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 7 February 2026.

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

6 months to
7 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 16 17 13
Rank change year-on-year +1 -4 +7
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 1,876 1,238 1,960
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.62% 9.10% 9.27%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.61% 9.84% 9.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,248 776 1,254
10th Percentile £447 £450 £500
25th Percentile £506 £547 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% -3.85% -
75th Percentile £706 £700 £706
90th Percentile £775 £750 £775
UK median daily rate £625 £625 £650
% change year-on-year - -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 54 26 45
10th Percentile £49.40 £61.50 £60.50
25th Percentile £60.00 £66.00 £61.25
Median hourly rate £72.50 £71.25 £80.00
Median % change year-on-year +1.75% -10.94% +14.29%
75th Percentile £90.09 £77.65 £87.53
90th Percentile £95.00 £84.02 £95.00
UK median hourly rate £72.50 £70.00 £78.00
% change year-on-year +3.57% -10.26% +11.43%

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 17,686 12,585 19,730
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.73% 92.53% 93.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,736 7,513 12,433
10th Percentile £215 £210 £213
25th Percentile £375 £363 £365
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £476 £490
Median % change year-on-year -0.21% -2.86% -2.00%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £595
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,871 650 1,917
10th Percentile £14.12 £15.22 £12.86
25th Percentile £18.11 £20.30 £16.12
Median hourly rate £28.00 £32.13 £35.95
Median % change year-on-year -12.85% -10.63% +8.94%
75th Percentile £61.41 £64.40 £62.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £74.47 £73.24
UK median hourly rate £29.82 £33.77 £35.00
% change year-on-year -11.69% -3.51% -

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 7 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 7 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 7 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 +9 576 £625 - 253
North of England -2 467 £575 -4.17% 160
Midlands -2 326 £573 -4.50% 106
North West -5 263 £575 -4.17% 86
South West 0 248 £707 +13.08% 69
West Midlands -4 238 £600 -1.15% 78
Yorkshire -1 188 £563 -2.00% 48
East of England +13 137 £550 -12.00% 49
Scotland +9 126 £650 +4.00% 50
East Midlands -4 86 £480 -14.33% 28
Wales +6 31 £600 +5.26% 8
North East -15 21 £625 -1.96% 27
Northern Ireland +1 8 £500 -26.47% 9
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 7 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.

1 616 (32.84%) Security Cleared
2 397 (21.16%) Azure
3 368 (19.62%) SC Cleared
4 306 (16.31%) AWS
5 281 (14.98%) Agile
6 279 (14.87%) Roadmaps
7 272 (14.50%) Microsoft
8 254 (13.54%) Stakeholder Management
9 241 (12.85%) Enterprise Architecture
10 232 (12.37%) Migration
11 214 (11.41%) TOGAF
12 199 (10.61%) DV Cleared
13 188 (10.02%) DevOps
14 171 (9.12%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 167 (8.90%) Data Modelling
16 163 (8.69%) Technical Leadership
17 147 (7.84%) CI/CD
18 139 (7.41%) Problem-Solving
19 134 (7.14%) ITIL
20 132 (7.04%) Analytics
21 131 (6.98%) Microservices
22 130 (6.93%) Cybersecurity
23 128 (6.82%) GCP
24 123 (6.56%) Architectural Design
25 122 (6.50%) Python
26 120 (6.40%) Data Architecture
27 114 (6.08%) AI
28 113 (6.02%) Decision-Making
29 111 (5.92%) Mentoring
29 111 (5.92%) 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 82 (4.37%) Confluence
2 56 (2.99%) SharePoint
3 47 (2.51%) Microsoft Exchange
4 22 (1.17%) SAS
5 10 (0.53%) Anypoint
5 10 (0.53%) CMS
6 9 (0.48%) Apache
6 9 (0.48%) Appian
6 9 (0.48%) Smallworld
7 8 (0.43%) Apache Airflow
8 7 (0.37%) Apache Spark
8 7 (0.37%) ArcGIS
8 7 (0.37%) Skype for Business
9 6 (0.32%) OpenStack
10 5 (0.27%) GeoServer
10 5 (0.27%) Sitecore CMS
10 5 (0.27%) WebLogic
11 4 (0.21%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 4 (0.21%) Documentum
11 4 (0.21%) IIS
Applications
1 45 (2.40%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (1.65%) Microsoft Project
3 23 (1.23%) Microsoft Excel
4 22 (1.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.32%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.16%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.053%) FrameMaker
7 1 (0.053%) OrCAD
7 1 (0.053%) Revit
7 1 (0.053%) Trello
Business Applications
1 46 (2.45%) SAP S/4HANA
2 25 (1.33%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 14 (0.75%) Payment Gateway
3 14 (0.75%) Workday HCM
4 11 (0.59%) Dynamics CRM
5 9 (0.48%) Salesforce CRM
6 7 (0.37%) SAP CO
7 6 (0.32%) Maximo
7 6 (0.32%) SAP ERP
7 6 (0.32%) SAP FI
7 6 (0.32%) SAP FI/CO
8 5 (0.27%) Dynamics AX
8 5 (0.27%) Oracle SCM
9 4 (0.21%) Distributed Ledger
9 4 (0.21%) R3 Corda
9 4 (0.21%) SAP CRM
9 4 (0.21%) SAP PP
10 3 (0.16%) NetSuite
10 3 (0.16%) SAP PM
10 3 (0.16%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 397 (21.16%) Azure
2 306 (16.31%) AWS
3 128 (6.82%) GCP
4 82 (4.37%) Microsoft 365
5 64 (3.41%) SaaS
6 58 (3.09%) Entra ID
7 50 (2.67%) Serverless
8 46 (2.45%) Microsoft Purview
8 46 (2.45%) Power Platform
9 36 (1.92%) OneDrive
10 34 (1.81%) Azure DevOps
10 34 (1.81%) Dynamics 365
10 34 (1.81%) IaaS
11 33 (1.76%) PaaS
12 31 (1.65%) OpenShift
13 25 (1.33%) AWS Lambda
13 25 (1.33%) GitHub
14 24 (1.28%) AWS CloudFormation
15 23 (1.23%) Azure Data Factory
16 22 (1.17%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 92 (4.90%) Firewall
2 66 (3.52%) WAN
3 61 (3.25%) DNS
4 48 (2.56%) Network Security
4 48 (2.56%) VPN
5 40 (2.13%) LAN
6 36 (1.92%) SD-WAN
7 21 (1.12%) DHCP
7 21 (1.12%) MPLS
8 19 (1.01%) BGP
9 17 (0.91%) Wi-Fi
10 16 (0.85%) SAN
11 12 (0.64%) Internet
11 12 (0.64%) IPsec
11 12 (0.64%) Kerberos
11 12 (0.64%) VLAN
12 11 (0.59%) VSAN
13 10 (0.53%) SSL
13 10 (0.53%) TCP/IP
13 10 (0.53%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 76 (4.05%) Data Warehouse
2 60 (3.20%) Metadata
3 37 (1.97%) Power BI
3 37 (1.97%) SQL Server
4 27 (1.44%) PostgreSQL
4 27 (1.44%) Tableau
5 19 (1.01%) Data Lake
6 18 (0.96%) Oracle Database
7 16 (0.85%) GIS
8 15 (0.80%) DynamoDB
8 15 (0.80%) NoSQL
9 13 (0.69%) Metadata Repository
10 11 (0.59%) Big Data
11 10 (0.53%) Amazon Redshift
11 10 (0.53%) Azure SQL Database
11 10 (0.53%) Redis
11 10 (0.53%) Relational Database
12 8 (0.43%) Amazon Athena
13 7 (0.37%) Hadoop
13 7 (0.37%) SAS Enterprise Guide
Development Applications
1 95 (5.06%) JIRA
2 41 (2.19%) Jenkins
3 18 (0.96%) Git
4 17 (0.91%) GitLab
5 6 (0.32%) Artifactory
6 5 (0.27%) Postman
7 4 (0.21%) MSI
7 4 (0.21%) Rational DOORS
7 4 (0.21%) Selenium
8 3 (0.16%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.16%) Cucumber
8 3 (0.16%) MLflow
8 3 (0.16%) REST Assured
9 2 (0.11%) Gatling
9 2 (0.11%) JMeter
9 2 (0.11%) NeoLoad
9 2 (0.11%) Oracle Forms
9 2 (0.11%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.11%) Sonatype Nexus
9 2 (0.11%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 408 (21.75%) Social Skills
2 233 (12.42%) Finance
3 219 (11.67%) Public Sector
4 128 (6.82%) Analytical Skills
5 107 (5.70%) Banking
6 58 (3.09%) Documentation Skills
7 54 (2.88%) Military
8 48 (2.56%) Legal
9 41 (2.19%) Influencing Skills
10 38 (2.03%) Telecoms
11 37 (1.97%) Retail
12 36 (1.92%) Marketing
13 32 (1.71%) Presentation Skills
14 18 (0.96%) Aerospace
14 18 (0.96%) Manufacturing
15 13 (0.69%) Investment Banking
16 12 (0.64%) Billing
17 11 (0.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 9 (0.48%) Local Government
19 7 (0.37%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 74 (3.94%) REST
2 44 (2.35%) SOAP
3 43 (2.29%) Middleware
4 35 (1.87%) .NET
5 32 (1.71%) OAuth
6 26 (1.39%) OpenID
6 26 (1.39%) SAML
7 23 (1.23%) OAuth2
8 22 (1.17%) SailPoint
9 20 (1.07%) Kafka
10 19 (1.01%) RESTful
11 18 (0.96%) Web Services
12 17 (0.91%) Node.js
13 14 (0.75%) React
14 13 (0.69%) Microsoft Graph
15 12 (0.64%) LDAP
16 11 (0.59%) Oracle Fusion
17 10 (0.53%) JSON
18 9 (0.48%) CSS
18 9 (0.48%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 118 (6.29%) Cloud Native
2 95 (5.06%) Product Ownership
3 67 (3.57%) Data Centre
4 54 (2.88%) Onboarding
5 44 (2.35%) PKI
6 43 (2.29%) Legacy Systems
7 41 (2.19%) Public Cloud
8 39 (2.08%) Hybrid Cloud
9 34 (1.81%) Operational Technology
10 31 (1.65%) Enterprise Software
10 31 (1.65%) Management Information System
11 29 (1.55%) Distributed Systems
12 25 (1.33%) CMDB
13 23 (1.23%) Data Protection Act
14 22 (1.17%) SCADA
15 18 (0.96%) NHS
16 12 (0.64%) Blockchain
16 12 (0.64%) Security Posture
17 11 (0.59%) Data Structures
17 11 (0.59%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 111 (5.92%) Windows
2 67 (3.57%) Linux
3 27 (1.44%) Windows Server
4 18 (0.96%) Windows 7
5 13 (0.69%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 12 (0.64%) Windows 10
7 8 (0.43%) Windows Server 2016
8 7 (0.37%) Windows Server 2019
9 6 (0.32%) Unix
10 4 (0.21%) Mac OS
10 4 (0.21%) VMS
11 3 (0.16%) Android
11 3 (0.16%) Apple iOS
11 3 (0.16%) Ubuntu
12 2 (0.11%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.053%) CentOS
13 1 (0.053%) Kali Linux
13 1 (0.053%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 281 (14.98%) Agile
2 279 (14.87%) Roadmaps
3 254 (13.54%) Stakeholder Management
4 241 (12.85%) Enterprise Architecture
5 232 (12.37%) Migration
6 214 (11.41%) TOGAF
7 188 (10.02%) DevOps
8 171 (9.12%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 167 (8.90%) Data Modelling
10 163 (8.69%) Technical Leadership
11 147 (7.84%) CI/CD
12 139 (7.41%) Problem-Solving
13 134 (7.14%) ITIL
14 132 (7.04%) Analytics
15 131 (6.98%) Microservices
16 130 (6.93%) Cybersecurity
17 123 (6.56%) Architectural Design
18 120 (6.40%) Data Architecture
19 114 (6.08%) AI
20 113 (6.02%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 122 (6.50%) Python
2 74 (3.94%) PowerShell
3 68 (3.62%) SQL
4 63 (3.36%) Java
5 27 (1.44%) JavaScript
6 21 (1.12%) C#
7 15 (0.80%) Bash
8 12 (0.64%) Bicep
9 11 (0.59%) Kusto Query Language
10 9 (0.48%) PL/SQL
11 8 (0.43%) R
11 8 (0.43%) TypeScript
12 7 (0.37%) VB
12 7 (0.37%) VBScript
13 6 (0.32%) Apex Code
14 4 (0.21%) ABAP
14 4 (0.21%) Perl
14 4 (0.21%) Scala
14 4 (0.21%) Shell Script
15 3 (0.16%) C
Qualifications
1 616 (32.84%) Security Cleared
2 368 (19.62%) SC Cleared
3 199 (10.61%) DV Cleared
4 102 (5.44%) Degree
5 71 (3.78%) TOGAF Certification
6 59 (3.14%) CISSP
7 49 (2.61%) AWS Certification
8 40 (2.13%) BPSS Clearance
9 37 (1.97%) Azure Certification
10 34 (1.81%) CISM
11 33 (1.76%) Cisco Certification
12 32 (1.71%) Microsoft Certification
13 28 (1.49%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 28 (1.49%) Computer Science Degree
13 28 (1.49%) Master's Degree
14 26 (1.39%) ISEB
15 25 (1.33%) ITIL Certification
16 21 (1.12%) CCIE
17 20 (1.07%) CCNP
18 8 (0.43%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 95 (5.06%) GDPR
2 71 (3.78%) NIST
3 59 (3.14%) Data Quality
4 58 (3.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 35 (1.87%) NCSC
6 28 (1.49%) COBIT
7 27 (1.44%) PCI DSS
8 19 (1.01%) GRC
9 18 (0.96%) QA
10 17 (0.91%) JSP 440
11 12 (0.64%) Cyber Essentials
12 11 (0.59%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 11 (0.59%) FINRA
12 11 (0.59%) ISO 20022
12 11 (0.59%) MiFID
13 9 (0.48%) Def Stans
13 9 (0.48%) HMG Security Policy Framework
14 7 (0.37%) Accessibility
15 6 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 6 (0.32%) NIST 800
System Software
1 76 (4.05%) Active Directory
2 54 (2.88%) VMware Infrastructure
3 37 (1.97%) Docker
4 30 (1.60%) VMware NSX
5 24 (1.28%) vSphere
6 13 (0.69%) Virtual Desktop
7 12 (0.64%) VMware ESXi
8 9 (0.48%) Hyper-V
9 8 (0.43%) Virtual Machines
10 7 (0.37%) BitLocker
11 5 (0.27%) RACF
12 4 (0.21%) NFS
12 4 (0.21%) vCloud
13 2 (0.11%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
14 1 (0.053%) Embedded Firmware
14 1 (0.053%) Firmware
14 1 (0.053%) HDFS
14 1 (0.053%) IAG
Systems Management
1 85 (4.53%) Terraform
2 73 (3.89%) Kubernetes
3 56 (2.99%) Ansible
4 36 (1.92%) Single Sign-On
5 31 (1.65%) OPNET
6 24 (1.28%) vCenter Server
7 19 (1.01%) SCCM
8 17 (0.91%) WMI
9 15 (0.80%) Microsoft Intune
10 13 (0.69%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 11 (0.59%) Argo
11 11 (0.59%) FortiGate
12 6 (0.32%) Prometheus
13 5 (0.27%) Istio
14 3 (0.16%) Endace
14 3 (0.16%) SCOM
15 2 (0.11%) Grafana
15 2 (0.11%) Nessus
15 2 (0.11%) Puppet
15 2 (0.11%) vRealize
Vendors
1 272 (14.50%) Microsoft
2 111 (5.92%) ServiceNow
3 110 (5.86%) VMware
4 94 (5.01%) SAP
5 86 (4.58%) Oracle
6 81 (4.32%) Salesforce
7 63 (3.36%) Cisco
8 48 (2.56%) Google
9 38 (2.03%) Remedy
10 36 (1.92%) Atlassian
11 34 (1.81%) MuleSoft
12 33 (1.76%) Palo Alto
12 33 (1.76%) Red Hat
13 26 (1.39%) BiZZdesign
13 26 (1.39%) CyberArk
13 26 (1.39%) Databricks
14 24 (1.28%) Sparx
15 22 (1.17%) Virgin Media
16 21 (1.12%) F5
16 21 (1.12%) Workday