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 19 April 2026.

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

6 months to
19 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 5,024 2,895 4,500
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 10.88% 9.84% 10.29%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.80% 10.62% 11.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,315 1,908 2,914
10th Percentile £463 £478 £500
25th Percentile £513 £547 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £620 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year -0.80% -3.85% -1.89%
75th Percentile £725 £725 £738
90th Percentile £800 £799 £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £610 £610 £650
% change year-on-year - -6.15% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 120 36 58
10th Percentile £49.40 £54.00 £55.83
25th Percentile £60.00 £61.50 £60.00
Median hourly rate £69.72 £68.75 £80.00
Median % change year-on-year +1.41% -14.06% +14.29%
75th Percentile £84.25 £80.15 £87.46
90th Percentile £97.50 £85.50 £91.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £71.27 £72.50 £81.27
% change year-on-year -1.70% -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 42,592 27,248 40,561
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.22% 92.60% 92.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,414 17,867 26,505
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £406 £409
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 £493
% change year-on-year +2.63% -3.65% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,707 994 2,611
10th Percentile £14.96 £14.55 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.35 £19.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £41.94 £30.45 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +37.73% -13.00% -22.22%
75th Percentile £65.60 £63.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.70 £75.43 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.00 £29.53 £36.27
% change year-on-year +45.64% -18.60% -14.17%

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 19 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 19 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 19 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 4,291 £625 - 949
UK excluding London +8 2,335 £610 - 646
London +2 1,971 £625 -3.85% 386
Work from Home +3 1,384 £609 +1.39% 449
South East +4 704 £625 - 153
North of England +3 609 £600 - 168
Midlands -1 402 £578 -3.67% 112
North West +7 354 £608 +1.33% 92
West Midlands -3 305 £600 - 76
South West +3 297 £700 +16.67% 106
Yorkshire +7 228 £558 -7.00% 58
East of England +17 197 £563 -6.25% 71
Scotland +13 136 £650 +4.00% 19
East Midlands -3 92 £513 -6.82% 36
North East +4 36 £575 -7.95% 19
Wales -8 25 £600 +20.00% 24
Northern Ireland +10 11 £500 -24.53% 7

Architect Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 19 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 1,597 (31.79%) Security Cleared
2 1,211 (24.10%) Azure
3 1,140 (22.69%) SC Cleared
4 1,060 (21.10%) AWS
5 709 (14.11%) Roadmaps
6 684 (13.61%) Microsoft
7 660 (13.14%) Migration
8 620 (12.34%) Agile
9 561 (11.17%) Stakeholder Management
10 550 (10.95%) DevOps
11 526 (10.47%) CI/CD
12 513 (10.21%) Enterprise Architecture
13 478 (9.51%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 463 (9.22%) Data Modelling
15 454 (9.04%) Technical Leadership
16 440 (8.76%) AI
17 437 (8.70%) TOGAF
18 424 (8.44%) Analytics
19 420 (8.36%) Integration Patterns
20 396 (7.88%) GCP
21 387 (7.70%) Data Architecture
22 377 (7.50%) Problem-Solving
23 369 (7.34%) Architectural Patterns
24 366 (7.29%) Microservices
25 351 (6.99%) Python
26 334 (6.65%) Architectural Design
26 334 (6.65%) DV Cleared
27 302 (6.01%) ServiceNow
28 296 (5.89%) Security Architecture
29 295 (5.87%) 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
1 125 (2.49%) SharePoint
2 108 (2.15%) Confluence
3 65 (1.29%) Microsoft Exchange
4 34 (0.68%) SAS
5 26 (0.52%) Apache Spark
6 24 (0.48%) Apache
7 23 (0.46%) CMS
8 18 (0.36%) Apache Airflow
9 16 (0.32%) Anypoint
9 16 (0.32%) Appian
10 15 (0.30%) nginx
10 15 (0.30%) WebLogic
11 14 (0.28%) ArcGIS
12 11 (0.22%) OpenStack
13 10 (0.20%) Adobe Experience Manager
13 10 (0.20%) Palantir Foundry
14 7 (0.14%) Camunda
14 7 (0.14%) Ethereum
14 7 (0.14%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 7 (0.14%) Skype for Business
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
1 127 (2.53%) 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 12 (0.24%) SAP EWM
8 12 (0.24%) Teamcenter
9 11 (0.22%) Remedy ITSM
10 10 (0.20%) Oracle Receivables
11 9 (0.18%) Oracle ERP
11 9 (0.18%) Salesforce CRM
12 8 (0.16%) NetSuite
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 1,211 (24.10%) Azure
2 1,060 (21.10%) AWS
3 396 (7.88%) GCP
4 209 (4.16%) Power Platform
5 178 (3.54%) Entra ID
6 177 (3.52%) Serverless
7 162 (3.22%) SaaS
8 142 (2.83%) Microsoft 365
9 114 (2.27%) GitHub
10 108 (2.15%) IaaS
11 106 (2.11%) PaaS
12 101 (2.01%) Dynamics 365
13 98 (1.95%) Azure DevOps
14 90 (1.79%) AWS Lambda
15 81 (1.61%) OpenShift
16 79 (1.57%) Amazon S3
17 73 (1.45%) AWS CloudFormation
18 72 (1.43%) Snowflake
19 70 (1.39%) Microsoft Purview
20 68 (1.35%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 232 (4.62%) Firewall
2 175 (3.48%) Network Security
3 140 (2.79%) WAN
4 125 (2.49%) DNS
5 124 (2.47%) VPN
6 90 (1.79%) LAN
7 80 (1.59%) SD-WAN
8 39 (0.78%) BGP
9 36 (0.72%) DHCP
10 31 (0.62%) OSPF
11 30 (0.60%) MPLS
11 30 (0.60%) Wi-Fi
12 28 (0.56%) VLAN
13 27 (0.54%) TCP/IP
14 25 (0.50%) Wireless
15 24 (0.48%) SAN
16 23 (0.46%) VXLAN
17 21 (0.42%) NAS
18 19 (0.38%) BIG-IP
18 19 (0.38%) Kerberos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 155 (3.09%) Power BI
2 146 (2.91%) Metadata
3 138 (2.75%) Data Warehouse
4 124 (2.47%) Data Lake
5 81 (1.61%) SQL Server
6 65 (1.29%) NoSQL
7 60 (1.19%) PostgreSQL
8 52 (1.04%) Azure SQL Database
9 48 (0.96%) Tableau
10 40 (0.80%) Big Data
10 40 (0.80%) Oracle Database
11 36 (0.72%) Amazon Redshift
12 27 (0.54%) Relational Database
13 25 (0.50%) BigQuery
13 25 (0.50%) Delta Lake
14 23 (0.46%) Amazon Athena
14 23 (0.46%) DynamoDB
15 22 (0.44%) Electronic Patient Records
15 22 (0.44%) MongoDB
16 21 (0.42%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 122 (2.43%) JIRA
2 91 (1.81%) 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 1,007 (20.04%) Social Skills
2 752 (14.97%) Finance
3 566 (11.27%) Public Sector
4 318 (6.33%) Analytical Skills
5 282 (5.61%) Banking
6 162 (3.22%) Documentation Skills
7 123 (2.45%) Retail
8 115 (2.29%) Influencing Skills
8 115 (2.29%) Legal
9 89 (1.77%) Military
10 81 (1.61%) Telecoms
11 72 (1.43%) Presentation Skills
12 69 (1.37%) Manufacturing
13 65 (1.29%) Marketing
14 63 (1.25%) Law
15 44 (0.88%) Financial Institution
16 34 (0.68%) Billing
16 34 (0.68%) Investment Banking
17 29 (0.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 28 (0.56%) Aerospace
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 243 (4.84%) REST
2 182 (3.62%) Middleware
3 125 (2.49%) SOAP
4 112 (2.23%) .NET
5 106 (2.11%) Kafka
6 87 (1.73%) OpenID
7 82 (1.63%) LDAP
8 79 (1.57%) OAuth
9 62 (1.23%) SAML
10 54 (1.07%) JSON
11 51 (1.02%) OAuth2
11 51 (1.02%) React
12 43 (0.86%) RESTful
13 40 (0.80%) AngularJS
14 38 (0.76%) Oracle Fusion
14 38 (0.76%) SailPoint
15 37 (0.74%) Web Services
16 32 (0.64%) Spring
17 29 (0.58%) PySpark
18 26 (0.52%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 397 (7.90%) Cloud Native
2 167 (3.32%) Data Centre
3 144 (2.87%) Product Ownership
4 131 (2.61%) Onboarding
5 119 (2.37%) Legacy Systems
6 114 (2.27%) Enterprise Software
7 112 (2.23%) Management Information System
8 106 (2.11%) Distributed Systems
9 99 (1.97%) Hybrid Cloud
10 96 (1.91%) Public Cloud
11 82 (1.63%) PKI
12 80 (1.59%) Security Posture
13 70 (1.39%) CMDB
14 69 (1.37%) Data Protection Act
15 68 (1.35%) Operational Technology
16 50 (1.00%) AI Agents
17 48 (0.96%) Self-Motivation
18 46 (0.92%) Private Cloud
19 43 (0.86%) Data Structures
19 43 (0.86%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 184 (3.66%) Windows
2 118 (2.35%) 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
9 12 (0.24%) 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
1 709 (14.11%) Roadmaps
2 660 (13.14%) Migration
3 620 (12.34%) Agile
4 561 (11.17%) Stakeholder Management
5 550 (10.95%) DevOps
6 526 (10.47%) CI/CD
7 513 (10.21%) Enterprise Architecture
8 478 (9.51%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 463 (9.22%) Data Modelling
10 454 (9.04%) Technical Leadership
11 440 (8.76%) AI
12 437 (8.70%) TOGAF
13 424 (8.44%) Analytics
14 420 (8.36%) Integration Patterns
15 387 (7.70%) Data Architecture
16 377 (7.50%) Problem-Solving
17 369 (7.34%) Architectural Patterns
18 366 (7.29%) Microservices
19 334 (6.65%) Architectural Design
20 296 (5.89%) Security Architecture
Programming Languages
1 351 (6.99%) Python
2 266 (5.29%) SQL
3 203 (4.04%) Java
4 187 (3.72%) PowerShell
5 77 (1.53%) JavaScript
6 66 (1.31%) C#
7 45 (0.90%) Bicep
8 38 (0.76%) Bash
9 32 (0.64%) 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 1,597 (31.79%) Security Cleared
2 1,140 (22.69%) SC Cleared
3 334 (6.65%) DV Cleared
4 210 (4.18%) Degree
5 126 (2.51%) Azure Certification
6 124 (2.47%) TOGAF Certification
7 119 (2.37%) AWS Certification
8 118 (2.35%) CISSP
9 96 (1.91%) Cisco Certification
10 92 (1.83%) BPSS Clearance
11 82 (1.63%) Computer Science Degree
12 59 (1.17%) CISM
13 54 (1.07%) CCNP
14 53 (1.05%) 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
1 192 (3.82%) NIST
2 191 (3.80%) GDPR
3 155 (3.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 153 (3.05%) Data Quality
5 103 (2.05%) NCSC
6 65 (1.29%) QA
7 55 (1.09%) 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 16 (0.32%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 15 (0.30%) SEPA
16 13 (0.26%) MiFID
16 13 (0.26%) PSD2
System Software
1 199 (3.96%) Active Directory
2 114 (2.27%) Docker
3 107 (2.13%) VMware Infrastructure
4 75 (1.49%) VMware NSX
5 34 (0.68%) 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%) IAG
17 3 (0.060%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 280 (5.57%) Terraform
2 238 (4.74%) Kubernetes
3 115 (2.29%) Ansible
4 55 (1.09%) Single Sign-On
5 42 (0.84%) Grafana
6 40 (0.80%) Microsoft Intune
7 32 (0.64%) FortiGate
8 31 (0.62%) vCenter Server
9 30 (0.60%) OPNET
10 29 (0.58%) Prometheus
11 22 (0.44%) SCCM
12 20 (0.40%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 18 (0.36%) Argo
14 12 (0.24%) Istio
15 11 (0.22%) WMI
16 8 (0.16%) Puppet
17 7 (0.14%) Consul
18 6 (0.12%) Kibana
19 5 (0.100%) Endace
19 5 (0.100%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 684 (13.61%) Microsoft
2 302 (6.01%) ServiceNow
3 287 (5.71%) SAP
4 211 (4.20%) Oracle
5 199 (3.96%) VMware
6 191 (3.80%) Salesforce
7 181 (3.60%) Databricks
8 136 (2.71%) Cisco
9 111 (2.21%) Google
10 85 (1.69%) CyberArk
11 66 (1.31%) MuleSoft
12 65 (1.29%) Splunk
13 61 (1.21%) Palo Alto
14 58 (1.15%) Red Hat
15 52 (1.04%) Workday
16 50 (1.00%) Remedy
17 48 (0.96%) Sparx
18 47 (0.94%) IBM
19 46 (0.92%) Ariba
19 46 (0.92%) Atlassian