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 28 February 2026.

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

6 months to
28 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 17 16 14
Rank change year-on-year -1 -2 +3
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 4,286 3,124 4,375
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 10.29% 10.21% 9.83%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.21% 11.00% 10.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,836 1,943 2,812
10th Percentile £460 £481 £500
25th Percentile £513 £548 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £625 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year - -3.85% -
75th Percentile £725 £738 £738
90th Percentile £792 £800 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £600 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -4.00% -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 85 32 42
10th Percentile £49.40 £58.43 £52.98
25th Percentile £60.00 £61.50 £61.25
Median hourly rate £70.00 £71.25 £77.64
Median % change year-on-year -1.75% -8.22% +10.91%
75th Percentile £85.00 £81.00 £87.53
90th Percentile £95.00 £87.33 £95.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £70.36 £72.50 £81.27
% change year-on-year -2.96% -10.79% +16.09%

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 38,243 28,404 41,374
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.82% 92.82% 93.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,036 17,847 27,236
10th Percentile £310 £293 £275
25th Percentile £409 £406 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +1.32% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,330 852 2,355
10th Percentile £14.64 £16.25 £13.15
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.46 £16.30
Median hourly rate £33.50 £34.75 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -3.60% -0.71% -12.50%
75th Percentile £63.75 £64.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £72.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £31.50 £32.50 £35.00
% change year-on-year -3.08% -7.14% -6.67%

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 28 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 28 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 28 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 0 3,683 £625 - 566
UK excluding London +3 2,066 £600 -4.00% 401
London -1 1,644 £630 -3.08% 271
Work from Home -3 1,193 £620 -0.80% 278
South East +6 632 £625 - 185
North of England -2 514 £575 -4.17% 81
Midlands -3 365 £575 -4.17% 67
North West -3 283 £600 - 50
West Midlands -1 274 £600 -1.15% 46
South West 0 264 £706 +12.96% 36
Yorkshire +3 212 £558 -2.62% 19
East of England +18 161 £550 -13.73% 17
Scotland +16 135 £650 +4.00% 16
East Midlands -4 89 £500 -10.71% 21
Wales +5 31 £600 +11.11% 5
North East -10 24 £625 -1.96% 14
Northern Ireland +1 10 £500 -26.47% 1

Architect Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 28 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 1,343 (31.33%) Security Cleared
2 1,095 (25.55%) Azure
3 962 (22.45%) SC Cleared
4 904 (21.09%) AWS
5 615 (14.35%) Roadmaps
6 610 (14.23%) Microsoft
7 561 (13.09%) Stakeholder Management
8 549 (12.81%) Agile
9 548 (12.79%) Migration
10 484 (11.29%) DevOps
11 469 (10.94%) Enterprise Architecture
12 428 (9.99%) TOGAF
13 423 (9.87%) CI/CD
14 420 (9.80%) Data Modelling
15 408 (9.52%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 391 (9.12%) Technical Leadership
17 375 (8.75%) Analytics
18 371 (8.66%) Problem-Solving
19 363 (8.47%) AI
20 351 (8.19%) Data Architecture
21 349 (8.14%) GCP
22 326 (7.61%) Python
23 309 (7.21%) Integration Patterns
24 302 (7.05%) Microservices
25 281 (6.56%) Architectural Patterns
25 281 (6.56%) DV Cleared
26 264 (6.16%) Terraform
27 250 (5.83%) ServiceNow
28 249 (5.81%) Architectural Design
29 243 (5.67%) 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
1 113 (2.64%) Confluence
2 110 (2.57%) SharePoint
3 63 (1.47%) Microsoft Exchange
4 33 (0.77%) SAS
5 23 (0.54%) Apache Spark
5 23 (0.54%) CMS
6 20 (0.47%) Apache Airflow
7 17 (0.40%) Apache
7 17 (0.40%) WebLogic
8 16 (0.37%) Anypoint
9 15 (0.35%) Appian
9 15 (0.35%) ArcGIS
9 15 (0.35%) OpenStack
10 13 (0.30%) nginx
11 9 (0.21%) Smallworld
12 8 (0.19%) Adobe Experience Manager
13 7 (0.16%) Ethereum
13 7 (0.16%) GeoServer
13 7 (0.16%) Hyperledger
13 7 (0.16%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 50 (1.17%) Microsoft Office
2 32 (0.75%) Microsoft Project
3 27 (0.63%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 26 (0.61%) Microsoft Excel
5 15 (0.35%) MS Visio
6 7 (0.16%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.047%) PlantUML
8 1 (0.023%) ArchiCAD
8 1 (0.023%) AutoCAD
8 1 (0.023%) OrCAD
8 1 (0.023%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.023%) Trello
8 1 (0.023%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 113 (2.64%) SAP S/4HANA
2 40 (0.93%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 24 (0.56%) Dynamics CRM
4 23 (0.54%) Workday HCM
5 17 (0.40%) Payment Gateway
6 16 (0.37%) Salesforce CRM
7 12 (0.28%) NetSuite
7 12 (0.28%) Oracle EBS
8 11 (0.26%) SAP ERP
8 11 (0.26%) SAP EWM
9 10 (0.23%) SAP PM
10 9 (0.21%) Dynamics AX
10 9 (0.21%) Oracle Receivables
11 8 (0.19%) Maximo
11 8 (0.19%) Remedy ITSM
12 7 (0.16%) Oracle ERP
12 7 (0.16%) R3 Corda
12 7 (0.16%) SAP PP
13 6 (0.14%) Distributed Ledger
13 6 (0.14%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 1,095 (25.55%) Azure
2 904 (21.09%) AWS
3 349 (8.14%) GCP
4 160 (3.73%) Power Platform
5 154 (3.59%) Serverless
6 146 (3.41%) SaaS
7 144 (3.36%) Microsoft 365
8 142 (3.31%) Entra ID
9 96 (2.24%) IaaS
10 91 (2.12%) GitHub
11 90 (2.10%) Azure DevOps
12 87 (2.03%) AWS Lambda
13 80 (1.87%) PaaS
14 76 (1.77%) Microsoft Purview
15 75 (1.75%) Amazon S3
15 75 (1.75%) AWS CloudFormation
16 70 (1.63%) OpenShift
17 69 (1.61%) Dynamics 365
18 67 (1.56%) Snowflake
19 66 (1.54%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 230 (5.37%) Firewall
2 141 (3.29%) Network Security
3 127 (2.96%) WAN
4 118 (2.75%) DNS
5 110 (2.57%) VPN
6 75 (1.75%) LAN
7 70 (1.63%) SD-WAN
8 40 (0.93%) BGP
9 35 (0.82%) DHCP
10 31 (0.72%) MPLS
11 29 (0.68%) Wi-Fi
12 27 (0.63%) OSPF
13 26 (0.61%) TCP/IP
14 25 (0.58%) VLAN
15 22 (0.51%) SAN
15 22 (0.51%) Wireless
16 20 (0.47%) IPsec
16 20 (0.47%) Kerberos
16 20 (0.47%) VSAN
17 19 (0.44%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 161 (3.76%) Data Warehouse
2 133 (3.10%) Metadata
3 113 (2.64%) Power BI
4 100 (2.33%) Data Lake
5 79 (1.84%) SQL Server
6 66 (1.54%) PostgreSQL
7 50 (1.17%) Tableau
8 44 (1.03%) NoSQL
9 41 (0.96%) Azure SQL Database
10 39 (0.91%) Oracle Database
11 35 (0.82%) Amazon Redshift
12 28 (0.65%) Big Data
12 28 (0.65%) DynamoDB
13 24 (0.56%) GIS
13 24 (0.56%) Relational Database
14 23 (0.54%) Amazon Athena
15 21 (0.49%) Amazon Aurora
15 21 (0.49%) Amazon RDS
15 21 (0.49%) Metadata Repository
16 20 (0.47%) Redis
Development Applications
1 132 (3.08%) JIRA
2 93 (2.17%) Jenkins
3 48 (1.12%) GitLab
4 36 (0.84%) Git
5 21 (0.49%) ERwin
6 11 (0.26%) Bitbucket
7 10 (0.23%) Artifactory
7 10 (0.23%) SonarQube
8 7 (0.16%) MLflow
9 6 (0.14%) Postman
9 6 (0.14%) REST Assured
10 5 (0.12%) Cucumber
10 5 (0.12%) Oracle Forms
10 5 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
10 5 (0.12%) Selenium
11 4 (0.093%) MSI
11 4 (0.093%) Terragrunt
12 3 (0.070%) ER Studio
12 3 (0.070%) Maven
12 3 (0.070%) Snyk
General
1 988 (23.05%) Social Skills
2 663 (15.47%) Finance
3 505 (11.78%) Public Sector
4 300 (7.00%) Analytical Skills
5 240 (5.60%) Banking
6 143 (3.34%) Documentation Skills
7 100 (2.33%) Legal
8 98 (2.29%) Influencing Skills
9 87 (2.03%) Retail
10 80 (1.87%) Military
11 79 (1.84%) Telecoms
12 77 (1.80%) Presentation Skills
13 69 (1.61%) Marketing
14 63 (1.47%) Manufacturing
15 40 (0.93%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 38 (0.89%) Billing
17 33 (0.77%) Financial Institution
18 26 (0.61%) Law
19 24 (0.56%) Investment Banking
20 21 (0.49%) Aerospace
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 215 (5.02%) REST
2 155 (3.62%) Middleware
3 117 (2.73%) SOAP
4 94 (2.19%) .NET
5 84 (1.96%) Kafka
6 79 (1.84%) OpenID
7 76 (1.77%) LDAP
8 70 (1.63%) OAuth
9 64 (1.49%) SAML
10 51 (1.19%) JSON
11 44 (1.03%) OAuth2
12 42 (0.98%) React
12 42 (0.98%) RESTful
13 39 (0.91%) AngularJS
14 36 (0.84%) SailPoint
15 35 (0.82%) Oracle Fusion
16 31 (0.72%) PySpark
17 26 (0.61%) Web Services
18 25 (0.58%) Node.js
19 22 (0.51%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 308 (7.19%) Cloud Native
2 143 (3.34%) Product Ownership
3 138 (3.22%) Data Centre
4 122 (2.85%) Onboarding
5 113 (2.64%) Legacy Systems
6 100 (2.33%) Enterprise Software
7 94 (2.19%) PKI
8 87 (2.03%) Hybrid Cloud
9 80 (1.87%) Management Information System
10 72 (1.68%) Public Cloud
11 69 (1.61%) Distributed Systems
12 67 (1.56%) Security Posture
13 66 (1.54%) Operational Technology
14 58 (1.35%) Data Protection Act
15 52 (1.21%) CMDB
16 45 (1.05%) Self-Motivation
17 42 (0.98%) Data Structures
18 39 (0.91%) NHS
19 38 (0.89%) AI Agents
20 33 (0.77%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 182 (4.25%) Windows
2 113 (2.64%) Linux
3 40 (0.93%) Windows Server
4 34 (0.79%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 20 (0.47%) Android
5 20 (0.47%) Apple iOS
6 17 (0.40%) Windows 7
7 15 (0.35%) Windows 10
8 14 (0.33%) Unix
9 11 (0.26%) Windows Server 2016
10 10 (0.23%) VMS
10 10 (0.23%) Windows Server 2019
11 9 (0.21%) Mac OS
12 8 (0.19%) zOS
13 6 (0.14%) Ubuntu
14 4 (0.093%) CentOS
15 3 (0.070%) Windows Server 2012
16 1 (0.023%) Data ONTAP
16 1 (0.023%) Kali Linux
16 1 (0.023%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 615 (14.35%) Roadmaps
2 561 (13.09%) Stakeholder Management
3 549 (12.81%) Agile
4 548 (12.79%) Migration
5 484 (11.29%) DevOps
6 469 (10.94%) Enterprise Architecture
7 428 (9.99%) TOGAF
8 423 (9.87%) CI/CD
9 420 (9.80%) Data Modelling
10 408 (9.52%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 391 (9.12%) Technical Leadership
12 375 (8.75%) Analytics
13 371 (8.66%) Problem-Solving
14 363 (8.47%) AI
15 351 (8.19%) Data Architecture
16 309 (7.21%) Integration Patterns
17 302 (7.05%) Microservices
18 281 (6.56%) Architectural Patterns
19 249 (5.81%) Architectural Design
20 243 (5.67%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 326 (7.61%) Python
2 229 (5.34%) SQL
3 181 (4.22%) PowerShell
4 138 (3.22%) Java
5 67 (1.56%) JavaScript
6 64 (1.49%) C#
7 37 (0.86%) Bash
8 35 (0.82%) Bicep
9 34 (0.79%) TypeScript
10 20 (0.47%) PL/SQL
11 19 (0.44%) Apex Code
12 14 (0.33%) Kusto Query Language
13 13 (0.30%) R
14 11 (0.26%) Ruby
15 10 (0.23%) T-SQL
16 9 (0.21%) Scala
17 8 (0.19%) PHP
17 8 (0.19%) VB
18 7 (0.16%) C++
18 7 (0.16%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 1,343 (31.33%) Security Cleared
2 962 (22.45%) SC Cleared
3 281 (6.56%) DV Cleared
4 203 (4.74%) Degree
5 122 (2.85%) CISSP
5 122 (2.85%) TOGAF Certification
6 114 (2.66%) AWS Certification
7 104 (2.43%) Azure Certification
8 82 (1.91%) Cisco Certification
9 76 (1.77%) Computer Science Degree
10 73 (1.70%) BPSS Clearance
11 64 (1.49%) CISM
12 57 (1.33%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 57 (1.33%) Master's Degree
12 57 (1.33%) Microsoft Certification
13 49 (1.14%) CCNP
14 33 (0.77%) CCIE
15 31 (0.72%) ITIL Certification
16 30 (0.70%) ISEB
17 28 (0.65%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 180 (4.20%) GDPR
2 145 (3.38%) NIST
3 136 (3.17%) Data Quality
4 122 (2.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 88 (2.05%) NCSC
6 61 (1.42%) QA
7 54 (1.26%) PCI DSS
8 35 (0.82%) COBIT
9 34 (0.79%) Accessibility
10 33 (0.77%) GRC
11 27 (0.63%) ISO 20022
12 25 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials
13 22 (0.51%) JSP 440
14 18 (0.42%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 16 (0.37%) HIPAA
16 15 (0.35%) MiFID
17 14 (0.33%) California Consumer Privacy Act
17 14 (0.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
18 13 (0.30%) FINRA
19 12 (0.28%) PSD2
System Software
1 179 (4.18%) Active Directory
2 126 (2.94%) Docker
3 91 (2.12%) VMware Infrastructure
4 69 (1.61%) VMware NSX
5 37 (0.86%) vSphere
6 23 (0.54%) Virtual Desktop
7 13 (0.30%) Hyper-V
7 13 (0.30%) Virtual Machines
7 13 (0.30%) VMware ESXi
8 11 (0.26%) Oracle RAC
9 8 (0.19%) Squid
10 7 (0.16%) BitLocker
10 7 (0.16%) Varnish
11 6 (0.14%) vCloud
12 5 (0.12%) NFS
12 5 (0.12%) RACF
13 3 (0.070%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
13 3 (0.070%) Ceph
13 3 (0.070%) Firmware
13 3 (0.070%) Lustre
Systems Management
1 264 (6.16%) Terraform
2 214 (4.99%) Kubernetes
3 114 (2.66%) Ansible
4 58 (1.35%) Single Sign-On
5 40 (0.93%) Microsoft Intune
6 34 (0.79%) FortiGate
7 30 (0.70%) OPNET
8 29 (0.68%) vCenter Server
9 25 (0.58%) Grafana
10 24 (0.56%) SCCM
11 22 (0.51%) Prometheus
12 17 (0.40%) Argo
12 17 (0.40%) WMI
13 16 (0.37%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 9 (0.21%) Istio
15 7 (0.16%) Consul
16 6 (0.14%) Kibana
16 6 (0.14%) Puppet
17 5 (0.12%) Progress Chef
18 4 (0.093%) Data Guard
Vendors
1 610 (14.23%) Microsoft
2 250 (5.83%) ServiceNow
3 229 (5.34%) SAP
4 201 (4.69%) Oracle
5 184 (4.29%) Salesforce
6 175 (4.08%) VMware
7 136 (3.17%) Databricks
8 128 (2.99%) Cisco
9 106 (2.47%) Google
10 93 (2.17%) CyberArk
11 68 (1.59%) Palo Alto
12 67 (1.56%) Splunk
13 66 (1.54%) MuleSoft
14 50 (1.17%) Red Hat
14 50 (1.17%) Workday
15 49 (1.14%) Atlassian
15 49 (1.14%) Centrify
15 49 (1.14%) Remedy
16 40 (0.93%) IBM
17 39 (0.91%) Citrix