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 December 2025.

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

6 months to
9 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 19 16 16
Rank change year-on-year -3 0 +7
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 1,546 1,415 1,717
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 8.66% 8.93% 8.47%
As % of the Job Titles category 9.62% 9.67% 9.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,068 885 1,185
10th Percentile £463 £465 £500
25th Percentile £520 £538 £560
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £613 £625 £627
Median % change year-on-year -2.00% -0.32% -3.54%
75th Percentile £713 £703 £700
90th Percentile £775 £762 £750
UK median daily rate £625 £625 £650
% change year-on-year - -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 19 31
10th Percentile £66.00 £61.50 £61.25
25th Percentile £77.50 £63.13 £72.50
Median hourly rate £83.82 £67.50 £76.53
Median % change year-on-year +24.18% -11.80% +9.33%
75th Percentile £95.00 £79.47 £83.88
90th Percentile £95.50 £87.50 £93.75
UK median hourly rate £83.82 £68.75 £76.53
% change year-on-year +21.92% -10.17% +9.33%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 16,071 14,630 18,984
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.00% 92.33% 93.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,915 8,581 12,451
10th Percentile £209 £213 £214
25th Percentile £363 £369 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £495 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.04% -1.00% -
75th Percentile £575 £594 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,589 927 1,250
10th Percentile £13.80 £15.22 £14.36
25th Percentile £17.29 £20.12 £18.26
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -26.97% +78.00%
75th Percentile £56.69 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.16 £72.50 £77.05
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £34.75 £44.00
% change year-on-year -27.63% -21.02% +40.98%

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 December 2025.

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 December 2025.

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 December 2025. 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 +4 509 £600 -4.00% 477
North of England -7 368 £600 - 313
South West +2 259 £700 +12.00% 172
Midlands -8 228 £581 -3.17% 249
North West -7 218 £599 -0.21% 155
West Midlands -13 175 £588 -2.08% 140
Yorkshire -19 131 £600 +1.48% 125
Scotland -6 90 £600 -4.00% 83
East of England -8 83 £553 -7.92% 173
East Midlands -5 53 £515 -6.36% 93
Wales -2 23 £625 - 37
North East -1 20 £700 +12.13% 34
Northern Ireland -10 6 £550 -8.33% 14
Channel Islands - 6 £743 - 2
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 9 December 2025, 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.

1 595 (38.49%) Security Cleared
2 363 (23.48%) Azure
3 361 (23.35%) SC Cleared
4 305 (19.73%) AWS
5 260 (16.82%) Roadmaps
6 220 (14.23%) Agile
6 220 (14.23%) Stakeholder Management
7 213 (13.78%) TOGAF
8 208 (13.45%) Microsoft
9 181 (11.71%) DV Cleared
10 178 (11.51%) Enterprise Architecture
11 170 (11.00%) Migration
12 164 (10.61%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 156 (10.09%) ITIL
14 149 (9.64%) Problem-Solving
15 144 (9.31%) Data Modelling
16 136 (8.80%) Technical Leadership
17 135 (8.73%) CI/CD
18 132 (8.54%) GCP
19 130 (8.41%) DevOps
20 115 (7.44%) AI
21 114 (7.37%) Cybersecurity
21 114 (7.37%) Mentoring
22 109 (7.05%) Microservices
23 105 (6.79%) Architectural Design
23 105 (6.79%) Python
24 104 (6.73%) Degree
24 104 (6.73%) VMware
25 100 (6.47%) Terraform
26 98 (6.34%) Analytics

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 (4.08%) Confluence
2 26 (1.68%) SharePoint
3 19 (1.23%) Microsoft Exchange
4 18 (1.16%) SAS
5 12 (0.78%) ArcGIS
6 9 (0.58%) WebLogic
7 6 (0.39%) OpenStack
7 6 (0.39%) Smallworld
8 5 (0.32%) WebSphere
9 4 (0.26%) Apache Airflow
9 4 (0.26%) Documentum
10 3 (0.19%) Apache Spark
10 3 (0.19%) GeoServer
10 3 (0.19%) Skype for Business
11 2 (0.13%) Anypoint
11 2 (0.13%) Ethereum
11 2 (0.13%) Hyperledger
11 2 (0.13%) IIS
11 2 (0.13%) ThingWorx
11 2 (0.13%) Tomcat
Applications
1 39 (2.52%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (2.01%) Microsoft Project
3 11 (0.71%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (0.71%) MS Visio
4 10 (0.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 9 (0.58%) Siemens NX
6 1 (0.065%) FrameMaker
6 1 (0.065%) Revit
6 1 (0.065%) Trello
Business Applications
1 38 (2.46%) SAP S/4HANA
2 20 (1.29%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 18 (1.16%) Workday HCM
4 17 (1.10%) Dynamics CRM
5 12 (0.78%) Maximo
6 11 (0.71%) SAP CO
7 10 (0.65%) SAP FI
7 10 (0.65%) SAP FI/CO
7 10 (0.65%) SAP PM
8 9 (0.58%) Teamcenter
9 8 (0.52%) Payment Gateway
10 7 (0.45%) Salesforce CRM
11 6 (0.39%) SAP HR
12 5 (0.32%) Dynamics AX
12 5 (0.32%) Oracle SCM
13 4 (0.26%) SAP PP
14 3 (0.19%) NetSuite
14 3 (0.19%) SAP CRM
14 3 (0.19%) SAP EWM
14 3 (0.19%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 363 (23.48%) Azure
2 305 (19.73%) AWS
3 132 (8.54%) GCP
4 68 (4.40%) SaaS
5 51 (3.30%) Serverless
6 46 (2.98%) Dynamics 365
7 43 (2.78%) Power Platform
8 40 (2.59%) Entra ID
9 39 (2.52%) Microsoft 365
10 36 (2.33%) GitHub
11 34 (2.20%) AWS Lambda
12 29 (1.88%) PaaS
13 28 (1.81%) IaaS
14 27 (1.75%) Microsoft Purview
15 25 (1.62%) Azure DevOps
16 24 (1.55%) AWS CloudFormation
17 22 (1.42%) OpenShift
18 21 (1.36%) Amazon S3
18 21 (1.36%) Salesforce Service Cloud
19 20 (1.29%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 84 (5.43%) Firewall
2 47 (3.04%) WAN
3 44 (2.85%) Network Security
4 38 (2.46%) LAN
5 35 (2.26%) DNS
6 33 (2.13%) VPN
7 28 (1.81%) SD-WAN
8 20 (1.29%) SAN
9 19 (1.23%) BGP
10 18 (1.16%) MPLS
11 14 (0.91%) iSCSI
11 14 (0.91%) VSAN
12 13 (0.84%) Fibre Channel
13 12 (0.78%) DHCP
13 12 (0.78%) Wi-Fi
14 9 (0.58%) Cisco ASA
14 9 (0.58%) Internet
14 9 (0.58%) VLAN
15 8 (0.52%) Wireless
16 7 (0.45%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 54 (3.49%) Data Warehouse
2 38 (2.46%) PostgreSQL
3 34 (2.20%) Power BI
4 33 (2.13%) Metadata
5 30 (1.94%) SQL Server
6 21 (1.36%) MongoDB
7 20 (1.29%) NoSQL
8 18 (1.16%) DynamoDB
9 17 (1.10%) GIS
9 17 (1.10%) Oracle Database
10 14 (0.91%) Tableau
11 13 (0.84%) BigQuery
11 13 (0.84%) Redis
11 13 (0.84%) Relational Database
12 12 (0.78%) Amazon Redshift
13 11 (0.71%) Data Lake
13 11 (0.71%) RDBMS
14 10 (0.65%) SQL Server Integration Services
15 9 (0.58%) Amazon Athena
15 9 (0.58%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 76 (4.92%) JIRA
2 46 (2.98%) Jenkins
3 39 (2.52%) Git
4 14 (0.91%) GitLab
5 9 (0.58%) CircleCI
5 9 (0.58%) Oracle Forms
6 8 (0.52%) SonarQube
7 6 (0.39%) Artifactory
8 5 (0.32%) Gradle
8 5 (0.32%) Maven
8 5 (0.32%) MLflow
8 5 (0.32%) Rational DOORS
8 5 (0.32%) SonarLint
9 4 (0.26%) Bitbucket
9 4 (0.26%) MSI
10 3 (0.19%) Sonatype Nexus
11 2 (0.13%) Hudson
11 2 (0.13%) Postman
11 2 (0.13%) Visual Studio Code
12 1 (0.065%) ERwin
General
1 414 (26.78%) Social Skills
2 204 (13.20%) Public Sector
3 180 (11.64%) Finance
4 126 (8.15%) Analytical Skills
5 73 (4.72%) Banking
6 51 (3.30%) Military
7 49 (3.17%) Telecoms
8 41 (2.65%) Documentation Skills
9 39 (2.52%) Marketing
10 36 (2.33%) Retail
11 35 (2.26%) Influencing Skills
12 32 (2.07%) Presentation Skills
13 26 (1.68%) Manufacturing
14 23 (1.49%) Legal
15 20 (1.29%) Aerospace
16 11 (0.71%) Local Government
17 10 (0.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 9 (0.58%) Back Office
19 8 (0.52%) Aviation
19 8 (0.52%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 48 (3.10%) REST
2 36 (2.33%) Middleware
2 36 (2.33%) SOAP
3 26 (1.68%) .NET
3 26 (1.68%) RESTful
4 22 (1.42%) OAuth
5 19 (1.23%) Kafka
5 19 (1.23%) Lightning Web Components
6 18 (1.16%) Visualforce
7 17 (1.10%) Spring Boot
8 15 (0.97%) Node.js
8 15 (0.97%) SailPoint
8 15 (0.97%) SAML
8 15 (0.97%) Web Services
9 14 (0.91%) SAP PI
10 13 (0.84%) GraphQL
10 13 (0.84%) OAuth2
11 11 (0.71%) Spring
12 10 (0.65%) Oracle Fusion
12 10 (0.65%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 110 (7.12%) Cloud Native
2 84 (5.43%) Product Ownership
3 65 (4.20%) Legacy Systems
4 59 (3.82%) Data Centre
5 48 (3.10%) Hybrid Cloud
6 47 (3.04%) Onboarding
7 37 (2.39%) PKI
8 27 (1.75%) Operational Technology
8 27 (1.75%) Public Cloud
9 23 (1.49%) CMDB
9 23 (1.49%) Distributed Systems
9 23 (1.49%) Enterprise Software
10 21 (1.36%) SCADA
11 20 (1.29%) Data Protection Act
11 20 (1.29%) Security Posture
12 19 (1.23%) Management Information System
13 18 (1.16%) NHS
14 13 (0.84%) Analytical Mindset
14 13 (0.84%) Cyber Threat
14 13 (0.84%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 84 (5.43%) Windows
2 57 (3.69%) Linux
3 33 (2.13%) Windows Server
4 17 (1.10%) Windows Server 2019
5 12 (0.78%) Windows 7
6 11 (0.71%) Unix
7 10 (0.65%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 9 (0.58%) Windows 10
9 4 (0.26%) VMS
10 3 (0.19%) Mac OS
10 3 (0.19%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.13%) Solaris
11 2 (0.13%) Ubuntu
11 2 (0.13%) Windows Server 2016
11 2 (0.13%) zOS
12 1 (0.065%) Android
12 1 (0.065%) Apple iOS
12 1 (0.065%) MVS
Processes & Methodologies
1 260 (16.82%) Roadmaps
2 220 (14.23%) Agile
2 220 (14.23%) Stakeholder Management
3 213 (13.78%) TOGAF
4 178 (11.51%) Enterprise Architecture
5 170 (11.00%) Migration
6 164 (10.61%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 156 (10.09%) ITIL
8 149 (9.64%) Problem-Solving
9 144 (9.31%) Data Modelling
10 136 (8.80%) Technical Leadership
11 135 (8.73%) CI/CD
12 130 (8.41%) DevOps
13 115 (7.44%) AI
14 114 (7.37%) Cybersecurity
14 114 (7.37%) Mentoring
15 109 (7.05%) Microservices
16 105 (6.79%) Architectural Design
17 98 (6.34%) Analytics
18 94 (6.08%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 105 (6.79%) Python
2 76 (4.92%) Java
3 55 (3.56%) SQL
4 34 (2.20%) PowerShell
5 21 (1.36%) JavaScript
6 19 (1.23%) Apex Code
7 16 (1.03%) TypeScript
8 13 (0.84%) R
9 10 (0.65%) C#
10 9 (0.58%) Bash
11 8 (0.52%) C++
12 6 (0.39%) ABAP
12 6 (0.39%) Bicep
12 6 (0.39%) C
13 4 (0.26%) Ruby
14 3 (0.19%) Shell Script
14 3 (0.19%) VB
14 3 (0.19%) VBScript
14 3 (0.19%) X++
15 2 (0.13%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 595 (38.49%) Security Cleared
2 361 (23.35%) SC Cleared
3 181 (11.71%) DV Cleared
4 104 (6.73%) Degree
5 77 (4.98%) CISSP
6 65 (4.20%) TOGAF Certification
7 58 (3.75%) AWS Certification
8 47 (3.04%) Azure Certification
9 40 (2.59%) Microsoft Certification
10 36 (2.33%) Cisco Certification
11 35 (2.26%) CISM
12 27 (1.75%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 26 (1.68%) Computer Science Degree
14 24 (1.55%) Master's Degree
15 21 (1.36%) CCIE
15 21 (1.36%) ISEB
16 18 (1.16%) CCNP
17 17 (1.10%) ITIL Certification
18 14 (0.91%) (ISC)2 CCSP
18 14 (0.91%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 81 (5.24%) GDPR
2 77 (4.98%) NIST
3 72 (4.66%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 45 (2.91%) Data Quality
5 44 (2.85%) NCSC
6 30 (1.94%) ISO/IEC 20000
6 30 (1.94%) PCI DSS
7 23 (1.49%) COBIT
8 21 (1.36%) JSP 440
9 20 (1.29%) QA
10 18 (1.16%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 11 (0.71%) Cyber Essentials
11 11 (0.71%) GRC
12 9 (0.58%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 9 (0.58%) SLA
13 8 (0.52%) NIST 800
13 8 (0.52%) PSD2
14 7 (0.45%) ISO 20022
15 6 (0.39%) HIPAA
15 6 (0.39%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 63 (4.08%) VMware Infrastructure
2 58 (3.75%) Active Directory
3 50 (3.23%) Docker
4 27 (1.75%) vSphere
5 21 (1.36%) VMware ESXi
6 20 (1.29%) VMware NSX
7 14 (0.91%) NFS
8 12 (0.78%) Virtual Desktop
9 9 (0.58%) Virtual Machines
10 4 (0.26%) Hyper-V
11 3 (0.19%) BitLocker
11 3 (0.19%) Dovecot
11 3 (0.19%) Postfix
12 2 (0.13%) KVM
13 1 (0.065%) HDFS
13 1 (0.065%) Slurm Workload Manager
13 1 (0.065%) SRDF
13 1 (0.065%) vCloud
13 1 (0.065%) Veritas Cluster Server
13 1 (0.065%) Xen
Systems Management
1 100 (6.47%) Terraform
2 89 (5.76%) Kubernetes
3 48 (3.10%) Ansible
4 33 (2.13%) OPNET
5 22 (1.42%) Single Sign-On
6 15 (0.97%) vCenter Server
7 13 (0.84%) Prometheus
8 12 (0.78%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 12 (0.78%) WMI
9 9 (0.58%) Grafana
9 9 (0.58%) SCCM
10 7 (0.45%) Argo
11 6 (0.39%) Microsoft Intune
12 3 (0.19%) Puppet
13 2 (0.13%) FortiGate
13 2 (0.13%) Istio
13 2 (0.13%) Kubeflow
13 2 (0.13%) Microsoft Clustering
13 2 (0.13%) SCOM
14 1 (0.065%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 208 (13.45%) Microsoft
2 104 (6.73%) VMware
3 93 (6.02%) ServiceNow
4 90 (5.82%) Salesforce
5 80 (5.17%) SAP
6 77 (4.98%) Oracle
7 66 (4.27%) Cisco
8 34 (2.20%) Atlassian
8 34 (2.20%) Remedy
9 32 (2.07%) Google
10 30 (1.94%) Workday
11 26 (1.68%) Palo Alto
12 23 (1.49%) Juniper
12 23 (1.49%) Splunk
12 23 (1.49%) Virgin Media
13 22 (1.42%) Databricks
13 22 (1.42%) IBM
14 21 (1.36%) CyberArk
14 21 (1.36%) F5
14 21 (1.36%) Red Hat