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 £613, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 2 June 2026.

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

6 months to
2 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 10 19 12
Rank change year-on-year +9 -7 +6
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 2,377 1,092 2,102
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 9.55% 8.44% 10.09%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.40% 9.21% 10.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,569 728 1,260
10th Percentile £450 £450 £500
25th Percentile £513 £513 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £613 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year +2.08% -7.69% -
75th Percentile £706 £694 £725
90th Percentile £775 £750 £794
UK median daily rate £615 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -1.60% -3.85% -0.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 122 25 93
10th Percentile £49.40 £45.58 -
25th Percentile £60.00 £66.00 £60.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £73.31 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -11.34% +4.73% -
75th Percentile £78.69 £82.25 £87.00
90th Percentile £96.15 £86.70 £90.00
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 22,861 11,862 19,247
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.84% 91.68% 92.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,149 7,556 11,616
10th Percentile £300 £213 £213
25th Percentile £403 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £488
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £594
90th Percentile £677 £650 £688
UK median daily rate £513 £505 £525
% change year-on-year +1.49% -3.81% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,641 858 2,422
10th Percentile £14.65 £13.72 £12.50
25th Percentile £20.00 £16.95 £15.75
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.72 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +74.96% -35.70% -5.88%
75th Percentile £67.25 £60.50 £62.50
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £74.00
UK median hourly rate £42.69 £28.08 £37.50
% change year-on-year +52.04% -25.13% -16.67%

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 2 June 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 2 June 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 2 June 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 +4 676 £625 +2.04% 305
North of England +4 674 £600 - 336
Midlands +1 435 £600 +0.17% 131
North West +6 372 £608 +5.74% 189
West Midlands +2 311 £620 +3.33% 99
Yorkshire +6 254 £552 -7.96% 95
South West 0 239 £650 +8.33% 180
East of England +20 202 £575 -4.17% 87
Scotland +17 151 £650 +4.00% 71
East Midlands +2 118 £571 +8.60% 32
North East +6 55 £575 -4.17% 53
Wales -2 32 £600 +25.00% 54
Northern Ireland +8 7 £475 -28.30% 24
Channel Islands - 3 £575 - 2
Architect
UK

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

For the 6 months to 2 June 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.

1 682 (28.69%) Security Cleared
2 481 (20.24%) Azure
3 405 (17.04%) SC Cleared
4 376 (15.82%) AWS
5 332 (13.97%) Agile
5 332 (13.97%) Roadmaps
6 325 (13.67%) Microsoft
7 275 (11.57%) Stakeholder Management
8 269 (11.32%) Migration
9 251 (10.56%) DevOps
9 251 (10.56%) Enterprise Architecture
10 228 (9.59%) DV Cleared
11 218 (9.17%) CI/CD
12 214 (9.00%) Technical Leadership
13 195 (8.20%) Integration Patterns
14 191 (8.04%) Microservices
15 189 (7.95%) Architectural Patterns
15 189 (7.95%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 188 (7.91%) Data Modelling
17 172 (7.24%) Data Architecture
18 160 (6.73%) Architectural Design
19 158 (6.65%) TOGAF
20 151 (6.35%) Problem-Solving
21 150 (6.31%) Cybersecurity
22 146 (6.14%) SAP
23 136 (5.72%) Analytics
24 135 (5.68%) GCP
25 134 (5.64%) AI
26 128 (5.38%) Continuous Improvement
27 127 (5.34%) VMware

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 62 (2.61%) SharePoint
2 46 (1.94%) Confluence
3 36 (1.51%) Microsoft Exchange
4 22 (0.93%) SAS
5 13 (0.55%) Appian
6 12 (0.50%) Apache Airflow
7 10 (0.42%) Anypoint
7 10 (0.42%) Apache
7 10 (0.42%) CMS
8 9 (0.38%) Apache Spark
9 8 (0.34%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 7 (0.29%) ArcGIS
11 6 (0.25%) Sitecore CMS
11 6 (0.25%) WebLogic
12 5 (0.21%) NetWeaver
12 5 (0.21%) OpenStack
13 4 (0.17%) JBoss
13 4 (0.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 4 (0.17%) SAP EP
13 4 (0.17%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 13 (0.55%) Microsoft Excel
1 13 (0.55%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 9 (0.38%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.29%) Navisworks
3 7 (0.29%) Revit
4 6 (0.25%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
6 4 (0.17%) Chatbot
7 3 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
8 1 (0.042%) OrCAD
Business Applications
1 58 (2.44%) SAP S/4HANA
2 20 (0.84%) Payment Gateway
2 20 (0.84%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 12 (0.50%) SAP ERP
4 10 (0.42%) Teamcenter
5 9 (0.38%) Remedy ITSM
6 7 (0.29%) Workday HCM
7 6 (0.25%) SAP MDG
8 5 (0.21%) Salesforce CRM
9 4 (0.17%) Dynamics CRM
9 4 (0.17%) Maximo
9 4 (0.17%) Oracle Retail
9 4 (0.17%) SAP CRM
9 4 (0.17%) SAP GRC
10 3 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
10 3 (0.13%) SAP SD
11 2 (0.084%) Infor LN
11 2 (0.084%) Infor M3
11 2 (0.084%) Oracle ERP
11 2 (0.084%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 481 (20.24%) Azure
2 376 (15.82%) AWS
3 135 (5.68%) GCP
4 93 (3.91%) Power Platform
5 89 (3.74%) Entra ID
6 81 (3.41%) Microsoft 365
7 73 (3.07%) Serverless
8 70 (2.94%) SaaS
9 54 (2.27%) PaaS
10 43 (1.81%) GitHub
11 42 (1.77%) IaaS
12 38 (1.60%) Azure DevOps
12 38 (1.60%) Microsoft Purview
13 35 (1.47%) OpenShift
14 29 (1.22%) OneDrive
15 28 (1.18%) AWS Lambda
16 27 (1.14%) Dynamics 365
17 25 (1.05%) Azure Data Factory
18 24 (1.01%) Snowflake
19 23 (0.97%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 97 (4.08%) Firewall
2 69 (2.90%) WAN
3 68 (2.86%) DNS
4 65 (2.73%) Network Security
5 53 (2.23%) LAN
6 49 (2.06%) VPN
7 40 (1.68%) SD-WAN
8 36 (1.51%) DHCP
9 28 (1.18%) VLAN
10 25 (1.05%) Wireless
11 24 (1.01%) SAN
12 23 (0.97%) BGP
12 23 (0.97%) NAS
13 21 (0.88%) Structured Cabling
14 19 (0.80%) IPsec
15 18 (0.76%) MPLS
16 17 (0.72%) BIG-IP
16 17 (0.72%) OSPF
17 14 (0.59%) NX-OS
18 13 (0.55%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 70 (2.94%) Power BI
2 69 (2.90%) Metadata
3 54 (2.27%) Data Warehouse
4 40 (1.68%) Data Lake
5 35 (1.47%) NoSQL
5 35 (1.47%) SQL Server
6 26 (1.09%) PostgreSQL
7 20 (0.84%) Tableau
8 19 (0.80%) Oracle Database
9 15 (0.63%) GIS
10 11 (0.46%) MongoDB
11 10 (0.42%) Big Data
12 9 (0.38%) DynamoDB
12 9 (0.38%) Relational Database
13 8 (0.34%) Azure SQL Database
13 8 (0.34%) Electronic Patient Records
13 8 (0.34%) MySQL
14 7 (0.29%) Metadata Repository
14 7 (0.29%) SAS Enterprise Guide
14 7 (0.29%) Spatial Data
Development Applications
1 59 (2.48%) JIRA
2 37 (1.56%) Jenkins
3 20 (0.84%) GitLab
4 17 (0.72%) Git
5 7 (0.29%) ERwin
6 6 (0.25%) Artifactory
7 5 (0.21%) Selenium
8 4 (0.17%) Hudson
8 4 (0.17%) JUnit
8 4 (0.17%) Postman
8 4 (0.17%) REST Assured
8 4 (0.17%) Sonatype Nexus
9 3 (0.13%) Cucumber
9 3 (0.13%) Rational DOORS
9 3 (0.13%) SonarQube
10 2 (0.084%) Bitbucket
10 2 (0.084%) Cypress.io
10 2 (0.084%) IntelliJ
10 2 (0.084%) LoadRunner
10 2 (0.084%) NeoLoad
General
1 418 (17.59%) Social Skills
2 325 (13.67%) Finance
3 210 (8.83%) Public Sector
4 143 (6.02%) Banking
5 118 (4.96%) Analytical Skills
6 79 (3.32%) Retail
7 57 (2.40%) Documentation Skills
7 57 (2.40%) Manufacturing
8 54 (2.27%) Legal
9 34 (1.43%) Influencing Skills
10 32 (1.35%) Aerospace
11 31 (1.30%) Military
12 26 (1.09%) Investment Banking
13 22 (0.93%) Presentation Skills
14 20 (0.84%) Financial Institution
14 20 (0.84%) Marketing
15 19 (0.80%) Back Office
16 16 (0.67%) Telecoms
17 12 (0.50%) Billing
18 11 (0.46%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 101 (4.25%) REST
2 80 (3.37%) Middleware
3 51 (2.15%) .NET
4 48 (2.02%) OAuth
5 44 (1.85%) OpenID
6 43 (1.81%) SOAP
7 32 (1.35%) OAuth2
7 32 (1.35%) SAML
8 28 (1.18%) Kafka
8 28 (1.18%) Oracle Fusion
9 27 (1.14%) SailPoint
10 24 (1.01%) RESTful
11 23 (0.97%) React
12 22 (0.93%) JSON
12 22 (0.93%) Node.js
13 19 (0.80%) LDAP
13 19 (0.80%) Web Services
14 16 (0.67%) Microsoft Graph
15 14 (0.59%) AngularJS
16 12 (0.50%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 164 (6.90%) Cloud Native
2 85 (3.58%) Data Centre
3 66 (2.78%) Product Ownership
4 64 (2.69%) Operational Technology
5 52 (2.19%) Management Information System
6 51 (2.15%) Onboarding
7 50 (2.10%) Hybrid Cloud
7 50 (2.10%) Public Cloud
8 46 (1.94%) Data Protection Act
9 44 (1.85%) Distributed Systems
9 44 (1.85%) Enterprise Software
10 42 (1.77%) Legacy Systems
11 28 (1.18%) PKI
12 26 (1.09%) SCADA
13 25 (1.05%) CMDB
14 20 (0.84%) Private Cloud
15 19 (0.80%) Data Structures
16 18 (0.76%) Security Posture
17 17 (0.72%) AI Agents
18 16 (0.67%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 108 (4.54%) Windows
2 56 (2.36%) Linux
3 30 (1.26%) Windows Server
4 16 (0.67%) Android
4 16 (0.67%) Apple iOS
5 11 (0.46%) Unix
6 9 (0.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 8 (0.34%) Windows 10
7 8 (0.34%) Windows Server 2016
8 6 (0.25%) Windows 7
9 5 (0.21%) Data ONTAP
9 5 (0.21%) Windows Server 2019
10 4 (0.17%) Mac OS
11 3 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
12 2 (0.084%) VMS
13 1 (0.042%) CentOS
13 1 (0.042%) Kali Linux
13 1 (0.042%) Ubuntu
13 1 (0.042%) Windows Server 2008
13 1 (0.042%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 332 (13.97%) Agile
1 332 (13.97%) Roadmaps
2 275 (11.57%) Stakeholder Management
3 269 (11.32%) Migration
4 251 (10.56%) DevOps
4 251 (10.56%) Enterprise Architecture
5 218 (9.17%) CI/CD
6 214 (9.00%) Technical Leadership
7 195 (8.20%) Integration Patterns
8 191 (8.04%) Microservices
9 189 (7.95%) Architectural Patterns
9 189 (7.95%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 188 (7.91%) Data Modelling
11 172 (7.24%) Data Architecture
12 160 (6.73%) Architectural Design
13 158 (6.65%) TOGAF
14 151 (6.35%) Problem-Solving
15 150 (6.31%) Cybersecurity
16 136 (5.72%) Analytics
17 134 (5.64%) AI
Programming Languages
1 101 (4.25%) Python
2 100 (4.21%) SQL
3 73 (3.07%) Java
4 69 (2.90%) PowerShell
5 49 (2.06%) JavaScript
6 31 (1.30%) C#
7 21 (0.88%) Bicep
8 16 (0.67%) Bash
8 16 (0.67%) TypeScript
9 12 (0.50%) PL/SQL
10 10 (0.42%) Kusto Query Language
11 8 (0.34%) VBA
12 6 (0.25%) Scala
13 5 (0.21%) Apex Code
14 4 (0.17%) ABAP
14 4 (0.17%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 4 (0.17%) Kotlin
14 4 (0.17%) T-SQL
14 4 (0.17%) VB
14 4 (0.17%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 682 (28.69%) Security Cleared
2 405 (17.04%) SC Cleared
3 228 (9.59%) DV Cleared
4 86 (3.62%) Degree
5 52 (2.19%) BPSS Clearance
6 48 (2.02%) Cisco Certification
7 44 (1.85%) TOGAF Certification
8 35 (1.47%) Azure Certification
8 35 (1.47%) Computer Science Degree
9 34 (1.43%) CISSP
10 33 (1.39%) CCNP
11 31 (1.30%) AWS Certification
12 21 (0.88%) Microsoft Certification
13 17 (0.72%) CISM
14 16 (0.67%) CCNA
14 16 (0.67%) Master's Degree
15 12 (0.50%) ITIL Certification
15 12 (0.50%) Network+ Certification
15 12 (0.50%) Server+ Certification
16 11 (0.46%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 88 (3.70%) NIST
2 76 (3.20%) GDPR
3 62 (2.61%) Data Quality
4 54 (2.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 46 (1.94%) NCSC
6 23 (0.97%) QA
7 20 (0.84%) Accessibility
8 16 (0.67%) PCI DSS
9 14 (0.59%) GRC
10 13 (0.55%) Cyber Essentials
11 12 (0.50%) FINRA
11 12 (0.50%) MiFID
11 12 (0.50%) NIST 800
12 11 (0.46%) COBIT
13 10 (0.42%) ISO 20022
14 9 (0.38%) HL7
14 9 (0.38%) IFRS
15 8 (0.34%) Disclosure Scotland
16 7 (0.29%) ISO 19650
17 6 (0.25%) SEPA
System Software
1 97 (4.08%) Active Directory
2 61 (2.57%) VMware Infrastructure
3 36 (1.51%) Docker
4 31 (1.30%) VMware NSX
5 21 (0.88%) Hyper-V
5 21 (0.88%) vSphere
6 12 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
7 11 (0.46%) VMware ESXi
8 9 (0.38%) vCloud
9 5 (0.21%) RACF
9 5 (0.21%) Virtual Machines
10 4 (0.17%) BitLocker
10 4 (0.17%) NFS
11 3 (0.13%) EMC RecoverPoint
11 3 (0.13%) IAG
11 3 (0.13%) SRDF
12 2 (0.084%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
12 2 (0.084%) Firmware
13 1 (0.042%) Embedded Firmware
13 1 (0.042%) Snort
Systems Management
1 82 (3.45%) Kubernetes
2 78 (3.28%) Terraform
3 53 (2.23%) Ansible
4 35 (1.47%) Microsoft Intune
5 26 (1.09%) Single Sign-On
5 26 (1.09%) vCenter Server
6 16 (0.67%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 15 (0.63%) SCCM
8 14 (0.59%) Grafana
9 12 (0.50%) FortiGate
10 11 (0.46%) Argo
11 10 (0.42%) Prometheus
12 6 (0.25%) Istio
12 6 (0.25%) Jamf Pro
13 5 (0.21%) EMC VPLEX
13 5 (0.21%) Endace
13 5 (0.21%) WMI
14 4 (0.17%) SnapMirror
15 3 (0.13%) EMC NetWorker
15 3 (0.13%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 325 (13.67%) Microsoft
2 146 (6.14%) SAP
3 127 (5.34%) VMware
4 107 (4.50%) ServiceNow
5 104 (4.38%) Oracle
6 75 (3.16%) Cisco
7 60 (2.52%) Databricks
8 58 (2.44%) Salesforce
9 55 (2.31%) Google
10 41 (1.72%) MuleSoft
11 28 (1.18%) F5
12 27 (1.14%) Red Hat
13 26 (1.09%) Citrix
14 25 (1.05%) Palo Alto
15 23 (0.97%) Juniper
16 22 (0.93%) Sparx
17 21 (0.88%) BiZZdesign
18 20 (0.84%) Talend
19 17 (0.72%) Splunk
20 16 (0.67%) Informatica