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 £620, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 24 September 2026.

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

6 months to
24 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 21 13
Rank change year-on-year +7 -8 +3
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,580 1,205 1,690
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.11% 7.79% 9.56%
As % of the Job Titles category 9.98% 8.67% 10.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,733 827 1,006
10th Percentile £465 £462 £468
25th Percentile £525 £519 £526
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £620 £600 £625
Median % change year-on-year +3.33% -4.00% -1.57%
75th Percentile £700 £688 £725
90th Percentile £769 £775 £778
UK median daily rate £617 £625 £625
% change year-on-year -1.30% - -3.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 160 12 64
10th Percentile £45.40 £30.99 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £56.62 £62.19
Median hourly rate £68.17 £71.25 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -4.33% +1.79% -6.67%
75th Percentile £79.06 £81.88 £85.00
90th Percentile £95.10 £98.75 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £68.17 £71.25 £70.00
% change year-on-year -4.33% +1.79% -0.25%

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 25,851 13,902 16,319
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.23% 89.82% 92.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,184 8,550 9,348
10th Percentile £303 £210 £220
25th Percentile £413 £361 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £598
90th Percentile £688 £663 £676
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,379 1,291 1,371
10th Percentile £14.22 £13.50 £14.50
25th Percentile £19.78 £16.38 £19.74
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.08 £43.90
Median % change year-on-year +69.49% -42.88% +0.83%
75th Percentile £67.84 £50.88 £66.61
90th Percentile £78.70 £70.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% -3.37%

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 24 September 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 24 September 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 24 September 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 +1 728 £625 +4.17% 569
North of England +4 686 £595 -0.83% 490
Midlands +3 438 £626 +8.91% 268
North West +8 377 £599 +4.16% 271
South West +4 344 £638 -1.92% 232
West Midlands +3 327 £650 +8.33% 207
Yorkshire +13 246 £557 -9.06% 164
Scotland +24 189 £625 +0.60% 203
East of England +8 163 £619 +11.55% 144
East Midlands +2 106 £600 +19.40% 61
North East -4 62 £600 -17.24% 55
Wales +6 44 £645 +3.20% 32
Channel Islands -3 8 £700 -5.72% 4
Northern Ireland +4 2 - - 69
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 24 September 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.

1 888 (34.42%) Security Cleared
2 586 (22.71%) Azure
3 581 (22.52%) SC Cleared
4 484 (18.76%) Stakeholder Management
5 444 (17.21%) AWS
6 377 (14.61%) Roadmaps
7 373 (14.46%) Microsoft
8 364 (14.11%) Technical Leadership
9 322 (12.48%) Migration
10 303 (11.74%) Enterprise Architecture
11 297 (11.51%) Agile
12 284 (11.01%) DV Cleared
13 247 (9.57%) Data Architecture
14 245 (9.50%) DevOps
15 242 (9.38%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 236 (9.15%) AI
17 233 (9.03%) CI/CD
18 221 (8.57%) Integration Patterns
19 217 (8.41%) Data Modelling
20 204 (7.91%) Cybersecurity
21 198 (7.67%) Architectural Patterns
21 198 (7.67%) Security Architecture
22 191 (7.40%) TOGAF
23 188 (7.29%) GCP
24 179 (6.94%) Architecture Governance
25 167 (6.47%) Continuous Improvement
26 164 (6.36%) Event-Driven
26 164 (6.36%) Microservices
27 148 (5.74%) Data Governance
28 147 (5.70%) Analytics

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 34 (1.32%) SAS
2 33 (1.28%) SharePoint
3 27 (1.05%) Confluence
4 17 (0.66%) Microsoft Exchange
5 13 (0.50%) OpenStack
6 11 (0.43%) Apache
7 10 (0.39%) Apache Airflow
7 10 (0.39%) Apache Spark
7 10 (0.39%) Palantir Foundry
8 7 (0.27%) Documentum
9 6 (0.23%) NetWeaver
10 5 (0.19%) IIS
11 4 (0.16%) SAP EP
12 3 (0.12%) CMS
12 3 (0.12%) JBoss
13 2 (0.078%) Adobe Experience Manager
13 2 (0.078%) Alfresco
13 2 (0.078%) Apache Superset
14 1 (0.039%) CIMPLICITY
14 1 (0.039%) FactoryTalk
Applications
1 11 (0.43%) MS Visio
2 10 (0.39%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (0.35%) Microsoft Office
4 8 (0.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.27%) Navisworks
5 7 (0.27%) Revit
6 6 (0.23%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 71 (2.75%) SAP S/4HANA
2 12 (0.47%) Teamcenter
3 9 (0.35%) Payment Gateway
4 8 (0.31%) Remedy ITSM
5 7 (0.27%) Oracle ERP
6 6 (0.23%) Dynamics CRM
6 6 (0.23%) Maximo
6 6 (0.23%) SAP ERP
6 6 (0.23%) SAP MDG
6 6 (0.23%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
7 5 (0.19%) Remedy AR System
8 4 (0.16%) NetSuite
8 4 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
8 4 (0.16%) SAP CRM
9 3 (0.12%) Adobe Campaign
9 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
9 3 (0.12%) Oracle Retail
9 3 (0.12%) Salesforce CRM
9 3 (0.12%) SAP Payroll
9 3 (0.12%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 586 (22.71%) Azure
2 444 (17.21%) AWS
3 188 (7.29%) GCP
4 98 (3.80%) SaaS
5 97 (3.76%) Power Platform
6 69 (2.67%) Serverless
7 67 (2.60%) Entra ID
8 65 (2.52%) Microsoft 365
9 53 (2.05%) Dynamics 365
10 47 (1.82%) Azure DevOps
10 47 (1.82%) GitHub
11 38 (1.47%) PaaS
12 33 (1.28%) AWS Lambda
12 33 (1.28%) IaaS
13 31 (1.20%) Snowflake
14 29 (1.12%) Amazon S3
15 26 (1.01%) GitHub Actions
16 24 (0.93%) OCI
17 22 (0.85%) iPaaS
18 21 (0.81%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 75 (2.91%) Firewall
2 56 (2.17%) WAN
3 53 (2.05%) DNS
4 51 (1.98%) Network Security
5 38 (1.47%) LAN
6 37 (1.43%) BGP
7 33 (1.28%) DHCP
8 31 (1.20%) MPLS
8 31 (1.20%) SD-WAN
9 27 (1.05%) TCP/IP
9 27 (1.05%) VPN
10 25 (0.97%) VLAN
11 21 (0.81%) SAN
12 18 (0.70%) NAS
12 18 (0.70%) NX-OS
13 17 (0.66%) BIG-IP
14 16 (0.62%) OSPF
15 15 (0.58%) Structured Cabling
15 15 (0.58%) VXLAN
16 14 (0.54%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 91 (3.53%) Metadata
2 81 (3.14%) Data Lake
3 77 (2.98%) Data Warehouse
4 63 (2.44%) Power BI
5 33 (1.28%) NoSQL
6 23 (0.89%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
7 21 (0.81%) Amazon RDS
8 20 (0.78%) BigQuery
9 19 (0.74%) Azure SQL Database
10 17 (0.66%) Oracle Database
11 16 (0.62%) Base SAS
12 14 (0.54%) SQL Server
13 11 (0.43%) GIS
13 11 (0.43%) PostgreSQL
14 10 (0.39%) Amazon Redshift
14 10 (0.39%) Delta Lake
14 10 (0.39%) Looker
15 9 (0.35%) MySQL
15 9 (0.35%) Pentaho
15 9 (0.35%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 36 (1.40%) Git
2 35 (1.36%) JIRA
3 21 (0.81%) GitLab
3 21 (0.81%) Jenkins
4 8 (0.31%) MSI
5 6 (0.23%) Claude Code
6 5 (0.19%) ERwin
7 4 (0.16%) Artifactory
7 4 (0.16%) Sonatype Nexus
8 3 (0.12%) Hudson
8 3 (0.12%) Postman
8 3 (0.12%) Selenium
9 2 (0.078%) Cucumber
9 2 (0.078%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.078%) IntelliJ
9 2 (0.078%) JUnit
9 2 (0.078%) Oracle APEX
9 2 (0.078%) Oracle Forms
9 2 (0.078%) Rational DOORS
9 2 (0.078%) REST Assured
General
1 549 (21.28%) Social Skills
2 303 (11.74%) Finance
3 269 (10.43%) Public Sector
4 125 (4.84%) Analytical Skills
5 122 (4.73%) Banking
6 116 (4.50%) Retail
7 93 (3.60%) Manufacturing
8 73 (2.83%) Influencing Skills
9 62 (2.40%) Documentation Skills
10 54 (2.09%) Aerospace
11 41 (1.59%) Legal
12 36 (1.40%) Telecoms
13 30 (1.16%) Military
14 26 (1.01%) Marketing
15 22 (0.85%) Aviation
16 21 (0.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 20 (0.78%) Back Office
18 19 (0.74%) Presentation Skills
19 18 (0.70%) Billing
20 16 (0.62%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 109 (4.22%) REST
2 92 (3.57%) Terraform
3 73 (2.83%) Middleware
4 56 (2.17%) SOAP
5 51 (1.98%) OAuth
6 45 (1.74%) Kafka
7 40 (1.55%) Oracle Fusion
8 39 (1.51%) LDAP
9 34 (1.32%) SAML
10 31 (1.20%) .NET
11 29 (1.12%) OpenID
12 28 (1.09%) JSON
13 21 (0.81%) OAuth2
14 19 (0.74%) SailPoint
15 18 (0.70%) Node.js
16 17 (0.66%) GraphQL
16 17 (0.66%) SAP Fiori
17 15 (0.58%) JWT
17 15 (0.58%) Swagger
17 15 (0.58%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 194 (7.52%) Cloud Native
2 92 (3.57%) Data Centre
3 80 (3.10%) Hybrid Cloud
4 71 (2.75%) Onboarding
5 66 (2.56%) Product Ownership
6 64 (2.48%) Distributed Systems
7 62 (2.40%) Data Protection Act
8 61 (2.36%) Enterprise Software
9 58 (2.25%) Operational Technology
10 57 (2.21%) Legacy Systems
11 51 (1.98%) Management Information System
12 41 (1.59%) AI Agents
12 41 (1.59%) Public Cloud
13 39 (1.51%) CMDB
13 39 (1.51%) Private Cloud
14 28 (1.09%) Enterprise Cloud
15 27 (1.05%) IVR
16 23 (0.89%) PKI
16 23 (0.89%) Security Posture
17 22 (0.85%) Data Structures
Operating Systems
1 87 (3.37%) Windows
2 56 (2.17%) Linux
3 36 (1.40%) Windows Server
4 17 (0.66%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (0.31%) Unix
6 6 (0.23%) AIX
7 4 (0.16%) Data ONTAP
8 2 (0.078%) HPUX
8 2 (0.078%) Solaris
8 2 (0.078%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.039%) Android
9 1 (0.039%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.039%) CatOS
9 1 (0.039%) CentOS
9 1 (0.039%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.039%) VMS
9 1 (0.039%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.039%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 484 (18.76%) Stakeholder Management
2 377 (14.61%) Roadmaps
3 364 (14.11%) Technical Leadership
4 322 (12.48%) Migration
5 303 (11.74%) Enterprise Architecture
6 297 (11.51%) Agile
7 247 (9.57%) Data Architecture
8 245 (9.50%) DevOps
9 242 (9.38%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 236 (9.15%) AI
11 233 (9.03%) CI/CD
12 221 (8.57%) Integration Patterns
13 217 (8.41%) Data Modelling
14 204 (7.91%) Cybersecurity
15 198 (7.67%) Architectural Patterns
15 198 (7.67%) Security Architecture
16 191 (7.40%) TOGAF
17 179 (6.94%) Architecture Governance
18 167 (6.47%) Continuous Improvement
19 164 (6.36%) Microservices
Programming Languages
1 94 (3.64%) SQL
2 93 (3.60%) Java
3 88 (3.41%) Python
4 51 (1.98%) PowerShell
5 48 (1.86%) JavaScript
6 24 (0.93%) Bash
7 15 (0.58%) ABAP
8 14 (0.54%) TypeScript
9 10 (0.39%) Shell Script
10 9 (0.35%) Apex Code
10 9 (0.35%) Bicep
10 9 (0.35%) C#
11 6 (0.23%) PL/SQL
11 6 (0.23%) VBA
12 5 (0.19%) Groovy
13 4 (0.16%) PHP
14 3 (0.12%) R
15 2 (0.078%) BeanShell
15 2 (0.078%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 2 (0.078%) Go
Qualifications
1 888 (34.42%) Security Cleared
2 581 (22.52%) SC Cleared
3 284 (11.01%) DV Cleared
4 72 (2.79%) Degree
5 66 (2.56%) CISSP
6 61 (2.36%) Cisco Certification
7 59 (2.29%) BPSS Clearance
8 44 (1.71%) AWS Certification
9 43 (1.67%) TOGAF Certification
10 41 (1.59%) Azure Certification
11 31 (1.20%) Computer Science Degree
12 29 (1.12%) CCNP
13 23 (0.89%) CISM
14 20 (0.78%) CCIE
15 19 (0.74%) Microsoft Certification
16 18 (0.70%) (ISC)2 CCSP
17 15 (0.58%) JNCIE
18 13 (0.50%) CCSP
19 12 (0.47%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
19 12 (0.47%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 101 (3.91%) NIST
2 89 (3.45%) Data Quality
3 71 (2.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 59 (2.29%) NCSC
5 49 (1.90%) GDPR
6 26 (1.01%) QA
7 19 (0.74%) JSP 440
7 19 (0.74%) PCI DSS
8 18 (0.70%) GRC
9 17 (0.66%) Accessibility
10 16 (0.62%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 15 (0.58%) NIST 800
12 13 (0.50%) Disclosure Scotland
12 13 (0.50%) ISO 19650
13 11 (0.43%) IFRS
13 11 (0.43%) SLA
14 9 (0.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 7 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 27005
16 6 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
17 5 (0.19%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 101 (3.91%) Active Directory
2 50 (1.94%) VMware Infrastructure
3 46 (1.78%) Docker
4 30 (1.16%) VMware NSX
5 23 (0.89%) Virtual Desktop
6 14 (0.54%) Hyper-V
7 13 (0.50%) VMware ESXi
8 12 (0.47%) vSphere
9 9 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
10 4 (0.16%) ISA Server
10 4 (0.16%) KVM
11 3 (0.12%) Ceph
11 3 (0.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
11 3 (0.12%) Microsoft Virtual Server
11 3 (0.12%) SRDF
11 3 (0.12%) Virtual Servers
12 2 (0.078%) NFS
12 2 (0.078%) vCloud
12 2 (0.078%) zsh
13 1 (0.039%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 130 (5.04%) Kubernetes
2 54 (2.09%) Ansible
3 21 (0.81%) Microsoft Intune
4 19 (0.74%) Single Sign-On
5 14 (0.54%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 13 (0.50%) Prometheus
7 12 (0.47%) Grafana
7 12 (0.47%) Jamf Pro
8 11 (0.43%) WMI
9 8 (0.31%) CASB
10 7 (0.27%) FortiGate
10 7 (0.27%) vCenter Server
11 5 (0.19%) Argo
11 5 (0.19%) Istio
11 5 (0.19%) NetBackup
12 4 (0.16%) Cisco CUCM
12 4 (0.16%) EMC VPLEX
12 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
13 3 (0.12%) SnapVault
13 3 (0.12%) vRealize
Vendors
1 373 (14.46%) Microsoft
2 129 (5.00%) SAP
3 113 (4.38%) Oracle
4 112 (4.34%) Google
5 104 (4.03%) ServiceNow
6 89 (3.45%) VMware
7 82 (3.18%) Databricks
8 81 (3.14%) Cisco
9 58 (2.25%) Salesforce
10 43 (1.67%) CyberArk
11 31 (1.20%) MuleSoft
12 29 (1.12%) F5
13 23 (0.89%) IBM
13 23 (0.89%) Informatica
14 21 (0.81%) Red Hat
15 20 (0.78%) Infoblox
15 20 (0.78%) Workday
16 17 (0.66%) Palo Alto
17 16 (0.62%) Foundry
18 15 (0.58%) Fortinet