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 14 March 2026.

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

6 months to
14 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 2,192 1,128 1,984
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 10.13% 8.82% 9.40%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.06% 9.54% 10.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,416 776 1,222
10th Percentile £447 £456 £500
25th Percentile £506 £538 £575
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £623 £650
Median % change year-on-year -3.75% -4.09% -
75th Percentile £700 £700 £715
90th Percentile £768 £747 £775
UK median daily rate £620 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -0.80% -3.85% -1.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 89 27 39
10th Percentile £49.40 £61.50 £52.11
25th Percentile £60.00 £66.00 £60.63
Median hourly rate £71.27 £73.31 £81.27
Median % change year-on-year -2.78% -9.79% +16.09%
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 19,814 11,828 19,580
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.54% 92.51% 92.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,751 7,553 12,184
10th Percentile £250 £210 £210
25th Percentile £390 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £475 £487
Median % change year-on-year +1.05% -2.46% -2.60%
75th Percentile £580 £588 £594
90th Percentile £675 £665 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,159 688 2,080
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.10 £12.50
25th Percentile £18.87 £20.26 £15.61
Median hourly rate £35.00 £32.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% - -19.90%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.73 £71.25
UK median hourly rate £35.00 £33.06 £32.50
% change year-on-year +5.88% +1.71% -23.53%

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 14 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 14 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 14 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 +4 673 £625 - 243
North of England +1 566 £600 - 163
Midlands 0 386 £575 -4.56% 96
North West +1 318 £600 - 87
West Midlands -1 287 £600 -3.81% 56
South West 0 267 £700 +14.29% 110
Yorkshire +6 225 £563 -6.25% 51
East of England +16 165 £540 -13.60% 69
Scotland +21 144 £650 +4.00% 28
East Midlands +1 95 £513 -9.69% 39
North East -4 29 £625 - 28
Wales +2 28 £550 +1.85% 21
Northern Ireland +7 11 £500 -26.47% 5
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 14 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.

1 707 (32.25%) Security Cleared
2 462 (21.08%) Azure
3 399 (18.20%) SC Cleared
4 347 (15.83%) AWS
5 325 (14.83%) Agile
6 323 (14.74%) Roadmaps
7 320 (14.60%) Microsoft
8 271 (12.36%) Stakeholder Management
9 260 (11.86%) Migration
10 249 (11.36%) DV Cleared
11 248 (11.31%) Enterprise Architecture
12 225 (10.26%) TOGAF
13 208 (9.49%) DevOps
14 189 (8.62%) Data Modelling
15 186 (8.49%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 184 (8.39%) CI/CD
17 174 (7.94%) Technical Leadership
18 163 (7.44%) Problem-Solving
19 153 (6.98%) Architectural Patterns
20 152 (6.93%) Data Architecture
20 152 (6.93%) Microservices
21 149 (6.80%) Analytics
22 145 (6.61%) ITIL
23 144 (6.57%) GCP
24 141 (6.43%) Cybersecurity
25 140 (6.39%) Architectural Design
25 140 (6.39%) Integration Patterns
26 131 (5.98%) ServiceNow
26 131 (5.98%) Windows
27 130 (5.93%) 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 (4.06%) Confluence
2 65 (2.97%) SharePoint
3 49 (2.24%) Microsoft Exchange
4 25 (1.14%) SAS
5 13 (0.59%) Appian
6 11 (0.50%) ArcGIS
6 11 (0.50%) CMS
7 10 (0.46%) Anypoint
8 9 (0.41%) Apache
8 9 (0.41%) Smallworld
9 7 (0.32%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 7 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
9 7 (0.32%) Apache Spark
9 7 (0.32%) Skype for Business
10 6 (0.27%) Sitecore CMS
10 6 (0.27%) WebLogic
11 5 (0.23%) GeoServer
12 4 (0.18%) IIS
12 4 (0.18%) JBoss
12 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 51 (2.33%) SAP S/4HANA
2 30 (1.37%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 16 (0.73%) 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
1 462 (21.08%) Azure
2 347 (15.83%) AWS
3 144 (6.57%) GCP
4 97 (4.43%) Entra ID
5 87 (3.97%) Microsoft 365
6 65 (2.97%) Power Platform
7 61 (2.78%) Serverless
8 60 (2.74%) SaaS
9 48 (2.19%) IaaS
9 48 (2.19%) Microsoft Purview
9 48 (2.19%) PaaS
10 39 (1.78%) OneDrive
10 39 (1.78%) OpenShift
11 35 (1.60%) Azure DevOps
11 35 (1.60%) GitHub
12 31 (1.41%) Dynamics 365
13 28 (1.28%) AWS Lambda
14 27 (1.23%) AWS CloudFormation
15 26 (1.19%) Azure Synapse Analytics
16 22 (1.00%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 112 (5.11%) Firewall
2 72 (3.28%) WAN
3 71 (3.24%) DNS
4 66 (3.01%) Network Security
5 58 (2.65%) VPN
6 48 (2.19%) LAN
7 41 (1.87%) SD-WAN
8 28 (1.28%) DHCP
9 20 (0.91%) MPLS
10 18 (0.82%) BGP
10 18 (0.82%) VLAN
11 17 (0.78%) Wi-Fi
11 17 (0.78%) Wireless
12 16 (0.73%) SAN
13 14 (0.64%) IPsec
14 13 (0.59%) Kerberos
14 13 (0.59%) OSPF
15 11 (0.50%) Internet
15 11 (0.50%) SSL
15 11 (0.50%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 78 (3.56%) Data Warehouse
2 70 (3.19%) Metadata
3 52 (2.37%) Power BI
4 43 (1.96%) SQL Server
5 30 (1.37%) PostgreSQL
6 26 (1.19%) Tableau
7 24 (1.09%) Data Lake
8 23 (1.05%) Oracle Database
9 22 (1.00%) NoSQL
10 20 (0.91%) GIS
11 15 (0.68%) DynamoDB
12 14 (0.64%) Metadata Repository
13 12 (0.55%) Azure SQL Database
13 12 (0.55%) Big Data
14 11 (0.50%) Relational Database
15 9 (0.41%) Amazon Redshift
15 9 (0.41%) Electronic Patient Records
16 8 (0.36%) Amazon Athena
16 8 (0.36%) SQL Server Reporting Services
17 7 (0.32%) SAS Enterprise Guide
Development Applications
1 97 (4.43%) JIRA
2 46 (2.10%) Jenkins
3 19 (0.87%) Git
3 19 (0.87%) 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
1 437 (19.94%) Social Skills
2 275 (12.55%) Finance
3 237 (10.81%) Public Sector
4 147 (6.71%) Analytical Skills
5 126 (5.75%) Banking
6 59 (2.69%) Documentation Skills
6 59 (2.69%) Military
7 46 (2.10%) Legal
8 41 (1.87%) Telecoms
9 39 (1.78%) Retail
10 37 (1.69%) Influencing Skills
10 37 (1.69%) Marketing
11 34 (1.55%) Presentation Skills
12 21 (0.96%) Manufacturing
13 19 (0.87%) Aerospace
13 19 (0.87%) Investment Banking
14 15 (0.68%) Financial Institution
15 14 (0.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 12 (0.55%) Billing
17 11 (0.50%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 85 (3.88%) REST
2 57 (2.60%) Middleware
3 44 (2.01%) SOAP
4 42 (1.92%) OAuth
5 38 (1.73%) .NET
6 34 (1.55%) OpenID
7 32 (1.46%) SAML
8 30 (1.37%) OAuth2
9 28 (1.28%) SailPoint
10 27 (1.23%) Kafka
11 22 (1.00%) RESTful
12 17 (0.78%) React
12 17 (0.78%) Web Services
13 16 (0.73%) Node.js
14 15 (0.68%) Microsoft Graph
15 14 (0.64%) LDAP
16 12 (0.55%) CSS
16 12 (0.55%) HTML
16 12 (0.55%) Oracle Fusion
17 10 (0.46%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 146 (6.66%) Cloud Native
2 100 (4.56%) Product Ownership
3 83 (3.79%) Data Centre
4 61 (2.78%) Onboarding
5 53 (2.42%) Public Cloud
6 48 (2.19%) PKI
7 42 (1.92%) Operational Technology
8 41 (1.87%) Hybrid Cloud
9 38 (1.73%) Legacy Systems
9 38 (1.73%) Management Information System
10 37 (1.69%) Enterprise Software
11 35 (1.60%) Data Protection Act
12 32 (1.46%) Distributed Systems
13 27 (1.23%) CMDB
14 26 (1.19%) SCADA
15 22 (1.00%) NHS
16 18 (0.82%) AI Agents
17 16 (0.73%) Data Structures
18 14 (0.64%) Blackberry
19 13 (0.59%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 131 (5.98%) Windows
2 76 (3.47%) Linux
3 30 (1.37%) 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 (14.83%) Agile
2 323 (14.74%) Roadmaps
3 271 (12.36%) Stakeholder Management
4 260 (11.86%) Migration
5 248 (11.31%) Enterprise Architecture
6 225 (10.26%) TOGAF
7 208 (9.49%) DevOps
8 189 (8.62%) Data Modelling
9 186 (8.49%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 184 (8.39%) CI/CD
11 174 (7.94%) Technical Leadership
12 163 (7.44%) Problem-Solving
13 153 (6.98%) Architectural Patterns
14 152 (6.93%) Data Architecture
14 152 (6.93%) Microservices
15 149 (6.80%) Analytics
16 145 (6.61%) ITIL
17 141 (6.43%) Cybersecurity
18 140 (6.39%) Architectural Design
18 140 (6.39%) Integration Patterns
Programming Languages
1 126 (5.75%) Python
2 79 (3.60%) PowerShell
3 76 (3.47%) SQL
4 60 (2.74%) Java
5 33 (1.51%) JavaScript
6 30 (1.37%) C#
7 19 (0.87%) 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
1 707 (32.25%) Security Cleared
2 399 (18.20%) SC Cleared
3 249 (11.36%) DV Cleared
4 108 (4.93%) Degree
5 80 (3.65%) TOGAF Certification
6 65 (2.97%) CISSP
7 55 (2.51%) AWS Certification
8 46 (2.10%) BPSS Clearance
9 41 (1.87%) Azure Certification
10 40 (1.82%) Cisco Certification
11 38 (1.73%) CISM
12 30 (1.37%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 29 (1.32%) Microsoft Certification
14 28 (1.28%) Computer Science Degree
15 27 (1.23%) ITIL Certification
16 26 (1.19%) CCNP
16 26 (1.19%) ISEB
17 23 (1.05%) Master's Degree
18 16 (0.73%) CCIE
19 13 (0.59%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 107 (4.88%) GDPR
2 95 (4.33%) NIST
3 73 (3.33%) Data Quality
4 69 (3.15%) 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 (0.87%) 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
1 103 (4.70%) Active Directory
2 60 (2.74%) VMware Infrastructure
3 41 (1.87%) Docker
4 33 (1.51%) 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%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 103 (4.70%) Terraform
2 79 (3.60%) Kubernetes
3 59 (2.69%) Ansible
4 33 (1.51%) 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
1 320 (14.60%) Microsoft
2 131 (5.98%) ServiceNow
3 130 (5.93%) VMware
4 110 (5.02%) SAP
5 94 (4.29%) Oracle
6 74 (3.38%) Cisco
7 72 (3.28%) Salesforce
8 49 (2.24%) Google
9 43 (1.96%) Remedy
10 39 (1.78%) MuleSoft
11 38 (1.73%) Red Hat
12 37 (1.69%) Databricks
13 35 (1.60%) Atlassian
14 34 (1.55%) BiZZdesign
15 33 (1.51%) Palo Alto
16 30 (1.37%) Citrix
17 29 (1.32%) Sparx
18 28 (1.28%) CyberArk
19 26 (1.19%) F5
19 26 (1.19%) Virgin Media