Security Architect Contract Job Trends

Security Architect
UK

The median Security Architect daily rate in the UK is £625, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 22 August 2026.

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

6 months to
22 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 241 244 233
Rank change year-on-year +3 -11 -3
Contract jobs requiring a Security Architect 603 363 397
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.12% 1.11% 1.02%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.21% 1.21% 1.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 397 230 239
10th Percentile £500 £512 £500
25th Percentile £525 £581 £625
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £625 £675 £700
Median % change year-on-year -7.41% -3.57% +2.94%
75th Percentile £750 £750 £775
90th Percentile £846 £800 £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £625 £675 £666
% change year-on-year -7.41% +1.35% -1.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 3 7
10th Percentile - £86.00 £81.83
25th Percentile £60.00 £91.25 £84.67
Median hourly rate £76.50 £100.00 £87.46
Median % change year-on-year -23.50% +14.34% +24.94%
75th Percentile £83.00 £102.75 -
90th Percentile £83.30 £104.40 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £76.50 £100.00 £87.46
% change year-on-year -23.50% +14.34% +24.94%

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 49,757 29,939 36,107
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.45% 91.25% 92.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,837 18,916 23,063
10th Percentile £325 £280 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.69%
75th Percentile £625 £621 £638
90th Percentile £729 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,525 1,560 1,966
10th Percentile £14.98 £13.65 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.53 £17.29 £19.52
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% +1.55%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £71.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +14.67%

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 22 August 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 15 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 22 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
England -8 516 £634 -6.07% 166
London -2 257 £650 -3.70% 77
UK excluding London -32 249 £625 -7.41% 121
Work from Home +15 197 £600 -12.73% 110
South East -5 116 £639 +6.46% 41
North of England -45 67 £600 -14.29% 25
North West -23 53 £650 -7.14% 20
Midlands -35 31 £625 -13.79% 12
West Midlands -34 30 £625 -13.79% 7
South West -56 24 £604 -7.08% 18
Yorkshire -34 11 £350 -41.67% 4
East of England -16 8 £625 +25.00% 6
Scotland -14 3 - - 10
East Midlands - 1 - - 5
Channel Islands - 1 £575 - 1

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

For the 6 months to 22 August 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.

1 310 (51.41%) Security Architecture
2 271 (44.94%) Security Cleared
3 205 (34.00%) Cybersecurity
4 188 (31.18%) Azure
5 179 (29.68%) SC Cleared
6 169 (28.03%) Cloud Security
7 166 (27.53%) Threat Modelling
8 149 (24.71%) AWS
9 140 (23.22%) NIST
10 121 (20.07%) CISSP
11 97 (16.09%) Risk Management
11 97 (16.09%) Zero Trust
12 94 (15.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
13 93 (15.42%) DV Cleared
14 91 (15.09%) Identity Access Management
15 89 (14.76%) AI
16 86 (14.26%) Network Security
17 84 (13.93%) Architectural Patterns
18 81 (13.43%) Stakeholder Management
19 80 (13.27%) TOGAF
20 76 (12.60%) GCP
21 75 (12.44%) Stakeholder Engagement
22 70 (11.61%) Roadmaps
22 70 (11.61%) SABSA
23 68 (11.28%) Microsoft
24 67 (11.11%) DevSecOps
25 62 (10.28%) NCSC
26 60 (9.95%) CI/CD
27 58 (9.62%) CISM
28 57 (9.45%) Data Protection

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 2 (0.33%) Confluence
1 2 (0.33%) SAS
1 2 (0.33%) SharePoint
Applications
1 4 (0.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (0.33%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
2 1 (0.17%) SAP EHS
Cloud Services
1 188 (31.18%) Azure
2 149 (24.71%) AWS
3 76 (12.60%) GCP
4 37 (6.14%) Entra ID
5 21 (3.48%) SaaS
6 19 (3.15%) Azure Sentinel
7 12 (1.99%) Microsoft 365
8 10 (1.66%) Dynamics 365
9 9 (1.49%) Azure Key Vault
10 7 (1.16%) IaaS
11 5 (0.83%) Anthropic Claude
11 5 (0.83%) AWS KMS
11 5 (0.83%) Azure Cosmos DB
11 5 (0.83%) Microsoft Purview
11 5 (0.83%) PaaS
11 5 (0.83%) Vertex AI
12 4 (0.66%) AWS Control Tower
12 4 (0.66%) Azure AI
12 4 (0.66%) Azure DevOps
12 4 (0.66%) Azure Synapse Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 86 (14.26%) Network Security
2 47 (7.79%) Firewall
3 12 (1.99%) VPN
4 11 (1.82%) WAN
5 7 (1.16%) 4G
5 7 (1.16%) SD-WAN
6 6 (1.00%) IPsec
6 6 (1.00%) LAN
6 6 (1.00%) VLAN
7 5 (0.83%) 5G
7 5 (0.83%) NGFW
7 5 (0.83%) Radio Access Network
8 4 (0.66%) Intranet
8 4 (0.66%) MPLS
9 3 (0.50%) BGP
9 3 (0.50%) Internet
9 3 (0.50%) OSPF
10 2 (0.33%) DHCP
10 2 (0.33%) DNS
10 2 (0.33%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (1.00%) Data Lake
2 4 (0.66%) Data Warehouse
3 2 (0.33%) Big Data
3 2 (0.33%) Metadata
3 2 (0.33%) PostgreSQL
4 1 (0.17%) Azure SQL Database
4 1 (0.17%) BigQuery
Development Applications
1 8 (1.33%) Jenkins
2 5 (0.83%) JIRA
3 3 (0.50%) Claude Code
4 2 (0.33%) Snyk
5 1 (0.17%) GitLab
General
1 105 (17.41%) Social Skills
2 65 (10.78%) Public Sector
3 62 (10.28%) Finance
4 30 (4.98%) Banking
5 27 (4.48%) Influencing Skills
6 23 (3.81%) Documentation Skills
7 21 (3.48%) Analytical Skills
8 19 (3.15%) Legal
9 14 (2.32%) Telecoms
10 12 (1.99%) Manufacturing
11 10 (1.66%) Police
12 9 (1.49%) Aerospace
13 8 (1.33%) Military
14 7 (1.16%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 7 (1.16%) Presentation Skills
15 4 (0.66%) Law
15 4 (0.66%) Local Government
15 4 (0.66%) Retail
16 3 (0.50%) Financial Institution
17 2 (0.33%) Automotive
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (4.15%) Terraform
2 18 (2.99%) OAuth
3 13 (2.16%) OAuth2
3 13 (2.16%) OpenID
4 11 (1.82%) SAML
5 6 (1.00%) REST
5 6 (1.00%) SLSA
6 5 (0.83%) Azure Blueprints
6 5 (0.83%) JWT
6 5 (0.83%) LangChain
6 5 (0.83%) ModSecurity
6 5 (0.83%) PyTorch
7 4 (0.66%) Jakarta EE
7 4 (0.66%) JSP
7 4 (0.66%) LDAP
8 3 (0.50%) .NET
8 3 (0.50%) HTML
8 3 (0.50%) scikit-learn
9 2 (0.33%) RESTful
9 2 (0.33%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 60 (9.95%) Security Posture
2 53 (8.79%) Cloud Native
3 33 (5.47%) Operational Technology
4 32 (5.31%) Management Information System
5 21 (3.48%) Onboarding
6 17 (2.82%) AI Agents
7 14 (2.32%) Cyber Threat
8 13 (2.16%) Enterprise Cloud
9 12 (1.99%) Data Centre
9 12 (1.99%) Hybrid Cloud
10 9 (1.49%) Cloud Security Posture
10 9 (1.49%) Private Cloud
11 8 (1.33%) Data Protection Act
12 7 (1.16%) Legacy Systems
12 7 (1.16%) Public Cloud
12 7 (1.16%) Self-Motivation
13 6 (1.00%) Data Fabric
13 6 (1.00%) Enterprise Software
13 6 (1.00%) PKI
14 4 (0.66%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 9 (1.49%) Linux
2 6 (1.00%) Windows
2 6 (1.00%) Windows Server
3 4 (0.66%) Alpine Linux
3 4 (0.66%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 4 (0.66%) Ubuntu
4 1 (0.17%) Android
4 1 (0.17%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 310 (51.41%) Security Architecture
2 205 (34.00%) Cybersecurity
3 169 (28.03%) Cloud Security
4 166 (27.53%) Threat Modelling
5 97 (16.09%) Risk Management
5 97 (16.09%) Zero Trust
6 91 (15.09%) Identity Access Management
7 89 (14.76%) AI
8 84 (13.93%) Architectural Patterns
9 81 (13.43%) Stakeholder Management
10 80 (13.27%) TOGAF
11 75 (12.44%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 70 (11.61%) Roadmaps
12 70 (11.61%) SABSA
13 67 (11.11%) DevSecOps
14 60 (9.95%) CI/CD
15 57 (9.45%) Data Protection
15 57 (9.45%) Enterprise Architecture
16 56 (9.29%) Information Security
17 52 (8.62%) Risk Assessment
Programming Languages
1 15 (2.49%) Python
2 10 (1.66%) Bicep
2 10 (1.66%) Java
3 8 (1.33%) PowerShell
4 5 (0.83%) Groovy
4 5 (0.83%) Shell Script
5 3 (0.50%) Bash
5 3 (0.50%) JavaScript
5 3 (0.50%) SQL
6 1 (0.17%) R
Qualifications
1 271 (44.94%) Security Cleared
2 179 (29.68%) SC Cleared
3 121 (20.07%) CISSP
4 93 (15.42%) DV Cleared
5 58 (9.62%) CISM
6 46 (7.63%) Cisco Certification
7 41 (6.80%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 28 (4.64%) CCSP
9 22 (3.65%) AWS Certification
10 19 (3.15%) Degree
11 16 (2.65%) CISA
12 15 (2.49%) TOGAF Certification
13 14 (2.32%) Azure Certification
14 11 (1.82%) CEH
15 10 (1.66%) GIAC
15 10 (1.66%) SANS
16 7 (1.16%) CompTIA Security+
16 7 (1.16%) ISSAP
16 7 (1.16%) Microsoft Certification
16 7 (1.16%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 140 (23.22%) NIST
2 94 (15.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 62 (10.28%) NCSC
4 45 (7.46%) GDPR
5 25 (4.15%) GRC
6 21 (3.48%) NIST 800
7 19 (3.15%) PCI DSS
8 12 (1.99%) Government Security Classifications
9 11 (1.82%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 10 (1.66%) JSP 440
11 8 (1.33%) Cyber Essentials
11 8 (1.33%) EU AI Act
11 8 (1.33%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 6 (1.00%) COBIT
12 6 (1.00%) ISO 19650
12 6 (1.00%) ISO/IEC 42001
12 6 (1.00%) QA
12 6 (1.00%) RMADS
13 5 (0.83%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 5 (0.83%) HIPAA
System Software
1 20 (3.32%) Active Directory
2 14 (2.32%) Docker
3 7 (1.16%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (0.66%) vSphere
5 2 (0.33%) Hyper-V
5 2 (0.33%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (0.17%) KVM
6 1 (0.17%) Varnish
6 1 (0.17%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 27 (4.48%) Kubernetes
2 9 (1.49%) Ansible
3 5 (0.83%) Single Sign-On
4 4 (0.66%) QRadar
5 3 (0.50%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 3 (0.50%) CASB
6 2 (0.33%) Docker Swarm
6 2 (0.33%) Istio
7 1 (0.17%) FortiGate
7 1 (0.17%) Microsoft Intune
7 1 (0.17%) Suricata
Vendors
1 68 (11.28%) Microsoft
2 22 (3.65%) Google
3 17 (2.82%) Palo Alto
4 16 (2.65%) Cisco
5 14 (2.32%) Splunk
6 11 (1.82%) Fortinet
6 11 (1.82%) Salesforce
6 11 (1.82%) SAP
7 9 (1.49%) Okta
7 9 (1.49%) Tenable
8 8 (1.33%) CrowdStrike
8 8 (1.33%) VMware
9 7 (1.16%) Zscaler
10 6 (1.00%) IFS
10 6 (1.00%) Qualys
11 4 (0.66%) CheckPoint
11 4 (0.66%) CyberArk
11 4 (0.66%) Juniper
11 4 (0.66%) Rapid7
11 4 (0.66%) ServiceNow