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 19 March 2026.

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

6 months to
19 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 17 13
Rank change year-on-year +6 -4 +7
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,214 1,131 1,972
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 10.18% 8.91% 9.37%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.12% 9.63% 10.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,430 784 1,206
10th Percentile £450 £453 £500
25th Percentile £506 £538 £569
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% -3.85% -
75th Percentile £700 £700 £725
90th Percentile £763 £749 £775
UK median daily rate £620 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -0.80% -3.85% -1.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 91 27 40
10th Percentile £49.40 £61.50 £52.30
25th Percentile £60.00 £66.00 £60.00
Median hourly rate £71.27 £73.31 £78.90
Median % change year-on-year -2.78% -7.08% +12.71%
75th Percentile £87.00 £82.25 £87.53
90th Percentile £95.00 £86.47 £95.00
UK median hourly rate £71.27 £72.50 £76.53
% change year-on-year -1.70% -5.27% +9.33%

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 19,913 11,746 19,513
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.56% 92.53% 92.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,839 7,581 12,143
10th Percentile £256 £213 £213
25th Percentile £395 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £475 £487
Median % change year-on-year +1.05% -2.46% -2.60%
75th Percentile £580 £588 £593
90th Percentile £675 £663 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,155 701 2,076
10th Percentile £14.39 £15.00 £12.50
25th Percentile £18.87 £20.12 £15.50
Median hourly rate £35.00 £32.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% - -18.75%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.79 £75.50 £71.25
UK median hourly rate £35.91 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year +10.49% - -23.29%

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 19 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 19 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 19 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 +4 677 £623 -0.40% 233
North of England 0 580 £600 - 152
Midlands -2 386 £575 -4.17% 67
North West +4 327 £603 +0.42% 77
West Midlands 0 288 £600 -3.23% 55
South West 0 269 £700 +14.29% 89
Yorkshire +10 230 £563 -6.25% 57
East of England +12 166 £531 -15.00% 40
Scotland +20 145 £650 +4.00% 25
East Midlands -2 94 £513 -7.66% 12
North East +5 31 £625 - 21
Wales +3 27 £538 -0.46% 23
Northern Ireland +3 11 £500 -26.47% 4
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 19 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.

1 707 (31.93%) Security Cleared
2 467 (21.09%) Azure
3 397 (17.93%) SC Cleared
4 349 (15.76%) AWS
5 327 (14.77%) Roadmaps
6 324 (14.63%) Agile
7 321 (14.50%) Microsoft
8 263 (11.88%) Stakeholder Management
9 262 (11.83%) Migration
10 253 (11.43%) Enterprise Architecture
11 251 (11.34%) DV Cleared
12 224 (10.12%) TOGAF
13 213 (9.62%) DevOps
14 191 (8.63%) Data Modelling
15 188 (8.49%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 184 (8.31%) CI/CD
17 182 (8.22%) Technical Leadership
18 161 (7.27%) Problem-Solving
19 160 (7.23%) Architectural Patterns
20 157 (7.09%) Microservices
21 154 (6.96%) Data Architecture
22 148 (6.68%) Analytics
23 147 (6.64%) Cybersecurity
24 146 (6.59%) Architectural Design
24 146 (6.59%) GCP
25 144 (6.50%) Integration Patterns
26 143 (6.46%) ITIL
27 132 (5.96%) VMware
27 132 (5.96%) Windows
28 131 (5.92%) AI

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 89 (4.02%) Confluence
2 65 (2.94%) SharePoint
3 49 (2.21%) Microsoft Exchange
4 25 (1.13%) SAS
5 13 (0.59%) Appian
6 12 (0.54%) ArcGIS
7 11 (0.50%) CMS
8 10 (0.45%) Anypoint
9 9 (0.41%) Apache
9 9 (0.41%) Smallworld
10 7 (0.32%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 7 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
10 7 (0.32%) Skype for Business
11 6 (0.27%) Apache Spark
11 6 (0.27%) Sitecore CMS
11 6 (0.27%) WebLogic
12 5 (0.23%) GeoServer
12 5 (0.23%) NetWeaver
13 4 (0.18%) IIS
13 4 (0.18%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 45 (2.03%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (1.40%) Microsoft Project
3 22 (0.99%) Microsoft Excel
4 21 (0.95%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.32%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.18%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.045%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 52 (2.35%) SAP S/4HANA
2 30 (1.36%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 17 (0.77%) Payment Gateway
4 14 (0.63%) Workday HCM
5 10 (0.45%) Dynamics CRM
6 9 (0.41%) Salesforce CRM
7 8 (0.36%) SAP ERP
8 7 (0.32%) Maximo
9 6 (0.27%) Remedy ITSM
10 5 (0.23%) SAP CRM
11 4 (0.18%) Distributed Ledger
11 4 (0.18%) Oracle Retail
11 4 (0.18%) R3 Corda
11 4 (0.18%) SAP CO
11 4 (0.18%) SAP FI
11 4 (0.18%) SAP FI/CO
11 4 (0.18%) SAP GRC
11 4 (0.18%) SAP PP
11 4 (0.18%) Teamcenter
12 3 (0.14%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 467 (21.09%) Azure
2 349 (15.76%) AWS
3 146 (6.59%) GCP
4 94 (4.25%) Entra ID
5 88 (3.97%) Microsoft 365
6 66 (2.98%) Power Platform
7 62 (2.80%) Serverless
8 60 (2.71%) SaaS
9 49 (2.21%) PaaS
10 48 (2.17%) IaaS
11 47 (2.12%) Microsoft Purview
12 42 (1.90%) OpenShift
13 39 (1.76%) OneDrive
14 37 (1.67%) Azure DevOps
14 37 (1.67%) GitHub
15 32 (1.45%) Dynamics 365
16 28 (1.26%) AWS CloudFormation
17 27 (1.22%) AWS Lambda
18 26 (1.17%) Azure Synapse Analytics
19 23 (1.04%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 116 (5.24%) Firewall
2 74 (3.34%) DNS
3 73 (3.30%) WAN
4 68 (3.07%) Network Security
5 62 (2.80%) VPN
6 48 (2.17%) LAN
7 43 (1.94%) SD-WAN
8 28 (1.26%) DHCP
9 19 (0.86%) MPLS
10 18 (0.81%) BGP
10 18 (0.81%) VLAN
10 18 (0.81%) Wi-Fi
10 18 (0.81%) Wireless
11 17 (0.77%) SAN
12 14 (0.63%) IPsec
13 13 (0.59%) Kerberos
13 13 (0.59%) OSPF
14 12 (0.54%) Internet
14 12 (0.54%) SSL
15 11 (0.50%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 76 (3.43%) Data Warehouse
2 70 (3.16%) Metadata
3 52 (2.35%) Power BI
4 42 (1.90%) SQL Server
5 31 (1.40%) PostgreSQL
6 26 (1.17%) Tableau
7 24 (1.08%) Data Lake
7 24 (1.08%) NoSQL
7 24 (1.08%) Oracle Database
8 21 (0.95%) GIS
9 14 (0.63%) Metadata Repository
10 13 (0.59%) Azure SQL Database
10 13 (0.59%) DynamoDB
11 11 (0.50%) Big Data
11 11 (0.50%) Relational Database
12 10 (0.45%) Electronic Patient Records
13 9 (0.41%) Amazon Redshift
13 9 (0.41%) MongoDB
14 8 (0.36%) Amazon Athena
15 7 (0.32%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 97 (4.38%) JIRA
2 47 (2.12%) Jenkins
3 19 (0.86%) Git
3 19 (0.86%) GitLab
4 6 (0.27%) ERwin
5 4 (0.18%) Artifactory
5 4 (0.18%) Selenium
5 4 (0.18%) Sonatype Nexus
6 3 (0.14%) Bitbucket
6 3 (0.14%) Cucumber
6 3 (0.14%) MLflow
6 3 (0.14%) MSI
6 3 (0.14%) Postman
6 3 (0.14%) Rational DOORS
6 3 (0.14%) REST Assured
7 2 (0.090%) JMeter
7 2 (0.090%) JUnit
7 2 (0.090%) LoadRunner
7 2 (0.090%) NeoLoad
7 2 (0.090%) Oracle Forms
General
1 434 (19.60%) Social Skills
2 275 (12.42%) Finance
3 239 (10.79%) Public Sector
4 149 (6.73%) Analytical Skills
5 130 (5.87%) Banking
6 61 (2.76%) Military
7 59 (2.66%) Documentation Skills
8 46 (2.08%) Legal
9 39 (1.76%) Retail
10 38 (1.72%) Telecoms
11 36 (1.63%) Influencing Skills
12 35 (1.58%) Marketing
13 33 (1.49%) Presentation Skills
14 20 (0.90%) Aerospace
14 20 (0.90%) Investment Banking
15 19 (0.86%) Manufacturing
16 15 (0.68%) Financial Institution
17 12 (0.54%) Billing
17 12 (0.54%) Local Government
18 11 (0.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 80 (3.61%) REST
2 57 (2.57%) Middleware
3 42 (1.90%) SOAP
4 41 (1.85%) OAuth
5 39 (1.76%) .NET
6 34 (1.54%) OpenID
7 31 (1.40%) SAML
8 30 (1.36%) OAuth2
9 27 (1.22%) SailPoint
10 26 (1.17%) Kafka
11 23 (1.04%) RESTful
12 17 (0.77%) React
12 17 (0.77%) Web Services
13 16 (0.72%) Node.js
14 15 (0.68%) Microsoft Graph
15 13 (0.59%) LDAP
16 12 (0.54%) CSS
16 12 (0.54%) HTML
16 12 (0.54%) JSON
17 11 (0.50%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 155 (7.00%) Cloud Native
2 99 (4.47%) Product Ownership
3 77 (3.48%) Data Centre
4 56 (2.53%) Onboarding
5 52 (2.35%) Public Cloud
6 49 (2.21%) PKI
7 48 (2.17%) Operational Technology
8 44 (1.99%) Hybrid Cloud
9 40 (1.81%) Management Information System
10 39 (1.76%) Enterprise Software
11 38 (1.72%) Legacy Systems
12 35 (1.58%) Data Protection Act
13 34 (1.54%) Distributed Systems
14 27 (1.22%) CMDB
14 27 (1.22%) SCADA
15 23 (1.04%) NHS
16 17 (0.77%) AI Agents
16 17 (0.77%) Private Cloud
17 16 (0.72%) Data Structures
18 15 (0.68%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 132 (5.96%) Windows
2 77 (3.48%) Linux
3 31 (1.40%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.72%) Windows 7
5 15 (0.68%) Android
5 15 (0.68%) Apple iOS
6 14 (0.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 11 (0.50%) Windows 10
8 8 (0.36%) Windows Server 2016
9 7 (0.32%) Unix
10 5 (0.23%) VMS
10 5 (0.23%) Windows Server 2019
11 4 (0.18%) Mac OS
12 3 (0.14%) Ubuntu
12 3 (0.14%) Windows Server 2012
13 1 (0.045%) CentOS
13 1 (0.045%) Data ONTAP
13 1 (0.045%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 327 (14.77%) Roadmaps
2 324 (14.63%) Agile
3 263 (11.88%) Stakeholder Management
4 262 (11.83%) Migration
5 253 (11.43%) Enterprise Architecture
6 224 (10.12%) TOGAF
7 213 (9.62%) DevOps
8 191 (8.63%) Data Modelling
9 188 (8.49%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 184 (8.31%) CI/CD
11 182 (8.22%) Technical Leadership
12 161 (7.27%) Problem-Solving
13 160 (7.23%) Architectural Patterns
14 157 (7.09%) Microservices
15 154 (6.96%) Data Architecture
16 148 (6.68%) Analytics
17 147 (6.64%) Cybersecurity
18 146 (6.59%) Architectural Design
19 144 (6.50%) Integration Patterns
20 143 (6.46%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 129 (5.83%) Python
2 78 (3.52%) PowerShell
2 78 (3.52%) SQL
3 61 (2.76%) Java
4 33 (1.49%) JavaScript
5 30 (1.36%) C#
6 20 (0.90%) Bicep
7 19 (0.86%) Bash
8 11 (0.50%) Kusto Query Language
9 9 (0.41%) PL/SQL
10 8 (0.36%) R
11 7 (0.32%) TypeScript
11 7 (0.32%) VB
11 7 (0.32%) VBScript
12 6 (0.27%) Apex Code
13 5 (0.23%) Scala
14 4 (0.18%) ABAP
14 4 (0.18%) Kotlin
14 4 (0.18%) Perl
14 4 (0.18%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 707 (31.93%) Security Cleared
2 397 (17.93%) SC Cleared
3 251 (11.34%) DV Cleared
4 109 (4.92%) Degree
5 78 (3.52%) TOGAF Certification
6 65 (2.94%) CISSP
7 53 (2.39%) AWS Certification
8 46 (2.08%) BPSS Clearance
9 41 (1.85%) Azure Certification
10 40 (1.81%) Cisco Certification
11 39 (1.76%) CISM
12 30 (1.36%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 29 (1.31%) Microsoft Certification
14 27 (1.22%) Computer Science Degree
15 26 (1.17%) CCNP
15 26 (1.17%) ISEB
15 26 (1.17%) ITIL Certification
16 23 (1.04%) Master's Degree
17 16 (0.72%) CCIE
18 13 (0.59%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 106 (4.79%) GDPR
2 99 (4.47%) NIST
3 74 (3.34%) Data Quality
4 72 (3.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 48 (2.17%) NCSC
6 32 (1.45%) PCI DSS
7 30 (1.36%) COBIT
8 19 (0.86%) GRC
8 19 (0.86%) QA
9 17 (0.77%) Cyber Essentials
10 16 (0.72%) JSP 440
11 13 (0.59%) Accessibility
12 12 (0.54%) FINRA
12 12 (0.54%) ISO 20022
12 12 (0.54%) MiFID
13 9 (0.41%) California Consumer Privacy Act
13 9 (0.41%) Def Stans
13 9 (0.41%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 9 (0.41%) NIST 800
14 8 (0.36%) HL7
System Software
1 101 (4.56%) Active Directory
2 63 (2.85%) VMware Infrastructure
3 39 (1.76%) Docker
4 34 (1.54%) VMware NSX
5 25 (1.13%) vSphere
6 15 (0.68%) Virtual Desktop
7 14 (0.63%) Hyper-V
8 8 (0.36%) vCloud
8 8 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
8 8 (0.36%) VMware ESXi
9 7 (0.32%) BitLocker
10 5 (0.23%) RACF
11 3 (0.14%) IAG
11 3 (0.14%) NFS
12 2 (0.090%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
12 2 (0.090%) Firmware
13 1 (0.045%) Embedded Firmware
13 1 (0.045%) ProxySG
13 1 (0.045%) Snort
Systems Management
1 106 (4.79%) Terraform
2 81 (3.66%) Kubernetes
3 61 (2.76%) Ansible
4 33 (1.49%) Single Sign-On
5 31 (1.40%) Microsoft Intune
6 30 (1.36%) OPNET
6 30 (1.36%) vCenter Server
7 20 (0.90%) SCCM
8 16 (0.72%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 15 (0.68%) Argo
9 15 (0.68%) WMI
10 11 (0.50%) FortiGate
11 6 (0.27%) Grafana
11 6 (0.27%) Prometheus
12 5 (0.23%) Istio
13 4 (0.18%) Endace
14 3 (0.14%) SCOM
15 2 (0.090%) MOM
15 2 (0.090%) Nessus
15 2 (0.090%) vRealize
Vendors
1 321 (14.50%) Microsoft
2 132 (5.96%) VMware
3 124 (5.60%) ServiceNow
4 114 (5.15%) SAP
5 93 (4.20%) Oracle
6 78 (3.52%) Cisco
7 72 (3.25%) Salesforce
8 48 (2.17%) Google
9 43 (1.94%) Remedy
10 40 (1.81%) Databricks
10 40 (1.81%) MuleSoft
11 38 (1.72%) Palo Alto
11 38 (1.72%) Red Hat
12 35 (1.58%) Atlassian
13 34 (1.54%) BiZZdesign
14 30 (1.36%) Citrix
15 29 (1.31%) Sparx
16 27 (1.22%) CyberArk
17 25 (1.13%) F5
18 24 (1.08%) Juniper