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 17 March 2026.

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

6 months to
17 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 17 13
Rank change year-on-year +6 -4 +7
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,197 1,137 1,978
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 10.16% 8.95% 9.38%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.09% 9.67% 10.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,419 787 1,210
10th Percentile £447 £457 £500
25th Percentile £506 £538 £573
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £624 £650
Median % change year-on-year -3.89% -3.96% -
75th Percentile £700 £700 £725
90th Percentile £763 £746 £775
UK median daily rate £620 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -0.80% -3.85% -1.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 89 27 40
10th Percentile £49.40 £61.50 £52.30
25th Percentile £60.00 £66.00 £60.00
Median hourly rate £71.27 £73.31 £78.90
Median % change year-on-year -2.78% -7.08% +12.71%
75th Percentile £85.00 £82.25 £87.53
90th Percentile £95.00 £86.47 £95.00
UK median hourly rate £71.27 £72.50 £76.53
% change year-on-year -1.70% -5.27% +9.33%

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 19,812 11,755 19,558
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.58% 92.52% 92.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,751 7,557 12,164
10th Percentile £254 £213 £213
25th Percentile £393 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £475 £485
Median % change year-on-year +1.05% -2.06% -3.00%
75th Percentile £580 £588 £591
90th Percentile £675 £665 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,157 696 2,086
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.00 £12.50
25th Percentile £18.82 £20.12 £15.54
Median hourly rate £35.00 £32.50 £32.70
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% -0.60% -19.44%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.38 £71.25
UK median hourly rate £35.71 £33.00 £32.90
% change year-on-year +8.21% +0.32% -22.60%

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 17 March 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 17 March 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 17 March 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 +4 675 £625 - 275
North of England +1 569 £600 - 184
Midlands -1 387 £575 -4.17% 104
North West 0 322 £600 - 86
West Midlands -1 290 £600 -3.61% 60
South West +1 265 £700 +14.29% 117
Yorkshire +8 224 £563 -6.25% 69
East of England +13 165 £540 -13.60% 82
Scotland +22 146 £650 +4.00% 56
East Midlands -3 93 £513 -8.48% 43
North East -2 29 £625 - 32
Wales +3 27 £538 -0.46% 32
Northern Ireland +3 11 £500 -26.47% 7
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 17 March 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.

1 698 (31.77%) Security Cleared
2 465 (21.17%) Azure
3 389 (17.71%) SC Cleared
4 346 (15.75%) AWS
5 325 (14.79%) Agile
6 322 (14.66%) Roadmaps
7 319 (14.52%) Microsoft
8 265 (12.06%) Stakeholder Management
9 261 (11.88%) Migration
10 249 (11.33%) DV Cleared
10 249 (11.33%) Enterprise Architecture
11 223 (10.15%) TOGAF
12 207 (9.42%) DevOps
13 190 (8.65%) Data Modelling
14 186 (8.47%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 183 (8.33%) CI/CD
16 175 (7.97%) Technical Leadership
17 164 (7.46%) Problem-Solving
18 156 (7.10%) Architectural Patterns
19 152 (6.92%) Data Architecture
19 152 (6.92%) Microservices
20 147 (6.69%) Analytics
21 143 (6.51%) GCP
21 143 (6.51%) ITIL
22 142 (6.46%) Cybersecurity
22 142 (6.46%) Integration Patterns
23 140 (6.37%) Architectural Design
24 132 (6.01%) Windows
25 130 (5.92%) AI
25 130 (5.92%) VMware

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 89 (4.05%) Confluence
2 65 (2.96%) SharePoint
3 49 (2.23%) Microsoft Exchange
4 25 (1.14%) SAS
5 13 (0.59%) Appian
6 12 (0.55%) ArcGIS
7 11 (0.50%) CMS
8 10 (0.46%) Anypoint
9 9 (0.41%) Apache
9 9 (0.41%) Smallworld
10 7 (0.32%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 7 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
10 7 (0.32%) Skype for Business
11 6 (0.27%) Apache Spark
11 6 (0.27%) Sitecore CMS
11 6 (0.27%) WebLogic
12 5 (0.23%) GeoServer
13 4 (0.18%) IIS
13 4 (0.18%) JBoss
13 4 (0.18%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 45 (2.05%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (1.41%) Microsoft Project
3 22 (1.00%) Microsoft Excel
4 21 (0.96%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.32%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.18%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.046%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 52 (2.37%) SAP S/4HANA
2 30 (1.37%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 17 (0.77%) Payment Gateway
4 14 (0.64%) Workday HCM
5 10 (0.46%) Dynamics CRM
6 9 (0.41%) Salesforce CRM
7 7 (0.32%) Maximo
7 7 (0.32%) SAP ERP
8 6 (0.27%) Remedy ITSM
9 4 (0.18%) Distributed Ledger
9 4 (0.18%) R3 Corda
9 4 (0.18%) SAP CO
9 4 (0.18%) SAP FI
9 4 (0.18%) SAP FI/CO
9 4 (0.18%) SAP GRC
9 4 (0.18%) SAP PP
9 4 (0.18%) Teamcenter
10 3 (0.14%) SAP CRM
10 3 (0.14%) SAP MDG
10 3 (0.14%) SAP SD
Cloud Services
1 465 (21.17%) Azure
2 346 (15.75%) AWS
3 143 (6.51%) GCP
4 96 (4.37%) Entra ID
5 87 (3.96%) Microsoft 365
6 66 (3.00%) Power Platform
7 62 (2.82%) Serverless
8 60 (2.73%) SaaS
9 49 (2.23%) Microsoft Purview
10 48 (2.18%) IaaS
10 48 (2.18%) PaaS
11 39 (1.78%) OneDrive
11 39 (1.78%) OpenShift
12 36 (1.64%) Azure DevOps
12 36 (1.64%) GitHub
13 31 (1.41%) Dynamics 365
14 29 (1.32%) AWS Lambda
15 27 (1.23%) AWS CloudFormation
15 27 (1.23%) Azure Synapse Analytics
16 23 (1.05%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 114 (5.19%) Firewall
2 74 (3.37%) WAN
3 71 (3.23%) DNS
4 68 (3.10%) Network Security
5 59 (2.69%) VPN
6 49 (2.23%) LAN
7 43 (1.96%) SD-WAN
8 28 (1.27%) DHCP
9 19 (0.86%) MPLS
10 18 (0.82%) BGP
10 18 (0.82%) VLAN
11 17 (0.77%) Wi-Fi
11 17 (0.77%) Wireless
12 16 (0.73%) SAN
13 14 (0.64%) IPsec
14 13 (0.59%) Kerberos
14 13 (0.59%) OSPF
15 12 (0.55%) Internet
15 12 (0.55%) SSL
16 11 (0.50%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 77 (3.50%) Data Warehouse
2 70 (3.19%) Metadata
3 53 (2.41%) Power BI
4 43 (1.96%) SQL Server
5 31 (1.41%) PostgreSQL
6 26 (1.18%) Tableau
7 24 (1.09%) Data Lake
7 24 (1.09%) NoSQL
7 24 (1.09%) Oracle Database
8 21 (0.96%) GIS
9 15 (0.68%) DynamoDB
10 14 (0.64%) Metadata Repository
11 13 (0.59%) Azure SQL Database
12 11 (0.50%) Big Data
12 11 (0.50%) Relational Database
13 9 (0.41%) Amazon Redshift
13 9 (0.41%) Electronic Patient Records
14 8 (0.36%) Amazon Athena
14 8 (0.36%) SQL Server Reporting Services
15 7 (0.32%) SAS Enterprise Guide
Development Applications
1 97 (4.42%) JIRA
2 46 (2.09%) Jenkins
3 19 (0.86%) Git
3 19 (0.86%) GitLab
4 4 (0.18%) Artifactory
4 4 (0.18%) ERwin
4 4 (0.18%) Selenium
4 4 (0.18%) Sonatype Nexus
5 3 (0.14%) Bitbucket
5 3 (0.14%) Cucumber
5 3 (0.14%) MLflow
5 3 (0.14%) MSI
5 3 (0.14%) Postman
5 3 (0.14%) Rational DOORS
5 3 (0.14%) REST Assured
6 2 (0.091%) Gatling
6 2 (0.091%) JMeter
6 2 (0.091%) NeoLoad
6 2 (0.091%) Oracle Forms
6 2 (0.091%) SonarQube
General
1 435 (19.80%) Social Skills
2 276 (12.56%) Finance
3 237 (10.79%) Public Sector
4 149 (6.78%) Analytical Skills
5 127 (5.78%) Banking
6 59 (2.69%) Documentation Skills
6 59 (2.69%) Military
7 47 (2.14%) Legal
8 39 (1.78%) Retail
8 39 (1.78%) Telecoms
9 36 (1.64%) Marketing
10 35 (1.59%) Influencing Skills
11 34 (1.55%) Presentation Skills
12 21 (0.96%) Manufacturing
13 20 (0.91%) Investment Banking
14 19 (0.86%) Aerospace
15 14 (0.64%) Financial Institution
15 14 (0.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 12 (0.55%) Billing
16 12 (0.55%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 84 (3.82%) REST
2 57 (2.59%) Middleware
3 44 (2.00%) SOAP
4 41 (1.87%) OAuth
5 38 (1.73%) .NET
6 34 (1.55%) OpenID
7 31 (1.41%) SAML
8 30 (1.37%) OAuth2
9 28 (1.27%) Kafka
10 27 (1.23%) SailPoint
11 23 (1.05%) RESTful
12 17 (0.77%) React
12 17 (0.77%) Web Services
13 16 (0.73%) Node.js
14 15 (0.68%) Microsoft Graph
15 13 (0.59%) LDAP
16 12 (0.55%) CSS
16 12 (0.55%) HTML
17 11 (0.50%) Oracle Fusion
18 10 (0.46%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 148 (6.74%) Cloud Native
2 100 (4.55%) Product Ownership
3 79 (3.60%) Data Centre
4 61 (2.78%) Onboarding
5 51 (2.32%) Public Cloud
6 48 (2.18%) PKI
7 42 (1.91%) Hybrid Cloud
7 42 (1.91%) Operational Technology
8 38 (1.73%) Management Information System
9 37 (1.68%) Enterprise Software
9 37 (1.68%) Legacy Systems
10 35 (1.59%) Data Protection Act
11 32 (1.46%) Distributed Systems
12 27 (1.23%) CMDB
12 27 (1.23%) SCADA
13 23 (1.05%) NHS
14 18 (0.82%) AI Agents
15 16 (0.73%) Data Structures
16 14 (0.64%) Blackberry
17 13 (0.59%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 132 (6.01%) Windows
2 76 (3.46%) Linux
3 31 (1.41%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.73%) Windows 7
5 15 (0.68%) Android
5 15 (0.68%) Apple iOS
6 14 (0.64%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 11 (0.50%) Windows 10
8 8 (0.36%) Windows Server 2016
9 7 (0.32%) Unix
10 5 (0.23%) VMS
10 5 (0.23%) Windows Server 2019
11 4 (0.18%) Mac OS
12 3 (0.14%) Ubuntu
12 3 (0.14%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.046%) CentOS
13 1 (0.046%) Data ONTAP
13 1 (0.046%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 325 (14.79%) Agile
2 322 (14.66%) Roadmaps
3 265 (12.06%) Stakeholder Management
4 261 (11.88%) Migration
5 249 (11.33%) Enterprise Architecture
6 223 (10.15%) TOGAF
7 207 (9.42%) DevOps
8 190 (8.65%) Data Modelling
9 186 (8.47%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 183 (8.33%) CI/CD
11 175 (7.97%) Technical Leadership
12 164 (7.46%) Problem-Solving
13 156 (7.10%) Architectural Patterns
14 152 (6.92%) Data Architecture
14 152 (6.92%) Microservices
15 147 (6.69%) Analytics
16 143 (6.51%) ITIL
17 142 (6.46%) Cybersecurity
17 142 (6.46%) Integration Patterns
18 140 (6.37%) Architectural Design
Programming Languages
1 124 (5.64%) Python
2 78 (3.55%) PowerShell
3 76 (3.46%) SQL
4 58 (2.64%) Java
5 33 (1.50%) JavaScript
6 30 (1.37%) C#
7 20 (0.91%) Bicep
8 18 (0.82%) Bash
9 11 (0.50%) Kusto Query Language
10 9 (0.41%) PL/SQL
11 8 (0.36%) R
12 7 (0.32%) TypeScript
12 7 (0.32%) VB
12 7 (0.32%) VBScript
13 6 (0.27%) Apex Code
14 5 (0.23%) Scala
15 4 (0.18%) Kotlin
15 4 (0.18%) Perl
15 4 (0.18%) Shell Script
15 4 (0.18%) X++
Qualifications
1 698 (31.77%) Security Cleared
2 389 (17.71%) SC Cleared
3 249 (11.33%) DV Cleared
4 109 (4.96%) Degree
5 78 (3.55%) TOGAF Certification
6 65 (2.96%) CISSP
7 53 (2.41%) AWS Certification
8 46 (2.09%) BPSS Clearance
9 40 (1.82%) Azure Certification
9 40 (1.82%) Cisco Certification
10 39 (1.78%) CISM
11 30 (1.37%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 29 (1.32%) Microsoft Certification
13 27 (1.23%) Computer Science Degree
14 26 (1.18%) CCNP
14 26 (1.18%) ISEB
14 26 (1.18%) ITIL Certification
15 23 (1.05%) Master's Degree
16 16 (0.73%) CCIE
17 13 (0.59%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 107 (4.87%) GDPR
2 97 (4.42%) NIST
3 74 (3.37%) Data Quality
4 70 (3.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 47 (2.14%) NCSC
6 32 (1.46%) PCI DSS
7 30 (1.37%) COBIT
8 20 (0.91%) QA
9 19 (0.86%) GRC
10 16 (0.73%) Cyber Essentials
10 16 (0.73%) JSP 440
11 13 (0.59%) Accessibility
12 12 (0.55%) FINRA
12 12 (0.55%) ISO 20022
12 12 (0.55%) MiFID
13 9 (0.41%) California Consumer Privacy Act
13 9 (0.41%) Def Stans
13 9 (0.41%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 9 (0.41%) NIST 800
14 8 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 101 (4.60%) Active Directory
2 60 (2.73%) VMware Infrastructure
3 39 (1.78%) Docker
4 33 (1.50%) VMware NSX
5 25 (1.14%) vSphere
6 15 (0.68%) Virtual Desktop
7 13 (0.59%) Hyper-V
8 8 (0.36%) vCloud
8 8 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
8 8 (0.36%) VMware ESXi
9 7 (0.32%) BitLocker
10 5 (0.23%) RACF
11 3 (0.14%) IAG
12 2 (0.091%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
12 2 (0.091%) Firmware
12 2 (0.091%) NFS
13 1 (0.046%) Embedded Firmware
13 1 (0.046%) ProxySG
13 1 (0.046%) Snort
Systems Management
1 104 (4.73%) Terraform
2 78 (3.55%) Kubernetes
3 59 (2.69%) Ansible
4 33 (1.50%) Single Sign-On
5 31 (1.41%) Microsoft Intune
6 30 (1.37%) OPNET
7 29 (1.32%) vCenter Server
8 20 (0.91%) SCCM
9 16 (0.73%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 15 (0.68%) WMI
11 14 (0.64%) Argo
12 11 (0.50%) FortiGate
13 6 (0.27%) Prometheus
14 5 (0.23%) Grafana
14 5 (0.23%) Istio
15 4 (0.18%) Endace
16 3 (0.14%) SCOM
17 2 (0.091%) MOM
17 2 (0.091%) Nessus
17 2 (0.091%) vRealize
Vendors
1 319 (14.52%) Microsoft
2 130 (5.92%) VMware
3 126 (5.74%) ServiceNow
4 110 (5.01%) SAP
5 94 (4.28%) Oracle
6 74 (3.37%) Cisco
7 72 (3.28%) Salesforce
8 48 (2.18%) Google
9 43 (1.96%) Remedy
10 39 (1.78%) MuleSoft
11 38 (1.73%) Databricks
11 38 (1.73%) Red Hat
12 35 (1.59%) Atlassian
12 35 (1.59%) Palo Alto
13 34 (1.55%) BiZZdesign
14 30 (1.37%) Citrix
15 29 (1.32%) Sparx
16 27 (1.23%) CyberArk
17 26 (1.18%) Virgin Media
18 25 (1.14%) F5