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 3 April 2026.

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

6 months to
3 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 16 11
Rank change year-on-year +3 -5 +6
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 4,845 2,938 4,486
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 10.80% 10.10% 10.16%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.71% 10.89% 10.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,200 1,938 2,898
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% -1.89%
75th Percentile £725 £725 £738
90th Percentile £800 £799 £813
UK excluding London median daily rate £603 £620 £650
% change year-on-year -2.82% -4.62% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 117 36 47
10th Percentile £49.40 £54.00 £50.32
25th Percentile £60.00 £61.50 £60.00
Median hourly rate £71.27 £68.75 £83.50
Median % change year-on-year +3.67% -17.66% +19.29%
75th Percentile £85.00 £80.15 £87.53
90th Percentile £97.50 £85.50 £95.00
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 41,358 26,984 40,963
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.19% 92.80% 92.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,778 17,737 26,805
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £406 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -3.45%
75th Percentile £613 £629 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £740
UK excluding London median daily rate £486 £475 £489
% change year-on-year +2.37% -2.86% -2.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,581 943 2,528
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £19.85 £20.47 £16.25
Median hourly rate £40.00 £32.50 £33.00
Median % change year-on-year +23.08% -1.52% -25.00%
75th Percentile £65.00 £64.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £76.25 £71.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.16 £31.64 £33.00
% change year-on-year +26.91% -4.12% -21.43%

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 3 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 3 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 3 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 +2 4,161 £625 - 1,077
UK excluding London +8 2,280 £603 -2.82% 761
London -1 1,900 £625 -3.85% 476
Work from Home 0 1,353 £618 +1.23% 523
South East +4 700 £625 - 256
North of England +4 595 £600 - 194
Midlands -5 397 £575 -4.17% 95
North West +6 340 £610 +1.67% 100
West Midlands -2 297 £600 - 69
South West +2 284 £698 +13.88% 98
Yorkshire +6 231 £558 -7.00% 70
East of England +15 179 £550 -8.33% 71
Scotland +14 134 £650 +4.00% 35
East Midlands -5 96 £519 -6.53% 26
North East +5 33 £575 -7.95% 28
Wales +1 28 £550 -3.51% 24
Northern Ireland +4 11 £500 -26.47% 4

Architect Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 3 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 1,553 (32.05%) Security Cleared
2 1,196 (24.69%) Azure
3 1,097 (22.64%) SC Cleared
4 1,032 (21.30%) AWS
5 701 (14.47%) Roadmaps
6 672 (13.87%) Microsoft
7 640 (13.21%) Migration
8 617 (12.73%) Agile
9 559 (11.54%) Stakeholder Management
10 547 (11.29%) DevOps
11 508 (10.49%) Enterprise Architecture
12 506 (10.44%) CI/CD
13 477 (9.85%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 462 (9.54%) Data Modelling
15 450 (9.29%) Technical Leadership
16 449 (9.27%) TOGAF
17 419 (8.65%) AI
18 416 (8.59%) Analytics
19 390 (8.05%) GCP
20 389 (8.03%) Integration Patterns
21 388 (8.01%) Problem-Solving
22 380 (7.84%) Data Architecture
23 367 (7.57%) Architectural Patterns
24 362 (7.47%) Microservices
25 356 (7.35%) Python
26 335 (6.91%) DV Cleared
27 327 (6.75%) Architectural Design
28 289 (5.96%) Security Architecture
29 283 (5.84%) ServiceNow
29 283 (5.84%) Terraform

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
1 122 (2.52%) SharePoint
2 119 (2.46%) Confluence
3 64 (1.32%) Microsoft Exchange
4 32 (0.66%) SAS
5 26 (0.54%) CMS
6 25 (0.52%) Apache Spark
7 21 (0.43%) Apache
8 18 (0.37%) Apache Airflow
9 17 (0.35%) Anypoint
10 16 (0.33%) Appian
10 16 (0.33%) ArcGIS
11 15 (0.31%) WebLogic
12 14 (0.29%) nginx
13 11 (0.23%) OpenStack
14 10 (0.21%) Adobe Experience Manager
15 7 (0.14%) Ethereum
15 7 (0.14%) Hyperledger
15 7 (0.14%) Oracle SOA Suite
15 7 (0.14%) Sitecore CMS
15 7 (0.14%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 49 (1.01%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (0.64%) Microsoft Project
3 27 (0.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 23 (0.47%) Microsoft Excel
5 18 (0.37%) MS Visio
6 6 (0.12%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.041%) PlantUML
7 2 (0.041%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.041%) Windchill
8 1 (0.021%) ArchiCAD
8 1 (0.021%) AutoCAD
8 1 (0.021%) Navisworks
8 1 (0.021%) OrCAD
8 1 (0.021%) Revit
8 1 (0.021%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 130 (2.68%) SAP S/4HANA
2 50 (1.03%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 25 (0.52%) Dynamics CRM
4 21 (0.43%) Workday HCM
5 17 (0.35%) Oracle EBS
5 17 (0.35%) Payment Gateway
6 16 (0.33%) SAP ERP
7 13 (0.27%) Salesforce CRM
8 12 (0.25%) SAP EWM
9 11 (0.23%) NetSuite
10 10 (0.21%) Oracle Receivables
10 10 (0.21%) Remedy ITSM
10 10 (0.21%) SAP PM
10 10 (0.21%) Teamcenter
11 9 (0.19%) Maximo
12 8 (0.17%) SAP PP
13 7 (0.14%) R3 Corda
13 7 (0.14%) SAP CRM
13 7 (0.14%) SAP QM
14 6 (0.12%) Distributed Ledger
Cloud Services
1 1,196 (24.69%) Azure
2 1,032 (21.30%) AWS
3 390 (8.05%) GCP
4 205 (4.23%) Power Platform
5 172 (3.55%) Serverless
6 171 (3.53%) Entra ID
7 158 (3.26%) SaaS
8 143 (2.95%) Microsoft 365
9 115 (2.37%) IaaS
10 112 (2.31%) GitHub
11 103 (2.13%) PaaS
12 101 (2.08%) Azure DevOps
13 98 (2.02%) Dynamics 365
14 89 (1.84%) AWS Lambda
15 80 (1.65%) OpenShift
16 75 (1.55%) AWS CloudFormation
17 73 (1.51%) Microsoft Purview
18 71 (1.47%) Amazon S3
19 70 (1.44%) Snowflake
20 69 (1.42%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 238 (4.91%) Firewall
2 173 (3.57%) Network Security
3 143 (2.95%) WAN
4 131 (2.70%) DNS
5 130 (2.68%) VPN
6 88 (1.82%) LAN
7 80 (1.65%) SD-WAN
8 39 (0.80%) BGP
8 39 (0.80%) DHCP
9 32 (0.66%) Wi-Fi
10 31 (0.64%) OSPF
11 30 (0.62%) MPLS
11 30 (0.62%) TCP/IP
12 27 (0.56%) VLAN
13 26 (0.54%) SAN
14 25 (0.52%) Wireless
15 22 (0.45%) VXLAN
16 19 (0.39%) BIG-IP
16 19 (0.39%) Internet
16 19 (0.39%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 158 (3.26%) Power BI
2 151 (3.12%) Data Warehouse
3 145 (2.99%) Metadata
4 116 (2.39%) Data Lake
5 82 (1.69%) SQL Server
6 61 (1.26%) PostgreSQL
7 60 (1.24%) NoSQL
8 50 (1.03%) Azure SQL Database
8 50 (1.03%) Tableau
9 42 (0.87%) Oracle Database
10 41 (0.85%) Big Data
11 30 (0.62%) Amazon Redshift
12 24 (0.50%) Delta Lake
12 24 (0.50%) Relational Database
13 23 (0.47%) BigQuery
13 23 (0.47%) DynamoDB
13 23 (0.47%) GIS
14 22 (0.45%) Electronic Patient Records
15 21 (0.43%) Amazon Athena
15 21 (0.43%) Metadata Repository
Development Applications
1 134 (2.77%) JIRA
2 96 (1.98%) Jenkins
3 49 (1.01%) Git
4 47 (0.97%) GitLab
5 25 (0.52%) ERwin
6 11 (0.23%) Bitbucket
6 11 (0.23%) SonarQube
7 10 (0.21%) Artifactory
8 9 (0.19%) MLflow
9 6 (0.12%) Postman
9 6 (0.12%) REST Assured
10 5 (0.10%) Cucumber
10 5 (0.10%) PowerDesigner
10 5 (0.10%) Selenium
10 5 (0.10%) Sonatype Nexus
11 4 (0.083%) Maven
11 4 (0.083%) Rational DOORS
11 4 (0.083%) Snyk
11 4 (0.083%) Terragrunt
12 3 (0.062%) ER Studio
General
1 1,025 (21.16%) Social Skills
2 740 (15.27%) Finance
3 559 (11.54%) Public Sector
4 320 (6.60%) Analytical Skills
5 277 (5.72%) Banking
6 159 (3.28%) Documentation Skills
7 118 (2.44%) Influencing Skills
8 115 (2.37%) Legal
9 104 (2.15%) Retail
10 88 (1.82%) Military
11 81 (1.67%) Telecoms
12 72 (1.49%) Presentation Skills
13 65 (1.34%) Manufacturing
13 65 (1.34%) Marketing
14 63 (1.30%) Law
15 47 (0.97%) Financial Institution
16 34 (0.70%) Billing
17 32 (0.66%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 31 (0.64%) Aerospace
18 31 (0.64%) Investment Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 242 (4.99%) REST
2 182 (3.76%) Middleware
3 122 (2.52%) SOAP
4 104 (2.15%) Kafka
5 102 (2.11%) .NET
6 82 (1.69%) OpenID
7 80 (1.65%) LDAP
8 74 (1.53%) OAuth
9 61 (1.26%) SAML
10 57 (1.18%) JSON
11 53 (1.09%) React
12 46 (0.95%) AngularJS
12 46 (0.95%) OAuth2
13 44 (0.91%) RESTful
14 36 (0.74%) Web Services
15 35 (0.72%) SailPoint
16 30 (0.62%) Spring
17 28 (0.58%) Oracle Fusion
17 28 (0.58%) PySpark
18 24 (0.50%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 377 (7.78%) Cloud Native
2 164 (3.38%) Data Centre
3 153 (3.16%) Product Ownership
4 127 (2.62%) Onboarding
5 112 (2.31%) Enterprise Software
6 108 (2.23%) Legacy Systems
7 101 (2.08%) Management Information System
8 96 (1.98%) Distributed Systems
8 96 (1.98%) Hybrid Cloud
9 93 (1.92%) Public Cloud
10 88 (1.82%) PKI
11 81 (1.67%) Security Posture
12 69 (1.42%) Data Protection Act
13 67 (1.38%) Operational Technology
14 66 (1.36%) CMDB
15 51 (1.05%) AI Agents
15 51 (1.05%) Self-Motivation
16 45 (0.93%) Data Structures
16 45 (0.93%) NHS
17 42 (0.87%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 187 (3.86%) Windows
2 125 (2.58%) Linux
3 44 (0.91%) Windows Server
4 33 (0.68%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 30 (0.62%) Android
5 30 (0.62%) Apple iOS
6 17 (0.35%) Unix
7 14 (0.29%) VMS
7 14 (0.29%) Windows 10
7 14 (0.29%) Windows 7
8 12 (0.25%) Windows Server 2016
9 10 (0.21%) zOS
10 9 (0.19%) Mac OS
10 9 (0.19%) Windows Server 2019
11 3 (0.062%) Ubuntu
11 3 (0.062%) Windows Server 2012
12 2 (0.041%) CentOS
13 1 (0.021%) Data ONTAP
13 1 (0.021%) Solaris
13 1 (0.021%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 701 (14.47%) Roadmaps
2 640 (13.21%) Migration
3 617 (12.73%) Agile
4 559 (11.54%) Stakeholder Management
5 547 (11.29%) DevOps
6 508 (10.49%) Enterprise Architecture
7 506 (10.44%) CI/CD
8 477 (9.85%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 462 (9.54%) Data Modelling
10 450 (9.29%) Technical Leadership
11 449 (9.27%) TOGAF
12 419 (8.65%) AI
13 416 (8.59%) Analytics
14 389 (8.03%) Integration Patterns
15 388 (8.01%) Problem-Solving
16 380 (7.84%) Data Architecture
17 367 (7.57%) Architectural Patterns
18 362 (7.47%) Microservices
19 327 (6.75%) Architectural Design
20 289 (5.96%) Security Architecture
Programming Languages
1 356 (7.35%) Python
2 260 (5.37%) SQL
3 190 (3.92%) PowerShell
4 188 (3.88%) Java
5 71 (1.47%) JavaScript
6 64 (1.32%) C#
7 44 (0.91%) Bicep
8 42 (0.87%) Bash
9 31 (0.64%) TypeScript
10 22 (0.45%) Ruby
11 19 (0.39%) Apex Code
12 18 (0.37%) PL/SQL
13 13 (0.27%) Kotlin
13 13 (0.27%) Kusto Query Language
13 13 (0.27%) Scala
14 10 (0.21%) R
15 9 (0.19%) ABAP
15 9 (0.19%) Shell Script
15 9 (0.19%) T-SQL
16 8 (0.17%) VB
Qualifications
1 1,553 (32.05%) Security Cleared
2 1,097 (22.64%) SC Cleared
3 335 (6.91%) DV Cleared
4 209 (4.31%) Degree
5 125 (2.58%) CISSP
6 123 (2.54%) TOGAF Certification
7 120 (2.48%) Azure Certification
8 115 (2.37%) AWS Certification
9 90 (1.86%) Cisco Certification
10 88 (1.82%) BPSS Clearance
11 76 (1.57%) Computer Science Degree
12 68 (1.40%) CISM
13 55 (1.14%) Master's Degree
14 54 (1.11%) CCNP
15 52 (1.07%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 52 (1.07%) Microsoft Certification
16 34 (0.70%) (ISC)2 CCSP
17 33 (0.68%) ISEB
17 33 (0.68%) ITIL Certification
18 31 (0.64%) CCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 193 (3.98%) GDPR
2 185 (3.82%) NIST
3 156 (3.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 154 (3.18%) Data Quality
5 104 (2.15%) NCSC
6 68 (1.40%) QA
7 58 (1.20%) PCI DSS
8 40 (0.83%) COBIT
9 32 (0.66%) GRC
10 31 (0.64%) Accessibility
11 29 (0.60%) ISO 20022
12 27 (0.56%) Cyber Essentials
13 20 (0.41%) JSP 440
14 19 (0.39%) NIST 800
14 19 (0.39%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 18 (0.37%) HMG Security Policy Framework
16 17 (0.35%) HL7
17 15 (0.31%) SEPA
18 14 (0.29%) HIPAA
18 14 (0.29%) MiFID
System Software
1 195 (4.02%) Active Directory
2 123 (2.54%) Docker
3 108 (2.23%) VMware Infrastructure
4 77 (1.59%) VMware NSX
5 36 (0.74%) vSphere
6 24 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
7 17 (0.35%) Hyper-V
8 16 (0.33%) Virtual Machines
9 12 (0.25%) VMware ESXi
10 11 (0.23%) Varnish
11 10 (0.21%) Oracle RAC
11 10 (0.21%) vCloud
12 9 (0.19%) Squid
13 7 (0.14%) BitLocker
13 7 (0.14%) NFS
14 5 (0.10%) Postfix
14 5 (0.10%) RACF
15 4 (0.083%) Firmware
16 3 (0.062%) IAG
16 3 (0.062%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 283 (5.84%) Terraform
2 246 (5.08%) Kubernetes
3 119 (2.46%) Ansible
4 56 (1.16%) Single Sign-On
5 40 (0.83%) Microsoft Intune
6 39 (0.80%) Grafana
7 33 (0.68%) vCenter Server
8 32 (0.66%) FortiGate
9 30 (0.62%) OPNET
10 26 (0.54%) Prometheus
11 22 (0.45%) SCCM
12 20 (0.41%) Argo
13 19 (0.39%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 13 (0.27%) WMI
15 11 (0.23%) Istio
16 7 (0.14%) Consul
16 7 (0.14%) Puppet
17 6 (0.12%) Kibana
18 5 (0.10%) HAProxy
18 5 (0.10%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 672 (13.87%) Microsoft
2 283 (5.84%) ServiceNow
3 275 (5.68%) SAP
4 200 (4.13%) VMware
5 197 (4.07%) Oracle
6 191 (3.94%) Salesforce
7 174 (3.59%) Databricks
8 142 (2.93%) Cisco
9 108 (2.23%) Google
10 89 (1.84%) CyberArk
11 68 (1.40%) MuleSoft
12 65 (1.34%) Palo Alto
13 64 (1.32%) Splunk
14 59 (1.22%) Red Hat
15 51 (1.05%) IBM
16 50 (1.03%) Remedy
17 49 (1.01%) Sparx
17 49 (1.01%) Workday
18 48 (0.99%) Atlassian
19 45 (0.93%) Ariba