Data Architect Contract Job Trends

Data Architect
UK

The median Data Architect daily rate in the UK is £600, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 5 May 2026.

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

6 months to
5 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 232 241 216
Rank change year-on-year +9 -25 +62
Contract jobs requiring a Data Architect 511 318 465
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.07% 1.09% 1.08%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.16% 1.17% 1.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 360 223 328
10th Percentile £456 £476 £500
25th Percentile £512 £519 £554
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £600 £691
Median % change year-on-year - -13.20% +2.41%
75th Percentile £675 £700 £775
90th Percentile £800 £780 £895
UK excluding London median daily rate £591 £585 £675
% change year-on-year +0.94% -13.33% +3.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 4 6
10th Percentile - £66.25 £56.25
25th Percentile £46.00 £71.88 -
Median hourly rate £64.00 £80.25 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -20.25% +33.75% -9.09%
75th Percentile £66.50 £82.94 -
90th Percentile £69.18 £84.18 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £64.00 £80.50 £60.00
% change year-on-year -20.50% +34.17% -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 43,868 27,092 40,027
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.28% 92.49% 92.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,987 17,695 26,061
10th Percentile £316 £300 £280
25th Percentile £413 £406 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.94% -1.90% -2.78%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +3.58% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,833 1,048 2,666
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.18 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.38 £18.50 £16.30
Median hourly rate £44.00 £29.00 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +51.72% -20.55% -18.89%
75th Percentile £66.25 £62.50 £61.29
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.56 £28.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +62.70% -30.00% -5.35%

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 5 May 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 5 May 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 5 May 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 -9 429 £595 -0.92% 136
London +2 245 £588 -5.24% 65
UK excluding London -15 187 £591 +0.94% 89
Work from Home -6 142 £580 -3.42% 60
Midlands -31 49 £606 +1.04% 19
West Midlands -25 42 £600 - 11
South West -16 38 £652 +11.45% 9
North of England -67 29 £575 -4.11% 22
East of England -27 25 £505 -20.78% 10
South East -54 25 £575 +2.22% 26
Scotland -2 24 £550 -8.33%
Yorkshire -42 13 £605 -18.24% 4
North West -47 12 £538 +2.38% 11
North East -16 7 £550 -8.28% 7
East Midlands -27 7 £613 - 8
Wales -11 2 £768 +225.21% 3

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

For the 6 months to 5 May 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.

1 261 (51.08%) Data Architecture
2 231 (45.21%) Data Modelling
3 185 (36.20%) Analytics
4 172 (33.66%) Azure
5 137 (26.81%) Data Governance
6 119 (23.29%) AWS
7 114 (22.31%) Security Cleared
8 110 (21.53%) SQL
9 109 (21.33%) ETL
10 106 (20.74%) Databricks
11 101 (19.77%) Metadata
12 100 (19.57%) Migration
13 97 (18.98%) Business Intelligence
14 90 (17.61%) Data Quality
15 89 (17.42%) Data Warehouse
16 88 (17.22%) SC Cleared
17 87 (17.03%) AI
18 81 (15.85%) Data Lake
19 75 (14.68%) Data Integration
20 74 (14.48%) Microsoft
21 70 (13.70%) Data Pipeline
22 68 (13.31%) Data Engineering
23 67 (13.11%) Power Platform
24 63 (12.33%) Data Strategy
24 63 (12.33%) Logical Data Model
25 62 (12.13%) Data Management
26 59 (11.55%) Power BI
27 58 (11.35%) Agile
28 57 (11.15%) Python
29 56 (10.96%) Architectural Patterns

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 18 (3.52%) Apache Spark
2 12 (2.35%) SAS
2 12 (2.35%) SharePoint
3 11 (2.15%) Apache
3 11 (2.15%) Apache Airflow
4 10 (1.96%) Palantir Foundry
5 2 (0.39%) Alfresco
5 2 (0.39%) Confluence
6 1 (0.20%) Appian
6 1 (0.20%) Ethereum
6 1 (0.20%) Hyperledger
6 1 (0.20%) Jupyter
Applications
1 3 (0.59%) MS Visio
2 1 (0.20%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 10 (1.96%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (0.78%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 2 (0.39%) SAP ERP
4 1 (0.20%) Aladdin
4 1 (0.20%) Distributed Ledger
4 1 (0.20%) Dynamics AX
4 1 (0.20%) NEC Housing
4 1 (0.20%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.20%) R3 Corda
4 1 (0.20%) SAP MDM
4 1 (0.20%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 172 (33.66%) Azure
2 119 (23.29%) AWS
3 67 (13.11%) Power Platform
4 53 (10.37%) GCP
5 45 (8.81%) Azure Synapse Analytics
6 44 (8.61%) Azure Data Factory
7 40 (7.83%) Snowflake
8 31 (6.07%) Serverless
9 28 (5.48%) Microsoft Purview
10 27 (5.28%) Amazon S3
11 25 (4.89%) AWS Lambda
12 20 (3.91%) Azure DevOps
13 19 (3.72%) dbt
14 17 (3.33%) Amazon Kinesis
15 14 (2.74%) Azure Cosmos DB
15 14 (2.74%) GitHub
16 12 (2.35%) AWS Step Functions
17 10 (1.96%) Amazon EventBridge
17 10 (1.96%) Amazon MSK
17 10 (1.96%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 4 (0.78%) Firewall
2 2 (0.39%) BGP
2 2 (0.39%) DNS
2 2 (0.39%) DSL
2 2 (0.39%) Hyperconnected
2 2 (0.39%) OSPF
2 2 (0.39%) Structured Cabling
2 2 (0.39%) VXLAN
3 1 (0.20%) LAN
3 1 (0.20%) Network Security
3 1 (0.20%) SMS
3 1 (0.20%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 101 (19.77%) Metadata
2 89 (17.42%) Data Warehouse
3 81 (15.85%) Data Lake
4 59 (11.55%) Power BI
5 31 (6.07%) NoSQL
6 26 (5.09%) Amazon Redshift
7 25 (4.89%) SQL Server
8 24 (4.70%) PostgreSQL
9 22 (4.31%) Azure SQL Database
10 18 (3.52%) Big Data
10 18 (3.52%) Tableau
11 16 (3.13%) Delta Lake
12 15 (2.94%) Amazon Athena
13 14 (2.74%) Metadata Repository
13 14 (2.74%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 13 (2.54%) Data Vault
15 12 (2.35%) Star Schema
16 11 (2.15%) Apache Iceberg
16 11 (2.15%) BigQuery
17 10 (1.96%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 21 (4.11%) ERwin
2 6 (1.17%) GitLab
2 6 (1.17%) Jenkins
3 4 (0.78%) Git
4 3 (0.59%) ER Studio
5 1 (0.20%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.20%) Claude Code
5 1 (0.20%) MLflow
5 1 (0.20%) PowerDesigner
5 1 (0.20%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 84 (16.44%) Social Skills
2 74 (14.48%) Finance
3 56 (10.96%) Public Sector
4 41 (8.02%) Analytical Skills
5 25 (4.89%) Retail
6 14 (2.74%) Banking
7 11 (2.15%) Documentation Skills
8 8 (1.57%) Financial Institution
9 7 (1.37%) Influencing Skills
9 7 (1.37%) Marketing
10 6 (1.17%) Local Government
11 5 (0.98%) Investment Banking
12 4 (0.78%) Legal
12 4 (0.78%) Manufacturing
13 3 (0.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 3 (0.59%) Law
13 3 (0.59%) Pharmaceutical
13 3 (0.59%) Presentation Skills
14 2 (0.39%) Military
15 1 (0.20%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (6.26%) Kafka
2 15 (2.94%) PySpark
3 13 (2.54%) Oracle Fusion
4 9 (1.76%) Apache Avro
4 9 (1.76%) Protocol Buffers
5 7 (1.37%) .NET
6 5 (0.98%) Middleware
7 4 (0.78%) FHIR
7 4 (0.78%) JSON
7 4 (0.78%) REST
8 3 (0.59%) Lightning Web Components
8 3 (0.59%) SOAP
9 2 (0.39%) OpenTelemetry
9 2 (0.39%) Spark Streaming
10 1 (0.20%) Apache NiFi
10 1 (0.20%) GraphQL
10 1 (0.20%) Great Expectations
10 1 (0.20%) OpenAPI
10 1 (0.20%) Smart Contracts
10 1 (0.20%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 40 (7.83%) Cloud Native
2 26 (5.09%) Data Structures
3 18 (3.52%) Legacy Systems
4 14 (2.74%) NHS
5 13 (2.54%) Reference Data
6 12 (2.35%) Data Centre
7 11 (2.15%) Mainframe
8 10 (1.96%) IoT
9 9 (1.76%) Product Ownership
10 8 (1.57%) Greenfield Project
11 7 (1.37%) FMCG
11 7 (1.37%) Management Information System
12 6 (1.17%) Data Fabric
12 6 (1.17%) Data Protection Act
12 6 (1.17%) PACS
12 6 (1.17%) Reinsurance
12 6 (1.17%) SWIFT Messaging Network
13 5 (0.98%) Distributed Systems
13 5 (0.98%) SCADA
13 5 (0.98%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 9 (1.76%) zOS
2 2 (0.39%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 261 (51.08%) Data Architecture
2 231 (45.21%) Data Modelling
3 185 (36.20%) Analytics
4 137 (26.81%) Data Governance
5 109 (21.33%) ETL
6 100 (19.57%) Migration
7 97 (18.98%) Business Intelligence
8 87 (17.03%) AI
9 75 (14.68%) Data Integration
10 70 (13.70%) Data Pipeline
11 68 (13.31%) Data Engineering
12 63 (12.33%) Data Strategy
12 63 (12.33%) Logical Data Model
13 62 (12.13%) Data Management
14 58 (11.35%) Agile
15 56 (10.96%) Architectural Patterns
15 56 (10.96%) Roadmaps
16 55 (10.76%) Physical Data Model
17 54 (10.57%) Machine Learning
18 52 (10.18%) Integration Patterns
Programming Languages
1 110 (21.53%) SQL
2 57 (11.15%) Python
3 13 (2.54%) Java
4 9 (1.76%) Scala
5 8 (1.57%) T-SQL
6 6 (1.17%) PowerShell
7 5 (0.98%) Bicep
8 3 (0.59%) Apex Code
8 3 (0.59%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 2 (0.39%) Bash
9 2 (0.39%) COBOL
9 2 (0.39%) Kotlin
9 2 (0.39%) PL/SQL
9 2 (0.39%) R
9 2 (0.39%) SPARQL
10 1 (0.20%) ANSI SQL
10 1 (0.20%) C++
10 1 (0.20%) Kusto Query Language
10 1 (0.20%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 114 (22.31%) Security Cleared
2 88 (17.22%) SC Cleared
3 21 (4.11%) Azure Certification
3 21 (4.11%) BPSS Clearance
4 20 (3.91%) Degree
5 17 (3.33%) DV Cleared
6 15 (2.94%) Master's Degree
7 9 (1.76%) Microsoft Certification
7 9 (1.76%) TOGAF Certification
8 8 (1.57%) Computer Science Degree
9 6 (1.17%) AWS Certification
10 2 (0.39%) VCAP
10 2 (0.39%) VCDX
11 1 (0.20%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 1 (0.20%) DBS Check
11 1 (0.20%) MySQL Certification
11 1 (0.20%) Oracle Certification
11 1 (0.20%) Tableau Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 90 (17.61%) Data Quality
2 28 (5.48%) GDPR
3 13 (2.54%) QA
4 6 (1.17%) Accessibility
4 6 (1.17%) ISO 20022
5 5 (0.98%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 4 (0.78%) HL7
6 4 (0.78%) SNOMED CT
7 2 (0.39%) CRD IV
7 2 (0.39%) FINREP
7 2 (0.39%) IFRS
7 2 (0.39%) NIST
7 2 (0.39%) PCI DSS
7 2 (0.39%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 1 (0.20%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 1 (0.20%) HIPAA
8 1 (0.20%) NCSC
System Software
1 4 (0.78%) VMware Infrastructure
2 3 (0.59%) Docker
3 2 (0.39%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.39%) VMware NSX
3 2 (0.39%) vSphere
4 1 (0.20%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 24 (4.70%) Terraform
2 7 (1.37%) Grafana
3 6 (1.17%) Kubernetes
3 6 (1.17%) Prometheus
4 5 (0.98%) Ansible
5 2 (0.39%) Argo
5 2 (0.39%) vCenter Server
6 1 (0.20%) Kubeflow
Vendors
1 106 (20.74%) Databricks
2 74 (14.48%) Microsoft
3 37 (7.24%) Oracle
4 23 (4.50%) Salesforce
4 23 (4.50%) SAP
5 20 (3.91%) Informatica
6 14 (2.74%) Talend
7 13 (2.54%) Foundry
8 11 (2.15%) Confluent
8 11 (2.15%) Google
9 10 (1.96%) Palantir
10 5 (0.98%) Sparx
11 4 (0.78%) IBM
11 4 (0.78%) NVIDIA
11 4 (0.78%) VMware
12 3 (0.59%) Ab Initio
12 3 (0.59%) Cognos
12 3 (0.59%) Denodo
12 3 (0.59%) OpenAI
12 3 (0.59%) Remedy