Data Architect Contract Job Trends

Data Architect
UK

The median Data Architect daily rate in the UK is £581, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 31 January 2026.

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

6 months to
31 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 286 246 234
Rank change year-on-year -40 -12 +20
Contract jobs requiring a Data Architect 350 330 465
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.90% 1.05% 1.04%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.99% 1.13% 1.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 258 227 344
10th Percentile £450 £481 £485
25th Percentile £506 £519 £567
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £581 £613 £675
Median % change year-on-year -5.14% -9.26% -
75th Percentile £672 £725 £738
90th Percentile £775 £799 £836
UK excluding London median daily rate £560 £611 £650
% change year-on-year -8.38% -5.96% +0.97%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 3 6
10th Percentile £65.00 £75.75 £45.64
25th Percentile £66.50 £76.88 £48.82
Median hourly rate £69.00 £80.50 £61.53
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% +30.84% -12.10%
75th Percentile £76.75 £83.63 £72.00
90th Percentile £81.40 £84.45 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £69.00 £80.50 £61.53
% change year-on-year -14.29% +30.84% -12.10%

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 35,445 29,208 41,662
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.48% 92.89% 93.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,347 17,858 27,594
10th Percentile £300 £296 £275
25th Percentile £405 £409 £411
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £719 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £479 £495
% change year-on-year -0.84% -3.23% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,112 858 2,186
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.91 £13.25
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.25 £17.00
Median hourly rate £29.60 £32.50 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year -8.92% -10.96% +4.29%
75th Percentile £61.18 £62.50 £62.50
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £31.52 £38.00
% change year-on-year -12.75% -17.05% +26.67%

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 31 January 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 31 January 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 31 January 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 -62 284 £582 -6.68% 80
London -48 154 £600 -4.00% 41
UK excluding London -28 129 £560 -8.38% 70
Work from Home -14 110 £600 -1.15% 40
Midlands -20 34 £569 -5.60% 10
West Midlands -17 31 £574 -6.33% 10
North of England -69 27 £575 -7.26% 12
North West -32 23 £550 -6.38% 7
South West -13 22 £613 -2.00% 9
South East -30 20 £575 -4.17% 18
Scotland +21 19 £550 -15.38% 15
East of England -11 10 £505 -20.78% 4
East Midlands -23 3 £444 -2.04%
Wales 0 2 £768 - 3
North East -23 2 £575 - 5
Yorkshire -53 2 £675 -3.57%

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

For the 6 months to 31 January 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.

1 206 (58.86%) Data Modelling
2 193 (55.14%) Data Architecture
3 127 (36.29%) Azure
4 122 (34.86%) Analytics
4 122 (34.86%) Data Governance
5 94 (26.86%) AWS
6 90 (25.71%) Data Warehouse
7 82 (23.43%) Metadata
8 78 (22.29%) SQL
9 77 (22.00%) ETL
10 76 (21.71%) Data Quality
11 74 (21.14%) Security Cleared
12 67 (19.14%) Databricks
13 66 (18.86%) Python
14 65 (18.57%) Business Intelligence
15 61 (17.43%) Microsoft
16 58 (16.57%) Data Strategy
16 58 (16.57%) SC Cleared
17 56 (16.00%) AI
18 53 (15.14%) Migration
19 52 (14.86%) Data Integration
19 52 (14.86%) Metadata Management
20 51 (14.57%) Data Lake
21 49 (14.00%) Power Platform
22 47 (13.43%) Data Pipeline
22 47 (13.43%) Stakeholder Management
23 45 (12.86%) Power BI
24 44 (12.57%) Data Management
24 44 (12.57%) DevOps
24 44 (12.57%) Machine Learning

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 15 (4.29%) SAS
2 13 (3.71%) Apache Spark
3 12 (3.43%) Apache
4 10 (2.86%) Apache Airflow
5 4 (1.14%) SharePoint
6 2 (0.57%) Luigi
7 1 (0.29%) Appian
7 1 (0.29%) Ethereum
7 1 (0.29%) Hyperledger
7 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Exchange
7 1 (0.29%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 3 (0.86%) MS Visio
2 2 (0.57%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 10 (2.86%) SAP S/4HANA
2 7 (2.00%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 5 (1.43%) Salesforce CRM
4 2 (0.57%) Aladdin
4 2 (0.57%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.29%) Distributed Ledger
5 1 (0.29%) Dynamics AX
5 1 (0.29%) iTrent
5 1 (0.29%) NEC Housing
5 1 (0.29%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.29%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.29%) R3 Corda
5 1 (0.29%) SAP IBP
5 1 (0.29%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 127 (36.29%) Azure
2 94 (26.86%) AWS
3 49 (14.00%) Power Platform
4 41 (11.71%) Azure Data Factory
5 37 (10.57%) Azure Synapse Analytics
6 34 (9.71%) Serverless
7 30 (8.57%) Microsoft Purview
7 30 (8.57%) Snowflake
8 26 (7.43%) Amazon S3
9 25 (7.14%) GCP
10 18 (5.14%) AWS Lambda
11 16 (4.57%) Amazon Kinesis
12 14 (4.00%) Azure DevOps
13 13 (3.71%) dbt
14 11 (3.14%) AWS CloudFormation
15 10 (2.86%) Azure Functions
16 8 (2.29%) AWS Step Functions
16 8 (2.29%) Azure Cosmos DB
16 8 (2.29%) Collibra
17 7 (2.00%) Amazon EventBridge
Communications & Networking
1 2 (0.57%) DSL
1 2 (0.57%) Hyperconnected
2 1 (0.29%) DWDM
2 1 (0.29%) LAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 90 (25.71%) Data Warehouse
2 82 (23.43%) Metadata
3 51 (14.57%) Data Lake
4 45 (12.86%) Power BI
5 32 (9.14%) PostgreSQL
6 30 (8.57%) Amazon Redshift
7 25 (7.14%) SQL Server
8 20 (5.71%) Amazon Athena
9 19 (5.43%) NoSQL
10 17 (4.86%) Metadata Repository
10 17 (4.86%) Tableau
11 16 (4.57%) Azure SQL Database
11 16 (4.57%) Big Data
12 15 (4.29%) Data Vault
13 14 (4.00%) Delta Lake
14 13 (3.71%) Oracle Database
15 12 (3.43%) Apache Iceberg
15 12 (3.43%) OLTP
16 11 (3.14%) Amazon Aurora
16 11 (3.14%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 20 (5.71%) ERwin
2 6 (1.71%) Git
3 5 (1.43%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.86%) ER Studio
5 2 (0.57%) GitLab
6 1 (0.29%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.29%) PowerDesigner
6 1 (0.29%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 91 (26.00%) Social Skills
2 56 (16.00%) Finance
3 47 (13.43%) Public Sector
4 34 (9.71%) Analytical Skills
5 8 (2.29%) Retail
6 7 (2.00%) Banking
6 7 (2.00%) Local Government
7 6 (1.71%) Influencing Skills
7 6 (1.71%) Presentation Skills
8 4 (1.14%) Documentation Skills
8 4 (1.14%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 4 (1.14%) Legal
9 3 (0.86%) Manufacturing
10 2 (0.57%) Back Office
10 2 (0.57%) Front Office
10 2 (0.57%) Law
10 2 (0.57%) Marketing
10 2 (0.57%) Pharmaceutical
10 2 (0.57%) Police
11 1 (0.29%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (5.43%) Kafka
2 18 (5.14%) PySpark
3 7 (2.00%) Apache Avro
3 7 (2.00%) Protocol Buffers
4 3 (0.86%) AWS CDK
4 3 (0.86%) Node.js
4 3 (0.86%) REST
4 3 (0.86%) SOAP
5 2 (0.57%) .NET
5 2 (0.57%) Oracle Fusion
5 2 (0.57%) XML
6 1 (0.29%) .NET Core
6 1 (0.29%) ADO
6 1 (0.29%) Apache NiFi
6 1 (0.29%) ARM Templates
6 1 (0.29%) FHIR
6 1 (0.29%) JSON
6 1 (0.29%) Lightning Web Components
6 1 (0.29%) Model Context Protocol
6 1 (0.29%) Smart Contracts
Miscellaneous
1 26 (7.43%) Data Structures
2 24 (6.86%) Cloud Native
3 12 (3.43%) NHS
4 10 (2.86%) Legacy Systems
5 9 (2.57%) Data Fabric
5 9 (2.57%) Distributed Systems
5 9 (2.57%) Hybrid Cloud
6 8 (2.29%) FMCG
7 7 (2.00%) Product Ownership
7 7 (2.00%) Reference Data
7 7 (2.00%) Reinsurance
8 6 (1.71%) Onboarding
9 5 (1.43%) Distributed Computing
9 5 (1.43%) IoT
10 4 (1.14%) Management Information System
10 4 (1.14%) PACS
10 4 (1.14%) SWIFT Messaging Network
10 4 (1.14%) Taxonomies
11 3 (0.86%) Data Protection Act
11 3 (0.86%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 2 (0.57%) zOS
2 1 (0.29%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 206 (58.86%) Data Modelling
2 193 (55.14%) Data Architecture
3 122 (34.86%) Analytics
3 122 (34.86%) Data Governance
4 77 (22.00%) ETL
5 65 (18.57%) Business Intelligence
6 58 (16.57%) Data Strategy
7 56 (16.00%) AI
8 53 (15.14%) Migration
9 52 (14.86%) Data Integration
9 52 (14.86%) Metadata Management
10 47 (13.43%) Data Pipeline
10 47 (13.43%) Stakeholder Management
11 44 (12.57%) Data Management
11 44 (12.57%) DevOps
11 44 (12.57%) Machine Learning
11 44 (12.57%) Physical Data Model
12 43 (12.29%) Logical Data Model
13 42 (12.00%) Roadmaps
14 41 (11.71%) Data Engineering
Programming Languages
1 78 (22.29%) SQL
2 66 (18.86%) Python
3 11 (3.14%) Java
4 8 (2.29%) T-SQL
5 5 (1.43%) PowerShell
5 5 (1.43%) SPARQL
6 4 (1.14%) PL/SQL
6 4 (1.14%) Scala
7 3 (0.86%) JavaScript
8 2 (0.57%) Korn
8 2 (0.57%) R
9 1 (0.29%) ANSI SQL
9 1 (0.29%) Apex Code
9 1 (0.29%) C#
9 1 (0.29%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 74 (21.14%) Security Cleared
2 58 (16.57%) SC Cleared
3 20 (5.71%) Azure Certification
3 20 (5.71%) Degree
4 13 (3.71%) BPSS Clearance
5 10 (2.86%) Master's Degree
6 9 (2.57%) AWS Certification
6 9 (2.57%) Microsoft Certification
7 8 (2.29%) Computer Science Degree
7 8 (2.29%) TOGAF Certification
8 6 (1.71%) DV Cleared
9 4 (1.14%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 1 (0.29%) ITIL Certification
10 1 (0.29%) MySQL Certification
10 1 (0.29%) Oracle Certification
10 1 (0.29%) SAP Certification
10 1 (0.29%) SnowPro
10 1 (0.29%) Tableau Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 76 (21.71%) Data Quality
2 33 (9.43%) GDPR
3 10 (2.86%) Accessibility
4 8 (2.29%) QA
5 5 (1.43%) California Consumer Privacy Act
5 5 (1.43%) HIPAA
6 4 (1.14%) ISO 20022
7 2 (0.57%) CRD IV
7 2 (0.57%) FINREP
7 2 (0.57%) IFRS
8 1 (0.29%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.29%) GMP
8 1 (0.29%) Government Security Classifications
8 1 (0.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 1 (0.29%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 2 (0.57%) Docker
2 1 (0.29%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 25 (7.14%) Terraform
2 6 (1.71%) Ansible
3 4 (1.14%) Prometheus
4 2 (0.57%) Grafana
4 2 (0.57%) Kubernetes
5 1 (0.29%) Kubeflow
Vendors
1 67 (19.14%) Databricks
2 61 (17.43%) Microsoft
3 28 (8.00%) Oracle
4 17 (4.86%) Informatica
5 15 (4.29%) Salesforce
6 14 (4.00%) SAP
7 9 (2.57%) Google
8 7 (2.00%) Confluent
9 6 (1.71%) Remedy
9 6 (1.71%) Talend
10 5 (1.43%) Greenplum
10 5 (1.43%) Sparx
11 4 (1.14%) Ab Initio
11 4 (1.14%) Dynatrace
11 4 (1.14%) MicroStrategy
11 4 (1.14%) Pega
12 3 (0.86%) Palantir
12 3 (0.86%) Workday
13 2 (0.57%) OneTrust
13 2 (0.57%) Virgin Media