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 20 July 2026.

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

6 months to
20 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 20 13
Rank change year-on-year +7 -7 +5
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,500 1,240 1,994
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.26% 8.30% 9.89%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.05% 9.16% 10.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,634 841 1,223
10th Percentile £481 £450 £488
25th Percentile £525 £519 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £620 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year +3.33% -7.69% -
75th Percentile £713 £694 £725
90th Percentile £775 £753 £788
UK median daily rate £616 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -1.44% -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 158 17 85
10th Percentile £48.38 £35.42 -
25th Percentile £60.00 £62.50 £60.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £72.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.34% +3.57% -
75th Percentile £71.91 £85.50 £85.65
90th Percentile £83.00 £99.13 £88.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £68.75 £70.00
% change year-on-year -5.45% -1.79% -

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 24,876 13,539 18,593
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.13% 90.58% 92.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,156 8,356 11,302
10th Percentile £305 £215 £215
25th Percentile £408 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £495
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -4.04% -1.00%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £598
90th Percentile £688 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,878 1,149 2,153
10th Percentile £15.05 £13.50 £12.88
25th Percentile £20.81 £16.50 £16.37
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.94
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -38.57% +3.51%
75th Percentile £68.00 £56.44 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £74.53
UK median hourly rate £43.69 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +73.72% -37.13% -6.98%

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 20 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 20 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 20 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 +7 721 £600 - 164
South East 0 717 £633 +5.42% 187
Midlands -1 413 £620 +7.83% 83
North West +4 385 £610 +1.88% 91
West Midlands -4 300 £625 +4.17% 59
South West -4 285 £625 - 72
Yorkshire +8 266 £600 - 41
East of England +20 184 £600 - 43
Scotland +9 171 £650 +4.00% 35
East Midlands +5 107 £600 +20.00% 24
North East +2 78 £600 -15.79% 32
Wales 0 32 £600 +11.11% 14
Northern Ireland +6 7 £475 -32.14% 8
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 20 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.

1 767 (30.68%) Security Cleared
2 546 (21.84%) Azure
3 481 (19.24%) SC Cleared
4 441 (17.64%) AWS
5 363 (14.52%) Roadmaps
6 332 (13.28%) Agile
6 332 (13.28%) Microsoft
7 319 (12.76%) Stakeholder Management
8 279 (11.16%) Migration
9 256 (10.24%) Enterprise Architecture
10 252 (10.08%) DevOps
11 251 (10.04%) Technical Leadership
12 236 (9.44%) DV Cleared
13 235 (9.40%) Integration Patterns
14 228 (9.12%) CI/CD
15 225 (9.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 223 (8.92%) Data Architecture
17 215 (8.60%) Architectural Patterns
18 213 (8.52%) Data Modelling
19 204 (8.16%) AI
20 194 (7.76%) Microservices
21 193 (7.72%) Cybersecurity
22 190 (7.60%) TOGAF
23 171 (6.84%) Problem-Solving
24 168 (6.72%) Security Architecture
25 159 (6.36%) Architectural Design
26 149 (5.96%) GCP
27 145 (5.80%) Data Governance
28 143 (5.72%) Continuous Improvement
29 138 (5.52%) Analytics

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 48 (1.92%) SharePoint
2 33 (1.32%) SAS
3 32 (1.28%) Confluence
4 22 (0.88%) Microsoft Exchange
5 14 (0.56%) Apache Airflow
6 13 (0.52%) Apache Spark
7 12 (0.48%) Apache
8 10 (0.40%) CMS
8 10 (0.40%) OpenStack
9 9 (0.36%) Appian
10 8 (0.32%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 8 (0.32%) Palantir Foundry
11 7 (0.28%) Documentum
12 6 (0.24%) Sitecore CMS
13 5 (0.20%) ArcGIS
13 5 (0.20%) JBoss
13 5 (0.20%) NetWeaver
14 4 (0.16%) SAP EP
15 2 (0.080%) Alfresco
15 2 (0.080%) nginx
Applications
1 11 (0.44%) MS Visio
2 7 (0.28%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (0.28%) Microsoft Office
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%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.040%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 53 (2.12%) SAP S/4HANA
2 18 (0.72%) Payment Gateway
3 15 (0.60%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 11 (0.44%) SAP ERP
4 11 (0.44%) Teamcenter
5 10 (0.40%) Remedy ITSM
6 7 (0.28%) Oracle ERP
7 6 (0.24%) Maximo
8 5 (0.20%) Dynamics CRM
8 5 (0.20%) Oracle Retail
8 5 (0.20%) SAP GRC
9 4 (0.16%) Oracle Payables
9 4 (0.16%) SAP CRM
9 4 (0.16%) SAP MDG
10 3 (0.12%) Adobe Campaign
10 3 (0.12%) NetSuite
10 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
10 3 (0.12%) SAP IBP
11 2 (0.080%) Salesforce CRM
11 2 (0.080%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 546 (21.84%) Azure
2 441 (17.64%) AWS
3 149 (5.96%) GCP
4 99 (3.96%) Power Platform
5 92 (3.68%) Entra ID
6 80 (3.20%) Serverless
7 74 (2.96%) SaaS
8 64 (2.56%) Microsoft 365
9 55 (2.20%) PaaS
10 46 (1.84%) GitHub
10 46 (1.84%) IaaS
11 39 (1.56%) Azure DevOps
12 38 (1.52%) OpenShift
13 32 (1.28%) AWS Lambda
14 30 (1.20%) Dynamics 365
15 28 (1.12%) Snowflake
16 27 (1.08%) Amazon S3
16 27 (1.08%) Microsoft Purview
17 24 (0.96%) Azure Data Factory
17 24 (0.96%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 103 (4.12%) Firewall
2 69 (2.76%) DNS
2 69 (2.76%) Network Security
3 68 (2.72%) WAN
4 56 (2.24%) LAN
5 40 (1.60%) VPN
6 37 (1.48%) DHCP
7 35 (1.40%) BGP
7 35 (1.40%) SD-WAN
8 31 (1.24%) TCP/IP
9 30 (1.20%) VLAN
10 26 (1.04%) MPLS
11 25 (1.00%) SAN
11 25 (1.00%) Wireless
12 23 (0.92%) NAS
13 21 (0.84%) IPsec
13 21 (0.84%) Structured Cabling
14 19 (0.76%) BIG-IP
14 19 (0.76%) OSPF
15 14 (0.56%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 75 (3.00%) Metadata
2 68 (2.72%) Power BI
3 66 (2.64%) Data Warehouse
4 65 (2.60%) Data Lake
5 35 (1.40%) NoSQL
6 31 (1.24%) SQL Server
7 25 (1.00%) PostgreSQL
8 20 (0.80%) Oracle Database
9 18 (0.72%) Amazon RDS
10 17 (0.68%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
11 14 (0.56%) Azure SQL Database
11 14 (0.56%) Base SAS
11 14 (0.56%) GIS
12 13 (0.52%) Big Data
13 11 (0.44%) MongoDB
14 10 (0.40%) Delta Lake
14 10 (0.40%) Relational Database
14 10 (0.40%) Semantic Layer
15 9 (0.36%) Electronic Patient Records
16 8 (0.32%) BigQuery
Development Applications
1 43 (1.72%) JIRA
2 27 (1.08%) Jenkins
3 24 (0.96%) Git
4 12 (0.48%) GitLab
5 10 (0.40%) ERwin
6 8 (0.32%) Sonatype Nexus
7 5 (0.20%) Artifactory
8 4 (0.16%) Hudson
9 3 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.12%) Selenium
9 3 (0.12%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.080%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.080%) Claude Code
10 2 (0.080%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.080%) IntelliJ
10 2 (0.080%) JUnit
10 2 (0.080%) Oracle APEX
10 2 (0.080%) Oracle Forms
10 2 (0.080%) Rational Rhapsody
10 2 (0.080%) REST Assured
General
1 466 (18.64%) Social Skills
2 318 (12.72%) Finance
3 238 (9.52%) Public Sector
4 144 (5.76%) Banking
5 142 (5.68%) Analytical Skills
6 92 (3.68%) Retail
7 71 (2.84%) Manufacturing
8 58 (2.32%) Documentation Skills
9 46 (1.84%) Influencing Skills
10 41 (1.64%) Legal
11 35 (1.40%) Aerospace
12 32 (1.28%) Military
13 27 (1.08%) Telecoms
14 24 (0.96%) Financial Institution
15 21 (0.84%) Back Office
15 21 (0.84%) Marketing
16 20 (0.80%) Investment Banking
16 20 (0.80%) Presentation Skills
17 17 (0.68%) Billing
18 15 (0.60%) Aviation
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 111 (4.44%) REST
2 70 (2.80%) Middleware
3 51 (2.04%) OAuth
4 43 (1.72%) .NET
4 43 (1.72%) SOAP
5 39 (1.56%) Oracle Fusion
6 38 (1.52%) OpenID
7 34 (1.36%) Kafka
8 32 (1.28%) SailPoint
9 31 (1.24%) SAML
10 27 (1.08%) OAuth2
11 24 (0.96%) RESTful
12 23 (0.92%) Node.js
13 21 (0.84%) JSON
14 20 (0.80%) React
14 20 (0.80%) Web Services
15 19 (0.76%) LDAP
16 15 (0.60%) AngularJS
17 13 (0.52%) FHIR
18 11 (0.44%) SAP PI
Miscellaneous
1 182 (7.28%) Cloud Native
2 89 (3.56%) Data Centre
3 74 (2.96%) Operational Technology
4 73 (2.92%) Hybrid Cloud
5 62 (2.48%) Product Ownership
6 61 (2.44%) Onboarding
7 58 (2.32%) Management Information System
8 55 (2.20%) Data Protection Act
9 53 (2.12%) Legacy Systems
10 52 (2.08%) Enterprise Software
11 50 (2.00%) Distributed Systems
12 39 (1.56%) Public Cloud
13 32 (1.28%) AI Agents
14 31 (1.24%) Private Cloud
15 25 (1.00%) Security Posture
16 24 (0.96%) CMDB
17 23 (0.92%) SCADA
18 22 (0.88%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
18 22 (0.88%) Enterprise Cloud
19 21 (0.84%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 94 (3.76%) Windows
2 52 (2.08%) Linux
3 32 (1.28%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.64%) Android
4 16 (0.64%) Apple iOS
5 14 (0.56%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.40%) Unix
7 5 (0.20%) AIX
7 5 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
8 2 (0.080%) VMS
8 2 (0.080%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.040%) CatOS
9 1 (0.040%) HPUX
9 1 (0.040%) Kali Linux
9 1 (0.040%) Solaris
9 1 (0.040%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.040%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.040%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.040%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 363 (14.52%) Roadmaps
2 332 (13.28%) Agile
3 319 (12.76%) Stakeholder Management
4 279 (11.16%) Migration
5 256 (10.24%) Enterprise Architecture
6 252 (10.08%) DevOps
7 251 (10.04%) Technical Leadership
8 235 (9.40%) Integration Patterns
9 228 (9.12%) CI/CD
10 225 (9.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 223 (8.92%) Data Architecture
12 215 (8.60%) Architectural Patterns
13 213 (8.52%) Data Modelling
14 204 (8.16%) AI
15 194 (7.76%) Microservices
16 193 (7.72%) Cybersecurity
17 190 (7.60%) TOGAF
18 171 (6.84%) Problem-Solving
19 168 (6.72%) Security Architecture
20 159 (6.36%) Architectural Design
Programming Languages
1 110 (4.40%) SQL
2 104 (4.16%) Python
3 92 (3.68%) Java
4 52 (2.08%) JavaScript
5 46 (1.84%) PowerShell
6 28 (1.12%) C#
7 22 (0.88%) Bash
7 22 (0.88%) Bicep
8 12 (0.48%) TypeScript
9 8 (0.32%) ABAP
9 8 (0.32%) PL/SQL
9 8 (0.32%) VBA
10 5 (0.20%) Apex Code
10 5 (0.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 5 (0.20%) Shell Script
11 4 (0.16%) Kotlin
12 3 (0.12%) C
12 3 (0.12%) Kusto Query Language
12 3 (0.12%) Scala
13 2 (0.080%) C++
Qualifications
1 767 (30.68%) Security Cleared
2 481 (19.24%) SC Cleared
3 236 (9.44%) DV Cleared
4 90 (3.60%) Degree
5 59 (2.36%) Cisco Certification
6 54 (2.16%) CISSP
7 47 (1.88%) TOGAF Certification
8 43 (1.72%) AWS Certification
9 42 (1.68%) Azure Certification
9 42 (1.68%) BPSS Clearance
10 34 (1.36%) Computer Science Degree
11 33 (1.32%) CCNP
12 21 (0.84%) Microsoft Certification
13 18 (0.72%) CISM
14 17 (0.68%) CCNA
15 15 (0.60%) CCIE
15 15 (0.60%) Master's Degree
16 14 (0.56%) (ISC)2 CCSP
17 12 (0.48%) Network+ Certification
17 12 (0.48%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 95 (3.80%) NIST
2 77 (3.08%) Data Quality
3 68 (2.72%) GDPR
4 61 (2.44%) NCSC
5 58 (2.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 25 (1.00%) QA
7 20 (0.80%) PCI DSS
8 19 (0.76%) Accessibility
9 16 (0.64%) NIST 800
10 13 (0.52%) GRC
11 12 (0.48%) COBIT
12 11 (0.44%) Disclosure Scotland
12 11 (0.44%) IFRS
12 11 (0.44%) ISO/IEC 20000
13 10 (0.40%) Cyber Essentials
13 10 (0.40%) HL7
13 10 (0.40%) ISO 19650
13 10 (0.40%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 8 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
14 8 (0.32%) JSP 440
System Software
1 101 (4.04%) Active Directory
2 49 (1.96%) VMware Infrastructure
3 45 (1.80%) Docker
4 29 (1.16%) VMware NSX
5 22 (0.88%) Virtual Desktop
6 17 (0.68%) Hyper-V
6 17 (0.68%) vSphere
7 10 (0.40%) VMware ESXi
8 8 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
9 6 (0.24%) vCloud
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 1 (0.040%) Firmware
12 1 (0.040%) KVM
12 1 (0.040%) ProxySG
12 1 (0.040%) Slurm Workload Manager
12 1 (0.040%) Snort
Systems Management
1 105 (4.20%) Kubernetes
2 91 (3.64%) Terraform
3 54 (2.16%) Ansible
4 39 (1.56%) Microsoft Intune
5 26 (1.04%) Single Sign-On
6 19 (0.76%) Grafana
6 19 (0.76%) vCenter Server
7 15 (0.60%) Prometheus
8 14 (0.56%) Jamf Pro
9 13 (0.52%) Argo
10 12 (0.48%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 8 (0.32%) FortiGate
12 6 (0.24%) CASB
12 6 (0.24%) Istio
13 5 (0.20%) EMC VPLEX
13 5 (0.20%) MOM
14 4 (0.16%) NetBackup
14 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
15 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
15 3 (0.12%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 332 (13.28%) Microsoft
2 133 (5.32%) SAP
3 111 (4.44%) Oracle
4 107 (4.28%) ServiceNow
4 107 (4.28%) VMware
5 74 (2.96%) Cisco
5 74 (2.96%) Databricks
6 70 (2.80%) Google
7 48 (1.92%) Salesforce
8 33 (1.32%) F5
9 31 (1.24%) Citrix
10 29 (1.16%) Red Hat
11 23 (0.92%) CyberArk
12 22 (0.88%) BiZZdesign
12 22 (0.88%) Palo Alto
13 20 (0.80%) Infoblox
13 20 (0.80%) Informatica
13 20 (0.80%) Talend
14 19 (0.76%) Juniper
14 19 (0.76%) MuleSoft