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 30 June 2026.

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

6 months to
30 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 20 13
Rank change year-on-year +9 -7 +5
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,502 1,090 2,085
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.52% 7.91% 9.90%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.35% 8.68% 10.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,653 727 1,256
10th Percentile £469 £450 £490
25th Percentile £525 £513 £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 £763 £788
UK median daily rate £617 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -1.28% -3.85% -0.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 144 16 93
10th Percentile £49.40 £34.53 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £62.25 £61.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £72.00 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -9.72% +2.86% -
75th Percentile £71.91 £86.00 £87.00
90th Percentile £83.70 £99.28 £90.00
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 24,165 12,555 19,465
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.99% 91.12% 92.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,791 7,838 11,638
10th Percentile £303 £220 £213
25th Percentile £406 £363 £368
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 2,799 1,003 2,455
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.50 £12.70
25th Percentile £20.51 £16.67 £15.99
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -
75th Percentile £67.50 £57.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £74.48
UK median hourly rate £43.00 £27.00 £37.50
% change year-on-year +59.26% -28.00% -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 30 June 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 30 June 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 30 June 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 +7 716 £600 - 152
South East +3 707 £625 +4.08% 179
Midlands +2 433 £613 +3.90% 90
North West +4 383 £610 +1.67% 89
West Midlands +2 310 £625 +4.17% 74
South West +2 279 £640 +5.57% 78
Yorkshire +9 271 £575 -4.17% 39
East of England +23 198 £600 - 45
Scotland +7 163 £650 +4.00% 43
East Midlands +8 117 £575 +15.00% 16
North East +9 69 £575 -8.00% 27
Wales +4 34 £620 +29.17% 23
Northern Ireland +5 7 £475 -32.14% 13
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 30 June 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.

1 737 (29.46%) Security Cleared
2 538 (21.50%) Azure
3 457 (18.27%) SC Cleared
4 427 (17.07%) AWS
5 356 (14.23%) Roadmaps
6 350 (13.99%) Microsoft
7 341 (13.63%) Agile
8 307 (12.27%) Stakeholder Management
9 291 (11.63%) Migration
10 266 (10.63%) DevOps
11 262 (10.47%) Enterprise Architecture
12 249 (9.95%) Technical Leadership
13 234 (9.35%) Integration Patterns
14 230 (9.19%) DV Cleared
15 228 (9.11%) CI/CD
16 221 (8.83%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 208 (8.31%) Architectural Patterns
18 206 (8.23%) Data Modelling
19 200 (7.99%) Microservices
20 195 (7.79%) Data Architecture
21 176 (7.03%) TOGAF
22 174 (6.95%) Problem-Solving
23 173 (6.91%) Cybersecurity
24 165 (6.59%) Architectural Design
25 164 (6.55%) AI
26 155 (6.20%) GCP
27 148 (5.92%) SAP
28 146 (5.84%) Security Architecture
29 142 (5.68%) Analytics
30 139 (5.56%) 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 59 (2.36%) SharePoint
2 44 (1.76%) Confluence
3 33 (1.32%) Microsoft Exchange
4 31 (1.24%) SAS
5 13 (0.52%) Apache Airflow
5 13 (0.52%) Appian
6 10 (0.40%) Apache
7 9 (0.36%) Apache Spark
7 9 (0.36%) CMS
8 8 (0.32%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 8 (0.32%) OpenStack
9 6 (0.24%) ArcGIS
9 6 (0.24%) Palantir Foundry
9 6 (0.24%) Sitecore CMS
9 6 (0.24%) WebLogic
10 5 (0.20%) Documentum
10 5 (0.20%) NetWeaver
11 4 (0.16%) JBoss
11 4 (0.16%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 4 (0.16%) SAP EP
Applications
1 10 (0.40%) Microsoft Excel
1 10 (0.40%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 9 (0.36%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (0.36%) MS Visio
3 7 (0.28%) Navisworks
3 7 (0.28%) Revit
4 6 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
5 4 (0.16%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.040%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.040%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 63 (2.52%) SAP S/4HANA
2 20 (0.80%) Payment Gateway
3 17 (0.68%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 12 (0.48%) SAP ERP
5 11 (0.44%) Teamcenter
6 10 (0.40%) Remedy ITSM
7 7 (0.28%) 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%) Oracle Receivables
11 3 (0.12%) SAP IBP
12 2 (0.080%) Infor M3
12 2 (0.080%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 538 (21.50%) Azure
2 427 (17.07%) AWS
3 155 (6.20%) GCP
4 101 (4.04%) Power Platform
5 92 (3.68%) Entra ID
6 81 (3.24%) SaaS
7 79 (3.16%) Serverless
8 77 (3.08%) Microsoft 365
9 58 (2.32%) PaaS
10 49 (1.96%) GitHub
11 48 (1.92%) IaaS
12 42 (1.68%) Azure DevOps
13 33 (1.32%) OpenShift
14 31 (1.24%) Dynamics 365
15 30 (1.20%) AWS Lambda
15 30 (1.20%) Microsoft Purview
16 25 (1.00%) GitHub Actions
16 25 (1.00%) OneDrive
16 25 (1.00%) Snowflake
17 24 (0.96%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 112 (4.48%) Firewall
2 78 (3.12%) DNS
2 78 (3.12%) WAN
3 72 (2.88%) Network Security
4 60 (2.40%) LAN
5 48 (1.92%) VPN
6 44 (1.76%) SD-WAN
7 42 (1.68%) DHCP
8 34 (1.36%) VLAN
9 29 (1.16%) BGP
10 27 (1.08%) TCP/IP
11 25 (1.00%) Wireless
12 24 (0.96%) MPLS
12 24 (0.96%) SAN
13 23 (0.92%) NAS
14 21 (0.84%) IPsec
14 21 (0.84%) Structured Cabling
15 20 (0.80%) BIG-IP
16 19 (0.76%) OSPF
17 14 (0.56%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (2.88%) Metadata
2 71 (2.84%) Power BI
3 58 (2.32%) Data Warehouse
4 56 (2.24%) Data Lake
5 34 (1.36%) NoSQL
6 30 (1.20%) SQL Server
7 24 (0.96%) PostgreSQL
8 16 (0.64%) Oracle Database
9 15 (0.60%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
10 14 (0.56%) GIS
11 13 (0.52%) Amazon RDS
11 13 (0.52%) Azure SQL Database
11 13 (0.52%) Base SAS
12 12 (0.48%) Big Data
12 12 (0.48%) Tableau
13 11 (0.44%) MongoDB
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 58 (2.32%) JIRA
2 34 (1.36%) Jenkins
3 24 (0.96%) Git
4 18 (0.72%) GitLab
5 10 (0.40%) ERwin
6 6 (0.24%) Artifactory
6 6 (0.24%) Sonatype Nexus
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%) JUnit
9 3 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.12%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.080%) IntelliJ
10 2 (0.080%) JMeter
10 2 (0.080%) LoadRunner
10 2 (0.080%) Oracle APEX
10 2 (0.080%) Oracle Forms
General
1 459 (18.35%) Social Skills
2 353 (14.11%) Finance
3 237 (9.47%) Public Sector
4 143 (5.72%) Banking
5 137 (5.48%) Analytical Skills
6 96 (3.84%) Retail
7 69 (2.76%) Manufacturing
8 61 (2.44%) Documentation Skills
9 55 (2.20%) Legal
10 41 (1.64%) Influencing Skills
11 33 (1.32%) Aerospace
12 32 (1.28%) Military
13 24 (0.96%) Financial Institution
13 24 (0.96%) Investment Banking
14 23 (0.92%) Telecoms
15 19 (0.76%) Marketing
15 19 (0.76%) Presentation Skills
16 18 (0.72%) Back Office
17 16 (0.64%) Billing
18 11 (0.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 116 (4.64%) REST
2 77 (3.08%) Middleware
3 49 (1.96%) OAuth
4 46 (1.84%) SOAP
5 45 (1.80%) .NET
5 45 (1.80%) OpenID
6 35 (1.40%) Oracle Fusion
6 35 (1.40%) SailPoint
7 33 (1.32%) SAML
8 31 (1.24%) Kafka
8 31 (1.24%) OAuth2
9 25 (1.00%) RESTful
10 23 (0.92%) Node.js
11 21 (0.84%) LDAP
12 20 (0.80%) JSON
12 20 (0.80%) React
12 20 (0.80%) Web Services
13 14 (0.56%) AngularJS
14 12 (0.48%) FHIR
14 12 (0.48%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 180 (7.19%) Cloud Native
2 94 (3.76%) Data Centre
3 71 (2.84%) Product Ownership
4 70 (2.80%) Operational Technology
5 67 (2.68%) Hybrid Cloud
6 58 (2.32%) Management Information System
7 56 (2.24%) Onboarding
8 53 (2.12%) Data Protection Act
8 53 (2.12%) Legacy Systems
9 48 (1.92%) Enterprise Software
10 47 (1.88%) Distributed Systems
11 45 (1.80%) Public Cloud
12 30 (1.20%) CMDB
13 29 (1.16%) Private Cloud
14 23 (0.92%) PKI
14 23 (0.92%) Security Posture
15 22 (0.88%) AI Agents
15 22 (0.88%) SCADA
16 20 (0.80%) Data Structures
16 20 (0.80%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
Operating Systems
1 107 (4.28%) Windows
2 46 (1.84%) Linux
3 33 (1.32%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.64%) Android
4 16 (0.64%) Apple iOS
5 13 (0.52%) Unix
6 5 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
6 5 (0.20%) Windows 7
7 4 (0.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 4 (0.16%) Windows 10
7 4 (0.16%) Windows Server 2016
8 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2019
9 2 (0.080%) AIX
9 2 (0.080%) VMS
9 2 (0.080%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.040%) CatOS
10 1 (0.040%) Kali Linux
10 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.040%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 356 (14.23%) Roadmaps
2 341 (13.63%) Agile
3 307 (12.27%) Stakeholder Management
4 291 (11.63%) Migration
5 266 (10.63%) DevOps
6 262 (10.47%) Enterprise Architecture
7 249 (9.95%) Technical Leadership
8 234 (9.35%) Integration Patterns
9 228 (9.11%) CI/CD
10 221 (8.83%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 208 (8.31%) Architectural Patterns
12 206 (8.23%) Data Modelling
13 200 (7.99%) Microservices
14 195 (7.79%) Data Architecture
15 176 (7.03%) TOGAF
16 174 (6.95%) Problem-Solving
17 173 (6.91%) Cybersecurity
18 165 (6.59%) Architectural Design
19 164 (6.55%) AI
20 146 (5.84%) Security Architecture
Programming Languages
1 112 (4.48%) Python
2 111 (4.44%) SQL
3 88 (3.52%) Java
4 60 (2.40%) PowerShell
5 49 (1.96%) JavaScript
6 29 (1.16%) C#
7 25 (1.00%) Bicep
8 21 (0.84%) Bash
9 15 (0.60%) TypeScript
10 8 (0.32%) ABAP
10 8 (0.32%) Kusto Query Language
10 8 (0.32%) PL/SQL
10 8 (0.32%) VBA
11 6 (0.24%) Scala
12 5 (0.20%) Apex Code
13 4 (0.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 4 (0.16%) Kotlin
13 4 (0.16%) VB
13 4 (0.16%) VBScript
14 3 (0.12%) C
Qualifications
1 737 (29.46%) Security Cleared
2 457 (18.27%) SC Cleared
3 230 (9.19%) DV Cleared
4 93 (3.72%) Degree
5 57 (2.28%) Cisco Certification
6 51 (2.04%) BPSS Clearance
7 42 (1.68%) AWS Certification
8 39 (1.56%) Azure Certification
8 39 (1.56%) CISSP
9 37 (1.48%) TOGAF Certification
10 35 (1.40%) Computer Science Degree
11 34 (1.36%) CCNP
12 22 (0.88%) Microsoft Certification
13 16 (0.64%) CCNA
13 16 (0.64%) CISM
13 16 (0.64%) Master's Degree
14 14 (0.56%) CCIE
15 13 (0.52%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 13 (0.52%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
16 12 (0.48%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 96 (3.84%) NIST
2 74 (2.96%) Data Quality
2 74 (2.96%) GDPR
3 57 (2.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 55 (2.20%) NCSC
5 26 (1.04%) QA
6 20 (0.80%) Accessibility
7 18 (0.72%) PCI DSS
8 14 (0.56%) NIST 800
9 13 (0.52%) GRC
10 12 (0.48%) COBIT
11 11 (0.44%) IFRS
12 10 (0.40%) FINRA
12 10 (0.40%) HL7
12 10 (0.40%) ISO 19650
12 10 (0.40%) MiFID
13 9 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials
13 9 (0.36%) ISO 20022
13 9 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
14 8 (0.32%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 105 (4.20%) Active Directory
2 53 (2.12%) VMware Infrastructure
3 39 (1.56%) Docker
4 33 (1.32%) VMware NSX
5 20 (0.80%) Virtual Desktop
6 19 (0.76%) Hyper-V
6 19 (0.76%) vSphere
7 9 (0.36%) VMware ESXi
8 8 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
9 7 (0.28%) vCloud
10 4 (0.16%) BitLocker
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 2 (0.080%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
12 2 (0.080%) Firmware
13 1 (0.040%) Embedded Firmware
13 1 (0.040%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 95 (3.80%) Terraform
2 94 (3.76%) Kubernetes
3 52 (2.08%) Ansible
4 36 (1.44%) Microsoft Intune
5 25 (1.00%) Single Sign-On
6 22 (0.88%) vCenter Server
7 17 (0.68%) Grafana
8 16 (0.64%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 14 (0.56%) FortiGate
10 13 (0.52%) Argo
10 13 (0.52%) Prometheus
11 10 (0.40%) Jamf Pro
11 10 (0.40%) SCCM
12 8 (0.32%) Istio
13 6 (0.24%) CASB
14 5 (0.20%) EMC VPLEX
15 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
16 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
16 3 (0.12%) Endace
16 3 (0.12%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 350 (13.99%) Microsoft
2 148 (5.92%) SAP
3 116 (4.64%) VMware
4 110 (4.40%) ServiceNow
5 109 (4.36%) Oracle
6 77 (3.08%) Cisco
7 71 (2.84%) Google
8 69 (2.76%) Databricks
9 53 (2.12%) Salesforce
10 32 (1.28%) F5
11 27 (1.08%) Citrix
11 27 (1.08%) Palo Alto
12 26 (1.04%) MuleSoft
12 26 (1.04%) Red Hat
13 23 (0.92%) BiZZdesign
14 21 (0.84%) Juniper
15 20 (0.80%) Talend
16 19 (0.76%) Infoblox
16 19 (0.76%) Sparx
17 16 (0.64%) CyberArk