Security Architect Contract Job Trends

Security Architect
UK

The median Security Architect daily rate in the UK is £650, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 5 January 2026.

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

6 months to
5 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 291 242 252
Rank change year-on-year -49 +10 +62
Contract jobs requiring a Security Architect 323 323 411
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.88% 1.00% 0.96%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.96% 1.08% 1.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 216 205 261
10th Percentile £480 £550 £525
25th Percentile £542 £600 £608
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £650 £675 £675
Median % change year-on-year -3.70% - -2.88%
75th Percentile £738 £769 £770
90th Percentile £788 £813 £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £650 £655 £680
% change year-on-year -0.76% -3.68% -1.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 1 3
10th Percentile £79.38 - £74.63
25th Percentile £82.19 £68.26 £75.02
Median hourly rate £85.00 £73.31 £78.74
Median % change year-on-year +15.95% -6.90% +12.49%
75th Percentile £91.56 £78.36 £84.36
90th Percentile £94.38 - £85.11
UK excluding London median hourly rate £85.00 £73.31 £78.74
% change year-on-year +15.95% -6.90% +12.49%

All Contract IT Job Roles
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 33,604 29,846 39,976
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.27% 92.67% 93.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,305 18,264 26,748
10th Percentile £300 £293 £281
25th Percentile £405 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £618 £638 £638
90th Percentile £719 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £480 £500
% change year-on-year -1.04% -4.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,949 929 1,593
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.52 £14.18
25th Percentile £18.25 £21.05 £19.05
Median hourly rate £26.50 £32.50 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -18.46% -26.97% +36.92%
75th Percentile £60.00 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.50 £73.75 £76.53
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £31.52 £45.00
% change year-on-year -20.21% -29.96% +68.54%

Security Architect
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Security Architect job vacancy trend in the UK

Security Architect
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Security Architect job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Security Architect job vacancies in the UK

Security Architect
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Security Architect over the 6 months to 5 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Security Architect in the UK

Security Architect
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Security Architect job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Security Architect job vacancies in the UK

Security Architect
Top 17 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Security Architect within the UK over the 6 months to 5 January 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
England -30 275 £650 -3.70% 131
UK excluding London -28 156 £650 -0.76% 112
London -7 124 £650 -6.31% 31
Work from Home -25 90 £619 -11.61% 118
South East -9 54 £663 +1.92% 26
North of England -28 50 £600 -20.00% 34
Yorkshire -22 32 £544 -22.32% 14
South West -4 21 £650 +13.04% 16
North West -31 15 £701 -6.60% 12
Midlands -36 13 £675 -3.57% 17
West Midlands -41 11 £675 -3.57% 10
Wales +6 9 £725 - 3
Scotland -5 9 £675 +12.50% 4
East of England -14 5 £520 +15.56% 12
North East - 3 £623 - 8
Northern Ireland -9 2 £500 - 1
East Midlands - 2 £450 - 6

Security Architect Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 5 January 2026, Security 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 featuring Security Architect in the job title.

1 156 (48.30%) Security Architecture
2 114 (35.29%) Cybersecurity
3 112 (34.67%) Security Cleared
4 105 (32.51%) Azure
5 90 (27.86%) AWS
6 89 (27.55%) NIST
7 80 (24.77%) Cloud Security
8 79 (24.46%) CISSP
8 79 (24.46%) SC Cleared
9 76 (23.53%) Threat Modelling
10 64 (19.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 63 (19.50%) TOGAF
12 62 (19.20%) Network Security
13 59 (18.27%) Firewall
13 59 (18.27%) Zero Trust
14 57 (17.65%) Microsoft
15 50 (15.48%) Identity Access Management
15 50 (15.48%) SABSA
16 49 (15.17%) Incident Response
17 46 (14.24%) Risk Management
18 45 (13.93%) Vulnerability Management
19 44 (13.62%) SIEM
20 43 (13.31%) CISM
21 40 (12.38%) DevSecOps
22 39 (12.07%) GCP
23 38 (11.76%) Stakeholder Engagement
24 36 (11.15%) Roadmaps
25 34 (10.53%) CI/CD
25 34 (10.53%) GDPR
26 32 (9.91%) Information Security

Security Architect Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 15 (4.64%) Confluence
2 3 (0.93%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.62%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.31%) Jupyter
4 1 (0.31%) nginx
Applications
1 1 (0.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 1 (0.31%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 6 (1.86%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 105 (32.51%) Azure
2 90 (27.86%) AWS
3 39 (12.07%) GCP
4 21 (6.50%) Entra ID
5 12 (3.72%) Microsoft 365
6 11 (3.41%) Microsoft Purview
6 11 (3.41%) SaaS
7 9 (2.79%) PaaS
8 8 (2.48%) AWS KMS
8 8 (2.48%) Azure Sentinel
8 8 (2.48%) GitHub
9 7 (2.17%) Amazon GuardDuty
9 7 (2.17%) IaaS
10 6 (1.86%) AWS CloudFormation
10 6 (1.86%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 4 (1.24%) Azure Key Vault
12 3 (0.93%) Amazon EKS
13 2 (0.62%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 2 (0.62%) Amazon ECS
13 2 (0.62%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 62 (19.20%) Network Security
2 59 (18.27%) Firewall
3 13 (4.02%) VPN
4 12 (3.72%) WAN
5 10 (3.10%) LAN
6 9 (2.79%) SD-WAN
7 8 (2.48%) NGFW
8 5 (1.55%) DNS
8 5 (1.55%) IPsec
9 4 (1.24%) BGP
9 4 (1.24%) Intrusion Detection
9 4 (1.24%) SSL
10 3 (0.93%) DHCP
10 3 (0.93%) Internet
10 3 (0.93%) Kerberos
10 3 (0.93%) OSPF
10 3 (0.93%) Skype
10 3 (0.93%) TCP/IP
10 3 (0.93%) VSAN
10 3 (0.93%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.62%) BigQuery
2 1 (0.31%) Elasticsearch
2 1 (0.31%) Metadata
2 1 (0.31%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 13 (4.02%) JIRA
2 3 (0.93%) Jenkins
3 2 (0.62%) GitLab
4 1 (0.31%) Git
4 1 (0.31%) MLflow
General
1 74 (22.91%) Social Skills
2 52 (16.10%) Finance
3 46 (14.24%) Public Sector
4 17 (5.26%) Analytical Skills
4 17 (5.26%) Banking
5 12 (3.72%) Legal
6 8 (2.48%) Financial Institution
7 7 (2.17%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 7 (2.17%) Influencing Skills
7 7 (2.17%) Presentation Skills
8 6 (1.86%) Documentation Skills
9 4 (1.24%) Aerospace
9 4 (1.24%) Pharmaceutical
9 4 (1.24%) Telecoms
10 3 (0.93%) Electronics
10 3 (0.93%) Manufacturing
10 3 (0.93%) Marketing
10 3 (0.93%) Military
11 1 (0.31%) Law
11 1 (0.31%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (2.48%) SAML
2 6 (1.86%) OAuth
3 5 (1.55%) ModSecurity
3 5 (1.55%) OpenID
4 3 (0.93%) OAuth2
5 2 (0.62%) .NET
5 2 (0.62%) ARM Templates
5 2 (0.62%) Kafka
5 2 (0.62%) Middleware
6 1 (0.31%) ADO
6 1 (0.31%) Elastic Stack
6 1 (0.31%) JAAS
6 1 (0.31%) JSSE
6 1 (0.31%) JWT
6 1 (0.31%) LDAP
6 1 (0.31%) OpenTelemetry
6 1 (0.31%) PyTorch
6 1 (0.31%) REST
6 1 (0.31%) SailPoint
6 1 (0.31%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 29 (8.98%) Security Posture
2 28 (8.67%) Cloud Native
3 16 (4.95%) Onboarding
4 15 (4.64%) PKI
5 14 (4.33%) Data Centre
5 14 (4.33%) Management Information System
5 14 (4.33%) Operational Technology
6 11 (3.41%) Product Ownership
7 10 (3.10%) Hybrid Cloud
7 10 (3.10%) Private Cloud
8 9 (2.79%) Cyber Threat
9 8 (2.48%) Cloud Security Posture
9 8 (2.48%) Public Cloud
10 7 (2.17%) Enterprise Software
10 7 (2.17%) Taxonomies
11 6 (1.86%) Cyber Defence
11 6 (1.86%) Security Operations Centre
12 5 (1.55%) SCADA
13 4 (1.24%) Legacy Systems
13 4 (1.24%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 12 (3.72%) Windows
2 9 (2.79%) Linux
3 4 (1.24%) Windows Server
4 3 (0.93%) Unix
4 3 (0.93%) Windows 10
4 3 (0.93%) Windows Server 2008
5 2 (0.62%) Android
5 2 (0.62%) Apple iOS
5 2 (0.62%) Windows Server 2019
6 1 (0.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 156 (48.30%) Security Architecture
2 114 (35.29%) Cybersecurity
3 80 (24.77%) Cloud Security
4 76 (23.53%) Threat Modelling
5 63 (19.50%) TOGAF
6 59 (18.27%) Zero Trust
7 50 (15.48%) Identity Access Management
7 50 (15.48%) SABSA
8 49 (15.17%) Incident Response
9 46 (14.24%) Risk Management
10 45 (13.93%) Vulnerability Management
11 44 (13.62%) SIEM
12 40 (12.38%) DevSecOps
13 38 (11.76%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 36 (11.15%) Roadmaps
15 34 (10.53%) CI/CD
16 32 (9.91%) Information Security
17 29 (8.98%) Regulatory Compliance
18 27 (8.36%) Architectural Patterns
18 27 (8.36%) Enterprise Architecture
Programming Languages
1 7 (2.17%) Python
2 6 (1.86%) Java
3 4 (1.24%) SQL
4 3 (0.93%) Bicep
5 2 (0.62%) C
5 2 (0.62%) Kotlin
5 2 (0.62%) PL/SQL
5 2 (0.62%) PowerShell
5 2 (0.62%) Swift
6 1 (0.31%) Bash
6 1 (0.31%) JavaScript
6 1 (0.31%) Kusto Query Language
6 1 (0.31%) ProC
6 1 (0.31%) R
Qualifications
1 112 (34.67%) Security Cleared
2 79 (24.46%) CISSP
2 79 (24.46%) SC Cleared
3 43 (13.31%) CISM
4 26 (8.05%) Cisco Certification
5 24 (7.43%) DV Cleared
6 22 (6.81%) Degree
7 20 (6.19%) AWS Certification
8 16 (4.95%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 15 (4.64%) TOGAF Certification
10 14 (4.33%) Azure Certification
11 11 (3.41%) CCSP
12 10 (3.10%) CCNP
13 7 (2.17%) Master's Degree
14 6 (1.86%) CCIE
15 5 (1.55%) GIAC
15 5 (1.55%) Microsoft Certification
15 5 (1.55%) PhD
16 4 (1.24%) CISA
16 4 (1.24%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 89 (27.55%) NIST
2 64 (19.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 34 (10.53%) GDPR
4 29 (8.98%) NCSC
5 22 (6.81%) PCI DSS
6 8 (2.48%) EU AI Act
6 8 (2.48%) PSD2
7 7 (2.17%) Cyber Essentials
7 7 (2.17%) JSP 440
7 7 (2.17%) NIST 800
8 5 (1.55%) GRC
9 4 (1.24%) HIPAA
10 3 (0.93%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 3 (0.93%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 3 (0.93%) Def Stans
10 3 (0.93%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 2 (0.62%) COBIT
11 2 (0.62%) QA
11 2 (0.62%) RMADS
11 2 (0.62%) SOC 1
System Software
1 8 (2.48%) Active Directory
1 8 (2.48%) Docker
2 3 (0.93%) VMware ESXi
2 3 (0.93%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (0.31%) Hyper-V
3 1 (0.31%) Virtual Machines
3 1 (0.31%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 22 (6.81%) Terraform
2 14 (4.33%) Kubernetes
3 6 (1.86%) Ansible
3 6 (1.86%) Single Sign-On
4 3 (0.93%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 3 (0.93%) OPNET
4 3 (0.93%) SCCM
4 3 (0.93%) vCenter Server
5 2 (0.62%) FortiGate
6 1 (0.31%) Kibana
6 1 (0.31%) Kubeflow
6 1 (0.31%) logstash
Vendors
1 57 (17.65%) Microsoft
2 23 (7.12%) CyberArk
3 15 (4.64%) Palo Alto
4 14 (4.33%) Splunk
5 13 (4.02%) Cisco
6 11 (3.41%) BiZZdesign
6 11 (3.41%) Centrify
7 10 (3.10%) Zscaler
8 9 (2.79%) Fortinet
9 8 (2.48%) CheckPoint
9 8 (2.48%) Darktrace
10 7 (2.17%) Google
10 7 (2.17%) Virgin Media
11 6 (1.86%) Sparx
11 6 (1.86%) VMware
12 5 (1.55%) F5
13 4 (1.24%) Oracle
13 4 (1.24%) SAP
13 4 (1.24%) ServiceNow
13 4 (1.24%) Thycotic