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 11 June 2026.

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

6 months to
11 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 2,444 1,095 2,147
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.61% 8.28% 10.10%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.46% 9.04% 10.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,615 726 1,283
10th Percentile £461 £450 £490
25th Percentile £513 £513 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £613 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year +2.08% -7.69% -
75th Percentile £711 £700 £725
90th Percentile £775 £756 £792
UK median daily rate £618 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -1.20% -3.85% -0.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 128 24 94
10th Percentile £49.40 £43.92 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £65.13 £60.31
Median hourly rate £65.00 £73.25 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -11.26% +4.64% -
75th Percentile £77.56 £82.25 £87.35
90th Percentile £88.05 £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 23,367 12,117 19,645
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.86% 91.60% 92.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,433 7,653 11,729
10th Percentile £303 £216 £213
25th Percentile £405 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £488
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
75th Percentile £594 £575 £591
90th Percentile £688 £650 £682
UK median daily rate £513 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +2.55% -4.76% -2.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,702 909 2,508
10th Percentile £14.82 £13.50 £12.63
25th Percentile £20.13 £16.95 £15.91
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -5.88%
75th Percentile £67.50 £60.00 £62.50
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £74.11
UK median hourly rate £43.00 £27.70 £37.50
% change year-on-year +55.23% -26.13% -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 11 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 11 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 11 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
South East +6 694 £625 +0.40% 164
North of England +6 690 £600 - 179
Midlands +1 440 £600 +2.17% 63
North West +4 371 £608 +1.33% 87
West Midlands +2 312 £621 +3.54% 52
Yorkshire +8 264 £555 -7.54% 48
South West -1 253 £648 +5.71% 65
East of England +21 207 £575 -4.17% 43
Scotland +11 159 £650 +4.00% 26
East Midlands +2 122 £573 +12.91% 11
North East +7 62 £575 - 45
Wales +1 33 £600 +25.65% 24
Northern Ireland +8 7 £475 -28.30% 4
Channel Islands - 3 £575 -
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 11 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.

1 704 (28.81%) Security Cleared
2 505 (20.66%) Azure
3 430 (17.59%) SC Cleared
4 390 (15.96%) AWS
5 348 (14.24%) Agile
6 345 (14.12%) Roadmaps
7 338 (13.83%) Microsoft
8 291 (11.91%) Migration
9 285 (11.66%) Stakeholder Management
10 265 (10.84%) DevOps
11 249 (10.19%) Enterprise Architecture
12 228 (9.33%) Technical Leadership
13 225 (9.21%) CI/CD
14 222 (9.08%) DV Cleared
15 202 (8.27%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 201 (8.22%) Integration Patterns
17 194 (7.94%) Architectural Patterns
18 193 (7.90%) Microservices
19 190 (7.77%) Data Modelling
20 177 (7.24%) Data Architecture
21 165 (6.75%) Architectural Design
21 165 (6.75%) Cybersecurity
22 164 (6.71%) TOGAF
23 158 (6.46%) Problem-Solving
24 144 (5.89%) SAP
25 140 (5.73%) AI
26 137 (5.61%) Analytics
27 134 (5.48%) GCP
28 133 (5.44%) Continuous Improvement
28 133 (5.44%) 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 (2.54%) SharePoint
2 47 (1.92%) Confluence
3 36 (1.47%) Microsoft Exchange
4 23 (0.94%) SAS
5 13 (0.53%) Apache Airflow
5 13 (0.53%) Appian
6 11 (0.45%) CMS
7 10 (0.41%) Apache
8 9 (0.37%) Apache Spark
9 8 (0.33%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 7 (0.29%) Anypoint
10 7 (0.29%) ArcGIS
11 6 (0.25%) OpenStack
11 6 (0.25%) Sitecore CMS
11 6 (0.25%) WebLogic
12 5 (0.20%) NetWeaver
13 4 (0.16%) JBoss
13 4 (0.16%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 4 (0.16%) SAP EP
13 4 (0.16%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 13 (0.53%) Microsoft Excel
1 13 (0.53%) 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 (0.16%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.041%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.041%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 58 (2.37%) SAP S/4HANA
2 21 (0.86%) Payment Gateway
3 20 (0.82%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 12 (0.49%) SAP ERP
5 10 (0.41%) Remedy ITSM
5 10 (0.41%) Teamcenter
6 6 (0.25%) Dynamics CRM
6 6 (0.25%) Oracle ERP
7 5 (0.20%) Maximo
7 5 (0.20%) Salesforce CRM
8 4 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
8 4 (0.16%) Oracle Retail
8 4 (0.16%) SAP CRM
8 4 (0.16%) SAP GRC
8 4 (0.16%) SAP MDG
9 3 (0.12%) Avolution ABACUS
9 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
9 3 (0.12%) SAP IBP
9 3 (0.12%) Workday HCM
10 2 (0.082%) Infor LN
Cloud Services
1 505 (20.66%) Azure
2 390 (15.96%) AWS
3 134 (5.48%) GCP
4 97 (3.97%) Power Platform
5 92 (3.76%) Entra ID
6 84 (3.44%) Microsoft 365
7 77 (3.15%) Serverless
8 74 (3.03%) SaaS
9 59 (2.41%) PaaS
10 47 (1.92%) GitHub
10 47 (1.92%) IaaS
11 41 (1.68%) Azure DevOps
12 38 (1.55%) Microsoft Purview
13 33 (1.35%) OpenShift
14 29 (1.19%) OneDrive
15 28 (1.15%) AWS Lambda
15 28 (1.15%) Dynamics 365
16 27 (1.10%) Azure Data Factory
17 26 (1.06%) Snowflake
18 24 (0.98%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 94 (3.85%) Firewall
2 73 (2.99%) WAN
3 70 (2.86%) DNS
4 64 (2.62%) Network Security
5 52 (2.13%) LAN
6 48 (1.96%) VPN
7 42 (1.72%) SD-WAN
8 36 (1.47%) DHCP
9 28 (1.15%) VLAN
10 25 (1.02%) Wireless
11 24 (0.98%) SAN
12 23 (0.94%) BGP
12 23 (0.94%) NAS
13 21 (0.86%) Structured Cabling
14 19 (0.78%) IPsec
14 19 (0.78%) MPLS
15 17 (0.70%) BIG-IP
16 16 (0.65%) OSPF
17 14 (0.57%) NX-OS
18 13 (0.53%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 70 (2.86%) Power BI
2 68 (2.78%) Metadata
3 51 (2.09%) Data Warehouse
4 47 (1.92%) Data Lake
5 35 (1.43%) NoSQL
6 34 (1.39%) SQL Server
7 26 (1.06%) PostgreSQL
8 18 (0.74%) Oracle Database
8 18 (0.74%) Tableau
9 15 (0.61%) GIS
10 13 (0.53%) Azure SQL Database
11 11 (0.45%) MongoDB
12 10 (0.41%) Big Data
13 9 (0.37%) Amazon RDS
13 9 (0.37%) DynamoDB
13 9 (0.37%) Electronic Patient Records
14 8 (0.33%) MySQL
14 8 (0.33%) Relational Database
14 8 (0.33%) SAS Enterprise Guide
15 7 (0.29%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
Development Applications
1 59 (2.41%) JIRA
2 34 (1.39%) Jenkins
3 20 (0.82%) Git
4 19 (0.78%) GitLab
5 7 (0.29%) ERwin
6 6 (0.25%) Artifactory
7 5 (0.20%) Selenium
8 4 (0.16%) Hudson
8 4 (0.16%) JUnit
8 4 (0.16%) Postman
8 4 (0.16%) REST Assured
8 4 (0.16%) Sonatype Nexus
9 3 (0.12%) Cucumber
9 3 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.12%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.082%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.082%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.082%) IntelliJ
10 2 (0.082%) NeoLoad
10 2 (0.082%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 427 (17.47%) Social Skills
2 332 (13.58%) Finance
3 223 (9.12%) Public Sector
4 147 (6.01%) Banking
5 122 (4.99%) Analytical Skills
6 84 (3.44%) Retail
7 61 (2.50%) Manufacturing
8 57 (2.33%) Legal
9 54 (2.21%) Documentation Skills
10 35 (1.43%) Aerospace
10 35 (1.43%) Influencing Skills
11 27 (1.10%) Military
12 26 (1.06%) Investment Banking
13 20 (0.82%) Financial Institution
13 20 (0.82%) Marketing
13 20 (0.82%) Presentation Skills
14 19 (0.78%) Back Office
15 18 (0.74%) Telecoms
16 12 (0.49%) Billing
16 12 (0.49%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 104 (4.26%) REST
2 81 (3.31%) Middleware
3 51 (2.09%) .NET
4 50 (2.05%) OAuth
5 46 (1.88%) OpenID
6 41 (1.68%) SOAP
7 34 (1.39%) SAML
8 32 (1.31%) OAuth2
8 32 (1.31%) Oracle Fusion
9 30 (1.23%) SailPoint
10 28 (1.15%) Kafka
11 26 (1.06%) RESTful
12 23 (0.94%) Node.js
12 23 (0.94%) React
13 22 (0.90%) JSON
14 21 (0.86%) LDAP
14 21 (0.86%) Web Services
15 16 (0.65%) Microsoft Graph
16 14 (0.57%) AngularJS
17 13 (0.53%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 168 (6.87%) Cloud Native
2 86 (3.52%) Data Centre
3 71 (2.91%) Product Ownership
4 70 (2.86%) Operational Technology
5 56 (2.29%) Management Information System
6 53 (2.17%) Hybrid Cloud
7 49 (2.00%) Public Cloud
8 48 (1.96%) Data Protection Act
8 48 (1.96%) Legacy Systems
8 48 (1.96%) Onboarding
9 47 (1.92%) Enterprise Software
10 44 (1.80%) Distributed Systems
11 27 (1.10%) PKI
12 26 (1.06%) CMDB
12 26 (1.06%) SCADA
13 22 (0.90%) Private Cloud
14 19 (0.78%) Data Structures
14 19 (0.78%) Security Posture
15 17 (0.70%) AI Agents
15 17 (0.70%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 105 (4.30%) Windows
2 49 (2.00%) Linux
3 32 (1.31%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.65%) Android
4 16 (0.65%) Apple iOS
5 11 (0.45%) Unix
6 8 (0.33%) Windows Server 2016
7 6 (0.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 6 (0.25%) Windows 10
8 5 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
8 5 (0.20%) Windows 7
8 5 (0.20%) Windows Server 2019
9 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (0.082%) Mac OS
10 2 (0.082%) VMS
11 1 (0.041%) CentOS
11 1 (0.041%) Kali Linux
11 1 (0.041%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.041%) Windows Server 2008
11 1 (0.041%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 348 (14.24%) Agile
2 345 (14.12%) Roadmaps
3 291 (11.91%) Migration
4 285 (11.66%) Stakeholder Management
5 265 (10.84%) DevOps
6 249 (10.19%) Enterprise Architecture
7 228 (9.33%) Technical Leadership
8 225 (9.21%) CI/CD
9 202 (8.27%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 201 (8.22%) Integration Patterns
11 194 (7.94%) Architectural Patterns
12 193 (7.90%) Microservices
13 190 (7.77%) Data Modelling
14 177 (7.24%) Data Architecture
15 165 (6.75%) Architectural Design
15 165 (6.75%) Cybersecurity
16 164 (6.71%) TOGAF
17 158 (6.46%) Problem-Solving
18 140 (5.73%) AI
19 137 (5.61%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 107 (4.38%) SQL
2 100 (4.09%) Python
3 83 (3.40%) Java
4 64 (2.62%) PowerShell
5 48 (1.96%) JavaScript
6 31 (1.27%) C#
7 23 (0.94%) Bicep
8 16 (0.65%) TypeScript
9 14 (0.57%) Bash
10 10 (0.41%) Kusto Query Language
10 10 (0.41%) PL/SQL
11 8 (0.33%) VBA
12 6 (0.25%) Scala
13 5 (0.20%) ABAP
13 5 (0.20%) Apex Code
14 4 (0.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 4 (0.16%) Perl
14 4 (0.16%) T-SQL
14 4 (0.16%) VB
14 4 (0.16%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 704 (28.81%) Security Cleared
2 430 (17.59%) SC Cleared
3 222 (9.08%) DV Cleared
4 87 (3.56%) Degree
5 54 (2.21%) BPSS Clearance
6 51 (2.09%) Cisco Certification
7 42 (1.72%) TOGAF Certification
8 38 (1.55%) Azure Certification
9 36 (1.47%) CISSP
10 35 (1.43%) AWS Certification
10 35 (1.43%) Computer Science Degree
11 31 (1.27%) CCNP
12 22 (0.90%) Microsoft Certification
13 18 (0.74%) CISM
14 16 (0.65%) CCNA
15 15 (0.61%) Master's Degree
16 13 (0.53%) ITIL Certification
17 12 (0.49%) Network+ Certification
17 12 (0.49%) Server+ Certification
18 11 (0.45%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 93 (3.81%) NIST
2 78 (3.19%) GDPR
3 65 (2.66%) Data Quality
4 57 (2.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 49 (2.00%) NCSC
6 24 (0.98%) QA
7 20 (0.82%) Accessibility
8 17 (0.70%) PCI DSS
9 14 (0.57%) GRC
10 12 (0.49%) COBIT
10 12 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials
10 12 (0.49%) FINRA
10 12 (0.49%) MiFID
10 12 (0.49%) NIST 800
11 11 (0.45%) IFRS
12 10 (0.41%) ISO 19650
12 10 (0.41%) ISO 20022
13 9 (0.37%) HL7
14 8 (0.33%) Disclosure Scotland
15 6 (0.25%) SEPA
System Software
1 100 (4.09%) Active Directory
2 60 (2.45%) VMware Infrastructure
3 38 (1.55%) Docker
4 30 (1.23%) VMware NSX
5 22 (0.90%) Hyper-V
6 21 (0.86%) vSphere
7 16 (0.65%) Virtual Desktop
8 11 (0.45%) VMware ESXi
9 9 (0.37%) Virtual Machines
10 8 (0.33%) vCloud
11 5 (0.20%) RACF
12 4 (0.16%) BitLocker
12 4 (0.16%) NFS
13 3 (0.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
13 3 (0.12%) IAG
13 3 (0.12%) SRDF
14 2 (0.082%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
14 2 (0.082%) Firmware
15 1 (0.041%) Embedded Firmware
15 1 (0.041%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 86 (3.52%) Kubernetes
2 80 (3.27%) Terraform
3 52 (2.13%) Ansible
4 34 (1.39%) Microsoft Intune
5 25 (1.02%) vCenter Server
6 24 (0.98%) Single Sign-On
7 16 (0.65%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 15 (0.61%) Grafana
9 14 (0.57%) FortiGate
10 13 (0.53%) SCCM
11 12 (0.49%) Argo
12 11 (0.45%) Prometheus
13 7 (0.29%) Jamf Pro
14 6 (0.25%) Istio
15 5 (0.20%) EMC VPLEX
16 4 (0.16%) Endace
16 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
16 4 (0.16%) WMI
17 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
17 3 (0.12%) MOM
Vendors
1 338 (13.83%) Microsoft
2 144 (5.89%) SAP
3 126 (5.16%) VMware
4 110 (4.50%) Oracle
5 100 (4.09%) ServiceNow
6 74 (3.03%) Cisco
7 66 (2.70%) Databricks
8 56 (2.29%) Salesforce
9 54 (2.21%) Google
10 37 (1.51%) MuleSoft
11 30 (1.23%) Red Hat
12 28 (1.15%) F5
13 24 (0.98%) Palo Alto
14 23 (0.94%) Citrix
15 22 (0.90%) BiZZdesign
15 22 (0.90%) Sparx
16 21 (0.86%) Juniper
17 20 (0.82%) Talend
18 17 (0.70%) Informatica
19 15 (0.61%) BMC