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 25 July 2026.

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

6 months to
25 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 20 13
Rank change year-on-year +7 -7 +6
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,492 1,234 1,905
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.20% 8.24% 9.81%
As % of the Job Titles category 9.99% 9.10% 10.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,628 843 1,184
10th Percentile £481 £450 £483
25th Percentile £525 £519 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £620 £600 £649
Median % change year-on-year +3.33% -7.55% -0.15%
75th Percentile £711 £688 £725
90th Percentile £775 £751 £788
UK median daily rate £618 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -1.20% -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 160 15 81
10th Percentile £46.00 £33.64 -
25th Percentile £60.00 £64.38 £60.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £72.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.34% +3.57% -
75th Percentile £71.91 £86.50 £85.65
90th Percentile £83.00 £99.42 £88.00
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 24,951 13,562 17,904
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.13% 90.56% 92.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,214 8,367 10,947
10th Percentile £305 £217 £213
25th Percentile £408 £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 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,882 1,165 1,985
10th Percentile £15.06 £13.50 £13.25
25th Percentile £21.00 £16.50 £17.25
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -41.51% +8.04%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.85 £25.15 £41.50
% change year-on-year +70.39% -39.40% -5.26%

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 25 July 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 25 July 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 25 July 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 0 722 £638 +6.25% 247
North of England +7 721 £600 - 206
Midlands -3 412 £621 +8.00% 117
North West +3 396 £600 - 105
West Midlands -4 302 £626 +4.33% 85
South West -2 286 £618 -1.20% 107
Yorkshire +6 257 £600 - 60
East of England +17 171 £600 +5.49% 57
Scotland +7 169 £650 +4.00% 51
East Midlands +7 104 £600 +20.00% 31
North East +1 76 £600 -14.29% 41
Wales +1 33 £600 +11.11% 15
Northern Ireland +6 7 £475 -32.14% 20
Channel Islands -1 3 £575 -22.56% 1
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 25 July 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.

1 782 (31.38%) Security Cleared
2 551 (22.11%) Azure
3 499 (20.02%) SC Cleared
4 444 (17.82%) AWS
5 363 (14.57%) Roadmaps
6 331 (13.28%) Agile
7 330 (13.24%) Microsoft
8 329 (13.20%) Stakeholder Management
9 281 (11.28%) Migration
10 260 (10.43%) Technical Leadership
11 258 (10.35%) Enterprise Architecture
12 247 (9.91%) DevOps
13 240 (9.63%) DV Cleared
14 238 (9.55%) Integration Patterns
15 231 (9.27%) Data Architecture
16 227 (9.11%) CI/CD
17 221 (8.87%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 217 (8.71%) Data Modelling
19 216 (8.67%) Architectural Patterns
20 212 (8.51%) AI
21 196 (7.87%) Cybersecurity
22 183 (7.34%) Microservices
23 179 (7.18%) TOGAF
24 172 (6.90%) Security Architecture
25 171 (6.86%) Problem-Solving
26 159 (6.38%) GCP
27 158 (6.34%) Architectural Design
28 148 (5.94%) Data Governance
29 146 (5.86%) Continuous Improvement
30 144 (5.78%) Analytics

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 45 (1.81%) SharePoint
2 36 (1.44%) SAS
3 32 (1.28%) Confluence
4 20 (0.80%) Microsoft Exchange
5 15 (0.60%) Apache Airflow
6 14 (0.56%) Apache Spark
7 13 (0.52%) Apache
8 11 (0.44%) OpenStack
9 8 (0.32%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 8 (0.32%) Palantir Foundry
10 7 (0.28%) Appian
10 7 (0.28%) CMS
10 7 (0.28%) Documentum
11 5 (0.20%) ArcGIS
11 5 (0.20%) JBoss
11 5 (0.20%) NetWeaver
12 4 (0.16%) SAP EP
13 3 (0.12%) Sitecore CMS
14 2 (0.080%) nginx
14 2 (0.080%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 11 (0.44%) MS Visio
2 8 (0.32%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (0.28%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.28%) Navisworks
3 7 (0.28%) Revit
4 6 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.040%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.040%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 58 (2.33%) SAP S/4HANA
2 17 (0.68%) Payment Gateway
3 14 (0.56%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 11 (0.44%) Teamcenter
5 10 (0.40%) Remedy ITSM
5 10 (0.40%) SAP ERP
6 7 (0.28%) Oracle ERP
7 6 (0.24%) Dynamics CRM
7 6 (0.24%) Maximo
8 5 (0.20%) NetSuite
8 5 (0.20%) Oracle Retail
8 5 (0.20%) SAP GRC
9 4 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
9 4 (0.16%) SAP CRM
9 4 (0.16%) SAP MDG
10 3 (0.12%) Adobe Campaign
10 3 (0.12%) Dynamics NAV
10 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
10 3 (0.12%) SAP IBP
10 3 (0.12%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 551 (22.11%) Azure
2 444 (17.82%) AWS
3 159 (6.38%) GCP
4 98 (3.93%) Power Platform
5 91 (3.65%) Entra ID
6 81 (3.25%) Serverless
7 74 (2.97%) SaaS
8 60 (2.41%) Microsoft 365
9 55 (2.21%) PaaS
10 46 (1.85%) IaaS
11 45 (1.81%) GitHub
12 38 (1.52%) OpenShift
13 36 (1.44%) Azure DevOps
14 35 (1.40%) AWS Lambda
15 34 (1.36%) Dynamics 365
16 28 (1.12%) Amazon S3
17 26 (1.04%) Snowflake
18 24 (0.96%) GitHub Actions
18 24 (0.96%) Microsoft Purview
19 23 (0.92%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 102 (4.09%) Firewall
2 70 (2.81%) Network Security
3 67 (2.69%) DNS
3 67 (2.69%) WAN
4 55 (2.21%) LAN
5 40 (1.61%) VPN
6 37 (1.48%) DHCP
7 35 (1.40%) BGP
8 34 (1.36%) SD-WAN
9 31 (1.24%) TCP/IP
10 30 (1.20%) VLAN
11 25 (1.00%) MPLS
11 25 (1.00%) SAN
11 25 (1.00%) Wireless
12 23 (0.92%) NAS
13 21 (0.84%) Structured Cabling
14 20 (0.80%) IPsec
15 19 (0.76%) BIG-IP
15 19 (0.76%) OSPF
16 14 (0.56%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 78 (3.13%) Metadata
2 70 (2.81%) Data Warehouse
3 68 (2.73%) Data Lake
3 68 (2.73%) Power BI
4 36 (1.44%) NoSQL
5 26 (1.04%) PostgreSQL
5 26 (1.04%) SQL Server
6 19 (0.76%) Amazon RDS
6 19 (0.76%) Oracle Database
7 17 (0.68%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
8 14 (0.56%) Base SAS
8 14 (0.56%) Big Data
8 14 (0.56%) GIS
9 13 (0.52%) Azure SQL Database
9 13 (0.52%) BigQuery
10 12 (0.48%) MySQL
11 11 (0.44%) MongoDB
12 10 (0.40%) Delta Lake
12 10 (0.40%) Relational Database
12 10 (0.40%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 40 (1.61%) JIRA
2 28 (1.12%) Jenkins
3 25 (1.00%) Git
4 12 (0.48%) GitLab
5 10 (0.40%) ERwin
6 8 (0.32%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.20%) Artifactory
8 4 (0.16%) Hudson
9 3 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.12%) Selenium
9 3 (0.12%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.080%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.080%) Claude Code
10 2 (0.080%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.080%) IntelliJ
10 2 (0.080%) JUnit
10 2 (0.080%) Oracle APEX
10 2 (0.080%) Oracle Forms
10 2 (0.080%) Rational Rhapsody
10 2 (0.080%) REST Assured
General
1 467 (18.74%) Social Skills
2 317 (12.72%) Finance
3 234 (9.39%) Public Sector
4 143 (5.74%) Banking
5 137 (5.50%) Analytical Skills
6 93 (3.73%) Retail
7 75 (3.01%) Manufacturing
8 56 (2.25%) Documentation Skills
9 51 (2.05%) Influencing Skills
10 37 (1.48%) Legal
11 36 (1.44%) Aerospace
12 30 (1.20%) Military
13 26 (1.04%) Telecoms
14 24 (0.96%) Financial Institution
15 22 (0.88%) Marketing
16 21 (0.84%) Back Office
17 20 (0.80%) Presentation Skills
18 19 (0.76%) Investment Banking
19 18 (0.72%) Inclusion and Diversity
20 16 (0.64%) Aviation
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 105 (4.21%) REST
2 74 (2.97%) Middleware
3 51 (2.05%) OAuth
4 41 (1.65%) SOAP
5 38 (1.52%) .NET
5 38 (1.52%) Oracle Fusion
6 37 (1.48%) Kafka
7 36 (1.44%) OpenID
8 32 (1.28%) SailPoint
9 30 (1.20%) SAML
10 26 (1.04%) OAuth2
11 23 (0.92%) RESTful
12 22 (0.88%) JSON
13 20 (0.80%) Node.js
14 19 (0.76%) Web Services
15 18 (0.72%) LDAP
16 17 (0.68%) React
17 12 (0.48%) AngularJS
17 12 (0.48%) FHIR
18 11 (0.44%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 184 (7.38%) Cloud Native
2 90 (3.61%) Data Centre
3 74 (2.97%) Hybrid Cloud
3 74 (2.97%) Operational Technology
4 60 (2.41%) Product Ownership
5 59 (2.37%) Management Information System
6 58 (2.33%) Onboarding
7 56 (2.25%) Data Protection Act
8 53 (2.13%) Distributed Systems
8 53 (2.13%) Legacy Systems
9 52 (2.09%) Enterprise Software
10 44 (1.77%) Public Cloud
11 36 (1.44%) Private Cloud
12 35 (1.40%) AI Agents
13 26 (1.04%) Security Posture
14 23 (0.92%) SCADA
15 22 (0.88%) Enterprise Cloud
15 22 (0.88%) PKI
16 21 (0.84%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
17 20 (0.80%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 91 (3.65%) Windows
2 54 (2.17%) Linux
3 32 (1.28%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.64%) Android
4 16 (0.64%) Apple iOS
5 14 (0.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.40%) Unix
7 5 (0.20%) AIX
7 5 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
8 2 (0.080%) VMS
8 2 (0.080%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.040%) CatOS
9 1 (0.040%) HPUX
9 1 (0.040%) Kali Linux
9 1 (0.040%) Solaris
9 1 (0.040%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.040%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.040%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 363 (14.57%) Roadmaps
2 331 (13.28%) Agile
3 329 (13.20%) Stakeholder Management
4 281 (11.28%) Migration
5 260 (10.43%) Technical Leadership
6 258 (10.35%) Enterprise Architecture
7 247 (9.91%) DevOps
8 238 (9.55%) Integration Patterns
9 231 (9.27%) Data Architecture
10 227 (9.11%) CI/CD
11 221 (8.87%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 217 (8.71%) Data Modelling
13 216 (8.67%) Architectural Patterns
14 212 (8.51%) AI
15 196 (7.87%) Cybersecurity
16 183 (7.34%) Microservices
17 179 (7.18%) TOGAF
18 172 (6.90%) Security Architecture
19 171 (6.86%) Problem-Solving
20 158 (6.34%) Architectural Design
Programming Languages
1 104 (4.17%) SQL
2 98 (3.93%) Python
3 96 (3.85%) Java
4 55 (2.21%) JavaScript
5 44 (1.77%) PowerShell
6 24 (0.96%) C#
7 23 (0.92%) Bash
8 21 (0.84%) Bicep
9 12 (0.48%) TypeScript
10 8 (0.32%) ABAP
10 8 (0.32%) VBA
11 6 (0.24%) Apex Code
11 6 (0.24%) PL/SQL
12 5 (0.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 5 (0.20%) Shell Script
13 4 (0.16%) Kotlin
14 3 (0.12%) C
15 2 (0.080%) C++
15 2 (0.080%) Groovy
15 2 (0.080%) ProC
Qualifications
1 782 (31.38%) Security Cleared
2 499 (20.02%) SC Cleared
3 240 (9.63%) DV Cleared
4 88 (3.53%) Degree
5 58 (2.33%) Cisco Certification
6 56 (2.25%) CISSP
7 45 (1.81%) TOGAF Certification
8 41 (1.65%) AWS Certification
8 41 (1.65%) Azure Certification
9 40 (1.61%) BPSS Clearance
10 33 (1.32%) CCNP
10 33 (1.32%) Computer Science Degree
11 21 (0.84%) Microsoft Certification
12 18 (0.72%) CISM
13 17 (0.68%) CCNA
14 14 (0.56%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 14 (0.56%) CCIE
15 13 (0.52%) Master's Degree
16 12 (0.48%) Network+ Certification
16 12 (0.48%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 93 (3.73%) NIST
2 79 (3.17%) Data Quality
3 63 (2.53%) GDPR
3 63 (2.53%) NCSC
4 57 (2.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 25 (1.00%) QA
6 19 (0.76%) Accessibility
6 19 (0.76%) PCI DSS
7 15 (0.60%) NIST 800
8 12 (0.48%) IFRS
8 12 (0.48%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 12 (0.48%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 11 (0.44%) Disclosure Scotland
9 11 (0.44%) GRC
10 10 (0.40%) Cyber Essentials
10 10 (0.40%) HL7
10 10 (0.40%) ISO 19650
11 9 (0.36%) JSP 440
12 8 (0.32%) COBIT
13 7 (0.28%) SLA
System Software
1 100 (4.01%) Active Directory
2 49 (1.97%) VMware Infrastructure
3 45 (1.81%) Docker
4 29 (1.16%) VMware NSX
5 22 (0.88%) Virtual Desktop
6 17 (0.68%) Hyper-V
6 17 (0.68%) vSphere
7 10 (0.40%) VMware ESXi
8 8 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
9 6 (0.24%) vCloud
10 4 (0.16%) RACF
11 3 (0.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
11 3 (0.12%) IAG
11 3 (0.12%) KVM
11 3 (0.12%) NFS
11 3 (0.12%) SRDF
12 2 (0.080%) Ceph
13 1 (0.040%) Firmware
13 1 (0.040%) ProxySG
13 1 (0.040%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 113 (4.53%) Kubernetes
2 91 (3.65%) Terraform
3 54 (2.17%) Ansible
4 38 (1.52%) Microsoft Intune
5 25 (1.00%) Single Sign-On
6 19 (0.76%) Grafana
6 19 (0.76%) vCenter Server
7 14 (0.56%) Jamf Pro
8 13 (0.52%) Argo
8 13 (0.52%) Prometheus
9 12 (0.48%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 9 (0.36%) FortiGate
11 6 (0.24%) CASB
11 6 (0.24%) Istio
12 5 (0.20%) EMC VPLEX
12 5 (0.20%) MOM
13 4 (0.16%) NetBackup
13 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
14 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
14 3 (0.12%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 330 (13.24%) Microsoft
2 137 (5.50%) SAP
3 111 (4.45%) Oracle
4 107 (4.29%) VMware
5 102 (4.09%) ServiceNow
6 79 (3.17%) Google
7 76 (3.05%) Databricks
8 74 (2.97%) Cisco
9 47 (1.89%) Salesforce
10 33 (1.32%) F5
11 30 (1.20%) Citrix
12 28 (1.12%) Red Hat
13 24 (0.96%) Palo Alto
14 23 (0.92%) CyberArk
15 22 (0.88%) Informatica
16 21 (0.84%) MuleSoft
16 21 (0.84%) Talend
17 20 (0.80%) Infoblox
18 19 (0.76%) BiZZdesign
19 18 (0.72%) Juniper