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 £624, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 8 August 2026.

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

6 months to
8 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 20 13
Rank change year-on-year +6 -7 +6
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,489 1,261 1,823
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.08% 8.29% 9.95%
As % of the Job Titles category 9.86% 9.17% 10.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,654 856 1,142
10th Percentile £475 £461 £481
25th Percentile £525 £519 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £624 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year +3.96% -7.69% -
75th Percentile £706 £688 £725
90th Percentile £775 £756 £788
UK median daily rate £622 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -0.56% -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 152 15 73
10th Percentile £46.00 £33.64 -
25th Percentile £60.00 £64.38 £60.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £72.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.34% +3.57% -
75th Percentile £71.91 £86.50 £85.00
90th Percentile £83.00 £99.42 £89.51
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £72.50 £70.00
% change year-on-year -10.34% +3.57% -

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 25,241 13,749 16,863
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.09% 90.38% 92.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,273 8,447 10,310
10th Percentile £305 £215 £219
25th Percentile £410 £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 £685
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,008 1,207 1,754
10th Percentile £14.56 £13.36 £14.05
25th Percentile £20.47 £16.50 £18.50
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% +20.00%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% +0.58%

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 8 August 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 8 August 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 8 August 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 0 736 £625 +4.17% 340
North of England +3 695 £600 - 294
Midlands 0 421 £625 +8.70% 155
North West +4 393 £600 - 154
West Midlands -2 313 £635 +5.83% 105
South West -1 299 £625 -2.34% 177
Yorkshire +4 236 £600 - 108
East of England +16 162 £600 +8.11% 111
Scotland +17 154 £650 +4.63% 112
East Midlands +8 101 £600 +16.50% 50
North East -4 68 £600 -15.79% 32
Wales +6 38 £633 +1.20% 23
Northern Ireland +8 6 £475 -32.14% 45
Channel Islands -1 3 £575 -22.56%
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 8 August 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.

1 801 (32.18%) Security Cleared
2 562 (22.58%) Azure
3 511 (20.53%) SC Cleared
4 438 (17.60%) AWS
5 352 (14.14%) Roadmaps
6 348 (13.98%) Stakeholder Management
7 334 (13.42%) Microsoft
8 318 (12.78%) Agile
9 294 (11.81%) Migration
10 271 (10.89%) Technical Leadership
11 265 (10.65%) Enterprise Architecture
12 245 (9.84%) DV Cleared
12 245 (9.84%) Integration Patterns
13 243 (9.76%) DevOps
14 228 (9.16%) AI
14 228 (9.16%) Data Architecture
15 227 (9.12%) CI/CD
16 223 (8.96%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 215 (8.64%) Data Modelling
18 208 (8.36%) Architectural Patterns
19 196 (7.87%) Cybersecurity
20 184 (7.39%) TOGAF
21 182 (7.31%) Security Architecture
22 164 (6.59%) Microservices
23 163 (6.55%) Architecture Governance
24 162 (6.51%) GCP
25 159 (6.39%) Problem-Solving
26 148 (5.95%) Continuous Improvement
26 148 (5.95%) Event-Driven
27 146 (5.87%) Architectural Design

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 38 (1.53%) SharePoint
2 34 (1.37%) SAS
3 31 (1.25%) Confluence
4 14 (0.56%) Microsoft Exchange
5 11 (0.44%) OpenStack
6 10 (0.40%) Palantir Foundry
7 9 (0.36%) Apache
7 9 (0.36%) Apache Spark
8 8 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
9 7 (0.28%) Documentum
10 5 (0.20%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 5 (0.20%) ArcGIS
10 5 (0.20%) CMS
11 4 (0.16%) Appian
11 4 (0.16%) JBoss
11 4 (0.16%) NetWeaver
12 3 (0.12%) SAP EP
13 2 (0.080%) Alfresco
13 2 (0.080%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 1 (0.040%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 11 (0.44%) MS Visio
2 9 (0.36%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (0.28%) Navisworks
3 7 (0.28%) Revit
4 6 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 4 (0.16%) Microsoft Office
7 1 (0.040%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.040%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 60 (2.41%) SAP S/4HANA
2 13 (0.52%) Payment Gateway
2 13 (0.52%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 11 (0.44%) Remedy ITSM
3 11 (0.44%) Teamcenter
4 8 (0.32%) SAP ERP
5 7 (0.28%) Oracle ERP
6 5 (0.20%) Dynamics CRM
6 5 (0.20%) Maximo
6 5 (0.20%) Oracle Retail
7 4 (0.16%) NetSuite
7 4 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
7 4 (0.16%) SAP GRC
7 4 (0.16%) SAP MDG
8 3 (0.12%) Adobe Campaign
8 3 (0.12%) Dynamics NAV
8 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
8 3 (0.12%) Remedy AR System
8 3 (0.12%) SAP CRM
8 3 (0.12%) SAP IBP
Cloud Services
1 562 (22.58%) Azure
2 438 (17.60%) AWS
3 162 (6.51%) GCP
4 100 (4.02%) Power Platform
5 87 (3.50%) Entra ID
6 79 (3.17%) Serverless
7 76 (3.05%) SaaS
8 56 (2.25%) Microsoft 365
9 50 (2.01%) PaaS
10 47 (1.89%) GitHub
11 43 (1.73%) Azure DevOps
12 41 (1.65%) IaaS
13 36 (1.45%) AWS Lambda
13 36 (1.45%) Dynamics 365
14 33 (1.33%) OpenShift
15 29 (1.17%) GitHub Actions
15 29 (1.17%) Snowflake
16 28 (1.12%) Amazon S3
17 24 (0.96%) OCI
18 23 (0.92%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 100 (4.02%) Firewall
2 67 (2.69%) WAN
3 60 (2.41%) DNS
4 57 (2.29%) Network Security
5 54 (2.17%) LAN
6 39 (1.57%) VPN
7 35 (1.41%) BGP
8 34 (1.37%) DHCP
8 34 (1.37%) SD-WAN
9 30 (1.21%) VLAN
10 27 (1.08%) TCP/IP
11 26 (1.04%) SAN
12 25 (1.00%) MPLS
13 23 (0.92%) NAS
13 23 (0.92%) Wireless
14 21 (0.84%) Structured Cabling
15 18 (0.72%) OSPF
16 16 (0.64%) BIG-IP
17 15 (0.60%) IPsec
18 14 (0.56%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 73 (2.93%) Data Lake
2 72 (2.89%) Power BI
3 68 (2.73%) Metadata
4 66 (2.65%) Data Warehouse
5 38 (1.53%) NoSQL
6 20 (0.80%) Amazon RDS
6 20 (0.80%) Oracle Database
7 19 (0.76%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
8 18 (0.72%) SQL Server
9 16 (0.64%) Base SAS
9 16 (0.64%) PostgreSQL
10 15 (0.60%) Azure SQL Database
11 14 (0.56%) BigQuery
11 14 (0.56%) GIS
12 12 (0.48%) Delta Lake
13 11 (0.44%) MongoDB
14 10 (0.40%) MySQL
14 10 (0.40%) Semantic Layer
15 9 (0.36%) Big Data
15 9 (0.36%) Electronic Patient Records
Development Applications
1 35 (1.41%) JIRA
2 30 (1.21%) Git
3 23 (0.92%) Jenkins
4 10 (0.40%) ERwin
4 10 (0.40%) GitLab
5 7 (0.28%) Sonatype Nexus
6 5 (0.20%) Artifactory
6 5 (0.20%) Claude Code
7 4 (0.16%) Hudson
8 3 (0.12%) MSI
8 3 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
8 3 (0.12%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.080%) Bitbucket
9 2 (0.080%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.080%) IntelliJ
9 2 (0.080%) JUnit
9 2 (0.080%) Oracle APEX
9 2 (0.080%) Oracle Forms
9 2 (0.080%) Rational Rhapsody
9 2 (0.080%) Selenium
General
1 470 (18.88%) Social Skills
2 315 (12.66%) Finance
3 238 (9.56%) Public Sector
4 135 (5.42%) Banking
5 134 (5.38%) Analytical Skills
6 99 (3.98%) Retail
7 83 (3.33%) Manufacturing
8 55 (2.21%) Influencing Skills
9 52 (2.09%) Documentation Skills
10 36 (1.45%) Legal
11 34 (1.37%) Aerospace
12 30 (1.21%) Military
13 27 (1.08%) Telecoms
14 24 (0.96%) Financial Institution
15 21 (0.84%) Marketing
15 21 (0.84%) Presentation Skills
16 20 (0.80%) Back Office
17 19 (0.76%) Aviation
18 18 (0.72%) Local Government
19 17 (0.68%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 105 (4.22%) REST
2 76 (3.05%) Middleware
3 56 (2.25%) OAuth
4 43 (1.73%) SOAP
5 42 (1.69%) Oracle Fusion
6 37 (1.49%) OpenID
7 36 (1.45%) .NET
7 36 (1.45%) Kafka
8 34 (1.37%) SAML
9 28 (1.12%) SailPoint
10 27 (1.08%) OAuth2
11 22 (0.88%) JSON
12 20 (0.80%) RESTful
13 18 (0.72%) Node.js
14 15 (0.60%) GraphQL
14 15 (0.60%) LDAP
14 15 (0.60%) Web Services
15 14 (0.56%) React
16 13 (0.52%) JWT
16 13 (0.52%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 189 (7.59%) Cloud Native
2 87 (3.50%) Data Centre
3 79 (3.17%) Hybrid Cloud
4 72 (2.89%) Operational Technology
5 62 (2.49%) Product Ownership
6 59 (2.37%) Data Protection Act
7 57 (2.29%) Onboarding
8 56 (2.25%) Distributed Systems
9 55 (2.21%) Legacy Systems
10 54 (2.17%) Management Information System
11 52 (2.09%) Enterprise Software
12 41 (1.65%) AI Agents
12 41 (1.65%) Public Cloud
13 35 (1.41%) Private Cloud
14 28 (1.12%) Security Posture
15 25 (1.00%) PKI
16 24 (0.96%) Enterprise Cloud
16 24 (0.96%) IVR
17 22 (0.88%) SCADA
18 21 (0.84%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 91 (3.66%) Windows
2 51 (2.05%) Linux
3 36 (1.45%) Windows Server
4 13 (0.52%) Android
4 13 (0.52%) Apple iOS
4 13 (0.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 9 (0.36%) Unix
6 6 (0.24%) AIX
7 5 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
8 2 (0.080%) HPUX
8 2 (0.080%) Solaris
8 2 (0.080%) VMS
8 2 (0.080%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.040%) CatOS
9 1 (0.040%) CentOS
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
1 352 (14.14%) Roadmaps
2 348 (13.98%) Stakeholder Management
3 318 (12.78%) Agile
4 294 (11.81%) Migration
5 271 (10.89%) Technical Leadership
6 265 (10.65%) Enterprise Architecture
7 245 (9.84%) Integration Patterns
8 243 (9.76%) DevOps
9 228 (9.16%) AI
9 228 (9.16%) Data Architecture
10 227 (9.12%) CI/CD
11 223 (8.96%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 215 (8.64%) Data Modelling
13 208 (8.36%) Architectural Patterns
14 196 (7.87%) Cybersecurity
15 184 (7.39%) TOGAF
16 182 (7.31%) Security Architecture
17 164 (6.59%) Microservices
18 163 (6.55%) Architecture Governance
19 159 (6.39%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 98 (3.94%) Java
2 94 (3.78%) SQL
3 92 (3.70%) Python
4 54 (2.17%) JavaScript
5 44 (1.77%) PowerShell
6 24 (0.96%) Bash
7 19 (0.76%) C#
8 17 (0.68%) Bicep
9 12 (0.48%) TypeScript
10 9 (0.36%) Shell Script
11 7 (0.28%) ABAP
12 6 (0.24%) Apex Code
12 6 (0.24%) PL/SQL
12 6 (0.24%) VBA
13 5 (0.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 4 (0.16%) Groovy
14 4 (0.16%) Kotlin
15 3 (0.12%) C
16 2 (0.080%) C++
16 2 (0.080%) ProC
Qualifications
1 801 (32.18%) Security Cleared
2 511 (20.53%) SC Cleared
3 245 (9.84%) DV Cleared
4 77 (3.09%) Degree
5 58 (2.33%) Cisco Certification
6 57 (2.29%) CISSP
7 45 (1.81%) TOGAF Certification
8 42 (1.69%) AWS Certification
8 42 (1.69%) Azure Certification
8 42 (1.69%) BPSS Clearance
9 33 (1.33%) Computer Science Degree
10 30 (1.21%) CCNP
11 20 (0.80%) CISM
12 19 (0.76%) Microsoft Certification
13 18 (0.72%) CCNA
14 15 (0.60%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 15 (0.60%) CCIE
15 12 (0.48%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 12 (0.48%) Network+ Certification
15 12 (0.48%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 94 (3.78%) NIST
2 79 (3.17%) Data Quality
3 62 (2.49%) NCSC
4 61 (2.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 59 (2.37%) GDPR
6 25 (1.00%) QA
7 20 (0.80%) Accessibility
8 18 (0.72%) PCI DSS
9 17 (0.68%) NIST 800
10 14 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 13 (0.52%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 12 (0.48%) IFRS
12 12 (0.48%) ISO 19650
13 11 (0.44%) GRC
14 10 (0.40%) Cyber Essentials
14 10 (0.40%) Disclosure Scotland
14 10 (0.40%) JSP 440
15 9 (0.36%) HL7
16 8 (0.32%) SLA
17 6 (0.24%) COBIT
System Software
1 95 (3.82%) Active Directory
2 49 (1.97%) Docker
3 48 (1.93%) VMware Infrastructure
4 27 (1.08%) VMware NSX
5 22 (0.88%) Virtual Desktop
6 19 (0.76%) Hyper-V
7 13 (0.52%) vSphere
8 11 (0.44%) VMware ESXi
9 9 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
10 7 (0.28%) vCloud
11 3 (0.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
11 3 (0.12%) KVM
11 3 (0.12%) NFS
11 3 (0.12%) SRDF
12 2 (0.080%) Ceph
12 2 (0.080%) IAG
12 2 (0.080%) zsh
13 1 (0.040%) Firmware
13 1 (0.040%) Microsoft Virtual Server
13 1 (0.040%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 124 (4.98%) Kubernetes
2 93 (3.74%) Terraform
3 49 (1.97%) Ansible
4 32 (1.29%) Microsoft Intune
5 19 (0.76%) Single Sign-On
6 17 (0.68%) Grafana
7 16 (0.64%) vCenter Server
8 14 (0.56%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 13 (0.52%) Jamf Pro
9 13 (0.52%) Prometheus
10 9 (0.36%) Argo
11 8 (0.32%) FortiGate
12 6 (0.24%) CASB
12 6 (0.24%) Istio
13 5 (0.20%) MOM
13 5 (0.20%) NetBackup
13 5 (0.20%) WMI
14 4 (0.16%) EMC VPLEX
14 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
15 3 (0.12%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 334 (13.42%) Microsoft
2 134 (5.38%) SAP
3 114 (4.58%) Oracle
4 99 (3.98%) ServiceNow
4 99 (3.98%) VMware
5 79 (3.17%) Cisco
5 79 (3.17%) Databricks
5 79 (3.17%) Google
6 46 (1.85%) Salesforce
7 29 (1.17%) F5
8 26 (1.04%) MuleSoft
9 25 (1.00%) Citrix
9 25 (1.00%) Palo Alto
10 24 (0.96%) Red Hat
11 22 (0.88%) CyberArk
12 20 (0.80%) Informatica
13 19 (0.76%) IBM
14 18 (0.72%) BiZZdesign
14 18 (0.72%) Juniper
15 17 (0.68%) Infoblox