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 £620, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 8 July 2026.

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

6 months to
8 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 19 13
Rank change year-on-year +8 -6 +5
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,549 1,188 2,062
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.54% 8.22% 9.84%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.36% 9.02% 10.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,677 793 1,246
10th Percentile £475 £450 £489
25th Percentile £525 £525 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £620 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year +3.33% -7.69% -
75th Percentile £713 £700 £725
90th Percentile £775 £761 £788
UK median daily rate £615 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -1.60% -3.85% -1.07%
Number of hourly rates quoted 152 16 91
10th Percentile £49.40 £34.53 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £62.25 £60.63
Median hourly rate £65.00 £72.00 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -9.72% +2.86% -
75th Percentile £71.91 £86.00 £85.65
90th Percentile £83.00 £99.28 £88.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £67.50 £70.00
% change year-on-year -3.70% -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 24,603 13,166 19,342
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.07% 91.09% 92.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,057 8,185 11,630
10th Percentile £303 £220 £213
25th Percentile £406 £363 £370
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £493
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -3.65% -1.40%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £594
90th Percentile £688 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £520 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,830 1,064 2,371
10th Percentile £15.05 £13.50 £12.75
25th Percentile £20.62 £16.84 £16.00
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% +1.07%
75th Percentile £67.50 £57.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £78.78 £75.00 £74.00
UK median hourly rate £43.00 £26.45 £37.50
% change year-on-year +62.57% -29.47% -12.79%

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 July 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 July 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 July 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
North of England +8 743 £600 - 167
South East +1 720 £627 +4.50% 226
Midlands 0 432 £615 +6.96% 89
North West +5 399 £608 +1.33% 106
West Midlands -2 310 £625 +4.17% 70
Yorkshire +11 279 £580 -3.29% 41
South West -1 277 £625 - 114
East of England +18 197 £600 - 54
Scotland +11 169 £650 +4.00% 47
East Midlands +6 115 £581 +16.25% 19
North East 0 73 £575 -8.00% 20
Wales +5 37 £600 +25.00% 22
Northern Ireland +8 7 £475 -32.14% 14
Channel Islands 0 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 July 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.

1 765 (30.01%) Security Cleared
2 554 (21.73%) Azure
3 468 (18.36%) SC Cleared
4 441 (17.30%) AWS
5 366 (14.36%) Roadmaps
6 351 (13.77%) Agile
6 351 (13.77%) Microsoft
7 314 (12.32%) Stakeholder Management
8 288 (11.30%) Migration
9 264 (10.36%) DevOps
10 261 (10.24%) Enterprise Architecture
11 257 (10.08%) Technical Leadership
12 246 (9.65%) DV Cleared
13 239 (9.38%) Integration Patterns
14 236 (9.26%) CI/CD
15 231 (9.06%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 219 (8.59%) Architectural Patterns
17 207 (8.12%) Data Modelling
18 204 (8.00%) Data Architecture
18 204 (8.00%) Microservices
19 192 (7.53%) AI
20 190 (7.45%) Cybersecurity
20 190 (7.45%) TOGAF
21 176 (6.90%) Problem-Solving
22 168 (6.59%) Security Architecture
23 164 (6.43%) Architectural Design
24 155 (6.08%) GCP
25 146 (5.73%) Analytics
25 146 (5.73%) SAP
26 144 (5.65%) 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 56 (2.20%) SharePoint
2 38 (1.49%) Confluence
3 32 (1.26%) Microsoft Exchange
3 32 (1.26%) SAS
4 14 (0.55%) Apache Airflow
5 13 (0.51%) Appian
6 11 (0.43%) Apache
7 10 (0.39%) Apache Spark
8 9 (0.35%) CMS
9 8 (0.31%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 8 (0.31%) OpenStack
10 7 (0.27%) Documentum
10 7 (0.27%) Palantir Foundry
11 6 (0.24%) JBoss
11 6 (0.24%) Sitecore CMS
11 6 (0.24%) WebLogic
12 5 (0.20%) ArcGIS
12 5 (0.20%) NetWeaver
13 4 (0.16%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 4 (0.16%) SAP EP
Applications
1 9 (0.35%) Microsoft Office
1 9 (0.35%) MS Visio
2 7 (0.27%) Navisworks
2 7 (0.27%) Revit
3 6 (0.24%) Microsoft Excel
3 6 (0.24%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 6 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
4 4 (0.16%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.039%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 62 (2.43%) SAP S/4HANA
2 20 (0.78%) Payment Gateway
3 16 (0.63%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 12 (0.47%) SAP ERP
5 11 (0.43%) Teamcenter
6 10 (0.39%) Remedy ITSM
7 7 (0.27%) Oracle ERP
8 6 (0.24%) Dynamics CRM
8 6 (0.24%) Oracle Retail
9 5 (0.20%) Maximo
10 4 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
10 4 (0.16%) Salesforce CRM
10 4 (0.16%) SAP CRM
10 4 (0.16%) SAP GRC
10 4 (0.16%) SAP MDG
11 3 (0.12%) Avolution ABACUS
11 3 (0.12%) NetSuite
11 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
11 3 (0.12%) SAP IBP
12 2 (0.078%) Dynamics AX
Cloud Services
1 554 (21.73%) Azure
2 441 (17.30%) AWS
3 155 (6.08%) GCP
4 100 (3.92%) Power Platform
5 95 (3.73%) Entra ID
6 83 (3.26%) Serverless
7 81 (3.18%) SaaS
8 75 (2.94%) Microsoft 365
9 60 (2.35%) PaaS
10 48 (1.88%) GitHub
10 48 (1.88%) IaaS
11 45 (1.77%) Azure DevOps
12 36 (1.41%) OpenShift
13 32 (1.26%) AWS Lambda
14 31 (1.22%) Dynamics 365
15 28 (1.10%) Microsoft Purview
16 26 (1.02%) GitHub Actions
16 26 (1.02%) Snowflake
17 25 (0.98%) Azure Data Factory
18 23 (0.90%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 116 (4.55%) Firewall
2 79 (3.10%) DNS
3 73 (2.86%) Network Security
3 73 (2.86%) WAN
4 59 (2.31%) LAN
5 48 (1.88%) VPN
6 42 (1.65%) DHCP
7 40 (1.57%) SD-WAN
8 34 (1.33%) VLAN
9 31 (1.22%) BGP
10 29 (1.14%) TCP/IP
11 25 (0.98%) Wireless
12 24 (0.94%) MPLS
12 24 (0.94%) SAN
13 23 (0.90%) NAS
14 22 (0.86%) IPsec
15 21 (0.82%) Structured Cabling
16 20 (0.78%) BIG-IP
17 19 (0.75%) OSPF
18 14 (0.55%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 71 (2.79%) Metadata
2 69 (2.71%) Power BI
3 59 (2.31%) Data Lake
3 59 (2.31%) Data Warehouse
4 35 (1.37%) NoSQL
5 31 (1.22%) SQL Server
6 27 (1.06%) PostgreSQL
7 19 (0.75%) Oracle Database
8 16 (0.63%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
9 14 (0.55%) Amazon RDS
9 14 (0.55%) Azure SQL Database
9 14 (0.55%) Base SAS
10 13 (0.51%) Big Data
10 13 (0.51%) GIS
11 12 (0.47%) Relational Database
12 11 (0.43%) MongoDB
13 10 (0.39%) Semantic Layer
14 9 (0.35%) Electronic Patient Records
15 8 (0.31%) Delta Lake
15 8 (0.31%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 53 (2.08%) JIRA
2 33 (1.29%) Jenkins
3 26 (1.02%) Git
4 17 (0.67%) GitLab
5 10 (0.39%) ERwin
6 8 (0.31%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.20%) Artifactory
7 5 (0.20%) Selenium
8 4 (0.16%) Hudson
8 4 (0.16%) Postman
8 4 (0.16%) REST Assured
9 3 (0.12%) Cucumber
9 3 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.12%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.078%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.078%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.078%) JMeter
10 2 (0.078%) NeoLoad
10 2 (0.078%) Oracle APEX
10 2 (0.078%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 470 (18.44%) Social Skills
2 351 (13.77%) Finance
3 239 (9.38%) Public Sector
4 151 (5.92%) Banking
5 141 (5.53%) Analytical Skills
6 98 (3.84%) Retail
7 70 (2.75%) Manufacturing
8 63 (2.47%) Documentation Skills
9 47 (1.84%) Legal
10 45 (1.77%) Influencing Skills
11 33 (1.29%) Aerospace
12 32 (1.26%) Military
13 24 (0.94%) Financial Institution
14 23 (0.90%) Telecoms
15 22 (0.86%) Investment Banking
16 20 (0.78%) Marketing
17 19 (0.75%) Presentation Skills
18 18 (0.71%) Back Office
18 18 (0.71%) Billing
19 13 (0.51%) Aviation
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 120 (4.71%) REST
2 74 (2.90%) Middleware
3 51 (2.00%) OAuth
4 46 (1.80%) OpenID
5 45 (1.77%) SOAP
6 44 (1.73%) .NET
7 36 (1.41%) SailPoint
8 35 (1.37%) Oracle Fusion
9 33 (1.29%) Kafka
9 33 (1.29%) SAML
10 32 (1.26%) OAuth2
11 25 (0.98%) RESTful
12 23 (0.90%) Node.js
13 21 (0.82%) LDAP
14 20 (0.78%) React
14 20 (0.78%) Web Services
15 19 (0.75%) JSON
16 15 (0.59%) AngularJS
17 12 (0.47%) FHIR
18 11 (0.43%) SAP PI
Miscellaneous
1 187 (7.34%) Cloud Native
2 95 (3.73%) Data Centre
3 74 (2.90%) Operational Technology
4 69 (2.71%) Hybrid Cloud
5 64 (2.51%) Onboarding
5 64 (2.51%) Product Ownership
6 57 (2.24%) Management Information System
7 56 (2.20%) Data Protection Act
8 55 (2.16%) Legacy Systems
9 51 (2.00%) Enterprise Software
10 48 (1.88%) Distributed Systems
11 45 (1.77%) Public Cloud
12 30 (1.18%) CMDB
13 29 (1.14%) Private Cloud
14 26 (1.02%) AI Agents
14 26 (1.02%) PKI
15 25 (0.98%) Security Posture
16 23 (0.90%) SCADA
17 21 (0.82%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
18 20 (0.78%) Data Structures
Operating Systems
1 109 (4.28%) Windows
2 53 (2.08%) Linux
3 37 (1.45%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.63%) Android
4 16 (0.63%) Apple iOS
5 13 (0.51%) Unix
6 11 (0.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
7 5 (0.20%) Windows 7
8 4 (0.16%) Windows 10
9 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2016
9 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.078%) AIX
10 2 (0.078%) VMS
10 2 (0.078%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.039%) CatOS
11 1 (0.039%) CentOS
11 1 (0.039%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.039%) Windows Server 2008
11 1 (0.039%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 366 (14.36%) Roadmaps
2 351 (13.77%) Agile
3 314 (12.32%) Stakeholder Management
4 288 (11.30%) Migration
5 264 (10.36%) DevOps
6 261 (10.24%) Enterprise Architecture
7 257 (10.08%) Technical Leadership
8 239 (9.38%) Integration Patterns
9 236 (9.26%) CI/CD
10 231 (9.06%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 219 (8.59%) Architectural Patterns
12 207 (8.12%) Data Modelling
13 204 (8.00%) Data Architecture
13 204 (8.00%) Microservices
14 192 (7.53%) AI
15 190 (7.45%) Cybersecurity
15 190 (7.45%) TOGAF
16 176 (6.90%) Problem-Solving
17 168 (6.59%) Security Architecture
18 164 (6.43%) Architectural Design
Programming Languages
1 116 (4.55%) SQL
2 109 (4.28%) Python
3 94 (3.69%) Java
4 56 (2.20%) PowerShell
5 53 (2.08%) JavaScript
6 28 (1.10%) C#
7 26 (1.02%) Bicep
8 21 (0.82%) Bash
9 15 (0.59%) TypeScript
10 8 (0.31%) ABAP
10 8 (0.31%) PL/SQL
10 8 (0.31%) VBA
11 6 (0.24%) Kusto Query Language
11 6 (0.24%) Scala
12 5 (0.20%) Apex Code
12 5 (0.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 4 (0.16%) Kotlin
13 4 (0.16%) VB
13 4 (0.16%) VBScript
14 3 (0.12%) C
Qualifications
1 765 (30.01%) Security Cleared
2 468 (18.36%) SC Cleared
3 246 (9.65%) DV Cleared
4 93 (3.65%) Degree
5 58 (2.28%) Cisco Certification
6 51 (2.00%) CISSP
7 50 (1.96%) BPSS Clearance
8 45 (1.77%) AWS Certification
9 44 (1.73%) TOGAF Certification
10 41 (1.61%) Azure Certification
11 35 (1.37%) Computer Science Degree
12 33 (1.29%) CCNP
13 23 (0.90%) Microsoft Certification
14 19 (0.75%) CISM
15 17 (0.67%) CCNA
16 16 (0.63%) Master's Degree
17 14 (0.55%) (ISC)2 CCSP
17 14 (0.55%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
17 14 (0.55%) CCIE
18 12 (0.47%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 99 (3.88%) NIST
2 75 (2.94%) Data Quality
3 74 (2.90%) GDPR
4 61 (2.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 60 (2.35%) NCSC
6 26 (1.02%) QA
7 20 (0.78%) PCI DSS
8 19 (0.75%) Accessibility
9 16 (0.63%) NIST 800
10 13 (0.51%) GRC
11 12 (0.47%) COBIT
12 11 (0.43%) IFRS
13 10 (0.39%) Disclosure Scotland
13 10 (0.39%) HL7
13 10 (0.39%) ISO 19650
13 10 (0.39%) JSP 440
13 10 (0.39%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 9 (0.35%) ISO 20022
14 9 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
15 8 (0.31%) FINRA
System Software
1 109 (4.28%) Active Directory
2 55 (2.16%) VMware Infrastructure
3 41 (1.61%) Docker
4 33 (1.29%) VMware NSX
5 23 (0.90%) Virtual Desktop
6 19 (0.75%) Hyper-V
7 18 (0.71%) vSphere
8 11 (0.43%) VMware ESXi
9 8 (0.31%) Virtual Machines
10 7 (0.27%) vCloud
11 4 (0.16%) BitLocker
11 4 (0.16%) RACF
12 3 (0.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
12 3 (0.12%) IAG
12 3 (0.12%) NFS
12 3 (0.12%) SRDF
13 2 (0.078%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
14 1 (0.039%) Firmware
14 1 (0.039%) KVM
14 1 (0.039%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 100 (3.92%) Kubernetes
2 97 (3.81%) Terraform
3 51 (2.00%) Ansible
4 39 (1.53%) Microsoft Intune
5 28 (1.10%) Single Sign-On
6 21 (0.82%) vCenter Server
7 19 (0.75%) Grafana
8 16 (0.63%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 15 (0.59%) Prometheus
10 13 (0.51%) Argo
10 13 (0.51%) Jamf Pro
11 10 (0.39%) FortiGate
11 10 (0.39%) SCCM
12 8 (0.31%) Istio
13 6 (0.24%) CASB
14 5 (0.20%) EMC VPLEX
15 4 (0.16%) MOM
15 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
16 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
16 3 (0.12%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 351 (13.77%) Microsoft
2 146 (5.73%) SAP
3 116 (4.55%) ServiceNow
4 115 (4.51%) VMware
5 113 (4.43%) Oracle
6 74 (2.90%) Cisco
7 73 (2.86%) Databricks
7 73 (2.86%) Google
8 52 (2.04%) Salesforce
9 32 (1.26%) F5
10 30 (1.18%) Citrix
11 29 (1.14%) Red Hat
12 24 (0.94%) BiZZdesign
12 24 (0.94%) MuleSoft
13 23 (0.90%) Palo Alto
14 21 (0.82%) Juniper
15 20 (0.78%) Infoblox
15 20 (0.78%) Talend
16 19 (0.75%) CyberArk
17 18 (0.71%) Sparx