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 £615, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 17 June 2026.

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

6 months to
17 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 20 12
Rank change year-on-year +10 -8 +6
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,465 1,094 2,169
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.59% 8.17% 10.17%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.43% 8.93% 11.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,630 724 1,300
10th Percentile £463 £450 £490
25th Percentile £515 £513 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £615 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -7.69% -
75th Percentile £713 £700 £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 131 24 95
10th Percentile £49.40 £43.92 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £65.13 £60.63
Median hourly rate £65.00 £73.25 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -11.26% +4.64% -
75th Percentile £74.58 £82.25 £87.23
90th Percentile £84.00 £86.90 £90.00
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 23,636 12,250 19,717
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.94% 91.50% 92.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,571 7,713 11,713
10th Percentile £303 £218 £213
25th Percentile £406 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £488
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
75th Percentile £595 £575 £590
90th Percentile £688 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £515 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +3.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,716 940 2,535
10th Percentile £14.82 £13.50 £12.63
25th Percentile £20.27 £16.84 £15.96
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -1.45%
75th Percentile £67.50 £58.75 £63.75
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £74.00
UK median hourly rate £43.61 £27.45 £37.50
% change year-on-year +58.85% -26.80% -16.67%

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 17 June 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 17 June 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 17 June 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
North of England +7 695 £600 - 326
South East +5 695 £625 +4.08% 290
Midlands +2 442 £600 +0.17% 142
North West +3 367 £611 +1.83% 165
West Midlands 0 314 £625 +4.17% 98
Yorkshire +8 269 £558 -7.00% 94
South West -1 262 £645 +5.31% 186
East of England +22 211 £575 -4.17% 106
Scotland +11 159 £650 +4.00% 92
East Midlands +4 122 £575 +13.30% 44
North East +8 66 £575 -4.17% 68
Wales 0 32 £600 +25.65% 49
Northern Ireland +7 7 £475 -28.30% 41
Channel Islands 0 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 17 June 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.

1 712 (28.88%) Security Cleared
2 509 (20.65%) Azure
3 441 (17.89%) SC Cleared
4 392 (15.90%) AWS
5 348 (14.12%) Roadmaps
6 346 (14.04%) Agile
7 342 (13.87%) Microsoft
8 303 (12.29%) Migration
9 297 (12.05%) Stakeholder Management
10 263 (10.67%) DevOps
11 257 (10.43%) Enterprise Architecture
12 236 (9.57%) Technical Leadership
13 226 (9.17%) CI/CD
14 219 (8.88%) DV Cleared
15 217 (8.80%) Integration Patterns
16 203 (8.24%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 196 (7.95%) Architectural Patterns
17 196 (7.95%) Data Modelling
18 192 (7.79%) Microservices
19 180 (7.30%) Data Architecture
20 166 (6.73%) Architectural Design
21 165 (6.69%) Cybersecurity
21 165 (6.69%) TOGAF
22 158 (6.41%) Problem-Solving
23 149 (6.04%) AI
24 146 (5.92%) SAP
25 136 (5.52%) Analytics
26 134 (5.44%) GCP
27 132 (5.35%) Security Architecture
28 130 (5.27%) Technical Architecture

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 63 (2.56%) SharePoint
2 47 (1.91%) Confluence
3 37 (1.50%) Microsoft Exchange
4 30 (1.22%) SAS
5 13 (0.53%) Apache Airflow
5 13 (0.53%) Appian
6 10 (0.41%) Apache
6 10 (0.41%) CMS
7 9 (0.37%) Apache Spark
8 8 (0.32%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 7 (0.28%) ArcGIS
9 7 (0.28%) OpenStack
10 6 (0.24%) Anypoint
10 6 (0.24%) Sitecore CMS
10 6 (0.24%) WebLogic
11 5 (0.20%) NetWeaver
12 4 (0.16%) Documentum
12 4 (0.16%) JBoss
12 4 (0.16%) SAP EP
12 4 (0.16%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 13 (0.53%) Microsoft Excel
1 13 (0.53%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 7 (0.28%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (0.28%) Navisworks
2 7 (0.28%) Revit
3 6 (0.24%) MS Visio
3 6 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
4 4 (0.16%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.041%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.041%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 60 (2.43%) SAP S/4HANA
2 20 (0.81%) Payment Gateway
3 19 (0.77%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 12 (0.49%) SAP ERP
5 10 (0.41%) Teamcenter
6 9 (0.37%) Remedy ITSM
7 7 (0.28%) Dynamics CRM
8 6 (0.24%) Oracle ERP
9 5 (0.20%) Maximo
9 5 (0.20%) Salesforce CRM
10 4 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
10 4 (0.16%) Oracle Retail
10 4 (0.16%) SAP CRM
10 4 (0.16%) SAP GRC
10 4 (0.16%) SAP MDG
11 3 (0.12%) Avolution ABACUS
11 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
11 3 (0.12%) SAP IBP
12 2 (0.081%) Infor LN
12 2 (0.081%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 509 (20.65%) Azure
2 392 (15.90%) AWS
3 134 (5.44%) GCP
4 102 (4.14%) Power Platform
5 90 (3.65%) Entra ID
6 85 (3.45%) Microsoft 365
7 77 (3.12%) Serverless
8 73 (2.96%) SaaS
9 58 (2.35%) PaaS
10 49 (1.99%) GitHub
11 46 (1.87%) IaaS
12 41 (1.66%) Azure DevOps
13 38 (1.54%) Microsoft Purview
14 32 (1.30%) Dynamics 365
14 32 (1.30%) OpenShift
15 29 (1.18%) OneDrive
16 27 (1.10%) AWS Lambda
17 25 (1.01%) PowerApps
18 24 (0.97%) GitHub Actions
18 24 (0.97%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 94 (3.81%) Firewall
2 72 (2.92%) WAN
3 68 (2.76%) DNS
4 61 (2.47%) Network Security
5 53 (2.15%) LAN
6 47 (1.91%) VPN
7 39 (1.58%) SD-WAN
8 35 (1.42%) DHCP
9 28 (1.14%) VLAN
10 25 (1.01%) Wireless
11 24 (0.97%) BGP
11 24 (0.97%) SAN
12 23 (0.93%) NAS
13 21 (0.85%) Structured Cabling
14 20 (0.81%) MPLS
15 18 (0.73%) IPsec
16 17 (0.69%) BIG-IP
17 16 (0.65%) OSPF
18 14 (0.57%) NX-OS
19 13 (0.53%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 71 (2.88%) Power BI
2 68 (2.76%) Metadata
3 57 (2.31%) Data Warehouse
4 52 (2.11%) Data Lake
5 35 (1.42%) NoSQL
6 31 (1.26%) SQL Server
7 26 (1.05%) PostgreSQL
8 18 (0.73%) Tableau
9 17 (0.69%) Oracle Database
10 15 (0.61%) GIS
11 14 (0.57%) Azure SQL Database
11 14 (0.57%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
12 12 (0.49%) Base SAS
13 11 (0.45%) Big Data
13 11 (0.45%) MongoDB
14 10 (0.41%) Amazon RDS
15 9 (0.37%) Electronic Patient Records
16 8 (0.32%) DynamoDB
16 8 (0.32%) Relational Database
16 8 (0.32%) SAS Enterprise Guide
Development Applications
1 59 (2.39%) JIRA
2 34 (1.38%) Jenkins
3 21 (0.85%) Git
4 19 (0.77%) GitLab
5 8 (0.32%) ERwin
6 6 (0.24%) Artifactory
7 5 (0.20%) Selenium
8 4 (0.16%) Hudson
8 4 (0.16%) JUnit
8 4 (0.16%) Postman
8 4 (0.16%) REST Assured
8 4 (0.16%) Sonatype Nexus
9 3 (0.12%) Cucumber
9 3 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
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%) NeoLoad
10 2 (0.081%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 432 (17.53%) Social Skills
2 341 (13.83%) Finance
3 229 (9.29%) Public Sector
4 142 (5.76%) Banking
5 121 (4.91%) Analytical Skills
6 88 (3.57%) Retail
7 64 (2.60%) Manufacturing
8 58 (2.35%) Legal
9 56 (2.27%) Documentation Skills
10 35 (1.42%) Influencing Skills
11 34 (1.38%) Aerospace
12 27 (1.10%) Military
13 25 (1.01%) Investment Banking
14 22 (0.89%) Presentation Skills
15 21 (0.85%) Marketing
16 20 (0.81%) Financial Institution
17 19 (0.77%) Telecoms
18 18 (0.73%) Back Office
19 13 (0.53%) Billing
19 13 (0.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 106 (4.30%) REST
2 79 (3.20%) Middleware
3 51 (2.07%) .NET
4 50 (2.03%) OAuth
5 46 (1.87%) OpenID
6 41 (1.66%) SOAP
7 34 (1.38%) SAML
8 32 (1.30%) OAuth2
8 32 (1.30%) Oracle Fusion
9 31 (1.26%) SailPoint
10 29 (1.18%) Kafka
11 27 (1.10%) RESTful
12 23 (0.93%) Node.js
12 23 (0.93%) React
13 21 (0.85%) LDAP
14 20 (0.81%) JSON
14 20 (0.81%) Web Services
15 16 (0.65%) Microsoft Graph
16 14 (0.57%) AngularJS
17 13 (0.53%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 169 (6.86%) Cloud Native
2 84 (3.41%) Data Centre
3 75 (3.04%) Product Ownership
4 71 (2.88%) Operational Technology
5 56 (2.27%) Management Information System
6 54 (2.19%) Hybrid Cloud
7 50 (2.03%) Legacy Systems
8 49 (1.99%) Data Protection Act
8 49 (1.99%) Enterprise Software
9 48 (1.95%) Onboarding
9 48 (1.95%) Public Cloud
10 44 (1.78%) Distributed Systems
11 29 (1.18%) CMDB
12 25 (1.01%) PKI
12 25 (1.01%) SCADA
13 23 (0.93%) Private Cloud
14 19 (0.77%) Data Structures
14 19 (0.77%) Security Posture
15 18 (0.73%) AI Agents
16 17 (0.69%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 103 (4.18%) Windows
2 47 (1.91%) Linux
3 32 (1.30%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.65%) Android
4 16 (0.65%) Apple iOS
5 11 (0.45%) Unix
6 6 (0.24%) Windows Server 2016
7 5 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
7 5 (0.20%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (0.20%) Windows 7
8 4 (0.16%) Windows 10
8 4 (0.16%) Windows Server 2019
9 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (0.081%) VMS
11 1 (0.041%) CatOS
11 1 (0.041%) Kali Linux
11 1 (0.041%) Windows Server 2008
11 1 (0.041%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 348 (14.12%) Roadmaps
2 346 (14.04%) Agile
3 303 (12.29%) Migration
4 297 (12.05%) Stakeholder Management
5 263 (10.67%) DevOps
6 257 (10.43%) Enterprise Architecture
7 236 (9.57%) Technical Leadership
8 226 (9.17%) CI/CD
9 217 (8.80%) Integration Patterns
10 203 (8.24%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 196 (7.95%) Architectural Patterns
11 196 (7.95%) Data Modelling
12 192 (7.79%) Microservices
13 180 (7.30%) Data Architecture
14 166 (6.73%) Architectural Design
15 165 (6.69%) Cybersecurity
15 165 (6.69%) TOGAF
16 158 (6.41%) Problem-Solving
17 149 (6.04%) AI
18 136 (5.52%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 108 (4.38%) SQL
2 99 (4.02%) Python
3 84 (3.41%) Java
4 61 (2.47%) PowerShell
5 50 (2.03%) JavaScript
6 33 (1.34%) C#
7 24 (0.97%) Bicep
8 16 (0.65%) TypeScript
9 12 (0.49%) Bash
10 10 (0.41%) Kusto Query Language
11 8 (0.32%) VBA
12 7 (0.28%) PL/SQL
13 6 (0.24%) Scala
14 5 (0.20%) ABAP
14 5 (0.20%) Apex Code
15 4 (0.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 4 (0.16%) Kotlin
15 4 (0.16%) Perl
15 4 (0.16%) VB
15 4 (0.16%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 712 (28.88%) Security Cleared
2 441 (17.89%) SC Cleared
3 219 (8.88%) DV Cleared
4 88 (3.57%) Degree
5 53 (2.15%) BPSS Clearance
6 50 (2.03%) Cisco Certification
7 40 (1.62%) TOGAF Certification
8 37 (1.50%) Azure Certification
9 35 (1.42%) AWS Certification
9 35 (1.42%) Computer Science Degree
10 34 (1.38%) CISSP
11 30 (1.22%) CCNP
12 22 (0.89%) Microsoft Certification
13 17 (0.69%) CISM
14 16 (0.65%) CCNA
15 15 (0.61%) Master's Degree
16 12 (0.49%) Network+ Certification
16 12 (0.49%) Server+ Certification
17 11 (0.45%) (ISC)2 CCSP
18 10 (0.41%) CCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 92 (3.73%) NIST
2 80 (3.25%) GDPR
3 69 (2.80%) Data Quality
4 56 (2.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 49 (1.99%) NCSC
6 25 (1.01%) QA
7 20 (0.81%) Accessibility
8 16 (0.65%) PCI DSS
9 14 (0.57%) GRC
10 12 (0.49%) COBIT
10 12 (0.49%) FINRA
10 12 (0.49%) MiFID
10 12 (0.49%) NIST 800
11 11 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials
11 11 (0.45%) IFRS
12 10 (0.41%) ISO 19650
12 10 (0.41%) ISO 20022
13 9 (0.37%) HL7
14 8 (0.32%) Disclosure Scotland
14 8 (0.32%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 100 (4.06%) Active Directory
2 55 (2.23%) VMware Infrastructure
3 38 (1.54%) Docker
4 30 (1.22%) VMware NSX
5 21 (0.85%) Hyper-V
6 20 (0.81%) vSphere
7 16 (0.65%) Virtual Desktop
8 11 (0.45%) VMware ESXi
9 8 (0.32%) vCloud
9 8 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
10 5 (0.20%) RACF
11 4 (0.16%) BitLocker
11 4 (0.16%) NFS
12 3 (0.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
12 3 (0.12%) IAG
12 3 (0.12%) SRDF
13 2 (0.081%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
13 2 (0.081%) Firmware
14 1 (0.041%) Embedded Firmware
14 1 (0.041%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 84 (3.41%) Kubernetes
2 79 (3.20%) Terraform
3 52 (2.11%) Ansible
4 32 (1.30%) Microsoft Intune
5 24 (0.97%) Single Sign-On
5 24 (0.97%) vCenter Server
6 16 (0.65%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 15 (0.61%) Grafana
8 14 (0.57%) FortiGate
9 12 (0.49%) Argo
10 11 (0.45%) Prometheus
11 10 (0.41%) SCCM
12 7 (0.28%) Jamf Pro
13 6 (0.24%) Istio
14 5 (0.20%) EMC VPLEX
15 4 (0.16%) Endace
15 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
15 4 (0.16%) WMI
16 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
16 3 (0.12%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 342 (13.87%) Microsoft
2 146 (5.92%) SAP
3 119 (4.83%) VMware
4 108 (4.38%) Oracle
5 106 (4.30%) ServiceNow
6 73 (2.96%) Cisco
7 63 (2.56%) Databricks
8 56 (2.27%) Salesforce
9 52 (2.11%) Google
10 33 (1.34%) MuleSoft
11 29 (1.18%) Red Hat
12 28 (1.14%) F5
13 24 (0.97%) Palo Alto
14 21 (0.85%) BiZZdesign
14 21 (0.85%) Juniper
14 21 (0.85%) Sparx
15 20 (0.81%) Citrix
15 20 (0.81%) Talend
16 15 (0.61%) Informatica
16 15 (0.61%) Splunk