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 16 April 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 12 16 11
Rank change year-on-year +4 -5 +6
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 4,997 2,884 4,493
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 10.88% 9.84% 10.25%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.80% 10.63% 11.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,297 1,901 2,911
10th Percentile £463 £481 £500
25th Percentile £513 £550 £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 £605 £619 £650
% change year-on-year -2.30% -4.73% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 120 37 53
10th Percentile £49.40 £54.30 £53.45
25th Percentile £60.00 £61.50 £60.00
Median hourly rate £70.00 £70.00 £83.50
Median % change year-on-year - -16.17% +19.29%
75th Percentile £84.25 £80.59 £87.53
90th Percentile £97.50 £85.61 £94.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £71.27 £72.50 £83.77
% change year-on-year -1.70% -13.45% +19.66%

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 42,358 27,131 40,661
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.24% 92.61% 92.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,304 17,800 26,582
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £406 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £517 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.29% -1.52% -2.78%
75th Percentile £613 £626 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +2.63% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,673 984 2,591
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.55 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.27 £19.25 £16.25
Median hourly rate £41.94 £30.79 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +36.20% -12.02% -22.22%
75th Percentile £65.25 £63.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.90 £75.43 £72.45
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.69 £30.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year +42.28% -14.29% -17.38%

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 16 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 16 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 16 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 4,279 £625 - 908
UK excluding London +8 2,330 £605 -2.30% 621
London +2 1,968 £625 -3.85% 396
Work from Home +3 1,380 £609 +0.93% 414
South East +5 702 £625 - 174
North of England +5 614 £600 - 155
Midlands 0 402 £575 -4.17% 106
North West +7 358 £609 +1.50% 87
West Midlands -1 306 £600 - 76
South West +2 291 £694 +15.63% 91
Yorkshire +4 229 £558 -7.00% 53
East of England +14 192 £550 -8.33% 59
Scotland +15 136 £650 +4.00% 19
East Midlands -3 92 £513 -6.82% 30
North East +5 36 £575 -7.95% 16
Wales -6 28 £600 - 22
Northern Ireland +7 11 £500 -24.53% 7

Architect Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 16 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 1,607 (32.16%) Security Cleared
2 1,200 (24.01%) Azure
3 1,147 (22.95%) SC Cleared
4 1,043 (20.87%) AWS
5 702 (14.05%) Roadmaps
6 686 (13.73%) Microsoft
7 660 (13.21%) Migration
8 618 (12.37%) Agile
9 559 (11.19%) Stakeholder Management
10 554 (11.09%) DevOps
11 525 (10.51%) CI/CD
12 507 (10.15%) Enterprise Architecture
13 479 (9.59%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 467 (9.35%) Data Modelling
15 452 (9.05%) Technical Leadership
16 442 (8.85%) TOGAF
17 437 (8.75%) AI
18 426 (8.53%) Analytics
19 417 (8.35%) Integration Patterns
20 388 (7.76%) Data Architecture
21 386 (7.72%) GCP
22 384 (7.68%) Problem-Solving
23 368 (7.36%) Architectural Patterns
24 363 (7.26%) Microservices
25 355 (7.10%) Python
26 339 (6.78%) DV Cleared
27 334 (6.68%) Architectural Design
28 297 (5.94%) ServiceNow
29 292 (5.84%) Security Architecture
30 289 (5.78%) Infrastructure as Code

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
1 124 (2.48%) SharePoint
2 108 (2.16%) Confluence
3 66 (1.32%) Microsoft Exchange
4 35 (0.70%) SAS
5 26 (0.52%) Apache Spark
6 24 (0.48%) CMS
7 22 (0.44%) Apache
8 17 (0.34%) Apache Airflow
9 16 (0.32%) Anypoint
9 16 (0.32%) Appian
10 15 (0.30%) WebLogic
11 14 (0.28%) ArcGIS
11 14 (0.28%) nginx
12 11 (0.22%) OpenStack
13 10 (0.20%) Adobe Experience Manager
14 9 (0.18%) Palantir Foundry
15 7 (0.14%) Camunda
15 7 (0.14%) Ethereum
15 7 (0.14%) Hyperledger
15 7 (0.14%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 48 (0.96%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (0.62%) Microsoft Project
3 24 (0.48%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 20 (0.40%) Microsoft Excel
5 17 (0.34%) MS Visio
6 5 (0.10%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.040%) Navisworks
7 2 (0.040%) PlantUML
7 2 (0.040%) Revit
7 2 (0.040%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.040%) Windchill
8 1 (0.020%) ArchiCAD
8 1 (0.020%) AutoCAD
8 1 (0.020%) OrCAD
8 1 (0.020%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 127 (2.54%) SAP S/4HANA
2 49 (0.98%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 22 (0.44%) Dynamics CRM
4 21 (0.42%) Workday HCM
5 18 (0.36%) Payment Gateway
6 16 (0.32%) Oracle EBS
7 14 (0.28%) SAP ERP
8 13 (0.26%) Salesforce CRM
9 12 (0.24%) SAP EWM
9 12 (0.24%) Teamcenter
10 10 (0.20%) Oracle Receivables
10 10 (0.20%) Remedy ITSM
10 10 (0.20%) SAP PM
11 9 (0.18%) NetSuite
12 8 (0.16%) Oracle ERP
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 1,200 (24.01%) Azure
2 1,043 (20.87%) AWS
3 386 (7.72%) GCP
4 209 (4.18%) Power Platform
5 179 (3.58%) Entra ID
6 176 (3.52%) Serverless
7 162 (3.24%) SaaS
8 142 (2.84%) Microsoft 365
9 115 (2.30%) IaaS
10 113 (2.26%) GitHub
11 105 (2.10%) PaaS
12 101 (2.02%) Dynamics 365
13 100 (2.00%) Azure DevOps
14 92 (1.84%) AWS Lambda
15 84 (1.68%) OpenShift
16 76 (1.52%) Amazon S3
17 72 (1.44%) AWS CloudFormation
17 72 (1.44%) Microsoft Purview
18 69 (1.38%) Snowflake
19 68 (1.36%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 235 (4.70%) Firewall
2 174 (3.48%) Network Security
3 141 (2.82%) WAN
4 128 (2.56%) DNS
5 124 (2.48%) VPN
6 89 (1.78%) LAN
7 79 (1.58%) SD-WAN
8 38 (0.76%) BGP
9 36 (0.72%) DHCP
10 31 (0.62%) Wi-Fi
11 30 (0.60%) MPLS
11 30 (0.60%) OSPF
12 27 (0.54%) TCP/IP
12 27 (0.54%) VLAN
13 25 (0.50%) SAN
13 25 (0.50%) Wireless
14 22 (0.44%) VXLAN
15 20 (0.40%) NAS
16 19 (0.38%) BIG-IP
16 19 (0.38%) Kerberos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 156 (3.12%) Power BI
2 147 (2.94%) Metadata
3 142 (2.84%) Data Warehouse
4 120 (2.40%) Data Lake
5 81 (1.62%) SQL Server
6 63 (1.26%) NoSQL
7 62 (1.24%) PostgreSQL
8 52 (1.04%) Azure SQL Database
9 50 (1.00%) Tableau
10 42 (0.84%) Big Data
10 42 (0.84%) Oracle Database
11 34 (0.68%) Amazon Redshift
12 25 (0.50%) Delta Lake
13 24 (0.48%) BigQuery
13 24 (0.48%) DynamoDB
13 24 (0.48%) Relational Database
14 23 (0.46%) Amazon Athena
15 22 (0.44%) Electronic Patient Records
15 22 (0.44%) MongoDB
16 21 (0.42%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 123 (2.46%) JIRA
2 97 (1.94%) Jenkins
3 52 (1.04%) Git
4 48 (0.96%) 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 (0.10%) Cucumber
11 5 (0.10%) JUnit
11 5 (0.10%) PowerDesigner
11 5 (0.10%) Selenium
11 5 (0.10%) Sonatype Nexus
12 4 (0.080%) Snyk
12 4 (0.080%) Terragrunt
13 3 (0.060%) Claude Code
13 3 (0.060%) ER Studio
General
1 1,013 (20.27%) Social Skills
2 747 (14.95%) Finance
3 564 (11.29%) Public Sector
4 322 (6.44%) Analytical Skills
5 284 (5.68%) Banking
6 162 (3.24%) Documentation Skills
7 119 (2.38%) Retail
8 114 (2.28%) Influencing Skills
8 114 (2.28%) Legal
9 89 (1.78%) Military
10 81 (1.62%) Telecoms
11 72 (1.44%) Presentation Skills
12 68 (1.36%) Manufacturing
13 64 (1.28%) Marketing
14 63 (1.26%) Law
15 44 (0.88%) Financial Institution
16 34 (0.68%) Billing
17 33 (0.66%) Investment Banking
18 31 (0.62%) Inclusion and Diversity
19 30 (0.60%) Aerospace
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 243 (4.86%) REST
2 184 (3.68%) Middleware
3 123 (2.46%) SOAP
4 111 (2.22%) .NET
5 105 (2.10%) Kafka
6 83 (1.66%) OpenID
7 82 (1.64%) LDAP
8 75 (1.50%) OAuth
9 62 (1.24%) SAML
10 55 (1.10%) JSON
11 52 (1.04%) React
12 47 (0.94%) OAuth2
13 42 (0.84%) AngularJS
13 42 (0.84%) RESTful
14 38 (0.76%) Oracle Fusion
14 38 (0.76%) SailPoint
15 37 (0.74%) Web Services
16 32 (0.64%) Spring
17 30 (0.60%) PySpark
18 25 (0.50%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 389 (7.78%) Cloud Native
2 169 (3.38%) Data Centre
3 143 (2.86%) Product Ownership
4 129 (2.58%) Onboarding
5 113 (2.26%) Legacy Systems
6 112 (2.24%) Enterprise Software
7 110 (2.20%) Management Information System
8 101 (2.02%) Distributed Systems
9 97 (1.94%) Hybrid Cloud
10 95 (1.90%) Public Cloud
11 85 (1.70%) PKI
12 80 (1.60%) Security Posture
13 72 (1.44%) Data Protection Act
14 69 (1.38%) CMDB
15 67 (1.34%) Operational Technology
16 49 (0.98%) Data Structures
16 49 (0.98%) Self-Motivation
17 48 (0.96%) AI Agents
18 46 (0.92%) Private Cloud
19 44 (0.88%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 185 (3.70%) Windows
2 122 (2.44%) Linux
3 45 (0.90%) Windows Server
4 32 (0.64%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 31 (0.62%) Android
5 31 (0.62%) Apple iOS
6 17 (0.34%) Unix
7 14 (0.28%) Windows 10
8 13 (0.26%) VMS
8 13 (0.26%) 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 (0.060%) Data ONTAP
12 3 (0.060%) Solaris
12 3 (0.060%) Windows Server 2012
13 2 (0.040%) AIX
13 2 (0.040%) CentOS
14 1 (0.020%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 702 (14.05%) Roadmaps
2 660 (13.21%) Migration
3 618 (12.37%) Agile
4 559 (11.19%) Stakeholder Management
5 554 (11.09%) DevOps
6 525 (10.51%) CI/CD
7 507 (10.15%) Enterprise Architecture
8 479 (9.59%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 467 (9.35%) Data Modelling
10 452 (9.05%) Technical Leadership
11 442 (8.85%) TOGAF
12 437 (8.75%) AI
13 426 (8.53%) Analytics
14 417 (8.35%) Integration Patterns
15 388 (7.76%) Data Architecture
16 384 (7.68%) Problem-Solving
17 368 (7.36%) Architectural Patterns
18 363 (7.26%) Microservices
19 334 (6.68%) Architectural Design
20 292 (5.84%) Security Architecture
Programming Languages
1 355 (7.10%) Python
2 263 (5.26%) SQL
3 203 (4.06%) Java
4 189 (3.78%) PowerShell
5 73 (1.46%) JavaScript
6 65 (1.30%) C#
7 43 (0.86%) Bash
7 43 (0.86%) Bicep
8 28 (0.56%) TypeScript
9 22 (0.44%) Ruby
10 18 (0.36%) Apex Code
10 18 (0.36%) PL/SQL
11 16 (0.32%) Scala
12 13 (0.26%) Kotlin
13 12 (0.24%) Kusto Query Language
14 10 (0.20%) R
14 10 (0.20%) Shell Script
14 10 (0.20%) T-SQL
15 9 (0.18%) ABAP
16 8 (0.16%) VB
Qualifications
1 1,607 (32.16%) Security Cleared
2 1,147 (22.95%) SC Cleared
3 339 (6.78%) DV Cleared
4 210 (4.20%) Degree
5 124 (2.48%) Azure Certification
6 121 (2.42%) TOGAF Certification
7 118 (2.36%) CISSP
8 116 (2.32%) AWS Certification
9 95 (1.90%) Cisco Certification
10 89 (1.78%) BPSS Clearance
11 81 (1.62%) Computer Science Degree
12 61 (1.22%) CISM
13 54 (1.08%) CCNP
13 54 (1.08%) Master's Degree
14 52 (1.04%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 52 (1.04%) Microsoft Certification
15 39 (0.78%) (ISC)2 CCSP
16 33 (0.66%) ISEB
16 33 (0.66%) ITIL Certification
17 30 (0.60%) CCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 192 (3.84%) GDPR
2 189 (3.78%) NIST
3 157 (3.14%) Data Quality
4 153 (3.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 103 (2.06%) NCSC
6 65 (1.30%) QA
7 55 (1.10%) PCI DSS
8 41 (0.82%) COBIT
9 34 (0.68%) GRC
10 31 (0.62%) Accessibility
10 31 (0.62%) ISO 20022
11 25 (0.50%) Cyber Essentials
12 20 (0.40%) JSP 440
12 20 (0.40%) NIST 800
13 18 (0.36%) HL7
13 18 (0.36%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 18 (0.36%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 15 (0.30%) SEPA
15 13 (0.26%) MiFID
15 13 (0.26%) PSD2
System Software
1 201 (4.02%) Active Directory
2 117 (2.34%) Docker
3 111 (2.22%) VMware Infrastructure
4 79 (1.58%) VMware NSX
5 38 (0.76%) vSphere
6 25 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
7 16 (0.32%) Hyper-V
7 16 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
8 14 (0.28%) VMware ESXi
9 11 (0.22%) Varnish
10 10 (0.20%) Oracle RAC
10 10 (0.20%) vCloud
11 9 (0.18%) Squid
12 8 (0.16%) NFS
13 7 (0.14%) BitLocker
14 5 (0.10%) Postfix
14 5 (0.10%) RACF
15 4 (0.080%) Firmware
16 3 (0.060%) IAG
16 3 (0.060%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 281 (5.62%) Terraform
2 240 (4.80%) Kubernetes
3 119 (2.38%) Ansible
4 55 (1.10%) Single Sign-On
5 42 (0.84%) Grafana
6 41 (0.82%) Microsoft Intune
7 35 (0.70%) vCenter Server
8 32 (0.64%) FortiGate
9 30 (0.60%) OPNET
10 29 (0.58%) Prometheus
11 22 (0.44%) Argo
11 22 (0.44%) SCCM
12 20 (0.40%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 12 (0.24%) WMI
14 11 (0.22%) Istio
15 7 (0.14%) Consul
15 7 (0.14%) Puppet
16 6 (0.12%) Kibana
17 5 (0.10%) Endace
17 5 (0.10%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 686 (13.73%) Microsoft
2 297 (5.94%) ServiceNow
3 284 (5.68%) SAP
4 212 (4.24%) Oracle
5 204 (4.08%) VMware
6 198 (3.96%) Salesforce
7 177 (3.54%) Databricks
8 137 (2.74%) Cisco
9 111 (2.22%) Google
10 85 (1.70%) CyberArk
11 68 (1.36%) MuleSoft
12 65 (1.30%) Splunk
13 62 (1.24%) Palo Alto
14 61 (1.22%) Red Hat
15 51 (1.02%) Workday
16 50 (1.00%) Remedy
17 48 (0.96%) Sparx
18 47 (0.94%) Atlassian
18 47 (0.94%) IBM
19 46 (0.92%) Ariba