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 £613, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 3 June 2026.

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

6 months to
3 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 20 13
Rank change year-on-year +10 -7 +5
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,374 1,086 2,104
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.53% 8.43% 10.09%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.38% 9.20% 10.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,564 724 1,262
10th Percentile £450 £450 £500
25th Percentile £513 £513 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £613 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year +2.08% -7.69% -
75th Percentile £706 £694 £725
90th Percentile £775 £750 £794
UK median daily rate £615 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -1.60% -3.85% -1.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 123 24 93
10th Percentile £49.40 £43.92 -
25th Percentile £60.00 £65.13 £60.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £73.25 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -11.26% +4.64% -
75th Percentile £78.63 £82.25 £87.00
90th Percentile £94.80 £86.90 £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 22,867 11,810 19,265
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.82% 91.69% 92.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,128 7,518 11,619
10th Percentile £300 £213 £213
25th Percentile £403 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £488
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £594
90th Percentile £677 £650 £688
UK median daily rate £513 £504 £525
% change year-on-year +1.69% -4.00% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,652 862 2,432
10th Percentile £14.65 £13.56 £12.50
25th Percentile £20.07 £16.95 £15.75
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.23 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.39% -36.94% -5.88%
75th Percentile £67.25 £60.09 £62.50
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £74.00
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £28.00 £37.50
% change year-on-year +51.79% -25.33% -16.67%

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 3 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 3 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 3 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 +4 678 £600 - 323
South East +4 669 £625 +1.63% 277
Midlands +1 434 £600 +0.17% 125
North West +6 373 £608 +5.74% 174
West Midlands 0 310 £620 +3.33% 97
Yorkshire +7 256 £555 -7.58% 94
South West -1 237 £650 +8.33% 159
East of England +20 201 £575 -4.17% 78
Scotland +18 152 £650 +4.00% 60
East Midlands +1 118 £571 +8.60% 28
North East +5 56 £575 -4.17% 56
Wales -2 33 £600 +25.00% 52
Northern Ireland +8 7 £475 -28.30% 21
Channel Islands - 3 £575 - 2
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 3 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.

1 679 (28.60%) Security Cleared
2 480 (20.22%) Azure
3 403 (16.98%) SC Cleared
4 376 (15.84%) AWS
5 334 (14.07%) Agile
6 329 (13.86%) Roadmaps
7 324 (13.65%) Microsoft
8 274 (11.54%) Stakeholder Management
9 272 (11.46%) Migration
10 252 (10.61%) DevOps
11 249 (10.49%) Enterprise Architecture
12 226 (9.52%) DV Cleared
13 216 (9.10%) CI/CD
14 214 (9.01%) Technical Leadership
15 194 (8.17%) Integration Patterns
16 188 (7.92%) Architectural Patterns
16 188 (7.92%) Microservices
17 187 (7.88%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 186 (7.83%) Data Modelling
19 171 (7.20%) Data Architecture
20 159 (6.70%) Architectural Design
21 155 (6.53%) TOGAF
22 151 (6.36%) Cybersecurity
22 151 (6.36%) Problem-Solving
23 146 (6.15%) SAP
24 137 (5.77%) Analytics
25 135 (5.69%) AI
26 133 (5.60%) GCP
27 129 (5.43%) Continuous Improvement
28 127 (5.35%) VMware

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 62 (2.61%) SharePoint
2 45 (1.90%) Confluence
3 36 (1.52%) Microsoft Exchange
4 23 (0.97%) SAS
5 13 (0.55%) Appian
6 12 (0.51%) Apache Airflow
7 10 (0.42%) Anypoint
7 10 (0.42%) Apache
7 10 (0.42%) CMS
8 9 (0.38%) Apache Spark
9 8 (0.34%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 7 (0.29%) ArcGIS
11 6 (0.25%) Sitecore CMS
11 6 (0.25%) WebLogic
12 5 (0.21%) NetWeaver
12 5 (0.21%) OpenStack
13 4 (0.17%) JBoss
13 4 (0.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 4 (0.17%) SAP EP
13 4 (0.17%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 13 (0.55%) Microsoft Excel
1 13 (0.55%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 8 (0.34%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.29%) Navisworks
3 7 (0.29%) Revit
4 6 (0.25%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
6 4 (0.17%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.084%) Microsoft Project
8 1 (0.042%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 58 (2.44%) SAP S/4HANA
2 20 (0.84%) Payment Gateway
3 19 (0.80%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 12 (0.51%) SAP ERP
5 10 (0.42%) Remedy ITSM
5 10 (0.42%) Teamcenter
6 6 (0.25%) SAP MDG
6 6 (0.25%) Workday HCM
7 5 (0.21%) Salesforce CRM
8 4 (0.17%) Dynamics CRM
8 4 (0.17%) Maximo
8 4 (0.17%) Oracle Retail
8 4 (0.17%) SAP CRM
8 4 (0.17%) SAP GRC
9 3 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
9 3 (0.13%) SAP SD
10 2 (0.084%) Infor CloudSuite
10 2 (0.084%) Infor LN
10 2 (0.084%) Infor M3
10 2 (0.084%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 480 (20.22%) Azure
2 376 (15.84%) AWS
3 133 (5.60%) GCP
4 93 (3.92%) Power Platform
5 88 (3.71%) Entra ID
6 81 (3.41%) Microsoft 365
7 73 (3.07%) Serverless
8 70 (2.95%) SaaS
9 54 (2.27%) PaaS
10 43 (1.81%) GitHub
11 42 (1.77%) IaaS
12 38 (1.60%) Azure DevOps
12 38 (1.60%) Microsoft Purview
13 33 (1.39%) OpenShift
14 29 (1.22%) OneDrive
15 28 (1.18%) AWS Lambda
16 27 (1.14%) Dynamics 365
17 25 (1.05%) Azure Data Factory
18 24 (1.01%) Snowflake
19 23 (0.97%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 95 (4.00%) Firewall
2 69 (2.91%) WAN
3 66 (2.78%) DNS
4 65 (2.74%) Network Security
5 53 (2.23%) LAN
6 49 (2.06%) VPN
7 40 (1.68%) SD-WAN
8 36 (1.52%) DHCP
9 28 (1.18%) VLAN
10 25 (1.05%) Wireless
11 24 (1.01%) SAN
12 23 (0.97%) BGP
12 23 (0.97%) NAS
13 21 (0.88%) Structured Cabling
14 19 (0.80%) IPsec
15 18 (0.76%) MPLS
16 17 (0.72%) BIG-IP
16 17 (0.72%) OSPF
17 14 (0.59%) NX-OS
18 13 (0.55%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 70 (2.95%) Power BI
2 69 (2.91%) Metadata
3 54 (2.27%) Data Warehouse
4 40 (1.68%) Data Lake
5 35 (1.47%) NoSQL
5 35 (1.47%) SQL Server
6 26 (1.10%) PostgreSQL
7 20 (0.84%) Tableau
8 19 (0.80%) Oracle Database
9 15 (0.63%) GIS
10 11 (0.46%) MongoDB
11 10 (0.42%) Big Data
12 9 (0.38%) DynamoDB
12 9 (0.38%) Relational Database
13 8 (0.34%) Azure SQL Database
13 8 (0.34%) Electronic Patient Records
13 8 (0.34%) MySQL
13 8 (0.34%) SAS Enterprise Guide
14 7 (0.29%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
14 7 (0.29%) Spatial Data
Development Applications
1 58 (2.44%) JIRA
2 35 (1.47%) Jenkins
3 19 (0.80%) GitLab
4 16 (0.67%) Git
5 7 (0.29%) ERwin
6 6 (0.25%) Artifactory
7 5 (0.21%) Selenium
8 4 (0.17%) Hudson
8 4 (0.17%) JUnit
8 4 (0.17%) Postman
8 4 (0.17%) REST Assured
8 4 (0.17%) Sonatype Nexus
9 3 (0.13%) Cucumber
9 3 (0.13%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.13%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.084%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.084%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.084%) Gatling
10 2 (0.084%) IntelliJ
10 2 (0.084%) NeoLoad
General
1 416 (17.52%) Social Skills
2 323 (13.61%) Finance
3 212 (8.93%) Public Sector
4 143 (6.02%) Banking
5 119 (5.01%) Analytical Skills
6 79 (3.33%) Retail
7 57 (2.40%) Manufacturing
8 56 (2.36%) Documentation Skills
9 54 (2.27%) Legal
10 33 (1.39%) Influencing Skills
11 32 (1.35%) Aerospace
12 29 (1.22%) Military
13 26 (1.10%) Investment Banking
14 21 (0.88%) Presentation Skills
15 20 (0.84%) Financial Institution
15 20 (0.84%) Marketing
16 19 (0.80%) Back Office
17 16 (0.67%) Telecoms
18 12 (0.51%) Billing
19 11 (0.46%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 100 (4.21%) REST
2 80 (3.37%) Middleware
3 50 (2.11%) .NET
4 47 (1.98%) OAuth
5 43 (1.81%) OpenID
6 41 (1.73%) SOAP
7 31 (1.31%) OAuth2
7 31 (1.31%) SAML
8 28 (1.18%) Kafka
8 28 (1.18%) Oracle Fusion
9 27 (1.14%) SailPoint
10 24 (1.01%) RESTful
11 23 (0.97%) React
12 22 (0.93%) JSON
12 22 (0.93%) Node.js
13 19 (0.80%) LDAP
13 19 (0.80%) Web Services
14 16 (0.67%) Microsoft Graph
15 14 (0.59%) AngularJS
16 12 (0.51%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 161 (6.78%) Cloud Native
2 86 (3.62%) Data Centre
3 66 (2.78%) Product Ownership
4 64 (2.70%) Operational Technology
5 52 (2.19%) Management Information System
6 50 (2.11%) Onboarding
6 50 (2.11%) Public Cloud
7 49 (2.06%) Hybrid Cloud
8 48 (2.02%) Data Protection Act
9 44 (1.85%) Distributed Systems
9 44 (1.85%) Enterprise Software
10 42 (1.77%) Legacy Systems
11 28 (1.18%) PKI
12 26 (1.10%) CMDB
12 26 (1.10%) SCADA
13 20 (0.84%) Private Cloud
13 20 (0.84%) Security Posture
14 19 (0.80%) Data Structures
15 17 (0.72%) AI Agents
16 16 (0.67%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 107 (4.51%) Windows
2 54 (2.27%) Linux
3 29 (1.22%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.67%) Android
4 16 (0.67%) Apple iOS
5 11 (0.46%) Unix
6 9 (0.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 8 (0.34%) Windows 10
7 8 (0.34%) Windows Server 2016
8 6 (0.25%) Windows 7
9 5 (0.21%) Data ONTAP
9 5 (0.21%) Windows Server 2019
10 4 (0.17%) Mac OS
11 3 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
12 2 (0.084%) VMS
13 1 (0.042%) CentOS
13 1 (0.042%) Kali Linux
13 1 (0.042%) Ubuntu
13 1 (0.042%) Windows Server 2008
13 1 (0.042%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 334 (14.07%) Agile
2 329 (13.86%) Roadmaps
3 274 (11.54%) Stakeholder Management
4 272 (11.46%) Migration
5 252 (10.61%) DevOps
6 249 (10.49%) Enterprise Architecture
7 216 (9.10%) CI/CD
8 214 (9.01%) Technical Leadership
9 194 (8.17%) Integration Patterns
10 188 (7.92%) Architectural Patterns
10 188 (7.92%) Microservices
11 187 (7.88%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 186 (7.83%) Data Modelling
13 171 (7.20%) Data Architecture
14 159 (6.70%) Architectural Design
15 155 (6.53%) TOGAF
16 151 (6.36%) Cybersecurity
16 151 (6.36%) Problem-Solving
17 137 (5.77%) Analytics
18 135 (5.69%) AI
Programming Languages
1 101 (4.25%) Python
2 100 (4.21%) SQL
3 74 (3.12%) Java
4 68 (2.86%) PowerShell
5 47 (1.98%) JavaScript
6 31 (1.31%) C#
7 21 (0.88%) Bicep
8 16 (0.67%) Bash
8 16 (0.67%) TypeScript
9 12 (0.51%) PL/SQL
10 10 (0.42%) Kusto Query Language
11 8 (0.34%) VBA
12 6 (0.25%) Scala
13 5 (0.21%) Apex Code
14 4 (0.17%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 4 (0.17%) Kotlin
14 4 (0.17%) Perl
14 4 (0.17%) T-SQL
14 4 (0.17%) VB
14 4 (0.17%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 679 (28.60%) Security Cleared
2 403 (16.98%) SC Cleared
3 226 (9.52%) DV Cleared
4 86 (3.62%) Degree
5 52 (2.19%) BPSS Clearance
6 48 (2.02%) Cisco Certification
7 43 (1.81%) TOGAF Certification
8 35 (1.47%) Azure Certification
8 35 (1.47%) Computer Science Degree
9 34 (1.43%) CISSP
10 33 (1.39%) CCNP
11 31 (1.31%) AWS Certification
12 20 (0.84%) Microsoft Certification
13 17 (0.72%) CISM
14 16 (0.67%) CCNA
14 16 (0.67%) Master's Degree
15 12 (0.51%) ITIL Certification
15 12 (0.51%) Network+ Certification
15 12 (0.51%) Server+ Certification
16 10 (0.42%) CCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 87 (3.66%) NIST
2 76 (3.20%) GDPR
3 63 (2.65%) Data Quality
4 54 (2.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 44 (1.85%) NCSC
6 23 (0.97%) QA
7 20 (0.84%) Accessibility
8 16 (0.67%) PCI DSS
9 14 (0.59%) GRC
10 12 (0.51%) Cyber Essentials
10 12 (0.51%) FINRA
10 12 (0.51%) MiFID
10 12 (0.51%) NIST 800
11 11 (0.46%) COBIT
12 10 (0.42%) ISO 20022
13 9 (0.38%) HL7
13 9 (0.38%) IFRS
13 9 (0.38%) ISO 19650
14 8 (0.34%) Disclosure Scotland
15 6 (0.25%) SEPA
System Software
1 96 (4.04%) Active Directory
2 61 (2.57%) VMware Infrastructure
3 36 (1.52%) Docker
4 31 (1.31%) VMware NSX
5 21 (0.88%) Hyper-V
5 21 (0.88%) vSphere
6 11 (0.46%) Virtual Desktop
6 11 (0.46%) VMware ESXi
7 9 (0.38%) vCloud
8 5 (0.21%) RACF
8 5 (0.21%) Virtual Machines
9 4 (0.17%) BitLocker
9 4 (0.17%) NFS
10 3 (0.13%) EMC RecoverPoint
10 3 (0.13%) IAG
10 3 (0.13%) SRDF
11 2 (0.084%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
11 2 (0.084%) Firmware
12 1 (0.042%) Embedded Firmware
12 1 (0.042%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 82 (3.45%) Kubernetes
2 76 (3.20%) Terraform
3 52 (2.19%) Ansible
4 35 (1.47%) Microsoft Intune
5 26 (1.10%) vCenter Server
6 25 (1.05%) Single Sign-On
7 15 (0.63%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 15 (0.63%) SCCM
8 14 (0.59%) Grafana
9 12 (0.51%) FortiGate
10 11 (0.46%) Argo
11 10 (0.42%) Prometheus
12 6 (0.25%) Istio
12 6 (0.25%) Jamf Pro
13 5 (0.21%) EMC VPLEX
13 5 (0.21%) Endace
13 5 (0.21%) WMI
14 4 (0.17%) SnapMirror
15 3 (0.13%) EMC NetWorker
15 3 (0.13%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 324 (13.65%) Microsoft
2 146 (6.15%) SAP
3 127 (5.35%) VMware
4 104 (4.38%) Oracle
5 103 (4.34%) ServiceNow
6 75 (3.16%) Cisco
7 60 (2.53%) Databricks
8 58 (2.44%) Salesforce
9 55 (2.32%) Google
10 41 (1.73%) MuleSoft
11 28 (1.18%) F5
12 26 (1.10%) Red Hat
13 25 (1.05%) Citrix
13 25 (1.05%) Palo Alto
14 23 (0.97%) Juniper
15 21 (0.88%) BiZZdesign
15 21 (0.88%) Sparx
16 20 (0.84%) Talend
17 18 (0.76%) Splunk
18 16 (0.67%) Informatica