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 29 May 2026.

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

6 months to
29 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 2,389 1,080 2,095
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.58% 8.43% 10.17%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.43% 9.19% 11.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,575 721 1,261
10th Percentile £450 £450 £500
25th Percentile £513 £513 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £613 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year +2.08% -7.69% -
75th Percentile £712 £695 £725
90th Percentile £775 £750 £800
UK median daily rate £617 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -1.28% -3.85% -0.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 122 24 92
10th Percentile £49.40 £43.92 -
25th Percentile £60.00 £65.13 £60.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £72.91 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.84% +4.15% -
75th Percentile £78.75 £80.56 £85.99
90th Percentile £96.15 £85.50 £89.80
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 22,904 11,756 19,038
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.88% 91.74% 92.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,194 7,508 11,591
10th Percentile £300 £213 £213
25th Percentile £402 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £488
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £594
90th Percentile £679 £650 £688
UK median daily rate £513 £505 £525
% change year-on-year +1.49% -3.81% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,639 843 2,364
10th Percentile £14.65 £13.76 £12.50
25th Percentile £20.00 £16.95 £15.75
Median hourly rate £43.61 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +73.38% -37.13% -5.88%
75th Percentile £67.13 £62.25 £62.14
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £27.99 £37.18
% change year-on-year +51.84% -24.72% -17.38%

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 29 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 29 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 29 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 +5 686 £625 +1.63% 255
North of England +5 668 £600 - 251
Midlands 0 435 £600 +0.08% 105
North West +5 371 £608 +4.29% 142
West Midlands 0 313 £620 +3.33% 77
Yorkshire +8 252 £550 -8.33% 67
South West -2 249 £650 +8.33% 130
East of England +20 204 £575 -4.17% 57
Scotland +15 151 £650 +4.00% 57
East Midlands +1 116 £560 +6.46% 28
North East +6 52 £575 -4.17% 44
Wales -3 31 £600 +25.00% 46
Northern Ireland +7 7 £475 -28.30% 19
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 29 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.

1 697 (29.18%) Security Cleared
2 480 (20.09%) Azure
3 411 (17.20%) SC Cleared
4 375 (15.70%) AWS
5 337 (14.11%) Agile
6 334 (13.98%) Roadmaps
7 327 (13.69%) Microsoft
8 271 (11.34%) Stakeholder Management
9 268 (11.22%) Migration
10 254 (10.63%) Enterprise Architecture
11 249 (10.42%) DevOps
12 236 (9.88%) DV Cleared
13 214 (8.96%) CI/CD
14 208 (8.71%) Technical Leadership
15 192 (8.04%) Integration Patterns
16 189 (7.91%) Architectural Patterns
16 189 (7.91%) Microservices
17 187 (7.83%) Data Modelling
18 186 (7.79%) Stakeholder Engagement
19 170 (7.12%) Data Architecture
20 165 (6.91%) TOGAF
21 160 (6.70%) Architectural Design
22 152 (6.36%) Cybersecurity
23 151 (6.32%) Problem-Solving
24 146 (6.11%) SAP
25 134 (5.61%) Analytics
25 134 (5.61%) GCP
26 133 (5.57%) AI
27 129 (5.40%) VMware
28 125 (5.23%) Continuous Improvement

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 62 (2.60%) SharePoint
2 52 (2.18%) Confluence
3 36 (1.51%) Microsoft Exchange
4 21 (0.88%) SAS
5 13 (0.54%) Appian
6 11 (0.46%) Apache Airflow
7 10 (0.42%) Anypoint
7 10 (0.42%) Apache
7 10 (0.42%) CMS
8 9 (0.38%) Apache Spark
9 8 (0.33%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 7 (0.29%) ArcGIS
11 6 (0.25%) Sitecore CMS
11 6 (0.25%) WebLogic
12 5 (0.21%) NetWeaver
12 5 (0.21%) OpenStack
13 4 (0.17%) JBoss
13 4 (0.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 4 (0.17%) SAP EP
13 4 (0.17%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 14 (0.59%) Microsoft Office
2 13 (0.54%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (0.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 8 (0.33%) Microsoft Project
4 7 (0.29%) MS Visio
4 7 (0.29%) Navisworks
4 7 (0.29%) Revit
5 5 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
6 4 (0.17%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.042%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 57 (2.39%) SAP S/4HANA
2 22 (0.92%) 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 4 (0.17%) Dynamics CRM
8 4 (0.17%) Oracle Retail
8 4 (0.17%) Salesforce CRM
8 4 (0.17%) SAP CRM
8 4 (0.17%) SAP GRC
9 3 (0.13%) Maximo
9 3 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
9 3 (0.13%) SAP SD
10 2 (0.084%) Infor LN
10 2 (0.084%) Infor M3
10 2 (0.084%) Oracle ERP
10 2 (0.084%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 480 (20.09%) Azure
2 375 (15.70%) AWS
3 134 (5.61%) GCP
4 94 (3.93%) Power Platform
5 92 (3.85%) Entra ID
6 81 (3.39%) Microsoft 365
7 73 (3.06%) Serverless
8 70 (2.93%) SaaS
9 55 (2.30%) PaaS
10 43 (1.80%) GitHub
10 43 (1.80%) IaaS
11 39 (1.63%) Microsoft Purview
12 38 (1.59%) Azure DevOps
13 35 (1.47%) OpenShift
14 29 (1.21%) OneDrive
15 27 (1.13%) AWS Lambda
16 26 (1.09%) Azure Data Factory
16 26 (1.09%) Dynamics 365
17 24 (1.00%) Azure Synapse Analytics
18 23 (0.96%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 97 (4.06%) Firewall
2 69 (2.89%) WAN
3 68 (2.85%) DNS
4 65 (2.72%) Network Security
5 53 (2.22%) LAN
6 50 (2.09%) VPN
7 40 (1.67%) SD-WAN
8 36 (1.51%) DHCP
9 28 (1.17%) VLAN
10 25 (1.05%) Wireless
11 24 (1.00%) SAN
12 23 (0.96%) BGP
12 23 (0.96%) NAS
13 20 (0.84%) Structured Cabling
14 19 (0.80%) IPsec
15 18 (0.75%) MPLS
16 17 (0.71%) BIG-IP
16 17 (0.71%) OSPF
17 14 (0.59%) NX-OS
18 13 (0.54%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 71 (2.97%) Power BI
2 70 (2.93%) Metadata
3 55 (2.30%) Data Warehouse
4 41 (1.72%) Data Lake
5 35 (1.47%) NoSQL
5 35 (1.47%) SQL Server
6 25 (1.05%) PostgreSQL
7 20 (0.84%) Tableau
8 19 (0.80%) Oracle Database
9 14 (0.59%) GIS
10 11 (0.46%) MongoDB
11 10 (0.42%) Big Data
12 9 (0.38%) DynamoDB
12 9 (0.38%) Relational Database
13 8 (0.33%) Azure SQL Database
13 8 (0.33%) Electronic Patient Records
13 8 (0.33%) MySQL
14 7 (0.29%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
14 7 (0.29%) Metadata Repository
14 7 (0.29%) Spatial Data
Development Applications
1 65 (2.72%) JIRA
2 37 (1.55%) Jenkins
3 20 (0.84%) GitLab
4 17 (0.71%) Git
5 7 (0.29%) ERwin
6 6 (0.25%) Artifactory
7 5 (0.21%) Selenium
8 4 (0.17%) Hudson
8 4 (0.17%) JUnit
8 4 (0.17%) Postman
8 4 (0.17%) REST Assured
8 4 (0.17%) Sonatype Nexus
9 3 (0.13%) Cucumber
9 3 (0.13%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.13%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.084%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.084%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.084%) Gatling
10 2 (0.084%) IntelliJ
10 2 (0.084%) NeoLoad
General
1 422 (17.66%) Social Skills
2 324 (13.56%) Finance
3 210 (8.79%) Public Sector
4 143 (5.99%) Banking
5 122 (5.11%) Analytical Skills
6 76 (3.18%) Retail
7 57 (2.39%) Documentation Skills
8 55 (2.30%) Manufacturing
9 54 (2.26%) Legal
10 37 (1.55%) Military
11 33 (1.38%) Influencing Skills
12 31 (1.30%) Aerospace
13 26 (1.09%) Investment Banking
14 22 (0.92%) Presentation Skills
15 20 (0.84%) Financial Institution
16 19 (0.80%) Back Office
16 19 (0.80%) Marketing
17 17 (0.71%) Telecoms
18 11 (0.46%) Retail Banking
19 10 (0.42%) Billing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 99 (4.14%) REST
2 78 (3.26%) Middleware
3 49 (2.05%) .NET
4 47 (1.97%) OAuth
5 43 (1.80%) OpenID
6 41 (1.72%) SOAP
7 32 (1.34%) OAuth2
8 31 (1.30%) SAML
9 28 (1.17%) Kafka
9 28 (1.17%) Oracle Fusion
10 27 (1.13%) SailPoint
11 24 (1.00%) RESTful
12 23 (0.96%) React
13 22 (0.92%) Node.js
14 21 (0.88%) JSON
15 18 (0.75%) LDAP
15 18 (0.75%) Web Services
16 16 (0.67%) Microsoft Graph
17 14 (0.59%) AngularJS
18 12 (0.50%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 165 (6.91%) Cloud Native
2 84 (3.52%) Data Centre
3 69 (2.89%) Product Ownership
4 64 (2.68%) Operational Technology
5 52 (2.18%) Public Cloud
6 51 (2.13%) Management Information System
6 51 (2.13%) Onboarding
7 50 (2.09%) Hybrid Cloud
8 45 (1.88%) Data Protection Act
9 43 (1.80%) Distributed Systems
9 43 (1.80%) Enterprise Software
10 42 (1.76%) Legacy Systems
11 30 (1.26%) PKI
12 28 (1.17%) SCADA
13 25 (1.05%) CMDB
14 20 (0.84%) Private Cloud
15 19 (0.80%) Data Structures
16 18 (0.75%) Security Posture
17 17 (0.71%) AI Agents
18 15 (0.63%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 110 (4.60%) Windows
2 57 (2.39%) Linux
3 30 (1.26%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.67%) Android
4 16 (0.67%) Apple iOS
5 11 (0.46%) Unix
6 9 (0.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 8 (0.33%) Windows 10
7 8 (0.33%) Windows Server 2016
8 6 (0.25%) Windows 7
9 5 (0.21%) Data ONTAP
9 5 (0.21%) Windows Server 2019
10 4 (0.17%) Mac OS
11 3 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
12 2 (0.084%) VMS
13 1 (0.042%) CentOS
13 1 (0.042%) Kali Linux
13 1 (0.042%) Ubuntu
13 1 (0.042%) Windows Server 2008
13 1 (0.042%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 337 (14.11%) Agile
2 334 (13.98%) Roadmaps
3 271 (11.34%) Stakeholder Management
4 268 (11.22%) Migration
5 254 (10.63%) Enterprise Architecture
6 249 (10.42%) DevOps
7 214 (8.96%) CI/CD
8 208 (8.71%) Technical Leadership
9 192 (8.04%) Integration Patterns
10 189 (7.91%) Architectural Patterns
10 189 (7.91%) Microservices
11 187 (7.83%) Data Modelling
12 186 (7.79%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 170 (7.12%) Data Architecture
14 165 (6.91%) TOGAF
15 160 (6.70%) Architectural Design
16 152 (6.36%) Cybersecurity
17 151 (6.32%) Problem-Solving
18 134 (5.61%) Analytics
19 133 (5.57%) AI
Programming Languages
1 102 (4.27%) Python
2 99 (4.14%) SQL
3 70 (2.93%) Java
3 70 (2.93%) PowerShell
4 49 (2.05%) JavaScript
5 31 (1.30%) C#
6 21 (0.88%) Bicep
7 16 (0.67%) Bash
7 16 (0.67%) TypeScript
8 12 (0.50%) PL/SQL
9 10 (0.42%) Kusto Query Language
10 8 (0.33%) VBA
11 6 (0.25%) Scala
12 5 (0.21%) Apex Code
13 4 (0.17%) ABAP
13 4 (0.17%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 4 (0.17%) Kotlin
13 4 (0.17%) T-SQL
13 4 (0.17%) VB
13 4 (0.17%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 697 (29.18%) Security Cleared
2 411 (17.20%) SC Cleared
3 236 (9.88%) DV Cleared
4 90 (3.77%) Degree
5 51 (2.13%) BPSS Clearance
6 50 (2.09%) TOGAF Certification
7 48 (2.01%) Cisco Certification
8 36 (1.51%) CISSP
9 35 (1.47%) Azure Certification
10 33 (1.38%) AWS Certification
10 33 (1.38%) CCNP
10 33 (1.38%) Computer Science Degree
11 22 (0.92%) Microsoft Certification
12 19 (0.80%) CISM
13 16 (0.67%) CCNA
13 16 (0.67%) Master's Degree
14 14 (0.59%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 12 (0.50%) ITIL Certification
15 12 (0.50%) Network+ Certification
15 12 (0.50%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 90 (3.77%) NIST
2 76 (3.18%) GDPR
3 61 (2.55%) Data Quality
4 54 (2.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 48 (2.01%) NCSC
6 22 (0.92%) QA
7 20 (0.84%) Accessibility
8 16 (0.67%) Cyber Essentials
8 16 (0.67%) PCI DSS
9 14 (0.59%) GRC
10 12 (0.50%) FINRA
10 12 (0.50%) MiFID
10 12 (0.50%) NIST 800
11 11 (0.46%) COBIT
12 10 (0.42%) ISO 20022
13 9 (0.38%) IFRS
14 8 (0.33%) Disclosure Scotland
14 8 (0.33%) HL7
15 7 (0.29%) ISO 19650
16 6 (0.25%) SEPA
System Software
1 96 (4.02%) Active Directory
2 61 (2.55%) VMware Infrastructure
3 35 (1.47%) Docker
4 31 (1.30%) VMware NSX
5 21 (0.88%) Hyper-V
5 21 (0.88%) vSphere
6 15 (0.63%) Virtual Desktop
7 11 (0.46%) VMware ESXi
8 10 (0.42%) vCloud
9 5 (0.21%) RACF
9 5 (0.21%) Virtual Machines
10 4 (0.17%) BitLocker
10 4 (0.17%) NFS
11 3 (0.13%) EMC RecoverPoint
11 3 (0.13%) IAG
11 3 (0.13%) SRDF
12 2 (0.084%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
12 2 (0.084%) Firmware
13 1 (0.042%) Embedded Firmware
13 1 (0.042%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 81 (3.39%) Terraform
2 77 (3.22%) Kubernetes
3 53 (2.22%) Ansible
4 35 (1.47%) Microsoft Intune
5 27 (1.13%) vCenter Server
6 26 (1.09%) Single Sign-On
7 15 (0.63%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 15 (0.63%) SCCM
8 14 (0.59%) Grafana
9 12 (0.50%) FortiGate
10 11 (0.46%) Argo
11 10 (0.42%) Prometheus
12 8 (0.33%) OPNET
13 6 (0.25%) Istio
13 6 (0.25%) Jamf Pro
13 6 (0.25%) WMI
14 5 (0.21%) EMC VPLEX
14 5 (0.21%) Endace
15 4 (0.17%) SnapMirror
16 3 (0.13%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 327 (13.69%) Microsoft
2 146 (6.11%) SAP
3 129 (5.40%) VMware
4 113 (4.73%) ServiceNow
5 105 (4.40%) Oracle
6 75 (3.14%) Cisco
7 58 (2.43%) Salesforce
8 55 (2.30%) Databricks
8 55 (2.30%) Google
9 42 (1.76%) MuleSoft
10 29 (1.21%) Citrix
10 29 (1.21%) F5
11 27 (1.13%) Red Hat
12 25 (1.05%) Palo Alto
13 24 (1.00%) Sparx
14 23 (0.96%) BiZZdesign
14 23 (0.96%) Juniper
15 20 (0.84%) Talend
16 19 (0.80%) Remedy
17 17 (0.71%) Splunk