Data Architect Contract Job Trends

Data Architect
UK

The median Data Architect daily rate in the UK is £625, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 15 October 2026.

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

6 months to
15 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 196 287 284
Rank change year-on-year +91 -3 +4
Contract jobs requiring a Data Architect 833 302 307
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.51% 0.91% 0.82%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.64% 1.00% 0.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 592 203 206
10th Percentile £463 £450 £478
25th Percentile £533 £509 £514
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £625 £600 £625
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -4.21%
75th Percentile £688 £700 £725
90th Percentile £775 £775 £796
UK excluding London median daily rate £625 £563 £625
% change year-on-year +11.11% -10.00% -3.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 2 7
10th Percentile £32.87 £43.21 £57.00
25th Percentile £34.47 £49.60 -
Median hourly rate £47.00 £60.98 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.93% +1.63% +17.52%
75th Percentile £70.00 £73.12 -
90th Percentile - £79.95 £83.54
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.00 £60.98 £60.00
% change year-on-year -22.93% +1.63% -2.48%

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 50,841 30,184 35,017
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.94% 90.90% 93.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,834 19,073 21,148
10th Percentile £325 £275 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £638 £623 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4,158 1,652 1,437
10th Percentile £14.31 £13.80 £15.09
25th Percentile £19.33 £17.30 £20.50
Median hourly rate £41.56 £25.15 £41.27
Median % change year-on-year +65.23% -39.05% -8.30%
75th Percentile £67.50 £50.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.30 £68.52 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.06 £25.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year +64.24% -41.18% -4.49%

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 15 October 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 15 October 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 15 October 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 +83 683 £625 +4.17% 495
London +55 364 £625 +4.17% 286
UK excluding London +66 315 £625 +11.11% 250
Work from Home +35 239 £638 +3.66% 198
Midlands +28 105 £625 +4.17% 44
West Midlands +12 78 £644 +7.33% 34
North of England -39 63 £650 +18.18% 68
South East -32 47 £606 -3.00% 52
South West 0 42 £650 +1.96% 14
Yorkshire -17 36 £713 +29.55% 24
East of England -4 31 £539 -8.19% 13
East Midlands +13 27 £600 - 10
Scotland -19 25 £513 +10.81% 47
North West -46 21 £600 +14.29% 31
North East - 6 £650 - 13
Wales - 2 £475 - 6

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

For the 6 months to 15 October 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.

1 446 (53.54%) Data Architecture
2 368 (44.18%) Data Modelling
3 311 (37.33%) Security Cleared
4 267 (32.05%) Azure
5 263 (31.57%) Data Governance
5 263 (31.57%) SC Cleared
6 238 (28.57%) Analytics
7 208 (24.97%) Migration
8 189 (22.69%) AWS
9 184 (22.09%) Data Quality
10 180 (21.61%) Metadata
11 178 (21.37%) Databricks
12 157 (18.85%) AI
13 147 (17.65%) Data Warehouse
14 142 (17.05%) Stakeholder Management
15 137 (16.45%) Data Lake
16 132 (15.85%) Integration Patterns
17 128 (15.37%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 123 (14.77%) Logical Data Model
19 121 (14.53%) Business Intelligence
20 117 (14.05%) ETL
20 117 (14.05%) SQL
21 113 (13.57%) Lakehouse
22 112 (13.45%) Roadmaps
23 105 (12.61%) Data Integration
23 105 (12.61%) Data Strategy
24 99 (11.88%) Microsoft
24 99 (11.88%) Technical Leadership
25 94 (11.28%) Metadata Management
26 93 (11.16%) Decision-Making

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 25 (3.00%) SAS
2 24 (2.88%) Apache
2 24 (2.88%) Apache Spark
3 20 (2.40%) Apache Airflow
4 13 (1.56%) Palantir Foundry
5 4 (0.48%) Confluence
5 4 (0.48%) SharePoint
6 2 (0.24%) PowerExchange
7 1 (0.12%) Apache Superset
7 1 (0.12%) JBoss
7 1 (0.12%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 6 (0.72%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.12%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 7 (0.84%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 3 (0.36%) SAP S/4HANA
3 2 (0.24%) Workday HCM
4 1 (0.12%) Aladdin
4 1 (0.12%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.12%) iTrent
4 1 (0.12%) Maximo
4 1 (0.12%) NEC Housing
4 1 (0.12%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.12%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 267 (32.05%) Azure
2 189 (22.69%) AWS
3 93 (11.16%) Power Platform
4 79 (9.48%) GCP
5 73 (8.76%) Snowflake
6 55 (6.60%) Azure Synapse Analytics
7 48 (5.76%) Azure Data Factory
8 36 (4.32%) dbt
9 25 (3.00%) Amazon S3
9 25 (3.00%) Microsoft Purview
10 21 (2.52%) SaaS
10 21 (2.52%) Serverless
11 19 (2.28%) Azure Databricks
12 15 (1.80%) AWS Lambda
12 15 (1.80%) Azure DevOps
13 12 (1.44%) Collibra
14 11 (1.32%) GitHub
15 9 (1.08%) Amazon EMR
15 9 (1.08%) GitHub Actions
16 7 (0.84%) Azure Cosmos DB
Communications & Networking
1 3 (0.36%) Network Security
1 3 (0.36%) SAN
2 2 (0.24%) DSL
2 2 (0.24%) VPN
3 1 (0.12%) Broadband
3 1 (0.12%) Firewall
3 1 (0.12%) NAS
3 1 (0.12%) Radio Access Network
Database & Business Intelligence
1 180 (21.61%) Metadata
2 147 (17.65%) Data Warehouse
3 137 (16.45%) Data Lake
4 90 (10.80%) Power BI
5 40 (4.80%) NoSQL
6 28 (3.36%) Enterprise Data Warehouse
7 25 (3.00%) Amazon Redshift
8 22 (2.64%) BigQuery
9 21 (2.52%) Azure SQL Database
9 21 (2.52%) Semantic Layer
10 19 (2.28%) Data Vault
10 19 (2.28%) SQL Server
11 18 (2.16%) Delta Lake
11 18 (2.16%) Snowflake Schema
12 17 (2.04%) PostgreSQL
13 16 (1.92%) Base SAS
14 15 (1.80%) Star Schema
15 13 (1.56%) Elasticsearch
15 13 (1.56%) Relational Database
15 13 (1.56%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 13 (1.56%) ERwin
2 10 (1.20%) Git
3 5 (0.60%) ER Studio
3 5 (0.60%) GitLab
3 5 (0.60%) JIRA
4 3 (0.36%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.36%) Oracle Forms
5 2 (0.24%) MLflow
5 2 (0.24%) RStudio
General
1 182 (21.85%) Social Skills
2 147 (17.65%) Public Sector
3 123 (14.77%) Finance
4 68 (8.16%) Analytical Skills
5 39 (4.68%) Banking
6 32 (3.84%) Influencing Skills
7 27 (3.24%) Retail
8 14 (1.68%) Documentation Skills
8 14 (1.68%) Police
9 12 (1.44%) Marketing
10 11 (1.32%) Presentation Skills
11 9 (1.08%) Legal
12 7 (0.84%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 7 (0.84%) Local Government
13 6 (0.72%) Military
14 5 (0.60%) Billing
14 5 (0.60%) Manufacturing
15 3 (0.36%) General Ledger
15 3 (0.36%) Investment Banking
16 2 (0.24%) Publishing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 29 (3.48%) Kafka
2 27 (3.24%) Terraform
3 26 (3.12%) PySpark
4 16 (1.92%) Oracle Fusion
5 11 (1.32%) REST
6 6 (0.72%) FHIR
7 5 (0.60%) Apache NiFi
8 4 (0.48%) JSON
9 3 (0.36%) Apache Avro
9 3 (0.36%) LangChain
9 3 (0.36%) LangGraph
9 3 (0.36%) Middleware
9 3 (0.36%) Model Context Protocol
9 3 (0.36%) OpenAPI
9 3 (0.36%) RESTful
9 3 (0.36%) SOAP
9 3 (0.36%) Swagger
9 3 (0.36%) XML
10 2 (0.24%) pytest
10 2 (0.24%) Snowpark
Miscellaneous
1 55 (6.60%) Cloud Native
2 44 (5.28%) Data Structures
3 26 (3.12%) Legacy Systems
4 25 (3.00%) Reference Data
5 23 (2.76%) Onboarding
6 21 (2.52%) Management Information System
7 19 (2.28%) Taxonomies
8 18 (2.16%) AI Agents
8 18 (2.16%) Data Fabric
9 15 (1.80%) Data Centre
9 15 (1.80%) Data Protection Act
9 15 (1.80%) Product Ownership
10 14 (1.68%) Reinsurance
11 11 (1.32%) Replication
12 9 (1.08%) Autonomous Agent
13 8 (0.96%) Clustering
13 8 (0.96%) Digital Media
13 8 (0.96%) Enterprise Software
13 8 (0.96%) IoT
14 7 (0.84%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 3 (0.36%) Linux
1 3 (0.36%) Windows
2 2 (0.24%) AIX
2 2 (0.24%) HPUX
2 2 (0.24%) Solaris
3 1 (0.12%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 446 (53.54%) Data Architecture
2 368 (44.18%) Data Modelling
3 263 (31.57%) Data Governance
4 238 (28.57%) Analytics
5 208 (24.97%) Migration
6 157 (18.85%) AI
7 142 (17.05%) Stakeholder Management
8 132 (15.85%) Integration Patterns
9 128 (15.37%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 123 (14.77%) Logical Data Model
11 121 (14.53%) Business Intelligence
12 117 (14.05%) ETL
13 113 (13.57%) Lakehouse
14 112 (13.45%) Roadmaps
15 105 (12.61%) Data Integration
15 105 (12.61%) Data Strategy
16 99 (11.88%) Technical Leadership
17 94 (11.28%) Metadata Management
18 93 (11.16%) Decision-Making
18 93 (11.16%) Enterprise Architecture
Programming Languages
1 117 (14.05%) SQL
2 48 (5.76%) Python
3 13 (1.56%) Java
4 8 (0.96%) Bicep
5 6 (0.72%) Data Analysis Expressions
6 5 (0.60%) R
7 2 (0.24%) Cypher
7 2 (0.24%) PL/SQL
7 2 (0.24%) Scala
7 2 (0.24%) SHACL
7 2 (0.24%) Shell Script
7 2 (0.24%) T-SQL
7 2 (0.24%) TypeScript
8 1 (0.12%) Korn
8 1 (0.12%) Kotlin
8 1 (0.12%) Kusto Query Language
8 1 (0.12%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 311 (37.33%) Security Cleared
2 263 (31.57%) SC Cleared
3 37 (4.44%) DV Cleared
4 35 (4.20%) BPSS Clearance
5 12 (1.44%) AWS Certification
6 10 (1.20%) Azure Certification
6 10 (1.20%) Degree
7 7 (0.84%) DBS Check
8 6 (0.72%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 6 (0.72%) TOGAF Certification
9 3 (0.36%) Microsoft Certification
9 3 (0.36%) Microsoft Certified Professional
10 2 (0.24%) Computer Science Degree
10 2 (0.24%) Master's Degree
11 1 (0.12%) CISSP
11 1 (0.12%) Oracle Certification
11 1 (0.12%) SnowPro
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 184 (22.09%) Data Quality
2 35 (4.20%) GDPR
3 13 (1.56%) Accessibility
4 10 (1.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 8 (0.96%) NCSC
6 7 (0.84%) NIST
6 7 (0.84%) Solvency II
7 6 (0.72%) IFRS
7 6 (0.72%) SNOMED CT
8 5 (0.60%) IFRS 17
8 5 (0.60%) QA
9 4 (0.48%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 3 (0.36%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 3 (0.36%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 2 (0.24%) GRC
11 2 (0.24%) GxP
11 2 (0.24%) HL7
11 2 (0.24%) ISO 20022
11 2 (0.24%) SLA
12 1 (0.12%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 3 (0.36%) Docker
2 1 (0.12%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.12%) VMware ESXi
2 1 (0.12%) VMware Infrastructure
2 1 (0.12%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 7 (0.84%) Kubernetes
2 5 (0.60%) Grafana
3 4 (0.48%) Single Sign-On
4 3 (0.36%) Istio
5 2 (0.24%) Ansible
5 2 (0.24%) Argo
5 2 (0.24%) NetBackup
5 2 (0.24%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.12%) Control-M
Vendors
1 178 (21.37%) Databricks
2 99 (11.88%) Microsoft
3 45 (5.40%) Oracle
4 27 (3.24%) Google
5 23 (2.76%) Informatica
6 20 (2.40%) SAP
7 16 (1.92%) Foundry
8 14 (1.68%) Palantir
9 12 (1.44%) Talend
10 10 (1.20%) IFS
11 9 (1.08%) Denodo
11 9 (1.08%) Salesforce
11 9 (1.08%) Sparx
12 7 (0.84%) ServiceNow
13 6 (0.72%) OpenAI
14 5 (0.60%) Teradata
15 4 (0.48%) Confluent
16 3 (0.36%) Cloudera
16 3 (0.36%) MicroStrategy
16 3 (0.36%) Workday