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 £620, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 17 August 2026.

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

6 months to
17 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 20 13
Rank change year-on-year +6 -7 +6
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,498 1,252 1,806
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.08% 8.13% 9.94%
As % of the Job Titles category 9.88% 9.01% 10.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,665 854 1,155
10th Percentile £479 £463 £482
25th Percentile £525 £519 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £620 £600 £648
Median % change year-on-year +3.33% -7.41% -0.31%
75th Percentile £706 £695 £725
90th Percentile £775 £760 £788
UK median daily rate £620 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -0.80% -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 154 15 71
10th Percentile £46.00 £33.64 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £64.38 £60.63
Median hourly rate £65.00 £72.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.34% +3.57% -3.89%
75th Percentile £71.91 £86.50 £85.00
90th Percentile £88.03 £99.42 £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 25,286 13,888 16,745
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.88% 90.13% 92.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,271 8,515 10,242
10th Percentile £305 £213 £220
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 £688
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,046 1,244 1,711
10th Percentile £14.56 £13.25 £14.00
25th Percentile £20.45 £16.32 £18.50
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% +21.62%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +65.94% -41.51% +2.87%

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 17 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 17 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 17 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 +1 737 £625 +4.17% 173
North of England +5 700 £600 - 129
Midlands 0 415 £625 +7.57% 60
North West +7 402 £600 - 69
South West -3 313 £625 -2.34% 82
West Midlands -2 302 £627 +4.42% 44
Yorkshire +5 235 £588 -2.08% 42
East of England +13 159 £600 +8.11% 26
Scotland +16 149 £648 +3.60% 24
East Midlands +4 106 £600 +16.50% 16
North East -5 65 £600 -14.29% 18
Wales +4 41 £640 +2.40% 13
Northern Ireland +7 5 £475 -32.14% 8
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 17 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.

1 822 (32.91%) Security Cleared
2 565 (22.62%) Azure
3 522 (20.90%) SC Cleared
4 439 (17.57%) AWS
5 356 (14.25%) Stakeholder Management
6 349 (13.97%) Microsoft
7 344 (13.77%) Roadmaps
8 312 (12.49%) Agile
9 290 (11.61%) Migration
10 281 (11.25%) Technical Leadership
11 274 (10.97%) Enterprise Architecture
12 255 (10.21%) DV Cleared
13 244 (9.77%) DevOps
14 237 (9.49%) Integration Patterns
15 232 (9.29%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 229 (9.17%) AI
17 228 (9.13%) CI/CD
18 222 (8.89%) Data Architecture
19 208 (8.33%) Data Modelling
20 203 (8.13%) Architectural Patterns
21 200 (8.01%) Cybersecurity
22 185 (7.41%) Security Architecture
23 183 (7.33%) TOGAF
24 173 (6.93%) GCP
25 160 (6.41%) Microservices
26 155 (6.20%) Architecture Governance
27 150 (6.00%) Problem-Solving
28 147 (5.88%) Continuous Improvement
29 145 (5.80%) Event-Driven
30 144 (5.76%) 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 37 (1.48%) SharePoint
2 31 (1.24%) SAS
3 30 (1.20%) Confluence
4 13 (0.52%) Microsoft Exchange
5 12 (0.48%) OpenStack
6 10 (0.40%) Apache
6 10 (0.40%) Apache Spark
6 10 (0.40%) Palantir Foundry
7 9 (0.36%) Apache Airflow
8 7 (0.28%) Documentum
9 5 (0.20%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 4 (0.16%) CMS
10 4 (0.16%) NetWeaver
11 3 (0.12%) JBoss
11 3 (0.12%) SAP EP
12 2 (0.080%) Alfresco
12 2 (0.080%) Apache Superset
12 2 (0.080%) ArcGIS
13 1 (0.040%) Jupyter
13 1 (0.040%) Oracle Coherence
Applications
1 11 (0.44%) Microsoft Excel
1 11 (0.44%) MS Visio
2 7 (0.28%) Navisworks
2 7 (0.28%) Revit
3 6 (0.24%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
4 5 (0.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.040%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 65 (2.60%) SAP S/4HANA
2 13 (0.52%) Payment Gateway
3 12 (0.48%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 12 (0.48%) Teamcenter
4 10 (0.40%) Remedy ITSM
5 7 (0.28%) SAP ERP
6 5 (0.20%) Dynamics CRM
6 5 (0.20%) Maximo
6 5 (0.20%) Oracle ERP
7 4 (0.16%) NetSuite
7 4 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
7 4 (0.16%) Oracle Retail
7 4 (0.16%) SAP GRC
7 4 (0.16%) SAP MDG
8 3 (0.12%) Adobe Campaign
8 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
8 3 (0.12%) Remedy AR System
8 3 (0.12%) SAP HR
8 3 (0.12%) SAP IBP
8 3 (0.12%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 565 (22.62%) Azure
2 439 (17.57%) AWS
3 173 (6.93%) GCP
4 99 (3.96%) Power Platform
5 81 (3.24%) Serverless
6 79 (3.16%) SaaS
7 78 (3.12%) Entra ID
8 55 (2.20%) Microsoft 365
9 47 (1.88%) PaaS
10 45 (1.80%) GitHub
11 43 (1.72%) Azure DevOps
12 40 (1.60%) Dynamics 365
13 38 (1.52%) IaaS
14 37 (1.48%) AWS Lambda
15 33 (1.32%) OpenShift
16 30 (1.20%) Snowflake
17 29 (1.16%) GitHub Actions
18 28 (1.12%) Amazon S3
19 23 (0.92%) Azure Data Factory
20 22 (0.88%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 96 (3.84%) Firewall
2 64 (2.56%) WAN
3 59 (2.36%) DNS
4 52 (2.08%) LAN
5 50 (2.00%) Network Security
6 39 (1.56%) VPN
7 34 (1.36%) DHCP
8 33 (1.32%) BGP
8 33 (1.32%) SD-WAN
9 29 (1.16%) VLAN
10 27 (1.08%) TCP/IP
11 25 (1.00%) MPLS
11 25 (1.00%) SAN
12 22 (0.88%) NAS
13 20 (0.80%) Structured Cabling
13 20 (0.80%) Wireless
14 16 (0.64%) OSPF
15 15 (0.60%) BIG-IP
16 13 (0.52%) Cisco Nexus
16 13 (0.52%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 73 (2.92%) Data Lake
2 70 (2.80%) Power BI
3 67 (2.68%) Metadata
4 65 (2.60%) Data Warehouse
5 37 (1.48%) NoSQL
6 20 (0.80%) Amazon RDS
7 19 (0.76%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
7 19 (0.76%) SQL Server
8 17 (0.68%) Azure SQL Database
8 17 (0.68%) Oracle Database
9 16 (0.64%) Base SAS
10 15 (0.60%) PostgreSQL
11 14 (0.56%) BigQuery
12 12 (0.48%) Delta Lake
12 12 (0.48%) GIS
13 10 (0.40%) Big Data
13 10 (0.40%) MySQL
14 9 (0.36%) Amazon Redshift
14 9 (0.36%) Electronic Patient Records
14 9 (0.36%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 35 (1.40%) JIRA
2 30 (1.20%) Git
3 23 (0.92%) Jenkins
4 13 (0.52%) GitLab
5 9 (0.36%) ERwin
6 6 (0.24%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.20%) Artifactory
7 5 (0.20%) Claude Code
8 4 (0.16%) Hudson
8 4 (0.16%) MSI
8 4 (0.16%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.12%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.080%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.080%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.080%) IntelliJ
10 2 (0.080%) JUnit
10 2 (0.080%) Oracle APEX
10 2 (0.080%) Oracle Forms
10 2 (0.080%) Rational Rhapsody
10 2 (0.080%) Selenium
General
1 469 (18.78%) Social Skills
2 305 (12.21%) Finance
3 240 (9.61%) Public Sector
4 133 (5.32%) Banking
5 129 (5.16%) Analytical Skills
6 102 (4.08%) Retail
7 90 (3.60%) Manufacturing
8 58 (2.32%) Documentation Skills
9 56 (2.24%) Influencing Skills
10 40 (1.60%) Aerospace
11 35 (1.40%) Legal
12 31 (1.24%) Military
13 28 (1.12%) Telecoms
14 22 (0.88%) Financial Institution
14 22 (0.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 21 (0.84%) Aviation
15 21 (0.84%) Marketing
16 20 (0.80%) Back Office
17 19 (0.76%) Presentation Skills
18 17 (0.68%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 100 (4.00%) REST
2 76 (3.04%) Middleware
3 55 (2.20%) OAuth
4 45 (1.80%) SOAP
5 38 (1.52%) Oracle Fusion
6 34 (1.36%) OpenID
7 33 (1.32%) .NET
7 33 (1.32%) Kafka
7 33 (1.32%) SAML
8 24 (0.96%) OAuth2
8 24 (0.96%) SailPoint
9 23 (0.92%) JSON
10 19 (0.76%) LDAP
11 17 (0.68%) Node.js
11 17 (0.68%) RESTful
12 14 (0.56%) GraphQL
12 14 (0.56%) JWT
12 14 (0.56%) Web Services
13 13 (0.52%) Swagger
14 12 (0.48%) React
Miscellaneous
1 193 (7.73%) Cloud Native
2 82 (3.28%) Data Centre
3 80 (3.20%) Hybrid Cloud
4 71 (2.84%) Operational Technology
5 63 (2.52%) Data Protection Act
6 61 (2.44%) Product Ownership
7 57 (2.28%) Legacy Systems
7 57 (2.28%) Onboarding
8 56 (2.24%) Distributed Systems
8 56 (2.24%) Management Information System
9 52 (2.08%) Enterprise Software
10 40 (1.60%) Public Cloud
11 38 (1.52%) AI Agents
12 31 (1.24%) Private Cloud
13 28 (1.12%) Security Posture
14 26 (1.04%) IVR
15 25 (1.00%) Enterprise Cloud
16 23 (0.92%) CMDB
16 23 (0.92%) PKI
16 23 (0.92%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 90 (3.60%) Windows
2 52 (2.08%) Linux
3 35 (1.40%) Windows Server
4 13 (0.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 12 (0.48%) Android
5 12 (0.48%) Apple iOS
6 9 (0.36%) Unix
7 6 (0.24%) AIX
8 5 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
9 2 (0.080%) HPUX
9 2 (0.080%) Solaris
9 2 (0.080%) Windows 10
9 2 (0.080%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.040%) CatOS
10 1 (0.040%) CentOS
10 1 (0.040%) VMS
10 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.040%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 356 (14.25%) Stakeholder Management
2 344 (13.77%) Roadmaps
3 312 (12.49%) Agile
4 290 (11.61%) Migration
5 281 (11.25%) Technical Leadership
6 274 (10.97%) Enterprise Architecture
7 244 (9.77%) DevOps
8 237 (9.49%) Integration Patterns
9 232 (9.29%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 229 (9.17%) AI
11 228 (9.13%) CI/CD
12 222 (8.89%) Data Architecture
13 208 (8.33%) Data Modelling
14 203 (8.13%) Architectural Patterns
15 200 (8.01%) Cybersecurity
16 185 (7.41%) Security Architecture
17 183 (7.33%) TOGAF
18 160 (6.41%) Microservices
19 155 (6.20%) Architecture Governance
20 150 (6.00%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 99 (3.96%) Java
2 96 (3.84%) SQL
3 86 (3.44%) Python
4 51 (2.04%) JavaScript
5 45 (1.80%) PowerShell
6 24 (0.96%) Bash
7 16 (0.64%) Bicep
8 13 (0.52%) C#
9 12 (0.48%) TypeScript
10 10 (0.40%) Shell Script
11 8 (0.32%) ABAP
12 6 (0.24%) Apex Code
12 6 (0.24%) PL/SQL
12 6 (0.24%) VBA
13 5 (0.20%) Groovy
14 4 (0.16%) Kotlin
15 3 (0.12%) C
15 3 (0.12%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 2 (0.080%) BeanShell
16 2 (0.080%) R
Qualifications
1 822 (32.91%) Security Cleared
2 522 (20.90%) SC Cleared
3 255 (10.21%) DV Cleared
4 70 (2.80%) Degree
5 56 (2.24%) CISSP
6 54 (2.16%) Cisco Certification
7 43 (1.72%) Azure Certification
7 43 (1.72%) BPSS Clearance
7 43 (1.72%) TOGAF Certification
8 42 (1.68%) AWS Certification
9 30 (1.20%) Computer Science Degree
10 27 (1.08%) CCNP
11 21 (0.84%) CISM
12 19 (0.76%) Microsoft Certification
13 16 (0.64%) CCNA
14 15 (0.60%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 14 (0.56%) CCIE
16 11 (0.44%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
16 11 (0.44%) Network+ Certification
16 11 (0.44%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 95 (3.80%) NIST
2 76 (3.04%) Data Quality
3 65 (2.60%) NCSC
4 61 (2.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 58 (2.32%) GDPR
6 24 (0.96%) QA
7 18 (0.72%) Accessibility
7 18 (0.72%) PCI DSS
8 17 (0.68%) NIST 800
9 15 (0.60%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 15 (0.60%) JSP 440
10 13 (0.52%) ISO 19650
11 12 (0.48%) GRC
12 11 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials
12 11 (0.44%) IFRS
12 11 (0.44%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 10 (0.40%) Disclosure Scotland
14 9 (0.36%) HL7
14 9 (0.36%) SLA
15 6 (0.24%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
System Software
1 94 (3.76%) Active Directory
2 49 (1.96%) Docker
3 46 (1.84%) VMware Infrastructure
4 26 (1.04%) VMware NSX
5 23 (0.92%) Virtual Desktop
6 18 (0.72%) Hyper-V
7 12 (0.48%) vSphere
8 11 (0.44%) VMware ESXi
9 9 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
10 6 (0.24%) vCloud
11 4 (0.16%) KVM
12 3 (0.12%) Ceph
12 3 (0.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
12 3 (0.12%) NFS
12 3 (0.12%) SRDF
13 2 (0.080%) IAG
13 2 (0.080%) zsh
14 1 (0.040%) Firmware
14 1 (0.040%) Slurm Workload Manager
14 1 (0.040%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 128 (5.12%) Kubernetes
2 93 (3.72%) Terraform
3 51 (2.04%) Ansible
4 29 (1.16%) Microsoft Intune
5 18 (0.72%) Single Sign-On
6 16 (0.64%) Grafana
7 15 (0.60%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 14 (0.56%) vCenter Server
9 13 (0.52%) Jamf Pro
9 13 (0.52%) Prometheus
10 8 (0.32%) Argo
11 7 (0.28%) FortiGate
12 6 (0.24%) Istio
12 6 (0.24%) WMI
13 5 (0.20%) CASB
13 5 (0.20%) MOM
13 5 (0.20%) NetBackup
14 4 (0.16%) EMC VPLEX
14 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
15 3 (0.12%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 349 (13.97%) Microsoft
2 141 (5.64%) SAP
3 108 (4.32%) Oracle
4 100 (4.00%) ServiceNow
5 96 (3.84%) VMware
6 86 (3.44%) Google
7 79 (3.16%) Cisco
8 77 (3.08%) Databricks
9 48 (1.92%) Salesforce
10 28 (1.12%) F5
11 27 (1.08%) MuleSoft
12 25 (1.00%) CyberArk
13 23 (0.92%) Citrix
13 23 (0.92%) Palo Alto
14 22 (0.88%) Informatica
14 22 (0.88%) Red Hat
15 21 (0.84%) IBM
16 17 (0.68%) Infoblox
16 17 (0.68%) Workday
17 15 (0.60%) BMC