Architect Contract Job Trends

Architect
UK

The median Architect daily rate in the UK is £616, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 17 July 2026.

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

6 months to
17 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 11 17 12
Rank change year-on-year +6 -5 +4
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 5,845 3,143 4,345
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 11.10% 9.66% 10.30%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.99% 10.54% 11.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,826 2,034 2,815
10th Percentile £475 £463 £488
25th Percentile £525 £538 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £616 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year -1.44% -3.85% -
75th Percentile £713 £713 £738
90th Percentile £788 £788 £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £622 £600 £650
% change year-on-year +3.71% -7.69% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 175 22 94
10th Percentile £47.36 £40.31 -
25th Percentile £60.00 £61.75 £60.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £68.75 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -5.45% -1.79% -
75th Percentile £73.25 £85.50 £85.65
90th Percentile £96.36 £99.86 £88.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £72.50 £70.00
% change year-on-year -10.34% +3.57% -

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 48,733 29,823 39,253
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.54% 91.69% 93.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,478 18,993 25,331
10th Percentile £325 £287 £288
25th Percentile £420 £400 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +5.26% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,268 1,412 2,586
10th Percentile £15.92 £13.75 £13.25
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.30 £17.50
Median hourly rate £44.50 £25.31 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +75.82% -36.73% -5.88%
75th Percentile £67.84 £55.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £80.02 £73.75 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.33
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.63% +5.15%

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 17 July 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 17 July 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 IT jobs citing Architect within the UK over the 6 months to 17 July 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 +7 4,903 £617 -1.28% 1,061
UK excluding London +7 2,494 £622 +3.71% 586
London +6 2,459 £618 -5.00% 570
Work from Home +4 1,623 £600 -0.50% 488
North of England +7 716 £600 - 155
South East 0 713 £629 +4.83% 178
Midlands 0 412 £620 +7.83% 89
North West +3 382 £610 +1.67% 90
West Midlands -4 297 £626 +4.33% 65
South West -2 286 £625 +0.24% 74
Yorkshire +10 265 £600 - 36
East of England +20 185 £600 - 41
Scotland +9 172 £650 +4.00% 37
East Midlands +3 108 £600 +20.00% 24
North East +1 77 £600 -14.29% 29
Wales +3 33 £600 +11.11% 14
Northern Ireland +4 7 £475 -32.14% 8
Channel Islands +1 3 £575 -22.56%

Architect Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 17 July 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 1,762 (30.15%) Security Cleared
2 1,443 (24.69%) Azure
3 1,327 (22.70%) SC Cleared
4 1,292 (22.10%) AWS
5 861 (14.73%) Roadmaps
6 805 (13.77%) Migration
7 768 (13.14%) Stakeholder Management
8 739 (12.64%) Microsoft
9 690 (11.80%) Agile
10 673 (11.51%) AI
11 647 (11.07%) Enterprise Architecture
12 638 (10.92%) DevOps
13 614 (10.50%) CI/CD
14 594 (10.16%) Data Modelling
15 568 (9.72%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 567 (9.70%) Technical Leadership
17 542 (9.27%) Integration Patterns
18 533 (9.12%) Data Architecture
19 496 (8.49%) Analytics
20 495 (8.47%) TOGAF
21 488 (8.35%) Architectural Patterns
22 442 (7.56%) Microservices
23 433 (7.41%) GCP
24 391 (6.69%) Security Architecture
25 380 (6.50%) Problem-Solving
26 366 (6.26%) Architectural Design
27 363 (6.21%) Cybersecurity
27 363 (6.21%) Infrastructure as Code
28 362 (6.19%) Event-Driven
29 344 (5.89%) SAP

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 99 (1.69%) SharePoint
2 74 (1.27%) Confluence
3 63 (1.08%) SAS
4 41 (0.70%) Apache
4 41 (0.70%) Microsoft Exchange
5 40 (0.68%) Apache Spark
6 31 (0.53%) Apache Airflow
7 22 (0.38%) CMS
7 22 (0.38%) Palantir Foundry
8 19 (0.33%) Appian
9 15 (0.26%) nginx
10 13 (0.22%) OpenStack
11 10 (0.17%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 10 (0.17%) ArcGIS
11 10 (0.17%) WebLogic
12 9 (0.15%) Camunda
13 8 (0.14%) Anypoint
14 7 (0.12%) Documentum
15 6 (0.10%) JBoss
15 6 (0.10%) NetWeaver
Applications
1 22 (0.38%) MS Visio
2 14 (0.24%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 10 (0.17%) Chatbot
4 9 (0.15%) Microsoft Excel
4 9 (0.15%) Microsoft Office
5 7 (0.12%) Navisworks
5 7 (0.12%) Revit
5 7 (0.12%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.051%) PlantUML
6 3 (0.051%) Windchill
7 1 (0.017%) ArchiCAD
7 1 (0.017%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.017%) Notion
Business Applications
1 154 (2.63%) SAP S/4HANA
2 35 (0.60%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 33 (0.56%) Dynamics CRM
4 22 (0.38%) Oracle EBS
5 21 (0.36%) Payment Gateway
6 17 (0.29%) SAP ERP
7 16 (0.27%) Oracle ERP
7 16 (0.27%) Teamcenter
8 13 (0.22%) Oracle Payables
9 12 (0.21%) Remedy ITSM
10 11 (0.19%) Oracle Receivables
11 10 (0.17%) SAP BRIM
12 9 (0.15%) NetSuite
12 9 (0.15%) Oracle Retail
13 8 (0.14%) Maximo
13 8 (0.14%) SAP IBP
13 8 (0.14%) SAP MDG
14 7 (0.12%) SAP GRC
15 6 (0.10%) SAP CO
15 6 (0.10%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 1,443 (24.69%) Azure
2 1,292 (22.10%) AWS
3 433 (7.41%) GCP
4 285 (4.88%) Power Platform
5 209 (3.58%) SaaS
6 203 (3.47%) Entra ID
7 199 (3.40%) Serverless
8 137 (2.34%) GitHub
9 127 (2.17%) PaaS
10 120 (2.05%) Microsoft 365
11 119 (2.04%) Dynamics 365
12 106 (1.81%) Azure DevOps
13 103 (1.76%) Snowflake
14 97 (1.66%) AWS Lambda
15 95 (1.63%) IaaS
16 87 (1.49%) Amazon S3
17 72 (1.23%) OpenShift
18 67 (1.15%) Amazon EKS
18 67 (1.15%) Virtual Private Cloud
19 66 (1.13%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 221 (3.78%) Firewall
2 194 (3.32%) Network Security
3 115 (1.97%) VPN
4 112 (1.92%) DNS
5 108 (1.85%) WAN
6 80 (1.37%) LAN
7 55 (0.94%) SD-WAN
8 50 (0.86%) BGP
8 50 (0.86%) TCP/IP
9 44 (0.75%) DHCP
10 39 (0.67%) MPLS
11 37 (0.63%) VLAN
12 33 (0.56%) OSPF
12 33 (0.56%) Wireless
13 30 (0.51%) SAN
14 28 (0.48%) IPsec
15 27 (0.46%) NAS
16 25 (0.43%) Structured Cabling
17 23 (0.39%) VXLAN
18 21 (0.36%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 197 (3.37%) Power BI
2 182 (3.11%) Data Lake
3 175 (2.99%) Metadata
4 165 (2.82%) Data Warehouse
5 76 (1.30%) NoSQL
6 64 (1.09%) SQL Server
7 61 (1.04%) PostgreSQL
8 51 (0.87%) Big Data
9 46 (0.79%) Azure SQL Database
10 40 (0.68%) Amazon RDS
11 39 (0.67%) Oracle Database
12 38 (0.65%) BigQuery
13 30 (0.51%) Delta Lake
14 29 (0.50%) Amazon Redshift
15 25 (0.43%) GIS
15 25 (0.43%) Relational Database
16 24 (0.41%) MongoDB
16 24 (0.41%) Semantic Layer
17 23 (0.39%) Elasticsearch
17 23 (0.39%) Electronic Patient Records
Development Applications
1 100 (1.71%) JIRA
2 76 (1.30%) Jenkins
3 73 (1.25%) Git
4 34 (0.58%) GitLab
5 26 (0.44%) ERwin
6 12 (0.21%) SonarQube
7 9 (0.15%) Artifactory
7 9 (0.15%) Bitbucket
8 8 (0.14%) MLflow
8 8 (0.14%) Sonatype Nexus
9 7 (0.12%) Cypress.io
9 7 (0.12%) Postman
10 6 (0.10%) Hudson
10 6 (0.10%) Oracle Forms
10 6 (0.10%) PowerDesigner
11 5 (0.086%) Claude Code
11 5 (0.086%) Maven
11 5 (0.086%) REST Assured
12 4 (0.068%) Snyk
12 4 (0.068%) Storybook
General
1 1,092 (18.68%) Social Skills
2 889 (15.21%) Finance
3 664 (11.36%) Public Sector
4 336 (5.75%) Banking
5 310 (5.30%) Analytical Skills
6 231 (3.95%) Retail
7 158 (2.70%) Documentation Skills
8 143 (2.45%) Influencing Skills
9 128 (2.19%) Telecoms
10 119 (2.04%) Legal
11 109 (1.86%) Manufacturing
12 60 (1.03%) Marketing
13 58 (0.99%) Billing
14 51 (0.87%) Financial Institution
15 50 (0.86%) Military
16 44 (0.75%) Law
17 42 (0.72%) Aerospace
18 41 (0.70%) Presentation Skills
19 39 (0.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
20 31 (0.53%) Investment Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 281 (4.81%) REST
2 208 (3.56%) Middleware
3 136 (2.33%) .NET
4 133 (2.28%) Kafka
5 125 (2.14%) SOAP
6 114 (1.95%) OAuth
7 88 (1.51%) OpenID
8 72 (1.23%) SAML
9 71 (1.21%) Oracle Fusion
10 61 (1.04%) OAuth2
11 57 (0.98%) React
12 52 (0.89%) RESTful
13 51 (0.87%) JSON
13 51 (0.87%) LDAP
14 47 (0.80%) SailPoint
15 40 (0.68%) Web Services
16 37 (0.63%) Node.js
16 37 (0.63%) PySpark
17 36 (0.62%) .NET Framework
18 35 (0.60%) AngularJS
Miscellaneous
1 493 (8.43%) Cloud Native
2 204 (3.49%) Data Centre
3 168 (2.87%) Management Information System
4 162 (2.77%) Onboarding
5 148 (2.53%) Product Ownership
6 145 (2.48%) Legacy Systems
7 134 (2.29%) Distributed Systems
8 131 (2.24%) Hybrid Cloud
9 112 (1.92%) Enterprise Software
10 95 (1.63%) Data Protection Act
11 94 (1.61%) AI Agents
12 92 (1.57%) Operational Technology
13 89 (1.52%) CMDB
14 86 (1.47%) Public Cloud
15 64 (1.09%) Security Posture
16 63 (1.08%) Enterprise Cloud
17 51 (0.87%) Data Structures
18 46 (0.79%) Greenfield Project
18 46 (0.79%) IoT
19 45 (0.77%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 137 (2.34%) Windows
2 101 (1.73%) Linux
3 46 (0.79%) Windows Server
4 34 (0.58%) Android
5 33 (0.56%) Apple iOS
6 24 (0.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 21 (0.36%) Unix
8 12 (0.21%) zOS
9 8 (0.14%) VMS
10 7 (0.12%) AIX
11 6 (0.10%) Ubuntu
12 5 (0.086%) Data ONTAP
12 5 (0.086%) Windows Server 2019
13 4 (0.068%) Alpine Linux
13 4 (0.068%) Mac OS
13 4 (0.068%) Solaris
13 4 (0.068%) Windows Server 2016
14 2 (0.034%) CentOS
14 2 (0.034%) Windows 10
15 1 (0.017%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 861 (14.73%) Roadmaps
2 805 (13.77%) Migration
3 768 (13.14%) Stakeholder Management
4 690 (11.80%) Agile
5 673 (11.51%) AI
6 647 (11.07%) Enterprise Architecture
7 638 (10.92%) DevOps
8 614 (10.50%) CI/CD
9 594 (10.16%) Data Modelling
10 568 (9.72%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 567 (9.70%) Technical Leadership
12 542 (9.27%) Integration Patterns
13 533 (9.12%) Data Architecture
14 496 (8.49%) Analytics
15 495 (8.47%) TOGAF
16 488 (8.35%) Architectural Patterns
17 442 (7.56%) Microservices
18 391 (6.69%) Security Architecture
19 380 (6.50%) Problem-Solving
20 366 (6.26%) Architectural Design
Programming Languages
1 309 (5.29%) Python
2 282 (4.82%) SQL
3 267 (4.57%) Java
4 125 (2.14%) JavaScript
5 103 (1.76%) PowerShell
6 67 (1.15%) C#
7 58 (0.99%) Bicep
8 47 (0.80%) Bash
9 45 (0.77%) TypeScript
10 29 (0.50%) Apex Code
11 22 (0.38%) Ruby
12 12 (0.21%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 12 (0.21%) Scala
13 11 (0.19%) ABAP
13 11 (0.19%) Kotlin
13 11 (0.19%) PL/SQL
13 11 (0.19%) Shell Script
14 10 (0.17%) Go
15 9 (0.15%) C++
15 9 (0.15%) R
Qualifications
1 1,762 (30.15%) Security Cleared
2 1,327 (22.70%) SC Cleared
3 328 (5.61%) DV Cleared
4 198 (3.39%) Degree
5 145 (2.48%) CISSP
6 130 (2.22%) Azure Certification
7 129 (2.21%) AWS Certification
8 116 (1.98%) Cisco Certification
9 108 (1.85%) BPSS Clearance
10 91 (1.56%) TOGAF Certification
11 82 (1.40%) Computer Science Degree
12 69 (1.18%) CISM
13 53 (0.91%) CCNP
14 50 (0.86%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 48 (0.82%) Master's Degree
16 43 (0.74%) Microsoft Certification
17 42 (0.72%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
18 35 (0.60%) CCSP
19 23 (0.39%) CCIE
20 22 (0.38%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 204 (3.49%) NIST
2 191 (3.27%) Data Quality
3 185 (3.17%) GDPR
4 155 (2.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 127 (2.17%) NCSC
6 63 (1.08%) QA
7 61 (1.04%) GRC
8 41 (0.70%) PCI DSS
9 39 (0.67%) Accessibility
10 30 (0.51%) NIST 800
11 29 (0.50%) ISO 20022
12 28 (0.48%) SEPA
13 26 (0.44%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 20 (0.34%) IFRS
15 19 (0.33%) Cyber Essentials
15 19 (0.33%) HL7
16 18 (0.31%) COBIT
17 14 (0.24%) HIPAA
18 12 (0.21%) SLA
19 11 (0.19%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 169 (2.89%) Active Directory
2 125 (2.14%) Docker
3 89 (1.52%) VMware Infrastructure
4 58 (0.99%) VMware NSX
5 27 (0.46%) Virtual Desktop
6 24 (0.41%) vSphere
7 20 (0.34%) Hyper-V
8 15 (0.26%) Virtual Machines
9 10 (0.17%) VMware ESXi
10 9 (0.15%) Squid
11 8 (0.14%) NFS
12 7 (0.12%) Oracle RAC
12 7 (0.12%) Varnish
13 6 (0.10%) Postfix
13 6 (0.10%) vCloud
14 5 (0.086%) IAG
15 4 (0.068%) EMC RecoverPoint
15 4 (0.068%) RACF
15 4 (0.068%) Sendmail
16 3 (0.051%) SRDF
Systems Management
1 296 (5.06%) Kubernetes
2 284 (4.86%) Terraform
3 113 (1.93%) Ansible
4 61 (1.04%) Grafana
5 53 (0.91%) Single Sign-On
6 49 (0.84%) Prometheus
7 47 (0.80%) Microsoft Intune
8 22 (0.38%) Argo
8 22 (0.38%) vCenter Server
9 18 (0.31%) FortiGate
10 16 (0.27%) Jamf Pro
11 15 (0.26%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 10 (0.17%) Istio
13 8 (0.14%) SCCM
14 7 (0.12%) Consul
15 6 (0.10%) CASB
15 6 (0.10%) EMC VPLEX
15 6 (0.10%) HAProxy
16 5 (0.086%) MOM
16 5 (0.086%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 739 (12.64%) Microsoft
2 344 (5.89%) SAP
3 312 (5.34%) ServiceNow
4 284 (4.86%) Oracle
5 248 (4.24%) Databricks
6 184 (3.15%) Salesforce
7 161 (2.75%) VMware
8 137 (2.34%) Google
9 131 (2.24%) Cisco
10 67 (1.15%) CyberArk
11 66 (1.13%) MuleSoft
12 63 (1.08%) Splunk
13 57 (0.98%) IBM
14 53 (0.91%) Red Hat
15 49 (0.84%) Ariba
16 48 (0.82%) Palo Alto
16 48 (0.82%) Workday
17 44 (0.75%) Foundry
18 40 (0.68%) OpenAI
19 39 (0.67%) F5