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 21 July 2026.

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

6 months to
21 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 2,493 1,226 1,967
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.24% 8.25% 9.89%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.03% 9.11% 10.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,631 833 1,212
10th Percentile £481 £450 £488
25th Percentile £525 £519 £562
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 £758 £788
UK median daily rate £616 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -1.44% -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 159 17 84
10th Percentile £48.72 £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 24,866 13,455 18,343
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.14% 90.58% 92.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,143 8,292 11,169
10th Percentile £305 £215 £214
25th Percentile £408 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £575 £599
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 2,874 1,150 2,088
10th Percentile £15.07 £13.50 £13.00
25th Percentile £21.00 £16.53 £16.58
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £41.81
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -39.85% +5.65%
75th Percentile £68.00 £56.33 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £44.10 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +75.33% -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 21 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 21 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 21 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 +7 720 £600 - 228
South East -1 714 £636 +6.04% 242
Midlands -1 413 £620 +7.83% 107
North West +3 385 £608 +1.33% 125
West Midlands -2 300 £625 +4.17% 76
South West -2 285 £625 - 112
Yorkshire +7 264 £600 - 64
East of England +16 180 £600 - 59
Scotland +6 172 £650 +4.00% 60
East Midlands +5 107 £600 +20.00% 30
North East +1 79 £600 -15.79% 39
Wales -1 32 £600 +11.11% 19
Northern Ireland +5 7 £475 -32.14% 12
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 21 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.

1 766 (30.73%) Security Cleared
2 547 (21.94%) Azure
3 483 (19.37%) SC Cleared
4 442 (17.73%) AWS
5 359 (14.40%) Roadmaps
6 330 (13.24%) Microsoft
7 327 (13.12%) Agile
8 317 (12.72%) Stakeholder Management
9 273 (10.95%) Migration
10 254 (10.19%) Enterprise Architecture
11 252 (10.11%) Technical Leadership
12 249 (9.99%) DevOps
13 237 (9.51%) Integration Patterns
14 235 (9.43%) DV Cleared
15 226 (9.07%) CI/CD
16 225 (9.03%) Data Architecture
17 224 (8.99%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 215 (8.62%) Architectural Patterns
19 214 (8.58%) Data Modelling
20 204 (8.18%) AI
21 194 (7.78%) Cybersecurity
22 191 (7.66%) Microservices
23 186 (7.46%) TOGAF
24 168 (6.74%) Problem-Solving
24 168 (6.74%) Security Architecture
25 159 (6.38%) Architectural Design
26 153 (6.14%) GCP
27 144 (5.78%) Continuous Improvement
27 144 (5.78%) Data Governance
28 141 (5.66%) Event-Driven

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 46 (1.85%) SharePoint
2 33 (1.32%) SAS
3 32 (1.28%) Confluence
4 21 (0.84%) Microsoft Exchange
5 14 (0.56%) Apache Airflow
6 13 (0.52%) Apache Spark
7 12 (0.48%) Apache
8 10 (0.40%) OpenStack
9 8 (0.32%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 8 (0.32%) Appian
9 8 (0.32%) CMS
9 8 (0.32%) Palantir Foundry
10 7 (0.28%) Documentum
11 5 (0.20%) ArcGIS
11 5 (0.20%) JBoss
11 5 (0.20%) NetWeaver
12 4 (0.16%) SAP EP
12 4 (0.16%) Sitecore CMS
13 2 (0.080%) nginx
13 2 (0.080%) Oracle SOA Suite
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 (2.13%) SAP S/4HANA
2 17 (0.68%) Payment Gateway
3 14 (0.56%) 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%) 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
1 547 (21.94%) Azure
2 442 (17.73%) AWS
3 153 (6.14%) GCP
4 98 (3.93%) Power Platform
5 90 (3.61%) Entra ID
6 79 (3.17%) Serverless
7 74 (2.97%) SaaS
8 61 (2.45%) Microsoft 365
9 55 (2.21%) PaaS
10 46 (1.85%) IaaS
11 45 (1.81%) GitHub
12 38 (1.52%) 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
17 26 (1.04%) Microsoft Purview
18 24 (0.96%) Azure Data Factory
18 24 (0.96%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 103 (4.13%) Firewall
2 71 (2.85%) Network Security
3 69 (2.77%) DNS
4 67 (2.69%) WAN
5 55 (2.21%) LAN
6 40 (1.60%) VPN
7 37 (1.48%) DHCP
8 35 (1.40%) SD-WAN
9 34 (1.36%) BGP
10 31 (1.24%) TCP/IP
11 30 (1.20%) VLAN
12 25 (1.00%) MPLS
12 25 (1.00%) SAN
12 25 (1.00%) Wireless
13 23 (0.92%) NAS
14 21 (0.84%) IPsec
14 21 (0.84%) Structured Cabling
15 19 (0.76%) BIG-IP
15 19 (0.76%) OSPF
16 14 (0.56%) NX-OS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 74 (2.97%) Metadata
2 68 (2.73%) Data Warehouse
3 67 (2.69%) Power BI
4 66 (2.65%) Data Lake
5 33 (1.32%) NoSQL
6 29 (1.16%) SQL Server
7 26 (1.04%) 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%) BigQuery
15 9 (0.36%) Electronic Patient Records
Development Applications
1 43 (1.72%) 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
1 463 (18.57%) Social Skills
2 317 (12.72%) Finance
3 235 (9.43%) Public Sector
4 142 (5.70%) Banking
5 139 (5.58%) Analytical Skills
6 92 (3.69%) Retail
7 72 (2.89%) Manufacturing
8 56 (2.25%) Documentation Skills
9 46 (1.85%) Influencing Skills
10 40 (1.60%) Legal
11 35 (1.40%) Aerospace
12 31 (1.24%) Military
13 27 (1.08%) Telecoms
14 24 (0.96%) Financial Institution
15 21 (0.84%) Back Office
15 21 (0.84%) Marketing
16 19 (0.76%) Investment Banking
16 19 (0.76%) Presentation Skills
17 17 (0.68%) Billing
18 15 (0.60%) Aviation
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 108 (4.33%) REST
2 72 (2.89%) Middleware
3 52 (2.09%) OAuth
4 43 (1.72%) SOAP
5 41 (1.64%) .NET
6 40 (1.60%) Oracle Fusion
7 38 (1.52%) OpenID
8 36 (1.44%) Kafka
9 32 (1.28%) SailPoint
9 32 (1.28%) SAML
10 27 (1.08%) OAuth2
11 24 (0.96%) RESTful
12 22 (0.88%) JSON
13 21 (0.84%) Node.js
14 20 (0.80%) Web Services
15 19 (0.76%) LDAP
16 18 (0.72%) React
17 13 (0.52%) AngularJS
17 13 (0.52%) FHIR
18 11 (0.44%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 182 (7.30%) Cloud Native
2 89 (3.57%) Data Centre
3 75 (3.01%) Operational Technology
4 73 (2.93%) Hybrid Cloud
5 62 (2.49%) Product Ownership
6 61 (2.45%) Onboarding
7 58 (2.33%) Management Information System
8 55 (2.21%) Data Protection Act
9 53 (2.13%) Legacy Systems
10 52 (2.09%) Distributed Systems
11 49 (1.97%) Enterprise Software
12 39 (1.56%) Public Cloud
13 32 (1.28%) AI Agents
13 32 (1.28%) Private Cloud
14 25 (1.00%) Security Posture
15 23 (0.92%) SCADA
16 22 (0.88%) CMDB
16 22 (0.88%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
16 22 (0.88%) Enterprise Cloud
17 21 (0.84%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 93 (3.73%) Windows
2 53 (2.13%) 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
1 359 (14.40%) Roadmaps
2 327 (13.12%) Agile
3 317 (12.72%) Stakeholder Management
4 273 (10.95%) Migration
5 254 (10.19%) Enterprise Architecture
6 252 (10.11%) Technical Leadership
7 249 (9.99%) DevOps
8 237 (9.51%) Integration Patterns
9 226 (9.07%) CI/CD
10 225 (9.03%) Data Architecture
11 224 (8.99%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 215 (8.62%) Architectural Patterns
13 214 (8.58%) Data Modelling
14 204 (8.18%) AI
15 194 (7.78%) Cybersecurity
16 191 (7.66%) Microservices
17 186 (7.46%) TOGAF
18 168 (6.74%) Problem-Solving
18 168 (6.74%) Security Architecture
19 159 (6.38%) Architectural Design
Programming Languages
1 110 (4.41%) SQL
2 102 (4.09%) Python
3 92 (3.69%) Java
4 52 (2.09%) JavaScript
5 44 (1.76%) PowerShell
6 26 (1.04%) 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 6 (0.24%) Apex Code
11 5 (0.20%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 5 (0.20%) Shell Script
12 4 (0.16%) Kotlin
13 3 (0.12%) C
13 3 (0.12%) Scala
14 2 (0.080%) C++
14 2 (0.080%) ProC
Qualifications
1 766 (30.73%) Security Cleared
2 483 (19.37%) SC Cleared
3 235 (9.43%) DV Cleared
4 90 (3.61%) Degree
5 58 (2.33%) Cisco Certification
6 54 (2.17%) CISSP
7 46 (1.85%) TOGAF Certification
8 43 (1.72%) AWS Certification
9 42 (1.68%) Azure Certification
10 41 (1.64%) BPSS Clearance
11 34 (1.36%) Computer Science Degree
12 33 (1.32%) CCNP
13 21 (0.84%) Microsoft Certification
14 18 (0.72%) CISM
15 17 (0.68%) CCNA
16 15 (0.60%) Master's Degree
17 14 (0.56%) (ISC)2 CCSP
17 14 (0.56%) CCIE
18 12 (0.48%) Network+ Certification
18 12 (0.48%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 95 (3.81%) NIST
2 77 (3.09%) Data Quality
3 66 (2.65%) GDPR
4 62 (2.49%) NCSC
5 58 (2.33%) 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 11 (0.44%) COBIT
10 11 (0.44%) Disclosure Scotland
10 11 (0.44%) GRC
10 11 (0.44%) IFRS
10 11 (0.44%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 11 (0.44%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 10 (0.40%) Cyber Essentials
11 10 (0.40%) HL7
11 10 (0.40%) ISO 19650
12 8 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 8 (0.32%) JSP 440
System Software
1 100 (4.01%) Active Directory
2 49 (1.97%) VMware Infrastructure
3 45 (1.81%) 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 2 (0.080%) KVM
13 1 (0.040%) Ceph
13 1 (0.040%) Firmware
13 1 (0.040%) ProxySG
13 1 (0.040%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 107 (4.29%) Kubernetes
2 92 (3.69%) Terraform
3 53 (2.13%) Ansible
4 38 (1.52%) 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 9 (0.36%) 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
1 330 (13.24%) Microsoft
2 132 (5.29%) SAP
3 112 (4.49%) Oracle
4 107 (4.29%) VMware
5 105 (4.21%) ServiceNow
6 75 (3.01%) Databricks
7 74 (2.97%) Cisco
8 73 (2.93%) Google
9 49 (1.97%) Salesforce
10 33 (1.32%) F5
11 30 (1.20%) Citrix
12 28 (1.12%) Red Hat
13 23 (0.92%) CyberArk
13 23 (0.92%) Palo Alto
14 21 (0.84%) BiZZdesign
14 21 (0.84%) Informatica
14 21 (0.84%) MuleSoft
15 20 (0.80%) Infoblox
15 20 (0.80%) Talend
16 19 (0.76%) Juniper