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 £623, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 6 August 2026.

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

6 months to
6 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 21 13
Rank change year-on-year +7 -8 +5
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,476 1,254 1,820
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.08% 8.23% 9.88%
As % of the Job Titles category 9.85% 9.11% 10.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,644 850 1,140
10th Percentile £480 £459 £480
25th Percentile £525 £519 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £623 £600 £647
Median % change year-on-year +3.75% -7.26% -0.46%
75th Percentile £706 £688 £725
90th Percentile £775 £750 £788
UK median daily rate £620 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -0.80% -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 156 15 73
10th Percentile £46.00 £33.64 -
25th Percentile £60.00 £64.38 £60.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £72.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.34% +3.57% -
75th Percentile £71.91 £86.50 £85.00
90th Percentile £83.00 £99.42 £89.51
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 25,132 13,764 16,950
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.14% 90.37% 92.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,202 8,471 10,335
10th Percentile £305 £217 £217
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% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,998 1,207 1,778
10th Percentile £14.65 £13.32 £14.00
25th Percentile £20.52 £16.50 £18.50
Median hourly rate £43.56 £25.15 £43.90
Median % change year-on-year +73.20% -42.71% +17.07%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +1.18%

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 6 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 6 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 6 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 0 727 £630 +5.00% 345
North of England +3 697 £600 - 296
Midlands -1 421 £625 +8.70% 151
North West +3 397 £600 +4.35% 153
West Midlands -2 313 £635 +5.83% 101
South West -3 293 £625 -2.34% 178
Yorkshire +3 234 £600 - 111
East of England +19 162 £600 +8.11% 108
Scotland +15 155 £650 +4.00% 118
East Midlands +8 101 £600 +16.50% 50
North East -3 68 £600 -15.79% 33
Wales +7 37 £640 +18.52% 28
Northern Ireland +7 6 £475 -32.14% 42
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 6 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.

1 789 (31.87%) Security Cleared
2 552 (22.29%) Azure
3 498 (20.11%) SC Cleared
4 434 (17.53%) AWS
5 348 (14.05%) Roadmaps
6 343 (13.85%) Stakeholder Management
7 327 (13.21%) Microsoft
8 317 (12.80%) Agile
9 284 (11.47%) Migration
10 266 (10.74%) Technical Leadership
11 257 (10.38%) Enterprise Architecture
12 245 (9.89%) DV Cleared
13 242 (9.77%) Integration Patterns
14 240 (9.69%) DevOps
15 226 (9.13%) AI
15 226 (9.13%) Data Architecture
16 223 (9.01%) CI/CD
17 216 (8.72%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 212 (8.56%) Data Modelling
19 204 (8.24%) Architectural Patterns
20 193 (7.79%) Cybersecurity
21 179 (7.23%) Security Architecture
22 178 (7.19%) TOGAF
23 164 (6.62%) Microservices
24 161 (6.50%) GCP
25 159 (6.42%) Architecture Governance
26 157 (6.34%) Problem-Solving
27 147 (5.94%) Continuous Improvement
27 147 (5.94%) Event-Driven
28 144 (5.82%) 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 39 (1.58%) SharePoint
2 33 (1.33%) SAS
3 31 (1.25%) Confluence
4 14 (0.57%) Microsoft Exchange
5 11 (0.44%) 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
10 5 (0.20%) ArcGIS
10 5 (0.20%) CMS
11 4 (0.16%) Appian
11 4 (0.16%) JBoss
11 4 (0.16%) NetWeaver
12 3 (0.12%) SAP EP
13 2 (0.081%) Alfresco
13 2 (0.081%) nginx
13 2 (0.081%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 11 (0.44%) MS Visio
2 9 (0.36%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (0.28%) Navisworks
3 7 (0.28%) Revit
4 6 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 4 (0.16%) Microsoft Office
7 1 (0.040%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.040%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 58 (2.34%) SAP S/4HANA
2 14 (0.57%) Payment Gateway
3 13 (0.53%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 11 (0.44%) Teamcenter
5 10 (0.40%) Remedy ITSM
6 9 (0.36%) SAP ERP
7 7 (0.28%) Oracle ERP
8 5 (0.20%) Dynamics CRM
8 5 (0.20%) Maximo
8 5 (0.20%) Oracle Retail
9 4 (0.16%) NetSuite
9 4 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
9 4 (0.16%) SAP GRC
9 4 (0.16%) SAP MDG
10 3 (0.12%) Adobe Campaign
10 3 (0.12%) Dynamics NAV
10 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
10 3 (0.12%) SAP CRM
10 3 (0.12%) SAP IBP
10 3 (0.12%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 552 (22.29%) Azure
2 434 (17.53%) AWS
3 161 (6.50%) GCP
4 100 (4.04%) Power Platform
5 85 (3.43%) Entra ID
6 78 (3.15%) Serverless
7 74 (2.99%) SaaS
8 55 (2.22%) Microsoft 365
9 50 (2.02%) PaaS
10 47 (1.90%) GitHub
11 41 (1.66%) Azure DevOps
12 40 (1.62%) IaaS
13 36 (1.45%) AWS Lambda
14 35 (1.41%) Dynamics 365
15 33 (1.33%) OpenShift
16 29 (1.17%) Snowflake
17 28 (1.13%) Amazon S3
17 28 (1.13%) GitHub Actions
18 24 (0.97%) OCI
19 21 (0.85%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 97 (3.92%) Firewall
2 66 (2.67%) WAN
3 60 (2.42%) DNS
4 57 (2.30%) Network Security
5 53 (2.14%) LAN
6 39 (1.58%) VPN
7 35 (1.41%) BGP
8 34 (1.37%) DHCP
8 34 (1.37%) SD-WAN
9 30 (1.21%) VLAN
10 27 (1.09%) TCP/IP
11 26 (1.05%) SAN
12 24 (0.97%) MPLS
12 24 (0.97%) Wireless
13 23 (0.93%) NAS
14 21 (0.85%) Structured Cabling
15 18 (0.73%) OSPF
16 16 (0.65%) BIG-IP
17 15 (0.61%) IPsec
18 14 (0.57%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (2.91%) Power BI
2 71 (2.87%) Data Lake
3 67 (2.71%) Metadata
4 65 (2.63%) Data Warehouse
5 38 (1.53%) NoSQL
6 20 (0.81%) Amazon RDS
7 19 (0.77%) Oracle Database
8 18 (0.73%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
9 17 (0.69%) PostgreSQL
9 17 (0.69%) SQL Server
10 15 (0.61%) Base SAS
11 14 (0.57%) Azure SQL Database
11 14 (0.57%) BigQuery
11 14 (0.57%) GIS
12 12 (0.48%) Delta Lake
13 11 (0.44%) MongoDB
14 10 (0.40%) MySQL
14 10 (0.40%) Semantic Layer
15 9 (0.36%) Big Data
15 9 (0.36%) Electronic Patient Records
Development Applications
1 35 (1.41%) JIRA
2 30 (1.21%) Git
3 22 (0.89%) Jenkins
4 10 (0.40%) ERwin
5 9 (0.36%) GitLab
6 7 (0.28%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.20%) Artifactory
7 5 (0.20%) Claude Code
8 4 (0.16%) Hudson
9 3 (0.12%) MSI
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%) IntelliJ
10 2 (0.081%) JUnit
10 2 (0.081%) Oracle APEX
10 2 (0.081%) Oracle Forms
10 2 (0.081%) Rational Rhapsody
10 2 (0.081%) Selenium
General
1 461 (18.62%) Social Skills
2 313 (12.64%) Finance
3 235 (9.49%) Public Sector
4 136 (5.49%) Banking
5 132 (5.33%) Analytical Skills
6 98 (3.96%) Retail
7 80 (3.23%) Manufacturing
8 54 (2.18%) Influencing Skills
9 52 (2.10%) Documentation Skills
10 36 (1.45%) Legal
11 34 (1.37%) Aerospace
12 30 (1.21%) Military
13 27 (1.09%) Telecoms
14 24 (0.97%) Financial Institution
15 21 (0.85%) Marketing
15 21 (0.85%) Presentation Skills
16 20 (0.81%) Back Office
17 19 (0.77%) Aviation
18 17 (0.69%) Inclusion and Diversity
19 16 (0.65%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 104 (4.20%) REST
2 75 (3.03%) Middleware
3 56 (2.26%) OAuth
4 42 (1.70%) Oracle Fusion
4 42 (1.70%) SOAP
5 37 (1.49%) OpenID
6 36 (1.45%) .NET
6 36 (1.45%) Kafka
7 34 (1.37%) SAML
8 29 (1.17%) SailPoint
9 27 (1.09%) OAuth2
10 22 (0.89%) JSON
11 20 (0.81%) RESTful
12 18 (0.73%) Node.js
13 15 (0.61%) GraphQL
13 15 (0.61%) LDAP
14 14 (0.57%) React
14 14 (0.57%) Web Services
15 13 (0.53%) JWT
15 13 (0.53%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 188 (7.59%) Cloud Native
2 85 (3.43%) Data Centre
3 77 (3.11%) Hybrid Cloud
4 72 (2.91%) Operational Technology
5 62 (2.50%) Product Ownership
6 57 (2.30%) Onboarding
7 56 (2.26%) Distributed Systems
8 55 (2.22%) Data Protection Act
9 54 (2.18%) Legacy Systems
9 54 (2.18%) Management Information System
10 50 (2.02%) Enterprise Software
11 41 (1.66%) Public Cloud
12 39 (1.58%) AI Agents
13 34 (1.37%) Private Cloud
14 27 (1.09%) Security Posture
15 25 (1.01%) PKI
16 23 (0.93%) Enterprise Cloud
16 23 (0.93%) IVR
17 22 (0.89%) SCADA
18 20 (0.81%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 88 (3.55%) Windows
2 50 (2.02%) Linux
3 34 (1.37%) Windows Server
4 13 (0.53%) Android
4 13 (0.53%) Apple iOS
4 13 (0.53%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 9 (0.36%) Unix
6 6 (0.24%) AIX
7 5 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
8 2 (0.081%) HPUX
8 2 (0.081%) Solaris
8 2 (0.081%) VMS
8 2 (0.081%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.040%) CatOS
9 1 (0.040%) CentOS
9 1 (0.040%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.040%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.040%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 348 (14.05%) Roadmaps
2 343 (13.85%) Stakeholder Management
3 317 (12.80%) Agile
4 284 (11.47%) Migration
5 266 (10.74%) Technical Leadership
6 257 (10.38%) Enterprise Architecture
7 242 (9.77%) Integration Patterns
8 240 (9.69%) DevOps
9 226 (9.13%) AI
9 226 (9.13%) Data Architecture
10 223 (9.01%) CI/CD
11 216 (8.72%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 212 (8.56%) Data Modelling
13 204 (8.24%) Architectural Patterns
14 193 (7.79%) Cybersecurity
15 179 (7.23%) Security Architecture
16 178 (7.19%) TOGAF
17 164 (6.62%) Microservices
18 159 (6.42%) Architecture Governance
19 157 (6.34%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 98 (3.96%) Java
2 93 (3.76%) SQL
3 92 (3.72%) Python
4 55 (2.22%) JavaScript
5 43 (1.74%) PowerShell
6 23 (0.93%) Bash
7 20 (0.81%) C#
8 17 (0.69%) Bicep
9 12 (0.48%) TypeScript
10 8 (0.32%) Shell Script
11 7 (0.28%) ABAP
12 6 (0.24%) Apex Code
12 6 (0.24%) PL/SQL
12 6 (0.24%) VBA
13 5 (0.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 4 (0.16%) Kotlin
15 3 (0.12%) C
15 3 (0.12%) Groovy
16 2 (0.081%) C++
16 2 (0.081%) ProC
Qualifications
1 789 (31.87%) Security Cleared
2 498 (20.11%) SC Cleared
3 245 (9.89%) DV Cleared
4 80 (3.23%) Degree
5 58 (2.34%) Cisco Certification
6 57 (2.30%) CISSP
7 43 (1.74%) TOGAF Certification
8 42 (1.70%) BPSS Clearance
9 41 (1.66%) AWS Certification
10 40 (1.62%) Azure Certification
11 33 (1.33%) Computer Science Degree
12 30 (1.21%) CCNP
13 20 (0.81%) CISM
14 19 (0.77%) Microsoft Certification
15 18 (0.73%) CCNA
16 15 (0.61%) (ISC)2 CCSP
16 15 (0.61%) CCIE
17 12 (0.48%) Network+ Certification
17 12 (0.48%) Server+ Certification
18 11 (0.44%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 92 (3.72%) NIST
2 78 (3.15%) Data Quality
3 61 (2.46%) NCSC
4 59 (2.38%) GDPR
4 59 (2.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 25 (1.01%) QA
6 20 (0.81%) Accessibility
7 18 (0.73%) PCI DSS
8 16 (0.65%) NIST 800
9 14 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 13 (0.53%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 12 (0.48%) IFRS
11 12 (0.48%) ISO 19650
12 10 (0.40%) Cyber Essentials
12 10 (0.40%) Disclosure Scotland
12 10 (0.40%) GRC
13 9 (0.36%) HL7
13 9 (0.36%) JSP 440
14 8 (0.32%) SLA
15 6 (0.24%) COBIT
System Software
1 95 (3.84%) Active Directory
2 48 (1.94%) Docker
3 46 (1.86%) VMware Infrastructure
4 27 (1.09%) VMware NSX
5 21 (0.85%) Virtual Desktop
6 17 (0.69%) Hyper-V
7 13 (0.53%) vSphere
8 11 (0.44%) VMware ESXi
9 8 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
10 7 (0.28%) vCloud
11 3 (0.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
11 3 (0.12%) KVM
11 3 (0.12%) NFS
11 3 (0.12%) SRDF
12 2 (0.081%) Ceph
12 2 (0.081%) IAG
12 2 (0.081%) zsh
13 1 (0.040%) Firmware
13 1 (0.040%) Slurm Workload Manager
13 1 (0.040%) Snort
Systems Management
1 121 (4.89%) Kubernetes
2 91 (3.68%) Terraform
3 49 (1.98%) Ansible
4 32 (1.29%) Microsoft Intune
5 19 (0.77%) Single Sign-On
6 17 (0.69%) Grafana
7 16 (0.65%) vCenter Server
8 14 (0.57%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 13 (0.53%) Jamf Pro
9 13 (0.53%) Prometheus
10 9 (0.36%) Argo
11 8 (0.32%) FortiGate
12 6 (0.24%) CASB
12 6 (0.24%) Istio
13 5 (0.20%) MOM
13 5 (0.20%) NetBackup
13 5 (0.20%) WMI
14 4 (0.16%) EMC VPLEX
14 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
15 3 (0.12%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 327 (13.21%) Microsoft
2 133 (5.37%) SAP
3 113 (4.56%) Oracle
4 99 (4.00%) ServiceNow
5 97 (3.92%) VMware
6 79 (3.19%) Google
7 77 (3.11%) Cisco
7 77 (3.11%) Databricks
8 47 (1.90%) Salesforce
9 28 (1.13%) F5
10 25 (1.01%) Citrix
10 25 (1.01%) MuleSoft
10 25 (1.01%) Red Hat
11 24 (0.97%) Palo Alto
12 22 (0.89%) CyberArk
13 20 (0.81%) Informatica
14 19 (0.77%) IBM
15 18 (0.73%) BiZZdesign
15 18 (0.73%) Juniper
16 17 (0.69%) Infoblox