Architect Contract Job Trends

Architect
UK

The median Architect daily rate in the UK is £625, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 10 February 2026.

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

6 months to
10 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 18 17 14
Rank change year-on-year -1 -3 +3
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 3,912 3,171 4,414
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 9.94% 10.33% 9.82%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.86% 11.12% 10.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,616 1,922 2,852
10th Percentile £458 £480 £500
25th Percentile £513 £550 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £625 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year - -3.85% -
75th Percentile £725 £729 £738
90th Percentile £788 £799 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £600 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -4.00% -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 68 33 46
10th Percentile £49.40 £58.60 £53.89
25th Percentile £60.00 £61.50 £61.25
Median hourly rate £72.50 £70.00 £77.27
Median % change year-on-year +3.57% -9.40% +10.38%
75th Percentile £90.09 £80.59 £87.40
90th Percentile £95.00 £87.16 £95.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.50 £72.50 £79.37
% change year-on-year - -8.66% +13.39%

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 36,029 28,524 41,865
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.54% 92.93% 93.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,696 17,486 27,607
10th Percentile £300 £290 £275
25th Percentile £406 £406 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £716 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £478 £490
% change year-on-year -0.63% -2.45% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,191 825 2,307
10th Percentile £14.61 £15.91 £13.15
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.25 £16.50
Median hourly rate £30.00 £33.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.45% -4.29% -1.41%
75th Percentile £62.05 £63.25 £60.75
90th Percentile £72.50 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £29.60 £31.76 £35.00
% change year-on-year -6.80% -9.26% -

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 10 February 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 10 February 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 10 February 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 3,363 £625 - 861
UK excluding London +1 1,911 £600 -4.00% 630
London -2 1,486 £630 -3.08% 384
Work from Home -4 1,113 £625 - 456
South East +8 585 £625 - 247
North of England -2 478 £575 -4.17% 148
Midlands -2 335 £573 -4.58% 94
North West -6 270 £575 -4.17% 82
South West 0 249 £706 +12.96% 56
West Midlands -5 245 £600 -1.15% 66
Yorkshire -2 190 £563 -2.17% 45
East of England +14 139 £550 -12.00% 41
Scotland +10 129 £650 +4.00% 42
East Midlands -5 88 £492 -12.14% 28
Wales 0 31 £600 +5.26% 7
North East -10 23 £625 -1.96% 23
Northern Ireland -1 8 £500 -26.47% 6

Architect Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 10 February 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 1,192 (30.47%) Security Cleared
2 1,038 (26.53%) Azure
3 854 (21.83%) SC Cleared
4 822 (21.01%) AWS
5 578 (14.78%) Microsoft
6 565 (14.44%) Roadmaps
7 529 (13.52%) Agile
8 522 (13.34%) Stakeholder Management
9 490 (12.53%) Migration
10 443 (11.32%) DevOps
11 439 (11.22%) Enterprise Architecture
12 396 (10.12%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 390 (9.97%) Data Modelling
14 383 (9.79%) TOGAF
15 382 (9.76%) CI/CD
15 382 (9.76%) Technical Leadership
16 348 (8.90%) Problem-Solving
17 338 (8.64%) Analytics
18 326 (8.33%) AI
19 317 (8.10%) Python
20 314 (8.03%) GCP
21 307 (7.85%) Data Architecture
22 279 (7.13%) Microservices
23 263 (6.72%) Integration Patterns
24 252 (6.44%) DV Cleared
25 250 (6.39%) Terraform
26 240 (6.13%) Architectural Patterns
27 236 (6.03%) Architectural Design
28 232 (5.93%) Cybersecurity
29 220 (5.62%) Data Governance

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
1 111 (2.84%) Confluence
2 93 (2.38%) SharePoint
3 58 (1.48%) Microsoft Exchange
4 33 (0.84%) SAS
5 25 (0.64%) CMS
6 20 (0.51%) Apache Spark
7 19 (0.49%) Apache Airflow
8 18 (0.46%) Apache
9 17 (0.43%) OpenStack
10 16 (0.41%) Anypoint
11 15 (0.38%) WebLogic
12 12 (0.31%) Appian
13 11 (0.28%) ArcGIS
13 11 (0.28%) nginx
14 9 (0.23%) Smallworld
15 7 (0.18%) Ethereum
15 7 (0.18%) GeoServer
15 7 (0.18%) Hyperledger
15 7 (0.18%) Skype for Business
16 6 (0.15%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 51 (1.30%) Microsoft Office
2 32 (0.82%) Microsoft Project
3 30 (0.77%) Microsoft Excel
3 30 (0.77%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 16 (0.41%) MS Visio
5 6 (0.15%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.051%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.026%) ArchiCAD
7 1 (0.026%) AutoCAD
7 1 (0.026%) FrameMaker
7 1 (0.026%) OrCAD
7 1 (0.026%) Revit
7 1 (0.026%) Siemens NX
7 1 (0.026%) Trello
Business Applications
1 104 (2.66%) SAP S/4HANA
2 42 (1.07%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 26 (0.66%) Dynamics CRM
4 22 (0.56%) Workday HCM
5 17 (0.43%) Payment Gateway
6 16 (0.41%) Salesforce CRM
7 12 (0.31%) NetSuite
8 11 (0.28%) SAP EWM
9 10 (0.26%) Oracle EBS
10 9 (0.23%) Oracle Receivables
10 9 (0.23%) SAP ERP
10 9 (0.23%) SAP PM
11 8 (0.20%) Dynamics AX
11 8 (0.20%) SAP PP
12 7 (0.18%) Maximo
12 7 (0.18%) R3 Corda
12 7 (0.18%) SAP CO
13 6 (0.15%) Distributed Ledger
13 6 (0.15%) Remedy ITSM
13 6 (0.15%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 1,038 (26.53%) Azure
2 822 (21.01%) AWS
3 314 (8.03%) GCP
4 151 (3.86%) Serverless
5 144 (3.68%) Power Platform
6 138 (3.53%) SaaS
7 128 (3.27%) Microsoft 365
8 121 (3.09%) Entra ID
9 88 (2.25%) Azure DevOps
10 86 (2.20%) AWS Lambda
10 86 (2.20%) IaaS
11 83 (2.12%) GitHub
12 77 (1.97%) Amazon S3
13 75 (1.92%) Microsoft Purview
14 70 (1.79%) PaaS
15 67 (1.71%) AWS CloudFormation
15 67 (1.71%) Dynamics 365
15 67 (1.71%) OpenShift
16 66 (1.69%) Azure Data Factory
17 64 (1.64%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 202 (5.16%) Firewall
2 128 (3.27%) WAN
3 126 (3.22%) Network Security
4 103 (2.63%) DNS
5 100 (2.56%) VPN
6 78 (1.99%) LAN
7 67 (1.71%) SD-WAN
8 38 (0.97%) BGP
9 29 (0.74%) Wi-Fi
10 28 (0.72%) DHCP
10 28 (0.72%) MPLS
11 26 (0.66%) TCP/IP
12 23 (0.59%) OSPF
13 21 (0.54%) Kerberos
13 21 (0.54%) SAN
14 19 (0.49%) Internet
14 19 (0.49%) SSL
14 19 (0.49%) VSAN
15 18 (0.46%) IPsec
16 17 (0.43%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 147 (3.76%) Data Warehouse
2 120 (3.07%) Metadata
3 102 (2.61%) Power BI
4 92 (2.35%) Data Lake
5 69 (1.76%) SQL Server
6 63 (1.61%) PostgreSQL
7 51 (1.30%) Tableau
8 38 (0.97%) Amazon Redshift
8 38 (0.97%) Azure SQL Database
9 36 (0.92%) NoSQL
9 36 (0.92%) Oracle Database
10 32 (0.82%) DynamoDB
11 26 (0.66%) Amazon Athena
12 23 (0.59%) Relational Database
13 22 (0.56%) Amazon RDS
13 22 (0.56%) Big Data
14 21 (0.54%) Amazon Aurora
14 21 (0.54%) Redis
15 20 (0.51%) GIS
16 18 (0.46%) Delta Lake
Development Applications
1 129 (3.30%) JIRA
2 90 (2.30%) Jenkins
3 46 (1.18%) GitLab
4 31 (0.79%) Git
5 23 (0.59%) ERwin
6 9 (0.23%) Artifactory
6 9 (0.23%) Bitbucket
7 8 (0.20%) SonarQube
8 7 (0.18%) MLflow
9 6 (0.15%) Postman
10 5 (0.13%) MSI
10 5 (0.13%) Oracle Forms
10 5 (0.13%) REST Assured
10 5 (0.13%) Selenium
11 4 (0.10%) Cucumber
11 4 (0.10%) Rational DOORS
11 4 (0.10%) Terragrunt
12 3 (0.077%) ER Studio
12 3 (0.077%) JUnit
12 3 (0.077%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 945 (24.16%) Social Skills
2 612 (15.64%) Finance
3 465 (11.89%) Public Sector
4 278 (7.11%) Analytical Skills
5 223 (5.70%) Banking
6 131 (3.35%) Documentation Skills
7 102 (2.61%) Legal
8 95 (2.43%) Influencing Skills
9 77 (1.97%) Military
10 76 (1.94%) Telecoms
11 74 (1.89%) Presentation Skills
12 71 (1.81%) Retail
13 69 (1.76%) Marketing
14 58 (1.48%) Manufacturing
15 39 (1.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 37 (0.95%) Billing
17 27 (0.69%) Law
18 24 (0.61%) Financial Institution
19 21 (0.54%) Aerospace
20 19 (0.49%) Investment Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 203 (5.19%) REST
2 117 (2.99%) Middleware
2 117 (2.99%) SOAP
3 86 (2.20%) .NET
4 75 (1.92%) Kafka
4 75 (1.92%) LDAP
5 74 (1.89%) OpenID
6 65 (1.66%) OAuth
7 64 (1.64%) SAML
8 50 (1.28%) JSON
9 39 (1.00%) OAuth2
10 37 (0.95%) RESTful
11 35 (0.89%) AngularJS
11 35 (0.89%) React
12 34 (0.87%) SailPoint
13 31 (0.79%) PySpark
14 29 (0.74%) Oracle Fusion
15 28 (0.72%) Web Services
16 26 (0.66%) Node.js
17 22 (0.56%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 290 (7.41%) Cloud Native
2 137 (3.50%) Product Ownership
3 119 (3.04%) Data Centre
4 113 (2.89%) Onboarding
5 101 (2.58%) Legacy Systems
6 94 (2.40%) Enterprise Software
7 87 (2.22%) PKI
8 80 (2.04%) Hybrid Cloud
9 67 (1.71%) Management Information System
9 67 (1.71%) Security Posture
10 64 (1.64%) Distributed Systems
11 63 (1.61%) Public Cloud
12 55 (1.41%) Operational Technology
13 49 (1.25%) Data Protection Act
14 47 (1.20%) CMDB
15 44 (1.12%) Self-Motivation
16 40 (1.02%) NHS
17 35 (0.89%) Data Structures
18 32 (0.82%) AI Agents
19 31 (0.79%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 167 (4.27%) Windows
2 105 (2.68%) Linux
3 43 (1.10%) Windows Server
4 33 (0.84%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 18 (0.46%) Windows 7
6 16 (0.41%) Windows 10
7 14 (0.36%) Unix
8 12 (0.31%) Windows Server 2016
8 12 (0.31%) Windows Server 2019
9 11 (0.28%) Android
9 11 (0.28%) Apple iOS
10 9 (0.23%) Mac OS
10 9 (0.23%) VMS
11 6 (0.15%) Ubuntu
11 6 (0.15%) zOS
12 4 (0.10%) CentOS
13 2 (0.051%) Windows Server 2012
14 1 (0.026%) Kali Linux
14 1 (0.026%) Solaris
14 1 (0.026%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 565 (14.44%) Roadmaps
2 529 (13.52%) Agile
3 522 (13.34%) Stakeholder Management
4 490 (12.53%) Migration
5 443 (11.32%) DevOps
6 439 (11.22%) Enterprise Architecture
7 396 (10.12%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 390 (9.97%) Data Modelling
9 383 (9.79%) TOGAF
10 382 (9.76%) CI/CD
10 382 (9.76%) Technical Leadership
11 348 (8.90%) Problem-Solving
12 338 (8.64%) Analytics
13 326 (8.33%) AI
14 307 (7.85%) Data Architecture
15 279 (7.13%) Microservices
16 263 (6.72%) Integration Patterns
17 240 (6.13%) Architectural Patterns
18 236 (6.03%) Architectural Design
19 232 (5.93%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 317 (8.10%) Python
2 209 (5.34%) SQL
3 178 (4.55%) PowerShell
4 132 (3.37%) Java
5 58 (1.48%) JavaScript
6 55 (1.41%) C#
7 36 (0.92%) Bash
7 36 (0.92%) Bicep
8 33 (0.84%) TypeScript
9 20 (0.51%) PL/SQL
10 15 (0.38%) Apex Code
11 14 (0.36%) Kusto Query Language
12 13 (0.33%) R
13 10 (0.26%) Ruby
13 10 (0.26%) T-SQL
14 8 (0.20%) PHP
14 8 (0.20%) Scala
14 8 (0.20%) VB
15 7 (0.18%) ABAP
15 7 (0.18%) Korn
Qualifications
1 1,192 (30.47%) Security Cleared
2 854 (21.83%) SC Cleared
3 252 (6.44%) DV Cleared
4 196 (5.01%) Degree
5 107 (2.74%) CISSP
6 106 (2.71%) AWS Certification
7 104 (2.66%) TOGAF Certification
8 95 (2.43%) Azure Certification
9 72 (1.84%) BPSS Clearance
10 69 (1.76%) Computer Science Degree
11 63 (1.61%) Cisco Certification
12 60 (1.53%) Microsoft Certification
13 58 (1.48%) CISM
14 57 (1.46%) Master's Degree
15 53 (1.35%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
16 38 (0.97%) CCNP
17 31 (0.79%) CCIE
18 30 (0.77%) ISEB
18 30 (0.77%) ITIL Certification
19 19 (0.49%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 177 (4.52%) GDPR
2 141 (3.60%) NIST
3 126 (3.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 119 (3.04%) Data Quality
5 78 (1.99%) NCSC
6 56 (1.43%) QA
7 50 (1.28%) PCI DSS
8 34 (0.87%) COBIT
9 31 (0.79%) Accessibility
9 31 (0.79%) GRC
10 22 (0.56%) HIPAA
11 21 (0.54%) Cyber Essentials
11 21 (0.54%) ISO 20022
11 21 (0.54%) JSP 440
12 18 (0.46%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 16 (0.41%) California Consumer Privacy Act
14 15 (0.38%) MiFID
15 12 (0.31%) FINRA
16 11 (0.28%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
16 11 (0.28%) SLA
System Software
1 165 (4.22%) Active Directory
2 118 (3.02%) Docker
3 88 (2.25%) VMware Infrastructure
4 59 (1.51%) VMware NSX
5 36 (0.92%) vSphere
6 23 (0.59%) Virtual Desktop
7 15 (0.38%) VMware ESXi
8 13 (0.33%) Virtual Machines
9 12 (0.31%) Hyper-V
10 11 (0.28%) Oracle RAC
11 7 (0.18%) BitLocker
12 6 (0.15%) Squid
12 6 (0.15%) Varnish
13 5 (0.13%) RACF
13 5 (0.13%) vCloud
14 4 (0.10%) NFS
15 3 (0.077%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
15 3 (0.077%) Ceph
15 3 (0.077%) Firmware
15 3 (0.077%) Lustre
Systems Management
1 250 (6.39%) Terraform
2 189 (4.83%) Kubernetes
3 107 (2.74%) Ansible
4 64 (1.64%) Single Sign-On
5 31 (0.79%) OPNET
6 29 (0.74%) FortiGate
6 29 (0.74%) vCenter Server
7 24 (0.61%) Microsoft Intune
7 24 (0.61%) SCCM
8 22 (0.56%) Grafana
9 19 (0.49%) Prometheus
10 18 (0.46%) WMI
11 16 (0.41%) Argo
12 15 (0.38%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 8 (0.20%) Istio
14 6 (0.15%) Kibana
15 5 (0.13%) Consul
15 5 (0.13%) Puppet
16 4 (0.10%) Data Guard
16 4 (0.10%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 578 (14.78%) Microsoft
2 217 (5.55%) ServiceNow
3 215 (5.50%) SAP
4 185 (4.73%) Oracle
5 178 (4.55%) Salesforce
6 155 (3.96%) VMware
7 126 (3.22%) Databricks
8 115 (2.94%) Cisco
9 107 (2.74%) Google
10 95 (2.43%) CyberArk
11 65 (1.66%) Palo Alto
12 62 (1.58%) Splunk
13 59 (1.51%) MuleSoft
14 49 (1.25%) Centrify
15 48 (1.23%) Red Hat
16 47 (1.20%) Atlassian
17 46 (1.18%) OpenAI
17 46 (1.18%) Remedy
18 44 (1.12%) Workday
19 41 (1.05%) Sparx