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 2 July 2026.

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

6 months to
2 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 19 13
Rank change year-on-year +8 -6 +5
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,528 1,119 2,092
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.59% 8.02% 9.90%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.42% 8.80% 10.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,667 748 1,262
10th Percentile £469 £450 £490
25th Percentile £525 £518 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £620 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year +3.33% -7.69% -
75th Percentile £713 £698 £725
90th Percentile £775 £763 £788
UK median daily rate £615 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -1.60% -3.85% -0.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 150 16 91
10th Percentile £49.06 £34.53 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £62.25 £60.63
Median hourly rate £65.00 £72.00 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -9.72% +2.86% -
75th Percentile £71.91 £86.00 £86.32
90th Percentile £83.10 £99.28 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £67.50 £70.00
% change year-on-year -3.70% -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 24,262 12,709 19,525
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.00% 91.14% 92.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,836 7,928 11,683
10th Percentile £303 £220 £213
25th Percentile £406 £363 £369
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £493
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -3.65% -1.40%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £594
90th Percentile £688 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £520 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,814 1,015 2,453
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.50 £12.75
25th Percentile £20.53 £16.84 £16.00
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -
75th Percentile £67.50 £57.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £74.49
UK median hourly rate £43.00 £26.75 £37.50
% change year-on-year +60.75% -28.67% -12.79%

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 2 July 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 2 July 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 2 July 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
North of England +7 726 £600 - 286
South East +3 713 £625 +4.17% 242
Midlands +2 436 £613 +6.52% 115
North West +5 389 £610 +1.67% 169
West Midlands +1 313 £625 +4.17% 91
South West +2 279 £635 +3.67% 129
Yorkshire +11 273 £575 -4.17% 67
East of England +26 199 £600 - 51
Scotland +12 167 £650 +4.00% 75
East Midlands +6 117 £575 +15.00% 23
North East +11 71 £575 -8.00% 53
Wales +4 35 £600 +25.00% 33
Northern Ireland +4 7 £475 -32.14% 27
Channel Islands 0 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 2 July 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.

1 745 (29.47%) Security Cleared
2 547 (21.64%) Azure
3 460 (18.20%) SC Cleared
4 432 (17.09%) AWS
5 358 (14.16%) Roadmaps
6 353 (13.96%) Microsoft
7 348 (13.77%) Agile
8 308 (12.18%) Stakeholder Management
9 290 (11.47%) Migration
10 267 (10.56%) DevOps
11 263 (10.40%) Enterprise Architecture
12 258 (10.21%) Technical Leadership
13 236 (9.34%) DV Cleared
14 235 (9.30%) Integration Patterns
15 229 (9.06%) CI/CD
16 222 (8.78%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 213 (8.43%) Architectural Patterns
18 208 (8.23%) Data Modelling
19 200 (7.91%) Data Architecture
19 200 (7.91%) Microservices
20 179 (7.08%) TOGAF
21 177 (7.00%) Cybersecurity
22 174 (6.88%) Problem-Solving
23 170 (6.72%) AI
24 165 (6.53%) Architectural Design
25 155 (6.13%) Security Architecture
26 154 (6.09%) GCP
27 148 (5.85%) SAP
28 146 (5.78%) Analytics
29 141 (5.58%) Continuous Improvement

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 60 (2.37%) SharePoint
2 40 (1.58%) Confluence
3 34 (1.34%) Microsoft Exchange
4 31 (1.23%) SAS
5 13 (0.51%) Apache Airflow
5 13 (0.51%) Appian
6 10 (0.40%) Apache
7 9 (0.36%) Apache Spark
7 9 (0.36%) CMS
8 8 (0.32%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 8 (0.32%) OpenStack
9 6 (0.24%) ArcGIS
9 6 (0.24%) Documentum
9 6 (0.24%) Palantir Foundry
9 6 (0.24%) Sitecore CMS
9 6 (0.24%) WebLogic
10 5 (0.20%) NetWeaver
11 4 (0.16%) JBoss
11 4 (0.16%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 4 (0.16%) SAP EP
Applications
1 9 (0.36%) Microsoft Office
1 9 (0.36%) MS Visio
2 7 (0.28%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (0.28%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 7 (0.28%) Navisworks
2 7 (0.28%) Revit
3 6 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
4 4 (0.16%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.040%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 64 (2.53%) SAP S/4HANA
2 21 (0.83%) Payment Gateway
3 17 (0.67%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 12 (0.47%) SAP ERP
5 11 (0.44%) Teamcenter
6 10 (0.40%) Remedy ITSM
7 7 (0.28%) Oracle ERP
8 6 (0.24%) Dynamics CRM
8 6 (0.24%) Oracle Retail
9 5 (0.20%) Maximo
10 4 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
10 4 (0.16%) Salesforce CRM
10 4 (0.16%) SAP CRM
10 4 (0.16%) SAP GRC
10 4 (0.16%) SAP MDG
11 3 (0.12%) Avolution ABACUS
11 3 (0.12%) NetSuite
11 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
11 3 (0.12%) SAP IBP
12 2 (0.079%) Dynamics AX
Cloud Services
1 547 (21.64%) Azure
2 432 (17.09%) AWS
3 154 (6.09%) GCP
4 102 (4.03%) Power Platform
5 94 (3.72%) Entra ID
6 81 (3.20%) SaaS
7 79 (3.13%) Serverless
8 78 (3.09%) Microsoft 365
9 59 (2.33%) PaaS
10 48 (1.90%) GitHub
10 48 (1.90%) IaaS
11 44 (1.74%) Azure DevOps
12 34 (1.34%) OpenShift
13 31 (1.23%) Dynamics 365
14 30 (1.19%) AWS Lambda
15 29 (1.15%) Microsoft Purview
16 26 (1.03%) Snowflake
17 25 (0.99%) GitHub Actions
18 24 (0.95%) Azure Data Factory
18 24 (0.95%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 112 (4.43%) Firewall
2 77 (3.05%) DNS
3 75 (2.97%) WAN
4 73 (2.89%) Network Security
5 59 (2.33%) LAN
6 46 (1.82%) VPN
7 42 (1.66%) DHCP
7 42 (1.66%) SD-WAN
8 34 (1.34%) VLAN
9 29 (1.15%) BGP
10 26 (1.03%) TCP/IP
11 25 (0.99%) Wireless
12 24 (0.95%) MPLS
12 24 (0.95%) SAN
13 23 (0.91%) NAS
14 21 (0.83%) IPsec
14 21 (0.83%) Structured Cabling
15 20 (0.79%) BIG-IP
16 19 (0.75%) OSPF
17 14 (0.55%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 74 (2.93%) Metadata
2 72 (2.85%) Power BI
3 58 (2.29%) Data Warehouse
4 57 (2.25%) Data Lake
5 34 (1.34%) NoSQL
6 31 (1.23%) SQL Server
7 24 (0.95%) PostgreSQL
8 17 (0.67%) Oracle Database
9 15 (0.59%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
10 14 (0.55%) GIS
11 13 (0.51%) Amazon RDS
11 13 (0.51%) Azure SQL Database
11 13 (0.51%) Base SAS
12 12 (0.47%) Big Data
13 11 (0.44%) MongoDB
14 10 (0.40%) Relational Database
14 10 (0.40%) Semantic Layer
15 9 (0.36%) Electronic Patient Records
15 9 (0.36%) Tableau
16 8 (0.32%) BigQuery
Development Applications
1 55 (2.18%) JIRA
2 34 (1.34%) Jenkins
3 25 (0.99%) Git
4 18 (0.71%) GitLab
5 10 (0.40%) ERwin
6 6 (0.24%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.20%) Artifactory
7 5 (0.20%) Selenium
8 4 (0.16%) Hudson
8 4 (0.16%) Postman
8 4 (0.16%) REST Assured
9 3 (0.12%) Cucumber
9 3 (0.12%) JUnit
9 3 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.12%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.079%) IntelliJ
10 2 (0.079%) JMeter
10 2 (0.079%) LoadRunner
10 2 (0.079%) Oracle APEX
10 2 (0.079%) Oracle Forms
General
1 462 (18.28%) Social Skills
2 356 (14.08%) Finance
3 239 (9.45%) Public Sector
4 143 (5.66%) Banking
5 139 (5.50%) Analytical Skills
6 98 (3.88%) Retail
7 70 (2.77%) Manufacturing
8 63 (2.49%) Documentation Skills
9 52 (2.06%) Legal
10 43 (1.70%) Influencing Skills
11 33 (1.31%) Aerospace
12 32 (1.27%) Military
13 24 (0.95%) Financial Institution
14 23 (0.91%) Investment Banking
14 23 (0.91%) Telecoms
15 20 (0.79%) Marketing
16 19 (0.75%) Presentation Skills
17 18 (0.71%) Back Office
18 17 (0.67%) Billing
19 12 (0.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 118 (4.67%) REST
2 76 (3.01%) Middleware
3 49 (1.94%) OAuth
4 46 (1.82%) .NET
4 46 (1.82%) SOAP
5 45 (1.78%) OpenID
6 35 (1.38%) Oracle Fusion
6 35 (1.38%) SailPoint
7 33 (1.31%) SAML
8 32 (1.27%) Kafka
9 31 (1.23%) OAuth2
10 26 (1.03%) RESTful
11 23 (0.91%) Node.js
12 21 (0.83%) LDAP
13 20 (0.79%) JSON
13 20 (0.79%) React
13 20 (0.79%) Web Services
14 14 (0.55%) AngularJS
15 12 (0.47%) FHIR
16 11 (0.44%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 181 (7.16%) Cloud Native
2 94 (3.72%) Data Centre
3 71 (2.81%) Operational Technology
4 68 (2.69%) Hybrid Cloud
4 68 (2.69%) Product Ownership
5 57 (2.25%) Management Information System
5 57 (2.25%) Onboarding
6 53 (2.10%) Data Protection Act
6 53 (2.10%) Legacy Systems
7 50 (1.98%) Enterprise Software
8 48 (1.90%) Distributed Systems
9 44 (1.74%) Public Cloud
10 30 (1.19%) CMDB
11 29 (1.15%) Private Cloud
12 25 (0.99%) Security Posture
13 24 (0.95%) PKI
14 23 (0.91%) AI Agents
15 21 (0.83%) SCADA
16 20 (0.79%) Data Structures
16 20 (0.79%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
Operating Systems
1 109 (4.31%) Windows
2 47 (1.86%) Linux
3 36 (1.42%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.63%) Android
4 16 (0.63%) Apple iOS
5 13 (0.51%) Unix
6 5 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
6 5 (0.20%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 5 (0.20%) Windows 7
7 4 (0.16%) Windows 10
7 4 (0.16%) Windows Server 2016
8 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2019
9 2 (0.079%) AIX
9 2 (0.079%) VMS
9 2 (0.079%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.040%) CatOS
10 1 (0.040%) Kali Linux
10 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.040%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 358 (14.16%) Roadmaps
2 348 (13.77%) Agile
3 308 (12.18%) Stakeholder Management
4 290 (11.47%) Migration
5 267 (10.56%) DevOps
6 263 (10.40%) Enterprise Architecture
7 258 (10.21%) Technical Leadership
8 235 (9.30%) Integration Patterns
9 229 (9.06%) CI/CD
10 222 (8.78%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 213 (8.43%) Architectural Patterns
12 208 (8.23%) Data Modelling
13 200 (7.91%) Data Architecture
13 200 (7.91%) Microservices
14 179 (7.08%) TOGAF
15 177 (7.00%) Cybersecurity
16 174 (6.88%) Problem-Solving
17 170 (6.72%) AI
18 165 (6.53%) Architectural Design
19 155 (6.13%) Security Architecture
Programming Languages
1 113 (4.47%) Python
1 113 (4.47%) SQL
2 90 (3.56%) Java
3 60 (2.37%) PowerShell
4 49 (1.94%) JavaScript
5 29 (1.15%) C#
6 25 (0.99%) Bicep
7 21 (0.83%) Bash
8 15 (0.59%) TypeScript
9 8 (0.32%) ABAP
9 8 (0.32%) PL/SQL
9 8 (0.32%) VBA
10 7 (0.28%) Kusto Query Language
11 6 (0.24%) Scala
12 5 (0.20%) Apex Code
12 5 (0.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 4 (0.16%) Kotlin
13 4 (0.16%) VB
13 4 (0.16%) VBScript
14 3 (0.12%) C
Qualifications
1 745 (29.47%) Security Cleared
2 460 (18.20%) SC Cleared
3 236 (9.34%) DV Cleared
4 93 (3.68%) Degree
5 59 (2.33%) Cisco Certification
6 51 (2.02%) BPSS Clearance
7 44 (1.74%) AWS Certification
8 43 (1.70%) CISSP
9 40 (1.58%) Azure Certification
10 37 (1.46%) TOGAF Certification
11 35 (1.38%) Computer Science Degree
12 34 (1.34%) CCNP
13 23 (0.91%) Microsoft Certification
14 19 (0.75%) CISM
15 17 (0.67%) CCNA
16 16 (0.63%) Master's Degree
17 14 (0.55%) (ISC)2 CCSP
17 14 (0.55%) CCIE
18 13 (0.51%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
19 12 (0.47%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 98 (3.88%) NIST
2 75 (2.97%) Data Quality
2 75 (2.97%) GDPR
3 59 (2.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 58 (2.29%) NCSC
5 26 (1.03%) QA
6 20 (0.79%) PCI DSS
7 19 (0.75%) Accessibility
8 16 (0.63%) NIST 800
9 13 (0.51%) GRC
10 12 (0.47%) COBIT
11 11 (0.44%) IFRS
12 10 (0.40%) HL7
12 10 (0.40%) ISO 19650
13 9 (0.36%) Disclosure Scotland
13 9 (0.36%) FINRA
13 9 (0.36%) ISO 20022
13 9 (0.36%) JSP 440
13 9 (0.36%) MiFID
13 9 (0.36%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 107 (4.23%) Active Directory
2 53 (2.10%) VMware Infrastructure
3 40 (1.58%) Docker
4 33 (1.31%) VMware NSX
5 22 (0.87%) Virtual Desktop
6 19 (0.75%) Hyper-V
6 19 (0.75%) vSphere
7 9 (0.36%) VMware ESXi
8 8 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
9 7 (0.28%) vCloud
10 4 (0.16%) BitLocker
10 4 (0.16%) RACF
11 3 (0.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
11 3 (0.12%) IAG
11 3 (0.12%) NFS
11 3 (0.12%) SRDF
12 2 (0.079%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
13 1 (0.040%) Firmware
13 1 (0.040%) KVM
13 1 (0.040%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 96 (3.80%) Kubernetes
2 95 (3.76%) Terraform
3 53 (2.10%) Ansible
4 38 (1.50%) Microsoft Intune
5 26 (1.03%) Single Sign-On
6 22 (0.87%) vCenter Server
7 17 (0.67%) Grafana
8 16 (0.63%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 13 (0.51%) Argo
9 13 (0.51%) Prometheus
10 12 (0.47%) FortiGate
10 12 (0.47%) Jamf Pro
11 10 (0.40%) SCCM
12 8 (0.32%) Istio
13 6 (0.24%) CASB
14 5 (0.20%) EMC VPLEX
15 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
16 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
16 3 (0.12%) Endace
16 3 (0.12%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 353 (13.96%) Microsoft
2 148 (5.85%) SAP
3 115 (4.55%) VMware
4 112 (4.43%) ServiceNow
5 110 (4.35%) Oracle
6 76 (3.01%) Cisco
7 71 (2.81%) Google
8 70 (2.77%) Databricks
9 52 (2.06%) Salesforce
10 32 (1.27%) F5
11 29 (1.15%) Citrix
12 27 (1.07%) Red Hat
13 26 (1.03%) MuleSoft
14 25 (0.99%) Palo Alto
15 23 (0.91%) BiZZdesign
16 21 (0.83%) Juniper
17 20 (0.79%) Talend
18 19 (0.75%) Infoblox
18 19 (0.75%) Sparx
19 18 (0.71%) CyberArk