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 12 June 2026.

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

6 months to
12 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 2,440 1,094 2,143
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.58% 8.24% 10.07%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.43% 9.00% 10.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,615 725 1,280
10th Percentile £463 £450 £495
25th Percentile £513 £513 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £613 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year +2.08% -7.69% -
75th Percentile £712 £700 £725
90th Percentile £775 £757 £793
UK median daily rate £618 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -1.20% -3.85% -0.99%
Number of hourly rates quoted 129 24 94
10th Percentile £49.40 £43.92 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £65.13 £60.31
Median hourly rate £65.00 £73.25 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -11.26% +4.64% -
75th Percentile £77.25 £82.25 £87.35
90th Percentile £86.70 £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 23,404 12,162 19,671
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.87% 91.62% 92.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,454 7,672 11,752
10th Percentile £303 £220 £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 £594 £575 £590
90th Percentile £688 £650 £680
UK median daily rate £513 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +2.68% -4.76% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,701 916 2,515
10th Percentile £14.82 £13.50 £12.63
25th Percentile £20.25 £16.95 £15.92
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -4.76%
75th Percentile £67.50 £60.00 £62.83
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £74.37
UK median hourly rate £43.00 £27.64 £37.50
% change year-on-year +55.57% -26.29% -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 12 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 12 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 12 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
South East +6 689 £625 +2.46% 182
North of England +7 688 £600 - 199
Midlands +2 439 £600 +2.17% 73
North West +3 369 £608 +1.33% 99
West Midlands 0 311 £623 +3.75% 62
Yorkshire +11 264 £555 -7.58% 54
South West 0 256 £650 +6.12% 97
East of England +20 208 £575 -4.17% 33
Scotland +13 159 £650 +4.00% 30
East Midlands +2 122 £574 +13.10% 11
North East +3 62 £575 -4.17% 47
Wales -1 33 £600 +25.65% 22
Northern Ireland +6 7 £475 -28.30% 6
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 12 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.

1 705 (28.89%) Security Cleared
2 500 (20.49%) Azure
3 431 (17.66%) SC Cleared
4 386 (15.82%) AWS
5 346 (14.18%) Agile
6 344 (14.10%) Roadmaps
7 335 (13.73%) Microsoft
8 290 (11.89%) Migration
9 287 (11.76%) Stakeholder Management
10 265 (10.86%) DevOps
11 247 (10.12%) Enterprise Architecture
12 228 (9.34%) Technical Leadership
13 225 (9.22%) CI/CD
14 222 (9.10%) DV Cleared
15 204 (8.36%) Integration Patterns
16 201 (8.24%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 196 (8.03%) Architectural Patterns
18 194 (7.95%) Microservices
19 191 (7.83%) Data Modelling
20 177 (7.25%) Data Architecture
21 165 (6.76%) Architectural Design
22 163 (6.68%) Cybersecurity
22 163 (6.68%) TOGAF
23 157 (6.43%) Problem-Solving
24 144 (5.90%) SAP
25 143 (5.86%) AI
26 134 (5.49%) Analytics
27 132 (5.41%) Security Architecture
28 131 (5.37%) Continuous Improvement
28 131 (5.37%) GCP

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 (2.58%) SharePoint
2 47 (1.93%) Confluence
3 36 (1.48%) Microsoft Exchange
4 23 (0.94%) SAS
5 13 (0.53%) Apache Airflow
5 13 (0.53%) Appian
6 11 (0.45%) CMS
7 10 (0.41%) Apache
8 9 (0.37%) Apache Spark
9 8 (0.33%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 7 (0.29%) Anypoint
10 7 (0.29%) ArcGIS
11 6 (0.25%) OpenStack
11 6 (0.25%) Sitecore CMS
11 6 (0.25%) WebLogic
12 5 (0.20%) NetWeaver
13 4 (0.16%) JBoss
13 4 (0.16%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 4 (0.16%) SAP EP
13 4 (0.16%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 13 (0.53%) Microsoft Excel
1 13 (0.53%) 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 (0.16%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.041%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.041%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 58 (2.38%) SAP S/4HANA
2 21 (0.86%) Payment Gateway
3 19 (0.78%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 12 (0.49%) SAP ERP
5 10 (0.41%) Teamcenter
6 9 (0.37%) Remedy ITSM
7 6 (0.25%) Dynamics CRM
7 6 (0.25%) Oracle ERP
8 5 (0.20%) Maximo
8 5 (0.20%) Salesforce CRM
9 4 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
9 4 (0.16%) Oracle Retail
9 4 (0.16%) SAP CRM
9 4 (0.16%) SAP GRC
9 4 (0.16%) SAP MDG
10 3 (0.12%) Avolution ABACUS
10 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
10 3 (0.12%) SAP IBP
10 3 (0.12%) Workday HCM
11 2 (0.082%) Infor LN
Cloud Services
1 500 (20.49%) Azure
2 386 (15.82%) AWS
3 131 (5.37%) GCP
4 98 (4.02%) Power Platform
5 89 (3.65%) Entra ID
6 82 (3.36%) Microsoft 365
7 77 (3.16%) Serverless
8 72 (2.95%) SaaS
9 58 (2.38%) PaaS
10 48 (1.97%) GitHub
11 46 (1.89%) IaaS
12 40 (1.64%) Azure DevOps
13 37 (1.52%) Microsoft Purview
14 33 (1.35%) OpenShift
15 29 (1.19%) OneDrive
16 28 (1.15%) AWS Lambda
16 28 (1.15%) Dynamics 365
17 26 (1.07%) Azure Data Factory
17 26 (1.07%) Snowflake
18 24 (0.98%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 94 (3.85%) Firewall
2 73 (2.99%) WAN
3 70 (2.87%) DNS
4 63 (2.58%) Network Security
5 52 (2.13%) LAN
6 48 (1.97%) VPN
7 41 (1.68%) SD-WAN
8 36 (1.48%) DHCP
9 28 (1.15%) VLAN
10 25 (1.02%) Wireless
11 24 (0.98%) SAN
12 23 (0.94%) BGP
12 23 (0.94%) NAS
13 21 (0.86%) Structured Cabling
14 19 (0.78%) MPLS
15 18 (0.74%) IPsec
16 17 (0.70%) BIG-IP
17 16 (0.66%) OSPF
18 14 (0.57%) NX-OS
19 13 (0.53%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 70 (2.87%) Power BI
2 68 (2.79%) Metadata
3 52 (2.13%) Data Warehouse
4 48 (1.97%) Data Lake
5 35 (1.43%) NoSQL
6 34 (1.39%) SQL Server
7 26 (1.07%) PostgreSQL
8 18 (0.74%) Tableau
9 17 (0.70%) Oracle Database
10 15 (0.61%) GIS
11 13 (0.53%) Azure SQL Database
12 11 (0.45%) MongoDB
13 10 (0.41%) Big Data
14 9 (0.37%) Amazon RDS
14 9 (0.37%) DynamoDB
14 9 (0.37%) Electronic Patient Records
15 8 (0.33%) MySQL
15 8 (0.33%) Relational Database
15 8 (0.33%) SAS Enterprise Guide
16 7 (0.29%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
Development Applications
1 59 (2.42%) JIRA
2 34 (1.39%) Jenkins
3 20 (0.82%) Git
4 19 (0.78%) GitLab
5 7 (0.29%) ERwin
6 6 (0.25%) 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 (0.082%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.082%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.082%) IntelliJ
10 2 (0.082%) NeoLoad
10 2 (0.082%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 428 (17.54%) Social Skills
2 334 (13.69%) Finance
3 224 (9.18%) Public Sector
4 146 (5.98%) Banking
5 121 (4.96%) Analytical Skills
6 85 (3.48%) Retail
7 61 (2.50%) Manufacturing
8 57 (2.34%) Legal
9 55 (2.25%) Documentation Skills
10 35 (1.43%) Aerospace
10 35 (1.43%) Influencing Skills
11 27 (1.11%) Military
12 26 (1.07%) Investment Banking
13 21 (0.86%) Marketing
14 20 (0.82%) Financial Institution
14 20 (0.82%) Presentation Skills
15 19 (0.78%) Back Office
16 18 (0.74%) Telecoms
17 12 (0.49%) Billing
17 12 (0.49%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 104 (4.26%) REST
2 80 (3.28%) Middleware
3 51 (2.09%) .NET
4 50 (2.05%) OAuth
5 46 (1.89%) OpenID
6 41 (1.68%) SOAP
7 34 (1.39%) SAML
8 32 (1.31%) OAuth2
8 32 (1.31%) Oracle Fusion
9 30 (1.23%) SailPoint
10 28 (1.15%) Kafka
11 26 (1.07%) RESTful
12 23 (0.94%) Node.js
12 23 (0.94%) React
13 21 (0.86%) LDAP
14 20 (0.82%) JSON
14 20 (0.82%) Web Services
15 16 (0.66%) Microsoft Graph
16 14 (0.57%) AngularJS
17 13 (0.53%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 168 (6.89%) Cloud Native
2 86 (3.52%) Data Centre
3 73 (2.99%) Product Ownership
4 70 (2.87%) Operational Technology
5 56 (2.30%) Management Information System
6 53 (2.17%) Hybrid Cloud
7 49 (2.01%) Public Cloud
8 48 (1.97%) Data Protection Act
8 48 (1.97%) Onboarding
9 47 (1.93%) Enterprise Software
9 47 (1.93%) Legacy Systems
10 45 (1.84%) Distributed Systems
11 26 (1.07%) CMDB
11 26 (1.07%) PKI
11 26 (1.07%) SCADA
12 22 (0.90%) Private Cloud
13 19 (0.78%) Data Structures
13 19 (0.78%) Security Posture
14 18 (0.74%) AI Agents
15 17 (0.70%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 102 (4.18%) Windows
2 49 (2.01%) Linux
3 32 (1.31%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.66%) Android
4 16 (0.66%) Apple iOS
5 11 (0.45%) Unix
6 8 (0.33%) Windows Server 2016
7 6 (0.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 5 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
8 5 (0.20%) Windows 7
8 5 (0.20%) Windows Server 2019
9 4 (0.16%) Windows 10
10 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2012
11 2 (0.082%) VMS
12 1 (0.041%) CatOS
12 1 (0.041%) CentOS
12 1 (0.041%) Kali Linux
12 1 (0.041%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.041%) Windows Server 2008
12 1 (0.041%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 346 (14.18%) Agile
2 344 (14.10%) Roadmaps
3 290 (11.89%) Migration
4 287 (11.76%) Stakeholder Management
5 265 (10.86%) DevOps
6 247 (10.12%) Enterprise Architecture
7 228 (9.34%) Technical Leadership
8 225 (9.22%) CI/CD
9 204 (8.36%) Integration Patterns
10 201 (8.24%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 196 (8.03%) Architectural Patterns
12 194 (7.95%) Microservices
13 191 (7.83%) Data Modelling
14 177 (7.25%) Data Architecture
15 165 (6.76%) Architectural Design
16 163 (6.68%) Cybersecurity
16 163 (6.68%) TOGAF
17 157 (6.43%) Problem-Solving
18 143 (5.86%) AI
19 134 (5.49%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 106 (4.34%) SQL
2 100 (4.10%) Python
3 82 (3.36%) Java
4 62 (2.54%) PowerShell
5 48 (1.97%) JavaScript
6 31 (1.27%) C#
7 23 (0.94%) Bicep
8 16 (0.66%) TypeScript
9 12 (0.49%) Bash
10 10 (0.41%) Kusto Query Language
11 9 (0.37%) PL/SQL
12 8 (0.33%) VBA
13 6 (0.25%) Scala
14 5 (0.20%) ABAP
14 5 (0.20%) Apex Code
15 4 (0.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 4 (0.16%) Perl
15 4 (0.16%) T-SQL
15 4 (0.16%) VB
15 4 (0.16%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 705 (28.89%) Security Cleared
2 431 (17.66%) SC Cleared
3 222 (9.10%) DV Cleared
4 86 (3.52%) Degree
5 53 (2.17%) BPSS Clearance
6 50 (2.05%) Cisco Certification
7 41 (1.68%) TOGAF Certification
8 37 (1.52%) Azure Certification
9 35 (1.43%) AWS Certification
9 35 (1.43%) CISSP
9 35 (1.43%) Computer Science Degree
10 30 (1.23%) CCNP
11 21 (0.86%) Microsoft Certification
12 18 (0.74%) CISM
13 16 (0.66%) CCNA
14 15 (0.61%) Master's Degree
15 13 (0.53%) ITIL Certification
16 12 (0.49%) Network+ Certification
16 12 (0.49%) Server+ Certification
17 11 (0.45%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 93 (3.81%) NIST
2 76 (3.11%) GDPR
3 64 (2.62%) Data Quality
4 55 (2.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 48 (1.97%) NCSC
6 24 (0.98%) QA
7 20 (0.82%) Accessibility
8 17 (0.70%) PCI DSS
9 14 (0.57%) GRC
10 12 (0.49%) COBIT
10 12 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials
10 12 (0.49%) FINRA
10 12 (0.49%) MiFID
11 11 (0.45%) IFRS
11 11 (0.45%) NIST 800
12 10 (0.41%) ISO 19650
12 10 (0.41%) ISO 20022
13 9 (0.37%) HL7
14 8 (0.33%) Disclosure Scotland
15 6 (0.25%) SEPA
System Software
1 97 (3.98%) Active Directory
2 58 (2.38%) VMware Infrastructure
3 38 (1.56%) Docker
4 30 (1.23%) VMware NSX
5 22 (0.90%) Hyper-V
6 21 (0.86%) vSphere
7 16 (0.66%) Virtual Desktop
8 11 (0.45%) VMware ESXi
9 9 (0.37%) Virtual Machines
10 8 (0.33%) vCloud
11 5 (0.20%) RACF
12 4 (0.16%) BitLocker
12 4 (0.16%) NFS
13 3 (0.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
13 3 (0.12%) IAG
13 3 (0.12%) SRDF
14 2 (0.082%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
14 2 (0.082%) Firmware
15 1 (0.041%) Embedded Firmware
15 1 (0.041%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 85 (3.48%) Kubernetes
2 80 (3.28%) Terraform
3 52 (2.13%) Ansible
4 32 (1.31%) Microsoft Intune
5 25 (1.02%) vCenter Server
6 24 (0.98%) Single Sign-On
7 16 (0.66%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 15 (0.61%) Grafana
9 14 (0.57%) FortiGate
10 12 (0.49%) Argo
11 11 (0.45%) Prometheus
11 11 (0.45%) SCCM
12 7 (0.29%) Jamf Pro
13 6 (0.25%) 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%) MOM
Vendors
1 335 (13.73%) Microsoft
2 144 (5.90%) SAP
3 124 (5.08%) VMware
4 109 (4.47%) Oracle
5 101 (4.14%) ServiceNow
6 74 (3.03%) Cisco
7 64 (2.62%) Databricks
8 56 (2.30%) Salesforce
9 51 (2.09%) Google
10 35 (1.43%) MuleSoft
11 30 (1.23%) Red Hat
12 28 (1.15%) F5
13 24 (0.98%) Palo Alto
14 21 (0.86%) Citrix
14 21 (0.86%) Juniper
14 21 (0.86%) Sparx
15 20 (0.82%) BiZZdesign
15 20 (0.82%) Talend
16 17 (0.70%) Informatica
17 15 (0.61%) Splunk