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 9 January 2026.

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

6 months to
9 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 281 248 237
Rank change year-on-year -33 -11 +22
Contract jobs requiring a Data Architect 328 325 436
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.89% 1.02% 1.03%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.98% 1.10% 1.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 243 212 318
10th Percentile £450 £482 £475
25th Percentile £508 £519 £577
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £620 £675
Median % change year-on-year -3.23% -8.15% +2.43%
75th Percentile £675 £725 £738
90th Percentile £775 £799 £780
UK excluding London median daily rate £574 £621 £650
% change year-on-year -7.65% -4.42% +3.01%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 4 6
10th Percentile - £76.13 £45.64
25th Percentile £81.50 £77.81 £48.82
Median hourly rate £83.00 £80.50 £61.53
Median % change year-on-year +3.11% +30.84% -12.10%
75th Percentile £84.50 £93.47 £72.00
90th Percentile - £108.70 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £83.00 £80.50 £61.53
% change year-on-year +3.11% +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 33,508 29,606 39,607
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.31% 92.68% 93.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,195 18,121 26,431
10th Percentile £300 £291 £281
25th Percentile £405 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £618 £638 £638
90th Percentile £719 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £479 £500
% change year-on-year -0.89% -4.15% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,969 900 1,622
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.52 £14.18
25th Percentile £18.22 £21.05 £19.06
Median hourly rate £26.50 £32.50 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -18.46% -26.97% +34.85%
75th Percentile £60.00 £62.24 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.46 £73.75 £76.53
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £31.50 £45.11
% change year-on-year -20.16% -30.16% +67.04%

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 9 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
Top 14 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 9 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 -63 274 £600 -4.00% 124
London -25 158 £600 -4.00% 36
UK excluding London -33 112 £574 -7.65% 105
Work from Home -24 100 £608 -2.41% 84
North of England -62 28 £600 +4.35% 26
Midlands -23 24 £581 -3.51% 13
North West -30 24 £550 - 9
West Midlands -15 22 £581 -5.08% 12
South West -5 21 £613 -2.00% 8
South East -20 20 £575 -6.12% 36
Scotland +7 12 £500 -28.57% 3
East of England -21 10 £565 -16.30% 18
Yorkshire -53 4 £688 -1.79% 8
East Midlands -24 2 £501 +10.60% 1

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

For the 6 months to 9 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.

1 189 (57.62%) Data Modelling
2 171 (52.13%) Data Architecture
3 124 (37.80%) Azure
4 116 (35.37%) Data Governance
5 103 (31.40%) Analytics
6 86 (26.22%) AWS
7 75 (22.87%) Data Warehouse
8 67 (20.43%) Data Quality
9 66 (20.12%) SQL
10 65 (19.82%) ETL
10 65 (19.82%) Python
11 62 (18.90%) Business Intelligence
11 62 (18.90%) Databricks
11 62 (18.90%) Metadata
12 60 (18.29%) Data Strategy
13 58 (17.68%) Microsoft
14 56 (17.07%) Power Platform
15 54 (16.46%) Security Cleared
16 52 (15.85%) Migration
17 50 (15.24%) Power BI
18 48 (14.63%) AI
19 46 (14.02%) Data Integration
19 46 (14.02%) Data Lake
20 43 (13.11%) Metadata Management
20 43 (13.11%) SC Cleared
21 42 (12.80%) Physical Data Model
22 40 (12.20%) DevOps
22 40 (12.20%) Stakeholder Management
23 39 (11.89%) Azure Data Factory
23 39 (11.89%) Roadmaps

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 10 (3.05%) Apache Spark
2 9 (2.74%) SAS
3 8 (2.44%) Apache
3 8 (2.44%) Apache Airflow
4 3 (0.91%) SharePoint
5 2 (0.61%) Luigi
6 1 (0.30%) Ethereum
6 1 (0.30%) Hyperledger
6 1 (0.30%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 2 (0.61%) Microsoft Excel
1 2 (0.61%) Spreadsheet
2 1 (0.30%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.30%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 7 (2.13%) SAP S/4HANA
1 7 (2.13%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 5 (1.52%) Dynamics CRM
2 5 (1.52%) Salesforce CRM
3 2 (0.61%) Aladdin
4 1 (0.30%) Distributed Ledger
4 1 (0.30%) Dynamics AX
4 1 (0.30%) iTrent
4 1 (0.30%) NEC Housing
4 1 (0.30%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.30%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.30%) R3 Corda
4 1 (0.30%) SAP IBP
4 1 (0.30%) SAP Oil and Gas
4 1 (0.30%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 124 (37.80%) Azure
2 86 (26.22%) AWS
3 56 (17.07%) Power Platform
4 39 (11.89%) Azure Data Factory
5 37 (11.28%) Azure Synapse Analytics
6 34 (10.37%) Serverless
7 30 (9.15%) Microsoft Purview
8 27 (8.23%) Amazon S3
9 26 (7.93%) Snowflake
10 21 (6.40%) GCP
11 18 (5.49%) AWS Lambda
12 15 (4.57%) Amazon Kinesis
13 13 (3.96%) dbt
14 12 (3.66%) Azure DevOps
15 11 (3.35%) AWS CloudFormation
16 10 (3.05%) Azure Functions
16 10 (3.05%) Collibra
17 8 (2.44%) Dynamics 365
18 7 (2.13%) AWS Step Functions
19 6 (1.83%) Azure Cosmos DB
Communications & Networking
1 2 (0.61%) Hyperconnected
2 1 (0.30%) DWDM
2 1 (0.30%) LAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 75 (22.87%) Data Warehouse
2 62 (18.90%) Metadata
3 50 (15.24%) Power BI
4 46 (14.02%) Data Lake
5 30 (9.15%) Amazon Redshift
6 29 (8.84%) PostgreSQL
7 21 (6.40%) SQL Server
8 19 (5.79%) Amazon Athena
8 19 (5.79%) Data Vault
9 15 (4.57%) Delta Lake
10 14 (4.27%) Tableau
11 13 (3.96%) Azure SQL Database
11 13 (3.96%) NoSQL
11 13 (3.96%) Relational Database
12 12 (3.66%) Apache Iceberg
12 12 (3.66%) Big Data
13 11 (3.35%) OLTP
13 11 (3.35%) Spark SQL
14 10 (3.05%) Oracle Database
14 10 (3.05%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 17 (5.18%) ERwin
2 6 (1.83%) Git
3 5 (1.52%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.91%) ER Studio
5 2 (0.61%) GitLab
6 1 (0.30%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.30%) GCC
6 1 (0.30%) PowerDesigner
6 1 (0.30%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 91 (27.74%) Social Skills
2 59 (17.99%) Finance
3 47 (14.33%) Public Sector
4 31 (9.45%) Analytical Skills
5 10 (3.05%) Banking
6 9 (2.74%) Retail
7 8 (2.44%) Local Government
8 7 (2.13%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 6 (1.83%) Legal
10 5 (1.52%) Influencing Skills
10 5 (1.52%) Presentation Skills
11 4 (1.22%) Financial Institution
11 4 (1.22%) Manufacturing
12 3 (0.91%) Corporate Banking
12 3 (0.91%) Marketing
12 3 (0.91%) Pharmaceutical
12 3 (0.91%) Telecoms
13 2 (0.61%) Documentation Skills
13 2 (0.61%) Law
13 2 (0.61%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (6.71%) PySpark
2 15 (4.57%) Kafka
3 6 (1.83%) Apache Avro
3 6 (1.83%) Protocol Buffers
4 4 (1.22%) SOAP
5 3 (0.91%) .NET
5 3 (0.91%) AWS CDK
5 3 (0.91%) Node.js
5 3 (0.91%) REST
6 2 (0.61%) JSON
6 2 (0.61%) Oracle Fusion
6 2 (0.61%) XML
7 1 (0.30%) .NET Core
7 1 (0.30%) ADO
7 1 (0.30%) Apache NiFi
7 1 (0.30%) ARM Templates
7 1 (0.30%) Smart Contracts
Miscellaneous
1 28 (8.54%) Data Structures
2 24 (7.32%) Cloud Native
3 11 (3.35%) Legacy Systems
3 11 (3.35%) NHS
4 9 (2.74%) Distributed Systems
4 9 (2.74%) Hybrid Cloud
5 8 (2.44%) Data Fabric
5 8 (2.44%) FMCG
5 8 (2.44%) Reinsurance
6 7 (2.13%) Product Ownership
6 7 (2.13%) Reference Data
7 6 (1.83%) Low-Code
8 4 (1.22%) Onboarding
8 4 (1.22%) Taxonomies
9 3 (0.91%) Data Protection Act
9 3 (0.91%) Distributed Computing
9 3 (0.91%) IoT
9 3 (0.91%) PACS
9 3 (0.91%) Replication
9 3 (0.91%) SWIFT Messaging Network
Operating Systems
1 1 (0.30%) Windows
1 1 (0.30%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 189 (57.62%) Data Modelling
2 171 (52.13%) Data Architecture
3 116 (35.37%) Data Governance
4 103 (31.40%) Analytics
5 65 (19.82%) ETL
6 62 (18.90%) Business Intelligence
7 60 (18.29%) Data Strategy
8 52 (15.85%) Migration
9 48 (14.63%) AI
10 46 (14.02%) Data Integration
11 43 (13.11%) Metadata Management
12 42 (12.80%) Physical Data Model
13 40 (12.20%) DevOps
13 40 (12.20%) Stakeholder Management
14 39 (11.89%) Roadmaps
15 38 (11.59%) Logical Data Model
16 37 (11.28%) Problem-Solving
17 36 (10.98%) Data Pipeline
17 36 (10.98%) Machine Learning
18 34 (10.37%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 66 (20.12%) SQL
2 65 (19.82%) Python
3 11 (3.35%) Java
4 8 (2.44%) T-SQL
5 5 (1.52%) PowerShell
6 4 (1.22%) PL/SQL
7 3 (0.91%) JavaScript
7 3 (0.91%) Scala
7 3 (0.91%) SPARQL
8 2 (0.61%) Korn
9 1 (0.30%) ANSI SQL
9 1 (0.30%) C#
9 1 (0.30%) R
9 1 (0.30%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 54 (16.46%) Security Cleared
2 43 (13.11%) SC Cleared
3 18 (5.49%) Azure Certification
4 17 (5.18%) Degree
5 10 (3.05%) Microsoft Certification
6 9 (2.74%) BPSS Clearance
7 8 (2.44%) Computer Science Degree
8 7 (2.13%) AWS Certification
8 7 (2.13%) TOGAF Certification
9 6 (1.83%) Master's Degree
10 4 (1.22%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 3 (0.91%) DV Cleared
12 1 (0.30%) ITIL Certification
12 1 (0.30%) MCP
12 1 (0.30%) MySQL Certification
12 1 (0.30%) Oracle Certification
12 1 (0.30%) SAP Certification
12 1 (0.30%) SnowPro
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 67 (20.43%) Data Quality
2 30 (9.15%) GDPR
3 10 (3.05%) Accessibility
4 5 (1.52%) California Consumer Privacy Act
4 5 (1.52%) QA
5 4 (1.22%) HIPAA
6 3 (0.91%) Actionable Recommendations
6 3 (0.91%) ISO 20022
7 2 (0.61%) CRD IV
7 2 (0.61%) FINREP
7 2 (0.61%) IFRS
8 1 (0.30%) GMP
8 1 (0.30%) Government Security Classifications
8 1 (0.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 1 (0.30%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 1 (0.30%) Docker
1 1 (0.30%) HDFS
Systems Management
1 24 (7.32%) Terraform
2 5 (1.52%) Ansible
3 2 (0.61%) Grafana
4 1 (0.30%) Kubernetes
4 1 (0.30%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 62 (18.90%) Databricks
2 58 (17.68%) Microsoft
3 22 (6.71%) Oracle
4 15 (4.57%) Informatica
5 14 (4.27%) Salesforce
5 14 (4.27%) SAP
6 8 (2.44%) Google
7 6 (1.83%) Confluent
8 5 (1.52%) Greenplum
8 5 (1.52%) Sparx
9 4 (1.22%) Ab Initio
9 4 (1.22%) Dynatrace
9 4 (1.22%) MicroStrategy
9 4 (1.22%) Pega
9 4 (1.22%) Remedy
10 3 (0.91%) Palantir
10 3 (0.91%) Workday
11 2 (0.61%) OneTrust
11 2 (0.61%) Talend
11 2 (0.61%) Virgin Media