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 21 March 2026.

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

6 months to
21 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 4,667 2,971 4,414
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 10.65% 10.13% 9.97%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.58% 10.90% 10.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,080 1,932 2,837
10th Percentile £463 £475 £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 £725 £726 £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 109 34 46
10th Percentile £49.40 £58.78 £51.51
25th Percentile £60.00 £61.75 £60.00
Median hourly rate £71.27 £71.25 £78.90
Median % change year-on-year +0.03% -9.69% +12.71%
75th Percentile £90.09 £81.83 £87.53
90th Percentile £97.50 £85.70 £95.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £71.27 £72.50 £83.50
% change year-on-year -1.70% -13.17% +19.29%

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 40,298 27,260 41,112
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.93% 92.94% 92.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,195 17,769 26,943
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £410 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -4.37%
75th Percentile £613 £630 £638
90th Percentile £721 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £475 £487
% change year-on-year +1.32% -2.46% -2.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,491 893 2,499
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.25 £12.92
25th Percentile £19.25 £21.05 £16.25
Median hourly rate £36.00 £33.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% +1.54% -23.53%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £76.58 £76.25 £71.77
UK excluding London median hourly rate £36.00 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year +10.77% - -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 21 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 21 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 21 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 3,995 £625 - 973
UK excluding London +7 2,230 £600 -4.00% 649
London 0 1,794 £625 -3.85% 464
Work from Home +1 1,302 £614 -1.76% 484
South East +5 685 £625 - 239
North of England +5 584 £600 - 160
Midlands -3 388 £575 -4.17% 79
North West +7 330 £603 +0.42% 90
West Midlands -3 291 £600 -1.15% 64
South West 0 274 £700 +14.29% 88
Yorkshire +6 231 £563 -6.25% 51
East of England +14 167 £531 -18.27% 48
Scotland +17 143 £650 +4.00% 26
East Midlands -1 93 £519 -6.53% 15
North East -4 31 £625 - 22
Wales +4 27 £538 -5.70% 20
Northern Ireland +5 11 £500 -26.47% 2

Architect Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 21 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 1,487 (31.86%) Security Cleared
2 1,185 (25.39%) Azure
3 1,057 (22.65%) SC Cleared
4 993 (21.28%) AWS
5 687 (14.72%) Roadmaps
6 652 (13.97%) Microsoft
7 607 (13.01%) Migration
8 592 (12.68%) Agile
9 553 (11.85%) Stakeholder Management
10 531 (11.38%) DevOps
11 501 (10.73%) Enterprise Architecture
12 482 (10.33%) CI/CD
13 458 (9.81%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 453 (9.71%) Data Modelling
15 452 (9.69%) TOGAF
16 429 (9.19%) Technical Leadership
17 410 (8.79%) AI
18 395 (8.46%) Analytics
19 386 (8.27%) Problem-Solving
20 380 (8.14%) GCP
21 378 (8.10%) Data Architecture
22 358 (7.67%) Integration Patterns
23 353 (7.56%) Python
24 346 (7.41%) Architectural Patterns
25 341 (7.31%) Microservices
26 315 (6.75%) DV Cleared
27 305 (6.54%) Architectural Design
28 286 (6.13%) Terraform
29 280 (6.00%) Cybersecurity
30 271 (5.81%) 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
1 122 (2.61%) Confluence
2 118 (2.53%) SharePoint
3 64 (1.37%) Microsoft Exchange
4 35 (0.75%) SAS
5 25 (0.54%) CMS
6 24 (0.51%) Apache Spark
7 18 (0.39%) Apache Airflow
8 17 (0.36%) Anypoint
8 17 (0.36%) Apache
9 16 (0.34%) ArcGIS
10 15 (0.32%) Appian
10 15 (0.32%) WebLogic
11 14 (0.30%) nginx
12 11 (0.24%) OpenStack
13 10 (0.21%) Adobe Experience Manager
14 9 (0.19%) Smallworld
15 7 (0.15%) Ethereum
15 7 (0.15%) NetWeaver
15 7 (0.15%) Oracle SOA Suite
15 7 (0.15%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 50 (1.07%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (0.66%) Microsoft Project
3 30 (0.64%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 25 (0.54%) Microsoft Excel
5 22 (0.47%) MS Visio
6 7 (0.15%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.043%) PlantUML
8 1 (0.021%) ArchiCAD
8 1 (0.021%) AutoCAD
8 1 (0.021%) OrCAD
8 1 (0.021%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.021%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.021%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 118 (2.53%) SAP S/4HANA
2 45 (0.96%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 25 (0.54%) Dynamics CRM
4 23 (0.49%) Workday HCM
5 19 (0.41%) Payment Gateway
6 18 (0.39%) Oracle EBS
7 14 (0.30%) Salesforce CRM
8 12 (0.26%) SAP EWM
9 11 (0.24%) NetSuite
9 11 (0.24%) SAP ERP
10 10 (0.21%) SAP PM
11 9 (0.19%) Maximo
11 9 (0.19%) Oracle Receivables
11 9 (0.19%) Remedy ITSM
12 8 (0.17%) Teamcenter
13 7 (0.15%) R3 Corda
13 7 (0.15%) SAP CRM
13 7 (0.15%) SAP PP
14 6 (0.13%) Distributed Ledger
14 6 (0.13%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 1,185 (25.39%) Azure
2 993 (21.28%) AWS
3 380 (8.14%) GCP
4 188 (4.03%) Power Platform
5 169 (3.62%) Serverless
6 168 (3.60%) Entra ID
7 147 (3.15%) SaaS
8 146 (3.13%) Microsoft 365
9 107 (2.29%) GitHub
10 106 (2.27%) IaaS
11 100 (2.14%) Azure DevOps
12 92 (1.97%) PaaS
13 88 (1.89%) AWS Lambda
14 82 (1.76%) Dynamics 365
15 80 (1.71%) OpenShift
16 76 (1.63%) AWS CloudFormation
17 74 (1.59%) Amazon S3
17 74 (1.59%) Microsoft Purview
18 71 (1.52%) Virtual Private Cloud
19 69 (1.48%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 236 (5.06%) Firewall
2 170 (3.64%) Network Security
3 137 (2.94%) WAN
4 124 (2.66%) VPN
5 122 (2.61%) DNS
6 83 (1.78%) LAN
7 79 (1.69%) SD-WAN
8 38 (0.81%) BGP
9 34 (0.73%) DHCP
10 32 (0.69%) Wi-Fi
11 29 (0.62%) OSPF
12 28 (0.60%) MPLS
12 28 (0.60%) TCP/IP
13 24 (0.51%) SAN
14 23 (0.49%) VXLAN
15 22 (0.47%) Kerberos
15 22 (0.47%) VLAN
15 22 (0.47%) Wireless
16 20 (0.43%) Internet
17 19 (0.41%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 157 (3.36%) Data Warehouse
2 143 (3.06%) Metadata
3 140 (3.00%) Power BI
4 104 (2.23%) Data Lake
5 82 (1.76%) SQL Server
6 70 (1.50%) PostgreSQL
7 58 (1.24%) NoSQL
8 51 (1.09%) Azure SQL Database
9 50 (1.07%) Tableau
10 44 (0.94%) Oracle Database
11 38 (0.81%) Big Data
12 31 (0.66%) Amazon Redshift
13 26 (0.56%) GIS
14 23 (0.49%) Delta Lake
14 23 (0.49%) Relational Database
15 22 (0.47%) Amazon Athena
15 22 (0.47%) DynamoDB
16 21 (0.45%) Electronic Patient Records
16 21 (0.45%) Metadata Repository
17 20 (0.43%) Amazon Aurora
Development Applications
1 135 (2.89%) JIRA
2 98 (2.10%) Jenkins
3 51 (1.09%) GitLab
4 50 (1.07%) Git
5 26 (0.56%) ERwin
6 12 (0.26%) Bitbucket
7 11 (0.24%) SonarQube
8 10 (0.21%) Artifactory
9 8 (0.17%) MLflow
10 6 (0.13%) REST Assured
11 5 (0.11%) Cucumber
11 5 (0.11%) Postman
11 5 (0.11%) PowerDesigner
11 5 (0.11%) Selenium
11 5 (0.11%) Sonatype Nexus
12 4 (0.086%) Maven
12 4 (0.086%) Oracle Forms
12 4 (0.086%) Rational DOORS
12 4 (0.086%) Snyk
12 4 (0.086%) Terragrunt
General
1 1,021 (21.88%) Social Skills
2 712 (15.26%) Finance
3 559 (11.98%) Public Sector
4 320 (6.86%) Analytical Skills
5 268 (5.74%) Banking
6 152 (3.26%) Documentation Skills
7 109 (2.34%) Influencing Skills
8 106 (2.27%) Legal
9 89 (1.91%) Military
9 89 (1.91%) Retail
10 86 (1.84%) Telecoms
11 75 (1.61%) Presentation Skills
12 68 (1.46%) Marketing
13 60 (1.29%) Manufacturing
14 47 (1.01%) Law
15 42 (0.90%) Financial Institution
16 37 (0.79%) Billing
17 34 (0.73%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 31 (0.66%) Investment Banking
19 24 (0.51%) Aerospace
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 230 (4.93%) REST
2 175 (3.75%) Middleware
3 121 (2.59%) SOAP
4 96 (2.06%) .NET
5 94 (2.01%) Kafka
6 83 (1.78%) OpenID
7 80 (1.71%) LDAP
8 77 (1.65%) OAuth
9 67 (1.44%) SAML
10 54 (1.16%) JSON
11 48 (1.03%) React
12 46 (0.99%) OAuth2
13 44 (0.94%) AngularJS
14 38 (0.81%) RESTful
15 33 (0.71%) SailPoint
16 31 (0.66%) Web Services
17 28 (0.60%) Oracle Fusion
17 28 (0.60%) Spring
18 26 (0.56%) Node.js
18 26 (0.56%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 371 (7.95%) Cloud Native
2 159 (3.41%) Data Centre
3 150 (3.21%) Product Ownership
4 126 (2.70%) Onboarding
5 116 (2.49%) Legacy Systems
6 110 (2.36%) Enterprise Software
7 95 (2.04%) Hybrid Cloud
7 95 (2.04%) Management Information System
8 94 (2.01%) PKI
9 90 (1.93%) Distributed Systems
10 86 (1.84%) Public Cloud
11 75 (1.61%) Security Posture
12 69 (1.48%) Data Protection Act
13 66 (1.41%) Operational Technology
14 60 (1.29%) CMDB
15 48 (1.03%) AI Agents
15 48 (1.03%) Self-Motivation
16 46 (0.99%) Data Structures
17 41 (0.88%) NHS
18 40 (0.86%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 186 (3.99%) Windows
2 126 (2.70%) Linux
3 43 (0.92%) Windows Server
4 34 (0.73%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 29 (0.62%) Android
5 29 (0.62%) Apple iOS
6 16 (0.34%) Windows 7
7 15 (0.32%) Windows 10
8 13 (0.28%) VMS
8 13 (0.28%) Windows Server 2016
9 12 (0.26%) Unix
10 10 (0.21%) Windows Server 2019
10 10 (0.21%) zOS
11 9 (0.19%) Mac OS
12 4 (0.086%) Ubuntu
13 3 (0.064%) Windows Server 2012
14 2 (0.043%) CentOS
15 1 (0.021%) Data ONTAP
15 1 (0.021%) Solaris
15 1 (0.021%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 687 (14.72%) Roadmaps
2 607 (13.01%) Migration
3 592 (12.68%) Agile
4 553 (11.85%) Stakeholder Management
5 531 (11.38%) DevOps
6 501 (10.73%) Enterprise Architecture
7 482 (10.33%) CI/CD
8 458 (9.81%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 453 (9.71%) Data Modelling
10 452 (9.69%) TOGAF
11 429 (9.19%) Technical Leadership
12 410 (8.79%) AI
13 395 (8.46%) Analytics
14 386 (8.27%) Problem-Solving
15 378 (8.10%) Data Architecture
16 358 (7.67%) Integration Patterns
17 346 (7.41%) Architectural Patterns
18 341 (7.31%) Microservices
19 305 (6.54%) Architectural Design
20 280 (6.00%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 353 (7.56%) Python
2 253 (5.42%) SQL
3 187 (4.01%) PowerShell
4 175 (3.75%) Java
5 64 (1.37%) C#
6 63 (1.35%) JavaScript
7 43 (0.92%) Bicep
8 41 (0.88%) Bash
9 30 (0.64%) TypeScript
10 20 (0.43%) Apex Code
11 19 (0.41%) PL/SQL
12 16 (0.34%) 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 (0.21%) T-SQL
16 9 (0.19%) ABAP
17 8 (0.17%) PHP
17 8 (0.17%) VB
Qualifications
1 1,487 (31.86%) Security Cleared
2 1,057 (22.65%) SC Cleared
3 315 (6.75%) DV Cleared
4 213 (4.56%) Degree
5 126 (2.70%) CISSP
6 124 (2.66%) TOGAF Certification
7 122 (2.61%) AWS Certification
7 122 (2.61%) Azure Certification
8 84 (1.80%) Cisco Certification
9 83 (1.78%) BPSS Clearance
10 80 (1.71%) Computer Science Degree
11 76 (1.63%) CISM
12 60 (1.29%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 57 (1.22%) Master's Degree
14 52 (1.11%) Microsoft Certification
15 49 (1.05%) CCNP
16 33 (0.71%) (ISC)2 CCSP
16 33 (0.71%) ITIL Certification
17 32 (0.69%) ISEB
18 31 (0.66%) CCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 200 (4.29%) GDPR
2 173 (3.71%) NIST
3 155 (3.32%) Data Quality
4 150 (3.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 103 (2.21%) NCSC
6 64 (1.37%) QA
7 60 (1.29%) PCI DSS
8 40 (0.86%) COBIT
9 34 (0.73%) Accessibility
10 32 (0.69%) GRC
11 29 (0.62%) ISO 20022
12 28 (0.60%) Cyber Essentials
13 20 (0.43%) JSP 440
14 18 (0.39%) HIPAA
14 18 (0.39%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 16 (0.34%) HL7
15 16 (0.34%) Sarbanes-Oxley
16 15 (0.32%) MiFID
17 14 (0.30%) SEPA
18 13 (0.28%) FINRA
System Software
1 189 (4.05%) Active Directory
2 124 (2.66%) Docker
3 106 (2.27%) VMware Infrastructure
4 71 (1.52%) VMware NSX
5 37 (0.79%) vSphere
6 24 (0.51%) Virtual Desktop
7 16 (0.34%) Hyper-V
8 14 (0.30%) Virtual Machines
9 11 (0.24%) Oracle RAC
9 11 (0.24%) VMware ESXi
10 9 (0.19%) Squid
10 9 (0.19%) Varnish
11 8 (0.17%) vCloud
12 7 (0.15%) BitLocker
13 5 (0.11%) NFS
13 5 (0.11%) RACF
14 4 (0.086%) Firmware
15 3 (0.064%) Ceph
15 3 (0.064%) IAG
15 3 (0.064%) Postfix
Systems Management
1 286 (6.13%) Terraform
2 238 (5.10%) Kubernetes
3 123 (2.64%) Ansible
4 59 (1.26%) Single Sign-On
5 40 (0.86%) Microsoft Intune
6 38 (0.81%) Grafana
7 33 (0.71%) FortiGate
7 33 (0.71%) vCenter Server
8 30 (0.64%) OPNET
9 29 (0.62%) Prometheus
10 22 (0.47%) SCCM
11 19 (0.41%) Argo
12 18 (0.39%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 15 (0.32%) WMI
14 11 (0.24%) Istio
15 7 (0.15%) Consul
15 7 (0.15%) Puppet
16 6 (0.13%) Kibana
17 5 (0.11%) Progress Chef
18 4 (0.086%) Data Guard
Vendors
1 652 (13.97%) Microsoft
2 258 (5.53%) ServiceNow
3 256 (5.49%) SAP
4 205 (4.39%) Oracle
5 191 (4.09%) VMware
6 182 (3.90%) Salesforce
7 151 (3.24%) Databricks
8 136 (2.91%) Cisco
9 108 (2.31%) Google
10 91 (1.95%) CyberArk
11 71 (1.52%) MuleSoft
12 70 (1.50%) Palo Alto
13 65 (1.39%) Splunk
14 58 (1.24%) Red Hat
15 52 (1.11%) Workday
16 50 (1.07%) Remedy
17 49 (1.05%) Atlassian
17 49 (1.05%) Centrify
18 48 (1.03%) IBM
19 44 (0.94%) Sparx