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 10 July 2026.

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

 6 months to
10 Jul 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 20 13
Rank change year-on-year +9 -7 +5
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,555 1,213 2,066
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.49% 8.26% 9.86%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.31% 9.09% 10.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,674 811 1,255
10th Percentile £475 £450 £486
25th Percentile £525 £525 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £620 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year +3.33% -7.69% -
75th Percentile £713 £694 £725
90th Percentile £775 £760 £788
UK median daily rate £615 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -1.60% -3.85% -1.03%
Number of hourly rates quoted 156 18 91
10th Percentile £47.70 £36.30 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £63.38 £60.63
Median hourly rate £65.00 £72.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.34% +3.57% -
75th Percentile £71.91 £85.50 £85.65
90th Percentile £83.00 £98.99 £88.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £68.75 £70.00
% change year-on-year -5.45% -1.79% -

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 24,786 13,347 19,336
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.09% 90.93% 92.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,172 8,282 11,640
10th Percentile £303 £216 £213
25th Percentile £406 £363 £370
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £493
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -3.65% -1.40%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £595
90th Percentile £688 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £522 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +4.40% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,847 1,095 2,377
10th Percentile £15.24 £13.50 £12.78
25th Percentile £20.77 £16.84 £16.12
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% +0.50%
75th Percentile £67.84 £57.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £74.37
UK median hourly rate £43.50 £26.39 £37.50
% change year-on-year +64.87% -29.64% -14.05%

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 10 July 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 10 July 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 10 July 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 +7 750 £600 - 177
South East +1 713 £628 +4.67% 194
Midlands 0 437 £620 +7.83% 86
North West +4 405 £607 +1.08% 105
West Midlands -4 314 £625 +4.17% 71
Yorkshire +12 279 £586 -2.42% 39
South West -2 277 £625 - 152
East of England +13 195 £600 - 47
Scotland +10 171 £650 +4.00% 55
East Midlands +6 115 £588 +17.50% 15
North East 0 74 £575 -13.21% 33
Wales +6 38 £600 +25.00% 22
Northern Ireland +7 7 £475 -32.14% 12
Channel Islands 0 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 10 July 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.

1 759 (29.71%) Security Cleared
2 555 (21.72%) Azure
3 471 (18.43%) SC Cleared
4 442 (17.30%) AWS
5 366 (14.32%) Roadmaps
6 348 (13.62%) Microsoft
7 345 (13.50%) Agile
8 316 (12.37%) Stakeholder Management
9 293 (11.47%) Migration
10 263 (10.29%) DevOps
11 260 (10.18%) Enterprise Architecture
12 257 (10.06%) Technical Leadership
13 242 (9.47%) Integration Patterns
14 238 (9.32%) CI/CD
15 236 (9.24%) DV Cleared
16 232 (9.08%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 221 (8.65%) Architectural Patterns
18 210 (8.22%) Data Architecture
19 209 (8.18%) Data Modelling
20 206 (8.06%) Microservices
21 195 (7.63%) AI
22 192 (7.51%) TOGAF
23 190 (7.44%) Cybersecurity
24 174 (6.81%) Problem-Solving
25 170 (6.65%) Security Architecture
26 165 (6.46%) Architectural Design
27 155 (6.07%) GCP
28 144 (5.64%) Analytics
28 144 (5.64%) Continuous Improvement
28 144 (5.64%) SAP

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 55 (2.15%) SharePoint
2 38 (1.49%) Confluence
3 32 (1.25%) SAS
4 31 (1.21%) Microsoft Exchange
5 14 (0.55%) Apache Airflow
6 13 (0.51%) Appian
7 11 (0.43%) Apache
8 10 (0.39%) Apache Spark
8 10 (0.39%) OpenStack
9 9 (0.35%) CMS
10 8 (0.31%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 7 (0.27%) Documentum
11 7 (0.27%) Palantir Foundry
12 6 (0.23%) JBoss
12 6 (0.23%) Sitecore CMS
12 6 (0.23%) WebLogic
13 5 (0.20%) ArcGIS
13 5 (0.20%) NetWeaver
14 4 (0.16%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 4 (0.16%) SAP EP
Applications
1 11 (0.43%) Microsoft Office
1 11 (0.43%) MS Visio
2 8 (0.31%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (0.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (0.27%) Navisworks
3 7 (0.27%) Revit
4 6 (0.23%) Spreadsheet
5 4 (0.16%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.039%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 60 (2.35%) SAP S/4HANA
2 20 (0.78%) Payment Gateway
3 15 (0.59%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 12 (0.47%) SAP ERP
5 11 (0.43%) Teamcenter
6 10 (0.39%) Remedy ITSM
7 7 (0.27%) Oracle ERP
8 6 (0.23%) Dynamics CRM
9 5 (0.20%) Maximo
9 5 (0.20%) Oracle Retail
10 4 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
10 4 (0.16%) Salesforce CRM
10 4 (0.16%) SAP CRM
10 4 (0.16%) SAP GRC
10 4 (0.16%) SAP MDG
11 3 (0.12%) Adobe Campaign
11 3 (0.12%) Avolution ABACUS
11 3 (0.12%) NetSuite
11 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
11 3 (0.12%) SAP IBP
Cloud Services
1 555 (21.72%) Azure
2 442 (17.30%) AWS
3 155 (6.07%) GCP
4 100 (3.91%) Power Platform
5 95 (3.72%) Entra ID
6 83 (3.25%) Serverless
7 81 (3.17%) SaaS
8 72 (2.82%) Microsoft 365
9 59 (2.31%) PaaS
10 48 (1.88%) GitHub
10 48 (1.88%) IaaS
11 45 (1.76%) Azure DevOps
12 38 (1.49%) OpenShift
13 32 (1.25%) AWS Lambda
14 31 (1.21%) Dynamics 365
15 27 (1.06%) Microsoft Purview
16 26 (1.02%) GitHub Actions
16 26 (1.02%) Snowflake
17 25 (0.98%) Azure Data Factory
18 23 (0.90%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 114 (4.46%) Firewall
2 78 (3.05%) DNS
3 74 (2.90%) WAN
4 73 (2.86%) Network Security
5 60 (2.35%) LAN
6 45 (1.76%) VPN
7 42 (1.64%) DHCP
8 40 (1.57%) SD-WAN
9 34 (1.33%) VLAN
10 33 (1.29%) BGP
11 31 (1.21%) TCP/IP
12 26 (1.02%) MPLS
13 25 (0.98%) Wireless
14 24 (0.94%) SAN
15 23 (0.90%) NAS
16 22 (0.86%) IPsec
17 21 (0.82%) Structured Cabling
18 20 (0.78%) BIG-IP
19 19 (0.74%) OSPF
20 14 (0.55%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 71 (2.78%) Metadata
2 69 (2.70%) Power BI
3 60 (2.35%) Data Lake
4 59 (2.31%) Data Warehouse
5 35 (1.37%) NoSQL
6 31 (1.21%) SQL Server
7 27 (1.06%) PostgreSQL
8 20 (0.78%) Oracle Database
9 16 (0.63%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
10 14 (0.55%) Amazon RDS
10 14 (0.55%) Azure SQL Database
10 14 (0.55%) Base SAS
11 13 (0.51%) Big Data
11 13 (0.51%) GIS
12 12 (0.47%) Relational Database
13 11 (0.43%) MongoDB
14 10 (0.39%) Semantic Layer
15 9 (0.35%) Electronic Patient Records
16 8 (0.31%) Delta Lake
16 8 (0.31%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 52 (2.04%) JIRA
2 33 (1.29%) Jenkins
3 26 (1.02%) Git
4 16 (0.63%) GitLab
5 10 (0.39%) ERwin
6 8 (0.31%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.20%) Artifactory
8 4 (0.16%) Hudson
8 4 (0.16%) Postman
8 4 (0.16%) Selenium
9 3 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.12%) REST Assured
9 3 (0.12%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.078%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.078%) Cucumber
10 2 (0.078%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.078%) LoadRunner
10 2 (0.078%) NeoLoad
10 2 (0.078%) Oracle APEX
10 2 (0.078%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 471 (18.43%) Social Skills
2 350 (13.70%) Finance
3 241 (9.43%) Public Sector
4 154 (6.03%) Banking
5 142 (5.56%) Analytical Skills
6 97 (3.80%) Retail
7 71 (2.78%) Manufacturing
8 63 (2.47%) Documentation Skills
9 47 (1.84%) Legal
10 45 (1.76%) Influencing Skills
11 34 (1.33%) Aerospace
12 32 (1.25%) Military
13 25 (0.98%) Telecoms
14 24 (0.94%) Financial Institution
15 22 (0.86%) Investment Banking
16 21 (0.82%) Marketing
17 18 (0.70%) Back Office
17 18 (0.70%) Billing
18 17 (0.67%) Presentation Skills
19 14 (0.55%) Aviation
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 120 (4.70%) REST
2 74 (2.90%) Middleware
3 55 (2.15%) OAuth
4 46 (1.80%) OpenID
5 45 (1.76%) SOAP
6 44 (1.72%) .NET
7 35 (1.37%) Oracle Fusion
7 35 (1.37%) SailPoint
8 33 (1.29%) Kafka
8 33 (1.29%) SAML
9 32 (1.25%) OAuth2
10 25 (0.98%) RESTful
11 23 (0.90%) Node.js
12 21 (0.82%) LDAP
13 20 (0.78%) React
13 20 (0.78%) Web Services
14 19 (0.74%) JSON
15 15 (0.59%) AngularJS
16 12 (0.47%) FHIR
17 11 (0.43%) SAP PI
Miscellaneous
1 186 (7.28%) Cloud Native
2 96 (3.76%) Data Centre
3 75 (2.94%) Operational Technology
4 71 (2.78%) Hybrid Cloud
5 67 (2.62%) Product Ownership
6 65 (2.54%) Onboarding
7 57 (2.23%) Management Information System
8 56 (2.19%) Data Protection Act
9 55 (2.15%) Legacy Systems
10 52 (2.04%) Enterprise Software
11 51 (2.00%) Distributed Systems
12 46 (1.80%) Public Cloud
13 31 (1.21%) Private Cloud
14 30 (1.17%) CMDB
15 28 (1.10%) AI Agents
16 25 (0.98%) Security Posture
17 24 (0.94%) PKI
18 23 (0.90%) SCADA
19 21 (0.82%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
20 20 (0.78%) Enterprise Cloud
Operating Systems
1 105 (4.11%) Windows
2 53 (2.07%) Linux
3 36 (1.41%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.63%) Android
4 16 (0.63%) Apple iOS
5 13 (0.51%) Unix
6 12 (0.47%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
8 4 (0.16%) Windows 10
8 4 (0.16%) Windows 7
9 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.078%) AIX
10 2 (0.078%) VMS
10 2 (0.078%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (0.078%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.039%) CatOS
11 1 (0.039%) CentOS
11 1 (0.039%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.039%) Windows Server 2008
11 1 (0.039%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 366 (14.32%) Roadmaps
2 345 (13.50%) Agile
3 316 (12.37%) Stakeholder Management
4 293 (11.47%) Migration
5 263 (10.29%) DevOps
6 260 (10.18%) Enterprise Architecture
7 257 (10.06%) Technical Leadership
8 242 (9.47%) Integration Patterns
9 238 (9.32%) CI/CD
10 232 (9.08%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 221 (8.65%) Architectural Patterns
12 210 (8.22%) Data Architecture
13 209 (8.18%) Data Modelling
14 206 (8.06%) Microservices
15 195 (7.63%) AI
16 192 (7.51%) TOGAF
17 190 (7.44%) Cybersecurity
18 174 (6.81%) Problem-Solving
19 170 (6.65%) Security Architecture
20 165 (6.46%) Architectural Design
Programming Languages
1 115 (4.50%) SQL
2 110 (4.31%) Python
3 98 (3.84%) Java
4 53 (2.07%) JavaScript
4 53 (2.07%) PowerShell
5 28 (1.10%) C#
6 26 (1.02%) Bicep
7 21 (0.82%) Bash
8 15 (0.59%) TypeScript
9 8 (0.31%) ABAP
9 8 (0.31%) PL/SQL
9 8 (0.31%) VBA
10 6 (0.23%) Kusto Query Language
10 6 (0.23%) Scala
11 5 (0.20%) Apex Code
11 5 (0.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 4 (0.16%) Kotlin
12 4 (0.16%) VB
12 4 (0.16%) VBScript
13 3 (0.12%) C
Qualifications
1 759 (29.71%) Security Cleared
2 471 (18.43%) SC Cleared
3 236 (9.24%) DV Cleared
4 93 (3.64%) Degree
5 60 (2.35%) Cisco Certification
6 51 (2.00%) CISSP
7 50 (1.96%) BPSS Clearance
8 46 (1.80%) AWS Certification
9 45 (1.76%) TOGAF Certification
10 42 (1.64%) Azure Certification
11 35 (1.37%) Computer Science Degree
12 33 (1.29%) CCNP
13 23 (0.90%) Microsoft Certification
14 18 (0.70%) CISM
15 17 (0.67%) CCNA
16 16 (0.63%) CCIE
16 16 (0.63%) Master's Degree
17 14 (0.55%) (ISC)2 CCSP
17 14 (0.55%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
18 12 (0.47%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 97 (3.80%) NIST
2 75 (2.94%) Data Quality
2 75 (2.94%) GDPR
3 60 (2.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 60 (2.35%) NCSC
4 26 (1.02%) QA
5 20 (0.78%) PCI DSS
6 19 (0.74%) Accessibility
7 16 (0.63%) NIST 800
8 13 (0.51%) GRC
9 12 (0.47%) COBIT
10 11 (0.43%) IFRS
11 10 (0.39%) Disclosure Scotland
11 10 (0.39%) HL7
11 10 (0.39%) ISO 19650
11 10 (0.39%) JSP 440
11 10 (0.39%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 9 (0.35%) ISO 20022
12 9 (0.35%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 8 (0.31%) FINRA
System Software
1 109 (4.27%) Active Directory
2 54 (2.11%) VMware Infrastructure
3 46 (1.80%) Docker
4 33 (1.29%) VMware NSX
5 23 (0.90%) Virtual Desktop
6 18 (0.70%) Hyper-V
7 17 (0.67%) vSphere
8 11 (0.43%) VMware ESXi
9 8 (0.31%) Virtual Machines
10 6 (0.23%) vCloud
11 4 (0.16%) BitLocker
11 4 (0.16%) RACF
12 3 (0.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
12 3 (0.12%) IAG
12 3 (0.12%) NFS
12 3 (0.12%) SRDF
13 2 (0.078%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
14 1 (0.039%) Firmware
14 1 (0.039%) KVM
14 1 (0.039%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 107 (4.19%) Kubernetes
2 97 (3.80%) Terraform
3 53 (2.07%) Ansible
4 39 (1.53%) Microsoft Intune
5 28 (1.10%) Single Sign-On
6 19 (0.74%) Grafana
6 19 (0.74%) vCenter Server
7 16 (0.63%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 15 (0.59%) Prometheus
9 13 (0.51%) Argo
9 13 (0.51%) Jamf Pro
10 10 (0.39%) FortiGate
10 10 (0.39%) SCCM
11 8 (0.31%) Istio
12 6 (0.23%) CASB
13 5 (0.20%) EMC VPLEX
13 5 (0.20%) MOM
14 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
15 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
15 3 (0.12%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 348 (13.62%) Microsoft
2 144 (5.64%) SAP
3 116 (4.54%) ServiceNow
4 113 (4.42%) Oracle
5 111 (4.34%) VMware
6 75 (2.94%) Cisco
7 73 (2.86%) Databricks
8 72 (2.82%) Google
9 52 (2.04%) Salesforce
10 34 (1.33%) F5
11 30 (1.17%) Citrix
12 29 (1.14%) Red Hat
13 24 (0.94%) MuleSoft
14 23 (0.90%) BiZZdesign
14 23 (0.90%) Palo Alto
15 22 (0.86%) Juniper
16 20 (0.78%) CyberArk
16 20 (0.78%) Infoblox
16 20 (0.78%) Talend
17 17 (0.67%) Sparx
734 Architect jobs in the UK excluding London