Architectural Design Contracts

Architectural Design
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring Architectural Design skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Architectural Design over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 318 276 327
Rank change year-on-year -42 +51 +13
Contract jobs citing Architectural Design 215 357 459
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.73% 0.82% 0.77%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.81% 0.95% 0.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 142 244 308
10th Percentile £450 £411 £474
25th Percentile £475 £500 £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £588 £600 £600
Median % change year-on-year -2.08% - -4.00%
75th Percentile £750 £725 £700
90th Percentile £824 £784 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £600 £588
% change year-on-year -12.50% +2.04% -5.92%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 9 16
10th Percentile - £52.85 £35.00
25th Percentile £44.23 £59.00 £63.38
Median hourly rate £45.02 £70.00 £71.50
Median % change year-on-year -35.69% -2.10% -18.75%
75th Percentile £45.80 £72.90 £76.88
90th Percentile - £83.20 £80.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.02 £70.00 £63.37
% change year-on-year -35.69% +10.46% -34.07%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

Architectural Design falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 26,594 37,597 53,655
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 90.84% 86.31% 89.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,149 24,227 37,238
10th Percentile £308 £300 £325
25th Percentile £413 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £630 £638 £650
90th Percentile £743 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £483 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -3.50% - +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,071 2,443 1,746
10th Percentile £14.41 £12.75 £11.00
25th Percentile £18.21 £16.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £29.00 £35.65 £37.30
Median % change year-on-year -18.65% -4.42% +49.20%
75th Percentile £60.38 £59.98 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £37.34 £36.00
% change year-on-year -26.35% +3.72% +80.00%

Architectural Design
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Architectural Design as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Architectural Design in the UK

Architectural Design
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Architectural Design.

Daily rate trend for Architectural Design in the UK

Architectural Design
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Architectural Design over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Architectural Design in the UK

Architectural Design
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Architectural Design.

Hourly rate trend for Architectural Design in the UK

Architectural Design
Top 16 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Architectural Design within the UK over the 6 months to 1 May 2025. 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 -45 177 £614 +2.29% 244
UK excluding London +10 96 £525 -12.50% 153
London -39 84 £744 +23.96% 118
Work from Home -24 73 £563 -10.00% 123
North of England +5 42 £525 -10.64% 30
North West +3 28 £525 -0.94% 14
South East +28 19 £550 -12.00% 56
Midlands -2 15 £500 -9.09% 12
West Midlands +4 12 £500 -28.57% 7
Yorkshire +7 11 £491 -26.05% 16
South West +38 10 £525 +16.67% 25
Scotland +13 9 £588 -2.08% 13
East Midlands -3 3 £380 -22.37% 3
Wales +2 2 £480 - 7
North East -2 2 £625 +51.43% 1
Northern Ireland -9 1 - - 1

Architectural Design
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 8 (3.72%) Confluence
2 7 (3.26%) Microsoft Exchange
3 5 (2.33%) SharePoint
4 4 (1.86%) OpenStack
5 3 (1.40%) Exchange Server 2003
5 3 (1.40%) Exchange Server 2007
5 3 (1.40%) Exchange Server 2010
5 3 (1.40%) Exchange Server 2013
5 3 (1.40%) Office Communications Server
5 3 (1.40%) SharePoint Server
5 3 (1.40%) Skype for Business
6 2 (0.93%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 2 (0.93%) CMS
7 1 (0.47%) Apache
7 1 (0.47%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.47%) Appian
7 1 (0.47%) JBoss
7 1 (0.47%) Sitefinity
7 1 (0.47%) Tomcat
7 1 (0.47%) WebSphere
Applications
1 3 (1.40%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.47%) Trello
Business Applications
1 3 (1.40%) Maximo
1 3 (1.40%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.47%) Distributed Ledger
2 1 (0.47%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (0.47%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 1 (0.47%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 87 (40.47%) AWS
2 52 (24.19%) Azure
3 20 (9.30%) Azure DevOps
4 17 (7.91%) GCP
5 14 (6.51%) Amazon ELB
5 14 (6.51%) GitHub
6 12 (5.58%) Serverless
7 11 (5.12%) SaaS
8 7 (3.26%) Amazon S3
8 7 (3.26%) PaaS
9 6 (2.79%) Amazon EKS
9 6 (2.79%) Azure AKS
9 6 (2.79%) Cloud Computing
9 6 (2.79%) Entra ID
9 6 (2.79%) GitHub Actions
9 6 (2.79%) Google Kubernetes Engine
9 6 (2.79%) Power Platform
10 5 (2.33%) CloudBees
11 4 (1.86%) AWS Lambda
11 4 (1.86%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 6 (2.79%) DNS
2 5 (2.33%) DHCP
2 5 (2.33%) Firewall
3 4 (1.86%) TCP/IP
4 3 (1.40%) DDNS
4 3 (1.40%) SAN
4 3 (1.40%) SSL
4 3 (1.40%) VPN
5 2 (0.93%) HTTP
5 2 (0.93%) Internet
5 2 (0.93%) MQTT
5 2 (0.93%) Network Security
5 2 (0.93%) NGFW
5 2 (0.93%) WAN
5 2 (0.93%) Wi-Fi
6 1 (0.47%) Cisco ASA
6 1 (0.47%) Cisco Nexus
6 1 (0.47%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
6 1 (0.47%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
6 1 (0.47%) Multicast
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (9.30%) PostgreSQL
2 13 (6.05%) Redis
3 7 (3.26%) Metadata
3 7 (3.26%) NoSQL
4 5 (2.33%) Data Warehouse
4 5 (2.33%) Power BI
4 5 (2.33%) RDBMS
4 5 (2.33%) Relational Database
5 4 (1.86%) DynamoDB
5 4 (1.86%) SQL Server
6 3 (1.40%) Amazon RDS
6 3 (1.40%) MySQL
7 2 (0.93%) BigQuery
7 2 (0.93%) Data Lake
7 2 (0.93%) Metadata Repository
7 2 (0.93%) MongoDB
7 2 (0.93%) OLTP
7 2 (0.93%) Oracle Database
7 2 (0.93%) Power Query
8 1 (0.47%) Geospatial Data
Development Applications
1 12 (5.58%) JIRA
2 11 (5.12%) Jenkins
3 8 (3.72%) Git
4 6 (2.79%) JUnit
4 6 (2.79%) Mockito
5 2 (0.93%) Atlassian Bamboo
5 2 (0.93%) Maven
5 2 (0.93%) Postman
5 2 (0.93%) REST Assured
5 2 (0.93%) SoapUI
5 2 (0.93%) SonarQube
5 2 (0.93%) Subversion
5 2 (0.93%) Xcode
5 2 (0.93%) XCTest
6 1 (0.47%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.47%) GitLab
6 1 (0.47%) Hudson
6 1 (0.47%) Oracle Forms
6 1 (0.47%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 74 (34.42%) Social Skills
2 46 (21.40%) Finance
3 45 (20.93%) Banking
4 33 (15.35%) Analytical Skills
5 19 (8.84%) Public Sector
6 16 (7.44%) Investment Banking
7 5 (2.33%) Corporate Banking
7 5 (2.33%) Telecoms
8 4 (1.86%) Financial Institution
8 4 (1.86%) Presentation Skills
9 3 (1.40%) Military
10 2 (0.93%) Automotive
10 2 (0.93%) Aviation
10 2 (0.93%) Electronics
10 2 (0.93%) Marketing
10 2 (0.93%) Retail
11 1 (0.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.47%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.47%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.47%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 142 (66.05%) Architect
2 55 (25.58%) Solutions Architect
3 26 (12.09%) Developer
4 25 (11.63%) Lead
5 22 (10.23%) Senior
6 17 (7.91%) AWS Architect
6 17 (7.91%) Senior Architect
7 15 (6.98%) Java Developer
8 12 (5.58%) Lead Developer
8 12 (5.58%) Security Architect
9 11 (5.12%) Cloud Architect
9 11 (5.12%) Lead Java Developer
10 10 (4.65%) ServiceNow Architect
11 9 (4.19%) Applications Architect
11 9 (4.19%) Technical Architect
12 8 (3.72%) Full-Stack Engineer
12 8 (3.72%) Lead Architect
13 7 (3.26%) Consultant
13 7 (3.26%) Payments Architect
13 7 (3.26%) Payments Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (9.30%) Kafka
2 16 (7.44%) CSS
2 16 (7.44%) HTML
3 13 (6.05%) AngularJS
4 12 (5.58%) REST
4 12 (5.58%) Spring
5 10 (4.65%) ActiveMQ
6 9 (4.19%) Spring Boot
7 8 (3.72%) .NET
7 8 (3.72%) SAML
8 6 (2.79%) Hibernate
8 6 (2.79%) OAuth
8 6 (2.79%) OpenID
8 6 (2.79%) React
8 6 (2.79%) Web Services
9 5 (2.33%) FastAPI
9 5 (2.33%) Middleware
9 5 (2.33%) SOAP
10 4 (1.86%) jQuery
10 4 (1.86%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 16 (7.44%) Cloud Native
2 15 (6.98%) Onboarding
3 12 (5.58%) IoT
4 9 (4.19%) Distributed Systems
5 8 (3.72%) Algorithms
6 7 (3.26%) Blockchain
6 7 (3.26%) Data Structures
6 7 (3.26%) Derivative
6 7 (3.26%) Embedded Systems
6 7 (3.26%) Management Information System
6 7 (3.26%) Market Risk
7 6 (2.79%) Device Driver
7 6 (2.79%) Public Cloud
8 5 (2.33%) Data Centre
9 4 (1.86%) CMDB
9 4 (1.86%) Enterprise Software
9 4 (1.86%) Mobile App
9 4 (1.86%) Replication
10 3 (1.40%) Hybrid Cloud
10 3 (1.40%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 17 (7.91%) Linux
1 17 (7.91%) Windows
2 13 (6.05%) Windows Server
3 3 (1.40%) Android
3 3 (1.40%) Unix
3 3 (1.40%) Windows Server 2003
4 2 (0.93%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.47%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 88 (40.93%) Agile
2 50 (23.26%) DevOps
3 49 (22.79%) Problem-Solving
4 43 (20.00%) Migration
5 39 (18.14%) Architectural Patterns
6 34 (15.81%) Microservices
7 32 (14.88%) Computer Science
8 31 (14.42%) Enterprise Architecture
8 31 (14.42%) Technical Leadership
9 30 (13.95%) CI/CD
10 29 (13.49%) Roadmaps
11 26 (12.09%) TDD
12 23 (10.70%) High Availability
13 21 (9.77%) Continuous Improvement
14 20 (9.30%) SDLC
14 20 (9.30%) TOGAF
15 19 (8.84%) Analytics
15 19 (8.84%) BDD
15 19 (8.84%) Software Engineering
16 18 (8.37%) Data Migration
Programming Languages
1 43 (20.00%) Java
2 28 (13.02%) JavaScript
3 26 (12.09%) Python
4 12 (5.58%) SQL
5 9 (4.19%) C#
5 9 (4.19%) Kotlin
6 7 (3.26%) Shell Script
7 6 (2.79%) Embedded C
8 5 (2.33%) C
8 5 (2.33%) PowerShell
9 4 (1.86%) Groovy
9 4 (1.86%) Haskell
10 3 (1.40%) Go
10 3 (1.40%) Scala
11 2 (0.93%) Bash
11 2 (0.93%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 2 (0.93%) PL/SQL
12 1 (0.47%) C++
12 1 (0.47%) COBOL
12 1 (0.47%) JCL
Qualifications
1 50 (23.26%) Security Cleared
2 38 (17.67%) SC Cleared
3 37 (17.21%) Degree
4 15 (6.98%) Computer Science Degree
5 14 (6.51%) Numerate Degree
6 9 (4.19%) AWS Certification
6 9 (4.19%) CISSP
7 8 (3.72%) Master's Degree
8 7 (3.26%) Azure Certification
9 6 (2.79%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 6 (2.79%) CISM
9 6 (2.79%) DV Cleared
9 6 (2.79%) Microsoft Certification
10 4 (1.86%) TOGAF Certification
11 2 (0.93%) BPSS Clearance
11 2 (0.93%) CITP
11 2 (0.93%) SAFe Agilist
12 1 (0.47%) PMI Certification
12 1 (0.47%) PMP
12 1 (0.47%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (3.26%) QA
2 6 (2.79%) Accessibility
3 5 (2.33%) NIST
4 3 (1.40%) GDPR
4 3 (1.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (0.93%) GRC
5 2 (0.93%) HIPAA
5 2 (0.93%) ISO 20022
5 2 (0.93%) NCSC
5 2 (0.93%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 2 (0.93%) SEPA
6 1 (0.47%) California Consumer Privacy Act
6 1 (0.47%) Data Quality
6 1 (0.47%) Def Stans
6 1 (0.47%) EU AI Act
6 1 (0.47%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 18 (8.37%) Docker
2 13 (6.05%) Active Directory
3 6 (2.79%) Firmware
4 5 (2.33%) VMware Infrastructure
5 4 (1.86%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (1.40%) Brightmail
6 3 (1.40%) ISA Server
6 3 (1.40%) vCloud
6 3 (1.40%) VMware NSX
7 2 (0.93%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.93%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 32 (14.88%) Kubernetes
2 16 (7.44%) Terraform
3 5 (2.33%) Ansible
3 5 (2.33%) Grafana
4 3 (1.40%) Microsoft Clustering
4 3 (1.40%) Prometheus
5 2 (0.93%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 2 (0.93%) CASB
5 2 (0.93%) SCCM
5 2 (0.93%) SCOrch
5 2 (0.93%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.47%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 29 (13.49%) Microsoft
2 18 (8.37%) ServiceNow
3 13 (6.05%) Google
4 9 (4.19%) VMware
5 8 (3.72%) Oracle
6 7 (3.26%) SAP
7 5 (2.33%) Atlassian
7 5 (2.33%) Databricks
8 3 (1.40%) Adobe
8 3 (1.40%) CA Agile Central
8 3 (1.40%) F5
8 3 (1.40%) ForgeRock
8 3 (1.40%) Okta
8 3 (1.40%) Red Hat
9 2 (0.93%) Cisco
9 2 (0.93%) Dell
9 2 (0.93%) Dynatrace
9 2 (0.93%) Palo Alto
9 2 (0.93%) Salesforce
9 2 (0.93%) Splunk