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 £616, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 18 June 2026.

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

6 months to
18 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 20 12
Rank change year-on-year +9 -8 +6
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,476 1,099 2,173
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.61% 8.20% 10.14%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.46% 8.96% 10.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,639 727 1,304
10th Percentile £463 £450 £490
25th Percentile £519 £513 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £616 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year +2.71% -7.69% -
75th Percentile £713 £700 £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 131 24 95
10th Percentile £49.40 £43.92 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £65.13 £60.63
Median hourly rate £65.00 £73.25 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -11.26% +4.64% -
75th Percentile £74.58 £82.25 £87.23
90th Percentile £84.00 £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 23,676 12,272 19,824
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.93% 91.55% 92.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,574 7,721 11,789
10th Percentile £303 £220 £213
25th Percentile £406 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £488
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
75th Percentile £598 £575 £590
90th Percentile £688 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £515 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +3.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,721 947 2,542
10th Percentile £14.82 £13.50 £12.63
25th Percentile £20.25 £16.89 £15.96
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -1.45%
75th Percentile £67.50 £58.75 £63.75
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £74.00
UK median hourly rate £43.61 £27.50 £37.50
% change year-on-year +58.56% -26.67% -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 18 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 18 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 18 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 +6 698 £625 +4.17% 264
North of England +7 695 £600 - 295
Midlands +3 442 £613 +3.07% 113
North West +4 368 £612 +2.64% 153
West Midlands -1 313 £625 +4.17% 85
South West +4 269 £640 +4.49% 168
Yorkshire +8 268 £558 -7.00% 84
East of England +21 211 £575 -4.17% 84
Scotland +11 160 £650 +4.00% 70
East Midlands +5 123 £575 +15.00% 28
North East +5 66 £575 -4.17% 59
Wales -1 32 £600 +26.32% 37
Northern Ireland +5 7 £475 -28.30% 32
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 18 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.

1 714 (28.84%) Security Cleared
2 514 (20.76%) Azure
3 443 (17.89%) SC Cleared
4 394 (15.91%) AWS
5 351 (14.18%) Roadmaps
6 343 (13.85%) Microsoft
7 342 (13.81%) Agile
8 304 (12.28%) Migration
9 300 (12.12%) Stakeholder Management
10 262 (10.58%) DevOps
11 260 (10.50%) Enterprise Architecture
12 237 (9.57%) Technical Leadership
13 226 (9.13%) CI/CD
14 220 (8.89%) DV Cleared
14 220 (8.89%) Integration Patterns
15 206 (8.32%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 200 (8.08%) Architectural Patterns
17 198 (8.00%) Data Modelling
18 192 (7.75%) Microservices
19 181 (7.31%) Data Architecture
20 166 (6.70%) Cybersecurity
20 166 (6.70%) TOGAF
21 164 (6.62%) Architectural Design
22 158 (6.38%) Problem-Solving
23 153 (6.18%) AI
24 146 (5.90%) SAP
25 138 (5.57%) Analytics
26 135 (5.45%) GCP
27 134 (5.41%) Security Architecture
28 131 (5.29%) Technical 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 63 (2.54%) SharePoint
2 48 (1.94%) Confluence
3 36 (1.45%) Microsoft Exchange
4 30 (1.21%) SAS
5 13 (0.53%) Apache Airflow
5 13 (0.53%) Appian
6 10 (0.40%) Apache
7 9 (0.36%) Apache Spark
7 9 (0.36%) CMS
8 8 (0.32%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 7 (0.28%) ArcGIS
9 7 (0.28%) OpenStack
10 6 (0.24%) Anypoint
10 6 (0.24%) Sitecore CMS
10 6 (0.24%) WebLogic
11 5 (0.20%) NetWeaver
12 4 (0.16%) Documentum
12 4 (0.16%) JBoss
12 4 (0.16%) SAP EP
12 4 (0.16%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 13 (0.53%) Microsoft Excel
1 13 (0.53%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 8 (0.32%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.28%) Navisworks
3 7 (0.28%) Revit
4 6 (0.24%) MS Visio
4 6 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
5 4 (0.16%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.040%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.040%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 60 (2.42%) SAP S/4HANA
2 20 (0.81%) Payment Gateway
3 19 (0.77%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 12 (0.48%) SAP ERP
5 10 (0.40%) Teamcenter
6 9 (0.36%) Remedy ITSM
7 7 (0.28%) Dynamics CRM
8 6 (0.24%) Oracle ERP
9 5 (0.20%) Maximo
9 5 (0.20%) Oracle Retail
9 5 (0.20%) Salesforce CRM
10 4 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
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%) Oracle Receivables
11 3 (0.12%) SAP IBP
12 2 (0.081%) Infor LN
12 2 (0.081%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 514 (20.76%) Azure
2 394 (15.91%) AWS
3 135 (5.45%) GCP
4 103 (4.16%) Power Platform
5 89 (3.59%) Entra ID
6 86 (3.47%) Microsoft 365
7 77 (3.11%) Serverless
8 74 (2.99%) SaaS
9 58 (2.34%) PaaS
10 49 (1.98%) GitHub
11 46 (1.86%) IaaS
12 41 (1.66%) Azure DevOps
13 37 (1.49%) Microsoft Purview
14 32 (1.29%) Dynamics 365
14 32 (1.29%) OpenShift
15 29 (1.17%) OneDrive
16 27 (1.09%) AWS Lambda
17 25 (1.01%) PowerApps
18 24 (0.97%) GitHub Actions
18 24 (0.97%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 95 (3.84%) Firewall
2 72 (2.91%) WAN
3 67 (2.71%) DNS
4 61 (2.46%) Network Security
5 53 (2.14%) LAN
6 47 (1.90%) VPN
7 39 (1.58%) SD-WAN
8 35 (1.41%) DHCP
9 28 (1.13%) VLAN
10 25 (1.01%) Wireless
11 24 (0.97%) BGP
11 24 (0.97%) SAN
12 23 (0.93%) NAS
13 21 (0.85%) Structured Cabling
14 20 (0.81%) MPLS
15 18 (0.73%) IPsec
16 17 (0.69%) BIG-IP
17 16 (0.65%) OSPF
18 14 (0.57%) NX-OS
19 13 (0.53%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 72 (2.91%) Power BI
2 70 (2.83%) Metadata
3 56 (2.26%) Data Warehouse
4 51 (2.06%) Data Lake
5 34 (1.37%) NoSQL
6 31 (1.25%) SQL Server
7 26 (1.05%) PostgreSQL
8 17 (0.69%) Oracle Database
8 17 (0.69%) Tableau
9 15 (0.61%) GIS
10 14 (0.57%) Azure SQL Database
10 14 (0.57%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
11 12 (0.48%) Base SAS
12 11 (0.44%) Big Data
12 11 (0.44%) MongoDB
13 10 (0.40%) Amazon RDS
14 8 (0.32%) DynamoDB
14 8 (0.32%) MySQL
14 8 (0.32%) Relational Database
14 8 (0.32%) SAS Enterprise Guide
Development Applications
1 60 (2.42%) JIRA
2 34 (1.37%) Jenkins
3 22 (0.89%) Git
4 19 (0.77%) GitLab
5 8 (0.32%) ERwin
6 6 (0.24%) 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 (0.081%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.081%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.081%) IntelliJ
10 2 (0.081%) NeoLoad
10 2 (0.081%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 435 (17.57%) Social Skills
2 343 (13.85%) Finance
3 231 (9.33%) Public Sector
4 142 (5.74%) Banking
5 120 (4.85%) Analytical Skills
6 89 (3.59%) Retail
7 65 (2.63%) Manufacturing
8 58 (2.34%) Legal
9 56 (2.26%) Documentation Skills
10 37 (1.49%) Influencing Skills
11 34 (1.37%) Aerospace
12 29 (1.17%) Military
13 25 (1.01%) Investment Banking
14 21 (0.85%) Presentation Skills
15 20 (0.81%) Financial Institution
15 20 (0.81%) Marketing
16 19 (0.77%) Telecoms
17 18 (0.73%) Back Office
18 13 (0.53%) Billing
18 13 (0.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 107 (4.32%) REST
2 79 (3.19%) Middleware
3 50 (2.02%) .NET
3 50 (2.02%) OAuth
4 46 (1.86%) OpenID
5 41 (1.66%) SOAP
6 34 (1.37%) SAML
7 32 (1.29%) OAuth2
7 32 (1.29%) Oracle Fusion
7 32 (1.29%) SailPoint
8 29 (1.17%) Kafka
9 27 (1.09%) RESTful
10 23 (0.93%) Node.js
11 22 (0.89%) React
12 21 (0.85%) LDAP
13 20 (0.81%) JSON
13 20 (0.81%) Web Services
14 15 (0.61%) Microsoft Graph
15 13 (0.53%) AngularJS
15 13 (0.53%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 170 (6.87%) Cloud Native
2 86 (3.47%) Data Centre
3 77 (3.11%) Product Ownership
4 71 (2.87%) Operational Technology
5 56 (2.26%) Management Information System
6 55 (2.22%) Hybrid Cloud
7 51 (2.06%) Legacy Systems
8 49 (1.98%) Data Protection Act
8 49 (1.98%) Enterprise Software
9 48 (1.94%) Onboarding
9 48 (1.94%) Public Cloud
10 45 (1.82%) Distributed Systems
11 28 (1.13%) CMDB
12 25 (1.01%) PKI
12 25 (1.01%) SCADA
13 23 (0.93%) Private Cloud
14 20 (0.81%) AI Agents
15 19 (0.77%) Data Structures
15 19 (0.77%) Security Posture
16 16 (0.65%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 104 (4.20%) Windows
2 47 (1.90%) Linux
3 32 (1.29%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.65%) Android
4 16 (0.65%) Apple iOS
5 12 (0.48%) Unix
6 6 (0.24%) Windows Server 2016
7 5 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
7 5 (0.20%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 5 (0.20%) Windows 7
8 4 (0.16%) Windows 10
8 4 (0.16%) Windows Server 2019
9 3 (0.12%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (0.081%) VMS
11 1 (0.040%) CatOS
11 1 (0.040%) Kali Linux
11 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2008
11 1 (0.040%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 351 (14.18%) Roadmaps
2 342 (13.81%) Agile
3 304 (12.28%) Migration
4 300 (12.12%) Stakeholder Management
5 262 (10.58%) DevOps
6 260 (10.50%) Enterprise Architecture
7 237 (9.57%) Technical Leadership
8 226 (9.13%) CI/CD
9 220 (8.89%) Integration Patterns
10 206 (8.32%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 200 (8.08%) Architectural Patterns
12 198 (8.00%) Data Modelling
13 192 (7.75%) Microservices
14 181 (7.31%) Data Architecture
15 166 (6.70%) Cybersecurity
15 166 (6.70%) TOGAF
16 164 (6.62%) Architectural Design
17 158 (6.38%) Problem-Solving
18 153 (6.18%) AI
19 138 (5.57%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 109 (4.40%) SQL
2 99 (4.00%) Python
3 84 (3.39%) Java
4 60 (2.42%) PowerShell
5 49 (1.98%) JavaScript
6 32 (1.29%) C#
7 24 (0.97%) Bicep
8 15 (0.61%) TypeScript
9 12 (0.48%) Bash
10 10 (0.40%) Kusto Query Language
11 8 (0.32%) PL/SQL
11 8 (0.32%) VBA
12 6 (0.24%) Scala
13 5 (0.20%) ABAP
13 5 (0.20%) Apex Code
14 4 (0.16%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 4 (0.16%) Kotlin
14 4 (0.16%) VB
14 4 (0.16%) VBScript
15 3 (0.12%) Perl
Qualifications
1 714 (28.84%) Security Cleared
2 443 (17.89%) SC Cleared
3 220 (8.89%) DV Cleared
4 87 (3.51%) Degree
5 53 (2.14%) BPSS Clearance
6 50 (2.02%) Cisco Certification
7 38 (1.53%) TOGAF Certification
8 36 (1.45%) Azure Certification
9 34 (1.37%) AWS Certification
9 34 (1.37%) CISSP
9 34 (1.37%) Computer Science Degree
10 30 (1.21%) CCNP
11 21 (0.85%) Microsoft Certification
12 17 (0.69%) CISM
13 16 (0.65%) CCNA
14 15 (0.61%) Master's Degree
15 12 (0.48%) Network+ Certification
15 12 (0.48%) Server+ Certification
16 11 (0.44%) (ISC)2 CCSP
17 10 (0.40%) CCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 93 (3.76%) NIST
2 77 (3.11%) GDPR
3 70 (2.83%) Data Quality
4 57 (2.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 49 (1.98%) NCSC
6 25 (1.01%) QA
7 20 (0.81%) Accessibility
8 16 (0.65%) PCI DSS
9 14 (0.57%) GRC
10 12 (0.48%) COBIT
10 12 (0.48%) FINRA
10 12 (0.48%) MiFID
10 12 (0.48%) NIST 800
11 11 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials
11 11 (0.44%) IFRS
12 10 (0.40%) ISO 19650
13 9 (0.36%) HL7
13 9 (0.36%) ISO 20022
14 8 (0.32%) Disclosure Scotland
14 8 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
System Software
1 101 (4.08%) Active Directory
2 55 (2.22%) VMware Infrastructure
3 37 (1.49%) Docker
4 30 (1.21%) VMware NSX
5 21 (0.85%) Hyper-V
6 20 (0.81%) vSphere
7 16 (0.65%) Virtual Desktop
8 11 (0.44%) VMware ESXi
9 8 (0.32%) vCloud
9 8 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
10 5 (0.20%) RACF
11 4 (0.16%) BitLocker
11 4 (0.16%) NFS
12 3 (0.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
12 3 (0.12%) IAG
12 3 (0.12%) SRDF
13 2 (0.081%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
13 2 (0.081%) Firmware
14 1 (0.040%) Embedded Firmware
14 1 (0.040%) Snort
Systems Management
1 85 (3.43%) Kubernetes
2 79 (3.19%) Terraform
3 52 (2.10%) Ansible
4 33 (1.33%) Microsoft Intune
5 24 (0.97%) Single Sign-On
5 24 (0.97%) vCenter Server
6 16 (0.65%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 15 (0.61%) Grafana
8 14 (0.57%) FortiGate
9 12 (0.48%) Argo
10 11 (0.44%) Prometheus
11 10 (0.40%) SCCM
12 7 (0.28%) Jamf Pro
13 6 (0.24%) Istio
14 5 (0.20%) EMC VPLEX
15 4 (0.16%) Endace
15 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
15 4 (0.16%) WMI
16 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
16 3 (0.12%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 343 (13.85%) Microsoft
2 146 (5.90%) SAP
3 119 (4.81%) VMware
4 109 (4.40%) Oracle
5 107 (4.32%) ServiceNow
6 73 (2.95%) Cisco
7 66 (2.67%) Databricks
8 56 (2.26%) Salesforce
9 53 (2.14%) Google
10 33 (1.33%) MuleSoft
11 29 (1.17%) Red Hat
12 28 (1.13%) F5
13 24 (0.97%) Palo Alto
14 23 (0.93%) BiZZdesign
15 21 (0.85%) Citrix
15 21 (0.85%) Juniper
15 21 (0.85%) Sparx
16 20 (0.81%) Talend
17 15 (0.61%) Informatica
17 15 (0.61%) Splunk