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 15 August 2026.

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

6 months to
15 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 21 13
Rank change year-on-year +7 -8 +2
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,491 1,252 1,815
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.05% 8.16% 9.94%
As % of the Job Titles category 9.84% 9.06% 10.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,657 852 1,149
10th Percentile £479 £463 £481
25th Percentile £525 £519 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £620 £600 £648
Median % change year-on-year +3.33% -7.41% -0.31%
75th Percentile £710 £694 £725
90th Percentile £775 £760 £788
UK median daily rate £620 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -0.80% -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 153 15 74
10th Percentile £46.00 £33.64 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £64.38 £60.31
Median hourly rate £65.00 £72.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.34% +3.57% -3.89%
75th Percentile £71.91 £86.50 £85.00
90th Percentile £88.60 £99.42 £89.26
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 25,308 13,825 16,817
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.93% 90.15% 92.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,290 8,472 10,273
10th Percentile £305 £215 £220
25th Percentile £410 £363 £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 £685
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,042 1,238 1,734
10th Percentile £14.56 £13.25 £14.05
25th Percentile £20.50 £16.31 £18.91
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% +20.00%
75th Percentile £68.00 £54.56 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% +2.00%

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 15 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 15 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 15 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 +1 736 £625 +4.17% 401
North of England +2 698 £600 - 394
Midlands +1 417 £625 +7.57% 182
North West +4 401 £600 - 229
South West -5 311 £625 -2.34% 228
West Midlands -2 304 £627 +4.42% 129
Yorkshire +4 234 £600 0.00% 121
East of England +12 157 £600 +8.11% 120
Scotland +17 147 £648 +3.60% 161
East Midlands +5 106 £600 +16.50% 53
North East -6 65 £600 -14.29% 46
Wales +5 41 £640 +2.40% 29
Northern Ireland +6 5 £475 -32.14% 70
Channel Islands -1 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 15 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.

1 819 (32.88%) Security Cleared
2 562 (22.56%) Azure
3 517 (20.75%) SC Cleared
4 438 (17.58%) AWS
5 358 (14.37%) Stakeholder Management
6 350 (14.05%) Microsoft
7 343 (13.77%) Roadmaps
8 312 (12.53%) Agile
9 288 (11.56%) Migration
10 280 (11.24%) Technical Leadership
11 273 (10.96%) Enterprise Architecture
12 256 (10.28%) DV Cleared
13 245 (9.84%) DevOps
14 237 (9.51%) Integration Patterns
15 231 (9.27%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 230 (9.23%) AI
17 228 (9.15%) CI/CD
18 222 (8.91%) Data Architecture
19 208 (8.35%) Data Modelling
20 200 (8.03%) Architectural Patterns
21 199 (7.99%) Cybersecurity
22 187 (7.51%) Security Architecture
23 183 (7.35%) TOGAF
24 173 (6.95%) GCP
25 161 (6.46%) Microservices
26 154 (6.18%) Architecture Governance
27 151 (6.06%) Problem-Solving
28 148 (5.94%) Continuous Improvement
29 146 (5.86%) Event-Driven
30 142 (5.70%) Architectural Design

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 37 (1.49%) SharePoint
2 31 (1.24%) SAS
3 30 (1.20%) Confluence
4 13 (0.52%) Microsoft Exchange
5 12 (0.48%) OpenStack
6 10 (0.40%) Palantir Foundry
7 9 (0.36%) Apache
7 9 (0.36%) Apache Spark
8 8 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
9 7 (0.28%) Documentum
10 5 (0.20%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 4 (0.16%) CMS
11 4 (0.16%) NetWeaver
12 3 (0.12%) ArcGIS
12 3 (0.12%) JBoss
12 3 (0.12%) SAP EP
13 2 (0.080%) Alfresco
14 1 (0.040%) Jupyter
14 1 (0.040%) Oracle Coherence
14 1 (0.040%) Predix
Applications
1 11 (0.44%) Microsoft Excel
1 11 (0.44%) MS Visio
2 7 (0.28%) Navisworks
2 7 (0.28%) Revit
3 6 (0.24%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
4 5 (0.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.040%) Chatbot
5 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
7 4 (0.16%) NetSuite
7 4 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
7 4 (0.16%) Oracle Retail
7 4 (0.16%) SAP GRC
7 4 (0.16%) SAP MDG
8 3 (0.12%) Adobe Campaign
8 3 (0.12%) Dynamics NAV
8 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
8 3 (0.12%) Remedy AR System
8 3 (0.12%) SAP IBP
8 3 (0.12%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 562 (22.56%) Azure
2 438 (17.58%) AWS
3 173 (6.95%) GCP
4 98 (3.93%) Power Platform
5 80 (3.21%) SaaS
5 80 (3.21%) Serverless
6 78 (3.13%) Entra ID
7 57 (2.29%) Microsoft 365
8 47 (1.89%) PaaS
9 45 (1.81%) GitHub
10 43 (1.73%) Azure DevOps
11 40 (1.61%) IaaS
12 39 (1.57%) Dynamics 365
13 37 (1.49%) AWS Lambda
14 33 (1.32%) OpenShift
15 30 (1.20%) Snowflake
16 29 (1.16%) GitHub Actions
17 28 (1.12%) Amazon S3
18 23 (0.92%) Azure Data Factory
19 22 (0.88%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 97 (3.89%) Firewall
2 65 (2.61%) WAN
3 60 (2.41%) DNS
4 53 (2.13%) LAN
4 53 (2.13%) Network Security
5 39 (1.57%) VPN
6 35 (1.41%) DHCP
7 34 (1.36%) BGP
8 33 (1.32%) SD-WAN
9 29 (1.16%) VLAN
10 27 (1.08%) TCP/IP
11 25 (1.00%) SAN
12 24 (0.96%) MPLS
13 22 (0.88%) NAS
14 20 (0.80%) Structured Cabling
14 20 (0.80%) Wireless
15 17 (0.68%) OSPF
16 16 (0.64%) BIG-IP
17 13 (0.52%) IPsec
17 13 (0.52%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 73 (2.93%) Data Lake
2 70 (2.81%) Power BI
3 68 (2.73%) Metadata
4 66 (2.65%) Data Warehouse
5 37 (1.49%) NoSQL
6 20 (0.80%) Amazon RDS
7 19 (0.76%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
7 19 (0.76%) SQL Server
8 17 (0.68%) Azure SQL Database
8 17 (0.68%) Oracle Database
9 16 (0.64%) Base SAS
10 15 (0.60%) PostgreSQL
11 14 (0.56%) BigQuery
12 13 (0.52%) GIS
13 12 (0.48%) Delta Lake
14 10 (0.40%) MySQL
15 9 (0.36%) Amazon Redshift
15 9 (0.36%) Big Data
15 9 (0.36%) Electronic Patient Records
15 9 (0.36%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 35 (1.41%) 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
1 473 (18.99%) Social Skills
2 306 (12.28%) Finance
3 236 (9.47%) Public Sector
4 134 (5.38%) Banking
5 130 (5.22%) Analytical Skills
6 101 (4.05%) Retail
7 89 (3.57%) Manufacturing
8 58 (2.33%) Documentation Skills
9 56 (2.25%) Influencing Skills
10 40 (1.61%) Aerospace
11 35 (1.41%) Legal
12 31 (1.24%) Military
13 28 (1.12%) Telecoms
14 23 (0.92%) Financial Institution
14 23 (0.92%) Marketing
15 22 (0.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 21 (0.84%) Aviation
16 21 (0.84%) Presentation Skills
17 20 (0.80%) Back Office
18 16 (0.64%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 100 (4.01%) REST
2 76 (3.05%) Middleware
3 55 (2.21%) OAuth
4 45 (1.81%) SOAP
5 38 (1.53%) Oracle Fusion
6 34 (1.36%) OpenID
7 33 (1.32%) .NET
7 33 (1.32%) Kafka
7 33 (1.32%) SAML
8 24 (0.96%) OAuth2
8 24 (0.96%) SailPoint
9 23 (0.92%) JSON
10 19 (0.76%) LDAP
11 18 (0.72%) RESTful
12 17 (0.68%) Node.js
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
1 191 (7.67%) Cloud Native
2 85 (3.41%) Data Centre
3 79 (3.17%) Hybrid Cloud
4 71 (2.85%) Operational Technology
5 65 (2.61%) Data Protection Act
6 61 (2.45%) Product Ownership
7 58 (2.33%) Onboarding
8 56 (2.25%) Distributed Systems
8 56 (2.25%) Legacy Systems
8 56 (2.25%) Management Information System
9 52 (2.09%) Enterprise Software
10 41 (1.65%) AI Agents
11 40 (1.61%) Public Cloud
12 31 (1.24%) Private Cloud
13 28 (1.12%) Security Posture
14 26 (1.04%) IVR
15 25 (1.00%) Enterprise Cloud
16 24 (0.96%) PKI
17 23 (0.92%) CMDB
17 23 (0.92%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 90 (3.61%) Windows
2 52 (2.09%) Linux
3 35 (1.41%) Windows Server
4 13 (0.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 12 (0.48%) Android
5 12 (0.48%) Apple iOS
6 8 (0.32%) 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
1 358 (14.37%) Stakeholder Management
2 343 (13.77%) Roadmaps
3 312 (12.53%) Agile
4 288 (11.56%) Migration
5 280 (11.24%) Technical Leadership
6 273 (10.96%) Enterprise Architecture
7 245 (9.84%) DevOps
8 237 (9.51%) Integration Patterns
9 231 (9.27%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 230 (9.23%) AI
11 228 (9.15%) CI/CD
12 222 (8.91%) Data Architecture
13 208 (8.35%) Data Modelling
14 200 (8.03%) Architectural Patterns
15 199 (7.99%) Cybersecurity
16 187 (7.51%) Security Architecture
17 183 (7.35%) TOGAF
18 161 (6.46%) Microservices
19 154 (6.18%) Architecture Governance
20 151 (6.06%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 99 (3.97%) Java
2 96 (3.85%) SQL
3 86 (3.45%) Python
4 51 (2.05%) JavaScript
5 45 (1.81%) PowerShell
6 24 (0.96%) Bash
7 16 (0.64%) Bicep
8 14 (0.56%) C#
9 12 (0.48%) TypeScript
10 10 (0.40%) Shell Script
11 8 (0.32%) ABAP
12 6 (0.24%) 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
1 819 (32.88%) Security Cleared
2 517 (20.75%) SC Cleared
3 256 (10.28%) DV Cleared
4 73 (2.93%) Degree
5 57 (2.29%) CISSP
6 54 (2.17%) Cisco Certification
7 44 (1.77%) TOGAF Certification
8 43 (1.73%) Azure Certification
8 43 (1.73%) BPSS Clearance
9 41 (1.65%) AWS Certification
10 32 (1.28%) 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 14 (0.56%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 14 (0.56%) CCIE
16 11 (0.44%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
16 11 (0.44%) Network+ Certification
16 11 (0.44%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 95 (3.81%) NIST
2 76 (3.05%) Data Quality
3 65 (2.61%) NCSC
4 60 (2.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 58 (2.33%) GDPR
6 24 (0.96%) QA
7 18 (0.72%) Accessibility
8 17 (0.68%) NIST 800
8 17 (0.68%) PCI DSS
9 15 (0.60%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 15 (0.60%) JSP 440
10 13 (0.52%) ISO 19650
11 12 (0.48%) GRC
12 11 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials
12 11 (0.44%) IFRS
12 11 (0.44%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 10 (0.40%) Disclosure Scotland
14 9 (0.36%) HL7
14 9 (0.36%) SLA
15 6 (0.24%) COBIT
System Software
1 94 (3.77%) Active Directory
2 49 (1.97%) Docker
3 46 (1.85%) VMware Infrastructure
4 26 (1.04%) VMware NSX
5 23 (0.92%) Virtual Desktop
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 (5.14%) Kubernetes
2 93 (3.73%) Terraform
3 51 (2.05%) Ansible
4 29 (1.16%) 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%) Jamf Pro
9 13 (0.52%) Prometheus
10 8 (0.32%) Argo
10 8 (0.32%) FortiGate
11 6 (0.24%) Istio
11 6 (0.24%) WMI
12 5 (0.20%) CASB
12 5 (0.20%) MOM
12 5 (0.20%) NetBackup
13 4 (0.16%) EMC VPLEX
13 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
14 3 (0.12%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 350 (14.05%) Microsoft
2 141 (5.66%) SAP
3 108 (4.34%) Oracle
4 100 (4.01%) ServiceNow
5 96 (3.85%) VMware
6 87 (3.49%) Google
7 78 (3.13%) Cisco
8 77 (3.09%) Databricks
9 48 (1.93%) Salesforce
10 29 (1.16%) F5
11 27 (1.08%) MuleSoft
12 25 (1.00%) CyberArk
13 23 (0.92%) Citrix
13 23 (0.92%) Palo Alto
14 22 (0.88%) Informatica
14 22 (0.88%) Red Hat
15 21 (0.84%) IBM
16 17 (0.68%) Infoblox
16 17 (0.68%) Workday
17 16 (0.64%) Juniper