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 13 January 2026.

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

6 months to
13 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 19 17 14
Rank change year-on-year -2 -3 +8
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 1,643 1,222 1,766
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.06% 8.92% 9.06%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.01% 9.67% 9.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,120 756 1,174
10th Percentile £450 £475 £500
25th Percentile £513 £550 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% -3.85% -
75th Percentile £700 £700 £700
90th Percentile £775 £758 £750
UK median daily rate £625 £625 £650
% change year-on-year - -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 23 32
10th Percentile £58.80 £61.50 £61.25
25th Percentile £65.94 £66.00 £71.50
Median hourly rate £83.82 £72.50 £76.53
Median % change year-on-year +15.61% -5.27% +9.33%
75th Percentile £94.83 £79.47 £83.49
90th Percentile £95.00 £85.07 £95.00
UK median hourly rate £83.82 £72.50 £76.53
% change year-on-year +15.61% -5.27% +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 16,411 12,634 18,203
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.52% 92.22% 93.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,069 7,482 11,719
10th Percentile £213 £213 £213
25th Percentile £375 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £477 £500
Median % change year-on-year -0.42% -4.60% -
75th Percentile £575 £588 £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 1,655 688 1,382
10th Percentile £14.00 £15.22 £14.00
25th Percentile £17.69 £20.26 £17.78
Median hourly rate £25.15 £30.62 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -17.85% -31.97% +64.38%
75th Percentile £60.00 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £72.08 £76.24
UK median hourly rate £26.50 £32.50 £42.50
% change year-on-year -18.46% -23.53% +26.87%

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 13 January 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 13 January 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 13 January 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 +10 543 £600 -4.00% 244
North of England -9 388 £575 -7.26% 170
Midlands -3 281 £575 -4.17% 101
South West -1 240 £710 +13.60% 82
North West -6 236 £575 -6.39% 89
West Midlands -3 209 £582 -4.16% 51
Yorkshire -12 144 £563 -9.27% 57
East of England +5 102 £525 -17.65% 90
Scotland -1 89 £625 - 37
East Midlands -1 72 £496 -13.74% 47
Wales -5 24 £625 +0.81% 31
North East -21 8 £588 -2.02% 25
Northern Ireland -9 5 £500 -16.67% 6
Channel Islands - 2 £625 -
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 13 January 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.

1 594 (36.15%) Security Cleared
2 371 (22.58%) SC Cleared
3 363 (22.09%) Azure
4 272 (16.56%) AWS
5 252 (15.34%) Roadmaps
6 240 (14.61%) Agile
7 229 (13.94%) Microsoft
8 225 (13.69%) Stakeholder Management
9 209 (12.72%) TOGAF
10 203 (12.36%) Migration
11 201 (12.23%) Enterprise Architecture
12 173 (10.53%) DV Cleared
13 158 (9.62%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 152 (9.25%) ITIL
15 147 (8.95%) Data Modelling
16 142 (8.64%) DevOps
17 140 (8.52%) Technical Leadership
18 134 (8.16%) Problem-Solving
19 120 (7.30%) GCP
20 115 (7.00%) CI/CD
20 115 (7.00%) Cybersecurity
21 114 (6.94%) VMware
22 112 (6.82%) Mentoring
23 110 (6.70%) Architectural Design
24 105 (6.39%) Analytics
24 105 (6.39%) Python
25 102 (6.21%) Windows
26 101 (6.15%) AI
27 99 (6.03%) Decision-Making
28 97 (5.90%) Degree

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 73 (4.44%) Confluence
2 38 (2.31%) SharePoint
3 30 (1.83%) Microsoft Exchange
4 16 (0.97%) SAS
5 9 (0.55%) ArcGIS
5 9 (0.55%) Smallworld
6 8 (0.49%) Anypoint
7 6 (0.37%) OpenStack
8 5 (0.30%) GeoServer
9 4 (0.24%) CMS
9 4 (0.24%) Documentum
10 3 (0.18%) Apache
10 3 (0.18%) Exchange Server 2013
10 3 (0.18%) Skype for Business
11 2 (0.12%) Apache Spark
11 2 (0.12%) Ethereum
11 2 (0.12%) Hyperledger
11 2 (0.12%) ThingWorx
11 2 (0.12%) Tomcat
11 2 (0.12%) WebLogic
Applications
1 38 (2.31%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (1.89%) Microsoft Project
3 20 (1.22%) Microsoft Excel
4 19 (1.16%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 8 (0.49%) MS Visio
6 7 (0.43%) Siemens NX
7 1 (0.061%) FrameMaker
7 1 (0.061%) OrCAD
7 1 (0.061%) Revit
7 1 (0.061%) Trello
Business Applications
1 47 (2.86%) SAP S/4HANA
2 24 (1.46%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 15 (0.91%) Dynamics CRM
3 15 (0.91%) Workday HCM
4 11 (0.67%) SAP CO
5 10 (0.61%) SAP FI
5 10 (0.61%) SAP FI/CO
6 8 (0.49%) Payment Gateway
6 8 (0.49%) Salesforce CRM
7 7 (0.43%) SAP PM
7 7 (0.43%) Teamcenter
8 6 (0.37%) Maximo
9 5 (0.30%) Dynamics AX
9 5 (0.30%) Oracle SCM
10 4 (0.24%) SAP PP
11 3 (0.18%) NetSuite
11 3 (0.18%) SAP CRM
11 3 (0.18%) SAP EWM
11 3 (0.18%) SAP HR
11 3 (0.18%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 363 (22.09%) Azure
2 272 (16.56%) AWS
3 120 (7.30%) GCP
4 68 (4.14%) SaaS
5 64 (3.90%) Microsoft 365
6 47 (2.86%) Serverless
7 45 (2.74%) Entra ID
8 42 (2.56%) Power Platform
9 41 (2.50%) Dynamics 365
10 37 (2.25%) Microsoft Purview
11 31 (1.89%) PaaS
12 30 (1.83%) AWS Lambda
13 28 (1.70%) GitHub
13 28 (1.70%) IaaS
14 27 (1.64%) Azure DevOps
15 26 (1.58%) OpenShift
16 22 (1.34%) AWS CloudFormation
17 21 (1.28%) OneDrive
18 19 (1.16%) Power Automate
18 19 (1.16%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 89 (5.42%) Firewall
2 60 (3.65%) WAN
3 46 (2.80%) DNS
4 45 (2.74%) VPN
5 38 (2.31%) LAN
5 38 (2.31%) Network Security
6 35 (2.13%) SD-WAN
7 20 (1.22%) MPLS
8 19 (1.16%) BGP
9 17 (1.03%) SAN
10 16 (0.97%) Internet
11 13 (0.79%) DHCP
11 13 (0.79%) VSAN
11 13 (0.79%) Wi-Fi
12 8 (0.49%) Cisco ASA
12 8 (0.49%) IPsec
12 8 (0.49%) OSPF
12 8 (0.49%) VLAN
12 8 (0.49%) Wireless
13 7 (0.43%) iSCSI
Database & Business Intelligence
1 58 (3.53%) Data Warehouse
2 40 (2.43%) Metadata
3 33 (2.01%) Power BI
4 26 (1.58%) PostgreSQL
5 25 (1.52%) SQL Server
6 23 (1.40%) Tableau
7 20 (1.22%) DynamoDB
8 17 (1.03%) GIS
9 15 (0.91%) Redis
10 13 (0.79%) NoSQL
11 12 (0.73%) Oracle Database
11 12 (0.73%) Relational Database
12 11 (0.67%) Data Lake
13 10 (0.61%) Azure SQL Database
13 10 (0.61%) BigQuery
13 10 (0.61%) RDBMS
14 9 (0.55%) Amazon Aurora
14 9 (0.55%) Amazon Redshift
15 8 (0.49%) Amazon Athena
15 8 (0.49%) Metadata Repository
Development Applications
1 83 (5.05%) JIRA
2 41 (2.50%) Jenkins
3 26 (1.58%) Git
4 11 (0.67%) GitLab
5 8 (0.49%) SonarQube
6 7 (0.43%) Artifactory
7 5 (0.30%) Gradle
7 5 (0.30%) Maven
7 5 (0.30%) SonarLint
8 4 (0.24%) MLflow
8 4 (0.24%) MSI
8 4 (0.24%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.18%) Bitbucket
9 3 (0.18%) Sonatype Nexus
10 2 (0.12%) JUnit
10 2 (0.12%) Oracle Forms
10 2 (0.12%) Postman
10 2 (0.12%) Selenium
10 2 (0.12%) Visual Studio Code
11 1 (0.061%) REST Assured
General
1 400 (24.35%) Social Skills
2 204 (12.42%) Public Sector
3 195 (11.87%) Finance
4 122 (7.43%) Analytical Skills
5 82 (4.99%) Banking
6 52 (3.16%) Military
7 44 (2.68%) Telecoms
8 40 (2.43%) Documentation Skills
9 39 (2.37%) Marketing
9 39 (2.37%) Retail
10 35 (2.13%) Legal
11 33 (2.01%) Influencing Skills
12 32 (1.95%) Presentation Skills
13 25 (1.52%) Manufacturing
14 21 (1.28%) Aerospace
15 12 (0.73%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 10 (0.61%) Back Office
17 9 (0.55%) Pharmaceutical
18 8 (0.49%) Local Government
19 7 (0.43%) Investment Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 52 (3.16%) REST
2 43 (2.62%) Middleware
3 40 (2.43%) SOAP
4 31 (1.89%) .NET
5 23 (1.40%) RESTful
6 22 (1.34%) OAuth
7 17 (1.03%) Spring Boot
8 16 (0.97%) SAML
9 15 (0.91%) Lightning Web Components
9 15 (0.91%) SailPoint
9 15 (0.91%) Visualforce
10 14 (0.85%) Kafka
10 14 (0.85%) Node.js
11 13 (0.79%) OAuth2
11 13 (0.79%) Web Services
12 11 (0.67%) SAP PI
12 11 (0.67%) Spring
13 10 (0.61%) OpenID
13 10 (0.61%) React
14 9 (0.55%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 112 (6.82%) Cloud Native
2 87 (5.30%) Product Ownership
3 66 (4.02%) Data Centre
4 47 (2.86%) Legacy Systems
5 45 (2.74%) Hybrid Cloud
5 45 (2.74%) PKI
6 44 (2.68%) Onboarding
7 35 (2.13%) Public Cloud
8 32 (1.95%) Operational Technology
9 26 (1.58%) SCADA
10 24 (1.46%) Distributed Systems
11 22 (1.34%) Management Information System
12 21 (1.28%) CMDB
13 20 (1.22%) Data Protection Act
13 20 (1.22%) Enterprise Software
14 16 (0.97%) Security Posture
15 14 (0.85%) NHS
16 13 (0.79%) Data Structures
16 13 (0.79%) IVR
17 12 (0.73%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 102 (6.21%) Windows
2 68 (4.14%) Linux
3 28 (1.70%) Windows Server
4 15 (0.91%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 14 (0.85%) Windows 7
6 11 (0.67%) Windows Server 2019
7 10 (0.61%) Windows 10
8 8 (0.49%) Windows Server 2016
9 7 (0.43%) Unix
10 5 (0.30%) VMS
11 4 (0.24%) Mac OS
12 3 (0.18%) Ubuntu
12 3 (0.18%) Windows Server 2008
13 2 (0.12%) Solaris
13 2 (0.12%) zOS
14 1 (0.061%) CentOS
14 1 (0.061%) MVS
14 1 (0.061%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 252 (15.34%) Roadmaps
2 240 (14.61%) Agile
3 225 (13.69%) Stakeholder Management
4 209 (12.72%) TOGAF
5 203 (12.36%) Migration
6 201 (12.23%) Enterprise Architecture
7 158 (9.62%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 152 (9.25%) ITIL
9 147 (8.95%) Data Modelling
10 142 (8.64%) DevOps
11 140 (8.52%) Technical Leadership
12 134 (8.16%) Problem-Solving
13 115 (7.00%) CI/CD
13 115 (7.00%) Cybersecurity
14 112 (6.82%) Mentoring
15 110 (6.70%) Architectural Design
16 105 (6.39%) Analytics
17 101 (6.15%) AI
18 99 (6.03%) Decision-Making
19 93 (5.66%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 105 (6.39%) Python
2 63 (3.83%) Java
3 56 (3.41%) PowerShell
4 47 (2.86%) SQL
5 24 (1.46%) JavaScript
6 16 (0.97%) Apex Code
7 13 (0.79%) C#
8 12 (0.73%) Bash
9 8 (0.49%) PL/SQL
9 8 (0.49%) R
10 7 (0.43%) TypeScript
11 6 (0.37%) ABAP
12 5 (0.30%) Bicep
12 5 (0.30%) Kusto Query Language
13 4 (0.24%) C
13 4 (0.24%) C++
13 4 (0.24%) Perl
14 3 (0.18%) T-SQL
14 3 (0.18%) VB
14 3 (0.18%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 594 (36.15%) Security Cleared
2 371 (22.58%) SC Cleared
3 173 (10.53%) DV Cleared
4 97 (5.90%) Degree
5 70 (4.26%) TOGAF Certification
6 69 (4.20%) CISSP
7 49 (2.98%) AWS Certification
8 40 (2.43%) Azure Certification
9 39 (2.37%) Cisco Certification
10 35 (2.13%) CISM
11 29 (1.77%) Microsoft Certification
12 27 (1.64%) Computer Science Degree
13 25 (1.52%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 22 (1.34%) CCIE
14 22 (1.34%) Master's Degree
15 21 (1.28%) BPSS Clearance
15 21 (1.28%) ISEB
15 21 (1.28%) ITIL Certification
16 19 (1.16%) CCNP
17 14 (0.85%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 88 (5.36%) GDPR
2 75 (4.56%) NIST
3 63 (3.83%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 54 (3.29%) Data Quality
5 38 (2.31%) NCSC
6 31 (1.89%) PCI DSS
7 27 (1.64%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 23 (1.40%) COBIT
9 19 (1.16%) JSP 440
10 17 (1.03%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 17 (1.03%) QA
11 12 (0.73%) Cyber Essentials
12 11 (0.67%) GRC
13 9 (0.55%) Def Stans
13 9 (0.55%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 9 (0.55%) PSD2
14 8 (0.49%) ISO 20022
15 7 (0.43%) Accessibility
16 6 (0.37%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
16 6 (0.37%) HIPAA
System Software
1 65 (3.96%) VMware Infrastructure
2 62 (3.77%) Active Directory
3 42 (2.56%) Docker
4 22 (1.34%) VMware NSX
4 22 (1.34%) vSphere
5 15 (0.91%) VMware ESXi
6 11 (0.67%) Hyper-V
7 10 (0.61%) Virtual Desktop
7 10 (0.61%) Virtual Machines
8 7 (0.43%) NFS
9 4 (0.24%) vCloud
10 3 (0.18%) BitLocker
10 3 (0.18%) Dovecot
10 3 (0.18%) Postfix
11 2 (0.12%) KVM
12 1 (0.061%) HDFS
12 1 (0.061%) RACF
12 1 (0.061%) SRDF
12 1 (0.061%) Veritas Cluster Server
12 1 (0.061%) Xen
Systems Management
1 84 (5.11%) Terraform
2 73 (4.44%) Kubernetes
3 55 (3.35%) Ansible
4 33 (2.01%) OPNET
5 25 (1.52%) Single Sign-On
6 22 (1.34%) vCenter Server
7 16 (0.97%) WMI
8 14 (0.85%) SCCM
9 11 (0.67%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 8 (0.49%) FortiGate
11 7 (0.43%) Argo
11 7 (0.43%) Microsoft Intune
12 3 (0.18%) Endace
12 3 (0.18%) Prometheus
12 3 (0.18%) Puppet
13 2 (0.12%) Istio
13 2 (0.12%) Microsoft Clustering
13 2 (0.12%) SCOM
13 2 (0.12%) vRealize
13 2 (0.12%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 229 (13.94%) Microsoft
2 114 (6.94%) VMware
3 95 (5.78%) SAP
3 95 (5.78%) ServiceNow
4 89 (5.42%) Salesforce
5 70 (4.26%) Oracle
6 65 (3.96%) Cisco
7 35 (2.13%) Atlassian
7 35 (2.13%) Remedy
8 33 (2.01%) Google
9 31 (1.89%) Palo Alto
10 29 (1.77%) MuleSoft
10 29 (1.77%) Red Hat
11 23 (1.40%) CyberArk
11 23 (1.40%) Sparx
12 22 (1.34%) Virgin Media
13 21 (1.28%) BiZZdesign
13 21 (1.28%) Databricks
13 21 (1.28%) Workday
14 19 (1.16%) Pega