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 25 March 2026.

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

6 months to
25 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 18 13
Rank change year-on-year +8 -5 +7
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,246 1,113 2,001
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 10.19% 8.84% 9.53%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.12% 9.55% 10.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,449 777 1,225
10th Percentile £450 £450 £500
25th Percentile £506 £538 £575
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% -3.85% -
75th Percentile £700 £700 £725
90th Percentile £763 £750 £788
UK median daily rate £620 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -0.80% -3.85% -1.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 93 25 43
10th Percentile £49.40 £61.50 £53.45
25th Percentile £60.00 £66.00 £60.00
Median hourly rate £71.27 £72.50 £83.77
Median % change year-on-year -1.70% -13.45% +19.66%
75th Percentile £85.00 £80.59 £87.53
90th Percentile £95.00 £85.50 £95.00
UK median hourly rate £71.27 £71.25 £82.38
% change year-on-year +0.03% -13.51% +17.69%

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 20,206 11,651 19,485
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.64% 92.51% 92.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,997 7,615 12,084
10th Percentile £258 £213 £210
25th Percentile £400 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £482 £475 £488
Median % change year-on-year +1.47% -2.56% -2.50%
75th Percentile £581 £588 £595
90th Percentile £675 £663 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -4.37%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,192 713 2,098
10th Percentile £14.38 £14.99 £12.50
25th Percentile £18.87 £20.00 £15.50
Median hourly rate £36.86 £32.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +13.40% - -20.36%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £76.00 £75.45 £72.03
UK median hourly rate £36.71 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year +12.95% - -24.42%

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 25 March 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 25 March 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 25 March 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 +5 696 £625 - 254
North of England +6 588 £600 - 191
Midlands -2 393 £575 -4.17% 95
North West +7 334 £605 +0.83% 99
West Midlands +1 294 £600 -2.04% 69
South West +2 275 £700 +14.29% 100
Yorkshire +9 230 £563 -6.25% 70
East of England +16 170 £540 -16.92% 69
Scotland +18 136 £650 +4.00% 31
East Midlands -3 95 £525 -6.25% 26
North East +5 32 £575 -7.95% 26
Wales +2 27 £538 -5.70% 24
Northern Ireland +4 11 £500 -26.47% 4
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 25 March 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.

1 728 (32.41%) Security Cleared
2 465 (20.70%) Azure
3 406 (18.08%) SC Cleared
4 345 (15.36%) AWS
5 329 (14.65%) Roadmaps
6 328 (14.60%) Agile
7 324 (14.43%) Microsoft
8 263 (11.71%) DV Cleared
9 260 (11.58%) Stakeholder Management
10 258 (11.49%) Enterprise Architecture
11 257 (11.44%) Migration
12 225 (10.02%) TOGAF
13 214 (9.53%) DevOps
14 189 (8.41%) CI/CD
15 188 (8.37%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 186 (8.28%) Data Modelling
17 178 (7.93%) Technical Leadership
18 161 (7.17%) Problem-Solving
19 160 (7.12%) Architectural Patterns
20 157 (6.99%) Microservices
21 155 (6.90%) Data Architecture
22 152 (6.77%) Architectural Design
23 150 (6.68%) Cybersecurity
24 148 (6.59%) Analytics
24 148 (6.59%) ITIL
25 147 (6.54%) GCP
26 145 (6.46%) Integration Patterns
27 137 (6.10%) VMware
28 135 (6.01%) Windows
29 131 (5.83%) AI

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 90 (4.01%) Confluence
2 63 (2.80%) SharePoint
3 48 (2.14%) Microsoft Exchange
4 25 (1.11%) SAS
5 13 (0.58%) Appian
6 12 (0.53%) ArcGIS
7 11 (0.49%) CMS
8 10 (0.45%) Anypoint
9 9 (0.40%) Apache
9 9 (0.40%) Smallworld
10 7 (0.31%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 7 (0.31%) Apache Airflow
10 7 (0.31%) Skype for Business
11 6 (0.27%) Apache Spark
11 6 (0.27%) NetWeaver
11 6 (0.27%) Sitecore CMS
11 6 (0.27%) WebLogic
12 5 (0.22%) GeoServer
12 5 (0.22%) SAP EP
13 4 (0.18%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 45 (2.00%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (1.38%) Microsoft Project
3 22 (0.98%) Microsoft Excel
4 21 (0.93%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.31%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.18%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.045%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 53 (2.36%) SAP S/4HANA
2 31 (1.38%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 18 (0.80%) Payment Gateway
4 14 (0.62%) Workday HCM
5 10 (0.45%) Dynamics CRM
5 10 (0.45%) SAP ERP
6 8 (0.36%) Salesforce CRM
7 7 (0.31%) Maximo
7 7 (0.31%) Remedy ITSM
8 6 (0.27%) SAP CRM
9 4 (0.18%) Distributed Ledger
9 4 (0.18%) Oracle Retail
9 4 (0.18%) R3 Corda
9 4 (0.18%) SAP CO
9 4 (0.18%) SAP FI
9 4 (0.18%) SAP FI/CO
9 4 (0.18%) SAP GRC
9 4 (0.18%) SAP PP
9 4 (0.18%) Teamcenter
10 3 (0.13%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 465 (20.70%) Azure
2 345 (15.36%) AWS
3 147 (6.54%) GCP
4 92 (4.10%) Entra ID
5 86 (3.83%) Microsoft 365
6 66 (2.94%) Power Platform
7 59 (2.63%) SaaS
8 58 (2.58%) Serverless
9 49 (2.18%) PaaS
10 48 (2.14%) IaaS
11 47 (2.09%) Microsoft Purview
12 43 (1.91%) OpenShift
13 39 (1.74%) Azure DevOps
14 38 (1.69%) OneDrive
15 37 (1.65%) GitHub
16 31 (1.38%) Dynamics 365
17 27 (1.20%) Azure Synapse Analytics
18 25 (1.11%) AWS CloudFormation
19 24 (1.07%) AWS Lambda
20 23 (1.02%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 117 (5.21%) Firewall
2 75 (3.34%) DNS
2 75 (3.34%) WAN
3 69 (3.07%) Network Security
4 63 (2.80%) VPN
5 51 (2.27%) LAN
6 43 (1.91%) SD-WAN
7 28 (1.25%) DHCP
8 19 (0.85%) MPLS
9 18 (0.80%) VLAN
9 18 (0.80%) Wi-Fi
9 18 (0.80%) Wireless
10 17 (0.76%) BGP
10 17 (0.76%) SAN
11 14 (0.62%) IPsec
12 13 (0.58%) Kerberos
12 13 (0.58%) OSPF
13 12 (0.53%) SSL
14 11 (0.49%) Internet
14 11 (0.49%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 73 (3.25%) Data Warehouse
2 70 (3.12%) Metadata
3 53 (2.36%) Power BI
4 43 (1.91%) SQL Server
5 27 (1.20%) PostgreSQL
6 26 (1.16%) Tableau
7 25 (1.11%) Data Lake
8 24 (1.07%) NoSQL
8 24 (1.07%) Oracle Database
9 21 (0.93%) GIS
10 14 (0.62%) Metadata Repository
11 13 (0.58%) Azure SQL Database
11 13 (0.58%) DynamoDB
12 11 (0.49%) Big Data
12 11 (0.49%) Relational Database
13 10 (0.45%) Electronic Patient Records
14 9 (0.40%) MongoDB
15 7 (0.31%) Amazon Redshift
15 7 (0.31%) MySQL
15 7 (0.31%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 98 (4.36%) JIRA
2 45 (2.00%) Jenkins
3 19 (0.85%) GitLab
4 17 (0.76%) Git
5 6 (0.27%) ERwin
6 5 (0.22%) Artifactory
6 5 (0.22%) Sonatype Nexus
7 4 (0.18%) Bitbucket
7 4 (0.18%) Rational DOORS
7 4 (0.18%) Selenium
8 3 (0.13%) Cucumber
8 3 (0.13%) MLflow
8 3 (0.13%) MSI
8 3 (0.13%) Postman
8 3 (0.13%) REST Assured
8 3 (0.13%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.089%) Gatling
9 2 (0.089%) JMeter
9 2 (0.089%) LoadRunner
9 2 (0.089%) NeoLoad
General
1 433 (19.28%) Social Skills
2 281 (12.51%) Finance
3 235 (10.46%) Public Sector
4 148 (6.59%) Analytical Skills
5 133 (5.92%) Banking
6 61 (2.72%) Military
7 57 (2.54%) Documentation Skills
8 48 (2.14%) Legal
9 39 (1.74%) Retail
10 37 (1.65%) Influencing Skills
11 35 (1.56%) Telecoms
12 33 (1.47%) Presentation Skills
13 32 (1.42%) Marketing
14 22 (0.98%) Aerospace
15 21 (0.93%) Manufacturing
16 20 (0.89%) Investment Banking
17 19 (0.85%) Financial Institution
18 12 (0.53%) Billing
18 12 (0.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 12 (0.53%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 77 (3.43%) REST
2 60 (2.67%) Middleware
3 41 (1.83%) OAuth
4 40 (1.78%) .NET
5 38 (1.69%) SOAP
6 35 (1.56%) OpenID
7 31 (1.38%) OAuth2
8 30 (1.34%) SAML
9 26 (1.16%) SailPoint
10 25 (1.11%) Kafka
11 23 (1.02%) RESTful
12 17 (0.76%) React
12 17 (0.76%) Web Services
13 15 (0.67%) Microsoft Graph
14 13 (0.58%) Node.js
15 12 (0.53%) CSS
15 12 (0.53%) HTML
15 12 (0.53%) JSON
15 12 (0.53%) LDAP
16 10 (0.45%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 155 (6.90%) Cloud Native
2 96 (4.27%) Product Ownership
3 79 (3.52%) Data Centre
4 55 (2.45%) Onboarding
5 54 (2.40%) Public Cloud
6 49 (2.18%) Operational Technology
7 48 (2.14%) PKI
8 45 (2.00%) Hybrid Cloud
9 40 (1.78%) Management Information System
10 38 (1.69%) Enterprise Software
10 38 (1.69%) Legacy Systems
11 35 (1.56%) Data Protection Act
12 31 (1.38%) Distributed Systems
13 27 (1.20%) CMDB
13 27 (1.20%) SCADA
14 23 (1.02%) NHS
15 17 (0.76%) AI Agents
15 17 (0.76%) Private Cloud
16 16 (0.71%) Data Structures
17 15 (0.67%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 135 (6.01%) Windows
2 81 (3.61%) Linux
3 32 (1.42%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.71%) Windows 7
5 15 (0.67%) Android
5 15 (0.67%) Apple iOS
6 14 (0.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 11 (0.49%) Windows 10
8 8 (0.36%) Unix
8 8 (0.36%) Windows Server 2016
9 5 (0.22%) VMS
9 5 (0.22%) Windows Server 2019
10 4 (0.18%) Mac OS
11 3 (0.13%) Ubuntu
11 3 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.045%) CentOS
12 1 (0.045%) Data ONTAP
12 1 (0.045%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 329 (14.65%) Roadmaps
2 328 (14.60%) Agile
3 260 (11.58%) Stakeholder Management
4 258 (11.49%) Enterprise Architecture
5 257 (11.44%) Migration
6 225 (10.02%) TOGAF
7 214 (9.53%) DevOps
8 189 (8.41%) CI/CD
9 188 (8.37%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 186 (8.28%) Data Modelling
11 178 (7.93%) Technical Leadership
12 161 (7.17%) Problem-Solving
13 160 (7.12%) Architectural Patterns
14 157 (6.99%) Microservices
15 155 (6.90%) Data Architecture
16 152 (6.77%) Architectural Design
17 150 (6.68%) Cybersecurity
18 148 (6.59%) Analytics
18 148 (6.59%) ITIL
19 145 (6.46%) Integration Patterns
Programming Languages
1 125 (5.57%) Python
2 78 (3.47%) PowerShell
2 78 (3.47%) SQL
3 63 (2.80%) Java
4 31 (1.38%) JavaScript
5 30 (1.34%) C#
6 20 (0.89%) Bash
6 20 (0.89%) Bicep
7 11 (0.49%) Kusto Query Language
8 8 (0.36%) PL/SQL
8 8 (0.36%) R
9 7 (0.31%) VB
9 7 (0.31%) VBScript
10 5 (0.22%) ABAP
10 5 (0.22%) Apex Code
10 5 (0.22%) Scala
10 5 (0.22%) TypeScript
11 4 (0.18%) Kotlin
11 4 (0.18%) Perl
11 4 (0.18%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 728 (32.41%) Security Cleared
2 406 (18.08%) SC Cleared
3 263 (11.71%) DV Cleared
4 109 (4.85%) Degree
5 78 (3.47%) TOGAF Certification
6 66 (2.94%) CISSP
7 48 (2.14%) AWS Certification
8 46 (2.05%) BPSS Clearance
9 42 (1.87%) Cisco Certification
10 41 (1.83%) Azure Certification
11 38 (1.69%) CISM
12 30 (1.34%) Microsoft Certification
13 29 (1.29%) ISEB
14 28 (1.25%) ITIL Certification
15 27 (1.20%) CCNP
16 26 (1.16%) Computer Science Degree
17 25 (1.11%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
18 22 (0.98%) Master's Degree
19 16 (0.71%) CCIE
20 14 (0.62%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 104 (4.63%) GDPR
2 101 (4.50%) NIST
3 75 (3.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 74 (3.29%) Data Quality
5 49 (2.18%) NCSC
6 32 (1.42%) COBIT
6 32 (1.42%) PCI DSS
7 22 (0.98%) QA
8 19 (0.85%) GRC
9 18 (0.80%) Cyber Essentials
10 16 (0.71%) JSP 440
11 13 (0.58%) ISO 20022
12 12 (0.53%) FINRA
12 12 (0.53%) MiFID
13 10 (0.45%) Accessibility
13 10 (0.45%) NIST 800
14 9 (0.40%) Def Stans
14 9 (0.40%) HMG Security Policy Framework
14 9 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 20000
15 8 (0.36%) HL7
System Software
1 102 (4.54%) Active Directory
2 64 (2.85%) VMware Infrastructure
3 41 (1.83%) Docker
4 36 (1.60%) VMware NSX
5 25 (1.11%) vSphere
6 15 (0.67%) Virtual Desktop
7 14 (0.62%) Hyper-V
8 9 (0.40%) vCloud
8 9 (0.40%) VMware ESXi
9 8 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
10 7 (0.31%) BitLocker
11 5 (0.22%) RACF
12 3 (0.13%) IAG
12 3 (0.13%) NFS
13 2 (0.089%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
13 2 (0.089%) Firmware
14 1 (0.045%) Embedded Firmware
14 1 (0.045%) ProxySG
14 1 (0.045%) Snort
Systems Management
1 104 (4.63%) Terraform
2 84 (3.74%) Kubernetes
3 63 (2.80%) Ansible
4 32 (1.42%) Single Sign-On
5 31 (1.38%) vCenter Server
6 30 (1.34%) Microsoft Intune
6 30 (1.34%) OPNET
7 20 (0.89%) SCCM
8 16 (0.71%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 15 (0.67%) Argo
9 15 (0.67%) WMI
10 11 (0.49%) FortiGate
11 7 (0.31%) Grafana
12 6 (0.27%) Istio
12 6 (0.27%) Prometheus
13 5 (0.22%) Endace
14 3 (0.13%) Puppet
14 3 (0.13%) SCOM
14 3 (0.13%) vRealize
15 2 (0.089%) Nessus
Vendors
1 324 (14.43%) Microsoft
2 137 (6.10%) VMware
3 127 (5.65%) ServiceNow
4 124 (5.52%) SAP
5 92 (4.10%) Oracle
6 80 (3.56%) Cisco
7 67 (2.98%) Salesforce
8 48 (2.14%) Google
9 44 (1.96%) Remedy
10 41 (1.83%) MuleSoft
11 40 (1.78%) Databricks
12 39 (1.74%) Palo Alto
12 39 (1.74%) Red Hat
13 36 (1.60%) BiZZdesign
14 35 (1.56%) Atlassian
15 30 (1.34%) Citrix
15 30 (1.34%) Sparx
16 28 (1.25%) CyberArk
17 26 (1.16%) F5
17 26 (1.16%) Juniper