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 £622, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 28 July 2026.

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

6 months to
28 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 12 18 13
Rank change year-on-year +6 -5 +5
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,501 1,240 1,880
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.25% 8.25% 9.81%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.03% 9.11% 10.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,635 846 1,176
10th Percentile £481 £450 £482
25th Percentile £525 £519 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £622 £600 £647
Median % change year-on-year +3.67% -7.26% -0.46%
75th Percentile £712 £688 £725
90th Percentile £775 £760 £788
UK median daily rate £618 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -1.12% -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 161 15 78
10th Percentile £46.00 £33.64 -
25th Percentile £60.00 £64.38 £60.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £72.50 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.34% +3.57% -
75th Percentile £71.91 £86.50 £85.19
90th Percentile £83.00 £99.42 £88.27
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 24,939 13,608 17,644
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.20% 90.48% 92.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,169 8,393 10,794
10th Percentile £306 £218 £214
25th Percentile £409 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £600
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 2,907 1,180 1,928
10th Percentile £15.05 £13.50 £13.49
25th Percentile £21.14 £16.50 £17.72
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -41.51% +8.59%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £43.50 £25.15 £42.03
% change year-on-year +72.96% -40.16% -2.97%

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 28 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 28 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 28 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
South East 0 728 £638 +6.25% 244
North of England +5 722 £600 - 185
Midlands -3 411 £622 +8.17% 107
North West +4 396 £600 - 100
West Midlands -4 302 £626 +4.38% 84
South West -1 291 £625 - 99
Yorkshire +8 257 £600 - 55
East of England +14 172 £600 +5.49% 59
Scotland +10 165 £650 +4.00% 49
East Midlands +5 102 £600 +20.00% 23
North East +1 77 £600 -14.29% 32
Wales +2 33 £600 +11.11% 13
Northern Ireland +4 7 £475 -32.14% 15
Channel Islands -1 3 £575 -22.56% 1
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 28 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.

1 788 (31.51%) Security Cleared
2 549 (21.95%) Azure
3 500 (19.99%) SC Cleared
4 442 (17.67%) AWS
5 359 (14.35%) Roadmaps
6 334 (13.35%) Stakeholder Management
7 331 (13.23%) Agile
8 328 (13.11%) Microsoft
9 280 (11.20%) Migration
10 263 (10.52%) Technical Leadership
11 260 (10.40%) Enterprise Architecture
12 243 (9.72%) DevOps
12 243 (9.72%) DV Cleared
13 242 (9.68%) Integration Patterns
14 229 (9.16%) Data Architecture
15 227 (9.08%) CI/CD
16 219 (8.76%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 216 (8.64%) Architectural Patterns
18 215 (8.60%) Data Modelling
19 212 (8.48%) AI
20 194 (7.76%) Cybersecurity
21 180 (7.20%) Microservices
22 176 (7.04%) TOGAF
23 173 (6.92%) Security Architecture
24 168 (6.72%) Problem-Solving
25 160 (6.40%) GCP
26 154 (6.16%) Architectural Design
27 147 (5.88%) Architecture Governance
27 147 (5.88%) Data Governance
28 145 (5.80%) Decision-Making

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 44 (1.76%) SharePoint
2 36 (1.44%) SAS
3 32 (1.28%) Confluence
4 18 (0.72%) Microsoft Exchange
5 13 (0.52%) Apache Airflow
5 13 (0.52%) Apache Spark
6 12 (0.48%) Apache
7 11 (0.44%) OpenStack
8 9 (0.36%) Palantir Foundry
9 7 (0.28%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 7 (0.28%) Appian
9 7 (0.28%) CMS
9 7 (0.28%) Documentum
10 5 (0.20%) ArcGIS
10 5 (0.20%) JBoss
10 5 (0.20%) NetWeaver
11 4 (0.16%) SAP EP
12 3 (0.12%) Sitecore CMS
13 2 (0.080%) nginx
13 2 (0.080%) Red Hat Fuse
Applications
1 11 (0.44%) MS Visio
2 8 (0.32%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (0.28%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.28%) Navisworks
3 7 (0.28%) Revit
4 6 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
5 5 (0.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.040%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.040%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 58 (2.32%) SAP S/4HANA
2 15 (0.60%) Payment Gateway
3 13 (0.52%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
4 11 (0.44%) Teamcenter
5 10 (0.40%) Remedy ITSM
5 10 (0.40%) SAP ERP
6 7 (0.28%) Oracle ERP
7 6 (0.24%) Dynamics CRM
7 6 (0.24%) Maximo
8 5 (0.20%) NetSuite
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%) Dynamics NAV
10 3 (0.12%) Oracle Receivables
10 3 (0.12%) SAP IBP
10 3 (0.12%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 549 (21.95%) Azure
2 442 (17.67%) AWS
3 160 (6.40%) GCP
4 97 (3.88%) Power Platform
5 85 (3.40%) Entra ID
6 79 (3.16%) Serverless
7 73 (2.92%) SaaS
8 56 (2.24%) Microsoft 365
9 54 (2.16%) PaaS
10 45 (1.80%) GitHub
10 45 (1.80%) IaaS
11 38 (1.52%) OpenShift
12 36 (1.44%) Azure DevOps
12 36 (1.44%) Dynamics 365
13 34 (1.36%) AWS Lambda
14 27 (1.08%) Amazon S3
14 27 (1.08%) Snowflake
15 24 (0.96%) GitHub Actions
16 23 (0.92%) Azure Synapse Analytics
16 23 (0.92%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 99 (3.96%) Firewall
2 68 (2.72%) Network Security
3 67 (2.68%) WAN
4 66 (2.64%) DNS
5 54 (2.16%) LAN
6 39 (1.56%) VPN
7 36 (1.44%) DHCP
8 34 (1.36%) BGP
8 34 (1.36%) SD-WAN
9 30 (1.20%) TCP/IP
9 30 (1.20%) VLAN
10 25 (1.00%) SAN
11 24 (0.96%) MPLS
11 24 (0.96%) Wireless
12 23 (0.92%) NAS
13 21 (0.84%) Structured Cabling
14 19 (0.76%) BIG-IP
15 18 (0.72%) IPsec
15 18 (0.72%) OSPF
16 14 (0.56%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 74 (2.96%) Metadata
2 69 (2.76%) Data Warehouse
3 68 (2.72%) Power BI
4 67 (2.68%) Data Lake
5 36 (1.44%) NoSQL
6 25 (1.00%) PostgreSQL
6 25 (1.00%) SQL Server
7 19 (0.76%) Amazon RDS
7 19 (0.76%) Oracle Database
8 17 (0.68%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
9 14 (0.56%) Base SAS
9 14 (0.56%) GIS
10 13 (0.52%) Azure SQL Database
10 13 (0.52%) Big Data
10 13 (0.52%) BigQuery
10 13 (0.52%) MySQL
11 11 (0.44%) MongoDB
12 10 (0.40%) Delta Lake
12 10 (0.40%) Relational Database
12 10 (0.40%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 39 (1.56%) JIRA
2 28 (1.12%) Jenkins
3 25 (1.00%) 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
1 467 (18.67%) Social Skills
2 316 (12.63%) Finance
3 234 (9.36%) Public Sector
4 139 (5.56%) Banking
5 136 (5.44%) Analytical Skills
6 93 (3.72%) Retail
7 76 (3.04%) Manufacturing
8 57 (2.28%) Documentation Skills
9 53 (2.12%) Influencing Skills
10 36 (1.44%) Aerospace
11 35 (1.40%) Legal
12 31 (1.24%) Military
13 26 (1.04%) Telecoms
14 24 (0.96%) Financial Institution
15 21 (0.84%) Back Office
15 21 (0.84%) Marketing
16 20 (0.80%) Presentation Skills
17 18 (0.72%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 17 (0.68%) Investment Banking
19 16 (0.64%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 105 (4.20%) REST
2 74 (2.96%) Middleware
3 54 (2.16%) OAuth
4 41 (1.64%) SOAP
5 39 (1.56%) Oracle Fusion
6 38 (1.52%) OpenID
7 37 (1.48%) .NET
7 37 (1.48%) Kafka
8 32 (1.28%) SAML
9 31 (1.24%) SailPoint
10 27 (1.08%) OAuth2
11 23 (0.92%) JSON
12 21 (0.84%) RESTful
13 20 (0.80%) Node.js
14 18 (0.72%) Web Services
15 16 (0.64%) LDAP
15 16 (0.64%) React
16 12 (0.48%) AngularJS
16 12 (0.48%) GraphQL
17 11 (0.44%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 187 (7.48%) Cloud Native
2 89 (3.56%) Data Centre
3 74 (2.96%) Hybrid Cloud
4 72 (2.88%) Operational Technology
5 61 (2.44%) Product Ownership
6 58 (2.32%) Management Information System
7 57 (2.28%) Onboarding
8 56 (2.24%) Data Protection Act
9 55 (2.20%) Distributed Systems
10 53 (2.12%) Legacy Systems
11 52 (2.08%) Enterprise Software
12 45 (1.80%) Public Cloud
13 36 (1.44%) AI Agents
13 36 (1.44%) Private Cloud
14 26 (1.04%) Security Posture
15 25 (1.00%) PKI
16 22 (0.88%) Enterprise Cloud
16 22 (0.88%) SCADA
17 21 (0.84%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
18 20 (0.80%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 90 (3.60%) Windows
2 53 (2.12%) 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%) CentOS
9 1 (0.040%) HPUX
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
1 359 (14.35%) Roadmaps
2 334 (13.35%) Stakeholder Management
3 331 (13.23%) Agile
4 280 (11.20%) Migration
5 263 (10.52%) Technical Leadership
6 260 (10.40%) Enterprise Architecture
7 243 (9.72%) DevOps
8 242 (9.68%) Integration Patterns
9 229 (9.16%) Data Architecture
10 227 (9.08%) CI/CD
11 219 (8.76%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 216 (8.64%) Architectural Patterns
13 215 (8.60%) Data Modelling
14 212 (8.48%) AI
15 194 (7.76%) Cybersecurity
16 180 (7.20%) Microservices
17 176 (7.04%) TOGAF
18 173 (6.92%) Security Architecture
19 168 (6.72%) Problem-Solving
20 154 (6.16%) Architectural Design
Programming Languages
1 101 (4.04%) SQL
2 98 (3.92%) Java
3 96 (3.84%) Python
4 58 (2.32%) JavaScript
5 41 (1.64%) PowerShell
6 23 (0.92%) Bash
6 23 (0.92%) C#
7 19 (0.76%) Bicep
8 12 (0.48%) TypeScript
9 8 (0.32%) ABAP
9 8 (0.32%) VBA
10 6 (0.24%) Apex Code
10 6 (0.24%) PL/SQL
11 5 (0.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 5 (0.20%) Shell Script
12 4 (0.16%) Kotlin
13 3 (0.12%) C
14 2 (0.080%) C++
14 2 (0.080%) Kusto Query Language
14 2 (0.080%) ProC
Qualifications
1 788 (31.51%) Security Cleared
2 500 (19.99%) SC Cleared
3 243 (9.72%) DV Cleared
4 87 (3.48%) Degree
5 58 (2.32%) Cisco Certification
6 56 (2.24%) CISSP
7 45 (1.80%) TOGAF Certification
8 41 (1.64%) AWS Certification
8 41 (1.64%) BPSS Clearance
9 40 (1.60%) Azure Certification
10 33 (1.32%) CCNP
10 33 (1.32%) Computer Science Degree
11 21 (0.84%) Microsoft Certification
12 18 (0.72%) CISM
13 17 (0.68%) CCNA
14 14 (0.56%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 14 (0.56%) CCIE
15 12 (0.48%) Master's Degree
15 12 (0.48%) Network+ Certification
15 12 (0.48%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 91 (3.64%) NIST
2 78 (3.12%) Data Quality
3 63 (2.52%) NCSC
4 59 (2.36%) GDPR
5 55 (2.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 25 (1.00%) QA
7 20 (0.80%) Accessibility
8 17 (0.68%) PCI DSS
9 15 (0.60%) NIST 800
10 14 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 12 (0.48%) IFRS
11 12 (0.48%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 11 (0.44%) Disclosure Scotland
13 10 (0.40%) Cyber Essentials
13 10 (0.40%) GRC
13 10 (0.40%) ISO 19650
14 9 (0.36%) HL7
14 9 (0.36%) JSP 440
15 8 (0.32%) SLA
16 7 (0.28%) COBIT
System Software
1 94 (3.76%) Active Directory
2 48 (1.92%) VMware Infrastructure
3 45 (1.80%) Docker
4 29 (1.16%) VMware NSX
5 21 (0.84%) 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 3 (0.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
10 3 (0.12%) IAG
10 3 (0.12%) KVM
10 3 (0.12%) NFS
10 3 (0.12%) RACF
10 3 (0.12%) SRDF
11 2 (0.080%) Ceph
12 1 (0.040%) ProxySG
12 1 (0.040%) Slurm Workload Manager
12 1 (0.040%) Snort
Systems Management
1 117 (4.68%) Kubernetes
2 91 (3.64%) Terraform
3 52 (2.08%) Ansible
4 35 (1.40%) Microsoft Intune
5 22 (0.88%) Single Sign-On
6 19 (0.76%) Grafana
6 19 (0.76%) vCenter Server
7 13 (0.52%) Argo
7 13 (0.52%) Jamf Pro
7 13 (0.52%) Prometheus
8 12 (0.48%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 9 (0.36%) FortiGate
10 6 (0.24%) CASB
10 6 (0.24%) Istio
11 5 (0.20%) EMC VPLEX
11 5 (0.20%) MOM
12 4 (0.16%) NetBackup
12 4 (0.16%) SnapMirror
13 3 (0.12%) EMC NetWorker
13 3 (0.12%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 328 (13.11%) Microsoft
2 138 (5.52%) SAP
3 114 (4.56%) Oracle
4 106 (4.24%) VMware
5 103 (4.12%) ServiceNow
6 81 (3.24%) Google
7 76 (3.04%) Databricks
8 75 (3.00%) Cisco
9 46 (1.84%) Salesforce
10 32 (1.28%) F5
11 29 (1.16%) Citrix
12 28 (1.12%) Red Hat
13 24 (0.96%) Palo Alto
14 22 (0.88%) CyberArk
14 22 (0.88%) Informatica
14 22 (0.88%) MuleSoft
15 20 (0.80%) Infoblox
15 20 (0.80%) Talend
16 18 (0.72%) IBM
16 18 (0.72%) Juniper