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 14 August 2026.

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

6 months to
14 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 20 13
Rank change year-on-year +6 -7 +5
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,471 1,255 1,804
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.01% 8.21% 9.85%
As % of the Job Titles category 9.81% 9.10% 10.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,645 856 1,132
10th Percentile £480 £462 £481
25th Percentile £525 £519 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £620 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year +3.33% -7.69% +0.46%
75th Percentile £711 £694 £725
90th Percentile £775 £760 £788
UK median daily rate £620 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -0.80% -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 153 15 74
10th Percentile £46.00 £33.64 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £64.38 £60.31
Median hourly rate £65.00 £72.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.34% +3.57% -3.89%
75th Percentile £71.91 £86.50 £85.00
90th Percentile £83.00 £99.42 £89.26
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 25,200 13,784 16,857
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.93% 90.14% 92.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,216 8,459 10,280
10th Percentile £305 £215 £220
25th Percentile £410 £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 £685
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,034 1,232 1,735
10th Percentile £14.59 £13.25 £14.05
25th Percentile £20.50 £16.32 £19.00
Median hourly rate £43.13 £25.15 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +71.50% -44.11% +23.29%
75th Percentile £68.00 £54.19 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% +2.00%

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 August 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 August 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 August 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 0 728 £625 +4.17% 404
North of England +4 699 £600 - 390
Midlands -1 415 £625 +8.70% 181
North West +7 403 £600 - 218
West Midlands -2 302 £627 +4.42% 127
South West -6 300 £625 -2.34% 231
Yorkshire +3 233 £600 0.00% 126
East of England +13 155 £600 +8.11% 121
Scotland +17 149 £648 +3.60% 160
East Midlands +4 106 £600 +16.50% 54
North East -5 65 £600 -15.79% 48
Wales +5 41 £640 +2.40% 27
Northern Ireland +8 5 £475 -32.14% 73
Channel Islands -1 3 £575 -22.56%
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 14 August 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.

1 803 (32.50%) Security Cleared
2 555 (22.46%) Azure
3 514 (20.80%) SC Cleared
4 432 (17.48%) AWS
5 352 (14.25%) Stakeholder Management
6 342 (13.84%) Roadmaps
7 338 (13.68%) Microsoft
8 311 (12.59%) Agile
9 287 (11.61%) Migration
10 272 (11.01%) Technical Leadership
11 270 (10.93%) Enterprise Architecture
12 244 (9.87%) DV Cleared
13 242 (9.79%) DevOps
14 235 (9.51%) Integration Patterns
15 228 (9.23%) AI
16 227 (9.19%) CI/CD
17 225 (9.11%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 220 (8.90%) Data Architecture
19 207 (8.38%) Data Modelling
20 198 (8.01%) Architectural Patterns
21 192 (7.77%) Cybersecurity
22 178 (7.20%) Security Architecture
22 178 (7.20%) TOGAF
23 169 (6.84%) GCP
24 161 (6.52%) Microservices
25 154 (6.23%) Architecture Governance
26 151 (6.11%) Problem-Solving
27 145 (5.87%) Event-Driven
28 144 (5.83%) Continuous Improvement
29 142 (5.75%) Architectural Design

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 37 (1.50%) SharePoint
2 31 (1.25%) SAS
3 29 (1.17%) Confluence
4 13 (0.53%) Microsoft Exchange
5 12 (0.49%) OpenStack
6 10 (0.40%) Palantir Foundry
7 9 (0.36%) Apache
7 9 (0.36%) Apache Spark
8 8 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
9 7 (0.28%) Documentum
10 5 (0.20%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 4 (0.16%) CMS
11 4 (0.16%) NetWeaver
12 3 (0.12%) ArcGIS
12 3 (0.12%) JBoss
12 3 (0.12%) SAP EP
13 2 (0.081%) Alfresco
13 2 (0.081%) Appian
14 1 (0.040%) FactoryTalk
14 1 (0.040%) Red Hat Fuse
Applications
1 11 (0.45%) Microsoft Excel
1 11 (0.45%) MS Visio
2 7 (0.28%) Navisworks
2 7 (0.28%) Revit
3 6 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
4 5 (0.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.16%) Microsoft Office
6 1 (0.040%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.040%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 63 (2.55%) SAP S/4HANA
2 13 (0.53%) Payment Gateway
3 12 (0.49%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 12 (0.49%) Teamcenter
4 10 (0.40%) Remedy ITSM
5 7 (0.28%) SAP ERP
6 5 (0.20%) Dynamics CRM
6 5 (0.20%) Maximo
6 5 (0.20%) Oracle ERP
7 4 (0.16%) NetSuite
7 4 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
7 4 (0.16%) Oracle Retail
7 4 (0.16%) SAP GRC
7 4 (0.16%) SAP MDG
8 3 (0.12%) Adobe Campaign
8 3 (0.12%) Dynamics NAV
8 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
8 3 (0.12%) Remedy AR System
8 3 (0.12%) SAP IBP
8 3 (0.12%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 555 (22.46%) Azure
2 432 (17.48%) AWS
3 169 (6.84%) GCP
4 97 (3.93%) Power Platform
5 80 (3.24%) SaaS
5 80 (3.24%) Serverless
6 77 (3.12%) Entra ID
7 55 (2.23%) Microsoft 365
8 47 (1.90%) PaaS
9 45 (1.82%) GitHub
10 43 (1.74%) Azure DevOps
11 40 (1.62%) IaaS
12 38 (1.54%) Dynamics 365
13 37 (1.50%) AWS Lambda
14 33 (1.34%) OpenShift
15 30 (1.21%) Snowflake
16 29 (1.17%) GitHub Actions
17 28 (1.13%) Amazon S3
18 23 (0.93%) Azure Data Factory
19 22 (0.89%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 96 (3.89%) Firewall
2 65 (2.63%) WAN
3 59 (2.39%) DNS
4 53 (2.14%) LAN
5 52 (2.10%) Network Security
6 37 (1.50%) VPN
7 34 (1.38%) BGP
7 34 (1.38%) DHCP
8 33 (1.34%) SD-WAN
9 29 (1.17%) VLAN
10 27 (1.09%) TCP/IP
11 25 (1.01%) SAN
12 24 (0.97%) MPLS
13 22 (0.89%) NAS
14 20 (0.81%) Structured Cabling
14 20 (0.81%) Wireless
15 17 (0.69%) OSPF
16 16 (0.65%) BIG-IP
17 13 (0.53%) Cisco Nexus
17 13 (0.53%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 73 (2.95%) Data Lake
2 69 (2.79%) Power BI
3 66 (2.67%) Data Warehouse
3 66 (2.67%) Metadata
4 37 (1.50%) NoSQL
5 20 (0.81%) Amazon RDS
6 19 (0.77%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
7 17 (0.69%) SQL Server
8 16 (0.65%) Base SAS
8 16 (0.65%) Oracle Database
9 15 (0.61%) Azure SQL Database
9 15 (0.61%) PostgreSQL
10 14 (0.57%) BigQuery
11 13 (0.53%) GIS
12 12 (0.49%) Delta Lake
13 10 (0.40%) MySQL
14 9 (0.36%) Amazon Redshift
14 9 (0.36%) Big Data
14 9 (0.36%) Electronic Patient Records
14 9 (0.36%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 33 (1.34%) JIRA
2 30 (1.21%) Git
3 23 (0.93%) Jenkins
4 12 (0.49%) GitLab
5 9 (0.36%) ERwin
6 6 (0.24%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.20%) Artifactory
7 5 (0.20%) Claude Code
8 4 (0.16%) Hudson
8 4 (0.16%) MSI
8 4 (0.16%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.12%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.081%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.081%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.081%) IntelliJ
10 2 (0.081%) JUnit
10 2 (0.081%) Oracle APEX
10 2 (0.081%) Oracle Forms
10 2 (0.081%) Rational Rhapsody
10 2 (0.081%) Selenium
General
1 466 (18.86%) Social Skills
2 304 (12.30%) Finance
3 235 (9.51%) Public Sector
4 134 (5.42%) Banking
5 129 (5.22%) Analytical Skills
6 100 (4.05%) Retail
7 89 (3.60%) Manufacturing
8 56 (2.27%) Documentation Skills
9 55 (2.23%) Influencing Skills
10 35 (1.42%) Legal
11 34 (1.38%) Aerospace
12 30 (1.21%) Military
13 27 (1.09%) Telecoms
14 23 (0.93%) Financial Institution
14 23 (0.93%) Marketing
15 21 (0.85%) Aviation
15 21 (0.85%) Presentation Skills
16 20 (0.81%) Back Office
17 18 (0.73%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 16 (0.65%) Billing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 99 (4.01%) REST
2 75 (3.04%) Middleware
3 53 (2.14%) OAuth
4 44 (1.78%) SOAP
5 38 (1.54%) Oracle Fusion
6 34 (1.38%) OpenID
7 32 (1.30%) Kafka
8 31 (1.25%) .NET
8 31 (1.25%) SAML
9 24 (0.97%) OAuth2
10 23 (0.93%) SailPoint
11 22 (0.89%) JSON
12 18 (0.73%) RESTful
13 17 (0.69%) Node.js
14 16 (0.65%) LDAP
15 14 (0.57%) Web Services
16 13 (0.53%) GraphQL
16 13 (0.53%) JWT
17 12 (0.49%) React
17 12 (0.49%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 189 (7.65%) Cloud Native
2 85 (3.44%) Data Centre
3 78 (3.16%) Hybrid Cloud
4 71 (2.87%) Operational Technology
5 65 (2.63%) Data Protection Act
6 61 (2.47%) Product Ownership
7 56 (2.27%) Legacy Systems
7 56 (2.27%) Onboarding
8 55 (2.23%) Distributed Systems
9 54 (2.19%) Management Information System
10 51 (2.06%) Enterprise Software
11 41 (1.66%) AI Agents
12 40 (1.62%) Public Cloud
13 31 (1.25%) Private Cloud
14 28 (1.13%) Security Posture
15 26 (1.05%) IVR
16 24 (0.97%) Enterprise Cloud
17 23 (0.93%) CMDB
17 23 (0.93%) SCADA
18 22 (0.89%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 87 (3.52%) Windows
2 50 (2.02%) Linux
3 34 (1.38%) Windows Server
4 12 (0.49%) Android
4 12 (0.49%) Apple iOS
4 12 (0.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (0.32%) Unix
6 6 (0.24%) AIX
7 5 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
8 2 (0.081%) HPUX
8 2 (0.081%) Solaris
8 2 (0.081%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.040%) CatOS
9 1 (0.040%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.040%) VMS
9 1 (0.040%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.040%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 352 (14.25%) Stakeholder Management
2 342 (13.84%) Roadmaps
3 311 (12.59%) Agile
4 287 (11.61%) Migration
5 272 (11.01%) Technical Leadership
6 270 (10.93%) Enterprise Architecture
7 242 (9.79%) DevOps
8 235 (9.51%) Integration Patterns
9 228 (9.23%) AI
10 227 (9.19%) CI/CD
11 225 (9.11%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 220 (8.90%) Data Architecture
13 207 (8.38%) Data Modelling
14 198 (8.01%) Architectural Patterns
15 192 (7.77%) Cybersecurity
16 178 (7.20%) Security Architecture
16 178 (7.20%) TOGAF
17 161 (6.52%) Microservices
18 154 (6.23%) Architecture Governance
19 151 (6.11%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 99 (4.01%) Java
2 94 (3.80%) SQL
3 86 (3.48%) Python
4 51 (2.06%) JavaScript
5 44 (1.78%) PowerShell
6 24 (0.97%) Bash
7 16 (0.65%) Bicep
8 14 (0.57%) C#
9 12 (0.49%) TypeScript
10 10 (0.40%) Shell Script
11 8 (0.32%) ABAP
12 6 (0.24%) Apex Code
12 6 (0.24%) PL/SQL
12 6 (0.24%) VBA
13 5 (0.20%) Groovy
14 4 (0.16%) Kotlin
15 3 (0.12%) C
15 3 (0.12%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 2 (0.081%) C++
16 2 (0.081%) ProC
Qualifications
1 803 (32.50%) Security Cleared
2 514 (20.80%) SC Cleared
3 244 (9.87%) DV Cleared
4 72 (2.91%) Degree
5 53 (2.14%) Cisco Certification
5 53 (2.14%) CISSP
6 43 (1.74%) Azure Certification
7 42 (1.70%) BPSS Clearance
7 42 (1.70%) TOGAF Certification
8 40 (1.62%) AWS Certification
9 31 (1.25%) Computer Science Degree
10 27 (1.09%) CCNP
11 18 (0.73%) CISM
11 18 (0.73%) Microsoft Certification
12 16 (0.65%) CCNA
13 14 (0.57%) CCIE
14 13 (0.53%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 11 (0.45%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 11 (0.45%) Network+ Certification
15 11 (0.45%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 90 (3.64%) NIST
2 75 (3.04%) Data Quality
3 59 (2.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 59 (2.39%) NCSC
4 58 (2.35%) GDPR
5 24 (0.97%) QA
6 17 (0.69%) Accessibility
6 17 (0.69%) NIST 800
6 17 (0.69%) PCI DSS
7 15 (0.61%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 13 (0.53%) ISO 19650
9 12 (0.49%) GRC
10 11 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials
10 11 (0.45%) IFRS
10 11 (0.45%) JSP 440
10 11 (0.45%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 10 (0.40%) Disclosure Scotland
12 9 (0.36%) HL7
12 9 (0.36%) SLA
13 6 (0.24%) COBIT
System Software
1 86 (3.48%) Active Directory
2 49 (1.98%) Docker
3 46 (1.86%) VMware Infrastructure
4 26 (1.05%) VMware NSX
5 21 (0.85%) Virtual Desktop
6 18 (0.73%) Hyper-V
7 12 (0.49%) vSphere
8 11 (0.45%) VMware ESXi
9 9 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
10 6 (0.24%) vCloud
11 4 (0.16%) KVM
12 3 (0.12%) Ceph
12 3 (0.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
12 3 (0.12%) NFS
12 3 (0.12%) SRDF
13 2 (0.081%) IAG
13 2 (0.081%) zsh
14 1 (0.040%) Firmware
14 1 (0.040%) Slurm Workload Manager
14 1 (0.040%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 127 (5.14%) Kubernetes
2 93 (3.76%) Terraform
3 50 (2.02%) Ansible
4 29 (1.17%) Microsoft Intune
5 18 (0.73%) Single Sign-On
6 16 (0.65%) Grafana
7 14 (0.57%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 14 (0.57%) vCenter Server
8 13 (0.53%) Jamf Pro
8 13 (0.53%) Prometheus
9 8 (0.32%) Argo
9 8 (0.32%) FortiGate
10 6 (0.24%) Istio
10 6 (0.24%) WMI
11 5 (0.20%) CASB
11 5 (0.20%) MOM
11 5 (0.20%) NetBackup
12 4 (0.16%) EMC VPLEX
12 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
13 3 (0.12%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 338 (13.68%) Microsoft
2 139 (5.63%) SAP
3 106 (4.29%) Oracle
4 99 (4.01%) ServiceNow
5 95 (3.84%) VMware
6 83 (3.36%) Google
7 77 (3.12%) Cisco
7 77 (3.12%) Databricks
8 48 (1.94%) Salesforce
9 29 (1.17%) F5
10 26 (1.05%) MuleSoft
11 23 (0.93%) Citrix
11 23 (0.93%) Palo Alto
12 22 (0.89%) Red Hat
13 21 (0.85%) CyberArk
13 21 (0.85%) Informatica
14 20 (0.81%) IBM
15 17 (0.69%) Infoblox
16 16 (0.65%) Juniper
16 16 (0.65%) Workday