Architect Contract Job Trends

Architect
UK

The median Architect daily rate in the UK is £623, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 13 March 2026.

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

6 months to
13 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 16 16 14
Rank change year-on-year 0 -2 +3
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 4,514 2,978 4,418
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 10.54% 10.11% 9.92%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.47% 10.88% 10.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,979 1,919 2,853
10th Percentile £462 £478 £500
25th Percentile £513 £546 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £623 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year -0.40% -3.85% -1.14%
75th Percentile £725 £729 £738
90th Percentile £800 £800 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £600 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -3.94% -3.90% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 103 33 43
10th Percentile £49.40 £58.60 £50.92
25th Percentile £60.00 £61.50 £60.00
Median hourly rate £71.27 £72.50 £76.53
Median % change year-on-year -1.70% -5.27% +9.33%
75th Percentile £87.00 £82.25 £87.53
90th Percentile £95.00 £87.16 £95.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £71.27 £72.50 £78.90
% change year-on-year -1.70% -8.11% +12.71%

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 39,357 27,378 41,374
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.90% 92.92% 92.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,580 17,687 27,135
10th Percentile £313 £296 £270
25th Percentile £410 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +1.05% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,451 863 2,500
10th Percentile £14.96 £15.47 £13.00
25th Percentile £19.00 £21.24 £16.25
Median hourly rate £35.00 £33.40 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +4.79% +2.77% -23.53%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £59.44
90th Percentile £75.79 £77.44 £71.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.00 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year +7.69% - -19.90%

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 13 March 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 13 March 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 13 March 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 +1 3,861 £625 - 993
UK excluding London +6 2,156 £600 -3.94% 724
London -2 1,737 £626 -3.69% 401
Work from Home +1 1,260 £613 -2.00% 495
South East +4 662 £625 - 248
North of England +1 546 £600 - 156
Midlands -1 385 £575 -4.37% 100
North West +1 299 £600 - 80
West Midlands -1 286 £600 -3.61% 62
South West -1 265 £700 +12.00% 113
Yorkshire +6 224 £563 -6.25% 54
East of England +14 165 £540 -13.60% 66
Scotland +20 142 £650 +4.00% 29
East Midlands 0 95 £513 -9.69% 37
North East -4 29 £625 - 24
Wales +4 28 £550 +1.85% 21
Northern Ireland +7 11 £500 -26.47% 5

Architect Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 13 March 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 1,432 (31.72%) Security Cleared
2 1,155 (25.59%) Azure
3 1,024 (22.68%) SC Cleared
4 964 (21.36%) AWS
5 661 (14.64%) Roadmaps
6 629 (13.93%) Microsoft
7 591 (13.09%) Migration
8 583 (12.92%) Agile
9 561 (12.43%) Stakeholder Management
10 519 (11.50%) DevOps
11 476 (10.54%) Enterprise Architecture
12 472 (10.46%) CI/CD
13 435 (9.64%) TOGAF
14 433 (9.59%) Data Modelling
15 427 (9.46%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 409 (9.06%) Technical Leadership
17 392 (8.68%) AI
18 391 (8.66%) Analytics
19 380 (8.42%) Problem-Solving
20 369 (8.17%) GCP
21 364 (8.06%) Data Architecture
22 342 (7.58%) Integration Patterns
23 340 (7.53%) Python
24 332 (7.35%) Microservices
25 323 (7.16%) Architectural Patterns
26 298 (6.60%) DV Cleared
27 277 (6.14%) Terraform
28 274 (6.07%) Architectural Design
29 260 (5.76%) ServiceNow
30 257 (5.69%) Cybersecurity

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
1 121 (2.68%) Confluence
2 118 (2.61%) SharePoint
3 63 (1.40%) Microsoft Exchange
4 34 (0.75%) SAS
5 25 (0.55%) Apache Spark
5 25 (0.55%) CMS
6 18 (0.40%) Apache Airflow
7 17 (0.38%) Apache
8 16 (0.35%) Anypoint
9 15 (0.33%) Appian
9 15 (0.33%) ArcGIS
9 15 (0.33%) WebLogic
10 13 (0.29%) nginx
11 11 (0.24%) OpenStack
12 10 (0.22%) Adobe Experience Manager
13 9 (0.20%) Smallworld
14 7 (0.16%) Ethereum
14 7 (0.16%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 7 (0.16%) Sitecore CMS
14 7 (0.16%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 50 (1.11%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (0.69%) Microsoft Project
3 28 (0.62%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 26 (0.58%) Microsoft Excel
5 20 (0.44%) MS Visio
6 7 (0.16%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.044%) PlantUML
8 1 (0.022%) ArchiCAD
8 1 (0.022%) AutoCAD
8 1 (0.022%) OrCAD
8 1 (0.022%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.022%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.022%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 119 (2.64%) SAP S/4HANA
2 43 (0.95%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 23 (0.51%) Dynamics CRM
3 23 (0.51%) Workday HCM
4 18 (0.40%) Payment Gateway
5 16 (0.35%) Oracle EBS
5 16 (0.35%) Salesforce CRM
6 12 (0.27%) NetSuite
6 12 (0.27%) SAP EWM
7 10 (0.22%) SAP ERP
7 10 (0.22%) SAP PM
8 9 (0.20%) Maximo
8 9 (0.20%) Oracle Receivables
9 8 (0.18%) Remedy ITSM
9 8 (0.18%) Teamcenter
10 7 (0.16%) Oracle ERP
10 7 (0.16%) R3 Corda
10 7 (0.16%) SAP PP
11 6 (0.13%) Distributed Ledger
11 6 (0.13%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 1,155 (25.59%) Azure
2 964 (21.36%) AWS
3 369 (8.17%) GCP
4 174 (3.85%) Power Platform
5 163 (3.61%) Serverless
6 157 (3.48%) Entra ID
7 146 (3.23%) SaaS
8 143 (3.17%) Microsoft 365
9 104 (2.30%) GitHub
10 103 (2.28%) IaaS
11 97 (2.15%) Azure DevOps
12 89 (1.97%) PaaS
13 87 (1.93%) AWS Lambda
14 76 (1.68%) AWS CloudFormation
14 76 (1.68%) OpenShift
15 74 (1.64%) Amazon S3
15 74 (1.64%) Microsoft Purview
16 69 (1.53%) Virtual Private Cloud
17 68 (1.51%) Azure Synapse Analytics
17 68 (1.51%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 222 (4.92%) Firewall
2 155 (3.43%) Network Security
3 128 (2.84%) WAN
4 115 (2.55%) DNS
5 113 (2.50%) VPN
6 76 (1.68%) LAN
7 72 (1.60%) SD-WAN
8 37 (0.82%) BGP
9 33 (0.73%) DHCP
10 30 (0.66%) Wi-Fi
11 28 (0.62%) MPLS
12 27 (0.60%) OSPF
13 26 (0.58%) TCP/IP
14 22 (0.49%) SAN
14 22 (0.49%) VXLAN
15 21 (0.47%) VLAN
16 20 (0.44%) Wireless
17 19 (0.42%) Kerberos
18 18 (0.40%) Internet
19 17 (0.38%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 158 (3.50%) Data Warehouse
2 142 (3.15%) Metadata
3 127 (2.81%) Power BI
4 100 (2.22%) Data Lake
5 81 (1.79%) SQL Server
6 69 (1.53%) PostgreSQL
7 55 (1.22%) NoSQL
8 51 (1.13%) Tableau
9 50 (1.11%) Azure SQL Database
10 42 (0.93%) Oracle Database
11 37 (0.82%) Big Data
12 31 (0.69%) Amazon Redshift
13 25 (0.55%) GIS
14 24 (0.53%) DynamoDB
15 23 (0.51%) Delta Lake
15 23 (0.51%) Relational Database
16 22 (0.49%) Amazon Athena
17 21 (0.47%) Amazon Aurora
17 21 (0.47%) Metadata Repository
18 19 (0.42%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 132 (2.92%) JIRA
2 94 (2.08%) Jenkins
3 51 (1.13%) GitLab
4 47 (1.04%) Git
5 22 (0.49%) ERwin
6 11 (0.24%) Bitbucket
7 10 (0.22%) SonarQube
8 8 (0.18%) Artifactory
8 8 (0.18%) MLflow
9 6 (0.13%) REST Assured
10 5 (0.11%) Cucumber
10 5 (0.11%) Oracle Forms
10 5 (0.11%) Postman
10 5 (0.11%) Selenium
11 4 (0.089%) PowerDesigner
11 4 (0.089%) Snyk
11 4 (0.089%) Sonatype Nexus
11 4 (0.089%) Terragrunt
12 3 (0.066%) ER Studio
12 3 (0.066%) JUnit
General
1 1,006 (22.29%) Social Skills
2 695 (15.40%) Finance
3 545 (12.07%) Public Sector
4 316 (7.00%) Analytical Skills
5 255 (5.65%) Banking
6 150 (3.32%) Documentation Skills
7 105 (2.33%) Influencing Skills
8 103 (2.28%) Legal
9 89 (1.97%) Retail
10 88 (1.95%) Telecoms
11 83 (1.84%) Military
12 76 (1.68%) Presentation Skills
13 67 (1.48%) Marketing
14 62 (1.37%) Manufacturing
15 40 (0.89%) Financial Institution
16 38 (0.84%) Billing
16 38 (0.84%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 35 (0.78%) Law
18 30 (0.66%) Investment Banking
19 22 (0.49%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 228 (5.05%) REST
2 169 (3.74%) Middleware
3 123 (2.72%) SOAP
4 96 (2.13%) .NET
5 94 (2.08%) Kafka
6 81 (1.79%) OpenID
7 76 (1.68%) LDAP
8 72 (1.60%) OAuth
9 65 (1.44%) SAML
10 49 (1.09%) JSON
11 45 (1.00%) OAuth2
11 45 (1.00%) React
12 43 (0.95%) AngularJS
13 39 (0.86%) RESTful
14 34 (0.75%) SailPoint
15 32 (0.71%) Oracle Fusion
16 30 (0.66%) PySpark
16 30 (0.66%) Web Services
17 27 (0.60%) Node.js
17 27 (0.60%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 347 (7.69%) Cloud Native
2 155 (3.43%) Data Centre
3 144 (3.19%) Product Ownership
4 131 (2.90%) Onboarding
5 117 (2.59%) Legacy Systems
6 100 (2.22%) Enterprise Software
7 91 (2.02%) PKI
8 86 (1.91%) Management Information System
9 85 (1.88%) Distributed Systems
9 85 (1.88%) Hybrid Cloud
10 82 (1.82%) Public Cloud
11 73 (1.62%) Security Posture
12 70 (1.55%) Data Protection Act
13 61 (1.35%) CMDB
13 61 (1.35%) Operational Technology
14 46 (1.02%) AI Agents
14 46 (1.02%) Self-Motivation
15 45 (1.00%) Data Structures
16 40 (0.89%) NHS
17 35 (0.78%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 181 (4.01%) Windows
2 119 (2.64%) Linux
3 40 (0.89%) Windows Server
4 33 (0.73%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 26 (0.58%) Android
5 26 (0.58%) Apple iOS
6 16 (0.35%) Windows 7
7 15 (0.33%) Windows 10
8 13 (0.29%) VMS
9 12 (0.27%) Windows Server 2016
10 11 (0.24%) Unix
11 10 (0.22%) zOS
12 9 (0.20%) Mac OS
12 9 (0.20%) Windows Server 2019
13 4 (0.089%) Ubuntu
14 3 (0.066%) Windows Server 2012
15 2 (0.044%) CentOS
16 1 (0.022%) Data ONTAP
16 1 (0.022%) Kali Linux
16 1 (0.022%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 661 (14.64%) Roadmaps
2 591 (13.09%) Migration
3 583 (12.92%) Agile
4 561 (12.43%) Stakeholder Management
5 519 (11.50%) DevOps
6 476 (10.54%) Enterprise Architecture
7 472 (10.46%) CI/CD
8 435 (9.64%) TOGAF
9 433 (9.59%) Data Modelling
10 427 (9.46%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 409 (9.06%) Technical Leadership
12 392 (8.68%) AI
13 391 (8.66%) Analytics
14 380 (8.42%) Problem-Solving
15 364 (8.06%) Data Architecture
16 342 (7.58%) Integration Patterns
17 332 (7.35%) Microservices
18 323 (7.16%) Architectural Patterns
19 274 (6.07%) Architectural Design
20 257 (5.69%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 340 (7.53%) Python
2 247 (5.47%) SQL
3 184 (4.08%) PowerShell
4 157 (3.48%) Java
5 65 (1.44%) JavaScript
6 63 (1.40%) C#
7 42 (0.93%) Bicep
8 40 (0.89%) Bash
9 33 (0.73%) TypeScript
10 20 (0.44%) PL/SQL
11 19 (0.42%) Apex Code
12 14 (0.31%) Kusto Query Language
12 14 (0.31%) Ruby
13 13 (0.29%) R
14 12 (0.27%) Scala
15 11 (0.24%) Kotlin
16 10 (0.22%) T-SQL
17 8 (0.18%) PHP
17 8 (0.18%) VB
18 7 (0.16%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 1,432 (31.72%) Security Cleared
2 1,024 (22.68%) SC Cleared
3 298 (6.60%) DV Cleared
4 210 (4.65%) Degree
5 127 (2.81%) AWS Certification
6 126 (2.79%) TOGAF Certification
7 121 (2.68%) Azure Certification
8 119 (2.64%) CISSP
9 82 (1.82%) BPSS Clearance
9 82 (1.82%) Computer Science Degree
10 80 (1.77%) Cisco Certification
11 70 (1.55%) CISM
12 60 (1.33%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 57 (1.26%) Master's Degree
14 55 (1.22%) Microsoft Certification
15 47 (1.04%) CCNP
16 33 (0.73%) ITIL Certification
17 31 (0.69%) (ISC)2 CCSP
18 30 (0.66%) CCIE
18 30 (0.66%) ISEB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 193 (4.28%) GDPR
2 152 (3.37%) Data Quality
3 149 (3.30%) NIST
4 132 (2.92%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 94 (2.08%) NCSC
6 62 (1.37%) QA
7 59 (1.31%) PCI DSS
8 36 (0.80%) COBIT
9 34 (0.75%) Accessibility
10 31 (0.69%) GRC
11 28 (0.62%) ISO 20022
12 25 (0.55%) Cyber Essentials
13 20 (0.44%) JSP 440
14 18 (0.40%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 16 (0.35%) HIPAA
16 15 (0.33%) MiFID
17 14 (0.31%) Sarbanes-Oxley
18 13 (0.29%) California Consumer Privacy Act
18 13 (0.29%) FINRA
18 13 (0.29%) SEPA
System Software
1 187 (4.14%) Active Directory
2 127 (2.81%) Docker
3 98 (2.17%) VMware Infrastructure
4 68 (1.51%) VMware NSX
5 37 (0.82%) vSphere
6 21 (0.47%) Virtual Desktop
7 15 (0.33%) Hyper-V
8 13 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
9 11 (0.24%) Oracle RAC
9 11 (0.24%) VMware ESXi
10 9 (0.20%) Varnish
11 8 (0.18%) Squid
12 7 (0.16%) BitLocker
12 7 (0.16%) vCloud
13 5 (0.11%) RACF
14 4 (0.089%) Firmware
14 4 (0.089%) NFS
15 3 (0.066%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
15 3 (0.066%) IAG
15 3 (0.066%) Postfix
Systems Management
1 277 (6.14%) Terraform
2 234 (5.18%) Kubernetes
3 117 (2.59%) Ansible
4 55 (1.22%) Single Sign-On
5 40 (0.89%) Microsoft Intune
6 35 (0.78%) Grafana
7 32 (0.71%) FortiGate
8 31 (0.69%) vCenter Server
9 30 (0.66%) OPNET
10 28 (0.62%) Prometheus
11 22 (0.49%) SCCM
12 18 (0.40%) Argo
13 16 (0.35%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 15 (0.33%) WMI
15 10 (0.22%) Istio
16 7 (0.16%) Consul
17 6 (0.13%) Kibana
17 6 (0.13%) Puppet
18 5 (0.11%) Progress Chef
19 4 (0.089%) Data Guard
Vendors
1 629 (13.93%) Microsoft
2 260 (5.76%) ServiceNow
3 246 (5.45%) SAP
4 201 (4.45%) Oracle
5 181 (4.01%) Salesforce
6 179 (3.97%) VMware
7 149 (3.30%) Databricks
8 129 (2.86%) Cisco
9 109 (2.41%) Google
10 92 (2.04%) CyberArk
11 69 (1.53%) MuleSoft
12 65 (1.44%) Splunk
13 63 (1.40%) Palo Alto
14 55 (1.22%) Red Hat
15 50 (1.11%) Workday
16 49 (1.09%) Atlassian
16 49 (1.09%) Centrify
16 49 (1.09%) Remedy
17 44 (0.97%) IBM
18 42 (0.93%) Sparx