Data Architect Contract Job Trends

Data Architect
UK

The median Data Architect daily rate in the UK is £591, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 24 April 2026.

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

6 months to
24 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 246 236 222
Rank change year-on-year -10 -14 +44
Contract jobs requiring a Data Architect 490 326 467
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.05% 1.10% 1.07%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.14% 1.19% 1.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 346 228 327
10th Percentile £456 £474 £500
25th Percentile £503 £519 £559
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £591 £600 £696
Median % change year-on-year -1.50% -13.79% +3.11%
75th Percentile £675 £700 £775
90th Percentile £800 £782 £888
UK excluding London median daily rate £575 £585 £675
% change year-on-year -1.71% -13.33% +3.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 4 5
10th Percentile £46.00 £66.25 £55.50
25th Percentile £50.50 £71.88 -
Median hourly rate £64.00 £80.25 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -20.25% +33.75% -9.09%
75th Percentile £67.75 £82.94 -
90th Percentile £69.22 £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 42,897 27,359 40,498
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.32% 92.62% 92.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,528 17,903 26,435
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £406 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.91% -1.90% -2.78%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +2.63% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,745 1,021 2,635
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.20 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.51 £16.30
Median hourly rate £42.50 £29.23 £35.50
Median % change year-on-year +45.40% -17.66% -21.11%
75th Percentile £65.60 £62.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £78.43 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £44.00 £28.75 £37.50
% change year-on-year +53.04% -23.33% -11.76%

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 April 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 April 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 April 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 -16 410 £588 -2.08% 90
London -15 232 £591 -5.44% 33
UK excluding London -10 179 £575 -1.71% 73
Work from Home -11 138 £580 -3.42% 59
Midlands -22 44 £600 -0.41% 16
West Midlands -26 39 £600 -0.41% 13
South West -14 36 £630 +21.74% 10
North of England -75 30 £575 - 18
South East -52 25 £575 +2.22% 17
East of England -17 24 £505 -20.78% 10
Scotland +17 23 £550 -8.33%
Yorkshire -46 13 £605 -18.24% 7
North West -49 13 £548 +4.29% 3
North East -13 7 £550 -8.28% 8
East Midlands -30 5 £447 - 3
Wales -11 2 £768 +225.21% 3

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

For the 6 months to 24 April 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.

1 254 (51.84%) Data Architecture
2 225 (45.92%) Data Modelling
3 180 (36.73%) Analytics
4 168 (34.29%) Azure
5 139 (28.37%) Data Governance
6 125 (25.51%) AWS
7 110 (22.45%) Security Cleared
8 108 (22.04%) SQL
9 105 (21.43%) ETL
10 103 (21.02%) Metadata
11 101 (20.61%) Databricks
12 91 (18.57%) Business Intelligence
12 91 (18.57%) Data Quality
12 91 (18.57%) Data Warehouse
13 90 (18.37%) Migration
14 85 (17.35%) AI
15 82 (16.73%) SC Cleared
16 76 (15.51%) Data Integration
17 75 (15.31%) Data Lake
18 73 (14.90%) Microsoft
19 69 (14.08%) Data Engineering
19 69 (14.08%) Data Pipeline
20 63 (12.86%) Data Strategy
21 62 (12.65%) Logical Data Model
21 62 (12.65%) Power Platform
22 61 (12.45%) Agile
22 61 (12.45%) Data Management
23 60 (12.24%) Python
24 56 (11.43%) Physical Data Model
25 55 (11.22%) 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 17 (3.47%) Apache Spark
2 13 (2.65%) SharePoint
3 12 (2.45%) SAS
4 11 (2.24%) Apache
5 10 (2.04%) Apache Airflow
6 7 (1.43%) Palantir Foundry
7 2 (0.41%) Alfresco
7 2 (0.41%) Confluence
8 1 (0.20%) Appian
8 1 (0.20%) Ethereum
8 1 (0.20%) Hyperledger
8 1 (0.20%) Jupyter
8 1 (0.20%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 3 (0.61%) MS Visio
2 1 (0.20%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 9 (1.84%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (1.02%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 2 (0.41%) SAP ERP
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
Cloud Services
1 168 (34.29%) Azure
2 125 (25.51%) AWS
3 62 (12.65%) Power Platform
4 54 (11.02%) GCP
5 46 (9.39%) Azure Synapse Analytics
6 41 (8.37%) Snowflake
7 40 (8.16%) Azure Data Factory
8 30 (6.12%) Serverless
9 28 (5.71%) Microsoft Purview
10 25 (5.10%) Amazon S3
11 23 (4.69%) AWS Lambda
12 20 (4.08%) Azure DevOps
13 17 (3.47%) Amazon Kinesis
13 17 (3.47%) dbt
14 14 (2.86%) GitHub
15 12 (2.45%) AWS Step Functions
16 11 (2.24%) Azure Cosmos DB
17 10 (2.04%) Amazon MSK
17 10 (2.04%) GitHub Actions
17 10 (2.04%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 4 (0.82%) Firewall
2 2 (0.41%) BGP
2 2 (0.41%) DNS
2 2 (0.41%) DSL
2 2 (0.41%) Hyperconnected
2 2 (0.41%) OSPF
2 2 (0.41%) Structured Cabling
2 2 (0.41%) 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
1 103 (21.02%) Metadata
2 91 (18.57%) Data Warehouse
3 75 (15.31%) Data Lake
4 54 (11.02%) Power BI
5 32 (6.53%) NoSQL
6 27 (5.51%) Amazon Redshift
6 27 (5.51%) SQL Server
7 23 (4.69%) PostgreSQL
8 22 (4.49%) Azure SQL Database
9 18 (3.67%) Big Data
9 18 (3.67%) Tableau
10 15 (3.06%) Delta Lake
11 14 (2.86%) Metadata Repository
11 14 (2.86%) SQL Server Integration Services
12 13 (2.65%) Amazon Athena
12 13 (2.65%) Data Vault
13 12 (2.45%) Star Schema
14 11 (2.24%) BigQuery
14 11 (2.24%) Oracle Database
15 10 (2.04%) Amazon Aurora
Development Applications
1 21 (4.29%) ERwin
2 6 (1.22%) GitLab
2 6 (1.22%) Jenkins
3 4 (0.82%) Git
4 3 (0.61%) 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 88 (17.96%) Social Skills
2 74 (15.10%) Finance
3 56 (11.43%) Public Sector
4 40 (8.16%) Analytical Skills
5 23 (4.69%) Retail
6 14 (2.86%) Banking
7 10 (2.04%) Documentation Skills
8 8 (1.63%) Financial Institution
9 7 (1.43%) Influencing Skills
9 7 (1.43%) Marketing
10 6 (1.22%) Local Government
11 5 (1.02%) Investment Banking
12 4 (0.82%) Manufacturing
12 4 (0.82%) Presentation Skills
13 3 (0.61%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 3 (0.61%) Law
13 3 (0.61%) Legal
13 3 (0.61%) Pharmaceutical
14 2 (0.41%) Military
15 1 (0.20%) Aviation
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (6.53%) Kafka
2 14 (2.86%) PySpark
3 11 (2.24%) Oracle Fusion
4 9 (1.84%) Apache Avro
4 9 (1.84%) Protocol Buffers
5 7 (1.43%) .NET
6 5 (1.02%) Middleware
7 4 (0.82%) FHIR
7 4 (0.82%) JSON
7 4 (0.82%) REST
8 3 (0.61%) Lightning Web Components
8 3 (0.61%) SOAP
9 2 (0.41%) OpenTelemetry
10 1 (0.20%) Apache NiFi
10 1 (0.20%) ARM Templates
10 1 (0.20%) AWS CDK
10 1 (0.20%) Great Expectations
10 1 (0.20%) OpenAPI
10 1 (0.20%) Smart Contracts
10 1 (0.20%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 37 (7.55%) Cloud Native
2 26 (5.31%) Data Structures
3 17 (3.47%) Legacy Systems
4 15 (3.06%) NHS
5 12 (2.45%) Reference Data
6 11 (2.24%) Data Centre
6 11 (2.24%) IoT
6 11 (2.24%) Mainframe
7 8 (1.63%) Product Ownership
8 7 (1.43%) Data Fabric
8 7 (1.43%) FMCG
8 7 (1.43%) Greenfield Project
8 7 (1.43%) Management Information System
9 6 (1.22%) Data Protection Act
9 6 (1.22%) Hybrid Cloud
9 6 (1.22%) PACS
9 6 (1.22%) SWIFT Messaging Network
9 6 (1.22%) Taxonomies
10 5 (1.02%) Distributed Systems
10 5 (1.02%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 9 (1.84%) zOS
2 2 (0.41%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 254 (51.84%) Data Architecture
2 225 (45.92%) Data Modelling
3 180 (36.73%) Analytics
4 139 (28.37%) Data Governance
5 105 (21.43%) ETL
6 91 (18.57%) Business Intelligence
7 90 (18.37%) Migration
8 85 (17.35%) AI
9 76 (15.51%) Data Integration
10 69 (14.08%) Data Engineering
10 69 (14.08%) Data Pipeline
11 63 (12.86%) Data Strategy
12 62 (12.65%) Logical Data Model
13 61 (12.45%) Agile
13 61 (12.45%) Data Management
14 56 (11.43%) Physical Data Model
15 55 (11.22%) Machine Learning
16 54 (11.02%) Architectural Patterns
16 54 (11.02%) Roadmaps
17 52 (10.61%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 108 (22.04%) SQL
2 60 (12.24%) Python
3 14 (2.86%) Java
4 9 (1.84%) Scala
5 8 (1.63%) T-SQL
6 6 (1.22%) PowerShell
7 5 (1.02%) Bicep
8 3 (0.61%) Apex Code
8 3 (0.61%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 2 (0.41%) Bash
9 2 (0.41%) COBOL
9 2 (0.41%) Kotlin
9 2 (0.41%) PL/SQL
9 2 (0.41%) R
9 2 (0.41%) SPARQL
10 1 (0.20%) ANSI SQL
10 1 (0.20%) C++
10 1 (0.20%) JavaScript
10 1 (0.20%) Kusto Query Language
10 1 (0.20%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 110 (22.45%) Security Cleared
2 82 (16.73%) SC Cleared
3 22 (4.49%) Azure Certification
4 20 (4.08%) Degree
5 19 (3.88%) BPSS Clearance
6 15 (3.06%) Master's Degree
7 14 (2.86%) DV Cleared
8 10 (2.04%) Microsoft Certification
8 10 (2.04%) TOGAF Certification
9 8 (1.63%) Computer Science Degree
10 7 (1.43%) AWS Certification
11 2 (0.41%) VCAP
11 2 (0.41%) VCDX
12 1 (0.20%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 1 (0.20%) DBS Check
12 1 (0.20%) MySQL Certification
12 1 (0.20%) Oracle Certification
12 1 (0.20%) Tableau Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 91 (18.57%) Data Quality
2 30 (6.12%) GDPR
3 13 (2.65%) QA
4 6 (1.22%) Accessibility
4 6 (1.22%) ISO 20022
5 5 (1.02%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 4 (0.82%) HL7
7 3 (0.61%) SNOMED CT
8 2 (0.41%) CRD IV
8 2 (0.41%) FINREP
8 2 (0.41%) IFRS
8 2 (0.41%) PCI DSS
8 2 (0.41%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 1 (0.20%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 1 (0.20%) Government Security Classifications
9 1 (0.20%) HIPAA
9 1 (0.20%) NCSC
9 1 (0.20%) NIST
System Software
1 4 (0.82%) VMware Infrastructure
2 3 (0.61%) Docker
3 2 (0.41%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.41%) VMware NSX
3 2 (0.41%) vSphere
4 1 (0.20%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 26 (5.31%) Terraform
2 7 (1.43%) Grafana
2 7 (1.43%) Kubernetes
3 6 (1.22%) Prometheus
4 5 (1.02%) Ansible
5 2 (0.41%) Argo
5 2 (0.41%) vCenter Server
6 1 (0.20%) Kubeflow
Vendors
1 101 (20.61%) Databricks
2 73 (14.90%) Microsoft
3 36 (7.35%) Oracle
4 24 (4.90%) Salesforce
5 22 (4.49%) SAP
6 20 (4.08%) Informatica
7 11 (2.24%) Confluent
7 11 (2.24%) Google
7 11 (2.24%) Talend
8 10 (2.04%) Foundry
9 7 (1.43%) Palantir
10 5 (1.02%) Sparx
11 4 (0.82%) IBM
11 4 (0.82%) NVIDIA
11 4 (0.82%) VMware
12 3 (0.61%) Ab Initio
12 3 (0.61%) Cognos
12 3 (0.61%) Denodo
12 3 (0.61%) OpenAI
12 3 (0.61%) Remedy