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 £616, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 23 June 2026.

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

6 months to
23 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 20 13
Rank change year-on-year +9 -7 +5
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,496 1,084 2,137
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.62% 8.05% 10.01%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.46% 8.80% 10.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,661 716 1,285
10th Percentile £463 £450 £490
25th Percentile £520 £513 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £616 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year +2.67% -7.69% -
75th Percentile £713 £700 £725
90th Percentile £775 £760 £788
UK median daily rate £617 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -1.28% -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 135 24 94
10th Percentile £49.40 £43.92 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £65.13 £61.25
Median hourly rate £65.00 £73.25 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -11.26% +4.64% -
75th Percentile £72.58 £82.25 £87.35
90th Percentile £83.60 £86.90 £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 23,851 12,312 19,738
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.91% 91.38% 92.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,679 7,720 11,728
10th Percentile £303 £220 £213
25th Percentile £406 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £493
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -3.60% -1.45%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £594
90th Percentile £688 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £518 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +3.50% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,745 964 2,554
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.50 £12.63
25th Percentile £20.35 £16.84 £15.97
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -1.23%
75th Percentile £67.50 £58.61 £63.75
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £74.37
UK median hourly rate £43.25 £27.38 £37.50
% change year-on-year +57.99% -27.00% -14.77%

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 June 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 June 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 June 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 +6 706 £625 +4.08% 173
North of England +6 702 £600 - 165
Midlands +2 440 £613 +4.30% 71
North West +4 374 £610 +2.31% 88
West Midlands 0 313 £625 +4.17% 57
South West +2 276 £645 +5.31% 71
Yorkshire +7 267 £558 -7.00% 44
East of England +21 210 £600 - 42
Scotland +11 159 £650 +4.00% 38
East Midlands +7 121 £575 +15.00% 14
North East +8 68 £575 -8.00% 35
Wales 0 34 £620 +30.53% 24
Northern Ireland +4 7 £475 -28.30% 14
Channel Islands 0 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 23 June 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.

1 727 (29.13%) Security Cleared
2 528 (21.15%) Azure
3 456 (18.27%) SC Cleared
4 421 (16.87%) AWS
5 354 (14.18%) Roadmaps
6 350 (14.02%) Microsoft
7 338 (13.54%) Agile
8 305 (12.22%) Migration
9 304 (12.18%) Stakeholder Management
10 272 (10.90%) DevOps
11 262 (10.50%) Enterprise Architecture
12 246 (9.86%) Technical Leadership
13 232 (9.29%) CI/CD
14 228 (9.13%) Integration Patterns
15 218 (8.73%) DV Cleared
16 210 (8.41%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 206 (8.25%) Architectural Patterns
18 201 (8.05%) Data Modelling
19 199 (7.97%) Microservices
20 189 (7.57%) Data Architecture
21 172 (6.89%) TOGAF
22 169 (6.77%) Cybersecurity
23 167 (6.69%) Architectural Design
24 166 (6.65%) Problem-Solving
25 158 (6.33%) AI
26 148 (5.93%) SAP
27 144 (5.77%) GCP
28 141 (5.65%) Analytics
28 141 (5.65%) Security Architecture
29 136 (5.45%) Technical Architecture

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 62 (2.48%) SharePoint
2 49 (1.96%) Confluence
3 34 (1.36%) Microsoft Exchange
4 31 (1.24%) SAS
5 13 (0.52%) Apache Airflow
5 13 (0.52%) Appian
6 10 (0.40%) Apache
7 9 (0.36%) Apache Spark
7 9 (0.36%) CMS
8 8 (0.32%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 7 (0.28%) ArcGIS
9 7 (0.28%) OpenStack
10 6 (0.24%) Sitecore CMS
10 6 (0.24%) WebLogic
11 5 (0.20%) Anypoint
11 5 (0.20%) Documentum
11 5 (0.20%) NetWeaver
11 5 (0.20%) Palantir Foundry
12 4 (0.16%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 4 (0.16%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 14 (0.56%) Microsoft Excel
1 14 (0.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 8 (0.32%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.28%) MS Visio
3 7 (0.28%) Navisworks
3 7 (0.28%) Revit
4 6 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
5 4 (0.16%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.040%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.040%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 62 (2.48%) SAP S/4HANA
2 20 (0.80%) Payment Gateway
3 18 (0.72%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 12 (0.48%) SAP ERP
5 10 (0.40%) Teamcenter
6 9 (0.36%) Remedy ITSM
7 7 (0.28%) Oracle ERP
8 6 (0.24%) Dynamics CRM
8 6 (0.24%) Oracle Retail
9 5 (0.20%) Maximo
10 4 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
10 4 (0.16%) Salesforce CRM
10 4 (0.16%) SAP CRM
10 4 (0.16%) SAP GRC
10 4 (0.16%) SAP MDG
11 3 (0.12%) Avolution ABACUS
11 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
11 3 (0.12%) SAP IBP
12 2 (0.080%) Infor CloudSuite
12 2 (0.080%) Infor LN
Cloud Services
1 528 (21.15%) Azure
2 421 (16.87%) AWS
3 144 (5.77%) GCP
4 102 (4.09%) Power Platform
5 87 (3.49%) Entra ID
6 81 (3.25%) Microsoft 365
7 77 (3.08%) Serverless
8 75 (3.00%) SaaS
9 55 (2.20%) PaaS
10 50 (2.00%) GitHub
11 45 (1.80%) IaaS
12 43 (1.72%) Azure DevOps
13 35 (1.40%) Microsoft Purview
14 32 (1.28%) OpenShift
15 31 (1.24%) Dynamics 365
16 29 (1.16%) AWS Lambda
16 29 (1.16%) OneDrive
17 25 (1.00%) GitHub Actions
17 25 (1.00%) PowerApps
18 24 (0.96%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 106 (4.25%) Firewall
2 75 (3.00%) DNS
3 71 (2.84%) WAN
4 65 (2.60%) Network Security
5 56 (2.24%) LAN
6 46 (1.84%) VPN
7 40 (1.60%) DHCP
8 39 (1.56%) SD-WAN
9 30 (1.20%) VLAN
10 25 (1.00%) BGP
10 25 (1.00%) Wireless
11 24 (0.96%) SAN
12 23 (0.92%) NAS
12 23 (0.92%) TCP/IP
13 21 (0.84%) MPLS
13 21 (0.84%) Structured Cabling
14 19 (0.76%) IPsec
15 18 (0.72%) BIG-IP
16 17 (0.68%) OSPF
17 14 (0.56%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (2.88%) Metadata
1 72 (2.88%) Power BI
2 58 (2.32%) Data Warehouse
3 52 (2.08%) Data Lake
4 34 (1.36%) NoSQL
5 30 (1.20%) SQL Server
6 25 (1.00%) PostgreSQL
7 17 (0.68%) Tableau
8 16 (0.64%) Oracle Database
9 15 (0.60%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
9 15 (0.60%) GIS
10 13 (0.52%) Azure SQL Database
10 13 (0.52%) Base SAS
11 12 (0.48%) Amazon RDS
12 11 (0.44%) Big Data
12 11 (0.44%) MongoDB
13 10 (0.40%) Relational Database
14 9 (0.36%) Electronic Patient Records
15 8 (0.32%) DynamoDB
15 8 (0.32%) SAS Enterprise Guide
Development Applications
1 63 (2.52%) JIRA
2 34 (1.36%) Jenkins
3 23 (0.92%) Git
4 19 (0.76%) GitLab
5 9 (0.36%) ERwin
6 6 (0.24%) Artifactory
7 5 (0.20%) Selenium
8 4 (0.16%) Hudson
8 4 (0.16%) JUnit
8 4 (0.16%) Postman
8 4 (0.16%) REST Assured
8 4 (0.16%) Sonatype Nexus
9 3 (0.12%) Cucumber
9 3 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.12%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.080%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.080%) Claude Code
10 2 (0.080%) Gatling
10 2 (0.080%) NeoLoad
10 2 (0.080%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 446 (17.87%) Social Skills
2 348 (13.94%) Finance
3 239 (9.58%) Public Sector
4 142 (5.69%) Banking
5 130 (5.21%) Analytical Skills
6 94 (3.77%) Retail
7 68 (2.72%) Manufacturing
8 60 (2.40%) Documentation Skills
9 58 (2.32%) Legal
10 37 (1.48%) Influencing Skills
11 33 (1.32%) Aerospace
11 33 (1.32%) Military
12 25 (1.00%) Investment Banking
13 21 (0.84%) Financial Institution
14 20 (0.80%) Telecoms
15 19 (0.76%) Presentation Skills
16 18 (0.72%) Back Office
16 18 (0.72%) Marketing
17 13 (0.52%) Billing
18 11 (0.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 111 (4.45%) REST
2 80 (3.21%) Middleware
3 49 (1.96%) OAuth
4 48 (1.92%) .NET
5 45 (1.80%) OpenID
6 43 (1.72%) SOAP
7 34 (1.36%) Oracle Fusion
8 33 (1.32%) SailPoint
8 33 (1.32%) SAML
9 31 (1.24%) Kafka
9 31 (1.24%) OAuth2
10 27 (1.08%) RESTful
11 23 (0.92%) Node.js
12 22 (0.88%) React
13 21 (0.84%) JSON
13 21 (0.84%) LDAP
14 20 (0.80%) Web Services
15 14 (0.56%) Microsoft Graph
16 13 (0.52%) AngularJS
16 13 (0.52%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 179 (7.17%) Cloud Native
2 86 (3.45%) Data Centre
3 79 (3.17%) Product Ownership
4 71 (2.84%) Operational Technology
5 60 (2.40%) Hybrid Cloud
6 58 (2.32%) Management Information System
7 52 (2.08%) Legacy Systems
7 52 (2.08%) Onboarding
8 49 (1.96%) Enterprise Software
9 48 (1.92%) Distributed Systems
10 47 (1.88%) Data Protection Act
10 47 (1.88%) Public Cloud
11 27 (1.08%) CMDB
12 26 (1.04%) Private Cloud
13 24 (0.96%) PKI
13 24 (0.96%) SCADA
14 23 (0.92%) Security Posture
15 20 (0.80%) AI Agents
16 19 (0.76%) Data Structures
17 17 (0.68%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 107 (4.29%) Windows
2 48 (1.92%) Linux
3 31 (1.24%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.64%) Android
4 16 (0.64%) Apple iOS
5 13 (0.52%) Unix
6 5 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
6 5 (0.20%) Windows 7
6 5 (0.20%) Windows Server 2016
7 4 (0.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 4 (0.16%) Windows 10
8 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2019
9 2 (0.080%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.040%) AIX
10 1 (0.040%) CatOS
10 1 (0.040%) Kali Linux
10 1 (0.040%) VMS
10 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.040%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 354 (14.18%) Roadmaps
2 338 (13.54%) Agile
3 305 (12.22%) Migration
4 304 (12.18%) Stakeholder Management
5 272 (10.90%) DevOps
6 262 (10.50%) Enterprise Architecture
7 246 (9.86%) Technical Leadership
8 232 (9.29%) CI/CD
9 228 (9.13%) Integration Patterns
10 210 (8.41%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 206 (8.25%) Architectural Patterns
12 201 (8.05%) Data Modelling
13 199 (7.97%) Microservices
14 189 (7.57%) Data Architecture
15 172 (6.89%) TOGAF
16 169 (6.77%) Cybersecurity
17 167 (6.69%) Architectural Design
18 166 (6.65%) Problem-Solving
19 158 (6.33%) AI
20 141 (5.65%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 111 (4.45%) Python
2 108 (4.33%) SQL
3 87 (3.49%) Java
4 62 (2.48%) PowerShell
5 48 (1.92%) JavaScript
6 31 (1.24%) C#
7 24 (0.96%) Bicep
8 18 (0.72%) Bash
9 15 (0.60%) TypeScript
10 10 (0.40%) Kusto Query Language
11 8 (0.32%) PL/SQL
11 8 (0.32%) VBA
12 7 (0.28%) ABAP
13 6 (0.24%) Scala
14 5 (0.20%) Apex Code
15 4 (0.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 4 (0.16%) Kotlin
15 4 (0.16%) VB
15 4 (0.16%) VBScript
16 3 (0.12%) C
Qualifications
1 727 (29.13%) Security Cleared
2 456 (18.27%) SC Cleared
3 218 (8.73%) DV Cleared
4 88 (3.53%) Degree
5 53 (2.12%) BPSS Clearance
5 53 (2.12%) Cisco Certification
6 39 (1.56%) AWS Certification
6 39 (1.56%) TOGAF Certification
7 36 (1.44%) Azure Certification
7 36 (1.44%) CISSP
8 33 (1.32%) CCNP
9 32 (1.28%) Computer Science Degree
10 20 (0.80%) Microsoft Certification
11 16 (0.64%) CCNA
11 16 (0.64%) CISM
12 15 (0.60%) Master's Degree
13 13 (0.52%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 12 (0.48%) Network+ Certification
14 12 (0.48%) Server+ Certification
15 11 (0.44%) CCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 92 (3.69%) NIST
2 76 (3.04%) GDPR
3 73 (2.92%) Data Quality
4 57 (2.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 52 (2.08%) NCSC
6 25 (1.00%) QA
7 20 (0.80%) Accessibility
8 17 (0.68%) PCI DSS
9 13 (0.52%) GRC
10 12 (0.48%) COBIT
10 12 (0.48%) FINRA
10 12 (0.48%) MiFID
10 12 (0.48%) NIST 800
11 11 (0.44%) IFRS
12 10 (0.40%) Cyber Essentials
12 10 (0.40%) HL7
12 10 (0.40%) ISO 19650
13 9 (0.36%) ISO 20022
14 8 (0.32%) Disclosure Scotland
14 8 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
System Software
1 100 (4.01%) Active Directory
2 53 (2.12%) VMware Infrastructure
3 38 (1.52%) Docker
4 31 (1.24%) VMware NSX
5 20 (0.80%) Hyper-V
5 20 (0.80%) vSphere
6 16 (0.64%) Virtual Desktop
7 9 (0.36%) VMware ESXi
8 8 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
9 7 (0.28%) vCloud
10 4 (0.16%) BitLocker
10 4 (0.16%) RACF
11 3 (0.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
11 3 (0.12%) IAG
11 3 (0.12%) NFS
11 3 (0.12%) SRDF
12 2 (0.080%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
12 2 (0.080%) Firmware
13 1 (0.040%) Embedded Firmware
13 1 (0.040%) KVM
Systems Management
1 89 (3.57%) Kubernetes
1 89 (3.57%) Terraform
2 52 (2.08%) Ansible
3 32 (1.28%) Microsoft Intune
4 24 (0.96%) Single Sign-On
5 23 (0.92%) vCenter Server
6 16 (0.64%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 15 (0.60%) Grafana
8 13 (0.52%) FortiGate
9 12 (0.48%) Argo
10 11 (0.44%) Prometheus
11 9 (0.36%) SCCM
12 7 (0.28%) Istio
12 7 (0.28%) Jamf Pro
13 5 (0.20%) EMC VPLEX
14 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
15 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
15 3 (0.12%) NetBackup
15 3 (0.12%) SnapVault
15 3 (0.12%) WMI
Vendors
1 350 (14.02%) Microsoft
2 148 (5.93%) SAP
3 117 (4.69%) VMware
4 110 (4.41%) Oracle
5 104 (4.17%) ServiceNow
6 73 (2.92%) Cisco
7 66 (2.64%) Databricks
8 63 (2.52%) Google
9 54 (2.16%) Salesforce
10 30 (1.20%) MuleSoft
11 29 (1.16%) F5
11 29 (1.16%) Red Hat
12 25 (1.00%) Palo Alto
13 23 (0.92%) BiZZdesign
14 21 (0.84%) Citrix
15 20 (0.80%) Juniper
15 20 (0.80%) Sparx
15 20 (0.80%) Talend
16 19 (0.76%) Infoblox
17 15 (0.60%) BMC