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 17 April 2026.

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

6 months to
17 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 5,009 2,894 4,496
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 10.89% 9.86% 10.25%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.80% 10.65% 11.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,305 1,906 2,910
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 £608 £615 £650
% change year-on-year -1.22% -5.38% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 119 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 £84.50 £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 42,439 27,180 40,683
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.23% 92.60% 92.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,345 17,830 26,590
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £406 £408
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 £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 2,678 986 2,604
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.71 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.35 £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 £65.59 £63.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £78.08 £75.38 £72.33
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.00 £29.53 £35.00
% change year-on-year +45.64% -15.64% -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 17 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 17 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 17 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 4,285 £625 - 901
UK excluding London +8 2,332 £608 -1.22% 615
London 0 1,968 £625 -3.85% 373
Work from Home +4 1,382 £609 +1.01% 417
South East +3 702 £625 - 152
North of England +5 615 £600 - 161
Midlands -1 402 £575 -4.17% 112
North West +6 359 £605 +0.83% 99
West Midlands -2 306 £600 - 83
South West +3 292 £695 +15.83% 98
Yorkshire +5 229 £558 -7.00% 48
East of England +20 195 £556 -7.29% 56
Scotland +14 136 £650 +4.00% 18
East Midlands -3 92 £513 -6.82% 29
North East +3 36 £575 -7.95% 15
Wales -3 25 £600 - 24
Northern Ireland +10 11 £500 -24.53% 5

Architect Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 17 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 1,594 (31.82%) Security Cleared
2 1,208 (24.12%) Azure
3 1,135 (22.66%) SC Cleared
4 1,048 (20.92%) AWS
5 706 (14.09%) Roadmaps
6 687 (13.72%) Microsoft
7 656 (13.10%) Migration
8 620 (12.38%) Agile
9 560 (11.18%) Stakeholder Management
10 549 (10.96%) DevOps
11 522 (10.42%) CI/CD
12 512 (10.22%) Enterprise Architecture
13 480 (9.58%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 471 (9.40%) Data Modelling
15 455 (9.08%) Technical Leadership
16 444 (8.86%) TOGAF
17 441 (8.80%) AI
18 429 (8.56%) Analytics
19 418 (8.34%) Integration Patterns
20 393 (7.85%) Data Architecture
20 393 (7.85%) GCP
21 381 (7.61%) Problem-Solving
22 369 (7.37%) Architectural Patterns
23 366 (7.31%) Microservices
24 352 (7.03%) Python
25 338 (6.75%) DV Cleared
26 335 (6.69%) Architectural Design
27 300 (5.99%) ServiceNow
28 295 (5.89%) Security Architecture
29 291 (5.81%) 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
1 123 (2.46%) SharePoint
2 108 (2.16%) Confluence
3 65 (1.30%) Microsoft Exchange
4 35 (0.70%) SAS
5 26 (0.52%) Apache Spark
6 23 (0.46%) Apache
6 23 (0.46%) CMS
7 17 (0.34%) Apache Airflow
8 16 (0.32%) Anypoint
8 16 (0.32%) Appian
9 15 (0.30%) nginx
9 15 (0.30%) WebLogic
10 14 (0.28%) ArcGIS
11 11 (0.22%) OpenStack
12 10 (0.20%) Adobe Experience Manager
13 9 (0.18%) Palantir Foundry
14 7 (0.14%) Camunda
14 7 (0.14%) Ethereum
14 7 (0.14%) Hyperledger
14 7 (0.14%) Tomcat
Applications
1 48 (0.96%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (0.62%) Microsoft Project
3 24 (0.48%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 19 (0.38%) Microsoft Excel
5 17 (0.34%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.080%) 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
1 126 (2.52%) SAP S/4HANA
2 49 (0.98%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 22 (0.44%) 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%) Salesforce CRM
9 12 (0.24%) SAP EWM
9 12 (0.24%) Teamcenter
10 11 (0.22%) Remedy ITSM
11 10 (0.20%) Oracle Receivables
12 8 (0.16%) NetSuite
12 8 (0.16%) Oracle ERP
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 1,208 (24.12%) Azure
2 1,048 (20.92%) AWS
3 393 (7.85%) GCP
4 208 (4.15%) Power Platform
5 180 (3.59%) Entra ID
6 176 (3.51%) Serverless
7 164 (3.27%) SaaS
8 142 (2.83%) Microsoft 365
9 113 (2.26%) GitHub
10 109 (2.18%) IaaS
11 106 (2.12%) PaaS
12 100 (2.00%) Azure DevOps
12 100 (2.00%) Dynamics 365
13 92 (1.84%) AWS Lambda
14 80 (1.60%) OpenShift
15 78 (1.56%) Amazon S3
16 73 (1.46%) AWS CloudFormation
17 71 (1.42%) Microsoft Purview
17 71 (1.42%) Snowflake
18 68 (1.36%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 233 (4.65%) Firewall
2 176 (3.51%) Network Security
3 141 (2.81%) WAN
4 124 (2.48%) DNS
4 124 (2.48%) VPN
5 90 (1.80%) LAN
6 80 (1.60%) SD-WAN
7 38 (0.76%) BGP
8 36 (0.72%) DHCP
9 30 (0.60%) MPLS
9 30 (0.60%) OSPF
9 30 (0.60%) Wi-Fi
10 27 (0.54%) TCP/IP
10 27 (0.54%) VLAN
11 25 (0.50%) Wireless
12 24 (0.48%) SAN
13 22 (0.44%) VXLAN
14 21 (0.42%) NAS
15 19 (0.38%) BIG-IP
15 19 (0.38%) Kerberos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 156 (3.11%) Power BI
2 148 (2.95%) Metadata
3 142 (2.83%) Data Warehouse
4 123 (2.46%) Data Lake
5 81 (1.62%) SQL Server
6 63 (1.26%) NoSQL
7 61 (1.22%) PostgreSQL
8 52 (1.04%) Azure SQL Database
9 49 (0.98%) Tableau
10 42 (0.84%) Big Data
11 40 (0.80%) Oracle Database
12 35 (0.70%) Amazon Redshift
13 25 (0.50%) Delta Lake
13 25 (0.50%) Relational Database
14 24 (0.48%) BigQuery
15 23 (0.46%) Amazon Athena
15 23 (0.46%) DynamoDB
15 23 (0.46%) Electronic Patient Records
16 22 (0.44%) MongoDB
17 21 (0.42%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 123 (2.46%) JIRA
2 91 (1.82%) 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 (0.100%) Cucumber
11 5 (0.100%) JUnit
11 5 (0.100%) PowerDesigner
11 5 (0.100%) Selenium
11 5 (0.100%) 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 1,008 (20.12%) Social Skills
2 752 (15.01%) Finance
3 564 (11.26%) Public Sector
4 318 (6.35%) Analytical Skills
5 284 (5.67%) Banking
6 161 (3.21%) Documentation Skills
7 121 (2.42%) Retail
8 116 (2.32%) Influencing Skills
9 115 (2.30%) Legal
10 89 (1.78%) Military
11 81 (1.62%) Telecoms
12 72 (1.44%) Presentation Skills
13 67 (1.34%) Manufacturing
14 65 (1.30%) Marketing
15 63 (1.26%) Law
16 44 (0.88%) Financial Institution
17 34 (0.68%) Billing
17 34 (0.68%) Investment Banking
18 30 (0.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
19 28 (0.56%) Aerospace
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 244 (4.87%) REST
2 182 (3.63%) Middleware
3 125 (2.50%) SOAP
4 113 (2.26%) .NET
5 107 (2.14%) Kafka
6 84 (1.68%) OpenID
7 82 (1.64%) LDAP
8 76 (1.52%) OAuth
9 62 (1.24%) SAML
10 54 (1.08%) JSON
11 52 (1.04%) React
12 48 (0.96%) OAuth2
13 43 (0.86%) RESTful
14 41 (0.82%) AngularJS
15 38 (0.76%) Oracle Fusion
15 38 (0.76%) SailPoint
16 37 (0.74%) Web Services
17 32 (0.64%) Spring
18 30 (0.60%) PySpark
19 24 (0.48%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 393 (7.85%) Cloud Native
2 167 (3.33%) Data Centre
3 144 (2.87%) Product Ownership
4 130 (2.60%) Onboarding
5 116 (2.32%) Legacy Systems
6 115 (2.30%) Enterprise Software
7 111 (2.22%) Management Information System
8 104 (2.08%) Distributed Systems
9 98 (1.96%) Hybrid Cloud
10 96 (1.92%) Public Cloud
11 84 (1.68%) PKI
12 80 (1.60%) Security Posture
13 71 (1.42%) Data Protection Act
14 69 (1.38%) CMDB
15 68 (1.36%) Operational Technology
16 49 (0.98%) AI Agents
16 49 (0.98%) Data Structures
17 48 (0.96%) Self-Motivation
18 46 (0.92%) Private Cloud
19 44 (0.88%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 185 (3.69%) Windows
2 118 (2.36%) 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%) CentOS
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%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 706 (14.09%) Roadmaps
2 656 (13.10%) Migration
3 620 (12.38%) Agile
4 560 (11.18%) Stakeholder Management
5 549 (10.96%) DevOps
6 522 (10.42%) CI/CD
7 512 (10.22%) Enterprise Architecture
8 480 (9.58%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 471 (9.40%) Data Modelling
10 455 (9.08%) Technical Leadership
11 444 (8.86%) TOGAF
12 441 (8.80%) AI
13 429 (8.56%) Analytics
14 418 (8.34%) Integration Patterns
15 393 (7.85%) Data Architecture
16 381 (7.61%) Problem-Solving
17 369 (7.37%) Architectural Patterns
18 366 (7.31%) Microservices
19 335 (6.69%) Architectural Design
20 295 (5.89%) Security Architecture
Programming Languages
1 352 (7.03%) Python
2 264 (5.27%) SQL
3 204 (4.07%) Java
4 187 (3.73%) PowerShell
5 73 (1.46%) JavaScript
6 66 (1.32%) C#
7 44 (0.88%) Bicep
8 38 (0.76%) Bash
9 27 (0.54%) TypeScript
10 22 (0.44%) 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%) PHP
Qualifications
1 1,594 (31.82%) Security Cleared
2 1,135 (22.66%) SC Cleared
3 338 (6.75%) DV Cleared
4 209 (4.17%) Degree
5 127 (2.54%) Azure Certification
6 124 (2.48%) TOGAF Certification
7 118 (2.36%) CISSP
8 117 (2.34%) AWS Certification
9 96 (1.92%) Cisco Certification
10 89 (1.78%) BPSS Clearance
11 81 (1.62%) Computer Science Degree
12 59 (1.18%) CISM
13 54 (1.08%) CCNP
14 53 (1.06%) Master's Degree
15 52 (1.04%) Microsoft Certification
16 51 (1.02%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
17 40 (0.80%) (ISC)2 CCSP
18 33 (0.66%) ISEB
18 33 (0.66%) ITIL Certification
19 30 (0.60%) CCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 194 (3.87%) GDPR
2 191 (3.81%) NIST
3 158 (3.15%) Data Quality
4 154 (3.07%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 102 (2.04%) NCSC
6 65 (1.30%) QA
7 55 (1.10%) PCI DSS
8 41 (0.82%) COBIT
9 33 (0.66%) GRC
10 31 (0.62%) ISO 20022
11 30 (0.60%) Accessibility
12 25 (0.50%) Cyber Essentials
13 18 (0.36%) HL7
13 18 (0.36%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 18 (0.36%) JSP 440
13 18 (0.36%) NIST 800
14 17 (0.34%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 15 (0.30%) SEPA
16 13 (0.26%) FINRA
16 13 (0.26%) PSD2
System Software
1 201 (4.01%) Active Directory
2 113 (2.26%) Docker
3 108 (2.16%) VMware Infrastructure
4 74 (1.48%) VMware NSX
5 33 (0.66%) vSphere
6 25 (0.50%) 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 (0.100%) Postfix
15 5 (0.100%) RACF
16 4 (0.080%) Firmware
17 3 (0.060%) Ceph
17 3 (0.060%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 279 (5.57%) Terraform
2 236 (4.71%) Kubernetes
3 115 (2.30%) Ansible
4 55 (1.10%) Single Sign-On
5 42 (0.84%) Grafana
6 40 (0.80%) Microsoft Intune
7 32 (0.64%) FortiGate
8 30 (0.60%) OPNET
8 30 (0.60%) vCenter Server
9 29 (0.58%) Prometheus
10 22 (0.44%) SCCM
11 20 (0.40%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 17 (0.34%) Argo
13 12 (0.24%) Istio
13 12 (0.24%) WMI
14 8 (0.16%) Puppet
15 7 (0.14%) Consul
16 6 (0.12%) Kibana
17 5 (0.100%) HAProxy
17 5 (0.100%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 687 (13.72%) Microsoft
2 300 (5.99%) ServiceNow
3 283 (5.65%) SAP
4 211 (4.21%) Oracle
5 201 (4.01%) VMware
6 198 (3.95%) Salesforce
7 180 (3.59%) Databricks
8 135 (2.70%) Cisco
9 111 (2.22%) Google
10 85 (1.70%) CyberArk
11 66 (1.32%) MuleSoft
12 65 (1.30%) Splunk
13 61 (1.22%) Palo Alto
14 58 (1.16%) Red Hat
15 52 (1.04%) Workday
16 51 (1.02%) Remedy
17 48 (0.96%) Sparx
18 47 (0.94%) Ariba
18 47 (0.94%) IBM
19 46 (0.92%) Atlassian