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 November 2026.

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

6 months to
10 Nov 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 12 20 15
Rank change year-on-year +8 -5 +2
Contract Architect jobs 6,212 3,053 3,553
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 11.22% 8.81% 9.80%
As % of the Job Titles category 12.24% 9.69% 10.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,093 2,059 2,102
10th Percentile £493 £463 £475
25th Percentile £540 £525 £531
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £625 £625 £625
Median % change year-on-year - - -3.85%
75th Percentile £700 £725 £738
90th Percentile £775 £800 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £620 £600 £625
% change year-on-year +3.33% -4.00% -0.79%
Number of hourly rates quoted 217 19 25
10th Percentile £35.00 £60.62 -
25th Percentile £60.00 £68.13 £60.00
Median hourly rate £70.00 £83.82 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -16.49% +19.74% -6.67%
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 £67.50
% change year-on-year -16.49% +24.18% -11.80%

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
10 Nov 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Contract job adverts in the UK matching a recognised job title 50,742 31,508 33,673
% of contract job adverts matching a recognised job title 91.68% 90.95% 92.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,741 19,983 20,308
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 4,383 1,813 1,254
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.00 £15.10
25th Percentile £18.79 £17.69 £20.30
Median hourly rate £40.32 £25.15 £35.63
Median % change year-on-year +60.32% -29.40% -19.94%
75th Percentile £68.00 £51.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £81.25 £69.65 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £35.00
% change year-on-year +59.05% -28.14% -21.35%

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 10 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 10 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 10 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 5,087 £625 - 4,079
UK excluding London +9 2,657 £620 +3.33% 1,789
London +5 2,552 £625 -3.85% 2,339
Work from Home +6 1,700 £600 -4.00% 1,630
South East 0 786 £638 +6.25% 450
North of England 0 652 £600 - 455
Midlands +7 438 £627 +8.96% 243
South West +8 370 £625 -7.41% 184
West Midlands +8 343 £631 +8.47% 181
North West -2 328 £593 -0.84% 240
Yorkshire +12 248 £600 -2.04% 163
Scotland +21 226 £550 -10.93% 171
East of England +5 142 £613 +10.36% 192
East Midlands -5 92 £600 +20.00% 62
North East +14 80 £625 -15.25% 52
Wales +10 47 £600 -4.00% 35
Channel Islands +1 12 £700 -5.72%
Northern Ireland +6 6 £600 +9.09% 59

Architect Skill Set Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 10 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 Cleared32.7%2,030
2Azure26.8%1,666
3SC Cleared24.6%1,531
4AWS22.0%1,364
5Stakeholder Management21.1%1,311
6Roadmaps18.4%1,143
7Migration15.9%985
8Microsoft14.8%919
9Enterprise Architecture14.6%907
10Technical Leadership14.0%867
11AI13.3%827
12Data Architecture11.2%694
13Data Modelling10.8%668
14Agile10.7%666
15Stakeholder Engagement10.6%658
16DevOps10.5%655
17CI/CD10.4%644
18Integration Patterns9.9%617
19Analytics8.9%552
20Security Architecture8.7%540
21GCP8.5%525
22TOGAF8.4%523
23Architecture Governance8.3%515
24Architectural Patterns8.1%506
25Event-Driven7.9%491
26Data Governance7.4%461
27Infrastructure as Code7.1%441
28Microservices6.9%428
29Cybersecurity6.9%427
30DV Cleared6.8%424

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.