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 29 July 2026.

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

6 months to
29 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 20 13
Rank change year-on-year +7 -7 +5
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,468 1,247 1,867
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.19% 8.27% 9.84%
As % of the Job Titles category 9.97% 9.14% 10.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,613 849 1,167
10th Percentile £481 £450 £481
25th Percentile £525 £519 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £623 £600 £646
Median % change year-on-year +3.75% -7.12% -0.62%
75th Percentile £713 £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 160 15 77
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 £85.25
90th Percentile £83.00 £99.42 £88.52
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 24,766 13,645 17,460
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.25% 90.45% 92.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,053 8,419 10,677
10th Percentile £306 £217 £215
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 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,901 1,181 1,886
10th Percentile £14.96 £13.50 £13.62
25th Percentile £21.00 £16.50 £18.00
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -41.51% +7.50%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £43.61 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +73.38% -40.82% -1.88%

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 29 July 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 29 July 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 29 July 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 0 718 £630 +5.00% 260
North of England +6 716 £600 - 186
Midlands -2 403 £625 +8.70% 109
North West +3 391 £600 - 103
West Midlands -2 296 £635 +5.83% 82
South West -2 290 £625 - 107
Yorkshire +10 256 £600 - 53
East of England +13 167 £600 +5.49% 61
Scotland +8 159 £650 +4.00% 52
East Midlands +7 100 £600 +20.00% 27
North East -3 77 £600 -14.29% 32
Wales +1 32 £620 +14.81% 11
Northern Ireland +4 7 £475 -32.14% 19
Channel Islands -1 3 £575 -22.56% 1
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 29 July 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.

1 771 (31.24%) Security Cleared
2 544 (22.04%) Azure
3 487 (19.73%) SC Cleared
4 435 (17.63%) AWS
5 351 (14.22%) Roadmaps
6 328 (13.29%) Stakeholder Management
7 324 (13.13%) Microsoft
8 323 (13.09%) Agile
9 273 (11.06%) Migration
10 258 (10.45%) Technical Leadership
11 253 (10.25%) Enterprise Architecture
12 240 (9.72%) DV Cleared
12 240 (9.72%) Integration Patterns
13 236 (9.56%) DevOps
14 224 (9.08%) CI/CD
15 220 (8.91%) Data Architecture
16 218 (8.83%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 212 (8.59%) Architectural Patterns
18 208 (8.43%) AI
19 206 (8.35%) Data Modelling
20 193 (7.82%) Cybersecurity
21 173 (7.01%) Microservices
21 173 (7.01%) Security Architecture
21 173 (7.01%) TOGAF
22 160 (6.48%) Problem-Solving
23 157 (6.36%) GCP
24 149 (6.04%) Architectural Design
25 146 (5.92%) Architecture Governance
26 144 (5.83%) Continuous Improvement
26 144 (5.83%) Decision-Making

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 43 (1.74%) SharePoint
2 31 (1.26%) Confluence
2 31 (1.26%) SAS
3 17 (0.69%) Microsoft Exchange
4 12 (0.49%) Apache Spark
5 11 (0.45%) Apache Airflow
6 10 (0.41%) Apache
6 10 (0.41%) OpenStack
7 9 (0.36%) Palantir Foundry
8 7 (0.28%) Documentum
9 6 (0.24%) Appian
9 6 (0.24%) CMS
10 5 (0.20%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 5 (0.20%) ArcGIS
10 5 (0.20%) JBoss
10 5 (0.20%) NetWeaver
11 4 (0.16%) SAP EP
12 2 (0.081%) Alfresco
12 2 (0.081%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 2 (0.081%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 11 (0.45%) MS Visio
2 8 (0.32%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (0.28%) Navisworks
3 7 (0.28%) Revit
4 6 (0.24%) Microsoft Office
4 6 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.041%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.041%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 58 (2.35%) SAP S/4HANA
2 15 (0.61%) Payment Gateway
3 13 (0.53%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 11 (0.45%) Teamcenter
5 10 (0.41%) Remedy ITSM
6 9 (0.36%) SAP ERP
7 7 (0.28%) Oracle ERP
8 6 (0.24%) Dynamics CRM
8 6 (0.24%) Maximo
9 5 (0.20%) NetSuite
9 5 (0.20%) Oracle Retail
9 5 (0.20%) SAP GRC
10 4 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
10 4 (0.16%) SAP CRM
10 4 (0.16%) SAP MDG
11 3 (0.12%) Adobe Campaign
11 3 (0.12%) Dynamics NAV
11 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
11 3 (0.12%) SAP IBP
11 3 (0.12%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 544 (22.04%) Azure
2 435 (17.63%) AWS
3 157 (6.36%) GCP
4 95 (3.85%) Power Platform
5 84 (3.40%) Entra ID
6 80 (3.24%) Serverless
7 75 (3.04%) SaaS
8 56 (2.27%) Microsoft 365
9 55 (2.23%) PaaS
10 45 (1.82%) IaaS
11 43 (1.74%) GitHub
12 37 (1.50%) OpenShift
13 36 (1.46%) Azure DevOps
13 36 (1.46%) Dynamics 365
14 34 (1.38%) AWS Lambda
15 27 (1.09%) Amazon S3
15 27 (1.09%) Snowflake
16 23 (0.93%) GitHub Actions
17 22 (0.89%) Microsoft Purview
18 21 (0.85%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 97 (3.93%) Firewall
2 67 (2.71%) WAN
3 64 (2.59%) DNS
4 63 (2.55%) Network Security
5 54 (2.19%) LAN
6 39 (1.58%) VPN
7 36 (1.46%) DHCP
8 34 (1.38%) BGP
8 34 (1.38%) SD-WAN
9 30 (1.22%) TCP/IP
9 30 (1.22%) VLAN
10 25 (1.01%) SAN
11 24 (0.97%) MPLS
11 24 (0.97%) Wireless
12 23 (0.93%) NAS
13 21 (0.85%) Structured Cabling
14 19 (0.77%) BIG-IP
15 18 (0.73%) IPsec
15 18 (0.73%) OSPF
16 14 (0.57%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 68 (2.76%) Power BI
2 66 (2.67%) Data Lake
3 64 (2.59%) Metadata
4 62 (2.51%) Data Warehouse
5 34 (1.38%) NoSQL
6 23 (0.93%) PostgreSQL
7 22 (0.89%) SQL Server
8 19 (0.77%) Amazon RDS
9 18 (0.73%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
10 16 (0.65%) Oracle Database
11 15 (0.61%) Base SAS
12 14 (0.57%) GIS
13 13 (0.53%) Azure SQL Database
13 13 (0.53%) BigQuery
14 12 (0.49%) Big Data
15 11 (0.45%) MongoDB
15 11 (0.45%) MySQL
16 10 (0.41%) Delta Lake
16 10 (0.41%) Relational Database
16 10 (0.41%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 38 (1.54%) JIRA
2 27 (1.09%) Jenkins
3 25 (1.01%) Git
4 12 (0.49%) GitLab
5 10 (0.41%) ERwin
6 8 (0.32%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.20%) Artifactory
8 4 (0.16%) Hudson
9 3 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.12%) Selenium
9 3 (0.12%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.081%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.081%) Claude Code
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%) REST Assured
General
1 458 (18.56%) Social Skills
2 314 (12.72%) Finance
3 230 (9.32%) Public Sector
4 137 (5.55%) Banking
5 131 (5.31%) Analytical Skills
6 94 (3.81%) Retail
7 76 (3.08%) Manufacturing
8 53 (2.15%) Documentation Skills
8 53 (2.15%) Influencing Skills
9 36 (1.46%) Aerospace
10 34 (1.38%) Legal
11 31 (1.26%) Military
12 25 (1.01%) Telecoms
13 24 (0.97%) Financial Institution
14 21 (0.85%) Back Office
15 20 (0.81%) Presentation Skills
16 19 (0.77%) Marketing
17 18 (0.73%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 17 (0.69%) Aviation
18 17 (0.69%) Investment Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 105 (4.25%) REST
2 74 (3.00%) Middleware
3 54 (2.19%) OAuth
4 41 (1.66%) SOAP
5 39 (1.58%) Oracle Fusion
6 38 (1.54%) OpenID
7 36 (1.46%) .NET
7 36 (1.46%) Kafka
8 32 (1.30%) SAML
9 31 (1.26%) SailPoint
10 27 (1.09%) OAuth2
11 23 (0.93%) JSON
12 19 (0.77%) Node.js
12 19 (0.77%) RESTful
12 19 (0.77%) Web Services
13 15 (0.61%) LDAP
13 15 (0.61%) React
14 12 (0.49%) GraphQL
15 11 (0.45%) SAP PI
15 11 (0.45%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 184 (7.46%) Cloud Native
2 86 (3.48%) Data Centre
3 74 (3.00%) Hybrid Cloud
4 72 (2.92%) Operational Technology
5 59 (2.39%) Product Ownership
6 57 (2.31%) Data Protection Act
6 57 (2.31%) Onboarding
7 56 (2.27%) Management Information System
8 55 (2.23%) Distributed Systems
9 53 (2.15%) Legacy Systems
10 50 (2.03%) Enterprise Software
11 41 (1.66%) Public Cloud
12 36 (1.46%) AI Agents
13 34 (1.38%) Private Cloud
14 26 (1.05%) Security Posture
15 25 (1.01%) PKI
16 22 (0.89%) Enterprise Cloud
16 22 (0.89%) SCADA
17 21 (0.85%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
18 20 (0.81%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 86 (3.48%) Windows
2 50 (2.03%) Linux
3 32 (1.30%) Windows Server
4 14 (0.57%) Android
4 14 (0.57%) Apple iOS
4 14 (0.57%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 9 (0.36%) Unix
6 5 (0.20%) AIX
6 5 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
7 2 (0.081%) VMS
7 2 (0.081%) Windows Server 2019
8 1 (0.041%) CatOS
8 1 (0.041%) CentOS
8 1 (0.041%) HPUX
8 1 (0.041%) Solaris
8 1 (0.041%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.041%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.041%) Windows Server 2012
8 1 (0.041%) Windows Server 2016
8 1 (0.041%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 351 (14.22%) Roadmaps
2 328 (13.29%) Stakeholder Management
3 323 (13.09%) Agile
4 273 (11.06%) Migration
5 258 (10.45%) Technical Leadership
6 253 (10.25%) Enterprise Architecture
7 240 (9.72%) Integration Patterns
8 236 (9.56%) DevOps
9 224 (9.08%) CI/CD
10 220 (8.91%) Data Architecture
11 218 (8.83%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 212 (8.59%) Architectural Patterns
13 208 (8.43%) AI
14 206 (8.35%) Data Modelling
15 193 (7.82%) Cybersecurity
16 173 (7.01%) Microservices
16 173 (7.01%) Security Architecture
16 173 (7.01%) TOGAF
17 160 (6.48%) Problem-Solving
18 149 (6.04%) Architectural Design
Programming Languages
1 98 (3.97%) SQL
2 97 (3.93%) Java
3 95 (3.85%) Python
4 58 (2.35%) JavaScript
5 41 (1.66%) PowerShell
6 23 (0.93%) Bash
7 22 (0.89%) C#
8 19 (0.77%) Bicep
9 12 (0.49%) TypeScript
10 8 (0.32%) ABAP
10 8 (0.32%) VBA
11 6 (0.24%) Apex Code
11 6 (0.24%) PL/SQL
11 6 (0.24%) Shell Script
12 5 (0.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 4 (0.16%) Kotlin
14 3 (0.12%) C
14 3 (0.12%) Groovy
15 2 (0.081%) C++
15 2 (0.081%) ProC
Qualifications
1 771 (31.24%) Security Cleared
2 487 (19.73%) SC Cleared
3 240 (9.72%) DV Cleared
4 84 (3.40%) Degree
5 57 (2.31%) Cisco Certification
6 56 (2.27%) CISSP
7 45 (1.82%) TOGAF Certification
8 41 (1.66%) AWS Certification
8 41 (1.66%) BPSS Clearance
9 40 (1.62%) Azure Certification
10 33 (1.34%) Computer Science Degree
11 31 (1.26%) CCNP
12 20 (0.81%) Microsoft Certification
13 18 (0.73%) CCNA
13 18 (0.73%) CISM
14 14 (0.57%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 14 (0.57%) CCIE
15 12 (0.49%) Network+ Certification
15 12 (0.49%) Server+ Certification
16 11 (0.45%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 89 (3.61%) NIST
2 75 (3.04%) Data Quality
3 61 (2.47%) NCSC
4 57 (2.31%) GDPR
5 55 (2.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 25 (1.01%) QA
7 20 (0.81%) Accessibility
8 17 (0.69%) PCI DSS
9 15 (0.61%) NIST 800
10 14 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 12 (0.49%) IFRS
11 12 (0.49%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 11 (0.45%) Disclosure Scotland
13 10 (0.41%) Cyber Essentials
13 10 (0.41%) ISO 19650
14 9 (0.36%) GRC
14 9 (0.36%) HL7
14 9 (0.36%) JSP 440
15 8 (0.32%) SLA
16 6 (0.24%) COBIT
System Software
1 92 (3.73%) Active Directory
2 47 (1.90%) VMware Infrastructure
3 45 (1.82%) Docker
4 28 (1.13%) VMware NSX
5 21 (0.85%) Virtual Desktop
6 17 (0.69%) Hyper-V
7 16 (0.65%) vSphere
8 10 (0.41%) VMware ESXi
9 8 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
10 6 (0.24%) vCloud
11 3 (0.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
11 3 (0.12%) IAG
11 3 (0.12%) KVM
11 3 (0.12%) NFS
11 3 (0.12%) RACF
11 3 (0.12%) SRDF
12 2 (0.081%) Ceph
13 1 (0.041%) Firmware
13 1 (0.041%) ProxySG
13 1 (0.041%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 116 (4.70%) Kubernetes
2 89 (3.61%) Terraform
3 51 (2.07%) Ansible
4 33 (1.34%) Microsoft Intune
5 22 (0.89%) Single Sign-On
6 19 (0.77%) Grafana
7 18 (0.73%) vCenter Server
8 13 (0.53%) Jamf Pro
8 13 (0.53%) Prometheus
9 12 (0.49%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 12 (0.49%) Argo
10 8 (0.32%) FortiGate
11 6 (0.24%) CASB
12 5 (0.20%) EMC VPLEX
12 5 (0.20%) Istio
12 5 (0.20%) MOM
13 4 (0.16%) NetBackup
13 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
14 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
14 3 (0.12%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 324 (13.13%) Microsoft
2 136 (5.51%) SAP
3 110 (4.46%) Oracle
4 102 (4.13%) ServiceNow
5 100 (4.05%) VMware
6 77 (3.12%) Google
7 76 (3.08%) Cisco
8 74 (3.00%) Databricks
9 46 (1.86%) Salesforce
10 31 (1.26%) F5
11 28 (1.13%) Red Hat
12 27 (1.09%) Citrix
13 24 (0.97%) Palo Alto
14 22 (0.89%) CyberArk
14 22 (0.89%) MuleSoft
15 20 (0.81%) Infoblox
15 20 (0.81%) Informatica
16 18 (0.73%) IBM
16 18 (0.73%) Juniper
16 18 (0.73%) Talend