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 25 February 2026.

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

6 months to
25 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 4,222 3,120 4,316
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 10.22% 10.24% 9.79%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.14% 11.03% 10.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,799 1,933 2,775
10th Percentile £460 £478 £500
25th Percentile £513 £547 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £625 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year - -3.85% -
75th Percentile £725 £735 £738
90th Percentile £788 £800 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £600 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -4.00% -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 81 32 43
10th Percentile £49.40 £58.43 £53.45
25th Percentile £60.00 £61.50 £61.25
Median hourly rate £71.27 £71.25 £78.74
Median % change year-on-year +0.03% -9.51% +12.49%
75th Percentile £85.00 £81.00 £87.53
90th Percentile £95.00 £87.33 £95.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £71.89 £72.50 £80.63
% change year-on-year -0.85% -10.09% +15.19%

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 37,909 28,295 41,010
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.78% 92.89% 92.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,822 17,724 26,992
10th Percentile £306 £293 £275
25th Percentile £408 £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 2,307 828 2,328
10th Percentile £14.61 £16.43 £13.15
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.50 £16.30
Median hourly rate £32.50 £35.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -7.14% - -10.88%
75th Percentile £63.75 £64.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £75.00 £71.93
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.11 £32.50 £35.00
% change year-on-year -7.37% -7.14% -2.78%

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 25 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 25 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 25 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 -1 3,631 £625 - 789
UK excluding London +4 2,041 £600 -4.00% 579
London -2 1,622 £630 -3.08% 343
Work from Home -3 1,187 £620 -0.80% 381
South East +6 625 £625 - 249
North of England 0 506 £575 -4.17% 109
Midlands -3 359 £573 -4.50% 101
North West -4 280 £579 -3.50% 60
West Midlands -2 269 £600 -1.15% 68
South West +1 258 £706 +12.96% 57
Yorkshire -2 208 £558 -2.62% 33
East of England +18 162 £550 -12.00% 30
Scotland +14 137 £650 +4.00% 31
East Midlands -6 88 £500 -10.71% 33
Wales +6 31 £600 +5.26% 7
North East -13 23 £625 -1.96% 18
Northern Ireland 0 9 £500 -26.47% 3

Architect Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 25 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 1,319 (31.24%) Security Cleared
2 1,081 (25.60%) Azure
3 946 (22.41%) SC Cleared
4 892 (21.13%) AWS
5 613 (14.52%) Roadmaps
6 606 (14.35%) Microsoft
7 558 (13.22%) Stakeholder Management
8 550 (13.03%) Agile
9 536 (12.70%) Migration
10 476 (11.27%) DevOps
11 468 (11.08%) Enterprise Architecture
12 427 (10.11%) TOGAF
13 415 (9.83%) CI/CD
14 412 (9.76%) Data Modelling
15 405 (9.59%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 396 (9.38%) Technical Leadership
17 367 (8.69%) Problem-Solving
18 363 (8.60%) Analytics
19 359 (8.50%) AI
20 346 (8.20%) Data Architecture
21 338 (8.01%) GCP
22 321 (7.60%) Python
23 296 (7.01%) Integration Patterns
23 296 (7.01%) Microservices
24 278 (6.58%) DV Cleared
25 272 (6.44%) Architectural Patterns
26 264 (6.25%) Terraform
27 245 (5.80%) Architectural Design
28 240 (5.68%) ServiceNow
29 239 (5.66%) 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
1 115 (2.72%) Confluence
2 107 (2.53%) SharePoint
3 62 (1.47%) Microsoft Exchange
4 33 (0.78%) SAS
5 24 (0.57%) CMS
6 23 (0.54%) Apache Spark
7 19 (0.45%) Apache Airflow
8 17 (0.40%) Apache
8 17 (0.40%) WebLogic
9 16 (0.38%) Anypoint
10 15 (0.36%) Appian
10 15 (0.36%) ArcGIS
10 15 (0.36%) OpenStack
11 13 (0.31%) nginx
12 9 (0.21%) Smallworld
13 7 (0.17%) Adobe Experience Manager
13 7 (0.17%) GeoServer
13 7 (0.17%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 7 (0.17%) Sitecore CMS
13 7 (0.17%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 51 (1.21%) Microsoft Office
2 32 (0.76%) Microsoft Project
3 27 (0.64%) Microsoft Excel
3 27 (0.64%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 14 (0.33%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.17%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.047%) PlantUML
7 1 (0.024%) ArchiCAD
7 1 (0.024%) AutoCAD
7 1 (0.024%) FrameMaker
7 1 (0.024%) OrCAD
7 1 (0.024%) Revit
7 1 (0.024%) Siemens NX
7 1 (0.024%) Trello
Business Applications
1 111 (2.63%) SAP S/4HANA
2 41 (0.97%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 24 (0.57%) Dynamics CRM
4 23 (0.54%) Workday HCM
5 17 (0.40%) Payment Gateway
6 16 (0.38%) 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 (0.24%) SAP PM
10 9 (0.21%) Oracle Receivables
11 8 (0.19%) Dynamics AX
11 8 (0.19%) Maximo
12 7 (0.17%) R3 Corda
12 7 (0.17%) Remedy ITSM
12 7 (0.17%) SAP PP
13 6 (0.14%) Distributed Ledger
13 6 (0.14%) SAP QM
13 6 (0.14%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 1,081 (25.60%) Azure
2 892 (21.13%) AWS
3 338 (8.01%) GCP
4 154 (3.65%) Serverless
5 150 (3.55%) Power Platform
6 148 (3.51%) SaaS
7 143 (3.39%) Microsoft 365
8 141 (3.34%) Entra ID
9 95 (2.25%) IaaS
10 92 (2.18%) GitHub
11 90 (2.13%) AWS Lambda
11 90 (2.13%) Azure DevOps
12 80 (1.89%) Amazon S3
12 80 (1.89%) PaaS
13 75 (1.78%) Microsoft Purview
14 74 (1.75%) AWS CloudFormation
15 69 (1.63%) Dynamics 365
15 69 (1.63%) OpenShift
16 64 (1.52%) Azure Data Factory
16 64 (1.52%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 225 (5.33%) Firewall
2 143 (3.39%) Network Security
3 126 (2.98%) WAN
4 114 (2.70%) DNS
5 109 (2.58%) VPN
6 77 (1.82%) LAN
7 69 (1.63%) SD-WAN
8 38 (0.90%) BGP
9 32 (0.76%) DHCP
10 30 (0.71%) Wi-Fi
11 29 (0.69%) MPLS
12 27 (0.64%) TCP/IP
13 26 (0.62%) OSPF
14 24 (0.57%) SAN
15 23 (0.54%) VLAN
16 21 (0.50%) IPsec
17 20 (0.47%) Kerberos
17 20 (0.47%) VSAN
17 20 (0.47%) Wireless
18 19 (0.45%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 154 (3.65%) Data Warehouse
2 133 (3.15%) Metadata
3 106 (2.51%) Power BI
4 96 (2.27%) Data Lake
5 76 (1.80%) SQL Server
6 62 (1.47%) PostgreSQL
7 50 (1.18%) Tableau
8 42 (0.99%) NoSQL
9 41 (0.97%) Azure SQL Database
10 39 (0.92%) Oracle Database
11 36 (0.85%) Amazon Redshift
12 31 (0.73%) DynamoDB
13 29 (0.69%) Big Data
14 24 (0.57%) Amazon Athena
14 24 (0.57%) GIS
15 23 (0.54%) Relational Database
16 21 (0.50%) Amazon Aurora
16 21 (0.50%) Amazon RDS
16 21 (0.50%) Metadata Repository
17 20 (0.47%) Redis
Development Applications
1 133 (3.15%) JIRA
2 95 (2.25%) Jenkins
3 48 (1.14%) GitLab
4 33 (0.78%) Git
5 20 (0.47%) ERwin
6 11 (0.26%) Bitbucket
7 10 (0.24%) Artifactory
7 10 (0.24%) SonarQube
8 7 (0.17%) MLflow
8 7 (0.17%) Postman
9 6 (0.14%) REST Assured
10 5 (0.12%) Cucumber
10 5 (0.12%) Oracle Forms
10 5 (0.12%) Selenium
11 4 (0.095%) MSI
11 4 (0.095%) Rational DOORS
11 4 (0.095%) Terragrunt
12 3 (0.071%) Maven
12 3 (0.071%) PowerDesigner
12 3 (0.071%) Snyk
General
1 979 (23.19%) Social Skills
2 655 (15.51%) Finance
3 496 (11.75%) Public Sector
4 291 (6.89%) Analytical Skills
5 233 (5.52%) Banking
6 142 (3.36%) Documentation Skills
7 101 (2.39%) Legal
8 99 (2.34%) Influencing Skills
9 84 (1.99%) Retail
10 82 (1.94%) Military
11 81 (1.92%) Presentation Skills
12 78 (1.85%) Telecoms
13 68 (1.61%) Marketing
14 62 (1.47%) Manufacturing
15 37 (0.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 35 (0.83%) Billing
17 32 (0.76%) Financial Institution
18 26 (0.62%) Law
19 22 (0.52%) Investment Banking
20 21 (0.50%) Aerospace
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 209 (4.95%) REST
2 147 (3.48%) Middleware
3 118 (2.79%) SOAP
4 94 (2.23%) .NET
5 83 (1.97%) Kafka
6 77 (1.82%) OpenID
7 76 (1.80%) LDAP
8 65 (1.54%) OAuth
9 64 (1.52%) SAML
10 50 (1.18%) JSON
11 43 (1.02%) React
12 42 (0.99%) RESTful
13 41 (0.97%) OAuth2
14 39 (0.92%) AngularJS
15 36 (0.85%) SailPoint
16 35 (0.83%) Oracle Fusion
17 31 (0.73%) PySpark
18 26 (0.62%) Node.js
19 25 (0.59%) Web Services
20 22 (0.52%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 298 (7.06%) Cloud Native
2 140 (3.32%) Product Ownership
3 133 (3.15%) Data Centre
4 120 (2.84%) Onboarding
5 112 (2.65%) Legacy Systems
6 98 (2.32%) Enterprise Software
7 92 (2.18%) PKI
8 86 (2.04%) Hybrid Cloud
9 76 (1.80%) Management Information System
10 68 (1.61%) Public Cloud
10 68 (1.61%) Security Posture
11 65 (1.54%) Operational Technology
12 64 (1.52%) Distributed Systems
13 56 (1.33%) Data Protection Act
14 50 (1.18%) CMDB
15 43 (1.02%) Self-Motivation
16 41 (0.97%) Data Structures
17 40 (0.95%) NHS
18 37 (0.88%) AI Agents
19 32 (0.76%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 178 (4.22%) Windows
2 109 (2.58%) Linux
3 39 (0.92%) Windows Server
4 34 (0.81%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 17 (0.40%) Android
5 17 (0.40%) Apple iOS
5 17 (0.40%) Windows 7
6 15 (0.36%) Windows 10
7 13 (0.31%) Unix
8 11 (0.26%) Windows Server 2016
8 11 (0.26%) Windows Server 2019
9 10 (0.24%) VMS
10 9 (0.21%) Mac OS
11 8 (0.19%) zOS
12 6 (0.14%) Ubuntu
13 4 (0.095%) CentOS
14 2 (0.047%) Windows Server 2012
15 1 (0.024%) Data ONTAP
15 1 (0.024%) Kali Linux
15 1 (0.024%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 613 (14.52%) Roadmaps
2 558 (13.22%) Stakeholder Management
3 550 (13.03%) Agile
4 536 (12.70%) Migration
5 476 (11.27%) DevOps
6 468 (11.08%) Enterprise Architecture
7 427 (10.11%) TOGAF
8 415 (9.83%) CI/CD
9 412 (9.76%) Data Modelling
10 405 (9.59%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 396 (9.38%) Technical Leadership
12 367 (8.69%) Problem-Solving
13 363 (8.60%) Analytics
14 359 (8.50%) AI
15 346 (8.20%) Data Architecture
16 296 (7.01%) Integration Patterns
16 296 (7.01%) Microservices
17 272 (6.44%) Architectural Patterns
18 245 (5.80%) Architectural Design
19 239 (5.66%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 321 (7.60%) Python
2 219 (5.19%) SQL
3 181 (4.29%) PowerShell
4 138 (3.27%) Java
5 66 (1.56%) JavaScript
6 64 (1.52%) C#
7 36 (0.85%) Bash
7 36 (0.85%) Bicep
8 34 (0.81%) TypeScript
9 20 (0.47%) PL/SQL
10 18 (0.43%) Apex Code
11 14 (0.33%) Kusto Query Language
12 13 (0.31%) R
13 10 (0.24%) Ruby
13 10 (0.24%) T-SQL
14 9 (0.21%) Scala
15 8 (0.19%) PHP
15 8 (0.19%) VB
16 7 (0.17%) Korn
16 7 (0.17%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 1,319 (31.24%) Security Cleared
2 946 (22.41%) SC Cleared
3 278 (6.58%) DV Cleared
4 205 (4.86%) Degree
5 122 (2.89%) TOGAF Certification
6 120 (2.84%) CISSP
7 114 (2.70%) AWS Certification
8 101 (2.39%) Azure Certification
9 76 (1.80%) Cisco Certification
10 75 (1.78%) Computer Science Degree
11 74 (1.75%) BPSS Clearance
12 65 (1.54%) CISM
13 59 (1.40%) Master's Degree
14 58 (1.37%) Microsoft Certification
15 56 (1.33%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
16 45 (1.07%) CCNP
17 31 (0.73%) CCIE
17 31 (0.73%) ITIL Certification
18 30 (0.71%) ISEB
19 25 (0.59%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 183 (4.33%) GDPR
2 145 (3.43%) NIST
3 132 (3.13%) Data Quality
4 126 (2.98%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 88 (2.08%) NCSC
6 62 (1.47%) QA
7 53 (1.26%) PCI DSS
8 35 (0.83%) COBIT
9 34 (0.81%) Accessibility
10 32 (0.76%) GRC
11 26 (0.62%) Cyber Essentials
11 26 (0.62%) ISO 20022
12 22 (0.52%) JSP 440
13 18 (0.43%) HMG Security Policy Framework
14 17 (0.40%) HIPAA
15 15 (0.36%) MiFID
16 14 (0.33%) California Consumer Privacy Act
17 13 (0.31%) FINRA
17 13 (0.31%) Sarbanes-Oxley
18 12 (0.28%) SEPA
System Software
1 174 (4.12%) Active Directory
2 129 (3.06%) Docker
3 91 (2.16%) VMware Infrastructure
4 67 (1.59%) VMware NSX
5 38 (0.90%) vSphere
6 24 (0.57%) Virtual Desktop
7 13 (0.31%) Hyper-V
7 13 (0.31%) Virtual Machines
7 13 (0.31%) VMware ESXi
8 11 (0.26%) Oracle RAC
9 8 (0.19%) Squid
10 7 (0.17%) BitLocker
11 6 (0.14%) Varnish
11 6 (0.14%) vCloud
12 5 (0.12%) RACF
13 4 (0.095%) NFS
14 3 (0.071%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
14 3 (0.071%) Ceph
14 3 (0.071%) Firmware
14 3 (0.071%) Lustre
Systems Management
1 264 (6.25%) Terraform
2 211 (5.00%) Kubernetes
3 109 (2.58%) Ansible
4 62 (1.47%) Single Sign-On
5 37 (0.88%) Microsoft Intune
6 33 (0.78%) FortiGate
7 30 (0.71%) OPNET
7 30 (0.71%) vCenter Server
8 24 (0.57%) Grafana
9 23 (0.54%) SCCM
10 21 (0.50%) Prometheus
11 17 (0.40%) Argo
11 17 (0.40%) WMI
12 16 (0.38%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 9 (0.21%) Istio
14 7 (0.17%) Consul
15 6 (0.14%) Kibana
16 5 (0.12%) Puppet
17 4 (0.095%) Oracle RMAN
17 4 (0.095%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 606 (14.35%) Microsoft
2 240 (5.68%) ServiceNow
3 228 (5.40%) SAP
4 203 (4.81%) Oracle
5 183 (4.33%) Salesforce
6 172 (4.07%) VMware
7 137 (3.24%) Databricks
8 125 (2.96%) Cisco
9 105 (2.49%) Google
10 93 (2.20%) CyberArk
11 70 (1.66%) Palo Alto
12 66 (1.56%) Splunk
13 64 (1.52%) MuleSoft
14 50 (1.18%) Red Hat
15 49 (1.16%) Atlassian
15 49 (1.16%) Centrify
16 48 (1.14%) Remedy
16 48 (1.14%) Workday
17 40 (0.95%) Sparx
18 39 (0.92%) OpenAI