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 £600, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 18 December 2025.

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

6 months to
18 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 19 16 17
Rank change year-on-year -3 +1 +5
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 1,586 1,338 1,658
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 8.78% 8.92% 8.43%
As % of the Job Titles category 9.76% 9.66% 9.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,092 849 1,129
10th Percentile £461 £475 £500
25th Percentile £519 £548 £560
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £625 £635
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% -1.57% -2.31%
75th Percentile £701 £706 £700
90th Percentile £775 £766 £750
UK median daily rate £625 £625 £650
% change year-on-year - -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 17 30
10th Percentile £65.00 £61.50 £61.13
25th Percentile £66.25 £62.50 £72.50
Median hourly rate £83.82 £66.00 £77.27
Median % change year-on-year +27.00% -14.58% +10.38%
75th Percentile £95.00 £78.36 £84.26
90th Percentile - £86.47 £93.75
UK median hourly rate £83.82 £70.00 £76.53
% change year-on-year +19.74% -8.53% +9.33%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 16,258 13,848 18,397
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.05% 92.36% 93.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,006 8,265 12,022
10th Percentile £210 £213 £213
25th Percentile £369 £363 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £489 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% -2.20% -
75th Percentile £575 £591 £600
90th Percentile £675 £676 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,634 795 1,208
10th Percentile £13.85 £15.41 £14.36
25th Percentile £17.50 £20.30 £18.35
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -27.78% +80.76%
75th Percentile £57.50 £64.61 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.16 £71.25 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.47 £34.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -25.09% -23.60% +48.33%

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 18 December 2025.

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 18 December 2025.

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 18 December 2025. 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 +6 528 £600 -4.00% 233
North of England -7 383 £600 -2.77% 116
South West +1 256 £700 +12.00% 63
Midlands -4 242 £575 -4.17% 96
North West -6 229 £599 -3.43% 70
West Midlands -9 186 £582 -3.04% 67
Yorkshire -19 136 £600 +2.13% 36
Scotland -10 86 £600 -4.00% 32
East of England -11 85 £553 -7.92% 69
East Midlands -4 56 £519 -9.78% 29
Wales +1 25 £625 +0.40% 15
North East -9 19 £700 +16.74% 11
Northern Ireland -10 6 £550 -8.33% 3
Channel Islands - 2 £625 -
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 18 December 2025, 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.

1 607 (38.27%) Security Cleared
2 372 (23.46%) SC Cleared
3 360 (22.70%) Azure
4 304 (19.17%) AWS
5 271 (17.09%) Roadmaps
6 233 (14.69%) Agile
7 225 (14.19%) Stakeholder Management
8 213 (13.43%) TOGAF
9 210 (13.24%) Microsoft
10 186 (11.73%) Enterprise Architecture
11 178 (11.22%) DV Cleared
12 172 (10.84%) Migration
13 171 (10.78%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 157 (9.90%) ITIL
15 146 (9.21%) Data Modelling
16 144 (9.08%) Problem-Solving
17 136 (8.58%) Technical Leadership
18 131 (8.26%) DevOps
19 127 (8.01%) GCP
20 124 (7.82%) CI/CD
21 114 (7.19%) AI
22 113 (7.12%) Mentoring
23 111 (7.00%) Cybersecurity
23 111 (7.00%) Python
24 110 (6.94%) Microservices
25 109 (6.87%) VMware
26 106 (6.68%) Architectural Design
27 103 (6.49%) Analytics
27 103 (6.49%) Degree
28 102 (6.43%) Terraform

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 (3.91%) Confluence
2 25 (1.58%) SharePoint
3 20 (1.26%) Microsoft Exchange
4 16 (1.01%) SAS
5 12 (0.76%) ArcGIS
6 9 (0.57%) WebLogic
7 7 (0.44%) Smallworld
8 6 (0.38%) Anypoint
8 6 (0.38%) OpenStack
9 5 (0.32%) WebSphere
10 4 (0.25%) Apache Airflow
10 4 (0.25%) CMS
10 4 (0.25%) Documentum
11 3 (0.19%) Apache Spark
11 3 (0.19%) GeoServer
11 3 (0.19%) Skype for Business
12 2 (0.13%) Ethereum
12 2 (0.13%) Hyperledger
12 2 (0.13%) ThingWorx
12 2 (0.13%) Tomcat
Applications
1 38 (2.40%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (1.95%) Microsoft Project
3 11 (0.69%) Microsoft Excel
4 10 (0.63%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 9 (0.57%) Siemens NX
6 8 (0.50%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.063%) FrameMaker
7 1 (0.063%) Revit
7 1 (0.063%) Trello
Business Applications
1 40 (2.52%) SAP S/4HANA
2 21 (1.32%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 19 (1.20%) Workday HCM
4 17 (1.07%) Dynamics CRM
5 12 (0.76%) Maximo
6 11 (0.69%) SAP CO
7 10 (0.63%) SAP FI
7 10 (0.63%) SAP FI/CO
7 10 (0.63%) SAP PM
8 9 (0.57%) Payment Gateway
8 9 (0.57%) Teamcenter
9 7 (0.44%) Salesforce CRM
10 6 (0.38%) SAP HR
11 5 (0.32%) Dynamics AX
11 5 (0.32%) Oracle SCM
12 4 (0.25%) SAP PP
13 3 (0.19%) NetSuite
13 3 (0.19%) SAP CRM
13 3 (0.19%) SAP EWM
13 3 (0.19%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 360 (22.70%) Azure
2 304 (19.17%) AWS
3 127 (8.01%) GCP
4 68 (4.29%) SaaS
5 49 (3.09%) Serverless
6 47 (2.96%) Entra ID
7 46 (2.90%) Dynamics 365
8 45 (2.84%) Microsoft 365
9 40 (2.52%) Power Platform
10 36 (2.27%) GitHub
11 34 (2.14%) AWS Lambda
12 29 (1.83%) IaaS
12 29 (1.83%) Microsoft Purview
12 29 (1.83%) PaaS
13 26 (1.64%) Azure DevOps
14 25 (1.58%) OpenShift
15 24 (1.51%) AWS CloudFormation
16 21 (1.32%) Amazon S3
16 21 (1.32%) Azure Synapse Analytics
16 21 (1.32%) Salesforce Service Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 87 (5.49%) Firewall
2 49 (3.09%) WAN
3 41 (2.59%) Network Security
4 40 (2.52%) LAN
5 38 (2.40%) DNS
6 34 (2.14%) VPN
7 29 (1.83%) SD-WAN
8 20 (1.26%) SAN
9 18 (1.13%) BGP
9 18 (1.13%) MPLS
10 14 (0.88%) VSAN
11 13 (0.82%) DHCP
12 12 (0.76%) iSCSI
12 12 (0.76%) Wi-Fi
13 11 (0.69%) Fibre Channel
14 10 (0.63%) Internet
15 9 (0.57%) Cisco ASA
16 8 (0.50%) VLAN
16 8 (0.50%) Wireless
17 7 (0.44%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 58 (3.66%) Data Warehouse
2 37 (2.33%) PostgreSQL
3 33 (2.08%) Metadata
3 33 (2.08%) SQL Server
4 31 (1.95%) Power BI
5 20 (1.26%) NoSQL
5 20 (1.26%) Oracle Database
6 19 (1.20%) DynamoDB
6 19 (1.20%) MongoDB
7 18 (1.13%) GIS
8 15 (0.95%) Tableau
9 14 (0.88%) Relational Database
10 13 (0.82%) Redis
11 12 (0.76%) BigQuery
11 12 (0.76%) Data Lake
11 12 (0.76%) RDBMS
12 11 (0.69%) Amazon Redshift
13 10 (0.63%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 9 (0.57%) Amazon RDS
14 9 (0.57%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 76 (4.79%) JIRA
2 46 (2.90%) Jenkins
3 39 (2.46%) Git
4 13 (0.82%) GitLab
5 9 (0.57%) CircleCI
5 9 (0.57%) Oracle Forms
6 8 (0.50%) SonarQube
7 6 (0.38%) Artifactory
8 5 (0.32%) Gradle
8 5 (0.32%) Maven
8 5 (0.32%) Rational DOORS
8 5 (0.32%) SonarLint
9 4 (0.25%) Bitbucket
9 4 (0.25%) MLflow
9 4 (0.25%) MSI
10 3 (0.19%) Sonatype Nexus
11 2 (0.13%) Postman
11 2 (0.13%) Visual Studio Code
12 1 (0.063%) ERwin
12 1 (0.063%) Hudson
General
1 427 (26.92%) Social Skills
2 202 (12.74%) Public Sector
3 175 (11.03%) Finance
4 129 (8.13%) Analytical Skills
5 78 (4.92%) Banking
6 52 (3.28%) Military
7 48 (3.03%) Telecoms
8 41 (2.59%) Documentation Skills
9 39 (2.46%) Marketing
10 37 (2.33%) Retail
11 35 (2.21%) Influencing Skills
12 34 (2.14%) Presentation Skills
13 27 (1.70%) Manufacturing
14 23 (1.45%) Legal
15 21 (1.32%) Aerospace
16 10 (0.63%) Back Office
16 10 (0.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 9 (0.57%) Pharmaceutical
18 8 (0.50%) Aviation
18 8 (0.50%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 49 (3.09%) REST
2 39 (2.46%) SOAP
3 38 (2.40%) Middleware
4 26 (1.64%) .NET
4 26 (1.64%) RESTful
5 22 (1.39%) OAuth
6 19 (1.20%) Lightning Web Components
7 18 (1.13%) Kafka
7 18 (1.13%) Visualforce
8 17 (1.07%) Spring Boot
9 15 (0.95%) SAML
10 14 (0.88%) Node.js
10 14 (0.88%) SailPoint
10 14 (0.88%) SAP PI
10 14 (0.88%) Web Services
11 13 (0.82%) GraphQL
11 13 (0.82%) OAuth2
12 11 (0.69%) Spring
13 10 (0.63%) PyTorch
13 10 (0.63%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 107 (6.75%) Cloud Native
2 79 (4.98%) Product Ownership
3 65 (4.10%) Data Centre
4 64 (4.04%) Legacy Systems
5 50 (3.15%) Hybrid Cloud
6 45 (2.84%) Onboarding
7 40 (2.52%) PKI
8 27 (1.70%) Operational Technology
8 27 (1.70%) Public Cloud
9 25 (1.58%) CMDB
10 23 (1.45%) Distributed Systems
11 21 (1.32%) Enterprise Software
12 20 (1.26%) SCADA
13 19 (1.20%) NHS
14 18 (1.13%) Data Protection Act
14 18 (1.13%) Management Information System
14 18 (1.13%) Security Posture
15 13 (0.82%) Analytical Mindset
15 13 (0.82%) Cyber Threat
15 13 (0.82%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 93 (5.86%) Windows
2 62 (3.91%) Linux
3 32 (2.02%) Windows Server
4 16 (1.01%) Windows Server 2019
5 14 (0.88%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 13 (0.82%) Windows 10
6 13 (0.82%) Windows 7
7 10 (0.63%) Unix
8 7 (0.44%) Mac OS
9 4 (0.25%) VMS
9 4 (0.25%) Windows Server 2016
10 3 (0.19%) Ubuntu
10 3 (0.19%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.13%) Solaris
11 2 (0.13%) zOS
12 1 (0.063%) Android
12 1 (0.063%) Apple iOS
12 1 (0.063%) CentOS
12 1 (0.063%) MVS
Processes & Methodologies
1 271 (17.09%) Roadmaps
2 233 (14.69%) Agile
3 225 (14.19%) Stakeholder Management
4 213 (13.43%) TOGAF
5 186 (11.73%) Enterprise Architecture
6 172 (10.84%) Migration
7 171 (10.78%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 157 (9.90%) ITIL
9 146 (9.21%) Data Modelling
10 144 (9.08%) Problem-Solving
11 136 (8.58%) Technical Leadership
12 131 (8.26%) DevOps
13 124 (7.82%) CI/CD
14 114 (7.19%) AI
15 113 (7.12%) Mentoring
16 111 (7.00%) Cybersecurity
17 110 (6.94%) Microservices
18 106 (6.68%) Architectural Design
19 103 (6.49%) Analytics
20 95 (5.99%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 111 (7.00%) Python
2 78 (4.92%) Java
3 55 (3.47%) SQL
4 43 (2.71%) PowerShell
5 22 (1.39%) JavaScript
6 19 (1.20%) Apex Code
7 17 (1.07%) TypeScript
8 14 (0.88%) Bash
9 12 (0.76%) R
10 10 (0.63%) C#
11 8 (0.50%) C++
12 7 (0.44%) C
12 7 (0.44%) PL/SQL
13 6 (0.38%) ABAP
13 6 (0.38%) Bicep
14 4 (0.25%) Ruby
15 3 (0.19%) Shell Script
15 3 (0.19%) VB
15 3 (0.19%) VBScript
15 3 (0.19%) X++
Qualifications
1 607 (38.27%) Security Cleared
2 372 (23.46%) SC Cleared
3 178 (11.22%) DV Cleared
4 103 (6.49%) Degree
5 77 (4.85%) CISSP
6 68 (4.29%) TOGAF Certification
7 54 (3.40%) AWS Certification
8 45 (2.84%) Azure Certification
9 39 (2.46%) Microsoft Certification
10 37 (2.33%) Cisco Certification
11 34 (2.14%) CISM
12 29 (1.83%) Computer Science Degree
13 26 (1.64%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 25 (1.58%) Master's Degree
15 22 (1.39%) CCIE
16 21 (1.32%) ISEB
16 21 (1.32%) ITIL Certification
17 18 (1.13%) CCNP
18 15 (0.95%) BPSS Clearance
19 14 (0.88%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 83 (5.23%) GDPR
2 75 (4.73%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 74 (4.67%) NIST
4 48 (3.03%) Data Quality
5 40 (2.52%) NCSC
6 31 (1.95%) PCI DSS
7 30 (1.89%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 23 (1.45%) COBIT
9 21 (1.32%) JSP 440
9 21 (1.32%) QA
10 17 (1.07%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 10 (0.63%) Cyber Essentials
11 10 (0.63%) GRC
12 9 (0.57%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 9 (0.57%) PSD2
13 8 (0.50%) ISO 20022
13 8 (0.50%) SLA
14 6 (0.38%) HIPAA
14 6 (0.38%) NIST 800
14 6 (0.38%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 67 (4.22%) VMware Infrastructure
2 65 (4.10%) Active Directory
3 48 (3.03%) Docker
4 26 (1.64%) vSphere
5 21 (1.32%) VMware NSX
6 19 (1.20%) VMware ESXi
7 12 (0.76%) NFS
8 11 (0.69%) Virtual Desktop
9 10 (0.63%) Virtual Machines
10 5 (0.32%) Hyper-V
11 3 (0.19%) BitLocker
11 3 (0.19%) Dovecot
11 3 (0.19%) Postfix
12 2 (0.13%) KVM
12 2 (0.13%) vCloud
13 1 (0.063%) HDFS
13 1 (0.063%) SRDF
13 1 (0.063%) Veritas Cluster Server
13 1 (0.063%) Xen
Systems Management
1 102 (6.43%) Terraform
2 91 (5.74%) Kubernetes
3 50 (3.15%) Ansible
4 33 (2.08%) OPNET
5 23 (1.45%) Single Sign-On
6 17 (1.07%) vCenter Server
7 14 (0.88%) SCCM
8 13 (0.82%) Prometheus
8 13 (0.82%) WMI
9 12 (0.76%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 10 (0.63%) Microsoft Intune
11 9 (0.57%) Grafana
12 7 (0.44%) Argo
13 3 (0.19%) Puppet
14 2 (0.13%) FortiGate
14 2 (0.13%) Istio
14 2 (0.13%) Microsoft Clustering
14 2 (0.13%) SCOM
15 1 (0.063%) Kubeflow
15 1 (0.063%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 210 (13.24%) Microsoft
2 109 (6.87%) VMware
3 95 (5.99%) ServiceNow
4 89 (5.61%) Salesforce
5 85 (5.36%) SAP
6 80 (5.04%) Oracle
7 64 (4.04%) Cisco
8 35 (2.21%) Remedy
9 34 (2.14%) Atlassian
9 34 (2.14%) Google
10 30 (1.89%) Workday
11 26 (1.64%) Palo Alto
12 23 (1.45%) Red Hat
12 23 (1.45%) Splunk
12 23 (1.45%) Virgin Media
13 22 (1.39%) CyberArk
13 22 (1.39%) IBM
13 22 (1.39%) Juniper
13 22 (1.39%) Pega
14 21 (1.32%) Databricks