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 9 March 2026.

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

 6 months to
9 Mar 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 18 13
Rank change year-on-year +7 -5 +7
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,117 1,143 2,017
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 10.03% 8.88% 9.51%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.95% 9.60% 10.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,375 784 1,242
10th Percentile £447 £453 £500
25th Percentile £506 £539 £575
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £621 £650
Median % change year-on-year -3.42% -4.42% -
75th Percentile £706 £700 £713
90th Percentile £770 £749 £775
UK median daily rate £625 £625 £650
% change year-on-year - -3.85% -1.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 82 24 42
10th Percentile £49.40 £61.50 £52.98
25th Percentile £60.00 £64.88 £61.25
Median hourly rate £71.27 £72.50 £77.64
Median % change year-on-year -1.70% -6.61% +10.91%
75th Percentile £84.88 £78.92 £87.53
90th Percentile £95.00 £84.72 £95.00
UK median hourly rate £70.00 £71.25 £76.53
% change year-on-year -1.75% -6.90% +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 19,342 11,905 19,697
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.62% 92.49% 92.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,509 7,599 12,259
10th Percentile £250 £209 £210
25th Percentile £388 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £475 £488
Median % change year-on-year +1.26% -2.56% -2.50%
75th Percentile £580 £588 £593
90th Percentile £675 £667 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,090 681 2,087
10th Percentile £14.36 £15.22 £12.52
25th Percentile £18.86 £20.30 £15.61
Median hourly rate £33.50 £32.50 £32.90
Median % change year-on-year +3.08% -1.20% -17.30%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £71.88
UK median hourly rate £34.95 £33.75 £32.69
% change year-on-year +3.54% +3.24% -20.33%

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 9 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 9 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 9 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 +5 657 £625 - 274
North of England -2 528 £579 -3.50% 163
Midlands -3 379 £576 -3.96% 107
North West 0 289 £600 - 94
West Midlands -1 282 £600 -1.15% 57
South West 0 260 £700 +12.00% 120
Yorkshire +8 218 £560 -2.40% 46
East of England +12 162 £550 -12.00% 72
Scotland +19 139 £650 +4.00% 52
East Midlands -1 93 £519 -7.37% 45
Wales +9 30 £575 +6.48% 33
North East -5 27 £625 - 25
Northern Ireland +4 9 £500 -26.47% 6
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 9 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.

1 680 (32.12%) Security Cleared
2 437 (20.64%) Azure
3 390 (18.42%) SC Cleared
4 325 (15.35%) AWS
5 313 (14.79%) Microsoft
6 311 (14.69%) Roadmaps
7 309 (14.60%) Agile
8 273 (12.90%) Stakeholder Management
9 260 (12.28%) Migration
10 249 (11.76%) Enterprise Architecture
11 234 (11.05%) DV Cleared
12 225 (10.63%) TOGAF
13 201 (9.49%) DevOps
14 184 (8.69%) Data Modelling
15 176 (8.31%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 168 (7.94%) CI/CD
17 166 (7.84%) Technical Leadership
18 161 (7.61%) Problem-Solving
19 147 (6.94%) Data Architecture
20 146 (6.90%) Analytics
21 145 (6.85%) Microservices
22 141 (6.66%) ITIL
23 137 (6.47%) Cybersecurity
24 134 (6.33%) Architectural Design
24 134 (6.33%) GCP
25 133 (6.28%) Architectural Patterns
26 128 (6.05%) ServiceNow
27 126 (5.95%) VMware
27 126 (5.95%) Windows
28 125 (5.90%) Integration Patterns

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 87 (4.11%) Confluence
2 61 (2.88%) SharePoint
3 49 (2.31%) Microsoft Exchange
4 25 (1.18%) SAS
5 13 (0.61%) Appian
6 11 (0.52%) ArcGIS
6 11 (0.52%) CMS
7 10 (0.47%) Anypoint
8 9 (0.43%) Apache
8 9 (0.43%) Smallworld
9 8 (0.38%) Apache Airflow
10 7 (0.33%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 7 (0.33%) Apache Spark
10 7 (0.33%) Skype for Business
11 6 (0.28%) Sitecore CMS
11 6 (0.28%) WebLogic
12 5 (0.24%) GeoServer
13 4 (0.19%) IIS
13 4 (0.19%) JBoss
13 4 (0.19%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 45 (2.13%) Microsoft Office
2 30 (1.42%) Microsoft Project
3 22 (1.04%) Microsoft Excel
4 21 (0.99%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.33%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.19%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.047%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 50 (2.36%) SAP S/4HANA
2 27 (1.28%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 15 (0.71%) Payment Gateway
4 14 (0.66%) Workday HCM
5 10 (0.47%) Dynamics CRM
6 9 (0.43%) Salesforce CRM
7 7 (0.33%) Maximo
7 7 (0.33%) SAP ERP
8 5 (0.24%) Remedy ITSM
8 5 (0.24%) SAP CO
8 5 (0.24%) SAP FI
8 5 (0.24%) SAP FI/CO
9 4 (0.19%) Distributed Ledger
9 4 (0.19%) R3 Corda
9 4 (0.19%) SAP GRC
9 4 (0.19%) SAP PP
10 3 (0.14%) SAP CRM
10 3 (0.14%) SAP MDG
10 3 (0.14%) SAP SD
10 3 (0.14%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 437 (20.64%) Azure
2 325 (15.35%) AWS
3 134 (6.33%) GCP
4 87 (4.11%) Microsoft 365
5 84 (3.97%) Entra ID
6 63 (2.98%) Power Platform
7 62 (2.93%) SaaS
8 53 (2.50%) Serverless
9 48 (2.27%) Microsoft Purview
10 47 (2.22%) PaaS
11 46 (2.17%) IaaS
12 39 (1.84%) OneDrive
13 36 (1.70%) OpenShift
14 34 (1.61%) Azure DevOps
15 33 (1.56%) Dynamics 365
16 31 (1.46%) GitHub
17 27 (1.28%) Azure Synapse Analytics
18 26 (1.23%) AWS CloudFormation
19 25 (1.18%) AWS Lambda
20 22 (1.04%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 99 (4.68%) Firewall
2 68 (3.21%) DNS
3 65 (3.07%) WAN
4 57 (2.69%) Network Security
5 53 (2.50%) VPN
6 42 (1.98%) LAN
7 36 (1.70%) SD-WAN
8 26 (1.23%) DHCP
9 20 (0.94%) MPLS
10 18 (0.85%) BGP
10 18 (0.85%) VLAN
11 16 (0.76%) Wi-Fi
11 16 (0.76%) Wireless
12 14 (0.66%) IPsec
12 14 (0.66%) SAN
13 12 (0.57%) OSPF
13 12 (0.57%) VXLAN
14 11 (0.52%) Kerberos
14 11 (0.52%) SSL
15 10 (0.47%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 81 (3.83%) Data Warehouse
2 69 (3.26%) Metadata
3 51 (2.41%) Power BI
4 44 (2.08%) SQL Server
5 29 (1.37%) PostgreSQL
6 26 (1.23%) Tableau
7 25 (1.18%) Data Lake
8 22 (1.04%) Oracle Database
9 20 (0.94%) GIS
10 19 (0.90%) NoSQL
11 15 (0.71%) DynamoDB
12 14 (0.66%) Metadata Repository
13 12 (0.57%) Relational Database
14 11 (0.52%) Big Data
15 10 (0.47%) Amazon Redshift
15 10 (0.47%) Azure SQL Database
16 8 (0.38%) Amazon Athena
16 8 (0.38%) SQL Server Reporting Services
17 7 (0.33%) Hadoop
17 7 (0.33%) SAS Enterprise Guide
Development Applications
1 96 (4.53%) JIRA
2 43 (2.03%) Jenkins
3 18 (0.85%) Git
3 18 (0.85%) GitLab
4 4 (0.19%) Artifactory
4 4 (0.19%) ERwin
4 4 (0.19%) Selenium
4 4 (0.19%) 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 (0.094%) JMeter
6 2 (0.094%) JUnit
6 2 (0.094%) LoadRunner
6 2 (0.094%) NeoLoad
6 2 (0.094%) Oracle Forms
General
1 430 (20.31%) Social Skills
2 268 (12.66%) Finance
3 230 (10.86%) Public Sector
4 144 (6.80%) Analytical Skills
5 115 (5.43%) Banking
6 57 (2.69%) Documentation Skills
7 55 (2.60%) Military
8 45 (2.13%) Legal
9 41 (1.94%) Telecoms
10 38 (1.79%) Retail
11 37 (1.75%) Influencing Skills
11 37 (1.75%) Marketing
12 34 (1.61%) Presentation Skills
13 20 (0.94%) Manufacturing
14 19 (0.90%) Aerospace
15 17 (0.80%) Investment Banking
16 15 (0.71%) Financial Institution
17 14 (0.66%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 12 (0.57%) Billing
19 10 (0.47%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 79 (3.73%) REST
2 56 (2.65%) Middleware
3 43 (2.03%) SOAP
4 38 (1.79%) .NET
5 36 (1.70%) OAuth
6 32 (1.51%) OpenID
7 29 (1.37%) SAML
8 28 (1.32%) OAuth2
8 28 (1.32%) SailPoint
9 24 (1.13%) Kafka
10 21 (0.99%) RESTful
11 17 (0.80%) React
12 16 (0.76%) Node.js
12 16 (0.76%) Web Services
13 15 (0.71%) Microsoft Graph
14 14 (0.66%) Oracle Fusion
15 12 (0.57%) CSS
15 12 (0.57%) HTML
15 12 (0.57%) LDAP
16 10 (0.47%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 129 (6.09%) Cloud Native
2 101 (4.77%) Product Ownership
3 76 (3.59%) Data Centre
4 58 (2.74%) Onboarding
5 53 (2.50%) Public Cloud
6 48 (2.27%) PKI
7 42 (1.98%) Hybrid Cloud
7 42 (1.98%) Operational Technology
8 40 (1.89%) Legacy Systems
9 36 (1.70%) Enterprise Software
10 35 (1.65%) Data Protection Act
10 35 (1.65%) Management Information System
11 30 (1.42%) Distributed Systems
12 26 (1.23%) CMDB
13 22 (1.04%) SCADA
14 17 (0.80%) AI Agents
15 16 (0.76%) NHS
16 15 (0.71%) Data Structures
17 14 (0.66%) Blackberry
18 12 (0.57%) Blockchain
Operating Systems
1 126 (5.95%) Windows
2 71 (3.35%) Linux
3 26 (1.23%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.76%) Windows 7
5 14 (0.66%) Android
5 14 (0.66%) Apple iOS
5 14 (0.66%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 11 (0.52%) Windows 10
7 8 (0.38%) Windows Server 2016
8 7 (0.33%) Unix
9 5 (0.24%) VMS
9 5 (0.24%) Windows Server 2019
10 4 (0.19%) Mac OS
11 3 (0.14%) Ubuntu
11 3 (0.14%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.047%) CentOS
12 1 (0.047%) Data ONTAP
12 1 (0.047%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 311 (14.69%) Roadmaps
2 309 (14.60%) Agile
3 273 (12.90%) Stakeholder Management
4 260 (12.28%) Migration
5 249 (11.76%) Enterprise Architecture
6 225 (10.63%) TOGAF
7 201 (9.49%) DevOps
8 184 (8.69%) Data Modelling
9 176 (8.31%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 168 (7.94%) CI/CD
11 166 (7.84%) Technical Leadership
12 161 (7.61%) Problem-Solving
13 147 (6.94%) Data Architecture
14 146 (6.90%) Analytics
15 145 (6.85%) Microservices
16 141 (6.66%) ITIL
17 137 (6.47%) Cybersecurity
18 134 (6.33%) Architectural Design
19 133 (6.28%) Architectural Patterns
20 125 (5.90%) Integration Patterns
Programming Languages
1 125 (5.90%) Python
2 79 (3.73%) PowerShell
3 73 (3.45%) SQL
4 57 (2.69%) Java
5 32 (1.51%) JavaScript
6 29 (1.37%) C#
7 17 (0.80%) Bash
8 14 (0.66%) Bicep
9 11 (0.52%) Kusto Query Language
10 9 (0.43%) PL/SQL
11 8 (0.38%) R
12 7 (0.33%) TypeScript
12 7 (0.33%) VB
12 7 (0.33%) VBScript
13 5 (0.24%) Apex Code
14 4 (0.19%) Perl
14 4 (0.19%) Scala
14 4 (0.19%) Shell Script
14 4 (0.19%) X++
15 3 (0.14%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 680 (32.12%) Security Cleared
2 390 (18.42%) SC Cleared
3 234 (11.05%) DV Cleared
4 110 (5.20%) Degree
5 77 (3.64%) TOGAF Certification
6 66 (3.12%) CISSP
7 52 (2.46%) AWS Certification
8 44 (2.08%) BPSS Clearance
9 39 (1.84%) Azure Certification
10 37 (1.75%) Cisco Certification
11 35 (1.65%) CISM
12 29 (1.37%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 29 (1.37%) Computer Science Degree
12 29 (1.37%) Microsoft Certification
13 27 (1.28%) ITIL Certification
14 26 (1.23%) ISEB
15 24 (1.13%) CCNP
16 23 (1.09%) Master's Degree
17 15 (0.71%) CCIE
18 12 (0.57%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 100 (4.72%) GDPR
2 81 (3.83%) NIST
3 71 (3.35%) Data Quality
4 60 (2.83%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 40 (1.89%) NCSC
6 31 (1.46%) PCI DSS
7 29 (1.37%) COBIT
8 21 (0.99%) QA
9 20 (0.94%) GRC
10 16 (0.76%) Cyber Essentials
10 16 (0.76%) JSP 440
11 13 (0.61%) Accessibility
12 12 (0.57%) FINRA
12 12 (0.57%) ISO 20022
12 12 (0.57%) MiFID
13 9 (0.43%) California Consumer Privacy Act
13 9 (0.43%) Def Stans
13 9 (0.43%) HMG Security Policy Framework
14 8 (0.38%) NIST 800
15 7 (0.33%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 95 (4.49%) Active Directory
2 55 (2.60%) VMware Infrastructure
3 38 (1.79%) Docker
4 34 (1.61%) VMware NSX
5 23 (1.09%) vSphere
6 12 (0.57%) Virtual Desktop
7 11 (0.52%) Hyper-V
8 8 (0.38%) Virtual Machines
8 8 (0.38%) VMware ESXi
9 7 (0.33%) BitLocker
9 7 (0.33%) vCloud
10 5 (0.24%) RACF
11 3 (0.14%) IAG
12 2 (0.094%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
12 2 (0.094%) Firmware
12 2 (0.094%) NFS
13 1 (0.047%) Embedded Firmware
13 1 (0.047%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 97 (4.58%) Terraform
2 76 (3.59%) Kubernetes
3 58 (2.74%) Ansible
4 31 (1.46%) Microsoft Intune
4 31 (1.46%) Single Sign-On
5 30 (1.42%) OPNET
6 27 (1.28%) vCenter Server
7 20 (0.94%) SCCM
8 15 (0.71%) WMI
9 14 (0.66%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 13 (0.61%) Argo
11 11 (0.52%) FortiGate
12 6 (0.28%) Prometheus
13 5 (0.24%) Istio
14 4 (0.19%) Grafana
15 3 (0.14%) Endace
15 3 (0.14%) SCOM
16 2 (0.094%) Jamf Pro
16 2 (0.094%) MOM
16 2 (0.094%) Nessus
Vendors
1 313 (14.79%) Microsoft
2 128 (6.05%) ServiceNow
3 126 (5.95%) VMware
4 106 (5.01%) SAP
5 95 (4.49%) Oracle
6 73 (3.45%) Salesforce
7 72 (3.40%) Cisco
8 49 (2.31%) Google
9 42 (1.98%) Remedy
10 37 (1.75%) MuleSoft
11 36 (1.70%) Red Hat
12 34 (1.61%) Atlassian
12 34 (1.61%) Databricks
13 33 (1.56%) BiZZdesign
13 33 (1.56%) Palo Alto
14 28 (1.32%) Citrix
14 28 (1.32%) CyberArk
15 26 (1.23%) Sparx
16 25 (1.18%) F5
16 25 (1.18%) Virgin Media
812 Architect jobs in the UK excluding London