Solutions Architect Contract Job Trends in the South East

Solution Architect
England > South East

The median Solution Architect daily rate in the South East is £638, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 11 October 2026.

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

6 months to
11 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 57 67 90
Rank change year-on-year +10 +23 -7
Contract jobs requiring a Solutions Architect 249 112 90
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 3.82% 3.14% 2.08%
As % of the Job Titles category 4.19% 3.51% 2.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 202 81 57
10th Percentile £455 £488 £507
25th Percentile £506 £536 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £638 £600 £625
Median % change year-on-year +6.25% -4.00% -1.81%
75th Percentile £700 £688 £672
90th Percentile £749 £725 £773
England median daily rate £640 £618 £625
% change year-on-year +3.63% -1.19% -3.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 4
10th Percentile £103.40 - £90.60
25th Percentile £108.13 - £91.50
Median hourly rate £116.00 - £92.19
75th Percentile - - £92.37
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £71.27 £90.00 £91.00
% change year-on-year -20.81% -1.10% +21.33%

All Contract IT Job Roles
South East

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the South East. 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 South East with a recognized job title 5,949 3,190 3,986
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.16% 89.36% 92.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,336 2,064 2,375
10th Percentile £291 £204 £245
25th Percentile £425 £363 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £505
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -0.99% -0.49%
75th Percentile £625 £598 £625
90th Percentile £725 £663 £688
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -3.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 828 296 240
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.06 £16.00
25th Percentile £20.43 £15.82 £27.00
Median hourly rate £48.59 £24.00 £59.25
Median % change year-on-year +102.45% -59.49% +13.93%
75th Percentile £70.00 £55.00 £75.00
90th Percentile £87.83 £71.38 £78.88
England median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% -6.89%

Solutions Architect
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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

Solutions Architect job vacancy trend in the South East

Solutions Architect
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Solutions Architect job vacancies in the South East.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Solutions Architect job vacancies in the South East

Solutions Architect
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Solutions Architect in the South East over the 6 months to 11 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Solutions Architect in the South East

Solutions Architect
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Solutions Architect job vacancies in the South East.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Solutions Architect job vacancies in the South East

Solutions Architect
Contract Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Solutions Architect within the South East region over the 6 months to 11 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
Thames Valley +2 140 £625 +6.38% 59
Berkshire +16 108 £638 +13.33% 34
Hampshire -5 52 £650 +8.33% 30
Buckinghamshire -25 25 £488 -30.36% 19
Kent +15 19 £645 +17.27% 4
West Sussex -11 19 £700 -2.78% 8
Surrey -10 15 £460 -19.83% 21
Oxfordshire -19 7 £675 +22.73% 6
East Sussex +2 5 £616 -33.41% 2
Home Counties - 1 - -
Solutions Architect
England

Solutions Architect Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East

For the 6 months to 11 October 2026, Solutions 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 South East region featuring Solutions Architect in the job title.

1 72 (28.92%) Azure
2 59 (23.69%) Security Cleared
3 56 (22.49%) Stakeholder Management
4 49 (19.68%) Enterprise Architecture
5 43 (17.27%) SC Cleared
6 36 (14.46%) Agile
6 36 (14.46%) Roadmaps
7 35 (14.06%) ERP
8 34 (13.65%) AWS
9 33 (13.25%) Microsoft
10 32 (12.85%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 30 (12.05%) Oracle
12 29 (11.65%) Integration Patterns
13 28 (11.24%) Architecture Governance
13 28 (11.24%) SAP
14 27 (10.84%) Migration
15 24 (9.64%) Technical Leadership
16 22 (8.84%) Event-Driven
17 21 (8.43%) Middleware
18 20 (8.03%) GCP
19 18 (7.23%) Decision-Making
19 18 (7.23%) Event-Driven Architecture
19 18 (7.23%) REST
20 17 (6.83%) Architectural Design
21 16 (6.43%) Analytics
21 16 (6.43%) Cybersecurity
21 16 (6.43%) Data Protection
21 16 (6.43%) Problem-Solving
21 16 (6.43%) Translating Business Requirements
22 15 (6.02%) MuleSoft

Solutions Architect Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 6 (2.41%) Documentum
2 3 (1.20%) Palantir Foundry
3 1 (0.40%) CMS
3 1 (0.40%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 2 (0.80%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 12 (4.82%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (2.41%) Oracle ERP
3 4 (1.61%) Maximo
4 3 (1.20%) SAP Hybris
5 2 (0.80%) Cognos Controller
5 2 (0.80%) Oracle Payables
5 2 (0.80%) Oracle Receivables
5 2 (0.80%) SAP MDG
6 1 (0.40%) Avolution ABACUS
6 1 (0.40%) IBM Planning Analytics
6 1 (0.40%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.40%) Oracle Assets
6 1 (0.40%) Oracle Cash Management
6 1 (0.40%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.40%) Remedy ITSM
6 1 (0.40%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.40%) SAP ERP
6 1 (0.40%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 72 (28.92%) Azure
2 34 (13.65%) AWS
3 20 (8.03%) GCP
4 14 (5.62%) SaaS
5 10 (4.02%) iPaaS
6 8 (3.21%) Azure Service Bus
6 8 (3.21%) Boomi
6 8 (3.21%) OCI
7 7 (2.81%) Power Platform
8 6 (2.41%) IaaS
8 6 (2.41%) PaaS
9 5 (2.01%) Amazon EventBridge
9 5 (2.01%) Amazon S3
9 5 (2.01%) Amazon SQS
9 5 (2.01%) AWS Step Functions
9 5 (2.01%) Azure DevOps
9 5 (2.01%) dbt
9 5 (2.01%) Microsoft 365
9 5 (2.01%) Snowflake
10 4 (1.61%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 8 (3.21%) HTTP
1 8 (3.21%) VoIP
2 6 (2.41%) Unified Communications
3 5 (2.01%) Firewall
3 5 (2.01%) SD-WAN
3 5 (2.01%) WAN
4 4 (1.61%) Internet
4 4 (1.61%) Radio Access Network
5 3 (1.20%) DNS
5 3 (1.20%) Network Security
5 3 (1.20%) VPN
6 2 (0.80%) BGP
6 2 (0.80%) Broadband
6 2 (0.80%) LAN
6 2 (0.80%) MPLS
6 2 (0.80%) PBX
6 2 (0.80%) SAN
6 2 (0.80%) SMS
6 2 (0.80%) TCP/IP
6 2 (0.80%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (1.61%) Data Warehouse
1 4 (1.61%) Power BI
2 3 (1.20%) Geospatial Data
2 3 (1.20%) GIS
3 2 (0.80%) Flink
4 1 (0.40%) Ataccama
4 1 (0.40%) Delta Lake
4 1 (0.40%) SAP BW
4 1 (0.40%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 5 (2.01%) Git
2 3 (1.20%) ERwin
General
1 64 (25.70%) Social Skills
2 44 (17.67%) Retail
3 38 (15.26%) Finance
4 24 (9.64%) Manufacturing
5 17 (6.83%) Public Sector
6 9 (3.61%) Analytical Skills
6 9 (3.61%) Telecoms
7 7 (2.81%) Marketing
8 5 (2.01%) Aerospace
8 5 (2.01%) Legal
9 4 (1.61%) Influencing Skills
10 3 (1.20%) Banking
10 3 (1.20%) Billing
10 3 (1.20%) Documentation Skills
11 2 (0.80%) Presentation Skills
12 1 (0.40%) Automotive
12 1 (0.40%) General Ledger
12 1 (0.40%) Retail Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (8.43%) Middleware
2 18 (7.23%) REST
3 13 (5.22%) SOAP
4 12 (4.82%) Oracle Fusion
5 8 (3.21%) ActiveMQ
5 8 (3.21%) EDI
5 8 (3.21%) GraphQL
5 8 (3.21%) JSON
5 8 (3.21%) JWT
5 8 (3.21%) Kafka
5 8 (3.21%) OAuth
5 8 (3.21%) OpenAPI
5 8 (3.21%) RabbitMQ
5 8 (3.21%) SAML
5 8 (3.21%) Swagger
5 8 (3.21%) XML
6 6 (2.41%) MACH
7 5 (2.01%) ADO
8 4 (1.61%) 802.1X
8 4 (1.61%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 17 (6.83%) Operational Technology
2 15 (6.02%) Cloud Native
3 11 (4.42%) Distributed Systems
4 10 (4.02%) Data Protection Act
5 8 (3.21%) Enterprise Software
6 6 (2.41%) Data Fabric
6 6 (2.41%) Hybrid Cloud
6 6 (2.41%) Legacy Systems
7 5 (2.01%) Mainframe
7 5 (2.01%) Management Information System
8 4 (1.61%) Onboarding
9 3 (1.20%) CMDB
9 3 (1.20%) Data Centre
9 3 (1.20%) Product Ownership
9 3 (1.20%) Security Posture
10 2 (0.80%) Data Structures
10 2 (0.80%) Enterprise Storage
10 2 (0.80%) IoT
10 2 (0.80%) PKI
10 2 (0.80%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 7 (2.81%) Windows
2 4 (1.61%) Linux
3 2 (0.80%) AIX
3 2 (0.80%) HPUX
3 2 (0.80%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 2 (0.80%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 56 (22.49%) Stakeholder Management
2 49 (19.68%) Enterprise Architecture
3 36 (14.46%) Agile
3 36 (14.46%) Roadmaps
4 35 (14.06%) ERP
5 32 (12.85%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 29 (11.65%) Integration Patterns
7 28 (11.24%) Architecture Governance
8 27 (10.84%) Migration
9 24 (9.64%) Technical Leadership
10 22 (8.84%) Event-Driven
11 18 (7.23%) Decision-Making
11 18 (7.23%) Event-Driven Architecture
12 17 (6.83%) Architectural Design
13 16 (6.43%) Analytics
13 16 (6.43%) Cybersecurity
13 16 (6.43%) Data Protection
13 16 (6.43%) Problem-Solving
13 16 (6.43%) Translating Business Requirements
14 14 (5.62%) Data Integration
Programming Languages
1 6 (2.41%) Java
2 3 (1.20%) JavaScript
3 2 (0.80%) Shell Script
3 2 (0.80%) SQL
Qualifications
1 59 (23.69%) Security Cleared
2 43 (17.27%) SC Cleared
3 11 (4.42%) DV Cleared
4 10 (4.02%) Azure Certification
5 3 (1.20%) DBS Check
5 3 (1.20%) Degree
6 2 (0.80%) AWS Certification
7 1 (0.40%) CISSP
7 1 (0.40%) Computer Science Degree
7 1 (0.40%) ITIL Certification
7 1 (0.40%) NVQ Level 3
7 1 (0.40%) NVQ Level 4
7 1 (0.40%) SAP Certification
7 1 (0.40%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (2.81%) QA
2 5 (2.01%) GDPR
3 4 (1.61%) Data Quality
3 4 (1.61%) IFRS
3 4 (1.61%) NCSC
4 3 (1.20%) ISO 19650
4 3 (1.20%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 2 (0.80%) GAAP
6 1 (0.40%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.40%) NIST
6 1 (0.40%) PMO
System Software
1 7 (2.81%) VMware Infrastructure
2 5 (2.01%) Active Directory
3 4 (1.61%) Virtual Machines
4 2 (0.80%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 12 (4.82%) Kubernetes
2 4 (1.61%) Cisco CUCM
2 4 (1.61%) FortiGate
3 2 (0.80%) Ansible
3 2 (0.80%) Grafana
3 2 (0.80%) NetBackup
3 2 (0.80%) Prometheus
4 1 (0.40%) CASB
4 1 (0.40%) Rancher
4 1 (0.40%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 33 (13.25%) Microsoft
2 30 (12.05%) Oracle
3 28 (11.24%) SAP
4 15 (6.02%) MuleSoft
5 14 (5.62%) Google
6 13 (5.22%) Salesforce
6 13 (5.22%) ServiceNow
7 12 (4.82%) VMware
8 10 (4.02%) IBM
9 9 (3.61%) Informatica
10 8 (3.21%) Cisco
10 8 (3.21%) TIBCO
10 8 (3.21%) WSO2
11 6 (2.41%) Workday
12 4 (1.61%) CyberArk
12 4 (1.61%) Red Hat
13 3 (1.20%) Databricks
13 3 (1.20%) ESRI
13 3 (1.20%) Foundry
13 3 (1.20%) Palantir