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 26 August 2026.

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

6 months to
26 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 21 13
Rank change year-on-year +8 -8 +4
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,494 1,232 1,815
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.02% 8.05% 9.99%
As % of the Job Titles category 9.84% 8.93% 10.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,676 843 1,138
10th Percentile £474 £462 £480
25th Percentile £525 £519 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £620 £600 £640
Median % change year-on-year +3.33% -6.21% -1.58%
75th Percentile £700 £688 £725
90th Percentile £775 £750 £788
UK median daily rate £615 £625 £647
% change year-on-year -1.60% -3.36% -0.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 149 15 71
10th Percentile £46.00 £33.64 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £64.38 £60.63
Median hourly rate £65.00 £72.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.34% +3.57% -3.89%
75th Percentile £71.91 £86.50 £85.00
90th Percentile £95.00 £99.42 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.75 £72.50 £70.00
% change year-on-year -9.31% +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 25,334 13,791 16,770
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.67% 90.08% 92.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,271 8,448 10,083
10th Percentile £303 £213 £220
25th Percentile £411 £360 £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 £685
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,058 1,273 1,646
10th Percentile £14.54 £13.35 £13.86
25th Percentile £20.31 £16.35 £18.19
Median hourly rate £42.30 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.19% -41.51% +7.50%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £73.25 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +65.94% -41.51% -1.44%

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 26 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 26 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 26 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 +1 730 £625 +4.17% 109
North of England +3 697 £600 - 120
Midlands 0 411 £625 +8.70% 57
North West +6 406 £600 +1.27% 61
South West +1 314 £650 +1.56% 83
West Midlands -1 298 £644 +7.33% 39
Yorkshire +5 227 £600 -2.04% 45
Scotland +21 163 £625 - 19
East of England +13 150 £604 +9.07% 19
East Midlands +3 106 £600 +16.50% 18
North East -4 66 £588 -16.07% 14
Wales +4 43 £633 +1.20% 10
Northern Ireland +3 5 £475 -32.14% 7
Channel Islands -4 3 £575 -22.56% 3
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 26 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.

1 826 (33.12%) Security Cleared
2 575 (23.06%) Azure
3 533 (21.37%) SC Cleared
4 450 (18.04%) AWS
5 376 (15.08%) Stakeholder Management
6 357 (14.31%) Roadmaps
7 350 (14.03%) Microsoft
8 314 (12.59%) Agile
9 292 (11.71%) Technical Leadership
10 290 (11.63%) Migration
11 285 (11.43%) Enterprise Architecture
12 251 (10.06%) DV Cleared
13 242 (9.70%) DevOps
14 236 (9.46%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 234 (9.38%) Integration Patterns
16 233 (9.34%) AI
17 226 (9.06%) CI/CD
18 218 (8.74%) Data Architecture
19 207 (8.30%) Architectural Patterns
20 205 (8.22%) Data Modelling
21 198 (7.94%) Cybersecurity
22 191 (7.66%) Security Architecture
23 181 (7.26%) TOGAF
24 180 (7.22%) GCP
25 162 (6.50%) Microservices
26 161 (6.46%) Architecture Governance
27 153 (6.13%) Event-Driven
28 146 (5.85%) Decision-Making
29 145 (5.81%) Continuous Improvement
30 143 (5.73%) SAP

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 34 (1.36%) SharePoint
2 32 (1.28%) SAS
3 31 (1.24%) Confluence
4 14 (0.56%) Microsoft Exchange
5 12 (0.48%) OpenStack
6 10 (0.40%) Apache
6 10 (0.40%) Apache Spark
6 10 (0.40%) Palantir Foundry
7 9 (0.36%) Apache Airflow
8 7 (0.28%) Documentum
9 3 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 3 (0.12%) CMS
9 3 (0.12%) JBoss
9 3 (0.12%) NetWeaver
9 3 (0.12%) SAP EP
10 2 (0.080%) Alfresco
10 2 (0.080%) Apache Superset
11 1 (0.040%) CIMPLICITY
11 1 (0.040%) FactoryTalk
11 1 (0.040%) Red Hat Fuse
Applications
1 12 (0.48%) MS Visio
2 11 (0.44%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (0.36%) Microsoft Office
4 7 (0.28%) Navisworks
4 7 (0.28%) Revit
5 6 (0.24%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.040%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 68 (2.73%) SAP S/4HANA
2 12 (0.48%) Payment Gateway
2 12 (0.48%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 10 (0.40%) Teamcenter
4 8 (0.32%) Remedy ITSM
5 7 (0.28%) SAP ERP
6 5 (0.20%) Dynamics CRM
6 5 (0.20%) Maximo
6 5 (0.20%) Oracle ERP
6 5 (0.20%) SAP MDG
7 4 (0.16%) NetSuite
7 4 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
7 4 (0.16%) Oracle Retail
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%) Salesforce CRM
8 3 (0.12%) SAP GRC
8 3 (0.12%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 575 (23.06%) Azure
2 450 (18.04%) AWS
3 180 (7.22%) GCP
4 97 (3.89%) Power Platform
5 85 (3.41%) SaaS
6 82 (3.29%) Serverless
7 77 (3.09%) Entra ID
8 52 (2.09%) Microsoft 365
9 46 (1.84%) Dynamics 365
10 44 (1.76%) Azure DevOps
10 44 (1.76%) GitHub
11 42 (1.68%) PaaS
12 38 (1.52%) AWS Lambda
13 35 (1.40%) IaaS
14 30 (1.20%) OpenShift
15 29 (1.16%) GitHub Actions
16 28 (1.12%) Amazon S3
16 28 (1.12%) Snowflake
17 23 (0.92%) Azure Data Factory
18 22 (0.88%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 88 (3.53%) Firewall
2 61 (2.45%) WAN
3 57 (2.29%) DNS
4 48 (1.92%) LAN
5 47 (1.88%) Network Security
6 34 (1.36%) VPN
7 33 (1.32%) BGP
7 33 (1.32%) DHCP
8 31 (1.24%) SD-WAN
9 27 (1.08%) TCP/IP
10 25 (1.00%) VLAN
11 23 (0.92%) MPLS
11 23 (0.92%) SAN
12 20 (0.80%) NAS
13 18 (0.72%) Structured Cabling
14 16 (0.64%) BIG-IP
14 16 (0.64%) OSPF
15 14 (0.56%) Wireless
16 13 (0.52%) Cisco Nexus
17 11 (0.44%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 73 (2.93%) Data Lake
2 71 (2.85%) Metadata
3 67 (2.69%) Power BI
4 63 (2.53%) Data Warehouse
5 37 (1.48%) NoSQL
6 21 (0.84%) Azure SQL Database
7 20 (0.80%) Amazon RDS
8 19 (0.76%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
8 19 (0.76%) Oracle Database
8 19 (0.76%) SQL Server
9 16 (0.64%) Base SAS
9 16 (0.64%) PostgreSQL
10 13 (0.52%) BigQuery
10 13 (0.52%) Delta Lake
11 11 (0.44%) GIS
12 10 (0.40%) Big Data
12 10 (0.40%) MySQL
13 9 (0.36%) Amazon Redshift
13 9 (0.36%) Electronic Patient Records
13 9 (0.36%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 36 (1.44%) JIRA
2 30 (1.20%) Git
3 21 (0.84%) Jenkins
4 13 (0.52%) GitLab
5 8 (0.32%) ERwin
6 6 (0.24%) Claude Code
6 6 (0.24%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.20%) Artifactory
7 5 (0.20%) MSI
8 4 (0.16%) Hudson
9 3 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.12%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.080%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.080%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.080%) IntelliJ
10 2 (0.080%) JUnit
10 2 (0.080%) Oracle APEX
10 2 (0.080%) Oracle Forms
10 2 (0.080%) Rational Rhapsody
10 2 (0.080%) Selenium
General
1 477 (19.13%) Social Skills
2 309 (12.39%) Finance
3 250 (10.02%) Public Sector
4 129 (5.17%) Banking
5 120 (4.81%) Analytical Skills
6 103 (4.13%) Retail
7 92 (3.69%) Manufacturing
8 59 (2.37%) Documentation Skills
9 56 (2.25%) Influencing Skills
10 39 (1.56%) Aerospace
11 36 (1.44%) Legal
12 30 (1.20%) Military
13 28 (1.12%) Telecoms
14 22 (0.88%) Aviation
14 22 (0.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 20 (0.80%) Back Office
15 20 (0.80%) Financial Institution
15 20 (0.80%) Marketing
15 20 (0.80%) Presentation Skills
16 17 (0.68%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 97 (3.89%) REST
2 90 (3.61%) Terraform
3 74 (2.97%) Middleware
4 56 (2.25%) OAuth
5 45 (1.80%) SOAP
6 37 (1.48%) Oracle Fusion
7 36 (1.44%) .NET
8 35 (1.40%) OpenID
9 34 (1.36%) SAML
10 33 (1.32%) Kafka
11 25 (1.00%) OAuth2
12 23 (0.92%) JSON
13 21 (0.84%) LDAP
13 21 (0.84%) SailPoint
14 17 (0.68%) Node.js
15 16 (0.64%) RESTful
16 15 (0.60%) JWT
17 14 (0.56%) GraphQL
18 13 (0.52%) Swagger
19 11 (0.44%) React
Miscellaneous
1 199 (7.98%) Cloud Native
2 82 (3.29%) Hybrid Cloud
3 81 (3.25%) Data Centre
4 62 (2.49%) Operational Technology
5 61 (2.45%) Data Protection Act
6 58 (2.33%) Distributed Systems
7 57 (2.29%) Product Ownership
8 56 (2.25%) Legacy Systems
9 54 (2.17%) Enterprise Software
10 53 (2.13%) Management Information System
11 52 (2.09%) Onboarding
12 43 (1.72%) Public Cloud
13 40 (1.60%) AI Agents
14 31 (1.24%) Private Cloud
15 29 (1.16%) CMDB
16 27 (1.08%) Enterprise Cloud
17 26 (1.04%) IVR
17 26 (1.04%) Security Posture
18 21 (0.84%) SCADA
19 20 (0.80%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 83 (3.33%) Windows
2 57 (2.29%) Linux
3 34 (1.36%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.64%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (0.32%) Unix
6 6 (0.24%) AIX
7 4 (0.16%) Data ONTAP
8 3 (0.12%) Android
8 3 (0.12%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.080%) HPUX
9 2 (0.080%) Solaris
9 2 (0.080%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.040%) CatOS
10 1 (0.040%) CentOS
10 1 (0.040%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.040%) VMS
10 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.040%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 376 (15.08%) Stakeholder Management
2 357 (14.31%) Roadmaps
3 314 (12.59%) Agile
4 292 (11.71%) Technical Leadership
5 290 (11.63%) Migration
6 285 (11.43%) Enterprise Architecture
7 242 (9.70%) DevOps
8 236 (9.46%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 234 (9.38%) Integration Patterns
10 233 (9.34%) AI
11 226 (9.06%) CI/CD
12 218 (8.74%) Data Architecture
13 207 (8.30%) Architectural Patterns
14 205 (8.22%) Data Modelling
15 198 (7.94%) Cybersecurity
16 191 (7.66%) Security Architecture
17 181 (7.26%) TOGAF
18 162 (6.50%) Microservices
19 161 (6.46%) Architecture Governance
20 153 (6.13%) Event-Driven
Programming Languages
1 97 (3.89%) Java
2 95 (3.81%) SQL
3 85 (3.41%) Python
4 48 (1.92%) JavaScript
5 42 (1.68%) PowerShell
6 22 (0.88%) Bash
7 15 (0.60%) Bicep
8 12 (0.48%) TypeScript
9 10 (0.40%) Shell Script
10 9 (0.36%) C#
11 8 (0.32%) ABAP
12 7 (0.28%) Apex Code
13 6 (0.24%) PL/SQL
13 6 (0.24%) VBA
14 5 (0.20%) Groovy
15 4 (0.16%) Kotlin
16 3 (0.12%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 3 (0.12%) R
17 2 (0.080%) BeanShell
17 2 (0.080%) Scala
Qualifications
1 826 (33.12%) Security Cleared
2 533 (21.37%) SC Cleared
3 251 (10.06%) DV Cleared
4 67 (2.69%) Degree
5 57 (2.29%) CISSP
6 53 (2.13%) Cisco Certification
7 47 (1.88%) BPSS Clearance
8 43 (1.72%) AWS Certification
8 43 (1.72%) Azure Certification
9 42 (1.68%) TOGAF Certification
10 29 (1.16%) Computer Science Degree
11 25 (1.00%) CCNP
12 21 (0.84%) CISM
13 19 (0.76%) Microsoft Certification
14 16 (0.64%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 14 (0.56%) CCIE
16 12 (0.48%) CCNA
17 11 (0.44%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
18 10 (0.40%) DBS Check
18 10 (0.40%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 94 (3.77%) NIST
2 83 (3.33%) Data Quality
3 61 (2.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 61 (2.45%) NCSC
4 53 (2.13%) GDPR
5 23 (0.92%) QA
6 18 (0.72%) Accessibility
6 18 (0.72%) NIST 800
7 16 (0.64%) PCI DSS
8 15 (0.60%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 15 (0.60%) JSP 440
9 13 (0.52%) ISO 19650
10 12 (0.48%) GRC
11 11 (0.44%) IFRS
11 11 (0.44%) SLA
12 10 (0.40%) Disclosure Scotland
13 9 (0.36%) HL7
13 9 (0.36%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 7 (0.28%) Cyber Essentials
15 6 (0.24%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
System Software
1 90 (3.61%) Active Directory
2 48 (1.92%) Docker
3 45 (1.80%) VMware Infrastructure
4 26 (1.04%) Virtual Desktop
5 24 (0.96%) VMware NSX
6 18 (0.72%) Hyper-V
7 12 (0.48%) VMware ESXi
8 10 (0.40%) vSphere
9 9 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
10 5 (0.20%) vCloud
11 4 (0.16%) KVM
12 3 (0.12%) Ceph
12 3 (0.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
12 3 (0.12%) NFS
12 3 (0.12%) SRDF
13 2 (0.080%) zsh
14 1 (0.040%) Firmware
14 1 (0.040%) IAG
14 1 (0.040%) Microsoft Virtual Server
14 1 (0.040%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 129 (5.17%) Kubernetes
2 49 (1.96%) Ansible
3 19 (0.76%) Microsoft Intune
4 18 (0.72%) Single Sign-On
5 16 (0.64%) Grafana
6 15 (0.60%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 13 (0.52%) Prometheus
8 12 (0.48%) Jamf Pro
8 12 (0.48%) vCenter Server
9 8 (0.32%) WMI
10 7 (0.28%) Argo
11 6 (0.24%) FortiGate
11 6 (0.24%) Istio
12 5 (0.20%) CASB
12 5 (0.20%) MOM
12 5 (0.20%) NetBackup
13 4 (0.16%) Cisco CUCM
13 4 (0.16%) EMC VPLEX
13 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
14 3 (0.12%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 350 (14.03%) Microsoft
2 143 (5.73%) SAP
3 109 (4.37%) Oracle
4 95 (3.81%) ServiceNow
5 90 (3.61%) Google
6 83 (3.33%) VMware
7 80 (3.21%) Databricks
8 74 (2.97%) Cisco
9 49 (1.96%) Salesforce
10 28 (1.12%) MuleSoft
11 27 (1.08%) F5
12 26 (1.04%) CyberArk
13 23 (0.92%) Red Hat
14 22 (0.88%) Informatica
14 22 (0.88%) Palo Alto
15 21 (0.84%) IBM
16 17 (0.68%) Infoblox
16 17 (0.68%) Workday
17 14 (0.56%) Juniper
17 14 (0.56%) Sparx