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 1 April 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 13 16 11
Rank change year-on-year +3 -5 +5
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 4,829 2,927 4,502
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 10.81% 10.08% 10.17%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.74% 10.86% 10.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,191 1,923 2,905
10th Percentile £463 £475 £500
25th Percentile £513 £538 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £620 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year -0.80% -3.85% -1.89%
75th Percentile £723 £725 £738
90th Percentile £800 £799 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £601 £623 £650
% change year-on-year -3.41% -4.23% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 111 36 47
10th Percentile £49.40 £54.00 £50.32
25th Percentile £60.00 £61.50 £60.00
Median hourly rate £71.27 £68.75 £83.50
Median % change year-on-year +3.67% -17.66% +19.29%
75th Percentile £87.00 £80.15 £87.53
90th Percentile £97.50 £85.50 £95.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £71.27 £72.50 £83.77
% change year-on-year -1.70% -13.45% +19.66%

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 41,143 26,962 41,094
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.09% 92.84% 92.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,657 17,725 26,925
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £406 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -3.54%
75th Percentile £613 £630 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £485 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +2.11% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,568 945 2,533
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.03 £12.86
25th Percentile £19.74 £20.94 £16.25
Median hourly rate £38.63 £32.50 £32.90
Median % change year-on-year +18.86% -1.20% -25.00%
75th Percentile £65.00 £64.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £76.81 £71.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.00 £31.76 £32.90
% change year-on-year +25.94% -3.45% -21.68%

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 1 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 1 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 1 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 +3 4,148 £625 - 1,077
UK excluding London +8 2,288 £601 -3.41% 761
London 0 1,879 £625 -3.85% 476
Work from Home 0 1,347 £620 +0.98% 523
South East +4 706 £625 - 256
North of England +3 596 £600 - 194
Midlands +1 401 £575 -4.17% 95
North West +8 338 £610 +1.67% 100
West Midlands -3 301 £600 -0.50% 69
South West +1 281 £700 +14.29% 98
Yorkshire +7 235 £558 -10.72% 70
East of England +19 182 £550 -8.33% 71
Scotland +15 134 £650 +4.00% 35
East Midlands 0 96 £525 -7.49% 26
North East +4 32 £575 -7.95% 28
Wales +1 28 £550 -3.51% 24
Northern Ireland +8 11 £500 -26.47% 4

Architect Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 1 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 1,547 (32.04%) Security Cleared
2 1,188 (24.60%) Azure
3 1,092 (22.61%) SC Cleared
4 1,024 (21.21%) AWS
5 693 (14.35%) Roadmaps
6 675 (13.98%) Microsoft
7 630 (13.05%) Migration
8 615 (12.74%) Agile
9 559 (11.58%) Stakeholder Management
10 543 (11.24%) DevOps
11 509 (10.54%) Enterprise Architecture
12 502 (10.40%) CI/CD
13 474 (9.82%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 456 (9.44%) Data Modelling
15 447 (9.26%) TOGAF
16 442 (9.15%) Technical Leadership
17 417 (8.64%) AI
18 414 (8.57%) Analytics
19 395 (8.18%) GCP
20 389 (8.06%) Problem-Solving
21 384 (7.95%) Integration Patterns
22 381 (7.89%) Data Architecture
23 365 (7.56%) Architectural Patterns
24 360 (7.45%) Python
25 357 (7.39%) Microservices
26 334 (6.92%) DV Cleared
27 327 (6.77%) Architectural Design
28 288 (5.96%) Security Architecture
29 282 (5.84%) Cybersecurity
29 282 (5.84%) ServiceNow

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
1 124 (2.57%) Confluence
2 121 (2.51%) SharePoint
3 64 (1.33%) Microsoft Exchange
4 35 (0.72%) SAS
5 26 (0.54%) CMS
6 25 (0.52%) Apache Spark
7 21 (0.43%) Apache
8 18 (0.37%) Apache Airflow
9 17 (0.35%) Anypoint
10 16 (0.33%) Appian
10 16 (0.33%) ArcGIS
11 15 (0.31%) WebLogic
12 14 (0.29%) nginx
13 11 (0.23%) OpenStack
14 10 (0.21%) Adobe Experience Manager
15 7 (0.14%) Camunda
15 7 (0.14%) Ethereum
15 7 (0.14%) Hyperledger
15 7 (0.14%) Oracle SOA Suite
15 7 (0.14%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 50 (1.04%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (0.64%) Microsoft Project
3 29 (0.60%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 25 (0.52%) Microsoft Excel
5 20 (0.41%) MS Visio
6 6 (0.12%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.041%) PlantUML
7 2 (0.041%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.041%) Windchill
8 1 (0.021%) ArchiCAD
8 1 (0.021%) AutoCAD
8 1 (0.021%) OrCAD
8 1 (0.021%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 126 (2.61%) SAP S/4HANA
2 49 (1.01%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 26 (0.54%) Dynamics CRM
4 21 (0.43%) Workday HCM
5 18 (0.37%) Payment Gateway
6 17 (0.35%) Oracle EBS
7 15 (0.31%) SAP ERP
8 13 (0.27%) Salesforce CRM
9 12 (0.25%) SAP EWM
10 11 (0.23%) NetSuite
11 10 (0.21%) Oracle Receivables
11 10 (0.21%) Remedy ITSM
11 10 (0.21%) SAP PM
12 9 (0.19%) Maximo
12 9 (0.19%) Teamcenter
13 8 (0.17%) SAP PP
14 7 (0.14%) R3 Corda
14 7 (0.14%) SAP CRM
14 7 (0.14%) SAP QM
15 6 (0.12%) Distributed Ledger
Cloud Services
1 1,188 (24.60%) Azure
2 1,024 (21.21%) AWS
3 395 (8.18%) GCP
4 205 (4.25%) Power Platform
5 171 (3.54%) Entra ID
6 165 (3.42%) Serverless
7 155 (3.21%) SaaS
8 144 (2.98%) Microsoft 365
9 114 (2.36%) GitHub
10 113 (2.34%) IaaS
11 101 (2.09%) PaaS
12 100 (2.07%) Azure DevOps
13 95 (1.97%) Dynamics 365
14 85 (1.76%) AWS Lambda
15 80 (1.66%) OpenShift
16 74 (1.53%) Microsoft Purview
17 73 (1.51%) AWS CloudFormation
18 70 (1.45%) Virtual Private Cloud
19 69 (1.43%) Azure Synapse Analytics
20 68 (1.41%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 237 (4.91%) Firewall
2 172 (3.56%) Network Security
3 141 (2.92%) WAN
4 130 (2.69%) DNS
5 129 (2.67%) VPN
6 87 (1.80%) LAN
7 81 (1.68%) SD-WAN
8 39 (0.81%) BGP
8 39 (0.81%) DHCP
9 32 (0.66%) Wi-Fi
10 31 (0.64%) OSPF
11 30 (0.62%) MPLS
11 30 (0.62%) TCP/IP
12 27 (0.56%) SAN
12 27 (0.56%) VLAN
13 25 (0.52%) Wireless
14 22 (0.46%) VXLAN
15 20 (0.41%) Kerberos
16 19 (0.39%) NAS
17 18 (0.37%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 158 (3.27%) Power BI
2 154 (3.19%) Data Warehouse
3 142 (2.94%) Metadata
4 112 (2.32%) Data Lake
5 84 (1.74%) SQL Server
6 61 (1.26%) PostgreSQL
7 60 (1.24%) NoSQL
8 51 (1.06%) Azure SQL Database
8 51 (1.06%) Tableau
9 46 (0.95%) Oracle Database
10 41 (0.85%) Big Data
11 28 (0.58%) Amazon Redshift
12 24 (0.50%) Delta Lake
12 24 (0.50%) Relational Database
13 23 (0.48%) BigQuery
13 23 (0.48%) DynamoDB
13 23 (0.48%) GIS
14 21 (0.43%) Electronic Patient Records
14 21 (0.43%) Metadata Repository
14 21 (0.43%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 139 (2.88%) JIRA
2 96 (1.99%) Jenkins
3 49 (1.01%) Git
4 48 (0.99%) GitLab
5 25 (0.52%) ERwin
6 11 (0.23%) Bitbucket
6 11 (0.23%) SonarQube
7 10 (0.21%) Artifactory
8 9 (0.19%) MLflow
9 6 (0.12%) Postman
9 6 (0.12%) REST Assured
10 5 (0.10%) Cucumber
10 5 (0.10%) PowerDesigner
10 5 (0.10%) Rational DOORS
10 5 (0.10%) Selenium
10 5 (0.10%) Sonatype Nexus
11 4 (0.083%) Maven
11 4 (0.083%) Snyk
11 4 (0.083%) Terragrunt
12 3 (0.062%) ER Studio
General
1 1,026 (21.25%) Social Skills
2 738 (15.28%) Finance
3 561 (11.62%) Public Sector
4 324 (6.71%) Analytical Skills
5 283 (5.86%) Banking
6 159 (3.29%) Documentation Skills
7 114 (2.36%) Influencing Skills
7 114 (2.36%) Legal
8 98 (2.03%) Retail
9 86 (1.78%) Military
10 82 (1.70%) Telecoms
11 73 (1.51%) Presentation Skills
12 64 (1.33%) Law
12 64 (1.33%) Marketing
13 62 (1.28%) Manufacturing
14 47 (0.97%) Financial Institution
15 34 (0.70%) Billing
16 33 (0.68%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 31 (0.64%) Investment Banking
18 28 (0.58%) Aerospace
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 239 (4.95%) REST
2 180 (3.73%) Middleware
3 120 (2.48%) SOAP
4 102 (2.11%) Kafka
5 100 (2.07%) .NET
6 82 (1.70%) OpenID
7 79 (1.64%) LDAP
8 74 (1.53%) OAuth
9 61 (1.26%) SAML
10 57 (1.18%) JSON
11 51 (1.06%) React
12 46 (0.95%) AngularJS
12 46 (0.95%) OAuth2
13 43 (0.89%) RESTful
14 36 (0.75%) Web Services
15 35 (0.72%) SailPoint
16 29 (0.60%) Spring
17 27 (0.56%) Oracle Fusion
17 27 (0.56%) PySpark
18 24 (0.50%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 373 (7.72%) Cloud Native
2 164 (3.40%) Data Centre
3 154 (3.19%) Product Ownership
4 129 (2.67%) Onboarding
5 110 (2.28%) Enterprise Software
6 106 (2.20%) Legacy Systems
7 99 (2.05%) Management Information System
8 95 (1.97%) Distributed Systems
8 95 (1.97%) Hybrid Cloud
9 92 (1.91%) Public Cloud
10 89 (1.84%) PKI
11 79 (1.64%) Security Posture
12 70 (1.45%) Data Protection Act
13 67 (1.39%) Operational Technology
14 64 (1.33%) CMDB
15 51 (1.06%) AI Agents
15 51 (1.06%) Self-Motivation
16 45 (0.93%) Data Structures
17 42 (0.87%) NHS
18 41 (0.85%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 188 (3.89%) Windows
2 128 (2.65%) Linux
3 45 (0.93%) Windows Server
4 35 (0.72%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 30 (0.62%) Android
5 30 (0.62%) Apple iOS
6 17 (0.35%) Unix
7 15 (0.31%) Windows 10
7 15 (0.31%) Windows 7
8 14 (0.29%) Windows Server 2016
9 13 (0.27%) VMS
10 11 (0.23%) Windows Server 2019
11 10 (0.21%) zOS
12 9 (0.19%) Mac OS
13 3 (0.062%) Ubuntu
13 3 (0.062%) Windows Server 2012
14 2 (0.041%) CentOS
15 1 (0.021%) Data ONTAP
15 1 (0.021%) Kali Linux
15 1 (0.021%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 693 (14.35%) Roadmaps
2 630 (13.05%) Migration
3 615 (12.74%) Agile
4 559 (11.58%) Stakeholder Management
5 543 (11.24%) DevOps
6 509 (10.54%) Enterprise Architecture
7 502 (10.40%) CI/CD
8 474 (9.82%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 456 (9.44%) Data Modelling
10 447 (9.26%) TOGAF
11 442 (9.15%) Technical Leadership
12 417 (8.64%) AI
13 414 (8.57%) Analytics
14 389 (8.06%) Problem-Solving
15 384 (7.95%) Integration Patterns
16 381 (7.89%) Data Architecture
17 365 (7.56%) Architectural Patterns
18 357 (7.39%) Microservices
19 327 (6.77%) Architectural Design
20 288 (5.96%) Security Architecture
Programming Languages
1 360 (7.45%) Python
2 259 (5.36%) SQL
3 190 (3.93%) PowerShell
4 186 (3.85%) Java
5 70 (1.45%) JavaScript
6 62 (1.28%) C#
7 42 (0.87%) Bash
8 41 (0.85%) Bicep
9 30 (0.62%) TypeScript
10 22 (0.46%) Ruby
11 18 (0.37%) PL/SQL
12 17 (0.35%) Apex Code
13 13 (0.27%) Kotlin
13 13 (0.27%) Kusto Query Language
13 13 (0.27%) Scala
14 11 (0.23%) R
15 9 (0.19%) ABAP
15 9 (0.19%) Shell Script
15 9 (0.19%) T-SQL
16 8 (0.17%) VB
Qualifications
1 1,547 (32.04%) Security Cleared
2 1,092 (22.61%) SC Cleared
3 334 (6.92%) DV Cleared
4 207 (4.29%) Degree
5 128 (2.65%) CISSP
6 121 (2.51%) TOGAF Certification
7 120 (2.48%) Azure Certification
8 116 (2.40%) AWS Certification
9 88 (1.82%) BPSS Clearance
9 88 (1.82%) Cisco Certification
10 74 (1.53%) Computer Science Degree
11 72 (1.49%) CISM
12 56 (1.16%) Master's Degree
13 54 (1.12%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 53 (1.10%) Microsoft Certification
15 52 (1.08%) CCNP
16 34 (0.70%) (ISC)2 CCSP
17 33 (0.68%) ISEB
17 33 (0.68%) ITIL Certification
18 31 (0.64%) CCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 194 (4.02%) GDPR
2 184 (3.81%) NIST
3 154 (3.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 153 (3.17%) Data Quality
5 104 (2.15%) NCSC
6 68 (1.41%) QA
7 58 (1.20%) PCI DSS
8 40 (0.83%) COBIT
9 33 (0.68%) GRC
10 31 (0.64%) Accessibility
11 30 (0.62%) ISO 20022
12 27 (0.56%) Cyber Essentials
13 20 (0.41%) JSP 440
14 19 (0.39%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 18 (0.37%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 18 (0.37%) NIST 800
16 17 (0.35%) HL7
17 15 (0.31%) SEPA
18 14 (0.29%) HIPAA
18 14 (0.29%) MiFID
System Software
1 196 (4.06%) Active Directory
2 125 (2.59%) Docker
3 108 (2.24%) VMware Infrastructure
4 74 (1.53%) VMware NSX
5 37 (0.77%) vSphere
6 24 (0.50%) Virtual Desktop
7 17 (0.35%) Hyper-V
8 15 (0.31%) Virtual Machines
9 13 (0.27%) VMware ESXi
10 11 (0.23%) Oracle RAC
10 11 (0.23%) Varnish
11 10 (0.21%) vCloud
12 9 (0.19%) Squid
13 7 (0.14%) BitLocker
13 7 (0.14%) NFS
14 5 (0.10%) Postfix
14 5 (0.10%) RACF
15 4 (0.083%) Firmware
16 3 (0.062%) IAG
16 3 (0.062%) Sendmail
Systems Management
1 282 (5.84%) Terraform
2 243 (5.03%) Kubernetes
3 123 (2.55%) Ansible
4 57 (1.18%) Single Sign-On
5 40 (0.83%) Microsoft Intune
6 39 (0.81%) Grafana
7 34 (0.70%) vCenter Server
8 32 (0.66%) FortiGate
9 30 (0.62%) OPNET
10 26 (0.54%) Prometheus
11 22 (0.46%) SCCM
12 19 (0.39%) Argo
13 18 (0.37%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 14 (0.29%) WMI
15 11 (0.23%) Istio
16 7 (0.14%) Consul
16 7 (0.14%) Puppet
17 6 (0.12%) Kibana
18 5 (0.10%) HAProxy
18 5 (0.10%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 675 (13.98%) Microsoft
2 282 (5.84%) ServiceNow
3 271 (5.61%) SAP
4 201 (4.16%) Oracle
5 200 (4.14%) VMware
6 186 (3.85%) Salesforce
7 171 (3.54%) Databricks
8 142 (2.94%) Cisco
9 112 (2.32%) Google
10 94 (1.95%) CyberArk
11 69 (1.43%) MuleSoft
12 68 (1.41%) Palo Alto
13 65 (1.35%) Splunk
14 59 (1.22%) Red Hat
15 52 (1.08%) IBM
16 51 (1.06%) Remedy
17 50 (1.04%) Workday
18 49 (1.01%) Atlassian
18 49 (1.01%) Centrify
19 48 (0.99%) Sparx