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 £622, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 10 August 2026.

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

6 months to
10 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 20 13
Rank change year-on-year +6 -7 +5
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,468 1,273 1,795
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.03% 8.29% 9.85%
As % of the Job Titles category 9.82% 9.18% 10.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,640 867 1,128
10th Percentile £475 £462 £481
25th Percentile £525 £519 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £622 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year +3.67% -7.69% -
75th Percentile £706 £688 £725
90th Percentile £775 £760 £788
UK median daily rate £621 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -0.68% -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 153 15 73
10th Percentile £46.00 £33.64 -
25th Percentile £60.00 £64.38 £60.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £72.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.34% +3.57% -
75th Percentile £71.91 £86.50 £85.00
90th Percentile £83.00 £99.42 £89.51
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 25,136 13,864 16,765
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.01% 90.30% 92.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,187 8,513 10,270
10th Percentile £305 £216 £220
25th Percentile £410 £363 £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 £684
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,014 1,225 1,734
10th Percentile £14.56 £13.27 £14.05
25th Percentile £20.50 £16.41 £19.00
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.11 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +69.26% -44.20% +20.00%
75th Percentile £68.00 £54.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% +1.18%

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 10 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 10 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 10 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 0 729 £625 +4.17% 364
North of England +5 687 £600 - 300
Midlands 0 415 £625 +8.70% 157
North West +6 391 £600 - 156
West Midlands -2 308 £631 +5.13% 106
South West -4 300 £625 -2.34% 181
Yorkshire +2 232 £600 0.00% 108
East of England +18 161 £600 +8.11% 110
Scotland +17 153 £650 +4.63% 104
East Midlands +8 100 £600 +16.50% 51
North East -4 66 £600 -15.79% 36
Wales +3 39 £633 +1.20% 25
Northern Ireland +9 6 £475 -32.14% 44
Channel Islands -1 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 10 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.

1 791 (32.05%) Security Cleared
2 550 (22.29%) Azure
3 508 (20.58%) SC Cleared
4 429 (17.38%) AWS
5 346 (14.02%) Roadmaps
6 345 (13.98%) Stakeholder Management
7 333 (13.49%) Microsoft
8 309 (12.52%) Agile
9 289 (11.71%) Migration
10 267 (10.82%) Technical Leadership
11 264 (10.70%) Enterprise Architecture
12 242 (9.81%) DevOps
13 241 (9.76%) Integration Patterns
14 238 (9.64%) DV Cleared
15 228 (9.24%) AI
16 227 (9.20%) Data Architecture
17 225 (9.12%) CI/CD
18 221 (8.95%) Stakeholder Engagement
19 213 (8.63%) Data Modelling
20 203 (8.23%) Architectural Patterns
21 188 (7.62%) Cybersecurity
22 179 (7.25%) TOGAF
23 176 (7.13%) Security Architecture
24 163 (6.60%) Microservices
25 161 (6.52%) GCP
26 158 (6.40%) Architecture Governance
27 154 (6.24%) Problem-Solving
28 148 (6.00%) Continuous Improvement
29 147 (5.96%) Event-Driven
30 144 (5.83%) Architectural Design

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 39 (1.58%) SharePoint
2 31 (1.26%) SAS
3 29 (1.18%) Confluence
4 14 (0.57%) Microsoft Exchange
5 11 (0.45%) OpenStack
6 10 (0.41%) Palantir Foundry
7 9 (0.36%) Apache
7 9 (0.36%) Apache Spark
8 8 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
9 7 (0.28%) Documentum
10 5 (0.20%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 5 (0.20%) ArcGIS
10 5 (0.20%) CMS
11 4 (0.16%) NetWeaver
12 3 (0.12%) Appian
12 3 (0.12%) JBoss
12 3 (0.12%) SAP EP
13 2 (0.081%) Alfresco
14 1 (0.041%) Oracle Coherence
14 1 (0.041%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 11 (0.45%) MS Visio
2 10 (0.41%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (0.28%) Navisworks
3 7 (0.28%) Revit
4 6 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 4 (0.16%) Microsoft Office
7 1 (0.041%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.041%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 59 (2.39%) SAP S/4HANA
2 13 (0.53%) Payment Gateway
3 12 (0.49%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 11 (0.45%) Teamcenter
5 10 (0.41%) Remedy ITSM
6 8 (0.32%) SAP ERP
7 7 (0.28%) Oracle ERP
8 5 (0.20%) Dynamics CRM
8 5 (0.20%) Maximo
8 5 (0.20%) Oracle Retail
9 4 (0.16%) NetSuite
9 4 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
9 4 (0.16%) SAP GRC
9 4 (0.16%) SAP MDG
10 3 (0.12%) Adobe Campaign
10 3 (0.12%) Dynamics NAV
10 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
10 3 (0.12%) Remedy AR System
10 3 (0.12%) SAP IBP
10 3 (0.12%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 550 (22.29%) Azure
2 429 (17.38%) AWS
3 161 (6.52%) GCP
4 99 (4.01%) Power Platform
5 84 (3.40%) Entra ID
6 78 (3.16%) Serverless
7 76 (3.08%) SaaS
8 56 (2.27%) Microsoft 365
9 49 (1.99%) PaaS
10 45 (1.82%) GitHub
11 43 (1.74%) Azure DevOps
12 40 (1.62%) IaaS
13 37 (1.50%) Dynamics 365
14 36 (1.46%) AWS Lambda
15 32 (1.30%) OpenShift
16 29 (1.18%) GitHub Actions
16 29 (1.18%) Snowflake
17 28 (1.13%) Amazon S3
18 24 (0.97%) OCI
19 22 (0.89%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 98 (3.97%) Firewall
2 66 (2.67%) WAN
3 59 (2.39%) DNS
4 55 (2.23%) Network Security
5 53 (2.15%) LAN
6 38 (1.54%) VPN
7 35 (1.42%) BGP
8 34 (1.38%) DHCP
8 34 (1.38%) SD-WAN
9 30 (1.22%) VLAN
10 27 (1.09%) TCP/IP
11 26 (1.05%) SAN
12 25 (1.01%) MPLS
13 23 (0.93%) NAS
13 23 (0.93%) Wireless
14 21 (0.85%) Structured Cabling
15 18 (0.73%) OSPF
16 16 (0.65%) BIG-IP
17 15 (0.61%) IPsec
18 14 (0.57%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (2.92%) Data Lake
2 71 (2.88%) Power BI
3 68 (2.76%) Metadata
4 64 (2.59%) Data Warehouse
5 38 (1.54%) NoSQL
6 20 (0.81%) Amazon RDS
7 19 (0.77%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
8 17 (0.69%) Oracle Database
8 17 (0.69%) SQL Server
9 16 (0.65%) Base SAS
10 15 (0.61%) Azure SQL Database
10 15 (0.61%) PostgreSQL
11 14 (0.57%) BigQuery
11 14 (0.57%) GIS
12 12 (0.49%) Delta Lake
13 10 (0.41%) MongoDB
13 10 (0.41%) MySQL
13 10 (0.41%) Semantic Layer
14 9 (0.36%) Big Data
14 9 (0.36%) Electronic Patient Records
Development Applications
1 33 (1.34%) JIRA
2 30 (1.22%) Git
3 21 (0.85%) Jenkins
4 10 (0.41%) GitLab
5 9 (0.36%) ERwin
6 7 (0.28%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.20%) Artifactory
7 5 (0.20%) Claude Code
8 4 (0.16%) Hudson
9 3 (0.12%) MSI
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%) JUnit
10 2 (0.081%) Oracle APEX
10 2 (0.081%) Oracle Forms
10 2 (0.081%) Rational Rhapsody
10 2 (0.081%) Selenium
General
1 464 (18.80%) Social Skills
2 311 (12.60%) Finance
3 233 (9.44%) Public Sector
4 134 (5.43%) Banking
5 130 (5.27%) Analytical Skills
6 100 (4.05%) Retail
7 85 (3.44%) Manufacturing
8 55 (2.23%) Influencing Skills
9 52 (2.11%) Documentation Skills
10 36 (1.46%) Legal
11 33 (1.34%) Aerospace
12 30 (1.22%) Military
13 26 (1.05%) Telecoms
14 24 (0.97%) Financial Institution
15 21 (0.85%) Marketing
16 20 (0.81%) Aviation
16 20 (0.81%) Back Office
16 20 (0.81%) Presentation Skills
17 17 (0.69%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 17 (0.69%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 103 (4.17%) REST
2 75 (3.04%) Middleware
3 55 (2.23%) OAuth
4 42 (1.70%) Oracle Fusion
4 42 (1.70%) SOAP
5 36 (1.46%) .NET
5 36 (1.46%) OpenID
6 35 (1.42%) Kafka
7 33 (1.34%) SAML
8 26 (1.05%) OAuth2
9 25 (1.01%) SailPoint
10 22 (0.89%) JSON
11 20 (0.81%) RESTful
12 18 (0.73%) Node.js
13 15 (0.61%) GraphQL
13 15 (0.61%) LDAP
14 14 (0.57%) React
14 14 (0.57%) Web Services
15 13 (0.53%) JWT
15 13 (0.53%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 186 (7.54%) Cloud Native
2 85 (3.44%) Data Centre
3 76 (3.08%) Hybrid Cloud
4 71 (2.88%) Operational Technology
5 61 (2.47%) Product Ownership
6 59 (2.39%) Data Protection Act
7 57 (2.31%) Onboarding
8 55 (2.23%) Distributed Systems
8 55 (2.23%) Management Information System
9 54 (2.19%) Legacy Systems
10 50 (2.03%) Enterprise Software
11 41 (1.66%) AI Agents
12 40 (1.62%) Public Cloud
13 32 (1.30%) Private Cloud
14 27 (1.09%) Security Posture
15 25 (1.01%) IVR
16 24 (0.97%) Enterprise Cloud
16 24 (0.97%) PKI
17 22 (0.89%) SCADA
18 21 (0.85%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 89 (3.61%) Windows
2 50 (2.03%) Linux
3 35 (1.42%) Windows Server
4 13 (0.53%) Android
4 13 (0.53%) Apple iOS
5 12 (0.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 8 (0.32%) Unix
7 6 (0.24%) AIX
8 5 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
9 2 (0.081%) HPUX
9 2 (0.081%) Solaris
9 2 (0.081%) VMS
9 2 (0.081%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.041%) CatOS
10 1 (0.041%) CentOS
10 1 (0.041%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.041%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.041%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.041%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.041%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 346 (14.02%) Roadmaps
2 345 (13.98%) Stakeholder Management
3 309 (12.52%) Agile
4 289 (11.71%) Migration
5 267 (10.82%) Technical Leadership
6 264 (10.70%) Enterprise Architecture
7 242 (9.81%) DevOps
8 241 (9.76%) Integration Patterns
9 228 (9.24%) AI
10 227 (9.20%) Data Architecture
11 225 (9.12%) CI/CD
12 221 (8.95%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 213 (8.63%) Data Modelling
14 203 (8.23%) Architectural Patterns
15 188 (7.62%) Cybersecurity
16 179 (7.25%) TOGAF
17 176 (7.13%) Security Architecture
18 163 (6.60%) Microservices
19 158 (6.40%) Architecture Governance
20 154 (6.24%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 98 (3.97%) Java
2 93 (3.77%) SQL
3 90 (3.65%) Python
4 52 (2.11%) JavaScript
5 43 (1.74%) PowerShell
6 23 (0.93%) Bash
7 18 (0.73%) C#
8 17 (0.69%) Bicep
9 12 (0.49%) TypeScript
10 9 (0.36%) Shell Script
11 7 (0.28%) ABAP
12 6 (0.24%) Apex Code
12 6 (0.24%) PL/SQL
12 6 (0.24%) VBA
13 5 (0.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 4 (0.16%) Groovy
14 4 (0.16%) Kotlin
15 3 (0.12%) C
16 2 (0.081%) C++
16 2 (0.081%) Scala
Qualifications
1 791 (32.05%) Security Cleared
2 508 (20.58%) SC Cleared
3 238 (9.64%) DV Cleared
4 74 (3.00%) Degree
5 55 (2.23%) Cisco Certification
6 52 (2.11%) CISSP
7 44 (1.78%) TOGAF Certification
8 42 (1.70%) Azure Certification
9 41 (1.66%) AWS Certification
9 41 (1.66%) BPSS Clearance
10 33 (1.34%) Computer Science Degree
11 29 (1.18%) CCNP
12 19 (0.77%) CISM
12 19 (0.77%) Microsoft Certification
13 18 (0.73%) CCNA
14 15 (0.61%) CCIE
15 13 (0.53%) (ISC)2 CCSP
16 12 (0.49%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
16 12 (0.49%) Network+ Certification
16 12 (0.49%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 87 (3.53%) NIST
2 76 (3.08%) Data Quality
3 61 (2.47%) NCSC
4 58 (2.35%) GDPR
4 58 (2.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 25 (1.01%) QA
6 20 (0.81%) Accessibility
7 17 (0.69%) NIST 800
7 17 (0.69%) PCI DSS
8 14 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 13 (0.53%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 12 (0.49%) IFRS
10 12 (0.49%) ISO 19650
11 11 (0.45%) GRC
12 10 (0.41%) Cyber Essentials
12 10 (0.41%) JSP 440
13 9 (0.36%) Disclosure Scotland
13 9 (0.36%) HL7
14 8 (0.32%) SLA
15 6 (0.24%) COBIT
System Software
1 91 (3.69%) Active Directory
2 48 (1.94%) Docker
2 48 (1.94%) VMware Infrastructure
3 26 (1.05%) VMware NSX
4 22 (0.89%) Virtual Desktop
5 19 (0.77%) Hyper-V
6 12 (0.49%) vSphere
7 11 (0.45%) VMware ESXi
8 9 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
9 6 (0.24%) vCloud
10 3 (0.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
10 3 (0.12%) KVM
10 3 (0.12%) NFS
10 3 (0.12%) SRDF
11 2 (0.081%) Ceph
11 2 (0.081%) IAG
11 2 (0.081%) zsh
12 1 (0.041%) Firmware
12 1 (0.041%) Slurm Workload Manager
12 1 (0.041%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 123 (4.98%) Kubernetes
2 90 (3.65%) Terraform
3 48 (1.94%) Ansible
4 32 (1.30%) Microsoft Intune
5 18 (0.73%) Single Sign-On
6 16 (0.65%) Grafana
7 14 (0.57%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 14 (0.57%) vCenter Server
8 13 (0.53%) Jamf Pro
8 13 (0.53%) Prometheus
9 8 (0.32%) Argo
9 8 (0.32%) FortiGate
10 6 (0.24%) CASB
10 6 (0.24%) Istio
11 5 (0.20%) MOM
11 5 (0.20%) NetBackup
11 5 (0.20%) WMI
12 4 (0.16%) EMC VPLEX
12 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
13 3 (0.12%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 333 (13.49%) Microsoft
2 135 (5.47%) SAP
3 110 (4.46%) Oracle
4 98 (3.97%) ServiceNow
5 96 (3.89%) VMware
6 79 (3.20%) Google
7 78 (3.16%) Cisco
8 77 (3.12%) Databricks
9 47 (1.90%) Salesforce
10 29 (1.18%) F5
11 26 (1.05%) MuleSoft
12 25 (1.01%) Citrix
13 24 (0.97%) Palo Alto
14 22 (0.89%) Red Hat
15 21 (0.85%) CyberArk
16 20 (0.81%) Informatica
17 19 (0.77%) IBM
18 17 (0.69%) Infoblox
18 17 (0.69%) Juniper
19 15 (0.61%) BMC