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 20 May 2026.

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

6 months to
20 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 19 13
Rank change year-on-year +9 -6 +5
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,395 1,084 2,025
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.75% 8.41% 9.99%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.60% 9.15% 10.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,579 729 1,212
10th Percentile £450 £450 £500
25th Percentile £513 £520 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £613 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year +2.08% -7.69% -
75th Percentile £713 £698 £731
90th Percentile £775 £750 £800
UK median daily rate £620 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -0.80% -3.85% -1.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 116 27 89
10th Percentile £49.40 £48.88 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £61.50 £61.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £72.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.34% +3.57% -
75th Percentile £78.75 £79.18 £87.46
90th Percentile £92.55 £85.50 £90.40
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £70.00 £70.00
% change year-on-year -7.14% - -

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 22,592 11,845 18,751
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.95% 91.91% 92.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,093 7,556 11,466
10th Percentile £300 £213 £213
25th Percentile £401 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £490
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -3.06% -2.00%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £595
90th Percentile £683 £650 £688
UK median daily rate £513 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +0.49% -2.86% -3.23%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,540 855 2,268
10th Percentile £14.64 £13.85 £12.50
25th Percentile £19.61 £17.28 £15.74
Median hourly rate £44.00 £27.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +62.96% -32.50% -5.88%
75th Percentile £66.44 £63.75 £61.60
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £73.83
UK median hourly rate £42.69 £28.00 £36.50
% change year-on-year +52.45% -23.29% -18.89%

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 20 May 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 20 May 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 20 May 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 +6 698 £625 - 190
North of England +5 657 £600 - 177
Midlands 0 426 £600 - 87
North West +6 370 £609 +4.46% 98
West Midlands 0 305 £620 +3.33% 57
South West +1 275 £675 +12.50% 95
Yorkshire +6 245 £557 -7.25% 48
East of England +23 202 £569 -9.00% 61
Scotland +14 141 £650 +6.12% 41
East Midlands 0 115 £548 +1.67% 30
North East +6 50 £575 -8.00% 33
Wales -2 30 £600 +25.00% 44
Northern Ireland +3 8 £475 -28.30% 9
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 20 May 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.

1 722 (30.15%) Security Cleared
2 464 (19.37%) Azure
3 418 (17.45%) SC Cleared
4 352 (14.70%) AWS
5 335 (13.99%) Roadmaps
6 333 (13.90%) Agile
7 323 (13.49%) Microsoft
8 257 (10.73%) Enterprise Architecture
9 256 (10.69%) Stakeholder Management
10 253 (10.56%) Migration
11 249 (10.40%) DV Cleared
12 240 (10.02%) DevOps
13 212 (8.85%) CI/CD
14 202 (8.43%) Technical Leadership
15 188 (7.85%) TOGAF
16 181 (7.56%) Microservices
17 180 (7.52%) Data Modelling
17 180 (7.52%) Integration Patterns
18 178 (7.43%) Architectural Patterns
18 178 (7.43%) Stakeholder Engagement
19 164 (6.85%) Architectural Design
20 163 (6.81%) Data Architecture
21 150 (6.26%) Problem-Solving
22 147 (6.14%) SAP
23 139 (5.80%) Cybersecurity
24 131 (5.47%) GCP
25 130 (5.43%) AI
25 130 (5.43%) Analytics
26 127 (5.30%) ServiceNow
26 127 (5.30%) VMware

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 66 (2.76%) SharePoint
2 61 (2.55%) Confluence
3 39 (1.63%) Microsoft Exchange
4 15 (0.63%) SAS
5 13 (0.54%) Appian
6 11 (0.46%) Apache
7 10 (0.42%) Anypoint
7 10 (0.42%) CMS
8 9 (0.38%) Apache Airflow
9 8 (0.33%) Apache Spark
10 7 (0.29%) ArcGIS
11 6 (0.25%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 6 (0.25%) NetWeaver
11 6 (0.25%) Sitecore CMS
11 6 (0.25%) WebLogic
12 5 (0.21%) SAP EP
13 4 (0.17%) JBoss
13 4 (0.17%) OpenStack
13 4 (0.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 4 (0.17%) Smallworld
Applications
1 29 (1.21%) Microsoft Office
2 19 (0.79%) Microsoft Project
3 13 (0.54%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (0.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (0.29%) Navisworks
4 7 (0.29%) Revit
5 5 (0.21%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.17%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.084%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.042%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 55 (2.30%) SAP S/4HANA
2 23 (0.96%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 20 (0.84%) Payment Gateway
4 12 (0.50%) SAP ERP
5 10 (0.42%) Teamcenter
6 9 (0.38%) Remedy ITSM
6 9 (0.38%) Workday HCM
7 6 (0.25%) SAP MDG
8 5 (0.21%) SAP CRM
9 4 (0.17%) Oracle Retail
9 4 (0.17%) Salesforce CRM
9 4 (0.17%) SAP GRC
10 3 (0.13%) Dynamics CRM
10 3 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
10 3 (0.13%) SAP SD
11 2 (0.084%) Dynamics AX
11 2 (0.084%) Maximo
11 2 (0.084%) NetSuite
11 2 (0.084%) Oracle ERP
11 2 (0.084%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 464 (19.37%) Azure
2 352 (14.70%) AWS
3 131 (5.47%) GCP
4 93 (3.88%) Entra ID
5 92 (3.84%) Power Platform
6 84 (3.51%) Microsoft 365
7 72 (3.01%) Serverless
8 67 (2.80%) SaaS
9 52 (2.17%) PaaS
10 43 (1.80%) GitHub
11 41 (1.71%) Azure DevOps
11 41 (1.71%) Microsoft Purview
12 39 (1.63%) IaaS
13 36 (1.50%) OpenShift
14 32 (1.34%) OneDrive
15 30 (1.25%) Dynamics 365
16 26 (1.09%) AWS Lambda
16 26 (1.09%) Azure Data Factory
17 24 (1.00%) Azure Synapse Analytics
18 23 (0.96%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 95 (3.97%) Firewall
2 68 (2.84%) WAN
3 67 (2.80%) DNS
4 63 (2.63%) Network Security
5 52 (2.17%) LAN
6 49 (2.05%) VPN
7 38 (1.59%) SD-WAN
8 34 (1.42%) DHCP
9 26 (1.09%) VLAN
10 23 (0.96%) Wireless
11 20 (0.84%) BGP
11 20 (0.84%) SAN
12 19 (0.79%) NAS
13 17 (0.71%) Structured Cabling
14 16 (0.67%) BIG-IP
14 16 (0.67%) IPsec
15 14 (0.58%) MPLS
15 14 (0.58%) OSPF
16 13 (0.54%) NX-OS
17 12 (0.50%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 69 (2.88%) Power BI
2 67 (2.80%) Metadata
3 47 (1.96%) Data Warehouse
4 39 (1.63%) SQL Server
5 35 (1.46%) Data Lake
6 33 (1.38%) NoSQL
7 24 (1.00%) PostgreSQL
8 21 (0.88%) Tableau
9 19 (0.79%) Oracle Database
10 14 (0.58%) GIS
11 13 (0.54%) Azure SQL Database
12 11 (0.46%) MongoDB
13 10 (0.42%) Big Data
14 9 (0.38%) DynamoDB
14 9 (0.38%) Relational Database
15 8 (0.33%) Electronic Patient Records
16 7 (0.29%) Metadata Repository
16 7 (0.29%) MySQL
16 7 (0.29%) Spatial Data
17 6 (0.25%) Delta Lake
Development Applications
1 75 (3.13%) JIRA
2 39 (1.63%) Jenkins
3 22 (0.92%) Git
3 22 (0.92%) GitLab
4 8 (0.33%) Artifactory
5 7 (0.29%) ERwin
6 5 (0.21%) SonarQube
6 5 (0.21%) Sonatype Nexus
7 4 (0.17%) Hudson
7 4 (0.17%) JUnit
7 4 (0.17%) Postman
7 4 (0.17%) Selenium
8 3 (0.13%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.13%) Cucumber
8 3 (0.13%) MLflow
8 3 (0.13%) Rational DOORS
8 3 (0.13%) REST Assured
9 2 (0.084%) IntelliJ
9 2 (0.084%) NeoLoad
9 2 (0.084%) Oracle APEX
General
1 420 (17.54%) Social Skills
2 316 (13.19%) Finance
3 220 (9.19%) Public Sector
4 138 (5.76%) Banking
5 128 (5.34%) Analytical Skills
6 69 (2.88%) Retail
7 58 (2.42%) Legal
8 56 (2.34%) Documentation Skills
9 49 (2.05%) Manufacturing
9 49 (2.05%) Military
10 28 (1.17%) Influencing Skills
11 27 (1.13%) Aerospace
12 26 (1.09%) Investment Banking
13 24 (1.00%) Marketing
13 24 (1.00%) Presentation Skills
14 21 (0.88%) Telecoms
15 19 (0.79%) Financial Institution
16 18 (0.75%) Back Office
17 13 (0.54%) Billing
18 10 (0.42%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 94 (3.92%) REST
2 80 (3.34%) Middleware
3 49 (2.05%) .NET
4 43 (1.80%) OAuth
5 39 (1.63%) OpenID
5 39 (1.63%) SOAP
6 28 (1.17%) OAuth2
7 27 (1.13%) SailPoint
7 27 (1.13%) SAML
8 26 (1.09%) Kafka
9 25 (1.04%) Oracle Fusion
9 25 (1.04%) RESTful
10 22 (0.92%) JSON
11 19 (0.79%) Node.js
11 19 (0.79%) React
12 18 (0.75%) Web Services
13 16 (0.67%) Microsoft Graph
14 15 (0.63%) LDAP
15 13 (0.54%) AngularJS
16 12 (0.50%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 155 (6.47%) Cloud Native
2 81 (3.38%) Data Centre
3 79 (3.30%) Product Ownership
4 62 (2.59%) Operational Technology
5 54 (2.25%) Public Cloud
6 51 (2.13%) Onboarding
7 49 (2.05%) Management Information System
8 45 (1.88%) Hybrid Cloud
9 44 (1.84%) Data Protection Act
10 38 (1.59%) Enterprise Software
11 37 (1.54%) Legacy Systems
12 36 (1.50%) Distributed Systems
13 34 (1.42%) PKI
14 28 (1.17%) SCADA
15 25 (1.04%) CMDB
16 19 (0.79%) Private Cloud
17 17 (0.71%) AI Agents
17 17 (0.71%) Data Structures
17 17 (0.71%) Security Posture
18 15 (0.63%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 115 (4.80%) Windows
2 65 (2.71%) Linux
3 31 (1.29%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.67%) Android
4 16 (0.67%) Apple iOS
5 12 (0.50%) Unix
6 9 (0.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 8 (0.33%) Windows 10
7 8 (0.33%) Windows Server 2016
8 7 (0.29%) Windows 7
9 5 (0.21%) Windows Server 2019
10 4 (0.17%) Mac OS
11 3 (0.13%) Data ONTAP
11 3 (0.13%) VMS
11 3 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.042%) CatOS
12 1 (0.042%) Kali Linux
12 1 (0.042%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.042%) Windows Server 2008
12 1 (0.042%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 335 (13.99%) Roadmaps
2 333 (13.90%) Agile
3 257 (10.73%) Enterprise Architecture
4 256 (10.69%) Stakeholder Management
5 253 (10.56%) Migration
6 240 (10.02%) DevOps
7 212 (8.85%) CI/CD
8 202 (8.43%) Technical Leadership
9 188 (7.85%) TOGAF
10 181 (7.56%) Microservices
11 180 (7.52%) Data Modelling
11 180 (7.52%) Integration Patterns
12 178 (7.43%) Architectural Patterns
12 178 (7.43%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 164 (6.85%) Architectural Design
14 163 (6.81%) Data Architecture
15 150 (6.26%) Problem-Solving
16 139 (5.80%) Cybersecurity
17 130 (5.43%) AI
17 130 (5.43%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 103 (4.30%) Python
2 96 (4.01%) SQL
3 72 (3.01%) PowerShell
4 61 (2.55%) Java
5 46 (1.92%) JavaScript
6 31 (1.29%) C#
7 21 (0.88%) Bicep
8 15 (0.63%) Bash
9 14 (0.58%) TypeScript
10 12 (0.50%) PL/SQL
11 10 (0.42%) Kusto Query Language
12 7 (0.29%) VBA
13 6 (0.25%) Scala
14 5 (0.21%) ABAP
15 4 (0.17%) Apex Code
15 4 (0.17%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 4 (0.17%) Perl
15 4 (0.17%) T-SQL
15 4 (0.17%) VB
15 4 (0.17%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 722 (30.15%) Security Cleared
2 418 (17.45%) SC Cleared
3 249 (10.40%) DV Cleared
4 96 (4.01%) Degree
5 63 (2.63%) TOGAF Certification
6 50 (2.09%) BPSS Clearance
7 43 (1.80%) Cisco Certification
8 34 (1.42%) CISSP
9 32 (1.34%) Azure Certification
10 31 (1.29%) AWS Certification
10 31 (1.29%) Computer Science Degree
11 30 (1.25%) CCNP
12 21 (0.88%) Microsoft Certification
13 18 (0.75%) ITIL Certification
14 17 (0.71%) ISEB
15 16 (0.67%) CISM
15 16 (0.67%) Master's Degree
16 15 (0.63%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
16 15 (0.63%) CCNA
17 11 (0.46%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 89 (3.72%) NIST
2 72 (3.01%) GDPR
3 62 (2.59%) Data Quality
4 55 (2.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 44 (1.84%) NCSC
6 21 (0.88%) QA
7 20 (0.84%) COBIT
8 19 (0.79%) Accessibility
9 16 (0.67%) Cyber Essentials
10 15 (0.63%) PCI DSS
11 14 (0.58%) GRC
12 12 (0.50%) FINRA
12 12 (0.50%) MiFID
13 11 (0.46%) NIST 800
14 10 (0.42%) ISO 20022
15 7 (0.29%) HL7
15 7 (0.29%) ISO 19650
16 6 (0.25%) IFRS
16 6 (0.25%) JSP 440
16 6 (0.25%) SEPA
System Software
1 98 (4.09%) Active Directory
2 56 (2.34%) VMware Infrastructure
3 32 (1.34%) Docker
4 31 (1.29%) VMware NSX
5 19 (0.79%) Hyper-V
5 19 (0.79%) Virtual Desktop
5 19 (0.79%) vSphere
6 10 (0.42%) vCloud
6 10 (0.42%) Virtual Machines
6 10 (0.42%) VMware ESXi
7 5 (0.21%) RACF
8 4 (0.17%) BitLocker
8 4 (0.17%) NFS
9 3 (0.13%) IAG
10 2 (0.084%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
10 2 (0.084%) Firmware
11 1 (0.042%) Embedded Firmware
11 1 (0.042%) ProxySG
11 1 (0.042%) Snort
11 1 (0.042%) SRDF
Systems Management
1 83 (3.47%) Terraform
2 74 (3.09%) Kubernetes
3 57 (2.38%) Ansible
4 35 (1.46%) Microsoft Intune
5 26 (1.09%) vCenter Server
6 24 (1.00%) Single Sign-On
7 18 (0.75%) OPNET
8 15 (0.63%) SCCM
9 12 (0.50%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 12 (0.50%) FortiGate
10 10 (0.42%) Grafana
11 9 (0.38%) Argo
12 8 (0.33%) WMI
13 6 (0.25%) Istio
13 6 (0.25%) Jamf Pro
13 6 (0.25%) Prometheus
14 5 (0.21%) Endace
15 3 (0.13%) EMC VPLEX
15 3 (0.13%) Puppet
15 3 (0.13%) vRealize
Vendors
1 323 (13.49%) Microsoft
2 147 (6.14%) SAP
3 127 (5.30%) ServiceNow
3 127 (5.30%) VMware
4 97 (4.05%) Oracle
5 69 (2.88%) Cisco
6 61 (2.55%) Salesforce
7 51 (2.13%) Databricks
7 51 (2.13%) Google
8 47 (1.96%) MuleSoft
9 30 (1.25%) Red Hat
9 30 (1.25%) Remedy
10 29 (1.21%) Citrix
11 28 (1.17%) F5
12 25 (1.04%) Palo Alto
13 24 (1.00%) BiZZdesign
13 24 (1.00%) Sparx
14 22 (0.92%) Atlassian
14 22 (0.92%) Juniper
15 20 (0.84%) Talend