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 £623, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 14 October 2026.

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

6 months to
14 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 21 13
Rank change year-on-year +7 -8 +2
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,581 1,260 1,606
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.06% 7.92% 9.32%
As % of the Job Titles category 9.96% 8.84% 10.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,709 874 937
10th Percentile £465 £450 £455
25th Percentile £525 £519 £525
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £623 £600 £625
Median % change year-on-year +3.75% -4.00% -1.57%
75th Percentile £700 £694 £700
90th Percentile £769 £775 £775
UK median daily rate £620 £625 £625
% change year-on-year -0.80% - -3.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 179 12 56
10th Percentile £38.57 £58.55 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £65.31 £62.19
Median hourly rate £68.50 £72.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -5.52% +3.57% -7.49%
75th Percentile £82.50 £85.63 £76.40
90th Percentile £95.00 £98.75 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £69.50 £77.75 £70.00
% change year-on-year -10.61% +11.07% -5.30%

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 25,901 14,261 15,912
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.95% 89.62% 92.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,951 8,772 9,040
10th Percentile £300 £206 £220
25th Percentile £413 £363 £370
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £490
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -3.06% -2.00%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £588
90th Percentile £688 £671 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,571 1,341 1,203
10th Percentile £14.22 £13.51 £14.73
25th Percentile £19.25 £16.40 £19.50
Median hourly rate £41.71 £25.00 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +66.84% -41.18% -4.49%
75th Percentile £67.85 £50.00 £66.47
90th Percentile £78.75 £69.65 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £41.71 £25.15 £41.27
% change year-on-year +65.84% -39.05% -8.30%

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 October 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 October 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 October 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 0 736 £626 +4.25% 481
North of England +3 662 £600 - 463
Midlands +7 454 £630 +9.57% 233
South West +4 348 £625 -3.85% 185
North West 0 347 £599 +4.25% 246
West Midlands +10 337 £650 +8.33% 183
Yorkshire +10 241 £600 - 160
Scotland +19 199 £625 +4.38% 200
East of England +3 148 £616 +11.04% 146
East Midlands +3 112 £600 +20.00% 50
North East +4 77 £625 -15.25% 57
Wales +7 43 £633 +1.20% 47
Channel Islands +1 12 £700 -5.72% 1
Northern Ireland +7 3 - - 48
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 14 October 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.

1 885 (34.29%) Security Cleared
2 587 (22.74%) SC Cleared
3 579 (22.43%) Azure
4 510 (19.76%) Stakeholder Management
5 438 (16.97%) AWS
6 391 (15.15%) Roadmaps
7 377 (14.61%) Microsoft
8 355 (13.75%) Technical Leadership
9 332 (12.86%) Migration
10 326 (12.63%) Enterprise Architecture
11 286 (11.08%) DV Cleared
12 285 (11.04%) Agile
13 254 (9.84%) Data Architecture
14 248 (9.61%) AI
15 243 (9.41%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 236 (9.14%) CI/CD
17 235 (9.10%) DevOps
18 222 (8.60%) Data Modelling
19 217 (8.41%) Integration Patterns
20 211 (8.18%) Cybersecurity
21 208 (8.06%) Security Architecture
22 201 (7.79%) Architecture Governance
23 200 (7.75%) Architectural Patterns
24 196 (7.59%) GCP
25 195 (7.56%) TOGAF
26 160 (6.20%) Continuous Improvement
27 159 (6.16%) Event-Driven
27 159 (6.16%) Microservices
28 154 (5.97%) Analytics
29 151 (5.85%) Problem-Solving

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 34 (1.32%) SAS
2 32 (1.24%) SharePoint
3 26 (1.01%) Confluence
4 18 (0.70%) Microsoft Exchange
5 14 (0.54%) Apache
6 13 (0.50%) OpenStack
7 11 (0.43%) Apache Spark
8 10 (0.39%) Apache Airflow
8 10 (0.39%) Palantir Foundry
9 7 (0.27%) Documentum
10 6 (0.23%) NetWeaver
11 5 (0.19%) IIS
12 4 (0.15%) SAP EP
13 3 (0.12%) CMS
13 3 (0.12%) JBoss
14 2 (0.077%) Oracle HTTP Server
14 2 (0.077%) Tomcat
14 2 (0.077%) WebLogic
14 2 (0.077%) WebLogic Portal
14 2 (0.077%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 14 (0.54%) MS Visio
2 11 (0.43%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 10 (0.39%) Microsoft Excel
4 9 (0.35%) Microsoft Office
5 5 (0.19%) Navisworks
5 5 (0.19%) Revit
5 5 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 74 (2.87%) SAP S/4HANA
2 9 (0.35%) Dynamics CRM
2 9 (0.35%) Teamcenter
3 8 (0.31%) Payment Gateway
4 7 (0.27%) Oracle ERP
4 7 (0.27%) Remedy ITSM
5 6 (0.23%) Maximo
5 6 (0.23%) SAP MDG
5 6 (0.23%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
6 5 (0.19%) Remedy AR System
6 5 (0.19%) SAP ERP
6 5 (0.19%) SAP Hybris
6 5 (0.19%) Workday HCM
7 4 (0.15%) NetSuite
7 4 (0.15%) Oracle Payables
7 4 (0.15%) SAP CRM
8 3 (0.12%) Adobe Campaign
8 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
8 3 (0.12%) Oracle Retail
8 3 (0.12%) SAP HR
Cloud Services
1 579 (22.43%) Azure
2 438 (16.97%) AWS
3 196 (7.59%) GCP
4 99 (3.84%) SaaS
5 98 (3.80%) Power Platform
6 77 (2.98%) Microsoft 365
7 68 (2.63%) Entra ID
8 63 (2.44%) Serverless
9 52 (2.01%) Dynamics 365
10 51 (1.98%) Azure DevOps
11 49 (1.90%) GitHub
12 36 (1.39%) PaaS
13 31 (1.20%) IaaS
14 30 (1.16%) AWS Lambda
14 30 (1.16%) Snowflake
15 27 (1.05%) Amazon S3
15 27 (1.05%) GitHub Actions
15 27 (1.05%) OCI
16 23 (0.89%) Microsoft Purview
17 20 (0.77%) iPaaS
Communications & Networking
1 72 (2.79%) Firewall
2 57 (2.21%) Network Security
3 52 (2.01%) WAN
4 49 (1.90%) DNS
5 36 (1.39%) BGP
6 33 (1.28%) LAN
7 31 (1.20%) MPLS
8 29 (1.12%) SD-WAN
9 28 (1.08%) VPN
10 27 (1.05%) DHCP
11 25 (0.97%) TCP/IP
12 20 (0.77%) VLAN
13 16 (0.62%) NX-OS
14 15 (0.58%) SAN
14 15 (0.58%) VXLAN
15 14 (0.54%) OSPF
16 13 (0.50%) HTTP
16 13 (0.50%) NAS
16 13 (0.50%) Structured Cabling
17 12 (0.46%) BIG-IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 92 (3.56%) Metadata
2 84 (3.25%) Data Warehouse
3 80 (3.10%) Data Lake
4 61 (2.36%) Power BI
5 29 (1.12%) NoSQL
6 25 (0.97%) BigQuery
7 22 (0.85%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
8 21 (0.81%) Amazon RDS
9 19 (0.74%) Azure SQL Database
10 17 (0.66%) Base SAS
10 17 (0.66%) Oracle Database
11 14 (0.54%) SQL Server
12 12 (0.46%) GIS
12 12 (0.46%) Looker
13 10 (0.39%) Amazon Redshift
13 10 (0.39%) Delta Lake
13 10 (0.39%) PostgreSQL
13 10 (0.39%) Semantic Layer
14 9 (0.35%) Pentaho
14 9 (0.35%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 35 (1.36%) JIRA
2 34 (1.32%) Git
3 23 (0.89%) Jenkins
4 20 (0.77%) GitLab
5 9 (0.35%) MSI
6 6 (0.23%) Claude Code
7 4 (0.15%) Artifactory
7 4 (0.15%) ERwin
7 4 (0.15%) Postman
7 4 (0.15%) Sonatype Nexus
8 3 (0.12%) Cucumber
8 3 (0.12%) REST Assured
8 3 (0.12%) Selenium
9 2 (0.077%) Appium
9 2 (0.077%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.077%) Hudson
9 2 (0.077%) JMeter
9 2 (0.077%) Newman
9 2 (0.077%) Oracle APEX
9 2 (0.077%) Oracle Forms
General
1 553 (21.43%) Social Skills
2 301 (11.66%) Finance
3 271 (10.50%) Public Sector
4 125 (4.84%) Analytical Skills
5 110 (4.26%) Banking
6 102 (3.95%) Retail
7 98 (3.80%) Manufacturing
8 76 (2.94%) Influencing Skills
9 63 (2.44%) Aerospace
10 59 (2.29%) Documentation Skills
11 41 (1.59%) Telecoms
12 40 (1.55%) Legal
13 30 (1.16%) Military
14 28 (1.08%) Marketing
15 23 (0.89%) Aviation
16 19 (0.74%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 17 (0.66%) Billing
17 17 (0.66%) Local Government
17 17 (0.66%) Presentation Skills
18 16 (0.62%) Back Office
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 114 (4.42%) REST
2 90 (3.49%) Terraform
3 71 (2.75%) Middleware
4 57 (2.21%) SOAP
5 52 (2.01%) OAuth
6 48 (1.86%) Kafka
7 44 (1.70%) Oracle Fusion
8 38 (1.47%) LDAP
9 33 (1.28%) SAML
10 28 (1.08%) OpenID
11 27 (1.05%) .NET
12 22 (0.85%) JSON
13 20 (0.77%) OAuth2
13 20 (0.77%) SAP Fiori
14 19 (0.74%) Node.js
15 18 (0.70%) GraphQL
16 17 (0.66%) JWT
16 17 (0.66%) Swagger
17 16 (0.62%) SailPoint
18 15 (0.58%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 198 (7.67%) Cloud Native
2 87 (3.37%) Data Centre
3 80 (3.10%) Hybrid Cloud
4 71 (2.75%) Product Ownership
5 70 (2.71%) Onboarding
6 66 (2.56%) Enterprise Software
7 64 (2.48%) Data Protection Act
7 64 (2.48%) Legacy Systems
8 62 (2.40%) Operational Technology
9 60 (2.32%) Distributed Systems
10 48 (1.86%) Management Information System
11 47 (1.82%) AI Agents
12 39 (1.51%) Public Cloud
13 38 (1.47%) CMDB
13 38 (1.47%) Private Cloud
14 28 (1.08%) Enterprise Cloud
15 27 (1.05%) IVR
16 24 (0.93%) PKI
17 22 (0.85%) Data Structures
18 21 (0.81%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 87 (3.37%) Windows
2 54 (2.09%) Linux
3 34 (1.32%) Windows Server
4 17 (0.66%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 10 (0.39%) Unix
6 6 (0.23%) AIX
7 2 (0.077%) Data ONTAP
7 2 (0.077%) HPUX
7 2 (0.077%) Solaris
7 2 (0.077%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.039%) Android
8 1 (0.039%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.039%) CatOS
8 1 (0.039%) CentOS
8 1 (0.039%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.039%) VMS
8 1 (0.039%) Windows Server 2008
8 1 (0.039%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 510 (19.76%) Stakeholder Management
2 391 (15.15%) Roadmaps
3 355 (13.75%) Technical Leadership
4 332 (12.86%) Migration
5 326 (12.63%) Enterprise Architecture
6 285 (11.04%) Agile
7 254 (9.84%) Data Architecture
8 248 (9.61%) AI
9 243 (9.41%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 236 (9.14%) CI/CD
11 235 (9.10%) DevOps
12 222 (8.60%) Data Modelling
13 217 (8.41%) Integration Patterns
14 211 (8.18%) Cybersecurity
15 208 (8.06%) Security Architecture
16 201 (7.79%) Architecture Governance
17 200 (7.75%) Architectural Patterns
18 195 (7.56%) TOGAF
19 160 (6.20%) Continuous Improvement
20 159 (6.16%) Microservices
Programming Languages
1 90 (3.49%) Java
1 90 (3.49%) SQL
2 80 (3.10%) Python
3 50 (1.94%) PowerShell
4 43 (1.67%) JavaScript
5 23 (0.89%) Bash
6 16 (0.62%) ABAP
7 15 (0.58%) TypeScript
8 10 (0.39%) C#
8 10 (0.39%) Shell Script
9 9 (0.35%) Bicep
10 8 (0.31%) Apex Code
11 6 (0.23%) PL/SQL
12 5 (0.19%) Groovy
13 4 (0.15%) PHP
14 3 (0.12%) R
14 3 (0.12%) VBA
15 2 (0.077%) BeanShell
15 2 (0.077%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 2 (0.077%) Go
Qualifications
1 885 (34.29%) Security Cleared
2 587 (22.74%) SC Cleared
3 286 (11.08%) DV Cleared
4 72 (2.79%) BPSS Clearance
5 71 (2.75%) Degree
6 69 (2.67%) CISSP
7 55 (2.13%) Cisco Certification
8 49 (1.90%) AWS Certification
9 46 (1.78%) TOGAF Certification
10 41 (1.59%) Azure Certification
11 32 (1.24%) Computer Science Degree
12 25 (0.97%) CISM
13 24 (0.93%) CCNP
14 21 (0.81%) CCIE
15 17 (0.66%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 17 (0.66%) Microsoft Certification
16 16 (0.62%) JNCIE
17 12 (0.46%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
17 12 (0.46%) CCSP
18 10 (0.39%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 104 (4.03%) NIST
2 98 (3.80%) Data Quality
3 76 (2.94%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 64 (2.48%) NCSC
5 46 (1.78%) GDPR
6 23 (0.89%) QA
7 21 (0.81%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 20 (0.77%) Accessibility
8 20 (0.77%) PCI DSS
9 18 (0.70%) JSP 440
10 17 (0.66%) GRC
11 14 (0.54%) Disclosure Scotland
12 13 (0.50%) NIST 800
13 11 (0.43%) ISO 19650
13 11 (0.43%) SLA
14 10 (0.39%) IFRS
15 9 (0.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
16 6 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials
16 6 (0.23%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
17 5 (0.19%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 94 (3.64%) Active Directory
2 49 (1.90%) VMware Infrastructure
3 43 (1.67%) Docker
4 26 (1.01%) VMware NSX
5 24 (0.93%) Virtual Desktop
6 12 (0.46%) Hyper-V
7 9 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
7 9 (0.35%) vSphere
8 8 (0.31%) VMware ESXi
9 4 (0.15%) ISA Server
9 4 (0.15%) KVM
10 3 (0.12%) Ceph
10 3 (0.12%) Microsoft Virtual Server
10 3 (0.12%) Virtual Servers
11 2 (0.077%) EMC RecoverPoint
11 2 (0.077%) SRDF
11 2 (0.077%) zsh
12 1 (0.039%) BitLocker
12 1 (0.039%) NFS
12 1 (0.039%) vCloud
Systems Management
1 133 (5.15%) Kubernetes
2 48 (1.86%) Ansible
3 23 (0.89%) Microsoft Intune
4 20 (0.77%) Single Sign-On
5 12 (0.46%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 12 (0.46%) Jamf Pro
5 12 (0.46%) WMI
6 11 (0.43%) Prometheus
7 10 (0.39%) Grafana
8 9 (0.35%) CASB
9 7 (0.27%) FortiGate
10 6 (0.23%) Istio
11 4 (0.15%) Argo
11 4 (0.15%) Cisco CUCM
11 4 (0.15%) vCenter Server
11 4 (0.15%) VxRail
12 3 (0.12%) MOM
12 3 (0.12%) NetBackup
12 3 (0.12%) SCCM
13 2 (0.077%) QRadar
Vendors
1 377 (14.61%) Microsoft
2 136 (5.27%) SAP
3 120 (4.65%) Oracle
4 117 (4.53%) Google
5 93 (3.60%) ServiceNow
6 81 (3.14%) VMware
7 80 (3.10%) Databricks
8 76 (2.94%) Cisco
9 54 (2.09%) Salesforce
10 44 (1.70%) CyberArk
11 32 (1.24%) MuleSoft
12 24 (0.93%) F5
13 22 (0.85%) IBM
13 22 (0.85%) Workday
14 21 (0.81%) Informatica
15 20 (0.77%) Red Hat
16 18 (0.70%) Palo Alto
17 17 (0.66%) Infoblox
18 16 (0.62%) Foundry
19 15 (0.58%) Adobe