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 December 2025.

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

6 months to
25 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 19 15 16
Rank change year-on-year -4 +1 +6
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 1,641 1,343 1,664
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 8.95% 9.05% 8.53%
As % of the Job Titles category 9.93% 9.80% 9.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,125 846 1,122
10th Percentile £460 £475 £500
25th Percentile £519 £548 £560
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £625 £646
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% -3.29% -0.58%
75th Percentile £700 £706 £700
90th Percentile £763 £772 £750
UK median daily rate £625 £625 £650
% change year-on-year - -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 24 30
10th Percentile £65.00 £61.50 £61.25
25th Percentile £66.25 £64.38 £72.50
Median hourly rate £83.82 £71.25 £77.27
Median % change year-on-year +17.64% -7.78% +10.38%
75th Percentile £95.00 £78.92 £84.26
90th Percentile - £84.72 £93.75
UK median hourly rate £83.82 £72.50 £76.53
% change year-on-year +15.61% -5.27% +9.33%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 16,533 13,703 18,229
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.19% 92.36% 93.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,143 8,169 11,841
10th Percentile £213 £213 £213
25th Percentile £373 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.56% -2.50% -
75th Percentile £575 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £680 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,668 777 1,255
10th Percentile £13.88 £15.30 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.50 £20.26 £18.73
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £46.18
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -29.62% +84.72%
75th Percentile £57.50 £64.73 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £71.51 £77.00
UK median hourly rate £25.20 £33.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year -23.64% -26.67% +45.77%

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 December 2025.

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 December 2025.

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 December 2025. 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 +8 546 £600 -4.00% 434
North of England -7 389 £600 -3.89% 384
Midlands -5 258 £574 -4.38% 260
South West -1 253 £700 +12.00% 181
North West -7 235 £598 -4.02% 202
West Midlands -7 196 £582 -3.04% 148
Yorkshire -13 136 £600 -5.51% 153
East of England 0 98 £553 -7.92% 239
Scotland -7 92 £625 - 67
East Midlands -3 62 £519 -9.78% 99
Wales 0 25 £625 -1.96% 41
North East -10 19 £700 +16.74% 30
Northern Ireland -9 6 £550 -8.33% 16
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 25 December 2025, 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.

1 622 (37.90%) Security Cleared
2 377 (22.97%) SC Cleared
3 366 (22.30%) Azure
4 304 (18.53%) AWS
5 280 (17.06%) Roadmaps
6 238 (14.50%) Agile
7 230 (14.02%) Stakeholder Management
8 215 (13.10%) Microsoft
9 214 (13.04%) TOGAF
10 198 (12.07%) Enterprise Architecture
11 189 (11.52%) DV Cleared
12 184 (11.21%) Migration
13 170 (10.36%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 158 (9.63%) ITIL
15 148 (9.02%) Data Modelling
16 145 (8.84%) Problem-Solving
17 136 (8.29%) Technical Leadership
18 135 (8.23%) DevOps
19 125 (7.62%) CI/CD
20 124 (7.56%) GCP
21 117 (7.13%) VMware
22 115 (7.01%) Cybersecurity
23 112 (6.83%) Architectural Design
23 112 (6.83%) Microservices
24 110 (6.70%) AI
25 109 (6.64%) Mentoring
26 105 (6.40%) Degree
26 105 (6.40%) Python
27 101 (6.15%) ServiceNow
27 101 (6.15%) Terraform

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 65 (3.96%) Confluence
2 27 (1.65%) SharePoint
3 23 (1.40%) Microsoft Exchange
4 16 (0.98%) SAS
5 12 (0.73%) ArcGIS
6 9 (0.55%) WebLogic
7 8 (0.49%) Anypoint
8 7 (0.43%) Smallworld
9 6 (0.37%) OpenStack
10 4 (0.24%) CMS
10 4 (0.24%) Documentum
10 4 (0.24%) WebSphere
11 3 (0.18%) Exchange Server 2013
11 3 (0.18%) GeoServer
11 3 (0.18%) Skype for Business
12 2 (0.12%) Apache Spark
12 2 (0.12%) Mule
12 2 (0.12%) Oracle Coherence
12 2 (0.12%) ThingWorx
12 2 (0.12%) Tomcat
Applications
1 38 (2.32%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (1.89%) Microsoft Project
3 14 (0.85%) Microsoft Excel
4 13 (0.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 9 (0.55%) Siemens NX
6 8 (0.49%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.061%) FrameMaker
7 1 (0.061%) Revit
7 1 (0.061%) Trello
Business Applications
1 40 (2.44%) SAP S/4HANA
2 22 (1.34%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 19 (1.16%) Workday HCM
4 18 (1.10%) Dynamics CRM
5 12 (0.73%) Maximo
6 11 (0.67%) SAP CO
7 10 (0.61%) SAP FI
7 10 (0.61%) SAP FI/CO
7 10 (0.61%) SAP PM
8 9 (0.55%) Payment Gateway
8 9 (0.55%) Teamcenter
9 8 (0.49%) Salesforce CRM
10 6 (0.37%) SAP HR
11 5 (0.30%) Dynamics AX
11 5 (0.30%) 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 QM
Cloud Services
1 366 (22.30%) Azure
2 304 (18.53%) AWS
3 124 (7.56%) GCP
4 68 (4.14%) SaaS
5 52 (3.17%) Microsoft 365
6 48 (2.93%) Entra ID
6 48 (2.93%) Serverless
7 46 (2.80%) Dynamics 365
8 40 (2.44%) Power Platform
9 34 (2.07%) GitHub
10 32 (1.95%) AWS Lambda
10 32 (1.95%) PaaS
11 31 (1.89%) Microsoft Purview
12 30 (1.83%) IaaS
13 26 (1.58%) OpenShift
14 25 (1.52%) Azure DevOps
15 24 (1.46%) AWS CloudFormation
16 21 (1.28%) Salesforce Service Cloud
17 20 (1.22%) Azure Synapse Analytics
17 20 (1.22%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 90 (5.48%) Firewall
2 55 (3.35%) WAN
3 42 (2.56%) DNS
4 41 (2.50%) LAN
4 41 (2.50%) Network Security
5 40 (2.44%) VPN
6 33 (2.01%) SD-WAN
7 20 (1.22%) BGP
7 20 (1.22%) MPLS
8 19 (1.16%) SAN
9 14 (0.85%) DHCP
9 14 (0.85%) Internet
9 14 (0.85%) VSAN
10 13 (0.79%) Wi-Fi
11 11 (0.67%) iSCSI
12 9 (0.55%) Cisco ASA
12 9 (0.55%) Fibre Channel
13 8 (0.49%) IPsec
13 8 (0.49%) VLAN
13 8 (0.49%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 57 (3.47%) Data Warehouse
2 34 (2.07%) Metadata
2 34 (2.07%) SQL Server
3 33 (2.01%) PostgreSQL
4 30 (1.83%) Power BI
5 19 (1.16%) DynamoDB
5 19 (1.16%) Oracle Database
6 18 (1.10%) GIS
6 18 (1.10%) Tableau
7 16 (0.98%) NoSQL
8 14 (0.85%) MongoDB
9 13 (0.79%) Redis
10 12 (0.73%) BigQuery
10 12 (0.73%) Relational Database
11 11 (0.67%) Data Lake
12 10 (0.61%) Azure SQL Database
12 10 (0.61%) RDBMS
12 10 (0.61%) SQL Server Integration Services
13 9 (0.55%) Amazon RDS
13 9 (0.55%) Amazon Redshift
Development Applications
1 77 (4.69%) JIRA
2 43 (2.62%) Jenkins
3 35 (2.13%) Git
4 13 (0.79%) GitLab
5 9 (0.55%) CircleCI
5 9 (0.55%) Oracle Forms
6 8 (0.49%) SonarQube
7 6 (0.37%) Artifactory
8 5 (0.30%) Gradle
8 5 (0.30%) Maven
8 5 (0.30%) Rational DOORS
8 5 (0.30%) SonarLint
9 4 (0.24%) Bitbucket
9 4 (0.24%) MLflow
9 4 (0.24%) MSI
10 3 (0.18%) Sonatype Nexus
11 2 (0.12%) Postman
11 2 (0.12%) Visual Studio Code
12 1 (0.061%) ERwin
12 1 (0.061%) Hudson
General
1 431 (26.26%) Social Skills
2 206 (12.55%) Public Sector
3 186 (11.33%) Finance
4 130 (7.92%) Analytical Skills
5 83 (5.06%) Banking
6 52 (3.17%) Military
7 47 (2.86%) Telecoms
8 41 (2.50%) Documentation Skills
8 41 (2.50%) Marketing
9 37 (2.25%) Retail
10 36 (2.19%) Presentation Skills
11 35 (2.13%) Influencing Skills
12 27 (1.65%) Manufacturing
13 26 (1.58%) Legal
14 22 (1.34%) Aerospace
15 12 (0.73%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 10 (0.61%) Back Office
17 9 (0.55%) Pharmaceutical
18 8 (0.49%) Aviation
18 8 (0.49%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 51 (3.11%) REST
2 40 (2.44%) SOAP
3 38 (2.32%) Middleware
4 27 (1.65%) .NET
5 23 (1.40%) OAuth
6 22 (1.34%) RESTful
7 19 (1.16%) Lightning Web Components
8 18 (1.10%) Spring Boot
8 18 (1.10%) Visualforce
9 16 (0.98%) SAML
10 15 (0.91%) Web Services
11 14 (0.85%) Kafka
11 14 (0.85%) Node.js
11 14 (0.85%) OAuth2
11 14 (0.85%) SailPoint
11 14 (0.85%) SAP PI
12 12 (0.73%) Spring
13 10 (0.61%) GraphQL
13 10 (0.61%) PyTorch
13 10 (0.61%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 110 (6.70%) Cloud Native
2 79 (4.81%) Product Ownership
3 68 (4.14%) Data Centre
4 63 (3.84%) Legacy Systems
5 48 (2.93%) Hybrid Cloud
6 45 (2.74%) Onboarding
7 42 (2.56%) PKI
8 30 (1.83%) Operational Technology
9 29 (1.77%) Public Cloud
10 27 (1.65%) CMDB
11 23 (1.40%) Distributed Systems
12 22 (1.34%) SCADA
13 21 (1.28%) Enterprise Software
14 20 (1.22%) Management Information System
15 19 (1.16%) Data Protection Act
15 19 (1.16%) NHS
16 18 (1.10%) Security Posture
17 13 (0.79%) Analytical Mindset
17 13 (0.79%) Cyber Threat
18 11 (0.67%) Data Structures
Operating Systems
1 97 (5.91%) Windows
2 63 (3.84%) Linux
3 32 (1.95%) Windows Server
4 15 (0.91%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 15 (0.91%) Windows Server 2019
5 13 (0.79%) Windows 10
5 13 (0.79%) Windows 7
6 8 (0.49%) Unix
7 7 (0.43%) Mac OS
8 6 (0.37%) Windows Server 2016
9 5 (0.30%) VMS
10 3 (0.18%) Ubuntu
10 3 (0.18%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.12%) Solaris
11 2 (0.12%) zOS
12 1 (0.061%) Android
12 1 (0.061%) Apple iOS
12 1 (0.061%) CentOS
12 1 (0.061%) MVS
12 1 (0.061%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 280 (17.06%) Roadmaps
2 238 (14.50%) Agile
3 230 (14.02%) Stakeholder Management
4 214 (13.04%) TOGAF
5 198 (12.07%) Enterprise Architecture
6 184 (11.21%) Migration
7 170 (10.36%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 158 (9.63%) ITIL
9 148 (9.02%) Data Modelling
10 145 (8.84%) Problem-Solving
11 136 (8.29%) Technical Leadership
12 135 (8.23%) DevOps
13 125 (7.62%) CI/CD
14 115 (7.01%) Cybersecurity
15 112 (6.83%) Architectural Design
15 112 (6.83%) Microservices
16 110 (6.70%) AI
17 109 (6.64%) Mentoring
18 100 (6.09%) Analytics
19 98 (5.97%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 105 (6.40%) Python
2 77 (4.69%) Java
3 52 (3.17%) SQL
4 50 (3.05%) PowerShell
5 24 (1.46%) JavaScript
6 19 (1.16%) Apex Code
7 17 (1.04%) TypeScript
8 14 (0.85%) Bash
9 12 (0.73%) R
10 11 (0.67%) C#
11 8 (0.49%) C++
11 8 (0.49%) PL/SQL
12 7 (0.43%) C
13 6 (0.37%) ABAP
14 5 (0.30%) Bicep
15 4 (0.24%) Ruby
16 3 (0.18%) T-SQL
16 3 (0.18%) VB
16 3 (0.18%) VBScript
16 3 (0.18%) X++
Qualifications
1 622 (37.90%) Security Cleared
2 377 (22.97%) SC Cleared
3 189 (11.52%) DV Cleared
4 105 (6.40%) Degree
5 78 (4.75%) CISSP
6 70 (4.27%) TOGAF Certification
7 53 (3.23%) AWS Certification
8 44 (2.68%) Azure Certification
9 38 (2.32%) Microsoft Certification
10 37 (2.25%) Cisco Certification
11 35 (2.13%) CISM
12 30 (1.83%) Computer Science Degree
13 26 (1.58%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 25 (1.52%) Master's Degree
15 22 (1.34%) CCIE
16 21 (1.28%) ISEB
16 21 (1.28%) ITIL Certification
17 18 (1.10%) CCNP
18 15 (0.91%) BPSS Clearance
19 14 (0.85%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 87 (5.30%) GDPR
2 78 (4.75%) NIST
3 75 (4.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 48 (2.93%) Data Quality
5 39 (2.38%) NCSC
6 31 (1.89%) PCI DSS
7 30 (1.83%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 23 (1.40%) COBIT
9 22 (1.34%) QA
10 20 (1.22%) JSP 440
11 17 (1.04%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 12 (0.73%) Cyber Essentials
13 11 (0.67%) GRC
14 9 (0.55%) HMG Security Policy Framework
14 9 (0.55%) PSD2
15 8 (0.49%) ISO 20022
16 7 (0.43%) Def Stans
16 7 (0.43%) SLA
17 6 (0.37%) HIPAA
17 6 (0.37%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 69 (4.20%) VMware Infrastructure
2 64 (3.90%) Active Directory
3 45 (2.74%) Docker
4 25 (1.52%) vSphere
5 23 (1.40%) VMware NSX
6 19 (1.16%) VMware ESXi
7 11 (0.67%) NFS
7 11 (0.67%) Virtual Desktop
8 10 (0.61%) Virtual Machines
9 7 (0.43%) Hyper-V
10 3 (0.18%) BitLocker
10 3 (0.18%) Dovecot
10 3 (0.18%) Postfix
10 3 (0.18%) vCloud
11 2 (0.12%) KVM
12 1 (0.061%) HDFS
12 1 (0.061%) RACF
12 1 (0.061%) SRDF
12 1 (0.061%) Veritas Cluster Server
12 1 (0.061%) Xen
Systems Management
1 101 (6.15%) Terraform
2 87 (5.30%) Kubernetes
3 52 (3.17%) Ansible
4 33 (2.01%) OPNET
5 25 (1.52%) Single Sign-On
6 19 (1.16%) vCenter Server
7 15 (0.91%) SCCM
8 14 (0.85%) WMI
9 13 (0.79%) Prometheus
10 12 (0.73%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 11 (0.67%) Microsoft Intune
12 9 (0.55%) Grafana
13 7 (0.43%) Argo
14 4 (0.24%) FortiGate
15 3 (0.18%) Puppet
16 2 (0.12%) Endace
16 2 (0.12%) Microsoft Clustering
16 2 (0.12%) SCOM
16 2 (0.12%) vRealize
16 2 (0.12%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 215 (13.10%) Microsoft
2 117 (7.13%) VMware
3 101 (6.15%) ServiceNow
4 91 (5.55%) Salesforce
5 88 (5.36%) SAP
6 81 (4.94%) Oracle
7 68 (4.14%) Cisco
8 35 (2.13%) Google
8 35 (2.13%) Remedy
9 34 (2.07%) Atlassian
10 30 (1.83%) Workday
11 28 (1.71%) Palo Alto
12 25 (1.52%) MuleSoft
12 25 (1.52%) Red Hat
13 23 (1.40%) Virgin Media
14 22 (1.34%) CyberArk
14 22 (1.34%) IBM
14 22 (1.34%) Juniper
14 22 (1.34%) Pega
15 21 (1.28%) Splunk