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 £625, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 22 July 2026.

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

6 months to
22 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 20 13
Rank change year-on-year +7 -7 +5
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,486 1,237 1,967
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.22% 8.31% 9.89%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.00% 9.18% 10.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,630 843 1,213
10th Percentile £481 £451 £488
25th Percentile £525 £519 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £625 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -7.69% -
75th Percentile £713 £691 £725
90th Percentile £775 £752 £788
UK median daily rate £618 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -1.20% -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 158 17 84
10th Percentile £48.38 £35.42 -
25th Percentile £60.00 £62.50 £60.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £72.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.34% +3.57% -
75th Percentile £71.91 £85.50 £85.65
90th Percentile £83.00 £99.13 £88.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £68.75 £70.00
% change year-on-year -5.45% -1.79% -

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 24,857 13,481 18,336
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.15% 90.59% 92.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,161 8,320 11,167
10th Percentile £305 £215 £215
25th Percentile £408 £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 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.02%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,866 1,153 2,085
10th Percentile £15.05 £13.50 £13.00
25th Percentile £21.00 £16.67 £16.58
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £41.81
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -39.85% +4.53%
75th Percentile £68.00 £56.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £43.69 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +73.72% -37.13% -8.57%

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 22 July 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 22 July 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 22 July 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 +7 716 £600 - 220
South East 0 715 £638 +6.25% 247
Midlands -3 414 £620 +7.83% 109
North West +6 384 £608 +1.33% 117
West Midlands -4 305 £626 +4.33% 78
South West -4 285 £625 - 116
Yorkshire +9 263 £600 - 65
East of England +17 176 £600 - 63
Scotland +7 171 £650 +4.00% 61
East Midlands +7 103 £600 +20.00% 30
North East +3 77 £600 -15.79% 38
Wales -1 32 £600 +11.11% 19
Northern Ireland +7 7 £475 -32.14% 13
Channel Islands +1 3 £575 -22.56% 1
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 22 July 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.

1 768 (30.89%) Security Cleared
2 549 (22.08%) Azure
3 485 (19.51%) SC Cleared
4 440 (17.70%) AWS
5 362 (14.56%) Roadmaps
6 331 (13.31%) Microsoft
7 328 (13.19%) Agile
8 316 (12.71%) Stakeholder Management
9 273 (10.98%) Migration
10 257 (10.34%) Enterprise Architecture
11 252 (10.14%) Technical Leadership
12 244 (9.81%) DevOps
13 238 (9.57%) Integration Patterns
14 237 (9.53%) DV Cleared
15 226 (9.09%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 223 (8.97%) Data Architecture
17 222 (8.93%) CI/CD
18 214 (8.61%) Architectural Patterns
19 212 (8.53%) Data Modelling
20 207 (8.33%) AI
21 190 (7.64%) Cybersecurity
22 189 (7.60%) Microservices
23 185 (7.44%) TOGAF
24 167 (6.72%) Problem-Solving
24 167 (6.72%) Security Architecture
25 161 (6.48%) Architectural Design
26 152 (6.11%) GCP
27 144 (5.79%) Continuous Improvement
28 143 (5.75%) Data Governance
29 142 (5.71%) Event-Driven

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 46 (1.85%) SharePoint
2 33 (1.33%) SAS
3 32 (1.29%) Confluence
4 21 (0.84%) Microsoft Exchange
5 14 (0.56%) Apache Airflow
6 13 (0.52%) Apache Spark
7 12 (0.48%) Apache
8 10 (0.40%) OpenStack
9 8 (0.32%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 8 (0.32%) Appian
9 8 (0.32%) CMS
9 8 (0.32%) Palantir Foundry
10 7 (0.28%) Documentum
11 5 (0.20%) ArcGIS
11 5 (0.20%) JBoss
11 5 (0.20%) NetWeaver
12 4 (0.16%) SAP EP
13 3 (0.12%) Sitecore CMS
14 2 (0.080%) nginx
14 2 (0.080%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 11 (0.44%) MS Visio
2 7 (0.28%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (0.28%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (0.28%) Navisworks
2 7 (0.28%) Revit
3 6 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
4 5 (0.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.16%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.040%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 56 (2.25%) SAP S/4HANA
2 17 (0.68%) Payment Gateway
3 14 (0.56%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 11 (0.44%) Teamcenter
5 10 (0.40%) Remedy ITSM
5 10 (0.40%) SAP ERP
6 7 (0.28%) Oracle ERP
7 6 (0.24%) Maximo
8 5 (0.20%) Dynamics CRM
8 5 (0.20%) NetSuite
8 5 (0.20%) Oracle Retail
8 5 (0.20%) SAP GRC
9 4 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
9 4 (0.16%) SAP CRM
9 4 (0.16%) SAP MDG
10 3 (0.12%) Adobe Campaign
10 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
10 3 (0.12%) SAP IBP
10 3 (0.12%) Workday HCM
11 2 (0.080%) Oracle Cash Management
Cloud Services
1 549 (22.08%) Azure
2 440 (17.70%) AWS
3 152 (6.11%) GCP
4 97 (3.90%) Power Platform
5 91 (3.66%) Entra ID
6 79 (3.18%) Serverless
7 74 (2.98%) SaaS
8 61 (2.45%) Microsoft 365
9 55 (2.21%) PaaS
10 46 (1.85%) IaaS
11 45 (1.81%) GitHub
12 38 (1.53%) OpenShift
13 37 (1.49%) Azure DevOps
14 32 (1.29%) AWS Lambda
15 30 (1.21%) Dynamics 365
16 27 (1.09%) Amazon S3
16 27 (1.09%) Snowflake
17 26 (1.05%) Microsoft Purview
18 24 (0.97%) Azure Data Factory
18 24 (0.97%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 102 (4.10%) Firewall
2 70 (2.82%) Network Security
3 67 (2.70%) DNS
3 67 (2.70%) WAN
4 55 (2.21%) LAN
5 40 (1.61%) VPN
6 37 (1.49%) DHCP
7 35 (1.41%) BGP
7 35 (1.41%) SD-WAN
8 31 (1.25%) TCP/IP
9 30 (1.21%) VLAN
10 25 (1.01%) MPLS
10 25 (1.01%) SAN
10 25 (1.01%) Wireless
11 23 (0.93%) NAS
12 21 (0.84%) IPsec
12 21 (0.84%) Structured Cabling
13 19 (0.76%) BIG-IP
13 19 (0.76%) OSPF
14 14 (0.56%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 73 (2.94%) Metadata
2 66 (2.65%) Data Warehouse
2 66 (2.65%) Power BI
3 63 (2.53%) Data Lake
4 30 (1.21%) NoSQL
5 28 (1.13%) SQL Server
6 26 (1.05%) PostgreSQL
7 20 (0.80%) Oracle Database
8 18 (0.72%) Amazon RDS
9 17 (0.68%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
10 14 (0.56%) Azure SQL Database
10 14 (0.56%) Base SAS
10 14 (0.56%) GIS
11 13 (0.52%) Big Data
12 11 (0.44%) MongoDB
12 11 (0.44%) MySQL
13 10 (0.40%) BigQuery
13 10 (0.40%) Delta Lake
13 10 (0.40%) Relational Database
13 10 (0.40%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 43 (1.73%) JIRA
2 28 (1.13%) Jenkins
3 25 (1.01%) Git
4 12 (0.48%) GitLab
5 10 (0.40%) ERwin
6 8 (0.32%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.20%) Artifactory
8 4 (0.16%) Hudson
9 3 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.12%) Selenium
9 3 (0.12%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.080%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.080%) Claude Code
10 2 (0.080%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.080%) IntelliJ
10 2 (0.080%) JUnit
10 2 (0.080%) Oracle APEX
10 2 (0.080%) Oracle Forms
10 2 (0.080%) Rational Rhapsody
10 2 (0.080%) REST Assured
General
1 464 (18.66%) Social Skills
2 315 (12.67%) Finance
3 232 (9.33%) Public Sector
4 142 (5.71%) Banking
5 135 (5.43%) Analytical Skills
6 93 (3.74%) Retail
7 73 (2.94%) Manufacturing
8 56 (2.25%) Documentation Skills
9 48 (1.93%) Influencing Skills
10 40 (1.61%) Legal
11 36 (1.45%) Aerospace
12 31 (1.25%) Military
13 27 (1.09%) Telecoms
14 24 (0.97%) Financial Institution
15 22 (0.88%) Marketing
16 21 (0.84%) Back Office
17 19 (0.76%) Investment Banking
17 19 (0.76%) Presentation Skills
18 16 (0.64%) Billing
19 15 (0.60%) Aviation
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 107 (4.30%) REST
2 72 (2.90%) Middleware
3 51 (2.05%) OAuth
4 43 (1.73%) SOAP
5 40 (1.61%) Oracle Fusion
6 38 (1.53%) .NET
7 36 (1.45%) Kafka
7 36 (1.45%) OpenID
8 32 (1.29%) SailPoint
9 30 (1.21%) SAML
10 26 (1.05%) OAuth2
11 24 (0.97%) RESTful
12 22 (0.88%) JSON
13 20 (0.80%) Node.js
14 19 (0.76%) Web Services
15 18 (0.72%) LDAP
16 17 (0.68%) React
17 12 (0.48%) AngularJS
17 12 (0.48%) FHIR
18 11 (0.44%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 180 (7.24%) Cloud Native
2 90 (3.62%) Data Centre
3 75 (3.02%) Operational Technology
4 74 (2.98%) Hybrid Cloud
5 61 (2.45%) Onboarding
6 60 (2.41%) Product Ownership
7 57 (2.29%) Management Information System
8 55 (2.21%) Data Protection Act
9 52 (2.09%) Distributed Systems
9 52 (2.09%) Legacy Systems
10 51 (2.05%) Enterprise Software
11 42 (1.69%) Public Cloud
12 35 (1.41%) Private Cloud
13 32 (1.29%) AI Agents
14 25 (1.01%) Security Posture
15 23 (0.93%) SCADA
16 22 (0.88%) CMDB
16 22 (0.88%) Enterprise Cloud
16 22 (0.88%) PKI
17 21 (0.84%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
Operating Systems
1 93 (3.74%) Windows
2 53 (2.13%) Linux
3 32 (1.29%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.64%) Android
4 16 (0.64%) Apple iOS
5 14 (0.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.40%) Unix
7 5 (0.20%) AIX
7 5 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
8 2 (0.080%) VMS
8 2 (0.080%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.040%) CatOS
9 1 (0.040%) HPUX
9 1 (0.040%) Kali Linux
9 1 (0.040%) Solaris
9 1 (0.040%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.040%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.040%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 362 (14.56%) Roadmaps
2 328 (13.19%) Agile
3 316 (12.71%) Stakeholder Management
4 273 (10.98%) Migration
5 257 (10.34%) Enterprise Architecture
6 252 (10.14%) Technical Leadership
7 244 (9.81%) DevOps
8 238 (9.57%) Integration Patterns
9 226 (9.09%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 223 (8.97%) Data Architecture
11 222 (8.93%) CI/CD
12 214 (8.61%) Architectural Patterns
13 212 (8.53%) Data Modelling
14 207 (8.33%) AI
15 190 (7.64%) Cybersecurity
16 189 (7.60%) Microservices
17 185 (7.44%) TOGAF
18 167 (6.72%) Problem-Solving
18 167 (6.72%) Security Architecture
19 161 (6.48%) Architectural Design
Programming Languages
1 105 (4.22%) SQL
2 99 (3.98%) Python
3 93 (3.74%) Java
4 55 (2.21%) JavaScript
5 44 (1.77%) PowerShell
6 25 (1.01%) C#
7 22 (0.88%) Bash
8 21 (0.84%) Bicep
9 12 (0.48%) TypeScript
10 8 (0.32%) ABAP
10 8 (0.32%) VBA
11 6 (0.24%) Apex Code
11 6 (0.24%) PL/SQL
12 5 (0.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 5 (0.20%) Shell Script
13 4 (0.16%) Kotlin
14 3 (0.12%) C
15 2 (0.080%) C++
15 2 (0.080%) Groovy
15 2 (0.080%) ProC
Qualifications
1 768 (30.89%) Security Cleared
2 485 (19.51%) SC Cleared
3 237 (9.53%) DV Cleared
4 89 (3.58%) Degree
5 58 (2.33%) Cisco Certification
6 55 (2.21%) CISSP
7 46 (1.85%) TOGAF Certification
8 42 (1.69%) Azure Certification
8 42 (1.69%) BPSS Clearance
9 40 (1.61%) AWS Certification
10 33 (1.33%) CCNP
10 33 (1.33%) Computer Science Degree
11 22 (0.88%) Microsoft Certification
12 18 (0.72%) CISM
13 17 (0.68%) CCNA
14 14 (0.56%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 14 (0.56%) CCIE
14 14 (0.56%) Master's Degree
15 12 (0.48%) Network+ Certification
15 12 (0.48%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 93 (3.74%) NIST
2 76 (3.06%) Data Quality
3 64 (2.57%) GDPR
4 62 (2.49%) NCSC
5 56 (2.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 25 (1.01%) QA
7 19 (0.76%) PCI DSS
8 18 (0.72%) Accessibility
9 16 (0.64%) NIST 800
10 12 (0.48%) IFRS
10 12 (0.48%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 11 (0.44%) COBIT
11 11 (0.44%) Disclosure Scotland
11 11 (0.44%) ISO/IEC 20000
12 10 (0.40%) Cyber Essentials
12 10 (0.40%) GRC
12 10 (0.40%) HL7
12 10 (0.40%) ISO 19650
13 9 (0.36%) JSP 440
14 7 (0.28%) ISO 20022
System Software
1 100 (4.02%) Active Directory
2 49 (1.97%) VMware Infrastructure
3 44 (1.77%) Docker
4 29 (1.17%) VMware NSX
5 22 (0.88%) Virtual Desktop
6 17 (0.68%) Hyper-V
6 17 (0.68%) vSphere
7 10 (0.40%) VMware ESXi
8 8 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
9 6 (0.24%) vCloud
10 4 (0.16%) RACF
11 3 (0.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
11 3 (0.12%) IAG
11 3 (0.12%) NFS
11 3 (0.12%) SRDF
12 2 (0.080%) KVM
13 1 (0.040%) Ceph
13 1 (0.040%) Firmware
13 1 (0.040%) ProxySG
13 1 (0.040%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 108 (4.34%) Kubernetes
2 89 (3.58%) Terraform
3 52 (2.09%) Ansible
4 38 (1.53%) Microsoft Intune
5 26 (1.05%) Single Sign-On
6 19 (0.76%) Grafana
6 19 (0.76%) vCenter Server
7 15 (0.60%) Prometheus
8 14 (0.56%) Jamf Pro
9 13 (0.52%) Argo
10 12 (0.48%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 9 (0.36%) FortiGate
12 6 (0.24%) CASB
12 6 (0.24%) Istio
13 5 (0.20%) EMC VPLEX
13 5 (0.20%) MOM
14 4 (0.16%) NetBackup
14 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
15 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
15 3 (0.12%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 331 (13.31%) Microsoft
2 136 (5.47%) SAP
3 115 (4.63%) Oracle
4 107 (4.30%) VMware
5 105 (4.22%) ServiceNow
6 74 (2.98%) Cisco
6 74 (2.98%) Databricks
6 74 (2.98%) Google
7 50 (2.01%) Salesforce
8 33 (1.33%) F5
9 30 (1.21%) Citrix
10 28 (1.13%) Red Hat
11 23 (0.93%) Palo Alto
12 22 (0.88%) CyberArk
13 21 (0.84%) BiZZdesign
13 21 (0.84%) Informatica
13 21 (0.84%) MuleSoft
14 20 (0.80%) Infoblox
14 20 (0.80%) Talend
15 18 (0.72%) Juniper