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 4 February 2026.

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

6 months to
4 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 16 17 14
Rank change year-on-year +1 -3 +6
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 1,885 1,229 1,958
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.65% 9.09% 9.34%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.63% 9.83% 10.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,262 769 1,250
10th Percentile £447 £452 £500
25th Percentile £506 £549 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% -3.85% -
75th Percentile £706 £700 £706
90th Percentile £775 £750 £775
UK median daily rate £625 £625 £650
% change year-on-year - -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 52 26 45
10th Percentile £49.40 £61.50 £60.50
25th Percentile £60.00 £66.00 £61.25
Median hourly rate £72.50 £71.25 £80.00
Median % change year-on-year +1.75% -10.94% +14.29%
75th Percentile £90.09 £77.65 £87.53
90th Percentile £95.00 £84.02 £95.00
UK median hourly rate £72.50 £70.00 £78.00
% change year-on-year +3.57% -10.26% +11.43%

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 17,734 12,498 19,587
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.83% 92.48% 93.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,793 7,465 12,356
10th Percentile £213 £210 £213
25th Percentile £375 £363 £365
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £476 £493
Median % change year-on-year -0.21% -3.45% -1.40%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £598
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 1,848 660 1,890
10th Percentile £14.06 £15.22 £12.86
25th Percentile £17.96 £20.30 £16.12
Median hourly rate £28.00 £31.76 £36.00
Median % change year-on-year -11.84% -11.78% +11.63%
75th Percentile £61.64 £63.75 £62.47
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.75 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £30.00 £33.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year -9.09% -5.71% -

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 4 February 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 4 February 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 4 February 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 +10 574 £625 - 265
North of England -2 481 £575 -4.17% 168
Midlands -3 322 £573 -4.50% 112
North West -6 277 £575 -4.17% 97
South West -2 254 £708 +13.20% 81
West Midlands -3 234 £600 -0.79% 89
Yorkshire -2 188 £563 -2.17% 47
East of England +10 135 £550 -12.00% 55
Scotland +14 122 £650 +4.00% 52
East Midlands -6 86 £468 -16.52% 23
Wales +11 32 £613 - 10
North East -14 20 £625 -3.85% 24
Northern Ireland -2 6 £500 -26.47% 12
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 4 February 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.

1 621 (32.94%) Security Cleared
2 406 (21.54%) Azure
3 370 (19.63%) SC Cleared
4 313 (16.60%) AWS
5 289 (15.33%) Roadmaps
6 288 (15.28%) Agile
7 274 (14.54%) Microsoft
8 261 (13.85%) Stakeholder Management
9 244 (12.94%) Enterprise Architecture
10 235 (12.47%) Migration
11 225 (11.94%) TOGAF
12 199 (10.56%) DV Cleared
13 189 (10.03%) DevOps
14 176 (9.34%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 172 (9.12%) Technical Leadership
16 170 (9.02%) Data Modelling
17 153 (8.12%) CI/CD
18 144 (7.64%) Problem-Solving
19 138 (7.32%) ITIL
19 138 (7.32%) Microservices
20 136 (7.21%) GCP
21 132 (7.00%) Analytics
22 129 (6.84%) Cybersecurity
23 126 (6.68%) Architectural Design
23 126 (6.68%) Python
24 121 (6.42%) Mentoring
25 120 (6.37%) AI
26 117 (6.21%) Data Architecture
27 116 (6.15%) Windows
28 112 (5.94%) ServiceNow

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 82 (4.35%) Confluence
2 54 (2.86%) SharePoint
3 49 (2.60%) Microsoft Exchange
4 22 (1.17%) SAS
5 10 (0.53%) Anypoint
6 9 (0.48%) Apache
6 9 (0.48%) CMS
6 9 (0.48%) Smallworld
7 8 (0.42%) Apache Airflow
7 8 (0.42%) Appian
8 7 (0.37%) Apache Spark
8 7 (0.37%) ArcGIS
8 7 (0.37%) OpenStack
8 7 (0.37%) Skype for Business
9 5 (0.27%) GeoServer
9 5 (0.27%) WebLogic
10 4 (0.21%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 4 (0.21%) Documentum
10 4 (0.21%) IIS
10 4 (0.21%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 45 (2.39%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (1.64%) Microsoft Project
3 23 (1.22%) Microsoft Excel
4 22 (1.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.32%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.16%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.053%) FrameMaker
7 1 (0.053%) OrCAD
7 1 (0.053%) Revit
7 1 (0.053%) Trello
Business Applications
1 46 (2.44%) SAP S/4HANA
2 25 (1.33%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 15 (0.80%) Dynamics CRM
4 14 (0.74%) Workday HCM
5 13 (0.69%) Payment Gateway
6 9 (0.48%) Salesforce CRM
7 7 (0.37%) SAP CO
8 6 (0.32%) Maximo
8 6 (0.32%) SAP FI
8 6 (0.32%) SAP FI/CO
9 5 (0.27%) Dynamics AX
9 5 (0.27%) NetSuite
9 5 (0.27%) Oracle SCM
9 5 (0.27%) SAP ERP
10 4 (0.21%) Distributed Ledger
10 4 (0.21%) R3 Corda
10 4 (0.21%) SAP PP
11 3 (0.16%) SAP CRM
11 3 (0.16%) SAP PM
11 3 (0.16%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 406 (21.54%) Azure
2 313 (16.60%) AWS
3 136 (7.21%) GCP
4 82 (4.35%) Microsoft 365
5 67 (3.55%) SaaS
6 61 (3.24%) Entra ID
7 57 (3.02%) Serverless
8 49 (2.60%) Power Platform
9 47 (2.49%) Microsoft Purview
10 37 (1.96%) Dynamics 365
11 36 (1.91%) OneDrive
11 36 (1.91%) PaaS
12 35 (1.86%) Azure DevOps
13 33 (1.75%) IaaS
14 32 (1.70%) AWS Lambda
15 29 (1.54%) OpenShift
16 27 (1.43%) GitHub
17 24 (1.27%) AWS CloudFormation
18 23 (1.22%) Azure Data Factory
19 21 (1.11%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 96 (5.09%) Firewall
2 66 (3.50%) WAN
3 60 (3.18%) DNS
4 49 (2.60%) Network Security
5 48 (2.55%) VPN
6 40 (2.12%) LAN
7 38 (2.02%) SD-WAN
8 22 (1.17%) DHCP
8 22 (1.17%) MPLS
9 20 (1.06%) BGP
10 17 (0.90%) Wi-Fi
11 16 (0.85%) SAN
12 14 (0.74%) IPsec
13 13 (0.69%) Internet
13 13 (0.69%) VSAN
14 12 (0.64%) VLAN
15 11 (0.58%) Kerberos
16 10 (0.53%) Skype
16 10 (0.53%) TCP/IP
17 9 (0.48%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 75 (3.98%) Data Warehouse
2 60 (3.18%) Metadata
3 37 (1.96%) Power BI
4 36 (1.91%) SQL Server
5 34 (1.80%) PostgreSQL
6 27 (1.43%) Tableau
7 23 (1.22%) DynamoDB
8 22 (1.17%) NoSQL
9 19 (1.01%) Data Lake
10 18 (0.95%) Oracle Database
11 16 (0.85%) GIS
12 15 (0.80%) Redis
12 15 (0.80%) Relational Database
13 13 (0.69%) Metadata Repository
14 11 (0.58%) Big Data
14 11 (0.58%) MySQL
15 10 (0.53%) Amazon Aurora
15 10 (0.53%) Amazon Redshift
15 10 (0.53%) Azure SQL Database
15 10 (0.53%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 96 (5.09%) JIRA
2 48 (2.55%) Jenkins
3 27 (1.43%) Git
4 17 (0.90%) GitLab
5 8 (0.42%) SonarQube
6 7 (0.37%) Artifactory
7 5 (0.27%) Gradle
7 5 (0.27%) Maven
7 5 (0.27%) Postman
7 5 (0.27%) SonarLint
8 4 (0.21%) MSI
8 4 (0.21%) Rational DOORS
8 4 (0.21%) Selenium
9 3 (0.16%) Bitbucket
9 3 (0.16%) Cucumber
9 3 (0.16%) MLflow
9 3 (0.16%) REST Assured
10 2 (0.11%) NeoLoad
10 2 (0.11%) Sonatype Nexus
10 2 (0.11%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 420 (22.28%) Social Skills
2 235 (12.47%) Finance
3 224 (11.88%) Public Sector
4 131 (6.95%) Analytical Skills
5 104 (5.52%) Banking
6 58 (3.08%) Documentation Skills
7 54 (2.86%) Military
8 50 (2.65%) Legal
9 40 (2.12%) Telecoms
10 39 (2.07%) Marketing
10 39 (2.07%) Retail
11 38 (2.02%) Influencing Skills
12 32 (1.70%) Presentation Skills
13 20 (1.06%) Manufacturing
14 18 (0.95%) Aerospace
15 13 (0.69%) Investment Banking
16 12 (0.64%) Billing
17 11 (0.58%) Back Office
18 10 (0.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 10 (0.53%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 74 (3.93%) REST
2 46 (2.44%) Middleware
3 45 (2.39%) SOAP
4 38 (2.02%) .NET
5 32 (1.70%) OAuth
6 28 (1.49%) RESTful
7 25 (1.33%) OpenID
7 25 (1.33%) SAML
8 23 (1.22%) OAuth2
9 21 (1.11%) Kafka
9 21 (1.11%) SailPoint
10 17 (0.90%) Web Services
11 16 (0.85%) Node.js
11 16 (0.85%) Spring Boot
12 13 (0.69%) Microsoft Graph
12 13 (0.69%) React
13 12 (0.64%) LDAP
14 11 (0.58%) Oracle Fusion
15 10 (0.53%) JSON
15 10 (0.53%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 122 (6.47%) Cloud Native
2 101 (5.36%) Product Ownership
3 71 (3.77%) Data Centre
4 55 (2.92%) Onboarding
5 48 (2.55%) PKI
6 45 (2.39%) Legacy Systems
7 42 (2.23%) Public Cloud
8 37 (1.96%) Hybrid Cloud
8 37 (1.96%) Operational Technology
9 29 (1.54%) Distributed Systems
9 29 (1.54%) Enterprise Software
9 29 (1.54%) Management Information System
10 25 (1.33%) CMDB
10 25 (1.33%) SCADA
11 21 (1.11%) Data Protection Act
12 18 (0.95%) NHS
13 13 (0.69%) IVR
14 12 (0.64%) Cyber Threat
14 12 (0.64%) Security Posture
15 11 (0.58%) Data Structures
Operating Systems
1 116 (6.15%) Windows
2 69 (3.66%) Linux
3 28 (1.49%) Windows Server
4 18 (0.95%) Windows 7
5 14 (0.74%) Windows 10
6 13 (0.69%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 10 (0.53%) Windows Server 2019
8 9 (0.48%) Windows Server 2016
9 6 (0.32%) Unix
10 4 (0.21%) Mac OS
10 4 (0.21%) VMS
11 3 (0.16%) Android
11 3 (0.16%) Apple iOS
11 3 (0.16%) Ubuntu
11 3 (0.16%) Windows Server 2008
12 2 (0.11%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.053%) CentOS
13 1 (0.053%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 289 (15.33%) Roadmaps
2 288 (15.28%) Agile
3 261 (13.85%) Stakeholder Management
4 244 (12.94%) Enterprise Architecture
5 235 (12.47%) Migration
6 225 (11.94%) TOGAF
7 189 (10.03%) DevOps
8 176 (9.34%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 172 (9.12%) Technical Leadership
10 170 (9.02%) Data Modelling
11 153 (8.12%) CI/CD
12 144 (7.64%) Problem-Solving
13 138 (7.32%) ITIL
13 138 (7.32%) Microservices
14 132 (7.00%) Analytics
15 129 (6.84%) Cybersecurity
16 126 (6.68%) Architectural Design
17 121 (6.42%) Mentoring
18 120 (6.37%) AI
19 117 (6.21%) Data Architecture
Programming Languages
1 126 (6.68%) Python
2 74 (3.93%) PowerShell
3 71 (3.77%) Java
3 71 (3.77%) SQL
4 29 (1.54%) JavaScript
5 19 (1.01%) C#
6 13 (0.69%) Bash
7 12 (0.64%) Bicep
8 11 (0.58%) Kusto Query Language
9 9 (0.48%) PL/SQL
10 8 (0.42%) R
10 8 (0.42%) TypeScript
11 7 (0.37%) Apex Code
11 7 (0.37%) VB
11 7 (0.37%) VBScript
12 4 (0.21%) C
12 4 (0.21%) C++
12 4 (0.21%) Perl
12 4 (0.21%) Scala
12 4 (0.21%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 621 (32.94%) Security Cleared
2 370 (19.63%) SC Cleared
3 199 (10.56%) DV Cleared
4 102 (5.41%) Degree
5 72 (3.82%) TOGAF Certification
6 61 (3.24%) CISSP
7 51 (2.71%) AWS Certification
8 39 (2.07%) BPSS Clearance
9 38 (2.02%) Azure Certification
10 35 (1.86%) Cisco Certification
11 34 (1.80%) CISM
12 32 (1.70%) Microsoft Certification
13 28 (1.49%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 28 (1.49%) Computer Science Degree
13 28 (1.49%) Master's Degree
14 26 (1.38%) ISEB
15 25 (1.33%) ITIL Certification
16 22 (1.17%) CCIE
17 20 (1.06%) CCNP
18 9 (0.48%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 97 (5.15%) GDPR
2 79 (4.19%) NIST
3 63 (3.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 60 (3.18%) Data Quality
5 42 (2.23%) NCSC
6 30 (1.59%) PCI DSS
7 28 (1.49%) COBIT
8 20 (1.06%) JSP 440
9 19 (1.01%) GRC
10 18 (0.95%) QA
11 12 (0.64%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 12 (0.64%) Cyber Essentials
12 11 (0.58%) FINRA
12 11 (0.58%) ISO 20022
12 11 (0.58%) MiFID
13 9 (0.48%) Def Stans
13 9 (0.48%) HMG Security Policy Framework
14 8 (0.42%) Accessibility
15 7 (0.37%) HIPAA
16 6 (0.32%) SLA
System Software
1 79 (4.19%) Active Directory
2 54 (2.86%) VMware Infrastructure
3 46 (2.44%) Docker
4 28 (1.49%) VMware NSX
5 22 (1.17%) vSphere
6 14 (0.74%) VMware ESXi
7 13 (0.69%) Virtual Desktop
8 9 (0.48%) Hyper-V
8 9 (0.48%) Virtual Machines
9 7 (0.37%) BitLocker
10 4 (0.21%) NFS
10 4 (0.21%) RACF
10 4 (0.21%) vCloud
11 2 (0.11%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
12 1 (0.053%) Embedded Firmware
12 1 (0.053%) Firmware
12 1 (0.053%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 91 (4.83%) Terraform
2 79 (4.19%) Kubernetes
3 55 (2.92%) Ansible
4 36 (1.91%) Single Sign-On
5 33 (1.75%) OPNET
6 24 (1.27%) vCenter Server
7 20 (1.06%) SCCM
8 17 (0.90%) WMI
9 15 (0.80%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 15 (0.80%) Microsoft Intune
10 11 (0.58%) FortiGate
11 9 (0.48%) Argo
12 6 (0.32%) Prometheus
13 5 (0.27%) Istio
14 3 (0.16%) Endace
14 3 (0.16%) SCOM
15 2 (0.11%) Nessus
15 2 (0.11%) Puppet
15 2 (0.11%) vRealize
15 2 (0.11%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 274 (14.54%) Microsoft
2 112 (5.94%) ServiceNow
3 110 (5.84%) VMware
4 95 (5.04%) SAP
5 89 (4.72%) Oracle
6 84 (4.46%) Salesforce
7 62 (3.29%) Cisco
8 47 (2.49%) Google
9 38 (2.02%) Remedy
10 37 (1.96%) Atlassian
11 34 (1.80%) MuleSoft
12 33 (1.75%) Palo Alto
13 30 (1.59%) Red Hat
14 26 (1.38%) BiZZdesign
15 25 (1.33%) CyberArk
15 25 (1.33%) Databricks
16 24 (1.27%) Sparx
17 22 (1.17%) Virgin Media
18 21 (1.11%) F5
19 20 (1.06%) Workday