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 3 September 2026.

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

6 months to
3 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 20 13
Rank change year-on-year +7 -7 +4
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,524 1,218 1,747
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.14% 7.99% 9.77%
As % of the Job Titles category 9.98% 8.87% 10.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,701 823 1,083
10th Percentile £468 £463 £480
25th Percentile £525 £519 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £620 £600 £638
Median % change year-on-year +3.33% -5.88% -1.01%
75th Percentile £700 £688 £725
90th Percentile £775 £758 £788
UK median daily rate £615 £625 £638
% change year-on-year -1.60% -1.96% -1.92%
Number of hourly rates quoted 144 15 70
10th Percentile £46.00 £33.64 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £64.38 £61.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £72.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.34% +3.57% -4.00%
75th Percentile £71.91 £86.50 £85.00
90th Percentile £95.70 £99.42 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £66.66 £72.50 £70.00
% change year-on-year -8.06% +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 25,293 13,731 16,524
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.60% 90.05% 92.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,187 8,391 9,832
10th Percentile £303 £213 £220
25th Percentile £413 £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 £685
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,098 1,249 1,554
10th Percentile £14.50 £13.33 £14.05
25th Percentile £20.25 £16.30 £18.50
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.95
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -42.78% +11.13%
75th Percentile £68.00 £54.01 £66.33
90th Percentile £78.70 £72.50 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.25 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +67.99% -41.51% +1.18%

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 3 September 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 3 September 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 3 September 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 +1 723 £625 +4.17% 398
North of England +6 704 £600 - 363
Midlands +2 416 £625 +8.70% 180
North West +6 414 £600 +0.84% 224
South West +2 324 £648 +0.97% 212
West Midlands +2 309 £640 +6.76% 117
Yorkshire +12 229 £575 -6.12% 108
Scotland +24 172 £625 - 179
East of England +14 152 £611 +10.52% 127
East Midlands +1 102 £600 +16.50% 63
North East -5 63 £575 -19.30% 31
Wales +5 43 £633 +1.20% 17
Channel Islands -2 6 £663 -10.77% 3
Northern Ireland +4 4 £488 -30.36% 83
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 3 September 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.

1 854 (33.84%) Security Cleared
2 585 (23.18%) Azure
3 556 (22.03%) SC Cleared
4 460 (18.23%) AWS
5 408 (16.16%) Stakeholder Management
6 372 (14.74%) Roadmaps
7 353 (13.99%) Microsoft
8 316 (12.52%) Technical Leadership
9 308 (12.20%) Agile
10 296 (11.73%) Migration
11 295 (11.69%) Enterprise Architecture
12 256 (10.14%) DV Cleared
13 245 (9.71%) DevOps
14 243 (9.63%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 233 (9.23%) AI
16 230 (9.11%) Data Architecture
17 229 (9.07%) Integration Patterns
18 220 (8.72%) CI/CD
19 211 (8.36%) Architectural Patterns
20 210 (8.32%) Data Modelling
21 205 (8.12%) Security Architecture
22 203 (8.04%) Cybersecurity
23 192 (7.61%) TOGAF
24 183 (7.25%) GCP
25 175 (6.93%) Architecture Governance
26 161 (6.38%) Microservices
27 157 (6.22%) Continuous Improvement
28 152 (6.02%) Event-Driven
29 143 (5.67%) Decision-Making
30 141 (5.59%) Problem-Solving

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 36 (1.43%) SharePoint
2 32 (1.27%) SAS
3 31 (1.23%) Confluence
4 15 (0.59%) Microsoft Exchange
5 12 (0.48%) OpenStack
6 11 (0.44%) Apache
7 10 (0.40%) Apache Spark
7 10 (0.40%) Palantir Foundry
8 9 (0.36%) Apache Airflow
9 7 (0.28%) Documentum
10 3 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 3 (0.12%) CMS
10 3 (0.12%) JBoss
10 3 (0.12%) NetWeaver
10 3 (0.12%) SAP EP
11 2 (0.079%) Alfresco
11 2 (0.079%) Apache Superset
11 2 (0.079%) IIS
12 1 (0.040%) CIMPLICITY
12 1 (0.040%) FactoryTalk
Applications
1 11 (0.44%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (0.40%) MS Visio
3 9 (0.36%) Microsoft Office
4 8 (0.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.28%) Navisworks
5 7 (0.28%) Revit
6 6 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.040%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 69 (2.73%) SAP S/4HANA
2 12 (0.48%) Payment Gateway
2 12 (0.48%) Teamcenter
3 10 (0.40%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 9 (0.36%) Remedy ITSM
5 7 (0.28%) SAP ERP
6 6 (0.24%) Oracle ERP
6 6 (0.24%) SAP MDG
7 5 (0.20%) Dynamics CRM
7 5 (0.20%) Maximo
8 4 (0.16%) NetSuite
8 4 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
8 4 (0.16%) Oracle Retail
8 4 (0.16%) Remedy AR System
9 3 (0.12%) Adobe Campaign
9 3 (0.12%) Dynamics NAV
9 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
9 3 (0.12%) Salesforce CRM
9 3 (0.12%) SAP CRM
9 3 (0.12%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 585 (23.18%) Azure
2 460 (18.23%) AWS
3 183 (7.25%) GCP
4 93 (3.68%) Power Platform
4 93 (3.68%) SaaS
5 80 (3.17%) Serverless
6 77 (3.05%) Entra ID
7 57 (2.26%) Microsoft 365
8 48 (1.90%) Dynamics 365
9 47 (1.86%) Azure DevOps
10 44 (1.74%) GitHub
11 38 (1.51%) PaaS
12 37 (1.47%) AWS Lambda
13 33 (1.31%) IaaS
14 30 (1.19%) GitHub Actions
15 28 (1.11%) Amazon S3
15 28 (1.11%) OpenShift
15 28 (1.11%) Snowflake
16 23 (0.91%) Azure Data Factory
17 22 (0.87%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 90 (3.57%) Firewall
2 65 (2.58%) WAN
3 57 (2.26%) DNS
4 54 (2.14%) Network Security
5 49 (1.94%) LAN
6 36 (1.43%) VPN
7 34 (1.35%) BGP
7 34 (1.35%) SD-WAN
8 33 (1.31%) DHCP
9 27 (1.07%) TCP/IP
10 26 (1.03%) MPLS
10 26 (1.03%) VLAN
11 23 (0.91%) SAN
12 20 (0.79%) NAS
13 17 (0.67%) BIG-IP
13 17 (0.67%) OSPF
14 16 (0.63%) Structured Cabling
15 15 (0.59%) Wireless
16 13 (0.52%) NX-OS
17 12 (0.48%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 80 (3.17%) Metadata
2 72 (2.85%) Data Lake
3 63 (2.50%) Power BI
4 62 (2.46%) Data Warehouse
5 36 (1.43%) NoSQL
6 21 (0.83%) Azure SQL Database
7 20 (0.79%) Amazon RDS
7 20 (0.79%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
7 20 (0.79%) Oracle Database
8 16 (0.63%) Base SAS
8 16 (0.63%) SQL Server
9 14 (0.55%) BigQuery
10 13 (0.52%) Delta Lake
10 13 (0.52%) PostgreSQL
11 11 (0.44%) GIS
12 10 (0.40%) MySQL
13 9 (0.36%) Amazon Redshift
13 9 (0.36%) Big Data
13 9 (0.36%) Electronic Patient Records
13 9 (0.36%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 36 (1.43%) JIRA
2 30 (1.19%) Git
3 22 (0.87%) Jenkins
4 14 (0.55%) GitLab
5 7 (0.28%) ERwin
6 6 (0.24%) Claude Code
6 6 (0.24%) MSI
7 5 (0.20%) Artifactory
7 5 (0.20%) Sonatype Nexus
8 4 (0.16%) Hudson
9 3 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.12%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.079%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.079%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.079%) IntelliJ
10 2 (0.079%) JUnit
10 2 (0.079%) Oracle APEX
10 2 (0.079%) Oracle Forms
10 2 (0.079%) Rational Rhapsody
10 2 (0.079%) Selenium
General
1 504 (19.97%) Social Skills
2 311 (12.32%) Finance
3 262 (10.38%) Public Sector
4 131 (5.19%) Banking
5 119 (4.71%) Analytical Skills
6 103 (4.08%) Retail
7 92 (3.65%) Manufacturing
8 64 (2.54%) Influencing Skills
9 63 (2.50%) Documentation Skills
10 39 (1.55%) Legal
11 38 (1.51%) Aerospace
12 32 (1.27%) Military
13 29 (1.15%) Telecoms
14 22 (0.87%) Aviation
15 21 (0.83%) Marketing
16 20 (0.79%) Back Office
16 20 (0.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 18 (0.71%) Financial Institution
17 18 (0.71%) Presentation Skills
18 17 (0.67%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 104 (4.12%) REST
2 90 (3.57%) Terraform
3 73 (2.89%) Middleware
4 53 (2.10%) OAuth
5 50 (1.98%) SOAP
6 38 (1.51%) Oracle Fusion
7 34 (1.35%) .NET
7 34 (1.35%) Kafka
7 34 (1.35%) SAML
8 32 (1.27%) OpenID
9 28 (1.11%) LDAP
10 25 (0.99%) JSON
11 22 (0.87%) OAuth2
12 20 (0.79%) SailPoint
13 17 (0.67%) Node.js
14 16 (0.63%) GraphQL
15 15 (0.59%) RESTful
16 14 (0.55%) JWT
16 14 (0.55%) Swagger
17 13 (0.52%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 205 (8.12%) Cloud Native
2 83 (3.29%) Data Centre
3 79 (3.13%) Hybrid Cloud
4 64 (2.54%) Operational Technology
5 61 (2.42%) Enterprise Software
6 59 (2.34%) Data Protection Act
7 58 (2.30%) Distributed Systems
8 55 (2.18%) Legacy Systems
8 55 (2.18%) Onboarding
9 54 (2.14%) Product Ownership
10 51 (2.02%) Management Information System
11 42 (1.66%) Public Cloud
12 40 (1.58%) AI Agents
13 32 (1.27%) Private Cloud
14 31 (1.23%) CMDB
15 27 (1.07%) Enterprise Cloud
15 27 (1.07%) Security Posture
16 26 (1.03%) IVR
17 23 (0.91%) SCADA
18 21 (0.83%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 85 (3.37%) Windows
2 58 (2.30%) Linux
3 36 (1.43%) Windows Server
4 17 (0.67%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 9 (0.36%) Unix
6 6 (0.24%) AIX
7 4 (0.16%) Data ONTAP
8 2 (0.079%) Android
8 2 (0.079%) Apple iOS
8 2 (0.079%) HPUX
8 2 (0.079%) Solaris
8 2 (0.079%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.040%) CatOS
9 1 (0.040%) CentOS
9 1 (0.040%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.040%) VMS
9 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.040%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 408 (16.16%) Stakeholder Management
2 372 (14.74%) Roadmaps
3 316 (12.52%) Technical Leadership
4 308 (12.20%) Agile
5 296 (11.73%) Migration
6 295 (11.69%) Enterprise Architecture
7 245 (9.71%) DevOps
8 243 (9.63%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 233 (9.23%) AI
10 230 (9.11%) Data Architecture
11 229 (9.07%) Integration Patterns
12 220 (8.72%) CI/CD
13 211 (8.36%) Architectural Patterns
14 210 (8.32%) Data Modelling
15 205 (8.12%) Security Architecture
16 203 (8.04%) Cybersecurity
17 192 (7.61%) TOGAF
18 175 (6.93%) Architecture Governance
19 161 (6.38%) Microservices
20 157 (6.22%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 97 (3.84%) Java
2 94 (3.72%) SQL
3 87 (3.45%) Python
4 49 (1.94%) JavaScript
5 46 (1.82%) PowerShell
6 24 (0.95%) Bash
7 15 (0.59%) Bicep
8 12 (0.48%) TypeScript
9 10 (0.40%) ABAP
9 10 (0.40%) Shell Script
10 8 (0.32%) Apex Code
10 8 (0.32%) C#
11 6 (0.24%) PL/SQL
11 6 (0.24%) VBA
12 5 (0.20%) Groovy
13 3 (0.12%) R
14 2 (0.079%) BeanShell
14 2 (0.079%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 2 (0.079%) Kotlin
14 2 (0.079%) Scala
Qualifications
1 854 (33.84%) Security Cleared
2 556 (22.03%) SC Cleared
3 256 (10.14%) DV Cleared
4 67 (2.65%) Degree
5 61 (2.42%) CISSP
6 58 (2.30%) Cisco Certification
7 49 (1.94%) BPSS Clearance
8 46 (1.82%) AWS Certification
9 43 (1.70%) TOGAF Certification
10 42 (1.66%) Azure Certification
11 31 (1.23%) Computer Science Degree
12 28 (1.11%) CCNP
13 23 (0.91%) CISM
14 19 (0.75%) Microsoft Certification
15 18 (0.71%) CCIE
16 16 (0.63%) (ISC)2 CCSP
17 12 (0.48%) CCNA
17 12 (0.48%) JNCIE
18 11 (0.44%) CCSP
18 11 (0.44%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 102 (4.04%) NIST
2 84 (3.33%) Data Quality
3 70 (2.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 64 (2.54%) NCSC
5 54 (2.14%) GDPR
6 25 (0.99%) QA
7 18 (0.71%) PCI DSS
8 17 (0.67%) Accessibility
8 17 (0.67%) NIST 800
9 16 (0.63%) JSP 440
10 14 (0.55%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 13 (0.52%) GRC
11 13 (0.52%) ISO 19650
12 11 (0.44%) Disclosure Scotland
12 11 (0.44%) IFRS
12 11 (0.44%) SLA
13 9 (0.36%) HL7
13 9 (0.36%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 7 (0.28%) Cyber Essentials
15 6 (0.24%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
System Software
1 97 (3.84%) Active Directory
2 47 (1.86%) Docker
3 46 (1.82%) VMware Infrastructure
4 26 (1.03%) Virtual Desktop
4 26 (1.03%) VMware NSX
5 18 (0.71%) Hyper-V
6 12 (0.48%) vSphere
7 11 (0.44%) VMware ESXi
8 9 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
9 4 (0.16%) KVM
9 4 (0.16%) vCloud
10 3 (0.12%) Ceph
10 3 (0.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
10 3 (0.12%) NFS
10 3 (0.12%) SRDF
11 2 (0.079%) zsh
12 1 (0.040%) ISA Server
12 1 (0.040%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 1 (0.040%) Slurm Workload Manager
12 1 (0.040%) Snort
Systems Management
1 127 (5.03%) Kubernetes
2 52 (2.06%) Ansible
3 19 (0.75%) Microsoft Intune
4 18 (0.71%) Single Sign-On
5 15 (0.59%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 15 (0.59%) Grafana
6 13 (0.52%) Prometheus
7 12 (0.48%) Jamf Pro
8 11 (0.44%) vCenter Server
9 9 (0.36%) WMI
10 7 (0.28%) Argo
10 7 (0.28%) FortiGate
11 6 (0.24%) CASB
11 6 (0.24%) Istio
12 5 (0.20%) NetBackup
13 4 (0.16%) Cisco CUCM
13 4 (0.16%) EMC VPLEX
13 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
14 3 (0.12%) MOM
14 3 (0.12%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 353 (13.99%) Microsoft
2 139 (5.51%) SAP
3 110 (4.36%) Oracle
4 96 (3.80%) Google
5 93 (3.68%) ServiceNow
6 84 (3.33%) VMware
7 81 (3.21%) Cisco
7 81 (3.21%) Databricks
8 50 (1.98%) Salesforce
9 32 (1.27%) CyberArk
10 28 (1.11%) F5
10 28 (1.11%) MuleSoft
11 24 (0.95%) Informatica
12 23 (0.91%) Palo Alto
13 22 (0.87%) Red Hat
14 21 (0.83%) IBM
15 17 (0.67%) Infoblox
15 17 (0.67%) Workday
16 16 (0.63%) Juniper
17 15 (0.59%) Fortinet