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 £612, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 4 June 2026.

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

6 months to
4 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 1,089 2,092
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.54% 8.43% 10.08%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.39% 9.20% 10.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,565 726 1,253
10th Percentile £450 £450 £500
25th Percentile £513 £513 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £612 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year +2.00% -7.69% -
75th Percentile £705 £694 £725
90th Percentile £775 £755 £794
UK median daily rate £615 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -1.60% -3.85% -1.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 125 24 93
10th Percentile £49.40 £43.92 -
25th Percentile £60.00 £65.13 £60.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £73.25 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -11.26% +4.64% -
75th Percentile £78.50 £82.25 £87.00
90th Percentile £92.10 £86.90 £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 22,909 11,840 19,181
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.83% 91.70% 92.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,157 7,517 11,558
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 £677 £650 £688
UK median daily rate £513 £504 £525
% change year-on-year +1.69% -4.00% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,648 871 2,427
10th Percentile £14.65 £13.50 £12.50
25th Percentile £20.07 £16.95 £15.76
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -5.88%
75th Percentile £67.48 £60.00 £62.50
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £74.00
UK median hourly rate £42.70 £28.00 £37.50
% change year-on-year +52.48% -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 4 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 4 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 4 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
North of England +3 678 £600 - 328
South East +4 672 £625 +1.63% 261
Midlands +1 435 £600 +0.17% 125
North West +6 371 £608 +4.11% 174
West Midlands 0 310 £620 +3.33% 92
Yorkshire +8 256 £555 -7.58% 95
South West -3 236 £650 +7.22% 159
East of England +19 203 £575 -4.17% 79
Scotland +12 153 £650 +4.00% 63
East Midlands 0 119 £573 +8.84% 33
North East +5 58 £575 -4.17% 60
Wales -3 33 £600 +25.00% 46
Northern Ireland +10 7 £475 -28.30% 21
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 4 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.

1 682 (28.66%) Security Cleared
2 482 (20.25%) Azure
3 404 (16.97%) SC Cleared
4 377 (15.84%) AWS
5 341 (14.33%) Agile
6 331 (13.91%) Roadmaps
7 324 (13.61%) Microsoft
8 273 (11.47%) Stakeholder Management
9 272 (11.43%) Migration
10 255 (10.71%) DevOps
11 246 (10.34%) Enterprise Architecture
12 228 (9.58%) DV Cleared
13 216 (9.08%) CI/CD
14 214 (8.99%) Technical Leadership
15 193 (8.11%) Integration Patterns
16 189 (7.94%) Microservices
16 189 (7.94%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 187 (7.86%) Architectural Patterns
18 186 (7.82%) Data Modelling
19 173 (7.27%) Data Architecture
20 159 (6.68%) Architectural Design
21 153 (6.43%) TOGAF
22 152 (6.39%) Cybersecurity
22 152 (6.39%) Problem-Solving
23 147 (6.18%) SAP
24 136 (5.71%) AI
25 135 (5.67%) Analytics
26 133 (5.59%) GCP
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 61 (2.56%) SharePoint
2 44 (1.85%) Confluence
3 36 (1.51%) Microsoft Exchange
4 23 (0.97%) 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 7 (0.29%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (0.29%) Navisworks
2 7 (0.29%) Revit
3 6 (0.25%) MS Visio
3 6 (0.25%) Spreadsheet
4 4 (0.17%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.042%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.042%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 59 (2.48%) SAP S/4HANA
2 20 (0.84%) Payment Gateway
3 18 (0.76%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 12 (0.50%) SAP ERP
5 10 (0.42%) Remedy ITSM
5 10 (0.42%) Teamcenter
6 6 (0.25%) SAP MDG
7 5 (0.21%) Salesforce CRM
7 5 (0.21%) Workday HCM
8 4 (0.17%) Dynamics CRM
8 4 (0.17%) Maximo
8 4 (0.17%) Oracle Retail
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
1 482 (20.25%) Azure
2 377 (15.84%) AWS
3 133 (5.59%) GCP
4 93 (3.91%) Power Platform
5 88 (3.70%) Entra ID
6 81 (3.40%) Microsoft 365
7 73 (3.07%) Serverless
8 68 (2.86%) SaaS
9 56 (2.35%) PaaS
10 44 (1.85%) GitHub
10 44 (1.85%) IaaS
11 40 (1.68%) Azure DevOps
12 38 (1.60%) Microsoft Purview
13 33 (1.39%) OpenShift
14 29 (1.22%) OneDrive
15 28 (1.18%) AWS Lambda
16 27 (1.13%) Dynamics 365
17 25 (1.05%) Azure Data Factory
18 24 (1.01%) Snowflake
19 23 (0.97%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 95 (3.99%) Firewall
2 69 (2.90%) WAN
3 66 (2.77%) 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 69 (2.90%) Metadata
2 68 (2.86%) Power BI
3 54 (2.27%) Data Warehouse
4 40 (1.68%) Data Lake
5 35 (1.47%) NoSQL
5 35 (1.47%) SQL Server
6 26 (1.09%) PostgreSQL
7 19 (0.80%) Oracle Database
8 18 (0.76%) Tableau
9 15 (0.63%) GIS
10 11 (0.46%) MongoDB
11 10 (0.42%) Big Data
12 9 (0.38%) DynamoDB
12 9 (0.38%) Relational Database
13 8 (0.34%) Azure SQL Database
13 8 (0.34%) Electronic Patient Records
13 8 (0.34%) MySQL
13 8 (0.34%) SAS Enterprise Guide
14 7 (0.29%) Metadata Repository
14 7 (0.29%) Spatial Data
Development Applications
1 57 (2.39%) JIRA
2 35 (1.47%) Jenkins
3 19 (0.80%) GitLab
4 18 (0.76%) 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%) IntelliJ
10 2 (0.084%) LoadRunner
10 2 (0.084%) NeoLoad
General
1 417 (17.52%) Social Skills
2 321 (13.49%) Finance
3 213 (8.95%) Public Sector
4 143 (6.01%) Banking
5 118 (4.96%) Analytical Skills
6 79 (3.32%) Retail
7 58 (2.44%) Manufacturing
8 57 (2.39%) Documentation Skills
9 55 (2.31%) Legal
10 33 (1.39%) Aerospace
10 33 (1.39%) Influencing Skills
11 27 (1.13%) Military
12 26 (1.09%) Investment Banking
13 22 (0.92%) Presentation Skills
14 20 (0.84%) Financial Institution
14 20 (0.84%) Marketing
15 19 (0.80%) Back Office
16 16 (0.67%) Telecoms
17 12 (0.50%) Billing
18 11 (0.46%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 102 (4.29%) REST
2 80 (3.36%) Middleware
3 50 (2.10%) .NET
4 47 (1.97%) OAuth
5 43 (1.81%) OpenID
6 41 (1.72%) SOAP
7 31 (1.30%) OAuth2
7 31 (1.30%) SAML
8 29 (1.22%) Oracle Fusion
9 28 (1.18%) Kafka
10 27 (1.13%) SailPoint
11 25 (1.05%) RESTful
12 23 (0.97%) React
13 22 (0.92%) JSON
13 22 (0.92%) Node.js
14 19 (0.80%) LDAP
14 19 (0.80%) Web Services
15 16 (0.67%) Microsoft Graph
16 14 (0.59%) AngularJS
17 12 (0.50%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 161 (6.76%) Cloud Native
2 86 (3.61%) Data Centre
3 65 (2.73%) Product Ownership
4 64 (2.69%) Operational Technology
5 52 (2.18%) Management Information System
6 50 (2.10%) Public Cloud
7 49 (2.06%) Hybrid Cloud
8 48 (2.02%) Data Protection Act
8 48 (2.02%) Onboarding
9 44 (1.85%) Distributed Systems
9 44 (1.85%) Enterprise Software
10 42 (1.76%) Legacy Systems
11 28 (1.18%) PKI
12 26 (1.09%) CMDB
12 26 (1.09%) SCADA
13 21 (0.88%) Private Cloud
14 20 (0.84%) Security Posture
15 19 (0.80%) Data Structures
16 17 (0.71%) AI Agents
17 16 (0.67%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 109 (4.58%) Windows
2 54 (2.27%) Linux
3 29 (1.22%) 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
1 341 (14.33%) Agile
2 331 (13.91%) Roadmaps
3 273 (11.47%) Stakeholder Management
4 272 (11.43%) Migration
5 255 (10.71%) DevOps
6 246 (10.34%) Enterprise Architecture
7 216 (9.08%) CI/CD
8 214 (8.99%) Technical Leadership
9 193 (8.11%) Integration Patterns
10 189 (7.94%) Microservices
10 189 (7.94%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 187 (7.86%) Architectural Patterns
12 186 (7.82%) Data Modelling
13 173 (7.27%) Data Architecture
14 159 (6.68%) Architectural Design
15 153 (6.43%) TOGAF
16 152 (6.39%) Cybersecurity
16 152 (6.39%) Problem-Solving
17 136 (5.71%) AI
18 135 (5.67%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 101 (4.24%) Python
1 101 (4.24%) SQL
2 76 (3.19%) Java
3 68 (2.86%) PowerShell
4 47 (1.97%) JavaScript
5 31 (1.30%) C#
6 21 (0.88%) Bicep
7 16 (0.67%) Bash
7 16 (0.67%) TypeScript
8 12 (0.50%) PL/SQL
9 10 (0.42%) Kusto Query Language
10 8 (0.34%) VBA
11 6 (0.25%) Scala
12 5 (0.21%) ABAP
12 5 (0.21%) Apex Code
13 4 (0.17%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 4 (0.17%) Perl
13 4 (0.17%) T-SQL
13 4 (0.17%) VB
13 4 (0.17%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 682 (28.66%) Security Cleared
2 404 (16.97%) SC Cleared
3 228 (9.58%) DV Cleared
4 85 (3.57%) Degree
5 52 (2.18%) BPSS Clearance
6 49 (2.06%) Cisco Certification
7 42 (1.76%) TOGAF Certification
8 35 (1.47%) Azure Certification
8 35 (1.47%) CISSP
8 35 (1.47%) Computer Science Degree
9 33 (1.39%) CCNP
10 31 (1.30%) AWS Certification
11 20 (0.84%) Microsoft Certification
12 18 (0.76%) CISM
13 16 (0.67%) CCNA
13 16 (0.67%) Master's Degree
14 12 (0.50%) ITIL Certification
14 12 (0.50%) Network+ Certification
14 12 (0.50%) Server+ Certification
15 10 (0.42%) CCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 88 (3.70%) NIST
2 76 (3.19%) GDPR
3 63 (2.65%) Data Quality
4 54 (2.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 44 (1.85%) NCSC
6 23 (0.97%) QA
7 20 (0.84%) Accessibility
8 17 (0.71%) PCI DSS
9 14 (0.59%) GRC
10 12 (0.50%) COBIT
10 12 (0.50%) Cyber Essentials
10 12 (0.50%) FINRA
10 12 (0.50%) MiFID
10 12 (0.50%) NIST 800
11 10 (0.42%) IFRS
11 10 (0.42%) ISO 20022
12 9 (0.38%) HL7
12 9 (0.38%) ISO 19650
13 8 (0.34%) Disclosure Scotland
14 6 (0.25%) SEPA
System Software
1 96 (4.03%) 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 11 (0.46%) Virtual Desktop
6 11 (0.46%) VMware ESXi
7 9 (0.38%) vCloud
8 5 (0.21%) RACF
8 5 (0.21%) Virtual Machines
9 4 (0.17%) BitLocker
9 4 (0.17%) NFS
10 3 (0.13%) EMC RecoverPoint
10 3 (0.13%) IAG
10 3 (0.13%) SRDF
11 2 (0.084%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
11 2 (0.084%) Firmware
12 1 (0.042%) Embedded Firmware
12 1 (0.042%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 83 (3.49%) Kubernetes
2 76 (3.19%) Terraform
3 52 (2.18%) Ansible
4 35 (1.47%) Microsoft Intune
5 26 (1.09%) vCenter Server
6 25 (1.05%) Single Sign-On
7 15 (0.63%) 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%) SnapMirror
15 3 (0.13%) EMC NetWorker
15 3 (0.13%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 324 (13.61%) Microsoft
2 147 (6.18%) SAP
3 127 (5.34%) VMware
4 105 (4.41%) Oracle
5 101 (4.24%) ServiceNow
6 75 (3.15%) Cisco
7 61 (2.56%) Databricks
8 56 (2.35%) Salesforce
9 55 (2.31%) Google
10 41 (1.72%) MuleSoft
11 28 (1.18%) F5
12 26 (1.09%) Red Hat
13 25 (1.05%) Citrix
13 25 (1.05%) Palo Alto
14 23 (0.97%) Juniper
15 21 (0.88%) BiZZdesign
16 20 (0.84%) Sparx
16 20 (0.84%) Talend
17 18 (0.76%) Splunk
18 16 (0.67%) Informatica