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 15 March 2026.

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

6 months to
15 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 15 16 14
Rank change year-on-year +1 -2 +3
Contract jobs requiring an Architect 4,574 3,011 4,389
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 10.58% 10.13% 9.87%
As % of the Job Titles category 11.51% 10.90% 10.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,016 1,938 2,826
10th Percentile £463 £475 £500
25th Percentile £513 £542 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £620 £625 £650
Median % change year-on-year -0.80% -3.85% -1.89%
75th Percentile £720 £725 £738
90th Percentile £800 £800 £799
UK excluding London median daily rate £600 £623 £650
% change year-on-year -3.75% -4.09% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 104 35 42
10th Percentile £49.40 £58.95 £50.72
25th Percentile £60.00 £63.75 £60.00
Median hourly rate £71.27 £72.50 £76.53
Median % change year-on-year -1.70% -5.27% +9.33%
75th Percentile £86.00 £83.63 £87.53
90th Percentile £95.00 £87.50 £95.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £71.27 £73.31 £81.27
% change year-on-year -2.78% -9.79% +16.09%

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 39,729 27,628 41,284
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.88% 92.94% 92.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,809 17,866 27,104
10th Percentile £313 £297 £270
25th Percentile £410 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.37%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £721 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £475 £485
% change year-on-year +1.05% -2.06% -3.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,476 879 2,491
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.32 £12.92
25th Percentile £19.08 £21.13 £16.25
Median hourly rate £35.71 £33.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +8.21% +1.54% -23.53%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £59.44
90th Percentile £75.79 £77.50 £71.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.00 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year +7.69% - -20.36%

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 15 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 15 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 15 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 3,917 £625 - 947
UK excluding London +7 2,194 £600 -3.75% 747
London -1 1,756 £626 -3.77% 368
Work from Home +1 1,271 £610 -2.40% 486
South East +5 674 £625 - 251
North of England +1 568 £600 - 165
Midlands 0 387 £575 -4.17% 95
North West +3 320 £600 - 83
West Midlands 0 288 £600 -3.61% 56
South West -1 265 £700 +13.13% 114
Yorkshire +8 225 £563 -6.25% 56
East of England +14 165 £540 -13.60% 75
Scotland +20 144 £650 +4.00% 29
East Midlands -2 95 £513 -8.48% 38
North East -3 29 £625 - 29
Wales +1 28 £550 +1.85% 25
Northern Ireland +7 11 £500 -26.47% 6

Architect Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 15 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 1,446 (31.61%) Security Cleared
2 1,180 (25.80%) Azure
3 1,027 (22.45%) SC Cleared
4 976 (21.34%) AWS
5 667 (14.58%) Roadmaps
6 639 (13.97%) Microsoft
7 597 (13.05%) Migration
8 589 (12.88%) Agile
9 559 (12.22%) Stakeholder Management
10 523 (11.43%) DevOps
11 480 (10.49%) Enterprise Architecture
12 478 (10.45%) CI/CD
13 441 (9.64%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 438 (9.58%) TOGAF
15 436 (9.53%) Data Modelling
16 413 (9.03%) Technical Leadership
17 395 (8.64%) AI
18 393 (8.59%) Analytics
19 383 (8.37%) Problem-Solving
20 375 (8.20%) GCP
21 367 (8.02%) Data Architecture
22 349 (7.63%) Integration Patterns
23 341 (7.46%) Python
24 335 (7.32%) Microservices
25 330 (7.21%) Architectural Patterns
26 306 (6.69%) DV Cleared
27 281 (6.14%) Architectural Design
27 281 (6.14%) Terraform
28 262 (5.73%) Cybersecurity
28 262 (5.73%) 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
1 122 (2.67%) Confluence
2 120 (2.62%) SharePoint
3 63 (1.38%) Microsoft Exchange
4 34 (0.74%) SAS
5 25 (0.55%) Apache Spark
5 25 (0.55%) CMS
6 19 (0.42%) Apache Airflow
7 17 (0.37%) Apache
8 16 (0.35%) Anypoint
8 16 (0.35%) ArcGIS
9 15 (0.33%) Appian
9 15 (0.33%) WebLogic
10 13 (0.28%) nginx
11 11 (0.24%) OpenStack
12 10 (0.22%) Adobe Experience Manager
13 9 (0.20%) Smallworld
14 7 (0.15%) GeoServer
14 7 (0.15%) Oracle SOA Suite
14 7 (0.15%) Sitecore CMS
14 7 (0.15%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 50 (1.09%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (0.68%) Microsoft Project
3 28 (0.61%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 26 (0.57%) Microsoft Excel
5 20 (0.44%) MS Visio
6 7 (0.15%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.044%) PlantUML
8 1 (0.022%) ArchiCAD
8 1 (0.022%) AutoCAD
8 1 (0.022%) OrCAD
8 1 (0.022%) Siemens NX
8 1 (0.022%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.022%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 120 (2.62%) SAP S/4HANA
2 45 (0.98%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 23 (0.50%) Dynamics CRM
3 23 (0.50%) Workday HCM
4 18 (0.39%) Payment Gateway
5 17 (0.37%) Oracle EBS
6 16 (0.35%) Salesforce CRM
7 12 (0.26%) NetSuite
7 12 (0.26%) SAP EWM
8 10 (0.22%) SAP ERP
8 10 (0.22%) SAP PM
9 9 (0.20%) Maximo
9 9 (0.20%) Oracle Receivables
9 9 (0.20%) Remedy ITSM
10 8 (0.17%) Teamcenter
11 7 (0.15%) Oracle ERP
11 7 (0.15%) R3 Corda
11 7 (0.15%) SAP PP
12 6 (0.13%) Distributed Ledger
12 6 (0.13%) SAP QM
Cloud Services
1 1,180 (25.80%) Azure
2 976 (21.34%) AWS
3 375 (8.20%) GCP
4 178 (3.89%) Power Platform
5 169 (3.69%) Entra ID
6 166 (3.63%) Serverless
7 147 (3.21%) SaaS
8 143 (3.13%) Microsoft 365
9 106 (2.32%) GitHub
10 105 (2.30%) IaaS
11 98 (2.14%) Azure DevOps
12 91 (1.99%) PaaS
13 88 (1.92%) AWS Lambda
14 76 (1.66%) AWS CloudFormation
14 76 (1.66%) OpenShift
15 75 (1.64%) Amazon S3
16 74 (1.62%) Microsoft Purview
17 71 (1.55%) Dynamics 365
18 70 (1.53%) Virtual Private Cloud
19 68 (1.49%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 233 (5.09%) Firewall
2 165 (3.61%) Network Security
3 136 (2.97%) WAN
4 119 (2.60%) VPN
5 116 (2.54%) DNS
6 81 (1.77%) LAN
7 78 (1.71%) SD-WAN
8 38 (0.83%) BGP
9 34 (0.74%) DHCP
10 31 (0.68%) Wi-Fi
11 28 (0.61%) MPLS
11 28 (0.61%) OSPF
12 26 (0.57%) TCP/IP
13 23 (0.50%) SAN
14 22 (0.48%) VLAN
14 22 (0.48%) VXLAN
15 21 (0.46%) Kerberos
15 21 (0.46%) Wireless
16 19 (0.42%) Internet
17 18 (0.39%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 159 (3.48%) Data Warehouse
2 142 (3.10%) Metadata
3 131 (2.86%) Power BI
4 101 (2.21%) Data Lake
5 82 (1.79%) SQL Server
6 69 (1.51%) PostgreSQL
7 56 (1.22%) NoSQL
8 51 (1.11%) Tableau
9 50 (1.09%) Azure SQL Database
10 42 (0.92%) Oracle Database
11 37 (0.81%) Big Data
12 31 (0.68%) Amazon Redshift
13 26 (0.57%) GIS
14 24 (0.52%) DynamoDB
15 23 (0.50%) Delta Lake
15 23 (0.50%) Relational Database
16 22 (0.48%) Amazon Athena
17 21 (0.46%) Amazon Aurora
17 21 (0.46%) Metadata Repository
18 20 (0.44%) Electronic Patient Records
Development Applications
1 132 (2.89%) JIRA
2 96 (2.10%) Jenkins
3 53 (1.16%) GitLab
4 47 (1.03%) Git
5 22 (0.48%) ERwin
6 11 (0.24%) Bitbucket
7 10 (0.22%) SonarQube
8 8 (0.17%) Artifactory
8 8 (0.17%) MLflow
9 6 (0.13%) REST Assured
10 5 (0.11%) Cucumber
10 5 (0.11%) Oracle Forms
10 5 (0.11%) Postman
10 5 (0.11%) Selenium
11 4 (0.087%) PowerDesigner
11 4 (0.087%) Snyk
11 4 (0.087%) Sonatype Nexus
11 4 (0.087%) Terragrunt
12 3 (0.066%) ER Studio
12 3 (0.066%) Maven
General
1 1,013 (22.15%) Social Skills
2 704 (15.39%) Finance
3 548 (11.98%) Public Sector
4 317 (6.93%) Analytical Skills
5 261 (5.71%) Banking
6 151 (3.30%) Documentation Skills
7 105 (2.30%) Influencing Skills
8 103 (2.25%) Legal
9 89 (1.95%) Retail
10 88 (1.92%) Telecoms
11 85 (1.86%) Military
12 77 (1.68%) Presentation Skills
13 68 (1.49%) Marketing
14 62 (1.36%) Manufacturing
15 40 (0.87%) Financial Institution
16 38 (0.83%) Billing
16 38 (0.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 38 (0.83%) Law
17 30 (0.66%) Investment Banking
18 22 (0.48%) Local Government
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 232 (5.07%) REST
2 170 (3.72%) Middleware
3 123 (2.69%) SOAP
4 96 (2.10%) .NET
5 95 (2.08%) Kafka
6 82 (1.79%) OpenID
7 78 (1.71%) LDAP
8 77 (1.68%) OAuth
9 68 (1.49%) SAML
10 49 (1.07%) JSON
11 46 (1.01%) OAuth2
12 45 (0.98%) React
13 43 (0.94%) AngularJS
14 40 (0.87%) RESTful
15 34 (0.74%) SailPoint
16 32 (0.70%) Oracle Fusion
17 30 (0.66%) PySpark
17 30 (0.66%) Web Services
18 28 (0.61%) Spring
19 27 (0.59%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 356 (7.78%) Cloud Native
2 158 (3.45%) Data Centre
3 145 (3.17%) Product Ownership
4 131 (2.86%) Onboarding
5 117 (2.56%) Legacy Systems
6 100 (2.19%) Enterprise Software
7 92 (2.01%) PKI
8 89 (1.95%) Hybrid Cloud
9 86 (1.88%) Distributed Systems
9 86 (1.88%) Management Information System
10 83 (1.81%) Public Cloud
11 74 (1.62%) Security Posture
12 70 (1.53%) Data Protection Act
13 61 (1.33%) CMDB
13 61 (1.33%) Operational Technology
14 46 (1.01%) AI Agents
14 46 (1.01%) Self-Motivation
15 45 (0.98%) Data Structures
16 41 (0.90%) NHS
17 35 (0.77%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 183 (4.00%) Windows
2 120 (2.62%) Linux
3 41 (0.90%) Windows Server
4 33 (0.72%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 27 (0.59%) Android
5 27 (0.59%) Apple iOS
6 16 (0.35%) Windows 7
7 15 (0.33%) Windows 10
8 13 (0.28%) VMS
9 12 (0.26%) Windows Server 2016
10 11 (0.24%) Unix
11 10 (0.22%) zOS
12 9 (0.20%) Mac OS
12 9 (0.20%) Windows Server 2019
13 4 (0.087%) Ubuntu
14 3 (0.066%) Windows Server 2012
15 2 (0.044%) CentOS
16 1 (0.022%) Data ONTAP
16 1 (0.022%) Kali Linux
16 1 (0.022%) SUSE
Processes & Methodologies
1 667 (14.58%) Roadmaps
2 597 (13.05%) Migration
3 589 (12.88%) Agile
4 559 (12.22%) Stakeholder Management
5 523 (11.43%) DevOps
6 480 (10.49%) Enterprise Architecture
7 478 (10.45%) CI/CD
8 441 (9.64%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 438 (9.58%) TOGAF
10 436 (9.53%) Data Modelling
11 413 (9.03%) Technical Leadership
12 395 (8.64%) AI
13 393 (8.59%) Analytics
14 383 (8.37%) Problem-Solving
15 367 (8.02%) Data Architecture
16 349 (7.63%) Integration Patterns
17 335 (7.32%) Microservices
18 330 (7.21%) Architectural Patterns
19 281 (6.14%) Architectural Design
20 262 (5.73%) Cybersecurity
Programming Languages
1 341 (7.46%) Python
2 249 (5.44%) SQL
3 185 (4.04%) PowerShell
4 158 (3.45%) Java
5 66 (1.44%) JavaScript
6 64 (1.40%) C#
7 45 (0.98%) Bicep
8 40 (0.87%) Bash
9 33 (0.72%) TypeScript
10 20 (0.44%) PL/SQL
11 19 (0.42%) Apex Code
12 14 (0.31%) Kusto Query Language
12 14 (0.31%) Ruby
13 13 (0.28%) R
14 12 (0.26%) Scala
15 11 (0.24%) Kotlin
16 10 (0.22%) T-SQL
17 8 (0.17%) PHP
17 8 (0.17%) VB
18 7 (0.15%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 1,446 (31.61%) Security Cleared
2 1,027 (22.45%) SC Cleared
3 306 (6.69%) DV Cleared
4 210 (4.59%) Degree
5 128 (2.80%) AWS Certification
6 127 (2.78%) TOGAF Certification
7 124 (2.71%) Azure Certification
8 121 (2.65%) CISSP
9 82 (1.79%) BPSS Clearance
9 82 (1.79%) Cisco Certification
9 82 (1.79%) Computer Science Degree
10 72 (1.57%) CISM
11 61 (1.33%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 57 (1.25%) Master's Degree
13 55 (1.20%) Microsoft Certification
14 49 (1.07%) CCNP
15 33 (0.72%) ITIL Certification
16 31 (0.68%) (ISC)2 CCSP
16 31 (0.68%) CCIE
17 30 (0.66%) ISEB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 195 (4.26%) GDPR
2 163 (3.56%) NIST
3 153 (3.34%) Data Quality
4 137 (3.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 100 (2.19%) NCSC
6 62 (1.36%) QA
7 59 (1.29%) PCI DSS
8 38 (0.83%) COBIT
9 34 (0.74%) Accessibility
10 31 (0.68%) GRC
11 28 (0.61%) ISO 20022
12 25 (0.55%) Cyber Essentials
13 20 (0.44%) JSP 440
14 18 (0.39%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 16 (0.35%) HIPAA
16 15 (0.33%) MiFID
17 14 (0.31%) HL7
17 14 (0.31%) Sarbanes-Oxley
18 13 (0.28%) California Consumer Privacy Act
18 13 (0.28%) SEPA
System Software
1 192 (4.20%) Active Directory
2 131 (2.86%) Docker
3 101 (2.21%) VMware Infrastructure
4 68 (1.49%) VMware NSX
5 37 (0.81%) vSphere
6 24 (0.52%) Virtual Desktop
7 16 (0.35%) Hyper-V
8 14 (0.31%) Virtual Machines
9 11 (0.24%) Oracle RAC
9 11 (0.24%) VMware ESXi
10 9 (0.20%) Varnish
11 8 (0.17%) Squid
11 8 (0.17%) vCloud
12 7 (0.15%) BitLocker
13 5 (0.11%) RACF
14 4 (0.087%) Firmware
14 4 (0.087%) NFS
15 3 (0.066%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
15 3 (0.066%) IAG
15 3 (0.066%) Postfix
Systems Management
1 281 (6.14%) Terraform
2 238 (5.20%) Kubernetes
3 117 (2.56%) Ansible
4 57 (1.25%) Single Sign-On
5 40 (0.87%) Microsoft Intune
6 35 (0.77%) Grafana
7 32 (0.70%) FortiGate
7 32 (0.70%) vCenter Server
8 30 (0.66%) OPNET
9 28 (0.61%) Prometheus
10 22 (0.48%) SCCM
11 18 (0.39%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 18 (0.39%) Argo
12 15 (0.33%) WMI
13 10 (0.22%) Istio
14 7 (0.15%) Consul
15 6 (0.13%) Kibana
15 6 (0.13%) Puppet
16 5 (0.11%) Progress Chef
17 4 (0.087%) Data Guard
Vendors
1 639 (13.97%) Microsoft
2 262 (5.73%) ServiceNow
3 247 (5.40%) SAP
4 202 (4.42%) Oracle
5 183 (4.00%) VMware
6 181 (3.96%) Salesforce
7 149 (3.26%) Databricks
8 132 (2.89%) Cisco
9 109 (2.38%) Google
10 91 (1.99%) CyberArk
11 71 (1.55%) MuleSoft
12 64 (1.40%) Palo Alto
12 64 (1.40%) Splunk
13 55 (1.20%) Red Hat
14 50 (1.09%) Remedy
14 50 (1.09%) Workday
15 49 (1.07%) Atlassian
15 49 (1.07%) Centrify
16 44 (0.96%) IBM
16 44 (0.96%) Sparx