Mainframe Architect Contracts

Mainframe Architect
UK

The median Mainframe Architect daily rate in the UK is £524, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 517 569 716
Rank change year-on-year +52 +147 +138
Contract jobs requiring a Mainframe Architect 3 13 2
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.010% 0.030% 0.003%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.011% 0.032% 0.004%
Number of daily rates quoted 2 13 0
10th Percentile £462 - -
25th Percentile £485 £500 -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £524 £625 -
Median % change year-on-year -16.24% - -
75th Percentile £562 £750 -
90th Percentile £585 - -
UK excluding London median daily rate £447 £510 -
% change year-on-year -12.35% - -

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 27,084 40,415 56,464
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.52% 92.78% 94.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,692 26,309 39,470
10th Percentile £300 £275 £313
25th Percentile £406 £410 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -1.90% -2.78% +2.86%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £492 £500
% change year-on-year -3.46% -1.60% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,035 2,664 1,570
10th Percentile £14.07 £12.86 £14.29
25th Percentile £18.50 £16.30 £19.50
Median hourly rate £29.00 £36.42 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -20.37% -19.07% +91.49%
75th Percentile £62.50 £60.75 £65.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.00 £39.55 £42.50
% change year-on-year -29.20% -6.94% +117.95%

Mainframe Architect
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured Mainframe Architect in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Mainframe Architect in the UK

Mainframe Architect
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Mainframe Architect.

Daily rate trend for Mainframe Architect in the UK

Mainframe Architect
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Mainframe Architect over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Mainframe Architect in the UK

Mainframe Architect
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Mainframe Architect.

Hourly rate trend for Mainframe Architect in the UK

Mainframe Architect
Top 5 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Mainframe Architect within the UK over the 6 months to 1 May 2025. 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 +50 3 £524 -25.21% 5
London +32 2 £600 -17.24% 3
UK excluding London +60 1 £447 -12.35% 3
North of England +19 1 £447 -22.26%
North West +17 1 £447 -22.26%

Mainframe Architect Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 1 May 2025, Mainframe Architect contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Mainframe Architect in the job title.

1 3 (100.00%) Migration
1 3 (100.00%) Mainframe
2 2 (66.67%) Java
3 1 (33.33%) J2EE
3 1 (33.33%) Oracle
3 1 (33.33%) DB2
3 1 (33.33%) Web Services
3 1 (33.33%) XML
3 1 (33.33%) Unix
3 1 (33.33%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (33.33%) ETL
3 1 (33.33%) CICS
3 1 (33.33%) Informatica
3 1 (33.33%) REXX
3 1 (33.33%) JCL
3 1 (33.33%) Finance
3 1 (33.33%) COBOL
3 1 (33.33%) Stakeholder Management
3 1 (33.33%) Ab Initio
3 1 (33.33%) Risk Assessment
3 1 (33.33%) Agile
3 1 (33.33%) Banking
3 1 (33.33%) VSAM
3 1 (33.33%) General Ledger
3 1 (33.33%) Retail Banking
3 1 (33.33%) WebSphere
3 1 (33.33%) JSON
3 1 (33.33%) QA
3 1 (33.33%) Selenium
3 1 (33.33%) Performance Management

Mainframe Architect Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 1 (33.33%) CICS
1 1 (33.33%) WebSphere
Cloud Services
1 1 (33.33%) AWS
1 1 (33.33%) Azure
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (33.33%) Data Warehouse
1 1 (33.33%) DB2
1 1 (33.33%) Hadoop
Development Applications
1 1 (33.33%) Jenkins
1 1 (33.33%) Selenium
1 1 (33.33%) SOAtest
General
1 1 (33.33%) Analytical Skills
1 1 (33.33%) Banking
1 1 (33.33%) Finance
1 1 (33.33%) General Ledger
1 1 (33.33%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (33.33%) J2EE
1 1 (33.33%) JSON
1 1 (33.33%) Web Services
1 1 (33.33%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 3 (100.00%) Mainframe
2 1 (33.33%) iSeries
2 1 (33.33%) Mobile Payment
2 1 (33.33%) VSAM
Operating Systems
1 1 (33.33%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 3 (100.00%) Migration
2 1 (33.33%) Agile
2 1 (33.33%) API Testing
2 1 (33.33%) Architectural Design
2 1 (33.33%) Data Migration
2 1 (33.33%) ETL
2 1 (33.33%) Impact Analysis
2 1 (33.33%) Mentoring
2 1 (33.33%) Performance Management
2 1 (33.33%) Risk Assessment
2 1 (33.33%) Scenario Testing
2 1 (33.33%) Stakeholder Management
2 1 (33.33%) Test Automation
2 1 (33.33%) Test Planning
2 1 (33.33%) Test Strategy
2 1 (33.33%) User Stories
Programming Languages
1 2 (66.67%) Java
2 1 (33.33%) COBOL
2 1 (33.33%) JCL
2 1 (33.33%) REXX
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (33.33%) QA
Vendors
1 1 (33.33%) Ab Initio
1 1 (33.33%) Guidewire
1 1 (33.33%) Informatica
1 1 (33.33%) Oracle
1 1 (33.33%) Parasoft