
11 4 (0.23%) C++
11 4 (0.23%) Perl
12 3 (0.17%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 597 (34.45%) Security Cleared
2 358 (20.66%) SC Cleared
3 189 (10.91%) DV Cleared
4 94 (5.42%) Degree
5 70 (4.04%) TOGAF Certification
6 64 (3.69%) CISSP
7 50 (2.89%) AWS Certification
8 37 (2.14%) Cisco Certification
9 36 (2.08%) Azure Certification
10 34 (1.96%) CISM
11 33 (1.90%) BPSS Clearance
12 30 (1.73%) Microsoft Certification
13 26 (1.50%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 26 (1.50%) Computer Science Degree
14 22 (1.27%) CCIE
15 21 (1.21%) ISEB
15 21 (1.21%) ITIL Certification
16 20 (1.15%) Master's Degree
17 18 (1.04%) CCNP
18 13 (0.75%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 89 (5.14%) GDPR
2 78 (4.50%) NIST
3 65 (3.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 50 (2.89%) Data Quality
5 38 (2.19%) NCSC
6 32 (1.85%) PCI DSS
7 23 (1.33%) COBIT
8 20 (1.15%) JSP 440
9 19 (1.10%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 18 (1.04%) QA
11 13 (0.75%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 13 (0.75%) GRC
12 12 (0.69%) Cyber Essentials
13 10 (0.58%) ISO 20022
14 9 (0.52%) Def Stans
14 9 (0.52%) HMG Security Policy Framework
14 9 (0.52%) PSD2
15 7 (0.40%) Accessibility
15 7 (0.40%) FINRA
15 7 (0.40%) MiFID
System Software
1 74 (4.27%) Active Directory
2 69 (3.98%) VMware Infrastructure
3 45 (2.60%) Docker
4 26 (1.50%) VMware NSX
5 22 (1.27%) vSphere
6 16 (0.92%) VMware ESXi
7 12 (0.69%) Virtual Desktop
8 11 (0.63%) Hyper-V
9 9 (0.52%) Virtual Machines
10 7 (0.40%) BitLocker
10 7 (0.40%) NFS
11 4 (0.23%) vCloud
12 3 (0.17%) Dovecot
12 3 (0.17%) Postfix
13 2 (0.12%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
13 2 (0.12%) KVM
14 1 (0.058%) Embedded Firmware
14 1 (0.058%) HDFS
14 1 (0.058%) SRDF
14 1 (0.058%) Veritas Cluster Server
Systems Management
1 87 (5.02%) Terraform
2 76 (4.39%) Kubernetes
3 54 (3.12%) Ansible
4 33 (1.90%) OPNET
5 28 (1.62%) Single Sign-On
6 22 (1.27%) vCenter Server
7 19 (1.10%) SCCM
8 17 (0.98%) WMI
9 15 (0.87%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 10 (0.58%) FortiGate
11 8 (0.46%) Microsoft Intune
12 7 (0.40%) Argo
13 4 (0.23%) Istio
14 3 (0.17%) Endace
14 3 (0.17%) Prometheus
14 3 (0.17%) Puppet
15 2 (0.12%) SCOM
15 2 (0.12%) vRealize
15 2 (0.12%) vRealize Orchestrator
16 1 (0.058%) Podman
Vendors
1 247 (14.25%) Microsoft
2 118 (6.81%) VMware
3 103 (5.94%) SAP
4 102 (5.89%) ServiceNow
5 87 (5.02%) Salesforce
6 75 (4.33%) Oracle
7 67 (3.87%) Cisco
8 37 (2.14%) Google
9 36 (2.08%) Atlassian
10 35 (2.02%) Remedy
11 34 (1.96%) MuleSoft
12 32 (1.85%) Palo Alto
13 30 (1.73%) Red Hat
14 23 (1.33%) CyberArk
14 23 (1.33%) Sparx
15 22 (1.27%) BiZZdesign
15 22 (1.27%) Databricks
15 22 (1.27%) Virgin Media
15 22 (1.27%) Workday
16 20 (1.15%) Juniper