Data Architect Contract Job Trends

Data Architect
UK

The median Data Architect daily rate in the UK is £613, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 24 July 2026.

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

6 months to
24 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 203 278 282
Rank change year-on-year +75 +4 +7
Contract jobs requiring a Data Architect 728 308 356
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.38% 0.94% 0.87%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.49% 1.03% 0.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 513 204 250
10th Percentile £463 £463 £500
25th Percentile £525 £513 £543
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £613 £600 £675
Median % change year-on-year +2.08% -11.11% -
75th Percentile £688 £716 £775
90th Percentile £775 £800 £913
UK excluding London median daily rate £620 £580 £663
% change year-on-year +6.90% -12.45% +6.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 2 11
10th Percentile - £41.31 £52.50
25th Percentile £46.00 £44.85 -
Median hourly rate £55.50 £51.98 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +6.77% -13.37% -6.98%
75th Percentile £69.33 £60.37 -
90th Percentile £70.00 £64.65 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £55.50 £38.96 £60.00
% change year-on-year +42.45% -35.07% -9.09%

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 48,872 29,931 38,007
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.61% 91.58% 93.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,492 19,056 24,610
10th Percentile £328 £283 £298
25th Percentile £420 £400 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.02%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £638
90th Percentile £725 £727 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,302 1,437 2,371
10th Percentile £15.81 £13.75 £13.60
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.30 £18.17
Median hourly rate £43.55 £25.15 £40.94
Median % change year-on-year +73.17% -38.57% -6.42%
75th Percentile £67.89 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.92 £73.75 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £42.91
% change year-on-year +78.93% -41.39% +7.28%

Data Architect
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Data Architect' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Data Architect job vacancy trend in the UK

Data Architect
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Data Architect job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Data Architect job vacancies in the UK

Data Architect
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Data Architect over the 6 months to 24 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Data Architect in the UK

Data Architect
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Data Architect job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Data Architect job vacancies in the UK

Data Architect
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Data Architect over the 6 months to 24 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Data Architect in the UK

Data Architect
Top 16 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Data Architect within the UK over the 6 months to 24 July 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 +68 622 £608 +1.29% 244
London +32 330 £591 -2.96% 137
UK excluding London +35 292 £620 +6.90% 134
Work from Home +30 212 £610 +1.67% 114
Midlands +5 81 £625 -3.85% 23
West Midlands -18 63 £638 +6.25% 19
North of England -34 61 £610 +3.83% 37
South East -32 46 £603 +7.22% 36
South West -4 45 £650 +23.81% 13
Yorkshire -23 38 £675 +1.89% 12
East of England +4 31 £550 - 7
Scotland -4 30 £550 +6.95% 8
North West -36 21 £588 +11.90% 15
East Midlands +4 18 £606 - 3
North East -31 5 £550 - 10
Wales -15 1 £475 +101.27% 1

Data Architect Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 24 July 2026, Data 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 Data Architect in the job title.

1 366 (50.27%) Data Architecture
2 324 (44.51%) Data Modelling
3 246 (33.79%) Azure
4 224 (30.77%) Security Cleared
5 222 (30.49%) Analytics
6 195 (26.79%) SC Cleared
7 189 (25.96%) Data Governance
8 172 (23.63%) Migration
9 162 (22.25%) AWS
10 149 (20.47%) Databricks
11 134 (18.41%) ETL
12 132 (18.13%) Metadata
13 131 (17.99%) Business Intelligence
14 129 (17.72%) AI
15 126 (17.31%) Data Quality
16 125 (17.17%) Data Warehouse
17 119 (16.35%) Integration Patterns
18 116 (15.93%) SQL
19 113 (15.52%) Data Lake
20 106 (14.56%) Data Integration
21 98 (13.46%) Logical Data Model
22 97 (13.32%) Data Engineering
22 97 (13.32%) Data Pipeline
23 89 (12.23%) Stakeholder Engagement
24 88 (12.09%) Microsoft
25 86 (11.81%) Power Platform
26 81 (11.13%) Data Strategy
27 80 (10.99%) GCP
28 79 (10.85%) Power BI
29 78 (10.71%) Data Management

Data 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 29 (3.98%) Apache Spark
2 27 (3.71%) SAS
3 24 (3.30%) Apache
4 17 (2.34%) Apache Airflow
4 17 (2.34%) Palantir Foundry
5 11 (1.51%) SharePoint
6 5 (0.69%) Confluence
7 2 (0.27%) Alfresco
8 1 (0.14%) Appian
8 1 (0.14%) JBoss
8 1 (0.14%) Jupyter
Applications
1 2 (0.27%) Microsoft Excel
1 2 (0.27%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 5 (0.69%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 4 (0.55%) SAP S/4HANA
3 2 (0.27%) SAP ERP
3 2 (0.27%) Workday HCM
4 1 (0.14%) Aladdin
4 1 (0.14%) iTrent
4 1 (0.14%) Maximo
4 1 (0.14%) SAP MDM
4 1 (0.14%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 246 (33.79%) Azure
2 162 (22.25%) AWS
3 86 (11.81%) Power Platform
4 80 (10.99%) GCP
5 57 (7.83%) Snowflake
6 48 (6.59%) Azure Synapse Analytics
7 42 (5.77%) Azure Data Factory
8 28 (3.85%) Amazon S3
9 25 (3.43%) Microsoft Purview
10 24 (3.30%) dbt
11 23 (3.16%) AWS Lambda
11 23 (3.16%) Serverless
12 18 (2.47%) SaaS
13 16 (2.20%) Azure DevOps
14 11 (1.51%) Amazon Kinesis
14 11 (1.51%) Azure Cosmos DB
14 11 (1.51%) GitHub
15 10 (1.37%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 10 (1.37%) Amazon EMR
15 10 (1.37%) Azure Machine Learning
Communications & Networking
1 5 (0.69%) Firewall
2 3 (0.41%) DSL
2 3 (0.41%) Network Security
3 2 (0.27%) BGP
3 2 (0.27%) DNS
3 2 (0.27%) OSPF
3 2 (0.27%) Structured Cabling
3 2 (0.27%) VPN
3 2 (0.27%) VXLAN
4 1 (0.14%) Radio Access Network
4 1 (0.14%) SAN
4 1 (0.14%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 132 (18.13%) Metadata
2 125 (17.17%) Data Warehouse
3 113 (15.52%) Data Lake
4 79 (10.85%) Power BI
5 42 (5.77%) NoSQL
6 24 (3.30%) Amazon Redshift
7 23 (3.16%) Big Data
7 23 (3.16%) BigQuery
8 21 (2.88%) PostgreSQL
9 20 (2.75%) Azure SQL Database
9 20 (2.75%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
10 18 (2.47%) SQL Server
11 16 (2.20%) Semantic Layer
12 15 (2.06%) Delta Lake
12 15 (2.06%) Snowflake Schema
13 14 (1.92%) Base SAS
14 13 (1.79%) Elasticsearch
15 12 (1.65%) Amazon Athena
15 12 (1.65%) Data Vault
15 12 (1.65%) Metadata Repository
Development Applications
1 25 (3.43%) ERwin
2 8 (1.10%) Git
3 7 (0.96%) GitLab
4 5 (0.69%) Jenkins
5 4 (0.55%) ER Studio
6 3 (0.41%) JIRA
7 1 (0.14%) Claude Code
7 1 (0.14%) MLflow
7 1 (0.14%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 120 (16.48%) Finance
1 120 (16.48%) Social Skills
2 94 (12.91%) Public Sector
3 54 (7.42%) Analytical Skills
4 38 (5.22%) Banking
5 34 (4.67%) Retail
6 15 (2.06%) Marketing
7 14 (1.92%) Influencing Skills
8 11 (1.51%) Documentation Skills
8 11 (1.51%) Police
9 10 (1.37%) Financial Institution
10 9 (1.24%) Legal
11 6 (0.82%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 6 (0.82%) Investment Banking
12 5 (0.69%) Presentation Skills
13 4 (0.55%) Manufacturing
14 3 (0.41%) Local Government
14 3 (0.41%) Military
15 2 (0.27%) Private Banking
15 2 (0.27%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (5.08%) Kafka
2 23 (3.16%) PySpark
3 15 (2.06%) Oracle Fusion
4 7 (0.96%) .NET
4 7 (0.96%) Middleware
4 7 (0.96%) REST
5 5 (0.69%) FHIR
5 5 (0.69%) JSON
6 4 (0.55%) OpenTelemetry
7 3 (0.41%) LangChain
7 3 (0.41%) LangGraph
7 3 (0.41%) Spark Streaming
8 2 (0.27%) Apache NiFi
8 2 (0.27%) FastAPI
8 2 (0.27%) JWT
8 2 (0.27%) Lightning Web Components
8 2 (0.27%) Model Context Protocol
8 2 (0.27%) pytest
8 2 (0.27%) Snowpark
8 2 (0.27%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 58 (7.97%) Cloud Native
2 37 (5.08%) Data Structures
3 23 (3.16%) Legacy Systems
4 21 (2.88%) Reference Data
5 16 (2.20%) Data Centre
6 15 (2.06%) NHS
7 14 (1.92%) IoT
7 14 (1.92%) Management Information System
7 14 (1.92%) Taxonomies
8 11 (1.51%) AI Agents
8 11 (1.51%) Onboarding
9 10 (1.37%) Data Protection Act
9 10 (1.37%) Mainframe
10 9 (1.24%) Distributed Systems
10 9 (1.24%) Greenfield Project
11 8 (1.10%) Hybrid Cloud
11 8 (1.10%) SCADA
12 7 (0.96%) Autonomous Agent
12 7 (0.96%) Digital Media
12 7 (0.96%) Distributed Computing
Operating Systems
1 8 (1.10%) zOS
2 3 (0.41%) Windows
3 1 (0.14%) AIX
3 1 (0.14%) HPUX
3 1 (0.14%) Linux
3 1 (0.14%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 366 (50.27%) Data Architecture
2 324 (44.51%) Data Modelling
3 222 (30.49%) Analytics
4 189 (25.96%) Data Governance
5 172 (23.63%) Migration
6 134 (18.41%) ETL
7 131 (17.99%) Business Intelligence
8 129 (17.72%) AI
9 119 (16.35%) Integration Patterns
10 106 (14.56%) Data Integration
11 98 (13.46%) Logical Data Model
12 97 (13.32%) Data Engineering
12 97 (13.32%) Data Pipeline
13 89 (12.23%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 81 (11.13%) Data Strategy
15 78 (10.71%) Data Management
16 75 (10.30%) Agile
16 75 (10.30%) Data Migration
17 74 (10.16%) Roadmaps
18 73 (10.03%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 116 (15.93%) SQL
2 58 (7.97%) Python
3 16 (2.20%) Java
4 7 (0.96%) Bicep
4 7 (0.96%) Data Analysis Expressions
5 6 (0.82%) R
5 6 (0.82%) Scala
6 3 (0.41%) T-SQL
7 2 (0.27%) Apex Code
7 2 (0.27%) Bash
7 2 (0.27%) COBOL
7 2 (0.27%) Cypher
7 2 (0.27%) Kotlin
7 2 (0.27%) PowerShell
7 2 (0.27%) SHACL
7 2 (0.27%) TypeScript
8 1 (0.14%) C++
8 1 (0.14%) Kusto Query Language
8 1 (0.14%) Shell Script
8 1 (0.14%) SPARQL
Qualifications
1 224 (30.77%) Security Cleared
2 195 (26.79%) SC Cleared
3 28 (3.85%) DV Cleared
4 20 (2.75%) BPSS Clearance
5 16 (2.20%) Degree
6 15 (2.06%) Azure Certification
7 11 (1.51%) AWS Certification
8 10 (1.37%) Master's Degree
9 7 (0.96%) DBS Check
10 6 (0.82%) TOGAF Certification
11 5 (0.69%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 4 (0.55%) Computer Science Degree
13 2 (0.27%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 2 (0.27%) VCAP
13 2 (0.27%) VCDX
14 1 (0.14%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 126 (17.31%) Data Quality
2 39 (5.36%) GDPR
3 15 (2.06%) QA
4 12 (1.65%) Accessibility
5 6 (0.82%) HL7
5 6 (0.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 5 (0.69%) IFRS
6 5 (0.69%) IFRS 17
6 5 (0.69%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 5 (0.69%) SNOMED CT
6 5 (0.69%) Solvency II
7 3 (0.41%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 3 (0.41%) ISO 20022
8 2 (0.27%) NCSC
8 2 (0.27%) NIST
8 2 (0.27%) SLA
9 1 (0.14%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.14%) Disclosure Scotland
9 1 (0.14%) Government Security Classifications
9 1 (0.14%) GRC
System Software
1 4 (0.55%) Docker
1 4 (0.55%) VMware Infrastructure
2 2 (0.27%) Active Directory
2 2 (0.27%) VMware NSX
2 2 (0.27%) vSphere
3 1 (0.14%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 25 (3.43%) Terraform
2 11 (1.51%) Kubernetes
3 8 (1.10%) Grafana
4 5 (0.69%) Ansible
5 4 (0.55%) Argo
6 3 (0.41%) Istio
6 3 (0.41%) Prometheus
7 2 (0.27%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.14%) NetBackup
Vendors
1 149 (20.47%) Databricks
2 88 (12.09%) Microsoft
3 42 (5.77%) Oracle
4 23 (3.16%) Informatica
5 21 (2.88%) SAP
6 20 (2.75%) Foundry
7 19 (2.61%) Google
7 19 (2.61%) Salesforce
8 18 (2.47%) Palantir
9 15 (2.06%) Talend
10 7 (0.96%) IFS
10 7 (0.96%) Sparx
11 6 (0.82%) Denodo
11 6 (0.82%) OpenAI
12 5 (0.69%) Confluent
13 4 (0.55%) IBM
13 4 (0.55%) NVIDIA
13 4 (0.55%) VMware
14 3 (0.41%) Red Hat
14 3 (0.41%) Remedy