Solutions Architect Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Solution Architect
UK > UK excluding London

The median Solution Architect daily rate in the UK excluding London is £600, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 19 December 2025.

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

6 months to
19 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 95 79 89
Rank change year-on-year -16 +10 -1
Contract jobs requiring a Solutions Architect 468 420 515
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 2.58% 2.80% 2.62%
As % of the Job Titles category 2.86% 3.03% 2.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 321 258 370
10th Percentile £458 £450 £513
25th Percentile £513 £513 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £613 £633
Median % change year-on-year -2.04% -3.20% -0.75%
75th Percentile £688 £688 £688
90th Percentile £735 £745 £750
UK median daily rate £625 £625 £645
% change year-on-year - -3.10% -0.77%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 8 2
10th Percentile - - £72.75
25th Percentile £77.55 £61.50 £73.13
Median hourly rate £83.82 £65.50 £75.00
Median % change year-on-year +27.97% -12.67% +7.14%
75th Percentile £92.43 £66.38 £76.88
90th Percentile £95.00 £72.98 £77.25
UK median hourly rate £83.82 £66.00 £75.00
% change year-on-year +27.00% -12.00% +7.14%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the UK excluding London. 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 excluding London with a recognized job title 16,356 13,848 18,397
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.08% 92.36% 93.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,052 8,265 12,022
10th Percentile £210 £213 £213
25th Percentile £369 £363 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £489 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% -2.20% -
75th Percentile £575 £591 £600
90th Percentile £675 £676 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,646 795 1,208
10th Percentile £13.85 £15.41 £14.36
25th Percentile £17.50 £20.30 £18.35
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -27.78% +80.76%
75th Percentile £57.50 £64.61 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.08 £71.25 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.50 £34.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -25.00% -23.60% +48.33%

Solutions Architect
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London.

Solutions Architect job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Solutions Architect
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Solutions Architect job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Solutions Architect job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Solutions Architect
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Solutions Architect in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 19 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Solutions Architect in the UK excluding London

Solutions Architect
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Solutions Architect job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Solutions Architect job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Solutions Architect
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Solutions Architect in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 19 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Solutions Architect in the UK excluding London

Solutions Architect
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 19 December 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
South East +31 146 £600 -7.69% 46
North of England -28 139 £600 +2.56% 32
North West -46 70 £563 -4.05% 22
Midlands -39 66 £550 -3.00% 17
Yorkshire -6 63 £600 +4.71% 8
South West -9 55 £688 +19.57% 17
West Midlands -34 50 £550 -4.01% 8
Scotland -15 31 £596 -3.64% 11
East of England -16 31 £588 -9.62% 14
East Midlands -15 16 £500 +2.04% 9
Wales +1 7 £625 -13.79% 2
North East -4 6 £663 -10.17% 3
Northern Ireland -9 1 - -
Solutions Architect
UK

Solutions Architect Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 19 December 2025, 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 UK excluding London region featuring Solutions Architect in the job title.

1 144 (30.77%) Azure
2 102 (21.79%) AWS
3 100 (21.37%) Security Cleared
4 89 (19.02%) Roadmaps
5 83 (17.74%) Stakeholder Management
6 74 (15.81%) Agile
7 68 (14.53%) Microsoft
7 68 (14.53%) TOGAF
8 66 (14.10%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 63 (13.46%) Migration
10 57 (12.18%) Architectural Design
11 55 (11.75%) Enterprise Architecture
12 53 (11.32%) Microservices
13 51 (10.90%) Technical Leadership
14 49 (10.47%) GCP
15 47 (10.04%) SC Cleared
16 45 (9.62%) Identity Access Management
17 44 (9.40%) DevOps
17 44 (9.40%) DV Cleared
18 42 (8.97%) Cybersecurity
19 39 (8.33%) Architectural Patterns
20 36 (7.69%) SAP
21 35 (7.48%) Salesforce
22 34 (7.26%) AI
23 33 (7.05%) Containerisation
23 33 (7.05%) JIRA
23 33 (7.05%) Mentoring
24 32 (6.84%) Java
25 31 (6.62%) CI/CD
26 30 (6.41%) Problem-Solving

Solutions Architect Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 26 (5.56%) Confluence
2 14 (2.99%) SharePoint
3 9 (1.92%) ArcGIS
3 9 (1.92%) Microsoft Exchange
4 4 (0.85%) Smallworld
5 2 (0.43%) Documentum
5 2 (0.43%) Oracle Coherence
5 2 (0.43%) WebSphere
6 1 (0.21%) Apache
6 1 (0.21%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.21%) CICS
6 1 (0.21%) CMS
6 1 (0.21%) Exchange Server 2013
6 1 (0.21%) PowerFactory
6 1 (0.21%) ThingWorx
6 1 (0.21%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.21%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 11 (2.35%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (2.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.21%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.21%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.21%) Revit
Business Applications
1 22 (4.70%) SAP S/4HANA
2 12 (2.56%) Workday HCM
3 10 (2.14%) Maximo
4 7 (1.50%) Payment Gateway
5 6 (1.28%) SAP PM
6 5 (1.07%) Oracle SCM
7 4 (0.85%) SAP CO
7 4 (0.85%) SAP FI
7 4 (0.85%) SAP FI/CO
7 4 (0.85%) SAP PP
8 3 (0.64%) Dynamics CRM
8 3 (0.64%) SAP EWM
8 3 (0.64%) SAP QM
9 2 (0.43%) Dynamics AX
9 2 (0.43%) SAP ERP
9 2 (0.43%) SAP HR
9 2 (0.43%) SAP Retail
9 2 (0.43%) SAP WM
9 2 (0.43%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
10 1 (0.21%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 144 (30.77%) Azure
2 102 (21.79%) AWS
3 49 (10.47%) GCP
4 26 (5.56%) SaaS
5 19 (4.06%) Dynamics 365
5 19 (4.06%) Serverless
6 17 (3.63%) Microsoft 365
7 14 (2.99%) Entra ID
7 14 (2.99%) PaaS
8 12 (2.56%) IaaS
9 11 (2.35%) AWS Lambda
9 11 (2.35%) Azure DevOps
10 10 (2.14%) Microsoft Purview
11 9 (1.92%) Azure Logic Apps
11 9 (1.92%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 8 (1.71%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 8 (1.71%) Amazon S3
12 8 (1.71%) OneDrive
12 8 (1.71%) Power Platform
13 7 (1.50%) Azure Service Bus
Communications & Networking
1 15 (3.21%) Firewall
2 10 (2.14%) DNS
3 7 (1.50%) LAN
3 7 (1.50%) SD-WAN
3 7 (1.50%) VPN
3 7 (1.50%) WAN
4 5 (1.07%) MPLS
4 5 (1.07%) Network Security
5 4 (0.85%) ATM
5 4 (0.85%) BGP
5 4 (0.85%) IPv4
5 4 (0.85%) IPv6
5 4 (0.85%) OSPF
5 4 (0.85%) VXLAN
5 4 (0.85%) WLAN
6 3 (0.64%) DHCP
6 3 (0.64%) DWDM
6 3 (0.64%) EIGRP
6 3 (0.64%) IPsec
6 3 (0.64%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (2.78%) GIS
2 9 (1.92%) SQL Server
2 9 (1.92%) Tableau
3 7 (1.50%) Data Warehouse
4 5 (1.07%) DynamoDB
4 5 (1.07%) NoSQL
5 4 (0.85%) Azure SQL Database
5 4 (0.85%) Electronic Patient Records
5 4 (0.85%) Metadata
6 3 (0.64%) PostgreSQL
6 3 (0.64%) SAP BW
6 3 (0.64%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 2 (0.43%) Amazon RDS
7 2 (0.43%) Big Data
7 2 (0.43%) Data Lake
7 2 (0.43%) MongoDB
7 2 (0.43%) Power BI
7 2 (0.43%) Riak
7 2 (0.43%) SAP HANA
7 2 (0.43%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 33 (7.05%) JIRA
2 13 (2.78%) Git
2 13 (2.78%) Jenkins
3 6 (1.28%) GitLab
4 2 (0.43%) Artifactory
4 2 (0.43%) MSI
4 2 (0.43%) Postman
4 2 (0.43%) Rational DOORS
4 2 (0.43%) Visual Studio Code
5 1 (0.21%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.21%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 135 (28.85%) Social Skills
2 66 (14.10%) Finance
3 48 (10.26%) Public Sector
4 41 (8.76%) Banking
5 26 (5.56%) Analytical Skills
6 24 (5.13%) Retail
7 19 (4.06%) Documentation Skills
8 17 (3.63%) Influencing Skills
9 14 (2.99%) Presentation Skills
10 12 (2.56%) Telecoms
11 7 (1.50%) Legal
12 5 (1.07%) Financial Institution
12 5 (1.07%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 5 (1.07%) Manufacturing
13 4 (0.85%) Military
14 3 (0.64%) Aviation
14 3 (0.64%) Billing
14 3 (0.64%) Local Government
14 3 (0.64%) Marketing
15 2 (0.43%) Police
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (3.42%) REST
2 14 (2.99%) .NET
3 13 (2.78%) SailPoint
4 12 (2.56%) Middleware
4 12 (2.56%) SOAP
5 8 (1.71%) OAuth
5 8 (1.71%) Spring
5 8 (1.71%) Spring Boot
6 7 (1.50%) RESTful
6 7 (1.50%) SAML
7 6 (1.28%) Kafka
7 6 (1.28%) Node.js
7 6 (1.28%) OAuth2
7 6 (1.28%) Web Services
8 5 (1.07%) OpenID
8 5 (1.07%) Oracle Fusion
8 5 (1.07%) SAP PI
9 4 (0.85%) React
9 4 (0.85%) SAP Fiori
10 3 (0.64%) Visualforce
Miscellaneous
1 36 (7.69%) Cloud Native
2 32 (6.84%) Legacy Systems
3 19 (4.06%) Data Centre
4 17 (3.63%) Product Ownership
5 14 (2.99%) Onboarding
6 10 (2.14%) Distributed Systems
7 9 (1.92%) Hybrid Cloud
8 8 (1.71%) Enterprise Software
8 8 (1.71%) NHS
9 7 (1.50%) PACS
10 6 (1.28%) Management Information System
10 6 (1.28%) Operational Technology
11 5 (1.07%) Greenfield Project
11 5 (1.07%) IoT
12 4 (0.85%) IVR
12 4 (0.85%) Public Cloud
12 4 (0.85%) Self-Motivation
12 4 (0.85%) Smart Meter
12 4 (0.85%) SWIFT Messaging Network
13 3 (0.64%) Analytical Mindset
Operating Systems
1 16 (3.42%) Windows
2 15 (3.21%) Linux
3 8 (1.71%) Windows Server
4 3 (0.64%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (0.43%) Ubuntu
6 1 (0.21%) Android
6 1 (0.21%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.21%) MVS
6 1 (0.21%) Solaris
6 1 (0.21%) Unix
6 1 (0.21%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 89 (19.02%) Roadmaps
2 83 (17.74%) Stakeholder Management
3 74 (15.81%) Agile
4 68 (14.53%) TOGAF
5 66 (14.10%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 63 (13.46%) Migration
7 57 (12.18%) Architectural Design
8 55 (11.75%) Enterprise Architecture
9 53 (11.32%) Microservices
10 51 (10.90%) Technical Leadership
11 45 (9.62%) Identity Access Management
12 44 (9.40%) DevOps
13 42 (8.97%) Cybersecurity
14 39 (8.33%) Architectural Patterns
15 34 (7.26%) AI
16 33 (7.05%) Containerisation
16 33 (7.05%) Mentoring
17 31 (6.62%) CI/CD
18 30 (6.41%) Problem-Solving
19 28 (5.98%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 32 (6.84%) Java
2 13 (2.78%) Python
3 11 (2.35%) SQL
4 8 (1.71%) C#
5 7 (1.50%) PowerShell
6 5 (1.07%) JavaScript
7 3 (0.64%) Apex Code
7 3 (0.64%) TypeScript
8 2 (0.43%) Perl
9 1 (0.21%) ABAP
9 1 (0.21%) Bicep
9 1 (0.21%) PHP
9 1 (0.21%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 100 (21.37%) Security Cleared
2 47 (10.04%) SC Cleared
3 44 (9.40%) DV Cleared
4 29 (6.20%) Degree
5 27 (5.77%) CISSP
6 22 (4.70%) Azure Certification
6 22 (4.70%) TOGAF Certification
7 21 (4.49%) AWS Certification
8 16 (3.42%) CISM
9 14 (2.99%) Microsoft Certification
10 12 (2.56%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 10 (2.14%) Master's Degree
12 7 (1.50%) Computer Science Degree
12 7 (1.50%) PhD
13 6 (1.28%) BPSS Clearance
14 5 (1.07%) RHCE
15 4 (0.85%) CCIE
15 4 (0.85%) CCNP
15 4 (0.85%) CCSP
15 4 (0.85%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (5.77%) GDPR
2 16 (3.42%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 13 (2.78%) PCI DSS
4 12 (2.56%) NIST
5 8 (1.71%) ISO 20022
5 8 (1.71%) NCSC
6 5 (1.07%) Data Quality
7 4 (0.85%) GRC
7 4 (0.85%) ISO 8583
7 4 (0.85%) QA
7 4 (0.85%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 3 (0.64%) Accessibility
8 3 (0.64%) ITGC
9 2 (0.43%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 2 (0.43%) Disclosure Scotland
9 2 (0.43%) Government Security Classifications
10 1 (0.21%) Basel II
10 1 (0.21%) Basel III
10 1 (0.21%) HIPAA
10 1 (0.21%) JSP 440
System Software
1 15 (3.21%) Active Directory
2 13 (2.78%) Docker
3 6 (1.28%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (0.85%) VMware NSX
5 2 (0.43%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.21%) KVM
6 1 (0.21%) NFS
6 1 (0.21%) SRDF
6 1 (0.21%) Veritas Cluster Server
6 1 (0.21%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.21%) vSphere
6 1 (0.21%) Xen
Systems Management
1 24 (5.13%) Terraform
2 19 (4.06%) Kubernetes
3 14 (2.99%) Single Sign-On
4 11 (2.35%) Ansible
5 6 (1.28%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 3 (0.64%) Prometheus
7 2 (0.43%) SCOM
8 1 (0.21%) Netcool
8 1 (0.21%) Netcool/OMNIbus
8 1 (0.21%) Puppet
8 1 (0.21%) RSA Archer
8 1 (0.21%) SCCM
Vendors
1 68 (14.53%) Microsoft
2 36 (7.69%) SAP
3 35 (7.48%) Salesforce
4 27 (5.77%) Oracle
5 17 (3.63%) CyberArk
6 16 (3.42%) BiZZdesign
6 16 (3.42%) IBM
7 15 (3.21%) Google
7 15 (3.21%) Workday
8 14 (2.99%) Centrify
9 12 (2.56%) Cisco
10 9 (1.92%) F5
10 9 (1.92%) VMware
11 8 (1.71%) OpenAI
12 7 (1.50%) Databricks
12 7 (1.50%) ESRI
12 7 (1.50%) Palo Alto
12 7 (1.50%) Red Hat
12 7 (1.50%) ServiceNow
12 7 (1.50%) Virgin Media