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 1 June 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 19 13
Rank change year-on-year +9 -6 +5
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,380 1,096 2,098
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.54% 8.43% 10.10%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.38% 9.19% 10.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,573 731 1,259
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 £706 £694 £725
90th Percentile £775 £750 £795
UK median daily rate £615 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -1.60% -3.85% -1.07%
Number of hourly rates quoted 122 25 93
10th Percentile £49.40 £45.58 -
25th Percentile £60.00 £66.00 £60.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £73.31 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -11.34% +4.73% -
75th Percentile £78.69 £82.25 £87.00
90th Percentile £96.15 £86.70 £90.00
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 22,922 11,927 19,202
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.83% 91.72% 92.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,199 7,600 11,609
10th Percentile £300 £213 £213
25th Percentile £403 £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 £680 £650 £688
UK median daily rate £513 £505 £525
% change year-on-year +1.49% -3.81% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,644 861 2,406
10th Percentile £14.66 £13.75 £12.50
25th Percentile £20.00 £16.95 £15.75
Median hourly rate £43.69 £25.32 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +72.55% -36.70% -6.98%
75th Percentile £67.25 £60.63 £62.50
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £74.00
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £28.00 £37.50
% change year-on-year +51.79% -25.33% -16.67%

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 1 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 1 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 1 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
South East +4 677 £625 +2.04% 296
North of England +4 672 £600 - 318
Midlands +1 436 £600 +0.17% 124
North West +6 371 £608 +5.74% 182
West Midlands +2 312 £620 +3.33% 93
Yorkshire +6 253 £552 -7.96% 84
South West +1 241 £650 +8.33% 170
East of England +19 202 £575 -4.17% 86
Scotland +15 152 £650 +4.00% 67
East Midlands +2 118 £571 +8.60% 31
North East +6 55 £575 -4.17% 53
Wales -1 32 £600 +25.00% 44
Northern Ireland +8 7 £475 -28.30% 24
Channel Islands - 3 £575 - 2
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 1 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.

1 684 (28.74%) Security Cleared
2 483 (20.29%) Azure
3 407 (17.10%) SC Cleared
4 376 (15.80%) AWS
5 333 (13.99%) Agile
6 332 (13.95%) Roadmaps
7 326 (13.70%) Microsoft
8 275 (11.55%) Stakeholder Management
9 269 (11.30%) Migration
10 253 (10.63%) Enterprise Architecture
11 252 (10.59%) DevOps
12 228 (9.58%) DV Cleared
13 218 (9.16%) CI/CD
14 213 (8.95%) Technical Leadership
15 194 (8.15%) Integration Patterns
16 191 (8.03%) Microservices
17 190 (7.98%) Architectural Patterns
17 190 (7.98%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 188 (7.90%) Data Modelling
19 172 (7.23%) Data Architecture
20 161 (6.76%) Architectural Design
20 161 (6.76%) TOGAF
21 152 (6.39%) Problem-Solving
22 151 (6.34%) Cybersecurity
23 146 (6.13%) SAP
24 137 (5.76%) Analytics
25 135 (5.67%) GCP
26 133 (5.59%) AI
27 128 (5.38%) Continuous Improvement
28 127 (5.34%) VMware

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 (2.61%) SharePoint
2 47 (1.97%) Confluence
3 36 (1.51%) Microsoft Exchange
4 22 (0.92%) SAS
5 13 (0.55%) Appian
6 12 (0.50%) 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 (0.34%) 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 13 (0.55%) Microsoft Excel
1 13 (0.55%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 10 (0.42%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.29%) MS Visio
3 7 (0.29%) Navisworks
3 7 (0.29%) Revit
4 5 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
5 4 (0.17%) Chatbot
5 4 (0.17%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.042%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 58 (2.44%) SAP S/4HANA
2 21 (0.88%) 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%) Maximo
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%) 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
1 483 (20.29%) Azure
2 376 (15.80%) AWS
3 135 (5.67%) GCP
4 93 (3.91%) Power Platform
5 89 (3.74%) Entra ID
6 81 (3.40%) Microsoft 365
7 74 (3.11%) Serverless
8 70 (2.94%) SaaS
9 54 (2.27%) PaaS
10 43 (1.81%) GitHub
11 42 (1.76%) IaaS
12 39 (1.64%) Microsoft Purview
13 38 (1.60%) Azure DevOps
14 35 (1.47%) OpenShift
15 29 (1.22%) OneDrive
16 28 (1.18%) AWS Lambda
17 26 (1.09%) Azure Data Factory
17 26 (1.09%) Dynamics 365
18 24 (1.01%) Azure Synapse Analytics
18 24 (1.01%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 97 (4.08%) Firewall
2 69 (2.90%) WAN
3 68 (2.86%) DNS
4 65 (2.73%) Network Security
5 53 (2.23%) LAN
6 49 (2.06%) VPN
7 40 (1.68%) SD-WAN
8 36 (1.51%) DHCP
9 28 (1.18%) VLAN
10 25 (1.05%) Wireless
11 24 (1.01%) SAN
12 23 (0.97%) BGP
12 23 (0.97%) NAS
13 21 (0.88%) Structured Cabling
14 19 (0.80%) IPsec
15 18 (0.76%) MPLS
16 17 (0.71%) BIG-IP
16 17 (0.71%) OSPF
17 14 (0.59%) NX-OS
18 13 (0.55%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 70 (2.94%) Metadata
1 70 (2.94%) Power BI
2 55 (2.31%) Data Warehouse
3 41 (1.72%) Data Lake
4 35 (1.47%) NoSQL
4 35 (1.47%) SQL Server
5 26 (1.09%) PostgreSQL
6 20 (0.84%) Tableau
7 19 (0.80%) Oracle Database
8 15 (0.63%) GIS
9 11 (0.46%) MongoDB
10 10 (0.42%) Big Data
11 9 (0.38%) DynamoDB
11 9 (0.38%) Relational Database
12 8 (0.34%) Azure SQL Database
12 8 (0.34%) Electronic Patient Records
12 8 (0.34%) MySQL
13 7 (0.29%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
13 7 (0.29%) SAS Enterprise Guide
13 7 (0.29%) Spatial Data
Development Applications
1 60 (2.52%) 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
1 420 (17.65%) Social Skills
2 326 (13.70%) Finance
3 209 (8.78%) Public Sector
4 143 (6.01%) Banking
5 119 (5.00%) Analytical Skills
6 78 (3.28%) Retail
7 57 (2.39%) Documentation Skills
7 57 (2.39%) Manufacturing
8 54 (2.27%) Legal
9 34 (1.43%) Influencing Skills
10 32 (1.34%) Aerospace
10 32 (1.34%) Military
11 26 (1.09%) Investment Banking
12 22 (0.92%) Presentation Skills
13 20 (0.84%) Financial Institution
14 19 (0.80%) Back Office
14 19 (0.80%) Marketing
15 16 (0.67%) Telecoms
16 12 (0.50%) Billing
17 11 (0.46%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 101 (4.24%) REST
2 79 (3.32%) Middleware
3 51 (2.14%) .NET
4 48 (2.02%) OAuth
5 44 (1.85%) OpenID
6 43 (1.81%) SOAP
7 32 (1.34%) OAuth2
7 32 (1.34%) SAML
8 28 (1.18%) Kafka
8 28 (1.18%) Oracle Fusion
9 27 (1.13%) SailPoint
10 24 (1.01%) RESTful
11 23 (0.97%) React
12 22 (0.92%) JSON
12 22 (0.92%) Node.js
13 19 (0.80%) LDAP
13 19 (0.80%) Web Services
14 16 (0.67%) Microsoft Graph
15 14 (0.59%) AngularJS
16 12 (0.50%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 165 (6.93%) Cloud Native
2 85 (3.57%) Data Centre
3 67 (2.82%) Product Ownership
4 65 (2.73%) Operational Technology
5 52 (2.18%) Management Information System
6 51 (2.14%) Onboarding
7 50 (2.10%) Hybrid Cloud
7 50 (2.10%) Public Cloud
8 46 (1.93%) Data Protection Act
9 44 (1.85%) Distributed Systems
9 44 (1.85%) Enterprise Software
10 42 (1.76%) Legacy Systems
11 28 (1.18%) PKI
12 27 (1.13%) SCADA
13 25 (1.05%) CMDB
14 20 (0.84%) Private Cloud
15 19 (0.80%) Data Structures
16 18 (0.76%) Security Posture
17 17 (0.71%) AI Agents
18 16 (0.67%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 108 (4.54%) Windows
2 56 (2.35%) 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 (0.34%) Windows 10
7 8 (0.34%) 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
1 333 (13.99%) Agile
2 332 (13.95%) Roadmaps
3 275 (11.55%) Stakeholder Management
4 269 (11.30%) Migration
5 253 (10.63%) Enterprise Architecture
6 252 (10.59%) DevOps
7 218 (9.16%) CI/CD
8 213 (8.95%) Technical Leadership
9 194 (8.15%) Integration Patterns
10 191 (8.03%) Microservices
11 190 (7.98%) Architectural Patterns
11 190 (7.98%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 188 (7.90%) Data Modelling
13 172 (7.23%) Data Architecture
14 161 (6.76%) Architectural Design
14 161 (6.76%) TOGAF
15 152 (6.39%) Problem-Solving
16 151 (6.34%) Cybersecurity
17 137 (5.76%) Analytics
18 133 (5.59%) AI
Programming Languages
1 102 (4.29%) Python
2 100 (4.20%) SQL
3 73 (3.07%) Java
4 69 (2.90%) PowerShell
5 49 (2.06%) JavaScript
6 31 (1.30%) C#
7 21 (0.88%) Bicep
8 16 (0.67%) Bash
8 16 (0.67%) TypeScript
9 12 (0.50%) PL/SQL
10 10 (0.42%) Kusto Query Language
11 8 (0.34%) VBA
12 6 (0.25%) Scala
13 5 (0.21%) Apex Code
14 4 (0.17%) ABAP
14 4 (0.17%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 4 (0.17%) Kotlin
14 4 (0.17%) T-SQL
14 4 (0.17%) VB
14 4 (0.17%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 684 (28.74%) Security Cleared
2 407 (17.10%) SC Cleared
3 228 (9.58%) DV Cleared
4 87 (3.66%) Degree
5 52 (2.18%) BPSS Clearance
6 48 (2.02%) Cisco Certification
7 45 (1.89%) TOGAF Certification
8 36 (1.51%) Azure Certification
9 35 (1.47%) Computer Science Degree
10 34 (1.43%) CISSP
11 33 (1.39%) CCNP
12 31 (1.30%) AWS Certification
13 22 (0.92%) Microsoft Certification
14 17 (0.71%) CISM
15 16 (0.67%) CCNA
15 16 (0.67%) Master's Degree
16 12 (0.50%) ITIL Certification
16 12 (0.50%) Network+ Certification
16 12 (0.50%) Server+ Certification
17 11 (0.46%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 89 (3.74%) NIST
2 77 (3.24%) GDPR
3 62 (2.61%) Data Quality
4 54 (2.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 47 (1.97%) NCSC
6 23 (0.97%) QA
7 20 (0.84%) Accessibility
8 16 (0.67%) PCI DSS
9 14 (0.59%) GRC
10 13 (0.55%) Cyber Essentials
11 12 (0.50%) FINRA
11 12 (0.50%) MiFID
11 12 (0.50%) NIST 800
12 11 (0.46%) COBIT
13 10 (0.42%) ISO 20022
14 9 (0.38%) HL7
14 9 (0.38%) IFRS
15 8 (0.34%) Disclosure Scotland
16 7 (0.29%) ISO 19650
17 6 (0.25%) SEPA
System Software
1 97 (4.08%) Active Directory
2 61 (2.56%) VMware Infrastructure
3 36 (1.51%) Docker
4 31 (1.30%) VMware NSX
5 21 (0.88%) Hyper-V
5 21 (0.88%) vSphere
6 12 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
7 11 (0.46%) VMware ESXi
8 9 (0.38%) 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%) Snort
Systems Management
1 82 (3.45%) Kubernetes
2 78 (3.28%) Terraform
3 53 (2.23%) Ansible
4 35 (1.47%) Microsoft Intune
5 26 (1.09%) Single Sign-On
5 26 (1.09%) vCenter Server
6 16 (0.67%) 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 6 (0.25%) Istio
12 6 (0.25%) Jamf Pro
13 5 (0.21%) EMC VPLEX
13 5 (0.21%) Endace
13 5 (0.21%) WMI
14 4 (0.17%) OPNET
14 4 (0.17%) SnapMirror
15 3 (0.13%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 326 (13.70%) Microsoft
2 146 (6.13%) SAP
3 127 (5.34%) VMware
4 108 (4.54%) ServiceNow
5 104 (4.37%) Oracle
6 75 (3.15%) Cisco
7 60 (2.52%) Databricks
8 57 (2.39%) Salesforce
9 55 (2.31%) Google
10 41 (1.72%) MuleSoft
11 28 (1.18%) F5
12 27 (1.13%) Red Hat
13 26 (1.09%) Citrix
14 25 (1.05%) Palo Alto
15 23 (0.97%) Juniper
15 23 (0.97%) Sparx
16 21 (0.88%) BiZZdesign
17 20 (0.84%) Talend
18 17 (0.71%) Splunk
19 16 (0.67%) Informatica