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 8 November 2026.

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

6 months to
8 Nov 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 12 20 15
Rank change year-on-year +8 -5 +2
Contract Architect jobs 6,198 3,083 3,581
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 11.21% 8.81% 9.79%
As % of the Job Titles category 12.23% 9.69% 10.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,086 2,073 2,129
10th Percentile £493 £463 £475
25th Percentile £538 £525 £533
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £625 £625 £625
Median % change year-on-year - - -3.85%
75th Percentile £700 £725 £738
90th Percentile £780 £800 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £622 £600 £625
% change year-on-year +3.67% -4.00% -0.79%
Number of hourly rates quoted 217 19 26
10th Percentile £35.00 £60.62 £60.00
25th Percentile £60.00 £68.13 £60.31
Median hourly rate £70.00 £83.82 £68.75
Median % change year-on-year -16.49% +21.92% -8.33%
75th Percentile £91.31 £94.26 £87.50
90th Percentile £96.36 £96.00 £97.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £70.00 £83.82 £66.75
% change year-on-year -16.49% +25.57% -12.78%

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job adverts matching a recognised job title. The table also shows what proportion of all contract IT job adverts they make up.

6 months to
8 Nov 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Contract job adverts in the UK matching a recognised job title 50,678 31,824 33,999
% of contract job adverts matching a recognised job title 91.65% 90.95% 92.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,725 20,190 20,524
10th Percentile £325 £278 £300
25th Percentile £425 £402 £412
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £638 £625 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4,366 1,817 1,274
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.03 £15.10
25th Percentile £18.75 £17.69 £20.30
Median hourly rate £40.32 £25.15 £36.60
Median % change year-on-year +60.32% -31.27% -17.76%
75th Percentile £68.00 £51.25 £65.00
90th Percentile £81.25 £69.65 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £35.25
% change year-on-year +59.05% -28.65% -20.79%

Architect Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract Architect job postings 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 Architect jobs over the 6 months to 8 November 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 for Architect jobs over the 6 months to 8 November 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Architect in the UK

Architect Top 18 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in Architect jobs within the UK over the 6 months to 8 November 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
Job Ads
Past 6 Months
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England +7 5,078 £625 - 908
UK excluding London +9 2,642 £622 +3.67% 619
London +5 2,556 £625 -3.85% 445
Work from Home +7 1,699 £600 -4.00% 410
South East 0 782 £638 +6.25% 224
North of England +1 651 £600 - 112
Midlands +4 440 £627 +8.96% 86
South West +6 364 £638 -5.56% 115
West Midlands +11 346 £644 +10.70% 66
North West -1 327 £590 -1.26% 57
Yorkshire +12 248 £600 -2.04% 39
Scotland +17 221 £550 -10.93% 29
East of England +2 139 £613 +10.36% 33
East Midlands -3 91 £600 +20.00% 20
North East +13 80 £625 -15.25% 16
Wales +11 49 £600 -4.00% 14
Channel Islands +1 12 £700 -5.72%
Northern Ireland +4 6 £600 +9.09% 8

Architect Skill Set Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 8 November 2026, Architect contract job ads cited 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 Architect job ads.

RankSkillShareJob Ads
1Security Cleared32.8%2,032
2Azure26.8%1,659
3SC Cleared24.7%1,533
4AWS21.9%1,355
5Stakeholder Management21.0%1,300
6Roadmaps18.3%1,134
7Migration15.7%970
8Microsoft14.7%912
9Enterprise Architecture14.5%898
10Technical Leadership13.9%863
11AI13.3%825
12Data Architecture11.1%689
13Data Modelling10.8%668
14Agile10.7%663
15Stakeholder Engagement10.6%657
16DevOps10.5%653
17CI/CD10.3%641
18Integration Patterns9.8%608
19Analytics8.8%548
20Security Architecture8.7%539
21GCP8.5%526
22TOGAF8.4%523
23Architecture Governance8.2%508
24Architectural Patterns8.1%504
25Event-Driven7.8%481
26Data Governance7.4%458
27Infrastructure as Code7.0%432
28Cybersecurity6.9%430
29Microservices6.8%424
30DV Cleared6.8%423

Architect Skill Set Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category

The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.