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 £600, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 9 January 2026.

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

6 months to
9 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 19 17 14
Rank change year-on-year -2 -3 +8
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 1,637 1,255 1,732
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.02% 8.98% 9.00%
As % of the Job Titles category 9.97% 9.73% 9.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,117 780 1,160
10th Percentile £450 £475 £500
25th Percentile £513 £550 £560
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £625 £649
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% -3.70% -0.15%
75th Percentile £700 £700 £700
90th Percentile £775 £761 £750
UK median daily rate £625 £625 £650
% change year-on-year - -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 34 23 31
10th Percentile £60.18 £61.50 £61.25
25th Percentile £66.25 £66.00 £72.25
Median hourly rate £83.82 £72.50 £76.53
Median % change year-on-year +15.61% -5.27% +9.33%
75th Percentile £93.60 £79.47 £83.88
90th Percentile £95.00 £85.07 £95.00
UK median hourly rate £83.41 £72.50 £76.53
% change year-on-year +15.05% -5.27% +9.33%

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 16,424 12,895 17,993
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.49% 92.28% 93.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,079 7,632 11,592
10th Percentile £213 £213 £213
25th Percentile £375 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £479 £500
Median % change year-on-year -0.89% -4.15% -
75th Percentile £575 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £676 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,663 705 1,344
10th Percentile £13.95 £15.22 £14.16
25th Percentile £17.69 £20.30 £18.10
Median hourly rate £25.15 £31.50 £45.11
Median % change year-on-year -20.16% -30.16% +67.04%
75th Percentile £60.00 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £71.64 £76.53
UK median hourly rate £26.50 £32.50 £44.50
% change year-on-year -18.46% -26.97% +34.85%

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 9 January 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 9 January 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 9 January 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 +9 530 £600 -4.00% 212
North of England -9 386 £575 -4.17% 146
Midlands -4 278 £574 -4.38% 86
South West 0 242 £710 +13.60% 61
North West -7 233 £575 -4.17% 76
West Midlands -4 206 £585 -3.69% 57
Yorkshire -16 145 £563 -7.41% 51
East of England +1 101 £550 -12.00% 80
Scotland -1 99 £650 +4.00% 25
East Midlands -3 72 £496 -13.74% 28
Wales -3 25 £625 +0.81% 27
North East -23 8 £588 -2.02% 20
Northern Ireland -11 5 £500 -16.67% 4
Channel Islands - 2 £625 -
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 9 January 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.

1 592 (36.16%) Security Cleared
2 376 (22.97%) SC Cleared
3 367 (22.42%) Azure
4 282 (17.23%) AWS
5 259 (15.82%) Roadmaps
6 232 (14.17%) Agile
7 231 (14.11%) Microsoft
8 225 (13.74%) Stakeholder Management
9 210 (12.83%) TOGAF
10 200 (12.22%) Migration
11 193 (11.79%) Enterprise Architecture
12 162 (9.90%) DV Cleared
13 158 (9.65%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 151 (9.22%) ITIL
15 147 (8.98%) Data Modelling
16 142 (8.67%) DevOps
17 140 (8.55%) Technical Leadership
18 134 (8.19%) Problem-Solving
19 125 (7.64%) CI/CD
20 120 (7.33%) GCP
21 115 (7.03%) Mentoring
22 114 (6.96%) Cybersecurity
23 110 (6.72%) Architectural Design
23 110 (6.72%) VMware
24 104 (6.35%) Python
25 103 (6.29%) AI
26 101 (6.17%) Analytics
27 98 (5.99%) Decision-Making
27 98 (5.99%) Degree
28 96 (5.86%) Windows

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 74 (4.52%) Confluence
2 38 (2.32%) SharePoint
3 30 (1.83%) Microsoft Exchange
4 16 (0.98%) SAS
5 9 (0.55%) ArcGIS
5 9 (0.55%) Smallworld
5 9 (0.55%) WebLogic
6 8 (0.49%) Anypoint
7 6 (0.37%) OpenStack
8 5 (0.31%) GeoServer
9 4 (0.24%) CMS
9 4 (0.24%) Documentum
10 3 (0.18%) Exchange Server 2013
10 3 (0.18%) Skype for Business
11 2 (0.12%) Apache Spark
11 2 (0.12%) CICS
11 2 (0.12%) IIS
11 2 (0.12%) SAP EP
11 2 (0.12%) ThingWorx
11 2 (0.12%) Tomcat
Applications
1 38 (2.32%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (1.89%) Microsoft Project
3 20 (1.22%) Microsoft Excel
4 19 (1.16%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 9 (0.55%) Siemens NX
6 8 (0.49%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.061%) FrameMaker
7 1 (0.061%) OrCAD
7 1 (0.061%) Revit
7 1 (0.061%) Trello
Business Applications
1 43 (2.63%) SAP S/4HANA
2 23 (1.41%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 18 (1.10%) Dynamics CRM
4 15 (0.92%) Workday HCM
5 11 (0.67%) SAP CO
6 10 (0.61%) SAP FI
6 10 (0.61%) SAP FI/CO
7 9 (0.55%) Teamcenter
8 8 (0.49%) Salesforce CRM
9 7 (0.43%) Payment Gateway
9 7 (0.43%) SAP PM
10 6 (0.37%) Maximo
11 5 (0.31%) Dynamics AX
11 5 (0.31%) Oracle SCM
12 4 (0.24%) SAP PP
13 3 (0.18%) NetSuite
13 3 (0.18%) SAP CRM
13 3 (0.18%) SAP EWM
13 3 (0.18%) SAP HR
13 3 (0.18%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 367 (22.42%) Azure
2 282 (17.23%) AWS
3 120 (7.33%) GCP
4 65 (3.97%) Microsoft 365
5 64 (3.91%) SaaS
6 47 (2.87%) Entra ID
6 47 (2.87%) Serverless
7 45 (2.75%) Dynamics 365
7 45 (2.75%) Power Platform
8 39 (2.38%) GitHub
8 39 (2.38%) Microsoft Purview
9 30 (1.83%) AWS Lambda
10 28 (1.71%) Azure DevOps
10 28 (1.71%) PaaS
11 27 (1.65%) IaaS
12 26 (1.59%) OpenShift
13 22 (1.34%) AWS CloudFormation
14 21 (1.28%) OneDrive
15 20 (1.22%) Azure Synapse Analytics
16 19 (1.16%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 89 (5.44%) Firewall
2 60 (3.67%) WAN
3 45 (2.75%) DNS
4 44 (2.69%) VPN
5 38 (2.32%) Network Security
6 37 (2.26%) LAN
7 36 (2.20%) SD-WAN
8 20 (1.22%) MPLS
9 19 (1.16%) BGP
10 17 (1.04%) SAN
11 15 (0.92%) Internet
12 13 (0.79%) DHCP
12 13 (0.79%) VSAN
12 13 (0.79%) Wi-Fi
13 8 (0.49%) Cisco ASA
13 8 (0.49%) IPsec
13 8 (0.49%) OSPF
13 8 (0.49%) VLAN
13 8 (0.49%) Wireless
14 7 (0.43%) iSCSI
Database & Business Intelligence
1 58 (3.54%) Data Warehouse
2 40 (2.44%) Metadata
3 35 (2.14%) Power BI
4 34 (2.08%) SQL Server
5 26 (1.59%) PostgreSQL
6 23 (1.41%) Tableau
7 20 (1.22%) DynamoDB
8 19 (1.16%) Oracle Database
9 17 (1.04%) GIS
10 15 (0.92%) Redis
11 14 (0.86%) NoSQL
12 12 (0.73%) Relational Database
13 11 (0.67%) Data Lake
14 10 (0.61%) Azure SQL Database
14 10 (0.61%) BigQuery
14 10 (0.61%) RDBMS
15 9 (0.55%) Amazon Aurora
15 9 (0.55%) Amazon Redshift
16 8 (0.49%) Amazon Athena
16 8 (0.49%) Metadata Repository
Development Applications
1 83 (5.07%) JIRA
2 40 (2.44%) Jenkins
3 26 (1.59%) Git
4 10 (0.61%) GitLab
5 9 (0.55%) CircleCI
5 9 (0.55%) Oracle Forms
6 8 (0.49%) SonarQube
7 7 (0.43%) Artifactory
8 5 (0.31%) Gradle
8 5 (0.31%) Maven
8 5 (0.31%) SonarLint
9 4 (0.24%) MLflow
9 4 (0.24%) MSI
9 4 (0.24%) Rational DOORS
10 3 (0.18%) Bitbucket
10 3 (0.18%) Sonatype Nexus
11 2 (0.12%) JUnit
11 2 (0.12%) Postman
11 2 (0.12%) Visual Studio Code
12 1 (0.061%) ERwin
General
1 402 (24.56%) Social Skills
2 206 (12.58%) Public Sector
3 190 (11.61%) Finance
4 124 (7.57%) Analytical Skills
5 81 (4.95%) Banking
6 53 (3.24%) Military
7 46 (2.81%) Telecoms
8 41 (2.50%) Documentation Skills
9 40 (2.44%) Marketing
10 38 (2.32%) Legal
11 35 (2.14%) Retail
12 33 (2.02%) Influencing Skills
13 30 (1.83%) Presentation Skills
14 27 (1.65%) Manufacturing
15 24 (1.47%) Aerospace
16 12 (0.73%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 10 (0.61%) Back Office
18 9 (0.55%) Pharmaceutical
19 8 (0.49%) Local Government
20 6 (0.37%) Billing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 51 (3.12%) REST
2 41 (2.50%) Middleware
3 40 (2.44%) SOAP
4 32 (1.95%) .NET
5 23 (1.41%) RESTful
6 22 (1.34%) OAuth
7 17 (1.04%) Spring Boot
8 16 (0.98%) Node.js
8 16 (0.98%) SAML
9 15 (0.92%) Lightning Web Components
9 15 (0.92%) Visualforce
10 14 (0.86%) Kafka
10 14 (0.86%) SailPoint
11 13 (0.79%) OAuth2
11 13 (0.79%) Web Services
12 11 (0.67%) SAP PI
12 11 (0.67%) Spring
13 10 (0.61%) React
14 9 (0.55%) OpenID
14 9 (0.55%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 111 (6.78%) Cloud Native
2 87 (5.31%) Product Ownership
3 65 (3.97%) Data Centre
4 55 (3.36%) Legacy Systems
5 46 (2.81%) Hybrid Cloud
6 42 (2.57%) Onboarding
6 42 (2.57%) PKI
7 34 (2.08%) Operational Technology
7 34 (2.08%) Public Cloud
8 26 (1.59%) SCADA
9 24 (1.47%) Distributed Systems
10 21 (1.28%) Management Information System
11 20 (1.22%) Enterprise Software
12 19 (1.16%) Data Protection Act
13 18 (1.10%) CMDB
14 16 (0.98%) Security Posture
15 15 (0.92%) NHS
16 13 (0.79%) Analytical Mindset
16 13 (0.79%) IVR
17 12 (0.73%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 96 (5.86%) Windows
2 65 (3.97%) Linux
3 27 (1.65%) Windows Server
4 15 (0.92%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 13 (0.79%) Windows 7
6 11 (0.67%) Windows Server 2019
7 10 (0.61%) Windows 10
8 7 (0.43%) Windows Server 2016
9 5 (0.31%) Unix
9 5 (0.31%) VMS
10 4 (0.24%) Mac OS
11 3 (0.18%) Ubuntu
11 3 (0.18%) Windows Server 2008
12 2 (0.12%) Solaris
12 2 (0.12%) zOS
13 1 (0.061%) Android
13 1 (0.061%) Apple iOS
13 1 (0.061%) CentOS
13 1 (0.061%) MVS
13 1 (0.061%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 259 (15.82%) Roadmaps
2 232 (14.17%) Agile
3 225 (13.74%) Stakeholder Management
4 210 (12.83%) TOGAF
5 200 (12.22%) Migration
6 193 (11.79%) Enterprise Architecture
7 158 (9.65%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 151 (9.22%) ITIL
9 147 (8.98%) Data Modelling
10 142 (8.67%) DevOps
11 140 (8.55%) Technical Leadership
12 134 (8.19%) Problem-Solving
13 125 (7.64%) CI/CD
14 115 (7.03%) Mentoring
15 114 (6.96%) Cybersecurity
16 110 (6.72%) Architectural Design
17 103 (6.29%) AI
18 101 (6.17%) Analytics
19 98 (5.99%) Decision-Making
20 93 (5.68%) Microservices
Programming Languages
1 104 (6.35%) Python
2 63 (3.85%) Java
3 55 (3.36%) PowerShell
4 44 (2.69%) SQL
5 24 (1.47%) JavaScript
6 17 (1.04%) TypeScript
7 16 (0.98%) Apex Code
8 14 (0.86%) C#
9 12 (0.73%) Bash
10 8 (0.49%) PL/SQL
10 8 (0.49%) R
11 6 (0.37%) ABAP
12 5 (0.31%) Bicep
12 5 (0.31%) Kusto Query Language
13 4 (0.24%) C
13 4 (0.24%) C++
13 4 (0.24%) Ruby
14 3 (0.18%) Perl
14 3 (0.18%) T-SQL
14 3 (0.18%) X++
Qualifications
1 592 (36.16%) Security Cleared
2 376 (22.97%) SC Cleared
3 162 (9.90%) DV Cleared
4 98 (5.99%) Degree
5 71 (4.34%) TOGAF Certification
6 70 (4.28%) CISSP
7 51 (3.12%) AWS Certification
8 43 (2.63%) Azure Certification
9 38 (2.32%) Cisco Certification
10 34 (2.08%) CISM
11 30 (1.83%) Microsoft Certification
12 27 (1.65%) Computer Science Degree
13 25 (1.53%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 22 (1.34%) Master's Degree
15 21 (1.28%) BPSS Clearance
15 21 (1.28%) CCIE
15 21 (1.28%) ISEB
15 21 (1.28%) ITIL Certification
16 19 (1.16%) CCNP
17 14 (0.86%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 88 (5.38%) GDPR
2 76 (4.64%) NIST
3 67 (4.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 51 (3.12%) Data Quality
5 39 (2.38%) NCSC
6 31 (1.89%) PCI DSS
7 29 (1.77%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 23 (1.41%) COBIT
9 19 (1.16%) JSP 440
10 17 (1.04%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 17 (1.04%) QA
11 14 (0.86%) Cyber Essentials
12 11 (0.67%) GRC
13 9 (0.55%) Def Stans
13 9 (0.55%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 9 (0.55%) PSD2
14 8 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 8 (0.49%) ISO 20022
15 7 (0.43%) Accessibility
16 6 (0.37%) HIPAA
System Software
1 64 (3.91%) VMware Infrastructure
2 63 (3.85%) Active Directory
3 42 (2.57%) Docker
4 22 (1.34%) VMware NSX
5 21 (1.28%) vSphere
6 15 (0.92%) VMware ESXi
7 10 (0.61%) Hyper-V
7 10 (0.61%) Virtual Desktop
7 10 (0.61%) Virtual Machines
8 7 (0.43%) NFS
9 3 (0.18%) BitLocker
9 3 (0.18%) Dovecot
9 3 (0.18%) Postfix
9 3 (0.18%) vCloud
10 2 (0.12%) KVM
11 1 (0.061%) HDFS
11 1 (0.061%) RACF
11 1 (0.061%) SRDF
11 1 (0.061%) Veritas Cluster Server
11 1 (0.061%) Xen
Systems Management
1 95 (5.80%) Terraform
2 81 (4.95%) Kubernetes
3 55 (3.36%) Ansible
4 33 (2.02%) OPNET
5 25 (1.53%) Single Sign-On
6 20 (1.22%) vCenter Server
7 14 (0.86%) WMI
8 12 (0.73%) Prometheus
8 12 (0.73%) SCCM
9 11 (0.67%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 9 (0.55%) Grafana
10 9 (0.55%) Microsoft Intune
11 8 (0.49%) FortiGate
12 7 (0.43%) Argo
13 3 (0.18%) Puppet
14 2 (0.12%) Endace
14 2 (0.12%) Microsoft Clustering
14 2 (0.12%) SCOM
14 2 (0.12%) vRealize
14 2 (0.12%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 231 (14.11%) Microsoft
2 110 (6.72%) VMware
3 91 (5.56%) ServiceNow
4 89 (5.44%) Salesforce
4 89 (5.44%) SAP
5 74 (4.52%) Oracle
6 66 (4.03%) Cisco
7 35 (2.14%) Atlassian
7 35 (2.14%) Remedy
8 32 (1.95%) Google
9 31 (1.89%) Palo Alto
10 29 (1.77%) Red Hat
11 28 (1.71%) MuleSoft
12 23 (1.41%) CyberArk
12 23 (1.41%) Virgin Media
13 22 (1.34%) Sparx
14 21 (1.28%) Databricks
14 21 (1.28%) Workday
15 20 (1.22%) BiZZdesign
16 19 (1.16%) Pega