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 26 June 2026.

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

6 months to
26 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 21 13
Rank change year-on-year +10 -8 +5
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,483 1,079 2,128
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.55% 7.95% 10.04%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.38% 8.70% 10.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,647 718 1,277
10th Percentile £466 £450 £490
25th Percentile £525 £513 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £620 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year +3.33% -7.69% -
75th Percentile £713 £700 £725
90th Percentile £775 £763 £793
UK median daily rate £618 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -1.20% -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 136 15 94
10th Percentile £49.40 £33.64 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £62.00 £61.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £70.00 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -7.14% - -
75th Percentile £73.25 £85.50 £87.35
90th Percentile £86.88 £94.13 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £67.50 £70.00
% change year-on-year -3.70% -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 23,913 12,405 19,589
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.93% 91.35% 92.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,681 7,776 11,697
10th Percentile £303 £220 £213
25th Percentile £406 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £493
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -3.65% -1.40%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £594
90th Percentile £688 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £520 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,763 973 2,473
10th Percentile £14.97 £13.47 £12.70
25th Percentile £20.37 £16.67 £16.00
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -
75th Percentile £67.50 £57.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £78.75 £74.75 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £43.61 £26.45 £37.50
% change year-on-year +64.86% -29.47% -12.79%

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 26 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 26 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 26 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 +7 707 £600 - 191
South East +5 705 £625 +2.46% 206
Midlands +2 429 £613 +3.90% 92
North West +5 374 £612 +3.29% 100
West Midlands +2 309 £625 +4.17% 76
South West +3 279 £640 +4.49% 114
Yorkshire +10 272 £566 -5.75% 51
East of England +25 198 £600 - 50
Scotland +9 159 £650 +4.00% 53
East Midlands +7 114 £575 +15.00% 15
North East +11 68 £575 -8.00% 42
Wales +1 34 £620 +30.53% 27
Northern Ireland +6 7 £475 -32.14% 15
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 26 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.

1 728 (29.32%) Security Cleared
2 531 (21.39%) Azure
3 456 (18.36%) SC Cleared
4 424 (17.08%) AWS
5 354 (14.26%) Roadmaps
6 351 (14.14%) Microsoft
7 339 (13.65%) Agile
8 303 (12.20%) Stakeholder Management
9 294 (11.84%) Migration
10 263 (10.59%) Enterprise Architecture
11 261 (10.51%) DevOps
12 248 (9.99%) Technical Leadership
13 232 (9.34%) Integration Patterns
14 227 (9.14%) CI/CD
15 224 (9.02%) DV Cleared
16 215 (8.66%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 207 (8.34%) Architectural Patterns
18 202 (8.14%) Data Modelling
19 200 (8.05%) Microservices
20 191 (7.69%) Data Architecture
21 175 (7.05%) TOGAF
22 171 (6.89%) Cybersecurity
23 170 (6.85%) Problem-Solving
24 163 (6.56%) AI
25 162 (6.52%) Architectural Design
26 153 (6.16%) GCP
27 148 (5.96%) SAP
28 142 (5.72%) Security Architecture
29 140 (5.64%) Analytics
30 135 (5.44%) Continuous Improvement

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 60 (2.42%) SharePoint
2 44 (1.77%) Confluence
3 33 (1.33%) Microsoft Exchange
4 31 (1.25%) SAS
5 13 (0.52%) Apache Airflow
5 13 (0.52%) Appian
6 10 (0.40%) Apache
7 9 (0.36%) Apache Spark
7 9 (0.36%) CMS
8 8 (0.32%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 7 (0.28%) OpenStack
10 6 (0.24%) ArcGIS
10 6 (0.24%) Palantir Foundry
10 6 (0.24%) Sitecore CMS
10 6 (0.24%) WebLogic
11 5 (0.20%) Documentum
11 5 (0.20%) NetWeaver
12 4 (0.16%) JBoss
12 4 (0.16%) SAP EP
12 4 (0.16%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 9 (0.36%) Microsoft Excel
1 9 (0.36%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 8 (0.32%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.28%) MS Visio
3 7 (0.28%) Navisworks
3 7 (0.28%) Revit
4 6 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
5 4 (0.16%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.040%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.040%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 63 (2.54%) SAP S/4HANA
2 20 (0.81%) Payment Gateway
3 18 (0.72%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 12 (0.48%) SAP ERP
5 11 (0.44%) Teamcenter
6 10 (0.40%) Remedy ITSM
7 7 (0.28%) Oracle ERP
8 6 (0.24%) Dynamics CRM
8 6 (0.24%) Oracle Retail
9 5 (0.20%) Maximo
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%) Avolution ABACUS
11 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
11 3 (0.12%) SAP IBP
12 2 (0.081%) Infor M3
12 2 (0.081%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 531 (21.39%) Azure
2 424 (17.08%) AWS
3 153 (6.16%) GCP
4 101 (4.07%) Power Platform
5 89 (3.58%) Entra ID
6 80 (3.22%) Microsoft 365
7 77 (3.10%) SaaS
7 77 (3.10%) Serverless
8 56 (2.26%) PaaS
9 49 (1.97%) GitHub
10 46 (1.85%) IaaS
11 42 (1.69%) Azure DevOps
12 33 (1.33%) Microsoft Purview
13 32 (1.29%) OpenShift
14 31 (1.25%) Dynamics 365
15 30 (1.21%) AWS Lambda
16 26 (1.05%) OneDrive
17 25 (1.01%) GitHub Actions
17 25 (1.01%) Snowflake
18 24 (0.97%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 109 (4.39%) Firewall
2 76 (3.06%) DNS
3 75 (3.02%) WAN
4 67 (2.70%) Network Security
5 58 (2.34%) LAN
6 46 (1.85%) VPN
7 44 (1.77%) SD-WAN
8 40 (1.61%) DHCP
9 32 (1.29%) VLAN
10 27 (1.09%) BGP
11 25 (1.01%) Wireless
12 24 (0.97%) SAN
12 24 (0.97%) TCP/IP
13 23 (0.93%) MPLS
13 23 (0.93%) NAS
14 21 (0.85%) IPsec
14 21 (0.85%) Structured Cabling
15 20 (0.81%) BIG-IP
16 19 (0.77%) OSPF
17 14 (0.56%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 71 (2.86%) Metadata
1 71 (2.86%) Power BI
2 58 (2.34%) Data Warehouse
3 55 (2.22%) Data Lake
4 34 (1.37%) NoSQL
5 30 (1.21%) SQL Server
6 25 (1.01%) PostgreSQL
7 16 (0.64%) Oracle Database
8 15 (0.60%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
9 14 (0.56%) GIS
10 13 (0.52%) Azure SQL Database
10 13 (0.52%) Base SAS
11 12 (0.48%) Amazon RDS
11 12 (0.48%) Tableau
12 11 (0.44%) Big Data
12 11 (0.44%) MongoDB
13 10 (0.40%) Relational Database
13 10 (0.40%) Semantic Layer
14 9 (0.36%) Electronic Patient Records
15 8 (0.32%) BigQuery
Development Applications
1 58 (2.34%) JIRA
2 35 (1.41%) Jenkins
3 24 (0.97%) Git
4 19 (0.77%) GitLab
5 10 (0.40%) ERwin
6 6 (0.24%) Artifactory
6 6 (0.24%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.20%) Selenium
8 4 (0.16%) Hudson
8 4 (0.16%) JUnit
8 4 (0.16%) Postman
8 4 (0.16%) REST Assured
9 3 (0.12%) Cucumber
9 3 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.12%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.081%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.081%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.081%) Gatling
10 2 (0.081%) NeoLoad
10 2 (0.081%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 453 (18.24%) Social Skills
2 348 (14.02%) Finance
3 233 (9.38%) Public Sector
4 142 (5.72%) Banking
5 132 (5.32%) Analytical Skills
6 96 (3.87%) Retail
7 69 (2.78%) Manufacturing
8 60 (2.42%) Documentation Skills
9 55 (2.22%) Legal
10 40 (1.61%) Influencing Skills
11 32 (1.29%) Aerospace
11 32 (1.29%) Military
12 24 (0.97%) Investment Banking
13 23 (0.93%) Financial Institution
14 22 (0.89%) Telecoms
15 19 (0.77%) Presentation Skills
16 18 (0.72%) Back Office
16 18 (0.72%) Marketing
17 15 (0.60%) Billing
18 11 (0.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 112 (4.51%) REST
2 77 (3.10%) Middleware
3 49 (1.97%) OAuth
4 46 (1.85%) .NET
5 45 (1.81%) OpenID
6 44 (1.77%) SOAP
7 34 (1.37%) Oracle Fusion
7 34 (1.37%) SailPoint
8 33 (1.33%) SAML
9 32 (1.29%) Kafka
10 31 (1.25%) OAuth2
11 26 (1.05%) RESTful
12 24 (0.97%) Node.js
13 21 (0.85%) LDAP
13 21 (0.85%) React
14 20 (0.81%) JSON
14 20 (0.81%) Web Services
15 13 (0.52%) AngularJS
16 12 (0.48%) FHIR
16 12 (0.48%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 180 (7.25%) Cloud Native
2 91 (3.66%) Data Centre
3 72 (2.90%) Product Ownership
4 70 (2.82%) Operational Technology
5 63 (2.54%) Hybrid Cloud
6 57 (2.30%) Management Information System
7 53 (2.13%) Legacy Systems
7 53 (2.13%) Onboarding
8 52 (2.09%) Data Protection Act
9 48 (1.93%) Distributed Systems
9 48 (1.93%) Enterprise Software
10 45 (1.81%) Public Cloud
11 28 (1.13%) CMDB
11 28 (1.13%) Private Cloud
12 23 (0.93%) PKI
12 23 (0.93%) Security Posture
13 22 (0.89%) AI Agents
13 22 (0.89%) SCADA
14 19 (0.77%) Data Structures
14 19 (0.77%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
Operating Systems
1 105 (4.23%) Windows
2 45 (1.81%) Linux
3 32 (1.29%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.64%) Android
4 16 (0.64%) Apple iOS
5 13 (0.52%) Unix
6 5 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
6 5 (0.20%) Windows 7
7 4 (0.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 4 (0.16%) Windows 10
7 4 (0.16%) Windows Server 2016
8 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2019
9 2 (0.081%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.040%) AIX
10 1 (0.040%) CatOS
10 1 (0.040%) Kali Linux
10 1 (0.040%) VMS
10 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.040%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 354 (14.26%) Roadmaps
2 339 (13.65%) Agile
3 303 (12.20%) Stakeholder Management
4 294 (11.84%) Migration
5 263 (10.59%) Enterprise Architecture
6 261 (10.51%) DevOps
7 248 (9.99%) Technical Leadership
8 232 (9.34%) Integration Patterns
9 227 (9.14%) CI/CD
10 215 (8.66%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 207 (8.34%) Architectural Patterns
12 202 (8.14%) Data Modelling
13 200 (8.05%) Microservices
14 191 (7.69%) Data Architecture
15 175 (7.05%) TOGAF
16 171 (6.89%) Cybersecurity
17 170 (6.85%) Problem-Solving
18 163 (6.56%) AI
19 162 (6.52%) Architectural Design
20 142 (5.72%) Security Architecture
Programming Languages
1 110 (4.43%) Python
1 110 (4.43%) SQL
2 87 (3.50%) Java
3 58 (2.34%) PowerShell
4 48 (1.93%) JavaScript
5 30 (1.21%) C#
6 24 (0.97%) Bicep
7 19 (0.77%) Bash
8 15 (0.60%) TypeScript
9 8 (0.32%) ABAP
9 8 (0.32%) Kusto Query Language
9 8 (0.32%) PL/SQL
9 8 (0.32%) VBA
10 6 (0.24%) Scala
11 5 (0.20%) Apex Code
12 4 (0.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 4 (0.16%) Kotlin
12 4 (0.16%) VB
12 4 (0.16%) VBScript
13 3 (0.12%) C
Qualifications
1 728 (29.32%) Security Cleared
2 456 (18.36%) SC Cleared
3 224 (9.02%) DV Cleared
4 90 (3.62%) Degree
5 54 (2.17%) Cisco Certification
6 52 (2.09%) BPSS Clearance
7 40 (1.61%) AWS Certification
8 37 (1.49%) CISSP
8 37 (1.49%) TOGAF Certification
9 36 (1.45%) Azure Certification
10 34 (1.37%) CCNP
11 32 (1.29%) Computer Science Degree
12 20 (0.81%) Microsoft Certification
13 16 (0.64%) CCNA
13 16 (0.64%) CISM
14 15 (0.60%) Master's Degree
15 13 (0.52%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 13 (0.52%) CCIE
16 12 (0.48%) Network+ Certification
16 12 (0.48%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 91 (3.66%) NIST
2 74 (2.98%) GDPR
3 72 (2.90%) Data Quality
4 57 (2.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 54 (2.17%) NCSC
6 26 (1.05%) QA
7 20 (0.81%) Accessibility
8 18 (0.72%) PCI DSS
9 13 (0.52%) GRC
10 12 (0.48%) COBIT
10 12 (0.48%) NIST 800
11 11 (0.44%) IFRS
12 10 (0.40%) FINRA
12 10 (0.40%) HL7
12 10 (0.40%) ISO 19650
12 10 (0.40%) MiFID
13 9 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials
13 9 (0.36%) ISO 20022
13 9 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
14 8 (0.32%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 103 (4.15%) Active Directory
2 54 (2.17%) VMware Infrastructure
3 39 (1.57%) Docker
4 33 (1.33%) VMware NSX
5 20 (0.81%) Hyper-V
6 19 (0.77%) Virtual Desktop
6 19 (0.77%) vSphere
7 9 (0.36%) VMware ESXi
8 8 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
9 7 (0.28%) vCloud
10 4 (0.16%) BitLocker
10 4 (0.16%) RACF
11 3 (0.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
11 3 (0.12%) IAG
11 3 (0.12%) NFS
11 3 (0.12%) SRDF
12 2 (0.081%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
12 2 (0.081%) Firmware
13 1 (0.040%) Embedded Firmware
13 1 (0.040%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 92 (3.71%) Terraform
2 91 (3.66%) Kubernetes
3 51 (2.05%) Ansible
4 35 (1.41%) Microsoft Intune
5 24 (0.97%) Single Sign-On
6 22 (0.89%) vCenter Server
7 16 (0.64%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 16 (0.64%) Grafana
8 14 (0.56%) FortiGate
9 13 (0.52%) Argo
10 12 (0.48%) Prometheus
11 10 (0.40%) SCCM
12 9 (0.36%) Jamf Pro
13 8 (0.32%) Istio
14 5 (0.20%) EMC VPLEX
15 4 (0.16%) CASB
15 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
16 3 (0.12%) Endace
16 3 (0.12%) SnapVault
16 3 (0.12%) WMI
Vendors
1 351 (14.14%) Microsoft
2 148 (5.96%) SAP
3 116 (4.67%) VMware
4 108 (4.35%) Oracle
5 107 (4.31%) ServiceNow
6 75 (3.02%) Cisco
7 69 (2.78%) Databricks
7 69 (2.78%) Google
8 54 (2.17%) Salesforce
9 31 (1.25%) F5
10 27 (1.09%) MuleSoft
10 27 (1.09%) Palo Alto
11 26 (1.05%) Red Hat
12 24 (0.97%) Citrix
13 23 (0.93%) BiZZdesign
14 20 (0.81%) Juniper
14 20 (0.81%) Sparx
14 20 (0.81%) Talend
15 19 (0.77%) Infoblox
16 16 (0.64%) BMC