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 15 November 2026.

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

6 months to
15 Nov 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 12 20 15
Rank change year-on-year +8 -5 +2
Contract Architect jobs 6,202 3,119 3,603
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 11.23% 8.83% 9.85%
As % of the Job Titles category 12.24% 9.71% 10.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,063 2,111 2,141
10th Percentile £493 £463 £480
25th Percentile £538 £525 £538
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £625 £625 £625
Median % change year-on-year - - -3.85%
75th Percentile £700 £725 £738
90th Percentile £780 £800 £799
UK excluding London median daily rate £620 £600 £625
% change year-on-year +3.33% -4.00% -1.57%
Number of hourly rates quoted 217 23 28
10th Percentile £35.00 £61.05 £59.48
25th Percentile £60.00 £66.25 £60.00
Median hourly rate £70.00 £83.82 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -16.49% +19.74% -6.67%
75th Percentile £91.31 £91.92 £87.50
90th Percentile £96.36 £95.00 £97.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £70.00 £83.82 £70.00
% change year-on-year -16.49% +19.74% -8.53%

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job adverts matching a recognised job title. The table also shows what proportion of all contract IT job adverts they make up.

6 months to
15 Nov 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Contract job adverts in the UK matching a recognised job title 50,683 32,136 33,980
% of contract job adverts matching a recognised job title 91.79% 91.00% 92.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,745 20,384 20,503
10th Percentile £330 £278 £300
25th Percentile £425 £402 £411
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £638 £619 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4,363 1,875 1,271
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.22 £15.10
25th Percentile £19.25 £17.87 £20.30
Median hourly rate £41.00 £25.15 £36.00
Median % change year-on-year +63.02% -30.14% -19.10%
75th Percentile £68.75 £53.99 £65.00
90th Percentile £81.73 £70.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £35.00
% change year-on-year +59.05% -28.14% -21.35%

Architect Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract Architect job postings 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 Architect jobs over the 6 months to 15 November 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 for Architect jobs over the 6 months to 15 November 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 Architect jobs within the UK over the 6 months to 15 November 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
Job Ads
Past 6 Months
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England +7 5,058 £625 - 3,956
UK excluding London +9 2,659 £620 +3.33% 1,847
London +5 2,536 £625 -3.85% 2,170
Work from Home +7 1,698 £600 -4.00% 1,690
South East -2 772 £639 +6.46% 579
North of England 0 646 £600 - 439
Midlands +7 440 £627 +8.96% 249
South West +5 379 £625 -7.41% 178
West Midlands +9 350 £644 +10.70% 183
North West -3 326 £588 +1.47% 242
Yorkshire +9 245 £600 -2.04% 133
Scotland +22 236 £540 -6.09% 154
East of England +3 141 £616 +11.54% 183
East Midlands -2 87 £600 +20.00% 66
North East +15 79 £625 -13.79% 64
Wales +3 48 £625 - 24
Channel Islands +1 12 £700 -5.72%
Northern Ireland +8 7 £550 - 67

Architect Skill Set Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 15 November 2026, Architect contract job ads cited 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 Architect job ads.

RankSkillShareJob Ads
1Security Cleared32.7%2,027
2Azure26.7%1,659
3SC Cleared24.6%1,523
4AWS22.1%1,368
5Stakeholder Management21.3%1,319
6Roadmaps18.5%1,149
7Migration15.8%978
8Microsoft15.0%928
9Enterprise Architecture14.8%915
10Technical Leadership14.0%871
11AI13.5%835
12Data Architecture11.2%692
13Agile10.9%677
14Data Modelling10.7%663
15DevOps10.6%660
16Stakeholder Engagement10.5%652
17CI/CD10.5%649
18Integration Patterns10.0%619
19Analytics8.9%552
20Security Architecture8.8%544
21Architecture Governance8.6%533
22GCP8.5%528
22TOGAF8.5%528
24Architectural Patterns8.2%511
25Event-Driven7.8%486
26Data Governance7.4%457
27Infrastructure as Code7.1%441
28Microservices7.0%437
29Cybersecurity7.0%432
30DV Cleared6.8%422

Architect Skill Set Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category

The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.