Data Architect Contract Job Trends

Data Architect
UK

The median Data Architect daily rate in the UK is £608, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 6 July 2026.

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

6 months to
6 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 210 263 264
Rank change year-on-year +53 +1 +15
Contract jobs requiring a Data Architect 668 315 379
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.29% 0.99% 0.88%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.39% 1.08% 0.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 468 212 270
10th Percentile £461 £463 £488
25th Percentile £513 £517 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £608 £600 £675
Median % change year-on-year +1.29% -11.11% -
75th Percentile £688 £713 £775
90th Percentile £775 £780 £914
UK excluding London median daily rate £613 £585 £650
% change year-on-year +4.70% -10.00% +4.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 2 10
10th Percentile - £41.31 £52.50
25th Percentile £46.00 £44.85 -
Median hourly rate £47.00 £51.98 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -9.58% -13.37% -6.98%
75th Percentile £64.00 £60.37 -
90th Percentile £69.00 £64.65 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.00 £38.96 £60.00
% change year-on-year +20.64% -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 47,894 29,248 40,280
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.44% 91.99% 93.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,968 18,668 25,910
10th Percentile £325 £287 £285
25th Percentile £417 £400 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £493
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.65% -1.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,250 1,325 2,804
10th Percentile £15.75 £13.75 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.14 £17.44 £16.65
Median hourly rate £43.00 £26.45 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +62.57% -29.47% -14.05%
75th Percentile £67.50 £55.25 £62.96
90th Percentile £80.00 £73.25 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -

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 6 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 6 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 6 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 +46 571 £600 - 173
London +23 300 £595 -0.92% 94
UK excluding London +21 272 £613 +4.70% 100
Work from Home +12 191 £608 +1.29% 89
Midlands -9 76 £621 +3.50% 19
West Midlands -18 60 £631 +5.21% 13
North of England -51 58 £610 -2.40% 23
South East -28 39 £513 -6.82% 28
South West +3 38 £650 +23.81% 20
Yorkshire -30 36 £675 +8.00% 6
East of England -2 32 £505 -8.18%
Scotland -7 31 £645 +19.78% 9
North West -42 18 £575 +9.52% 16
East Midlands -5 16 £606 - 6
North East -31 7 £550 -26.67% 1
Wales -15 3 £768 +225.21%

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

For the 6 months to 6 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.

1 340 (50.90%) Data Architecture
2 298 (44.61%) Data Modelling
3 230 (34.43%) Azure
4 216 (32.34%) Analytics
5 194 (29.04%) Security Cleared
6 167 (25.00%) Data Governance
6 167 (25.00%) SC Cleared
7 162 (24.25%) Migration
8 144 (21.56%) AWS
8 144 (21.56%) Databricks
9 131 (19.61%) ETL
10 122 (18.26%) AI
11 121 (18.11%) Business Intelligence
12 120 (17.96%) Metadata
13 112 (16.77%) Data Warehouse
14 107 (16.02%) Integration Patterns
14 107 (16.02%) SQL
15 106 (15.87%) Data Quality
16 99 (14.82%) Data Integration
17 98 (14.67%) Data Lake
18 94 (14.07%) Data Engineering
18 94 (14.07%) Data Pipeline
19 86 (12.87%) Logical Data Model
20 85 (12.72%) Power Platform
21 83 (12.43%) Microsoft
22 81 (12.13%) Data Management
23 79 (11.83%) Stakeholder Engagement
24 77 (11.53%) Power BI
25 75 (11.23%) Machine Learning
26 74 (11.08%) Data Migration

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 22 (3.29%) SAS
2 18 (2.69%) Apache Spark
3 16 (2.40%) Palantir Foundry
4 14 (2.10%) Apache Airflow
5 13 (1.95%) Apache
6 11 (1.65%) SharePoint
7 5 (0.75%) Confluence
8 2 (0.30%) Alfresco
9 1 (0.15%) Appian
9 1 (0.15%) Jupyter
Applications
1 2 (0.30%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 9 (1.35%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (0.75%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 2 (0.30%) SAP ERP
4 1 (0.15%) Aladdin
4 1 (0.15%) iTrent
4 1 (0.15%) SAP MDM
4 1 (0.15%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 230 (34.43%) Azure
2 144 (21.56%) AWS
3 85 (12.72%) Power Platform
4 70 (10.48%) GCP
5 54 (8.08%) Snowflake
6 45 (6.74%) Azure Synapse Analytics
7 41 (6.14%) Azure Data Factory
8 24 (3.59%) dbt
8 24 (3.59%) Microsoft Purview
9 22 (3.29%) Serverless
10 21 (3.14%) Amazon S3
10 21 (3.14%) AWS Lambda
11 18 (2.69%) SaaS
12 14 (2.10%) Azure DevOps
13 12 (1.80%) Azure Cosmos DB
13 12 (1.80%) GitHub
14 9 (1.35%) Amazon Kinesis
14 9 (1.35%) Azure Machine Learning
15 8 (1.20%) GitHub Actions
16 7 (1.05%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 5 (0.75%) Firewall
2 4 (0.60%) DSL
3 2 (0.30%) BGP
3 2 (0.30%) DNS
3 2 (0.30%) Network Security
3 2 (0.30%) OSPF
3 2 (0.30%) Structured Cabling
3 2 (0.30%) VPN
3 2 (0.30%) VXLAN
4 1 (0.15%) Radio Access Network
4 1 (0.15%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 120 (17.96%) Metadata
2 112 (16.77%) Data Warehouse
3 98 (14.67%) Data Lake
4 77 (11.53%) Power BI
5 36 (5.39%) NoSQL
6 22 (3.29%) PostgreSQL
7 21 (3.14%) Big Data
8 20 (2.99%) Azure SQL Database
8 20 (2.99%) BigQuery
9 19 (2.84%) Amazon Redshift
10 18 (2.69%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
11 17 (2.54%) SQL Server
12 16 (2.40%) Semantic Layer
13 15 (2.25%) Snowflake Schema
14 14 (2.10%) Metadata Repository
15 13 (1.95%) Base SAS
15 13 (1.95%) Delta Lake
15 13 (1.95%) Tableau
16 12 (1.80%) Data Vault
16 12 (1.80%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 25 (3.74%) ERwin
2 8 (1.20%) Git
3 6 (0.90%) GitLab
4 5 (0.75%) Jenkins
5 4 (0.60%) ER Studio
6 3 (0.45%) JIRA
7 1 (0.15%) Claude Code
7 1 (0.15%) MLflow
7 1 (0.15%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 110 (16.47%) Finance
2 108 (16.17%) Social Skills
3 85 (12.72%) Public Sector
4 51 (7.63%) Analytical Skills
5 32 (4.79%) Banking
6 31 (4.64%) Retail
7 13 (1.95%) Marketing
8 12 (1.80%) Influencing Skills
9 11 (1.65%) Documentation Skills
10 10 (1.50%) Financial Institution
11 8 (1.20%) Legal
12 6 (0.90%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 6 (0.90%) Investment Banking
12 6 (0.90%) Police
13 3 (0.45%) Manufacturing
13 3 (0.45%) Military
13 3 (0.45%) Presentation Skills
14 2 (0.30%) Local Government
14 2 (0.30%) Publishing
14 2 (0.30%) Social Housing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (4.49%) Kafka
2 16 (2.40%) PySpark
3 15 (2.25%) Oracle Fusion
4 7 (1.05%) .NET
4 7 (1.05%) Middleware
5 6 (0.90%) FHIR
6 5 (0.75%) REST
7 4 (0.60%) JSON
7 4 (0.60%) OpenTelemetry
8 3 (0.45%) Apache Avro
8 3 (0.45%) LangChain
8 3 (0.45%) LangGraph
8 3 (0.45%) Lightning Web Components
8 3 (0.45%) Protocol Buffers
9 2 (0.30%) AngularJS
9 2 (0.30%) Bootstrap
9 2 (0.30%) pytest
9 2 (0.30%) React
9 2 (0.30%) WebSockets
9 2 (0.30%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 50 (7.49%) Cloud Native
2 29 (4.34%) Data Structures
3 20 (2.99%) Legacy Systems
4 19 (2.84%) Reference Data
5 16 (2.40%) Data Centre
5 16 (2.40%) NHS
6 14 (2.10%) IoT
7 12 (1.80%) AI Agents
7 12 (1.80%) Onboarding
7 12 (1.80%) Taxonomies
8 11 (1.65%) Management Information System
9 10 (1.50%) Data Protection Act
9 10 (1.50%) Mainframe
10 9 (1.35%) Greenfield Project
11 8 (1.20%) SCADA
12 7 (1.05%) Distributed Computing
12 7 (1.05%) Product Ownership
13 6 (0.90%) Distributed Systems
14 5 (0.75%) Data Fabric
14 5 (0.75%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 8 (1.20%) zOS
2 1 (0.15%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 340 (50.90%) Data Architecture
2 298 (44.61%) Data Modelling
3 216 (32.34%) Analytics
4 167 (25.00%) Data Governance
5 162 (24.25%) Migration
6 131 (19.61%) ETL
7 122 (18.26%) AI
8 121 (18.11%) Business Intelligence
9 107 (16.02%) Integration Patterns
10 99 (14.82%) Data Integration
11 94 (14.07%) Data Engineering
11 94 (14.07%) Data Pipeline
12 86 (12.87%) Logical Data Model
13 81 (12.13%) Data Management
14 79 (11.83%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 75 (11.23%) Machine Learning
16 74 (11.08%) Data Migration
17 71 (10.63%) Data Strategy
18 68 (10.18%) Roadmaps
19 67 (10.03%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 107 (16.02%) SQL
2 58 (8.68%) Python
3 14 (2.10%) Java
4 7 (1.05%) Bicep
4 7 (1.05%) Data Analysis Expressions
5 6 (0.90%) Scala
6 5 (0.75%) R
7 4 (0.60%) T-SQL
8 3 (0.45%) Apex Code
9 2 (0.30%) Bash
9 2 (0.30%) COBOL
9 2 (0.30%) Cypher
9 2 (0.30%) Kotlin
9 2 (0.30%) PowerShell
9 2 (0.30%) SHACL
9 2 (0.30%) SPARQL
9 2 (0.30%) TypeScript
10 1 (0.15%) C++
10 1 (0.15%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 194 (29.04%) Security Cleared
2 167 (25.00%) SC Cleared
3 24 (3.59%) BPSS Clearance
3 24 (3.59%) DV Cleared
4 17 (2.54%) Azure Certification
4 17 (2.54%) Degree
5 12 (1.80%) Master's Degree
6 10 (1.50%) AWS Certification
7 7 (1.05%) DBS Check
8 6 (0.90%) TOGAF Certification
9 5 (0.75%) Computer Science Degree
10 3 (0.45%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 2 (0.30%) Microsoft Certification
11 2 (0.30%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 2 (0.30%) VCAP
11 2 (0.30%) VCDX
12 1 (0.15%) Tableau Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 106 (15.87%) Data Quality
2 35 (5.24%) GDPR
3 15 (2.25%) QA
4 9 (1.35%) Accessibility
5 6 (0.90%) HL7
5 6 (0.90%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 5 (0.75%) IFRS
6 5 (0.75%) IFRS 17
6 5 (0.75%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 5 (0.75%) SNOMED CT
6 5 (0.75%) Solvency II
7 4 (0.60%) ISO 20022
8 2 (0.30%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 2 (0.30%) NIST
8 2 (0.30%) SLA
9 1 (0.15%) Disclosure Scotland
9 1 (0.15%) GRC
9 1 (0.15%) HIPAA
9 1 (0.15%) NCSC
9 1 (0.15%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 4 (0.60%) VMware Infrastructure
2 3 (0.45%) Docker
3 2 (0.30%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.30%) VMware NSX
3 2 (0.30%) vSphere
4 1 (0.15%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 23 (3.44%) Terraform
2 9 (1.35%) Kubernetes
3 7 (1.05%) Grafana
4 5 (0.75%) Ansible
4 5 (0.75%) Prometheus
5 4 (0.60%) Argo
6 3 (0.45%) Istio
7 2 (0.30%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.15%) Kubeflow
Vendors
1 144 (21.56%) Databricks
2 83 (12.43%) Microsoft
3 42 (6.29%) Oracle
4 26 (3.89%) SAP
5 20 (2.99%) Salesforce
6 19 (2.84%) Foundry
7 18 (2.69%) Informatica
8 17 (2.54%) Palantir
9 15 (2.25%) Google
9 15 (2.25%) Talend
10 7 (1.05%) IFS
10 7 (1.05%) Sparx
11 5 (0.75%) Confluent
11 5 (0.75%) OpenAI
12 4 (0.60%) NVIDIA
12 4 (0.60%) VMware
13 3 (0.45%) Denodo
13 3 (0.45%) IBM
13 3 (0.45%) Remedy
14 2 (0.30%) Pure Storage