Architect Contract Job Trends

Architect
UK

The median Architect daily rate in the UK is £620, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 21 April 2026.

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

6 months to
21 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 16 11
Rank change year-on-year +5 -5 +6
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 5,058 2,894 4,471
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 10.93% 9.83% 10.29%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.85% 10.61% 11.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,326 1,907 2,890
10th Percentile £463 £478 £500
25th Percentile £513 £547 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £620 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year -0.80% -3.85% -1.52%
75th Percentile £725 £725 £738
90th Percentile £800 £799 £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £610 £610 £650
% change year-on-year - -6.15% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 120 36 59
10th Percentile £49.40 £54.00 £57.45
25th Percentile £60.00 £61.50 £60.63
Median hourly rate £69.72 £68.75 £80.00
Median % change year-on-year +1.41% -14.06% +14.29%
75th Percentile £83.25 £80.15 £87.46
90th Percentile £97.50 £85.50 £91.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £71.27 £72.50 £80.00
% change year-on-year -1.70% -9.38% +14.29%

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. 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 with a recognized job title 42,695 27,272 40,291
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.26% 92.61% 92.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,420 17,879 26,298
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £406 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.91% -1.90% -2.78%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £748
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £475 £493
% change year-on-year +2.63% -3.65% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,730 998 2,613
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.50 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.35 £19.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £42.00 £30.45 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +37.93% -13.00% -22.22%
75th Percentile £65.60 £63.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £75.33 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.61 £29.80 £36.50
% change year-on-year +46.34% -18.36% -15.12%

Architect
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Architect' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Architect job vacancy trend in the UK

Architect
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Architect job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Architect job vacancies in the UK

Architect
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Architect over the 6 months to 21 April 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Architect in the UK

Architect
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Architect job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Architect job vacancies in the UK

Architect
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Architect over the 6 months to 21 April 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Architect in the UK

Architect
Top 17 Contract Job Locations

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 over the 6 months to 21 April 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
England +5 4,316 £625 - 1,002
UK excluding London +8 2,332 £610 - 652
London +3 2,000 £625 -3.85% 428
Work from Home +3 1,395 £609 +1.39% 484
South East +4 705 £625 - 149
North of England +4 610 £600 - 163
Midlands 0 398 £580 -3.42% 114
North West +7 353 £605 +0.83% 102
West Midlands -3 301 £600 - 79
South West +2 296 £693 +15.42% 116
Yorkshire +7 230 £558 -7.00% 44
East of England +18 197 £563 -6.25% 67
Scotland +14 137 £650 +4.00% 12
East Midlands -4 92 £513 -6.82% 35
North East +5 36 £575 -7.95% 17
Wales -8 25 £600 +20.00% 22
Northern Ireland +9 10 £488 -26.42% 20

Architect Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 21 April 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 featuring Architect in the job title.

1 1,599 (31.61%) Security Cleared
2 1,218 (24.08%) Azure
3 1,143 (22.60%) SC Cleared
4 1,066 (21.08%) AWS
5 716 (14.16%) Roadmaps
6 682 (13.48%) Microsoft
7 666 (13.17%) Migration
8 621 (12.28%) Agile
9 568 (11.23%) Stakeholder Management
10 554 (10.95%) DevOps
11 532 (10.52%) CI/CD
12 513 (10.14%) Enterprise Architecture
13 476 (9.41%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 458 (9.05%) Data Modelling
15 457 (9.04%) Technical Leadership
16 450 (8.90%) AI
17 438 (8.66%) TOGAF
18 424 (8.38%) Analytics
19 418 (8.26%) Integration Patterns
20 395 (7.81%) GCP
21 383 (7.57%) Data Architecture
22 379 (7.49%) Problem-Solving
23 370 (7.32%) Architectural Patterns
24 367 (7.26%) Microservices
25 354 (7.00%) Python
26 336 (6.64%) Architectural Design
27 330 (6.52%) DV Cleared
28 309 (6.11%) ServiceNow
29 296 (5.85%) Infrastructure as Code
29 296 (5.85%) Security Architecture

Architect Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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
1 127 (2.51%) SharePoint
2 108 (2.14%) Confluence
3 65 (1.29%) Microsoft Exchange
4 29 (0.57%) SAS
5 26 (0.51%) Apache Spark
6 24 (0.47%) Apache
7 23 (0.45%) CMS
8 18 (0.36%) Apache Airflow
9 16 (0.32%) Anypoint
9 16 (0.32%) Appian
10 15 (0.30%) nginx
10 15 (0.30%) WebLogic
11 14 (0.28%) ArcGIS
12 11 (0.22%) OpenStack
13 10 (0.20%) Adobe Experience Manager
13 10 (0.20%) Palantir Foundry
14 7 (0.14%) Camunda
14 7 (0.14%) Ethereum
14 7 (0.14%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 7 (0.14%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 48 (0.95%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (0.61%) Microsoft Project
3 24 (0.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 19 (0.38%) Microsoft Excel
5 17 (0.34%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.079%) Chatbot
7 3 (0.059%) Navisworks
7 3 (0.059%) Revit
8 2 (0.040%) PlantUML
8 2 (0.040%) Spreadsheet
8 2 (0.040%) Windchill
9 1 (0.020%) ArchiCAD
9 1 (0.020%) AutoCAD
9 1 (0.020%) OrCAD
9 1 (0.020%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 126 (2.49%) SAP S/4HANA
2 49 (0.97%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 22 (0.43%) Dynamics CRM
4 21 (0.42%) Workday HCM
5 19 (0.38%) Payment Gateway
6 16 (0.32%) Oracle EBS
7 14 (0.28%) SAP ERP
8 13 (0.26%) Teamcenter
9 12 (0.24%) SAP EWM
10 11 (0.22%) Remedy ITSM
11 10 (0.20%) Oracle ERP
11 10 (0.20%) Oracle Receivables
12 8 (0.16%) NetSuite
12 8 (0.16%) Salesforce CRM
12 8 (0.16%) SAP PM
12 8 (0.16%) SAP PP
13 7 (0.14%) Maximo
13 7 (0.14%) R3 Corda
13 7 (0.14%) SAP CRM
13 7 (0.14%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 1,218 (24.08%) Azure
2 1,066 (21.08%) AWS
3 395 (7.81%) GCP
4 212 (4.19%) Power Platform
5 181 (3.58%) Entra ID
6 179 (3.54%) Serverless
7 163 (3.22%) SaaS
8 142 (2.81%) Microsoft 365
9 114 (2.25%) GitHub
10 108 (2.14%) IaaS
11 106 (2.10%) PaaS
12 102 (2.02%) Dynamics 365
13 98 (1.94%) Azure DevOps
14 91 (1.80%) AWS Lambda
15 81 (1.60%) OpenShift
16 80 (1.58%) Amazon S3
17 74 (1.46%) Snowflake
18 73 (1.44%) AWS CloudFormation
19 70 (1.38%) Microsoft Purview
20 69 (1.36%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 227 (4.49%) Firewall
2 175 (3.46%) Network Security
3 140 (2.77%) WAN
4 124 (2.45%) VPN
5 121 (2.39%) DNS
6 90 (1.78%) LAN
7 80 (1.58%) SD-WAN
8 40 (0.79%) BGP
9 36 (0.71%) DHCP
10 32 (0.63%) OSPF
11 31 (0.61%) MPLS
12 30 (0.59%) Wi-Fi
13 29 (0.57%) VLAN
14 27 (0.53%) TCP/IP
15 25 (0.49%) Wireless
16 24 (0.47%) SAN
16 24 (0.47%) VXLAN
17 21 (0.42%) NAS
18 19 (0.38%) BIG-IP
18 19 (0.38%) Kerberos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 156 (3.08%) Power BI
2 141 (2.79%) Metadata
3 136 (2.69%) Data Warehouse
4 126 (2.49%) Data Lake
5 81 (1.60%) SQL Server
6 65 (1.29%) NoSQL
7 60 (1.19%) PostgreSQL
8 53 (1.05%) Azure SQL Database
9 48 (0.95%) Tableau
10 39 (0.77%) Big Data
11 37 (0.73%) Oracle Database
12 36 (0.71%) Amazon Redshift
13 27 (0.53%) Relational Database
14 25 (0.49%) BigQuery
14 25 (0.49%) Delta Lake
15 23 (0.45%) Amazon Athena
15 23 (0.45%) DynamoDB
16 22 (0.43%) Amazon RDS
16 22 (0.43%) Electronic Patient Records
16 22 (0.43%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 122 (2.41%) JIRA
2 91 (1.80%) Jenkins
3 52 (1.03%) Git
4 48 (0.95%) GitLab
5 21 (0.42%) ERwin
6 13 (0.26%) SonarQube
7 11 (0.22%) Bitbucket
8 10 (0.20%) Artifactory
9 9 (0.18%) MLflow
10 6 (0.12%) Postman
10 6 (0.12%) REST Assured
11 5 (0.099%) Cucumber
11 5 (0.099%) JUnit
11 5 (0.099%) PowerDesigner
11 5 (0.099%) Selenium
11 5 (0.099%) Sonatype Nexus
12 4 (0.079%) Snyk
12 4 (0.079%) Terragrunt
13 3 (0.059%) Claude Code
13 3 (0.059%) ER Studio
General
1 1,010 (19.97%) Social Skills
2 757 (14.97%) Finance
3 571 (11.29%) Public Sector
4 321 (6.35%) Analytical Skills
5 286 (5.65%) Banking
6 157 (3.10%) Documentation Skills
7 126 (2.49%) Retail
8 115 (2.27%) Influencing Skills
8 115 (2.27%) Legal
9 90 (1.78%) Military
10 86 (1.70%) Telecoms
11 72 (1.42%) Presentation Skills
12 71 (1.40%) Manufacturing
13 65 (1.29%) Marketing
14 63 (1.25%) Law
15 44 (0.87%) Financial Institution
16 34 (0.67%) Billing
16 34 (0.67%) Investment Banking
17 29 (0.57%) Aerospace
17 29 (0.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 246 (4.86%) REST
2 182 (3.60%) Middleware
3 127 (2.51%) SOAP
4 115 (2.27%) .NET
5 106 (2.10%) Kafka
6 85 (1.68%) OpenID
7 84 (1.66%) LDAP
8 77 (1.52%) OAuth
9 60 (1.19%) SAML
10 56 (1.11%) JSON
11 52 (1.03%) React
12 47 (0.93%) OAuth2
13 43 (0.85%) RESTful
14 39 (0.77%) AngularJS
14 39 (0.77%) Oracle Fusion
15 38 (0.75%) SailPoint
15 38 (0.75%) Web Services
16 32 (0.63%) Spring
17 29 (0.57%) PySpark
18 26 (0.51%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 400 (7.91%) Cloud Native
2 169 (3.34%) Data Centre
3 144 (2.85%) Product Ownership
4 133 (2.63%) Onboarding
5 121 (2.39%) Legacy Systems
6 116 (2.29%) Enterprise Software
6 116 (2.29%) Management Information System
7 107 (2.12%) Distributed Systems
8 99 (1.96%) Hybrid Cloud
9 95 (1.88%) Public Cloud
10 82 (1.62%) PKI
11 80 (1.58%) Security Posture
12 71 (1.40%) CMDB
12 71 (1.40%) Data Protection Act
13 67 (1.32%) Operational Technology
14 50 (0.99%) AI Agents
15 48 (0.95%) Self-Motivation
16 46 (0.91%) Private Cloud
17 43 (0.85%) NHS
18 42 (0.83%) Data Structures
Operating Systems
1 180 (3.56%) Windows
2 119 (2.35%) Linux
3 41 (0.81%) Windows Server
4 32 (0.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 31 (0.61%) Android
5 31 (0.61%) Apple iOS
6 17 (0.34%) Unix
7 14 (0.28%) Windows 10
8 13 (0.26%) VMS
9 12 (0.24%) Windows 7
9 12 (0.24%) Windows Server 2016
10 11 (0.22%) zOS
11 9 (0.18%) Mac OS
11 9 (0.18%) Windows Server 2019
12 3 (0.059%) CentOS
12 3 (0.059%) Data ONTAP
12 3 (0.059%) Solaris
12 3 (0.059%) Windows Server 2012
13 2 (0.040%) AIX
13 2 (0.040%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 716 (14.16%) Roadmaps
2 666 (13.17%) Migration
3 621 (12.28%) Agile
4 568 (11.23%) Stakeholder Management
5 554 (10.95%) DevOps
6 532 (10.52%) CI/CD
7 513 (10.14%) Enterprise Architecture
8 476 (9.41%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 458 (9.05%) Data Modelling
10 457 (9.04%) Technical Leadership
11 450 (8.90%) AI
12 438 (8.66%) TOGAF
13 424 (8.38%) Analytics
14 418 (8.26%) Integration Patterns
15 383 (7.57%) Data Architecture
16 379 (7.49%) Problem-Solving
17 370 (7.32%) Architectural Patterns
18 367 (7.26%) Microservices
19 336 (6.64%) Architectural Design
20 296 (5.85%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 354 (7.00%) Python
2 268 (5.30%) SQL
3 207 (4.09%) Java
4 185 (3.66%) PowerShell
5 77 (1.52%) JavaScript
6 68 (1.34%) C#
7 44 (0.87%) Bicep
8 38 (0.75%) Bash
9 31 (0.61%) TypeScript
10 22 (0.43%) Ruby
11 18 (0.36%) Apex Code
11 18 (0.36%) PL/SQL
12 16 (0.32%) Scala
13 13 (0.26%) Kotlin
14 12 (0.24%) Kusto Query Language
15 10 (0.20%) R
15 10 (0.20%) Shell Script
15 10 (0.20%) T-SQL
16 9 (0.18%) ABAP
17 8 (0.16%) VB
Qualifications
1 1,599 (31.61%) Security Cleared
2 1,143 (22.60%) SC Cleared
3 330 (6.52%) DV Cleared
4 214 (4.23%) Degree
5 128 (2.53%) Azure Certification
6 125 (2.47%) TOGAF Certification
7 120 (2.37%) AWS Certification
8 119 (2.35%) CISSP
9 96 (1.90%) Cisco Certification
10 92 (1.82%) BPSS Clearance
11 83 (1.64%) Computer Science Degree
12 60 (1.19%) CISM
13 55 (1.09%) Master's Degree
14 54 (1.07%) CCNP
15 52 (1.03%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
16 48 (0.95%) Microsoft Certification
17 40 (0.79%) (ISC)2 CCSP
18 33 (0.65%) ISEB
18 33 (0.65%) ITIL Certification
19 30 (0.59%) CCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 192 (3.80%) GDPR
2 191 (3.78%) NIST
3 155 (3.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 154 (3.04%) Data Quality
5 103 (2.04%) NCSC
6 64 (1.27%) QA
7 55 (1.09%) PCI DSS
8 41 (0.81%) COBIT
9 34 (0.67%) GRC
10 32 (0.63%) ISO 20022
11 31 (0.61%) Accessibility
12 25 (0.49%) Cyber Essentials
13 20 (0.40%) SEPA
14 18 (0.36%) HL7
14 18 (0.36%) HMG Security Policy Framework
14 18 (0.36%) JSP 440
14 18 (0.36%) NIST 800
14 18 (0.36%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 14 (0.28%) SLA
16 13 (0.26%) FINRA
System Software
1 197 (3.89%) Active Directory
2 114 (2.25%) Docker
3 107 (2.12%) VMware Infrastructure
4 75 (1.48%) VMware NSX
5 34 (0.67%) vSphere
6 25 (0.49%) Virtual Desktop
7 17 (0.34%) Hyper-V
8 16 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
9 14 (0.28%) VMware ESXi
10 11 (0.22%) Varnish
11 10 (0.20%) Oracle RAC
11 10 (0.20%) vCloud
12 9 (0.18%) Squid
13 8 (0.16%) NFS
14 7 (0.14%) BitLocker
15 5 (0.099%) Postfix
15 5 (0.099%) RACF
16 4 (0.079%) Firmware
17 3 (0.059%) IAG
17 3 (0.059%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 280 (5.54%) Terraform
2 239 (4.73%) Kubernetes
3 115 (2.27%) Ansible
4 51 (1.01%) Single Sign-On
5 42 (0.83%) Grafana
6 40 (0.79%) Microsoft Intune
7 32 (0.63%) FortiGate
8 31 (0.61%) vCenter Server
9 30 (0.59%) OPNET
10 29 (0.57%) Prometheus
11 22 (0.43%) SCCM
12 18 (0.36%) Argo
13 16 (0.32%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 12 (0.24%) Istio
15 11 (0.22%) WMI
16 8 (0.16%) Puppet
17 7 (0.14%) Consul
18 6 (0.12%) Kibana
19 5 (0.099%) HAProxy
19 5 (0.099%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 682 (13.48%) Microsoft
2 309 (6.11%) ServiceNow
3 289 (5.71%) SAP
4 210 (4.15%) Oracle
5 199 (3.93%) VMware
6 191 (3.78%) Salesforce
7 182 (3.60%) Databricks
8 137 (2.71%) Cisco
9 111 (2.19%) Google
10 86 (1.70%) CyberArk
11 67 (1.32%) MuleSoft
12 65 (1.29%) Splunk
13 61 (1.21%) Palo Alto
14 58 (1.15%) Red Hat
15 54 (1.07%) Workday
16 49 (0.97%) IBM
17 48 (0.95%) Remedy
17 48 (0.95%) Sparx
18 46 (0.91%) Ariba
18 46 (0.91%) Atlassian