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 £625, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 2 August 2026.

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

6 months to
2 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 69 81 76
Rank change year-on-year +12 -5 +15
Contract jobs requiring a Solutions Architect 213 86 121
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 3.19% 2.46% 2.43%
As % of the Job Titles category 3.45% 2.71% 2.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 163 63 82
10th Percentile £467 £506 £525
25th Percentile £506 £556 £575
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £625 £600 £630
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £700 £719 £700
90th Percentile £748 £755 £738
England median daily rate £625 £625 £630
% change year-on-year - -0.79% -4.91%
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 £45.10 £77.50
% change year-on-year +58.03% -41.81% +8.77%

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 6,167 3,169 4,590
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.40% 90.59% 92.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,651 2,055 2,807
10th Percentile £305 £213 £255
25th Percentile £425 £376 £404
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% +5.00%
75th Percentile £625 £600 £638
90th Percentile £713 £663 £688
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 713 256 381
10th Percentile £16.04 £13.93 £15.96
25th Percentile £26.25 £15.50 £26.25
Median hourly rate £52.50 £25.15 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +108.75% -56.15% +14.70%
75th Percentile £75.40 £58.75 £72.33
90th Percentile £87.93 £75.00 £80.00
England median hourly rate £45.00 £26.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year +73.08% -42.22% +4.65%

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 2 August 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 2 August 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 +9 127 £613 -4.30% 34
Berkshire +21 100 £639 +6.46% 19
Hampshire -15 39 £625 +4.17% 11
Buckinghamshire -24 27 £488 -30.36% 8
West Sussex -7 18 £675 -6.25% 6
Kent +17 14 £645 +17.27% 5
Surrey -17 9 £505 -19.20% 7
East Sussex +2 5 £616 -33.41% 2
Solutions Architect
England

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

For the 6 months to 2 August 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 52 (24.41%) Azure
2 41 (19.25%) Stakeholder Management
3 38 (17.84%) Agile
3 38 (17.84%) ERP
4 37 (17.37%) Enterprise Architecture
5 36 (16.90%) Security Cleared
6 33 (15.49%) Roadmaps
7 31 (14.55%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 30 (14.08%) AWS
9 26 (12.21%) Integration Patterns
9 26 (12.21%) Technical Leadership
10 25 (11.74%) Microsoft
10 25 (11.74%) Oracle
11 21 (9.86%) Architecture Governance
12 20 (9.39%) SAP
12 20 (9.39%) SC Cleared
13 19 (8.92%) Architectural Design
13 19 (8.92%) Decision-Making
14 18 (8.45%) Migration
15 17 (7.98%) Event-Driven
15 17 (7.98%) Problem-Solving
16 16 (7.51%) Middleware
16 16 (7.51%) SaaS
16 16 (7.51%) Zero Trust
17 15 (7.04%) Continuous Improvement
17 15 (7.04%) Cybersecurity
17 15 (7.04%) Data Modelling
18 14 (6.57%) GCP
18 14 (6.57%) Translating Business Requirements
19 13 (6.10%) Analytics

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 (2.82%) Documentum
2 3 (1.41%) Palantir Foundry
3 1 (0.47%) ArcGIS
3 1 (0.47%) CMS
3 1 (0.47%) Confluence
Applications
1 2 (0.94%) Spreadsheet
2 1 (0.47%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 9 (4.23%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (2.35%) Oracle ERP
3 3 (1.41%) Maximo
4 2 (0.94%) Cognos Controller
4 2 (0.94%) Oracle Payables
4 2 (0.94%) Oracle Receivables
4 2 (0.94%) Oracle Retail
4 2 (0.94%) SAP ERP
5 1 (0.47%) Avolution ABACUS
5 1 (0.47%) IBM Planning Analytics
5 1 (0.47%) NetSuite
5 1 (0.47%) Oracle Assets
5 1 (0.47%) Oracle Cash Management
5 1 (0.47%) Remedy ITSM
5 1 (0.47%) Salesforce CRM
5 1 (0.47%) SAP MDG
Cloud Services
1 52 (24.41%) Azure
2 30 (14.08%) AWS
3 16 (7.51%) SaaS
4 14 (6.57%) GCP
5 7 (3.29%) Power Platform
6 6 (2.82%) Azure DevOps
6 6 (2.82%) IaaS
6 6 (2.82%) PaaS
7 5 (2.35%) Amazon EventBridge
7 5 (2.35%) Amazon S3
7 5 (2.35%) Amazon SQS
7 5 (2.35%) AWS Step Functions
7 5 (2.35%) dbt
7 5 (2.35%) Dynamics 365
7 5 (2.35%) OCI
7 5 (2.35%) Snowflake
8 4 (1.88%) AWS Lambda
8 4 (1.88%) iPaaS
8 4 (1.88%) Serverless
9 3 (1.41%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 7 (3.29%) SD-WAN
2 6 (2.82%) WAN
3 4 (1.88%) Firewall
3 4 (1.88%) Internet
3 4 (1.88%) Radio Access Network
4 3 (1.41%) LAN
4 3 (1.41%) SAN
4 3 (1.41%) VoIP
5 2 (0.94%) BGP
5 2 (0.94%) Broadband
5 2 (0.94%) DNS
5 2 (0.94%) HTTP
5 2 (0.94%) Intrusion Detection
5 2 (0.94%) MPLS
5 2 (0.94%) PBX
5 2 (0.94%) RFID
5 2 (0.94%) SMS
5 2 (0.94%) TCP/IP
5 2 (0.94%) VPN
5 2 (0.94%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (1.88%) Data Warehouse
1 4 (1.88%) GIS
1 4 (1.88%) Power BI
2 3 (1.41%) Geospatial Data
3 2 (0.94%) Flink
4 1 (0.47%) Ataccama
4 1 (0.47%) Delta Lake
4 1 (0.47%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 5 (2.35%) Git
2 3 (1.41%) ERwin
3 1 (0.47%) JIRA
General
1 46 (21.60%) Social Skills
2 38 (17.84%) Finance
3 37 (17.37%) Retail
4 18 (8.45%) Public Sector
5 14 (6.57%) Manufacturing
6 10 (4.69%) Telecoms
7 9 (4.23%) Analytical Skills
8 5 (2.35%) Aerospace
8 5 (2.35%) Banking
9 4 (1.88%) Documentation Skills
10 3 (1.41%) Billing
10 3 (1.41%) Financial Institution
10 3 (1.41%) Legal
11 2 (0.94%) Influencing Skills
11 2 (0.94%) Police
11 2 (0.94%) Retail Banking
12 1 (0.47%) Automotive
12 1 (0.47%) General Ledger
12 1 (0.47%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (7.51%) Middleware
2 13 (6.10%) Oracle Fusion
2 13 (6.10%) REST
3 7 (3.29%) SOAP
4 6 (2.82%) ADO
4 6 (2.82%) MACH
5 4 (1.88%) 802.1X
5 4 (1.88%) LDAP
6 3 (1.41%) .NET
6 3 (1.41%) JSON
6 3 (1.41%) OAuth
6 3 (1.41%) SAML
6 3 (1.41%) XML
7 2 (0.94%) ActiveMQ
7 2 (0.94%) EDI
7 2 (0.94%) GraphQL
7 2 (0.94%) Kafka
7 2 (0.94%) RabbitMQ
7 2 (0.94%) RESTful
7 2 (0.94%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 19 (8.92%) Operational Technology
2 10 (4.69%) Cloud Native
3 6 (2.82%) Enterprise Software
3 6 (2.82%) Onboarding
4 5 (2.35%) Data Protection Act
4 5 (2.35%) Distributed Systems
4 5 (2.35%) Legacy Systems
4 5 (2.35%) Mainframe
4 5 (2.35%) Management Information System
5 3 (1.41%) CMDB
5 3 (1.41%) Data Centre
5 3 (1.41%) Hybrid Cloud
5 3 (1.41%) PKI
5 3 (1.41%) SCADA
5 3 (1.41%) Security Posture
6 2 (0.94%) Data Structures
6 2 (0.94%) Enterprise Storage
6 2 (0.94%) EPoS
6 2 (0.94%) Product Ownership
7 1 (0.47%) Distributed Applications
Operating Systems
1 8 (3.76%) Windows
2 4 (1.88%) Linux
3 2 (0.94%) AIX
3 2 (0.94%) HPUX
3 2 (0.94%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 2 (0.94%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 41 (19.25%) Stakeholder Management
2 38 (17.84%) Agile
2 38 (17.84%) ERP
3 37 (17.37%) Enterprise Architecture
4 33 (15.49%) Roadmaps
5 31 (14.55%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 26 (12.21%) Integration Patterns
6 26 (12.21%) Technical Leadership
7 21 (9.86%) Architecture Governance
8 19 (8.92%) Architectural Design
8 19 (8.92%) Decision-Making
9 18 (8.45%) Migration
10 17 (7.98%) Event-Driven
10 17 (7.98%) Problem-Solving
11 16 (7.51%) Zero Trust
12 15 (7.04%) Continuous Improvement
12 15 (7.04%) Cybersecurity
12 15 (7.04%) Data Modelling
13 14 (6.57%) Translating Business Requirements
14 13 (6.10%) Architectural Patterns
Programming Languages
1 6 (2.82%) Java
2 4 (1.88%) JavaScript
3 3 (1.41%) SQL
4 2 (0.94%) Shell Script
5 1 (0.47%) Bicep
5 1 (0.47%) Python
Qualifications
1 36 (16.90%) Security Cleared
2 20 (9.39%) SC Cleared
3 10 (4.69%) Azure Certification
4 9 (4.23%) DV Cleared
5 3 (1.41%) DBS Check
5 3 (1.41%) Degree
6 2 (0.94%) AWS Certification
7 1 (0.47%) Computer Science Degree
7 1 (0.47%) ITIL Certification
7 1 (0.47%) NVQ Level 3
7 1 (0.47%) NVQ Level 4
7 1 (0.47%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (3.29%) QA
2 6 (2.82%) NCSC
3 4 (1.88%) Data Quality
3 4 (1.88%) IFRS
4 3 (1.41%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 2 (0.94%) GAAP
6 1 (0.47%) GDPR
6 1 (0.47%) ISO 20022
6 1 (0.47%) NIST
6 1 (0.47%) NIST 800
6 1 (0.47%) PMO
6 1 (0.47%) SEPA
System Software
1 7 (3.29%) Active Directory
2 4 (1.88%) Virtual Machines
2 4 (1.88%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (1.41%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (0.47%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.47%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (0.47%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 6 (2.82%) Kubernetes
2 4 (1.88%) FortiGate
3 2 (0.94%) Ansible
3 2 (0.94%) Grafana
3 2 (0.94%) Microsoft Intune
3 2 (0.94%) MOM
3 2 (0.94%) NetBackup
3 2 (0.94%) Prometheus
3 2 (0.94%) Terraform
4 1 (0.47%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 1 (0.47%) CASB
4 1 (0.47%) Rancher
Vendors
1 25 (11.74%) Microsoft
1 25 (11.74%) Oracle
2 20 (9.39%) SAP
3 11 (5.16%) ServiceNow
4 8 (3.76%) Google
4 8 (3.76%) VMware
5 6 (2.82%) Salesforce
6 5 (2.35%) IBM
7 4 (1.88%) Cisco
7 4 (1.88%) CyberArk
7 4 (1.88%) ESRI
7 4 (1.88%) Red Hat
8 3 (1.41%) Databricks
8 3 (1.41%) Foundry
8 3 (1.41%) Informatica
8 3 (1.41%) Palantir
8 3 (1.41%) TIBCO
8 3 (1.41%) Workday
9 2 (0.94%) MuleSoft
9 2 (0.94%) NetApp