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 24 March 2026.

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

6 months to
24 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 19 13
Rank change year-on-year +9 -6 +7
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,250 1,116 1,999
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 10.21% 8.83% 9.52%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.14% 9.54% 10.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,453 780 1,222
10th Percentile £450 £450 £500
25th Percentile £506 £538 £575
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% -3.85% -
75th Percentile £700 £700 £725
90th Percentile £767 £750 £775
UK median daily rate £620 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -0.80% -3.85% -1.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 93 25 43
10th Percentile £49.40 £61.50 £53.45
25th Percentile £60.00 £66.00 £60.00
Median hourly rate £71.27 £72.50 £83.77
Median % change year-on-year -1.70% -13.45% +19.66%
75th Percentile £85.00 £80.59 £87.53
90th Percentile £95.00 £85.50 £95.00
UK median hourly rate £71.27 £71.25 £82.38
% change year-on-year +0.03% -13.51% +17.69%

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 20,190 11,695 19,482
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.66% 92.53% 92.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,993 7,633 12,080
10th Percentile £258 £213 £210
25th Percentile £400 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £475 £488
Median % change year-on-year +1.32% -2.56% -2.50%
75th Percentile £581 £588 £594
90th Percentile £675 £663 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -4.37%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,188 711 2,099
10th Percentile £14.40 £14.99 £12.50
25th Percentile £18.87 £20.00 £15.50
Median hourly rate £36.71 £32.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +12.94% - -21.53%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £76.00 £75.50 £71.98
UK median hourly rate £36.70 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year +12.92% - -24.42%

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 24 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 24 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 24 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 +5 694 £625 - 258
North of England +5 587 £600 - 197
Midlands -1 394 £575 -4.17% 97
North West +7 334 £604 +0.63% 106
West Midlands -1 294 £600 -1.23% 73
South West +1 278 £700 +14.29% 104
Yorkshire +6 229 £563 -6.25% 71
East of England +18 170 £540 -16.92% 74
Scotland +14 139 £650 +4.00% 33
East Midlands -1 96 £519 -6.53% 24
North East -3 32 £575 -8.00% 24
Wales +3 27 £538 -5.70% 27
Northern Ireland +3 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 24 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.

1 730 (32.44%) Security Cleared
2 465 (20.67%) Azure
3 407 (18.09%) SC Cleared
4 347 (15.42%) AWS
5 333 (14.80%) Roadmaps
6 329 (14.62%) Agile
7 324 (14.40%) Microsoft
8 263 (11.69%) DV Cleared
9 260 (11.56%) Enterprise Architecture
9 260 (11.56%) Stakeholder Management
10 259 (11.51%) Migration
11 226 (10.04%) TOGAF
12 213 (9.47%) DevOps
13 189 (8.40%) Data Modelling
13 189 (8.40%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 188 (8.36%) CI/CD
15 183 (8.13%) Technical Leadership
16 164 (7.29%) Problem-Solving
17 160 (7.11%) Architectural Patterns
18 158 (7.02%) Microservices
19 155 (6.89%) Data Architecture
20 152 (6.76%) Architectural Design
21 150 (6.67%) ITIL
22 149 (6.62%) Cybersecurity
23 148 (6.58%) Analytics
23 148 (6.58%) GCP
24 146 (6.49%) Integration Patterns
25 135 (6.00%) VMware
26 134 (5.96%) AI
26 134 (5.96%) Windows

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 90 (4.00%) Confluence
2 64 (2.84%) SharePoint
3 49 (2.18%) Microsoft Exchange
4 25 (1.11%) SAS
5 13 (0.58%) Appian
6 12 (0.53%) ArcGIS
7 11 (0.49%) CMS
8 10 (0.44%) Anypoint
9 9 (0.40%) Apache
9 9 (0.40%) Smallworld
10 7 (0.31%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 7 (0.31%) Apache Airflow
10 7 (0.31%) Skype for Business
11 6 (0.27%) Apache Spark
11 6 (0.27%) NetWeaver
11 6 (0.27%) Sitecore CMS
11 6 (0.27%) WebLogic
12 5 (0.22%) GeoServer
12 5 (0.22%) SAP EP
13 4 (0.18%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 45 (2.00%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (1.38%) Microsoft Project
3 22 (0.98%) Microsoft Excel
4 21 (0.93%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.31%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.18%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.044%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 53 (2.36%) SAP S/4HANA
2 31 (1.38%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 18 (0.80%) Payment Gateway
4 14 (0.62%) Workday HCM
5 10 (0.44%) Dynamics CRM
5 10 (0.44%) SAP ERP
6 8 (0.36%) Salesforce CRM
7 7 (0.31%) Maximo
7 7 (0.31%) Remedy ITSM
8 6 (0.27%) SAP CRM
9 4 (0.18%) Distributed Ledger
9 4 (0.18%) Oracle Retail
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 (0.13%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 465 (20.67%) Azure
2 347 (15.42%) AWS
3 148 (6.58%) GCP
4 93 (4.13%) Entra ID
5 87 (3.87%) Microsoft 365
6 66 (2.93%) Power Platform
7 59 (2.62%) Serverless
8 58 (2.58%) SaaS
9 49 (2.18%) PaaS
10 48 (2.13%) IaaS
11 47 (2.09%) Microsoft Purview
12 43 (1.91%) OpenShift
13 39 (1.73%) Azure DevOps
13 39 (1.73%) OneDrive
14 37 (1.64%) GitHub
15 32 (1.42%) Dynamics 365
16 26 (1.16%) AWS CloudFormation
16 26 (1.16%) Azure Synapse Analytics
17 25 (1.11%) AWS Lambda
18 23 (1.02%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 117 (5.20%) Firewall
2 75 (3.33%) DNS
2 75 (3.33%) WAN
3 69 (3.07%) Network Security
4 63 (2.80%) VPN
5 51 (2.27%) LAN
6 43 (1.91%) SD-WAN
7 28 (1.24%) DHCP
8 19 (0.84%) MPLS
9 18 (0.80%) VLAN
9 18 (0.80%) Wi-Fi
9 18 (0.80%) Wireless
10 17 (0.76%) BGP
10 17 (0.76%) SAN
11 14 (0.62%) IPsec
12 13 (0.58%) Kerberos
12 13 (0.58%) OSPF
13 12 (0.53%) SSL
14 11 (0.49%) Internet
14 11 (0.49%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 74 (3.29%) Data Warehouse
2 70 (3.11%) Metadata
3 53 (2.36%) Power BI
4 43 (1.91%) SQL Server
5 28 (1.24%) PostgreSQL
6 26 (1.16%) Tableau
7 24 (1.07%) Data Lake
7 24 (1.07%) NoSQL
7 24 (1.07%) Oracle Database
8 21 (0.93%) GIS
9 14 (0.62%) Metadata Repository
10 13 (0.58%) Azure SQL Database
10 13 (0.58%) DynamoDB
11 11 (0.49%) Big Data
11 11 (0.49%) Relational Database
12 10 (0.44%) Electronic Patient Records
13 9 (0.40%) MongoDB
14 8 (0.36%) Amazon Redshift
15 7 (0.31%) MySQL
15 7 (0.31%) SAP BW
Development Applications
1 98 (4.36%) JIRA
2 46 (2.04%) Jenkins
3 19 (0.84%) GitLab
4 18 (0.80%) Git
5 6 (0.27%) ERwin
6 5 (0.22%) Artifactory
6 5 (0.22%) Sonatype Nexus
7 4 (0.18%) Bitbucket
7 4 (0.18%) Rational DOORS
7 4 (0.18%) Selenium
8 3 (0.13%) Cucumber
8 3 (0.13%) MLflow
8 3 (0.13%) MSI
8 3 (0.13%) Postman
8 3 (0.13%) REST Assured
8 3 (0.13%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.089%) Gatling
9 2 (0.089%) JMeter
9 2 (0.089%) LoadRunner
9 2 (0.089%) NeoLoad
General
1 437 (19.42%) Social Skills
2 281 (12.49%) Finance
3 237 (10.53%) Public Sector
4 149 (6.62%) Analytical Skills
5 134 (5.96%) Banking
6 62 (2.76%) Military
7 57 (2.53%) Documentation Skills
8 48 (2.13%) Legal
9 37 (1.64%) Influencing Skills
9 37 (1.64%) Retail
9 37 (1.64%) Telecoms
10 34 (1.51%) Marketing
11 33 (1.47%) Presentation Skills
12 22 (0.98%) Aerospace
13 21 (0.93%) Investment Banking
14 20 (0.89%) Manufacturing
15 18 (0.80%) Financial Institution
16 12 (0.53%) Billing
16 12 (0.53%) Local Government
17 11 (0.49%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 80 (3.56%) REST
2 61 (2.71%) Middleware
3 41 (1.82%) OAuth
3 41 (1.82%) SOAP
4 40 (1.78%) .NET
5 35 (1.56%) OpenID
6 31 (1.38%) OAuth2
7 30 (1.33%) SAML
8 26 (1.16%) SailPoint
9 25 (1.11%) Kafka
10 23 (1.02%) RESTful
11 17 (0.76%) React
11 17 (0.76%) Web Services
12 15 (0.67%) Microsoft Graph
13 14 (0.62%) Node.js
14 12 (0.53%) CSS
14 12 (0.53%) HTML
14 12 (0.53%) JSON
14 12 (0.53%) LDAP
15 11 (0.49%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 155 (6.89%) Cloud Native
2 99 (4.40%) Product Ownership
3 78 (3.47%) Data Centre
4 55 (2.44%) Onboarding
5 53 (2.36%) Public Cloud
6 51 (2.27%) PKI
7 49 (2.18%) Operational Technology
8 45 (2.00%) Hybrid Cloud
9 41 (1.82%) Management Information System
10 39 (1.73%) Enterprise Software
11 38 (1.69%) Legacy Systems
12 35 (1.56%) Data Protection Act
13 33 (1.47%) Distributed Systems
14 27 (1.20%) CMDB
14 27 (1.20%) SCADA
15 23 (1.02%) NHS
16 17 (0.76%) AI Agents
16 17 (0.76%) Private Cloud
17 16 (0.71%) Data Structures
18 15 (0.67%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 134 (5.96%) Windows
2 80 (3.56%) Linux
3 32 (1.42%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.71%) Windows 7
5 15 (0.67%) Android
5 15 (0.67%) Apple iOS
6 14 (0.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 11 (0.49%) Windows 10
8 8 (0.36%) Unix
8 8 (0.36%) Windows Server 2016
9 5 (0.22%) VMS
9 5 (0.22%) Windows Server 2019
10 4 (0.18%) Mac OS
11 3 (0.13%) Ubuntu
11 3 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.044%) CentOS
12 1 (0.044%) Data ONTAP
12 1 (0.044%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 333 (14.80%) Roadmaps
2 329 (14.62%) Agile
3 260 (11.56%) Enterprise Architecture
3 260 (11.56%) Stakeholder Management
4 259 (11.51%) Migration
5 226 (10.04%) TOGAF
6 213 (9.47%) DevOps
7 189 (8.40%) Data Modelling
7 189 (8.40%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 188 (8.36%) CI/CD
9 183 (8.13%) Technical Leadership
10 164 (7.29%) Problem-Solving
11 160 (7.11%) Architectural Patterns
12 158 (7.02%) Microservices
13 155 (6.89%) Data Architecture
14 152 (6.76%) Architectural Design
15 150 (6.67%) ITIL
16 149 (6.62%) Cybersecurity
17 148 (6.58%) Analytics
18 146 (6.49%) Integration Patterns
Programming Languages
1 128 (5.69%) Python
2 78 (3.47%) PowerShell
2 78 (3.47%) SQL
3 65 (2.89%) Java
4 33 (1.47%) JavaScript
5 30 (1.33%) C#
6 20 (0.89%) Bash
6 20 (0.89%) Bicep
7 11 (0.49%) Kusto Query Language
8 8 (0.36%) PL/SQL
8 8 (0.36%) R
9 7 (0.31%) TypeScript
9 7 (0.31%) VB
9 7 (0.31%) VBScript
10 6 (0.27%) Apex Code
11 5 (0.22%) ABAP
11 5 (0.22%) Scala
12 4 (0.18%) Kotlin
12 4 (0.18%) Perl
12 4 (0.18%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 730 (32.44%) Security Cleared
2 407 (18.09%) SC Cleared
3 263 (11.69%) DV Cleared
4 111 (4.93%) Degree
5 78 (3.47%) TOGAF Certification
6 66 (2.93%) CISSP
7 50 (2.22%) AWS Certification
8 46 (2.04%) BPSS Clearance
9 41 (1.82%) Azure Certification
9 41 (1.82%) Cisco Certification
10 38 (1.69%) CISM
11 29 (1.29%) ISEB
11 29 (1.29%) Microsoft Certification
12 28 (1.24%) Computer Science Degree
12 28 (1.24%) ITIL Certification
13 27 (1.20%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 26 (1.16%) CCNP
15 23 (1.02%) Master's Degree
16 16 (0.71%) CCIE
17 14 (0.62%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 105 (4.67%) GDPR
2 99 (4.40%) NIST
3 75 (3.33%) Data Quality
3 75 (3.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 48 (2.13%) NCSC
5 33 (1.47%) COBIT
6 32 (1.42%) PCI DSS
7 23 (1.02%) QA
8 19 (0.84%) GRC
9 18 (0.80%) Cyber Essentials
10 16 (0.71%) JSP 440
11 13 (0.58%) ISO 20022
12 12 (0.53%) FINRA
12 12 (0.53%) MiFID
13 11 (0.49%) Accessibility
14 10 (0.44%) NIST 800
15 9 (0.40%) California Consumer Privacy Act
15 9 (0.40%) Def Stans
15 9 (0.40%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 9 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 103 (4.58%) Active Directory
2 64 (2.84%) VMware Infrastructure
3 41 (1.82%) Docker
4 35 (1.56%) VMware NSX
5 25 (1.11%) vSphere
6 15 (0.67%) Virtual Desktop
7 14 (0.62%) Hyper-V
8 9 (0.40%) vCloud
9 8 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
9 8 (0.36%) VMware ESXi
10 7 (0.31%) BitLocker
11 5 (0.22%) RACF
12 3 (0.13%) IAG
12 3 (0.13%) NFS
13 2 (0.089%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
13 2 (0.089%) Firmware
14 1 (0.044%) Embedded Firmware
14 1 (0.044%) ProxySG
14 1 (0.044%) Snort
Systems Management
1 104 (4.62%) Terraform
2 84 (3.73%) Kubernetes
3 62 (2.76%) Ansible
4 32 (1.42%) Single Sign-On
5 31 (1.38%) Microsoft Intune
5 31 (1.38%) vCenter Server
6 30 (1.33%) OPNET
7 20 (0.89%) SCCM
8 16 (0.71%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 15 (0.67%) Argo
9 15 (0.67%) WMI
10 11 (0.49%) FortiGate
11 7 (0.31%) Grafana
12 6 (0.27%) Istio
12 6 (0.27%) Prometheus
13 5 (0.22%) Endace
14 3 (0.13%) Puppet
14 3 (0.13%) SCOM
15 2 (0.089%) MOM
15 2 (0.089%) Nessus
Vendors
1 324 (14.40%) Microsoft
2 135 (6.00%) VMware
3 126 (5.60%) ServiceNow
4 124 (5.51%) SAP
5 92 (4.09%) Oracle
6 80 (3.56%) Cisco
7 69 (3.07%) Salesforce
8 48 (2.13%) Google
9 44 (1.96%) Remedy
10 41 (1.82%) MuleSoft
11 40 (1.78%) Databricks
12 39 (1.73%) Palo Alto
12 39 (1.73%) Red Hat
13 36 (1.60%) BiZZdesign
14 35 (1.56%) Atlassian
15 30 (1.33%) Citrix
15 30 (1.33%) Sparx
16 28 (1.24%) CyberArk
17 26 (1.16%) F5
17 26 (1.16%) Juniper