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 £613, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 9 June 2026.

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

6 months to
9 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 20 13
Rank change year-on-year +10 -7 +5
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,421 1,098 2,134
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.56% 8.35% 10.13%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.41% 9.10% 10.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,605 729 1,273
10th Percentile £455 £450 £490
25th Percentile £513 £513 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £613 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year +2.08% -7.69% -
75th Percentile £707 £698 £725
90th Percentile £775 £759 £793
UK median daily rate £616 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -1.44% -3.85% -0.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 126 24 93
10th Percentile £49.40 £43.92 -
25th Percentile £60.00 £65.13 £60.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £73.25 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -11.26% +4.64% -
75th Percentile £78.19 £82.25 £87.00
90th Percentile £90.75 £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 23,260 12,063 19,476
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.84% 91.69% 92.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,370 7,616 11,646
10th Percentile £300 £213 £213
25th Percentile £405 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £488
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
75th Percentile £592 £575 £591
90th Percentile £687 £650 £683
UK median daily rate £513 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +2.50% -4.76% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,691 898 2,475
10th Percentile £14.82 £13.50 £12.53
25th Percentile £20.09 £16.95 £15.86
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -5.88%
75th Percentile £67.50 £60.00 £62.50
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £74.22
UK median hourly rate £43.61 £28.00 £37.50
% change year-on-year +55.73% -25.33% -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 9 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 9 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 9 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 +5 687 £600 - 227
South East +4 687 £625 +0.40% 183
Midlands +2 436 £600 +2.17% 79
North West +5 372 £608 +1.97% 113
West Midlands -2 310 £620 +3.33% 66
Yorkshire +9 262 £552 -7.96% 62
South West -1 245 £650 +6.12% 67
East of England +18 207 £575 -4.17% 42
Scotland +16 156 £650 +4.00% 28
East Midlands +1 120 £573 +12.86% 13
North East +6 60 £575 -4.17% 53
Wales +3 33 £600 +25.65% 33
Northern Ireland +7 7 £475 -28.30% 10
Channel Islands - 3 £575 -
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 9 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.

1 699 (28.87%) Security Cleared
2 495 (20.45%) Azure
3 421 (17.39%) SC Cleared
4 386 (15.94%) AWS
5 347 (14.33%) Agile
6 342 (14.13%) Roadmaps
7 330 (13.63%) Microsoft
8 287 (11.85%) Migration
9 284 (11.73%) Stakeholder Management
10 263 (10.86%) DevOps
11 250 (10.33%) Enterprise Architecture
12 226 (9.33%) DV Cleared
13 223 (9.21%) CI/CD
14 222 (9.17%) Technical Leadership
15 197 (8.14%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 195 (8.05%) Integration Patterns
17 193 (7.97%) Microservices
18 190 (7.85%) Data Modelling
19 188 (7.77%) Architectural Patterns
20 175 (7.23%) Data Architecture
21 163 (6.73%) Architectural Design
22 162 (6.69%) Cybersecurity
23 157 (6.48%) Problem-Solving
23 157 (6.48%) TOGAF
24 148 (6.11%) SAP
25 139 (5.74%) AI
26 138 (5.70%) Analytics
27 136 (5.62%) GCP
28 132 (5.45%) Continuous Improvement
29 127 (5.25%) Security 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 62 (2.56%) SharePoint
2 46 (1.90%) Confluence
3 36 (1.49%) Microsoft Exchange
4 23 (0.95%) SAS
5 13 (0.54%) Apache Airflow
5 13 (0.54%) Appian
6 11 (0.45%) CMS
7 10 (0.41%) Anypoint
7 10 (0.41%) Apache
8 9 (0.37%) Apache Spark
9 8 (0.33%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 7 (0.29%) ArcGIS
11 6 (0.25%) Sitecore CMS
11 6 (0.25%) WebLogic
12 5 (0.21%) NetWeaver
12 5 (0.21%) OpenStack
13 4 (0.17%) JBoss
13 4 (0.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 4 (0.17%) Palantir Foundry
13 4 (0.17%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 13 (0.54%) Microsoft Excel
1 13 (0.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 7 (0.29%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (0.29%) Navisworks
2 7 (0.29%) Revit
3 6 (0.25%) MS Visio
3 6 (0.25%) Spreadsheet
4 4 (0.17%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.041%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.041%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 60 (2.48%) SAP S/4HANA
2 20 (0.83%) Payment Gateway
3 19 (0.78%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 12 (0.50%) SAP ERP
5 10 (0.41%) Remedy ITSM
5 10 (0.41%) Teamcenter
6 6 (0.25%) Dynamics CRM
6 6 (0.25%) SAP MDG
7 5 (0.21%) Maximo
7 5 (0.21%) Salesforce CRM
8 4 (0.17%) Oracle ERP
8 4 (0.17%) Oracle Payables
8 4 (0.17%) Oracle Retail
8 4 (0.17%) SAP CRM
8 4 (0.17%) SAP GRC
9 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
9 3 (0.12%) SAP IBP
9 3 (0.12%) SAP SD
9 3 (0.12%) Workday HCM
10 2 (0.083%) Infor M3
Cloud Services
1 495 (20.45%) Azure
2 386 (15.94%) AWS
3 136 (5.62%) GCP
4 95 (3.92%) Power Platform
5 90 (3.72%) Entra ID
6 84 (3.47%) Microsoft 365
7 73 (3.02%) Serverless
8 72 (2.97%) SaaS
9 59 (2.44%) PaaS
10 47 (1.94%) IaaS
11 46 (1.90%) GitHub
12 41 (1.69%) Azure DevOps
13 38 (1.57%) Microsoft Purview
14 34 (1.40%) OpenShift
15 29 (1.20%) OneDrive
16 28 (1.16%) AWS Lambda
16 28 (1.16%) Dynamics 365
17 26 (1.07%) Azure Data Factory
18 25 (1.03%) Snowflake
19 23 (0.95%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 95 (3.92%) Firewall
2 68 (2.81%) WAN
3 66 (2.73%) DNS
4 64 (2.64%) Network Security
5 52 (2.15%) LAN
6 49 (2.02%) VPN
7 40 (1.65%) SD-WAN
8 36 (1.49%) DHCP
9 28 (1.16%) VLAN
10 25 (1.03%) Wireless
11 24 (0.99%) SAN
12 23 (0.95%) NAS
13 22 (0.91%) BGP
14 21 (0.87%) Structured Cabling
15 19 (0.78%) IPsec
16 18 (0.74%) MPLS
17 17 (0.70%) BIG-IP
18 16 (0.66%) OSPF
19 14 (0.58%) NX-OS
20 13 (0.54%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 68 (2.81%) Metadata
1 68 (2.81%) Power BI
2 52 (2.15%) Data Warehouse
3 41 (1.69%) Data Lake
4 35 (1.45%) NoSQL
4 35 (1.45%) SQL Server
5 26 (1.07%) PostgreSQL
6 19 (0.78%) Oracle Database
7 18 (0.74%) Tableau
8 15 (0.62%) GIS
9 11 (0.45%) MongoDB
10 10 (0.41%) Big Data
11 9 (0.37%) DynamoDB
11 9 (0.37%) Relational Database
12 8 (0.33%) Amazon RDS
12 8 (0.33%) Azure SQL Database
12 8 (0.33%) Electronic Patient Records
12 8 (0.33%) MySQL
12 8 (0.33%) SAS Enterprise Guide
13 7 (0.29%) Spatial Data
Development Applications
1 58 (2.40%) JIRA
2 35 (1.45%) Jenkins
3 20 (0.83%) Git
4 19 (0.78%) GitLab
5 7 (0.29%) ERwin
6 6 (0.25%) Artifactory
7 5 (0.21%) Selenium
8 4 (0.17%) Hudson
8 4 (0.17%) JUnit
8 4 (0.17%) Postman
8 4 (0.17%) REST Assured
8 4 (0.17%) Sonatype Nexus
9 3 (0.12%) Cucumber
9 3 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.12%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.083%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.083%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.083%) JMeter
10 2 (0.083%) NeoLoad
10 2 (0.083%) Oracle APEX
General
1 428 (17.68%) Social Skills
2 328 (13.55%) Finance
3 217 (8.96%) Public Sector
4 145 (5.99%) Banking
5 122 (5.04%) Analytical Skills
6 84 (3.47%) Retail
7 61 (2.52%) Manufacturing
8 56 (2.31%) Documentation Skills
9 55 (2.27%) Legal
10 35 (1.45%) Influencing Skills
11 34 (1.40%) Aerospace
12 26 (1.07%) Investment Banking
12 26 (1.07%) Military
13 22 (0.91%) Presentation Skills
14 20 (0.83%) Financial Institution
15 19 (0.78%) Back Office
15 19 (0.78%) Marketing
16 15 (0.62%) Telecoms
17 13 (0.54%) Billing
18 11 (0.45%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 103 (4.25%) REST
2 81 (3.35%) Middleware
3 51 (2.11%) .NET
4 48 (1.98%) OAuth
5 44 (1.82%) OpenID
6 43 (1.78%) SOAP
7 32 (1.32%) SAML
8 31 (1.28%) OAuth2
8 31 (1.28%) Oracle Fusion
9 28 (1.16%) Kafka
10 27 (1.12%) SailPoint
11 25 (1.03%) RESTful
12 23 (0.95%) Node.js
12 23 (0.95%) React
13 22 (0.91%) JSON
14 20 (0.83%) LDAP
14 20 (0.83%) Web Services
15 16 (0.66%) Microsoft Graph
16 14 (0.58%) AngularJS
17 13 (0.54%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 164 (6.77%) Cloud Native
2 85 (3.51%) Data Centre
3 69 (2.85%) Operational Technology
4 68 (2.81%) Product Ownership
5 54 (2.23%) Management Information System
6 51 (2.11%) Hybrid Cloud
7 49 (2.02%) Public Cloud
8 48 (1.98%) Data Protection Act
8 48 (1.98%) Onboarding
9 46 (1.90%) Legacy Systems
10 45 (1.86%) Enterprise Software
11 44 (1.82%) Distributed Systems
12 28 (1.16%) PKI
13 27 (1.12%) SCADA
14 26 (1.07%) CMDB
15 22 (0.91%) Private Cloud
16 19 (0.78%) Data Structures
16 19 (0.78%) Security Posture
17 17 (0.70%) AI Agents
17 17 (0.70%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 109 (4.50%) Windows
2 52 (2.15%) Linux
3 31 (1.28%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.66%) Android
4 16 (0.66%) Apple iOS
5 11 (0.45%) Unix
6 8 (0.33%) Windows 10
6 8 (0.33%) Windows Server 2016
7 7 (0.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 6 (0.25%) Windows 7
9 5 (0.21%) Data ONTAP
9 5 (0.21%) Windows Server 2019
10 4 (0.17%) Mac OS
11 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2012
12 2 (0.083%) VMS
13 1 (0.041%) CatOS
13 1 (0.041%) Kali Linux
13 1 (0.041%) Ubuntu
13 1 (0.041%) Windows Server 2008
13 1 (0.041%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 347 (14.33%) Agile
2 342 (14.13%) Roadmaps
3 287 (11.85%) Migration
4 284 (11.73%) Stakeholder Management
5 263 (10.86%) DevOps
6 250 (10.33%) Enterprise Architecture
7 223 (9.21%) CI/CD
8 222 (9.17%) Technical Leadership
9 197 (8.14%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 195 (8.05%) Integration Patterns
11 193 (7.97%) Microservices
12 190 (7.85%) Data Modelling
13 188 (7.77%) Architectural Patterns
14 175 (7.23%) Data Architecture
15 163 (6.73%) Architectural Design
16 162 (6.69%) Cybersecurity
17 157 (6.48%) Problem-Solving
17 157 (6.48%) TOGAF
18 139 (5.74%) AI
19 138 (5.70%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 104 (4.30%) SQL
2 101 (4.17%) Python
3 80 (3.30%) Java
4 68 (2.81%) PowerShell
5 48 (1.98%) JavaScript
6 31 (1.28%) C#
7 22 (0.91%) Bicep
8 16 (0.66%) Bash
8 16 (0.66%) TypeScript
9 12 (0.50%) PL/SQL
10 10 (0.41%) Kusto Query Language
11 8 (0.33%) VBA
12 6 (0.25%) Scala
13 5 (0.21%) ABAP
13 5 (0.21%) Apex Code
14 4 (0.17%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 4 (0.17%) Perl
14 4 (0.17%) T-SQL
14 4 (0.17%) VB
14 4 (0.17%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 699 (28.87%) Security Cleared
2 421 (17.39%) SC Cleared
3 226 (9.33%) DV Cleared
4 87 (3.59%) Degree
5 52 (2.15%) BPSS Clearance
6 50 (2.07%) Cisco Certification
7 41 (1.69%) TOGAF Certification
8 36 (1.49%) Azure Certification
9 35 (1.45%) CISSP
9 35 (1.45%) Computer Science Degree
10 32 (1.32%) AWS Certification
10 32 (1.32%) CCNP
11 21 (0.87%) Microsoft Certification
12 18 (0.74%) CISM
13 16 (0.66%) CCNA
13 16 (0.66%) Master's Degree
14 12 (0.50%) ITIL Certification
14 12 (0.50%) Network+ Certification
14 12 (0.50%) Server+ Certification
15 10 (0.41%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 93 (3.84%) NIST
2 78 (3.22%) GDPR
3 64 (2.64%) Data Quality
4 58 (2.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 46 (1.90%) NCSC
6 23 (0.95%) QA
7 20 (0.83%) Accessibility
8 17 (0.70%) PCI DSS
9 14 (0.58%) GRC
10 12 (0.50%) COBIT
10 12 (0.50%) Cyber Essentials
10 12 (0.50%) FINRA
10 12 (0.50%) MiFID
10 12 (0.50%) NIST 800
11 10 (0.41%) IFRS
11 10 (0.41%) ISO 20022
12 9 (0.37%) HL7
12 9 (0.37%) ISO 19650
13 8 (0.33%) Disclosure Scotland
14 6 (0.25%) Def Stans
System Software
1 98 (4.05%) Active Directory
2 61 (2.52%) VMware Infrastructure
3 38 (1.57%) Docker
4 30 (1.24%) VMware NSX
5 21 (0.87%) Hyper-V
5 21 (0.87%) vSphere
6 12 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
7 11 (0.45%) VMware ESXi
8 9 (0.37%) vCloud
9 5 (0.21%) RACF
9 5 (0.21%) Virtual Machines
10 4 (0.17%) BitLocker
10 4 (0.17%) NFS
11 3 (0.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
11 3 (0.12%) IAG
11 3 (0.12%) SRDF
12 2 (0.083%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
12 2 (0.083%) Firmware
13 1 (0.041%) Embedded Firmware
13 1 (0.041%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 88 (3.63%) Kubernetes
2 79 (3.26%) Terraform
3 52 (2.15%) Ansible
4 36 (1.49%) Microsoft Intune
5 26 (1.07%) vCenter Server
6 25 (1.03%) Single Sign-On
7 15 (0.62%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 15 (0.62%) Grafana
7 15 (0.62%) SCCM
8 12 (0.50%) Argo
8 12 (0.50%) FortiGate
9 11 (0.45%) Prometheus
10 7 (0.29%) Jamf Pro
11 6 (0.25%) Istio
12 5 (0.21%) EMC VPLEX
12 5 (0.21%) Endace
12 5 (0.21%) WMI
13 4 (0.17%) SnapMirror
14 3 (0.12%) CASB
14 3 (0.12%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 330 (13.63%) Microsoft
2 148 (6.11%) SAP
3 127 (5.25%) VMware
4 109 (4.50%) Oracle
5 100 (4.13%) ServiceNow
6 74 (3.06%) Cisco
7 63 (2.60%) Databricks
8 57 (2.35%) Google
9 56 (2.31%) Salesforce
10 41 (1.69%) MuleSoft
11 28 (1.16%) F5
11 28 (1.16%) Red Hat
12 25 (1.03%) Citrix
12 25 (1.03%) Palo Alto
13 23 (0.95%) Juniper
14 22 (0.91%) BiZZdesign
15 21 (0.87%) Sparx
16 20 (0.83%) Talend
17 17 (0.70%) Informatica
18 16 (0.66%) Splunk