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 25 May 2026.

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

6 months to
25 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 19 13
Rank change year-on-year +9 -6 +5
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,393 1,084 2,052
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.69% 8.49% 10.05%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.55% 9.25% 10.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,589 726 1,233
10th Percentile £450 £450 £500
25th Percentile £513 £513 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £613 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year +2.08% -7.69% -
75th Percentile £713 £694 £725
90th Percentile £775 £749 £800
UK median daily rate £617 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -1.28% -3.85% -0.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 120 25 90
10th Percentile £49.06 £45.58 -
25th Percentile £60.00 £62.50 £60.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £72.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.34% +3.57% -
75th Percentile £78.75 £80.00 £85.65
90th Percentile £95.25 £85.50 £88.20
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 22,693 11,713 18,887
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.90% 91.75% 92.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,114 7,503 11,508
10th Percentile £300 £213 £213
25th Percentile £402 £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 £684 £650 £688
UK median daily rate £513 £508 £525
% change year-on-year +0.99% -3.33% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,586 817 2,329
10th Percentile £14.64 £13.94 £12.50
25th Percentile £19.91 £17.30 £15.75
Median hourly rate £43.69 £26.34 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +65.90% -34.16% -5.88%
75th Percentile £66.81 £62.50 £61.75
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £27.97 £36.50
% change year-on-year +51.98% -23.38% -18.89%

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 May 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 May 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 May 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 +6 697 £625 - 160
North of England +5 663 £600 - 172
Midlands +2 435 £600 +0.08% 64
North West +5 371 £609 +4.46% 93
West Midlands -2 311 £620 +3.33% 44
South West 0 257 £650 +8.33% 81
Yorkshire +6 249 £557 -7.25% 48
East of England +18 202 £575 -4.17% 42
Scotland +16 143 £650 +4.00% 44
East Midlands +1 118 £550 +2.42% 20
North East +6 51 £575 -4.17% 32
Wales -2 30 £600 +25.00% 39
Northern Ireland +6 7 £475 -28.30% 8
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 25 May 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.

1 713 (29.80%) Security Cleared
2 476 (19.89%) Azure
3 414 (17.30%) SC Cleared
4 364 (15.21%) AWS
5 335 (14.00%) Agile
6 330 (13.79%) Roadmaps
7 322 (13.46%) Microsoft
8 261 (10.91%) Stakeholder Management
9 258 (10.78%) Migration
10 250 (10.45%) Enterprise Architecture
11 247 (10.32%) DevOps
12 245 (10.24%) DV Cleared
13 219 (9.15%) CI/CD
14 203 (8.48%) Technical Leadership
15 188 (7.86%) Integration Patterns
16 186 (7.77%) Data Modelling
17 185 (7.73%) Architectural Patterns
17 185 (7.73%) Microservices
18 183 (7.65%) Stakeholder Engagement
19 169 (7.06%) TOGAF
20 165 (6.90%) Data Architecture
21 157 (6.56%) Architectural Design
22 148 (6.18%) Problem-Solving
23 146 (6.10%) Cybersecurity
23 146 (6.10%) SAP
24 134 (5.60%) Analytics
25 133 (5.56%) GCP
26 131 (5.47%) AI
27 128 (5.35%) VMware
28 123 (5.14%) Continuous Improvement

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 63 (2.63%) SharePoint
2 56 (2.34%) Confluence
3 36 (1.50%) Microsoft Exchange
4 21 (0.88%) SAS
5 13 (0.54%) Appian
6 11 (0.46%) Apache Airflow
7 10 (0.42%) Anypoint
7 10 (0.42%) Apache
7 10 (0.42%) CMS
8 8 (0.33%) Apache Spark
9 7 (0.29%) ArcGIS
10 6 (0.25%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 6 (0.25%) Sitecore CMS
10 6 (0.25%) WebLogic
11 5 (0.21%) NetWeaver
12 4 (0.17%) JBoss
12 4 (0.17%) OpenStack
12 4 (0.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 4 (0.17%) SAP EP
12 4 (0.17%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 22 (0.92%) Microsoft Office
2 13 (0.54%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (0.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 12 (0.50%) Microsoft Project
4 7 (0.29%) Navisworks
4 7 (0.29%) Revit
5 5 (0.21%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.17%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.084%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.042%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 57 (2.38%) SAP S/4HANA
2 23 (0.96%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 20 (0.84%) Payment Gateway
4 12 (0.50%) SAP ERP
5 10 (0.42%) Teamcenter
6 9 (0.38%) Remedy ITSM
6 9 (0.38%) Workday HCM
7 6 (0.25%) SAP MDG
8 4 (0.17%) Oracle Retail
8 4 (0.17%) Salesforce CRM
8 4 (0.17%) SAP CRM
8 4 (0.17%) SAP GRC
9 3 (0.13%) Dynamics CRM
9 3 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
9 3 (0.13%) SAP SD
10 2 (0.084%) Dynamics AX
10 2 (0.084%) Infor LN
10 2 (0.084%) Infor M3
10 2 (0.084%) NetSuite
10 2 (0.084%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 476 (19.89%) Azure
2 364 (15.21%) AWS
3 133 (5.56%) GCP
4 93 (3.89%) Entra ID
4 93 (3.89%) Power Platform
5 80 (3.34%) Microsoft 365
6 70 (2.93%) SaaS
6 70 (2.93%) Serverless
7 56 (2.34%) PaaS
8 43 (1.80%) IaaS
9 42 (1.76%) GitHub
10 41 (1.71%) Azure DevOps
11 38 (1.59%) Microsoft Purview
12 35 (1.46%) OpenShift
13 29 (1.21%) OneDrive
14 27 (1.13%) Dynamics 365
15 26 (1.09%) Azure Data Factory
16 24 (1.00%) AWS Lambda
16 24 (1.00%) Azure Synapse Analytics
17 23 (0.96%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 95 (3.97%) Firewall
2 69 (2.88%) WAN
3 65 (2.72%) DNS
4 64 (2.67%) Network Security
5 52 (2.17%) LAN
6 49 (2.05%) VPN
7 40 (1.67%) SD-WAN
8 34 (1.42%) DHCP
9 27 (1.13%) VLAN
10 24 (1.00%) Wireless
11 22 (0.92%) BGP
12 21 (0.88%) SAN
13 20 (0.84%) NAS
14 19 (0.79%) Structured Cabling
15 18 (0.75%) IPsec
16 16 (0.67%) BIG-IP
16 16 (0.67%) MPLS
16 16 (0.67%) OSPF
17 13 (0.54%) NX-OS
18 12 (0.50%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 70 (2.93%) Power BI
2 69 (2.88%) Metadata
3 52 (2.17%) Data Warehouse
4 39 (1.63%) Data Lake
5 38 (1.59%) SQL Server
6 34 (1.42%) NoSQL
7 24 (1.00%) PostgreSQL
8 21 (0.88%) Tableau
9 19 (0.79%) Oracle Database
10 13 (0.54%) GIS
11 12 (0.50%) Azure SQL Database
12 11 (0.46%) MongoDB
13 10 (0.42%) Big Data
14 9 (0.38%) DynamoDB
14 9 (0.38%) Relational Database
15 8 (0.33%) Electronic Patient Records
16 7 (0.29%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
16 7 (0.29%) Metadata Repository
16 7 (0.29%) MySQL
16 7 (0.29%) Spatial Data
Development Applications
1 69 (2.88%) JIRA
2 40 (1.67%) Jenkins
3 21 (0.88%) GitLab
4 20 (0.84%) Git
5 7 (0.29%) Artifactory
5 7 (0.29%) ERwin
6 5 (0.21%) Selenium
6 5 (0.21%) SonarQube
6 5 (0.21%) Sonatype Nexus
7 4 (0.17%) Bitbucket
7 4 (0.17%) Hudson
7 4 (0.17%) JUnit
7 4 (0.17%) Postman
7 4 (0.17%) REST Assured
8 3 (0.13%) Cucumber
8 3 (0.13%) MLflow
8 3 (0.13%) Rational DOORS
9 2 (0.084%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.084%) Gatling
9 2 (0.084%) NeoLoad
General
1 410 (17.13%) Social Skills
2 318 (13.29%) Finance
3 220 (9.19%) Public Sector
4 142 (5.93%) Banking
5 123 (5.14%) Analytical Skills
6 74 (3.09%) Retail
7 57 (2.38%) Documentation Skills
8 52 (2.17%) Legal
8 52 (2.17%) Manufacturing
9 41 (1.71%) Military
10 33 (1.38%) Influencing Skills
11 30 (1.25%) Aerospace
12 26 (1.09%) Investment Banking
13 22 (0.92%) Presentation Skills
14 21 (0.88%) Telecoms
15 19 (0.79%) Back Office
15 19 (0.79%) Financial Institution
15 19 (0.79%) Marketing
16 13 (0.54%) Billing
17 10 (0.42%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 94 (3.93%) REST
2 80 (3.34%) Middleware
3 50 (2.09%) .NET
4 47 (1.96%) OAuth
5 43 (1.80%) OpenID
6 39 (1.63%) SOAP
7 32 (1.34%) OAuth2
8 31 (1.30%) SAML
9 27 (1.13%) SailPoint
10 26 (1.09%) Kafka
11 25 (1.04%) Oracle Fusion
11 25 (1.04%) RESTful
12 22 (0.92%) JSON
13 20 (0.84%) Node.js
13 20 (0.84%) React
14 18 (0.75%) LDAP
14 18 (0.75%) Web Services
15 16 (0.67%) Microsoft Graph
16 13 (0.54%) AngularJS
17 12 (0.50%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 165 (6.90%) Cloud Native
2 82 (3.43%) Data Centre
3 71 (2.97%) Product Ownership
4 62 (2.59%) Operational Technology
5 52 (2.17%) Onboarding
5 52 (2.17%) Public Cloud
6 50 (2.09%) Hybrid Cloud
7 49 (2.05%) Management Information System
8 46 (1.92%) Data Protection Act
9 41 (1.71%) Distributed Systems
10 40 (1.67%) Enterprise Software
11 38 (1.59%) Legacy Systems
12 31 (1.30%) PKI
13 28 (1.17%) SCADA
14 25 (1.04%) CMDB
15 19 (0.79%) Data Structures
15 19 (0.79%) Private Cloud
16 17 (0.71%) AI Agents
16 17 (0.71%) Security Posture
17 15 (0.63%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 112 (4.68%) Windows
2 62 (2.59%) Linux
3 30 (1.25%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.67%) Android
4 16 (0.67%) Apple iOS
5 12 (0.50%) Unix
6 9 (0.38%) 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%) Windows Server 2019
10 4 (0.17%) Mac OS
11 3 (0.13%) Data ONTAP
11 3 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
12 2 (0.084%) 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
1 335 (14.00%) Agile
2 330 (13.79%) Roadmaps
3 261 (10.91%) Stakeholder Management
4 258 (10.78%) Migration
5 250 (10.45%) Enterprise Architecture
6 247 (10.32%) DevOps
7 219 (9.15%) CI/CD
8 203 (8.48%) Technical Leadership
9 188 (7.86%) Integration Patterns
10 186 (7.77%) Data Modelling
11 185 (7.73%) Architectural Patterns
11 185 (7.73%) Microservices
12 183 (7.65%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 169 (7.06%) TOGAF
14 165 (6.90%) Data Architecture
15 157 (6.56%) Architectural Design
16 148 (6.18%) Problem-Solving
17 146 (6.10%) Cybersecurity
18 134 (5.60%) Analytics
19 131 (5.47%) AI
Programming Languages
1 100 (4.18%) Python
2 94 (3.93%) SQL
3 71 (2.97%) PowerShell
4 66 (2.76%) Java
5 47 (1.96%) JavaScript
6 30 (1.25%) C#
7 21 (0.88%) Bicep
8 15 (0.63%) Bash
8 15 (0.63%) TypeScript
9 12 (0.50%) PL/SQL
10 10 (0.42%) Kusto Query Language
11 7 (0.29%) VBA
12 6 (0.25%) Scala
13 5 (0.21%) Apex Code
14 4 (0.17%) ABAP
14 4 (0.17%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 4 (0.17%) Kotlin
14 4 (0.17%) T-SQL
14 4 (0.17%) VB
14 4 (0.17%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 713 (29.80%) Security Cleared
2 414 (17.30%) SC Cleared
3 245 (10.24%) DV Cleared
4 92 (3.84%) Degree
5 53 (2.21%) TOGAF Certification
6 50 (2.09%) BPSS Clearance
7 45 (1.88%) Cisco Certification
8 35 (1.46%) CISSP
9 33 (1.38%) Computer Science Degree
10 32 (1.34%) AWS Certification
10 32 (1.34%) Azure Certification
11 31 (1.30%) CCNP
12 20 (0.84%) Microsoft Certification
13 18 (0.75%) CISM
14 16 (0.67%) Master's Degree
15 15 (0.63%) CCNA
16 14 (0.59%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
17 12 (0.50%) ITIL Certification
18 11 (0.46%) Network+ Certification
18 11 (0.46%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 90 (3.76%) NIST
2 75 (3.13%) GDPR
3 61 (2.55%) Data Quality
4 56 (2.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 47 (1.96%) NCSC
6 22 (0.92%) QA
7 20 (0.84%) Accessibility
8 16 (0.67%) Cyber Essentials
8 16 (0.67%) PCI DSS
9 14 (0.59%) GRC
10 12 (0.50%) FINRA
10 12 (0.50%) MiFID
10 12 (0.50%) NIST 800
11 11 (0.46%) COBIT
12 10 (0.42%) ISO 20022
13 8 (0.33%) Disclosure Scotland
13 8 (0.33%) HL7
14 7 (0.29%) ISO 19650
15 6 (0.25%) IFRS
15 6 (0.25%) JSP 440
System Software
1 100 (4.18%) Active Directory
2 58 (2.42%) VMware Infrastructure
3 34 (1.42%) Docker
4 32 (1.34%) VMware NSX
5 20 (0.84%) Hyper-V
5 20 (0.84%) vSphere
6 19 (0.79%) Virtual Desktop
7 11 (0.46%) VMware ESXi
8 10 (0.42%) vCloud
9 5 (0.21%) RACF
9 5 (0.21%) Virtual Machines
10 4 (0.17%) BitLocker
10 4 (0.17%) NFS
11 3 (0.13%) IAG
12 2 (0.084%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
12 2 (0.084%) Firmware
13 1 (0.042%) Embedded Firmware
13 1 (0.042%) ProxySG
13 1 (0.042%) Snort
13 1 (0.042%) SRDF
Systems Management
1 80 (3.34%) Terraform
2 77 (3.22%) Kubernetes
3 55 (2.30%) Ansible
4 35 (1.46%) Microsoft Intune
5 26 (1.09%) Single Sign-On
5 26 (1.09%) vCenter Server
6 15 (0.63%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 15 (0.63%) SCCM
7 12 (0.50%) FortiGate
7 12 (0.50%) OPNET
8 10 (0.42%) Argo
8 10 (0.42%) Grafana
9 7 (0.29%) Istio
9 7 (0.29%) WMI
10 6 (0.25%) Jamf Pro
10 6 (0.25%) Prometheus
11 5 (0.21%) Endace
12 3 (0.13%) EMC VPLEX
12 3 (0.13%) Puppet
12 3 (0.13%) vRealize
Vendors
1 322 (13.46%) Microsoft
2 146 (6.10%) SAP
3 128 (5.35%) VMware
4 120 (5.01%) ServiceNow
5 100 (4.18%) Oracle
6 71 (2.97%) Cisco
7 58 (2.42%) Salesforce
8 54 (2.26%) Databricks
9 52 (2.17%) Google
10 46 (1.92%) MuleSoft
11 29 (1.21%) Citrix
11 29 (1.21%) Red Hat
12 28 (1.17%) F5
13 25 (1.04%) Palo Alto
14 24 (1.00%) BiZZdesign
14 24 (1.00%) Sparx
15 23 (0.96%) Remedy
16 22 (0.92%) Juniper
17 20 (0.84%) Talend
18 17 (0.71%) Splunk