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 March 2026.

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

6 months to
19 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 14 16 14
Rank change year-on-year +2 -2 +3
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 4,606 2,986 4,401
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 10.63% 10.19% 9.91%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.56% 10.97% 10.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,034 1,935 2,835
10th Percentile £463 £476 £500
25th Percentile £513 £541 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £620 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year -0.80% -3.85% -1.89%
75th Percentile £720 £725 £738
90th Percentile £800 £800 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £600 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -4.00% -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 107 35 43
10th Percentile £49.40 £58.95 £50.92
25th Percentile £60.00 £63.75 £60.00
Median hourly rate £71.27 £72.50 £76.53
Median % change year-on-year -1.70% -5.27% +9.33%
75th Percentile £90.09 £83.63 £87.53
90th Percentile £97.50 £87.50 £95.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £71.27 £73.31 £78.90
% change year-on-year -2.78% -7.08% +12.71%

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 39,828 27,223 41,240
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.88% 92.95% 92.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,890 17,719 27,066
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £410 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.11%
75th Percentile £613 £636 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £475 £487
% change year-on-year +1.05% -2.46% -2.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,471 888 2,490
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.24 £12.91
25th Percentile £19.22 £21.01 £16.25
Median hourly rate £35.91 £32.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +10.49% - -23.29%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £59.94
90th Percentile £76.25 £77.50 £71.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.00 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year +7.69% - -18.75%

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 March 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 March 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 March 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 3,944 £625 - 922
UK excluding London +6 2,214 £600 -4.00% 616
London -1 1,764 £625 -3.85% 449
Work from Home 0 1,280 £610 -2.40% 460
South East +4 677 £623 -0.40% 236
North of England 0 580 £600 - 151
Midlands -2 386 £575 -4.17% 65
North West +4 327 £603 +0.42% 80
West Midlands 0 288 £600 -3.23% 51
South West 0 269 £700 +14.29% 84
Yorkshire +10 230 £563 -6.25% 55
East of England +12 166 £531 -15.00% 44
Scotland +20 145 £650 +4.00% 27
East Midlands -2 94 £513 -7.66% 14
North East +5 31 £625 - 19
Wales +3 27 £538 -0.46% 19
Northern Ireland +3 11 £500 -26.47% 2

Architect Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 19 March 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 1,462 (31.74%) Security Cleared
2 1,176 (25.53%) Azure
3 1,037 (22.51%) SC Cleared
4 982 (21.32%) AWS
5 675 (14.65%) Roadmaps
6 644 (13.98%) Microsoft
7 601 (13.05%) Migration
8 586 (12.72%) Agile
9 552 (11.98%) Stakeholder Management
10 524 (11.38%) DevOps
11 490 (10.64%) Enterprise Architecture
12 475 (10.31%) CI/CD
13 452 (9.81%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 444 (9.64%) Data Modelling
15 438 (9.51%) TOGAF
16 427 (9.27%) Technical Leadership
17 399 (8.66%) AI
18 388 (8.42%) Analytics
19 380 (8.25%) Problem-Solving
20 378 (8.21%) GCP
21 373 (8.10%) Data Architecture
22 355 (7.71%) Integration Patterns
23 348 (7.56%) Python
24 341 (7.40%) Architectural Patterns
25 336 (7.29%) Microservices
26 310 (6.73%) DV Cleared
27 293 (6.36%) Architectural Design
28 283 (6.14%) Terraform
29 270 (5.86%) Cybersecurity
30 265 (5.75%) Security Architecture

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
1 121 (2.63%) Confluence
2 119 (2.58%) SharePoint
3 64 (1.39%) Microsoft Exchange
4 35 (0.76%) SAS
5 25 (0.54%) CMS
6 24 (0.52%) Apache Spark
7 18 (0.39%) Apache Airflow
8 17 (0.37%) Apache
9 16 (0.35%) Anypoint
9 16 (0.35%) ArcGIS
10 15 (0.33%) Appian
10 15 (0.33%) WebLogic
11 13 (0.28%) nginx
12 11 (0.24%) OpenStack
13 10 (0.22%) Adobe Experience Manager
14 9 (0.20%) Smallworld
15 7 (0.15%) Ethereum
15 7 (0.15%) Oracle SOA Suite
15 7 (0.15%) Sitecore CMS
15 7 (0.15%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 50 (1.09%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (0.67%) Microsoft Project
3 29 (0.63%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 25 (0.54%) Microsoft Excel
5 21 (0.46%) MS Visio
6 7 (0.15%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.043%) PlantUML
8 1 (0.022%) ArchiCAD
8 1 (0.022%) AutoCAD
8 1 (0.022%) OrCAD
8 1 (0.022%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.022%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.022%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 118 (2.56%) SAP S/4HANA
2 45 (0.98%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 24 (0.52%) Dynamics CRM
4 23 (0.50%) Workday HCM
5 19 (0.41%) Oracle EBS
6 18 (0.39%) Payment Gateway
7 15 (0.33%) Salesforce CRM
8 12 (0.26%) SAP EWM
9 11 (0.24%) NetSuite
9 11 (0.24%) SAP ERP
10 10 (0.22%) SAP PM
11 9 (0.20%) Maximo
11 9 (0.20%) Oracle Receivables
11 9 (0.20%) Remedy ITSM
12 8 (0.17%) Teamcenter
13 7 (0.15%) R3 Corda
13 7 (0.15%) SAP PP
14 6 (0.13%) Distributed Ledger
14 6 (0.13%) Oracle ERP
14 6 (0.13%) SAP CRM
Cloud Services
1 1,176 (25.53%) Azure
2 982 (21.32%) AWS
3 378 (8.21%) GCP
4 184 (3.99%) Power Platform
5 166 (3.60%) Serverless
6 162 (3.52%) Entra ID
7 147 (3.19%) SaaS
8 143 (3.10%) Microsoft 365
9 107 (2.32%) IaaS
10 105 (2.28%) GitHub
11 97 (2.11%) Azure DevOps
12 94 (2.04%) PaaS
13 86 (1.87%) AWS Lambda
14 79 (1.72%) OpenShift
15 77 (1.67%) Dynamics 365
16 76 (1.65%) AWS CloudFormation
17 74 (1.61%) Microsoft Purview
18 72 (1.56%) Amazon S3
19 69 (1.50%) Azure Synapse Analytics
19 69 (1.50%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 233 (5.06%) Firewall
2 166 (3.60%) Network Security
3 136 (2.95%) WAN
4 121 (2.63%) VPN
5 119 (2.58%) DNS
6 81 (1.76%) LAN
7 79 (1.72%) SD-WAN
8 39 (0.85%) BGP
9 34 (0.74%) DHCP
10 32 (0.69%) Wi-Fi
11 29 (0.63%) OSPF
12 27 (0.59%) MPLS
13 26 (0.56%) TCP/IP
14 24 (0.52%) SAN
15 23 (0.50%) VXLAN
16 22 (0.48%) Kerberos
16 22 (0.48%) VLAN
16 22 (0.48%) Wireless
17 20 (0.43%) Internet
18 18 (0.39%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 157 (3.41%) Data Warehouse
2 143 (3.10%) Metadata
3 136 (2.95%) Power BI
4 102 (2.21%) Data Lake
5 82 (1.78%) SQL Server
6 71 (1.54%) PostgreSQL
7 58 (1.26%) NoSQL
8 51 (1.11%) Azure SQL Database
9 50 (1.09%) Tableau
10 44 (0.96%) Oracle Database
11 37 (0.80%) Big Data
12 30 (0.65%) Amazon Redshift
13 26 (0.56%) GIS
14 23 (0.50%) Delta Lake
14 23 (0.50%) Relational Database
15 22 (0.48%) Amazon Athena
15 22 (0.48%) DynamoDB
16 21 (0.46%) Amazon Aurora
16 21 (0.46%) Electronic Patient Records
16 21 (0.46%) Metadata Repository
Development Applications
1 132 (2.87%) JIRA
2 97 (2.11%) Jenkins
3 51 (1.11%) GitLab
4 48 (1.04%) Git
5 25 (0.54%) ERwin
6 11 (0.24%) Bitbucket
7 10 (0.22%) SonarQube
8 9 (0.20%) Artifactory
9 8 (0.17%) MLflow
10 6 (0.13%) REST Assured
11 5 (0.11%) Cucumber
11 5 (0.11%) Oracle Forms
11 5 (0.11%) Postman
11 5 (0.11%) Selenium
12 4 (0.087%) Maven
12 4 (0.087%) PowerDesigner
12 4 (0.087%) Snyk
12 4 (0.087%) Sonatype Nexus
12 4 (0.087%) Terragrunt
13 3 (0.065%) ER Studio
General
1 1,014 (22.01%) Social Skills
2 702 (15.24%) Finance
3 553 (12.01%) Public Sector
4 318 (6.90%) Analytical Skills
5 264 (5.73%) Banking
6 152 (3.30%) Documentation Skills
7 108 (2.34%) Influencing Skills
8 104 (2.26%) Legal
9 89 (1.93%) Retail
10 88 (1.91%) Military
11 84 (1.82%) Telecoms
12 75 (1.63%) Presentation Skills
13 67 (1.45%) Marketing
14 59 (1.28%) Manufacturing
15 44 (0.96%) Law
16 39 (0.85%) Financial Institution
17 37 (0.80%) Billing
18 34 (0.74%) Inclusion and Diversity
19 30 (0.65%) Investment Banking
20 23 (0.50%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 225 (4.88%) REST
2 168 (3.65%) Middleware
3 118 (2.56%) SOAP
4 95 (2.06%) .NET
5 94 (2.04%) Kafka
6 80 (1.74%) OpenID
7 77 (1.67%) LDAP
8 74 (1.61%) OAuth
9 65 (1.41%) SAML
10 50 (1.09%) JSON
11 47 (1.02%) React
12 45 (0.98%) OAuth2
13 44 (0.96%) AngularJS
14 38 (0.83%) RESTful
15 33 (0.72%) SailPoint
16 31 (0.67%) Web Services
17 28 (0.61%) Oracle Fusion
17 28 (0.61%) Spring
18 26 (0.56%) Node.js
18 26 (0.56%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 366 (7.95%) Cloud Native
2 155 (3.37%) Data Centre
3 147 (3.19%) Product Ownership
4 122 (2.65%) Onboarding
5 116 (2.52%) Legacy Systems
6 106 (2.30%) Enterprise Software
7 93 (2.02%) PKI
8 92 (2.00%) Hybrid Cloud
9 90 (1.95%) Management Information System
10 89 (1.93%) Distributed Systems
11 84 (1.82%) Public Cloud
12 75 (1.63%) Security Posture
13 68 (1.48%) Data Protection Act
14 66 (1.43%) Operational Technology
15 60 (1.30%) CMDB
16 48 (1.04%) Self-Motivation
17 45 (0.98%) AI Agents
17 45 (0.98%) Data Structures
18 41 (0.89%) NHS
19 40 (0.87%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 185 (4.02%) Windows
2 123 (2.67%) Linux
3 43 (0.93%) Windows Server
4 34 (0.74%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 28 (0.61%) Android
5 28 (0.61%) Apple iOS
6 16 (0.35%) Windows 7
7 15 (0.33%) Windows 10
8 13 (0.28%) VMS
8 13 (0.28%) Windows Server 2016
9 11 (0.24%) Unix
10 10 (0.22%) Windows Server 2019
10 10 (0.22%) zOS
11 9 (0.20%) Mac OS
12 4 (0.087%) Ubuntu
13 3 (0.065%) Windows Server 2012
14 2 (0.043%) CentOS
15 1 (0.022%) Data ONTAP
15 1 (0.022%) Kali Linux
15 1 (0.022%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 675 (14.65%) Roadmaps
2 601 (13.05%) Migration
3 586 (12.72%) Agile
4 552 (11.98%) Stakeholder Management
5 524 (11.38%) DevOps
6 490 (10.64%) Enterprise Architecture
7 475 (10.31%) CI/CD
8 452 (9.81%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 444 (9.64%) Data Modelling
10 438 (9.51%) TOGAF
11 427 (9.27%) Technical Leadership
12 399 (8.66%) AI
13 388 (8.42%) Analytics
14 380 (8.25%) Problem-Solving
15 373 (8.10%) Data Architecture
16 355 (7.71%) Integration Patterns
17 341 (7.40%) Architectural Patterns
18 336 (7.29%) Microservices
19 293 (6.36%) Architectural Design
20 270 (5.86%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 348 (7.56%) Python
2 250 (5.43%) SQL
3 185 (4.02%) PowerShell
4 168 (3.65%) Java
5 64 (1.39%) C#
6 62 (1.35%) JavaScript
7 43 (0.93%) Bicep
8 40 (0.87%) Bash
9 30 (0.65%) TypeScript
10 20 (0.43%) PL/SQL
11 19 (0.41%) Apex Code
12 16 (0.35%) Ruby
13 14 (0.30%) Kusto Query Language
14 12 (0.26%) Kotlin
14 12 (0.26%) R
14 12 (0.26%) Scala
15 10 (0.22%) T-SQL
16 8 (0.17%) ABAP
16 8 (0.17%) PHP
16 8 (0.17%) VB
Qualifications
1 1,462 (31.74%) Security Cleared
2 1,037 (22.51%) SC Cleared
3 310 (6.73%) DV Cleared
4 210 (4.56%) Degree
5 122 (2.65%) AWS Certification
6 121 (2.63%) Azure Certification
6 121 (2.63%) CISSP
6 121 (2.63%) TOGAF Certification
7 83 (1.80%) BPSS Clearance
7 83 (1.80%) Cisco Certification
8 78 (1.69%) Computer Science Degree
9 73 (1.58%) CISM
10 61 (1.32%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 56 (1.22%) Master's Degree
12 52 (1.13%) Microsoft Certification
13 49 (1.06%) CCNP
14 32 (0.69%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 32 (0.69%) ITIL Certification
15 31 (0.67%) CCIE
16 30 (0.65%) ISEB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 195 (4.23%) GDPR
2 168 (3.65%) NIST
3 154 (3.34%) Data Quality
4 142 (3.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 101 (2.19%) NCSC
6 61 (1.32%) QA
7 60 (1.30%) PCI DSS
8 38 (0.83%) COBIT
9 35 (0.76%) Accessibility
10 32 (0.69%) GRC
11 28 (0.61%) ISO 20022
12 26 (0.56%) Cyber Essentials
13 20 (0.43%) JSP 440
14 18 (0.39%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 16 (0.35%) HL7
16 15 (0.33%) HIPAA
16 15 (0.33%) MiFID
17 13 (0.28%) California Consumer Privacy Act
17 13 (0.28%) FINRA
17 13 (0.28%) SEPA
System Software
1 186 (4.04%) Active Directory
2 122 (2.65%) Docker
3 105 (2.28%) VMware Infrastructure
4 69 (1.50%) VMware NSX
5 37 (0.80%) vSphere
6 24 (0.52%) Virtual Desktop
7 16 (0.35%) Hyper-V
8 14 (0.30%) Virtual Machines
9 11 (0.24%) Oracle RAC
9 11 (0.24%) VMware ESXi
10 9 (0.20%) Varnish
11 8 (0.17%) Squid
11 8 (0.17%) vCloud
12 7 (0.15%) BitLocker
13 5 (0.11%) NFS
13 5 (0.11%) RACF
14 4 (0.087%) Firmware
15 3 (0.065%) Ceph
15 3 (0.065%) IAG
15 3 (0.065%) Postfix
Systems Management
1 283 (6.14%) Terraform
2 233 (5.06%) Kubernetes
3 121 (2.63%) Ansible
4 57 (1.24%) Single Sign-On
5 40 (0.87%) Microsoft Intune
6 36 (0.78%) Grafana
7 33 (0.72%) vCenter Server
8 32 (0.69%) FortiGate
9 30 (0.65%) OPNET
10 28 (0.61%) Prometheus
11 22 (0.48%) SCCM
12 19 (0.41%) Argo
13 18 (0.39%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 15 (0.33%) WMI
15 10 (0.22%) Istio
16 7 (0.15%) Consul
17 6 (0.13%) Kibana
17 6 (0.13%) Puppet
18 5 (0.11%) Progress Chef
19 4 (0.087%) Data Guard
Vendors
1 644 (13.98%) Microsoft
2 252 (5.47%) ServiceNow
3 248 (5.38%) SAP
4 202 (4.39%) Oracle
5 187 (4.06%) VMware
6 181 (3.93%) Salesforce
7 149 (3.23%) Databricks
8 134 (2.91%) Cisco
9 108 (2.34%) Google
10 90 (1.95%) CyberArk
11 71 (1.54%) MuleSoft
12 69 (1.50%) Palo Alto
13 64 (1.39%) Splunk
14 56 (1.22%) Red Hat
15 50 (1.09%) Remedy
16 49 (1.06%) Atlassian
16 49 (1.06%) Centrify
16 49 (1.06%) Workday
17 45 (0.98%) IBM
18 44 (0.96%) Sparx