Lead Architect Contract Job Trends in Cheshire

Lead Architect
North West > Cheshire

The median Lead Architect daily rate in Cheshire is £465, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 13 March 2026.

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

6 months to
13 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 74 - 61
Rank change year-on-year - - +7
Contract jobs requiring a Lead Architect 2 0 1
As % of all contract jobs in Cheshire 0.30% - 0.19%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.33% - 0.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 1 0 1
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £465 - £567
Median % change year-on-year - - -16.00%
North West median daily rate £465 £775 £725
% change year-on-year -40.00% +6.90% -14.71%

All Contract IT Job Roles
Cheshire

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in Cheshire. 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 Cheshire with a recognized job title 606 373 496
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.85% 88.81% 92.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 418 243 339
10th Percentile £313 £297 £265
25th Percentile £368 £356 £391
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £458 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.58% -5.00% +4.17%
75th Percentile £588 £575 £550
90th Percentile £708 £645 £611
North West median daily rate £460 £475 £495
% change year-on-year -3.16% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 28 44
10th Percentile £15.50 £19.00 £14.00
25th Percentile £19.00 £23.87 £16.73
Median hourly rate £22.85 £35.20 £21.04
Median % change year-on-year -35.09% +67.34% +5.18%
75th Percentile £33.73 £86.00 £37.44
90th Percentile £74.43 - £43.75
North West median hourly rate £42.69 £31.64 £25.60
% change year-on-year +34.91% +23.59% -14.67%

Lead Architect
Job Vacancy Trend in Cheshire

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Lead Architect' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Cheshire.

Lead Architect job vacancy trend in Cheshire

Lead Architect
Daily Rate Trend in Cheshire

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Lead Architect job vacancies in Cheshire.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Lead Architect job vacancies in Cheshire

Lead Architect
Contract Job Locations in Cheshire

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Lead Architect within the Cheshire region over the 6 months to 13 March 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
Knutsford - 1 £465 -
Lead Architect
North West

Lead Architect Skill Set
Top 22 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Cheshire

For the 6 months to 13 March 2026, Lead 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 across the Cheshire region featuring Lead Architect in the job title.

1 2 (100.00%) Continuous Improvement
1 2 (100.00%) Technical Leadership
2 1 (50.00%) Architecture Governance
2 1 (50.00%) AWS
2 1 (50.00%) AWS Certification
2 1 (50.00%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
2 1 (50.00%) Cybersecurity
2 1 (50.00%) Design Patterns
2 1 (50.00%) Design Thinking
2 1 (50.00%) Enterprise Architecture
2 1 (50.00%) IT Governance
2 1 (50.00%) IT Strategy
2 1 (50.00%) ITIL
2 1 (50.00%) Risk Assessment
2 1 (50.00%) SC Cleared
2 1 (50.00%) Security Architecture
2 1 (50.00%) Security Cleared
2 1 (50.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
2 1 (50.00%) Strategic Thinking
2 1 (50.00%) Technology Strategy
2 1 (50.00%) Threat Modelling
2 1 (50.00%) TOGAF

Lead Architect Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Cheshire 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:

Cloud Services
1 1 (50.00%) AWS
General
1 1 (50.00%) Banking
1 1 (50.00%) Military
1 1 (50.00%) Public Sector
Miscellaneous
1 1 (50.00%) Product Ownership
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (100.00%) Continuous Improvement
1 2 (100.00%) Technical Leadership
2 1 (50.00%) Architecture Governance
2 1 (50.00%) Cybersecurity
2 1 (50.00%) Design Patterns
2 1 (50.00%) Design Thinking
2 1 (50.00%) Enterprise Architecture
2 1 (50.00%) IT Governance
2 1 (50.00%) IT Strategy
2 1 (50.00%) ITIL
2 1 (50.00%) Risk Assessment
2 1 (50.00%) Security Architecture
2 1 (50.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
2 1 (50.00%) Strategic Thinking
2 1 (50.00%) Technology Strategy
2 1 (50.00%) Threat Modelling
2 1 (50.00%) TOGAF
Qualifications
1 1 (50.00%) AWS Certification
1 1 (50.00%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
1 1 (50.00%) SC Cleared
1 1 (50.00%) Security Cleared