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 1 March 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 18 14
Rank change year-on-year +5 -4 +7
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,059 1,177 1,939
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.94% 8.87% 9.22%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.88% 9.61% 9.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,350 768 1,196
10th Percentile £447 £450 £500
25th Percentile £506 £539 £572
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% -3.85% -
75th Percentile £706 £700 £713
90th Percentile £775 £750 £775
UK median daily rate £625 £625 £650
% change year-on-year - -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 74 24 40
10th Percentile £49.40 £61.50 £56.78
25th Percentile £58.82 £64.88 £61.25
Median hourly rate £70.36 £72.50 £80.00
Median % change year-on-year -2.96% -9.38% +14.29%
75th Percentile £85.00 £78.92 £87.53
90th Percentile £95.00 £84.72 £95.00
UK median hourly rate £70.00 £71.25 £76.53
% change year-on-year -1.75% -6.90% +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 18,930 12,245 19,548
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.40% 92.31% 92.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,333 7,597 12,194
10th Percentile £238 £210 £213
25th Percentile £385 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £475 £488
Median % change year-on-year +1.32% -2.56% -2.50%
75th Percentile £580 £588 £592
90th Percentile £675 £675 £681
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,035 667 2,019
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.27 £12.82
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.00 £15.95
Median hourly rate £32.50 £32.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year - -7.14% -6.67%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £75.00 £71.98
UK median hourly rate £33.50 £34.06 £34.53
% change year-on-year -1.63% -1.38% -13.68%

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 1 March 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 1 March 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 1 March 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 +6 626 £625 - 290
North of England -1 512 £575 -4.17% 144
Midlands -2 367 £575 -4.17% 127
North West -3 281 £600 - 82
West Midlands -2 275 £600 -1.15% 76
South West +1 262 £706 +12.96% 83
Yorkshire +1 212 £558 -2.62% 43
East of England +15 161 £550 -13.73% 60
Scotland +17 136 £650 +4.00% 31
East Midlands -5 90 £506 -7.95% 48
Wales +6 31 £600 +11.11% 17
North East -9 24 £625 -1.96% 21
Northern Ireland +4 10 £500 -26.47% 7
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 1 March 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.

1 666 (32.35%) Security Cleared
2 431 (20.93%) Azure
3 387 (18.80%) SC Cleared
4 325 (15.78%) AWS
5 311 (15.10%) Microsoft
6 298 (14.47%) Agile
7 297 (14.42%) Roadmaps
8 279 (13.55%) Stakeholder Management
9 258 (12.53%) Migration
10 247 (12.00%) Enterprise Architecture
11 227 (11.02%) DV Cleared
12 222 (10.78%) TOGAF
13 195 (9.47%) DevOps
14 184 (8.94%) Data Modelling
15 174 (8.45%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 169 (8.21%) Technical Leadership
17 161 (7.82%) CI/CD
18 159 (7.72%) Problem-Solving
19 148 (7.19%) Data Architecture
20 143 (6.95%) Analytics
21 142 (6.90%) Microservices
22 139 (6.75%) ITIL
23 135 (6.56%) Cybersecurity
24 132 (6.41%) GCP
25 131 (6.36%) Architectural Design
26 128 (6.22%) VMware
26 128 (6.22%) Windows
27 126 (6.12%) Python
28 124 (6.02%) ServiceNow
29 122 (5.93%) Architectural Patterns

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 83 (4.03%) Confluence
2 62 (3.01%) SharePoint
3 50 (2.43%) Microsoft Exchange
4 25 (1.21%) SAS
5 13 (0.63%) Appian
6 11 (0.53%) ArcGIS
6 11 (0.53%) CMS
7 10 (0.49%) Anypoint
8 9 (0.44%) Apache
8 9 (0.44%) Smallworld
9 8 (0.39%) Apache Airflow
10 7 (0.34%) Apache Spark
10 7 (0.34%) Skype for Business
11 6 (0.29%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 6 (0.29%) Sitecore CMS
11 6 (0.29%) WebLogic
12 5 (0.24%) GeoServer
13 4 (0.19%) IIS
13 4 (0.19%) JBoss
13 4 (0.19%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 45 (2.19%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (1.51%) Microsoft Project
3 21 (1.02%) Microsoft Excel
4 20 (0.97%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.19%) Chatbot
6 3 (0.15%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.049%) OrCAD
7 1 (0.049%) Trello
Business Applications
1 47 (2.28%) SAP S/4HANA
2 25 (1.21%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 15 (0.73%) Payment Gateway
4 14 (0.68%) Workday HCM
5 11 (0.53%) Dynamics CRM
6 9 (0.44%) Salesforce CRM
7 7 (0.34%) SAP ERP
8 6 (0.29%) Maximo
9 5 (0.24%) Remedy ITSM
9 5 (0.24%) SAP CO
9 5 (0.24%) SAP FI
9 5 (0.24%) SAP FI/CO
10 4 (0.19%) Distributed Ledger
10 4 (0.19%) R3 Corda
10 4 (0.19%) SAP PP
11 3 (0.15%) Dynamics AX
11 3 (0.15%) Oracle SCM
11 3 (0.15%) SAP CRM
11 3 (0.15%) SAP PM
11 3 (0.15%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 431 (20.93%) Azure
2 325 (15.78%) AWS
3 132 (6.41%) GCP
4 92 (4.47%) Microsoft 365
5 82 (3.98%) Entra ID
6 62 (3.01%) SaaS
7 61 (2.96%) Power Platform
8 53 (2.57%) Serverless
9 49 (2.38%) Microsoft Purview
10 43 (2.09%) IaaS
10 43 (2.09%) PaaS
11 40 (1.94%) OneDrive
12 34 (1.65%) Azure DevOps
12 34 (1.65%) OpenShift
13 32 (1.55%) Dynamics 365
14 31 (1.51%) GitHub
15 27 (1.31%) Azure Synapse Analytics
16 26 (1.26%) AWS Lambda
17 25 (1.21%) AWS CloudFormation
18 23 (1.12%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 104 (5.05%) Firewall
2 69 (3.35%) DNS
3 65 (3.16%) WAN
4 58 (2.82%) Network Security
5 52 (2.53%) VPN
6 40 (1.94%) LAN
7 36 (1.75%) SD-WAN
8 26 (1.26%) DHCP
9 21 (1.02%) MPLS
10 17 (0.83%) BGP
10 17 (0.83%) VLAN
10 17 (0.83%) Wireless
11 16 (0.78%) Wi-Fi
12 15 (0.73%) SAN
13 14 (0.68%) IPsec
14 11 (0.53%) Kerberos
14 11 (0.53%) OSPF
14 11 (0.53%) VXLAN
15 10 (0.49%) Internet
15 10 (0.49%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 81 (3.93%) Data Warehouse
2 66 (3.21%) Metadata
3 51 (2.48%) Power BI
4 41 (1.99%) SQL Server
5 29 (1.41%) PostgreSQL
6 25 (1.21%) Data Lake
6 25 (1.21%) Tableau
7 22 (1.07%) Oracle Database
8 20 (0.97%) GIS
9 18 (0.87%) NoSQL
10 16 (0.78%) DynamoDB
11 14 (0.68%) Metadata Repository
12 12 (0.58%) Relational Database
13 10 (0.49%) Amazon Redshift
13 10 (0.49%) Big Data
14 9 (0.44%) Azure SQL Database
14 9 (0.44%) Redis
15 8 (0.39%) Amazon Athena
16 7 (0.34%) Hadoop
16 7 (0.34%) SAS Enterprise Guide
Development Applications
1 94 (4.57%) JIRA
2 43 (2.09%) Jenkins
3 18 (0.87%) GitLab
4 17 (0.83%) Git
5 4 (0.19%) Artifactory
5 4 (0.19%) Selenium
6 3 (0.15%) Bitbucket
6 3 (0.15%) Cucumber
6 3 (0.15%) ERwin
6 3 (0.15%) MLflow
6 3 (0.15%) MSI
6 3 (0.15%) Postman
6 3 (0.15%) Rational DOORS
6 3 (0.15%) REST Assured
6 3 (0.15%) Sonatype Nexus
7 2 (0.097%) Gatling
7 2 (0.097%) JMeter
7 2 (0.097%) NeoLoad
7 2 (0.097%) Oracle Forms
7 2 (0.097%) SonarQube
General
1 429 (20.84%) Social Skills
2 256 (12.43%) Finance
3 222 (10.78%) Public Sector
4 146 (7.09%) Analytical Skills
5 113 (5.49%) Banking
6 57 (2.77%) Documentation Skills
7 54 (2.62%) Military
8 45 (2.19%) Legal
9 39 (1.89%) Telecoms
10 38 (1.85%) Influencing Skills
10 38 (1.85%) Marketing
11 37 (1.80%) Retail
12 32 (1.55%) Presentation Skills
13 19 (0.92%) Manufacturing
14 18 (0.87%) Aerospace
15 16 (0.78%) Investment Banking
16 14 (0.68%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 12 (0.58%) Billing
18 9 (0.44%) Local Government
19 8 (0.39%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 79 (3.84%) REST
2 52 (2.53%) Middleware
3 42 (2.04%) SOAP
4 37 (1.80%) .NET
4 37 (1.80%) OAuth
5 31 (1.51%) OpenID
6 29 (1.41%) SailPoint
6 29 (1.41%) SAML
7 28 (1.36%) OAuth2
8 25 (1.21%) Kafka
9 22 (1.07%) RESTful
10 17 (0.83%) Web Services
11 16 (0.78%) Node.js
11 16 (0.78%) React
12 15 (0.73%) Microsoft Graph
13 14 (0.68%) Oracle Fusion
14 12 (0.58%) CSS
14 12 (0.58%) HTML
14 12 (0.58%) LDAP
15 10 (0.49%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 125 (6.07%) Cloud Native
2 99 (4.81%) Product Ownership
3 75 (3.64%) Data Centre
4 60 (2.91%) Onboarding
5 50 (2.43%) PKI
6 48 (2.33%) Public Cloud
7 44 (2.14%) Hybrid Cloud
7 44 (2.14%) Operational Technology
8 40 (1.94%) Legacy Systems
9 36 (1.75%) Enterprise Software
10 35 (1.70%) Management Information System
11 30 (1.46%) Data Protection Act
12 28 (1.36%) Distributed Systems
13 26 (1.26%) CMDB
14 24 (1.17%) SCADA
15 16 (0.78%) NHS
16 15 (0.73%) AI Agents
17 14 (0.68%) Blackberry
17 14 (0.68%) Data Structures
18 12 (0.58%) Blockchain
Operating Systems
1 128 (6.22%) Windows
2 71 (3.45%) Linux
3 28 (1.36%) Windows Server
4 17 (0.83%) Windows 7
5 14 (0.68%) Android
5 14 (0.68%) Apple iOS
5 14 (0.68%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 11 (0.53%) Windows 10
7 8 (0.39%) Windows Server 2016
8 7 (0.34%) Unix
8 7 (0.34%) Windows Server 2019
9 5 (0.24%) VMS
10 4 (0.19%) Mac OS
11 3 (0.15%) Ubuntu
11 3 (0.15%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.049%) CentOS
12 1 (0.049%) Data ONTAP
12 1 (0.049%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 298 (14.47%) Agile
2 297 (14.42%) Roadmaps
3 279 (13.55%) Stakeholder Management
4 258 (12.53%) Migration
5 247 (12.00%) Enterprise Architecture
6 222 (10.78%) TOGAF
7 195 (9.47%) DevOps
8 184 (8.94%) Data Modelling
9 174 (8.45%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 169 (8.21%) Technical Leadership
11 161 (7.82%) CI/CD
12 159 (7.72%) Problem-Solving
13 148 (7.19%) Data Architecture
14 143 (6.95%) Analytics
15 142 (6.90%) Microservices
16 139 (6.75%) ITIL
17 135 (6.56%) Cybersecurity
18 131 (6.36%) Architectural Design
19 122 (5.93%) Architectural Patterns
20 121 (5.88%) Identity Access Management
Programming Languages
1 126 (6.12%) Python
2 79 (3.84%) PowerShell
3 74 (3.59%) SQL
4 60 (2.91%) Java
5 32 (1.55%) JavaScript
6 28 (1.36%) C#
7 17 (0.83%) Bash
8 14 (0.68%) Bicep
9 11 (0.53%) Kusto Query Language
10 9 (0.44%) PL/SQL
11 8 (0.39%) R
12 7 (0.34%) TypeScript
12 7 (0.34%) VB
12 7 (0.34%) VBScript
13 5 (0.24%) Apex Code
14 4 (0.19%) Perl
14 4 (0.19%) Scala
14 4 (0.19%) Shell Script
15 3 (0.15%) T-SQL
15 3 (0.15%) X++
Qualifications
1 666 (32.35%) Security Cleared
2 387 (18.80%) SC Cleared
3 227 (11.02%) DV Cleared
4 109 (5.29%) Degree
5 77 (3.74%) TOGAF Certification
6 68 (3.30%) CISSP
7 51 (2.48%) AWS Certification
8 42 (2.04%) BPSS Clearance
9 41 (1.99%) Cisco Certification
10 39 (1.89%) Azure Certification
11 35 (1.70%) CISM
12 32 (1.55%) Microsoft Certification
13 30 (1.46%) Computer Science Degree
14 29 (1.41%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 26 (1.26%) CCNP
15 26 (1.26%) ISEB
16 25 (1.21%) ITIL Certification
17 24 (1.17%) Master's Degree
18 19 (0.92%) CCIE
19 12 (0.58%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 101 (4.91%) GDPR
2 79 (3.84%) NIST
3 67 (3.25%) Data Quality
4 60 (2.91%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 41 (1.99%) NCSC
6 31 (1.51%) PCI DSS
7 29 (1.41%) COBIT
8 21 (1.02%) QA
9 20 (0.97%) GRC
10 17 (0.83%) JSP 440
11 16 (0.78%) Cyber Essentials
12 12 (0.58%) FINRA
12 12 (0.58%) ISO 20022
12 12 (0.58%) MiFID
13 10 (0.49%) Accessibility
14 9 (0.44%) California Consumer Privacy Act
14 9 (0.44%) Def Stans
14 9 (0.44%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 7 (0.34%) NIST 800
16 6 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 97 (4.71%) Active Directory
2 55 (2.67%) VMware Infrastructure
3 39 (1.89%) Docker
4 36 (1.75%) VMware NSX
5 25 (1.21%) vSphere
6 13 (0.63%) Virtual Desktop
7 10 (0.49%) Hyper-V
7 10 (0.49%) VMware ESXi
8 8 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
9 7 (0.34%) BitLocker
10 6 (0.29%) vCloud
11 5 (0.24%) RACF
12 4 (0.19%) NFS
13 2 (0.097%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
13 2 (0.097%) IAG
14 1 (0.049%) Embedded Firmware
14 1 (0.049%) Firmware
14 1 (0.049%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 95 (4.61%) Terraform
2 75 (3.64%) Kubernetes
3 57 (2.77%) Ansible
4 33 (1.60%) Single Sign-On
5 31 (1.51%) Microsoft Intune
6 30 (1.46%) OPNET
7 26 (1.26%) vCenter Server
8 20 (0.97%) SCCM
9 16 (0.78%) WMI
10 14 (0.68%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 13 (0.63%) Argo
11 13 (0.63%) FortiGate
12 6 (0.29%) Prometheus
13 5 (0.24%) Istio
14 3 (0.15%) Endace
14 3 (0.15%) Grafana
14 3 (0.15%) SCOM
15 2 (0.097%) Jamf Pro
15 2 (0.097%) Nessus
15 2 (0.097%) vRealize
Vendors
1 311 (15.10%) Microsoft
2 128 (6.22%) VMware
3 124 (6.02%) ServiceNow
4 98 (4.76%) SAP
5 95 (4.61%) Oracle
6 77 (3.74%) Salesforce
7 71 (3.45%) Cisco
8 50 (2.43%) Google
9 42 (2.04%) Remedy
10 36 (1.75%) MuleSoft
10 36 (1.75%) Palo Alto
11 35 (1.70%) Red Hat
12 34 (1.65%) Atlassian
13 33 (1.60%) Databricks
14 31 (1.51%) BiZZdesign
15 28 (1.36%) Citrix
16 27 (1.31%) CyberArk
17 26 (1.26%) Virgin Media
18 24 (1.17%) F5
18 24 (1.17%) Sparx