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 £622, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 3 August 2026.

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

6 months to
3 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 20 13
Rank change year-on-year +7 -7 +4
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,471 1,251 1,803
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.10% 8.20% 9.82%
As % of the Job Titles category 9.87% 9.08% 10.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,624 845 1,141
10th Percentile £481 £456 £480
25th Percentile £525 £519 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £622 £600 £646
Median % change year-on-year +3.67% -7.12% -0.62%
75th Percentile £706 £688 £725
90th Percentile £775 £750 £788
UK median daily rate £620 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -0.80% -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 156 15 73
10th Percentile £46.00 £33.64 -
25th Percentile £60.00 £64.38 £60.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £72.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.34% +3.57% -
75th Percentile £71.91 £86.50 £85.00
90th Percentile £83.00 £99.42 £89.51
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 25,029 13,783 16,897
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.15% 90.37% 92.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,167 8,468 10,365
10th Percentile £305 £215 £219
25th Percentile £410 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £600
90th Percentile £688 £650 £683
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,953 1,208 1,773
10th Percentile £14.82 £13.36 £14.00
25th Percentile £20.75 £16.50 £18.35
Median hourly rate £44.50 £25.15 £43.90
Median % change year-on-year +76.94% -42.71% +11.00%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +0.58%

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 3 August 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 3 August 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 3 August 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 0 719 £630 +5.00% 343
North of England +6 707 £600 - 243
Midlands -3 412 £625 +8.70% 134
North West +6 393 £600 - 113
West Midlands -1 306 £627 +4.42% 95
South West 0 299 £625 -2.34% 136
Yorkshire +7 247 £600 - 97
East of England +19 163 £600 +8.11% 71
Scotland +12 153 £650 +4.00% 69
East Midlands +6 99 £600 +20.00% 39
North East +2 72 £600 -14.29% 35
Wales +3 35 £620 +14.81% 17
Northern Ireland +7 7 £475 -32.14% 28
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 3 August 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.

1 783 (31.69%) Security Cleared
2 550 (22.26%) Azure
3 495 (20.03%) SC Cleared
4 432 (17.48%) AWS
5 349 (14.12%) Roadmaps
6 338 (13.68%) Stakeholder Management
7 322 (13.03%) Microsoft
8 318 (12.87%) Agile
9 276 (11.17%) Migration
10 262 (10.60%) Technical Leadership
11 255 (10.32%) Enterprise Architecture
12 242 (9.79%) Integration Patterns
13 241 (9.75%) DV Cleared
14 237 (9.59%) DevOps
15 222 (8.98%) CI/CD
16 221 (8.94%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 219 (8.86%) Data Architecture
18 217 (8.78%) AI
19 210 (8.50%) Data Modelling
20 209 (8.46%) Architectural Patterns
21 195 (7.89%) Cybersecurity
22 177 (7.16%) Security Architecture
23 175 (7.08%) TOGAF
24 169 (6.84%) Microservices
25 161 (6.52%) Problem-Solving
26 160 (6.48%) GCP
27 149 (6.03%) Architectural Design
28 147 (5.95%) Architecture Governance
29 145 (5.87%) Continuous Improvement
29 145 (5.87%) Event-Driven

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 40 (1.62%) SharePoint
2 32 (1.30%) Confluence
3 31 (1.25%) SAS
4 14 (0.57%) Microsoft Exchange
5 11 (0.45%) Apache Spark
6 10 (0.40%) Apache
6 10 (0.40%) Apache Airflow
6 10 (0.40%) OpenStack
6 10 (0.40%) Palantir Foundry
7 7 (0.28%) Documentum
8 6 (0.24%) CMS
9 5 (0.20%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 5 (0.20%) Appian
9 5 (0.20%) ArcGIS
9 5 (0.20%) JBoss
9 5 (0.20%) NetWeaver
10 4 (0.16%) SAP EP
11 2 (0.081%) Alfresco
11 2 (0.081%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 2 (0.081%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 11 (0.45%) MS Visio
2 9 (0.36%) 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%) Microsoft Office
7 1 (0.040%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.040%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 60 (2.43%) SAP S/4HANA
2 15 (0.61%) Payment Gateway
3 13 (0.53%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 11 (0.45%) Teamcenter
5 10 (0.40%) Remedy ITSM
6 9 (0.36%) SAP ERP
7 7 (0.28%) Oracle ERP
8 6 (0.24%) Dynamics CRM
8 6 (0.24%) Maximo
9 5 (0.20%) NetSuite
9 5 (0.20%) Oracle Retail
9 5 (0.20%) SAP GRC
10 4 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
10 4 (0.16%) SAP CRM
10 4 (0.16%) SAP MDG
11 3 (0.12%) Adobe Campaign
11 3 (0.12%) Dynamics NAV
11 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
11 3 (0.12%) SAP IBP
11 3 (0.12%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 550 (22.26%) Azure
2 432 (17.48%) AWS
3 160 (6.48%) GCP
4 96 (3.89%) Power Platform
5 86 (3.48%) Entra ID
6 78 (3.16%) SaaS
6 78 (3.16%) Serverless
7 53 (2.14%) PaaS
8 52 (2.10%) Microsoft 365
9 45 (1.82%) GitHub
10 43 (1.74%) IaaS
11 39 (1.58%) Azure DevOps
12 37 (1.50%) Dynamics 365
13 36 (1.46%) OpenShift
14 34 (1.38%) AWS Lambda
15 27 (1.09%) Amazon S3
15 27 (1.09%) Snowflake
16 26 (1.05%) GitHub Actions
17 24 (0.97%) OCI
18 21 (0.85%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 98 (3.97%) Firewall
2 67 (2.71%) WAN
3 64 (2.59%) DNS
4 60 (2.43%) Network Security
5 54 (2.19%) LAN
6 39 (1.58%) VPN
7 35 (1.42%) DHCP
8 34 (1.38%) BGP
8 34 (1.38%) SD-WAN
9 30 (1.21%) VLAN
10 29 (1.17%) TCP/IP
11 26 (1.05%) SAN
12 24 (0.97%) Wireless
13 23 (0.93%) MPLS
13 23 (0.93%) NAS
14 21 (0.85%) Structured Cabling
15 18 (0.73%) BIG-IP
15 18 (0.73%) OSPF
16 16 (0.65%) IPsec
17 14 (0.57%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 69 (2.79%) Power BI
2 66 (2.67%) Data Lake
3 64 (2.59%) Metadata
4 62 (2.51%) Data Warehouse
5 34 (1.38%) NoSQL
6 22 (0.89%) PostgreSQL
7 21 (0.85%) SQL Server
8 19 (0.77%) Amazon RDS
9 18 (0.73%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
9 18 (0.73%) Oracle Database
10 15 (0.61%) Base SAS
11 14 (0.57%) BigQuery
11 14 (0.57%) GIS
12 13 (0.53%) Azure SQL Database
13 11 (0.45%) Big Data
13 11 (0.45%) Delta Lake
13 11 (0.45%) MongoDB
14 10 (0.40%) MySQL
14 10 (0.40%) Relational Database
14 10 (0.40%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 38 (1.54%) JIRA
2 28 (1.13%) Git
3 25 (1.01%) Jenkins
4 11 (0.45%) 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%) Claude Code
9 3 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.12%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.081%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.081%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.081%) IntelliJ
10 2 (0.081%) JUnit
10 2 (0.081%) Oracle APEX
10 2 (0.081%) Oracle Forms
10 2 (0.081%) Rational Rhapsody
10 2 (0.081%) Selenium
11 1 (0.040%) MSI
General
1 462 (18.70%) Social Skills
2 315 (12.75%) Finance
3 235 (9.51%) Public Sector
4 138 (5.58%) Banking
5 132 (5.34%) Analytical Skills
6 96 (3.89%) Retail
7 79 (3.20%) Manufacturing
8 56 (2.27%) Documentation Skills
9 54 (2.19%) Influencing Skills
10 35 (1.42%) Aerospace
11 34 (1.38%) Legal
12 30 (1.21%) Military
13 26 (1.05%) Telecoms
14 24 (0.97%) Financial Institution
15 21 (0.85%) Back Office
15 21 (0.85%) Marketing
16 20 (0.81%) Presentation Skills
17 19 (0.77%) Aviation
18 18 (0.73%) Inclusion and Diversity
19 16 (0.65%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 104 (4.21%) REST
2 74 (2.99%) Middleware
3 55 (2.23%) OAuth
4 41 (1.66%) SOAP
5 40 (1.62%) Oracle Fusion
6 38 (1.54%) OpenID
7 37 (1.50%) .NET
8 35 (1.42%) Kafka
9 33 (1.34%) SAML
10 30 (1.21%) SailPoint
11 28 (1.13%) OAuth2
12 22 (0.89%) JSON
13 19 (0.77%) Node.js
13 19 (0.77%) RESTful
14 16 (0.65%) Web Services
15 15 (0.61%) LDAP
15 15 (0.61%) React
16 12 (0.49%) GraphQL
17 11 (0.45%) SAP PI
17 11 (0.45%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 183 (7.41%) Cloud Native
2 85 (3.44%) Data Centre
3 76 (3.08%) Hybrid Cloud
4 72 (2.91%) Operational Technology
5 63 (2.55%) Product Ownership
6 57 (2.31%) Management Information System
6 57 (2.31%) Onboarding
7 56 (2.27%) Distributed Systems
8 55 (2.23%) Data Protection Act
9 54 (2.19%) Legacy Systems
10 52 (2.10%) Enterprise Software
11 41 (1.66%) Public Cloud
12 38 (1.54%) AI Agents
13 34 (1.38%) Private Cloud
14 27 (1.09%) Security Posture
15 26 (1.05%) PKI
16 22 (0.89%) Enterprise Cloud
16 22 (0.89%) IVR
16 22 (0.89%) SCADA
17 20 (0.81%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 86 (3.48%) Windows
2 51 (2.06%) Linux
3 33 (1.34%) Windows Server
4 14 (0.57%) Android
4 14 (0.57%) Apple iOS
4 14 (0.57%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 9 (0.36%) Unix
6 6 (0.24%) AIX
7 5 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
8 2 (0.081%) HPUX
8 2 (0.081%) Solaris
8 2 (0.081%) VMS
8 2 (0.081%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.040%) CatOS
9 1 (0.040%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.040%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.040%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 349 (14.12%) Roadmaps
2 338 (13.68%) Stakeholder Management
3 318 (12.87%) Agile
4 276 (11.17%) Migration
5 262 (10.60%) Technical Leadership
6 255 (10.32%) Enterprise Architecture
7 242 (9.79%) Integration Patterns
8 237 (9.59%) DevOps
9 222 (8.98%) CI/CD
10 221 (8.94%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 219 (8.86%) Data Architecture
12 217 (8.78%) AI
13 210 (8.50%) Data Modelling
14 209 (8.46%) Architectural Patterns
15 195 (7.89%) Cybersecurity
16 177 (7.16%) Security Architecture
17 175 (7.08%) TOGAF
18 169 (6.84%) Microservices
19 161 (6.52%) Problem-Solving
20 149 (6.03%) Architectural Design
Programming Languages
1 96 (3.89%) Java
2 95 (3.84%) SQL
3 94 (3.80%) Python
4 57 (2.31%) JavaScript
5 39 (1.58%) PowerShell
6 23 (0.93%) Bash
7 21 (0.85%) C#
8 19 (0.77%) Bicep
9 12 (0.49%) TypeScript
10 8 (0.32%) ABAP
11 7 (0.28%) VBA
12 6 (0.24%) Apex Code
12 6 (0.24%) PL/SQL
12 6 (0.24%) Shell Script
13 5 (0.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 4 (0.16%) Kotlin
15 3 (0.12%) C
15 3 (0.12%) Groovy
16 2 (0.081%) C++
16 2 (0.081%) ProC
Qualifications
1 783 (31.69%) Security Cleared
2 495 (20.03%) SC Cleared
3 241 (9.75%) DV Cleared
4 82 (3.32%) Degree
5 57 (2.31%) Cisco Certification
6 56 (2.27%) CISSP
7 43 (1.74%) TOGAF Certification
8 42 (1.70%) BPSS Clearance
9 40 (1.62%) AWS Certification
10 39 (1.58%) Azure Certification
11 33 (1.34%) Computer Science Degree
12 31 (1.25%) CCNP
13 20 (0.81%) Microsoft Certification
14 19 (0.77%) CISM
15 18 (0.73%) CCNA
16 14 (0.57%) (ISC)2 CCSP
16 14 (0.57%) CCIE
17 12 (0.49%) Network+ Certification
17 12 (0.49%) Server+ Certification
18 11 (0.45%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 93 (3.76%) NIST
2 75 (3.04%) Data Quality
3 62 (2.51%) NCSC
4 58 (2.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 56 (2.27%) GDPR
6 25 (1.01%) QA
7 20 (0.81%) Accessibility
8 18 (0.73%) PCI DSS
9 16 (0.65%) NIST 800
10 14 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 12 (0.49%) IFRS
11 12 (0.49%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 11 (0.45%) Disclosure Scotland
13 10 (0.40%) Cyber Essentials
13 10 (0.40%) GRC
13 10 (0.40%) ISO 19650
14 9 (0.36%) HL7
14 9 (0.36%) JSP 440
15 8 (0.32%) SLA
16 6 (0.24%) COBIT
System Software
1 96 (3.89%) Active Directory
2 48 (1.94%) Docker
2 48 (1.94%) VMware Infrastructure
3 29 (1.17%) VMware NSX
4 21 (0.85%) Virtual Desktop
5 17 (0.69%) Hyper-V
6 15 (0.61%) vSphere
7 10 (0.40%) VMware ESXi
8 8 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
9 6 (0.24%) vCloud
10 3 (0.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
10 3 (0.12%) IAG
10 3 (0.12%) KVM
10 3 (0.12%) NFS
10 3 (0.12%) SRDF
11 2 (0.081%) Ceph
12 1 (0.040%) Firmware
12 1 (0.040%) ProxySG
12 1 (0.040%) RACF
12 1 (0.040%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 119 (4.82%) Kubernetes
2 93 (3.76%) Terraform
3 51 (2.06%) Ansible
4 33 (1.34%) Microsoft Intune
5 21 (0.85%) Single Sign-On
6 19 (0.77%) Grafana
7 17 (0.69%) vCenter Server
8 14 (0.57%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 13 (0.53%) Jamf Pro
9 13 (0.53%) Prometheus
10 11 (0.45%) Argo
11 8 (0.32%) FortiGate
12 6 (0.24%) CASB
13 5 (0.20%) EMC VPLEX
13 5 (0.20%) Istio
13 5 (0.20%) MOM
13 5 (0.20%) NetBackup
14 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
15 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
15 3 (0.12%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 322 (13.03%) Microsoft
2 138 (5.58%) SAP
3 112 (4.53%) Oracle
4 101 (4.09%) VMware
5 100 (4.05%) ServiceNow
6 78 (3.16%) Google
7 76 (3.08%) Cisco
7 76 (3.08%) Databricks
8 47 (1.90%) Salesforce
9 30 (1.21%) F5
10 28 (1.13%) Red Hat
11 27 (1.09%) Citrix
12 24 (0.97%) Palo Alto
13 23 (0.93%) CyberArk
13 23 (0.93%) MuleSoft
14 19 (0.77%) Infoblox
14 19 (0.77%) Informatica
15 18 (0.73%) BiZZdesign
15 18 (0.73%) IBM
15 18 (0.73%) Juniper