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 11 January 2026.

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

6 months to
11 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 19 17 14
Rank change year-on-year -2 -3 +3
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 3,423 3,141 4,158
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 9.41% 9.88% 9.68%
As % of the Job Titles category 10.30% 10.66% 10.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,322 1,877 2,725
10th Percentile £461 £488 £500
25th Percentile £519 £550 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £625 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year - -3.85% -
75th Percentile £724 £738 £725
90th Percentile £790 £799 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £600 £625 £650
% change year-on-year -4.00% -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 42 29 37
10th Percentile £61.40 £59.65 £59.65
25th Percentile £65.25 £66.00 £70.00
Median hourly rate £83.82 £72.50 £76.53
Median % change year-on-year +15.61% -5.27% +9.33%
75th Percentile £94.52 £82.25 £83.11
90th Percentile £95.00 £87.50 £95.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £83.82 £72.50 £76.53
% change year-on-year +15.61% -5.27% +9.33%

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 33,229 29,465 40,074
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.31% 92.70% 93.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,002 18,045 26,741
10th Percentile £300 £291 £280
25th Percentile £405 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £618 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £480 £500
% change year-on-year -1.04% -4.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,953 888 1,677
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.60 £14.16
25th Percentile £18.25 £21.22 £18.93
Median hourly rate £26.50 £32.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -18.46% -23.53% +28.79%
75th Percentile £60.00 £62.31 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.60 £73.75 £76.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £31.51 £44.78
% change year-on-year -20.18% -29.63% +65.05%

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 11 January 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 11 January 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 11 January 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 -3 2,975 £625 - 777
UK excluding London -2 1,633 £600 -4.00% 607
London -1 1,348 £650 - 295
Work from Home -3 1,005 £620 -0.80% 415
South East +10 540 £600 -4.00% 206
North of England -9 385 £575 -7.26% 147
Midlands -4 277 £573 -4.58% 84
South West -1 239 £710 +13.60% 60
North West -4 233 £575 -6.39% 78
West Midlands -2 205 £582 -4.16% 58
Yorkshire -14 144 £563 -11.42% 47
East of England 0 98 £525 -16.00% 73
Scotland 0 94 £625 - 30
East Midlands -2 72 £496 -13.74% 25
Wales -2 24 £625 +0.81% 28
North East -21 8 £588 -2.02% 23
Northern Ireland -10 5 £500 -16.67% 3
Channel Islands - 2 £625 -

Architect Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 11 January 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 1,090 (31.84%) Security Cleared
2 928 (27.11%) Azure
3 787 (22.99%) SC Cleared
4 731 (21.36%) AWS
5 503 (14.69%) Microsoft
6 499 (14.58%) Roadmaps
7 463 (13.53%) Agile
8 446 (13.03%) Stakeholder Management
9 412 (12.04%) Migration
10 374 (10.93%) Enterprise Architecture
11 372 (10.87%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 363 (10.60%) DevOps
13 356 (10.40%) TOGAF
14 348 (10.17%) Data Modelling
14 348 (10.17%) Technical Leadership
15 333 (9.73%) Problem-Solving
16 320 (9.35%) CI/CD
17 276 (8.06%) Python
18 272 (7.95%) AI
19 271 (7.92%) Analytics
20 266 (7.77%) GCP
21 247 (7.22%) Data Architecture
22 239 (6.98%) Integration Patterns
23 237 (6.92%) Terraform
24 235 (6.87%) Microservices
25 224 (6.54%) DV Cleared
26 223 (6.51%) Mentoring
27 207 (6.05%) Architectural Design
28 202 (5.90%) SAP
29 199 (5.81%) Data Governance

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 98 (2.86%) Confluence
2 73 (2.13%) SharePoint
3 42 (1.23%) Microsoft Exchange
4 25 (0.73%) SAS
5 20 (0.58%) OpenStack
6 19 (0.56%) CMS
7 14 (0.41%) Apache Spark
8 13 (0.38%) Apache Airflow
8 13 (0.38%) ArcGIS
9 12 (0.35%) Anypoint
9 12 (0.35%) Apache
10 9 (0.26%) Smallworld
11 8 (0.23%) WebLogic
12 7 (0.20%) GeoServer
13 5 (0.15%) Ethereum
13 5 (0.15%) Hyperledger
13 5 (0.15%) Mule
13 5 (0.15%) Oracle Workflow
14 4 (0.12%) Documentum
14 4 (0.12%) Tomcat
Applications
1 45 (1.31%) Microsoft Office
2 32 (0.93%) Microsoft Project
3 29 (0.85%) Microsoft Excel
4 27 (0.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 19 (0.56%) MS Visio
6 11 (0.32%) Siemens NX
7 3 (0.088%) Chatbot
7 3 (0.088%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.029%) AutoCAD
8 1 (0.029%) FrameMaker
8 1 (0.029%) OrCAD
8 1 (0.029%) Revit
8 1 (0.029%) Trello
Business Applications
1 97 (2.83%) SAP S/4HANA
2 40 (1.17%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 31 (0.91%) Dynamics CRM
4 23 (0.67%) Workday HCM
5 16 (0.47%) Salesforce CRM
6 14 (0.41%) NetSuite
7 13 (0.38%) SAP CO
7 13 (0.38%) SAP PM
7 13 (0.38%) Teamcenter
8 12 (0.35%) Maximo
8 12 (0.35%) SAP FI
9 11 (0.32%) SAP FI/CO
10 10 (0.29%) Payment Gateway
11 9 (0.26%) Oracle EBS
11 9 (0.26%) Remedy ITSM
11 9 (0.26%) SAP EWM
12 8 (0.23%) Dynamics AX
12 8 (0.23%) SAP PP
13 7 (0.20%) Oracle Receivables
13 7 (0.20%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 928 (27.11%) Azure
2 731 (21.36%) AWS
3 266 (7.77%) GCP
4 136 (3.97%) Power Platform
5 134 (3.91%) SaaS
6 127 (3.71%) Serverless
7 114 (3.33%) Microsoft 365
8 103 (3.01%) Entra ID
9 87 (2.54%) GitHub
10 84 (2.45%) AWS Lambda
11 77 (2.25%) IaaS
12 75 (2.19%) Dynamics 365
13 72 (2.10%) Azure DevOps
14 68 (1.99%) Amazon S3
15 67 (1.96%) Microsoft Purview
16 60 (1.75%) AWS CloudFormation
16 60 (1.75%) PaaS
17 56 (1.64%) Azure Data Factory
18 53 (1.55%) Azure Synapse Analytics
19 51 (1.49%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 190 (5.55%) Firewall
2 126 (3.68%) WAN
3 104 (3.04%) Network Security
4 87 (2.54%) VPN
5 84 (2.45%) LAN
6 74 (2.16%) DNS
7 67 (1.96%) SD-WAN
8 36 (1.05%) BGP
9 28 (0.82%) Wi-Fi
10 27 (0.79%) MPLS
11 24 (0.70%) Internet
12 22 (0.64%) SAN
13 21 (0.61%) DHCP
13 21 (0.61%) VSAN
14 20 (0.58%) OSPF
15 19 (0.56%) SSL
16 14 (0.41%) IPsec
16 14 (0.41%) Kerberos
17 13 (0.38%) TCP/IP
17 13 (0.38%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 118 (3.45%) Data Warehouse
2 96 (2.80%) Power BI
3 86 (2.51%) Metadata
4 78 (2.28%) Data Lake
5 61 (1.78%) PostgreSQL
5 61 (1.78%) SQL Server
6 41 (1.20%) Amazon Redshift
6 41 (1.20%) Tableau
7 36 (1.05%) NoSQL
8 35 (1.02%) DynamoDB
9 33 (0.96%) Azure SQL Database
10 28 (0.82%) Oracle Database
11 27 (0.79%) Amazon Athena
11 27 (0.79%) Amazon RDS
12 26 (0.76%) Relational Database
13 25 (0.73%) Redis
14 22 (0.64%) Amazon Aurora
14 22 (0.64%) Delta Lake
15 21 (0.61%) GIS
16 20 (0.58%) Data Vault
Development Applications
1 112 (3.27%) JIRA
2 76 (2.22%) Jenkins
3 41 (1.20%) Git
3 41 (1.20%) GitLab
4 20 (0.58%) ERwin
5 9 (0.26%) Artifactory
5 9 (0.26%) Oracle Forms
5 9 (0.26%) SonarQube
6 6 (0.18%) CircleCI
6 6 (0.18%) Maven
7 5 (0.15%) Gradle
7 5 (0.15%) MLflow
7 5 (0.15%) MSI
7 5 (0.15%) SonarLint
7 5 (0.15%) Sonatype Nexus
8 4 (0.12%) Bitbucket
8 4 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
8 4 (0.12%) Terragrunt
9 3 (0.088%) ER Studio
9 3 (0.088%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 878 (25.65%) Social Skills
2 530 (15.48%) Finance
3 425 (12.42%) Public Sector
4 262 (7.65%) Analytical Skills
5 182 (5.32%) Banking
6 87 (2.54%) Documentation Skills
6 87 (2.54%) Legal
7 83 (2.42%) Telecoms
8 72 (2.10%) Military
9 71 (2.07%) Marketing
9 71 (2.07%) Retail
10 68 (1.99%) Influencing Skills
10 68 (1.99%) Presentation Skills
11 67 (1.96%) Manufacturing
12 44 (1.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 32 (0.93%) Financial Institution
14 28 (0.82%) Billing
15 23 (0.67%) Aerospace
15 23 (0.67%) Back Office
16 21 (0.61%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 178 (5.20%) REST
2 112 (3.27%) SOAP
3 100 (2.92%) Middleware
4 73 (2.13%) .NET
5 60 (1.75%) Kafka
6 55 (1.61%) JSON
7 54 (1.58%) LDAP
8 52 (1.52%) OAuth
9 43 (1.26%) RESTful
9 43 (1.26%) SAML
10 34 (0.99%) OpenID
10 34 (0.99%) React
11 32 (0.93%) AngularJS
12 30 (0.88%) Node.js
13 29 (0.85%) OAuth2
13 29 (0.85%) PySpark
14 28 (0.82%) Oracle Fusion
14 28 (0.82%) Spring Boot
15 27 (0.79%) Lightning Web Components
16 25 (0.73%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 248 (7.25%) Cloud Native
2 130 (3.80%) Product Ownership
3 116 (3.39%) Data Centre
4 104 (3.04%) Legacy Systems
5 87 (2.54%) PKI
6 84 (2.45%) Onboarding
7 80 (2.34%) Enterprise Software
8 77 (2.25%) Hybrid Cloud
9 65 (1.90%) Security Posture
10 56 (1.64%) Distributed Systems
10 56 (1.64%) Operational Technology
11 55 (1.61%) Management Information System
12 50 (1.46%) Public Cloud
13 41 (1.20%) Data Protection Act
13 41 (1.20%) Self-Motivation
14 36 (1.05%) CMDB
15 35 (1.02%) Data Structures
16 34 (0.99%) NHS
17 33 (0.96%) SCADA
18 30 (0.88%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 152 (4.44%) Windows
2 105 (3.07%) Linux
3 44 (1.29%) Windows Server
4 33 (0.96%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 16 (0.47%) Windows Server 2019
6 14 (0.41%) Windows 10
6 14 (0.41%) Windows 7
7 12 (0.35%) Windows Server 2016
8 11 (0.32%) Unix
9 10 (0.29%) VMS
10 6 (0.18%) Android
10 6 (0.18%) Apple iOS
10 6 (0.18%) Mac OS
10 6 (0.18%) Ubuntu
11 4 (0.12%) Solaris
12 3 (0.088%) CentOS
12 3 (0.088%) Windows Server 2008
12 3 (0.088%) zOS
13 1 (0.029%) MVS
13 1 (0.029%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 499 (14.58%) Roadmaps
2 463 (13.53%) Agile
3 446 (13.03%) Stakeholder Management
4 412 (12.04%) Migration
5 374 (10.93%) Enterprise Architecture
6 372 (10.87%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 363 (10.60%) DevOps
8 356 (10.40%) TOGAF
9 348 (10.17%) Data Modelling
9 348 (10.17%) Technical Leadership
10 333 (9.73%) Problem-Solving
11 320 (9.35%) CI/CD
12 272 (7.95%) AI
13 271 (7.92%) Analytics
14 247 (7.22%) Data Architecture
15 239 (6.98%) Integration Patterns
16 235 (6.87%) Microservices
17 223 (6.51%) Mentoring
18 207 (6.05%) Architectural Design
19 199 (5.81%) Data Governance
Programming Languages
1 276 (8.06%) Python
2 166 (4.85%) SQL
3 157 (4.59%) PowerShell
4 126 (3.68%) Java
5 61 (1.78%) JavaScript
6 44 (1.29%) TypeScript
7 42 (1.23%) C#
8 29 (0.85%) Bash
9 26 (0.76%) Apex Code
10 25 (0.73%) Bicep
11 18 (0.53%) PL/SQL
12 11 (0.32%) R
13 10 (0.29%) T-SQL
14 9 (0.26%) ABAP
14 9 (0.26%) Ruby
15 8 (0.23%) Kusto Query Language
16 7 (0.20%) Korn
16 7 (0.20%) PHP
17 6 (0.18%) C
17 6 (0.18%) C++
Qualifications
1 1,090 (31.84%) Security Cleared
2 787 (22.99%) SC Cleared
3 224 (6.54%) DV Cleared
4 181 (5.29%) Degree
5 110 (3.21%) CISSP
6 100 (2.92%) AWS Certification
7 98 (2.86%) Azure Certification
8 97 (2.83%) TOGAF Certification
9 65 (1.90%) Computer Science Degree
10 64 (1.87%) Cisco Certification
11 57 (1.67%) Microsoft Certification
12 53 (1.55%) CISM
13 47 (1.37%) BPSS Clearance
13 47 (1.37%) Master's Degree
14 46 (1.34%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 38 (1.11%) CCNP
16 32 (0.93%) CCIE
17 25 (0.73%) ISEB
17 25 (0.73%) ITIL Certification
18 20 (0.58%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 164 (4.79%) GDPR
2 133 (3.89%) NIST
3 123 (3.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 106 (3.10%) Data Quality
5 67 (1.96%) NCSC
6 59 (1.72%) QA
7 49 (1.43%) PCI DSS
8 29 (0.85%) COBIT
9 28 (0.82%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 27 (0.79%) Accessibility
11 22 (0.64%) JSP 440
12 21 (0.61%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 21 (0.61%) Cyber Essentials
12 21 (0.61%) GRC
13 20 (0.58%) HIPAA
14 15 (0.44%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 14 (0.41%) Sarbanes-Oxley
16 13 (0.38%) ISO 20022
17 11 (0.32%) PSD2
18 10 (0.29%) Def Stans
System Software
1 148 (4.32%) Active Directory
2 115 (3.36%) Docker
3 93 (2.72%) VMware Infrastructure
4 41 (1.20%) VMware NSX
5 32 (0.93%) vSphere
6 19 (0.56%) Virtual Desktop
7 18 (0.53%) VMware ESXi
8 15 (0.44%) Hyper-V
8 15 (0.44%) Virtual Machines
9 7 (0.20%) NFS
10 6 (0.18%) Oracle RAC
11 5 (0.15%) Lustre
12 4 (0.12%) Dovecot
12 4 (0.12%) Postfix
12 4 (0.12%) Varnish
12 4 (0.12%) vCloud
13 3 (0.088%) Ceph
13 3 (0.088%) Firmware
13 3 (0.088%) GPFS
13 3 (0.088%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 237 (6.92%) Terraform
2 168 (4.91%) Kubernetes
3 103 (3.01%) Ansible
4 49 (1.43%) Single Sign-On
5 33 (0.96%) OPNET
6 24 (0.70%) vCenter Server
7 18 (0.53%) FortiGate
7 18 (0.53%) Prometheus
7 18 (0.53%) SCCM
8 17 (0.50%) Grafana
8 17 (0.50%) Microsoft Intune
8 17 (0.50%) WMI
9 13 (0.38%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 10 (0.29%) Argo
11 6 (0.18%) Kibana
12 4 (0.12%) Data Guard
12 4 (0.12%) Istio
12 4 (0.12%) Oracle RMAN
13 3 (0.088%) Karpenter
13 3 (0.088%) Rancher
Vendors
1 503 (14.69%) Microsoft
2 202 (5.90%) SAP
3 192 (5.61%) ServiceNow
4 182 (5.32%) Salesforce
5 164 (4.79%) Oracle
6 154 (4.50%) VMware
7 117 (3.42%) Cisco
8 100 (2.92%) Databricks
9 81 (2.37%) CyberArk
10 76 (2.22%) Google
11 64 (1.87%) Palo Alto
12 53 (1.55%) MuleSoft
13 49 (1.43%) Centrify
14 48 (1.40%) Remedy
15 46 (1.34%) Splunk
16 45 (1.31%) Workday
17 40 (1.17%) Atlassian
18 39 (1.14%) Sparx
19 37 (1.08%) Fortinet
20 36 (1.05%) Pega