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 28 February 2026.

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

6 months to
28 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 16 14
Rank change year-on-year +3 -2 +7
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,066 1,188 1,935
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.95% 8.90% 9.27%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.89% 9.64% 9.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,352 765 1,194
10th Percentile £447 £450 £500
25th Percentile £506 £538 £569
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% -3.85% -
75th Percentile £706 £694 £714
90th Percentile £775 £750 £775
UK median daily rate £625 £625 £650
% change year-on-year - -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 74 24 39
10th Percentile £49.40 £61.50 £56.30
25th Percentile £58.82 £64.88 £61.25
Median hourly rate £70.36 £72.50 £81.27
Median % change year-on-year -2.96% -10.79% +16.09%
75th Percentile £85.00 £78.92 £87.53
90th Percentile £95.00 £84.72 £95.00
UK median hourly rate £70.00 £71.25 £77.64
% change year-on-year -1.75% -8.22% +10.91%

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 18,973 12,322 19,430
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.37% 92.29% 93.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,376 7,605 12,166
10th Percentile £237 £210 £213
25th Percentile £385 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £475 £488
Median % change year-on-year +1.32% -2.56% -2.50%
75th Percentile £580 £588 £594
90th Percentile £675 £675 £686
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,031 664 1,964
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.30 £12.86
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.00 £16.00
Median hourly rate £31.50 £32.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -3.08% -7.14% -6.67%
75th Percentile £64.11 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £75.00 £72.20
UK median hourly rate £33.50 £34.75 £35.00
% change year-on-year -3.60% -0.71% -12.50%

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 28 February 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 28 February 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 28 February 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 +6 632 £625 - 184
North of England -2 514 £575 -4.17% 84
Midlands -3 365 £575 -4.17% 67
North West -3 283 £600 - 50
West Midlands -1 274 £600 -1.15% 46
South West 0 264 £706 +12.96% 36
Yorkshire +3 212 £558 -2.62% 20
East of England +18 161 £550 -13.73% 15
Scotland +16 135 £650 +4.00% 16
East Midlands -4 89 £500 -10.71% 21
Wales +5 31 £600 +11.11% 5
North East -10 24 £625 -1.96% 16
Northern Ireland +1 10 £500 -26.47% 1
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 28 February 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.

1 671 (32.48%) Security Cleared
2 434 (21.01%) Azure
3 392 (18.97%) SC Cleared
4 326 (15.78%) AWS
5 313 (15.15%) Microsoft
6 300 (14.52%) Agile
6 300 (14.52%) Roadmaps
7 280 (13.55%) Stakeholder Management
8 258 (12.49%) Migration
9 249 (12.05%) Enterprise Architecture
10 227 (10.99%) DV Cleared
11 223 (10.79%) TOGAF
12 196 (9.49%) DevOps
13 184 (8.91%) Data Modelling
14 175 (8.47%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 169 (8.18%) Technical Leadership
16 163 (7.89%) CI/CD
17 159 (7.70%) Problem-Solving
18 148 (7.16%) Data Architecture
19 143 (6.92%) Analytics
19 143 (6.92%) Microservices
20 139 (6.73%) ITIL
21 135 (6.53%) Cybersecurity
22 132 (6.39%) GCP
23 131 (6.34%) Architectural Design
24 128 (6.20%) VMware
24 128 (6.20%) Windows
25 127 (6.15%) Python
26 125 (6.05%) ServiceNow
27 122 (5.91%) Architectural Patterns

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 83 (4.02%) Confluence
2 62 (3.00%) SharePoint
3 50 (2.42%) Microsoft Exchange
4 25 (1.21%) SAS
5 13 (0.63%) Appian
6 11 (0.53%) ArcGIS
6 11 (0.53%) CMS
7 10 (0.48%) Anypoint
8 9 (0.44%) Apache
8 9 (0.44%) Smallworld
9 8 (0.39%) Apache Airflow
10 7 (0.34%) Apache Spark
10 7 (0.34%) Skype for Business
11 6 (0.29%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 6 (0.29%) Sitecore CMS
11 6 (0.29%) WebLogic
12 5 (0.24%) GeoServer
13 4 (0.19%) IIS
13 4 (0.19%) OpenStack
13 4 (0.19%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 45 (2.18%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (1.50%) Microsoft Project
3 21 (1.02%) Microsoft Excel
4 20 (0.97%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.19%) Chatbot
6 3 (0.15%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.048%) OrCAD
7 1 (0.048%) Trello
Business Applications
1 47 (2.27%) SAP S/4HANA
2 25 (1.21%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 15 (0.73%) Payment Gateway
4 14 (0.68%) Workday HCM
5 11 (0.53%) Dynamics CRM
6 9 (0.44%) Salesforce CRM
7 7 (0.34%) SAP ERP
8 6 (0.29%) Maximo
9 5 (0.24%) Dynamics AX
9 5 (0.24%) Remedy ITSM
9 5 (0.24%) SAP CO
9 5 (0.24%) SAP FI
9 5 (0.24%) SAP FI/CO
10 4 (0.19%) Distributed Ledger
10 4 (0.19%) R3 Corda
10 4 (0.19%) SAP PP
11 3 (0.15%) Oracle SCM
11 3 (0.15%) SAP CRM
11 3 (0.15%) SAP PM
11 3 (0.15%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 434 (21.01%) Azure
2 326 (15.78%) AWS
3 132 (6.39%) GCP
4 92 (4.45%) Microsoft 365
5 82 (3.97%) Entra ID
6 62 (3.00%) SaaS
7 61 (2.95%) Power Platform
8 54 (2.61%) Serverless
9 49 (2.37%) Microsoft Purview
10 43 (2.08%) IaaS
10 43 (2.08%) PaaS
11 40 (1.94%) OneDrive
12 34 (1.65%) Azure DevOps
12 34 (1.65%) Dynamics 365
12 34 (1.65%) OpenShift
13 31 (1.50%) GitHub
14 27 (1.31%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 26 (1.26%) AWS Lambda
16 25 (1.21%) AWS CloudFormation
17 23 (1.11%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 104 (5.03%) Firewall
2 69 (3.34%) DNS
3 66 (3.19%) WAN
4 58 (2.81%) Network Security
5 52 (2.52%) VPN
6 41 (1.98%) LAN
7 36 (1.74%) SD-WAN
8 26 (1.26%) DHCP
9 22 (1.06%) MPLS
10 18 (0.87%) BGP
11 17 (0.82%) VLAN
11 17 (0.82%) Wireless
12 16 (0.77%) Wi-Fi
13 15 (0.73%) SAN
14 14 (0.68%) IPsec
15 11 (0.53%) Kerberos
15 11 (0.53%) OSPF
15 11 (0.53%) VXLAN
16 10 (0.48%) Internet
16 10 (0.48%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 81 (3.92%) Data Warehouse
2 66 (3.19%) Metadata
3 51 (2.47%) Power BI
4 42 (2.03%) SQL Server
5 29 (1.40%) PostgreSQL
6 25 (1.21%) Data Lake
6 25 (1.21%) Tableau
7 22 (1.06%) Oracle Database
8 20 (0.97%) GIS
9 18 (0.87%) NoSQL
10 16 (0.77%) DynamoDB
11 14 (0.68%) Metadata Repository
12 12 (0.58%) Relational Database
13 10 (0.48%) Amazon Redshift
13 10 (0.48%) Big Data
14 9 (0.44%) Azure SQL Database
14 9 (0.44%) Redis
15 8 (0.39%) Amazon Athena
16 7 (0.34%) Hadoop
16 7 (0.34%) SAS Enterprise Guide
Development Applications
1 94 (4.55%) JIRA
2 45 (2.18%) Jenkins
3 18 (0.87%) GitLab
4 17 (0.82%) Git
5 6 (0.29%) Artifactory
6 5 (0.24%) Rational DOORS
7 4 (0.19%) Postman
7 4 (0.19%) Selenium
8 3 (0.15%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.15%) Cucumber
8 3 (0.15%) ERwin
8 3 (0.15%) MLflow
8 3 (0.15%) MSI
8 3 (0.15%) REST Assured
8 3 (0.15%) Sonatype Nexus
9 2 (0.097%) Gatling
9 2 (0.097%) JMeter
9 2 (0.097%) LoadRunner
9 2 (0.097%) NeoLoad
9 2 (0.097%) SonarQube
General
1 433 (20.96%) Social Skills
2 258 (12.49%) Finance
3 223 (10.79%) Public Sector
4 147 (7.12%) Analytical Skills
5 113 (5.47%) Banking
6 59 (2.86%) Documentation Skills
7 54 (2.61%) Military
8 45 (2.18%) Legal
9 39 (1.89%) Retail
9 39 (1.89%) Telecoms
10 38 (1.84%) Influencing Skills
10 38 (1.84%) Marketing
11 33 (1.60%) Presentation Skills
12 21 (1.02%) Manufacturing
13 19 (0.92%) Aerospace
14 16 (0.77%) Investment Banking
15 14 (0.68%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 12 (0.58%) Billing
17 9 (0.44%) Local Government
18 8 (0.39%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 80 (3.87%) REST
2 52 (2.52%) Middleware
3 43 (2.08%) SOAP
4 38 (1.84%) .NET
5 37 (1.79%) OAuth
6 31 (1.50%) OpenID
7 29 (1.40%) SailPoint
7 29 (1.40%) SAML
8 28 (1.36%) OAuth2
9 25 (1.21%) Kafka
10 23 (1.11%) RESTful
11 17 (0.82%) Web Services
12 16 (0.77%) Node.js
12 16 (0.77%) React
13 15 (0.73%) Microsoft Graph
14 14 (0.68%) Oracle Fusion
15 12 (0.58%) CSS
15 12 (0.58%) HTML
15 12 (0.58%) LDAP
16 10 (0.48%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 126 (6.10%) Cloud Native
2 99 (4.79%) Product Ownership
3 75 (3.63%) Data Centre
4 60 (2.90%) Onboarding
5 50 (2.42%) PKI
6 48 (2.32%) Public Cloud
7 45 (2.18%) Hybrid Cloud
8 44 (2.13%) Operational Technology
9 40 (1.94%) Legacy Systems
10 36 (1.74%) Enterprise Software
10 36 (1.74%) Management Information System
11 30 (1.45%) Data Protection Act
11 30 (1.45%) Distributed Systems
12 26 (1.26%) CMDB
13 24 (1.16%) SCADA
14 16 (0.77%) NHS
15 15 (0.73%) AI Agents
16 14 (0.68%) Blackberry
16 14 (0.68%) Data Structures
17 12 (0.58%) Blockchain
Operating Systems
1 128 (6.20%) Windows
2 71 (3.44%) Linux
3 28 (1.36%) Windows Server
4 17 (0.82%) Windows 7
5 14 (0.68%) Android
5 14 (0.68%) Apple iOS
5 14 (0.68%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 11 (0.53%) Windows 10
7 8 (0.39%) Windows Server 2016
8 7 (0.34%) Unix
8 7 (0.34%) Windows Server 2019
9 5 (0.24%) VMS
10 4 (0.19%) Mac OS
11 3 (0.15%) Ubuntu
11 3 (0.15%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.048%) CentOS
12 1 (0.048%) Data ONTAP
12 1 (0.048%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 300 (14.52%) Agile
1 300 (14.52%) Roadmaps
2 280 (13.55%) Stakeholder Management
3 258 (12.49%) Migration
4 249 (12.05%) Enterprise Architecture
5 223 (10.79%) TOGAF
6 196 (9.49%) DevOps
7 184 (8.91%) Data Modelling
8 175 (8.47%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 169 (8.18%) Technical Leadership
10 163 (7.89%) CI/CD
11 159 (7.70%) Problem-Solving
12 148 (7.16%) Data Architecture
13 143 (6.92%) Analytics
13 143 (6.92%) Microservices
14 139 (6.73%) ITIL
15 135 (6.53%) Cybersecurity
16 131 (6.34%) Architectural Design
17 122 (5.91%) Architectural Patterns
17 122 (5.91%) Identity Access Management
Programming Languages
1 127 (6.15%) Python
2 79 (3.82%) PowerShell
3 74 (3.58%) SQL
4 62 (3.00%) Java
5 33 (1.60%) JavaScript
6 29 (1.40%) C#
7 17 (0.82%) Bash
8 14 (0.68%) Bicep
9 11 (0.53%) Kusto Query Language
10 9 (0.44%) PL/SQL
11 8 (0.39%) R
12 7 (0.34%) TypeScript
12 7 (0.34%) VB
12 7 (0.34%) VBScript
13 5 (0.24%) Apex Code
14 4 (0.19%) C
14 4 (0.19%) C++
14 4 (0.19%) Perl
14 4 (0.19%) Scala
14 4 (0.19%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 671 (32.48%) Security Cleared
2 392 (18.97%) SC Cleared
3 227 (10.99%) DV Cleared
4 110 (5.32%) Degree
5 77 (3.73%) TOGAF Certification
6 68 (3.29%) CISSP
7 51 (2.47%) AWS Certification
8 42 (2.03%) BPSS Clearance
8 42 (2.03%) Cisco Certification
9 39 (1.89%) Azure Certification
10 35 (1.69%) CISM
11 32 (1.55%) Microsoft Certification
12 30 (1.45%) Computer Science Degree
13 29 (1.40%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 26 (1.26%) CCNP
14 26 (1.26%) ISEB
15 25 (1.21%) ITIL Certification
16 24 (1.16%) Master's Degree
17 20 (0.97%) CCIE
18 12 (0.58%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 101 (4.89%) GDPR
2 81 (3.92%) NIST
3 67 (3.24%) Data Quality
4 60 (2.90%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 43 (2.08%) NCSC
6 31 (1.50%) PCI DSS
7 29 (1.40%) COBIT
8 21 (1.02%) QA
9 20 (0.97%) GRC
10 18 (0.87%) JSP 440
11 16 (0.77%) Cyber Essentials
12 12 (0.58%) FINRA
12 12 (0.58%) ISO 20022
12 12 (0.58%) MiFID
13 10 (0.48%) Accessibility
14 9 (0.44%) California Consumer Privacy Act
14 9 (0.44%) Def Stans
14 9 (0.44%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 7 (0.34%) NIST 800
16 6 (0.29%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 97 (4.70%) Active Directory
2 55 (2.66%) VMware Infrastructure
3 39 (1.89%) Docker
4 36 (1.74%) VMware NSX
5 25 (1.21%) vSphere
6 13 (0.63%) Virtual Desktop
7 10 (0.48%) Hyper-V
7 10 (0.48%) VMware ESXi
8 8 (0.39%) Virtual Machines
9 7 (0.34%) BitLocker
10 6 (0.29%) vCloud
11 5 (0.24%) RACF
12 4 (0.19%) NFS
13 2 (0.097%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
13 2 (0.097%) IAG
14 1 (0.048%) Embedded Firmware
14 1 (0.048%) Firmware
14 1 (0.048%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 95 (4.60%) Terraform
2 75 (3.63%) Kubernetes
3 58 (2.81%) Ansible
4 33 (1.60%) Single Sign-On
5 31 (1.50%) Microsoft Intune
6 30 (1.45%) OPNET
7 26 (1.26%) vCenter Server
8 20 (0.97%) SCCM
9 16 (0.77%) WMI
10 14 (0.68%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 13 (0.63%) Argo
11 13 (0.63%) FortiGate
12 6 (0.29%) Prometheus
13 5 (0.24%) Istio
14 3 (0.15%) Endace
14 3 (0.15%) Grafana
14 3 (0.15%) SCOM
15 2 (0.097%) Jamf Pro
15 2 (0.097%) Nessus
15 2 (0.097%) vRealize
Vendors
1 313 (15.15%) Microsoft
2 128 (6.20%) VMware
3 125 (6.05%) ServiceNow
4 98 (4.74%) SAP
5 95 (4.60%) Oracle
6 77 (3.73%) Salesforce
7 71 (3.44%) Cisco
8 50 (2.42%) Google
9 42 (2.03%) Remedy
10 36 (1.74%) Atlassian
10 36 (1.74%) MuleSoft
10 36 (1.74%) Palo Alto
11 35 (1.69%) Red Hat
12 33 (1.60%) Databricks
13 31 (1.50%) BiZZdesign
14 28 (1.36%) Citrix
15 27 (1.31%) CyberArk
16 26 (1.26%) Virgin Media
17 24 (1.16%) F5
17 24 (1.16%) Sparx