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 £613, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 23 May 2026.

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

6 months to
23 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 19 13
Rank change year-on-year +9 -6 +5
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,399 1,078 2,020
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.69% 8.50% 9.97%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.54% 9.26% 10.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,590 723 1,210
10th Percentile £450 £450 £500
25th Percentile £513 £513 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £613 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year +2.08% -7.69% -
75th Percentile £713 £694 £731
90th Percentile £775 £750 £800
UK median daily rate £617 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -1.28% -3.85% -1.10%
Number of hourly rates quoted 120 25 87
10th Percentile £49.06 £45.58 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £62.50 £60.63
Median hourly rate £65.00 £72.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.34% +3.57% -
75th Percentile £78.75 £80.00 £86.32
90th Percentile £95.25 £85.50 £88.80
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 22,759 11,637 18,741
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.91% 91.79% 92.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,163 7,461 11,456
10th Percentile £300 £213 £213
25th Percentile £402 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £488
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £594
90th Percentile £684 £650 £688
UK median daily rate £513 £508 £525
% change year-on-year +0.99% -3.33% -2.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,585 811 2,282
10th Percentile £14.64 £14.00 £12.50
25th Percentile £19.91 £17.30 £15.72
Median hourly rate £44.00 £26.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +66.04% -33.75% -5.88%
75th Percentile £67.25 £62.50 £61.60
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £42.59 £27.97 £36.50
% change year-on-year +52.31% -23.38% -18.89%

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 23 May 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 23 May 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 23 May 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 +5 699 £625 - 170
North of England +2 664 £600 - 197
Midlands +1 435 £600 +0.17% 77
North West +6 371 £609 +4.28% 108
West Midlands -2 311 £620 +3.33% 53
South West +1 262 £653 +8.75% 88
Yorkshire +5 249 £557 -7.25% 52
East of England +21 203 £569 -5.21% 55
Scotland +14 140 £650 +4.00% 50
East Midlands -1 118 £550 +2.42% 24
North East +7 52 £575 -4.17% 39
Wales -2 30 £600 +25.00% 43
Northern Ireland +5 7 £475 -28.30% 10
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 23 May 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.

1 720 (30.01%) Security Cleared
2 474 (19.76%) Azure
3 420 (17.51%) SC Cleared
4 365 (15.21%) AWS
5 336 (14.01%) Agile
6 330 (13.76%) Roadmaps
7 320 (13.34%) Microsoft
8 262 (10.92%) Stakeholder Management
9 258 (10.75%) Migration
10 253 (10.55%) Enterprise Architecture
11 248 (10.34%) DV Cleared
12 247 (10.30%) DevOps
13 220 (9.17%) CI/CD
14 206 (8.59%) Technical Leadership
15 189 (7.88%) Integration Patterns
16 186 (7.75%) Data Modelling
17 185 (7.71%) Architectural Patterns
18 184 (7.67%) Microservices
18 184 (7.67%) Stakeholder Engagement
19 173 (7.21%) TOGAF
20 165 (6.88%) Data Architecture
21 158 (6.59%) Architectural Design
22 148 (6.17%) Problem-Solving
23 147 (6.13%) SAP
24 145 (6.04%) Cybersecurity
25 134 (5.59%) Analytics
26 133 (5.54%) GCP
27 131 (5.46%) AI
28 128 (5.34%) VMware
29 123 (5.13%) ServiceNow

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 64 (2.67%) SharePoint
2 59 (2.46%) Confluence
3 37 (1.54%) Microsoft Exchange
4 21 (0.88%) SAS
5 13 (0.54%) Appian
6 11 (0.46%) Apache Airflow
7 10 (0.42%) Anypoint
7 10 (0.42%) Apache
7 10 (0.42%) CMS
8 8 (0.33%) Apache Spark
9 7 (0.29%) ArcGIS
10 6 (0.25%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 6 (0.25%) NetWeaver
10 6 (0.25%) Sitecore CMS
10 6 (0.25%) WebLogic
11 5 (0.21%) SAP EP
12 4 (0.17%) JBoss
12 4 (0.17%) OpenStack
12 4 (0.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 4 (0.17%) Smallworld
Applications
1 25 (1.04%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (0.63%) Microsoft Project
3 13 (0.54%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (0.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (0.29%) Navisworks
4 7 (0.29%) Revit
5 5 (0.21%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.17%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.083%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.042%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 57 (2.38%) SAP S/4HANA
2 23 (0.96%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 20 (0.83%) Payment Gateway
4 12 (0.50%) SAP ERP
5 10 (0.42%) Teamcenter
6 9 (0.38%) Remedy ITSM
6 9 (0.38%) Workday HCM
7 6 (0.25%) SAP MDG
8 5 (0.21%) SAP CRM
9 4 (0.17%) Oracle Retail
9 4 (0.17%) Salesforce CRM
9 4 (0.17%) SAP GRC
10 3 (0.13%) Dynamics CRM
10 3 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
10 3 (0.13%) SAP SD
11 2 (0.083%) Dynamics AX
11 2 (0.083%) Maximo
11 2 (0.083%) NetSuite
11 2 (0.083%) Oracle ERP
11 2 (0.083%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 474 (19.76%) Azure
2 365 (15.21%) AWS
3 133 (5.54%) GCP
4 93 (3.88%) Entra ID
4 93 (3.88%) Power Platform
5 81 (3.38%) Microsoft 365
6 72 (3.00%) Serverless
7 68 (2.83%) SaaS
8 54 (2.25%) PaaS
9 44 (1.83%) GitHub
10 41 (1.71%) Azure DevOps
10 41 (1.71%) IaaS
11 39 (1.63%) Microsoft Purview
12 35 (1.46%) OpenShift
13 30 (1.25%) OneDrive
14 28 (1.17%) Dynamics 365
15 26 (1.08%) AWS Lambda
15 26 (1.08%) Azure Data Factory
16 24 (1.00%) Azure Synapse Analytics
17 23 (0.96%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 95 (3.96%) Firewall
2 68 (2.83%) WAN
3 67 (2.79%) DNS
4 63 (2.63%) Network Security
5 51 (2.13%) LAN
6 49 (2.04%) VPN
7 39 (1.63%) SD-WAN
8 34 (1.42%) DHCP
9 26 (1.08%) VLAN
10 24 (1.00%) Wireless
11 21 (0.88%) BGP
11 21 (0.88%) SAN
12 20 (0.83%) NAS
13 19 (0.79%) Structured Cabling
14 17 (0.71%) IPsec
15 16 (0.67%) BIG-IP
16 15 (0.63%) MPLS
16 15 (0.63%) OSPF
17 13 (0.54%) NX-OS
18 12 (0.50%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 70 (2.92%) Power BI
2 69 (2.88%) Metadata
3 52 (2.17%) Data Warehouse
4 39 (1.63%) Data Lake
5 38 (1.58%) SQL Server
6 34 (1.42%) NoSQL
7 24 (1.00%) PostgreSQL
8 21 (0.88%) Tableau
9 19 (0.79%) Oracle Database
10 14 (0.58%) GIS
11 12 (0.50%) Azure SQL Database
12 11 (0.46%) MongoDB
13 10 (0.42%) Big Data
14 9 (0.38%) DynamoDB
14 9 (0.38%) Relational Database
15 8 (0.33%) Electronic Patient Records
16 7 (0.29%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
16 7 (0.29%) Metadata Repository
16 7 (0.29%) MySQL
16 7 (0.29%) Spatial Data
Development Applications
1 72 (3.00%) JIRA
2 40 (1.67%) Jenkins
3 22 (0.92%) Git
4 21 (0.88%) GitLab
5 7 (0.29%) Artifactory
5 7 (0.29%) ERwin
6 5 (0.21%) Selenium
6 5 (0.21%) SonarQube
6 5 (0.21%) Sonatype Nexus
7 4 (0.17%) Bitbucket
7 4 (0.17%) Hudson
7 4 (0.17%) JUnit
7 4 (0.17%) Postman
7 4 (0.17%) REST Assured
8 3 (0.13%) Cucumber
8 3 (0.13%) MLflow
8 3 (0.13%) Rational DOORS
9 2 (0.083%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.083%) Gatling
9 2 (0.083%) NeoLoad
General
1 416 (17.34%) Social Skills
2 319 (13.30%) Finance
3 220 (9.17%) Public Sector
4 142 (5.92%) Banking
5 126 (5.25%) Analytical Skills
6 73 (3.04%) Retail
7 57 (2.38%) Documentation Skills
8 52 (2.17%) Legal
8 52 (2.17%) Manufacturing
9 45 (1.88%) Military
10 33 (1.38%) Influencing Skills
11 30 (1.25%) Aerospace
12 26 (1.08%) Investment Banking
13 23 (0.96%) Presentation Skills
14 21 (0.88%) Telecoms
15 20 (0.83%) Marketing
16 19 (0.79%) Financial Institution
17 18 (0.75%) Back Office
18 13 (0.54%) Billing
19 10 (0.42%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 94 (3.92%) REST
2 80 (3.33%) Middleware
3 50 (2.08%) .NET
4 46 (1.92%) OAuth
5 42 (1.75%) OpenID
6 39 (1.63%) SOAP
7 31 (1.29%) OAuth2
8 30 (1.25%) SAML
9 27 (1.13%) SailPoint
10 26 (1.08%) Kafka
11 25 (1.04%) Oracle Fusion
11 25 (1.04%) RESTful
12 22 (0.92%) JSON
13 20 (0.83%) Node.js
13 20 (0.83%) React
14 18 (0.75%) Web Services
15 17 (0.71%) LDAP
16 16 (0.67%) Microsoft Graph
17 13 (0.54%) AngularJS
18 12 (0.50%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 163 (6.79%) Cloud Native
2 82 (3.42%) Data Centre
3 75 (3.13%) Product Ownership
4 62 (2.58%) Operational Technology
5 52 (2.17%) Onboarding
5 52 (2.17%) Public Cloud
6 49 (2.04%) Management Information System
7 48 (2.00%) Hybrid Cloud
8 46 (1.92%) Data Protection Act
9 40 (1.67%) Distributed Systems
9 40 (1.67%) Enterprise Software
10 38 (1.58%) Legacy Systems
11 32 (1.33%) PKI
12 28 (1.17%) SCADA
13 25 (1.04%) CMDB
14 19 (0.79%) Data Structures
14 19 (0.79%) Private Cloud
15 17 (0.71%) AI Agents
15 17 (0.71%) Security Posture
16 15 (0.63%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 112 (4.67%) Windows
2 64 (2.67%) Linux
3 30 (1.25%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.67%) Android
4 16 (0.67%) Apple iOS
5 12 (0.50%) Unix
6 9 (0.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 8 (0.33%) Windows 10
7 8 (0.33%) Windows Server 2016
8 6 (0.25%) Windows 7
9 5 (0.21%) Windows Server 2019
10 4 (0.17%) Mac OS
11 3 (0.13%) Data ONTAP
11 3 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
12 2 (0.083%) VMS
13 1 (0.042%) CentOS
13 1 (0.042%) Kali Linux
13 1 (0.042%) Ubuntu
13 1 (0.042%) Windows Server 2008
13 1 (0.042%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 336 (14.01%) Agile
2 330 (13.76%) Roadmaps
3 262 (10.92%) Stakeholder Management
4 258 (10.75%) Migration
5 253 (10.55%) Enterprise Architecture
6 247 (10.30%) DevOps
7 220 (9.17%) CI/CD
8 206 (8.59%) Technical Leadership
9 189 (7.88%) Integration Patterns
10 186 (7.75%) Data Modelling
11 185 (7.71%) Architectural Patterns
12 184 (7.67%) Microservices
12 184 (7.67%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 173 (7.21%) TOGAF
14 165 (6.88%) Data Architecture
15 158 (6.59%) Architectural Design
16 148 (6.17%) Problem-Solving
17 145 (6.04%) Cybersecurity
18 134 (5.59%) Analytics
19 131 (5.46%) AI
Programming Languages
1 102 (4.25%) Python
2 94 (3.92%) SQL
3 71 (2.96%) PowerShell
4 67 (2.79%) Java
5 47 (1.96%) JavaScript
6 30 (1.25%) C#
7 21 (0.88%) Bicep
8 15 (0.63%) Bash
8 15 (0.63%) TypeScript
9 12 (0.50%) PL/SQL
10 10 (0.42%) Kusto Query Language
11 7 (0.29%) VBA
12 6 (0.25%) Scala
13 5 (0.21%) ABAP
13 5 (0.21%) Apex Code
14 4 (0.17%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 4 (0.17%) Perl
14 4 (0.17%) T-SQL
14 4 (0.17%) VB
14 4 (0.17%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 720 (30.01%) Security Cleared
2 420 (17.51%) SC Cleared
3 248 (10.34%) DV Cleared
4 95 (3.96%) Degree
5 56 (2.33%) TOGAF Certification
6 52 (2.17%) BPSS Clearance
7 45 (1.88%) Cisco Certification
8 35 (1.46%) CISSP
9 33 (1.38%) Computer Science Degree
10 32 (1.33%) AWS Certification
10 32 (1.33%) Azure Certification
11 31 (1.29%) CCNP
12 20 (0.83%) Microsoft Certification
13 18 (0.75%) CISM
14 16 (0.67%) Master's Degree
15 15 (0.63%) CCNA
16 14 (0.58%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
17 12 (0.50%) ITIL Certification
18 11 (0.46%) Network+ Certification
18 11 (0.46%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 89 (3.71%) NIST
2 74 (3.08%) GDPR
3 61 (2.54%) Data Quality
4 56 (2.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 46 (1.92%) NCSC
6 22 (0.92%) QA
7 20 (0.83%) Accessibility
8 16 (0.67%) Cyber Essentials
8 16 (0.67%) PCI DSS
9 14 (0.58%) GRC
10 12 (0.50%) FINRA
10 12 (0.50%) MiFID
11 11 (0.46%) COBIT
11 11 (0.46%) NIST 800
12 10 (0.42%) ISO 20022
13 8 (0.33%) HL7
14 7 (0.29%) Disclosure Scotland
14 7 (0.29%) ISO 19650
15 6 (0.25%) IFRS
15 6 (0.25%) SEPA
System Software
1 99 (4.13%) Active Directory
2 58 (2.42%) VMware Infrastructure
3 34 (1.42%) Docker
4 32 (1.33%) VMware NSX
5 20 (0.83%) Hyper-V
5 20 (0.83%) vSphere
6 19 (0.79%) Virtual Desktop
7 11 (0.46%) VMware ESXi
8 10 (0.42%) vCloud
9 7 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
10 5 (0.21%) RACF
11 4 (0.17%) BitLocker
11 4 (0.17%) NFS
12 3 (0.13%) IAG
13 2 (0.083%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
13 2 (0.083%) Firmware
14 1 (0.042%) Embedded Firmware
14 1 (0.042%) ProxySG
14 1 (0.042%) Snort
14 1 (0.042%) SRDF
Systems Management
1 82 (3.42%) Terraform
2 79 (3.29%) Kubernetes
3 55 (2.29%) Ansible
4 35 (1.46%) Microsoft Intune
5 26 (1.08%) Single Sign-On
5 26 (1.08%) vCenter Server
6 15 (0.63%) OPNET
6 15 (0.63%) SCCM
7 14 (0.58%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 12 (0.50%) FortiGate
9 10 (0.42%) Argo
9 10 (0.42%) Grafana
10 7 (0.29%) Istio
10 7 (0.29%) WMI
11 6 (0.25%) Jamf Pro
11 6 (0.25%) Prometheus
12 5 (0.21%) Endace
13 3 (0.13%) EMC VPLEX
13 3 (0.13%) Puppet
13 3 (0.13%) vRealize
Vendors
1 320 (13.34%) Microsoft
2 147 (6.13%) SAP
3 128 (5.34%) VMware
4 123 (5.13%) ServiceNow
5 100 (4.17%) Oracle
6 71 (2.96%) Cisco
7 59 (2.46%) Salesforce
8 54 (2.25%) Databricks
9 52 (2.17%) Google
10 46 (1.92%) MuleSoft
11 29 (1.21%) Citrix
11 29 (1.21%) Red Hat
12 28 (1.17%) F5
13 26 (1.08%) Remedy
14 25 (1.04%) BiZZdesign
14 25 (1.04%) Palo Alto
15 24 (1.00%) Sparx
16 22 (0.92%) Juniper
17 20 (0.83%) Talend
18 18 (0.75%) Atlassian