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 21 February 2026.

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

6 months to
21 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 18 14
Rank change year-on-year +4 -4 +7
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,021 1,189 1,945
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.91% 8.87% 9.29%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.87% 9.60% 9.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,330 760 1,214
10th Percentile £447 £450 £500
25th Percentile £506 £539 £567
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year -4.00% -3.85% -
75th Percentile £701 £688 £714
90th Percentile £775 £750 £775
UK median daily rate £625 £625 £650
% change year-on-year - -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 67 24 42
10th Percentile £49.40 £61.50 £57.53
25th Percentile £58.27 £64.88 £61.25
Median hourly rate £69.44 £72.50 £79.37
Median % change year-on-year -4.22% -8.66% +13.39%
75th Percentile £87.00 £78.92 £87.53
90th Percentile £95.00 £84.72 £95.00
UK median hourly rate £70.00 £71.25 £77.27
% change year-on-year -1.75% -7.78% +10.38%

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 18,595 12,382 19,513
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.15% 92.41% 93.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,161 7,563 12,221
10th Percentile £230 £210 £213
25th Percentile £381 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £475 £488
Median % change year-on-year +1.05% -2.56% -2.50%
75th Percentile £578 £588 £595
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,982 639 1,945
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.36 £12.86
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.00 £16.00
Median hourly rate £30.00 £32.50 £35.95
Median % change year-on-year -7.69% -9.60% +0.42%
75th Percentile £63.75 £65.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £73.46 £75.00 £72.65
UK median hourly rate £31.49 £34.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year -7.38% -2.86% -10.26%

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 February 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 February 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 February 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 +10 613 £625 - 283
North of England -2 502 £575 -4.17% 142
Midlands -1 361 £573 -4.54% 106
North West -4 282 £579 -3.50% 75
West Midlands -2 271 £600 -0.79% 69
South West +1 254 £706 +12.96% 72
Yorkshire -1 202 £563 -1.83% 45
East of England +17 159 £550 -13.73% 37
Scotland +12 138 £650 +4.00% 51
East Midlands -3 88 £500 -11.89% 36
Wales +6 31 £600 +5.26% 8
North East -18 23 £625 -1.96% 24
Northern Ireland 0 9 £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 21 February 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.

1 651 (32.21%) Security Cleared
2 437 (21.62%) Azure
3 388 (19.20%) SC Cleared
4 329 (16.28%) AWS
5 300 (14.84%) Microsoft
6 298 (14.75%) Roadmaps
7 291 (14.40%) Agile
8 274 (13.56%) Stakeholder Management
9 252 (12.47%) Enterprise Architecture
9 252 (12.47%) Migration
10 226 (11.18%) TOGAF
11 213 (10.54%) DV Cleared
12 194 (9.60%) DevOps
13 179 (8.86%) Data Modelling
14 178 (8.81%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 172 (8.51%) Technical Leadership
16 157 (7.77%) CI/CD
17 154 (7.62%) Problem-Solving
18 145 (7.17%) Data Architecture
19 139 (6.88%) Analytics
19 139 (6.88%) Microservices
20 136 (6.73%) ITIL
21 135 (6.68%) Cybersecurity
22 134 (6.63%) Architectural Design
23 129 (6.38%) GCP
24 128 (6.33%) AI
24 128 (6.33%) Python
25 121 (5.99%) VMware
26 119 (5.89%) Windows
27 118 (5.84%) Architectural Patterns

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 85 (4.21%) Confluence
2 61 (3.02%) SharePoint
3 49 (2.42%) Microsoft Exchange
4 25 (1.24%) SAS
5 12 (0.59%) Appian
6 11 (0.54%) ArcGIS
6 11 (0.54%) CMS
7 10 (0.49%) Anypoint
8 9 (0.45%) Apache
8 9 (0.45%) Smallworld
9 8 (0.40%) Apache Airflow
10 7 (0.35%) Apache Spark
10 7 (0.35%) Skype for Business
11 6 (0.30%) Sitecore CMS
11 6 (0.30%) WebLogic
12 5 (0.25%) GeoServer
12 5 (0.25%) IIS
12 5 (0.25%) OpenStack
13 4 (0.20%) Adobe Experience Manager
13 4 (0.20%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 45 (2.23%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (1.53%) Microsoft Project
3 23 (1.14%) Microsoft Excel
4 22 (1.09%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.20%) Chatbot
5 4 (0.20%) MS Visio
6 1 (0.049%) FrameMaker
6 1 (0.049%) OrCAD
6 1 (0.049%) Revit
6 1 (0.049%) Trello
Business Applications
1 46 (2.28%) SAP S/4HANA
2 25 (1.24%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 15 (0.74%) Payment Gateway
4 14 (0.69%) Workday HCM
5 11 (0.54%) Dynamics CRM
6 9 (0.45%) Salesforce CRM
7 7 (0.35%) SAP ERP
8 6 (0.30%) Maximo
9 5 (0.25%) Dynamics AX
9 5 (0.25%) Oracle SCM
9 5 (0.25%) SAP CO
9 5 (0.25%) SAP FI
9 5 (0.25%) SAP FI/CO
10 4 (0.20%) Distributed Ledger
10 4 (0.20%) R3 Corda
10 4 (0.20%) SAP PP
11 3 (0.15%) Remedy ITSM
11 3 (0.15%) SAP CRM
11 3 (0.15%) SAP PM
11 3 (0.15%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 437 (21.62%) Azure
2 329 (16.28%) AWS
3 129 (6.38%) GCP
4 92 (4.55%) Microsoft 365
5 79 (3.91%) Entra ID
6 65 (3.22%) SaaS
7 52 (2.57%) Power Platform
7 52 (2.57%) Serverless
8 47 (2.33%) Microsoft Purview
9 39 (1.93%) OneDrive
10 38 (1.88%) IaaS
10 38 (1.88%) PaaS
11 34 (1.68%) Azure DevOps
11 34 (1.68%) Dynamics 365
12 33 (1.63%) OpenShift
13 30 (1.48%) GitHub
14 25 (1.24%) AWS CloudFormation
14 25 (1.24%) AWS Lambda
15 24 (1.19%) Azure Data Factory
15 24 (1.19%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 101 (5.00%) Firewall
2 66 (3.27%) DNS
3 65 (3.22%) WAN
4 57 (2.82%) Network Security
5 52 (2.57%) VPN
6 39 (1.93%) LAN
7 35 (1.73%) SD-WAN
8 23 (1.14%) DHCP
9 22 (1.09%) MPLS
10 19 (0.94%) BGP
11 17 (0.84%) SAN
12 16 (0.79%) Wi-Fi
13 15 (0.74%) VLAN
14 14 (0.69%) IPsec
15 13 (0.64%) Wireless
16 12 (0.59%) VSAN
17 11 (0.54%) Kerberos
17 11 (0.54%) OSPF
17 11 (0.54%) VXLAN
18 10 (0.49%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 79 (3.91%) Data Warehouse
2 66 (3.27%) Metadata
3 44 (2.18%) Power BI
4 39 (1.93%) SQL Server
5 28 (1.39%) PostgreSQL
6 27 (1.34%) Tableau
7 22 (1.09%) Data Lake
7 22 (1.09%) Oracle Database
8 20 (0.99%) GIS
9 18 (0.89%) NoSQL
10 15 (0.74%) DynamoDB
11 14 (0.69%) Metadata Repository
12 11 (0.54%) Big Data
12 11 (0.54%) Relational Database
13 10 (0.49%) Amazon Redshift
13 10 (0.49%) Azure SQL Database
14 9 (0.45%) Redis
15 8 (0.40%) Amazon Athena
16 7 (0.35%) Hadoop
16 7 (0.35%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 96 (4.75%) JIRA
2 45 (2.23%) Jenkins
3 18 (0.89%) GitLab
4 17 (0.84%) Git
5 6 (0.30%) Artifactory
6 5 (0.25%) Postman
7 4 (0.20%) Rational DOORS
7 4 (0.20%) Selenium
8 3 (0.15%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.15%) Cucumber
8 3 (0.15%) MLflow
8 3 (0.15%) MSI
8 3 (0.15%) REST Assured
8 3 (0.15%) Sonatype Nexus
9 2 (0.099%) ERwin
9 2 (0.099%) Gatling
9 2 (0.099%) LoadRunner
9 2 (0.099%) NeoLoad
9 2 (0.099%) SonarQube
9 2 (0.099%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 431 (21.33%) Social Skills
2 250 (12.37%) Finance
3 231 (11.43%) Public Sector
4 138 (6.83%) Analytical Skills
5 112 (5.54%) Banking
6 58 (2.87%) Documentation Skills
7 56 (2.77%) Military
8 49 (2.42%) Legal
9 41 (2.03%) Influencing Skills
10 39 (1.93%) Telecoms
11 38 (1.88%) Marketing
11 38 (1.88%) Retail
12 34 (1.68%) Presentation Skills
13 21 (1.04%) Manufacturing
14 19 (0.94%) Aerospace
15 15 (0.74%) Investment Banking
16 12 (0.59%) Billing
17 11 (0.54%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 11 (0.54%) Local Government
18 7 (0.35%) Corporate Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 78 (3.86%) REST
2 49 (2.42%) Middleware
3 44 (2.18%) SOAP
4 39 (1.93%) .NET
5 34 (1.68%) OAuth
6 29 (1.43%) OpenID
6 29 (1.43%) SAML
7 28 (1.39%) SailPoint
8 26 (1.29%) OAuth2
9 24 (1.19%) Kafka
10 22 (1.09%) RESTful
11 17 (0.84%) Node.js
11 17 (0.84%) Web Services
12 16 (0.79%) React
13 14 (0.69%) Oracle Fusion
14 13 (0.64%) Microsoft Graph
15 12 (0.59%) LDAP
16 11 (0.54%) CSS
16 11 (0.54%) HTML
17 10 (0.49%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 124 (6.14%) Cloud Native
2 97 (4.80%) Product Ownership
3 73 (3.61%) Data Centre
4 58 (2.87%) Onboarding
5 48 (2.38%) PKI
6 44 (2.18%) Hybrid Cloud
6 44 (2.18%) Public Cloud
7 43 (2.13%) Legacy Systems
8 42 (2.08%) Operational Technology
9 36 (1.78%) Enterprise Software
10 33 (1.63%) Management Information System
11 30 (1.48%) Distributed Systems
12 28 (1.39%) Data Protection Act
13 26 (1.29%) CMDB
14 24 (1.19%) SCADA
15 18 (0.89%) NHS
16 16 (0.79%) AI Agents
17 14 (0.69%) Data Structures
18 12 (0.59%) Blockchain
19 11 (0.54%) IVR
Operating Systems
1 119 (5.89%) Windows
2 70 (3.46%) Linux
3 26 (1.29%) Windows Server
4 17 (0.84%) Windows 7
5 14 (0.69%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 11 (0.54%) Windows 10
7 8 (0.40%) Android
7 8 (0.40%) Apple iOS
8 7 (0.35%) Unix
8 7 (0.35%) Windows Server 2016
9 6 (0.30%) Windows Server 2019
10 5 (0.25%) VMS
11 4 (0.20%) Mac OS
12 3 (0.15%) Ubuntu
13 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2012
14 1 (0.049%) CentOS
14 1 (0.049%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 298 (14.75%) Roadmaps
2 291 (14.40%) Agile
3 274 (13.56%) Stakeholder Management
4 252 (12.47%) Enterprise Architecture
4 252 (12.47%) Migration
5 226 (11.18%) TOGAF
6 194 (9.60%) DevOps
7 179 (8.86%) Data Modelling
8 178 (8.81%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 172 (8.51%) Technical Leadership
10 157 (7.77%) CI/CD
11 154 (7.62%) Problem-Solving
12 145 (7.17%) Data Architecture
13 139 (6.88%) Analytics
13 139 (6.88%) Microservices
14 136 (6.73%) ITIL
15 135 (6.68%) Cybersecurity
16 134 (6.63%) Architectural Design
17 128 (6.33%) AI
18 118 (5.84%) Identity Access Management
Programming Languages
1 128 (6.33%) Python
2 75 (3.71%) PowerShell
3 69 (3.41%) SQL
4 61 (3.02%) Java
5 31 (1.53%) JavaScript
6 27 (1.34%) C#
7 17 (0.84%) Bash
8 14 (0.69%) Bicep
9 11 (0.54%) Kusto Query Language
10 9 (0.45%) PL/SQL
11 8 (0.40%) R
12 7 (0.35%) TypeScript
12 7 (0.35%) VB
12 7 (0.35%) VBScript
13 5 (0.25%) Apex Code
14 4 (0.20%) C
14 4 (0.20%) C++
14 4 (0.20%) Perl
14 4 (0.20%) Scala
14 4 (0.20%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 651 (32.21%) Security Cleared
2 388 (19.20%) SC Cleared
3 213 (10.54%) DV Cleared
4 111 (5.49%) Degree
5 77 (3.81%) TOGAF Certification
6 67 (3.32%) CISSP
7 51 (2.52%) AWS Certification
8 44 (2.18%) BPSS Clearance
9 40 (1.98%) Cisco Certification
10 38 (1.88%) Azure Certification
11 36 (1.78%) CISM
12 33 (1.63%) Microsoft Certification
13 30 (1.48%) Computer Science Degree
14 29 (1.43%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 27 (1.34%) Master's Degree
16 26 (1.29%) ISEB
17 25 (1.24%) CCNP
17 25 (1.24%) ITIL Certification
18 21 (1.04%) CCIE
19 10 (0.49%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 100 (4.95%) GDPR
2 81 (4.01%) NIST
3 68 (3.36%) Data Quality
4 62 (3.07%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 43 (2.13%) NCSC
6 31 (1.53%) PCI DSS
7 29 (1.43%) COBIT
8 21 (1.04%) QA
9 19 (0.94%) GRC
10 18 (0.89%) JSP 440
11 16 (0.79%) Cyber Essentials
12 12 (0.59%) FINRA
12 12 (0.59%) ISO 20022
12 12 (0.59%) MiFID
13 10 (0.49%) Accessibility
14 9 (0.45%) California Consumer Privacy Act
14 9 (0.45%) Def Stans
14 9 (0.45%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 7 (0.35%) Disclosure Scotland
15 7 (0.35%) NIST 800
System Software
1 92 (4.55%) Active Directory
2 56 (2.77%) VMware Infrastructure
3 39 (1.93%) Docker
4 35 (1.73%) VMware NSX
5 26 (1.29%) vSphere
6 14 (0.69%) Virtual Desktop
7 11 (0.54%) VMware ESXi
8 10 (0.49%) Hyper-V
9 8 (0.40%) Virtual Machines
10 7 (0.35%) BitLocker
11 5 (0.25%) RACF
11 5 (0.25%) vCloud
12 4 (0.20%) NFS
13 2 (0.099%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
13 2 (0.099%) IAG
14 1 (0.049%) Embedded Firmware
14 1 (0.049%) Firmware
14 1 (0.049%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 92 (4.55%) Terraform
2 75 (3.71%) Kubernetes
3 58 (2.87%) Ansible
4 37 (1.83%) Single Sign-On
5 30 (1.48%) OPNET
6 26 (1.29%) vCenter Server
7 24 (1.19%) Microsoft Intune
8 19 (0.94%) SCCM
9 16 (0.79%) WMI
10 14 (0.69%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 13 (0.64%) Argo
11 13 (0.64%) FortiGate
12 6 (0.30%) Prometheus
13 5 (0.25%) Istio
14 3 (0.15%) Endace
14 3 (0.15%) Grafana
14 3 (0.15%) SCOM
15 2 (0.099%) Jamf Pro
15 2 (0.099%) Nessus
15 2 (0.099%) vRealize
Vendors
1 300 (14.84%) Microsoft
2 121 (5.99%) VMware
3 117 (5.79%) ServiceNow
4 97 (4.80%) SAP
5 96 (4.75%) Oracle
6 84 (4.16%) Salesforce
7 67 (3.32%) Cisco
8 48 (2.38%) Google
9 40 (1.98%) Remedy
10 37 (1.83%) Palo Alto
11 36 (1.78%) Atlassian
12 35 (1.73%) Red Hat
13 34 (1.68%) Databricks
13 34 (1.68%) MuleSoft
14 31 (1.53%) BiZZdesign
15 27 (1.34%) CyberArk
16 25 (1.24%) Virgin Media
17 24 (1.19%) Sparx
18 22 (1.09%) Citrix
18 22 (1.09%) F5