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 6 June 2026.

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

6 months to
6 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 20 13
Rank change year-on-year +10 -7 +5
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,408 1,088 2,105
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.57% 8.35% 10.09%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.41% 9.10% 10.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,593 724 1,256
10th Percentile £450 £450 £500
25th Percentile £513 £513 £564
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £613 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year +2.08% -7.69% -
75th Percentile £706 £698 £727
90th Percentile £775 £760 £794
UK median daily rate £615 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -1.60% -3.85% -1.37%
Number of hourly rates quoted 127 24 93
10th Percentile £49.40 £43.92 -
25th Percentile £60.00 £65.13 £60.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £73.25 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -11.26% +4.64% -
75th Percentile £77.88 £82.25 £87.00
90th Percentile £89.40 £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 23,124 11,954 19,293
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.87% 91.75% 92.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,303 7,572 11,580
10th Percentile £300 £213 £213
25th Percentile £403 £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 £681 £650 £688
UK median daily rate £513 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +2.50% -4.76% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,666 882 2,443
10th Percentile £14.82 £13.51 £12.50
25th Percentile £20.25 £16.95 £15.85
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.23 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.39% -36.94% -5.88%
75th Percentile £67.50 £60.00 £62.50
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £74.00
UK median hourly rate £45.00 £28.00 £37.50
% change year-on-year +60.71% -25.33% -16.67%

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 6 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 6 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 6 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
North of England +5 684 £600 - 361
South East +5 681 £625 +1.01% 282
Midlands +2 440 £600 +2.17% 131
North West +6 372 £608 +1.97% 184
West Midlands -1 314 £620 +3.33% 96
Yorkshire +8 259 £555 -7.58% 99
South West -1 239 £650 +6.12% 165
East of England +18 206 £575 -4.17% 89
Scotland +12 154 £650 +4.00% 71
East Midlands +1 120 £573 +12.86% 35
North East +7 60 £575 -4.17% 79
Wales -2 34 £600 +25.65% 47
Northern Ireland +9 7 £475 -28.30% 23
Channel Islands - 3 £575 - 2
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 6 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.

1 693 (28.78%) Security Cleared
2 491 (20.39%) Azure
3 412 (17.11%) SC Cleared
4 383 (15.91%) AWS
5 345 (14.33%) Agile
6 340 (14.12%) Roadmaps
7 328 (13.62%) Microsoft
8 280 (11.63%) Migration
8 280 (11.63%) Stakeholder Management
9 259 (10.76%) DevOps
10 248 (10.30%) Enterprise Architecture
11 228 (9.47%) DV Cleared
12 220 (9.14%) CI/CD
13 218 (9.05%) Technical Leadership
14 196 (8.14%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 194 (8.06%) Integration Patterns
16 191 (7.93%) Microservices
17 189 (7.85%) Architectural Patterns
18 188 (7.81%) Data Modelling
19 173 (7.18%) Data Architecture
20 162 (6.73%) Architectural Design
21 158 (6.56%) Cybersecurity
22 156 (6.48%) TOGAF
23 155 (6.44%) Problem-Solving
24 149 (6.19%) SAP
25 137 (5.69%) AI
26 136 (5.65%) Analytics
26 136 (5.65%) GCP
27 130 (5.40%) Continuous Improvement
28 128 (5.32%) Security 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 (2.57%) SharePoint
2 44 (1.83%) Confluence
3 36 (1.50%) Microsoft Exchange
4 24 (1.00%) SAS
5 13 (0.54%) Apache Airflow
5 13 (0.54%) Appian
6 11 (0.46%) CMS
7 10 (0.42%) Anypoint
7 10 (0.42%) Apache
8 9 (0.37%) Apache Spark
9 8 (0.33%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 7 (0.29%) ArcGIS
11 6 (0.25%) Sitecore CMS
11 6 (0.25%) WebLogic
12 5 (0.21%) NetWeaver
12 5 (0.21%) OpenStack
13 4 (0.17%) JBoss
13 4 (0.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 4 (0.17%) SAP EP
13 4 (0.17%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 13 (0.54%) Microsoft Excel
1 13 (0.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 7 (0.29%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (0.29%) Navisworks
2 7 (0.29%) Revit
3 6 (0.25%) MS Visio
3 6 (0.25%) Spreadsheet
4 4 (0.17%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.042%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.042%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 60 (2.49%) SAP S/4HANA
2 20 (0.83%) Payment Gateway
3 18 (0.75%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 12 (0.50%) SAP ERP
5 10 (0.42%) Remedy ITSM
5 10 (0.42%) Teamcenter
6 6 (0.25%) SAP MDG
7 5 (0.21%) Dynamics CRM
7 5 (0.21%) Salesforce CRM
8 4 (0.17%) Maximo
8 4 (0.17%) Oracle Payables
8 4 (0.17%) Oracle Retail
8 4 (0.17%) SAP CRM
8 4 (0.17%) SAP GRC
9 3 (0.12%) Oracle ERP
9 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
9 3 (0.12%) SAP IBP
9 3 (0.12%) SAP SD
9 3 (0.12%) Workday HCM
10 2 (0.083%) Distributed Ledger
Cloud Services
1 491 (20.39%) Azure
2 383 (15.91%) AWS
3 136 (5.65%) GCP
4 94 (3.90%) Power Platform
5 89 (3.70%) Entra ID
6 83 (3.45%) Microsoft 365
7 73 (3.03%) Serverless
8 70 (2.91%) SaaS
9 59 (2.45%) PaaS
10 47 (1.95%) IaaS
11 45 (1.87%) GitHub
12 41 (1.70%) Azure DevOps
13 38 (1.58%) Microsoft Purview
14 33 (1.37%) OpenShift
15 29 (1.20%) OneDrive
16 28 (1.16%) AWS Lambda
17 27 (1.12%) Dynamics 365
18 26 (1.08%) Azure Data Factory
19 25 (1.04%) Snowflake
20 23 (0.96%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 96 (3.99%) Firewall
2 69 (2.87%) WAN
3 66 (2.74%) DNS
4 65 (2.70%) Network Security
5 53 (2.20%) LAN
6 49 (2.03%) VPN
7 40 (1.66%) SD-WAN
8 36 (1.50%) DHCP
9 28 (1.16%) VLAN
10 25 (1.04%) Wireless
11 24 (1.00%) SAN
12 23 (0.96%) BGP
12 23 (0.96%) NAS
13 21 (0.87%) Structured Cabling
14 19 (0.79%) IPsec
15 18 (0.75%) MPLS
16 17 (0.71%) BIG-IP
16 17 (0.71%) OSPF
17 14 (0.58%) NX-OS
18 13 (0.54%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 69 (2.87%) Metadata
2 68 (2.82%) Power BI
3 54 (2.24%) Data Warehouse
4 40 (1.66%) Data Lake
5 35 (1.45%) NoSQL
5 35 (1.45%) SQL Server
6 26 (1.08%) PostgreSQL
7 19 (0.79%) Oracle Database
8 18 (0.75%) Tableau
9 15 (0.62%) GIS
10 11 (0.46%) MongoDB
11 10 (0.42%) Big Data
12 9 (0.37%) DynamoDB
12 9 (0.37%) Relational Database
12 9 (0.37%) SAS Enterprise Guide
13 8 (0.33%) Azure SQL Database
13 8 (0.33%) Electronic Patient Records
13 8 (0.33%) MySQL
14 7 (0.29%) Metadata Repository
14 7 (0.29%) Spatial Data
Development Applications
1 57 (2.37%) JIRA
2 35 (1.45%) Jenkins
3 19 (0.79%) GitLab
4 18 (0.75%) Git
5 7 (0.29%) ERwin
6 6 (0.25%) Artifactory
7 5 (0.21%) Selenium
8 4 (0.17%) Hudson
8 4 (0.17%) JUnit
8 4 (0.17%) Postman
8 4 (0.17%) REST Assured
8 4 (0.17%) Sonatype Nexus
9 3 (0.12%) Cucumber
9 3 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.12%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.083%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.083%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.083%) IntelliJ
10 2 (0.083%) LoadRunner
10 2 (0.083%) NeoLoad
General
1 428 (17.77%) Social Skills
2 326 (13.54%) Finance
3 216 (8.97%) Public Sector
4 145 (6.02%) Banking
5 120 (4.98%) Analytical Skills
6 82 (3.41%) Retail
7 60 (2.49%) Manufacturing
8 57 (2.37%) Documentation Skills
9 55 (2.28%) Legal
10 34 (1.41%) Aerospace
10 34 (1.41%) Influencing Skills
11 26 (1.08%) Investment Banking
11 26 (1.08%) Military
12 22 (0.91%) Presentation Skills
13 20 (0.83%) Financial Institution
14 19 (0.79%) Back Office
14 19 (0.79%) Marketing
15 16 (0.66%) Telecoms
16 13 (0.54%) Billing
17 11 (0.46%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 103 (4.28%) REST
2 81 (3.36%) Middleware
3 50 (2.08%) .NET
4 47 (1.95%) OAuth
5 43 (1.79%) OpenID
6 42 (1.74%) SOAP
7 31 (1.29%) OAuth2
7 31 (1.29%) SAML
8 30 (1.25%) Oracle Fusion
9 28 (1.16%) Kafka
10 27 (1.12%) SailPoint
11 25 (1.04%) RESTful
12 23 (0.96%) React
13 22 (0.91%) JSON
13 22 (0.91%) Node.js
14 19 (0.79%) LDAP
14 19 (0.79%) Web Services
15 16 (0.66%) Microsoft Graph
16 14 (0.58%) AngularJS
17 13 (0.54%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 163 (6.77%) Cloud Native
2 86 (3.57%) Data Centre
3 68 (2.82%) Operational Technology
3 68 (2.82%) Product Ownership
4 52 (2.16%) Management Information System
5 50 (2.08%) Hybrid Cloud
6 49 (2.03%) Public Cloud
7 48 (1.99%) Data Protection Act
7 48 (1.99%) Onboarding
8 45 (1.87%) Enterprise Software
8 45 (1.87%) Legacy Systems
9 44 (1.83%) Distributed Systems
10 28 (1.16%) PKI
11 27 (1.12%) SCADA
12 26 (1.08%) CMDB
13 21 (0.87%) Private Cloud
14 20 (0.83%) Security Posture
15 19 (0.79%) Data Structures
16 17 (0.71%) AI Agents
16 17 (0.71%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 110 (4.57%) Windows
2 54 (2.24%) Linux
3 30 (1.25%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.66%) Android
4 16 (0.66%) Apple iOS
5 11 (0.46%) Unix
6 9 (0.37%) 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%) Data ONTAP
9 5 (0.21%) Windows Server 2019
10 4 (0.17%) Mac OS
11 3 (0.12%) 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
1 345 (14.33%) Agile
2 340 (14.12%) Roadmaps
3 280 (11.63%) Migration
3 280 (11.63%) Stakeholder Management
4 259 (10.76%) DevOps
5 248 (10.30%) Enterprise Architecture
6 220 (9.14%) CI/CD
7 218 (9.05%) Technical Leadership
8 196 (8.14%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 194 (8.06%) Integration Patterns
10 191 (7.93%) Microservices
11 189 (7.85%) Architectural Patterns
12 188 (7.81%) Data Modelling
13 173 (7.18%) Data Architecture
14 162 (6.73%) Architectural Design
15 158 (6.56%) Cybersecurity
16 156 (6.48%) TOGAF
17 155 (6.44%) Problem-Solving
18 137 (5.69%) AI
19 136 (5.65%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 103 (4.28%) SQL
2 101 (4.19%) Python
3 77 (3.20%) Java
4 69 (2.87%) PowerShell
5 48 (1.99%) JavaScript
6 31 (1.29%) C#
7 22 (0.91%) Bicep
8 16 (0.66%) Bash
8 16 (0.66%) TypeScript
9 12 (0.50%) PL/SQL
10 10 (0.42%) Kusto Query Language
11 8 (0.33%) 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
1 693 (28.78%) Security Cleared
2 412 (17.11%) SC Cleared
3 228 (9.47%) DV Cleared
4 87 (3.61%) Degree
5 52 (2.16%) BPSS Clearance
6 51 (2.12%) Cisco Certification
7 42 (1.74%) TOGAF Certification
8 36 (1.50%) CISSP
8 36 (1.50%) Computer Science Degree
9 35 (1.45%) Azure Certification
10 33 (1.37%) CCNP
11 31 (1.29%) AWS Certification
12 21 (0.87%) Microsoft Certification
13 18 (0.75%) CISM
14 16 (0.66%) CCNA
14 16 (0.66%) Master's Degree
15 12 (0.50%) ITIL Certification
15 12 (0.50%) Network+ Certification
15 12 (0.50%) Server+ Certification
16 10 (0.42%) CCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 91 (3.78%) NIST
2 77 (3.20%) GDPR
3 64 (2.66%) Data Quality
4 55 (2.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 44 (1.83%) NCSC
6 23 (0.96%) QA
7 20 (0.83%) Accessibility
8 17 (0.71%) PCI DSS
9 14 (0.58%) GRC
10 12 (0.50%) COBIT
10 12 (0.50%) Cyber Essentials
10 12 (0.50%) FINRA
10 12 (0.50%) MiFID
10 12 (0.50%) NIST 800
11 10 (0.42%) IFRS
11 10 (0.42%) ISO 20022
12 9 (0.37%) HL7
12 9 (0.37%) ISO 19650
13 8 (0.33%) Disclosure Scotland
14 6 (0.25%) SEPA
System Software
1 98 (4.07%) Active Directory
2 61 (2.53%) VMware Infrastructure
3 37 (1.54%) Docker
4 31 (1.29%) VMware NSX
5 21 (0.87%) Hyper-V
5 21 (0.87%) vSphere
6 12 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
7 11 (0.46%) VMware ESXi
8 9 (0.37%) vCloud
9 5 (0.21%) RACF
9 5 (0.21%) Virtual Machines
10 4 (0.17%) BitLocker
10 4 (0.17%) NFS
11 3 (0.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
11 3 (0.12%) IAG
11 3 (0.12%) SRDF
12 2 (0.083%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
12 2 (0.083%) Firmware
13 1 (0.042%) Embedded Firmware
13 1 (0.042%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 85 (3.53%) Kubernetes
2 79 (3.28%) Terraform
3 52 (2.16%) Ansible
4 36 (1.50%) Microsoft Intune
5 26 (1.08%) vCenter Server
6 25 (1.04%) Single Sign-On
7 15 (0.62%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 15 (0.62%) Grafana
7 15 (0.62%) SCCM
8 12 (0.50%) FortiGate
9 11 (0.46%) Argo
9 11 (0.46%) Prometheus
10 7 (0.29%) Jamf Pro
11 6 (0.25%) Istio
12 5 (0.21%) EMC VPLEX
12 5 (0.21%) Endace
12 5 (0.21%) WMI
13 4 (0.17%) SnapMirror
14 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
14 3 (0.12%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 328 (13.62%) Microsoft
2 149 (6.19%) SAP
3 127 (5.27%) VMware
4 107 (4.44%) Oracle
5 102 (4.24%) ServiceNow
6 75 (3.11%) Cisco
7 62 (2.57%) Databricks
8 57 (2.37%) Google
9 56 (2.33%) Salesforce
10 41 (1.70%) MuleSoft
11 28 (1.16%) F5
12 27 (1.12%) Red Hat
13 25 (1.04%) Citrix
13 25 (1.04%) Palo Alto
14 23 (0.96%) Juniper
15 21 (0.87%) BiZZdesign
16 20 (0.83%) Sparx
16 20 (0.83%) Talend
17 18 (0.75%) Splunk
18 17 (0.71%) Informatica