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 19 August 2026.

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

6 months to
19 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 21 13
Rank change year-on-year +7 -8 +6
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,494 1,236 1,819
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.04% 8.08% 9.98%
As % of the Job Titles category 9.85% 8.97% 10.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,667 842 1,152
10th Percentile £476 £463 £481
25th Percentile £525 £519 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £620 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year +3.33% -7.69% -
75th Percentile £706 £694 £725
90th Percentile £775 £752 £788
UK median daily rate £620 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -0.80% -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 153 15 71
10th Percentile £46.00 £33.64 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £64.38 £60.63
Median hourly rate £65.00 £72.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.34% +3.57% -3.34%
75th Percentile £71.91 £86.50 £85.00
90th Percentile £88.60 £99.42 £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 25,321 13,777 16,808
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.81% 90.08% 92.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,293 8,431 10,221
10th Percentile £305 £213 £220
25th Percentile £410 £362 £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 £688
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,040 1,248 1,696
10th Percentile £14.56 £13.25 £13.98
25th Percentile £20.42 £16.39 £18.33
Median hourly rate £42.30 £25.15 £43.95
Median % change year-on-year +68.19% -42.78% +17.20%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £41.71 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +65.84% -41.51% +2.87%

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 19 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 19 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 19 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 +2 741 £625 +4.17% 236
North of England +4 692 £600 - 246
Midlands +1 412 £625 +8.70% 98
North West +7 400 £600 - 133
South West -3 312 £625 -2.34% 120
West Midlands -1 296 £627 +4.42% 76
Yorkshire +7 229 £600 0.00% 77
East of England +12 160 £602 +8.47% 49
Scotland +17 150 £648 +3.60% 81
East Midlands +6 109 £600 +18.23% 22
North East -6 65 £600 -14.29% 38
Wales +5 42 £633 +1.20% 14
Northern Ireland +9 5 £475 -32.14% 39
Channel Islands -3 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 19 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.

1 826 (33.12%) Security Cleared
2 566 (22.69%) Azure
3 522 (20.93%) SC Cleared
4 436 (17.48%) AWS
5 356 (14.27%) Stakeholder Management
6 348 (13.95%) Microsoft
7 345 (13.83%) Roadmaps
8 313 (12.55%) Agile
9 285 (11.43%) Migration
10 282 (11.31%) Technical Leadership
11 273 (10.95%) Enterprise Architecture
12 260 (10.43%) DV Cleared
13 247 (9.90%) DevOps
14 234 (9.38%) Integration Patterns
14 234 (9.38%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 229 (9.18%) CI/CD
16 226 (9.06%) AI
17 216 (8.66%) Data Architecture
18 205 (8.22%) Data Modelling
19 201 (8.06%) Architectural Patterns
20 200 (8.02%) Cybersecurity
21 187 (7.50%) Security Architecture
22 182 (7.30%) TOGAF
23 173 (6.94%) GCP
24 159 (6.38%) Microservices
25 153 (6.13%) Architecture Governance
26 147 (5.89%) Continuous Improvement
26 147 (5.89%) Problem-Solving
27 146 (5.85%) Event-Driven
28 142 (5.69%) 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 35 (1.40%) SharePoint
2 31 (1.24%) SAS
3 30 (1.20%) Confluence
4 12 (0.48%) OpenStack
5 11 (0.44%) Microsoft Exchange
6 10 (0.40%) Apache
6 10 (0.40%) Apache Spark
6 10 (0.40%) Palantir Foundry
7 9 (0.36%) Apache Airflow
8 7 (0.28%) Documentum
9 5 (0.20%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 4 (0.16%) CMS
10 4 (0.16%) NetWeaver
11 3 (0.12%) JBoss
11 3 (0.12%) SAP EP
12 2 (0.080%) Alfresco
12 2 (0.080%) Apache Superset
13 1 (0.040%) CIMPLICITY
13 1 (0.040%) FactoryTalk
13 1 (0.040%) Red Hat Fuse
Applications
1 12 (0.48%) MS Visio
2 11 (0.44%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (0.36%) Microsoft Office
4 7 (0.28%) Navisworks
4 7 (0.28%) Revit
5 6 (0.24%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.040%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 65 (2.61%) SAP S/4HANA
2 13 (0.52%) Payment Gateway
3 12 (0.48%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 12 (0.48%) Teamcenter
4 10 (0.40%) Remedy ITSM
5 7 (0.28%) SAP ERP
6 5 (0.20%) Dynamics CRM
6 5 (0.20%) Maximo
6 5 (0.20%) Oracle ERP
6 5 (0.20%) Oracle Retail
7 4 (0.16%) NetSuite
7 4 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
7 4 (0.16%) SAP GRC
7 4 (0.16%) SAP MDG
8 3 (0.12%) Dynamics NAV
8 3 (0.12%) Remedy AR System
8 3 (0.12%) SAP CRM
8 3 (0.12%) SAP HR
8 3 (0.12%) SAP IBP
8 3 (0.12%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 566 (22.69%) Azure
2 436 (17.48%) AWS
3 173 (6.94%) GCP
4 100 (4.01%) Power Platform
5 82 (3.29%) Serverless
6 80 (3.21%) SaaS
7 76 (3.05%) Entra ID
8 51 (2.04%) Microsoft 365
9 46 (1.84%) PaaS
10 45 (1.80%) Azure DevOps
10 45 (1.80%) GitHub
11 41 (1.64%) Dynamics 365
12 38 (1.52%) AWS Lambda
12 38 (1.52%) IaaS
13 33 (1.32%) OpenShift
14 30 (1.20%) GitHub Actions
15 29 (1.16%) Snowflake
16 28 (1.12%) Amazon S3
17 23 (0.92%) Azure Data Factory
17 23 (0.92%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 96 (3.85%) Firewall
2 64 (2.57%) WAN
3 60 (2.41%) DNS
4 52 (2.09%) LAN
5 49 (1.96%) Network Security
6 38 (1.52%) VPN
7 34 (1.36%) DHCP
8 33 (1.32%) BGP
8 33 (1.32%) SD-WAN
9 29 (1.16%) VLAN
10 27 (1.08%) TCP/IP
11 25 (1.00%) MPLS
11 25 (1.00%) SAN
12 22 (0.88%) NAS
13 20 (0.80%) Structured Cabling
13 20 (0.80%) Wireless
14 16 (0.64%) OSPF
15 15 (0.60%) BIG-IP
16 13 (0.52%) IPsec
16 13 (0.52%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 74 (2.97%) Data Lake
2 70 (2.81%) Power BI
3 67 (2.69%) Metadata
4 65 (2.61%) Data Warehouse
5 36 (1.44%) NoSQL
6 22 (0.88%) SQL Server
7 21 (0.84%) Azure SQL Database
8 20 (0.80%) Amazon RDS
9 19 (0.76%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
10 17 (0.68%) Oracle Database
11 16 (0.64%) Base SAS
12 15 (0.60%) PostgreSQL
13 14 (0.56%) BigQuery
14 12 (0.48%) Delta Lake
15 11 (0.44%) GIS
16 10 (0.40%) Big Data
16 10 (0.40%) MySQL
17 9 (0.36%) Amazon Redshift
17 9 (0.36%) Electronic Patient Records
17 9 (0.36%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 35 (1.40%) JIRA
2 30 (1.20%) Git
3 23 (0.92%) Jenkins
4 13 (0.52%) GitLab
5 9 (0.36%) ERwin
6 6 (0.24%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.20%) Artifactory
7 5 (0.20%) Claude Code
8 4 (0.16%) Hudson
8 4 (0.16%) MSI
8 4 (0.16%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.12%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.080%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.080%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.080%) IntelliJ
10 2 (0.080%) JUnit
10 2 (0.080%) Oracle APEX
10 2 (0.080%) Oracle Forms
10 2 (0.080%) Rational Rhapsody
10 2 (0.080%) Selenium
General
1 470 (18.85%) Social Skills
2 304 (12.19%) Finance
3 236 (9.46%) Public Sector
4 129 (5.17%) Analytical Skills
4 129 (5.17%) Banking
5 101 (4.05%) Retail
6 91 (3.65%) Manufacturing
7 59 (2.37%) Documentation Skills
8 56 (2.25%) Influencing Skills
9 40 (1.60%) Aerospace
10 34 (1.36%) Legal
11 30 (1.20%) Military
12 28 (1.12%) Telecoms
13 22 (0.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 21 (0.84%) Aviation
14 21 (0.84%) Financial Institution
15 20 (0.80%) Back Office
15 20 (0.80%) Marketing
16 19 (0.76%) Presentation Skills
17 17 (0.68%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 100 (4.01%) REST
2 75 (3.01%) Middleware
3 55 (2.21%) OAuth
4 45 (1.80%) SOAP
5 38 (1.52%) Oracle Fusion
6 36 (1.44%) .NET
7 34 (1.36%) OpenID
8 33 (1.32%) Kafka
8 33 (1.32%) SAML
9 24 (0.96%) OAuth2
9 24 (0.96%) SailPoint
10 23 (0.92%) JSON
11 20 (0.80%) LDAP
12 17 (0.68%) Node.js
12 17 (0.68%) RESTful
13 14 (0.56%) GraphQL
13 14 (0.56%) JWT
13 14 (0.56%) Web Services
14 13 (0.52%) Swagger
15 12 (0.48%) React
Miscellaneous
1 194 (7.78%) Cloud Native
2 82 (3.29%) Data Centre
3 80 (3.21%) Hybrid Cloud
4 70 (2.81%) Operational Technology
5 62 (2.49%) Data Protection Act
6 59 (2.37%) Product Ownership
7 57 (2.29%) Legacy Systems
8 56 (2.25%) Distributed Systems
9 54 (2.17%) Management Information System
9 54 (2.17%) Onboarding
10 53 (2.13%) Enterprise Software
11 39 (1.56%) Public Cloud
12 36 (1.44%) AI Agents
13 31 (1.24%) Private Cloud
14 28 (1.12%) Security Posture
15 26 (1.04%) IVR
16 25 (1.00%) Enterprise Cloud
17 23 (0.92%) CMDB
17 23 (0.92%) SCADA
18 22 (0.88%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 88 (3.53%) Windows
2 51 (2.04%) Linux
3 35 (1.40%) Windows Server
4 13 (0.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 10 (0.40%) Android
5 10 (0.40%) Apple iOS
6 9 (0.36%) Unix
7 6 (0.24%) AIX
8 5 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
9 2 (0.080%) HPUX
9 2 (0.080%) Solaris
9 2 (0.080%) Windows 10
9 2 (0.080%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.040%) CatOS
10 1 (0.040%) CentOS
10 1 (0.040%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.040%) VMS
10 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.040%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 356 (14.27%) Stakeholder Management
2 345 (13.83%) Roadmaps
3 313 (12.55%) Agile
4 285 (11.43%) Migration
5 282 (11.31%) Technical Leadership
6 273 (10.95%) Enterprise Architecture
7 247 (9.90%) DevOps
8 234 (9.38%) Integration Patterns
8 234 (9.38%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 229 (9.18%) CI/CD
10 226 (9.06%) AI
11 216 (8.66%) Data Architecture
12 205 (8.22%) Data Modelling
13 201 (8.06%) Architectural Patterns
14 200 (8.02%) Cybersecurity
15 187 (7.50%) Security Architecture
16 182 (7.30%) TOGAF
17 159 (6.38%) Microservices
18 153 (6.13%) Architecture Governance
19 147 (5.89%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 99 (3.97%) Java
1 99 (3.97%) SQL
2 85 (3.41%) Python
3 50 (2.00%) JavaScript
4 46 (1.84%) PowerShell
5 24 (0.96%) Bash
6 16 (0.64%) Bicep
7 13 (0.52%) C#
8 12 (0.48%) TypeScript
9 10 (0.40%) Shell Script
10 8 (0.32%) ABAP
11 7 (0.28%) Apex Code
12 6 (0.24%) PL/SQL
12 6 (0.24%) VBA
13 5 (0.20%) Groovy
14 4 (0.16%) Kotlin
15 3 (0.12%) C
15 3 (0.12%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 2 (0.080%) C++
16 2 (0.080%) ProC
Qualifications
1 826 (33.12%) Security Cleared
2 522 (20.93%) SC Cleared
3 260 (10.43%) DV Cleared
4 70 (2.81%) Degree
5 56 (2.25%) CISSP
6 54 (2.17%) Cisco Certification
7 44 (1.76%) Azure Certification
8 43 (1.72%) TOGAF Certification
9 42 (1.68%) AWS Certification
9 42 (1.68%) BPSS Clearance
10 30 (1.20%) Computer Science Degree
11 27 (1.08%) CCNP
12 21 (0.84%) CISM
13 19 (0.76%) Microsoft Certification
14 16 (0.64%) CCNA
15 15 (0.60%) (ISC)2 CCSP
16 14 (0.56%) CCIE
17 11 (0.44%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
17 11 (0.44%) Network+ Certification
17 11 (0.44%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 95 (3.81%) NIST
2 75 (3.01%) Data Quality
3 63 (2.53%) NCSC
4 61 (2.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 55 (2.21%) GDPR
6 22 (0.88%) QA
7 18 (0.72%) Accessibility
8 17 (0.68%) NIST 800
8 17 (0.68%) PCI DSS
9 16 (0.64%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 14 (0.56%) JSP 440
11 13 (0.52%) ISO 19650
12 12 (0.48%) GRC
13 11 (0.44%) IFRS
14 10 (0.40%) Cyber Essentials
14 10 (0.40%) Disclosure Scotland
14 10 (0.40%) SLA
15 9 (0.36%) HL7
15 9 (0.36%) Sarbanes-Oxley
16 6 (0.24%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
System Software
1 96 (3.85%) Active Directory
2 49 (1.96%) Docker
3 45 (1.80%) VMware Infrastructure
4 26 (1.04%) Virtual Desktop
5 25 (1.00%) VMware NSX
6 18 (0.72%) Hyper-V
7 12 (0.48%) vSphere
8 11 (0.44%) VMware ESXi
9 9 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
10 6 (0.24%) vCloud
11 4 (0.16%) KVM
12 3 (0.12%) Ceph
12 3 (0.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
12 3 (0.12%) NFS
12 3 (0.12%) SRDF
13 2 (0.080%) IAG
13 2 (0.080%) zsh
14 1 (0.040%) Firmware
14 1 (0.040%) Microsoft Virtual Server
14 1 (0.040%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 128 (5.13%) Kubernetes
2 94 (3.77%) Terraform
3 51 (2.04%) Ansible
4 26 (1.04%) Microsoft Intune
5 18 (0.72%) Single Sign-On
6 16 (0.64%) Grafana
7 15 (0.60%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 14 (0.56%) vCenter Server
9 13 (0.52%) Prometheus
10 12 (0.48%) Jamf Pro
11 8 (0.32%) Argo
12 7 (0.28%) FortiGate
12 7 (0.28%) WMI
13 6 (0.24%) Istio
14 5 (0.20%) CASB
14 5 (0.20%) MOM
14 5 (0.20%) NetBackup
15 4 (0.16%) EMC VPLEX
15 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
16 3 (0.12%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 348 (13.95%) Microsoft
2 142 (5.69%) SAP
3 108 (4.33%) Oracle
4 98 (3.93%) ServiceNow
5 93 (3.73%) VMware
6 86 (3.45%) Google
7 78 (3.13%) Cisco
8 76 (3.05%) Databricks
9 47 (1.88%) Salesforce
10 28 (1.12%) F5
11 27 (1.08%) MuleSoft
12 26 (1.04%) CyberArk
13 22 (0.88%) Informatica
13 22 (0.88%) Palo Alto
13 22 (0.88%) Red Hat
14 21 (0.84%) Citrix
14 21 (0.84%) IBM
15 17 (0.68%) Infoblox
15 17 (0.68%) Workday
16 15 (0.60%) Juniper