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 18 July 2026.

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

6 months to
18 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 20 13
Rank change year-on-year +7 -7 +6
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,507 1,227 2,037
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.28% 8.28% 10.01%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.07% 9.14% 10.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,641 829 1,243
10th Percentile £481 £450 £488
25th Percentile £525 £519 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £620 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year +3.33% -7.69% -
75th Percentile £713 £694 £725
90th Percentile £775 £759 £788
UK median daily rate £616 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -1.44% -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 157 17 90
10th Percentile £49.40 £35.42 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £62.50 £60.31
Median hourly rate £65.00 £72.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.34% +3.57% -
75th Percentile £71.91 £85.50 £85.65
90th Percentile £83.00 £99.13 £88.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £68.75 £70.00
% change year-on-year -5.45% -1.79% -

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 24,898 13,424 18,782
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.12% 90.59% 92.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,200 8,290 11,391
10th Percentile £305 £220 £213
25th Percentile £408 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £494
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -3.85% -1.20%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £595
90th Percentile £688 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,864 1,136 2,202
10th Percentile £15.14 £13.50 £12.88
25th Percentile £20.79 £16.59 £16.33
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.72
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -38.24% +4.34%
75th Percentile £68.00 £56.64 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £43.69 £25.30 £40.00
% change year-on-year +72.69% -36.75% -5.88%

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 18 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 18 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 18 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 +7 722 £600 - 153
South East 0 716 £630 +5.00% 182
Midlands -2 415 £620 +7.83% 83
North West +1 384 £610 +1.67% 85
West Midlands -3 299 £626 +4.25% 59
South West -1 288 £625 +0.24% 72
Yorkshire +9 267 £600 - 37
East of England +19 185 £600 - 42
Scotland +9 172 £650 +4.00% 35
East Midlands +6 109 £600 +20.00% 24
North East +4 79 £600 -15.79% 31
Wales +2 32 £600 +11.11% 14
Northern Ireland +4 7 £475 -32.14% 8
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 18 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 (30.51%) Security Cleared
2 544 (21.70%) Azure
3 478 (19.07%) SC Cleared
4 443 (17.67%) AWS
5 365 (14.56%) Roadmaps
6 335 (13.36%) Agile
7 332 (13.24%) Microsoft
8 323 (12.88%) Stakeholder Management
9 284 (11.33%) Migration
10 258 (10.29%) Enterprise Architecture
11 254 (10.13%) Technical Leadership
12 253 (10.09%) DevOps
13 240 (9.57%) Integration Patterns
14 238 (9.49%) DV Cleared
15 229 (9.13%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 228 (9.09%) CI/CD
17 223 (8.90%) Data Architecture
18 217 (8.66%) Architectural Patterns
19 214 (8.54%) Data Modelling
20 201 (8.02%) AI
21 197 (7.86%) Microservices
22 192 (7.66%) Cybersecurity
22 192 (7.66%) TOGAF
23 173 (6.90%) Problem-Solving
24 170 (6.78%) Security Architecture
25 162 (6.46%) Architectural Design
26 150 (5.98%) GCP
27 144 (5.74%) Continuous Improvement
27 144 (5.74%) Data Governance
28 139 (5.54%) Analytics

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 48 (1.91%) SharePoint
2 32 (1.28%) Confluence
2 32 (1.28%) SAS
3 23 (0.92%) Microsoft Exchange
4 14 (0.56%) Apache Airflow
5 13 (0.52%) Apache Spark
6 12 (0.48%) Apache
7 10 (0.40%) Appian
7 10 (0.40%) CMS
7 10 (0.40%) OpenStack
8 8 (0.32%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 8 (0.32%) Palantir Foundry
9 7 (0.28%) Documentum
10 6 (0.24%) Sitecore CMS
11 5 (0.20%) ArcGIS
11 5 (0.20%) JBoss
11 5 (0.20%) NetWeaver
12 4 (0.16%) SAP EP
13 2 (0.080%) Alfresco
13 2 (0.080%) nginx
Applications
1 11 (0.44%) MS Visio
2 8 (0.32%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.28%) 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%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.040%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 54 (2.15%) SAP S/4HANA
2 18 (0.72%) Payment Gateway
3 15 (0.60%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 11 (0.44%) SAP ERP
4 11 (0.44%) Teamcenter
5 10 (0.40%) Remedy ITSM
6 7 (0.28%) Oracle ERP
7 6 (0.24%) Dynamics CRM
7 6 (0.24%) Maximo
8 5 (0.20%) Oracle Retail
8 5 (0.20%) SAP GRC
9 4 (0.16%) NetSuite
9 4 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
9 4 (0.16%) SAP CRM
9 4 (0.16%) SAP MDG
10 3 (0.12%) Adobe Campaign
10 3 (0.12%) Avolution ABACUS
10 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
10 3 (0.12%) SAP IBP
11 2 (0.080%) Infor M3
Cloud Services
1 544 (21.70%) Azure
2 443 (17.67%) AWS
3 150 (5.98%) GCP
4 99 (3.95%) Power Platform
5 91 (3.63%) Entra ID
6 81 (3.23%) Serverless
7 74 (2.95%) SaaS
8 64 (2.55%) Microsoft 365
9 55 (2.19%) PaaS
10 46 (1.83%) GitHub
10 46 (1.83%) IaaS
11 39 (1.56%) Azure DevOps
12 38 (1.52%) OpenShift
13 33 (1.32%) AWS Lambda
14 31 (1.24%) Dynamics 365
15 29 (1.16%) Snowflake
16 28 (1.12%) Amazon S3
17 26 (1.04%) Microsoft Purview
18 24 (0.96%) Azure Data Factory
18 24 (0.96%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 106 (4.23%) Firewall
2 71 (2.83%) Network Security
3 70 (2.79%) DNS
4 69 (2.75%) WAN
5 57 (2.27%) LAN
6 41 (1.64%) VPN
7 38 (1.52%) DHCP
8 35 (1.40%) BGP
8 35 (1.40%) SD-WAN
9 31 (1.24%) TCP/IP
9 31 (1.24%) VLAN
10 26 (1.04%) MPLS
11 25 (1.00%) SAN
11 25 (1.00%) Wireless
12 23 (0.92%) NAS
13 21 (0.84%) IPsec
13 21 (0.84%) Structured Cabling
14 19 (0.76%) BIG-IP
14 19 (0.76%) OSPF
15 14 (0.56%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 75 (2.99%) Metadata
2 68 (2.71%) Power BI
3 65 (2.59%) Data Warehouse
4 64 (2.55%) Data Lake
5 35 (1.40%) NoSQL
6 31 (1.24%) SQL Server
7 25 (1.00%) PostgreSQL
8 20 (0.80%) Oracle Database
9 18 (0.72%) Amazon RDS
10 17 (0.68%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
11 14 (0.56%) Azure SQL Database
11 14 (0.56%) Base SAS
11 14 (0.56%) GIS
12 13 (0.52%) Big Data
13 11 (0.44%) MongoDB
14 10 (0.40%) Delta Lake
14 10 (0.40%) Relational Database
14 10 (0.40%) Semantic Layer
15 9 (0.36%) Electronic Patient Records
16 8 (0.32%) BigQuery
Development Applications
1 43 (1.72%) JIRA
2 27 (1.08%) Jenkins
3 24 (0.96%) Git
4 12 (0.48%) GitLab
5 10 (0.40%) ERwin
6 8 (0.32%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.20%) Artifactory
8 4 (0.16%) Hudson
9 3 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.12%) Selenium
9 3 (0.12%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.080%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.080%) Claude Code
10 2 (0.080%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.080%) IntelliJ
10 2 (0.080%) JUnit
10 2 (0.080%) Oracle APEX
10 2 (0.080%) Oracle Forms
10 2 (0.080%) Rational Rhapsody
10 2 (0.080%) REST Assured
General
1 473 (18.87%) Social Skills
2 326 (13.00%) Finance
3 240 (9.57%) Public Sector
4 148 (5.90%) Banking
5 144 (5.74%) Analytical Skills
6 93 (3.71%) Retail
7 72 (2.87%) Manufacturing
8 58 (2.31%) Documentation Skills
9 47 (1.87%) Influencing Skills
10 41 (1.64%) Legal
11 35 (1.40%) Aerospace
12 32 (1.28%) Military
13 26 (1.04%) Telecoms
14 24 (0.96%) Financial Institution
15 21 (0.84%) Back Office
16 20 (0.80%) Investment Banking
16 20 (0.80%) Marketing
16 20 (0.80%) Presentation Skills
17 17 (0.68%) Billing
18 15 (0.60%) Aviation
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 113 (4.51%) REST
2 72 (2.87%) Middleware
3 53 (2.11%) OAuth
4 43 (1.72%) .NET
4 43 (1.72%) SOAP
5 40 (1.60%) OpenID
6 39 (1.56%) Oracle Fusion
7 34 (1.36%) Kafka
8 32 (1.28%) SailPoint
9 31 (1.24%) SAML
10 29 (1.16%) OAuth2
11 25 (1.00%) RESTful
12 23 (0.92%) Node.js
13 21 (0.84%) JSON
14 20 (0.80%) React
14 20 (0.80%) Web Services
15 19 (0.76%) LDAP
16 15 (0.60%) AngularJS
17 13 (0.52%) FHIR
18 11 (0.44%) SAP PI
Miscellaneous
1 181 (7.22%) Cloud Native
2 92 (3.67%) Data Centre
3 74 (2.95%) Hybrid Cloud
3 74 (2.95%) Operational Technology
4 62 (2.47%) Product Ownership
5 61 (2.43%) Onboarding
6 58 (2.31%) Management Information System
7 56 (2.23%) Data Protection Act
8 53 (2.11%) Legacy Systems
9 51 (2.03%) Enterprise Software
10 50 (1.99%) Distributed Systems
11 41 (1.64%) Public Cloud
12 31 (1.24%) AI Agents
12 31 (1.24%) Private Cloud
13 25 (1.00%) CMDB
13 25 (1.00%) Security Posture
14 23 (0.92%) SCADA
15 22 (0.88%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
15 22 (0.88%) Enterprise Cloud
16 21 (0.84%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 98 (3.91%) Windows
2 55 (2.19%) Linux
3 35 (1.40%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.64%) Android
4 16 (0.64%) Apple iOS
5 14 (0.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.40%) Unix
7 5 (0.20%) AIX
7 5 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
8 2 (0.080%) VMS
8 2 (0.080%) Windows 10
8 2 (0.080%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.040%) CatOS
9 1 (0.040%) CentOS
9 1 (0.040%) Kali Linux
9 1 (0.040%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.040%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.040%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 365 (14.56%) Roadmaps
2 335 (13.36%) Agile
3 323 (12.88%) Stakeholder Management
4 284 (11.33%) Migration
5 258 (10.29%) Enterprise Architecture
6 254 (10.13%) Technical Leadership
7 253 (10.09%) DevOps
8 240 (9.57%) Integration Patterns
9 229 (9.13%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 228 (9.09%) CI/CD
11 223 (8.90%) Data Architecture
12 217 (8.66%) Architectural Patterns
13 214 (8.54%) Data Modelling
14 201 (8.02%) AI
15 197 (7.86%) Microservices
16 192 (7.66%) Cybersecurity
16 192 (7.66%) TOGAF
17 173 (6.90%) Problem-Solving
18 170 (6.78%) Security Architecture
19 162 (6.46%) Architectural Design
Programming Languages
1 110 (4.39%) SQL
2 106 (4.23%) Python
3 92 (3.67%) Java
4 52 (2.07%) JavaScript
5 47 (1.87%) PowerShell
6 28 (1.12%) C#
7 22 (0.88%) Bash
7 22 (0.88%) Bicep
8 12 (0.48%) TypeScript
9 8 (0.32%) ABAP
9 8 (0.32%) PL/SQL
9 8 (0.32%) VBA
10 5 (0.20%) Apex Code
10 5 (0.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 5 (0.20%) Shell Script
11 4 (0.16%) Kotlin
12 3 (0.12%) C
12 3 (0.12%) Kusto Query Language
12 3 (0.12%) Scala
13 2 (0.080%) C++
Qualifications
1 765 (30.51%) Security Cleared
2 478 (19.07%) SC Cleared
3 238 (9.49%) DV Cleared
4 91 (3.63%) Degree
5 59 (2.35%) Cisco Certification
6 54 (2.15%) CISSP
7 47 (1.87%) TOGAF Certification
8 43 (1.72%) AWS Certification
8 43 (1.72%) BPSS Clearance
9 42 (1.68%) Azure Certification
10 34 (1.36%) Computer Science Degree
11 33 (1.32%) CCNP
12 21 (0.84%) Microsoft Certification
13 18 (0.72%) CISM
14 17 (0.68%) CCNA
15 15 (0.60%) CCIE
15 15 (0.60%) Master's Degree
16 14 (0.56%) (ISC)2 CCSP
17 12 (0.48%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
17 12 (0.48%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 94 (3.75%) NIST
2 77 (3.07%) Data Quality
3 67 (2.67%) GDPR
4 61 (2.43%) NCSC
5 57 (2.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 25 (1.00%) QA
7 19 (0.76%) Accessibility
7 19 (0.76%) PCI DSS
8 16 (0.64%) NIST 800
9 12 (0.48%) COBIT
9 12 (0.48%) GRC
10 11 (0.44%) Disclosure Scotland
10 11 (0.44%) IFRS
11 10 (0.40%) HL7
11 10 (0.40%) ISO 19650
11 10 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 10 (0.40%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 9 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials
12 9 (0.36%) ISO 20022
13 8 (0.32%) JSP 440
System Software
1 104 (4.15%) Active Directory
2 52 (2.07%) VMware Infrastructure
3 45 (1.79%) Docker
4 32 (1.28%) VMware NSX
5 22 (0.88%) Virtual Desktop
6 17 (0.68%) Hyper-V
6 17 (0.68%) vSphere
7 10 (0.40%) VMware ESXi
8 8 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
9 6 (0.24%) vCloud
10 4 (0.16%) RACF
11 3 (0.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
11 3 (0.12%) IAG
11 3 (0.12%) NFS
11 3 (0.12%) SRDF
12 1 (0.040%) Firmware
12 1 (0.040%) KVM
12 1 (0.040%) ProxySG
12 1 (0.040%) Slurm Workload Manager
12 1 (0.040%) Snort
Systems Management
1 104 (4.15%) Kubernetes
2 91 (3.63%) Terraform
3 55 (2.19%) Ansible
4 39 (1.56%) Microsoft Intune
5 26 (1.04%) Single Sign-On
6 19 (0.76%) Grafana
6 19 (0.76%) vCenter Server
7 15 (0.60%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 15 (0.60%) Prometheus
8 14 (0.56%) Jamf Pro
9 13 (0.52%) Argo
10 8 (0.32%) FortiGate
11 6 (0.24%) CASB
11 6 (0.24%) Istio
12 5 (0.20%) EMC VPLEX
12 5 (0.20%) MOM
13 4 (0.16%) NetBackup
13 4 (0.16%) SCCM
13 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
14 3 (0.12%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 332 (13.24%) Microsoft
2 135 (5.38%) SAP
3 112 (4.47%) Oracle
4 110 (4.39%) VMware
5 107 (4.27%) ServiceNow
6 74 (2.95%) Databricks
7 73 (2.91%) Cisco
8 71 (2.83%) Google
9 48 (1.91%) Salesforce
10 33 (1.32%) F5
11 31 (1.24%) Citrix
12 30 (1.20%) Red Hat
13 23 (0.92%) CyberArk
14 22 (0.88%) BiZZdesign
15 21 (0.84%) Palo Alto
16 20 (0.80%) Infoblox
16 20 (0.80%) Informatica
16 20 (0.80%) MuleSoft
16 20 (0.80%) Talend
17 19 (0.76%) Juniper