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 £612, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 5 June 2026.

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

6 months to
5 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 2,392 1,088 2,098
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.55% 8.38% 10.10%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.40% 9.14% 10.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,579 723 1,252
10th Percentile £450 £450 £500
25th Percentile £513 £513 £564
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £612 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year +2.00% -7.69% -
75th Percentile £705 £696 £727
90th Percentile £775 £760 £799
UK median daily rate £615 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -1.60% -3.85% -1.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 125 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 £78.50 £82.25 £87.00
90th Percentile £92.10 £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 23,008 11,906 19,202
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.86% 91.75% 92.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,224 7,553 11,557
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 £678 £650 £688
UK median daily rate £513 £501 £525
% change year-on-year +2.40% -4.67% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,660 877 2,431
10th Percentile £14.68 £13.53 £12.50
25th Percentile £20.09 £16.95 £15.79
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -5.88%
75th Percentile £67.50 £60.00 £62.50
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £74.00
UK median hourly rate £43.69 £28.00 £37.50
% change year-on-year +56.04% -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 5 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 5 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 5 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 +5 679 £600 - 335
South East +5 677 £625 +1.63% 275
Midlands +1 438 £600 +1.78% 122
North West +6 372 £608 +3.93% 180
West Midlands -1 312 £620 +3.33% 93
Yorkshire +10 256 £555 -7.58% 95
South West -2 238 £650 +7.22% 155
East of England +19 203 £575 -4.17% 84
Scotland +14 154 £650 +4.00% 64
East Midlands 0 120 £573 +11.21% 29
North East +6 58 £575 -4.17% 61
Wales -3 33 £600 +25.65% 47
Northern Ireland +9 7 £475 -28.30% 22
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 5 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.

1 686 (28.68%) Security Cleared
2 487 (20.36%) Azure
3 405 (16.93%) SC Cleared
4 380 (15.89%) AWS
5 343 (14.34%) Agile
6 335 (14.01%) Roadmaps
7 326 (13.63%) Microsoft
8 276 (11.54%) Migration
8 276 (11.54%) Stakeholder Management
9 256 (10.70%) DevOps
10 247 (10.33%) Enterprise Architecture
11 228 (9.53%) DV Cleared
12 217 (9.07%) CI/CD
13 216 (9.03%) Technical Leadership
14 193 (8.07%) Integration Patterns
14 193 (8.07%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 189 (7.90%) Microservices
16 188 (7.86%) Architectural Patterns
17 187 (7.82%) Data Modelling
18 173 (7.23%) Data Architecture
19 159 (6.65%) Architectural Design
20 154 (6.44%) Cybersecurity
20 154 (6.44%) Problem-Solving
20 154 (6.44%) TOGAF
21 148 (6.19%) SAP
22 136 (5.69%) AI
23 135 (5.64%) Analytics
24 134 (5.60%) GCP
25 129 (5.39%) Continuous Improvement
26 127 (5.31%) 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 61 (2.55%) SharePoint
2 44 (1.84%) Confluence
3 36 (1.51%) Microsoft Exchange
4 23 (0.96%) SAS
5 13 (0.54%) Appian
6 12 (0.50%) Apache Airflow
7 11 (0.46%) CMS
8 10 (0.42%) Anypoint
8 10 (0.42%) Apache
9 9 (0.38%) Apache Spark
10 8 (0.33%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 7 (0.29%) ArcGIS
12 6 (0.25%) Sitecore CMS
12 6 (0.25%) WebLogic
13 5 (0.21%) NetWeaver
13 5 (0.21%) OpenStack
14 4 (0.17%) JBoss
14 4 (0.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 4 (0.17%) SAP EP
14 4 (0.17%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 13 (0.54%) Microsoft Excel
1 13 (0.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 7 (0.29%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (0.29%) Navisworks
2 7 (0.29%) Revit
3 6 (0.25%) MS Visio
3 6 (0.25%) Spreadsheet
4 4 (0.17%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.042%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.042%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 60 (2.51%) SAP S/4HANA
2 20 (0.84%) Payment Gateway
3 18 (0.75%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 12 (0.50%) SAP ERP
5 10 (0.42%) Remedy ITSM
5 10 (0.42%) Teamcenter
6 6 (0.25%) SAP MDG
7 5 (0.21%) Dynamics CRM
7 5 (0.21%) Salesforce CRM
7 5 (0.21%) Workday HCM
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 ERP
9 3 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
9 3 (0.13%) SAP IBP
9 3 (0.13%) SAP SD
10 2 (0.084%) Distributed Ledger
10 2 (0.084%) R3 Corda
Cloud Services
1 487 (20.36%) Azure
2 380 (15.89%) AWS
3 134 (5.60%) GCP
4 93 (3.89%) Power Platform
5 88 (3.68%) Entra ID
6 81 (3.39%) Microsoft 365
7 73 (3.05%) Serverless
8 70 (2.93%) SaaS
9 59 (2.47%) PaaS
10 47 (1.96%) IaaS
11 44 (1.84%) GitHub
12 40 (1.67%) Azure DevOps
13 38 (1.59%) Microsoft Purview
14 33 (1.38%) OpenShift
15 29 (1.21%) OneDrive
16 28 (1.17%) AWS Lambda
17 27 (1.13%) Dynamics 365
18 26 (1.09%) Azure Data Factory
19 24 (1.00%) Snowflake
20 23 (0.96%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 95 (3.97%) Firewall
2 69 (2.88%) WAN
3 66 (2.76%) DNS
4 65 (2.72%) Network Security
5 53 (2.22%) LAN
6 49 (2.05%) VPN
7 40 (1.67%) SD-WAN
8 36 (1.51%) DHCP
9 28 (1.17%) VLAN
10 25 (1.05%) Wireless
11 24 (1.00%) SAN
12 23 (0.96%) BGP
12 23 (0.96%) NAS
13 21 (0.88%) Structured Cabling
14 19 (0.79%) IPsec
15 18 (0.75%) MPLS
16 17 (0.71%) BIG-IP
16 17 (0.71%) OSPF
17 14 (0.59%) NX-OS
18 13 (0.54%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 69 (2.88%) Metadata
2 68 (2.84%) Power BI
3 54 (2.26%) Data Warehouse
4 40 (1.67%) Data Lake
5 35 (1.46%) NoSQL
5 35 (1.46%) SQL Server
6 26 (1.09%) PostgreSQL
7 19 (0.79%) Oracle Database
8 18 (0.75%) Tableau
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 (0.33%) Azure SQL Database
13 8 (0.33%) Electronic Patient Records
13 8 (0.33%) MySQL
13 8 (0.33%) SAS Enterprise Guide
14 7 (0.29%) Metadata Repository
14 7 (0.29%) Spatial Data
Development Applications
1 57 (2.38%) JIRA
2 35 (1.46%) Jenkins
3 19 (0.79%) GitLab
4 18 (0.75%) 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%) IntelliJ
10 2 (0.084%) LoadRunner
10 2 (0.084%) NeoLoad
General
1 422 (17.64%) Social Skills
2 325 (13.59%) Finance
3 214 (8.95%) Public Sector
4 144 (6.02%) Banking
5 118 (4.93%) Analytical Skills
6 80 (3.34%) Retail
7 60 (2.51%) Manufacturing
8 57 (2.38%) Documentation Skills
9 55 (2.30%) Legal
10 33 (1.38%) Aerospace
10 33 (1.38%) Influencing Skills
11 26 (1.09%) Investment Banking
11 26 (1.09%) Military
12 22 (0.92%) Presentation Skills
13 20 (0.84%) Financial Institution
14 19 (0.79%) Back Office
14 19 (0.79%) Marketing
15 16 (0.67%) Telecoms
16 13 (0.54%) Billing
17 11 (0.46%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 102 (4.26%) REST
2 80 (3.34%) Middleware
3 50 (2.09%) .NET
4 47 (1.96%) OAuth
5 43 (1.80%) OpenID
6 41 (1.71%) SOAP
7 31 (1.30%) OAuth2
7 31 (1.30%) SAML
8 30 (1.25%) Oracle Fusion
9 28 (1.17%) Kafka
10 27 (1.13%) SailPoint
11 25 (1.05%) RESTful
12 23 (0.96%) React
13 22 (0.92%) JSON
13 22 (0.92%) Node.js
14 19 (0.79%) LDAP
14 19 (0.79%) Web Services
15 16 (0.67%) Microsoft Graph
16 14 (0.59%) AngularJS
17 12 (0.50%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 161 (6.73%) Cloud Native
2 85 (3.55%) Data Centre
3 67 (2.80%) Product Ownership
4 66 (2.76%) Operational Technology
5 52 (2.17%) Management Information System
6 50 (2.09%) Hybrid Cloud
7 49 (2.05%) Public Cloud
8 48 (2.01%) Data Protection Act
8 48 (2.01%) Onboarding
9 44 (1.84%) Distributed Systems
9 44 (1.84%) Enterprise Software
9 44 (1.84%) Legacy Systems
10 28 (1.17%) PKI
11 26 (1.09%) CMDB
11 26 (1.09%) SCADA
12 21 (0.88%) Private Cloud
13 20 (0.84%) Security Posture
14 19 (0.79%) Data Structures
15 17 (0.71%) AI Agents
15 17 (0.71%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 109 (4.56%) Windows
2 54 (2.26%) Linux
3 29 (1.21%) 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 (0.33%) Windows 10
7 8 (0.33%) 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
1 343 (14.34%) Agile
2 335 (14.01%) Roadmaps
3 276 (11.54%) Migration
3 276 (11.54%) Stakeholder Management
4 256 (10.70%) DevOps
5 247 (10.33%) Enterprise Architecture
6 217 (9.07%) CI/CD
7 216 (9.03%) Technical Leadership
8 193 (8.07%) Integration Patterns
8 193 (8.07%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 189 (7.90%) Microservices
10 188 (7.86%) Architectural Patterns
11 187 (7.82%) Data Modelling
12 173 (7.23%) Data Architecture
13 159 (6.65%) Architectural Design
14 154 (6.44%) Cybersecurity
14 154 (6.44%) Problem-Solving
14 154 (6.44%) TOGAF
15 136 (5.69%) AI
16 135 (5.64%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 102 (4.26%) SQL
2 101 (4.22%) Python
3 76 (3.18%) Java
4 68 (2.84%) PowerShell
5 48 (2.01%) JavaScript
6 31 (1.30%) C#
7 22 (0.92%) Bicep
8 16 (0.67%) Bash
8 16 (0.67%) TypeScript
9 12 (0.50%) PL/SQL
10 10 (0.42%) Kusto Query Language
11 8 (0.33%) VBA
12 6 (0.25%) Scala
13 5 (0.21%) ABAP
13 5 (0.21%) Apex Code
14 4 (0.17%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 4 (0.17%) Perl
14 4 (0.17%) T-SQL
14 4 (0.17%) VB
14 4 (0.17%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 686 (28.68%) Security Cleared
2 405 (16.93%) SC Cleared
3 228 (9.53%) DV Cleared
4 85 (3.55%) Degree
5 52 (2.17%) BPSS Clearance
6 49 (2.05%) Cisco Certification
7 42 (1.76%) TOGAF Certification
8 35 (1.46%) Azure Certification
8 35 (1.46%) CISSP
8 35 (1.46%) Computer Science Degree
9 33 (1.38%) CCNP
10 31 (1.30%) AWS Certification
11 20 (0.84%) Microsoft Certification
12 18 (0.75%) CISM
13 16 (0.67%) CCNA
13 16 (0.67%) Master's Degree
14 12 (0.50%) ITIL Certification
14 12 (0.50%) Network+ Certification
14 12 (0.50%) Server+ Certification
15 10 (0.42%) CCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 90 (3.76%) NIST
2 77 (3.22%) GDPR
3 64 (2.68%) Data Quality
4 54 (2.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 44 (1.84%) NCSC
6 23 (0.96%) QA
7 20 (0.84%) Accessibility
8 17 (0.71%) PCI DSS
9 14 (0.59%) GRC
10 12 (0.50%) COBIT
10 12 (0.50%) Cyber Essentials
10 12 (0.50%) FINRA
10 12 (0.50%) MiFID
10 12 (0.50%) NIST 800
11 10 (0.42%) IFRS
11 10 (0.42%) ISO 20022
12 9 (0.38%) HL7
12 9 (0.38%) ISO 19650
13 8 (0.33%) Disclosure Scotland
14 6 (0.25%) SEPA
System Software
1 96 (4.01%) Active Directory
2 61 (2.55%) VMware Infrastructure
3 36 (1.51%) Docker
4 31 (1.30%) 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 83 (3.47%) Kubernetes
2 77 (3.22%) Terraform
3 52 (2.17%) Ansible
4 35 (1.46%) Microsoft Intune
5 26 (1.09%) 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 (0.50%) 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
1 326 (13.63%) Microsoft
2 148 (6.19%) SAP
3 127 (5.31%) VMware
4 106 (4.43%) Oracle
5 102 (4.26%) ServiceNow
6 75 (3.14%) Cisco
7 61 (2.55%) Databricks
8 56 (2.34%) Salesforce
9 55 (2.30%) Google
10 41 (1.71%) MuleSoft
11 28 (1.17%) F5
12 27 (1.13%) Red Hat
13 25 (1.05%) Citrix
13 25 (1.05%) Palo Alto
14 23 (0.96%) Juniper
15 21 (0.88%) BiZZdesign
16 20 (0.84%) Sparx
16 20 (0.84%) Talend
17 18 (0.75%) Splunk
18 17 (0.71%) Informatica